Morning Calm v.4 no.31(1893 Jan.)

THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ No. 31, VOL. IV.] JANUARY 1893. [PRICE Id. ________________________________________ The Bishop's Letter. CHEMULPÓ: August 1892. DEAR FRIENDS, Soon after his ordination, Mr. Davies returned to Seoul to attend to several necessary works left by Mr. Trollope, and to prepare Nak Tong for the new arrivals. Mr. Hodge stayed here throughout the greater part of this month, the excessive heat in Seoul and other reasons making it very unadvisable for him to begin his operations in the printing house until the weather should be cooler. We have accordingly spent our time in quiet study-I with my teacher, Mr. Hodge with his Corean grammar, and Mr. Smart with a formidable-looking book on Japanese. I am glad to be able to report Mr. Smart better, but still weak from his sickness. I think that they both enjoy Chemulpó. I know it is a great pleasure to me to have them here ; and their presence in church makes an agreeable difference in all the offices and celebrations. For one thing, we get more music. Both sing, and Mr. Smart is very useful at the harmonium, of which I can see he is fond. But he seems likely to prove useful all round. He quickly took compassion on the superfluous tomatoes growing in our garden, and the fruit, which just now is plentiful, and turned them into most excellent jam. New possi-bilities seem opening out to us. In the middle of the month, Mr. Pownall returned from Niu Ch’wang, looking all the better for his change of work, and in good spirits. The compound here, which he had got into beautiful order before he left, was full of flowers to greet him on his return. He found, too, some two hundred willow-trees planted by Mr. Hodge and Mr. Smart in his absence. The willow grows very quickly here. You may pull off a branch or a twig and put it in the ground-it doesn't matter which end you put in-with the certainty of seeing it putting forth leaves in a day or two afterwards. These willows, therefore, will make a great change in the appearance of our compound next year. Now we have not a tree to show. In a few years we shall have a small forest. These willows, moreover, help to bind the earth together, and are a great protection to the property in the rainy season,   2 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ when the water rushes down the hill and carries all the loose earth it can find away with it. This reminds me to tell you that the rainy season has come this year after all-very late for the farmers' rice crops, but very acceptable to the country. In Seoul a foot of rain fell in one week, and of that six inches fell in twelve hours. The walls and gutters with which we have protected our church and houses here have answered admirably. Mr. Pownall being back and the weather cooler, there was nothing to keep the two laymen from going to Seoul. Accord-ingly on St. Bartholomew's day Mr. Hodge left in company with some American friends of ours, and, three days after, Mr. Smart and I followed. The rest of the month I spent in Nak Tong, helping to settle them in their new home. Mr. Hodge lost no time in making the acquaintance of the printing press, and greatly pleased Mr. Scott with the rapidity and accuracy with which he presented him with the first four pages of the new Corean manual which he has just put into our hands - a work which promises to be almost as large as the dictionary. Mean-while, Mr. Smart lost no time in taking the compound and kitchen in hand, clearing the former of a good many weeds, and in the latter astonishing the Chinese cook by giving him cook-ing lessons in his own language. Meanwhile, we have borrowed a small American organ for the chapel, pending the arrival of one of our own from Shanghai, and Mr. Smart is as useful in Seoul as he was in St. Michael's, Chemulpó. On arriving in Seoul, I found Mr. Warner busy with preparations for a mission-ary journey, of which I must tell you more in my next letter. Mr. Davies was well and busy as usual, and John Wyers I found as frequent and as welcome a visitor at the Mission house as he was when I left. This reminds me that I left Seoul in the spring, and had not seen before all that Mr. Trollope has been doing in my absence. The Church of the Advent is finished, also the Sisters' house adjoining. Dr. Wiles has finished and opened a dispensary and hospital at Nak Tong, and a dispen-sary and hospital for Miss Cooke at the Advent. I am delighted with the admirable way in which all has been done. But this letter is already too long for me to enter upon any detailed description. I have letters from Mr. Trollope telling me that he is well and has been received with the same kindness in Niu Ch’wang which awaited me in the spring and Mr Pownall in the summer. Miss Cooke, Miss Heathcote, Dr. Wiles, and Dr. Landis are well and busy as ever. With good wishes and hearty prayers for you all, I am always yours affectionately,

• C. J. CORFE

  THE MORNING CALM. 3________________________________________ Association of Prayer and work for Corea. DECEMBER 6 has, this year, been a specially marked day for the members of the Association in Exeter. Early Celebration of Holy Communion, with special intercessions for Corea, were held both in the Cathedral and in the Heavitree Parish Church. At 7.15 in the evening, 61 members assembled in the College Hall, kindly lent by the Priest Vicar of the Cathedral, for a social tea, at which tables were taken by Mrs. Joseph Corfe (Local Secretary), Mrs. Trefusis, Mrs. Puttock, and Miss Roberts. Both Vice-Presidents of the Association were present, and our members had the great pleasure of meeting also the Rev. Edward Corfe (brother of the Bishop), who had most kindly come from London to address them. Between tea and the meeting at 8.15, Mrs. Johnston's interesting collection of Corean articles, generously lent for the purpose, was exhibited, and a lady and gentleman, attired in full Corean costume (also lent by Mrs. Johnston), made their appearance, and were received with many expressions of admiration. The hall was full when the meeting began. Prayers were said by the Rev. S. H. Berkeley, and Canon Trefusis spoke on the part taken by members of the Association in the Foreign Missionary work of the Church Mr. Corfe then gave an exhaustive and most interesting account of his brother's Mission. With a few words from Mr. Berkeley, and the singing of a hymn, during which a collection was made, the meeting came to an end. We are very glad to remember that Mr. Corfe's name stands at the head of the new list of Association Preachers, and that he will “most willingly" travel even long distances to give the same valuable help to our work for Corea in other localities that he has just given in Exeter. Canon Liddell (County Secretary for Hertfordshire) reports a meeting held on Nov. 28th at Frogmore, at which he gave an address on Corea to a Communicants' Guild ; after which we are glad to learn that many application forms were taken away to be signed Our friends will notice with pleasure the last addition to our Secretarial list on the cover of Morning Calm. After Africa now comes West Indies. It will interest many to know that it is through Mr. Davies, of Corea, that we have gained a fellow-student of his at St. Boniface College, Warminster, as a Secretary in Barbadoes. We wish to draw the attention of those who help us with their needles to the notice of the Great Yarmouth Sale next   4 THE MORNING CALM.________________________________________ spring. A working party of about 30 members is working for it in Great Yarmouth. Miss M. Waters (6 Dagmar Terrace) will be especially glad to receive dressed dolls and pin-cushions for sale for Corea. We are glad to report the success of the Sale held by Mrs. Rudge's working party at Bassett, Southampton, as evidenced by the £8. 4s. received as its result. The Local Secretary for Leamington writes :-“I am very pleased to send you the account of the first Sale for Corea held in this locality. Thanks to the untiring efforts of two of our members (Sister Mary and Sister Jane) a Children's Sale of Work was held in St. John's Parish, on Nov. 25th. Everything was sold in a very short time, and the proceeds, £5.7s. 3 1/2d., have been sent to Mrs. Goodenough, for the Children's Branch. Owing to the kindness and generosity of the Sisters, nothing had to be deducted for expenses, the room being lent by the Vicar (the Rev. W. Wise). The articles for the Sale were made, with one or two exceptions, by children attending a weekly class held by the Sisters, and our young helpers were quite rewarded by the successful Sale, and deserve hearty congratulations." K. O. WALLINGTON (Local Secretary). The General Secretary asks that County and Local Secretaries, especially those in Sussex and Devonshire, will kindly enter, in the space for additional names on their Lists of Association Preachers, the name of the Rev. E. Ilbert Crosse, which she has just received. His address is Henfield, Sussex, and his district "Sussex, occasionally Devon, occasionally in January or June." The name of the lady who will be glad to receive copies of Corean photographs for insertion in an Association Album was misprinted in the last number of Morning Calm. It should be Miss Eva Pennell, Heavitree Park, Exeter. She will be most glad to receive them, for none have come yet! M. M. CHAMBERS-HODGETTS, Gen. Sec. Association of Prayer and Work for Corea. Rowancroft, Exeter, December 8, 1892. ________________________________________ GOSPORT WORKING GUILD FOR THE MISSION IN COREA.- A Sale of Work was held on December 2, in the Church of England Soldiers' and Sailors' Institute, Forton. Two very long tables were filled with useful articles of clothing that had been kindly sent by members of working parties in different parts of England as well as at Gosport. £14 were taken at this sale   THE MORNING CALM 5________________________________________ and on the 9th of December another sale was held at Haslar with £2. 15s. 6d. as a result. The best thanks of the Gosport Working Guild are due to all who have so kindly aided their efforts. ________________________________________ hospital Naval fund. THE subscribers to the Hospital Naval Fund and all friends of the Mission will be gratified by reading the accompanying letter, received on November 28, from the Commander-in-chief of the China station. Owing to Dr. Wiles having accom-plished the erection of the hospital buildings in Seoul without our assistance, only £350 has been remitted, so far, to the Bishop from the Hospital Naval Fund. A most practical and useful letter has come to hand from Dr. Wiles himself. He states his opinion that £300 a year, used with economy, should be sufficient to keep the work going. By the same mail the Bishop writes, with reference to the present crisis, “I have sanctioned Dr. Wiles' suggestion that the whole of the Naval Fund should be spent on doctors.” At their last meeting the Executive Committee had anticipated this emergency and decided to be ready to guarantee £300 a year for this purpose for the next three years. Mr. Brooke has now made arrangements with Mr. Edward H. Baldock, M.R.C.S.E., A.R.C.P.A., to take charge of the work which Dr. Wiles has organised with so much success. Dr. Baldock leaves England in the P. & O. Steamer Messilia on January 19, 1893. J. B. HARBORD, Chairman Executive Committee, H. N. F. “H.M.S. ‘ALACRITY,' “OFF TAKU, CHINA, “October 15, 1892. "DEAR SIR,— Having recently had an opportunity of visiting Chemulpó and Seoul, it may be interesting to the subscribers to the Hospital Naval Fund to hear of the progress of Bishop Corfe's Mission in Corea, and how the hospital work is being carried on. "The Bishop was unfortunately away in Niu Ch'wang, where, however, I subsequently met him, and I have had the advan-tage of ascertaining his views as to the future of the Mission ; but from Mr. Trollope, the Bishop's Chaplain, and from Mr. Hillier, our Consul-General, I received much information on   6 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ the subject of the Mission. With this I need not trouble you, as the Bishop's letters in the Morning Calm will have kept your readers informed of its progress, but I should like to state what I saw myself and the impressions made upon me. “The Mission house and Mission church at Chemulpó are substantial brick buildings, devoid of all ornament or luxury, but well situated, commanding a good view of the harbour, clear of native dwellings, and admirably adapted for the purposes in view. The hospital, which is about 50 feet higher and 100 yards in rear of the church, looking from the harbour, is built of wood in the Corean style. I was shown over it by Dr. Landis, who is in charge, and it seemed suitable to the requirements of the place. Dr. Landis informed me that the Coreans had an invincible repugnance to beds, and preferred sleeping on the cemented floors, which are heated by flues underneath, so that there is no doubt that it was wise to be content with a modest, but clean and tidy, Corean structure, rather than to erect a more ambitious building which would have been viewed with suspicion by the natives. There were only two in-patients when I was there, but I was informed that fifty or sixty had been treated in the hospital since it was opened at the beginning of this year, and that a large number of out-patients attend daily. “At Seoul I saw the new building just approaching comple-tion for the six nurses expected to assist Miss Cooke, but, Dr. Wiles being away, I did not see the hospital, which is, I was informed, somewhat similar to that at Chemulpó, and, owing to official visits taking up my time, I did not see the Mission house, and only saw the church, which is scarcely completed. "I need not speak of mission work generally, as it is known to your readers that at present the Bishop and his energetic co-adjutors are still engaged in preliminary preparations, that is, in exploring the country, preparing stations, and learning the language, but, above all, in pushing hospital work as the best and most Christian way of gaining an influence over the Coreans, and of mending their ways, especially in the matter of cleanliness. “The Bishop is naturally somewhat anxious as to the per-mancy of the hospital work now being carried on. At Seoul Deputy Surgeon-General Wiles (retired) has not only given his valuable help gratuitously, but he has devoted large sums received as fees for professional attendance from the European residents in Seoul to the service of the Mission in erecting build-ings. He will, however, now go home, the two years for which he volunteered having expired, and Dr. Landis, who has been   THE MORNING CALM. 7________________________________________ paid for the last two years by the S.P.C.K., is, I understand, now dependent on the Mission funds, the period for which the grant was given having lapsed. “The difficulty of replacing Dr. Wiles by a competent man is very great, and now Dr. Landis is to be paid as well, but the Bishop hopes that by devoting the Hospital Naval Fund, which he calculates to be worth about £300 a year, for the purpose of assuring a salary of £200 a year to the successor of Dr. Wiles at Seoul, and £100 a year to Dr Landis at Chemulpó, to be able to keep both hospitals going on their present footing. I cannot doubt that this disposition of the Hospital Naval Fund will be other than approved by the subscribers, but it does point to the necessity for the contributions being continued so as to ensure these salaries. “That many have subscribed out of respect and love for the Bishop himself there is no doubt, and his old friends and mess-mates must in due course become reduced in number, while he feels that in a trying climate, with heavy responsibilities, with few comforts, his own life is uncertain ; it is, therefore, natural that he should be anxious to make the Corean Mission a permanent item in our naval charities, and to this end to secure annual donations. “As one who has seen the good work in progress, and who is convinced that earnest Christian men are engaged in a Mission of much promise for the benefit of humanity, I should wish to become a Vice-President of the Hospital Naval Fund, and an annual subscriber to the funds of the Mission. "I enclose an order on my bankers, " And remain, yours very truly, "E. R. FREMANTLE, “Vice-Admiral and Commander-in-Chief. “The Rev. J. B. HARBORD, " Chaplain of the Fleet, Retired." ________________________________________ The hermit Nation. THE COREANS AND THEIR CLOTHING. The King of Corea was born in 1852, and nominated to the throne in 1864, the recently-deceased king having left no heir. His Majesty's father, a despot and a rabid hater of Christianity and progress, acted as regent till 1873. The king is nominally an absolute monarch, but he can scarcely move a step except   8 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ with the consent of China and at the risk of angering Japan. He himself is friendly towards foreigners and progress, but many of his counsellors and servants are vehemently opposed to all inter-course with outsiders. His people, the Coreans, are physically a fine race, contrasting greatly with the short and slight Japanese. Many of the men are tall, strong, and stalwart, and several met

GROUP OF COREAN GENTLEMEN. with in the streets of Seoul are over six feet in height and well formed. Though near relations of the Chinese and Japanese, a near approach to the western type of face-in the more elevated nose, the rounder eye, the more even cheeks, and the more bounteous beard-may be frequently seen among the people. They seem to be well clad and well fed ; but, as rule, I think they are dirtier than the Chinese. Their clothing is made,   THE MORNING CALM. 9________________________________________ generally, of white cotton, lined with cotton wool for the cold season, as in China ; but they seem to use no buttons for fastening their garments, differing greatly in this from their Chinese neighbours. Their habit of always wearing hats out of doors and caps within is another great contrast to the habits of the Chinese-who in summer wear nothing on the head, and in winter only a skull cap or (in very cold weather) a quilted bonnet. Their shoes have smaller and less turned-up toes than those worn by most Chinamen, and would seem to be more comfortable. MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. When a man (or boy) is engaged he exchanges his cap for a yellow hat, and that again is put away on the eve of his marriage, when he is entitled to don the black hat and have his hair done up in a knot, instead of the long plaited queue theretofore worn. As in China, marriages in Corea are very much an affair of the parents, and are not uncommon between boys and girls as young as twelve years of age. Marriage always depends on whether the would-be husband or his friends have enough money to buy a wife and then somehow to keep her. From my observations in Seoul and other places I am disposed to think that the unmarried men in Corea are, in proportion to the population, far more numerous than in China, When I have asked a Corean, far beyond marriageable age, why he still carries on his back the badge of bachelorhood, the invariable reply has been, "I have no money to buy a wife." Among the common people, if I may judge from the following incident, marriage would seem to be a comparatively loose affair. One of the missionary families in Seoul needed a nurse or woman-servant, and in order to supply one a man-servant obligingly took to himself a wife. Sometime after she had entered on her duties as servant, her husband very considerately inquired of his employers how his wife acquitted herself : "For," said he, "if she is not up to her work I will send her away and marry another to suit you." And all this apparently in good faith. MOURNING AS A DISGUISE. The mourning costume of Corean men is perhaps one of the most striking things one meets with. The outside of it consists of a long, loose, coarse, dingy-looking calico, reaching to the feet. Over the head comes down a huge hat made of thinly split bamboo or broad reeds, much like a round, deep, wide-mouthed basket, with scalloped edges, and without a handle, turned over a man's head bottom upwards. The mourner's face is thus made   10 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ practically invisible to the passer-by-an effect increased by the mourning fan, which he often uses to cover the whole face up to the eyes. As no one is supposed to speak to a mourner in public, this mourning costume affords a splendid means for anyone to disguise himself, and the Roman Catholic priests have made good use of it in the last hundred years. By means of this garb they were able to enter the Forbidden Land ; and by the same means they were able to reside and prosecute their work even in the capital itself before the country was opened to foreign commerce in 1882, though, of course, only with the strictest privacy.

THE COREANS WORSHIP.

The palmy days of Buddhism were from the beginning of the tenth to the close of the fourteenth century, and it is probable that religious buildings, such as temples, monasteries, nunneries, pagodas, and images, with priests and nuns, were then common objects in Corea. Such symbols have nearly all disappeared, and the common people seldom repair to these temples to worship except on festival occasions. Buddhist worship is in Corea, as elsewhere, an affair of the priests and nuns chiefly, and concerns the people but very little. Ancestral worship is perhaps one of the most extensive and potent religious forces in the land ; and the worship of heaven and earth, and of the governing spirits of the kitchen, of the land and grain, of the seas and rivers, of woods and mountains, is little, if any, less mighty. Confucius himself even is not forgotten. There is a temple to his honour in connection with every district city-or county town, as we should say ; the building is always outside the limits of the town, and thither the scholars and magistrates repair to worship at the appointed seasons. Tauism also is not wholly unknown in Corea ; at any rate, there are temples to Kwan-Ti, well known as the Chinese God of War and patron divinity of the Empire, and the most honoured god in the Tauist pantheon. I saw no Tauist priests of any sort, but such could probably be found by anyone residing among the people. BLIND MEN EXORCISING FEVERS. Demonolatry also is a feature of Tauism which prevails in Corea. The air around and above is supposed to abound in evil spirits, which are always and everywhere bent on doing mischief to mankind, and "possession" by such spirits is believed to be of frequent occurrence. Exorcism, therefore, is not an unknown art. A non-missionary acquaintance, resident then in Corea, gave me a description of what he had witnessed once or   THE MORNING CALM. 11________________________________________ twice at a native village. Some, if not all, fevers are believed to be produced by evil spirits taking their abode within the bodies of men. Medicine is of little account in such cases. Blind men seem the only agents capable of expelling the fiery evil spirit. A jar is placed beside the sick person, over whom the blind man makes many gestures and becomes terribly excited. In time the evil spirit reluctantly yields to this blind operator's spell, and comes forth ; but no sooner does he do so than he is driven into the jar, and then the jar is instantly closed and buried in the earth, whence it is believed he can never come forth again. This is something akin to the idea of the people of Tai-yuen-fu in Shansi, China, who in many cases keep three large open-mouthed jars on the roofs of their houses, enticing any demons that may roam about the houses to enter, and whence it is believed they cannot come out again, although the jar's mouth remains uncovered. SPITTING ON THE SACRED CAIRNS. Before leaving Corea I should like to lead your readers once more along its well-trodden roads, and look at a curious object -a heap of stones, or rather heaps of stones mixed with some broken bricks ; for they are numerous, and seen at intervals along every road. On the tree or bush round which the heap is usually collected, rags of various colours, new and old, cast-off shoes and sandals, and even bits of paper, are hung up by travellers as votive offerings to the cairns. Now and then a copper coin or two may be seen lying on a stone or brick, and one of my pony drivers yields to the temptation and transfers the cash to his own pocket, evidently thinking it a good joke. Most of the native passers-by bow to the heap when they are just abreast of it, and many also add a stone or bit of brick to the pile. Many, moreover, spit upon the heap after bowing to it, and the spitting is evidently as reverential as the bowing. My Corean interpreter, and even some Corean literati, did not seem to know much about these heaps, except that there was a sort of sacredness about them. As to the spitting, which is not done by the Coreans as an act of reverence or worship in any other case, I suspect that it is a degraded form of anointing or libation. The Corean Missionary Brotherhood. ON Wednesday, November 16, we were visited by the Right Rev. Bishop Smythies, of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, who was much interested in our work, and inspected   12 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ our two houses in Vassall Road, and the Chapel, which we have been recently trying to complete. Bishop Smythies spoke a few words of kindly encourage-ment to the members of the Brotherhood, advising them especially to let their bodily training keep pace with their intellectual, in view of the great physical strain which Mission work in such a district as Central Africa puts upon even the strongest constitution. One of the men, W. E. Russell, he saw separately, and, finding that he had been trained as a printer, asked him to take up that work again at once in Central Africa. He will leave for Zanzibar on January 10th with our earnest prayers, and we hope with those of all interested in our work. Though this is the second brother who has already left us for the Mission Field, the Brotherhood is steadily on the increase, and with the New Year we hope to welcome six new members, four for Central Africa and two for Corea. The Spirit of Missions. THERE is a very valuable article in the Church Missionary Intelligencer for December, by the Rev. G. Ensor, which should be read by all who desire to know the truth with regard to the relations between Christianity and Buddhism in the East. We could wish, indeed, that by being published in one of the reviews it might have become known to a class of readers other than are likely to see it now. Those who read missionary papers are, for the most part, already well disposed toward the Missions, and indeed, possibly, they are not sufficiently critical with regard to some things-though we doubt whether he whose interest is keenest may not be, after all, the most rigidly severe of critics. But such a paper as this could not fail to counteract the careless and wholly misleading statements which are some-times made as to the present state of non-Christian religious systems. Mr. Ensor's article is called forth by Sir Edwin Arnold's account of the Japanese Buddhists, and his doings among them, as given in his “Seas and Lands." Now, nobody who has had opportunities of gauging the opinion of educated Japanese (either in England or in Japan) can fail to know that the Japanese are foremost in repudiating Sir Edwin Arnold's ideas of Japanese Buddhism. But Mr. Ensor is not content with a general denial, but makes a detailed examination of his state-ments in a way which leaves nothing to be desired.   THE MORNING CALM. 13________________________________________ The following, taken from the Mission Field, is a vivid account of a journey through SWAZILAND by the Rev. J. L. Morris : - “At Wyldsdale I found a small mining camp, and the men were of the roughest type. I came across them at the store and canteen, and they were much surprised to see a clergyman among them ; they were very kind to me, and gave me a hearty welcome. But out of the whole number I only saw two sober men. Though at first they were inclined to keep me at a KEUM KANG SAN (MONASTERY OF YU CHEM SA). distance, I soon made some friends. There were two men who gave me a little encouragement. One was the son of a general. He was, as he said, a desperate man. His wife had left him, and that had been his ruin. He promised me that he would leave the camp that very day, and he did, for we met again next day at the Horo. He has a little boy who is with the grandparents. He was evidently fond of the child, for when he spoke about him he cried pitifully-a big burly man crying like a woman. We promised to correspond. The other case was that of a   14 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ young man who had left home sixteen years before, and during that time had never written a word home, and did not know whether his people were alive or dead. While he was speaking I caught his accent, and knew that he was a fellow Welshman. I spoke to him in Welsh, and when he heard it his bronzed face turned quite pale. I know his people, and his vicar is a particular friend of mine. The parents are alive, and I hope that by this time they will have received their son's letter. Here I baptized the storekeeper's little child I found a number of natives about. In the mines there were Zulus, Swazies, and Amashangano people. The country around here was fairly populated and healthy. “From the Wyldsdale I made for the Horo. On the way I got to a butcher's shanty. I found the butcher and a friend at home, and saluted them. They asked me to off-saddle and to choose my drink. I asked for a cup of coffee, whereat they laughed. They said, 'We have not tasted tea or coffee or any other old woman's tackle for months.’ I suggested then a cup of coffee each as a luxury, and off went a boy to the store for coffee, and we drank a cup each. The sun was setting, and before I went I told my two friends that I intended to hold service at the Horo on the morrow. Would they come? ‘We are too bad, sir.’ 'Ah!' I replied, 'services were instituted for you and me, so come.' The sun had set by the time I got to the manager's house. He was very kind and hospitable. On Sunday I went round the workings and found all in full work. I announced to all that I would hold a service in the men's quarters at three o'clock. I found one man had an American organ. We transported that into the room, and had a very nice service. "No one can conceive what mining-camp life is like without going into it and taking part in it. The men all make high wages-from £17 to £25 each month. Their wants are few, and smuggled spirits cheap. The Portuguese are the ruin of white as well as black. The country round the Horo is very thickly populated, especially along the banks of the Komate river. The natives at the mine were mostly Amashangano people. As far as I could make out, these people are very low in the scale of civilisation. I saw a kraal of them, and I never saw anything so degrading. The men were quite naked ; the married women only had an apron of skin round the waist. "I left the Horo very early on Monday morning and went by myself through quite new country. The country around was the late king's special hunting ground. It was thorn-bush   THE MORNING CALM. 15________________________________________ country, and covered with tall grass. For hours I went by a native path, and often both horse and myself were hidden in the grass. The heat was intense, and it was so lonely. About noon I off-saddled under the shade of what I thought was a friendly palm-tree. However, before I had knee-haltered the horse the poor creature began to tremble, and just then I heard a big rush, and out of the undergrowth came a leopard and two cubs. I had nothing but my spawbok (riding whip). We looked at each other for a few seconds, and then she quietly marched away. It was a pretty sight, but it made me feel a little uncomfortable. "The birds around were of the most beautiful plumage, but they screeched in the most horrid manner. I soon up-saddled again and made for the Komate river. I was now quite on the Lubombo Flats. About 4 P.M. I was at the Komate and crossed pretty easily, but narrowly escaped a quicksand. This is a formidable river, and a man must be a swimmer to cross in summer. All along this valley I found people. But no white men can live here. Those that I met were all suffering from fever. Even the natives suffer very much in summer. “From the Komate I made for the Umbulusi river, and be-tween these two rivers I saw more natives than I had yet seen in Swaziland, except, perhaps, at the royal kraals. And I feel sure that there are certain parts here quite healthy both in summer and still more in winter. At sunset I crossed the Umbulusi river and got to Bukhaw's store on the further bank. Here I found all the people down with fever. I wonder what men will not do where making a little money is concerned. These men live most miserable lives, always suffering from fever, and all to make a little money. I say a little money, for their trade cannot be very extensive. On this eastern side of the Umbulusi there was some rising ground, and I think a white man would find it fairly healthy. The ground is said to be very fertile, and really all the vegetation bears evidence of this. Just here the country was like a large English park ; the thorn bush (mimosa) dotted around, and a lovely range of hills as a back-ground. Going still eastward one came to the Chief Mahashi's district, and this is very populous. But here again the summer is unhealthy. You can live from about May to the end of December, but January and February are very bad months. "I was very glad indeed when I got into Bremersdorp, as my horse was dead lame, and I very tired. Next morning the Judge of the High Court lent me a horse to go on, and I landed home,”   16 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ The consecration of the new Bishop for Nyassaland on St. Thomas's Day should be the occasion of great thankfulness among all Churchmen. The Central African Mission re-cently received a harvest thanksgiving offering of £3 from Barbadoes, with a message from the Chaplain who sent it. “It is not a large sum, but when you know that my congrega-tion, with the exception of three people, is composed of black people, whose weekly wage averages 4s. 2d., I think you will be pleased. Altogether this year they have given rather over £12 to Mission work.” It cannot be doubted that the greater part of the support of foreign Missions comes from the poor!