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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24416-8.txt b/24416-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee79254 --- /dev/null +++ b/24416-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11351 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, +1839-1877, by James Kennedy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877 + +Author: James Kennedy + +Release Date: January 24, 2008 [EBook #24416] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BENARES AND KUMAON *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: In the original source edition, most +odd-numbered page headers consisted of a short phrase describing +the material below. These page headers have been incorporated into +the text as sidenotes.] + + + + +[Illustration: UNION CHURCH, RANEE KHET.] + + + + +LIFE AND WORK IN BENARES AND KUMAON +1839-1877 + +BY JAMES KENNEDY, M.A. +Missionary of the London Missionary Society, Author of "Christianity +and the Religions of India," &c. + +WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE +BY SIR WILLIAM MUIR, K.C.S.I., LL.D., D.C.L. +Late Lieutenant-Governor North Western Provinces of India + +ILLUSTRATED + +CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED +NEW YORK +1885 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The history of this volume can be given in a few words. Months ago I +said to a beloved relative that during the greater part of my life I had +more to do than I could well accomplish, and that now, with health and +strength in a measure restored, I sometimes thought I had not enough to +do. He said: "Why not write the reminiscences of your Indian life?" The +counsel struck me as good, and I have acted on it. + +My theme has not the advantage of novelty: I cannot tell of a new +country explored, and a new people brought within the knowledge of the +world; but it has the advantage of greatness and variety. I am not aware +that any book on Indian Missions has achieved signal success. I do not +think, however, a single one has been written in vain. That must have +been a singularly poor book on so great a subject which has not had +something in it fitted to interest and inform readers. That must have +been a very solitary, lonely missionary, who has had no friends ready to +listen to what he has had to say. These books may have received little +general attention; but here and there, as the result of their perusal, +there has been a more intelligent apprehension of our work, deeper +sympathy with us, and heartier support rendered to us. I have ventured +to add a volume to those already published in the hope that it may do +some good before it passes into the oblivion which necessarily awaits +most of the productions of the press. + +A glance at the contents of this volume will show it takes up a number +of subjects, some of which are merely touched in most books on Missions, +and others not at all. Reminiscences, especially when they spread over +many years, and embrace great events, admit of very discursive +treatment. They leave the writer unfettered to take up any subject +within his wide scope which he may deem fitted to interest his readers. +I have allowed myself the freedom thus afforded me. My aim has been to +take my readers with me to our Indian home, to see us at our work, to +hear us conversing with the people, to accompany us on our journeys, to +surround them in thought with our surroundings, so that they may realize +our position, trials, difficulties, and joys. I have throughout +maintained the standpoint of one whose Indian life has been devoted to +Mission work. My two spheres of labour--Benares during the greater part +of my course, and Ranee Khet, in the Hill Province of Kumaon, in later +years--have come in for extended remark. + +My attention has not, however, been confined to Missions. I have +endeavoured to write as one interested in everything which ought to +interest a resident in the land. I have given some account of the +climate, aspect of the country, condition and character of the people, +changes which have taken place, modes of travelling, and the British +Government. I have again and again travelled in the North-West, and some +account of these journeys has been given. On one occasion I spent the +greater part of two months in Ceylon, and to that beautiful island a +chapter is devoted. + +I have recorded at some length my experiences of the Indian Mutiny of +1857. No one who was in that terrible storm can ever forget it; and the +European inhabitants of Benares at that time have special reason for +thankfulness for their marvellous escape. + +I have found it convenient to follow, as a rule, the chronological +order, but I have not kept closely to it. When recording the more remote +past, the nearer past has been continually coming into view, and the +contrast has found expression. + +Indian names are written as ordinary English readers would pronounce +them, in preference to using the diacritical marks with which I have +been long familiar in the writing of Hindustanee in the Roman character. +The term "Hindu" is so established that I have used it in preference to +"Hindoo." + +At the end of this book the reader will find statistics fraught with +interest to all who wish to understand the great Indian problem in its +many aspects. + +It is impossible to keep one's self out of view in a work like this; but +I hope the candid reader will give me credit for saying as little of +myself, family, and doings as is compatible with the conditions under +which I have written. + +I beg to dedicate this book to the friends of Christian Missions, in the +hope it may increase the interest of some in that great Continent, with +its teeming population, which has in God's providence come under the +rule of our land, and has special claims on our prayers, sympathy, and +efforts. I cannot doubt that my Indian friends, both those who have come +back to England and those who are still in India, will give a kindly +reception to the volume. They will, I believe, confirm the general +accuracy of my statements, and to a large extent acquiesce in my views. +With them so long as my heart beats it will go forth in heartiest wishes +and fervent prayer for the land with which our past has so inseparably +bound us. + + J. K. +ACTON, August, 1884. + + +[Illustration] + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +_From 1838 to 1839. Voyage to India and the City of Palaces._ + +Voyage. First Impressions of Calcutta. Changes since 1839. Messrs. +Piffard and Lacroix. Schools. Visit to Serampore. 1 + + +CHAPTER II. + +_Voyage to Benares--March, 1839._ + +Various Modes of Travelling. The Sunderbuns. Fellow-passengers. Storm. +Study of Hindustanee. Scenes on the River and its Banks. 9 + + +CHAPTER III. + +_Arrival at Benares._ + +The Rev. William Smith. Congregation of Beggars. The Rev. W. P. Lyon. +Native Service. Settling down. 15 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +_Missions in Benares from 1816 to 1839._ + +The Baptists first in the Field. Eurasian Agents. The Church Mission. +London Mission. Orphanage of the Church Mission. 20 + + +CHAPTER V. + +_1839 and 1840. First Year in Benares._ + +Views Enlarged and Modified. Study of Hindustanee. Undue Complacency. +Study of the Native Character. Evangelistic Work. 27 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +_First Year in Benares (continued)._ + +Class-feeling among Europeans. Eurasians. Climate in the North-West +Provinces. Variety of Scenery and Climate in India. Experience of +Climate during First Year. The Sufferings of Poor Natives in Winter. +Homesickness. 34 + + +CHAPTER VII. + +_The City of Benares._ + +Sherring's "Sacred City of the Hindus." Residents and Visitors. +Commerce. Antiquity. Gautam's Ministry in the Sixth Century B.C. The +Success of Buddhism. Its Overthrow. The Devotion of the City to Shiva. +Muhammadans. A Trip on the River. The Principal Temple. Heathen Temples +and Roman Worship. The Mosque of Aurungzeb. The Present City Modern. +Beggars. Macaulay's Description of Benares. 49 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +_Benares as a Mission Sphere._ + +Hostility to the Gospel. Apostolic Labour in Great Cities. Robert +Haldane's Project. Benares brought under British Rule in 1781. The Door +opened for the Gospel. Bishop Heber. Benares as a Centre of Mission +Work. 77 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +_Second Year in Benares._ + +Marriage. The Vicissitudes of Indian Life. Celibate Missionaries. +Different Departments of Work. 88 + + +CHAPTER X. + +_The Religious Gatherings of the Hindus._ + +Their Saturnalia. The Play of Ram. The Eclipse of the Moon. Mela at +Allahabad. The Peculiarities of a Hindu Gathering. Sanitary Precautions. +Cholera. Ascetics. Influence of Melas in strengthening Hinduism. 94 + + +CHAPTER XI. + +_The Object of Christian Missions._ + +Necessity for Different Modes of Action. _Preaching_. Questions, +Objections, and Replies. Polytheism and Pantheism. Muhammadan Hearers. + 108 + +CHAPTER XII. + +_Mission Schools._ + +Primary Schools. Secondary Schools. College Department. Indian +Universities. The Danger of Christian Instruction being thrust aside. +The Value of Higher Schools in a Missionary Aspect. Conversion. Public +Opinion. 124 + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +_Orphanages._ + +Pressing Need in 1837 and 1838. Sanguine Hopes. Difficulties. +Advantages. Native Agents obtained. The General Result. 135 + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +_Mission Tours._ + +Voyaging in the Ganges. Trust in Ganges Water. Serpents. Journey to Agra +at the end of 1842. Tents. The Appearance of the Country. Roads and +Groves. Walled Villages. Traffic. Immunity from Thieves. Kindness from +Missionaries. Agra. Evangelistic Work. Kunauj. An Interesting Inquirer. +New Mission Church in Benares. Tour to Kumaon in 1847. Journeying +Troubles. Return by Meerut and Delhi. 145 + + +CHAPTER XV. + +_From 1847 to 1857._ + +Work at Benares. Voyage to England in 1850. Return to India in 1853. +Calcutta to Benares. From 1854 to 1857. Increase of Native Christian +Congregation. Mission Tours. Visit to the Fort of Rohtas in February, +1857. Biblical Examination. Missionary Conference. 168 + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +_The Mutiny, 1857 and 1858._ + +Causes. Peculiarity of our Position. The Native Army. Grievances +alleged. Dissatisfaction outside the Army. Threatenings of the Storm. +The Cartridges. Outbreak and Progress of the Mutiny. Berhampore and +Barrackpore. Meerut. 174 + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +_The Mutiny (continued)._ + +The Christian Community at Benares. The Fanaticism of the City. +Precautions. The Fourth of June. Mutiny of the Native Regiments. Flight +to the Ganges. Escorted to the Mint. Retribution. The Panic of July 6. +At the Mint on Sunday Night, July 5. Marriage of a Native Couple. Alarm +and Panic. Strange Bed-fellows. After the Panic. Family left for +Calcutta and England. From July to December. Lucknow. Mud Fort. The +Steadfastness of Native Christians. India in 1857 and Egypt in 1882. +Visit to Allahabad. Desolation. The Kindness of English Officials. 185 + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +_Visit to Ceylon--1858 and 1859._ + +Galle, Colombo, and Kandy. The Cocoanut Palm. The Cinnamon Gardens. +Coffee Plantations. Perpetual Summer. Visit to Newera Ellia. The +Christian Zeal of the Dutch. Great Outward Success. Collapse. Missions. +Buddhist Temples. 205 + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +_From 1859 to 1868._ + +Work at Benares. Increased Attention to the European Population. Visit +to Cities in the North-West. Allahabad. Cawnpore. Lucknow. Incident on +the Ganges. Visit to Delhi in 1861 on our Way to Kumaon. Visit to +England, Return to India, and Appointment to Kumaon. 213 + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +_From 1868 to 1877. Kumaon._ + +_Its Scenery and Products._ A Sub-Himalayan Region. Scenery, Climate, +and Products. New Products. Tea. Inhabitants, Hindus and Doms. Gods and +Temples. Local Gods. Demons. The Character of the People. Want of +Cleanliness. The Plague. History. Native Dynasties. The British Rule. +Progress. Tea Planting. The Irrigation of the Bhabhur. Wild Beasts. +Treaty with the Ghoorkhas. Modes of Travelling. Journey to the Pindaree +Glacier. 232 + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +_Almora Mission._ + +Schools. Female Education. The Leper Asylum. English Preaching. 252 + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +_Ranee Khet._ + +Schools. Wooden House. Rain and Rats. Pioneer Work. The Erection of +Buildings. Work among the English. Among Natives. Educated Young Men. +Doms. Night School. Itineracy. A Hill Mela. Bageswar. 260 + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +_Habits and Condition of the Hill People._ + +Sanitary Regulations. _Yearly Visit to Nynee Tal._ The Missions of the +American Episcopal Methodist Church. Retirement from the Indian +Mission-field. Helpful Friends. Return to England. 279 + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +_The Missionary in India._ + +Extent and Variety of the Indian Field. The Greatness of the Missionary +Office. The Contrast between Ministerial and Missionary Work. The +Relations of Missionaries to each other, to their respective Societies, +and to Missionaries of other Societies. Their Relation to Europeans. 289 + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +_The Missionary in India (continued)._ + +The Mode of Living required by the Climate. Missionary Theology. The +Radical Opposition of the Gospel to Heathenism. The Example of our +Lord and His Apostles. Hindu and Buddhist Views of the Future. The +Doctrine by which Mission Success has been achieved. The Necessity of +Sin being considered in the adjustment of Doctrine. _In Memoriam._ 297 + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +_Native Christians._ + +Syrian Christians. The Descendants of Xavier's Converts. The Shanars in +Travancore and Tinnevelly. _The Hills of Central and Eastern India._ The +Kols and Santhals. _Bengal._ Krishnaghur and Backergunje. _The +Presidency Cities._ The Social and Educational Standing of the Converts. +_Northern India._ The Drummers in Native Regiments. The Waifs of +Society. Pride in the Christian Name. Orphans and their Descendants. +Converts of our Missions. Baptism sought from Wrong Motives. 307 + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +_Native Christians (continued)._ + +Unworthy Members. The Sacrifices made by Converts. Difficulty in Forming +a Right Estimate of a Community. The General Character of our Native +Christians. _The Ordeal of 1857._ The Christian Constancy of our People. +Their Loyalty. Their Bearing in Joy and Sorrow. "Everywhere spoken +against." Most Europeans have no Sympathy with us. Unfair to judge by +Individuals. _The Support of Native Christians._ Different Occupations. +Native Christian Contributions. _The Compound System._ 315 + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +_The People among whom we labour--Muhammadans_. + +_A Large Muhammadan Population._ Variety in Position, Culture, and +Character. The Quran and the Bible. Licentiousness of Muhammadans, +Hindus, and So-called Christians. The Estimable Character of some +Muhammadans. Muhammadan Opposition to the Gospel. Its Opposition to +Idolatry. Proselytes to Islam. The Relation of Muhammadans and Hindus to +each other. Hindu Home-life. Muhammadan Reformers. 329 + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +_Hindus._ + +_Pantheism, Polytheism, and Idolatry, and their Demoralizing Tendency._ +Counteracting Influences. _Contradictory Views of Hindu Character._ +Professor Max Muller. Sir Thomas Munro. Sir Charles Trevelyan. + +_The Caste System._ Its Ramifications and Effects. Its Baneful +Influence. Its Incidental Benefits. _The Patriarchal System._ In the +Presidency Cities Caste greatly weakened. Weakening Tendencies all over +India. + +_The Brahmists._ Brahmism and the Gospel. Brahmist Divisions. Successive +Hindu Reformers. + +_Girls' Schools and Female Missions._ Access to Hindu Families. Lady +Physicians. Great Importance of Zenana Missions. Behind the Curtain. The +Freedom of Women in Humble Life. The Influence of Women in India. + +_Mission Prospects._ Difficulty in gauging Success. Hurtful Influence of +English Infidel Literature. The Strength of Family and Social Ties. +Instance. The Vast Extent of the Field. _Pagani_, Villagers, synonymous +with Heathen. + +_Help given in India for the Solution of Great Questions._ 1. The +Immobility of the Eastern Mind. 2. The Genesis and Evolution of +Religion. 3. Comparative Religion. 4. The Migration of Nations. 338 + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +_Europeans in India._ + +_No Sphere in India for European Colonization._ The Climate. The Land +occupied. _India Presents a Wide Field for European Agency._ _The +Difference between Europeans and Natives._ India never called "Home" by +Europeans. Highly Educated Natives. Native Gentlemen. Natives in +Subordinate and Menial Positions. _The Position of Europeans changed._ +Advantages and Disadvantages. _Improved Condition of European Society._ +The Effect on Europeans of Home Literature. Increased Effort for the +Spiritual Good of Europeans and Eurasians. 357 + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +_The Government of India._ + +_Our Right to Govern India._ We went as Traders, and were led by +Circumstances to fight. The Conduct of the Native Powers. The Marquess +of Hastings. Not allowed to remain at Peace. Our Comparative +Faithfulness to Engagements. _The Condition in which we found India._ +The Muhammadan Empire. Civil Wars. Invasions. _The Dissolution of the +Empire._ Adventurers. No Elements of Stable Government. The Effect of +British Rule. + +_The Greatness of the Work entrusted to us._ Character of our +Administrators. Responsibility elicits Capacity. District Officers. +Strict Supervision exercised over them. The Evils springing from the +Institution of Courts. Runjeet Singh's Plan. The Evils Incident to +Civilization. + +_Regulation and Non-Regulation Provinces. The Taxation Heavy._ Regular +Payments. The Land-Tax is the Land-Rent. The Native Army. The European +Army. Civil Officials in the Mutiny. Inadvisability of Bengalees holding +the Highest Offices. + +_In India we have Different Nations._ Bengalees Strangers in the +North-West. The Preference given to English as Rulers. Trust in our +Justice. The Large Pay of High Officials cannot be justly or wisely +reduced. Opinion of Natives as Litigants. + +_The People Mainly Agricultural._ Poverty. Increase of Population. +Sturdy Beggars. Lending and Borrowing. Debt Hereditary. Marriage +Expenses. + +_Incidence of Taxation._ Municipal Institutions and Local Government. +Improvement of Cities during Late Years. + +_Our Government no Unmixed Blessing._ Unjust Charges and Incorrect +Statements. + +_From whom is Improvement to be hoped?_ From no Class so much as from +Indian Officials. The "Gazetteer" of India. Importance of Information +being made Accessible to the English People. + +_The best Conceivable Government for India._ The best Practicable +Government. + +_The Future of India._ Antagonistic Elements. The Order secured by the +Army. The Greatness of our Responsibility. Good Government Favourable to +Evangelization. 365 + + + +STATISTICS 391 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + PAGE +UNION CHURCH, RANEE KHET. Frontispiece. +BATHING GHAT, BENARES. 48 +A JEWELLER AT WORK. 53 +THE WELL AT CAWNPORE. 219 +RUINS OF THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW. 223 +THE LA MARTINIERE, LUCKNOW. 227 +TEMPLE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 237 +MISSION SCHOOL, ALMORA. 253 +LEPER ASYLUM, ALMORA. 257 +THE SNOWY RANGE FROM RANEE KHET. 263 +LANDSLIP AT NYNEE TAL. 281 + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +Neither the author nor his book stands in need of any introduction to +the public. But having been asked for such, I cheerfully respond. During +his long residence in the North-Western Provinces of India, where I +myself happened to reside, ample opportunities were afforded me of +knowing and observing the Rev. Jas. Kennedy and his work. And I am +therefore able, and glad, to say that no man was ever better placed than +he was for gaining a thorough acquaintance with Hindustan and the +various races inhabiting it, during the four decades of which he treats. +I have met with none whose calm and sagacious judgment might more surely +enable him to form correct conclusions, nor whose high and scrupulous +principle should impart to the reader greater confidence in the fair and +truthful statement of them. + +I regard this book as possessing a rare interest, not only for the +missionary student, but equally so for the general reader. The amount of +information it contains, descriptive, social, evangelistic, and even +political, is astonishing; and the discursive and, in part, +autobiographical form in which it is written, renders it so easy, that +he who runs may read. The contrast is drawn graphically, and with a +light and lively pen, between the state of things fifty years ago and +that which now prevails: the exchange of slow and cumbrous means of +conveyance for those which enable you in these days to perform the +journey of weeks in, you might say, as many hours; and the not less +marked advance in education and intelligence. The retrospect, material +as well as moral, social, and religious, is useful in many ways. + +But that which lends its chief value to this work is the faithful +picture of missionary labour--its trials and difficulties, its results, +rewards, and prospects. During the considerable period brought under +review, standing by, as I did, and looking carefully on, I can +unhesitatingly attest, as a whole, the correctness of my friend's +statements, and the reasonableness of the lessons he would draw +therefrom. This book should be read by every one who wishes to acquaint +himself with the attitude of Christian agencies towards the people of +India, and of these towards the Gospel. There is here a fertile field of +facts and materials for thought. The author resorts to no roseate +colouring, nor any kind of varnish. Nothing is unduly sanguine. All is +tempered by sound judgment and wise discretion. + +If I may add a word from my own experience, it is this--Let my +fellow-countrymen and countrywomen in India give their countenance to +the Missionaries labouring around them. They well deserve it, but too +often are allowed to stand alone. The loss is theirs who keep aloof, and +neglect the man and his work. While our people are running to and fro in +the busy whirl of Indian life--some hasting to be rich, others engrossed +in the labours of administration--higher things are too frequently +forgotten. The spiritual life is prone to fade and droop. Many men--and +women as well as men--who would at home be cultivating some corner of +the Master's vineyard, begin to forget that similar obligations follow +after them in their private walk and life abroad. Against these +deteriorating tendencies, to mingle with the missionary band affords a +wholesome antidote. For myself, I can never be thankful enough that in +my early Indian life I found valued friends in the missionary circle, +not only of the highest mental culture, but of a devoted Christian +heart; and was privileged with their intimacy to the end. Among them I +cannot refrain from naming such noble Missionaries as Perkins, Smith, +and Leupolt, French, Stuart, Welland, and Shackell, Owen, Humphrey, +Budden and Watt, Hoernle, and Pfander--that grand apologist to the +Mahometans--all of whose friendship I enjoyed, as well as that of the +Author himself. If some of these were men the like of whom we may not +soon look upon again--a galaxy of rare appearance--yet, as we may learn +from these pages, the field is in the present day stocked even more +plentifully than ever it was before. Opportunities of cultivating in +this field Christian friendship--and may I not add Christian work, and +that for Ladies also--are happily multiplying all around; and I can +promise an ample reward to such as make a faithful use of them. + +In conclusion, I will only say that I am much mistaken if this work +fails to take its place as a standard book of reference in every library +of missionary labour and Christian work abroad. + + W. MUIR. +16th September, 1884. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +VOYAGE TO INDIA. + + +In 1837 I was accepted by the London Missionary Society as one of its +agents. On September 15, 1838, I embarked at Portsmouth with thirty +other passengers on the _Duke of Buccleugh_, a vessel of 650 tons +burthen, and landed in Calcutta on January 19, 1839, _en route_ to +Benares, to which I had been appointed. The only land we sighted from +Portsmouth to Saugar Island was a rock in the Indian Ocean. The time we +thus spent at sea was four months and five days. Every now and then +speedier voyages were made, but a few years previously this voyage would +have been deemed rapid. The _Duke of Buccleugh_, on her next voyage to +India, went to pieces on a sandbank at the mouth of the Hoogly, but +happily the weather was moderate, and passengers and crew were saved. + +The route by the Cape of Good Hope has been abandoned for passengers for +many years, and now Bombay is reached by the Straits of Gibraltar and +the Suez Canal in a month, sometimes in less, while another week is +required for the voyage to Calcutta. Those who travel with the Indian +mails across the Continent of Europe can reach their port in less than +three weeks, and distant parts of India by rail in four weeks or less. + +All on board--officials returning to their posts, and persons going out +for the first time--were delighted to find the voyage coming to an end; +but new-comers like myself were under the spell of novelty, which gave +new interest to everything we saw. At Kedgeree, near the mouth of the +Hoogly, the Post Office boat came to our ship with welcome letters from +friends, who were looking out for our arrival. The level land on each +side of the river, with its rich tropical vegetation; the numerous +villages on the banks, with their beehive-like huts; the craft on the +river, large and small, many of them so heavily laden as to bring them +down almost to the water's edge; the little boats, with plantains and +other fruits, which tried to attach themselves to our ship in the hope +of getting purchasers; the strange appearance of the people, with their +only covering of cloth round the middle--all gave us a thrill of +excitement which can be known only in similar circumstances. Then, we +were about to set foot on the great land, of which we had read much, to +which we had looked with the deepest interest, and where we purposed to +spend our days in the service of Christ. Though so many years have since +elapsed, we can yet vividly remember the peculiar feeling of that time. + +The day before we landed, the Native agent of the mercantile house to +which our ship was consigned made his appearance with letters and fresh +supplies. To the surprise of us new-comers, roast beef was on our +dinner-table that day. We thought it strange that in the land where the +cow was worshipped, beef should be one of the first things brought to +us. + +Our missionary friends in Calcutta had heard of the arrival of our ship, +and arranged for our accommodation. Some of them came on board when we +anchored in the Hoogly, off Fort William, and gave us a hearty welcome. +We were right glad to find ourselves on land again. + +[Sidenote: THE CITY OF PALACES.] + +Calcutta is a hundred miles from the sea, but the country is so level +that the tide runs up in great strength many miles beyond, and the tidal +wave, which comes in at certain times, is very dangerous to small craft, +and requires care on the part of large ships. The great trade of the +city is shown by the vast number of ships at anchor in the river, many +of them stately vessels of large tonnage, of which in our day many are +steamers. + +On landing, a stranger gets the impression that Calcutta is rightly +called the city of palaces. On the great plain adjoining the river, at +some distance from each other, are two notable objects--Fort William and +Government House. Beyond the plain lies Chowringhee, a range of lofty +houses extending for more than a mile, with balconies and flat roofs, +giving one an impression of grandeur, which is scarcely sustained when +more nearly seen, as that which looked at a distance like marble is +found to be stucco and plaster. Behind Chowringhee are a number of wide +streets with similar, but generally smaller houses, each apart, with +offices and servants' houses in the enclosure. When entering the city +one sees that strange combination of meanness and dirt with grandeur +with which travellers in Eastern lands are so familiar. In the +neighbourhood of Government House there are a number of shops in the +European fashion, but a very large proportion of the business of +Calcutta, we suppose the most of it, is carried on in bazaars, in which +there are no showy shops, but where there is abundance of goods of every +description. When we went to India, and for many years afterwards, in +front of these shops were open sewers, over which customers had to pass +on slabs of stone. Amidst houses for Europeans, even in the most +aristocratic part of the city, were native houses of every description, +many of them miserable grass huts. + +Since the time of which I speak, some forty-five years ago, Calcutta has +been greatly improved. It has been drained, supplied with good water, +instead of being dependent on great open tanks, to which all had access, +which no arrangement could keep tolerably pure, and is lit with gas. +Open sewers are no longer to be seen, and from the best parts of the +city many native houses have disappeared. The changes effected must +conduce immensely to the health and comfort of the inhabitants. There is +no part of India, we suppose, free from the plague of the musquito, but +in all my Indian life I have not been so much tormented in any place by +it as I have been in Calcutta. It adds insult to injury. If it would +only bite, sharp though its bite be, one could put up with it; but +before it bites, and after, it goes on buzzing, as if mocking you, and +evades every attempt to catch it. The last time we were there musquitoes +were comparatively few, and they seemed to have lost much of their +former mischievous vigour. We suppose the improved sanitary arrangements +have not agreed with them. + +When in Calcutta everything reminded us that we had left our own country +behind, though not all our own people. We saw them on every side, but +they were a mere handful in the midst of a strange people in a strange +land, where man and nature presented entirely new aspects. The look of +the people, the exceedingly scanty dress of the labouring class, and the +long flowing robes of those in better circumstances, the marks on the +foreheads and arms of the Hindus, showing the gods whose worshippers +they were, their processions with noisy, unmusical music, the public +buildings of the people, the mosques of the Muhammadans, and the temples +of the Hindus, with a church here and there to show that Christianity +had also its shrines--all brought to our view characteristics of the +great land on which we had entered. Bombay, since the opening of the +Suez Canal, has made progress which somewhat affects the pre-eminence of +Calcutta among the cities of India, but it still remains the capital of +British India--I ought rather to say of India--and its position will +continue to make it, what it has been in the past, a vast emporium of +commerce, the abode of a great population, and a place of most stirring +activity. It continues to be the resort of persons of every civilized, +and almost every semi civilized, nation on the face of the earth. + +My stay in Calcutta of six weeks was longer than I had anticipated, but +my time was very pleasantly and profitably spent. A few days after +arrival a united prayer-meeting was held: missionaries of all societies +were present, the attendance was large, the spirit was earnest and +devout, and I then began to realize, what it was my happiness to realize +more fully afterwards, the uniting power of the missionary enterprise. I +had the happiness of attending services with Native Christians, and of +joining them in spirit, though not with understanding. I was especially +interested in the noble Missionary Institution of the Church of +Scotland, and in the smaller, but promising, school of our own Society. +I felt as if the sight of such a number of boys and young men, many of +them with most pleasing and intelligent countenances, all learning our +language, and, what is vastly better, all taught from the Word of God, +was enough in itself to repay one for the long voyage to India. I heard +them examined, and was surprised at the knowledge of English possessed +by some of them, at the extent of their Biblical knowledge, and at the +Christian tone with which they gave replies to questions. I asked a +tall, slightly built young man, with a most intelligent face, dressed in +the flowing white robe of his people, who had spoken with what struck me +as the accent of conviction, "Are you a Christian?" to which he replied, +"Yes, in heart; but I fear persecution." To this subject of schools I +shall have often occasion to revert in the course of my reminiscences. + +During my stay in Calcutta I had much pleasant intercourse with +missionaries of different Societies. I was the guest of Mr. Boaz, +afterwards Dr. Boaz, of Union Chapel, by whom I was treated with much +kindness. Mr. Gogerly had been my fellow-passenger to India. Mr. Lacroix +and Mr. Piffard were, at that time, the senior missionaries of our +Society in Calcutta. Both were admirable men. Mr. Piffard was a +gentleman of property, who devoted himself to missionary work, and +laboured for many years most faithfully, without requiring to take, and +without taking, any salary from the Society. A short time afterwards he +was suddenly carried off by cholera. Mr. Lacroix lived for many years. I +had the pleasure of meeting him in my visits to Calcutta, and in his +visits to the North-west, and also of frequent correspondence with him. +He was esteemed and loved as few have been. He was a man with a +commanding presence, tall and well-built, and had a geniality of manner +which won all hearts. He spoke and wrote English remarkably well, with a +slight foreign accent and sprightliness, an _elan_, as our French +friends call it, which told of his French birth and upbringing. He had a +thorough knowledge of the Bengalee language, and used it with a +commanding eloquence, to which his voice, look, and gesture greatly +contributed. His last illness, the result of his long residence in the +enervating climate of Bengal, was borne with Christian patience, and +drew forth the sympathy and kindly inquiry of all classes. At his +funeral such tokens of respect and love were rendered to him by every +class of the community, Native and European, as have been seldom +witnessed in Calcutta. + +[Sidenote: SERAMPORE.] + +Like all newly-arrived missionaries in Calcutta, I made a pilgrimage to +Serampore. The illustrious trio--Carey, Marshman, and Ward--whose names +are indissolubly connected with that place, as first their refuge and, +for many years afterwards, the scene of their plans and labours for the +evangelization of India, had passed away by that time (January, 1839), +but the Rev. John Mack, who had been long associated with them, and Mr. +John Marshman, Dr. Marshman's eldest son, remained. I was taken by Mr. +Mack to the college, the printing-office, the type manufactory, the +paper manufactory, the mission chapel, the station church, Dr. Carey's +garden, and the native Christian village, indeed, to every object of +interest about the place. I remember seeing an elderly man engaged in +type-making, and observing a little image in a niche above him. I was +told this man had been many years in this department of work, and had +remained so strict a Hindu that he would work only under the protection +of his god. The teaching of the missionaries had had no effect in +weaning him from his ancestral idolatry. Yet many were won to Christ by +the Scriptures and books, for the preparation of which the work of this +man, and of others of his class, was indispensable. + +When visiting Serampore, and hearing from Mr. Mack of the doings and +achievements of the great men whose residence at Serampore has given it +a sacredness it will ever retain in the annals of Indian Missions, I +felt as a young Greek would feel on being taken to Marathon and +Thermopylæ. I felt I was entering on a war, where there had been heroes +before me, which demanded courage and endurance of a far higher order +than had ever been enlisted in the cause of patriotism. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +VOYAGE TO BENARES. + +_March, 1839._ + + +I left myself in the hands of friends in Calcutta as to the best mode of +proceeding to my destination. There were at that time three modes of +travelling to the North-Western Provinces. One was being carried in a +palanquin on men's shoulders, arrangements being made to have fresh +bearers every few miles. For a long journey of more than four hundred +miles to Benares this was at once a very tedious and fatiguing mode of +travelling. To one who knew not a word of the language of the people in +whose hands one was to be for days it was additionally trying. Yet not a +few persons newly arrived, some of them delicate ladies, did travel in +that mode to far more distant places than Benares, and very seldom any +mishap befell them. In this mode little more could be taken in the way +of luggage than necessary clothing. + +Another mode was by the river in a native boat, with a crew engaged to +take the party to their destination. Not a few travelled in this way, +even to Delhi. Weeks, often months, were spent on the voyage; great +inconveniences were endured, and not infrequently great perils +encountered from the sudden storms to which voyagers on the Ganges are +exposed, from the strong and eddying currents in some parts of the +river, and perhaps most of all from the treacherous character of the +boatmen. In 1841 and 1842 a severe storm fell on a large fleet of boats +taking a European regiment to the north-west. Many of the boats were +wrecked, and, if I remember rightly, about three hundred men lost their +lives. + +There was a third mode of proceeding to the north-west. A few years +previously a River Steam Company had been formed for the transmission of +passengers and goods. Passengers were accommodated in flats drawn by +steamers. As the Ganges enters Bengal it breaks into a number of +streams, by which it makes its way to the ocean. The Hoogly, on which +Calcutta stands, is one of these streams. Some of them are so shallow at +certain seasons that native boats of considerable size cannot find +sufficient water, and they are at that time impassable for steamers, +though so constructed as to have the least possible draught. The result +is that the steamers for the north-west (we believe none ply now) had to +make a great detour, to go down the Hoogly to Saugor Island, and then to +proceed by one of the channels there found to the main stream. This +greatly increased the distance to the north-west. Except in the rainy +season, steamers for Benares had to go about eight hundred miles. + +[Sidenote: THE SUNDERBUNS.] + +Of these three routes this one of the river steamers was in many +respects the most convenient and pleasant, especially for persons new in +the country, and my Calcutta friends kindly arranged that I should be +sent on in this way. I accordingly embarked for Benares on a flat, +tugged by a steamer, in the first week of March. After going down the +Hoogly to Saugor Island, we made our way into the district called the +Sunderbuns by one of the channels of the Ganges. We got into a labyrinth +of streams, every here and there opening up into a wide reach of water, +giving one the impression we were entering a lake; and shortly +afterwards we found ourselves in a channel so narrow that we almost +touched the banks on both sides, and which barely allowed a passage +where there was a sharp turn in the stream. We had native pilots who +knew the region thoroughly, and were in no danger of going astray. The +land down to the water's edge was covered with the densest tropical +vegetation, so that the banks often bounded our view, except when the +trees on it were lower than those beyond. In the waters and out, wild +beasts abound. Alligators were seen dropping from the banks into the +stream on hearing the approach of the steamer. We saw no tigers, but we +heard much about them as we were threading our way through that region. +The previous year, early one morning, the watch on the deck of the flat +was startled by a tiger leaping on board, and, evidently bewildered by +its new circumstances, leaping off on the other side. Messrs. Lacroix +and Gogerly, when on a native boat in the Sunderbuns, were witnesses of +a desperate fight between a tiger and an alligator. The story has been +often told. + +Less than two centuries ago there was a large population in what may be +called that amphibious region, the soil when cleared being very rich; +but owing to the incursions of Mug pirates from the coast of Burmah, and +the oppression of Muhammadan rulers of Bengal, the most of the +inhabitants perished, others fled, and so complete was the ruin that the +exact site of once prosperous cities is unknown. In a region like the +Sunderbuns, when man's restraining and improving hand is withdrawn every +trace of his presence disappears under the rank vegetation, which +speedily covers the sphere of his labours. The country, under British +protection, was in 1839 beginning to be reoccupied. Patches of ground +were reclaimed from the jungle, and since that time cultivation has been +greatly extended. We occasionally met native boats, and were thus +reminded we were not the only human begins in that district. Nearly a +week elapsed before we emerged from the Sunderbuns. + +Our passengers were a motley band. Between twenty and thirty were +Europeans, two or three were Eurasians, and there was a company of +Sepoys under a native officer in charge of treasure. Most of the Sepoys +were Hindus, and as they cannot cook on the water, which is forbidden by +caste-law, they were obliged to subsist as they best could on dry grain. +The Muhammadans had no convenience for cooking on the flat, but they +were allowed partial use of the steamer. All were delighted when they +got into the open country, and could get on shore at night to prepare +their meals. + +The steamer and flat were brought to anchor at all the important towns +on the river, for lading and unlading goods and for landing passengers, +of whom very few left us, as most were bound for Benares and Allahabad. +When evening came on we always anchored, wherever we might be. We saw a +little of Bhagulpore, Monghyr, Dinapore, Patna, Ghazeepore, and some +other places. At Monghyr I spent a very pleasant evening with Mr. Leslie +of the Baptist Mission, even then of considerable standing, and years +afterwards a highly esteemed veteran in the missionary host. + +[Sidenote: A STORM ON THE GANGES.] + +Our progress was slow. In some places the stream was too strong for our +steamer tugging the flat, and in other places the water was too shallow. +Sometimes we got for hours, in one case for a whole day, on sandbanks, +from which we got off with great difficulty. The most memorable incident +of the voyage was a storm, which came on us one evening as we were +nearing Dinapore. There was so little warning of its approach that we, +who knew not the climate, were quite unprepared for its coming. Before +breaking on us we were brought to a standstill, the flat was separated +from the steamer, and both flat and steamer were brought to anchor. The +sky suddenly became dark, we heard puffs of wind, and then the storm +burst on us in all its fury. The dust was so raised that we could see +only a few feet from the flat, and the flat so rolled that every now and +then a splash of water came in at the windows. A scene of great +confusion ensued. Some Indo-Portuguese servants were on their knees, +imploring Mary--"Mariam, Mariam!"--to save them. The Hindus were loud in +their appeals to "Ram, Ram!" while the Muhammadans shouted "Allah, +Allah!" A newly arrived English lady almost fainted from fright, and her +husband tried to calm and assure her. Every face indicated anxiety. In +less than an hour all was over, and we were thankful to find ourselves +once more in safety. + +Before leaving England I had possessed myself of a Hindustanee Grammar, +and in Calcutta of a Hindustanee Dictionary. On the voyage to India I +did not make much of the grammar, but on the way to Benares I gave +myself resolutely to learning the language. I found a young native +officer on the flat who knew a little English, and who professed to be a +good Hindustanee scholar. I got the consent of the native officer in +command to his coming to my cabin when off duty, and I spent hours daily +with him, trying to get my tongue about the strange sounds, with which I +knew I must be familiar if I was to do the work for which I had come to +India. I received great help from this young Muhammadan, and felt as if +I was beginning to get my foot into the language before reaching my +destination. + +On the three Sabbaths I was on the river I had the pleasure of preaching +to the Europeans on board. + +A voyage on the Ganges does not enable one to see much of the country. +The banks are often very high; in many places there is a great extent of +sand; the country, with the exception of the district where the main +stream is entered, is very level, and the country is therefore very +imperfectly seen. The native craft, so unlike the vessels of our own +country, with their lofty prows and sterns, and great ragged square +sails, many laden with wood and grass, which made them like moving +stacks, were constant objects of interest. + +At length, after more than three weeks on board, we were delighted one +Sunday forenoon to see in the distance the domes and minarets of +Benares. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ARRIVAL AT BENARES. + + +On Sabbath, March 31, 1839, we came to anchor at the northern end of +Benares, at a place called Raj Ghat, the ferry connecting the city on +the left bank of the river with the Trunk road on the right, leading to +Behar and Bengal. Near this place the most of the native craft employed +in the city traffic is moored. Many of the vessels are of considerable +size. + +For hours Benares had been in sight, but owing to the strength of the +stream our progress had been slow. It was early afternoon by the time of +our arrival. In so public a place as Raj Ghat there are always a number +of people, but the early afternoon is a time when few bathe, and there +is a lull in the stir of the community. As the afternoon comes on, and +the evening advances, there is fresh activity. We therefore, on landing, +saw little of the scene with which we were afterwards to become +familiar. + +Word of the approach of our steamer and flat had reached Secrole, the +European suburb of Benares, three miles inland, and no sooner had we +come to anchor than the agent of the Steam Company and the friends of +expected passengers came on board. Among these was the Rev. William +Smith of the Baptist Mission, whose house was on the high bank +immediately above Raj Ghat, and who had been requested by my brethren of +the London Missionary Society to be on the look-out for me. This good +man gave me a kindly welcome, and took me with him to his house, built +very much in the native fashion, with flat roof, with small, low rooms +entering from one into another, and a verandah extending along its +front, from which a commanding view was obtained of the river and craft +below, the country on the other side of the river, and a part of the +front of the city. Immediately behind the house was the chapel, in which +daily worship was conducted. + +[Sidenote: PREACHING TO BEGGARS.] + +The first thing I saw on getting to Mr. Smith's house was the chapel +crowded with very poor-looking people, of whom a number were blind and +lame. I was told these were beggars, who came every Lord's-day to +receive a dole, either pice or dry grain, from the missionary and his +wife, and who listened very patiently to an address before the dole was +given. This service was kept up for many years, and there was no falling +off in the attendance. Those who have read the life of Henry Martyn, and +others of the early missionary period in India, know that they +ministered to this class. Here were persons whose destitution appealed +directly to the Christian heart, and who were content to be present when +the gospel message was delivered, while little access to others could be +obtained. How far these poor people heard it would be difficult to say. +I am afraid few heard with any desire to understand and consider what +was said, but there is every reason to believe some did obtain lasting +spiritual good. We have heard of instances of genuine conversion, though +it must be admitted these were rare; and it must be also acknowledged +there were instances of pretended conversion, when the life soon proved +that the motive for seeking baptism was entirely sordid. Still the work +in itself was worthy of the followers of Christ, and could not fail to +make a favourable impression, not only on the persons helped, but on the +community around. Almsgiving stands high among virtues in the estimation +of both Hindus and Muhammadans; it is considered sufficient to atone for +many sins, and it is practised so indiscriminately as to pauperize many +who could provide for themselves. It is unfit that Christianity should +seem less careful of those who are really poor and helpless than +Hinduism and Muhammadanism are. Work such as I saw in Mr. Smith's chapel +is carried on in some places down to the present time. + +A short time after our arrival at Raj Ghat my dear friend the Rev. W. P. +Lyon appeared, and took me in his conveyance by a road skirting the city +to the Mission House in Secrole, which he then occupied. From Mr. and +Mrs. Lyon, both of whom I had known intimately for years in our own +land, I received a hearty welcome. + +At the corner of the mission compound, facing the public road, was the +humble chapel, built of sun-dried bricks, in which service was conducted +in the native language. I arrived half an hour before the time for the +afternoon service. Before its commencement I had the pleasure of meeting +Messrs. Buyers and Shurman, with whom I was to be for years associated +in mission work. With them I went to the service, which was conducted by +Mr. Shurman. There were at that time only two or three native Christians +connected with the mission, and these, with their families, the +missionaries and their wives, and a few orphan children, constituted the +congregation. I had just enough of the language to catch an expression +here and there, and from my ignorance of what was said my mind was left +at greater freedom for realizing my new and strange position. + +I had just had a glance of the sacred city of the Hindus. I had seen at +a short distance the domes of some of the principal temples, and the +minarets of some of the principal mosques, especially those of the +mosque built by Aurungzeb, soaring far above every other object in the +city. I had dimly seen the bathing-places of the people stretching away +for miles, and the houses on the high bank of the river. As I landed I +had seen a few bathing, and a number moving about. + +And now, in this poor chapel, with its low roof and earthen floor, I +found a few assembled for the worship of the living God through the Lord +Jesus Christ. I realized, as I had not done before, that I had left my +native land behind, and had come among a people the vast majority of +whom were wholly given to idolatry, and the rest followers of Muhammad, +the bitter enemies of my Lord and Saviour. The greatness and difficulty +of the missionary enterprise presented themselves to me with a painful +vividness, and but for the conviction that the work was of God, and that +my long-cherished desire to enter on it and the gratification of my +desire in my appointment to Benares had come from Him, I should have +been ready to retrace my steps. Yet here I was, worshipping with a few +persons who had been idolaters, and one of whom at least had made great +sacrifices when he had avowed his faith in Jesus. Why should we despise +the day of small things? Forty-four years have elapsed since that, to +me, memorable 31st of March, 1839, and I can now realize myself sitting +with Messrs. Buyers and Lyon in front of that humble pulpit, while Mr. +Shurman preached, and remember, as if it were yesterday, the strange +feelings that thrilled me that afternoon. + +[Sidenote: RESIDENCE IN BENARES.] + +I had to make no arrangement for my accommodation on reaching Benares. +Previous to my arrival it had been arranged that I was to take up my +abode with my dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. Lyon. I was at once at home +with them, for Mr. Lyon had been my fellow-student at Glasgow, and Mrs. +Lyon was the member of a family with whom I had been intimately +acquainted while studying at Edinburgh. Within a few days of my arrival +I was introduced to the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, +and to a few European residents who took an interest in missionary +work. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN BENARES. + +FROM 1816 TO 1839. + + +It may be well to give, before proceeding further, a brief account of +what had been done for the evangelization of Benares up to that time. + +Our Baptist brethren were first in the field. All who have read the +biography of the illustrious trio of Serampore are aware that they +formed, and with ardent zeal and untiring energy prosecuted, great +schemes for the evangelization of the millions to whose spiritual good +they had consecrated their lives. The translation of the Scriptures into +the languages of India was their special service, but it was far from +standing alone. They were fully alive to the importance of preparing and +sending out men of God to go among the people, and make known to them +Jesus as the Saviour of the world. They gladly availed themselves of +Europeans, Eurasians, and natives, who seemed qualified for the work by +Christian character, zeal for the conversion of the people, and aptness +to teach, though, with few exceptions, destitute of any considerable +measure of mental culture. Some of these agents had force of character +and native talent, and much good and useful work was accomplished by +them. One of their number was Mr. Bowley, who afterwards joined the +Church Mission, and was for many years located at Chunar. He translated +the entire Scriptures into Hindee, and did beside much excellent +literary work in the translation and composition of books and tracts. As +he had no knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, his translation of the Bible +has marked defects, though from his knowledge of Hindee and his good +judgment it has also marked excellences. His translation of the New +Testament is now largely superseded, but his translation of the Old +Testament is the only one yet possessed. The style of his smaller works +in Hindustanee, or Urdu, as it is commonly called, is remarkably +idiomatic and pleasing. + +[Sidenote: BAPTIST MISSION IN BENARES.] + +Missionary work was commenced in Benares by Mr. William Smith, who was +sent to it by the Serampore missionaries in 1816. I have already +mentioned him as having welcomed me on my arrival. He secured a house +for himself at Raj Ghat, the northern boundary of the city, with a +crowded population around him, and there till his death he lived with +his family, during all the period diligently prosecuting his missionary +work. He had been a drummer in the native army, spoke the Hindustanee as +his mother tongue, and belonged to the large class who, having European +blood in their veins, are professing Christians, but as to their +ordinary habits of life are more native than European. Mr. Smith was a +man of limited education and of little talent, but of sterling +excellence, and secured the respect and love of all classes of the +native community by his kindly and consistent life. For years before his +death there was in his house the strange spectacle of five generations, +and his great-great-grandmother was heard by a friend of mine murmuring, +"It looks as if God had forgotten to take me away." Mrs. Smith, who +was, I believe, a pure native, was a woman of remarkable energy, and +exercised a powerful influence for good on all connected with her. Owing +to the unhappy controversy between the Serampore missionaries and the +Baptist Missionary Society, and the separation in which it ended, Mr. +Smith was left for a time without any salary; but by the establishment +of a Eurasian boarding-school his wants were fully supplied. On to old +age he moved about among the people, conversing with them, going to +their great religious gatherings and distributing tracts and portions of +the Scriptures in a very quiet, unostentatious manner, and succeeded, by +God's blessing, in bringing a few into the fold of Christ. + +[Sidenote: CHURCH MISSION IN BENARES.] + +Among the pioneers of modern missionary work in India the late Bishop +Corrie, of Madras, has a high and honoured name. He was one of the small +band of Government chaplains who gave themselves heart and soul to the +work of diffusing the gospel among the native population. Henry Martyn +is the best known of this band, and with him men like Brown, Thomason, +and Corrie deserve to be held in everlasting remembrance. Mr. Corrie +was, in 1817, the chaplain of the European community in Benares. +Previous to that time a rich native, Rajah Jay Narayan, had established +and endowed a school in the part of the city inhabited chiefly by +Bengalees. This Rajah formed so high an opinion of Mr. Corrie, and of +his ability to carry on the school efficiently, that he asked him to +undertake its management. Mr. Corrie accepted the offer in the name of +the Church Missionary Society, whose sanction to the measure he had +obtained, and to it the school was made over by formal deed of gift in +1818. Under the name of Jay Narayan's School, and afterwards of Jay +Narayan's College, it has continued down to our day; and it has done +much for the education, on Christian principles, of successive +generations of Benares youth. A Mr. Adlington was the first head-master, +and a short time afterwards a missionary was sent. He was succeeded by +others, but owing to their failure of health little was done on to the +fourth decade of the century, except the securing of suitable ground and +the erection of mission-houses at Segra, in the immediate suburbs of the +city on its southwestern side. This place had formerly been noted for +the thieves and thugs that infested it. In 1839 the two missionaries at +Segra were the Rev. William Smith and the Rev. C. B. Leupolt. Mr. Smith +reached India in 1830, and after spending fifteen months in Goruckpore, +on the borders of Nepal, was transferred to Benares in 1832. He was +joined by Messrs. Knorpp and Leupolt in 1833. The two Church +missionaries in Benares in 1839, Messrs. Smith and Leupolt, laboured for +many years afterwards with singular devotedness for the spiritual good +of the people. As it is invidious to make comparisons, I will not say +that they were foremost in the first rank; but all who knew them will +bear me out in saying they attained a high place in the first rank of +the missionary band. + +[Sidenote: LONDON MISSION IN BENARES.] + +The Rev. Matthew Thomson Adam was appointed by the London Missionary +Society to Benares in October 1819, and reached his destination in +August, 1820. He remained at his post till 1830, when he returned to +England, and resigned his connection with the Society. He afterwards +went to the United States, where he undertook a pastorate. Mr. Adam was +a scholarly and diligent man. He prepared and published a Hindee +Grammar, an English and Hindee Dictionary, and some tracts. He secured +a site for a mission-house on the border of cantonment towards the city, +and erected on it a commodious and substantial structure; and since his +day a church, a school-house for girls, and houses for native +Christians, have been erected in the mission compound. He also secured a +very central site in cantonments for a place of worship for holding +English services, and by the liberal help of the English military and +civil residents erected on it a building which was called Union Chapel. +His services among our countrymen seem to have been greatly valued, but +owing to a change in the _personnel_ of the station, a change which is +going on incessantly in India, the congregation fell off, Union Chapel +was sold, and the money realized by the sale was spent on the erection +of a chapel in the city, on a site obtained with great difficulty. Mr. +Adam left Benares before this building, erected with a view to native +services, could be turned to account. In a brief record of his labours +drawn up by himself, he says that he deemed it a high honour to live +near such a city, and to testify to his Master by pressing His claims on +individuals with whom he had an opportunity of conversing; but he did +not think it advisable to attempt the preaching of the gospel in places +of public resort. He was at times encouraged by the prospect of persons +becoming the followers of Christ, but in every case his hopes were +disappointed. No native was baptized by him. + +The London Mission of Benares was reinforced in 1826 by the arrival of +the Rev. James Robertson. He was a man of linguistic talent, and was +full of plans for setting up the standard of the Cross and assailing the +idolatry around him. He opened a number of schools in various parts of +the city, and organized a system of Bible-reading in the streets. Seven +men, chosen from among Hindus, whose sole qualification was ability to +read, were appointed to read daily in different parts of the city our +Scriptures without note or comment. We have no doubt they took care to +tell their hearers that they did their work to please the sahib, and get +his pay, but had no intention of accepting the new teaching, and had no +wish that others should do so. No other missionary has followed this +plan. Mr. Robertson left behind him in MS. translations into Urdu of a +part of the Old Testament, which were carefully examined and partly used +by Mr. Shurman; but the style was too difficult for any except those who +were well acquainted with the Persian language. + +The Rev. William Buyers joined the Mission at the beginning of 1832, and +Mr. Robertson was carried off by cholera fifteen months afterwards, in +his thirty-fourth year. Mr. Buyers was thus left alone, but early in +1834 he was joined by the Rev. J. A. Shurman and the Rev. Robert C. +Mather. In 1838 the Rev. W. P. Lyon arrived at Benares, and that year +Mr. Mather went to the great commercial Mirzapore, where he established, +and for many years afterwards conducted with great efficiency, a very +important mission. When I reached Benares I was thus the fourth on its +staff, and the seventh from its commencement. + +Much good work had been done by the brethren with whom I was to be +associated. They had established schools for primary education, but +owing to the want of funds all but one had been given up by 1839. They +had taken part in preparing tracts and revising the translation of the +New Testament in Urdu. A place of worship had been erected, and a few +orphans had been gathered. Evangelistic work was being actively +prosecuted in the city. + +A short time previous to 1839 the Church Mission had undertaken a very +benevolent and a very difficult work. In 1837 the North-Western +Provinces were desolated by famine. Many thousands perished, everywhere +miserable boys and girls were to be seen who had become orphans, or who +had been abandoned by their parents. At this terrible crisis missions +came forward with the offer of adopting these forsaken children. Fifty +were made over to the Church Mission at Benares, and afterwards many +more were added to this number. Suitable buildings were speedily erected +for their accommodation, and arrangements were made for their education +and support. These children were so emaciated that many died within a +few days of their being brought to the mission. At the close of 1838 an +excellent missionary and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Knorpp, were carried off +by a low fever which attacked them while attending to their charge. By +the hot weather of 1839 the health of the orphans had greatly improved, +and everything was being done which could be done for their temporal and +spiritual welfare. + +By the time of my arrival, the missionaries of the Church and London +Missionary Societies--Mr. Lyon excepted, who had arrived only the +preceding year--had fully entered on their work. They had been from +seven to five years at their posts, had acquired a good knowledge of the +native languages, had all the vigour and hopefulness of early middle +life, and were giving themselves zealously to the prosecution of the +great work for which they had gone to India. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MY FIRST YEAR IN BENARES. + + +A stranger passing hurriedly through a country may carry away +impressions about its climate, products, and people, which residence for +a considerable time would not merely modify but reverse. There are some +things of which he can speak with some confidence. The great natural +features of a country, its mountains and plains and rivers, do not +undergo any marked change, and these may be truly described by the +casual visitor. The general aspect of a people, their houses, dress, and +look, remain much the same, and of these an accurate observer may give a +trustworthy account; but if from what he himself has seen and heard he +attempts to give a general estimate of the character of the people and +of the state of the country, he is almost sure to fall into great +mistakes. + +Within the last few years India has become a favourite field for +travellers who can without inconvenience spend a few hundred pounds, and +be absent from home three or four months. Swift steamers take them +quickly to and from Bombay, and railways carry them in a short time from +one end of India to the other. They travel at the season when travelling +is delightful, and thus see the different countries of that great region +in their most attractive form. If they infer what they do not see from +what they see, they are sure to make statements utterly discordant with +fact. Mr. Wilson, who was sent out to India to put its finances into +order after the Mutiny, travelled through the North-Western Provinces in +the cold weather, when the country was covered with abundant crops, and +was delighted with all he saw. He declared it was the finest country he +had ever seen. He returned to Calcutta as the hot weather was setting +in, and died in the succeeding rainy season. It is said that some time +before his death he pronounced the climate to be the most detestable on +the face of the globe. Dr. Norman McLeod was our guest for a very short +time in Benares, as he was prosecuting his Indian journey. When driving +about on a fine balmy morning, he said, in his genial fashion, "You +missionaries often complain of your climate; I only wish we in Scotland +had a climate like this." To which I replied, "Ah, doctor, kindly stop +with us through our coming seasons; prolong your stay till next +November, and then you will be able to speak with authority." The worthy +doctor did not take my counsel. His death some time afterwards was +attributed to his Indian tour; but if it left in him the seed of +disease, the blame rests not on the climate, but on the excessive +fatigue caused by overmuch travelling and work. + +The case of a person who has lived through a whole year in a country, +and has during that period moved among the people, is very different +from that of the passing stranger. He knows the climate as a traveller +for a few weeks or even months cannot. The seasons during that year may +have been more or less abnormal, and yet the resident cannot fail to +have obtained that knowledge which enables him to form a notion of what +he has in the main to expect every year. He gets a glimpse into the +character and peculiarities of the different classes of the population, +both native and foreign. He may know little of the language of the +country; but if he has an observing mind, and moves freely about, he is +constantly receiving information about the people in a degree which he +himself does not always realize. If his residence be prolonged for many +years, as he looks back to his first year, and remembers its experience, +he finds that his views have been greatly enlarged, on many points +greatly modified; he is sure that his knowledge is much more accurate +and mature; but there is scarcely any subject on which he finds his +views entirely reversed. + +[Sidenote: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST YEAR.] + +This, at least, has been my experience. I have a vivid remembrance of my +first year in Benares--a much more vivid remembrance than I have of +subsequent years, and it would be strange if I did not find that my +views on many Indian subjects have been greatly modified, and on all +much enlarged; but I do not discover that on any subject there has been +a complete reversal. + +I have already mentioned that on my voyage from Calcutta to Benares I +spent much of my time in the study of the Hindustanee language, commonly +called Urdu. Within a week of my arrival I gave myself to it with all +the application of which I was capable. I had as my teacher a munshee, +who had been long employed by the missionaries of our Society, but who +could not speak a sentence in English, though he knew the Roman +character well. I was told that his ignorance of English would prove an +advantage, as I should on this account be obliged to speak to him, in +however broken and limping a fashion, in the language which it was +indispensable for me to acquire. We had before us an English and +Hindustanee Dictionary, a Hindustanee and English Dictionary, a +Hindustanee Grammar, and a book of easy sentences in both languages in +the Roman character. At first my teacher and myself had to put things +into many forms before reaching mutual intelligibility; but gradually +our work became easier, and when two or three months had passed we +fairly understood each other--I trying to express myself in Hindustanee, +and he performing the much-needed work of correcting my words and idiom. +I commenced with a portion of the New Testament, and soon got into some +of the classics of the language. The use of the Roman character in the +writing of Indian languages had been strongly advocated by Sir Charles +Trevelyan, by Dr. Duff, and other men of mark, and was accepted by the +majority of the missionaries. Portions of the Scriptures and other books +were printed in it. Like all young missionaries, I learned the Persian +and Nagree characters, in which the languages of Northern India had +always previously been written; but the Roman character was very +convenient, and I regretted afterwards I used it so much. + +This study of the language was felt to be a foremost duty, and was +prosecuted from day to day. This went on for months with little +interruption, except what was caused by the serious and continued +illness of Mrs. Lyon, which, to the great regret of all their friends, +led before the end of the year to the departure of Mr. and Mrs. L. for +Europe. + +In the seventh or eighth month of my residence at Benares I wrote a +short sermon in Hindustanee on John i. 29, and read it at the native +service. Within a year I took my part regularly at that service, first +using my manuscript, and then extemporizing as I best could. + +I must confess I regarded my new linguistic acquisition with much more +complacency at the end of my first year than at the end of my fifth or +sixth. On my way to Benares, as I have already mentioned, I spent a few +hours very pleasantly with Mr. Leslie, the Baptist missionary at +Monghyr. I mentioned to him that my friend Mr. Lyon had learned the +language, and was preaching in it. Looking me full in the face, he said, +to my surprise and chagrin, "Depend on it, Mr. Lyon may use the words of +the language, but no one can be said to acquire it in a year." I thought +this a hard saying, but years afterwards I was forced to feel its truth. +I had in a year got such a glimpse into the Hindustanee and Hindee +languages as to have some conceptions of their nature, to know their +tone, and to bring them into partial use; but I had a very limited +notion of their nice distinctions, their peculiar idioms, and their vast +vocabulary. I cannot say that the opinion on this subject I formed in my +first year was entirely reversed by my after experience, but it was +largely modified. + +[Sidenote: STUDY OF NATIVE LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER.] + +While studying the native language, I felt myself studying the native +character as well. My teacher was very patient, correcting my +mistakes--mistakes, I must confess, often repeated--without allowing +even the slightest surprise to appear in his countenance. He did not +smile at blunders at which, when I knew better, I myself heartily +laughed. When I showed the slightest impatience at being checked he at +once allowed me to go on as I liked, though, as I afterwards knew, I +needed to be corrected. He was loud in praise of my progress, declaring +that I would soon surpass all my predecessors. In my intercourse with +him I had illustrations of the patience, the courtesy, and also the +flattering, cozening character of the people, when dealing with those +by whom they think they can be benefited. The impressions of native +character thus obtained were amply affirmed by the experience of after +years. + +This munshee was well acquainted with our Scriptures. He belonged to the +Writer caste, and had from his early years been in contact with +Europeans. He was ready for conversation on religious subjects, and had +much to say in favour of the philosophical notions which underlie +Hinduism. Three or four years afterwards he seemed to awake all at once +to the claims of Christ as the Saviour of the world, and under this +impulse he openly appeared in a native newspaper as the assailant of +Hinduism and the advocate of Christianity, which led to the hope that he +was to avow himself, by baptism, a follower of the Lord. But he became +alarmed at what he had done; he could not bear the reproaches of his +friends, and he fell back into the ranks of his people. Though he had +ceased to be my teacher I had opportunities of seeing him, and I tried +to speak to his conscience, to his conviction of the Divine origin of +the gospel. The last time I spoke to him he said, with marked emphasis, +"There is no use in speaking to me. Let Hinduism be false or true, I am +determined to live and die in it as my fathers have done!" His case was +that of many with whom every Indian missionary is brought into contact. + +During this year I was introduced into the methods in which evangelistic +work was conducted. In addition to attending the services of the Lord's +Day, I went now and then with my brethren to the city. We had at that +time two little chapels in good positions, at the doors of which the +people were first addressed, and were then invited to enter that they +might hear the new teaching more fully expounded. There was, of course, +nothing of the staidness or quietness of a Christian congregation. The +speaker was often interrupted; questions, sometimes very irrelevant +questions, were asked; and the people came and went, so that those who +were present at the commencement were seldom present at the close. +During the year I saw the principal places in Benares--its main streets +and markets, its temples and mosques; and thus formed some idea of the +great city, where for many years afterwards it was my privilege to +labour in the gospel of Christ. + +[Sidenote: THE LANGUAGES OF NORTHERN INDIA.] + +The work of the missionary in Northern India would be greatly simplified +if he had to learn only one language. He has to learn the two I have +named, the Hindustanee and the Hindee. The Hindustanee arose from +intercourse between the Muhammadan invaders and the people they had +subdued. It is written in the Persian or Arabic character, and draws its +vocabulary mainly from the Persian and Arabic languages. It is the +language of law, of commerce, and of ordinary life to many millions. The +Hindee in its various dialects, some of which almost rise to the dignity +of languages, is the vernacular of the vast Hindu population of +North-Western India. It rests mainly on the Sanscrit, and is written in +the Sanscrit or Deonagree character. In some of the most popular books +the languages are so strangely combined that it is impossible to give +any definite name to the language used. An acquaintance with these +languages is indispensable to missionary efficiency in Northern India, +but it is very difficult to attain marked excellence in both. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE FIRST YEAR--SOCIETY AND CLIMATE. + + +A very brief residence at Benares led me to see the great difference +between the society to which I had come and that which I had left. The +European community formed a mere handful of the population, and was +almost exclusively formed of officials, with all the peculiarities of a +class privileged by office. We had some two hundred European +artillerymen with their officers, of a regiment paid and controlled by +the East India Company; three native regiments officered by Europeans; +three or four members of the Civil Service, charged with the +administration of the city and district; one English merchant, and two +or three English shopkeepers. I now learned for the first time the +difference in rank between Queen's and Company's military officers. The +Queen's officer regarded himself as of a higher grade. Members of the +Civil Service and Company's officers met on terms of social equality; +but the Civilians looked on themselves as of a higher order, as the +aristocracy of the land, and the assumed superiority put a strain to +some degree on social intercourse. The persons sent out from this +country for the administration of India are called Covenanted Civilians, +as they bear a commission from the Queen; while those engaged for +administrative work by the Indian Government are called Uncovenanted. +The former class continue to have a great official advantage over the +latter; but forty years ago there was a great social inequality which +has in a measure ceased, where these uncovenanted servants are English +gentlemen, as they often are. English merchants were regarded as in +society; but shopkeepers, however large their establishment, were deemed +entirely outside the pale, except for strictly business purposes. This +was partly accounted for by European shopkeepers having been previously +stewards of ships, or soldiers who had received their discharge. +Missionaries were looked on as sufficiently in society to be admissible +everywhere, and were treated courteously by their European brethren when +they met, though only a few desired their intercourse. + +[Sidenote: EUROPEANS AND NATIVES.] + +As to the people of the land, both Hindu and Muhammadan, I discerned at +once, what I might have fully anticipated, that between them and us +there was a national, social, and religious gulf. Some were in our +houses as servants. We had to do with them in various ways; we could not +go out without seeing them on every side. There was on the part of many +a courteous bearing towards each other; there was in many cases a kindly +feeling; but the barriers which separated us could not be for any length +of time forgotten. I speedily saw that some Europeans looked with +contempt on the natives, as essentially of a lower order in creation; +but the better class of Europeans, the higher in position and education, +as a rule, regarded them with respect, and treated them not only with +justice but with kindness. Native servants received as kind treatment as +servants do in well-conducted families in our own country, and in many +cases repaid this kindness by devoted attachment and the efficient +discharge of the work entrusted to them. When native gentlemen came in +contact with Europeans of the higher class, all the honour was accorded +to them to which by their position they were entitled. Even in this case +there were national and religious differences, which effectually +prevented the intimacy which is often maintained where such differences +do not exist. + +[Sidenote: EURASIANS.] + +Within the first year I got an insight into a large and growing class, +who were connected with both Europeans and natives, and yet did not +belong to either. I refer to persons of mixed blood; some almost as +dark, in many cases altogether as dark, as ordinary natives--many of +these being descendants of Portuguese; others, again, so fair that their +Indian blood is scarcely observed; some in the lowest grade of society, +very poor and very ignorant; and others, with many intermediate links, +most respectable members of the community in character, knowledge, +position, and means. All these, whatever may be their rank, are +Christians by profession, and they dress so far as they can after the +European fashion; but the poorer class, in food and accommodation live +very much as natives do, and mainly speak the native language. The +people of mixed blood are called by different names--Eurasians, East +Indians, and not infrequently by a name to which they most rightly +object, Half-caste. + +I was surprised and sorry to observe the feeling with which many +Europeans regarded this class. They were looked down upon as of an +inferior grade, who, whatever might be their character or position, were +not entitled to rank with Europeans. In the dislike of natives shown by +some Europeans there was something to remind one of the American feeling +in regard to colour, though of a much milder type; but I was not +prepared for the degree in which the feeling prevailed in reference to +Eurasians, though I might have been had I remembered that the slightest +tinge of African blood, a tinge to many eyes not perceptible, had been +considered in America a fatal taint. I speedily observed the effect the +feeling had on Eurasians in producing an unpleasant sensitiveness, and +impairing the confidence and respect indispensable to social +intercourse. + +Since that time I have understood the causes of this feeling much better +than I could have then done. The most candid and thoughtful of the class +will allow that as a community they labour under great disadvantages. +Though they have native blood in their veins they are entirely separate +from natives in those things to which natives attach the highest value; +and though by the profession of Christianity, by the adoption of +European habits so far as circumstances allow, and by the use of the +English language, they draw to Europeans, yet they are forced to feel +they do not belong to them. They occupy an awkward middle position, and +the knowledge that they do leads to unpleasant grating. Then they have +not had the bracing which comes from residence in a Christian land. +Though proud of their Christian name and profession, they have been +injuriously affected by the moral atmosphere of their surroundings. The +lower their social position, the closer has been their connection with +the lower class of natives, and the more hurtful have been the +influences under which they have come. Eurasians are noted for their +excellent penmanship, and a great number from generation to generation +have found employment in Government offices, the greater number as mere +copyists, but a few as confidential clerks and accountants, whose +services have been highly appreciated by their official superiors. A +considerable number have risen to important offices in the +administration of the country. An increasing number are able to take +their place in every respect abreast of their European brethren. +Individuals have gone to England, and have succeeded in getting by +competition into the Covenanted Civil Service. The class has been +steadily growing for years in intelligence and character; and as the +members of their families are enjoying educational advantages to a +greater extent than at any previous period, there is every reason to +hope progress in the future will be still more rapid than in the past. +The distinction between them and persons of pure European blood will +thus become less and less a barrier to social intercourse; they will be +delivered from the unpleasantness the barrier has often caused, their +character will grow in strength, and they will become increasingly +fitted for exerting a happy influence on the native community. In the +case of individuals the distinction is now practically ignored. There +are no more honoured and honourable persons in India than some who +belong to this class. There have always been devoted Christians among +them, and of late years an increasing number have come under the power +of Divine grace. + +It has been often remarked that one of the most pleasing traits of +native society is reproduced among Eurasians--the tie of kinship +prompting those who are in better circumstances to help their needy +relatives, often to the giving of large pecuniary aid, not unfrequently +to the taking of them into their houses. In the humbler portions of the +community there is often seen a patriarchal household like that so often +seen in native society. + +[Sidenote: THE CLIMATE OF NORTHERN INDIA.] + +The new-comer's experience of climate prepares him for what he has to +expect during his future residence. We have three marked seasons in the +North-Western Provinces, the one melting gradually into the other--the +hot season beginning in March and ending in June, the rainy season +beginning with July and ending in October, and the cold weather +beginning with November and ending in February. The seasons may thus be +described in a general way, but in fact every year differs somewhat from +others, as they do in our own country. The hot weather is sensibly felt +before March begins, and the heat of March is far less than that of the +succeeding months. The first burst of the rains is often before the +middle of June, but after that burst, called the "little rainy season," +it is not uncommon to have a spell of very hot sunny weather. In some +years, indeed, there is so much weather of this kind during what is +called the rainy season, that the heat is most intense, and the crops +are burnt up. Towards the end of September there is commonly the last +great outpour of rain, and as October advances there is the cooling +freshness of the approaching cold weather, with enough of heat in the +day-time to tell us it has not quite let go its grasp. December and +January are our coldest months. In England, after an unpropitious +summer, the remark is often made, "We have had no summer!" and in the +same manner in India, when the temperature has been high in the cold +season, and we have not had the expected bracing, we say, "We have had +no winter!" Yet as in our own country, so in India; we have our marked +seasons, though we cannot be sure of the weather at any particular +period. + +As India is an immense region, a great continent, with every variety of +scenery, with plains extending hundreds of miles, and vast stretches of +forests, with table-lands and lofty mountains, with land of every +description from barren sand to the richest alluvial soil, the climate +and products of its different countries are so different, that the +statements made about one region, however correct, when applied to the +whole are utterly misleading. I have been describing the seasons of the +North-Western Provinces; and yet, as Benares is in the lower part of +these provinces, its climate is considerably different from that of the +country farther north and west. The farther north we travel the longer +and colder is the cold season, and as a rule the hotter and briefer is +the hot season. On one occasion the heat was so great in Benares in +March that we found the night punkah pleasant; but on reaching Delhi, +nearly six hundred miles distant, a few days afterwards, instead of +seeking a night punkah we were thankful to have blankets to keep +ourselves warm. + +[Sidenote: THE HOT SEASON.] + +I have a vivid recollection of my experiences of the climate during my +first year. During our voyage on the Ganges the heat during the day was +like that of a cloudless July in England, and at night it was pleasantly +cool, the wood of the flat speedily giving off the heat it had taken in +during the day, and the flow of the river contributing to our comfort. +Reaching Benares as April was setting in, I speedily felt I was getting +into the experience of an Indian hot season. The doors were opened +before dawn to let in whatever coolness might come with the morning, and +before eight they were shut to keep out the heat of the day. The lower +part of the door was of wood, and the upper part of glass. Outside the +doors were heavy wooden blinds, made after the fashion of Venetian +blinds, the upper part of which were opened to let in from the verandah +the degree of light absolutely necessary with the least possible degree +of heat. No prisoner in his cell is more excluded from an outside view +than we were in our rooms during the day in the hot season. There was a +remarkable contrast between the outside glare and the inside dimness, so +that a person coming from without could not on entering see anything. +The prevailing wind is from the west. There is enough in the morning to +show the direction from which it is coming. It rises as the day +advances; by two or three it blows with great strength, raising clouds +of dust, and lulls towards evening. This wind is cool and bracing in the +cold weather, but as the season advances it becomes warm, and by May its +heat resembles the blast of a furnace. It every now and then gives place +to the east wind, which is not nearly so hot, but is so enervating that +the hot wind is greatly preferred. During the day we sit under the +punkah, a great wooden fan suspended from the roof with great flapping +fringes. This is pulled by a coolie, sometimes in the adjoining room, +but when it can be arranged in the verandah outside, who has in his hand +a rope attached to the punkah, which is brought to him by a small +aperture in the wall, through which a piece of thin bamboo is inserted +to make the friction as little as possible. When the west wind is +blowing freshly, it is brought with most pleasant coolness into the +house through platted screens of scented grass, on which water is +continually thrown outside. For years machines resembling the fanners so +much used by farmers in former days, with scented grass on each side and +a hut of scented grass over them, on which water is continually thrown, +with wheels turned round by hand labour, have been brought largely into +use. These machines are appropriately called "Thermantidotes." + +The night in the hot season is much more trying than the day. There is +not a breath stirring, and the heat of the day, taken in by the walls, +is radiated all the night long. I found the night punkah in almost +universal use but I thought I would get on without it, and used it very +seldom. When the next hot season came I was glad to conform to the +custom of the country, for I found when I had not the punkah I got up in +the morning so tired and weary that I was unfit for the work of the day. + +The aspect of the country at that season is very dreary. Some trees +retain their freshness in the hottest weather; but not a blade of green +grass is to be seen, and the ground is scorched, scarred, and baked, as +if it had been turned into a desert. + +[Sidenote: THE RAINY SEASON.] + +A marvellous change is produced by the first heavy fall of rain. After +stifling heat for some days, the rays of the sun beating with a +fierceness which threatens to burn up all nature, and which drives the +birds for shelter to the thickest foliage of the trees, the clouds +gather, the thunder rolls, peal quickly succeeding peal, the lightning +flashes incessantly, and then, after some heavy showers, there comes +down for two or three days, with very little intermission, such torrents +that it looks as if we were to be visited with a deluge. Within a week +all nature is transformed. The parched earth gives way to the richest +green. We in our country say in very propitious weather that we see +things grow; but in India vegetation takes such a bound as it never does +in our temperate climate. Immediately after the downpour of rain, the +sun comes out in all its strength; and, under the action of heat and +moisture, vegetation progresses marvellously. The fields are quickly +ploughed, the seed, for which moisture and great heat is required, is +sown, and in the course of three or four weeks they are far above the +ground. Within three months the harvest of the rainy season, furnishing +the people with rice, maize, and other grains, which furnish the +principal food of the people, is gathered in. + +The rainy season is productive in another and less pleasant manner. It +is as favourable to insect life as it is to vegetable life. Flying white +ants, flying bugs, and other unwelcome visitors of the same order, come +out in thousands. At night, if the doors be open the white ants make for +the lamps in such numbers that they are extinguished by them, and the +room is in the morning found strewed with their dead. It requires a +torpid temperament to remain calm under this visitation. All dislike it, +and some find it a grievous trial. As the rainy season advances, the +trouble abates, and by the time the cold weather sets in the ordinary +house-fly by day and the mosquito by night alone remain to buzz about +us. The mosquito has rightly got the first place among insect +tormentors. The house-fly is at all seasons, in some more than in +others, and gives not a little annoyance by its pertinacity. + +The change at the commencement of the rainy season is delightful. The +doors are thrown open, and the dry, parching wind gives place to a +refreshing coolness. When the rain ceases, the heat returns; the weather +is very muggy, the skin is irritated by the excessive perspiration, and +many suffer more than during the hot season. When the rain is abundant +and frequent, the suffering is much less than when there is little rain +and much sun. There is one comfort at that time: we know we are going on +to the cold weather, which will make amends for all that went before. + +I can hardly conceive any country to have a finer climate than that of +the North-West Provinces of India in the cold months. Rain does +sometimes fall during that season; it may fall at any time of the year. +I remember a heavy fall on the first of May, and about Christmas and the +New Year it is eagerly desired for the crops, but ordinarily from week +to week there is an unclouded sky. There is a cool, pleasant breeze from +the west. In the house it is not only cool but cold, so that a little +sunning is pleasant, and at night in December and January, especially +far up the country, fires are welcome. Then Europeans, so far as +circumstances permit, get into the open air and move freely about, with +everything in the climate to favour their travelling. + +[Sidenote: THE COLD SEASON.] + +The beginning of the cold weather is a very busy season with the +agricultural class, to which the great body of the people belong. If the +rainy season has been favourable, especially if heavy rain has fallen +towards its close, the wells are full, and from these, after the land +has been ploughed, and the seed sown for the rabee crop, the most +valuable crop of the year, the fields are irrigated. Whatever grows in +our land in summer grows in North-Western India at that season: wheat, +oats, barley, potatoes, carrots, are grown in abundance. About March the +harvest is reaped. + +As I proceed with these reminiscences, I shall have frequent occasion to +refer to our North Indian winter, its scenes, and employments, and I +have thought it well to enter at some length into a description of its +peculiarities. + +One thing I observed my first year which I had abundant opportunity to +observe afterwards. The weather so welcomed by Europeans is very trying +to most natives, especially to those of the humbler classes, whose +clothing is very scanty. They never try to get warm by taking exercise. +They cower in the morning and evening round a fire, which has commonly +for its fuel dried cow-manure, with a coarse blanket over their head and +shoulders. As the sun gets above the horizon, they plant themselves +against a wall to bask in its rays, and if they can, do not stir till +they are well heated. As might be expected, many of them suffer from +chronic rheumatism. The extreme heat is not liked by them, but from it +they suffer far less than from cold. + +While most Europeans get new life in the cold weather, the little ones +showing by their rosy cheeks how much they are benefited, a few are in +better health when the weather is warm, as then they are less subject to +aguish attacks. The remark is often made by those who have much +sedentary work that they like the cold season for enjoyment, but find it +unfavourable for work, as they cannot keep so steadily at it as they can +when the heat keeps them within doors. + +While giving the reminiscences of my first year, my mind has been +continually carried forward to the experience of after-years in +reference to the vernacular languages, the various classes with whom +residence in India brings one into contact, and the seasons of the +country. In giving partial expression to this experience under the +heading of my first year, I have gone far beyond it. Those who favour me +with the perusal of my narrative may perhaps find it more intelligible +by my having anticipated myself. + +I must confess months of the first year passed before I ceased to feel +myself an exile. The scenes around were so unlike those of my own +country, the prevailing idolatry so repulsive, the society, +associations, and climate so different, that I turned from them to my +native land with many a fond longing look. This feeling of exile was no +doubt deepened by the illness in the family with whom I was residing. +We had an English service every Thursday evening, conducted by the +missionaries in the hall of the mission-house, but I greatly missed the +services on the Lord's-day to which I had been accustomed. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: BATHING GHAT, BENARES.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE CITY OF BENARES. + + +My greatly beloved and much esteemed friend, the late Rev. M. A. +Sherring, years ago published a handsome volume under the title of _The +Sacred City of the Hindus_, in which he gave ample information about its +history, temples, castes, festivals, commerce, and religious +pre-eminence in Hindu estimation. To that work I must refer readers who +are desirous to be furnished with details. My aim is to describe as +concisely and vividly as I can the marked peculiarities of the place. + +Benares is the largest city in the North-Western Provinces, though it is +approached in population by some others, as Delhi, Agra, and Allahabad. +It is among the largest purely native cities in India, but it is greatly +surpassed in population and wealth by Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, the +great seats of British rule, and the great emporia of Indian as well as +of European commerce in the East. These cities under our rule have risen +to be among the greatest in Eastern Asia. For many a day the population +of Benares was said to be above 500,000, but this has turned out a very +exaggerated conjecture.[1] When the first careful census was taken, the +resident population was found to be under 200,000, and every succeeding +census has confirmed its substantial accuracy. In the last census the +number given is 207,570. When the first census was taken great surprise +was expressed at the result, and some asserted no dependence could be +placed on it. The ground of this assertion was that in the houses of +some of the wealthier classes there are many females, who live, in +native phrase, behind the curtain, who are never seen by outsiders, to +whom the officials of the Government have no access; and on this account +the accuracy of the return made to the enumerators entirely depends on +the faithfulness of the head of the household. It has been said that +when the first census was taken the general impression was a capitation +tax was to be imposed, and that in consequence the inmates reported were +far below the actual number. If there was error on this account it was +to a very limited extent, as every subsequent census has agreed with the +first, although the notion of a capitation tax has entirely died out. +One going through Benares, from street to street, from one end of it to +the other, does not get the impression its resident population exceeds +the estimate found in official statements. The city has a great floating +population, as it is the resort of strangers from all parts of India. It +is reckoned that on the occasion of the great festivals there may be +100,000 visitors, some say 200,000, but we are not aware any attempt has +been made to number them. + +[Footnote 1: Bishop Heber visited Benares in 1824. He says in his +journal, "The population, according to a census made in 1803, amounted +to above 582,000--an enormous amount, and which one should think must +have been exaggerated." The census which gives such a return must have +been taken in a very singular manner.] + +[Sidenote: TRADE AND COMMERCE.] + +In commerce, as in population, Benares holds a high, but not the +highest, place among Indian cities. The district of Benares is not so +large as some others in the North-West; but it is very productive, is +densely peopled, and the city has on this account a large local +business. Besides, the merchants and bankers of Benares have dealings +with the other districts of the province, and indeed with all parts of +India. The city has many artificers. It has workers in stone, wood, +iron, brass, silver and gold. They produce articles which command a +large and profitable sale. God-making and toy-making are among the +staple businesses of the place. The making of idols in different +materials to suit the taste and means of purchasers, gives employment to +many. The images while being made are only stone, brass, or gold, as it +may be, and no reverence is then due to them. It is when certain sacred +words are uttered over them, and the god is supposed to take possession +of them, they become objects of worship. Benares is well known for its +toys made of very light wood, and lacquered over. Of late years the +enchased brass vessels made in Benares have been much admired, and have +secured a large and profitable sale. Perhaps the most important +manufacture of the place is _kimkhwab_--_kinkob_ as it is called by +Europeans--cloth made of silver and gold tissue, in which the princes +and grandees of India array themselves on state occasions. I believe +this business has fallen off, as with the incoming of European influence +the love of barbaric pearl and gold has declined, if not among the +rajahs of the land, among a class beneath them, who formerly thought +they could not retain their rank in society if they did not appear on +special occasions in gorgeous robes. + +While in population and commerce there are cities in India which surpass +Benares, in Hindu estimation it stands above them all in religious +pre-eminence. Perhaps at the present time more eyes are turned +reverently towards it than to any city on the face of the earth. + +[Illustration: A JEWELLER AT WORK.] + +I must attempt a brief sketch of the history of Benares. We are sure it +was not among the first cities erected by the Aryans after leaving their +home in Central Asia and crossing the Indus. They first took possession +of the land in the far north-west of the great country they had entered, +and gradually made their way to the south and east. Wonderfully acute +and painstaking though the Pundit mind be, it has so dwelt in the +regions of speculation and imagination that it has paid no attention to +historical research. Its laborious productions have left us ignorant of +recent times, and we need not therefore wonder that, except by +incidental allusions, it throws no light on the early settlements of the +Aryans in India. We know that they brought with them a considerable +measure of civilization, and soon erected cities. Indraprastha, built +near the site of the present city of Delhi, and Hastinapore, some thirty +miles from it, figure largely in the Mahabharut, the giant Hindu epic. +Kunauj, lying east and south of Delhi, became some time afterwards the +capital of a widely extended empire, which lasted, with vicissitudes, +down to Muhammadan times. Benares is seen in the dim light of antiquity +as a favourite abode of Brahmans, and as sacred on that account, but it +does not appear that it ever was the seat of extended rule. For many a +day it was subject to Kunauj, and it afterwards came under the sway of +the Muhammadans, to whom it was subject for six hundred years. + +[Sidenote: BUDDHISM.] + +A clear proof of the influential position of Benares centuries before +the Christian era, is furnished by the fact that Gautama, the founder of +Buddhism, deemed it well to commence his public ministry there in the +sixth century B.C.[2] The spot where he first unfolded his doctrine +was a grove at a place now called Sarnath, about four miles from the +present city. At this place there is a large Buddhist tower, which is +seen from a great distance, and around it are extensive remains, which +have been excavated under the direction of Major-General Cunningham, and +have been found to be of Buddhist origin. The success which Buddhism had +achieved and maintained for centuries in the country where it arose, is +strikingly confirmed by the testimony of two Chinese Buddhists who went +on pilgrimage to India, the one in the fifth century A.D., and the other +towards the middle of the seventh. Their narratives have been preserved, +and furnish us with most interesting details. From them we learn that +down to the time of their visits Buddhism had temples, monasteries, and +thousands of adherents; but it had not the field to itself, for these +strangers tell us, especially the later of the two, that a large and +increasing number of the people were warmly attached to Hinduism. We +have no historical account of the overthrow of Buddhism, but we have +reason to believe that towards the close of the eleventh century, or +earlier, the devotees of Hinduism rose against it, and so stamped it out +that not a temple was left standing and not a monastery remained. +Major-General Cunningham says that about that period "the last votaries +of Buddha were expelled from the continent of India. Numbers of images, +concealed by the departing monks, are found buried near Sarnath; and +heaps of ashes still lie scattered amidst the ruins, to show that the +monasteries were destroyed by fire." This is confirmed by excavations +made at a later period by Major Kittoe, who says, "All has been sacked +and burned--priests, temples, idols, all together; for, in some places, +bones, iron, wood and stone, are found in huge masses: and this has +happened more than once." From Benares having been the scene of +Gautama's early ministry, and the place where his first disciples were +called, it stands high in the reverence of the millions who compose his +followers, although their only living representatives there now are a +few Jains, whom orthodox Buddhists regard as heretics. + +[Footnote 2: The names and titles of this famous teacher are perplexing +to those who do not know the meaning. His father was chief or king of a +tribe called Sakyas, and therefore Gautama received the name of +Sakya-Muni, or Sakya-Saint. When he announced himself as the inspired +teacher of the nations he took the name of Buddha--the wise man, the +enlightener, the inspired prophet.] + +[Sidenote: THE SACREDNESS OF KASEE.] + +Long before the time of Gautama Hinduism prevailed at Benares, and we +have observed its rites were practised side by side with those of +Buddhism when the city was visited by two Chinese pilgrims. Some time +afterwards it obtained full sway under the form of fanatical devotion to +Shiva the Destroyer, and that sway it has maintained down to our day. +What Jerusalem is to the Jews; what Mecca is to the Muhammadans; what +Rome is to the Roman Catholics--that, and more than that, Benares is to +the Hindus. They form by far the largest portion of the population of +India, and to them Benares--or as they delight to call it, Kasee the +Splendid, the Glorious City--is the most sacred spot on earth. They say, +indeed, it is not built on the earth, but on a point of Shiva's trident. +They assert that at one time it was of gold, but in this degenerate age +it has been turned into stone and clay. In their belief the Ganges is +sacred through its entire course, but as it flows past the sacred city +its cleansing efficacy is supposed to be vastly increased. The rites +performed at Kasee have double merit, and its very soil and air are so +fraught with blessing that all who die there go to heaven, whatever +their character may be. With this belief diffused among the millions +who, differing widely from each other in nationality and language, are +devoted to Hinduism, it may be supposed how many eyes are reverently +turned towards Kasee, and with what eager steps and high expectations +vast numbers resort to it. I have frequently seen persons entering the +city, not on foot--that they did not deem sufficiently respectful--but +prostrating themselves on the ground, measuring the ground with their +bodies, and approaching the sacred shrines. And then, especially on the +occasion of great festivals, bands may be seen entering the city, often +composed of women--hand-in-hand lest they should lose each other in the +crowd--singing the praises of Shiva and the glories of his city. Many +aged people come from distant parts of India--the greater number, I +believe, from Bengal--to reside and end their days in it, that by +becoming Kasseebas (dwellers in Kasee) they may when they die become +Baikuntbas (dwellers in heaven). + +Though Benares be _par excellence_ the sacred city of the Hindus, +strange to say they are proportionately fewer than in ten cities of the +North-West. According to the census of 1872, there were 133,549 Hindus +and 44,374 Mussulmans: that is, a little more than three Hindus to one +Mussulman. In the great commercial city of Mirzapore, about thirty miles +distant from Benares, there were five Hindus to one Mussulman. The fact +thus certified is entirely at variance with the conjecture made by those +who look at the crowds bathing at the riverside, and frequenting the +temples, and contrast them with the small number seen in the mosques, +even on Friday, the Muhammadan weekly day of worship. In the district +the Hindus vastly out-number the Muhammadans. + +Benares is built on the left bank of the Ganges, and extends in a +crescent shape three miles and a half along the bank, and a little more +than a mile inward. The most imposing view is from a boat slowly +dropping down the stream in the early morning--the earlier the better, +especially if it be the hot season, as then the people betake themselves +to the river in greater numbers than at any other time. Travellers in +many lands who have seen this view, have declared it to be one of the +most remarkable sights of the kind which the world presents. + +Photographic and pencil pictures of Benares have appeared in illustrated +newspapers, in periodicals and books, and give a more vivid and correct +impression than can be conveyed by a verbal description. These pictures +can, however, be better understood when those who look at them are +furnished with information which no picture can afford. + +The right bank of the Ganges at Benares is very low, and is always +flooded when the river rises; but the left bank, on which the city +stands, is in many parts more than a hundred feet high. The river sweeps +round this high bank. The city is connected with the river by flights of +stone steps, called "ghats." This word ghat often meets the reader of +books on India. It has various meanings. It means a mountain-pass, a +ferry, a place on the riverside where people meet, and, as is the case +at Benares, the steps which lead down to the river. Two small streams +enter the Ganges at Benares--on the southern side the Assi, on the +northern side the Burna. Some have supposed that the city has received +its name from lying between these two rivulets--Burna, Assi, making the +word Burunassi, Benares; but this derivation is more than doubtful. +Others maintain the word comes from a famous rajah called Bunar; but +this, too, is a mere conjecture. + +[Sidenote: A TRIP ON THE RIVER.] + +Let me take my readers with me on a trip down the river. We embark at +early dawn on a native boat at Assi Sungam, which means the confluence +of the Assi with the Ganges, at the southern extremity. Towards that end +of the city some of the houses seen on the high bank are poor, some are +falling into decay; but as you advance, lofty buildings, some of them of +a size and grandeur which entitle them to the name of palaces, come into +view. Their numerous small windows, their rich and varied carving, their +balconies and flat roofs, give them a very Eastern look. Perhaps the +most notable of the buildings are an observatory, built by a famous +Rajput prince, Jae Singh, and a massy and extensive structure, with its +buttresses and high walls looking as if recently erected, which was +built in the last half of the eighteenth century by Cheit-Singh, the +Rajah of Benares at that time, who was deposed by Warren Hastings on +account of his refusal to comply with the demands of the British +Government. In Macaulay's famous Essay on Warren Hastings there is a +long narrative of this contest, which is amusingly at variance with the +narrative given by Warren Hastings himself. This building is still +called Cheit-Singh's Palace, but since his day it has been the property +of the British Government, and has been for many years the residence of +princes of the old imperial family of Delhi, who on account of family +troubles had come to reside in Benares, and were, happily for +themselves, far from Delhi during the mutiny of 1857. Some of the +mansions facing the river belong to Indian princes, who occupy them on +the rare occasion of visits to the city, and leave them in charge of +servants, of whom a number are Brahmans performing sacred rites on +their behalf. + +There is one spot on the riverside from which most visitors avert their +eyes with horror--the place where the dead of Benares and the +surrounding country are being burnt, and the ashes thrown into the +stream. The fire at that place never goes out. Cremation, not burial, it +is well known, is the Indian mode of disposing of the dead. + +The peculiarity of Benares as the sacred city of the country is +strikingly attested by the temples, which crowd the high bank of the +river, and arrest the special attention of the visitor. Some of these +are much larger and more expensive than others, but there is little +variety in their form; and all of them, even the largest and most +frequented, are small compared with Christian and Muhammadan places of +worship. They are circular, with heavy domes narrowing towards the top, +and, as a rule, with a narrow doorway alone admitting light and air. +Some domes are of respectable height, but none approach that of many of +our church towers and steeples. Most of the temples are sacred to Shiva, +Mahadeo, the Great God, as his devotees delight to call him, and are +surmounted by his trident. Many have a pole at their side with a flag +attached to it. One sees at a glance they must, though small, have cost +large sums, as they are most solidly built of hewn stone, and have all +more or less of ornamentation. A few temples are built close to the +water's edge. One has got off its equilibrium, and looks as if it were +about to fall into the stream; but for many years it has remained in +this tottering position. + +[Sidenote: BATHING IN THE SACRED STREAM.] + +While the houses and temples on the riverside are viewed with interest, +the visitor, as he looks from his boat, is still more interested in the +living mass before him. It is the early morning. The sun has just risen +above the horizon, and is shedding its bright rays on the river and the +city. It looks as if all the inhabitants were astir and had made their +way to the river. Crowds are seen on the steps, some even then making +their way back after having bathed, and others going down to the stream. +Thousands are in the water. Men and women, boys and girls, are +there--the men and women at a short distance from each other. +Immediately above the water are platforms with huge stationary umbrellas +over them, and on these men are squatted, whose portly appearance +betokens ease and plenty. These are Gungaputrs--sons of the Ganges--a +class of Brahmans, whose duty it is to take care of the clothes of the +people as they bathe, to put a mark on their forehead to show they have +bathed, and who receive a small offering from them as they retire. All +bring with them their bathing-dress, and they most deftly take off and +put on their scanty clothing. When the bathing is over they wring out +the clothes in which they have bathed, fill with Ganges water a small +brazen vessel, which each person carries with him, and make their way +into the city to pay their homage to their favourite gods before +proceeding to their homes. I have been told that the very devout among +them visit some thirty temples of a morning. + +You watch the people as they bathe. It is evident they are not engaged +in mere ablution, so important for health and comfort in that hot +climate. They are engaged in worship. You see them taking up the water +of the Ganges in the palm of their hands, and offering it up to the sun +as they mutter certain prescribed words. You observe them making a +circular motion, and if sufficiently near you see them breathing +heavily, which you are told is their way of driving away demons, who +even in that sacred spot are said to haunt them. There is no united +worship: each worshipper apart performs his and her devotion. There is +incessant movement among the crowd. As the words of worship--I might +rather say the spells--they have been instructed to use are not +whispered but uttered, and by many with a loud voice, a stream of sound +falls on the ear. If, at some spot where bathers are not inconvenienced, +the boat be moored, and the visitor ascends the steps, he may find on +certain days, in two or three places, pundits reading and explaining the +Ramayan, or the Mahabharut, the great Hindu Epic Poems, to a crowd of +people, mainly composed of women. Sentence by sentence is read from +poetical translations made long ago, which require to be re-translated +into the ordinary language of the people to be generally intelligible. +We have occasionally stopped to hear these pundits, and, judging by what +we heard, we concluded they satisfied themselves with a loose paraphrase +of what they were reading. These men are rewarded with a respectful and +attentive hearing, and with something more substantial when the work is +over. + +If the visitor is bent on obtaining a full impression of the work +continually carried on in Benares, he will make his way into the city +from one of the principal bathing-places. He will speedily find himself +in long narrow streets, with lofty stone houses on either side. The +buildings are of hewn stone, and of the most substantial description. +They have for the most part a narrow doorway, opening into a quadrangle, +around which are the apartments of the inmates. The streets are so +narrow that through some of them a vehicle cannot be taken, and in +others conveyances pass each other with difficulty. There are parts of +the narrower streets and lanes on which the sun never shines. In the few +cases where houses on both sides of the street opposite each other +belong to one proprietor, there is at the top a bridge by which the +inmates pass from one to the other. + +[Sidenote: WORSHIP IN THE TEMPLES.] + +Not the houses, however, but the temples, secure the chief attention of +the visitor. They are seen on every side. Numerous though they be, they +are not sufficient to meet the demands of the people. At every few steps +objects of worship meet your view. In niches of the walls are little +images, so worn by the weather and by the water poured on them by +worshippers that it is difficult to determine what they are intended to +represent. At your feet, close to the walls, you see misshapen stones +which are regarded as sacred. As you proceed you find yourself +accompanied by a crowd who have bathed, and who are going to complete +their morning worship by acts of obeisance to their gods. They are seen, +as they walk, bowing their heads and folding their hands before the +sacred objects that line their way. Every now and then one of a party +will raise the shout "_Mahadeo jee kee jae!_"--("Victory to the Great +God"), that is to Shiva, to whom this title is given; and the shout is +taken up and repeated by others till the street resounds. It has +occurred to me that this is done with peculiar force when Europeans are +within hearing. + +[Sidenote: THE TEMPLE OF BISHESHWAR.] + +You speedily find yourself at the principal temple of Benares--the +temple of Bisheshwar, sacred to Shiva under this name, which means _Lord +of All_. This temple is in the midst of a quadrangle, covered in with a +roof; over it are a tower, a dome, and a spire. The tower and dome +glitter in the sun like masses of burnished gold, and on this account +it is called the Golden Temple. Natives will tell you that it is covered +with plates of solid gold, but in fact it is merely gilded with gold +leaf, spread over plates of copper overlaying the stones beneath. Under +the dome is a belfry in which nine bells are suspended, and these are so +low that they can be tolled by the hand of those who frequent the +temple. We are told that the temple, including the tower, is fifty-one +feet in height. "Outside the enclosure is a large collection of deities, +raised upon a platform, called by the natives 'The Court of Mahadeo.'" +Though the gods in the Hindu books are represented as continually +quarrelling with each other, and their devotees take up their quarrels, +not only at the temple of Bisheshwar, but throughout the city which is +regarded as Shiva's own, they are seen side by side, as in perfect +amity, and there is not a single god who does not secure the special +devotion of some worshippers. It is, however, required of all who dwell +in Kasee, or frequent it, to acknowledge that Mahadeo is entitled to +supreme homage, and that to him in the first instance obeisance must be +made. The symbol of Shiva, or Mahadeo, which is found wherever he is +worshipped, is the _Linga_, a conical stone, which does not in itself +suggest any impure notion, but which is intended to be a vile +representation. In this famous temple this conical stone receives +special honour. There, too, are figures of Shiva himself in all his +hideousness, with his three eyes, covered with ashes, and his eyes +inflamed with intoxicating herbs. Outside the temple there is a figure +cut in stone of a bull seven feet high, sacred to the god, as this is +his favourite animal for riding. Within the quadrangle there is a well +called _Gyan Bapee_, the well of knowledge, to which it is said the god +betook himself when he was expelled from his former temple by the bigot +Emperor Aurungzeb. On this account the well is deemed specially sacred. +It is surmounted by a handsome low-roofed colonnade with forty pillars. +It is covered with an iron grating, in which there is an aperture for +small vessels to be let down into it, which when full are drawn up, and +the water thus drawn is highly prized. As from day to day a large +quantity of flowers are thrown into it, it may be supposed how horrible +its water and how offensive its smell; it is a wonder the people are not +poisoned by it. + +We must not proceed further with this description of Bisheshwar's +temple. Those who wish for more information can find it in the ample +details given by Mr. Sherring. + +To this temple thousands resort every day. It is open, and priests are +present, we are told, twenty hours in the twenty-four. It is only shut +from midnight till four in the morning. The temple itself holds a very +small number, and the entire quadrangle would be crowded by one of our +large congregations. The people press into it in one continuous stream, +toll a bell to draw the attention of the god, make their obeisance, pour +on the object of their worship a little of the Ganges water from the +small brazen vessel they have in their hand, throw on it some flowers, +give a present to the attendant priests, go round the building with +their right hand towards it, and pass away to give place to others. + +How does the visitor regard this scene? Apart from the consideration of +the dishonour done to the ever-blessed God by worship rendered to images +representing gods that are no gods--by which, if a Christian, he must be +painfully affected--there is much in the scene before him to impress +him with the sottish folly into which man can sink in his religious +views and practices; and there is nothing to draw forth his regard and +sympathy, except it be the fervour, the deep though mistaken fervour, of +some of the worshippers, especially of the women, who may sometimes be +seen with children in their arms teaching them to make obeisance to the +idol. In Roman Catholic worship there is much which, as Protestants +ruled by the Bible, we rightly condemn; but in the gorgeous vestments of +its priests, in the magnificence of many of the places in which they +minister, in the grand strains of their music and in their processions, +there is much to impress the senses and awe the mind; but in the worship +carried on in the temple of Bisheshwar it is difficult to find a +redeeming quality. The whole scene is repulsive. The place is sloppy +with the water poured out by the worshippers, and is littered by the +flowers they present. The ear is assailed with harsh sounds. The +ministering priests--Pundas as they are called--are, as a rule, +coarse-looking men, with shaven head, save with a long pendent tuft from +the crown, with the mark of their god on their forehead, and are very +scantily attired. They clamour for a present when a European appears, +and if given it is declared to be an offering to the god of the place. +Among the crowd you see men with matted hair and body bedaubed with +ashes, who have broken away from all domestic and social duties, and +devote themselves to what is called a religious life. Some of these +ascetics are no doubt impelled to follow the life they lead by a +superstitious feeling, but many are idle vagabonds ready for the +practice of every villainy, who find it more pleasant to roam about the +land and live on others than support themselves by honest labour. The +people dread their curse, but many give them neither respect nor love. +At a place like Bisheshwar's temple there is always a host of ordinary +beggars, who clamour for alms, and receive from some two or three +shells, called _cowries_, sixty of which go to make up a halfpenny, from +others a little grain, and from the more liberal or more wealthy a small +coin. + +[Sidenote: THE MOSQUE OF AURUNGZEB.] + +From this stirring scene you have only a few steps to go to find +yourself in the large mosque built by the Emperor Aurungzeb on the site +of the old temple of Bisheshwar, which was thrown down to give place to +it. The contrast is very striking. You have left the bustling, noisy +crowd, and see only a few individuals in the attitude of devotion--now +standing with folded hands, then on their knees, then with forehead +touching the floor, engaged in supplicating the Invisible One. Instead +of grotesque and repulsive images meeting your view, you see very little +ornament of any kind, and are impressed with the severe simplicity of +the lofty building. The more one knows of Muhammadanism, the more +grievous are its defects and errors seen to be; but in the simplicity of +its mosques, which has nothing in common with the sordid barn-like +bareness too characteristic at one time of many places of worship in our +own land, there is much from which Christians might learn a useful +lesson. + +Within a stone's throw of Bisheshwar's temple there is a host of +temples, none of them very large, some of them small, but most covered +with carving, to some extent for mere ornamentation, but chiefly for the +purpose of illustrating the objects of Hindu worship. If you visit them +you will see everything is accordant with the great shrine you have +left. You will see Shiva, sometimes seated on a bull, sometimes on a +dog; his hideous partner Durga, with her eight arms and her ferocious +look, indicating her delight in blood; Hanuman, the monkey-god, with his +huge tail; Krishna engaged in his gambols; Ganesh, the god of wisdom, +with his elephant head and protuberant belly; and many others beside. +Everything you see is wild, grotesque, unnatural, forbidding, utterly +wanting in verisimilitude and refinement, with nothing to purify and +raise the people, with everything fitted to pervert their taste and +lower their character; and yet, I must add, with everything to give a +faithful representation of the mythology prepared by their religious +leaders. The pundits who wrote the sacred books of the Hindus were men +of great talent, of abundant leisure; and it is a marvel to me, of which +I can give no explanation, how they spent their days in spinning the +wildest legends, and in setting forth their gods as performing the most +fantastic, capricious, foolish, and wicked deeds, when they had a clear +canvas before them, and might have filled it with something worthy of +our nature, and worthy of objects to be worshipped. + +Aurungzeb's mosque has two lofty minarets, rising about a hundred and +fifty feet above its floor, and thus having from the river an elevation +of two hundred and fifty feet. From a boat on the river the visitor has +the nearest and most impressive view of the city, with its peculiarities +as the high place of Hindu worship. If he proceed to the top of one of +the minarets, which is reached by a steep, dark spiral stair, he will +have a most commanding and extensive view of the city, the river, and +the country for many miles around. He will see that while the streets in +the centre of the city are long and narrow, and have very lofty houses, +beyond these the roads widen, and many of the houses are poor and mean. +As his eye falls on the part beyond the most crowded portion, he will +observe here and there fine mansions with gardens around them, evidently +belonging to the wealthy portion of the community, but surrounded by +poor streets. + +[Sidenote: RETURN TO THE EUROPEAN STATION.] + +After seeing what I have endeavoured to describe, the traveller is well +pleased to get back to his boat, and to drop down the river to Raj Ghat, +the northern end of the city, where, after his fatigue, he is happy to +find a conveyance to convey him to the European station more than three +miles distant. + +During my residence in Benares I often made this trip from Assi-Sungam +to Raj Ghat, generally in company with strangers. The last time I made +it I was accompanied by the late Dr. Norman McLeod of Glasgow, and the +late Dr. Watson of Dundee. They were greatly interested in what they +saw, and repeatedly said the reality exceeded their expectation. Dr. +McLeod was specially eager to see everything that could be seen, and in +his own strong genial way expressed the feelings excited by the strange +scenes before him. + +I must press into the concluding part of this chapter, as concisely as I +can, some additional facts which call for special notice. + +The city as it now stands is quite modern. Though foundations dug up, +and pieces of masonry seen in existing buildings, testify to its +antiquity, we are told by those who are best qualified to judge that +there is not a single house or temple the erection of which can be +relegated to a more remote period than the reign of Akbar, who was a +contemporary of our Queen Elizabeth. + +Various estimates have been given of the number of temples. According +to the census of 1872 the number is 1,454. This does not include smaller +shrines in niches in the walls, which may be reckoned by thousands. The +temples are constantly increasing in number; at no previous period were +there so many as at present. Traders and bankers have prospered greatly +under our rule, and, if devout Hindus, they deem themselves bound to +devote a part of their wealth to the erection of a temple. A regard to +their honour as well as to their gods prompts them to this spending of +their money. + +So far as I have been able to ascertain, the temples of Benares have +very little of either funded or landed property. The vast sum required +for the support of the priesthood comes mainly from the offerings of the +people. + +The "Imperial Gazetteer" of India gives no account in its last census of +the castes of Benares, but we are sure that many thousands of the +inhabitants are Brahmans. They are greatly subdivided, and are so +different in rank and occupation that they keep as separate from each +other as if they had no caste in common. The Pundas officiate in the +temples; the Gangaputrs, the sons of the Ganges, minister at the +waterside; the Purohits are the family priests; and the Pundits, the +most esteemed of all, are the learned men who study the Shastres, and +expound them to the people as occasion requires. Hindus generally have +their Gurus, religious guides, who perform to them very much the work +done for Roman Catholics by father confessors. These may be family +priests, learned men; or, in the case of the lower castes, the lower +orders of Brahmans. A vast number of the sacred caste have nothing to do +with religious services. They are engaged in various businesses. A +considerable number are cooks in the houses of the wealthy, as from +their hand all can eat, while they in many cases would consider it an +intolerable insult to be asked to eat with their masters. Not a few are +beggars. + +There are places in Benares to which people resort almost as much as to +the temple of Bisheshwar. Among these I may mention the tank of +Pishachmochan, a word meaning deliverance from demons, as bathing in it +is considered very efficacious in securing this end, and the temple and +tank of Durga at a place called Durgakund. At this latter place there +are many hundreds of monkeys--some say thousands, though this is +doubtless an exaggeration--which scamper about in all directions, and +fare well at the hands of Durga's worshippers. These animals are deemed +gods and goddesses, and woe to the person who does them any harm. + +The monkeys are not the only animals deemed sacred at Benares. All who +have heard anything about the city have heard about the well-fed lazy +bulls prowling about the streets, and insisting on making free with the +goods of the vegetable and grain sellers. These are no longer to be seen +going about in their former fashion. I shall have something to say +afterwards about them. + +[Sidenote: FESTIVALS AT BENARES.] + +Mr. Sherring gives an account of forty melas, or religious festivals, in +the course of the year in Benares. The principal of these are the Holee, +the Saturnalia of the Hindus, the Ram Leela (the dramatic representation +of the life of Ram as given in the epic poem, "The Ramayan"), and the +Pilgrimage of the Panch Kosee, when the people make the circuit of the +city, and halt for the night at certain assigned stations. On the +occasion of eclipses vast numbers resort to Benares from all parts of +India. + +Benares has long been considered the Oxford of India. Its learned men +have from ancient times been famed for their learning, and the aspirants +for Hindu lore--all members of the same caste with themselves--have from +generation to generation sat at their feet. They have had no grand +academic halls in which to give their prelections; they have taken no +fees from their pupils; they have met in very humble rooms, or in the +open air in a garden under trees; but both teachers and students have +been characterized by an assiduity and a perseverance which the most +laborious of German scholars rarely attain. The very modest requirements +of these learned men have as a rule been met unasked by the princes and +wealthy of the land. + +In 1791, a very short time after Benares was brought directly under +British rule, a Sanscrit college was founded by the payment of certain +pundits, who were left to carry on their work unchecked by any +authority, or even suggestion, from without. It is said that pundits of +the highest repute refused to have anything to do with the foreigner. In +1853 a very fine Gothic structure, said to be the most imposing building +erected by the British in India, was opened under the name of the +Queen's College, for the accommodation of students in both Western and +Eastern learning. Here both English and Sanscrit are studied, and under +the first Principal, the late Dr. Ballantyne, vigorous, and I hope to +some degree successful, effort was put forth to infuse Western +literature, philosophy, and science into the pundit mind. + +I have mentioned the number of Muhammadans residing at Benares. It is +officially stated they have 272 mosques, of which that of Aurungzeb, +with its lofty minarets, is the largest. Hindus must have looked with +horror on the sacrilegious deed by which this mosque was erected on the +site of the demolished temple of Bisheshwar; but the power of the bigot +emperor was so great that they could do nothing more than invocate +curses on his head. The close neighbourhood of this mosque to the most +frequented temple, and the remembrance of the building which formerly +occupied its site, have produced a bitter feeling towards the followers +of Muhammad. Early in this century there was a furious contest between +the two classes of religionists, which lasted for some days, and was at +last quelled by the military. During the fight every conceivable insult +was offered to each other's feelings, and lives were lost. The +Muhammadans suffered most, and since that time they seem to have been +cowed, so that there has been much less fighting between them and their +Hindu neighbours than in some other cities in the North-West. + +The city has two great squares, occupied as market-places, in which +goods of every description are exhibited and sold in the Eastern +fashion. They present a stirring scene of an afternoon, which is the +principal time of business. + +[Sidenote: CENSUS RETURNS.] + +In the census of 1872 the occupations of all males above fifteen years +of age are noted. I give some of the items-- + +Alms-takers 184 +Beggars 3,490 +Barbers 979 +Pundits 96 +Priests (temple or ghat) 2,809 +Purohits (family priests) 1,273 +Servants 14,309 + +I suppose the distinction between alms-takers and beggars is that the +former class deem it beneath them to ask, but have no objection to take +alms, while the latter class both ask and take. Among the latter, beside +the blind and helpless, many able-bodied men make beggary their +profession. On one occasion, in the neighbourhood of Benares, I met a +man in the prime of life who said he had just returned from a long +journey. On referring to his business he frankly said that he had never +had any other occupation than that of a beggar. This was his hereditary +profession. We have no Poor Law in India. The people, from varied +motives, are ever ready to give aid to those who cannot support +themselves, and in addition exercise an indiscriminate charity, which +has a demoralizing effect. + +The census informs us there are in Benares 16,023 masonry houses, and +21,551 mud houses--that is, houses many of which are of mud moistened +and dried as the walls rise--and others of sun-dried bricks. I do not +wonder at the disappointment felt by some who have been much impressed +with the front view of the city, and have then traversed its streets. + +Till recently, from the commencement of our rule, our Government has +never been at peace with all the native rulers of India. In various ways +we have come into collision with them, and the final result in every +case has been their overthrow. The deposed rajahs have as a rule been +sent to Benares, as if our Government wished to compensate them for the +loss of their dominion by conferring on them special religious +advantages. + +On the opposite side of the Ganges, a little above the southern end of +the city, is the town of Ramnuggur, with a population of 10,000. It is +the residence of the Rajah of Benares, who is simply a large landowner, +and has no authority beyond that which wealth confers. His palace, or +rather fort, is close to the river. Behind the town, close to the +Rajah's garden, there is a large tank, and a temple facing it which is +remarkable for the exquisite carving on its walls illustrative of Hindu +mythology. + +[Sidenote: MACAULEY'S DESCRIPTION OF BENARES.] + +I end this account of Benares by an extract from Macaulay's Essay on +Warren Hastings, in which, in his own high rhetorical fashion, which so +readily yields itself to exaggeration, he describes the city. If I +remember rightly, there is no mention in his biography of his having +visited the North-West, and his description is therefore not that of an +eye-witness. + +"The first design of Warren Hastings was on Benares, a city which in +wealth, population, dignity, and sanctity was among the foremost in +Asia. It was commonly believed that half a million of human beings was +crowded into that labyrinth of lofty alleys, rich with shrines, and +minarets, and balconies, and carved oriels, to which the sacred apes +clung by hundreds. The traveller could scarcely make his way through the +press of holy mendicants and not less holy bulls. The broad and stately +flights of steps which descended from these swarming haunts to the +bathing places along the Ganges were worn every day by the footsteps of +an innumerable multitude of worshippers. The schools and temples drew +crowds of pious Hindus from every province where the Brahmanical faith +was known. Hundreds of devotees came thither every month to die, for it +was believed that a peculiarly happy fate awaited the man who should +pass from the sacred city into the sacred river. Nor was superstition +the only motive which allured strangers to that great metropolis. +Commerce had as many pilgrims as religion. All along the shores of the +venerable stream lay great fleets of vessels laden with rich +merchandise. From the looms of Benares went forth the most delicate +silks that adorned the balls of St. James's and of Versailles; and in +the bazars the muslins of Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled +with the jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere." + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +BENARES AS A MISSION SPHERE. + + +Hinduism, like all other religions, has its points of contact, we may +say of agreement, with Christianity; but in its main features and +tendencies it is intensely antagonistic, and this antagonism may be +conceived to have its keenest edge and greatest force in the city from +which it has for ages maintained its sway over the millions of India. If +any religion could be considered entrenched by local advantages beyond +the possibility of overthrow, Hinduism might be declared secure at +Benares, if not against assault, at least against defeat. + +People in all ages, all the world over, cling with varying degrees of +tenacity to the views and practices which have come to them from their +fathers. Jeremiah said, "Pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and +send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a +thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?" +Hinduism in its present form is comparatively modern; but the people +generally know nothing of its history, and they regard it as an +inheritance from the most ancient times. It comes to them as the gifts +of gods and sages, which it would be sacrilege to reject. There is much +in the religion itself to bind the people to it. Its numerous +ceremonies, sustained by the largest promises, give the assurance of a +great reward. In discharging their religious duties they have often to +endure toil, undergo privation, and make sacrifices; but the more they +do and suffer, the greater is the complacency with which they regard +their religious position. There is one thing Hinduism does not demand of +its devotees. It does not demand a radical change of character or of +life. Its every requirement may be met without abandoning evil +dispositions and practices. It can be easily supposed how strong a hold +a religion like this has on its votaries, and how especially strong its +hold must be in the city where it has been enthroned for ages. + +In our day much is said about heredity. Facts illustrative of its power +over the features, character, and life, not only of individuals but of +communities, are patent to all. Whatever heredity can do it does in +infusing the spirit of Hinduism into the very blood of the people of +Benares, who have been so long dominated by it. The mastery it has +obtained over them is shown by the whole tone of their minds and the +whole bearing of their life. If sincerity and enthusiasm be the +essential requisites in religion, the inhabitants of this city have all +they need, for these qualities are possessed by them in a high degree. +Then, in such a city there is felt the almost overpowering influence of +thousands from day to day, and of vast multitudes on occasion of high +festival, performing the same rites, worshipping the same gods, and +animated by the same spirit. The peculiar thrill of pleasure given by a +great assembled eager host to every individual composing it; the sense +of importance it gives to each, as if on him rested the concentrated +honour of the gathering, does much to bind people to a religion which +receives such services from millions. If for a single year these daily +services and periodical gatherings were intermitted, Hinduism would be +greatly weakened. + +[Sidenote: SECULAR AND SACRED INFLUENCES.] + +In addition to the domestic, social, and public influences which guard +and uphold the existing state of things, there is the tremendous power +of personal gain and honour. The honour, the wealth, the very +subsistence of large influential classes, are bound up with the +maintenance of idolatry. The Pundits, the guardians and expositors of +their sacred books; the Pundas who minister in the temples; the +Gungaputrs who serve at the river side; the Purohits, the family +priests; the Gurus, the father confessors and guides of the people; and +the Jyotishees, the astrologers, with their families and relations, +would be stripped of their honour and gain, of their very means of +living, if Hinduism was at once abandoned. Benares is a great commercial +as well as religious city. If it ceased to be Hindu, we cannot suppose +its commerce would be paralyzed; but as a considerable part of its +ordinary trade is dependent on the thousands of pilgrims who resort to +it, on the money they expend on food, on gifts to the priests, and on +the purchase of articles exposed for sale, great loss would be in the +first place incurred. The many artisans now employed in making images of +stone and brass, would find no purchasers for their goods. In addition +to the pecuniary loss which directly and indirectly would fall on all +classes, the whole community would feel the glory of Kasee, the Splendid +City, had departed, when, stripped of its sacredness, crowds of pilgrims +no longer filled its streets, frequented its temples, or bathed at its +ghats. They would feel as the Jews did in their dark and disastrous +days, when the ways to Zion were untrodden, and there was the silence of +desolation within its gates. + +When the peculiarities of Benares are in any degree realized, the work +of making known the gospel to its inhabitants may appear formidable to +the extent of hopelessness. + +It is formidable, very formidable, but it can appear hopeless only when +we forget the command of our Saviour to preach the Gospel to every +creature, when we forget the power of the truth, the adaptation of the +Gospel to the human heart, its past triumphs, and the promised aid of +the Holy Spirit. The very strength of this fortress of idolatry should +call forth the courage of Christ's soldiers by directing their eyes to +Him as their great and glorious Leader. Such was the courage of the +Apostles and their immediate successors, when instead of going to small +towns and villages, and working from them towards the cities where the +Gospel might be expected to meet with the most determined opposition, +they assailed at once with their spiritual weapons the high places of +idolatry, of power which claimed worship as well as homage, and of +learning which aimed in its own strength, and aimed unsuccessfully, at +the solution of the deepest questions which affect mankind. They went to +Ephesus, to Rome, and to Athens, and secured in them a measure of +success, which prepared the way for a mighty revolution throughout the +Roman Empire. + +Towards the end of the last century, when there was a great awakening of +the missionary spirit, devoted Christians, animated by apostolic +example, formed the purpose of going with the Gospel to Benares. Robert +Haldane sold a fine estate, that with a band of chosen companions he +might preach the Gospel to its inhabitants. He was obliged to abandon +the enterprise by the prohibition of the East India Company; and then, +in company with his brother and others similarly minded, he turned to +home mission work, which for a time was prosecuted by them with ardent +zeal and great success. + +[Sidenote: HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY.] + +In 1781 the city and district of Benares, which had for some time paid +tribute to our Government, were brought directly under our rule. We are +sure no Christian missionary would have been previously tolerated in +Benares for a day. He could not speak of Jesus Christ as the Lord of all +and the Saviour of the world without implying that Mahadeo and the other +gods of Benares were no God. His teaching would be speedily discerned in +its antagonism to the genius of the place, and would ensure his speedy +expulsion, if not his death. To the present hour no missionary is +allowed to plant his foot in Mecca, or Medina, the sacred cities of the +Muhammadans. Till a very recent period, when the Pope's political power +came to an end, no Protestant minister was allowed to open his mouth in +proclaiming the Gospel in Rome. The mild Hindu can be as fanatical as +the Muhammadan and the Roman Catholic in resenting an attack on his +religion, and in persecuting its opponents. + +We have no historical records from which we can learn how Buddhism was +overthrown in India; but, as we have already observed, we have reason to +conclude it was not overthrown by argument and persuasion, but by fire +and sword. The intense hatred shown to the Gospel by those who are +imbued by the spirit of Hinduism will not allow us to doubt that, if +they had the power, they would forbid all Christian effort, and +especially such effort in their sacred city. They were long under the +rule of the Muhammadans, and were subjected by them to grievous +indignities, which they were helpless to avert or resent; but their +attachment to Hinduism, instead of being diminished, was inflamed by the +treatment they received, and during the semi-independent position they +held previous to coming under our sway they had both the power and the +will effectually to prevent the entrance of a new antagonistic religion. +The superior strength and daring of the English were so signally shown +in the overthrow of Rajah Cheit-Singh by Warren Hastings, that +opposition to the new _régime_ was seen to be hopeless, and the people +quietly submitted to their new rulers. So far as they knew the temper +and policy of the English, they might conclude their religion would at +their hands not only be safe from violence, but protected from every +attempt at proselytism. The policy which would have left Hinduism +undisturbed was successfully opposed by the Christian feeling of +England, and the way was opened for the Christian missionary into the +very fortress of Hindu idolatry. For this entrance we are not in any way +indebted to the mildness of Hindu religionists, but to the resolute, +persevering, courageous effort of men of God, who contended successfully +against the worldly selfishness which would have doomed the millions of +India to perpetual night. + +[Sidenote: STREET PREACHING.] + +We have observed that mission operations were tentatively begun in +Benares in the second decade of this century. The work was carried on in +a very quiet unostentatious manner. Some time elapsed before any open +aggressive effort was put forth. If Bishop Heber's counsel had been +followed there would have been no departure from the first timid mode +of action. He says in his journal, "The custom of street preaching, of +which the Baptist and other Dissenting missionaries in Bengal are very +fond, has never been resorted to by those employed by the Church +Missionary Society, and never shall be so long as I have any influence +or authority over them. I plainly see it is not necessary, and I see no +less plainly that though it may be safe among the timid Bengalees, it +would be very likely to produce mischief here. All which the +missionaries do is to teach schools, read prayers, and preach in their +churches, and to visit the houses of such persons as wish for +information on religious subjects." If the good man had lived a few +years longer he would have seen ministers of his own Church forward in +modes of action which he disapproved, and would doubtless have wished +them God-speed, as his successors in the diocese of Calcutta have done. +The Bishop of Lahore, Dr. French, took a prominent part for years in +outdoor preaching. + +The missionary has of course met with opposition in many forms; the +opposition has often been keen and bitter, but it has not taken the form +of violence to person or injury to property. The Gospel has been for +many years proclaimed in the most public places in Benares, crowds have +heard it, and no hand has been raised against the preacher. In the +memoirs of the Rev. William Smith, of the Church Mission, who was +indefatigable in evangelistic labour, than whom none was better known in +Benares, it is mentioned that on a few occasions mud was thrown at him, +but it did him no harm. On one occasion, after a very keen discussion, +when my Hindu opponents had been extremely angry, on coming out from the +place a native Christian by my side was struck on the head by a stone, +which was evidently intended for me. Happily the young man speedily +recovered from the blow. The night was dark, and the act was not brought +home to any one. The people present expressed indignation at the deed. +On another occasion a man drew his sword half-way out of the scabbard +(it was the fashion of the time to go about armed), and said he would +gladly cut off my head, because I was trying to turn away his people +from their religion; but he knew if he did he would be hanged, and as he +wished to live a little longer he restrained himself. He gave me a +scowl, which showed how ready he was for the crime if he could commit it +with impunity. On another occasion most vigorous drumming was carried on +above our heads, which made speaking and hearing impossible. As after +many years spent in Benares I cannot recollect any more violent acts +than those I have mentioned, the reader may infer how little reason we +have to complain of danger to life or limb. + +[Sidenote: POSITION OF THE MISSIONARY IN BENARES.] + +Nothing approaching the treatment of Dr. Kalley by the Popish priests of +Madeira has been ever experienced by any missionary in Benares at the +hand of Hindu priests. The perfect security, with which in ordinary +times we went about our work, is in marked contrast to the experience of +many a labourer in the home mission-field, not only in the early days of +Methodism, but down to our own time, to say nothing of the violence to +which the Salvation Army has been exposed. The fact that we belong to +the ruling race, and that it is understood by all an attack on us will +be promptly and severely punished, has had, no doubt, much to do in +enabling us to carry on our operations so quietly and safely. There has +been an ebullition at times on the occasion of baptisms, but it has +soon subsided. Gradually the people have come to understand us +sufficiently to be convinced we are bent on promoting their good, and +they regard us in consequence with a friendly feeling. Most pleasant +proof has been given that many of the inhabitants of Benares have come +to look on missionaries not only with respect but affection. I well +remember gratifying acts of courtesy and kindness, which could not have +been prompted by sinister motives. + +I must not omit to say that while missionaries have carried on their +work openly and boldly, they have felt themselves bound to treat the +people courteously, and to abstain from the use of violent and abusive +words. There are places where they do not deem themselves entitled to +declare their message--such as sacred places where worship is being +carried on. Mr. Smith, of the Church Mission, once mentioned to me that +he had for a short time taken his stand close to one of the bathing +places, but the priests and people were greatly excited by his presence, +and he deemed it proper to retire. + +While at Benares the Gospel has to encounter peculiar opposition, it has +some marked advantages as a mission-field. The missionary, as he moves +about, meets with people from all parts of India. While these speak +different languages, many know enough of the languages spoken at Benares +to admit of a measure of intelligent intercourse with them. Vast +multitudes come from the widely extended region over which the +Hindustanee and Hindee prevail. While many go to Benares, we may suppose +the great majority, urged by the gregarious feeling so powerful all the +world over, happy to find themselves among the multitude, hoping to get +some religious benefit, and sure at any rate, as they acknowledge, of +amusement, we cannot doubt there are among them earnest souls--how many +it is impossible to say--who are ill at ease, and have a craving for +rest and satisfaction. These persons are in the state of mind to which +the Gospel is specially adapted, and it is very desirous for the +missionary to come into contact with them. Missionaries have fallen in +with persons of this class, and among them there have been pleasing +instances of conversion. There are individuals now in distant parts of +India living Christian lives, who were led to embrace Christ as their +Saviour by what they heard at Benares. Many Christian books have been +circulated among pilgrims to the sacred city. These are taken to their +homes, we may hope sooner or later to be read by them to their spiritual +benefit. Again and again bread cast on the waters has been found after +many days. + +The greed of the Pundas and Gungaputrs of Benares is notorious. Many a +poor pilgrim has suffered from their exactions, and we may suppose that +reverence for the sacred city has received a shock under such treatment +similar to that which Luther experienced on his visit to Rome. While +Hinduism is no doubt greatly strengthened by the resort of the people to +Benares, much done and endured there is well fitted to alienate the more +thoughtful of the visitors; and so far as they are alienated from the +prevailing superstition, the more likely they are to listen patiently +and candidly to the Christian preacher. + +[Sidenote: PROSPECT OF SUCCESS.] + +I conclude these remarks on Benares as a mission sphere by observing +that marked success there would have a marvellous effect on the +evangelization of India. The news would soon spread that Hinduism was +drying up at its fountain, and that its power could not be much longer +maintained. We know that Hinduism itself has undergone great, we may say +radical, changes, since Kasee became one of its principal seats, if not +its head-quarters. There Buddhism was first preached, and from it +Buddhism went forth to all Eastern Asia. There it was for a time +predominant, but Hinduism again obtained supremacy, and drove its rival +from the field. For centuries, Hinduism under the form of devotion to +Shiva Mahadeo, the Great God, as they delight to call him, has had full +sway. Is his dominion to last for ever? Are the people to be for ever in +the slough of idolatry and superstition? We cannot believe that they +are, until we abandon all trust in Him who rightly claims all human +hearts, and whose grace is sufficient to enforce these claims. We know +not when, we know not how, but we do know that even in Benares, as all +the world over, our blessed Saviour will take to Himself His great power +and reign. Even now entrance has been gained for the truth of God, +hearts have been won by it, and Christian churches have been formed. The +first-fruits have been gathered, and the harvest will come. Are we +allowing imagination to take the reins at the expense of judgment, when +we indulge the hope, that as in former days Buddhist preachers went +forth from Benares to the millions of Eastern Asia with the lessons of +Gautama, the Brahmans of Benares, accepting Jesus as their Saviour, will +go forth with His Gospel to diffuse it far and wide among the nations of +India, and then, with their converts, make their way to the remotest +East? Let us not say, "If the Lord would make windows in heaven, might +this thing be?" but rather, "Who hath despised the day of small things?" +The Messiah "shall build the temple, and He shall bear the glory." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MY SECOND YEAR IN BENARES. + + +In beginning this chapter it is fitting I should mention that shortly +after entering on my second year an event occurred of transcendent +importance to me, which has contributed to my personal comfort and +missionary usefulness as nothing else could have done--my marriage with +the object of my choice, who has been, through God's great goodness, +spared to me through all the intervening years. + +Before the close of my first year I had a striking illustration of the +vicissitudes of Indian life, and of consequent difficulty in prosecuting +the missionary enterprise. On reaching Benares at the end of March, +1839, I found three missionaries of our society, Messrs. Buyers, +Shurman, and Lyon. Within a month of my arrival we were joined by a +German missionary and his wife, Dr. and Mrs. Sommers. Towards the end of +autumn Mr. and Mrs. Lyon left, owing to the failure of Mrs. Lyon's +health. They were followed three months afterwards by Dr. and Mrs. +Sommers, owing to Mrs. Sommers' illness. My second year was advanced +only a few months, when Mr. and Mrs. Buyers, after a residence of nearly +ten years, departed for Europe. Dr. Sommers had remained too short a +time to render any service. Mr. Lyon had made excellent progress in the +language, and promised to be a very efficient missionary; but, to our +great regret, he was obliged to leave. Mr. Buyers was in his prime, and +was well equipped for service. Thus within eighteen months the staff of +the mission was reduced from five to two, and one of these too young and +inexperienced to do anything more than help his senior brother. In June, +1841, we were joined by the Rev. D. G. Watt, and early in 1842 by the +Rev. J. H. Budden. These much-esteemed brethren still survive, and have +done excellent service in the cause of Christ; but both suffered much +from the climate, and their stay at Benares was too short to admit of +their doing there what their hearts were bent on doing. + +[Sidenote: THE FAILURE OF HEALTH.] + +I have not the means of comparing our Indian missions with missions in +other parts of the world, but I believe our losses by the failure of +health have greatly exceeded theirs. The climate of the South Sea +Islands, of South Africa, and of the West Indian Islands, is far more +favourable to European health than that of the parts of India in which +most of our missions are. The longevity of many of the South African +missionaries bears remarkable testimony to the salubrity of their +climate. + +This failure of health and consequent abandonment of the work is one of +the greatest trials missions in India have had to encounter, and is a +formidable obstacle to success. Instances have not been rare when, after +great expense has been incurred, the missionary or his wife has suddenly +broken down--the wife perhaps more frequently than the husband--and a +speedy return to England has been the result. The name appears in the +Report as an agent, but no work has been, or could have been, +accomplished. In other cases the stay has been too brief to have +admitted of efficient service. A considerable time must elapse before +the missionary, however zealous and able, can acquire such an +acquaintance with the language and people as will enable him to do his +work in a satisfactory manner. When one has fully entered on the work, +there is frequent interruption from illness and weakness induced by the +severity of the climate. When I transfer myself in thought to my first +two years in Benares, and from my vivid remembrance of the vicissitudes +of our mission during these years look down through all the succeeding +years not only of our mission, but of other missions in Northern India +with which I am well acquainted, I am painfully struck with the bitter +disappointments of missionary Societies in the prosecution of their +work. They have responded to the urgent appeal for reinforcement, and in +not a few cases no sooner has the reinforcement been gained than it has +been lost. The Societies formed of late years for Zenana work have +suffered from this cause more than even the older Societies. They have +suffered in a degree which must have been very discouraging to their +managers and supporters. Happily a considerable number of all Societies +have been able to remain at their post, and some have remained so long +as to give an average length of missionary service, which hides the fact +of the extreme brevity of the period spent by many in the foreign field. + +The question here suggests itself, Has this speedy abandonment of the +work been always necessary? Has there been the endurance demanded of +those who have professed themselves consecrated to a missionary life? +Has the return to England been accepted only when the compulsion of +circumstances left no alternative, and then accepted most reluctantly? +With every desire to think of others as favourably as possible, without +any breach of charity, it must be acknowledged there have been cases of +departure, where I think a more resolute spirit would have kept persons +at their post. This I trust holds true of only a few. I know some who +soon left to whom the abandonment of the work was a bitter trial. +Nothing but the thought that to remain would have been to fight against +Providence took them away. To go back to the cases of failure during my +early period at Benares, I may mention that the departure of Mr. and +Mrs. Lyon was absolutely necessary; and those who know the subsequent +career of my friends, Messrs. Watt and Budden, need not be told that if +health had permitted Benares would have been for many years the sphere +of their labours. + +[Sidenote: CELIBATE OR MARRIED MISSIONARIES?] + +As the withdrawal of missionaries has often been caused by the failure +of the health of their wives, some have thought it would be well to have +celibate missionaries in a country which has so severe a climate. To +this there is the obvious reply that missionaries, like others, are +human beings, and a restriction on them which wars with human nature +would be found very pernicious, as it has ever been. Then, the wives of +missionaries, when they are what they ought to be, are very efficient +and, indeed, necessary missionary workers, and in many cases their +labours are as useful as those of their husbands. In well-ordered +missionary families the people see what a happy Christian home is, and +they are assured of a sympathy in their trials and cares which they +could not expect from unmarried missionaries. Some Societies, our own +among the number, have accepted as missionaries to India persons engaged +to be married, but they have required them to remain for a year or two +unmarried after going out to test their fitness for the climate; and, in +the event of the test being successfully stood, to give them an +experience which will enable the newly married wife to enter with less +strain on her Indian life. This may be a wise arrangement, and yet there +is often a restlessness till the marriage takes place, and time spent in +going to the port of debarkation, which carries with it some +disadvantages. + +We dare not retreat from this great work of evangelizing India on +account of the vicissitudes of which I have been speaking, or on account +of other very formidable obstacles which oppose us. To do so would be to +act a craven part. Agents must be found for the prosecution of the work, +and we must hope with the improved advantages of an Indian career the +failures will be fewer than in the past; but whatever they may be, the +Christian Church must go forward. One obvious inference from the facts I +have stated, is the extreme desirableness of a native agency. The +natives of the land, when found fit for the work, have always been +highly prized. Many of this class are now labouring in different parts +of India, and there is every reason to hope that in coming years the +native agency will grow largely in extent and efficiency. + +[Sidenote: IMPRESSION OF THE SECOND YEAR.] + +During my second year in Benares I entered on every department of +mission work, and had many opportunities for intercourse with the +people. In my turn I preached to the native Christian congregation, went +with the missionaries and catechists to the city, and engaged in +teaching the boys attending our primary schools. I saw the great +gatherings of the people at their religious festivals, and realized +their character, and the nature of the work to which I had devoted my +life, more than I had previously done. Instead of following +chronological order, my object in these reminiscences will be best +attained by endeavouring to present to my readers those aspects of +Indian and mission life which, during my second year, made a deep +impression on my mind, an impression which was deepened by subsequent +experience. + +[Illustration] + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS OF THE HINDUS. + + +Crowds pass through the temples of Benares every day, pay obeisance, and +present offerings; but on ordinary occasions there is no combined act of +worship conducted by a leader, as is common in Christian assemblies. On +occasions of special urgency--the failure of rain, its unseasonable +fall, the fear of famine, or the dread of a great calamity coming on the +community in some other form--sacrifices are offered up by priests in +the presence of great multitudes, in which all present unite. These are +very special and occasional services, for, as a rule, all over India +persons and families act apart. + +Hindus are, however, eminently social, and in their religious services +full play is given to the social feeling. This is shown by their melas, +or religious gatherings, which are held all over the country, and are +extremely popular. Some of these melas are local, and have only a local +attendance. Those to which crowds from places far and near resort are +held in so-called sacred spots. Many are periodical, and are held at +fixed periods of the year in honour of their gods, and in celebration of +their exploits. Others, again, are held on special occasions, and of +these eclipses are the most attractive. + +[Sidenote: THE SATURNALIA OF THE HINDUS.] + +In the course of my second year I saw a good deal of these festivals. I +have a vivid and very unpleasant recollection of the Holee of that year, +the Saturnalia of the Hindus, which is held at the setting in of the hot +weather. It lasts for several days, during which the people act as if +freed from every moral restraint. There is a general cessation of +labour; the people wander about, indulge in the wildest freaks, address +to women who venture out the vilest words, leap and dance as if +possessed of the spirit of licence, and throw red colouring-matter on +those they meet, without respect of persons; till all seen in the +streets, with their besmeared faces and soiled clothes, have a most +disreputable appearance. The night is rendered hideous, and sleep +well-nigh impossible, by the drumming, fifing, and shouting of the +revellers, kept up till break of day. During this period many think +themselves at liberty to do what at another time they would deem very +culpable. Not a few partake of intoxicating drink, and if native +statements be true they give themselves over to the grossest +licentiousness. Europeans, as a rule, except it be necessary for them to +go abroad, remain quietly in their homes while the Holee lasts, and +mission work is for the time well-nigh suspended. When, however, +Europeans have occasion to go out they have little reason to fear +insult, as even in the Holee season they are regarded, if not with +respect, at least with a dread which restrains the revellers. The +hurtful influence of this season of licence can be conceived. I have +always observed that for some time afterwards the boys in our schools +were sleepy and listless. + +On the night of the Diwalee mela, held in honour of Lakshmee, the +goddess of wealth, the whole city is illuminated, tiny lamps are seen +everywhere, friends give presents to each other, sweetmeats and parched +grain are distributed among the poor. High and low give the night to +gambling. The belief is entertained that if they fail to spend the night +in this manner they will in their next birth be turned into frogs, or +some vile reptile. + +The most popular festival of the year at Benares and over the +North-Western Provinces is the Ram Leela, the Play of Ram, when the life +of Ram, a very popular incarnation of Vishnu, is dramatized. This drama +is acted in the open air in different parts of the city, in the presence +of admiring thousands. The people see Ram and his faithful spouse Seeta +forced to leave their royal home by the intrigue of his mother-in-law; +they see them in the forest, where Ram leads the life of a hunter; they +see Seeta carried off by Rawan, the Demon King of Lunka (Ceylon); they +hear Ram's cries of bitter distress on finding his beloved Seeta gone; +they see him informed that Rawan is the ravisher; they see him setting +out with the divine monkey Hanuman, and his army of monkeys for the +rescue; and they rejoice with him in the taking of Lunka, the +destruction of Rawan, and the rescue of Seeta. The story furnishes +abundant material for a drama, and the people enter with the greatest +zest into the different scenes. A huge figure of Rawan is made of wood +and paper; it is set on fire, and the crowds, looking on, make the air +resound with their shouts. During this mela two things are united which +in Hindu estimation well agree--amusement and devotion. They regard the +Ram Leela as a religious service, which they are bound to render to the +conqueror of Rawan, and while rendering it they are at once performing +duty and receiving pleasure. They continually call such a service +_tumasha_, _show_, _fun_, and they regard its life and sprightliness a +pleasing contrast to the sombre and staid services of the Christian +Church. + +[Sidenote: ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.] + +Before the conclusion of my second year an eclipse of the moon occurred, +which drew to the city the greatest assemblage of human beings I had +ever seen. The Hindus place high among their deities the sun and moon, +and render to them daily worship. Between the gods and the demons there +is perpetual war, and victory inclines at one time to one side, at +another time to another. In Hindu mythological annals many instances are +recorded of the gods having been reduced to the utmost extremity. We are +told that eclipses are caused by the demons endeavouring to swallow the +sun and moon; and religious services on these occasions have a double +benefit--the worshipper secures a high degree of merit, of which he will +reap the reward one day; and the demons are driven off from their prey +by the drumming, the shouts, and the merit of the assembled people, to +the great relief of the endangered gods. The most extravagant promises +are held out to those who bathe in the Ganges, at any time in any part +of it; but bathing on the occasion of an eclipse, and especially in so +sacred a place as Benares, is meritorious in a degree which is +incalculable. The Pundits, the religious leaders of the people, have, it +appears, access to the council of the demons, for the exact time of the +coming attack is known by them so long before hand that the people far +and near are prepared for its approach. In fact, if it did not come on, +if the demons withdrew from their intention, there would be great +disappointment. Brahman missionaries go great distances to inform the +people the eclipse is to take place, and to press on them the benefit +they will receive by bathing at Benares on that occasion. On their +return they are accompanied by those whom they have succeeded in +persuading. Leaving the mythological for the scientific platform, we had +better mention that the Hindu astronomers have for ages been able to +calculate eclipses; and now they need not trouble themselves to make +calculations, as European almanacks are in their hands to give the +requisite information. + +For a few days previous to the eclipse of which I am now to speak, the +unusual number of strangers in the city made it evident some great event +was about to occur. From the morning of the appointed day the people +poured into the city in a constant stream. As evening came on I made my +way into the city on foot, but before reaching its centre I found the +streets so blocked that I despaired of getting to the riverside. I +retraced my steps, and by a road skirting the city made my way to Raj +Ghat at the northern end. There I remained till the eclipse commenced. +Many were near, but they were few compared with the crowds pressing +towards the chief bathing places. When I arrived at Raj Ghat the +confused sound of a great multitude fell on my ear, but no sooner did +the eclipse begin than the thousands on the river's brink and crowded on +the ghats, as with one voice raised a shout so loud and prolonged, that +I should think it must have been heard for miles. I was on a high bank +of the river, and could see distinctly the people below rushing into the +stream. I could not but think of what must be occurring where the crowd +was so dense that individual motion was well-nigh impossible. It was +reported next morning that three or four hundred persons had been +trampled to death or drowned in the rush to the river when the eclipse +began. This was afterwards declared to be an exaggerated statement, but +it is certain many lives were lost, though how many was not ascertained, +as a number were carried away by the stream. Special care was afterwards +taken by the authorities to prevent such catastrophes. After stopping +some time at Raj Ghat I returned to my home, musing on what I had seen, +and longing for the time when the millions of India will seek cleansing +and life, where alone they can be found. + +[Sidenote: MELA AT ALLAHABAD.] + +Towards the end of 1840 I went to Allahabad, seventy miles north-west of +Benares, to take part in evangelistic work at a great mela held there +annually, as I thought I might be able to render some help to my +brethren. Allahabad, called Pryag by the Hindus, is at the confluence of +the Ganges and the Jumna, and all such places are deemed sacred. It is +said there is a third river, the Suruswatee, once visible but now +underground, and the place is therefore called Tribeni--the threefold +stream. Pryag has been for many years a famous place of pilgrimage, and +every year a mela is held, which is at its height for some seven days, +but is kept on for weeks. It is held in the cold weather, December or +January; and, next to Hurdwar, where the Ganges issues from the +mountains, draws a greater crowd than any other mela in Northern India. +Bathing at Tribeni is peculiarly meritorious in some years, and in these +there is a vastly increased attendance. Except on the occasion of +eclipses there is no such gathering even at Benares; but very many who +go to Allahabad, before returning to their home, often a distant home, +pay a visit to the sacred city. + +At one time the Government imposed a tax on pilgrims to this mela, but +it was taken off in 1838 or 1839. + +The mela is held below the fort, on the land lying between the Ganges +and the Jumna at their point of meeting, on a great stretch of sand, +which is covered in the rainy season. In December and January the west +wind blows freshly over the place, and as there is incessant movement, +soon all present are so covered with dust that they look like millers. + +[Sidenote: EVANGELISTIC SERVICES.] + +A gathering like this at Allahabad is always embraced for evangelistic +purposes. Missionaries and native brethren are thankful for the +opportunity afforded them of preaching the Gospel to many who have come +from places to which no missionary has ever gone. The missionaries at +Allahabad gladly welcome and hospitably entertain the brethren of other +missions who join them at these annual gatherings. Large tents are put +up, with the front open towards the road, and there the preachers from +morning till evening, preacher succeeding preacher, address the people, +while hearers succeed hearers. A few individuals stop a long time, as if +rapt up in what they hear, as if they were drinking in every word; +others stop a considerable time; while many, after looking on and gaping +for a few minutes, hold on their way. Every now and then questions are +asked, objections are started, and a discussion ensues. When the +questions are in any measure serious and reasonable, much benefit +results from such discussion. The interest of the people is quickened, +and opportunity is afforded for explaining, defending, and enforcing the +truth as it is in Jesus. Sometimes the questioner is neither serious nor +reasonable, and then the danger is of the discussion turning into a +wrangle, which does more harm than good. Prominent transgressors in this +line are the Pundas, specially interested in the mela, who do all in +their power to set the people against us. At this first great gathering +which I attended--I found it was the case afterwards on similar +occasions--there was less mere idle discussion than there is where the +missionary carries on his work from day to day. In addition to +preaching-stations, there were bookstalls where portions of the +Scriptures and Christian tracts and books were disposed of. On to the +time of this mela there was a large gratuitous distribution among +persons who from their look and manner were deemed suitable recipients; +but for many years it has been found best to charge a small price, +without adopting a hard and fast line against giving away. + +It is very difficult, rather impossible, to estimate the effect produced +by evangelistic services on such occasions. They have not been fruitless +as to conversion, but if we look simply at results of this kind it must +be acknowledged they are very limited. Instances have occurred of +persons having been so impressed that they have followed missionaries to +places far away from Allahabad; but their courage has failed them, and +they have after a short time disappeared. One advantage is secured--the +Gospel is kept before the minds of the people, and some knowledge of it +is carried to the remotest parts of the land. Books and tracts are taken +to places which missionaries have never visited. It cannot be doubted +that such services have their part in preparing the people for the new +and better state of things which every Christian longs for and expects. + +At Allahabad I had an opportunity of observing the peculiarities of a +great Hindu mela. The morning was devoted to bathing and the performance +of religious rites. As the forenoon came on, the merchants of every +class set out their wares in tents erected on sites appointed for them, +with their opening, so far as possible, away from the side exposed to +the wind. Goods of every description, useful and ornamental, cloth, +grain, cooking vessels, trinkets, and sweetmeats, were exhibited to +tempt purchasers, and buying and selling went on as vigorously as if the +people had come together solely for that end. Crowds were in constant +motion, going from place to place to see what could be seen, and +stopping where there was any special attraction, or, as happens in our +own crowded streets, stopping where a few were incidentally collected. +By the afternoon, singers, experts in tricks, and show-people of every +description, commenced their operations, and were sure of admiring +crowds. The merry-go-rounds were largely patronized. Hour after hour was +thus spent. + +[Sidenote: COOKING AND MERRYMAKING.] + +A few cooked food early in the day, but the vast majority staved off +hunger--in some cases by partaking of cakes reserved from the previous +evening meal; the greater number, I believe, by partaking of sweetmeats +made with flour, sugar, and melted butter, of which an enormous quantity +was offered for sale. As evening came on they scattered themselves over +the ground lying between the Ganges and the Jumna, and set to the +preparation of their one proper meal for the twenty-four hours. The +plain was alight with their fires. Nothing can be simpler than their +cooking. They make what they call a _choola_, an elevation in the shape +of a horseshoe of a half-foot or a little more of moistened mud, or +stone if they can get it. If the traveller be of a respectable caste, he +takes care to make no use of the _choolas_ which former travellers have +left. They may have been set up by impure hands, and so he makes one for +himself. It is convenient to have two such _choolas_, that they may put +on the one a small pot with rice or _dal_, a kind of pea, in it, and on +the other a girdle for bannocks of unleavened dough. Cooking is, of +course, largely women's work, but men are as expert at it as women, and +are continually seen preparing their meal. I have never travelled with a +native who seemed to think he was called to an unusual or unpleasant +work, when required to cook his food. All he needs is a couple of small +cooking vessels, which he carries with him, a little fuel, good water, +meal, and a spot on which he may set up his humble hearth. I have seen +this work done by pundits, learned men, who showed no indication of +shrinking from it as if it trenched on their dignity. Indeed the pundit +in a party that has few facilities for cooking has, as I remember well +in one instance, this honour conferred on him on account of his caste +being higher than that of those who are with him. All of every caste can +eat what he has prepared, but he helps himself first, and eats apart. + +To return to the mela. The evening is well advanced before the repast is +over. We might suppose that after the stir of the day all would be ready +for sleep, and no doubt many lie down and sleep soundly; but quite a +number are too eager for the enjoyment of the fair to give themselves to +rest. Singing, drumming, and boisterous mirth go on till the small hours +of the morning, as I have known to my unpleasant experience--not at +Allahabad, but elsewhere when I have been in their close neighhourhood. + +How do the vast multitudes who attend a mela, such as that of Allahabad, +dispose of themselves at night? Their arrangements are of the simplest +kind. Many wrap themselves in their sheet or blanket, if they have one, +and lie down on the ground without any idea they are enduring hardship. +Others rig out a temporary tent with sticks and a blanket over it, +creep under this, and deem themselves luxuriously accommodated. This +gathering at Allahabad is in the cold weather, and if the nights be very +cold, as they sometimes are at that season, no doubt many suffer +severely. Every now and then heavy rain falls, and then, as may be +supposed, the suffering is extreme. Sanitary precautions are of the +utmost importance where such vast crowds meet and remain together for +days, and these are taken by the authorities. They cannot, however, +provide against suffering caused by bad weather. Occasionally cholera +breaks out, and then the scenes witnessed are appalling. At the mela of +1840 the weather was good, and there was no indication of disease among +the people. Some years afterwards we were travelling towards Allahabad +at an early period of the mela, and met crowds fleeing from it on +account of the outbreak of cholera. Here and there we saw corpses at the +side of the road, occasionally without one person near, at other times +with a weeping group around, who were preparing to carry off the body to +some rivulet to have it burnt, or, as it often happens, to have it +scorched, and then left to be devoured by jackals and vultures. Some had +held on their way with weary limbs till the fell disease seized them, +and then they succumbed, lay down, and died. We remember stopping where +a young man was dying, with two or three sorrowful ones around him. We +spoke to him, but got no reply. His glazed eye told he was beyond all +human help. + +One of the first things I saw at this Allahabad mela was a quantity of +human hair, and was told that it had been cut off after the fulfilment +of vows, reminding one of a custom to which we find frequent reference +in both the Old and New Testaments. I also saw a very disgusting +sight--men in stark nudity, sitting in a very composed dignified +fashion, and women approaching them with folded hands, and paying them +profound homage. These were deemed men of great sanctity, whose blessing +brought signal benefit, while their curse entailed terrible calamities. +At an early period of our residence at Benares we sometimes met these +naked creatures in the streets; but for many years they have +disappeared, as there is a magisterial order that they be flogged for +their indecency, however loud may be their pretension of sanctity. At +Allahabad there were many devotees with their tangled hair, besmeared +bodies, and _very_ scanty clothing--if what they had on could be called +clothing. These are yet seen all over the country. The time has not yet +come for stringent orders in these cases. + +[Sidenote: HINDU SOCIAL FEELING.] + +On the occasion of a gathering such as that of Allahabad a stranger sees +no sign of the separating influence of caste. The people move about and +mix with each other as freely as people do in Europe when assembled in +large numbers. There is nothing in caste to prevent people conversing +with each other and being on friendly terms; but the friendliness must +not go the length of eating together or of intermarriage. There are +indeed large classes deemed so low, so outside the pure Hindu castes, +that, so far as is possible, their touch is shunned, and they are not +allowed to enter temples; but even these may be spoken to and caste +purity retained. We have not in Northern India a class so low that they +must hide themselves when a Brahman appears, as Pariahs have to do in +some parts of Southern India. In fact, at Hindu melas one receives a +pleasing impression of the social character of the people, when he +observes their good humour and friendly intercourse. + +We do not wonder at the popularity of these gatherings. The social +feeling is as strong among the Hindus as among any people on the face of +the earth. The vast majority lead lives of monotonous toil in places +where there is no excitement greater than that of ordinary village and +hamlet life, and to them it must be a great pleasure to resort to the +gatherings of their people, where religion, business, and amusement are +very happily combined, and where there is so much to interest, +exhilarate, and gratify them. These times are to them the red-letter +days of the year, without which life would be intolerably dull. Resort +to these gatherings no doubt involves them in toil, in expense, and +sometimes in great suffering; but they do not shrink from the cost, as +they anticipate the expected benefit. + +[Sidenote: CHRISTIAN SOCIAL FEELING.] + +There cannot be a doubt that Hinduism is greatly strengthened by these +melas. Judaism was greatly strengthened by the people according to the +Divine command going up thrice every year, at appointed times, to the +place where the name of the Lord was, and by their repairing in vast +numbers once a year to their sacred capital after they had become widely +scattered among the nations. Muhammadans, by long journeys and perilous +voyages, make their way to Mecca and Medina, their sacred cities, and +make it a point to be present at the most sacred season, when many +thousands are assembled. These pilgrims return to their homes more +devoted than ever to Islam. It would be strange if Christianity, which +above every other religion aims at producing and sustaining the feeling +of universal brotherhood, did not avail itself of this social feeling, +to which so much scope is given in human religions, and which is so +potent in confirming the devotion of their adherents. Our blessed +Saviour, the Head of the Church, has by the institution of Churches, and +the instruction given to them through His Apostles, provided for the +fellowship of His people; and the occasional gathering of the members of +different Churches, to which the principles of the Gospel point, and to +which it gives the fullest sanction, presents precious opportunities for +the manifestation and exercise of the brotherliness so characteristic of +the kingdom of heaven which our Lord came to set up on the earth. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE OBJECT OF MISSIONS, AND VARIOUS MODES OF OPERATION. + + +There is no difference of opinion among missionaries as to the object +for which they have gone to the heathen. They are all agreed their +object is to make known the Gospel, the message of salvation, to all to +whom they obtain access, to explain its nature, and press its claims on +their acceptance. To this nothing can be held superior; to this +everything must be deemed subordinate. To place anything above it, or +even beside it, would be to lose sight of the very _raison d'être_ of +their missionary calling. + +[Sidenote: VARIETY OF EFFORT NEEDED.] + +There may be, however, and there often is, a difference of opinion as to +the line of operation best fitted to secure success. Missionaries find +themselves in presence of widely-separated classes, who must be +approached in different ways, and it is the part of wisdom to find out +the most direct path to their understanding, conscience, and heart. +About these modes of operation there has often been marked diversity of +opinion, some pleading for one mode, and others for another. It cannot +be denied that in the discussion thus carried on there has often been +one-sidedness, resulting in some cases from natural liking, in some from +special fitness, in others from the peculiarities of the sphere into +which missionaries find themselves introduced so that they fail to +realize the peculiarities in the qualifications, likings, and spheres of +their brethren, who are as eager as themselves to bring the people to +the feet of the Lord Jesus. Hinduism is a strong fortress, and those who +assail it by hurling at it--if I may so speak--the red-hot shot of +exposure of its errors, and the fire of the truth as it is in Jesus, act +very unwisely in depreciating those who are quietly preparing the +ammunition required for carrying on the siege, or are undermining the +foundations, and thus preparing for entering the breach. The erection of +the Christian Church in India is a most arduous, and at the same time a +most glorious, enterprise, and a variety of workmen is required. Those +who handle the trowel and the hammer act very unwisely in depreciating +those who plan the structure, clear away the rubbish, and lay the +foundation, or who in other ways help on the building. These +illustrations require no enlargement. They indicate the views which +every succeeding period of my missionary career has led me to entertain +with increasing firmness. The translation and revision of the +Scriptures, the preparation of Christian tracts and books, teaching in +schools and colleges, taking charge of orphanages, the going among the +people in city, town, and hamlet, wherever they can be reached, to speak +to them about the Saviour of mankind; attending to secular work, such as +the erection of buildings, keeping accounts, and gathering money--all +are legitimate departments of missionary work, and the choice of them by +missionaries ought to be determined by the exigencies of missions, by +personal fitness, and by providential indications of the course which +should be pursued. I would go further, and say that the preparation of +grammars and dictionaries, the giving of time and strength to literary +work, may in certain circumstances, in the case of men of peculiar +qualifications, be deemed work worthy of a missionary, as thereby he may +do much to further the cause to which he has devoted his life. Readers +will readily recall names of illustrious men, who were deeply imbued +with the missionary spirit and did eminent service, who were also +remarkable for their literary achievements. It would, however, be very +undesirable that literary ability and industry should be the most +prominent characteristics of a large portion of the missionary band. +Devotion to literary work is, with rare exceptions, incompatible with +the active life which must be led by those who would come into close +contact with the people, and by personal intercourse strive to bring +them to the Saviour. + +Some individuals have gone to the mission-field with the firm resolve to +do the work in only one way. Such a resolve has ever seemed to me most +unwise, savouring more of wilfulness than of holy steady purpose to do +the Master's work. The missionary ought to go out ready to part with +every preconceived notion at the call of providential direction and the +Spirit's guidance, prepared to do with all his might whatever he may +have the opportunity of doing for the advancement of Christ's kingdom, +however little may be his natural liking or supposed fitness for the +work. + +Like most missionaries, I went to India with my liking for certain forms +of work; but like nearly all who have been long in the field, there is +scarcely any department in which I have not some time or other been +engaged, though for some departments I have had little aptitude and, I +may say, no liking, and from which I would have escaped if I could. To +have held back would have been dereliction of duty, and this conviction +overcame my reluctance. + + +PREACHING TO THE HEATHEN. + +[Sidenote: BAZAR PREACHING.] + +Without any depreciation of other departments, preaching to the +heathen--what is commonly called in India Bazar preaching--ought ever to +hold a prominent place. + +Evangelistic work is carried on wherever access to the people can be +obtained. In Benares, our primary schools, of which I shall speak +presently, were taught in verandahs open to the streets. These were +utilized as preaching-stations. The boys were first examined and taught; +a few invariably gathered around, and we turned from the boys to the +bystanders, and spoke to them so long as they were willing to hear, or +we were able to speak. In addition to these verandahs we had humble +buildings erected on the most available spots, for the double purpose of +schools and preaching-stations. To these little chapels we could retire +from the noise of the streets. In them we had morning and evening +service; but as the hot weather advanced the heat was well-nigh +intolerable in the city in the evening, and evening work was suspended +till we got cooling by the first burst of rain. + +We every now and then betook ourselves to the shade of a house or a +tree, where we spoke to the passers-by. On the occasion of great +gatherings we took our stand at the roads by which the people were +pouring into the city, or making their way out of it. Every place was +deemed suitable where we could get hearers, and could hope for any +degree of attention. At some spots the crowd was so large and noisy that +there was no use in trying to make ourselves heard. As we went about we +spoke to individuals and little groups as opportunity was presented to +us. + +Some missionaries who laid themselves out for this department made it a +point to go every year, with their native assistants, considerable +distances to the great melas, and spend days, sometimes weeks, in +setting before the assembled crowd the great truths of God's Word. +Others, again, made it a point to travel during the cold weather, so far +as home duty allowed, to preach the Gospel through the country; some +within a limited area, confining themselves to certain towns and +villages, and visiting them again and again, while others made very +extended tours. It was my privilege for years to take part in these +itineracies, and I remember with peculiar pleasure the opportunities +they afforded for intercourse with the people. + +[Sidenote: DIFFERENT MODES OF PREACHING.] + +What in India is called Bazar preaching is very different from the +ordinary preaching of ministers in this country, both in its mode and in +the circumstances in which it is conducted. When accompanied by a few +native Christians, we begin by singing a hymn and offering a short +prayer. Then those present are addressed. Often one of our Lord's +parables, or some striking fact or passage from the Scriptures is taken +as a text. Sometimes a remark by one of our hearers, or something of +general interest which has just occurred, gives the keynote to the +address. The great doctrines and facts of Scripture are mainly dwelt on, +and the more simply and directly they are set forth, the more are we +satisfied our duty is efficiently discharged. In our preaching the first +place is assigned to the life and character, the words and deeds, the +death, resurrection, and reign of our blessed Saviour. Suitableness is a +valuable characteristic of preaching everywhere, and among no people is +it more important than in speaking to the Hindus. They are very fond of +figures, of illustrative instances, and when these are happily applied +they produce a marked effect. In the character of the gods and +goddesses, and in Hindu notions and practices, there is much which is +open to attack, and some avail themselves largely of this opening to +assail the cherished belief of the people; but as a rule it is far +better to assert and enforce truth than to confute error, though truth +does at times require error to be directly exposed. The native brethren +are much more inclined to aggressive speech than the missionaries. They +know their own countrymen well; they are familiar with their modes of +thinking and of acting, they are well acquainted with the doings +attributed to their gods, and they are ready to attack them with +unsparing severity. On one occasion a catechist, more zealous than wise, +began his address with the words, "Your religion is altogether false," +which so provoked his hearers that they did not hear another word, and +went away in indignation. Afterwards I sharply reproved him for his +indiscretion, as I had at times to do to him and others. + +Occasionally a missionary is quietly heard, and if heard attentively as +well as quietly he is gratified with the reception he gets, and hopes +that good is being done. It is seldom, however, in a city like Benares +that a preacher is allowed to go on long without interruption. If a +considerable number assemble we are almost sure to find, before we +conclude, some among them ready to speak, and the object of those who +thus come forward becomes speedily apparent. Some are eager to interrupt +the preacher. He has scarcely announced his subject, and has had no +opportunity of explaining and illustrating it, when he is interrupted +by the words, "You have spoken a long time" (the long time has perhaps +not been five minutes); "let me speak a little while." As a rule, in +this case the missionary appeals to the fairness of his audience to give +him a patient hearing, that they may really know his views, and may be +in a position for coming to a right judgment regarding them. Often the +appeal is successful, and our eager disputant is compelled to remain +silent. When the address is over discussion is welcomed; and, as I have +observed about preaching at the religious gatherings of the people, if +conducted with reasonableness and good humour it is fitted to do good. +We are thankful when there is the appearance of candour, even though +there be not earnestness, when those who speak seemingly desire to know +exactly what we do hold, as thereby an opportunity is given for the +clearer and fuller statement of the Gospel. I have a pleasing +recollection of many instances when persons were evidently impressed +with what had been told them of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the claims +He has on man's love and trust. + +It must be acknowledged that this has not been the mood of most of our +hearers where we are well known. Many are eager to defend their own +position as Hindus, and to attack Christianity because it wages war with +their religion. Heathenism in ancient times, heathenism now as we see it +in India, was and is very liberal. It is ready to let Christianity +alone, if Christianity will let it alone. It is the exclusiveness of +Christianity which is so offensive. We are continually told that +Christianity is excellent for us; we are most welcome to maintain our +adherence to it; and it is surely fair to let them alone in the +enjoyment of their religion. Because they are not let alone, because we +contend that their religion is dishonouring to the living God and +hurtful to themselves, because we affirm that Christ is the one Saviour +and the rightful Lord, they are eager to find something in our books and +views which they can assail, and by which they can show our position to +be untenable. + +There is nothing we hear more frequently than that all religions lead to +the same goal, as all the roads of a country lead to its capital. To +this we reply that those who wish to go to Calcutta in the east are not +likely to reach it soon if they set out on the road to Lahore in the +west. The east and west are opposite, and yet they are not opposed; but +good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, are essentially +opposed, their fruits are opposed, and those who practise them are sure +to find themselves at last in places as distinct from each other as +light is from darkness, as happiness is from misery. + +[Sidenote: THE STRENGTH OF TRADITIONAL RELIGION.] + +Traditional religion is strong, except in peculiar seasons when the tide +of public opinion runs in the channel of religious revolt. From the lips +of Hindus we hear continually, "We must walk in the ways of our fathers. +What our fathers believed we believe. What our fathers practised we +practise. No good son leaves his father and mother. No good wife leaves +her husband for another." To this objection we have various replies. We +tell them they do not walk in the ways of their ancient fathers, for +they did many things, such as eating the flesh of cows, which they +abhor, knew nothing of the gods they worship, and were not fettered by +caste as they are. What we say about these Hindu ancestors gets little +credit, as the people generally know nothing about them. We remind them +that among themselves there have been tribes that have from generation +to generation lived by thuggery and dacoity (murder and robbery). Ought +the children of these murderers and robbers to walk in the ways of +_their_ fathers? + +I have often referred to the Khonds in the hills of Orissa, who, till +the horrid practice was stopped by British interference, enticed +children from the plains, fed them well, treated them kindly, and then +on a fixed day murdered them, tore limb from limb, and scattered the +bleeding fragments over the fields as an offering to the Land Goddess to +secure an abundant harvest. I have asked, "Ought these people to walk in +the ways of their fathers?" To this question I have never received an +affirmative reply. + +We have reminded the people their fathers were as prone to err as we +are; that we ought to weigh in the scales of truth and justice what they +did, in order to the imitation of them when right and the forsaking of +them when wrong. If they were with us, provided they were really wise, +they would wish us to embrace the good of which they knew nothing, but +which was now presented for their acceptance. With all their regard for +their fathers, there were things unknown to them--as, for instance, the +potato for food, and the railway carriage for travelling. If the potato +was good for the body, as many of them showed they thought by partaking +of it, might not our religion be good for the soul? If they resorted in +crowds to the railway carriages even when going on pilgrimage to their +sacred places, if in their earthly travels they found these carriages so +serviceable, might they not find the religion of Christ, if candidly +considered, the best vehicle for carrying them to heaven? We have much +sympathy with the feeling of reverence for ancestors, but they are not +entitled to tyrannize over their descendants. We tell them we do not +wish them to leave their father's house, but to return to it; not to +leave the husband, but to return to the true husband. + +[Sidenote: WORSHIP OF GOD UNDER MATERIAL FORMS.] + +At first sight the worship carried on at Benares seems so absurd that +one wonders how a reasonable being can say anything in its defence. Many +years ago I had a visit from an English gentleman who was travelling +through India, and he expressed his surprise we had such limited success +in turning the people from worshipping such ugly misshapen stones. He +evidently thought that by quoting some of the passages of Scripture in +which the wickedness and folly of idol-worship are exposed, he could +silence idol-worshippers, and secure their speedy conversion to the +living God. If he had come into contact with the people he would not +have found their conversion such an easy matter. I have never met a +Hindu who would allow he worshipped the material objects before which he +bowed down. However illiterate he may be, he is ready to maintain that +he worships the god represented by the image, and who is actually +dwelling in it in a mysterious manner, after some sacred words have been +uttered over it. + +We are often told in defence of Hinduism that it is a symbolical +representative religion, and that as God is vastly beyond our +comprehension, we cannot, except by symbols, attain any conception of +Him. We have often to say in reply, that as we cannot see our own +spirit, and yet know how real, how dominant it is, so far less do we +know the Supreme Being, and yet we have abundant evidence of His +existence, character, and government. Of Him no fitting image can be +made, and every such attempt is unworthy of Him, and degrading and +demoralizing to us. The representations of God in Scripture under +sensible forms are of high value to us in our weakness; but when +reproduced in material substances, such as wood and stone, they have +been ever found to foster low, materialistic views of the Most High. If +we must betake ourselves to such symbols, let us have those which +inspire lofty thoughts. What is there in these grotesque idols to help +us in rising to the living God? Hindus who know English have quoted +Cowper's address to his mother on getting her picture, "Oh that those +lips had language," and we have been asked, "Was not Cowper helped in +realizing his mother when looking at her picture?" To which there is the +obvious reply, "Cowper's mother was truly represented. Is God truly and +fittingly represented by the idols you worship?" + +The gods are continually represented as mediators through whom we +approach the Supreme. "When we seek the favour of a king we approach him +through his ministers; when we wish to propitiate a judge we try to +secure a friend who will plead for us: and thus by the gods we get +access to the Most High." To this we reply that as creatures we may each +one go directly to God, for He is always near us, and we can never be +far from Him; but as sinners we need a mediator. As the necessity for a +mediator is acknowledged, we have an excellent opportunity of showing +how worthy Christ is of being trusted as the Mediator, related as He is +by His essential nature to the Most High, and to man by the nature He +has assumed. A favourite figure with the Hindus is that the gods are a +ladder by which they ascend to the Supreme; and we could not have a +figure more adapted to our purpose, as it leads us to show that Christ +is the very ladder we need--He by His Divine nature reaching heaven, and +by His human nature being set upon the earth. His infinite excellence +and His propitiatory sacrifice assure us that this ladder is so strong +that it can bear the weight of the whole of the human family in their +ascent to God. + +Few things have been a greater stumbling-block to the Hindus than the +crucifixion of Christ, and we have to dwell continually on the fact that +it was not by the failure of His power, but by the ardour of His love, +He endured this death. Some of the gods, Shiva and Kalee in particular, +are propitiated by animal sacrifices, as blood is specially pleasing to +them. The need of sacrifice to deliver from the consequences of sin is +dimly discerned by the people, but they have such distorted views on the +subject that it is difficult to convey to them the Christian idea of +propitiation. + +[Sidenote: PUNDIT DEFECT IN HISTORIC INSTINCT.] + +The learned men of India have been singularly wanting in what may be +called the historic instinct, and we need not wonder at finding the +people generally destitute of it. The evidence for Christianity drawn +from its history makes no impression on them. Historical facts and the +wildest legends are received by them with equal readiness. When speaking +of the miracles of our Lord, and enlarging on their peculiar features of +power and goodness, I have been pleased to witness an attention which +led me to hope that a favourable impression was being made; but more +than once my hope has been dashed to the ground by one of my most +attentive hearers saying, "You have been telling us of your God. He did +excellent things, and you do well to worship Him; but listen to me, and +I will tell you what my gods have done." And then my hearer has become +the speaker, and has dilated on the wonderful feats of his gods, such as +Krishna lifting up a mountain and holding it on his hand above his +worshippers to shelter them from the angry bolts of Indra; and has +triumphantly asked, "Is there anything similar to that in your Bible?" +To which we have readily replied, "There is not, but there is what is +more worthy of God." The most illiterate of the people are very familiar +with mythological stories, and if listened to will go on to relate them +with the greatest gusto, and at the greatest length. + +Our doctrine of salvation by grace alone, and not in any degree by man's +merit, is often declared to be fatal to morality. This is often said in +our own country, and we need not say what we advance in its confutation. + +The doctrine of previous births has taken full possession of the Hindu +mind, as accounting for the character and events of the present birth. +This belief in transmigration has a very hurtful effect on the people, +as it leads them, when suffering for their conduct, to attribute their +sufferings to births of which they do not profess to have any +remembrance, instead of blaming themselves for the course they had +pursued. We have to show the baselessness, the unreasonableness, and the +injurious tendency of this notion. The doctrine of a blind fate +determining everything is widely held. The greatest criminals coolly +assert it has been their fate to have done what they have done, and, of +course, to suffer as they suffer. The moral nature of the people, though +benumbed, is happily not destroyed, and to it we appeal against a notion +which levels all moral distinctions. + +[Sidenote: PANTHEISM AND HINDU PHILOSOPHY.] + +Pantheism, it is well known, lies at the foundation of Hindu Polytheism. +It may be indeed doubted if there has ever been a Polytheistic system +apart from a Pantheistic element. The Hindus generally cannot work out +the Pantheistic theory, as the Pundits do, but the most illiterate are +familiar with its commonplaces, and are ready with their avowal. We +often hear, "Is not God everywhere? Does He not pervade all? Is He not +all? Is not all evolved from Him, as the spider's web is evolved from +its body? Does not all emanate from Him, as the stream flows from the +fountain and rays from the sun? Are we not all portions of Him? We may +worship anything and everything if only we see God in it. There are +differences in the sparks from the central fire, some far brighter than +others. The gods are the brightest sparks, and therefore they are +specially worthy of worship." In reply we have to insist on the +difference between the Creator and the creature, between the Ruler and +His subject. We are often told it is God that makes us speak and act, +and we are puppets dancing as He draws the strings. In protest against +this doctrine we appeal to the acknowledgment they themselves make of +the essential distinction between right and wrong, the one to be done, +the other to be shunned, and show that if their Pantheistic notion be +accepted the distinction is obliterated, and the floodgate is open to +the commission of all wickedness. + +The most advanced thought of Hindu philosophy is that all is Maya, +illusion, the play, the amusement of the Supreme, who leads us to +believe that we are, that we have a separate existence, which we have +not; but at last the illusion will come to an end, all will be absorbed +in Brahm, as the water in the clouds falls into the sea; there will be +no conscious existence in the universe. Brahm himself will glide into a +profound slumber from which he will awake after a vast season of repose. +A rope lying on the road is taken for a serpent, but it is only a rope. +There are hundreds of suns glancing on the waters, but there is only one +sun. In reply we contend that illusion implies reality; that if there +was no reality illusion would be impossible. If there was no serpent a +rope would not be taken for it. If there was no sun there would be no +suns glancing in the waters. + +The question has been often discussed, Have the Hindus any idea of a +living, personal God? It is unquestionable they often speak as if they +had. They often say, "Does not God see? Does He not know? Will He not +punish us if we do what is wrong?" It is difficult to say to what degree +this notion has been formed and cherished from intercourse for ages with +Muhammadans, and how far it comes from the demand of the human spirit +for the living God. Some eminent Sanscrit scholars tell us that the +Vedas teach Pantheism, while others assert that in their most ancient +teaching they assert the doctrine of a living, personal God. From this +divided opinion it is plain that the teaching of the Vedas on this vital +subject is ambiguous. At any rate there cannot be a doubt that the +modern Hindus have some notion of God as a living, conscious One apart +from His creatures, although it is held with Pantheistic and +Polytheistic notions, which are antagonistic to it, and greatly weaken +its influence. Its being held at all is very serviceable to a missionary +in the prosecution of his work. + +In a city like Benares many have acquired a considerable acquaintance +with the Bible, and these endeavour to find flaws in it to show that our +religion is as assailable as theirs. + +I must not go further into these details of evangelistic work. As I am +giving them my past life comes vividly to my remembrance. I remember its +pleasures, and also its difficulties and trials. I feel as if I was +engaged in preaching to the Hindus among whom I have spent a great part +of my life, and discussing with them the great questions which affect +God and man. I am consequently in danger of saying more than can be +interesting to my readers. + +[Sidenote: MUHAMMADAN OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.] + +In Benares it is rare to have only Hindus for our hearers. We very often +have Muhammadans also, and, they are our most eager and bitter +opponents. All I can now say about them is that they are bent on +entrapping us with questions about the Sonship of Christ, the Trinity in +the Godhead, the authenticity of the Scriptures as we now have them, the +alleged incompleteness of Christ's prophetic office, as proved, they +think, by the promise of the Paraclete as well as by the predictions in +both the Old and New Testaments. Among Muhammadans we have met +individuals who seemed sincere inquirers after truth, who seemed bent on +ascertaining what is true and discovering what is false. We have been +gratified with their apparent candour, humility, and reasonableness. We +must acknowledge these have been a small minority compared with the many +whose pride and bigotry have shut up their mind against everything we +had to advance, and whose sole aim has been to assail Christianity and +Christians. + +In the prosecution of the evangelistic work, which I have endeavoured to +describe, missionaries come into contact with all classes. The seed of +the word thus sown far and wide may remain for a time hidden, but we +have every reason to hope it will some time spring up and bring forth +abundant fruit. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +SCHOOLS. + + +From the commencement of Missions, schools have received much attention, +and have absorbed a large part of mission agency. These schools have +been of different orders, many primary, a number secondary, and a few +educating the pupils up to the University mark for degrees. I have had a +great deal of experience in teaching and superintending primary and +secondary schools, and I have seen something of the institutions of the +highest class. I now speak of schools for boys and young men. Girls' +schools will receive attention in a subsequent chapter. + +[Sidenote: PRIMARY SCHOOLS.] + +I do not know any mission in Northern India where elementary education +has been entirely neglected. Some have done much more in this department +than others, but all have devoted to it a measure of attention and +effort. We had at one time ten schools of this class in different parts +of Benares. In these humble schools many have learned to read, write, +and keep accounts, and have thus been fitted for discharging efficiently +their secular work. Their minds have been furnished and their character +improved by useful information communicated to them. Above all, +Christian instruction has been imparted. The schools have been +frequently visited by the missionary and his native assistants for the +special object of reading with the pupils portions of the Scriptures, +and inculcating the lessons they contain. Thus readers for our +Scriptures and Christian books have been prepared, who we may hope come +to their perusal with weakened prejudice from the kindly feeling with +which we are regarded. A favourable impression has thus been made on the +minds of parents as well as of pupils. + +I have already mentioned that these schools have been utilized for +preaching-stations, and have been well adapted for this purpose. They +have been carried on at small expense. The great drawback has been that +with few exceptions the teachers have been Hindus. They have been of the +Kaisth, the writer caste, who are as a caste less imbued perhaps with +Hinduism than any other. When Christians have been available their +services have of course been thankfully secured. For some years the +Hindu element has been gradually withdrawn from the teaching staff. Two +of the early teachers in our time became Christians, one having been +baptized in our Mission, and the other in the Church Mission at Benares. + +The whole state of primary education in the North-West, I may say in +India, is on a very different footing from what it was in 1840. Great +progress in every department of education has been made since that time. +Considering the vast importance of primary education, the advancement +has not been so great as might have been expected, but there is every +prospect of its being largely extended in the immediate future. It is +hoped that one outcome of the Education Commission which is now sitting +will be the gathering into schools of many thousands of the young who +have been hitherto neglected. + +In most Missions of any standing, even where the chief attention has +been given to direct evangelistic work, some provision has been made for +secondary education. A school with this object was established in our +Mission in 1845. It was taught in a well-sized native house, and was +afterwards transferred to a larger building. It had successive +superintendents, the late Mr. Sherring, Mr. Blake, and myself. It was a +longer time under Mr. Sherring than under any other, and in it he +laboured very diligently and efficiently. It received the name of the +Central School, as our idea was to transfer to it the best boys from +what we called the Bazar schools. It was intended to allow none to enter +who had not made some progress in reading their own language, but we +found this exclusion impracticable, and we were obliged to form an +elementary department. English was taught, and the higher classes were +introduced to geometry, algebra, history, especially Indian history, and +other similar branches of a liberal education. Almost all when they +entered were ignorant of English. Those who remained a considerable time +made fair progress, a few made remarkable progress; and we were happy to +find that many on leaving us obtained responsible situations, which they +continued to hold to the satisfaction of their superiors. + +For years under successive superintendents the Head Master was a +Christian, Babu Ram Chunder Basu, who is now most usefully employed as a +lecturer to educated natives. His great attainments, his diligence and +teaching power, did much to promote the prosperity of the school. + +In our Central school a very prominent place was given to Christian +instruction. Every day Scripture lessons were given by Christian +teachers; on Saturday, for years, a lecture was delivered to the +assembled school; and on Sunday morning a service was held, at which +there was a good voluntary attendance. The effect of the prominence thus +given to Christian teaching was shown early in 1857, when on a plan +arranged by the zealous public-spirited Commissioner of the Benares +Province, Mr. Henry Carre Tucker, there was a gathering in the city of +the pupils from all the schools in the province who choose to attend to +submit to an examination in Scripture knowledge. Prizes in money and +books were given to those who proved themselves most proficient. A great +number of lads and boys made their appearance, and the high place taken +by the pupils of our Central school showed how well they had been +taught. + +[Sidenote: THE UNIVERSITY STANDARD.] + +Some missions provide for taking their pupils on to the University +standard. Among these the missions in the Presidency cities have held, +and from their peculiar sphere must continue to hold, the first rank. I +have already observed nothing interested me more, nothing delighted me +more on reaching Calcutta early in 1839, than the sight of many young +men and boys taught in the institutions of the Church of Scotland and of +our own Mission. It was most exhilarating to see so many bright youths +studying our language, introduced to Western knowledge, and, above all, +led to the fountain of truth in the Word of God. Dr. Duff was not the +first in establishing in Calcutta an institution for the teaching of +English; he was not the first in establishing a Christian school; many +were before him in this good work: but he was the first in setting up an +institution on a large scale on a thoroughly Christian basis, in which +English was to have the first place, and in which provision was made for +carrying the students on to the University standard of Europe. In 1843 +the missionaries, on account of their adherence to the Free Church, were +obliged to give up their buildings in Cornwallis Square, and to seek +accommodation in another part of Calcutta, where they have continued +their scholastic work with great zeal and efficiency. The institution in +Cornwallis Square has been conducted for many years with remarkable +success by the missionaries of the Established Church of Scotland. All +the missions of Calcutta have taken part in this work, and have sent +forth bands of well-educated young men, who have acquired a large +acquaintance with the Word of God. + +Similar institutions have been formed throughout the country. As may be +supposed, these vary greatly in resources and efficiency. Years ago our +Central school was transferred from a rented house in the city to a +large purchased house in the suburbs, where, under the name of the High +School, it has continued to flourish. Many of its students have +successfully passed the Entrance examination of the Calcutta University, +and a considerable number have passed the First Arts examination. It has +always stood high in native estimation, has had a large attendance of +pupils, and is reckoned one of the best institutions of the kind in the +North-West. The change from the Central school, with its secondary +education, the the High school, with its arrangement to carry on the +pupils further, was made by the late Mr. Sherring, and to his assiduous +care and efficient management its success is largely due. It maintains +its character under the superintendence of our friend Mr. Hewlett, who +has arranged for the opening of a B.A. class. + +I have mentioned the University standard. For many years after our going +to India there was no University in the land. The establishment of +Universities in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, and the introduction of +the grant-in-aid system, have effected in the educational department a +change so great that it may be called a revolution. The studies in +mission schools are to a large extent what they were, but they have come +under new conditions, which greatly alter the proportionate attention +given to them, and the degree of zeal with which they are prosecuted. +Under the grant-in-aid system missionaries are allowed full liberty in +giving Christian instruction to their pupils. The only thing required by +the Government Inspector is that the secular education be such as will +entitle the school to a grant. If formerly a mission school egregiously +failed in fitting the pupils for the positions in life to which they +were looking forward, it rightly lost favour, and was soon deserted. Now +there is a new urgent necessity for efficiency, and the healthy stimulus +thus given is in itself a marked benefit; but if care be not taken the +opportunity for imparting Christian instruction is impaired, which +formed the main inducement for missionaries taking part in the work. + +[Sidenote: AMBITION FOR UNIVERSITY HONOURS.] + +The effect of the change is most marked in our higher schools. There is +a widely spread and intense ambition for University honours. Not only in +the Presidency cities, but in the great cities of the country, a crowd +of boys and young men are eager for admission to the University circle. +This eagerness springs from the desire for honourable distinction, which +is as strong in the minds of Indian youth as in any youth on the face of +the earth. It springs, perhaps, still more from the fact that the +University stamp, attesting educational proficiency, is a high +recommendation in favour of applicants for well-paid situations. It +would be hard to say how far a love of knowledge contributes to this +eagerness for study. It would be uncharitable to affirm it is altogether +absent, but it would be shutting one's eyes to potent facts to suppose +it furnishes the greater part of the motive power. Owing to various +causes, such as the want of opportunity, of capacity, and diligence, the +great majority of students do not aspire higher than the Entrance +examination; but even to pass this successfully is considered a great +feat, and many are proud of achieving it. The Calcutta University has a +high standard for degrees, and those who acquire them are entitled to be +considered well-educated men. + +The effect of this eagerness, we may say this rage for University +distinction, on mission schools can be easily conceived. The great +question with the student is, "How can I get to the University goal? +What are the studies which promise the quickest and largest success?" +The studies which do not lead to this goal have little attraction; while +those that lead to it, and just in proportion as they lead to it, are +eagerly pursued. Our Scriptures have no place in the University +curriculum. The consequence is that the student, whose supreme aim is to +acquit himself well when he goes up for degrees, and estimates studies +by their bearing on his success, gives to the Bible only the attention +required by the rule of the institution he attends, and he often gives +that attention reluctantly; so that even the knowledge he cannot fail to +acquire can scarcely be expected to tell on his heart and conscience. +Every hour given to the Bible he is apt to regard as taken away from the +studies which he most highly values, and in which, with all his +application, he finds it difficult to attain proficiency. + +[Sidenote: THE POPULARITY OF MISSION SCHOOLS.] + +It is undeniable that mission schools have been, and are, popular with +the people of India. From the Report just published of our Benares +Mission it appears that at present there are 1,265 pupils in its +schools, boys and girls. Various things have conduced to this +popularity. Missionaries as a class have acquired a firmly established +character for attention to their pupils and kindly treatment of them. +They are credited with good motives by many who have no drawing to +Christianity. Then, for a considerable time no charge for tuition was +made, the pupils being simply required to pay for their school books. +Since fees have been taken they are, I believe, generally lower than in +Government institutions; though, on the other hand, these have +scholarships and prizes which are far beyond any pecuniary advantage +mission schools can offer. There is, of course, in our schools the +possibility of the pupils' ancestral religion being weakened, or even +abandoned, but the hope is entertained both by them and their parents +that the danger will be escaped. While the main motive for resorting to +our schools is secular advancement--undoubtedly a right motive, if kept +within due limits--the missionaries, while earnestly desiring the +temporal welfare of their pupils, are actuated by a still higher motive, +which they constantly avow. Till the establishment of the University, +boys and young men, while prosecuting the special object for which they +had put themselves under tuition, with few exceptions showed no +disinclination to Christian instruction. A portion of the school-time +was allotted for it, and to the work of that time many cheerfully +applied themselves. Some became deeply interested, and a few were led in +consequence to avow their faith in Jesus. With the new University system +a new order of things has come in, which has placed Christian +instruction under great disadvantages. + +In consequence of this change some have advocated the entire withdrawal +of mission agency from the schools where the higher education is +imparted. It has been said, "Why should missionaries from day to day be +doing the work of mere secular teachers, in hope that during the short +time allotted for Christian instruction to young men, indisposed to +receive it, they can secure their spiritual good?" If they withdraw, +what then? The alternative is the loss of influence over a class that +may be expected to take the lead in all movements of their people, and +their transfer to teachers who are, in many cases, the avowed and bitter +foes of Christianity, and whose object will be to imbue them with their +own sentiments. There is abundant testimony to the fact that the pupils +of mission schools regard missionaries with a friendly feeling, and +diffuse that feeling in their respective circles, and also show respect +for the Gospel even when they argue against it to justify their +adherence to their ancestral religion. May it not be hoped, too, that in +many minds a conviction is left that Christianity is the religion of +heaven, although there are formidable obstacles to that conviction +obtaining sway over the heart and life? There have been instances where +the conviction has broken through every obstacle, and has been avowed by +open profession of faith in Christ. Our Missionary Societies may well +shrink from the abandonment of a sphere which furnishes the opportunity +for favourable influence over so many minds--and minds, too, which are +sure to be very influential in the community. + +[Sidenote: SABBATH SCHOOLS.] + +The preferable plan has been adopted. It appears from the latest +statistics that the number of students in mission schools is greater, +and the course of study more advanced, than at any previous period. I am +not aware that any of the missionaries in the higher institutions have +proposed to abandon them on account of the new state of things. While +giving themselves cheerfully to the imparting of the education which +their pupils are eager to acquire, they put forth resolute steady effort +to counteract the secularizing tendency of their studies. The assembled +school is opened with prayer, Scripture lessons are given, and, taught +as they are by Christians, the pupils are under Christian influence +during all their school hours. It is common in the North-West, and I +suppose in other parts of India, to have services in the schools on +Sabbath morning, at which the attendance is voluntary; and at Benares, +at least, the attendance has been very encouraging. Of late Sabbath +schools, apart from day schools, have been established in many missions, +with every prospect of success. The attendance is large, and in some +places a number of parents are present. These schools are carried on +largely on the English and American model. The international lessons are +used, pictures and books are given as prizes to attentive scholars; and +they have a yearly treat, in conducting which care is taken against the +violation of caste. The American Episcopal missionaries have taken the +lead in this new departure. + +It has been often remarked that our higher schools can show very few +converts. The conversions have not been many, and yet they have not been +so inconsiderable in number as they have been represented. When we look +at our mission agents we find that a large proportion of our most +efficient men, the men that have done the best service, have come from +these schools. At the great Missionary Conference at Allahabad in 1874, +at which I was present, they acquitted themselves in a manner which +attested their mental power and Christian earnestness, and gave one a +high opinion of their fitness for evangelistic work among their +countrymen. At the late Decennial Missionary Conference in Calcutta they +took a prominent and effective part. It is, indeed, a matter for deep +regret that of late our accessions from this quarter have been few; but +when hope has been at the lowest ebb one has appeared here and there to +strengthen it by avowing himself a follower of Christ.[3] + +[Footnote 3: At the Calcutta Conference there was much discussion about +schools, especially of the higher order. Experienced educationalists +gave expression to their views, some stating in strong terms the +aversion to Bible lessons shown by many of the pupils; while others, +among whom Mr. Miller of Madras was prominent, represented the pupils as +generally willing to receive Christian instruction.] + +In reference to our schools, in reference to our work generally, it is +important to keep before our minds the great power of public opinion. +Many are the things which go to form it; it is very subtle in its +working; the most acute and observant mind cannot estimate its force: +but when once widely formed its effects are remarkable. In India public +opinion is formed much more slowly than in a land like ours; the +constitution of society presents a stronger front to its action. But +there too it works, and when it works on till it has obtained +overmastering power we may expect to see a marvellous change. We cannot +doubt that missions have a high place in forming this opinion; and among +mission agencies I believe there is no one which has told and is telling +more beneficially on the people than our mission schools. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +ORPHANAGES. + + +All over India missions have had orphans under their charge, but from +personal knowledge I can only speak of the North-West. + +[Sidenote: FAMINE IN THE LAND.] + +The need for these institutions was most pressing in 1838 and 1839. I +remember hearing, on my arrival at Benares, the most harrowing account +of the fearful sufferings of the people over a great extent of country. +The famine had been sore in the land. People fled from their towns and +villages, hoping to reach a more favoured region; but travelling through +districts as destitute of food as those they left, they received no +help, and perished miserably. The weak and the very young were the first +to succumb. Many struggled on, eating grass or anything that could allay +the pangs of hunger, in the hope of reaching the cities where they could +expect relief from their own people, and still more from their English +rulers. At that time Agra was the seat of government for the North-West, +and as the famine was specially severe in that district, so great a +multitude poured into it that, notwithstanding the strenuous effort put +forth by Europeans, official and non-official, helped by wealthy and +benevolent natives, only partial relief could be afforded. The means of +communication between one part of India and another were, even at that +time, far better than they had been in the days of native rule; much had +been done to improve the roads, but owing to the distance of places +where food was comparatively abundant, and the length of time and the +expense incurred in conveying it to the afflicted districts, timely help +was not obtained. Many children were abandoned, and the authorities sent +out orders to their subordinates to rescue these waifs and feed them +till arrangements could be made for their support. + +Missionaries felt themselves called on to offer their services in this +dreadful emergency, and the offer was readily accepted. The large +expenditure for which they thus became responsible was met by a small +allowance made by Government for each child, by a grant from a Famine +Fund which had been raised, and by contributions received by +missionaries from friends to help them in this new undertaking. + +The institutions then established have become permanent. The places left +vacant by the death of many of the first inmates, and the entrance into +active life of those who survived, were soon filled by others who had +equal claims on Christian compassion. On the occasion of great melas +children are often lost, and in not a few cases their parents are never +found. In the great cities, by the death of parents, and by the +abandonment of children--sometimes through extreme destitution, at other +times by unnatural indifference--helpless little ones are cast on the +pity of the public. From country places forsaken children are sent to +the head-quarters of districts. In seasons of scarcity, which frequently +occur, and especially in famine years such as 1861, large additions are +made to the number of orphans. With these causes operating to produce +the class from which orphanages are recruited, there is no likelihood +of the time coming when they will not be needed. The people, as a rule, +are undoubtedly kind to children; but when we consider the great poverty +of many, the extreme difficulty with which they obtain the necessaries +of life, there is no reason to wonder at the cases of destitution which +are continually presenting themselves. In our own country, with all its +advantages, we have numerous orphanages, where many are sheltered and +trained for useful life, who would otherwise be thrown as waifs on the +surface of society. + +[Sidenote: SANGUINE HOPES.] + +When orphanages were first formed in Northern India, great hope was +entertained they would not merely relieve present and pressing distress, +and do good to a large number of destitute young persons, but would tell +powerfully on native society, and lead to the formation of a large, +strong Christian community. The sufferings of the people afflicted by +famine were deplored, they were regarded with deep pity; everything was +done which could be done to relieve them, but it was hoped that out of +this calamitous state of affairs would be evolved, through the +overruling of Providence, a signal moral and spiritual benefit to the +people generally. Here was a large band of boys and girls taken out of +native society, cut off from idolatrous training and associations, and +made over in the most plastic season of their lives to be moulded by +those whose supreme aim would be to strengthen and elevate their +character, and prepare them for a happy, useful, and honourable career. +It was hoped that when these children thus trained grew to manhood and +womanhood, they would go out among their countrymen striking examples of +moral and spiritual excellence, and would by their manifest superiority +make a greater impression on the minds of the people than could be made +by the preaching and efforts of missionaries. A worthy chaplain sent out +a pamphlet advocating the gathering by Government of all the orphan +children in the country, and, if I remember rightly, of all the children +with whom parents were willing to part, and the placing of them in +institutions where they should be brought up as Christians, and as +members of the Church of England. He maintained that if this was done, +in the course of a few years a great number would go out to native +society to leaven it with Christian sentiment, and with loyalty to the +British Government. He drew a glowing picture of the good that would be +accomplished if this policy were adopted and vigorously carried out. Few +were so hopeful as my friend, but many did anticipate great results. + +It cannot be doubted that orphan institutions have done much good; but I +think none will maintain that the sanguine hopes with which they were +begun have been realized. There have been obstacles in the way of +success which might have been partly foreseen, but which could not have +been fully anticipated. Many of the children brought to the missionaries +were so sickly and emaciated, that they soon died in spite of all the +attention bestowed on them. The mortality has been at times most +depressing. There was no vitality to resist disease. The effort to +preserve life was in many cases frustrated by the vitiated taste of the +children, which led them to eat lime, earth, garbage of any kind on +which they could lay their hands, in preference to good food. They were +closely watched, but it was impossible to watch them so closely as to +prevent them from doing that which hurried them to the grave. + +[Sidenote: THE DIFFICULTIES IN ORPHAN MANAGEMENT.] + +The orphans were of different ages, from very early youth to fourteen or +fifteen. The elder ones were steeped in the spirit of the class from +which they came--as a rule the lowest class of the community; and the +younger ones had in their very blood hereditary qualities which put +obstacles in the way of successful training. We do not believe there is +in blood the overpowering efficacy which some have attributed to it; if +it had, responsibility would cease, and the effort to raise certain +tribes and classes would be hopeless; but we believe it has a strong +influence, and we think we have seen clear evidence of its hurtful +effect on Indian orphans. There were these difficulties to begin with. +And then it was impossible to bring these children under the happy +influence of an orderly living family. In our own country it has been +found highly conducive to the right bringing-up of orphans, to the +repressing of evil tendencies, and the drawing forth of the finer +elements of character, to secure for them domestic training to the +utmost extent circumstances will permit. The keeping of many together, +not merely taught together, which is very desirable, but eating +together, sleeping together, constantly acting and reacting on each +other, is found very unfavourable to the formation of the right +character, however careful, wise, and kindly the superintendence may be. +In India, where hundreds of orphans were brought at once to mission +premises, this gregarious life was unavoidable. Besides, it is +impossible to separate orphans from the community around so completely +as to leave them unaffected by its moral atmosphere. + +There was of course a difference in the qualifications of those who +undertook this great charge, some being more fitted for it than others; +but this we say with the utmost confidence, after an intimate +acquaintance with the working of some of the larger orphanages, and a +general knowledge of others, that they have been managed with a +laboriousness, a patience, a wisdom, and a kindness, deserving of the +highest praise. Those in charge acted as parents, so far as that was +possible, but in the nature of things there could not be the close +attention and the fond personal affection to each of ordinary domestic +life. We remember cases where children were committed to well-ordered +Christian families with happy results, but for many years after +orphanages were founded there were no such families to receive them. + +[Sidenote: THE OCCUPATIONS OF ORPHANS.] + +With the exception of orphans sent to Baptist Missions, they were as a +rule baptized at once, and were thus brought within the pale of the +Christian Church to be trained for the love and service of Christ. The +first place was given to Christian instruction and training. All were +taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. Those who proved themselves +capable of receiving a higher education were continued at school, in the +hope of their becoming qualified for offices such as those of teacher +and preacher, for which mental and moral fitness was indispensable. The +great majority were early taught a trade. In the larger orphanages a +variety of trades was introduced--tailoring, carpentry, baking, dyeing, +carpet-making, printing, bookbinding, and farming. Some of these trades, +after much labour had been bestowed upon them, were given up, as it was +found the orphans could not compete with native workmen. They had not +the energy and aptitude possessed by those who followed their ancestral +occupations, and who had been from their earliest years familiar with +the conditions of native trade. Hopes were entertained many would betake +themselves to farming. These hopes have been only partially realized. +On land secured by the Church Mission of Benares, at a short distance +from the city, orphans when they grew up were settled; but few took +kindly to the work, and most soon abandoned it. There are now a few +Christian families on the ground, but the larger part of the land is let +to ordinary native agriculturists. In some places, such as Goruckpore +and Shahjehanpore, the experiment has been successful. A greater number +have continued at printing and bookbinding than at other trades. +Co-operative associations of native Christians have been formed at +Allahabad for printing, and at Futtygurh for tent-making, which I +believe continue to prosper. These associations are under unfettered +native management. A considerable number who have come out of orphan +institutions have followed the trades they were taught, and have +succeeded in getting employment in different places. Many were trained +as servants, and in that capacity they are scattered over all Northern +India. These have been joined by not a few who were taught trades, but +did not continue in them, as they deemed service easier and more +profitable. This is much to be regretted as native Christians in service +are exposed to many disadvantages and temptations from their +fellow-servants, and too often from their European masters and +mistresses. The position of a capable artisan is far superior. + +It must be acknowledged by those who have the kindest feeling towards +the orphans, and who wish to entertain the most favourable opinion of +them, which truth will permit, that they have often been wanting in +energy and self-reliance. There has been a tendency to lean unduly on +those to whom they have been indebted for the preservation of their +lives, and for everything which makes life desirable. They have been +accustomed to call them, in the language of the country, _ma, +bap_--_mother, father_--and to expect everything to be done for them as +if they were still helpless children. This can not be said of all, but +it must be acknowledged this unduly dependent spirit has been often +shown. A greater wrong could not be done to orphans, when grown to +maturity, than to treat them as children, unable to make their own way +in the world. This would be to destroy all strength of character, and +turn them into abject, and at the same time discontented, paupers. Few +have been so destitute of common sense as to have supposed that in this +way they were to be supported, but there has been a tendency to expect +the missionaries to set them out on a career of self-support, and remove +all obstacles in their way without any special effort on their part, and +when difficulties have arisen to fall back on their missionary friends +to set them out afresh. When these expectations have not been realized, +they have been disposed to view their guardians as having failed in +parental duty and affection. We have known cases where the rough +experience of life has taught self-dependence, and thankfulness also for +the treatment, which at the time was regarded as unkind, but had led to +lasting benefit. So far as we have been able to ascertain, the ordinary +feeling among those who had been inmates of orphan institutions, and of +their descendants, has been one of affection and gratitude to those who +have watched over them and provided for them in their days of +helplessness, and who have toiled and in many cases suffered to promote +their temporal and spiritual good. When travelling we have met many of +this class, and have been much gratified by the spirit they have shown. + +Some have come out of orphanages well equipped for the highest work by +character and attainments. As teachers, catechists, and native +preachers, these occupy honourable and useful positions, and have been a +great blessing to the Church and the world. In the course of our +residence in India we have seen many of the missions in the North-West, +but our acquaintance with them is too slight to enable us to mention the +number given by orphanages to the higher class of native agents. We have +known several who are worthy of all respect, confidence, and affection. + +[Sidenote: ORPHANS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.] + +To the question, "What is the general character of the large community +of native Christians formed of orphans and their descendants?" it is +difficult to give a satisfactory reply, though easy enough to give one's +impression. A characterization of communities is one of the most common +and at the same time most unsatisfactory of operations, as the data for +its being done well are so wide, recondite, and difficult to grasp. As I +proceed I shall have occasion to give my views of native Christians +generally. All I can now say about orphans and their descendants is, +that considering what human beings are, as shown from age to age, +considering the circumstances and surroundings of those of whom we are +speaking, the moral and spiritual results are what might have been +expected, though not all that had been wished for and hoped for. +Sanguine spirits had hoped that they would have had a striking +superiority to their fellow-countrymen, which would have drawn forth +their wonder and led them to inquire whence the superiority had come; +but no one will maintain this has been the case. A few, I believe very +few, have turned out utterly reprobate. The character of some who have +not lapsed into gross wickedness has been very unsatisfactory. Many are +respectable members of society, and make the profession of religion +implied in attending public worship and calling themselves Christians. A +considerable number show in different ways spiritual character. What +more can be said of congregations composed of those whose advantages +have been immeasurably greater? It would have been a most pleasing, but +at the same time a most remarkable and unparalleled result, if orphans +brought up under the charge of missionaries had gone forth a united +band, with no defaulters, to maintain the cause of God among their +countrymen, by a life so adorned with excellence that its testimony to +Christ could not be resisted. The result actually attained, though +chequered, is sufficient to show that orphan institutions have by the +Divine blessing done much good, and that the faithful labour bestowed on +them has borne gratifying fruit. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +MISSION TOURS. + + +In our own country, under the pressure of life, many hail the release +from toil and the refreshment of spirit promised by the annual summer +trip. So in India missionaries avail themselves of the cold season to +sally out for the prosecution of their work. Their main object is to +make known the gospel to the many whom they are sure to meet wherever +their tent may be pitched, who have never heard the name of Jesus, +except perhaps amidst the bustle and noise of a mela, and who but for +itineracies would remain in total ignorance of the Saviour of mankind. +The missionary who does not keep this before his mind as his chief aim +is unworthy of the name. While this object is pursued, another is sought +which missionaries deem very legitimate. Health is indispensable for the +efficient discharge of their duties, and travelling is found very +beneficial to the health of their families as well as to their own. +Touring in the cold weather, by the new strength it gives to the body +and the refreshment it gives to the spirit, has been found to prepare +them for a new campaign at home as nothing else could have done. + +Some missionaries have kept themselves within a limited sphere not far +from their homes, visiting the same places again and again, obtaining a +personal acquaintance with many of the people, and endeavouring to +deepen any impressions which may have been made. Others have travelled +for weeks, sometimes for months, over hundreds of miles, visiting the +towns and villages on their route, and speaking about the things of God +to all whom they have met. + +During my long residence in India it was my privilege to undertake tours +of both descriptions. I never stopped at home during the cold +weather--we are not in India in the habit of saying "summer and winter," +but "hot weather and cold weather"--except when justice to my +colleagues, or the necessities of the mission, compelled me to stay. +There were seasons when my colleague was, either from inexperience or +ill-health, unable to do the home work; or, as happened more than once, +I had no colleague at all, and in these circumstances it was obvious +duty to remain at my post. Even then I commonly managed to get out a +little into the surrounding country. On some of our tours we were put to +no small inconvenience, and we were not strangers to hardship; but we +look back to them with much pleasure, and think how much we would like +to set out on them again if circumstances permitted. + +[Sidenote: VOYAGING ON THE GANGES.] + +At an early stage of our residence at Benares voyaging on the Ganges was +a favourite mode of enjoying the cold season. There were budgerows, +vessels with two tolerably sized rooms, available for hire at a moderate +charge. It was indispensable to have with the budgerow a small boat for +the accommodation of servants and for the cooking of food. On a few +occasions I took a trip on a vessel of this description with my family, +moving up and down the river, and halting towards evening near a town +or village, which I could visit for the purpose of speaking to the +people about the Saviour. The country is so populous that there was no +difficulty in mooring our little craft in the evening near some place +where hearers could be collected. It was seldom on any tour in the +North-West we were allowed to forget that we were in the region of the +sacred river, which receives from the people divine honours, and which +in their belief confers inestimable benefit on all who bathe in its +waters. When on the bank of the river, its alleged virtues formed a +frequent subject of remark and discussion. There, as elsewhere, we had +to tell them that Ganges water, however good for refreshing and +cleansing the body, cannot wash away one spot from the soul. We had to +tell them frequently, that as the washerman who puts clothes into a box +and carefully washes it with the expectation of their coming out clean +and white will be acting a very foolish part, so they were acting an +equally futile part if they supposed that the water of the Ganges, so +useful for the body, had any effect on the spirit. In answer to the +remark that Ganges water could not do what other water could not, as it +had nothing peculiar in its composition, I have been gravely told that +two things exactly the same to the senses may be essentially different; +and the proof given was that the river Kurumnasa, which means the +destroyer of merit, takes away all merit from those who bathe in it, +while bathing in the Ganges secures an untold degree of merit, extending +not only to one's own past and future, but to an untold number of +ancestors and descendants! + +When on the Ganges or its banks one continually sees proof of the +implicit trust placed in it. We remember being awakened very early one +morning long before dawn by a person bathing close to our boat, in a +quivering voice which showed he was chilled by the water, long and +earnestly imploring the favour of _Gunga Ma_--Mother Ganges. + +There is no part of India, mountain or plain, where serpents may not be +encountered. One evening, when returning to our boat from a village on +the banks of the river, I was walking warily on a narrow path +half-covered with grass from both sides, when I saw before me what I +first supposed to be a rope. I halted, and immediately a serpent glided +away. That evening, before reaching the boat, I saw at least a dozen of +serpents at their evening gambols over the ruins of a house. I walked +quietly on, deeming it the best part of valour to leave them +undisturbed. If they observed me they showed no inclination to approach +me. + +For many years voyaging on the Ganges has gone out of fashion. Native +boats laden with produce and wood continue to ply, but the budgerows and +pinnaces, which Europeans could hire, have almost entirely disappeared. +There are various reasons for this change. The current of the river is +very rapid in some places, which makes the work of dragging against it +very slow and tiresome; there is sometimes the danger of collision with +other boats. The high banks of the river here and there prevent the +country from being seen, and at other places there is a dreary stretch +of sand. Though the weather of the cold season is very steady, a storm +might come on, and if it did neither boat nor boatmen could be trusted; +for the boat, never of the best material, was often sadly out of repair, +and the boatmen were ready, when danger appeared, to throw themselves +into the water and make for the shore, leaving the passengers to shift +for themselves. There was, indeed, the pleasantness of sailing on a +broad river; the air was very fresh; there was no leaving of the +temporary abode from day to day; the trouble of a shifting camp was +escaped, though occasionally there was inconvenience from the +indispensable cook-boat not keeping sufficiently near. Opposed to these +advantages were the disadvantages I have mentioned, which were always +felt to be serious drawbacks; and when the roads had been improved, and +journeying facilities increased, travelling by land obtained so decided +a preference, that the river has been well-nigh abandoned by Europeans. + +[Sidenote: SHORT AND LONG TOURS.] + +Some seasons our touring was confined to a narrow range, not extending +beyond thirty or forty miles. We every now and then spent a few days +within a few miles of the city. Our first journey of any considerable +length was, at the end of 1840, to the mela at Allahabad, some seventy +miles north-west of Benares, which I have already mentioned. At the end +of 1842 I made a tour along with my wife and child to Agra, more than +four hundred miles from Benares, which occupied us about three months. +On this tour we passed through Allahabad, Cawnpore, Futtygurh, +Mynpoorie, and other well-known places. Early in 1847, accompanied by a +brother missionary, we went to Almora, nearly six hundred miles distant, +travelling with our tents to the foot of the hills, and spending six or +seven weeks on our way. We left Almora for Benares in October, and +reached it early in December, having taken Meerut, Delhi, and Allygurh, +as well as Cawnpore and Allahabad, in our return route. Our long +journeys many years afterwards were performed with few exceptions under +new conditions, and with much greater expedition. + +If my readers are in thought to accompany us on those journeys, it may +be well to state the circumstances in which we travelled, the weather +we had and could generally expect, our travelling arrangements, the +state of the roads, and the aspects of the country through which we +passed. + +As to the weather, it was generally delightful. We had from day to day +an unclouded sky, with the sun rather strong as the day advanced, but +with a refreshing breeze, which made it thoroughly cool in the shade, +even cold sometimes, so that one was inclined to go out into the +sunshine to get warmth. In the daytime warm clothing was pleasant, and +at night, especially in tents, our blankets and wraps came into full +requisition. There was a steadiness in the weather exceeding anything +known in our climate. We have known weeks without any shading of the +sky. There were, however, occasional breaks. Now and then clouds +gathered from day to day, and at length came down in heavy rain, which +was most welcome to the farmers, especially when it came as it often +did, about Christmas. Thunder storms might be sometimes looked for, +accompanied by sudden and severe gusts of wind. These days of +atmospheric disturbance were sufficient to make us, as travellers, +appreciate more highly the weather with which we were ordinarily +favoured. + +[Sidenote: APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY.] + +The greater part of the country through which we travelled is very +level. Beyond Chunar, indeed, which is sixteen miles from Benares, and +Mirzapore, which is thirty miles distant, there is a great extent of low +hill-country. These districts we visited several times. The most of our +journeys were in the wide open plains of the North-West. The country, +though level, is by no means uninteresting. You receive as you travel a +very favourable impression of the productiveness of the land and the +industry of the people. In the cold weather you see, as far as the eye +can reach, a sweep of growing corn, wheat and other grains, which give +the hope of an early and abundant harvest. Towns and villages meet your +view on every side. If you get to a slightly elevated spot you are +struck with the number of wells you see in the fields, dug for the +purpose of irrigation. In the great region lying between the Ganges and +the Jumna, called the Doab--the country of the two rivers, the +Mesopotamia of Northern India, over a great part of which we travelled +for the first time at the end of 1842 and the beginning of 1843, and +which we have often traversed since--there is no extensive forest near +the Trunk Road. In all directions, however, you see clumps of lofty and +shady trees, and occasionally groves of considerable extent. Trees have +been largely planted along the road, and within every few miles there +are groves, where travellers get their tents pitched, and where they are +thoroughly protected from the glare and heat of the sun. Even in the +coldest part of the cold weather tents pitched in the open become +quickly too heated for comfort. In the groves the deep shade cast by the +widely-spread branches and the thick foliage sometimes darkens the tent +too much for reading and writing; but outside, on a chair before a small +table, if that be required, one can spend hours very pleasantly reading +or writing, as it may be, and listening if inclined to the cawing of the +crows, the cooing of the doves, and the notes of other birds, while the +gentle breeze rustles through the trees, and the children, if any, play +with their toys under them. + +Natives, when they travel, as I have already mentioned, manage things in +a fashion which we are not able to imitate, but which I have often been +inclined to envy. Let them have flour, water, a little wood for fuel, +if not in its stead dried cow-dung, and they partake with relish of the +meal their own hands have cooked, conscious of no want and complaining +of no hardship. The relish is increased if they can get some of the +ordinary vegetables of the country. With the meal over, after chatting a +while over the Hookah, the "hubble-bubble" as English people call it, +the pipe which sends tobacco smoke through water, they wrap themselves +in the blanket which they carry with them, and sleep soundly under a +tree, when, as is often the case, no Sura, a native resting-place, is at +hand. If rain comes on they creep into a place where the rain cannot +reach them, if such a place be available. A few Europeans have at +different times tried to follow the habit of native travellers, and in +very exceptional cases it has been successful. The ordinary result has +been the speedy ruin of health. + +Our habits compel us to travel in a different way. When a missionary is +alone, though he cannot travel as a native does, he can put up, and does +put up, with inconveniences to which a family cannot be exposed. The +family, however, requires a change as well as himself; and when wife and +children are with him, as they often are, the house is shut up at home, +home servants are taken, and travelling requires only a slight addition +to the domestic staff. An additional horse is needed for the conveyance +(in India a conveyance is not a luxury but a necessity); two tents are +required, one to be sent on over-night, while the other is kept behind +for occupation; along with the tents, slight portable beds, bedding, +small folding-table, cane chairs, and cooking-vessels. These goods of +the moving household are laden and forwarded on carts called Hackeries, +drawn by oxen. Highly paid officials manage as they travel to have with +them many of the luxuries and even some of the elegancies of life, but +missionaries are satisfied if they get necessaries. As we travel we +manage, though not always, to get milk, fowls, and eggs, and +occasionally a kid. Whatever beside we need must be taken with us. + +[Sidenote: PLEASANT TOURING.] + +When the weather is fine, the roads good, the horses and bullocks strong +and manageable, and the attendants efficient, touring in the North-West +in the cold weather is very pleasant. If travelling be prosecuted from +day to day, the custom is to rise very early in the morning at the +earliest dawn, or before dawn, when the morning-star appears, and to +rouse the camp. This was my part when travelling with my household. The +watchman wakened me, and I wakened all around. We got quickly ready, and +set out on our journey of twelve or fourteen miles. The mornings were +not only cool, but often sharply cold. On arriving at the end of our +stage, it might be as early as eight or half-past eight o'clock, we +should find, and often did find, the tent pitched, which had been sent +on over-night, the table spread commonly under a shady tree, the water +boiling, food prepared; and then with a keen appetite we sat down to +breakfast. When the afternoon was a little advanced, the cart arrived +with the tent and other things left behind, and was soon pitched for our +night occupancy. Towards evening the day-tent was taken down, and was +sent on over-night with everything requisite for the next day. When all +the circumstances were favourable, everything went on with an ease and +regularity which made us feel at home while away from home, and gave us +at the same time the constant variety of new scenes. + +The circumstances were not, however, always favourable. They were +sometimes the reverse. The new horse was unmanageable, the bullocks were +weak and could not draw the carts, the servants were remiss or +incapable, the roads were in some places shockingly bad, we were left +for hours without tent and food, and, as I have said, the weather now +and then was wet and stormy. We had sometimes an amount of trouble which +made us half regret we had left home. Ladies are generally very patient +in such circumstances, but children are sorely tried. The difficulties +we encountered in some of our early journeys were such that we now +wonder how we got out of them, and succeeded in getting on at all. The +touring in favourable circumstances, which I have described, is not +however a mere ideal. Happily it was often with us a reality. On setting +out things required to be adjusted. Time was required for getting things +into their places, and for each person learning to do the work assigned +him. When once we got into travelling trim, and our people were what +they ought to be, things went on with the regularity of clockwork. + +I have mentioned our long tours in 1842 and 1847. On these journeys we +had a good deal of pleasant smooth travelling, and we also encountered +some of the difficulties of which I have spoken. The Trunk Road from +Allahabad to the North-West was in excellent condition in 1842-43; but +from Benares to Allahabad it had been allowed to get out of repair, and +the roads diverging from the Trunk Road on one side to Futtygurh and on +the other side to Agra we found very bad. The story of our difficulties +is well remembered by us, but it must be given very concisely. At one +place a wheel of our conveyance broke in the middle of a stage, and +after some delay we succeeded in getting an Ekka, a small native +conveyance drawn by a pony, on the narrow platform of which the members +of our party who could not walk were squatted as they best could; while +the rest of us walked. We sent on word of our trouble to our missionary +friends at Futtygurh, who kindly arranged to get us on to their +hospitable abode, and to get our conveyance repaired. Three days after +leaving Futtygurh our best horse died, from sheer fatigue in drawing our +conveyance through the sand. This threw us on having it drawn by +bullocks at the rate of a mile and a half, or at the utmost two miles, +an hour, over a very bad road, which jolted us frightfully. + +[Sidenote: WALLED VILLAGES.] + +As we travelled we saw many things which drew our attention and excited +our interest. Most of the villages along our route were surrounded by +high mud walls, and had only one entrance by a great strong gate, which +was shut at night, reminding us of the insecurity from which this part +of India had emerged when it came under British rule within the memory +of men then living. Villages thus fortified, if sufficient watch was +kept, were quite secure against the sudden raids of Mahratta horsemen, +or the attacks of robbers, to whose unwelcome visits they were always +exposed. The former state of insecurity was also suggested by the number +we met armed to the teeth, by shield on the breast, sword at the side, +and matchlock on the shoulder. The insecurity had to a great extent come +to an end, but the habit of going armed continued. + +Along the road at convenient distances there were Suras for the +convenience of travellers, which people in England, when speaking of +Eastern lands, call Caravanserais. These are generally open spaces, +surrounded by mud walls, with sheds at their sides for people who are +willing to pay a very trifling sum for the luxury of sleeping under +cover, and, if they like, for having their horses near them. Carts and +oxen are always in the open. Sellers of grain and wood are always there +with everything native travellers require. If a bedstead--a low +four-footed article with rope for its bottom and mattress--be preferred +to the bare ground, it can commonly be procured for three-halfpence for +the night. When in the evening we were near these places we went to +them, and saw the poor weary travellers setting to the preparation of +their simple meal--with most the only cooked meal of the day--with +apparently as great contentedness as we have when after a fatiguing day +we reach an hotel, and, having given our orders, know that speedily we +shall sit down to an ample repast. Many of these Suras have been built +at the expense of well-to-do natives impelled by different motives, for +love of name--_nam ke liye_, as the natives say, a motive for which +their countrymen continually give them credit--for the acquisition of +religious merit, and from benevolent feeling. These places are called +Dhurmsalas, places erected by righteous, good men. + +[Sidenote: "WELLS OF SALVATION."] + +On this our first long journey in the country, we were impressed by the +amount of traffic we saw on the road; and this impression was deepened +on future occasions. We seldom travelled a few miles without seeing +carts drawn by bullocks and laden with goods. We saw rows of camels, +walking in single file, each attached to the one before and the one +behind by a string. These belonged chiefly, though not exclusively, to +Afghans, and were laden to a large extent with the products of their +country. Every now and then we came across elephants, sometimes with a +stack of tender branches on their back, which form a large part of +their food, and at other times with persons seated sometimes on a +howdah, sometimes on a pad. There were many foot-passengers, not a few +with heavy loads on their heads. When these came in sight of a well, how +quickly did they step up to it, throw off their burden, drop into it +their brass vessel attached to a string, draw it up, and take a long, +deep draught of the precious water! As I have observed them I have +thought of the words, "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of +salvation." To these poor toiling people the wells did appear wells of +salvation. On some days we met bands of persons--chiefly men, with a +woman here and there among them--with bamboo rods across their shoulders +with a basket at each end, their travelling gear in and on one basket, +and a vessel with Ganges water in the other. Thousands of these pilgrims +travel every year over Northern India, going from one shrine to another, +and pouring on certain images the water of the sacred river. + +In our journeyings we had a singular immunity from thieves, a greater +immunity than we had in our house at Benares, which was several times +visited by these unwelcome intruders, though we always kept a watchman. +All over the North-West, I suppose all over India, thieves abound. Whole +tribes have for generations followed theft as a profession, and have +betaken themselves to honest work only when compelled by finding their +occupation perilous. They have had as their associates the idle and +dissolute of other castes. Tents, as I have observed, are commonly +pitched in shady groves, and in consequence admit of being approached +unobserved, and a sharp knife in a skilful hand can easily secure an +entrance on any side. Travellers have piquant stories to tell of the +cleverness and impudence with which their property has been taken away. +A missionary friend of ours awoke one morning to find that during the +night everything in his tent had disappeared on which thieves could lay +their hand. We had a large experience of tent life, but we have happily +no story to tell about any similar loss. I do not remember our having +had even a night alarm, though I well remember the difficulty we often +had in preventing our guardians from sending forth unearthly cries, +which made sleep impossible. My habit was, wherever we halted, to make +my way to the headman of the adjoining village or town, and to place our +encampment under his care. We were generally told there were thieves in +the neighbourhood; we were sometimes told they were numerous and daring. +We always stated our readiness to pay for watchmen, and we told the +headman that if he did not send trustworthy men we should hold him +responsible. We thus paid a sort of black-mail, but we thought the small +sum paid well expended as insurance for the safety of our property. Some +travellers take watchmen with them. This we never did, as we thought +ourselves safer in the hands of men on the spot. Many a time as we lay +down in our tent did we think how strange it was that, far away from our +European brethren, in a strange land among a strange people, we could +compose ourselves to sleep with as little fear, and with as strong a +feeling of security, as if within locks and bars in our own country. We +thought, with thankfulness, that we were under the ægis of our own +government, even when we were in places where Englishmen were seldom +seen, but where, notwithstanding, our prestige was fully recognized. + +At all the places through which we passed on our first long tour, +Allahabad, Cawnpore, Futtygurh, Mynpoorie, and Agra, we were treated +with the utmost kindness by the American and English missionaries, and +by other Christian brethren, some of whom have been life-long friends +ever since. + +[Sidenote: THE BUILDINGS OF AGRA.] + +We were interested in all the places we saw on this tour; but +Agra--Akbarabad, as natives always call it, the capital of Akbar, the +most remarkable emperor who ever ruled over India--had for us, as for +all who have visited it, peculiar attractions. When at some distance +from the city we saw glistening in the sun the lofty dome and the still +loftier four minarets or towers of the Taj Muhal, that wondrous +mausoleum of the purest marble, built by the Emperor Shah Jehan for a +favourite queen. On our arrival we lost no time in going to it. On +subsequent visits to Agra we renewed our acquaintance with it, and on +every new occasion its exquisite beauty and lofty grandeur enhanced our +admiration. We also saw the Motee Musjid, the Pearl Mosque as it is +called, built of marble, and called the Pearl Mosque, as I suppose, on +account of its beauty and symmetry; the grand tomb of Akbar at Secundra, +six miles from Agra; and other objects of interest. I am not to attempt +a description of these world-famed buildings of Agra. They have been +often described, and by none perhaps better than by Bishop Heber in his +journal, which is now little read, but which gives a more graphic and +accurate account of the parts of India he visited in 1825 than any I +have seen elsewhere. Of the Taj and other grand structures of the +Muhammadan emperors, he says they look as if "built by a giant and +furnished by a jeweller." + +While deeply interested in much we saw in this tour of 1842-43, on it, +as well as on all subsequent tours, our great evangelistic object was +kept steadily in view. On this occasion I was accompanied by a +catechist. In the early afternoon, when we might hope to meet people +released from the work of the day, we repaired to the neighbouring +village. Often we found a large tree at the entrance to the village, +with a stone seat close to its trunk, and on it we sat down. If there +was no such seat a small native bedstead was often brought--such a thing +as a chair was unknown--and we were asked to sit, while the people +politely stood, till at our request they sat, which they can well do on +their haunches. We entered into conversation with those who gathered +around us. We asked if there was any pundit, any learned man in the +village; and if there was we were happy to see him come, as we knew the +people would look on us with less suspicion if he was present. In many +places they were so unaccustomed to the sight of Europeans that they +looked on us with a mingled feeling of curiosity and fear. We tried to +put them at ease by speaking about something in which we knew they were +deeply interested, such as their fields and crops, and as soon as we +well could we made our way to the subject of religion. We read those +passages from our Scriptures which we thought most fitted to arrest +their attention. We aimed at setting forth the great facts and truths of +revelation with all the simplicity, conciseness, and earnestness we +could command. We repeated what was not understood, or was +misunderstood, and endeavoured to make it plain by familiar +illustrations. + +We met with varied reception. In some places the people were so stolid, +that even the catechist, one of their own people, seemed to make no +impression. On many occasions we were heard most patiently, and were +treated most courteously. Now and then, especially in the larger places, +and where markets were being held--these are held weekly in central +places, sometimes twice a week, and are well attended--there was much +noise and great interruption. At times we encountered strong, bitter, +and captious opposition. On the whole we met with far less opposition, +and with a much more patient and respectful hearing, than at our stated +work in a city like Benares. Often we were thanked for our visit, and +were told our teaching well deserved consideration. Not infrequently the +remark was made, "What you say is very good, but we never heard it +before; we understand it very imperfectly, you will be leaving +to-morrow, and we shall forget it all." We parted with such persons with +a heavy heart. We always halted on the Lord's Day, and often on other +days, when we met with encouragement and circumstances permitted. + +[Sidenote: AN ANCIENT CAPITAL.] + +Kunauj, now a poor, decayed town, composed chiefly of low mud-built +houses, with not one fine building in it so far as I remember, was, as I +have already mentioned, for ages the most famous city in Northern India, +the capital of sovereigns ruling over extensive regions. The Brahmans of +Kunauj continue to hold the highest rank in the Brahmanical hierarchy, +but I believe only a few reside in Kunauj and its neighbourhood. As we +learned it was only a few miles off the Trunk Road, we determined to +halt a day for the purpose of visiting it. We accordingly went to it one +morning, and remained in it some time, looking at the mounds which cover +the ruins of its palaces, and which is all that remains to tell of its +former greatness. A number gathered around us, with whom we conversed. +They seemed so much interested in what we said about the Saviour, that +we promised to visit them on our return. We accordingly arranged to +remain a Sabbath at the part of the Trunk Road nearest to Kunauj. +Reaching it on a Saturday we sent on a small tent, and early next day, +accompanied by the catechist, I made my way to the town. There we +remained the entire day, and I have seldom had such a day of pleasant +toil. The people came in crowds, and talk on the highest subjects was +kept up from hour to hour. The catechist, after a time, left me to visit +some persons he knew in the neighbourhood, and I was left alone to +unfold the doctrines of Christianity, and to answer the questions put to +me. I more than once said, "I must have rest." All went out, and I lay +down on a piece of carpet on the floor of the tent. Some one soon peeped +in; "Have you not had rest now, sir?" and so I had to get up and resume +my work, not over well-pleased the catechist had left it all to me. +Since that time Kunauj has had visits from missionaries, and they have +had many hearers, but I have not heard of any fruit gathered from these +visits in the form of converts. + +[Sidenote: AN EARNEST INQUIRER.] + +I was greatly impressed with one visit I received on this tour. We had +got over our morning journey. I was, I suppose, more tired than usual, +for in the forenoon I lay down on our travelling bedstead to rest. I +heard a voice at the tent door, "Sahib, sahib!"--"Sir, sir!"--and I +said, "Come in." In came a native well dressed, and looking as if tired +with a long walk. I told him to sit down on the carpet, which he did, +and he then proceeded to tell me the object of his visit. He said in +substance: "Last night you were in a village twelve miles from this +place, and you there spoke much of an incarnation, an '_autar_,' which +had for its object the deliverance of man from the power and punishment +of sin. One who heard you last night told me something of what you had +said. I have long been a worshipper of the gods of my fathers, but I +have got no rest, no satisfaction. I have heard much of incarnations, +but I know of no sinless one. Not one of them has done me any good. Have +you certain information of one that can deliver me and satisfy me?" I +need not say what I said in reply to this great inquiry. We talked long +and earnestly. I found he could read, and I gave him a Gospel and some +tracts. He professed to be much interested. I begged him to give me his +address that I might communicate with him. He did not pointedly refuse, +but no address was given to me, apparently from the fear, so common +among the people, of the reproach and suffering which will come upon +them if they be suspected of an intention to abandon their ancestral +religion. I parted with the man praying, that he might be led to the +Saviour. Often, often have I thought of him; often have I hoped that +what was said that forenoon had sunk into his heart; but I have never +seen him, never heard of him, since that time. + +I have mentioned that early in 1847 we went to Almora, in the Hill +Province of Kumaon, and towards the end of the year returned to Benares. +Before our departure we had the pleasure of seeing the completion of a +work which had made a great demand on our time and attention, and had +caused us no small anxiety--the erection of a new place of worship in +the Grecian style, in the place of the small mud building in which we +had hitherto met. This was our first essay in building, and our +inexperience led us into many mistakes, which we tried to avoid in +future work of the kind. The building cost above £1,200, fully twice the +sum we had calculated. Through the liberality of friends its entire +cost was met within six months of its opening, and it has proved of +great service to the Mission. The opening services were conducted in +Hindustanee and English. The late Rev. J. A. Shurman preached with great +power in Hindustanee to a crowded congregation composed of Christians, +Hindus, and Muhammadans, and I preached in English to a large European +congregation. We were greatly encouraged by the liberal collections made +at these services. + +[Sidenote: SLOW TRAVELLING.] + +I must defer to a later period of this work what I have to say about +Kumaon, to which we paid several visits, and where we spent the last +years of our Indian life. Our journeying to and from Kumaon in 1847 was +partly over the ground traversed on our trip to Agra in 1842-43, and +partly over new ground, as one may see by looking at the map of Northern +India. The conditions of the journey were to a large extent those I have +already described; but we suffered from bad roads, from our camp +equipage falling behind, and I may add from inefficient service, much +more than we had formerly done. On reaching Almora we mentioned to a +friend the route we had taken, and he said, "Surely you have not come in +a wheeled conveyance, for I am told that road is impassable." I told him +the road was passable, for we had passed it, but if we had previously +known what it was we should not have attempted it. Amidst the tracks we +saw, we often had difficulty in deciding which was the road. Between +unbridged streams with high banks, ditches, and deep ruts which caught +our wheels and would not let them go, our progress was much impeded; but +we toiled on. At one place we were happily helped by a company of +Sepoys, whose medical officer was a dear Christian friend. In other +places we were extricated by the help of villagers. + +As we journeyed in these circumstances we were not in a mood to be +amused, but I was amused one day by the contrast between a romantic lady +and an unromantic "sais" (_anglicè_, groom). The Hills had come grandly +into view, but unhappily we were fast in a ditch. The lady looking to +the "sais" said, "Sais, do you not see the hills?" To which he most +dolefully replied, not lifting his eyes as he spoke, "Madam, what can I +see? We are stuck in the mud." + +One day we took full ten hours to go twelve miles. When we came to the +end of our stage we found we had to encamp for the night in the low +scrub of the forest, with stagnant water all around us. There was a hut +at the place with two native policemen to help travellers, and we were +told by them that there had been for some days in the neighbourhood what +is called "a rogue elephant"--an elephant which, for some reason known +only in elephant councils has been driven out of the herd, and is so +enraged by his expulsion that he is ready to run amuck at every person +and animal he sees. This was not pleasant intelligence. We found native +carts at the place, ready to proceed in the morning to a market to be +held at the foot of the hills; and after a very uncomfortable night, +much disturbed by the cries of the beasts of the wilderness, we set out, +the people shouting to scare the elephant, which, though ready for +mischief, is frightened by noise. We saw no trace of him. When the day +was well advanced we reached a rest-house close to the hills, with a +brawling stream behind it, with which our children as well as ourselves +were delighted, one of them clapping his hands and saying, "Water clear +and bright!" We had our first and rather perilous hill journey the next +day, but my account of it and subsequent journeys in the mountains must +be reserved for another time. + +We went to Kumaon by the most direct route through Futtygurh and +Bareilly. We returned by a longer route _viâ_ Meerut and Delhi. Our +difficulties on our way back were somewhat different, but they were +quite as great as on our upward journey. Some of the streams we had to +cross were not fordable, and we had great difficulty in getting +ourselves ferried over. A few nights were spent in exceeding discomfort, +our carts not having come up with our tents, and we were shelterless and +supperless--rather, if I may coin such a word, dinnerless. One night +cover was got for my wife and children, but a missionary brother and +myself remained out all night, with no possibility of obtaining rest, as +a pack of jackals were gorging themselves on the carcase of a bullock, +and making the most hideous noises. As the night was cold, and we had no +bedding, it was perhaps well the jackals were there, as otherwise we +might have been tempted to lie down on the bare ground, which we could +not have done with safety to our health. When once we got to the Trunk +Road, which we had from Delhi to Benares, our travelling difficulties +were at an end, and we got on most comfortably. + +At Delhi our tents were pitched in an open space near the house of Mr. +Thompson, for many years the Baptist missionary in that city, whose +widow and daughters were afterwards so barbarously murdered by the +mutineers in 1857. With him and his family, and with some other +Christian friends there, we had much pleasant intercourse during the few +days we remained. We of course saw the sights of the grand old imperial +city--the Juma Musjid said to be the largest mosque in Asia, a most +commanding building on a small rocky elevation, to which you ascend by +a lofty flight of steps, and which has a most magnificent court paved +with granite inlaid with marble; the palace, so far as it was open to +visitors; the Chandnee Chauk, the great open street and market-place +with a fine stream of water flowing through it; and, at the distance of +a few miles from the city, the remarkable tower, the Kootub Minar, 240 +feet high, erected by the Muhammadan conquerors who first made Delhi +their capital. For miles around there are ruins of mosques, mausoleums, +palaces, and splendid mansions. For a description of Delhi, as for the +description of Agra, I must refer my readers to Bishop Heber's Journal. + +During this journey to and from Kumaon we carried on, so far as +circumstances permitted, the missionary work I have already mentioned. +Our experience while prosecuting this tour so closely resembled that of +which I have already given an account, that it is unnecessary to enter +into details. + +[Sidenote: CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY.] + +As on our visit to Agra in 1842-43, so on these journeys of 1847 we met +with the greatest kindness from our missionary brethren, some of whom we +had afterwards the privilege of entertaining at Benares. It mattered not +whether they were Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Baptist, English, +Continental, or American (at that time there were no Methodist missions +in Northern India), we received a cordial welcome, and though formerly +unknown to each other we at once felt at home. We sometimes felt in much +need of help, and it was most readily afforded. To some other Christian +friends we met our grateful acknowledgments are due. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +RETURN TO BENARES. + +VOYAGE TO ENGLAND AND RETURN TO INDIA, A.D. 1847-1857. + + +When two more years had passed, during which we were enabled to carry on +our work with few interruptions, we found that, beneficial though our +visit to the hills had been, we stood in need of a still greater change, +and of a more thorough bracing of both body and mind. Health again began +to fail, and we felt unequal to the work devolving on us. We accordingly +left Benares for Calcutta towards the end of 1849. As our children were +young, and travelling by land was both fatiguing and expensive, we hired +a budgerow and sailed down the Ganges. Our voyage lasted over four +weeks. It gave us the opportunity of touching at a number of places, +Ghazeepore, Buxar, Monghyr, Dinapore, Patna, and Berhampore, in most of +which we had the pleasure of meeting missionary brethren. Towards the +end of January we embarked on the ship _Monarch_, and after a +prosperous, though not a rapid, voyage we arrived in England in May, +1850. The only place at which we touched was St. Helena. We lay off it +the greater part of a day, but none were allowed to land as we had +measles on board. + +I will dismiss our stay in England in a few sentences, as it is no part +of my plan to give English reminiscences. Like other missionaries on +leave, I visited many places in England and Scotland on behalf of the +Society of which I was an agent. At the expiration of our leave in the +autumn of 1852 medical opinion forbade our departure. By the autumn of +1853 health was so improved that the way was open for our return to +India. + +[Sidenote: VOYAGE TO INDIA.] + +After a season of severe domestic trial, which delayed our departure, my +partner, myself, and two children embarked on board the _Indiana_, one +of a new magnificent line of steamers plying to India round the Cape of +Good Hope, in November. The voyage extended to eleven weeks. The weather +throughout was remarkably favourable. We touched at the Islands of St. +Vincent, Ascension, the Cape of Good Hope, the Mauritius, Point de +Galle, and Madras. We landed at most of these places, and this took away +in a great measure the weariness of a long voyage, which I must say we +felt increasingly on every successive occasion. We were detained at the +Cape for three or four days, which gave us an opportunity of getting to +the top of Table Mountain, and of visiting the vineyards a few miles out +of Cape Town. We were hospitably entertained by Mr. Thompson, and +attended his services on the Lord's Day. Mr. Ellis, who was at the time +at the Mauritius, kindly came on board as soon as the _Indiana_ came to +anchor, and took us on shore to the house of our missionary, Mr. Le +Brun. We attended his service--it was the Lord's Day--and were delighted +to see so many present, several of whom we were told were refugees from +Madagascar. The congregation was well-nigh entirely composed of people +of colour, varying from the brown of the mixed race to the jet black of +the negro. The white dresses formed a striking contrast to the dusky +faces, many of which, dark though they were, were lit up with an +expression indicative of intelligence and contentment. The service was +conducted in French, which continues to be the language of the island, +although many years have elapsed since it became a British possession. +After the service we were taken to the house of the Secretary to +Government, who hospitably entertained us. We embarked the next day. As +we were proceeding to the shore we were struck with the familiar sounds +of the Hindustanee language from the lips of Indian coolies. We were +sorry we could exchange with them only a few passing words. During the +few hours we were off Madras we had the pleasure of landing and seeing +some of the missionaries there. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO BENARES.] + +After a short stay in Calcutta, we set out for Benares. The journey was +performed in a new fashion. We purchased a conveyance, and arranged to +have it drawn by relays of coolies all the way. Arrangements were made +by an agent in Calcutta to have word sent on in advance, so that at +every sixth or eighth mile coolies might be in readiness for us. Before +1839 the great Trunk Road from Calcutta to Delhi had been made, but the +streams and ravines were for the most part unbridged, and consequently +travelling by a wheeled conveyance was very slow and difficult. By 1854 +the road had been greatly improved, many bridges had been made, and thus +the facilities for travelling were much increased. At every twelve or +fourteen miles there were rest-houses for European travellers, called +"staging bungalows," all built on the same plan at the expense of two +wealthy natives, each with two rooms and a bath-room attached, a +bedstead in each room, a table, and two or three chairs, with a man in +charge to take a small sum from each traveller for accommodation, and +ready to furnish him with a good Indian meal at a very moderate rate. At +some of these we stopped for rest and food. Our party consisted of our +family, and a lady friend who wished to travel with us. Desirous to get +on quickly, we were sometimes in our conveyance twenty hours out of the +twenty-four, and dosed as we proceeded the best way we could. We met +with no adventure worth relating, and were glad after ten days' +journeying to find ourselves once more in our old dear abode. We had a +most hearty and gratifying welcome from our brethren, both European and +native. We reached it on a Saturday. I told the brethren that after my +long absence, and entire disuse of the native language during that +period, I must be a hearer the next day. They said that could not be, as +the people were expecting me to officiate. Thus urged I ventured to +conduct the service, and I was agreeably surprised to find that old +scenes seemed to revive my knowledge of the language, and to bear me +through with unexpected ease. + +We resumed work at Benares recruited in health, and refreshed in spirit, +and prepared by the experience of previous years to prosecute it with +new effectiveness. We had a sense of the difficulties of the work, its +trials and discouragements, and of the absolute necessity of Divine help +in order to its being rightly prosecuted, which we could not have had at +an earlier period; and we had at the same time a deeper realization of +its greatness, blessedness, and final certain triumph. The missionary +has little of the spirit of his office, and little fitness for it, who +at every successive stage of his course is not increasingly bent on +honouring his Master and promoting the good of the people among whom he +labours, and who is not at the same time increasingly thankful for +having been called to so high an office, while deeply humbled at his own +unworthiness and his many shortcomings. + +During the three years under review, our native Christian congregation +was larger than it had been at any previous period, and, I am sorry to +say, larger than it has been in later years. There were at that time +about twenty Christian households in the mission compound, and several +Christian families came from a little distance. There was a +printing-press in our neighbourhood, which gave employment to a number +of our people, and others succeeded in getting situations which gave +them comfortable support. It was a gladdening sight, when the gong was +struck for worship, to see them making their way to the chapel, and to +find them, when assembled there, well-nigh filling the place, all +cleanly clad, and devoutly engaged in the service of God. Many a time +was my heart full of joy and hope when ministering to them. We had, +indeed, our difficulties and trials. These are never long or far from us +wherever we may be. There were inconsistencies and lapses among the +native Christians which grieved us; but their general conduct was good, +they were at peace with each other, and in some there were marked +indications of growing piety. + +Our tours during the cold weather of these years were mainly confined to +the country within thirty or forty miles of Benares. Our only tour of +any length was in January and February of 1857, when we went on the +Calcutta road as far as Susseram, more than a hundred miles distant; +and, leaving the Trunk Road, made our way to the rock of Rohtas, +overlooking the Soane, where there are extensive remains of an imperial +fort. We lodged one night in one of the deserted halls, of which there +were several in a fair state of preservation, and we were told that to +these the tigers of the surrounding forest occasionally resorted. During +the Mutiny this fort was for some time the headquarters of a rebel +chief. With the exception of this tour to the east of Benares, to which +I shall afterwards refer, our experience in these itineracies closely +accorded with that of former years. During this period the school and +preaching work of the mission was steadily prosecuted by the catechists +and missionaries. + +[Sidenote: TWO GATHERINGS AT BENARES.] + +Towards the close of 1856, and at the beginning of 1857, there were two +interesting gatherings at Benares. The one was the meeting of boys and +lads from all parts of the province for a Biblical Examination--of which +I have already given some account. The other was a Missionary +Conference, which was largely attended and efficiently conducted. The +facilities for travelling were not so great as they are now, but they +were such as admitted the presence of a number of missionaries from +distant places. We parted deeply thankful for the pleasant and +profitable intercourse we had had with each other. Little did we think +of the terrible storm which was so soon to break over us, in which +several of our number were to lose their lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE MUTINY OF 1857-58. + + +No one who was within the range of the hurricane of 1857, no one who was +even on its edge, can ever forget it. When we now look back, we marvel +that a single European in that part of India was spared to tell of its +fierce struggle, its sad sights, and its fearful perils. The annals of +the Mutiny are furnished in volumes filled with ample details. Its +causes and consequences have been largely discussed. My narrower and +humbler aim is to describe that terrible outbreak so far, and only so +far, as it came within my own experience and observation. My narrative +will, however, be better understood by stating briefly the causes, +which, in my opinion, led to this great rising against us, and by giving +an outline of its progress before reaching Benares, where we then +resided. + + +CAUSES OF THE MUTINY. + +Our position in India is very peculiar. The history of the world +presents no parallel. A great continent, containing a number of nations, +possessed of an ancient civilization, some of them composed of races +given to war and noted for their prowess, with a population amounting at +present to 253 millions, has been brought under the dominion of a +country of limited extent and limited population like ours, separated +from it by many intervening countries, and accessible only by thousands +of miles of ocean. That continent has not been subjected to tribute, and +then left to its native rulers. Over by far the greater part of India +these rulers have been displaced, and British rule has been established. +Where native rulers remain, they are bound to administer their affairs +in accordance with the views of the Sovereign Power. Over a part of the +Indian continent the rule commenced more than a hundred years ago, and +from decade to decade it has extended till it now embraces its present +vast proportions. It extends beyond India. In the North-West we have +entered into what properly belongs to Afghanistan, and from Burma a +large extent of territory has been taken; so that the east as well as +the west coast of the Bay of Bengal has come under our rule. To all +appearance the rule is as firmly established as if it had come down from +ancient times. + +[Sidenote: INDIA CONQUERED BY INDIAN SOLDIERS.] + +It would be a great mistake to suppose that India had been conquered for +England by its own people. If they had been left to themselves, no part +of it would now belong to us. The small European force has always been +the backbone of our armies; but in every battle native soldiers have +formed the great majority. The French gave us the example of employing +native soldiers to place their country under European rule. In the +dissolution of the Mogul Empire, thousands of warriors were ready to +fight the battles of any one, European or native, who would pay them +well. The example of the French was followed by the English, till India, +from Cape Comorin to the mountains of the north and the north-west, came +under their sway, to an extent and with a completeness and firmness of +grasp never reached by the Muhammadan power in its palmiest days. Each +Presidency--Bengal, Madras, and Bombay--has had its own native army, in +1857 amounting altogether to 240,000 men. In the Bengal army, by far the +largest of the three, there has never been a single native of Bengal +Proper. It has been entirely composed of north countrymen, to a large +extent of Brahmans, and Chhatrees the old fighting caste of India, who +have entered our service on account of its good pay and good treatment, +though alien from us in everything by which one people can be alien from +another. Many of the native soldiers have been Muhammadans, who are +intensely averse to us on both religious and political grounds. Under +the influence of friendly intercourse and good offices performed to each +other, a kindly feeling often sprung up between officers and men; but as +a body they were mercenary troops fighting for strangers, and the +history of the world furnishes abundant instances of such an army being +as formidable to their employers as to those against whom they have been +employed. In the course of time our native soldiers were more and more +trusted; important places were garrisoned by them, military stores were +entrusted to them; and nothing was more natural than that in the more +ambitious of their number the thought should spring up that the time had +arrived for expelling the stranger, and seizing the power within their +grasp. In thus acting they could make themselves sure of the sympathy of +their countrymen. + +[Sidenote: CAUSES OF DISSATISFACTION.] + +The Sepoys have been treated in the matter of pay, clothing, and food, +as they never were under native rulers; but they have been subjected to +strict discipline, and they have been cut off from the much-prized +privilege of foraging, or rather plundering. They have at different +times complained loudly of unjust treatment. Alleged breach of promises +of pay, and their being sent to fight our battles in foreign countries +such as Burmah, China, Persia, and Afghanistan, and to parts of India +foreign to them, have been prominent among their causes of complaint. +They have not confined themselves to complaint and remonstrance; they +have again and again broken out into mutiny, which has led to some +regiments being disbanded, and the mutineer leaders being severely +punished. Years before 1857 it was asserted by persons eminently +qualified to judge, like Sir Henry Lawrence, that grievous mistakes had +been committed in the administration of the native army, and that our +safety demanded great changes in its treatment and distribution. When +one reads the statements they made, and the warnings they gave, the +wonder is the mutiny did not sooner occur. Lord Ellenborough, before +leaving India, declared the Sepoys were our one peril in India, and +characteristically proposed we should keep them in humour by keeping +them always fighting. + +All other causes of revolt were light compared with the charge often +advanced and believed that we were bent on the destruction of their +religion. From the outbreak at Vellore in 1806, on to the great mutiny +of 1857, this charge was persistently made. The Sepoys were allowed all +the religious liberty compatible with military obedience; they had every +facility for following their religious customs; they were fenced off +from Christian influences as no other part of the community was; they +were solemnly assured again and again their religion would be +scrupulously respected; they had full evidence before their eyes that +with few exceptions their officers had no Christian zeal. Whence, then, +this charge of tampering with their religion? The explanation is to be +found in the character of Hinduism. It is intensely outward. It is a +matter of rite and ceremony, of meat and drink, of clothing and posture. +It may be filched from a man without any act of his own by the act of +another, and he may not be aware till informed that the fatal loss has +been incurred. Something may be introduced into his food which will +deprive him of his religion, and make him an outcast all his days. What +more easy than to introduce a defiling element, such as the blood or fat +of the cow or bullock, of which the Brahman or Rajpoot might unaware +partake? To this intensely outward religion people of these castes are +passionately attached from custom, from superstition, and still more, I +think, from the consideration among themselves and others which caste +purity secures. Their honour, _izzat_, as they call it, is their most +valuable possession. An attack on it is bitterly resented. This honour +is quite consistent with licentiousness, robbery, plunder, and even +murder; but to violate caste by drinking from the vessel of a low-caste +man, or eating with him, would bring with it indelible disgrace. To +partake of the cow, the sacred animal, is the greatest crime which can +be committed, and, if done unconsciously, the greatest calamity. + +Notwithstanding the fact that the English as a people had little zeal +for their religion, the Sepoys thought they saw reasons for our wishing +to effect their conversion. If Christians, they would be fitter +instruments for carrying out the designs of their English conquerors. +They would in that case be no longer hampered by class distinctions, +commissariat arrangements could be more easily made, they would have no +objection to serving in foreign lands, and they would become identified +with us. What was more easy than to effect the change by the +manipulation of their food? Their imagination led them to interpret +facts as justifying suspicion, and the supposition was enough to drive +them to revolt. + +The Muhammadans in India have become Hinduized to a large extent; they +continually speak of themselves as a caste, and Muhammadan soldiers have +shared with their Hindu comrades in the fear that the English were bent +on destroying their religion. They took the most prominent part in the +mutiny at Vellore in 1806. They were injudiciously required there to put +on the English military hat, to shave their beards, and put on leather +belts, which they maintained were made of pigs' skins; and all this was +done, they said, to turn them into _Topeewalas_, Hatmen--in other words, +into Englishmen and Christians. + +[Sidenote: CO-OPERATING CAUSES FOR REVOLT.] + +Outside the army there have been causes, co-operating with those within, +in prompting the soldiers to rise against us. Our government is a very +foreign one. There is a national gulf between the rulers and the ruled, +and consequent absence of the sympathy which would draw them to each +other, if they were of the same people. Our government is at once +expensive and strong, requiring a large amount of taxation considering +the resources of the country, and able to enforce its payment. India has +been greatly favoured by high-minded and able rulers; but often, with +the best intentions, from want of thorough acquaintance with the native +character and customs, injustice has at times been done by the decisions +of our courts. Though giving security for person and property, such as +India had never previously enjoyed, our government has borne hardly on +some classes, such as the officials of the native states we have +annexed, the numerous dependents of the abolished native courts, and the +able and enterprising members of the community, for whom no suitable +sphere has been open, as the main prizes in both the military and civil +services are reserved for the English stranger. Then deposed princes +have now and then intrigued with the army to draw it away from its +allegiance. + +In the spring of 1856 Lord Dalhousie laid down his office, after his +long and memorable Proconsulship. So little did he anticipate the events +of the coming year, that in the elaborate Minute he wrote on his +retirement he satisfied himself with saying, regarding the native army, +that the condition of the Sepoy could not be improved. Till the closing +months of the year there was no fear of the coming storm. Profound peace +reigned throughout India. War had been declared against Persia, but +hopes were entertained that victory would soon crown our arms, and these +hopes were fulfilled. + + +THREATENINGS OF THE STORM. + +Towards the end of 1856 and early in 1857 there were mutterings of the +storm. A number of men were selected from each regiment to be taught the +use of the Enfield rifle, and for this purpose a new cartridge was +required, which required to be bitten with the teeth. The report spread +like wild-fire, and was firmly believed, that the cartridge was smeared +with bullock's fat to destroy the caste of the Hindus, and with pig's +fat to destroy the caste of the Muhammadans. The Adjutant-General of the +army declared there was not the slightest ground for the statement; but +the more strongly our innocence of design on their religion was +asserted, the more firmly did the Sepoys believe our guilt. Paper was +offered to them, and they were told to prepare cartridges for +themselves; but they said the paper was dangerously glazed, and they +would not accept it. Among other things causing disquietude was an order +that in future all enlisting must engage to go wherever they might be +sent in India or beyond. Hitherto some regiments had been enlisted only +for service in India, and could not be sent out of it except by their +own consent. On every side there were signs of a new era setting in, +which forbode no good to the ancient customs and institutions of the +land. The more aspiring spirits among the Sepoys had evidently formed +the project of uniting the whole army in the attempt to drive the +English into the sea, and secure power and emolument for themselves. + +[Sidenote: CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOURABLE TO REVOLT.] + +Various things favoured the project. It was well known that many +throughout India hated the English, and were ready to join in their +expulsion. Forts and arsenals were left in their keeping, unchecked by +the presence of European soldiers. The mass of the European force was in +the far North-West, in the Punjab, and towards the border of +Afghanistan, as if there the danger lay. The Sepoys saw that if they +could combine and act in concert they could with ease strike us to the +ground. Then the prophecy was widely spread that our rule was speedily +to come to an end. It had commenced with our victory at Plassey on June +23, 1757; and when the sun of June 23, 1857, should set, not one English +face would be seen in India. Mysterious cakes, resembling our bannocks, +were sent on from village to village, like the fiery cross in Scotland +in former days, to prepare the people for great and startling events. +Early in 1857 the ferment among the soldiers was spreading among large +classes of the people. + +During the cold weather of 1856-57 I spent some weeks in travelling with +my family in the country to the east of Benares, on the Calcutta road. +We left the high-road and made our way, as I have already mentioned, to +Rohtas Gurh, a famous abandoned fortress on the top of a hill. In some +of the villages to which I went to preach the Gospel the bitterest +feeling was shown, especially by young men, towards our rule and +religion. In one place the feeling manifested was so bitter that I +thought they were prepared to lay violent hands on me. I remember +remarking more than once, as I returned to the tent weary and worn out +in body and mind, that a strange feeling was coming over the people, +which I had never previously observed, and that I feared dark days were +approaching. + + +THE OUTBREAK AND PROGRESS OF THE MUTINY. + +At Berhampore, more than a hundred miles above Calcutta, and +Barrackpore, a few miles from it, the Sepoys broke into open mutiny, +which led to the leaders being executed and their regiments disbanded. +The outbreak at these places made a painful impression on the entire +English community, and created deep anxiety. That anxiety was increased +by the reports received from day to day of the mutinous spirit shown by +the Sepoys all over the country. We were told of midnight meetings, +insolent conduct, and incendiary fires. The most sanguine could not but +fear that we were entering a calamitous period. The most hopeful were +those officers who had been long with native regiments, and were sure +that whatever others might do, their men would remain staunch. + +[Sidenote: THE RISING AT MEERUT.] + +At length, on May 10th, the storm burst out at Meerut in all its fury. +I cannot enter on a detailed account of the events of that sad, +memorable day. I can only in a few words mention what took place. On the +previous day 87 men of a native cavalry regiment had, before the whole +garrison of the place, been put in irons for repeated persistent +disobedience. Though there was a large European force a native guard was +put over the prisoners, who were confined in a place close to their +comrades. No precaution was taken against their rescue. On the evening +of the next day, Sunday, as the Europeans were gathering for Church, the +Sepoys rose, murdered their officers, hastened to the parade ground, +liberated their imprisoned comrades, opened the jails, raised all the +villainy of the native town, massacred the Christians whom they met, +men, women, and children, set houses on fire, and then set out for +Delhi, the great old imperial city. There they were welcomed by the +titular king and his family, and there, as at Meerut, they murdered all +the Christians on whom they could lay hold. By the mismanagement of the +large European force at Meerut, a small portion of which was well able +to cope with the Sepoys, they did not arrive on the scene of revolt till +the Sepoys had done all the mischief on which they were bent, and had +set out for Delhi. + +That 10th of May we remember vividly. We had had our usual afternoon +service with the native Christians. In the evening we walked out in the +garden. The moon was shining in an unclouded sky. Hot though the weather +was we enjoyed our quiet walk, talked of the services of the day, and +the threatening appearance of affairs. Little did we think of the +terrible scenes which were then being enacted at Meerut. + +The outbreak at Meerut awoke as with a peal of the loudest thunder the +entire English community in India, and especially in Northern India, to +a sense of imminent peril. We had hitherto lived in the enjoyment of +profound security. There had been uneasiness on different occasions, +when our power seemed imperilled by the disasters which overtook us in +Afghanistan in 1841-42, and by the life and death struggle we had +afterwards with the Sikhs. Our enemies were then watching for our fall, +and the reasons for uneasiness at those times were stronger than the +community generally were aware of. There had been also at different +times uneasiness in reference to the Sepoys, but they came to be +regarded as wilful children, who might be troublesome, but who would do +us no harm. In our own country, among our own people, we could not have +felt safer than we ordinarily did. At the travelling season we went +about, pitched our tents in solitary spots, for weeks together perhaps +did not see a white face, and were treated not only with courtesy, but +generally with profound deference, as if we belonged to a superior race. +The people in their obsequious fashion, and with their idolatrous views, +would almost have given us divine honours. All at once we realized +ourselves as living in the midst of a dense alien population. Our own +trusted soldiers, serving under our banners, receiving our pay, and +sworn to defend us, had risen against us; and with them as declared +enemies, in whom could we confide? Our obsequious servants of yesterday +might become our murderers to-day. We felt ourselves at bay, surrounded +by a host who might any moment fall on us and destroy us. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE OUTBREAK AT BENARES. + + +At no place was the shock felt more severely than at Benares, where I +was residing with my family. In no place was the danger greater. We were +living in the suburbs of the most superstitious and fanatical city in +the land. Again and again during the eighty years of our rule there had +been riots in the city, professedly to avenge religious wrongs--riots so +formidable, that they were quelled by military force. A very few years +previous to 1857 the city was thrown into violent commotion, in +consequence of new messing regulations in the jail, by which it was +alleged, though without reason, the caste of the prisoners would be +affected. The rowdy element, composed of those emphatically called +_bud-mash_ "evil-doers," persons ready for every mischief, was very +strong. The Sepoys put in the forefront of their quarrel the plea that +they were fighting for their religion, and where could they expect so +much sympathy and help as in Kasee? Sir Henry Lawrence, writing some +time previously about the mistakes committed in the management of the +native army, named Benares as a place where fearful scenes would be +witnessed in the event of a Sepoy rising. Intensely Hindu, though +Benares be, it has, as we have already observed, a large Muhammadan +population, and in attacking us the Hindus could fully depend on their +help. + +Our danger was greatly increased by the vast disproportion between the +native and European force--a disproportion so great, that apart from the +danger of our neighbourhood to a great city, from which we might expect +a host to pour out to attack us, it looked as if we were doomed to +destruction. We had in Benares a Native Infantry regiment, which was +believed to be tainted; a Sikh regiment, the temper of which was little +known; and, a few miles off, an Irregular Cavalry regiment, composed, it +was said, of a superior class of men, all, I believe, Muhammadans, but +whom few could trust in the event of a rising. Our European force +consisted of thirty artillery-men in charge of a battery of three guns. +At the fort of Chunar, sixteen miles distant, there was a number of +European soldier pensioners, of whom perhaps sixty or seventy might be +effective. So unbounded had been the confidence in the Sepoys, that the +artillery-men in Benares and the pensioners in Chunar were the only +European force in the entire province of Benares under the Benares +Commissioner, with a population of over ten millions; while in seven +stations in the province there were native soldiers, chiefly infantry, +but partly cavalry and artillery. Besides the English officers of the +native regiments, and some half-dozen English civil officials, the only +English people were missionaries of the Church, Baptist, and London +Societies, and a few traders, while a few indigo planters were scattered +in the country. + +[Sidenote: PREPARATION FOR THE STORM.] + +On the news of the Meerut mutiny reaching Benares, the civil and +military authorities lost no time in consulting what should be done. The +proposal that we should leave in a body for the Fort of Chunar was most +wisely rejected. It was impossible to disarm the distrusted Native +Infantry regiment in the absence of a European force. There was a large +building in cantonments, which had been erected for a mint for the +North-Western Provinces, and had been used for this purpose till the +provincial mints were removed to Calcutta. It always afterwards bore the +name of "The Mint." This building is in a wide enclosure, surrounded by +a high wall, and it was hinted all round that in the event of a rising +we should, if possible, make our way to this place. The Irregular +Cavalry regiment was called in to patrol the roads leading to the +station and city, and report the presence of suspicious persons. The +resolution was formed to maintain a bold front, and pursue our usual +course, as if we knew that succour was at hand. On every side the hope +was expressed that none would give way to panic. The men at the head of +affairs had the general confidence of the community. + +Most happily for us and for many others there was a lull in the storm +after the mutiny at Meerut and the possession of Delhi by the mutineers. +There was alarm everywhere, here and there there was commotion, but +there were no extensive and concerted risings. If there had been we +could not have been saved. Our soldiers were returning from Persia, +regiments proceeding to China were stopped on the way and brought to +India, and an available force was thus placed at the disposal of the +authorities. English soldiers were hastened up from Calcutta. From day +to day we with joy saw them pass our gate in carriages on their way to +cantonments. Great though our danger was they were not detained. A small +number was kept for our defence, and the rest were sent on to relieve +our sorely-pressed people farther north. Some began to hope the dark +cloud over us was about to be dispersed, while others looked on our +position with dismay approaching despair. As our house was in a very +exposed position, a friend had at an early period invited us to take up +our abode with him; but we resolved to remain for the present in our own +home. + + +THE FOURTH OF JUNE, 1857, AT BENARES. + +At length the storm burst over us. By attempts at incendiary fires and +in other ways the Native Infantry regiment had shown a mutinous spirit. +The necessity for disarming it was obvious to all except its own +officers, but the difficulty of the measure was great. On June 4th +Colonel Neil, one of those men whose high qualities were elicited by the +terrible struggle on which we had entered, arrived at Benares. On the +previous day a native regiment had mutinied at Azimghur, sixty miles +distant. A council was held, and as there were one hundred and twenty +English soldiers it was resolved to disarm the Native Infantry regiment +next morning. The question was asked, "Why not now? We may be all killed +before morning." Immediate disarmament was determined on. Well was it +for us this was the decision, as it was afterwards found that very night +had been fixed for the rising of the regiment, and the massacre of us +all. The whole military force of the place was called out, the English +soldiers being placed near the guns, and the Sepoys were ordered to pile +their arms. The order instead of being obeyed was met by our officers +and men being fired on, and the fight commenced. + +[Sidenote: THE RISING AT BENARES.] + +We had just finished dinner when our night watchman rushed into the +room with the startling words, _Pultun bigar guya_, and _lin men ag +luga!_--"The regiment has mutinied, and the cantonments are on fire." +Scarcely had he uttered the words, when we heard the sharp rattle of the +musketry and the crash of the guns. Our little conveyance was made +quickly ready, and, with all others in that part of the suburbs, we +drove as quickly as we could to the only place of temporary safety +available for us, on the banks of the Ganges at the northern end of the +city. The English were in different parts of the suburbs, and betook +themselves to the places nearest to them which promised immediate +shelter. Sir John Kaye, the historian of the Sepoy War, says that the +missionaries left the city for Chunar, with the exception of one he +names, Mr. Leupolt. In fact, only the Church missionaries went in that +direction, and they could go in no other. + +As we were hastening to the Ganges we knew from the noise of the +musketry and cannon that the battle was going on, and from the cloud of +smoke rising from cantonments we feared that all the houses were on +fire. We went with others to the house of an English merchant whom we +knew well, and then as the natives were gathering around we betook +ourselves to boats on the river, and got out into the stream. In a short +time a messenger from cantonments reached us with the good news that our +men were victorious, and that the mutineers were in flight. We returned +to the house of our merchant friend with the intention of remaining +there for the night. With our party were a number of children, some of +them infants, and they, poor things, were put to rest in any corner +which could be found. Between eight and nine the Brigade-Major, who had +been slightly wounded, and had been saved from certain death by the +faithfulness of a trooper, rode into the compound accompanied by men of +the Irregular Cavalry regiment. We all ran out, and were told by him +that a number of English soldiers, who had just arrived from Calcutta, +were on the other side of the Ganges ready to be ferried over, and that +they would form our escort to the Mint, which was between three and four +miles distant. In the meantime we learned all that had occurred--how the +Native Infantry regiment had mutinied, how they had been joined by the +Sikhs, some said by panic, by others I believe more truly, from sympathy +with their Hindustanee brethren, as was shown by their after conduct; +and how all had been put to flight by our band of soldiers, aided by the +guns. On our side four were killed and nineteen wounded, of whom the +greater number afterwards died. How many of the Sepoys were killed was +not ascertained, as, with the exception of a few, the dead and wounded +were carried off by their comrades. + +When all was ready we set out, a long cavalcade, with English soldiers +in front and behind, and native troopers on each side, our guardians +then, but before the morning dawned in flight to join the mutineers. It +was a calm, beautiful moonlight night, forming a strange contrast to the +turmoil of the preceding hours. The road took us by our house, and as we +passed the gate a servant, who had been watching for us, came out with +artificially cooled water, which was very welcome. We reached the Mint +about midnight, and there the whole European community was assembled. On +every side there was eager talk about our position and prospects, but +there was no appearance of panic or fright. The mothers soon succeeded +in finding spots in the spacious rooms of the Mint--which had not been +swept, and were covered with half an inch of mud--for their precious +charge, and there they remained to watch over them; while the men +sauntered about, or tried to sit where anything like sitting was +practicable. Stray shots were heard, and from the city went up rockets, +which were regarded as signals to the Sepoys outside. Most were awake as +if it were full day. Between three and four in the morning, as I was +sitting with two or three others on a native bedstead, a person came and +said, "Where is the magistrate? The city is up." It was a false alarm; +the city remained strangely quiet. As the morning broke we were all in +safety, and no enemy was to be seen. Many of the English soldiers were +so overcome by fatigue that they lay on the gravel fast asleep, with +their muskets by their side. + +[Sidenote: LIFE AT THE MINT.] + +In the Mint we all remained for more than a week in the greatest +possible discomfort, unable to change our clothes except by going to +some house outside, which some of us ventured to do. We once ventured to +our house for some very necessary articles, and daily visits were paid +to a barrack a short way off, where the sick and wounded were. During +the day, with the blazing sun above us, and the wind blowing through the +Mint with the heat of a furnace, we were obliged to confine ourselves to +its large crowded rooms. The exposure was trying, but was patiently +borne, and did no seeming injury to our health. At night we slept +outside, most of us on the flat roof of the Mint, on bedding which our +servants brought us. Our food was cooked at our homes, and brought to us +by our servants, and very thankful were we to get it, though we had +neither tables to sit at nor chairs to sit on. Had not our servants been +faithful we should have starved, as the authorities, to prevent panic +and to show a bold front, had laid in no provisions. This seems very +unwise, and yet there is no doubt the bold front did much under God to +effect our deliverance. + +In the morning of the Sunday after the mutiny the Rev. C. B. Leupolt, of +the Church Mission, preached on the parade ground. In the afternoon I +was requested to preach. The soldiers, with their rifles in their hands, +and the European inhabitants were my audience. I took for my text words +which at once suggested themselves to my mind, "If God be for us, who +can be against us?" These words of the Apostle Paul, I was afterwards +told, came fraught with strength to the hearts of some present. + +On Sunday evening it began to be whispered that mutiny had broken out at +Allahabad. On Monday we knew all. The 6th N. I. Regiment, after +professing in the afternoon their readiness to march to Delhi and fight +the rebels, in the evening rose, murdered sixteen officers, six of them +young lads who had just arrived, and all Europeans who came their way. +Happily families were in the Fort, to which they had betaken themselves +in opposition to the affectionate remonstrances of the native officers, +who said it was a slur on their fidelity! The Sepoys plundered the +Treasury; and it is said many of them were afterwards murdered by the +villagers on account of the money with which they were laden. + +As the Sepoys entirely disappeared, and the city of Benares was quiet, +though the country around was much disturbed, most of us after a time +returned to our homes. In our own case we found that not one of our +servants had decamped, and not a pin's worth had been stolen. The very +night of the mutiny a servant picked up the few silver spoons we had +left on the table, and at considerable risk made his way to us to place +them in his mistress's hands. Indeed, all about us acted with a +faithfulness which elicited our warm gratitude. + +[Sidenote: INCIDENT AT THE MINT.] + +While we were at the Mint a little incident occurred, which suggested +how, in the excited state of affairs, a spark might have caused a great +conflagration. Seeing a crowd of natives, almost all servants, at the +gate, I went to it, and there the sentry, a little peppery Irishman, was +threatening to stab with his bayonet a native servant with a note in his +hand. I asked what was the matter. The sentry said, "That black fellow +is mocking me, and I'll send this through him." The servant appealed to +me. He said he had a note for a gentleman in the Mint, and entreated +that "gora," "white man," to let him in, but instead of doing so he +threatened to kill him. The mocking was, it turned out, the native +folding his hands in the attitude of supplication. I explained the +matter, and the man got in. The native servants were so roughly treated +by some of our people, especially by the newly-arrived soldiers, simply +because they were natives, that I was afraid they might leave us in a +body; and if they had done so we should have been in a sad plight. One +of my own servants, a native Christian, complained bitterly to me of the +treatment he had received. + +The quiet of Benares during this period was remarkable--I might almost +say preternatural. When the fight of the 4th of June commenced, numbers +were seen with drawn swords rushing towards cantonments, but when they +saw Sepoys falling, and others running away, they shrank back into the +city. A great dread fell on the entire population. I was told by natives +the report had gone out that the English soldiers had been commanded to +enter the city, and slay every man, woman, and child they met; and that +in consequence, to adopt their exaggerated words, they sat trembling all +night, no one daring to sleep. + +In the meantime the terrible work of retribution commenced. Martial law +was proclaimed, and many poor miserable creatures, charged with +plundering, were hanged. Some of the Sepoys caught were blown from guns. +I will not harrow my readers with details. I shunned as much as I could +these bloody scenes, but on several occasions I came suddenly on them. +To the present day I shudder as I think of what I saw. + + +THE PANIC OF JULY 6TH. + +[Sidenote: OUR DAY OF PANIC.] + +I must now come to our day of panic, July 6th. July 5th was a Sunday. We +had our usual services with the native Christians. Some two hours after +the evening service, a nephew of ours, then at Benares, drove into the +compound, and told us we must go at once to the Mint, as a large force +of Sepoys and country people were four miles off, prepared to attack the +jail. This was startling news, as our house lay in the direct line +between the jail and the city, and, in the event of the attack being +successful, we should be the first victims. Still, we were very +unwilling to stir, but our nephew was so urgent that we at last complied +with his entreaty. A refugee family was in our house, and with us all +crowded into a small conveyance we made our way to the rendezvous. What +a scene was there! Most had arrived before us. Rain was falling, and we +could not remain out. The rooms were so crowded that we could not get +into them, and we had to lie for the night as we could in a dirty +passage, with our back to the wall. The night passed off without an +alarm, and in the morning we returned to our home, somewhat annoyed at +having been taken from it, as we supposed, without sufficient reason. + +On the morning of the 6th I had a strange duty to discharge for such a +time--the marriage of a couple. One of our native Christians had +arranged for his marriage taking place at that date. I told him that +this was no time for marrying; that we who were married must abide with +our families, but that those who were intending marriage should defer it +to a more propitious season. He said all was arranged, and he begged me +to officiate, which I did, I must say, with a bad grace. No sooner was +the marriage over than I went home. After breakfast and family worship, +we each betook ourselves, thoroughly worn out, to our rooms to obtain +some rest. Scarcely had I lain down on my couch, when our faithful +watchman came to my door and exclaimed, "If you do not go at once to the +Mint you will all be killed." I asked him what was the matter. He could +not tell me. He could only say, "Fly, fly." The refugee lady who, with +her family, was with us, hearing the watchman's words, exclaimed, "Oh, +Mr. Kennedy, do not leave us!" to which I replied, "Depend on it, I will +not. Rather than that, I myself will remain behind." Our conveyance was +speedily made ready, and off we started, with such a crowded coach as +has been seldom seen, I, as driver, urging the poor overladen horse to +his utmost speed. Natives as well as Europeans were seized with panic. +There was a stream, then in full flood, close to our house, and I saw +several natives throw themselves into it to swim across, at the imminent +risk of their lives. As we crossed one of the great roads leading to the +city, the natives were running as if pursued by demons. Right before us +we saw an English lady running towards the Mint, with her bare head in +the sun, which had now come out in its strength. A gentleman in a buggy +drove past us, pulled in reins, the lady leaped into it, and they dashed +on to the place of refuge. On reaching the Mint we found most of the +Europeans there before us. I accosted a friend and said, "What does this +mean?" He told us how the impression had gone out that the enemy were on +us, and how the panic might have been prevented if information of the +state of affairs had been given. There was danger. The host coming +against us had, with characteristic procrastination, put off the attack +till the morning. To prevent their approach to the city, every man and +gun that could be spared were sent out to meet them. + +When we reached the Mint we heard the rumour that Cawnpore had fallen. +The report was not generally believed, but it was true. We were only two +hundred miles from Cawnpore, and yet nine days had passed before our +hearing of its fall, and we then heard of it only as a rumour. + +The feeling of panic soon subsided, and as some in their haste had taken +something with them, it soon looked as if we were a large improvised +picnic party. For a few hours all was quiet; but in the afternoon the +rattle of the musketry and the boom of the cannon told us the battle had +commenced. Soon the news reached us that the rebels were in flight, and +that we were again safe. Till the news reached there was anxiety, but +there was little manifestation of it, except by the wives of some of the +soldiers, who were wringing their hands and weeping bitterly. The night +was spent by us in the greatest discomfort, huddled together, lying in +our day clothes on the floor, in an atmosphere so close that I wonder +we were not stifled. That 6th of July, 1857, at Benares can never be +obliterated from the memory of any one who was there. It makes us +understand, as nothing else could do, how much more dreadful a panic is +than the most furious combat. + +[Sidenote: THE ADVENTURES OF A MARRIAGE DAY.] + +I must recall my readers for a little to the couple whom I had married +on the morning of that memorable day. We had not been above a few +minutes in the Mint, when whom did I see rushing in at the gate, out of +breath, but my friends whom I had united in wedlock a few hours +previously, the bridegroom a few steps in advance of the bride, who was +doing her best, with little success, to save her bridal dress from being +soiled by the muddy road. Grave though our position was, I could not but +smile when I saw them. I went to meet them, and looking sternly at the +bridegroom I said, "Chhotkan, did I not tell you this was no time to +marry?" He looked at me sheepishly, and said, "Well, sir, it is now +over, and I cannot help it." I had better add that the marriage has been +a happy one. The husband has maintained a Christian character, and has +had a prosperous career, and they both survive to the present time. + + +THE DAYS SUCCEEDING THE DAY OF PANIC. + +On the day after the panic we all returned to our respective homes. The +immediate danger was past, but the country around was in a very +disturbed state. The officer commanding the station sent round a +circular strongly recommending the immediate departure for Calcutta of +European families, and, indeed, of all Europeans who were not able and +willing to bear arms. Like many of my countrymen, I was thrown by this +circular into great perplexity. Our house was out of cantonments, in a +very exposed situation. We had four children with us at the time, the +eldest six years of age, and the youngest a little more than three +months. Their departure was indispensable. Was I to go with them, or +send them away and remain behind? Some advised me to go, but we soon saw +this was not the course which ought to be pursued. Officers were sending +away their families, and they themselves were remaining behind. For me +to desert my post at such a time, was seen by us both, would be to undo +the work of my life, and it was evident my duty was to remain. Armed +steamers were going up and down the Ganges, and I hoped to secure a +passage to Calcutta in one of them for my family. Hearing a steamer was +expected from Allahabad, we went down to Raj Ghat; and as soon as the +steamer came to anchor I went on board. It was full to overflowing of +refugees from the North-West. The captain told me he could not give my +family even a deck passage, so crowded was the vessel. There was nothing +for us but to go back to a friend's house, where we had been living for +a few days. Through the kindness of a friend at Allahabad, to whom I had +written, I succeeded in securing a small cabin for my family in the next +steamer, and in it they made their way to Calcutta, after a detention of +some days at Dinapore in great discomfort and danger, owing to the +mutiny having broken out there. At Calcutta they embarked, in September, +in a cargo ship for England, which they reached after a long and stormy +passage. During the whole of July and August the communication between +Bengal and the Upper Provinces was so interrupted, that sometimes for +weeks together no certain information was received of what was +transpiring. At Benares the only mails reaching were from places near +us. At Calcutta the rumour went out that Benares had fallen, and that +all the English people in it had been massacred, causing the deepest +distress to the many there who had left loved ones behind. + + +BENARES FROM JULY TO DECEMBER. + +[Sidenote: EXPOSURE TO ATTACK.] + +From July till October the position of the English at Benares was one of +great danger. We had no fighting, but we were continually threatened. We +had twice or thrice an alarm, the most serious being from an _emeute_ in +the jail, which was soon suppressed and the leaders executed. Delhi was +not taken till September, and till that was done, all who desired our +overthrow were sure it was about to be accomplished. Our great peril was +from Lucknow. Our small force there was besieged, it was reckoned, by +50,000 men. They were not relieved till towards the end of September. +While the siege was being carried on, information reached the +authorities of Benares that a plan had been formed to detach from the +besieging army five or six thousand men to attack us. The plan was most +feasible. The distance by the direct route was under two hundred miles. +The river Goomtee, which flows by Lucknow, enters the Ganges a few miles +from Benares. It was at that time in full flood, and a flotilla might be +easily gathered by which, in a few days, a large body of armed men with +the munitions of war could have reached us. Some of the Barons of Oude +sent offers of aid, but these offers were by many considered lures to +draw us into their net, that they might the more easily destroy us. Jung +Buhadur, the famous ruler of Nepal, proposed to come with his brave +Ghoorkas to defend us, but their presence was more feared than desired. +Then in the great city near us we knew there were many plotting our +destruction, and ready to rise at the first signal of an approaching +foe. + +So great was the danger considered, that thousands were set to the +erection of a great earth fort close to the Ganges, on the site of an +old Muhammadan fortress. Owing to the disturbed state of the country the +commerce of the place was paralyzed; the stock of grain in the market +was very low, and food was selling at famine prices. The erection of the +fort gave most welcome employment to the poorer portion of the +community. So great was the danger, that, acting under the advice of +those best acquainted with the state of affairs, I sent to this fort +books, documents, and other things which I deemed it most important to +preserve. We were instructed how we were to act in the event of a sudden +outbreak, the rendezvous to which we should instantly resort, and from +which we might make our way together to the fort, which was being +erected. It often occurred to me that our position at that time was like +that of persons sitting on a barrel of gunpowder in a house on fire. So +alarming were the accounts received in the daytime, that I often lay +down at night uncertain what might occur before morning. Often I got up, +looked towards the cantonments, and listened. Thankful that all was +quiet, I returned to my bed. + +[Sidenote: CONSTANCY OF THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS.] + +During these anxious months I had abundant reason to be thankful for the +decision at which we had arrived, that I should remain behind when my +family left for England. In the discharge of the work devolving on me +from day to day, I felt I should have been recreant to duty, and missed +many opportunities of usefulness, had I gone away. Early in September, +to the great grief of us all, a much-loved member of the Mission, my +sister-in-law, the wife of my senior colleague, Mr. Buyers, was removed +by death. She had remained behind when other ladies, who had children, +left. Mr. Buyers was prostrated by the blow, and for a considerable time +was unable to resume work. The charge of the Mission thus came largely +into my hands. Before the end of July we re-opened our principal school +in the heart of the city, of which I was superintendent, and which I +visited constantly. At Benares a Depôt Hospital was opened, to which the +sick and wounded Europeans were brought from the surrounding country, +and there a part of every day was spent. My principal work, however, was +among the native Christians, with whom I met constantly to speak about +the state of affairs, to consult what should be done, to commit +ourselves to God, and ask from Him guidance and protection. The firmness +and courage of these Christians were worthy of the highest praise. As +natives, they could elude observation far more easily than Europeans; +but even where they were unknown, so entwined is idolatry with the whole +life of the people, they could not be any time among their countrymen +without being discovered if faithful to their Lord; and, as recreants +from their ancestral religion, they were sure to be cruelly treated. +They had only to declare themselves Muhammadans, and safety would be at +once secured. Not one of our native Christian community thought of +seeking safety by such means. They seemed resolved to brave every hazard +rather than deny their Lord. At length, by the capture of Delhi in the +first half of September, and the relief of the Lucknow garrison some +twelve days afterwards, the dark, threatening clouds over us began to +break. + +From October onward the tension was loosened; but the danger was not +over. Though the garrison at Lucknow had been relieved, we were forced +to evacuate it, and for months afterwards the whole country of Oude +remained in the hands of those who had risen against us. Over a large +portion of the North-West, and in Central India, our government remained +prostrate. We had been so long in danger we had become blunted to the +sense of it, and remained unmoved in circumstances which at an early +period would have greatly excited us. + +During the recent outbreak in Egypt, the position of Europeans in that +country in many respects resembled that of Europeans in Northern India +in 1857. Very similar was their danger, very similar their sufferings, +and very similar was the deliverance of the greater number. But for +providential interposition, not one would have in either case escaped. +When I look back and consider what our position was, I marvel that any +of us survived to tell what we endured; and our hearts are hard and cold +indeed if we are not fervently thankful for our preservation. While my +narrative shows that the residents at Benares in 1857 had to pass +through a season of severe trial and great danger, all acquainted with +the history of that period are aware that our countrymen in other places +had vastly more to suffer. In many places the rising was temporarily +successful. With us, the authorities all through kept the upper hand. +The result was that we were kept from the extremity of suffering to +which many were subjected. The entire loss of property was the least of +the trials they had to bear. Many, among whom were delicate women and +helpless children, were cruelly murdered. Others saw the objects of +their warmest love killed before their eyes, had to endure the most +fearful privations, and had to pass through untold horrors before +reaching a place of safety. Not a few sank into the grave, the victims +of toil, suffering, and sorrow. At no place was the danger greater than +at Benares, and at no place did the general community suffer so little. + + +VISIT TO ALLAHABAD. + +[Sidenote: THE DESOLATION OF ALLAHABAD.] + +Learning that there was no missionary at Allahabad, about seventy miles +north-west of Benares, which is now the seat of Government for the +North-West, I wrote in December to a native Christian there whom I knew, +proposing to visit him and his brethren, and in due course I got his +reply, expressing the pleasure my visit would give them. I accordingly +went, taking Mirzapore on my way, where I spent two or three days very +happily with the mission family. I found a tent erected for my +accommodation by the native Christian brethren close to the ruins of the +mission premises. What a scene of desolation the whole place presented! +The houses of the European residents had been set on fire, and there +they were as the mutineers had left them. There were no European +families. One large house had been put in order by the magistrate, and +in the wide surrounding enclosure what may be called a canvas town had +arisen. Civil and military officers were continually passing up and +down, and for their accommodation tents had been pitched. All took their +meals together in the restored mansion, and they kindly asked me to join +them during my stay. My tent was pitched close to the abode of the +native Christians. I had thus the opportunity, during the week I +remained, of holding constant intercourse with my own countrymen and +with native brethren. From the natives I heard much of what they had +seen and suffered. I was shown the scenes of the terrible events which +had occurred, and as retributive measures were still carried on, I saw, +in spite of myself, scenes which made me shudder. On the other side of +the Ganges there were frequent skirmishes between parties sent out and +bands there who were resisting our authority; the firing was distinctly +heard. On Sunday I preached twice to the native Christians. In the +forenoon the service was conducted in a small chapel, which had not been +burnt down, because it was so close to native houses that, if burnt, the +flames would have certainly spread to them. In the evening I re-opened +for worship the principal mission chapel. An attempt had been made to +set it on fire, but as it had not been at once successful, owing to its +being very strongly built, the insurgents satisfied themselves with +breaking the doors, windows, seats, pulpit, and everything which could +be easily destroyed. The wreck had been cleared away, and there I +preached to a goodly company, one of them a man whose arm had been cut +off because he was a Christian, and who had been left as dead. His +recovery was marvellous. That was a memorable Sunday to me and to those +to whom I ministered. My morning subject was, "In the day of adversity +consider" (Eccles. vii. 14); and in the evening, Christ stilling the +storm (Matt. viii. 23-28). + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +VISIT TO CEYLON AND RETURN TO BENARES. + +1858-1859. + + +During the hot season and rains of 1858 I suffered greatly from boils +and feverishness. After applying in vain the usual means of cure +prescribed, I was advised to try a sea voyage. I accordingly arranged to +go down the Bay of Bengal to Point de Galle in Ceylon, and to await +there the arrival of my wife from England, so as to return with her to +India. + +[Sidenote: VOYAGE TO CALCUTTA.] + +The rebellion still flickered in Bahar. A part of the road to Calcutta +was in the hand of Kower Singh, a rebel chief; and travellers like +myself to the capital from the North-West were on that account happy to +avail themselves of the river steamers. We had the clear sky and the +gentle breeze of that delightful season in Northern India. From morning +to night we sat under a thick awning, reading or talking, as we were +inclined, refreshed by the breeze, and interested in the various objects +presented to our view on the river and its banks. The fortnight of the +voyage passed most pleasantly, and I arrived in Calcutta half cured of +my ailments. I was happy to find myself in time for the outgoing steamer +of the P. and O. Company, on which I took passage to Point de Galle. On +landing I saw the last newspaper received from England with the list of +passengers for successive steamers, and from it I learned that my wife +was to come a month later than I had anticipated. This left me with five +or six weeks in Ceylon to dispose of myself as I best could. I made up +my mind to travel through the island. I accordingly left Galle by coach +the next day for Colombo, the capital. After staying there a few days I +set out for Kandy, the old capital; held on to Newera Ellia, the +sanatorium of the island, lying under Pedro Talla Galla, its highest +mountain; ascended the mountain, made my way back by another route to +Kandy, and then proceeded to Galle, where I was happy to meet my wife +and child, with whom I went on to Calcutta. + +When I landed at Galle I was not aware that I knew a single individual +in the island, but I was not an hour at the hotel to which I went before +I found myself in company with a medical gentleman, a native of +Perthshire, who knew my friends; and on my arrival at Colombo I was +recognized on the street, by my resemblance to my father, by a person +who had never seen me previously, but who knew him. It struck me it +would be dangerous for me to attempt an incognito, which, happily, I had +no temptation to do. During my travels in Ceylon I met several from the +North of Scotland whom I had known intimately, and among them one who +had been for years my schoolfellow. My countrymen were there, as +elsewhere, prominent members of the community. + +[Sidenote: THE SCENERY OF CEYLON.] + +I was much interested in all I saw during my travels in Ceylon. I was +prepared to see fine scenery and rich foliage, but the reality greatly +exceeded my expectation. On the coast between Galle and Colombo there is +a considerable extent of level land, covered by the cocoanut palm, +which forms much of the wealth of the people. Every part of the tree is +turned to account. The wood is used for rafters, and the leaves for +thatching. The kernel is an article of food, but its principal value +comes from the oil made from it after it has been dried. The nut +contains a liquid, which is deemed by the natives very refreshing. The +fibrous husk round the cocoanut, called coir, is manufactured into +ropes, matting, brushes, and other useful articles. It is largely and +profitably exported. The trees are tapped for a juice, which, boiled +when fresh, gives what is called palm-sugar; but when kept, becomes +intoxicating. The name of the tree in the native language is "Tar"; this +intoxicating juice is called "Taree," and by a well-known custom of +linguistic transposition it is called by English people "Toddy." We have +at Benares palm-trees which furnish this toddy, and I am sorry to say it +is by far too largely used. This cocoanut palm abounds on the coast, and +is always bent towards the sea, as if to welcome its breezes, or to +strengthen itself against them. Away from the coast it well-nigh +disappears, and trees of a very different order are seen on every side, +many of them rising to a great height and covered with beautiful +foliage. + +The scenery in the interior is very striking. When travelling on the top +of the coach from Colombo to Kandy, I might have thought myself in my +own Highlands, as mountain after mountain came into view, and our road +in its descents and ascents skirted precipices, where safety demanded +the most careful driving. Long, winding valleys, through which rivers +flowed, with falls and cascades here and there, reminded me of our +finest straths. I saw no large bodies of water like our lochs. There +were two points of marked dissimilarity. The month was December; I +required no great-coat, and the rays of the sun were stronger than was +pleasant. Instead of the leafless trees, and the white covering of the +snow of the Scottish winter, there were trees in their richest dress, +and all around a verdure of the freshest green, telling me I was in a +tropical land, and in a land where heat and moisture by their abundance +gave extraordinary force to vegetation. As I travelled from Kandy to +Newera Ellia, and back again to Kandy by a different route, my +impression of the picturesqueness and productiveness of the country was +confirmed. There was one thing I did not see--the blooming heather of my +own Highlands. + +There is, I suppose, no country where all that is desirable can be +obtained. It must be acknowledged Ceylon has its disadvantages. Its +climate is that of perpetual summer, warmer indeed at some times than at +others, but never approaching our heat in Northern India in May and +June. It is only six degrees from the equator, and it owes its moderate +temperature to its sea breezes and abundant rain. I missed the bracing +coolness of Northern India in December and January. Perpetual summer is +good for neither soul nor body. For bodily health and enjoyment the +alternation of cold and heat is far better, as in the moral world +prosperity and adversity are required for the maturing of character. + +There is one evil--I do not know whether I should call it a minor or a +major evil--to which both man and beast are exposed in Ceylon. We have +all heard of snakes in the grass. In the fine grass of Ceylon leeches +abound, and are ever ready to take their unwelcome contribution from all +that come their way. They leap up on passers by, and try to exact from +them their favourite food. I was often reminded by unpleasant nips that +they had got hold of me. For months after leaving Ceylon I had on my +limbs marks of their doings. + +[Sidenote: PRODUCTS OF CEYLON.] + +When travelling between Kandy and Newera Ellia, I was the guest of +coffee-planters, all of them, so far as I remember, my own countrymen; +and saw coffee in all its stages, from the berry on the coffee-bush on +to the manufactured article ready for the market. The plant is +indigenous in the island, but it was turned to little account till taken +up by Europeans. The pioneers in its culture, as so often happens in +such cases, are said to have lost heavily; but at the time of my visit +plantations were paying well, and a large tract of land was under +cultivation. I believe it afterwards ceased to be profitable, and now +tea cultivation is taking its place. + +At one time cinnamon was the most valuable export of the island, but by +1858 it had so decreased in value by its being produced abundantly in +lands still farther east, that comparatively little attention was given +to it. I was taken to the public garden in Colombo, and saw the +work-people with their sharp knives peeling off the fragrant bark from +the cinnamon-tree, and preparing it for the market. + +Colombo, the capital, is a large, stirring, rising town. Galle is a much +smaller place, and owes its importance to its being a place of call for +steamers on account of its sheltered bay. It is noted for its pedlars, +men who, with combs in their long hair, and clad in jacket and +petticoat, might be taken for women. Their wares of jewellery and +precious stones have not a high character for genuineness. Kandy, the +old capital in the interior, is a small place, lying very low, and is +surrounded by hills. It has a beautiful little artificial lake, and is +famous for its temple, with a tooth of Buddha as its great treasure. + +During the few weeks I was in Ceylon I was most hospitably entertained +wherever I went by missionaries, chaplains, coffee-planters, and others. +I shall always retain a grateful recollection of the kindness I +experienced. From these friends I heard much about the spiritual state +of Ceylon. It is well known the Dutch were the first Europeans who +obtained a footing in the island. They determined to stamp out +heathenism and establish Christianity, not by violent persecution, but +by reserving offices of every description for those who embraced the +Christian faith, by treating them in every possible way as a privileged +class, and by showing official disfavour to the unbaptized. An agency +composed of chaplains, catechists, and schoolmasters was appointed to +bring the community within the Christian fold. The work went on with +great apparent success. Tens of thousands avowed themselves Christians. +It looked as if heathenism was to disappear under Dutch rule. If the +Dutch had retained possession of the island, and had persevered in their +policy, in all likelihood by this time Ceylon would have been a +professedly Christian country, with a strong underlying element of +heathen notion and practice. + +[Sidenote: BUDDHIST WORSHIPPERS.] + +No sooner was the policy of neutrality adopted with the installation of +English rule, than this large Christian community melted away, and +flowed into the old channel of Buddhism, which had been for ages the +religion of the Cingalese. The thousands of Christians were reduced to +hundreds and tens. The London Missionary Society early entered the +field, but withdrew. In the parts of Ceylon where I travelled I met with +Methodist, Baptist, and Church of England missionaries, and in other +districts there were American missionaries. The descendants of those +who once were professed Christians retain some Christian notions, and +adhere to some Christian practices. Baptism is still in favour with +them, but it is never administered by Protestant missionaries except to +those deemed fitting recipients. If Buddhists were consistent, caste in +a mild form and to a limited extent might be tolerated, but could not be +approved. They are not, however, consistent, and caste is much more +regarded by them than Gautam would have sanctioned, though it has not +among them the rigidity it has among the Hindus. I was told regarding +one boarding institution for young men, all ate together; but on +returning to their homes they performed certain ceremonies which removed +the defilement they had contracted. As to the general character of the +native Christians, I inferred it was much the same as in India, with +similar excellences and similar defects. + +I went into some of the Buddhist temples. On the walls were sculptured +the terrible sufferings of the wicked in the different hells into which, +according to Buddhism, they are cast. The worshippers appeared to me +remarkably stolid and listless, as if engaged in a work which could not +be too mechanically performed. There was nothing of the animation of the +Hindus when they are worshipping their gods. + +I went into a large Roman Catholic church, and saw all the usual +furniture of Roman Catholic worship. On the wall, the worship of demons +by the faithful and their attendance at demon feasts was strongly +denounced, and threatened with severe punishment; from which it would +appear this was no uncommon offence. + +I was struck with the massy churches built by the Dutch in Galle and +Colombo. They testify to the zeal of the first colonists, as if they +were taking possession of the land for Christ, and were determined to +maintain His worship, though far distant from the land of their fathers. +Dutch descendants and Scotch colonists now form the most of the +worshippers in these places. The Dutch language still survives, and in +1858 some of the Dutch people understood no other. For them a service is +held in their own language. I preached in both of these churches at the +request of the chaplains. In one of them the Lord's Supper was +administered, and the communicants were addressed first in English and +then in Dutch. + +Towards the end of December I left Galle with my wife and child for +Calcutta, taking away with me pleasing recollections of the scenes I had +witnessed, the information I had received, and the kindness I had +experienced during my six weeks' travels in the island. + +After a brief stay in Calcutta we made our way to Benares--the first +part of the journey by the recently constructed railway, and the rest, +the greater part of it, by a four-wheeled conveyance, drawn by a horse, +called a Dawk Garry, arrangement for a fresh horse every sixth or +seventh mile being made by the Dawk Garry Company. Instead of spending +three weeks on the way, as we had done in 1839 when proceeding to +Benares on a steamer, and twelve days in 1853 in a conveyance drawn by +coolies, we now completed our journey in five days. We were glad to +rejoin our brethren, and to resume our work in Benares. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +VISIT TO CITIES IN THE NORTH-WEST AND TO KUMAON--VISIT TO ENGLAND AND +RETURN TO INDIA. + +FROM 1859 TO 1866. + + +From the time of our arrival at Benares in January, 1859, on to our +departure for the hills in March, 1861, the work of the Mission was +carried on in the usual way. There were interruptions from failure of +health, but during the most of the period the operations of the Mission +were vigorously carried on with tokens of the Divine blessing. + +[Sidenote: ENGLISH SERVICES.] + +The principal change during this period was the greater attention given +to the European population. Before 1857 the English-speaking population +of Benares was very small, and as there was always an English chaplain +at the place, and our Baptist brethren kept up an English service, our +Mission did very little in this department. For a time we had an English +service one evening in the week, but owing to the weakness of the +Mission, and the pressing demands of native work, this had been given +up. After the Mutiny the English-speaking population was largely +increased by English soldiers, and persons connected with the Public +Works. It was deemed incumbent on us to do something for our own +countrymen, whose spiritual need was manifest to all. On this account +English services on the Lord's Day were commenced. For a time two such +services were held, one in the Mission chapel, and another in the +schoolroom of the cavalry barracks. On the withdrawal of the cavalry +this second service was discontinued. The service on the Lord's Day +morning or forenoon in the Mission chapel has been steadily kept on till +this time, has been generally well attended, and has been, I believe, +productive of much good. + +As the Rev. William Moody Blake, who joined the Mission in 1858, took +the superintendence of the Central School, and with occasional +assistance conducted the English services, the work among the native +women and girls was left to be carried on by my wife, to which she had +given her heart and strength from the time she became a member of the +Mission in 1839, while I had the principal charge of evangelistic work +among the heathen, and of ministering to the native Christians. + +The most memorable episode of this period was a visit we paid to +Allahabad, Cawnpore, and Lucknow, in the winter of 1859-60. We saw much +on this tour which deeply and painfully interested us. I have already +mentioned the desolation I saw on my visit to Allahabad at the end of +1857. During the two succeeding years the houses which had been burnt +had been rebuilt, new houses had been erected, and new roads had been +made. Traces of the desolation caused by the Mutiny remained, but there +were on every side signs of great prosperity. Allahabad, from its +position at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna, had always been +deemed a place of great importance in both a military and civil aspect. +It rose to new importance by being made the seat of government for the +North-West instead of Agra, and also by becoming the central +railway-station, from which it was arranged railways should ramify to +Lahore and Peshawur in the north-west, to Calcutta in the east and +south, to Jubbulpore and Bombay in the west, forming in Central India a +connection with the railways in Southern India. This arrangement has +been carried out, and now there is no city in the interior of the +country which bears so close a resemblance as Allahabad to the great +Presidency cities, in its churches, European shops, hotels, and roads so +lined with houses that they may be called streets. As might be expected, +the native population has greatly increased. + +From Allahabad we went by train to Cawnpore, one hundred and thirty +miles to the north-west. This place was for many years a large military +station, as the kingdom of Oude lay on the other side of the Ganges. It +may be well to give a very brief narrative of the terrible events which +occurred there, that readers may the better understand what we saw. + +[Sidenote: MUTINY AT CAWNPORE.] + +On the breaking out of the Mutiny, the English soldiers and residents +entrenched themselves in an open plain, which had the solitary advantage +of accommodation in barracks, while they left the arsenal in the hands +of the insurgents. The siege commenced on June 6th, directed by Dundhoo +Punt, the Nana Sahib as he was called, the adopted son of Bajee Rao, the +ex-Peshwa of the Mahrattas, whose castle was ten miles distant. On June +27th, after enduring terrible hardships and privations, our people +surrendered on promise of being sent safely to Allahabad. They +accordingly made their way to the promised boats; but no sooner had they +been reached than they were set on fire, and the Nana in person directed +a fusillade on the party. Only four succeeded in escaping, and they did +this by swimming. The men were murdered, the women and children, to the +number of two hundred, were taken back, were huddled together in crowded +rooms, scantily fed on the coarsest food, and subjected to every +indignity. The Nana's army was defeated in several engagements, and was +at last utterly overthrown by the army led by General Havelock, in a +battle fought at the entrance to Cawnpore. By an order of the Nana, +issued by him when fleeing from the place, the women and children were +murdered, and their bodies were thrown into a well. Our soldiers arrived +to see to their horror the well choked with the victims of Nana's +satanic cruelty. Unknown to those whom he was besieging, he had +previously, on June 4th, ordered the massacre of one hundred and thirty +men, women, and children, who had come from Futtyghur. + +[Sidenote: GALLANT DEFENCE AND TERRIBLE DEFEAT.] + +At Cawnpore we saw much to sadden us to the very core. The thrilling +accounts we had read of the atrocious deeds there committed came to our +remembrance with a painful reality. All along the river-side, houses, +once occupied by officers, lay in ruins as the mutineers had left them. +We observed flowers blooming here and there in the gardens, planted by +those who had been so ruthlessly cut down. We visited all the places +made memorable by the sad events of 1857. We went to the Sabadha Kothee, +as it was called, the house on a slight elevation from which the Nana +directed the siege of the entrenched camp. It was well remembered by us +as the abode, in 1842, on our first visit to Cawnpore, of a missionary +of the Propagation Society, with whom we had much pleasant intercourse. +Within less than half a mile of this house lay the entrenched camp of +the English--if a trench three or four feet deep, with a breastwork of +earth behind it four or five feet high, deserves the name of an +entrenchment. The spot was chosen on account of the barracks, in which +our people could shelter themselves against what they expected to be a +mere temporary assault, if an assault at all was made, as they supposed +the mutinous soldiery would leave at once for Delhi, which they would +have done had not the Nana stopped them by large pay and larger +promises. The barracks speedily became well-nigh uninhabitable under the +fire of the enemy. At last they were burnt down, and no shelter remained +from the fierce rays of the sun. One could not look on the spot, and +consider the weakness of the defenders compared with the strength of the +enemy, supplied as they were with the guns and ammunition of our +arsenal, without wondering the defence could have been maintained for a +day. The defence was most heroic; extraordinary feats of valour were +performed, but at last the besieged were obliged to succumb from the +failure of food and ammunition. + +We walked from the entrenchment, which was rapidly disappearing under +the rains and heat of the climate, by the route taken by our people to +the promised boats, which were set on fire as soon as they reached them. +It was truly a _via dolorosa_, and we walked on it with saddened hearts, +musing on the awful sufferings our countrymen had endured. On a little +temple close to the ferry at which the boats lay, and on some houses +near it, we saw marks of the bullets on the walls. + +Since that period--the winter of 1858-59--we have been on several +occasions at Cawnpore. The desolation has disappeared. Ruined houses are +no longer to be seen. A stranger might pass through the place without +observing anything to remind him of the events of 1857. He would be a +very preoccupied or a very stolid person who could pass through Cawnpore +without making it a point to see the monuments erected to commemorate +our fallen countrymen. On the site of the entrenched camp a memorial +church has been raised, with stained windows and varied devices bearing +the names of those who had fought and suffered there. A very handsome +monument of marble, surmounted by a statue of the Angel of Peace, with a +suitable inscription, has been erected over the well into which the +bodies of the women and children were thrown. The ground round it is +kept in beautiful order. For many a day visitors to India will look with +tearful eyes and sad hearts on these spots sacred to their fallen +countrymen. + +[Illustration: THE WELL AT CAWNPORE.] + +[Sidenote: THE CAMPAIGN IN OUDE.] + +Leaving Cawnpore, we crossed the Ganges and travelled forty miles to +Lucknow, the capital of the country of Oude, which was ruled by a +feudatory of the Mogul Empire, who had become a feudatory of the British +Crown. To him our Government gave the title of King. In 1856, by an +order from home, the country was taken under our direct rule on account +of gross misgovernment, by flagrant and persistent violation of the +engagement made with us. The Chief Commissioner in March, 1857, was Sir +Henry Lawrence. After staving off the Mutiny successfully for a time, he +was obliged in the end of June to concentrate his force in a +half-fortified place on a slight elevation, called the Residency, as +there the British representative, under the title of Resident, and his +official subordinates, had their abode and offices. There the English +were besieged by a vast body of Sepoys, and by the Talookdars, the +Barons of Oude, and their retainers. Sir Henry Lawrence was mortally +wounded on July 4th. The siege was maintained till September 25th, +when, after a fierce struggle, it was relieved by Havelock and Outram. +They in their turn were besieged, but they were able to maintain their +footing till November 19th, when they were finally relieved by Sir Colin +Campbell. Outram remained with a force of observation at Alum Bagh, a +large garden with a very high wall, outside Lucknow on the Cawnpore +road; while the rest held on to Cawnpore. Sir Colin Campbell returned +with his army, and took the city on March 6th, 1858. We are told that in +the interval it had been fortified in a way which would have done credit +to a European power. My narrative will be better understood by these +facts being remembered. + +As we travelled from Cawnpore to Lucknow we passed houses close to the +road which still retained the loopholes through which the enemy had +fired on our troops. The earthworks hastily raised for temporary shelter +still remained. We were reminded at every mile of the fierce resistance +our soldiers had to encounter. At Lucknow we remained for a week, and +went over all the scenes made memorable by recent events. We paid +several visits to the Residency, where our people defended themselves so +long and valiantly against thousands of armed men well supplied with +ammunition. At every step proofs presented themselves of the desperate +struggle maintained with the foe. The houses in the Residency had been +so battered and torn by shells and balls that scarcely one was habitable +before its evacuation, and the ruin was completed when the city was +finally taken by Sir Colin Campbell. At the beginning of 1859 the whole +place was a mass of ruin, with here and there a piece of tottering wall, +shaken or perforated by heavy shot and ready to come down. The walls +still stood, though in a very broken state, of the house in which Sir +Henry Lawrence died, and the spot was pointed out to us where he had +received his death-wound. A large body of labourers was employed in +taking down the ruined walls and levelling the ground. We observed bones +which had been dug up by them as they pursued their work. + +From the entrance into Lucknow on the Cawnpore road there is a street, +two miles in length, leading straight to the Residency. The enemy +expected our army to advance by this street, and made provision for its +destruction by digging trenches, and lining the houses on both sides +with musketeers ready to pour on our soldiers a killing fire. The +relieving army, guided by a person who knew Lucknow well, and had at +great risk made his way to them at night from the Residency, made a +sudden detour to the right, and advanced by a comparatively open route, +stoutly but unsuccessfully opposed at almost every step. I had the +promise of a guide to take me on foot by this route to the Residency, +but on reaching Alum Bagh, the appointed place of meeting, I found no +one there. I made my way, however, with very little difficulty by +observing the marks of the bullets on the houses along the line +traversed. I sometimes lost the trace, but soon recovered it, musing as +I went along on the very different circumstances in which our countrymen +a short time previously had gone over that road. + +[Illustration: RUINS OF THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW.] + +We saw other places of interest, such as the Muchee Bhawan, the fort in +which our soldiers were previous to the siege; the Kaisar Bagh, an +extensive garden, filled with showy, lofty houses, where the King of +Oude and his numerous retinue had resided; the Chuttar Manzil, a +handsome building where public entertainments were given; the gateway at +which the gallant Colonel Neil fell--now called Neil Gate; the +Secunder Bagh, a garden with a high wall, where a large body of the +enemy was posted, and which was stormed by the 78th Highlanders, who +shut up every exit and killed every soul, many of the Sepoys fighting +desperately to the last. Two thousand bodies were taken out of the place +and buried in the adjoining ground. We observed on the walls the marks +of the bullets, and even the indents made by the swords and bayonets, +while this carnage was going on. + +[Sidenote: GENERAL LA MARTINE'S INSTITUTION.] + +A French adventurer of the 18th century, General La Martine, had risen +to great power and wealth in the service of the Kings of Oude. He +erected a splendid mansion in Lucknow for the support and education of +boys of every creed--Christian boys to be brought up in the Christian +Government's religion--and richly endowed it. Similar institutions were +established in Calcutta and in Lyons, La Martine's native place. This +institution has proved a signal blessing to European and Eurasian +families. On the outbreak of the Mutiny the teachers and pupils betook +themselves to the Residency, and under the leading of their Principal +took an active part in the defence. La Martine had so little confidence +in the kings whom he had served for years, that he ordered his body to +be buried in a vault under the building, which he knew would prevent a +Muhammadan from making it his dwelling-house. This was accordingly done. + +While we were at Lucknow we were most hospitably entertained by a +missionary of the Church Missionary Society, to whom a large native +mansion had been made over by the authorities on account of the owner +having taken an active part in the rebellion. On Sabbath I preached in +Hindustanee to the native Christians, and we attended the English +service held in a building which had been an Imambara, the name given to +a building where Muhammadans of the Shiah sect worship. + +When going from Cawnpore to Lucknow we travelled by day. We returned by +night, when the moon was full. It was one of those calm, clear nights of +which we have many at that season. We reached the Ganges about four in +the morning. While waiting for a boat to take us across, there fell on +our ears, coming from a cluster of huts close by, the voice of a singer +at that early hour; and what was our delight and surprise, as we +listened, to hear the words distinctly uttered of a well-known hymn in +praise of the Redeemer of mankind! A short time previously the mention +of that name with honour in that place would have exposed him who +uttered it to a violent death. The incident was very cheering as an omen +of the dawn to benighted India, when, through the tender mercy of our +God, Jesus the light of the world shall shine into the hearts of its +teeming population, and raise them into the sunshine of heaven. + +Lucknow, as well as Cawnpore, has undergone a great change since 1859. +We saw it last in 1877, when traces of the fierce conflict which had +been there carried on had well-nigh disappeared; while on every side, in +new roads opened up, in miserable tenements thrown down, in new houses +erected, and in rubbish removed, evidence was given that the effete +government of the Kings of Oude had given place to the vigorous +government of their Western conquerors. Nothing is now to be seen of the +ruins and desolation of the Residency. The ground has been levelled, +trees planted, paths made, and the whole place is kept in beautiful +order. On the highest spot there is a memorial cross. All out from +Lucknow for miles, at the instance of friends, monuments have been +raised, some of them with very touching inscriptions, in memory of the +fallen, so far as the spots where they fell could be identified. + +[Illustration: THE LA MARTINIERE, LUCKNOW.] + +We returned to Benares with a very vivid impression of what we had seen, +with a new realization of the sufferings our countrymen had endured, +with deepened admiration of the heroism they had shown, and with +thankfulness at once for our rescue as a people from destruction, and +for the restoration of our rule. + +[Sidenote: VISIT TO DELHI.] + +We continued at our post at Benares till March, 1861, when the state of +the Mission admitted of our obtaining a much-needed retreat to the Hills +for a few months. We accordingly left Benares for Almora, and took Delhi +by the way, where we remained a few days. This was our second visit to +the grand old imperial city. On this occasion we visited the scene of +the memorable events of the Mutiny year, as we had previously done at +Cawnpore and Lucknow. We went to the heights commanding the city, where +our army was encamped for months, at once the besiegers and the +besieged, and from which at last they took the city, after a contest so +desperate and bloody that for days the issue was doubtful. The palace, +with its magnificent halls of audience and entertainment, where the +Emperors of India had for ages kept their court, we found turned into +barracks and an arsenal. English soldiers trod those rooms where Indian +magnates had bowed before imperial majesty--giving us an impressive +illustration of the transitory nature of earthly glory. + +For some time after going to Almora our health improved; but as the +season advanced it gave way so entirely, that our medical attendant +came to the conclusion a visit to England was indispensable to its +restoration. The Directors of the Society gave their kind and prompt +consent to our return. We accordingly embarked from Calcutta for +England, _viâ_ the Cape of Good Hope, in January, 1862, and reached our +destination in April. + +All I have to say about the interval between 1862 and 1865 is that I +visited many places in England and Scotland on behalf of the Society, +did a good deal of ministerial work besides, and was kept in uncertainty +about my future course by medical opposition to my going back to India. +In 1864 I feared I could not return; but my health improved so much in +1865, that the medical men I consulted, to my great joy, consented to +our going back. We accordingly embarked for Calcutta _viâ_ the Cape, +accompanied by two young missionaries appointed to Benares, in +September, 1865, and reached our destination, after a prosperous voyage, +towards the end of the year. We were very pleased with the thought that +our traversing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans had come to an end. + +The railway had some time previously been completed to the North-West, +and so instead of days and weeks spent on the journey from Calcutta to +Benares, it was now made in twenty-six hours. + +[Sidenote: APPOINTMENT TO RANEE KHET.] + +The hot weather and rains of 1866 were spent in Benares. We felt the +heat that year more than we had ever previously done, and were to a +great extent incapacitated by it for the prosecution of mission work. We +came to the conclusion that continued work in the plains was beyond our +strength, and as we much wished to continue in the mission field, we +hoped a hill sphere might be opened up. In March, 1867, we left for +Almora, where, with our colleague Mr. Budden, we engaged in different +departments of mission labour. Early in the cold weather we returned to +Benares, and resumed our work there. As the hot weather of 1868 came on, +we were again privileged to return to Almora. Towards the end of that +year it was arranged that our connection with Benares should cease, and +that we should begin a new mission at Ranee Khet, about twenty miles +north-west from Almora. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +KUMAON. + + +(1) ITS SCENERY AND PRODUCTS. + +Kumaon is a sub-Himalayan region, with Nepal to the east, the snowy +range, separating it from Tibet, to the north, Gurhwal and Dehra Doon to +the west, and Rohilkund to the south. Including the hill country of +Gurhwal, and the belt of forest and swamp lying immediately under it, of +which only a small part has been reclaimed, Kumaon is about half the +size of Scotland. + +[Sidenote: THE SCENERY OF KUMAON.] + +The province presents a remarkable contrast to the great level country +beneath. Over it you travel in some directions hundreds of miles, and +scarcely any elevation or depression in the land can be discerned. As +you travel northward, and approach the limit of the plains, you see +hills rising before you, tier after tier; and behind them, on a clear +day, the higher Himalaya, with their snowy peaks, as if touching the +heavens. + +Kumaon is very mountainous, with as great irregularity as if the land +had been fluid, had in the midst of a storm been suddenly solidified, +and had then received its permanent shape. Here and there are valleys of +some extent, table-lands and open fields are occasionally seen; but over +a great part of the province hill is separated from hill by a space so +narrow that it can only be called a ravine. The consequence is that +cultivation is carried on mainly in terraces. Where the slope is +gradual, and the soil fit for cultivation, these terraces, some very +narrow and others of considerable width, rise one above the other to the +distance of miles, with the hamlets of the cultivators scattered over +the hill-side, presenting to the eye of the traveller an aspect of +scenery which is not to be seen in Europe, so far as I am aware. At any +rate, we saw nothing resembling it on the vine-clad hills rising from +the Rhine, or in the mountains of Switzerland. + +The country is well watered. It has innumerable streams, varying from +tiny rills to large rivers. In travelling, we have been for days within +the constant sound of running water. It has a few lakelets, but it has +no large bodies of water, like the lakes which contribute so largely to +the beauty and picturesqueness of Switzerland and Scotland. It looks as +if the deep hollows, of which so many are to be seen, had been unable to +retain the water poured into them, and had let it all flow away. A large +part of the province is so steep and rocky that it cannot be turned to +any agricultural purpose; and even for grazing purposes a large portion +is of little use, as the grass is coarse and poor. There is a great +extent of forest and brushwood. As the land slopes towards the Bhabhur, +the forest is very dense and varied. The timber is of considerable +value, but as there is neither road nor water carriage it must be +carried on men's shoulders, and this involves an expense more than it +can bear. + +From what I have said about the peculiarities of Kumaon scenery, its +mountains, valleys, and ravines, my readers are prepared to hear it has +a great variety of climate and produce. Of hills, of which there are +many from 5000 to 9000 feet above the level of the sea, the climate is +delightful--warm, but not oppressively warm, a little warmer than it is +in our country in summer; and cold, though not so severely cold as it is +with us in winter. The rains are very heavy, but to compensate for this +there is, during the greater part of the year, a steadiness of climate +which forms a striking contrast to the fickle climate of England. Down +in the valleys the heat is very great. Even in winter the sun is +unpleasantly strong, and in summer in the deep ravines the temperature +is almost as trying as in the plains. When the season has been somewhat +advanced, I have been very thankful to escape from the heat of these low +places to the bracing air of the hills. The English Sanatoria are of +course on elevated sites. + +As Kumaon has within its borders a cold, a temperate, and a tropical +climate, it has a great variety of produce, and when its capabilities +are more fully turned to account this variety will be greatly increased. +Most of the grains found in the plains are grown in the hills. The +warmer parts of the country produce superior oranges in abundance, and +there is also a good supply of walnuts. Of late years apples and pears +have been grown with great success, and if the farmers paid attention to +this branch of horticulture they might reap a large profit. Attempts +have been made on a small scale to cultivate the grape, gooseberry, and +currant, but the excessive rainfall of the rainy season has been found +unfavourable to them. Tea has become the most valuable product of the +province. Tea-planting was commenced at the instance of Government, +under its direction and at its expense, more than forty years ago; and +now tea-gardens are found all over the province, owned almost entirely +by our fellow-countrymen, and, with few exceptions, managed by them. At +first Chinamen were employed, but they have been dispensed with, and the +entire work is now done by hill people under English superintendence. + + +(2) THE NATIVE INHABITANTS OF KUMAON. + +[Sidenote: THE INHABITANTS OF KUMAON.] + +The hill people of Central and Southern India, the Kols, the Santhals, +the Bheels, and others, as is well known, widely differ in race, +language, customs, and religion, from the Hindus and Mussulmans of the +plains. In Kumaon, on the other hand, the great majority are strict +Hindus, worshippers of the Hindu gods, and scrupulous observers of caste +rules. It would appear that when the ancestors of the Hindus, coming +from Central Asia, crossed the Indus, and took possession of the country +now called the Punjab, they made raids into the lower range of the +Himalayas, killing their inhabitants, or turning them into slaves. The +descendants of the aborigines are at present found in a class called +Doms, who form the artisan portion of the population, and are also +largely employed in agriculture. The Muhammadans form a very small part +of the population, and are almost entirely emigrants from the plains. + +The character of the hill Hindus, in its essential elements, closely +accords with that of their brethren elsewhere. They worship the Hindu +gods, practise Hindu rites, and are imbued with the Hindu spirit. The +Brahmans and Rajpoots are proud of their position, firm in maintaining +it, and shrink from everything which would invalidate it. Under native +rule the high-caste spirit had full scope, for we are told that for +murder a Brahman was banished, and a Rajpoot heavily mulcted; while +other murderers were put to death. Such offences against the Hindu +religion as killing a cow, or a Dom making use of a _huqqa_ (the pipe +for smoking), or a utensil belonging to a Brahman or Rajpoot, were +capital offences. The power obtained by the Brahmans was shown by the +fact that, when the province came under British rule, one-fifteenth of +its arable land belonged to the religious establishments. + +All the Hindu gods and goddesses are worshipped in the hills, but the +hideous goddess Kalee is the favourite object of worship. Small temples +to her honour are found all over the province, many of them in solitary +places on the tops of hills, to which it is meritorious to make +pilgrimages, and around which at certain seasons melas are held. We have +in our wanderings fallen in with several of these temples in spots from +which, for many miles around, no human habitation is seen. By far the +most famous shrines are those of Badrinath and Kedarnath, in the upper +part of Gurhwal, within the snowy range, where Vishnu is the object of +worship, and the officiating priests are Brahmans from Southern India. +Pilgrimage to these places is very meritorious, as it can only be +accomplished at the cost of great toil and suffering, and at the +imminent risk of life. + +[Illustration: TEMPLE IN THE HIMALAYAS.] + +In addition to the gods worshipped all over India, the hill people have +local gods unknown elsewhere. _Bhoots_, evil spirits, commonly supposed +to be the spirits of those who have during their earthly life been noted +for their wickedness, and have acquired the demon character, are +believed to haunt the mountains and forests, and are the objects of +special dread. Homage is paid to them to secure their goodwill and avert +their vengeance. The people greatly dislike travelling at night, as that +is the season when the _Bhoots_ roam about and fall on their prey. +When they must move about they break off the branches of the pine-tree, +and turn them into torches to frighten off both the wild beasts and the +evil spirits. In the imagination which peoples hills and forests with +beings outside the circle of humanity, that make their presence +especially felt at night, the people of Kumaon closely resemble the +mountaineers of other lands, among others those of our own Scotch +Highlands, as they were till a recent period. In my early days I heard +so many stories in my native Highland village of ghosts and fairies, +that I was afraid to move about after sunset except when guarded by +others, lest these supernatural beings should lay hold of me and carry +me away. + +[Sidenote: THE CHARACTER OF THE KUMAONEES.] + +The people have a character for industry. When one sees the difficulties +under which cultivation is carried on, he is inclined to consider it +deserved. They have periods of lounging, but also of very hard work. The +women, in addition to household work, cut and carry wood and grass, and +do much farm work--I have thought at times more than their share; but +after all, the heaviest work, the carrying of great loads on head and +shoulders, up hill and down hill, and the farm work requiring most +strength, is done by the men. Much of the work done by them--work done +by draught animals elsewhere--must tend to break down their health and +shorten their days. + +The Kumaonees have been described as untruthful but honest. I must say +our experience has verified the unfavourable part of this description +more than the favourable. So far as veracity is concerned we have not +been impressed with any difference between them and other natives of +India. We think their honesty has received more credit than it deserves. +This is, at any rate, the opinion of the tea-planters with whom we have +conversed, and who have had superior opportunities for judging. They +have told us of the strict watch they have to set to guard their tea and +fruit. We found that some hill servants, whom we had greatly trusted, +had systematically robbed us. The character for honesty was, I believe, +given to them because when they set out on their periodical migration to +the plains they left their villages unguarded, and found their property +safe on their return. I suppose this resulted partly from an +unwritten--may I say?--honourable understanding, that as in their sparse +and widely-scattered population it was well-nigh impossible to guard +their goods, the rights of property should be respected; and partly from +the circumstance that there was little left behind in the villages which +could be carried away. So far as others, especially Europeans, are +concerned, this understanding to practise honesty does not hold. + +We incidentally heard of no small degree of immorality among the people, +but our information is too limited to justify one in comparing them with +others in this respect. There is much that is likable among them, but +the general moral tone is undoubtedly low. Polyandry, which prevails in +some districts in the Western Himalayan range, is I believe unknown, but +polygamy is not uncommon among those who can afford it. + +Cleanliness has never been considered a virtue of Highlanders. It is +not--or perhaps I should say it has not been--a characteristic of the +Highlanders of our own land. Among the Kumaonees it is notably wanting. +The loathsome disease of leprosy has long prevailed in the province, +owing to a large extent to the filthy habits of the people. To the same +cause there is every reason to believe, we have to trace the outbreak +now and then of the plague--_muha muree_, the great plague, as it is +called--which has proved very destructive. It resembles the plague which +at different times prevailed in Europe and swept away thousands. So +great is the dread of this terrible malady, that on the report of its +approach people flee from their villages. Cholera has been at times +fatal to many, but its ravages are not to be compared to those of the +plague. + + +(3) HISTORY OF KUMAON UNDER GHOORKHA AND BRITISH RULE. + +[Sidenote: CONQUEST OF KUMAON.] + +Kumaon had been long under the rule of a native dynasty, but intestine +feuds laid the country open to the attacks of ambitious neighbours. In +the latter end of the eighteenth century the Ghoorkhas, a military +tribe, rose to power in Nepal, the hill-country to the east, and early +in this century they extended their conquests over the hill-country to +the west, till they were checked by Runjeet Singh, the famous ruler of +the Punjab. Their rule over Kumaon was said to be very oppressive. By +raids into British territory they came into collision with the English. +After a severe struggle, carried on through two campaigns, they were +defeated, and forced to give up the country they had conquered to the +west of Nepal, which they had held for about twelve years. Kumaon and +the adjoining hill-country of Gurhwal were placed under the jurisdiction +of a British Commissioner, and the arrangement made in 1816 has been +maintained to the present time. + +[Sidenote: PROGRESS OF THE PROVINCE.] + +The country has made immense progress since the English took possession. +The people are now under a government which aims at protecting life and +property, and at treating all, high and low, with equal justice. No +longer are Dom offenders against caste laws executed while Brahman and +Rajpoot murderers escape. Atrocious customs have been suppressed, such +as the burial of lepers alive, which was formerly largely practised. +Sanitary regulations have been issued, and penalties imposed on those +convicted of violating them. Fights between villages, ending in robbery +and murder, are no longer permitted, though sham-fights are still +allowed. I was once a witness of such a fight, when a vast number of +hill people were collected, as if for a great field-day, and stones were +thrown from slings in a way I thought perilous to the combatants. Roads +have been made, and rivers bridged. The new roads are too narrow and +steep to admit of wheeled conveyances; often they are only three or four +feet in width, and are at a gradient which makes them trying for horses +and for persons on foot; but they are an immense improvement on the +footpaths with which the natives were satisfied till they came under +British rule, and with which they are still satisfied when left to +themselves. I have not had much experience of the by-paths of the +country, but quite enough to have made me thankful for the new order of +things. Very recently a road for carts and conveyances has been made +from the plains to Nynee Tal, Ranee Khet, and Almora; but the route is +so circuitous that the roads hitherto traversed will continue the chief +means of communication. + +No sooner was the British rule established than the effect was seen in +the increase of cultivation. Mr. Traill, the first Commissioner, states +that from the time of the occupation, 1816 to 1822-23, the date of his +retirement, cultivation had increased fully one-third, and since that +time there has been a steady advance. The population has more than +doubled, for we are told that in 1823 there were 27 inhabitants to the +square mile, while in 1872 there were 65. At the same time there were +797 to the square mile in the Benares district, and there was no +district in the North-West Provinces where the population was under 185, +while the average was 378. An immense disparity must continue between +countries with such different capabilities, but the progress made in +Kumaon under British rule is proportionably as great as that made in the +most favoured parts of India. + +Wealth has been brought into the country as well as drawn out of it. I +have already referred to tea-planting as a new department of +agricultural industry. Many thousands have been spent on +tea-gardens--much more, I suspect, than has yet been got out of them. A +tea-planter once pointed to a cluster of well-built villages, and said, +"These houses have all been built within the last few years by the +proceeds of wages made in the tea-garden under my charge." Then the +great influx of European travellers and residents has done not a little +to enrich the people in various ways, though at times the labour thus +required has been very grudgingly given, as it has withdrawn them from +their homes when their own work was urgent. + +Of late years a new source of income has been opened up to the people by +the enterprise of Sir Henry Ramsay, who has been for many years the +Commissioner of the Province, and has done more for it than any of his +predecessors. The hill people of some districts have been for ages in +the habit of moving down _en masse_ with their cattle at the beginning +of the cold weather for grazing, and have returned to their mountain +homes when the hot weather had set in. The country immediately under +the hills is called the Bhabhur, and is quite distinct from the Turai +which lies beyond. This Bhabhur is a formation of sand and shingle +filled with boulders, largely covered over with soil, which produces +abundant herbage in the rainy season, and is thus good grazing ground in +the succeeding months. It has a large extent of forest, composed of +trees of great girth and magnificent height. The innumerable streams +which come down from the hills flow under the Bhabhur, and make their +way into the Turai beyond, where the land becomes water-logged, and the +main product is long, rank grass, growing to the height of ten or twelve +feet. By a system of canals, devised and carried out by Sir Henry +Ramsay, the water as it comes down from the hills is made to irrigate a +large part of the Bhabhur, rendering it fit for agricultural purposes. +The result is that the people now cultivate the land, beside grazing +their cattle over it. They sow toward the end of the rainy season, and +reap at the beginning of the hot weather, when they retreat to the +hills, and are ready for the cultivation of their fields there. This +addition to the arable land has been a great boon to the people. I +cannot say, however, judging by those with whom I have conversed, that +they are satisfied. They grumble at the new tax imposed for the +construction and maintenance of the canals, and also at the tax they +have to pay for their holdings in the hills, though I believe it to be +very light. They would gladly have all the benefits of a firm and +improving government without paying anything for its support. + +[Sidenote: WILD BEASTS.] + +Notwithstanding the extension of cultivation and the increase of +population in Kumaon, we may travel for many miles over hill and forest +and not see a trace of man's presence. Cover for wild beasts has been +somewhat abridged, but it is still sufficient to shelter them, and to +make it unlikely they can be exterminated. Both in the hills and in the +country beneath, hunters of wild beasts, European and native, still find +abundant employment. Not a year passes without persons, sheep, and +cattle being killed by tigers, leopards, and hyenas. They live so much +in the gorges of the mountains, and in the depths of the forests, ready +to pounce on their prey when opportunity presents itself, that the +destruction caused by them is seen, while they themselves disappear. The +first thing we saw on our first approach to Almora was a horse which had +been killed by a leopard the preceding night. A woman, who had been +cutting grass before the door of a house we occupied for a few days, was +killed an hour afterwards by a tiger in the adjoining forest. One +afternoon we heard the cry of a herd, and running out we saw a goat with +its throat cut, but the leopard that had killed it had disappeared in +the jungle beneath. On another occasion my pony, picketed near my tent, +had a narrow escape from a leopard. I have often heard huntsmen relate +the encounters they have had with these terrible brutes. On one occasion +I saw four dead tigers brought in by a party that had killed them a few +miles from the place where my tent was pitched. Tigers are very +migratory. They live in the cold weather down in the Bhabhur and the +Turai, and as the hot weather advances they follow the herd up the hills +on to the verge of the snow. The bears of the hills feed on fruit and +vegetables, and usually make away when human beings are seen, but they +are very formidable to those who attack them, or come suddenly across +their path. In some places wolves abound, and children and animals +require to be guarded against them; but they never hunt in packs as in +Russia, and they are not feared by grown-up people. In the lower hills +and the Bhabhur there are herds of wild elephants, which do much injury +to the crops of the people, and cannot be safely approached. I have been +again and again in their track. There are also serpents, but they are +not so numerous or venomous as in the plains. The dangers to which the +inhabitants are exposed is shown by the annual statistics of casualties, +in which the first place is given to the ravages of wild beasts, the +second to landslips, and the third to serpents. + +[Sidenote: INCONVENIENT STIPULATION.] + +I may end this account of Kumaon, its scenery, products, history, and +people, by mentioning two stipulations in the treaty with the Ghoorkhas, +when the British took possession of the land, which are strikingly +illustrative at once of British policy and of Hindu feeling. One +stipulation was that certain sums should be paid annually to the priests +of certain temples. A second stipulation was that the slaughter of +bullocks and cows should be strictly prohibited. Not a vestige of power +over the country was left to the Ghoorkhas; the entire rule was +transferred to the British. But our authorities, influenced at once by +religious liberalism or indifference, and by deference to Hindu feeling, +accepted these conditions. The first stipulation caused no trouble, but +the force of circumstances has led to the violation of the second. When +there were no European troops in the Province, and the only Englishmen +were civil officials, officers of native regiments, and a few casual +travellers, the prohibition of beef caused little inconvenience; but a +large influx of English people, soldiers and others, made the observance +of the stipulation impracticable. For a time it was violated, and the +authorities professed to know nothing about it; but when Nynee Tal +became a great summer resort, and English soldiers were located at it, +beef became a well-nigh indispensable article of food, cows and bullocks +were killed, and the breach in the treaty by which the country was ceded +to us became manifest to all. It is said that when the high-caste +officials protested against this outrage on the Hindu religion, an +English official quietly said that such good Hindus were not in their +proper place, that they should be transferred to their holy city, +Benares. This speedily silenced the complaint, as hill people intensely +dislike leaving their mountains for the plains. + +The treaty with the Ghoorkhas is not the only one in which the +stipulation against beef has been made when territory has been ceded. To +a treaty-keeping people like the English the stipulation has been very +embarrassing, so embarrassing that for a time resolute effort has been +made to observe it, but it has at length broken down under what has been +deemed the compulsion of circumstances. We have heard of a high-caste +official consoling his brethren for the outrage by reminding them it is +the nature of tigers to eat cows and bullocks, and by telling them that +the English were tigers, had a similar love for such food, and as it was +their nature it must be borne with. Though so shocked with the shedding +of the blood of cows and bullocks, the ruling class in Nepal have shown +no aversion to the shedding of human blood, as is well known by all +acquainted with the history of the country. During the mutiny a friend +of mine, travelling with a regiment of Ghoorkhas that had come down from +Nepal to help us, saw them kill a party of mutineers who had surrendered +under an oath of their lives being spared, with a savage ferocity which +shocked him beyond measure. + + +(4) TRAVELLING IN KUMAON. + +[Sidenote: TRAVELLING.] + +The greater part of our time in the Province was spent in the capital, +Almora, and in the newly-formed Sanatarium Ranee Khet, but we frequently +travelled through many of its districts. I have mentioned the improved +means of communication, but vastly better though the roads be than they +were in the days of native rule, travelling continues to be very +expensive, fatiguing, and in some modes not a little dangerous. +Travellers must either walk, ride, or be carried on men's shoulders. The +first mode can be adopted only by those who have abundant strength and +leisure. It was my mode during our first visit, as I was not pressed for +time, and notwithstanding our residence of eight years in the plains I +retained a good deal of my youthful vigour. The mountain scenery and the +mountain air gave us new life. I travelled on foot some three hundred +miles. On the occasion of future visits I was happy to avail myself of a +hill pony. Most gentlemen and many young ladies perform their hill +journeys on horseback. Happily, hill ponies are, as a rule, quiet and +sure-footed; and they require to be, as the roads are narrow, in some +places very narrow, and overhang precipices, down which the rider would +be dashed if the pony slipped or was scared. At first, riding appears +very dangerous, but after a time there is a feeling of security. I +remember riding with confidence over places where at first I deemed it +prudent to dismount. Scarcely a year, however, passes without riders +being killed, and all who have travelled much over the country have to +tell of providential escapes. The third mode, the mode adopted by most +ladies, and by gentlemen who have not nerve to ride, is to be carried +on men's shoulders. The palankeen and dolie of the plains are by far too +heavy and cumbrous for the hills. The favourite vehicle is the +_dandee_--a pole, with a piece of carpet attached, on which the +traveller sits sideway, and which has belts for the back and feet. Two +men, one at each end of the pole, are able to carry the _dandee_ a short +distance, but in journeys four are commonly employed. During the last +few years a very light sedan-chair has come into favour, which is far +more convenient for ladies, but the _dandee_ is lighter and will +continue to be largely used. + +We have seen a good deal of both the eastern and western portions of the +Province. In 1847 we travelled to Lahoo Ghat and Petorah Gurh in the +east. On this occasion I went on to Nepal, and was told by the Nepalese +sentry on the frontier bridge that without special permission from +Khatmandoo, the Capital, I could not proceed farther. In 1869, in +company with my much-esteemed friend the late Dr. Mather, I travelled in +the same direction, and saw much of the country, as we went by one route +and returned by another. During the later years of our residence we saw +a good deal of the western districts, to which I shall refer when giving +an account of missionary operations. + +Along some of the main roads, at the distance of twelve or fourteen +miles, are small rough Rest-houses, with a table, two chairs, and a +bedstead, often in very bad condition. These houses are in charge of a +watchman, who is often long in making his appearance, and then brings +wood and water, and sometimes a little milk. For everything else you are +dependent on people with you carrying supplies. Where there is much +traffic there is good accommodation. + +[Sidenote: TIMELY ESCAPE.] + +Our most memorable journey, perhaps, was one made in 1861 to the +Pindaree glacier. The journey was a very fatiguing one, as the roads +were so bad, and the ascents and descents so steep, that before we got +half way I was obliged to leave my pony behind, and to make my way on +foot, helped to ascend and descend in some places by strong hill-men, +who drew me up or helped me down by a belt round my middle, while my +wife and little boy were carried in _dandies_. Many of the bridges were +rough wooden structures, with no parapets. As we approached the snow we +suffered much at night from cold in our little tent. The hill people of +the higher region we found much stronger and more unsophisticated than +those we had left behind. The women seemed never to have seen an English +woman or child. They were first afraid to come near us, but my wife made +her way to little groups, and they seemed delighted with her, and still +more with her little boy. Fatiguing and trying though the journey was, +health was improved by it, and we were well rewarded for any toil and +inconvenience we endured by the magnificent scenery we saw. Down the +Pindaree valley came a roaring torrent, showing by its yellow tinge it +came from the melted snow. We were awed as we looked up at the +tremendous cliffs on either side. Pursuing our way in silence, I heard a +servant from the plains, who was walking behind me, muttering to +himself, "Such a wicked place I never saw in my life." We breakfasted on +the glacier, and after looking at some of the crevasses we were glad to +make our way back to our tent a few miles below. Next morning we +retraced our steps, and it was well we did so, for as we were rapidly +descending we had heavy rain, and could see snow falling where we had +been. The next day the whole region behind was covered with snow, and +we were thankful for our timely escape. + +The details of travelling I have now given, and the previous details +about the country and people may perhaps enable the reader the better to +understand and realize missionary work in the Province. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE ALMORA MISSION. + + +Stated mission work was commenced in Kumaon in 1850. Previous to that +time a few of its people had heard the Gospel from missionaries +travelling through it, or residing for a few months in it. In that year +the Rev. J. H. Budden, of the London Missionary Society, after labouring +for a time in Benares and Mirzapore, was obliged by the failure of +health to abandon all hope of continuing in the plains, and took up his +abode at Almora, the capital of the Province. The society declined to +enter on mission work in Kumaon; but Captain Ramsay, Senior Assistant to +the Commissioner, with other friends, came forward with most liberal +offers of support, and consent was given to Mr. Budden's entering into +an engagement to carry on the Mission as the agent of its local +supporters. For some time his entire salary and all expenses were met by +these friends. Afterwards a part of the salary was paid by the Society, +and for years the whole, but the friends who founded the Mission have on +to the present time supported it with princely munificence. At the head +of these is Sir Henry Ramsay, the Captain Ramsay of 1850, who has been +for many years the Commissioner of the Province, and who continues the +warm and liberal supporter of everything by which the spiritual as +well as the temporal good of the people may be promoted. + +[Sidenote: WORK OF THE ALMORA MISSION.] + +As the Mission at Almora was the first, so it continues to be the most +important in the Province. Organized and administered by Mr. Budden, and +heartily supported by friends on the spot, it has done a work which has +told powerfully and happily on the entire country. From the beginning +much attention has been paid to the education of the young. For a long +time the school of the Mission was the only one in the Province where a +superior education, at once native and European, was imparted; and +still, both in the number of its pupils and in the extent of its course +of study, it stands highest. From it have gone out for many years bands +of young men who now fill varied positions under Government, and it is +believed they are discharging their duties with greater intelligence and +a higher character than those they have succeeded. In remote parts of +the Province I have met persons who have spoken in strong terms of +gratitude of the benefit they had received from attending the Almora +Mission School. A few years ago a large, handsome structure was erected +for its accommodation at great expense, towards which the natives +contributed very liberally. In addition to this school-house, the +Mission has valuable property in mission-houses for native Christians, +an orphanage, and a book-room. + +[Illustration: MISSION SCHOOL, ALMORA.] + +[Sidenote: THE LEPER ASYLUM.] + +In other departments excellent work has been done. Female education has +been zealously prosecuted under the direction of Mr. Budden's daughters. +For many years there has been an orphanage in which destitute children +have been brought up and educated. The authorities made over to the +Mission a Leper Asylum they had established, and for years it has been +under its exclusive charge. Much has been done for the inmates of this +asylum at the cost of personal labour, great anxiety, and a heavy +expenditure. Suitable buildings have been erected, the wants of the +lepers have been supplied, everything has been done which could be done +to mitigate their sufferings, and to secure order and cleanliness. The +efforts put forth to draw them to the Great Physician to secure their +spiritual cure have by the Divine blessing borne abundant fruit. When +the Rev. John Hewlett was in charge in 1864-65 there was a movement +towards Christianity, which resulted in the baptism of several. Since +that time the work has gone on. Christian worship has been regularly +maintained among them, and much labour has been bestowed on their +instruction. Many have been baptized, after giving all the evidence of +sincerity which could be expected, and at certain times the Lord's +Supper has been dispensed. Among the lepers there have been persons of +very debased character, but the conduct of most has been good, and, so +far as we can judge, a number have become the true followers of the +Saviour. If the Mission had done nothing more than sustain this Leper +Asylum, it would have done a most Christ-like work, deserving the warm +approbation and liberal support of Christ's people. + +[Illustration: LEPER ASYLUM, ALMORA.] + +From the commencement of the Mission a service has been conducted every +Sabbath in English for the benefit of our countrymen residing in Almora. +Services have been held in the native language for the native Christians +and natives generally. + +In addition to the work of organizing and conducting the various +departments of the Mission, Mr. Budden has made large and valuable +contributions to native Christian literature. + +I have seen much of the Almora Mission, and have had the privilege of +taking part in conducting its operations. Among other duties which I +endeavoured to discharge during two seasons was to go, along with my +wife, every Sabbath morning to conduct worship with the lepers, and to +instruct them. Mrs. Kennedy went besides once every week. There is no +work on which I look back with deeper interest than I do on this. We +first conducted a brief service of singing, prayer, and preaching. Mrs. +Kennedy then took the women and I took the men to see how much of the +sermon they understood, and to inculcate the great lessons of God's Word +in the way of question and answer. The work was at first very trying, +but gradually we became more than reconciled to it. Our heart was drawn +forth in deep pity to these poor people, and we left them deeply +thankful for the privilege we had of speaking to them of the Saviour, +and of telling them of His compassion for the suffering and the lost. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +RANEE KHET MISSION. + + +In accordance with instructions from the Directors of the London +Missionary Society, Mrs. Kennedy and myself went at the beginning of +May, 1869, to Ranee Khet, a new station twenty miles north-west of +Almora, to enter on mission work there. Some time previously it had been +resolved to open a new mission in the Province, and I had been appointed +to commence it. After much consideration Ranee Khet was deemed the most +eligible place for the extension of our work. The name means "The Field +of the Queen," and was probably given to it in honour of Kalee, as it +has on its higher part a small temple sacred to her, round which the +hill people hold a yearly mela. The place may be described as a rough +table-land, with an elevation of from 6,200 to 7,000 feet above the +level of the sea. With the exception of a little land cleared on one +side, the country for miles around was covered with forests of pine, +oak, and rhododendron, over which the people of the valleys pastured +their cattle at some seasons of the year. The attention of the +Government was drawn to the place as suitable for a military Sanitarium, +and engineers were sent to open up roads and investigate its +capabilities. The report made by them was so favourable that a +considerable outlay was sanctioned for turning it into a retreat for +English soldiers from the heat of the plains. + +The prospect of Ranee Khet as a European station, where soon a large +population was sure to gather, was one reason for regarding it as a good +sphere for a new mission. The chief reason, however, for the choice was +the fact that within twelve miles around, on the sides of the hills and +in the valleys beneath, there was a large accessible population, +furnishing a much wider field than one missionary could well occupy. + +[Sidenote: VISITS TO RANEE KHET.] + +Previous to taking up our abode at Ranee Khet I paid several visits to +it, with a view to making myself acquainted with the neighbourhood and +to holding intercourse with the people, many of whom I met in their +villages. They looked on me with fear, as if I had come to lay a new tax +on them, and seemed utterly unable to comprehend me when I told them I +was no Government official, but a servant of God, who came to them with +good tidings from Him. The only school of which I heard was twelve miles +distant, and I came to the conclusion that the establishment of primary +schools would be very beneficial to the people, and highly favourable to +my object. Though so illiterate that in well-sized villages I did not +hear of a person who could read, a number expressed approval of my +object. Some were forward with the promise to erect school-sheds, and to +send their children, but the performance did not come up to the promise. + +When we went to Ranee Khet there was not a single house at the place. +The only Europeans were two Engineers and a sergeant, and they were +living in their cook-houses, preparatory to building houses for +themselves. I had arranged with a friend to have a wooden house erected, +but when we went the work had only been commenced, and the first six +weeks we lived in a tent. It was midsummer, and the tent was in the +daytime intolerably hot. The trees around gave little shelter, they were +chiefly pine; but we soon succeeded in putting up booths, and in them, +except when storms came on, we were very comfortable during the heat of +the day. + +We were thankful when we exchanged our tent and booths for our rough +wooden house. In it we remained two years and a half in tolerable +comfort. There were two serious drawbacks. In the heavy rains the house +leaked in such a degree that there was scarcely a dry spot in it; and, +what was worse, the rats got into the open roof, and by their active +movements, especially at night, were a great annoyance. Latterly the +leakage was stopped, but the rats were too strong for us, and could not +be dislodged. Notwithstanding these inconveniences, when we remembered +the heat of the plains, during six months of the year, which we had +endured, and our brethren were continuing to endure, and contrasted the +climate there with the climate we were enjoying, we were never tempted +to murmur. We felt deeply thankful for the Providence which had given us +an abode in a country where summer heat was only a little greater than +in our own, where there were no hot winds, where with windows open we +could be always comfortable in the hottest weather, and where all around +us was magnificent scenery. + +I have mentioned rats. In their division of common rat and musk-rat, +they are troublesome enough in the plains, but they are a plague in the +hills. They abound in the fields, and are very hurtful to the crops. Not +a house is erected into which they do not manage to make their way; but +where a house is well built, and due care is taken, they find little +shelter. They go into a rough wooden house as if they were entitled to +full possession. These unwelcome intruders may be kept in check, but +there is no hope of entire deliverance from them. + +[Sidenote: MISSION BUILDINGS.] + +During our eight years in Ranee Khet we had to discharge the varied +duties devolving on missionary pioneers. To one department, to which I +knew much attention must be given, I looked forward with dismay--the +erection of buildings. Remembering our experience in the plains we would +gladly have shrunk from this work, but we knew it must be faced. Through +the great kindness and efficient help of friends we succeeded in getting +suitable buildings erected. The first building we put up was a place of +worship. After considerable delay we succeeded in getting a suitable +site for a mission-house on a knoll within a short distance of the +native bazar. The servants' houses and the cook-house were first up, and +leaving our hut we took up our abode in the cook-house, that we might be +at hand to superintend the erection of the mission-house. Before its +completion we got, close at hand, a site for a school-house, which, with +its handsome hall and four side-rooms, furnishes more accommodation than +has yet been required. To this building natives contributed liberally. +As the stone and wood required had to be carried on men's heads and +shoulders, every additional yard increased the expense, and we were +obliged to use the wood and stone nearest, though at some distance +better might have been procured. Our masons and carpenters were not of a +superior order, and required to be constantly watched and directed. The +buildings were not all we could wish, but they were suitable for the +climate and for our purpose. Our house was commodious, was in the best +position for mission work, had a magnificent view of the snowy range, +and we would not have exchanged it for the finest house we had seen in +the plains. + +[Illustration: THE SNOWY RANGE FROM RANEE KHET.] + +From the commencement of our residence in Ranee Khet, village schools +received much of my attention. For a time I had nine under my charge, at +distances of from six to fifteen miles. For the accommodation of three +schools stone houses were erected, and for other schools sheds of grass +and wood were put up. The attendance at these schools varied greatly at +different seasons of the year: many came too short a time to get any +benefit, the attendance of others was too irregular to admit of much +progress; but a considerable number remained till they received a good +primary education. On my visits I taught the pupils, and conversed with +their parents and friends who gathered round. When the weather permitted +I had my tent pitched for days near the school, and visited the +adjoining villages. On these occasions I tried to sit down where or how +I could, with the people around me, and entered into familiar +conversation with them. The language was a great difficulty, as the +dialect of Kumaon differs widely from the Hindee of the plains; but by +dint of repetition, and putting what I had to say in different forms in +the simplest fashion, I was often happy to find myself getting into the +understanding of my hearers. Every second Saturday the teachers, often +accompanied by senior pupils, came to my house to report what they had +done, and to receive instruction. + +[Sidenote: CONTRASTED VIEWS OF SIN.] + +I had reason to be thankful for having entered into this department of +work. A large amount of Christian instruction was imparted; many of the +boys showed remarkable aptitude in committing to memory portions of +Scripture, such as the ten commandments and the parables of our Lord. +Much general knowledge was acquired, a number of the pupils became +better fitted for their secular calling, and the goodwill of the people +was secured. Once, when thirty miles away from Ranee Khet, I met a lad +whom I recognized as an old pupil. I asked him if he remembered what he +had been taught. He said he did. He went to a house close at hand, +brought a copy of St. Luke's Gospel, read at my request the fifteenth +chapter, and explained its meaning with an accuracy which surprised me. +At the same place I met a man of a different order. He told me he was +going to a mela, to which I was also proceeding. I asked him what he was +to do there. He said he was to bathe, to wash away his sins. I asked him +what was the sin which oppressed him. He said, "I am a husbandman. In +ploughing my fields I destroy much life, which is a great sin. This is +the worst thing with which I am chargeable." The lad taught in the +school knew something of what sin was, as the poor man did not. I can +say nothing about the spiritual results of these school efforts. I can +only hope that by God's blessing good has been done. The Government has +now entered largely on primary education in the Province, and with its +resources and prestige will, I trust, secure a large school attendance. + +All through my residence at Ranee Khet I endeavoured to embrace the +opportunities given to me of promoting the spiritual good of our own +countrymen. A service was at once commenced with the few residents and +visitors at the station. Towards the end of 1869 two companies of +English soldiers were sent, and as soon as tolerable accommodation was +provided a regiment was stationed at Ranee Khet. As for nearly three +years I was the only resident Christian minister, I held two services +every Lord's Day--one for Presbyterians, including all non-Episcopalian +adherents, and the other for the Episcopalians, the Prayer-book being +used at this latter service. I also visited the sick in hospital, and +when at home conducted a weekday meeting. We first met in the open air, +or verandah of our hut; afterwards in the hut used as a temporary +canteen; for some time in the recreation-room; and during our later +years in our place of worship, which we called Union Church. An effort +was made to get up a girls' school, but it was unsuccessful, as the +attendance of the few native girls in the Bazar could not be secured. So +far as native women were concerned, all Mrs. Kennedy could do was to +instruct the few living in the Mission compound. She found, however, an +interesting sphere among the wives and children of the soldiers. The +Sabbath school, commenced and carried on by her, assisted by others, was +attended by all the children, Roman Catholic as well as Protestant; but +no sooner was a Roman Catholic chaplain appointed than the order went +forth for the withdrawal of the children of his Church, which was obeyed +with manifest reluctance. We had much pleasure in these services with +our own people, and had every reason to believe lasting good was done. +Some of the boys of the Ranee Khet school expressed a desire to be +taught English, and these came every second day to our house to be +taught by Mrs. Kennedy. + +[Sidenote: MISSION WORK AT RANEE KHET.] + +While thankfully availing myself of the opportunities presented of +preaching the Gospel to our own countrymen, such opportunities as I +never had at any previous period of my Indian career, my chief attention +was given to the work for which I had been sent to Ranee Khet. I have +already mentioned missionary work done on visits to the schools. At +Ranee Khet opportunities were found for conversation with shopkeepers +and their customers. Thousands of work-people were employed on the +buildings which were being erected, and these, when the work of the day +was over, flocked to the Bazar to buy food. After the toil of the day, +when eagerly anticipating their only cooked meal in the twenty-four +hours, they were not inclined to listen to a stranger telling them of +his strange religion. Occasionally I did succeed in getting for a time +the attention of some not so eager as others to get their evening meal. +Most heard quietly, but sometimes individuals replied with bitter words. +Many of the work-people had come from a great distance. The most +prominent of these was a band of Cashmeeree Mussulmans, who spoke +against Christianity with a fierceness which showed what they would do +if they had the power. From one of them I got a retort, which it was +difficult to repel. I tried to put the party into good humour by asking +them about their country, and I smilingly said, "Is there no food in +your country, that you have come all this way for it?" To which I got +the reply: "You, sir, have come much farther than we have done. Had you +no food to eat in your country?" I must acknowledge I felt myself shut +up under this rebuff. + +During my residence at Ranee Khet I had much intercourse with two +classes widely separated from each other--educated young men, and Doms. + +I have mentioned that from the Almora Mission School a number of young +men had gone into all parts of the Province. Several got situations in +the public offices of Ranee Khet, and to them in the course of time +persons of the same class were added from Bengal. I visited these at +their quarters, and did all in my power to maintain friendly intercourse +with them. A room in the school-house, supplied, partly at their own +expense and partly by the liberality of friends, with newspapers, +periodicals, and books, was turned into a reading-room, which was always +open in the evening. One evening in the week they met me in class, when +we had as our text-book the Advanced Reader of the Christian Vernacular +Education Society, which furnished full opportunity for conversation on +the most useful and important subjects. The attendance was not so steady +as could be desired. All were friendly in their bearing, and some seemed +much interested in our study and talk. A few professed Brahmist views, +but none were inclined to join the Brahmist community and break with +their own people. There was no indication of the spiritual concern which +compels the soul to earnest investigation, with a view to following +truth wherever it may lead. + +[Sidenote: MISSION WORK AMONG THE DOMS.] + +The other class with whom I had much to do at Ranee Khet were the Doms, +to whom reference has already been made as in all probability the +descendants of the aborigines of the country previous to the Hindu +invasion. They are a most useful part of the community. As the artisans +of the country, the people of every caste have much to do with them. +They are largely engaged in agriculture. They do things by which the +caste people would be defiled, such as carrying away the carcases of +animals. In a high-caste village it is not uncommon to see, a little +aside from it--if the ground permits, below it--a number of houses +occupied by Doms. The pigs and fowls around the meaner dwellings, and +the poorer looks of the inhabitants, tell what they are. As artisan +work is now in great demand the circumstances of the Doms are much +improved, and there is every prospect of their rising into a higher +position. They bear, and for many a year they may be expected to bear, +indubitable marks of having been for ages a servile, despised, +downtrodden class, having no respect from others, and entertaining +little respect for themselves. Their improved circumstances will do +something towards raising them in the social scale, but we cannot look +for high moral excellence and real manhood till they come under the +power of the Gospel. + +On account of the abundance of work which the formation of an English +station was sure to afford, a colony of these people erected a village +for themselves on the side of the Ranee Khet hill below the Bazar. I had +when in Almora conversed frequently with Doms. At Ranee Khet I saw much +of them, and had more encouragement among them than among any other +class. To some who expressed regret they could neither read nor write, I +said it was not too late; that I would take care that they be taught if +they were willing to learn. To test them I opened a night-school, and a +number availed themselves of it. It was a gratifying sight to see them, +at ages varying from fifteen to thirty-five, conning their +spelling-books at the door of the school-house as evening was coming on, +or trying to form letters on their slates. A few became soon +discouraged, but a number held on, night after night for two or three +hours, with the greatest eagerness, till they could read, write, and +count very fairly. One result of the school was that they began to +attend, with great regularity, a service held every Sabbath afternoon in +the hall of the school-house. During the last year of our residence in +Ranee Khet, the attendance at this service was larger than at any +previous period, and it was mainly composed of Doms. Nothing could +exceed the quietness and apparent interest with which they heard the +simple addresses given. I cannot say I saw any evidence of spiritual +awakening, but the torpor of their previous life was shaken in a way +which inspired the hope of their being brought into the fold of Christ. + +I have mentioned the fierceness of the Cashmeeree Mussulmans. This +charge cannot be brought against them all. One of their number, a young +lad, came to the school, and was in every respect one of the best pupils +in it. With another, one so trusted by the rest that he was the +go-between in the arrangements for work with the English engineer, I had +much intercourse. Though the head of the party, and himself doing no +manual work, he could neither read nor write, and was entirely dependent +on accounts being kept by another. To my surprise he came to the +night-school, and applied himself so diligently that he acquired a fair +measure of elementary education, though his knowledge of the Hindee +language was very imperfect. He regularly attended the Sabbath evening +service, and seemed to listen most eagerly. One day he came to our +house. I at once saw that he was greatly excited. He shut the door +behind him, as if afraid of being seen, came close to me, got down on +his knees, and said: "Sir, what am I to do? Last night Huzrut Isa" (the +name given by Muhammadans to our Lord, which may be translated "His +Honour," or "His Excellence Jesus") "appeared to me in a dream, and +said, 'Follow me; follow me.' But how can I follow Him? My people will +kill me, they will kill me!" I have seldom been more touched than when +I looked on the anguish in the face of that poor man, and the tears +coursing down his cheeks, as he uttered these words. I need not tell the +Christian reader what I endeavoured to say. Shortly afterwards the +Cashmeerees left Ranee Khet, and this man with them. I could not find +out where they went, and I have lost all trace of my friend. + +[Sidenote: ITINERACY.] + +A considerable part, sometimes the greater part, of the cold weather was +given to itineracy. Some winters we went down to the foot of the hills +to prosecute mission work among the large population found there at that +season. We moved from place to place, erecting our tent in central +spots, from which within a radius of two or three miles we could visit +populous villages, some built of rough stones, but most composed of +grass sheds. I was generally accompanied by a catechist. We had many +opportunities of speaking to the people on the highest subjects. Not +infrequently we met persons whom we had met in the hills, and then we +were sure of a special welcome. Once I came on a party of Doms, tailors, +whom I had seen a short time previously, and I said to them: "As you +have no cattle, and do not cultivate the ground, what has brought you +down?" To which I got the reply: "We have come in search of the sun." +This gave me an opportunity of speaking of that Sun in whose warmth and +light their spirits might dwell at all times, in all places. I +endeavoured to set up schools in the Bhabhur, but had not any +encouraging measure of success. + +There was much which was pleasant and exhilarating in this movement from +place to place, and in camping under the trees: but it was at times very +fatiguing, and in bad weather very unpleasant. More than once we were +overtaken by severe storms, but happily the worst of these storms came +on us in favoured places, where we could find shelter on escaping from +our tent. + +Hill ponies feel themselves strange when in what a friend used to call +the "roomy plains." The pony I had for years was quiet enough in the +hills, but I had to watch it narrowly in the plains, as it seemed to +have always the sense of danger, and was ready to start in a fashion +which more than once almost dismounted me. + +Some winters were spent in itinerating in hill districts from which the +people did not go to the Bhabhur. In these winters I had the opportunity +of going to a mela held at Bageswur, about thirty-five miles from Ranee +Khet, at the confluence of the Surjoo and the Kalee. This mela is the +greatest held in the Province. To many it is the grand event of the +year. The people from all parts flock to it for religious, commercial, +and social purposes. In the motley crowd may be seen hill-men from all +the districts of the Himalaya, natives from the plains, Tibetans from +the other side of the snowy range, and Englishmen. + +This mela is held in a low valley not far from one of the passes into +Tibet. It is attended by many Tibetans, who succeed in bringing their +ponies through the tremendous defiles which separate their country from +Kumaon. These ponies bring high prices. They also bring sheep laden with +salt and borax. These Mongolians are great stalwart men, with broad +faces, clad in homespun woollen cloth of many folds, which is seldom +taken off till it is worn off. They are accompanied by a few women and +children. They take their religion with them in their praying-wheels, +which they keep going. They are an intensely religious people, as Mr. +Gilmour tells us, but it is in the most mechanical fashion which can be +conceived. If they were mere machines, wound up like their +praying-wheels, they could not to all appearance be more devoid of +thought, feeling, and conscience in the exercise of their religion. I +marked their countenances, and could only wonder at their stolid look. +Much that is absurd is found in man's religion, but the Tibetan form of +it seemed to me the very _ne plus ultra_ of irrationality. Some of these +Mongolians are inveterate beggars, but it would not be fair to judge the +people generally by these stragglers into India. There was more life in +their dances than in their religion, though not much grace. It seemed to +me that if elephants could dance, they would do it somewhat in that +style. + +[Sidenote: GREAT FAIR AT BAGESWUR.] + +In the town of Bageswur there are substantial houses belonging to the +merchants of the Province, and these are occupied by themselves or their +agents during the greater part of the cold weather. During the rest of +the year it is deserted, as the valley is very hot and feverish. During +the colder weeks of the year it is a very stirring place, but it is on +the occasion of the melas, two of which are held within three months, +that there is a large gathering. At the principal mela many thousands +must be present. As in all Hindu gatherings, religion, business, and +pleasure are eagerly prosecuted. A town of booths rises suddenly in the +valley and on the sides of the hills. Whenever I have gone, I have for +miles before reaching the place seen many carrying or trailing branches +of trees, with which they were to erect their temporary abode. These +answer well in good weather, but when rain or snow falls they give no +shelter. The morning is given to bathing. One morning is peculiarly +propitious, and then from the earliest dawn the people are in the +stream, many of them, I suppose, getting well-nigh the only ablution +they have in the course of the year. During the day selling and buying +go on vigorously. As evening approaches the merry-go-rounds are +patronized, and crowds gather round singing and dancing parties. The +dancers are young men linked hand in hand, who move about in circles, +shuffle their feet, and sing in a very monotonous fashion. Many set to +the preparation of the evening meal, and the valley and the hill-sides +are aglow with fires and lights. Amusement, however, has not come to an +end. Singing is kept up till the small hours of the morning, to the no +small disturbance of those who cannot sleep except when there is a +measure of quiet. Between the singing of the people and the +barking--rather the howling--of the Tibetan dogs, such barking as I have +never heard in our own country, wearied though I have been by the work +of the day I have for hours found sleep to be impossible. + +Englishmen attending the mela find a temporary abode in tents, and in a +staging bungalow erected for the accommodation of European travellers. +They dine together in the hall of this house, and occupy their tents at +night. Officials deputed by the Commissioner of the Province are +present, for the double purpose of keeping order and of paying rewards +to those who have killed wild beasts. The skins of the tigers, bears, +and leopards, for the destruction of which rewards have been paid, are +sold by auction under the direction of the officials. The heaps of skins +exposed for sale give one a striking impression of the number of wild +beasts in the country. There are many keen hunters, both native and +European, and there is no likelihood of their occupation coming to an +end for want of game. Tea-planters attend this mela to buy mats, which +are made by the people in large quantities, and are required in the +preparation of tea for the market. Military officers on leave and +travellers from the plains are present from the double motive of seeing +this strange gathering and of purchasing ponies. + +For many years Mr. Budden, accompanied by native Christians, has been in +the habit of going to this mela, and I have been happy to help him and +his brethren when opportunity has been given to me. A colporteur has +been present with his wares, and succeeds in selling at a small price +portions of the Scriptures and tracts. An amusing instance of indecision +occurred at the bookstall the last time I was present. A man had +purchased a Gospel. He came back saying he was told by his people that +he would certainly become a Christian if he took that book to his +village, and he laid down the book on the stall and asked for his money. +The colporteur refused to cancel the sale, and the man was sorely +perplexed, reluctant to lose both his money and that for which the money +was paid. At last he walked away with the book, the colporteur assuring +him it would do him only good. + +[Sidenote: PREACHING AT THE FAIR.] + +We took our stand at different parts of the mela, and spoke to all +willing to hear. Many speedily passed on, but a number remained for some +time, as if desirous to know what this new religion was. Now and then we +encountered pundits, and if they were at all reasonable we were pleased +with their presence and opposition, as a colloquy with them greatly +quickened the interest of the people. On one occasion, after skirmishing +with some pundits, it was arranged they were to meet us at a fixed hour +for discussion. Our Christian party were present at the appointed place +and hour, but our pundit friends did not put in an appearance. Our +going, however, was not in vain, as we succeeded in getting hearers who +listened patiently to what we had to say about the Saviour of mankind. +One of our number was a converted pundit of Almora, who spoke to the +people in a way I thought eminently fitted to make a favourable +impression. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +HABITS AND CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. MISSION WORK AND RETIREMENT. + + +During our residence in Kumaon we had many opportunities of observing +the condition and habits of the people. I have mentioned the new +resources opened up to them, and yet it must be acknowledged that many +are poor. The population is probably much larger than it has been at any +previous period. The holdings are small, and by the division made on the +occasion of the death of the head of the household they ever tend to +become smaller. There are a number in the Province who own no land, and +are poorly remunerated for their labour by their countrymen. I have +mentioned the new source of wealth opened up to the people by the canals +and cultivation of the Bhabhur. Reference has also been made to the +tea-gardens and public works, on which large sums of money have been +spent, of which much has reached the people in the form of wages. Thus +all classes, both those who have land and those who have not, have been +benefited. Indeed, apart from income thus obtained it is difficult to +conceive how the people could have been supported. If they do not make +progress in material comfort the fault must lie in their want of +energy. + +Like their brethren in the plains, the people in the hills live chiefly +on cereals--the cheaper cereals--and vegetables; but, like most below, +including even many Brahmans and Rajpoots, they have no objection to +animal food when they get it of the kind they approve, and prepared in +the way caste rules require. As to Doms, nothing that is at all eatable +comes amiss to them. They have no objection, indeed, to much we should +deem uneatable. The Hindus eat the flesh of goats and kids offered in +sacrifice. They also eat the flesh of short-tailed sheep, but +long-tailed sheep are an abomination to them, as they regard them as a +kind of dog. We saw once an amusing instance of the notion of +uncleanness attached to this species of sheep. A few sheep were being +chosen by a purchaser from a flock. The animals were scampering about, +showing, according to their nature, their unwillingness to be caught. +Three or four men were engaged in catching them, but one every now and +then started back when about to lay his hand on a sheep, exclaiming, +"_Wuh doomwala hai!_"--"It is a tailed one! it is a tailed one!"--as if +he would be hopelessly defiled by touching it, while his less scrupulous +companions of the same caste said, "You fool! what does it matter? It +will do you no harm." They would not have eaten its flesh, but their +caste spirit was sufficiently relaxed to allow them to touch it. + +I have referred to sanitary regulations issued by the authorities to +guard the people against epidemics caused by want of cleanliness. One of +these regulations forbids the dwelling together of animals and human +beings. On our first visit to the hills in 1847 I came unpleasantly into +contact with this dual occupation of the same house. As night was +setting in I came to the top of a hill, and from it I could see a few +straggling houses at a short distance. I had with me two or three men, +who proposed to put up a booth for the night. Unhappily for my comfort, +a thunderstorm came on with heavy rain, and the booth was no protection. +I was taken to a house a short way off, but on entering it the smell +from the animals occupying it with their owners was so strong that it +drove me out. I preferred to face the storm to bearing the effluvia of +that highland abode. I was told of a little unoccupied grass-shed a mile +down the hill. I found the grass so thick and well tied that the rain +did not get through, and the entrance was on the lee side. Into this I +crept, and slept soundly till the morning, for I was very tired with the +long walk of the day. + +The new sanitary orders have no doubt done good, but it is difficult to +secure compliance with them, though fines are imposed on persons +convicted of disobedience. If there had been a reward for informers I +could have more than once won it by telling what I had seen. + +[Sidenote: NYNEE TAL.] + +A very pleasant break during our life at Ranee Khet was a yearly visit +paid to Nynee Tal, about thirty miles distant, which had become the seat +of Government for the North-West for half the year, and a place of great +resort from the plains during the hot and wet months. It has many +advantages as a Sanitarium. It is within sixteen miles of the Bhabhur, +and has an elevation of from 6,300 to 8,000 feet above the level of the +sea. There is a small, beautiful mountain lake, from one end of which +one looks down on the plains over the intervening hills; while at the +other end, beyond a piece of uneven ground, rises a lofty mountain. +There are rather steep hills on either side, but hills with a gradient +which admits of houses being built on them. Though so near the plains, +this lakelet was till 1842 unknown, except to natives and a few English +officials. In that year travellers with difficulty made their way to it, +and drew attention to its attractions. We first saw it in 1847, and then +it had very few houses. An old General, one of its first residents, told +us that one day the preceding year he saw a tiger walking leisurely +above his house, and looking down, as if wondering at the change which +was coming over the place. Some of the first residents were startled by +meeting bears in their walks. Since that time houses have been built on +every side, and during the season there is a great population of both +Europeans and natives. Four years ago there was a fearful landslip, +which carried down a number of houses with it, and buried many under the +falling mass. + +[Illustration: LANDSLIP AT NYNEE TAL.] + +At the beginning of 1857, the American Episcopal Methodist Church +entered on mission work in Rohilkund. When the mutiny of that year broke +out, the agents of this church in Rohilkund escaped to Nynee Tal, and +from that time they continued to occupy it as a mission station, and +also as a sanitarium for their brethren in the plains. The Mission has +been efficiently conducted. English services have been maintained during +the season. They have been well attended by all classes, and have done +much good. Between native servants and shopkeepers from the plains, and +natives of the hills, who flock into the place for service and work, +there is a large sphere for mission work, and much has been done in the +way of both preaching and schools. The Mission has been extended to +other parts of the Province, to Gurhwal in the north, to Petorah in the +east, and to other places, with manifest tokens of the Divine blessing. + +[Sidenote: ANNUAL MEETINGS AT NYNEE TAL.] + +With these American brethren we have been on the most friendly terms, +and have co-operated with them in every way open to us. We formed an +association with them for mutual counsel and help. One result of this +association has been the holding of annual meetings in Nynee Tal in +autumn, for the benefit of Europeans and natives, and conducted in both +the English and native languages, ending with the celebration of the +Lord's Supper. These meetings were largely attended, excited much +interest, did, I believe, much good, and were very enjoyable. On these +annual visits to Nynee Tal we commonly remained a week or ten days, and +had much pleasant intercourse with the missionaries and other friends. +During several years Sir William Muir, as Lieutenant-Governor of the +North-West, was resident for half the year at Nynee Tal, and our special +thanks are due to him and Lady Muir for hospitable entertainment. + +While, during our residence in the hills, time and strength were mainly +given to effort for the spiritual good of our own countrymen and the +native population, there were times, especially during the rainy season, +when I was much at home; and I was glad to avail myself of the leisure +afforded of writing for the press what I hoped might prove, and what I +trust has proved, of spiritual benefit to natives and others. During our +stay in the hills, in addition to articles for the "Indian Evangelical +Review" and other periodicals, I wrote a Commentary on the Epistle to +the Romans in Hindustanee, and Essays in English, which were published +in book form under the title of "Christianity and the Religions of +India." At an early period of my missionary career, at the request of my +colleague Mr. Shurman, to whom the work of revising and in part +translating the Bible into Hindustanee was entrusted, I transferred the +Pentateuch from the Persian into the Roman character, and translated the +book of the Prophet Jeremiah, which, revised by Mr. Shurman and Dr. +Mather, now forms part of the version. Before leaving India I did a +little, at the request of the North India Bible Society, towards the +revision of the Hindee translation of the New Testament. On this work a +large and very able Committee is now engaged. During my Indian career I +have written a good deal for the press--I must acknowledge in a very +desultory manner. + +Thus engaged in prosecuting our work, years passed on till the end of +1876, when we felt the time had arrived for retiring from the Indian +Mission-field. In July of that year I had a severe illness, which laid +me aside, and incapacitated me for carrying on mission work with any +measure of efficiency. I might have continued at Ranee Khet, and done +the work within my reach there, but by doing so the most important part +of the work, the work in the district, would have remained undone; and I +deemed it best to retire to make way for one who could fitly occupy the +sphere. Medical men whom I consulted strongly advised my departure, and +the Directors of the Society gave their prompt and kind sanction to our +return to England. + +[Sidenote: FRIENDLY HELP.] + +I cannot end this account of our life in Kumaon without giving +expression to our gratitude for the kind aid afforded us by friends in +the prosecution of our work. Among these friends, one of the steadiest +and kindest was the cantonment magistrate, Colonel, afterwards +Major-General, Chamberlain, who identified himself with the Mission, and +was ever ready to do all he could to promote its prosperity. During our +lengthened absences from the station in the cold weather, and whenever +I could not officiate, he conducted service with the English soldiers, +and he was ready in every way within his power to render help. In +addition to aid in carrying on the Mission, we received great personal +kindness from him and his partner, of which we shall always retain a +grateful recollection. He retired to England a short time after us, and +within a little more than a year he was suddenly called away--to his own +gain, we are sure, but to the grief of all his friends. It gives me a +melancholy pleasure to render this tribute to his memory. For steady +friendship and most valuable aid our best thanks are also due to +Captain, now Lieut.-Colonel, Birney, R.E., the resident Chief Engineer; +Robert Troup, Esq., a tea-planter in the neighbourhood; and Mr. +Ashhurst, engineer. Among the friends not resident at Ranee Khet, to +whom the Mission is largely indebted, are Sir Henry Ramsay and Sir +William Muir. Besides the friends I have mentioned, many others +contributed liberally to the Mission, without whose aid much which was +done must have remained unaccomplished. By the liberal contributions +received the operations of the Mission were carried on, and valuable +property was created at very little expense to the Society. + +We left Ranee Khet at the close of 1876. As we were leaving India with +no prospect of returning, we spent two months in visiting different +stations, seeing their Missions, and holding intercourse with friends +and brethren. In the course of these months we visited Bareilly, +Shahjehanpore, Agra, from which we went to see that wonderful deserted +city, Futtypore Sikree, with its magnificent tombs, Jeypore, Lucknow, +Cawnpore, Allahabad, Mirzapore, Benares, Jubbulpore, and Bombay. At Agra +we attended the native service of the Church Mission. The minister who +preached was a native who had been educated in our central school at +Benares when I was superintendent, and was there led to the knowledge of +Christ, though he was not baptized till his return to his native city, +Agra. On this tour we saw and heard much which interested us greatly, as +it showed the work of evangelization was being vigorously prosecuted +with tokens of God's blessing resting on it. We embarked at Bombay in +February, and arrived in England at the end of March. + +We left India, where we had spent the greater and, I may say, the better +part of our life, with feelings I will not attempt to describe. I can +only say when we review our Indian life, that while deeply humbled at +the recollection of many errors and defects, defects in wisdom, zeal, +and love, we are deeply grateful for having been privileged to labour +for so many years in the service of our adorable Redeemer, not, we +trust, without proof that good was accomplished through our +instrumentality; and so long as we breathe, our hearts will steadily +turn towards India with ardent love, and with fervent prayer for the +spiritual and temporal welfare of its inhabitants. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE MISSIONARY IN INDIA. + + +On reviewing these reminiscences I find there are several subjects of +interest to which I have only casually alluded, and others on which I +have made no remark. My readers will, I hope, bear with me while I +detain them by stating facts and expressing views which will make the +narrative more complete. + +It is unnecessary to describe the office of missionary to the heathen. +No one has rightly entered on the office without being deeply impressed +by its greatness, arduousness, and responsibility. It is equally +unnecessary to describe the qualifications required. No one can +contemplate the demands the office makes on intellect, heart, and +conscience, on love to the Lord Jesus Christ and love to souls, on +wisdom, perseverance, and courage, without exclaiming with the great +missionary Paul, "Who is sufficient for these things?" The idea that one +unqualified for work at home would do for a missionary abroad is so +preposterous that it is strange it should have ever been entertained by +the most heedless. + +There is, however, a great difference between an office and those who +serve in an office. Because an office is great and honourable it does +not follow that those who hold it have always the high character it +demands. The question may, then, be fairly asked, Are missionaries +worthy of their office? I, of course, use the word "worthy" in a +relative sense, and I remember our limited acquaintance with the human +heart. It must be acknowledged there have been a few, happily a _very_ +few, who have shown themselves utterly unworthy of the office, some by +lack of intellectual fitness, and others by want of spiritual character +and by indisposition to the work. There have been cases of the utter +failure of character, but these have been extremely rare. Of +missionaries generally it may be confidently affirmed they have been +true men. I have a wide acquaintance with the missionaries of Northern +India. During our long residence in Benares we saw many of all +Societies, of all Churches, as they travelled up and down. Benares is +one of the great halting-places between Bengal and the Upper Provinces, +and residence there gives many opportunities for acquaintance with +brethren. We have the most pleasing recollection of many we have met, +and we have followed their course with deep interest. + +[Sidenote: MINISTERS AND MISSIONARIES.] + +I should be acting in opposition to my settled conviction if I were to +speak of missionaries as more devoted to Christ's service, more +self-denied, more ready to endure privation than home ministers. This +glorification of missionaries, as missionaries, was much in vogue at one +time, and is still sometimes heard. Our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, +gives to every one his work, and our devotedness is shown, not by our +office, but by the way in which we do the work assigned us. Predilection +to a certain sphere, supposed fitness for it, temperament and +circumstances, have much to do in indicating to us the sphere our Lord +would have us to occupy. Tried by the test of devotedness, as shown in +daily life, I have never seen any reason for placing one class of +Christ's servants above the other. Among ministers there is, as we all +know, a great difference, not only in talent and attainment, but also in +love, zeal, wisdom, and endurance--in every quality which their work +demands. Similar is the variety among missionaries. There are many +degrees of efficiency and, it must be acknowledged, of inefficiency. +They, as well as their brethren at home, can go through the routine of +their work in a very perfunctory and unsatisfactory manner; while they, +too, can consecrate all their powers to the service of their Lord. It +would be easy to select from the home field ministers who, in unwearied +labour, self-denial, and privation for Christ's sake, greatly excel the +ordinary run of missionaries; and it would be equally easy to select +from the foreign field missionaries who greatly excel most of their home +brethren. + +In several respects there is a marked contrast in the position of +ministers and missionaries. Ministers labour in their own language, +among their own people, amidst home surroundings and associations; while +missionaries have to part with loved relatives and to betake themselves +to a foreign land, where they have to learn a foreign language, often +languages, at the cost of much time and of wearying application, have +for years, as in the greater part of India, to bear a severe climate, +are called to prosecute their work among a strange, an unsympathetic, +and sometimes a hostile people, and, what is felt by family people to be +the greatest trial of all, they have to send their children to England, +and to live separate from them for years. Some of these trials +missionaries share with their fellow-countrymen, who from secular +motives go to foreign lands, but others are peculiar to their vocation. + +While I mention the trials of a missionary career I cannot forget the +trials of ministerial life at home. We should require to shut our eyes +to patent facts if we were to ignore the privations many excellent men +are called to endure, and the varied difficulties they have to encounter +from the character and circumstances of the people among whom they +labour, from the peculiarities of our times, and from the abiding +qualities of human nature, as it is now constituted. Missionaries are +not rich, but they have adequate support, for good or evil are not +dependent for it on the goodwill of those to whom they minister, and +receive it as regularly as if it came from an endowment. With children +sent home for education they have times of great pressure, but much has +been done to aid them in meeting this additional expense. Viewed merely +as to the comfort of living, and ease of mind as to support, the +advantages are not all on the side of the home minister. To counteract +the advantages of the missionary's position to which I have referred, it +must be remembered the average career of service in India is short--some +returning very soon, and others after a few years. Those who return +after years spent abroad, and yet in the prime of life, are rightly +expected to enter the list of the home ministry; but the work they have +left and that on which they are entering are so different, that the +mental habits acquired in the one are felt to be a poor preparation for, +and often even an obstacle to, efficiency in the other. + +[Sidenote: SPIRITUAL CHARACTER INDISPENSABLE.] + +In their duties, joys, and trials, ministers and missionaries have much +in common. We have to deal with the same human nature, manifesting the +same characteristics, though in different forms. We have the same +message to deliver. We have the same great end in view, the salvation +of those to whom we minister, their restoration to the character and +joys of God's children. Whether we labour at home or abroad, we are +required to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. If we have +not entered on our work from love to Christ and love to souls, with an +intense desire to spend and be spent in Christ's service, with a belief +that He has called us to it, and given us a measure of fitness for it; +if we are conscious of being dominated by inferior motives; if we have +not delight in our work, even when there is great pressure on both mind +and body; if we do not long for the success of our work, it is obvious +we have missed our vocation, and it would be better for us to sweep the +street, I would say it would be better to walk the treadmill than occupy +our position for an hour. This I must say for myself, I am deeply +thankful for having been privileged to labour in the foreign field, and +consider it the highest honour which could have been conferred on me. +With my brethren I have had many trials to endure, some privations to +bear, some perils to encounter, but I have never for an hour regretted +my early decision to give myself to Christ's work among the heathen. I +am sure I here speak the feeling of my missionary brethren. + +I have endeavoured in my reminiscences to give such a representation of +a missionary's position and work in Northern India, that home ministers +who may read my narrative can have no difficulty in comparing and +contrasting ministerial and missionary spheres. It will be seen how +varied are the duties devolving on the missionary, and how great are the +demands on thought and effort for their proper discharge. They have, in +many cases, to attend to harassing and perplexing secular work. A number +give their time and strength to teaching, and I know enough of this +department to testify that those who give themselves to it in a climate +like that of India lead very laborious lives. I have said little of the +translation of the Scriptures, and the preparation of Christian books +and tracts. This is a department in which there has been much exhausting +effort of both body and mind, as all know well who have done even a +little in it. In the prosecution of direct evangelistic work the +missionary finds much to interest and encourage him, but also much to +grieve and depress him, especially if he has a sensitive nature, and has +no natural love for debate. Even to those who do not shrink from +discussion there is often not a little which is very trying. I have a +vivid recollection of times when I have returned from Benares to my home +in the suburbs, so wearied in body and grieved in spirit by the +opposition I had encountered and the blasphemies I had heard, that I +have felt as if I could never enter the city again. But I went again, +and perhaps the next time was much encouraged. + +Missionaries at the same station are much more closely associated than +ministers at the same place at home. The management of the mission, the +policy to be adopted, and the respective places to be filled, are under +common arrangement and control, subject to the district committee, and +through them to the home directors. Many perplexing questions come +before missionaries thus associated, and human nature in them must have +parted with its usual infirmities, and put on peculiar excellence, if +difference of judgment and consequent variance of feeling had never +appeared. We cannot plead exemption from human imperfection. It cannot +be denied that at times there has been strong diversity of judgment and +painful alienation of feeling, when missionaries have too closely +resembled Paul and Barnabas in their sharp dispute at Antioch; but it +can at the same time be most truly affirmed that with very rare +exceptions discord has soon come to an end, and those who have differed +widely have become attached friends, as we know Paul and Barnabas did. +The normal state of things is that of mutual love, respect, and +helpfulness. + +Missionaries have also had their differences with the Societies that +have sent them out and supported them. The respective position of home +committees and foreign missionaries are so different, that a difference +of judgment is in some cases unavoidable; but confiding as they have +done in the goodness of each other's motives, full harmony has been soon +restored. I must be allowed to say of the London Missionary Society, +whose agent I was for so many years in India, that my warmest +acknowledgments are due to it for all the kindness and consideration +shown to me and mine. If I were now to begin my career with my knowledge +of the past, there is no Society with which I could so confidently +connect myself. + +[Sidenote: INTERCOURSE AND CO-OPERATION.] + +All have heard of the friendly intercourse among missionaries of +different churches. They, too, when near each other have had occasional +differences; but with rare exceptions they have been on terms not only +of courteous bearing, but of affectionate intimacy. There is nothing in +our Indian life to which we look back with greater pleasure than our +intercourse with Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and Episcopalian +brethren. With the Episcopalian and Baptist missionaries at Benares we +were on as warm terms of friendship as if they had been members of our +own Mission. For many years we were in the habit of meeting weekly with +them for the study of the Scriptures, prayer, and Christian communion. + +Most Europeans take no interest in missions, look on missionaries as +good men engaged in a Quixotic enterprise, and know almost nothing about +their work, but still they treat them with courtesy. There are, however, +some of our own countrymen who take a deep interest in our work, visit +our schools, occasionally attend our native services, and contribute +liberally to our mission schemes. These do much to cheer our hearts and +promote our success. Again and again my work would have been at a +standstill but for the help given me by European Christians, and our +intercourse with some has resulted in close and enduring friendship. If +persons have a temperament preparing them for friendship, I cannot +conceive any position more favourable to its formation and strength than +that of a missionary in many of our Indian stations. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE MISSIONARY IN INDIA (Continued). + + +It has been already stated that missionaries have an income, which +enables them to live in a way conducive to the health of themselves and +families. Things which would be luxuries at home are necessaries in +India, and all they can do is to alleviate the suffering caused by the +climate. As missionaries are often more stationary than European +officials, both military and civil, and spend much less than they do on +horses, establishments, and entertainments, their houses have an air of +comfort which is surprising to those who know their income, and has led +to much misrepresentation on the part of those who know not and do not +care to know what it is. + +Not infrequently young men have gone out to India as missionaries with +the firm resolve to live to a large extent in the native fashion, and to +eschew what they conceive the undue indulgence of those who had preceded +them, but the experience of one hot season has generally brought them to +another mind. Individuals have adhered to their resolution, and the +result in one case I know was insanity, in other cases utter failure of +health, and in others speedy death. A band of Germans determined to +live, if not in the native style, at least in the simple style of the +Fatherland, as to habitation, food, and service, and with scarcely an +exception the plan was soon abandoned. The only successful case I have +heard of in our day has been that of Mr. Bowen, a devoted American +missionary in Bombay. We have had no William Burns, in Northern India at +least. I can say for myself, that so far as the mere comfort of living +is concerned I should greatly prefer a humble abode and simple fare in +England, to the finest house and the most sumptuous fare in the plains +of Northern India. It has been maintained by some that our only hope of +success lies in our becoming ascetics, and outstripping by our +austerities the Hindu saints. In other words, by acting as if we +accepted Hindu principles of religion we are to overthrow Hinduism, and +win the people to Christ. The proposal calls for no consideration. + +Of late a good deal has been said about the substance of missionary +teaching. Missionaries as a class maintain and teach the doctrinal views +of the Churches whose messengers and agents they are. In these Churches +a sifting process has been going on for a considerable time, which has +led in some cases to a reversal of belief in matters of great moment, +and in a greater number to the modification and softening of views +hitherto entertained. Every one must decide for himself how far the +sifting has been wisely done, how far chaff and only chaff has been +given to the wind, and precious grain gathered into the garner. +Missionaries have unquestionably been affected by doctrinal discussion, +in a few instances, I believe a very few, to the reversal of some of +their former views, in all, perhaps, though in different degrees, to a +readjustment of their doctrinal position, to giving more prominence to +some aspects of truth and less prominence to others, under the +conviction that such is their relative position in the Word of God. + +[Sidenote: MISSIONARY PREACHING.] + +However much imbued missionaries have been with the views of their +respective Churches, their position among the heathen has always led +them to the constant and simple presentation of the great facts and +doctrines of the Bible. These have been set forth in the manner deemed +best fitted to commend them to the understanding, conscience, and heart +of the people. Familiar illustrations have been largely used, and +elaborate doctrinal discussion shunned. While the missionary finds much +in the narratives and teachings of the Old Testament which is helpful to +his object, he dwells chiefly on the life of Christ, His deeds, words, +living, and holy example; death to redeem men; man's urgent need of such +a Saviour, because guilty and depraved; the claims of Christ on His +love, trust, and service; the blessedness of compliance with these +claims on character and state; the misery and doom incurred by their +persistent rejection. How often have I seen the heathen greatly moved by +the parable of the Prodigal Son! + +The missionary, like the home minister, has to guard against +one-sidedness, if he would keep to the Book which he professes to be his +standard. The many-sidedness of the Bible, its appeal to man's whole +nature, is one of the most marked proofs of its superhuman origin. While +it addresses itself continually to man's moral nature, to his sense of +right and wrong, while it appeals to his intellect and heart, it also +speaks to his fears and hopes. These appeals are made to all, whatever +may be their diversity in character and condition. If we were to follow +the course of many in our day who condemn appeals to fear, we should be +ignoring a large part of Scripture, including many of our Lord's +utterances, and at the same time ignoring that fear of hurtful +consequences which the Author of our nature has implanted in us as a +great means of self-preservation. To hope as well as to fear much is +addressed in the Bible, and the missionary who would approve himself to +his Master is bound to appeal to both principles, while, like his +Master, he makes his constant and main appeal to the higher part of +man's nature. + +[Sidenote: MISSIONARIES COUNSELLED.] + +While the missionary ought to strive to understand the people among whom +he labours, and to discover the most promising avenue to their minds, +while he ought to commend himself to every man's conscience as in the +sight of God, he is not to seek acceptance for his message by +accommodating it to the views of his hearers. He knows that between +their views and his message there is not only a marked discrepancy, but +on many points radical opposition, and the one must be displaced if the +other is to be accepted. We have here for our guidance the example of +our Lord and His apostles. + +I have endeavoured to give a faithful description of the tenor of +missionary teaching. It appears many are dissatisfied with it. We are +told we must part with our narrow traditional views of doctrine, and +become imbued with the larger and more liberal views of our times, if we +are to hope for success. In the late Dr. Norman McLeod's "Life" we find +him saying, "The chief difficulty in the way of advancing Christianity +in India is unquestionably that almost all the missionaries represent a +narrow one-sided Christianity." I cannot conceive what could have been +his ground for this astounding statement, except his impression--it +could not have been anything beyond an impression--that missionaries +adhered to the doctrines of the Churches that had sent them out, his own +among the rest, and had not followed him in his changes. Every one who +comes out with new views, or modification of old views, assures us that +success will speedily follow the acceptance and preaching of _his_ phase +of doctrine. Some tell us we must preach the moral aspect of the +atonement, and part with what has been called the forensic aspect; we +must only speak of the love it shows to man, and say nothing of its +bearing on the Divine law and government; and then the great cause of +so-called failure will be removed. So far as I know missionaries, they +accept both aspects of the atonement; they believe both aspects are +taught in Scripture, and they are convinced that instead of enfeebling +they strengthen each other, while the doctrine thus presented meets +man's deepest wants. Others, again, tell us we must preach what is +called Life in Christ--the utter extinction of impenitent sinners, while +others say this is a shocking doctrine, and we must preach universal +restoration. This is no place for discussing the teaching of the Bible +regarding the great Beyond, which is at present exercising so many +minds. All I will say is that neither in the old views nor in the new is +there anything which a Hindu or a Buddhist will accept, while he remains +a Hindu or Buddhist. So far as I am aware, all students of Hinduism and +Buddhism are agreed that eternal conscious existence, with identity of +being firmly maintained, is alien from both systems. They do not hold +the doctrine of either eternal happiness or eternal misery. To be +extinguished, in the sense of being absorbed into Brahm and losing all +conscious personality, is the reward of high virtue, while the wicked +have to pass many miserable births before they reach this longed-for +goal. With them salvation, liberation, is not deliverance from sin, but +from conscious existence. They have both heavens and hells--heavens +supernatural in their surroundings but intensely earthly in their +character, doings, and strifes, and hells full of everything which is +repulsive and painful; but both, after vast lapses of time, will be +emptied into the great ocean of being, into the One without a Second. +Cessation of conscious existence is not with them the punishment of +wickedness, but the eagerly desired consummation of their being, the +goal which is quickly reached by the eminently good. + +Let missionaries by all means listen to what is said in favour of new +views, let them modify or change their views if they think they see +scriptural authority for the change, but I am profoundly convinced no +shifting of our doctrinal position will secure success. Looking over the +whole field of foreign missions since the end of last century, it is +undeniable that God has done great things by them, for which we have +abundant reason to be glad; and we know the teaching by which the desert +has in many places blossomed as the rose. New phases of doctrine have +yet to win their triumph. We must look in another direction for a +greater degree of success--to more unreserved devotedness to Christ on +the part of both missionaries and those who send them out; closer +communion with Him; a higher degree of attainment in the mind which is +in Him; a more persuasive deliverance of our message, and a larger +effusion of God's Spirit. + +[Sidenote: THE HEART'S OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.] + +The great obstruction at home and abroad to the acceptance of Christ as +the Saviour is moral obtuseness, a dormant conscience. Our Lord's words +throw a steady light on man's neglect of the great salvation, "_They +that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick._" Till men +know they are sick, and recognize the deadly nature of their sickness, +there will be no application to the Great Physician. In addition to the +indurating effects of sin everywhere, the people of India have been for +ages so drugged, I may say, with pantheistic and polytheistic teaching, +that if man's moral nature had been destructible it must have been +destroyed ages ago. Happily it can not be destroyed. Perverted, +stupefied, dormant, though it is, it still exists, and to it we can +therefore address the message of Heaven, while we look up to God to make +it effectual by the teaching of His Spirit. When man knows himself to be +a sinner, when he knows what sin is, then, and only then, whether in +India or in England, he casts himself with joy into the arms of the +Saviour. + +I am surprised when Christians speak as if only a modification or a new +statement of doctrine was required in order to achieve full and +immediate success, as if they had never read such passages as "_The +carnal mind is enmity against God_;" "_The natural man receiveth not the +things of the Spirit of God_;" as if they were ignorant of the facts by +which these statements are so amply and mournfully attested; as if they +had never heard of One who appeared, as ancient sages longed to see, +clothed with perfect virtue and dwelt among men, and was yet rejected +and crucified by them; as if they knew nothing of His apostles, who +spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and yet had to lament over +many hearers to whom their message was the savour of death unto death. +Musing over the controversies of the day, the wish has often arisen in +my mind: Would that the nature of sin was not kept so much in the +background! Would that it was seen in its offensiveness to God and +injuriousness to man--persistently daring high Heaven, while corrupting, +degrading, disquieting, and ruining man! Would that the scriptural view +of sin and sinfulness, which receives such ample confirmation from human +experience and history, was more considered in the adjustment of +doctrine! All readjustment in which the nature and effect of sin is not +kept steadily in view must lead to serious error--error which +misrepresents God's character and government, is inconsistent with facts +meeting us on every side, and must prove most hurtful to man. I am +convinced that while on some points there has been progress, and wise +modification of doctrine, on the subject of sin the theology of former +days was truer to Scripture and fact than the theology of our time. + +[Sidenote: "IN MEMORIAM."] + +I cannot conclude these remarks about the Indian missionary without +mentioning--and I can do little more than mention--the names of loved +fellow-labourers who rest from the toils of earth, and have entered into +the joy of their Lord above. A feeling of sadness and yet of +thankfulness comes over me, as I see before my mind's eye brethren of +our own Mission with whom I was associated--Buyers, with his intimate +acquaintance with the native languages, his large knowledge, and his +kindly disposition; Shurman, the keen, impetuous, plodding German +scholar, whose great monument is his translation of the Old Testament +into Hindustanee; Mather, first of Benares and afterwards of Mirzapore, +one of the most enterprising and devoted missionaries ever sent to +India, whose peculiarity of temper and urgency with new plans led in his +early years to unpleasantness, but who, when well known, was one of the +truest and kindest of men, with whom for many years we had an intimate +friendship, and whose memory and that of his excellent wife we shall +always revere; and Sherring, one of the most amiable of men and most +pleasant of colleagues, a man of marked attainments, and an +indefatigable worker. The agents of other missions at Benares call for +affectionate mention. I have in an early part of my reminiscences +spoken of Smith, the founder and for many years the sole agent of the +Baptist Mission at Benares, a quiet, diligent, Nathaniel-like man. This +mission had for years George Parsons, a man of large linguistic +attainments, of most amiable, meek, and devout character, than whom it +would be difficult to find a more conscientious labourer. The Church +Missionary Society was highly favoured in having had for a long period +at Benares two men, Smith and Leupolt, who, in their respective +departments, had, I believe, no superiors in India. For many years +Smith, with resolute perseverance and great efficiency, often with +severe strain on both body and mind, prosecuted evangelistic work in the +city and the surrounding neighbourhood. No man was better known and more +highly esteemed by the entire community. He had success to cheer him in +the form of persons avowing themselves the followers of Christ, but the +number was so small that he was often greatly depressed. I cannot doubt +that by his ministry seed was sown in many minds which will yet bear +fruit. During our later years in Benares, Fuchs was one of the agents of +this Mission, an excellent biblical scholar, a diligent labourer, who +required only to be known to be loved and esteemed, with whom we had +much pleasant and profitable intercourse. He was suddenly called away in +the midst of his usefulness, and in the prime of life. I have been +confining my remarks to the departed; but I must mention two who +survive--warm-hearted Heinig, of the Baptist Mission, now set aside by +age and infirmity, after a long life of great toil in the service of +Christ, and our greatly-loved friend Leupolt, of the Church Mission, who +is still doing good service now in England, and was for many years the +fellow-labourer of his friend Smith. His name and work at Benares will +last for many a day. + +Our departed brethren had their imperfections; who of us are without +them? But I can truly say that in their general character, work, and +bearing they were the messengers of the Churches to the Gentiles and the +glory of Christ. + +Looking beyond our Benares missions we remember a number of faithful +labourers, whom we knew and loved, who have joined the majority, such as +the learned and kindly Owen, the venerable Morrison, the apostolic +Ziemann, and many others besides. I do not use these terms in a +conventional sense, but as justly applicable to the men. Those I have +named laboured, and others have entered into their labours, men worthy +of all esteem, love, sympathy, and help. + + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +NATIVE CHRISTIANS. + + +Native Christians form so large and varied a community that right views +of them can be obtained only by those who consider its component parts. + +In Southern India there are thousands calling themselves Syrian +Christians, still more frequently Christians of St. Thomas. Either the +Apostle Thomas or some of his spiritual children went to India, and +founded a Christian Church. Down through the ages the descendants of +these first converts have clung to the profession of Christianity, and +have kept up their connexion with their fellow Christians in Western +Asia. They have the peculiarities of hereditary Christians exposed to a +corrupting moral atmosphere, and possessing limited means of spiritual +improvement. We are told that they have made great progress through +their intercourse with European missionaries. + +In Southern India and Ceylon there is a large body of native Christians, +the descendants of the many baptized by Xavier and his companions. Every +one who has read the life of Xavier knows how widely he opened the door +of the Church; with what facility, to use his own favourite expression, +he "made Christians." Many speedily relapsed into heathenism, but a +sufficient number remained steadfast to form a large community, and +their descendants are reckoned by tens, rather hundreds, of thousands. +There is not--at least there was not a short time ago--any reliable +census of their number. Protestant opinion of these native Christians is +very unfavourable. It may be prejudiced, and yet it has been expressed +by persons who have come into contact with them, who know them well, and +who would shrink from doing injustice. Many facts have been stated in +support of an unfavourable estimate. The Abbé Dubois condemned them as a +scandal to the Christian name, and other Romanists have joined him in +confirming the testimony of Protestants. + +In Travancore and Tinnevelly, in the far south, there are large native +churches, in connexion with the Propagation, Church, and London +Missionary Societies, composed of Shanars, a people outside the Hindu +pale and greatly despised by them, with a sprinkling of caste people. +When whole villages come over to the profession of Christianity, we +generally find a few who may be regarded as true believers in the Lord +Jesus Christ, with limited knowledge but genuine faith, while the many, +though favourably impressed, simply assent to the action of their +friends and neighbours, and are little changed except in name. They are +on the way to a happy change by having come under new and elevating +influences. + +All over Southern India there are native Christian churches, the work of +conversion having proceeded in some cases gradually, individual by +individual, while in other cases numbers have been admitted at the same +time. + +[Sidenote: THE CONVERSION OF NON-ARYAN TRIBES.] + +Among the non-Aryan tribes, the Kols and the Santhals, occupying the +hills and forests of Central and Eastern India, a great work has been +done during the last thirty years. Thousands have been brought into the +fold of the Christian Church. In habits, character, and condition, these +tribes bear a considerable resemblance to our rude Teutonic ancestors, +and they have been brought to the profession of Christianity in a +somewhat similar manner; with this difference, that they have not been +headed by chiefs in the reception of baptism, and in many cases +commanding it. The first converts were the direct fruit of mission +labour; their number increased, inspired by zeal they told their +countrymen the treasure they had found, and called on them to share it +with them. Many listened to their words and accepted their message. The +work thus spread from village to village, and from hamlet to hamlet, +till it extended to parts of the country never visited by a missionary, +and included many who had never seen a missionary's face, in some cases +who had never seen a white face. A very dear friend and enterprising +missionary, the late Rev. William Jones of Singrowlee, made his way +through a wild roadless country to the border of the Kol region, and +came to a hamlet where the people were startled by the appearance of a +European, as they had never been visited by one before. Though from +difference in language their intercourse was limited, they understood +each other sufficiently to discover, to their mutual delight, that they +had a common faith. The general character of a community formed of a +rude people, emerging from fetish and demon worship, can be readily +supposed. I suspect the converts made by the monk Augustine and his +companions had not a little in their character and conduct to show the +pit from which they had been taken; and yet that was the dawning of a +day for the Anglian and Saxon race in our country for which we have +abundant reason to be thankful. There is no doubt much imperfection in +Kol and Santhal converts, but we may well anticipate for them a far less +clouded day than that which dawned on our forefathers when Augustine +went to them. + +In Bengal there are two large native Christian communities, one in +Krishnagurh in connexion with the Church Missionary Society, and the +other in Backergunje connected with the Baptists. In both cases the +conversion of individuals has led to numbers avowing themselves the +followers of Christ. Where conversion is thus what may be called +collective rather than individual, there may be in some a high degree of +spiritual life, but the majority simply go with the stream. It will be +observed that in the statistics of some missions so many are represented +as baptized, so many members of the church, so many adherents, the last +class often outnumbering the other two. These adherents openly declare +their abandonment of idolatry, attend public worship with more or less +regularity, call themselves Christians, and are called Christians by +others. They may be described as in the outer court of the temple, from +which not a few from time to time enter the inner. + +In the great Presidency cities, Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, and their +immediate neighbourhood, the native churches connected with Protestant +Missions are comparatively small. The members of these churches differ +more widely in social position, mental culture, and I think I may add +spiritual character, than any other native churches in India. Some of +the members are highly educated, have acute and disciplined minds, and +have an intimate acquaintance with our language and literature. +Individuals among them have made sacrifices by becoming the followers +of Christ, of which the only adequate explanation is that they have come +under the power of an all-controlling faith, of the faith which gives +the victory over self, the world, and the devil. Persons more +established in the faith of Christ than some of these are, more +thoroughly assured that He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the +world, I have never met. In these churches there are degrees of culture +and social standing, till we come to unlettered persons in the humblest +rank of life, some of whom are, I doubt not, as genuine Christians and +as devoted to the Saviour as their brethren of higher social standing +and larger mental attainment. + +[Sidenote: THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS OF NORTHERN INDIA.] + +I now proceed to speak of the native Christians of Northern India, with +whom for many years I have been closely associated, and of whom I can +speak with a measure of confidence. + +In the North-Western Provinces, as in other parts of India, we have +different classes that go under the name of native Christians. Most +drummers of native regiments have been Christians, in the sense that +they have been baptized persons. Many are descendants of Portuguese, who +have gradually become mixed with the lower classes of natives, and +cannot, except by dress, be distinguished from them, their hue being +often darker than that of the people. These Portuguese descendants are +numerous all over India, in the South very numerous, and hold very +different positions in society, but those I have known in the North have +been mainly of the drummer class. To these have been added a +considerable number of natives, the waifs of native society, who have +attached themselves to European regiments as camp-followers, not a few +of whom have so separated themselves from their own people that they +have found it convenient to profess the Christian faith. I have known +individuals of this class who bore a good character, and were regular in +their attendance on public worship. We had a number of them in our +native Christian congregation at Benares, and we had for years a weekly +meeting in their quarters. I cannot, however, speak highly of them as a +class, either as to intelligence or goodness. Not a few went to a place +of Christian worship only on Christmas Day, or on the occasion of a +marriage or baptism, and their general conduct was no honour to the +Christian name. Yet these people are proud of being ranked as +Christians. We had a striking illustration of this at Benares. A person +died, the son of an English colonel by a Muhammadan wife. I knew the man +well. He often called on me, and was eager for discussion. He +continually avowed himself a follower of Muhammad. He was never seen in +a place of Christian worship, and was often seen in the mosque. When he +died, the relatives of his mother made arrangements for the funeral; but +the drummers and Christian camp-followers gathered in numbers, went to +the magistrate, and claimed the body on the ground that the man had been +baptized in infancy. As the result of inquiry it was found that at the +father's instance he had been baptized, and on this account the body was +made over to the Christians, who carried it to the grave in triumph, as +if they had achieved a great victory for their faith, the chaplain of +the station reading the funeral service. The native Christians connected +with the different missions in Benares for the most part kept aloof. + +I have already spoken of orphans and their descendants, and need say +nothing more about their character. They form a considerable portion of +the native Christian community in the North-West. + +[Sidenote: UNWORTHY ADHERENTS.] + +All our missions have had accessions from both Hindus and Muhammadans, +but chiefly from Hindus. I heartily wish I could say all have joined us +from right motives. This I cannot say. It is undeniable that persons +have joined us from unworthy motives, some because they have broken with +their brethren, others who are pressed by want in hope of support, and +others again in anticipation of a life of less toil if they can get +under the wing of a missionary. There have even been individuals who +have made it a trade to be baptized, who have told most plausible +stories, have hung on missionaries for a time, and have then set out in +quest of new pasture. They remind us of the wild Saxons, who submitted +to baptism again and again that they might obtain the white dress given +on each occasion to the baptized. Some missionaries have been far more +ready than others to administer baptism, but as a rule they have +examined candidates closely, have made all possible inquiry, and have +baptized them only on obtaining what appeared satisfactory evidence of +sincerity. Some who proved most unworthy manifested the greatest +apparent earnestness, possessed a considerable degree of knowledge, and +were hailed by us as a valuable accession. I narrowly escaped baptizing +a man who turned out the leader of a band of thieves. He came to me +professing an ardent desire for baptism, paid frequent visits, made +marked progress in knowledge, and was well spoken of by persons who said +they knew him; but circumstances occurred to bring suspicion over him, +and he suddenly disappeared. Long afterwards we found out that he was a +leader of an infamous following. + +To give one of many illustrations of the way in which persons try to +connect themselves with us, I may mention that one day a well-dressed +native, mounted on a good horse, rode up to my door. On coming to my +room he told me he had come to be baptized, as he was convinced Christ +was the Saviour of the world. He was urgent for immediate baptism. Life +was uncertain, he might die at any hour, and how could he know he was +safe if he did not come under the wing of Christ? I told him if he +believed in the Lord Jesus Christ it would be well with him, whether +baptized or not, and that I could not baptize him till I should make +inquiry and know more about him. It occurred to me that he had a motive +for such urgency which I could not discover. I sent for one of the most +judicious of our native Christians, and begged him to find out what the +object of the man was. He took him away, and soon returned to tell me he +had got it all out--that the man had had a violent quarrel with his +relatives, and had vowed to bring disgrace on the family by becoming a +_Kristan_--a Christian. I recalled the man, and told him he must come to +me from another motive and in another temper, if I were to baptize him. +He rode away, and I never saw him afterwards. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +NATIVE CHRISTIANS (Continued). + + +I suppose there is no community of any extent that has not unworthy +members, persons that may be called its excrescence and blots, who have +increased its size, as a tumour increases the size of the body, but are +actually its weakness and disgrace. Such were the unworthy persons of +whom I have been speaking. Very different is the general character of +the native Christians connected with the various missions in Northern +India. Some of our converts have made sacrifices, by avowing themselves +the followers of Christ, to which persons in our country are never +called. They have literally left father and mother, houses and lands, +wife and children, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever may +have been the position of our converts, they have, as a rule, parted +with much which is highly valued by their people. Caste standing, even +when the caste is not considered high, secures many advantages, and is +greatly prized. Its loss is deemed a dire calamity, and this loss our +converts are called to endure. They join a despised and hated community, +are called vile apostates, and are charged with the most sordid motives. +I have heard the charge advanced against converts who, to my knowledge, +had left their place in native society under the power of the profound +conviction that Christ was entitled to their hearts and lives, though +the conviction required of them the most painful sacrifices, and exposed +them to the bitterest reproach. During my first years at Benares, one of +the catechists of our Mission was a Brahman, who had been baptized by +Mr. Ward of Serampore. He was stripped of the property to which he was +the heir, of which the annual rental, according to an official document, +was 5,000 rupees (£500), because he could not perform the funeral rites +of his father. His income as catechist was small, but I often heard him +charged with the lowest mercenary motives by those who knew not, and did +not wish to know, anything about his antecedents. He bore the charge +patiently, deeming it an honour to be reproached for his Master. He was +far from being a perfect character, but no cloud ever seemed to come +over his belief that Jesus was the Saviour of the world. When he was on +his death-bed I asked him if he regretted the life of comparative +poverty and of great reproach he had led because he had become a +Christian. He tried to raise himself on his pillow, and said with an +energy that startled me, "If I had a thousand lives, I would give them +for Him who died for me." In reference to him and others, the remark was +often made by our hearers, "We are willing to listen to you--you are a +good man and have kept to your religion; but we do not wish to hear +these, for they are apostates." + +In all communities there are so many varieties, that the most successful +attempt at characterization on the part of those who know them well can +only claim an approach to correctness, and must be received with +deductions. Those who look at a community from a distance, who know only +a few individuals, perhaps know none at all, but judge from what they +hear from others, and these deeply prejudiced, are sure to form a very +false estimate. When speaking of our native Christians, I have the +advantage of long and intimate acquaintance not only with those of our +own Mission, but with those of other missions in Northern India, and I +think I should understand them better than many who have the most +superficial and partial knowledge of them, perhaps do not know them at +all, and yet speak of them in depreciating terms. + +[Sidenote: THE CHARACTER OF NATIVE CHRISTIANS.] + +I cannot speak of our native Christians, even of those who have made +great sacrifices, as possessing a lofty character, as marked by signal +excellence. We learn from the Epistles of the Apostle Paul he found much +which was faulty in his converts, and we need not wonder at the faults +which are too manifest in ours. Is there any home minister who is not +tried by the conduct of some of his people? Is there any minister or +missionary who has not frequent reason to be dissatisfied with himself? +Indian missionaries are sometimes sorely tried by their converts. All +around is a low moral tone. Slight, inadequate views of sin prevail. +Truthfulness is praised, but little practised. Our people breathe a +tainted atmosphere, and by becoming Christians they do not escape its +deleterious effects. While these defects are frankly acknowledged, truth +enables me to state, without any misgiving, there is much in our people +which is very estimable. Observe their daily life, go with them to their +respective businesses, and you will find them with few exceptions +diligently pursuing their vocation, and honourably supporting their +families. See them at their homes; you will be gladly welcomed, and you +will generally find them striving to have everything clean and tidy, and +as comfortable as their means permit. You will find the Bible and a few +Christian books on their shelves, and you will learn that family worship +is largely observed. When conversing with them you are often impressed +with their manifest sincerity, with their gratitude for having been +brought into the fold of Christ, with the honour conferred on them by +bearing His name, much reproached as they are on account of it, and with +their desire to walk worthy of their profession. See them in the house +of God, cleanly clad, and as they engage in the different parts of the +service you are struck with their devout appearance. Observe them in +their intercourse with each other, and you will find much of mutual +kindness and helpfulness. Observe them in their intercourse with Hindus +and Muhammadans, and you will find that instead of hiding their +Christian profession, and being ashamed of it, they glory in it. I have +said that missionaries are tried by their converts. I ought in candour +to add that converts are sometimes tried by missionaries. Their training +has been so different from ours, their position is so different from +ours, that it is very difficult for us to understand them thoroughly; +and so far as we fail to understand them, we fail in sympathy and in +right action towards them. + +[Sidenote: FAITHFULNESS TO THE DEATH.] + +The native churches passed through a fiery ordeal in the Mutiny of 1857, +and came out of it in a way which reflected great honour on their +Christian constancy. Even those who had the most favourable opinion were +not prepared for the readiness shown by them to part with all, to part +with life itself, rather than part with their Lord. I cannot say how +many were put to death, but we know that thirty-four were killed on the +Parade-ground of Furruckabad by order of the Nawab, and seven or eight +perished at Cawnpore. In Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" there is not a more +striking instance of witnessing to the death for the Lord Jesus than was +manifested by Vilayat Ali, in the Chandnee Chauk of Delhi, when, +surrounded by infuriated Muhammadans calling on him to recant or die, he +declared Christ to be his Saviour and Lord, and when falling under the +swords of his enemies uttered with his last breath the prayer of +Stephen, "_Lord Jesus, receive my spirit._" The account is furnished by +a witness of the scene. There were defections, but if our view be +confined to Christians connected with the different missions they were +remarkably few, fewer, it is affirmed, than those of Europeans and East +Indians. One whom I knew well, though he was not of our Mission, +apostatized to save his life, and died most miserably, abandoned by his +new fellow-religionists, and tenderly watched by those whom he had left. +Full details of the conduct of the native Christians in that terrible +crisis are given by Mr. Sherring in his book, "The Indian Church during +the Great Rebellion." This book had, I believe, a considerable +circulation when it was published, but like many other good books it has +passed into oblivion. The information it contains was furnished by +persons intimately acquainted with the facts, and is very valuable as +proving the genuineness and constancy of native Christian piety. It +gives more insight into the real character of the native Christian +community than can be obtained by perusal of large volumes full of +ordinary mission details. The friends of missions would do good service +by seeking its republication. + +The loyalty of the native Christians to the British Government, as well +as the constancy of their Christian faith, was strikingly shown +throughout the Mutiny. This loyalty was maintained amidst much fitted to +discourage it in the conduct towards them of Europeans, both official +and non-official. + +We have seen native Christians in joy and sorrow, in trial and +temptation. We have been present at their death-bed, and have heard +their words of hope and trust when entering the dark valley. We have had +abundant reason to regard them with esteem and love. With many we have +had pleasant intercourse, and from our intercourse with some we have +received intellectual and spiritual profit. At one time there was a +small band of highly-educated native Christians at Benares connected +with the different missions. It gave us great pleasure to have them now +and then spending an evening with us. They were always ready to start +some important subject, and their remarks were stimulating and +instructive. I remember more than once our remarking, when they went +away, Could we have had a more pleasant and profitable evening if our +European brethren had been with us? At the great Missionary Conferences +which have been held in recent years the native Christian brethren have +taken a prominent part, and both intellectually and spiritually they +have been found worthy of standing abreast of their brethren from Europe +and America. It must be acknowledged there has been a difficulty at +times in adjusting the exact relationship of these highly-educated +native brethren to their missionary friends, and there has been in +consequence unpleasant jarring; but amidst differences Christian +principle has asserted its uniting power, and their ordinary bearing is +that of mutual esteem and love. + +It may be said, "If native Christians as a community deserve the +character you have given them, how is it that people from India speak so +much against them?" The explanation can be easily given. + +[Sidenote: ALLEGED FAILURE OF CHRISTIANITY.] + +There is no part of the mission-field, the South Seas, Africa, the West +Indies, China, as well as India, from which persons have not come +affirming that the so-called converts are changed in name only; that +they are no better than they were, and in many cases worse. Do we not +find analogous cases nearer home? It is often said of professors of +religion--very truly of individuals, very untruly of the class--that +they are less worthy of trust than avowedly worldly persons. Large +communities remarkable for religious zeal, like the people of Wales, are +condemned in the face of favourable evidence which seems well +authenticated. Persons have even stoutly maintained that Christianity +itself has been a failure in its moral influence on the nations. Want of +sympathy and antipathy blind the mind to facts, and lead to most +erroneous judgments. The great majority of Europeans in heathen +countries have no sympathy with missions, and have neither the knowledge +nor the spirit indispensable to the formation of a correct judgment. +They hear a loose report of converts from persons who in turn have been +told by others what they say, and the report is at once believed and +circulated. They have, perhaps, met an unworthy native bearing the +Christian name, and he is regarded as a fit representative of the entire +community. + +It is a common opinion among many of our countrymen in India that +Hinduism is as good for Hindus as Christianity is for us, and they +cannot conceive why a person should leave the one for the other except +from sinister motives. When speaking on one occasion with a lady who +regularly attended church, and no doubt deemed herself an excellent +Christian, about a native gentleman of high rank, whose kindly temper +and courteous demeanour we were both praising, I said, "Would that he +were a follower of our Saviour!" She looked surprised, and said, "Do you +think so? He is, I think, a better man by remaining as he is." So strong +is this feeling with some English people, that a native who calls +himself a Christian is regarded by them as on that account a suspicious +character. I know a well-educated native Christian who applied for a +Government situation. He had good certificates; they were sent in, and +when the official to whom he applied came to know he was a Christian--he +knew nothing more about him--he threw them aside with the word +"_namunzoor_," "not accepted"--the technical term for "rejected." One +result of this English dislike to native Christians is that natives have +told me that none but missionaries and a few associated with them wished +them to become Christians; that English people generally wished them to +remain Hindus. It can be conceived how great is the stumbling-block thus +put in our way. A Church of England missionary of great experience once +said to me, "Would that there were no Europeans near us! We might then +hope for progress." I am not to vindicate the remark. I mention it to +show the effect on the mind of a devoted missionary by English hostility +to the conversion of natives. On every side, from European as well as +from native society, there is every worldly obstacle to their embracing +the Gospel. + +[Sidenote: GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.] + +At one time there were obstacles to the profession of Christianity which +do not now exist. When India was being brought under the sway of +England, our rulers regarded the Gospel as a disturbing and threatening +element, which ought to be carefully excluded. Long after the Christian +feeling at home had forced open the door, the Gospel was treated as an +intruder to be in every possible way thwarted and disgraced. In +illustration of the opposition the Gospel had to encounter, I quote a +few sentences from a recently-published volume, "Asiatic Studies, +Religious and Social," by Sir Alfred C. Lyall, K.C.B., the present +Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces:--"We disbursed +impartially to Hindus, Mussulmans, and Parsees, to heterodox and +orthodox, to Juggarnath's Car, and to the shrine of a Muhammadan who had +died fighting against infidels, perhaps against ourselves." "The chief +officers of the Company in India were so cautious to disown any +political connexion with Christianity that they were occasionally +reported to have no religion at all." "Up to the year 1831 native +Christians had been placed under the strongest civil disabilities by our +regulations.... Converts were liable to be deprived not only of +property, but of their wives and children; and they seem to have been +generally treated as unlucky outcasts, with whom no one need be at any +trouble of using any sort of consideration." We are told that they were +even forced by Government order to pull the car of Juggarnaut, and +severely punished if they refused. According to a parliamentary paper of +1832, "our interference extended over every detail of management: we +regulated funds, repaired buildings, kept in order cars and images, +appointed servants, and purveyed the various commodities required for +use of the pagodas." Under home pressure this state of things has +gradually given place to neutrality, which, if impartially maintained, +is I suppose the only policy open to us in the peculiar circumstances of +India. + +I have already said there are very unworthy persons bearing the name of +native Christians. To judge our Indian churches by these is as unfair as +to judge English Christians in India by Englishmen, of whom, alas! +there are many, soldiers and others, who are notorious for drunkenness +and licentiousness. We have even English beggars in India, wretched men, +who have drifted out of the army, railway, or other department, and who +disgrace our name. Strong men have come whimpering to my door, to whom I +have given help, and I have seen them a few hours afterwards--I remember +one case well--rolling in the bazaar in beastly drunkenness. It would be +as fair to take these men as a specimen of English Christians, as to +judge native Christians by persons bearing the name while they disgrace +it. + +The very acknowledgment of missionaries about the imperfections of their +communities, about the utter hollowness of some individuals, has been +turned into adverse testimony. In the recent meeting at Exeter Hall to +welcome the Madagascar missionaries, Messrs. Cousin and Shaw, Mr. +Cousin, in the course of his very interesting address, said that much of +the Christianity of the Malagash was "purely nominal and utterly +worthless." I should not at all wonder if some day I found this brought +forward as a missionary's acknowledgment that the Christianity of the +Malagash is purely nominal and utterly worthless, and that missions in +Madagascar, as elsewhere, had been a failure. + +[Sidenote: THE SUPPORT OF NATIVE CHRISTIANS.] + +The support of native Christians has sorely tried and perplexed +missionaries. They have been desirous, on the one hand, of holding out +no inducement to persons to join them from unworthy motives; and on the +other they have felt that persons thrust out of their caste and +employment, and not infrequently from their family, had claims on help, +with which every Christian feeling bound them to comply. Persons able to +work have never been allowed to live in idleness, but the difficulty has +been to find suitable work. In some missions, when persons have shown +an aptness for domestic service they have been trained to it. In a +number of missions trades have been started, and have been carried on +for a longer or shorter period, with more or less success; but, as a +rule, the relation of employer and employed does not accord well with +the relation of pastor and people. The difficulty continues, and will no +doubt continue, but it is decreasing every year. When travelling down +through Northern India in 1877 we found Christians in every place at +which we stopped, and we learned they were supporting themselves in +various modes, in printing offices, bookbinding establishments, +railways, and public offices. A number were in domestic service. I wish +fewer were thus employed. When anything goes wrong in a house the Hindu +and Muhammadan servants are sure to blame the Christians; masters and +mistresses look for more from them than can be reasonably expected, and +they no doubt are apt to fall into the well-known and objectionable +habits of the class. The more capable of the native Christians, the +higher in character and education, are for the most part employed as +teachers, catechists, and native preachers. A few have risen to +responsible and lucrative positions in civil life. A native Christian +from Bengal held for some years, to the great satisfaction of both +Europeans and natives, the office of Postmaster of Benares. He and his +wife were members of our native church. Another member of our church for +a time was the Inspector of Post-offices in the Benares district. + +I believe in every mission in the North-West native Christians +contribute regularly to the support and diffusion of the Gospel, and, +considering their means, their contributions are liberal. I remember +hearing years ago of a native church in Calcutta agreeing, without a +dissentient voice, to give a month's salary for the erection of their +new church building--an act of liberality which has been seldom equalled +in our country. + +Much has been said about the compound system, as it has been +called;--Christians living together apart from the heathen, and in most +cases in the immediate neighbourhood of the missionary's residence. Much +has been said, I think unjustly, in condemnation of this arrangement. It +is not the hot-bed, which it has been called, in which robust Christian +character cannot be produced. Native Christians, thus living together, +hold constant intercourse with the heathen in the business of life, and +are at the same time saved from the peculiar trials and temptations +incident to living among Hindus and Muhammadans. So far as native +Christians make their light to shine, it will be well seen by the +heathen though their dwellings be apart. One great advantage of living +in a mission compound, near the place of worship and the missionary's +residence, is that wives and children can regularly attend public +worship, and can come under the teaching of the missionary, and +especially the missionary's wife, as otherwise they could not have come. +For a time we had quite a number of native Christians in our compound at +Benares, who paid a small rent for their houses, and went out every day +to attend to their respective callings. If they had lived in the city I +cannot conceive how mothers and children could have attended worship as +they did, or how my wife could have taught the children and held +constant intercourse with the women. Because living in the compound, it +does not follow that they are dependent on the mission for support. +There is nothing more desired by missionaries than that their people +should maintain themselves, by their own exertions. Living among the +heathen is often indispensable--it is so increasingly with our native +Christians; but where circumstances admit, I think great advantages +result from Christians living near each other and near the mission +church. In our own country, are not favourable surroundings sought for +the young and the inexperienced? + +[Sidenote: PROGRESS.] + +When I look back to the beginning of 1839, when I landed in Calcutta, +and compare the native Christian community of that day with what it is +now, I am struck with the great change which has taken place. If we +confine the term to those connected with missions, they were then a mere +handful. Now they are considerable in number, and they have become a +recognized and appreciable portion of native society. They are +increasing in number, though not so rapidly in the North as in the +South, and are becoming rooted in the land. The largest native Christian +community in the North-West is, I suppose, that connected with the +missions of the American Episcopal Methodist Church in Rohilkund and +Oude. It is largely composed of Muzbee Sikhs, a people much despised by +both Muhammadans and Hindus. Of late the Salvation Army has entered on +the campaign against Hinduism and Muhammadanism. Its organ boasts +largely of success, but its statements have been strongly questioned by +persons acquainted with the facts, on whose warm attachment to the cause +of Christ full dependence can be placed. A well-known missionary of the +Episcopal Methodist Church in Oude has been lately pursuing the tactics +of the Salvation Army. Accompanied by a band of native Christians, he +has been entering villages and towns with song and drum and tambourine. +The people in crowds have gathered round him. He and his brethren have +preached Christ to them, have urged them to accept Him as their Saviour, +and have given on the spot baptism, _chin_--the mark of the Christian +Church, to any avowing their readiness to become Christ's disciples. +Time will show how far the work is genuine. Perhaps we old missionaries +have been too slow in administering baptism. Of this I am sure, that +nothing is more fallacious as the test of success than the number of +persons baptized--so different is the opinion held by missionaries +regarding the qualifications required in order to baptize. Native +Christians are more self-dependent than they were, and are receiving a +healthy impulse from feeling that they must push out for themselves. +They have to contend against much which is adverse and hurtful, but +without indulging too sanguine hopes we may firmly anticipate for them a +brighter and better future than their past has been. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE PEOPLE AMONG WHOM WE LABOUR. + +MUHAMMADANS. + + +All over Northern India--I may say all over India--we find the followers +of Muhammad. They are very unequally distributed. In some districts they +form the majority, in others their number is very small, while in the +cities they abound. There is among them all the variety of station which +might be expected in a community composed of millions, ranging from +princes, wealthy landholders, and great merchants, down to labourers and +beggars. There is among them all variety of culture, from profound +learning in a narrower or wider groove, down to utter illiteracy and +gross ignorance. There is also variety of character, many leading +notoriously wicked lives, while others are noted for goodness, and are +honourable and useful members of society. + +Looking at the Quran and the Bible, one might suppose there is a close +accord between them, as both assert the unity and sovereignty of God, +both condemn idolatry, and in both the same names continually meet us, +such as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David, Solomon, and our Lord Jesus +Christ. In fact, however, in India, as elsewhere, Muhammadanism has +shown itself intensely hostile to the Gospel. The reason is apparent. I +think it is difficult for any one to read with candour the Quran on the +one hand, and the Bible, especially the New Testament, on the other, +without perceiving the marked contrariety between them, notwithstanding +their agreement on some points. + +A true follower of Jesus Christ, one imbued with the spirit of His +teaching and bent on the imitation of His example, cannot fail to +cultivate holiness of heart and life, to cherish a humble, lowly temper, +to look on all with love, however unworthy of love their character and +conduct may be, and to promote their good in every way within his power. +A follower of Muhammad, so far as he is imbued with his teaching, +regards God with profound reverence as the Sovereign of the universe, +deems homage to Him most due, looks with indignation on the worship of +idols, attaches immense importance to outward rites and services, +glories in Islam, pays comparatively little attention to inward +excellence, and sees no need for a change of heart. As a worshipper and +servant of Allah, following the precepts of the Prophet of the later +age, he deems himself the spiritual aristocrat of the race, and looks +down with scorn on all outside the pale of his community, whom he is in +some cases bound to put to death, and in all cases to subject to +degrading conditions, so far as he has the power. However wicked his +conduct may be, as a worshipper of Allah he is sure of more tender +treatment in another world than that which awaits Christians and +idolaters. Thus the typical Muhammadan is one who scrupulously observes +the laws of Islam, goes through his devotions with all the regularity of +a soldier on drill, fasts at the appointed season, gives alms to the +poor, attends to all prescribed rites, and at least once in his life +goes on pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. Outward religiousness, pride and +self-righteousness, are his distinguishing characteristics. + +[Sidenote: THE LICENTIOUSNESS OF MUHAMMADANS.] + +Much has been said about the sensuality of Muhammadans. The sanction +given by Muhammad to polygamy and extreme facility of divorce has borne +bitter fruit. His own example has had a depraving influence. He alleged, +indeed, a special Divine sanction for the dissoluteness of his later +life, but this has not deterred his followers from thinking they could +not go far wrong in imitating him. In addition to these facilities for a +life of sensual enjoyment, the teaching of the Prophet in reference to +female slaves has had a most depraving effect on family life. The +Hindustanee expression for _libertine_, _profligate_--_luchcha_--is, I +think, more frequently applied to Muhammadans in Northern India than to +any other class of the community. It must be confessed, however, there +is so much licentiousness among other classes--not only among Hindus, +but I am grieved to say among many from our own land, soldiers and +others--that I can scarcely join in declaring Muhammadans sinners in +this respect above all others. There is this difference between the +licentiousness of so-called Christians and Muhammadans, that in the +teachings of the Gospel, while no unnatural restraint is laid on those +who accept it, the strongest motives are brought to bear on them in +favour of purity of heart and in opposition to licentiousness of life; +while in the teachings of the Quran, amidst severe condemnation of the +gratification of unlawful desire in some forms, there is much, if not to +encourage, at least to give every facility for a life fatal to personal +and domestic purity, a facility of which the adherents of Islam have +largely availed themselves. + +While agreeing with the views generally held by Christians regarding the +teaching of the Quran and its influence in the formation of character, I +cannot join in the sweeping condemnation of the Muhammadans which I have +sometimes heard, as if they were one mass of corruption. In the middle +and lower classes in Northern India we are told, by those whose +testimony can be trusted, monogamy is the rule. Many lead a quiet, +orderly life, with the domestic affections in full play which beautify +and gladden the home. A Muhammadan writer, who may be supposed to know +his own people, tells us that polygamy is getting out of favour, and +that a strong feeling has set in in favour of a man having only one +woman to wife. Among them there are undoubtedly persons of high +character, whose bearing would do honour to the adherents of a far +higher creed. I have conversed with some who seemed to me set on knowing +and doing the will of God, who showed, so far as I could obtain an +insight into their character, a reverent, earnest, humble temper, as if +they had come under the power of the few passages, occurring here and +there in the Quran, which inculcate spirituality of mind and love to all +men, and as if they had in a measure escaped from the externalism so +prominent in that book, and from its hard, fierce, bitter tone towards +all who refuse to receive it as a revelation from heaven. With two +Muhammadans I was for years on as friendly terms as I could be with any +whose belief and practice differed so widely from my own. As to +courteous, kindly demeanour, they were all that could be desired. I had +many an earnest talk with them on the highest subjects, and I was struck +with the apparent candour with which they listened to all I had to say. +They read with evident interest books I gave them, and in the case of +one such an impression was made that I hoped he was coming to the +acknowledgment of Christ as his Lord and Saviour; but after going to his +Moulvies he kept to Muhammad, though with manifest misgiving. + +[Sidenote: MUHAMMADAN OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.] + +While I cannot join in the sweeping condemnation of Muhammadans, I must +acknowledge my experience accords with that of my missionary brethren +regarding those with whom I have come ordinarily into contact. When I +have been speaking to a company of Hindus, and have apparently secured +their attention, I have been sorry to see a Mussulman coming up, as past +experience had prepared me for the immediate introduction of such +questions as the Trinity, the Sonship of Christ, His propitiatory +sacrifice, and not infrequently the eating of pork. I have done my best +to stave off such untimely discussion, and to keep to the subject I was +teaching, but in not a few instances my audience has been broken up by +the new-comer insisting on being heard. During my long missionary career +I have had many discussions with Muhammadans in public and in private, +in some cases conducted with a calmness and fairness which promised good +results; but in still more numerous cases with a readiness on their part +to resort to the veriest sophistry, and fly from one point to another, +and with a love of disputation which led to wrangling, and could +accomplish no good. The controversy between Christianity and +Muhammadanism has been carried on by the press as well as by oral +discussion. In this department the late Dr. Pffander, Sir William Muir, +and Mr. Hughes of Peshawur, have done excellent service. + +It might be supposed that as Muhammadanism is so near to Christianity +that it may almost be called a Christian heresy, and as we have in +consequence much common ground, we might expect to find its adherents +more accessible than Hindus to the Christian missionary. The opposite is +the case, furnishing another illustration of the fact that no +religionists are so antagonistic to each other as those who most nearly +approximate. At the present time all over the world, Popery, under the +conduct of the Jesuits, is far more hostile to Protestant missions than +any form of heathenism. + +It ought to be mentioned to the credit of Muhammadanism that it arose as +a protest against polytheism and the worship of idols. This protest it +has maintained down to our day. Not even a religious symbol is allowed +to appear in their places of worship, and hence the marked contrast +mosques present not only to Hindu temples, but to Christian churches. + +Muhammadanism is a proselytizing religion as well as Christianity. +During my Indian career I have heard of a convert now and then from +Hinduism in the North-West, and very occasionally one from Christianity; +but these accessions have been very few. In Bengal, on the other hand, +it appears that during the last thirty or forty years a great number of +low-caste people have been drawn into the Muhammadan ranks, many of them +small farmers, who think that by belonging to a large and influential +community they can the better contend with the landlords. It is said +that the change is simply one of name and ritual. + +The accessions from Muhammadanism to Christianity have been very few; +but some of the best converts in the North-West belong to this class. + +[Sidenote: HINDUS AND MUHAMMADANS IN CONTACT.] + +For centuries Hindus and Muhammadans have been near neighbours in India. +In the ordinary course of life they have had much intercourse with each +other, and have exerted a strong mutual influence, the Muhammadans, +especially of the lower class, having become in a measure Hinduized, +while the Hindus of the lower class have become, if I may use such a +word, in some degree Muhammadanized. I believe the stricter Muhammadans +are of pure Mogul and Pathan descent, while the more lax are the many +who at different times have been drawn or forced into Islam. Our +Muhammadan servants speak continually of their caste, have many Hindu +notions, and follow many Hindu practices. Low-caste Hindus, on the other +hand, are prominent in some Muhammadan processions. Both Muhammadans and +Hindus, as a rule, are satisfied with their respective position, as +assigned to them by Allah or Fate, have no repugnance to each other, and +no wish to disturb each other. + +So far, however, as Muhammadans and Hindus are imbued with their +respective systems they must be antagonistic; and their antagonism, +though generally latent, every now and then breaks out into fierce +strife, which but for the interposition of Government would lead to +civil war. Early in this century there was in Benares a pitched battle +between them, when they assailed each other with the utmost fury, and +were separated by military force. All have heard of a recent conflict in +Southern India, where blood was shed and property destroyed. About +thirty years ago Oude was threatened with the outbreak of a war between +the parties. There have been recently conflicts in Rohilkund on the +occasion of processions, which but for prompt interference would have +led to disastrous results. + +[Sidenote: MUHAMMADAN REFORMERS.] + +Of late years a reforming party has arisen among the Muhammadans with +both political and religious ends in view. This party painfully +realizes the loss incurred by their fellow-religionists on account of +their neglect of the English language, and their failure to accommodate +themselves to their new masters, thus allowing the Hindus to get in +advance of them. They consequently discourage exclusive attention to +Arabic and Persian literature, and advocate the cultivation of English. +A few of this class have come to England to prosecute their studies, but +for the many who must remain in their own land an institution has been +opened at Allygurh, in the North-West, in which provision is made for +imparting a liberal education. It cannot be expected that Indian +Muhammadans can have a strong liking to the English Government, but this +reforming party wishes to reconcile itself to the new order of things, +and to identify itself with our rule so far as the Quran permits. In +religious belief these reformers range from strict orthodoxy to rank +rationalism. Their leader is an able and ardent advocate of Islam, +though he has thrown off what he deems unauthorized and hurtful +accretions, and many of his followers no doubt agree with him. A +Bengalee Muhammadan, a graduate of Cambridge, has published a book +entitled "The Life of Muhammad," which is saturated with rationalistic +views. I cannot suppose he stands alone in his rationalism, but I have +no means of knowing to what extent his views are shared by others. The +whole party is the antipodes to the Wahabees, the extreme Puritans of +Islam, who aim at following strictly the instructions of the Quran and +the Traditions, and wage war to the knife against Christians and +idolaters. Between the Wahabees and the reformers there is a very +numerous party--it is supposed the great majority of Muhammadans--who +have little sympathy with the strictness of the former, but as little +with the looseness of the latter, who in their opinion are sacrificing +Islam to their ambitious and selfish views. Between the reformers and +those who cannot advance with them there has been sharp controversy, and +there is no prospect of its coming to an end. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THE PEOPLE AMONG WHOM WE LABOUR (Continued). + +HINDUS. + + +I have endeavoured in my account of Benares to describe the Hindu +idolatry there practised, and in my account of our missionary preaching +I have stated the arguments by which that idolatry is defended. The +Hindu system, it is well known, is at once pantheistic and polytheistic. +The universe, we are told, is God expanded. _Brahm_--he alone is the +Existent One; but there are several persons and objects in which he is +more manifest than in others, and as owing to _Maya_ (illusion) we +believe in our separate existence, it is fitting that to these objects +special honour should be paid. I have mentioned the hideous aspect of +the images worshipped at Benares, and their hideous aspect well accords +with the character attributed to the gods worshipped under these forms. + +[Sidenote: THE INFLUENCE OF HINDUISM ON CHARACTER.] + +We are all familiar with the maxim, Like priest, like people. May we +say, Like God, like worshipper? If so, we must regard the Hindus as in +the very mire of moral debasement. Just think of a whole people acting +like Shiva, Doorga, and Krishna! I think it cannot be doubted by any one +who looks at the nature of the human mind, and the power exercised over +it by its belief, that the worship of these and similar gods, along +with the prevalent pantheistic and fatalistic views, which strike at the +very root of moral distinctions, have done much to deprave the Hindu +mind. The people, indeed, often assert "to the powerful there is no +fault." The gods had the power and the opportunity to do what they did, +and therefore no fault attached to their conduct; but ordinary persons +have neither the one nor the other, and for them it would be very +culpable to pursue the same course. Can a people fail to occupy a low +place on the plane of morals to whom the maxim I have quoted would be +tolerable? I believe they do as a people occupy a low place, and yet not +nearly so low as might have been anticipated. + +There is much to counteract the influence exerted on the Hindus by the +evil example of their gods, by their excessive trust in outward rites +apart from all mental working, and by the pantheistic teaching of their +philosophers. They retain a moral nature, and acknowledge the +distinction between right and wrong as readily as we do, though the +distinction be inconsistent with the views they often express. The +requirements of society and of daily life exert a powerful and salutary +restraint by the obstacle which they present to a vicious career. The +family constitution has conferred immense benefit on the Hindus, as on +other nations. + +It must be acknowledged that however long we may reside in India, our +knowledge of the inner life of the people is very limited. We may be for +years on the best terms with them; we may meet them frequently, and +converse with them freely on all subjects; there may be not only +acquaintance, but to all appearance friendship: and yet we have no +entrance into the family circle, we cannot join them in the family +meal, we can scarcely get a glimpse into their home life. If they be of +the poorer class they would be shocked at our entering their houses, and +conversing with their women and children. If of a higher class, they +visit us and we visit them. They have a room of audience in which they +welcome us. On occasions they prepare sumptuous feasts for Europeans, of +which they themselves do not partake. However friendly we may be with +natives of rank in Northern India, it is difficult, often impossible, to +secure an interview between our wives and the female members of their +families. As to English gentlemen, they never see the face of a native +lady. Still, notwithstanding our being kept so far outside Hindu family +life, we know enough about it to be sure there is often strong family +affection. We have many proofs that parents regard their children with +the most tender love; and we know that in the lower classes, at least, +children often requite this love by sending a large portion of their +wages to their aged parents. I myself have often been the channel of +communication. It cannot be doubted that this family affection is widely +extended, and has a very happy influence on the character and life of +the people. + +[Sidenote: THE CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.] + +Professor Max Muller, in his recently-published book, "India, what can +it teach us?" discusses at length the character of the Hindus. He quotes +the views entertained by persons of large Indian experience, who had +mixed freely with all classes, and yet differ widely in their testimony, +showing that in forming an estimate of the character of a community we +are greatly influenced by our temperament and by the standard we employ. +Sir Thomas Munro, the famous Governor of Madras, speaks of the character +and attainments of the Hindus in the most laudatory terms. He says, "If +civilization is to become an article of trade between England and India, +I am convinced that England will gain by the import cargo." Sir Charles +Trevelyan, on the other hand, speaks of them as a morally depraved +people, to whom "the phenomenon is truly astonishing" "of a race of men +on whose word perfect confidence may be placed." "The natives require to +be taught rectitude of conduct much more than literature and science." + +The Professor is evidently inclined to take the favourable view. He +thinks the ordinary view of their falsehood and dishonesty is applicable +only to the rabble of the cities and the frequenters of our courts, but +is most unjust to the unsophisticated people of the country, whose +truthfulness he extols. After the laudation of these honest and truthful +people, I must say I was amused with the _naïveté_ of the learned +Professor, when he goes on to show that the excellence of his _protegés_ +is not sufficiently strong to be maintained in the face of temptation. +He says, "A man out of his village community is out of his element and +under temptation. What would be called theft or robbery at home, is +called a raid or conquest if directed against distant villages; and what +would be falsehood or trickery in private life, is honoured by the name +of policy and diplomacy if successful against strangers." The lauded +truthfulness and honesty are so delicate that they cannot stand the +breath of the nipping cold which has to be encountered when they leave +their sheltered enclosure. The excellence is, according to the +Professor, though he does not say so in words, merely conventional, as +it rests on the principle of mutual insurance among those who form a +closely-knitted community, bound together by common interests and +associations. Even then excellence needs to be guarded by an oath, which +is viewed with superstitious awe. I do not think the Professor's friends +will thank him for this defence of the morality of their countrymen. + +When I think of the wickedness rampant among large classes in a country +like our own, notwithstanding our great privileges, I shrink from +applying to the Hindus the strong terms of condemnation which I have +often heard. There is among them, as I have already said, much family +affection; they are, in ordinary circumstances, very courteous; they +often manifest a kindly disposition; almsgiving is reckoned a high +virtue; many lead quiet, orderly, industrious lives; and, as Max Muller +tells us, from the earliest age _satya_, "truth," in its widest sense, +has been represented by them as the very pillar on which goodness rests, +though it must be allowed it has been much more praised than practised. + +[Sidenote: THE HINDU AND CHRISTIAN STANDARDS.] + +Am I then to say, as many have done, that Hinduism has done its +adherents no harm, and that Christianity has done its adherents no +good--that the Hindus as a people stand as high morally as we do? With +every desire to speak of them as favourably as I can, with a pleasing +recollection of many acts of kindness and courtesy, and with every +desire to rid myself of prejudice, I must dissent strongly from this +view. I cannot forget the lurid light cast on the native character +during the Mutiny; the treachery, ingratitude, falsehood, and cruelty +shown by many who gloried in their caste purity--relieved, however, it +is only right to acknowledge, by notable instances of faithfulness and +kindness. I cannot but remember the impression often made on my mind of +their low standard of character, the absence of high motive, even when +full expression has been given to the distinction between right and +wrong. Happily, in our land there are many, in every class of society, +who, as the result of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, hate sin in every +form, and strive after excellence, an excellence springing from supreme +love to God, and prompting to sustained effort for the good of man, for +which we look in vain among the best of Hindus, though among them we +discern the workings of conscience and the desire to do what is right. +The standard of character is undoubtedly far higher among us than it is +among Hindus, and this standard, protesting as it does against +wickedness, and calling us to aspire after goodness, is in itself an +incalculable benefit to a community. For many a day it has been my +settled conviction that Hindus are vastly better than, looking at their +religion, we could expect to find them, and that we on the other hand +fall far below the excellence to which our religion summons us. If +Hinduism was allowed full sway over its adherents society would go to +pieces, while we should rise to the excellence of angels if we were to +come under the full sway of the Gospel. + +All have heard of the caste system of India, but only those who have +lived among the people can understand its innumerable ramifications and +its remarkable effects. Every caste, down to the lowest, is endlessly +sub-divided. There are Brahmans who would as soon eat, drink, and +intermarry with people of low caste, as with many who like themselves +boast of Brahmanical blood. In books the Sudras are described as the +fourth, the low, servile caste; but in fact a vast number in Northern +India, who are loosely reckoned Hindus, are far below the Sudras, and +thus the Sudras acquire a relatively high place. These low-caste +people, on whom the people above them look down with contempt, are in +their own fashion as tenacious of caste as their superiors, and they, +too, multiply their divisions, one class maintaining its superiority to +others. We have a large community called _Chumars_, "leather-people" as +the word means, though many of them have nothing to do with leather. One +of them once told me there were twelve divisions in their caste. We had +near us at Ranee Khet a little colony of Dhobees, washermen, whom I +visited now and then. I observed some huts were built separate from the +rest, and I asked the reason. The man to whom I was speaking, for his +class an intelligent man, expressed his surprise I did not know the +reason. He said, with an air of dignity, "These are of an inferior +order, and it is requisite their huts should be built apart." + +It has been often shown that this caste system is most baleful. It +narrows the sympathies of the people, keeps them in the same groove, +fetters their minds, represses individuality, and is a bar to progress. +It would be unfair, however, to say that all its consequences are +pernicious. It so far benefits those bound by it that it restrains them +from some forms of evil, and secures mutual helpfulness, just as the +close trade guilds of our own country did, of which we have happily got +rid. When the clan system was in full force among the Scotch +Highlanders, there were broken men, men who had left the clan or were +expelled from it, and these were notorious for their crimes. In like +manner there are persons who break away from caste, and are the worst +members of the community. + +The patriarchal system, the system so prevalent in India, by which the +people, instead of forming separate families in their separate +dwellings, all form one household, to a large extent with a common purse +and under a common rule, is perhaps still more fitted to fetter the mind +and to obstruct progress than even caste itself. Those who have embraced +Christ as their Saviour have often suffered more from their own kindred, +dwelling together, than from their caste brethren. + +[Sidenote: THE DISINTEGRATION OF CASTE.] + +Many things tend to the disintegration of caste, such as education, the +subjection of all to the same laws, the growing demands of commerce, and +travelling together in railway-carriages. The attractions of the +railway, notwithstanding its disregard of class distinctions, are +irresistible. Thousands of pilgrims thus make their way to distant +shrines, though by travelling in this easy fashion they lose the merit +which suffering would bring. When railways were constructed, a proposal +was made by leading Hindus to have separate carriages for separate +castes, but compliance with the proposal was of course out of the +question; and now high Brahmans and low Chumars--who are never seen in +the same temple even though they worship the same gods, as the presence +of a Chumar there would be deemed a profanation--may be seen packed in +the same carriage in as close contact as two human beings can be. When +they separate the Brahmans have recourse to lustrations, and satisfy +themselves the impurity has been washed away. + +In the great Presidency cities caste is no doubt greatly weakened. Many +openly violate its rules, and are never called to account, but these +very persons take care to maintain their caste position for certain +domestic and social purposes. Leaving these cities and a small class +scattered over the country, the mass of the people seem as much bound by +caste as they ever were, so far as its outward requirements are +concerned, though, as I have said, there are no doubt influences widely +spread which tend to its relaxation. This is the case in Northern India, +at any rate. + +Much has been said about the Brahmist movement. The number of its +professed adherents is very small, but many of the educated class are +imbued with its spirit. Years ago branches of the Brahmist Sumaj were +formed in the great cities of the North-West by young Bengalees employed +in the public offices. For a time their services were kept up zealously, +but soon they declined. The last time I heard about these communities +most had ceased to exist, and only two or three had any sign of +vitality. So far as I have learned, the Brahmists have had very few +adherents from the Hindus of the North-West. At first sight Brahmism +seems an advance towards the Gospel, and a preparation for its +reception, but the best of our native Christians in Calcutta look on it +as furnishing a welcome abode to those who cannot remain Hindus, and yet +for various reasons refuse to embrace Christ as their Lord and Saviour. +Its avowed hostility to definite doctrine, to what is denounced as +dogma, the dreamy sentimentalism characteristic of the system, the +ignoring to a great extent of the terrible facts of man's depravity and +guilt, and the coquetting with Vedism, do little towards bringing its +adherents to the feet of Jesus. The Brahmists used at one time to taunt +us with our divisions, but for a long time they have had two separate +Sumajes, composed respectively of Conservatives and Liberals. In +consequence of Chunder Sen's Hindu proclivities in his later years, the +Liberals became divided among themselves, the majority having seceded, +while a few remained his devoted followers, who are likely to settle +down into a Hindu sect, tinged with Christian thought and feeling. + +[Sidenote: HINDU REFORMERS.] + +From time to time reformers have appeared among the Hindus. Gautam, the +Sakya Saint, was one of the earliest and greatest of the class. +Successive reformers have had a great following, but the stream has not +risen above its source. From Gautam downward some fundamental principles +of Hinduism have been retained, and in the end these principles have +asserted much of their former sway. This threatens to be the case with +Brahmism. Notwithstanding its assertion of the Divine Unity, it has a +strong pantheistic tinge, and already we see its effect. As it has +arisen in a measure as the result of Christian teaching, and among a +people to whom the Gospel is made known, it may be hoped that many, +influenced by it, may travel upward to the light, instead of turning to +the darkness from which they have emerged. + +Increasing effort has been put forth in late years for the menial and +spiritual improvement of the female portion of the population. From the +commencement of missions, the wives of missionaries have bestowed much +labour on the women and girls to whom they could find access. These have +been well-nigh exclusively either Christians, or of the lower class of +society. Very occasionally individuals of a higher class come under +Christian teaching. A daughter of the late Rajah of Coorg, a state +prisoner at Benares, was for a time under the tuition of Mrs. Kennedy. +She was brought daily to our house, sat with us at table, and was taught +with our children. The Rajah wished her to be brought up as a Christian +and an English lady, in the hope that he might thus be helped in getting +back his kingdom. Eventually she was brought to England, was baptized +by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Queen standing sponsor, and was +married to an English officer. She survived her marriage a very short +time. This was altogether an exceptional case. It has been most +difficult for the wives of missionaries to obtain even an occasional +interview with native ladies, as I have already intimated, though their +husbands have been our frequent and friendly visitors. From the Reports +of Zenana Missions we learn that of late years access has been obtained +to many native families which had till recently been excluded from all +Christian, and, indeed, from all European influence. The lady physician +is often welcome where the ordinary teacher can find no entrance. In a +city like Benares--and I suppose it is the same elsewhere--except for +the lady physician in her professional capacity, and only rarely even in +that capacity, the door of the Zenanas in the houses of the great +magnates continues shut against all who would seek to awake and guide +the dormant minds there. + +[Sidenote: THE POSITION OF WOMAN AMONG THE HINDUS.] + +Nothing can be conceived more deplorable than the condition of the +ladies of India, living, as the phrase is, behind the curtain. They are, +as a rule, utterly uneducated, know nothing of books, are shut out from +the world, and have no refuge from _ennui_ in such employments as +needlework, knitting, and embroidery, for which the nimble fingers of +the sisterhood are so well adapted. They have no society beyond the +women of the household, their husbands and their children. An occasional +glimpse has been got by our ladies into their state, and, as might have +been expected, their minds have been found utterly childish and dwarfed. +Happily for themselves the vast majority of the women of the country +are under no such bondage. Their husbands cannot afford to curtain them. +They move about freely as they do in our country, only with the hood +ready to come down over the face. They are seen in the streets of +Benares as they are seen in the streets of our own towns. + +All have heard of the low view of woman entertained in India, and of the +humiliating customs to which she is subjected; but nature asserts itself +there as elsewhere, and notwithstanding all the inferiority with which +she is charged, she exercises a profound influence on the male portion +of the community. This is recognized by the people always saying, _Ma, +Bap_--Mother, Father--not _Father and Mother_, as we say. It is well +known that in the large households of which I have spoken the dowager +lady is the supreme ruler, often the tyrant--not the less a tyrant +because in her youth she had been treated as a slave. The state of +widows, many of them mere children, is sad indeed. + +Shut out though we be to a large extent from native families, we have +many proofs presented to us of the power of female influence, a power +often most perniciously exerted, as it is the power of ignorance and +superstition, a power opposed to all intellectual and spiritual +progress. The devout women of India are often our most formidable +enemies, as they were of Paul in Antioch in Pisidia, and no doubt in +other places. Some of our converts have known from painful experience +what their opposition to the Gospel is, and it cannot be doubted that +many have been prevented from joining us by the pressure brought to bear +on them by their mothers, wives, and sisters. Well may every friend of +India pray earnestly that Zenana Missions may be crowned with success. + +A returned missionary is often asked what are the prospects of missions. +From careful and trustworthy statistics we learn the number of +Christians is increasing rapidly. It is right to observe that this +increase has come mainly from the non-Aryan tribes, and people of low +caste. We have valuable converts from the higher castes, but they are +few. When we leave statistics we have recourse to impression, and that +impression depends greatly on circumstances, and still more, perhaps, on +the temperament of the observer. It is very difficult to gauge public +opinion. When we think of all the influences at work, such as education, +both primary and more advanced, Christian literature, missionary effort +in many forms, railway travelling, commerce, and a Government bent on +doing justice, we look forward with hope to an awaking of the Hindu +mind, under which it will seek and embrace the highest good. + +[Sidenote: OBSTACLES TO CONVERSION.] + +The obstacles to success are most formidable, so formidable that, +notwithstanding promising appearances, we should despair if we were not +assured that the work is of God. The literature of our own country is +strengthening the opposition to us. The unbelief of many educated +natives, an unbelief springing both from repugnance to the Gospel and +from dread of the sacrifices to which its acceptance would subject them, +is fortified by the perusal of sceptical books and periodicals. Years +ago I met a Bengalee far up in the mountains, who told me I need not +speak to him about Christianity, for all reasonable people in England +were abandoning it. In proof he put into my hands a letter from +Professor Newman in answer to a letter he had sent to him. The Professor +counselled his correspondent to worship God as his conscience and reason +directed him, and to keep apart from the Christian Church. + +Notwithstanding these obstacles to the reception of the Gospel, there +are persons to whom it has come with a Divine sanction, but who are so +bound by family and social ties that they do not avow their faith. +Striking instances of this failure to act in accordance with conviction +have come under my observation. I mention only one. I once had an +interview with a dying young Hindu, who had been taught in a mission +school and was well acquainted with the Gospel. With tears in his eyes +he said all his trust for salvation was in the Lord Jesus Christ, and +that he knew it was his duty to avow his faith, but he could not, for if +he did his relatives would one and all abandon him. He seemed to dread +any one but myself hearing the confession of his faith. I have known +others who have had a strong drawing to the Saviour, but they have +stifled their convictions, and have become, as I remember with sadness, +bitter foes of the truth. Let only the tide set in in favour of +Christianity, and many, I doubt not, will be ready to flow with it. + +It ought ever to be remembered that in India we have a vast population. +In the North-Western Provinces and Punjab alone there is a population +twice as large as that of Great Britain and Ireland. Those of this +population who may be said to be educated in a high degree are the +merest handful. You travel hundreds of miles through regions full of +towns, villages, and hamlets, where you find that the partially educated +are very few compared with the wholly uneducated many. Even most of the +shopkeepers who can keep accounts well are unable to read a book with +ease, as the written and printed characters are very different. All know +that their English rulers are called Christians; those who live near the +great lines of road hear an occasional address from a passing +missionary, many frequenters of melas have come under the sound of the +Gospel, but the vast majority have not the slightest conception of its +meaning. When Christianity had spread to a considerable extent in the +Roman Empire, country districts were so little affected by it that +_pagani_ (villagers) became soon synonymous with "heathen," the only +meaning which attaches to the word as it is now used by us. A vast work +has to be done before the villagers of Northern India cease to be pagans +in our sense of the word. The work of evangelization is only in its +initial stage. It is yet with us the day of small things--but it is the +day, not the night. The morning has dawned; over a great part of +Northern India we can only see the faint streaks of the coming day, but +the light will spread, the darkness will vanish, and the millions of +that great country will yet be gladdened by the beams of the Sun of +Righteousness. + +I mention, and merely mention, help which India gives for the solution +of some great questions:-- + +(1) _The immobility of the Eastern mind._ In manner of life, in +salutations, in offerings of inferiors to superiors, in many customs, +the far East, like the nearer East, continually reminds us of the East +as presented in the records of antiquity--above all as presented to us +in the Bible. He must be a very careless observer who has not been +struck with the resemblance. The restless changing West furnishes in +this respect a striking contrast to the staid, unchanging East. There +has been no such immobility as to religious opinion and practice. There, +as elsewhere, it holds true that man's mind never remains in one stay. +The Hindus of the present day speak of their Vedic ancestors with +profound reverence, but if they were to rise from their graves and act +as they did when denizens of earth--kill cows, disregard caste, drink +largely of the intoxicating juice of the som plant, and worship in an +entirely different manner--their reverence would turn into horror and +detestation. We cannot say that the modern Puranas do not rest in any +degree on the Vedas; some Vedic principles are manifest in them: but in +the gods they set forth for worship and in the practices they enjoin, +there is between them and the Vedas a marked diversity. The numerous +sects which have arisen from time to time among the Hindus show that +they too have had that measure of mental activity which has led to new +forms of thought and practice. + +[Sidenote: RETROGRESSION.] + +(2) _The genesis and evolution of religion._ In the dim remote past to +which the Vedas introduce us, we find the Hindus a religious, a very +religious, people. There is no indication of any period when they could +be called secularists. Their religious views and practices have changed, +there has been an evolving process; the connection may be traced, and we +see the result in the Puranic system of our day. Has this movement been +forward, or backward? Has the fittest survived and the weak and useless +perished? The Vedic system little deserves the praise often lavished on +it, but surely it is preferable to that which has taken its place. There +has been deterioration, not improvement. Has not this ever been the case +in reference to religion, so far as the working of the human mind is +concerned? Is not modern Buddhism a falling off from ancient Buddhism? +Does not Rabbinical Judaism belittle and dwarf Old Testament Judaism? +Does not Roman Catholic Christianity materialize New Testament +Christianity? The facts of man's religious history prove incontestably +that his constant tendency is towards retrogression, not towards +advancement. + +[Sidenote: THE BIBLE AND THE HINDU SCRIPTURES.] + +(3) _Comparative religion._ On this subject elaborate treatises have +been written with the object of proving that all religions have had +their origin in the human mind, and have been evolved under purely human +conditions. Some of the writers, prompted, we may hope, by a devout +feeling, allow in vague terms an influence exerted on the evolution by +Providential arrangements. Still, in the result we are not to see in any +case the effect of a supernatural revelation, but in all cases an +approximation in different degrees to truth, secured by the unaided +working of the human mind. Does a comparison between the sacred books of +the Hindus and the Bible support this view? Listen to a Sanscrit +specialist like Professor Max Müller, who has spent years in the study +of the Veda, and who has every conceivable motive to say everything he +can on its behalf: "That the Veda is full of childish, silly, even to +our mind monstrous conceptions, who would deny? But even these +monstrosities are interesting and instructive. I could not even answer +the question, if you were to ask it, whether the religion of the Veda +was polytheistic or monotheistic. Monotheistic in the usual sense of the +word it is decidedly not." The dreamy, vague teaching of the Veda has +hardened into the unmistakable polytheism and pantheism of modern +Hinduism. In no country in the world has mind been more active than in +India; in no country have the learned had such abundant leisure, such +full opportunity for quiet, sustained thought--and you see the result. +We follow with deep interest and sympathy the straining of these minds +to understand themselves and the world around; as they grope after God +we find they occasionally obtain a glimpse of the highest truth, but +the darkness, though for the moment relieved, is not dispelled. The +truth has continued to elude them. They have not arrived at the +knowledge of even the first principles of a theology worthy of God, and +fitted to direct, purify, and guide man. Excellent, high-toned +sentiments are no doubt found in Hindu writings, but these do not alter +their general character. The Bible, by its teaching regarding God and +man, above all by its record of the peerless excellence of our Lord +Jesus Christ, and of the provision made through Him for the supply of +man's deepest wants, presents a marvellous contrast to the Veda, to the +great epic poems of the Hindus, to their philosophical treatises and +their Puranas. I know a good deal of what has been said to show that the +characteristics of the Bible may be accounted for on merely human +principles, but the certain facts of the case refute, to my mind, the +arguments adduced. Max Müller says in one of his writings--I cannot +quote his exact words--that we are not to look in the songs of the Veda +for anything so advanced as we find in the Psalter. Why not? Had not the +Pundits of India far more cultured minds than David and the hymnists of +Israel? Their works are different, for their teaching came from +different sources. One benefit I have got from my residence in India, a +conviction deepened by every successive glimpse into Hindu teaching and +practice: that in the Bible we have a supernatural revelation of God's +will, and that in building on it we are building on a rock which cannot +be shaken. + +(4) _The migration of nations._ Few things in the history of the world +are more surprising to us than whole nations making their way to new and +remote countries. I have thought I have got a little help towards +understanding these movements when I have observed large bands of +people--men, women, and children--pursuing their journey, carrying with +them all they deemed necessary, and lying out at night on the bare +ground, with a blanket, which they had carried over their shoulder, as +their only covering. They took food with them when they knew that at +their halting-place it could not be procured. Very differently do our +native regiments travel. They are attended by a host of camp-followers, +and have a formidable amount of baggage. I once saw a party of woodmen +in the hills sleeping under a tree when there was frost on the ground; +and on the remark being made it was a wonder they could live, a hillman +remarked, "Has not each got his blanket? What hardship is there?" When +nations migrated they no doubt sent out scouring parties, who seized all +the food on which they could lay their hands. When travelling alone in +the hills I had commonly with me a tent so small that a man carried it +on his head, but I must acknowledge I could not approach the simplicity +of the native traveller's arrangements. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +EUROPEANS IN INDIA. + + +The climate of India precludes the possibility of its being a sphere for +European colonization. With the exception of the hill districts, the +intense heat during the greater part of the year makes out-door +occupation trying even to the native, and well-nigh unendurable for +Europeans--a heat uncompensated by the coolness of the night, for in the +North-West, at least, the stifling closeness of the night is more trying +than the heat of the day. If this heat lasted for only a few days, as in +Southern Australia, it might be borne, though a hindrance to work; but +in India it lasts for months, and it is succeeded by months of drenching +rain, during a great part of which the moisture and mugginess are as +unpleasant as the previous dry heat had been. + +Apart from climate, there is no room for us as colonists. In India we +have not to do with rude tribes, as in America, New Zealand, and +Australia, and in a measure in Southern Africa, that cannot be said to +possess the land over which they and their fathers have long roamed, or +of which they have cultivated a very small part. We have to do with +ancient nations that have taken full possession of the land by +cultivation of the soil, and by pursuit of the arts of civilized life. +We find in India no tribes wasting away before the white stranger, but +a people growing in number under the security of our government. There +are districts in the North-West more densely peopled than any districts +in Europe occupied by an agricultural population. The emigration of +coolies to the Mauritius, to Bourbon, to the coast of South America, and +to the West Indian Islands, has done little to relieve the pressure. +Migration to unoccupied parts of Central India and Assam has been +carried out to a small extent, and it is very desirable this migration +should increase. Non-Aryan tribes occupy a large part of the mountains +and forests of Central and Eastern India. They have no wish for +accession from the people of the plains, and still less do they wish for +the entrance of Europeans. I can say nothing about the mountains of the +South, but so far as I have travelled over the sub-Himalayan range in +the North there is no place for Europeans in it, except for officials or +employers, and managers of native labour, such as tea-planters. + +While India presents no sphere for European colonization, it presents an +increasingly wide field for European agency in the civil and military +services, in the departments of education, commerce, manufacture--for +instance, of cotton goods, railways, indigo, and tea. In these different +departments Europeans are in constant intercourse with natives of every +class from the highest to the lowest. There is often much pleasant and +courteous intercourse between them; but in language, habits, religion, +in almost everything in which human beings can be separated from their +fellows, they are so different that they remain to a great degree +strangers to each other, however kindly may be their mutual feeling. +English people never call India "home," though they may have lived in it +the greater part of their life. This name is always reserved for our +fatherland. (I had better say that the term English, as used in India, +includes all from Great Britain and Ireland, and to them also the term +European is mainly, though not exclusively, applied.) I have heard +persons of pure English descent, who had never been out of India, speak +of England as "home." The reservation of the word to the land from which +we have gone, indicates the fact that in India we are strangers, and +cannot cease to be strangers. Colonists in America and other lands may +make a similar reservation; but living as they do among their own +people, in a country which they expect to be the home of their +descendants, the term as applied to England is deprived of much of its +endearing force. + +[Sidenote: EUROPEAN AND NATIVE INTERCOURSE.] + +In the great Presidency cities, and in a less degree in other cities +throughout the country, we have a large educated class of natives, who +are well acquainted with our language and literature. They have pursued +their studies in the hope of securing good situations, and this hope is +in a large measure realized. They are found all over Northern India +occupying responsible and well-paid positions. Many persons of this +class come daily into close intercourse with Europeans in the discharge +of their duties, and have means of knowing them which no other class +possesses. The intercourse is generally courteous, in not a few cases +friendly, and they talk freely with each other on a great variety of +subjects. There is, however, not infrequently an underfeeling with +educated natives that they are not sufficiently appreciated--that they +do not get the place due to them--that they are treated as an inferior +race; and there is consequently a suspiciousness fatal to cordiality. I +am far from thinking that Europeans always treat educated natives with +the courtesy due to them. I have known instances of marked discourtesy; +but I am sure many of our people are bent on treating them with all +justice and kindness, and sometimes, at least, this friendly feeling has +not been reciprocated. Human nature being what it is, however much we +may regret, we need not wonder at the grating between parties that have +so much in common, and yet owing to that very circumstance have clashing +feelings and interests. + +Many native gentlemen, some of the highest rank, cultivate European +society, and every European who has anything of the gentleman in him +treats them with the courtesy due to their position. Natives of this +class are, as a rule, most gentlemanly in their demeanour, and +intercourse with them is very pleasant. + +[Sidenote: THE FAITHFULNESS OF SERVANTS.] + +Between Europeans and most natives with whom they have to do, there is +such a difference of station there is no room for jealousy. To some +Europeans they stand in the relation of agents, clerks, and labourers; +to a greater number in the relation of servants. In India, as in our own +country, there is a great variety in the character of both masters and +servants. There, as here, there are hard, selfish, unreasonable masters +and mistresses, and there are undoubtedly bad, false, dishonest +servants; but I have no hesitation in giving my impression--I may say +stating my belief--that native servants are generally well treated, and +that this treatment draws forth no small degree of gratitude and +attachment. This was strikingly shown in the Mutiny period. Servants +often remain for years with the same masters, render most useful and +faithful service; their wages are continued in whole or in part during +the temporary absence of their masters from India; on their return they +are found waiting for them at the port of debarkation, and on final +departure for Europe it is not unusual for old Indians to pension those +who have been faithful to them. When I speak of faithfulness, I do not +mean that, with the exception of very rare cases, full dependence can be +placed on their truthfulness, or even on their honesty in the strict +sense of the term. It is very difficult for them to resist the +temptation to tell a lie, when a fault is to be screened or benefit to +be obtained, and there are certain understood perquisites of which they +are inclined to avail themselves in too liberal a degree; but they are +at the same time very careful to guard the property of their master +against all others, and are deeply concerned for the honour of his name. +As a rule natives, both servants and others, are treated with less +justice and kindness by the lower class of Europeans than by persons +better educated and of a higher position. There are indeed soldiers and +others who look on "niggers," as they call all natives, with contempt, +and are inclined to abuse them, so far as they are permitted, to the +full bent of their rude nature. The term "nigger" is used by some who +call themselves gentlemen. All I can say of such gentlemen is that I +wish they would speak in a manner worthy of the name. + +Of late years the position of Englishmen in India has greatly changed. +By the overland route, and by the weekly postal communication, England +and India are brought near to each other in a degree which could not +have been deemed possible in former days. Persons on leave for three +months can now spend a month or five weeks with their friends in +England, and at the end of their leave be ready to resume their duties. +Every week a stream of literature, in the shape of newspapers, +periodicals, and books, is poured over every part of India, reaching +the European in the most remote part of the land. Hill stations have +become very accessible by rail, and to these Europeans betake themselves +in great numbers for the hot months. All these things give greater force +than ever to the home feeling, by strengthening home sympathies and +ties. The result is our people in India are birds of passage as they +never were before, ready to return to their own land as soon as +circumstances will allow them. + +There are some advantages from this altered state of things. Many of the +early residents became, to their own deep injury, too intimate with the +people of the land. They learned their ways, and became like them in +character. It was often said, when the Mutiny broke out, that the +officers of native regiments had in former days maintained friendly +intercourse with the Sepoys, and thus secured their attachment, and that +the cessation, or at least the lessening, of this intercourse was one +great cause of the outbreak. If good resulted from it in the weakening +of national antipathy, in many cases evil resulted from it in the +deterioration of character. Many of our countrymen at an early period +formed native connections, and by doing so brought themselves down to +the level of their new friends. Some became so entangled that they gave +up all thought of returning to their own country. It must not be +supposed that all who settled down in India for life were of this +character. Some who had kept themselves aloof from all improper +connection with natives became so attached to India and to the mode of +living there, that they made it their permanent abode. A few of this +class remain, but their number is rapidly decreasing, and none are +taking their place. The persons who have thus made India their home +have often had a large circle of attached native friends. + +The constant communication of Englishmen with their native land, +frequent visits to it, and the anticipation of getting away from India +at the earliest possible period, tends to lessen their interest in +Indian affairs, and weaken their sympathy with the native population. +The closer connexion with England is, however, attended with some +advantages. It can be confidently affirmed that many of our countrymen +in India are bent on promoting the good of the people with whom they +come into contact, and strive to perform their duties faithfully. We may +hope that home influence may strengthen them for the more efficient +discharge of their work, and may thus prove a benefit to the people. + +[Sidenote: IMPROVEMENT OF EUROPEAN SOCIETY.] + +In many respects there has been a marked improvement in European +society. The small house near the large one, significantly called the +Zenana, is never seen near the houses of recent erection. Even in the +smaller stations there are places for Christian worship, where Europeans +meet on the Lord's Day, when some official reads the prayers of the +Church of England, and, if he be a zealous man, a sermon. A chaplain +pays occasional visits to these places. The attendance on public worship +is far from being what it ought to be, and we have much reason to fear +it is often very formal; but it furnishes a pleasing contrast to the +neglect which formerly prevailed. Along with this church-going there is, +no doubt, a great deal of unbelief in India. I have already said we have +in India Christians who are earnest for the honour of their Lord, and do +all they can to promote His cause; but the greater number of our people +are not, and have never been, friendly to the propagation of the +Gospel. I am afraid the unfriendliness has been increased by the +sceptical tone of much of the literature of the day. I have known +gentlemen giving to their native subordinates for perusal periodicals +and books which could only lead them to the conclusion that Christianity +was dying out in England. + +There are, happily, counteracting influences. Christian as well as +sceptical literature makes its way to India, and is telling on many +minds. And then, at our larger stations, where Europeans and Eurasians +are in the greatest number, more is done for their spiritual benefit +than at any previous period. Well may every Christian heartily desire +success to all such effort, for nothing would do more to bring the +people of the land to the feet of Jesus than the prevalence of living +godliness among our own countrymen. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. + + +The first question which comes before us when considering the government +of India is, What right have we to govern it? For an answer to this +question we must betake ourselves to the history of our connexion with +India. This history cannot have for us the interest and fascination of +the history of our own country; but it has strong claims on us as the +subjects of the British Crown, contains much that deserves and repays +perusal, and must be known by us in order to the right understanding of +the position we have obtained. + +My reading of Indian history leads me to the conclusion that in all +likelihood we should never have been rulers in India had we not been +grievously injured as traders, in violation of rights accorded to us by +the native powers. All know the story of the black hole of Calcutta, +which led to our waging war on the Nawab. We had previously fought with +the French and French allies in the south, we had contended with other +European rivals, but our rule began with the victory of Plassey. After +that victory our only alternative was either to leave the country +altogether, or to go on conquering till we should become the supreme +power over the whole of the continent. If we had retired from the land +we had conquered, and had sought to remain as traders, our retirement +would have been attributed to weakness, and demands would have been made +on us which would have made trading impossible. If we had determined not +to advance, but simply to retain what we had acquired, and had satisfied +ourselves with repelling attacks, these attacks would have been +continued till we had either gone forward, or resigned our conquest +altogether. + +We can understand the course pursued by the founders of the British +Empire in India only when we look on them as placed between the +alternative mentioned. The Directors of the East India Company did not +seek the government of India. They deprecated it. By it commerce was +disorganized and dividends lowered. Some of their servants in India made +enormous fortunes by the new state of things, but this was no comfort to +them. Order after order was sent out against the extension of territory. +Governor after governor was commissioned to carry out the peaceful views +of the home authorities, but still conquest went on under the direction +of these very governors. + +[Sidenote: THE POLICY OF THE MARQUESS OF HASTINGS.] + +I am far from vindicating all that was done; deeds were committed which +deserve severe condemnation; but it would be a travesty of history to +say that the governors, who set out with peaceful intentions, succumbed +to the lust of conquest. They were often forced to adopt war measures. +Many instances might be adduced. I give only one. The Marquess of +Hastings had denounced the conquering career of the Marquess of +Wellesley. He was selected for the very purpose of reversing his policy, +so far as it could be reversed. If any person could be trusted for +giving peace to India he was the man. Shortly after his arrival our +connexion with the Ghoorkhas, the ruling body in Nepal, became strained. +They made raids into our territory beneath the hills, and murdered and +robbed our subjects. The Marquess was extremely desirous to avoid a +rupture with them. Remonstrances were addressed to them, and proposals +made to settle differences by the better defining of the boundaries +between their country and ours. These proposals were regarded as a proof +of weakness, and the bold demand was made we should give up to them the +great fertile region north of the Ganges. There was no further +hesitation. To yield to this demand, for which there was not the pretext +of right, would have been to announce to all the potentates of India +that we were unable to defend ourselves, and would have led them to +assail us. War was declared, which, after two campaigns and a severe +struggle, ended in the discomfiture of the Ghoorkhas, and in their +cession to us of the large territory they had conquered a few years +previously. Ought the Governor-General to have yielded to the Ghoorkha +demand? Yes, if we were prepared to leave the country altogether, but +otherwise not. + +No sooner had the Marquess of Hastings landed in India than he began to +doubt the policy he had formerly advocated, and events soon compelled +him to abandon it. The policy on which he acted was declared by him in +unmistakable terms: "Our object in India ought to be to render the +British Government paramount in effect, if not declaredly so ... and to +oblige the other states to perform the two great feudal duties of +supporting our rule with all their forces, and submitting their mutual +differences to our arbitration." + +Till we became confessedly supreme we were not for any length of time +allowed to remain at peace. There were two main reasons for the unrest, +which prepared the way for war. One reason was that the native powers +hated and dreaded us, and were eager for our overthrow even when they +professed the greatest friendliness. When we were involved in +difficulties they were ready to rise against us. Every indication of our +desire to avoid hostilities was interpreted as a sign of weakness, and +thus became an incentive to the renewal of the struggle. Another reason +for the fresh outbreak of war was the treachery of the native princes. I +cannot say that in the matter of treaty keeping we had clean hands. The +gross deceit played on Omichund, as described by Macaulay in his Essay +on Lord Clive, stands nearly alone in our public conduct in India, but +other transactions have been unworthy of our character for high-minded +integrity. It may, however, be confidently affirmed, that looking at our +governing conduct as a whole, it presents by its faithfulness to +engagements a marked contrast to the conduct of those who had entered +into treaty with us. Many of our Indian wars would have been prevented +had there not been on their part the violation of engagements in a +manner which showed they never intended to keep them an hour longer than +they were compelled by circumstances. + +If a review of the course pursued by our people in India shows how we +became the governing power, and indicates the ground on which our rule +rests, a review of the history of India for ages previous to our advent, +and of the condition in which we found it, will help us greatly in +answering the question--Has India been benefited or injured by our +having seized the sceptre? + +[Sidenote: MUHAMMADAN RULE.] + +For centuries Muhammadans were the rulers of India. They entered, not +to avenge wrongs done to them, but as the servants of Allah, called to +put down idolatry, and entitled to rule over the nations they subdued. +Centuries elapsed before the extension of their rule beyond the +North-West region. Gradually it extended to other parts of India. The +seventeenth century was well advanced before the greater part of +Southern India came under the rule of the Emperor of Delhi--the +Shah-un-shah, King of kings, as he was called. His suzerainty was +generally acknowledged in those lands which continued under Hindu +rulers. + +As we turn over page after page of the Muhammadan rule in India, what +scenes of strife, of bloody war, of treachery, of desolated countries, +continually meet our view! No sooner did an emperor die than the +struggle commenced for the vacant throne between his many sons, brother +fighting with brother till one became the victor, and then woe to the +vanquished! The governors of Provinces, as soon as they thought they had +sufficient power, rebelled against the sovereign, and struggled--not +infrequently with success--to secure an independent throne. In the +course of these civil wars countries were overrun, towns and villages +levelled with the ground, their inhabitants massacred, and their +property pillaged. We read of rival dynasties which contended with each +other for empire. We are told of terrible invasions like those of Timour +and Nadir Shah. There were no doubt great emperors, such as the +illustrious Akbar, during whose rule India suffered comparatively little +from war, and enjoyed great prosperity. Governors were now and then firm +and just rulers. Looking at the whole period of Muhammadan rule, during +no part of which India was free from the scourge of war, and during a +great part of which war on a large scale was carried on, untold misery +must have been endured by many of its inhabitants, and there was little +security for life and property. The aristocracy of the emperors' courts +was mainly that of office, and only to a limited degree that of blood +and ancient possession. We find persons of mean birth rising to +greatness, and persons on the very pinnacle of honour cast down to the +ground. There was a succession of emperors called Slave Emperors, as +they had originally been slaves in the court, whence they rose to +supreme power. When we consider the teaching of the Quran respecting +those who do not submit to Islam, we may suppose what the condition of +the Hindus was under Muhammadan rulers, so far as they acted out their +principles. Happily during this period, though constantly exposed to +terrible disasters, the people in their villages were often left to +manage their own affairs. + +[Sidenote: THE REIGN OF ADVENTURERS.] + +When our nation commenced its conquering career in the middle of the +eighteenth century, the Muhammadan Empire was in a state of collapse. +Within thirteen years of Aurungzeb's death, in 1706, six sovereigns were +seated on the imperial throne. Shah Alum was nominal emperor from 1759 +to 1806, and all the time he was a wanderer, a prisoner, or a pensioner +of the Mahrattas, the Rohillas, or the English. He was as melancholy an +example of fallen greatness as can well be conceived, a greatness which +retained its title while its bearer was subjected to every indignity. He +had been for some time in the hands of the Mahrattas, who used his seal +freely, and at the same time treated him with the utmost cruelty. The +food supplied was so insufficient that he and his household were almost +starved. When Lord Lake took Delhi from the Mahrattas in 1803 he found +the poor old blind emperor under a tattered canopy, trembling at what +might now befall him. Some years previously his eyes had been gouged out +by one of his Rohilla keepers. At once he was treated by us with the +highest consideration. Power was not given, but a handsome pension was +assigned, and he was personally treated with all the honour due to a +reigning sovereign. When these facts are remembered, it is strange we +should be charged with overthrowing the Muhammadan Empire in India. +Whoever was injured by our conquest, Shah Alum and his family were +assuredly benefited. + +Our contention was with those whose only claim to rule rested on the +sword. Bold adventurers had risen everywhere, and were snatching at the +fallen sceptre. There were still emperors, as we have mentioned, and +their prestige gave value to documents bearing their seal, but they did +not retain a shred of power. Daring Europeans, helped by native allies, +had set to carving out principalities for themselves. The viziers and +nawabs that ruled in the name of the emperors rendered them neither +obedience nor tribute. Our first great battle was fought with Suraj ud +Dowla, the Nawab of Bengal, the grandson of Aliverdi Khan, an Afghan +adventurer, who had acquired the government of the country. In the South +we fought with Hyder Ali, a trooper who gathered under him a marauding +band, and by courage and craft rose to being a sovereign, and with his +son Tippoo Sahib. Our longest and most severe contests were with the +Mahrattas, a warlike tribe of Hindus in Western India, who came first +into prominence in the seventeenth century under Sivajee, a petty +chieftain, and gradually advanced under various leaders till they became +for a time the paramount power. Their hordes of horsemen scoured the +country in all directions, north and south, east and west, demanding +the _chauth_, the fourth part of the revenue, and returning to their +capitals laden with spoil. The leaders with whom we had most to do, +sometimes in the way of friendship, far more frequently in the way of +warfare, were the Peshwa, the head of the Mahratta confederacy, the heir +of Sivajee; Ranojee Bhonsla, a private horseman, who became Prince of +Nagpore; Pilajee Gaikwar, a cowherd, who ruled in Baroda; Ranojee +Scindia, a menial servant of the Peshwa, who made Gwalior his capital; +and Mulhar Rao Holkar, a shepherd, who became Maharajah of Indore. Not +one of their number professed to belong to the ancient ruling families +of India. + +As we glance at India as it was under Muhammadan rule, and consider its +state when our conquering career began, we find there were no elements +of stable government: the Imperial power had become a shadow; ambitious +leaders were everywhere striving for the mastery, ready to beat down all +opposition within their own immediate sphere, and then prepared to wrest +power from neighbouring chiefs. India had at that time a very dark +prospect before it. + +This review of the past history of India may seem an unduly long +introduction to a brief statement regarding its condition under our +rule, but it is only by looking to the past a right answer can be given +to the questions: What right have we to govern India? From what evils +has our government delivered it? What benefits have we conferred on its +population? Inattention to the past has led many to give in some cases +an utterly wrong, in other cases a very inadequate, answer to these +questions. It is clear that India has been brought under our rule by +what may be rightly called aggressive war only to a very limited +extent. It is also clear that the hostile forces we encountered were not +those of the ancient princes of the land, but of adventurers who were +struggling to rise on the ruins of the disorganized empire. At the +present time, on the mere ground of the length of possession, our rule +has a stronger claim than that of the potentates whom we overthrew. + +[Sidenote: THE ADVANTAGES OF BRITISH RULE.] + +A review of the past prepares us to see some of the advantages our rule +has conferred. No longer are armies marching over India, supplying their +wants by the plunder of its people, and leaving ruin in their track. No +longer has the husbandman, when he sees at a distance the dust raised by +the tramp of the Mahratta cavalry, to flee to his walled village, if he +has one to flee to, or to his hamlet if he cannot do better, leaving his +field, perhaps ready for the sickle, to be trodden down by the unwelcome +stranger. No longer are hosts of marauders like the Pindarees, who +scarcely professed to be anything else than marauders, allowed to roam +over fertile and populous regions in their robbing and murdering +expeditions. No longer are professional robbers called Dacoits allowed +to set out on excursions, and make their way under various disguises to +towns, to rise at an arranged signal, attack the houses of the rich, and +force them, often under torture, to reveal their treasures. No longer +are Thugs, professional murderers, left to arrange their plans for +insinuating themselves into the goodwill of travellers, with a view, +when the opportunity came, to throttling their victims, robbing them, +and then burying them, that all mark of their deeds might be effaced. +From Dacoity and Thuggery Europeans had nothing to fear, but natives +suffered frightfully; and special departments were formed for their +suppression. In Northern India, at least, these bands of robbers and +murderers have been broken up. No longer are the lives and property of +the people at the disposal of their rulers, as was to a large extent the +case previous to the British era. They are now under the ægis of law. + +If any one think that the advantages thus conferred by the establishment +of a stable government are of little value, all we can say is they have +no conception of the misery brought on thousands from generation to +generation, when these advantages were unknown. + +Never was a comparatively small nation entrusted with so vast a work as +that committed to us by our undertaking to administer the government of +a continent thousands of miles from our shores, inhabited by two hundred +and fifty-four millions, who differ widely from us in language, +religion, habits, history, associations--in almost everything in which +one nation can differ from another. Two hundred millions are under our +direct rule, and the rest are under native rulers who acknowledge our +Queen as suzerain. It would have been a miracle had we not in the course +of our government, during more than a hundred years, done many unwise, +many wrong, even many cruel things. He would be a bold man who would +stand forth and maintain we had done good, and only good, to the nations +of India. We take no such optimist position. You can adduce many things +in our dealings with the people which the best of the officials have +themselves condemned, and you can mention evils which have followed our +rule for which we can scarcely be said to be responsible. This, however, +we say with the fullest conviction, as the result of long residence in +India and of extensive observation: that considering our position as +Western strangers, and the difficulties with which we have had to +contend, our Government has had a success far greater than could have +been anticipated, and has conferred vast advantages on the country. + +[Sidenote: BRITISH ADMINISTRATORS.] + +It would be difficult to find in the history of the world a more +remarkable class of men than those who have been engaged in the +administration of India. There have been inefficient, selfish, idle, +unprincipled men among them. In former years we used to hear of John +Company's bad bargains; and now that India has come directly under the +rule of Queen Victoria we now and then hear of John Bull's bad bargains. +These have been the exception, not the rule. There has been in +succession a band of men who have earnestly sought the good of the +people, and have shown a capacity for administration which I have no +doubt surprised themselves, as it has those who have watched their +progress. Sir John Kaye has given interesting sketches of some Indian +worthies, but it would require a series of volumes to record the deeds +of the many who have taken a warm interest in the people, have toiled +for their good, and have been trusted, and in some instances literally +adored, by them. I have had a considerable acquaintance with the +_personnel_ of the Government of the North-West Provinces, from some +occupying the highest position down to assistant magistrates. I cannot +say I admired all, but I can say that I have been surprised at the +number who did their duty faithfully, were thoroughly interested in +their work, and rejoiced when they had achieved any measure of success. + +With a few exceptions the Governor-General has been an English nobleman +who has filled some important office at home; but Lieutenant-Governors, +and not infrequently Governors, have been persons of large Indian +experience, who have passed with honour through all the grades of the +Civil Service. These, assisted by the Commissioners of Provinces, +exercise a strict supervision over the entire administration. Officials +have continually to report their doings, and irregularities are quickly +discovered. We know of no class who have more onerous duties to +discharge than magistrates of districts and their subordinates. They +have long hours in crowded courts in an exhausting climate, decide many +intricate cases, maintain order within the bounds of their jurisdiction, +receive reports of what is being done and give directions, prepare +reports for the Government, and they are expected to give a courteous +reception to native gentlemen when they call, however long these +gentlemen may be inclined to prolong their visit. We have been at times +in a position to see the daily life of some of these men, and have been +struck with the amount of work devolving on them, and the patience they +have shown where there was strong temptation to impatience. + +[Sidenote: INCIDENTAL EVILS OF OUR RULE.] + +As strangers, it is difficult for us to understand the people, and the +result is that with the best intentions we have at times adopted +measures utterly unsuited to them. Our very attempt to secure the rights +of all classes by the careful drawing up of civil and criminal codes, +and by the institution of courts where they are administered, has +fostered the litigiousness of the people, and has led to a fearful +amount of perjury. Litigiousness got no play where courts did not exist, +and perjury could not show itself where witnesses were not examined. It +is said that in one of our most recent acquisitions, the Punjab, the +people have deteriorated under our rule. Runjeet Singh had no prisons. +Thieves caught in the act were maimed and allowed to go their way. +Murderers and other great offenders were at once put to death. We can +scarcely adopt this primitive mode of maintaining order, and by our +codes, courts, judges, and witnesses we have no doubt opened the door to +evils of which the Punjab knew nothing in Runjeet Singh's time. If the +early colonists of New York and Boston had retained their primitive +simplicity, those cities would not now be disgraced by the slums, with +their vice, crime, and misery, which make them too closely resemble the +cities of the old continent. When society makes progress, new, social, +and political, arrangements are indispensable, the countervailing good +being much greater than the incidental evils which come in their train. + +In India there are Regulation and Non-Regulation Provinces, the +Regulation Provinces being those which have been long under our rule, +and are subject to all our laws; and the Non-Regulation Provinces being +those to which our codes are only partially applied, and where much is +left to the discretion of the administrator. In the former the chief +offices belong to the regular Civil Service, while in the latter +military men as well as civilians are employed. Both classes have +furnished most able and capable men. + +[Sidenote: TAXATION.] + +Considering the resources of India its taxation is heavy. Our Government +pays its servants of every description, high and low, civil and +military, with a regularity utterly unknown under native rule, and the +income must in regularity keep pace with the outlay. When we read of +seventy millions as the expenditure, it must be remembered that what is +called the land-tax is really rent, for in India the land has always +been considered the property of the state. This is kept before the mind +of the people of Madras by the yearly assessment of the tenants, and +before the people of the North-Western Provinces by the new assessment +made every thirtieth year. By the perpetual settlement of Bengal, the +tax-collectors were at once raised to the position of landholders, of +which they have often taken undue advantage. It must also be remembered +that a considerable sum is expended on remunerative works, such as +canals and railways. The expenditure on the army is great. I cannot +conceive why our Government keeps up so large a native army. It would +appear to those who are outside the Government circle, that its +reduction would conduce to safety as well as to economy. The European +part of the army is comparatively very small, and it would be most +perilous to lessen it. Years before the Mutiny, Sir Henry Lawrence said +it was the backbone of our strength, and events proved how true his +remark was. Yet it is, and must continue to be, very expensive, like +every other form of European agency. The Mutiny among its other results +left behind it heavy pecuniary responsibilities, which have added to the +debt and led to increased taxation. Many are of opinion that the +amalgamation of the Royal and Indian armies was an unwise measure, and +has caused much unnecessary expense. Often complaints have been made +that successive home Governments, from their unchallenged control over +the affairs of India, have imposed an unjust burden on its resources by +keeping at home too large a force at its expense, and by undue charges +for stores sent out, as well as by making it pay sums which were more +properly due by the imperial exchequer. + +"The net land revenue has risen in the ten years beginning 1870-71 from +£20,335,678, or nearly half the total net revenue of £42,780,417, by +about two millions sterling, to £22,125,807, with a total net revenue of +£49,801,664. The gross revenue of the latter year, 1879-80, was +£68,484,666, the difference being derived from sources other than +taxation, such as the opium monopoly. The revenue of 1880-81 was +£72,920,000, and the gross expenditure £71,259,000. Including the land +revenue as land-tax, the 200 millions in the twelve Provinces of British +India pay about 4s. a head of imperial taxation, besides municipal or +local and provincial cesses, which purchase such local advantages as +roads, schools, police, and sanitary appliances. This incidence of +taxation varies from 5s. 6d. per head of the land-owning classes to 3s. +3d. for traders, 2s. for artisans, and 1s. 6d. for agricultural +labourers. The fiscal policy of the Government has of late been to +reduce the burden of the salt monopoly, which is a poll-tax, and to +abolish import duties. The 54½ millions in the Native States pay only to +their own chiefs, who enjoy a net annual revenue of fourteen millions +sterling, and pay £700,000 as tribute, or less than the cost of the +military and political establishments maintained on their account" (Dr. +George Smith's "Geography of British India"). Deducting land-tax, opium, +railways, irrigations, post-office, and suchlike remunerative services, +the taxation is reduced to 2s. per head of population. + +If the European army in India be the backbone of our military sway, +European administrators are, I believe, the backbone of our government. +During the terrible years 1857 and 1858, the services rendered by those +who were engaged in civil employment were of the highest value in +restoring peace to the distracted country, and in re-establishing our +government. European officials of every grade showed equal zeal and +determination. There were many native officials in these Provinces, some +of them highly paid and greatly trusted. A few remained faithful and did +good service, though the help rendered, when summed up, cannot be +reckoned great. Many proved unfaithful, and some became our bitter +enemies. If instead of Englishmen as judges, magistrates, and +collectors, we had had at that time highly educated natives of Bengal +holding these offices, the men who receive for themselves the best +hearing in England, can we suppose that, however well inclined, they +could have borne the brunt of the contest, and aided largely in securing +the victory? It would ill become me to speak against these men. I know +some of the class for whom I have not only a high esteem but warm +affection. Among them there are not a few who are great in attainment, +keen in intellect, and strong in purpose to do the right. Still I do not +think they themselves would maintain they have the physical courage, the +firm mental calibre, the moral strength, and the high place in the +confidence of the community, which would qualify any of their number to +occupy the position of Governor-General, Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, +and Chief Commissioner, or would make it desirable they should form the +leading body of the administrative staff. The successful candidates for +the Civil Service have come, we believe, exclusively from the +highly-educated youth of the Presidency cities, between whom and the +millions of their own Provinces there is no such bond as unites the +so-called leaders of the Irish with the majority of their countrymen. In +the other countries of India they are little known, and are regarded +with no special interest. + +[Sidenote: HINDUSTANEES AND BENGALEES.] + +Many mistakes would be prevented if English people would remember that +we have in India nations differing widely from each other. We have a +striking illustration of this fact in the part of India in which we have +lived. Bengalees abound in the public offices in the North-West +Provinces and in the Punjab. They are deemed sharper in intellect, and +are better educated, than the Hindustanees, and on account of their +superior education they have got situations which would have been filled +by natives of the country, had their educational acquirements been +equal. These Bengalees are not strangers in these Provinces to the same +extent as Englishmen, but they are strangers, and are looked upon as +such by the people. Where they are numerous they keep mainly to +themselves, and however friendly they may be with Hindustanees they are +regarded as belonging to another country. When you meet them you know +them at once by their look, dress, language, and habits. A part of +Benares, called Bengalee Tola--Bengalee district--is inhabited almost +wholly by Bengalees, and when you enter it you feel you have come among +another people, who speak a different language and present a different +appearance. During the Mutiny they were regarded in the North-West with +suspicion, as half-English, and many were happy to seek shelter where we +were able to keep our footing. If the question was put in Hindustan +Proper to any large body of people--Would you have Bengalees or +Englishmen for your magistrates and judges? I think in most places the +well-nigh unanimous response would be, The Englishman. + +If my opinion is to rest on my own observation, I would confidently say +that notwithstanding the injustice and unkindness charged against some +English officials, the people generally have profound trust in our +justice--in our _insaf_--and as a rule, except when they think the +native partial to themselves, they prefer to have their cases tried +where an Englishman presides. When on a journey I once came up to two +men engaged in eager talk. I heard them use frequently the words, +_Ungrez_ and _Insaf_--_Englishmen_ and _Justice_--and on stopping I +heard the one telling the other of the bribes taken by native officials +in a case he had, and of the justice done when the Englishman took it +up. He ended with the words, "What a wonderful people for _insaf_ these +English are!" to which remark the other man assented. I thanked them for +their good opinion, and held on my way. + +If the administration of India in its present state must, in its chief +offices, remain in the hands of Europeans, it must be expensive. The +great officers of state, considering the dignity they have to maintain +and the establishments they have to keep, must be highly paid. When we +think of the qualifications required by those who are charged with the +ordinary administration, the great expense to which they are put, the +years they spend in laborious work in an exhausting climate, and their +unfitness as a rule for work in England on their retirement, I do not +think their income or pension can be to any large extent safely or +justly reduced. The era of nabobs, returning with vast wealth to +astonish the English people, has long since passed away. These men had +small pay, but great perquisites. The pay has been greatly increased, +but the perquisites are gone, and India has benefited vastly by the +change. + +Indian magistrates have much to tell of the litigiousness of the people, +their constant attempts to overreach each other, the carefully woven +lies which they have daily to unravel, the trust put in bribes to +influence decisions, and the deeply ingrained notion in the minds of +native officials that they should get more for their services to the +public than the bare pay, the _sookha tulub_--_dry wages_--as it is +contemptuously called. + +[Sidenote: THE POVERTY OF THE PEOPLE.] + +The people of Northern India are mainly agricultural, and they are +unquestionably poor. Our very success has in one aspect tended to their +impoverishment. With very few exceptions they marry young, and during +the many years of peace which have passed over them, with the exception +of the short sharp crisis of the Mutiny, the population has greatly +increased. Whenever an epidemic breaks out, means are at once employed +to check it. There is a vaccination department for the purpose of +preventing the ravages of small-pox. Female infanticide, which had +prevailed to a frightful extent among certain castes, has been +diminished, though not, it is feared, wholly suppressed. It is well +known that famines have been sadly destructive of life, but there is +evidence that previous to our rule, when there were few roads and little +communication between one part of India and another, famines were still +more so. Among so vast a population directly dependent on the soil, in a +country where rain is so indispensable, and is now and then a failure, +we have too much reason to fear famines may yet recur; but such +provision is now made against their ravages, that it is hoped the +catastrophes of the past will be escaped. + +It is believed that, as the result of the new order of things, India at +the present time has by many millions a larger population than it ever +had previously. Mention has been made of the improvement effected in +the Province of Kumaon; and other parts of India present instances of +equally successful administration, but the area of new cultivation has +not kept pace with the increase of population. It is sad that so many of +the people should be underfed. In our own country and in Ireland this +question of sufficient food for the entire population is one of the +pressing difficulties of the day. Much is within the power of people +themselves to improve their condition. We know it is so at home, and it +is so in India. There, there is a vast body of sturdy beggars, under the +guise of religious devotees, who feed on the people. Lending and +borrowing go on at a most hurtful rate. If a person finds himself +possessed of some twenty or thirty rupees, he either puts it into jewels +for the female members of his family, or lends it at an exorbitant rate +of interest. It has sometimes seemed as if creditors and debtors +included the entire population. Debt, not by law but by custom, is +hereditary, and a man is expected to pay the debts of his grand-parents. +Marriage expenses are so heavy, that very often a debt settles down on a +man on his marriage day under which he lies till the day of his death. +Government has done much to induce leading men to bind themselves to a +moderate expenditure on the occasion of marriages, in the hope that the +example might prevent the unreasonable and pernicious profusion of the +marriage season. If the habits of the people were changed the pressure +of poverty would be greatly lightened. + +[Sidenote: IMPROVEMENT.] + +There is much room for improvement in the incidence of taxation. The +land-tax, we may say the land-rent, is the main source of revenue, but +it is alarming to think of dependence on the opium monopoly for the +millions it contributes. Intoxicating drugs are largely used in India, +and among them opium holds the favourite place. Permission to the people +to grow and manufacture opium for themselves would be as hurtful as +permission to distil whiskey and gin would be to our country. It is +devoutly to be wished the present system may come to an end, and that in +its place a fiscal system be adopted similar to that of England in +reference to alcoholic drinks. In reference to spirits, every effort +should be made to discourage their sale, however much the revenue may +suffer in consequence. The salt-tax has been so productive that it has +been kept up in a manner which has borne heavily on the people. It has +been reduced, and it is hoped that it will be reduced still further. + +Regarding some of the questions at present much discussed, I can only +say that every friend of India, I may say every friend of justice, must +desire that the people be largely entrusted with the management of their +own affairs, that local government be encouraged, and every facility +given to the admission of natives, so far as they are qualified, into +the rank of administrators. Much is being done in this direction, and +still more will be done in the future. The police has been improved, but +it stands much in need of further improvement. + +Happy changes were expected from the assumption by the Queen of the +direct government of India. Progress has been made since that time, but +I do not think it is in any large measure owing to the change. For some +time previously increased attention was given to the sanitation of +towns, the improvement of roads, the laying out of market-places, the +planting of public gardens, the building of hospitals, dispensaries, and +town houses. Many wealthy natives, stirred up by magistrates, have +contributed liberally to these improvements. Of late years these works +have been carried on with increasing zeal. In 1877 we saw some of the +principal towns in Northern India, and were struck with the contrast +they presented to their condition during the early years of our +residence. The filthiest place in Benares, which almost sickened me +every time I came near it, is now a beautiful garden, with a fine +town-house attached to it. The very bulls of Benares have been got rid +of. No longer are these brutes encountered in the streets. + +My readers will observe that I am far from agreeing with those who +describe our rule in India as an unmixed blessing to its inhabitants. It +is undeniable that our rule, because foreign, lies under great +disadvantages. I am still farther removed from agreement with the +extremely pessimist views which are sometimes advanced. The history of +India rebuts the assertion that we have acquired our sovereignty mainly +by fraud; and whatever may be said of other parts of India, no one +acquainted with Bengal and the North-Western Provinces can say that he +has there seen "the awful spectacle of a country inhabited only by +officials and peasants." When one thinks of the atrocious crimes, upheld +by religious sanctions, such as suttee and infanticide, which we have +put down in the face of determined opposition and even threats of +rebellion from the most honoured classes of the community, it is strange +to be told that "before we went the people were religious, chaste, +sober, compassionate towards the helpless, and patient under suffering," +and that we have corrupted them. We are told that "while we have +conferred considerable advantages, the balance is wofully against us." +As the result of long residence in India, and of reading about India, I +have come to the conclusion the balance is immensely in our favour. + +[Sidenote: WHENCE IS IMPROVEMENT TO COME?] + +All friends of India desire the improvement of its government, and the +increasing welfare of its people. Whence is the improvement to come? We +are told "nothing is to be hoped for from the Indian official class." +From whom is anything to be hoped for? From the Home Government? The +leaders of our political parties have passed measures beneficial to +India, but they have again and again taken advantage of its helplessness +to impose on it burdens to which it ought not to have been subjected. +Are we to look to the people at home for relief? How difficult is it to +secure attention to the subject, or to make them understand it when +their attention is gained! Are we to look to the non-official class in +India? I have nothing to say about the Ilbert Jurisdiction Bill, except +that while officials have been divided about it, many of the most +eminent being in its favour, non-officials almost to a man have been +bitterly opposed to it. Where I have spent the greater part of my life, +nothing has been more common than complaints by Europeans of injustice +done to them by partiality shown to natives at their expense. Are we to +look to the great landholders, bankers, merchants, shopkeepers, and +well-to-do classes in the cities of Bengal and the North-West, who have +benefited most by our rule? What may be expected from them is +illustrated by the fact that when the finances were thrown by the Mutiny +into confusion, many protested against an income tax, and some of high +position proposed that the finances should be rectified by an increase +of the salt-tax! In these influential classes there are high-minded and +benevolent individuals, but if we look at them in their collective +capacity we shall be disappointed. When we look at the long roll of +distinguished Indian officials, mark their achievements, hear their +protests against what they deemed hurtful measures, and their advocacy +of beneficial changes, I think we find in them India's warmest friends, +who have done it the most signal service, and from whom more can be +expected than from any other class. + +There are ample materials for arriving at correct views regarding the +condition of India and the way in which it is governed. No Parliamentary +Committee, no Royal Commission, is required to elicit the facts. The +recently completed "Gazeteer" of India, in which Dr. Hunter and his +assistants had been engaged for years, furnishes full and reliable +information. The state of India is described in that imperial work with +a frankness and fulness which leave nothing to be desired. If one of our +great writers, who has secured the ears of our country, would set to the +drawing up of a volume of moderate size, founded on the "Gazeteer," +showing in a readable interesting form what has been done and what has +been left undone, what has been done well and what has been done ill, +and if the intelligent people of our country could be induced to give it +a careful perusal, untold good would be done both to England and to +India. Nothing would please Indian officials more than the eye of +England being thus fixed on their doings and misdoings, that the whole +truth might be known, and praise and censure be justly distributed, and +still more that the changes most beneficial to the people might be +effected. + +[Sidenote: THE BEST GOVERNORS FOR INDIA.] + +It is undeniable, as already said, that our rule because foreign lies +under great disadvantages. When the ancestors of the present Hindus +crossed the Indus and gradually made their way into the Continent before +them, they subdued and to a great degree enslaved its inhabitants. For +many a day their rule was foreign. This was also the case with the +successive Muhammadan conquerors. Rule founded on the suffrages of the +people remains to the present day unknown. There is, however, this +difference between the previous rulers of India and the English, that +they remained in the country, and gradually became amalgamated with its +inhabitants, while we show no disposition to make India our home. As we +do not, it would be far better if Hindustanees were the rulers of +Hindustan, Bengalees of Bengal, the members of other Indian nations of +their respective nations, provided they were qualified by character, +attainments, and the estimate entertained of them by the ruled, with a +strong central power to secure order throughout the Continent, while +leaving unfettered the general administration. Towards this ideal +strenuous efforts should be directed; but when we look at India as it is +now, with its divergent and antagonistic elements, with the weakness +induced by ages of superstition and despotism, what a long road has it +to travel before it can reach this goal! The question, then, is not what +is absolutely best, but what is practicable. Thus regarded, we are shut +up to the continuance of our rule. Every friend of India must desire +that it may be improved in every possible way, so that it may be in an +increasing degree a blessing to its teeming population. + +No one can predict the future of India. Within its borders there are +many who for various reasons would be delighted with our overthrow, +while I believe the vast majority in the parts of India I know best +would deprecate our departure as a dire calamity. It is a notable fact +that when our own native soldiers, sworn to uphold our rule, rose +fiercely against us, and rebellion in many districts followed in the +wake of mutiny, not a single native prince of the highest rank availed +himself of the opportunity to throw off the suzerainty of our Queen. +The army of the Prince of Gwalior rose against us, but by doing so they +rebelled against their own sovereign. When in 1877 we were in a native +state in Rajputana, a gentleman, who knew well the temper of the people, +said that if our control was withdrawn the Rajputs and Mahrattas would +be at each other's throats in a month. Our army has something better to +do than to uphold an alien government. It has to prevent the outbreak of +war which would desolate India from one end to the other. Happily its +prestige is sufficient to avert this terrible evil, but the prestige can +only continue while the army exists. By the suppression of the Mutiny +our prowess was shown in a manner which has made an indelible +impression. It is scarcely conceivable we can again have to encounter a +similar outbreak, though trouble may come from unanticipated quarters. +Our immensely improved means of communication contribute largely to our +security. Good government, the conferring of manifest benefits on the +people, will do more to establish our rule than all other things +combined. It is obvious to all who have any just conception of our +position in India, that never was a nation charged with greater +responsibilities, never was such a tremendous task committed to a +people, and never was there a more urgent call for the highest +qualities, if the duties devolving on us are to be worthily discharged. +Our Government cannot, and ought not, to undertake its evangelization, +but if the work of government be rightly done, it will indirectly, but +very effectually, help the Christian Church in giving the Gospel to the +millions of India, which, when accepted by them, will purify and elevate +their character, improve their condition, and fit them for true, +healthy, national life, while securing their spiritual and eternal +good. + + + + +STATISTICS. + + +Area of India and British Burma, 1,495,574 sq. miles. Population in +1881, 254,899,516. + +Under British rule 197,815,508 +Under Native rule 57,084,008 + +Hindus 187,931,450 +Muhammadans 50,127,585 +Buddhists--almost entirely in British + Burma 3,418,884 +Sikhs 853,426 +Aborigines--mainly Demon worshippers 6,426,511 + + _Christians_ +Europeans[4] 142,000 +Eurasians 62,000 +Protestant Native Christians[5] 492,882 +Roman Catholics 865,643 +Syrians--about 300,000 + -------- 1,862,525 +Other Creeds not specified 4,479,135 + +The increase of the Native Christian community connected with Protestant +Missions from 1851 to 1861 was 53 per cent.; from 1861 to 1871, 61 per +cent.; and from 1871 to 1881, 86 per cent. The number of communicants +rose from 14,000 in 1851 to 113,000 in 1881. Within the last decade the +number of native ordained agents has risen from 225 to 461; of native +lay preachers from 1,900 to 2,400; of native Christian teachers from +1,900 to 3,400; of native Christian female agents from 800 to 1,600. The +number of male pupils in Mission schools in 1851 was 50,000; in 1881, +129,000. The female pupils increased within that period from 11,000 to +56,000. The increase in Zenana pupils was from 1,900 in 1871 to 9,100 in +1881. + +[Footnote 4: Including 65,000 British soldiers.] + +[Footnote 5: Including 75,510 in British Burma, but not the 35,708 in +Ceylon.] + + + + +[Illustration] + +UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON. + + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors from the +original edition have been corrected. + +In Chapter III, in the sentence beginning "Forty-four years have +elapsed" the word "sittting" has been changed to "sitting". + +In Chapter XI, in the sentence beginning "It was my privilege for +years" the word "intineracies" has been changed to "itineracies". + +In Chapter XVII, in the sentence beginning "So great was the +danger" the word "thouands" has been changed to "thousands". + +In Chapter XXII, in the sentence beginning "The Government has now +entered" the word "largerly" has been changed to "largely". + +In Chapter XXV, in the sentence beginning "I am surprised when +Christians speak" the word "achieve" has been inserted between +"to" and "full"; in the sentence beginning "I have been confining +my remarks" the phrase "who his still" has been changed to "who is +still"; and in the sentence beginning "Looking beyond our Benares +missions" the word "beyound" has been changed to "beyond". + +In Chapter XXVI, in the sentence beginning "It occurred to me" the +word "occured" has been changed to "occurred". + +In Chapter XXXI, in the sentence beginning "The great officers of +state" the phrase "must he highly paid" has been changed to "must +be highly paid".] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, +1839-1877, by James Kennedy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BENARES AND KUMAON *** + +***** This file should be named 24416-8.txt or 24416-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/4/1/24416/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877 + +Author: James Kennedy + +Release Date: January 24, 2008 [EBook #24416] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BENARES AND KUMAON *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<blockquote> +<p><b>[Transcriber's Note: In the original source edition, most odd-numbered +page headers consisted of a short phrase describing the material below. +These page headers have been incorporated into the text as sidenotes.]</b></p> +</blockquote> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 827px;"><a name="RANEE_KHET" id="RANEE_KHET"></a> +<img src="images/raneekhet.png" width="827" height="500" alt="UNION CHURCH, RANEE KHET." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">UNION CHURCH, RANEE KHET.</p> + + +<h1>LIFE AND WORK IN BENARES AND KUMAON<br /> +1839-1877</h1> + +<h2>BY JAMES KENNEDY, M.A.</h2> + +<p class="center"><i>Missionary of the London Missionary Society, Author of "Christianity<br /> +and the Religions of India," &c.</i></p> + +<p class="center">WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE<br /> +BY<br /> +SIR WILLIAM MUIR, K.C.S.I., LL.D., D.C.L.<br /> +<i>Late Lieutenant-Governor North Western Provinces of India</i></p> + +<p class="center">ILLUSTRATED</p> + +<p class="center">CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED<br /> +NEW YORK<br /> +1885</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span>The history of this volume can be given in a few words. Months ago I +said to a beloved relative that during the greater part of my life I had +more to do than I could well accomplish, and that now, with health and +strength in a measure restored, I sometimes thought I had not enough to +do. He said: "Why not write the reminiscences of your Indian life?" The +counsel struck me as good, and I have acted on it.</p> + +<p>My theme has not the advantage of novelty: I cannot tell of a new +country explored, and a new people brought within the knowledge of the +world; but it has the advantage of greatness and variety. I am not aware +that any book on Indian Missions has achieved signal success. I do not +think, however, a single one has been written in vain. That must have +been a singularly poor book on so great a subject which has not had +something in it fitted to interest and inform readers. That must have +been a very solitary, lonely missionary, who has had no friends ready to +listen to what he has had to say. These books may have received little +general attention; but here and there, as the result of their perusal, +there has been a more intelligent apprehension of our work, deeper +sympathy with us, and heartier support rendered to us. I have ventured +to add a volume to those already pub<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>lished in the hope that it may do +some good before it passes into the oblivion which necessarily awaits +most of the productions of the press.</p> + +<p>A glance at the contents of this volume will show it takes up a number +of subjects, some of which are merely touched in most books on Missions, +and others not at all. Reminiscences, especially when they spread over +many years, and embrace great events, admit of very discursive +treatment. They leave the writer unfettered to take up any subject +within his wide scope which he may deem fitted to interest his readers. +I have allowed myself the freedom thus afforded me. My aim has been to +take my readers with me to our Indian home, to see us at our work, to +hear us conversing with the people, to accompany us on our journeys, to +surround them in thought with our surroundings, so that they may realize +our position, trials, difficulties, and joys. I have throughout +maintained the standpoint of one whose Indian life has been devoted to +Mission work. My two spheres of labour—Benares during the greater part +of my course, and Ranee Khet, in the Hill Province of Kumaon, in later +years—have come in for extended remark.</p> + +<p>My attention has not, however, been confined to Missions. I have +endeavoured to write as one interested in everything which ought to +interest a resident in the land. I have given some account of the +climate, aspect of the country, condition and character of the people, +changes which have taken place, modes of travelling, and the British +Government. I have again and again travelled in the North-West, and some +account of these journeys has been given. On one occasion I spent the +greater part of two months in Ceylon, and to that beautiful island a +chapter is devoted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have recorded at some length my experiences of the Indian Mutiny of +1857. No one who was in that terrible storm can ever forget it; and the +European inhabitants of Benares at that time have special reason for +thankfulness for their marvellous escape.</p> + +<p>I have found it convenient to follow, as a rule, the chronological +order, but I have not kept closely to it. When recording the more remote +past, the nearer past has been continually coming into view, and the +contrast has found expression.</p> + +<p>Indian names are written as ordinary English readers would pronounce +them, in preference to using the diacritical marks with which I have +been long familiar in the writing of Hindustanee in the Roman character. +The term "Hindu" is so established that I have used it in preference to +"Hindoo."</p> + +<p>At the end of this book the reader will find statistics fraught with +interest to all who wish to understand the great Indian problem in its +many aspects.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to keep one's self out of view in a work like this; but +I hope the candid reader will give me credit for saying as little of +myself, family, and doings as is compatible with the conditions under +which I have written.</p> + +<p>I beg to dedicate this book to the friends of Christian Missions, in the +hope it may increase the interest of some in that great Continent, with +its teeming population, which has in God's providence come under the +rule of our land, and has special claims on our prayers, sympathy, and +efforts. I cannot doubt that my Indian friends, both those who have come +back to England and those who are still in India, will give a kindly +reception to the volume. They will, I believe, confirm the general +accu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>racy of my statements, and to a large extent acquiesce in my views. +With them so long as my heart beats it will go forth in heartiest wishes +and fervent prayer for the land with which our past has so inseparably +bound us.</p> + +<p class="right-align">J. K.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Acton</span>, <i>August, 1884</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/foot-preface.png" width="300" height="197" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">From 1838 to 1839. Voyage to India and the City of Palaces.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Voyage. First Impressions of Calcutta. Changes since 1839. Messrs. +Piffard and Lacroix. Schools. Visit to Serampore.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Voyage to Benares—March, 1839.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Various Modes of Travelling. The Sunderbuns. Fellow-passengers. Storm. +Study of Hindustanee. Scenes on the River and its Banks.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">9</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Arrival at Benares.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">The Rev. William Smith. Congregation of Beggars. The Rev. W. P. Lyon. +Native Service. Settling down.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">15</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Missions in Benares from 1816 to 1839.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">The Baptists first in the Field. Eurasian Agents. The Church Mission. +London Mission. Orphanage of the Church Mission.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">20</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">1839 and 1840. First Year in Benares.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Views Enlarged and Modified. Study of Hindustanee. Undue Complacency. +Study of the Native Character. Evangelistic Work.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">27</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">First Year in Benares (continued).</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Class-feeling among Europeans. Eurasians. Climate in the North-West +Provinces. Variety of Scenery and Climate in India. Experience of +Climate during First Year. The Sufferings of Poor Natives in Winter. +Homesickness.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">34</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">The City of Benares.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Sherring's "Sacred City of the Hindus." Residents and Visitors. +Commerce. Antiquity. Gautam's Ministry in the Sixth Century <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> The +Success of Buddhism. Its Overthrow. The Devotion of the City to Shiva. +Muhammadans. A Trip on the River. The Principal Temple. Heathen Temples +and Roman Worship. The Mosque of Aurungzeb. The Present City Modern. +Beggars. Macaulay's Description of Benares.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">49</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Benares as a Mission Sphere.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Hostility to the Gospel. Apostolic Labour in Great Cities. Robert +Haldane's Project. Benares brought under British Rule in 1781. The Door +opened for the Gospel. Bishop Heber. Benares as a Centre of Mission +Work.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">77</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Second Year in Benares.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Marriage. The Vicissitudes of Indian Life. Celibate Missionaries. +Different Departments of Work.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">88</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">The Religious Gatherings of the Hindus.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Their Saturnalia. The Play of Ram. The Eclipse of the Moon. Mela at +Allahabad. The Peculiarities of a Hindu Gathering. Sanitary Precautions. +Cholera. Ascetics. Influence of Melas in strengthening Hinduism.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">94</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">The Object of Christian Missions.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Necessity for Different Modes of Action. <i>Preaching</i>. Questions, +Objections, and Replies. Polytheism and Pantheism. Muhammadan Hearers.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">108</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Mission Schools.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Primary Schools. Secondary Schools. College Department. Indian +Universities. The Danger of Christian Instruction being thrust aside. +The Value of Higher Schools in a Missionary Aspect. Conversion. Public +Opinion.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">124</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Orphanages.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Pressing Need in 1837 and 1838. Sanguine Hopes. Difficulties. +Advantages. Native Agents obtained. The General Result.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">135</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Mission Tours.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Voyaging in the Ganges. Trust in Ganges Water. Serpents. Journey to Agra +at the end of 1842. Tents. The Appearance of the Country. Roads and +Groves. Walled Villages. Traffic. Immunity from Thieves. Kindness from +Missionaries. Agra. Evangelistic Work. Kunauj. An Interesting Inquirer. +New Mission Church in Benares. Tour to Kumaon in 1847. Journeying +Troubles. Return by Meerut and Delhi.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">145</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XV.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">From 1847 to 1857.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Work at Benares. Voyage to England in 1850. Return to India in 1853. +Calcutta to Benares. From 1854 to 1857. Increase of Native Christian +Congregation. Mission Tours. Visit to the Fort of Rohtas in February, +1857. Biblical Examination. Missionary Conference.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">168</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVI.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">The Mutiny, 1857 and 1858.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Causes. Peculiarity of our Position. The Native Army. Grievances +alleged. Dissatisfaction outside the Army. Threatenings of the Storm. +The Cartridges. Outbreak and Progress of the Mutiny. Berhampore and +Barrackpore. Meerut.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">174</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">The Mutiny (continued).</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">The Christian Community at Benares. The Fanaticism of the City. +Precautions. The Fourth of June. Mutiny of the Native Regiments. Flight +to the Ganges. Escorted to the Mint. Retribution. The Panic of July 6. +At the Mint on Sunday Night, July 5. Marriage of a Native Couple. Alarm +and Panic. Strange Bed-fellows. After the Panic. Family left for +Calcutta and England. From July to December. Lucknow. Mud Fort. The +Steadfastness of Native Christians. India in 1857 and Egypt in 1882. +Visit to Allahabad. Desolation. The Kindness of English Officials.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">185</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVIII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Visit to Ceylon—1858 and 1859.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Galle, Colombo, and Kandy. The Cocoanut Palm. The Cinnamon Gardens. +Coffee Plantations. Perpetual Summer. Visit to Newera Ellia. The +Christian Zeal of the Dutch. Great Outward Success. Collapse. Missions. +Buddhist Temples.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">205</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIX.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">From 1859 to 1868.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Work at Benares. Increased Attention to the European Population. Visit +to Cities in the North-West. Allahabad. Cawnpore. Lucknow. Incident on +the Ganges. Visit to Delhi in 1861 on our Way to Kumaon. Visit to +England, Return to India, and Appointment to Kumaon.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">213</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XX.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">From 1868 to 1877. Kumaon.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc"><i>Its Scenery and Products.</i> A Sub-Himalayan Region. Scenery, Climate, +and Products. New Products. Tea. Inhabitants, Hindus and Doms. Gods and +Temples. Local Gods. Demons. The Character of the People. Want of +Cleanliness. The Plague. History. Native Dynasties. The British Rule. +Progress. Tea Planting. The Irrigation of the Bhabhur. Wild Beasts. +Treaty with the Ghoorkhas. Modes of Travelling. Journey to the Pindaree +Glacier.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">232</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXI.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Almora Mission.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Schools. Female Education. The Leper Asylum. English Preaching.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">252</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Ranee Khet.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Schools. Wooden House. Rain and Rats. Pioneer Work. The Erection of +Buildings. Work among the English. Among Natives. Educated Young Men. +Doms. Night School. Itineracy. A Hill Mela. Bageswar.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">260</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Habits and Condition of the Hill People.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Sanitary Regulations. <i>Yearly Visit to Nynee Tal.</i> The Missions of the +American Episcopal Methodist Church. Retirement from the Indian +Mission-field. Helpful Friends. Return to England.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">279</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIV.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">The Missionary in India.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Extent and Variety of the Indian Field. The Greatness of the Missionary +Office. The Contrast between Ministerial and Missionary Work. The +Relations of Missionaries to each other, to their respective Societies, +and to Missionaries of other Societies. Their Relation to Europeans.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">289</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXV.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">The Missionary in India (continued).</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">The Mode of Living required by the Climate. Missionary Theology. The +Radical Opposition of the Gospel to Heathenism. The Example of our +Lord and His Apostles. Hindu and Buddhist Views of the Future. The +Doctrine by which Mission Success has been achieved. The Necessity of +Sin being considered in the adjustment of Doctrine. <i>In Memoriam.</i></td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">297</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVI.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Native Christians.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Syrian Christians. The Descendants of Xavier's Converts. The Shanars in +Travancore and Tinnevelly. <i>The Hills of Central and Eastern India.</i> The +Kols and Santhals. <i>Bengal.</i> Krishnaghur and Backergunje. <i>The +Presidency Cities.</i> The Social and Educational Standing of the Converts. +<i>Northern India.</i> The Drummers in Native Regiments. The Waifs of +Society. Pride in the Christian Name. Orphans and their Descendants. +Converts of our Missions. Baptism sought from Wrong Motives.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">307</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Native Christians (continued).</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc">Unworthy Members. The Sacrifices made by Converts. Difficulty in Forming +a Right Estimate of a Community. The General Character of our Native +Christians. <i>The Ordeal of 1857.</i> The Christian Constancy of our People. +Their Loyalty. Their Bearing in Joy and Sorrow. "Everywhere spoken +against." Most Europeans have no Sympathy with us. Unfair to judge by +Individuals. <i>The Support of Native Christians.</i> Different Occupations. +Native Christian Contributions. <i>The Compound System.</i></td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">315</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVIII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">The People among whom we labour—Muhammadans.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc"><i>A Large Muhammadan Population.</i> Variety in Position, Culture, and +Character. The Quran and the Bible. Licentiousness of Muhammadans, +Hindus, and So-called Christians. The Estimable Character of some +Muhammadans. Muhammadan Opposition to the Gospel. Its Opposition to +Idolatry. Proselytes to Islam. The Relation of Muhammadans and Hindus to +each other. Hindu Home-life. Muhammadan Reformers.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">329</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIX.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Hindus.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc"><p><i>Pantheism, Polytheism, and Idolatry, and their Demoralizing Tendency.</i> +Counteracting Influences. <i>Contradictory Views of Hindu Character.</i> +Professor Max Muller. Sir Thomas Munro. Sir Charles Trevelyan.</p> +<p><i>The Caste System.</i> Its Ramifications and Effects. Its Baneful +Influence. Its Incidental Benefits. <i>The Patriarchal System.</i> In the +Presidency Cities Caste greatly weakened. Weakening Tendencies all over +India.</p> +<p><i>The Brahmists.</i> Brahmism and the Gospel. Brahmist Divisions. Successive +Hindu Reformers.</p> +<p><i>Girls' Schools and Female Missions.</i> Access to Hindu Families. Lady +Physicians. Great Importance of Zenana Missions. Behind the Curtain. The +Freedom of Women in Humble Life. The Influence of Women in India.</p> +<p><i>Mission Prospects.</i> Difficulty in gauging Success. Hurtful Influence of +English Infidel Literature. The Strength of Family and Social Ties. +Instance. The Vast Extent of the Field. <i>Pagani</i>, Villagers, synonymous +with Heathen.</p> +<p><i>Help given in India for the Solution of Great Questions.</i> 1. The +Immobility of the Eastern Mind. 2. The Genesis and Evolution of +Religion. 3. Comparative Religion. 4. The Migration of Nations.</p></td> +<td class="chappage"><p><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">338</a></p></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXX.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">Europeans in India.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc"><i>No Sphere in India for European Colonization.</i> The Climate. The Land +occupied. <i>India Presents a Wide Field for European Agency.</i> <i>The +Difference between Europeans and Natives.</i> India never called "Home" by +Europeans. Highly Educated Natives. Native Gentlemen. Natives in +Subordinate and Menial Positions. <i>The Position of Europeans changed.</i> +Advantages and Disadvantages. <i>Improved Condition of European Society.</i> +The Effect on Europeans of Home Literature. Increased Effort for the +Spiritual Good of Europeans and Eurasians.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">357</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXI.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapname" colspan="2">The Government of India.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc"><p><i>Our Right to Govern India.</i> We went as Traders, and were led by +Circumstances to fight. The Conduct of the Native Powers. The Marquess +of Hastings. Not allowed to remain at Peace. Our Comparative +Faithfulness to Engagements. <i>The Condition in which we found India.</i> +The Muhammadan Empire. Civil Wars. Invasions. <i>The Dissolution of the +Empire.</i> Adventurers. No Elements of Stable Government. The Effect of +British Rule.</p> +<p><i>The Greatness of the Work entrusted to us.</i> Character of our +Administrators. Responsibility elicits Capacity. District Officers. +Strict Supervision exercised over them. The Evils springing from the +Institution of Courts. Runjeet Singh's Plan. The Evils Incident to +Civilization.</p> +<p><i>Regulation and Non-Regulation Provinces. The Taxation Heavy.</i> Regular +Payments. The Land-Tax is the Land-Rent. The Native Army. The European +Army. Civil Officials in the Mutiny. Inadvisability of Bengalees holding +the Highest Offices.</p> +<p><i>In India we have Different Nations.</i> Bengalees Strangers in the +North-West. The Preference given to English as Rulers. Trust in our +Justice. The Large Pay of High Officials cannot be justly or wisely +reduced. Opinion of Natives as Litigants.</p> +<p><i>The People Mainly Agricultural.</i> Poverty. Increase of Population. +Sturdy Beggars. Lending and Borrowing. Debt Hereditary. Marriage +Expenses.</p> +<p><i>Incidence of Taxation.</i> Municipal Institutions and Local Government. +Improvement of Cities during Late Years.</p> +<p><i>Our Government no Unmixed Blessing.</i> Unjust Charges and Incorrect +Statements.</p> +<p><i>From whom is Improvement to be hoped?</i> From no Class so much as from +Indian Officials. The "Gazetteer" of India. Importance of Information +being made Accessible to the English People.</p> +<p><i>The best Conceivable Government for India.</i> The best Practicable +Government.</p> +<p><i>The Future of India.</i> Antagonistic Elements. The Order secured by the +Army. The Greatness of our Responsibility. Good Government Favourable to +Evangelization.</p></td> +<td class="chappage"><p><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">365</a></p></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapdesc"><span class="smcap">Statistics</span></td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#STATISTICS">391</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="List of Illustrations"> +<tr> +<td class="illpage" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">page</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="illcap">UNION CHURCH, RANEE KHET.</td> +<td class="illpage"><a href="#RANEE_KHET"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="illcap">BATHING GHAT, BENARES.</td> +<td class="illpage"><a href="#BATHING">48</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="illcap">A JEWELLER AT WORK.</td> +<td class="illpage"><a href="#JEWELLER">53</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="illcap">THE WELL AT CAWNPORE.</td> +<td class="illpage"><a href="#WELL">219</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="illcap">RUINS OF THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW.</td> +<td class="illpage"><a href="#RESIDENCY">223</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="illcap">THE LA MARTINIERE, LUCKNOW.</td> +<td class="illpage"><a href="#LA_MARTINIERE">227</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="illcap">TEMPLE IN THE HIMALAYAS.</td> +<td class="illpage"><a href="#TEMPLE">237</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="illcap">MISSION SCHOOL, ALMORA.</td> +<td class="illpage"><a href="#SCHOOL">253</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="illcap">LEPER ASYLUM, ALMORA.</td> +<td class="illpage"><a href="#LEPER">257</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="illcap">THE SNOWY RANGE FROM RANEE KHET.</td> +<td class="illpage"><a href="#SNOWY">263</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="illcap">LANDSLIP AT NYNEE TAL.</td> +<td class="illpage"><a href="#LANDSLIP">281</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="PREFATORY_NOTE" id="PREFATORY_NOTE"></a>PREFATORY NOTE.</h2> + + +<p>Neither the author nor his book stands in need of any introduction to +the public. But having been asked for such, I cheerfully respond. During +his long residence in the North-Western Provinces of India, where I +myself happened to reside, ample opportunities were afforded me of +knowing and observing the Rev. Jas. Kennedy and his work. And I am +therefore able, and glad, to say that no man was ever better placed than +he was for gaining a thorough acquaintance with Hindustan and the +various races inhabiting it, during the four decades of which he treats. +I have met with none whose calm and sagacious judgment might more surely +enable him to form correct conclusions, nor whose high and scrupulous +principle should impart to the reader greater confidence in the fair and +truthful statement of them.</p> + +<p>I regard this book as possessing a rare interest, not only for the +missionary student, but equally so for the general reader. The amount of +information it contains, descriptive, social, evangelistic, and even +political, is astonishing; and the discursive and, in part, +autobiographical form in which it is written, renders it so easy, that +he who runs may read. The contrast is drawn graphically, and with a +light and lively pen, between the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</a></span> state of things fifty years ago and +that which now prevails: the exchange of slow and cumbrous means of +conveyance for those which enable you in these days to perform the +journey of weeks in, you might say, as many hours; and the not less +marked advance in education and intelligence. The retrospect, material +as well as moral, social, and religious, is useful in many ways.</p> + +<p>But that which lends its chief value to this work is the faithful +picture of missionary labour—its trials and difficulties, its results, +rewards, and prospects. During the considerable period brought under +review, standing by, as I did, and looking carefully on, I can +unhesitatingly attest, as a whole, the correctness of my friend's +statements, and the reasonableness of the lessons he would draw +therefrom. This book should be read by every one who wishes to acquaint +himself with the attitude of Christian agencies towards the people of +India, and of these towards the Gospel. There is here a fertile field of +facts and materials for thought. The author resorts to no roseate +colouring, nor any kind of varnish. Nothing is unduly sanguine. All is +tempered by sound judgment and wise discretion.</p> + +<p>If I may add a word from my own experience, it is this—Let my +fellow-countrymen and countrywomen in India give their countenance to +the Missionaries labouring around them. They well deserve it, but too +often are allowed to stand alone. The loss is theirs who keep aloof, and +neglect the man and his work. While our people are running to and fro in +the busy whirl of Indian life—some hasting to be rich, others engrossed +in the labours of administration—higher things are too frequently +forgotten. The spiritual life is prone to fade and droop. Many men—and +women as well as men—who would at home be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[Pg xxiii]</a></span> cultivating some corner of +the Master's vineyard, begin to forget that similar obligations follow +after them in their private walk and life abroad. Against these +deteriorating tendencies, to mingle with the missionary band affords a +wholesome antidote. For myself, I can never be thankful enough that in +my early Indian life I found valued friends in the missionary circle, +not only of the highest mental culture, but of a devoted Christian +heart; and was privileged with their intimacy to the end. Among them I +cannot refrain from naming such noble Missionaries as Perkins, Smith, +and Leupolt, French, Stuart, Welland, and Shackell, Owen, Humphrey, +Budden and Watt, Hoernle, and Pfander—that grand apologist to the +Mahometans—all of whose friendship I enjoyed, as well as that of the +Author himself. If some of these were men the like of whom we may not +soon look upon again—a galaxy of rare appearance—yet, as we may learn +from these pages, the field is in the present day stocked even more +plentifully than ever it was before. Opportunities of cultivating in +this field Christian friendship—and may I not add Christian work, and +that for Ladies also—are happily multiplying all around; and I can +promise an ample reward to such as make a faithful use of them.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, I will only say that I am much mistaken if this work +fails to take its place as a standard book of reference in every library +of missionary labour and Christian work abroad.</p> + +<p class="right-align">W. MUIR.</p> + +<p><i>16th September, 1884.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3><i>VOYAGE TO INDIA.</i></h3> + + +<p>In 1837 I was accepted by the London Missionary Society as one of its +agents. On September 15, 1838, I embarked at Portsmouth with thirty +other passengers on the <i>Duke of Buccleugh</i>, a vessel of 650 tons +burthen, and landed in Calcutta on January 19, 1839, <i>en route</i> to +Benares, to which I had been appointed. The only land we sighted from +Portsmouth to Saugar Island was a rock in the Indian Ocean. The time we +thus spent at sea was four months and five days. Every now and then +speedier voyages were made, but a few years previously this voyage would +have been deemed rapid. The <i>Duke of Buccleugh</i>, on her next voyage to +India, went to pieces on a sandbank at the mouth of the Hoogly, but +happily the weather was moderate, and passengers and crew were saved.</p> + +<p>The route by the Cape of Good Hope has been abandoned for passengers for +many years, and now Bombay is reached by the Straits of Gibraltar and +the Suez Canal in a month, sometimes in less, while another week is +required for the voyage to Calcutta. Those who travel with the Indian +mails across the Continent of Europe can reach their port in less than +three weeks, and distant parts of India by rail in four weeks or less.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<p>All on board—officials returning to their posts, and persons going out +for the first time—were delighted to find the voyage coming to an end; +but new-comers like myself were under the spell of novelty, which gave +new interest to everything we saw. At Kedgeree, near the mouth of the +Hoogly, the Post Office boat came to our ship with welcome letters from +friends, who were looking out for our arrival. The level land on each +side of the river, with its rich tropical vegetation; the numerous +villages on the banks, with their beehive-like huts; the craft on the +river, large and small, many of them so heavily laden as to bring them +down almost to the water's edge; the little boats, with plantains and +other fruits, which tried to attach themselves to our ship in the hope +of getting purchasers; the strange appearance of the people, with their +only covering of cloth round the middle—all gave us a thrill of +excitement which can be known only in similar circumstances. Then, we +were about to set foot on the great land, of which we had read much, to +which we had looked with the deepest interest, and where we purposed to +spend our days in the service of Christ. Though so many years have since +elapsed, we can yet vividly remember the peculiar feeling of that time.</p> + +<p>The day before we landed, the Native agent of the mercantile house to +which our ship was consigned made his appearance with letters and fresh +supplies. To the surprise of us new-comers, roast beef was on our +dinner-table that day. We thought it strange that in the land where the +cow was worshipped, beef should be one of the first things brought to +us.</p> + +<p>Our missionary friends in Calcutta had heard of the arrival of our ship, +and arranged for our accommodation. Some of them came on board when we +anchored in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> Hoogly, off Fort William, and gave us a hearty welcome. +We were right glad to find ourselves on land again.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CITY OF PALACES.</div> + +<p>Calcutta is a hundred miles from the sea, but the country is so level +that the tide runs up in great strength many miles beyond, and the tidal +wave, which comes in at certain times, is very dangerous to small craft, +and requires care on the part of large ships. The great trade of the +city is shown by the vast number of ships at anchor in the river, many +of them stately vessels of large tonnage, of which in our day many are +steamers.</p> + +<p>On landing, a stranger gets the impression that Calcutta is rightly +called the city of palaces. On the great plain adjoining the river, at +some distance from each other, are two notable objects—Fort William and +Government House. Beyond the plain lies Chowringhee, a range of lofty +houses extending for more than a mile, with balconies and flat roofs, +giving one an impression of grandeur, which is scarcely sustained when +more nearly seen, as that which looked at a distance like marble is +found to be stucco and plaster. Behind Chowringhee are a number of wide +streets with similar, but generally smaller houses, each apart, with +offices and servants' houses in the enclosure. When entering the city +one sees that strange combination of meanness and dirt with grandeur +with which travellers in Eastern lands are so familiar. In the +neighbourhood of Government House there are a number of shops in the +European fashion, but a very large proportion of the business of +Calcutta, we suppose the most of it, is carried on in bazaars, in which +there are no showy shops, but where there is abundance of goods of every +description. When we went to India, and for many years afterwards, in +front of these shops were open sewers, over which customers had to pass +on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> slabs of stone. Amidst houses for Europeans, even in the most +aristocratic part of the city, were native houses of every description, +many of them miserable grass huts.</p> + +<p>Since the time of which I speak, some forty-five years ago, Calcutta has +been greatly improved. It has been drained, supplied with good water, +instead of being dependent on great open tanks, to which all had access, +which no arrangement could keep tolerably pure, and is lit with gas. +Open sewers are no longer to be seen, and from the best parts of the +city many native houses have disappeared. The changes effected must +conduce immensely to the health and comfort of the inhabitants. There is +no part of India, we suppose, free from the plague of the musquito, but +in all my Indian life I have not been so much tormented in any place by +it as I have been in Calcutta. It adds insult to injury. If it would +only bite, sharp though its bite be, one could put up with it; but +before it bites, and after, it goes on buzzing, as if mocking you, and +evades every attempt to catch it. The last time we were there musquitoes +were comparatively few, and they seemed to have lost much of their +former mischievous vigour. We suppose the improved sanitary arrangements +have not agreed with them.</p> + +<p>When in Calcutta everything reminded us that we had left our own country +behind, though not all our own people. We saw them on every side, but +they were a mere handful in the midst of a strange people in a strange +land, where man and nature presented entirely new aspects. The look of +the people, the exceedingly scanty dress of the labouring class, and the +long flowing robes of those in better circumstances, the marks on the +foreheads and arms of the Hindus, showing the gods whose worshippers +they were, their processions with noisy, un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>musical music, the public +buildings of the people, the mosques of the Muhammadans, and the temples +of the Hindus, with a church here and there to show that Christianity +had also its shrines—all brought to our view characteristics of the +great land on which we had entered. Bombay, since the opening of the +Suez Canal, has made progress which somewhat affects the pre-eminence of +Calcutta among the cities of India, but it still remains the capital of +British India—I ought rather to say of India—and its position will +continue to make it, what it has been in the past, a vast emporium of +commerce, the abode of a great population, and a place of most stirring +activity. It continues to be the resort of persons of every civilized, +and almost every semi civilized, nation on the face of the earth.</p> + +<p>My stay in Calcutta of six weeks was longer than I had anticipated, but +my time was very pleasantly and profitably spent. A few days after +arrival a united prayer-meeting was held: missionaries of all societies +were present, the attendance was large, the spirit was earnest and +devout, and I then began to realize, what it was my happiness to realize +more fully afterwards, the uniting power of the missionary enterprise. I +had the happiness of attending services with Native Christians, and of +joining them in spirit, though not with understanding. I was especially +interested in the noble Missionary Institution of the Church of +Scotland, and in the smaller, but promising, school of our own Society. +I felt as if the sight of such a number of boys and young men, many of +them with most pleasing and intelligent countenances, all learning our +language, and, what is vastly better, all taught from the Word of God, +was enough in itself to repay one for the long voyage to India. I heard +them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> examined, and was surprised at the knowledge of English possessed +by some of them, at the extent of their Biblical knowledge, and at the +Christian tone with which they gave replies to questions. I asked a +tall, slightly built young man, with a most intelligent face, dressed in +the flowing white robe of his people, who had spoken with what struck me +as the accent of conviction, "Are you a Christian?" to which he replied, +"Yes, in heart; but I fear persecution." To this subject of schools I +shall have often occasion to revert in the course of my reminiscences.</p> + +<p>During my stay in Calcutta I had much pleasant intercourse with +missionaries of different Societies. I was the guest of Mr. Boaz, +afterwards Dr. Boaz, of Union Chapel, by whom I was treated with much +kindness. Mr. Gogerly had been my fellow-passenger to India. Mr. Lacroix +and Mr. Piffard were, at that time, the senior missionaries of our +Society in Calcutta. Both were admirable men. Mr. Piffard was a +gentleman of property, who devoted himself to missionary work, and +laboured for many years most faithfully, without requiring to take, and +without taking, any salary from the Society. A short time afterwards he +was suddenly carried off by cholera. Mr. Lacroix lived for many years. I +had the pleasure of meeting him in my visits to Calcutta, and in his +visits to the North-west, and also of frequent correspondence with him. +He was esteemed and loved as few have been. He was a man with a +commanding presence, tall and well-built, and had a geniality of manner +which won all hearts. He spoke and wrote English remarkably well, with a +slight foreign accent and sprightliness, an <i>elan</i>, as our French +friends call it, which told of his French birth and upbringing. He had a +thorough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> knowledge of the Bengalee language, and used it with a +commanding eloquence, to which his voice, look, and gesture greatly +contributed. His last illness, the result of his long residence in the +enervating climate of Bengal, was borne with Christian patience, and +drew forth the sympathy and kindly inquiry of all classes. At his +funeral such tokens of respect and love were rendered to him by every +class of the community, Native and European, as have been seldom +witnessed in Calcutta.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SERAMPORE.</div> + +<p>Like all newly-arrived missionaries in Calcutta, I made a pilgrimage to +Serampore. The illustrious trio—Carey, Marshman, and Ward—whose names +are indissolubly connected with that place, as first their refuge and, +for many years afterwards, the scene of their plans and labours for the +evangelization of India, had passed away by that time (January, 1839), +but the Rev. John Mack, who had been long associated with them, and Mr. +John Marshman, Dr. Marshman's eldest son, remained. I was taken by Mr. +Mack to the college, the printing-office, the type manufactory, the +paper manufactory, the mission chapel, the station church, Dr. Carey's +garden, and the native Christian village, indeed, to every object of +interest about the place. I remember seeing an elderly man engaged in +type-making, and observing a little image in a niche above him. I was +told this man had been many years in this department of work, and had +remained so strict a Hindu that he would work only under the protection +of his god. The teaching of the missionaries had had no effect in +weaning him from his ancestral idolatry. Yet many were won to Christ by +the Scriptures and books, for the preparation of which the work of this +man, and of others of his class, was indispensable.</p> + +<p>When visiting Serampore, and hearing from Mr. Mack<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> of the doings and +achievements of the great men whose residence at Serampore has given it +a sacredness it will ever retain in the annals of Indian Missions, I +felt as a young Greek would feel on being taken to Marathon and +Thermopylæ. I felt I was entering on a war, where there had been heroes +before me, which demanded courage and endurance of a far higher order +than had ever been enlisted in the cause of patriotism.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 209px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch1.png" width="209" height="225" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3><i>VOYAGE TO BENARES.</i></h3> + +<p class="right-align"><i>March, 1839.</i></p> + + +<p>I left myself in the hands of friends in Calcutta as to the best mode of +proceeding to my destination. There were at that time three modes of +travelling to the North-Western Provinces. One was being carried in a +palanquin on men's shoulders, arrangements being made to have fresh +bearers every few miles. For a long journey of more than four hundred +miles to Benares this was at once a very tedious and fatiguing mode of +travelling. To one who knew not a word of the language of the people in +whose hands one was to be for days it was additionally trying. Yet not a +few persons newly arrived, some of them delicate ladies, did travel in +that mode to far more distant places than Benares, and very seldom any +mishap befell them. In this mode little more could be taken in the way +of luggage than necessary clothing.</p> + +<p>Another mode was by the river in a native boat, with a crew engaged to +take the party to their destination. Not a few travelled in this way, +even to Delhi. Weeks, often months, were spent on the voyage; great +inconveniences were endured, and not infrequently great perils +encountered from the sudden storms to which voyagers on the Ganges are +exposed, from the strong and eddying currents in some parts of the +river, and perhaps most of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> all from the treacherous character of the +boatmen. In 1841 and 1842 a severe storm fell on a large fleet of boats +taking a European regiment to the north-west. Many of the boats were +wrecked, and, if I remember rightly, about three hundred men lost their +lives.</p> + +<p>There was a third mode of proceeding to the north-west. A few years +previously a River Steam Company had been formed for the transmission of +passengers and goods. Passengers were accommodated in flats drawn by +steamers. As the Ganges enters Bengal it breaks into a number of +streams, by which it makes its way to the ocean. The Hoogly, on which +Calcutta stands, is one of these streams. Some of them are so shallow at +certain seasons that native boats of considerable size cannot find +sufficient water, and they are at that time impassable for steamers, +though so constructed as to have the least possible draught. The result +is that the steamers for the north-west (we believe none ply now) had to +make a great detour, to go down the Hoogly to Saugor Island, and then to +proceed by one of the channels there found to the main stream. This +greatly increased the distance to the north-west. Except in the rainy +season, steamers for Benares had to go about eight hundred miles.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE SUNDERBUNS.</div> + +<p>Of these three routes this one of the river steamers was in many +respects the most convenient and pleasant, especially for persons new in +the country, and my Calcutta friends kindly arranged that I should be +sent on in this way. I accordingly embarked for Benares on a flat, +tugged by a steamer, in the first week of March. After going down the +Hoogly to Saugor Island, we made our way into the district called the +Sunderbuns by one of the channels of the Ganges. We got into a labyrinth +of streams, every here and there opening up into a wide<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> reach of water, +giving one the impression we were entering a lake; and shortly +afterwards we found ourselves in a channel so narrow that we almost +touched the banks on both sides, and which barely allowed a passage +where there was a sharp turn in the stream. We had native pilots who +knew the region thoroughly, and were in no danger of going astray. The +land down to the water's edge was covered with the densest tropical +vegetation, so that the banks often bounded our view, except when the +trees on it were lower than those beyond. In the waters and out, wild +beasts abound. Alligators were seen dropping from the banks into the +stream on hearing the approach of the steamer. We saw no tigers, but we +heard much about them as we were threading our way through that region. +The previous year, early one morning, the watch on the deck of the flat +was startled by a tiger leaping on board, and, evidently bewildered by +its new circumstances, leaping off on the other side. Messrs. Lacroix +and Gogerly, when on a native boat in the Sunderbuns, were witnesses of +a desperate fight between a tiger and an alligator. The story has been +often told.</p> + +<p>Less than two centuries ago there was a large population in what may be +called that amphibious region, the soil when cleared being very rich; +but owing to the incursions of Mug pirates from the coast of Burmah, and +the oppression of Muhammadan rulers of Bengal, the most of the +inhabitants perished, others fled, and so complete was the ruin that the +exact site of once prosperous cities is unknown. In a region like the +Sunderbuns, when man's restraining and improving hand is withdrawn every +trace of his presence disappears under the rank vegetation, which +speedily covers the sphere of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> labours. The country, under British +protection, was in 1839 beginning to be reoccupied. Patches of ground +were reclaimed from the jungle, and since that time cultivation has been +greatly extended. We occasionally met native boats, and were thus +reminded we were not the only human begins in that district. Nearly a +week elapsed before we emerged from the Sunderbuns.</p> + +<p>Our passengers were a motley band. Between twenty and thirty were +Europeans, two or three were Eurasians, and there was a company of +Sepoys under a native officer in charge of treasure. Most of the Sepoys +were Hindus, and as they cannot cook on the water, which is forbidden by +caste-law, they were obliged to subsist as they best could on dry grain. +The Muhammadans had no convenience for cooking on the flat, but they +were allowed partial use of the steamer. All were delighted when they +got into the open country, and could get on shore at night to prepare +their meals.</p> + +<p>The steamer and flat were brought to anchor at all the important towns +on the river, for lading and unlading goods and for landing passengers, +of whom very few left us, as most were bound for Benares and Allahabad. +When evening came on we always anchored, wherever we might be. We saw a +little of Bhagulpore, Monghyr, Dinapore, Patna, Ghazeepore, and some +other places. At Monghyr I spent a very pleasant evening with Mr. Leslie +of the Baptist Mission, even then of considerable standing, and years +afterwards a highly esteemed veteran in the missionary host.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A STORM ON THE GANGES.</div> + +<p>Our progress was slow. In some places the stream was too strong for our +steamer tugging the flat, and in other places the water was too shallow. +Sometimes we got for hours, in one case for a whole day, on sandbanks,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +from which we got off with great difficulty. The most memorable incident +of the voyage was a storm, which came on us one evening as we were +nearing Dinapore. There was so little warning of its approach that we, +who knew not the climate, were quite unprepared for its coming. Before +breaking on us we were brought to a standstill, the flat was separated +from the steamer, and both flat and steamer were brought to anchor. The +sky suddenly became dark, we heard puffs of wind, and then the storm +burst on us in all its fury. The dust was so raised that we could see +only a few feet from the flat, and the flat so rolled that every now and +then a splash of water came in at the windows. A scene of great +confusion ensued. Some Indo-Portuguese servants were on their knees, +imploring Mary—"Mariam, Mariam!"—to save them. The Hindus were loud in +their appeals to "Ram, Ram!" while the Muhammadans shouted "Allah, +Allah!" A newly arrived English lady almost fainted from fright, and her +husband tried to calm and assure her. Every face indicated anxiety. In +less than an hour all was over, and we were thankful to find ourselves +once more in safety.</p> + +<p>Before leaving England I had possessed myself of a Hindustanee Grammar, +and in Calcutta of a Hindustanee Dictionary. On the voyage to India I +did not make much of the grammar, but on the way to Benares I gave +myself resolutely to learning the language. I found a young native +officer on the flat who knew a little English, and who professed to be a +good Hindustanee scholar. I got the consent of the native officer in +command to his coming to my cabin when off duty, and I spent hours daily +with him, trying to get my tongue about the strange sounds, with which I +knew I must be familiar if I was to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> do the work for which I had come to +India. I received great help from this young Muhammadan, and felt as if +I was beginning to get my foot into the language before reaching my +destination.</p> + +<p>On the three Sabbaths I was on the river I had the pleasure of preaching +to the Europeans on board.</p> + +<p>A voyage on the Ganges does not enable one to see much of the country. +The banks are often very high; in many places there is a great extent of +sand; the country, with the exception of the district where the main +stream is entered, is very level, and the country is therefore very +imperfectly seen. The native craft, so unlike the vessels of our own +country, with their lofty prows and sterns, and great ragged square +sails, many laden with wood and grass, which made them like moving +stacks, were constant objects of interest.</p> + +<p>At length, after more than three weeks on board, we were delighted one +Sunday forenoon to see in the distance the domes and minarets of +Benares.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 384px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch2.png" width="384" height="200" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3><i>ARRIVAL AT BENARES.</i></h3> + + +<p>On Sabbath, March 31, 1839, we came to anchor at the northern end of +Benares, at a place called Raj Ghat, the ferry connecting the city on +the left bank of the river with the Trunk road on the right, leading to +Behar and Bengal. Near this place the most of the native craft employed +in the city traffic is moored. Many of the vessels are of considerable +size.</p> + +<p>For hours Benares had been in sight, but owing to the strength of the +stream our progress had been slow. It was early afternoon by the time of +our arrival. In so public a place as Raj Ghat there are always a number +of people, but the early afternoon is a time when few bathe, and there +is a lull in the stir of the community. As the afternoon comes on, and +the evening advances, there is fresh activity. We therefore, on landing, +saw little of the scene with which we were afterwards to become +familiar.</p> + +<p>Word of the approach of our steamer and flat had reached Secrole, the +European suburb of Benares, three miles inland, and no sooner had we +come to anchor than the agent of the Steam Company and the friends of +expected passengers came on board. Among these was the Rev. William +Smith of the Baptist Mission, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> house was on the high bank +immediately above Raj Ghat, and who had been requested by my brethren of +the London Missionary Society to be on the look-out for me. This good +man gave me a kindly welcome, and took me with him to his house, built +very much in the native fashion, with flat roof, with small, low rooms +entering from one into another, and a verandah extending along its +front, from which a commanding view was obtained of the river and craft +below, the country on the other side of the river, and a part of the +front of the city. Immediately behind the house was the chapel, in which +daily worship was conducted.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PREACHING TO BEGGARS.</div> + +<p>The first thing I saw on getting to Mr. Smith's house was the chapel +crowded with very poor-looking people, of whom a number were blind and +lame. I was told these were beggars, who came every Lord's-day to +receive a dole, either pice or dry grain, from the missionary and his +wife, and who listened very patiently to an address before the dole was +given. This service was kept up for many years, and there was no falling +off in the attendance. Those who have read the life of Henry Martyn, and +others of the early missionary period in India, know that they +ministered to this class. Here were persons whose destitution appealed +directly to the Christian heart, and who were content to be present when +the gospel message was delivered, while little access to others could be +obtained. How far these poor people heard it would be difficult to say. +I am afraid few heard with any desire to understand and consider what +was said, but there is every reason to believe some did obtain lasting +spiritual good. We have heard of instances of genuine conversion, though +it must be admitted these were rare; and it must be also acknowledged +there were instances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> of pretended conversion, when the life soon proved +that the motive for seeking baptism was entirely sordid. Still the work +in itself was worthy of the followers of Christ, and could not fail to +make a favourable impression, not only on the persons helped, but on the +community around. Almsgiving stands high among virtues in the estimation +of both Hindus and Muhammadans; it is considered sufficient to atone for +many sins, and it is practised so indiscriminately as to pauperize many +who could provide for themselves. It is unfit that Christianity should +seem less careful of those who are really poor and helpless than +Hinduism and Muhammadanism are. Work such as I saw in Mr. Smith's chapel +is carried on in some places down to the present time.</p> + +<p>A short time after our arrival at Raj Ghat my dear friend the Rev. W. P. +Lyon appeared, and took me in his conveyance by a road skirting the city +to the Mission House in Secrole, which he then occupied. From Mr. and +Mrs. Lyon, both of whom I had known intimately for years in our own +land, I received a hearty welcome.</p> + +<p>At the corner of the mission compound, facing the public road, was the +humble chapel, built of sun-dried bricks, in which service was conducted +in the native language. I arrived half an hour before the time for the +afternoon service. Before its commencement I had the pleasure of meeting +Messrs. Buyers and Shurman, with whom I was to be for years associated +in mission work. With them I went to the service, which was conducted by +Mr. Shurman. There were at that time only two or three native Christians +connected with the mission, and these, with their families, the +missionaries and their wives, and a few orphan children, constituted the +congregation. I had just enough of the language to catch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> an expression +here and there, and from my ignorance of what was said my mind was left +at greater freedom for realizing my new and strange position.</p> + +<p>I had just had a glance of the sacred city of the Hindus. I had seen at +a short distance the domes of some of the principal temples, and the +minarets of some of the principal mosques, especially those of the +mosque built by Aurungzeb, soaring far above every other object in the +city. I had dimly seen the bathing-places of the people stretching away +for miles, and the houses on the high bank of the river. As I landed I +had seen a few bathing, and a number moving about.</p> + +<p>And now, in this poor chapel, with its low roof and earthen floor, I +found a few assembled for the worship of the living God through the Lord +Jesus Christ. I realized, as I had not done before, that I had left my +native land behind, and had come among a people the vast majority of +whom were wholly given to idolatry, and the rest followers of Muhammad, +the bitter enemies of my Lord and Saviour. The greatness and difficulty +of the missionary enterprise presented themselves to me with a painful +vividness, and but for the conviction that the work was of God, and that +my long-cherished desire to enter on it and the gratification of my +desire in my appointment to Benares had come from Him, I should have +been ready to retrace my steps. Yet here I was, worshipping with a few +persons who had been idolaters, and one of whom at least had made great +sacrifices when he had avowed his faith in Jesus. Why should we despise +the day of small things? Forty-four years have elapsed since that, to +me, memorable 31st of March, 1839, and I can now realize myself sitting +with Messrs. Buyers and Lyon in front of that humble pulpit, while Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +Shurman preached, and remember, as if it were yesterday, the strange +feelings that thrilled me that afternoon.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">RESIDENCE IN BENARES.</div> + +<p>I had to make no arrangement for my accommodation on reaching Benares. +Previous to my arrival it had been arranged that I was to take up my +abode with my dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. Lyon. I was at once at home +with them, for Mr. Lyon had been my fellow-student at Glasgow, and Mrs. +Lyon was the member of a family with whom I had been intimately +acquainted while studying at Edinburgh. Within a few days of my arrival +I was introduced to the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, +and to a few European residents who took an interest in missionary +work.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch3.png" width="400" height="94" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3><i>CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN BENARES.</i></h3> + +<h4>FROM 1816 TO 1839.</h4> + + +<p>It may be well to give, before proceeding further, a brief account of +what had been done for the evangelization of Benares up to that time.</p> + +<p>Our Baptist brethren were first in the field. All who have read the +biography of the illustrious trio of Serampore are aware that they +formed, and with ardent zeal and untiring energy prosecuted, great +schemes for the evangelization of the millions to whose spiritual good +they had consecrated their lives. The translation of the Scriptures into +the languages of India was their special service, but it was far from +standing alone. They were fully alive to the importance of preparing and +sending out men of God to go among the people, and make known to them +Jesus as the Saviour of the world. They gladly availed themselves of +Europeans, Eurasians, and natives, who seemed qualified for the work by +Christian character, zeal for the conversion of the people, and aptness +to teach, though, with few exceptions, destitute of any considerable +measure of mental culture. Some of these agents had force of character +and native talent, and much good and useful work was accomplished by +them. One of their number was Mr. Bowley, who after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>wards joined the +Church Mission, and was for many years located at Chunar. He translated +the entire Scriptures into Hindee, and did beside much excellent +literary work in the translation and composition of books and tracts. As +he had no knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, his translation of the Bible +has marked defects, though from his knowledge of Hindee and his good +judgment it has also marked excellences. His translation of the New +Testament is now largely superseded, but his translation of the Old +Testament is the only one yet possessed. The style of his smaller works +in Hindustanee, or Urdu, as it is commonly called, is remarkably +idiomatic and pleasing.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BAPTIST MISSION IN BENARES.</div> + +<p>Missionary work was commenced in Benares by Mr. William Smith, who was +sent to it by the Serampore missionaries in 1816. I have already +mentioned him as having welcomed me on my arrival. He secured a house +for himself at Raj Ghat, the northern boundary of the city, with a +crowded population around him, and there till his death he lived with +his family, during all the period diligently prosecuting his missionary +work. He had been a drummer in the native army, spoke the Hindustanee as +his mother tongue, and belonged to the large class who, having European +blood in their veins, are professing Christians, but as to their +ordinary habits of life are more native than European. Mr. Smith was a +man of limited education and of little talent, but of sterling +excellence, and secured the respect and love of all classes of the +native community by his kindly and consistent life. For years before his +death there was in his house the strange spectacle of five generations, +and his great-great-grandmother was heard by a friend of mine murmuring, +"It looks as if God had forgotten to take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> me away." Mrs. Smith, who +was, I believe, a pure native, was a woman of remarkable energy, and +exercised a powerful influence for good on all connected with her. Owing +to the unhappy controversy between the Serampore missionaries and the +Baptist Missionary Society, and the separation in which it ended, Mr. +Smith was left for a time without any salary; but by the establishment +of a Eurasian boarding-school his wants were fully supplied. On to old +age he moved about among the people, conversing with them, going to +their great religious gatherings and distributing tracts and portions of +the Scriptures in a very quiet, unostentatious manner, and succeeded, by +God's blessing, in bringing a few into the fold of Christ.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CHURCH MISSION IN BENARES.</div> + +<p>Among the pioneers of modern missionary work in India the late Bishop +Corrie, of Madras, has a high and honoured name. He was one of the small +band of Government chaplains who gave themselves heart and soul to the +work of diffusing the gospel among the native population. Henry Martyn +is the best known of this band, and with him men like Brown, Thomason, +and Corrie deserve to be held in everlasting remembrance. Mr. Corrie +was, in 1817, the chaplain of the European community in Benares. +Previous to that time a rich native, Rajah Jay Narayan, had established +and endowed a school in the part of the city inhabited chiefly by +Bengalees. This Rajah formed so high an opinion of Mr. Corrie, and of +his ability to carry on the school efficiently, that he asked him to +undertake its management. Mr. Corrie accepted the offer in the name of +the Church Missionary Society, whose sanction to the measure he had +obtained, and to it the school was made over by formal deed of gift in +1818. Under the name of Jay Narayan's School, and afterwards of Jay +Narayan's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> College, it has continued down to our day; and it has done +much for the education, on Christian principles, of successive +generations of Benares youth. A Mr. Adlington was the first head-master, +and a short time afterwards a missionary was sent. He was succeeded by +others, but owing to their failure of health little was done on to the +fourth decade of the century, except the securing of suitable ground and +the erection of mission-houses at Segra, in the immediate suburbs of the +city on its southwestern side. This place had formerly been noted for +the thieves and thugs that infested it. In 1839 the two missionaries at +Segra were the Rev. William Smith and the Rev. C. B. Leupolt. Mr. Smith +reached India in 1830, and after spending fifteen months in Goruckpore, +on the borders of Nepal, was transferred to Benares in 1832. He was +joined by Messrs. Knorpp and Leupolt in 1833. The two Church +missionaries in Benares in 1839, Messrs. Smith and Leupolt, laboured for +many years afterwards with singular devotedness for the spiritual good +of the people. As it is invidious to make comparisons, I will not say +that they were foremost in the first rank; but all who knew them will +bear me out in saying they attained a high place in the first rank of +the missionary band.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LONDON MISSION IN BENARES.</div> + +<p>The Rev. Matthew Thomson Adam was appointed by the London Missionary +Society to Benares in October 1819, and reached his destination in +August, 1820. He remained at his post till 1830, when he returned to +England, and resigned his connection with the Society. He afterwards +went to the United States, where he undertook a pastorate. Mr. Adam was +a scholarly and diligent man. He prepared and published a Hindee +Grammar, an English and Hindee Dictionary, and some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> tracts. He secured +a site for a mission-house on the border of cantonment towards the city, +and erected on it a commodious and substantial structure; and since his +day a church, a school-house for girls, and houses for native +Christians, have been erected in the mission compound. He also secured a +very central site in cantonments for a place of worship for holding +English services, and by the liberal help of the English military and +civil residents erected on it a building which was called Union Chapel. +His services among our countrymen seem to have been greatly valued, but +owing to a change in the <i>personnel</i> of the station, a change which is +going on incessantly in India, the congregation fell off, Union Chapel +was sold, and the money realized by the sale was spent on the erection +of a chapel in the city, on a site obtained with great difficulty. Mr. +Adam left Benares before this building, erected with a view to native +services, could be turned to account. In a brief record of his labours +drawn up by himself, he says that he deemed it a high honour to live +near such a city, and to testify to his Master by pressing His claims on +individuals with whom he had an opportunity of conversing; but he did +not think it advisable to attempt the preaching of the gospel in places +of public resort. He was at times encouraged by the prospect of persons +becoming the followers of Christ, but in every case his hopes were +disappointed. No native was baptized by him.</p> + +<p>The London Mission of Benares was reinforced in 1826 by the arrival of +the Rev. James Robertson. He was a man of linguistic talent, and was +full of plans for setting up the standard of the Cross and assailing the +idolatry around him. He opened a number of schools in various parts of +the city, and organized a system of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> Bible-reading in the streets. Seven +men, chosen from among Hindus, whose sole qualification was ability to +read, were appointed to read daily in different parts of the city our +Scriptures without note or comment. We have no doubt they took care to +tell their hearers that they did their work to please the sahib, and get +his pay, but had no intention of accepting the new teaching, and had no +wish that others should do so. No other missionary has followed this +plan. Mr. Robertson left behind him in MS. translations into Urdu of a +part of the Old Testament, which were carefully examined and partly used +by Mr. Shurman; but the style was too difficult for any except those who +were well acquainted with the Persian language.</p> + +<p>The Rev. William Buyers joined the Mission at the beginning of 1832, and +Mr. Robertson was carried off by cholera fifteen months afterwards, in +his thirty-fourth year. Mr. Buyers was thus left alone, but early in +1834 he was joined by the Rev. J. A. Shurman and the Rev. Robert C. +Mather. In 1838 the Rev. W. P. Lyon arrived at Benares, and that year +Mr. Mather went to the great commercial Mirzapore, where he established, +and for many years afterwards conducted with great efficiency, a very +important mission. When I reached Benares I was thus the fourth on its +staff, and the seventh from its commencement.</p> + +<p>Much good work had been done by the brethren with whom I was to be +associated. They had established schools for primary education, but +owing to the want of funds all but one had been given up by 1839. They +had taken part in preparing tracts and revising the translation of the +New Testament in Urdu. A place of worship had been erected, and a few +orphans had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> gathered. Evangelistic work was being actively +prosecuted in the city.</p> + +<p>A short time previous to 1839 the Church Mission had undertaken a very +benevolent and a very difficult work. In 1837 the North-Western +Provinces were desolated by famine. Many thousands perished, everywhere +miserable boys and girls were to be seen who had become orphans, or who +had been abandoned by their parents. At this terrible crisis missions +came forward with the offer of adopting these forsaken children. Fifty +were made over to the Church Mission at Benares, and afterwards many +more were added to this number. Suitable buildings were speedily erected +for their accommodation, and arrangements were made for their education +and support. These children were so emaciated that many died within a +few days of their being brought to the mission. At the close of 1838 an +excellent missionary and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Knorpp, were carried off +by a low fever which attacked them while attending to their charge. By +the hot weather of 1839 the health of the orphans had greatly improved, +and everything was being done which could be done for their temporal and +spiritual welfare.</p> + +<p>By the time of my arrival, the missionaries of the Church and London +Missionary Societies—Mr. Lyon excepted, who had arrived only the +preceding year—had fully entered on their work. They had been from +seven to five years at their posts, had acquired a good knowledge of the +native languages, had all the vigour and hopefulness of early middle +life, and were giving themselves zealously to the prosecution of the +great work for which they had gone to India.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3><i>MY FIRST YEAR IN BENARES.</i></h3> + + +<p>A stranger passing hurriedly through a country may carry away +impressions about its climate, products, and people, which residence for +a considerable time would not merely modify but reverse. There are some +things of which he can speak with some confidence. The great natural +features of a country, its mountains and plains and rivers, do not +undergo any marked change, and these may be truly described by the +casual visitor. The general aspect of a people, their houses, dress, and +look, remain much the same, and of these an accurate observer may give a +trustworthy account; but if from what he himself has seen and heard he +attempts to give a general estimate of the character of the people and +of the state of the country, he is almost sure to fall into great +mistakes.</p> + +<p>Within the last few years India has become a favourite field for +travellers who can without inconvenience spend a few hundred pounds, and +be absent from home three or four months. Swift steamers take them +quickly to and from Bombay, and railways carry them in a short time from +one end of India to the other. They travel at the season when travelling +is delightful, and thus see the different countries of that great region +in their most attractive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> form. If they infer what they do not see from +what they see, they are sure to make statements utterly discordant with +fact. Mr. Wilson, who was sent out to India to put its finances into +order after the Mutiny, travelled through the North-Western Provinces in +the cold weather, when the country was covered with abundant crops, and +was delighted with all he saw. He declared it was the finest country he +had ever seen. He returned to Calcutta as the hot weather was setting +in, and died in the succeeding rainy season. It is said that some time +before his death he pronounced the climate to be the most detestable on +the face of the globe. Dr. Norman McLeod was our guest for a very short +time in Benares, as he was prosecuting his Indian journey. When driving +about on a fine balmy morning, he said, in his genial fashion, "You +missionaries often complain of your climate; I only wish we in Scotland +had a climate like this." To which I replied, "Ah, doctor, kindly stop +with us through our coming seasons; prolong your stay till next +November, and then you will be able to speak with authority." The worthy +doctor did not take my counsel. His death some time afterwards was +attributed to his Indian tour; but if it left in him the seed of +disease, the blame rests not on the climate, but on the excessive +fatigue caused by overmuch travelling and work.</p> + +<p>The case of a person who has lived through a whole year in a country, +and has during that period moved among the people, is very different +from that of the passing stranger. He knows the climate as a traveller +for a few weeks or even months cannot. The seasons during that year may +have been more or less abnormal, and yet the resident cannot fail to +have obtained that knowledge which enables him to form a notion of what +he has in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> the main to expect every year. He gets a glimpse into the +character and peculiarities of the different classes of the population, +both native and foreign. He may know little of the language of the +country; but if he has an observing mind, and moves freely about, he is +constantly receiving information about the people in a degree which he +himself does not always realize. If his residence be prolonged for many +years, as he looks back to his first year, and remembers its experience, +he finds that his views have been greatly enlarged, on many points +greatly modified; he is sure that his knowledge is much more accurate +and mature; but there is scarcely any subject on which he finds his +views entirely reversed.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST YEAR.</div> + +<p>This, at least, has been my experience. I have a vivid remembrance of my +first year in Benares—a much more vivid remembrance than I have of +subsequent years, and it would be strange if I did not find that my +views on many Indian subjects have been greatly modified, and on all +much enlarged; but I do not discover that on any subject there has been +a complete reversal.</p> + +<p>I have already mentioned that on my voyage from Calcutta to Benares I +spent much of my time in the study of the Hindustanee language, commonly +called Urdu. Within a week of my arrival I gave myself to it with all +the application of which I was capable. I had as my teacher a munshee, +who had been long employed by the missionaries of our Society, but who +could not speak a sentence in English, though he knew the Roman +character well. I was told that his ignorance of English would prove an +advantage, as I should on this account be obliged to speak to him, in +however broken and limping a fashion, in the language which it was +indispensable for me to acquire. We had before us an English and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +Hindustanee Dictionary, a Hindustanee and English Dictionary, a +Hindustanee Grammar, and a book of easy sentences in both languages in +the Roman character. At first my teacher and myself had to put things +into many forms before reaching mutual intelligibility; but gradually +our work became easier, and when two or three months had passed we +fairly understood each other—I trying to express myself in Hindustanee, +and he performing the much-needed work of correcting my words and idiom. +I commenced with a portion of the New Testament, and soon got into some +of the classics of the language. The use of the Roman character in the +writing of Indian languages had been strongly advocated by Sir Charles +Trevelyan, by Dr. Duff, and other men of mark, and was accepted by the +majority of the missionaries. Portions of the Scriptures and other books +were printed in it. Like all young missionaries, I learned the Persian +and Nagree characters, in which the languages of Northern India had +always previously been written; but the Roman character was very +convenient, and I regretted afterwards I used it so much.</p> + +<p>This study of the language was felt to be a foremost duty, and was +prosecuted from day to day. This went on for months with little +interruption, except what was caused by the serious and continued +illness of Mrs. Lyon, which, to the great regret of all their friends, +led before the end of the year to the departure of Mr. and Mrs. L. for +Europe.</p> + +<p>In the seventh or eighth month of my residence at Benares I wrote a +short sermon in Hindustanee on John i. 29, and read it at the native +service. Within a year I took my part regularly at that service, first +using my manuscript, and then extemporizing as I best could.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>I must confess I regarded my new linguistic acquisition with much more +complacency at the end of my first year than at the end of my fifth or +sixth. On my way to Benares, as I have already mentioned, I spent a few +hours very pleasantly with Mr. Leslie, the Baptist missionary at +Monghyr. I mentioned to him that my friend Mr. Lyon had learned the +language, and was preaching in it. Looking me full in the face, he said, +to my surprise and chagrin, "Depend on it, Mr. Lyon may use the words of +the language, but no one can be said to acquire it in a year." I thought +this a hard saying, but years afterwards I was forced to feel its truth. +I had in a year got such a glimpse into the Hindustanee and Hindee +languages as to have some conceptions of their nature, to know their +tone, and to bring them into partial use; but I had a very limited +notion of their nice distinctions, their peculiar idioms, and their vast +vocabulary. I cannot say that the opinion on this subject I formed in my +first year was entirely reversed by my after experience, but it was +largely modified.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">STUDY OF NATIVE LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER.</div> + +<p>While studying the native language, I felt myself studying the native +character as well. My teacher was very patient, correcting my +mistakes—mistakes, I must confess, often repeated—without allowing +even the slightest surprise to appear in his countenance. He did not +smile at blunders at which, when I knew better, I myself heartily +laughed. When I showed the slightest impatience at being checked he at +once allowed me to go on as I liked, though, as I afterwards knew, I +needed to be corrected. He was loud in praise of my progress, declaring +that I would soon surpass all my predecessors. In my intercourse with +him I had illustrations of the patience, the courtesy, and also the +flattering, cozening<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> character of the people, when dealing with those +by whom they think they can be benefited. The impressions of native +character thus obtained were amply affirmed by the experience of after +years.</p> + +<p>This munshee was well acquainted with our Scriptures. He belonged to the +Writer caste, and had from his early years been in contact with +Europeans. He was ready for conversation on religious subjects, and had +much to say in favour of the philosophical notions which underlie +Hinduism. Three or four years afterwards he seemed to awake all at once +to the claims of Christ as the Saviour of the world, and under this +impulse he openly appeared in a native newspaper as the assailant of +Hinduism and the advocate of Christianity, which led to the hope that he +was to avow himself, by baptism, a follower of the Lord. But he became +alarmed at what he had done; he could not bear the reproaches of his +friends, and he fell back into the ranks of his people. Though he had +ceased to be my teacher I had opportunities of seeing him, and I tried +to speak to his conscience, to his conviction of the Divine origin of +the gospel. The last time I spoke to him he said, with marked emphasis, +"There is no use in speaking to me. Let Hinduism be false or true, I am +determined to live and die in it as my fathers have done!" His case was +that of many with whom every Indian missionary is brought into contact.</p> + +<p>During this year I was introduced into the methods in which evangelistic +work was conducted. In addition to attending the services of the Lord's +Day, I went now and then with my brethren to the city. We had at that +time two little chapels in good positions, at the doors of which the +people were first addressed, and were then invited to enter that they +might hear the new teaching more fully<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> expounded. There was, of course, +nothing of the staidness or quietness of a Christian congregation. The +speaker was often interrupted; questions, sometimes very irrelevant +questions, were asked; and the people came and went, so that those who +were present at the commencement were seldom present at the close. +During the year I saw the principal places in Benares—its main streets +and markets, its temples and mosques; and thus formed some idea of the +great city, where for many years afterwards it was my privilege to +labour in the gospel of Christ.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE LANGUAGES OF NORTHERN INDIA.</div> + +<p>The work of the missionary in Northern India would be greatly simplified +if he had to learn only one language. He has to learn the two I have +named, the Hindustanee and the Hindee. The Hindustanee arose from +intercourse between the Muhammadan invaders and the people they had +subdued. It is written in the Persian or Arabic character, and draws its +vocabulary mainly from the Persian and Arabic languages. It is the +language of law, of commerce, and of ordinary life to many millions. The +Hindee in its various dialects, some of which almost rise to the dignity +of languages, is the vernacular of the vast Hindu population of +North-Western India. It rests mainly on the Sanscrit, and is written in +the Sanscrit or Deonagree character. In some of the most popular books +the languages are so strangely combined that it is impossible to give +any definite name to the language used. An acquaintance with these +languages is indispensable to missionary efficiency in Northern India, +but it is very difficult to attain marked excellence in both.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE FIRST YEAR—SOCIETY AND CLIMATE.</i></h3> + + +<p>A very brief residence at Benares led me to see the great difference +between the society to which I had come and that which I had left. The +European community formed a mere handful of the population, and was +almost exclusively formed of officials, with all the peculiarities of a +class privileged by office. We had some two hundred European +artillerymen with their officers, of a regiment paid and controlled by +the East India Company; three native regiments officered by Europeans; +three or four members of the Civil Service, charged with the +administration of the city and district; one English merchant, and two +or three English shopkeepers. I now learned for the first time the +difference in rank between Queen's and Company's military officers. The +Queen's officer regarded himself as of a higher grade. Members of the +Civil Service and Company's officers met on terms of social equality; +but the Civilians looked on themselves as of a higher order, as the +aristocracy of the land, and the assumed superiority put a strain to +some degree on social intercourse. The persons sent out from this +country for the administration of India are called Covenanted Civilians, +as they bear a commission from the Queen; while those engaged for +administrative work by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> Indian Government are called Uncovenanted. +The former class continue to have a great official advantage over the +latter; but forty years ago there was a great social inequality which +has in a measure ceased, where these uncovenanted servants are English +gentlemen, as they often are. English merchants were regarded as in +society; but shopkeepers, however large their establishment, were deemed +entirely outside the pale, except for strictly business purposes. This +was partly accounted for by European shopkeepers having been previously +stewards of ships, or soldiers who had received their discharge. +Missionaries were looked on as sufficiently in society to be admissible +everywhere, and were treated courteously by their European brethren when +they met, though only a few desired their intercourse.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">EUROPEANS AND NATIVES.</div> + +<p>As to the people of the land, both Hindu and Muhammadan, I discerned at +once, what I might have fully anticipated, that between them and us +there was a national, social, and religious gulf. Some were in our +houses as servants. We had to do with them in various ways; we could not +go out without seeing them on every side. There was on the part of many +a courteous bearing towards each other; there was in many cases a kindly +feeling; but the barriers which separated us could not be for any length +of time forgotten. I speedily saw that some Europeans looked with +contempt on the natives, as essentially of a lower order in creation; +but the better class of Europeans, the higher in position and education, +as a rule, regarded them with respect, and treated them not only with +justice but with kindness. Native servants received as kind treatment as +servants do in well-conducted families in our own country, and in many +cases repaid this kindness by devoted attachment and the efficient +discharge of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> work entrusted to them. When native gentlemen came in +contact with Europeans of the higher class, all the honour was accorded +to them to which by their position they were entitled. Even in this case +there were national and religious differences, which effectually +prevented the intimacy which is often maintained where such differences +do not exist.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">EURASIANS.</div> + +<p>Within the first year I got an insight into a large and growing class, +who were connected with both Europeans and natives, and yet did not +belong to either. I refer to persons of mixed blood; some almost as +dark, in many cases altogether as dark, as ordinary natives—many of +these being descendants of Portuguese; others, again, so fair that their +Indian blood is scarcely observed; some in the lowest grade of society, +very poor and very ignorant; and others, with many intermediate links, +most respectable members of the community in character, knowledge, +position, and means. All these, whatever may be their rank, are +Christians by profession, and they dress so far as they can after the +European fashion; but the poorer class, in food and accommodation live +very much as natives do, and mainly speak the native language. The +people of mixed blood are called by different names—Eurasians, East +Indians, and not infrequently by a name to which they most rightly +object, Half-caste.</p> + +<p>I was surprised and sorry to observe the feeling with which many +Europeans regarded this class. They were looked down upon as of an +inferior grade, who, whatever might be their character or position, were +not entitled to rank with Europeans. In the dislike of natives shown by +some Europeans there was something to remind one of the American feeling +in regard to colour, though of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> much milder type; but I was not +prepared for the degree in which the feeling prevailed in reference to +Eurasians, though I might have been had I remembered that the slightest +tinge of African blood, a tinge to many eyes not perceptible, had been +considered in America a fatal taint. I speedily observed the effect the +feeling had on Eurasians in producing an unpleasant sensitiveness, and +impairing the confidence and respect indispensable to social +intercourse.</p> + +<p>Since that time I have understood the causes of this feeling much better +than I could have then done. The most candid and thoughtful of the class +will allow that as a community they labour under great disadvantages. +Though they have native blood in their veins they are entirely separate +from natives in those things to which natives attach the highest value; +and though by the profession of Christianity, by the adoption of +European habits so far as circumstances allow, and by the use of the +English language, they draw to Europeans, yet they are forced to feel +they do not belong to them. They occupy an awkward middle position, and +the knowledge that they do leads to unpleasant grating. Then they have +not had the bracing which comes from residence in a Christian land. +Though proud of their Christian name and profession, they have been +injuriously affected by the moral atmosphere of their surroundings. The +lower their social position, the closer has been their connection with +the lower class of natives, and the more hurtful have been the +influences under which they have come. Eurasians are noted for their +excellent penmanship, and a great number from generation to generation +have found employment in Government offices, the greater number as mere +copyists, but a few as confidential clerks and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> accountants, whose +services have been highly appreciated by their official superiors. A +considerable number have risen to important offices in the +administration of the country. An increasing number are able to take +their place in every respect abreast of their European brethren. +Individuals have gone to England, and have succeeded in getting by +competition into the Covenanted Civil Service. The class has been +steadily growing for years in intelligence and character; and as the +members of their families are enjoying educational advantages to a +greater extent than at any previous period, there is every reason to +hope progress in the future will be still more rapid than in the past. +The distinction between them and persons of pure European blood will +thus become less and less a barrier to social intercourse; they will be +delivered from the unpleasantness the barrier has often caused, their +character will grow in strength, and they will become increasingly +fitted for exerting a happy influence on the native community. In the +case of individuals the distinction is now practically ignored. There +are no more honoured and honourable persons in India than some who +belong to this class. There have always been devoted Christians among +them, and of late years an increasing number have come under the power +of Divine grace.</p> + +<p>It has been often remarked that one of the most pleasing traits of +native society is reproduced among Eurasians—the tie of kinship +prompting those who are in better circumstances to help their needy +relatives, often to the giving of large pecuniary aid, not unfrequently +to the taking of them into their houses. In the humbler portions of the +community there is often seen a patriarchal household like that so often +seen in native society.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CLIMATE OF NORTHERN INDIA.</div> + +<p>The new-comer's experience of climate prepares him for what he has to +expect during his future residence. We have three marked seasons in the +North-Western Provinces, the one melting gradually into the other—the +hot season beginning in March and ending in June, the rainy season +beginning with July and ending in October, and the cold weather +beginning with November and ending in February. The seasons may thus be +described in a general way, but in fact every year differs somewhat from +others, as they do in our own country. The hot weather is sensibly felt +before March begins, and the heat of March is far less than that of the +succeeding months. The first burst of the rains is often before the +middle of June, but after that burst, called the "little rainy season," +it is not uncommon to have a spell of very hot sunny weather. In some +years, indeed, there is so much weather of this kind during what is +called the rainy season, that the heat is most intense, and the crops +are burnt up. Towards the end of September there is commonly the last +great outpour of rain, and as October advances there is the cooling +freshness of the approaching cold weather, with enough of heat in the +day-time to tell us it has not quite let go its grasp. December and +January are our coldest months. In England, after an unpropitious +summer, the remark is often made, "We have had no summer!" and in the +same manner in India, when the temperature has been high in the cold +season, and we have not had the expected bracing, we say, "We have had +no winter!" Yet as in our own country, so in India; we have our marked +seasons, though we cannot be sure of the weather at any particular +period.</p> + +<p>As India is an immense region, a great continent, with every variety of +scenery, with plains extending hundreds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> of miles, and vast stretches of +forests, with table-lands and lofty mountains, with land of every +description from barren sand to the richest alluvial soil, the climate +and products of its different countries are so different, that the +statements made about one region, however correct, when applied to the +whole are utterly misleading. I have been describing the seasons of the +North-Western Provinces; and yet, as Benares is in the lower part of +these provinces, its climate is considerably different from that of the +country farther north and west. The farther north we travel the longer +and colder is the cold season, and as a rule the hotter and briefer is +the hot season. On one occasion the heat was so great in Benares in +March that we found the night punkah pleasant; but on reaching Delhi, +nearly six hundred miles distant, a few days afterwards, instead of +seeking a night punkah we were thankful to have blankets to keep +ourselves warm.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE HOT SEASON.</div> + +<p>I have a vivid recollection of my experiences of the climate during my +first year. During our voyage on the Ganges the heat during the day was +like that of a cloudless July in England, and at night it was pleasantly +cool, the wood of the flat speedily giving off the heat it had taken in +during the day, and the flow of the river contributing to our comfort. +Reaching Benares as April was setting in, I speedily felt I was getting +into the experience of an Indian hot season. The doors were opened +before dawn to let in whatever coolness might come with the morning, and +before eight they were shut to keep out the heat of the day. The lower +part of the door was of wood, and the upper part of glass. Outside the +doors were heavy wooden blinds, made after the fashion of Venetian +blinds, the upper part of which were opened to let in from the verandah +the degree of light absolutely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> necessary with the least possible degree +of heat. No prisoner in his cell is more excluded from an outside view +than we were in our rooms during the day in the hot season. There was a +remarkable contrast between the outside glare and the inside dimness, so +that a person coming from without could not on entering see anything. +The prevailing wind is from the west. There is enough in the morning to +show the direction from which it is coming. It rises as the day +advances; by two or three it blows with great strength, raising clouds +of dust, and lulls towards evening. This wind is cool and bracing in the +cold weather, but as the season advances it becomes warm, and by May its +heat resembles the blast of a furnace. It every now and then gives place +to the east wind, which is not nearly so hot, but is so enervating that +the hot wind is greatly preferred. During the day we sit under the +punkah, a great wooden fan suspended from the roof with great flapping +fringes. This is pulled by a coolie, sometimes in the adjoining room, +but when it can be arranged in the verandah outside, who has in his hand +a rope attached to the punkah, which is brought to him by a small +aperture in the wall, through which a piece of thin bamboo is inserted +to make the friction as little as possible. When the west wind is +blowing freshly, it is brought with most pleasant coolness into the +house through platted screens of scented grass, on which water is +continually thrown outside. For years machines resembling the fanners so +much used by farmers in former days, with scented grass on each side and +a hut of scented grass over them, on which water is continually thrown, +with wheels turned round by hand labour, have been brought largely into +use. These machines are appropriately called "Thermantidotes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>The night in the hot season is much more trying than the day. There is +not a breath stirring, and the heat of the day, taken in by the walls, +is radiated all the night long. I found the night punkah in almost +universal use but I thought I would get on without it, and used it very +seldom. When the next hot season came I was glad to conform to the +custom of the country, for I found when I had not the punkah I got up in +the morning so tired and weary that I was unfit for the work of the day.</p> + +<p>The aspect of the country at that season is very dreary. Some trees +retain their freshness in the hottest weather; but not a blade of green +grass is to be seen, and the ground is scorched, scarred, and baked, as +if it had been turned into a desert.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE RAINY SEASON.</div> + +<p>A marvellous change is produced by the first heavy fall of rain. After +stifling heat for some days, the rays of the sun beating with a +fierceness which threatens to burn up all nature, and which drives the +birds for shelter to the thickest foliage of the trees, the clouds +gather, the thunder rolls, peal quickly succeeding peal, the lightning +flashes incessantly, and then, after some heavy showers, there comes +down for two or three days, with very little intermission, such torrents +that it looks as if we were to be visited with a deluge. Within a week +all nature is transformed. The parched earth gives way to the richest +green. We in our country say in very propitious weather that we see +things grow; but in India vegetation takes such a bound as it never does +in our temperate climate. Immediately after the downpour of rain, the +sun comes out in all its strength; and, under the action of heat and +moisture, vegetation progresses marvellously. The fields are quickly +ploughed, the seed, for which moisture and great heat is required, is +sown, and in the course of three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> or four weeks they are far above the +ground. Within three months the harvest of the rainy season, furnishing +the people with rice, maize, and other grains, which furnish the +principal food of the people, is gathered in.</p> + +<p>The rainy season is productive in another and less pleasant manner. It +is as favourable to insect life as it is to vegetable life. Flying white +ants, flying bugs, and other unwelcome visitors of the same order, come +out in thousands. At night, if the doors be open the white ants make for +the lamps in such numbers that they are extinguished by them, and the +room is in the morning found strewed with their dead. It requires a +torpid temperament to remain calm under this visitation. All dislike it, +and some find it a grievous trial. As the rainy season advances, the +trouble abates, and by the time the cold weather sets in the ordinary +house-fly by day and the mosquito by night alone remain to buzz about +us. The mosquito has rightly got the first place among insect +tormentors. The house-fly is at all seasons, in some more than in +others, and gives not a little annoyance by its pertinacity.</p> + +<p>The change at the commencement of the rainy season is delightful. The +doors are thrown open, and the dry, parching wind gives place to a +refreshing coolness. When the rain ceases, the heat returns; the weather +is very muggy, the skin is irritated by the excessive perspiration, and +many suffer more than during the hot season. When the rain is abundant +and frequent, the suffering is much less than when there is little rain +and much sun. There is one comfort at that time: we know we are going on +to the cold weather, which will make amends for all that went before.</p> + +<p>I can hardly conceive any country to have a finer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> climate than that of +the North-West Provinces of India in the cold months. Rain does +sometimes fall during that season; it may fall at any time of the year. +I remember a heavy fall on the first of May, and about Christmas and the +New Year it is eagerly desired for the crops, but ordinarily from week +to week there is an unclouded sky. There is a cool, pleasant breeze from +the west. In the house it is not only cool but cold, so that a little +sunning is pleasant, and at night in December and January, especially +far up the country, fires are welcome. Then Europeans, so far as +circumstances permit, get into the open air and move freely about, with +everything in the climate to favour their travelling.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE COLD SEASON.</div> + +<p>The beginning of the cold weather is a very busy season with the +agricultural class, to which the great body of the people belong. If the +rainy season has been favourable, especially if heavy rain has fallen +towards its close, the wells are full, and from these, after the land +has been ploughed, and the seed sown for the rabee crop, the most +valuable crop of the year, the fields are irrigated. Whatever grows in +our land in summer grows in North-Western India at that season: wheat, +oats, barley, potatoes, carrots, are grown in abundance. About March the +harvest is reaped.</p> + +<p>As I proceed with these reminiscences, I shall have frequent occasion to +refer to our North Indian winter, its scenes, and employments, and I +have thought it well to enter at some length into a description of its +peculiarities.</p> + +<p>One thing I observed my first year which I had abundant opportunity to +observe afterwards. The weather so welcomed by Europeans is very trying +to most natives, especially to those of the humbler classes, whose +clothing is very scanty. They never try to get warm by taking exercise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +They cower in the morning and evening round a fire, which has commonly +for its fuel dried cow-manure, with a coarse blanket over their head and +shoulders. As the sun gets above the horizon, they plant themselves +against a wall to bask in its rays, and if they can, do not stir till +they are well heated. As might be expected, many of them suffer from +chronic rheumatism. The extreme heat is not liked by them, but from it +they suffer far less than from cold.</p> + +<p>While most Europeans get new life in the cold weather, the little ones +showing by their rosy cheeks how much they are benefited, a few are in +better health when the weather is warm, as then they are less subject to +aguish attacks. The remark is often made by those who have much +sedentary work that they like the cold season for enjoyment, but find it +unfavourable for work, as they cannot keep so steadily at it as they can +when the heat keeps them within doors.</p> + +<p>While giving the reminiscences of my first year, my mind has been +continually carried forward to the experience of after-years in +reference to the vernacular languages, the various classes with whom +residence in India brings one into contact, and the seasons of the +country. In giving partial expression to this experience under the +heading of my first year, I have gone far beyond it. Those who favour me +with the perusal of my narrative may perhaps find it more intelligible +by my having anticipated myself.</p> + +<p>I must confess months of the first year passed before I ceased to feel +myself an exile. The scenes around were so unlike those of my own +country, the prevailing idolatry so repulsive, the society, +associations, and climate so different, that I turned from them to my +native land with many a fond longing look. This feeling of exile was no +doubt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> deepened by the illness in the family with whom I was residing. +We had an English service every Thursday evening, conducted by the +missionaries in the hall of the mission-house, but I greatly missed the +services on the Lord's-day to which I had been accustomed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch6.png" width="400" height="112" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 732px;"><a name="BATHING" id="BATHING"></a> +<img src="images/bathing.png" width="732" height="500" alt="BATHING GHAT, BENARES." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">BATHING GHAT, BENARES.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE CITY OF BENARES.</i></h3> + + +<p>My greatly beloved and much esteemed friend, the late Rev. M. A. +Sherring, years ago published a handsome volume under the title of <i>The +Sacred City of the Hindus</i>, in which he gave ample information about its +history, temples, castes, festivals, commerce, and religious +pre-eminence in Hindu estimation. To that work I must refer readers who +are desirous to be furnished with details. My aim is to describe as +concisely and vividly as I can the marked peculiarities of the place.</p> + +<p>Benares is the largest city in the North-Western Provinces, though it is +approached in population by some others, as Delhi, Agra, and Allahabad. +It is among the largest purely native cities in India, but it is greatly +surpassed in population and wealth by Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, the +great seats of British rule, and the great emporia of Indian as well as +of European commerce in the East. These cities under our rule have risen +to be among the greatest in Eastern Asia. For many a day the population +of Benares was said to be above 500,000, but this has turned out a very +exaggerated conjecture.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>When the first careful census was taken, the +resident population was found to be under 200,000, and every succeeding +census has confirmed its substantial accuracy. In the last census the +number given is 207,570. When the first census was taken great surprise +was expressed at the result, and some asserted no dependence could be +placed on it. The ground of this assertion was that in the houses of +some of the wealthier classes there are many females, who live, in +native phrase, behind the curtain, who are never seen by outsiders, to +whom the officials of the Government have no access; and on this account +the accuracy of the return made to the enumerators entirely depends on +the faithfulness of the head of the household. It has been said that +when the first census was taken the general impression was a capitation +tax was to be imposed, and that in consequence the inmates reported were +far below the actual number. If there was error on this account it was +to a very limited extent, as every subsequent census has agreed with the +first, although the notion of a capitation tax has entirely died out. +One going through Benares, from street to street, from one end of it to +the other, does not get the impression its resident population exceeds +the estimate found in official statements. The city has a great floating +population, as it is the resort of strangers from all parts of India. It +is reckoned that on the occasion of the great festivals there may be +100,000 visitors, some say 200,000, but we are not aware any attempt has +been made to number them.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Bishop Heber visited Benares in 1824. He says in his +journal, "The population, according to a census made in 1803, amounted +to above 582,000—an enormous amount, and which one should think must +have been exaggerated." The census which gives such a return must have +been taken in a very singular manner.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">TRADE AND COMMERCE.</div> + +<p>In commerce, as in population, Benares holds a high, but not the +highest, place among Indian cities. The district of Benares is not so +large as some others in the North-West; but it is very productive, is +densely peopled, and the city has on this account a large local +business.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> Besides, the merchants and bankers of Benares have dealings +with the other districts of the province, and indeed with all parts of +India. The city has many artificers. It has workers in stone, wood, +iron, brass, silver and gold. They produce articles which command a +large and profitable sale. God-making and toy-making are among the +staple businesses of the place. The making of idols in different +materials to suit the taste and means of purchasers, gives employment to +many. The images while being made are only stone, brass, or gold, as it +may be, and no reverence is then due to them. It is when certain sacred +words are uttered over them, and the god is supposed to take possession +of them, they become objects of worship. Benares is well known for its +toys made of very light wood, and lacquered over. Of late years the +enchased brass vessels made in Benares have been much admired, and have +secured a large and profitable sale. Perhaps the most important +manufacture of the place is <i>kimkhwab</i>—<i>kinkob</i> as it is called by +Europeans—cloth made of silver and gold tissue, in which the princes +and grandees of India array themselves on state occasions. I believe +this business has fallen off, as with the incoming of European influence +the love of barbaric pearl and gold has declined, if not among the +rajahs of the land, among a class beneath them, who formerly thought +they could not retain their rank in society if they did not appear on +special occasions in gorgeous robes.</p> + +<p>While in population and commerce there are cities in India which surpass +Benares, in Hindu estimation it stands above them all in religious +pre-eminence. Perhaps at the present time more eyes are turned +reverently towards it than to any city on the face of the earth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 715px;"><a name="JEWELLER" id="JEWELLER"></a> +<img src="images/jeweller.png" width="715" height="500" alt="A JEWELLER AT WORK." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">A JEWELLER AT WORK.</p> + +<p>I must attempt a brief sketch of the history of Benares.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> We are sure it +was not among the first cities erected by the Aryans after leaving their +home in Central Asia and crossing the Indus. They first took possession +of the land in the far north-west of the great country they had entered, +and gradually made their way to the south and east. Wonderfully acute +and painstaking though the Pundit mind be, it has so dwelt in the +regions of speculation and imagination that it has paid no attention to +historical research. Its laborious productions have left us ignorant of +recent times, and we need not therefore wonder that, except by +incidental allusions, it throws no light on the early settlements of the +Aryans in India. We know that they brought with them a considerable +measure of civilization, and soon erected cities. Indraprastha, built +near the site of the present city of Delhi, and Hastinapore, some thirty +miles from it, figure largely in the Mahabharut, the giant Hindu epic. +Kunauj, lying east and south of Delhi, became some time afterwards the +capital of a widely extended empire, which lasted, with vicissitudes, +down to Muhammadan times. Benares is seen in the dim light of antiquity +as a favourite abode of Brahmans, and as sacred on that account, but it +does not appear that it ever was the seat of extended rule. For many a +day it was subject to Kunauj, and it afterwards came under the sway of +the Muhammadans, to whom it was subject for six hundred years.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BUDDHISM.</div> + +<p>A clear proof of the influential position of Benares centuries before +the Christian era, is furnished by the fact that Gautama, the founder of +Buddhism, deemed it well to commence his public ministry there in the +sixth century <span class="smcap">B.C.</span><a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The spot where he first unfolded his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>doctrine +was a grove at a place now called Sarnath, about four miles from the +present city. At this place there is a large Buddhist tower, which is +seen from a great distance, and around it are extensive remains, which +have been excavated under the direction of Major-General Cunningham, and +have been found to be of Buddhist origin. The success which Buddhism had +achieved and maintained for centuries in the country where it arose, is +strikingly confirmed by the testimony of two Chinese Buddhists who went +on pilgrimage to India, the one in the fifth century <span class="smcap">A.D.</span>, and the other +towards the middle of the seventh. Their narratives have been preserved, +and furnish us with most interesting details. From them we learn that +down to the time of their visits Buddhism had temples, monasteries, and +thousands of adherents; but it had not the field to itself, for these +strangers tell us, especially the later of the two, that a large and +increasing number of the people were warmly attached to Hinduism. We +have no historical account of the overthrow of Buddhism, but we have +reason to believe that towards the close of the eleventh century, or +earlier, the devotees of Hinduism rose against it, and so stamped it out +that not a temple was left standing and not a monastery remained. +Major-General Cunningham says that about that period "the last votaries +of Buddha were expelled from the continent of India. Numbers of images, +concealed by the departing monks, are found buried near Sarnath; and +heaps of ashes still lie scattered amidst the ruins, to show that the +monasteries were destroyed by fire." This is con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>firmed by excavations +made at a later period by Major Kittoe, who says, "All has been sacked +and burned—priests, temples, idols, all together; for, in some places, +bones, iron, wood and stone, are found in huge masses: and this has +happened more than once." From Benares having been the scene of +Gautama's early ministry, and the place where his first disciples were +called, it stands high in the reverence of the millions who compose his +followers, although their only living representatives there now are a +few Jains, whom orthodox Buddhists regard as heretics.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The names and titles of this famous teacher are perplexing +to those who do not know the meaning. His father was chief or king of a +tribe called Sakyas, and therefore Gautama received the name of +Sakya-Muni, or Sakya-Saint. When he announced himself as the inspired +teacher of the nations he took the name of Buddha—the wise man, the +enlightener, the inspired prophet.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">THE SACREDNESS OF KASEE.</div> + +<p>Long before the time of Gautama Hinduism prevailed at Benares, and we +have observed its rites were practised side by side with those of +Buddhism when the city was visited by two Chinese pilgrims. Some time +afterwards it obtained full sway under the form of fanatical devotion to +Shiva the Destroyer, and that sway it has maintained down to our day. +What Jerusalem is to the Jews; what Mecca is to the Muhammadans; what +Rome is to the Roman Catholics—that, and more than that, Benares is to +the Hindus. They form by far the largest portion of the population of +India, and to them Benares—or as they delight to call it, Kasee the +Splendid, the Glorious City—is the most sacred spot on earth. They say, +indeed, it is not built on the earth, but on a point of Shiva's trident. +They assert that at one time it was of gold, but in this degenerate age +it has been turned into stone and clay. In their belief the Ganges is +sacred through its entire course, but as it flows past the sacred city +its cleansing efficacy is supposed to be vastly increased. The rites +performed at Kasee have double merit, and its very soil and air are so +fraught with blessing that all who die there go to heaven, whatever +their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> character may be. With this belief diffused among the millions +who, differing widely from each other in nationality and language, are +devoted to Hinduism, it may be supposed how many eyes are reverently +turned towards Kasee, and with what eager steps and high expectations +vast numbers resort to it. I have frequently seen persons entering the +city, not on foot—that they did not deem sufficiently respectful—but +prostrating themselves on the ground, measuring the ground with their +bodies, and approaching the sacred shrines. And then, especially on the +occasion of great festivals, bands may be seen entering the city, often +composed of women—hand-in-hand lest they should lose each other in the +crowd—singing the praises of Shiva and the glories of his city. Many +aged people come from distant parts of India—the greater number, I +believe, from Bengal—to reside and end their days in it, that by +becoming Kasseebas (dwellers in Kasee) they may when they die become +Baikuntbas (dwellers in heaven).</p> + +<p>Though Benares be <i>par excellence</i> the sacred city of the Hindus, +strange to say they are proportionately fewer than in ten cities of the +North-West. According to the census of 1872, there were 133,549 Hindus +and 44,374 Mussulmans: that is, a little more than three Hindus to one +Mussulman. In the great commercial city of Mirzapore, about thirty miles +distant from Benares, there were five Hindus to one Mussulman. The fact +thus certified is entirely at variance with the conjecture made by those +who look at the crowds bathing at the riverside, and frequenting the +temples, and contrast them with the small number seen in the mosques, +even on Friday, the Muhammadan weekly day of worship. In the district +the Hindus vastly out-number the Muhammadans.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p>Benares is built on the left bank of the Ganges, and extends in a +crescent shape three miles and a half along the bank, and a little more +than a mile inward. The most imposing view is from a boat slowly +dropping down the stream in the early morning—the earlier the better, +especially if it be the hot season, as then the people betake themselves +to the river in greater numbers than at any other time. Travellers in +many lands who have seen this view, have declared it to be one of the +most remarkable sights of the kind which the world presents.</p> + +<p>Photographic and pencil pictures of Benares have appeared in illustrated +newspapers, in periodicals and books, and give a more vivid and correct +impression than can be conveyed by a verbal description. These pictures +can, however, be better understood when those who look at them are +furnished with information which no picture can afford.</p> + +<p>The right bank of the Ganges at Benares is very low, and is always +flooded when the river rises; but the left bank, on which the city +stands, is in many parts more than a hundred feet high. The river sweeps +round this high bank. The city is connected with the river by flights of +stone steps, called "ghats." This word ghat often meets the reader of +books on India. It has various meanings. It means a mountain-pass, a +ferry, a place on the riverside where people meet, and, as is the case +at Benares, the steps which lead down to the river. Two small streams +enter the Ganges at Benares—on the southern side the Assi, on the +northern side the Burna. Some have supposed that the city has received +its name from lying between these two rivulets—Burna, Assi, making the +word Burunassi, Benares; but this derivation is more than doubtful. +Others maintain the word comes from a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> famous rajah called Bunar; but +this, too, is a mere conjecture.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A TRIP ON THE RIVER.</div> + +<p>Let me take my readers with me on a trip down the river. We embark at +early dawn on a native boat at Assi Sungam, which means the confluence +of the Assi with the Ganges, at the southern extremity. Towards that end +of the city some of the houses seen on the high bank are poor, some are +falling into decay; but as you advance, lofty buildings, some of them of +a size and grandeur which entitle them to the name of palaces, come into +view. Their numerous small windows, their rich and varied carving, their +balconies and flat roofs, give them a very Eastern look. Perhaps the +most notable of the buildings are an observatory, built by a famous +Rajput prince, Jae Singh, and a massy and extensive structure, with its +buttresses and high walls looking as if recently erected, which was +built in the last half of the eighteenth century by Cheit-Singh, the +Rajah of Benares at that time, who was deposed by Warren Hastings on +account of his refusal to comply with the demands of the British +Government. In Macaulay's famous Essay on Warren Hastings there is a +long narrative of this contest, which is amusingly at variance with the +narrative given by Warren Hastings himself. This building is still +called Cheit-Singh's Palace, but since his day it has been the property +of the British Government, and has been for many years the residence of +princes of the old imperial family of Delhi, who on account of family +troubles had come to reside in Benares, and were, happily for +themselves, far from Delhi during the mutiny of 1857. Some of the +mansions facing the river belong to Indian princes, who occupy them on +the rare occasion of visits to the city, and leave them in charge of +servants, of whom a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> number are Brahmans performing sacred rites on +their behalf.</p> + +<p>There is one spot on the riverside from which most visitors avert their +eyes with horror—the place where the dead of Benares and the +surrounding country are being burnt, and the ashes thrown into the +stream. The fire at that place never goes out. Cremation, not burial, it +is well known, is the Indian mode of disposing of the dead.</p> + +<p>The peculiarity of Benares as the sacred city of the country is +strikingly attested by the temples, which crowd the high bank of the +river, and arrest the special attention of the visitor. Some of these +are much larger and more expensive than others, but there is little +variety in their form; and all of them, even the largest and most +frequented, are small compared with Christian and Muhammadan places of +worship. They are circular, with heavy domes narrowing towards the top, +and, as a rule, with a narrow doorway alone admitting light and air. +Some domes are of respectable height, but none approach that of many of +our church towers and steeples. Most of the temples are sacred to Shiva, +Mahadeo, the Great God, as his devotees delight to call him, and are +surmounted by his trident. Many have a pole at their side with a flag +attached to it. One sees at a glance they must, though small, have cost +large sums, as they are most solidly built of hewn stone, and have all +more or less of ornamentation. A few temples are built close to the +water's edge. One has got off its equilibrium, and looks as if it were +about to fall into the stream; but for many years it has remained in +this tottering position.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BATHING IN THE SACRED STREAM.</div> + +<p>While the houses and temples on the riverside are viewed with interest, +the visitor, as he looks from his boat, is still more interested in the +living mass before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> him. It is the early morning. The sun has just risen +above the horizon, and is shedding its bright rays on the river and the +city. It looks as if all the inhabitants were astir and had made their +way to the river. Crowds are seen on the steps, some even then making +their way back after having bathed, and others going down to the stream. +Thousands are in the water. Men and women, boys and girls, are +there—the men and women at a short distance from each other. +Immediately above the water are platforms with huge stationary umbrellas +over them, and on these men are squatted, whose portly appearance +betokens ease and plenty. These are Gungaputrs—sons of the Ganges—a +class of Brahmans, whose duty it is to take care of the clothes of the +people as they bathe, to put a mark on their forehead to show they have +bathed, and who receive a small offering from them as they retire. All +bring with them their bathing-dress, and they most deftly take off and +put on their scanty clothing. When the bathing is over they wring out +the clothes in which they have bathed, fill with Ganges water a small +brazen vessel, which each person carries with him, and make their way +into the city to pay their homage to their favourite gods before +proceeding to their homes. I have been told that the very devout among +them visit some thirty temples of a morning.</p> + +<p>You watch the people as they bathe. It is evident they are not engaged +in mere ablution, so important for health and comfort in that hot +climate. They are engaged in worship. You see them taking up the water +of the Ganges in the palm of their hands, and offering it up to the sun +as they mutter certain prescribed words. You observe them making a +circular motion, and if sufficiently near you see them breathing +heavily, which you are told<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> is their way of driving away demons, who +even in that sacred spot are said to haunt them. There is no united +worship: each worshipper apart performs his and her devotion. There is +incessant movement among the crowd. As the words of worship—I might +rather say the spells—they have been instructed to use are not +whispered but uttered, and by many with a loud voice, a stream of sound +falls on the ear. If, at some spot where bathers are not inconvenienced, +the boat be moored, and the visitor ascends the steps, he may find on +certain days, in two or three places, pundits reading and explaining the +Ramayan, or the Mahabharut, the great Hindu Epic Poems, to a crowd of +people, mainly composed of women. Sentence by sentence is read from +poetical translations made long ago, which require to be re-translated +into the ordinary language of the people to be generally intelligible. +We have occasionally stopped to hear these pundits, and, judging by what +we heard, we concluded they satisfied themselves with a loose paraphrase +of what they were reading. These men are rewarded with a respectful and +attentive hearing, and with something more substantial when the work is +over.</p> + +<p>If the visitor is bent on obtaining a full impression of the work +continually carried on in Benares, he will make his way into the city +from one of the principal bathing-places. He will speedily find himself +in long narrow streets, with lofty stone houses on either side. The +buildings are of hewn stone, and of the most substantial description. +They have for the most part a narrow doorway, opening into a quadrangle, +around which are the apartments of the inmates. The streets are so +narrow that through some of them a vehicle cannot be taken, and in +others conveyances pass each other with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> difficulty. There are parts of +the narrower streets and lanes on which the sun never shines. In the few +cases where houses on both sides of the street opposite each other +belong to one proprietor, there is at the top a bridge by which the +inmates pass from one to the other.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">WORSHIP IN THE TEMPLES.</div> + +<p>Not the houses, however, but the temples, secure the chief attention of +the visitor. They are seen on every side. Numerous though they be, they +are not sufficient to meet the demands of the people. At every few steps +objects of worship meet your view. In niches of the walls are little +images, so worn by the weather and by the water poured on them by +worshippers that it is difficult to determine what they are intended to +represent. At your feet, close to the walls, you see misshapen stones +which are regarded as sacred. As you proceed you find yourself +accompanied by a crowd who have bathed, and who are going to complete +their morning worship by acts of obeisance to their gods. They are seen, +as they walk, bowing their heads and folding their hands before the +sacred objects that line their way. Every now and then one of a party +will raise the shout "<i>Mahadeo jee kee jae!</i>"—("Victory to the Great +God"), that is to Shiva, to whom this title is given; and the shout is +taken up and repeated by others till the street resounds. It has +occurred to me that this is done with peculiar force when Europeans are +within hearing.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE TEMPLE OF BISHESHWAR.</div> + +<p>You speedily find yourself at the principal temple of Benares—the +temple of Bisheshwar, sacred to Shiva under this name, which means <i>Lord +of All</i>. This temple is in the midst of a quadrangle, covered in with a +roof; over it are a tower, a dome, and a spire. The tower and dome +glitter in the sun like masses of burnished gold,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> and on this account +it is called the Golden Temple. Natives will tell you that it is covered +with plates of solid gold, but in fact it is merely gilded with gold +leaf, spread over plates of copper overlaying the stones beneath. Under +the dome is a belfry in which nine bells are suspended, and these are so +low that they can be tolled by the hand of those who frequent the +temple. We are told that the temple, including the tower, is fifty-one +feet in height. "Outside the enclosure is a large collection of deities, +raised upon a platform, called by the natives 'The Court of Mahadeo.'" +Though the gods in the Hindu books are represented as continually +quarrelling with each other, and their devotees take up their quarrels, +not only at the temple of Bisheshwar, but throughout the city which is +regarded as Shiva's own, they are seen side by side, as in perfect +amity, and there is not a single god who does not secure the special +devotion of some worshippers. It is, however, required of all who dwell +in Kasee, or frequent it, to acknowledge that Mahadeo is entitled to +supreme homage, and that to him in the first instance obeisance must be +made. The symbol of Shiva, or Mahadeo, which is found wherever he is +worshipped, is the <i>Linga</i>, a conical stone, which does not in itself +suggest any impure notion, but which is intended to be a vile +representation. In this famous temple this conical stone receives +special honour. There, too, are figures of Shiva himself in all his +hideousness, with his three eyes, covered with ashes, and his eyes +inflamed with intoxicating herbs. Outside the temple there is a figure +cut in stone of a bull seven feet high, sacred to the god, as this is +his favourite animal for riding. Within the quadrangle there is a well +called <i>Gyan Bapee</i>, the well of knowledge, to which it is said the god +betook himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> when he was expelled from his former temple by the bigot +Emperor Aurungzeb. On this account the well is deemed specially sacred. +It is surmounted by a handsome low-roofed colonnade with forty pillars. +It is covered with an iron grating, in which there is an aperture for +small vessels to be let down into it, which when full are drawn up, and +the water thus drawn is highly prized. As from day to day a large +quantity of flowers are thrown into it, it may be supposed how horrible +its water and how offensive its smell; it is a wonder the people are not +poisoned by it.</p> + +<p>We must not proceed further with this description of Bisheshwar's +temple. Those who wish for more information can find it in the ample +details given by Mr. Sherring.</p> + +<p>To this temple thousands resort every day. It is open, and priests are +present, we are told, twenty hours in the twenty-four. It is only shut +from midnight till four in the morning. The temple itself holds a very +small number, and the entire quadrangle would be crowded by one of our +large congregations. The people press into it in one continuous stream, +toll a bell to draw the attention of the god, make their obeisance, pour +on the object of their worship a little of the Ganges water from the +small brazen vessel they have in their hand, throw on it some flowers, +give a present to the attendant priests, go round the building with +their right hand towards it, and pass away to give place to others.</p> + +<p>How does the visitor regard this scene? Apart from the consideration of +the dishonour done to the ever-blessed God by worship rendered to images +representing gods that are no gods—by which, if a Christian, he must be +painfully affected—there is much in the scene before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> him to impress +him with the sottish folly into which man can sink in his religious +views and practices; and there is nothing to draw forth his regard and +sympathy, except it be the fervour, the deep though mistaken fervour, of +some of the worshippers, especially of the women, who may sometimes be +seen with children in their arms teaching them to make obeisance to the +idol. In Roman Catholic worship there is much which, as Protestants +ruled by the Bible, we rightly condemn; but in the gorgeous vestments of +its priests, in the magnificence of many of the places in which they +minister, in the grand strains of their music and in their processions, +there is much to impress the senses and awe the mind; but in the worship +carried on in the temple of Bisheshwar it is difficult to find a +redeeming quality. The whole scene is repulsive. The place is sloppy +with the water poured out by the worshippers, and is littered by the +flowers they present. The ear is assailed with harsh sounds. The +ministering priests—Pundas as they are called—are, as a rule, +coarse-looking men, with shaven head, save with a long pendent tuft from +the crown, with the mark of their god on their forehead, and are very +scantily attired. They clamour for a present when a European appears, +and if given it is declared to be an offering to the god of the place. +Among the crowd you see men with matted hair and body bedaubed with +ashes, who have broken away from all domestic and social duties, and +devote themselves to what is called a religious life. Some of these +ascetics are no doubt impelled to follow the life they lead by a +superstitious feeling, but many are idle vagabonds ready for the +practice of every villainy, who find it more pleasant to roam about the +land and live on others than support themselves by honest labour. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +people dread their curse, but many give them neither respect nor love. +At a place like Bisheshwar's temple there is always a host of ordinary +beggars, who clamour for alms, and receive from some two or three +shells, called <i>cowries</i>, sixty of which go to make up a halfpenny, from +others a little grain, and from the more liberal or more wealthy a small +coin.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE MOSQUE OF AURUNGZEB.</div> + +<p>From this stirring scene you have only a few steps to go to find +yourself in the large mosque built by the Emperor Aurungzeb on the site +of the old temple of Bisheshwar, which was thrown down to give place to +it. The contrast is very striking. You have left the bustling, noisy +crowd, and see only a few individuals in the attitude of devotion—now +standing with folded hands, then on their knees, then with forehead +touching the floor, engaged in supplicating the Invisible One. Instead +of grotesque and repulsive images meeting your view, you see very little +ornament of any kind, and are impressed with the severe simplicity of +the lofty building. The more one knows of Muhammadanism, the more +grievous are its defects and errors seen to be; but in the simplicity of +its mosques, which has nothing in common with the sordid barn-like +bareness too characteristic at one time of many places of worship in our +own land, there is much from which Christians might learn a useful +lesson.</p> + +<p>Within a stone's throw of Bisheshwar's temple there is a host of +temples, none of them very large, some of them small, but most covered +with carving, to some extent for mere ornamentation, but chiefly for the +purpose of illustrating the objects of Hindu worship. If you visit them +you will see everything is accordant with the great shrine you have +left. You will see Shiva,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> sometimes seated on a bull, sometimes on a +dog; his hideous partner Durga, with her eight arms and her ferocious +look, indicating her delight in blood; Hanuman, the monkey-god, with his +huge tail; Krishna engaged in his gambols; Ganesh, the god of wisdom, +with his elephant head and protuberant belly; and many others beside. +Everything you see is wild, grotesque, unnatural, forbidding, utterly +wanting in verisimilitude and refinement, with nothing to purify and +raise the people, with everything fitted to pervert their taste and +lower their character; and yet, I must add, with everything to give a +faithful representation of the mythology prepared by their religious +leaders. The pundits who wrote the sacred books of the Hindus were men +of great talent, of abundant leisure; and it is a marvel to me, of which +I can give no explanation, how they spent their days in spinning the +wildest legends, and in setting forth their gods as performing the most +fantastic, capricious, foolish, and wicked deeds, when they had a clear +canvas before them, and might have filled it with something worthy of +our nature, and worthy of objects to be worshipped.</p> + +<p>Aurungzeb's mosque has two lofty minarets, rising about a hundred and +fifty feet above its floor, and thus having from the river an elevation +of two hundred and fifty feet. From a boat on the river the visitor has +the nearest and most impressive view of the city, with its peculiarities +as the high place of Hindu worship. If he proceed to the top of one of +the minarets, which is reached by a steep, dark spiral stair, he will +have a most commanding and extensive view of the city, the river, and +the country for many miles around. He will see that while the streets in +the centre of the city are long and narrow, and have very lofty houses, +beyond these the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> roads widen, and many of the houses are poor and mean. +As his eye falls on the part beyond the most crowded portion, he will +observe here and there fine mansions with gardens around them, evidently +belonging to the wealthy portion of the community, but surrounded by +poor streets.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">RETURN TO THE EUROPEAN STATION.</div> + +<p>After seeing what I have endeavoured to describe, the traveller is well +pleased to get back to his boat, and to drop down the river to Raj Ghat, +the northern end of the city, where, after his fatigue, he is happy to +find a conveyance to convey him to the European station more than three +miles distant.</p> + +<p>During my residence in Benares I often made this trip from Assi-Sungam +to Raj Ghat, generally in company with strangers. The last time I made +it I was accompanied by the late Dr. Norman McLeod of Glasgow, and the +late Dr. Watson of Dundee. They were greatly interested in what they +saw, and repeatedly said the reality exceeded their expectation. Dr. +McLeod was specially eager to see everything that could be seen, and in +his own strong genial way expressed the feelings excited by the strange +scenes before him.</p> + +<p>I must press into the concluding part of this chapter, as concisely as I +can, some additional facts which call for special notice.</p> + +<p>The city as it now stands is quite modern. Though foundations dug up, +and pieces of masonry seen in existing buildings, testify to its +antiquity, we are told by those who are best qualified to judge that +there is not a single house or temple the erection of which can be +relegated to a more remote period than the reign of Akbar, who was a +contemporary of our Queen Elizabeth.</p> + +<p>Various estimates have been given of the number of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> temples. According +to the census of 1872 the number is 1,454. This does not include smaller +shrines in niches in the walls, which may be reckoned by thousands. The +temples are constantly increasing in number; at no previous period were +there so many as at present. Traders and bankers have prospered greatly +under our rule, and, if devout Hindus, they deem themselves bound to +devote a part of their wealth to the erection of a temple. A regard to +their honour as well as to their gods prompts them to this spending of +their money.</p> + +<p>So far as I have been able to ascertain, the temples of Benares have +very little of either funded or landed property. The vast sum required +for the support of the priesthood comes mainly from the offerings of the +people.</p> + +<p>The "Imperial Gazetteer" of India gives no account in its last census of +the castes of Benares, but we are sure that many thousands of the +inhabitants are Brahmans. They are greatly subdivided, and are so +different in rank and occupation that they keep as separate from each +other as if they had no caste in common. The Pundas officiate in the +temples; the Gangaputrs, the sons of the Ganges, minister at the +waterside; the Purohits are the family priests; and the Pundits, the +most esteemed of all, are the learned men who study the Shastres, and +expound them to the people as occasion requires. Hindus generally have +their Gurus, religious guides, who perform to them very much the work +done for Roman Catholics by father confessors. These may be family +priests, learned men; or, in the case of the lower castes, the lower +orders of Brahmans. A vast number of the sacred caste have nothing to do +with religious services. They are engaged in various businesses. A +considerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> number are cooks in the houses of the wealthy, as from +their hand all can eat, while they in many cases would consider it an +intolerable insult to be asked to eat with their masters. Not a few are +beggars.</p> + +<p>There are places in Benares to which people resort almost as much as to +the temple of Bisheshwar. Among these I may mention the tank of +Pishachmochan, a word meaning deliverance from demons, as bathing in it +is considered very efficacious in securing this end, and the temple and +tank of Durga at a place called Durgakund. At this latter place there +are many hundreds of monkeys—some say thousands, though this is +doubtless an exaggeration—which scamper about in all directions, and +fare well at the hands of Durga's worshippers. These animals are deemed +gods and goddesses, and woe to the person who does them any harm.</p> + +<p>The monkeys are not the only animals deemed sacred at Benares. All who +have heard anything about the city have heard about the well-fed lazy +bulls prowling about the streets, and insisting on making free with the +goods of the vegetable and grain sellers. These are no longer to be seen +going about in their former fashion. I shall have something to say +afterwards about them.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FESTIVALS AT BENARES.</div> + +<p>Mr. Sherring gives an account of forty melas, or religious festivals, in +the course of the year in Benares. The principal of these are the Holee, +the Saturnalia of the Hindus, the Ram Leela (the dramatic representation +of the life of Ram as given in the epic poem, "The Ramayan"), and the +Pilgrimage of the Panch Kosee, when the people make the circuit of the +city, and halt for the night at certain assigned stations. On the +occasion of eclipses vast numbers resort to Benares from all parts of +India.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>Benares has long been considered the Oxford of India. Its learned men +have from ancient times been famed for their learning, and the aspirants +for Hindu lore—all members of the same caste with themselves—have from +generation to generation sat at their feet. They have had no grand +academic halls in which to give their prelections; they have taken no +fees from their pupils; they have met in very humble rooms, or in the +open air in a garden under trees; but both teachers and students have +been characterized by an assiduity and a perseverance which the most +laborious of German scholars rarely attain. The very modest requirements +of these learned men have as a rule been met unasked by the princes and +wealthy of the land.</p> + +<p>In 1791, a very short time after Benares was brought directly under +British rule, a Sanscrit college was founded by the payment of certain +pundits, who were left to carry on their work unchecked by any +authority, or even suggestion, from without. It is said that pundits of +the highest repute refused to have anything to do with the foreigner. In +1853 a very fine Gothic structure, said to be the most imposing building +erected by the British in India, was opened under the name of the +Queen's College, for the accommodation of students in both Western and +Eastern learning. Here both English and Sanscrit are studied, and under +the first Principal, the late Dr. Ballantyne, vigorous, and I hope to +some degree successful, effort was put forth to infuse Western +literature, philosophy, and science into the pundit mind.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned the number of Muhammadans residing at Benares. It is +officially stated they have 272 mosques, of which that of Aurungzeb, +with its lofty minarets, is the largest. Hindus must have looked with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +horror on the sacrilegious deed by which this mosque was erected on the +site of the demolished temple of Bisheshwar; but the power of the bigot +emperor was so great that they could do nothing more than invocate +curses on his head. The close neighbourhood of this mosque to the most +frequented temple, and the remembrance of the building which formerly +occupied its site, have produced a bitter feeling towards the followers +of Muhammad. Early in this century there was a furious contest between +the two classes of religionists, which lasted for some days, and was at +last quelled by the military. During the fight every conceivable insult +was offered to each other's feelings, and lives were lost. The +Muhammadans suffered most, and since that time they seem to have been +cowed, so that there has been much less fighting between them and their +Hindu neighbours than in some other cities in the North-West.</p> + +<p>The city has two great squares, occupied as market-places, in which +goods of every description are exhibited and sold in the Eastern +fashion. They present a stirring scene of an afternoon, which is the +principal time of business.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CENSUS RETURNS.</div> + +<p>In the census of 1872 the occupations of all males above fifteen years +of age are noted. I give some of the items—</p> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="occupational statistics"> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Alms-takers</td> +<td class="statnum">184</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Beggars</td> +<td class="statnum">3,490</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Barbers</td> +<td class="statnum">979</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Pundits</td> +<td class="statnum">96</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Priests (temple or ghat)</td> +<td class="statnum">2,809</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Purohits (family priests)</td> +<td class="statnum">1,273</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Servants</td> +<td class="statnum">14,309</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>I suppose the distinction between alms-takers and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> beggars is that the +former class deem it beneath them to ask, but have no objection to take +alms, while the latter class both ask and take. Among the latter, beside +the blind and helpless, many able-bodied men make beggary their +profession. On one occasion, in the neighbourhood of Benares, I met a +man in the prime of life who said he had just returned from a long +journey. On referring to his business he frankly said that he had never +had any other occupation than that of a beggar. This was his hereditary +profession. We have no Poor Law in India. The people, from varied +motives, are ever ready to give aid to those who cannot support +themselves, and in addition exercise an indiscriminate charity, which +has a demoralizing effect.</p> + +<p>The census informs us there are in Benares 16,023 masonry houses, and +21,551 mud houses—that is, houses many of which are of mud moistened +and dried as the walls rise—and others of sun-dried bricks. I do not +wonder at the disappointment felt by some who have been much impressed +with the front view of the city, and have then traversed its streets.</p> + +<p>Till recently, from the commencement of our rule, our Government has +never been at peace with all the native rulers of India. In various ways +we have come into collision with them, and the final result in every +case has been their overthrow. The deposed rajahs have as a rule been +sent to Benares, as if our Government wished to compensate them for the +loss of their dominion by conferring on them special religious +advantages.</p> + +<p>On the opposite side of the Ganges, a little above the southern end of +the city, is the town of Ramnuggur, with a population of 10,000. It is +the residence of the Rajah of Benares, who is simply a large landowner, +and has no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> authority beyond that which wealth confers. His palace, or +rather fort, is close to the river. Behind the town, close to the +Rajah's garden, there is a large tank, and a temple facing it which is +remarkable for the exquisite carving on its walls illustrative of Hindu +mythology.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MACAULEY'S DESCRIPTION OF BENARES.</div> + +<p>I end this account of Benares by an extract from Macaulay's Essay on +Warren Hastings, in which, in his own high rhetorical fashion, which so +readily yields itself to exaggeration, he describes the city. If I +remember rightly, there is no mention in his biography of his having +visited the North-West, and his description is therefore not that of an +eye-witness.</p> + +<p>"The first design of Warren Hastings was on Benares, a city which in +wealth, population, dignity, and sanctity was among the foremost in +Asia. It was commonly believed that half a million of human beings was +crowded into that labyrinth of lofty alleys, rich with shrines, and +minarets, and balconies, and carved oriels, to which the sacred apes +clung by hundreds. The traveller could scarcely make his way through the +press of holy mendicants and not less holy bulls. The broad and stately +flights of steps which descended from these swarming haunts to the +bathing places along the Ganges were worn every day by the footsteps of +an innumerable multitude of worshippers. The schools and temples drew +crowds of pious Hindus from every province where the Brahmanical faith +was known. Hundreds of devotees came thither every month to die, for it +was believed that a peculiarly happy fate awaited the man who should +pass from the sacred city into the sacred river. Nor was superstition +the only motive which allured strangers to that great metropolis. +Commerce had as many pilgrims as religion. All along the shores of the +venerable stream<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> lay great fleets of vessels laden with rich +merchandise. From the looms of Benares went forth the most delicate +silks that adorned the balls of St. James's and of Versailles; and in +the bazars the muslins of Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled +with the jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch7.png" width="400" height="108" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3><i>BENARES AS A MISSION SPHERE.</i></h3> + + +<p>Hinduism, like all other religions, has its points of contact, we may +say of agreement, with Christianity; but in its main features and +tendencies it is intensely antagonistic, and this antagonism may be +conceived to have its keenest edge and greatest force in the city from +which it has for ages maintained its sway over the millions of India. If +any religion could be considered entrenched by local advantages beyond +the possibility of overthrow, Hinduism might be declared secure at +Benares, if not against assault, at least against defeat.</p> + +<p>People in all ages, all the world over, cling with varying degrees of +tenacity to the views and practices which have come to them from their +fathers. Jeremiah said, "Pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and +send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a +thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?" +Hinduism in its present form is comparatively modern; but the people +generally know nothing of its history, and they regard it as an +inheritance from the most ancient times. It comes to them as the gifts +of gods and sages, which it would be sacrilege to reject. There is much +in the religion itself to bind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> the people to it. Its numerous +ceremonies, sustained by the largest promises, give the assurance of a +great reward. In discharging their religious duties they have often to +endure toil, undergo privation, and make sacrifices; but the more they +do and suffer, the greater is the complacency with which they regard +their religious position. There is one thing Hinduism does not demand of +its devotees. It does not demand a radical change of character or of +life. Its every requirement may be met without abandoning evil +dispositions and practices. It can be easily supposed how strong a hold +a religion like this has on its votaries, and how especially strong its +hold must be in the city where it has been enthroned for ages.</p> + +<p>In our day much is said about heredity. Facts illustrative of its power +over the features, character, and life, not only of individuals but of +communities, are patent to all. Whatever heredity can do it does in +infusing the spirit of Hinduism into the very blood of the people of +Benares, who have been so long dominated by it. The mastery it has +obtained over them is shown by the whole tone of their minds and the +whole bearing of their life. If sincerity and enthusiasm be the +essential requisites in religion, the inhabitants of this city have all +they need, for these qualities are possessed by them in a high degree. +Then, in such a city there is felt the almost overpowering influence of +thousands from day to day, and of vast multitudes on occasion of high +festival, performing the same rites, worshipping the same gods, and +animated by the same spirit. The peculiar thrill of pleasure given by a +great assembled eager host to every individual composing it; the sense +of importance it gives to each, as if on him rested the concentrated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +honour of the gathering, does much to bind people to a religion which +receives such services from millions. If for a single year these daily +services and periodical gatherings were intermitted, Hinduism would be +greatly weakened.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SECULAR AND SACRED INFLUENCES.</div> + +<p>In addition to the domestic, social, and public influences which guard +and uphold the existing state of things, there is the tremendous power +of personal gain and honour. The honour, the wealth, the very +subsistence of large influential classes, are bound up with the +maintenance of idolatry. The Pundits, the guardians and expositors of +their sacred books; the Pundas who minister in the temples; the +Gungaputrs who serve at the river side; the Purohits, the family +priests; the Gurus, the father confessors and guides of the people; and +the Jyotishees, the astrologers, with their families and relations, +would be stripped of their honour and gain, of their very means of +living, if Hinduism was at once abandoned. Benares is a great commercial +as well as religious city. If it ceased to be Hindu, we cannot suppose +its commerce would be paralyzed; but as a considerable part of its +ordinary trade is dependent on the thousands of pilgrims who resort to +it, on the money they expend on food, on gifts to the priests, and on +the purchase of articles exposed for sale, great loss would be in the +first place incurred. The many artisans now employed in making images of +stone and brass, would find no purchasers for their goods. In addition +to the pecuniary loss which directly and indirectly would fall on all +classes, the whole community would feel the glory of Kasee, the Splendid +City, had departed, when, stripped of its sacredness, crowds of pilgrims +no longer filled its streets, frequented its temples, or bathed at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> its +ghats. They would feel as the Jews did in their dark and disastrous +days, when the ways to Zion were untrodden, and there was the silence of +desolation within its gates.</p> + +<p>When the peculiarities of Benares are in any degree realized, the work +of making known the gospel to its inhabitants may appear formidable to +the extent of hopelessness.</p> + +<p>It is formidable, very formidable, but it can appear hopeless only when +we forget the command of our Saviour to preach the Gospel to every +creature, when we forget the power of the truth, the adaptation of the +Gospel to the human heart, its past triumphs, and the promised aid of +the Holy Spirit. The very strength of this fortress of idolatry should +call forth the courage of Christ's soldiers by directing their eyes to +Him as their great and glorious Leader. Such was the courage of the +Apostles and their immediate successors, when instead of going to small +towns and villages, and working from them towards the cities where the +Gospel might be expected to meet with the most determined opposition, +they assailed at once with their spiritual weapons the high places of +idolatry, of power which claimed worship as well as homage, and of +learning which aimed in its own strength, and aimed unsuccessfully, at +the solution of the deepest questions which affect mankind. They went to +Ephesus, to Rome, and to Athens, and secured in them a measure of +success, which prepared the way for a mighty revolution throughout the +Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of the last century, when there was a great awakening of +the missionary spirit, devoted Christians, animated by apostolic +example, formed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> purpose of going with the Gospel to Benares. Robert +Haldane sold a fine estate, that with a band of chosen companions he +might preach the Gospel to its inhabitants. He was obliged to abandon +the enterprise by the prohibition of the East India Company; and then, +in company with his brother and others similarly minded, he turned to +home mission work, which for a time was prosecuted by them with ardent +zeal and great success.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY.</div> + +<p>In 1781 the city and district of Benares, which had for some time paid +tribute to our Government, were brought directly under our rule. We are +sure no Christian missionary would have been previously tolerated in +Benares for a day. He could not speak of Jesus Christ as the Lord of all +and the Saviour of the world without implying that Mahadeo and the other +gods of Benares were no God. His teaching would be speedily discerned in +its antagonism to the genius of the place, and would ensure his speedy +expulsion, if not his death. To the present hour no missionary is +allowed to plant his foot in Mecca, or Medina, the sacred cities of the +Muhammadans. Till a very recent period, when the Pope's political power +came to an end, no Protestant minister was allowed to open his mouth in +proclaiming the Gospel in Rome. The mild Hindu can be as fanatical as +the Muhammadan and the Roman Catholic in resenting an attack on his +religion, and in persecuting its opponents.</p> + +<p>We have no historical records from which we can learn how Buddhism was +overthrown in India; but, as we have already observed, we have reason to +conclude it was not overthrown by argument and persuasion, but by fire +and sword. The intense hatred shown to the Gospel by those who are +imbued by the spirit of Hinduism will not allow us to doubt that, if +they had the power,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> they would forbid all Christian effort, and +especially such effort in their sacred city. They were long under the +rule of the Muhammadans, and were subjected by them to grievous +indignities, which they were helpless to avert or resent; but their +attachment to Hinduism, instead of being diminished, was inflamed by the +treatment they received, and during the semi-independent position they +held previous to coming under our sway they had both the power and the +will effectually to prevent the entrance of a new antagonistic religion. +The superior strength and daring of the English were so signally shown +in the overthrow of Rajah Cheit-Singh by Warren Hastings, that +opposition to the new <i>régime</i> was seen to be hopeless, and the people +quietly submitted to their new rulers. So far as they knew the temper +and policy of the English, they might conclude their religion would at +their hands not only be safe from violence, but protected from every +attempt at proselytism. The policy which would have left Hinduism +undisturbed was successfully opposed by the Christian feeling of +England, and the way was opened for the Christian missionary into the +very fortress of Hindu idolatry. For this entrance we are not in any way +indebted to the mildness of Hindu religionists, but to the resolute, +persevering, courageous effort of men of God, who contended successfully +against the worldly selfishness which would have doomed the millions of +India to perpetual night.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">STREET PREACHING.</div> + +<p>We have observed that mission operations were tentatively begun in +Benares in the second decade of this century. The work was carried on in +a very quiet unostentatious manner. Some time elapsed before any open +aggressive effort was put forth. If Bishop Heber's counsel had been +followed there would have been no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> departure from the first timid mode +of action. He says in his journal, "The custom of street preaching, of +which the Baptist and other Dissenting missionaries in Bengal are very +fond, has never been resorted to by those employed by the Church +Missionary Society, and never shall be so long as I have any influence +or authority over them. I plainly see it is not necessary, and I see no +less plainly that though it may be safe among the timid Bengalees, it +would be very likely to produce mischief here. All which the +missionaries do is to teach schools, read prayers, and preach in their +churches, and to visit the houses of such persons as wish for +information on religious subjects." If the good man had lived a few +years longer he would have seen ministers of his own Church forward in +modes of action which he disapproved, and would doubtless have wished +them God-speed, as his successors in the diocese of Calcutta have done. +The Bishop of Lahore, Dr. French, took a prominent part for years in +outdoor preaching.</p> + +<p>The missionary has of course met with opposition in many forms; the +opposition has often been keen and bitter, but it has not taken the form +of violence to person or injury to property. The Gospel has been for +many years proclaimed in the most public places in Benares, crowds have +heard it, and no hand has been raised against the preacher. In the +memoirs of the Rev. William Smith, of the Church Mission, who was +indefatigable in evangelistic labour, than whom none was better known in +Benares, it is mentioned that on a few occasions mud was thrown at him, +but it did him no harm. On one occasion, after a very keen discussion, +when my Hindu opponents had been extremely angry, on coming out from the +place a native Christian by my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> side was struck on the head by a stone, +which was evidently intended for me. Happily the young man speedily +recovered from the blow. The night was dark, and the act was not brought +home to any one. The people present expressed indignation at the deed. +On another occasion a man drew his sword half-way out of the scabbard +(it was the fashion of the time to go about armed), and said he would +gladly cut off my head, because I was trying to turn away his people +from their religion; but he knew if he did he would be hanged, and as he +wished to live a little longer he restrained himself. He gave me a +scowl, which showed how ready he was for the crime if he could commit it +with impunity. On another occasion most vigorous drumming was carried on +above our heads, which made speaking and hearing impossible. As after +many years spent in Benares I cannot recollect any more violent acts +than those I have mentioned, the reader may infer how little reason we +have to complain of danger to life or limb.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">POSITION OF THE MISSIONARY IN BENARES.</div> + +<p>Nothing approaching the treatment of Dr. Kalley by the Popish priests of +Madeira has been ever experienced by any missionary in Benares at the +hand of Hindu priests. The perfect security, with which in ordinary +times we went about our work, is in marked contrast to the experience of +many a labourer in the home mission-field, not only in the early days of +Methodism, but down to our own time, to say nothing of the violence to +which the Salvation Army has been exposed. The fact that we belong to +the ruling race, and that it is understood by all an attack on us will +be promptly and severely punished, has had, no doubt, much to do in +enabling us to carry on our operations so quietly and safely. There has +been an ebullition at times on the occasion of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> baptisms, but it has +soon subsided. Gradually the people have come to understand us +sufficiently to be convinced we are bent on promoting their good, and +they regard us in consequence with a friendly feeling. Most pleasant +proof has been given that many of the inhabitants of Benares have come +to look on missionaries not only with respect but affection. I well +remember gratifying acts of courtesy and kindness, which could not have +been prompted by sinister motives.</p> + +<p>I must not omit to say that while missionaries have carried on their +work openly and boldly, they have felt themselves bound to treat the +people courteously, and to abstain from the use of violent and abusive +words. There are places where they do not deem themselves entitled to +declare their message—such as sacred places where worship is being +carried on. Mr. Smith, of the Church Mission, once mentioned to me that +he had for a short time taken his stand close to one of the bathing +places, but the priests and people were greatly excited by his presence, +and he deemed it proper to retire.</p> + +<p>While at Benares the Gospel has to encounter peculiar opposition, it has +some marked advantages as a mission-field. The missionary, as he moves +about, meets with people from all parts of India. While these speak +different languages, many know enough of the languages spoken at Benares +to admit of a measure of intelligent intercourse with them. Vast +multitudes come from the widely extended region over which the +Hindustanee and Hindee prevail. While many go to Benares, we may suppose +the great majority, urged by the gregarious feeling so powerful all the +world over, happy to find themselves among the multitude, hoping to get +some religious benefit, and sure at any rate, as they acknow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>ledge, of +amusement, we cannot doubt there are among them earnest souls—how many +it is impossible to say—who are ill at ease, and have a craving for +rest and satisfaction. These persons are in the state of mind to which +the Gospel is specially adapted, and it is very desirous for the +missionary to come into contact with them. Missionaries have fallen in +with persons of this class, and among them there have been pleasing +instances of conversion. There are individuals now in distant parts of +India living Christian lives, who were led to embrace Christ as their +Saviour by what they heard at Benares. Many Christian books have been +circulated among pilgrims to the sacred city. These are taken to their +homes, we may hope sooner or later to be read by them to their spiritual +benefit. Again and again bread cast on the waters has been found after +many days.</p> + +<p>The greed of the Pundas and Gungaputrs of Benares is notorious. Many a +poor pilgrim has suffered from their exactions, and we may suppose that +reverence for the sacred city has received a shock under such treatment +similar to that which Luther experienced on his visit to Rome. While +Hinduism is no doubt greatly strengthened by the resort of the people to +Benares, much done and endured there is well fitted to alienate the more +thoughtful of the visitors; and so far as they are alienated from the +prevailing superstition, the more likely they are to listen patiently +and candidly to the Christian preacher.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PROSPECT OF SUCCESS.</div> + +<p>I conclude these remarks on Benares as a mission sphere by observing +that marked success there would have a marvellous effect on the +evangelization of India. The news would soon spread that Hinduism was +drying up at its fountain, and that its power could not be much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> longer +maintained. We know that Hinduism itself has undergone great, we may say +radical, changes, since Kasee became one of its principal seats, if not +its head-quarters. There Buddhism was first preached, and from it +Buddhism went forth to all Eastern Asia. There it was for a time +predominant, but Hinduism again obtained supremacy, and drove its rival +from the field. For centuries, Hinduism under the form of devotion to +Shiva Mahadeo, the Great God, as they delight to call him, has had full +sway. Is his dominion to last for ever? Are the people to be for ever in +the slough of idolatry and superstition? We cannot believe that they +are, until we abandon all trust in Him who rightly claims all human +hearts, and whose grace is sufficient to enforce these claims. We know +not when, we know not how, but we do know that even in Benares, as all +the world over, our blessed Saviour will take to Himself His great power +and reign. Even now entrance has been gained for the truth of God, +hearts have been won by it, and Christian churches have been formed. The +first-fruits have been gathered, and the harvest will come. Are we +allowing imagination to take the reins at the expense of judgment, when +we indulge the hope, that as in former days Buddhist preachers went +forth from Benares to the millions of Eastern Asia with the lessons of +Gautama, the Brahmans of Benares, accepting Jesus as their Saviour, will +go forth with His Gospel to diffuse it far and wide among the nations of +India, and then, with their converts, make their way to the remotest +East? Let us not say, "If the Lord would make windows in heaven, might +this thing be?" but rather, "Who hath despised the day of small things?" +The Messiah "shall build the temple, and He shall bear the glory."</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3><i>MY SECOND YEAR IN BENARES.</i></h3> + + +<p>In beginning this chapter it is fitting I should mention that shortly +after entering on my second year an event occurred of transcendent +importance to me, which has contributed to my personal comfort and +missionary usefulness as nothing else could have done—my marriage with +the object of my choice, who has been, through God's great goodness, +spared to me through all the intervening years.</p> + +<p>Before the close of my first year I had a striking illustration of the +vicissitudes of Indian life, and of consequent difficulty in prosecuting +the missionary enterprise. On reaching Benares at the end of March, +1839, I found three missionaries of our society, Messrs. Buyers, +Shurman, and Lyon. Within a month of my arrival we were joined by a +German missionary and his wife, Dr. and Mrs. Sommers. Towards the end of +autumn Mr. and Mrs. Lyon left, owing to the failure of Mrs. Lyon's +health. They were followed three months afterwards by Dr. and Mrs. +Sommers, owing to Mrs. Sommers' illness. My second year was advanced +only a few months, when Mr. and Mrs. Buyers, after a residence of nearly +ten years, departed for Europe. Dr. Sommers had remained too short a +time to render any service.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> Mr. Lyon had made excellent progress in the +language, and promised to be a very efficient missionary; but, to our +great regret, he was obliged to leave. Mr. Buyers was in his prime, and +was well equipped for service. Thus within eighteen months the staff of +the mission was reduced from five to two, and one of these too young and +inexperienced to do anything more than help his senior brother. In June, +1841, we were joined by the Rev. D. G. Watt, and early in 1842 by the +Rev. J. H. Budden. These much-esteemed brethren still survive, and have +done excellent service in the cause of Christ; but both suffered much +from the climate, and their stay at Benares was too short to admit of +their doing there what their hearts were bent on doing.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE FAILURE OF HEALTH.</div> + +<p>I have not the means of comparing our Indian missions with missions in +other parts of the world, but I believe our losses by the failure of +health have greatly exceeded theirs. The climate of the South Sea +Islands, of South Africa, and of the West Indian Islands, is far more +favourable to European health than that of the parts of India in which +most of our missions are. The longevity of many of the South African +missionaries bears remarkable testimony to the salubrity of their +climate.</p> + +<p>This failure of health and consequent abandonment of the work is one of +the greatest trials missions in India have had to encounter, and is a +formidable obstacle to success. Instances have not been rare when, after +great expense has been incurred, the missionary or his wife has suddenly +broken down—the wife perhaps more frequently than the husband—and a +speedy return to England has been the result. The name appears in the +Report as an agent, but no work has been, or could have been, +accomplished. In other cases the stay has been too brief<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> to have +admitted of efficient service. A considerable time must elapse before +the missionary, however zealous and able, can acquire such an +acquaintance with the language and people as will enable him to do his +work in a satisfactory manner. When one has fully entered on the work, +there is frequent interruption from illness and weakness induced by the +severity of the climate. When I transfer myself in thought to my first +two years in Benares, and from my vivid remembrance of the vicissitudes +of our mission during these years look down through all the succeeding +years not only of our mission, but of other missions in Northern India +with which I am well acquainted, I am painfully struck with the bitter +disappointments of missionary Societies in the prosecution of their +work. They have responded to the urgent appeal for reinforcement, and in +not a few cases no sooner has the reinforcement been gained than it has +been lost. The Societies formed of late years for Zenana work have +suffered from this cause more than even the older Societies. They have +suffered in a degree which must have been very discouraging to their +managers and supporters. Happily a considerable number of all Societies +have been able to remain at their post, and some have remained so long +as to give an average length of missionary service, which hides the fact +of the extreme brevity of the period spent by many in the foreign field.</p> + +<p>The question here suggests itself, Has this speedy abandonment of the +work been always necessary? Has there been the endurance demanded of +those who have professed themselves consecrated to a missionary life? +Has the return to England been accepted only when the compulsion of +circumstances left no alternative, and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> accepted most reluctantly? +With every desire to think of others as favourably as possible, without +any breach of charity, it must be acknowledged there have been cases of +departure, where I think a more resolute spirit would have kept persons +at their post. This I trust holds true of only a few. I know some who +soon left to whom the abandonment of the work was a bitter trial. +Nothing but the thought that to remain would have been to fight against +Providence took them away. To go back to the cases of failure during my +early period at Benares, I may mention that the departure of Mr. and +Mrs. Lyon was absolutely necessary; and those who know the subsequent +career of my friends, Messrs. Watt and Budden, need not be told that if +health had permitted Benares would have been for many years the sphere +of their labours.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CELIBATE OR MARRIED MISSIONARIES?</div> + +<p>As the withdrawal of missionaries has often been caused by the failure +of the health of their wives, some have thought it would be well to have +celibate missionaries in a country which has so severe a climate. To +this there is the obvious reply that missionaries, like others, are +human beings, and a restriction on them which wars with human nature +would be found very pernicious, as it has ever been. Then, the wives of +missionaries, when they are what they ought to be, are very efficient +and, indeed, necessary missionary workers, and in many cases their +labours are as useful as those of their husbands. In well-ordered +missionary families the people see what a happy Christian home is, and +they are assured of a sympathy in their trials and cares which they +could not expect from unmarried missionaries. Some Societies, our own +among the number, have accepted as missionaries to India persons engaged +to be married, but they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> have required them to remain for a year or two +unmarried after going out to test their fitness for the climate; and, in +the event of the test being successfully stood, to give them an +experience which will enable the newly married wife to enter with less +strain on her Indian life. This may be a wise arrangement, and yet there +is often a restlessness till the marriage takes place, and time spent in +going to the port of debarkation, which carries with it some +disadvantages.</p> + +<p>We dare not retreat from this great work of evangelizing India on +account of the vicissitudes of which I have been speaking, or on account +of other very formidable obstacles which oppose us. To do so would be to +act a craven part. Agents must be found for the prosecution of the work, +and we must hope with the improved advantages of an Indian career the +failures will be fewer than in the past; but whatever they may be, the +Christian Church must go forward. One obvious inference from the facts I +have stated, is the extreme desirableness of a native agency. The +natives of the land, when found fit for the work, have always been +highly prized. Many of this class are now labouring in different parts +of India, and there is every reason to hope that in coming years the +native agency will grow largely in extent and efficiency.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">IMPRESSION OF THE SECOND YEAR.</div> + +<p>During my second year in Benares I entered on every department of +mission work, and had many opportunities for intercourse with the +people. In my turn I preached to the native Christian congregation, went +with the missionaries and catechists to the city, and engaged in +teaching the boys attending our primary schools. I saw the great +gatherings of the people at their religious festivals, and realized +their character, and the nature of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> the work to which I had devoted my +life, more than I had previously done. Instead of following +chronological order, my object in these reminiscences will be best +attained by endeavouring to present to my readers those aspects of +Indian and mission life which, during my second year, made a deep +impression on my mind, an impression which was deepened by subsequent +experience.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch9.png" width="400" height="96" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS OF THE HINDUS.</i></h3> + + +<p>Crowds pass through the temples of Benares every day, pay obeisance, and +present offerings; but on ordinary occasions there is no combined act of +worship conducted by a leader, as is common in Christian assemblies. On +occasions of special urgency—the failure of rain, its unseasonable +fall, the fear of famine, or the dread of a great calamity coming on the +community in some other form—sacrifices are offered up by priests in +the presence of great multitudes, in which all present unite. These are +very special and occasional services, for, as a rule, all over India +persons and families act apart.</p> + +<p>Hindus are, however, eminently social, and in their religious services +full play is given to the social feeling. This is shown by their melas, +or religious gatherings, which are held all over the country, and are +extremely popular. Some of these melas are local, and have only a local +attendance. Those to which crowds from places far and near resort are +held in so-called sacred spots. Many are periodical, and are held at +fixed periods of the year in honour of their gods, and in celebration of +their exploits. Others, again, are held on special occasions, and of +these eclipses are the most attractive.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE SATURNALIA OF THE HINDUS.</div> + +<p>In the course of my second year I saw a good deal of these festivals. I +have a vivid and very unpleasant recollection of the Holee of that year, +the Saturnalia of the Hindus, which is held at the setting in of the hot +weather. It lasts for several days, during which the people act as if +freed from every moral restraint. There is a general cessation of +labour; the people wander about, indulge in the wildest freaks, address +to women who venture out the vilest words, leap and dance as if +possessed of the spirit of licence, and throw red colouring-matter on +those they meet, without respect of persons; till all seen in the +streets, with their besmeared faces and soiled clothes, have a most +disreputable appearance. The night is rendered hideous, and sleep +well-nigh impossible, by the drumming, fifing, and shouting of the +revellers, kept up till break of day. During this period many think +themselves at liberty to do what at another time they would deem very +culpable. Not a few partake of intoxicating drink, and if native +statements be true they give themselves over to the grossest +licentiousness. Europeans, as a rule, except it be necessary for them to +go abroad, remain quietly in their homes while the Holee lasts, and +mission work is for the time well-nigh suspended. When, however, +Europeans have occasion to go out they have little reason to fear +insult, as even in the Holee season they are regarded, if not with +respect, at least with a dread which restrains the revellers. The +hurtful influence of this season of licence can be conceived. I have +always observed that for some time afterwards the boys in our schools +were sleepy and listless.</p> + +<p>On the night of the Diwalee mela, held in honour of Lakshmee, the +goddess of wealth, the whole city is illu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>minated, tiny lamps are seen +everywhere, friends give presents to each other, sweetmeats and parched +grain are distributed among the poor. High and low give the night to +gambling. The belief is entertained that if they fail to spend the night +in this manner they will in their next birth be turned into frogs, or +some vile reptile.</p> + +<p>The most popular festival of the year at Benares and over the +North-Western Provinces is the Ram Leela, the Play of Ram, when the life +of Ram, a very popular incarnation of Vishnu, is dramatized. This drama +is acted in the open air in different parts of the city, in the presence +of admiring thousands. The people see Ram and his faithful spouse Seeta +forced to leave their royal home by the intrigue of his mother-in-law; +they see them in the forest, where Ram leads the life of a hunter; they +see Seeta carried off by Rawan, the Demon King of Lunka (Ceylon); they +hear Ram's cries of bitter distress on finding his beloved Seeta gone; +they see him informed that Rawan is the ravisher; they see him setting +out with the divine monkey Hanuman, and his army of monkeys for the +rescue; and they rejoice with him in the taking of Lunka, the +destruction of Rawan, and the rescue of Seeta. The story furnishes +abundant material for a drama, and the people enter with the greatest +zest into the different scenes. A huge figure of Rawan is made of wood +and paper; it is set on fire, and the crowds, looking on, make the air +resound with their shouts. During this mela two things are united which +in Hindu estimation well agree—amusement and devotion. They regard the +Ram Leela as a religious service, which they are bound to render to the +conqueror of Rawan, and while rendering it they are at once performing +duty and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> receiving pleasure. They continually call such a service +<i>tumasha</i>, <i>show</i>, <i>fun</i>, and they regard its life and sprightliness a +pleasing contrast to the sombre and staid services of the Christian +Church.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.</div> + +<p>Before the conclusion of my second year an eclipse of the moon occurred, +which drew to the city the greatest assemblage of human beings I had +ever seen. The Hindus place high among their deities the sun and moon, +and render to them daily worship. Between the gods and the demons there +is perpetual war, and victory inclines at one time to one side, at +another time to another. In Hindu mythological annals many instances are +recorded of the gods having been reduced to the utmost extremity. We are +told that eclipses are caused by the demons endeavouring to swallow the +sun and moon; and religious services on these occasions have a double +benefit—the worshipper secures a high degree of merit, of which he will +reap the reward one day; and the demons are driven off from their prey +by the drumming, the shouts, and the merit of the assembled people, to +the great relief of the endangered gods. The most extravagant promises +are held out to those who bathe in the Ganges, at any time in any part +of it; but bathing on the occasion of an eclipse, and especially in so +sacred a place as Benares, is meritorious in a degree which is +incalculable. The Pundits, the religious leaders of the people, have, it +appears, access to the council of the demons, for the exact time of the +coming attack is known by them so long before hand that the people far +and near are prepared for its approach. In fact, if it did not come on, +if the demons withdrew from their intention, there would be great +disappointment. Brahman missionaries go great distances to inform the +people the eclipse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> is to take place, and to press on them the benefit +they will receive by bathing at Benares on that occasion. On their +return they are accompanied by those whom they have succeeded in +persuading. Leaving the mythological for the scientific platform, we had +better mention that the Hindu astronomers have for ages been able to +calculate eclipses; and now they need not trouble themselves to make +calculations, as European almanacks are in their hands to give the +requisite information.</p> + +<p>For a few days previous to the eclipse of which I am now to speak, the +unusual number of strangers in the city made it evident some great event +was about to occur. From the morning of the appointed day the people +poured into the city in a constant stream. As evening came on I made my +way into the city on foot, but before reaching its centre I found the +streets so blocked that I despaired of getting to the riverside. I +retraced my steps, and by a road skirting the city made my way to Raj +Ghat at the northern end. There I remained till the eclipse commenced. +Many were near, but they were few compared with the crowds pressing +towards the chief bathing places. When I arrived at Raj Ghat the +confused sound of a great multitude fell on my ear, but no sooner did +the eclipse begin than the thousands on the river's brink and crowded on +the ghats, as with one voice raised a shout so loud and prolonged, that +I should think it must have been heard for miles. I was on a high bank +of the river, and could see distinctly the people below rushing into the +stream. I could not but think of what must be occurring where the crowd +was so dense that individual motion was well-nigh impossible. It was +reported next morning that three or four hundred persons had been +trampled to death or drowned in the rush to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> the river when the eclipse +began. This was afterwards declared to be an exaggerated statement, but +it is certain many lives were lost, though how many was not ascertained, +as a number were carried away by the stream. Special care was afterwards +taken by the authorities to prevent such catastrophes. After stopping +some time at Raj Ghat I returned to my home, musing on what I had seen, +and longing for the time when the millions of India will seek cleansing +and life, where alone they can be found.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MELA AT ALLAHABAD.</div> + +<p>Towards the end of 1840 I went to Allahabad, seventy miles north-west of +Benares, to take part in evangelistic work at a great mela held there +annually, as I thought I might be able to render some help to my +brethren. Allahabad, called Pryag by the Hindus, is at the confluence of +the Ganges and the Jumna, and all such places are deemed sacred. It is +said there is a third river, the Suruswatee, once visible but now +underground, and the place is therefore called Tribeni—the threefold +stream. Pryag has been for many years a famous place of pilgrimage, and +every year a mela is held, which is at its height for some seven days, +but is kept on for weeks. It is held in the cold weather, December or +January; and, next to Hurdwar, where the Ganges issues from the +mountains, draws a greater crowd than any other mela in Northern India. +Bathing at Tribeni is peculiarly meritorious in some years, and in these +there is a vastly increased attendance. Except on the occasion of +eclipses there is no such gathering even at Benares; but very many who +go to Allahabad, before returning to their home, often a distant home, +pay a visit to the sacred city.</p> + +<p>At one time the Government imposed a tax on pilgrims to this mela, but +it was taken off in 1838 or 1839.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> + +<p>The mela is held below the fort, on the land lying between the Ganges +and the Jumna at their point of meeting, on a great stretch of sand, +which is covered in the rainy season. In December and January the west +wind blows freshly over the place, and as there is incessant movement, +soon all present are so covered with dust that they look like millers.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">EVANGELISTIC SERVICES.</div> + +<p>A gathering like this at Allahabad is always embraced for evangelistic +purposes. Missionaries and native brethren are thankful for the +opportunity afforded them of preaching the Gospel to many who have come +from places to which no missionary has ever gone. The missionaries at +Allahabad gladly welcome and hospitably entertain the brethren of other +missions who join them at these annual gatherings. Large tents are put +up, with the front open towards the road, and there the preachers from +morning till evening, preacher succeeding preacher, address the people, +while hearers succeed hearers. A few individuals stop a long time, as if +rapt up in what they hear, as if they were drinking in every word; +others stop a considerable time; while many, after looking on and gaping +for a few minutes, hold on their way. Every now and then questions are +asked, objections are started, and a discussion ensues. When the +questions are in any measure serious and reasonable, much benefit +results from such discussion. The interest of the people is quickened, +and opportunity is afforded for explaining, defending, and enforcing the +truth as it is in Jesus. Sometimes the questioner is neither serious nor +reasonable, and then the danger is of the discussion turning into a +wrangle, which does more harm than good. Prominent transgressors in this +line are the Pundas, specially interested in the mela, who do all in +their power to set the people against us. At this first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> great gathering +which I attended—I found it was the case afterwards on similar +occasions—there was less mere idle discussion than there is where the +missionary carries on his work from day to day. In addition to +preaching-stations, there were bookstalls where portions of the +Scriptures and Christian tracts and books were disposed of. On to the +time of this mela there was a large gratuitous distribution among +persons who from their look and manner were deemed suitable recipients; +but for many years it has been found best to charge a small price, +without adopting a hard and fast line against giving away.</p> + +<p>It is very difficult, rather impossible, to estimate the effect produced +by evangelistic services on such occasions. They have not been fruitless +as to conversion, but if we look simply at results of this kind it must +be acknowledged they are very limited. Instances have occurred of +persons having been so impressed that they have followed missionaries to +places far away from Allahabad; but their courage has failed them, and +they have after a short time disappeared. One advantage is secured—the +Gospel is kept before the minds of the people, and some knowledge of it +is carried to the remotest parts of the land. Books and tracts are taken +to places which missionaries have never visited. It cannot be doubted +that such services have their part in preparing the people for the new +and better state of things which every Christian longs for and expects.</p> + +<p>At Allahabad I had an opportunity of observing the peculiarities of a +great Hindu mela. The morning was devoted to bathing and the performance +of religious rites. As the forenoon came on, the merchants of every +class set out their wares in tents erected on sites appointed for them, +with their opening, so far as possible, away from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> side exposed to +the wind. Goods of every description, useful and ornamental, cloth, +grain, cooking vessels, trinkets, and sweetmeats, were exhibited to +tempt purchasers, and buying and selling went on as vigorously as if the +people had come together solely for that end. Crowds were in constant +motion, going from place to place to see what could be seen, and +stopping where there was any special attraction, or, as happens in our +own crowded streets, stopping where a few were incidentally collected. +By the afternoon, singers, experts in tricks, and show-people of every +description, commenced their operations, and were sure of admiring +crowds. The merry-go-rounds were largely patronized. Hour after hour was +thus spent.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">COOKING AND MERRYMAKING.</div> + +<p>A few cooked food early in the day, but the vast majority staved off +hunger—in some cases by partaking of cakes reserved from the previous +evening meal; the greater number, I believe, by partaking of sweetmeats +made with flour, sugar, and melted butter, of which an enormous quantity +was offered for sale. As evening came on they scattered themselves over +the ground lying between the Ganges and the Jumna, and set to the +preparation of their one proper meal for the twenty-four hours. The +plain was alight with their fires. Nothing can be simpler than their +cooking. They make what they call a <i>choola</i>, an elevation in the shape +of a horseshoe of a half-foot or a little more of moistened mud, or +stone if they can get it. If the traveller be of a respectable caste, he +takes care to make no use of the <i>choolas</i> which former travellers have +left. They may have been set up by impure hands, and so he makes one for +himself. It is convenient to have two such <i>choolas</i>, that they may put +on the one a small pot with rice or <i>dal</i>, a kind of pea, in it, and on +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> other a girdle for bannocks of unleavened dough. Cooking is, of +course, largely women's work, but men are as expert at it as women, and +are continually seen preparing their meal. I have never travelled with a +native who seemed to think he was called to an unusual or unpleasant +work, when required to cook his food. All he needs is a couple of small +cooking vessels, which he carries with him, a little fuel, good water, +meal, and a spot on which he may set up his humble hearth. I have seen +this work done by pundits, learned men, who showed no indication of +shrinking from it as if it trenched on their dignity. Indeed the pundit +in a party that has few facilities for cooking has, as I remember well +in one instance, this honour conferred on him on account of his caste +being higher than that of those who are with him. All of every caste can +eat what he has prepared, but he helps himself first, and eats apart.</p> + +<p>To return to the mela. The evening is well advanced before the repast is +over. We might suppose that after the stir of the day all would be ready +for sleep, and no doubt many lie down and sleep soundly; but quite a +number are too eager for the enjoyment of the fair to give themselves to +rest. Singing, drumming, and boisterous mirth go on till the small hours +of the morning, as I have known to my unpleasant experience—not at +Allahabad, but elsewhere when I have been in their close neighhourhood.</p> + +<p>How do the vast multitudes who attend a mela, such as that of Allahabad, +dispose of themselves at night? Their arrangements are of the simplest +kind. Many wrap themselves in their sheet or blanket, if they have one, +and lie down on the ground without any idea they are enduring hardship. +Others rig out a temporary tent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> with sticks and a blanket over it, +creep under this, and deem themselves luxuriously accommodated. This +gathering at Allahabad is in the cold weather, and if the nights be very +cold, as they sometimes are at that season, no doubt many suffer +severely. Every now and then heavy rain falls, and then, as may be +supposed, the suffering is extreme. Sanitary precautions are of the +utmost importance where such vast crowds meet and remain together for +days, and these are taken by the authorities. They cannot, however, +provide against suffering caused by bad weather. Occasionally cholera +breaks out, and then the scenes witnessed are appalling. At the mela of +1840 the weather was good, and there was no indication of disease among +the people. Some years afterwards we were travelling towards Allahabad +at an early period of the mela, and met crowds fleeing from it on +account of the outbreak of cholera. Here and there we saw corpses at the +side of the road, occasionally without one person near, at other times +with a weeping group around, who were preparing to carry off the body to +some rivulet to have it burnt, or, as it often happens, to have it +scorched, and then left to be devoured by jackals and vultures. Some had +held on their way with weary limbs till the fell disease seized them, +and then they succumbed, lay down, and died. We remember stopping where +a young man was dying, with two or three sorrowful ones around him. We +spoke to him, but got no reply. His glazed eye told he was beyond all +human help.</p> + +<p>One of the first things I saw at this Allahabad mela was a quantity of +human hair, and was told that it had been cut off after the fulfilment +of vows, reminding one of a custom to which we find frequent reference +in both the Old and New Testaments. I also saw a very disgusting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +sight—men in stark nudity, sitting in a very composed dignified +fashion, and women approaching them with folded hands, and paying them +profound homage. These were deemed men of great sanctity, whose blessing +brought signal benefit, while their curse entailed terrible calamities. +At an early period of our residence at Benares we sometimes met these +naked creatures in the streets; but for many years they have +disappeared, as there is a magisterial order that they be flogged for +their indecency, however loud may be their pretension of sanctity. At +Allahabad there were many devotees with their tangled hair, besmeared +bodies, and <i>very</i> scanty clothing—if what they had on could be called +clothing. These are yet seen all over the country. The time has not yet +come for stringent orders in these cases.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">HINDU SOCIAL FEELING.</div> + +<p>On the occasion of a gathering such as that of Allahabad a stranger sees +no sign of the separating influence of caste. The people move about and +mix with each other as freely as people do in Europe when assembled in +large numbers. There is nothing in caste to prevent people conversing +with each other and being on friendly terms; but the friendliness must +not go the length of eating together or of intermarriage. There are +indeed large classes deemed so low, so outside the pure Hindu castes, +that, so far as is possible, their touch is shunned, and they are not +allowed to enter temples; but even these may be spoken to and caste +purity retained. We have not in Northern India a class so low that they +must hide themselves when a Brahman appears, as Pariahs have to do in +some parts of Southern India. In fact, at Hindu melas one receives a +pleasing impression of the social character of the people, when he +observes their good humour and friendly intercourse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<p>We do not wonder at the popularity of these gatherings. The social +feeling is as strong among the Hindus as among any people on the face of +the earth. The vast majority lead lives of monotonous toil in places +where there is no excitement greater than that of ordinary village and +hamlet life, and to them it must be a great pleasure to resort to the +gatherings of their people, where religion, business, and amusement are +very happily combined, and where there is so much to interest, +exhilarate, and gratify them. These times are to them the red-letter +days of the year, without which life would be intolerably dull. Resort +to these gatherings no doubt involves them in toil, in expense, and +sometimes in great suffering; but they do not shrink from the cost, as +they anticipate the expected benefit.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CHRISTIAN SOCIAL FEELING.</div> + +<p>There cannot be a doubt that Hinduism is greatly strengthened by these +melas. Judaism was greatly strengthened by the people according to the +Divine command going up thrice every year, at appointed times, to the +place where the name of the Lord was, and by their repairing in vast +numbers once a year to their sacred capital after they had become widely +scattered among the nations. Muhammadans, by long journeys and perilous +voyages, make their way to Mecca and Medina, their sacred cities, and +make it a point to be present at the most sacred season, when many +thousands are assembled. These pilgrims return to their homes more +devoted than ever to Islam. It would be strange if Christianity, which +above every other religion aims at producing and sustaining the feeling +of universal brotherhood, did not avail itself of this social feeling, +to which so much scope is given in human religions, and which is so +potent in confirming the devotion of their adherents.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> Our blessed +Saviour, the Head of the Church, has by the institution of Churches, and +the instruction given to them through His Apostles, provided for the +fellowship of His people; and the occasional gathering of the members of +different Churches, to which the principles of the Gospel point, and to +which it gives the fullest sanction, presents precious opportunities for +the manifestation and exercise of the brotherliness so characteristic of +the kingdom of heaven which our Lord came to set up on the earth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch10.png" width="400" height="112" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE OBJECT OF MISSIONS, AND VARIOUS MODES OF OPERATION.</i></h3> + + +<p>There is no difference of opinion among missionaries as to the object +for which they have gone to the heathen. They are all agreed their +object is to make known the Gospel, the message of salvation, to all to +whom they obtain access, to explain its nature, and press its claims on +their acceptance. To this nothing can be held superior; to this +everything must be deemed subordinate. To place anything above it, or +even beside it, would be to lose sight of the very <i>raison d'être</i> of +their missionary calling.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VARIETY OF EFFORT NEEDED.</div> + +<p>There may be, however, and there often is, a difference of opinion as to +the line of operation best fitted to secure success. Missionaries find +themselves in presence of widely-separated classes, who must be +approached in different ways, and it is the part of wisdom to find out +the most direct path to their understanding, conscience, and heart. +About these modes of operation there has often been marked diversity of +opinion, some pleading for one mode, and others for another. It cannot +be denied that in the discussion thus carried on there has often been +one-sidedness, resulting in some cases from natural liking, in some from +special fitness, in others from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> the peculiarities of the sphere into +which missionaries find themselves introduced so that they fail to +realize the peculiarities in the qualifications, likings, and spheres of +their brethren, who are as eager as themselves to bring the people to +the feet of the Lord Jesus. Hinduism is a strong fortress, and those who +assail it by hurling at it—if I may so speak—the red-hot shot of +exposure of its errors, and the fire of the truth as it is in Jesus, act +very unwisely in depreciating those who are quietly preparing the +ammunition required for carrying on the siege, or are undermining the +foundations, and thus preparing for entering the breach. The erection of +the Christian Church in India is a most arduous, and at the same time a +most glorious, enterprise, and a variety of workmen is required. Those +who handle the trowel and the hammer act very unwisely in depreciating +those who plan the structure, clear away the rubbish, and lay the +foundation, or who in other ways help on the building. These +illustrations require no enlargement. They indicate the views which +every succeeding period of my missionary career has led me to entertain +with increasing firmness. The translation and revision of the +Scriptures, the preparation of Christian tracts and books, teaching in +schools and colleges, taking charge of orphanages, the going among the +people in city, town, and hamlet, wherever they can be reached, to speak +to them about the Saviour of mankind; attending to secular work, such as +the erection of buildings, keeping accounts, and gathering money—all +are legitimate departments of missionary work, and the choice of them by +missionaries ought to be determined by the exigencies of missions, by +personal fitness, and by providential indications of the course which +should be pursued. I would go further, and say that the preparation of +grammars and dic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>tionaries, the giving of time and strength to literary +work, may in certain circumstances, in the case of men of peculiar +qualifications, be deemed work worthy of a missionary, as thereby he may +do much to further the cause to which he has devoted his life. Readers +will readily recall names of illustrious men, who were deeply imbued +with the missionary spirit and did eminent service, who were also +remarkable for their literary achievements. It would, however, be very +undesirable that literary ability and industry should be the most +prominent characteristics of a large portion of the missionary band. +Devotion to literary work is, with rare exceptions, incompatible with +the active life which must be led by those who would come into close +contact with the people, and by personal intercourse strive to bring +them to the Saviour.</p> + +<p>Some individuals have gone to the mission-field with the firm resolve to +do the work in only one way. Such a resolve has ever seemed to me most +unwise, savouring more of wilfulness than of holy steady purpose to do +the Master's work. The missionary ought to go out ready to part with +every preconceived notion at the call of providential direction and the +Spirit's guidance, prepared to do with all his might whatever he may +have the opportunity of doing for the advancement of Christ's kingdom, +however little may be his natural liking or supposed fitness for the +work.</p> + +<p>Like most missionaries, I went to India with my liking for certain forms +of work; but like nearly all who have been long in the field, there is +scarcely any department in which I have not some time or other been +engaged, though for some departments I have had little aptitude and, I +may say, no liking, and from which I would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> escaped if I could. To +have held back would have been dereliction of duty, and this conviction +overcame my reluctance.</p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">PREACHING TO THE HEATHEN.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BAZAR PREACHING.</div> + +<p>Without any depreciation of other departments, preaching to the +heathen—what is commonly called in India Bazar preaching—ought ever to +hold a prominent place.</p> + +<p>Evangelistic work is carried on wherever access to the people can be +obtained. In Benares, our primary schools, of which I shall speak +presently, were taught in verandahs open to the streets. These were +utilized as preaching-stations. The boys were first examined and taught; +a few invariably gathered around, and we turned from the boys to the +bystanders, and spoke to them so long as they were willing to hear, or +we were able to speak. In addition to these verandahs we had humble +buildings erected on the most available spots, for the double purpose of +schools and preaching-stations. To these little chapels we could retire +from the noise of the streets. In them we had morning and evening +service; but as the hot weather advanced the heat was well-nigh +intolerable in the city in the evening, and evening work was suspended +till we got cooling by the first burst of rain.</p> + +<p>We every now and then betook ourselves to the shade of a house or a +tree, where we spoke to the passers-by. On the occasion of great +gatherings we took our stand at the roads by which the people were +pouring into the city, or making their way out of it. Every place was +deemed suitable where we could get hearers, and could hope for any +degree of attention. At some spots the crowd was so large and noisy that +there was no use in trying to make ourselves heard. As we went about we +spoke to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> individuals and little groups as opportunity was presented to +us.</p> + +<p>Some missionaries who laid themselves out for this department made it a +point to go every year, with their native assistants, considerable +distances to the great melas, and spend days, sometimes weeks, in +setting before the assembled crowd the great truths of God's Word. +Others, again, made it a point to travel during the cold weather, so far +as home duty allowed, to preach the Gospel through the country; some +within a limited area, confining themselves to certain towns and +villages, and visiting them again and again, while others made very +extended tours. It was my privilege for years to take part in these +itineracies, and I remember with peculiar pleasure the opportunities +they afforded for intercourse with the people.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DIFFERENT MODES OF PREACHING.</div> + +<p>What in India is called Bazar preaching is very different from the +ordinary preaching of ministers in this country, both in its mode and in +the circumstances in which it is conducted. When accompanied by a few +native Christians, we begin by singing a hymn and offering a short +prayer. Then those present are addressed. Often one of our Lord's +parables, or some striking fact or passage from the Scriptures is taken +as a text. Sometimes a remark by one of our hearers, or something of +general interest which has just occurred, gives the keynote to the +address. The great doctrines and facts of Scripture are mainly dwelt on, +and the more simply and directly they are set forth, the more are we +satisfied our duty is efficiently discharged. In our preaching the first +place is assigned to the life and character, the words and deeds, the +death, resurrection, and reign of our blessed Saviour. Suitableness is a +valuable characteristic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> of preaching everywhere, and among no people is +it more important than in speaking to the Hindus. They are very fond of +figures, of illustrative instances, and when these are happily applied +they produce a marked effect. In the character of the gods and +goddesses, and in Hindu notions and practices, there is much which is +open to attack, and some avail themselves largely of this opening to +assail the cherished belief of the people; but as a rule it is far +better to assert and enforce truth than to confute error, though truth +does at times require error to be directly exposed. The native brethren +are much more inclined to aggressive speech than the missionaries. They +know their own countrymen well; they are familiar with their modes of +thinking and of acting, they are well acquainted with the doings +attributed to their gods, and they are ready to attack them with +unsparing severity. On one occasion a catechist, more zealous than wise, +began his address with the words, "Your religion is altogether false," +which so provoked his hearers that they did not hear another word, and +went away in indignation. Afterwards I sharply reproved him for his +indiscretion, as I had at times to do to him and others.</p> + +<p>Occasionally a missionary is quietly heard, and if heard attentively as +well as quietly he is gratified with the reception he gets, and hopes +that good is being done. It is seldom, however, in a city like Benares +that a preacher is allowed to go on long without interruption. If a +considerable number assemble we are almost sure to find, before we +conclude, some among them ready to speak, and the object of those who +thus come forward becomes speedily apparent. Some are eager to interrupt +the preacher. He has scarcely announced his subject, and has had no +opportunity of explaining and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> illustrating it, when he is interrupted +by the words, "You have spoken a long time" (the long time has perhaps +not been five minutes); "let me speak a little while." As a rule, in +this case the missionary appeals to the fairness of his audience to give +him a patient hearing, that they may really know his views, and may be +in a position for coming to a right judgment regarding them. Often the +appeal is successful, and our eager disputant is compelled to remain +silent. When the address is over discussion is welcomed; and, as I have +observed about preaching at the religious gatherings of the people, if +conducted with reasonableness and good humour it is fitted to do good. +We are thankful when there is the appearance of candour, even though +there be not earnestness, when those who speak seemingly desire to know +exactly what we do hold, as thereby an opportunity is given for the +clearer and fuller statement of the Gospel. I have a pleasing +recollection of many instances when persons were evidently impressed +with what had been told them of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the claims +He has on man's love and trust.</p> + +<p>It must be acknowledged that this has not been the mood of most of our +hearers where we are well known. Many are eager to defend their own +position as Hindus, and to attack Christianity because it wages war with +their religion. Heathenism in ancient times, heathenism now as we see it +in India, was and is very liberal. It is ready to let Christianity +alone, if Christianity will let it alone. It is the exclusiveness of +Christianity which is so offensive. We are continually told that +Christianity is excellent for us; we are most welcome to maintain our +adherence to it; and it is surely fair to let them alone in the +enjoyment of their religion. Because they are not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> let alone, because we +contend that their religion is dishonouring to the living God and +hurtful to themselves, because we affirm that Christ is the one Saviour +and the rightful Lord, they are eager to find something in our books and +views which they can assail, and by which they can show our position to +be untenable.</p> + +<p>There is nothing we hear more frequently than that all religions lead to +the same goal, as all the roads of a country lead to its capital. To +this we reply that those who wish to go to Calcutta in the east are not +likely to reach it soon if they set out on the road to Lahore in the +west. The east and west are opposite, and yet they are not opposed; but +good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, are essentially +opposed, their fruits are opposed, and those who practise them are sure +to find themselves at last in places as distinct from each other as +light is from darkness, as happiness is from misery.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE STRENGTH OF TRADITIONAL RELIGION.</div> + +<p>Traditional religion is strong, except in peculiar seasons when the tide +of public opinion runs in the channel of religious revolt. From the lips +of Hindus we hear continually, "We must walk in the ways of our fathers. +What our fathers believed we believe. What our fathers practised we +practise. No good son leaves his father and mother. No good wife leaves +her husband for another." To this objection we have various replies. We +tell them they do not walk in the ways of their ancient fathers, for +they did many things, such as eating the flesh of cows, which they +abhor, knew nothing of the gods they worship, and were not fettered by +caste as they are. What we say about these Hindu ancestors gets little +credit, as the people generally know nothing about them. We remind them +that among themselves there have been tribes that have from generation +to generation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> lived by thuggery and dacoity (murder and robbery). Ought +the children of these murderers and robbers to walk in the ways of +<i>their</i> fathers?</p> + +<p>I have often referred to the Khonds in the hills of Orissa, who, till +the horrid practice was stopped by British interference, enticed +children from the plains, fed them well, treated them kindly, and then +on a fixed day murdered them, tore limb from limb, and scattered the +bleeding fragments over the fields as an offering to the Land Goddess to +secure an abundant harvest. I have asked, "Ought these people to walk in +the ways of their fathers?" To this question I have never received an +affirmative reply.</p> + +<p>We have reminded the people their fathers were as prone to err as we +are; that we ought to weigh in the scales of truth and justice what they +did, in order to the imitation of them when right and the forsaking of +them when wrong. If they were with us, provided they were really wise, +they would wish us to embrace the good of which they knew nothing, but +which was now presented for their acceptance. With all their regard for +their fathers, there were things unknown to them—as, for instance, the +potato for food, and the railway carriage for travelling. If the potato +was good for the body, as many of them showed they thought by partaking +of it, might not our religion be good for the soul? If they resorted in +crowds to the railway carriages even when going on pilgrimage to their +sacred places, if in their earthly travels they found these carriages so +serviceable, might they not find the religion of Christ, if candidly +considered, the best vehicle for carrying them to heaven? We have much +sympathy with the feeling of reverence for ancestors, but they are not +entitled to tyrannize over their descendants.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> We tell them we do not +wish them to leave their father's house, but to return to it; not to +leave the husband, but to return to the true husband.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">WORSHIP OF GOD UNDER MATERIAL FORMS.</div> + +<p>At first sight the worship carried on at Benares seems so absurd that +one wonders how a reasonable being can say anything in its defence. Many +years ago I had a visit from an English gentleman who was travelling +through India, and he expressed his surprise we had such limited success +in turning the people from worshipping such ugly misshapen stones. He +evidently thought that by quoting some of the passages of Scripture in +which the wickedness and folly of idol-worship are exposed, he could +silence idol-worshippers, and secure their speedy conversion to the +living God. If he had come into contact with the people he would not +have found their conversion such an easy matter. I have never met a +Hindu who would allow he worshipped the material objects before which he +bowed down. However illiterate he may be, he is ready to maintain that +he worships the god represented by the image, and who is actually +dwelling in it in a mysterious manner, after some sacred words have been +uttered over it.</p> + +<p>We are often told in defence of Hinduism that it is a symbolical +representative religion, and that as God is vastly beyond our +comprehension, we cannot, except by symbols, attain any conception of +Him. We have often to say in reply, that as we cannot see our own +spirit, and yet know how real, how dominant it is, so far less do we +know the Supreme Being, and yet we have abundant evidence of His +existence, character, and government. Of Him no fitting image can be +made, and every such attempt is unworthy of Him, and degrading and +demoralizing to us. The representations of God in Scripture under +sensible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> forms are of high value to us in our weakness; but when +reproduced in material substances, such as wood and stone, they have +been ever found to foster low, materialistic views of the Most High. If +we must betake ourselves to such symbols, let us have those which +inspire lofty thoughts. What is there in these grotesque idols to help +us in rising to the living God? Hindus who know English have quoted +Cowper's address to his mother on getting her picture, "Oh that those +lips had language," and we have been asked, "Was not Cowper helped in +realizing his mother when looking at her picture?" To which there is the +obvious reply, "Cowper's mother was truly represented. Is God truly and +fittingly represented by the idols you worship?"</p> + +<p>The gods are continually represented as mediators through whom we +approach the Supreme. "When we seek the favour of a king we approach him +through his ministers; when we wish to propitiate a judge we try to +secure a friend who will plead for us: and thus by the gods we get +access to the Most High." To this we reply that as creatures we may each +one go directly to God, for He is always near us, and we can never be +far from Him; but as sinners we need a mediator. As the necessity for a +mediator is acknowledged, we have an excellent opportunity of showing +how worthy Christ is of being trusted as the Mediator, related as He is +by His essential nature to the Most High, and to man by the nature He +has assumed. A favourite figure with the Hindus is that the gods are a +ladder by which they ascend to the Supreme; and we could not have a +figure more adapted to our purpose, as it leads us to show that Christ +is the very ladder we need—He by His Divine nature reaching heaven, and +by His human nature being set upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> earth. His infinite excellence +and His propitiatory sacrifice assure us that this ladder is so strong +that it can bear the weight of the whole of the human family in their +ascent to God.</p> + +<p>Few things have been a greater stumbling-block to the Hindus than the +crucifixion of Christ, and we have to dwell continually on the fact that +it was not by the failure of His power, but by the ardour of His love, +He endured this death. Some of the gods, Shiva and Kalee in particular, +are propitiated by animal sacrifices, as blood is specially pleasing to +them. The need of sacrifice to deliver from the consequences of sin is +dimly discerned by the people, but they have such distorted views on the +subject that it is difficult to convey to them the Christian idea of +propitiation.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PUNDIT DEFECT IN HISTORIC INSTINCT.</div> + +<p>The learned men of India have been singularly wanting in what may be +called the historic instinct, and we need not wonder at finding the +people generally destitute of it. The evidence for Christianity drawn +from its history makes no impression on them. Historical facts and the +wildest legends are received by them with equal readiness. When speaking +of the miracles of our Lord, and enlarging on their peculiar features of +power and goodness, I have been pleased to witness an attention which +led me to hope that a favourable impression was being made; but more +than once my hope has been dashed to the ground by one of my most +attentive hearers saying, "You have been telling us of your God. He did +excellent things, and you do well to worship Him; but listen to me, and +I will tell you what my gods have done." And then my hearer has become +the speaker, and has dilated on the wonderful feats of his gods, such as +Krishna lifting up a mountain and holding it on his hand above his +worship<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>pers to shelter them from the angry bolts of Indra; and has +triumphantly asked, "Is there anything similar to that in your Bible?" +To which we have readily replied, "There is not, but there is what is +more worthy of God." The most illiterate of the people are very familiar +with mythological stories, and if listened to will go on to relate them +with the greatest gusto, and at the greatest length.</p> + +<p>Our doctrine of salvation by grace alone, and not in any degree by man's +merit, is often declared to be fatal to morality. This is often said in +our own country, and we need not say what we advance in its confutation.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of previous births has taken full possession of the Hindu +mind, as accounting for the character and events of the present birth. +This belief in transmigration has a very hurtful effect on the people, +as it leads them, when suffering for their conduct, to attribute their +sufferings to births of which they do not profess to have any +remembrance, instead of blaming themselves for the course they had +pursued. We have to show the baselessness, the unreasonableness, and the +injurious tendency of this notion. The doctrine of a blind fate +determining everything is widely held. The greatest criminals coolly +assert it has been their fate to have done what they have done, and, of +course, to suffer as they suffer. The moral nature of the people, though +benumbed, is happily not destroyed, and to it we appeal against a notion +which levels all moral distinctions.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PANTHEISM AND HINDU PHILOSOPHY.</div> + +<p>Pantheism, it is well known, lies at the foundation of Hindu Polytheism. +It may be indeed doubted if there has ever been a Polytheistic system +apart from a Pantheistic element. The Hindus generally cannot work out +the Pantheistic theory, as the Pundits do, but the most illiterate are +familiar with its commonplaces, and are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> ready with their avowal. We +often hear, "Is not God everywhere? Does He not pervade all? Is He not +all? Is not all evolved from Him, as the spider's web is evolved from +its body? Does not all emanate from Him, as the stream flows from the +fountain and rays from the sun? Are we not all portions of Him? We may +worship anything and everything if only we see God in it. There are +differences in the sparks from the central fire, some far brighter than +others. The gods are the brightest sparks, and therefore they are +specially worthy of worship." In reply we have to insist on the +difference between the Creator and the creature, between the Ruler and +His subject. We are often told it is God that makes us speak and act, +and we are puppets dancing as He draws the strings. In protest against +this doctrine we appeal to the acknowledgment they themselves make of +the essential distinction between right and wrong, the one to be done, +the other to be shunned, and show that if their Pantheistic notion be +accepted the distinction is obliterated, and the floodgate is open to +the commission of all wickedness.</p> + +<p>The most advanced thought of Hindu philosophy is that all is Maya, +illusion, the play, the amusement of the Supreme, who leads us to +believe that we are, that we have a separate existence, which we have +not; but at last the illusion will come to an end, all will be absorbed +in Brahm, as the water in the clouds falls into the sea; there will be +no conscious existence in the universe. Brahm himself will glide into a +profound slumber from which he will awake after a vast season of repose. +A rope lying on the road is taken for a serpent, but it is only a rope. +There are hundreds of suns glancing on the waters, but there is only one +sun. In reply we contend that illusion implies reality; that if there +was no reality illusion would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> be impossible. If there was no serpent a +rope would not be taken for it. If there was no sun there would be no +suns glancing in the waters.</p> + +<p>The question has been often discussed, Have the Hindus any idea of a +living, personal God? It is unquestionable they often speak as if they +had. They often say, "Does not God see? Does He not know? Will He not +punish us if we do what is wrong?" It is difficult to say to what degree +this notion has been formed and cherished from intercourse for ages with +Muhammadans, and how far it comes from the demand of the human spirit +for the living God. Some eminent Sanscrit scholars tell us that the +Vedas teach Pantheism, while others assert that in their most ancient +teaching they assert the doctrine of a living, personal God. From this +divided opinion it is plain that the teaching of the Vedas on this vital +subject is ambiguous. At any rate there cannot be a doubt that the +modern Hindus have some notion of God as a living, conscious One apart +from His creatures, although it is held with Pantheistic and +Polytheistic notions, which are antagonistic to it, and greatly weaken +its influence. Its being held at all is very serviceable to a missionary +in the prosecution of his work.</p> + +<p>In a city like Benares many have acquired a considerable acquaintance +with the Bible, and these endeavour to find flaws in it to show that our +religion is as assailable as theirs.</p> + +<p>I must not go further into these details of evangelistic work. As I am +giving them my past life comes vividly to my remembrance. I remember its +pleasures, and also its difficulties and trials. I feel as if I was +engaged in preaching to the Hindus among whom I have spent a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> great part +of my life, and discussing with them the great questions which affect +God and man. I am consequently in danger of saying more than can be +interesting to my readers.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MUHAMMADAN OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.</div> + +<p>In Benares it is rare to have only Hindus for our hearers. We very often +have Muhammadans also, and, they are our most eager and bitter +opponents. All I can now say about them is that they are bent on +entrapping us with questions about the Sonship of Christ, the Trinity in +the Godhead, the authenticity of the Scriptures as we now have them, the +alleged incompleteness of Christ's prophetic office, as proved, they +think, by the promise of the Paraclete as well as by the predictions in +both the Old and New Testaments. Among Muhammadans we have met +individuals who seemed sincere inquirers after truth, who seemed bent on +ascertaining what is true and discovering what is false. We have been +gratified with their apparent candour, humility, and reasonableness. We +must acknowledge these have been a small minority compared with the many +whose pride and bigotry have shut up their mind against everything we +had to advance, and whose sole aim has been to assail Christianity and +Christians.</p> + +<p>In the prosecution of the evangelistic work, which I have endeavoured to +describe, missionaries come into contact with all classes. The seed of +the word thus sown far and wide may remain for a time hidden, but we +have every reason to hope it will some time spring up and bring forth +abundant fruit.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3><i>SCHOOLS.</i></h3> + + +<p>From the commencement of Missions, schools have received much attention, +and have absorbed a large part of mission agency. These schools have +been of different orders, many primary, a number secondary, and a few +educating the pupils up to the University mark for degrees. I have had a +great deal of experience in teaching and superintending primary and +secondary schools, and I have seen something of the institutions of the +highest class. I now speak of schools for boys and young men. Girls' +schools will receive attention in a subsequent chapter.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PRIMARY SCHOOLS.</div> + +<p>I do not know any mission in Northern India where elementary education +has been entirely neglected. Some have done much more in this department +than others, but all have devoted to it a measure of attention and +effort. We had at one time ten schools of this class in different parts +of Benares. In these humble schools many have learned to read, write, +and keep accounts, and have thus been fitted for discharging efficiently +their secular work. Their minds have been furnished and their character +improved by useful information communicated to them. Above all, +Christian instruction has been imparted. The schools have been +frequently visited by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> missionary and his native assistants for the +special object of reading with the pupils portions of the Scriptures, +and inculcating the lessons they contain. Thus readers for our +Scriptures and Christian books have been prepared, who we may hope come +to their perusal with weakened prejudice from the kindly feeling with +which we are regarded. A favourable impression has thus been made on the +minds of parents as well as of pupils.</p> + +<p>I have already mentioned that these schools have been utilized for +preaching-stations, and have been well adapted for this purpose. They +have been carried on at small expense. The great drawback has been that +with few exceptions the teachers have been Hindus. They have been of the +Kaisth, the writer caste, who are as a caste less imbued perhaps with +Hinduism than any other. When Christians have been available their +services have of course been thankfully secured. For some years the +Hindu element has been gradually withdrawn from the teaching staff. Two +of the early teachers in our time became Christians, one having been +baptized in our Mission, and the other in the Church Mission at Benares.</p> + +<p>The whole state of primary education in the North-West, I may say in +India, is on a very different footing from what it was in 1840. Great +progress in every department of education has been made since that time. +Considering the vast importance of primary education, the advancement +has not been so great as might have been expected, but there is every +prospect of its being largely extended in the immediate future. It is +hoped that one outcome of the Education Commission which is now sitting +will be the gathering into schools of many thousands of the young who +have been hitherto neglected.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<p>In most Missions of any standing, even where the chief attention has +been given to direct evangelistic work, some provision has been made for +secondary education. A school with this object was established in our +Mission in 1845. It was taught in a well-sized native house, and was +afterwards transferred to a larger building. It had successive +superintendents, the late Mr. Sherring, Mr. Blake, and myself. It was a +longer time under Mr. Sherring than under any other, and in it he +laboured very diligently and efficiently. It received the name of the +Central School, as our idea was to transfer to it the best boys from +what we called the Bazar schools. It was intended to allow none to enter +who had not made some progress in reading their own language, but we +found this exclusion impracticable, and we were obliged to form an +elementary department. English was taught, and the higher classes were +introduced to geometry, algebra, history, especially Indian history, and +other similar branches of a liberal education. Almost all when they +entered were ignorant of English. Those who remained a considerable time +made fair progress, a few made remarkable progress; and we were happy to +find that many on leaving us obtained responsible situations, which they +continued to hold to the satisfaction of their superiors.</p> + +<p>For years under successive superintendents the Head Master was a +Christian, Babu Ram Chunder Basu, who is now most usefully employed as a +lecturer to educated natives. His great attainments, his diligence and +teaching power, did much to promote the prosperity of the school.</p> + +<p>In our Central school a very prominent place was given to Christian +instruction. Every day Scripture lessons were given by Christian +teachers; on Saturday, for years,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> a lecture was delivered to the +assembled school; and on Sunday morning a service was held, at which +there was a good voluntary attendance. The effect of the prominence thus +given to Christian teaching was shown early in 1857, when on a plan +arranged by the zealous public-spirited Commissioner of the Benares +Province, Mr. Henry Carre Tucker, there was a gathering in the city of +the pupils from all the schools in the province who choose to attend to +submit to an examination in Scripture knowledge. Prizes in money and +books were given to those who proved themselves most proficient. A great +number of lads and boys made their appearance, and the high place taken +by the pupils of our Central school showed how well they had been +taught.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE UNIVERSITY STANDARD.</div> + +<p>Some missions provide for taking their pupils on to the University +standard. Among these the missions in the Presidency cities have held, +and from their peculiar sphere must continue to hold, the first rank. I +have already observed nothing interested me more, nothing delighted me +more on reaching Calcutta early in 1839, than the sight of many young +men and boys taught in the institutions of the Church of Scotland and of +our own Mission. It was most exhilarating to see so many bright youths +studying our language, introduced to Western knowledge, and, above all, +led to the fountain of truth in the Word of God. Dr. Duff was not the +first in establishing in Calcutta an institution for the teaching of +English; he was not the first in establishing a Christian school; many +were before him in this good work: but he was the first in setting up an +institution on a large scale on a thoroughly Christian basis, in which +English was to have the first place, and in which provision was made for +carrying the students on to the University standard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +of Europe. In 1843 the missionaries, on account of their adherence to +the Free Church, were obliged to give up their buildings in Cornwallis +Square, and to seek accommodation in another part of Calcutta, where +they have continued their scholastic work with great zeal and +efficiency. The institution in Cornwallis Square has been conducted for +many years with remarkable success by the missionaries of the +Established Church of Scotland. All the missions of Calcutta have taken +part in this work, and have sent forth bands of well-educated young men, +who have acquired a large acquaintance with the Word of God.</p> + +<p>Similar institutions have been formed throughout the country. As may be +supposed, these vary greatly in resources and efficiency. Years ago our +Central school was transferred from a rented house in the city to a +large purchased house in the suburbs, where, under the name of the High +School, it has continued to flourish. Many of its students have +successfully passed the Entrance examination of the Calcutta University, +and a considerable number have passed the First Arts examination. It has +always stood high in native estimation, has had a large attendance of +pupils, and is reckoned one of the best institutions of the kind in the +North-West. The change from the Central school, with its secondary +education, the the High school, with its arrangement to carry on the +pupils further, was made by the late Mr. Sherring, and to his assiduous +care and efficient management its success is largely due. It maintains +its character under the superintendence of our friend Mr. Hewlett, who +has arranged for the opening of a B.A. class.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned the University standard. For many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> years after our +going to India there was no University in the land. The establishment of +Universities in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, and the introduction of +the grant-in-aid system, have effected in the educational department a +change so great that it may be called a revolution. The studies in +mission schools are to a large extent what they were, but they have come +under new conditions, which greatly alter the proportionate attention +given to them, and the degree of zeal with which they are prosecuted. +Under the grant-in-aid system missionaries are allowed full liberty in +giving Christian instruction to their pupils. The only thing required by +the Government Inspector is that the secular education be such as will +entitle the school to a grant. If formerly a mission school egregiously +failed in fitting the pupils for the positions in life to which they +were looking forward, it rightly lost favour, and was soon deserted. Now +there is a new urgent necessity for efficiency, and the healthy stimulus +thus given is in itself a marked benefit; but if care be not taken the +opportunity for imparting Christian instruction is impaired, which +formed the main inducement for missionaries taking part in the work.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">AMBITION FOR UNIVERSITY HONOURS.</div> + +<p>The effect of the change is most marked in our higher schools. There is +a widely spread and intense ambition for University honours. Not only in +the Presidency cities, but in the great cities of the country, a crowd +of boys and young men are eager for admission to the University circle. +This eagerness springs from the desire for honourable distinction, which +is as strong in the minds of Indian youth as in any youth on the face of +the earth. It springs, perhaps, still more from the fact that the +University stamp, attesting educational proficiency, is a high +recommendation in favour of appli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>cants for well-paid situations. It +would be hard to say how far a love of knowledge contributes to this +eagerness for study. It would be uncharitable to affirm it is altogether +absent, but it would be shutting one's eyes to potent facts to suppose +it furnishes the greater part of the motive power. Owing to various +causes, such as the want of opportunity, of capacity, and diligence, the +great majority of students do not aspire higher than the Entrance +examination; but even to pass this successfully is considered a great +feat, and many are proud of achieving it. The Calcutta University has a +high standard for degrees, and those who acquire them are entitled to be +considered well-educated men.</p> + +<p>The effect of this eagerness, we may say this rage for University +distinction, on mission schools can be easily conceived. The great +question with the student is, "How can I get to the University goal? +What are the studies which promise the quickest and largest success?" +The studies which do not lead to this goal have little attraction; while +those that lead to it, and just in proportion as they lead to it, are +eagerly pursued. Our Scriptures have no place in the University +curriculum. The consequence is that the student, whose supreme aim is to +acquit himself well when he goes up for degrees, and estimates studies +by their bearing on his success, gives to the Bible only the attention +required by the rule of the institution he attends, and he often gives +that attention reluctantly; so that even the knowledge he cannot fail to +acquire can scarcely be expected to tell on his heart and conscience. +Every hour given to the Bible he is apt to regard as taken away from the +studies which he most highly values, and in which, with all his +application, he finds it difficult to attain proficiency.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE POPULARITY OF MISSION SCHOOLS.</div> + +<p>It is undeniable that mission schools have been, and are, popular with +the people of India. From the Report just published of our Benares +Mission it appears that at present there are 1,265 pupils in its +schools, boys and girls. Various things have conduced to this +popularity. Missionaries as a class have acquired a firmly established +character for attention to their pupils and kindly treatment of them. +They are credited with good motives by many who have no drawing to +Christianity. Then, for a considerable time no charge for tuition was +made, the pupils being simply required to pay for their school books. +Since fees have been taken they are, I believe, generally lower than in +Government institutions; though, on the other hand, these have +scholarships and prizes which are far beyond any pecuniary advantage +mission schools can offer. There is, of course, in our schools the +possibility of the pupils' ancestral religion being weakened, or even +abandoned, but the hope is entertained both by them and their parents +that the danger will be escaped. While the main motive for resorting to +our schools is secular advancement—undoubtedly a right motive, if kept +within due limits—the missionaries, while earnestly desiring the +temporal welfare of their pupils, are actuated by a still higher motive, +which they constantly avow. Till the establishment of the University, +boys and young men, while prosecuting the special object for which they +had put themselves under tuition, with few exceptions showed no +disinclination to Christian instruction. A portion of the school-time +was allotted for it, and to the work of that time many cheerfully +applied themselves. Some became deeply interested, and a few were led in +consequence to avow their faith in Jesus. With the new University system +a new order of things has come in,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> which has placed Christian +instruction under great disadvantages.</p> + +<p>In consequence of this change some have advocated the entire withdrawal +of mission agency from the schools where the higher education is +imparted. It has been said, "Why should missionaries from day to day be +doing the work of mere secular teachers, in hope that during the short +time allotted for Christian instruction to young men, indisposed to +receive it, they can secure their spiritual good?" If they withdraw, +what then? The alternative is the loss of influence over a class that +may be expected to take the lead in all movements of their people, and +their transfer to teachers who are, in many cases, the avowed and bitter +foes of Christianity, and whose object will be to imbue them with their +own sentiments. There is abundant testimony to the fact that the pupils +of mission schools regard missionaries with a friendly feeling, and +diffuse that feeling in their respective circles, and also show respect +for the Gospel even when they argue against it to justify their +adherence to their ancestral religion. May it not be hoped, too, that in +many minds a conviction is left that Christianity is the religion of +heaven, although there are formidable obstacles to that conviction +obtaining sway over the heart and life? There have been instances where +the conviction has broken through every obstacle, and has been avowed by +open profession of faith in Christ. Our Missionary Societies may well +shrink from the abandonment of a sphere which furnishes the opportunity +for favourable influence over so many minds—and minds, too, which are +sure to be very influential in the community.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SABBATH SCHOOLS.</div> + +<p>The preferable plan has been adopted. It appears from the latest +statistics that the number of students in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> mission schools is greater, +and the course of study more advanced, than at any previous period. I am +not aware that any of the missionaries in the higher institutions have +proposed to abandon them on account of the new state of things. While +giving themselves cheerfully to the imparting of the education which +their pupils are eager to acquire, they put forth resolute steady effort +to counteract the secularizing tendency of their studies. The assembled +school is opened with prayer, Scripture lessons are given, and, taught +as they are by Christians, the pupils are under Christian influence +during all their school hours. It is common in the North-West, and I +suppose in other parts of India, to have services in the schools on +Sabbath morning, at which the attendance is voluntary; and at Benares, +at least, the attendance has been very encouraging. Of late Sabbath +schools, apart from day schools, have been established in many missions, +with every prospect of success. The attendance is large, and in some +places a number of parents are present. These schools are carried on +largely on the English and American model. The international lessons are +used, pictures and books are given as prizes to attentive scholars; and +they have a yearly treat, in conducting which care is taken against the +violation of caste. The American Episcopal missionaries have taken the +lead in this new departure.</p> + +<p>It has been often remarked that our higher schools can show very few +converts. The conversions have not been many, and yet they have not been +so inconsiderable in number as they have been represented. When we look +at our mission agents we find that a large proportion of our most +efficient men, the men that have done the best service, have come from +these schools. At the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> Missionary Conference at Allahabad in 1874, +at which I was present, they acquitted themselves in a manner which +attested their mental power and Christian earnestness, and gave one a +high opinion of their fitness for evangelistic work among their +countrymen. At the late Decennial Missionary Conference in Calcutta they +took a prominent and effective part. It is, indeed, a matter for deep +regret that of late our accessions from this quarter have been few; but +when hope has been at the lowest ebb one has appeared here and there to +strengthen it by avowing himself a follower of Christ.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> At the Calcutta Conference there was much discussion about +schools, especially of the higher order. Experienced educationalists +gave expression to their views, some stating in strong terms the +aversion to Bible lessons shown by many of the pupils; while others, +among whom Mr. Miller of Madras was prominent, represented the pupils as +generally willing to receive Christian instruction.</p></div> + +<p>In reference to our schools, in reference to our work generally, it is +important to keep before our minds the great power of public opinion. +Many are the things which go to form it; it is very subtle in its +working; the most acute and observant mind cannot estimate its force: +but when once widely formed its effects are remarkable. In India public +opinion is formed much more slowly than in a land like ours; the +constitution of society presents a stronger front to its action. But +there too it works, and when it works on till it has obtained +overmastering power we may expect to see a marvellous change. We cannot +doubt that missions have a high place in forming this opinion; and among +mission agencies I believe there is no one which has told and is telling +more beneficially on the people than our mission schools.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3><i>ORPHANAGES.</i></h3> + + +<p>All over India missions have had orphans under their charge, but from +personal knowledge I can only speak of the North-West.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FAMINE IN THE LAND.</div> + +<p>The need for these institutions was most pressing in 1838 and 1839. I +remember hearing, on my arrival at Benares, the most harrowing account +of the fearful sufferings of the people over a great extent of country. +The famine had been sore in the land. People fled from their towns and +villages, hoping to reach a more favoured region; but travelling through +districts as destitute of food as those they left, they received no +help, and perished miserably. The weak and the very young were the first +to succumb. Many struggled on, eating grass or anything that could allay +the pangs of hunger, in the hope of reaching the cities where they could +expect relief from their own people, and still more from their English +rulers. At that time Agra was the seat of government for the North-West, +and as the famine was specially severe in that district, so great a +multitude poured into it that, notwithstanding the strenuous effort put +forth by Europeans, official and non-official, helped by wealthy and +benevolent natives, only partial relief could be afforded. The means of +communication between one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> part of India and another were, even at that +time, far better than they had been in the days of native rule; much had +been done to improve the roads, but owing to the distance of places +where food was comparatively abundant, and the length of time and the +expense incurred in conveying it to the afflicted districts, timely help +was not obtained. Many children were abandoned, and the authorities sent +out orders to their subordinates to rescue these waifs and feed them +till arrangements could be made for their support.</p> + +<p>Missionaries felt themselves called on to offer their services in this +dreadful emergency, and the offer was readily accepted. The large +expenditure for which they thus became responsible was met by a small +allowance made by Government for each child, by a grant from a Famine +Fund which had been raised, and by contributions received by +missionaries from friends to help them in this new undertaking.</p> + +<p>The institutions then established have become permanent. The places left +vacant by the death of many of the first inmates, and the entrance into +active life of those who survived, were soon filled by others who had +equal claims on Christian compassion. On the occasion of great melas +children are often lost, and in not a few cases their parents are never +found. In the great cities, by the death of parents, and by the +abandonment of children—sometimes through extreme destitution, at other +times by unnatural indifference—helpless little ones are cast on the +pity of the public. From country places forsaken children are sent to +the head-quarters of districts. In seasons of scarcity, which frequently +occur, and especially in famine years such as 1861, large additions are +made to the number of orphans. With these causes operating to produce +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> class from which orphanages are recruited, there is no likelihood +of the time coming when they will not be needed. The people, as a rule, +are undoubtedly kind to children; but when we consider the great poverty +of many, the extreme difficulty with which they obtain the necessaries +of life, there is no reason to wonder at the cases of destitution which +are continually presenting themselves. In our own country, with all its +advantages, we have numerous orphanages, where many are sheltered and +trained for useful life, who would otherwise be thrown as waifs on the +surface of society.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SANGUINE HOPES.</div> + +<p>When orphanages were first formed in Northern India, great hope was +entertained they would not merely relieve present and pressing distress, +and do good to a large number of destitute young persons, but would tell +powerfully on native society, and lead to the formation of a large, +strong Christian community. The sufferings of the people afflicted by +famine were deplored, they were regarded with deep pity; everything was +done which could be done to relieve them, but it was hoped that out of +this calamitous state of affairs would be evolved, through the +overruling of Providence, a signal moral and spiritual benefit to the +people generally. Here was a large band of boys and girls taken out of +native society, cut off from idolatrous training and associations, and +made over in the most plastic season of their lives to be moulded by +those whose supreme aim would be to strengthen and elevate their +character, and prepare them for a happy, useful, and honourable career. +It was hoped that when these children thus trained grew to manhood and +womanhood, they would go out among their countrymen striking examples of +moral and spiritual excellence, and would by their manifest superiority +make a greater<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> impression on the minds of the people than could be made +by the preaching and efforts of missionaries. A worthy chaplain sent out +a pamphlet advocating the gathering by Government of all the orphan +children in the country, and, if I remember rightly, of all the children +with whom parents were willing to part, and the placing of them in +institutions where they should be brought up as Christians, and as +members of the Church of England. He maintained that if this was done, +in the course of a few years a great number would go out to native +society to leaven it with Christian sentiment, and with loyalty to the +British Government. He drew a glowing picture of the good that would be +accomplished if this policy were adopted and vigorously carried out. Few +were so hopeful as my friend, but many did anticipate great results.</p> + +<p>It cannot be doubted that orphan institutions have done much good; but I +think none will maintain that the sanguine hopes with which they were +begun have been realized. There have been obstacles in the way of +success which might have been partly foreseen, but which could not have +been fully anticipated. Many of the children brought to the missionaries +were so sickly and emaciated, that they soon died in spite of all the +attention bestowed on them. The mortality has been at times most +depressing. There was no vitality to resist disease. The effort to +preserve life was in many cases frustrated by the vitiated taste of the +children, which led them to eat lime, earth, garbage of any kind on +which they could lay their hands, in preference to good food. They were +closely watched, but it was impossible to watch them so closely as to +prevent them from doing that which hurried them to the grave.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE DIFFICULTIES IN ORPHAN MANAGEMENT.</div> + +<p>The orphans were of different ages, from very early youth to fourteen or +fifteen. The elder ones were steeped in the spirit of the class from +which they came—as a rule the lowest class of the community; and the +younger ones had in their very blood hereditary qualities which put +obstacles in the way of successful training. We do not believe there is +in blood the overpowering efficacy which some have attributed to it; if +it had, responsibility would cease, and the effort to raise certain +tribes and classes would be hopeless; but we believe it has a strong +influence, and we think we have seen clear evidence of its hurtful +effect on Indian orphans. There were these difficulties to begin with. +And then it was impossible to bring these children under the happy +influence of an orderly living family. In our own country it has been +found highly conducive to the right bringing-up of orphans, to the +repressing of evil tendencies, and the drawing forth of the finer +elements of character, to secure for them domestic training to the +utmost extent circumstances will permit. The keeping of many together, +not merely taught together, which is very desirable, but eating +together, sleeping together, constantly acting and reacting on each +other, is found very unfavourable to the formation of the right +character, however careful, wise, and kindly the superintendence may be. +In India, where hundreds of orphans were brought at once to mission +premises, this gregarious life was unavoidable. Besides, it is +impossible to separate orphans from the community around so completely +as to leave them unaffected by its moral atmosphere.</p> + +<p>There was of course a difference in the qualifications of those who +undertook this great charge, some being more fitted for it than others; +but this we say with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> utmost confidence, after an intimate +acquaintance with the working of some of the larger orphanages, and a +general knowledge of others, that they have been managed with a +laboriousness, a patience, a wisdom, and a kindness, deserving of the +highest praise. Those in charge acted as parents, so far as that was +possible, but in the nature of things there could not be the close +attention and the fond personal affection to each of ordinary domestic +life. We remember cases where children were committed to well-ordered +Christian families with happy results, but for many years after +orphanages were founded there were no such families to receive them.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE OCCUPATIONS OF ORPHANS.</div> + +<p>With the exception of orphans sent to Baptist Missions, they were as a +rule baptized at once, and were thus brought within the pale of the +Christian Church to be trained for the love and service of Christ. The +first place was given to Christian instruction and training. All were +taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. Those who proved themselves +capable of receiving a higher education were continued at school, in the +hope of their becoming qualified for offices such as those of teacher +and preacher, for which mental and moral fitness was indispensable. The +great majority were early taught a trade. In the larger orphanages a +variety of trades was introduced—tailoring, carpentry, baking, dyeing, +carpet-making, printing, bookbinding, and farming. Some of these trades, +after much labour had been bestowed upon them, were given up, as it was +found the orphans could not compete with native workmen. They had not +the energy and aptitude possessed by those who followed their ancestral +occupations, and who had been from their earliest years familiar with +the conditions of native trade. Hopes were entertained many would betake +themselves to farming. These<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> hopes have been only partially realized. +On land secured by the Church Mission of Benares, at a short distance +from the city, orphans when they grew up were settled; but few took +kindly to the work, and most soon abandoned it. There are now a few +Christian families on the ground, but the larger part of the land is let +to ordinary native agriculturists. In some places, such as Goruckpore +and Shahjehanpore, the experiment has been successful. A greater number +have continued at printing and bookbinding than at other trades. +Co-operative associations of native Christians have been formed at +Allahabad for printing, and at Futtygurh for tent-making, which I +believe continue to prosper. These associations are under unfettered +native management. A considerable number who have come out of orphan +institutions have followed the trades they were taught, and have +succeeded in getting employment in different places. Many were trained +as servants, and in that capacity they are scattered over all Northern +India. These have been joined by not a few who were taught trades, but +did not continue in them, as they deemed service easier and more +profitable. This is much to be regretted as native Christians in service +are exposed to many disadvantages and temptations from their +fellow-servants, and too often from their European masters and +mistresses. The position of a capable artisan is far superior.</p> + +<p>It must be acknowledged by those who have the kindest feeling towards +the orphans, and who wish to entertain the most favourable opinion of +them, which truth will permit, that they have often been wanting in +energy and self-reliance. There has been a tendency to lean unduly on +those to whom they have been indebted for the preservation of their +lives, and for everything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> which makes life desirable. They have been +accustomed to call them, in the language of the country, <i>ma, +bap</i>—<i>mother, father</i>—and to expect everything to be done for them as +if they were still helpless children. This can not be said of all, but +it must be acknowledged this unduly dependent spirit has been often +shown. A greater wrong could not be done to orphans, when grown to +maturity, than to treat them as children, unable to make their own way +in the world. This would be to destroy all strength of character, and +turn them into abject, and at the same time discontented, paupers. Few +have been so destitute of common sense as to have supposed that in this +way they were to be supported, but there has been a tendency to expect +the missionaries to set them out on a career of self-support, and remove +all obstacles in their way without any special effort on their part, and +when difficulties have arisen to fall back on their missionary friends +to set them out afresh. When these expectations have not been realized, +they have been disposed to view their guardians as having failed in +parental duty and affection. We have known cases where the rough +experience of life has taught self-dependence, and thankfulness also for +the treatment, which at the time was regarded as unkind, but had led to +lasting benefit. So far as we have been able to ascertain, the ordinary +feeling among those who had been inmates of orphan institutions, and of +their descendants, has been one of affection and gratitude to those who +have watched over them and provided for them in their days of +helplessness, and who have toiled and in many cases suffered to promote +their temporal and spiritual good. When travelling we have met many of +this class, and have been much gratified by the spirit they have shown.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> + +<p>Some have come out of orphanages well equipped for the highest work by +character and attainments. As teachers, catechists, and native +preachers, these occupy honourable and useful positions, and have been a +great blessing to the Church and the world. In the course of our +residence in India we have seen many of the missions in the North-West, +but our acquaintance with them is too slight to enable us to mention the +number given by orphanages to the higher class of native agents. We have +known several who are worthy of all respect, confidence, and affection.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ORPHANS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.</div> + +<p>To the question, "What is the general character of the large community +of native Christians formed of orphans and their descendants?" it is +difficult to give a satisfactory reply, though easy enough to give one's +impression. A characterization of communities is one of the most common +and at the same time most unsatisfactory of operations, as the data for +its being done well are so wide, recondite, and difficult to grasp. As I +proceed I shall have occasion to give my views of native Christians +generally. All I can now say about orphans and their descendants is, +that considering what human beings are, as shown from age to age, +considering the circumstances and surroundings of those of whom we are +speaking, the moral and spiritual results are what might have been +expected, though not all that had been wished for and hoped for. +Sanguine spirits had hoped that they would have had a striking +superiority to their fellow-countrymen, which would have drawn forth +their wonder and led them to inquire whence the superiority had come; +but no one will maintain this has been the case. A few, I believe very +few, have turned out utterly reprobate. The character of some who have +not lapsed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> into gross wickedness has been very unsatisfactory. Many are +respectable members of society, and make the profession of religion +implied in attending public worship and calling themselves Christians. A +considerable number show in different ways spiritual character. What +more can be said of congregations composed of those whose advantages +have been immeasurably greater? It would have been a most pleasing, but +at the same time a most remarkable and unparalleled result, if orphans +brought up under the charge of missionaries had gone forth a united +band, with no defaulters, to maintain the cause of God among their +countrymen, by a life so adorned with excellence that its testimony to +Christ could not be resisted. The result actually attained, though +chequered, is sufficient to show that orphan institutions have by the +Divine blessing done much good, and that the faithful labour bestowed on +them has borne gratifying fruit.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 280px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch13.png" width="280" height="155" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3><i>MISSION TOURS.</i></h3> + + +<p>In our own country, under the pressure of life, many hail the release +from toil and the refreshment of spirit promised by the annual summer +trip. So in India missionaries avail themselves of the cold season to +sally out for the prosecution of their work. Their main object is to +make known the gospel to the many whom they are sure to meet wherever +their tent may be pitched, who have never heard the name of Jesus, +except perhaps amidst the bustle and noise of a mela, and who but for +itineracies would remain in total ignorance of the Saviour of mankind. +The missionary who does not keep this before his mind as his chief aim +is unworthy of the name. While this object is pursued, another is sought +which missionaries deem very legitimate. Health is indispensable for the +efficient discharge of their duties, and travelling is found very +beneficial to the health of their families as well as to their own. +Touring in the cold weather, by the new strength it gives to the body +and the refreshment it gives to the spirit, has been found to prepare +them for a new campaign at home as nothing else could have done.</p> + +<p>Some missionaries have kept themselves within a limited sphere not far +from their homes, visiting the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> same places again and again, obtaining a +personal acquaintance with many of the people, and endeavouring to +deepen any impressions which may have been made. Others have travelled +for weeks, sometimes for months, over hundreds of miles, visiting the +towns and villages on their route, and speaking about the things of God +to all whom they have met.</p> + +<p>During my long residence in India it was my privilege to undertake tours +of both descriptions. I never stopped at home during the cold +weather—we are not in India in the habit of saying "summer and winter," +but "hot weather and cold weather"—except when justice to my +colleagues, or the necessities of the mission, compelled me to stay. +There were seasons when my colleague was, either from inexperience or +ill-health, unable to do the home work; or, as happened more than once, +I had no colleague at all, and in these circumstances it was obvious +duty to remain at my post. Even then I commonly managed to get out a +little into the surrounding country. On some of our tours we were put to +no small inconvenience, and we were not strangers to hardship; but we +look back to them with much pleasure, and think how much we would like +to set out on them again if circumstances permitted.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VOYAGING ON THE GANGES.</div> + +<p>At an early stage of our residence at Benares voyaging on the Ganges was +a favourite mode of enjoying the cold season. There were budgerows, +vessels with two tolerably sized rooms, available for hire at a moderate +charge. It was indispensable to have with the budgerow a small boat for +the accommodation of servants and for the cooking of food. On a few +occasions I took a trip on a vessel of this description with my family, +moving up and down the river, and halting towards evening near a town<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +or village, which I could visit for the purpose of speaking to the +people about the Saviour. The country is so populous that there was no +difficulty in mooring our little craft in the evening near some place +where hearers could be collected. It was seldom on any tour in the +North-West we were allowed to forget that we were in the region of the +sacred river, which receives from the people divine honours, and which +in their belief confers inestimable benefit on all who bathe in its +waters. When on the bank of the river, its alleged virtues formed a +frequent subject of remark and discussion. There, as elsewhere, we had +to tell them that Ganges water, however good for refreshing and +cleansing the body, cannot wash away one spot from the soul. We had to +tell them frequently, that as the washerman who puts clothes into a box +and carefully washes it with the expectation of their coming out clean +and white will be acting a very foolish part, so they were acting an +equally futile part if they supposed that the water of the Ganges, so +useful for the body, had any effect on the spirit. In answer to the +remark that Ganges water could not do what other water could not, as it +had nothing peculiar in its composition, I have been gravely told that +two things exactly the same to the senses may be essentially different; +and the proof given was that the river Kurumnasa, which means the +destroyer of merit, takes away all merit from those who bathe in it, +while bathing in the Ganges secures an untold degree of merit, extending +not only to one's own past and future, but to an untold number of +ancestors and descendants!</p> + +<p>When on the Ganges or its banks one continually sees proof of the +implicit trust placed in it. We remember being awakened very early one +morning long before dawn by a person bathing close to our boat, in a +quivering voice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> which showed he was chilled by the water, long and +earnestly imploring the favour of <i>Gunga Ma</i>—Mother Ganges.</p> + +<p>There is no part of India, mountain or plain, where serpents may not be +encountered. One evening, when returning to our boat from a village on +the banks of the river, I was walking warily on a narrow path +half-covered with grass from both sides, when I saw before me what I +first supposed to be a rope. I halted, and immediately a serpent glided +away. That evening, before reaching the boat, I saw at least a dozen of +serpents at their evening gambols over the ruins of a house. I walked +quietly on, deeming it the best part of valour to leave them +undisturbed. If they observed me they showed no inclination to approach +me.</p> + +<p>For many years voyaging on the Ganges has gone out of fashion. Native +boats laden with produce and wood continue to ply, but the budgerows and +pinnaces, which Europeans could hire, have almost entirely disappeared. +There are various reasons for this change. The current of the river is +very rapid in some places, which makes the work of dragging against it +very slow and tiresome; there is sometimes the danger of collision with +other boats. The high banks of the river here and there prevent the +country from being seen, and at other places there is a dreary stretch +of sand. Though the weather of the cold season is very steady, a storm +might come on, and if it did neither boat nor boatmen could be trusted; +for the boat, never of the best material, was often sadly out of repair, +and the boatmen were ready, when danger appeared, to throw themselves +into the water and make for the shore, leaving the passengers to shift +for themselves. There was, indeed, the pleasantness of sailing on a +broad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> river; the air was very fresh; there was no leaving of the +temporary abode from day to day; the trouble of a shifting camp was +escaped, though occasionally there was inconvenience from the +indispensable cook-boat not keeping sufficiently near. Opposed to these +advantages were the disadvantages I have mentioned, which were always +felt to be serious drawbacks; and when the roads had been improved, and +journeying facilities increased, travelling by land obtained so decided +a preference, that the river has been well-nigh abandoned by Europeans.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SHORT AND LONG TOURS.</div> + +<p>Some seasons our touring was confined to a narrow range, not extending +beyond thirty or forty miles. We every now and then spent a few days +within a few miles of the city. Our first journey of any considerable +length was, at the end of 1840, to the mela at Allahabad, some seventy +miles north-west of Benares, which I have already mentioned. At the end +of 1842 I made a tour along with my wife and child to Agra, more than +four hundred miles from Benares, which occupied us about three months. +On this tour we passed through Allahabad, Cawnpore, Futtygurh, +Mynpoorie, and other well-known places. Early in 1847, accompanied by a +brother missionary, we went to Almora, nearly six hundred miles distant, +travelling with our tents to the foot of the hills, and spending six or +seven weeks on our way. We left Almora for Benares in October, and +reached it early in December, having taken Meerut, Delhi, and Allygurh, +as well as Cawnpore and Allahabad, in our return route. Our long +journeys many years afterwards were performed with few exceptions under +new conditions, and with much greater expedition.</p> + +<p>If my readers are in thought to accompany us on those journeys, it may +be well to state the circumstances in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> which we travelled, the weather +we had and could generally expect, our travelling arrangements, the +state of the roads, and the aspects of the country through which we +passed.</p> + +<p>As to the weather, it was generally delightful. We had from day to day +an unclouded sky, with the sun rather strong as the day advanced, but +with a refreshing breeze, which made it thoroughly cool in the shade, +even cold sometimes, so that one was inclined to go out into the +sunshine to get warmth. In the daytime warm clothing was pleasant, and +at night, especially in tents, our blankets and wraps came into full +requisition. There was a steadiness in the weather exceeding anything +known in our climate. We have known weeks without any shading of the +sky. There were, however, occasional breaks. Now and then clouds +gathered from day to day, and at length came down in heavy rain, which +was most welcome to the farmers, especially when it came as it often +did, about Christmas. Thunder storms might be sometimes looked for, +accompanied by sudden and severe gusts of wind. These days of +atmospheric disturbance were sufficient to make us, as travellers, +appreciate more highly the weather with which we were ordinarily +favoured.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY.</div> + +<p>The greater part of the country through which we travelled is very +level. Beyond Chunar, indeed, which is sixteen miles from Benares, and +Mirzapore, which is thirty miles distant, there is a great extent of low +hill-country. These districts we visited several times. The most of our +journeys were in the wide open plains of the North-West. The country, +though level, is by no means uninteresting. You receive as you travel a +very favourable impression of the productiveness of the land<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> and the +industry of the people. In the cold weather you see, as far as the eye +can reach, a sweep of growing corn, wheat and other grains, which give +the hope of an early and abundant harvest. Towns and villages meet your +view on every side. If you get to a slightly elevated spot you are +struck with the number of wells you see in the fields, dug for the +purpose of irrigation. In the great region lying between the Ganges and +the Jumna, called the Doab—the country of the two rivers, the +Mesopotamia of Northern India, over a great part of which we travelled +for the first time at the end of 1842 and the beginning of 1843, and +which we have often traversed since—there is no extensive forest near +the Trunk Road. In all directions, however, you see clumps of lofty and +shady trees, and occasionally groves of considerable extent. Trees have +been largely planted along the road, and within every few miles there +are groves, where travellers get their tents pitched, and where they are +thoroughly protected from the glare and heat of the sun. Even in the +coldest part of the cold weather tents pitched in the open become +quickly too heated for comfort. In the groves the deep shade cast by the +widely-spread branches and the thick foliage sometimes darkens the tent +too much for reading and writing; but outside, on a chair before a small +table, if that be required, one can spend hours very pleasantly reading +or writing, as it may be, and listening if inclined to the cawing of the +crows, the cooing of the doves, and the notes of other birds, while the +gentle breeze rustles through the trees, and the children, if any, play +with their toys under them.</p> + +<p>Natives, when they travel, as I have already mentioned, manage things in +a fashion which we are not able to imitate, but which I have often been +inclined to envy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> Let them have flour, water, a little wood for fuel, +if not in its stead dried cow-dung, and they partake with relish of the +meal their own hands have cooked, conscious of no want and complaining +of no hardship. The relish is increased if they can get some of the +ordinary vegetables of the country. With the meal over, after chatting a +while over the Hookah, the "hubble-bubble" as English people call it, +the pipe which sends tobacco smoke through water, they wrap themselves +in the blanket which they carry with them, and sleep soundly under a +tree, when, as is often the case, no Sura, a native resting-place, is at +hand. If rain comes on they creep into a place where the rain cannot +reach them, if such a place be available. A few Europeans have at +different times tried to follow the habit of native travellers, and in +very exceptional cases it has been successful. The ordinary result has +been the speedy ruin of health.</p> + +<p>Our habits compel us to travel in a different way. When a missionary is +alone, though he cannot travel as a native does, he can put up, and does +put up, with inconveniences to which a family cannot be exposed. The +family, however, requires a change as well as himself; and when wife and +children are with him, as they often are, the house is shut up at home, +home servants are taken, and travelling requires only a slight addition +to the domestic staff. An additional horse is needed for the conveyance +(in India a conveyance is not a luxury but a necessity); two tents are +required, one to be sent on over-night, while the other is kept behind +for occupation; along with the tents, slight portable beds, bedding, +small folding-table, cane chairs, and cooking-vessels. These goods of +the moving household are laden and forwarded on carts called Hackeries, +drawn by oxen. Highly paid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> officials manage as they travel to have with +them many of the luxuries and even some of the elegancies of life, but +missionaries are satisfied if they get necessaries. As we travel we +manage, though not always, to get milk, fowls, and eggs, and +occasionally a kid. Whatever beside we need must be taken with us.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PLEASANT TOURING.</div> + +<p>When the weather is fine, the roads good, the horses and bullocks strong +and manageable, and the attendants efficient, touring in the North-West +in the cold weather is very pleasant. If travelling be prosecuted from +day to day, the custom is to rise very early in the morning at the +earliest dawn, or before dawn, when the morning-star appears, and to +rouse the camp. This was my part when travelling with my household. The +watchman wakened me, and I wakened all around. We got quickly ready, and +set out on our journey of twelve or fourteen miles. The mornings were +not only cool, but often sharply cold. On arriving at the end of our +stage, it might be as early as eight or half-past eight o'clock, we +should find, and often did find, the tent pitched, which had been sent +on over-night, the table spread commonly under a shady tree, the water +boiling, food prepared; and then with a keen appetite we sat down to +breakfast. When the afternoon was a little advanced, the cart arrived +with the tent and other things left behind, and was soon pitched for our +night occupancy. Towards evening the day-tent was taken down, and was +sent on over-night with everything requisite for the next day. When all +the circumstances were favourable, everything went on with an ease and +regularity which made us feel at home while away from home, and gave us +at the same time the constant variety of new scenes.</p> + +<p>The circumstances were not, however, always favour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>able. They were +sometimes the reverse. The new horse was unmanageable, the bullocks were +weak and could not draw the carts, the servants were remiss or +incapable, the roads were in some places shockingly bad, we were left +for hours without tent and food, and, as I have said, the weather now +and then was wet and stormy. We had sometimes an amount of trouble which +made us half regret we had left home. Ladies are generally very patient +in such circumstances, but children are sorely tried. The difficulties +we encountered in some of our early journeys were such that we now +wonder how we got out of them, and succeeded in getting on at all. The +touring in favourable circumstances, which I have described, is not +however a mere ideal. Happily it was often with us a reality. On setting +out things required to be adjusted. Time was required for getting things +into their places, and for each person learning to do the work assigned +him. When once we got into travelling trim, and our people were what +they ought to be, things went on with the regularity of clockwork.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned our long tours in 1842 and 1847. On these journeys we +had a good deal of pleasant smooth travelling, and we also encountered +some of the difficulties of which I have spoken. The Trunk Road from +Allahabad to the North-West was in excellent condition in 1842-43; but +from Benares to Allahabad it had been allowed to get out of repair, and +the roads diverging from the Trunk Road on one side to Futtygurh and on +the other side to Agra we found very bad. The story of our difficulties +is well remembered by us, but it must be given very concisely. At one +place a wheel of our conveyance broke in the middle of a stage, and +after some delay we succeeded in getting an Ekka, a small<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> native +conveyance drawn by a pony, on the narrow platform of which the members +of our party who could not walk were squatted as they best could; while +the rest of us walked. We sent on word of our trouble to our missionary +friends at Futtygurh, who kindly arranged to get us on to their +hospitable abode, and to get our conveyance repaired. Three days after +leaving Futtygurh our best horse died, from sheer fatigue in drawing our +conveyance through the sand. This threw us on having it drawn by +bullocks at the rate of a mile and a half, or at the utmost two miles, +an hour, over a very bad road, which jolted us frightfully.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">WALLED VILLAGES.</div> + +<p>As we travelled we saw many things which drew our attention and excited +our interest. Most of the villages along our route were surrounded by +high mud walls, and had only one entrance by a great strong gate, which +was shut at night, reminding us of the insecurity from which this part +of India had emerged when it came under British rule within the memory +of men then living. Villages thus fortified, if sufficient watch was +kept, were quite secure against the sudden raids of Mahratta horsemen, +or the attacks of robbers, to whose unwelcome visits they were always +exposed. The former state of insecurity was also suggested by the number +we met armed to the teeth, by shield on the breast, sword at the side, +and matchlock on the shoulder. The insecurity had to a great extent come +to an end, but the habit of going armed continued.</p> + +<p>Along the road at convenient distances there were Suras for the +convenience of travellers, which people in England, when speaking of +Eastern lands, call Caravanserais. These are generally open spaces, +surrounded by mud walls, with sheds at their sides for people who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> are +willing to pay a very trifling sum for the luxury of sleeping under +cover, and, if they like, for having their horses near them. Carts and +oxen are always in the open. Sellers of grain and wood are always there +with everything native travellers require. If a bedstead—a low +four-footed article with rope for its bottom and mattress—be preferred +to the bare ground, it can commonly be procured for three-halfpence for +the night. When in the evening we were near these places we went to +them, and saw the poor weary travellers setting to the preparation of +their simple meal—with most the only cooked meal of the day—with +apparently as great contentedness as we have when after a fatiguing day +we reach an hotel, and, having given our orders, know that speedily we +shall sit down to an ample repast. Many of these Suras have been built +at the expense of well-to-do natives impelled by different motives, for +love of name—<i>nam ke liye</i>, as the natives say, a motive for which +their countrymen continually give them credit—for the acquisition of +religious merit, and from benevolent feeling. These places are called +Dhurmsalas, places erected by righteous, good men.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">"WELLS OF SALVATION."</div> + +<p>On this our first long journey in the country, we were impressed by the +amount of traffic we saw on the road; and this impression was deepened +on future occasions. We seldom travelled a few miles without seeing +carts drawn by bullocks and laden with goods. We saw rows of camels, +walking in single file, each attached to the one before and the one +behind by a string. These belonged chiefly, though not exclusively, to +Afghans, and were laden to a large extent with the products of their +country. Every now and then we came across elephants, sometimes with a +stack of tender branches on their back,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> which form a large part of +their food, and at other times with persons seated sometimes on a +howdah, sometimes on a pad. There were many foot-passengers, not a few +with heavy loads on their heads. When these came in sight of a well, how +quickly did they step up to it, throw off their burden, drop into it +their brass vessel attached to a string, draw it up, and take a long, +deep draught of the precious water! As I have observed them I have +thought of the words, "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of +salvation." To these poor toiling people the wells did appear wells of +salvation. On some days we met bands of persons—chiefly men, with a +woman here and there among them—with bamboo rods across their shoulders +with a basket at each end, their travelling gear in and on one basket, +and a vessel with Ganges water in the other. Thousands of these pilgrims +travel every year over Northern India, going from one shrine to another, +and pouring on certain images the water of the sacred river.</p> + +<p>In our journeyings we had a singular immunity from thieves, a greater +immunity than we had in our house at Benares, which was several times +visited by these unwelcome intruders, though we always kept a watchman. +All over the North-West, I suppose all over India, thieves abound. Whole +tribes have for generations followed theft as a profession, and have +betaken themselves to honest work only when compelled by finding their +occupation perilous. They have had as their associates the idle and +dissolute of other castes. Tents, as I have observed, are commonly +pitched in shady groves, and in consequence admit of being approached +unobserved, and a sharp knife in a skilful hand can easily secure an +entrance on any side. Travellers have piquant stories to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> tell of the +cleverness and impudence with which their property has been taken away. +A missionary friend of ours awoke one morning to find that during the +night everything in his tent had disappeared on which thieves could lay +their hand. We had a large experience of tent life, but we have happily +no story to tell about any similar loss. I do not remember our having +had even a night alarm, though I well remember the difficulty we often +had in preventing our guardians from sending forth unearthly cries, +which made sleep impossible. My habit was, wherever we halted, to make +my way to the headman of the adjoining village or town, and to place our +encampment under his care. We were generally told there were thieves in +the neighbourhood; we were sometimes told they were numerous and daring. +We always stated our readiness to pay for watchmen, and we told the +headman that if he did not send trustworthy men we should hold him +responsible. We thus paid a sort of black-mail, but we thought the small +sum paid well expended as insurance for the safety of our property. Some +travellers take watchmen with them. This we never did, as we thought +ourselves safer in the hands of men on the spot. Many a time as we lay +down in our tent did we think how strange it was that, far away from our +European brethren, in a strange land among a strange people, we could +compose ourselves to sleep with as little fear, and with as strong a +feeling of security, as if within locks and bars in our own country. We +thought, with thankfulness, that we were under the ægis of our own +government, even when we were in places where Englishmen were seldom +seen, but where, notwithstanding, our prestige was fully recognized.</p> + +<p>At all the places through which we passed on our first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> long tour, +Allahabad, Cawnpore, Futtygurh, Mynpoorie, and Agra, we were treated +with the utmost kindness by the American and English missionaries, and +by other Christian brethren, some of whom have been life-long friends +ever since.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE BUILDINGS OF AGRA.</div> + +<p>We were interested in all the places we saw on this tour; but +Agra—Akbarabad, as natives always call it, the capital of Akbar, the +most remarkable emperor who ever ruled over India—had for us, as for +all who have visited it, peculiar attractions. When at some distance +from the city we saw glistening in the sun the lofty dome and the still +loftier four minarets or towers of the Taj Muhal, that wondrous +mausoleum of the purest marble, built by the Emperor Shah Jehan for a +favourite queen. On our arrival we lost no time in going to it. On +subsequent visits to Agra we renewed our acquaintance with it, and on +every new occasion its exquisite beauty and lofty grandeur enhanced our +admiration. We also saw the Motee Musjid, the Pearl Mosque as it is +called, built of marble, and called the Pearl Mosque, as I suppose, on +account of its beauty and symmetry; the grand tomb of Akbar at Secundra, +six miles from Agra; and other objects of interest. I am not to attempt +a description of these world-famed buildings of Agra. They have been +often described, and by none perhaps better than by Bishop Heber in his +journal, which is now little read, but which gives a more graphic and +accurate account of the parts of India he visited in 1825 than any I +have seen elsewhere. Of the Taj and other grand structures of the +Muhammadan emperors, he says they look as if "built by a giant and +furnished by a jeweller."</p> + +<p>While deeply interested in much we saw in this tour of 1842-43, on it, +as well as on all subsequent tours, our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> great evangelistic object was +kept steadily in view. On this occasion I was accompanied by a +catechist. In the early afternoon, when we might hope to meet people +released from the work of the day, we repaired to the neighbouring +village. Often we found a large tree at the entrance to the village, +with a stone seat close to its trunk, and on it we sat down. If there +was no such seat a small native bedstead was often brought—such a thing +as a chair was unknown—and we were asked to sit, while the people +politely stood, till at our request they sat, which they can well do on +their haunches. We entered into conversation with those who gathered +around us. We asked if there was any pundit, any learned man in the +village; and if there was we were happy to see him come, as we knew the +people would look on us with less suspicion if he was present. In many +places they were so unaccustomed to the sight of Europeans that they +looked on us with a mingled feeling of curiosity and fear. We tried to +put them at ease by speaking about something in which we knew they were +deeply interested, such as their fields and crops, and as soon as we +well could we made our way to the subject of religion. We read those +passages from our Scriptures which we thought most fitted to arrest +their attention. We aimed at setting forth the great facts and truths of +revelation with all the simplicity, conciseness, and earnestness we +could command. We repeated what was not understood, or was +misunderstood, and endeavoured to make it plain by familiar +illustrations.</p> + +<p>We met with varied reception. In some places the people were so stolid, +that even the catechist, one of their own people, seemed to make no +impression. On many occasions we were heard most patiently, and were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +treated most courteously. Now and then, especially in the larger places, +and where markets were being held—these are held weekly in central +places, sometimes twice a week, and are well attended—there was much +noise and great interruption. At times we encountered strong, bitter, +and captious opposition. On the whole we met with far less opposition, +and with a much more patient and respectful hearing, than at our stated +work in a city like Benares. Often we were thanked for our visit, and +were told our teaching well deserved consideration. Not infrequently the +remark was made, "What you say is very good, but we never heard it +before; we understand it very imperfectly, you will be leaving +to-morrow, and we shall forget it all." We parted with such persons with +a heavy heart. We always halted on the Lord's Day, and often on other +days, when we met with encouragement and circumstances permitted.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">AN ANCIENT CAPITAL.</div> + +<p>Kunauj, now a poor, decayed town, composed chiefly of low mud-built +houses, with not one fine building in it so far as I remember, was, as I +have already mentioned, for ages the most famous city in Northern India, +the capital of sovereigns ruling over extensive regions. The Brahmans of +Kunauj continue to hold the highest rank in the Brahmanical hierarchy, +but I believe only a few reside in Kunauj and its neighbourhood. As we +learned it was only a few miles off the Trunk Road, we determined to +halt a day for the purpose of visiting it. We accordingly went to it one +morning, and remained in it some time, looking at the mounds which cover +the ruins of its palaces, and which is all that remains to tell of its +former greatness. A number gathered around us, with whom we conversed. +They seemed so much interested in what we said about the Saviour, that +we promised to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> visit them on our return. We accordingly arranged to +remain a Sabbath at the part of the Trunk Road nearest to Kunauj. +Reaching it on a Saturday we sent on a small tent, and early next day, +accompanied by the catechist, I made my way to the town. There we +remained the entire day, and I have seldom had such a day of pleasant +toil. The people came in crowds, and talk on the highest subjects was +kept up from hour to hour. The catechist, after a time, left me to visit +some persons he knew in the neighbourhood, and I was left alone to +unfold the doctrines of Christianity, and to answer the questions put to +me. I more than once said, "I must have rest." All went out, and I lay +down on a piece of carpet on the floor of the tent. Some one soon peeped +in; "Have you not had rest now, sir?" and so I had to get up and resume +my work, not over well-pleased the catechist had left it all to me. +Since that time Kunauj has had visits from missionaries, and they have +had many hearers, but I have not heard of any fruit gathered from these +visits in the form of converts.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">AN EARNEST INQUIRER.</div> + +<p>I was greatly impressed with one visit I received on this tour. We had +got over our morning journey. I was, I suppose, more tired than usual, +for in the forenoon I lay down on our travelling bedstead to rest. I +heard a voice at the tent door, "Sahib, sahib!"—"Sir, sir!"—and I +said, "Come in." In came a native well dressed, and looking as if tired +with a long walk. I told him to sit down on the carpet, which he did, +and he then proceeded to tell me the object of his visit. He said in +substance: "Last night you were in a village twelve miles from this +place, and you there spoke much of an incarnation, an '<i>autar</i>,' which +had for its object the deliverance of man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> from the power and punishment +of sin. One who heard you last night told me something of what you had +said. I have long been a worshipper of the gods of my fathers, but I +have got no rest, no satisfaction. I have heard much of incarnations, +but I know of no sinless one. Not one of them has done me any good. Have +you certain information of one that can deliver me and satisfy me?" I +need not say what I said in reply to this great inquiry. We talked long +and earnestly. I found he could read, and I gave him a Gospel and some +tracts. He professed to be much interested. I begged him to give me his +address that I might communicate with him. He did not pointedly refuse, +but no address was given to me, apparently from the fear, so common +among the people, of the reproach and suffering which will come upon +them if they be suspected of an intention to abandon their ancestral +religion. I parted with the man praying, that he might be led to the +Saviour. Often, often have I thought of him; often have I hoped that +what was said that forenoon had sunk into his heart; but I have never +seen him, never heard of him, since that time.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned that early in 1847 we went to Almora, in the Hill +Province of Kumaon, and towards the end of the year returned to Benares. +Before our departure we had the pleasure of seeing the completion of a +work which had made a great demand on our time and attention, and had +caused us no small anxiety—the erection of a new place of worship in +the Grecian style, in the place of the small mud building in which we +had hitherto met. This was our first essay in building, and our +inexperience led us into many mistakes, which we tried to avoid in +future work of the kind. The building cost above £1,200, fully twice the +sum we had calculated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> Through the liberality of friends its entire +cost was met within six months of its opening, and it has proved of +great service to the Mission. The opening services were conducted in +Hindustanee and English. The late Rev. J. A. Shurman preached with great +power in Hindustanee to a crowded congregation composed of Christians, +Hindus, and Muhammadans, and I preached in English to a large European +congregation. We were greatly encouraged by the liberal collections made +at these services.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SLOW TRAVELLING.</div> + +<p>I must defer to a later period of this work what I have to say about +Kumaon, to which we paid several visits, and where we spent the last +years of our Indian life. Our journeying to and from Kumaon in 1847 was +partly over the ground traversed on our trip to Agra in 1842-43, and +partly over new ground, as one may see by looking at the map of Northern +India. The conditions of the journey were to a large extent those I have +already described; but we suffered from bad roads, from our camp +equipage falling behind, and I may add from inefficient service, much +more than we had formerly done. On reaching Almora we mentioned to a +friend the route we had taken, and he said, "Surely you have not come in +a wheeled conveyance, for I am told that road is impassable." I told him +the road was passable, for we had passed it, but if we had previously +known what it was we should not have attempted it. Amidst the tracks we +saw, we often had difficulty in deciding which was the road. Between +unbridged streams with high banks, ditches, and deep ruts which caught +our wheels and would not let them go, our progress was much impeded; but +we toiled on. At one place we were happily helped by a company of +Sepoys, whose medical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> officer was a dear Christian friend. In other +places we were extricated by the help of villagers.</p> + +<p>As we journeyed in these circumstances we were not in a mood to be +amused, but I was amused one day by the contrast between a romantic lady +and an unromantic "sais" (<i>anglicè</i>, groom). The Hills had come grandly +into view, but unhappily we were fast in a ditch. The lady looking to +the "sais" said, "Sais, do you not see the hills?" To which he most +dolefully replied, not lifting his eyes as he spoke, "Madam, what can I +see? We are stuck in the mud."</p> + +<p>One day we took full ten hours to go twelve miles. When we came to the +end of our stage we found we had to encamp for the night in the low +scrub of the forest, with stagnant water all around us. There was a hut +at the place with two native policemen to help travellers, and we were +told by them that there had been for some days in the neighbourhood what +is called "a rogue elephant"—an elephant which, for some reason known +only in elephant councils has been driven out of the herd, and is so +enraged by his expulsion that he is ready to run amuck at every person +and animal he sees. This was not pleasant intelligence. We found native +carts at the place, ready to proceed in the morning to a market to be +held at the foot of the hills; and after a very uncomfortable night, +much disturbed by the cries of the beasts of the wilderness, we set out, +the people shouting to scare the elephant, which, though ready for +mischief, is frightened by noise. We saw no trace of him. When the day +was well advanced we reached a rest-house close to the hills, with a +brawling stream behind it, with which our children as well as ourselves +were delighted, one of them clapping his hands and saying, "Water clear +and bright!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> We had our first and rather perilous hill journey the next +day, but my account of it and subsequent journeys in the mountains must +be reserved for another time.</p> + +<p>We went to Kumaon by the most direct route through Futtygurh and +Bareilly. We returned by a longer route <i>viâ</i> Meerut and Delhi. Our +difficulties on our way back were somewhat different, but they were +quite as great as on our upward journey. Some of the streams we had to +cross were not fordable, and we had great difficulty in getting +ourselves ferried over. A few nights were spent in exceeding discomfort, +our carts not having come up with our tents, and we were shelterless and +supperless—rather, if I may coin such a word, dinnerless. One night +cover was got for my wife and children, but a missionary brother and +myself remained out all night, with no possibility of obtaining rest, as +a pack of jackals were gorging themselves on the carcase of a bullock, +and making the most hideous noises. As the night was cold, and we had no +bedding, it was perhaps well the jackals were there, as otherwise we +might have been tempted to lie down on the bare ground, which we could +not have done with safety to our health. When once we got to the Trunk +Road, which we had from Delhi to Benares, our travelling difficulties +were at an end, and we got on most comfortably.</p> + +<p>At Delhi our tents were pitched in an open space near the house of Mr. +Thompson, for many years the Baptist missionary in that city, whose +widow and daughters were afterwards so barbarously murdered by the +mutineers in 1857. With him and his family, and with some other +Christian friends there, we had much pleasant intercourse during the few +days we remained. We of course saw the sights of the grand old imperial +city—the Juma Musjid said to be the largest mosque in Asia, a most +command<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>ing building on a small rocky elevation, to which you ascend by +a lofty flight of steps, and which has a most magnificent court paved +with granite inlaid with marble; the palace, so far as it was open to +visitors; the Chandnee Chauk, the great open street and market-place +with a fine stream of water flowing through it; and, at the distance of +a few miles from the city, the remarkable tower, the Kootub Minar, 240 +feet high, erected by the Muhammadan conquerors who first made Delhi +their capital. For miles around there are ruins of mosques, mausoleums, +palaces, and splendid mansions. For a description of Delhi, as for the +description of Agra, I must refer my readers to Bishop Heber's Journal.</p> + +<p>During this journey to and from Kumaon we carried on, so far as +circumstances permitted, the missionary work I have already mentioned. +Our experience while prosecuting this tour so closely resembled that of +which I have already given an account, that it is unnecessary to enter +into details.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY.</div> + +<p>As on our visit to Agra in 1842-43, so on these journeys of 1847 we met +with the greatest kindness from our missionary brethren, some of whom we +had afterwards the privilege of entertaining at Benares. It mattered not +whether they were Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Baptist, English, +Continental, or American (at that time there were no Methodist missions +in Northern India), we received a cordial welcome, and though formerly +unknown to each other we at once felt at home. We sometimes felt in much +need of help, and it was most readily afforded. To some other Christian +friends we met our grateful acknowledgments are due.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3><i>RETURN TO BENARES.</i></h3> + +<h3>VOYAGE TO ENGLAND AND RETURN TO INDIA, A.D. 1847-1857.</h3> + + +<p>When two more years had passed, during which we were enabled to carry on +our work with few interruptions, we found that, beneficial though our +visit to the hills had been, we stood in need of a still greater change, +and of a more thorough bracing of both body and mind. Health again began +to fail, and we felt unequal to the work devolving on us. We accordingly +left Benares for Calcutta towards the end of 1849. As our children were +young, and travelling by land was both fatiguing and expensive, we hired +a budgerow and sailed down the Ganges. Our voyage lasted over four +weeks. It gave us the opportunity of touching at a number of places, +Ghazeepore, Buxar, Monghyr, Dinapore, Patna, and Berhampore, in most of +which we had the pleasure of meeting missionary brethren. Towards the +end of January we embarked on the ship <i>Monarch</i>, and after a +prosperous, though not a rapid, voyage we arrived in England in May, +1850. The only place at which we touched was St. Helena. We lay off it +the greater part of a day, but none were allowed to land as we had +measles on board.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<p>I will dismiss our stay in England in a few sentences, as it is no part +of my plan to give English reminiscences. Like other missionaries on +leave, I visited many places in England and Scotland on behalf of the +Society of which I was an agent. At the expiration of our leave in the +autumn of 1852 medical opinion forbade our departure. By the autumn of +1853 health was so improved that the way was open for our return to +India.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VOYAGE TO INDIA.</div> + +<p>After a season of severe domestic trial, which delayed our departure, my +partner, myself, and two children embarked on board the <i>Indiana</i>, one +of a new magnificent line of steamers plying to India round the Cape of +Good Hope, in November. The voyage extended to eleven weeks. The weather +throughout was remarkably favourable. We touched at the Islands of St. +Vincent, Ascension, the Cape of Good Hope, the Mauritius, Point de +Galle, and Madras. We landed at most of these places, and this took away +in a great measure the weariness of a long voyage, which I must say we +felt increasingly on every successive occasion. We were detained at the +Cape for three or four days, which gave us an opportunity of getting to +the top of Table Mountain, and of visiting the vineyards a few miles out +of Cape Town. We were hospitably entertained by Mr. Thompson, and +attended his services on the Lord's Day. Mr. Ellis, who was at the time +at the Mauritius, kindly came on board as soon as the <i>Indiana</i> came to +anchor, and took us on shore to the house of our missionary, Mr. Le +Brun. We attended his service—it was the Lord's Day—and were delighted +to see so many present, several of whom we were told were refugees from +Madagascar. The congregation was well-nigh entirely composed of people +of colour, varying from the brown of the mixed race to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> jet black of +the negro. The white dresses formed a striking contrast to the dusky +faces, many of which, dark though they were, were lit up with an +expression indicative of intelligence and contentment. The service was +conducted in French, which continues to be the language of the island, +although many years have elapsed since it became a British possession. +After the service we were taken to the house of the Secretary to +Government, who hospitably entertained us. We embarked the next day. As +we were proceeding to the shore we were struck with the familiar sounds +of the Hindustanee language from the lips of Indian coolies. We were +sorry we could exchange with them only a few passing words. During the +few hours we were off Madras we had the pleasure of landing and seeing +some of the missionaries there.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOURNEY TO BENARES.</div> + +<p>After a short stay in Calcutta, we set out for Benares. The journey was +performed in a new fashion. We purchased a conveyance, and arranged to +have it drawn by relays of coolies all the way. Arrangements were made +by an agent in Calcutta to have word sent on in advance, so that at +every sixth or eighth mile coolies might be in readiness for us. Before +1839 the great Trunk Road from Calcutta to Delhi had been made, but the +streams and ravines were for the most part unbridged, and consequently +travelling by a wheeled conveyance was very slow and difficult. By 1854 +the road had been greatly improved, many bridges had been made, and thus +the facilities for travelling were much increased. At every twelve or +fourteen miles there were rest-houses for European travellers, called +"staging bungalows," all built on the same plan at the expense of two +wealthy natives, each with two rooms and a bath-room attached, a +bedstead in each room, a table, and two or three chairs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> with a man in +charge to take a small sum from each traveller for accommodation, and +ready to furnish him with a good Indian meal at a very moderate rate. At +some of these we stopped for rest and food. Our party consisted of our +family, and a lady friend who wished to travel with us. Desirous to get +on quickly, we were sometimes in our conveyance twenty hours out of the +twenty-four, and dosed as we proceeded the best way we could. We met +with no adventure worth relating, and were glad after ten days' +journeying to find ourselves once more in our old dear abode. We had a +most hearty and gratifying welcome from our brethren, both European and +native. We reached it on a Saturday. I told the brethren that after my +long absence, and entire disuse of the native language during that +period, I must be a hearer the next day. They said that could not be, as +the people were expecting me to officiate. Thus urged I ventured to +conduct the service, and I was agreeably surprised to find that old +scenes seemed to revive my knowledge of the language, and to bear me +through with unexpected ease.</p> + +<p>We resumed work at Benares recruited in health, and refreshed in spirit, +and prepared by the experience of previous years to prosecute it with +new effectiveness. We had a sense of the difficulties of the work, its +trials and discouragements, and of the absolute necessity of Divine help +in order to its being rightly prosecuted, which we could not have had at +an earlier period; and we had at the same time a deeper realization of +its greatness, blessedness, and final certain triumph. The missionary +has little of the spirit of his office, and little fitness for it, who +at every successive stage of his course is not increasingly bent on +honouring his Master and promoting the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> good of the people among whom he +labours, and who is not at the same time increasingly thankful for +having been called to so high an office, while deeply humbled at his own +unworthiness and his many shortcomings.</p> + +<p>During the three years under review, our native Christian congregation +was larger than it had been at any previous period, and, I am sorry to +say, larger than it has been in later years. There were at that time +about twenty Christian households in the mission compound, and several +Christian families came from a little distance. There was a +printing-press in our neighbourhood, which gave employment to a number +of our people, and others succeeded in getting situations which gave +them comfortable support. It was a gladdening sight, when the gong was +struck for worship, to see them making their way to the chapel, and to +find them, when assembled there, well-nigh filling the place, all +cleanly clad, and devoutly engaged in the service of God. Many a time +was my heart full of joy and hope when ministering to them. We had, +indeed, our difficulties and trials. These are never long or far from us +wherever we may be. There were inconsistencies and lapses among the +native Christians which grieved us; but their general conduct was good, +they were at peace with each other, and in some there were marked +indications of growing piety.</p> + +<p>Our tours during the cold weather of these years were mainly confined to +the country within thirty or forty miles of Benares. Our only tour of +any length was in January and February of 1857, when we went on the +Calcutta road as far as Susseram, more than a hundred miles distant; +and, leaving the Trunk Road, made our way to the rock of Rohtas, +overlooking the Soane, where there are extensive remains of an imperial +fort. We lodged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> one night in one of the deserted halls, of which there +were several in a fair state of preservation, and we were told that to +these the tigers of the surrounding forest occasionally resorted. During +the Mutiny this fort was for some time the headquarters of a rebel +chief. With the exception of this tour to the east of Benares, to which +I shall afterwards refer, our experience in these itineracies closely +accorded with that of former years. During this period the school and +preaching work of the mission was steadily prosecuted by the catechists +and missionaries.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TWO GATHERINGS AT BENARES.</div> + +<p>Towards the close of 1856, and at the beginning of 1857, there were two +interesting gatherings at Benares. The one was the meeting of boys and +lads from all parts of the province for a Biblical Examination—of which +I have already given some account. The other was a Missionary +Conference, which was largely attended and efficiently conducted. The +facilities for travelling were not so great as they are now, but they +were such as admitted the presence of a number of missionaries from +distant places. We parted deeply thankful for the pleasant and +profitable intercourse we had had with each other. Little did we think +of the terrible storm which was so soon to break over us, in which +several of our number were to lose their lives.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE MUTINY OF 1857-58.</i></h3> + + +<p>No one who was within the range of the hurricane of 1857, no one who was +even on its edge, can ever forget it. When we now look back, we marvel +that a single European in that part of India was spared to tell of its +fierce struggle, its sad sights, and its fearful perils. The annals of +the Mutiny are furnished in volumes filled with ample details. Its +causes and consequences have been largely discussed. My narrower and +humbler aim is to describe that terrible outbreak so far, and only so +far, as it came within my own experience and observation. My narrative +will, however, be better understood by stating briefly the causes, +which, in my opinion, led to this great rising against us, and by giving +an outline of its progress before reaching Benares, where we then +resided.</p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">CAUSES OF THE MUTINY.</p> + +<p>Our position in India is very peculiar. The history of the world +presents no parallel. A great continent, containing a number of nations, +possessed of an ancient civilization, some of them composed of races +given to war and noted for their prowess, with a population amounting at +present to 253 millions, has been brought under the dominion of a +country of limited extent and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> limited population like ours, separated +from it by many intervening countries, and accessible only by thousands +of miles of ocean. That continent has not been subjected to tribute, and +then left to its native rulers. Over by far the greater part of India +these rulers have been displaced, and British rule has been established. +Where native rulers remain, they are bound to administer their affairs +in accordance with the views of the Sovereign Power. Over a part of the +Indian continent the rule commenced more than a hundred years ago, and +from decade to decade it has extended till it now embraces its present +vast proportions. It extends beyond India. In the North-West we have +entered into what properly belongs to Afghanistan, and from Burma a +large extent of territory has been taken; so that the east as well as +the west coast of the Bay of Bengal has come under our rule. To all +appearance the rule is as firmly established as if it had come down from +ancient times.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">INDIA CONQUERED BY INDIAN SOLDIERS.</div> + +<p>It would be a great mistake to suppose that India had been conquered for +England by its own people. If they had been left to themselves, no part +of it would now belong to us. The small European force has always been +the backbone of our armies; but in every battle native soldiers have +formed the great majority. The French gave us the example of employing +native soldiers to place their country under European rule. In the +dissolution of the Mogul Empire, thousands of warriors were ready to +fight the battles of any one, European or native, who would pay them +well. The example of the French was followed by the English, till India, +from Cape Comorin to the mountains of the north and the north-west, came +under their sway, to an extent and with a completeness and firmness of +grasp never reached by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> the Muhammadan power in its palmiest days. Each +Presidency—Bengal, Madras, and Bombay—has had its own native army, in +1857 amounting altogether to 240,000 men. In the Bengal army, by far the +largest of the three, there has never been a single native of Bengal +Proper. It has been entirely composed of north countrymen, to a large +extent of Brahmans, and Chhatrees the old fighting caste of India, who +have entered our service on account of its good pay and good treatment, +though alien from us in everything by which one people can be alien from +another. Many of the native soldiers have been Muhammadans, who are +intensely averse to us on both religious and political grounds. Under +the influence of friendly intercourse and good offices performed to each +other, a kindly feeling often sprung up between officers and men; but as +a body they were mercenary troops fighting for strangers, and the +history of the world furnishes abundant instances of such an army being +as formidable to their employers as to those against whom they have been +employed. In the course of time our native soldiers were more and more +trusted; important places were garrisoned by them, military stores were +entrusted to them; and nothing was more natural than that in the more +ambitious of their number the thought should spring up that the time had +arrived for expelling the stranger, and seizing the power within their +grasp. In thus acting they could make themselves sure of the sympathy of +their countrymen.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CAUSES OF DISSATISFACTION.</div> + +<p>The Sepoys have been treated in the matter of pay, clothing, and food, +as they never were under native rulers; but they have been subjected to +strict discipline, and they have been cut off from the much-prized +privilege of foraging, or rather plundering. They have at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> different +times complained loudly of unjust treatment. Alleged breach of promises +of pay, and their being sent to fight our battles in foreign countries +such as Burmah, China, Persia, and Afghanistan, and to parts of India +foreign to them, have been prominent among their causes of complaint. +They have not confined themselves to complaint and remonstrance; they +have again and again broken out into mutiny, which has led to some +regiments being disbanded, and the mutineer leaders being severely +punished. Years before 1857 it was asserted by persons eminently +qualified to judge, like Sir Henry Lawrence, that grievous mistakes had +been committed in the administration of the native army, and that our +safety demanded great changes in its treatment and distribution. When +one reads the statements they made, and the warnings they gave, the +wonder is the mutiny did not sooner occur. Lord Ellenborough, before +leaving India, declared the Sepoys were our one peril in India, and +characteristically proposed we should keep them in humour by keeping +them always fighting.</p> + +<p>All other causes of revolt were light compared with the charge often +advanced and believed that we were bent on the destruction of their +religion. From the outbreak at Vellore in 1806, on to the great mutiny +of 1857, this charge was persistently made. The Sepoys were allowed all +the religious liberty compatible with military obedience; they had every +facility for following their religious customs; they were fenced off +from Christian influences as no other part of the community was; they +were solemnly assured again and again their religion would be +scrupulously respected; they had full evidence before their eyes that +with few exceptions their officers had no Christian zeal. Whence, then, +this charge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> tampering with their religion? The explanation is to be +found in the character of Hinduism. It is intensely outward. It is a +matter of rite and ceremony, of meat and drink, of clothing and posture. +It may be filched from a man without any act of his own by the act of +another, and he may not be aware till informed that the fatal loss has +been incurred. Something may be introduced into his food which will +deprive him of his religion, and make him an outcast all his days. What +more easy than to introduce a defiling element, such as the blood or fat +of the cow or bullock, of which the Brahman or Rajpoot might unaware +partake? To this intensely outward religion people of these castes are +passionately attached from custom, from superstition, and still more, I +think, from the consideration among themselves and others which caste +purity secures. Their honour, <i>izzat</i>, as they call it, is their most +valuable possession. An attack on it is bitterly resented. This honour +is quite consistent with licentiousness, robbery, plunder, and even +murder; but to violate caste by drinking from the vessel of a low-caste +man, or eating with him, would bring with it indelible disgrace. To +partake of the cow, the sacred animal, is the greatest crime which can +be committed, and, if done unconsciously, the greatest calamity.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the fact that the English as a people had little zeal +for their religion, the Sepoys thought they saw reasons for our wishing +to effect their conversion. If Christians, they would be fitter +instruments for carrying out the designs of their English conquerors. +They would in that case be no longer hampered by class distinctions, +commissariat arrangements could be more easily made, they would have no +objection to serving in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> foreign lands, and they would become identified +with us. What was more easy than to effect the change by the +manipulation of their food? Their imagination led them to interpret +facts as justifying suspicion, and the supposition was enough to drive +them to revolt.</p> + +<p>The Muhammadans in India have become Hinduized to a large extent; they +continually speak of themselves as a caste, and Muhammadan soldiers have +shared with their Hindu comrades in the fear that the English were bent +on destroying their religion. They took the most prominent part in the +mutiny at Vellore in 1806. They were injudiciously required there to put +on the English military hat, to shave their beards, and put on leather +belts, which they maintained were made of pigs' skins; and all this was +done, they said, to turn them into <i>Topeewalas</i>, Hatmen—in other words, +into Englishmen and Christians.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CO-OPERATING CAUSES FOR REVOLT.</div> + +<p>Outside the army there have been causes, co-operating with those within, +in prompting the soldiers to rise against us. Our government is a very +foreign one. There is a national gulf between the rulers and the ruled, +and consequent absence of the sympathy which would draw them to each +other, if they were of the same people. Our government is at once +expensive and strong, requiring a large amount of taxation considering +the resources of the country, and able to enforce its payment. India has +been greatly favoured by high-minded and able rulers; but often, with +the best intentions, from want of thorough acquaintance with the native +character and customs, injustice has at times been done by the decisions +of our courts. Though giving security for person and property, such as +India had never previously enjoyed, our government has borne hardly on +some classes, such as the officials of the native states we have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +annexed, the numerous dependents of the abolished native courts, and the +able and enterprising members of the community, for whom no suitable +sphere has been open, as the main prizes in both the military and civil +services are reserved for the English stranger. Then deposed princes +have now and then intrigued with the army to draw it away from its +allegiance.</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1856 Lord Dalhousie laid down his office, after his +long and memorable Proconsulship. So little did he anticipate the events +of the coming year, that in the elaborate Minute he wrote on his +retirement he satisfied himself with saying, regarding the native army, +that the condition of the Sepoy could not be improved. Till the closing +months of the year there was no fear of the coming storm. Profound peace +reigned throughout India. War had been declared against Persia, but +hopes were entertained that victory would soon crown our arms, and these +hopes were fulfilled.</p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">THREATENINGS OF THE STORM.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of 1856 and early in 1857 there were mutterings of the +storm. A number of men were selected from each regiment to be taught the +use of the Enfield rifle, and for this purpose a new cartridge was +required, which required to be bitten with the teeth. The report spread +like wild-fire, and was firmly believed, that the cartridge was smeared +with bullock's fat to destroy the caste of the Hindus, and with pig's +fat to destroy the caste of the Muhammadans. The Adjutant-General of the +army declared there was not the slightest ground for the statement; but +the more strongly our innocence of design on their religion was +asserted, the more firmly did the Sepoys believe our guilt. Paper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> was +offered to them, and they were told to prepare cartridges for +themselves; but they said the paper was dangerously glazed, and they +would not accept it. Among other things causing disquietude was an order +that in future all enlisting must engage to go wherever they might be +sent in India or beyond. Hitherto some regiments had been enlisted only +for service in India, and could not be sent out of it except by their +own consent. On every side there were signs of a new era setting in, +which forbode no good to the ancient customs and institutions of the +land. The more aspiring spirits among the Sepoys had evidently formed +the project of uniting the whole army in the attempt to drive the +English into the sea, and secure power and emolument for themselves.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOURABLE TO REVOLT.</div> + +<p>Various things favoured the project. It was well known that many +throughout India hated the English, and were ready to join in their +expulsion. Forts and arsenals were left in their keeping, unchecked by +the presence of European soldiers. The mass of the European force was in +the far North-West, in the Punjab, and towards the border of +Afghanistan, as if there the danger lay. The Sepoys saw that if they +could combine and act in concert they could with ease strike us to the +ground. Then the prophecy was widely spread that our rule was speedily +to come to an end. It had commenced with our victory at Plassey on June +23, 1757; and when the sun of June 23, 1857, should set, not one English +face would be seen in India. Mysterious cakes, resembling our bannocks, +were sent on from village to village, like the fiery cross in Scotland +in former days, to prepare the people for great and startling events. +Early in 1857 the ferment among the soldiers was spreading among large +classes of the people.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> + +<p>During the cold weather of 1856-57 I spent some weeks in travelling with +my family in the country to the east of Benares, on the Calcutta road. +We left the high-road and made our way, as I have already mentioned, to +Rohtas Gurh, a famous abandoned fortress on the top of a hill. In some +of the villages to which I went to preach the Gospel the bitterest +feeling was shown, especially by young men, towards our rule and +religion. In one place the feeling manifested was so bitter that I +thought they were prepared to lay violent hands on me. I remember +remarking more than once, as I returned to the tent weary and worn out +in body and mind, that a strange feeling was coming over the people, +which I had never previously observed, and that I feared dark days were +approaching.</p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">THE OUTBREAK AND PROGRESS OF THE MUTINY.</p> + +<p>At Berhampore, more than a hundred miles above Calcutta, and +Barrackpore, a few miles from it, the Sepoys broke into open mutiny, +which led to the leaders being executed and their regiments disbanded. +The outbreak at these places made a painful impression on the entire +English community, and created deep anxiety. That anxiety was increased +by the reports received from day to day of the mutinous spirit shown by +the Sepoys all over the country. We were told of midnight meetings, +insolent conduct, and incendiary fires. The most sanguine could not but +fear that we were entering a calamitous period. The most hopeful were +those officers who had been long with native regiments, and were sure +that whatever others might do, their men would remain staunch.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE RISING AT MEERUT.</div> + +<p>At length, on May 10th, the storm burst out at Meerut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> in all its fury. +I cannot enter on a detailed account of the events of that sad, +memorable day. I can only in a few words mention what took place. On the +previous day 87 men of a native cavalry regiment had, before the whole +garrison of the place, been put in irons for repeated persistent +disobedience. Though there was a large European force a native guard was +put over the prisoners, who were confined in a place close to their +comrades. No precaution was taken against their rescue. On the evening +of the next day, Sunday, as the Europeans were gathering for Church, the +Sepoys rose, murdered their officers, hastened to the parade ground, +liberated their imprisoned comrades, opened the jails, raised all the +villainy of the native town, massacred the Christians whom they met, +men, women, and children, set houses on fire, and then set out for +Delhi, the great old imperial city. There they were welcomed by the +titular king and his family, and there, as at Meerut, they murdered all +the Christians on whom they could lay hold. By the mismanagement of the +large European force at Meerut, a small portion of which was well able +to cope with the Sepoys, they did not arrive on the scene of revolt till +the Sepoys had done all the mischief on which they were bent, and had +set out for Delhi.</p> + +<p>That 10th of May we remember vividly. We had had our usual afternoon +service with the native Christians. In the evening we walked out in the +garden. The moon was shining in an unclouded sky. Hot though the weather +was we enjoyed our quiet walk, talked of the services of the day, and +the threatening appearance of affairs. Little did we think of the +terrible scenes which were then being enacted at Meerut.</p> + +<p>The outbreak at Meerut awoke as with a peal of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> loudest thunder the +entire English community in India, and especially in Northern India, to +a sense of imminent peril. We had hitherto lived in the enjoyment of +profound security. There had been uneasiness on different occasions, +when our power seemed imperilled by the disasters which overtook us in +Afghanistan in 1841-42, and by the life and death struggle we had +afterwards with the Sikhs. Our enemies were then watching for our fall, +and the reasons for uneasiness at those times were stronger than the +community generally were aware of. There had been also at different +times uneasiness in reference to the Sepoys, but they came to be +regarded as wilful children, who might be troublesome, but who would do +us no harm. In our own country, among our own people, we could not have +felt safer than we ordinarily did. At the travelling season we went +about, pitched our tents in solitary spots, for weeks together perhaps +did not see a white face, and were treated not only with courtesy, but +generally with profound deference, as if we belonged to a superior race. +The people in their obsequious fashion, and with their idolatrous views, +would almost have given us divine honours. All at once we realized +ourselves as living in the midst of a dense alien population. Our own +trusted soldiers, serving under our banners, receiving our pay, and +sworn to defend us, had risen against us; and with them as declared +enemies, in whom could we confide? Our obsequious servants of yesterday +might become our murderers to-day. We felt ourselves at bay, surrounded +by a host who might any moment fall on us and destroy us.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE OUTBREAK AT BENARES.</i></h3> + + +<p>At no place was the shock felt more severely than at Benares, where I +was residing with my family. In no place was the danger greater. We were +living in the suburbs of the most superstitious and fanatical city in +the land. Again and again during the eighty years of our rule there had +been riots in the city, professedly to avenge religious wrongs—riots so +formidable, that they were quelled by military force. A very few years +previous to 1857 the city was thrown into violent commotion, in +consequence of new messing regulations in the jail, by which it was +alleged, though without reason, the caste of the prisoners would be +affected. The rowdy element, composed of those emphatically called +<i>bud-mash</i> "evil-doers," persons ready for every mischief, was very +strong. The Sepoys put in the forefront of their quarrel the plea that +they were fighting for their religion, and where could they expect so +much sympathy and help as in Kasee? Sir Henry Lawrence, writing some +time previously about the mistakes committed in the management of the +native army, named Benares as a place where fearful scenes would be +witnessed in the event of a Sepoy rising. Intensely Hindu, though +Benares be, it has, as we have already observed, a large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> Muhammadan +population, and in attacking us the Hindus could fully depend on their +help.</p> + +<p>Our danger was greatly increased by the vast disproportion between the +native and European force—a disproportion so great, that apart from the +danger of our neighbourhood to a great city, from which we might expect +a host to pour out to attack us, it looked as if we were doomed to +destruction. We had in Benares a Native Infantry regiment, which was +believed to be tainted; a Sikh regiment, the temper of which was little +known; and, a few miles off, an Irregular Cavalry regiment, composed, it +was said, of a superior class of men, all, I believe, Muhammadans, but +whom few could trust in the event of a rising. Our European force +consisted of thirty artillery-men in charge of a battery of three guns. +At the fort of Chunar, sixteen miles distant, there was a number of +European soldier pensioners, of whom perhaps sixty or seventy might be +effective. So unbounded had been the confidence in the Sepoys, that the +artillery-men in Benares and the pensioners in Chunar were the only +European force in the entire province of Benares under the Benares +Commissioner, with a population of over ten millions; while in seven +stations in the province there were native soldiers, chiefly infantry, +but partly cavalry and artillery. Besides the English officers of the +native regiments, and some half-dozen English civil officials, the only +English people were missionaries of the Church, Baptist, and London +Societies, and a few traders, while a few indigo planters were scattered +in the country.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PREPARATION FOR THE STORM.</div> + +<p>On the news of the Meerut mutiny reaching Benares, the civil and +military authorities lost no time in consulting what should be done. The +proposal that we should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> leave in a body for the Fort of Chunar was most +wisely rejected. It was impossible to disarm the distrusted Native +Infantry regiment in the absence of a European force. There was a large +building in cantonments, which had been erected for a mint for the +North-Western Provinces, and had been used for this purpose till the +provincial mints were removed to Calcutta. It always afterwards bore the +name of "The Mint." This building is in a wide enclosure, surrounded by +a high wall, and it was hinted all round that in the event of a rising +we should, if possible, make our way to this place. The Irregular +Cavalry regiment was called in to patrol the roads leading to the +station and city, and report the presence of suspicious persons. The +resolution was formed to maintain a bold front, and pursue our usual +course, as if we knew that succour was at hand. On every side the hope +was expressed that none would give way to panic. The men at the head of +affairs had the general confidence of the community.</p> + +<p>Most happily for us and for many others there was a lull in the storm +after the mutiny at Meerut and the possession of Delhi by the mutineers. +There was alarm everywhere, here and there there was commotion, but +there were no extensive and concerted risings. If there had been we +could not have been saved. Our soldiers were returning from Persia, +regiments proceeding to China were stopped on the way and brought to +India, and an available force was thus placed at the disposal of the +authorities. English soldiers were hastened up from Calcutta. From day +to day we with joy saw them pass our gate in carriages on their way to +cantonments. Great though our danger was they were not detained. A small +number was kept for our defence, and the rest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> were sent on to relieve +our sorely-pressed people farther north. Some began to hope the dark +cloud over us was about to be dispersed, while others looked on our +position with dismay approaching despair. As our house was in a very +exposed position, a friend had at an early period invited us to take up +our abode with him; but we resolved to remain for the present in our own +home.</p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">THE FOURTH OF JUNE, 1857, AT BENARES.</p> + +<p>At length the storm burst over us. By attempts at incendiary fires and +in other ways the Native Infantry regiment had shown a mutinous spirit. +The necessity for disarming it was obvious to all except its own +officers, but the difficulty of the measure was great. On June 4th +Colonel Neil, one of those men whose high qualities were elicited by the +terrible struggle on which we had entered, arrived at Benares. On the +previous day a native regiment had mutinied at Azimghur, sixty miles +distant. A council was held, and as there were one hundred and twenty +English soldiers it was resolved to disarm the Native Infantry regiment +next morning. The question was asked, "Why not now? We may be all killed +before morning." Immediate disarmament was determined on. Well was it +for us this was the decision, as it was afterwards found that very night +had been fixed for the rising of the regiment, and the massacre of us +all. The whole military force of the place was called out, the English +soldiers being placed near the guns, and the Sepoys were ordered to pile +their arms. The order instead of being obeyed was met by our officers +and men being fired on, and the fight commenced.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE RISING AT BENARES.</div> + +<p>We had just finished dinner when our night watchman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> rushed into the +room with the startling words, <i>Pultun bigar guya</i>, and <i>lin men ag +luga!</i>—"The regiment has mutinied, and the cantonments are on fire." +Scarcely had he uttered the words, when we heard the sharp rattle of the +musketry and the crash of the guns. Our little conveyance was made +quickly ready, and, with all others in that part of the suburbs, we +drove as quickly as we could to the only place of temporary safety +available for us, on the banks of the Ganges at the northern end of the +city. The English were in different parts of the suburbs, and betook +themselves to the places nearest to them which promised immediate +shelter. Sir John Kaye, the historian of the Sepoy War, says that the +missionaries left the city for Chunar, with the exception of one he +names, Mr. Leupolt. In fact, only the Church missionaries went in that +direction, and they could go in no other.</p> + +<p>As we were hastening to the Ganges we knew from the noise of the +musketry and cannon that the battle was going on, and from the cloud of +smoke rising from cantonments we feared that all the houses were on +fire. We went with others to the house of an English merchant whom we +knew well, and then as the natives were gathering around we betook +ourselves to boats on the river, and got out into the stream. In a short +time a messenger from cantonments reached us with the good news that our +men were victorious, and that the mutineers were in flight. We returned +to the house of our merchant friend with the intention of remaining +there for the night. With our party were a number of children, some of +them infants, and they, poor things, were put to rest in any corner +which could be found. Between eight and nine the Brigade-Major, who had +been slightly wounded, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> had been saved from certain death by the +faithfulness of a trooper, rode into the compound accompanied by men of +the Irregular Cavalry regiment. We all ran out, and were told by him +that a number of English soldiers, who had just arrived from Calcutta, +were on the other side of the Ganges ready to be ferried over, and that +they would form our escort to the Mint, which was between three and four +miles distant. In the meantime we learned all that had occurred—how the +Native Infantry regiment had mutinied, how they had been joined by the +Sikhs, some said by panic, by others I believe more truly, from sympathy +with their Hindustanee brethren, as was shown by their after conduct; +and how all had been put to flight by our band of soldiers, aided by the +guns. On our side four were killed and nineteen wounded, of whom the +greater number afterwards died. How many of the Sepoys were killed was +not ascertained, as, with the exception of a few, the dead and wounded +were carried off by their comrades.</p> + +<p>When all was ready we set out, a long cavalcade, with English soldiers +in front and behind, and native troopers on each side, our guardians +then, but before the morning dawned in flight to join the mutineers. It +was a calm, beautiful moonlight night, forming a strange contrast to the +turmoil of the preceding hours. The road took us by our house, and as we +passed the gate a servant, who had been watching for us, came out with +artificially cooled water, which was very welcome. We reached the Mint +about midnight, and there the whole European community was assembled. On +every side there was eager talk about our position and prospects, but +there was no appearance of panic or fright. The mothers soon succeeded +in finding spots in the spacious rooms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> of the Mint—which had not been +swept, and were covered with half an inch of mud—for their precious +charge, and there they remained to watch over them; while the men +sauntered about, or tried to sit where anything like sitting was +practicable. Stray shots were heard, and from the city went up rockets, +which were regarded as signals to the Sepoys outside. Most were awake as +if it were full day. Between three and four in the morning, as I was +sitting with two or three others on a native bedstead, a person came and +said, "Where is the magistrate? The city is up." It was a false alarm; +the city remained strangely quiet. As the morning broke we were all in +safety, and no enemy was to be seen. Many of the English soldiers were +so overcome by fatigue that they lay on the gravel fast asleep, with +their muskets by their side.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LIFE AT THE MINT.</div> + +<p>In the Mint we all remained for more than a week in the greatest +possible discomfort, unable to change our clothes except by going to +some house outside, which some of us ventured to do. We once ventured to +our house for some very necessary articles, and daily visits were paid +to a barrack a short way off, where the sick and wounded were. During +the day, with the blazing sun above us, and the wind blowing through the +Mint with the heat of a furnace, we were obliged to confine ourselves to +its large crowded rooms. The exposure was trying, but was patiently +borne, and did no seeming injury to our health. At night we slept +outside, most of us on the flat roof of the Mint, on bedding which our +servants brought us. Our food was cooked at our homes, and brought to us +by our servants, and very thankful were we to get it, though we had +neither tables to sit at nor chairs to sit on. Had not our servants been +faithful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> we should have starved, as the authorities, to prevent panic +and to show a bold front, had laid in no provisions. This seems very +unwise, and yet there is no doubt the bold front did much under God to +effect our deliverance.</p> + +<p>In the morning of the Sunday after the mutiny the Rev. C. B. Leupolt, of +the Church Mission, preached on the parade ground. In the afternoon I +was requested to preach. The soldiers, with their rifles in their hands, +and the European inhabitants were my audience. I took for my text words +which at once suggested themselves to my mind, "If God be for us, who +can be against us?" These words of the Apostle Paul, I was afterwards +told, came fraught with strength to the hearts of some present.</p> + +<p>On Sunday evening it began to be whispered that mutiny had broken out at +Allahabad. On Monday we knew all. The 6th N. I. Regiment, after +professing in the afternoon their readiness to march to Delhi and fight +the rebels, in the evening rose, murdered sixteen officers, six of them +young lads who had just arrived, and all Europeans who came their way. +Happily families were in the Fort, to which they had betaken themselves +in opposition to the affectionate remonstrances of the native officers, +who said it was a slur on their fidelity! The Sepoys plundered the +Treasury; and it is said many of them were afterwards murdered by the +villagers on account of the money with which they were laden.</p> + +<p>As the Sepoys entirely disappeared, and the city of Benares was quiet, +though the country around was much disturbed, most of us after a time +returned to our homes. In our own case we found that not one of our +servants had decamped, and not a pin's worth had been stolen. The very +night of the mutiny a servant picked up the few silver spoons we had +left on the table, and at considerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> risk made his way to us to place +them in his mistress's hands. Indeed, all about us acted with a +faithfulness which elicited our warm gratitude.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">INCIDENT AT THE MINT.</div> + +<p>While we were at the Mint a little incident occurred, which suggested +how, in the excited state of affairs, a spark might have caused a great +conflagration. Seeing a crowd of natives, almost all servants, at the +gate, I went to it, and there the sentry, a little peppery Irishman, was +threatening to stab with his bayonet a native servant with a note in his +hand. I asked what was the matter. The sentry said, "That black fellow +is mocking me, and I'll send this through him." The servant appealed to +me. He said he had a note for a gentleman in the Mint, and entreated +that "gora," "white man," to let him in, but instead of doing so he +threatened to kill him. The mocking was, it turned out, the native +folding his hands in the attitude of supplication. I explained the +matter, and the man got in. The native servants were so roughly treated +by some of our people, especially by the newly-arrived soldiers, simply +because they were natives, that I was afraid they might leave us in a +body; and if they had done so we should have been in a sad plight. One +of my own servants, a native Christian, complained bitterly to me of the +treatment he had received.</p> + +<p>The quiet of Benares during this period was remarkable—I might almost +say preternatural. When the fight of the 4th of June commenced, numbers +were seen with drawn swords rushing towards cantonments, but when they +saw Sepoys falling, and others running away, they shrank back into the +city. A great dread fell on the entire population. I was told by natives +the report had gone out that the English soldiers had been commanded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> to +enter the city, and slay every man, woman, and child they met; and that +in consequence, to adopt their exaggerated words, they sat trembling all +night, no one daring to sleep.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the terrible work of retribution commenced. Martial law +was proclaimed, and many poor miserable creatures, charged with +plundering, were hanged. Some of the Sepoys caught were blown from guns. +I will not harrow my readers with details. I shunned as much as I could +these bloody scenes, but on several occasions I came suddenly on them. +To the present day I shudder as I think of what I saw.</p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">THE PANIC OF JULY 6TH.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">OUR DAY OF PANIC.</div> + +<p>I must now come to our day of panic, July 6th. July 5th was a Sunday. We +had our usual services with the native Christians. Some two hours after +the evening service, a nephew of ours, then at Benares, drove into the +compound, and told us we must go at once to the Mint, as a large force +of Sepoys and country people were four miles off, prepared to attack the +jail. This was startling news, as our house lay in the direct line +between the jail and the city, and, in the event of the attack being +successful, we should be the first victims. Still, we were very +unwilling to stir, but our nephew was so urgent that we at last complied +with his entreaty. A refugee family was in our house, and with us all +crowded into a small conveyance we made our way to the rendezvous. What +a scene was there! Most had arrived before us. Rain was falling, and we +could not remain out. The rooms were so crowded that we could not get +into them, and we had to lie for the night as we could in a dirty +passage, with our back to the wall. The night passed off without an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +alarm, and in the morning we returned to our home, somewhat annoyed at +having been taken from it, as we supposed, without sufficient reason.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 6th I had a strange duty to discharge for such a +time—the marriage of a couple. One of our native Christians had +arranged for his marriage taking place at that date. I told him that +this was no time for marrying; that we who were married must abide with +our families, but that those who were intending marriage should defer it +to a more propitious season. He said all was arranged, and he begged me +to officiate, which I did, I must say, with a bad grace. No sooner was +the marriage over than I went home. After breakfast and family worship, +we each betook ourselves, thoroughly worn out, to our rooms to obtain +some rest. Scarcely had I lain down on my couch, when our faithful +watchman came to my door and exclaimed, "If you do not go at once to the +Mint you will all be killed." I asked him what was the matter. He could +not tell me. He could only say, "Fly, fly." The refugee lady who, with +her family, was with us, hearing the watchman's words, exclaimed, "Oh, +Mr. Kennedy, do not leave us!" to which I replied, "Depend on it, I will +not. Rather than that, I myself will remain behind." Our conveyance was +speedily made ready, and off we started, with such a crowded coach as +has been seldom seen, I, as driver, urging the poor overladen horse to +his utmost speed. Natives as well as Europeans were seized with panic. +There was a stream, then in full flood, close to our house, and I saw +several natives throw themselves into it to swim across, at the imminent +risk of their lives. As we crossed one of the great roads leading to the +city, the natives were running as if pursued by demons. Right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> before us +we saw an English lady running towards the Mint, with her bare head in +the sun, which had now come out in its strength. A gentleman in a buggy +drove past us, pulled in reins, the lady leaped into it, and they dashed +on to the place of refuge. On reaching the Mint we found most of the +Europeans there before us. I accosted a friend and said, "What does this +mean?" He told us how the impression had gone out that the enemy were on +us, and how the panic might have been prevented if information of the +state of affairs had been given. There was danger. The host coming +against us had, with characteristic procrastination, put off the attack +till the morning. To prevent their approach to the city, every man and +gun that could be spared were sent out to meet them.</p> + +<p>When we reached the Mint we heard the rumour that Cawnpore had fallen. +The report was not generally believed, but it was true. We were only two +hundred miles from Cawnpore, and yet nine days had passed before our +hearing of its fall, and we then heard of it only as a rumour.</p> + +<p>The feeling of panic soon subsided, and as some in their haste had taken +something with them, it soon looked as if we were a large improvised +picnic party. For a few hours all was quiet; but in the afternoon the +rattle of the musketry and the boom of the cannon told us the battle had +commenced. Soon the news reached us that the rebels were in flight, and +that we were again safe. Till the news reached there was anxiety, but +there was little manifestation of it, except by the wives of some of the +soldiers, who were wringing their hands and weeping bitterly. The night +was spent by us in the greatest discomfort, huddled together, lying in +our day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> clothes on the floor, in an atmosphere so close that I wonder +we were not stifled. That 6th of July, 1857, at Benares can never be +obliterated from the memory of any one who was there. It makes us +understand, as nothing else could do, how much more dreadful a panic is +than the most furious combat.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ADVENTURES OF A MARRIAGE DAY.</div> + +<p>I must recall my readers for a little to the couple whom I had married +on the morning of that memorable day. We had not been above a few +minutes in the Mint, when whom did I see rushing in at the gate, out of +breath, but my friends whom I had united in wedlock a few hours +previously, the bridegroom a few steps in advance of the bride, who was +doing her best, with little success, to save her bridal dress from being +soiled by the muddy road. Grave though our position was, I could not but +smile when I saw them. I went to meet them, and looking sternly at the +bridegroom I said, "Chhotkan, did I not tell you this was no time to +marry?" He looked at me sheepishly, and said, "Well, sir, it is now +over, and I cannot help it." I had better add that the marriage has been +a happy one. The husband has maintained a Christian character, and has +had a prosperous career, and they both survive to the present time.</p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">THE DAYS SUCCEEDING THE DAY OF PANIC.</p> + +<p>On the day after the panic we all returned to our respective homes. The +immediate danger was past, but the country around was in a very +disturbed state. The officer commanding the station sent round a +circular strongly recommending the immediate departure for Calcutta of +European families, and, indeed, of all Europeans who were not able and +willing to bear arms. Like many of my countrymen, I was thrown by this +cir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>cular into great perplexity. Our house was out of cantonments, in a +very exposed situation. We had four children with us at the time, the +eldest six years of age, and the youngest a little more than three +months. Their departure was indispensable. Was I to go with them, or +send them away and remain behind? Some advised me to go, but we soon saw +this was not the course which ought to be pursued. Officers were sending +away their families, and they themselves were remaining behind. For me +to desert my post at such a time, was seen by us both, would be to undo +the work of my life, and it was evident my duty was to remain. Armed +steamers were going up and down the Ganges, and I hoped to secure a +passage to Calcutta in one of them for my family. Hearing a steamer was +expected from Allahabad, we went down to Raj Ghat; and as soon as the +steamer came to anchor I went on board. It was full to overflowing of +refugees from the North-West. The captain told me he could not give my +family even a deck passage, so crowded was the vessel. There was nothing +for us but to go back to a friend's house, where we had been living for +a few days. Through the kindness of a friend at Allahabad, to whom I had +written, I succeeded in securing a small cabin for my family in the next +steamer, and in it they made their way to Calcutta, after a detention of +some days at Dinapore in great discomfort and danger, owing to the +mutiny having broken out there. At Calcutta they embarked, in September, +in a cargo ship for England, which they reached after a long and stormy +passage. During the whole of July and August the communication between +Bengal and the Upper Provinces was so interrupted, that sometimes for +weeks together no certain information was received of what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> was +transpiring. At Benares the only mails reaching were from places near +us. At Calcutta the rumour went out that Benares had fallen, and that +all the English people in it had been massacred, causing the deepest +distress to the many there who had left loved ones behind.</p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">BENARES FROM JULY TO DECEMBER.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">EXPOSURE TO ATTACK.</div> + +<p>From July till October the position of the English at Benares was one of +great danger. We had no fighting, but we were continually threatened. We +had twice or thrice an alarm, the most serious being from an <i>emeute</i> in +the jail, which was soon suppressed and the leaders executed. Delhi was +not taken till September, and till that was done, all who desired our +overthrow were sure it was about to be accomplished. Our great peril was +from Lucknow. Our small force there was besieged, it was reckoned, by +50,000 men. They were not relieved till towards the end of September. +While the siege was being carried on, information reached the +authorities of Benares that a plan had been formed to detach from the +besieging army five or six thousand men to attack us. The plan was most +feasible. The distance by the direct route was under two hundred miles. +The river Goomtee, which flows by Lucknow, enters the Ganges a few miles +from Benares. It was at that time in full flood, and a flotilla might be +easily gathered by which, in a few days, a large body of armed men with +the munitions of war could have reached us. Some of the Barons of Oude +sent offers of aid, but these offers were by many considered lures to +draw us into their net, that they might the more easily destroy us. Jung +Buhadur, the famous ruler of Nepal, proposed to come with his brave +Ghoorkas to defend us, but their presence was more feared than de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>sired. +Then in the great city near us we knew there were many plotting our +destruction, and ready to rise at the first signal of an approaching +foe.</p> + +<p>So great was the danger considered, that thousands were set to the +erection of a great earth fort close to the Ganges, on the site of an +old Muhammadan fortress. Owing to the disturbed state of the country the +commerce of the place was paralyzed; the stock of grain in the market +was very low, and food was selling at famine prices. The erection of the +fort gave most welcome employment to the poorer portion of the +community. So great was the danger, that, acting under the advice of +those best acquainted with the state of affairs, I sent to this fort +books, documents, and other things which I deemed it most important to +preserve. We were instructed how we were to act in the event of a sudden +outbreak, the rendezvous to which we should instantly resort, and from +which we might make our way together to the fort, which was being +erected. It often occurred to me that our position at that time was like +that of persons sitting on a barrel of gunpowder in a house on fire. So +alarming were the accounts received in the daytime, that I often lay +down at night uncertain what might occur before morning. Often I got up, +looked towards the cantonments, and listened. Thankful that all was +quiet, I returned to my bed.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CONSTANCY OF THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS.</div> + +<p>During these anxious months I had abundant reason to be thankful for the +decision at which we had arrived, that I should remain behind when my +family left for England. In the discharge of the work devolving on me +from day to day, I felt I should have been recreant to duty, and missed +many opportunities of usefulness, had I gone away. Early in September, +to the great grief<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> of us all, a much-loved member of the Mission, my +sister-in-law, the wife of my senior colleague, Mr. Buyers, was removed +by death. She had remained behind when other ladies, who had children, +left. Mr. Buyers was prostrated by the blow, and for a considerable time +was unable to resume work. The charge of the Mission thus came largely +into my hands. Before the end of July we re-opened our principal school +in the heart of the city, of which I was superintendent, and which I +visited constantly. At Benares a Depôt Hospital was opened, to which the +sick and wounded Europeans were brought from the surrounding country, +and there a part of every day was spent. My principal work, however, was +among the native Christians, with whom I met constantly to speak about +the state of affairs, to consult what should be done, to commit +ourselves to God, and ask from Him guidance and protection. The firmness +and courage of these Christians were worthy of the highest praise. As +natives, they could elude observation far more easily than Europeans; +but even where they were unknown, so entwined is idolatry with the whole +life of the people, they could not be any time among their countrymen +without being discovered if faithful to their Lord; and, as recreants +from their ancestral religion, they were sure to be cruelly treated. +They had only to declare themselves Muhammadans, and safety would be at +once secured. Not one of our native Christian community thought of +seeking safety by such means. They seemed resolved to brave every hazard +rather than deny their Lord. At length, by the capture of Delhi in the +first half of September, and the relief of the Lucknow garrison some +twelve days afterwards, the dark, threatening clouds over us began to +break.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> + +<p>From October onward the tension was loosened; but the danger was not +over. Though the garrison at Lucknow had been relieved, we were forced +to evacuate it, and for months afterwards the whole country of Oude +remained in the hands of those who had risen against us. Over a large +portion of the North-West, and in Central India, our government remained +prostrate. We had been so long in danger we had become blunted to the +sense of it, and remained unmoved in circumstances which at an early +period would have greatly excited us.</p> + +<p>During the recent outbreak in Egypt, the position of Europeans in that +country in many respects resembled that of Europeans in Northern India +in 1857. Very similar was their danger, very similar their sufferings, +and very similar was the deliverance of the greater number. But for +providential interposition, not one would have in either case escaped. +When I look back and consider what our position was, I marvel that any +of us survived to tell what we endured; and our hearts are hard and cold +indeed if we are not fervently thankful for our preservation. While my +narrative shows that the residents at Benares in 1857 had to pass +through a season of severe trial and great danger, all acquainted with +the history of that period are aware that our countrymen in other places +had vastly more to suffer. In many places the rising was temporarily +successful. With us, the authorities all through kept the upper hand. +The result was that we were kept from the extremity of suffering to +which many were subjected. The entire loss of property was the least of +the trials they had to bear. Many, among whom were delicate women and +helpless children, were cruelly murdered. Others saw the objects of +their warmest love killed before their eyes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> had to endure the most +fearful privations, and had to pass through untold horrors before +reaching a place of safety. Not a few sank into the grave, the victims +of toil, suffering, and sorrow. At no place was the danger greater than +at Benares, and at no place did the general community suffer so little.</p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">VISIT TO ALLAHABAD.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE DESOLATION OF ALLAHABAD.</div> + +<p>Learning that there was no missionary at Allahabad, about seventy miles +north-west of Benares, which is now the seat of Government for the +North-West, I wrote in December to a native Christian there whom I knew, +proposing to visit him and his brethren, and in due course I got his +reply, expressing the pleasure my visit would give them. I accordingly +went, taking Mirzapore on my way, where I spent two or three days very +happily with the mission family. I found a tent erected for my +accommodation by the native Christian brethren close to the ruins of the +mission premises. What a scene of desolation the whole place presented! +The houses of the European residents had been set on fire, and there +they were as the mutineers had left them. There were no European +families. One large house had been put in order by the magistrate, and +in the wide surrounding enclosure what may be called a canvas town had +arisen. Civil and military officers were continually passing up and +down, and for their accommodation tents had been pitched. All took their +meals together in the restored mansion, and they kindly asked me to join +them during my stay. My tent was pitched close to the abode of the +native Christians. I had thus the opportunity, during the week I +remained, of holding constant intercourse with my own countrymen and +with native brethren. From the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> natives I heard much of what they had +seen and suffered. I was shown the scenes of the terrible events which +had occurred, and as retributive measures were still carried on, I saw, +in spite of myself, scenes which made me shudder. On the other side of +the Ganges there were frequent skirmishes between parties sent out and +bands there who were resisting our authority; the firing was distinctly +heard. On Sunday I preached twice to the native Christians. In the +forenoon the service was conducted in a small chapel, which had not been +burnt down, because it was so close to native houses that, if burnt, the +flames would have certainly spread to them. In the evening I re-opened +for worship the principal mission chapel. An attempt had been made to +set it on fire, but as it had not been at once successful, owing to its +being very strongly built, the insurgents satisfied themselves with +breaking the doors, windows, seats, pulpit, and everything which could +be easily destroyed. The wreck had been cleared away, and there I +preached to a goodly company, one of them a man whose arm had been cut +off because he was a Christian, and who had been left as dead. His +recovery was marvellous. That was a memorable Sunday to me and to those +to whom I ministered. My morning subject was, "In the day of adversity +consider" (Eccles. vii. 14); and in the evening, Christ stilling the +storm (Matt. viii. 23-28).</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3><i>VISIT TO CEYLON AND RETURN TO BENARES.</i></h3> + +<h3>1858-1859.</h3> + + +<p>During the hot season and rains of 1858 I suffered greatly from boils +and feverishness. After applying in vain the usual means of cure +prescribed, I was advised to try a sea voyage. I accordingly arranged to +go down the Bay of Bengal to Point de Galle in Ceylon, and to await +there the arrival of my wife from England, so as to return with her to +India.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VOYAGE TO CALCUTTA.</div> + +<p>The rebellion still flickered in Bahar. A part of the road to Calcutta +was in the hand of Kower Singh, a rebel chief; and travellers like +myself to the capital from the North-West were on that account happy to +avail themselves of the river steamers. We had the clear sky and the +gentle breeze of that delightful season in Northern India. From morning +to night we sat under a thick awning, reading or talking, as we were +inclined, refreshed by the breeze, and interested in the various objects +presented to our view on the river and its banks. The fortnight of the +voyage passed most pleasantly, and I arrived in Calcutta half cured of +my ailments. I was happy to find myself in time for the outgoing steamer +of the P. and O. Company, on which I took passage to Point de Galle. On +landing I saw the last newspaper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> received from England with the list of +passengers for successive steamers, and from it I learned that my wife +was to come a month later than I had anticipated. This left me with five +or six weeks in Ceylon to dispose of myself as I best could. I made up +my mind to travel through the island. I accordingly left Galle by coach +the next day for Colombo, the capital. After staying there a few days I +set out for Kandy, the old capital; held on to Newera Ellia, the +sanatorium of the island, lying under Pedro Talla Galla, its highest +mountain; ascended the mountain, made my way back by another route to +Kandy, and then proceeded to Galle, where I was happy to meet my wife +and child, with whom I went on to Calcutta.</p> + +<p>When I landed at Galle I was not aware that I knew a single individual +in the island, but I was not an hour at the hotel to which I went before +I found myself in company with a medical gentleman, a native of +Perthshire, who knew my friends; and on my arrival at Colombo I was +recognized on the street, by my resemblance to my father, by a person +who had never seen me previously, but who knew him. It struck me it +would be dangerous for me to attempt an incognito, which, happily, I had +no temptation to do. During my travels in Ceylon I met several from the +North of Scotland whom I had known intimately, and among them one who +had been for years my schoolfellow. My countrymen were there, as +elsewhere, prominent members of the community.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE SCENERY OF CEYLON.</div> + +<p>I was much interested in all I saw during my travels in Ceylon. I was +prepared to see fine scenery and rich foliage, but the reality greatly +exceeded my expectation. On the coast between Galle and Colombo there is +a con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>siderable extent of level land, covered by the cocoanut palm, +which forms much of the wealth of the people. Every part of the tree is +turned to account. The wood is used for rafters, and the leaves for +thatching. The kernel is an article of food, but its principal value +comes from the oil made from it after it has been dried. The nut +contains a liquid, which is deemed by the natives very refreshing. The +fibrous husk round the cocoanut, called coir, is manufactured into +ropes, matting, brushes, and other useful articles. It is largely and +profitably exported. The trees are tapped for a juice, which, boiled +when fresh, gives what is called palm-sugar; but when kept, becomes +intoxicating. The name of the tree in the native language is "Tar"; this +intoxicating juice is called "Taree," and by a well-known custom of +linguistic transposition it is called by English people "Toddy." We have +at Benares palm-trees which furnish this toddy, and I am sorry to say it +is by far too largely used. This cocoanut palm abounds on the coast, and +is always bent towards the sea, as if to welcome its breezes, or to +strengthen itself against them. Away from the coast it well-nigh +disappears, and trees of a very different order are seen on every side, +many of them rising to a great height and covered with beautiful +foliage.</p> + +<p>The scenery in the interior is very striking. When travelling on the top +of the coach from Colombo to Kandy, I might have thought myself in my +own Highlands, as mountain after mountain came into view, and our road +in its descents and ascents skirted precipices, where safety demanded +the most careful driving. Long, winding valleys, through which rivers +flowed, with falls and cascades here and there, reminded me of our +finest straths. I saw no large bodies of water like our lochs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> There +were two points of marked dissimilarity. The month was December; I +required no great-coat, and the rays of the sun were stronger than was +pleasant. Instead of the leafless trees, and the white covering of the +snow of the Scottish winter, there were trees in their richest dress, +and all around a verdure of the freshest green, telling me I was in a +tropical land, and in a land where heat and moisture by their abundance +gave extraordinary force to vegetation. As I travelled from Kandy to +Newera Ellia, and back again to Kandy by a different route, my +impression of the picturesqueness and productiveness of the country was +confirmed. There was one thing I did not see—the blooming heather of my +own Highlands.</p> + +<p>There is, I suppose, no country where all that is desirable can be +obtained. It must be acknowledged Ceylon has its disadvantages. Its +climate is that of perpetual summer, warmer indeed at some times than at +others, but never approaching our heat in Northern India in May and +June. It is only six degrees from the equator, and it owes its moderate +temperature to its sea breezes and abundant rain. I missed the bracing +coolness of Northern India in December and January. Perpetual summer is +good for neither soul nor body. For bodily health and enjoyment the +alternation of cold and heat is far better, as in the moral world +prosperity and adversity are required for the maturing of character.</p> + +<p>There is one evil—I do not know whether I should call it a minor or a +major evil—to which both man and beast are exposed in Ceylon. We have +all heard of snakes in the grass. In the fine grass of Ceylon leeches +abound, and are ever ready to take their unwelcome contribution from all +that come their way. They leap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> up on passers by, and try to exact from +them their favourite food. I was often reminded by unpleasant nips that +they had got hold of me. For months after leaving Ceylon I had on my +limbs marks of their doings.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PRODUCTS OF CEYLON.</div> + +<p>When travelling between Kandy and Newera Ellia, I was the guest of +coffee-planters, all of them, so far as I remember, my own countrymen; +and saw coffee in all its stages, from the berry on the coffee-bush on +to the manufactured article ready for the market. The plant is +indigenous in the island, but it was turned to little account till taken +up by Europeans. The pioneers in its culture, as so often happens in +such cases, are said to have lost heavily; but at the time of my visit +plantations were paying well, and a large tract of land was under +cultivation. I believe it afterwards ceased to be profitable, and now +tea cultivation is taking its place.</p> + +<p>At one time cinnamon was the most valuable export of the island, but by +1858 it had so decreased in value by its being produced abundantly in +lands still farther east, that comparatively little attention was given +to it. I was taken to the public garden in Colombo, and saw the +work-people with their sharp knives peeling off the fragrant bark from +the cinnamon-tree, and preparing it for the market.</p> + +<p>Colombo, the capital, is a large, stirring, rising town. Galle is a much +smaller place, and owes its importance to its being a place of call for +steamers on account of its sheltered bay. It is noted for its pedlars, +men who, with combs in their long hair, and clad in jacket and +petticoat, might be taken for women. Their wares of jewellery and +precious stones have not a high character for genuineness. Kandy, the +old capital in the interior, is a small place, lying very low, and is +surrounded by hills. It has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> a beautiful little artificial lake, and is +famous for its temple, with a tooth of Buddha as its great treasure.</p> + +<p>During the few weeks I was in Ceylon I was most hospitably entertained +wherever I went by missionaries, chaplains, coffee-planters, and others. +I shall always retain a grateful recollection of the kindness I +experienced. From these friends I heard much about the spiritual state +of Ceylon. It is well known the Dutch were the first Europeans who +obtained a footing in the island. They determined to stamp out +heathenism and establish Christianity, not by violent persecution, but +by reserving offices of every description for those who embraced the +Christian faith, by treating them in every possible way as a privileged +class, and by showing official disfavour to the unbaptized. An agency +composed of chaplains, catechists, and schoolmasters was appointed to +bring the community within the Christian fold. The work went on with +great apparent success. Tens of thousands avowed themselves Christians. +It looked as if heathenism was to disappear under Dutch rule. If the +Dutch had retained possession of the island, and had persevered in their +policy, in all likelihood by this time Ceylon would have been a +professedly Christian country, with a strong underlying element of +heathen notion and practice.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BUDDHIST WORSHIPPERS.</div> + +<p>No sooner was the policy of neutrality adopted with the installation of +English rule, than this large Christian community melted away, and +flowed into the old channel of Buddhism, which had been for ages the +religion of the Cingalese. The thousands of Christians were reduced to +hundreds and tens. The London Missionary Society early entered the +field, but withdrew. In the parts of Ceylon where I travelled I met with +Methodist, Baptist, and Church of England missionaries, and in other +dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>tricts there were American missionaries. The descendants of those +who once were professed Christians retain some Christian notions, and +adhere to some Christian practices. Baptism is still in favour with +them, but it is never administered by Protestant missionaries except to +those deemed fitting recipients. If Buddhists were consistent, caste in +a mild form and to a limited extent might be tolerated, but could not be +approved. They are not, however, consistent, and caste is much more +regarded by them than Gautam would have sanctioned, though it has not +among them the rigidity it has among the Hindus. I was told regarding +one boarding institution for young men, all ate together; but on +returning to their homes they performed certain ceremonies which removed +the defilement they had contracted. As to the general character of the +native Christians, I inferred it was much the same as in India, with +similar excellences and similar defects.</p> + +<p>I went into some of the Buddhist temples. On the walls were sculptured +the terrible sufferings of the wicked in the different hells into which, +according to Buddhism, they are cast. The worshippers appeared to me +remarkably stolid and listless, as if engaged in a work which could not +be too mechanically performed. There was nothing of the animation of the +Hindus when they are worshipping their gods.</p> + +<p>I went into a large Roman Catholic church, and saw all the usual +furniture of Roman Catholic worship. On the wall, the worship of demons +by the faithful and their attendance at demon feasts was strongly +denounced, and threatened with severe punishment; from which it would +appear this was no uncommon offence.</p> + +<p>I was struck with the massy churches built by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> Dutch in Galle and +Colombo. They testify to the zeal of the first colonists, as if they +were taking possession of the land for Christ, and were determined to +maintain His worship, though far distant from the land of their fathers. +Dutch descendants and Scotch colonists now form the most of the +worshippers in these places. The Dutch language still survives, and in +1858 some of the Dutch people understood no other. For them a service is +held in their own language. I preached in both of these churches at the +request of the chaplains. In one of them the Lord's Supper was +administered, and the communicants were addressed first in English and +then in Dutch.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of December I left Galle with my wife and child for +Calcutta, taking away with me pleasing recollections of the scenes I had +witnessed, the information I had received, and the kindness I had +experienced during my six weeks' travels in the island.</p> + +<p>After a brief stay in Calcutta we made our way to Benares—the first +part of the journey by the recently constructed railway, and the rest, +the greater part of it, by a four-wheeled conveyance, drawn by a horse, +called a Dawk Garry, arrangement for a fresh horse every sixth or +seventh mile being made by the Dawk Garry Company. Instead of spending +three weeks on the way, as we had done in 1839 when proceeding to +Benares on a steamer, and twelve days in 1853 in a conveyance drawn by +coolies, we now completed our journey in five days. We were glad to +rejoin our brethren, and to resume our work in Benares.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3><i>VISIT TO CITIES IN THE NORTH-WEST AND TO KUMAON—VISIT TO ENGLAND AND +RETURN TO INDIA.</i></h3> + +<h3>FROM 1859 TO 1866.</h3> + + +<p>From the time of our arrival at Benares in January, 1859, on to our +departure for the hills in March, 1861, the work of the Mission was +carried on in the usual way. There were interruptions from failure of +health, but during the most of the period the operations of the Mission +were vigorously carried on with tokens of the Divine blessing.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ENGLISH SERVICES.</div> + +<p>The principal change during this period was the greater attention given +to the European population. Before 1857 the English-speaking population +of Benares was very small, and as there was always an English chaplain +at the place, and our Baptist brethren kept up an English service, our +Mission did very little in this department. For a time we had an English +service one evening in the week, but owing to the weakness of the +Mission, and the pressing demands of native work, this had been given +up. After the Mutiny the English-speaking population was largely +increased by English soldiers, and persons connected with the Public +Works. It was deemed incumbent on us to do something for our own +countrymen, whose spiritual need was manifest to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> all. On this account +English services on the Lord's Day were commenced. For a time two such +services were held, one in the Mission chapel, and another in the +schoolroom of the cavalry barracks. On the withdrawal of the cavalry +this second service was discontinued. The service on the Lord's Day +morning or forenoon in the Mission chapel has been steadily kept on till +this time, has been generally well attended, and has been, I believe, +productive of much good.</p> + +<p>As the Rev. William Moody Blake, who joined the Mission in 1858, took +the superintendence of the Central School, and with occasional +assistance conducted the English services, the work among the native +women and girls was left to be carried on by my wife, to which she had +given her heart and strength from the time she became a member of the +Mission in 1839, while I had the principal charge of evangelistic work +among the heathen, and of ministering to the native Christians.</p> + +<p>The most memorable episode of this period was a visit we paid to +Allahabad, Cawnpore, and Lucknow, in the winter of 1859-60. We saw much +on this tour which deeply and painfully interested us. I have already +mentioned the desolation I saw on my visit to Allahabad at the end of +1857. During the two succeeding years the houses which had been burnt +had been rebuilt, new houses had been erected, and new roads had been +made. Traces of the desolation caused by the Mutiny remained, but there +were on every side signs of great prosperity. Allahabad, from its +position at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna, had always been +deemed a place of great importance in both a military and civil aspect. +It rose to new importance by being made the seat of government for the +North-West instead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> of Agra, and also by becoming the central +railway-station, from which it was arranged railways should ramify to +Lahore and Peshawur in the north-west, to Calcutta in the east and +south, to Jubbulpore and Bombay in the west, forming in Central India a +connection with the railways in Southern India. This arrangement has +been carried out, and now there is no city in the interior of the +country which bears so close a resemblance as Allahabad to the great +Presidency cities, in its churches, European shops, hotels, and roads so +lined with houses that they may be called streets. As might be expected, +the native population has greatly increased.</p> + +<p>From Allahabad we went by train to Cawnpore, one hundred and thirty +miles to the north-west. This place was for many years a large military +station, as the kingdom of Oude lay on the other side of the Ganges. It +may be well to give a very brief narrative of the terrible events which +occurred there, that readers may the better understand what we saw.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MUTINY AT CAWNPORE.</div> + +<p>On the breaking out of the Mutiny, the English soldiers and residents +entrenched themselves in an open plain, which had the solitary advantage +of accommodation in barracks, while they left the arsenal in the hands +of the insurgents. The siege commenced on June 6th, directed by Dundhoo +Punt, the Nana Sahib as he was called, the adopted son of Bajee Rao, the +ex-Peshwa of the Mahrattas, whose castle was ten miles distant. On June +27th, after enduring terrible hardships and privations, our people +surrendered on promise of being sent safely to Allahabad. They +accordingly made their way to the promised boats; but no sooner had they +been reached than they were set on fire, and the Nana in person directed +a fusillade on the party. Only four suc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>ceeded in escaping, and they did +this by swimming. The men were murdered, the women and children, to the +number of two hundred, were taken back, were huddled together in crowded +rooms, scantily fed on the coarsest food, and subjected to every +indignity. The Nana's army was defeated in several engagements, and was +at last utterly overthrown by the army led by General Havelock, in a +battle fought at the entrance to Cawnpore. By an order of the Nana, +issued by him when fleeing from the place, the women and children were +murdered, and their bodies were thrown into a well. Our soldiers arrived +to see to their horror the well choked with the victims of Nana's +satanic cruelty. Unknown to those whom he was besieging, he had +previously, on June 4th, ordered the massacre of one hundred and thirty +men, women, and children, who had come from Futtyghur.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GALLANT DEFENCE AND TERRIBLE DEFEAT.</div> + +<p>At Cawnpore we saw much to sadden us to the very core. The thrilling +accounts we had read of the atrocious deeds there committed came to our +remembrance with a painful reality. All along the river-side, houses, +once occupied by officers, lay in ruins as the mutineers had left them. +We observed flowers blooming here and there in the gardens, planted by +those who had been so ruthlessly cut down. We visited all the places +made memorable by the sad events of 1857. We went to the Sabadha Kothee, +as it was called, the house on a slight elevation from which the Nana +directed the siege of the entrenched camp. It was well remembered by us +as the abode, in 1842, on our first visit to Cawnpore, of a missionary +of the Propagation Society, with whom we had much pleasant intercourse. +Within less than half a mile of this house lay the entrenched camp of +the English—if a trench three or four feet deep, with a breastwork of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +earth behind it four or five feet high, deserves the name of an +entrenchment. The spot was chosen on account of the barracks, in which +our people could shelter themselves against what they expected to be a +mere temporary assault, if an assault at all was made, as they supposed +the mutinous soldiery would leave at once for Delhi, which they would +have done had not the Nana stopped them by large pay and larger +promises. The barracks speedily became well-nigh uninhabitable under the +fire of the enemy. At last they were burnt down, and no shelter remained +from the fierce rays of the sun. One could not look on the spot, and +consider the weakness of the defenders compared with the strength of the +enemy, supplied as they were with the guns and ammunition of our +arsenal, without wondering the defence could have been maintained for a +day. The defence was most heroic; extraordinary feats of valour were +performed, but at last the besieged were obliged to succumb from the +failure of food and ammunition.</p> + +<p>We walked from the entrenchment, which was rapidly disappearing under +the rains and heat of the climate, by the route taken by our people to +the promised boats, which were set on fire as soon as they reached them. +It was truly a <i>via dolorosa</i>, and we walked on it with saddened hearts, +musing on the awful sufferings our countrymen had endured. On a little +temple close to the ferry at which the boats lay, and on some houses +near it, we saw marks of the bullets on the walls.</p> + +<p>Since that period—the winter of 1858-59—we have been on several +occasions at Cawnpore. The desolation has disappeared. Ruined houses are +no longer to be seen. A stranger might pass through the place without +observing anything to remind him of the events of 1857.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> He would be a +very preoccupied or a very stolid person who could pass through Cawnpore +without making it a point to see the monuments erected to commemorate +our fallen countrymen. On the site of the entrenched camp a memorial +church has been raised, with stained windows and varied devices bearing +the names of those who had fought and suffered there. A very handsome +monument of marble, surmounted by a statue of the Angel of Peace, with a +suitable inscription, has been erected over the well into which the +bodies of the women and children were thrown. The ground round it is +kept in beautiful order. For many a day visitors to India will look with +tearful eyes and sad hearts on these spots sacred to their fallen +countrymen.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 419px;"><a name="WELL" id="WELL"></a> +<img src="images/well.png" width="419" height="580" alt="THE WELL AT CAWNPORE." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">THE WELL AT CAWNPORE.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CAMPAIGN IN OUDE.</div> + +<p>Leaving Cawnpore, we crossed the Ganges and travelled forty miles to +Lucknow, the capital of the country of Oude, which was ruled by a +feudatory of the Mogul Empire, who had become a feudatory of the British +Crown. To him our Government gave the title of King. In 1856, by an +order from home, the country was taken under our direct rule on account +of gross misgovernment, by flagrant and persistent violation of the +engagement made with us. The Chief Commissioner in March, 1857, was Sir +Henry Lawrence. After staving off the Mutiny successfully for a time, he +was obliged in the end of June to concentrate his force in a +half-fortified place on a slight elevation, called the Residency, as +there the British representative, under the title of Resident, and his +official subordinates, had their abode and offices. There the English +were besieged by a vast body of Sepoys, and by the Talookdars, the +Barons of Oude, and their retainers. Sir Henry Lawrence was mortally +wounded on July 4th. The siege was maintained till <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>September 25th, +when, after a fierce struggle, it was relieved by Havelock and Outram. +They in their turn were besieged, but they were able to maintain their +footing till November 19th, when they were finally relieved by Sir Colin +Campbell. Outram remained with a force of observation at Alum Bagh, a +large garden with a very high wall, outside Lucknow on the Cawnpore +road; while the rest held on to Cawnpore. Sir Colin Campbell returned +with his army, and took the city on March 6th, 1858. We are told that in +the interval it had been fortified in a way which would have done credit +to a European power. My narrative will be better understood by these +facts being remembered.</p> + +<p>As we travelled from Cawnpore to Lucknow we passed houses close to the +road which still retained the loopholes through which the enemy had +fired on our troops. The earthworks hastily raised for temporary shelter +still remained. We were reminded at every mile of the fierce resistance +our soldiers had to encounter. At Lucknow we remained for a week, and +went over all the scenes made memorable by recent events. We paid +several visits to the Residency, where our people defended themselves so +long and valiantly against thousands of armed men well supplied with +ammunition. At every step proofs presented themselves of the desperate +struggle maintained with the foe. The houses in the Residency had been +so battered and torn by shells and balls that scarcely one was habitable +before its evacuation, and the ruin was completed when the city was +finally taken by Sir Colin Campbell. At the beginning of 1859 the whole +place was a mass of ruin, with here and there a piece of tottering wall, +shaken or perforated by heavy shot and ready to come down. The walls +still stood, though in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> a very broken state, of the house in which Sir +Henry Lawrence died, and the spot was pointed out to us where he had +received his death-wound. A large body of labourers was employed in +taking down the ruined walls and levelling the ground. We observed bones +which had been dug up by them as they pursued their work.</p> + +<p>From the entrance into Lucknow on the Cawnpore road there is a street, +two miles in length, leading straight to the Residency. The enemy +expected our army to advance by this street, and made provision for its +destruction by digging trenches, and lining the houses on both sides +with musketeers ready to pour on our soldiers a killing fire. The +relieving army, guided by a person who knew Lucknow well, and had at +great risk made his way to them at night from the Residency, made a +sudden detour to the right, and advanced by a comparatively open route, +stoutly but unsuccessfully opposed at almost every step. I had the +promise of a guide to take me on foot by this route to the Residency, +but on reaching Alum Bagh, the appointed place of meeting, I found no +one there. I made my way, however, with very little difficulty by +observing the marks of the bullets on the houses along the line +traversed. I sometimes lost the trace, but soon recovered it, musing as +I went along on the very different circumstances in which our countrymen +a short time previously had gone over that road.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="RESIDENCY" id="RESIDENCY"></a> +<img src="images/residency.png" width="400" height="580" alt="RUINS OF THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">RUINS OF THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW.</p> + +<p>We saw other places of interest, such as the Muchee Bhawan, the fort in +which our soldiers were previous to the siege; the Kaisar Bagh, an +extensive garden, filled with showy, lofty houses, where the King of +Oude and his numerous retinue had resided; the Chuttar Manzil, a +handsome building where public entertainments were given; the gateway at +which the gallant Colonel Neil <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>fell—now called Neil Gate; the +Secunder Bagh, a garden with a high wall, where a large body of the +enemy was posted, and which was stormed by the 78th Highlanders, who +shut up every exit and killed every soul, many of the Sepoys fighting +desperately to the last. Two thousand bodies were taken out of the place +and buried in the adjoining ground. We observed on the walls the marks +of the bullets, and even the indents made by the swords and bayonets, +while this carnage was going on.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GENERAL LA MARTINE'S INSTITUTION.</div> + +<p>A French adventurer of the 18th century, General La Martine, had risen +to great power and wealth in the service of the Kings of Oude. He +erected a splendid mansion in Lucknow for the support and education of +boys of every creed—Christian boys to be brought up in the Christian +Government's religion—and richly endowed it. Similar institutions were +established in Calcutta and in Lyons, La Martine's native place. This +institution has proved a signal blessing to European and Eurasian +families. On the outbreak of the Mutiny the teachers and pupils betook +themselves to the Residency, and under the leading of their Principal +took an active part in the defence. La Martine had so little confidence +in the kings whom he had served for years, that he ordered his body to +be buried in a vault under the building, which he knew would prevent a +Muhammadan from making it his dwelling-house. This was accordingly done.</p> + +<p>While we were at Lucknow we were most hospitably entertained by a +missionary of the Church Missionary Society, to whom a large native +mansion had been made over by the authorities on account of the owner +having taken an active part in the rebellion. On Sabbath I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> preached in +Hindustanee to the native Christians, and we attended the English +service held in a building which had been an Imambara, the name given to +a building where Muhammadans of the Shiah sect worship.</p> + +<p>When going from Cawnpore to Lucknow we travelled by day. We returned by +night, when the moon was full. It was one of those calm, clear nights of +which we have many at that season. We reached the Ganges about four in +the morning. While waiting for a boat to take us across, there fell on +our ears, coming from a cluster of huts close by, the voice of a singer +at that early hour; and what was our delight and surprise, as we +listened, to hear the words distinctly uttered of a well-known hymn in +praise of the Redeemer of mankind! A short time previously the mention +of that name with honour in that place would have exposed him who +uttered it to a violent death. The incident was very cheering as an omen +of the dawn to benighted India, when, through the tender mercy of our +God, Jesus the light of the world shall shine into the hearts of its +teeming population, and raise them into the sunshine of heaven.</p> + +<p>Lucknow, as well as Cawnpore, has undergone a great change since 1859. +We saw it last in 1877, when traces of the fierce conflict which had +been there carried on had well-nigh disappeared; while on every side, in +new roads opened up, in miserable tenements thrown down, in new houses +erected, and in rubbish removed, evidence was given that the effete +government of the Kings of Oude had given place to the vigorous +government of their Western conquerors. Nothing is now to be seen of the +ruins and desolation of the Residency. The ground has been levelled, +trees planted, paths made, and the whole place is kept in beautiful +order. On the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>highest spot there is a memorial cross. All out from +Lucknow for miles, at the instance of friends, monuments have been +raised, some of them with very touching inscriptions, in memory of the +fallen, so far as the spots where they fell could be identified.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 800px;"><a name="LA_MARTINIERE" id="LA_MARTINIERE"></a> +<img src="images/lamartiniere.png" width="800" height="544" alt="THE LA MARTINIERE, LUCKNOW." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">THE LA MARTINIERE, LUCKNOW.</p> + +<p>We returned to Benares with a very vivid impression of what we had seen, +with a new realization of the sufferings our countrymen had endured, +with deepened admiration of the heroism they had shown, and with +thankfulness at once for our rescue as a people from destruction, and +for the restoration of our rule.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VISIT TO DELHI.</div> + +<p>We continued at our post at Benares till March, 1861, when the state of +the Mission admitted of our obtaining a much-needed retreat to the Hills +for a few months. We accordingly left Benares for Almora, and took Delhi +by the way, where we remained a few days. This was our second visit to +the grand old imperial city. On this occasion we visited the scene of +the memorable events of the Mutiny year, as we had previously done at +Cawnpore and Lucknow. We went to the heights commanding the city, where +our army was encamped for months, at once the besiegers and the +besieged, and from which at last they took the city, after a contest so +desperate and bloody that for days the issue was doubtful. The palace, +with its magnificent halls of audience and entertainment, where the +Emperors of India had for ages kept their court, we found turned into +barracks and an arsenal. English soldiers trod those rooms where Indian +magnates had bowed before imperial majesty—giving us an impressive +illustration of the transitory nature of earthly glory.</p> + +<p>For some time after going to Almora our health improved; but as the +season advanced it gave way so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> entirely, that our medical attendant +came to the conclusion a visit to England was indispensable to its +restoration. The Directors of the Society gave their kind and prompt +consent to our return. We accordingly embarked from Calcutta for +England, <i>viâ</i> the Cape of Good Hope, in January, 1862, and reached our +destination in April.</p> + +<p>All I have to say about the interval between 1862 and 1865 is that I +visited many places in England and Scotland on behalf of the Society, +did a good deal of ministerial work besides, and was kept in uncertainty +about my future course by medical opposition to my going back to India. +In 1864 I feared I could not return; but my health improved so much in +1865, that the medical men I consulted, to my great joy, consented to +our going back. We accordingly embarked for Calcutta <i>viâ</i> the Cape, +accompanied by two young missionaries appointed to Benares, in +September, 1865, and reached our destination, after a prosperous voyage, +towards the end of the year. We were very pleased with the thought that +our traversing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans had come to an end.</p> + +<p>The railway had some time previously been completed to the North-West, +and so instead of days and weeks spent on the journey from Calcutta to +Benares, it was now made in twenty-six hours.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">APPOINTMENT TO RANEE KHET.</div> + +<p>The hot weather and rains of 1866 were spent in Benares. We felt the +heat that year more than we had ever previously done, and were to a +great extent incapacitated by it for the prosecution of mission work. We +came to the conclusion that continued work in the plains was beyond our +strength, and as we much wished to continue in the mission field, we +hoped a hill sphere might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> be opened up. In March, 1867, we left for +Almora, where, with our colleague Mr. Budden, we engaged in different +departments of mission labour. Early in the cold weather we returned to +Benares, and resumed our work there. As the hot weather of 1868 came on, +we were again privileged to return to Almora. Towards the end of that +year it was arranged that our connection with Benares should cease, and +that we should begin a new mission at Ranee Khet, about twenty miles +north-west from Almora.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch19.png" width="350" height="179" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3><i>KUMAON.</i></h3> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">(1) ITS SCENERY AND PRODUCTS.</p> + +<p>Kumaon is a sub-Himalayan region, with Nepal to the east, the snowy +range, separating it from Tibet, to the north, Gurhwal and Dehra Doon to +the west, and Rohilkund to the south. Including the hill country of +Gurhwal, and the belt of forest and swamp lying immediately under it, of +which only a small part has been reclaimed, Kumaon is about half the +size of Scotland.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE SCENERY OF KUMAON.</div> + +<p>The province presents a remarkable contrast to the great level country +beneath. Over it you travel in some directions hundreds of miles, and +scarcely any elevation or depression in the land can be discerned. As +you travel northward, and approach the limit of the plains, you see +hills rising before you, tier after tier; and behind them, on a clear +day, the higher Himalaya, with their snowy peaks, as if touching the +heavens.</p> + +<p>Kumaon is very mountainous, with as great irregularity as if the land +had been fluid, had in the midst of a storm been suddenly solidified, +and had then received its permanent shape. Here and there are valleys of +some extent, table-lands and open fields are occasionally seen; but over +a great part of the province hill is separated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> from hill by a space so +narrow that it can only be called a ravine. The consequence is that +cultivation is carried on mainly in terraces. Where the slope is +gradual, and the soil fit for cultivation, these terraces, some very +narrow and others of considerable width, rise one above the other to the +distance of miles, with the hamlets of the cultivators scattered over +the hill-side, presenting to the eye of the traveller an aspect of +scenery which is not to be seen in Europe, so far as I am aware. At any +rate, we saw nothing resembling it on the vine-clad hills rising from +the Rhine, or in the mountains of Switzerland.</p> + +<p>The country is well watered. It has innumerable streams, varying from +tiny rills to large rivers. In travelling, we have been for days within +the constant sound of running water. It has a few lakelets, but it has +no large bodies of water, like the lakes which contribute so largely to +the beauty and picturesqueness of Switzerland and Scotland. It looks as +if the deep hollows, of which so many are to be seen, had been unable to +retain the water poured into them, and had let it all flow away. A large +part of the province is so steep and rocky that it cannot be turned to +any agricultural purpose; and even for grazing purposes a large portion +is of little use, as the grass is coarse and poor. There is a great +extent of forest and brushwood. As the land slopes towards the Bhabhur, +the forest is very dense and varied. The timber is of considerable +value, but as there is neither road nor water carriage it must be +carried on men's shoulders, and this involves an expense more than it +can bear.</p> + +<p>From what I have said about the peculiarities of Kumaon scenery, its +mountains, valleys, and ravines, my readers are prepared to hear it has +a great variety of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> climate and produce. Of hills, of which there are +many from 5000 to 9000 feet above the level of the sea, the climate is +delightful—warm, but not oppressively warm, a little warmer than it is +in our country in summer; and cold, though not so severely cold as it is +with us in winter. The rains are very heavy, but to compensate for this +there is, during the greater part of the year, a steadiness of climate +which forms a striking contrast to the fickle climate of England. Down +in the valleys the heat is very great. Even in winter the sun is +unpleasantly strong, and in summer in the deep ravines the temperature +is almost as trying as in the plains. When the season has been somewhat +advanced, I have been very thankful to escape from the heat of these low +places to the bracing air of the hills. The English Sanatoria are of +course on elevated sites.</p> + +<p>As Kumaon has within its borders a cold, a temperate, and a tropical +climate, it has a great variety of produce, and when its capabilities +are more fully turned to account this variety will be greatly increased. +Most of the grains found in the plains are grown in the hills. The +warmer parts of the country produce superior oranges in abundance, and +there is also a good supply of walnuts. Of late years apples and pears +have been grown with great success, and if the farmers paid attention to +this branch of horticulture they might reap a large profit. Attempts +have been made on a small scale to cultivate the grape, gooseberry, and +currant, but the excessive rainfall of the rainy season has been found +unfavourable to them. Tea has become the most valuable product of the +province. Tea-planting was commenced at the instance of Government, +under its direction and at its expense, more than forty years ago; and +now tea-gardens<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> are found all over the province, owned almost entirely +by our fellow-countrymen, and, with few exceptions, managed by them. At +first Chinamen were employed, but they have been dispensed with, and the +entire work is now done by hill people under English superintendence.</p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">(2) THE NATIVE INHABITANTS OF KUMAON.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE INHABITANTS OF KUMAON.</div> + +<p>The hill people of Central and Southern India, the Kols, the Santhals, +the Bheels, and others, as is well known, widely differ in race, +language, customs, and religion, from the Hindus and Mussulmans of the +plains. In Kumaon, on the other hand, the great majority are strict +Hindus, worshippers of the Hindu gods, and scrupulous observers of caste +rules. It would appear that when the ancestors of the Hindus, coming +from Central Asia, crossed the Indus, and took possession of the country +now called the Punjab, they made raids into the lower range of the +Himalayas, killing their inhabitants, or turning them into slaves. The +descendants of the aborigines are at present found in a class called +Doms, who form the artisan portion of the population, and are also +largely employed in agriculture. The Muhammadans form a very small part +of the population, and are almost entirely emigrants from the plains.</p> + +<p>The character of the hill Hindus, in its essential elements, closely +accords with that of their brethren elsewhere. They worship the Hindu +gods, practise Hindu rites, and are imbued with the Hindu spirit. The +Brahmans and Rajpoots are proud of their position, firm in maintaining +it, and shrink from everything which would invalidate it. Under native +rule the high-caste spirit had full scope, for we are told that for +murder a Brahman was banished, and a Rajpoot heavily mulcted; while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +other murderers were put to death. Such offences against the Hindu +religion as killing a cow, or a Dom making use of a <i>huqqa</i> (the pipe +for smoking), or a utensil belonging to a Brahman or Rajpoot, were +capital offences. The power obtained by the Brahmans was shown by the +fact that, when the province came under British rule, one-fifteenth of +its arable land belonged to the religious establishments.</p> + +<p>All the Hindu gods and goddesses are worshipped in the hills, but the +hideous goddess Kalee is the favourite object of worship. Small temples +to her honour are found all over the province, many of them in solitary +places on the tops of hills, to which it is meritorious to make +pilgrimages, and around which at certain seasons melas are held. We have +in our wanderings fallen in with several of these temples in spots from +which, for many miles around, no human habitation is seen. By far the +most famous shrines are those of Badrinath and Kedarnath, in the upper +part of Gurhwal, within the snowy range, where Vishnu is the object of +worship, and the officiating priests are Brahmans from Southern India. +Pilgrimage to these places is very meritorious, as it can only be +accomplished at the cost of great toil and suffering, and at the +imminent risk of life.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 490px;"><a name="TEMPLE" id="TEMPLE"></a> +<img src="images/temple.png" width="490" height="560" alt="TEMPLE IN THE HIMALAYAS." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">TEMPLE IN THE HIMALAYAS.</p> + +<p>In addition to the gods worshipped all over India, the hill people have +local gods unknown elsewhere. <i>Bhoots</i>, evil spirits, commonly supposed +to be the spirits of those who have during their earthly life been noted +for their wickedness, and have acquired the demon character, are +believed to haunt the mountains and forests, and are the objects of +special dread. Homage is paid to them to secure their goodwill and avert +their vengeance. The people greatly dislike travelling at night, as that +is the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>season when the <i>Bhoots</i> roam about and fall on their prey. +When they must move about they break off the branches of the pine-tree, +and turn them into torches to frighten off both the wild beasts and the +evil spirits. In the imagination which peoples hills and forests with +beings outside the circle of humanity, that make their presence +especially felt at night, the people of Kumaon closely resemble the +mountaineers of other lands, among others those of our own Scotch +Highlands, as they were till a recent period. In my early days I heard +so many stories in my native Highland village of ghosts and fairies, +that I was afraid to move about after sunset except when guarded by +others, lest these supernatural beings should lay hold of me and carry +me away.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CHARACTER OF THE KUMAONEES.</div> + +<p>The people have a character for industry. When one sees the difficulties +under which cultivation is carried on, he is inclined to consider it +deserved. They have periods of lounging, but also of very hard work. The +women, in addition to household work, cut and carry wood and grass, and +do much farm work—I have thought at times more than their share; but +after all, the heaviest work, the carrying of great loads on head and +shoulders, up hill and down hill, and the farm work requiring most +strength, is done by the men. Much of the work done by them—work done +by draught animals elsewhere—must tend to break down their health and +shorten their days.</p> + +<p>The Kumaonees have been described as untruthful but honest. I must say +our experience has verified the unfavourable part of this description +more than the favourable. So far as veracity is concerned we have not +been impressed with any difference between them and other natives of +India. We think their honesty has received more credit than it deserves. +This is, at any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> rate, the opinion of the tea-planters with whom we have +conversed, and who have had superior opportunities for judging. They +have told us of the strict watch they have to set to guard their tea and +fruit. We found that some hill servants, whom we had greatly trusted, +had systematically robbed us. The character for honesty was, I believe, +given to them because when they set out on their periodical migration to +the plains they left their villages unguarded, and found their property +safe on their return. I suppose this resulted partly from an +unwritten—may I say?—honourable understanding, that as in their sparse +and widely-scattered population it was well-nigh impossible to guard +their goods, the rights of property should be respected; and partly from +the circumstance that there was little left behind in the villages which +could be carried away. So far as others, especially Europeans, are +concerned, this understanding to practise honesty does not hold.</p> + +<p>We incidentally heard of no small degree of immorality among the people, +but our information is too limited to justify one in comparing them with +others in this respect. There is much that is likable among them, but +the general moral tone is undoubtedly low. Polyandry, which prevails in +some districts in the Western Himalayan range, is I believe unknown, but +polygamy is not uncommon among those who can afford it.</p> + +<p>Cleanliness has never been considered a virtue of Highlanders. It is +not—or perhaps I should say it has not been—a characteristic of the +Highlanders of our own land. Among the Kumaonees it is notably wanting. +The loathsome disease of leprosy has long prevailed in the province, +owing to a large extent to the filthy habits of the people. To the same +cause there is every reason<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> to believe, we have to trace the outbreak +now and then of the plague—<i>muha muree</i>, the great plague, as it is +called—which has proved very destructive. It resembles the plague which +at different times prevailed in Europe and swept away thousands. So +great is the dread of this terrible malady, that on the report of its +approach people flee from their villages. Cholera has been at times +fatal to many, but its ravages are not to be compared to those of the +plague.</p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">(3) HISTORY OF KUMAON UNDER GHOORKHA AND BRITISH RULE.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CONQUEST OF KUMAON.</div> + +<p>Kumaon had been long under the rule of a native dynasty, but intestine +feuds laid the country open to the attacks of ambitious neighbours. In +the latter end of the eighteenth century the Ghoorkhas, a military +tribe, rose to power in Nepal, the hill-country to the east, and early +in this century they extended their conquests over the hill-country to +the west, till they were checked by Runjeet Singh, the famous ruler of +the Punjab. Their rule over Kumaon was said to be very oppressive. By +raids into British territory they came into collision with the English. +After a severe struggle, carried on through two campaigns, they were +defeated, and forced to give up the country they had conquered to the +west of Nepal, which they had held for about twelve years. Kumaon and +the adjoining hill-country of Gurhwal were placed under the jurisdiction +of a British Commissioner, and the arrangement made in 1816 has been +maintained to the present time.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PROGRESS OF THE PROVINCE.</div> + +<p>The country has made immense progress since the English took possession. +The people are now under a government which aims at protecting life and +property,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> and at treating all, high and low, with equal justice. No +longer are Dom offenders against caste laws executed while Brahman and +Rajpoot murderers escape. Atrocious customs have been suppressed, such +as the burial of lepers alive, which was formerly largely practised. +Sanitary regulations have been issued, and penalties imposed on those +convicted of violating them. Fights between villages, ending in robbery +and murder, are no longer permitted, though sham-fights are still +allowed. I was once a witness of such a fight, when a vast number of +hill people were collected, as if for a great field-day, and stones were +thrown from slings in a way I thought perilous to the combatants. Roads +have been made, and rivers bridged. The new roads are too narrow and +steep to admit of wheeled conveyances; often they are only three or four +feet in width, and are at a gradient which makes them trying for horses +and for persons on foot; but they are an immense improvement on the +footpaths with which the natives were satisfied till they came under +British rule, and with which they are still satisfied when left to +themselves. I have not had much experience of the by-paths of the +country, but quite enough to have made me thankful for the new order of +things. Very recently a road for carts and conveyances has been made +from the plains to Nynee Tal, Ranee Khet, and Almora; but the route is +so circuitous that the roads hitherto traversed will continue the chief +means of communication.</p> + +<p>No sooner was the British rule established than the effect was seen in +the increase of cultivation. Mr. Traill, the first Commissioner, states +that from the time of the occupation, 1816 to 1822-23, the date of his +retirement, cultivation had increased fully one-third, and since that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +time there has been a steady advance. The population has more than +doubled, for we are told that in 1823 there were 27 inhabitants to the +square mile, while in 1872 there were 65. At the same time there were +797 to the square mile in the Benares district, and there was no +district in the North-West Provinces where the population was under 185, +while the average was 378. An immense disparity must continue between +countries with such different capabilities, but the progress made in +Kumaon under British rule is proportionably as great as that made in the +most favoured parts of India.</p> + +<p>Wealth has been brought into the country as well as drawn out of it. I +have already referred to tea-planting as a new department of +agricultural industry. Many thousands have been spent on +tea-gardens—much more, I suspect, than has yet been got out of them. A +tea-planter once pointed to a cluster of well-built villages, and said, +"These houses have all been built within the last few years by the +proceeds of wages made in the tea-garden under my charge." Then the +great influx of European travellers and residents has done not a little +to enrich the people in various ways, though at times the labour thus +required has been very grudgingly given, as it has withdrawn them from +their homes when their own work was urgent.</p> + +<p>Of late years a new source of income has been opened up to the people by +the enterprise of Sir Henry Ramsay, who has been for many years the +Commissioner of the Province, and has done more for it than any of his +predecessors. The hill people of some districts have been for ages in +the habit of moving down <i>en masse</i> with their cattle at the beginning +of the cold weather for grazing, and have returned to their mountain +homes when the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> hot weather had set in. The country immediately under +the hills is called the Bhabhur, and is quite distinct from the Turai +which lies beyond. This Bhabhur is a formation of sand and shingle +filled with boulders, largely covered over with soil, which produces +abundant herbage in the rainy season, and is thus good grazing ground in +the succeeding months. It has a large extent of forest, composed of +trees of great girth and magnificent height. The innumerable streams +which come down from the hills flow under the Bhabhur, and make their +way into the Turai beyond, where the land becomes water-logged, and the +main product is long, rank grass, growing to the height of ten or twelve +feet. By a system of canals, devised and carried out by Sir Henry +Ramsay, the water as it comes down from the hills is made to irrigate a +large part of the Bhabhur, rendering it fit for agricultural purposes. +The result is that the people now cultivate the land, beside grazing +their cattle over it. They sow toward the end of the rainy season, and +reap at the beginning of the hot weather, when they retreat to the +hills, and are ready for the cultivation of their fields there. This +addition to the arable land has been a great boon to the people. I +cannot say, however, judging by those with whom I have conversed, that +they are satisfied. They grumble at the new tax imposed for the +construction and maintenance of the canals, and also at the tax they +have to pay for their holdings in the hills, though I believe it to be +very light. They would gladly have all the benefits of a firm and +improving government without paying anything for its support.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">WILD BEASTS.</div> + +<p>Notwithstanding the extension of cultivation and the increase of +population in Kumaon, we may travel for many miles over hill and forest +and not see a trace of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> man's presence. Cover for wild beasts has been +somewhat abridged, but it is still sufficient to shelter them, and to +make it unlikely they can be exterminated. Both in the hills and in the +country beneath, hunters of wild beasts, European and native, still find +abundant employment. Not a year passes without persons, sheep, and +cattle being killed by tigers, leopards, and hyenas. They live so much +in the gorges of the mountains, and in the depths of the forests, ready +to pounce on their prey when opportunity presents itself, that the +destruction caused by them is seen, while they themselves disappear. The +first thing we saw on our first approach to Almora was a horse which had +been killed by a leopard the preceding night. A woman, who had been +cutting grass before the door of a house we occupied for a few days, was +killed an hour afterwards by a tiger in the adjoining forest. One +afternoon we heard the cry of a herd, and running out we saw a goat with +its throat cut, but the leopard that had killed it had disappeared in +the jungle beneath. On another occasion my pony, picketed near my tent, +had a narrow escape from a leopard. I have often heard huntsmen relate +the encounters they have had with these terrible brutes. On one occasion +I saw four dead tigers brought in by a party that had killed them a few +miles from the place where my tent was pitched. Tigers are very +migratory. They live in the cold weather down in the Bhabhur and the +Turai, and as the hot weather advances they follow the herd up the hills +on to the verge of the snow. The bears of the hills feed on fruit and +vegetables, and usually make away when human beings are seen, but they +are very formidable to those who attack them, or come suddenly across +their path. In some places wolves abound, and children and animals<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +require to be guarded against them; but they never hunt in packs as in +Russia, and they are not feared by grown-up people. In the lower hills +and the Bhabhur there are herds of wild elephants, which do much injury +to the crops of the people, and cannot be safely approached. I have been +again and again in their track. There are also serpents, but they are +not so numerous or venomous as in the plains. The dangers to which the +inhabitants are exposed is shown by the annual statistics of casualties, +in which the first place is given to the ravages of wild beasts, the +second to landslips, and the third to serpents.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">INCONVENIENT STIPULATION.</div> + +<p>I may end this account of Kumaon, its scenery, products, history, and +people, by mentioning two stipulations in the treaty with the Ghoorkhas, +when the British took possession of the land, which are strikingly +illustrative at once of British policy and of Hindu feeling. One +stipulation was that certain sums should be paid annually to the priests +of certain temples. A second stipulation was that the slaughter of +bullocks and cows should be strictly prohibited. Not a vestige of power +over the country was left to the Ghoorkhas; the entire rule was +transferred to the British. But our authorities, influenced at once by +religious liberalism or indifference, and by deference to Hindu feeling, +accepted these conditions. The first stipulation caused no trouble, but +the force of circumstances has led to the violation of the second. When +there were no European troops in the Province, and the only Englishmen +were civil officials, officers of native regiments, and a few casual +travellers, the prohibition of beef caused little inconvenience; but a +large influx of English people, soldiers and others, made the observance +of the stipulation impracticable. For a time it was violated, and the +authorities professed to know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> nothing about it; but when Nynee Tal +became a great summer resort, and English soldiers were located at it, +beef became a well-nigh indispensable article of food, cows and bullocks +were killed, and the breach in the treaty by which the country was ceded +to us became manifest to all. It is said that when the high-caste +officials protested against this outrage on the Hindu religion, an +English official quietly said that such good Hindus were not in their +proper place, that they should be transferred to their holy city, +Benares. This speedily silenced the complaint, as hill people intensely +dislike leaving their mountains for the plains.</p> + +<p>The treaty with the Ghoorkhas is not the only one in which the +stipulation against beef has been made when territory has been ceded. To +a treaty-keeping people like the English the stipulation has been very +embarrassing, so embarrassing that for a time resolute effort has been +made to observe it, but it has at length broken down under what has been +deemed the compulsion of circumstances. We have heard of a high-caste +official consoling his brethren for the outrage by reminding them it is +the nature of tigers to eat cows and bullocks, and by telling them that +the English were tigers, had a similar love for such food, and as it was +their nature it must be borne with. Though so shocked with the shedding +of the blood of cows and bullocks, the ruling class in Nepal have shown +no aversion to the shedding of human blood, as is well known by all +acquainted with the history of the country. During the mutiny a friend +of mine, travelling with a regiment of Ghoorkhas that had come down from +Nepal to help us, saw them kill a party of mutineers who had surrendered +under an oath of their lives being spared, with a savage ferocity which +shocked him beyond measure.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="chapsubhead">(4) TRAVELLING IN KUMAON.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TRAVELLING.</div> + +<p>The greater part of our time in the Province was spent in the capital, +Almora, and in the newly-formed Sanatarium Ranee Khet, but we frequently +travelled through many of its districts. I have mentioned the improved +means of communication, but vastly better though the roads be than they +were in the days of native rule, travelling continues to be very +expensive, fatiguing, and in some modes not a little dangerous. +Travellers must either walk, ride, or be carried on men's shoulders. The +first mode can be adopted only by those who have abundant strength and +leisure. It was my mode during our first visit, as I was not pressed for +time, and notwithstanding our residence of eight years in the plains I +retained a good deal of my youthful vigour. The mountain scenery and the +mountain air gave us new life. I travelled on foot some three hundred +miles. On the occasion of future visits I was happy to avail myself of a +hill pony. Most gentlemen and many young ladies perform their hill +journeys on horseback. Happily, hill ponies are, as a rule, quiet and +sure-footed; and they require to be, as the roads are narrow, in some +places very narrow, and overhang precipices, down which the rider would +be dashed if the pony slipped or was scared. At first, riding appears +very dangerous, but after a time there is a feeling of security. I +remember riding with confidence over places where at first I deemed it +prudent to dismount. Scarcely a year, however, passes without riders +being killed, and all who have travelled much over the country have to +tell of providential escapes. The third mode, the mode adopted by most +ladies, and by gentlemen who have not nerve to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> ride, is to be carried +on men's shoulders. The palankeen and dolie of the plains are by far too +heavy and cumbrous for the hills. The favourite vehicle is the +<i>dandee</i>—a pole, with a piece of carpet attached, on which the +traveller sits sideway, and which has belts for the back and feet. Two +men, one at each end of the pole, are able to carry the <i>dandee</i> a short +distance, but in journeys four are commonly employed. During the last +few years a very light sedan-chair has come into favour, which is far +more convenient for ladies, but the <i>dandee</i> is lighter and will +continue to be largely used.</p> + +<p>We have seen a good deal of both the eastern and western portions of the +Province. In 1847 we travelled to Lahoo Ghat and Petorah Gurh in the +east. On this occasion I went on to Nepal, and was told by the Nepalese +sentry on the frontier bridge that without special permission from +Khatmandoo, the Capital, I could not proceed farther. In 1869, in +company with my much-esteemed friend the late Dr. Mather, I travelled in +the same direction, and saw much of the country, as we went by one route +and returned by another. During the later years of our residence we saw +a good deal of the western districts, to which I shall refer when giving +an account of missionary operations.</p> + +<p>Along some of the main roads, at the distance of twelve or fourteen +miles, are small rough Rest-houses, with a table, two chairs, and a +bedstead, often in very bad condition. These houses are in charge of a +watchman, who is often long in making his appearance, and then brings +wood and water, and sometimes a little milk. For everything else you are +dependent on people with you carrying supplies. Where there is much +traffic there is good accommodation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">TIMELY ESCAPE.</div> + +<p>Our most memorable journey, perhaps, was one made in 1861 to the +Pindaree glacier. The journey was a very fatiguing one, as the roads +were so bad, and the ascents and descents so steep, that before we got +half way I was obliged to leave my pony behind, and to make my way on +foot, helped to ascend and descend in some places by strong hill-men, +who drew me up or helped me down by a belt round my middle, while my +wife and little boy were carried in <i>dandies</i>. Many of the bridges were +rough wooden structures, with no parapets. As we approached the snow we +suffered much at night from cold in our little tent. The hill people of +the higher region we found much stronger and more unsophisticated than +those we had left behind. The women seemed never to have seen an English +woman or child. They were first afraid to come near us, but my wife made +her way to little groups, and they seemed delighted with her, and still +more with her little boy. Fatiguing and trying though the journey was, +health was improved by it, and we were well rewarded for any toil and +inconvenience we endured by the magnificent scenery we saw. Down the +Pindaree valley came a roaring torrent, showing by its yellow tinge it +came from the melted snow. We were awed as we looked up at the +tremendous cliffs on either side. Pursuing our way in silence, I heard a +servant from the plains, who was walking behind me, muttering to +himself, "Such a wicked place I never saw in my life." We breakfasted on +the glacier, and after looking at some of the crevasses we were glad to +make our way back to our tent a few miles below. Next morning we +retraced our steps, and it was well we did so, for as we were rapidly +descending we had heavy rain, and could see snow falling where we had +been. The next day the whole region<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> behind was covered with snow, and +we were thankful for our timely escape.</p> + +<p>The details of travelling I have now given, and the previous details +about the country and people may perhaps enable the reader the better to +understand and realize missionary work in the Province.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 312px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch20.png" width="312" height="200" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE ALMORA MISSION.</i></h3> + + +<p>Stated mission work was commenced in Kumaon in 1850. Previous to that +time a few of its people had heard the Gospel from missionaries +travelling through it, or residing for a few months in it. In that year +the Rev. J. H. Budden, of the London Missionary Society, after labouring +for a time in Benares and Mirzapore, was obliged by the failure of +health to abandon all hope of continuing in the plains, and took up his +abode at Almora, the capital of the Province. The society declined to +enter on mission work in Kumaon; but Captain Ramsay, Senior Assistant to +the Commissioner, with other friends, came forward with most liberal +offers of support, and consent was given to Mr. Budden's entering into +an engagement to carry on the Mission as the agent of its local +supporters. For some time his entire salary and all expenses were met by +these friends. Afterwards a part of the salary was paid by the Society, +and for years the whole, but the friends who founded the Mission have on +to the present time supported it with princely munificence. At the head +of these is Sir Henry Ramsay, the Captain Ramsay of 1850, who has been +for many years the Commissioner of the Province, and who continues the +warm and liberal supporter of everything by which the spiritual <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>as +well as the temporal good of the people may be promoted.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">WORK OF THE ALMORA MISSION.</div> + +<p>As the Mission at Almora was the first, so it continues to be the most +important in the Province. Organized and administered by Mr. Budden, and +heartily supported by friends on the spot, it has done a work which has +told powerfully and happily on the entire country. From the beginning +much attention has been paid to the education of the young. For a long +time the school of the Mission was the only one in the Province where a +superior education, at once native and European, was imparted; and +still, both in the number of its pupils and in the extent of its course +of study, it stands highest. From it have gone out for many years bands +of young men who now fill varied positions under Government, and it is +believed they are discharging their duties with greater intelligence and +a higher character than those they have succeeded. In remote parts of +the Province I have met persons who have spoken in strong terms of +gratitude of the benefit they had received from attending the Almora +Mission School. A few years ago a large, handsome structure was erected +for its accommodation at great expense, towards which the natives +contributed very liberally. In addition to this school-house, the +Mission has valuable property in mission-houses for native Christians, +an orphanage, and a book-room.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="SCHOOL" id="SCHOOL"></a> +<img src="images/school.png" width="600" height="511" alt="MISSION SCHOOL, ALMORA." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">MISSION SCHOOL, ALMORA.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE LEPER ASYLUM.</div> + +<p>In other departments excellent work has been done. Female education has +been zealously prosecuted under the direction of Mr. Budden's daughters. +For many years there has been an orphanage in which destitute children +have been brought up and educated. The authorities made over to the +Mission a Leper Asylum they had established, and for years it has been +under its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> exclusive charge. Much has been done for the inmates of this +asylum at the cost of personal labour, great anxiety, and a heavy +expenditure. Suitable buildings have been erected, the wants of the +lepers have been supplied, everything has been done which could be done +to mitigate their sufferings, and to secure order and cleanliness. The +efforts put forth to draw them to the Great Physician to secure their +spiritual cure have by the Divine blessing borne abundant fruit. When +the Rev. John Hewlett was in charge in 1864-65 there was a movement +towards Christianity, which resulted in the baptism of several. Since +that time the work has gone on. Christian worship has been regularly +maintained among them, and much labour has been bestowed on their +instruction. Many have been baptized, after giving all the evidence of +sincerity which could be expected, and at certain times the Lord's +Supper has been dispensed. Among the lepers there have been persons of +very debased character, but the conduct of most has been good, and, so +far as we can judge, a number have become the true followers of the +Saviour. If the Mission had done nothing more than sustain this Leper +Asylum, it would have done a most Christ-like work, deserving the warm +approbation and liberal support of Christ's people.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 774px;"><a name="LEPER" id="LEPER"></a> +<img src="images/leper.png" width="774" height="500" alt="LEPER ASYLUM, ALMORA." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">LEPER ASYLUM, ALMORA.</p> + +<p>From the commencement of the Mission a service has been conducted every +Sabbath in English for the benefit of our countrymen residing in Almora. +Services have been held in the native language for the native Christians +and natives generally.</p> + +<p>In addition to the work of organizing and conducting the various +departments of the Mission, Mr. Budden has made large and valuable +contributions to native Christian literature.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have seen much of the Almora Mission, and have had the privilege of +taking part in conducting its operations. Among other duties which I +endeavoured to discharge during two seasons was to go, along with my +wife, every Sabbath morning to conduct worship with the lepers, and to +instruct them. Mrs. Kennedy went besides once every week. There is no +work on which I look back with deeper interest than I do on this. We +first conducted a brief service of singing, prayer, and preaching. Mrs. +Kennedy then took the women and I took the men to see how much of the +sermon they understood, and to inculcate the great lessons of God's Word +in the way of question and answer. The work was at first very trying, +but gradually we became more than reconciled to it. Our heart was drawn +forth in deep pity to these poor people, and we left them deeply +thankful for the privilege we had of speaking to them of the Saviour, +and of telling them of His compassion for the suffering and the lost.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch21.png" width="400" height="120" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3><i>RANEE KHET MISSION.</i></h3> + + +<p>In accordance with instructions from the Directors of the London +Missionary Society, Mrs. Kennedy and myself went at the beginning of +May, 1869, to Ranee Khet, a new station twenty miles north-west of +Almora, to enter on mission work there. Some time previously it had been +resolved to open a new mission in the Province, and I had been appointed +to commence it. After much consideration Ranee Khet was deemed the most +eligible place for the extension of our work. The name means "The Field +of the Queen," and was probably given to it in honour of Kalee, as it +has on its higher part a small temple sacred to her, round which the +hill people hold a yearly mela. The place may be described as a rough +table-land, with an elevation of from 6,200 to 7,000 feet above the +level of the sea. With the exception of a little land cleared on one +side, the country for miles around was covered with forests of pine, +oak, and rhododendron, over which the people of the valleys pastured +their cattle at some seasons of the year. The attention of the +Government was drawn to the place as suitable for a military Sanitarium, +and engineers were sent to open up roads and investigate its +capabilities. The report made by them was so favourable that a +considerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> outlay was sanctioned for turning it into a retreat for +English soldiers from the heat of the plains.</p> + +<p>The prospect of Ranee Khet as a European station, where soon a large +population was sure to gather, was one reason for regarding it as a good +sphere for a new mission. The chief reason, however, for the choice was +the fact that within twelve miles around, on the sides of the hills and +in the valleys beneath, there was a large accessible population, +furnishing a much wider field than one missionary could well occupy.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VISITS TO RANEE KHET.</div> + +<p>Previous to taking up our abode at Ranee Khet I paid several visits to +it, with a view to making myself acquainted with the neighbourhood and +to holding intercourse with the people, many of whom I met in their +villages. They looked on me with fear, as if I had come to lay a new tax +on them, and seemed utterly unable to comprehend me when I told them I +was no Government official, but a servant of God, who came to them with +good tidings from Him. The only school of which I heard was twelve miles +distant, and I came to the conclusion that the establishment of primary +schools would be very beneficial to the people, and highly favourable to +my object. Though so illiterate that in well-sized villages I did not +hear of a person who could read, a number expressed approval of my +object. Some were forward with the promise to erect school-sheds, and to +send their children, but the performance did not come up to the promise.</p> + +<p>When we went to Ranee Khet there was not a single house at the place. +The only Europeans were two Engineers and a sergeant, and they were +living in their cook-houses, preparatory to building houses for +themselves. I had arranged with a friend to have a wooden house erected, +but when we went the work had only been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> commenced, and the first six +weeks we lived in a tent. It was midsummer, and the tent was in the +daytime intolerably hot. The trees around gave little shelter, they were +chiefly pine; but we soon succeeded in putting up booths, and in them, +except when storms came on, we were very comfortable during the heat of +the day.</p> + +<p>We were thankful when we exchanged our tent and booths for our rough +wooden house. In it we remained two years and a half in tolerable +comfort. There were two serious drawbacks. In the heavy rains the house +leaked in such a degree that there was scarcely a dry spot in it; and, +what was worse, the rats got into the open roof, and by their active +movements, especially at night, were a great annoyance. Latterly the +leakage was stopped, but the rats were too strong for us, and could not +be dislodged. Notwithstanding these inconveniences, when we remembered +the heat of the plains, during six months of the year, which we had +endured, and our brethren were continuing to endure, and contrasted the +climate there with the climate we were enjoying, we were never tempted +to murmur. We felt deeply thankful for the Providence which had given us +an abode in a country where summer heat was only a little greater than +in our own, where there were no hot winds, where with windows open we +could be always comfortable in the hottest weather, and where all around +us was magnificent scenery.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned rats. In their division of common rat and musk-rat, +they are troublesome enough in the plains, but they are a plague in the +hills. They abound in the fields, and are very hurtful to the crops. Not +a house is erected into which they do not manage to make their way; but +where a house is well built, and due care<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> is taken, they find little +shelter. They go into a rough wooden house as if they were entitled to +full possession. These unwelcome intruders may be kept in check, but +there is no hope of entire deliverance from them.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MISSION BUILDINGS.</div> + +<p>During our eight years in Ranee Khet we had to discharge the varied +duties devolving on missionary pioneers. To one department, to which I +knew much attention must be given, I looked forward with dismay—the +erection of buildings. Remembering our experience in the plains we would +gladly have shrunk from this work, but we knew it must be faced. Through +the great kindness and efficient help of friends we succeeded in getting +suitable buildings erected. The first building we put up was a place of +worship. After considerable delay we succeeded in getting a suitable +site for a mission-house on a knoll within a short distance of the +native bazar. The servants' houses and the cook-house were first up, and +leaving our hut we took up our abode in the cook-house, that we might be +at hand to superintend the erection of the mission-house. Before its +completion we got, close at hand, a site for a school-house, which, with +its handsome hall and four side-rooms, furnishes more accommodation than +has yet been required. To this building natives contributed liberally. +As the stone and wood required had to be carried on men's heads and +shoulders, every additional yard increased the expense, and we were +obliged to use the wood and stone nearest, though at some distance +better might have been procured. Our masons and carpenters were not of a +superior order, and required to be constantly watched and directed. The +buildings were not all we could wish, but they were suitable for the +climate and for our purpose. Our house was commodious, was in the best +position for mission<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> work, had a magnificent view of the snowy range, +and we would not have exchanged it for the finest house we had seen in +the plains.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 750px;"><a name="SNOWY" id="SNOWY"></a> +<img src="images/snowy.png" width="750" height="456" alt="THE SNOWY RANGE FROM RANEE KHET." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">THE SNOWY RANGE FROM RANEE KHET.</p> + +<p>From the commencement of our residence in Ranee Khet, village schools +received much of my attention. For a time I had nine under my charge, at +distances of from six to fifteen miles. For the accommodation of three +schools stone houses were erected, and for other schools sheds of grass +and wood were put up. The attendance at these schools varied greatly at +different seasons of the year: many came too short a time to get any +benefit, the attendance of others was too irregular to admit of much +progress; but a considerable number remained till they received a good +primary education. On my visits I taught the pupils, and conversed with +their parents and friends who gathered round. When the weather permitted +I had my tent pitched for days near the school, and visited the +adjoining villages. On these occasions I tried to sit down where or how +I could, with the people around me, and entered into familiar +conversation with them. The language was a great difficulty, as the +dialect of Kumaon differs widely from the Hindee of the plains; but by +dint of repetition, and putting what I had to say in different forms in +the simplest fashion, I was often happy to find myself getting into the +understanding of my hearers. Every second Saturday the teachers, often +accompanied by senior pupils, came to my house to report what they had +done, and to receive instruction.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CONTRASTED VIEWS OF SIN.</div> + +<p>I had reason to be thankful for having entered into this department of +work. A large amount of Christian instruction was imparted; many of the +boys showed remarkable aptitude in committing to memory portions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> of +Scripture, such as the ten commandments and the parables of our Lord. +Much general knowledge was acquired, a number of the pupils became +better fitted for their secular calling, and the goodwill of the people +was secured. Once, when thirty miles away from Ranee Khet, I met a lad +whom I recognized as an old pupil. I asked him if he remembered what he +had been taught. He said he did. He went to a house close at hand, +brought a copy of St. Luke's Gospel, read at my request the fifteenth +chapter, and explained its meaning with an accuracy which surprised me. +At the same place I met a man of a different order. He told me he was +going to a mela, to which I was also proceeding. I asked him what he was +to do there. He said he was to bathe, to wash away his sins. I asked him +what was the sin which oppressed him. He said, "I am a husbandman. In +ploughing my fields I destroy much life, which is a great sin. This is +the worst thing with which I am chargeable." The lad taught in the +school knew something of what sin was, as the poor man did not. I can +say nothing about the spiritual results of these school efforts. I can +only hope that by God's blessing good has been done. The Government has +now entered largely on primary education in the Province, and with its +resources and prestige will, I trust, secure a large school attendance.</p> + +<p>All through my residence at Ranee Khet I endeavoured to embrace the +opportunities given to me of promoting the spiritual good of our own +countrymen. A service was at once commenced with the few residents and +visitors at the station. Towards the end of 1869 two companies of +English soldiers were sent, and as soon as tolerable accommodation was +provided a regi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>ment was stationed at Ranee Khet. As for nearly three +years I was the only resident Christian minister, I held two services +every Lord's Day—one for Presbyterians, including all non-Episcopalian +adherents, and the other for the Episcopalians, the Prayer-book being +used at this latter service. I also visited the sick in hospital, and +when at home conducted a weekday meeting. We first met in the open air, +or verandah of our hut; afterwards in the hut used as a temporary +canteen; for some time in the recreation-room; and during our later +years in our place of worship, which we called Union Church. An effort +was made to get up a girls' school, but it was unsuccessful, as the +attendance of the few native girls in the Bazar could not be secured. So +far as native women were concerned, all Mrs. Kennedy could do was to +instruct the few living in the Mission compound. She found, however, an +interesting sphere among the wives and children of the soldiers. The +Sabbath school, commenced and carried on by her, assisted by others, was +attended by all the children, Roman Catholic as well as Protestant; but +no sooner was a Roman Catholic chaplain appointed than the order went +forth for the withdrawal of the children of his Church, which was obeyed +with manifest reluctance. We had much pleasure in these services with +our own people, and had every reason to believe lasting good was done. +Some of the boys of the Ranee Khet school expressed a desire to be +taught English, and these came every second day to our house to be +taught by Mrs. Kennedy.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MISSION WORK AT RANEE KHET.</div> + +<p>While thankfully availing myself of the opportunities presented of +preaching the Gospel to our own countrymen, such opportunities as I +never had at any previous period of my Indian career, my chief attention +was given<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> to the work for which I had been sent to Ranee Khet. I have +already mentioned missionary work done on visits to the schools. At +Ranee Khet opportunities were found for conversation with shopkeepers +and their customers. Thousands of work-people were employed on the +buildings which were being erected, and these, when the work of the day +was over, flocked to the Bazar to buy food. After the toil of the day, +when eagerly anticipating their only cooked meal in the twenty-four +hours, they were not inclined to listen to a stranger telling them of +his strange religion. Occasionally I did succeed in getting for a time +the attention of some not so eager as others to get their evening meal. +Most heard quietly, but sometimes individuals replied with bitter words. +Many of the work-people had come from a great distance. The most +prominent of these was a band of Cashmeeree Mussulmans, who spoke +against Christianity with a fierceness which showed what they would do +if they had the power. From one of them I got a retort, which it was +difficult to repel. I tried to put the party into good humour by asking +them about their country, and I smilingly said, "Is there no food in +your country, that you have come all this way for it?" To which I got +the reply: "You, sir, have come much farther than we have done. Had you +no food to eat in your country?" I must acknowledge I felt myself shut +up under this rebuff.</p> + +<p>During my residence at Ranee Khet I had much intercourse with two +classes widely separated from each other—educated young men, and Doms.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned that from the Almora Mission School a number of young +men had gone into all parts of the Province. Several got situations in +the public offices of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> Ranee Khet, and to them in the course of time +persons of the same class were added from Bengal. I visited these at +their quarters, and did all in my power to maintain friendly intercourse +with them. A room in the school-house, supplied, partly at their own +expense and partly by the liberality of friends, with newspapers, +periodicals, and books, was turned into a reading-room, which was always +open in the evening. One evening in the week they met me in class, when +we had as our text-book the Advanced Reader of the Christian Vernacular +Education Society, which furnished full opportunity for conversation on +the most useful and important subjects. The attendance was not so steady +as could be desired. All were friendly in their bearing, and some seemed +much interested in our study and talk. A few professed Brahmist views, +but none were inclined to join the Brahmist community and break with +their own people. There was no indication of the spiritual concern which +compels the soul to earnest investigation, with a view to following +truth wherever it may lead.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MISSION WORK AMONG THE DOMS.</div> + +<p>The other class with whom I had much to do at Ranee Khet were the Doms, +to whom reference has already been made as in all probability the +descendants of the aborigines of the country previous to the Hindu +invasion. They are a most useful part of the community. As the artisans +of the country, the people of every caste have much to do with them. +They are largely engaged in agriculture. They do things by which the +caste people would be defiled, such as carrying away the carcases of +animals. In a high-caste village it is not uncommon to see, a little +aside from it—if the ground permits, below it—a number of houses +occupied by Doms. The pigs and fowls around the meaner dwellings, and +the poorer looks of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> the inhabitants, tell what they are. As artisan +work is now in great demand the circumstances of the Doms are much +improved, and there is every prospect of their rising into a higher +position. They bear, and for many a year they may be expected to bear, +indubitable marks of having been for ages a servile, despised, +downtrodden class, having no respect from others, and entertaining +little respect for themselves. Their improved circumstances will do +something towards raising them in the social scale, but we cannot look +for high moral excellence and real manhood till they come under the +power of the Gospel.</p> + +<p>On account of the abundance of work which the formation of an English +station was sure to afford, a colony of these people erected a village +for themselves on the side of the Ranee Khet hill below the Bazar. I had +when in Almora conversed frequently with Doms. At Ranee Khet I saw much +of them, and had more encouragement among them than among any other +class. To some who expressed regret they could neither read nor write, I +said it was not too late; that I would take care that they be taught if +they were willing to learn. To test them I opened a night-school, and a +number availed themselves of it. It was a gratifying sight to see them, +at ages varying from fifteen to thirty-five, conning their +spelling-books at the door of the school-house as evening was coming on, +or trying to form letters on their slates. A few became soon +discouraged, but a number held on, night after night for two or three +hours, with the greatest eagerness, till they could read, write, and +count very fairly. One result of the school was that they began to +attend, with great regularity, a service held every Sabbath afternoon in +the hall of the school-house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> During the last year of our residence in +Ranee Khet, the attendance at this service was larger than at any +previous period, and it was mainly composed of Doms. Nothing could +exceed the quietness and apparent interest with which they heard the +simple addresses given. I cannot say I saw any evidence of spiritual +awakening, but the torpor of their previous life was shaken in a way +which inspired the hope of their being brought into the fold of Christ.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned the fierceness of the Cashmeeree Mussulmans. This +charge cannot be brought against them all. One of their number, a young +lad, came to the school, and was in every respect one of the best pupils +in it. With another, one so trusted by the rest that he was the +go-between in the arrangements for work with the English engineer, I had +much intercourse. Though the head of the party, and himself doing no +manual work, he could neither read nor write, and was entirely dependent +on accounts being kept by another. To my surprise he came to the +night-school, and applied himself so diligently that he acquired a fair +measure of elementary education, though his knowledge of the Hindee +language was very imperfect. He regularly attended the Sabbath evening +service, and seemed to listen most eagerly. One day he came to our +house. I at once saw that he was greatly excited. He shut the door +behind him, as if afraid of being seen, came close to me, got down on +his knees, and said: "Sir, what am I to do? Last night Huzrut Isa" (the +name given by Muhammadans to our Lord, which may be translated "His +Honour," or "His Excellence Jesus") "appeared to me in a dream, and +said, 'Follow me; follow me.' But how can I follow Him? My people will +kill me, they will kill me!" I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> have seldom been more touched than when +I looked on the anguish in the face of that poor man, and the tears +coursing down his cheeks, as he uttered these words. I need not tell the +Christian reader what I endeavoured to say. Shortly afterwards the +Cashmeerees left Ranee Khet, and this man with them. I could not find +out where they went, and I have lost all trace of my friend.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ITINERACY.</div> + +<p>A considerable part, sometimes the greater part, of the cold weather was +given to itineracy. Some winters we went down to the foot of the hills +to prosecute mission work among the large population found there at that +season. We moved from place to place, erecting our tent in central +spots, from which within a radius of two or three miles we could visit +populous villages, some built of rough stones, but most composed of +grass sheds. I was generally accompanied by a catechist. We had many +opportunities of speaking to the people on the highest subjects. Not +infrequently we met persons whom we had met in the hills, and then we +were sure of a special welcome. Once I came on a party of Doms, tailors, +whom I had seen a short time previously, and I said to them: "As you +have no cattle, and do not cultivate the ground, what has brought you +down?" To which I got the reply: "We have come in search of the sun." +This gave me an opportunity of speaking of that Sun in whose warmth and +light their spirits might dwell at all times, in all places. I +endeavoured to set up schools in the Bhabhur, but had not any +encouraging measure of success.</p> + +<p>There was much which was pleasant and exhilarating in this movement from +place to place, and in camping under the trees: but it was at times very +fatiguing, and in bad weather very unpleasant. More than once we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> were +overtaken by severe storms, but happily the worst of these storms came +on us in favoured places, where we could find shelter on escaping from +our tent.</p> + +<p>Hill ponies feel themselves strange when in what a friend used to call +the "roomy plains." The pony I had for years was quiet enough in the +hills, but I had to watch it narrowly in the plains, as it seemed to +have always the sense of danger, and was ready to start in a fashion +which more than once almost dismounted me.</p> + +<p>Some winters were spent in itinerating in hill districts from which the +people did not go to the Bhabhur. In these winters I had the opportunity +of going to a mela held at Bageswur, about thirty-five miles from Ranee +Khet, at the confluence of the Surjoo and the Kalee. This mela is the +greatest held in the Province. To many it is the grand event of the +year. The people from all parts flock to it for religious, commercial, +and social purposes. In the motley crowd may be seen hill-men from all +the districts of the Himalaya, natives from the plains, Tibetans from +the other side of the snowy range, and Englishmen.</p> + +<p>This mela is held in a low valley not far from one of the passes into +Tibet. It is attended by many Tibetans, who succeed in bringing their +ponies through the tremendous defiles which separate their country from +Kumaon. These ponies bring high prices. They also bring sheep laden with +salt and borax. These Mongolians are great stalwart men, with broad +faces, clad in homespun woollen cloth of many folds, which is seldom +taken off till it is worn off. They are accompanied by a few women and +children. They take their religion with them in their praying-wheels, +which they keep going. They are an intensely religious people, as Mr. +Gilmour tells us, but it is in the most mechanical fashion which can be +conceived.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> If they were mere machines, wound up like their +praying-wheels, they could not to all appearance be more devoid of +thought, feeling, and conscience in the exercise of their religion. I +marked their countenances, and could only wonder at their stolid look. +Much that is absurd is found in man's religion, but the Tibetan form of +it seemed to me the very <i>ne plus ultra</i> of irrationality. Some of these +Mongolians are inveterate beggars, but it would not be fair to judge the +people generally by these stragglers into India. There was more life in +their dances than in their religion, though not much grace. It seemed to +me that if elephants could dance, they would do it somewhat in that +style.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GREAT FAIR AT BAGESWUR.</div> + +<p>In the town of Bageswur there are substantial houses belonging to the +merchants of the Province, and these are occupied by themselves or their +agents during the greater part of the cold weather. During the rest of +the year it is deserted, as the valley is very hot and feverish. During +the colder weeks of the year it is a very stirring place, but it is on +the occasion of the melas, two of which are held within three months, +that there is a large gathering. At the principal mela many thousands +must be present. As in all Hindu gatherings, religion, business, and +pleasure are eagerly prosecuted. A town of booths rises suddenly in the +valley and on the sides of the hills. Whenever I have gone, I have for +miles before reaching the place seen many carrying or trailing branches +of trees, with which they were to erect their temporary abode. These +answer well in good weather, but when rain or snow falls they give no +shelter. The morning is given to bathing. One morning is peculiarly +propitious, and then from the earliest dawn the people are in the +stream, many of them, I suppose, getting well-nigh the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> only ablution +they have in the course of the year. During the day selling and buying +go on vigorously. As evening approaches the merry-go-rounds are +patronized, and crowds gather round singing and dancing parties. The +dancers are young men linked hand in hand, who move about in circles, +shuffle their feet, and sing in a very monotonous fashion. Many set to +the preparation of the evening meal, and the valley and the hill-sides +are aglow with fires and lights. Amusement, however, has not come to an +end. Singing is kept up till the small hours of the morning, to the no +small disturbance of those who cannot sleep except when there is a +measure of quiet. Between the singing of the people and the +barking—rather the howling—of the Tibetan dogs, such barking as I have +never heard in our own country, wearied though I have been by the work +of the day I have for hours found sleep to be impossible.</p> + +<p>Englishmen attending the mela find a temporary abode in tents, and in a +staging bungalow erected for the accommodation of European travellers. +They dine together in the hall of this house, and occupy their tents at +night. Officials deputed by the Commissioner of the Province are +present, for the double purpose of keeping order and of paying rewards +to those who have killed wild beasts. The skins of the tigers, bears, +and leopards, for the destruction of which rewards have been paid, are +sold by auction under the direction of the officials. The heaps of skins +exposed for sale give one a striking impression of the number of wild +beasts in the country. There are many keen hunters, both native and +European, and there is no likelihood of their occupation coming to an +end for want of game. Tea-planters attend this mela to buy mats, which +are made by the people in large quantities,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> and are required in the +preparation of tea for the market. Military officers on leave and +travellers from the plains are present from the double motive of seeing +this strange gathering and of purchasing ponies.</p> + +<p>For many years Mr. Budden, accompanied by native Christians, has been in +the habit of going to this mela, and I have been happy to help him and +his brethren when opportunity has been given to me. A colporteur has +been present with his wares, and succeeds in selling at a small price +portions of the Scriptures and tracts. An amusing instance of indecision +occurred at the bookstall the last time I was present. A man had +purchased a Gospel. He came back saying he was told by his people that +he would certainly become a Christian if he took that book to his +village, and he laid down the book on the stall and asked for his money. +The colporteur refused to cancel the sale, and the man was sorely +perplexed, reluctant to lose both his money and that for which the money +was paid. At last he walked away with the book, the colporteur assuring +him it would do him only good.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PREACHING AT THE FAIR.</div> + +<p>We took our stand at different parts of the mela, and spoke to all +willing to hear. Many speedily passed on, but a number remained for some +time, as if desirous to know what this new religion was. Now and then we +encountered pundits, and if they were at all reasonable we were pleased +with their presence and opposition, as a colloquy with them greatly +quickened the interest of the people. On one occasion, after skirmishing +with some pundits, it was arranged they were to meet us at a fixed hour +for discussion. Our Christian party were present at the appointed place +and hour, but our pundit friends did not put in an appearance. Our +going, however, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> not in vain, as we succeeded in getting hearers who +listened patiently to what we had to say about the Saviour of mankind. +One of our number was a converted pundit of Almora, who spoke to the +people in a way I thought eminently fitted to make a favourable +impression.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 317px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch22.png" width="317" height="200" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3><i>HABITS AND CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. MISSION WORK AND RETIREMENT.</i></h3> + + +<p>During our residence in Kumaon we had many opportunities of observing +the condition and habits of the people. I have mentioned the new +resources opened up to them, and yet it must be acknowledged that many +are poor. The population is probably much larger than it has been at any +previous period. The holdings are small, and by the division made on the +occasion of the death of the head of the household they ever tend to +become smaller. There are a number in the Province who own no land, and +are poorly remunerated for their labour by their countrymen. I have +mentioned the new source of wealth opened up to the people by the canals +and cultivation of the Bhabhur. Reference has also been made to the +tea-gardens and public works, on which large sums of money have been +spent, of which much has reached the people in the form of wages. Thus +all classes, both those who have land and those who have not, have been +benefited. Indeed, apart from income thus obtained it is difficult to +conceive how the people could have been supported. If they do not make +progress in material comfort the fault must lie in their want of +energy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p> + +<p>Like their brethren in the plains, the people in the hills live chiefly +on cereals—the cheaper cereals—and vegetables; but, like most below, +including even many Brahmans and Rajpoots, they have no objection to +animal food when they get it of the kind they approve, and prepared in +the way caste rules require. As to Doms, nothing that is at all eatable +comes amiss to them. They have no objection, indeed, to much we should +deem uneatable. The Hindus eat the flesh of goats and kids offered in +sacrifice. They also eat the flesh of short-tailed sheep, but +long-tailed sheep are an abomination to them, as they regard them as a +kind of dog. We saw once an amusing instance of the notion of +uncleanness attached to this species of sheep. A few sheep were being +chosen by a purchaser from a flock. The animals were scampering about, +showing, according to their nature, their unwillingness to be caught. +Three or four men were engaged in catching them, but one every now and +then started back when about to lay his hand on a sheep, exclaiming, +"<i>Wuh doomwala hai!</i>"—"It is a tailed one! it is a tailed one!"—as if +he would be hopelessly defiled by touching it, while his less scrupulous +companions of the same caste said, "You fool! what does it matter? It +will do you no harm." They would not have eaten its flesh, but their +caste spirit was sufficiently relaxed to allow them to touch it.</p> + +<p>I have referred to sanitary regulations issued by the authorities to +guard the people against epidemics caused by want of cleanliness. One of +these regulations forbids the dwelling together of animals and human +beings. On our first visit to the hills in 1847 I came unpleasantly into +contact with this dual occupation of the same house. As night was +setting in I came to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>top of a hill, and from it I could see a few +straggling houses at a short distance. I had with me two or three men, +who proposed to put up a booth for the night. Unhappily for my comfort, +a thunderstorm came on with heavy rain, and the booth was no protection. +I was taken to a house a short way off, but on entering it the smell +from the animals occupying it with their owners was so strong that it +drove me out. I preferred to face the storm to bearing the effluvia of +that highland abode. I was told of a little unoccupied grass-shed a mile +down the hill. I found the grass so thick and well tied that the rain +did not get through, and the entrance was on the lee side. Into this I +crept, and slept soundly till the morning, for I was very tired with the +long walk of the day.</p> + +<p>The new sanitary orders have no doubt done good, but it is difficult to +secure compliance with them, though fines are imposed on persons +convicted of disobedience. If there had been a reward for informers I +could have more than once won it by telling what I had seen.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">NYNEE TAL.</div> + +<p>A very pleasant break during our life at Ranee Khet was a yearly visit +paid to Nynee Tal, about thirty miles distant, which had become the seat +of Government for the North-West for half the year, and a place of great +resort from the plains during the hot and wet months. It has many +advantages as a Sanitarium. It is within sixteen miles of the Bhabhur, +and has an elevation of from 6,300 to 8,000 feet above the level of the +sea. There is a small, beautiful mountain lake, from one end of which +one looks down on the plains over the intervening hills; while at the +other end, beyond a piece of uneven ground, rises a lofty mountain. +There are rather steep hills on either side, but hills with a gradient +which admits of houses being built on them. Though so near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> the plains, +this lakelet was till 1842 unknown, except to natives and a few English +officials. In that year travellers with difficulty made their way to it, +and drew attention to its attractions. We first saw it in 1847, and then +it had very few houses. An old General, one of its first residents, told +us that one day the preceding year he saw a tiger walking leisurely +above his house, and looking down, as if wondering at the change which +was coming over the place. Some of the first residents were startled by +meeting bears in their walks. Since that time houses have been built on +every side, and during the season there is a great population of both +Europeans and natives. Four years ago there was a fearful landslip, +which carried down a number of houses with it, and buried many under the +falling mass.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 809px;"><a name="LANDSLIP" id="LANDSLIP"></a> +<img src="images/landslip.png" width="809" height="500" alt="LANDSLIP AT NYNEE TAL." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">LANDSLIP AT NYNEE TAL.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of 1857, the American Episcopal Methodist Church +entered on mission work in Rohilkund. When the mutiny of that year broke +out, the agents of this church in Rohilkund escaped to Nynee Tal, and +from that time they continued to occupy it as a mission station, and +also as a sanitarium for their brethren in the plains. The Mission has +been efficiently conducted. English services have been maintained during +the season. They have been well attended by all classes, and have done +much good. Between native servants and shopkeepers from the plains, and +natives of the hills, who flock into the place for service and work, +there is a large sphere for mission work, and much has been done in the +way of both preaching and schools. The Mission has been extended to +other parts of the Province, to Gurhwal in the north, to Petorah in the +east, and to other places, with manifest tokens of the Divine blessing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">ANNUAL MEETINGS AT NYNEE TAL.</div> + +<p>With these American brethren we have been on the most friendly terms, +and have co-operated with them in every way open to us. We formed an +association with them for mutual counsel and help. One result of this +association has been the holding of annual meetings in Nynee Tal in +autumn, for the benefit of Europeans and natives, and conducted in both +the English and native languages, ending with the celebration of the +Lord's Supper. These meetings were largely attended, excited much +interest, did, I believe, much good, and were very enjoyable. On these +annual visits to Nynee Tal we commonly remained a week or ten days, and +had much pleasant intercourse with the missionaries and other friends. +During several years Sir William Muir, as Lieutenant-Governor of the +North-West, was resident for half the year at Nynee Tal, and our special +thanks are due to him and Lady Muir for hospitable entertainment.</p> + +<p>While, during our residence in the hills, time and strength were mainly +given to effort for the spiritual good of our own countrymen and the +native population, there were times, especially during the rainy season, +when I was much at home; and I was glad to avail myself of the leisure +afforded of writing for the press what I hoped might prove, and what I +trust has proved, of spiritual benefit to natives and others. During our +stay in the hills, in addition to articles for the "Indian Evangelical +Review" and other periodicals, I wrote a Commentary on the Epistle to +the Romans in Hindustanee, and Essays in English, which were published +in book form under the title of "Christianity and the Religions of +India." At an early period of my missionary career, at the request of my +colleague Mr. Shurman, to whom the work of revising and in part +translating the Bible into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> Hindustanee was entrusted, I transferred the +Pentateuch from the Persian into the Roman character, and translated the +book of the Prophet Jeremiah, which, revised by Mr. Shurman and Dr. +Mather, now forms part of the version. Before leaving India I did a +little, at the request of the North India Bible Society, towards the +revision of the Hindee translation of the New Testament. On this work a +large and very able Committee is now engaged. During my Indian career I +have written a good deal for the press—I must acknowledge in a very +desultory manner.</p> + +<p>Thus engaged in prosecuting our work, years passed on till the end of +1876, when we felt the time had arrived for retiring from the Indian +Mission-field. In July of that year I had a severe illness, which laid +me aside, and incapacitated me for carrying on mission work with any +measure of efficiency. I might have continued at Ranee Khet, and done +the work within my reach there, but by doing so the most important part +of the work, the work in the district, would have remained undone; and I +deemed it best to retire to make way for one who could fitly occupy the +sphere. Medical men whom I consulted strongly advised my departure, and +the Directors of the Society gave their prompt and kind sanction to our +return to England.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FRIENDLY HELP.</div> + +<p>I cannot end this account of our life in Kumaon without giving +expression to our gratitude for the kind aid afforded us by friends in +the prosecution of our work. Among these friends, one of the steadiest +and kindest was the cantonment magistrate, Colonel, afterwards +Major-General, Chamberlain, who identified himself with the Mission, and +was ever ready to do all he could to promote its prosperity. During our +lengthened absences<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> from the station in the cold weather, and whenever +I could not officiate, he conducted service with the English soldiers, +and he was ready in every way within his power to render help. In +addition to aid in carrying on the Mission, we received great personal +kindness from him and his partner, of which we shall always retain a +grateful recollection. He retired to England a short time after us, and +within a little more than a year he was suddenly called away—to his own +gain, we are sure, but to the grief of all his friends. It gives me a +melancholy pleasure to render this tribute to his memory. For steady +friendship and most valuable aid our best thanks are also due to +Captain, now Lieut.-Colonel, Birney, R.E., the resident Chief Engineer; +Robert Troup, Esq., a tea-planter in the neighbourhood; and Mr. +Ashhurst, engineer. Among the friends not resident at Ranee Khet, to +whom the Mission is largely indebted, are Sir Henry Ramsay and Sir +William Muir. Besides the friends I have mentioned, many others +contributed liberally to the Mission, without whose aid much which was +done must have remained unaccomplished. By the liberal contributions +received the operations of the Mission were carried on, and valuable +property was created at very little expense to the Society.</p> + +<p>We left Ranee Khet at the close of 1876. As we were leaving India with +no prospect of returning, we spent two months in visiting different +stations, seeing their Missions, and holding intercourse with friends +and brethren. In the course of these months we visited Bareilly, +Shahjehanpore, Agra, from which we went to see that wonderful deserted +city, Futtypore Sikree, with its magnificent tombs, Jeypore, Lucknow, +Cawnpore, Allahabad, Mirzapore, Benares, Jubbulpore, and Bombay. At Agra +we attended the native service of the Church Mission. The minister<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> who +preached was a native who had been educated in our central school at +Benares when I was superintendent, and was there led to the knowledge of +Christ, though he was not baptized till his return to his native city, +Agra. On this tour we saw and heard much which interested us greatly, as +it showed the work of evangelization was being vigorously prosecuted +with tokens of God's blessing resting on it. We embarked at Bombay in +February, and arrived in England at the end of March.</p> + +<p>We left India, where we had spent the greater and, I may say, the better +part of our life, with feelings I will not attempt to describe. I can +only say when we review our Indian life, that while deeply humbled at +the recollection of many errors and defects, defects in wisdom, zeal, +and love, we are deeply grateful for having been privileged to labour +for so many years in the service of our adorable Redeemer, not, we +trust, without proof that good was accomplished through our +instrumentality; and so long as we breathe, our hearts will steadily +turn towards India with ardent love, and with fervent prayer for the +spiritual and temporal welfare of its inhabitants.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch23.png" width="400" height="88" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE MISSIONARY IN INDIA.</i></h3> + + +<p>On reviewing these reminiscences I find there are several subjects of +interest to which I have only casually alluded, and others on which I +have made no remark. My readers will, I hope, bear with me while I +detain them by stating facts and expressing views which will make the +narrative more complete.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to describe the office of missionary to the heathen. +No one has rightly entered on the office without being deeply impressed +by its greatness, arduousness, and responsibility. It is equally +unnecessary to describe the qualifications required. No one can +contemplate the demands the office makes on intellect, heart, and +conscience, on love to the Lord Jesus Christ and love to souls, on +wisdom, perseverance, and courage, without exclaiming with the great +missionary Paul, "Who is sufficient for these things?" The idea that one +unqualified for work at home would do for a missionary abroad is so +preposterous that it is strange it should have ever been entertained by +the most heedless.</p> + +<p>There is, however, a great difference between an office and those who +serve in an office. Because an office is great and honourable it does +not follow that those who hold it have always the high character it +demands. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> question may, then, be fairly asked, Are missionaries +worthy of their office? I, of course, use the word "worthy" in a +relative sense, and I remember our limited acquaintance with the human +heart. It must be acknowledged there have been a few, happily a <i>very</i> +few, who have shown themselves utterly unworthy of the office, some by +lack of intellectual fitness, and others by want of spiritual character +and by indisposition to the work. There have been cases of the utter +failure of character, but these have been extremely rare. Of +missionaries generally it may be confidently affirmed they have been +true men. I have a wide acquaintance with the missionaries of Northern +India. During our long residence in Benares we saw many of all +Societies, of all Churches, as they travelled up and down. Benares is +one of the great halting-places between Bengal and the Upper Provinces, +and residence there gives many opportunities for acquaintance with +brethren. We have the most pleasing recollection of many we have met, +and we have followed their course with deep interest.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MINISTERS AND MISSIONARIES.</div> + +<p>I should be acting in opposition to my settled conviction if I were to +speak of missionaries as more devoted to Christ's service, more +self-denied, more ready to endure privation than home ministers. This +glorification of missionaries, as missionaries, was much in vogue at one +time, and is still sometimes heard. Our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, +gives to every one his work, and our devotedness is shown, not by our +office, but by the way in which we do the work assigned us. Predilection +to a certain sphere, supposed fitness for it, temperament and +circumstances, have much to do in indicating to us the sphere our Lord +would have us to occupy. Tried by the test of devotedness, as shown in +daily life, I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> never seen any reason for placing one class of +Christ's servants above the other. Among ministers there is, as we all +know, a great difference, not only in talent and attainment, but also in +love, zeal, wisdom, and endurance—in every quality which their work +demands. Similar is the variety among missionaries. There are many +degrees of efficiency and, it must be acknowledged, of inefficiency. +They, as well as their brethren at home, can go through the routine of +their work in a very perfunctory and unsatisfactory manner; while they, +too, can consecrate all their powers to the service of their Lord. It +would be easy to select from the home field ministers who, in unwearied +labour, self-denial, and privation for Christ's sake, greatly excel the +ordinary run of missionaries; and it would be equally easy to select +from the foreign field missionaries who greatly excel most of their home +brethren.</p> + +<p>In several respects there is a marked contrast in the position of +ministers and missionaries. Ministers labour in their own language, +among their own people, amidst home surroundings and associations; while +missionaries have to part with loved relatives and to betake themselves +to a foreign land, where they have to learn a foreign language, often +languages, at the cost of much time and of wearying application, have +for years, as in the greater part of India, to bear a severe climate, +are called to prosecute their work among a strange, an unsympathetic, +and sometimes a hostile people, and, what is felt by family people to be +the greatest trial of all, they have to send their children to England, +and to live separate from them for years. Some of these trials +missionaries share with their fellow-countrymen, who from secular +motives go to foreign lands, but others are peculiar to their vocation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p> + +<p>While I mention the trials of a missionary career I cannot forget the +trials of ministerial life at home. We should require to shut our eyes +to patent facts if we were to ignore the privations many excellent men +are called to endure, and the varied difficulties they have to encounter +from the character and circumstances of the people among whom they +labour, from the peculiarities of our times, and from the abiding +qualities of human nature, as it is now constituted. Missionaries are +not rich, but they have adequate support, for good or evil are not +dependent for it on the goodwill of those to whom they minister, and +receive it as regularly as if it came from an endowment. With children +sent home for education they have times of great pressure, but much has +been done to aid them in meeting this additional expense. Viewed merely +as to the comfort of living, and ease of mind as to support, the +advantages are not all on the side of the home minister. To counteract +the advantages of the missionary's position to which I have referred, it +must be remembered the average career of service in India is short—some +returning very soon, and others after a few years. Those who return +after years spent abroad, and yet in the prime of life, are rightly +expected to enter the list of the home ministry; but the work they have +left and that on which they are entering are so different, that the +mental habits acquired in the one are felt to be a poor preparation for, +and often even an obstacle to, efficiency in the other.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SPIRITUAL CHARACTER INDISPENSABLE.</div> + +<p>In their duties, joys, and trials, ministers and missionaries have much +in common. We have to deal with the same human nature, manifesting the +same characteristics, though in different forms. We have the same +message to deliver. We have the same great end in view, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> salvation +of those to whom we minister, their restoration to the character and +joys of God's children. Whether we labour at home or abroad, we are +required to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. If we have +not entered on our work from love to Christ and love to souls, with an +intense desire to spend and be spent in Christ's service, with a belief +that He has called us to it, and given us a measure of fitness for it; +if we are conscious of being dominated by inferior motives; if we have +not delight in our work, even when there is great pressure on both mind +and body; if we do not long for the success of our work, it is obvious +we have missed our vocation, and it would be better for us to sweep the +street, I would say it would be better to walk the treadmill than occupy +our position for an hour. This I must say for myself, I am deeply +thankful for having been privileged to labour in the foreign field, and +consider it the highest honour which could have been conferred on me. +With my brethren I have had many trials to endure, some privations to +bear, some perils to encounter, but I have never for an hour regretted +my early decision to give myself to Christ's work among the heathen. I +am sure I here speak the feeling of my missionary brethren.</p> + +<p>I have endeavoured in my reminiscences to give such a representation of +a missionary's position and work in Northern India, that home ministers +who may read my narrative can have no difficulty in comparing and +contrasting ministerial and missionary spheres. It will be seen how +varied are the duties devolving on the missionary, and how great are the +demands on thought and effort for their proper discharge. They have, in +many cases, to attend to harassing and perplexing secular work. A number +give their time and strength to teaching, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> I know enough of this +department to testify that those who give themselves to it in a climate +like that of India lead very laborious lives. I have said little of the +translation of the Scriptures, and the preparation of Christian books +and tracts. This is a department in which there has been much exhausting +effort of both body and mind, as all know well who have done even a +little in it. In the prosecution of direct evangelistic work the +missionary finds much to interest and encourage him, but also much to +grieve and depress him, especially if he has a sensitive nature, and has +no natural love for debate. Even to those who do not shrink from +discussion there is often not a little which is very trying. I have a +vivid recollection of times when I have returned from Benares to my home +in the suburbs, so wearied in body and grieved in spirit by the +opposition I had encountered and the blasphemies I had heard, that I +have felt as if I could never enter the city again. But I went again, +and perhaps the next time was much encouraged.</p> + +<p>Missionaries at the same station are much more closely associated than +ministers at the same place at home. The management of the mission, the +policy to be adopted, and the respective places to be filled, are under +common arrangement and control, subject to the district committee, and +through them to the home directors. Many perplexing questions come +before missionaries thus associated, and human nature in them must have +parted with its usual infirmities, and put on peculiar excellence, if +difference of judgment and consequent variance of feeling had never +appeared. We cannot plead exemption from human imperfection. It cannot +be denied that at times there has been strong diversity of judgment and +painful alienation of feeling, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> missionaries have too closely +resembled Paul and Barnabas in their sharp dispute at Antioch; but it +can at the same time be most truly affirmed that with very rare +exceptions discord has soon come to an end, and those who have differed +widely have become attached friends, as we know Paul and Barnabas did. +The normal state of things is that of mutual love, respect, and +helpfulness.</p> + +<p>Missionaries have also had their differences with the Societies that +have sent them out and supported them. The respective position of home +committees and foreign missionaries are so different, that a difference +of judgment is in some cases unavoidable; but confiding as they have +done in the goodness of each other's motives, full harmony has been soon +restored. I must be allowed to say of the London Missionary Society, +whose agent I was for so many years in India, that my warmest +acknowledgments are due to it for all the kindness and consideration +shown to me and mine. If I were now to begin my career with my knowledge +of the past, there is no Society with which I could so confidently +connect myself.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">INTERCOURSE AND CO-OPERATION.</div> + +<p>All have heard of the friendly intercourse among missionaries of +different churches. They, too, when near each other have had occasional +differences; but with rare exceptions they have been on terms not only +of courteous bearing, but of affectionate intimacy. There is nothing in +our Indian life to which we look back with greater pleasure than our +intercourse with Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and Episcopalian +brethren. With the Episcopalian and Baptist missionaries at Benares we +were on as warm terms of friendship as if they had been members of our +own Mission. For many years we were in the habit of meeting weekly with +them for the study of the Scriptures, prayer, and Christian communion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p> + +<p>Most Europeans take no interest in missions, look on missionaries as +good men engaged in a Quixotic enterprise, and know almost nothing about +their work, but still they treat them with courtesy. There are, however, +some of our own countrymen who take a deep interest in our work, visit +our schools, occasionally attend our native services, and contribute +liberally to our mission schemes. These do much to cheer our hearts and +promote our success. Again and again my work would have been at a +standstill but for the help given me by European Christians, and our +intercourse with some has resulted in close and enduring friendship. If +persons have a temperament preparing them for friendship, I cannot +conceive any position more favourable to its formation and strength than +that of a missionary in many of our Indian stations.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch24.png" width="350" height="186" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE MISSIONARY IN INDIA (Continued).</i></h3> + + +<p>It has been already stated that missionaries have an income, which +enables them to live in a way conducive to the health of themselves and +families. Things which would be luxuries at home are necessaries in +India, and all they can do is to alleviate the suffering caused by the +climate. As missionaries are often more stationary than European +officials, both military and civil, and spend much less than they do on +horses, establishments, and entertainments, their houses have an air of +comfort which is surprising to those who know their income, and has led +to much misrepresentation on the part of those who know not and do not +care to know what it is.</p> + +<p>Not infrequently young men have gone out to India as missionaries with +the firm resolve to live to a large extent in the native fashion, and to +eschew what they conceive the undue indulgence of those who had preceded +them, but the experience of one hot season has generally brought them to +another mind. Individuals have adhered to their resolution, and the +result in one case I know was insanity, in other cases utter failure of +health, and in others speedy death. A band of Germans determined to +live, if not in the native style, at least in the simple style of the +Fatherland, as to habitation, food, and service, and with scarcely an +exception the plan was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> soon abandoned. The only successful case I have +heard of in our day has been that of Mr. Bowen, a devoted American +missionary in Bombay. We have had no William Burns, in Northern India at +least. I can say for myself, that so far as the mere comfort of living +is concerned I should greatly prefer a humble abode and simple fare in +England, to the finest house and the most sumptuous fare in the plains +of Northern India. It has been maintained by some that our only hope of +success lies in our becoming ascetics, and outstripping by our +austerities the Hindu saints. In other words, by acting as if we +accepted Hindu principles of religion we are to overthrow Hinduism, and +win the people to Christ. The proposal calls for no consideration.</p> + +<p>Of late a good deal has been said about the substance of missionary +teaching. Missionaries as a class maintain and teach the doctrinal views +of the Churches whose messengers and agents they are. In these Churches +a sifting process has been going on for a considerable time, which has +led in some cases to a reversal of belief in matters of great moment, +and in a greater number to the modification and softening of views +hitherto entertained. Every one must decide for himself how far the +sifting has been wisely done, how far chaff and only chaff has been +given to the wind, and precious grain gathered into the garner. +Missionaries have unquestionably been affected by doctrinal discussion, +in a few instances, I believe a very few, to the reversal of some of +their former views, in all, perhaps, though in different degrees, to a +readjustment of their doctrinal position, to giving more prominence to +some aspects of truth and less prominence to others, under the +conviction that such is their relative position in the Word of God.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">MISSIONARY PREACHING.</div> + +<p>However much imbued missionaries have been with the views of their +respective Churches, their position among the heathen has always led +them to the constant and simple presentation of the great facts and +doctrines of the Bible. These have been set forth in the manner deemed +best fitted to commend them to the understanding, conscience, and heart +of the people. Familiar illustrations have been largely used, and +elaborate doctrinal discussion shunned. While the missionary finds much +in the narratives and teachings of the Old Testament which is helpful to +his object, he dwells chiefly on the life of Christ, His deeds, words, +living, and holy example; death to redeem men; man's urgent need of such +a Saviour, because guilty and depraved; the claims of Christ on His +love, trust, and service; the blessedness of compliance with these +claims on character and state; the misery and doom incurred by their +persistent rejection. How often have I seen the heathen greatly moved by +the parable of the Prodigal Son!</p> + +<p>The missionary, like the home minister, has to guard against +one-sidedness, if he would keep to the Book which he professes to be his +standard. The many-sidedness of the Bible, its appeal to man's whole +nature, is one of the most marked proofs of its superhuman origin. While +it addresses itself continually to man's moral nature, to his sense of +right and wrong, while it appeals to his intellect and heart, it also +speaks to his fears and hopes. These appeals are made to all, whatever +may be their diversity in character and condition. If we were to follow +the course of many in our day who condemn appeals to fear, we should be +ignoring a large part of Scripture, including many of our Lord's +utterances, and at the same time ignoring that fear of hurtful +consequences which the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> Author of our nature has implanted in us as a +great means of self-preservation. To hope as well as to fear much is +addressed in the Bible, and the missionary who would approve himself to +his Master is bound to appeal to both principles, while, like his +Master, he makes his constant and main appeal to the higher part of +man's nature.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MISSIONARIES COUNSELLED.</div> + +<p>While the missionary ought to strive to understand the people among whom +he labours, and to discover the most promising avenue to their minds, +while he ought to commend himself to every man's conscience as in the +sight of God, he is not to seek acceptance for his message by +accommodating it to the views of his hearers. He knows that between +their views and his message there is not only a marked discrepancy, but +on many points radical opposition, and the one must be displaced if the +other is to be accepted. We have here for our guidance the example of +our Lord and His apostles.</p> + +<p>I have endeavoured to give a faithful description of the tenor of +missionary teaching. It appears many are dissatisfied with it. We are +told we must part with our narrow traditional views of doctrine, and +become imbued with the larger and more liberal views of our times, if we +are to hope for success. In the late Dr. Norman McLeod's "Life" we find +him saying, "The chief difficulty in the way of advancing Christianity +in India is unquestionably that almost all the missionaries represent a +narrow one-sided Christianity." I cannot conceive what could have been +his ground for this astounding statement, except his impression—it +could not have been anything beyond an impression—that missionaries +adhered to the doctrines of the Churches that had sent them out, his own +among the rest, and had not followed him in his changes. Every one who +comes out with new views, or modification<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> of old views, assures us that +success will speedily follow the acceptance and preaching of <i>his</i> phase +of doctrine. Some tell us we must preach the moral aspect of the +atonement, and part with what has been called the forensic aspect; we +must only speak of the love it shows to man, and say nothing of its +bearing on the Divine law and government; and then the great cause of +so-called failure will be removed. So far as I know missionaries, they +accept both aspects of the atonement; they believe both aspects are +taught in Scripture, and they are convinced that instead of enfeebling +they strengthen each other, while the doctrine thus presented meets +man's deepest wants. Others, again, tell us we must preach what is +called Life in Christ—the utter extinction of impenitent sinners, while +others say this is a shocking doctrine, and we must preach universal +restoration. This is no place for discussing the teaching of the Bible +regarding the great Beyond, which is at present exercising so many +minds. All I will say is that neither in the old views nor in the new is +there anything which a Hindu or a Buddhist will accept, while he remains +a Hindu or Buddhist. So far as I am aware, all students of Hinduism and +Buddhism are agreed that eternal conscious existence, with identity of +being firmly maintained, is alien from both systems. They do not hold +the doctrine of either eternal happiness or eternal misery. To be +extinguished, in the sense of being absorbed into Brahm and losing all +conscious personality, is the reward of high virtue, while the wicked +have to pass many miserable births before they reach this longed-for +goal. With them salvation, liberation, is not deliverance from sin, but +from conscious existence. They have both heavens and hells—heavens +supernatural in their surroundings but intensely earthly in their +character,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> doings, and strifes, and hells full of everything which is +repulsive and painful; but both, after vast lapses of time, will be +emptied into the great ocean of being, into the One without a Second. +Cessation of conscious existence is not with them the punishment of +wickedness, but the eagerly desired consummation of their being, the +goal which is quickly reached by the eminently good.</p> + +<p>Let missionaries by all means listen to what is said in favour of new +views, let them modify or change their views if they think they see +scriptural authority for the change, but I am profoundly convinced no +shifting of our doctrinal position will secure success. Looking over the +whole field of foreign missions since the end of last century, it is +undeniable that God has done great things by them, for which we have +abundant reason to be glad; and we know the teaching by which the desert +has in many places blossomed as the rose. New phases of doctrine have +yet to win their triumph. We must look in another direction for a +greater degree of success—to more unreserved devotedness to Christ on +the part of both missionaries and those who send them out; closer +communion with Him; a higher degree of attainment in the mind which is +in Him; a more persuasive deliverance of our message, and a larger +effusion of God's Spirit.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE HEART'S OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.</div> + +<p>The great obstruction at home and abroad to the acceptance of Christ as +the Saviour is moral obtuseness, a dormant conscience. Our Lord's words +throw a steady light on man's neglect of the great salvation, "<i>They +that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.</i>" Till men +know they are sick, and recognize the deadly nature of their sickness, +there will be no application to the Great Physician. In addition to the +indurating effects of sin everywhere, the people of India have been for +ages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> so drugged, I may say, with pantheistic and polytheistic teaching, +that if man's moral nature had been destructible it must have been +destroyed ages ago. Happily it can not be destroyed. Perverted, +stupefied, dormant, though it is, it still exists, and to it we can +therefore address the message of Heaven, while we look up to God to make +it effectual by the teaching of His Spirit. When man knows himself to be +a sinner, when he knows what sin is, then, and only then, whether in +India or in England, he casts himself with joy into the arms of the +Saviour.</p> + +<p>I am surprised when Christians speak as if only a modification or a new +statement of doctrine was required in order to achieve full and +immediate success, as if they had never read such passages as "<i>The +carnal mind is enmity against God</i>;" "<i>The natural man receiveth not the +things of the Spirit of God</i>;" as if they were ignorant of the facts by +which these statements are so amply and mournfully attested; as if they +had never heard of One who appeared, as ancient sages longed to see, +clothed with perfect virtue and dwelt among men, and was yet rejected +and crucified by them; as if they knew nothing of His apostles, who +spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and yet had to lament over +many hearers to whom their message was the savour of death unto death. +Musing over the controversies of the day, the wish has often arisen in +my mind: Would that the nature of sin was not kept so much in the +background! Would that it was seen in its offensiveness to God and +injuriousness to man—persistently daring high Heaven, while corrupting, +degrading, disquieting, and ruining man! Would that the scriptural view +of sin and sinfulness, which receives such ample confirmation from human +experience and history, was more considered in the adjustment of +doctrine! All<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> readjustment in which the nature and effect of sin is not +kept steadily in view must lead to serious error—error which +misrepresents God's character and government, is inconsistent with facts +meeting us on every side, and must prove most hurtful to man. I am +convinced that while on some points there has been progress, and wise +modification of doctrine, on the subject of sin the theology of former +days was truer to Scripture and fact than the theology of our time.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">"IN MEMORIAM."</div> + +<p>I cannot conclude these remarks about the Indian missionary without +mentioning—and I can do little more than mention—the names of loved +fellow-labourers who rest from the toils of earth, and have entered into +the joy of their Lord above. A feeling of sadness and yet of +thankfulness comes over me, as I see before my mind's eye brethren of +our own Mission with whom I was associated—Buyers, with his intimate +acquaintance with the native languages, his large knowledge, and his +kindly disposition; Shurman, the keen, impetuous, plodding German +scholar, whose great monument is his translation of the Old Testament +into Hindustanee; Mather, first of Benares and afterwards of Mirzapore, +one of the most enterprising and devoted missionaries ever sent to +India, whose peculiarity of temper and urgency with new plans led in his +early years to unpleasantness, but who, when well known, was one of the +truest and kindest of men, with whom for many years we had an intimate +friendship, and whose memory and that of his excellent wife we shall +always revere; and Sherring, one of the most amiable of men and most +pleasant of colleagues, a man of marked attainments, and an +indefatigable worker. The agents of other missions at Benares call for +affectionate mention. I have in an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> early part of my reminiscences +spoken of Smith, the founder and for many years the sole agent of the +Baptist Mission at Benares, a quiet, diligent, Nathaniel-like man. This +mission had for years George Parsons, a man of large linguistic +attainments, of most amiable, meek, and devout character, than whom it +would be difficult to find a more conscientious labourer. The Church +Missionary Society was highly favoured in having had for a long period +at Benares two men, Smith and Leupolt, who, in their respective +departments, had, I believe, no superiors in India. For many years +Smith, with resolute perseverance and great efficiency, often with +severe strain on both body and mind, prosecuted evangelistic work in the +city and the surrounding neighbourhood. No man was better known and more +highly esteemed by the entire community. He had success to cheer him in +the form of persons avowing themselves the followers of Christ, but the +number was so small that he was often greatly depressed. I cannot doubt +that by his ministry seed was sown in many minds which will yet bear +fruit. During our later years in Benares, Fuchs was one of the agents of +this Mission, an excellent biblical scholar, a diligent labourer, who +required only to be known to be loved and esteemed, with whom we had +much pleasant and profitable intercourse. He was suddenly called away in +the midst of his usefulness, and in the prime of life. I have been +confining my remarks to the departed; but I must mention two who +survive—warm-hearted Heinig, of the Baptist Mission, now set aside by +age and infirmity, after a long life of great toil in the service of +Christ, and our greatly-loved friend Leupolt, of the Church Mission, who +is still doing good service now in England, and was for many years the +fellow-labourer of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> his friend Smith. His name and work at Benares will +last for many a day.</p> + +<p>Our departed brethren had their imperfections; who of us are without +them? But I can truly say that in their general character, work, and +bearing they were the messengers of the Churches to the Gentiles and the +glory of Christ.</p> + +<p>Looking beyond our Benares missions we remember a number of faithful +labourers, whom we knew and loved, who have joined the majority, such as +the learned and kindly Owen, the venerable Morrison, the apostolic +Ziemann, and many others besides. I do not use these terms in a +conventional sense, but as justly applicable to the men. Those I have +named laboured, and others have entered into their labours, men worthy +of all esteem, love, sympathy, and help.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 237px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch25.png" width="237" height="280" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<h3><i>NATIVE CHRISTIANS.</i></h3> + + +<p>Native Christians form so large and varied a community that right views +of them can be obtained only by those who consider its component parts.</p> + +<p>In Southern India there are thousands calling themselves Syrian +Christians, still more frequently Christians of St. Thomas. Either the +Apostle Thomas or some of his spiritual children went to India, and +founded a Christian Church. Down through the ages the descendants of +these first converts have clung to the profession of Christianity, and +have kept up their connexion with their fellow Christians in Western +Asia. They have the peculiarities of hereditary Christians exposed to a +corrupting moral atmosphere, and possessing limited means of spiritual +improvement. We are told that they have made great progress through +their intercourse with European missionaries.</p> + +<p>In Southern India and Ceylon there is a large body of native Christians, +the descendants of the many baptized by Xavier and his companions. Every +one who has read the life of Xavier knows how widely he opened the door +of the Church; with what facility, to use his own favourite expression, +he "made Christians." Many speedily relapsed into heathenism, but a +sufficient number remained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> steadfast to form a large community, and +their descendants are reckoned by tens, rather hundreds, of thousands. +There is not—at least there was not a short time ago—any reliable +census of their number. Protestant opinion of these native Christians is +very unfavourable. It may be prejudiced, and yet it has been expressed +by persons who have come into contact with them, who know them well, and +who would shrink from doing injustice. Many facts have been stated in +support of an unfavourable estimate. The Abbé Dubois condemned them as a +scandal to the Christian name, and other Romanists have joined him in +confirming the testimony of Protestants.</p> + +<p>In Travancore and Tinnevelly, in the far south, there are large native +churches, in connexion with the Propagation, Church, and London +Missionary Societies, composed of Shanars, a people outside the Hindu +pale and greatly despised by them, with a sprinkling of caste people. +When whole villages come over to the profession of Christianity, we +generally find a few who may be regarded as true believers in the Lord +Jesus Christ, with limited knowledge but genuine faith, while the many, +though favourably impressed, simply assent to the action of their +friends and neighbours, and are little changed except in name. They are +on the way to a happy change by having come under new and elevating +influences.</p> + +<p>All over Southern India there are native Christian churches, the work of +conversion having proceeded in some cases gradually, individual by +individual, while in other cases numbers have been admitted at the same +time.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CONVERSION OF NON-ARYAN TRIBES.</div> + +<p>Among the non-Aryan tribes, the Kols and the Santhals, occupying the +hills and forests of Central and Eastern India, a great work has been +done during the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> last thirty years. Thousands have been brought into the +fold of the Christian Church. In habits, character, and condition, these +tribes bear a considerable resemblance to our rude Teutonic ancestors, +and they have been brought to the profession of Christianity in a +somewhat similar manner; with this difference, that they have not been +headed by chiefs in the reception of baptism, and in many cases +commanding it. The first converts were the direct fruit of mission +labour; their number increased, inspired by zeal they told their +countrymen the treasure they had found, and called on them to share it +with them. Many listened to their words and accepted their message. The +work thus spread from village to village, and from hamlet to hamlet, +till it extended to parts of the country never visited by a missionary, +and included many who had never seen a missionary's face, in some cases +who had never seen a white face. A very dear friend and enterprising +missionary, the late Rev. William Jones of Singrowlee, made his way +through a wild roadless country to the border of the Kol region, and +came to a hamlet where the people were startled by the appearance of a +European, as they had never been visited by one before. Though from +difference in language their intercourse was limited, they understood +each other sufficiently to discover, to their mutual delight, that they +had a common faith. The general character of a community formed of a +rude people, emerging from fetish and demon worship, can be readily +supposed. I suspect the converts made by the monk Augustine and his +companions had not a little in their character and conduct to show the +pit from which they had been taken; and yet that was the dawning of a +day for the Anglian and Saxon race in our country for which we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> have +abundant reason to be thankful. There is no doubt much imperfection in +Kol and Santhal converts, but we may well anticipate for them a far less +clouded day than that which dawned on our forefathers when Augustine +went to them.</p> + +<p>In Bengal there are two large native Christian communities, one in +Krishnagurh in connexion with the Church Missionary Society, and the +other in Backergunje connected with the Baptists. In both cases the +conversion of individuals has led to numbers avowing themselves the +followers of Christ. Where conversion is thus what may be called +collective rather than individual, there may be in some a high degree of +spiritual life, but the majority simply go with the stream. It will be +observed that in the statistics of some missions so many are represented +as baptized, so many members of the church, so many adherents, the last +class often outnumbering the other two. These adherents openly declare +their abandonment of idolatry, attend public worship with more or less +regularity, call themselves Christians, and are called Christians by +others. They may be described as in the outer court of the temple, from +which not a few from time to time enter the inner.</p> + +<p>In the great Presidency cities, Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, and their +immediate neighbourhood, the native churches connected with Protestant +Missions are comparatively small. The members of these churches differ +more widely in social position, mental culture, and I think I may add +spiritual character, than any other native churches in India. Some of +the members are highly educated, have acute and disciplined minds, and +have an intimate acquaintance with our language and literature. +Individuals among them have made sacrifices<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> by becoming the followers +of Christ, of which the only adequate explanation is that they have come +under the power of an all-controlling faith, of the faith which gives +the victory over self, the world, and the devil. Persons more +established in the faith of Christ than some of these are, more +thoroughly assured that He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the +world, I have never met. In these churches there are degrees of culture +and social standing, till we come to unlettered persons in the humblest +rank of life, some of whom are, I doubt not, as genuine Christians and +as devoted to the Saviour as their brethren of higher social standing +and larger mental attainment.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS OF NORTHERN INDIA.</div> + +<p>I now proceed to speak of the native Christians of Northern India, with +whom for many years I have been closely associated, and of whom I can +speak with a measure of confidence.</p> + +<p>In the North-Western Provinces, as in other parts of India, we have +different classes that go under the name of native Christians. Most +drummers of native regiments have been Christians, in the sense that +they have been baptized persons. Many are descendants of Portuguese, who +have gradually become mixed with the lower classes of natives, and +cannot, except by dress, be distinguished from them, their hue being +often darker than that of the people. These Portuguese descendants are +numerous all over India, in the South very numerous, and hold very +different positions in society, but those I have known in the North have +been mainly of the drummer class. To these have been added a +considerable number of natives, the waifs of native society, who have +attached themselves to European regiments as camp-followers, not a few +of whom have so separated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> themselves from their own people that they +have found it convenient to profess the Christian faith. I have known +individuals of this class who bore a good character, and were regular in +their attendance on public worship. We had a number of them in our +native Christian congregation at Benares, and we had for years a weekly +meeting in their quarters. I cannot, however, speak highly of them as a +class, either as to intelligence or goodness. Not a few went to a place +of Christian worship only on Christmas Day, or on the occasion of a +marriage or baptism, and their general conduct was no honour to the +Christian name. Yet these people are proud of being ranked as +Christians. We had a striking illustration of this at Benares. A person +died, the son of an English colonel by a Muhammadan wife. I knew the man +well. He often called on me, and was eager for discussion. He +continually avowed himself a follower of Muhammad. He was never seen in +a place of Christian worship, and was often seen in the mosque. When he +died, the relatives of his mother made arrangements for the funeral; but +the drummers and Christian camp-followers gathered in numbers, went to +the magistrate, and claimed the body on the ground that the man had been +baptized in infancy. As the result of inquiry it was found that at the +father's instance he had been baptized, and on this account the body was +made over to the Christians, who carried it to the grave in triumph, as +if they had achieved a great victory for their faith, the chaplain of +the station reading the funeral service. The native Christians connected +with the different missions in Benares for the most part kept aloof.</p> + +<p>I have already spoken of orphans and their descendants, and need say +nothing more about their character. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> form a considerable portion of +the native Christian community in the North-West.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">UNWORTHY ADHERENTS.</div> + +<p>All our missions have had accessions from both Hindus and Muhammadans, +but chiefly from Hindus. I heartily wish I could say all have joined us +from right motives. This I cannot say. It is undeniable that persons +have joined us from unworthy motives, some because they have broken with +their brethren, others who are pressed by want in hope of support, and +others again in anticipation of a life of less toil if they can get +under the wing of a missionary. There have even been individuals who +have made it a trade to be baptized, who have told most plausible +stories, have hung on missionaries for a time, and have then set out in +quest of new pasture. They remind us of the wild Saxons, who submitted +to baptism again and again that they might obtain the white dress given +on each occasion to the baptized. Some missionaries have been far more +ready than others to administer baptism, but as a rule they have +examined candidates closely, have made all possible inquiry, and have +baptized them only on obtaining what appeared satisfactory evidence of +sincerity. Some who proved most unworthy manifested the greatest +apparent earnestness, possessed a considerable degree of knowledge, and +were hailed by us as a valuable accession. I narrowly escaped baptizing +a man who turned out the leader of a band of thieves. He came to me +professing an ardent desire for baptism, paid frequent visits, made +marked progress in knowledge, and was well spoken of by persons who said +they knew him; but circumstances occurred to bring suspicion over him, +and he suddenly disappeared. Long afterwards we found out that he was a +leader of an infamous following.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p> + +<p>To give one of many illustrations of the way in which persons try to +connect themselves with us, I may mention that one day a well-dressed +native, mounted on a good horse, rode up to my door. On coming to my +room he told me he had come to be baptized, as he was convinced Christ +was the Saviour of the world. He was urgent for immediate baptism. Life +was uncertain, he might die at any hour, and how could he know he was +safe if he did not come under the wing of Christ? I told him if he +believed in the Lord Jesus Christ it would be well with him, whether +baptized or not, and that I could not baptize him till I should make +inquiry and know more about him. It occurred to me that he had a motive +for such urgency which I could not discover. I sent for one of the most +judicious of our native Christians, and begged him to find out what the +object of the man was. He took him away, and soon returned to tell me he +had got it all out—that the man had had a violent quarrel with his +relatives, and had vowed to bring disgrace on the family by becoming a +<i>Kristan</i>—a Christian. I recalled the man, and told him he must come to +me from another motive and in another temper, if I were to baptize him. +He rode away, and I never saw him afterwards.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch26.png" width="400" height="95" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<h3><i>NATIVE CHRISTIANS (Continued).</i></h3> + + +<p>I suppose there is no community of any extent that has not unworthy +members, persons that may be called its excrescence and blots, who have +increased its size, as a tumour increases the size of the body, but are +actually its weakness and disgrace. Such were the unworthy persons of +whom I have been speaking. Very different is the general character of +the native Christians connected with the various missions in Northern +India. Some of our converts have made sacrifices, by avowing themselves +the followers of Christ, to which persons in our country are never +called. They have literally left father and mother, houses and lands, +wife and children, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever may +have been the position of our converts, they have, as a rule, parted +with much which is highly valued by their people. Caste standing, even +when the caste is not considered high, secures many advantages, and is +greatly prized. Its loss is deemed a dire calamity, and this loss our +converts are called to endure. They join a despised and hated community, +are called vile apostates, and are charged with the most sordid motives. +I have heard the charge advanced against converts who, to my knowledge, +had left their place in native society under the power<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> of the profound +conviction that Christ was entitled to their hearts and lives, though +the conviction required of them the most painful sacrifices, and exposed +them to the bitterest reproach. During my first years at Benares, one of +the catechists of our Mission was a Brahman, who had been baptized by +Mr. Ward of Serampore. He was stripped of the property to which he was +the heir, of which the annual rental, according to an official document, +was 5,000 rupees (£500), because he could not perform the funeral rites +of his father. His income as catechist was small, but I often heard him +charged with the lowest mercenary motives by those who knew not, and did +not wish to know, anything about his antecedents. He bore the charge +patiently, deeming it an honour to be reproached for his Master. He was +far from being a perfect character, but no cloud ever seemed to come +over his belief that Jesus was the Saviour of the world. When he was on +his death-bed I asked him if he regretted the life of comparative +poverty and of great reproach he had led because he had become a +Christian. He tried to raise himself on his pillow, and said with an +energy that startled me, "If I had a thousand lives, I would give them +for Him who died for me." In reference to him and others, the remark was +often made by our hearers, "We are willing to listen to you—you are a +good man and have kept to your religion; but we do not wish to hear +these, for they are apostates."</p> + +<p>In all communities there are so many varieties, that the most successful +attempt at characterization on the part of those who know them well can +only claim an approach to correctness, and must be received with +deductions. Those who look at a community from a distance, who know only +a few individuals, perhaps know none at all,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> but judge from what they +hear from others, and these deeply prejudiced, are sure to form a very +false estimate. When speaking of our native Christians, I have the +advantage of long and intimate acquaintance not only with those of our +own Mission, but with those of other missions in Northern India, and I +think I should understand them better than many who have the most +superficial and partial knowledge of them, perhaps do not know them at +all, and yet speak of them in depreciating terms.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CHARACTER OF NATIVE CHRISTIANS.</div> + +<p>I cannot speak of our native Christians, even of those who have made +great sacrifices, as possessing a lofty character, as marked by signal +excellence. We learn from the Epistles of the Apostle Paul he found much +which was faulty in his converts, and we need not wonder at the faults +which are too manifest in ours. Is there any home minister who is not +tried by the conduct of some of his people? Is there any minister or +missionary who has not frequent reason to be dissatisfied with himself? +Indian missionaries are sometimes sorely tried by their converts. All +around is a low moral tone. Slight, inadequate views of sin prevail. +Truthfulness is praised, but little practised. Our people breathe a +tainted atmosphere, and by becoming Christians they do not escape its +deleterious effects. While these defects are frankly acknowledged, truth +enables me to state, without any misgiving, there is much in our people +which is very estimable. Observe their daily life, go with them to their +respective businesses, and you will find them with few exceptions +diligently pursuing their vocation, and honourably supporting their +families. See them at their homes; you will be gladly welcomed, and you +will generally find them striving to have everything clean and tidy, and +as comfortable as their means permit. You will find the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> Bible and a few +Christian books on their shelves, and you will learn that family worship +is largely observed. When conversing with them you are often impressed +with their manifest sincerity, with their gratitude for having been +brought into the fold of Christ, with the honour conferred on them by +bearing His name, much reproached as they are on account of it, and with +their desire to walk worthy of their profession. See them in the house +of God, cleanly clad, and as they engage in the different parts of the +service you are struck with their devout appearance. Observe them in +their intercourse with each other, and you will find much of mutual +kindness and helpfulness. Observe them in their intercourse with Hindus +and Muhammadans, and you will find that instead of hiding their +Christian profession, and being ashamed of it, they glory in it. I have +said that missionaries are tried by their converts. I ought in candour +to add that converts are sometimes tried by missionaries. Their training +has been so different from ours, their position is so different from +ours, that it is very difficult for us to understand them thoroughly; +and so far as we fail to understand them, we fail in sympathy and in +right action towards them.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FAITHFULNESS TO THE DEATH.</div> + +<p>The native churches passed through a fiery ordeal in the Mutiny of 1857, +and came out of it in a way which reflected great honour on their +Christian constancy. Even those who had the most favourable opinion were +not prepared for the readiness shown by them to part with all, to part +with life itself, rather than part with their Lord. I cannot say how +many were put to death, but we know that thirty-four were killed on the +Parade-ground of Furruckabad by order of the Nawab, and seven or eight +perished at Cawnpore. In Foxe's "Book of Martyrs"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> there is not a more +striking instance of witnessing to the death for the Lord Jesus than was +manifested by Vilayat Ali, in the Chandnee Chauk of Delhi, when, +surrounded by infuriated Muhammadans calling on him to recant or die, he +declared Christ to be his Saviour and Lord, and when falling under the +swords of his enemies uttered with his last breath the prayer of +Stephen, "<i>Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.</i>" The account is furnished by +a witness of the scene. There were defections, but if our view be +confined to Christians connected with the different missions they were +remarkably few, fewer, it is affirmed, than those of Europeans and East +Indians. One whom I knew well, though he was not of our Mission, +apostatized to save his life, and died most miserably, abandoned by his +new fellow-religionists, and tenderly watched by those whom he had left. +Full details of the conduct of the native Christians in that terrible +crisis are given by Mr. Sherring in his book, "The Indian Church during +the Great Rebellion." This book had, I believe, a considerable +circulation when it was published, but like many other good books it has +passed into oblivion. The information it contains was furnished by +persons intimately acquainted with the facts, and is very valuable as +proving the genuineness and constancy of native Christian piety. It +gives more insight into the real character of the native Christian +community than can be obtained by perusal of large volumes full of +ordinary mission details. The friends of missions would do good service +by seeking its republication.</p> + +<p>The loyalty of the native Christians to the British Government, as well +as the constancy of their Christian faith, was strikingly shown +throughout the Mutiny. This loyalty was maintained amidst much fitted to +discourage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> it in the conduct towards them of Europeans, both official +and non-official.</p> + +<p>We have seen native Christians in joy and sorrow, in trial and +temptation. We have been present at their death-bed, and have heard +their words of hope and trust when entering the dark valley. We have had +abundant reason to regard them with esteem and love. With many we have +had pleasant intercourse, and from our intercourse with some we have +received intellectual and spiritual profit. At one time there was a +small band of highly-educated native Christians at Benares connected +with the different missions. It gave us great pleasure to have them now +and then spending an evening with us. They were always ready to start +some important subject, and their remarks were stimulating and +instructive. I remember more than once our remarking, when they went +away, Could we have had a more pleasant and profitable evening if our +European brethren had been with us? At the great Missionary Conferences +which have been held in recent years the native Christian brethren have +taken a prominent part, and both intellectually and spiritually they +have been found worthy of standing abreast of their brethren from Europe +and America. It must be acknowledged there has been a difficulty at +times in adjusting the exact relationship of these highly-educated +native brethren to their missionary friends, and there has been in +consequence unpleasant jarring; but amidst differences Christian +principle has asserted its uniting power, and their ordinary bearing is +that of mutual esteem and love.</p> + +<p>It may be said, "If native Christians as a community deserve the +character you have given them, how is it that people from India speak so +much against them?" The explanation can be easily given.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">ALLEGED FAILURE OF CHRISTIANITY.</div> + +<p>There is no part of the mission-field, the South Seas, Africa, the West +Indies, China, as well as India, from which persons have not come +affirming that the so-called converts are changed in name only; that +they are no better than they were, and in many cases worse. Do we not +find analogous cases nearer home? It is often said of professors of +religion—very truly of individuals, very untruly of the class—that +they are less worthy of trust than avowedly worldly persons. Large +communities remarkable for religious zeal, like the people of Wales, are +condemned in the face of favourable evidence which seems well +authenticated. Persons have even stoutly maintained that Christianity +itself has been a failure in its moral influence on the nations. Want of +sympathy and antipathy blind the mind to facts, and lead to most +erroneous judgments. The great majority of Europeans in heathen +countries have no sympathy with missions, and have neither the knowledge +nor the spirit indispensable to the formation of a correct judgment. +They hear a loose report of converts from persons who in turn have been +told by others what they say, and the report is at once believed and +circulated. They have, perhaps, met an unworthy native bearing the +Christian name, and he is regarded as a fit representative of the entire +community.</p> + +<p>It is a common opinion among many of our countrymen in India that +Hinduism is as good for Hindus as Christianity is for us, and they +cannot conceive why a person should leave the one for the other except +from sinister motives. When speaking on one occasion with a lady who +regularly attended church, and no doubt deemed herself an excellent +Christian, about a native gentleman of high rank, whose kindly temper +and courteous demeanour we were both praising, I said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> "Would that he +were a follower of our Saviour!" She looked surprised, and said, "Do you +think so? He is, I think, a better man by remaining as he is." So strong +is this feeling with some English people, that a native who calls +himself a Christian is regarded by them as on that account a suspicious +character. I know a well-educated native Christian who applied for a +Government situation. He had good certificates; they were sent in, and +when the official to whom he applied came to know he was a Christian—he +knew nothing more about him—he threw them aside with the word +"<i>namunzoor</i>," "not accepted"—the technical term for "rejected." One +result of this English dislike to native Christians is that natives have +told me that none but missionaries and a few associated with them wished +them to become Christians; that English people generally wished them to +remain Hindus. It can be conceived how great is the stumbling-block thus +put in our way. A Church of England missionary of great experience once +said to me, "Would that there were no Europeans near us! We might then +hope for progress." I am not to vindicate the remark. I mention it to +show the effect on the mind of a devoted missionary by English hostility +to the conversion of natives. On every side, from European as well as +from native society, there is every worldly obstacle to their embracing +the Gospel.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.</div> + +<p>At one time there were obstacles to the profession of Christianity which +do not now exist. When India was being brought under the sway of +England, our rulers regarded the Gospel as a disturbing and threatening +element, which ought to be carefully excluded. Long after the Christian +feeling at home had forced open the door, the Gospel was treated as an +intruder to be in every possible way thwarted and disgraced. In +illustration of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> the opposition the Gospel had to encounter, I quote a +few sentences from a recently-published volume, "Asiatic Studies, +Religious and Social," by Sir Alfred C. Lyall, K.C.B., the present +Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces:—"We disbursed +impartially to Hindus, Mussulmans, and Parsees, to heterodox and +orthodox, to Juggarnath's Car, and to the shrine of a Muhammadan who had +died fighting against infidels, perhaps against ourselves." "The chief +officers of the Company in India were so cautious to disown any +political connexion with Christianity that they were occasionally +reported to have no religion at all." "Up to the year 1831 native +Christians had been placed under the strongest civil disabilities by our +regulations.... Converts were liable to be deprived not only of +property, but of their wives and children; and they seem to have been +generally treated as unlucky outcasts, with whom no one need be at any +trouble of using any sort of consideration." We are told that they were +even forced by Government order to pull the car of Juggarnaut, and +severely punished if they refused. According to a parliamentary paper of +1832, "our interference extended over every detail of management: we +regulated funds, repaired buildings, kept in order cars and images, +appointed servants, and purveyed the various commodities required for +use of the pagodas." Under home pressure this state of things has +gradually given place to neutrality, which, if impartially maintained, +is I suppose the only policy open to us in the peculiar circumstances of +India.</p> + +<p>I have already said there are very unworthy persons bearing the name of +native Christians. To judge our Indian churches by these is as unfair as +to judge English Christians in India by Englishmen, of whom, alas! +there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> are many, soldiers and others, who are notorious for drunkenness +and licentiousness. We have even English beggars in India, wretched men, +who have drifted out of the army, railway, or other department, and who +disgrace our name. Strong men have come whimpering to my door, to whom I +have given help, and I have seen them a few hours afterwards—I remember +one case well—rolling in the bazaar in beastly drunkenness. It would be +as fair to take these men as a specimen of English Christians, as to +judge native Christians by persons bearing the name while they disgrace +it.</p> + +<p>The very acknowledgment of missionaries about the imperfections of their +communities, about the utter hollowness of some individuals, has been +turned into adverse testimony. In the recent meeting at Exeter Hall to +welcome the Madagascar missionaries, Messrs. Cousin and Shaw, Mr. +Cousin, in the course of his very interesting address, said that much of +the Christianity of the Malagash was "purely nominal and utterly +worthless." I should not at all wonder if some day I found this brought +forward as a missionary's acknowledgment that the Christianity of the +Malagash is purely nominal and utterly worthless, and that missions in +Madagascar, as elsewhere, had been a failure.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE SUPPORT OF NATIVE CHRISTIANS.</div> + +<p>The support of native Christians has sorely tried and perplexed +missionaries. They have been desirous, on the one hand, of holding out +no inducement to persons to join them from unworthy motives; and on the +other they have felt that persons thrust out of their caste and +employment, and not infrequently from their family, had claims on help, +with which every Christian feeling bound them to comply. Persons able to +work have never been allowed to live in idleness, but the difficulty has +been to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> find suitable work. In some missions, when persons have shown +an aptness for domestic service they have been trained to it. In a +number of missions trades have been started, and have been carried on +for a longer or shorter period, with more or less success; but, as a +rule, the relation of employer and employed does not accord well with +the relation of pastor and people. The difficulty continues, and will no +doubt continue, but it is decreasing every year. When travelling down +through Northern India in 1877 we found Christians in every place at +which we stopped, and we learned they were supporting themselves in +various modes, in printing offices, bookbinding establishments, +railways, and public offices. A number were in domestic service. I wish +fewer were thus employed. When anything goes wrong in a house the Hindu +and Muhammadan servants are sure to blame the Christians; masters and +mistresses look for more from them than can be reasonably expected, and +they no doubt are apt to fall into the well-known and objectionable +habits of the class. The more capable of the native Christians, the +higher in character and education, are for the most part employed as +teachers, catechists, and native preachers. A few have risen to +responsible and lucrative positions in civil life. A native Christian +from Bengal held for some years, to the great satisfaction of both +Europeans and natives, the office of Postmaster of Benares. He and his +wife were members of our native church. Another member of our church for +a time was the Inspector of Post-offices in the Benares district.</p> + +<p>I believe in every mission in the North-West native Christians +contribute regularly to the support and diffusion of the Gospel, and, +considering their means, their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> contributions are liberal. I remember +hearing years ago of a native church in Calcutta agreeing, without a +dissentient voice, to give a month's salary for the erection of their +new church building—an act of liberality which has been seldom equalled +in our country.</p> + +<p>Much has been said about the compound system, as it has been +called;—Christians living together apart from the heathen, and in most +cases in the immediate neighbourhood of the missionary's residence. Much +has been said, I think unjustly, in condemnation of this arrangement. It +is not the hot-bed, which it has been called, in which robust Christian +character cannot be produced. Native Christians, thus living together, +hold constant intercourse with the heathen in the business of life, and +are at the same time saved from the peculiar trials and temptations +incident to living among Hindus and Muhammadans. So far as native +Christians make their light to shine, it will be well seen by the +heathen though their dwellings be apart. One great advantage of living +in a mission compound, near the place of worship and the missionary's +residence, is that wives and children can regularly attend public +worship, and can come under the teaching of the missionary, and +especially the missionary's wife, as otherwise they could not have come. +For a time we had quite a number of native Christians in our compound at +Benares, who paid a small rent for their houses, and went out every day +to attend to their respective callings. If they had lived in the city I +cannot conceive how mothers and children could have attended worship as +they did, or how my wife could have taught the children and held +constant intercourse with the women. Because living in the compound, it +does not follow that they are dependent on the mission for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> support. +There is nothing more desired by missionaries than that their people +should maintain themselves, by their own exertions. Living among the +heathen is often indispensable—it is so increasingly with our native +Christians; but where circumstances admit, I think great advantages +result from Christians living near each other and near the mission +church. In our own country, are not favourable surroundings sought for +the young and the inexperienced?</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PROGRESS.</div> + +<p>When I look back to the beginning of 1839, when I landed in Calcutta, +and compare the native Christian community of that day with what it is +now, I am struck with the great change which has taken place. If we +confine the term to those connected with missions, they were then a mere +handful. Now they are considerable in number, and they have become a +recognized and appreciable portion of native society. They are +increasing in number, though not so rapidly in the North as in the +South, and are becoming rooted in the land. The largest native Christian +community in the North-West is, I suppose, that connected with the +missions of the American Episcopal Methodist Church in Rohilkund and +Oude. It is largely composed of Muzbee Sikhs, a people much despised by +both Muhammadans and Hindus. Of late the Salvation Army has entered on +the campaign against Hinduism and Muhammadanism. Its organ boasts +largely of success, but its statements have been strongly questioned by +persons acquainted with the facts, on whose warm attachment to the cause +of Christ full dependence can be placed. A well-known missionary of the +Episcopal Methodist Church in Oude has been lately pursuing the tactics +of the Salvation Army. Accompanied by a band of native Christians,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> he +has been entering villages and towns with song and drum and tambourine. +The people in crowds have gathered round him. He and his brethren have +preached Christ to them, have urged them to accept Him as their Saviour, +and have given on the spot baptism, <i>chin</i>—the mark of the Christian +Church, to any avowing their readiness to become Christ's disciples. +Time will show how far the work is genuine. Perhaps we old missionaries +have been too slow in administering baptism. Of this I am sure, that +nothing is more fallacious as the test of success than the number of +persons baptized—so different is the opinion held by missionaries +regarding the qualifications required in order to baptize. Native +Christians are more self-dependent than they were, and are receiving a +healthy impulse from feeling that they must push out for themselves. +They have to contend against much which is adverse and hurtful, but +without indulging too sanguine hopes we may firmly anticipate for them a +brighter and better future than their past has been.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 373px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch27.png" width="373" height="95" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE PEOPLE AMONG WHOM WE LABOUR.</i></h3> + +<h3>MUHAMMADANS.</h3> + + +<p>All over Northern India—I may say all over India—we find the followers +of Muhammad. They are very unequally distributed. In some districts they +form the majority, in others their number is very small, while in the +cities they abound. There is among them all the variety of station which +might be expected in a community composed of millions, ranging from +princes, wealthy landholders, and great merchants, down to labourers and +beggars. There is among them all variety of culture, from profound +learning in a narrower or wider groove, down to utter illiteracy and +gross ignorance. There is also variety of character, many leading +notoriously wicked lives, while others are noted for goodness, and are +honourable and useful members of society.</p> + +<p>Looking at the Quran and the Bible, one might suppose there is a close +accord between them, as both assert the unity and sovereignty of God, +both condemn idolatry, and in both the same names continually meet us, +such as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David, Solomon, and our Lord Jesus +Christ. In fact, however, in India, as elsewhere, Muhammadanism has +shown itself intensely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> hostile to the Gospel. The reason is apparent. I +think it is difficult for any one to read with candour the Quran on the +one hand, and the Bible, especially the New Testament, on the other, +without perceiving the marked contrariety between them, notwithstanding +their agreement on some points.</p> + +<p>A true follower of Jesus Christ, one imbued with the spirit of His +teaching and bent on the imitation of His example, cannot fail to +cultivate holiness of heart and life, to cherish a humble, lowly temper, +to look on all with love, however unworthy of love their character and +conduct may be, and to promote their good in every way within his power. +A follower of Muhammad, so far as he is imbued with his teaching, +regards God with profound reverence as the Sovereign of the universe, +deems homage to Him most due, looks with indignation on the worship of +idols, attaches immense importance to outward rites and services, +glories in Islam, pays comparatively little attention to inward +excellence, and sees no need for a change of heart. As a worshipper and +servant of Allah, following the precepts of the Prophet of the later +age, he deems himself the spiritual aristocrat of the race, and looks +down with scorn on all outside the pale of his community, whom he is in +some cases bound to put to death, and in all cases to subject to +degrading conditions, so far as he has the power. However wicked his +conduct may be, as a worshipper of Allah he is sure of more tender +treatment in another world than that which awaits Christians and +idolaters. Thus the typical Muhammadan is one who scrupulously observes +the laws of Islam, goes through his devotions with all the regularity of +a soldier on drill, fasts at the appointed season, gives alms to the +poor, attends to all prescribed rites, and at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> least once in his life +goes on pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. Outward religiousness, pride and +self-righteousness, are his distinguishing characteristics.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE LICENTIOUSNESS OF MUHAMMADANS.</div> + +<p>Much has been said about the sensuality of Muhammadans. The sanction +given by Muhammad to polygamy and extreme facility of divorce has borne +bitter fruit. His own example has had a depraving influence. He alleged, +indeed, a special Divine sanction for the dissoluteness of his later +life, but this has not deterred his followers from thinking they could +not go far wrong in imitating him. In addition to these facilities for a +life of sensual enjoyment, the teaching of the Prophet in reference to +female slaves has had a most depraving effect on family life. The +Hindustanee expression for <i>libertine</i>, <i>profligate</i>—<i>luchcha</i>—is, I +think, more frequently applied to Muhammadans in Northern India than to +any other class of the community. It must be confessed, however, there +is so much licentiousness among other classes—not only among Hindus, +but I am grieved to say among many from our own land, soldiers and +others—that I can scarcely join in declaring Muhammadans sinners in +this respect above all others. There is this difference between the +licentiousness of so-called Christians and Muhammadans, that in the +teachings of the Gospel, while no unnatural restraint is laid on those +who accept it, the strongest motives are brought to bear on them in +favour of purity of heart and in opposition to licentiousness of life; +while in the teachings of the Quran, amidst severe condemnation of the +gratification of unlawful desire in some forms, there is much, if not to +encourage, at least to give every facility for a life fatal to personal +and domestic purity, a facility of which the adherents of Islam have +largely availed themselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p> + +<p>While agreeing with the views generally held by Christians regarding the +teaching of the Quran and its influence in the formation of character, I +cannot join in the sweeping condemnation of the Muhammadans which I have +sometimes heard, as if they were one mass of corruption. In the middle +and lower classes in Northern India we are told, by those whose +testimony can be trusted, monogamy is the rule. Many lead a quiet, +orderly life, with the domestic affections in full play which beautify +and gladden the home. A Muhammadan writer, who may be supposed to know +his own people, tells us that polygamy is getting out of favour, and +that a strong feeling has set in in favour of a man having only one +woman to wife. Among them there are undoubtedly persons of high +character, whose bearing would do honour to the adherents of a far +higher creed. I have conversed with some who seemed to me set on knowing +and doing the will of God, who showed, so far as I could obtain an +insight into their character, a reverent, earnest, humble temper, as if +they had come under the power of the few passages, occurring here and +there in the Quran, which inculcate spirituality of mind and love to all +men, and as if they had in a measure escaped from the externalism so +prominent in that book, and from its hard, fierce, bitter tone towards +all who refuse to receive it as a revelation from heaven. With two +Muhammadans I was for years on as friendly terms as I could be with any +whose belief and practice differed so widely from my own. As to +courteous, kindly demeanour, they were all that could be desired. I had +many an earnest talk with them on the highest subjects, and I was struck +with the apparent candour with which they listened to all I had to say. +They read with evident interest books I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> gave them, and in the case of +one such an impression was made that I hoped he was coming to the +acknowledgment of Christ as his Lord and Saviour; but after going to his +Moulvies he kept to Muhammad, though with manifest misgiving.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MUHAMMADAN OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.</div> + +<p>While I cannot join in the sweeping condemnation of Muhammadans, I must +acknowledge my experience accords with that of my missionary brethren +regarding those with whom I have come ordinarily into contact. When I +have been speaking to a company of Hindus, and have apparently secured +their attention, I have been sorry to see a Mussulman coming up, as past +experience had prepared me for the immediate introduction of such +questions as the Trinity, the Sonship of Christ, His propitiatory +sacrifice, and not infrequently the eating of pork. I have done my best +to stave off such untimely discussion, and to keep to the subject I was +teaching, but in not a few instances my audience has been broken up by +the new-comer insisting on being heard. During my long missionary career +I have had many discussions with Muhammadans in public and in private, +in some cases conducted with a calmness and fairness which promised good +results; but in still more numerous cases with a readiness on their part +to resort to the veriest sophistry, and fly from one point to another, +and with a love of disputation which led to wrangling, and could +accomplish no good. The controversy between Christianity and +Muhammadanism has been carried on by the press as well as by oral +discussion. In this department the late Dr. Pffander, Sir William Muir, +and Mr. Hughes of Peshawur, have done excellent service.</p> + +<p>It might be supposed that as Muhammadanism is so near to Christianity +that it may almost be called a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> Christian heresy, and as we have in +consequence much common ground, we might expect to find its adherents +more accessible than Hindus to the Christian missionary. The opposite is +the case, furnishing another illustration of the fact that no +religionists are so antagonistic to each other as those who most nearly +approximate. At the present time all over the world, Popery, under the +conduct of the Jesuits, is far more hostile to Protestant missions than +any form of heathenism.</p> + +<p>It ought to be mentioned to the credit of Muhammadanism that it arose as +a protest against polytheism and the worship of idols. This protest it +has maintained down to our day. Not even a religious symbol is allowed +to appear in their places of worship, and hence the marked contrast +mosques present not only to Hindu temples, but to Christian churches.</p> + +<p>Muhammadanism is a proselytizing religion as well as Christianity. +During my Indian career I have heard of a convert now and then from +Hinduism in the North-West, and very occasionally one from Christianity; +but these accessions have been very few. In Bengal, on the other hand, +it appears that during the last thirty or forty years a great number of +low-caste people have been drawn into the Muhammadan ranks, many of them +small farmers, who think that by belonging to a large and influential +community they can the better contend with the landlords. It is said +that the change is simply one of name and ritual.</p> + +<p>The accessions from Muhammadanism to Christianity have been very few; +but some of the best converts in the North-West belong to this class.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">HINDUS AND MUHAMMADANS IN CONTACT.</div> + +<p>For centuries Hindus and Muhammadans have been near neighbours in India. +In the ordinary course of life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> they have had much intercourse with each +other, and have exerted a strong mutual influence, the Muhammadans, +especially of the lower class, having become in a measure Hinduized, +while the Hindus of the lower class have become, if I may use such a +word, in some degree Muhammadanized. I believe the stricter Muhammadans +are of pure Mogul and Pathan descent, while the more lax are the many +who at different times have been drawn or forced into Islam. Our +Muhammadan servants speak continually of their caste, have many Hindu +notions, and follow many Hindu practices. Low-caste Hindus, on the other +hand, are prominent in some Muhammadan processions. Both Muhammadans and +Hindus, as a rule, are satisfied with their respective position, as +assigned to them by Allah or Fate, have no repugnance to each other, and +no wish to disturb each other.</p> + +<p>So far, however, as Muhammadans and Hindus are imbued with their +respective systems they must be antagonistic; and their antagonism, +though generally latent, every now and then breaks out into fierce +strife, which but for the interposition of Government would lead to +civil war. Early in this century there was in Benares a pitched battle +between them, when they assailed each other with the utmost fury, and +were separated by military force. All have heard of a recent conflict in +Southern India, where blood was shed and property destroyed. About +thirty years ago Oude was threatened with the outbreak of a war between +the parties. There have been recently conflicts in Rohilkund on the +occasion of processions, which but for prompt interference would have +led to disastrous results.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MUHAMMADAN REFORMERS.</div> + +<p>Of late years a reforming party has arisen among the Muhammadans with +both political and religious ends in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> view. This party painfully +realizes the loss incurred by their fellow-religionists on account of +their neglect of the English language, and their failure to accommodate +themselves to their new masters, thus allowing the Hindus to get in +advance of them. They consequently discourage exclusive attention to +Arabic and Persian literature, and advocate the cultivation of English. +A few of this class have come to England to prosecute their studies, but +for the many who must remain in their own land an institution has been +opened at Allygurh, in the North-West, in which provision is made for +imparting a liberal education. It cannot be expected that Indian +Muhammadans can have a strong liking to the English Government, but this +reforming party wishes to reconcile itself to the new order of things, +and to identify itself with our rule so far as the Quran permits. In +religious belief these reformers range from strict orthodoxy to rank +rationalism. Their leader is an able and ardent advocate of Islam, +though he has thrown off what he deems unauthorized and hurtful +accretions, and many of his followers no doubt agree with him. A +Bengalee Muhammadan, a graduate of Cambridge, has published a book +entitled "The Life of Muhammad," which is saturated with rationalistic +views. I cannot suppose he stands alone in his rationalism, but I have +no means of knowing to what extent his views are shared by others. The +whole party is the antipodes to the Wahabees, the extreme Puritans of +Islam, who aim at following strictly the instructions of the Quran and +the Traditions, and wage war to the knife against Christians and +idolaters. Between the Wahabees and the reformers there is a very +numerous party—it is supposed the great majority of Muhammadans—who +have little sympathy with the strict<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>ness of the former, but as little +with the looseness of the latter, who in their opinion are sacrificing +Islam to their ambitious and selfish views. Between the reformers and +those who cannot advance with them there has been sharp controversy, and +there is no prospect of its coming to an end.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 365px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch28.png" width="365" height="120" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE PEOPLE AMONG WHOM WE LABOUR (Continued).</i></h3> + +<h3>HINDUS.</h3> + + +<p>I have endeavoured in my account of Benares to describe the Hindu +idolatry there practised, and in my account of our missionary preaching +I have stated the arguments by which that idolatry is defended. The +Hindu system, it is well known, is at once pantheistic and polytheistic. +The universe, we are told, is God expanded. <i>Brahm</i>—he alone is the +Existent One; but there are several persons and objects in which he is +more manifest than in others, and as owing to <i>Maya</i> (illusion) we +believe in our separate existence, it is fitting that to these objects +special honour should be paid. I have mentioned the hideous aspect of +the images worshipped at Benares, and their hideous aspect well accords +with the character attributed to the gods worshipped under these forms.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE INFLUENCE OF HINDUISM ON CHARACTER.</div> + +<p>We are all familiar with the maxim, Like priest, like people. May we +say, Like God, like worshipper? If so, we must regard the Hindus as in +the very mire of moral debasement. Just think of a whole people acting +like Shiva, Doorga, and Krishna! I think it cannot be doubted by any one +who looks at the nature of the human mind, and the power exercised over +it by its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> belief, that the worship of these and similar gods, along +with the prevalent pantheistic and fatalistic views, which strike at the +very root of moral distinctions, have done much to deprave the Hindu +mind. The people, indeed, often assert "to the powerful there is no +fault." The gods had the power and the opportunity to do what they did, +and therefore no fault attached to their conduct; but ordinary persons +have neither the one nor the other, and for them it would be very +culpable to pursue the same course. Can a people fail to occupy a low +place on the plane of morals to whom the maxim I have quoted would be +tolerable? I believe they do as a people occupy a low place, and yet not +nearly so low as might have been anticipated.</p> + +<p>There is much to counteract the influence exerted on the Hindus by the +evil example of their gods, by their excessive trust in outward rites +apart from all mental working, and by the pantheistic teaching of their +philosophers. They retain a moral nature, and acknowledge the +distinction between right and wrong as readily as we do, though the +distinction be inconsistent with the views they often express. The +requirements of society and of daily life exert a powerful and salutary +restraint by the obstacle which they present to a vicious career. The +family constitution has conferred immense benefit on the Hindus, as on +other nations.</p> + +<p>It must be acknowledged that however long we may reside in India, our +knowledge of the inner life of the people is very limited. We may be for +years on the best terms with them; we may meet them frequently, and +converse with them freely on all subjects; there may be not only +acquaintance, but to all appearance friendship: and yet we have no +entrance into the family circle, we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> cannot join them in the family +meal, we can scarcely get a glimpse into their home life. If they be of +the poorer class they would be shocked at our entering their houses, and +conversing with their women and children. If of a higher class, they +visit us and we visit them. They have a room of audience in which they +welcome us. On occasions they prepare sumptuous feasts for Europeans, of +which they themselves do not partake. However friendly we may be with +natives of rank in Northern India, it is difficult, often impossible, to +secure an interview between our wives and the female members of their +families. As to English gentlemen, they never see the face of a native +lady. Still, notwithstanding our being kept so far outside Hindu family +life, we know enough about it to be sure there is often strong family +affection. We have many proofs that parents regard their children with +the most tender love; and we know that in the lower classes, at least, +children often requite this love by sending a large portion of their +wages to their aged parents. I myself have often been the channel of +communication. It cannot be doubted that this family affection is widely +extended, and has a very happy influence on the character and life of +the people.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.</div> + +<p>Professor Max Muller, in his recently-published book, "India, what can +it teach us?" discusses at length the character of the Hindus. He quotes +the views entertained by persons of large Indian experience, who had +mixed freely with all classes, and yet differ widely in their testimony, +showing that in forming an estimate of the character of a community we +are greatly influenced by our temperament and by the standard we employ. +Sir Thomas Munro, the famous Governor of Madras, speaks of the character +and attainments of the Hindus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> in the most laudatory terms. He says, "If +civilization is to become an article of trade between England and India, +I am convinced that England will gain by the import cargo." Sir Charles +Trevelyan, on the other hand, speaks of them as a morally depraved +people, to whom "the phenomenon is truly astonishing" "of a race of men +on whose word perfect confidence may be placed." "The natives require to +be taught rectitude of conduct much more than literature and science."</p> + +<p>The Professor is evidently inclined to take the favourable view. He +thinks the ordinary view of their falsehood and dishonesty is applicable +only to the rabble of the cities and the frequenters of our courts, but +is most unjust to the unsophisticated people of the country, whose +truthfulness he extols. After the laudation of these honest and truthful +people, I must say I was amused with the <i>naïveté</i> of the learned +Professor, when he goes on to show that the excellence of his <i>protegés</i> +is not sufficiently strong to be maintained in the face of temptation. +He says, "A man out of his village community is out of his element and +under temptation. What would be called theft or robbery at home, is +called a raid or conquest if directed against distant villages; and what +would be falsehood or trickery in private life, is honoured by the name +of policy and diplomacy if successful against strangers." The lauded +truthfulness and honesty are so delicate that they cannot stand the +breath of the nipping cold which has to be encountered when they leave +their sheltered enclosure. The excellence is, according to the +Professor, though he does not say so in words, merely conventional, as +it rests on the principle of mutual insurance among those who form a +closely-knitted community, bound together by common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> interests and +associations. Even then excellence needs to be guarded by an oath, which +is viewed with superstitious awe. I do not think the Professor's friends +will thank him for this defence of the morality of their countrymen.</p> + +<p>When I think of the wickedness rampant among large classes in a country +like our own, notwithstanding our great privileges, I shrink from +applying to the Hindus the strong terms of condemnation which I have +often heard. There is among them, as I have already said, much family +affection; they are, in ordinary circumstances, very courteous; they +often manifest a kindly disposition; almsgiving is reckoned a high +virtue; many lead quiet, orderly, industrious lives; and, as Max Muller +tells us, from the earliest age <i>satya</i>, "truth," in its widest sense, +has been represented by them as the very pillar on which goodness rests, +though it must be allowed it has been much more praised than practised.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE HINDU AND CHRISTIAN STANDARDS.</div> + +<p>Am I then to say, as many have done, that Hinduism has done its +adherents no harm, and that Christianity has done its adherents no +good—that the Hindus as a people stand as high morally as we do? With +every desire to speak of them as favourably as I can, with a pleasing +recollection of many acts of kindness and courtesy, and with every +desire to rid myself of prejudice, I must dissent strongly from this +view. I cannot forget the lurid light cast on the native character +during the Mutiny; the treachery, ingratitude, falsehood, and cruelty +shown by many who gloried in their caste purity—relieved, however, it +is only right to acknowledge, by notable instances of faithfulness and +kindness. I cannot but remember the impression often made on my mind of +their low standard of character, the absence of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> high motive, even when +full expression has been given to the distinction between right and +wrong. Happily, in our land there are many, in every class of society, +who, as the result of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, hate sin in every +form, and strive after excellence, an excellence springing from supreme +love to God, and prompting to sustained effort for the good of man, for +which we look in vain among the best of Hindus, though among them we +discern the workings of conscience and the desire to do what is right. +The standard of character is undoubtedly far higher among us than it is +among Hindus, and this standard, protesting as it does against +wickedness, and calling us to aspire after goodness, is in itself an +incalculable benefit to a community. For many a day it has been my +settled conviction that Hindus are vastly better than, looking at their +religion, we could expect to find them, and that we on the other hand +fall far below the excellence to which our religion summons us. If +Hinduism was allowed full sway over its adherents society would go to +pieces, while we should rise to the excellence of angels if we were to +come under the full sway of the Gospel.</p> + +<p>All have heard of the caste system of India, but only those who have +lived among the people can understand its innumerable ramifications and +its remarkable effects. Every caste, down to the lowest, is endlessly +sub-divided. There are Brahmans who would as soon eat, drink, and +intermarry with people of low caste, as with many who like themselves +boast of Brahmanical blood. In books the Sudras are described as the +fourth, the low, servile caste; but in fact a vast number in Northern +India, who are loosely reckoned Hindus, are far below the Sudras, and +thus the Sudras acquire a relatively high place.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> These low-caste +people, on whom the people above them look down with contempt, are in +their own fashion as tenacious of caste as their superiors, and they, +too, multiply their divisions, one class maintaining its superiority to +others. We have a large community called <i>Chumars</i>, "leather-people" as +the word means, though many of them have nothing to do with leather. One +of them once told me there were twelve divisions in their caste. We had +near us at Ranee Khet a little colony of Dhobees, washermen, whom I +visited now and then. I observed some huts were built separate from the +rest, and I asked the reason. The man to whom I was speaking, for his +class an intelligent man, expressed his surprise I did not know the +reason. He said, with an air of dignity, "These are of an inferior +order, and it is requisite their huts should be built apart."</p> + +<p>It has been often shown that this caste system is most baleful. It +narrows the sympathies of the people, keeps them in the same groove, +fetters their minds, represses individuality, and is a bar to progress. +It would be unfair, however, to say that all its consequences are +pernicious. It so far benefits those bound by it that it restrains them +from some forms of evil, and secures mutual helpfulness, just as the +close trade guilds of our own country did, of which we have happily got +rid. When the clan system was in full force among the Scotch +Highlanders, there were broken men, men who had left the clan or were +expelled from it, and these were notorious for their crimes. In like +manner there are persons who break away from caste, and are the worst +members of the community.</p> + +<p>The patriarchal system, the system so prevalent in India, by which the +people, instead of forming separate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> families in their separate +dwellings, all form one household, to a large extent with a common purse +and under a common rule, is perhaps still more fitted to fetter the mind +and to obstruct progress than even caste itself. Those who have embraced +Christ as their Saviour have often suffered more from their own kindred, +dwelling together, than from their caste brethren.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE DISINTEGRATION OF CASTE.</div> + +<p>Many things tend to the disintegration of caste, such as education, the +subjection of all to the same laws, the growing demands of commerce, and +travelling together in railway-carriages. The attractions of the +railway, notwithstanding its disregard of class distinctions, are +irresistible. Thousands of pilgrims thus make their way to distant +shrines, though by travelling in this easy fashion they lose the merit +which suffering would bring. When railways were constructed, a proposal +was made by leading Hindus to have separate carriages for separate +castes, but compliance with the proposal was of course out of the +question; and now high Brahmans and low Chumars—who are never seen in +the same temple even though they worship the same gods, as the presence +of a Chumar there would be deemed a profanation—may be seen packed in +the same carriage in as close contact as two human beings can be. When +they separate the Brahmans have recourse to lustrations, and satisfy +themselves the impurity has been washed away.</p> + +<p>In the great Presidency cities caste is no doubt greatly weakened. Many +openly violate its rules, and are never called to account, but these +very persons take care to maintain their caste position for certain +domestic and social purposes. Leaving these cities and a small class +scattered over the country, the mass of the people seem as much bound by +caste as they ever were, so far as its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> outward requirements are +concerned, though, as I have said, there are no doubt influences widely +spread which tend to its relaxation. This is the case in Northern India, +at any rate.</p> + +<p>Much has been said about the Brahmist movement. The number of its +professed adherents is very small, but many of the educated class are +imbued with its spirit. Years ago branches of the Brahmist Sumaj were +formed in the great cities of the North-West by young Bengalees employed +in the public offices. For a time their services were kept up zealously, +but soon they declined. The last time I heard about these communities +most had ceased to exist, and only two or three had any sign of +vitality. So far as I have learned, the Brahmists have had very few +adherents from the Hindus of the North-West. At first sight Brahmism +seems an advance towards the Gospel, and a preparation for its +reception, but the best of our native Christians in Calcutta look on it +as furnishing a welcome abode to those who cannot remain Hindus, and yet +for various reasons refuse to embrace Christ as their Lord and Saviour. +Its avowed hostility to definite doctrine, to what is denounced as +dogma, the dreamy sentimentalism characteristic of the system, the +ignoring to a great extent of the terrible facts of man's depravity and +guilt, and the coquetting with Vedism, do little towards bringing its +adherents to the feet of Jesus. The Brahmists used at one time to taunt +us with our divisions, but for a long time they have had two separate +Sumajes, composed respectively of Conservatives and Liberals. In +consequence of Chunder Sen's Hindu proclivities in his later years, the +Liberals became divided among themselves, the majority having seceded, +while a few remained his devoted followers, who are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> likely to settle +down into a Hindu sect, tinged with Christian thought and feeling.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">HINDU REFORMERS.</div> + +<p>From time to time reformers have appeared among the Hindus. Gautam, the +Sakya Saint, was one of the earliest and greatest of the class. +Successive reformers have had a great following, but the stream has not +risen above its source. From Gautam downward some fundamental principles +of Hinduism have been retained, and in the end these principles have +asserted much of their former sway. This threatens to be the case with +Brahmism. Notwithstanding its assertion of the Divine Unity, it has a +strong pantheistic tinge, and already we see its effect. As it has +arisen in a measure as the result of Christian teaching, and among a +people to whom the Gospel is made known, it may be hoped that many, +influenced by it, may travel upward to the light, instead of turning to +the darkness from which they have emerged.</p> + +<p>Increasing effort has been put forth in late years for the menial and +spiritual improvement of the female portion of the population. From the +commencement of missions, the wives of missionaries have bestowed much +labour on the women and girls to whom they could find access. These have +been well-nigh exclusively either Christians, or of the lower class of +society. Very occasionally individuals of a higher class come under +Christian teaching. A daughter of the late Rajah of Coorg, a state +prisoner at Benares, was for a time under the tuition of Mrs. Kennedy. +She was brought daily to our house, sat with us at table, and was taught +with our children. The Rajah wished her to be brought up as a Christian +and an English lady, in the hope that he might thus be helped in getting +back his kingdom. Eventually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> she was brought to England, was baptized +by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Queen standing sponsor, and was +married to an English officer. She survived her marriage a very short +time. This was altogether an exceptional case. It has been most +difficult for the wives of missionaries to obtain even an occasional +interview with native ladies, as I have already intimated, though their +husbands have been our frequent and friendly visitors. From the Reports +of Zenana Missions we learn that of late years access has been obtained +to many native families which had till recently been excluded from all +Christian, and, indeed, from all European influence. The lady physician +is often welcome where the ordinary teacher can find no entrance. In a +city like Benares—and I suppose it is the same elsewhere—except for +the lady physician in her professional capacity, and only rarely even in +that capacity, the door of the Zenanas in the houses of the great +magnates continues shut against all who would seek to awake and guide +the dormant minds there.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE POSITION OF WOMAN AMONG THE HINDUS.</div> + +<p>Nothing can be conceived more deplorable than the condition of the +ladies of India, living, as the phrase is, behind the curtain. They are, +as a rule, utterly uneducated, know nothing of books, are shut out from +the world, and have no refuge from <i>ennui</i> in such employments as +needlework, knitting, and embroidery, for which the nimble fingers of +the sisterhood are so well adapted. They have no society beyond the +women of the household, their husbands and their children. An occasional +glimpse has been got by our ladies into their state, and, as might have +been expected, their minds have been found utterly childish and dwarfed. +Happily for themselves the vast majority of the women of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> country +are under no such bondage. Their husbands cannot afford to curtain them. +They move about freely as they do in our country, only with the hood +ready to come down over the face. They are seen in the streets of +Benares as they are seen in the streets of our own towns.</p> + +<p>All have heard of the low view of woman entertained in India, and of the +humiliating customs to which she is subjected; but nature asserts itself +there as elsewhere, and notwithstanding all the inferiority with which +she is charged, she exercises a profound influence on the male portion +of the community. This is recognized by the people always saying, <i>Ma, +Bap</i>—Mother, Father—not <i>Father and Mother</i>, as we say. It is well +known that in the large households of which I have spoken the dowager +lady is the supreme ruler, often the tyrant—not the less a tyrant +because in her youth she had been treated as a slave. The state of +widows, many of them mere children, is sad indeed.</p> + +<p>Shut out though we be to a large extent from native families, we have +many proofs presented to us of the power of female influence, a power +often most perniciously exerted, as it is the power of ignorance and +superstition, a power opposed to all intellectual and spiritual +progress. The devout women of India are often our most formidable +enemies, as they were of Paul in Antioch in Pisidia, and no doubt in +other places. Some of our converts have known from painful experience +what their opposition to the Gospel is, and it cannot be doubted that +many have been prevented from joining us by the pressure brought to bear +on them by their mothers, wives, and sisters. Well may every friend of +India pray earnestly that Zenana Missions may be crowned with success.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span></p> + +<p>A returned missionary is often asked what are the prospects of missions. +From careful and trustworthy statistics we learn the number of +Christians is increasing rapidly. It is right to observe that this +increase has come mainly from the non-Aryan tribes, and people of low +caste. We have valuable converts from the higher castes, but they are +few. When we leave statistics we have recourse to impression, and that +impression depends greatly on circumstances, and still more, perhaps, on +the temperament of the observer. It is very difficult to gauge public +opinion. When we think of all the influences at work, such as education, +both primary and more advanced, Christian literature, missionary effort +in many forms, railway travelling, commerce, and a Government bent on +doing justice, we look forward with hope to an awaking of the Hindu +mind, under which it will seek and embrace the highest good.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">OBSTACLES TO CONVERSION.</div> + +<p>The obstacles to success are most formidable, so formidable that, +notwithstanding promising appearances, we should despair if we were not +assured that the work is of God. The literature of our own country is +strengthening the opposition to us. The unbelief of many educated +natives, an unbelief springing both from repugnance to the Gospel and +from dread of the sacrifices to which its acceptance would subject them, +is fortified by the perusal of sceptical books and periodicals. Years +ago I met a Bengalee far up in the mountains, who told me I need not +speak to him about Christianity, for all reasonable people in England +were abandoning it. In proof he put into my hands a letter from +Professor Newman in answer to a letter he had sent to him. The Professor +counselled his correspondent to worship God as his conscience and reason +directed him, and to keep apart from the Christian Church.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p> + +<p>Notwithstanding these obstacles to the reception of the Gospel, there +are persons to whom it has come with a Divine sanction, but who are so +bound by family and social ties that they do not avow their faith. +Striking instances of this failure to act in accordance with conviction +have come under my observation. I mention only one. I once had an +interview with a dying young Hindu, who had been taught in a mission +school and was well acquainted with the Gospel. With tears in his eyes +he said all his trust for salvation was in the Lord Jesus Christ, and +that he knew it was his duty to avow his faith, but he could not, for if +he did his relatives would one and all abandon him. He seemed to dread +any one but myself hearing the confession of his faith. I have known +others who have had a strong drawing to the Saviour, but they have +stifled their convictions, and have become, as I remember with sadness, +bitter foes of the truth. Let only the tide set in in favour of +Christianity, and many, I doubt not, will be ready to flow with it.</p> + +<p>It ought ever to be remembered that in India we have a vast population. +In the North-Western Provinces and Punjab alone there is a population +twice as large as that of Great Britain and Ireland. Those of this +population who may be said to be educated in a high degree are the +merest handful. You travel hundreds of miles through regions full of +towns, villages, and hamlets, where you find that the partially educated +are very few compared with the wholly uneducated many. Even most of the +shopkeepers who can keep accounts well are unable to read a book with +ease, as the written and printed characters are very different. All know +that their English rulers are called Christians; those who live near the +great lines of road hear an occasional address from a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> passing +missionary, many frequenters of melas have come under the sound of the +Gospel, but the vast majority have not the slightest conception of its +meaning. When Christianity had spread to a considerable extent in the +Roman Empire, country districts were so little affected by it that +<i>pagani</i> (villagers) became soon synonymous with "heathen," the only +meaning which attaches to the word as it is now used by us. A vast work +has to be done before the villagers of Northern India cease to be pagans +in our sense of the word. The work of evangelization is only in its +initial stage. It is yet with us the day of small things—but it is the +day, not the night. The morning has dawned; over a great part of +Northern India we can only see the faint streaks of the coming day, but +the light will spread, the darkness will vanish, and the millions of +that great country will yet be gladdened by the beams of the Sun of +Righteousness.</p> + +<p>I mention, and merely mention, help which India gives for the solution +of some great questions:—</p> + +<p>(1) <i>The immobility of the Eastern mind.</i> In manner of life, in +salutations, in offerings of inferiors to superiors, in many customs, +the far East, like the nearer East, continually reminds us of the East +as presented in the records of antiquity—above all as presented to us +in the Bible. He must be a very careless observer who has not been +struck with the resemblance. The restless changing West furnishes in +this respect a striking contrast to the staid, unchanging East. There +has been no such immobility as to religious opinion and practice. There, +as elsewhere, it holds true that man's mind never remains in one stay. +The Hindus of the present day speak of their Vedic ancestors with +profound reverence, but if they were to rise from their graves and act +as they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> did when denizens of earth—kill cows, disregard caste, drink +largely of the intoxicating juice of the som plant, and worship in an +entirely different manner—their reverence would turn into horror and +detestation. We cannot say that the modern Puranas do not rest in any +degree on the Vedas; some Vedic principles are manifest in them: but in +the gods they set forth for worship and in the practices they enjoin, +there is between them and the Vedas a marked diversity. The numerous +sects which have arisen from time to time among the Hindus show that +they too have had that measure of mental activity which has led to new +forms of thought and practice.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">RETROGRESSION.</div> + +<p>(2) <i>The genesis and evolution of religion.</i> In the dim remote past to +which the Vedas introduce us, we find the Hindus a religious, a very +religious, people. There is no indication of any period when they could +be called secularists. Their religious views and practices have changed, +there has been an evolving process; the connection may be traced, and we +see the result in the Puranic system of our day. Has this movement been +forward, or backward? Has the fittest survived and the weak and useless +perished? The Vedic system little deserves the praise often lavished on +it, but surely it is preferable to that which has taken its place. There +has been deterioration, not improvement. Has not this ever been the case +in reference to religion, so far as the working of the human mind is +concerned? Is not modern Buddhism a falling off from ancient Buddhism? +Does not Rabbinical Judaism belittle and dwarf Old Testament Judaism? +Does not Roman Catholic Christianity materialize New Testament +Christianity? The facts of man's religious history prove incontestably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> +that his constant tendency is towards retrogression, not towards +advancement.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE BIBLE AND THE HINDU SCRIPTURES.</div> + +<p>(3) <i>Comparative religion.</i> On this subject elaborate treatises have +been written with the object of proving that all religions have had +their origin in the human mind, and have been evolved under purely human +conditions. Some of the writers, prompted, we may hope, by a devout +feeling, allow in vague terms an influence exerted on the evolution by +Providential arrangements. Still, in the result we are not to see in any +case the effect of a supernatural revelation, but in all cases an +approximation in different degrees to truth, secured by the unaided +working of the human mind. Does a comparison between the sacred books of +the Hindus and the Bible support this view? Listen to a Sanscrit +specialist like Professor Max Müller, who has spent years in the study +of the Veda, and who has every conceivable motive to say everything he +can on its behalf: "That the Veda is full of childish, silly, even to +our mind monstrous conceptions, who would deny? But even these +monstrosities are interesting and instructive. I could not even answer +the question, if you were to ask it, whether the religion of the Veda +was polytheistic or monotheistic. Monotheistic in the usual sense of the +word it is decidedly not." The dreamy, vague teaching of the Veda has +hardened into the unmistakable polytheism and pantheism of modern +Hinduism. In no country in the world has mind been more active than in +India; in no country have the learned had such abundant leisure, such +full opportunity for quiet, sustained thought—and you see the result. +We follow with deep interest and sympathy the straining of these minds +to understand themselves and the world around; as they grope after God +we find they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> occasionally obtain a glimpse of the highest truth, but +the darkness, though for the moment relieved, is not dispelled. The +truth has continued to elude them. They have not arrived at the +knowledge of even the first principles of a theology worthy of God, and +fitted to direct, purify, and guide man. Excellent, high-toned +sentiments are no doubt found in Hindu writings, but these do not alter +their general character. The Bible, by its teaching regarding God and +man, above all by its record of the peerless excellence of our Lord +Jesus Christ, and of the provision made through Him for the supply of +man's deepest wants, presents a marvellous contrast to the Veda, to the +great epic poems of the Hindus, to their philosophical treatises and +their Puranas. I know a good deal of what has been said to show that the +characteristics of the Bible may be accounted for on merely human +principles, but the certain facts of the case refute, to my mind, the +arguments adduced. Max Müller says in one of his writings—I cannot +quote his exact words—that we are not to look in the songs of the Veda +for anything so advanced as we find in the Psalter. Why not? Had not the +Pundits of India far more cultured minds than David and the hymnists of +Israel? Their works are different, for their teaching came from +different sources. One benefit I have got from my residence in India, a +conviction deepened by every successive glimpse into Hindu teaching and +practice: that in the Bible we have a supernatural revelation of God's +will, and that in building on it we are building on a rock which cannot +be shaken.</p> + +<p>(4) <i>The migration of nations.</i> Few things in the history of the world +are more surprising to us than whole nations making their way to new and +remote countries. I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> thought I have got a little help towards +understanding these movements when I have observed large bands of +people—men, women, and children—pursuing their journey, carrying with +them all they deemed necessary, and lying out at night on the bare +ground, with a blanket, which they had carried over their shoulder, as +their only covering. They took food with them when they knew that at +their halting-place it could not be procured. Very differently do our +native regiments travel. They are attended by a host of camp-followers, +and have a formidable amount of baggage. I once saw a party of woodmen +in the hills sleeping under a tree when there was frost on the ground; +and on the remark being made it was a wonder they could live, a hillman +remarked, "Has not each got his blanket? What hardship is there?" When +nations migrated they no doubt sent out scouring parties, who seized all +the food on which they could lay their hands. When travelling alone in +the hills I had commonly with me a tent so small that a man carried it +on his head, but I must acknowledge I could not approach the simplicity +of the native traveller's arrangements.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch29.png" width="300" height="111" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<h3><i>EUROPEANS IN INDIA.</i></h3> + + +<p>The climate of India precludes the possibility of its being a sphere for +European colonization. With the exception of the hill districts, the +intense heat during the greater part of the year makes out-door +occupation trying even to the native, and well-nigh unendurable for +Europeans—a heat uncompensated by the coolness of the night, for in the +North-West, at least, the stifling closeness of the night is more trying +than the heat of the day. If this heat lasted for only a few days, as in +Southern Australia, it might be borne, though a hindrance to work; but +in India it lasts for months, and it is succeeded by months of drenching +rain, during a great part of which the moisture and mugginess are as +unpleasant as the previous dry heat had been.</p> + +<p>Apart from climate, there is no room for us as colonists. In India we +have not to do with rude tribes, as in America, New Zealand, and +Australia, and in a measure in Southern Africa, that cannot be said to +possess the land over which they and their fathers have long roamed, or +of which they have cultivated a very small part. We have to do with +ancient nations that have taken full possession of the land by +cultivation of the soil, and by pursuit of the arts of civilized life. +We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> find in India no tribes wasting away before the white stranger, but +a people growing in number under the security of our government. There +are districts in the North-West more densely peopled than any districts +in Europe occupied by an agricultural population. The emigration of +coolies to the Mauritius, to Bourbon, to the coast of South America, and +to the West Indian Islands, has done little to relieve the pressure. +Migration to unoccupied parts of Central India and Assam has been +carried out to a small extent, and it is very desirable this migration +should increase. Non-Aryan tribes occupy a large part of the mountains +and forests of Central and Eastern India. They have no wish for +accession from the people of the plains, and still less do they wish for +the entrance of Europeans. I can say nothing about the mountains of the +South, but so far as I have travelled over the sub-Himalayan range in +the North there is no place for Europeans in it, except for officials or +employers, and managers of native labour, such as tea-planters.</p> + +<p>While India presents no sphere for European colonization, it presents an +increasingly wide field for European agency in the civil and military +services, in the departments of education, commerce, manufacture—for +instance, of cotton goods, railways, indigo, and tea. In these different +departments Europeans are in constant intercourse with natives of every +class from the highest to the lowest. There is often much pleasant and +courteous intercourse between them; but in language, habits, religion, +in almost everything in which human beings can be separated from their +fellows, they are so different that they remain to a great degree +strangers to each other, however kindly may be their mutual feeling. +English people never call India "home," though they may have lived in it +the greater<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> part of their life. This name is always reserved for our +fatherland. (I had better say that the term English, as used in India, +includes all from Great Britain and Ireland, and to them also the term +European is mainly, though not exclusively, applied.) I have heard +persons of pure English descent, who had never been out of India, speak +of England as "home." The reservation of the word to the land from which +we have gone, indicates the fact that in India we are strangers, and +cannot cease to be strangers. Colonists in America and other lands may +make a similar reservation; but living as they do among their own +people, in a country which they expect to be the home of their +descendants, the term as applied to England is deprived of much of its +endearing force.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">EUROPEAN AND NATIVE INTERCOURSE.</div> + +<p>In the great Presidency cities, and in a less degree in other cities +throughout the country, we have a large educated class of natives, who +are well acquainted with our language and literature. They have pursued +their studies in the hope of securing good situations, and this hope is +in a large measure realized. They are found all over Northern India +occupying responsible and well-paid positions. Many persons of this +class come daily into close intercourse with Europeans in the discharge +of their duties, and have means of knowing them which no other class +possesses. The intercourse is generally courteous, in not a few cases +friendly, and they talk freely with each other on a great variety of +subjects. There is, however, not infrequently an underfeeling with +educated natives that they are not sufficiently appreciated—that they +do not get the place due to them—that they are treated as an inferior +race; and there is consequently a suspiciousness fatal to cordiality. I +am far from thinking that Europeans always treat educated natives with +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> courtesy due to them. I have known instances of marked discourtesy; +but I am sure many of our people are bent on treating them with all +justice and kindness, and sometimes, at least, this friendly feeling has +not been reciprocated. Human nature being what it is, however much we +may regret, we need not wonder at the grating between parties that have +so much in common, and yet owing to that very circumstance have clashing +feelings and interests.</p> + +<p>Many native gentlemen, some of the highest rank, cultivate European +society, and every European who has anything of the gentleman in him +treats them with the courtesy due to their position. Natives of this +class are, as a rule, most gentlemanly in their demeanour, and +intercourse with them is very pleasant.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE FAITHFULNESS OF SERVANTS.</div> + +<p>Between Europeans and most natives with whom they have to do, there is +such a difference of station there is no room for jealousy. To some +Europeans they stand in the relation of agents, clerks, and labourers; +to a greater number in the relation of servants. In India, as in our own +country, there is a great variety in the character of both masters and +servants. There, as here, there are hard, selfish, unreasonable masters +and mistresses, and there are undoubtedly bad, false, dishonest +servants; but I have no hesitation in giving my impression—I may say +stating my belief—that native servants are generally well treated, and +that this treatment draws forth no small degree of gratitude and +attachment. This was strikingly shown in the Mutiny period. Servants +often remain for years with the same masters, render most useful and +faithful service; their wages are continued in whole or in part during +the temporary absence of their masters from India; on their return they +are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> found waiting for them at the port of debarkation, and on final +departure for Europe it is not unusual for old Indians to pension those +who have been faithful to them. When I speak of faithfulness, I do not +mean that, with the exception of very rare cases, full dependence can be +placed on their truthfulness, or even on their honesty in the strict +sense of the term. It is very difficult for them to resist the +temptation to tell a lie, when a fault is to be screened or benefit to +be obtained, and there are certain understood perquisites of which they +are inclined to avail themselves in too liberal a degree; but they are +at the same time very careful to guard the property of their master +against all others, and are deeply concerned for the honour of his name. +As a rule natives, both servants and others, are treated with less +justice and kindness by the lower class of Europeans than by persons +better educated and of a higher position. There are indeed soldiers and +others who look on "niggers," as they call all natives, with contempt, +and are inclined to abuse them, so far as they are permitted, to the +full bent of their rude nature. The term "nigger" is used by some who +call themselves gentlemen. All I can say of such gentlemen is that I +wish they would speak in a manner worthy of the name.</p> + +<p>Of late years the position of Englishmen in India has greatly changed. +By the overland route, and by the weekly postal communication, England +and India are brought near to each other in a degree which could not +have been deemed possible in former days. Persons on leave for three +months can now spend a month or five weeks with their friends in +England, and at the end of their leave be ready to resume their duties. +Every week a stream of literature, in the shape of newspapers, +peri<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span>odicals, and books, is poured over every part of India, reaching +the European in the most remote part of the land. Hill stations have +become very accessible by rail, and to these Europeans betake themselves +in great numbers for the hot months. All these things give greater force +than ever to the home feeling, by strengthening home sympathies and +ties. The result is our people in India are birds of passage as they +never were before, ready to return to their own land as soon as +circumstances will allow them.</p> + +<p>There are some advantages from this altered state of things. Many of the +early residents became, to their own deep injury, too intimate with the +people of the land. They learned their ways, and became like them in +character. It was often said, when the Mutiny broke out, that the +officers of native regiments had in former days maintained friendly +intercourse with the Sepoys, and thus secured their attachment, and that +the cessation, or at least the lessening, of this intercourse was one +great cause of the outbreak. If good resulted from it in the weakening +of national antipathy, in many cases evil resulted from it in the +deterioration of character. Many of our countrymen at an early period +formed native connections, and by doing so brought themselves down to +the level of their new friends. Some became so entangled that they gave +up all thought of returning to their own country. It must not be +supposed that all who settled down in India for life were of this +character. Some who had kept themselves aloof from all improper +connection with natives became so attached to India and to the mode of +living there, that they made it their permanent abode. A few of this +class remain, but their number is rapidly decreasing, and none are +taking their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> place. The persons who have thus made India their home +have often had a large circle of attached native friends.</p> + +<p>The constant communication of Englishmen with their native land, +frequent visits to it, and the anticipation of getting away from India +at the earliest possible period, tends to lessen their interest in +Indian affairs, and weaken their sympathy with the native population. +The closer connexion with England is, however, attended with some +advantages. It can be confidently affirmed that many of our countrymen +in India are bent on promoting the good of the people with whom they +come into contact, and strive to perform their duties faithfully. We may +hope that home influence may strengthen them for the more efficient +discharge of their work, and may thus prove a benefit to the people.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">IMPROVEMENT OF EUROPEAN SOCIETY.</div> + +<p>In many respects there has been a marked improvement in European +society. The small house near the large one, significantly called the +Zenana, is never seen near the houses of recent erection. Even in the +smaller stations there are places for Christian worship, where Europeans +meet on the Lord's Day, when some official reads the prayers of the +Church of England, and, if he be a zealous man, a sermon. A chaplain +pays occasional visits to these places. The attendance on public worship +is far from being what it ought to be, and we have much reason to fear +it is often very formal; but it furnishes a pleasing contrast to the +neglect which formerly prevailed. Along with this church-going there is, +no doubt, a great deal of unbelief in India. I have already said we have +in India Christians who are earnest for the honour of their Lord, and do +all they can to promote His cause; but the greater number of our people +are not,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> and have never been, friendly to the propagation of the +Gospel. I am afraid the unfriendliness has been increased by the +sceptical tone of much of the literature of the day. I have known +gentlemen giving to their native subordinates for perusal periodicals +and books which could only lead them to the conclusion that Christianity +was dying out in England.</p> + +<p>There are, happily, counteracting influences. Christian as well as +sceptical literature makes its way to India, and is telling on many +minds. And then, at our larger stations, where Europeans and Eurasians +are in the greatest number, more is done for their spiritual benefit +than at any previous period. Well may every Christian heartily desire +success to all such effort, for nothing would do more to bring the +people of the land to the feet of Jesus than the prevalence of living +godliness among our own countrymen.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/foot-ch30.png" width="300" height="186" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.</i></h3> + + +<p>The first question which comes before us when considering the government +of India is, What right have we to govern it? For an answer to this +question we must betake ourselves to the history of our connexion with +India. This history cannot have for us the interest and fascination of +the history of our own country; but it has strong claims on us as the +subjects of the British Crown, contains much that deserves and repays +perusal, and must be known by us in order to the right understanding of +the position we have obtained.</p> + +<p>My reading of Indian history leads me to the conclusion that in all +likelihood we should never have been rulers in India had we not been +grievously injured as traders, in violation of rights accorded to us by +the native powers. All know the story of the black hole of Calcutta, +which led to our waging war on the Nawab. We had previously fought with +the French and French allies in the south, we had contended with other +European rivals, but our rule began with the victory of Plassey. After +that victory our only alternative was either to leave the country +altogether, or to go on conquering till we should become the supreme +power over the whole of the continent. If we had retired from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> land +we had conquered, and had sought to remain as traders, our retirement +would have been attributed to weakness, and demands would have been made +on us which would have made trading impossible. If we had determined not +to advance, but simply to retain what we had acquired, and had satisfied +ourselves with repelling attacks, these attacks would have been +continued till we had either gone forward, or resigned our conquest +altogether.</p> + +<p>We can understand the course pursued by the founders of the British +Empire in India only when we look on them as placed between the +alternative mentioned. The Directors of the East India Company did not +seek the government of India. They deprecated it. By it commerce was +disorganized and dividends lowered. Some of their servants in India made +enormous fortunes by the new state of things, but this was no comfort to +them. Order after order was sent out against the extension of territory. +Governor after governor was commissioned to carry out the peaceful views +of the home authorities, but still conquest went on under the direction +of these very governors.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE POLICY OF THE MARQUESS OF HASTINGS.</div> + +<p>I am far from vindicating all that was done; deeds were committed which +deserve severe condemnation; but it would be a travesty of history to +say that the governors, who set out with peaceful intentions, succumbed +to the lust of conquest. They were often forced to adopt war measures. +Many instances might be adduced. I give only one. The Marquess of +Hastings had denounced the conquering career of the Marquess of +Wellesley. He was selected for the very purpose of reversing his policy, +so far as it could be reversed. If any person could be trusted for +giving peace to India<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> he was the man. Shortly after his arrival our +connexion with the Ghoorkhas, the ruling body in Nepal, became strained. +They made raids into our territory beneath the hills, and murdered and +robbed our subjects. The Marquess was extremely desirous to avoid a +rupture with them. Remonstrances were addressed to them, and proposals +made to settle differences by the better defining of the boundaries +between their country and ours. These proposals were regarded as a proof +of weakness, and the bold demand was made we should give up to them the +great fertile region north of the Ganges. There was no further +hesitation. To yield to this demand, for which there was not the pretext +of right, would have been to announce to all the potentates of India +that we were unable to defend ourselves, and would have led them to +assail us. War was declared, which, after two campaigns and a severe +struggle, ended in the discomfiture of the Ghoorkhas, and in their +cession to us of the large territory they had conquered a few years +previously. Ought the Governor-General to have yielded to the Ghoorkha +demand? Yes, if we were prepared to leave the country altogether, but +otherwise not.</p> + +<p>No sooner had the Marquess of Hastings landed in India than he began to +doubt the policy he had formerly advocated, and events soon compelled +him to abandon it. The policy on which he acted was declared by him in +unmistakable terms: "Our object in India ought to be to render the +British Government paramount in effect, if not declaredly so ... and to +oblige the other states to perform the two great feudal duties of +supporting our rule with all their forces, and submitting their mutual +differences to our arbitration."</p> + +<p>Till we became confessedly supreme we were not for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> any length of time +allowed to remain at peace. There were two main reasons for the unrest, +which prepared the way for war. One reason was that the native powers +hated and dreaded us, and were eager for our overthrow even when they +professed the greatest friendliness. When we were involved in +difficulties they were ready to rise against us. Every indication of our +desire to avoid hostilities was interpreted as a sign of weakness, and +thus became an incentive to the renewal of the struggle. Another reason +for the fresh outbreak of war was the treachery of the native princes. I +cannot say that in the matter of treaty keeping we had clean hands. The +gross deceit played on Omichund, as described by Macaulay in his Essay +on Lord Clive, stands nearly alone in our public conduct in India, but +other transactions have been unworthy of our character for high-minded +integrity. It may, however, be confidently affirmed, that looking at our +governing conduct as a whole, it presents by its faithfulness to +engagements a marked contrast to the conduct of those who had entered +into treaty with us. Many of our Indian wars would have been prevented +had there not been on their part the violation of engagements in a +manner which showed they never intended to keep them an hour longer than +they were compelled by circumstances.</p> + +<p>If a review of the course pursued by our people in India shows how we +became the governing power, and indicates the ground on which our rule +rests, a review of the history of India for ages previous to our advent, +and of the condition in which we found it, will help us greatly in +answering the question—Has India been benefited or injured by our +having seized the sceptre?</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MUHAMMADAN RULE.</div> + +<p>For centuries Muhammadans were the rulers of India.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> They entered, not +to avenge wrongs done to them, but as the servants of Allah, called to +put down idolatry, and entitled to rule over the nations they subdued. +Centuries elapsed before the extension of their rule beyond the +North-West region. Gradually it extended to other parts of India. The +seventeenth century was well advanced before the greater part of +Southern India came under the rule of the Emperor of Delhi—the +Shah-un-shah, King of kings, as he was called. His suzerainty was +generally acknowledged in those lands which continued under Hindu +rulers.</p> + +<p>As we turn over page after page of the Muhammadan rule in India, what +scenes of strife, of bloody war, of treachery, of desolated countries, +continually meet our view! No sooner did an emperor die than the +struggle commenced for the vacant throne between his many sons, brother +fighting with brother till one became the victor, and then woe to the +vanquished! The governors of Provinces, as soon as they thought they had +sufficient power, rebelled against the sovereign, and struggled—not +infrequently with success—to secure an independent throne. In the +course of these civil wars countries were overrun, towns and villages +levelled with the ground, their inhabitants massacred, and their +property pillaged. We read of rival dynasties which contended with each +other for empire. We are told of terrible invasions like those of Timour +and Nadir Shah. There were no doubt great emperors, such as the +illustrious Akbar, during whose rule India suffered comparatively little +from war, and enjoyed great prosperity. Governors were now and then firm +and just rulers. Looking at the whole period of Muhammadan rule, during +no part of which India was free from the scourge of war, and during a +great part of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> which war on a large scale was carried on, untold misery +must have been endured by many of its inhabitants, and there was little +security for life and property. The aristocracy of the emperors' courts +was mainly that of office, and only to a limited degree that of blood +and ancient possession. We find persons of mean birth rising to +greatness, and persons on the very pinnacle of honour cast down to the +ground. There was a succession of emperors called Slave Emperors, as +they had originally been slaves in the court, whence they rose to +supreme power. When we consider the teaching of the Quran respecting +those who do not submit to Islam, we may suppose what the condition of +the Hindus was under Muhammadan rulers, so far as they acted out their +principles. Happily during this period, though constantly exposed to +terrible disasters, the people in their villages were often left to +manage their own affairs.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE REIGN OF ADVENTURERS.</div> + +<p>When our nation commenced its conquering career in the middle of the +eighteenth century, the Muhammadan Empire was in a state of collapse. +Within thirteen years of Aurungzeb's death, in 1706, six sovereigns were +seated on the imperial throne. Shah Alum was nominal emperor from 1759 +to 1806, and all the time he was a wanderer, a prisoner, or a pensioner +of the Mahrattas, the Rohillas, or the English. He was as melancholy an +example of fallen greatness as can well be conceived, a greatness which +retained its title while its bearer was subjected to every indignity. He +had been for some time in the hands of the Mahrattas, who used his seal +freely, and at the same time treated him with the utmost cruelty. The +food supplied was so insufficient that he and his household were almost +starved. When Lord Lake took Delhi from the Mahrattas in 1803 he found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> +the poor old blind emperor under a tattered canopy, trembling at what +might now befall him. Some years previously his eyes had been gouged out +by one of his Rohilla keepers. At once he was treated by us with the +highest consideration. Power was not given, but a handsome pension was +assigned, and he was personally treated with all the honour due to a +reigning sovereign. When these facts are remembered, it is strange we +should be charged with overthrowing the Muhammadan Empire in India. +Whoever was injured by our conquest, Shah Alum and his family were +assuredly benefited.</p> + +<p>Our contention was with those whose only claim to rule rested on the +sword. Bold adventurers had risen everywhere, and were snatching at the +fallen sceptre. There were still emperors, as we have mentioned, and +their prestige gave value to documents bearing their seal, but they did +not retain a shred of power. Daring Europeans, helped by native allies, +had set to carving out principalities for themselves. The viziers and +nawabs that ruled in the name of the emperors rendered them neither +obedience nor tribute. Our first great battle was fought with Suraj ud +Dowla, the Nawab of Bengal, the grandson of Aliverdi Khan, an Afghan +adventurer, who had acquired the government of the country. In the South +we fought with Hyder Ali, a trooper who gathered under him a marauding +band, and by courage and craft rose to being a sovereign, and with his +son Tippoo Sahib. Our longest and most severe contests were with the +Mahrattas, a warlike tribe of Hindus in Western India, who came first +into prominence in the seventeenth century under Sivajee, a petty +chieftain, and gradually advanced under various leaders till they became +for a time the paramount power. Their hordes of horsemen scoured the +country in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> all directions, north and south, east and west, demanding +the <i>chauth</i>, the fourth part of the revenue, and returning to their +capitals laden with spoil. The leaders with whom we had most to do, +sometimes in the way of friendship, far more frequently in the way of +warfare, were the Peshwa, the head of the Mahratta confederacy, the heir +of Sivajee; Ranojee Bhonsla, a private horseman, who became Prince of +Nagpore; Pilajee Gaikwar, a cowherd, who ruled in Baroda; Ranojee +Scindia, a menial servant of the Peshwa, who made Gwalior his capital; +and Mulhar Rao Holkar, a shepherd, who became Maharajah of Indore. Not +one of their number professed to belong to the ancient ruling families +of India.</p> + +<p>As we glance at India as it was under Muhammadan rule, and consider its +state when our conquering career began, we find there were no elements +of stable government: the Imperial power had become a shadow; ambitious +leaders were everywhere striving for the mastery, ready to beat down all +opposition within their own immediate sphere, and then prepared to wrest +power from neighbouring chiefs. India had at that time a very dark +prospect before it.</p> + +<p>This review of the past history of India may seem an unduly long +introduction to a brief statement regarding its condition under our +rule, but it is only by looking to the past a right answer can be given +to the questions: What right have we to govern India? From what evils +has our government delivered it? What benefits have we conferred on its +population? Inattention to the past has led many to give in some cases +an utterly wrong, in other cases a very inadequate, answer to these +questions. It is clear that India has been brought under our rule by +what may be rightly called aggressive war only to a very limited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> +extent. It is also clear that the hostile forces we encountered were not +those of the ancient princes of the land, but of adventurers who were +struggling to rise on the ruins of the disorganized empire. At the +present time, on the mere ground of the length of possession, our rule +has a stronger claim than that of the potentates whom we overthrew.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ADVANTAGES OF BRITISH RULE.</div> + +<p>A review of the past prepares us to see some of the advantages our rule +has conferred. No longer are armies marching over India, supplying their +wants by the plunder of its people, and leaving ruin in their track. No +longer has the husbandman, when he sees at a distance the dust raised by +the tramp of the Mahratta cavalry, to flee to his walled village, if he +has one to flee to, or to his hamlet if he cannot do better, leaving his +field, perhaps ready for the sickle, to be trodden down by the unwelcome +stranger. No longer are hosts of marauders like the Pindarees, who +scarcely professed to be anything else than marauders, allowed to roam +over fertile and populous regions in their robbing and murdering +expeditions. No longer are professional robbers called Dacoits allowed +to set out on excursions, and make their way under various disguises to +towns, to rise at an arranged signal, attack the houses of the rich, and +force them, often under torture, to reveal their treasures. No longer +are Thugs, professional murderers, left to arrange their plans for +insinuating themselves into the goodwill of travellers, with a view, +when the opportunity came, to throttling their victims, robbing them, +and then burying them, that all mark of their deeds might be effaced. +From Dacoity and Thuggery Europeans had nothing to fear, but natives +suffered frightfully; and special departments were formed for their +suppression. In Northern India,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> at least, these bands of robbers and +murderers have been broken up. No longer are the lives and property of +the people at the disposal of their rulers, as was to a large extent the +case previous to the British era. They are now under the ægis of law.</p> + +<p>If any one think that the advantages thus conferred by the establishment +of a stable government are of little value, all we can say is they have +no conception of the misery brought on thousands from generation to +generation, when these advantages were unknown.</p> + +<p>Never was a comparatively small nation entrusted with so vast a work as +that committed to us by our undertaking to administer the government of +a continent thousands of miles from our shores, inhabited by two hundred +and fifty-four millions, who differ widely from us in language, +religion, habits, history, associations—in almost everything in which +one nation can differ from another. Two hundred millions are under our +direct rule, and the rest are under native rulers who acknowledge our +Queen as suzerain. It would have been a miracle had we not in the course +of our government, during more than a hundred years, done many unwise, +many wrong, even many cruel things. He would be a bold man who would +stand forth and maintain we had done good, and only good, to the nations +of India. We take no such optimist position. You can adduce many things +in our dealings with the people which the best of the officials have +themselves condemned, and you can mention evils which have followed our +rule for which we can scarcely be said to be responsible. This, however, +we say with the fullest conviction, as the result of long residence in +India and of extensive observation: that considering our position as +Western strangers, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> difficulties with which we have had to +contend, our Government has had a success far greater than could have +been anticipated, and has conferred vast advantages on the country.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BRITISH ADMINISTRATORS.</div> + +<p>It would be difficult to find in the history of the world a more +remarkable class of men than those who have been engaged in the +administration of India. There have been inefficient, selfish, idle, +unprincipled men among them. In former years we used to hear of John +Company's bad bargains; and now that India has come directly under the +rule of Queen Victoria we now and then hear of John Bull's bad bargains. +These have been the exception, not the rule. There has been in +succession a band of men who have earnestly sought the good of the +people, and have shown a capacity for administration which I have no +doubt surprised themselves, as it has those who have watched their +progress. Sir John Kaye has given interesting sketches of some Indian +worthies, but it would require a series of volumes to record the deeds +of the many who have taken a warm interest in the people, have toiled +for their good, and have been trusted, and in some instances literally +adored, by them. I have had a considerable acquaintance with the +<i>personnel</i> of the Government of the North-West Provinces, from some +occupying the highest position down to assistant magistrates. I cannot +say I admired all, but I can say that I have been surprised at the +number who did their duty faithfully, were thoroughly interested in +their work, and rejoiced when they had achieved any measure of success.</p> + +<p>With a few exceptions the Governor-General has been an English nobleman +who has filled some important office at home; but Lieutenant-Governors, +and not in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>frequently Governors, have been persons of large Indian +experience, who have passed with honour through all the grades of the +Civil Service. These, assisted by the Commissioners of Provinces, +exercise a strict supervision over the entire administration. Officials +have continually to report their doings, and irregularities are quickly +discovered. We know of no class who have more onerous duties to +discharge than magistrates of districts and their subordinates. They +have long hours in crowded courts in an exhausting climate, decide many +intricate cases, maintain order within the bounds of their jurisdiction, +receive reports of what is being done and give directions, prepare +reports for the Government, and they are expected to give a courteous +reception to native gentlemen when they call, however long these +gentlemen may be inclined to prolong their visit. We have been at times +in a position to see the daily life of some of these men, and have been +struck with the amount of work devolving on them, and the patience they +have shown where there was strong temptation to impatience.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">INCIDENTAL EVILS OF OUR RULE.</div> + +<p>As strangers, it is difficult for us to understand the people, and the +result is that with the best intentions we have at times adopted +measures utterly unsuited to them. Our very attempt to secure the rights +of all classes by the careful drawing up of civil and criminal codes, +and by the institution of courts where they are administered, has +fostered the litigiousness of the people, and has led to a fearful +amount of perjury. Litigiousness got no play where courts did not exist, +and perjury could not show itself where witnesses were not examined. It +is said that in one of our most recent acquisitions, the Punjab, the +people have deteriorated under our rule. Runjeet Singh had no prisons. +Thieves caught in the act were maimed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> and allowed to go their way. +Murderers and other great offenders were at once put to death. We can +scarcely adopt this primitive mode of maintaining order, and by our +codes, courts, judges, and witnesses we have no doubt opened the door to +evils of which the Punjab knew nothing in Runjeet Singh's time. If the +early colonists of New York and Boston had retained their primitive +simplicity, those cities would not now be disgraced by the slums, with +their vice, crime, and misery, which make them too closely resemble the +cities of the old continent. When society makes progress, new, social, +and political, arrangements are indispensable, the countervailing good +being much greater than the incidental evils which come in their train.</p> + +<p>In India there are Regulation and Non-Regulation Provinces, the +Regulation Provinces being those which have been long under our rule, +and are subject to all our laws; and the Non-Regulation Provinces being +those to which our codes are only partially applied, and where much is +left to the discretion of the administrator. In the former the chief +offices belong to the regular Civil Service, while in the latter +military men as well as civilians are employed. Both classes have +furnished most able and capable men.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TAXATION.</div> + +<p>Considering the resources of India its taxation is heavy. Our Government +pays its servants of every description, high and low, civil and +military, with a regularity utterly unknown under native rule, and the +income must in regularity keep pace with the outlay. When we read of +seventy millions as the expenditure, it must be remembered that what is +called the land-tax is really rent, for in India the land has always +been considered the property of the state. This is kept before the mind +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> the people of Madras by the yearly assessment of the tenants, and +before the people of the North-Western Provinces by the new assessment +made every thirtieth year. By the perpetual settlement of Bengal, the +tax-collectors were at once raised to the position of landholders, of +which they have often taken undue advantage. It must also be remembered +that a considerable sum is expended on remunerative works, such as +canals and railways. The expenditure on the army is great. I cannot +conceive why our Government keeps up so large a native army. It would +appear to those who are outside the Government circle, that its +reduction would conduce to safety as well as to economy. The European +part of the army is comparatively very small, and it would be most +perilous to lessen it. Years before the Mutiny, Sir Henry Lawrence said +it was the backbone of our strength, and events proved how true his +remark was. Yet it is, and must continue to be, very expensive, like +every other form of European agency. The Mutiny among its other results +left behind it heavy pecuniary responsibilities, which have added to the +debt and led to increased taxation. Many are of opinion that the +amalgamation of the Royal and Indian armies was an unwise measure, and +has caused much unnecessary expense. Often complaints have been made +that successive home Governments, from their unchallenged control over +the affairs of India, have imposed an unjust burden on its resources by +keeping at home too large a force at its expense, and by undue charges +for stores sent out, as well as by making it pay sums which were more +properly due by the imperial exchequer.</p> + +<p>"The net land revenue has risen in the ten years beginning 1870-71 from +£20,335,678, or nearly half the total net<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> revenue of £42,780,417, by +about two millions sterling, to £22,125,807, with a total net revenue of +£49,801,664. The gross revenue of the latter year, 1879-80, was +£68,484,666, the difference being derived from sources other than +taxation, such as the opium monopoly. The revenue of 1880-81 was +£72,920,000, and the gross expenditure £71,259,000. Including the land +revenue as land-tax, the 200 millions in the twelve Provinces of British +India pay about 4s. a head of imperial taxation, besides municipal or +local and provincial cesses, which purchase such local advantages as +roads, schools, police, and sanitary appliances. This incidence of +taxation varies from 5s. 6d. per head of the land-owning classes to 3s. +3d. for traders, 2s. for artisans, and 1s. 6d. for agricultural +labourers. The fiscal policy of the Government has of late been to +reduce the burden of the salt monopoly, which is a poll-tax, and to +abolish import duties. The 54½ millions in the Native States pay only to +their own chiefs, who enjoy a net annual revenue of fourteen millions +sterling, and pay £700,000 as tribute, or less than the cost of the +military and political establishments maintained on their account" (Dr. +George Smith's "Geography of British India"). Deducting land-tax, opium, +railways, irrigations, post-office, and suchlike remunerative services, +the taxation is reduced to 2s. per head of population.</p> + +<p>If the European army in India be the backbone of our military sway, +European administrators are, I believe, the backbone of our government. +During the terrible years 1857 and 1858, the services rendered by those +who were engaged in civil employment were of the highest value in +restoring peace to the distracted country, and in re-establishing our +government. European<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> officials of every grade showed equal zeal and +determination. There were many native officials in these Provinces, some +of them highly paid and greatly trusted. A few remained faithful and did +good service, though the help rendered, when summed up, cannot be +reckoned great. Many proved unfaithful, and some became our bitter +enemies. If instead of Englishmen as judges, magistrates, and +collectors, we had had at that time highly educated natives of Bengal +holding these offices, the men who receive for themselves the best +hearing in England, can we suppose that, however well inclined, they +could have borne the brunt of the contest, and aided largely in securing +the victory? It would ill become me to speak against these men. I know +some of the class for whom I have not only a high esteem but warm +affection. Among them there are not a few who are great in attainment, +keen in intellect, and strong in purpose to do the right. Still I do not +think they themselves would maintain they have the physical courage, the +firm mental calibre, the moral strength, and the high place in the +confidence of the community, which would qualify any of their number to +occupy the position of Governor-General, Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, +and Chief Commissioner, or would make it desirable they should form the +leading body of the administrative staff. The successful candidates for +the Civil Service have come, we believe, exclusively from the +highly-educated youth of the Presidency cities, between whom and the +millions of their own Provinces there is no such bond as unites the +so-called leaders of the Irish with the majority of their countrymen. In +the other countries of India they are little known, and are regarded +with no special interest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">HINDUSTANEES AND BENGALEES.</div> + +<p>Many mistakes would be prevented if English people would remember that +we have in India nations differing widely from each other. We have a +striking illustration of this fact in the part of India in which we have +lived. Bengalees abound in the public offices in the North-West +Provinces and in the Punjab. They are deemed sharper in intellect, and +are better educated, than the Hindustanees, and on account of their +superior education they have got situations which would have been filled +by natives of the country, had their educational acquirements been +equal. These Bengalees are not strangers in these Provinces to the same +extent as Englishmen, but they are strangers, and are looked upon as +such by the people. Where they are numerous they keep mainly to +themselves, and however friendly they may be with Hindustanees they are +regarded as belonging to another country. When you meet them you know +them at once by their look, dress, language, and habits. A part of +Benares, called Bengalee Tola—Bengalee district—is inhabited almost +wholly by Bengalees, and when you enter it you feel you have come among +another people, who speak a different language and present a different +appearance. During the Mutiny they were regarded in the North-West with +suspicion, as half-English, and many were happy to seek shelter where we +were able to keep our footing. If the question was put in Hindustan +Proper to any large body of people—Would you have Bengalees or +Englishmen for your magistrates and judges? I think in most places the +well-nigh unanimous response would be, The Englishman.</p> + +<p>If my opinion is to rest on my own observation, I would confidently say +that notwithstanding the injustice and unkindness charged against some +English officials,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> the people generally have profound trust in our +justice—in our <i>insaf</i>—and as a rule, except when they think the +native partial to themselves, they prefer to have their cases tried +where an Englishman presides. When on a journey I once came up to two +men engaged in eager talk. I heard them use frequently the words, +<i>Ungrez</i> and <i>Insaf</i>—<i>Englishmen</i> and <i>Justice</i>—and on stopping I +heard the one telling the other of the bribes taken by native officials +in a case he had, and of the justice done when the Englishman took it +up. He ended with the words, "What a wonderful people for <i>insaf</i> these +English are!" to which remark the other man assented. I thanked them for +their good opinion, and held on my way.</p> + +<p>If the administration of India in its present state must, in its chief +offices, remain in the hands of Europeans, it must be expensive. The +great officers of state, considering the dignity they have to maintain +and the establishments they have to keep, must be highly paid. When we +think of the qualifications required by those who are charged with the +ordinary administration, the great expense to which they are put, the +years they spend in laborious work in an exhausting climate, and their +unfitness as a rule for work in England on their retirement, I do not +think their income or pension can be to any large extent safely or +justly reduced. The era of nabobs, returning with vast wealth to +astonish the English people, has long since passed away. These men had +small pay, but great perquisites. The pay has been greatly increased, +but the perquisites are gone, and India has benefited vastly by the +change.</p> + +<p>Indian magistrates have much to tell of the litigiousness of the people, +their constant attempts to over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span>reach each other, the carefully woven +lies which they have daily to unravel, the trust put in bribes to +influence decisions, and the deeply ingrained notion in the minds of +native officials that they should get more for their services to the +public than the bare pay, the <i>sookha tulub</i>—<i>dry wages</i>—as it is +contemptuously called.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE POVERTY OF THE PEOPLE.</div> + +<p>The people of Northern India are mainly agricultural, and they are +unquestionably poor. Our very success has in one aspect tended to their +impoverishment. With very few exceptions they marry young, and during +the many years of peace which have passed over them, with the exception +of the short sharp crisis of the Mutiny, the population has greatly +increased. Whenever an epidemic breaks out, means are at once employed +to check it. There is a vaccination department for the purpose of +preventing the ravages of small-pox. Female infanticide, which had +prevailed to a frightful extent among certain castes, has been +diminished, though not, it is feared, wholly suppressed. It is well +known that famines have been sadly destructive of life, but there is +evidence that previous to our rule, when there were few roads and little +communication between one part of India and another, famines were still +more so. Among so vast a population directly dependent on the soil, in a +country where rain is so indispensable, and is now and then a failure, +we have too much reason to fear famines may yet recur; but such +provision is now made against their ravages, that it is hoped the +catastrophes of the past will be escaped.</p> + +<p>It is believed that, as the result of the new order of things, India at +the present time has by many millions a larger population than it ever +had previously. Mention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> has been made of the improvement effected in +the Province of Kumaon; and other parts of India present instances of +equally successful administration, but the area of new cultivation has +not kept pace with the increase of population. It is sad that so many of +the people should be underfed. In our own country and in Ireland this +question of sufficient food for the entire population is one of the +pressing difficulties of the day. Much is within the power of people +themselves to improve their condition. We know it is so at home, and it +is so in India. There, there is a vast body of sturdy beggars, under the +guise of religious devotees, who feed on the people. Lending and +borrowing go on at a most hurtful rate. If a person finds himself +possessed of some twenty or thirty rupees, he either puts it into jewels +for the female members of his family, or lends it at an exorbitant rate +of interest. It has sometimes seemed as if creditors and debtors +included the entire population. Debt, not by law but by custom, is +hereditary, and a man is expected to pay the debts of his grand-parents. +Marriage expenses are so heavy, that very often a debt settles down on a +man on his marriage day under which he lies till the day of his death. +Government has done much to induce leading men to bind themselves to a +moderate expenditure on the occasion of marriages, in the hope that the +example might prevent the unreasonable and pernicious profusion of the +marriage season. If the habits of the people were changed the pressure +of poverty would be greatly lightened.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">IMPROVEMENT.</div> + +<p>There is much room for improvement in the incidence of taxation. The +land-tax, we may say the land-rent, is the main source of revenue, but +it is alarming to think of dependence on the opium monopoly for the +millions it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> contributes. Intoxicating drugs are largely used in India, +and among them opium holds the favourite place. Permission to the people +to grow and manufacture opium for themselves would be as hurtful as +permission to distil whiskey and gin would be to our country. It is +devoutly to be wished the present system may come to an end, and that in +its place a fiscal system be adopted similar to that of England in +reference to alcoholic drinks. In reference to spirits, every effort +should be made to discourage their sale, however much the revenue may +suffer in consequence. The salt-tax has been so productive that it has +been kept up in a manner which has borne heavily on the people. It has +been reduced, and it is hoped that it will be reduced still further.</p> + +<p>Regarding some of the questions at present much discussed, I can only +say that every friend of India, I may say every friend of justice, must +desire that the people be largely entrusted with the management of their +own affairs, that local government be encouraged, and every facility +given to the admission of natives, so far as they are qualified, into +the rank of administrators. Much is being done in this direction, and +still more will be done in the future. The police has been improved, but +it stands much in need of further improvement.</p> + +<p>Happy changes were expected from the assumption by the Queen of the +direct government of India. Progress has been made since that time, but +I do not think it is in any large measure owing to the change. For some +time previously increased attention was given to the sanitation of +towns, the improvement of roads, the laying out of market-places, the +planting of public gardens, the building of hospitals, dispensaries, and +town houses. Many wealthy natives, stirred up by magistrates, have +contri<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span>buted liberally to these improvements. Of late years these works +have been carried on with increasing zeal. In 1877 we saw some of the +principal towns in Northern India, and were struck with the contrast +they presented to their condition during the early years of our +residence. The filthiest place in Benares, which almost sickened me +every time I came near it, is now a beautiful garden, with a fine +town-house attached to it. The very bulls of Benares have been got rid +of. No longer are these brutes encountered in the streets.</p> + +<p>My readers will observe that I am far from agreeing with those who +describe our rule in India as an unmixed blessing to its inhabitants. It +is undeniable that our rule, because foreign, lies under great +disadvantages. I am still farther removed from agreement with the +extremely pessimist views which are sometimes advanced. The history of +India rebuts the assertion that we have acquired our sovereignty mainly +by fraud; and whatever may be said of other parts of India, no one +acquainted with Bengal and the North-Western Provinces can say that he +has there seen "the awful spectacle of a country inhabited only by +officials and peasants." When one thinks of the atrocious crimes, upheld +by religious sanctions, such as suttee and infanticide, which we have +put down in the face of determined opposition and even threats of +rebellion from the most honoured classes of the community, it is strange +to be told that "before we went the people were religious, chaste, +sober, compassionate towards the helpless, and patient under suffering," +and that we have corrupted them. We are told that "while we have +conferred considerable advantages, the balance is wofully against us." +As the result of long residence in India, and of reading about India, I +have come to the conclusion the balance is immensely in our favour.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">WHENCE IS IMPROVEMENT TO COME?</div> + +<p>All friends of India desire the improvement of its government, and the +increasing welfare of its people. Whence is the improvement to come? We +are told "nothing is to be hoped for from the Indian official class." +From whom is anything to be hoped for? From the Home Government? The +leaders of our political parties have passed measures beneficial to +India, but they have again and again taken advantage of its helplessness +to impose on it burdens to which it ought not to have been subjected. +Are we to look to the people at home for relief? How difficult is it to +secure attention to the subject, or to make them understand it when +their attention is gained! Are we to look to the non-official class in +India? I have nothing to say about the Ilbert Jurisdiction Bill, except +that while officials have been divided about it, many of the most +eminent being in its favour, non-officials almost to a man have been +bitterly opposed to it. Where I have spent the greater part of my life, +nothing has been more common than complaints by Europeans of injustice +done to them by partiality shown to natives at their expense. Are we to +look to the great landholders, bankers, merchants, shopkeepers, and +well-to-do classes in the cities of Bengal and the North-West, who have +benefited most by our rule? What may be expected from them is +illustrated by the fact that when the finances were thrown by the Mutiny +into confusion, many protested against an income tax, and some of high +position proposed that the finances should be rectified by an increase +of the salt-tax! In these influential classes there are high-minded and +benevolent individuals, but if we look at them in their collective +capacity we shall be disappointed. When we look at the long roll of +distinguished Indian officials, mark their achievements, hear their +pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>tests against what they deemed hurtful measures, and their advocacy +of beneficial changes, I think we find in them India's warmest friends, +who have done it the most signal service, and from whom more can be +expected than from any other class.</p> + +<p>There are ample materials for arriving at correct views regarding the +condition of India and the way in which it is governed. No Parliamentary +Committee, no Royal Commission, is required to elicit the facts. The +recently completed "Gazeteer" of India, in which Dr. Hunter and his +assistants had been engaged for years, furnishes full and reliable +information. The state of India is described in that imperial work with +a frankness and fulness which leave nothing to be desired. If one of our +great writers, who has secured the ears of our country, would set to the +drawing up of a volume of moderate size, founded on the "Gazeteer," +showing in a readable interesting form what has been done and what has +been left undone, what has been done well and what has been done ill, +and if the intelligent people of our country could be induced to give it +a careful perusal, untold good would be done both to England and to +India. Nothing would please Indian officials more than the eye of +England being thus fixed on their doings and misdoings, that the whole +truth might be known, and praise and censure be justly distributed, and +still more that the changes most beneficial to the people might be +effected.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE BEST GOVERNORS FOR INDIA.</div> + +<p>It is undeniable, as already said, that our rule because foreign lies +under great disadvantages. When the ancestors of the present Hindus +crossed the Indus and gradually made their way into the Continent before +them, they subdued and to a great degree enslaved its inhabitants. For +many a day their rule was foreign. This was also the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> case with the +successive Muhammadan conquerors. Rule founded on the suffrages of the +people remains to the present day unknown. There is, however, this +difference between the previous rulers of India and the English, that +they remained in the country, and gradually became amalgamated with its +inhabitants, while we show no disposition to make India our home. As we +do not, it would be far better if Hindustanees were the rulers of +Hindustan, Bengalees of Bengal, the members of other Indian nations of +their respective nations, provided they were qualified by character, +attainments, and the estimate entertained of them by the ruled, with a +strong central power to secure order throughout the Continent, while +leaving unfettered the general administration. Towards this ideal +strenuous efforts should be directed; but when we look at India as it is +now, with its divergent and antagonistic elements, with the weakness +induced by ages of superstition and despotism, what a long road has it +to travel before it can reach this goal! The question, then, is not what +is absolutely best, but what is practicable. Thus regarded, we are shut +up to the continuance of our rule. Every friend of India must desire +that it may be improved in every possible way, so that it may be in an +increasing degree a blessing to its teeming population.</p> + +<p>No one can predict the future of India. Within its borders there are +many who for various reasons would be delighted with our overthrow, +while I believe the vast majority in the parts of India I know best +would deprecate our departure as a dire calamity. It is a notable fact +that when our own native soldiers, sworn to uphold our rule, rose +fiercely against us, and rebellion in many districts followed in the +wake of mutiny, not a single native prince of the highest rank availed +himself of the opportunity to throw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> off the suzerainty of our Queen. +The army of the Prince of Gwalior rose against us, but by doing so they +rebelled against their own sovereign. When in 1877 we were in a native +state in Rajputana, a gentleman, who knew well the temper of the people, +said that if our control was withdrawn the Rajputs and Mahrattas would +be at each other's throats in a month. Our army has something better to +do than to uphold an alien government. It has to prevent the outbreak of +war which would desolate India from one end to the other. Happily its +prestige is sufficient to avert this terrible evil, but the prestige can +only continue while the army exists. By the suppression of the Mutiny +our prowess was shown in a manner which has made an indelible +impression. It is scarcely conceivable we can again have to encounter a +similar outbreak, though trouble may come from unanticipated quarters. +Our immensely improved means of communication contribute largely to our +security. Good government, the conferring of manifest benefits on the +people, will do more to establish our rule than all other things +combined. It is obvious to all who have any just conception of our +position in India, that never was a nation charged with greater +responsibilities, never was such a tremendous task committed to a +people, and never was there a more urgent call for the highest +qualities, if the duties devolving on us are to be worthily discharged. +Our Government cannot, and ought not, to undertake its evangelization, +but if the work of government be rightly done, it will indirectly, but +very effectually, help the Christian Church in giving the Gospel to the +millions of India, which, when accepted by them, will purify and elevate +their character, improve their condition, and fit them for true, +healthy, national life, while securing their spiritual and eternal +good.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="empty"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="STATISTICS" id="STATISTICS"></a>STATISTICS.</h2> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="India statistics"> +<tr> +<td colspan="3" style="text-align: center;">Area of India and British Burma, 1,495,574 sq. miles.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="3" style="text-align: center;">Population in 1881, 254,899,516.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc" colspan="2" style="padding-top: 0.75em;">Under British rule</td> +<td class="statnum" style="padding-top: 0.75em;">197,815,508</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc" colspan="2">Under Native rule</td> +<td class="statnum">57,084,008</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc" colspan="2" style="padding-top: 0.75em;">Hindus</td> +<td class="statnum" style="padding-top: 0.75em;">187,931,450</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc" colspan="2">Muhammadans</td> +<td class="statnum">50,127,585</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc" colspan="2">Buddhists—almost entirely in British Burma</td> +<td class="statnum">3,418,884</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc" colspan="2">Sikhs</td> +<td class="statnum">853,426</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc" colspan="2">Aborigines—mainly Demon worshippers</td> +<td class="statnum">6,426,511</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc" colspan="3" style="padding-top: 0.75em; padding-left: 1em;"><i>Christians</i>—</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Europeans<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></td> +<td class="statnum">142,000</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Eurasians</td> +<td class="statnum">62,000</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Protestant Native Christians<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></td> +<td class="statnum">492,882</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Roman Catholics</td> +<td class="statnum">865,643</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc">Syrians—about</td> +<td class="statnum">300,000</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="statnum">————</td> +<td class="statnum">1,862,525</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="statdesc" colspan="2">Other Creeds not specified</td> +<td class="statnum">4,479,135</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>The increase of the Native Christian community connected with Protestant +Missions from 1851 to 1861 was 53 per cent.; from 1861 to 1871, 61 per +cent.; and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span>from 1871 to 1881, 86 per cent. The number of communicants +rose from 14,000 in 1851 to 113,000 in 1881. Within the last decade the +number of native ordained agents has risen from 225 to 461; of native +lay preachers from 1,900 to 2,400; of native Christian teachers from +1,900 to 3,400; of native Christian female agents from 800 to 1,600. The +number of male pupils in Mission schools in 1851 was 50,000; in 1881, +129,000. The female pupils increased within that period from 11,000 to +56,000. The increase in Zenana pupils was from 1,900 in 1871 to 9,100 in +1881.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Including 65,000 British soldiers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Including 75,510 in British Burma, but not the 35,708 in +Ceylon.</p></div> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/foot-stat.png" width="300" height="207" alt="decorative footer" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center" style="font-size: 90%;">UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p><b>[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors from the +original edition have been corrected.</b></p> + +<p><b>In Chapter III, in the sentence beginning "Forty-four years have elapsed" +the word "sittting" has been changed to "sitting".</b></p> + +<p><b>In Chapter XI, in the sentence beginning "It was my privilege for years" +the word "intineracies" has been changed to "itineracies".</b></p> + +<p><b>In Chapter XVII, in the sentence beginning "So great was the danger" the +word "thouands" has been changed to "thousands".</b></p> + +<p><b>In Chapter XXII, in the sentence beginning "The Government has +now entered" the word "largerly" has been changed to "largely".</b></p> + +<p><b>In Chapter XXV, in the sentence beginning "I am surprised when Christians +speak" the word "achieve" has been inserted between "to" and "full"; in +the sentence beginning "I have been confining my remarks" the phrase +"who his still" has been changed to "who is still"; and in the sentence +beginning "Looking beyond our Benares missions" the word "beyound" has +been changed to "beyond".</b></p> + +<p><b>In Chapter XXVI, in the sentence beginning "It occurred to me" the word +"occured" has been changed to "occurred".</b></p> + +<p><b>In Chapter XXXI, in the sentence beginning "The great officers of state" +the phrase "must he highly paid" has been changed to "must be highly +paid".]</b></p> +</blockquote> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, +1839-1877, by James Kennedy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BENARES AND KUMAON *** + +***** This file should be named 24416-h.htm or 24416-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/4/1/24416/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877 + +Author: James Kennedy + +Release Date: January 24, 2008 [EBook #24416] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BENARES AND KUMAON *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: In the original source edition, most +odd-numbered page headers consisted of a short phrase describing +the material below. These page headers have been incorporated into +the text as sidenotes.] + + + + +[Illustration: UNION CHURCH, RANEE KHET.] + + + + +LIFE AND WORK IN BENARES AND KUMAON +1839-1877 + +BY JAMES KENNEDY, M.A. +Missionary of the London Missionary Society, Author of "Christianity +and the Religions of India," &c. + +WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE +BY SIR WILLIAM MUIR, K.C.S.I., LL.D., D.C.L. +Late Lieutenant-Governor North Western Provinces of India + +ILLUSTRATED + +CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED +NEW YORK +1885 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The history of this volume can be given in a few words. Months ago I +said to a beloved relative that during the greater part of my life I had +more to do than I could well accomplish, and that now, with health and +strength in a measure restored, I sometimes thought I had not enough to +do. He said: "Why not write the reminiscences of your Indian life?" The +counsel struck me as good, and I have acted on it. + +My theme has not the advantage of novelty: I cannot tell of a new +country explored, and a new people brought within the knowledge of the +world; but it has the advantage of greatness and variety. I am not aware +that any book on Indian Missions has achieved signal success. I do not +think, however, a single one has been written in vain. That must have +been a singularly poor book on so great a subject which has not had +something in it fitted to interest and inform readers. That must have +been a very solitary, lonely missionary, who has had no friends ready to +listen to what he has had to say. These books may have received little +general attention; but here and there, as the result of their perusal, +there has been a more intelligent apprehension of our work, deeper +sympathy with us, and heartier support rendered to us. I have ventured +to add a volume to those already published in the hope that it may do +some good before it passes into the oblivion which necessarily awaits +most of the productions of the press. + +A glance at the contents of this volume will show it takes up a number +of subjects, some of which are merely touched in most books on Missions, +and others not at all. Reminiscences, especially when they spread over +many years, and embrace great events, admit of very discursive +treatment. They leave the writer unfettered to take up any subject +within his wide scope which he may deem fitted to interest his readers. +I have allowed myself the freedom thus afforded me. My aim has been to +take my readers with me to our Indian home, to see us at our work, to +hear us conversing with the people, to accompany us on our journeys, to +surround them in thought with our surroundings, so that they may realize +our position, trials, difficulties, and joys. I have throughout +maintained the standpoint of one whose Indian life has been devoted to +Mission work. My two spheres of labour--Benares during the greater part +of my course, and Ranee Khet, in the Hill Province of Kumaon, in later +years--have come in for extended remark. + +My attention has not, however, been confined to Missions. I have +endeavoured to write as one interested in everything which ought to +interest a resident in the land. I have given some account of the +climate, aspect of the country, condition and character of the people, +changes which have taken place, modes of travelling, and the British +Government. I have again and again travelled in the North-West, and some +account of these journeys has been given. On one occasion I spent the +greater part of two months in Ceylon, and to that beautiful island a +chapter is devoted. + +I have recorded at some length my experiences of the Indian Mutiny of +1857. No one who was in that terrible storm can ever forget it; and the +European inhabitants of Benares at that time have special reason for +thankfulness for their marvellous escape. + +I have found it convenient to follow, as a rule, the chronological +order, but I have not kept closely to it. When recording the more remote +past, the nearer past has been continually coming into view, and the +contrast has found expression. + +Indian names are written as ordinary English readers would pronounce +them, in preference to using the diacritical marks with which I have +been long familiar in the writing of Hindustanee in the Roman character. +The term "Hindu" is so established that I have used it in preference to +"Hindoo." + +At the end of this book the reader will find statistics fraught with +interest to all who wish to understand the great Indian problem in its +many aspects. + +It is impossible to keep one's self out of view in a work like this; but +I hope the candid reader will give me credit for saying as little of +myself, family, and doings as is compatible with the conditions under +which I have written. + +I beg to dedicate this book to the friends of Christian Missions, in the +hope it may increase the interest of some in that great Continent, with +its teeming population, which has in God's providence come under the +rule of our land, and has special claims on our prayers, sympathy, and +efforts. I cannot doubt that my Indian friends, both those who have come +back to England and those who are still in India, will give a kindly +reception to the volume. They will, I believe, confirm the general +accuracy of my statements, and to a large extent acquiesce in my views. +With them so long as my heart beats it will go forth in heartiest wishes +and fervent prayer for the land with which our past has so inseparably +bound us. + + J. K. +ACTON, August, 1884. + + +[Illustration] + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +_From 1838 to 1839. Voyage to India and the City of Palaces._ + +Voyage. First Impressions of Calcutta. Changes since 1839. Messrs. +Piffard and Lacroix. Schools. Visit to Serampore. 1 + + +CHAPTER II. + +_Voyage to Benares--March, 1839._ + +Various Modes of Travelling. The Sunderbuns. Fellow-passengers. Storm. +Study of Hindustanee. Scenes on the River and its Banks. 9 + + +CHAPTER III. + +_Arrival at Benares._ + +The Rev. William Smith. Congregation of Beggars. The Rev. W. P. Lyon. +Native Service. Settling down. 15 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +_Missions in Benares from 1816 to 1839._ + +The Baptists first in the Field. Eurasian Agents. The Church Mission. +London Mission. Orphanage of the Church Mission. 20 + + +CHAPTER V. + +_1839 and 1840. First Year in Benares._ + +Views Enlarged and Modified. Study of Hindustanee. Undue Complacency. +Study of the Native Character. Evangelistic Work. 27 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +_First Year in Benares (continued)._ + +Class-feeling among Europeans. Eurasians. Climate in the North-West +Provinces. Variety of Scenery and Climate in India. Experience of +Climate during First Year. The Sufferings of Poor Natives in Winter. +Homesickness. 34 + + +CHAPTER VII. + +_The City of Benares._ + +Sherring's "Sacred City of the Hindus." Residents and Visitors. +Commerce. Antiquity. Gautam's Ministry in the Sixth Century B.C. The +Success of Buddhism. Its Overthrow. The Devotion of the City to Shiva. +Muhammadans. A Trip on the River. The Principal Temple. Heathen Temples +and Roman Worship. The Mosque of Aurungzeb. The Present City Modern. +Beggars. Macaulay's Description of Benares. 49 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +_Benares as a Mission Sphere._ + +Hostility to the Gospel. Apostolic Labour in Great Cities. Robert +Haldane's Project. Benares brought under British Rule in 1781. The Door +opened for the Gospel. Bishop Heber. Benares as a Centre of Mission +Work. 77 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +_Second Year in Benares._ + +Marriage. The Vicissitudes of Indian Life. Celibate Missionaries. +Different Departments of Work. 88 + + +CHAPTER X. + +_The Religious Gatherings of the Hindus._ + +Their Saturnalia. The Play of Ram. The Eclipse of the Moon. Mela at +Allahabad. The Peculiarities of a Hindu Gathering. Sanitary Precautions. +Cholera. Ascetics. Influence of Melas in strengthening Hinduism. 94 + + +CHAPTER XI. + +_The Object of Christian Missions._ + +Necessity for Different Modes of Action. _Preaching_. Questions, +Objections, and Replies. Polytheism and Pantheism. Muhammadan Hearers. + 108 + +CHAPTER XII. + +_Mission Schools._ + +Primary Schools. Secondary Schools. College Department. Indian +Universities. The Danger of Christian Instruction being thrust aside. +The Value of Higher Schools in a Missionary Aspect. Conversion. Public +Opinion. 124 + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +_Orphanages._ + +Pressing Need in 1837 and 1838. Sanguine Hopes. Difficulties. +Advantages. Native Agents obtained. The General Result. 135 + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +_Mission Tours._ + +Voyaging in the Ganges. Trust in Ganges Water. Serpents. Journey to Agra +at the end of 1842. Tents. The Appearance of the Country. Roads and +Groves. Walled Villages. Traffic. Immunity from Thieves. Kindness from +Missionaries. Agra. Evangelistic Work. Kunauj. An Interesting Inquirer. +New Mission Church in Benares. Tour to Kumaon in 1847. Journeying +Troubles. Return by Meerut and Delhi. 145 + + +CHAPTER XV. + +_From 1847 to 1857._ + +Work at Benares. Voyage to England in 1850. Return to India in 1853. +Calcutta to Benares. From 1854 to 1857. Increase of Native Christian +Congregation. Mission Tours. Visit to the Fort of Rohtas in February, +1857. Biblical Examination. Missionary Conference. 168 + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +_The Mutiny, 1857 and 1858._ + +Causes. Peculiarity of our Position. The Native Army. Grievances +alleged. Dissatisfaction outside the Army. Threatenings of the Storm. +The Cartridges. Outbreak and Progress of the Mutiny. Berhampore and +Barrackpore. Meerut. 174 + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +_The Mutiny (continued)._ + +The Christian Community at Benares. The Fanaticism of the City. +Precautions. The Fourth of June. Mutiny of the Native Regiments. Flight +to the Ganges. Escorted to the Mint. Retribution. The Panic of July 6. +At the Mint on Sunday Night, July 5. Marriage of a Native Couple. Alarm +and Panic. Strange Bed-fellows. After the Panic. Family left for +Calcutta and England. From July to December. Lucknow. Mud Fort. The +Steadfastness of Native Christians. India in 1857 and Egypt in 1882. +Visit to Allahabad. Desolation. The Kindness of English Officials. 185 + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +_Visit to Ceylon--1858 and 1859._ + +Galle, Colombo, and Kandy. The Cocoanut Palm. The Cinnamon Gardens. +Coffee Plantations. Perpetual Summer. Visit to Newera Ellia. The +Christian Zeal of the Dutch. Great Outward Success. Collapse. Missions. +Buddhist Temples. 205 + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +_From 1859 to 1868._ + +Work at Benares. Increased Attention to the European Population. Visit +to Cities in the North-West. Allahabad. Cawnpore. Lucknow. Incident on +the Ganges. Visit to Delhi in 1861 on our Way to Kumaon. Visit to +England, Return to India, and Appointment to Kumaon. 213 + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +_From 1868 to 1877. Kumaon._ + +_Its Scenery and Products._ A Sub-Himalayan Region. Scenery, Climate, +and Products. New Products. Tea. Inhabitants, Hindus and Doms. Gods and +Temples. Local Gods. Demons. The Character of the People. Want of +Cleanliness. The Plague. History. Native Dynasties. The British Rule. +Progress. Tea Planting. The Irrigation of the Bhabhur. Wild Beasts. +Treaty with the Ghoorkhas. Modes of Travelling. Journey to the Pindaree +Glacier. 232 + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +_Almora Mission._ + +Schools. Female Education. The Leper Asylum. English Preaching. 252 + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +_Ranee Khet._ + +Schools. Wooden House. Rain and Rats. Pioneer Work. The Erection of +Buildings. Work among the English. Among Natives. Educated Young Men. +Doms. Night School. Itineracy. A Hill Mela. Bageswar. 260 + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +_Habits and Condition of the Hill People._ + +Sanitary Regulations. _Yearly Visit to Nynee Tal._ The Missions of the +American Episcopal Methodist Church. Retirement from the Indian +Mission-field. Helpful Friends. Return to England. 279 + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +_The Missionary in India._ + +Extent and Variety of the Indian Field. The Greatness of the Missionary +Office. The Contrast between Ministerial and Missionary Work. The +Relations of Missionaries to each other, to their respective Societies, +and to Missionaries of other Societies. Their Relation to Europeans. 289 + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +_The Missionary in India (continued)._ + +The Mode of Living required by the Climate. Missionary Theology. The +Radical Opposition of the Gospel to Heathenism. The Example of our +Lord and His Apostles. Hindu and Buddhist Views of the Future. The +Doctrine by which Mission Success has been achieved. The Necessity of +Sin being considered in the adjustment of Doctrine. _In Memoriam._ 297 + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +_Native Christians._ + +Syrian Christians. The Descendants of Xavier's Converts. The Shanars in +Travancore and Tinnevelly. _The Hills of Central and Eastern India._ The +Kols and Santhals. _Bengal._ Krishnaghur and Backergunje. _The +Presidency Cities._ The Social and Educational Standing of the Converts. +_Northern India._ The Drummers in Native Regiments. The Waifs of +Society. Pride in the Christian Name. Orphans and their Descendants. +Converts of our Missions. Baptism sought from Wrong Motives. 307 + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +_Native Christians (continued)._ + +Unworthy Members. The Sacrifices made by Converts. Difficulty in Forming +a Right Estimate of a Community. The General Character of our Native +Christians. _The Ordeal of 1857._ The Christian Constancy of our People. +Their Loyalty. Their Bearing in Joy and Sorrow. "Everywhere spoken +against." Most Europeans have no Sympathy with us. Unfair to judge by +Individuals. _The Support of Native Christians._ Different Occupations. +Native Christian Contributions. _The Compound System._ 315 + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +_The People among whom we labour--Muhammadans_. + +_A Large Muhammadan Population._ Variety in Position, Culture, and +Character. The Quran and the Bible. Licentiousness of Muhammadans, +Hindus, and So-called Christians. The Estimable Character of some +Muhammadans. Muhammadan Opposition to the Gospel. Its Opposition to +Idolatry. Proselytes to Islam. The Relation of Muhammadans and Hindus to +each other. Hindu Home-life. Muhammadan Reformers. 329 + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +_Hindus._ + +_Pantheism, Polytheism, and Idolatry, and their Demoralizing Tendency._ +Counteracting Influences. _Contradictory Views of Hindu Character._ +Professor Max Muller. Sir Thomas Munro. Sir Charles Trevelyan. + +_The Caste System._ Its Ramifications and Effects. Its Baneful +Influence. Its Incidental Benefits. _The Patriarchal System._ In the +Presidency Cities Caste greatly weakened. Weakening Tendencies all over +India. + +_The Brahmists._ Brahmism and the Gospel. Brahmist Divisions. Successive +Hindu Reformers. + +_Girls' Schools and Female Missions._ Access to Hindu Families. Lady +Physicians. Great Importance of Zenana Missions. Behind the Curtain. The +Freedom of Women in Humble Life. The Influence of Women in India. + +_Mission Prospects._ Difficulty in gauging Success. Hurtful Influence of +English Infidel Literature. The Strength of Family and Social Ties. +Instance. The Vast Extent of the Field. _Pagani_, Villagers, synonymous +with Heathen. + +_Help given in India for the Solution of Great Questions._ 1. The +Immobility of the Eastern Mind. 2. The Genesis and Evolution of +Religion. 3. Comparative Religion. 4. The Migration of Nations. 338 + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +_Europeans in India._ + +_No Sphere in India for European Colonization._ The Climate. The Land +occupied. _India Presents a Wide Field for European Agency._ _The +Difference between Europeans and Natives._ India never called "Home" by +Europeans. Highly Educated Natives. Native Gentlemen. Natives in +Subordinate and Menial Positions. _The Position of Europeans changed._ +Advantages and Disadvantages. _Improved Condition of European Society._ +The Effect on Europeans of Home Literature. Increased Effort for the +Spiritual Good of Europeans and Eurasians. 357 + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +_The Government of India._ + +_Our Right to Govern India._ We went as Traders, and were led by +Circumstances to fight. The Conduct of the Native Powers. The Marquess +of Hastings. Not allowed to remain at Peace. Our Comparative +Faithfulness to Engagements. _The Condition in which we found India._ +The Muhammadan Empire. Civil Wars. Invasions. _The Dissolution of the +Empire._ Adventurers. No Elements of Stable Government. The Effect of +British Rule. + +_The Greatness of the Work entrusted to us._ Character of our +Administrators. Responsibility elicits Capacity. District Officers. +Strict Supervision exercised over them. The Evils springing from the +Institution of Courts. Runjeet Singh's Plan. The Evils Incident to +Civilization. + +_Regulation and Non-Regulation Provinces. The Taxation Heavy._ Regular +Payments. The Land-Tax is the Land-Rent. The Native Army. The European +Army. Civil Officials in the Mutiny. Inadvisability of Bengalees holding +the Highest Offices. + +_In India we have Different Nations._ Bengalees Strangers in the +North-West. The Preference given to English as Rulers. Trust in our +Justice. The Large Pay of High Officials cannot be justly or wisely +reduced. Opinion of Natives as Litigants. + +_The People Mainly Agricultural._ Poverty. Increase of Population. +Sturdy Beggars. Lending and Borrowing. Debt Hereditary. Marriage +Expenses. + +_Incidence of Taxation._ Municipal Institutions and Local Government. +Improvement of Cities during Late Years. + +_Our Government no Unmixed Blessing._ Unjust Charges and Incorrect +Statements. + +_From whom is Improvement to be hoped?_ From no Class so much as from +Indian Officials. The "Gazetteer" of India. Importance of Information +being made Accessible to the English People. + +_The best Conceivable Government for India._ The best Practicable +Government. + +_The Future of India._ Antagonistic Elements. The Order secured by the +Army. The Greatness of our Responsibility. Good Government Favourable to +Evangelization. 365 + + + +STATISTICS 391 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + PAGE +UNION CHURCH, RANEE KHET. Frontispiece. +BATHING GHAT, BENARES. 48 +A JEWELLER AT WORK. 53 +THE WELL AT CAWNPORE. 219 +RUINS OF THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW. 223 +THE LA MARTINIERE, LUCKNOW. 227 +TEMPLE IN THE HIMALAYAS. 237 +MISSION SCHOOL, ALMORA. 253 +LEPER ASYLUM, ALMORA. 257 +THE SNOWY RANGE FROM RANEE KHET. 263 +LANDSLIP AT NYNEE TAL. 281 + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +Neither the author nor his book stands in need of any introduction to +the public. But having been asked for such, I cheerfully respond. During +his long residence in the North-Western Provinces of India, where I +myself happened to reside, ample opportunities were afforded me of +knowing and observing the Rev. Jas. Kennedy and his work. And I am +therefore able, and glad, to say that no man was ever better placed than +he was for gaining a thorough acquaintance with Hindustan and the +various races inhabiting it, during the four decades of which he treats. +I have met with none whose calm and sagacious judgment might more surely +enable him to form correct conclusions, nor whose high and scrupulous +principle should impart to the reader greater confidence in the fair and +truthful statement of them. + +I regard this book as possessing a rare interest, not only for the +missionary student, but equally so for the general reader. The amount of +information it contains, descriptive, social, evangelistic, and even +political, is astonishing; and the discursive and, in part, +autobiographical form in which it is written, renders it so easy, that +he who runs may read. The contrast is drawn graphically, and with a +light and lively pen, between the state of things fifty years ago and +that which now prevails: the exchange of slow and cumbrous means of +conveyance for those which enable you in these days to perform the +journey of weeks in, you might say, as many hours; and the not less +marked advance in education and intelligence. The retrospect, material +as well as moral, social, and religious, is useful in many ways. + +But that which lends its chief value to this work is the faithful +picture of missionary labour--its trials and difficulties, its results, +rewards, and prospects. During the considerable period brought under +review, standing by, as I did, and looking carefully on, I can +unhesitatingly attest, as a whole, the correctness of my friend's +statements, and the reasonableness of the lessons he would draw +therefrom. This book should be read by every one who wishes to acquaint +himself with the attitude of Christian agencies towards the people of +India, and of these towards the Gospel. There is here a fertile field of +facts and materials for thought. The author resorts to no roseate +colouring, nor any kind of varnish. Nothing is unduly sanguine. All is +tempered by sound judgment and wise discretion. + +If I may add a word from my own experience, it is this--Let my +fellow-countrymen and countrywomen in India give their countenance to +the Missionaries labouring around them. They well deserve it, but too +often are allowed to stand alone. The loss is theirs who keep aloof, and +neglect the man and his work. While our people are running to and fro in +the busy whirl of Indian life--some hasting to be rich, others engrossed +in the labours of administration--higher things are too frequently +forgotten. The spiritual life is prone to fade and droop. Many men--and +women as well as men--who would at home be cultivating some corner of +the Master's vineyard, begin to forget that similar obligations follow +after them in their private walk and life abroad. Against these +deteriorating tendencies, to mingle with the missionary band affords a +wholesome antidote. For myself, I can never be thankful enough that in +my early Indian life I found valued friends in the missionary circle, +not only of the highest mental culture, but of a devoted Christian +heart; and was privileged with their intimacy to the end. Among them I +cannot refrain from naming such noble Missionaries as Perkins, Smith, +and Leupolt, French, Stuart, Welland, and Shackell, Owen, Humphrey, +Budden and Watt, Hoernle, and Pfander--that grand apologist to the +Mahometans--all of whose friendship I enjoyed, as well as that of the +Author himself. If some of these were men the like of whom we may not +soon look upon again--a galaxy of rare appearance--yet, as we may learn +from these pages, the field is in the present day stocked even more +plentifully than ever it was before. Opportunities of cultivating in +this field Christian friendship--and may I not add Christian work, and +that for Ladies also--are happily multiplying all around; and I can +promise an ample reward to such as make a faithful use of them. + +In conclusion, I will only say that I am much mistaken if this work +fails to take its place as a standard book of reference in every library +of missionary labour and Christian work abroad. + + W. MUIR. +16th September, 1884. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +VOYAGE TO INDIA. + + +In 1837 I was accepted by the London Missionary Society as one of its +agents. On September 15, 1838, I embarked at Portsmouth with thirty +other passengers on the _Duke of Buccleugh_, a vessel of 650 tons +burthen, and landed in Calcutta on January 19, 1839, _en route_ to +Benares, to which I had been appointed. The only land we sighted from +Portsmouth to Saugar Island was a rock in the Indian Ocean. The time we +thus spent at sea was four months and five days. Every now and then +speedier voyages were made, but a few years previously this voyage would +have been deemed rapid. The _Duke of Buccleugh_, on her next voyage to +India, went to pieces on a sandbank at the mouth of the Hoogly, but +happily the weather was moderate, and passengers and crew were saved. + +The route by the Cape of Good Hope has been abandoned for passengers for +many years, and now Bombay is reached by the Straits of Gibraltar and +the Suez Canal in a month, sometimes in less, while another week is +required for the voyage to Calcutta. Those who travel with the Indian +mails across the Continent of Europe can reach their port in less than +three weeks, and distant parts of India by rail in four weeks or less. + +All on board--officials returning to their posts, and persons going out +for the first time--were delighted to find the voyage coming to an end; +but new-comers like myself were under the spell of novelty, which gave +new interest to everything we saw. At Kedgeree, near the mouth of the +Hoogly, the Post Office boat came to our ship with welcome letters from +friends, who were looking out for our arrival. The level land on each +side of the river, with its rich tropical vegetation; the numerous +villages on the banks, with their beehive-like huts; the craft on the +river, large and small, many of them so heavily laden as to bring them +down almost to the water's edge; the little boats, with plantains and +other fruits, which tried to attach themselves to our ship in the hope +of getting purchasers; the strange appearance of the people, with their +only covering of cloth round the middle--all gave us a thrill of +excitement which can be known only in similar circumstances. Then, we +were about to set foot on the great land, of which we had read much, to +which we had looked with the deepest interest, and where we purposed to +spend our days in the service of Christ. Though so many years have since +elapsed, we can yet vividly remember the peculiar feeling of that time. + +The day before we landed, the Native agent of the mercantile house to +which our ship was consigned made his appearance with letters and fresh +supplies. To the surprise of us new-comers, roast beef was on our +dinner-table that day. We thought it strange that in the land where the +cow was worshipped, beef should be one of the first things brought to +us. + +Our missionary friends in Calcutta had heard of the arrival of our ship, +and arranged for our accommodation. Some of them came on board when we +anchored in the Hoogly, off Fort William, and gave us a hearty welcome. +We were right glad to find ourselves on land again. + +[Sidenote: THE CITY OF PALACES.] + +Calcutta is a hundred miles from the sea, but the country is so level +that the tide runs up in great strength many miles beyond, and the tidal +wave, which comes in at certain times, is very dangerous to small craft, +and requires care on the part of large ships. The great trade of the +city is shown by the vast number of ships at anchor in the river, many +of them stately vessels of large tonnage, of which in our day many are +steamers. + +On landing, a stranger gets the impression that Calcutta is rightly +called the city of palaces. On the great plain adjoining the river, at +some distance from each other, are two notable objects--Fort William and +Government House. Beyond the plain lies Chowringhee, a range of lofty +houses extending for more than a mile, with balconies and flat roofs, +giving one an impression of grandeur, which is scarcely sustained when +more nearly seen, as that which looked at a distance like marble is +found to be stucco and plaster. Behind Chowringhee are a number of wide +streets with similar, but generally smaller houses, each apart, with +offices and servants' houses in the enclosure. When entering the city +one sees that strange combination of meanness and dirt with grandeur +with which travellers in Eastern lands are so familiar. In the +neighbourhood of Government House there are a number of shops in the +European fashion, but a very large proportion of the business of +Calcutta, we suppose the most of it, is carried on in bazaars, in which +there are no showy shops, but where there is abundance of goods of every +description. When we went to India, and for many years afterwards, in +front of these shops were open sewers, over which customers had to pass +on slabs of stone. Amidst houses for Europeans, even in the most +aristocratic part of the city, were native houses of every description, +many of them miserable grass huts. + +Since the time of which I speak, some forty-five years ago, Calcutta has +been greatly improved. It has been drained, supplied with good water, +instead of being dependent on great open tanks, to which all had access, +which no arrangement could keep tolerably pure, and is lit with gas. +Open sewers are no longer to be seen, and from the best parts of the +city many native houses have disappeared. The changes effected must +conduce immensely to the health and comfort of the inhabitants. There is +no part of India, we suppose, free from the plague of the musquito, but +in all my Indian life I have not been so much tormented in any place by +it as I have been in Calcutta. It adds insult to injury. If it would +only bite, sharp though its bite be, one could put up with it; but +before it bites, and after, it goes on buzzing, as if mocking you, and +evades every attempt to catch it. The last time we were there musquitoes +were comparatively few, and they seemed to have lost much of their +former mischievous vigour. We suppose the improved sanitary arrangements +have not agreed with them. + +When in Calcutta everything reminded us that we had left our own country +behind, though not all our own people. We saw them on every side, but +they were a mere handful in the midst of a strange people in a strange +land, where man and nature presented entirely new aspects. The look of +the people, the exceedingly scanty dress of the labouring class, and the +long flowing robes of those in better circumstances, the marks on the +foreheads and arms of the Hindus, showing the gods whose worshippers +they were, their processions with noisy, unmusical music, the public +buildings of the people, the mosques of the Muhammadans, and the temples +of the Hindus, with a church here and there to show that Christianity +had also its shrines--all brought to our view characteristics of the +great land on which we had entered. Bombay, since the opening of the +Suez Canal, has made progress which somewhat affects the pre-eminence of +Calcutta among the cities of India, but it still remains the capital of +British India--I ought rather to say of India--and its position will +continue to make it, what it has been in the past, a vast emporium of +commerce, the abode of a great population, and a place of most stirring +activity. It continues to be the resort of persons of every civilized, +and almost every semi civilized, nation on the face of the earth. + +My stay in Calcutta of six weeks was longer than I had anticipated, but +my time was very pleasantly and profitably spent. A few days after +arrival a united prayer-meeting was held: missionaries of all societies +were present, the attendance was large, the spirit was earnest and +devout, and I then began to realize, what it was my happiness to realize +more fully afterwards, the uniting power of the missionary enterprise. I +had the happiness of attending services with Native Christians, and of +joining them in spirit, though not with understanding. I was especially +interested in the noble Missionary Institution of the Church of +Scotland, and in the smaller, but promising, school of our own Society. +I felt as if the sight of such a number of boys and young men, many of +them with most pleasing and intelligent countenances, all learning our +language, and, what is vastly better, all taught from the Word of God, +was enough in itself to repay one for the long voyage to India. I heard +them examined, and was surprised at the knowledge of English possessed +by some of them, at the extent of their Biblical knowledge, and at the +Christian tone with which they gave replies to questions. I asked a +tall, slightly built young man, with a most intelligent face, dressed in +the flowing white robe of his people, who had spoken with what struck me +as the accent of conviction, "Are you a Christian?" to which he replied, +"Yes, in heart; but I fear persecution." To this subject of schools I +shall have often occasion to revert in the course of my reminiscences. + +During my stay in Calcutta I had much pleasant intercourse with +missionaries of different Societies. I was the guest of Mr. Boaz, +afterwards Dr. Boaz, of Union Chapel, by whom I was treated with much +kindness. Mr. Gogerly had been my fellow-passenger to India. Mr. Lacroix +and Mr. Piffard were, at that time, the senior missionaries of our +Society in Calcutta. Both were admirable men. Mr. Piffard was a +gentleman of property, who devoted himself to missionary work, and +laboured for many years most faithfully, without requiring to take, and +without taking, any salary from the Society. A short time afterwards he +was suddenly carried off by cholera. Mr. Lacroix lived for many years. I +had the pleasure of meeting him in my visits to Calcutta, and in his +visits to the North-west, and also of frequent correspondence with him. +He was esteemed and loved as few have been. He was a man with a +commanding presence, tall and well-built, and had a geniality of manner +which won all hearts. He spoke and wrote English remarkably well, with a +slight foreign accent and sprightliness, an _elan_, as our French +friends call it, which told of his French birth and upbringing. He had a +thorough knowledge of the Bengalee language, and used it with a +commanding eloquence, to which his voice, look, and gesture greatly +contributed. His last illness, the result of his long residence in the +enervating climate of Bengal, was borne with Christian patience, and +drew forth the sympathy and kindly inquiry of all classes. At his +funeral such tokens of respect and love were rendered to him by every +class of the community, Native and European, as have been seldom +witnessed in Calcutta. + +[Sidenote: SERAMPORE.] + +Like all newly-arrived missionaries in Calcutta, I made a pilgrimage to +Serampore. The illustrious trio--Carey, Marshman, and Ward--whose names +are indissolubly connected with that place, as first their refuge and, +for many years afterwards, the scene of their plans and labours for the +evangelization of India, had passed away by that time (January, 1839), +but the Rev. John Mack, who had been long associated with them, and Mr. +John Marshman, Dr. Marshman's eldest son, remained. I was taken by Mr. +Mack to the college, the printing-office, the type manufactory, the +paper manufactory, the mission chapel, the station church, Dr. Carey's +garden, and the native Christian village, indeed, to every object of +interest about the place. I remember seeing an elderly man engaged in +type-making, and observing a little image in a niche above him. I was +told this man had been many years in this department of work, and had +remained so strict a Hindu that he would work only under the protection +of his god. The teaching of the missionaries had had no effect in +weaning him from his ancestral idolatry. Yet many were won to Christ by +the Scriptures and books, for the preparation of which the work of this +man, and of others of his class, was indispensable. + +When visiting Serampore, and hearing from Mr. Mack of the doings and +achievements of the great men whose residence at Serampore has given it +a sacredness it will ever retain in the annals of Indian Missions, I +felt as a young Greek would feel on being taken to Marathon and +Thermopylae. I felt I was entering on a war, where there had been heroes +before me, which demanded courage and endurance of a far higher order +than had ever been enlisted in the cause of patriotism. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +VOYAGE TO BENARES. + +_March, 1839._ + + +I left myself in the hands of friends in Calcutta as to the best mode of +proceeding to my destination. There were at that time three modes of +travelling to the North-Western Provinces. One was being carried in a +palanquin on men's shoulders, arrangements being made to have fresh +bearers every few miles. For a long journey of more than four hundred +miles to Benares this was at once a very tedious and fatiguing mode of +travelling. To one who knew not a word of the language of the people in +whose hands one was to be for days it was additionally trying. Yet not a +few persons newly arrived, some of them delicate ladies, did travel in +that mode to far more distant places than Benares, and very seldom any +mishap befell them. In this mode little more could be taken in the way +of luggage than necessary clothing. + +Another mode was by the river in a native boat, with a crew engaged to +take the party to their destination. Not a few travelled in this way, +even to Delhi. Weeks, often months, were spent on the voyage; great +inconveniences were endured, and not infrequently great perils +encountered from the sudden storms to which voyagers on the Ganges are +exposed, from the strong and eddying currents in some parts of the +river, and perhaps most of all from the treacherous character of the +boatmen. In 1841 and 1842 a severe storm fell on a large fleet of boats +taking a European regiment to the north-west. Many of the boats were +wrecked, and, if I remember rightly, about three hundred men lost their +lives. + +There was a third mode of proceeding to the north-west. A few years +previously a River Steam Company had been formed for the transmission of +passengers and goods. Passengers were accommodated in flats drawn by +steamers. As the Ganges enters Bengal it breaks into a number of +streams, by which it makes its way to the ocean. The Hoogly, on which +Calcutta stands, is one of these streams. Some of them are so shallow at +certain seasons that native boats of considerable size cannot find +sufficient water, and they are at that time impassable for steamers, +though so constructed as to have the least possible draught. The result +is that the steamers for the north-west (we believe none ply now) had to +make a great detour, to go down the Hoogly to Saugor Island, and then to +proceed by one of the channels there found to the main stream. This +greatly increased the distance to the north-west. Except in the rainy +season, steamers for Benares had to go about eight hundred miles. + +[Sidenote: THE SUNDERBUNS.] + +Of these three routes this one of the river steamers was in many +respects the most convenient and pleasant, especially for persons new in +the country, and my Calcutta friends kindly arranged that I should be +sent on in this way. I accordingly embarked for Benares on a flat, +tugged by a steamer, in the first week of March. After going down the +Hoogly to Saugor Island, we made our way into the district called the +Sunderbuns by one of the channels of the Ganges. We got into a labyrinth +of streams, every here and there opening up into a wide reach of water, +giving one the impression we were entering a lake; and shortly +afterwards we found ourselves in a channel so narrow that we almost +touched the banks on both sides, and which barely allowed a passage +where there was a sharp turn in the stream. We had native pilots who +knew the region thoroughly, and were in no danger of going astray. The +land down to the water's edge was covered with the densest tropical +vegetation, so that the banks often bounded our view, except when the +trees on it were lower than those beyond. In the waters and out, wild +beasts abound. Alligators were seen dropping from the banks into the +stream on hearing the approach of the steamer. We saw no tigers, but we +heard much about them as we were threading our way through that region. +The previous year, early one morning, the watch on the deck of the flat +was startled by a tiger leaping on board, and, evidently bewildered by +its new circumstances, leaping off on the other side. Messrs. Lacroix +and Gogerly, when on a native boat in the Sunderbuns, were witnesses of +a desperate fight between a tiger and an alligator. The story has been +often told. + +Less than two centuries ago there was a large population in what may be +called that amphibious region, the soil when cleared being very rich; +but owing to the incursions of Mug pirates from the coast of Burmah, and +the oppression of Muhammadan rulers of Bengal, the most of the +inhabitants perished, others fled, and so complete was the ruin that the +exact site of once prosperous cities is unknown. In a region like the +Sunderbuns, when man's restraining and improving hand is withdrawn every +trace of his presence disappears under the rank vegetation, which +speedily covers the sphere of his labours. The country, under British +protection, was in 1839 beginning to be reoccupied. Patches of ground +were reclaimed from the jungle, and since that time cultivation has been +greatly extended. We occasionally met native boats, and were thus +reminded we were not the only human begins in that district. Nearly a +week elapsed before we emerged from the Sunderbuns. + +Our passengers were a motley band. Between twenty and thirty were +Europeans, two or three were Eurasians, and there was a company of +Sepoys under a native officer in charge of treasure. Most of the Sepoys +were Hindus, and as they cannot cook on the water, which is forbidden by +caste-law, they were obliged to subsist as they best could on dry grain. +The Muhammadans had no convenience for cooking on the flat, but they +were allowed partial use of the steamer. All were delighted when they +got into the open country, and could get on shore at night to prepare +their meals. + +The steamer and flat were brought to anchor at all the important towns +on the river, for lading and unlading goods and for landing passengers, +of whom very few left us, as most were bound for Benares and Allahabad. +When evening came on we always anchored, wherever we might be. We saw a +little of Bhagulpore, Monghyr, Dinapore, Patna, Ghazeepore, and some +other places. At Monghyr I spent a very pleasant evening with Mr. Leslie +of the Baptist Mission, even then of considerable standing, and years +afterwards a highly esteemed veteran in the missionary host. + +[Sidenote: A STORM ON THE GANGES.] + +Our progress was slow. In some places the stream was too strong for our +steamer tugging the flat, and in other places the water was too shallow. +Sometimes we got for hours, in one case for a whole day, on sandbanks, +from which we got off with great difficulty. The most memorable incident +of the voyage was a storm, which came on us one evening as we were +nearing Dinapore. There was so little warning of its approach that we, +who knew not the climate, were quite unprepared for its coming. Before +breaking on us we were brought to a standstill, the flat was separated +from the steamer, and both flat and steamer were brought to anchor. The +sky suddenly became dark, we heard puffs of wind, and then the storm +burst on us in all its fury. The dust was so raised that we could see +only a few feet from the flat, and the flat so rolled that every now and +then a splash of water came in at the windows. A scene of great +confusion ensued. Some Indo-Portuguese servants were on their knees, +imploring Mary--"Mariam, Mariam!"--to save them. The Hindus were loud in +their appeals to "Ram, Ram!" while the Muhammadans shouted "Allah, +Allah!" A newly arrived English lady almost fainted from fright, and her +husband tried to calm and assure her. Every face indicated anxiety. In +less than an hour all was over, and we were thankful to find ourselves +once more in safety. + +Before leaving England I had possessed myself of a Hindustanee Grammar, +and in Calcutta of a Hindustanee Dictionary. On the voyage to India I +did not make much of the grammar, but on the way to Benares I gave +myself resolutely to learning the language. I found a young native +officer on the flat who knew a little English, and who professed to be a +good Hindustanee scholar. I got the consent of the native officer in +command to his coming to my cabin when off duty, and I spent hours daily +with him, trying to get my tongue about the strange sounds, with which I +knew I must be familiar if I was to do the work for which I had come to +India. I received great help from this young Muhammadan, and felt as if +I was beginning to get my foot into the language before reaching my +destination. + +On the three Sabbaths I was on the river I had the pleasure of preaching +to the Europeans on board. + +A voyage on the Ganges does not enable one to see much of the country. +The banks are often very high; in many places there is a great extent of +sand; the country, with the exception of the district where the main +stream is entered, is very level, and the country is therefore very +imperfectly seen. The native craft, so unlike the vessels of our own +country, with their lofty prows and sterns, and great ragged square +sails, many laden with wood and grass, which made them like moving +stacks, were constant objects of interest. + +At length, after more than three weeks on board, we were delighted one +Sunday forenoon to see in the distance the domes and minarets of +Benares. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ARRIVAL AT BENARES. + + +On Sabbath, March 31, 1839, we came to anchor at the northern end of +Benares, at a place called Raj Ghat, the ferry connecting the city on +the left bank of the river with the Trunk road on the right, leading to +Behar and Bengal. Near this place the most of the native craft employed +in the city traffic is moored. Many of the vessels are of considerable +size. + +For hours Benares had been in sight, but owing to the strength of the +stream our progress had been slow. It was early afternoon by the time of +our arrival. In so public a place as Raj Ghat there are always a number +of people, but the early afternoon is a time when few bathe, and there +is a lull in the stir of the community. As the afternoon comes on, and +the evening advances, there is fresh activity. We therefore, on landing, +saw little of the scene with which we were afterwards to become +familiar. + +Word of the approach of our steamer and flat had reached Secrole, the +European suburb of Benares, three miles inland, and no sooner had we +come to anchor than the agent of the Steam Company and the friends of +expected passengers came on board. Among these was the Rev. William +Smith of the Baptist Mission, whose house was on the high bank +immediately above Raj Ghat, and who had been requested by my brethren of +the London Missionary Society to be on the look-out for me. This good +man gave me a kindly welcome, and took me with him to his house, built +very much in the native fashion, with flat roof, with small, low rooms +entering from one into another, and a verandah extending along its +front, from which a commanding view was obtained of the river and craft +below, the country on the other side of the river, and a part of the +front of the city. Immediately behind the house was the chapel, in which +daily worship was conducted. + +[Sidenote: PREACHING TO BEGGARS.] + +The first thing I saw on getting to Mr. Smith's house was the chapel +crowded with very poor-looking people, of whom a number were blind and +lame. I was told these were beggars, who came every Lord's-day to +receive a dole, either pice or dry grain, from the missionary and his +wife, and who listened very patiently to an address before the dole was +given. This service was kept up for many years, and there was no falling +off in the attendance. Those who have read the life of Henry Martyn, and +others of the early missionary period in India, know that they +ministered to this class. Here were persons whose destitution appealed +directly to the Christian heart, and who were content to be present when +the gospel message was delivered, while little access to others could be +obtained. How far these poor people heard it would be difficult to say. +I am afraid few heard with any desire to understand and consider what +was said, but there is every reason to believe some did obtain lasting +spiritual good. We have heard of instances of genuine conversion, though +it must be admitted these were rare; and it must be also acknowledged +there were instances of pretended conversion, when the life soon proved +that the motive for seeking baptism was entirely sordid. Still the work +in itself was worthy of the followers of Christ, and could not fail to +make a favourable impression, not only on the persons helped, but on the +community around. Almsgiving stands high among virtues in the estimation +of both Hindus and Muhammadans; it is considered sufficient to atone for +many sins, and it is practised so indiscriminately as to pauperize many +who could provide for themselves. It is unfit that Christianity should +seem less careful of those who are really poor and helpless than +Hinduism and Muhammadanism are. Work such as I saw in Mr. Smith's chapel +is carried on in some places down to the present time. + +A short time after our arrival at Raj Ghat my dear friend the Rev. W. P. +Lyon appeared, and took me in his conveyance by a road skirting the city +to the Mission House in Secrole, which he then occupied. From Mr. and +Mrs. Lyon, both of whom I had known intimately for years in our own +land, I received a hearty welcome. + +At the corner of the mission compound, facing the public road, was the +humble chapel, built of sun-dried bricks, in which service was conducted +in the native language. I arrived half an hour before the time for the +afternoon service. Before its commencement I had the pleasure of meeting +Messrs. Buyers and Shurman, with whom I was to be for years associated +in mission work. With them I went to the service, which was conducted by +Mr. Shurman. There were at that time only two or three native Christians +connected with the mission, and these, with their families, the +missionaries and their wives, and a few orphan children, constituted the +congregation. I had just enough of the language to catch an expression +here and there, and from my ignorance of what was said my mind was left +at greater freedom for realizing my new and strange position. + +I had just had a glance of the sacred city of the Hindus. I had seen at +a short distance the domes of some of the principal temples, and the +minarets of some of the principal mosques, especially those of the +mosque built by Aurungzeb, soaring far above every other object in the +city. I had dimly seen the bathing-places of the people stretching away +for miles, and the houses on the high bank of the river. As I landed I +had seen a few bathing, and a number moving about. + +And now, in this poor chapel, with its low roof and earthen floor, I +found a few assembled for the worship of the living God through the Lord +Jesus Christ. I realized, as I had not done before, that I had left my +native land behind, and had come among a people the vast majority of +whom were wholly given to idolatry, and the rest followers of Muhammad, +the bitter enemies of my Lord and Saviour. The greatness and difficulty +of the missionary enterprise presented themselves to me with a painful +vividness, and but for the conviction that the work was of God, and that +my long-cherished desire to enter on it and the gratification of my +desire in my appointment to Benares had come from Him, I should have +been ready to retrace my steps. Yet here I was, worshipping with a few +persons who had been idolaters, and one of whom at least had made great +sacrifices when he had avowed his faith in Jesus. Why should we despise +the day of small things? Forty-four years have elapsed since that, to +me, memorable 31st of March, 1839, and I can now realize myself sitting +with Messrs. Buyers and Lyon in front of that humble pulpit, while Mr. +Shurman preached, and remember, as if it were yesterday, the strange +feelings that thrilled me that afternoon. + +[Sidenote: RESIDENCE IN BENARES.] + +I had to make no arrangement for my accommodation on reaching Benares. +Previous to my arrival it had been arranged that I was to take up my +abode with my dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. Lyon. I was at once at home +with them, for Mr. Lyon had been my fellow-student at Glasgow, and Mrs. +Lyon was the member of a family with whom I had been intimately +acquainted while studying at Edinburgh. Within a few days of my arrival +I was introduced to the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, +and to a few European residents who took an interest in missionary +work. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN BENARES. + +FROM 1816 TO 1839. + + +It may be well to give, before proceeding further, a brief account of +what had been done for the evangelization of Benares up to that time. + +Our Baptist brethren were first in the field. All who have read the +biography of the illustrious trio of Serampore are aware that they +formed, and with ardent zeal and untiring energy prosecuted, great +schemes for the evangelization of the millions to whose spiritual good +they had consecrated their lives. The translation of the Scriptures into +the languages of India was their special service, but it was far from +standing alone. They were fully alive to the importance of preparing and +sending out men of God to go among the people, and make known to them +Jesus as the Saviour of the world. They gladly availed themselves of +Europeans, Eurasians, and natives, who seemed qualified for the work by +Christian character, zeal for the conversion of the people, and aptness +to teach, though, with few exceptions, destitute of any considerable +measure of mental culture. Some of these agents had force of character +and native talent, and much good and useful work was accomplished by +them. One of their number was Mr. Bowley, who afterwards joined the +Church Mission, and was for many years located at Chunar. He translated +the entire Scriptures into Hindee, and did beside much excellent +literary work in the translation and composition of books and tracts. As +he had no knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, his translation of the Bible +has marked defects, though from his knowledge of Hindee and his good +judgment it has also marked excellences. His translation of the New +Testament is now largely superseded, but his translation of the Old +Testament is the only one yet possessed. The style of his smaller works +in Hindustanee, or Urdu, as it is commonly called, is remarkably +idiomatic and pleasing. + +[Sidenote: BAPTIST MISSION IN BENARES.] + +Missionary work was commenced in Benares by Mr. William Smith, who was +sent to it by the Serampore missionaries in 1816. I have already +mentioned him as having welcomed me on my arrival. He secured a house +for himself at Raj Ghat, the northern boundary of the city, with a +crowded population around him, and there till his death he lived with +his family, during all the period diligently prosecuting his missionary +work. He had been a drummer in the native army, spoke the Hindustanee as +his mother tongue, and belonged to the large class who, having European +blood in their veins, are professing Christians, but as to their +ordinary habits of life are more native than European. Mr. Smith was a +man of limited education and of little talent, but of sterling +excellence, and secured the respect and love of all classes of the +native community by his kindly and consistent life. For years before his +death there was in his house the strange spectacle of five generations, +and his great-great-grandmother was heard by a friend of mine murmuring, +"It looks as if God had forgotten to take me away." Mrs. Smith, who +was, I believe, a pure native, was a woman of remarkable energy, and +exercised a powerful influence for good on all connected with her. Owing +to the unhappy controversy between the Serampore missionaries and the +Baptist Missionary Society, and the separation in which it ended, Mr. +Smith was left for a time without any salary; but by the establishment +of a Eurasian boarding-school his wants were fully supplied. On to old +age he moved about among the people, conversing with them, going to +their great religious gatherings and distributing tracts and portions of +the Scriptures in a very quiet, unostentatious manner, and succeeded, by +God's blessing, in bringing a few into the fold of Christ. + +[Sidenote: CHURCH MISSION IN BENARES.] + +Among the pioneers of modern missionary work in India the late Bishop +Corrie, of Madras, has a high and honoured name. He was one of the small +band of Government chaplains who gave themselves heart and soul to the +work of diffusing the gospel among the native population. Henry Martyn +is the best known of this band, and with him men like Brown, Thomason, +and Corrie deserve to be held in everlasting remembrance. Mr. Corrie +was, in 1817, the chaplain of the European community in Benares. +Previous to that time a rich native, Rajah Jay Narayan, had established +and endowed a school in the part of the city inhabited chiefly by +Bengalees. This Rajah formed so high an opinion of Mr. Corrie, and of +his ability to carry on the school efficiently, that he asked him to +undertake its management. Mr. Corrie accepted the offer in the name of +the Church Missionary Society, whose sanction to the measure he had +obtained, and to it the school was made over by formal deed of gift in +1818. Under the name of Jay Narayan's School, and afterwards of Jay +Narayan's College, it has continued down to our day; and it has done +much for the education, on Christian principles, of successive +generations of Benares youth. A Mr. Adlington was the first head-master, +and a short time afterwards a missionary was sent. He was succeeded by +others, but owing to their failure of health little was done on to the +fourth decade of the century, except the securing of suitable ground and +the erection of mission-houses at Segra, in the immediate suburbs of the +city on its southwestern side. This place had formerly been noted for +the thieves and thugs that infested it. In 1839 the two missionaries at +Segra were the Rev. William Smith and the Rev. C. B. Leupolt. Mr. Smith +reached India in 1830, and after spending fifteen months in Goruckpore, +on the borders of Nepal, was transferred to Benares in 1832. He was +joined by Messrs. Knorpp and Leupolt in 1833. The two Church +missionaries in Benares in 1839, Messrs. Smith and Leupolt, laboured for +many years afterwards with singular devotedness for the spiritual good +of the people. As it is invidious to make comparisons, I will not say +that they were foremost in the first rank; but all who knew them will +bear me out in saying they attained a high place in the first rank of +the missionary band. + +[Sidenote: LONDON MISSION IN BENARES.] + +The Rev. Matthew Thomson Adam was appointed by the London Missionary +Society to Benares in October 1819, and reached his destination in +August, 1820. He remained at his post till 1830, when he returned to +England, and resigned his connection with the Society. He afterwards +went to the United States, where he undertook a pastorate. Mr. Adam was +a scholarly and diligent man. He prepared and published a Hindee +Grammar, an English and Hindee Dictionary, and some tracts. He secured +a site for a mission-house on the border of cantonment towards the city, +and erected on it a commodious and substantial structure; and since his +day a church, a school-house for girls, and houses for native +Christians, have been erected in the mission compound. He also secured a +very central site in cantonments for a place of worship for holding +English services, and by the liberal help of the English military and +civil residents erected on it a building which was called Union Chapel. +His services among our countrymen seem to have been greatly valued, but +owing to a change in the _personnel_ of the station, a change which is +going on incessantly in India, the congregation fell off, Union Chapel +was sold, and the money realized by the sale was spent on the erection +of a chapel in the city, on a site obtained with great difficulty. Mr. +Adam left Benares before this building, erected with a view to native +services, could be turned to account. In a brief record of his labours +drawn up by himself, he says that he deemed it a high honour to live +near such a city, and to testify to his Master by pressing His claims on +individuals with whom he had an opportunity of conversing; but he did +not think it advisable to attempt the preaching of the gospel in places +of public resort. He was at times encouraged by the prospect of persons +becoming the followers of Christ, but in every case his hopes were +disappointed. No native was baptized by him. + +The London Mission of Benares was reinforced in 1826 by the arrival of +the Rev. James Robertson. He was a man of linguistic talent, and was +full of plans for setting up the standard of the Cross and assailing the +idolatry around him. He opened a number of schools in various parts of +the city, and organized a system of Bible-reading in the streets. Seven +men, chosen from among Hindus, whose sole qualification was ability to +read, were appointed to read daily in different parts of the city our +Scriptures without note or comment. We have no doubt they took care to +tell their hearers that they did their work to please the sahib, and get +his pay, but had no intention of accepting the new teaching, and had no +wish that others should do so. No other missionary has followed this +plan. Mr. Robertson left behind him in MS. translations into Urdu of a +part of the Old Testament, which were carefully examined and partly used +by Mr. Shurman; but the style was too difficult for any except those who +were well acquainted with the Persian language. + +The Rev. William Buyers joined the Mission at the beginning of 1832, and +Mr. Robertson was carried off by cholera fifteen months afterwards, in +his thirty-fourth year. Mr. Buyers was thus left alone, but early in +1834 he was joined by the Rev. J. A. Shurman and the Rev. Robert C. +Mather. In 1838 the Rev. W. P. Lyon arrived at Benares, and that year +Mr. Mather went to the great commercial Mirzapore, where he established, +and for many years afterwards conducted with great efficiency, a very +important mission. When I reached Benares I was thus the fourth on its +staff, and the seventh from its commencement. + +Much good work had been done by the brethren with whom I was to be +associated. They had established schools for primary education, but +owing to the want of funds all but one had been given up by 1839. They +had taken part in preparing tracts and revising the translation of the +New Testament in Urdu. A place of worship had been erected, and a few +orphans had been gathered. Evangelistic work was being actively +prosecuted in the city. + +A short time previous to 1839 the Church Mission had undertaken a very +benevolent and a very difficult work. In 1837 the North-Western +Provinces were desolated by famine. Many thousands perished, everywhere +miserable boys and girls were to be seen who had become orphans, or who +had been abandoned by their parents. At this terrible crisis missions +came forward with the offer of adopting these forsaken children. Fifty +were made over to the Church Mission at Benares, and afterwards many +more were added to this number. Suitable buildings were speedily erected +for their accommodation, and arrangements were made for their education +and support. These children were so emaciated that many died within a +few days of their being brought to the mission. At the close of 1838 an +excellent missionary and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Knorpp, were carried off +by a low fever which attacked them while attending to their charge. By +the hot weather of 1839 the health of the orphans had greatly improved, +and everything was being done which could be done for their temporal and +spiritual welfare. + +By the time of my arrival, the missionaries of the Church and London +Missionary Societies--Mr. Lyon excepted, who had arrived only the +preceding year--had fully entered on their work. They had been from +seven to five years at their posts, had acquired a good knowledge of the +native languages, had all the vigour and hopefulness of early middle +life, and were giving themselves zealously to the prosecution of the +great work for which they had gone to India. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MY FIRST YEAR IN BENARES. + + +A stranger passing hurriedly through a country may carry away +impressions about its climate, products, and people, which residence for +a considerable time would not merely modify but reverse. There are some +things of which he can speak with some confidence. The great natural +features of a country, its mountains and plains and rivers, do not +undergo any marked change, and these may be truly described by the +casual visitor. The general aspect of a people, their houses, dress, and +look, remain much the same, and of these an accurate observer may give a +trustworthy account; but if from what he himself has seen and heard he +attempts to give a general estimate of the character of the people and +of the state of the country, he is almost sure to fall into great +mistakes. + +Within the last few years India has become a favourite field for +travellers who can without inconvenience spend a few hundred pounds, and +be absent from home three or four months. Swift steamers take them +quickly to and from Bombay, and railways carry them in a short time from +one end of India to the other. They travel at the season when travelling +is delightful, and thus see the different countries of that great region +in their most attractive form. If they infer what they do not see from +what they see, they are sure to make statements utterly discordant with +fact. Mr. Wilson, who was sent out to India to put its finances into +order after the Mutiny, travelled through the North-Western Provinces in +the cold weather, when the country was covered with abundant crops, and +was delighted with all he saw. He declared it was the finest country he +had ever seen. He returned to Calcutta as the hot weather was setting +in, and died in the succeeding rainy season. It is said that some time +before his death he pronounced the climate to be the most detestable on +the face of the globe. Dr. Norman McLeod was our guest for a very short +time in Benares, as he was prosecuting his Indian journey. When driving +about on a fine balmy morning, he said, in his genial fashion, "You +missionaries often complain of your climate; I only wish we in Scotland +had a climate like this." To which I replied, "Ah, doctor, kindly stop +with us through our coming seasons; prolong your stay till next +November, and then you will be able to speak with authority." The worthy +doctor did not take my counsel. His death some time afterwards was +attributed to his Indian tour; but if it left in him the seed of +disease, the blame rests not on the climate, but on the excessive +fatigue caused by overmuch travelling and work. + +The case of a person who has lived through a whole year in a country, +and has during that period moved among the people, is very different +from that of the passing stranger. He knows the climate as a traveller +for a few weeks or even months cannot. The seasons during that year may +have been more or less abnormal, and yet the resident cannot fail to +have obtained that knowledge which enables him to form a notion of what +he has in the main to expect every year. He gets a glimpse into the +character and peculiarities of the different classes of the population, +both native and foreign. He may know little of the language of the +country; but if he has an observing mind, and moves freely about, he is +constantly receiving information about the people in a degree which he +himself does not always realize. If his residence be prolonged for many +years, as he looks back to his first year, and remembers its experience, +he finds that his views have been greatly enlarged, on many points +greatly modified; he is sure that his knowledge is much more accurate +and mature; but there is scarcely any subject on which he finds his +views entirely reversed. + +[Sidenote: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST YEAR.] + +This, at least, has been my experience. I have a vivid remembrance of my +first year in Benares--a much more vivid remembrance than I have of +subsequent years, and it would be strange if I did not find that my +views on many Indian subjects have been greatly modified, and on all +much enlarged; but I do not discover that on any subject there has been +a complete reversal. + +I have already mentioned that on my voyage from Calcutta to Benares I +spent much of my time in the study of the Hindustanee language, commonly +called Urdu. Within a week of my arrival I gave myself to it with all +the application of which I was capable. I had as my teacher a munshee, +who had been long employed by the missionaries of our Society, but who +could not speak a sentence in English, though he knew the Roman +character well. I was told that his ignorance of English would prove an +advantage, as I should on this account be obliged to speak to him, in +however broken and limping a fashion, in the language which it was +indispensable for me to acquire. We had before us an English and +Hindustanee Dictionary, a Hindustanee and English Dictionary, a +Hindustanee Grammar, and a book of easy sentences in both languages in +the Roman character. At first my teacher and myself had to put things +into many forms before reaching mutual intelligibility; but gradually +our work became easier, and when two or three months had passed we +fairly understood each other--I trying to express myself in Hindustanee, +and he performing the much-needed work of correcting my words and idiom. +I commenced with a portion of the New Testament, and soon got into some +of the classics of the language. The use of the Roman character in the +writing of Indian languages had been strongly advocated by Sir Charles +Trevelyan, by Dr. Duff, and other men of mark, and was accepted by the +majority of the missionaries. Portions of the Scriptures and other books +were printed in it. Like all young missionaries, I learned the Persian +and Nagree characters, in which the languages of Northern India had +always previously been written; but the Roman character was very +convenient, and I regretted afterwards I used it so much. + +This study of the language was felt to be a foremost duty, and was +prosecuted from day to day. This went on for months with little +interruption, except what was caused by the serious and continued +illness of Mrs. Lyon, which, to the great regret of all their friends, +led before the end of the year to the departure of Mr. and Mrs. L. for +Europe. + +In the seventh or eighth month of my residence at Benares I wrote a +short sermon in Hindustanee on John i. 29, and read it at the native +service. Within a year I took my part regularly at that service, first +using my manuscript, and then extemporizing as I best could. + +I must confess I regarded my new linguistic acquisition with much more +complacency at the end of my first year than at the end of my fifth or +sixth. On my way to Benares, as I have already mentioned, I spent a few +hours very pleasantly with Mr. Leslie, the Baptist missionary at +Monghyr. I mentioned to him that my friend Mr. Lyon had learned the +language, and was preaching in it. Looking me full in the face, he said, +to my surprise and chagrin, "Depend on it, Mr. Lyon may use the words of +the language, but no one can be said to acquire it in a year." I thought +this a hard saying, but years afterwards I was forced to feel its truth. +I had in a year got such a glimpse into the Hindustanee and Hindee +languages as to have some conceptions of their nature, to know their +tone, and to bring them into partial use; but I had a very limited +notion of their nice distinctions, their peculiar idioms, and their vast +vocabulary. I cannot say that the opinion on this subject I formed in my +first year was entirely reversed by my after experience, but it was +largely modified. + +[Sidenote: STUDY OF NATIVE LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER.] + +While studying the native language, I felt myself studying the native +character as well. My teacher was very patient, correcting my +mistakes--mistakes, I must confess, often repeated--without allowing +even the slightest surprise to appear in his countenance. He did not +smile at blunders at which, when I knew better, I myself heartily +laughed. When I showed the slightest impatience at being checked he at +once allowed me to go on as I liked, though, as I afterwards knew, I +needed to be corrected. He was loud in praise of my progress, declaring +that I would soon surpass all my predecessors. In my intercourse with +him I had illustrations of the patience, the courtesy, and also the +flattering, cozening character of the people, when dealing with those +by whom they think they can be benefited. The impressions of native +character thus obtained were amply affirmed by the experience of after +years. + +This munshee was well acquainted with our Scriptures. He belonged to the +Writer caste, and had from his early years been in contact with +Europeans. He was ready for conversation on religious subjects, and had +much to say in favour of the philosophical notions which underlie +Hinduism. Three or four years afterwards he seemed to awake all at once +to the claims of Christ as the Saviour of the world, and under this +impulse he openly appeared in a native newspaper as the assailant of +Hinduism and the advocate of Christianity, which led to the hope that he +was to avow himself, by baptism, a follower of the Lord. But he became +alarmed at what he had done; he could not bear the reproaches of his +friends, and he fell back into the ranks of his people. Though he had +ceased to be my teacher I had opportunities of seeing him, and I tried +to speak to his conscience, to his conviction of the Divine origin of +the gospel. The last time I spoke to him he said, with marked emphasis, +"There is no use in speaking to me. Let Hinduism be false or true, I am +determined to live and die in it as my fathers have done!" His case was +that of many with whom every Indian missionary is brought into contact. + +During this year I was introduced into the methods in which evangelistic +work was conducted. In addition to attending the services of the Lord's +Day, I went now and then with my brethren to the city. We had at that +time two little chapels in good positions, at the doors of which the +people were first addressed, and were then invited to enter that they +might hear the new teaching more fully expounded. There was, of course, +nothing of the staidness or quietness of a Christian congregation. The +speaker was often interrupted; questions, sometimes very irrelevant +questions, were asked; and the people came and went, so that those who +were present at the commencement were seldom present at the close. +During the year I saw the principal places in Benares--its main streets +and markets, its temples and mosques; and thus formed some idea of the +great city, where for many years afterwards it was my privilege to +labour in the gospel of Christ. + +[Sidenote: THE LANGUAGES OF NORTHERN INDIA.] + +The work of the missionary in Northern India would be greatly simplified +if he had to learn only one language. He has to learn the two I have +named, the Hindustanee and the Hindee. The Hindustanee arose from +intercourse between the Muhammadan invaders and the people they had +subdued. It is written in the Persian or Arabic character, and draws its +vocabulary mainly from the Persian and Arabic languages. It is the +language of law, of commerce, and of ordinary life to many millions. The +Hindee in its various dialects, some of which almost rise to the dignity +of languages, is the vernacular of the vast Hindu population of +North-Western India. It rests mainly on the Sanscrit, and is written in +the Sanscrit or Deonagree character. In some of the most popular books +the languages are so strangely combined that it is impossible to give +any definite name to the language used. An acquaintance with these +languages is indispensable to missionary efficiency in Northern India, +but it is very difficult to attain marked excellence in both. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE FIRST YEAR--SOCIETY AND CLIMATE. + + +A very brief residence at Benares led me to see the great difference +between the society to which I had come and that which I had left. The +European community formed a mere handful of the population, and was +almost exclusively formed of officials, with all the peculiarities of a +class privileged by office. We had some two hundred European +artillerymen with their officers, of a regiment paid and controlled by +the East India Company; three native regiments officered by Europeans; +three or four members of the Civil Service, charged with the +administration of the city and district; one English merchant, and two +or three English shopkeepers. I now learned for the first time the +difference in rank between Queen's and Company's military officers. The +Queen's officer regarded himself as of a higher grade. Members of the +Civil Service and Company's officers met on terms of social equality; +but the Civilians looked on themselves as of a higher order, as the +aristocracy of the land, and the assumed superiority put a strain to +some degree on social intercourse. The persons sent out from this +country for the administration of India are called Covenanted Civilians, +as they bear a commission from the Queen; while those engaged for +administrative work by the Indian Government are called Uncovenanted. +The former class continue to have a great official advantage over the +latter; but forty years ago there was a great social inequality which +has in a measure ceased, where these uncovenanted servants are English +gentlemen, as they often are. English merchants were regarded as in +society; but shopkeepers, however large their establishment, were deemed +entirely outside the pale, except for strictly business purposes. This +was partly accounted for by European shopkeepers having been previously +stewards of ships, or soldiers who had received their discharge. +Missionaries were looked on as sufficiently in society to be admissible +everywhere, and were treated courteously by their European brethren when +they met, though only a few desired their intercourse. + +[Sidenote: EUROPEANS AND NATIVES.] + +As to the people of the land, both Hindu and Muhammadan, I discerned at +once, what I might have fully anticipated, that between them and us +there was a national, social, and religious gulf. Some were in our +houses as servants. We had to do with them in various ways; we could not +go out without seeing them on every side. There was on the part of many +a courteous bearing towards each other; there was in many cases a kindly +feeling; but the barriers which separated us could not be for any length +of time forgotten. I speedily saw that some Europeans looked with +contempt on the natives, as essentially of a lower order in creation; +but the better class of Europeans, the higher in position and education, +as a rule, regarded them with respect, and treated them not only with +justice but with kindness. Native servants received as kind treatment as +servants do in well-conducted families in our own country, and in many +cases repaid this kindness by devoted attachment and the efficient +discharge of the work entrusted to them. When native gentlemen came in +contact with Europeans of the higher class, all the honour was accorded +to them to which by their position they were entitled. Even in this case +there were national and religious differences, which effectually +prevented the intimacy which is often maintained where such differences +do not exist. + +[Sidenote: EURASIANS.] + +Within the first year I got an insight into a large and growing class, +who were connected with both Europeans and natives, and yet did not +belong to either. I refer to persons of mixed blood; some almost as +dark, in many cases altogether as dark, as ordinary natives--many of +these being descendants of Portuguese; others, again, so fair that their +Indian blood is scarcely observed; some in the lowest grade of society, +very poor and very ignorant; and others, with many intermediate links, +most respectable members of the community in character, knowledge, +position, and means. All these, whatever may be their rank, are +Christians by profession, and they dress so far as they can after the +European fashion; but the poorer class, in food and accommodation live +very much as natives do, and mainly speak the native language. The +people of mixed blood are called by different names--Eurasians, East +Indians, and not infrequently by a name to which they most rightly +object, Half-caste. + +I was surprised and sorry to observe the feeling with which many +Europeans regarded this class. They were looked down upon as of an +inferior grade, who, whatever might be their character or position, were +not entitled to rank with Europeans. In the dislike of natives shown by +some Europeans there was something to remind one of the American feeling +in regard to colour, though of a much milder type; but I was not +prepared for the degree in which the feeling prevailed in reference to +Eurasians, though I might have been had I remembered that the slightest +tinge of African blood, a tinge to many eyes not perceptible, had been +considered in America a fatal taint. I speedily observed the effect the +feeling had on Eurasians in producing an unpleasant sensitiveness, and +impairing the confidence and respect indispensable to social +intercourse. + +Since that time I have understood the causes of this feeling much better +than I could have then done. The most candid and thoughtful of the class +will allow that as a community they labour under great disadvantages. +Though they have native blood in their veins they are entirely separate +from natives in those things to which natives attach the highest value; +and though by the profession of Christianity, by the adoption of +European habits so far as circumstances allow, and by the use of the +English language, they draw to Europeans, yet they are forced to feel +they do not belong to them. They occupy an awkward middle position, and +the knowledge that they do leads to unpleasant grating. Then they have +not had the bracing which comes from residence in a Christian land. +Though proud of their Christian name and profession, they have been +injuriously affected by the moral atmosphere of their surroundings. The +lower their social position, the closer has been their connection with +the lower class of natives, and the more hurtful have been the +influences under which they have come. Eurasians are noted for their +excellent penmanship, and a great number from generation to generation +have found employment in Government offices, the greater number as mere +copyists, but a few as confidential clerks and accountants, whose +services have been highly appreciated by their official superiors. A +considerable number have risen to important offices in the +administration of the country. An increasing number are able to take +their place in every respect abreast of their European brethren. +Individuals have gone to England, and have succeeded in getting by +competition into the Covenanted Civil Service. The class has been +steadily growing for years in intelligence and character; and as the +members of their families are enjoying educational advantages to a +greater extent than at any previous period, there is every reason to +hope progress in the future will be still more rapid than in the past. +The distinction between them and persons of pure European blood will +thus become less and less a barrier to social intercourse; they will be +delivered from the unpleasantness the barrier has often caused, their +character will grow in strength, and they will become increasingly +fitted for exerting a happy influence on the native community. In the +case of individuals the distinction is now practically ignored. There +are no more honoured and honourable persons in India than some who +belong to this class. There have always been devoted Christians among +them, and of late years an increasing number have come under the power +of Divine grace. + +It has been often remarked that one of the most pleasing traits of +native society is reproduced among Eurasians--the tie of kinship +prompting those who are in better circumstances to help their needy +relatives, often to the giving of large pecuniary aid, not unfrequently +to the taking of them into their houses. In the humbler portions of the +community there is often seen a patriarchal household like that so often +seen in native society. + +[Sidenote: THE CLIMATE OF NORTHERN INDIA.] + +The new-comer's experience of climate prepares him for what he has to +expect during his future residence. We have three marked seasons in the +North-Western Provinces, the one melting gradually into the other--the +hot season beginning in March and ending in June, the rainy season +beginning with July and ending in October, and the cold weather +beginning with November and ending in February. The seasons may thus be +described in a general way, but in fact every year differs somewhat from +others, as they do in our own country. The hot weather is sensibly felt +before March begins, and the heat of March is far less than that of the +succeeding months. The first burst of the rains is often before the +middle of June, but after that burst, called the "little rainy season," +it is not uncommon to have a spell of very hot sunny weather. In some +years, indeed, there is so much weather of this kind during what is +called the rainy season, that the heat is most intense, and the crops +are burnt up. Towards the end of September there is commonly the last +great outpour of rain, and as October advances there is the cooling +freshness of the approaching cold weather, with enough of heat in the +day-time to tell us it has not quite let go its grasp. December and +January are our coldest months. In England, after an unpropitious +summer, the remark is often made, "We have had no summer!" and in the +same manner in India, when the temperature has been high in the cold +season, and we have not had the expected bracing, we say, "We have had +no winter!" Yet as in our own country, so in India; we have our marked +seasons, though we cannot be sure of the weather at any particular +period. + +As India is an immense region, a great continent, with every variety of +scenery, with plains extending hundreds of miles, and vast stretches of +forests, with table-lands and lofty mountains, with land of every +description from barren sand to the richest alluvial soil, the climate +and products of its different countries are so different, that the +statements made about one region, however correct, when applied to the +whole are utterly misleading. I have been describing the seasons of the +North-Western Provinces; and yet, as Benares is in the lower part of +these provinces, its climate is considerably different from that of the +country farther north and west. The farther north we travel the longer +and colder is the cold season, and as a rule the hotter and briefer is +the hot season. On one occasion the heat was so great in Benares in +March that we found the night punkah pleasant; but on reaching Delhi, +nearly six hundred miles distant, a few days afterwards, instead of +seeking a night punkah we were thankful to have blankets to keep +ourselves warm. + +[Sidenote: THE HOT SEASON.] + +I have a vivid recollection of my experiences of the climate during my +first year. During our voyage on the Ganges the heat during the day was +like that of a cloudless July in England, and at night it was pleasantly +cool, the wood of the flat speedily giving off the heat it had taken in +during the day, and the flow of the river contributing to our comfort. +Reaching Benares as April was setting in, I speedily felt I was getting +into the experience of an Indian hot season. The doors were opened +before dawn to let in whatever coolness might come with the morning, and +before eight they were shut to keep out the heat of the day. The lower +part of the door was of wood, and the upper part of glass. Outside the +doors were heavy wooden blinds, made after the fashion of Venetian +blinds, the upper part of which were opened to let in from the verandah +the degree of light absolutely necessary with the least possible degree +of heat. No prisoner in his cell is more excluded from an outside view +than we were in our rooms during the day in the hot season. There was a +remarkable contrast between the outside glare and the inside dimness, so +that a person coming from without could not on entering see anything. +The prevailing wind is from the west. There is enough in the morning to +show the direction from which it is coming. It rises as the day +advances; by two or three it blows with great strength, raising clouds +of dust, and lulls towards evening. This wind is cool and bracing in the +cold weather, but as the season advances it becomes warm, and by May its +heat resembles the blast of a furnace. It every now and then gives place +to the east wind, which is not nearly so hot, but is so enervating that +the hot wind is greatly preferred. During the day we sit under the +punkah, a great wooden fan suspended from the roof with great flapping +fringes. This is pulled by a coolie, sometimes in the adjoining room, +but when it can be arranged in the verandah outside, who has in his hand +a rope attached to the punkah, which is brought to him by a small +aperture in the wall, through which a piece of thin bamboo is inserted +to make the friction as little as possible. When the west wind is +blowing freshly, it is brought with most pleasant coolness into the +house through platted screens of scented grass, on which water is +continually thrown outside. For years machines resembling the fanners so +much used by farmers in former days, with scented grass on each side and +a hut of scented grass over them, on which water is continually thrown, +with wheels turned round by hand labour, have been brought largely into +use. These machines are appropriately called "Thermantidotes." + +The night in the hot season is much more trying than the day. There is +not a breath stirring, and the heat of the day, taken in by the walls, +is radiated all the night long. I found the night punkah in almost +universal use but I thought I would get on without it, and used it very +seldom. When the next hot season came I was glad to conform to the +custom of the country, for I found when I had not the punkah I got up in +the morning so tired and weary that I was unfit for the work of the day. + +The aspect of the country at that season is very dreary. Some trees +retain their freshness in the hottest weather; but not a blade of green +grass is to be seen, and the ground is scorched, scarred, and baked, as +if it had been turned into a desert. + +[Sidenote: THE RAINY SEASON.] + +A marvellous change is produced by the first heavy fall of rain. After +stifling heat for some days, the rays of the sun beating with a +fierceness which threatens to burn up all nature, and which drives the +birds for shelter to the thickest foliage of the trees, the clouds +gather, the thunder rolls, peal quickly succeeding peal, the lightning +flashes incessantly, and then, after some heavy showers, there comes +down for two or three days, with very little intermission, such torrents +that it looks as if we were to be visited with a deluge. Within a week +all nature is transformed. The parched earth gives way to the richest +green. We in our country say in very propitious weather that we see +things grow; but in India vegetation takes such a bound as it never does +in our temperate climate. Immediately after the downpour of rain, the +sun comes out in all its strength; and, under the action of heat and +moisture, vegetation progresses marvellously. The fields are quickly +ploughed, the seed, for which moisture and great heat is required, is +sown, and in the course of three or four weeks they are far above the +ground. Within three months the harvest of the rainy season, furnishing +the people with rice, maize, and other grains, which furnish the +principal food of the people, is gathered in. + +The rainy season is productive in another and less pleasant manner. It +is as favourable to insect life as it is to vegetable life. Flying white +ants, flying bugs, and other unwelcome visitors of the same order, come +out in thousands. At night, if the doors be open the white ants make for +the lamps in such numbers that they are extinguished by them, and the +room is in the morning found strewed with their dead. It requires a +torpid temperament to remain calm under this visitation. All dislike it, +and some find it a grievous trial. As the rainy season advances, the +trouble abates, and by the time the cold weather sets in the ordinary +house-fly by day and the mosquito by night alone remain to buzz about +us. The mosquito has rightly got the first place among insect +tormentors. The house-fly is at all seasons, in some more than in +others, and gives not a little annoyance by its pertinacity. + +The change at the commencement of the rainy season is delightful. The +doors are thrown open, and the dry, parching wind gives place to a +refreshing coolness. When the rain ceases, the heat returns; the weather +is very muggy, the skin is irritated by the excessive perspiration, and +many suffer more than during the hot season. When the rain is abundant +and frequent, the suffering is much less than when there is little rain +and much sun. There is one comfort at that time: we know we are going on +to the cold weather, which will make amends for all that went before. + +I can hardly conceive any country to have a finer climate than that of +the North-West Provinces of India in the cold months. Rain does +sometimes fall during that season; it may fall at any time of the year. +I remember a heavy fall on the first of May, and about Christmas and the +New Year it is eagerly desired for the crops, but ordinarily from week +to week there is an unclouded sky. There is a cool, pleasant breeze from +the west. In the house it is not only cool but cold, so that a little +sunning is pleasant, and at night in December and January, especially +far up the country, fires are welcome. Then Europeans, so far as +circumstances permit, get into the open air and move freely about, with +everything in the climate to favour their travelling. + +[Sidenote: THE COLD SEASON.] + +The beginning of the cold weather is a very busy season with the +agricultural class, to which the great body of the people belong. If the +rainy season has been favourable, especially if heavy rain has fallen +towards its close, the wells are full, and from these, after the land +has been ploughed, and the seed sown for the rabee crop, the most +valuable crop of the year, the fields are irrigated. Whatever grows in +our land in summer grows in North-Western India at that season: wheat, +oats, barley, potatoes, carrots, are grown in abundance. About March the +harvest is reaped. + +As I proceed with these reminiscences, I shall have frequent occasion to +refer to our North Indian winter, its scenes, and employments, and I +have thought it well to enter at some length into a description of its +peculiarities. + +One thing I observed my first year which I had abundant opportunity to +observe afterwards. The weather so welcomed by Europeans is very trying +to most natives, especially to those of the humbler classes, whose +clothing is very scanty. They never try to get warm by taking exercise. +They cower in the morning and evening round a fire, which has commonly +for its fuel dried cow-manure, with a coarse blanket over their head and +shoulders. As the sun gets above the horizon, they plant themselves +against a wall to bask in its rays, and if they can, do not stir till +they are well heated. As might be expected, many of them suffer from +chronic rheumatism. The extreme heat is not liked by them, but from it +they suffer far less than from cold. + +While most Europeans get new life in the cold weather, the little ones +showing by their rosy cheeks how much they are benefited, a few are in +better health when the weather is warm, as then they are less subject to +aguish attacks. The remark is often made by those who have much +sedentary work that they like the cold season for enjoyment, but find it +unfavourable for work, as they cannot keep so steadily at it as they can +when the heat keeps them within doors. + +While giving the reminiscences of my first year, my mind has been +continually carried forward to the experience of after-years in +reference to the vernacular languages, the various classes with whom +residence in India brings one into contact, and the seasons of the +country. In giving partial expression to this experience under the +heading of my first year, I have gone far beyond it. Those who favour me +with the perusal of my narrative may perhaps find it more intelligible +by my having anticipated myself. + +I must confess months of the first year passed before I ceased to feel +myself an exile. The scenes around were so unlike those of my own +country, the prevailing idolatry so repulsive, the society, +associations, and climate so different, that I turned from them to my +native land with many a fond longing look. This feeling of exile was no +doubt deepened by the illness in the family with whom I was residing. +We had an English service every Thursday evening, conducted by the +missionaries in the hall of the mission-house, but I greatly missed the +services on the Lord's-day to which I had been accustomed. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: BATHING GHAT, BENARES.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE CITY OF BENARES. + + +My greatly beloved and much esteemed friend, the late Rev. M. A. +Sherring, years ago published a handsome volume under the title of _The +Sacred City of the Hindus_, in which he gave ample information about its +history, temples, castes, festivals, commerce, and religious +pre-eminence in Hindu estimation. To that work I must refer readers who +are desirous to be furnished with details. My aim is to describe as +concisely and vividly as I can the marked peculiarities of the place. + +Benares is the largest city in the North-Western Provinces, though it is +approached in population by some others, as Delhi, Agra, and Allahabad. +It is among the largest purely native cities in India, but it is greatly +surpassed in population and wealth by Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, the +great seats of British rule, and the great emporia of Indian as well as +of European commerce in the East. These cities under our rule have risen +to be among the greatest in Eastern Asia. For many a day the population +of Benares was said to be above 500,000, but this has turned out a very +exaggerated conjecture.[1] When the first careful census was taken, the +resident population was found to be under 200,000, and every succeeding +census has confirmed its substantial accuracy. In the last census the +number given is 207,570. When the first census was taken great surprise +was expressed at the result, and some asserted no dependence could be +placed on it. The ground of this assertion was that in the houses of +some of the wealthier classes there are many females, who live, in +native phrase, behind the curtain, who are never seen by outsiders, to +whom the officials of the Government have no access; and on this account +the accuracy of the return made to the enumerators entirely depends on +the faithfulness of the head of the household. It has been said that +when the first census was taken the general impression was a capitation +tax was to be imposed, and that in consequence the inmates reported were +far below the actual number. If there was error on this account it was +to a very limited extent, as every subsequent census has agreed with the +first, although the notion of a capitation tax has entirely died out. +One going through Benares, from street to street, from one end of it to +the other, does not get the impression its resident population exceeds +the estimate found in official statements. The city has a great floating +population, as it is the resort of strangers from all parts of India. It +is reckoned that on the occasion of the great festivals there may be +100,000 visitors, some say 200,000, but we are not aware any attempt has +been made to number them. + +[Footnote 1: Bishop Heber visited Benares in 1824. He says in his +journal, "The population, according to a census made in 1803, amounted +to above 582,000--an enormous amount, and which one should think must +have been exaggerated." The census which gives such a return must have +been taken in a very singular manner.] + +[Sidenote: TRADE AND COMMERCE.] + +In commerce, as in population, Benares holds a high, but not the +highest, place among Indian cities. The district of Benares is not so +large as some others in the North-West; but it is very productive, is +densely peopled, and the city has on this account a large local +business. Besides, the merchants and bankers of Benares have dealings +with the other districts of the province, and indeed with all parts of +India. The city has many artificers. It has workers in stone, wood, +iron, brass, silver and gold. They produce articles which command a +large and profitable sale. God-making and toy-making are among the +staple businesses of the place. The making of idols in different +materials to suit the taste and means of purchasers, gives employment to +many. The images while being made are only stone, brass, or gold, as it +may be, and no reverence is then due to them. It is when certain sacred +words are uttered over them, and the god is supposed to take possession +of them, they become objects of worship. Benares is well known for its +toys made of very light wood, and lacquered over. Of late years the +enchased brass vessels made in Benares have been much admired, and have +secured a large and profitable sale. Perhaps the most important +manufacture of the place is _kimkhwab_--_kinkob_ as it is called by +Europeans--cloth made of silver and gold tissue, in which the princes +and grandees of India array themselves on state occasions. I believe +this business has fallen off, as with the incoming of European influence +the love of barbaric pearl and gold has declined, if not among the +rajahs of the land, among a class beneath them, who formerly thought +they could not retain their rank in society if they did not appear on +special occasions in gorgeous robes. + +While in population and commerce there are cities in India which surpass +Benares, in Hindu estimation it stands above them all in religious +pre-eminence. Perhaps at the present time more eyes are turned +reverently towards it than to any city on the face of the earth. + +[Illustration: A JEWELLER AT WORK.] + +I must attempt a brief sketch of the history of Benares. We are sure it +was not among the first cities erected by the Aryans after leaving their +home in Central Asia and crossing the Indus. They first took possession +of the land in the far north-west of the great country they had entered, +and gradually made their way to the south and east. Wonderfully acute +and painstaking though the Pundit mind be, it has so dwelt in the +regions of speculation and imagination that it has paid no attention to +historical research. Its laborious productions have left us ignorant of +recent times, and we need not therefore wonder that, except by +incidental allusions, it throws no light on the early settlements of the +Aryans in India. We know that they brought with them a considerable +measure of civilization, and soon erected cities. Indraprastha, built +near the site of the present city of Delhi, and Hastinapore, some thirty +miles from it, figure largely in the Mahabharut, the giant Hindu epic. +Kunauj, lying east and south of Delhi, became some time afterwards the +capital of a widely extended empire, which lasted, with vicissitudes, +down to Muhammadan times. Benares is seen in the dim light of antiquity +as a favourite abode of Brahmans, and as sacred on that account, but it +does not appear that it ever was the seat of extended rule. For many a +day it was subject to Kunauj, and it afterwards came under the sway of +the Muhammadans, to whom it was subject for six hundred years. + +[Sidenote: BUDDHISM.] + +A clear proof of the influential position of Benares centuries before +the Christian era, is furnished by the fact that Gautama, the founder of +Buddhism, deemed it well to commence his public ministry there in the +sixth century B.C.[2] The spot where he first unfolded his doctrine +was a grove at a place now called Sarnath, about four miles from the +present city. At this place there is a large Buddhist tower, which is +seen from a great distance, and around it are extensive remains, which +have been excavated under the direction of Major-General Cunningham, and +have been found to be of Buddhist origin. The success which Buddhism had +achieved and maintained for centuries in the country where it arose, is +strikingly confirmed by the testimony of two Chinese Buddhists who went +on pilgrimage to India, the one in the fifth century A.D., and the other +towards the middle of the seventh. Their narratives have been preserved, +and furnish us with most interesting details. From them we learn that +down to the time of their visits Buddhism had temples, monasteries, and +thousands of adherents; but it had not the field to itself, for these +strangers tell us, especially the later of the two, that a large and +increasing number of the people were warmly attached to Hinduism. We +have no historical account of the overthrow of Buddhism, but we have +reason to believe that towards the close of the eleventh century, or +earlier, the devotees of Hinduism rose against it, and so stamped it out +that not a temple was left standing and not a monastery remained. +Major-General Cunningham says that about that period "the last votaries +of Buddha were expelled from the continent of India. Numbers of images, +concealed by the departing monks, are found buried near Sarnath; and +heaps of ashes still lie scattered amidst the ruins, to show that the +monasteries were destroyed by fire." This is confirmed by excavations +made at a later period by Major Kittoe, who says, "All has been sacked +and burned--priests, temples, idols, all together; for, in some places, +bones, iron, wood and stone, are found in huge masses: and this has +happened more than once." From Benares having been the scene of +Gautama's early ministry, and the place where his first disciples were +called, it stands high in the reverence of the millions who compose his +followers, although their only living representatives there now are a +few Jains, whom orthodox Buddhists regard as heretics. + +[Footnote 2: The names and titles of this famous teacher are perplexing +to those who do not know the meaning. His father was chief or king of a +tribe called Sakyas, and therefore Gautama received the name of +Sakya-Muni, or Sakya-Saint. When he announced himself as the inspired +teacher of the nations he took the name of Buddha--the wise man, the +enlightener, the inspired prophet.] + +[Sidenote: THE SACREDNESS OF KASEE.] + +Long before the time of Gautama Hinduism prevailed at Benares, and we +have observed its rites were practised side by side with those of +Buddhism when the city was visited by two Chinese pilgrims. Some time +afterwards it obtained full sway under the form of fanatical devotion to +Shiva the Destroyer, and that sway it has maintained down to our day. +What Jerusalem is to the Jews; what Mecca is to the Muhammadans; what +Rome is to the Roman Catholics--that, and more than that, Benares is to +the Hindus. They form by far the largest portion of the population of +India, and to them Benares--or as they delight to call it, Kasee the +Splendid, the Glorious City--is the most sacred spot on earth. They say, +indeed, it is not built on the earth, but on a point of Shiva's trident. +They assert that at one time it was of gold, but in this degenerate age +it has been turned into stone and clay. In their belief the Ganges is +sacred through its entire course, but as it flows past the sacred city +its cleansing efficacy is supposed to be vastly increased. The rites +performed at Kasee have double merit, and its very soil and air are so +fraught with blessing that all who die there go to heaven, whatever +their character may be. With this belief diffused among the millions +who, differing widely from each other in nationality and language, are +devoted to Hinduism, it may be supposed how many eyes are reverently +turned towards Kasee, and with what eager steps and high expectations +vast numbers resort to it. I have frequently seen persons entering the +city, not on foot--that they did not deem sufficiently respectful--but +prostrating themselves on the ground, measuring the ground with their +bodies, and approaching the sacred shrines. And then, especially on the +occasion of great festivals, bands may be seen entering the city, often +composed of women--hand-in-hand lest they should lose each other in the +crowd--singing the praises of Shiva and the glories of his city. Many +aged people come from distant parts of India--the greater number, I +believe, from Bengal--to reside and end their days in it, that by +becoming Kasseebas (dwellers in Kasee) they may when they die become +Baikuntbas (dwellers in heaven). + +Though Benares be _par excellence_ the sacred city of the Hindus, +strange to say they are proportionately fewer than in ten cities of the +North-West. According to the census of 1872, there were 133,549 Hindus +and 44,374 Mussulmans: that is, a little more than three Hindus to one +Mussulman. In the great commercial city of Mirzapore, about thirty miles +distant from Benares, there were five Hindus to one Mussulman. The fact +thus certified is entirely at variance with the conjecture made by those +who look at the crowds bathing at the riverside, and frequenting the +temples, and contrast them with the small number seen in the mosques, +even on Friday, the Muhammadan weekly day of worship. In the district +the Hindus vastly out-number the Muhammadans. + +Benares is built on the left bank of the Ganges, and extends in a +crescent shape three miles and a half along the bank, and a little more +than a mile inward. The most imposing view is from a boat slowly +dropping down the stream in the early morning--the earlier the better, +especially if it be the hot season, as then the people betake themselves +to the river in greater numbers than at any other time. Travellers in +many lands who have seen this view, have declared it to be one of the +most remarkable sights of the kind which the world presents. + +Photographic and pencil pictures of Benares have appeared in illustrated +newspapers, in periodicals and books, and give a more vivid and correct +impression than can be conveyed by a verbal description. These pictures +can, however, be better understood when those who look at them are +furnished with information which no picture can afford. + +The right bank of the Ganges at Benares is very low, and is always +flooded when the river rises; but the left bank, on which the city +stands, is in many parts more than a hundred feet high. The river sweeps +round this high bank. The city is connected with the river by flights of +stone steps, called "ghats." This word ghat often meets the reader of +books on India. It has various meanings. It means a mountain-pass, a +ferry, a place on the riverside where people meet, and, as is the case +at Benares, the steps which lead down to the river. Two small streams +enter the Ganges at Benares--on the southern side the Assi, on the +northern side the Burna. Some have supposed that the city has received +its name from lying between these two rivulets--Burna, Assi, making the +word Burunassi, Benares; but this derivation is more than doubtful. +Others maintain the word comes from a famous rajah called Bunar; but +this, too, is a mere conjecture. + +[Sidenote: A TRIP ON THE RIVER.] + +Let me take my readers with me on a trip down the river. We embark at +early dawn on a native boat at Assi Sungam, which means the confluence +of the Assi with the Ganges, at the southern extremity. Towards that end +of the city some of the houses seen on the high bank are poor, some are +falling into decay; but as you advance, lofty buildings, some of them of +a size and grandeur which entitle them to the name of palaces, come into +view. Their numerous small windows, their rich and varied carving, their +balconies and flat roofs, give them a very Eastern look. Perhaps the +most notable of the buildings are an observatory, built by a famous +Rajput prince, Jae Singh, and a massy and extensive structure, with its +buttresses and high walls looking as if recently erected, which was +built in the last half of the eighteenth century by Cheit-Singh, the +Rajah of Benares at that time, who was deposed by Warren Hastings on +account of his refusal to comply with the demands of the British +Government. In Macaulay's famous Essay on Warren Hastings there is a +long narrative of this contest, which is amusingly at variance with the +narrative given by Warren Hastings himself. This building is still +called Cheit-Singh's Palace, but since his day it has been the property +of the British Government, and has been for many years the residence of +princes of the old imperial family of Delhi, who on account of family +troubles had come to reside in Benares, and were, happily for +themselves, far from Delhi during the mutiny of 1857. Some of the +mansions facing the river belong to Indian princes, who occupy them on +the rare occasion of visits to the city, and leave them in charge of +servants, of whom a number are Brahmans performing sacred rites on +their behalf. + +There is one spot on the riverside from which most visitors avert their +eyes with horror--the place where the dead of Benares and the +surrounding country are being burnt, and the ashes thrown into the +stream. The fire at that place never goes out. Cremation, not burial, it +is well known, is the Indian mode of disposing of the dead. + +The peculiarity of Benares as the sacred city of the country is +strikingly attested by the temples, which crowd the high bank of the +river, and arrest the special attention of the visitor. Some of these +are much larger and more expensive than others, but there is little +variety in their form; and all of them, even the largest and most +frequented, are small compared with Christian and Muhammadan places of +worship. They are circular, with heavy domes narrowing towards the top, +and, as a rule, with a narrow doorway alone admitting light and air. +Some domes are of respectable height, but none approach that of many of +our church towers and steeples. Most of the temples are sacred to Shiva, +Mahadeo, the Great God, as his devotees delight to call him, and are +surmounted by his trident. Many have a pole at their side with a flag +attached to it. One sees at a glance they must, though small, have cost +large sums, as they are most solidly built of hewn stone, and have all +more or less of ornamentation. A few temples are built close to the +water's edge. One has got off its equilibrium, and looks as if it were +about to fall into the stream; but for many years it has remained in +this tottering position. + +[Sidenote: BATHING IN THE SACRED STREAM.] + +While the houses and temples on the riverside are viewed with interest, +the visitor, as he looks from his boat, is still more interested in the +living mass before him. It is the early morning. The sun has just risen +above the horizon, and is shedding its bright rays on the river and the +city. It looks as if all the inhabitants were astir and had made their +way to the river. Crowds are seen on the steps, some even then making +their way back after having bathed, and others going down to the stream. +Thousands are in the water. Men and women, boys and girls, are +there--the men and women at a short distance from each other. +Immediately above the water are platforms with huge stationary umbrellas +over them, and on these men are squatted, whose portly appearance +betokens ease and plenty. These are Gungaputrs--sons of the Ganges--a +class of Brahmans, whose duty it is to take care of the clothes of the +people as they bathe, to put a mark on their forehead to show they have +bathed, and who receive a small offering from them as they retire. All +bring with them their bathing-dress, and they most deftly take off and +put on their scanty clothing. When the bathing is over they wring out +the clothes in which they have bathed, fill with Ganges water a small +brazen vessel, which each person carries with him, and make their way +into the city to pay their homage to their favourite gods before +proceeding to their homes. I have been told that the very devout among +them visit some thirty temples of a morning. + +You watch the people as they bathe. It is evident they are not engaged +in mere ablution, so important for health and comfort in that hot +climate. They are engaged in worship. You see them taking up the water +of the Ganges in the palm of their hands, and offering it up to the sun +as they mutter certain prescribed words. You observe them making a +circular motion, and if sufficiently near you see them breathing +heavily, which you are told is their way of driving away demons, who +even in that sacred spot are said to haunt them. There is no united +worship: each worshipper apart performs his and her devotion. There is +incessant movement among the crowd. As the words of worship--I might +rather say the spells--they have been instructed to use are not +whispered but uttered, and by many with a loud voice, a stream of sound +falls on the ear. If, at some spot where bathers are not inconvenienced, +the boat be moored, and the visitor ascends the steps, he may find on +certain days, in two or three places, pundits reading and explaining the +Ramayan, or the Mahabharut, the great Hindu Epic Poems, to a crowd of +people, mainly composed of women. Sentence by sentence is read from +poetical translations made long ago, which require to be re-translated +into the ordinary language of the people to be generally intelligible. +We have occasionally stopped to hear these pundits, and, judging by what +we heard, we concluded they satisfied themselves with a loose paraphrase +of what they were reading. These men are rewarded with a respectful and +attentive hearing, and with something more substantial when the work is +over. + +If the visitor is bent on obtaining a full impression of the work +continually carried on in Benares, he will make his way into the city +from one of the principal bathing-places. He will speedily find himself +in long narrow streets, with lofty stone houses on either side. The +buildings are of hewn stone, and of the most substantial description. +They have for the most part a narrow doorway, opening into a quadrangle, +around which are the apartments of the inmates. The streets are so +narrow that through some of them a vehicle cannot be taken, and in +others conveyances pass each other with difficulty. There are parts of +the narrower streets and lanes on which the sun never shines. In the few +cases where houses on both sides of the street opposite each other +belong to one proprietor, there is at the top a bridge by which the +inmates pass from one to the other. + +[Sidenote: WORSHIP IN THE TEMPLES.] + +Not the houses, however, but the temples, secure the chief attention of +the visitor. They are seen on every side. Numerous though they be, they +are not sufficient to meet the demands of the people. At every few steps +objects of worship meet your view. In niches of the walls are little +images, so worn by the weather and by the water poured on them by +worshippers that it is difficult to determine what they are intended to +represent. At your feet, close to the walls, you see misshapen stones +which are regarded as sacred. As you proceed you find yourself +accompanied by a crowd who have bathed, and who are going to complete +their morning worship by acts of obeisance to their gods. They are seen, +as they walk, bowing their heads and folding their hands before the +sacred objects that line their way. Every now and then one of a party +will raise the shout "_Mahadeo jee kee jae!_"--("Victory to the Great +God"), that is to Shiva, to whom this title is given; and the shout is +taken up and repeated by others till the street resounds. It has +occurred to me that this is done with peculiar force when Europeans are +within hearing. + +[Sidenote: THE TEMPLE OF BISHESHWAR.] + +You speedily find yourself at the principal temple of Benares--the +temple of Bisheshwar, sacred to Shiva under this name, which means _Lord +of All_. This temple is in the midst of a quadrangle, covered in with a +roof; over it are a tower, a dome, and a spire. The tower and dome +glitter in the sun like masses of burnished gold, and on this account +it is called the Golden Temple. Natives will tell you that it is covered +with plates of solid gold, but in fact it is merely gilded with gold +leaf, spread over plates of copper overlaying the stones beneath. Under +the dome is a belfry in which nine bells are suspended, and these are so +low that they can be tolled by the hand of those who frequent the +temple. We are told that the temple, including the tower, is fifty-one +feet in height. "Outside the enclosure is a large collection of deities, +raised upon a platform, called by the natives 'The Court of Mahadeo.'" +Though the gods in the Hindu books are represented as continually +quarrelling with each other, and their devotees take up their quarrels, +not only at the temple of Bisheshwar, but throughout the city which is +regarded as Shiva's own, they are seen side by side, as in perfect +amity, and there is not a single god who does not secure the special +devotion of some worshippers. It is, however, required of all who dwell +in Kasee, or frequent it, to acknowledge that Mahadeo is entitled to +supreme homage, and that to him in the first instance obeisance must be +made. The symbol of Shiva, or Mahadeo, which is found wherever he is +worshipped, is the _Linga_, a conical stone, which does not in itself +suggest any impure notion, but which is intended to be a vile +representation. In this famous temple this conical stone receives +special honour. There, too, are figures of Shiva himself in all his +hideousness, with his three eyes, covered with ashes, and his eyes +inflamed with intoxicating herbs. Outside the temple there is a figure +cut in stone of a bull seven feet high, sacred to the god, as this is +his favourite animal for riding. Within the quadrangle there is a well +called _Gyan Bapee_, the well of knowledge, to which it is said the god +betook himself when he was expelled from his former temple by the bigot +Emperor Aurungzeb. On this account the well is deemed specially sacred. +It is surmounted by a handsome low-roofed colonnade with forty pillars. +It is covered with an iron grating, in which there is an aperture for +small vessels to be let down into it, which when full are drawn up, and +the water thus drawn is highly prized. As from day to day a large +quantity of flowers are thrown into it, it may be supposed how horrible +its water and how offensive its smell; it is a wonder the people are not +poisoned by it. + +We must not proceed further with this description of Bisheshwar's +temple. Those who wish for more information can find it in the ample +details given by Mr. Sherring. + +To this temple thousands resort every day. It is open, and priests are +present, we are told, twenty hours in the twenty-four. It is only shut +from midnight till four in the morning. The temple itself holds a very +small number, and the entire quadrangle would be crowded by one of our +large congregations. The people press into it in one continuous stream, +toll a bell to draw the attention of the god, make their obeisance, pour +on the object of their worship a little of the Ganges water from the +small brazen vessel they have in their hand, throw on it some flowers, +give a present to the attendant priests, go round the building with +their right hand towards it, and pass away to give place to others. + +How does the visitor regard this scene? Apart from the consideration of +the dishonour done to the ever-blessed God by worship rendered to images +representing gods that are no gods--by which, if a Christian, he must be +painfully affected--there is much in the scene before him to impress +him with the sottish folly into which man can sink in his religious +views and practices; and there is nothing to draw forth his regard and +sympathy, except it be the fervour, the deep though mistaken fervour, of +some of the worshippers, especially of the women, who may sometimes be +seen with children in their arms teaching them to make obeisance to the +idol. In Roman Catholic worship there is much which, as Protestants +ruled by the Bible, we rightly condemn; but in the gorgeous vestments of +its priests, in the magnificence of many of the places in which they +minister, in the grand strains of their music and in their processions, +there is much to impress the senses and awe the mind; but in the worship +carried on in the temple of Bisheshwar it is difficult to find a +redeeming quality. The whole scene is repulsive. The place is sloppy +with the water poured out by the worshippers, and is littered by the +flowers they present. The ear is assailed with harsh sounds. The +ministering priests--Pundas as they are called--are, as a rule, +coarse-looking men, with shaven head, save with a long pendent tuft from +the crown, with the mark of their god on their forehead, and are very +scantily attired. They clamour for a present when a European appears, +and if given it is declared to be an offering to the god of the place. +Among the crowd you see men with matted hair and body bedaubed with +ashes, who have broken away from all domestic and social duties, and +devote themselves to what is called a religious life. Some of these +ascetics are no doubt impelled to follow the life they lead by a +superstitious feeling, but many are idle vagabonds ready for the +practice of every villainy, who find it more pleasant to roam about the +land and live on others than support themselves by honest labour. The +people dread their curse, but many give them neither respect nor love. +At a place like Bisheshwar's temple there is always a host of ordinary +beggars, who clamour for alms, and receive from some two or three +shells, called _cowries_, sixty of which go to make up a halfpenny, from +others a little grain, and from the more liberal or more wealthy a small +coin. + +[Sidenote: THE MOSQUE OF AURUNGZEB.] + +From this stirring scene you have only a few steps to go to find +yourself in the large mosque built by the Emperor Aurungzeb on the site +of the old temple of Bisheshwar, which was thrown down to give place to +it. The contrast is very striking. You have left the bustling, noisy +crowd, and see only a few individuals in the attitude of devotion--now +standing with folded hands, then on their knees, then with forehead +touching the floor, engaged in supplicating the Invisible One. Instead +of grotesque and repulsive images meeting your view, you see very little +ornament of any kind, and are impressed with the severe simplicity of +the lofty building. The more one knows of Muhammadanism, the more +grievous are its defects and errors seen to be; but in the simplicity of +its mosques, which has nothing in common with the sordid barn-like +bareness too characteristic at one time of many places of worship in our +own land, there is much from which Christians might learn a useful +lesson. + +Within a stone's throw of Bisheshwar's temple there is a host of +temples, none of them very large, some of them small, but most covered +with carving, to some extent for mere ornamentation, but chiefly for the +purpose of illustrating the objects of Hindu worship. If you visit them +you will see everything is accordant with the great shrine you have +left. You will see Shiva, sometimes seated on a bull, sometimes on a +dog; his hideous partner Durga, with her eight arms and her ferocious +look, indicating her delight in blood; Hanuman, the monkey-god, with his +huge tail; Krishna engaged in his gambols; Ganesh, the god of wisdom, +with his elephant head and protuberant belly; and many others beside. +Everything you see is wild, grotesque, unnatural, forbidding, utterly +wanting in verisimilitude and refinement, with nothing to purify and +raise the people, with everything fitted to pervert their taste and +lower their character; and yet, I must add, with everything to give a +faithful representation of the mythology prepared by their religious +leaders. The pundits who wrote the sacred books of the Hindus were men +of great talent, of abundant leisure; and it is a marvel to me, of which +I can give no explanation, how they spent their days in spinning the +wildest legends, and in setting forth their gods as performing the most +fantastic, capricious, foolish, and wicked deeds, when they had a clear +canvas before them, and might have filled it with something worthy of +our nature, and worthy of objects to be worshipped. + +Aurungzeb's mosque has two lofty minarets, rising about a hundred and +fifty feet above its floor, and thus having from the river an elevation +of two hundred and fifty feet. From a boat on the river the visitor has +the nearest and most impressive view of the city, with its peculiarities +as the high place of Hindu worship. If he proceed to the top of one of +the minarets, which is reached by a steep, dark spiral stair, he will +have a most commanding and extensive view of the city, the river, and +the country for many miles around. He will see that while the streets in +the centre of the city are long and narrow, and have very lofty houses, +beyond these the roads widen, and many of the houses are poor and mean. +As his eye falls on the part beyond the most crowded portion, he will +observe here and there fine mansions with gardens around them, evidently +belonging to the wealthy portion of the community, but surrounded by +poor streets. + +[Sidenote: RETURN TO THE EUROPEAN STATION.] + +After seeing what I have endeavoured to describe, the traveller is well +pleased to get back to his boat, and to drop down the river to Raj Ghat, +the northern end of the city, where, after his fatigue, he is happy to +find a conveyance to convey him to the European station more than three +miles distant. + +During my residence in Benares I often made this trip from Assi-Sungam +to Raj Ghat, generally in company with strangers. The last time I made +it I was accompanied by the late Dr. Norman McLeod of Glasgow, and the +late Dr. Watson of Dundee. They were greatly interested in what they +saw, and repeatedly said the reality exceeded their expectation. Dr. +McLeod was specially eager to see everything that could be seen, and in +his own strong genial way expressed the feelings excited by the strange +scenes before him. + +I must press into the concluding part of this chapter, as concisely as I +can, some additional facts which call for special notice. + +The city as it now stands is quite modern. Though foundations dug up, +and pieces of masonry seen in existing buildings, testify to its +antiquity, we are told by those who are best qualified to judge that +there is not a single house or temple the erection of which can be +relegated to a more remote period than the reign of Akbar, who was a +contemporary of our Queen Elizabeth. + +Various estimates have been given of the number of temples. According +to the census of 1872 the number is 1,454. This does not include smaller +shrines in niches in the walls, which may be reckoned by thousands. The +temples are constantly increasing in number; at no previous period were +there so many as at present. Traders and bankers have prospered greatly +under our rule, and, if devout Hindus, they deem themselves bound to +devote a part of their wealth to the erection of a temple. A regard to +their honour as well as to their gods prompts them to this spending of +their money. + +So far as I have been able to ascertain, the temples of Benares have +very little of either funded or landed property. The vast sum required +for the support of the priesthood comes mainly from the offerings of the +people. + +The "Imperial Gazetteer" of India gives no account in its last census of +the castes of Benares, but we are sure that many thousands of the +inhabitants are Brahmans. They are greatly subdivided, and are so +different in rank and occupation that they keep as separate from each +other as if they had no caste in common. The Pundas officiate in the +temples; the Gangaputrs, the sons of the Ganges, minister at the +waterside; the Purohits are the family priests; and the Pundits, the +most esteemed of all, are the learned men who study the Shastres, and +expound them to the people as occasion requires. Hindus generally have +their Gurus, religious guides, who perform to them very much the work +done for Roman Catholics by father confessors. These may be family +priests, learned men; or, in the case of the lower castes, the lower +orders of Brahmans. A vast number of the sacred caste have nothing to do +with religious services. They are engaged in various businesses. A +considerable number are cooks in the houses of the wealthy, as from +their hand all can eat, while they in many cases would consider it an +intolerable insult to be asked to eat with their masters. Not a few are +beggars. + +There are places in Benares to which people resort almost as much as to +the temple of Bisheshwar. Among these I may mention the tank of +Pishachmochan, a word meaning deliverance from demons, as bathing in it +is considered very efficacious in securing this end, and the temple and +tank of Durga at a place called Durgakund. At this latter place there +are many hundreds of monkeys--some say thousands, though this is +doubtless an exaggeration--which scamper about in all directions, and +fare well at the hands of Durga's worshippers. These animals are deemed +gods and goddesses, and woe to the person who does them any harm. + +The monkeys are not the only animals deemed sacred at Benares. All who +have heard anything about the city have heard about the well-fed lazy +bulls prowling about the streets, and insisting on making free with the +goods of the vegetable and grain sellers. These are no longer to be seen +going about in their former fashion. I shall have something to say +afterwards about them. + +[Sidenote: FESTIVALS AT BENARES.] + +Mr. Sherring gives an account of forty melas, or religious festivals, in +the course of the year in Benares. The principal of these are the Holee, +the Saturnalia of the Hindus, the Ram Leela (the dramatic representation +of the life of Ram as given in the epic poem, "The Ramayan"), and the +Pilgrimage of the Panch Kosee, when the people make the circuit of the +city, and halt for the night at certain assigned stations. On the +occasion of eclipses vast numbers resort to Benares from all parts of +India. + +Benares has long been considered the Oxford of India. Its learned men +have from ancient times been famed for their learning, and the aspirants +for Hindu lore--all members of the same caste with themselves--have from +generation to generation sat at their feet. They have had no grand +academic halls in which to give their prelections; they have taken no +fees from their pupils; they have met in very humble rooms, or in the +open air in a garden under trees; but both teachers and students have +been characterized by an assiduity and a perseverance which the most +laborious of German scholars rarely attain. The very modest requirements +of these learned men have as a rule been met unasked by the princes and +wealthy of the land. + +In 1791, a very short time after Benares was brought directly under +British rule, a Sanscrit college was founded by the payment of certain +pundits, who were left to carry on their work unchecked by any +authority, or even suggestion, from without. It is said that pundits of +the highest repute refused to have anything to do with the foreigner. In +1853 a very fine Gothic structure, said to be the most imposing building +erected by the British in India, was opened under the name of the +Queen's College, for the accommodation of students in both Western and +Eastern learning. Here both English and Sanscrit are studied, and under +the first Principal, the late Dr. Ballantyne, vigorous, and I hope to +some degree successful, effort was put forth to infuse Western +literature, philosophy, and science into the pundit mind. + +I have mentioned the number of Muhammadans residing at Benares. It is +officially stated they have 272 mosques, of which that of Aurungzeb, +with its lofty minarets, is the largest. Hindus must have looked with +horror on the sacrilegious deed by which this mosque was erected on the +site of the demolished temple of Bisheshwar; but the power of the bigot +emperor was so great that they could do nothing more than invocate +curses on his head. The close neighbourhood of this mosque to the most +frequented temple, and the remembrance of the building which formerly +occupied its site, have produced a bitter feeling towards the followers +of Muhammad. Early in this century there was a furious contest between +the two classes of religionists, which lasted for some days, and was at +last quelled by the military. During the fight every conceivable insult +was offered to each other's feelings, and lives were lost. The +Muhammadans suffered most, and since that time they seem to have been +cowed, so that there has been much less fighting between them and their +Hindu neighbours than in some other cities in the North-West. + +The city has two great squares, occupied as market-places, in which +goods of every description are exhibited and sold in the Eastern +fashion. They present a stirring scene of an afternoon, which is the +principal time of business. + +[Sidenote: CENSUS RETURNS.] + +In the census of 1872 the occupations of all males above fifteen years +of age are noted. I give some of the items-- + +Alms-takers 184 +Beggars 3,490 +Barbers 979 +Pundits 96 +Priests (temple or ghat) 2,809 +Purohits (family priests) 1,273 +Servants 14,309 + +I suppose the distinction between alms-takers and beggars is that the +former class deem it beneath them to ask, but have no objection to take +alms, while the latter class both ask and take. Among the latter, beside +the blind and helpless, many able-bodied men make beggary their +profession. On one occasion, in the neighbourhood of Benares, I met a +man in the prime of life who said he had just returned from a long +journey. On referring to his business he frankly said that he had never +had any other occupation than that of a beggar. This was his hereditary +profession. We have no Poor Law in India. The people, from varied +motives, are ever ready to give aid to those who cannot support +themselves, and in addition exercise an indiscriminate charity, which +has a demoralizing effect. + +The census informs us there are in Benares 16,023 masonry houses, and +21,551 mud houses--that is, houses many of which are of mud moistened +and dried as the walls rise--and others of sun-dried bricks. I do not +wonder at the disappointment felt by some who have been much impressed +with the front view of the city, and have then traversed its streets. + +Till recently, from the commencement of our rule, our Government has +never been at peace with all the native rulers of India. In various ways +we have come into collision with them, and the final result in every +case has been their overthrow. The deposed rajahs have as a rule been +sent to Benares, as if our Government wished to compensate them for the +loss of their dominion by conferring on them special religious +advantages. + +On the opposite side of the Ganges, a little above the southern end of +the city, is the town of Ramnuggur, with a population of 10,000. It is +the residence of the Rajah of Benares, who is simply a large landowner, +and has no authority beyond that which wealth confers. His palace, or +rather fort, is close to the river. Behind the town, close to the +Rajah's garden, there is a large tank, and a temple facing it which is +remarkable for the exquisite carving on its walls illustrative of Hindu +mythology. + +[Sidenote: MACAULEY'S DESCRIPTION OF BENARES.] + +I end this account of Benares by an extract from Macaulay's Essay on +Warren Hastings, in which, in his own high rhetorical fashion, which so +readily yields itself to exaggeration, he describes the city. If I +remember rightly, there is no mention in his biography of his having +visited the North-West, and his description is therefore not that of an +eye-witness. + +"The first design of Warren Hastings was on Benares, a city which in +wealth, population, dignity, and sanctity was among the foremost in +Asia. It was commonly believed that half a million of human beings was +crowded into that labyrinth of lofty alleys, rich with shrines, and +minarets, and balconies, and carved oriels, to which the sacred apes +clung by hundreds. The traveller could scarcely make his way through the +press of holy mendicants and not less holy bulls. The broad and stately +flights of steps which descended from these swarming haunts to the +bathing places along the Ganges were worn every day by the footsteps of +an innumerable multitude of worshippers. The schools and temples drew +crowds of pious Hindus from every province where the Brahmanical faith +was known. Hundreds of devotees came thither every month to die, for it +was believed that a peculiarly happy fate awaited the man who should +pass from the sacred city into the sacred river. Nor was superstition +the only motive which allured strangers to that great metropolis. +Commerce had as many pilgrims as religion. All along the shores of the +venerable stream lay great fleets of vessels laden with rich +merchandise. From the looms of Benares went forth the most delicate +silks that adorned the balls of St. James's and of Versailles; and in +the bazars the muslins of Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled +with the jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere." + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +BENARES AS A MISSION SPHERE. + + +Hinduism, like all other religions, has its points of contact, we may +say of agreement, with Christianity; but in its main features and +tendencies it is intensely antagonistic, and this antagonism may be +conceived to have its keenest edge and greatest force in the city from +which it has for ages maintained its sway over the millions of India. If +any religion could be considered entrenched by local advantages beyond +the possibility of overthrow, Hinduism might be declared secure at +Benares, if not against assault, at least against defeat. + +People in all ages, all the world over, cling with varying degrees of +tenacity to the views and practices which have come to them from their +fathers. Jeremiah said, "Pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and +send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a +thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?" +Hinduism in its present form is comparatively modern; but the people +generally know nothing of its history, and they regard it as an +inheritance from the most ancient times. It comes to them as the gifts +of gods and sages, which it would be sacrilege to reject. There is much +in the religion itself to bind the people to it. Its numerous +ceremonies, sustained by the largest promises, give the assurance of a +great reward. In discharging their religious duties they have often to +endure toil, undergo privation, and make sacrifices; but the more they +do and suffer, the greater is the complacency with which they regard +their religious position. There is one thing Hinduism does not demand of +its devotees. It does not demand a radical change of character or of +life. Its every requirement may be met without abandoning evil +dispositions and practices. It can be easily supposed how strong a hold +a religion like this has on its votaries, and how especially strong its +hold must be in the city where it has been enthroned for ages. + +In our day much is said about heredity. Facts illustrative of its power +over the features, character, and life, not only of individuals but of +communities, are patent to all. Whatever heredity can do it does in +infusing the spirit of Hinduism into the very blood of the people of +Benares, who have been so long dominated by it. The mastery it has +obtained over them is shown by the whole tone of their minds and the +whole bearing of their life. If sincerity and enthusiasm be the +essential requisites in religion, the inhabitants of this city have all +they need, for these qualities are possessed by them in a high degree. +Then, in such a city there is felt the almost overpowering influence of +thousands from day to day, and of vast multitudes on occasion of high +festival, performing the same rites, worshipping the same gods, and +animated by the same spirit. The peculiar thrill of pleasure given by a +great assembled eager host to every individual composing it; the sense +of importance it gives to each, as if on him rested the concentrated +honour of the gathering, does much to bind people to a religion which +receives such services from millions. If for a single year these daily +services and periodical gatherings were intermitted, Hinduism would be +greatly weakened. + +[Sidenote: SECULAR AND SACRED INFLUENCES.] + +In addition to the domestic, social, and public influences which guard +and uphold the existing state of things, there is the tremendous power +of personal gain and honour. The honour, the wealth, the very +subsistence of large influential classes, are bound up with the +maintenance of idolatry. The Pundits, the guardians and expositors of +their sacred books; the Pundas who minister in the temples; the +Gungaputrs who serve at the river side; the Purohits, the family +priests; the Gurus, the father confessors and guides of the people; and +the Jyotishees, the astrologers, with their families and relations, +would be stripped of their honour and gain, of their very means of +living, if Hinduism was at once abandoned. Benares is a great commercial +as well as religious city. If it ceased to be Hindu, we cannot suppose +its commerce would be paralyzed; but as a considerable part of its +ordinary trade is dependent on the thousands of pilgrims who resort to +it, on the money they expend on food, on gifts to the priests, and on +the purchase of articles exposed for sale, great loss would be in the +first place incurred. The many artisans now employed in making images of +stone and brass, would find no purchasers for their goods. In addition +to the pecuniary loss which directly and indirectly would fall on all +classes, the whole community would feel the glory of Kasee, the Splendid +City, had departed, when, stripped of its sacredness, crowds of pilgrims +no longer filled its streets, frequented its temples, or bathed at its +ghats. They would feel as the Jews did in their dark and disastrous +days, when the ways to Zion were untrodden, and there was the silence of +desolation within its gates. + +When the peculiarities of Benares are in any degree realized, the work +of making known the gospel to its inhabitants may appear formidable to +the extent of hopelessness. + +It is formidable, very formidable, but it can appear hopeless only when +we forget the command of our Saviour to preach the Gospel to every +creature, when we forget the power of the truth, the adaptation of the +Gospel to the human heart, its past triumphs, and the promised aid of +the Holy Spirit. The very strength of this fortress of idolatry should +call forth the courage of Christ's soldiers by directing their eyes to +Him as their great and glorious Leader. Such was the courage of the +Apostles and their immediate successors, when instead of going to small +towns and villages, and working from them towards the cities where the +Gospel might be expected to meet with the most determined opposition, +they assailed at once with their spiritual weapons the high places of +idolatry, of power which claimed worship as well as homage, and of +learning which aimed in its own strength, and aimed unsuccessfully, at +the solution of the deepest questions which affect mankind. They went to +Ephesus, to Rome, and to Athens, and secured in them a measure of +success, which prepared the way for a mighty revolution throughout the +Roman Empire. + +Towards the end of the last century, when there was a great awakening of +the missionary spirit, devoted Christians, animated by apostolic +example, formed the purpose of going with the Gospel to Benares. Robert +Haldane sold a fine estate, that with a band of chosen companions he +might preach the Gospel to its inhabitants. He was obliged to abandon +the enterprise by the prohibition of the East India Company; and then, +in company with his brother and others similarly minded, he turned to +home mission work, which for a time was prosecuted by them with ardent +zeal and great success. + +[Sidenote: HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY.] + +In 1781 the city and district of Benares, which had for some time paid +tribute to our Government, were brought directly under our rule. We are +sure no Christian missionary would have been previously tolerated in +Benares for a day. He could not speak of Jesus Christ as the Lord of all +and the Saviour of the world without implying that Mahadeo and the other +gods of Benares were no God. His teaching would be speedily discerned in +its antagonism to the genius of the place, and would ensure his speedy +expulsion, if not his death. To the present hour no missionary is +allowed to plant his foot in Mecca, or Medina, the sacred cities of the +Muhammadans. Till a very recent period, when the Pope's political power +came to an end, no Protestant minister was allowed to open his mouth in +proclaiming the Gospel in Rome. The mild Hindu can be as fanatical as +the Muhammadan and the Roman Catholic in resenting an attack on his +religion, and in persecuting its opponents. + +We have no historical records from which we can learn how Buddhism was +overthrown in India; but, as we have already observed, we have reason to +conclude it was not overthrown by argument and persuasion, but by fire +and sword. The intense hatred shown to the Gospel by those who are +imbued by the spirit of Hinduism will not allow us to doubt that, if +they had the power, they would forbid all Christian effort, and +especially such effort in their sacred city. They were long under the +rule of the Muhammadans, and were subjected by them to grievous +indignities, which they were helpless to avert or resent; but their +attachment to Hinduism, instead of being diminished, was inflamed by the +treatment they received, and during the semi-independent position they +held previous to coming under our sway they had both the power and the +will effectually to prevent the entrance of a new antagonistic religion. +The superior strength and daring of the English were so signally shown +in the overthrow of Rajah Cheit-Singh by Warren Hastings, that +opposition to the new _regime_ was seen to be hopeless, and the people +quietly submitted to their new rulers. So far as they knew the temper +and policy of the English, they might conclude their religion would at +their hands not only be safe from violence, but protected from every +attempt at proselytism. The policy which would have left Hinduism +undisturbed was successfully opposed by the Christian feeling of +England, and the way was opened for the Christian missionary into the +very fortress of Hindu idolatry. For this entrance we are not in any way +indebted to the mildness of Hindu religionists, but to the resolute, +persevering, courageous effort of men of God, who contended successfully +against the worldly selfishness which would have doomed the millions of +India to perpetual night. + +[Sidenote: STREET PREACHING.] + +We have observed that mission operations were tentatively begun in +Benares in the second decade of this century. The work was carried on in +a very quiet unostentatious manner. Some time elapsed before any open +aggressive effort was put forth. If Bishop Heber's counsel had been +followed there would have been no departure from the first timid mode +of action. He says in his journal, "The custom of street preaching, of +which the Baptist and other Dissenting missionaries in Bengal are very +fond, has never been resorted to by those employed by the Church +Missionary Society, and never shall be so long as I have any influence +or authority over them. I plainly see it is not necessary, and I see no +less plainly that though it may be safe among the timid Bengalees, it +would be very likely to produce mischief here. All which the +missionaries do is to teach schools, read prayers, and preach in their +churches, and to visit the houses of such persons as wish for +information on religious subjects." If the good man had lived a few +years longer he would have seen ministers of his own Church forward in +modes of action which he disapproved, and would doubtless have wished +them God-speed, as his successors in the diocese of Calcutta have done. +The Bishop of Lahore, Dr. French, took a prominent part for years in +outdoor preaching. + +The missionary has of course met with opposition in many forms; the +opposition has often been keen and bitter, but it has not taken the form +of violence to person or injury to property. The Gospel has been for +many years proclaimed in the most public places in Benares, crowds have +heard it, and no hand has been raised against the preacher. In the +memoirs of the Rev. William Smith, of the Church Mission, who was +indefatigable in evangelistic labour, than whom none was better known in +Benares, it is mentioned that on a few occasions mud was thrown at him, +but it did him no harm. On one occasion, after a very keen discussion, +when my Hindu opponents had been extremely angry, on coming out from the +place a native Christian by my side was struck on the head by a stone, +which was evidently intended for me. Happily the young man speedily +recovered from the blow. The night was dark, and the act was not brought +home to any one. The people present expressed indignation at the deed. +On another occasion a man drew his sword half-way out of the scabbard +(it was the fashion of the time to go about armed), and said he would +gladly cut off my head, because I was trying to turn away his people +from their religion; but he knew if he did he would be hanged, and as he +wished to live a little longer he restrained himself. He gave me a +scowl, which showed how ready he was for the crime if he could commit it +with impunity. On another occasion most vigorous drumming was carried on +above our heads, which made speaking and hearing impossible. As after +many years spent in Benares I cannot recollect any more violent acts +than those I have mentioned, the reader may infer how little reason we +have to complain of danger to life or limb. + +[Sidenote: POSITION OF THE MISSIONARY IN BENARES.] + +Nothing approaching the treatment of Dr. Kalley by the Popish priests of +Madeira has been ever experienced by any missionary in Benares at the +hand of Hindu priests. The perfect security, with which in ordinary +times we went about our work, is in marked contrast to the experience of +many a labourer in the home mission-field, not only in the early days of +Methodism, but down to our own time, to say nothing of the violence to +which the Salvation Army has been exposed. The fact that we belong to +the ruling race, and that it is understood by all an attack on us will +be promptly and severely punished, has had, no doubt, much to do in +enabling us to carry on our operations so quietly and safely. There has +been an ebullition at times on the occasion of baptisms, but it has +soon subsided. Gradually the people have come to understand us +sufficiently to be convinced we are bent on promoting their good, and +they regard us in consequence with a friendly feeling. Most pleasant +proof has been given that many of the inhabitants of Benares have come +to look on missionaries not only with respect but affection. I well +remember gratifying acts of courtesy and kindness, which could not have +been prompted by sinister motives. + +I must not omit to say that while missionaries have carried on their +work openly and boldly, they have felt themselves bound to treat the +people courteously, and to abstain from the use of violent and abusive +words. There are places where they do not deem themselves entitled to +declare their message--such as sacred places where worship is being +carried on. Mr. Smith, of the Church Mission, once mentioned to me that +he had for a short time taken his stand close to one of the bathing +places, but the priests and people were greatly excited by his presence, +and he deemed it proper to retire. + +While at Benares the Gospel has to encounter peculiar opposition, it has +some marked advantages as a mission-field. The missionary, as he moves +about, meets with people from all parts of India. While these speak +different languages, many know enough of the languages spoken at Benares +to admit of a measure of intelligent intercourse with them. Vast +multitudes come from the widely extended region over which the +Hindustanee and Hindee prevail. While many go to Benares, we may suppose +the great majority, urged by the gregarious feeling so powerful all the +world over, happy to find themselves among the multitude, hoping to get +some religious benefit, and sure at any rate, as they acknowledge, of +amusement, we cannot doubt there are among them earnest souls--how many +it is impossible to say--who are ill at ease, and have a craving for +rest and satisfaction. These persons are in the state of mind to which +the Gospel is specially adapted, and it is very desirous for the +missionary to come into contact with them. Missionaries have fallen in +with persons of this class, and among them there have been pleasing +instances of conversion. There are individuals now in distant parts of +India living Christian lives, who were led to embrace Christ as their +Saviour by what they heard at Benares. Many Christian books have been +circulated among pilgrims to the sacred city. These are taken to their +homes, we may hope sooner or later to be read by them to their spiritual +benefit. Again and again bread cast on the waters has been found after +many days. + +The greed of the Pundas and Gungaputrs of Benares is notorious. Many a +poor pilgrim has suffered from their exactions, and we may suppose that +reverence for the sacred city has received a shock under such treatment +similar to that which Luther experienced on his visit to Rome. While +Hinduism is no doubt greatly strengthened by the resort of the people to +Benares, much done and endured there is well fitted to alienate the more +thoughtful of the visitors; and so far as they are alienated from the +prevailing superstition, the more likely they are to listen patiently +and candidly to the Christian preacher. + +[Sidenote: PROSPECT OF SUCCESS.] + +I conclude these remarks on Benares as a mission sphere by observing +that marked success there would have a marvellous effect on the +evangelization of India. The news would soon spread that Hinduism was +drying up at its fountain, and that its power could not be much longer +maintained. We know that Hinduism itself has undergone great, we may say +radical, changes, since Kasee became one of its principal seats, if not +its head-quarters. There Buddhism was first preached, and from it +Buddhism went forth to all Eastern Asia. There it was for a time +predominant, but Hinduism again obtained supremacy, and drove its rival +from the field. For centuries, Hinduism under the form of devotion to +Shiva Mahadeo, the Great God, as they delight to call him, has had full +sway. Is his dominion to last for ever? Are the people to be for ever in +the slough of idolatry and superstition? We cannot believe that they +are, until we abandon all trust in Him who rightly claims all human +hearts, and whose grace is sufficient to enforce these claims. We know +not when, we know not how, but we do know that even in Benares, as all +the world over, our blessed Saviour will take to Himself His great power +and reign. Even now entrance has been gained for the truth of God, +hearts have been won by it, and Christian churches have been formed. The +first-fruits have been gathered, and the harvest will come. Are we +allowing imagination to take the reins at the expense of judgment, when +we indulge the hope, that as in former days Buddhist preachers went +forth from Benares to the millions of Eastern Asia with the lessons of +Gautama, the Brahmans of Benares, accepting Jesus as their Saviour, will +go forth with His Gospel to diffuse it far and wide among the nations of +India, and then, with their converts, make their way to the remotest +East? Let us not say, "If the Lord would make windows in heaven, might +this thing be?" but rather, "Who hath despised the day of small things?" +The Messiah "shall build the temple, and He shall bear the glory." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MY SECOND YEAR IN BENARES. + + +In beginning this chapter it is fitting I should mention that shortly +after entering on my second year an event occurred of transcendent +importance to me, which has contributed to my personal comfort and +missionary usefulness as nothing else could have done--my marriage with +the object of my choice, who has been, through God's great goodness, +spared to me through all the intervening years. + +Before the close of my first year I had a striking illustration of the +vicissitudes of Indian life, and of consequent difficulty in prosecuting +the missionary enterprise. On reaching Benares at the end of March, +1839, I found three missionaries of our society, Messrs. Buyers, +Shurman, and Lyon. Within a month of my arrival we were joined by a +German missionary and his wife, Dr. and Mrs. Sommers. Towards the end of +autumn Mr. and Mrs. Lyon left, owing to the failure of Mrs. Lyon's +health. They were followed three months afterwards by Dr. and Mrs. +Sommers, owing to Mrs. Sommers' illness. My second year was advanced +only a few months, when Mr. and Mrs. Buyers, after a residence of nearly +ten years, departed for Europe. Dr. Sommers had remained too short a +time to render any service. Mr. Lyon had made excellent progress in the +language, and promised to be a very efficient missionary; but, to our +great regret, he was obliged to leave. Mr. Buyers was in his prime, and +was well equipped for service. Thus within eighteen months the staff of +the mission was reduced from five to two, and one of these too young and +inexperienced to do anything more than help his senior brother. In June, +1841, we were joined by the Rev. D. G. Watt, and early in 1842 by the +Rev. J. H. Budden. These much-esteemed brethren still survive, and have +done excellent service in the cause of Christ; but both suffered much +from the climate, and their stay at Benares was too short to admit of +their doing there what their hearts were bent on doing. + +[Sidenote: THE FAILURE OF HEALTH.] + +I have not the means of comparing our Indian missions with missions in +other parts of the world, but I believe our losses by the failure of +health have greatly exceeded theirs. The climate of the South Sea +Islands, of South Africa, and of the West Indian Islands, is far more +favourable to European health than that of the parts of India in which +most of our missions are. The longevity of many of the South African +missionaries bears remarkable testimony to the salubrity of their +climate. + +This failure of health and consequent abandonment of the work is one of +the greatest trials missions in India have had to encounter, and is a +formidable obstacle to success. Instances have not been rare when, after +great expense has been incurred, the missionary or his wife has suddenly +broken down--the wife perhaps more frequently than the husband--and a +speedy return to England has been the result. The name appears in the +Report as an agent, but no work has been, or could have been, +accomplished. In other cases the stay has been too brief to have +admitted of efficient service. A considerable time must elapse before +the missionary, however zealous and able, can acquire such an +acquaintance with the language and people as will enable him to do his +work in a satisfactory manner. When one has fully entered on the work, +there is frequent interruption from illness and weakness induced by the +severity of the climate. When I transfer myself in thought to my first +two years in Benares, and from my vivid remembrance of the vicissitudes +of our mission during these years look down through all the succeeding +years not only of our mission, but of other missions in Northern India +with which I am well acquainted, I am painfully struck with the bitter +disappointments of missionary Societies in the prosecution of their +work. They have responded to the urgent appeal for reinforcement, and in +not a few cases no sooner has the reinforcement been gained than it has +been lost. The Societies formed of late years for Zenana work have +suffered from this cause more than even the older Societies. They have +suffered in a degree which must have been very discouraging to their +managers and supporters. Happily a considerable number of all Societies +have been able to remain at their post, and some have remained so long +as to give an average length of missionary service, which hides the fact +of the extreme brevity of the period spent by many in the foreign field. + +The question here suggests itself, Has this speedy abandonment of the +work been always necessary? Has there been the endurance demanded of +those who have professed themselves consecrated to a missionary life? +Has the return to England been accepted only when the compulsion of +circumstances left no alternative, and then accepted most reluctantly? +With every desire to think of others as favourably as possible, without +any breach of charity, it must be acknowledged there have been cases of +departure, where I think a more resolute spirit would have kept persons +at their post. This I trust holds true of only a few. I know some who +soon left to whom the abandonment of the work was a bitter trial. +Nothing but the thought that to remain would have been to fight against +Providence took them away. To go back to the cases of failure during my +early period at Benares, I may mention that the departure of Mr. and +Mrs. Lyon was absolutely necessary; and those who know the subsequent +career of my friends, Messrs. Watt and Budden, need not be told that if +health had permitted Benares would have been for many years the sphere +of their labours. + +[Sidenote: CELIBATE OR MARRIED MISSIONARIES?] + +As the withdrawal of missionaries has often been caused by the failure +of the health of their wives, some have thought it would be well to have +celibate missionaries in a country which has so severe a climate. To +this there is the obvious reply that missionaries, like others, are +human beings, and a restriction on them which wars with human nature +would be found very pernicious, as it has ever been. Then, the wives of +missionaries, when they are what they ought to be, are very efficient +and, indeed, necessary missionary workers, and in many cases their +labours are as useful as those of their husbands. In well-ordered +missionary families the people see what a happy Christian home is, and +they are assured of a sympathy in their trials and cares which they +could not expect from unmarried missionaries. Some Societies, our own +among the number, have accepted as missionaries to India persons engaged +to be married, but they have required them to remain for a year or two +unmarried after going out to test their fitness for the climate; and, in +the event of the test being successfully stood, to give them an +experience which will enable the newly married wife to enter with less +strain on her Indian life. This may be a wise arrangement, and yet there +is often a restlessness till the marriage takes place, and time spent in +going to the port of debarkation, which carries with it some +disadvantages. + +We dare not retreat from this great work of evangelizing India on +account of the vicissitudes of which I have been speaking, or on account +of other very formidable obstacles which oppose us. To do so would be to +act a craven part. Agents must be found for the prosecution of the work, +and we must hope with the improved advantages of an Indian career the +failures will be fewer than in the past; but whatever they may be, the +Christian Church must go forward. One obvious inference from the facts I +have stated, is the extreme desirableness of a native agency. The +natives of the land, when found fit for the work, have always been +highly prized. Many of this class are now labouring in different parts +of India, and there is every reason to hope that in coming years the +native agency will grow largely in extent and efficiency. + +[Sidenote: IMPRESSION OF THE SECOND YEAR.] + +During my second year in Benares I entered on every department of +mission work, and had many opportunities for intercourse with the +people. In my turn I preached to the native Christian congregation, went +with the missionaries and catechists to the city, and engaged in +teaching the boys attending our primary schools. I saw the great +gatherings of the people at their religious festivals, and realized +their character, and the nature of the work to which I had devoted my +life, more than I had previously done. Instead of following +chronological order, my object in these reminiscences will be best +attained by endeavouring to present to my readers those aspects of +Indian and mission life which, during my second year, made a deep +impression on my mind, an impression which was deepened by subsequent +experience. + +[Illustration] + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS OF THE HINDUS. + + +Crowds pass through the temples of Benares every day, pay obeisance, and +present offerings; but on ordinary occasions there is no combined act of +worship conducted by a leader, as is common in Christian assemblies. On +occasions of special urgency--the failure of rain, its unseasonable +fall, the fear of famine, or the dread of a great calamity coming on the +community in some other form--sacrifices are offered up by priests in +the presence of great multitudes, in which all present unite. These are +very special and occasional services, for, as a rule, all over India +persons and families act apart. + +Hindus are, however, eminently social, and in their religious services +full play is given to the social feeling. This is shown by their melas, +or religious gatherings, which are held all over the country, and are +extremely popular. Some of these melas are local, and have only a local +attendance. Those to which crowds from places far and near resort are +held in so-called sacred spots. Many are periodical, and are held at +fixed periods of the year in honour of their gods, and in celebration of +their exploits. Others, again, are held on special occasions, and of +these eclipses are the most attractive. + +[Sidenote: THE SATURNALIA OF THE HINDUS.] + +In the course of my second year I saw a good deal of these festivals. I +have a vivid and very unpleasant recollection of the Holee of that year, +the Saturnalia of the Hindus, which is held at the setting in of the hot +weather. It lasts for several days, during which the people act as if +freed from every moral restraint. There is a general cessation of +labour; the people wander about, indulge in the wildest freaks, address +to women who venture out the vilest words, leap and dance as if +possessed of the spirit of licence, and throw red colouring-matter on +those they meet, without respect of persons; till all seen in the +streets, with their besmeared faces and soiled clothes, have a most +disreputable appearance. The night is rendered hideous, and sleep +well-nigh impossible, by the drumming, fifing, and shouting of the +revellers, kept up till break of day. During this period many think +themselves at liberty to do what at another time they would deem very +culpable. Not a few partake of intoxicating drink, and if native +statements be true they give themselves over to the grossest +licentiousness. Europeans, as a rule, except it be necessary for them to +go abroad, remain quietly in their homes while the Holee lasts, and +mission work is for the time well-nigh suspended. When, however, +Europeans have occasion to go out they have little reason to fear +insult, as even in the Holee season they are regarded, if not with +respect, at least with a dread which restrains the revellers. The +hurtful influence of this season of licence can be conceived. I have +always observed that for some time afterwards the boys in our schools +were sleepy and listless. + +On the night of the Diwalee mela, held in honour of Lakshmee, the +goddess of wealth, the whole city is illuminated, tiny lamps are seen +everywhere, friends give presents to each other, sweetmeats and parched +grain are distributed among the poor. High and low give the night to +gambling. The belief is entertained that if they fail to spend the night +in this manner they will in their next birth be turned into frogs, or +some vile reptile. + +The most popular festival of the year at Benares and over the +North-Western Provinces is the Ram Leela, the Play of Ram, when the life +of Ram, a very popular incarnation of Vishnu, is dramatized. This drama +is acted in the open air in different parts of the city, in the presence +of admiring thousands. The people see Ram and his faithful spouse Seeta +forced to leave their royal home by the intrigue of his mother-in-law; +they see them in the forest, where Ram leads the life of a hunter; they +see Seeta carried off by Rawan, the Demon King of Lunka (Ceylon); they +hear Ram's cries of bitter distress on finding his beloved Seeta gone; +they see him informed that Rawan is the ravisher; they see him setting +out with the divine monkey Hanuman, and his army of monkeys for the +rescue; and they rejoice with him in the taking of Lunka, the +destruction of Rawan, and the rescue of Seeta. The story furnishes +abundant material for a drama, and the people enter with the greatest +zest into the different scenes. A huge figure of Rawan is made of wood +and paper; it is set on fire, and the crowds, looking on, make the air +resound with their shouts. During this mela two things are united which +in Hindu estimation well agree--amusement and devotion. They regard the +Ram Leela as a religious service, which they are bound to render to the +conqueror of Rawan, and while rendering it they are at once performing +duty and receiving pleasure. They continually call such a service +_tumasha_, _show_, _fun_, and they regard its life and sprightliness a +pleasing contrast to the sombre and staid services of the Christian +Church. + +[Sidenote: ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.] + +Before the conclusion of my second year an eclipse of the moon occurred, +which drew to the city the greatest assemblage of human beings I had +ever seen. The Hindus place high among their deities the sun and moon, +and render to them daily worship. Between the gods and the demons there +is perpetual war, and victory inclines at one time to one side, at +another time to another. In Hindu mythological annals many instances are +recorded of the gods having been reduced to the utmost extremity. We are +told that eclipses are caused by the demons endeavouring to swallow the +sun and moon; and religious services on these occasions have a double +benefit--the worshipper secures a high degree of merit, of which he will +reap the reward one day; and the demons are driven off from their prey +by the drumming, the shouts, and the merit of the assembled people, to +the great relief of the endangered gods. The most extravagant promises +are held out to those who bathe in the Ganges, at any time in any part +of it; but bathing on the occasion of an eclipse, and especially in so +sacred a place as Benares, is meritorious in a degree which is +incalculable. The Pundits, the religious leaders of the people, have, it +appears, access to the council of the demons, for the exact time of the +coming attack is known by them so long before hand that the people far +and near are prepared for its approach. In fact, if it did not come on, +if the demons withdrew from their intention, there would be great +disappointment. Brahman missionaries go great distances to inform the +people the eclipse is to take place, and to press on them the benefit +they will receive by bathing at Benares on that occasion. On their +return they are accompanied by those whom they have succeeded in +persuading. Leaving the mythological for the scientific platform, we had +better mention that the Hindu astronomers have for ages been able to +calculate eclipses; and now they need not trouble themselves to make +calculations, as European almanacks are in their hands to give the +requisite information. + +For a few days previous to the eclipse of which I am now to speak, the +unusual number of strangers in the city made it evident some great event +was about to occur. From the morning of the appointed day the people +poured into the city in a constant stream. As evening came on I made my +way into the city on foot, but before reaching its centre I found the +streets so blocked that I despaired of getting to the riverside. I +retraced my steps, and by a road skirting the city made my way to Raj +Ghat at the northern end. There I remained till the eclipse commenced. +Many were near, but they were few compared with the crowds pressing +towards the chief bathing places. When I arrived at Raj Ghat the +confused sound of a great multitude fell on my ear, but no sooner did +the eclipse begin than the thousands on the river's brink and crowded on +the ghats, as with one voice raised a shout so loud and prolonged, that +I should think it must have been heard for miles. I was on a high bank +of the river, and could see distinctly the people below rushing into the +stream. I could not but think of what must be occurring where the crowd +was so dense that individual motion was well-nigh impossible. It was +reported next morning that three or four hundred persons had been +trampled to death or drowned in the rush to the river when the eclipse +began. This was afterwards declared to be an exaggerated statement, but +it is certain many lives were lost, though how many was not ascertained, +as a number were carried away by the stream. Special care was afterwards +taken by the authorities to prevent such catastrophes. After stopping +some time at Raj Ghat I returned to my home, musing on what I had seen, +and longing for the time when the millions of India will seek cleansing +and life, where alone they can be found. + +[Sidenote: MELA AT ALLAHABAD.] + +Towards the end of 1840 I went to Allahabad, seventy miles north-west of +Benares, to take part in evangelistic work at a great mela held there +annually, as I thought I might be able to render some help to my +brethren. Allahabad, called Pryag by the Hindus, is at the confluence of +the Ganges and the Jumna, and all such places are deemed sacred. It is +said there is a third river, the Suruswatee, once visible but now +underground, and the place is therefore called Tribeni--the threefold +stream. Pryag has been for many years a famous place of pilgrimage, and +every year a mela is held, which is at its height for some seven days, +but is kept on for weeks. It is held in the cold weather, December or +January; and, next to Hurdwar, where the Ganges issues from the +mountains, draws a greater crowd than any other mela in Northern India. +Bathing at Tribeni is peculiarly meritorious in some years, and in these +there is a vastly increased attendance. Except on the occasion of +eclipses there is no such gathering even at Benares; but very many who +go to Allahabad, before returning to their home, often a distant home, +pay a visit to the sacred city. + +At one time the Government imposed a tax on pilgrims to this mela, but +it was taken off in 1838 or 1839. + +The mela is held below the fort, on the land lying between the Ganges +and the Jumna at their point of meeting, on a great stretch of sand, +which is covered in the rainy season. In December and January the west +wind blows freshly over the place, and as there is incessant movement, +soon all present are so covered with dust that they look like millers. + +[Sidenote: EVANGELISTIC SERVICES.] + +A gathering like this at Allahabad is always embraced for evangelistic +purposes. Missionaries and native brethren are thankful for the +opportunity afforded them of preaching the Gospel to many who have come +from places to which no missionary has ever gone. The missionaries at +Allahabad gladly welcome and hospitably entertain the brethren of other +missions who join them at these annual gatherings. Large tents are put +up, with the front open towards the road, and there the preachers from +morning till evening, preacher succeeding preacher, address the people, +while hearers succeed hearers. A few individuals stop a long time, as if +rapt up in what they hear, as if they were drinking in every word; +others stop a considerable time; while many, after looking on and gaping +for a few minutes, hold on their way. Every now and then questions are +asked, objections are started, and a discussion ensues. When the +questions are in any measure serious and reasonable, much benefit +results from such discussion. The interest of the people is quickened, +and opportunity is afforded for explaining, defending, and enforcing the +truth as it is in Jesus. Sometimes the questioner is neither serious nor +reasonable, and then the danger is of the discussion turning into a +wrangle, which does more harm than good. Prominent transgressors in this +line are the Pundas, specially interested in the mela, who do all in +their power to set the people against us. At this first great gathering +which I attended--I found it was the case afterwards on similar +occasions--there was less mere idle discussion than there is where the +missionary carries on his work from day to day. In addition to +preaching-stations, there were bookstalls where portions of the +Scriptures and Christian tracts and books were disposed of. On to the +time of this mela there was a large gratuitous distribution among +persons who from their look and manner were deemed suitable recipients; +but for many years it has been found best to charge a small price, +without adopting a hard and fast line against giving away. + +It is very difficult, rather impossible, to estimate the effect produced +by evangelistic services on such occasions. They have not been fruitless +as to conversion, but if we look simply at results of this kind it must +be acknowledged they are very limited. Instances have occurred of +persons having been so impressed that they have followed missionaries to +places far away from Allahabad; but their courage has failed them, and +they have after a short time disappeared. One advantage is secured--the +Gospel is kept before the minds of the people, and some knowledge of it +is carried to the remotest parts of the land. Books and tracts are taken +to places which missionaries have never visited. It cannot be doubted +that such services have their part in preparing the people for the new +and better state of things which every Christian longs for and expects. + +At Allahabad I had an opportunity of observing the peculiarities of a +great Hindu mela. The morning was devoted to bathing and the performance +of religious rites. As the forenoon came on, the merchants of every +class set out their wares in tents erected on sites appointed for them, +with their opening, so far as possible, away from the side exposed to +the wind. Goods of every description, useful and ornamental, cloth, +grain, cooking vessels, trinkets, and sweetmeats, were exhibited to +tempt purchasers, and buying and selling went on as vigorously as if the +people had come together solely for that end. Crowds were in constant +motion, going from place to place to see what could be seen, and +stopping where there was any special attraction, or, as happens in our +own crowded streets, stopping where a few were incidentally collected. +By the afternoon, singers, experts in tricks, and show-people of every +description, commenced their operations, and were sure of admiring +crowds. The merry-go-rounds were largely patronized. Hour after hour was +thus spent. + +[Sidenote: COOKING AND MERRYMAKING.] + +A few cooked food early in the day, but the vast majority staved off +hunger--in some cases by partaking of cakes reserved from the previous +evening meal; the greater number, I believe, by partaking of sweetmeats +made with flour, sugar, and melted butter, of which an enormous quantity +was offered for sale. As evening came on they scattered themselves over +the ground lying between the Ganges and the Jumna, and set to the +preparation of their one proper meal for the twenty-four hours. The +plain was alight with their fires. Nothing can be simpler than their +cooking. They make what they call a _choola_, an elevation in the shape +of a horseshoe of a half-foot or a little more of moistened mud, or +stone if they can get it. If the traveller be of a respectable caste, he +takes care to make no use of the _choolas_ which former travellers have +left. They may have been set up by impure hands, and so he makes one for +himself. It is convenient to have two such _choolas_, that they may put +on the one a small pot with rice or _dal_, a kind of pea, in it, and on +the other a girdle for bannocks of unleavened dough. Cooking is, of +course, largely women's work, but men are as expert at it as women, and +are continually seen preparing their meal. I have never travelled with a +native who seemed to think he was called to an unusual or unpleasant +work, when required to cook his food. All he needs is a couple of small +cooking vessels, which he carries with him, a little fuel, good water, +meal, and a spot on which he may set up his humble hearth. I have seen +this work done by pundits, learned men, who showed no indication of +shrinking from it as if it trenched on their dignity. Indeed the pundit +in a party that has few facilities for cooking has, as I remember well +in one instance, this honour conferred on him on account of his caste +being higher than that of those who are with him. All of every caste can +eat what he has prepared, but he helps himself first, and eats apart. + +To return to the mela. The evening is well advanced before the repast is +over. We might suppose that after the stir of the day all would be ready +for sleep, and no doubt many lie down and sleep soundly; but quite a +number are too eager for the enjoyment of the fair to give themselves to +rest. Singing, drumming, and boisterous mirth go on till the small hours +of the morning, as I have known to my unpleasant experience--not at +Allahabad, but elsewhere when I have been in their close neighhourhood. + +How do the vast multitudes who attend a mela, such as that of Allahabad, +dispose of themselves at night? Their arrangements are of the simplest +kind. Many wrap themselves in their sheet or blanket, if they have one, +and lie down on the ground without any idea they are enduring hardship. +Others rig out a temporary tent with sticks and a blanket over it, +creep under this, and deem themselves luxuriously accommodated. This +gathering at Allahabad is in the cold weather, and if the nights be very +cold, as they sometimes are at that season, no doubt many suffer +severely. Every now and then heavy rain falls, and then, as may be +supposed, the suffering is extreme. Sanitary precautions are of the +utmost importance where such vast crowds meet and remain together for +days, and these are taken by the authorities. They cannot, however, +provide against suffering caused by bad weather. Occasionally cholera +breaks out, and then the scenes witnessed are appalling. At the mela of +1840 the weather was good, and there was no indication of disease among +the people. Some years afterwards we were travelling towards Allahabad +at an early period of the mela, and met crowds fleeing from it on +account of the outbreak of cholera. Here and there we saw corpses at the +side of the road, occasionally without one person near, at other times +with a weeping group around, who were preparing to carry off the body to +some rivulet to have it burnt, or, as it often happens, to have it +scorched, and then left to be devoured by jackals and vultures. Some had +held on their way with weary limbs till the fell disease seized them, +and then they succumbed, lay down, and died. We remember stopping where +a young man was dying, with two or three sorrowful ones around him. We +spoke to him, but got no reply. His glazed eye told he was beyond all +human help. + +One of the first things I saw at this Allahabad mela was a quantity of +human hair, and was told that it had been cut off after the fulfilment +of vows, reminding one of a custom to which we find frequent reference +in both the Old and New Testaments. I also saw a very disgusting +sight--men in stark nudity, sitting in a very composed dignified +fashion, and women approaching them with folded hands, and paying them +profound homage. These were deemed men of great sanctity, whose blessing +brought signal benefit, while their curse entailed terrible calamities. +At an early period of our residence at Benares we sometimes met these +naked creatures in the streets; but for many years they have +disappeared, as there is a magisterial order that they be flogged for +their indecency, however loud may be their pretension of sanctity. At +Allahabad there were many devotees with their tangled hair, besmeared +bodies, and _very_ scanty clothing--if what they had on could be called +clothing. These are yet seen all over the country. The time has not yet +come for stringent orders in these cases. + +[Sidenote: HINDU SOCIAL FEELING.] + +On the occasion of a gathering such as that of Allahabad a stranger sees +no sign of the separating influence of caste. The people move about and +mix with each other as freely as people do in Europe when assembled in +large numbers. There is nothing in caste to prevent people conversing +with each other and being on friendly terms; but the friendliness must +not go the length of eating together or of intermarriage. There are +indeed large classes deemed so low, so outside the pure Hindu castes, +that, so far as is possible, their touch is shunned, and they are not +allowed to enter temples; but even these may be spoken to and caste +purity retained. We have not in Northern India a class so low that they +must hide themselves when a Brahman appears, as Pariahs have to do in +some parts of Southern India. In fact, at Hindu melas one receives a +pleasing impression of the social character of the people, when he +observes their good humour and friendly intercourse. + +We do not wonder at the popularity of these gatherings. The social +feeling is as strong among the Hindus as among any people on the face of +the earth. The vast majority lead lives of monotonous toil in places +where there is no excitement greater than that of ordinary village and +hamlet life, and to them it must be a great pleasure to resort to the +gatherings of their people, where religion, business, and amusement are +very happily combined, and where there is so much to interest, +exhilarate, and gratify them. These times are to them the red-letter +days of the year, without which life would be intolerably dull. Resort +to these gatherings no doubt involves them in toil, in expense, and +sometimes in great suffering; but they do not shrink from the cost, as +they anticipate the expected benefit. + +[Sidenote: CHRISTIAN SOCIAL FEELING.] + +There cannot be a doubt that Hinduism is greatly strengthened by these +melas. Judaism was greatly strengthened by the people according to the +Divine command going up thrice every year, at appointed times, to the +place where the name of the Lord was, and by their repairing in vast +numbers once a year to their sacred capital after they had become widely +scattered among the nations. Muhammadans, by long journeys and perilous +voyages, make their way to Mecca and Medina, their sacred cities, and +make it a point to be present at the most sacred season, when many +thousands are assembled. These pilgrims return to their homes more +devoted than ever to Islam. It would be strange if Christianity, which +above every other religion aims at producing and sustaining the feeling +of universal brotherhood, did not avail itself of this social feeling, +to which so much scope is given in human religions, and which is so +potent in confirming the devotion of their adherents. Our blessed +Saviour, the Head of the Church, has by the institution of Churches, and +the instruction given to them through His Apostles, provided for the +fellowship of His people; and the occasional gathering of the members of +different Churches, to which the principles of the Gospel point, and to +which it gives the fullest sanction, presents precious opportunities for +the manifestation and exercise of the brotherliness so characteristic of +the kingdom of heaven which our Lord came to set up on the earth. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE OBJECT OF MISSIONS, AND VARIOUS MODES OF OPERATION. + + +There is no difference of opinion among missionaries as to the object +for which they have gone to the heathen. They are all agreed their +object is to make known the Gospel, the message of salvation, to all to +whom they obtain access, to explain its nature, and press its claims on +their acceptance. To this nothing can be held superior; to this +everything must be deemed subordinate. To place anything above it, or +even beside it, would be to lose sight of the very _raison d'etre_ of +their missionary calling. + +[Sidenote: VARIETY OF EFFORT NEEDED.] + +There may be, however, and there often is, a difference of opinion as to +the line of operation best fitted to secure success. Missionaries find +themselves in presence of widely-separated classes, who must be +approached in different ways, and it is the part of wisdom to find out +the most direct path to their understanding, conscience, and heart. +About these modes of operation there has often been marked diversity of +opinion, some pleading for one mode, and others for another. It cannot +be denied that in the discussion thus carried on there has often been +one-sidedness, resulting in some cases from natural liking, in some from +special fitness, in others from the peculiarities of the sphere into +which missionaries find themselves introduced so that they fail to +realize the peculiarities in the qualifications, likings, and spheres of +their brethren, who are as eager as themselves to bring the people to +the feet of the Lord Jesus. Hinduism is a strong fortress, and those who +assail it by hurling at it--if I may so speak--the red-hot shot of +exposure of its errors, and the fire of the truth as it is in Jesus, act +very unwisely in depreciating those who are quietly preparing the +ammunition required for carrying on the siege, or are undermining the +foundations, and thus preparing for entering the breach. The erection of +the Christian Church in India is a most arduous, and at the same time a +most glorious, enterprise, and a variety of workmen is required. Those +who handle the trowel and the hammer act very unwisely in depreciating +those who plan the structure, clear away the rubbish, and lay the +foundation, or who in other ways help on the building. These +illustrations require no enlargement. They indicate the views which +every succeeding period of my missionary career has led me to entertain +with increasing firmness. The translation and revision of the +Scriptures, the preparation of Christian tracts and books, teaching in +schools and colleges, taking charge of orphanages, the going among the +people in city, town, and hamlet, wherever they can be reached, to speak +to them about the Saviour of mankind; attending to secular work, such as +the erection of buildings, keeping accounts, and gathering money--all +are legitimate departments of missionary work, and the choice of them by +missionaries ought to be determined by the exigencies of missions, by +personal fitness, and by providential indications of the course which +should be pursued. I would go further, and say that the preparation of +grammars and dictionaries, the giving of time and strength to literary +work, may in certain circumstances, in the case of men of peculiar +qualifications, be deemed work worthy of a missionary, as thereby he may +do much to further the cause to which he has devoted his life. Readers +will readily recall names of illustrious men, who were deeply imbued +with the missionary spirit and did eminent service, who were also +remarkable for their literary achievements. It would, however, be very +undesirable that literary ability and industry should be the most +prominent characteristics of a large portion of the missionary band. +Devotion to literary work is, with rare exceptions, incompatible with +the active life which must be led by those who would come into close +contact with the people, and by personal intercourse strive to bring +them to the Saviour. + +Some individuals have gone to the mission-field with the firm resolve to +do the work in only one way. Such a resolve has ever seemed to me most +unwise, savouring more of wilfulness than of holy steady purpose to do +the Master's work. The missionary ought to go out ready to part with +every preconceived notion at the call of providential direction and the +Spirit's guidance, prepared to do with all his might whatever he may +have the opportunity of doing for the advancement of Christ's kingdom, +however little may be his natural liking or supposed fitness for the +work. + +Like most missionaries, I went to India with my liking for certain forms +of work; but like nearly all who have been long in the field, there is +scarcely any department in which I have not some time or other been +engaged, though for some departments I have had little aptitude and, I +may say, no liking, and from which I would have escaped if I could. To +have held back would have been dereliction of duty, and this conviction +overcame my reluctance. + + +PREACHING TO THE HEATHEN. + +[Sidenote: BAZAR PREACHING.] + +Without any depreciation of other departments, preaching to the +heathen--what is commonly called in India Bazar preaching--ought ever to +hold a prominent place. + +Evangelistic work is carried on wherever access to the people can be +obtained. In Benares, our primary schools, of which I shall speak +presently, were taught in verandahs open to the streets. These were +utilized as preaching-stations. The boys were first examined and taught; +a few invariably gathered around, and we turned from the boys to the +bystanders, and spoke to them so long as they were willing to hear, or +we were able to speak. In addition to these verandahs we had humble +buildings erected on the most available spots, for the double purpose of +schools and preaching-stations. To these little chapels we could retire +from the noise of the streets. In them we had morning and evening +service; but as the hot weather advanced the heat was well-nigh +intolerable in the city in the evening, and evening work was suspended +till we got cooling by the first burst of rain. + +We every now and then betook ourselves to the shade of a house or a +tree, where we spoke to the passers-by. On the occasion of great +gatherings we took our stand at the roads by which the people were +pouring into the city, or making their way out of it. Every place was +deemed suitable where we could get hearers, and could hope for any +degree of attention. At some spots the crowd was so large and noisy that +there was no use in trying to make ourselves heard. As we went about we +spoke to individuals and little groups as opportunity was presented to +us. + +Some missionaries who laid themselves out for this department made it a +point to go every year, with their native assistants, considerable +distances to the great melas, and spend days, sometimes weeks, in +setting before the assembled crowd the great truths of God's Word. +Others, again, made it a point to travel during the cold weather, so far +as home duty allowed, to preach the Gospel through the country; some +within a limited area, confining themselves to certain towns and +villages, and visiting them again and again, while others made very +extended tours. It was my privilege for years to take part in these +itineracies, and I remember with peculiar pleasure the opportunities +they afforded for intercourse with the people. + +[Sidenote: DIFFERENT MODES OF PREACHING.] + +What in India is called Bazar preaching is very different from the +ordinary preaching of ministers in this country, both in its mode and in +the circumstances in which it is conducted. When accompanied by a few +native Christians, we begin by singing a hymn and offering a short +prayer. Then those present are addressed. Often one of our Lord's +parables, or some striking fact or passage from the Scriptures is taken +as a text. Sometimes a remark by one of our hearers, or something of +general interest which has just occurred, gives the keynote to the +address. The great doctrines and facts of Scripture are mainly dwelt on, +and the more simply and directly they are set forth, the more are we +satisfied our duty is efficiently discharged. In our preaching the first +place is assigned to the life and character, the words and deeds, the +death, resurrection, and reign of our blessed Saviour. Suitableness is a +valuable characteristic of preaching everywhere, and among no people is +it more important than in speaking to the Hindus. They are very fond of +figures, of illustrative instances, and when these are happily applied +they produce a marked effect. In the character of the gods and +goddesses, and in Hindu notions and practices, there is much which is +open to attack, and some avail themselves largely of this opening to +assail the cherished belief of the people; but as a rule it is far +better to assert and enforce truth than to confute error, though truth +does at times require error to be directly exposed. The native brethren +are much more inclined to aggressive speech than the missionaries. They +know their own countrymen well; they are familiar with their modes of +thinking and of acting, they are well acquainted with the doings +attributed to their gods, and they are ready to attack them with +unsparing severity. On one occasion a catechist, more zealous than wise, +began his address with the words, "Your religion is altogether false," +which so provoked his hearers that they did not hear another word, and +went away in indignation. Afterwards I sharply reproved him for his +indiscretion, as I had at times to do to him and others. + +Occasionally a missionary is quietly heard, and if heard attentively as +well as quietly he is gratified with the reception he gets, and hopes +that good is being done. It is seldom, however, in a city like Benares +that a preacher is allowed to go on long without interruption. If a +considerable number assemble we are almost sure to find, before we +conclude, some among them ready to speak, and the object of those who +thus come forward becomes speedily apparent. Some are eager to interrupt +the preacher. He has scarcely announced his subject, and has had no +opportunity of explaining and illustrating it, when he is interrupted +by the words, "You have spoken a long time" (the long time has perhaps +not been five minutes); "let me speak a little while." As a rule, in +this case the missionary appeals to the fairness of his audience to give +him a patient hearing, that they may really know his views, and may be +in a position for coming to a right judgment regarding them. Often the +appeal is successful, and our eager disputant is compelled to remain +silent. When the address is over discussion is welcomed; and, as I have +observed about preaching at the religious gatherings of the people, if +conducted with reasonableness and good humour it is fitted to do good. +We are thankful when there is the appearance of candour, even though +there be not earnestness, when those who speak seemingly desire to know +exactly what we do hold, as thereby an opportunity is given for the +clearer and fuller statement of the Gospel. I have a pleasing +recollection of many instances when persons were evidently impressed +with what had been told them of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the claims +He has on man's love and trust. + +It must be acknowledged that this has not been the mood of most of our +hearers where we are well known. Many are eager to defend their own +position as Hindus, and to attack Christianity because it wages war with +their religion. Heathenism in ancient times, heathenism now as we see it +in India, was and is very liberal. It is ready to let Christianity +alone, if Christianity will let it alone. It is the exclusiveness of +Christianity which is so offensive. We are continually told that +Christianity is excellent for us; we are most welcome to maintain our +adherence to it; and it is surely fair to let them alone in the +enjoyment of their religion. Because they are not let alone, because we +contend that their religion is dishonouring to the living God and +hurtful to themselves, because we affirm that Christ is the one Saviour +and the rightful Lord, they are eager to find something in our books and +views which they can assail, and by which they can show our position to +be untenable. + +There is nothing we hear more frequently than that all religions lead to +the same goal, as all the roads of a country lead to its capital. To +this we reply that those who wish to go to Calcutta in the east are not +likely to reach it soon if they set out on the road to Lahore in the +west. The east and west are opposite, and yet they are not opposed; but +good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, are essentially +opposed, their fruits are opposed, and those who practise them are sure +to find themselves at last in places as distinct from each other as +light is from darkness, as happiness is from misery. + +[Sidenote: THE STRENGTH OF TRADITIONAL RELIGION.] + +Traditional religion is strong, except in peculiar seasons when the tide +of public opinion runs in the channel of religious revolt. From the lips +of Hindus we hear continually, "We must walk in the ways of our fathers. +What our fathers believed we believe. What our fathers practised we +practise. No good son leaves his father and mother. No good wife leaves +her husband for another." To this objection we have various replies. We +tell them they do not walk in the ways of their ancient fathers, for +they did many things, such as eating the flesh of cows, which they +abhor, knew nothing of the gods they worship, and were not fettered by +caste as they are. What we say about these Hindu ancestors gets little +credit, as the people generally know nothing about them. We remind them +that among themselves there have been tribes that have from generation +to generation lived by thuggery and dacoity (murder and robbery). Ought +the children of these murderers and robbers to walk in the ways of +_their_ fathers? + +I have often referred to the Khonds in the hills of Orissa, who, till +the horrid practice was stopped by British interference, enticed +children from the plains, fed them well, treated them kindly, and then +on a fixed day murdered them, tore limb from limb, and scattered the +bleeding fragments over the fields as an offering to the Land Goddess to +secure an abundant harvest. I have asked, "Ought these people to walk in +the ways of their fathers?" To this question I have never received an +affirmative reply. + +We have reminded the people their fathers were as prone to err as we +are; that we ought to weigh in the scales of truth and justice what they +did, in order to the imitation of them when right and the forsaking of +them when wrong. If they were with us, provided they were really wise, +they would wish us to embrace the good of which they knew nothing, but +which was now presented for their acceptance. With all their regard for +their fathers, there were things unknown to them--as, for instance, the +potato for food, and the railway carriage for travelling. If the potato +was good for the body, as many of them showed they thought by partaking +of it, might not our religion be good for the soul? If they resorted in +crowds to the railway carriages even when going on pilgrimage to their +sacred places, if in their earthly travels they found these carriages so +serviceable, might they not find the religion of Christ, if candidly +considered, the best vehicle for carrying them to heaven? We have much +sympathy with the feeling of reverence for ancestors, but they are not +entitled to tyrannize over their descendants. We tell them we do not +wish them to leave their father's house, but to return to it; not to +leave the husband, but to return to the true husband. + +[Sidenote: WORSHIP OF GOD UNDER MATERIAL FORMS.] + +At first sight the worship carried on at Benares seems so absurd that +one wonders how a reasonable being can say anything in its defence. Many +years ago I had a visit from an English gentleman who was travelling +through India, and he expressed his surprise we had such limited success +in turning the people from worshipping such ugly misshapen stones. He +evidently thought that by quoting some of the passages of Scripture in +which the wickedness and folly of idol-worship are exposed, he could +silence idol-worshippers, and secure their speedy conversion to the +living God. If he had come into contact with the people he would not +have found their conversion such an easy matter. I have never met a +Hindu who would allow he worshipped the material objects before which he +bowed down. However illiterate he may be, he is ready to maintain that +he worships the god represented by the image, and who is actually +dwelling in it in a mysterious manner, after some sacred words have been +uttered over it. + +We are often told in defence of Hinduism that it is a symbolical +representative religion, and that as God is vastly beyond our +comprehension, we cannot, except by symbols, attain any conception of +Him. We have often to say in reply, that as we cannot see our own +spirit, and yet know how real, how dominant it is, so far less do we +know the Supreme Being, and yet we have abundant evidence of His +existence, character, and government. Of Him no fitting image can be +made, and every such attempt is unworthy of Him, and degrading and +demoralizing to us. The representations of God in Scripture under +sensible forms are of high value to us in our weakness; but when +reproduced in material substances, such as wood and stone, they have +been ever found to foster low, materialistic views of the Most High. If +we must betake ourselves to such symbols, let us have those which +inspire lofty thoughts. What is there in these grotesque idols to help +us in rising to the living God? Hindus who know English have quoted +Cowper's address to his mother on getting her picture, "Oh that those +lips had language," and we have been asked, "Was not Cowper helped in +realizing his mother when looking at her picture?" To which there is the +obvious reply, "Cowper's mother was truly represented. Is God truly and +fittingly represented by the idols you worship?" + +The gods are continually represented as mediators through whom we +approach the Supreme. "When we seek the favour of a king we approach him +through his ministers; when we wish to propitiate a judge we try to +secure a friend who will plead for us: and thus by the gods we get +access to the Most High." To this we reply that as creatures we may each +one go directly to God, for He is always near us, and we can never be +far from Him; but as sinners we need a mediator. As the necessity for a +mediator is acknowledged, we have an excellent opportunity of showing +how worthy Christ is of being trusted as the Mediator, related as He is +by His essential nature to the Most High, and to man by the nature He +has assumed. A favourite figure with the Hindus is that the gods are a +ladder by which they ascend to the Supreme; and we could not have a +figure more adapted to our purpose, as it leads us to show that Christ +is the very ladder we need--He by His Divine nature reaching heaven, and +by His human nature being set upon the earth. His infinite excellence +and His propitiatory sacrifice assure us that this ladder is so strong +that it can bear the weight of the whole of the human family in their +ascent to God. + +Few things have been a greater stumbling-block to the Hindus than the +crucifixion of Christ, and we have to dwell continually on the fact that +it was not by the failure of His power, but by the ardour of His love, +He endured this death. Some of the gods, Shiva and Kalee in particular, +are propitiated by animal sacrifices, as blood is specially pleasing to +them. The need of sacrifice to deliver from the consequences of sin is +dimly discerned by the people, but they have such distorted views on the +subject that it is difficult to convey to them the Christian idea of +propitiation. + +[Sidenote: PUNDIT DEFECT IN HISTORIC INSTINCT.] + +The learned men of India have been singularly wanting in what may be +called the historic instinct, and we need not wonder at finding the +people generally destitute of it. The evidence for Christianity drawn +from its history makes no impression on them. Historical facts and the +wildest legends are received by them with equal readiness. When speaking +of the miracles of our Lord, and enlarging on their peculiar features of +power and goodness, I have been pleased to witness an attention which +led me to hope that a favourable impression was being made; but more +than once my hope has been dashed to the ground by one of my most +attentive hearers saying, "You have been telling us of your God. He did +excellent things, and you do well to worship Him; but listen to me, and +I will tell you what my gods have done." And then my hearer has become +the speaker, and has dilated on the wonderful feats of his gods, such as +Krishna lifting up a mountain and holding it on his hand above his +worshippers to shelter them from the angry bolts of Indra; and has +triumphantly asked, "Is there anything similar to that in your Bible?" +To which we have readily replied, "There is not, but there is what is +more worthy of God." The most illiterate of the people are very familiar +with mythological stories, and if listened to will go on to relate them +with the greatest gusto, and at the greatest length. + +Our doctrine of salvation by grace alone, and not in any degree by man's +merit, is often declared to be fatal to morality. This is often said in +our own country, and we need not say what we advance in its confutation. + +The doctrine of previous births has taken full possession of the Hindu +mind, as accounting for the character and events of the present birth. +This belief in transmigration has a very hurtful effect on the people, +as it leads them, when suffering for their conduct, to attribute their +sufferings to births of which they do not profess to have any +remembrance, instead of blaming themselves for the course they had +pursued. We have to show the baselessness, the unreasonableness, and the +injurious tendency of this notion. The doctrine of a blind fate +determining everything is widely held. The greatest criminals coolly +assert it has been their fate to have done what they have done, and, of +course, to suffer as they suffer. The moral nature of the people, though +benumbed, is happily not destroyed, and to it we appeal against a notion +which levels all moral distinctions. + +[Sidenote: PANTHEISM AND HINDU PHILOSOPHY.] + +Pantheism, it is well known, lies at the foundation of Hindu Polytheism. +It may be indeed doubted if there has ever been a Polytheistic system +apart from a Pantheistic element. The Hindus generally cannot work out +the Pantheistic theory, as the Pundits do, but the most illiterate are +familiar with its commonplaces, and are ready with their avowal. We +often hear, "Is not God everywhere? Does He not pervade all? Is He not +all? Is not all evolved from Him, as the spider's web is evolved from +its body? Does not all emanate from Him, as the stream flows from the +fountain and rays from the sun? Are we not all portions of Him? We may +worship anything and everything if only we see God in it. There are +differences in the sparks from the central fire, some far brighter than +others. The gods are the brightest sparks, and therefore they are +specially worthy of worship." In reply we have to insist on the +difference between the Creator and the creature, between the Ruler and +His subject. We are often told it is God that makes us speak and act, +and we are puppets dancing as He draws the strings. In protest against +this doctrine we appeal to the acknowledgment they themselves make of +the essential distinction between right and wrong, the one to be done, +the other to be shunned, and show that if their Pantheistic notion be +accepted the distinction is obliterated, and the floodgate is open to +the commission of all wickedness. + +The most advanced thought of Hindu philosophy is that all is Maya, +illusion, the play, the amusement of the Supreme, who leads us to +believe that we are, that we have a separate existence, which we have +not; but at last the illusion will come to an end, all will be absorbed +in Brahm, as the water in the clouds falls into the sea; there will be +no conscious existence in the universe. Brahm himself will glide into a +profound slumber from which he will awake after a vast season of repose. +A rope lying on the road is taken for a serpent, but it is only a rope. +There are hundreds of suns glancing on the waters, but there is only one +sun. In reply we contend that illusion implies reality; that if there +was no reality illusion would be impossible. If there was no serpent a +rope would not be taken for it. If there was no sun there would be no +suns glancing in the waters. + +The question has been often discussed, Have the Hindus any idea of a +living, personal God? It is unquestionable they often speak as if they +had. They often say, "Does not God see? Does He not know? Will He not +punish us if we do what is wrong?" It is difficult to say to what degree +this notion has been formed and cherished from intercourse for ages with +Muhammadans, and how far it comes from the demand of the human spirit +for the living God. Some eminent Sanscrit scholars tell us that the +Vedas teach Pantheism, while others assert that in their most ancient +teaching they assert the doctrine of a living, personal God. From this +divided opinion it is plain that the teaching of the Vedas on this vital +subject is ambiguous. At any rate there cannot be a doubt that the +modern Hindus have some notion of God as a living, conscious One apart +from His creatures, although it is held with Pantheistic and +Polytheistic notions, which are antagonistic to it, and greatly weaken +its influence. Its being held at all is very serviceable to a missionary +in the prosecution of his work. + +In a city like Benares many have acquired a considerable acquaintance +with the Bible, and these endeavour to find flaws in it to show that our +religion is as assailable as theirs. + +I must not go further into these details of evangelistic work. As I am +giving them my past life comes vividly to my remembrance. I remember its +pleasures, and also its difficulties and trials. I feel as if I was +engaged in preaching to the Hindus among whom I have spent a great part +of my life, and discussing with them the great questions which affect +God and man. I am consequently in danger of saying more than can be +interesting to my readers. + +[Sidenote: MUHAMMADAN OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.] + +In Benares it is rare to have only Hindus for our hearers. We very often +have Muhammadans also, and, they are our most eager and bitter +opponents. All I can now say about them is that they are bent on +entrapping us with questions about the Sonship of Christ, the Trinity in +the Godhead, the authenticity of the Scriptures as we now have them, the +alleged incompleteness of Christ's prophetic office, as proved, they +think, by the promise of the Paraclete as well as by the predictions in +both the Old and New Testaments. Among Muhammadans we have met +individuals who seemed sincere inquirers after truth, who seemed bent on +ascertaining what is true and discovering what is false. We have been +gratified with their apparent candour, humility, and reasonableness. We +must acknowledge these have been a small minority compared with the many +whose pride and bigotry have shut up their mind against everything we +had to advance, and whose sole aim has been to assail Christianity and +Christians. + +In the prosecution of the evangelistic work, which I have endeavoured to +describe, missionaries come into contact with all classes. The seed of +the word thus sown far and wide may remain for a time hidden, but we +have every reason to hope it will some time spring up and bring forth +abundant fruit. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +SCHOOLS. + + +From the commencement of Missions, schools have received much attention, +and have absorbed a large part of mission agency. These schools have +been of different orders, many primary, a number secondary, and a few +educating the pupils up to the University mark for degrees. I have had a +great deal of experience in teaching and superintending primary and +secondary schools, and I have seen something of the institutions of the +highest class. I now speak of schools for boys and young men. Girls' +schools will receive attention in a subsequent chapter. + +[Sidenote: PRIMARY SCHOOLS.] + +I do not know any mission in Northern India where elementary education +has been entirely neglected. Some have done much more in this department +than others, but all have devoted to it a measure of attention and +effort. We had at one time ten schools of this class in different parts +of Benares. In these humble schools many have learned to read, write, +and keep accounts, and have thus been fitted for discharging efficiently +their secular work. Their minds have been furnished and their character +improved by useful information communicated to them. Above all, +Christian instruction has been imparted. The schools have been +frequently visited by the missionary and his native assistants for the +special object of reading with the pupils portions of the Scriptures, +and inculcating the lessons they contain. Thus readers for our +Scriptures and Christian books have been prepared, who we may hope come +to their perusal with weakened prejudice from the kindly feeling with +which we are regarded. A favourable impression has thus been made on the +minds of parents as well as of pupils. + +I have already mentioned that these schools have been utilized for +preaching-stations, and have been well adapted for this purpose. They +have been carried on at small expense. The great drawback has been that +with few exceptions the teachers have been Hindus. They have been of the +Kaisth, the writer caste, who are as a caste less imbued perhaps with +Hinduism than any other. When Christians have been available their +services have of course been thankfully secured. For some years the +Hindu element has been gradually withdrawn from the teaching staff. Two +of the early teachers in our time became Christians, one having been +baptized in our Mission, and the other in the Church Mission at Benares. + +The whole state of primary education in the North-West, I may say in +India, is on a very different footing from what it was in 1840. Great +progress in every department of education has been made since that time. +Considering the vast importance of primary education, the advancement +has not been so great as might have been expected, but there is every +prospect of its being largely extended in the immediate future. It is +hoped that one outcome of the Education Commission which is now sitting +will be the gathering into schools of many thousands of the young who +have been hitherto neglected. + +In most Missions of any standing, even where the chief attention has +been given to direct evangelistic work, some provision has been made for +secondary education. A school with this object was established in our +Mission in 1845. It was taught in a well-sized native house, and was +afterwards transferred to a larger building. It had successive +superintendents, the late Mr. Sherring, Mr. Blake, and myself. It was a +longer time under Mr. Sherring than under any other, and in it he +laboured very diligently and efficiently. It received the name of the +Central School, as our idea was to transfer to it the best boys from +what we called the Bazar schools. It was intended to allow none to enter +who had not made some progress in reading their own language, but we +found this exclusion impracticable, and we were obliged to form an +elementary department. English was taught, and the higher classes were +introduced to geometry, algebra, history, especially Indian history, and +other similar branches of a liberal education. Almost all when they +entered were ignorant of English. Those who remained a considerable time +made fair progress, a few made remarkable progress; and we were happy to +find that many on leaving us obtained responsible situations, which they +continued to hold to the satisfaction of their superiors. + +For years under successive superintendents the Head Master was a +Christian, Babu Ram Chunder Basu, who is now most usefully employed as a +lecturer to educated natives. His great attainments, his diligence and +teaching power, did much to promote the prosperity of the school. + +In our Central school a very prominent place was given to Christian +instruction. Every day Scripture lessons were given by Christian +teachers; on Saturday, for years, a lecture was delivered to the +assembled school; and on Sunday morning a service was held, at which +there was a good voluntary attendance. The effect of the prominence thus +given to Christian teaching was shown early in 1857, when on a plan +arranged by the zealous public-spirited Commissioner of the Benares +Province, Mr. Henry Carre Tucker, there was a gathering in the city of +the pupils from all the schools in the province who choose to attend to +submit to an examination in Scripture knowledge. Prizes in money and +books were given to those who proved themselves most proficient. A great +number of lads and boys made their appearance, and the high place taken +by the pupils of our Central school showed how well they had been +taught. + +[Sidenote: THE UNIVERSITY STANDARD.] + +Some missions provide for taking their pupils on to the University +standard. Among these the missions in the Presidency cities have held, +and from their peculiar sphere must continue to hold, the first rank. I +have already observed nothing interested me more, nothing delighted me +more on reaching Calcutta early in 1839, than the sight of many young +men and boys taught in the institutions of the Church of Scotland and of +our own Mission. It was most exhilarating to see so many bright youths +studying our language, introduced to Western knowledge, and, above all, +led to the fountain of truth in the Word of God. Dr. Duff was not the +first in establishing in Calcutta an institution for the teaching of +English; he was not the first in establishing a Christian school; many +were before him in this good work: but he was the first in setting up an +institution on a large scale on a thoroughly Christian basis, in which +English was to have the first place, and in which provision was made for +carrying the students on to the University standard of Europe. In 1843 +the missionaries, on account of their adherence to the Free Church, were +obliged to give up their buildings in Cornwallis Square, and to seek +accommodation in another part of Calcutta, where they have continued +their scholastic work with great zeal and efficiency. The institution in +Cornwallis Square has been conducted for many years with remarkable +success by the missionaries of the Established Church of Scotland. All +the missions of Calcutta have taken part in this work, and have sent +forth bands of well-educated young men, who have acquired a large +acquaintance with the Word of God. + +Similar institutions have been formed throughout the country. As may be +supposed, these vary greatly in resources and efficiency. Years ago our +Central school was transferred from a rented house in the city to a +large purchased house in the suburbs, where, under the name of the High +School, it has continued to flourish. Many of its students have +successfully passed the Entrance examination of the Calcutta University, +and a considerable number have passed the First Arts examination. It has +always stood high in native estimation, has had a large attendance of +pupils, and is reckoned one of the best institutions of the kind in the +North-West. The change from the Central school, with its secondary +education, the the High school, with its arrangement to carry on the +pupils further, was made by the late Mr. Sherring, and to his assiduous +care and efficient management its success is largely due. It maintains +its character under the superintendence of our friend Mr. Hewlett, who +has arranged for the opening of a B.A. class. + +I have mentioned the University standard. For many years after our going +to India there was no University in the land. The establishment of +Universities in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, and the introduction of +the grant-in-aid system, have effected in the educational department a +change so great that it may be called a revolution. The studies in +mission schools are to a large extent what they were, but they have come +under new conditions, which greatly alter the proportionate attention +given to them, and the degree of zeal with which they are prosecuted. +Under the grant-in-aid system missionaries are allowed full liberty in +giving Christian instruction to their pupils. The only thing required by +the Government Inspector is that the secular education be such as will +entitle the school to a grant. If formerly a mission school egregiously +failed in fitting the pupils for the positions in life to which they +were looking forward, it rightly lost favour, and was soon deserted. Now +there is a new urgent necessity for efficiency, and the healthy stimulus +thus given is in itself a marked benefit; but if care be not taken the +opportunity for imparting Christian instruction is impaired, which +formed the main inducement for missionaries taking part in the work. + +[Sidenote: AMBITION FOR UNIVERSITY HONOURS.] + +The effect of the change is most marked in our higher schools. There is +a widely spread and intense ambition for University honours. Not only in +the Presidency cities, but in the great cities of the country, a crowd +of boys and young men are eager for admission to the University circle. +This eagerness springs from the desire for honourable distinction, which +is as strong in the minds of Indian youth as in any youth on the face of +the earth. It springs, perhaps, still more from the fact that the +University stamp, attesting educational proficiency, is a high +recommendation in favour of applicants for well-paid situations. It +would be hard to say how far a love of knowledge contributes to this +eagerness for study. It would be uncharitable to affirm it is altogether +absent, but it would be shutting one's eyes to potent facts to suppose +it furnishes the greater part of the motive power. Owing to various +causes, such as the want of opportunity, of capacity, and diligence, the +great majority of students do not aspire higher than the Entrance +examination; but even to pass this successfully is considered a great +feat, and many are proud of achieving it. The Calcutta University has a +high standard for degrees, and those who acquire them are entitled to be +considered well-educated men. + +The effect of this eagerness, we may say this rage for University +distinction, on mission schools can be easily conceived. The great +question with the student is, "How can I get to the University goal? +What are the studies which promise the quickest and largest success?" +The studies which do not lead to this goal have little attraction; while +those that lead to it, and just in proportion as they lead to it, are +eagerly pursued. Our Scriptures have no place in the University +curriculum. The consequence is that the student, whose supreme aim is to +acquit himself well when he goes up for degrees, and estimates studies +by their bearing on his success, gives to the Bible only the attention +required by the rule of the institution he attends, and he often gives +that attention reluctantly; so that even the knowledge he cannot fail to +acquire can scarcely be expected to tell on his heart and conscience. +Every hour given to the Bible he is apt to regard as taken away from the +studies which he most highly values, and in which, with all his +application, he finds it difficult to attain proficiency. + +[Sidenote: THE POPULARITY OF MISSION SCHOOLS.] + +It is undeniable that mission schools have been, and are, popular with +the people of India. From the Report just published of our Benares +Mission it appears that at present there are 1,265 pupils in its +schools, boys and girls. Various things have conduced to this +popularity. Missionaries as a class have acquired a firmly established +character for attention to their pupils and kindly treatment of them. +They are credited with good motives by many who have no drawing to +Christianity. Then, for a considerable time no charge for tuition was +made, the pupils being simply required to pay for their school books. +Since fees have been taken they are, I believe, generally lower than in +Government institutions; though, on the other hand, these have +scholarships and prizes which are far beyond any pecuniary advantage +mission schools can offer. There is, of course, in our schools the +possibility of the pupils' ancestral religion being weakened, or even +abandoned, but the hope is entertained both by them and their parents +that the danger will be escaped. While the main motive for resorting to +our schools is secular advancement--undoubtedly a right motive, if kept +within due limits--the missionaries, while earnestly desiring the +temporal welfare of their pupils, are actuated by a still higher motive, +which they constantly avow. Till the establishment of the University, +boys and young men, while prosecuting the special object for which they +had put themselves under tuition, with few exceptions showed no +disinclination to Christian instruction. A portion of the school-time +was allotted for it, and to the work of that time many cheerfully +applied themselves. Some became deeply interested, and a few were led in +consequence to avow their faith in Jesus. With the new University system +a new order of things has come in, which has placed Christian +instruction under great disadvantages. + +In consequence of this change some have advocated the entire withdrawal +of mission agency from the schools where the higher education is +imparted. It has been said, "Why should missionaries from day to day be +doing the work of mere secular teachers, in hope that during the short +time allotted for Christian instruction to young men, indisposed to +receive it, they can secure their spiritual good?" If they withdraw, +what then? The alternative is the loss of influence over a class that +may be expected to take the lead in all movements of their people, and +their transfer to teachers who are, in many cases, the avowed and bitter +foes of Christianity, and whose object will be to imbue them with their +own sentiments. There is abundant testimony to the fact that the pupils +of mission schools regard missionaries with a friendly feeling, and +diffuse that feeling in their respective circles, and also show respect +for the Gospel even when they argue against it to justify their +adherence to their ancestral religion. May it not be hoped, too, that in +many minds a conviction is left that Christianity is the religion of +heaven, although there are formidable obstacles to that conviction +obtaining sway over the heart and life? There have been instances where +the conviction has broken through every obstacle, and has been avowed by +open profession of faith in Christ. Our Missionary Societies may well +shrink from the abandonment of a sphere which furnishes the opportunity +for favourable influence over so many minds--and minds, too, which are +sure to be very influential in the community. + +[Sidenote: SABBATH SCHOOLS.] + +The preferable plan has been adopted. It appears from the latest +statistics that the number of students in mission schools is greater, +and the course of study more advanced, than at any previous period. I am +not aware that any of the missionaries in the higher institutions have +proposed to abandon them on account of the new state of things. While +giving themselves cheerfully to the imparting of the education which +their pupils are eager to acquire, they put forth resolute steady effort +to counteract the secularizing tendency of their studies. The assembled +school is opened with prayer, Scripture lessons are given, and, taught +as they are by Christians, the pupils are under Christian influence +during all their school hours. It is common in the North-West, and I +suppose in other parts of India, to have services in the schools on +Sabbath morning, at which the attendance is voluntary; and at Benares, +at least, the attendance has been very encouraging. Of late Sabbath +schools, apart from day schools, have been established in many missions, +with every prospect of success. The attendance is large, and in some +places a number of parents are present. These schools are carried on +largely on the English and American model. The international lessons are +used, pictures and books are given as prizes to attentive scholars; and +they have a yearly treat, in conducting which care is taken against the +violation of caste. The American Episcopal missionaries have taken the +lead in this new departure. + +It has been often remarked that our higher schools can show very few +converts. The conversions have not been many, and yet they have not been +so inconsiderable in number as they have been represented. When we look +at our mission agents we find that a large proportion of our most +efficient men, the men that have done the best service, have come from +these schools. At the great Missionary Conference at Allahabad in 1874, +at which I was present, they acquitted themselves in a manner which +attested their mental power and Christian earnestness, and gave one a +high opinion of their fitness for evangelistic work among their +countrymen. At the late Decennial Missionary Conference in Calcutta they +took a prominent and effective part. It is, indeed, a matter for deep +regret that of late our accessions from this quarter have been few; but +when hope has been at the lowest ebb one has appeared here and there to +strengthen it by avowing himself a follower of Christ.[3] + +[Footnote 3: At the Calcutta Conference there was much discussion about +schools, especially of the higher order. Experienced educationalists +gave expression to their views, some stating in strong terms the +aversion to Bible lessons shown by many of the pupils; while others, +among whom Mr. Miller of Madras was prominent, represented the pupils as +generally willing to receive Christian instruction.] + +In reference to our schools, in reference to our work generally, it is +important to keep before our minds the great power of public opinion. +Many are the things which go to form it; it is very subtle in its +working; the most acute and observant mind cannot estimate its force: +but when once widely formed its effects are remarkable. In India public +opinion is formed much more slowly than in a land like ours; the +constitution of society presents a stronger front to its action. But +there too it works, and when it works on till it has obtained +overmastering power we may expect to see a marvellous change. We cannot +doubt that missions have a high place in forming this opinion; and among +mission agencies I believe there is no one which has told and is telling +more beneficially on the people than our mission schools. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +ORPHANAGES. + + +All over India missions have had orphans under their charge, but from +personal knowledge I can only speak of the North-West. + +[Sidenote: FAMINE IN THE LAND.] + +The need for these institutions was most pressing in 1838 and 1839. I +remember hearing, on my arrival at Benares, the most harrowing account +of the fearful sufferings of the people over a great extent of country. +The famine had been sore in the land. People fled from their towns and +villages, hoping to reach a more favoured region; but travelling through +districts as destitute of food as those they left, they received no +help, and perished miserably. The weak and the very young were the first +to succumb. Many struggled on, eating grass or anything that could allay +the pangs of hunger, in the hope of reaching the cities where they could +expect relief from their own people, and still more from their English +rulers. At that time Agra was the seat of government for the North-West, +and as the famine was specially severe in that district, so great a +multitude poured into it that, notwithstanding the strenuous effort put +forth by Europeans, official and non-official, helped by wealthy and +benevolent natives, only partial relief could be afforded. The means of +communication between one part of India and another were, even at that +time, far better than they had been in the days of native rule; much had +been done to improve the roads, but owing to the distance of places +where food was comparatively abundant, and the length of time and the +expense incurred in conveying it to the afflicted districts, timely help +was not obtained. Many children were abandoned, and the authorities sent +out orders to their subordinates to rescue these waifs and feed them +till arrangements could be made for their support. + +Missionaries felt themselves called on to offer their services in this +dreadful emergency, and the offer was readily accepted. The large +expenditure for which they thus became responsible was met by a small +allowance made by Government for each child, by a grant from a Famine +Fund which had been raised, and by contributions received by +missionaries from friends to help them in this new undertaking. + +The institutions then established have become permanent. The places left +vacant by the death of many of the first inmates, and the entrance into +active life of those who survived, were soon filled by others who had +equal claims on Christian compassion. On the occasion of great melas +children are often lost, and in not a few cases their parents are never +found. In the great cities, by the death of parents, and by the +abandonment of children--sometimes through extreme destitution, at other +times by unnatural indifference--helpless little ones are cast on the +pity of the public. From country places forsaken children are sent to +the head-quarters of districts. In seasons of scarcity, which frequently +occur, and especially in famine years such as 1861, large additions are +made to the number of orphans. With these causes operating to produce +the class from which orphanages are recruited, there is no likelihood +of the time coming when they will not be needed. The people, as a rule, +are undoubtedly kind to children; but when we consider the great poverty +of many, the extreme difficulty with which they obtain the necessaries +of life, there is no reason to wonder at the cases of destitution which +are continually presenting themselves. In our own country, with all its +advantages, we have numerous orphanages, where many are sheltered and +trained for useful life, who would otherwise be thrown as waifs on the +surface of society. + +[Sidenote: SANGUINE HOPES.] + +When orphanages were first formed in Northern India, great hope was +entertained they would not merely relieve present and pressing distress, +and do good to a large number of destitute young persons, but would tell +powerfully on native society, and lead to the formation of a large, +strong Christian community. The sufferings of the people afflicted by +famine were deplored, they were regarded with deep pity; everything was +done which could be done to relieve them, but it was hoped that out of +this calamitous state of affairs would be evolved, through the +overruling of Providence, a signal moral and spiritual benefit to the +people generally. Here was a large band of boys and girls taken out of +native society, cut off from idolatrous training and associations, and +made over in the most plastic season of their lives to be moulded by +those whose supreme aim would be to strengthen and elevate their +character, and prepare them for a happy, useful, and honourable career. +It was hoped that when these children thus trained grew to manhood and +womanhood, they would go out among their countrymen striking examples of +moral and spiritual excellence, and would by their manifest superiority +make a greater impression on the minds of the people than could be made +by the preaching and efforts of missionaries. A worthy chaplain sent out +a pamphlet advocating the gathering by Government of all the orphan +children in the country, and, if I remember rightly, of all the children +with whom parents were willing to part, and the placing of them in +institutions where they should be brought up as Christians, and as +members of the Church of England. He maintained that if this was done, +in the course of a few years a great number would go out to native +society to leaven it with Christian sentiment, and with loyalty to the +British Government. He drew a glowing picture of the good that would be +accomplished if this policy were adopted and vigorously carried out. Few +were so hopeful as my friend, but many did anticipate great results. + +It cannot be doubted that orphan institutions have done much good; but I +think none will maintain that the sanguine hopes with which they were +begun have been realized. There have been obstacles in the way of +success which might have been partly foreseen, but which could not have +been fully anticipated. Many of the children brought to the missionaries +were so sickly and emaciated, that they soon died in spite of all the +attention bestowed on them. The mortality has been at times most +depressing. There was no vitality to resist disease. The effort to +preserve life was in many cases frustrated by the vitiated taste of the +children, which led them to eat lime, earth, garbage of any kind on +which they could lay their hands, in preference to good food. They were +closely watched, but it was impossible to watch them so closely as to +prevent them from doing that which hurried them to the grave. + +[Sidenote: THE DIFFICULTIES IN ORPHAN MANAGEMENT.] + +The orphans were of different ages, from very early youth to fourteen or +fifteen. The elder ones were steeped in the spirit of the class from +which they came--as a rule the lowest class of the community; and the +younger ones had in their very blood hereditary qualities which put +obstacles in the way of successful training. We do not believe there is +in blood the overpowering efficacy which some have attributed to it; if +it had, responsibility would cease, and the effort to raise certain +tribes and classes would be hopeless; but we believe it has a strong +influence, and we think we have seen clear evidence of its hurtful +effect on Indian orphans. There were these difficulties to begin with. +And then it was impossible to bring these children under the happy +influence of an orderly living family. In our own country it has been +found highly conducive to the right bringing-up of orphans, to the +repressing of evil tendencies, and the drawing forth of the finer +elements of character, to secure for them domestic training to the +utmost extent circumstances will permit. The keeping of many together, +not merely taught together, which is very desirable, but eating +together, sleeping together, constantly acting and reacting on each +other, is found very unfavourable to the formation of the right +character, however careful, wise, and kindly the superintendence may be. +In India, where hundreds of orphans were brought at once to mission +premises, this gregarious life was unavoidable. Besides, it is +impossible to separate orphans from the community around so completely +as to leave them unaffected by its moral atmosphere. + +There was of course a difference in the qualifications of those who +undertook this great charge, some being more fitted for it than others; +but this we say with the utmost confidence, after an intimate +acquaintance with the working of some of the larger orphanages, and a +general knowledge of others, that they have been managed with a +laboriousness, a patience, a wisdom, and a kindness, deserving of the +highest praise. Those in charge acted as parents, so far as that was +possible, but in the nature of things there could not be the close +attention and the fond personal affection to each of ordinary domestic +life. We remember cases where children were committed to well-ordered +Christian families with happy results, but for many years after +orphanages were founded there were no such families to receive them. + +[Sidenote: THE OCCUPATIONS OF ORPHANS.] + +With the exception of orphans sent to Baptist Missions, they were as a +rule baptized at once, and were thus brought within the pale of the +Christian Church to be trained for the love and service of Christ. The +first place was given to Christian instruction and training. All were +taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. Those who proved themselves +capable of receiving a higher education were continued at school, in the +hope of their becoming qualified for offices such as those of teacher +and preacher, for which mental and moral fitness was indispensable. The +great majority were early taught a trade. In the larger orphanages a +variety of trades was introduced--tailoring, carpentry, baking, dyeing, +carpet-making, printing, bookbinding, and farming. Some of these trades, +after much labour had been bestowed upon them, were given up, as it was +found the orphans could not compete with native workmen. They had not +the energy and aptitude possessed by those who followed their ancestral +occupations, and who had been from their earliest years familiar with +the conditions of native trade. Hopes were entertained many would betake +themselves to farming. These hopes have been only partially realized. +On land secured by the Church Mission of Benares, at a short distance +from the city, orphans when they grew up were settled; but few took +kindly to the work, and most soon abandoned it. There are now a few +Christian families on the ground, but the larger part of the land is let +to ordinary native agriculturists. In some places, such as Goruckpore +and Shahjehanpore, the experiment has been successful. A greater number +have continued at printing and bookbinding than at other trades. +Co-operative associations of native Christians have been formed at +Allahabad for printing, and at Futtygurh for tent-making, which I +believe continue to prosper. These associations are under unfettered +native management. A considerable number who have come out of orphan +institutions have followed the trades they were taught, and have +succeeded in getting employment in different places. Many were trained +as servants, and in that capacity they are scattered over all Northern +India. These have been joined by not a few who were taught trades, but +did not continue in them, as they deemed service easier and more +profitable. This is much to be regretted as native Christians in service +are exposed to many disadvantages and temptations from their +fellow-servants, and too often from their European masters and +mistresses. The position of a capable artisan is far superior. + +It must be acknowledged by those who have the kindest feeling towards +the orphans, and who wish to entertain the most favourable opinion of +them, which truth will permit, that they have often been wanting in +energy and self-reliance. There has been a tendency to lean unduly on +those to whom they have been indebted for the preservation of their +lives, and for everything which makes life desirable. They have been +accustomed to call them, in the language of the country, _ma, +bap_--_mother, father_--and to expect everything to be done for them as +if they were still helpless children. This can not be said of all, but +it must be acknowledged this unduly dependent spirit has been often +shown. A greater wrong could not be done to orphans, when grown to +maturity, than to treat them as children, unable to make their own way +in the world. This would be to destroy all strength of character, and +turn them into abject, and at the same time discontented, paupers. Few +have been so destitute of common sense as to have supposed that in this +way they were to be supported, but there has been a tendency to expect +the missionaries to set them out on a career of self-support, and remove +all obstacles in their way without any special effort on their part, and +when difficulties have arisen to fall back on their missionary friends +to set them out afresh. When these expectations have not been realized, +they have been disposed to view their guardians as having failed in +parental duty and affection. We have known cases where the rough +experience of life has taught self-dependence, and thankfulness also for +the treatment, which at the time was regarded as unkind, but had led to +lasting benefit. So far as we have been able to ascertain, the ordinary +feeling among those who had been inmates of orphan institutions, and of +their descendants, has been one of affection and gratitude to those who +have watched over them and provided for them in their days of +helplessness, and who have toiled and in many cases suffered to promote +their temporal and spiritual good. When travelling we have met many of +this class, and have been much gratified by the spirit they have shown. + +Some have come out of orphanages well equipped for the highest work by +character and attainments. As teachers, catechists, and native +preachers, these occupy honourable and useful positions, and have been a +great blessing to the Church and the world. In the course of our +residence in India we have seen many of the missions in the North-West, +but our acquaintance with them is too slight to enable us to mention the +number given by orphanages to the higher class of native agents. We have +known several who are worthy of all respect, confidence, and affection. + +[Sidenote: ORPHANS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.] + +To the question, "What is the general character of the large community +of native Christians formed of orphans and their descendants?" it is +difficult to give a satisfactory reply, though easy enough to give one's +impression. A characterization of communities is one of the most common +and at the same time most unsatisfactory of operations, as the data for +its being done well are so wide, recondite, and difficult to grasp. As I +proceed I shall have occasion to give my views of native Christians +generally. All I can now say about orphans and their descendants is, +that considering what human beings are, as shown from age to age, +considering the circumstances and surroundings of those of whom we are +speaking, the moral and spiritual results are what might have been +expected, though not all that had been wished for and hoped for. +Sanguine spirits had hoped that they would have had a striking +superiority to their fellow-countrymen, which would have drawn forth +their wonder and led them to inquire whence the superiority had come; +but no one will maintain this has been the case. A few, I believe very +few, have turned out utterly reprobate. The character of some who have +not lapsed into gross wickedness has been very unsatisfactory. Many are +respectable members of society, and make the profession of religion +implied in attending public worship and calling themselves Christians. A +considerable number show in different ways spiritual character. What +more can be said of congregations composed of those whose advantages +have been immeasurably greater? It would have been a most pleasing, but +at the same time a most remarkable and unparalleled result, if orphans +brought up under the charge of missionaries had gone forth a united +band, with no defaulters, to maintain the cause of God among their +countrymen, by a life so adorned with excellence that its testimony to +Christ could not be resisted. The result actually attained, though +chequered, is sufficient to show that orphan institutions have by the +Divine blessing done much good, and that the faithful labour bestowed on +them has borne gratifying fruit. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +MISSION TOURS. + + +In our own country, under the pressure of life, many hail the release +from toil and the refreshment of spirit promised by the annual summer +trip. So in India missionaries avail themselves of the cold season to +sally out for the prosecution of their work. Their main object is to +make known the gospel to the many whom they are sure to meet wherever +their tent may be pitched, who have never heard the name of Jesus, +except perhaps amidst the bustle and noise of a mela, and who but for +itineracies would remain in total ignorance of the Saviour of mankind. +The missionary who does not keep this before his mind as his chief aim +is unworthy of the name. While this object is pursued, another is sought +which missionaries deem very legitimate. Health is indispensable for the +efficient discharge of their duties, and travelling is found very +beneficial to the health of their families as well as to their own. +Touring in the cold weather, by the new strength it gives to the body +and the refreshment it gives to the spirit, has been found to prepare +them for a new campaign at home as nothing else could have done. + +Some missionaries have kept themselves within a limited sphere not far +from their homes, visiting the same places again and again, obtaining a +personal acquaintance with many of the people, and endeavouring to +deepen any impressions which may have been made. Others have travelled +for weeks, sometimes for months, over hundreds of miles, visiting the +towns and villages on their route, and speaking about the things of God +to all whom they have met. + +During my long residence in India it was my privilege to undertake tours +of both descriptions. I never stopped at home during the cold +weather--we are not in India in the habit of saying "summer and winter," +but "hot weather and cold weather"--except when justice to my +colleagues, or the necessities of the mission, compelled me to stay. +There were seasons when my colleague was, either from inexperience or +ill-health, unable to do the home work; or, as happened more than once, +I had no colleague at all, and in these circumstances it was obvious +duty to remain at my post. Even then I commonly managed to get out a +little into the surrounding country. On some of our tours we were put to +no small inconvenience, and we were not strangers to hardship; but we +look back to them with much pleasure, and think how much we would like +to set out on them again if circumstances permitted. + +[Sidenote: VOYAGING ON THE GANGES.] + +At an early stage of our residence at Benares voyaging on the Ganges was +a favourite mode of enjoying the cold season. There were budgerows, +vessels with two tolerably sized rooms, available for hire at a moderate +charge. It was indispensable to have with the budgerow a small boat for +the accommodation of servants and for the cooking of food. On a few +occasions I took a trip on a vessel of this description with my family, +moving up and down the river, and halting towards evening near a town +or village, which I could visit for the purpose of speaking to the +people about the Saviour. The country is so populous that there was no +difficulty in mooring our little craft in the evening near some place +where hearers could be collected. It was seldom on any tour in the +North-West we were allowed to forget that we were in the region of the +sacred river, which receives from the people divine honours, and which +in their belief confers inestimable benefit on all who bathe in its +waters. When on the bank of the river, its alleged virtues formed a +frequent subject of remark and discussion. There, as elsewhere, we had +to tell them that Ganges water, however good for refreshing and +cleansing the body, cannot wash away one spot from the soul. We had to +tell them frequently, that as the washerman who puts clothes into a box +and carefully washes it with the expectation of their coming out clean +and white will be acting a very foolish part, so they were acting an +equally futile part if they supposed that the water of the Ganges, so +useful for the body, had any effect on the spirit. In answer to the +remark that Ganges water could not do what other water could not, as it +had nothing peculiar in its composition, I have been gravely told that +two things exactly the same to the senses may be essentially different; +and the proof given was that the river Kurumnasa, which means the +destroyer of merit, takes away all merit from those who bathe in it, +while bathing in the Ganges secures an untold degree of merit, extending +not only to one's own past and future, but to an untold number of +ancestors and descendants! + +When on the Ganges or its banks one continually sees proof of the +implicit trust placed in it. We remember being awakened very early one +morning long before dawn by a person bathing close to our boat, in a +quivering voice which showed he was chilled by the water, long and +earnestly imploring the favour of _Gunga Ma_--Mother Ganges. + +There is no part of India, mountain or plain, where serpents may not be +encountered. One evening, when returning to our boat from a village on +the banks of the river, I was walking warily on a narrow path +half-covered with grass from both sides, when I saw before me what I +first supposed to be a rope. I halted, and immediately a serpent glided +away. That evening, before reaching the boat, I saw at least a dozen of +serpents at their evening gambols over the ruins of a house. I walked +quietly on, deeming it the best part of valour to leave them +undisturbed. If they observed me they showed no inclination to approach +me. + +For many years voyaging on the Ganges has gone out of fashion. Native +boats laden with produce and wood continue to ply, but the budgerows and +pinnaces, which Europeans could hire, have almost entirely disappeared. +There are various reasons for this change. The current of the river is +very rapid in some places, which makes the work of dragging against it +very slow and tiresome; there is sometimes the danger of collision with +other boats. The high banks of the river here and there prevent the +country from being seen, and at other places there is a dreary stretch +of sand. Though the weather of the cold season is very steady, a storm +might come on, and if it did neither boat nor boatmen could be trusted; +for the boat, never of the best material, was often sadly out of repair, +and the boatmen were ready, when danger appeared, to throw themselves +into the water and make for the shore, leaving the passengers to shift +for themselves. There was, indeed, the pleasantness of sailing on a +broad river; the air was very fresh; there was no leaving of the +temporary abode from day to day; the trouble of a shifting camp was +escaped, though occasionally there was inconvenience from the +indispensable cook-boat not keeping sufficiently near. Opposed to these +advantages were the disadvantages I have mentioned, which were always +felt to be serious drawbacks; and when the roads had been improved, and +journeying facilities increased, travelling by land obtained so decided +a preference, that the river has been well-nigh abandoned by Europeans. + +[Sidenote: SHORT AND LONG TOURS.] + +Some seasons our touring was confined to a narrow range, not extending +beyond thirty or forty miles. We every now and then spent a few days +within a few miles of the city. Our first journey of any considerable +length was, at the end of 1840, to the mela at Allahabad, some seventy +miles north-west of Benares, which I have already mentioned. At the end +of 1842 I made a tour along with my wife and child to Agra, more than +four hundred miles from Benares, which occupied us about three months. +On this tour we passed through Allahabad, Cawnpore, Futtygurh, +Mynpoorie, and other well-known places. Early in 1847, accompanied by a +brother missionary, we went to Almora, nearly six hundred miles distant, +travelling with our tents to the foot of the hills, and spending six or +seven weeks on our way. We left Almora for Benares in October, and +reached it early in December, having taken Meerut, Delhi, and Allygurh, +as well as Cawnpore and Allahabad, in our return route. Our long +journeys many years afterwards were performed with few exceptions under +new conditions, and with much greater expedition. + +If my readers are in thought to accompany us on those journeys, it may +be well to state the circumstances in which we travelled, the weather +we had and could generally expect, our travelling arrangements, the +state of the roads, and the aspects of the country through which we +passed. + +As to the weather, it was generally delightful. We had from day to day +an unclouded sky, with the sun rather strong as the day advanced, but +with a refreshing breeze, which made it thoroughly cool in the shade, +even cold sometimes, so that one was inclined to go out into the +sunshine to get warmth. In the daytime warm clothing was pleasant, and +at night, especially in tents, our blankets and wraps came into full +requisition. There was a steadiness in the weather exceeding anything +known in our climate. We have known weeks without any shading of the +sky. There were, however, occasional breaks. Now and then clouds +gathered from day to day, and at length came down in heavy rain, which +was most welcome to the farmers, especially when it came as it often +did, about Christmas. Thunder storms might be sometimes looked for, +accompanied by sudden and severe gusts of wind. These days of +atmospheric disturbance were sufficient to make us, as travellers, +appreciate more highly the weather with which we were ordinarily +favoured. + +[Sidenote: APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY.] + +The greater part of the country through which we travelled is very +level. Beyond Chunar, indeed, which is sixteen miles from Benares, and +Mirzapore, which is thirty miles distant, there is a great extent of low +hill-country. These districts we visited several times. The most of our +journeys were in the wide open plains of the North-West. The country, +though level, is by no means uninteresting. You receive as you travel a +very favourable impression of the productiveness of the land and the +industry of the people. In the cold weather you see, as far as the eye +can reach, a sweep of growing corn, wheat and other grains, which give +the hope of an early and abundant harvest. Towns and villages meet your +view on every side. If you get to a slightly elevated spot you are +struck with the number of wells you see in the fields, dug for the +purpose of irrigation. In the great region lying between the Ganges and +the Jumna, called the Doab--the country of the two rivers, the +Mesopotamia of Northern India, over a great part of which we travelled +for the first time at the end of 1842 and the beginning of 1843, and +which we have often traversed since--there is no extensive forest near +the Trunk Road. In all directions, however, you see clumps of lofty and +shady trees, and occasionally groves of considerable extent. Trees have +been largely planted along the road, and within every few miles there +are groves, where travellers get their tents pitched, and where they are +thoroughly protected from the glare and heat of the sun. Even in the +coldest part of the cold weather tents pitched in the open become +quickly too heated for comfort. In the groves the deep shade cast by the +widely-spread branches and the thick foliage sometimes darkens the tent +too much for reading and writing; but outside, on a chair before a small +table, if that be required, one can spend hours very pleasantly reading +or writing, as it may be, and listening if inclined to the cawing of the +crows, the cooing of the doves, and the notes of other birds, while the +gentle breeze rustles through the trees, and the children, if any, play +with their toys under them. + +Natives, when they travel, as I have already mentioned, manage things in +a fashion which we are not able to imitate, but which I have often been +inclined to envy. Let them have flour, water, a little wood for fuel, +if not in its stead dried cow-dung, and they partake with relish of the +meal their own hands have cooked, conscious of no want and complaining +of no hardship. The relish is increased if they can get some of the +ordinary vegetables of the country. With the meal over, after chatting a +while over the Hookah, the "hubble-bubble" as English people call it, +the pipe which sends tobacco smoke through water, they wrap themselves +in the blanket which they carry with them, and sleep soundly under a +tree, when, as is often the case, no Sura, a native resting-place, is at +hand. If rain comes on they creep into a place where the rain cannot +reach them, if such a place be available. A few Europeans have at +different times tried to follow the habit of native travellers, and in +very exceptional cases it has been successful. The ordinary result has +been the speedy ruin of health. + +Our habits compel us to travel in a different way. When a missionary is +alone, though he cannot travel as a native does, he can put up, and does +put up, with inconveniences to which a family cannot be exposed. The +family, however, requires a change as well as himself; and when wife and +children are with him, as they often are, the house is shut up at home, +home servants are taken, and travelling requires only a slight addition +to the domestic staff. An additional horse is needed for the conveyance +(in India a conveyance is not a luxury but a necessity); two tents are +required, one to be sent on over-night, while the other is kept behind +for occupation; along with the tents, slight portable beds, bedding, +small folding-table, cane chairs, and cooking-vessels. These goods of +the moving household are laden and forwarded on carts called Hackeries, +drawn by oxen. Highly paid officials manage as they travel to have with +them many of the luxuries and even some of the elegancies of life, but +missionaries are satisfied if they get necessaries. As we travel we +manage, though not always, to get milk, fowls, and eggs, and +occasionally a kid. Whatever beside we need must be taken with us. + +[Sidenote: PLEASANT TOURING.] + +When the weather is fine, the roads good, the horses and bullocks strong +and manageable, and the attendants efficient, touring in the North-West +in the cold weather is very pleasant. If travelling be prosecuted from +day to day, the custom is to rise very early in the morning at the +earliest dawn, or before dawn, when the morning-star appears, and to +rouse the camp. This was my part when travelling with my household. The +watchman wakened me, and I wakened all around. We got quickly ready, and +set out on our journey of twelve or fourteen miles. The mornings were +not only cool, but often sharply cold. On arriving at the end of our +stage, it might be as early as eight or half-past eight o'clock, we +should find, and often did find, the tent pitched, which had been sent +on over-night, the table spread commonly under a shady tree, the water +boiling, food prepared; and then with a keen appetite we sat down to +breakfast. When the afternoon was a little advanced, the cart arrived +with the tent and other things left behind, and was soon pitched for our +night occupancy. Towards evening the day-tent was taken down, and was +sent on over-night with everything requisite for the next day. When all +the circumstances were favourable, everything went on with an ease and +regularity which made us feel at home while away from home, and gave us +at the same time the constant variety of new scenes. + +The circumstances were not, however, always favourable. They were +sometimes the reverse. The new horse was unmanageable, the bullocks were +weak and could not draw the carts, the servants were remiss or +incapable, the roads were in some places shockingly bad, we were left +for hours without tent and food, and, as I have said, the weather now +and then was wet and stormy. We had sometimes an amount of trouble which +made us half regret we had left home. Ladies are generally very patient +in such circumstances, but children are sorely tried. The difficulties +we encountered in some of our early journeys were such that we now +wonder how we got out of them, and succeeded in getting on at all. The +touring in favourable circumstances, which I have described, is not +however a mere ideal. Happily it was often with us a reality. On setting +out things required to be adjusted. Time was required for getting things +into their places, and for each person learning to do the work assigned +him. When once we got into travelling trim, and our people were what +they ought to be, things went on with the regularity of clockwork. + +I have mentioned our long tours in 1842 and 1847. On these journeys we +had a good deal of pleasant smooth travelling, and we also encountered +some of the difficulties of which I have spoken. The Trunk Road from +Allahabad to the North-West was in excellent condition in 1842-43; but +from Benares to Allahabad it had been allowed to get out of repair, and +the roads diverging from the Trunk Road on one side to Futtygurh and on +the other side to Agra we found very bad. The story of our difficulties +is well remembered by us, but it must be given very concisely. At one +place a wheel of our conveyance broke in the middle of a stage, and +after some delay we succeeded in getting an Ekka, a small native +conveyance drawn by a pony, on the narrow platform of which the members +of our party who could not walk were squatted as they best could; while +the rest of us walked. We sent on word of our trouble to our missionary +friends at Futtygurh, who kindly arranged to get us on to their +hospitable abode, and to get our conveyance repaired. Three days after +leaving Futtygurh our best horse died, from sheer fatigue in drawing our +conveyance through the sand. This threw us on having it drawn by +bullocks at the rate of a mile and a half, or at the utmost two miles, +an hour, over a very bad road, which jolted us frightfully. + +[Sidenote: WALLED VILLAGES.] + +As we travelled we saw many things which drew our attention and excited +our interest. Most of the villages along our route were surrounded by +high mud walls, and had only one entrance by a great strong gate, which +was shut at night, reminding us of the insecurity from which this part +of India had emerged when it came under British rule within the memory +of men then living. Villages thus fortified, if sufficient watch was +kept, were quite secure against the sudden raids of Mahratta horsemen, +or the attacks of robbers, to whose unwelcome visits they were always +exposed. The former state of insecurity was also suggested by the number +we met armed to the teeth, by shield on the breast, sword at the side, +and matchlock on the shoulder. The insecurity had to a great extent come +to an end, but the habit of going armed continued. + +Along the road at convenient distances there were Suras for the +convenience of travellers, which people in England, when speaking of +Eastern lands, call Caravanserais. These are generally open spaces, +surrounded by mud walls, with sheds at their sides for people who are +willing to pay a very trifling sum for the luxury of sleeping under +cover, and, if they like, for having their horses near them. Carts and +oxen are always in the open. Sellers of grain and wood are always there +with everything native travellers require. If a bedstead--a low +four-footed article with rope for its bottom and mattress--be preferred +to the bare ground, it can commonly be procured for three-halfpence for +the night. When in the evening we were near these places we went to +them, and saw the poor weary travellers setting to the preparation of +their simple meal--with most the only cooked meal of the day--with +apparently as great contentedness as we have when after a fatiguing day +we reach an hotel, and, having given our orders, know that speedily we +shall sit down to an ample repast. Many of these Suras have been built +at the expense of well-to-do natives impelled by different motives, for +love of name--_nam ke liye_, as the natives say, a motive for which +their countrymen continually give them credit--for the acquisition of +religious merit, and from benevolent feeling. These places are called +Dhurmsalas, places erected by righteous, good men. + +[Sidenote: "WELLS OF SALVATION."] + +On this our first long journey in the country, we were impressed by the +amount of traffic we saw on the road; and this impression was deepened +on future occasions. We seldom travelled a few miles without seeing +carts drawn by bullocks and laden with goods. We saw rows of camels, +walking in single file, each attached to the one before and the one +behind by a string. These belonged chiefly, though not exclusively, to +Afghans, and were laden to a large extent with the products of their +country. Every now and then we came across elephants, sometimes with a +stack of tender branches on their back, which form a large part of +their food, and at other times with persons seated sometimes on a +howdah, sometimes on a pad. There were many foot-passengers, not a few +with heavy loads on their heads. When these came in sight of a well, how +quickly did they step up to it, throw off their burden, drop into it +their brass vessel attached to a string, draw it up, and take a long, +deep draught of the precious water! As I have observed them I have +thought of the words, "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of +salvation." To these poor toiling people the wells did appear wells of +salvation. On some days we met bands of persons--chiefly men, with a +woman here and there among them--with bamboo rods across their shoulders +with a basket at each end, their travelling gear in and on one basket, +and a vessel with Ganges water in the other. Thousands of these pilgrims +travel every year over Northern India, going from one shrine to another, +and pouring on certain images the water of the sacred river. + +In our journeyings we had a singular immunity from thieves, a greater +immunity than we had in our house at Benares, which was several times +visited by these unwelcome intruders, though we always kept a watchman. +All over the North-West, I suppose all over India, thieves abound. Whole +tribes have for generations followed theft as a profession, and have +betaken themselves to honest work only when compelled by finding their +occupation perilous. They have had as their associates the idle and +dissolute of other castes. Tents, as I have observed, are commonly +pitched in shady groves, and in consequence admit of being approached +unobserved, and a sharp knife in a skilful hand can easily secure an +entrance on any side. Travellers have piquant stories to tell of the +cleverness and impudence with which their property has been taken away. +A missionary friend of ours awoke one morning to find that during the +night everything in his tent had disappeared on which thieves could lay +their hand. We had a large experience of tent life, but we have happily +no story to tell about any similar loss. I do not remember our having +had even a night alarm, though I well remember the difficulty we often +had in preventing our guardians from sending forth unearthly cries, +which made sleep impossible. My habit was, wherever we halted, to make +my way to the headman of the adjoining village or town, and to place our +encampment under his care. We were generally told there were thieves in +the neighbourhood; we were sometimes told they were numerous and daring. +We always stated our readiness to pay for watchmen, and we told the +headman that if he did not send trustworthy men we should hold him +responsible. We thus paid a sort of black-mail, but we thought the small +sum paid well expended as insurance for the safety of our property. Some +travellers take watchmen with them. This we never did, as we thought +ourselves safer in the hands of men on the spot. Many a time as we lay +down in our tent did we think how strange it was that, far away from our +European brethren, in a strange land among a strange people, we could +compose ourselves to sleep with as little fear, and with as strong a +feeling of security, as if within locks and bars in our own country. We +thought, with thankfulness, that we were under the aegis of our own +government, even when we were in places where Englishmen were seldom +seen, but where, notwithstanding, our prestige was fully recognized. + +At all the places through which we passed on our first long tour, +Allahabad, Cawnpore, Futtygurh, Mynpoorie, and Agra, we were treated +with the utmost kindness by the American and English missionaries, and +by other Christian brethren, some of whom have been life-long friends +ever since. + +[Sidenote: THE BUILDINGS OF AGRA.] + +We were interested in all the places we saw on this tour; but +Agra--Akbarabad, as natives always call it, the capital of Akbar, the +most remarkable emperor who ever ruled over India--had for us, as for +all who have visited it, peculiar attractions. When at some distance +from the city we saw glistening in the sun the lofty dome and the still +loftier four minarets or towers of the Taj Muhal, that wondrous +mausoleum of the purest marble, built by the Emperor Shah Jehan for a +favourite queen. On our arrival we lost no time in going to it. On +subsequent visits to Agra we renewed our acquaintance with it, and on +every new occasion its exquisite beauty and lofty grandeur enhanced our +admiration. We also saw the Motee Musjid, the Pearl Mosque as it is +called, built of marble, and called the Pearl Mosque, as I suppose, on +account of its beauty and symmetry; the grand tomb of Akbar at Secundra, +six miles from Agra; and other objects of interest. I am not to attempt +a description of these world-famed buildings of Agra. They have been +often described, and by none perhaps better than by Bishop Heber in his +journal, which is now little read, but which gives a more graphic and +accurate account of the parts of India he visited in 1825 than any I +have seen elsewhere. Of the Taj and other grand structures of the +Muhammadan emperors, he says they look as if "built by a giant and +furnished by a jeweller." + +While deeply interested in much we saw in this tour of 1842-43, on it, +as well as on all subsequent tours, our great evangelistic object was +kept steadily in view. On this occasion I was accompanied by a +catechist. In the early afternoon, when we might hope to meet people +released from the work of the day, we repaired to the neighbouring +village. Often we found a large tree at the entrance to the village, +with a stone seat close to its trunk, and on it we sat down. If there +was no such seat a small native bedstead was often brought--such a thing +as a chair was unknown--and we were asked to sit, while the people +politely stood, till at our request they sat, which they can well do on +their haunches. We entered into conversation with those who gathered +around us. We asked if there was any pundit, any learned man in the +village; and if there was we were happy to see him come, as we knew the +people would look on us with less suspicion if he was present. In many +places they were so unaccustomed to the sight of Europeans that they +looked on us with a mingled feeling of curiosity and fear. We tried to +put them at ease by speaking about something in which we knew they were +deeply interested, such as their fields and crops, and as soon as we +well could we made our way to the subject of religion. We read those +passages from our Scriptures which we thought most fitted to arrest +their attention. We aimed at setting forth the great facts and truths of +revelation with all the simplicity, conciseness, and earnestness we +could command. We repeated what was not understood, or was +misunderstood, and endeavoured to make it plain by familiar +illustrations. + +We met with varied reception. In some places the people were so stolid, +that even the catechist, one of their own people, seemed to make no +impression. On many occasions we were heard most patiently, and were +treated most courteously. Now and then, especially in the larger places, +and where markets were being held--these are held weekly in central +places, sometimes twice a week, and are well attended--there was much +noise and great interruption. At times we encountered strong, bitter, +and captious opposition. On the whole we met with far less opposition, +and with a much more patient and respectful hearing, than at our stated +work in a city like Benares. Often we were thanked for our visit, and +were told our teaching well deserved consideration. Not infrequently the +remark was made, "What you say is very good, but we never heard it +before; we understand it very imperfectly, you will be leaving +to-morrow, and we shall forget it all." We parted with such persons with +a heavy heart. We always halted on the Lord's Day, and often on other +days, when we met with encouragement and circumstances permitted. + +[Sidenote: AN ANCIENT CAPITAL.] + +Kunauj, now a poor, decayed town, composed chiefly of low mud-built +houses, with not one fine building in it so far as I remember, was, as I +have already mentioned, for ages the most famous city in Northern India, +the capital of sovereigns ruling over extensive regions. The Brahmans of +Kunauj continue to hold the highest rank in the Brahmanical hierarchy, +but I believe only a few reside in Kunauj and its neighbourhood. As we +learned it was only a few miles off the Trunk Road, we determined to +halt a day for the purpose of visiting it. We accordingly went to it one +morning, and remained in it some time, looking at the mounds which cover +the ruins of its palaces, and which is all that remains to tell of its +former greatness. A number gathered around us, with whom we conversed. +They seemed so much interested in what we said about the Saviour, that +we promised to visit them on our return. We accordingly arranged to +remain a Sabbath at the part of the Trunk Road nearest to Kunauj. +Reaching it on a Saturday we sent on a small tent, and early next day, +accompanied by the catechist, I made my way to the town. There we +remained the entire day, and I have seldom had such a day of pleasant +toil. The people came in crowds, and talk on the highest subjects was +kept up from hour to hour. The catechist, after a time, left me to visit +some persons he knew in the neighbourhood, and I was left alone to +unfold the doctrines of Christianity, and to answer the questions put to +me. I more than once said, "I must have rest." All went out, and I lay +down on a piece of carpet on the floor of the tent. Some one soon peeped +in; "Have you not had rest now, sir?" and so I had to get up and resume +my work, not over well-pleased the catechist had left it all to me. +Since that time Kunauj has had visits from missionaries, and they have +had many hearers, but I have not heard of any fruit gathered from these +visits in the form of converts. + +[Sidenote: AN EARNEST INQUIRER.] + +I was greatly impressed with one visit I received on this tour. We had +got over our morning journey. I was, I suppose, more tired than usual, +for in the forenoon I lay down on our travelling bedstead to rest. I +heard a voice at the tent door, "Sahib, sahib!"--"Sir, sir!"--and I +said, "Come in." In came a native well dressed, and looking as if tired +with a long walk. I told him to sit down on the carpet, which he did, +and he then proceeded to tell me the object of his visit. He said in +substance: "Last night you were in a village twelve miles from this +place, and you there spoke much of an incarnation, an '_autar_,' which +had for its object the deliverance of man from the power and punishment +of sin. One who heard you last night told me something of what you had +said. I have long been a worshipper of the gods of my fathers, but I +have got no rest, no satisfaction. I have heard much of incarnations, +but I know of no sinless one. Not one of them has done me any good. Have +you certain information of one that can deliver me and satisfy me?" I +need not say what I said in reply to this great inquiry. We talked long +and earnestly. I found he could read, and I gave him a Gospel and some +tracts. He professed to be much interested. I begged him to give me his +address that I might communicate with him. He did not pointedly refuse, +but no address was given to me, apparently from the fear, so common +among the people, of the reproach and suffering which will come upon +them if they be suspected of an intention to abandon their ancestral +religion. I parted with the man praying, that he might be led to the +Saviour. Often, often have I thought of him; often have I hoped that +what was said that forenoon had sunk into his heart; but I have never +seen him, never heard of him, since that time. + +I have mentioned that early in 1847 we went to Almora, in the Hill +Province of Kumaon, and towards the end of the year returned to Benares. +Before our departure we had the pleasure of seeing the completion of a +work which had made a great demand on our time and attention, and had +caused us no small anxiety--the erection of a new place of worship in +the Grecian style, in the place of the small mud building in which we +had hitherto met. This was our first essay in building, and our +inexperience led us into many mistakes, which we tried to avoid in +future work of the kind. The building cost above L1,200, fully twice the +sum we had calculated. Through the liberality of friends its entire +cost was met within six months of its opening, and it has proved of +great service to the Mission. The opening services were conducted in +Hindustanee and English. The late Rev. J. A. Shurman preached with great +power in Hindustanee to a crowded congregation composed of Christians, +Hindus, and Muhammadans, and I preached in English to a large European +congregation. We were greatly encouraged by the liberal collections made +at these services. + +[Sidenote: SLOW TRAVELLING.] + +I must defer to a later period of this work what I have to say about +Kumaon, to which we paid several visits, and where we spent the last +years of our Indian life. Our journeying to and from Kumaon in 1847 was +partly over the ground traversed on our trip to Agra in 1842-43, and +partly over new ground, as one may see by looking at the map of Northern +India. The conditions of the journey were to a large extent those I have +already described; but we suffered from bad roads, from our camp +equipage falling behind, and I may add from inefficient service, much +more than we had formerly done. On reaching Almora we mentioned to a +friend the route we had taken, and he said, "Surely you have not come in +a wheeled conveyance, for I am told that road is impassable." I told him +the road was passable, for we had passed it, but if we had previously +known what it was we should not have attempted it. Amidst the tracks we +saw, we often had difficulty in deciding which was the road. Between +unbridged streams with high banks, ditches, and deep ruts which caught +our wheels and would not let them go, our progress was much impeded; but +we toiled on. At one place we were happily helped by a company of +Sepoys, whose medical officer was a dear Christian friend. In other +places we were extricated by the help of villagers. + +As we journeyed in these circumstances we were not in a mood to be +amused, but I was amused one day by the contrast between a romantic lady +and an unromantic "sais" (_anglice_, groom). The Hills had come grandly +into view, but unhappily we were fast in a ditch. The lady looking to +the "sais" said, "Sais, do you not see the hills?" To which he most +dolefully replied, not lifting his eyes as he spoke, "Madam, what can I +see? We are stuck in the mud." + +One day we took full ten hours to go twelve miles. When we came to the +end of our stage we found we had to encamp for the night in the low +scrub of the forest, with stagnant water all around us. There was a hut +at the place with two native policemen to help travellers, and we were +told by them that there had been for some days in the neighbourhood what +is called "a rogue elephant"--an elephant which, for some reason known +only in elephant councils has been driven out of the herd, and is so +enraged by his expulsion that he is ready to run amuck at every person +and animal he sees. This was not pleasant intelligence. We found native +carts at the place, ready to proceed in the morning to a market to be +held at the foot of the hills; and after a very uncomfortable night, +much disturbed by the cries of the beasts of the wilderness, we set out, +the people shouting to scare the elephant, which, though ready for +mischief, is frightened by noise. We saw no trace of him. When the day +was well advanced we reached a rest-house close to the hills, with a +brawling stream behind it, with which our children as well as ourselves +were delighted, one of them clapping his hands and saying, "Water clear +and bright!" We had our first and rather perilous hill journey the next +day, but my account of it and subsequent journeys in the mountains must +be reserved for another time. + +We went to Kumaon by the most direct route through Futtygurh and +Bareilly. We returned by a longer route _via_ Meerut and Delhi. Our +difficulties on our way back were somewhat different, but they were +quite as great as on our upward journey. Some of the streams we had to +cross were not fordable, and we had great difficulty in getting +ourselves ferried over. A few nights were spent in exceeding discomfort, +our carts not having come up with our tents, and we were shelterless and +supperless--rather, if I may coin such a word, dinnerless. One night +cover was got for my wife and children, but a missionary brother and +myself remained out all night, with no possibility of obtaining rest, as +a pack of jackals were gorging themselves on the carcase of a bullock, +and making the most hideous noises. As the night was cold, and we had no +bedding, it was perhaps well the jackals were there, as otherwise we +might have been tempted to lie down on the bare ground, which we could +not have done with safety to our health. When once we got to the Trunk +Road, which we had from Delhi to Benares, our travelling difficulties +were at an end, and we got on most comfortably. + +At Delhi our tents were pitched in an open space near the house of Mr. +Thompson, for many years the Baptist missionary in that city, whose +widow and daughters were afterwards so barbarously murdered by the +mutineers in 1857. With him and his family, and with some other +Christian friends there, we had much pleasant intercourse during the few +days we remained. We of course saw the sights of the grand old imperial +city--the Juma Musjid said to be the largest mosque in Asia, a most +commanding building on a small rocky elevation, to which you ascend by +a lofty flight of steps, and which has a most magnificent court paved +with granite inlaid with marble; the palace, so far as it was open to +visitors; the Chandnee Chauk, the great open street and market-place +with a fine stream of water flowing through it; and, at the distance of +a few miles from the city, the remarkable tower, the Kootub Minar, 240 +feet high, erected by the Muhammadan conquerors who first made Delhi +their capital. For miles around there are ruins of mosques, mausoleums, +palaces, and splendid mansions. For a description of Delhi, as for the +description of Agra, I must refer my readers to Bishop Heber's Journal. + +During this journey to and from Kumaon we carried on, so far as +circumstances permitted, the missionary work I have already mentioned. +Our experience while prosecuting this tour so closely resembled that of +which I have already given an account, that it is unnecessary to enter +into details. + +[Sidenote: CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY.] + +As on our visit to Agra in 1842-43, so on these journeys of 1847 we met +with the greatest kindness from our missionary brethren, some of whom we +had afterwards the privilege of entertaining at Benares. It mattered not +whether they were Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Baptist, English, +Continental, or American (at that time there were no Methodist missions +in Northern India), we received a cordial welcome, and though formerly +unknown to each other we at once felt at home. We sometimes felt in much +need of help, and it was most readily afforded. To some other Christian +friends we met our grateful acknowledgments are due. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +RETURN TO BENARES. + +VOYAGE TO ENGLAND AND RETURN TO INDIA, A.D. 1847-1857. + + +When two more years had passed, during which we were enabled to carry on +our work with few interruptions, we found that, beneficial though our +visit to the hills had been, we stood in need of a still greater change, +and of a more thorough bracing of both body and mind. Health again began +to fail, and we felt unequal to the work devolving on us. We accordingly +left Benares for Calcutta towards the end of 1849. As our children were +young, and travelling by land was both fatiguing and expensive, we hired +a budgerow and sailed down the Ganges. Our voyage lasted over four +weeks. It gave us the opportunity of touching at a number of places, +Ghazeepore, Buxar, Monghyr, Dinapore, Patna, and Berhampore, in most of +which we had the pleasure of meeting missionary brethren. Towards the +end of January we embarked on the ship _Monarch_, and after a +prosperous, though not a rapid, voyage we arrived in England in May, +1850. The only place at which we touched was St. Helena. We lay off it +the greater part of a day, but none were allowed to land as we had +measles on board. + +I will dismiss our stay in England in a few sentences, as it is no part +of my plan to give English reminiscences. Like other missionaries on +leave, I visited many places in England and Scotland on behalf of the +Society of which I was an agent. At the expiration of our leave in the +autumn of 1852 medical opinion forbade our departure. By the autumn of +1853 health was so improved that the way was open for our return to +India. + +[Sidenote: VOYAGE TO INDIA.] + +After a season of severe domestic trial, which delayed our departure, my +partner, myself, and two children embarked on board the _Indiana_, one +of a new magnificent line of steamers plying to India round the Cape of +Good Hope, in November. The voyage extended to eleven weeks. The weather +throughout was remarkably favourable. We touched at the Islands of St. +Vincent, Ascension, the Cape of Good Hope, the Mauritius, Point de +Galle, and Madras. We landed at most of these places, and this took away +in a great measure the weariness of a long voyage, which I must say we +felt increasingly on every successive occasion. We were detained at the +Cape for three or four days, which gave us an opportunity of getting to +the top of Table Mountain, and of visiting the vineyards a few miles out +of Cape Town. We were hospitably entertained by Mr. Thompson, and +attended his services on the Lord's Day. Mr. Ellis, who was at the time +at the Mauritius, kindly came on board as soon as the _Indiana_ came to +anchor, and took us on shore to the house of our missionary, Mr. Le +Brun. We attended his service--it was the Lord's Day--and were delighted +to see so many present, several of whom we were told were refugees from +Madagascar. The congregation was well-nigh entirely composed of people +of colour, varying from the brown of the mixed race to the jet black of +the negro. The white dresses formed a striking contrast to the dusky +faces, many of which, dark though they were, were lit up with an +expression indicative of intelligence and contentment. The service was +conducted in French, which continues to be the language of the island, +although many years have elapsed since it became a British possession. +After the service we were taken to the house of the Secretary to +Government, who hospitably entertained us. We embarked the next day. As +we were proceeding to the shore we were struck with the familiar sounds +of the Hindustanee language from the lips of Indian coolies. We were +sorry we could exchange with them only a few passing words. During the +few hours we were off Madras we had the pleasure of landing and seeing +some of the missionaries there. + +[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO BENARES.] + +After a short stay in Calcutta, we set out for Benares. The journey was +performed in a new fashion. We purchased a conveyance, and arranged to +have it drawn by relays of coolies all the way. Arrangements were made +by an agent in Calcutta to have word sent on in advance, so that at +every sixth or eighth mile coolies might be in readiness for us. Before +1839 the great Trunk Road from Calcutta to Delhi had been made, but the +streams and ravines were for the most part unbridged, and consequently +travelling by a wheeled conveyance was very slow and difficult. By 1854 +the road had been greatly improved, many bridges had been made, and thus +the facilities for travelling were much increased. At every twelve or +fourteen miles there were rest-houses for European travellers, called +"staging bungalows," all built on the same plan at the expense of two +wealthy natives, each with two rooms and a bath-room attached, a +bedstead in each room, a table, and two or three chairs, with a man in +charge to take a small sum from each traveller for accommodation, and +ready to furnish him with a good Indian meal at a very moderate rate. At +some of these we stopped for rest and food. Our party consisted of our +family, and a lady friend who wished to travel with us. Desirous to get +on quickly, we were sometimes in our conveyance twenty hours out of the +twenty-four, and dosed as we proceeded the best way we could. We met +with no adventure worth relating, and were glad after ten days' +journeying to find ourselves once more in our old dear abode. We had a +most hearty and gratifying welcome from our brethren, both European and +native. We reached it on a Saturday. I told the brethren that after my +long absence, and entire disuse of the native language during that +period, I must be a hearer the next day. They said that could not be, as +the people were expecting me to officiate. Thus urged I ventured to +conduct the service, and I was agreeably surprised to find that old +scenes seemed to revive my knowledge of the language, and to bear me +through with unexpected ease. + +We resumed work at Benares recruited in health, and refreshed in spirit, +and prepared by the experience of previous years to prosecute it with +new effectiveness. We had a sense of the difficulties of the work, its +trials and discouragements, and of the absolute necessity of Divine help +in order to its being rightly prosecuted, which we could not have had at +an earlier period; and we had at the same time a deeper realization of +its greatness, blessedness, and final certain triumph. The missionary +has little of the spirit of his office, and little fitness for it, who +at every successive stage of his course is not increasingly bent on +honouring his Master and promoting the good of the people among whom he +labours, and who is not at the same time increasingly thankful for +having been called to so high an office, while deeply humbled at his own +unworthiness and his many shortcomings. + +During the three years under review, our native Christian congregation +was larger than it had been at any previous period, and, I am sorry to +say, larger than it has been in later years. There were at that time +about twenty Christian households in the mission compound, and several +Christian families came from a little distance. There was a +printing-press in our neighbourhood, which gave employment to a number +of our people, and others succeeded in getting situations which gave +them comfortable support. It was a gladdening sight, when the gong was +struck for worship, to see them making their way to the chapel, and to +find them, when assembled there, well-nigh filling the place, all +cleanly clad, and devoutly engaged in the service of God. Many a time +was my heart full of joy and hope when ministering to them. We had, +indeed, our difficulties and trials. These are never long or far from us +wherever we may be. There were inconsistencies and lapses among the +native Christians which grieved us; but their general conduct was good, +they were at peace with each other, and in some there were marked +indications of growing piety. + +Our tours during the cold weather of these years were mainly confined to +the country within thirty or forty miles of Benares. Our only tour of +any length was in January and February of 1857, when we went on the +Calcutta road as far as Susseram, more than a hundred miles distant; +and, leaving the Trunk Road, made our way to the rock of Rohtas, +overlooking the Soane, where there are extensive remains of an imperial +fort. We lodged one night in one of the deserted halls, of which there +were several in a fair state of preservation, and we were told that to +these the tigers of the surrounding forest occasionally resorted. During +the Mutiny this fort was for some time the headquarters of a rebel +chief. With the exception of this tour to the east of Benares, to which +I shall afterwards refer, our experience in these itineracies closely +accorded with that of former years. During this period the school and +preaching work of the mission was steadily prosecuted by the catechists +and missionaries. + +[Sidenote: TWO GATHERINGS AT BENARES.] + +Towards the close of 1856, and at the beginning of 1857, there were two +interesting gatherings at Benares. The one was the meeting of boys and +lads from all parts of the province for a Biblical Examination--of which +I have already given some account. The other was a Missionary +Conference, which was largely attended and efficiently conducted. The +facilities for travelling were not so great as they are now, but they +were such as admitted the presence of a number of missionaries from +distant places. We parted deeply thankful for the pleasant and +profitable intercourse we had had with each other. Little did we think +of the terrible storm which was so soon to break over us, in which +several of our number were to lose their lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE MUTINY OF 1857-58. + + +No one who was within the range of the hurricane of 1857, no one who was +even on its edge, can ever forget it. When we now look back, we marvel +that a single European in that part of India was spared to tell of its +fierce struggle, its sad sights, and its fearful perils. The annals of +the Mutiny are furnished in volumes filled with ample details. Its +causes and consequences have been largely discussed. My narrower and +humbler aim is to describe that terrible outbreak so far, and only so +far, as it came within my own experience and observation. My narrative +will, however, be better understood by stating briefly the causes, +which, in my opinion, led to this great rising against us, and by giving +an outline of its progress before reaching Benares, where we then +resided. + + +CAUSES OF THE MUTINY. + +Our position in India is very peculiar. The history of the world +presents no parallel. A great continent, containing a number of nations, +possessed of an ancient civilization, some of them composed of races +given to war and noted for their prowess, with a population amounting at +present to 253 millions, has been brought under the dominion of a +country of limited extent and limited population like ours, separated +from it by many intervening countries, and accessible only by thousands +of miles of ocean. That continent has not been subjected to tribute, and +then left to its native rulers. Over by far the greater part of India +these rulers have been displaced, and British rule has been established. +Where native rulers remain, they are bound to administer their affairs +in accordance with the views of the Sovereign Power. Over a part of the +Indian continent the rule commenced more than a hundred years ago, and +from decade to decade it has extended till it now embraces its present +vast proportions. It extends beyond India. In the North-West we have +entered into what properly belongs to Afghanistan, and from Burma a +large extent of territory has been taken; so that the east as well as +the west coast of the Bay of Bengal has come under our rule. To all +appearance the rule is as firmly established as if it had come down from +ancient times. + +[Sidenote: INDIA CONQUERED BY INDIAN SOLDIERS.] + +It would be a great mistake to suppose that India had been conquered for +England by its own people. If they had been left to themselves, no part +of it would now belong to us. The small European force has always been +the backbone of our armies; but in every battle native soldiers have +formed the great majority. The French gave us the example of employing +native soldiers to place their country under European rule. In the +dissolution of the Mogul Empire, thousands of warriors were ready to +fight the battles of any one, European or native, who would pay them +well. The example of the French was followed by the English, till India, +from Cape Comorin to the mountains of the north and the north-west, came +under their sway, to an extent and with a completeness and firmness of +grasp never reached by the Muhammadan power in its palmiest days. Each +Presidency--Bengal, Madras, and Bombay--has had its own native army, in +1857 amounting altogether to 240,000 men. In the Bengal army, by far the +largest of the three, there has never been a single native of Bengal +Proper. It has been entirely composed of north countrymen, to a large +extent of Brahmans, and Chhatrees the old fighting caste of India, who +have entered our service on account of its good pay and good treatment, +though alien from us in everything by which one people can be alien from +another. Many of the native soldiers have been Muhammadans, who are +intensely averse to us on both religious and political grounds. Under +the influence of friendly intercourse and good offices performed to each +other, a kindly feeling often sprung up between officers and men; but as +a body they were mercenary troops fighting for strangers, and the +history of the world furnishes abundant instances of such an army being +as formidable to their employers as to those against whom they have been +employed. In the course of time our native soldiers were more and more +trusted; important places were garrisoned by them, military stores were +entrusted to them; and nothing was more natural than that in the more +ambitious of their number the thought should spring up that the time had +arrived for expelling the stranger, and seizing the power within their +grasp. In thus acting they could make themselves sure of the sympathy of +their countrymen. + +[Sidenote: CAUSES OF DISSATISFACTION.] + +The Sepoys have been treated in the matter of pay, clothing, and food, +as they never were under native rulers; but they have been subjected to +strict discipline, and they have been cut off from the much-prized +privilege of foraging, or rather plundering. They have at different +times complained loudly of unjust treatment. Alleged breach of promises +of pay, and their being sent to fight our battles in foreign countries +such as Burmah, China, Persia, and Afghanistan, and to parts of India +foreign to them, have been prominent among their causes of complaint. +They have not confined themselves to complaint and remonstrance; they +have again and again broken out into mutiny, which has led to some +regiments being disbanded, and the mutineer leaders being severely +punished. Years before 1857 it was asserted by persons eminently +qualified to judge, like Sir Henry Lawrence, that grievous mistakes had +been committed in the administration of the native army, and that our +safety demanded great changes in its treatment and distribution. When +one reads the statements they made, and the warnings they gave, the +wonder is the mutiny did not sooner occur. Lord Ellenborough, before +leaving India, declared the Sepoys were our one peril in India, and +characteristically proposed we should keep them in humour by keeping +them always fighting. + +All other causes of revolt were light compared with the charge often +advanced and believed that we were bent on the destruction of their +religion. From the outbreak at Vellore in 1806, on to the great mutiny +of 1857, this charge was persistently made. The Sepoys were allowed all +the religious liberty compatible with military obedience; they had every +facility for following their religious customs; they were fenced off +from Christian influences as no other part of the community was; they +were solemnly assured again and again their religion would be +scrupulously respected; they had full evidence before their eyes that +with few exceptions their officers had no Christian zeal. Whence, then, +this charge of tampering with their religion? The explanation is to be +found in the character of Hinduism. It is intensely outward. It is a +matter of rite and ceremony, of meat and drink, of clothing and posture. +It may be filched from a man without any act of his own by the act of +another, and he may not be aware till informed that the fatal loss has +been incurred. Something may be introduced into his food which will +deprive him of his religion, and make him an outcast all his days. What +more easy than to introduce a defiling element, such as the blood or fat +of the cow or bullock, of which the Brahman or Rajpoot might unaware +partake? To this intensely outward religion people of these castes are +passionately attached from custom, from superstition, and still more, I +think, from the consideration among themselves and others which caste +purity secures. Their honour, _izzat_, as they call it, is their most +valuable possession. An attack on it is bitterly resented. This honour +is quite consistent with licentiousness, robbery, plunder, and even +murder; but to violate caste by drinking from the vessel of a low-caste +man, or eating with him, would bring with it indelible disgrace. To +partake of the cow, the sacred animal, is the greatest crime which can +be committed, and, if done unconsciously, the greatest calamity. + +Notwithstanding the fact that the English as a people had little zeal +for their religion, the Sepoys thought they saw reasons for our wishing +to effect their conversion. If Christians, they would be fitter +instruments for carrying out the designs of their English conquerors. +They would in that case be no longer hampered by class distinctions, +commissariat arrangements could be more easily made, they would have no +objection to serving in foreign lands, and they would become identified +with us. What was more easy than to effect the change by the +manipulation of their food? Their imagination led them to interpret +facts as justifying suspicion, and the supposition was enough to drive +them to revolt. + +The Muhammadans in India have become Hinduized to a large extent; they +continually speak of themselves as a caste, and Muhammadan soldiers have +shared with their Hindu comrades in the fear that the English were bent +on destroying their religion. They took the most prominent part in the +mutiny at Vellore in 1806. They were injudiciously required there to put +on the English military hat, to shave their beards, and put on leather +belts, which they maintained were made of pigs' skins; and all this was +done, they said, to turn them into _Topeewalas_, Hatmen--in other words, +into Englishmen and Christians. + +[Sidenote: CO-OPERATING CAUSES FOR REVOLT.] + +Outside the army there have been causes, co-operating with those within, +in prompting the soldiers to rise against us. Our government is a very +foreign one. There is a national gulf between the rulers and the ruled, +and consequent absence of the sympathy which would draw them to each +other, if they were of the same people. Our government is at once +expensive and strong, requiring a large amount of taxation considering +the resources of the country, and able to enforce its payment. India has +been greatly favoured by high-minded and able rulers; but often, with +the best intentions, from want of thorough acquaintance with the native +character and customs, injustice has at times been done by the decisions +of our courts. Though giving security for person and property, such as +India had never previously enjoyed, our government has borne hardly on +some classes, such as the officials of the native states we have +annexed, the numerous dependents of the abolished native courts, and the +able and enterprising members of the community, for whom no suitable +sphere has been open, as the main prizes in both the military and civil +services are reserved for the English stranger. Then deposed princes +have now and then intrigued with the army to draw it away from its +allegiance. + +In the spring of 1856 Lord Dalhousie laid down his office, after his +long and memorable Proconsulship. So little did he anticipate the events +of the coming year, that in the elaborate Minute he wrote on his +retirement he satisfied himself with saying, regarding the native army, +that the condition of the Sepoy could not be improved. Till the closing +months of the year there was no fear of the coming storm. Profound peace +reigned throughout India. War had been declared against Persia, but +hopes were entertained that victory would soon crown our arms, and these +hopes were fulfilled. + + +THREATENINGS OF THE STORM. + +Towards the end of 1856 and early in 1857 there were mutterings of the +storm. A number of men were selected from each regiment to be taught the +use of the Enfield rifle, and for this purpose a new cartridge was +required, which required to be bitten with the teeth. The report spread +like wild-fire, and was firmly believed, that the cartridge was smeared +with bullock's fat to destroy the caste of the Hindus, and with pig's +fat to destroy the caste of the Muhammadans. The Adjutant-General of the +army declared there was not the slightest ground for the statement; but +the more strongly our innocence of design on their religion was +asserted, the more firmly did the Sepoys believe our guilt. Paper was +offered to them, and they were told to prepare cartridges for +themselves; but they said the paper was dangerously glazed, and they +would not accept it. Among other things causing disquietude was an order +that in future all enlisting must engage to go wherever they might be +sent in India or beyond. Hitherto some regiments had been enlisted only +for service in India, and could not be sent out of it except by their +own consent. On every side there were signs of a new era setting in, +which forbode no good to the ancient customs and institutions of the +land. The more aspiring spirits among the Sepoys had evidently formed +the project of uniting the whole army in the attempt to drive the +English into the sea, and secure power and emolument for themselves. + +[Sidenote: CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOURABLE TO REVOLT.] + +Various things favoured the project. It was well known that many +throughout India hated the English, and were ready to join in their +expulsion. Forts and arsenals were left in their keeping, unchecked by +the presence of European soldiers. The mass of the European force was in +the far North-West, in the Punjab, and towards the border of +Afghanistan, as if there the danger lay. The Sepoys saw that if they +could combine and act in concert they could with ease strike us to the +ground. Then the prophecy was widely spread that our rule was speedily +to come to an end. It had commenced with our victory at Plassey on June +23, 1757; and when the sun of June 23, 1857, should set, not one English +face would be seen in India. Mysterious cakes, resembling our bannocks, +were sent on from village to village, like the fiery cross in Scotland +in former days, to prepare the people for great and startling events. +Early in 1857 the ferment among the soldiers was spreading among large +classes of the people. + +During the cold weather of 1856-57 I spent some weeks in travelling with +my family in the country to the east of Benares, on the Calcutta road. +We left the high-road and made our way, as I have already mentioned, to +Rohtas Gurh, a famous abandoned fortress on the top of a hill. In some +of the villages to which I went to preach the Gospel the bitterest +feeling was shown, especially by young men, towards our rule and +religion. In one place the feeling manifested was so bitter that I +thought they were prepared to lay violent hands on me. I remember +remarking more than once, as I returned to the tent weary and worn out +in body and mind, that a strange feeling was coming over the people, +which I had never previously observed, and that I feared dark days were +approaching. + + +THE OUTBREAK AND PROGRESS OF THE MUTINY. + +At Berhampore, more than a hundred miles above Calcutta, and +Barrackpore, a few miles from it, the Sepoys broke into open mutiny, +which led to the leaders being executed and their regiments disbanded. +The outbreak at these places made a painful impression on the entire +English community, and created deep anxiety. That anxiety was increased +by the reports received from day to day of the mutinous spirit shown by +the Sepoys all over the country. We were told of midnight meetings, +insolent conduct, and incendiary fires. The most sanguine could not but +fear that we were entering a calamitous period. The most hopeful were +those officers who had been long with native regiments, and were sure +that whatever others might do, their men would remain staunch. + +[Sidenote: THE RISING AT MEERUT.] + +At length, on May 10th, the storm burst out at Meerut in all its fury. +I cannot enter on a detailed account of the events of that sad, +memorable day. I can only in a few words mention what took place. On the +previous day 87 men of a native cavalry regiment had, before the whole +garrison of the place, been put in irons for repeated persistent +disobedience. Though there was a large European force a native guard was +put over the prisoners, who were confined in a place close to their +comrades. No precaution was taken against their rescue. On the evening +of the next day, Sunday, as the Europeans were gathering for Church, the +Sepoys rose, murdered their officers, hastened to the parade ground, +liberated their imprisoned comrades, opened the jails, raised all the +villainy of the native town, massacred the Christians whom they met, +men, women, and children, set houses on fire, and then set out for +Delhi, the great old imperial city. There they were welcomed by the +titular king and his family, and there, as at Meerut, they murdered all +the Christians on whom they could lay hold. By the mismanagement of the +large European force at Meerut, a small portion of which was well able +to cope with the Sepoys, they did not arrive on the scene of revolt till +the Sepoys had done all the mischief on which they were bent, and had +set out for Delhi. + +That 10th of May we remember vividly. We had had our usual afternoon +service with the native Christians. In the evening we walked out in the +garden. The moon was shining in an unclouded sky. Hot though the weather +was we enjoyed our quiet walk, talked of the services of the day, and +the threatening appearance of affairs. Little did we think of the +terrible scenes which were then being enacted at Meerut. + +The outbreak at Meerut awoke as with a peal of the loudest thunder the +entire English community in India, and especially in Northern India, to +a sense of imminent peril. We had hitherto lived in the enjoyment of +profound security. There had been uneasiness on different occasions, +when our power seemed imperilled by the disasters which overtook us in +Afghanistan in 1841-42, and by the life and death struggle we had +afterwards with the Sikhs. Our enemies were then watching for our fall, +and the reasons for uneasiness at those times were stronger than the +community generally were aware of. There had been also at different +times uneasiness in reference to the Sepoys, but they came to be +regarded as wilful children, who might be troublesome, but who would do +us no harm. In our own country, among our own people, we could not have +felt safer than we ordinarily did. At the travelling season we went +about, pitched our tents in solitary spots, for weeks together perhaps +did not see a white face, and were treated not only with courtesy, but +generally with profound deference, as if we belonged to a superior race. +The people in their obsequious fashion, and with their idolatrous views, +would almost have given us divine honours. All at once we realized +ourselves as living in the midst of a dense alien population. Our own +trusted soldiers, serving under our banners, receiving our pay, and +sworn to defend us, had risen against us; and with them as declared +enemies, in whom could we confide? Our obsequious servants of yesterday +might become our murderers to-day. We felt ourselves at bay, surrounded +by a host who might any moment fall on us and destroy us. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE OUTBREAK AT BENARES. + + +At no place was the shock felt more severely than at Benares, where I +was residing with my family. In no place was the danger greater. We were +living in the suburbs of the most superstitious and fanatical city in +the land. Again and again during the eighty years of our rule there had +been riots in the city, professedly to avenge religious wrongs--riots so +formidable, that they were quelled by military force. A very few years +previous to 1857 the city was thrown into violent commotion, in +consequence of new messing regulations in the jail, by which it was +alleged, though without reason, the caste of the prisoners would be +affected. The rowdy element, composed of those emphatically called +_bud-mash_ "evil-doers," persons ready for every mischief, was very +strong. The Sepoys put in the forefront of their quarrel the plea that +they were fighting for their religion, and where could they expect so +much sympathy and help as in Kasee? Sir Henry Lawrence, writing some +time previously about the mistakes committed in the management of the +native army, named Benares as a place where fearful scenes would be +witnessed in the event of a Sepoy rising. Intensely Hindu, though +Benares be, it has, as we have already observed, a large Muhammadan +population, and in attacking us the Hindus could fully depend on their +help. + +Our danger was greatly increased by the vast disproportion between the +native and European force--a disproportion so great, that apart from the +danger of our neighbourhood to a great city, from which we might expect +a host to pour out to attack us, it looked as if we were doomed to +destruction. We had in Benares a Native Infantry regiment, which was +believed to be tainted; a Sikh regiment, the temper of which was little +known; and, a few miles off, an Irregular Cavalry regiment, composed, it +was said, of a superior class of men, all, I believe, Muhammadans, but +whom few could trust in the event of a rising. Our European force +consisted of thirty artillery-men in charge of a battery of three guns. +At the fort of Chunar, sixteen miles distant, there was a number of +European soldier pensioners, of whom perhaps sixty or seventy might be +effective. So unbounded had been the confidence in the Sepoys, that the +artillery-men in Benares and the pensioners in Chunar were the only +European force in the entire province of Benares under the Benares +Commissioner, with a population of over ten millions; while in seven +stations in the province there were native soldiers, chiefly infantry, +but partly cavalry and artillery. Besides the English officers of the +native regiments, and some half-dozen English civil officials, the only +English people were missionaries of the Church, Baptist, and London +Societies, and a few traders, while a few indigo planters were scattered +in the country. + +[Sidenote: PREPARATION FOR THE STORM.] + +On the news of the Meerut mutiny reaching Benares, the civil and +military authorities lost no time in consulting what should be done. The +proposal that we should leave in a body for the Fort of Chunar was most +wisely rejected. It was impossible to disarm the distrusted Native +Infantry regiment in the absence of a European force. There was a large +building in cantonments, which had been erected for a mint for the +North-Western Provinces, and had been used for this purpose till the +provincial mints were removed to Calcutta. It always afterwards bore the +name of "The Mint." This building is in a wide enclosure, surrounded by +a high wall, and it was hinted all round that in the event of a rising +we should, if possible, make our way to this place. The Irregular +Cavalry regiment was called in to patrol the roads leading to the +station and city, and report the presence of suspicious persons. The +resolution was formed to maintain a bold front, and pursue our usual +course, as if we knew that succour was at hand. On every side the hope +was expressed that none would give way to panic. The men at the head of +affairs had the general confidence of the community. + +Most happily for us and for many others there was a lull in the storm +after the mutiny at Meerut and the possession of Delhi by the mutineers. +There was alarm everywhere, here and there there was commotion, but +there were no extensive and concerted risings. If there had been we +could not have been saved. Our soldiers were returning from Persia, +regiments proceeding to China were stopped on the way and brought to +India, and an available force was thus placed at the disposal of the +authorities. English soldiers were hastened up from Calcutta. From day +to day we with joy saw them pass our gate in carriages on their way to +cantonments. Great though our danger was they were not detained. A small +number was kept for our defence, and the rest were sent on to relieve +our sorely-pressed people farther north. Some began to hope the dark +cloud over us was about to be dispersed, while others looked on our +position with dismay approaching despair. As our house was in a very +exposed position, a friend had at an early period invited us to take up +our abode with him; but we resolved to remain for the present in our own +home. + + +THE FOURTH OF JUNE, 1857, AT BENARES. + +At length the storm burst over us. By attempts at incendiary fires and +in other ways the Native Infantry regiment had shown a mutinous spirit. +The necessity for disarming it was obvious to all except its own +officers, but the difficulty of the measure was great. On June 4th +Colonel Neil, one of those men whose high qualities were elicited by the +terrible struggle on which we had entered, arrived at Benares. On the +previous day a native regiment had mutinied at Azimghur, sixty miles +distant. A council was held, and as there were one hundred and twenty +English soldiers it was resolved to disarm the Native Infantry regiment +next morning. The question was asked, "Why not now? We may be all killed +before morning." Immediate disarmament was determined on. Well was it +for us this was the decision, as it was afterwards found that very night +had been fixed for the rising of the regiment, and the massacre of us +all. The whole military force of the place was called out, the English +soldiers being placed near the guns, and the Sepoys were ordered to pile +their arms. The order instead of being obeyed was met by our officers +and men being fired on, and the fight commenced. + +[Sidenote: THE RISING AT BENARES.] + +We had just finished dinner when our night watchman rushed into the +room with the startling words, _Pultun bigar guya_, and _lin men ag +luga!_--"The regiment has mutinied, and the cantonments are on fire." +Scarcely had he uttered the words, when we heard the sharp rattle of the +musketry and the crash of the guns. Our little conveyance was made +quickly ready, and, with all others in that part of the suburbs, we +drove as quickly as we could to the only place of temporary safety +available for us, on the banks of the Ganges at the northern end of the +city. The English were in different parts of the suburbs, and betook +themselves to the places nearest to them which promised immediate +shelter. Sir John Kaye, the historian of the Sepoy War, says that the +missionaries left the city for Chunar, with the exception of one he +names, Mr. Leupolt. In fact, only the Church missionaries went in that +direction, and they could go in no other. + +As we were hastening to the Ganges we knew from the noise of the +musketry and cannon that the battle was going on, and from the cloud of +smoke rising from cantonments we feared that all the houses were on +fire. We went with others to the house of an English merchant whom we +knew well, and then as the natives were gathering around we betook +ourselves to boats on the river, and got out into the stream. In a short +time a messenger from cantonments reached us with the good news that our +men were victorious, and that the mutineers were in flight. We returned +to the house of our merchant friend with the intention of remaining +there for the night. With our party were a number of children, some of +them infants, and they, poor things, were put to rest in any corner +which could be found. Between eight and nine the Brigade-Major, who had +been slightly wounded, and had been saved from certain death by the +faithfulness of a trooper, rode into the compound accompanied by men of +the Irregular Cavalry regiment. We all ran out, and were told by him +that a number of English soldiers, who had just arrived from Calcutta, +were on the other side of the Ganges ready to be ferried over, and that +they would form our escort to the Mint, which was between three and four +miles distant. In the meantime we learned all that had occurred--how the +Native Infantry regiment had mutinied, how they had been joined by the +Sikhs, some said by panic, by others I believe more truly, from sympathy +with their Hindustanee brethren, as was shown by their after conduct; +and how all had been put to flight by our band of soldiers, aided by the +guns. On our side four were killed and nineteen wounded, of whom the +greater number afterwards died. How many of the Sepoys were killed was +not ascertained, as, with the exception of a few, the dead and wounded +were carried off by their comrades. + +When all was ready we set out, a long cavalcade, with English soldiers +in front and behind, and native troopers on each side, our guardians +then, but before the morning dawned in flight to join the mutineers. It +was a calm, beautiful moonlight night, forming a strange contrast to the +turmoil of the preceding hours. The road took us by our house, and as we +passed the gate a servant, who had been watching for us, came out with +artificially cooled water, which was very welcome. We reached the Mint +about midnight, and there the whole European community was assembled. On +every side there was eager talk about our position and prospects, but +there was no appearance of panic or fright. The mothers soon succeeded +in finding spots in the spacious rooms of the Mint--which had not been +swept, and were covered with half an inch of mud--for their precious +charge, and there they remained to watch over them; while the men +sauntered about, or tried to sit where anything like sitting was +practicable. Stray shots were heard, and from the city went up rockets, +which were regarded as signals to the Sepoys outside. Most were awake as +if it were full day. Between three and four in the morning, as I was +sitting with two or three others on a native bedstead, a person came and +said, "Where is the magistrate? The city is up." It was a false alarm; +the city remained strangely quiet. As the morning broke we were all in +safety, and no enemy was to be seen. Many of the English soldiers were +so overcome by fatigue that they lay on the gravel fast asleep, with +their muskets by their side. + +[Sidenote: LIFE AT THE MINT.] + +In the Mint we all remained for more than a week in the greatest +possible discomfort, unable to change our clothes except by going to +some house outside, which some of us ventured to do. We once ventured to +our house for some very necessary articles, and daily visits were paid +to a barrack a short way off, where the sick and wounded were. During +the day, with the blazing sun above us, and the wind blowing through the +Mint with the heat of a furnace, we were obliged to confine ourselves to +its large crowded rooms. The exposure was trying, but was patiently +borne, and did no seeming injury to our health. At night we slept +outside, most of us on the flat roof of the Mint, on bedding which our +servants brought us. Our food was cooked at our homes, and brought to us +by our servants, and very thankful were we to get it, though we had +neither tables to sit at nor chairs to sit on. Had not our servants been +faithful we should have starved, as the authorities, to prevent panic +and to show a bold front, had laid in no provisions. This seems very +unwise, and yet there is no doubt the bold front did much under God to +effect our deliverance. + +In the morning of the Sunday after the mutiny the Rev. C. B. Leupolt, of +the Church Mission, preached on the parade ground. In the afternoon I +was requested to preach. The soldiers, with their rifles in their hands, +and the European inhabitants were my audience. I took for my text words +which at once suggested themselves to my mind, "If God be for us, who +can be against us?" These words of the Apostle Paul, I was afterwards +told, came fraught with strength to the hearts of some present. + +On Sunday evening it began to be whispered that mutiny had broken out at +Allahabad. On Monday we knew all. The 6th N. I. Regiment, after +professing in the afternoon their readiness to march to Delhi and fight +the rebels, in the evening rose, murdered sixteen officers, six of them +young lads who had just arrived, and all Europeans who came their way. +Happily families were in the Fort, to which they had betaken themselves +in opposition to the affectionate remonstrances of the native officers, +who said it was a slur on their fidelity! The Sepoys plundered the +Treasury; and it is said many of them were afterwards murdered by the +villagers on account of the money with which they were laden. + +As the Sepoys entirely disappeared, and the city of Benares was quiet, +though the country around was much disturbed, most of us after a time +returned to our homes. In our own case we found that not one of our +servants had decamped, and not a pin's worth had been stolen. The very +night of the mutiny a servant picked up the few silver spoons we had +left on the table, and at considerable risk made his way to us to place +them in his mistress's hands. Indeed, all about us acted with a +faithfulness which elicited our warm gratitude. + +[Sidenote: INCIDENT AT THE MINT.] + +While we were at the Mint a little incident occurred, which suggested +how, in the excited state of affairs, a spark might have caused a great +conflagration. Seeing a crowd of natives, almost all servants, at the +gate, I went to it, and there the sentry, a little peppery Irishman, was +threatening to stab with his bayonet a native servant with a note in his +hand. I asked what was the matter. The sentry said, "That black fellow +is mocking me, and I'll send this through him." The servant appealed to +me. He said he had a note for a gentleman in the Mint, and entreated +that "gora," "white man," to let him in, but instead of doing so he +threatened to kill him. The mocking was, it turned out, the native +folding his hands in the attitude of supplication. I explained the +matter, and the man got in. The native servants were so roughly treated +by some of our people, especially by the newly-arrived soldiers, simply +because they were natives, that I was afraid they might leave us in a +body; and if they had done so we should have been in a sad plight. One +of my own servants, a native Christian, complained bitterly to me of the +treatment he had received. + +The quiet of Benares during this period was remarkable--I might almost +say preternatural. When the fight of the 4th of June commenced, numbers +were seen with drawn swords rushing towards cantonments, but when they +saw Sepoys falling, and others running away, they shrank back into the +city. A great dread fell on the entire population. I was told by natives +the report had gone out that the English soldiers had been commanded to +enter the city, and slay every man, woman, and child they met; and that +in consequence, to adopt their exaggerated words, they sat trembling all +night, no one daring to sleep. + +In the meantime the terrible work of retribution commenced. Martial law +was proclaimed, and many poor miserable creatures, charged with +plundering, were hanged. Some of the Sepoys caught were blown from guns. +I will not harrow my readers with details. I shunned as much as I could +these bloody scenes, but on several occasions I came suddenly on them. +To the present day I shudder as I think of what I saw. + + +THE PANIC OF JULY 6TH. + +[Sidenote: OUR DAY OF PANIC.] + +I must now come to our day of panic, July 6th. July 5th was a Sunday. We +had our usual services with the native Christians. Some two hours after +the evening service, a nephew of ours, then at Benares, drove into the +compound, and told us we must go at once to the Mint, as a large force +of Sepoys and country people were four miles off, prepared to attack the +jail. This was startling news, as our house lay in the direct line +between the jail and the city, and, in the event of the attack being +successful, we should be the first victims. Still, we were very +unwilling to stir, but our nephew was so urgent that we at last complied +with his entreaty. A refugee family was in our house, and with us all +crowded into a small conveyance we made our way to the rendezvous. What +a scene was there! Most had arrived before us. Rain was falling, and we +could not remain out. The rooms were so crowded that we could not get +into them, and we had to lie for the night as we could in a dirty +passage, with our back to the wall. The night passed off without an +alarm, and in the morning we returned to our home, somewhat annoyed at +having been taken from it, as we supposed, without sufficient reason. + +On the morning of the 6th I had a strange duty to discharge for such a +time--the marriage of a couple. One of our native Christians had +arranged for his marriage taking place at that date. I told him that +this was no time for marrying; that we who were married must abide with +our families, but that those who were intending marriage should defer it +to a more propitious season. He said all was arranged, and he begged me +to officiate, which I did, I must say, with a bad grace. No sooner was +the marriage over than I went home. After breakfast and family worship, +we each betook ourselves, thoroughly worn out, to our rooms to obtain +some rest. Scarcely had I lain down on my couch, when our faithful +watchman came to my door and exclaimed, "If you do not go at once to the +Mint you will all be killed." I asked him what was the matter. He could +not tell me. He could only say, "Fly, fly." The refugee lady who, with +her family, was with us, hearing the watchman's words, exclaimed, "Oh, +Mr. Kennedy, do not leave us!" to which I replied, "Depend on it, I will +not. Rather than that, I myself will remain behind." Our conveyance was +speedily made ready, and off we started, with such a crowded coach as +has been seldom seen, I, as driver, urging the poor overladen horse to +his utmost speed. Natives as well as Europeans were seized with panic. +There was a stream, then in full flood, close to our house, and I saw +several natives throw themselves into it to swim across, at the imminent +risk of their lives. As we crossed one of the great roads leading to the +city, the natives were running as if pursued by demons. Right before us +we saw an English lady running towards the Mint, with her bare head in +the sun, which had now come out in its strength. A gentleman in a buggy +drove past us, pulled in reins, the lady leaped into it, and they dashed +on to the place of refuge. On reaching the Mint we found most of the +Europeans there before us. I accosted a friend and said, "What does this +mean?" He told us how the impression had gone out that the enemy were on +us, and how the panic might have been prevented if information of the +state of affairs had been given. There was danger. The host coming +against us had, with characteristic procrastination, put off the attack +till the morning. To prevent their approach to the city, every man and +gun that could be spared were sent out to meet them. + +When we reached the Mint we heard the rumour that Cawnpore had fallen. +The report was not generally believed, but it was true. We were only two +hundred miles from Cawnpore, and yet nine days had passed before our +hearing of its fall, and we then heard of it only as a rumour. + +The feeling of panic soon subsided, and as some in their haste had taken +something with them, it soon looked as if we were a large improvised +picnic party. For a few hours all was quiet; but in the afternoon the +rattle of the musketry and the boom of the cannon told us the battle had +commenced. Soon the news reached us that the rebels were in flight, and +that we were again safe. Till the news reached there was anxiety, but +there was little manifestation of it, except by the wives of some of the +soldiers, who were wringing their hands and weeping bitterly. The night +was spent by us in the greatest discomfort, huddled together, lying in +our day clothes on the floor, in an atmosphere so close that I wonder +we were not stifled. That 6th of July, 1857, at Benares can never be +obliterated from the memory of any one who was there. It makes us +understand, as nothing else could do, how much more dreadful a panic is +than the most furious combat. + +[Sidenote: THE ADVENTURES OF A MARRIAGE DAY.] + +I must recall my readers for a little to the couple whom I had married +on the morning of that memorable day. We had not been above a few +minutes in the Mint, when whom did I see rushing in at the gate, out of +breath, but my friends whom I had united in wedlock a few hours +previously, the bridegroom a few steps in advance of the bride, who was +doing her best, with little success, to save her bridal dress from being +soiled by the muddy road. Grave though our position was, I could not but +smile when I saw them. I went to meet them, and looking sternly at the +bridegroom I said, "Chhotkan, did I not tell you this was no time to +marry?" He looked at me sheepishly, and said, "Well, sir, it is now +over, and I cannot help it." I had better add that the marriage has been +a happy one. The husband has maintained a Christian character, and has +had a prosperous career, and they both survive to the present time. + + +THE DAYS SUCCEEDING THE DAY OF PANIC. + +On the day after the panic we all returned to our respective homes. The +immediate danger was past, but the country around was in a very +disturbed state. The officer commanding the station sent round a +circular strongly recommending the immediate departure for Calcutta of +European families, and, indeed, of all Europeans who were not able and +willing to bear arms. Like many of my countrymen, I was thrown by this +circular into great perplexity. Our house was out of cantonments, in a +very exposed situation. We had four children with us at the time, the +eldest six years of age, and the youngest a little more than three +months. Their departure was indispensable. Was I to go with them, or +send them away and remain behind? Some advised me to go, but we soon saw +this was not the course which ought to be pursued. Officers were sending +away their families, and they themselves were remaining behind. For me +to desert my post at such a time, was seen by us both, would be to undo +the work of my life, and it was evident my duty was to remain. Armed +steamers were going up and down the Ganges, and I hoped to secure a +passage to Calcutta in one of them for my family. Hearing a steamer was +expected from Allahabad, we went down to Raj Ghat; and as soon as the +steamer came to anchor I went on board. It was full to overflowing of +refugees from the North-West. The captain told me he could not give my +family even a deck passage, so crowded was the vessel. There was nothing +for us but to go back to a friend's house, where we had been living for +a few days. Through the kindness of a friend at Allahabad, to whom I had +written, I succeeded in securing a small cabin for my family in the next +steamer, and in it they made their way to Calcutta, after a detention of +some days at Dinapore in great discomfort and danger, owing to the +mutiny having broken out there. At Calcutta they embarked, in September, +in a cargo ship for England, which they reached after a long and stormy +passage. During the whole of July and August the communication between +Bengal and the Upper Provinces was so interrupted, that sometimes for +weeks together no certain information was received of what was +transpiring. At Benares the only mails reaching were from places near +us. At Calcutta the rumour went out that Benares had fallen, and that +all the English people in it had been massacred, causing the deepest +distress to the many there who had left loved ones behind. + + +BENARES FROM JULY TO DECEMBER. + +[Sidenote: EXPOSURE TO ATTACK.] + +From July till October the position of the English at Benares was one of +great danger. We had no fighting, but we were continually threatened. We +had twice or thrice an alarm, the most serious being from an _emeute_ in +the jail, which was soon suppressed and the leaders executed. Delhi was +not taken till September, and till that was done, all who desired our +overthrow were sure it was about to be accomplished. Our great peril was +from Lucknow. Our small force there was besieged, it was reckoned, by +50,000 men. They were not relieved till towards the end of September. +While the siege was being carried on, information reached the +authorities of Benares that a plan had been formed to detach from the +besieging army five or six thousand men to attack us. The plan was most +feasible. The distance by the direct route was under two hundred miles. +The river Goomtee, which flows by Lucknow, enters the Ganges a few miles +from Benares. It was at that time in full flood, and a flotilla might be +easily gathered by which, in a few days, a large body of armed men with +the munitions of war could have reached us. Some of the Barons of Oude +sent offers of aid, but these offers were by many considered lures to +draw us into their net, that they might the more easily destroy us. Jung +Buhadur, the famous ruler of Nepal, proposed to come with his brave +Ghoorkas to defend us, but their presence was more feared than desired. +Then in the great city near us we knew there were many plotting our +destruction, and ready to rise at the first signal of an approaching +foe. + +So great was the danger considered, that thousands were set to the +erection of a great earth fort close to the Ganges, on the site of an +old Muhammadan fortress. Owing to the disturbed state of the country the +commerce of the place was paralyzed; the stock of grain in the market +was very low, and food was selling at famine prices. The erection of the +fort gave most welcome employment to the poorer portion of the +community. So great was the danger, that, acting under the advice of +those best acquainted with the state of affairs, I sent to this fort +books, documents, and other things which I deemed it most important to +preserve. We were instructed how we were to act in the event of a sudden +outbreak, the rendezvous to which we should instantly resort, and from +which we might make our way together to the fort, which was being +erected. It often occurred to me that our position at that time was like +that of persons sitting on a barrel of gunpowder in a house on fire. So +alarming were the accounts received in the daytime, that I often lay +down at night uncertain what might occur before morning. Often I got up, +looked towards the cantonments, and listened. Thankful that all was +quiet, I returned to my bed. + +[Sidenote: CONSTANCY OF THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS.] + +During these anxious months I had abundant reason to be thankful for the +decision at which we had arrived, that I should remain behind when my +family left for England. In the discharge of the work devolving on me +from day to day, I felt I should have been recreant to duty, and missed +many opportunities of usefulness, had I gone away. Early in September, +to the great grief of us all, a much-loved member of the Mission, my +sister-in-law, the wife of my senior colleague, Mr. Buyers, was removed +by death. She had remained behind when other ladies, who had children, +left. Mr. Buyers was prostrated by the blow, and for a considerable time +was unable to resume work. The charge of the Mission thus came largely +into my hands. Before the end of July we re-opened our principal school +in the heart of the city, of which I was superintendent, and which I +visited constantly. At Benares a Depot Hospital was opened, to which the +sick and wounded Europeans were brought from the surrounding country, +and there a part of every day was spent. My principal work, however, was +among the native Christians, with whom I met constantly to speak about +the state of affairs, to consult what should be done, to commit +ourselves to God, and ask from Him guidance and protection. The firmness +and courage of these Christians were worthy of the highest praise. As +natives, they could elude observation far more easily than Europeans; +but even where they were unknown, so entwined is idolatry with the whole +life of the people, they could not be any time among their countrymen +without being discovered if faithful to their Lord; and, as recreants +from their ancestral religion, they were sure to be cruelly treated. +They had only to declare themselves Muhammadans, and safety would be at +once secured. Not one of our native Christian community thought of +seeking safety by such means. They seemed resolved to brave every hazard +rather than deny their Lord. At length, by the capture of Delhi in the +first half of September, and the relief of the Lucknow garrison some +twelve days afterwards, the dark, threatening clouds over us began to +break. + +From October onward the tension was loosened; but the danger was not +over. Though the garrison at Lucknow had been relieved, we were forced +to evacuate it, and for months afterwards the whole country of Oude +remained in the hands of those who had risen against us. Over a large +portion of the North-West, and in Central India, our government remained +prostrate. We had been so long in danger we had become blunted to the +sense of it, and remained unmoved in circumstances which at an early +period would have greatly excited us. + +During the recent outbreak in Egypt, the position of Europeans in that +country in many respects resembled that of Europeans in Northern India +in 1857. Very similar was their danger, very similar their sufferings, +and very similar was the deliverance of the greater number. But for +providential interposition, not one would have in either case escaped. +When I look back and consider what our position was, I marvel that any +of us survived to tell what we endured; and our hearts are hard and cold +indeed if we are not fervently thankful for our preservation. While my +narrative shows that the residents at Benares in 1857 had to pass +through a season of severe trial and great danger, all acquainted with +the history of that period are aware that our countrymen in other places +had vastly more to suffer. In many places the rising was temporarily +successful. With us, the authorities all through kept the upper hand. +The result was that we were kept from the extremity of suffering to +which many were subjected. The entire loss of property was the least of +the trials they had to bear. Many, among whom were delicate women and +helpless children, were cruelly murdered. Others saw the objects of +their warmest love killed before their eyes, had to endure the most +fearful privations, and had to pass through untold horrors before +reaching a place of safety. Not a few sank into the grave, the victims +of toil, suffering, and sorrow. At no place was the danger greater than +at Benares, and at no place did the general community suffer so little. + + +VISIT TO ALLAHABAD. + +[Sidenote: THE DESOLATION OF ALLAHABAD.] + +Learning that there was no missionary at Allahabad, about seventy miles +north-west of Benares, which is now the seat of Government for the +North-West, I wrote in December to a native Christian there whom I knew, +proposing to visit him and his brethren, and in due course I got his +reply, expressing the pleasure my visit would give them. I accordingly +went, taking Mirzapore on my way, where I spent two or three days very +happily with the mission family. I found a tent erected for my +accommodation by the native Christian brethren close to the ruins of the +mission premises. What a scene of desolation the whole place presented! +The houses of the European residents had been set on fire, and there +they were as the mutineers had left them. There were no European +families. One large house had been put in order by the magistrate, and +in the wide surrounding enclosure what may be called a canvas town had +arisen. Civil and military officers were continually passing up and +down, and for their accommodation tents had been pitched. All took their +meals together in the restored mansion, and they kindly asked me to join +them during my stay. My tent was pitched close to the abode of the +native Christians. I had thus the opportunity, during the week I +remained, of holding constant intercourse with my own countrymen and +with native brethren. From the natives I heard much of what they had +seen and suffered. I was shown the scenes of the terrible events which +had occurred, and as retributive measures were still carried on, I saw, +in spite of myself, scenes which made me shudder. On the other side of +the Ganges there were frequent skirmishes between parties sent out and +bands there who were resisting our authority; the firing was distinctly +heard. On Sunday I preached twice to the native Christians. In the +forenoon the service was conducted in a small chapel, which had not been +burnt down, because it was so close to native houses that, if burnt, the +flames would have certainly spread to them. In the evening I re-opened +for worship the principal mission chapel. An attempt had been made to +set it on fire, but as it had not been at once successful, owing to its +being very strongly built, the insurgents satisfied themselves with +breaking the doors, windows, seats, pulpit, and everything which could +be easily destroyed. The wreck had been cleared away, and there I +preached to a goodly company, one of them a man whose arm had been cut +off because he was a Christian, and who had been left as dead. His +recovery was marvellous. That was a memorable Sunday to me and to those +to whom I ministered. My morning subject was, "In the day of adversity +consider" (Eccles. vii. 14); and in the evening, Christ stilling the +storm (Matt. viii. 23-28). + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +VISIT TO CEYLON AND RETURN TO BENARES. + +1858-1859. + + +During the hot season and rains of 1858 I suffered greatly from boils +and feverishness. After applying in vain the usual means of cure +prescribed, I was advised to try a sea voyage. I accordingly arranged to +go down the Bay of Bengal to Point de Galle in Ceylon, and to await +there the arrival of my wife from England, so as to return with her to +India. + +[Sidenote: VOYAGE TO CALCUTTA.] + +The rebellion still flickered in Bahar. A part of the road to Calcutta +was in the hand of Kower Singh, a rebel chief; and travellers like +myself to the capital from the North-West were on that account happy to +avail themselves of the river steamers. We had the clear sky and the +gentle breeze of that delightful season in Northern India. From morning +to night we sat under a thick awning, reading or talking, as we were +inclined, refreshed by the breeze, and interested in the various objects +presented to our view on the river and its banks. The fortnight of the +voyage passed most pleasantly, and I arrived in Calcutta half cured of +my ailments. I was happy to find myself in time for the outgoing steamer +of the P. and O. Company, on which I took passage to Point de Galle. On +landing I saw the last newspaper received from England with the list of +passengers for successive steamers, and from it I learned that my wife +was to come a month later than I had anticipated. This left me with five +or six weeks in Ceylon to dispose of myself as I best could. I made up +my mind to travel through the island. I accordingly left Galle by coach +the next day for Colombo, the capital. After staying there a few days I +set out for Kandy, the old capital; held on to Newera Ellia, the +sanatorium of the island, lying under Pedro Talla Galla, its highest +mountain; ascended the mountain, made my way back by another route to +Kandy, and then proceeded to Galle, where I was happy to meet my wife +and child, with whom I went on to Calcutta. + +When I landed at Galle I was not aware that I knew a single individual +in the island, but I was not an hour at the hotel to which I went before +I found myself in company with a medical gentleman, a native of +Perthshire, who knew my friends; and on my arrival at Colombo I was +recognized on the street, by my resemblance to my father, by a person +who had never seen me previously, but who knew him. It struck me it +would be dangerous for me to attempt an incognito, which, happily, I had +no temptation to do. During my travels in Ceylon I met several from the +North of Scotland whom I had known intimately, and among them one who +had been for years my schoolfellow. My countrymen were there, as +elsewhere, prominent members of the community. + +[Sidenote: THE SCENERY OF CEYLON.] + +I was much interested in all I saw during my travels in Ceylon. I was +prepared to see fine scenery and rich foliage, but the reality greatly +exceeded my expectation. On the coast between Galle and Colombo there is +a considerable extent of level land, covered by the cocoanut palm, +which forms much of the wealth of the people. Every part of the tree is +turned to account. The wood is used for rafters, and the leaves for +thatching. The kernel is an article of food, but its principal value +comes from the oil made from it after it has been dried. The nut +contains a liquid, which is deemed by the natives very refreshing. The +fibrous husk round the cocoanut, called coir, is manufactured into +ropes, matting, brushes, and other useful articles. It is largely and +profitably exported. The trees are tapped for a juice, which, boiled +when fresh, gives what is called palm-sugar; but when kept, becomes +intoxicating. The name of the tree in the native language is "Tar"; this +intoxicating juice is called "Taree," and by a well-known custom of +linguistic transposition it is called by English people "Toddy." We have +at Benares palm-trees which furnish this toddy, and I am sorry to say it +is by far too largely used. This cocoanut palm abounds on the coast, and +is always bent towards the sea, as if to welcome its breezes, or to +strengthen itself against them. Away from the coast it well-nigh +disappears, and trees of a very different order are seen on every side, +many of them rising to a great height and covered with beautiful +foliage. + +The scenery in the interior is very striking. When travelling on the top +of the coach from Colombo to Kandy, I might have thought myself in my +own Highlands, as mountain after mountain came into view, and our road +in its descents and ascents skirted precipices, where safety demanded +the most careful driving. Long, winding valleys, through which rivers +flowed, with falls and cascades here and there, reminded me of our +finest straths. I saw no large bodies of water like our lochs. There +were two points of marked dissimilarity. The month was December; I +required no great-coat, and the rays of the sun were stronger than was +pleasant. Instead of the leafless trees, and the white covering of the +snow of the Scottish winter, there were trees in their richest dress, +and all around a verdure of the freshest green, telling me I was in a +tropical land, and in a land where heat and moisture by their abundance +gave extraordinary force to vegetation. As I travelled from Kandy to +Newera Ellia, and back again to Kandy by a different route, my +impression of the picturesqueness and productiveness of the country was +confirmed. There was one thing I did not see--the blooming heather of my +own Highlands. + +There is, I suppose, no country where all that is desirable can be +obtained. It must be acknowledged Ceylon has its disadvantages. Its +climate is that of perpetual summer, warmer indeed at some times than at +others, but never approaching our heat in Northern India in May and +June. It is only six degrees from the equator, and it owes its moderate +temperature to its sea breezes and abundant rain. I missed the bracing +coolness of Northern India in December and January. Perpetual summer is +good for neither soul nor body. For bodily health and enjoyment the +alternation of cold and heat is far better, as in the moral world +prosperity and adversity are required for the maturing of character. + +There is one evil--I do not know whether I should call it a minor or a +major evil--to which both man and beast are exposed in Ceylon. We have +all heard of snakes in the grass. In the fine grass of Ceylon leeches +abound, and are ever ready to take their unwelcome contribution from all +that come their way. They leap up on passers by, and try to exact from +them their favourite food. I was often reminded by unpleasant nips that +they had got hold of me. For months after leaving Ceylon I had on my +limbs marks of their doings. + +[Sidenote: PRODUCTS OF CEYLON.] + +When travelling between Kandy and Newera Ellia, I was the guest of +coffee-planters, all of them, so far as I remember, my own countrymen; +and saw coffee in all its stages, from the berry on the coffee-bush on +to the manufactured article ready for the market. The plant is +indigenous in the island, but it was turned to little account till taken +up by Europeans. The pioneers in its culture, as so often happens in +such cases, are said to have lost heavily; but at the time of my visit +plantations were paying well, and a large tract of land was under +cultivation. I believe it afterwards ceased to be profitable, and now +tea cultivation is taking its place. + +At one time cinnamon was the most valuable export of the island, but by +1858 it had so decreased in value by its being produced abundantly in +lands still farther east, that comparatively little attention was given +to it. I was taken to the public garden in Colombo, and saw the +work-people with their sharp knives peeling off the fragrant bark from +the cinnamon-tree, and preparing it for the market. + +Colombo, the capital, is a large, stirring, rising town. Galle is a much +smaller place, and owes its importance to its being a place of call for +steamers on account of its sheltered bay. It is noted for its pedlars, +men who, with combs in their long hair, and clad in jacket and +petticoat, might be taken for women. Their wares of jewellery and +precious stones have not a high character for genuineness. Kandy, the +old capital in the interior, is a small place, lying very low, and is +surrounded by hills. It has a beautiful little artificial lake, and is +famous for its temple, with a tooth of Buddha as its great treasure. + +During the few weeks I was in Ceylon I was most hospitably entertained +wherever I went by missionaries, chaplains, coffee-planters, and others. +I shall always retain a grateful recollection of the kindness I +experienced. From these friends I heard much about the spiritual state +of Ceylon. It is well known the Dutch were the first Europeans who +obtained a footing in the island. They determined to stamp out +heathenism and establish Christianity, not by violent persecution, but +by reserving offices of every description for those who embraced the +Christian faith, by treating them in every possible way as a privileged +class, and by showing official disfavour to the unbaptized. An agency +composed of chaplains, catechists, and schoolmasters was appointed to +bring the community within the Christian fold. The work went on with +great apparent success. Tens of thousands avowed themselves Christians. +It looked as if heathenism was to disappear under Dutch rule. If the +Dutch had retained possession of the island, and had persevered in their +policy, in all likelihood by this time Ceylon would have been a +professedly Christian country, with a strong underlying element of +heathen notion and practice. + +[Sidenote: BUDDHIST WORSHIPPERS.] + +No sooner was the policy of neutrality adopted with the installation of +English rule, than this large Christian community melted away, and +flowed into the old channel of Buddhism, which had been for ages the +religion of the Cingalese. The thousands of Christians were reduced to +hundreds and tens. The London Missionary Society early entered the +field, but withdrew. In the parts of Ceylon where I travelled I met with +Methodist, Baptist, and Church of England missionaries, and in other +districts there were American missionaries. The descendants of those +who once were professed Christians retain some Christian notions, and +adhere to some Christian practices. Baptism is still in favour with +them, but it is never administered by Protestant missionaries except to +those deemed fitting recipients. If Buddhists were consistent, caste in +a mild form and to a limited extent might be tolerated, but could not be +approved. They are not, however, consistent, and caste is much more +regarded by them than Gautam would have sanctioned, though it has not +among them the rigidity it has among the Hindus. I was told regarding +one boarding institution for young men, all ate together; but on +returning to their homes they performed certain ceremonies which removed +the defilement they had contracted. As to the general character of the +native Christians, I inferred it was much the same as in India, with +similar excellences and similar defects. + +I went into some of the Buddhist temples. On the walls were sculptured +the terrible sufferings of the wicked in the different hells into which, +according to Buddhism, they are cast. The worshippers appeared to me +remarkably stolid and listless, as if engaged in a work which could not +be too mechanically performed. There was nothing of the animation of the +Hindus when they are worshipping their gods. + +I went into a large Roman Catholic church, and saw all the usual +furniture of Roman Catholic worship. On the wall, the worship of demons +by the faithful and their attendance at demon feasts was strongly +denounced, and threatened with severe punishment; from which it would +appear this was no uncommon offence. + +I was struck with the massy churches built by the Dutch in Galle and +Colombo. They testify to the zeal of the first colonists, as if they +were taking possession of the land for Christ, and were determined to +maintain His worship, though far distant from the land of their fathers. +Dutch descendants and Scotch colonists now form the most of the +worshippers in these places. The Dutch language still survives, and in +1858 some of the Dutch people understood no other. For them a service is +held in their own language. I preached in both of these churches at the +request of the chaplains. In one of them the Lord's Supper was +administered, and the communicants were addressed first in English and +then in Dutch. + +Towards the end of December I left Galle with my wife and child for +Calcutta, taking away with me pleasing recollections of the scenes I had +witnessed, the information I had received, and the kindness I had +experienced during my six weeks' travels in the island. + +After a brief stay in Calcutta we made our way to Benares--the first +part of the journey by the recently constructed railway, and the rest, +the greater part of it, by a four-wheeled conveyance, drawn by a horse, +called a Dawk Garry, arrangement for a fresh horse every sixth or +seventh mile being made by the Dawk Garry Company. Instead of spending +three weeks on the way, as we had done in 1839 when proceeding to +Benares on a steamer, and twelve days in 1853 in a conveyance drawn by +coolies, we now completed our journey in five days. We were glad to +rejoin our brethren, and to resume our work in Benares. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +VISIT TO CITIES IN THE NORTH-WEST AND TO KUMAON--VISIT TO ENGLAND AND +RETURN TO INDIA. + +FROM 1859 TO 1866. + + +From the time of our arrival at Benares in January, 1859, on to our +departure for the hills in March, 1861, the work of the Mission was +carried on in the usual way. There were interruptions from failure of +health, but during the most of the period the operations of the Mission +were vigorously carried on with tokens of the Divine blessing. + +[Sidenote: ENGLISH SERVICES.] + +The principal change during this period was the greater attention given +to the European population. Before 1857 the English-speaking population +of Benares was very small, and as there was always an English chaplain +at the place, and our Baptist brethren kept up an English service, our +Mission did very little in this department. For a time we had an English +service one evening in the week, but owing to the weakness of the +Mission, and the pressing demands of native work, this had been given +up. After the Mutiny the English-speaking population was largely +increased by English soldiers, and persons connected with the Public +Works. It was deemed incumbent on us to do something for our own +countrymen, whose spiritual need was manifest to all. On this account +English services on the Lord's Day were commenced. For a time two such +services were held, one in the Mission chapel, and another in the +schoolroom of the cavalry barracks. On the withdrawal of the cavalry +this second service was discontinued. The service on the Lord's Day +morning or forenoon in the Mission chapel has been steadily kept on till +this time, has been generally well attended, and has been, I believe, +productive of much good. + +As the Rev. William Moody Blake, who joined the Mission in 1858, took +the superintendence of the Central School, and with occasional +assistance conducted the English services, the work among the native +women and girls was left to be carried on by my wife, to which she had +given her heart and strength from the time she became a member of the +Mission in 1839, while I had the principal charge of evangelistic work +among the heathen, and of ministering to the native Christians. + +The most memorable episode of this period was a visit we paid to +Allahabad, Cawnpore, and Lucknow, in the winter of 1859-60. We saw much +on this tour which deeply and painfully interested us. I have already +mentioned the desolation I saw on my visit to Allahabad at the end of +1857. During the two succeeding years the houses which had been burnt +had been rebuilt, new houses had been erected, and new roads had been +made. Traces of the desolation caused by the Mutiny remained, but there +were on every side signs of great prosperity. Allahabad, from its +position at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna, had always been +deemed a place of great importance in both a military and civil aspect. +It rose to new importance by being made the seat of government for the +North-West instead of Agra, and also by becoming the central +railway-station, from which it was arranged railways should ramify to +Lahore and Peshawur in the north-west, to Calcutta in the east and +south, to Jubbulpore and Bombay in the west, forming in Central India a +connection with the railways in Southern India. This arrangement has +been carried out, and now there is no city in the interior of the +country which bears so close a resemblance as Allahabad to the great +Presidency cities, in its churches, European shops, hotels, and roads so +lined with houses that they may be called streets. As might be expected, +the native population has greatly increased. + +From Allahabad we went by train to Cawnpore, one hundred and thirty +miles to the north-west. This place was for many years a large military +station, as the kingdom of Oude lay on the other side of the Ganges. It +may be well to give a very brief narrative of the terrible events which +occurred there, that readers may the better understand what we saw. + +[Sidenote: MUTINY AT CAWNPORE.] + +On the breaking out of the Mutiny, the English soldiers and residents +entrenched themselves in an open plain, which had the solitary advantage +of accommodation in barracks, while they left the arsenal in the hands +of the insurgents. The siege commenced on June 6th, directed by Dundhoo +Punt, the Nana Sahib as he was called, the adopted son of Bajee Rao, the +ex-Peshwa of the Mahrattas, whose castle was ten miles distant. On June +27th, after enduring terrible hardships and privations, our people +surrendered on promise of being sent safely to Allahabad. They +accordingly made their way to the promised boats; but no sooner had they +been reached than they were set on fire, and the Nana in person directed +a fusillade on the party. Only four succeeded in escaping, and they did +this by swimming. The men were murdered, the women and children, to the +number of two hundred, were taken back, were huddled together in crowded +rooms, scantily fed on the coarsest food, and subjected to every +indignity. The Nana's army was defeated in several engagements, and was +at last utterly overthrown by the army led by General Havelock, in a +battle fought at the entrance to Cawnpore. By an order of the Nana, +issued by him when fleeing from the place, the women and children were +murdered, and their bodies were thrown into a well. Our soldiers arrived +to see to their horror the well choked with the victims of Nana's +satanic cruelty. Unknown to those whom he was besieging, he had +previously, on June 4th, ordered the massacre of one hundred and thirty +men, women, and children, who had come from Futtyghur. + +[Sidenote: GALLANT DEFENCE AND TERRIBLE DEFEAT.] + +At Cawnpore we saw much to sadden us to the very core. The thrilling +accounts we had read of the atrocious deeds there committed came to our +remembrance with a painful reality. All along the river-side, houses, +once occupied by officers, lay in ruins as the mutineers had left them. +We observed flowers blooming here and there in the gardens, planted by +those who had been so ruthlessly cut down. We visited all the places +made memorable by the sad events of 1857. We went to the Sabadha Kothee, +as it was called, the house on a slight elevation from which the Nana +directed the siege of the entrenched camp. It was well remembered by us +as the abode, in 1842, on our first visit to Cawnpore, of a missionary +of the Propagation Society, with whom we had much pleasant intercourse. +Within less than half a mile of this house lay the entrenched camp of +the English--if a trench three or four feet deep, with a breastwork of +earth behind it four or five feet high, deserves the name of an +entrenchment. The spot was chosen on account of the barracks, in which +our people could shelter themselves against what they expected to be a +mere temporary assault, if an assault at all was made, as they supposed +the mutinous soldiery would leave at once for Delhi, which they would +have done had not the Nana stopped them by large pay and larger +promises. The barracks speedily became well-nigh uninhabitable under the +fire of the enemy. At last they were burnt down, and no shelter remained +from the fierce rays of the sun. One could not look on the spot, and +consider the weakness of the defenders compared with the strength of the +enemy, supplied as they were with the guns and ammunition of our +arsenal, without wondering the defence could have been maintained for a +day. The defence was most heroic; extraordinary feats of valour were +performed, but at last the besieged were obliged to succumb from the +failure of food and ammunition. + +We walked from the entrenchment, which was rapidly disappearing under +the rains and heat of the climate, by the route taken by our people to +the promised boats, which were set on fire as soon as they reached them. +It was truly a _via dolorosa_, and we walked on it with saddened hearts, +musing on the awful sufferings our countrymen had endured. On a little +temple close to the ferry at which the boats lay, and on some houses +near it, we saw marks of the bullets on the walls. + +Since that period--the winter of 1858-59--we have been on several +occasions at Cawnpore. The desolation has disappeared. Ruined houses are +no longer to be seen. A stranger might pass through the place without +observing anything to remind him of the events of 1857. He would be a +very preoccupied or a very stolid person who could pass through Cawnpore +without making it a point to see the monuments erected to commemorate +our fallen countrymen. On the site of the entrenched camp a memorial +church has been raised, with stained windows and varied devices bearing +the names of those who had fought and suffered there. A very handsome +monument of marble, surmounted by a statue of the Angel of Peace, with a +suitable inscription, has been erected over the well into which the +bodies of the women and children were thrown. The ground round it is +kept in beautiful order. For many a day visitors to India will look with +tearful eyes and sad hearts on these spots sacred to their fallen +countrymen. + +[Illustration: THE WELL AT CAWNPORE.] + +[Sidenote: THE CAMPAIGN IN OUDE.] + +Leaving Cawnpore, we crossed the Ganges and travelled forty miles to +Lucknow, the capital of the country of Oude, which was ruled by a +feudatory of the Mogul Empire, who had become a feudatory of the British +Crown. To him our Government gave the title of King. In 1856, by an +order from home, the country was taken under our direct rule on account +of gross misgovernment, by flagrant and persistent violation of the +engagement made with us. The Chief Commissioner in March, 1857, was Sir +Henry Lawrence. After staving off the Mutiny successfully for a time, he +was obliged in the end of June to concentrate his force in a +half-fortified place on a slight elevation, called the Residency, as +there the British representative, under the title of Resident, and his +official subordinates, had their abode and offices. There the English +were besieged by a vast body of Sepoys, and by the Talookdars, the +Barons of Oude, and their retainers. Sir Henry Lawrence was mortally +wounded on July 4th. The siege was maintained till September 25th, +when, after a fierce struggle, it was relieved by Havelock and Outram. +They in their turn were besieged, but they were able to maintain their +footing till November 19th, when they were finally relieved by Sir Colin +Campbell. Outram remained with a force of observation at Alum Bagh, a +large garden with a very high wall, outside Lucknow on the Cawnpore +road; while the rest held on to Cawnpore. Sir Colin Campbell returned +with his army, and took the city on March 6th, 1858. We are told that in +the interval it had been fortified in a way which would have done credit +to a European power. My narrative will be better understood by these +facts being remembered. + +As we travelled from Cawnpore to Lucknow we passed houses close to the +road which still retained the loopholes through which the enemy had +fired on our troops. The earthworks hastily raised for temporary shelter +still remained. We were reminded at every mile of the fierce resistance +our soldiers had to encounter. At Lucknow we remained for a week, and +went over all the scenes made memorable by recent events. We paid +several visits to the Residency, where our people defended themselves so +long and valiantly against thousands of armed men well supplied with +ammunition. At every step proofs presented themselves of the desperate +struggle maintained with the foe. The houses in the Residency had been +so battered and torn by shells and balls that scarcely one was habitable +before its evacuation, and the ruin was completed when the city was +finally taken by Sir Colin Campbell. At the beginning of 1859 the whole +place was a mass of ruin, with here and there a piece of tottering wall, +shaken or perforated by heavy shot and ready to come down. The walls +still stood, though in a very broken state, of the house in which Sir +Henry Lawrence died, and the spot was pointed out to us where he had +received his death-wound. A large body of labourers was employed in +taking down the ruined walls and levelling the ground. We observed bones +which had been dug up by them as they pursued their work. + +From the entrance into Lucknow on the Cawnpore road there is a street, +two miles in length, leading straight to the Residency. The enemy +expected our army to advance by this street, and made provision for its +destruction by digging trenches, and lining the houses on both sides +with musketeers ready to pour on our soldiers a killing fire. The +relieving army, guided by a person who knew Lucknow well, and had at +great risk made his way to them at night from the Residency, made a +sudden detour to the right, and advanced by a comparatively open route, +stoutly but unsuccessfully opposed at almost every step. I had the +promise of a guide to take me on foot by this route to the Residency, +but on reaching Alum Bagh, the appointed place of meeting, I found no +one there. I made my way, however, with very little difficulty by +observing the marks of the bullets on the houses along the line +traversed. I sometimes lost the trace, but soon recovered it, musing as +I went along on the very different circumstances in which our countrymen +a short time previously had gone over that road. + +[Illustration: RUINS OF THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW.] + +We saw other places of interest, such as the Muchee Bhawan, the fort in +which our soldiers were previous to the siege; the Kaisar Bagh, an +extensive garden, filled with showy, lofty houses, where the King of +Oude and his numerous retinue had resided; the Chuttar Manzil, a +handsome building where public entertainments were given; the gateway at +which the gallant Colonel Neil fell--now called Neil Gate; the +Secunder Bagh, a garden with a high wall, where a large body of the +enemy was posted, and which was stormed by the 78th Highlanders, who +shut up every exit and killed every soul, many of the Sepoys fighting +desperately to the last. Two thousand bodies were taken out of the place +and buried in the adjoining ground. We observed on the walls the marks +of the bullets, and even the indents made by the swords and bayonets, +while this carnage was going on. + +[Sidenote: GENERAL LA MARTINE'S INSTITUTION.] + +A French adventurer of the 18th century, General La Martine, had risen +to great power and wealth in the service of the Kings of Oude. He +erected a splendid mansion in Lucknow for the support and education of +boys of every creed--Christian boys to be brought up in the Christian +Government's religion--and richly endowed it. Similar institutions were +established in Calcutta and in Lyons, La Martine's native place. This +institution has proved a signal blessing to European and Eurasian +families. On the outbreak of the Mutiny the teachers and pupils betook +themselves to the Residency, and under the leading of their Principal +took an active part in the defence. La Martine had so little confidence +in the kings whom he had served for years, that he ordered his body to +be buried in a vault under the building, which he knew would prevent a +Muhammadan from making it his dwelling-house. This was accordingly done. + +While we were at Lucknow we were most hospitably entertained by a +missionary of the Church Missionary Society, to whom a large native +mansion had been made over by the authorities on account of the owner +having taken an active part in the rebellion. On Sabbath I preached in +Hindustanee to the native Christians, and we attended the English +service held in a building which had been an Imambara, the name given to +a building where Muhammadans of the Shiah sect worship. + +When going from Cawnpore to Lucknow we travelled by day. We returned by +night, when the moon was full. It was one of those calm, clear nights of +which we have many at that season. We reached the Ganges about four in +the morning. While waiting for a boat to take us across, there fell on +our ears, coming from a cluster of huts close by, the voice of a singer +at that early hour; and what was our delight and surprise, as we +listened, to hear the words distinctly uttered of a well-known hymn in +praise of the Redeemer of mankind! A short time previously the mention +of that name with honour in that place would have exposed him who +uttered it to a violent death. The incident was very cheering as an omen +of the dawn to benighted India, when, through the tender mercy of our +God, Jesus the light of the world shall shine into the hearts of its +teeming population, and raise them into the sunshine of heaven. + +Lucknow, as well as Cawnpore, has undergone a great change since 1859. +We saw it last in 1877, when traces of the fierce conflict which had +been there carried on had well-nigh disappeared; while on every side, in +new roads opened up, in miserable tenements thrown down, in new houses +erected, and in rubbish removed, evidence was given that the effete +government of the Kings of Oude had given place to the vigorous +government of their Western conquerors. Nothing is now to be seen of the +ruins and desolation of the Residency. The ground has been levelled, +trees planted, paths made, and the whole place is kept in beautiful +order. On the highest spot there is a memorial cross. All out from +Lucknow for miles, at the instance of friends, monuments have been +raised, some of them with very touching inscriptions, in memory of the +fallen, so far as the spots where they fell could be identified. + +[Illustration: THE LA MARTINIERE, LUCKNOW.] + +We returned to Benares with a very vivid impression of what we had seen, +with a new realization of the sufferings our countrymen had endured, +with deepened admiration of the heroism they had shown, and with +thankfulness at once for our rescue as a people from destruction, and +for the restoration of our rule. + +[Sidenote: VISIT TO DELHI.] + +We continued at our post at Benares till March, 1861, when the state of +the Mission admitted of our obtaining a much-needed retreat to the Hills +for a few months. We accordingly left Benares for Almora, and took Delhi +by the way, where we remained a few days. This was our second visit to +the grand old imperial city. On this occasion we visited the scene of +the memorable events of the Mutiny year, as we had previously done at +Cawnpore and Lucknow. We went to the heights commanding the city, where +our army was encamped for months, at once the besiegers and the +besieged, and from which at last they took the city, after a contest so +desperate and bloody that for days the issue was doubtful. The palace, +with its magnificent halls of audience and entertainment, where the +Emperors of India had for ages kept their court, we found turned into +barracks and an arsenal. English soldiers trod those rooms where Indian +magnates had bowed before imperial majesty--giving us an impressive +illustration of the transitory nature of earthly glory. + +For some time after going to Almora our health improved; but as the +season advanced it gave way so entirely, that our medical attendant +came to the conclusion a visit to England was indispensable to its +restoration. The Directors of the Society gave their kind and prompt +consent to our return. We accordingly embarked from Calcutta for +England, _via_ the Cape of Good Hope, in January, 1862, and reached our +destination in April. + +All I have to say about the interval between 1862 and 1865 is that I +visited many places in England and Scotland on behalf of the Society, +did a good deal of ministerial work besides, and was kept in uncertainty +about my future course by medical opposition to my going back to India. +In 1864 I feared I could not return; but my health improved so much in +1865, that the medical men I consulted, to my great joy, consented to +our going back. We accordingly embarked for Calcutta _via_ the Cape, +accompanied by two young missionaries appointed to Benares, in +September, 1865, and reached our destination, after a prosperous voyage, +towards the end of the year. We were very pleased with the thought that +our traversing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans had come to an end. + +The railway had some time previously been completed to the North-West, +and so instead of days and weeks spent on the journey from Calcutta to +Benares, it was now made in twenty-six hours. + +[Sidenote: APPOINTMENT TO RANEE KHET.] + +The hot weather and rains of 1866 were spent in Benares. We felt the +heat that year more than we had ever previously done, and were to a +great extent incapacitated by it for the prosecution of mission work. We +came to the conclusion that continued work in the plains was beyond our +strength, and as we much wished to continue in the mission field, we +hoped a hill sphere might be opened up. In March, 1867, we left for +Almora, where, with our colleague Mr. Budden, we engaged in different +departments of mission labour. Early in the cold weather we returned to +Benares, and resumed our work there. As the hot weather of 1868 came on, +we were again privileged to return to Almora. Towards the end of that +year it was arranged that our connection with Benares should cease, and +that we should begin a new mission at Ranee Khet, about twenty miles +north-west from Almora. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +KUMAON. + + +(1) ITS SCENERY AND PRODUCTS. + +Kumaon is a sub-Himalayan region, with Nepal to the east, the snowy +range, separating it from Tibet, to the north, Gurhwal and Dehra Doon to +the west, and Rohilkund to the south. Including the hill country of +Gurhwal, and the belt of forest and swamp lying immediately under it, of +which only a small part has been reclaimed, Kumaon is about half the +size of Scotland. + +[Sidenote: THE SCENERY OF KUMAON.] + +The province presents a remarkable contrast to the great level country +beneath. Over it you travel in some directions hundreds of miles, and +scarcely any elevation or depression in the land can be discerned. As +you travel northward, and approach the limit of the plains, you see +hills rising before you, tier after tier; and behind them, on a clear +day, the higher Himalaya, with their snowy peaks, as if touching the +heavens. + +Kumaon is very mountainous, with as great irregularity as if the land +had been fluid, had in the midst of a storm been suddenly solidified, +and had then received its permanent shape. Here and there are valleys of +some extent, table-lands and open fields are occasionally seen; but over +a great part of the province hill is separated from hill by a space so +narrow that it can only be called a ravine. The consequence is that +cultivation is carried on mainly in terraces. Where the slope is +gradual, and the soil fit for cultivation, these terraces, some very +narrow and others of considerable width, rise one above the other to the +distance of miles, with the hamlets of the cultivators scattered over +the hill-side, presenting to the eye of the traveller an aspect of +scenery which is not to be seen in Europe, so far as I am aware. At any +rate, we saw nothing resembling it on the vine-clad hills rising from +the Rhine, or in the mountains of Switzerland. + +The country is well watered. It has innumerable streams, varying from +tiny rills to large rivers. In travelling, we have been for days within +the constant sound of running water. It has a few lakelets, but it has +no large bodies of water, like the lakes which contribute so largely to +the beauty and picturesqueness of Switzerland and Scotland. It looks as +if the deep hollows, of which so many are to be seen, had been unable to +retain the water poured into them, and had let it all flow away. A large +part of the province is so steep and rocky that it cannot be turned to +any agricultural purpose; and even for grazing purposes a large portion +is of little use, as the grass is coarse and poor. There is a great +extent of forest and brushwood. As the land slopes towards the Bhabhur, +the forest is very dense and varied. The timber is of considerable +value, but as there is neither road nor water carriage it must be +carried on men's shoulders, and this involves an expense more than it +can bear. + +From what I have said about the peculiarities of Kumaon scenery, its +mountains, valleys, and ravines, my readers are prepared to hear it has +a great variety of climate and produce. Of hills, of which there are +many from 5000 to 9000 feet above the level of the sea, the climate is +delightful--warm, but not oppressively warm, a little warmer than it is +in our country in summer; and cold, though not so severely cold as it is +with us in winter. The rains are very heavy, but to compensate for this +there is, during the greater part of the year, a steadiness of climate +which forms a striking contrast to the fickle climate of England. Down +in the valleys the heat is very great. Even in winter the sun is +unpleasantly strong, and in summer in the deep ravines the temperature +is almost as trying as in the plains. When the season has been somewhat +advanced, I have been very thankful to escape from the heat of these low +places to the bracing air of the hills. The English Sanatoria are of +course on elevated sites. + +As Kumaon has within its borders a cold, a temperate, and a tropical +climate, it has a great variety of produce, and when its capabilities +are more fully turned to account this variety will be greatly increased. +Most of the grains found in the plains are grown in the hills. The +warmer parts of the country produce superior oranges in abundance, and +there is also a good supply of walnuts. Of late years apples and pears +have been grown with great success, and if the farmers paid attention to +this branch of horticulture they might reap a large profit. Attempts +have been made on a small scale to cultivate the grape, gooseberry, and +currant, but the excessive rainfall of the rainy season has been found +unfavourable to them. Tea has become the most valuable product of the +province. Tea-planting was commenced at the instance of Government, +under its direction and at its expense, more than forty years ago; and +now tea-gardens are found all over the province, owned almost entirely +by our fellow-countrymen, and, with few exceptions, managed by them. At +first Chinamen were employed, but they have been dispensed with, and the +entire work is now done by hill people under English superintendence. + + +(2) THE NATIVE INHABITANTS OF KUMAON. + +[Sidenote: THE INHABITANTS OF KUMAON.] + +The hill people of Central and Southern India, the Kols, the Santhals, +the Bheels, and others, as is well known, widely differ in race, +language, customs, and religion, from the Hindus and Mussulmans of the +plains. In Kumaon, on the other hand, the great majority are strict +Hindus, worshippers of the Hindu gods, and scrupulous observers of caste +rules. It would appear that when the ancestors of the Hindus, coming +from Central Asia, crossed the Indus, and took possession of the country +now called the Punjab, they made raids into the lower range of the +Himalayas, killing their inhabitants, or turning them into slaves. The +descendants of the aborigines are at present found in a class called +Doms, who form the artisan portion of the population, and are also +largely employed in agriculture. The Muhammadans form a very small part +of the population, and are almost entirely emigrants from the plains. + +The character of the hill Hindus, in its essential elements, closely +accords with that of their brethren elsewhere. They worship the Hindu +gods, practise Hindu rites, and are imbued with the Hindu spirit. The +Brahmans and Rajpoots are proud of their position, firm in maintaining +it, and shrink from everything which would invalidate it. Under native +rule the high-caste spirit had full scope, for we are told that for +murder a Brahman was banished, and a Rajpoot heavily mulcted; while +other murderers were put to death. Such offences against the Hindu +religion as killing a cow, or a Dom making use of a _huqqa_ (the pipe +for smoking), or a utensil belonging to a Brahman or Rajpoot, were +capital offences. The power obtained by the Brahmans was shown by the +fact that, when the province came under British rule, one-fifteenth of +its arable land belonged to the religious establishments. + +All the Hindu gods and goddesses are worshipped in the hills, but the +hideous goddess Kalee is the favourite object of worship. Small temples +to her honour are found all over the province, many of them in solitary +places on the tops of hills, to which it is meritorious to make +pilgrimages, and around which at certain seasons melas are held. We have +in our wanderings fallen in with several of these temples in spots from +which, for many miles around, no human habitation is seen. By far the +most famous shrines are those of Badrinath and Kedarnath, in the upper +part of Gurhwal, within the snowy range, where Vishnu is the object of +worship, and the officiating priests are Brahmans from Southern India. +Pilgrimage to these places is very meritorious, as it can only be +accomplished at the cost of great toil and suffering, and at the +imminent risk of life. + +[Illustration: TEMPLE IN THE HIMALAYAS.] + +In addition to the gods worshipped all over India, the hill people have +local gods unknown elsewhere. _Bhoots_, evil spirits, commonly supposed +to be the spirits of those who have during their earthly life been noted +for their wickedness, and have acquired the demon character, are +believed to haunt the mountains and forests, and are the objects of +special dread. Homage is paid to them to secure their goodwill and avert +their vengeance. The people greatly dislike travelling at night, as that +is the season when the _Bhoots_ roam about and fall on their prey. +When they must move about they break off the branches of the pine-tree, +and turn them into torches to frighten off both the wild beasts and the +evil spirits. In the imagination which peoples hills and forests with +beings outside the circle of humanity, that make their presence +especially felt at night, the people of Kumaon closely resemble the +mountaineers of other lands, among others those of our own Scotch +Highlands, as they were till a recent period. In my early days I heard +so many stories in my native Highland village of ghosts and fairies, +that I was afraid to move about after sunset except when guarded by +others, lest these supernatural beings should lay hold of me and carry +me away. + +[Sidenote: THE CHARACTER OF THE KUMAONEES.] + +The people have a character for industry. When one sees the difficulties +under which cultivation is carried on, he is inclined to consider it +deserved. They have periods of lounging, but also of very hard work. The +women, in addition to household work, cut and carry wood and grass, and +do much farm work--I have thought at times more than their share; but +after all, the heaviest work, the carrying of great loads on head and +shoulders, up hill and down hill, and the farm work requiring most +strength, is done by the men. Much of the work done by them--work done +by draught animals elsewhere--must tend to break down their health and +shorten their days. + +The Kumaonees have been described as untruthful but honest. I must say +our experience has verified the unfavourable part of this description +more than the favourable. So far as veracity is concerned we have not +been impressed with any difference between them and other natives of +India. We think their honesty has received more credit than it deserves. +This is, at any rate, the opinion of the tea-planters with whom we have +conversed, and who have had superior opportunities for judging. They +have told us of the strict watch they have to set to guard their tea and +fruit. We found that some hill servants, whom we had greatly trusted, +had systematically robbed us. The character for honesty was, I believe, +given to them because when they set out on their periodical migration to +the plains they left their villages unguarded, and found their property +safe on their return. I suppose this resulted partly from an +unwritten--may I say?--honourable understanding, that as in their sparse +and widely-scattered population it was well-nigh impossible to guard +their goods, the rights of property should be respected; and partly from +the circumstance that there was little left behind in the villages which +could be carried away. So far as others, especially Europeans, are +concerned, this understanding to practise honesty does not hold. + +We incidentally heard of no small degree of immorality among the people, +but our information is too limited to justify one in comparing them with +others in this respect. There is much that is likable among them, but +the general moral tone is undoubtedly low. Polyandry, which prevails in +some districts in the Western Himalayan range, is I believe unknown, but +polygamy is not uncommon among those who can afford it. + +Cleanliness has never been considered a virtue of Highlanders. It is +not--or perhaps I should say it has not been--a characteristic of the +Highlanders of our own land. Among the Kumaonees it is notably wanting. +The loathsome disease of leprosy has long prevailed in the province, +owing to a large extent to the filthy habits of the people. To the same +cause there is every reason to believe, we have to trace the outbreak +now and then of the plague--_muha muree_, the great plague, as it is +called--which has proved very destructive. It resembles the plague which +at different times prevailed in Europe and swept away thousands. So +great is the dread of this terrible malady, that on the report of its +approach people flee from their villages. Cholera has been at times +fatal to many, but its ravages are not to be compared to those of the +plague. + + +(3) HISTORY OF KUMAON UNDER GHOORKHA AND BRITISH RULE. + +[Sidenote: CONQUEST OF KUMAON.] + +Kumaon had been long under the rule of a native dynasty, but intestine +feuds laid the country open to the attacks of ambitious neighbours. In +the latter end of the eighteenth century the Ghoorkhas, a military +tribe, rose to power in Nepal, the hill-country to the east, and early +in this century they extended their conquests over the hill-country to +the west, till they were checked by Runjeet Singh, the famous ruler of +the Punjab. Their rule over Kumaon was said to be very oppressive. By +raids into British territory they came into collision with the English. +After a severe struggle, carried on through two campaigns, they were +defeated, and forced to give up the country they had conquered to the +west of Nepal, which they had held for about twelve years. Kumaon and +the adjoining hill-country of Gurhwal were placed under the jurisdiction +of a British Commissioner, and the arrangement made in 1816 has been +maintained to the present time. + +[Sidenote: PROGRESS OF THE PROVINCE.] + +The country has made immense progress since the English took possession. +The people are now under a government which aims at protecting life and +property, and at treating all, high and low, with equal justice. No +longer are Dom offenders against caste laws executed while Brahman and +Rajpoot murderers escape. Atrocious customs have been suppressed, such +as the burial of lepers alive, which was formerly largely practised. +Sanitary regulations have been issued, and penalties imposed on those +convicted of violating them. Fights between villages, ending in robbery +and murder, are no longer permitted, though sham-fights are still +allowed. I was once a witness of such a fight, when a vast number of +hill people were collected, as if for a great field-day, and stones were +thrown from slings in a way I thought perilous to the combatants. Roads +have been made, and rivers bridged. The new roads are too narrow and +steep to admit of wheeled conveyances; often they are only three or four +feet in width, and are at a gradient which makes them trying for horses +and for persons on foot; but they are an immense improvement on the +footpaths with which the natives were satisfied till they came under +British rule, and with which they are still satisfied when left to +themselves. I have not had much experience of the by-paths of the +country, but quite enough to have made me thankful for the new order of +things. Very recently a road for carts and conveyances has been made +from the plains to Nynee Tal, Ranee Khet, and Almora; but the route is +so circuitous that the roads hitherto traversed will continue the chief +means of communication. + +No sooner was the British rule established than the effect was seen in +the increase of cultivation. Mr. Traill, the first Commissioner, states +that from the time of the occupation, 1816 to 1822-23, the date of his +retirement, cultivation had increased fully one-third, and since that +time there has been a steady advance. The population has more than +doubled, for we are told that in 1823 there were 27 inhabitants to the +square mile, while in 1872 there were 65. At the same time there were +797 to the square mile in the Benares district, and there was no +district in the North-West Provinces where the population was under 185, +while the average was 378. An immense disparity must continue between +countries with such different capabilities, but the progress made in +Kumaon under British rule is proportionably as great as that made in the +most favoured parts of India. + +Wealth has been brought into the country as well as drawn out of it. I +have already referred to tea-planting as a new department of +agricultural industry. Many thousands have been spent on +tea-gardens--much more, I suspect, than has yet been got out of them. A +tea-planter once pointed to a cluster of well-built villages, and said, +"These houses have all been built within the last few years by the +proceeds of wages made in the tea-garden under my charge." Then the +great influx of European travellers and residents has done not a little +to enrich the people in various ways, though at times the labour thus +required has been very grudgingly given, as it has withdrawn them from +their homes when their own work was urgent. + +Of late years a new source of income has been opened up to the people by +the enterprise of Sir Henry Ramsay, who has been for many years the +Commissioner of the Province, and has done more for it than any of his +predecessors. The hill people of some districts have been for ages in +the habit of moving down _en masse_ with their cattle at the beginning +of the cold weather for grazing, and have returned to their mountain +homes when the hot weather had set in. The country immediately under +the hills is called the Bhabhur, and is quite distinct from the Turai +which lies beyond. This Bhabhur is a formation of sand and shingle +filled with boulders, largely covered over with soil, which produces +abundant herbage in the rainy season, and is thus good grazing ground in +the succeeding months. It has a large extent of forest, composed of +trees of great girth and magnificent height. The innumerable streams +which come down from the hills flow under the Bhabhur, and make their +way into the Turai beyond, where the land becomes water-logged, and the +main product is long, rank grass, growing to the height of ten or twelve +feet. By a system of canals, devised and carried out by Sir Henry +Ramsay, the water as it comes down from the hills is made to irrigate a +large part of the Bhabhur, rendering it fit for agricultural purposes. +The result is that the people now cultivate the land, beside grazing +their cattle over it. They sow toward the end of the rainy season, and +reap at the beginning of the hot weather, when they retreat to the +hills, and are ready for the cultivation of their fields there. This +addition to the arable land has been a great boon to the people. I +cannot say, however, judging by those with whom I have conversed, that +they are satisfied. They grumble at the new tax imposed for the +construction and maintenance of the canals, and also at the tax they +have to pay for their holdings in the hills, though I believe it to be +very light. They would gladly have all the benefits of a firm and +improving government without paying anything for its support. + +[Sidenote: WILD BEASTS.] + +Notwithstanding the extension of cultivation and the increase of +population in Kumaon, we may travel for many miles over hill and forest +and not see a trace of man's presence. Cover for wild beasts has been +somewhat abridged, but it is still sufficient to shelter them, and to +make it unlikely they can be exterminated. Both in the hills and in the +country beneath, hunters of wild beasts, European and native, still find +abundant employment. Not a year passes without persons, sheep, and +cattle being killed by tigers, leopards, and hyenas. They live so much +in the gorges of the mountains, and in the depths of the forests, ready +to pounce on their prey when opportunity presents itself, that the +destruction caused by them is seen, while they themselves disappear. The +first thing we saw on our first approach to Almora was a horse which had +been killed by a leopard the preceding night. A woman, who had been +cutting grass before the door of a house we occupied for a few days, was +killed an hour afterwards by a tiger in the adjoining forest. One +afternoon we heard the cry of a herd, and running out we saw a goat with +its throat cut, but the leopard that had killed it had disappeared in +the jungle beneath. On another occasion my pony, picketed near my tent, +had a narrow escape from a leopard. I have often heard huntsmen relate +the encounters they have had with these terrible brutes. On one occasion +I saw four dead tigers brought in by a party that had killed them a few +miles from the place where my tent was pitched. Tigers are very +migratory. They live in the cold weather down in the Bhabhur and the +Turai, and as the hot weather advances they follow the herd up the hills +on to the verge of the snow. The bears of the hills feed on fruit and +vegetables, and usually make away when human beings are seen, but they +are very formidable to those who attack them, or come suddenly across +their path. In some places wolves abound, and children and animals +require to be guarded against them; but they never hunt in packs as in +Russia, and they are not feared by grown-up people. In the lower hills +and the Bhabhur there are herds of wild elephants, which do much injury +to the crops of the people, and cannot be safely approached. I have been +again and again in their track. There are also serpents, but they are +not so numerous or venomous as in the plains. The dangers to which the +inhabitants are exposed is shown by the annual statistics of casualties, +in which the first place is given to the ravages of wild beasts, the +second to landslips, and the third to serpents. + +[Sidenote: INCONVENIENT STIPULATION.] + +I may end this account of Kumaon, its scenery, products, history, and +people, by mentioning two stipulations in the treaty with the Ghoorkhas, +when the British took possession of the land, which are strikingly +illustrative at once of British policy and of Hindu feeling. One +stipulation was that certain sums should be paid annually to the priests +of certain temples. A second stipulation was that the slaughter of +bullocks and cows should be strictly prohibited. Not a vestige of power +over the country was left to the Ghoorkhas; the entire rule was +transferred to the British. But our authorities, influenced at once by +religious liberalism or indifference, and by deference to Hindu feeling, +accepted these conditions. The first stipulation caused no trouble, but +the force of circumstances has led to the violation of the second. When +there were no European troops in the Province, and the only Englishmen +were civil officials, officers of native regiments, and a few casual +travellers, the prohibition of beef caused little inconvenience; but a +large influx of English people, soldiers and others, made the observance +of the stipulation impracticable. For a time it was violated, and the +authorities professed to know nothing about it; but when Nynee Tal +became a great summer resort, and English soldiers were located at it, +beef became a well-nigh indispensable article of food, cows and bullocks +were killed, and the breach in the treaty by which the country was ceded +to us became manifest to all. It is said that when the high-caste +officials protested against this outrage on the Hindu religion, an +English official quietly said that such good Hindus were not in their +proper place, that they should be transferred to their holy city, +Benares. This speedily silenced the complaint, as hill people intensely +dislike leaving their mountains for the plains. + +The treaty with the Ghoorkhas is not the only one in which the +stipulation against beef has been made when territory has been ceded. To +a treaty-keeping people like the English the stipulation has been very +embarrassing, so embarrassing that for a time resolute effort has been +made to observe it, but it has at length broken down under what has been +deemed the compulsion of circumstances. We have heard of a high-caste +official consoling his brethren for the outrage by reminding them it is +the nature of tigers to eat cows and bullocks, and by telling them that +the English were tigers, had a similar love for such food, and as it was +their nature it must be borne with. Though so shocked with the shedding +of the blood of cows and bullocks, the ruling class in Nepal have shown +no aversion to the shedding of human blood, as is well known by all +acquainted with the history of the country. During the mutiny a friend +of mine, travelling with a regiment of Ghoorkhas that had come down from +Nepal to help us, saw them kill a party of mutineers who had surrendered +under an oath of their lives being spared, with a savage ferocity which +shocked him beyond measure. + + +(4) TRAVELLING IN KUMAON. + +[Sidenote: TRAVELLING.] + +The greater part of our time in the Province was spent in the capital, +Almora, and in the newly-formed Sanatarium Ranee Khet, but we frequently +travelled through many of its districts. I have mentioned the improved +means of communication, but vastly better though the roads be than they +were in the days of native rule, travelling continues to be very +expensive, fatiguing, and in some modes not a little dangerous. +Travellers must either walk, ride, or be carried on men's shoulders. The +first mode can be adopted only by those who have abundant strength and +leisure. It was my mode during our first visit, as I was not pressed for +time, and notwithstanding our residence of eight years in the plains I +retained a good deal of my youthful vigour. The mountain scenery and the +mountain air gave us new life. I travelled on foot some three hundred +miles. On the occasion of future visits I was happy to avail myself of a +hill pony. Most gentlemen and many young ladies perform their hill +journeys on horseback. Happily, hill ponies are, as a rule, quiet and +sure-footed; and they require to be, as the roads are narrow, in some +places very narrow, and overhang precipices, down which the rider would +be dashed if the pony slipped or was scared. At first, riding appears +very dangerous, but after a time there is a feeling of security. I +remember riding with confidence over places where at first I deemed it +prudent to dismount. Scarcely a year, however, passes without riders +being killed, and all who have travelled much over the country have to +tell of providential escapes. The third mode, the mode adopted by most +ladies, and by gentlemen who have not nerve to ride, is to be carried +on men's shoulders. The palankeen and dolie of the plains are by far too +heavy and cumbrous for the hills. The favourite vehicle is the +_dandee_--a pole, with a piece of carpet attached, on which the +traveller sits sideway, and which has belts for the back and feet. Two +men, one at each end of the pole, are able to carry the _dandee_ a short +distance, but in journeys four are commonly employed. During the last +few years a very light sedan-chair has come into favour, which is far +more convenient for ladies, but the _dandee_ is lighter and will +continue to be largely used. + +We have seen a good deal of both the eastern and western portions of the +Province. In 1847 we travelled to Lahoo Ghat and Petorah Gurh in the +east. On this occasion I went on to Nepal, and was told by the Nepalese +sentry on the frontier bridge that without special permission from +Khatmandoo, the Capital, I could not proceed farther. In 1869, in +company with my much-esteemed friend the late Dr. Mather, I travelled in +the same direction, and saw much of the country, as we went by one route +and returned by another. During the later years of our residence we saw +a good deal of the western districts, to which I shall refer when giving +an account of missionary operations. + +Along some of the main roads, at the distance of twelve or fourteen +miles, are small rough Rest-houses, with a table, two chairs, and a +bedstead, often in very bad condition. These houses are in charge of a +watchman, who is often long in making his appearance, and then brings +wood and water, and sometimes a little milk. For everything else you are +dependent on people with you carrying supplies. Where there is much +traffic there is good accommodation. + +[Sidenote: TIMELY ESCAPE.] + +Our most memorable journey, perhaps, was one made in 1861 to the +Pindaree glacier. The journey was a very fatiguing one, as the roads +were so bad, and the ascents and descents so steep, that before we got +half way I was obliged to leave my pony behind, and to make my way on +foot, helped to ascend and descend in some places by strong hill-men, +who drew me up or helped me down by a belt round my middle, while my +wife and little boy were carried in _dandies_. Many of the bridges were +rough wooden structures, with no parapets. As we approached the snow we +suffered much at night from cold in our little tent. The hill people of +the higher region we found much stronger and more unsophisticated than +those we had left behind. The women seemed never to have seen an English +woman or child. They were first afraid to come near us, but my wife made +her way to little groups, and they seemed delighted with her, and still +more with her little boy. Fatiguing and trying though the journey was, +health was improved by it, and we were well rewarded for any toil and +inconvenience we endured by the magnificent scenery we saw. Down the +Pindaree valley came a roaring torrent, showing by its yellow tinge it +came from the melted snow. We were awed as we looked up at the +tremendous cliffs on either side. Pursuing our way in silence, I heard a +servant from the plains, who was walking behind me, muttering to +himself, "Such a wicked place I never saw in my life." We breakfasted on +the glacier, and after looking at some of the crevasses we were glad to +make our way back to our tent a few miles below. Next morning we +retraced our steps, and it was well we did so, for as we were rapidly +descending we had heavy rain, and could see snow falling where we had +been. The next day the whole region behind was covered with snow, and +we were thankful for our timely escape. + +The details of travelling I have now given, and the previous details +about the country and people may perhaps enable the reader the better to +understand and realize missionary work in the Province. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE ALMORA MISSION. + + +Stated mission work was commenced in Kumaon in 1850. Previous to that +time a few of its people had heard the Gospel from missionaries +travelling through it, or residing for a few months in it. In that year +the Rev. J. H. Budden, of the London Missionary Society, after labouring +for a time in Benares and Mirzapore, was obliged by the failure of +health to abandon all hope of continuing in the plains, and took up his +abode at Almora, the capital of the Province. The society declined to +enter on mission work in Kumaon; but Captain Ramsay, Senior Assistant to +the Commissioner, with other friends, came forward with most liberal +offers of support, and consent was given to Mr. Budden's entering into +an engagement to carry on the Mission as the agent of its local +supporters. For some time his entire salary and all expenses were met by +these friends. Afterwards a part of the salary was paid by the Society, +and for years the whole, but the friends who founded the Mission have on +to the present time supported it with princely munificence. At the head +of these is Sir Henry Ramsay, the Captain Ramsay of 1850, who has been +for many years the Commissioner of the Province, and who continues the +warm and liberal supporter of everything by which the spiritual as +well as the temporal good of the people may be promoted. + +[Sidenote: WORK OF THE ALMORA MISSION.] + +As the Mission at Almora was the first, so it continues to be the most +important in the Province. Organized and administered by Mr. Budden, and +heartily supported by friends on the spot, it has done a work which has +told powerfully and happily on the entire country. From the beginning +much attention has been paid to the education of the young. For a long +time the school of the Mission was the only one in the Province where a +superior education, at once native and European, was imparted; and +still, both in the number of its pupils and in the extent of its course +of study, it stands highest. From it have gone out for many years bands +of young men who now fill varied positions under Government, and it is +believed they are discharging their duties with greater intelligence and +a higher character than those they have succeeded. In remote parts of +the Province I have met persons who have spoken in strong terms of +gratitude of the benefit they had received from attending the Almora +Mission School. A few years ago a large, handsome structure was erected +for its accommodation at great expense, towards which the natives +contributed very liberally. In addition to this school-house, the +Mission has valuable property in mission-houses for native Christians, +an orphanage, and a book-room. + +[Illustration: MISSION SCHOOL, ALMORA.] + +[Sidenote: THE LEPER ASYLUM.] + +In other departments excellent work has been done. Female education has +been zealously prosecuted under the direction of Mr. Budden's daughters. +For many years there has been an orphanage in which destitute children +have been brought up and educated. The authorities made over to the +Mission a Leper Asylum they had established, and for years it has been +under its exclusive charge. Much has been done for the inmates of this +asylum at the cost of personal labour, great anxiety, and a heavy +expenditure. Suitable buildings have been erected, the wants of the +lepers have been supplied, everything has been done which could be done +to mitigate their sufferings, and to secure order and cleanliness. The +efforts put forth to draw them to the Great Physician to secure their +spiritual cure have by the Divine blessing borne abundant fruit. When +the Rev. John Hewlett was in charge in 1864-65 there was a movement +towards Christianity, which resulted in the baptism of several. Since +that time the work has gone on. Christian worship has been regularly +maintained among them, and much labour has been bestowed on their +instruction. Many have been baptized, after giving all the evidence of +sincerity which could be expected, and at certain times the Lord's +Supper has been dispensed. Among the lepers there have been persons of +very debased character, but the conduct of most has been good, and, so +far as we can judge, a number have become the true followers of the +Saviour. If the Mission had done nothing more than sustain this Leper +Asylum, it would have done a most Christ-like work, deserving the warm +approbation and liberal support of Christ's people. + +[Illustration: LEPER ASYLUM, ALMORA.] + +From the commencement of the Mission a service has been conducted every +Sabbath in English for the benefit of our countrymen residing in Almora. +Services have been held in the native language for the native Christians +and natives generally. + +In addition to the work of organizing and conducting the various +departments of the Mission, Mr. Budden has made large and valuable +contributions to native Christian literature. + +I have seen much of the Almora Mission, and have had the privilege of +taking part in conducting its operations. Among other duties which I +endeavoured to discharge during two seasons was to go, along with my +wife, every Sabbath morning to conduct worship with the lepers, and to +instruct them. Mrs. Kennedy went besides once every week. There is no +work on which I look back with deeper interest than I do on this. We +first conducted a brief service of singing, prayer, and preaching. Mrs. +Kennedy then took the women and I took the men to see how much of the +sermon they understood, and to inculcate the great lessons of God's Word +in the way of question and answer. The work was at first very trying, +but gradually we became more than reconciled to it. Our heart was drawn +forth in deep pity to these poor people, and we left them deeply +thankful for the privilege we had of speaking to them of the Saviour, +and of telling them of His compassion for the suffering and the lost. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +RANEE KHET MISSION. + + +In accordance with instructions from the Directors of the London +Missionary Society, Mrs. Kennedy and myself went at the beginning of +May, 1869, to Ranee Khet, a new station twenty miles north-west of +Almora, to enter on mission work there. Some time previously it had been +resolved to open a new mission in the Province, and I had been appointed +to commence it. After much consideration Ranee Khet was deemed the most +eligible place for the extension of our work. The name means "The Field +of the Queen," and was probably given to it in honour of Kalee, as it +has on its higher part a small temple sacred to her, round which the +hill people hold a yearly mela. The place may be described as a rough +table-land, with an elevation of from 6,200 to 7,000 feet above the +level of the sea. With the exception of a little land cleared on one +side, the country for miles around was covered with forests of pine, +oak, and rhododendron, over which the people of the valleys pastured +their cattle at some seasons of the year. The attention of the +Government was drawn to the place as suitable for a military Sanitarium, +and engineers were sent to open up roads and investigate its +capabilities. The report made by them was so favourable that a +considerable outlay was sanctioned for turning it into a retreat for +English soldiers from the heat of the plains. + +The prospect of Ranee Khet as a European station, where soon a large +population was sure to gather, was one reason for regarding it as a good +sphere for a new mission. The chief reason, however, for the choice was +the fact that within twelve miles around, on the sides of the hills and +in the valleys beneath, there was a large accessible population, +furnishing a much wider field than one missionary could well occupy. + +[Sidenote: VISITS TO RANEE KHET.] + +Previous to taking up our abode at Ranee Khet I paid several visits to +it, with a view to making myself acquainted with the neighbourhood and +to holding intercourse with the people, many of whom I met in their +villages. They looked on me with fear, as if I had come to lay a new tax +on them, and seemed utterly unable to comprehend me when I told them I +was no Government official, but a servant of God, who came to them with +good tidings from Him. The only school of which I heard was twelve miles +distant, and I came to the conclusion that the establishment of primary +schools would be very beneficial to the people, and highly favourable to +my object. Though so illiterate that in well-sized villages I did not +hear of a person who could read, a number expressed approval of my +object. Some were forward with the promise to erect school-sheds, and to +send their children, but the performance did not come up to the promise. + +When we went to Ranee Khet there was not a single house at the place. +The only Europeans were two Engineers and a sergeant, and they were +living in their cook-houses, preparatory to building houses for +themselves. I had arranged with a friend to have a wooden house erected, +but when we went the work had only been commenced, and the first six +weeks we lived in a tent. It was midsummer, and the tent was in the +daytime intolerably hot. The trees around gave little shelter, they were +chiefly pine; but we soon succeeded in putting up booths, and in them, +except when storms came on, we were very comfortable during the heat of +the day. + +We were thankful when we exchanged our tent and booths for our rough +wooden house. In it we remained two years and a half in tolerable +comfort. There were two serious drawbacks. In the heavy rains the house +leaked in such a degree that there was scarcely a dry spot in it; and, +what was worse, the rats got into the open roof, and by their active +movements, especially at night, were a great annoyance. Latterly the +leakage was stopped, but the rats were too strong for us, and could not +be dislodged. Notwithstanding these inconveniences, when we remembered +the heat of the plains, during six months of the year, which we had +endured, and our brethren were continuing to endure, and contrasted the +climate there with the climate we were enjoying, we were never tempted +to murmur. We felt deeply thankful for the Providence which had given us +an abode in a country where summer heat was only a little greater than +in our own, where there were no hot winds, where with windows open we +could be always comfortable in the hottest weather, and where all around +us was magnificent scenery. + +I have mentioned rats. In their division of common rat and musk-rat, +they are troublesome enough in the plains, but they are a plague in the +hills. They abound in the fields, and are very hurtful to the crops. Not +a house is erected into which they do not manage to make their way; but +where a house is well built, and due care is taken, they find little +shelter. They go into a rough wooden house as if they were entitled to +full possession. These unwelcome intruders may be kept in check, but +there is no hope of entire deliverance from them. + +[Sidenote: MISSION BUILDINGS.] + +During our eight years in Ranee Khet we had to discharge the varied +duties devolving on missionary pioneers. To one department, to which I +knew much attention must be given, I looked forward with dismay--the +erection of buildings. Remembering our experience in the plains we would +gladly have shrunk from this work, but we knew it must be faced. Through +the great kindness and efficient help of friends we succeeded in getting +suitable buildings erected. The first building we put up was a place of +worship. After considerable delay we succeeded in getting a suitable +site for a mission-house on a knoll within a short distance of the +native bazar. The servants' houses and the cook-house were first up, and +leaving our hut we took up our abode in the cook-house, that we might be +at hand to superintend the erection of the mission-house. Before its +completion we got, close at hand, a site for a school-house, which, with +its handsome hall and four side-rooms, furnishes more accommodation than +has yet been required. To this building natives contributed liberally. +As the stone and wood required had to be carried on men's heads and +shoulders, every additional yard increased the expense, and we were +obliged to use the wood and stone nearest, though at some distance +better might have been procured. Our masons and carpenters were not of a +superior order, and required to be constantly watched and directed. The +buildings were not all we could wish, but they were suitable for the +climate and for our purpose. Our house was commodious, was in the best +position for mission work, had a magnificent view of the snowy range, +and we would not have exchanged it for the finest house we had seen in +the plains. + +[Illustration: THE SNOWY RANGE FROM RANEE KHET.] + +From the commencement of our residence in Ranee Khet, village schools +received much of my attention. For a time I had nine under my charge, at +distances of from six to fifteen miles. For the accommodation of three +schools stone houses were erected, and for other schools sheds of grass +and wood were put up. The attendance at these schools varied greatly at +different seasons of the year: many came too short a time to get any +benefit, the attendance of others was too irregular to admit of much +progress; but a considerable number remained till they received a good +primary education. On my visits I taught the pupils, and conversed with +their parents and friends who gathered round. When the weather permitted +I had my tent pitched for days near the school, and visited the +adjoining villages. On these occasions I tried to sit down where or how +I could, with the people around me, and entered into familiar +conversation with them. The language was a great difficulty, as the +dialect of Kumaon differs widely from the Hindee of the plains; but by +dint of repetition, and putting what I had to say in different forms in +the simplest fashion, I was often happy to find myself getting into the +understanding of my hearers. Every second Saturday the teachers, often +accompanied by senior pupils, came to my house to report what they had +done, and to receive instruction. + +[Sidenote: CONTRASTED VIEWS OF SIN.] + +I had reason to be thankful for having entered into this department of +work. A large amount of Christian instruction was imparted; many of the +boys showed remarkable aptitude in committing to memory portions of +Scripture, such as the ten commandments and the parables of our Lord. +Much general knowledge was acquired, a number of the pupils became +better fitted for their secular calling, and the goodwill of the people +was secured. Once, when thirty miles away from Ranee Khet, I met a lad +whom I recognized as an old pupil. I asked him if he remembered what he +had been taught. He said he did. He went to a house close at hand, +brought a copy of St. Luke's Gospel, read at my request the fifteenth +chapter, and explained its meaning with an accuracy which surprised me. +At the same place I met a man of a different order. He told me he was +going to a mela, to which I was also proceeding. I asked him what he was +to do there. He said he was to bathe, to wash away his sins. I asked him +what was the sin which oppressed him. He said, "I am a husbandman. In +ploughing my fields I destroy much life, which is a great sin. This is +the worst thing with which I am chargeable." The lad taught in the +school knew something of what sin was, as the poor man did not. I can +say nothing about the spiritual results of these school efforts. I can +only hope that by God's blessing good has been done. The Government has +now entered largely on primary education in the Province, and with its +resources and prestige will, I trust, secure a large school attendance. + +All through my residence at Ranee Khet I endeavoured to embrace the +opportunities given to me of promoting the spiritual good of our own +countrymen. A service was at once commenced with the few residents and +visitors at the station. Towards the end of 1869 two companies of +English soldiers were sent, and as soon as tolerable accommodation was +provided a regiment was stationed at Ranee Khet. As for nearly three +years I was the only resident Christian minister, I held two services +every Lord's Day--one for Presbyterians, including all non-Episcopalian +adherents, and the other for the Episcopalians, the Prayer-book being +used at this latter service. I also visited the sick in hospital, and +when at home conducted a weekday meeting. We first met in the open air, +or verandah of our hut; afterwards in the hut used as a temporary +canteen; for some time in the recreation-room; and during our later +years in our place of worship, which we called Union Church. An effort +was made to get up a girls' school, but it was unsuccessful, as the +attendance of the few native girls in the Bazar could not be secured. So +far as native women were concerned, all Mrs. Kennedy could do was to +instruct the few living in the Mission compound. She found, however, an +interesting sphere among the wives and children of the soldiers. The +Sabbath school, commenced and carried on by her, assisted by others, was +attended by all the children, Roman Catholic as well as Protestant; but +no sooner was a Roman Catholic chaplain appointed than the order went +forth for the withdrawal of the children of his Church, which was obeyed +with manifest reluctance. We had much pleasure in these services with +our own people, and had every reason to believe lasting good was done. +Some of the boys of the Ranee Khet school expressed a desire to be +taught English, and these came every second day to our house to be +taught by Mrs. Kennedy. + +[Sidenote: MISSION WORK AT RANEE KHET.] + +While thankfully availing myself of the opportunities presented of +preaching the Gospel to our own countrymen, such opportunities as I +never had at any previous period of my Indian career, my chief attention +was given to the work for which I had been sent to Ranee Khet. I have +already mentioned missionary work done on visits to the schools. At +Ranee Khet opportunities were found for conversation with shopkeepers +and their customers. Thousands of work-people were employed on the +buildings which were being erected, and these, when the work of the day +was over, flocked to the Bazar to buy food. After the toil of the day, +when eagerly anticipating their only cooked meal in the twenty-four +hours, they were not inclined to listen to a stranger telling them of +his strange religion. Occasionally I did succeed in getting for a time +the attention of some not so eager as others to get their evening meal. +Most heard quietly, but sometimes individuals replied with bitter words. +Many of the work-people had come from a great distance. The most +prominent of these was a band of Cashmeeree Mussulmans, who spoke +against Christianity with a fierceness which showed what they would do +if they had the power. From one of them I got a retort, which it was +difficult to repel. I tried to put the party into good humour by asking +them about their country, and I smilingly said, "Is there no food in +your country, that you have come all this way for it?" To which I got +the reply: "You, sir, have come much farther than we have done. Had you +no food to eat in your country?" I must acknowledge I felt myself shut +up under this rebuff. + +During my residence at Ranee Khet I had much intercourse with two +classes widely separated from each other--educated young men, and Doms. + +I have mentioned that from the Almora Mission School a number of young +men had gone into all parts of the Province. Several got situations in +the public offices of Ranee Khet, and to them in the course of time +persons of the same class were added from Bengal. I visited these at +their quarters, and did all in my power to maintain friendly intercourse +with them. A room in the school-house, supplied, partly at their own +expense and partly by the liberality of friends, with newspapers, +periodicals, and books, was turned into a reading-room, which was always +open in the evening. One evening in the week they met me in class, when +we had as our text-book the Advanced Reader of the Christian Vernacular +Education Society, which furnished full opportunity for conversation on +the most useful and important subjects. The attendance was not so steady +as could be desired. All were friendly in their bearing, and some seemed +much interested in our study and talk. A few professed Brahmist views, +but none were inclined to join the Brahmist community and break with +their own people. There was no indication of the spiritual concern which +compels the soul to earnest investigation, with a view to following +truth wherever it may lead. + +[Sidenote: MISSION WORK AMONG THE DOMS.] + +The other class with whom I had much to do at Ranee Khet were the Doms, +to whom reference has already been made as in all probability the +descendants of the aborigines of the country previous to the Hindu +invasion. They are a most useful part of the community. As the artisans +of the country, the people of every caste have much to do with them. +They are largely engaged in agriculture. They do things by which the +caste people would be defiled, such as carrying away the carcases of +animals. In a high-caste village it is not uncommon to see, a little +aside from it--if the ground permits, below it--a number of houses +occupied by Doms. The pigs and fowls around the meaner dwellings, and +the poorer looks of the inhabitants, tell what they are. As artisan +work is now in great demand the circumstances of the Doms are much +improved, and there is every prospect of their rising into a higher +position. They bear, and for many a year they may be expected to bear, +indubitable marks of having been for ages a servile, despised, +downtrodden class, having no respect from others, and entertaining +little respect for themselves. Their improved circumstances will do +something towards raising them in the social scale, but we cannot look +for high moral excellence and real manhood till they come under the +power of the Gospel. + +On account of the abundance of work which the formation of an English +station was sure to afford, a colony of these people erected a village +for themselves on the side of the Ranee Khet hill below the Bazar. I had +when in Almora conversed frequently with Doms. At Ranee Khet I saw much +of them, and had more encouragement among them than among any other +class. To some who expressed regret they could neither read nor write, I +said it was not too late; that I would take care that they be taught if +they were willing to learn. To test them I opened a night-school, and a +number availed themselves of it. It was a gratifying sight to see them, +at ages varying from fifteen to thirty-five, conning their +spelling-books at the door of the school-house as evening was coming on, +or trying to form letters on their slates. A few became soon +discouraged, but a number held on, night after night for two or three +hours, with the greatest eagerness, till they could read, write, and +count very fairly. One result of the school was that they began to +attend, with great regularity, a service held every Sabbath afternoon in +the hall of the school-house. During the last year of our residence in +Ranee Khet, the attendance at this service was larger than at any +previous period, and it was mainly composed of Doms. Nothing could +exceed the quietness and apparent interest with which they heard the +simple addresses given. I cannot say I saw any evidence of spiritual +awakening, but the torpor of their previous life was shaken in a way +which inspired the hope of their being brought into the fold of Christ. + +I have mentioned the fierceness of the Cashmeeree Mussulmans. This +charge cannot be brought against them all. One of their number, a young +lad, came to the school, and was in every respect one of the best pupils +in it. With another, one so trusted by the rest that he was the +go-between in the arrangements for work with the English engineer, I had +much intercourse. Though the head of the party, and himself doing no +manual work, he could neither read nor write, and was entirely dependent +on accounts being kept by another. To my surprise he came to the +night-school, and applied himself so diligently that he acquired a fair +measure of elementary education, though his knowledge of the Hindee +language was very imperfect. He regularly attended the Sabbath evening +service, and seemed to listen most eagerly. One day he came to our +house. I at once saw that he was greatly excited. He shut the door +behind him, as if afraid of being seen, came close to me, got down on +his knees, and said: "Sir, what am I to do? Last night Huzrut Isa" (the +name given by Muhammadans to our Lord, which may be translated "His +Honour," or "His Excellence Jesus") "appeared to me in a dream, and +said, 'Follow me; follow me.' But how can I follow Him? My people will +kill me, they will kill me!" I have seldom been more touched than when +I looked on the anguish in the face of that poor man, and the tears +coursing down his cheeks, as he uttered these words. I need not tell the +Christian reader what I endeavoured to say. Shortly afterwards the +Cashmeerees left Ranee Khet, and this man with them. I could not find +out where they went, and I have lost all trace of my friend. + +[Sidenote: ITINERACY.] + +A considerable part, sometimes the greater part, of the cold weather was +given to itineracy. Some winters we went down to the foot of the hills +to prosecute mission work among the large population found there at that +season. We moved from place to place, erecting our tent in central +spots, from which within a radius of two or three miles we could visit +populous villages, some built of rough stones, but most composed of +grass sheds. I was generally accompanied by a catechist. We had many +opportunities of speaking to the people on the highest subjects. Not +infrequently we met persons whom we had met in the hills, and then we +were sure of a special welcome. Once I came on a party of Doms, tailors, +whom I had seen a short time previously, and I said to them: "As you +have no cattle, and do not cultivate the ground, what has brought you +down?" To which I got the reply: "We have come in search of the sun." +This gave me an opportunity of speaking of that Sun in whose warmth and +light their spirits might dwell at all times, in all places. I +endeavoured to set up schools in the Bhabhur, but had not any +encouraging measure of success. + +There was much which was pleasant and exhilarating in this movement from +place to place, and in camping under the trees: but it was at times very +fatiguing, and in bad weather very unpleasant. More than once we were +overtaken by severe storms, but happily the worst of these storms came +on us in favoured places, where we could find shelter on escaping from +our tent. + +Hill ponies feel themselves strange when in what a friend used to call +the "roomy plains." The pony I had for years was quiet enough in the +hills, but I had to watch it narrowly in the plains, as it seemed to +have always the sense of danger, and was ready to start in a fashion +which more than once almost dismounted me. + +Some winters were spent in itinerating in hill districts from which the +people did not go to the Bhabhur. In these winters I had the opportunity +of going to a mela held at Bageswur, about thirty-five miles from Ranee +Khet, at the confluence of the Surjoo and the Kalee. This mela is the +greatest held in the Province. To many it is the grand event of the +year. The people from all parts flock to it for religious, commercial, +and social purposes. In the motley crowd may be seen hill-men from all +the districts of the Himalaya, natives from the plains, Tibetans from +the other side of the snowy range, and Englishmen. + +This mela is held in a low valley not far from one of the passes into +Tibet. It is attended by many Tibetans, who succeed in bringing their +ponies through the tremendous defiles which separate their country from +Kumaon. These ponies bring high prices. They also bring sheep laden with +salt and borax. These Mongolians are great stalwart men, with broad +faces, clad in homespun woollen cloth of many folds, which is seldom +taken off till it is worn off. They are accompanied by a few women and +children. They take their religion with them in their praying-wheels, +which they keep going. They are an intensely religious people, as Mr. +Gilmour tells us, but it is in the most mechanical fashion which can be +conceived. If they were mere machines, wound up like their +praying-wheels, they could not to all appearance be more devoid of +thought, feeling, and conscience in the exercise of their religion. I +marked their countenances, and could only wonder at their stolid look. +Much that is absurd is found in man's religion, but the Tibetan form of +it seemed to me the very _ne plus ultra_ of irrationality. Some of these +Mongolians are inveterate beggars, but it would not be fair to judge the +people generally by these stragglers into India. There was more life in +their dances than in their religion, though not much grace. It seemed to +me that if elephants could dance, they would do it somewhat in that +style. + +[Sidenote: GREAT FAIR AT BAGESWUR.] + +In the town of Bageswur there are substantial houses belonging to the +merchants of the Province, and these are occupied by themselves or their +agents during the greater part of the cold weather. During the rest of +the year it is deserted, as the valley is very hot and feverish. During +the colder weeks of the year it is a very stirring place, but it is on +the occasion of the melas, two of which are held within three months, +that there is a large gathering. At the principal mela many thousands +must be present. As in all Hindu gatherings, religion, business, and +pleasure are eagerly prosecuted. A town of booths rises suddenly in the +valley and on the sides of the hills. Whenever I have gone, I have for +miles before reaching the place seen many carrying or trailing branches +of trees, with which they were to erect their temporary abode. These +answer well in good weather, but when rain or snow falls they give no +shelter. The morning is given to bathing. One morning is peculiarly +propitious, and then from the earliest dawn the people are in the +stream, many of them, I suppose, getting well-nigh the only ablution +they have in the course of the year. During the day selling and buying +go on vigorously. As evening approaches the merry-go-rounds are +patronized, and crowds gather round singing and dancing parties. The +dancers are young men linked hand in hand, who move about in circles, +shuffle their feet, and sing in a very monotonous fashion. Many set to +the preparation of the evening meal, and the valley and the hill-sides +are aglow with fires and lights. Amusement, however, has not come to an +end. Singing is kept up till the small hours of the morning, to the no +small disturbance of those who cannot sleep except when there is a +measure of quiet. Between the singing of the people and the +barking--rather the howling--of the Tibetan dogs, such barking as I have +never heard in our own country, wearied though I have been by the work +of the day I have for hours found sleep to be impossible. + +Englishmen attending the mela find a temporary abode in tents, and in a +staging bungalow erected for the accommodation of European travellers. +They dine together in the hall of this house, and occupy their tents at +night. Officials deputed by the Commissioner of the Province are +present, for the double purpose of keeping order and of paying rewards +to those who have killed wild beasts. The skins of the tigers, bears, +and leopards, for the destruction of which rewards have been paid, are +sold by auction under the direction of the officials. The heaps of skins +exposed for sale give one a striking impression of the number of wild +beasts in the country. There are many keen hunters, both native and +European, and there is no likelihood of their occupation coming to an +end for want of game. Tea-planters attend this mela to buy mats, which +are made by the people in large quantities, and are required in the +preparation of tea for the market. Military officers on leave and +travellers from the plains are present from the double motive of seeing +this strange gathering and of purchasing ponies. + +For many years Mr. Budden, accompanied by native Christians, has been in +the habit of going to this mela, and I have been happy to help him and +his brethren when opportunity has been given to me. A colporteur has +been present with his wares, and succeeds in selling at a small price +portions of the Scriptures and tracts. An amusing instance of indecision +occurred at the bookstall the last time I was present. A man had +purchased a Gospel. He came back saying he was told by his people that +he would certainly become a Christian if he took that book to his +village, and he laid down the book on the stall and asked for his money. +The colporteur refused to cancel the sale, and the man was sorely +perplexed, reluctant to lose both his money and that for which the money +was paid. At last he walked away with the book, the colporteur assuring +him it would do him only good. + +[Sidenote: PREACHING AT THE FAIR.] + +We took our stand at different parts of the mela, and spoke to all +willing to hear. Many speedily passed on, but a number remained for some +time, as if desirous to know what this new religion was. Now and then we +encountered pundits, and if they were at all reasonable we were pleased +with their presence and opposition, as a colloquy with them greatly +quickened the interest of the people. On one occasion, after skirmishing +with some pundits, it was arranged they were to meet us at a fixed hour +for discussion. Our Christian party were present at the appointed place +and hour, but our pundit friends did not put in an appearance. Our +going, however, was not in vain, as we succeeded in getting hearers who +listened patiently to what we had to say about the Saviour of mankind. +One of our number was a converted pundit of Almora, who spoke to the +people in a way I thought eminently fitted to make a favourable +impression. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +HABITS AND CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. MISSION WORK AND RETIREMENT. + + +During our residence in Kumaon we had many opportunities of observing +the condition and habits of the people. I have mentioned the new +resources opened up to them, and yet it must be acknowledged that many +are poor. The population is probably much larger than it has been at any +previous period. The holdings are small, and by the division made on the +occasion of the death of the head of the household they ever tend to +become smaller. There are a number in the Province who own no land, and +are poorly remunerated for their labour by their countrymen. I have +mentioned the new source of wealth opened up to the people by the canals +and cultivation of the Bhabhur. Reference has also been made to the +tea-gardens and public works, on which large sums of money have been +spent, of which much has reached the people in the form of wages. Thus +all classes, both those who have land and those who have not, have been +benefited. Indeed, apart from income thus obtained it is difficult to +conceive how the people could have been supported. If they do not make +progress in material comfort the fault must lie in their want of +energy. + +Like their brethren in the plains, the people in the hills live chiefly +on cereals--the cheaper cereals--and vegetables; but, like most below, +including even many Brahmans and Rajpoots, they have no objection to +animal food when they get it of the kind they approve, and prepared in +the way caste rules require. As to Doms, nothing that is at all eatable +comes amiss to them. They have no objection, indeed, to much we should +deem uneatable. The Hindus eat the flesh of goats and kids offered in +sacrifice. They also eat the flesh of short-tailed sheep, but +long-tailed sheep are an abomination to them, as they regard them as a +kind of dog. We saw once an amusing instance of the notion of +uncleanness attached to this species of sheep. A few sheep were being +chosen by a purchaser from a flock. The animals were scampering about, +showing, according to their nature, their unwillingness to be caught. +Three or four men were engaged in catching them, but one every now and +then started back when about to lay his hand on a sheep, exclaiming, +"_Wuh doomwala hai!_"--"It is a tailed one! it is a tailed one!"--as if +he would be hopelessly defiled by touching it, while his less scrupulous +companions of the same caste said, "You fool! what does it matter? It +will do you no harm." They would not have eaten its flesh, but their +caste spirit was sufficiently relaxed to allow them to touch it. + +I have referred to sanitary regulations issued by the authorities to +guard the people against epidemics caused by want of cleanliness. One of +these regulations forbids the dwelling together of animals and human +beings. On our first visit to the hills in 1847 I came unpleasantly into +contact with this dual occupation of the same house. As night was +setting in I came to the top of a hill, and from it I could see a few +straggling houses at a short distance. I had with me two or three men, +who proposed to put up a booth for the night. Unhappily for my comfort, +a thunderstorm came on with heavy rain, and the booth was no protection. +I was taken to a house a short way off, but on entering it the smell +from the animals occupying it with their owners was so strong that it +drove me out. I preferred to face the storm to bearing the effluvia of +that highland abode. I was told of a little unoccupied grass-shed a mile +down the hill. I found the grass so thick and well tied that the rain +did not get through, and the entrance was on the lee side. Into this I +crept, and slept soundly till the morning, for I was very tired with the +long walk of the day. + +The new sanitary orders have no doubt done good, but it is difficult to +secure compliance with them, though fines are imposed on persons +convicted of disobedience. If there had been a reward for informers I +could have more than once won it by telling what I had seen. + +[Sidenote: NYNEE TAL.] + +A very pleasant break during our life at Ranee Khet was a yearly visit +paid to Nynee Tal, about thirty miles distant, which had become the seat +of Government for the North-West for half the year, and a place of great +resort from the plains during the hot and wet months. It has many +advantages as a Sanitarium. It is within sixteen miles of the Bhabhur, +and has an elevation of from 6,300 to 8,000 feet above the level of the +sea. There is a small, beautiful mountain lake, from one end of which +one looks down on the plains over the intervening hills; while at the +other end, beyond a piece of uneven ground, rises a lofty mountain. +There are rather steep hills on either side, but hills with a gradient +which admits of houses being built on them. Though so near the plains, +this lakelet was till 1842 unknown, except to natives and a few English +officials. In that year travellers with difficulty made their way to it, +and drew attention to its attractions. We first saw it in 1847, and then +it had very few houses. An old General, one of its first residents, told +us that one day the preceding year he saw a tiger walking leisurely +above his house, and looking down, as if wondering at the change which +was coming over the place. Some of the first residents were startled by +meeting bears in their walks. Since that time houses have been built on +every side, and during the season there is a great population of both +Europeans and natives. Four years ago there was a fearful landslip, +which carried down a number of houses with it, and buried many under the +falling mass. + +[Illustration: LANDSLIP AT NYNEE TAL.] + +At the beginning of 1857, the American Episcopal Methodist Church +entered on mission work in Rohilkund. When the mutiny of that year broke +out, the agents of this church in Rohilkund escaped to Nynee Tal, and +from that time they continued to occupy it as a mission station, and +also as a sanitarium for their brethren in the plains. The Mission has +been efficiently conducted. English services have been maintained during +the season. They have been well attended by all classes, and have done +much good. Between native servants and shopkeepers from the plains, and +natives of the hills, who flock into the place for service and work, +there is a large sphere for mission work, and much has been done in the +way of both preaching and schools. The Mission has been extended to +other parts of the Province, to Gurhwal in the north, to Petorah in the +east, and to other places, with manifest tokens of the Divine blessing. + +[Sidenote: ANNUAL MEETINGS AT NYNEE TAL.] + +With these American brethren we have been on the most friendly terms, +and have co-operated with them in every way open to us. We formed an +association with them for mutual counsel and help. One result of this +association has been the holding of annual meetings in Nynee Tal in +autumn, for the benefit of Europeans and natives, and conducted in both +the English and native languages, ending with the celebration of the +Lord's Supper. These meetings were largely attended, excited much +interest, did, I believe, much good, and were very enjoyable. On these +annual visits to Nynee Tal we commonly remained a week or ten days, and +had much pleasant intercourse with the missionaries and other friends. +During several years Sir William Muir, as Lieutenant-Governor of the +North-West, was resident for half the year at Nynee Tal, and our special +thanks are due to him and Lady Muir for hospitable entertainment. + +While, during our residence in the hills, time and strength were mainly +given to effort for the spiritual good of our own countrymen and the +native population, there were times, especially during the rainy season, +when I was much at home; and I was glad to avail myself of the leisure +afforded of writing for the press what I hoped might prove, and what I +trust has proved, of spiritual benefit to natives and others. During our +stay in the hills, in addition to articles for the "Indian Evangelical +Review" and other periodicals, I wrote a Commentary on the Epistle to +the Romans in Hindustanee, and Essays in English, which were published +in book form under the title of "Christianity and the Religions of +India." At an early period of my missionary career, at the request of my +colleague Mr. Shurman, to whom the work of revising and in part +translating the Bible into Hindustanee was entrusted, I transferred the +Pentateuch from the Persian into the Roman character, and translated the +book of the Prophet Jeremiah, which, revised by Mr. Shurman and Dr. +Mather, now forms part of the version. Before leaving India I did a +little, at the request of the North India Bible Society, towards the +revision of the Hindee translation of the New Testament. On this work a +large and very able Committee is now engaged. During my Indian career I +have written a good deal for the press--I must acknowledge in a very +desultory manner. + +Thus engaged in prosecuting our work, years passed on till the end of +1876, when we felt the time had arrived for retiring from the Indian +Mission-field. In July of that year I had a severe illness, which laid +me aside, and incapacitated me for carrying on mission work with any +measure of efficiency. I might have continued at Ranee Khet, and done +the work within my reach there, but by doing so the most important part +of the work, the work in the district, would have remained undone; and I +deemed it best to retire to make way for one who could fitly occupy the +sphere. Medical men whom I consulted strongly advised my departure, and +the Directors of the Society gave their prompt and kind sanction to our +return to England. + +[Sidenote: FRIENDLY HELP.] + +I cannot end this account of our life in Kumaon without giving +expression to our gratitude for the kind aid afforded us by friends in +the prosecution of our work. Among these friends, one of the steadiest +and kindest was the cantonment magistrate, Colonel, afterwards +Major-General, Chamberlain, who identified himself with the Mission, and +was ever ready to do all he could to promote its prosperity. During our +lengthened absences from the station in the cold weather, and whenever +I could not officiate, he conducted service with the English soldiers, +and he was ready in every way within his power to render help. In +addition to aid in carrying on the Mission, we received great personal +kindness from him and his partner, of which we shall always retain a +grateful recollection. He retired to England a short time after us, and +within a little more than a year he was suddenly called away--to his own +gain, we are sure, but to the grief of all his friends. It gives me a +melancholy pleasure to render this tribute to his memory. For steady +friendship and most valuable aid our best thanks are also due to +Captain, now Lieut.-Colonel, Birney, R.E., the resident Chief Engineer; +Robert Troup, Esq., a tea-planter in the neighbourhood; and Mr. +Ashhurst, engineer. Among the friends not resident at Ranee Khet, to +whom the Mission is largely indebted, are Sir Henry Ramsay and Sir +William Muir. Besides the friends I have mentioned, many others +contributed liberally to the Mission, without whose aid much which was +done must have remained unaccomplished. By the liberal contributions +received the operations of the Mission were carried on, and valuable +property was created at very little expense to the Society. + +We left Ranee Khet at the close of 1876. As we were leaving India with +no prospect of returning, we spent two months in visiting different +stations, seeing their Missions, and holding intercourse with friends +and brethren. In the course of these months we visited Bareilly, +Shahjehanpore, Agra, from which we went to see that wonderful deserted +city, Futtypore Sikree, with its magnificent tombs, Jeypore, Lucknow, +Cawnpore, Allahabad, Mirzapore, Benares, Jubbulpore, and Bombay. At Agra +we attended the native service of the Church Mission. The minister who +preached was a native who had been educated in our central school at +Benares when I was superintendent, and was there led to the knowledge of +Christ, though he was not baptized till his return to his native city, +Agra. On this tour we saw and heard much which interested us greatly, as +it showed the work of evangelization was being vigorously prosecuted +with tokens of God's blessing resting on it. We embarked at Bombay in +February, and arrived in England at the end of March. + +We left India, where we had spent the greater and, I may say, the better +part of our life, with feelings I will not attempt to describe. I can +only say when we review our Indian life, that while deeply humbled at +the recollection of many errors and defects, defects in wisdom, zeal, +and love, we are deeply grateful for having been privileged to labour +for so many years in the service of our adorable Redeemer, not, we +trust, without proof that good was accomplished through our +instrumentality; and so long as we breathe, our hearts will steadily +turn towards India with ardent love, and with fervent prayer for the +spiritual and temporal welfare of its inhabitants. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE MISSIONARY IN INDIA. + + +On reviewing these reminiscences I find there are several subjects of +interest to which I have only casually alluded, and others on which I +have made no remark. My readers will, I hope, bear with me while I +detain them by stating facts and expressing views which will make the +narrative more complete. + +It is unnecessary to describe the office of missionary to the heathen. +No one has rightly entered on the office without being deeply impressed +by its greatness, arduousness, and responsibility. It is equally +unnecessary to describe the qualifications required. No one can +contemplate the demands the office makes on intellect, heart, and +conscience, on love to the Lord Jesus Christ and love to souls, on +wisdom, perseverance, and courage, without exclaiming with the great +missionary Paul, "Who is sufficient for these things?" The idea that one +unqualified for work at home would do for a missionary abroad is so +preposterous that it is strange it should have ever been entertained by +the most heedless. + +There is, however, a great difference between an office and those who +serve in an office. Because an office is great and honourable it does +not follow that those who hold it have always the high character it +demands. The question may, then, be fairly asked, Are missionaries +worthy of their office? I, of course, use the word "worthy" in a +relative sense, and I remember our limited acquaintance with the human +heart. It must be acknowledged there have been a few, happily a _very_ +few, who have shown themselves utterly unworthy of the office, some by +lack of intellectual fitness, and others by want of spiritual character +and by indisposition to the work. There have been cases of the utter +failure of character, but these have been extremely rare. Of +missionaries generally it may be confidently affirmed they have been +true men. I have a wide acquaintance with the missionaries of Northern +India. During our long residence in Benares we saw many of all +Societies, of all Churches, as they travelled up and down. Benares is +one of the great halting-places between Bengal and the Upper Provinces, +and residence there gives many opportunities for acquaintance with +brethren. We have the most pleasing recollection of many we have met, +and we have followed their course with deep interest. + +[Sidenote: MINISTERS AND MISSIONARIES.] + +I should be acting in opposition to my settled conviction if I were to +speak of missionaries as more devoted to Christ's service, more +self-denied, more ready to endure privation than home ministers. This +glorification of missionaries, as missionaries, was much in vogue at one +time, and is still sometimes heard. Our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, +gives to every one his work, and our devotedness is shown, not by our +office, but by the way in which we do the work assigned us. Predilection +to a certain sphere, supposed fitness for it, temperament and +circumstances, have much to do in indicating to us the sphere our Lord +would have us to occupy. Tried by the test of devotedness, as shown in +daily life, I have never seen any reason for placing one class of +Christ's servants above the other. Among ministers there is, as we all +know, a great difference, not only in talent and attainment, but also in +love, zeal, wisdom, and endurance--in every quality which their work +demands. Similar is the variety among missionaries. There are many +degrees of efficiency and, it must be acknowledged, of inefficiency. +They, as well as their brethren at home, can go through the routine of +their work in a very perfunctory and unsatisfactory manner; while they, +too, can consecrate all their powers to the service of their Lord. It +would be easy to select from the home field ministers who, in unwearied +labour, self-denial, and privation for Christ's sake, greatly excel the +ordinary run of missionaries; and it would be equally easy to select +from the foreign field missionaries who greatly excel most of their home +brethren. + +In several respects there is a marked contrast in the position of +ministers and missionaries. Ministers labour in their own language, +among their own people, amidst home surroundings and associations; while +missionaries have to part with loved relatives and to betake themselves +to a foreign land, where they have to learn a foreign language, often +languages, at the cost of much time and of wearying application, have +for years, as in the greater part of India, to bear a severe climate, +are called to prosecute their work among a strange, an unsympathetic, +and sometimes a hostile people, and, what is felt by family people to be +the greatest trial of all, they have to send their children to England, +and to live separate from them for years. Some of these trials +missionaries share with their fellow-countrymen, who from secular +motives go to foreign lands, but others are peculiar to their vocation. + +While I mention the trials of a missionary career I cannot forget the +trials of ministerial life at home. We should require to shut our eyes +to patent facts if we were to ignore the privations many excellent men +are called to endure, and the varied difficulties they have to encounter +from the character and circumstances of the people among whom they +labour, from the peculiarities of our times, and from the abiding +qualities of human nature, as it is now constituted. Missionaries are +not rich, but they have adequate support, for good or evil are not +dependent for it on the goodwill of those to whom they minister, and +receive it as regularly as if it came from an endowment. With children +sent home for education they have times of great pressure, but much has +been done to aid them in meeting this additional expense. Viewed merely +as to the comfort of living, and ease of mind as to support, the +advantages are not all on the side of the home minister. To counteract +the advantages of the missionary's position to which I have referred, it +must be remembered the average career of service in India is short--some +returning very soon, and others after a few years. Those who return +after years spent abroad, and yet in the prime of life, are rightly +expected to enter the list of the home ministry; but the work they have +left and that on which they are entering are so different, that the +mental habits acquired in the one are felt to be a poor preparation for, +and often even an obstacle to, efficiency in the other. + +[Sidenote: SPIRITUAL CHARACTER INDISPENSABLE.] + +In their duties, joys, and trials, ministers and missionaries have much +in common. We have to deal with the same human nature, manifesting the +same characteristics, though in different forms. We have the same +message to deliver. We have the same great end in view, the salvation +of those to whom we minister, their restoration to the character and +joys of God's children. Whether we labour at home or abroad, we are +required to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. If we have +not entered on our work from love to Christ and love to souls, with an +intense desire to spend and be spent in Christ's service, with a belief +that He has called us to it, and given us a measure of fitness for it; +if we are conscious of being dominated by inferior motives; if we have +not delight in our work, even when there is great pressure on both mind +and body; if we do not long for the success of our work, it is obvious +we have missed our vocation, and it would be better for us to sweep the +street, I would say it would be better to walk the treadmill than occupy +our position for an hour. This I must say for myself, I am deeply +thankful for having been privileged to labour in the foreign field, and +consider it the highest honour which could have been conferred on me. +With my brethren I have had many trials to endure, some privations to +bear, some perils to encounter, but I have never for an hour regretted +my early decision to give myself to Christ's work among the heathen. I +am sure I here speak the feeling of my missionary brethren. + +I have endeavoured in my reminiscences to give such a representation of +a missionary's position and work in Northern India, that home ministers +who may read my narrative can have no difficulty in comparing and +contrasting ministerial and missionary spheres. It will be seen how +varied are the duties devolving on the missionary, and how great are the +demands on thought and effort for their proper discharge. They have, in +many cases, to attend to harassing and perplexing secular work. A number +give their time and strength to teaching, and I know enough of this +department to testify that those who give themselves to it in a climate +like that of India lead very laborious lives. I have said little of the +translation of the Scriptures, and the preparation of Christian books +and tracts. This is a department in which there has been much exhausting +effort of both body and mind, as all know well who have done even a +little in it. In the prosecution of direct evangelistic work the +missionary finds much to interest and encourage him, but also much to +grieve and depress him, especially if he has a sensitive nature, and has +no natural love for debate. Even to those who do not shrink from +discussion there is often not a little which is very trying. I have a +vivid recollection of times when I have returned from Benares to my home +in the suburbs, so wearied in body and grieved in spirit by the +opposition I had encountered and the blasphemies I had heard, that I +have felt as if I could never enter the city again. But I went again, +and perhaps the next time was much encouraged. + +Missionaries at the same station are much more closely associated than +ministers at the same place at home. The management of the mission, the +policy to be adopted, and the respective places to be filled, are under +common arrangement and control, subject to the district committee, and +through them to the home directors. Many perplexing questions come +before missionaries thus associated, and human nature in them must have +parted with its usual infirmities, and put on peculiar excellence, if +difference of judgment and consequent variance of feeling had never +appeared. We cannot plead exemption from human imperfection. It cannot +be denied that at times there has been strong diversity of judgment and +painful alienation of feeling, when missionaries have too closely +resembled Paul and Barnabas in their sharp dispute at Antioch; but it +can at the same time be most truly affirmed that with very rare +exceptions discord has soon come to an end, and those who have differed +widely have become attached friends, as we know Paul and Barnabas did. +The normal state of things is that of mutual love, respect, and +helpfulness. + +Missionaries have also had their differences with the Societies that +have sent them out and supported them. The respective position of home +committees and foreign missionaries are so different, that a difference +of judgment is in some cases unavoidable; but confiding as they have +done in the goodness of each other's motives, full harmony has been soon +restored. I must be allowed to say of the London Missionary Society, +whose agent I was for so many years in India, that my warmest +acknowledgments are due to it for all the kindness and consideration +shown to me and mine. If I were now to begin my career with my knowledge +of the past, there is no Society with which I could so confidently +connect myself. + +[Sidenote: INTERCOURSE AND CO-OPERATION.] + +All have heard of the friendly intercourse among missionaries of +different churches. They, too, when near each other have had occasional +differences; but with rare exceptions they have been on terms not only +of courteous bearing, but of affectionate intimacy. There is nothing in +our Indian life to which we look back with greater pleasure than our +intercourse with Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and Episcopalian +brethren. With the Episcopalian and Baptist missionaries at Benares we +were on as warm terms of friendship as if they had been members of our +own Mission. For many years we were in the habit of meeting weekly with +them for the study of the Scriptures, prayer, and Christian communion. + +Most Europeans take no interest in missions, look on missionaries as +good men engaged in a Quixotic enterprise, and know almost nothing about +their work, but still they treat them with courtesy. There are, however, +some of our own countrymen who take a deep interest in our work, visit +our schools, occasionally attend our native services, and contribute +liberally to our mission schemes. These do much to cheer our hearts and +promote our success. Again and again my work would have been at a +standstill but for the help given me by European Christians, and our +intercourse with some has resulted in close and enduring friendship. If +persons have a temperament preparing them for friendship, I cannot +conceive any position more favourable to its formation and strength than +that of a missionary in many of our Indian stations. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE MISSIONARY IN INDIA (Continued). + + +It has been already stated that missionaries have an income, which +enables them to live in a way conducive to the health of themselves and +families. Things which would be luxuries at home are necessaries in +India, and all they can do is to alleviate the suffering caused by the +climate. As missionaries are often more stationary than European +officials, both military and civil, and spend much less than they do on +horses, establishments, and entertainments, their houses have an air of +comfort which is surprising to those who know their income, and has led +to much misrepresentation on the part of those who know not and do not +care to know what it is. + +Not infrequently young men have gone out to India as missionaries with +the firm resolve to live to a large extent in the native fashion, and to +eschew what they conceive the undue indulgence of those who had preceded +them, but the experience of one hot season has generally brought them to +another mind. Individuals have adhered to their resolution, and the +result in one case I know was insanity, in other cases utter failure of +health, and in others speedy death. A band of Germans determined to +live, if not in the native style, at least in the simple style of the +Fatherland, as to habitation, food, and service, and with scarcely an +exception the plan was soon abandoned. The only successful case I have +heard of in our day has been that of Mr. Bowen, a devoted American +missionary in Bombay. We have had no William Burns, in Northern India at +least. I can say for myself, that so far as the mere comfort of living +is concerned I should greatly prefer a humble abode and simple fare in +England, to the finest house and the most sumptuous fare in the plains +of Northern India. It has been maintained by some that our only hope of +success lies in our becoming ascetics, and outstripping by our +austerities the Hindu saints. In other words, by acting as if we +accepted Hindu principles of religion we are to overthrow Hinduism, and +win the people to Christ. The proposal calls for no consideration. + +Of late a good deal has been said about the substance of missionary +teaching. Missionaries as a class maintain and teach the doctrinal views +of the Churches whose messengers and agents they are. In these Churches +a sifting process has been going on for a considerable time, which has +led in some cases to a reversal of belief in matters of great moment, +and in a greater number to the modification and softening of views +hitherto entertained. Every one must decide for himself how far the +sifting has been wisely done, how far chaff and only chaff has been +given to the wind, and precious grain gathered into the garner. +Missionaries have unquestionably been affected by doctrinal discussion, +in a few instances, I believe a very few, to the reversal of some of +their former views, in all, perhaps, though in different degrees, to a +readjustment of their doctrinal position, to giving more prominence to +some aspects of truth and less prominence to others, under the +conviction that such is their relative position in the Word of God. + +[Sidenote: MISSIONARY PREACHING.] + +However much imbued missionaries have been with the views of their +respective Churches, their position among the heathen has always led +them to the constant and simple presentation of the great facts and +doctrines of the Bible. These have been set forth in the manner deemed +best fitted to commend them to the understanding, conscience, and heart +of the people. Familiar illustrations have been largely used, and +elaborate doctrinal discussion shunned. While the missionary finds much +in the narratives and teachings of the Old Testament which is helpful to +his object, he dwells chiefly on the life of Christ, His deeds, words, +living, and holy example; death to redeem men; man's urgent need of such +a Saviour, because guilty and depraved; the claims of Christ on His +love, trust, and service; the blessedness of compliance with these +claims on character and state; the misery and doom incurred by their +persistent rejection. How often have I seen the heathen greatly moved by +the parable of the Prodigal Son! + +The missionary, like the home minister, has to guard against +one-sidedness, if he would keep to the Book which he professes to be his +standard. The many-sidedness of the Bible, its appeal to man's whole +nature, is one of the most marked proofs of its superhuman origin. While +it addresses itself continually to man's moral nature, to his sense of +right and wrong, while it appeals to his intellect and heart, it also +speaks to his fears and hopes. These appeals are made to all, whatever +may be their diversity in character and condition. If we were to follow +the course of many in our day who condemn appeals to fear, we should be +ignoring a large part of Scripture, including many of our Lord's +utterances, and at the same time ignoring that fear of hurtful +consequences which the Author of our nature has implanted in us as a +great means of self-preservation. To hope as well as to fear much is +addressed in the Bible, and the missionary who would approve himself to +his Master is bound to appeal to both principles, while, like his +Master, he makes his constant and main appeal to the higher part of +man's nature. + +[Sidenote: MISSIONARIES COUNSELLED.] + +While the missionary ought to strive to understand the people among whom +he labours, and to discover the most promising avenue to their minds, +while he ought to commend himself to every man's conscience as in the +sight of God, he is not to seek acceptance for his message by +accommodating it to the views of his hearers. He knows that between +their views and his message there is not only a marked discrepancy, but +on many points radical opposition, and the one must be displaced if the +other is to be accepted. We have here for our guidance the example of +our Lord and His apostles. + +I have endeavoured to give a faithful description of the tenor of +missionary teaching. It appears many are dissatisfied with it. We are +told we must part with our narrow traditional views of doctrine, and +become imbued with the larger and more liberal views of our times, if we +are to hope for success. In the late Dr. Norman McLeod's "Life" we find +him saying, "The chief difficulty in the way of advancing Christianity +in India is unquestionably that almost all the missionaries represent a +narrow one-sided Christianity." I cannot conceive what could have been +his ground for this astounding statement, except his impression--it +could not have been anything beyond an impression--that missionaries +adhered to the doctrines of the Churches that had sent them out, his own +among the rest, and had not followed him in his changes. Every one who +comes out with new views, or modification of old views, assures us that +success will speedily follow the acceptance and preaching of _his_ phase +of doctrine. Some tell us we must preach the moral aspect of the +atonement, and part with what has been called the forensic aspect; we +must only speak of the love it shows to man, and say nothing of its +bearing on the Divine law and government; and then the great cause of +so-called failure will be removed. So far as I know missionaries, they +accept both aspects of the atonement; they believe both aspects are +taught in Scripture, and they are convinced that instead of enfeebling +they strengthen each other, while the doctrine thus presented meets +man's deepest wants. Others, again, tell us we must preach what is +called Life in Christ--the utter extinction of impenitent sinners, while +others say this is a shocking doctrine, and we must preach universal +restoration. This is no place for discussing the teaching of the Bible +regarding the great Beyond, which is at present exercising so many +minds. All I will say is that neither in the old views nor in the new is +there anything which a Hindu or a Buddhist will accept, while he remains +a Hindu or Buddhist. So far as I am aware, all students of Hinduism and +Buddhism are agreed that eternal conscious existence, with identity of +being firmly maintained, is alien from both systems. They do not hold +the doctrine of either eternal happiness or eternal misery. To be +extinguished, in the sense of being absorbed into Brahm and losing all +conscious personality, is the reward of high virtue, while the wicked +have to pass many miserable births before they reach this longed-for +goal. With them salvation, liberation, is not deliverance from sin, but +from conscious existence. They have both heavens and hells--heavens +supernatural in their surroundings but intensely earthly in their +character, doings, and strifes, and hells full of everything which is +repulsive and painful; but both, after vast lapses of time, will be +emptied into the great ocean of being, into the One without a Second. +Cessation of conscious existence is not with them the punishment of +wickedness, but the eagerly desired consummation of their being, the +goal which is quickly reached by the eminently good. + +Let missionaries by all means listen to what is said in favour of new +views, let them modify or change their views if they think they see +scriptural authority for the change, but I am profoundly convinced no +shifting of our doctrinal position will secure success. Looking over the +whole field of foreign missions since the end of last century, it is +undeniable that God has done great things by them, for which we have +abundant reason to be glad; and we know the teaching by which the desert +has in many places blossomed as the rose. New phases of doctrine have +yet to win their triumph. We must look in another direction for a +greater degree of success--to more unreserved devotedness to Christ on +the part of both missionaries and those who send them out; closer +communion with Him; a higher degree of attainment in the mind which is +in Him; a more persuasive deliverance of our message, and a larger +effusion of God's Spirit. + +[Sidenote: THE HEART'S OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.] + +The great obstruction at home and abroad to the acceptance of Christ as +the Saviour is moral obtuseness, a dormant conscience. Our Lord's words +throw a steady light on man's neglect of the great salvation, "_They +that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick._" Till men +know they are sick, and recognize the deadly nature of their sickness, +there will be no application to the Great Physician. In addition to the +indurating effects of sin everywhere, the people of India have been for +ages so drugged, I may say, with pantheistic and polytheistic teaching, +that if man's moral nature had been destructible it must have been +destroyed ages ago. Happily it can not be destroyed. Perverted, +stupefied, dormant, though it is, it still exists, and to it we can +therefore address the message of Heaven, while we look up to God to make +it effectual by the teaching of His Spirit. When man knows himself to be +a sinner, when he knows what sin is, then, and only then, whether in +India or in England, he casts himself with joy into the arms of the +Saviour. + +I am surprised when Christians speak as if only a modification or a new +statement of doctrine was required in order to achieve full and +immediate success, as if they had never read such passages as "_The +carnal mind is enmity against God_;" "_The natural man receiveth not the +things of the Spirit of God_;" as if they were ignorant of the facts by +which these statements are so amply and mournfully attested; as if they +had never heard of One who appeared, as ancient sages longed to see, +clothed with perfect virtue and dwelt among men, and was yet rejected +and crucified by them; as if they knew nothing of His apostles, who +spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and yet had to lament over +many hearers to whom their message was the savour of death unto death. +Musing over the controversies of the day, the wish has often arisen in +my mind: Would that the nature of sin was not kept so much in the +background! Would that it was seen in its offensiveness to God and +injuriousness to man--persistently daring high Heaven, while corrupting, +degrading, disquieting, and ruining man! Would that the scriptural view +of sin and sinfulness, which receives such ample confirmation from human +experience and history, was more considered in the adjustment of +doctrine! All readjustment in which the nature and effect of sin is not +kept steadily in view must lead to serious error--error which +misrepresents God's character and government, is inconsistent with facts +meeting us on every side, and must prove most hurtful to man. I am +convinced that while on some points there has been progress, and wise +modification of doctrine, on the subject of sin the theology of former +days was truer to Scripture and fact than the theology of our time. + +[Sidenote: "IN MEMORIAM."] + +I cannot conclude these remarks about the Indian missionary without +mentioning--and I can do little more than mention--the names of loved +fellow-labourers who rest from the toils of earth, and have entered into +the joy of their Lord above. A feeling of sadness and yet of +thankfulness comes over me, as I see before my mind's eye brethren of +our own Mission with whom I was associated--Buyers, with his intimate +acquaintance with the native languages, his large knowledge, and his +kindly disposition; Shurman, the keen, impetuous, plodding German +scholar, whose great monument is his translation of the Old Testament +into Hindustanee; Mather, first of Benares and afterwards of Mirzapore, +one of the most enterprising and devoted missionaries ever sent to +India, whose peculiarity of temper and urgency with new plans led in his +early years to unpleasantness, but who, when well known, was one of the +truest and kindest of men, with whom for many years we had an intimate +friendship, and whose memory and that of his excellent wife we shall +always revere; and Sherring, one of the most amiable of men and most +pleasant of colleagues, a man of marked attainments, and an +indefatigable worker. The agents of other missions at Benares call for +affectionate mention. I have in an early part of my reminiscences +spoken of Smith, the founder and for many years the sole agent of the +Baptist Mission at Benares, a quiet, diligent, Nathaniel-like man. This +mission had for years George Parsons, a man of large linguistic +attainments, of most amiable, meek, and devout character, than whom it +would be difficult to find a more conscientious labourer. The Church +Missionary Society was highly favoured in having had for a long period +at Benares two men, Smith and Leupolt, who, in their respective +departments, had, I believe, no superiors in India. For many years +Smith, with resolute perseverance and great efficiency, often with +severe strain on both body and mind, prosecuted evangelistic work in the +city and the surrounding neighbourhood. No man was better known and more +highly esteemed by the entire community. He had success to cheer him in +the form of persons avowing themselves the followers of Christ, but the +number was so small that he was often greatly depressed. I cannot doubt +that by his ministry seed was sown in many minds which will yet bear +fruit. During our later years in Benares, Fuchs was one of the agents of +this Mission, an excellent biblical scholar, a diligent labourer, who +required only to be known to be loved and esteemed, with whom we had +much pleasant and profitable intercourse. He was suddenly called away in +the midst of his usefulness, and in the prime of life. I have been +confining my remarks to the departed; but I must mention two who +survive--warm-hearted Heinig, of the Baptist Mission, now set aside by +age and infirmity, after a long life of great toil in the service of +Christ, and our greatly-loved friend Leupolt, of the Church Mission, who +is still doing good service now in England, and was for many years the +fellow-labourer of his friend Smith. His name and work at Benares will +last for many a day. + +Our departed brethren had their imperfections; who of us are without +them? But I can truly say that in their general character, work, and +bearing they were the messengers of the Churches to the Gentiles and the +glory of Christ. + +Looking beyond our Benares missions we remember a number of faithful +labourers, whom we knew and loved, who have joined the majority, such as +the learned and kindly Owen, the venerable Morrison, the apostolic +Ziemann, and many others besides. I do not use these terms in a +conventional sense, but as justly applicable to the men. Those I have +named laboured, and others have entered into their labours, men worthy +of all esteem, love, sympathy, and help. + + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +NATIVE CHRISTIANS. + + +Native Christians form so large and varied a community that right views +of them can be obtained only by those who consider its component parts. + +In Southern India there are thousands calling themselves Syrian +Christians, still more frequently Christians of St. Thomas. Either the +Apostle Thomas or some of his spiritual children went to India, and +founded a Christian Church. Down through the ages the descendants of +these first converts have clung to the profession of Christianity, and +have kept up their connexion with their fellow Christians in Western +Asia. They have the peculiarities of hereditary Christians exposed to a +corrupting moral atmosphere, and possessing limited means of spiritual +improvement. We are told that they have made great progress through +their intercourse with European missionaries. + +In Southern India and Ceylon there is a large body of native Christians, +the descendants of the many baptized by Xavier and his companions. Every +one who has read the life of Xavier knows how widely he opened the door +of the Church; with what facility, to use his own favourite expression, +he "made Christians." Many speedily relapsed into heathenism, but a +sufficient number remained steadfast to form a large community, and +their descendants are reckoned by tens, rather hundreds, of thousands. +There is not--at least there was not a short time ago--any reliable +census of their number. Protestant opinion of these native Christians is +very unfavourable. It may be prejudiced, and yet it has been expressed +by persons who have come into contact with them, who know them well, and +who would shrink from doing injustice. Many facts have been stated in +support of an unfavourable estimate. The Abbe Dubois condemned them as a +scandal to the Christian name, and other Romanists have joined him in +confirming the testimony of Protestants. + +In Travancore and Tinnevelly, in the far south, there are large native +churches, in connexion with the Propagation, Church, and London +Missionary Societies, composed of Shanars, a people outside the Hindu +pale and greatly despised by them, with a sprinkling of caste people. +When whole villages come over to the profession of Christianity, we +generally find a few who may be regarded as true believers in the Lord +Jesus Christ, with limited knowledge but genuine faith, while the many, +though favourably impressed, simply assent to the action of their +friends and neighbours, and are little changed except in name. They are +on the way to a happy change by having come under new and elevating +influences. + +All over Southern India there are native Christian churches, the work of +conversion having proceeded in some cases gradually, individual by +individual, while in other cases numbers have been admitted at the same +time. + +[Sidenote: THE CONVERSION OF NON-ARYAN TRIBES.] + +Among the non-Aryan tribes, the Kols and the Santhals, occupying the +hills and forests of Central and Eastern India, a great work has been +done during the last thirty years. Thousands have been brought into the +fold of the Christian Church. In habits, character, and condition, these +tribes bear a considerable resemblance to our rude Teutonic ancestors, +and they have been brought to the profession of Christianity in a +somewhat similar manner; with this difference, that they have not been +headed by chiefs in the reception of baptism, and in many cases +commanding it. The first converts were the direct fruit of mission +labour; their number increased, inspired by zeal they told their +countrymen the treasure they had found, and called on them to share it +with them. Many listened to their words and accepted their message. The +work thus spread from village to village, and from hamlet to hamlet, +till it extended to parts of the country never visited by a missionary, +and included many who had never seen a missionary's face, in some cases +who had never seen a white face. A very dear friend and enterprising +missionary, the late Rev. William Jones of Singrowlee, made his way +through a wild roadless country to the border of the Kol region, and +came to a hamlet where the people were startled by the appearance of a +European, as they had never been visited by one before. Though from +difference in language their intercourse was limited, they understood +each other sufficiently to discover, to their mutual delight, that they +had a common faith. The general character of a community formed of a +rude people, emerging from fetish and demon worship, can be readily +supposed. I suspect the converts made by the monk Augustine and his +companions had not a little in their character and conduct to show the +pit from which they had been taken; and yet that was the dawning of a +day for the Anglian and Saxon race in our country for which we have +abundant reason to be thankful. There is no doubt much imperfection in +Kol and Santhal converts, but we may well anticipate for them a far less +clouded day than that which dawned on our forefathers when Augustine +went to them. + +In Bengal there are two large native Christian communities, one in +Krishnagurh in connexion with the Church Missionary Society, and the +other in Backergunje connected with the Baptists. In both cases the +conversion of individuals has led to numbers avowing themselves the +followers of Christ. Where conversion is thus what may be called +collective rather than individual, there may be in some a high degree of +spiritual life, but the majority simply go with the stream. It will be +observed that in the statistics of some missions so many are represented +as baptized, so many members of the church, so many adherents, the last +class often outnumbering the other two. These adherents openly declare +their abandonment of idolatry, attend public worship with more or less +regularity, call themselves Christians, and are called Christians by +others. They may be described as in the outer court of the temple, from +which not a few from time to time enter the inner. + +In the great Presidency cities, Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, and their +immediate neighbourhood, the native churches connected with Protestant +Missions are comparatively small. The members of these churches differ +more widely in social position, mental culture, and I think I may add +spiritual character, than any other native churches in India. Some of +the members are highly educated, have acute and disciplined minds, and +have an intimate acquaintance with our language and literature. +Individuals among them have made sacrifices by becoming the followers +of Christ, of which the only adequate explanation is that they have come +under the power of an all-controlling faith, of the faith which gives +the victory over self, the world, and the devil. Persons more +established in the faith of Christ than some of these are, more +thoroughly assured that He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the +world, I have never met. In these churches there are degrees of culture +and social standing, till we come to unlettered persons in the humblest +rank of life, some of whom are, I doubt not, as genuine Christians and +as devoted to the Saviour as their brethren of higher social standing +and larger mental attainment. + +[Sidenote: THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS OF NORTHERN INDIA.] + +I now proceed to speak of the native Christians of Northern India, with +whom for many years I have been closely associated, and of whom I can +speak with a measure of confidence. + +In the North-Western Provinces, as in other parts of India, we have +different classes that go under the name of native Christians. Most +drummers of native regiments have been Christians, in the sense that +they have been baptized persons. Many are descendants of Portuguese, who +have gradually become mixed with the lower classes of natives, and +cannot, except by dress, be distinguished from them, their hue being +often darker than that of the people. These Portuguese descendants are +numerous all over India, in the South very numerous, and hold very +different positions in society, but those I have known in the North have +been mainly of the drummer class. To these have been added a +considerable number of natives, the waifs of native society, who have +attached themselves to European regiments as camp-followers, not a few +of whom have so separated themselves from their own people that they +have found it convenient to profess the Christian faith. I have known +individuals of this class who bore a good character, and were regular in +their attendance on public worship. We had a number of them in our +native Christian congregation at Benares, and we had for years a weekly +meeting in their quarters. I cannot, however, speak highly of them as a +class, either as to intelligence or goodness. Not a few went to a place +of Christian worship only on Christmas Day, or on the occasion of a +marriage or baptism, and their general conduct was no honour to the +Christian name. Yet these people are proud of being ranked as +Christians. We had a striking illustration of this at Benares. A person +died, the son of an English colonel by a Muhammadan wife. I knew the man +well. He often called on me, and was eager for discussion. He +continually avowed himself a follower of Muhammad. He was never seen in +a place of Christian worship, and was often seen in the mosque. When he +died, the relatives of his mother made arrangements for the funeral; but +the drummers and Christian camp-followers gathered in numbers, went to +the magistrate, and claimed the body on the ground that the man had been +baptized in infancy. As the result of inquiry it was found that at the +father's instance he had been baptized, and on this account the body was +made over to the Christians, who carried it to the grave in triumph, as +if they had achieved a great victory for their faith, the chaplain of +the station reading the funeral service. The native Christians connected +with the different missions in Benares for the most part kept aloof. + +I have already spoken of orphans and their descendants, and need say +nothing more about their character. They form a considerable portion of +the native Christian community in the North-West. + +[Sidenote: UNWORTHY ADHERENTS.] + +All our missions have had accessions from both Hindus and Muhammadans, +but chiefly from Hindus. I heartily wish I could say all have joined us +from right motives. This I cannot say. It is undeniable that persons +have joined us from unworthy motives, some because they have broken with +their brethren, others who are pressed by want in hope of support, and +others again in anticipation of a life of less toil if they can get +under the wing of a missionary. There have even been individuals who +have made it a trade to be baptized, who have told most plausible +stories, have hung on missionaries for a time, and have then set out in +quest of new pasture. They remind us of the wild Saxons, who submitted +to baptism again and again that they might obtain the white dress given +on each occasion to the baptized. Some missionaries have been far more +ready than others to administer baptism, but as a rule they have +examined candidates closely, have made all possible inquiry, and have +baptized them only on obtaining what appeared satisfactory evidence of +sincerity. Some who proved most unworthy manifested the greatest +apparent earnestness, possessed a considerable degree of knowledge, and +were hailed by us as a valuable accession. I narrowly escaped baptizing +a man who turned out the leader of a band of thieves. He came to me +professing an ardent desire for baptism, paid frequent visits, made +marked progress in knowledge, and was well spoken of by persons who said +they knew him; but circumstances occurred to bring suspicion over him, +and he suddenly disappeared. Long afterwards we found out that he was a +leader of an infamous following. + +To give one of many illustrations of the way in which persons try to +connect themselves with us, I may mention that one day a well-dressed +native, mounted on a good horse, rode up to my door. On coming to my +room he told me he had come to be baptized, as he was convinced Christ +was the Saviour of the world. He was urgent for immediate baptism. Life +was uncertain, he might die at any hour, and how could he know he was +safe if he did not come under the wing of Christ? I told him if he +believed in the Lord Jesus Christ it would be well with him, whether +baptized or not, and that I could not baptize him till I should make +inquiry and know more about him. It occurred to me that he had a motive +for such urgency which I could not discover. I sent for one of the most +judicious of our native Christians, and begged him to find out what the +object of the man was. He took him away, and soon returned to tell me he +had got it all out--that the man had had a violent quarrel with his +relatives, and had vowed to bring disgrace on the family by becoming a +_Kristan_--a Christian. I recalled the man, and told him he must come to +me from another motive and in another temper, if I were to baptize him. +He rode away, and I never saw him afterwards. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +NATIVE CHRISTIANS (Continued). + + +I suppose there is no community of any extent that has not unworthy +members, persons that may be called its excrescence and blots, who have +increased its size, as a tumour increases the size of the body, but are +actually its weakness and disgrace. Such were the unworthy persons of +whom I have been speaking. Very different is the general character of +the native Christians connected with the various missions in Northern +India. Some of our converts have made sacrifices, by avowing themselves +the followers of Christ, to which persons in our country are never +called. They have literally left father and mother, houses and lands, +wife and children, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever may +have been the position of our converts, they have, as a rule, parted +with much which is highly valued by their people. Caste standing, even +when the caste is not considered high, secures many advantages, and is +greatly prized. Its loss is deemed a dire calamity, and this loss our +converts are called to endure. They join a despised and hated community, +are called vile apostates, and are charged with the most sordid motives. +I have heard the charge advanced against converts who, to my knowledge, +had left their place in native society under the power of the profound +conviction that Christ was entitled to their hearts and lives, though +the conviction required of them the most painful sacrifices, and exposed +them to the bitterest reproach. During my first years at Benares, one of +the catechists of our Mission was a Brahman, who had been baptized by +Mr. Ward of Serampore. He was stripped of the property to which he was +the heir, of which the annual rental, according to an official document, +was 5,000 rupees (L500), because he could not perform the funeral rites +of his father. His income as catechist was small, but I often heard him +charged with the lowest mercenary motives by those who knew not, and did +not wish to know, anything about his antecedents. He bore the charge +patiently, deeming it an honour to be reproached for his Master. He was +far from being a perfect character, but no cloud ever seemed to come +over his belief that Jesus was the Saviour of the world. When he was on +his death-bed I asked him if he regretted the life of comparative +poverty and of great reproach he had led because he had become a +Christian. He tried to raise himself on his pillow, and said with an +energy that startled me, "If I had a thousand lives, I would give them +for Him who died for me." In reference to him and others, the remark was +often made by our hearers, "We are willing to listen to you--you are a +good man and have kept to your religion; but we do not wish to hear +these, for they are apostates." + +In all communities there are so many varieties, that the most successful +attempt at characterization on the part of those who know them well can +only claim an approach to correctness, and must be received with +deductions. Those who look at a community from a distance, who know only +a few individuals, perhaps know none at all, but judge from what they +hear from others, and these deeply prejudiced, are sure to form a very +false estimate. When speaking of our native Christians, I have the +advantage of long and intimate acquaintance not only with those of our +own Mission, but with those of other missions in Northern India, and I +think I should understand them better than many who have the most +superficial and partial knowledge of them, perhaps do not know them at +all, and yet speak of them in depreciating terms. + +[Sidenote: THE CHARACTER OF NATIVE CHRISTIANS.] + +I cannot speak of our native Christians, even of those who have made +great sacrifices, as possessing a lofty character, as marked by signal +excellence. We learn from the Epistles of the Apostle Paul he found much +which was faulty in his converts, and we need not wonder at the faults +which are too manifest in ours. Is there any home minister who is not +tried by the conduct of some of his people? Is there any minister or +missionary who has not frequent reason to be dissatisfied with himself? +Indian missionaries are sometimes sorely tried by their converts. All +around is a low moral tone. Slight, inadequate views of sin prevail. +Truthfulness is praised, but little practised. Our people breathe a +tainted atmosphere, and by becoming Christians they do not escape its +deleterious effects. While these defects are frankly acknowledged, truth +enables me to state, without any misgiving, there is much in our people +which is very estimable. Observe their daily life, go with them to their +respective businesses, and you will find them with few exceptions +diligently pursuing their vocation, and honourably supporting their +families. See them at their homes; you will be gladly welcomed, and you +will generally find them striving to have everything clean and tidy, and +as comfortable as their means permit. You will find the Bible and a few +Christian books on their shelves, and you will learn that family worship +is largely observed. When conversing with them you are often impressed +with their manifest sincerity, with their gratitude for having been +brought into the fold of Christ, with the honour conferred on them by +bearing His name, much reproached as they are on account of it, and with +their desire to walk worthy of their profession. See them in the house +of God, cleanly clad, and as they engage in the different parts of the +service you are struck with their devout appearance. Observe them in +their intercourse with each other, and you will find much of mutual +kindness and helpfulness. Observe them in their intercourse with Hindus +and Muhammadans, and you will find that instead of hiding their +Christian profession, and being ashamed of it, they glory in it. I have +said that missionaries are tried by their converts. I ought in candour +to add that converts are sometimes tried by missionaries. Their training +has been so different from ours, their position is so different from +ours, that it is very difficult for us to understand them thoroughly; +and so far as we fail to understand them, we fail in sympathy and in +right action towards them. + +[Sidenote: FAITHFULNESS TO THE DEATH.] + +The native churches passed through a fiery ordeal in the Mutiny of 1857, +and came out of it in a way which reflected great honour on their +Christian constancy. Even those who had the most favourable opinion were +not prepared for the readiness shown by them to part with all, to part +with life itself, rather than part with their Lord. I cannot say how +many were put to death, but we know that thirty-four were killed on the +Parade-ground of Furruckabad by order of the Nawab, and seven or eight +perished at Cawnpore. In Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" there is not a more +striking instance of witnessing to the death for the Lord Jesus than was +manifested by Vilayat Ali, in the Chandnee Chauk of Delhi, when, +surrounded by infuriated Muhammadans calling on him to recant or die, he +declared Christ to be his Saviour and Lord, and when falling under the +swords of his enemies uttered with his last breath the prayer of +Stephen, "_Lord Jesus, receive my spirit._" The account is furnished by +a witness of the scene. There were defections, but if our view be +confined to Christians connected with the different missions they were +remarkably few, fewer, it is affirmed, than those of Europeans and East +Indians. One whom I knew well, though he was not of our Mission, +apostatized to save his life, and died most miserably, abandoned by his +new fellow-religionists, and tenderly watched by those whom he had left. +Full details of the conduct of the native Christians in that terrible +crisis are given by Mr. Sherring in his book, "The Indian Church during +the Great Rebellion." This book had, I believe, a considerable +circulation when it was published, but like many other good books it has +passed into oblivion. The information it contains was furnished by +persons intimately acquainted with the facts, and is very valuable as +proving the genuineness and constancy of native Christian piety. It +gives more insight into the real character of the native Christian +community than can be obtained by perusal of large volumes full of +ordinary mission details. The friends of missions would do good service +by seeking its republication. + +The loyalty of the native Christians to the British Government, as well +as the constancy of their Christian faith, was strikingly shown +throughout the Mutiny. This loyalty was maintained amidst much fitted to +discourage it in the conduct towards them of Europeans, both official +and non-official. + +We have seen native Christians in joy and sorrow, in trial and +temptation. We have been present at their death-bed, and have heard +their words of hope and trust when entering the dark valley. We have had +abundant reason to regard them with esteem and love. With many we have +had pleasant intercourse, and from our intercourse with some we have +received intellectual and spiritual profit. At one time there was a +small band of highly-educated native Christians at Benares connected +with the different missions. It gave us great pleasure to have them now +and then spending an evening with us. They were always ready to start +some important subject, and their remarks were stimulating and +instructive. I remember more than once our remarking, when they went +away, Could we have had a more pleasant and profitable evening if our +European brethren had been with us? At the great Missionary Conferences +which have been held in recent years the native Christian brethren have +taken a prominent part, and both intellectually and spiritually they +have been found worthy of standing abreast of their brethren from Europe +and America. It must be acknowledged there has been a difficulty at +times in adjusting the exact relationship of these highly-educated +native brethren to their missionary friends, and there has been in +consequence unpleasant jarring; but amidst differences Christian +principle has asserted its uniting power, and their ordinary bearing is +that of mutual esteem and love. + +It may be said, "If native Christians as a community deserve the +character you have given them, how is it that people from India speak so +much against them?" The explanation can be easily given. + +[Sidenote: ALLEGED FAILURE OF CHRISTIANITY.] + +There is no part of the mission-field, the South Seas, Africa, the West +Indies, China, as well as India, from which persons have not come +affirming that the so-called converts are changed in name only; that +they are no better than they were, and in many cases worse. Do we not +find analogous cases nearer home? It is often said of professors of +religion--very truly of individuals, very untruly of the class--that +they are less worthy of trust than avowedly worldly persons. Large +communities remarkable for religious zeal, like the people of Wales, are +condemned in the face of favourable evidence which seems well +authenticated. Persons have even stoutly maintained that Christianity +itself has been a failure in its moral influence on the nations. Want of +sympathy and antipathy blind the mind to facts, and lead to most +erroneous judgments. The great majority of Europeans in heathen +countries have no sympathy with missions, and have neither the knowledge +nor the spirit indispensable to the formation of a correct judgment. +They hear a loose report of converts from persons who in turn have been +told by others what they say, and the report is at once believed and +circulated. They have, perhaps, met an unworthy native bearing the +Christian name, and he is regarded as a fit representative of the entire +community. + +It is a common opinion among many of our countrymen in India that +Hinduism is as good for Hindus as Christianity is for us, and they +cannot conceive why a person should leave the one for the other except +from sinister motives. When speaking on one occasion with a lady who +regularly attended church, and no doubt deemed herself an excellent +Christian, about a native gentleman of high rank, whose kindly temper +and courteous demeanour we were both praising, I said, "Would that he +were a follower of our Saviour!" She looked surprised, and said, "Do you +think so? He is, I think, a better man by remaining as he is." So strong +is this feeling with some English people, that a native who calls +himself a Christian is regarded by them as on that account a suspicious +character. I know a well-educated native Christian who applied for a +Government situation. He had good certificates; they were sent in, and +when the official to whom he applied came to know he was a Christian--he +knew nothing more about him--he threw them aside with the word +"_namunzoor_," "not accepted"--the technical term for "rejected." One +result of this English dislike to native Christians is that natives have +told me that none but missionaries and a few associated with them wished +them to become Christians; that English people generally wished them to +remain Hindus. It can be conceived how great is the stumbling-block thus +put in our way. A Church of England missionary of great experience once +said to me, "Would that there were no Europeans near us! We might then +hope for progress." I am not to vindicate the remark. I mention it to +show the effect on the mind of a devoted missionary by English hostility +to the conversion of natives. On every side, from European as well as +from native society, there is every worldly obstacle to their embracing +the Gospel. + +[Sidenote: GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.] + +At one time there were obstacles to the profession of Christianity which +do not now exist. When India was being brought under the sway of +England, our rulers regarded the Gospel as a disturbing and threatening +element, which ought to be carefully excluded. Long after the Christian +feeling at home had forced open the door, the Gospel was treated as an +intruder to be in every possible way thwarted and disgraced. In +illustration of the opposition the Gospel had to encounter, I quote a +few sentences from a recently-published volume, "Asiatic Studies, +Religious and Social," by Sir Alfred C. Lyall, K.C.B., the present +Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces:--"We disbursed +impartially to Hindus, Mussulmans, and Parsees, to heterodox and +orthodox, to Juggarnath's Car, and to the shrine of a Muhammadan who had +died fighting against infidels, perhaps against ourselves." "The chief +officers of the Company in India were so cautious to disown any +political connexion with Christianity that they were occasionally +reported to have no religion at all." "Up to the year 1831 native +Christians had been placed under the strongest civil disabilities by our +regulations.... Converts were liable to be deprived not only of +property, but of their wives and children; and they seem to have been +generally treated as unlucky outcasts, with whom no one need be at any +trouble of using any sort of consideration." We are told that they were +even forced by Government order to pull the car of Juggarnaut, and +severely punished if they refused. According to a parliamentary paper of +1832, "our interference extended over every detail of management: we +regulated funds, repaired buildings, kept in order cars and images, +appointed servants, and purveyed the various commodities required for +use of the pagodas." Under home pressure this state of things has +gradually given place to neutrality, which, if impartially maintained, +is I suppose the only policy open to us in the peculiar circumstances of +India. + +I have already said there are very unworthy persons bearing the name of +native Christians. To judge our Indian churches by these is as unfair as +to judge English Christians in India by Englishmen, of whom, alas! +there are many, soldiers and others, who are notorious for drunkenness +and licentiousness. We have even English beggars in India, wretched men, +who have drifted out of the army, railway, or other department, and who +disgrace our name. Strong men have come whimpering to my door, to whom I +have given help, and I have seen them a few hours afterwards--I remember +one case well--rolling in the bazaar in beastly drunkenness. It would be +as fair to take these men as a specimen of English Christians, as to +judge native Christians by persons bearing the name while they disgrace +it. + +The very acknowledgment of missionaries about the imperfections of their +communities, about the utter hollowness of some individuals, has been +turned into adverse testimony. In the recent meeting at Exeter Hall to +welcome the Madagascar missionaries, Messrs. Cousin and Shaw, Mr. +Cousin, in the course of his very interesting address, said that much of +the Christianity of the Malagash was "purely nominal and utterly +worthless." I should not at all wonder if some day I found this brought +forward as a missionary's acknowledgment that the Christianity of the +Malagash is purely nominal and utterly worthless, and that missions in +Madagascar, as elsewhere, had been a failure. + +[Sidenote: THE SUPPORT OF NATIVE CHRISTIANS.] + +The support of native Christians has sorely tried and perplexed +missionaries. They have been desirous, on the one hand, of holding out +no inducement to persons to join them from unworthy motives; and on the +other they have felt that persons thrust out of their caste and +employment, and not infrequently from their family, had claims on help, +with which every Christian feeling bound them to comply. Persons able to +work have never been allowed to live in idleness, but the difficulty has +been to find suitable work. In some missions, when persons have shown +an aptness for domestic service they have been trained to it. In a +number of missions trades have been started, and have been carried on +for a longer or shorter period, with more or less success; but, as a +rule, the relation of employer and employed does not accord well with +the relation of pastor and people. The difficulty continues, and will no +doubt continue, but it is decreasing every year. When travelling down +through Northern India in 1877 we found Christians in every place at +which we stopped, and we learned they were supporting themselves in +various modes, in printing offices, bookbinding establishments, +railways, and public offices. A number were in domestic service. I wish +fewer were thus employed. When anything goes wrong in a house the Hindu +and Muhammadan servants are sure to blame the Christians; masters and +mistresses look for more from them than can be reasonably expected, and +they no doubt are apt to fall into the well-known and objectionable +habits of the class. The more capable of the native Christians, the +higher in character and education, are for the most part employed as +teachers, catechists, and native preachers. A few have risen to +responsible and lucrative positions in civil life. A native Christian +from Bengal held for some years, to the great satisfaction of both +Europeans and natives, the office of Postmaster of Benares. He and his +wife were members of our native church. Another member of our church for +a time was the Inspector of Post-offices in the Benares district. + +I believe in every mission in the North-West native Christians +contribute regularly to the support and diffusion of the Gospel, and, +considering their means, their contributions are liberal. I remember +hearing years ago of a native church in Calcutta agreeing, without a +dissentient voice, to give a month's salary for the erection of their +new church building--an act of liberality which has been seldom equalled +in our country. + +Much has been said about the compound system, as it has been +called;--Christians living together apart from the heathen, and in most +cases in the immediate neighbourhood of the missionary's residence. Much +has been said, I think unjustly, in condemnation of this arrangement. It +is not the hot-bed, which it has been called, in which robust Christian +character cannot be produced. Native Christians, thus living together, +hold constant intercourse with the heathen in the business of life, and +are at the same time saved from the peculiar trials and temptations +incident to living among Hindus and Muhammadans. So far as native +Christians make their light to shine, it will be well seen by the +heathen though their dwellings be apart. One great advantage of living +in a mission compound, near the place of worship and the missionary's +residence, is that wives and children can regularly attend public +worship, and can come under the teaching of the missionary, and +especially the missionary's wife, as otherwise they could not have come. +For a time we had quite a number of native Christians in our compound at +Benares, who paid a small rent for their houses, and went out every day +to attend to their respective callings. If they had lived in the city I +cannot conceive how mothers and children could have attended worship as +they did, or how my wife could have taught the children and held +constant intercourse with the women. Because living in the compound, it +does not follow that they are dependent on the mission for support. +There is nothing more desired by missionaries than that their people +should maintain themselves, by their own exertions. Living among the +heathen is often indispensable--it is so increasingly with our native +Christians; but where circumstances admit, I think great advantages +result from Christians living near each other and near the mission +church. In our own country, are not favourable surroundings sought for +the young and the inexperienced? + +[Sidenote: PROGRESS.] + +When I look back to the beginning of 1839, when I landed in Calcutta, +and compare the native Christian community of that day with what it is +now, I am struck with the great change which has taken place. If we +confine the term to those connected with missions, they were then a mere +handful. Now they are considerable in number, and they have become a +recognized and appreciable portion of native society. They are +increasing in number, though not so rapidly in the North as in the +South, and are becoming rooted in the land. The largest native Christian +community in the North-West is, I suppose, that connected with the +missions of the American Episcopal Methodist Church in Rohilkund and +Oude. It is largely composed of Muzbee Sikhs, a people much despised by +both Muhammadans and Hindus. Of late the Salvation Army has entered on +the campaign against Hinduism and Muhammadanism. Its organ boasts +largely of success, but its statements have been strongly questioned by +persons acquainted with the facts, on whose warm attachment to the cause +of Christ full dependence can be placed. A well-known missionary of the +Episcopal Methodist Church in Oude has been lately pursuing the tactics +of the Salvation Army. Accompanied by a band of native Christians, he +has been entering villages and towns with song and drum and tambourine. +The people in crowds have gathered round him. He and his brethren have +preached Christ to them, have urged them to accept Him as their Saviour, +and have given on the spot baptism, _chin_--the mark of the Christian +Church, to any avowing their readiness to become Christ's disciples. +Time will show how far the work is genuine. Perhaps we old missionaries +have been too slow in administering baptism. Of this I am sure, that +nothing is more fallacious as the test of success than the number of +persons baptized--so different is the opinion held by missionaries +regarding the qualifications required in order to baptize. Native +Christians are more self-dependent than they were, and are receiving a +healthy impulse from feeling that they must push out for themselves. +They have to contend against much which is adverse and hurtful, but +without indulging too sanguine hopes we may firmly anticipate for them a +brighter and better future than their past has been. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE PEOPLE AMONG WHOM WE LABOUR. + +MUHAMMADANS. + + +All over Northern India--I may say all over India--we find the followers +of Muhammad. They are very unequally distributed. In some districts they +form the majority, in others their number is very small, while in the +cities they abound. There is among them all the variety of station which +might be expected in a community composed of millions, ranging from +princes, wealthy landholders, and great merchants, down to labourers and +beggars. There is among them all variety of culture, from profound +learning in a narrower or wider groove, down to utter illiteracy and +gross ignorance. There is also variety of character, many leading +notoriously wicked lives, while others are noted for goodness, and are +honourable and useful members of society. + +Looking at the Quran and the Bible, one might suppose there is a close +accord between them, as both assert the unity and sovereignty of God, +both condemn idolatry, and in both the same names continually meet us, +such as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David, Solomon, and our Lord Jesus +Christ. In fact, however, in India, as elsewhere, Muhammadanism has +shown itself intensely hostile to the Gospel. The reason is apparent. I +think it is difficult for any one to read with candour the Quran on the +one hand, and the Bible, especially the New Testament, on the other, +without perceiving the marked contrariety between them, notwithstanding +their agreement on some points. + +A true follower of Jesus Christ, one imbued with the spirit of His +teaching and bent on the imitation of His example, cannot fail to +cultivate holiness of heart and life, to cherish a humble, lowly temper, +to look on all with love, however unworthy of love their character and +conduct may be, and to promote their good in every way within his power. +A follower of Muhammad, so far as he is imbued with his teaching, +regards God with profound reverence as the Sovereign of the universe, +deems homage to Him most due, looks with indignation on the worship of +idols, attaches immense importance to outward rites and services, +glories in Islam, pays comparatively little attention to inward +excellence, and sees no need for a change of heart. As a worshipper and +servant of Allah, following the precepts of the Prophet of the later +age, he deems himself the spiritual aristocrat of the race, and looks +down with scorn on all outside the pale of his community, whom he is in +some cases bound to put to death, and in all cases to subject to +degrading conditions, so far as he has the power. However wicked his +conduct may be, as a worshipper of Allah he is sure of more tender +treatment in another world than that which awaits Christians and +idolaters. Thus the typical Muhammadan is one who scrupulously observes +the laws of Islam, goes through his devotions with all the regularity of +a soldier on drill, fasts at the appointed season, gives alms to the +poor, attends to all prescribed rites, and at least once in his life +goes on pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. Outward religiousness, pride and +self-righteousness, are his distinguishing characteristics. + +[Sidenote: THE LICENTIOUSNESS OF MUHAMMADANS.] + +Much has been said about the sensuality of Muhammadans. The sanction +given by Muhammad to polygamy and extreme facility of divorce has borne +bitter fruit. His own example has had a depraving influence. He alleged, +indeed, a special Divine sanction for the dissoluteness of his later +life, but this has not deterred his followers from thinking they could +not go far wrong in imitating him. In addition to these facilities for a +life of sensual enjoyment, the teaching of the Prophet in reference to +female slaves has had a most depraving effect on family life. The +Hindustanee expression for _libertine_, _profligate_--_luchcha_--is, I +think, more frequently applied to Muhammadans in Northern India than to +any other class of the community. It must be confessed, however, there +is so much licentiousness among other classes--not only among Hindus, +but I am grieved to say among many from our own land, soldiers and +others--that I can scarcely join in declaring Muhammadans sinners in +this respect above all others. There is this difference between the +licentiousness of so-called Christians and Muhammadans, that in the +teachings of the Gospel, while no unnatural restraint is laid on those +who accept it, the strongest motives are brought to bear on them in +favour of purity of heart and in opposition to licentiousness of life; +while in the teachings of the Quran, amidst severe condemnation of the +gratification of unlawful desire in some forms, there is much, if not to +encourage, at least to give every facility for a life fatal to personal +and domestic purity, a facility of which the adherents of Islam have +largely availed themselves. + +While agreeing with the views generally held by Christians regarding the +teaching of the Quran and its influence in the formation of character, I +cannot join in the sweeping condemnation of the Muhammadans which I have +sometimes heard, as if they were one mass of corruption. In the middle +and lower classes in Northern India we are told, by those whose +testimony can be trusted, monogamy is the rule. Many lead a quiet, +orderly life, with the domestic affections in full play which beautify +and gladden the home. A Muhammadan writer, who may be supposed to know +his own people, tells us that polygamy is getting out of favour, and +that a strong feeling has set in in favour of a man having only one +woman to wife. Among them there are undoubtedly persons of high +character, whose bearing would do honour to the adherents of a far +higher creed. I have conversed with some who seemed to me set on knowing +and doing the will of God, who showed, so far as I could obtain an +insight into their character, a reverent, earnest, humble temper, as if +they had come under the power of the few passages, occurring here and +there in the Quran, which inculcate spirituality of mind and love to all +men, and as if they had in a measure escaped from the externalism so +prominent in that book, and from its hard, fierce, bitter tone towards +all who refuse to receive it as a revelation from heaven. With two +Muhammadans I was for years on as friendly terms as I could be with any +whose belief and practice differed so widely from my own. As to +courteous, kindly demeanour, they were all that could be desired. I had +many an earnest talk with them on the highest subjects, and I was struck +with the apparent candour with which they listened to all I had to say. +They read with evident interest books I gave them, and in the case of +one such an impression was made that I hoped he was coming to the +acknowledgment of Christ as his Lord and Saviour; but after going to his +Moulvies he kept to Muhammad, though with manifest misgiving. + +[Sidenote: MUHAMMADAN OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL.] + +While I cannot join in the sweeping condemnation of Muhammadans, I must +acknowledge my experience accords with that of my missionary brethren +regarding those with whom I have come ordinarily into contact. When I +have been speaking to a company of Hindus, and have apparently secured +their attention, I have been sorry to see a Mussulman coming up, as past +experience had prepared me for the immediate introduction of such +questions as the Trinity, the Sonship of Christ, His propitiatory +sacrifice, and not infrequently the eating of pork. I have done my best +to stave off such untimely discussion, and to keep to the subject I was +teaching, but in not a few instances my audience has been broken up by +the new-comer insisting on being heard. During my long missionary career +I have had many discussions with Muhammadans in public and in private, +in some cases conducted with a calmness and fairness which promised good +results; but in still more numerous cases with a readiness on their part +to resort to the veriest sophistry, and fly from one point to another, +and with a love of disputation which led to wrangling, and could +accomplish no good. The controversy between Christianity and +Muhammadanism has been carried on by the press as well as by oral +discussion. In this department the late Dr. Pffander, Sir William Muir, +and Mr. Hughes of Peshawur, have done excellent service. + +It might be supposed that as Muhammadanism is so near to Christianity +that it may almost be called a Christian heresy, and as we have in +consequence much common ground, we might expect to find its adherents +more accessible than Hindus to the Christian missionary. The opposite is +the case, furnishing another illustration of the fact that no +religionists are so antagonistic to each other as those who most nearly +approximate. At the present time all over the world, Popery, under the +conduct of the Jesuits, is far more hostile to Protestant missions than +any form of heathenism. + +It ought to be mentioned to the credit of Muhammadanism that it arose as +a protest against polytheism and the worship of idols. This protest it +has maintained down to our day. Not even a religious symbol is allowed +to appear in their places of worship, and hence the marked contrast +mosques present not only to Hindu temples, but to Christian churches. + +Muhammadanism is a proselytizing religion as well as Christianity. +During my Indian career I have heard of a convert now and then from +Hinduism in the North-West, and very occasionally one from Christianity; +but these accessions have been very few. In Bengal, on the other hand, +it appears that during the last thirty or forty years a great number of +low-caste people have been drawn into the Muhammadan ranks, many of them +small farmers, who think that by belonging to a large and influential +community they can the better contend with the landlords. It is said +that the change is simply one of name and ritual. + +The accessions from Muhammadanism to Christianity have been very few; +but some of the best converts in the North-West belong to this class. + +[Sidenote: HINDUS AND MUHAMMADANS IN CONTACT.] + +For centuries Hindus and Muhammadans have been near neighbours in India. +In the ordinary course of life they have had much intercourse with each +other, and have exerted a strong mutual influence, the Muhammadans, +especially of the lower class, having become in a measure Hinduized, +while the Hindus of the lower class have become, if I may use such a +word, in some degree Muhammadanized. I believe the stricter Muhammadans +are of pure Mogul and Pathan descent, while the more lax are the many +who at different times have been drawn or forced into Islam. Our +Muhammadan servants speak continually of their caste, have many Hindu +notions, and follow many Hindu practices. Low-caste Hindus, on the other +hand, are prominent in some Muhammadan processions. Both Muhammadans and +Hindus, as a rule, are satisfied with their respective position, as +assigned to them by Allah or Fate, have no repugnance to each other, and +no wish to disturb each other. + +So far, however, as Muhammadans and Hindus are imbued with their +respective systems they must be antagonistic; and their antagonism, +though generally latent, every now and then breaks out into fierce +strife, which but for the interposition of Government would lead to +civil war. Early in this century there was in Benares a pitched battle +between them, when they assailed each other with the utmost fury, and +were separated by military force. All have heard of a recent conflict in +Southern India, where blood was shed and property destroyed. About +thirty years ago Oude was threatened with the outbreak of a war between +the parties. There have been recently conflicts in Rohilkund on the +occasion of processions, which but for prompt interference would have +led to disastrous results. + +[Sidenote: MUHAMMADAN REFORMERS.] + +Of late years a reforming party has arisen among the Muhammadans with +both political and religious ends in view. This party painfully +realizes the loss incurred by their fellow-religionists on account of +their neglect of the English language, and their failure to accommodate +themselves to their new masters, thus allowing the Hindus to get in +advance of them. They consequently discourage exclusive attention to +Arabic and Persian literature, and advocate the cultivation of English. +A few of this class have come to England to prosecute their studies, but +for the many who must remain in their own land an institution has been +opened at Allygurh, in the North-West, in which provision is made for +imparting a liberal education. It cannot be expected that Indian +Muhammadans can have a strong liking to the English Government, but this +reforming party wishes to reconcile itself to the new order of things, +and to identify itself with our rule so far as the Quran permits. In +religious belief these reformers range from strict orthodoxy to rank +rationalism. Their leader is an able and ardent advocate of Islam, +though he has thrown off what he deems unauthorized and hurtful +accretions, and many of his followers no doubt agree with him. A +Bengalee Muhammadan, a graduate of Cambridge, has published a book +entitled "The Life of Muhammad," which is saturated with rationalistic +views. I cannot suppose he stands alone in his rationalism, but I have +no means of knowing to what extent his views are shared by others. The +whole party is the antipodes to the Wahabees, the extreme Puritans of +Islam, who aim at following strictly the instructions of the Quran and +the Traditions, and wage war to the knife against Christians and +idolaters. Between the Wahabees and the reformers there is a very +numerous party--it is supposed the great majority of Muhammadans--who +have little sympathy with the strictness of the former, but as little +with the looseness of the latter, who in their opinion are sacrificing +Islam to their ambitious and selfish views. Between the reformers and +those who cannot advance with them there has been sharp controversy, and +there is no prospect of its coming to an end. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THE PEOPLE AMONG WHOM WE LABOUR (Continued). + +HINDUS. + + +I have endeavoured in my account of Benares to describe the Hindu +idolatry there practised, and in my account of our missionary preaching +I have stated the arguments by which that idolatry is defended. The +Hindu system, it is well known, is at once pantheistic and polytheistic. +The universe, we are told, is God expanded. _Brahm_--he alone is the +Existent One; but there are several persons and objects in which he is +more manifest than in others, and as owing to _Maya_ (illusion) we +believe in our separate existence, it is fitting that to these objects +special honour should be paid. I have mentioned the hideous aspect of +the images worshipped at Benares, and their hideous aspect well accords +with the character attributed to the gods worshipped under these forms. + +[Sidenote: THE INFLUENCE OF HINDUISM ON CHARACTER.] + +We are all familiar with the maxim, Like priest, like people. May we +say, Like God, like worshipper? If so, we must regard the Hindus as in +the very mire of moral debasement. Just think of a whole people acting +like Shiva, Doorga, and Krishna! I think it cannot be doubted by any one +who looks at the nature of the human mind, and the power exercised over +it by its belief, that the worship of these and similar gods, along +with the prevalent pantheistic and fatalistic views, which strike at the +very root of moral distinctions, have done much to deprave the Hindu +mind. The people, indeed, often assert "to the powerful there is no +fault." The gods had the power and the opportunity to do what they did, +and therefore no fault attached to their conduct; but ordinary persons +have neither the one nor the other, and for them it would be very +culpable to pursue the same course. Can a people fail to occupy a low +place on the plane of morals to whom the maxim I have quoted would be +tolerable? I believe they do as a people occupy a low place, and yet not +nearly so low as might have been anticipated. + +There is much to counteract the influence exerted on the Hindus by the +evil example of their gods, by their excessive trust in outward rites +apart from all mental working, and by the pantheistic teaching of their +philosophers. They retain a moral nature, and acknowledge the +distinction between right and wrong as readily as we do, though the +distinction be inconsistent with the views they often express. The +requirements of society and of daily life exert a powerful and salutary +restraint by the obstacle which they present to a vicious career. The +family constitution has conferred immense benefit on the Hindus, as on +other nations. + +It must be acknowledged that however long we may reside in India, our +knowledge of the inner life of the people is very limited. We may be for +years on the best terms with them; we may meet them frequently, and +converse with them freely on all subjects; there may be not only +acquaintance, but to all appearance friendship: and yet we have no +entrance into the family circle, we cannot join them in the family +meal, we can scarcely get a glimpse into their home life. If they be of +the poorer class they would be shocked at our entering their houses, and +conversing with their women and children. If of a higher class, they +visit us and we visit them. They have a room of audience in which they +welcome us. On occasions they prepare sumptuous feasts for Europeans, of +which they themselves do not partake. However friendly we may be with +natives of rank in Northern India, it is difficult, often impossible, to +secure an interview between our wives and the female members of their +families. As to English gentlemen, they never see the face of a native +lady. Still, notwithstanding our being kept so far outside Hindu family +life, we know enough about it to be sure there is often strong family +affection. We have many proofs that parents regard their children with +the most tender love; and we know that in the lower classes, at least, +children often requite this love by sending a large portion of their +wages to their aged parents. I myself have often been the channel of +communication. It cannot be doubted that this family affection is widely +extended, and has a very happy influence on the character and life of +the people. + +[Sidenote: THE CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.] + +Professor Max Muller, in his recently-published book, "India, what can +it teach us?" discusses at length the character of the Hindus. He quotes +the views entertained by persons of large Indian experience, who had +mixed freely with all classes, and yet differ widely in their testimony, +showing that in forming an estimate of the character of a community we +are greatly influenced by our temperament and by the standard we employ. +Sir Thomas Munro, the famous Governor of Madras, speaks of the character +and attainments of the Hindus in the most laudatory terms. He says, "If +civilization is to become an article of trade between England and India, +I am convinced that England will gain by the import cargo." Sir Charles +Trevelyan, on the other hand, speaks of them as a morally depraved +people, to whom "the phenomenon is truly astonishing" "of a race of men +on whose word perfect confidence may be placed." "The natives require to +be taught rectitude of conduct much more than literature and science." + +The Professor is evidently inclined to take the favourable view. He +thinks the ordinary view of their falsehood and dishonesty is applicable +only to the rabble of the cities and the frequenters of our courts, but +is most unjust to the unsophisticated people of the country, whose +truthfulness he extols. After the laudation of these honest and truthful +people, I must say I was amused with the _naivete_ of the learned +Professor, when he goes on to show that the excellence of his _proteges_ +is not sufficiently strong to be maintained in the face of temptation. +He says, "A man out of his village community is out of his element and +under temptation. What would be called theft or robbery at home, is +called a raid or conquest if directed against distant villages; and what +would be falsehood or trickery in private life, is honoured by the name +of policy and diplomacy if successful against strangers." The lauded +truthfulness and honesty are so delicate that they cannot stand the +breath of the nipping cold which has to be encountered when they leave +their sheltered enclosure. The excellence is, according to the +Professor, though he does not say so in words, merely conventional, as +it rests on the principle of mutual insurance among those who form a +closely-knitted community, bound together by common interests and +associations. Even then excellence needs to be guarded by an oath, which +is viewed with superstitious awe. I do not think the Professor's friends +will thank him for this defence of the morality of their countrymen. + +When I think of the wickedness rampant among large classes in a country +like our own, notwithstanding our great privileges, I shrink from +applying to the Hindus the strong terms of condemnation which I have +often heard. There is among them, as I have already said, much family +affection; they are, in ordinary circumstances, very courteous; they +often manifest a kindly disposition; almsgiving is reckoned a high +virtue; many lead quiet, orderly, industrious lives; and, as Max Muller +tells us, from the earliest age _satya_, "truth," in its widest sense, +has been represented by them as the very pillar on which goodness rests, +though it must be allowed it has been much more praised than practised. + +[Sidenote: THE HINDU AND CHRISTIAN STANDARDS.] + +Am I then to say, as many have done, that Hinduism has done its +adherents no harm, and that Christianity has done its adherents no +good--that the Hindus as a people stand as high morally as we do? With +every desire to speak of them as favourably as I can, with a pleasing +recollection of many acts of kindness and courtesy, and with every +desire to rid myself of prejudice, I must dissent strongly from this +view. I cannot forget the lurid light cast on the native character +during the Mutiny; the treachery, ingratitude, falsehood, and cruelty +shown by many who gloried in their caste purity--relieved, however, it +is only right to acknowledge, by notable instances of faithfulness and +kindness. I cannot but remember the impression often made on my mind of +their low standard of character, the absence of high motive, even when +full expression has been given to the distinction between right and +wrong. Happily, in our land there are many, in every class of society, +who, as the result of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, hate sin in every +form, and strive after excellence, an excellence springing from supreme +love to God, and prompting to sustained effort for the good of man, for +which we look in vain among the best of Hindus, though among them we +discern the workings of conscience and the desire to do what is right. +The standard of character is undoubtedly far higher among us than it is +among Hindus, and this standard, protesting as it does against +wickedness, and calling us to aspire after goodness, is in itself an +incalculable benefit to a community. For many a day it has been my +settled conviction that Hindus are vastly better than, looking at their +religion, we could expect to find them, and that we on the other hand +fall far below the excellence to which our religion summons us. If +Hinduism was allowed full sway over its adherents society would go to +pieces, while we should rise to the excellence of angels if we were to +come under the full sway of the Gospel. + +All have heard of the caste system of India, but only those who have +lived among the people can understand its innumerable ramifications and +its remarkable effects. Every caste, down to the lowest, is endlessly +sub-divided. There are Brahmans who would as soon eat, drink, and +intermarry with people of low caste, as with many who like themselves +boast of Brahmanical blood. In books the Sudras are described as the +fourth, the low, servile caste; but in fact a vast number in Northern +India, who are loosely reckoned Hindus, are far below the Sudras, and +thus the Sudras acquire a relatively high place. These low-caste +people, on whom the people above them look down with contempt, are in +their own fashion as tenacious of caste as their superiors, and they, +too, multiply their divisions, one class maintaining its superiority to +others. We have a large community called _Chumars_, "leather-people" as +the word means, though many of them have nothing to do with leather. One +of them once told me there were twelve divisions in their caste. We had +near us at Ranee Khet a little colony of Dhobees, washermen, whom I +visited now and then. I observed some huts were built separate from the +rest, and I asked the reason. The man to whom I was speaking, for his +class an intelligent man, expressed his surprise I did not know the +reason. He said, with an air of dignity, "These are of an inferior +order, and it is requisite their huts should be built apart." + +It has been often shown that this caste system is most baleful. It +narrows the sympathies of the people, keeps them in the same groove, +fetters their minds, represses individuality, and is a bar to progress. +It would be unfair, however, to say that all its consequences are +pernicious. It so far benefits those bound by it that it restrains them +from some forms of evil, and secures mutual helpfulness, just as the +close trade guilds of our own country did, of which we have happily got +rid. When the clan system was in full force among the Scotch +Highlanders, there were broken men, men who had left the clan or were +expelled from it, and these were notorious for their crimes. In like +manner there are persons who break away from caste, and are the worst +members of the community. + +The patriarchal system, the system so prevalent in India, by which the +people, instead of forming separate families in their separate +dwellings, all form one household, to a large extent with a common purse +and under a common rule, is perhaps still more fitted to fetter the mind +and to obstruct progress than even caste itself. Those who have embraced +Christ as their Saviour have often suffered more from their own kindred, +dwelling together, than from their caste brethren. + +[Sidenote: THE DISINTEGRATION OF CASTE.] + +Many things tend to the disintegration of caste, such as education, the +subjection of all to the same laws, the growing demands of commerce, and +travelling together in railway-carriages. The attractions of the +railway, notwithstanding its disregard of class distinctions, are +irresistible. Thousands of pilgrims thus make their way to distant +shrines, though by travelling in this easy fashion they lose the merit +which suffering would bring. When railways were constructed, a proposal +was made by leading Hindus to have separate carriages for separate +castes, but compliance with the proposal was of course out of the +question; and now high Brahmans and low Chumars--who are never seen in +the same temple even though they worship the same gods, as the presence +of a Chumar there would be deemed a profanation--may be seen packed in +the same carriage in as close contact as two human beings can be. When +they separate the Brahmans have recourse to lustrations, and satisfy +themselves the impurity has been washed away. + +In the great Presidency cities caste is no doubt greatly weakened. Many +openly violate its rules, and are never called to account, but these +very persons take care to maintain their caste position for certain +domestic and social purposes. Leaving these cities and a small class +scattered over the country, the mass of the people seem as much bound by +caste as they ever were, so far as its outward requirements are +concerned, though, as I have said, there are no doubt influences widely +spread which tend to its relaxation. This is the case in Northern India, +at any rate. + +Much has been said about the Brahmist movement. The number of its +professed adherents is very small, but many of the educated class are +imbued with its spirit. Years ago branches of the Brahmist Sumaj were +formed in the great cities of the North-West by young Bengalees employed +in the public offices. For a time their services were kept up zealously, +but soon they declined. The last time I heard about these communities +most had ceased to exist, and only two or three had any sign of +vitality. So far as I have learned, the Brahmists have had very few +adherents from the Hindus of the North-West. At first sight Brahmism +seems an advance towards the Gospel, and a preparation for its +reception, but the best of our native Christians in Calcutta look on it +as furnishing a welcome abode to those who cannot remain Hindus, and yet +for various reasons refuse to embrace Christ as their Lord and Saviour. +Its avowed hostility to definite doctrine, to what is denounced as +dogma, the dreamy sentimentalism characteristic of the system, the +ignoring to a great extent of the terrible facts of man's depravity and +guilt, and the coquetting with Vedism, do little towards bringing its +adherents to the feet of Jesus. The Brahmists used at one time to taunt +us with our divisions, but for a long time they have had two separate +Sumajes, composed respectively of Conservatives and Liberals. In +consequence of Chunder Sen's Hindu proclivities in his later years, the +Liberals became divided among themselves, the majority having seceded, +while a few remained his devoted followers, who are likely to settle +down into a Hindu sect, tinged with Christian thought and feeling. + +[Sidenote: HINDU REFORMERS.] + +From time to time reformers have appeared among the Hindus. Gautam, the +Sakya Saint, was one of the earliest and greatest of the class. +Successive reformers have had a great following, but the stream has not +risen above its source. From Gautam downward some fundamental principles +of Hinduism have been retained, and in the end these principles have +asserted much of their former sway. This threatens to be the case with +Brahmism. Notwithstanding its assertion of the Divine Unity, it has a +strong pantheistic tinge, and already we see its effect. As it has +arisen in a measure as the result of Christian teaching, and among a +people to whom the Gospel is made known, it may be hoped that many, +influenced by it, may travel upward to the light, instead of turning to +the darkness from which they have emerged. + +Increasing effort has been put forth in late years for the menial and +spiritual improvement of the female portion of the population. From the +commencement of missions, the wives of missionaries have bestowed much +labour on the women and girls to whom they could find access. These have +been well-nigh exclusively either Christians, or of the lower class of +society. Very occasionally individuals of a higher class come under +Christian teaching. A daughter of the late Rajah of Coorg, a state +prisoner at Benares, was for a time under the tuition of Mrs. Kennedy. +She was brought daily to our house, sat with us at table, and was taught +with our children. The Rajah wished her to be brought up as a Christian +and an English lady, in the hope that he might thus be helped in getting +back his kingdom. Eventually she was brought to England, was baptized +by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Queen standing sponsor, and was +married to an English officer. She survived her marriage a very short +time. This was altogether an exceptional case. It has been most +difficult for the wives of missionaries to obtain even an occasional +interview with native ladies, as I have already intimated, though their +husbands have been our frequent and friendly visitors. From the Reports +of Zenana Missions we learn that of late years access has been obtained +to many native families which had till recently been excluded from all +Christian, and, indeed, from all European influence. The lady physician +is often welcome where the ordinary teacher can find no entrance. In a +city like Benares--and I suppose it is the same elsewhere--except for +the lady physician in her professional capacity, and only rarely even in +that capacity, the door of the Zenanas in the houses of the great +magnates continues shut against all who would seek to awake and guide +the dormant minds there. + +[Sidenote: THE POSITION OF WOMAN AMONG THE HINDUS.] + +Nothing can be conceived more deplorable than the condition of the +ladies of India, living, as the phrase is, behind the curtain. They are, +as a rule, utterly uneducated, know nothing of books, are shut out from +the world, and have no refuge from _ennui_ in such employments as +needlework, knitting, and embroidery, for which the nimble fingers of +the sisterhood are so well adapted. They have no society beyond the +women of the household, their husbands and their children. An occasional +glimpse has been got by our ladies into their state, and, as might have +been expected, their minds have been found utterly childish and dwarfed. +Happily for themselves the vast majority of the women of the country +are under no such bondage. Their husbands cannot afford to curtain them. +They move about freely as they do in our country, only with the hood +ready to come down over the face. They are seen in the streets of +Benares as they are seen in the streets of our own towns. + +All have heard of the low view of woman entertained in India, and of the +humiliating customs to which she is subjected; but nature asserts itself +there as elsewhere, and notwithstanding all the inferiority with which +she is charged, she exercises a profound influence on the male portion +of the community. This is recognized by the people always saying, _Ma, +Bap_--Mother, Father--not _Father and Mother_, as we say. It is well +known that in the large households of which I have spoken the dowager +lady is the supreme ruler, often the tyrant--not the less a tyrant +because in her youth she had been treated as a slave. The state of +widows, many of them mere children, is sad indeed. + +Shut out though we be to a large extent from native families, we have +many proofs presented to us of the power of female influence, a power +often most perniciously exerted, as it is the power of ignorance and +superstition, a power opposed to all intellectual and spiritual +progress. The devout women of India are often our most formidable +enemies, as they were of Paul in Antioch in Pisidia, and no doubt in +other places. Some of our converts have known from painful experience +what their opposition to the Gospel is, and it cannot be doubted that +many have been prevented from joining us by the pressure brought to bear +on them by their mothers, wives, and sisters. Well may every friend of +India pray earnestly that Zenana Missions may be crowned with success. + +A returned missionary is often asked what are the prospects of missions. +From careful and trustworthy statistics we learn the number of +Christians is increasing rapidly. It is right to observe that this +increase has come mainly from the non-Aryan tribes, and people of low +caste. We have valuable converts from the higher castes, but they are +few. When we leave statistics we have recourse to impression, and that +impression depends greatly on circumstances, and still more, perhaps, on +the temperament of the observer. It is very difficult to gauge public +opinion. When we think of all the influences at work, such as education, +both primary and more advanced, Christian literature, missionary effort +in many forms, railway travelling, commerce, and a Government bent on +doing justice, we look forward with hope to an awaking of the Hindu +mind, under which it will seek and embrace the highest good. + +[Sidenote: OBSTACLES TO CONVERSION.] + +The obstacles to success are most formidable, so formidable that, +notwithstanding promising appearances, we should despair if we were not +assured that the work is of God. The literature of our own country is +strengthening the opposition to us. The unbelief of many educated +natives, an unbelief springing both from repugnance to the Gospel and +from dread of the sacrifices to which its acceptance would subject them, +is fortified by the perusal of sceptical books and periodicals. Years +ago I met a Bengalee far up in the mountains, who told me I need not +speak to him about Christianity, for all reasonable people in England +were abandoning it. In proof he put into my hands a letter from +Professor Newman in answer to a letter he had sent to him. The Professor +counselled his correspondent to worship God as his conscience and reason +directed him, and to keep apart from the Christian Church. + +Notwithstanding these obstacles to the reception of the Gospel, there +are persons to whom it has come with a Divine sanction, but who are so +bound by family and social ties that they do not avow their faith. +Striking instances of this failure to act in accordance with conviction +have come under my observation. I mention only one. I once had an +interview with a dying young Hindu, who had been taught in a mission +school and was well acquainted with the Gospel. With tears in his eyes +he said all his trust for salvation was in the Lord Jesus Christ, and +that he knew it was his duty to avow his faith, but he could not, for if +he did his relatives would one and all abandon him. He seemed to dread +any one but myself hearing the confession of his faith. I have known +others who have had a strong drawing to the Saviour, but they have +stifled their convictions, and have become, as I remember with sadness, +bitter foes of the truth. Let only the tide set in in favour of +Christianity, and many, I doubt not, will be ready to flow with it. + +It ought ever to be remembered that in India we have a vast population. +In the North-Western Provinces and Punjab alone there is a population +twice as large as that of Great Britain and Ireland. Those of this +population who may be said to be educated in a high degree are the +merest handful. You travel hundreds of miles through regions full of +towns, villages, and hamlets, where you find that the partially educated +are very few compared with the wholly uneducated many. Even most of the +shopkeepers who can keep accounts well are unable to read a book with +ease, as the written and printed characters are very different. All know +that their English rulers are called Christians; those who live near the +great lines of road hear an occasional address from a passing +missionary, many frequenters of melas have come under the sound of the +Gospel, but the vast majority have not the slightest conception of its +meaning. When Christianity had spread to a considerable extent in the +Roman Empire, country districts were so little affected by it that +_pagani_ (villagers) became soon synonymous with "heathen," the only +meaning which attaches to the word as it is now used by us. A vast work +has to be done before the villagers of Northern India cease to be pagans +in our sense of the word. The work of evangelization is only in its +initial stage. It is yet with us the day of small things--but it is the +day, not the night. The morning has dawned; over a great part of +Northern India we can only see the faint streaks of the coming day, but +the light will spread, the darkness will vanish, and the millions of +that great country will yet be gladdened by the beams of the Sun of +Righteousness. + +I mention, and merely mention, help which India gives for the solution +of some great questions:-- + +(1) _The immobility of the Eastern mind._ In manner of life, in +salutations, in offerings of inferiors to superiors, in many customs, +the far East, like the nearer East, continually reminds us of the East +as presented in the records of antiquity--above all as presented to us +in the Bible. He must be a very careless observer who has not been +struck with the resemblance. The restless changing West furnishes in +this respect a striking contrast to the staid, unchanging East. There +has been no such immobility as to religious opinion and practice. There, +as elsewhere, it holds true that man's mind never remains in one stay. +The Hindus of the present day speak of their Vedic ancestors with +profound reverence, but if they were to rise from their graves and act +as they did when denizens of earth--kill cows, disregard caste, drink +largely of the intoxicating juice of the som plant, and worship in an +entirely different manner--their reverence would turn into horror and +detestation. We cannot say that the modern Puranas do not rest in any +degree on the Vedas; some Vedic principles are manifest in them: but in +the gods they set forth for worship and in the practices they enjoin, +there is between them and the Vedas a marked diversity. The numerous +sects which have arisen from time to time among the Hindus show that +they too have had that measure of mental activity which has led to new +forms of thought and practice. + +[Sidenote: RETROGRESSION.] + +(2) _The genesis and evolution of religion._ In the dim remote past to +which the Vedas introduce us, we find the Hindus a religious, a very +religious, people. There is no indication of any period when they could +be called secularists. Their religious views and practices have changed, +there has been an evolving process; the connection may be traced, and we +see the result in the Puranic system of our day. Has this movement been +forward, or backward? Has the fittest survived and the weak and useless +perished? The Vedic system little deserves the praise often lavished on +it, but surely it is preferable to that which has taken its place. There +has been deterioration, not improvement. Has not this ever been the case +in reference to religion, so far as the working of the human mind is +concerned? Is not modern Buddhism a falling off from ancient Buddhism? +Does not Rabbinical Judaism belittle and dwarf Old Testament Judaism? +Does not Roman Catholic Christianity materialize New Testament +Christianity? The facts of man's religious history prove incontestably +that his constant tendency is towards retrogression, not towards +advancement. + +[Sidenote: THE BIBLE AND THE HINDU SCRIPTURES.] + +(3) _Comparative religion._ On this subject elaborate treatises have +been written with the object of proving that all religions have had +their origin in the human mind, and have been evolved under purely human +conditions. Some of the writers, prompted, we may hope, by a devout +feeling, allow in vague terms an influence exerted on the evolution by +Providential arrangements. Still, in the result we are not to see in any +case the effect of a supernatural revelation, but in all cases an +approximation in different degrees to truth, secured by the unaided +working of the human mind. Does a comparison between the sacred books of +the Hindus and the Bible support this view? Listen to a Sanscrit +specialist like Professor Max Mueller, who has spent years in the study +of the Veda, and who has every conceivable motive to say everything he +can on its behalf: "That the Veda is full of childish, silly, even to +our mind monstrous conceptions, who would deny? But even these +monstrosities are interesting and instructive. I could not even answer +the question, if you were to ask it, whether the religion of the Veda +was polytheistic or monotheistic. Monotheistic in the usual sense of the +word it is decidedly not." The dreamy, vague teaching of the Veda has +hardened into the unmistakable polytheism and pantheism of modern +Hinduism. In no country in the world has mind been more active than in +India; in no country have the learned had such abundant leisure, such +full opportunity for quiet, sustained thought--and you see the result. +We follow with deep interest and sympathy the straining of these minds +to understand themselves and the world around; as they grope after God +we find they occasionally obtain a glimpse of the highest truth, but +the darkness, though for the moment relieved, is not dispelled. The +truth has continued to elude them. They have not arrived at the +knowledge of even the first principles of a theology worthy of God, and +fitted to direct, purify, and guide man. Excellent, high-toned +sentiments are no doubt found in Hindu writings, but these do not alter +their general character. The Bible, by its teaching regarding God and +man, above all by its record of the peerless excellence of our Lord +Jesus Christ, and of the provision made through Him for the supply of +man's deepest wants, presents a marvellous contrast to the Veda, to the +great epic poems of the Hindus, to their philosophical treatises and +their Puranas. I know a good deal of what has been said to show that the +characteristics of the Bible may be accounted for on merely human +principles, but the certain facts of the case refute, to my mind, the +arguments adduced. Max Mueller says in one of his writings--I cannot +quote his exact words--that we are not to look in the songs of the Veda +for anything so advanced as we find in the Psalter. Why not? Had not the +Pundits of India far more cultured minds than David and the hymnists of +Israel? Their works are different, for their teaching came from +different sources. One benefit I have got from my residence in India, a +conviction deepened by every successive glimpse into Hindu teaching and +practice: that in the Bible we have a supernatural revelation of God's +will, and that in building on it we are building on a rock which cannot +be shaken. + +(4) _The migration of nations._ Few things in the history of the world +are more surprising to us than whole nations making their way to new and +remote countries. I have thought I have got a little help towards +understanding these movements when I have observed large bands of +people--men, women, and children--pursuing their journey, carrying with +them all they deemed necessary, and lying out at night on the bare +ground, with a blanket, which they had carried over their shoulder, as +their only covering. They took food with them when they knew that at +their halting-place it could not be procured. Very differently do our +native regiments travel. They are attended by a host of camp-followers, +and have a formidable amount of baggage. I once saw a party of woodmen +in the hills sleeping under a tree when there was frost on the ground; +and on the remark being made it was a wonder they could live, a hillman +remarked, "Has not each got his blanket? What hardship is there?" When +nations migrated they no doubt sent out scouring parties, who seized all +the food on which they could lay their hands. When travelling alone in +the hills I had commonly with me a tent so small that a man carried it +on his head, but I must acknowledge I could not approach the simplicity +of the native traveller's arrangements. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +EUROPEANS IN INDIA. + + +The climate of India precludes the possibility of its being a sphere for +European colonization. With the exception of the hill districts, the +intense heat during the greater part of the year makes out-door +occupation trying even to the native, and well-nigh unendurable for +Europeans--a heat uncompensated by the coolness of the night, for in the +North-West, at least, the stifling closeness of the night is more trying +than the heat of the day. If this heat lasted for only a few days, as in +Southern Australia, it might be borne, though a hindrance to work; but +in India it lasts for months, and it is succeeded by months of drenching +rain, during a great part of which the moisture and mugginess are as +unpleasant as the previous dry heat had been. + +Apart from climate, there is no room for us as colonists. In India we +have not to do with rude tribes, as in America, New Zealand, and +Australia, and in a measure in Southern Africa, that cannot be said to +possess the land over which they and their fathers have long roamed, or +of which they have cultivated a very small part. We have to do with +ancient nations that have taken full possession of the land by +cultivation of the soil, and by pursuit of the arts of civilized life. +We find in India no tribes wasting away before the white stranger, but +a people growing in number under the security of our government. There +are districts in the North-West more densely peopled than any districts +in Europe occupied by an agricultural population. The emigration of +coolies to the Mauritius, to Bourbon, to the coast of South America, and +to the West Indian Islands, has done little to relieve the pressure. +Migration to unoccupied parts of Central India and Assam has been +carried out to a small extent, and it is very desirable this migration +should increase. Non-Aryan tribes occupy a large part of the mountains +and forests of Central and Eastern India. They have no wish for +accession from the people of the plains, and still less do they wish for +the entrance of Europeans. I can say nothing about the mountains of the +South, but so far as I have travelled over the sub-Himalayan range in +the North there is no place for Europeans in it, except for officials or +employers, and managers of native labour, such as tea-planters. + +While India presents no sphere for European colonization, it presents an +increasingly wide field for European agency in the civil and military +services, in the departments of education, commerce, manufacture--for +instance, of cotton goods, railways, indigo, and tea. In these different +departments Europeans are in constant intercourse with natives of every +class from the highest to the lowest. There is often much pleasant and +courteous intercourse between them; but in language, habits, religion, +in almost everything in which human beings can be separated from their +fellows, they are so different that they remain to a great degree +strangers to each other, however kindly may be their mutual feeling. +English people never call India "home," though they may have lived in it +the greater part of their life. This name is always reserved for our +fatherland. (I had better say that the term English, as used in India, +includes all from Great Britain and Ireland, and to them also the term +European is mainly, though not exclusively, applied.) I have heard +persons of pure English descent, who had never been out of India, speak +of England as "home." The reservation of the word to the land from which +we have gone, indicates the fact that in India we are strangers, and +cannot cease to be strangers. Colonists in America and other lands may +make a similar reservation; but living as they do among their own +people, in a country which they expect to be the home of their +descendants, the term as applied to England is deprived of much of its +endearing force. + +[Sidenote: EUROPEAN AND NATIVE INTERCOURSE.] + +In the great Presidency cities, and in a less degree in other cities +throughout the country, we have a large educated class of natives, who +are well acquainted with our language and literature. They have pursued +their studies in the hope of securing good situations, and this hope is +in a large measure realized. They are found all over Northern India +occupying responsible and well-paid positions. Many persons of this +class come daily into close intercourse with Europeans in the discharge +of their duties, and have means of knowing them which no other class +possesses. The intercourse is generally courteous, in not a few cases +friendly, and they talk freely with each other on a great variety of +subjects. There is, however, not infrequently an underfeeling with +educated natives that they are not sufficiently appreciated--that they +do not get the place due to them--that they are treated as an inferior +race; and there is consequently a suspiciousness fatal to cordiality. I +am far from thinking that Europeans always treat educated natives with +the courtesy due to them. I have known instances of marked discourtesy; +but I am sure many of our people are bent on treating them with all +justice and kindness, and sometimes, at least, this friendly feeling has +not been reciprocated. Human nature being what it is, however much we +may regret, we need not wonder at the grating between parties that have +so much in common, and yet owing to that very circumstance have clashing +feelings and interests. + +Many native gentlemen, some of the highest rank, cultivate European +society, and every European who has anything of the gentleman in him +treats them with the courtesy due to their position. Natives of this +class are, as a rule, most gentlemanly in their demeanour, and +intercourse with them is very pleasant. + +[Sidenote: THE FAITHFULNESS OF SERVANTS.] + +Between Europeans and most natives with whom they have to do, there is +such a difference of station there is no room for jealousy. To some +Europeans they stand in the relation of agents, clerks, and labourers; +to a greater number in the relation of servants. In India, as in our own +country, there is a great variety in the character of both masters and +servants. There, as here, there are hard, selfish, unreasonable masters +and mistresses, and there are undoubtedly bad, false, dishonest +servants; but I have no hesitation in giving my impression--I may say +stating my belief--that native servants are generally well treated, and +that this treatment draws forth no small degree of gratitude and +attachment. This was strikingly shown in the Mutiny period. Servants +often remain for years with the same masters, render most useful and +faithful service; their wages are continued in whole or in part during +the temporary absence of their masters from India; on their return they +are found waiting for them at the port of debarkation, and on final +departure for Europe it is not unusual for old Indians to pension those +who have been faithful to them. When I speak of faithfulness, I do not +mean that, with the exception of very rare cases, full dependence can be +placed on their truthfulness, or even on their honesty in the strict +sense of the term. It is very difficult for them to resist the +temptation to tell a lie, when a fault is to be screened or benefit to +be obtained, and there are certain understood perquisites of which they +are inclined to avail themselves in too liberal a degree; but they are +at the same time very careful to guard the property of their master +against all others, and are deeply concerned for the honour of his name. +As a rule natives, both servants and others, are treated with less +justice and kindness by the lower class of Europeans than by persons +better educated and of a higher position. There are indeed soldiers and +others who look on "niggers," as they call all natives, with contempt, +and are inclined to abuse them, so far as they are permitted, to the +full bent of their rude nature. The term "nigger" is used by some who +call themselves gentlemen. All I can say of such gentlemen is that I +wish they would speak in a manner worthy of the name. + +Of late years the position of Englishmen in India has greatly changed. +By the overland route, and by the weekly postal communication, England +and India are brought near to each other in a degree which could not +have been deemed possible in former days. Persons on leave for three +months can now spend a month or five weeks with their friends in +England, and at the end of their leave be ready to resume their duties. +Every week a stream of literature, in the shape of newspapers, +periodicals, and books, is poured over every part of India, reaching +the European in the most remote part of the land. Hill stations have +become very accessible by rail, and to these Europeans betake themselves +in great numbers for the hot months. All these things give greater force +than ever to the home feeling, by strengthening home sympathies and +ties. The result is our people in India are birds of passage as they +never were before, ready to return to their own land as soon as +circumstances will allow them. + +There are some advantages from this altered state of things. Many of the +early residents became, to their own deep injury, too intimate with the +people of the land. They learned their ways, and became like them in +character. It was often said, when the Mutiny broke out, that the +officers of native regiments had in former days maintained friendly +intercourse with the Sepoys, and thus secured their attachment, and that +the cessation, or at least the lessening, of this intercourse was one +great cause of the outbreak. If good resulted from it in the weakening +of national antipathy, in many cases evil resulted from it in the +deterioration of character. Many of our countrymen at an early period +formed native connections, and by doing so brought themselves down to +the level of their new friends. Some became so entangled that they gave +up all thought of returning to their own country. It must not be +supposed that all who settled down in India for life were of this +character. Some who had kept themselves aloof from all improper +connection with natives became so attached to India and to the mode of +living there, that they made it their permanent abode. A few of this +class remain, but their number is rapidly decreasing, and none are +taking their place. The persons who have thus made India their home +have often had a large circle of attached native friends. + +The constant communication of Englishmen with their native land, +frequent visits to it, and the anticipation of getting away from India +at the earliest possible period, tends to lessen their interest in +Indian affairs, and weaken their sympathy with the native population. +The closer connexion with England is, however, attended with some +advantages. It can be confidently affirmed that many of our countrymen +in India are bent on promoting the good of the people with whom they +come into contact, and strive to perform their duties faithfully. We may +hope that home influence may strengthen them for the more efficient +discharge of their work, and may thus prove a benefit to the people. + +[Sidenote: IMPROVEMENT OF EUROPEAN SOCIETY.] + +In many respects there has been a marked improvement in European +society. The small house near the large one, significantly called the +Zenana, is never seen near the houses of recent erection. Even in the +smaller stations there are places for Christian worship, where Europeans +meet on the Lord's Day, when some official reads the prayers of the +Church of England, and, if he be a zealous man, a sermon. A chaplain +pays occasional visits to these places. The attendance on public worship +is far from being what it ought to be, and we have much reason to fear +it is often very formal; but it furnishes a pleasing contrast to the +neglect which formerly prevailed. Along with this church-going there is, +no doubt, a great deal of unbelief in India. I have already said we have +in India Christians who are earnest for the honour of their Lord, and do +all they can to promote His cause; but the greater number of our people +are not, and have never been, friendly to the propagation of the +Gospel. I am afraid the unfriendliness has been increased by the +sceptical tone of much of the literature of the day. I have known +gentlemen giving to their native subordinates for perusal periodicals +and books which could only lead them to the conclusion that Christianity +was dying out in England. + +There are, happily, counteracting influences. Christian as well as +sceptical literature makes its way to India, and is telling on many +minds. And then, at our larger stations, where Europeans and Eurasians +are in the greatest number, more is done for their spiritual benefit +than at any previous period. Well may every Christian heartily desire +success to all such effort, for nothing would do more to bring the +people of the land to the feet of Jesus than the prevalence of living +godliness among our own countrymen. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. + + +The first question which comes before us when considering the government +of India is, What right have we to govern it? For an answer to this +question we must betake ourselves to the history of our connexion with +India. This history cannot have for us the interest and fascination of +the history of our own country; but it has strong claims on us as the +subjects of the British Crown, contains much that deserves and repays +perusal, and must be known by us in order to the right understanding of +the position we have obtained. + +My reading of Indian history leads me to the conclusion that in all +likelihood we should never have been rulers in India had we not been +grievously injured as traders, in violation of rights accorded to us by +the native powers. All know the story of the black hole of Calcutta, +which led to our waging war on the Nawab. We had previously fought with +the French and French allies in the south, we had contended with other +European rivals, but our rule began with the victory of Plassey. After +that victory our only alternative was either to leave the country +altogether, or to go on conquering till we should become the supreme +power over the whole of the continent. If we had retired from the land +we had conquered, and had sought to remain as traders, our retirement +would have been attributed to weakness, and demands would have been made +on us which would have made trading impossible. If we had determined not +to advance, but simply to retain what we had acquired, and had satisfied +ourselves with repelling attacks, these attacks would have been +continued till we had either gone forward, or resigned our conquest +altogether. + +We can understand the course pursued by the founders of the British +Empire in India only when we look on them as placed between the +alternative mentioned. The Directors of the East India Company did not +seek the government of India. They deprecated it. By it commerce was +disorganized and dividends lowered. Some of their servants in India made +enormous fortunes by the new state of things, but this was no comfort to +them. Order after order was sent out against the extension of territory. +Governor after governor was commissioned to carry out the peaceful views +of the home authorities, but still conquest went on under the direction +of these very governors. + +[Sidenote: THE POLICY OF THE MARQUESS OF HASTINGS.] + +I am far from vindicating all that was done; deeds were committed which +deserve severe condemnation; but it would be a travesty of history to +say that the governors, who set out with peaceful intentions, succumbed +to the lust of conquest. They were often forced to adopt war measures. +Many instances might be adduced. I give only one. The Marquess of +Hastings had denounced the conquering career of the Marquess of +Wellesley. He was selected for the very purpose of reversing his policy, +so far as it could be reversed. If any person could be trusted for +giving peace to India he was the man. Shortly after his arrival our +connexion with the Ghoorkhas, the ruling body in Nepal, became strained. +They made raids into our territory beneath the hills, and murdered and +robbed our subjects. The Marquess was extremely desirous to avoid a +rupture with them. Remonstrances were addressed to them, and proposals +made to settle differences by the better defining of the boundaries +between their country and ours. These proposals were regarded as a proof +of weakness, and the bold demand was made we should give up to them the +great fertile region north of the Ganges. There was no further +hesitation. To yield to this demand, for which there was not the pretext +of right, would have been to announce to all the potentates of India +that we were unable to defend ourselves, and would have led them to +assail us. War was declared, which, after two campaigns and a severe +struggle, ended in the discomfiture of the Ghoorkhas, and in their +cession to us of the large territory they had conquered a few years +previously. Ought the Governor-General to have yielded to the Ghoorkha +demand? Yes, if we were prepared to leave the country altogether, but +otherwise not. + +No sooner had the Marquess of Hastings landed in India than he began to +doubt the policy he had formerly advocated, and events soon compelled +him to abandon it. The policy on which he acted was declared by him in +unmistakable terms: "Our object in India ought to be to render the +British Government paramount in effect, if not declaredly so ... and to +oblige the other states to perform the two great feudal duties of +supporting our rule with all their forces, and submitting their mutual +differences to our arbitration." + +Till we became confessedly supreme we were not for any length of time +allowed to remain at peace. There were two main reasons for the unrest, +which prepared the way for war. One reason was that the native powers +hated and dreaded us, and were eager for our overthrow even when they +professed the greatest friendliness. When we were involved in +difficulties they were ready to rise against us. Every indication of our +desire to avoid hostilities was interpreted as a sign of weakness, and +thus became an incentive to the renewal of the struggle. Another reason +for the fresh outbreak of war was the treachery of the native princes. I +cannot say that in the matter of treaty keeping we had clean hands. The +gross deceit played on Omichund, as described by Macaulay in his Essay +on Lord Clive, stands nearly alone in our public conduct in India, but +other transactions have been unworthy of our character for high-minded +integrity. It may, however, be confidently affirmed, that looking at our +governing conduct as a whole, it presents by its faithfulness to +engagements a marked contrast to the conduct of those who had entered +into treaty with us. Many of our Indian wars would have been prevented +had there not been on their part the violation of engagements in a +manner which showed they never intended to keep them an hour longer than +they were compelled by circumstances. + +If a review of the course pursued by our people in India shows how we +became the governing power, and indicates the ground on which our rule +rests, a review of the history of India for ages previous to our advent, +and of the condition in which we found it, will help us greatly in +answering the question--Has India been benefited or injured by our +having seized the sceptre? + +[Sidenote: MUHAMMADAN RULE.] + +For centuries Muhammadans were the rulers of India. They entered, not +to avenge wrongs done to them, but as the servants of Allah, called to +put down idolatry, and entitled to rule over the nations they subdued. +Centuries elapsed before the extension of their rule beyond the +North-West region. Gradually it extended to other parts of India. The +seventeenth century was well advanced before the greater part of +Southern India came under the rule of the Emperor of Delhi--the +Shah-un-shah, King of kings, as he was called. His suzerainty was +generally acknowledged in those lands which continued under Hindu +rulers. + +As we turn over page after page of the Muhammadan rule in India, what +scenes of strife, of bloody war, of treachery, of desolated countries, +continually meet our view! No sooner did an emperor die than the +struggle commenced for the vacant throne between his many sons, brother +fighting with brother till one became the victor, and then woe to the +vanquished! The governors of Provinces, as soon as they thought they had +sufficient power, rebelled against the sovereign, and struggled--not +infrequently with success--to secure an independent throne. In the +course of these civil wars countries were overrun, towns and villages +levelled with the ground, their inhabitants massacred, and their +property pillaged. We read of rival dynasties which contended with each +other for empire. We are told of terrible invasions like those of Timour +and Nadir Shah. There were no doubt great emperors, such as the +illustrious Akbar, during whose rule India suffered comparatively little +from war, and enjoyed great prosperity. Governors were now and then firm +and just rulers. Looking at the whole period of Muhammadan rule, during +no part of which India was free from the scourge of war, and during a +great part of which war on a large scale was carried on, untold misery +must have been endured by many of its inhabitants, and there was little +security for life and property. The aristocracy of the emperors' courts +was mainly that of office, and only to a limited degree that of blood +and ancient possession. We find persons of mean birth rising to +greatness, and persons on the very pinnacle of honour cast down to the +ground. There was a succession of emperors called Slave Emperors, as +they had originally been slaves in the court, whence they rose to +supreme power. When we consider the teaching of the Quran respecting +those who do not submit to Islam, we may suppose what the condition of +the Hindus was under Muhammadan rulers, so far as they acted out their +principles. Happily during this period, though constantly exposed to +terrible disasters, the people in their villages were often left to +manage their own affairs. + +[Sidenote: THE REIGN OF ADVENTURERS.] + +When our nation commenced its conquering career in the middle of the +eighteenth century, the Muhammadan Empire was in a state of collapse. +Within thirteen years of Aurungzeb's death, in 1706, six sovereigns were +seated on the imperial throne. Shah Alum was nominal emperor from 1759 +to 1806, and all the time he was a wanderer, a prisoner, or a pensioner +of the Mahrattas, the Rohillas, or the English. He was as melancholy an +example of fallen greatness as can well be conceived, a greatness which +retained its title while its bearer was subjected to every indignity. He +had been for some time in the hands of the Mahrattas, who used his seal +freely, and at the same time treated him with the utmost cruelty. The +food supplied was so insufficient that he and his household were almost +starved. When Lord Lake took Delhi from the Mahrattas in 1803 he found +the poor old blind emperor under a tattered canopy, trembling at what +might now befall him. Some years previously his eyes had been gouged out +by one of his Rohilla keepers. At once he was treated by us with the +highest consideration. Power was not given, but a handsome pension was +assigned, and he was personally treated with all the honour due to a +reigning sovereign. When these facts are remembered, it is strange we +should be charged with overthrowing the Muhammadan Empire in India. +Whoever was injured by our conquest, Shah Alum and his family were +assuredly benefited. + +Our contention was with those whose only claim to rule rested on the +sword. Bold adventurers had risen everywhere, and were snatching at the +fallen sceptre. There were still emperors, as we have mentioned, and +their prestige gave value to documents bearing their seal, but they did +not retain a shred of power. Daring Europeans, helped by native allies, +had set to carving out principalities for themselves. The viziers and +nawabs that ruled in the name of the emperors rendered them neither +obedience nor tribute. Our first great battle was fought with Suraj ud +Dowla, the Nawab of Bengal, the grandson of Aliverdi Khan, an Afghan +adventurer, who had acquired the government of the country. In the South +we fought with Hyder Ali, a trooper who gathered under him a marauding +band, and by courage and craft rose to being a sovereign, and with his +son Tippoo Sahib. Our longest and most severe contests were with the +Mahrattas, a warlike tribe of Hindus in Western India, who came first +into prominence in the seventeenth century under Sivajee, a petty +chieftain, and gradually advanced under various leaders till they became +for a time the paramount power. Their hordes of horsemen scoured the +country in all directions, north and south, east and west, demanding +the _chauth_, the fourth part of the revenue, and returning to their +capitals laden with spoil. The leaders with whom we had most to do, +sometimes in the way of friendship, far more frequently in the way of +warfare, were the Peshwa, the head of the Mahratta confederacy, the heir +of Sivajee; Ranojee Bhonsla, a private horseman, who became Prince of +Nagpore; Pilajee Gaikwar, a cowherd, who ruled in Baroda; Ranojee +Scindia, a menial servant of the Peshwa, who made Gwalior his capital; +and Mulhar Rao Holkar, a shepherd, who became Maharajah of Indore. Not +one of their number professed to belong to the ancient ruling families +of India. + +As we glance at India as it was under Muhammadan rule, and consider its +state when our conquering career began, we find there were no elements +of stable government: the Imperial power had become a shadow; ambitious +leaders were everywhere striving for the mastery, ready to beat down all +opposition within their own immediate sphere, and then prepared to wrest +power from neighbouring chiefs. India had at that time a very dark +prospect before it. + +This review of the past history of India may seem an unduly long +introduction to a brief statement regarding its condition under our +rule, but it is only by looking to the past a right answer can be given +to the questions: What right have we to govern India? From what evils +has our government delivered it? What benefits have we conferred on its +population? Inattention to the past has led many to give in some cases +an utterly wrong, in other cases a very inadequate, answer to these +questions. It is clear that India has been brought under our rule by +what may be rightly called aggressive war only to a very limited +extent. It is also clear that the hostile forces we encountered were not +those of the ancient princes of the land, but of adventurers who were +struggling to rise on the ruins of the disorganized empire. At the +present time, on the mere ground of the length of possession, our rule +has a stronger claim than that of the potentates whom we overthrew. + +[Sidenote: THE ADVANTAGES OF BRITISH RULE.] + +A review of the past prepares us to see some of the advantages our rule +has conferred. No longer are armies marching over India, supplying their +wants by the plunder of its people, and leaving ruin in their track. No +longer has the husbandman, when he sees at a distance the dust raised by +the tramp of the Mahratta cavalry, to flee to his walled village, if he +has one to flee to, or to his hamlet if he cannot do better, leaving his +field, perhaps ready for the sickle, to be trodden down by the unwelcome +stranger. No longer are hosts of marauders like the Pindarees, who +scarcely professed to be anything else than marauders, allowed to roam +over fertile and populous regions in their robbing and murdering +expeditions. No longer are professional robbers called Dacoits allowed +to set out on excursions, and make their way under various disguises to +towns, to rise at an arranged signal, attack the houses of the rich, and +force them, often under torture, to reveal their treasures. No longer +are Thugs, professional murderers, left to arrange their plans for +insinuating themselves into the goodwill of travellers, with a view, +when the opportunity came, to throttling their victims, robbing them, +and then burying them, that all mark of their deeds might be effaced. +From Dacoity and Thuggery Europeans had nothing to fear, but natives +suffered frightfully; and special departments were formed for their +suppression. In Northern India, at least, these bands of robbers and +murderers have been broken up. No longer are the lives and property of +the people at the disposal of their rulers, as was to a large extent the +case previous to the British era. They are now under the aegis of law. + +If any one think that the advantages thus conferred by the establishment +of a stable government are of little value, all we can say is they have +no conception of the misery brought on thousands from generation to +generation, when these advantages were unknown. + +Never was a comparatively small nation entrusted with so vast a work as +that committed to us by our undertaking to administer the government of +a continent thousands of miles from our shores, inhabited by two hundred +and fifty-four millions, who differ widely from us in language, +religion, habits, history, associations--in almost everything in which +one nation can differ from another. Two hundred millions are under our +direct rule, and the rest are under native rulers who acknowledge our +Queen as suzerain. It would have been a miracle had we not in the course +of our government, during more than a hundred years, done many unwise, +many wrong, even many cruel things. He would be a bold man who would +stand forth and maintain we had done good, and only good, to the nations +of India. We take no such optimist position. You can adduce many things +in our dealings with the people which the best of the officials have +themselves condemned, and you can mention evils which have followed our +rule for which we can scarcely be said to be responsible. This, however, +we say with the fullest conviction, as the result of long residence in +India and of extensive observation: that considering our position as +Western strangers, and the difficulties with which we have had to +contend, our Government has had a success far greater than could have +been anticipated, and has conferred vast advantages on the country. + +[Sidenote: BRITISH ADMINISTRATORS.] + +It would be difficult to find in the history of the world a more +remarkable class of men than those who have been engaged in the +administration of India. There have been inefficient, selfish, idle, +unprincipled men among them. In former years we used to hear of John +Company's bad bargains; and now that India has come directly under the +rule of Queen Victoria we now and then hear of John Bull's bad bargains. +These have been the exception, not the rule. There has been in +succession a band of men who have earnestly sought the good of the +people, and have shown a capacity for administration which I have no +doubt surprised themselves, as it has those who have watched their +progress. Sir John Kaye has given interesting sketches of some Indian +worthies, but it would require a series of volumes to record the deeds +of the many who have taken a warm interest in the people, have toiled +for their good, and have been trusted, and in some instances literally +adored, by them. I have had a considerable acquaintance with the +_personnel_ of the Government of the North-West Provinces, from some +occupying the highest position down to assistant magistrates. I cannot +say I admired all, but I can say that I have been surprised at the +number who did their duty faithfully, were thoroughly interested in +their work, and rejoiced when they had achieved any measure of success. + +With a few exceptions the Governor-General has been an English nobleman +who has filled some important office at home; but Lieutenant-Governors, +and not infrequently Governors, have been persons of large Indian +experience, who have passed with honour through all the grades of the +Civil Service. These, assisted by the Commissioners of Provinces, +exercise a strict supervision over the entire administration. Officials +have continually to report their doings, and irregularities are quickly +discovered. We know of no class who have more onerous duties to +discharge than magistrates of districts and their subordinates. They +have long hours in crowded courts in an exhausting climate, decide many +intricate cases, maintain order within the bounds of their jurisdiction, +receive reports of what is being done and give directions, prepare +reports for the Government, and they are expected to give a courteous +reception to native gentlemen when they call, however long these +gentlemen may be inclined to prolong their visit. We have been at times +in a position to see the daily life of some of these men, and have been +struck with the amount of work devolving on them, and the patience they +have shown where there was strong temptation to impatience. + +[Sidenote: INCIDENTAL EVILS OF OUR RULE.] + +As strangers, it is difficult for us to understand the people, and the +result is that with the best intentions we have at times adopted +measures utterly unsuited to them. Our very attempt to secure the rights +of all classes by the careful drawing up of civil and criminal codes, +and by the institution of courts where they are administered, has +fostered the litigiousness of the people, and has led to a fearful +amount of perjury. Litigiousness got no play where courts did not exist, +and perjury could not show itself where witnesses were not examined. It +is said that in one of our most recent acquisitions, the Punjab, the +people have deteriorated under our rule. Runjeet Singh had no prisons. +Thieves caught in the act were maimed and allowed to go their way. +Murderers and other great offenders were at once put to death. We can +scarcely adopt this primitive mode of maintaining order, and by our +codes, courts, judges, and witnesses we have no doubt opened the door to +evils of which the Punjab knew nothing in Runjeet Singh's time. If the +early colonists of New York and Boston had retained their primitive +simplicity, those cities would not now be disgraced by the slums, with +their vice, crime, and misery, which make them too closely resemble the +cities of the old continent. When society makes progress, new, social, +and political, arrangements are indispensable, the countervailing good +being much greater than the incidental evils which come in their train. + +In India there are Regulation and Non-Regulation Provinces, the +Regulation Provinces being those which have been long under our rule, +and are subject to all our laws; and the Non-Regulation Provinces being +those to which our codes are only partially applied, and where much is +left to the discretion of the administrator. In the former the chief +offices belong to the regular Civil Service, while in the latter +military men as well as civilians are employed. Both classes have +furnished most able and capable men. + +[Sidenote: TAXATION.] + +Considering the resources of India its taxation is heavy. Our Government +pays its servants of every description, high and low, civil and +military, with a regularity utterly unknown under native rule, and the +income must in regularity keep pace with the outlay. When we read of +seventy millions as the expenditure, it must be remembered that what is +called the land-tax is really rent, for in India the land has always +been considered the property of the state. This is kept before the mind +of the people of Madras by the yearly assessment of the tenants, and +before the people of the North-Western Provinces by the new assessment +made every thirtieth year. By the perpetual settlement of Bengal, the +tax-collectors were at once raised to the position of landholders, of +which they have often taken undue advantage. It must also be remembered +that a considerable sum is expended on remunerative works, such as +canals and railways. The expenditure on the army is great. I cannot +conceive why our Government keeps up so large a native army. It would +appear to those who are outside the Government circle, that its +reduction would conduce to safety as well as to economy. The European +part of the army is comparatively very small, and it would be most +perilous to lessen it. Years before the Mutiny, Sir Henry Lawrence said +it was the backbone of our strength, and events proved how true his +remark was. Yet it is, and must continue to be, very expensive, like +every other form of European agency. The Mutiny among its other results +left behind it heavy pecuniary responsibilities, which have added to the +debt and led to increased taxation. Many are of opinion that the +amalgamation of the Royal and Indian armies was an unwise measure, and +has caused much unnecessary expense. Often complaints have been made +that successive home Governments, from their unchallenged control over +the affairs of India, have imposed an unjust burden on its resources by +keeping at home too large a force at its expense, and by undue charges +for stores sent out, as well as by making it pay sums which were more +properly due by the imperial exchequer. + +"The net land revenue has risen in the ten years beginning 1870-71 from +L20,335,678, or nearly half the total net revenue of L42,780,417, by +about two millions sterling, to L22,125,807, with a total net revenue of +L49,801,664. The gross revenue of the latter year, 1879-80, was +L68,484,666, the difference being derived from sources other than +taxation, such as the opium monopoly. The revenue of 1880-81 was +L72,920,000, and the gross expenditure L71,259,000. Including the land +revenue as land-tax, the 200 millions in the twelve Provinces of British +India pay about 4s. a head of imperial taxation, besides municipal or +local and provincial cesses, which purchase such local advantages as +roads, schools, police, and sanitary appliances. This incidence of +taxation varies from 5s. 6d. per head of the land-owning classes to 3s. +3d. for traders, 2s. for artisans, and 1s. 6d. for agricultural +labourers. The fiscal policy of the Government has of late been to +reduce the burden of the salt monopoly, which is a poll-tax, and to +abolish import duties. The 541/2 millions in the Native States pay only to +their own chiefs, who enjoy a net annual revenue of fourteen millions +sterling, and pay L700,000 as tribute, or less than the cost of the +military and political establishments maintained on their account" (Dr. +George Smith's "Geography of British India"). Deducting land-tax, opium, +railways, irrigations, post-office, and suchlike remunerative services, +the taxation is reduced to 2s. per head of population. + +If the European army in India be the backbone of our military sway, +European administrators are, I believe, the backbone of our government. +During the terrible years 1857 and 1858, the services rendered by those +who were engaged in civil employment were of the highest value in +restoring peace to the distracted country, and in re-establishing our +government. European officials of every grade showed equal zeal and +determination. There were many native officials in these Provinces, some +of them highly paid and greatly trusted. A few remained faithful and did +good service, though the help rendered, when summed up, cannot be +reckoned great. Many proved unfaithful, and some became our bitter +enemies. If instead of Englishmen as judges, magistrates, and +collectors, we had had at that time highly educated natives of Bengal +holding these offices, the men who receive for themselves the best +hearing in England, can we suppose that, however well inclined, they +could have borne the brunt of the contest, and aided largely in securing +the victory? It would ill become me to speak against these men. I know +some of the class for whom I have not only a high esteem but warm +affection. Among them there are not a few who are great in attainment, +keen in intellect, and strong in purpose to do the right. Still I do not +think they themselves would maintain they have the physical courage, the +firm mental calibre, the moral strength, and the high place in the +confidence of the community, which would qualify any of their number to +occupy the position of Governor-General, Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, +and Chief Commissioner, or would make it desirable they should form the +leading body of the administrative staff. The successful candidates for +the Civil Service have come, we believe, exclusively from the +highly-educated youth of the Presidency cities, between whom and the +millions of their own Provinces there is no such bond as unites the +so-called leaders of the Irish with the majority of their countrymen. In +the other countries of India they are little known, and are regarded +with no special interest. + +[Sidenote: HINDUSTANEES AND BENGALEES.] + +Many mistakes would be prevented if English people would remember that +we have in India nations differing widely from each other. We have a +striking illustration of this fact in the part of India in which we have +lived. Bengalees abound in the public offices in the North-West +Provinces and in the Punjab. They are deemed sharper in intellect, and +are better educated, than the Hindustanees, and on account of their +superior education they have got situations which would have been filled +by natives of the country, had their educational acquirements been +equal. These Bengalees are not strangers in these Provinces to the same +extent as Englishmen, but they are strangers, and are looked upon as +such by the people. Where they are numerous they keep mainly to +themselves, and however friendly they may be with Hindustanees they are +regarded as belonging to another country. When you meet them you know +them at once by their look, dress, language, and habits. A part of +Benares, called Bengalee Tola--Bengalee district--is inhabited almost +wholly by Bengalees, and when you enter it you feel you have come among +another people, who speak a different language and present a different +appearance. During the Mutiny they were regarded in the North-West with +suspicion, as half-English, and many were happy to seek shelter where we +were able to keep our footing. If the question was put in Hindustan +Proper to any large body of people--Would you have Bengalees or +Englishmen for your magistrates and judges? I think in most places the +well-nigh unanimous response would be, The Englishman. + +If my opinion is to rest on my own observation, I would confidently say +that notwithstanding the injustice and unkindness charged against some +English officials, the people generally have profound trust in our +justice--in our _insaf_--and as a rule, except when they think the +native partial to themselves, they prefer to have their cases tried +where an Englishman presides. When on a journey I once came up to two +men engaged in eager talk. I heard them use frequently the words, +_Ungrez_ and _Insaf_--_Englishmen_ and _Justice_--and on stopping I +heard the one telling the other of the bribes taken by native officials +in a case he had, and of the justice done when the Englishman took it +up. He ended with the words, "What a wonderful people for _insaf_ these +English are!" to which remark the other man assented. I thanked them for +their good opinion, and held on my way. + +If the administration of India in its present state must, in its chief +offices, remain in the hands of Europeans, it must be expensive. The +great officers of state, considering the dignity they have to maintain +and the establishments they have to keep, must be highly paid. When we +think of the qualifications required by those who are charged with the +ordinary administration, the great expense to which they are put, the +years they spend in laborious work in an exhausting climate, and their +unfitness as a rule for work in England on their retirement, I do not +think their income or pension can be to any large extent safely or +justly reduced. The era of nabobs, returning with vast wealth to +astonish the English people, has long since passed away. These men had +small pay, but great perquisites. The pay has been greatly increased, +but the perquisites are gone, and India has benefited vastly by the +change. + +Indian magistrates have much to tell of the litigiousness of the people, +their constant attempts to overreach each other, the carefully woven +lies which they have daily to unravel, the trust put in bribes to +influence decisions, and the deeply ingrained notion in the minds of +native officials that they should get more for their services to the +public than the bare pay, the _sookha tulub_--_dry wages_--as it is +contemptuously called. + +[Sidenote: THE POVERTY OF THE PEOPLE.] + +The people of Northern India are mainly agricultural, and they are +unquestionably poor. Our very success has in one aspect tended to their +impoverishment. With very few exceptions they marry young, and during +the many years of peace which have passed over them, with the exception +of the short sharp crisis of the Mutiny, the population has greatly +increased. Whenever an epidemic breaks out, means are at once employed +to check it. There is a vaccination department for the purpose of +preventing the ravages of small-pox. Female infanticide, which had +prevailed to a frightful extent among certain castes, has been +diminished, though not, it is feared, wholly suppressed. It is well +known that famines have been sadly destructive of life, but there is +evidence that previous to our rule, when there were few roads and little +communication between one part of India and another, famines were still +more so. Among so vast a population directly dependent on the soil, in a +country where rain is so indispensable, and is now and then a failure, +we have too much reason to fear famines may yet recur; but such +provision is now made against their ravages, that it is hoped the +catastrophes of the past will be escaped. + +It is believed that, as the result of the new order of things, India at +the present time has by many millions a larger population than it ever +had previously. Mention has been made of the improvement effected in +the Province of Kumaon; and other parts of India present instances of +equally successful administration, but the area of new cultivation has +not kept pace with the increase of population. It is sad that so many of +the people should be underfed. In our own country and in Ireland this +question of sufficient food for the entire population is one of the +pressing difficulties of the day. Much is within the power of people +themselves to improve their condition. We know it is so at home, and it +is so in India. There, there is a vast body of sturdy beggars, under the +guise of religious devotees, who feed on the people. Lending and +borrowing go on at a most hurtful rate. If a person finds himself +possessed of some twenty or thirty rupees, he either puts it into jewels +for the female members of his family, or lends it at an exorbitant rate +of interest. It has sometimes seemed as if creditors and debtors +included the entire population. Debt, not by law but by custom, is +hereditary, and a man is expected to pay the debts of his grand-parents. +Marriage expenses are so heavy, that very often a debt settles down on a +man on his marriage day under which he lies till the day of his death. +Government has done much to induce leading men to bind themselves to a +moderate expenditure on the occasion of marriages, in the hope that the +example might prevent the unreasonable and pernicious profusion of the +marriage season. If the habits of the people were changed the pressure +of poverty would be greatly lightened. + +[Sidenote: IMPROVEMENT.] + +There is much room for improvement in the incidence of taxation. The +land-tax, we may say the land-rent, is the main source of revenue, but +it is alarming to think of dependence on the opium monopoly for the +millions it contributes. Intoxicating drugs are largely used in India, +and among them opium holds the favourite place. Permission to the people +to grow and manufacture opium for themselves would be as hurtful as +permission to distil whiskey and gin would be to our country. It is +devoutly to be wished the present system may come to an end, and that in +its place a fiscal system be adopted similar to that of England in +reference to alcoholic drinks. In reference to spirits, every effort +should be made to discourage their sale, however much the revenue may +suffer in consequence. The salt-tax has been so productive that it has +been kept up in a manner which has borne heavily on the people. It has +been reduced, and it is hoped that it will be reduced still further. + +Regarding some of the questions at present much discussed, I can only +say that every friend of India, I may say every friend of justice, must +desire that the people be largely entrusted with the management of their +own affairs, that local government be encouraged, and every facility +given to the admission of natives, so far as they are qualified, into +the rank of administrators. Much is being done in this direction, and +still more will be done in the future. The police has been improved, but +it stands much in need of further improvement. + +Happy changes were expected from the assumption by the Queen of the +direct government of India. Progress has been made since that time, but +I do not think it is in any large measure owing to the change. For some +time previously increased attention was given to the sanitation of +towns, the improvement of roads, the laying out of market-places, the +planting of public gardens, the building of hospitals, dispensaries, and +town houses. Many wealthy natives, stirred up by magistrates, have +contributed liberally to these improvements. Of late years these works +have been carried on with increasing zeal. In 1877 we saw some of the +principal towns in Northern India, and were struck with the contrast +they presented to their condition during the early years of our +residence. The filthiest place in Benares, which almost sickened me +every time I came near it, is now a beautiful garden, with a fine +town-house attached to it. The very bulls of Benares have been got rid +of. No longer are these brutes encountered in the streets. + +My readers will observe that I am far from agreeing with those who +describe our rule in India as an unmixed blessing to its inhabitants. It +is undeniable that our rule, because foreign, lies under great +disadvantages. I am still farther removed from agreement with the +extremely pessimist views which are sometimes advanced. The history of +India rebuts the assertion that we have acquired our sovereignty mainly +by fraud; and whatever may be said of other parts of India, no one +acquainted with Bengal and the North-Western Provinces can say that he +has there seen "the awful spectacle of a country inhabited only by +officials and peasants." When one thinks of the atrocious crimes, upheld +by religious sanctions, such as suttee and infanticide, which we have +put down in the face of determined opposition and even threats of +rebellion from the most honoured classes of the community, it is strange +to be told that "before we went the people were religious, chaste, +sober, compassionate towards the helpless, and patient under suffering," +and that we have corrupted them. We are told that "while we have +conferred considerable advantages, the balance is wofully against us." +As the result of long residence in India, and of reading about India, I +have come to the conclusion the balance is immensely in our favour. + +[Sidenote: WHENCE IS IMPROVEMENT TO COME?] + +All friends of India desire the improvement of its government, and the +increasing welfare of its people. Whence is the improvement to come? We +are told "nothing is to be hoped for from the Indian official class." +From whom is anything to be hoped for? From the Home Government? The +leaders of our political parties have passed measures beneficial to +India, but they have again and again taken advantage of its helplessness +to impose on it burdens to which it ought not to have been subjected. +Are we to look to the people at home for relief? How difficult is it to +secure attention to the subject, or to make them understand it when +their attention is gained! Are we to look to the non-official class in +India? I have nothing to say about the Ilbert Jurisdiction Bill, except +that while officials have been divided about it, many of the most +eminent being in its favour, non-officials almost to a man have been +bitterly opposed to it. Where I have spent the greater part of my life, +nothing has been more common than complaints by Europeans of injustice +done to them by partiality shown to natives at their expense. Are we to +look to the great landholders, bankers, merchants, shopkeepers, and +well-to-do classes in the cities of Bengal and the North-West, who have +benefited most by our rule? What may be expected from them is +illustrated by the fact that when the finances were thrown by the Mutiny +into confusion, many protested against an income tax, and some of high +position proposed that the finances should be rectified by an increase +of the salt-tax! In these influential classes there are high-minded and +benevolent individuals, but if we look at them in their collective +capacity we shall be disappointed. When we look at the long roll of +distinguished Indian officials, mark their achievements, hear their +protests against what they deemed hurtful measures, and their advocacy +of beneficial changes, I think we find in them India's warmest friends, +who have done it the most signal service, and from whom more can be +expected than from any other class. + +There are ample materials for arriving at correct views regarding the +condition of India and the way in which it is governed. No Parliamentary +Committee, no Royal Commission, is required to elicit the facts. The +recently completed "Gazeteer" of India, in which Dr. Hunter and his +assistants had been engaged for years, furnishes full and reliable +information. The state of India is described in that imperial work with +a frankness and fulness which leave nothing to be desired. If one of our +great writers, who has secured the ears of our country, would set to the +drawing up of a volume of moderate size, founded on the "Gazeteer," +showing in a readable interesting form what has been done and what has +been left undone, what has been done well and what has been done ill, +and if the intelligent people of our country could be induced to give it +a careful perusal, untold good would be done both to England and to +India. Nothing would please Indian officials more than the eye of +England being thus fixed on their doings and misdoings, that the whole +truth might be known, and praise and censure be justly distributed, and +still more that the changes most beneficial to the people might be +effected. + +[Sidenote: THE BEST GOVERNORS FOR INDIA.] + +It is undeniable, as already said, that our rule because foreign lies +under great disadvantages. When the ancestors of the present Hindus +crossed the Indus and gradually made their way into the Continent before +them, they subdued and to a great degree enslaved its inhabitants. For +many a day their rule was foreign. This was also the case with the +successive Muhammadan conquerors. Rule founded on the suffrages of the +people remains to the present day unknown. There is, however, this +difference between the previous rulers of India and the English, that +they remained in the country, and gradually became amalgamated with its +inhabitants, while we show no disposition to make India our home. As we +do not, it would be far better if Hindustanees were the rulers of +Hindustan, Bengalees of Bengal, the members of other Indian nations of +their respective nations, provided they were qualified by character, +attainments, and the estimate entertained of them by the ruled, with a +strong central power to secure order throughout the Continent, while +leaving unfettered the general administration. Towards this ideal +strenuous efforts should be directed; but when we look at India as it is +now, with its divergent and antagonistic elements, with the weakness +induced by ages of superstition and despotism, what a long road has it +to travel before it can reach this goal! The question, then, is not what +is absolutely best, but what is practicable. Thus regarded, we are shut +up to the continuance of our rule. Every friend of India must desire +that it may be improved in every possible way, so that it may be in an +increasing degree a blessing to its teeming population. + +No one can predict the future of India. Within its borders there are +many who for various reasons would be delighted with our overthrow, +while I believe the vast majority in the parts of India I know best +would deprecate our departure as a dire calamity. It is a notable fact +that when our own native soldiers, sworn to uphold our rule, rose +fiercely against us, and rebellion in many districts followed in the +wake of mutiny, not a single native prince of the highest rank availed +himself of the opportunity to throw off the suzerainty of our Queen. +The army of the Prince of Gwalior rose against us, but by doing so they +rebelled against their own sovereign. When in 1877 we were in a native +state in Rajputana, a gentleman, who knew well the temper of the people, +said that if our control was withdrawn the Rajputs and Mahrattas would +be at each other's throats in a month. Our army has something better to +do than to uphold an alien government. It has to prevent the outbreak of +war which would desolate India from one end to the other. Happily its +prestige is sufficient to avert this terrible evil, but the prestige can +only continue while the army exists. By the suppression of the Mutiny +our prowess was shown in a manner which has made an indelible +impression. It is scarcely conceivable we can again have to encounter a +similar outbreak, though trouble may come from unanticipated quarters. +Our immensely improved means of communication contribute largely to our +security. Good government, the conferring of manifest benefits on the +people, will do more to establish our rule than all other things +combined. It is obvious to all who have any just conception of our +position in India, that never was a nation charged with greater +responsibilities, never was such a tremendous task committed to a +people, and never was there a more urgent call for the highest +qualities, if the duties devolving on us are to be worthily discharged. +Our Government cannot, and ought not, to undertake its evangelization, +but if the work of government be rightly done, it will indirectly, but +very effectually, help the Christian Church in giving the Gospel to the +millions of India, which, when accepted by them, will purify and elevate +their character, improve their condition, and fit them for true, +healthy, national life, while securing their spiritual and eternal +good. + + + + +STATISTICS. + + +Area of India and British Burma, 1,495,574 sq. miles. Population in +1881, 254,899,516. + +Under British rule 197,815,508 +Under Native rule 57,084,008 + +Hindus 187,931,450 +Muhammadans 50,127,585 +Buddhists--almost entirely in British + Burma 3,418,884 +Sikhs 853,426 +Aborigines--mainly Demon worshippers 6,426,511 + + _Christians_ +Europeans[4] 142,000 +Eurasians 62,000 +Protestant Native Christians[5] 492,882 +Roman Catholics 865,643 +Syrians--about 300,000 + -------- 1,862,525 +Other Creeds not specified 4,479,135 + +The increase of the Native Christian community connected with Protestant +Missions from 1851 to 1861 was 53 per cent.; from 1861 to 1871, 61 per +cent.; and from 1871 to 1881, 86 per cent. The number of communicants +rose from 14,000 in 1851 to 113,000 in 1881. Within the last decade the +number of native ordained agents has risen from 225 to 461; of native +lay preachers from 1,900 to 2,400; of native Christian teachers from +1,900 to 3,400; of native Christian female agents from 800 to 1,600. The +number of male pupils in Mission schools in 1851 was 50,000; in 1881, +129,000. The female pupils increased within that period from 11,000 to +56,000. The increase in Zenana pupils was from 1,900 in 1871 to 9,100 in +1881. + +[Footnote 4: Including 65,000 British soldiers.] + +[Footnote 5: Including 75,510 in British Burma, but not the 35,708 in +Ceylon.] + + + + +[Illustration] + +UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON. + + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors from the +original edition have been corrected. + +In Chapter III, in the sentence beginning "Forty-four years have +elapsed" the word "sittting" has been changed to "sitting". + +In Chapter XI, in the sentence beginning "It was my privilege for +years" the word "intineracies" has been changed to "itineracies". + +In Chapter XVII, in the sentence beginning "So great was the +danger" the word "thouands" has been changed to "thousands". + +In Chapter XXII, in the sentence beginning "The Government has now +entered" the word "largerly" has been changed to "largely". + +In Chapter XXV, in the sentence beginning "I am surprised when +Christians speak" the word "achieve" has been inserted between +"to" and "full"; in the sentence beginning "I have been confining +my remarks" the phrase "who his still" has been changed to "who is +still"; and in the sentence beginning "Looking beyond our Benares +missions" the word "beyound" has been changed to "beyond". + +In Chapter XXVI, in the sentence beginning "It occurred to me" the +word "occured" has been changed to "occurred". + +In Chapter XXXI, in the sentence beginning "The great officers of +state" the phrase "must he highly paid" has been changed to "must +be highly paid".] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, +1839-1877, by James Kennedy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BENARES AND KUMAON *** + +***** This file should be named 24416.txt or 24416.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/4/1/24416/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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