Morning Calm v.5 no.52(1894 Oct.)

THE MORNING CALM NO. 52, VOL V.] OCTOBER 1894. [PRICE 1d.

The Bishop's Letter.

CHEMULPO: July, 1894 DEAR FRIENDS,

Corea being just now the centre of European attract-tion, the telegrams and despatches will long ago have informed you of the calamities which have befallen this unhappy country. The two months that have passed have given abundant proof to the world that Japan adopts the attitude of a civilised Government only when it suits her, and that then she passes as readily now as formerly into acts of brigandage and piracy which people have been wont to associate with certain sections of China. But the voluminous telegrams will hardly have given you much information about ourselves. I will therefore proceed as usual to give an account of our doings, and show how we have endeavoured to carry on, in spite of the prevailing anxiety and disturbance, the work of the Mission. On the first of the month I went on board H.M.S. Archer, and, at the request of Capt. Rogers, conducted the usual morning service. Very delightful and hearty was my reception. She is a West Country ship, and the men of Devon and Cornwall it is always a pleasure to meet. Old shipmates I found in abundance, from the Cambridge in 1872 to the Audacious in 1876 and the Alexandra in 1888. That week I rode to Seoul, and arrived in the library at Nak Tong just as Mr. Trollope was correcting the proof of the last page of the tract which, from its title, we have learnt to call Lumen. This was a matter for devout thankfulness, which we did not omit to remember at the Holy Eucharist in both our churches on the following morning. The publication has been so long delayed, the difficulties have been so much greater than we expected, and the anxiety occasioned by the political disturbances round us has been latterly so intense that it was with real relief I saw, at last, the issue of our first native work complete. Mr. Trollope could now go home as soon as he pleased, and, indeed, the date of his departure was drawing very near. But I now knew that he would not go without taking with him some specimens of the book at which he has worked so ably, so lovingly, to show to you in England.   To Mr. Hodge and his printers a great debt of gratitude is due. The harder they had to work, the higher their spirits seemed to rise and the deeper their interest seemed to grow. And now we shall probably take Lumen for our lesson-book for a year, and as we spell it out ourselves get, perhaps, a few Coreans in our hospitals or by the riverside to read it with us. The follow-ing week I returned here, leaving Mr. Trollope in the agonies of packing, with orders for him to join me in Chemulpó a week before the steamer sailed, during which I had arranged to have much careful and earnest consultation with him on the subject of his approaching visit to England. In view of the impending troubles, he was exceedingly anxious to postpone his departure, but I would not permit it. Valuable as he would be here, he will be of greater value to the Mission at home. If we should all be killed, Mr. Trollope in England, with Lumen in his pocket, would be a very substantial piece of wreck from which to build another Corean Church ship.

On the 12th Mr. Davies returned from Shanghai, whither he had gone, three weeks before, on a needful visit to the dentist. Before we had time to get up to Seoul it was announced that the Japanese mail steamers would no longer run to China, and it seemed doubtful whether they would continue to run at all. There happened to be one due from China on the 15th, and, anxious above all things that nothing should interfere with Mr. Trollope's arrangements in England, I telegraphed to him to leave Seoul in time to go by it. Thus my quiet week with him here became an impossibility. He arrived, very tired and ex-hausted (for we are having a hot summer), after midnight on the 13th, and was engaged all Saturday in handing over the Mis-sion accounts to Mr. Davies. There was nothing for it but for me to go on board with him and, going as far as Fusan, get in the ship the talk which it was impossible to have ashore. I wrote a hasty letter to Mr. Warner, putting him in charge of our affairs in Seoul and here during my absence, and left with Mr. Trollope on the 15th. At Fusan I bid him farewell on his voyage to Nagasaki, whence he hoped to get across to Shanghai somehow before the Empress of Japan left for Vancouver on the 28th. I meanwhile was stranded at Fusan for a week, when another steamer was due from Japan which would take me back to Chemulpó. The Commissioner of Customs and Mrs. Hunt took compassion on me, and -I fear at very great inconvenience to themselves-enabled me to spend one of the happiest weeks I ever spent in Corea. Not only were they most kind, but there being no letters or news except by telegraph from Seoul it was of no use being anxious, and I spent my week in reading and letter-writing. On my return to Chemulpó, however, on the 24th I found that much had happened in Seoul which, could I have foreseen it, would have taken me back there instead of going with Mr. Trollope. Communication with the capital had practically ceased. The Japanese had by this time thrown off the mask and were proceeding to behave as by this time you are aware. The outrage on the Consul-General had taken place in Seoul; the savage assault on the English Commissioner of Customs here had been committed ; St. Matthew's Hospital had been closed, and the patients and Sisters removed to the Advent. Neutral men-of-war were sending up seamen to act as guards to the various Consulates, to which people were consigning their valuables. Letters from Mr. Warner and Mr. Davies awaited me, showing that I had quite competent managers in them. They were all well, but finding the difficulties of living daily increasing-for the stores are closed and all trade is at an end. For precaution they had sent our two altars to the Consulate-General, but are still living at Nak Tong with Mr. Hodge. A letter from Mr. Warner this morning (the 31st) shows them all to be in excellent spirits, but evidently surrounded by con-siderable danger. The much-vaunted civilisation of Japan has Vanished in a moment, like smoke. You will be wondering why I did not go to Seoul as soon as I returned from Fusan. I had intended doing so after the services of Sunday the 28th, but Chemulpó, although quiet enough, has its own Mission difficulties to be arranged. At the beginning of the month Miss Cooke, who had been suffering from a bad attack of fever, and looked wretchedly ill, came down here for change of air, stopping with friends. On my return from Fusan, I found that she was not allowed by the Consul to go back to Seoul, and that her hospital, which was fortunately empty, and her house had been obliged to be used to give shelter to the patients from St. Matthew's -many of them are soldiers who were wounded in the late rebellion in the South. Under the circumstances, I thought she could not to do better than start-a little earlier than she had in-tended-on a long-promised visit to Miss Marston, M.D., of Bishop Scott's Mission in Peking. She was very unhappy at leaving the country at a time when she hoped to be most useful, but saw the wisdom of the suggestion, and very good-naturedly consented to it. She left in a German steamer which was bound for Chefoo, whence she would go to Niu Chwang, and accept an invitation previously given by Mr. and Mrs. Doxat. When the great heat moderates she will proceed to Peking. I was thrown into consternation at learning that this German ship had been seized by two Japanese men-of-war when she got outside, and was only reassured by her return yesterday from Chefoo, when the German captain told me that all was well with Miss Cooke and his other passengers; that the Japanese had contented themselves with insulting his flag. I know not what the German Government will say to this, for the Japanese had officially informed us that day that they were at peace with the whole world ; that hostilities between them and China were exceedingly unlikely to break out, &c., &c. I shall probably be down here over next Sunday, and then return to Seoul ; but I have said enough to show you how hard it is to carry out plans which seem at one moment easy, at the next impossible. I am sad at being separated from the bulk of my flock, but I do not think my presence is really necessary, and, as I said, Mr. Warner and Mr. Davies seem to be managing admir-ably under the guidance of our Consul-General. My last news, therefore, is that we are all well and happy-now and then a little hungry (!), but in no danger of starvation as yet. Our Consulate-General has a guard of blue-jackets in Seoul, and here the Archer herself is more than sufficient to protect St. Michael's Church. I well know how earnestly you remem-ber us in your daily prayers, for which, as for all your kindness,

I am, Ever your grateful and affectionate friend, C. J. CORFE.

EXTRACT FROM A PRIVATE LETTER FROM THE BISHOP.

“July 12th. “You are not to be anxious for us ; we have no anxiety for ourselves, all being well and prosperous. Still we are suffering certain inconveniences which are likely to give our friends at home some concern on our behalf. In view of the strained re-lations between Japan and China, the mail boats of the former country are to cease running after next Sunday, and I daresay the solitary Chinese steamer, which comes here from Shanghai once every eighteen days, will also soon be taken off. We shall then be closed to the outer world, unless some steamer under a neutral flag pay us an occasional visit. No doubt, when things have arrived at this pass, the Admiral will place a gunboat at the dis-posal of our Consul to carry his despatches to the Minister at Peking. But after this letter you must expect me to be more irregular than ever in my correspondence.”  

Correspondence.I.

Canadian Pacific Railway Company, R.M.S. Empress of Japan, Tuesday, August 14th, 1894.

I LEFT Corea in rather a turmoil. At the last, things looked so uncertain that I wanted to delay my departure, but the Bishop was very anxious that I should get off ; and Mr.Gardner insisted that, even if war did break out, no harm could happen to the foreigners. However, since I left war has begun, and as mail communication has probably been suspended, I expect that the wildest rumours are afloat in England. They certainly are in Shanghai and Japan, where people are kept in profound igno-rance as to what is going on, as the wire to Corea from Shanghai belongs to the Chinese, and that from Japan to the Japanese, and neither Government will allow the publication of any in-formation. I believe that our fleet is cruising off Chemulpó, and Admiral Fremantle will take care that no harm comes to the Bishop, Sisters, or others. When I left Corea on July 15th, none of the foreigners, not even the American missionaries with their wives and children, were leaving, or thinking of leaving, Seoul, although it had been surrounded and occupied by Japanese troops for a month or six weeks. They did not molest the foreigners in any way, nor were they likely to do so. I wonder what the upshot of it all will be? Perhaps by this time next year there will be no Corea for me to go back to. Poor Coreans! I shall be very sorry if their country is to be made the battle-ground for China and Japan. It seems very cruel. Still the Government is in such a rotten condition, that one cannot help feeling that good must come to the country out of the trouble. I had a good deal of trouble in getting away from Corea. I was to have travelled viâ Chefoo to Shanghai, leaving on July 19th, when on July 11th I heard that the Chefoo steamers were Suspended, and the Japan steamers likely to be so, so that my only chance really was to catch the steamer then expected to call at Chemulpó on July 14th on her last trip from Tientsin to Japan. So, with the glass at 95 degrees in the shade, I had to set to work to pack my packing cases at twenty-four hours' notice. Then the Japanese had monopolized all the river Steamers, and I had great trouble in getting bull-carts to take my belongings by road to Chemulpó. Finally I got off myself on Friday night about 6 P.M., and walked by moonlight (it was too hot to go by day) to Chemulpó, which I reached about midnight. I spent Saturday settling up the accounts of the Mis-sion, &c., and went on board on Saturday night. As the Bishop had hoped to get a week's consultation with me before leaving, and as yet had got none, he decided to come with me as far as Fusan, where I left him on Monday evening, he intending to re-turn at the first opportunity. I got to Nagasaki on Tuesday, July 10th, only to find that the steamer connection with China was cut off there too. I waited there eight days, stewing in the heat and mosquitoes, and finally got on board a British steamer, laden with coals -not for Shanghai, but for a place called Hankow, 600 miles up the river Yangtse, in the interior of China. How-ever, the captain said he should have to stop for a pilot off Woosung, at the mouth of the Shanghai river, and he would get me put ashore in the pilot boat there. So I left Nagasaki on the evening of July 25th (St. James's Day), and got to Woosung on Saturday, the 28th, at daybreak After an hour or more tacking about in the pilot's boat (a junk), I got to Woosung, where I got hold of a trap and drove at a break-neck pace to Shanghai (about ten miles). I turned up just in time for break-fast at the Johnstons', who were wondering what had happened to me. Fortunately, the Empress of Japan, which should have sailed that very day, had delayed her departure till Monday, the 30th. So for two days I was hospitably entertained by the Johnstons. Then on Monday night I got on board the Empress, and steamed away for Yokohama. This we reached on July 3rd, when the Japanese (in consequence of the plague at Hong Kong) put us through a lot of ridiculous, and perfectly valueless, quarantine drill, and kept us roasting in the quarantine station for a day and a half. At last we got to Yokohama, and I just had time to rush up to Tokio and back again, as the ship was sailing early next day. . . . We sailed on Sunday, August 5th, and have had a remarkably smooth passage hitherto-no sea at all, though rather cold and foggy, which one felt rather after the heat of Corea, China, and Japan. M. N. TROLLOPE.

II.

“THOSE who are interested in the Mission work at Seoul, and in the Sisters there, will perhaps be wondering how these wars and rumours of wars affect them. Of course, the terrible distance makes a long gap between events and the accounts of them that reach England, and we have only letters dated July 25th, but so far all seems well. Perhaps a slight outline of the events there, gathered from the Sisters' letters, may not be uninteresting. In June last a rebellion broke out in the Southern States of Corea, and the Corean army, always small and poorly furnished for war, was sent to subdue it. In their alarm the Government had asked help of China, a country which has for many centuries held a tributary right over the kings of Corea.

"The Japanese seized the moment when the army was thus employed, landed troops at Chemulpó, and took possession of Nan Sang, the beautiful hill just outside the northern gate of Seoul, pointing their guns at the King's Palace ; and there they were found when the Corean army returned with their wounded from subduing the rebels in the South. The whole affair had been managed by the Japanese with the utmost dexterity, and the order they maintained was perfect during this time when they dictated to the King the terms on which they would evacuate Seoul. It was curious to see the quiet way in which this intrusion was accepted by the Coreans, somewhat as if a little drama or military spectacle had been got up for their entertainment ; long files of dignified white-robed Coreans (their fine physique contrasting strangely with the small stature of the Japanese) walking out daily to points of advantage to overlook the camp-no noise, no street fights, even in the Japanese quarter. The Men's Hospital is about a mile from the Central House, the garden of which touches the garden of the English Consul.

"One afternoon, about June 23rd, the Sister at St. Matthew's heard a great noise in the street, shouts on all sides, and, going to the court, found the coolie who acts as porter pallid with fear. He said the army was outside. On going into the dispensary she found that he was right ; the victorious army was bringing its wounded to Dr. Baldock's and the Sisters' care. The wards were all full. What was to be done? The two new wards and operating room (still without doors or windows) were taken Possession of the shavings swept up, and the sick laid mat to mat within them. Then came a busy time; a message had been sent to the Central House for more help, and Miss Cooke, the lady doctor, and Sisters came at once. The condition of the gunshot wounds, after several days' Corean travelling, may be better imagined than described, and we fear many wounded had been left by the way unaided. All that could be out-patients were treated as such, but the rest were taken in, and have done very well. The General came to visit them, and presents came from the King. His present was 1,000 eggs and 221 fowls. The Sisters would have found a bag of rice of more real use, but royal gifts must not be cavilled at. It was hard to dispose of the patients, but it was far harder to dispose of their friends. One young Corean officer, whose leg had been amputated, would have three visitors at a time, night and day, crouching or squat-ting by his side. Most gentle and amiable they were, willing to do anything for patient or Sister, but, from her point of view, somewhat in the way. Very glad and thankful they were that all the surgical cases did well. There was one effect of all this anxiety and distress, for which they were perhaps hardly prepared, but which is a cause of much hope. It has roused the Corean ladies to some curiosity respecting them, and this has been shown by friendly visits, and it is even said that two of these ladies desire to know something of Christianity. "Why have you come to us?" "Why are you so kind to us?" is their language-a beginning, let us hope, of that opening which we so desire of teaching them our true motive, the reason of our love towards them.

“When the press of extra work was over, some of the Sisters went out of Seoul to Chefoo for much-needed rest, when about the 20th July the Sister-in-charge had a message from the Eng-lish Consul to recall the Sisters and to bring them all into the Central House, at four hours' notice. She said they could not possibly leave the sick at St. Matthew's Hospital, so he placed coolies at her disposal, and the sick were brought into the Women's Hospital, in which the only two patients remaining were well enough to be sent home. July 23rd was a terrible day; at five in the morning the uproar began, and at 5.30 the firing, and the Japanese troops had rushed down upon the Palace. At 5.30 the British Consul sent to ask the Sisters to come into the Legation; this they declined, but a ladder was placed among the trees and fixed to the wall of the Consul's garden, so that at a moment's notice, if obliged to fly for their lives, they could do so. “But there was a sad duty to be done at once; the altar in the Church, and that in St. Peter's Chapel, with brasses, books, &C., must be placed in safety, so that the morning was occupied in packing. The gentlemen thought it needful, so it must be done; but all the time the Sisters were cheered by an inward conviction that they would not have to fly. All sorts of reports reached them as hours wore on, but this seems the most reliable account of what took place outside: The Japanese attacked the Palace, and were most bravely repulsed by the Corean soldiers, who fought well; many were killed, more followed, swarmed over the wall and rushed into the Palace.   After about two hours' fighting the King desired his troops to cease their resistance, and was taken prisoner by the Japanese, who carried him off to their camp. The real danger lay in the excitement rousing the mob, who, in unreasoning fury, might be expected to attack all undefended foreigners for booty, but mercifully there was no rising in the town. During the night the Sisters, who were sitting up with the sick in the Hospital, heard guns outside the town, but there was nothing to prevent the others sleeping peacefully.

“The next day, July 24th, the King sent to the British, American, and other foreign legations, and the ministers applied for leave to visit him. After some difficulty this was obtained. They found the King, Queen, his son, the Crown Prince, and his father, the late Regent, stripped of royal robes and in coolie clothing, in the servants' part of the camp. What this degrada-tion is to an Oriental we can hardly imagine. He received them with much dignity, apologised that he could not offer them a cup of tea in his condition as prisoner, and asked them to accept his protest against the way he had been treated, and to represent it to the Governments of which they were the repre-sentatives.

"A sheet, with a red cross of Turkey twill on both sides, has been put up over the Dispensary—a sign accepted by all nations. “The Sisters beg we will not believe reports about them that do not come authenticated by the Consul, as it has already been more than once reported by the Chinese papers that they have all been massacred. They have had their daily Eucharists and Offices during this troubled time, much to their own comfort."

Association of Prayer and work for Corea.

WE gladly notice the appearance in our lists of a new county-Radnorshire-with its first Secretary, who, we hope, will soon be joined by others, as well as by many members of the Association in that part of the world. Also we have a new locality under Somerset and Bristol, our old friend the Rev. T. H. Turner having moved from Ryde to S. Katherine's, Felton. The kind donor of the set of Corean drawings and writer of the letter referring to them, extracts from which appeared in the July Morning Calm, writes that she fears that the letter, which “was written under adverse circumstances and in haste to an intimate friend, with no idea of its contents appearing in print, though permission to insert was courteously requested, . . . might mislead the general reader who has not yet grappled with Eastern traditions as to the date of the Empress Jingo, the sentence concerning her having by rights no connection with the preceding one."

We have been asked to make known amongst the friends of Corea a scheme for the purchase and sale of postage stamps for the benefit of Missions. The Rev. R. Raikes Bromage, Keyford Parsonage, Frome, Somersetshire, is kindly ready to purchase old and new foreign and colonial and very old English stamps, also collections of stamps, for his “Missionary Stamp Depôt." Every sort of stamp will be received except the pre-sent issue of English, and half the net gains on sales of stamps will be given to the different Missionary Societies. On September 6th, by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter, special Intercessions were offered at the early: Cele-bration in the Lady Chapel of Exeter Cathedral on behalf of the Mission to Corea and Manchuria, and all imperilled by the war, and a special service of Intercession was held, also in the Lady Chapel, at 12 o'clock. The offertories at both services (amounting to £4. 16s.) were for the H.N.F. special fund for sending out supplies for the care of the wounded. Similar ser-vices have already been held in other places, and no doubt many such will be held in this time of exceptional need in localities where Corea is always remembered in prayer. The General Secretary will gladly send a copy of the form of Intercession used at Exeter to anyone who would wish for it. M. M. CHAMBERS-HODGETTS, Exeter : September 11, 1894. Gen. Sec.

The Society of the Sacred Mission.

As I suppose that most of our readers will get their magazines. a day or two before the new month begins, we shall be yet in time to ask their prayers for the festival of our Mission, which begins S. Michael's Day. To us, following out our own quiet life in Vassall Road, our little festival, although we hold it on so small a scale, is always a season long looked forward to. Each year it seems to have for us some special element of peculiar solemnity. In 1892 we held it for the first time in our present house. In 1893 we had just formed the Society itself as a definite religious body, and sent the first brother of the Com-munity to his work. This year we are preparing for the organisation of the first Community house, which will, with God's help, be accomplished before the year closes. On S. Michael's Day the Director and Fr. Woodward will together make the first professions made in the Society, by which, while God shall permit, their whole lives will be henceforth ruled. The special services will be held in our own Chapel on October 2nd, which, within the octave of S. Michael and All Angels, is by the old English Calendar the special festival of the Guardian Angels. There will be a Choral Celebration at 8, and the address at Evensong will be given us by the Rev. Fr. Wainwright, of S. Peter's, London Docks, at 6 P.M.

The Spirit of Missions.

“I REMEMBER of all others one missionary meeting when I was at Oxford. It was an enthusiastic meeting. The first speakers had spoken enthu-siastically. The next who rose said: 'I cannot, I grieve to say, rise to speak as one who has ever been a true enthusiast about missionary work. I never felt my heart burn to go out. I have many friends, and dear children, in England, and I never go back to my post without finding it hard to go. But I am going back, please God-of course I am-because I have never had any question that God called me, and that it was my duty. Young men, is it too late in the years to ask Englishmen and sons of God to do this thing for the old simple reason that it is one's duty, that it is God's Will-with no enthusiasm, if need be?’ The words fell strangely on an enthusiastic meeting. They struck a different key. But there was a ring of manly utter sincerity about them. They brought the missionary call nearer to some of us, who also, may be, were not true enthusiasts. Other addresses and sermons of the missionary kind which I heard at Oxford-and they were not a few-have faded from my mind; but still I see fresh before me the figure of that lonely human-hearted man, standing up in the midst and asking men without enthusiasm to come out, if God called, for no single reason but this-that it was the Will of God.”-The Rev. C. H. Boutflower, in the “Church Missionary Intelligence” for September. Though generally expected, the announcement of the resigna-tion of BISHOP HORNBY will be received with the greatest regret, and with the deepest sympathy for the Bishop. We reproduce the letter to the supporters of the Mission in which he makes the announcement: -

“Dear Friends,-It is only due to those upon whose support and sympathy I have been in a great measure dependent for the few months that have elapsed since St. Thomas's Day 1892 to inform them in the pages of this paper that by the time my letter is in their hands I shall have formally resigned the Diocese of Nyasaland into the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury. “I need hardly say it has been a painful decision to come to. But, since those who had the best right to advise me were unanimous in recommending my resignation, I felt that it would be worse than obstinacy to persist in returning to Central Africa, more especially as I cannot conceal from myself that their verdict is the right one, and that if I were to return I should be a burden, not a help, to my brother missionaries. "My place will soon be filled up. There are hundreds of priests in the Anglican communion who could conceive no higher privilege than that of being permitted under the Great Bishop of our Souls to guide the destinies of the infant Church in Central Africa. "Whoever my successor may be, may the blessing of God rest on him and upon the loyal and loving friends that I have left to fight the battle on the Lake, and may your generous sympathy never flag for that country, which you have set your-selves to bring to the feet of Christ. "I am, gratefully yours, “WILFRID B. HORNBY, Bishop." One of Bishop Hornby's latest acts was the ordination of a native deacon, Samuel Schoza, at Iona on August 24th, and this again followed within a month the ordination of two deacons in the widowed Church of Zanzibar by Bishop Tucker of Equatorial Africa. The news will be received on all hands with the greatest thankfulness that the Bishop of Madras has nominated the Venerable Archdeacon Elwes to be Bishop for TINNEVELLY. The old system of administering this vast district by means of assistant bishops-a system open to great exception on grounds of Church order-has been tried and found wanting ; and since the death of Bishops Caldwell and Sargent the need of direct supervision has only been the more evident. Nothing was more clear than that the work could not properly grow until a Bishop was appointed with immediate jurisdiction ; and our prayers should go out that under the new Bishop great develop-ment may take place, and a real advance be made against the fortresses of heathenism. Tinnevelly has too great a past for its life to be bound down as it recently has been. "Fame has been busy in making the Indian contemptible by holding up before the public eye shabby specimens of the Indian race. With Christianity and civilisation, the gay paint and feathers disappear, and with the gay paint and feathers, curiosity and interest. ‘Better keep some of them wild, Bishop, if you would keep the Church interested,' remarked a discerning friend some years ago, and the truth of the suggestion darted with painful force into my very soul. But while paint and feathers may disappear, the Indian heart remains. As the Rev. Mr. Ashley and I were travelling in the Indian country some time ago we learned that a woman, who as a child had been a pupil at St. Mary's boarding-school, was lying very ill at the hut of her husband's parents. We drove thither, and on entering I found her evidently in the last stages of consumption. I remembered her well as a child-pretty, bright, active and mis-chievous, and one of the most troublesome pupils at St. Mary's. She was overjoyed on seeing me. Her Dakota Prayer Book lay on the bed by her side, which she said she read continually, and often aloud, that her relatives might hear. ‘I know that I am going to die,' she said, 'but I am not afraid. I don't care where they bury me-anywhere. It don't matter about my coffin. God will take care of my spirit, that's enough.’ She said she had been trying in vain to get a message to Mr. Ashley to let him know that she was too far gone to come to church, but wanted the Communion. I read and prayed with her while Mr. Ashley unpacked the Communion service and prepared the elements, and I had the unspeakable pleasure of lifting her head with one hand while with the other I administered the precious pledge of grace. Even yet her parting words linger in my cars : ‘I hate to have you go, Bishop!' I trust I left her as much comfort as those words gave me. But to fame she was but a shabby Indian ! “Within a few weeks, I sat in a log Indian cabin with fifteen Indian men on one side, fifteen Indian women on the other. The earth was the floor, and a roof of hay and mud covered us above. We had just finished a service of Confirmation and a celebration of the Holy Communion. Several of the men pressed their need of a holy house ; but the speech of the occasion was made by an Indian woman, who said: ‘I am not a gifted speaker, but in the gladness of my heart to-day, when I saw you coming, I cried, “Oh, would to God, that He would give me words that may do good!” I remembered " The meek and lowly, they shall be exalted," and so I tried to be quiet and do my duty. But I saw the birds, though they have no hands, they make their nests in which to lay their eggs and rear their young, and I thought perhaps, we, too, though weak, can make for ourselves a house. With this mind of having a church, we women worked and raised money, and with this mind we went to convocation, and when you took our $60, we came away glad at heart.' And, again protesting with an embarrassed air that she had no gifts as a speaker, and had forgotten half her speech, she sat down. To fame she too was a shabby Indian ! There was neither paint nor feathers, only a human heart."--BISHOP HARE, of S. Dakota, in the "Quarterly Message."

The Rev. D. C. Crowther, son of the famous Bishop Crowther, gives the following interesting narrative of the coronation of an African king at the town of Brass, on the Niger River : "A secret meeting is first held by the chiefs of the country, at which they unanimously select one person of the royal line to be made king. A public meeting of chiefs is next held, a few days or weeks after, when the party chosen is called to attend. On his arrival about half a dozen men, hidden for the purpose, rush out and take hold of him. "Astonished at such proceedings, he naturally asks, ‘What have I done?' He is then told by the eldest chief that the Ebebege told them he is to be king. (Ebebege is a square frame of wood, and carried by four men, who profess to be directed where to go by this frame, which is supposed to be inspired by the spirit of the fathers.) Then the other chiefs answer, ‘Yes, yes; so it is; did not the Ebebege tell us so?’ He is not allowed to return home, but is led to a house, and put in a room already prepared to receive him. His shirt is taken off, leaving only his handkerchief cloth round his loins; then he is told to sit on a stool and is chalked over from head to foot. This is the anointing. For three days he is to be alone in this room, chalked ; his meals brought to him by servants. On the fourth day a public meeting is held of the whole country people. The king-elect, after washing, is dressed in a most expensive cloth and shirt. Loaded with corals around his neck, arms, and feet, he appears and sits on a large armchair, and is exhibited to the people as their king, amid loud exclamations and praises. When silence is effected a chief advances, and on getting near the king gives him a crack on the head, saying, ‘The country is in your hand ; mind it well.’ Another comes and gives him a box on the ears, saying, ‘Keep your ears open, do justice and give right judgments.’ Another comes and gives him a thump on the forehead, saying, 'Keep your head clear, and pity the poor;' and so on till twelve or fifteen chiefs, as the case may be, have duly impressed the king concerning his official duties both by word and thumping. "After this priests appear with their sacrifices, and killing of goats and fowls, to propitiate the gods and the forefathers. These the present Christian king refused to have performed for him, and they were dispensed with. After the sacrificial per-formances a day is chosen for the whole of the inhabitants to go out fishing for the king."

The Island of kang=hoa.

(Continued from September.) AND Kang-hoa has for us Englishmen now a double interest, owing, in the first place, to the settlement of the English Mission there, and, secondly, to the fact that the new Naval College, which is to be officered and trained by Englishmen, and which the Corean Government is now taking up with such enthusiasm, is to have its headquarters there.

A few words first as to the settlement of our Mission there. Our friends at home are apt to forget (if, indeed, they were ever aware of the fact that missionary operations in Corea are ham-pered, not by the ferocity and hostility of the people, but by two very serious considerations of a very different character. First, there is the difficulty created by the treaty regulations. In the old days, before the country was open to foreigners, the mis-sionary's course was quite clear. He had either to take his life in his hand, and to take up his abode in disguise and in defiance of the country's laws, or not to come at all. But now all that is changed. A necessary consequence of the existence of treaties Is that no foreigner can reside in the country without being registered in his national Consulate at Seoul, and once so regis-tered he becomes limited by a host of restrictions upon his free-dom of action. To begin with, missionaries as such are not recognised in the treaties at all, and they have to reside in the Country under precisely the same rules and restrictions, and with precisely the same privileges, as their fellow-countrymen. Of this I am thoroughly glad ; indeed I shall be very sorry to see the day when missionaries do receive recognition in the treaties. For of this you may be sure, that that recognition will never be secured from the Corean Government except by force or fraud. And, great as is the inconvenience of the present system, I have no wish to see missionaries (as has been the case in China) forced into an unwilling Corea at the point of the bayonet. Residing here, then, as British subjects, we find our missionary activity restricted in two main directions-(a) we can only legally secure property, and reside either in Seoul, Chemulpó, Gensan, or Fusan, or within to li (say 3 miles) of these places; (b) we can stir neither hand nor foot beyond a radius of 100 li (say 30 miles) from these four places without a passport, which only authorises one “to travel in Corea for pleasure or purposes of trade," and which is further weighted by a prohibition directed against transporting and selling “books and other printed matter disapproved of by the Corean Government." The penalty for breach of these regu-lations is not (as might be supposed) martyrdom at the hands of an infuriated pagan population, but the prosaic one of “a fine not exceeding one hundred Mexican dollars (say £15), with or without imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month," at the hands of the Consular representatives of the British Government. (To be continued.)

HOSPITAL NAVAL FUND.

Contributions received during August 1894. WOO-- 000 a 10 Commander C. P. Stroetan, R.N. "In Mem.H.E.C." * Xw Inconstantin Suliscription for 1893 Mis: Frances Wilon, through Mi Eva Wilson Miss Eva D. Wilsim Proceeds or Sale it Work at Weymouth for Bishop Carte's Mission, through Miss Eva D. Wilson Offertary. H.M.S." Impregnable," throngli Rev. J. M. Clarkson, K.N. 2 0 0 гоо 8 6 6 o 15 6 Libis 6 EDUCATION FUND. August 1894. £ s. d. Rev. C. E. Gaussen Percy Fox, Esq., Fredk, de Sausmarez, Esel. 1 1 0 43