^ PRINCETON, N. J. \j 
 
 BX 5700 .M3 A314 
 Maples, Chauncy, 1852-1895. 
 Chauncy Maples, D.D., F.R.G 
 S., pioneer missionary in 
 
*• 
 
THE LIFE OF BISHOP MAPLES 
 
CHAUNCY MAPLES 
 
 D.D., F.R.G.S. 
 
 PIONEER MISSIONARY IN EAST CENTRAL 
 AFRICA FOR NINETEEN YEARS 
 
 AND 
 
 BISHOP OF LIKOMA, LAKE m ASA::r:::;rr: 
 
 A.D. 1895 / V 
 
 A SKETCH OF HIS LIFEN/"" ''^ 
 
 WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS LETT^^ ' ^ 
 
 BY HIS SISTER 
 
 £llev> C:A\\he>rt Ci^^^ltf^) Cook 
 
 With Portraits and a Map. 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 39, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 
 1897 
 
 [All Rights Reserved.] 
 
BBADsrBT, AeKETw, & CO. LB^ rvonBoa, 
 
 LONDON AND TONBBIDGE. 
 
%\\ /iRemoriam : Cbautics /IRaples, :fiSi6bop of Xiftoma. 
 
 September 12, 1895. 
 
 I JOURNEYED to the bounds of time and space, 
 And whatsoe'er the wise in books have writ 
 
 Of stars and suns that run their mystic race, 
 I read and pondered it. 
 
 But at my heart I bore a secret pain ; 
 
 For you, my more than brother, were no more; 
 Sunk in a deeper than the Southern main, 
 
 A sea without a shore. 
 
 So cold and dull my heart, that His great cry 
 Which once availed to pierce death's gloomy veil— 
 
 "The Besurrection and the Life am I"— 
 Seemed but an empty tale. 
 
 "And who," I said, "shall vouch the story true? 
 
 The dim, unyielding curtain who shall rend ? 
 Who shall give back to me my part in you, 
 
 My dear, my dearest friend '? " 
 
 I spoke in bitterness: then unashamed, 
 
 Intent to range the stellar spaces vast 
 With that great glass by Galileo framed, 
 
 Into the night I passed. 
 
 I saw Orion draw his misty sword 
 Through worlds aflame, rejoicing as he ran ; 
 
 Sirius, a burning sun, kept watch and ward. 
 And fierce Aldeboran. 
 
 What fancy has not dreamed, nor heart conceived 
 Of starry worlds, was pictured firm and clear ; 
 
 That which in books I read and scarce believed. 
 It all was mirrored here. 
 
 "And art thou of such cold and faithless clay 
 That cannot trust unless it see God's Hand ? " 
 
 The voice of that great Silence seemed to say — 
 " Then see and understand I 
 
 " Thy friend a lovely constellation* soars 
 
 High in God's sky, a pvire celestial gem ; 
 Around him all the heavenly host adores; 
 
 He lives and loves with them. 
 
 "He hath outsoared the shadow of our night,+ 
 
 Its dark and gloomy, all-embracing shade 
 Attains not him, for in God's holy light 
 
 He circles, unafraid. 
 
 " Then purge thy vision. Love is not love that burns 
 
 With selfish flame, for self is ever dross : 
 The glass that God and all His saints discerns 
 
 Is Love refined by loss." 
 
 Day dawned, and those tremendous fires grew dim. 
 Yet held their unseen courses, steadfast all; 
 
 And that dear friend-revealing waits for him. 
 When the long night shall fall. 
 
 E. F. Brown. 
 * Daniel xii. 3. + Shelley. 
 
 a* 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In this sketch of my brother's hfe and collection of 
 his letters, I have striven to be brief, for the breathless 
 end of the nineteenth century seems more than ever to 
 call for brevity, not only as the soul of wit, but of all 
 things. Therefore, though with regret, I have omitted 
 all extracts from my brother's earlier letters, and have 
 confined them strictly to the African period, which, 
 however, comprised nearly all his manhood. 
 
 It is possible that this volume may be followed later 
 on by one consisting entirely of his own writings. The 
 diary of his journey to Meto, for instance, a journey 
 merely mentioned in this book, is full of interest for the 
 student of African travel. 
 
 I wish to thank warmly several friends who have 
 helped me in the preparation of this book for the press. 
 The Rev. John Moore Lester has most kindly gone 
 over the whole manuscript and given valuable advice, 
 more especially in that most thankless of tasks — 
 cutting down. Miss Woodward, of the Universities' 
 
Preface. 
 
 Mission to Central Africa, has corrected the speUing 
 where necessary of the African names, whilst she and 
 several other members of the Mission have kindly con- 
 tributed pages of reminiscences. 
 
 I would draw special attention to the letters of the 
 two African teachers, Eustace Malisawa and Aognstine 
 Ambali. 
 
 Miss Palmer, of the Universities' Mission, has allowed 
 her photograph of Archdeacon Maples and the Eev. 
 W. P. Johnson to be reproduced for this book. My 
 thanks are due to her for this courtesy, as also to 
 Messrs. Elliott and Fry for allowing their photograph 
 of the Bishop to be reproduced. And lastly, to my 
 brother-in-law, Mr. Giarles Medd, who has kindly 
 prepared the Index. 
 
 EujEN Maflbs. 
 
 Amgaut, 1897. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAET I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF CHAUNCY MAPLES .... 1 
 
 PAET II. 
 
 SKETCH OF THE LIFE {continued) 13 
 
 PAET III. 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM HIS LETTERS AND JOURNALS ... 39 
 PAET lY. 
 
 NOTES AND MEMORIES BY WORKERS FOR AFRICA AND 
 
 AFRICANS 374 
 
 INDEX . 399 
 
 ILLUSTEATIONS 
 PORTRAIT OF BISHOP MAPLES .... Frontispiece 
 
 ARCHDEACON MAPLES AND REV. W. P. JOHNSON . Facing p. 362 
 MAP OF EAST CENTRAL AFRICA At end 
 
LIST OF DATES 
 
 1852, Feb. llth . 
 1875 . 
 
 1876, March 18th 
 
 September . 
 
 1877, July . 
 November . 
 
 1879 . 
 
 1880 . 
 
 1881 . 
 1882,* Sept. 
 1883-1886 . 
 
 1884 . 
 1886 . 
 
 1890 . 
 
 1893, September 
 1894 . 
 
 1895 
 
 J7me 29th 
 
 July llth 
 Sept. 2nd 
 
 Born. 
 
 Chauncy Maples ordained Deacon at Cuddesdon. 
 Sailed for Africa to join the Universities' Mission 
 
 to Central Africa at Zanzibar. 
 Ordained Priest by Bishop Steere. 
 Went up to Masasi to take charge of the station. 
 Journey of 250 miles in Rovuma Valley and 
 
 Makonde country. 
 First visit to England. 
 Back at Masasi. 
 
 Journey of 900 miles to the Meto country. 
 
 Magwangwara raid on Masasi. 
 
 Rev. Chauncy Maples chief of the station of Newala, 
 
 having moved from Masasi. 
 Second visit to England. 
 
 Went to Lake Nyasa to take charge of the station 
 on Likoma Island. — Appointed Archdeacon by 
 Bishop Smythies. 
 
 Third visit to England. 
 
 Started a new station at Unangu, Yao country, in 
 Portuguese territory. — Dr. Hine in charge. 
 
 Started work at Kota-Kota, on west shore of Lake 
 Nyasa, in British Protectorate. — Sent Mr. Sim 
 there. 
 
 Fourth visit to England. 
 
 Consecrated Bishop of Likoma at St. Paul's 
 
 Cathedral, London. 
 Returned to Africa. 
 Drowned in Lake Nyasa. 
 
 * Bishop Steero died in August of this year. From 1883 to 1894 Bishop 
 Smythies was Bishop of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa. 
 In 1892 the diocese was divided, and Dr. Hornby was appointed Bishop 
 of Nyasaland. He resigned in 1894. 
 
LIFE OF CHAUNCY MAPLES, 
 
 BISHOP OP LIKOMA, LAKE NYASA. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 4 
 
 * ' His life was gentle ; and tiie elements 
 So mixed in him that Nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world, * This luas a man.' " 
 
 Shakspere. 
 
 Yes, and a man of the world in the best sense of the 
 term," as one of his fellow- workers remarked ; whilst the 
 officials and traders in British Central Africa and the 
 chance travellers he met with on his many journeys by 
 land and water, were wont to say that Chauncy Maples 
 was "not like a missionary" — an expression on their 
 part meant to convey high praise ! For perhaps the 
 missionary in his profession, as so many other men in 
 theirs, is apt to get narrow and exclusive. Certainly 
 one of the strongest points in Maples' character was his 
 sympathy, true and wide, with " all sorts and conditions 
 of men." 
 
 CM. 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 A scientific traveller — Mr. G. F. Scott-Elliot, a man 
 accustomed to weigh facts and the words by which facts 
 are to be expressed — writes of Chauncy Maples as "an 
 ideal missionary. ... I feel I shall never see again a 
 missionary so near to the spirit of the first Evangelists;" 
 and he further described him as one ivhose sympathies 
 extend even to Europeans,'' 
 
I. 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 
 
 Ghauncy Maples was born at Bound's Green, Middlesex, 
 on the 17th February, 1852. He was the thh'd son 
 and sixth child of Frederick Maples, and of Charlotte 
 Elizabeth, his wife, his father coming of a Yorkshire 
 family, formerly settled at Thorne and elsewhere in the 
 West Riding. But Mr. Frederick Maples' father settled 
 in London in 1805, and practised there as a solicitor.* 
 Yorkshiremen are generally credited with certain quali- 
 ties, to wit, shrewdness, firmness of character, and 
 considerable powers of argument. Therefore, to those 
 who still believe in heredity I think one may say that 
 Chauncy Maples inherited all these qualifications from 
 his north country forefathers. And while talking of the 
 north of England I may just go over the border to 
 remark that his grandmother on his mother's side was 
 of Scottish descent. Scots' blood is good blood to have 
 in one's veins, and perhaps the Scot, even more than the 
 Englishman, is a born pioneer and colonist. 
 
 His mother was a daughter of Nathaniel Snell Chauncy, 
 of Little Munden, Herts. The Chauncys are a Norman 
 family, who settled first in Yorkshire, where they were 
 Barons of Scirpenbeck. They afterwards migrated to 
 Hertfordshire ; and in 1637 a Chauncy of that period, 
 being vicar of Ware and a Puritan, came into unpleasant 
 collision with Archbishop Laud, and finally emigrated 
 
 * At 6, Frederick's Place, Old Jewry, City, of which fiim the 
 Bishop's father, Mr. Frederick Maples, is now the head. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 to America, where he became the second President of 
 Harvard College, and was the ancestor of the numerous 
 Chauncys to be found in America at the present day. 
 History repeats itself, though not always on the same 
 lines, for in the reign of Henry VIII. Maurice Chauncy, 
 of the order of Carthusians, settled in a monastery in 
 London, resisted, with seventeen more of the brethren, 
 the king's command for the dissolution of their com- 
 munity, and was imprisoned for many years, though at 
 last he managed to escape, and became prior of a 
 Carthusian monastery at Bruges. Later on he returned 
 to England, and was confessor to Queen Mary. It was 
 this Carthusian monastery in London which afterwards 
 became the Charterhouse School, and in the quiet clois- 
 ters of the monks the boys of a later generation played 
 football. Of these boys Chauncy Maples was one, and 
 he was always proud to call himself an old Carthusian. 
 
 In writing of Maples' childhood and boyhood the 
 central figure of the story must always be his mother. 
 She would not have put herself there, but without a 
 doubt her strong, consistent Christian life and teaching 
 were an immense influence for good with her children, 
 even when, as in the case of her boys, so much of their 
 life was necessarily passed away from her immediate 
 presence. Only a few months before he started on his 
 last journey, Chauncy said how strongly he felt that he 
 owed all that was best in him to his mother. There is 
 little that need be said of his early childhood. An old 
 friend writes : "As a small child he was particularly 
 interesting and of a remarkably happy disposition, never 
 fretful or cross ; lively and very sensitive where his 
 feelings were concerned. He had an intense love of music, 
 and would sit quietly engrossed with it. From the few 
 things from which I can judge it seems to me that his 
 early training left a deep impression on his character." 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 5 
 
 Another very old lady and dear friend says: "From 
 his earliest boyhood I remember him as gentle and 
 well-mannered ; rather retiring and thoughtful, yet not 
 indifferent to the interests of young life. In after years, 
 when visiting his old friend (the husband of the writer 
 of these memories, who, like himself, has passed away), 
 they went to take a last leave of the old church where 
 they had both worshipped many years. They knelt 
 together, no others being present, and the old friend 
 who loved the youth gave him his blessing, repeating 
 the beautiful verse from the 2nd Epistle of St. Paul to 
 the Thessalonians — ' I pray God your whole spirit and 
 soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ.' This was in March, 1876, just 
 before his departure for Africa on his missionary labours. 
 In proof that it was impressed on his memory he recalled 
 the incident in after years. His kindness of heart was 
 dearly appreciated when, on his last important visit to 
 England (1895), he made time to come some distance and 
 pay a visit to this aged friend ; and again, before he 
 finally left home, he came to take a last farewell, and he 
 said, ' We shall not meet again in this world, but here- 
 after we shall meet,' and he tenderly and devoutly placed 
 his hands on her head and gave her his episcopal blessing, 
 which has been ever since felt to unite still closer the 
 bonds of a long and very sincere affection and admiration 
 for this faithful and holy man of God." 
 
 School days soon came ; first he was sent to a private 
 school at Wimbledon, and then, when he was about 
 fourteen, to the Charterhouse. One of his school friends 
 at Wimbledon speaks of him as the sort of boy one 
 instinctively knew would go straight." Maples' school 
 friendships were many and firm ; they lasted, in spite 
 of the separation of half a sphere, through all his life. 
 
 And then the holidays ! what happy holidays they used 
 
6 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 to have, those brothers and sisters, together ! Several 
 summer holidays were spent in the Isle of Wight, at 
 Freshwater and Sea View, and Chauncy was always the 
 life and soul of the party, suggesting and then organizing 
 expeditions to places of interest. One of his chief 
 pleasures consisted in taking long walks, sometimes 
 alone, sometimes with his companion sister. He was 
 then about fifteen, and she two or three years younger. 
 He loved to walk across country, map in hand, scorning 
 any other guide. Happy days of healthy exercise and 
 confidential talk were those. Come on," he would 
 say to his companion cheerily if she showed signs of 
 flagging. One famous walk he took alone, from Chester 
 to Lichfield, via Nantwich. This walk was about 50 
 miles at a stretch, but he had set out with the intention 
 of walking to London ! Thus he was unconsciously 
 preparing himself for his long, forced tramps in Africa. 
 
 Another favourite pursuit in those youthful days was 
 sailing — sometimes in a small yacht, sometimes in a 
 centreboard boat. They generally kept in the Solent, or 
 just off the Isle of Wight. But he went for one or two 
 cruises to Dartmouth, and once had a narrow escape of 
 his life in Portland Eace. 
 
 When Maples was nearly fourteen years old a break 
 occurred in his school life on account of an affection of 
 the ear from which he suffered, which necessitated a long 
 and painful course of treatment from an aurist, the late 
 Mr. James Hinton, who perhaps now is almost better 
 known as a philosopher than a medical man. Thanks 
 to Mr. Hinton's skill, Chauncy was practically cured, for 
 the deafness which remained in one ear was but slight. 
 Even when suffering great pain at the aurist's hands his 
 patient would take the liveliest interest in Mr. Hinton's 
 talk, and the latter, recognizing in him a kindred spirit, 
 would initiate philosophical discussions, till his mother 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 7 
 
 said she used to feel quite ashamed when she thought of 
 the many patients waiting in the room near by while 
 these two were discussing lofty subjects barely akin to 
 the matter in hand. One of Chauncy 's strongest charac- 
 teristics was his faculty for making friends — friends 
 amongst all classes of men. He possessed that indefin- 
 able quality — personal charm, fascination — call it what 
 you will. And this power of attraction grew with his 
 growth and strengthened with his strength. 
 
 As an athlete he was fairly good at running, not very 
 great nor very enthusiastic in cricket, rather more fond 
 of football, a good swimmer, and, as before mentioned, a 
 very good walker. During the last years of his school 
 life he studied English literature, and began to take an 
 interest in science ; also he gained the Thackeray prize 
 at the Charterhouse for an essay on English Sonnets 
 and Sonneteers." 
 
 And here I give a short " impression " from the pen 
 of one of Maples' fellow-Carthusians, the Kev. E. F. 
 Brown, of the Oxford Mission, Calcutta, who was soon 
 admitted to the inner circle of his friends : — 
 
 went to Charterhouse in the year when Scott, now 
 Bishop of North China, was captain of the cricket eleven, 
 and Gibson, who has just been appointed to be vicar of 
 Leeds, captained a never- vanquished eleven at football. 
 I found there, my senior by a few months and in the 
 same house, one of those delightful boys who take a 
 whole school by storm. Playful, sweet-tempered, and 
 with an endless capacity for amusement, Chauncy 
 Maples was popular both with boys and masters. It was 
 not long before I became his willing captive, and we 
 made our way up the school together." 
 
 At Christmas, 1869, Chauncy Maples left the Charter- 
 house, and for some months went to a private tutor, 
 Mr. J. B. Mozley, of King's College, London, to prepare 
 
8 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 for Oxford. Failing to matriculate in October, 1870, 
 he worked hard for a month or two with Mr. Ward at 
 Oxford, and entered University College in January, 1871. 
 Dr. Bradley, now Dean of Westminster, was then Master 
 of the College. And here again, for an epitome of his 
 Oxford career, we quote the words of this same school 
 friend* and of another college friend. 
 
 "Afterwards," he continues, "I followed him to the 
 University. He was the same there ; no brighter, 
 happier, or — it must be added — more careless under- 
 graduate could be found at Oxford. Perhaps it was his 
 very versatility which prevented him from achieving any 
 great distmction. He would settle down to what he 
 called a good morning's steady reading, but presently he 
 would dash from his seat and execute a brilliant fantasia — 
 as often as not improvised — upon the piano, or he would 
 rush out, with a hunch of bread in his pocket, and spend 
 a long day in the woods. Then there would be talks far 
 into the night, or till the day was breaking, leaving him 
 too much exhausted to do any serious work the next day. 
 In after days, when I read Jeaffreson Hogg's description 
 of his own and Shelley's undergraduate life, it seemed to. 
 me that I had had just such another 'incomparable 
 friend.' But in Maples' case, amidst all his vagaries — 
 and they were always wholly innocent — there was the 
 sure anchorage of a home whose tender sanctities had 
 never been violated. What was to become of this radiant, 
 irresponsible creature? — for such at times he seemed. 
 And an older, wiser friend than myself might have asked 
 in some anxiety what fruitage there could be of a life 
 which seemed only to put forth ever fresh flowers. Such 
 anxious questionings would have been in vain, for the 
 net was already thrown which was to land this glittering 
 
 *Both these friends have told me that it was Maples' example 
 which decided them to take holy orders. — E. M. 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. g 
 
 prey at the feet of the Eternal Fisherman — to make him 
 in turn one of His own 'fishers of men.' It came through 
 a college friend, one who survives him in Africa, where 
 he still wields his Herculean powers of body and soul in 
 his Master's service, and who some day will be known, if 
 he is not known already, as one of the great missionaries 
 of the world's history. I shall never forget the quick 
 step on the stairs one morning long before the hour at 
 which Maples was usually up, the sudden opening of the 
 door, and the silence which seemed an hour while I 
 waited for the interpretation of the alternate cloud and 
 sunshine chasing each other over his face ; and then the 
 short, sharp sentence, ' Johnson is going out to Africa 
 with Bishop Steere, and, of course — I am going too.' 
 The words struck a chill' to my heart — they seemed a 
 death knell to our friendship; but I was just able to 
 refrain from telling him so. . . . He had indeed chosen 
 well ! From that day he was a new man. All the old 
 charm was there — the delightfulness of companionship, 
 the brilliancy of temper, the keen, quick play of 
 sympathy — but now all was directed to a noble object, 
 and the sense of fruitlessness and waste was gone. 
 ' Blessed is the man who has found his life's work,' says 
 Carlyle. In his case the blessing was apparent, and an 
 almost visible consecration descended upon all his 
 powers." 
 
 His other friend, the Rev. J. M. Lester, says : At 
 Oxford he seemed to cling more to his Carthusian friends 
 than to the members of his own college, though it would 
 be a mistake to think that he was not a popular man in 
 college, or that he did not join in the ordinary pursuits 
 and pleasures of his contemporaries there. The college 
 was then head of the river, and he was as keen as the rest 
 of us about boating matters. And so with other things in 
 which the college then excelled ; the pubHc school boy had 
 
lo Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 not forgotten the lesson of esprit de corps. But there were 
 thmgs that interested him more than athletics. Music 
 was his great delight : he was an excellent pianist. In- 
 deed, Church music took up a little too much of his time 
 in view of the inevitable * Schools.' He was constantly 
 to be found at Magdalen enjoying the splendid organ 
 playing and the perfect singing of the choir. Of reading, 
 especially after he had passed moderations, he did a 
 good deal, perhaps not very systematically. But in 
 theology, in which school he took honours, he was 
 certainly very much interested. And generally it was 
 noticed that he was a man of wide reading, and especially 
 well grounded in the English classics." 
 
 A correspondent to the Times of India in November, 
 1895, probably also a school friend, in writing of him, 
 says : " Young Maples was one of the most popular 
 Carthusians that have ever been at Charterhouse." 
 
 In January, 1874, Maples, instead of returning to 
 Oxford, went down to Liphook in Hampshire to read 
 with the Eev. W. W. Capes, staying down there over two 
 terms. He took this step on account of his health, for 
 he suffered from continual headaches when in Oxford. 
 And it was during his residence at Liphook that he made 
 the acquaintance of the venerable judge Sir William Erie, 
 Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Sir William, then 
 about eighty years of age, was fond of young people, and 
 the old man and the youth quickly became firm friends. 
 Sir William was a great lover of Wordsworth, and Chauncy 
 shared his admiration of that poet in his finer moods. 
 ** I found he was a true Wordsworthian," Maples writes, 
 "and so we talked on, and he pulled down his copy of the 
 poems and made me mark a number of passages for him." 
 Indeed, they had many tastes in common, and Sir William 
 up to the day of his death followed Maples' career with 
 great interest, sending him books to his far-off home in 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. ii 
 
 Africa, and occasionally writing him letters in that charm- 
 ing old world style which has now died out. 
 
 Chauncy learnt a great deal during his quiet retreat at 
 Liphook; and when the summer came he moved into 
 still greater isolation, lodging in a cottage in Woolmer 
 Forest, from which, however. Sir William used to rout 
 out the would-be hermit, riding down to visit him on his 
 quiet pony. 
 
 When Maples made up his mind to read for honours 
 in the theological school it is clear he had almost 
 decided to take holy orders. But the idea of being a 
 clergyman — nay, more, of being a missionary — must 
 have been simmering in his mind for many years, 
 for in the year 1891, when he was talking to the children 
 of the school at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, as they sat 
 in rows on the grass at his feet, he said, pointing to a 
 little boy of about twelve years, who was listening with 
 open-mouthed interest to his stories of life in Africa, 
 "Ah! my boy, I must have been about your age when 
 I first began to think of being a missionary, and I was 
 staying down here in Freshwater then too." 
 
 In the letter to his mother in which Maples announces 
 his intention of going out to Africa to work under Bishop 
 Steere he says that this is no " sudden idea" on his part. 
 ** I have often hinted to Ellen and Alice (two of his sisters) 
 that I might at some future time become a missionary. 
 This time has now come." In this same letter, which we 
 print elsewhere, will be found a detailed account of the 
 circumstances under which he offered himself, and was 
 accepted, for work in Africa. 
 
 It was in the Michaelmas term of 1874 that the 
 famous missionary, Bishop Steere, came to Oxford, where 
 he addressed a crowded meeting. Maples did not attend 
 this meeting. But in the Oxford Union, Bishop Steere 
 put up a simple notice on a scrap of blue paper. This 
 
12 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 was an appeal for men. "This paper," Maples said, 
 " attracted first Johnson's attention, and then my own." 
 And it was in response to this appeal that Chauncy 
 Maples offered himself — body, soul, and spirit — for 
 missionary work in Central Africa. 
 
 Before this time he had accepted a curacy at St. 
 Leonards-on-Sea with the understanding that he should 
 in due course succeed the vicar, an old personal friend of 
 his father's, who had the next presentation to the living 
 in his gift. This plan was now given up. He took his 
 degree in June, 1875, after obtaining, owing to ill health, 
 only a third class in the honour school of theology. For 
 some months he worked as a layman under the Rev. 
 John Eyre in Liverpool, and in the following Michael- 
 mas was ordained deacon at Cuddesdon, and began work 
 as curate in St. Mary Magdalene's parish in Oxford under 
 the Rev. Cecil Deedes. He did not, however, remain 
 long in Oxford, for in the following spring, on March 
 18th, 1876, he sailed for Africa. His passage money 
 was paid by the mission, and a sum of ^20 a year given 
 him for clothes, &c. ; board and lodging" was also 
 provided by the mission. These are the terms on which 
 the members of the staff of the Universities' Mission to 
 Central Africa work — priests and laymen alike. 
 
II. 
 
 EARLY MANHOOD AND MIDDLE LIFE. 
 
 Perhaps one of the greatest trials of Maples' life came to 
 him at this tipie. For his parents were not only very 
 averse to his becoming a missionary, but also actively 
 strove to prevent the accomplishment of his purpose. 
 His mother did not and would not recognize his vocation, 
 and many years passed before she was fully reconciled to 
 his choice of work. " There is so much to be done in 
 England," she would say ; " why could he not have taken 
 up mission work in our own * Black Country ? "' 
 
 In his letters it will be seen how cheerfully and 
 sensibly he bore this — an added trial to the already great 
 one of leaving home and Idndred for the Master's sake. 
 Also, like many mothers, his mother could not forget the 
 illnesses of her children. Chauncy nearly died as a 
 baby, and then he suffered long and greatly from the 
 ear affection already mentioned ; therefore she considered 
 that he was physically unfit to cope with the unhealthy 
 climate of East Africa. 
 
 His father sought an interview with Bishop Steere, 
 and for the above and other reasons begged him not to 
 accept his son's offer of himself for the work of the 
 mission. But Bishop Steere remained firm ; the doctors 
 had passed his new recruit, who himself was eager, nay, 
 anxious, to go, and unshaken in his resolve, even by his 
 parents' opposition. However, a promise was extracted 
 from the Bishop that Chauncy should not be sent into 
 the interior of Africa until a year after his arrival in 
 
14 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Zanzibar, his mother fondly hoping, that to keep him 
 within the bounds of civilization would be a preservative 
 of life — that at Zanzibar he would better become accus- 
 tomed to the unhealthy climate of East Africa, and 
 knowing also that he would be within reach of doctors 
 there. It must be remembered, however, that we are 
 speaking of the Africa of 20 years ago. Exploration 
 and civilization have advanced with rapid strides since 
 then. 
 
 Afterwards it seemed as if this promise, asked for and 
 obtained, was a doubtful privilege, for Chauncy's health 
 was worse during that first year in Zanzibar, when he 
 had more attacks of fever than any other member of 
 the mission, than probably during the whole of the rest 
 of his life in Africa. 
 
 He did good work, however, in Zanzibar, holding a 
 theological class for some of the young laymen in the 
 mission who w^ere hoping to take holy orders, and 
 superintending the boys' school, besides the usual work 
 in church services, &c. 
 
 During the course of that year at Zanzibar he accom- 
 panied the Bishop on a visit to Magila, the first inland 
 station of the mission, situated between 30 and 40 miles 
 from the coast at Pangani, and now in German territory. 
 This was Chauncy's first experience of travelling in 
 Africa. 
 
 In September, 1876, he was ordained priest by Bishop 
 Steere at Zanzibar, while at the same time and place 
 W. P. Johnson entered the diaconate. 
 
 But, as Chauncy writes to his mother, his eyes were 
 turned longmgly across the sea to the blue mountains 
 of the mainland, and it was with real joy that at last, 
 in July, 1877, he found himself starting for Masasi, near 
 the Kovuma river, and about 120 miles inland south- 
 west from Lindi, to take charge of the station which 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 15 
 
 Bishop Steere had planted nine months previously. It 
 was in fact a colony of released slaves whom the Bishop 
 had taken back to the mainland from Zanzibar, where 
 they had been under the care of the mission since their 
 rescue by the British bluejackets from the Arab slave 
 traders. Mr. W. P. Johnson was already there, having 
 travelled with the Bishop in the pioneer party of the 
 previous year. 
 
 Chauncy threw himself heart and soul into the work 
 of establishing on a firm basis the first Christian village 
 in Yao and Makua-land, and in starting direct missionary 
 work in the neighbourhood. He was a born pioneer and 
 organizer, and here truly was pioneer work before him. 
 The Bishop had accomplished wonders in the short 
 period — a few weeks only — of his stay at Masasi. He 
 had planned out the village. A broad road was made, 
 with the native houses, built of bamboo and thatch, 
 on each side ; while ten feet of stone wall were already 
 rising as a beginning of the church. This church was 
 soon completed after Maples' arrival. It cost five 
 pounds, that is to say for the material of fabric and cost 
 of labour, and, of course, exclusive of the fittings, &c. 
 But when Maples, at his missionary lectures in 
 England, said that he could build and had built a 
 church in Central Africa for five pounds the statement 
 brought him several other five pound notes for possible 
 churches at new stations. 
 
 In November, 1877, he took a short missionary journey 
 in the Eovuma valley and the Makonde country. It 
 was on this occasion that he first met Matola, chief of 
 Newala, whom he always looked upon as the greatest 
 of his African friends. I give some extracts from an 
 account of this journey which he read at a meeting of 
 the Koyal Geographical Society in the spring of 1880 
 First, with regard to Matola, he says : — " From the spot 
 
i6 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 where the valley first opened out before us signs of culti- 
 vation again began to show themselves, and in another 
 two hours we had arrived at the town of the Yao chief 
 we had come to visit. He came out at once to salute us, 
 and gave us a most hearty welcome. We were told by 
 every one that this man is beloved as no other chief 
 could be loved, and certainly we ourselves were fain to 
 acknowledge that he had quite come up to our expec- 
 tations. He is without exception the most intelligent 
 and the most pleasing African I know. He has many 
 excellent qualities, and withal an amount of energy that 
 is rare in that part of the world. He has a fund of infor- 
 mation about the country, the people, and the languages, 
 of which he can speak six. He is decidedly handsome, has 
 a fine figure, and is considerably taller than any of his 
 people. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about him 
 is the fact that he is a total abstainer. He became an 
 abstainer on principle, and has for many years never 
 touched the native beer or any other intoxicating liquor. 
 Those who know the habits of African chiefs, and their 
 universal beer-drinking propensities, will at once allow 
 that great praise is due to our excellent friend Matola 
 for his temperance. The result of our visit to him, which 
 we prolonged to four days, was that he promised to 
 welcome and help any English clergyman whom I 
 should send to Newala to teach him and his people. . . . 
 
 *' While staying with Matola I was told there was a man 
 who specially wanted to see his English visitors, because 
 he had known something of a white man in old days, 
 and if we were at all like him he should like to make our 
 acquaintance. I desired that he might be presented to 
 us. Forthwith he came — a pompous old man, who spoke 
 in a dignified manner, and who had evidently some in- 
 formation to communicate. Over his right shoulder 
 there hung an old coat, mouldy, partially eaten away. 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 17 
 
 but still to be recognized as of decidedly English make 
 and material. * Whose was it ? ' I thought, as he 
 began with much mystery to tell of a white man who ten 
 years ago had travelled with him to Mataka's town — a 
 white man, he said, whom to have once seen and talked 
 with was to remember for ever — a white man who treated 
 black men as his brothers, and whose memory would be 
 cherished all along that Rovuma valley after we were all 
 dead and gone. Then he described him — a short man 
 with a bushy moustache and a keen, piercing eye, whose 
 words were always gentle and whose manners w^ere 
 always kind, whom as a leader it was a privilege to 
 follow, and who knew the way to the hearts of all men. 
 This was the description this African savage (as men 
 speak) gave of Dr. Livingstone. Then he showed me 
 the coat ; it was ragged now, he knew, but he had kept 
 it those ten years in memory of the giver, from whom it 
 had been a legacy when they parted at Mataka's. To 
 no one but an Englishman would he part with it ; but he 
 let me have it as one of Livingstone's brothers (he said), ^ 
 and it now lies in the museum at Charterhouse School — 
 a precious relic of one whose heart bled for Africa, and 
 whose life was laid down in efforts for her redemption." 
 
 In a Makonde village they "met with a very strange 
 reception. The simple villagers would have it we were 
 ghosts. ... * Who ever heard,' they said, * of human 
 beings with white skins ? ' Fortunately, however, to a 
 pretty urgent appeal for food they responded, and I 
 have always hoped that the way in which we caused to 
 disappear the supply of dried fish they put before us on 
 that hungry evening may have persuaded them that 
 there was bulk and substance about us after all." 
 
 His account of his visit to Machemba, a powerful and 
 cruel Yao chief, is interesting as an illustration of the 
 ready tact required by an African traveller. Only a short 
 
 CM. C 
 
i8 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 extract can be given here. " The guns had attracted the 
 attention of Machemba's people, and they came swarming 
 down the hill to see us. It was a critical moment, for it 
 was doubtful what reception we should get ; and as I 
 looked into the countenances of the men who surrounded 
 us I could not help feeling a little anxious. We were at 
 a disadvantage, knowing nothing at that time of the Yao 
 language, but I felt there was no time to be lost in 
 showing them that we had come on a peaceful errand ; 
 and so, happily bethinking myself of a famous Yao word 
 for expressing surprise and admiration, I came out wdth 
 it all on a sudden with as loud a voice and as much em- 
 phasis as possible, imitating as closely as I could the 
 peculiar intonation with which a Yao would sound it. 
 The word was * u-u-ugicc.'' It had the desired effect. 
 They stared for a second in utter amazement, and 
 then, as I began to smile, they positively roared with 
 delight. They clapped their hands, they cheered, they 
 repeated the word over and over again, they declared I 
 was a Yao born and bred, and it was clear we had won a 
 great victor3\ The crowd swelled round us, and by the 
 time we had reached the middle of the town it was 
 almost impossible to estimate the numbers of the multi- 
 tude that thronged us. We found that our names w^ere 
 well known, though they had undergone considerable 
 corruption in the process of becoming naturalized in the 
 Yao language. I was not a little surprised, for instance, 
 at hearing myself greeted as ' Sita Pepo.' As we knew 
 it to be Machemba's custom to keep any visitor four 
 whole days in his town before going near him we were 
 agreeably surprised at being told that he would be glad 
 to wait on us whenever we were ready to see him. 
 Accordingly, by our desire, he came at once. He 
 shuffled towards us rather shyly, and it was evident that 
 his first interview with his European guests had deprived 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. ig 
 
 him of his usual savoir faire. However, he came up to 
 us and sat down by our side, and after an exchange of 
 smiles he gave me a nudge which nearly upset me, and 
 raised a laugh at our expense. I waited my opportunity, 
 and then returned the nudge with interest. This, of 
 course, turned the laugh against him, and soon we were 
 all laughing together ! " 
 
 In this journey Maples with his companion completed 
 a circuit of 250 miles, being absent from Masasi just 
 three weeks. 
 
 In June, 1879, he returned to England on leave. But 
 the life of a missionary " on a holiday" in England is 
 hard work. So long as he has a voice to speak with or 
 legs to carry him about he is sent north, south, east, 
 and west to lecture or preach "for the mission." A 
 missionary must be as ready to lecture to an audience of 
 half-a-dozen people in a poky room as to a crowded 
 assemblage of six or eight hundred people in a town 
 hall. Chauncy Maples was a first-rate lecturer ; whether 
 speaking to adults or to children he arrested and kept 
 the close attention of his audience. "I want him to 
 begin again at the beginning and say it all over again," 
 said a little girl at the close of one of his speeches. And 
 another simple listener remarked, " When I look at his 
 beautiful face I believe every word that he says." He was 
 not exactly eloquent, though never at a loss for a word, 
 but his single-minded earnestness penetrated into the 
 hearts and mmds of his hearers, carried them with 
 him to far-off Africa, and aroused a temporary if not 
 permanent interest in missions to the heathen. Then 
 there was the charm of a bright smile and a clear 
 musical voice. He always seemed to talk to his 
 hearers rather than lecture to them — to talk to them 
 confidentially — confidently appealing to then' higher 
 nature. And his discourses were seasoned with the 
 
 c 2 
 
20 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 salt of humour — needless to say, a great point in their 
 favour. 
 
 And so with his sermons ; they were no studied 
 orations, but they were thoughtfully written, and they 
 were real. In the winter of this year in England he 
 had a sharp attack of bronchitis, which cut short by 
 two months " deputation work," though as soon as 
 he had sufficient voice again he spoke and preached at 
 Torquay, where he had gone to recruit his health. It 
 was during this first return visit to England that he read 
 a paper on the Makua language before the Philological 
 Society. His was no mere empiric knowledge of Afric&,n 
 languages ; he strove to learn them, and put them, for 
 the benefit of succeeding students, on a scientific basis. 
 His excellent ear for music was an immense help in his 
 study of African languages, as they have to be learnt, to 
 a great extent, by sound. 
 
 Maples reached his African home at Masasi again in 
 September, 1880. As may readily be imagined, the conduct 
 of affairs at Masasi was no easy task. Here was a colony 
 of released slaves planted out in the heart of Africa, of 
 which the missionaries had not only the spiritual, but, of 
 necessity, also the temporal headship. The chiefs of 
 the surrounding villages ruled their own people, and in 
 questions arising between their people and the villagers 
 of Masasi were called on by the missionaries to give 
 judgment. But in questions of law and discipline, in 
 the colony of released slaves itself, the missionaries 
 alone were the judges. A serious accusation was brought 
 against a man in the village, and Maples, with his fellow- 
 workers, Janson and Porter, decided to hold an inquiry 
 or trial on the matter. He describes this trial in one of 
 his letters, and says that it was in their eyes successful, 
 as the evidence, or rather want of it, proved the inno- 
 cence of the man against whom the accusation was 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 21 
 
 brought. But this trial had far-reaching consequences, 
 for Bishop Steere took exception to some of the proceed- 
 ings, and wrote strong letters to Masasi on the subject ; 
 thus a difference arose between him and Maples, which 
 was further accentuated by the Bishop's action with 
 regard to some articles which Maples had written for a 
 periodical called " Mission Life " on the subject of released 
 slave communities in Africa, including questions of 
 discipline, and so on. These articles were, as Chauncy 
 himself said, intended to invite criticism and discussion, 
 for there are usually two sides to a question, and is it an 
 Irishism to say sometimes tivo right sides ? Probably if 
 the Bishop and his workers at Masasi could have met 
 and talked the matter over they would have come to 
 an agreement. " Do not think I can differ from you 
 without pain," he wrote. But they never did meet again, 
 for the Bishop died in the following year. In the summer 
 of 1881 Maples took the longest journey of an exploring 
 nature he ever made in Africa. The journey was, for 
 the most part, through land unknown to Europeans, 
 lying between Masasi and the coast at Mozambique. It 
 was undertaken for missionary purposes, but from that 
 point of view the results were negative, the people 
 through whose country he passed for the most part 
 refusing to receive teachers. This journey, however, was 
 an important one from a geographical point of view. The 
 diary he kept during this journey, and which has not yet 
 been printed, will probably now be published. But Maples 
 also wrote a short account for the Koyal Geographical 
 Society, which is printed in their magazine of February, 
 1882. He was a Fellow not only of this Society, but 
 also of the Geographical Societies of Manchester, and of 
 Edinburgh. During this journey, which occupied two 
 and a half months, he walked 900 miles. 
 In the next year, 1882, a great disaster fell on Masasi, 
 
22 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 when the warrior tribe of Gwangwara swooped down on 
 the village, burnt it, and carried away many of the people 
 into captivity. Maples wrote a graphic account of this 
 raid, which we reprint amongst his letters. It will be seen 
 from this recital that it was the difficult and humiliating 
 policy of non-resistance which probably saved the lives 
 of the little colony of Masasi. But the Gwangwara raid 
 gave the death blow to the plan, not too well considered, 
 of planting a colony of released slaves in the heart of 
 Central Africa. You cannot in justice lead out a people 
 into a savage and warlike country and then deny them 
 the power of self-defence. And yet missionaries must 
 not shed blood. 
 
 Necessity solved the problem, for the released slaves 
 were for the most part sent back to Zanzibar, while the 
 few couples who remained removed with the missionaries 
 to the safer retreat of Newala, higher up in the hills, 
 where the Gwangwara are afraid to go, and where the 
 missionaries also had the advantage of living close to 
 the friendly chief Matola. In the summer of 1884 
 Maples returned to England for the second time. His 
 return had become imperative, on account of a large and 
 persistent ulcer on the shin of his leg, which had refused 
 to be healed during the space of seventeen months. 
 There is one redeeming point about these bad African 
 ulcers — they ward off fever, or, in other words, if you 
 have ulcers as a rule you do not have fever at the same 
 time. He took a little rest in the country with his 
 family during the months of August and September, and 
 then plunged into "deputation" work. Writing from 
 Cambridge, he says, " I have three meetings to-day, and 
 then my work at Cambridge will be over. Altogether I 
 shall have spoken and preached twelve times." 
 
 Once he was preaching to children in a country 
 church, and from the pulpit, moreover, when, in the 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 23 
 
 course of his address — afraid of being led off into a side 
 issue — he said, "But I will tell you about that presently." 
 However, the sermon was evidently drawing to a close, 
 and the story — I suppose it was a story — had not been 
 told. One of his small listeners could stand the suspense 
 no longer. Please, sir," said a little boy, addressing 
 the preacher in the pulpit, "you said you would tell 
 
 us " "And so I will, my boy," responded Maples 
 
 instantly, and forthwith related the story. On each of 
 his visits to England he never failed to go down to 
 Charterhouse to "talk to the boys" at his old school. 
 Modern schoolboys become blase with regard to enter- 
 tainments, lectures, &c., but Maples was much pleased 
 when he was told that there were two entertainers at 
 Charterhouse who never failed to draw a " crowded 
 house," namely, the late Corney Grain and — himself. 
 For, as one of his friends says, " Chauncy Maples was 
 never so happy as when he was among children. Whether 
 here, 'at home,' as we count it, or there *at home,' as 
 he counted it, in Africa, young people were his great 
 delight. He understood them, and they felt it. It was 
 one of his greatest charms that ' the child-heart held 
 him yet.' " 
 
 On March 18th, 1885, Chauncy sailed again for Africa, 
 reaching Newala in June. In the August of that same 
 year he took down four boys from Newala to Zanzibar 
 for education in the school at Kiungani. 
 
 In June of the next year he started with Bishop 
 Smythies for the shores of Lake Nyasa, where it was 
 decided that he was to join his friend W. P. Johnson, 
 and take the headship of the station on Likoma island. 
 Before leaving his workers on Nyasa, in order to return 
 to Zanzibar, Bishop Smythies appointed Maples Arch- 
 deacon of Nyasaland. 
 
 As Chauncy Maples had built up materially and 
 
24 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 spiritually the station of Masasi, so he proceeded to 
 develop the new station of Likoma. He could not do 
 anything in a half-hearted way, but threw his whole self 
 into the work of the moment, whether it were the holding 
 a class for catechumens, the building of a church, or the 
 making of a pudding ! 
 
 In 1890 he came to England specially to see . his 
 mother, whose health was failing fast. Mother and son 
 both knew that they were together thus for the last time 
 on earth. But they were happy. He was very happy 
 with his family, and his mother, ill as she was, and 
 little as she cared for or appreciated humour as a rule, 
 would smile, nay, even laugh, at his stories and bright 
 conversation, for he was truly witty and humorous, 
 though with never a trace of cynicism. 
 
 In August, 1891, Chauncy Maples returned to Africa 
 for the fourth time, and in the autumn of the following 
 year the station at Likoma was burnt down by two 
 successive fires — withm a fortnight of each other. The 
 first fire took place on Sunday, when eleven houses were 
 reduced to smouldering heaps of ashes. But the Arch- 
 deacon writes cheerfully, as was his wont. Well, let us 
 reckon up our losses. First, what we didn't lose — no 
 human lives and no tempers." Then he goes on to say 
 that the library and the dispensary with their valuable 
 contents were destroyed. "As to the origin of this fire. 
 Briefly it was a * crow ' — a miserable carrion crow — set 
 fire to our village, a kind of set off in these last days to 
 that other bird of better omen that in Eome's palmy 
 days, we are told, saved the Capitol. 'Tis a pity that 
 birds meddle in the fortunes of cities or villages, though 
 it is a great satisfaction to reflect that no human incen- 
 diary of malice prepense deposited the tiny bits of live 
 charcoal that wrought all this mischief." And of the 
 second fire he writes: — ''Another great fire, and eight 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 25 
 
 more of our houses burnt to the ground ! However, we 
 have lost only the lives of two or three of our swine and 
 a duck or two. Our old sow frizzled away, poor crea- 
 ture ! We could not save it, but, like Charles Lamb's 
 famous roast pig that Bo-Bo licked his chops over, it 
 proved excellent eating, and, to be honest with you, I do 
 think our exertions of Saturday earned us this dainty 
 and toothsome Sunday dinner ! Ah ! but let us not 
 joke. This fire No. 2 is very serious. We are left now 
 with nine houses out of thirty that formed our station 
 three weeks ago. How did this fire originate ? Ah ! 
 who knows ? Is it possible, we are asking, that the fire 
 may have originated spontaneously in the roof ? The 
 sun's heat just now is intense, and our grass is as 
 tinder." With characteristic energy Archdeacon Maples 
 soon roused himself to re-build the station. "Anyhow," 
 he determines, 'Sve mean, having been made uncom- 
 fortable by circumstances over which we have had 
 no control, to take good care not to make ourselves 
 uncomfortable, but to put a bold face on our disasters, 
 and raise a palace for the new Bishop, if he washes one, 
 out of the charcoal by which we are now surrounded on 
 all sides." 
 
 The division of the diocese of Nyasaland from Zanzi- 
 bar having been effected. Dr. Hornby started early in 
 1893 for British Central Africa, having been consecrated 
 in the previous winter at St. Paul's Cathedral as the first 
 Bishop of Nyasaland. But his health failed even before 
 he arrived at Likoma, and after struggling on for six 
 months he was obliged to return to England, nor would 
 the doctors sanction his return to Central Africa. In 
 the month of May, 1894, Chauncy Maples' mother died 
 after a long illness ; the news reached him in August. 
 This sorrow had long been hovering over him. In a 
 letter written to his sister in the November of the 
 
26 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 previous year, when from the accounts he had recently 
 received from home he thought that his mother must 
 have already passed away, he says — " A vision haunts 
 me of about thirty-five years ago : a garden small 
 but massed with flowers, bees humming in the peach 
 blossoms, the sound of the scythe on the fresh mown 
 lawn and the scent of the dewy grass, and a pervading 
 sense of some one near whom one loved more than all 
 others ; and then a voice calling one to those early 
 lessons. And I shut my eyes and am there again, and I 
 see her and hear her, and it was my world — so we were, 
 I and some of you in the old garden ! So may we be 
 again some day. * Except ye become as little children ye 
 shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.' " 
 
 In the summer of 1894 Bishop Hornby resigned, and 
 then it was unanimously felt, both by the Committee and 
 the other friends of the Mission, that Chauncy Maples 
 was the man for the difficult and arduous post. Bishop 
 Hornby had come to the same conclusion while at 
 Likoma. As Canon Scott Holland put it, " The one 
 message he (Bishop Hornby) had to give us when he came 
 back was, ' There is only one thing you can do. There is 
 only one thing that is absolutely right. This one thing 
 I learned in the six months in which I was there, and it 
 is something if I bring that back to you. There is only 
 one man who can be Bishop of Likoma, and that is 
 Chauncy Maples.' " And so in August the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury's offer of the bishopric was telegraphed to 
 Archdeacon Maples. His first impulse was to refuse; 
 indeed he would have done so but for the advice of his 
 true and trusted friend William Johnson, who persuaded 
 him not to be hasty in the matter, but to wait and take 
 counsel of others. And so the Archdeacon wrote to the 
 Committee, neither accepting nor absolutely refusing the 
 offer, and saying that he proposed to return to England 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 27 
 
 to ask the advice of a friend ; but he also begged them 
 not to wait many months, as it must be, on the very 
 great uncertainty of his final answer being "Yes," if 
 they thought it advisable to name another successor to 
 Dr. Hornby meanwhile. One reason for Chauncy Maples' 
 wish to refuse the bishopric is a coincidence with Bishop 
 Steere's similar hesitation, namely, that he, like Dr. 
 Steere, had advised his predecessor to resign. 
 
 However, all scruples were finally overcome, and in 
 April, 1895, it was announced that Archdeacon Maples 
 had accepted the bishopric. But a cloud hung over his 
 usual brightness ; he was full of misgiving. A little inci- 
 dent, which he related himself, illustrates this feeling. 
 In the early morning of June 29th, the day of the con- 
 secration, he had prayed that even at the last moment, 
 if it were not God's will that he should be consecrated 
 Bishop, it might be shown to him. And as he was 
 driving in a hansom to St. Paul's Cathedral the horse 
 stumbled and fell. In a flash came the thought *' here 
 is the sign." But he was not thrown out, the horse 
 recovered itself, and the Archdeacon arrived at the 
 Cathedral without further mishap. 
 
 It was a beautiful and solemn service in the Cathedral 
 of our great metropolis on that lovely summer day when 
 five Bishops were consecrated, of whom only one was to 
 work in the home country, namely. Bishop Awdry, and he 
 has since accepted a bishopric in Japan, for the English 
 Church goes forth with, nay, often in advance of, her 
 Empire. 
 
 Not long after Chauncy's arrival in England he 
 received disquieting news from Likoma. He had in- 
 tended to remain in England till October, but on receipt 
 of the letters containing these discouraging reports he 
 decided to return to Africa as soon as possible ; in fact, 
 he was in a fever of impatience to get back. His people 
 
28 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 wanted him ; that was quite enough. And so on July 
 11th he left England for the last time. On the journey 
 out he seemed to recover his spirits, and was full of 
 plans and hopes for future work. His letters home were 
 bright, and brimming over with life. At Port Herald, on 
 the Shire river, he was asked to consecrate the cemetery — 
 strange, in view of what w^as so soon to happen, that this 
 was almost the only occasion on which he exercised his 
 episcopal office ! On the steamer going up the Shire 
 river, having heard of the death of a valued friend in 
 British Central Africa, the Bishop remarked to his com- 
 panion, Joseph Williams, " Well, Williams, you and I 
 have lived nearly twenty years in Africa. We cannot 
 expect to be allowed to work here much longer." 
 
 The travellers stayed two or three days at Blantyre, 
 where the Bishop preached in the church on Sunday. 
 He also went over to the Eesidency at Zomba in order to 
 pay the Commissioner a little visit, and they had a long 
 talk together. At Matope, on the Upper Shire, the 
 Bishop was detained two days waiting for a boat to take 
 him on to the Lake. An officer of the Administration, 
 Mr. Edward Alston, who has since died of fever at Blan- 
 tyre, speaks of meeting him here, and says — " The Bishop, 
 Phillips, and I dined together, and I may say that I con- 
 ceived a great liking for him at once ; and during the 
 next two or three days, while at Mpimbi, he and I were 
 constantly together. ... He was so simple, kind-hearted, 
 and so unlike what one generally expects a Bishop to 
 be ; and yet in another sense he was a Bishop all over. 
 As I say, we became very intimate, and I used to find 
 myself wondering at the things we talked about. He 
 always wore a long white cassock, but when I suggested 
 going to see if we could shoot anything for dinner in 
 the woods he said he must come with me, though he 
 admitted he was no sportsman ; and he took off his coat 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 29 
 
 and appeared with his shirt sleeves rolled up ; however, 
 it was too late and too dark to shoot. ... I was very 
 sorry indeed to have to say good-bye to Maples, as I really, 
 if I may say so, had conceived quite an affection for him, 
 and I do not think it is one of my characteristics to con- 
 ceive an affection for any man — at least in so short a 
 space of time. ... On reaching Fort Johnston I again 
 met Bishop Maples, who had arrived the night before. . . . 
 I asked him when he was going on ; he said at once 
 almost — in about an hour's time. I told him that I 
 thought it rather breezy ; but he had great faith in 
 his boat, and went so far as to ask me to come too, he 
 could make for Fort Maguire and drop me. . . . Fort 
 Johnston is some little way from the Lake, and about 
 four miles from where the steamers always lie, so that, 
 though it was blowing very hard when Maples and I 
 were talking, we couldn't see the Lake itself. How- 
 ever, Maples seemed very intent on not being dissuaded 
 from his purpose of proceeding, and I was not the only 
 one to try to do so. ... I saw them off (this was on 
 the 2nd September). The boat was a steel one with two 
 masts. Besides the Bishop and Williams there were 
 eleven black boys, ten of whom formed the crew, . . . 
 and in addition there was a fair amount of boxes and 
 baggage. . . . Well, we all said good-bye. ... I went 
 out afterwards to have luncheon on board H.M.S. 
 Adventure y and could just see the little boat scudding 
 along in a terrific sea ; and we all made the remark that 
 we hoped they would get to Monkey Bay all right that 
 afternoon, and if they were wise they wouldn't go on 
 until the sea calmed down." 
 
 Thus Chauncy Maples sailed away on the Lake for 
 Kota Kota in the boat he was least accustomed to use. 
 He generally cruised about in the Charlotte, a centre- 
 board delta metal boat, and very seaworthy. The 
 
30 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Slier riff in this last voyage was not properly ballasted ; 
 she had too light a cargo. Moreover, the native crew 
 were utterly unaccustomed to sailing her in bad weather, 
 for when the wind begins to blow at all stiffly they 
 always run in for shelter. ''There were such heaps of 
 things waiting for his decision and advice," Dr. Hine 
 (the present Bishop of Likoma) wrote; ''why, oh! why 
 did he persist in pushing on on that fatal night in the 
 storm ? I can fancy it all. * Let's push on ' — that 
 familiar expression. I can think of nothing else, night 
 and day, than the one thought, ' Maples is dead ; what 
 shall we do?'" It was a strange coincidence that 
 Joseph Williams should have been travelling with 
 Chauncy Maples on this his last journey in Africa as 
 when he started first for missionary work nineteen years 
 before. Williams joined the Bishop at Zanzibar. 
 
 But the story of that fatal voyage comes from the 
 lips of the native crew, and chiefly from Ibrahimu, the 
 captain. The following are principally extracts from 
 Mr. W. P. Johnson's recital of the story : — We were 
 all looking for our Bishop," he wrote, *'not without 
 some fears, some doubts, but any such only the birth of 
 knowledge of the difficulties before him ; no one doubted 
 we were beginning an era ! No one so thoroughly 
 sympathised with the natives, no one so social a power 
 amongst Europeans ! So much life, so much indepen- 
 dence, such ready, too ready, sympathy — one had fear in 
 the very width and beauty of hope ! We were all looking 
 for his coming to the hills the route by Unangu." The 
 Bishop had intended to travel overland from Lindi, but 
 was not able to get porters owing to the disturbed state 
 of the country. " I had arranged for the A. L. Company's 
 steamer to meet him at Mluluka, the Unangu port, on the 
 20th." The Charles Janson was laid up for repairs. ''Our 
 Bishop had come from England and caught each steamer, 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 31 
 
 avoided each invitation to delay ; Likoma seemed nearer 
 and nearer to him — those he loved and who loved 
 him. So he took our boat and started north from Fort 
 Johnston. . . . The captain was our best, the boat had 
 just been done up, the sails were in good condition. 
 Alas ! that boat had been made without water-tight 
 compartments ! They landed, had food and prayers at 
 one village (Nkope), but Likoma, perhaps Atlay's face in 
 particular, drew him on." Only two days before this storm 
 on the Lake the Eev. George Atlay, the priest in charge 
 at Likoma, who had gone to the mainland on a few days' 
 shooting expedition, fell beneath the spears of the Gwang- 
 wara, a small party of whom were on the war-path near 
 Chitesi's village. Bishop Maples had not, however, 
 heard of this sad event. " In spite of the wind they went 
 on soon after six p.m., passed Monkey Bay — would 
 God they had been driven in there ! — on past the long 
 line of rock and hills to Cape Maclear ; but still Likoma 
 and Nkotankota acted like a spell. The south wind 
 became so boisterous that Captain Cullen, of the Adven- 
 ture, had his fires in, though under a lee shore. The 
 Bishop sat up; Williams lay down asleep; the Bishop 
 called for a rug or some wraps and a book — the boy says 
 a New Testament. The crew wanted to go into Monkey 
 Bay, and, failing that, straight before the wind, but the 
 Bishop held on the course towards Leopard Bay. Then 
 the mainsail was lowered — how strange it seems and 
 how sad ! How could they have gone at all with mizen 
 and jib, and that, as the men assure me, boomed out ? 
 Then, as the boat shipped water, the Bishop bade them 
 reef the mizen. The captain gave another the tiller to 
 do this, and the boat almost at once broached to. What 
 can we say to all this, and knowing as I do that the 
 Bishop had had some little experience in sailing ? We 
 can only lay our hand on our mouth ! " Yes, we who 
 
32 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 write this story so far frora the scene of action must also 
 only echo these words of Mr. Johnson's; we cannot 
 understand; therefore, we will not try to explain. 
 
 Joseph "Williams was asleep in the house of boughs 
 made over the stern ; he sank with the boat." The 
 Bishop, though a good swimmer, was hampered by his 
 cassock, but the crew — the natives swim like fish — 
 bore him up, using an empty box to support him, but 
 the box soon sank. *' They wished to tear off his 
 heavy clothing. Why did he refuse ? I believe he 
 kept wonderfully calm, and thought it was hopeless, as 
 the land was doubtfully visible. The waves broke over 
 them." Then the Bishop told them to leave him. 
 '*Do not let me cause your death," he said in Chin- 
 yanja. " It was my fault — save yourselves. Go to the 
 Europeans — to Mr. Johnson — and tell them I have 
 died." And so he sent them from him and sank in the 
 deep waters. 
 
 " Please do not doubt these main facts," says the 
 Rev. W. P. Johnson ; "Ibrahimu and another I believe 
 as simply as I should Chauncy 's own account." 
 
 The only thing saved from the wreck was the Bishop's 
 bag of Communion vessels ; one of the crew saw it 
 floating in the water, and brought it safe to land. 
 
 The crew were in the water over two hours, but at last 
 reached a small island, where they remained till the 
 daylight. It must have been soon after midnight that 
 the boat sank. Next day, when the crew reached the 
 mainland, Ibrahimu and another man were arrested and 
 ** tied up " by a European at a village near Rifu, for it 
 was thought strange that the Europeans should have 
 been drowned while all the crew were saved. But after 
 some days' imprisonment they were allowed to go free, 
 and proceeded to Kota Kota, where they told their story 
 to Mr. Sim, of the Universities' Mission. Eumours of 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 33 
 
 the disaster had ah'eady reached him ; these were now 
 sadly confirmed. A fortnight afterwards the body of 
 the Bishop was found in a small creek not far from 
 the scene of the accident, by William Kanyopolea, a 
 native teacher, who carried it to Kota Kota wrapped 
 in a flag marked with a red cross. Mr. Sim buried the 
 body in a spot where he hoped to place the altar of 
 a church he intended to build. But not two months 
 had passed before he too was called to leave his work 
 on earth, and his body laid in a grave by the side of his 
 Bishop. 
 
 When the sad news of the fatal accident reached 
 Likoma " it was nothing but a great mourning," they 
 say ; for above all else Chauncy Maples was loved by 
 Europeans and Africans alike. 
 
 Mention has been made of the Bishop's love and 
 knowledge of music. He composed a great many hymn 
 tunes of varying merit ; we print one called Mvanu 
 (Faith) No. 1. It was set to Art thou weary?" in the 
 Chinyanja version of Hymn 254 of Ancient and Modern. 
 
 Mvanu {Faith), No. 1. Chauncy Maples. 
 
 
 J J r:)^- 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 'T — — 1 — !— " 
 1 1 
 
 
 -i-r— 4 »-T 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 — ^ 
 
 
 
 -I J-^ . 
 
 Jl-t 1 
 
 
 §^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 He also composed several gavottes, minuets, marches, 
 
 CM D 
 
34 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 and so on. He was of a distinctl}' literary turn of mind, 
 and wrote some tuneful hymns and several sonnets. 
 Two on Lake Nyasa seem to be among, his most happy 
 efforts. He considered the second of these his best 
 sonnet. 
 
 SONNETS. 
 
 "Lake Nyasa," No. 1. 
 
 Thy lonely waters, as they gently swing 
 
 And niiuTiim- 'neath the cloudless aziire sky, 
 
 Full many a lofty message, through the eye 
 
 That rests upon th' impressive scene, do biing 
 
 To minds attuned to high imagining. 
 
 And spiiits yearning for eternity. 
 
 Such messages, I ween, can never die : 
 
 From Heaven they come, despatched by Heaven's King. 
 
 Cemlean lake, let this thy mission be. 
 
 To speak to us of Him who in His hand 
 
 Thy waters broad uplifts ; and so may we, 
 
 ^Miile lingering on our pilgrimage, a land 
 
 Not boimded by earth's limits ever see, 
 
 But far above her mists — the Heavenly sti*and I 
 
 "Lake Nyasa," No. 2. 
 
 A gloom is on the lake, and overhead 
 
 Dark sullen clouds, obscuring every trace 
 
 Of sunshine in the storm- disturbed space 
 
 Above the billows, sui'ging high, are spread. 
 
 Discord prevails ! Though peace awhile hath fled, 
 
 Yet such a hui'ly of the elements 
 
 For aye endui-eth not : e'en now are rents 
 
 In night-black clouds through which a ray is sped. 
 
 Thus thou dost image forth, 0 changeful lake I 
 
 By different aspect, both the gleam and gloom 
 
 That, each in turn, do occupy that room 
 
 Li hearts of men which Grod will one day make 
 
 His own for ever with the radiance bright 
 
 Of His High Presence — Earth's Eternal Light ! 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 35 
 
 In copying this last sonnet, now necessarily fraught 
 with the memory of that other Storm on the Lake on 
 the 2nd of September, 1895, a characteristic little in- 
 cident comes into my mind which was told me by a 
 Manchester friend of Bishop Maples. They were talking 
 together of his work, and in the course of conversation 
 something must have been said on the subject of 
 marriage, for the friend remarked, A bishop must be 
 the husband of one wife." Yes," replied Maples, with 
 a merry twinkle in his eye, " I have married Lake 
 Nyasa." "And now," writes the friend, "Lake Nyasa 
 is widowed." 
 
 Outside his direct missionary work the most important 
 "venture," as he calls it, which Chauncy Maples started 
 in these last years of his life was a magazine for British 
 Central Africa. Though edited, published, printed by 
 himself, a missionary, it was intended to appeal to the 
 colonists and officials in British Central Africa outside 
 the missionary interest, and thus, in his own words, to 
 form " a uniting bond between the heterogeneous medley 
 of people in British Central Africa." The two Scotch 
 Missions each had their magazine, but Archdeacon 
 Maples was the first to publish a newspaper or magazine 
 — for it partook of both characters — in Central Africa for 
 the European residents generally. The " Nyasa News," 
 as after the first two numbers it was called, appeared 
 once a quarter, and contained, besides local news and 
 notes on local subjects, articles of a high standard on 
 geographical and scientific topics connected with Africa. 
 As to the missionary element, we must confess that it was 
 rather like King Charles's head in Mr. Dick's memorial 
 — it would come in. Still, the paper was popular in British 
 Central Africa, and maintained its existence until the 
 death of its originator. With the exception of the last 
 three numbers,Maples was the sole editor of this magazine. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 He superintended the details of the printing also. In 
 fact it was so entirely the work of his own amazing 
 energy that when he died no one else thought of con- 
 tinuing it. Certainly the " Nyasa News " reflected gi-eat 
 credit on all who had to do with it, whether as contri- 
 butors to the Hterary department or actual printers of the 
 paper. These last were native boys trained by an EngUsh 
 printer. 
 
 THE PLATNTT OF AN ATEICAN FOWL. 
 
 (Written by Chauxcy Maples. — Eeprinted from the 
 "Nyasa News.") 
 
 Britisher in B.C. A. loquitur : " I had nothing whateTer to eat but 
 a beastly tough skinny old African fowl." 
 
 Come, hearken, ye gallants of British C. A., 
 
 To The Plaint of an African fowl ; " 
 Be generous for once as ye list to a lay 
 
 That should make you ashamed of your howl. 
 
 It is true Fm despised, and a much abused bird, 
 
 That you roast and you boil and you fiy, 
 And in other ways cook me (the best is the third). 
 
 Such as vol au vent, curry, and pie. 
 
 You say I'm aU bones, that I'm stringy and tough, 
 
 So different from some of my kin, 
 And yet you can never quite gobble enough 
 
 Of my flesh when once you begin. 
 
 I am bartered for, haggled for, everywhere ; 
 
 Beads, calico go in exchange ; 
 To buy me you'll send many miles here and there : 
 
 It is not quite consistent — it's strange ! 
 
 'Tis true that the climate's not suited to me ; 
 
 " Chicken cholera " oft it will bring, 
 And the verdicts of doctors and gourmets agree 
 
 That my liver's a delicate thing. 
 
 Yet you who abuse me as sickly and spare 
 
 Don't scruple my body to truss ; 
 There's that on my bones for which you must care 
 
 Or you wouldn't be treating me thus. 
 
 I 
 
Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Oh, 'tis cruel to think how my limbs all are fixed 
 
 When for table my flesh you prepare ; 
 Legs, wings, back, and breast — these get horribly mixed 
 
 Which is which I scarce know, I declare I 
 
 For you split me right open — most shocking of sights ! 
 
 And flatten my legs and my wings ; 
 Eun a spit through my liver, my heart, and my lights : 
 
 Choice morsels you deem them — these things ! 
 
 Then you baste me, and broil me, till I'm done brown, 
 While you turn me both this side and that, 
 
 And afterwards eat me to the bone down, 
 Leaving this to be gnawed by the cat. 
 
 Thus treated, I'm " spatchcock " — 'tis flippant to jest 
 
 At the shape my poor carcase assumes 
 When for dinner you've ordered that I'm to be dressed 
 
 In this fashion, when stripped of my plumes. 
 
 You've devices full many, confess, when you like, 
 
 To render me toothsome and nice ; 
 If fricassee palls, when I'm stewed if you strike. 
 
 Then you serve me as pt7aw — with rice. 
 
 Ah ! it's all very well to grumble and growl, 
 
 And say you have nothing to eat ; 
 Though I'm skinny, perhaps, and only a fowl, 
 
 There are times when you find me a treat. 
 
 What with mustard, and pepper, and salt, too, and sage, 
 Though " devilled," I'm monstrously good ; 
 
 If no chicken — '('tis rude to allude to my age) — 
 Yet I'm never too ancient for food. 
 
 Then with raisins, you bet, and with sauces and lard 
 
 I'm a savoury mess in a bowl ; 
 Oh ! 'tis mean, all this talk about " stringy and hard," 
 
 And "beastly old African fowl." 
 
 Come, bid all your calumny to the winds fly, 
 
 And cease at me sourly to gird ; 
 Just allow that in spite of the popular cry 
 
 I'm not such a very bad bird. 
 
 — Y. Z. 
 
38 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 In this monograph I have refrained from giving details 
 of the Bishop's missionary work, nor do I make the 
 attempt to give an estimate of his character. My chief 
 aim has heen to relate facts briefly — do not facts speak 
 for themselves ? — and thus to stand as short a time as 
 possible between the reader and "those old leaves which 
 keep their green — the noble letters of the dead," for the 
 letters of Chamicy Maples are his true biography. 
 
[i874.] 
 
 In England. 
 
 39 
 
 III. 
 
 THE LETTEKS. 
 
 Selections from the letters and journals of Chauncy 
 Maples written in the years 1874 to 1895. The following 
 letters >vere written to his mother, father, and one of his 
 sisters, but there are also included some to other members 
 of the family, and to several friends. 
 
 (To his Father.) 
 
 16, Merton Street, Oxford, 
 
 Dec. 5th, 1874. 
 
 I suppose I shall be returning home this day week, 
 but I may have to write on a very important subject to 
 you on Monday next. Circumstances have arisen which 
 may change all my future plans very materially, though 
 I cannot make up my mind till this evening (i.e., till I 
 . have seen Mr. Burgon) whether finally to decide on a 
 course of action on which my mind is already half made 
 up. However, do not mention this to any one except my 
 mother till I have written again. . . . 
 
 (To his Mother.) 
 
 16, Merton Street, Oxford, 
 
 Monday night. 
 
 As my letter to my father probably rather mystified 
 both you and him, I am writing now to explain as fully 
 as I can what I hinted at in my note. But first I must 
 ask you to keep the contents of this strictly secret from 
 my brothers and sisters and the rest of the family. The 
 letter is addressed, of course, as much to my father as to 
 
40 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 you, but I write to 3^ou in case Mr. Young's illness is still 
 causing him anxiety, in which case he will not care to be 
 receiving a long letter from me just now. I cannot dis- 
 guise from myself the fact that what I am writing will 
 cause you a great deal of surprise ; but to the surprise it 
 is my earnest prayer that you will not add sorrow and 
 disappointment. To come to the point at once, I have 
 resolved to become a missionary, and to join Bishop 
 Steere's Mission to Central Africa. It is, you know, the 
 " Universities' Mission," and I find myself unable to 
 resist the urgent appeal that is made to Oxford men to 
 go and work where truly "the harvest is plenteous but 
 the labourers few." I almost hear you exclaim, Why, 
 this is quite a sudden idea ! " Indeed I cannot be surprised 
 if you think thus, for, as far as I am aware, I have never 
 in the least bit hinted to my father or to yourself that 
 I had any desire or inclination towards missionary work. 
 I may say, though, that it is by no means a sudden idea, 
 for I have often hinted both to Ellen and Alice that I 
 might at some future time think very seriously as to 
 whether or no I should become a missionary. This time 
 has now come, and the result of my self-questioning is 
 that I am firmly resolved to join Bishop Steere and try 
 my fortunes with him and his party in the work of 
 preachmg Christ to the African tribes on the shores of 
 Lake Nyasa. I have written to the Bishop to ask for an 
 interview, and I hope to have seen him before I return 
 home on Saturday. I am in my letter confining myself 
 as far as I can to the mere facts : all that I tell you will 
 invite discussion when we meet. I do not ask you for 
 direct advice on the subject, because, did you advise me 
 to abandon my determination, I should certainly say I 
 could not do so. I trust that you will think with me 
 that a matter of so serious a nature is only to be settled 
 by a questioning of God through my own conscience. At 
 
[i874.] 
 
 In England. 
 
 41 
 
 least I for my part cannot look upon it in any other light. 
 Of course an undertaking of this kind must not be entered 
 upon without in some way counting the cost beforehand, 
 and feehng this very strongly I shall make all the 
 necessary inquiries as to the healthiness of the climate, 
 &c., &c. ^l^e desired information Bishop Steere will 
 probably be able to give me, and so I hope to be prepared 
 to answer questions on the subject when we meet. I have 
 already anticipated and answered one exclamation. I 
 will now anticipate and answer another question which 
 will doubtless arise in your minds. It is this : — "TSTiy 
 should he, just when he has been well provided for in a 
 curacy in England, be so anxious to throw it up and go 
 where his prospects are, to say the least of it, very 
 doubtful, and the work discouraging in the extreme ? " 
 There can be, as you will have already guessed, but one 
 answer to this question, and this is the answer. I do feel 
 distinctly that God is calling upon me to devote myself 
 to missionary work, and that, too, in so unmistakable 
 a manner that I cannot refuse to obey the call. Hence 
 it is clear everything else must be given up. The 
 intense feeling that one has that God is speaking to 
 one cannot be expressed properly in language. If one 
 attempts to express it one loses one's self in inadequate 
 anthropomorphisms, which are next door to being 
 meaningless. All I can say is that I have this intense 
 feeling, and therefore I dare not put obstacles in the way, 
 and thereby disobey what I most solemnly believe to be 
 God's command. When I accepted Mr. Robinson's kind 
 offer of a curacy I remember feeling that after all I was 
 not at all sure whether I ought not to say at once that I 
 believed I should be pleasing God more by becoming a 
 missionary. Cowardly feelings, I suppose, took possession 
 of my heart then, and I tried to reconcile, and indeed 
 for a time succeeded in reconciling, to my conscience the 
 
42 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 acceptation of the curacj'. But now, you see, those mis- 
 gi\ings, which came upon me then, have come upon me 
 again with redoubled force, and have induced me to 
 throw up the curacy. I look forward with bright hopes 
 and very cheerfully to the new course of action, which, 
 my dear parents, I feel myself compelled by so resistless 
 a force to follow, and I shall look out anxiously for a 
 letter from yon in which you will tell me that your 
 hearts go with me in the work. I am trying day by 
 day to feel more deeply and love more earnestly the 
 great truths of Christianity — truths which (I say it in 
 sorrow and repentance) were but a few months ago fast 
 becoming lost to me altogether. In proportion as I 
 dwell on these truths, in proportion as I try to meditate 
 and fully appreciate the infinite condescension of our 
 Blessed Lord when He took upon Him our nature and 
 became Incarnate in our flesh, so do I feel more eager, by 
 a cheerful and lively devotion to His service, to make 
 amends for a hitherto wasted life. There may be years 
 before me, and I say again I believe myself called upon 
 to devote them to mission work. But I am transgressing 
 my self-imposed duty of confining myself in this letter 
 strictl}^ to facts. M}' father will be anxious to know how 
 I mean to live and what I mean to do between the 
 present time and the time I start for Zanzibar (two 
 years hence). Fii'st, then, I mean to read with renewed 
 energy for my examination in the summer ; possibly at 
 Hastings — certamly not here. The remaining one and 
 a half years I shall very probably spend at St. Augustine's, 
 Canterbury, where I shall study a little of a good many 
 things, such as medicine, cai*pentering, the native 
 languages spoken b}' the tribes inhabiting the particular 
 part of Africa to which we are going. . . . My friends 
 Brown and Wauton were both glad when they heard of 
 my resolve, and they both said that they thought I was 
 
[i874.] 
 
 In England. 
 
 43 
 
 far more fitted in many ways for a missionary than for 
 home work — referring, of course, to my general nature and 
 temperamelio, which they know pretty well. As for Will 
 Johnson, he is going with me, and to tell you the truth, 
 he was the first to say definitely that he was going. He 
 went down to see his mother on Thursday last, and 
 when he came back he told me, to my utter amazement, 
 that he had thrown up the Indian Civil Service appoint- 
 ment which he held, and was going to become a 
 missionary. In throwing up this he threw up a 
 thousand a year, with infinite chances of promotion — 
 altogether one of the finest openings (from a worldly 
 point of view) a young man can have. Admiration for 
 this act of his forbade me from being a coward — for to 
 my own conscience, as I explained above, I ^cas a coward — 
 any longer, and I quickly followed his example. Now I 
 think you know the whole matter, and I say again I shall 
 eagerly look out for a letter from you telling me what 
 you and my father think of this, my firm resolve. Will 
 you please let Mr. Eobinson see this letter, for otherwise 
 he will not be able to understand my conduct in thus 
 playing fast and loose with the curacy. I know him 
 well enough to be sure that he will continue to think of 
 me in the kind way he has done hitherto. If I have 
 been more careful about religious observances and more 
 earnest about spiritual advancement lately, it has, 
 humanly speaking, been owing entirely to Will Johnson, 
 and it is no little source of happiness to me to think 
 that I shall at least set out for Africa with him for whose 
 character I have so much admiration, and for whose 
 self I have so much love. Here I will end, and believe 
 me, my dear father and mother, to remain, 
 
 Yojir very affectionate son, 
 
 Chauncy Maples 
 
44 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 P.S. — I think Mr. Eobinson should know at once of 
 my change of plans, and I beg you to send this on to him 
 soon. On reading this letter through, I see you may mis- 
 understand what I have said on the subject of asking 
 your advice. All that I meant was that I do not ask 
 your advice as to whether or no I should become a 
 missionary ; of course I intend asking my father and 
 3^ourself for advice on many points connected with my 
 determination. — Since writing the above I have heard 
 from Bishop Steere, to whom I am going at Wells on 
 Friday next. 
 
 (To his Mother, just before his Ordination.) 
 
 CimDESDO]s- Palace, Oxford. 
 It makes one happy to think w^hat a number of friends 
 one has praying for one just now, and more than all to 
 think that I am constantly in your prayers. I suppose 
 if we could get thoroughly to realize the text " Here we 
 have no continuing city " the parting that there must be 
 between me and my parents next year would scarcely 
 bear heavily either on you or me. . . . Perhaps it may 
 not be ; yet I could wish it, and sometimes think that 
 even now it may so happen that I shall go out to 
 Zanzibar with many joyous hopes, such as are and will 
 be — I know well — expressed by most intimate friends — 
 expressed also by my parents. Trials enough and to 
 spare will be, I know, my lot as soon as I set foot on the 
 island, and it is sad to think that I may carry a trial 
 with me. I write all this because I know that if I feel 
 it now I shall feel it ten times more when England is 
 fairly left behind me. Now, however, one's thoughts 
 are mainly occupied by the awfulness and risk of the life 
 one is just entermg upon. It will be time enough to 
 think of future events when one is in the midst of 
 them. . . . 
 
[1876.] First Voyage to Africa. 
 
 45 
 
 OxFOUD, Autumn, 1875. 
 I preached my first sermon at St. George's in the 
 morning. ... I did not feel at all nervous about it. 
 
 Oxford, February, 1876. 
 Very sad parting with the Vicar and the dear Oxford 
 friends, but it must come. ... I hope you are trying 
 to live nearer to Christ. It is hard, perhaps, but you 
 must exert your will, and pray for the grace of the Holy 
 Spirit. Do remember that "without holiness no man 
 shall see the Lord." . . . Haven't you found out yet 
 what a hollow thing this world is if we trust to it ? I 
 hope you will be advancing while we are carrying for- 
 ward the work in Africa. We can't say " Thy kingdom 
 come " in earnest if we are not working for our own 
 souls. It is a growth from day to day that is wanted, and 
 we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens 
 us. . . . 
 
 On the 18th March, 1876, Chauncy Maples sailed for 
 Africa to begin his missionary work. 
 
 The CnANNEL, Sunday. 
 We are just experiencing the " chops " of the 
 Channel. . . . Poor Yorke is rather sick to-day. We 
 have given him a gentle dose of chlorodyne and sent 
 him to bed. The doctors (Williams and self) went into 
 consultation on the subject, and were agreed as to the 
 remedy to be applied. He has been dosed, and now is 
 dozing, Eeally it is very rough, and snowing. . . . We 
 are all very happy and in good spirits. . . . Best love 
 to all, and I have thanked God for giving us a really 
 happy parting. . . . 
 
 (To his Mother.) 
 The "Java," Bay of Biscay, March, 1876. 
 After a deal of rolling all day we are now steadier, and 
 writing is no longer a thing impossible. ... I thought 
 
46 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 of you much on Sunday, and I thought also of the 
 500 boys gathered together in Charterhouse Chapel as 
 they had been the Sunday before, when I was there with 
 them. . . . 
 
 Wednesday. — There was a good reason for my not con- 
 tinuing this letter yesterday — the Bay was too much for 
 me. ... I am quite well again to-day. ... I am vei*y 
 anxious to hear how you are. I hope in good spirits, and 
 happy m the thought that, although in a way quite unex- 
 pected by yourself, your prayers for me, which, as I well 
 know, have been unceasing ever since I was quite a 
 child, are now being answered. For my own part, I feel 
 quite happy, and I only hope God will grant me a safe 
 return to you all when three years shall have passed away. 
 I was so glad we were able to go down to Tottenham 
 together before I left England. Seeing the old garden 
 after such a long interval revived a thousand memories 
 of sixteen years ago. I so well remembered how I used 
 to sit and think for hours together under that old copper 
 beech tree when the sound of the summer wind, high up 
 in the topmost branches, used to awake in my mind so 
 many curious imaginings and fancies. . . . You can't 
 think how we sighed for a little eau-de-Cologne or lavender 
 water when we were so sick, and our cabin so close and 
 oppressive, yesterday. . . . By-the-bye, we found arrow- 
 root a good thing. It kept down at least half an hour 
 longer than anything else. I should not write so much 
 about our sea-sickness, but as yet, you know, our voyage 
 has been monotonous enough, and there is little to tell 
 of. . . . 
 
 The " Java," The MEDiTERBAifEAN, 
 
 March, 1S76. 
 
 No sooner had we come through the Straits of Gibraltar 
 than we found the sea calm as a lake and the air 
 delicious. AVe passed Gibraltar just after dusk last 
 
[1876.] First Voyage to Africa. 
 
 47 
 
 evening, and now we are sailing nine knots an hour 
 towards Algiers. ... As yet it is not too sultry, but the 
 day is just one of those perfect days one gets in England 
 about the middle of May. . . . Only had a few hours on 
 shore (at Lisbon), and those after sunset; yet we were 
 very glad to set foot on firm ground after all the rolling 
 we had had. I noticed, though, that at the hotel others 
 besides myself "held on " to the walls of the room — it 
 was so difi&cult to disabuse oneself of the idea that we 
 were still on board and in the Bay of Biscay ! . . . 
 The only thing I noticed particularly at Lisbon was the 
 superabundance of Judas trees, all in full bloom. . . . 
 It seemed very curious looking at Africa last night — our 
 first peep of a new quarter of the globe ; and to-day, by- 
 the-bye, we are taking our last look at Europe. . . . 
 
 He speaks of the two young laymen travelling with 
 him as not very industrious in learning the language, 
 Swahili, and then proceeds : — 
 
 Of course the early elementary work at a language is 
 drudgery, and I do not deny that I myself find Swahili 
 very irksome at times, but in a few days it will be both 
 easier and more interesting. I am at work at the Second 
 Book of Kings. I have also on board, in the language, 
 a short catechism, a short liturgy (with the Litany), the 
 Gospel of St. Luke, the First Book of Kings, and .Esop's 
 Fables ; so you see we shall not lack Swahili literature." 
 . . . To-night we shall, I suppose, begin sleeping on 
 deck, which will be pleasanter than on the table in the 
 saloon, which has been my bed for the last two nights. 
 The rat traps are set each night, and each morning have 
 their full complement of inmates. We are quite accus- 
 tomed to them now, and it is a question with us — Shall 
 we as soon get accustomed to the centipedes ? . . . Tell 
 every one who is interested in me that so far I feel 
 
48 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 perfectly well and happy, and with no longing thoughts 
 turned back on England. I hope God will give me 
 strength and health that I and those who work with me 
 may prove our manhood in our Master's cause before we 
 return to the land which gave us birth. . . . 
 
 The "Java," The Meditereanean, 
 
 March 30th, 1876. 
 
 We are now on our long spell between Algiers and 
 Port Said. . . . We were all very much interested in 
 Algiers. We had about four hours ashore, and saw the 
 town well. I thought it almost the most curious sight I 
 had ever seen to observe the wild and fantastically 
 dressed Arabs swarming in the streets of the gay French 
 town and conversing in friendly terms with fashionably 
 dressed Frenchmen. They looked very grand fellows, 
 some of these old Arabs, most with very majestic mien 
 and fine figures. They moved about like statues, and 
 every now and then took up positions and stood still 
 perhaps for five minutes together, without moving- a 
 single muscle. . . . Algiers is an exceedingly picturesque 
 town. The little bits of Moorish architecture that crop 
 up here and there, the steep streets, or rather alleys — for 
 in Algiers there are but two or three streets — the flat- 
 roofed houses, the fine quay and harbour, and, above all, 
 the magnificent ba}^ combine to make the place very 
 attractive and interesting. . . . Fancy, it costs £600 to 
 go through the Canal (Suez) once ! Eather an expensive 
 business, is it not ? . . . 
 
 March 30M. 
 
 Soon we must look out for heat and mosquitoes ; but 
 we have another five days before us ere we reach Port 
 Said and its sand hills and the desert. . . . 
 
 A pril 3rd. 
 
 We have been out of sight of land ever since we left 
 Malta. . . . Yesterday we were all feeling rather upset 
 
[1876.] First Voyage to Africa. 
 
 49 
 
 by the heavy swell there was on the sea, which made us 
 roll about a good deal ; but it somewhat subsided towards 
 the evening, and we were able to hold a short service. 
 I preached ... on the shipwreck of St. Paul. As I was 
 preaching we were sailing within twenty or thirty miles 
 of the place where the Alexandrian vessel was when she 
 was caught by the euroclydon. . . . Blue skies and blue 
 seas are the order of the day now, with very little to vary 
 the pleasant monotony. . . . 
 
 {To his Mother.) 
 
 The Red Sea, Aj/ril Sth, 1876. 
 It was very cheering indeed to get your most kind 
 letter at Suez. All that you said in it makes me feel 
 very happy, and I see now how thankful one ought to 
 be for the help God has given you in your trial. 
 
 [In allusion to his mother's disappointment at his 
 determination to be a missionary.] 
 
 I ought never to have doubted that the issue of the 
 distress would have been a happy one. . . . There is 
 very little to relieve the monotony of the Canal (Suez) 
 during its whole course, including the Lakes, of 86 
 miles. ... I noticed one thing, though — the almost 
 oppressive stillness and silence of the desert. In old 
 days, if I remember rightly what I have read, the Delta 
 of the Nile extended to exactly where the Suez Canal is 
 now cut on the east. Fancy if those old Pharaohs, who 
 actually achieved the work of a canal between the Nile 
 and the Ked Sea, could have seen the dimensions and 
 grandeur of the silvery strip of water which now con- 
 
 I nects the same sea with — not the Nile, but the Medi- 
 terranean itself ! . . . 
 
 I The captain says he never remembers the Eed Sea so 
 cool as it is now. . . . 
 
 CM. B 
 
50 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Jeddah, Tuesday, llfh April, 1876. 
 It is SO clear to me now that it was only natural for 
 you and my mother to have talked as you did about the 
 mission that I have long since ceased to trouble about it. 
 You may be sure that I felt myself that as soon as I was 
 fairly started on my new mission 3^ou and my mother 
 would be the two people most interested in hearing of its 
 progress. I shall therefore always tell you all that is of 
 interest in connection with the Central African Mission. 
 . . . For many months past I have been looking forward 
 very eagerly to seeing Jeddah, having heard it spoken of — 
 by some people competent to give an opinion — as one of the 
 strangest and most interesting cities in the whole world. 
 We had such fair breezes on Saturday and Sunday that 
 we were wafted along too fast, and had to slacken the 
 speed of our engines lest we should get to Jeddah in the 
 night time. The pilot who generally conducts the British 
 India Company's steamers through the Eed Sea was not 
 at Suez, and so we had to take in there an Arab who did 
 not understand a word of English. The consequence was 
 that when we were nearing Jeddah the captain was in a 
 dreadful state of mind, for there we were, all in amongst 
 the coral reefs, and the pilot perfectly unable to make us 
 understand his directions. The coral reefs for ten miles 
 out to sea are really terrible ! It is a wonder that every 
 vessel that goes to Jeddah is not wrecked before she gets 
 there ! After a great deal of excitement we dropped 
 anchor at our station three miles from the town, and in 
 half an hour's time the fast-sailing Arab cargo boats 
 were swarming round us to take off the quantity of 
 freight we had for the town. Here we had our first sight 
 of slavery. These boats were each manned by two or 
 three Africans, each of whom belongs to some rich Arab 
 in the town. They are nearly all brought over in dhows 
 from Nubia. One could admire God's handiwork in the 
 
[1876.] First Voyage to Africa. 51 
 
 creation of these fine muscular natives of Africa ! I will 
 not say their faces were handsome, but their strength 
 seemed enormous. I asked the English Consul about 
 these slaves, their number, &c. He said he felt pretty 
 nearly sure that at Jeddah and Hodeidah and the few 
 little places between these two Arabian ports 30,000 
 slaves are imported from Nubia alone every year. . . . 
 After we had breakfasted the Consul came off to the 
 vessel, and when he had transacted his business with the 
 captain he asked me if I would go on shore and baptize 
 a child, whose parents were a goldsmith and his wife 
 (Austrians, who had lived long in Alexandria) . He said 
 he had 10,000 subjects in the town, all Indians. The 
 population of the whole town is 40,000, of whom two 
 people are English — the Consul himself and a merchant 
 friend ! There are no French nor Germans ; a fair 
 number of Greeks, these Indians, and all the rest Arabs 
 and the African slaves. . . . Well, in the afternoon of 
 Monday I went on shore with only two of our party ; the 
 others were all too much overcome with the heat. . . . 
 Jeddah, perhaps you know, is, if not the largest, at least 
 the second town in all Arabia. It is situate only fifty 
 miles from Mecca, and through it every jea>v pass 
 thousands and thousands of pilgrims on their way to the 
 great city and centre of Mohammedanism. The journey 
 from Jeddah is taken in the night. Pilgrims leave Jeddah 
 and pass through the great Mecca gate at sunset on 
 camels, and by sunrise next morning they arrive in 
 Mecca. As for Mecca, it is said that there are only five 
 Christians now living who have been within its walls, and 
 of those five. Burton the traveller is one. It is certain 
 death to enter Mecca unless he who enters feigns to be a 
 Mohammedan. This Burton did, as well as the other four 
 of whom I speak. It is very difficult to describe Jeddah, 
 because it is so thoroughly different from any place you 
 
 E 2 
 
52 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 have seen that I have nothing with which to compare it. 
 Most of the houses are extremely handsome, built of a 
 white glaring stone, the windows and doors being highly 
 ornamented with light but very handsome wood carving 
 in the style which, when speaking of English architecture, 
 we call ^'Arabesque." The streets themselves are not 
 wide, but still not dirty, and the whole town is surrounded 
 by a wall. Immediately outside the wall begins the arid 
 and unfruitful desert, and a few miles further on the 
 bare and rugged mountains of Arabia. Over them winds 
 the famous road from Jeddah to Mecca. 
 
 We walked — and wondered as we walked — through most 
 of the principal streets of the strange and yet fascinating 
 city. We also walked right through the bazaar — the 
 Eegent Street of Jeddah. Everywhere we met camels and 
 Arabs — men, women (all with veiled faces as the hated 
 Christian passed) , boys, and girls ; everywhere we saw 
 these fine, handsome descendants of Ishmael, and every- 
 where we met the poor downtrodden sons of Ham. 
 Everything I saw enchanted me quite. At one time it 
 reminded one of the '* Arabian Nights " as on all sides we 
 heard these fellows accosting each other by the familiar 
 names Abdallah, Suliman, Ali, Mohammed, &c. But as 
 one dwelt in thought on the past history of Arabia, of 
 the vast intellects of the Arabs, who, in philosophy in the 
 Middle Ages, were not only to other nations but to our own 
 selves benefactors (as we learnt through Francis Bacon, 
 who in his turn learnt from Koger Bacon, whose philo- 
 sophy was based on that of Averroes and Avicenna) — as 
 I say, as one thought of all this, and again of the mighty 
 power of the Saracens in times gone by, as well as of the 
 tremendous power that Mohammedanism still wields over 
 the minds of so many millions, one was led back to the 
 thought of God's promise to Abraham that he would 
 make of Ishmael a great nation, I could not express to 
 
[1876.] First Voyage to Africa. 
 
 53 
 
 you how interesting it is to me to think now of that 
 covenant with Abraham in its wonderful working out, 
 which our forefathers have witnessed, and which we our- 
 selves still witness. And then, too, there are the 8th, 
 11th, 12th chapters of Daniel, the sequel in the Book of 
 Kevelation, and St. Paul's remarks in the Epistle to the 
 Galatians, all of which one is so strongly and forcibly 
 reminded of in connection with the great Mohammedan 
 question. On these things I mused and pondered as I 
 stood under the great Mecca gate of the city of Jeddah 
 and looked eastward towards the city whence sprang the 
 great Eastern Antichrist, whose religion has held so 
 permanently for 1,200 years so vast a proportion of the 
 whole human race. Dr. Johnson's remark, too, comes 
 home so forcibly to one : There are only two objects 
 of curiosity — the Christian world and the Mohammedan 
 world. Everything else is barbarous." It is so clear, to 
 my mind, that the rise and fall of Mohammedanism is quite 
 plainly set forth in the Bible ; it is also quite clear that 
 if we are the true Israel of God, so at last even Ishmacl, 
 the spurious offspring, is to become legitimate, for " in 
 Isaac shall all (mark that this all must include even the 
 descendants of his bastard brother) nations of the earth 
 be blessed." How can a Christian, who sees things in 
 the light the Bible puts them, be surprised because the 
 rise, progress, and permanence of the creed of Mohammed 
 seem to be little short of one vast miracle ? God planned 
 it all. He was the great cause of it. It is a mystery why 
 He should have planned it, but He did plan it, and 
 rather than waste our time in a sinful calling in question 
 the wisdom of this wonderful phenomenon in the world's 
 history we ought rather to work on hopefully and joy- 
 fully amongst the Mohammedans themselves, knowing 
 that the great promise can never fail of accomplishment — 
 " In Isaac shall all nations of the earth be blessed." It 
 
54 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 is now winter time in Jeddah, yet the thermometer is 88 
 degrees in the shade, and we are all melting away. . . . 
 All to-day we have been taking on board a great quantity 
 of cargo, chiefly huge bags of salt and gum arabic, for 
 Hodeidah, our next port, and also a great deal of cargo 
 for Liverpool, which we shall leave at Aden. I left the 
 Java this morning about ten o'clock to go to the Consulate 
 to baptize the little child, Williams, and one of the 
 officers of the vessel went with me to be present at the 
 holy rite. Eeally it is almost an historical event, for 
 the Consul told me that this child was the first Christian 
 baptized in Jeddah. There in the drawing-room of the 
 Consulate, surrounded by Mohammedans, I read our 
 solemn office for the inihlich baptism of infants. The 
 nurse who carried the child was a heathen ; so, of course, 
 I did not suffer her to be present at the baptism. Poor 
 little thing, it looked very weakly, the little infant ; but 
 it did make one happy to feel that it is now a partaker 
 of the fruits of Christ's life, death, and resurrection, 
 and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. You will 
 probably remember that when Mahomet (of course it is 
 Mohammed really) first set up his religion in his own 
 country he found a branch of the Eastern Church at 
 most of the important towns of Arabia, which he in a 
 few years entirely uprooted and destroyed. I suppose, 
 therefore, that there would have been in ante-Moham- 
 medan times a Christian community in Jeddah, so that 
 it is not right to say that I baptized the first Christian in 
 Jeddah. It would be more correct to say the first for 
 1,200 years. . . . The pilgrim season is just over, yet 
 there are a few stragglers not yet gone back to their 
 homes. We are taking 150 of them as deck passengers. 
 They came off from the shore in boats to-night just as the 
 sun was setting: it was intensely interesting to watch 
 them. They clambered up the sides of the vessel, and 
 
[1876.] 
 
 Arrival at Zanzibar. 
 
 55 
 
 then hauled in their packages after them. They sleep 
 on board and bring their own food, and lie about all over 
 the deck. There are one or two dear little children among 
 them. Some of these Arabs brought guns on board 
 whose barrels were nearly five feet long, and of such 
 curious workmanship. It was a curious thing, I learnt 
 four days ago the Arabic numerals up to 100. I found 
 this very useful to-day, and was able to help these Arabs 
 a little in explaining how their passage tickets were made 
 out — one, one and a half, three, &c. We did not get on 
 beyond that, as, it is needless to tell you, I don't under- 
 stand a word of their language. . . . 
 
 KiuxGANi, Zanzibar, May Src^, J.8Y6. 
 We have at last arrived at our journey's end, and are 
 able to thank God for bringing us all three in safety 
 and perfect health to our destination. What little re- 
 mained to be told about our journey I have spoken of to 
 the aunts. . . . We arrived off the town of Zanzibar at 
 about 3.30 in the afternoon of May 2nd. The Bishop 
 (Dr. Steere) boarded us as soon as we dropped anchor, 
 and we were rowed out to Kiungani at once in our small 
 boat. The Mission party gave us a hearty welcome, and 
 we found all quite well and in good spirits. At the eight 
 o'clock evensong in place of the general thanksgiving the 
 Te Deum was sung, as is always the case when the Mission 
 welcomes fresh comers. Kiungani is really a lovely spot ; 
 it stands at the top of a gentle slope, and the whole 
 shamba (i.e., estate) is planted with all kinds of fruit- 
 bearing trees, conspicuous among which are mangoes, 
 bananas, and cocoanuts. 
 
 [Here follows a description of the house and its 
 inmates.] 
 
 . . . These are all dry details, but I want yow. first to 
 have a clear idea of our situation and party, that in my 
 future letters you may understand all references. . , . As 
 
56 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 far as I can tell you at present my special work will be 
 general superintendence of the boys' school and instruc- 
 tions in theology to our English lay helpers. Of course I 
 shall be able to be of use in all the English services, and 
 the Swahili, too, in course of time. ... It is so nice 
 being out of the town for various reasons ; among others 
 the thermometer pomts to a considerably lower number 
 than in the town. We average here night and day 
 about 82 degrees, but now it is the cool season after the 
 rains. . . . Dr. Kirk [now Sir John Kirk, then English 
 Consul at Zanzibar. — Ed.] I have not yet seen, but it is 
 amusing to find how completely Seyid Barghash is in his 
 hands. We have just been printing the new proclama- 
 tion about the slaves from Kilwa and Pemba which that 
 potentate has been forced to issue upon compulsion by 
 Dr. Kirk. ... It is said that the Sultan hates us all, 
 Dr. Kirk included, cordially. It must be so. We take 
 away all his trade, his wealth, and power when we force 
 him to aid us in stopping slave traffic, and he looks upon 
 Englishmen just as one nation looks upon another which 
 has conquered and crushed it, and yet allows it to have 
 a sort of existence. Then, again, he belongs to the very 
 strict sect of Mohammedans, who look upon all English- 
 men as in league with the devil, and fated to meet with 
 the nethermost hell. . . . One thinks of Africa in con- 
 nection with our Lord's words, "When a strong man 
 armed keepeth his house," &c. Yerily the devil is a 
 strong man in Africa, and it seems he has known how 
 " to keep his house " with this accursed slave trade ; bit 
 by bit the " stronger than he " is advancmg upon his 
 stronghold and breaking it down. " Thy kingdom come " 
 in Africa, 0 Lord. 
 
 KIUNGA^^I, May 16th, 1876. 
 I have had one attack of fever ; it only lasted two 
 days. Livingstone's pills, and afterwards quinine, I foujid 
 
[1876.] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 57 
 
 just the thing. . . . Everything here is perfectly delight- 
 ful ; the only thing is that we really seem to live too well 
 and easily. I have fallen into a place that the Bishop 
 has for some time been wanting some one to fill, viz., 
 head of the educational department. My chief work has 
 been forming our four or five laymen here into a lecture 
 class [for theology. — Ed.]. ... I have also the superin- 
 tendence of the school. ... I usually play the harmonium 
 at the morning service, and read prayers at the English 
 evening service. ... I am not able to get over my 
 astonishment at the general forwardness and proficiency 
 of our« boys, as well as at their general behaviour and 
 moral character. . . . We have one or two rare young 
 scamps amongst them, but this also in every English 
 school. Again, many who give good promise turn out 
 badly, but here again it is the same in England. ... It 
 seems to me so perfectly natural somehow to be working 
 amongst them that I do not and cannot see any difference 
 between them and English boys. . . . They all seem 
 thoroughly happy, work heartily, and play heartily. I 
 played at rounders with them the other day on their 
 general holiday. . . . This is the unhealthy season for 
 the boys ; so many of them suffer from sore legs. If the 
 skin is just scratched it turns to a running sore, which it 
 takes months to heal. I find a cold water compress the 
 only thing that does any good. It is rather depressing 
 so many of the boys being ill, especially as their cure is 
 such a tedious process. I told a boy the other day in 
 Swahili that if he would insist on playing about while 
 his leg was bad he would never get well, to which he re- 
 plied " Muungu ataniponya" God will make me well "). 
 My Swahih would not carry me further, so I could not 
 explain to him that he had a part to play in the cure, 
 namely, to keep himself quiet. Our first class write 
 English and Swahili very fairly well, and are pretty 
 
58 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 good at arithmetic. They all know the Church Catechism, 
 and are tolerably well up in the Old and New Testa- 
 ments. They are very fond of writing letters. . . . They 
 are decidedly musical, sing most of the hymns (Ancient 
 and Modern), and pick up new chants very quickly. The 
 work of the printing press goes on very busily, and so do 
 the other branches of the industrial department. 
 
 KiUNGAXI, May IQtli. 
 
 I have just been planning out a boat for quick sailing 
 on the raft principle, with a large centreboard applied. 
 It will carry a huge lateen sail, and we think it will go 
 well on a wind. We have been trying experiments already, 
 and so far they have been eminently satisfactory. The 
 Bishop takes an interest in it, so it will be a sort of 
 joint production. If we can get it built it will help us 
 much in our communication between this place and 
 Mbweni. ... If I were to pick out one quality as that 
 which the boys as a set most lack, I should say it was 
 force and strength of character. They are, as a rule, 
 easily led and weak. We have one or two grand excep- 
 tions. . . . With regard to your question about the 
 expulsion of the heathen attendant at Jeddah before 
 baptizing the child, I was acting in accordance with the 
 precedent of the early Church. It was not allowed to 
 administer either of the sacraments in the presence of 
 the heathen. A canon was lately passed in the diocese 
 of Bloemfontein expressly forbidding that the sacraments 
 should be administered in the presence of heathen. 
 
 KiUNGANl, May 24th, 1876. 
 Every one says this is the best place in the world for 
 shells. I want, therefore, by degrees to form two collec- 
 tions — one for the mother and the other for the Charter- 
 house museum. One of the officers of the London 
 
[1876.] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 59 
 
 showed me a beautiful collection which he had found 
 here round about Pemba and the coral reefs. . . . To- 
 morrow — Ascension Day — there is going to be a grand 
 marriage. Our head printing boy, Owen, is to be married 
 to the head girl, Barbara, and the preparations are going 
 on now. We fear Barbara, who has a dreadful temper, 
 will henpeck poor Owen frightfully. Mr. Capel is build- 
 ing them a little house to live in on the shamba. . . . 
 Our lady helper here, Miss Bartlett, is such a nice 
 motherly person. I don't know how one would get on 
 without her when one is ill. All the boys like her ; she 
 makes an excellent nurse for them. . . . Several of the 
 officers on board the London study Swahili pretty hard. 
 The Bishop is their master and examiner. If they know 
 the language they get a good deal of extra pay. . . . 
 ■ The infants at Mbweni are my great delight. . . . The 
 effects of the climate are certainly enervating. One cannot 
 do nearly so much in the day here as in England. A very 
 little tires one, and if one does too much it is most likely 
 a case of fever the next morning. . . . Always see that I 
 have plenty of letters l)y each mail. We do look forward 
 to the mails with an eagerness which no one in England 
 can possibly understand. Keep me well posted up in all 
 family news. . . . We are disappointed to hear of no one 
 coming out to head the Nyasa expedition. 
 
 KiUNGANl, June 28th, 1876. 
 I don't think I have mentioned in my other letters 
 home the baptisms at Mbweni. You know our settle- 
 ment of released slaves has now been there just upon 
 three years. At first there were only a few, but now we 
 have at least 120. Well, on Whit Tuesday ten were 
 baptized. They were all Nyasas, and had been prepared 
 by our sub-deacon, John Swedi. The service was most 
 solemn and affecting, and it made one very joyful to 
 
6o 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 think our poor raw natives from the interior are now 
 being gradually received into the Body of Christ. . . . 
 Since writing the above, the boats of the London have 
 come in with 50 slaves, captured off Pemba. The Bishop 
 means to take them all in, and has just gone off to 
 Dr. Kirk to negotiate matters. The greater number 
 are adults ; they will go, of course, to the shamba at 
 Mbweni. The rest, if boys, we shall take in here. We 
 hear also that Young [Lieutenant Young, K.N.] and his 
 party (the Scotch mission on Nyasa) have proceeded up 
 the Lake, and found it to extend at least 150 miles farther 
 to the north than was heretofore known. This makes 
 it as big, if not bigger, than Tanganyika. . . . 
 
 P.S. — I hope you often remember me in your prayers. 
 What I chiefly lack is energy in God's work and con- 
 tinuous zeal. Please remember this, and pray accordingly. 
 Do not forget also our converts at Mbweni whom I have 
 mentioned. 
 
 Magila, Us.ajibara Country, 
 
 East Africa, June 11th, 1876. 
 
 ... I am writing from our inland station in the 
 Usambara mountains. ... I think you will like to have 
 an account of our journey hither, and of the station as we 
 find it, under the present administration of Mr. Farler. 
 We left Kiungani — the Bishop, WaUis, self, Chumah 
 [Dr. Livingstone's man, one of the two who brought his 
 body to the coast. — Ed.] , and sixteen porters — last Thurs- 
 day week. We halted at a place called Kibweni, seven miles 
 north of Zanzibar town, and there waited for a dhow. 
 The Bishop and I filled up the time by going to pay a visit 
 to a rich Arab, one of those who accompanied Seyid 
 Barghash to England. He received us very courteously, 
 and we sat talking with him till sunset. We went on 
 board the dhow about 8 p.m., but she did not sail till 
 
[1876.] 
 
 Trip to Magila. 
 
 61 
 
 2 a.m. We had a most prosperous voyage, and, owing 
 to the favourable (south-west) monsoon, reached Pangani, 
 on the mainland {vide chart of Zanzibar, extreme left- 
 hand corner to the north), at 9 a.m. on Friday. , . . 
 We spent some time with the Arab governor of the 
 place, and set out on our march at about 3.20 p.m. By 
 6 o'clock we reached our halting place for the night, 
 a little village named Mdora. . . . The chief of the 
 village was very much pleased to find that we were 
 not a party of Wadigo (a marauding tribe who are just 
 now making raids into the Wabondei country). We 
 slept in the open air, and our toilet proceedings were 
 watched with much interest. After our evening meal 
 the Bishop spoke in Swahili to the villagers, who gathered 
 round us, on the subject of God's love to sinners and 
 of the resurrection. I noticed that many listened with 
 great attention. We were up by 5.30 next morning, 
 and left the village by 6.30. We marched on and on, 
 with only two short halts of 18 minutes each, till nearly 
 half -past 11. When we did halt at last I felt for the 
 first time in my life the extreme deliciousness of rest 
 after great fatigue. The walk was very tiring, for in 
 many places we had to wade through water, and as a rule 
 the path was very, very narrow — sometimes no larger 
 than a large rut — and for the most part the tall grass 
 towered several feet above our heads. We halted for two 
 hours at a spring of water, and then walked on till about 
 3 o'clock, when we reached a village, where we halted for 
 the rest of the day. One of our porters had fallen ill on 
 the way, and we felt bound to wait till he should come 
 up again with us. It was rather annoying, for we were 
 then within three hours' march of Magila, and we had 
 hoped to have reached our friends in time for the celebra- 
 tion on Trinity Sunday. We passed the night in that 
 village. We always said evening prayers — the Bishop, I, 
 
62 Life of Chaimcv ^f z^^e? 
 
 n ^- - - ^ 
 
[1876.] 
 
 Trip to Magila. 
 
 63 
 
 bala (the mountain tribe). Their language differs very 
 materially from Swahili, but most of the men speak the 
 latter owing to their constant intercourse with the coast. 
 They are powerful, owing to their large numbers, and 
 have several times repulsed the Wakalindi and the 
 Wasegua, who live to the north again. . . . These 
 Wakalindi and Wasegua are very wrathful with Mr. 
 Farler, for they say that it is the dawa (medicine) he 
 gives their foes that makes them able to defeat them. 
 . . . Though the work is uphill, and sometimes very dis- 
 couraging, he (Mr. Farler) seems to have effected a good 
 deal in the one year he has been here. His plan is to 
 take Acland as an interpreter and go round to the 
 villages preaching. He makes the preaching very in- 
 formal, so as to encourage the natives to ask questions. 
 The very first doctrine that he is anxious to teach them 
 is, of course, that of a life after this life, and this they 
 all stumble at. They are for the most part steeped in 
 a gross materialism, and tell him over and over again, 
 ** We can't believe that. When we die we are put in the 
 ground, and there is an end of us ! " Again, they are all 
 in terrible fear of Satan (Shetani) . They have an elaborate 
 system of charms, from which it seems almost impossible 
 to wean them. They keep the p'epo drum {i.e., drum to 
 please and appease the evil spirit) going all night long, 
 and we hear it every night in the villages round. They 
 have absolutely no notion of a good God, and are 
 quite indifferent to the fact when spoken to of it. Still, a 
 great number of them are ashamed of their charms. . . . 
 Mr. Farler has, out of these poor sunken creatures got 
 together a little band of catechumens, whom he is pre- 
 paring for baptism, who have discarded all charms, and 
 of whom he has the greatest hopes. The Bishop ad- 
 mitted them (in number about 12) as catechumens last 
 Sunday, and addressed them, as he can address natives, 
 
64 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 in ^Yords to which they listened with an attention that 
 surprised us all. Another way in which Mr. Farler is 
 able to sow the Word, and at least to get Christianity 
 talked about (do remember that, with regard to East 
 Africa, missionary efforts are but in the bud as yet), is by 
 his medicine. Without any real knowledge of medicine 
 he has been able, by a few simple remedies, to work 
 satisfactory results amongst the natives. The consequence 
 is his name has spread far and wide, and people come 
 from even 60 and 100 miles off to consult him. He does 
 what he can with his scanty supply of medicines — hardly 
 sufficient for his own use in the house — to help them ; 
 and then, talking through Acland, addresses them on the 
 subject of a good and merciful God and the future life. 
 A few weeks ago two men came from a village 30 miles 
 off, over the mountains, sent by their brother the chief to 
 Mr. Farler. Their brother, they said, was very ill, and 
 in his illness said he wanted no charms, but he wanted 
 to know all about the God of the Wazungu (Europeans), 
 and had sent them to ask Mr. Farler for information and 
 instruction. They listened to all he told them, and then 
 said, This is joyful news about God ; our brother will 
 rejoice." In early Church history we never read about 
 rapid conversions amongst the negro races, and therefore 
 one is encouraged rather than disheartened at what has 
 been done here. There is an effete but still existing 
 Mohammedanism to be rooted out of the country and 
 much to be done before the Gospel can have free course 
 here. These people are not without some good qualities ; 
 their intense good nature, for instance, is remarkable. 
 On Monday we went to the market ! It is hold on a 
 neighbouring hill. I should think there were 500 people 
 there. The articles for sale are bananas, tembo (palm 
 wine), mahogo {the vegetable of the country, resembling 
 in taste, as I think, an inferior tallow candle), goats, 
 
[1876.] Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 65 
 
 native tobacco, and skins. I was unfortunate in not 
 being able to get a couple of leopard skins, which I 
 had hoped to send home. It happened that there were 
 none yesterday. Generally there are some, and one gets 
 them for about a shilling each. Some native wooden 
 spoons were all that I bought. We haggled over a fine 
 ox, which we agreed to buy for 25s., but as the man 
 cheated us afterwards, and said he wanted 26.s., we 
 sent him and his ox away in indignation. ... I have 
 not attempted addresses in Swahili yet, but I believe 
 I am considered to have made rapid progress in the 
 acquirement of the language. This augurs well if, as is 
 likely, I shall have to learn the Yao language. ... I 
 have not been very well since I have been here. ... I 
 must tell you, though, that I felt wonderfully well on the 
 march ; the walking seemed to agree with me thoroughly. 
 ... I find that there is nothing better than walkmg for 
 taking off fever. . . . 
 
 Kir^yG-i^si, July lOfh, 1S7G. 
 Last week we took in a batch of 20 slaves, taken off 
 Pemba from a dhow by the Londoiis boats. Was it not 
 curious ? Amongst them one of our boys recognized his 
 father and the father his son ! The son has been with 
 us about two years. They are Gindos, and were inhabi- 
 tants of a country lying some 150 miles from the coast and 
 200 miles and more south of Zanzibar. . . . Have I told 
 you what allies we have in the two captains — the captain 
 of the London. Captain Sullivan, and Captam Ward, of 
 the Thetis ! They are both good Christian men, and 
 take great interest in our work. The latter constantly 
 gives us £'10 notes. . . . We are xery lucky in having 
 such good men as friends, and the ships are lucky in 
 having them. I always rejoice when those in high places, 
 who have such opportunities of setting examples, are 
 
 CM. p 
 
66 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 men who set good ones. . . . Did you read the Bishop's 
 "Walk to Nyasa "*? You know, the people here — naval 
 people and others like Dr. Kirk, &c., who know something 
 of the country and of the difficulties of African travelling 
 — look upon the journey as little short of marvellous. 
 The Bishop travelled in one month to a place it took 
 Livingstone four months to reach ! . . . I miss English 
 flowers very much ; we have no fine flowers here. Like so 
 many other things, we hardly know how we valued them 
 till they are removed from us. . . . 
 
 KiTJNGANl, July 13th, 1876. 
 I shall be able to give you . . . some account of my 
 feelings now that I have been here three months. I do 
 think we are far too comfortable here ; there are at this 
 house almost too many of us Europeans. I feel very 
 strongly that we ought to separate, and that soon. As 
 one looks out of the window towards the blue line of hills 
 on the mainland across the sea one thinks of " Thy 
 kingdom come," and one asks — Why do we stop here? 
 Then comes the thought (to me personally), Here am I — 
 send me ; " and so an eagerness comes over me to be one 
 of those who, under the guidance of our good Bishop, 
 shall go far into the interior and preach to the Yaos 
 Christ and Him crucified. I cannot keep it from you 
 that, if God will, I mean next year to go. You will 
 remember that I told you when in England that I believed 
 one ought to try and realize the lo, I die daily " of St. 
 Paul — not, indeed, to seek hardships, but to be one of 
 the first to volunteer for the difficult part of the work if 
 it be determined by the Bishop that the difficulties are to 
 be faced. I tell you all this now because I want you to 
 get accustomed to the idea that if all goes well I mean to 
 go into the far interior next year. I feel so much happier 
 now than since I was quite a boy that I doubt not that 
 
[1876.] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 67 
 
 God in His mercy is drawing me near to Him again ; 
 slowly, perhaps very slowly, but still surely I do get to 
 feel the Saviour's love. For many years I confessed it 
 without feeling it ; now I do feel that Christ is revealing 
 His love in my heart ; and then what joy it is to feel, as 
 I do most intensely, that all your teaching of years gone 
 by comes back to me now with such a force ! It was never 
 lost. I lived for years a careless, forgetful life, yet through 
 it all I did not forget, though I disregarded, the lessons I 
 had learnt as a child from you, my mother ; and now, after 
 many years, they actually seem to be teaching me again, 
 and I know that you will thank God that it is so. So 
 much will be expected at the last day of those who have 
 received much, and I often think that I am one of those, 
 as also are all your children. . . . Perhaps this in great 
 measure led to my coming out here ; so you must always 
 think of your and my father's prayers on my behalf 
 being answered — answered to the full in my becoming 
 a missionary. I have just finished the first volume of 
 Patteson's life ; I found it most absorbing. I suppose 
 you liked it when you read it. South Sea Islanders are 
 not stolid, indifferent Africans ; Patteson would have 
 found his difficulties increased a thousandfold with the 
 people we have to do with. These are indeed stolid. . . . 
 
 KnjNQANi, Zanzibar, 
 
 July 19th and 2Wi, 1876. 
 
 I must tell you of our expedition to Chumvi Island on 
 St. James's Day. Farler, Yorke, and I, were the Euro- 
 peans of the party, and five of our boys were the crew. . . . 
 We ... set out at 8.30 a.m. ; wind and tide were dead 
 against us, so we had to row all the way nearly. We 
 were three hours getting to our destination. When we 
 arrived we found it easy enough to walk all round the 
 island on the beach and coral rock, but utterly impossible 
 
 F 2 
 
68 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 to penetrate into the dense bush. . . . But it made a 
 grand " outing " for the boys. . . . We had a glorious 
 sail back, the little boat skimming over the waves 
 splendidly. Your affectionate brother acted steersman, 
 and brought the little craft safely back, though once or 
 twice he had anxious qualms, for the wind was decidedly 
 fresh, and the boat is only a fair sized rowing boat. 
 When we started I had a touch of fever, but the waves 
 and the sparkling sea and the wind drove it all away ere 
 we got back. These day's outings are not thrown away ; 
 they draw us nearer to the hoys, and help to make 
 them freer and franker with us. Since I wrote the 
 above I have had a long talk with the Bishop. He thinks 
 he ought to plant our first station on the road to Nyasa 
 this year ; it would be about 80 miles inland from Lindi. 
 It is uncertain whether I shall go or not, as the Bishop 
 seems to attach importance to my classes, &c. for the 
 young laymen here, and rather inclines to my going to 
 live in the toicn. As to health, I believe I should be far 
 better m the interior of Africa than in the town of 
 Zanzibar. . . . 
 
 Ejtjngahi, Zanzibar, 
 
 Saturday, August I2th, 1876. 
 
 The health of the mission has been on the whole good 
 since I last wrote ; for my own part I have had but two 
 days of illness for more than three weeks, so I consider 
 that I am becoming acclimatized. We are still enjoymg 
 the cool season. It really is cool, for as long as we stay 
 indoors till late in the afternoon we need not be uncom- 
 fortably hot. Two days ago we packed up 16 large bags 
 (weighing about 60 lbs. each, being one man's load) of 
 beads of different colours and sizes, and 16 of coloured 
 cloths, Amerikano (unbleached sheeting, the ordinary 
 trader's cloth) and kaniki (very coarse blue calico stuff), 
 for the Nyasa expedition. Some of the cloths were very 
 
[1876.] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 69 
 
 pretty, most of them according to Arab taste and fashion. 
 In West Africa very gay cloths and colours prevail. 
 Here, where the trade originated from the Arabs, so 
 did the taste and fashion, and so the Yaos and Gindos, 
 &c., are lovers of the more sombre hues. . . . Our Bishop 
 has been in very poor health for the last three weeks, 
 and it is so difficult to persuade him to take anything 
 like proper rest. We all esteem him greatly, and have the 
 most thorough and complete confidence in him as our 
 leader. Personally I am very fond of him, and each 
 week shows that we have many sympathies in common. 
 Although not the cleverest, he is quite the quickest and 
 readiest man I know. Place him where you will, he 
 always seems to know how to act at once, and there is 
 scarcely a subject one can mention to which at some 
 time or other he does not seem to have given thought 
 and study. All these are, as one sees now every day, 
 most valuable qualities in a missionary bishop ; and when 
 I add that we, every one of us, do know him to be a true 
 lover and most earnest soldier of our Lord, I need not 
 give you other reasons why we hold him in such estima- 
 tion. [One feels in reading this how well the writer's 
 description of Bishop Steere might be applied to himself. 
 — Ed.] I am now looking forward, as you may imagine, 
 to the arrival of the September mail. The thought of 
 Johnson's rapidly approaching arrival keeps me in cheer- 
 ful spirits. God seems to be ordering all things so 
 mercifully ; and for me it is indeed a joy to think that in 
 six weeks more we two shall again be united and working 
 together for our Lord. May His Spirit go with us as He 
 went with us when He brought us together in England, 
 and then I think we ought to have but little to fear — 
 but little to make us downcast. By the time you get 
 this letter I shall be within a week or fortnight of my 
 ordination. You will have, therefore, just that time in 
 
70 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 which to pray for me for the special gifts and blessings 
 which one seeks at that solemn time. I shall be ordained 
 priest, while my friend [W. P. Johnson] will at the 
 same time be ordained deacon. God grant that I may 
 serve Him more faithfully as priest than I have done 
 dm*ing my diaconate. Even in this one year what a 
 quantity of wasted time, of evil thoughts, of worldly 
 desu'es, and of selfishness I have to look back ujDon ! 
 Yet what a comfort to think that the Holy Spirit strives 
 with us, and makes intercession for us with groaniugs 
 that cannot be uttered, as St. Paul says. You will 
 not have forgotten, nor my father, " when I am weak 
 then am I strong," and all the associations connected 
 with the 19th September 'the date of his ordination as 
 deacon — Ed.] last year in now distant England. What 
 a day it was ! I can never think of it or write of it 
 without giving way like a child ; and it is the same 
 when I look at the fly-leaf of the Prayer Book you 
 gave me. 0 that some day I may see you all agaiu if 
 it be His divine will ! There, I must stop for a time, 
 and wait for the mail to come. I have been nearly 
 two hours writing this much, and I see the sun sinking 
 fast into the sea far away over the horizon yonder, 
 while with you it is high up over your heads — about mid- 
 day; and perhaps, if I could see you all now, I should 
 hear the clatter of knives and forks as you are all eating 
 lunch in some lodging-house or hotel at some sea-side 
 place in Wales or on the South Coast, and so we get 
 down to the matter of fact of this workaday life. But 
 I am sittiug up here, you know, and it seemed a change 
 to have, as it were, a good gaze iuto the past, as my eyes 
 from time to time have wandered from this piece of paper 
 to the sea and the dhows sailing in from Madagascar, 
 and the calm sky and the gleam of the sunhght on the 
 sea, till I suppose the eyes of the mind and heart, finding 
 
[i876.] 
 
 Life at ZsLUzihsLV. 
 
 71 
 
 some connection with all this, took me back to you all, 
 and to past times, and to the 19th of September last 
 year, and to people and scenes and places which will be 
 and must be far away for some time yet. Well, the sun 
 has set now, and as we have next to no twilight I can 
 write no more ; for, as for artificial light, I shall have to 
 await the good pleasure of Patikoli for my lamp ! . . . 
 
 It is too much to say that there is nothing against 
 polygamy in the Bible. The law of Moses certainly did 
 recognize it. It was an evil inseparable from the state 
 of society in that day. The law aimed at mitigating 
 rather than removing altogether the evils it dealt with 
 (this, of course, is implied by our Lord when he 
 says, Moses did this ''because of the hardness of your 
 hearts"), and therefore certain provisions are made with 
 regard to polygamy, although polygamy is at the same 
 time certainly discouraged. You will notice, perhaps, 
 that after the return from the Babylonish exile polygamy 
 was very rare amongst the children of Israel ; the 
 general feeling of the people was against it, and the 
 theory of monogamy is set forth in a book written during 
 this period. Vide Ecclesiasticus xxvi. 1 — 27. We gather 
 then that, to say the least of it, in our Lord's time poly- 
 gamy was not one of the crying evils ; possibly He never 
 came in direct contact with it ; but we have sufficient 
 indications that He did declare monogamy to be the law 
 of God (consequently polygamy was a sin, for it is the 
 transgression of monogamy). For this vide St. Matt, 
 xix. 4, 5, &c. Our Lord leads the people back to the 
 creation of man, and the woman as the help meet for 
 him, as the original marriage charter; "they twain " it 
 is, and so forth; but I have not space to draw out the 
 argument. It seems to me that wherever He touches 
 on marriage, divorce, &c.. He seems to be speaking to 
 people who for the most part were not given to polygamy, 
 
72 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 but I grant you there is obscurity upon this point. The 
 Talmuds, &c., all speak of polygamy as a well recognized 
 fact even then. But as to slavery and polygamy not 
 being denounced by our Lord, what a number of sins 
 are not spoken of by Him ! He set forth His doctrine 
 clearly, and then the doctrine forced people to see that 
 those things which are not compatible with it must be 
 treated as sinful. Slavery is an instance in point. Our 
 Lord makes us all brothers in Him, puts us all on an 
 equality, makes " of one blood all the nations of the 
 earth," teaches us that God looks not on the outward man 
 but on the heart, is no accepter of persons, and that the 
 servant is as his master. ... It is quite plain from all 
 this that those who accept our Lord's teaching could not 
 for one moment think that He would recognize slavery as 
 compatible with His Gospel. Our common sense tells us 
 this; so does our reason, as well as our higher spiritual 
 faculties. Now as to the argument there is no law 
 against polygamy in the Bible, therefore a polygamist 
 may be baptized," it will not hold. I think I have said 
 enough to show that the teaching of our Lord shows it 
 to be sinful. In adults who wish for baptism we must 
 be assured that they have resolved and do resolve to try 
 and give up all sin, and that they will pray for God's 
 help so to do. Now if polygamy is sin, then the person 
 who wishes for baptism must surely give up his wives 
 (this is a mere matter of free will) before a priest can 
 consent to baptize him. But you will say, Suppose you 
 are not able to persuade him that it is sin ? " The 
 answer to which is — We dare not, then, baptize him till 
 we do so persuade him." ... Of course there is something 
 to be said on the other side. I think at least that it is 
 very clear, if a man knows it to be sin, it would be posi- 
 tively wrong to baptize him. . . . You know the rule of 
 the early Church was a long, long course of preparation 
 
[1876.] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 73 
 
 before baptism, so careful were the good fathers of old 
 to be sure of the sincerity of those who expressed a wish 
 to be admitted into the Church of Christ. . . . Please be 
 very careful to whom you lend my letters. But you 
 know well what ought to be kept private and what may 
 be circulated. 
 
 Zanzibar, September 11th, 1876. 
 
 It will be very strengthening to feel that my ordina- 
 tion will be in conjunction with that of W. P. J. . . . You 
 will all be with me in spirit on Sunday week, and pray 
 earnestly for God's blessing on my priesthood, now so 
 soon to be entered upon. . . . 
 
 September 20th. — Johnson has arrived in first-rate 
 health ; he is highly delighted with everything he has 
 seen so far. . . . 
 
 Zanzibar, October 12th, 1876. 
 Some of us are going to pay a state visit to the Sultan 
 this afternoon; it will be my first visit to His High- 
 ness. . . . We were ordained, Johnson and I, on the 
 feast of St. Michael and All Angels, September 29th — 
 a holy and a happy day for both of us. ... I have to 
 chronicle another month of daily blessings to myself, 
 including amongst them perfect health. . . . Alice (by 
 mistake, I suppose), in sending me a letter, sent me 
 back the one I wrote to you ; so I was able to write to 
 myself, as it were, via England, and get the letter in 
 two months. What shall we say of it ? Was it her 
 playfulness ? If so, I must call upon Charles to check 
 it. Or was it absence of mind? If so, I of all people 
 ought to be most ready to condone as one considered 
 out here very absent." 
 
 KiUNGANi, Zanzibar, October ISth, 1876. 
 The Bishop leaves me generally responsible for all the 
 work in the toivrif which I hope to compass without being 
 
74 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 forced to drop anything here. . . . The church building 
 goes on rapidly ; the walls are now forty feet high, and 
 we are busy with a kind of clerestory gallery and the 
 roof centreing, arching of the windows, construction of the 
 turret, trimming of the columns, placing of the capitals, 
 &c. For all this being carried on I am responsible in 
 the Bishop's absence. He has left definite instructions, 
 and I hope, with the assistance of Wallis and Wood- 
 ward, to be successful in carrying forward the work as 
 he wishes it to be done. Native masons want constant 
 watching, and I expect it will be necessary to walk into 
 town to see after these things nearly every day. . . . 
 But what to me will be the most pleasing and perhaps 
 the most difficult work in town will be the keeping up of 
 the Friday afternoon Swahili preachings. I feel these 
 must not be dropped, and yet I feel far from competent 
 to preach (extempore) in the language as yet. Woodward 
 and I have put our heads together, and we think that we 
 shall be able to manage it between us. ... I wish you 
 could see the building [Christ Church, Zanzibar]. It 
 will, we think, be most effective when finished, and it is 
 gratifying to know that, although it looks and is massive 
 and substantial, it is to cost but very little in proportion 
 to its size and as compared with churches in England. 
 I say this is gratifying because I feel very strongly that 
 as missionaries we should not be justified in spending 
 large sums on church building, and here I feel sure you 
 will agree with me. . . . 
 
 Zanzibar, Saturday, November Aih, 1876. 
 I like my town work very well. It is a good thing, I 
 think, to have sermons to write. The whirl of our busy life 
 here does distract one's thoughts so much from those 
 subjects on which one would like them to be running 
 that it is really a good thing having a weekly sermon to 
 
[1876.] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 75 
 
 write ; it forces one to think and meditate on what too 
 often gets pushed aside for worldly thoughts. I suppose 
 this sounds odd coming from a missionary, but my 
 former letters will have told you how much work of a 
 secular nature occupies one's day — secular in one sense, 
 though not secular, I trust, really, for one may trust that all 
 we do here is with a view to God's glory. ... I wonder 
 if you remember asking me in a letter a long, long time 
 ago about those words in the Burial Service — " In the 
 midst of life we are in death." Well, the other day I 
 came to a passage in a sermon by Neale which bears on 
 the subject, though it is tantalizing in not giving the name 
 of the author of those words. Here is the passage : — 
 '* This thought, how suddenly God may call for us, once 
 so pressed on a holy man of old as to make him write a 
 prayer which is perhaps one of the most earnest that a 
 Christian can offer up. In Switzerland, where he lived, 
 there are wild mountains and steep precipices, and from 
 the little window of his room, perched up among the 
 crags, he used to watch the men that were let down by 
 ropes on the face of the cliffs to gather samphire, just as 
 they are about Dover to this day. And it was while he 
 was looking at one of these men, and remembering how 
 many had been dashed to pieces before him while 
 engaged in the same work, that he wrote that prayer 
 which we have in our Burial Service : * In the midst of 
 life we are in death ; of whom may we seek for succour 
 but of Thee, 0 Lord, who for our sins art most justly 
 displeased? ' "... 
 
 I really do not know what Mr. Farler is doing about 
 the question of polygamy now ; he certainly has not yet 
 baptized any polygamists, though some of his cate- 
 chumens are, I know, in the possession of a number 
 of wives. Though of course what you say about the 
 "responsibility and affection regarding the offspring of 
 
76 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 the many wives," and the necessity of taking that into 
 serious consideration if it were urged that they must put 
 away their wives before they could hope for baptism, 
 is very true ; yet you must also remember that all this 
 is lessened by the real facts — that in Africa family life is 
 unknown. In African villages the children never live 
 with their parents, but in houses by themselves, and also 
 that the love which a man bears his wives is very, very 
 small. At Mbweni even, they constantly are wanting to 
 change their wives because they don't do their work, in 
 the way of cooking the food, &c. . . . We cannot help 
 thinking that these are difficulties [i.e., the refusal to 
 baptize polygamists] , . . . but ... we are thinking of 
 what will be difficulties in our time. Perhaps were we, 
 in order to clear these difficulties, to pursue the other 
 course, who is to know whether we might not be raising 
 up in Africa a Church indeed, but one which would be 
 known in after ages as most impure from its retaining 
 with an undying tenacity a heathen custom condemned 
 by the spirit of Christ's Gospel ? . . . I am writing in 
 haste and ruggedly, but hope you see my meaning. . . . 
 And now, my dearest mother, after nearly eight months 
 of absence, how do you regard my being away from 
 home ? No longer, I sincerely hope, with regret or dis- 
 appointment? You are sure, are you not, that I am 
 perfectly happy in my work, and that I am enjoying 
 such good health as enables me to carry it on. I ask 
 you this because my sisters and other correspondents 
 give me such different accounts of it. Sometimes I 
 really don't know what to think, but I hope you will 
 always write quite freely about your feelings as regards 
 myself, as I try to do to you, and then I need not try to 
 guess at them. . . . Anyhow, don't be sad. It's Christ- 
 mas time now; I mean by now when you read this letter. 
 How I should like to go to some Christmas services in 
 
[1876.] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 77 
 
 some big London church, and be with you all, and cele- 
 brate together the great festival which now gladdens the 
 Church ! Now 3^ou really must make it for yourself a 
 very happy Christmas. . . . You know it was a bitter 
 taunt of Voltaire's that we English think that God 
 became incarnate for the Anglo-Saxon race." . . . God 
 was incarnate for all men, and I am here to help give 
 the lie to Voltaire's sneer. If you really are sympathiz- 
 ing with my work you will be able more than ever to 
 feel your heart attuned for the Christmas angel-song, 
 Peace, goodwill to all men.'' . . . You will be amused 
 that during a slight illness last week I took up Miss 
 Austen's "Northange Abbey" and "Persuasion," and 
 read them both with real and lively interest. . . . 
 
 KiUNGANi, Zanzibab, November 6th, 1876. 
 Eemember, remember the 5th of November, gun- 
 powder treason and plot; I see no reason why gunpowder 
 treason should ever be forgot." And so I didn't forget 
 it, but yesterday, while visiting one of our own boys, who 
 is now sick and staying with a native doctor on an 
 adjoining shamba, told him something about "ulaya" 
 (home) and Guy Fawkes. 
 
 [Bishop Steere, accompanied by W. P. Johnson, had 
 started on his journey towards Lake Nyasa to found a 
 station halfway between the coast and the lake.] 
 
 One of the boys of the party said that when the 
 Flying Fish arrived there [at Lindi. — Ed.] with the dhow, 
 blue lights were burnt on board, and all the people at 
 Lindi said ''That is the EngHshmen's ship. They have 
 taken a dhow, and now they are roasting the slaves and 
 are going to eat them." To explain this I may tell you 
 that the Arab slave hunters always try and instil into 
 the minds of the slaves they catch a hearty dread of the 
 
78 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 English, telling them that the English will eat them if 
 they catch them. This is to prevent the people making 
 their own escape to our men-of-war when they are 
 within hail. ... I am going to dine with Captain 
 Sullivan on board the London to-night. ... I think 
 I have spoken of him before as an excellent friend to 
 the mission. ... It will be well on to Christmas Day 
 before you get this letter. ... I hope God will grant to 
 all the dear ones at home a most happy Christmas, and 
 though I shall not be — as every Christmas for more than 
 twenty years I have been — present with you, yet I hope 
 we shall all hold spiritual communion with one another 
 on that day. I am flattering myself that you will all 
 remember me too on Christmas evening at the old family 
 gathering. You may be quite sure that my thoughts on 
 Christmas evening will be wandering away from this 
 sunny island to the dining-room and drawing-room at 
 No. 10. I can remember last Christmas Day going to 
 bed very tired and thinking many times, "Well, this is 
 the last Christmas Day at home." And then I was glad 
 to pull up a couple of blankets and a counterpane over 
 me, and so off to sleep. The bare idea of getting under 
 anything (save, indeed, the mosquito net) out here and 
 at this season is stifling. What rubbish I am giving 
 you, but one is never in the same mood out here, and 
 one's thoughts are ever running on such miserable 
 trivialities that I find it impossible to write you anything 
 worth the reading. The last few days, too, I have been, 
 I think, very fussy," fancying all things would go wrong 
 in another few days if Kandolph didn't come back. Do 
 you know, I think the Epistle for yesterday comes home 
 to me out here with an intensive force ; it is such a 
 regular fight with evil that one has to maintain, and 
 half-a-dozen times a day I feel evil has gained complete 
 victories over me. One ought to be showing such an 
 
[1876.] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 79 
 
 example of Christian calm and peace and watchfulness 
 to these boys ; instead of which — ah ! it is best not to 
 talk about it ! Only be assured that of all the weak 
 creatures now at work in the mission field I am the 
 weakest. Well, what books have you been reading? And 
 I wonder what news your letters will bring. Did you 
 ever read a volume of Neale's sermons ? I am reading 
 some now, and like them immensely ; intensely simple, 
 yet strong ; no affectation of simplicity ; real simplicity, 
 and so solid and strong. ... I will conclude with a 
 story that will amuse you. One of our boys, notorious 
 for a nose which in width stretches half across his face, 
 was, a little time ago, ill and in the hospital. While 
 very much in the dumps one of our two nurses, 
 Durham, came up to him and tried to cheer him up, 
 patting him on the back, and saying, " Poor old John 
 Briton, poor old fellow, cheer up." He, not understand- 
 ing English very well, exclaimed in Swahili, Why 
 should you call me poor ? Other boys have got noses as 
 well as me." Whereat all the other children in the 
 ward set up a shout of laughter. The fact is that " pua " 
 (pronounced like our poor ") is the Swahili for " nose," 
 and he had thought Durham was saying what would be 
 equivalent to nosey " John Briton, &c. 
 
 Mkunazini (The Town House), 
 
 Zanzibar, December 9tJi, 18*76. 
 
 ... Up at Kiungani we actually had a visit from 
 Seyid Barghash himself — the first visit he has ever paid 
 the mission. Of course it was considered a great honour, 
 though poor Eandolph said he felt very uncomfortable 
 all the time he was there I was in bed with fever at 
 the time, so did not see him. He was shown the 
 printing press, &c., and rather rudely remarked he had 
 seen somqthing much better than that at Aden and in 
 
8o Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Paris. . . . We all regretted that the Bishop was not at 
 home to receive him. ... It is my fii-m behef that 
 Christianity in Zanzibar will begin with the slave popu- 
 lation, and afterwards spread upwards to the higher 
 classes, as was the case so often in large cities in early 
 times of the Chm*ch, and as indeed it was in the earliest 
 time of all " the common people heard Him gladly.'' . . . 
 A book which . . . has greatly interested me ... is 
 Henry Martyn's " Journal.'' . . . You ask about our fish 
 supply. Well, Zanzibar is famous for the great number 
 and varkty of its fish . . . most of them excellent ; the 
 boys' favourite is shark ! We carefully avoid it, as you 
 may imagine. . . . By-the-bye, Dr. Kirk told me last 
 night, to my surprise, that in parts of the island there 
 are a great many leopards. . . . Pythons are our large 
 snake, and we have several animals of the civet cat class, 
 . . . lizards of all kinds, and chameleons, a small kind 
 of antelope, and a few pretty birds, a large water animal 
 of the crocodile type called "Kenge," in appearance 
 very like the mythical dragon, only without wings and 
 tamer looking ! . . . 
 
 Holy iNyocESTs', Kjuxgaxt, 
 
 Zanzibar, December 2Sth, 1876. 
 
 We are now daily expecting the Bishop, and keep our 
 eyes on every dhow sailing up the southern channel. 
 [The Bishop and Mr. Johnson had been journeying on 
 the mainland, and the Bishop had just started the 
 new station at Masasi. — Ed.] ... At eight o'clock 
 on Christmas Day I celebrated at Mkunazini for the 
 Europeans. . . . They sent the donkey in for me, and 
 I arrived at Kiimgani for the ten o'clock service. The 
 chapel was beautifully decorated, and looked highly 
 Christmas-hke. ... I preached. . . . directly after the 
 service was over I had fever, and took to my bed till the 
 
[i877.] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 8i 
 
 evening, having by way of Christmas dinner a large 
 bowl of arrowroot and some toast and water. . . . When 
 they returned [some of the party who had dined with 
 the Kirks. — Ed.] they found Misses Allen and Bartlett 
 and Messrs. Woodward, Wallis, and Maples telling ghost 
 stories ! The next day was a day of jollification for the 
 boys; . . . the girls came over from Mbweni. An 
 enormous feed was given them all in the middle of 
 the day, each child, whether boy or girl, having the 
 following piled up on his or her plate : — A large quantity 
 of rice, three mangoes, two bananas, a piece of jack- 
 fruit, a piece of pine apple, a piece of meat, and a 
 Christmas pudding ! From five to sunset they ran 
 races for money prizes. . . . After tea Yorke and I 
 entertained them with a shadow pantomime, then " God 
 Save the Queen," and so to bed. . . . 
 
 January dth. — Our Bishop arrived yesterday. Luckily 
 the Pliilomel, which was down at Kilwa, found him on 
 the dhow, and picked him off it. He was so seriously ill 
 that it is thought by all, this providential occurrence 
 saved his life. ... It is the usual way with us to take 
 the fever very much as a matter of course ; it is only 
 when people have it very constantly and often that it 
 becomes serious. . . . What the Bishop did during the 
 month he was at Masasi is, I think, perfectly marvel- 
 lous. Within a fortnight of his arrival there about 
 thirty houses were nearly finished, and when he came 
 away he had actually begun a granite chancel for the 
 church. . . . 
 
 January 9th, 1877. — The Bishop has just returned. 
 . . . We hope that he will take rest, and very shortly 
 return to England. This last he will do, but I'm afraid 
 that Bishop Steere will never rest himself. . . . Seyid 
 Barghash greeted the Bishop yesterday on his return 
 with a large dish of English apples. . . . About the best 
 
 CM. G 
 
fruit here in the way of wholesomeness is the custard 
 apple. . . . 
 
 January 9th. — By-the-bye, very odd, the book you 
 mention, "The Dean's EngHsh," I was reading only a 
 month or so ago ; possibly you and I were reading it the 
 very same week. 
 
 KirxGAXi, Zanzibar, January 29th, 1877. 
 
 I wonder what doctors in England would think of the 
 enormous doses of quinine it is necessary to take in 
 these (fever) cases. . . . Forty grams in twelve hours ! 
 The effects of quinine are really marvellous ; I myself 
 have had to have recourse to it ; the result is freedom 
 from fever for three whole weeks. ... I think I enjoy 
 nothing so much as the singing class ; the boys are really 
 beginning to sing the Swahili canticles so well. This is 
 Yorke's doing, for he has been teaching them mainly for 
 the last five months. . . . 
 
 Fehruary oth. — I was very sorry indeed to hear of 
 Eobert's father's shockingly sudden death. ... All such 
 sad events are warnings to us, and remind us that our 
 end may be also sudden, ^lien it does come may it 
 not be sudden in the sense in which we pray to be 
 delivered from it m our Litany. ... I really do feel 
 most thankful that I am in such good health now. I 
 could not have said this a month ago, but for a month 
 (this very day) I have had no fever or illness, each day 
 being able to do all the work before me to be done. 
 ... It is odd, but I have not the slightest recollection 
 of Mr. Edwin Hill. [Brother of Sir Kowland Hill, of 
 penny postage memory.] I suppose he is one of the 
 Bruce Castle Hills. My recollection of them as a family 
 connects itself with a childish superstition (?) of my 
 own. I remember thinking, when about six or seven 
 years old, that the expression " as old as the hills " was 
 
[1877.] Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 83 
 
 really "as old as the Hills,'' and bore reference to that 
 family ! 
 
 KiUNGANi, Zanzibar, Fehruary 4.th, 1877. 
 I am still bent on going up to join Johnson [at 
 Masasi] , though since I fill a place here it is difficult 
 to tear one's self away. ... It is such a pleasure 
 receiving letters, and such a grind answering them. 
 . . . Have you ever read "Pascal" at all? He has 
 many striking thoughts. . . . 
 
 {To his Mother.) 
 
 March 6t7i, 1877. 
 Chumah and ten porters appeared ten days ago 
 with excellent news of the good health and pro- 
 gress of Johnson and Beardall at Masasi, but they 
 were getting very short of beads and cloth. . . . 
 Please tell Mrs. Johnson all this about Masasi, and 
 that she must send off anything she may have to 
 send her son at once, if it is to be in time for us 
 to take up in June. This also applies to Mrs. Maples, 
 if she has anything to send her son. . . . Will you 
 send me a good paint box with plenty of brushes 
 and paints? ... I believe the thermometer averages 
 S4P in the shade throughout February ; in the 
 sun it is over 150°. ... I saw at the Kirks' the 
 other day two splendid nautili, which had been picked 
 up at Pemba, but have never seen nautili in full sail 
 myself. . . . This is about the time last year that I 
 went down with you to Old Tottenham and paid that 
 visit to Mrs. Hardy. I remember — tell her from me — 
 all the time I was in her house that cold bleak March 
 afternoon that I was trying to recall the old days 
 when we used to go to see her from Bruce Grove, and 
 were so frightened at the dogs ; when the wisteria hung 
 about the house in great blue masses, and Mr. Hardy 
 
 G 2 
 
84 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 used to show us the ducks and the poultry. ... I am 
 more than ever set on Africa as a sphere for work for 
 my lifetime. I never wish to return to do work in 
 England; if ill health drives me home for a season I 
 shall hope to employ my time then in making trans- 
 lations into Yao or Makua, and return with them to 
 this continent again. Do not, please, cherish any hope 
 of my settling down in England again. Yet, if I did 
 break down here, events might turn out contrary to all 
 expectation, and I might after all be a home worker once 
 more. Anyhow, I am in God's hand, and He who said 
 Go ! " might again say " Eeturn ! " Who knows ? . . . 
 I don't count up my attacks of fever. [But I believe 
 he had over 100 attacks in his first year in Africa. — Ed.] 
 N.B. — A good rule in Africa is — " when well, forget you 
 were ever ill." If we didn't do this we should all of us 
 be on our way home, I think. . . . 
 
 Zanzibar, March 9th, 1877. 
 I have quite made up my mind to go to Masasi and 
 live there till ill health drives me away. I have thought 
 over it a great deal, and see every reason why I should go — 
 none why I should remain behind. Of all the members 
 of the mission under the Bishop, Johnson and I are most 
 fitted by education, &c., to undertake the work of tackling 
 the Yao and Makua languages, and of finally attempting 
 translations in them. . . . You may be sure I have not 
 come to this determination without consideration, and, so 
 far as was possible, a balancing of advantages and dis- 
 advantages to the mission in the event of my finally 
 leaving here for the interior. . , . We are all in good 
 spirits, I think, and fonder than ever of our work. I 
 have been at the head of affairs for a fortnight, while 
 Kandolph was away in the Philomel ... I hope this 
 solemn season of Lent will be blessed to you at home 
 
[i877.] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 85 
 
 and to us here. It may not be many more Lents that 
 you or I shall spend on earth. The uncertainty of life is 
 brought before our eyes vividly out here, and I suppose 
 it is so at home to you, by the many deaths you mention 
 of your older friends. I was so glad it was not dear Sir 
 William Erie who had died, though, as he said, he could 
 hardly hope that we should meet again on this earth. 
 His correspondence is very cheering, and the whole mail 
 is an incalculable blessing. Up country I shall only hear 
 from you twice a year at most. . . . 
 
 March 7th. — We are still enjoying (?) fearfully hot 
 weather ; letter writing is laborious, talking is a fatigue, 
 eating is a trial, doing anything is quite a matter of 
 fighting against this very exhausting season. Still, I am 
 able to say I am very well, for I must not call prickly 
 heat and daily drowsiness a sign of illness. . . . 
 
 KiUNGANi, March 2Sth, 1877. 
 
 During this month I have begun to make a translation 
 of the First Epistle to the Corinthians into Swahili. . . . 
 There are certain difficulties in Swahili which I have not 
 yet mastered, and this will make my translation a very 
 imperfect one ; but it is a most useful exercise. . . . Just 
 now a famous Zanzibar fruit is in season, the Zambarau; 
 it is something like a damson, with a flower of its own. 
 The tree is one of the finest and tallest that grows on the 
 island, like a huge standard pear tree. This and the jack- 
 fruit tree are both magnificent trees ; always most con- 
 spicuous objects wherever they grow. . . . 
 
 Wednesday in Easter Week, — We had a capital day for the 
 boys yesterday. In the morning were the three marriages, 
 then wedding feast, and all the afternoon through we 
 had sports, . . . the termination of which was the race for 
 one shilling, of two boys up two cocoanut trees of nearly 
 equal height. To-day we gradually resume work again 
 
86 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 after the Easter holidays. The weather is now cool and 
 comfortable. . . . We had a bright Easter Sunday and 
 a Good Friday to fill us with thankfulness in that all 
 the boys should have entered into the long services as 
 they did. 
 
 Zanzib^vr, April 6th, 1877. 
 How funny ! There is a great green mantis just flown 
 into my room ! It is in the act of rubbing its nose with 
 one of its feelers, and is staring at me writing here with 
 its two great pink goggle eyes. It is a kind of locust — 
 grasshopper "business," as Willie would say. ... I 
 expect, as time goes on, and I get to know the languages 
 better, to get very much engrossed in translation work. 
 Both Greek and Hebrew lend themselves to Swahili 
 translation far more readily than English. 
 
 KlTTNGANl, May Day, 1877. 
 
 Your birthday ! How I am thinking of you to-day, and 
 of past years, and former May Days, and home associa- 
 tions, and a thousand English reminiscences — not, indeed, 
 sorrowfully, but with a thankful feeling that here I am, 
 having lived in Zanzibar exactly one year, and able to 
 write and tell you on this day that I feel as well and 
 happy as ever ! Well, indeed well, after two or three months 
 of almost uninterrupted good health — the strongest 
 and healthiest, I suppose, of all our mission party at the 
 present time. If you doubt it, please to look at the 
 enclosed photograph, in which you will observe the figure 
 of your youngest son, somewhat different in appearance 
 from the days of his Oxford curacy, when he perambu- 
 lated the streets of the city of spires, a sleek, shaven 
 deacon, but for all that by no means the wasted, jaded 
 specimen that he might have been by now if God had not 
 warded off the worst of the fevers and dysentery, which • 
 drive many home from this place before they have 
 
[i877-] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 87 
 
 completed their twelve months even. Yes, I thank God 
 I am hearty and well, and can say with emphasis, " I 
 never felt better in my life." ... Ah ! the diary stopped 
 short after three days ! My letters must suffice ; perhaps 
 up country I may make another attempt. . . . The 
 mango chutney idea is most amusing. Of course we have 
 made it long ago. Why, there is a particular kind made 
 by our good Miss Bartlett, which I have long since nick- 
 named the "Bartlett" sauce. But the expense of 
 making it in large quantities and of exportation w^ould 
 be enormous ; besides, we have too much to do alreadj^ 
 without manufacturing relishes for European palates at 
 2s. 6d. the jar ! E. and K. are right. It is a most 
 amusing idea ! 
 
 May Si'd. — Thanks many for the music. I was so 
 glad to have the " Water Music," too, for our harmonium 
 is a very good one to go and strum on when time 
 admits. ... I did not care for "Harold" much. I 
 thought there w^ere few fine passages and few of Tenny- 
 son's fine ringing lines, and more of those objectionable 
 new words he introduces so much into his later poems. 
 I noticed " descendable," as being particularly harsh and 
 disagreeable. Our dear boy Samuel Kalinga gave his 
 first sermon (?) on Sunday last. It w\as an exposition of 
 the first lesson (Deut. iv.) in Swahili. I had coached 
 him up during the week, and he gave admirably all I had 
 told him, and a good deal more besides, without any self- 
 consciousness or nervousness. It was all extempore, and 
 lasted over twenty minutes. He is a boy who has 
 improved wonderfully during the last year, and we all 
 have great hopes of him turning out very well. . . . One 
 of our boys, John Briton, w^as taken (as a slave) in the 
 following manner : — He was being hurried off to Arabia in 
 a dhow when a man-of-war appeared. The Arabs popped 
 John in a bag and hauled him up into the dhow's rigging. 
 
88 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 " What's that ? " said the officer of H.M.S. as he boarded 
 the dhow. " A bag of grain," answered the Arab. 
 But the officer progged it with his sword. This went 
 very much against the grain, for John squealed out, and 
 thus was rescued. . . . 
 
 May drd. 
 
 I hope you and mother will choose out the best and 
 largest of the Madagascar mats I am sending home by 
 Woodward, and use it as a carriage dust cloth — if you 
 think this a good use to put it to. The Zanzibar mat I 
 send you is intended for the bedroom. I am busy now 
 at translations from the Hebrew of the Old Testament 
 [into Swahili ■ .... Please observe that such work as this 
 I could not have attempted unless I had had the advan- 
 tage of a close study of the New Testament and some 
 Hebrew knowledge at Oxford. I say this because I 
 want you to think that out here I am able to do work 
 for which the Oxford trainmg specially was almost indis- 
 pensable. . . . 
 
 EXDNGAin:, May 30th. 
 
 We have got the pick of the whole year for travelling. 
 The sun is less hot in June, July, and August than at 
 any other time of the year. ... It will be a great trial 
 receiving so seldom letters from home, but I feel pretty 
 confident that it is high time for me to go up and 
 support Johnson. . . . 
 
 May Slst. — Eemember me to Frisby 'a nurse in the 
 family] , and tell her I often thmk of her, and ask her 
 if she remembers the Kttle talk I had with her on a 
 certam subject the day before I came away, I think. 
 Ai'e the same servants with us still '? If so, please 
 remember me to them. . . . What will be the next 
 engagement you tell me of in these marrymg times ? 
 Your own, I suppose? Please delay it as long as 
 
[1877-] 
 
 Life at Zanzibar. 
 
 89 
 
 possible. I don't want to go home and fail to find a 
 single sister ! . . . 
 
 Mkunazini, ZAifZiBAE, July 1th, 1877. 
 This is a good-bye letter. I wonder for how many long 
 months? . . . Captain Wharton,* of the called on 
 
 us at Kiungani, and, after hearing of our difficulty about 
 the Masasi journey, offered to take us to Lindi if we 
 could be ready in a week. . . . With this kind offer we 
 at once closed, and I have been hard at work here in the 
 town house these last five days preparing. We have 
 now all our loads (120) and people (100) ready for the 
 start to-morrow, July 9th. . . . Sunday. As you will 
 easily imagine, I am leaving Zanzibar w'ith anxious 
 thoughts about my new responsibilities, and about the 
 journey, which will in many ways be a very trying one, 
 especially for one so inexperienced as myself ; but God 
 knows my insufficiency, and will supply strength out of 
 His abundant store. We shall, of course, well arm our 
 people, since the country we shall have to pass through 
 is the scene of a good deal of petty warfare just now. . . . 
 I myself shall not carry one (a gun). " Not much use if 
 he did," I hear my father say, who will remember that 
 not a bird nor a rabbit has ever suffered at my hands ! 
 . . . Your letters, my dear mother, have always been 
 such a stay and comfort, and, by God's grace, such a 
 blessing to me, that you may be sure I shall look long and 
 eagerly for the old welcome despatch. ... If w^e have 
 once got to feel that we are but sojourners and travellers, 
 and that the city — the home we seek — is " to come," it is 
 clear that we are scarcely allowed anxiety — loved ones 
 for loved ones — except as to whether in the eternal city 
 we shall meet again. It must be, my own mother, that 
 you have been feeling this lately, and thus were able in- 
 
 * Now Admiral Sir W. J. L. Wharton, C.B., F.E.S., Hydro- 
 grapher to the Admiralty. 
 
go 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 your last letter to say " I do not wish you back again." 
 Wliat a comforting thought to take away with me as I 
 start on my jom-ney to-morrow ! There have been times 
 when I have actually felt that you were at the very 
 moment praying for me. . . . 
 
 LiXDi, East Africa, Sunday, July loth. 
 
 We left Zanzibar . . . last Monday, Williams, eight 
 boys, and self being taken on board the Fawn. . . . Never 
 in all my Hfe have I met so good a set of men as those on 
 board the Fau n. They were mostly picked men in the 
 service, as officers in a sm-veying ship generally are. It 
 was most encom*aging and cheering to get their kindly 
 sympathy and hearty good wishes, the genuineness of 
 which it was impossible to doubt. ... I was decidedly 
 ill on board — ^fever and sea-sickness. ... On Thursday 
 eveninej I was well enough to dine with the officers, and 
 to enjoy some ice, which the doctor prescribed and spent 
 three hom*s in making for me. . . . We weighed anchor 
 at 4 a.m. (on Friday), and were here at 10 o'clock. The 
 captain came ashore to see the last of us and wish us 
 God-speed. After all kinds of salaams and "politenesses" 
 he left Bwana Zaraffia, the grand Arab in whose house 
 we are now staying. 
 
 ]0n one occasion when Maples had formed part of an 
 anti-slavery deputation to the Foreign Office, he came 
 back much charmed by the com-teous manner of Earl 
 Granville, then Foreign Secretary, and in this respect 
 he compared him with the Arabs at Lindi, though he 
 gave the palm to the latter !] 
 
 . . . This morning we held a full service on the 
 baraza {i.e., the place under the eaves of all the native 
 houses). After service I preached a sermon to the 
 
[i877.] 
 
 Journey to Masasi. 
 
 91 
 
 boys on the object of our journey. ... A number of 
 Arabs having assembled to hear our prayers, I turned 
 to them, and spoke for some time about Mohammed, 
 pointing out his good deeds, his bad ones, and his dis- 
 graceful inconsistency of word and actions, rendering 
 him unfit to be considered as anything else than a sinner 
 amongst sinners, who thus could never have been sent by 
 the God of all to be the propagator of a new religion. 
 Thus I tried to unfold to them the reasons why we 
 rejected Mohammed, and the exactly contrary reasons 
 why we believed our Lord, and followed Him. Although 
 I have never had so attentive a congregation as this one 
 of this morning, I do not go so far as to think any per- 
 manent impression was made; yet we are bound to 
 witness to Christ wherever we are, and leave all results 
 to Him Who alone knows whom He will gather. ... I 
 had this afternoon an interesting talk with Chumah about 
 his former life with Dr. Livingstone, and at the school at 
 Bombay, where he was baptized. I think he feels that 
 he is engaged in mission work, as indeed he is, while 
 helping us to get up the country in this way. . . . Early 
 in the morning I received salaams from Sheikh Moham- 
 med, with inquiries after my fever and a quantity of 
 oranges. The Liwali (governor) also sent salaams. At 
 breakfast we heard the news that this morning a lion 
 had carried off a man in the outskirts of the town. . . . 
 Quinine\ has again done everything for me, and I con- 
 tinue well, and am regaining my ajDpetite. . . . Lindi 
 reminds me a little of the view from the Dart with the 
 high tors of Dartmoor in the distance. ... I hope all 
 who read my letters to you remember that I write as 
 knowing that you want to hear of myself at work in the 
 mission rather than the general doings of the mission. 
 ... If they don't, they must think these letters very 
 egotistical. . . , 
 
92 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 {Extracts from journal of Maples' first walk from Lindi 
 to Masasij the end of July and beginning of A^igust, 1877.) 
 
 Masasi, East Central Africa. 
 
 A short walk of two hours and a half brought us to 
 our first halting place, Mgurumahamba, famous for its 
 lions. We reached this place at 11.30, and had the 
 remainder of the day for a long rest. In the afternoon 
 I preached and spoke for a long time on the objects of 
 our mission. One very intelligent fellow, who read and 
 wrote Swahili well, hailing from the part of country we 
 were then in, as well as three or four of the porters, 
 listened with attention throughout. An attractive- 
 looking boy belonging to the village I sorely wanted to 
 carry off to Masasi to educate there, but, although he was 
 ready to follow me, upon referring the question to the 
 father and mother he was refused permission. At 6.30 
 next morning we were on our journey, and again another 
 short walk brought us at 9 o'clock to Mgongo, famous, 
 as our last place, for lions, but rich in all the native foods — 
 mahogo (cassava), rice, bananas, sweet potatoes, cocoanuts. 
 We rested here, and spent the day in feasting — killing and 
 then discussing a goat which had been presented to us 
 at Mgurumahamba. Here we spent Saturday and 
 Sunday ; thus it was Monday ere we set forth agam. 
 
 I was glad of the Saturday's rest, for it gave me time to 
 translate the Lessons and prepare a sermon for Sunday. 
 On Sunday we held our service, full Swahili matins, 
 with tolerably hearty smging. I dispensed with the 
 afternoon catechizing, and we closed the day with full 
 evensong. We started off at 6 a.m. on Monday, and at 
 9.30 reached a place in the forest, where we rested for 
 our midday meal. While here, as Williams and myself 
 were in a somnolent state, lying under the trees, we 
 heard that Abdallah Pesa, whose village we expected to 
 
[1877.] Journey to Masasi. 93 
 
 reach on the following day, had arrived. In a few 
 moments he was introduced to us. I was much struck 
 with his manner and shrewdness. He was evidently 
 very shy with us, would not look us in the face, and 
 shunned conversation, but there was something about 
 him which marked him for a chief. At 9.30 next morning 
 we reached his village, and very different was the be- 
 haviour of our friend from that of the day before, when 
 we had taken him unawares in the wood. He welcomed 
 us quite warmly, gave us a goat, rice, and plenty of 
 mtama, and did the honours of his new settlement very 
 well. 
 
 I have forgotten to mention a rather interesting affair 
 that happened at Mgongo. On Sunday night a man 
 was brought to me by Chumah, who said that he had 
 been enrolled as a porter on the last journey, but had 
 spread the report that there was war ahead, and had 
 then thrown down his load and run away. He now 
 came forward wishing to pay back to the mission the 
 money he had practically stolen by playing the truant. 
 This he accordingly did, by taking up a load and joining 
 our caravan. On Wednesday we reached Chisembe, 
 at which place we calculated we were forty-nine miles 
 from the coast, though not yet nearly halfway to our 
 destination. At about this part of our journey my 
 attention was drawn to the indiarubber trees. It is 
 scarcely too much to say that in all the woods we passed 
 through for upwards of sixty miles this tree was by 
 far the commonest. We recognized it everywhere — now 
 twisting across our path and often tripping us up, now 
 stretching its rope-like arms just overhead and knocking 
 the porters' loads off. Our boys showed me the process 
 by which the natives collect the indiarubber. The tree 
 is gashed with a knife, and a slice of the bark is 
 removed; between the bark and the wood a substance 
 
94 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 of the consistency and colour of milk oozes out. This 
 they smear on the arm ; after a short exposure to the 
 air it hardens, and is peeled off and rolled into a ball, 
 and in this form is taken down to the coast and sold. 
 As we passed through the forests we saw these trees with 
 their gnarled trunks gashed on all sides ; still the supply 
 would seem to be almost inexhaustible, and there seems 
 no reason why the indiarubber trade from these parts 
 should not increase from year to year. 
 
 At Siembi the fever took hold of me strongly for a 
 couple of days, but on Monday, the 31st, I was ready to 
 start, and we all gladly left what I believe to be a very 
 unhealthy place. A long day's march brought us to our 
 resting place for the night — miles from any habitation, 
 and by the side of a veritable mud pool, which was our 
 only water supply. Next day our walk was monotonous 
 in the extreme, though towards midday we were refreshed 
 by a climb up a great granite rock, whence we obtained 
 a splendid view of the Masasi mountains. There they 
 stood, rising boldly from the tree-clad plain, and the 
 sight of them gave us fresh vigour for the two hours' 
 walk which still lay before us. At night we encamped 
 near the dr}* bed of the Ukeredu, and were soon asleep, 
 for the next day was to lead us to our journey's end. 
 So eager indeed were we to reach Masasi in good time on 
 the morrow that 4 a.m. found us all astir, and at half- 
 past we were on the march, our feet clattering over the 
 dry bamboos as we stumbled along in the dark. . . . 
 We had passed from the interminable path through the 
 long grass, and had exchanged it for cassava fields and 
 all the signs of a rich vegetation. Bananas and sugar 
 cane betokened habitation, and soon we reached Bin 
 Fumo's village. He welcomed us with the usual civili- 
 ties, and pressed us to stay with him till the next day, but 
 it was hardly likely we should do so when within eight 
 
[1877.] " Journey to Masasi. 
 
 95 
 
 miles of our destination. So, after a little palaver, we 
 started on again, and in half an hour reached the village 
 of which the great man is the elder brother of the most 
 promising of the four lads whom the Bishop took with 
 him to Zanzibar. He went nearly wild with excitement 
 at seeing us again, and the whole village turned out to 
 escort us. 
 
 There was yet one other village to pass through, and 
 one other chief to salute, the old man Nakamu, who 
 kindly let us off with a very short visit. At last we 
 rounded the corner of the last mountain, and then our 
 guide pointed straight in front of him to two huge rocks, 
 with very little vegetation on them, and told us that 
 there was our settlement snugly posted just between 
 them. 
 
 It was soon sufficiently evident that we were arriving. 
 The gunshots fired in salute came echoing down to us 
 amongst the hills, and our own in answer, mixing with 
 the noise, told us to keep a sharp lookout for two well- 
 known white faces not yet upon the scene. But now up 
 the path 6ame rushing to greet us one well-known form 
 after another ; we were shaking hands with, and making 
 eager inquiries of, William and Zawadi and Mark ; and 
 then came the Mbweni people and their wives, all gay 
 in their bright clothes and beads donned for the occasion. 
 The path now took a sharp turn, and there, just down 
 by the water, on its edge, stood Johnson and Beardall, 
 patiently waiting for us. We were soon grasping their 
 hands, and as we walked up the spacious road which 
 leads to the Mission House itself we eagerly exchanged 
 the news of the past nine months. All, we heard, had 
 gone on well since the Bishop's departure in December ; 
 the people had behaved in quite, an exemplary manner, 
 while the natives had learned to trust the newcomers, 
 and to show other signs of friendliness. For my own 
 
96 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 part, I could not admire too much ; all seemed to have 
 been done in so short a time. The substantial buildings 
 that had been begun and completed, the ground under 
 cultivation, the sprouting fruit trees, and the flourishing 
 cassava ; and above all the pretty little church, with its 
 stone chancel, lending itself so conveniently to decoration, 
 such as should mark the sanctuary of the first church 
 in these parts, and for a distance round, which can be 
 counted almost by thousands of miles. . . . 
 
 [The church was only built up about ten feet when 
 Maples arrived at Masasi ; he finished it.] 
 
 Masasi, East Ateica, August 2nd, 1877. 
 After a weary toil from Lindi we arrived here in gi-eat 
 happiness yesterday afternoon. For the details of the 
 journey I must refer you to a short account I have 
 written of it [the account printed above] .... I stood 
 the journey very well. The nights were always awfully 
 cold and the days hot, so that to weak chests the 
 sudden change would have been trying, but they hurt 
 not WiUiams or self. This lovely place far sm-passes 
 anything I had imagined about it ; the mountains rise 
 on all sides close by, and whichever way you look a 
 splendid view opens. The house, a splendid large one 
 of bamboo, stands at the top of the hill ; from it runs 
 down straight to the water a wide road, on either side 
 of which the houses and gardens of the Mbweni people 
 stand, the latter looking very pretty with the blue- 
 gi-een hue of the luxuriant cassava. The church has 
 had little done to it since the Bishop left : now that 
 I have arrived I want to push on with it. . . . We 
 have ah'eady held two services in the church since I 
 have been here, but to-morrow we shall have to evacuate 
 to make way for the builders. I will try and make 
 some sketches of the glorious scenery by which we are 
 
[1877-] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 97 
 
 surrounded. . . . My work now will be to get hold of 
 the Yao language as soon as I can. . . . Makua is also 
 very much spoken here, but tw^o languages at once will 
 be too much to go in for. The young fruit trees are 
 doing well, and we have now six healthy oxen, and hope 
 that we shall soon number amongst them a milch cow. 
 Please send vegetable seeds again ; those you have 
 already sent I mean to plant in October and November. 
 To-morrow I shall begin building a large bamboo school- 
 room, but everything is in a state of disorder with the 
 porters, &c., arriving and going away. We shall settle 
 down towards the end of next week, I daresay. . . . 
 
 August 16th, 1877. 
 On my arrival I found that Johnson's chief work 
 during the past nine months had been the study of the 
 Yao language, in which he had made considerable pro- 
 gress. ... It is very difficult to find amusement for the 
 boys. Pray send plenty of games — not too elaborately 
 English. To-morrow or the next day I am going to mark 
 out ground for them, that each may have a garden of his 
 own. . . . Whoever succeeds best in the cultivation of 
 the various vegetables will receive a prize. I think this 
 will give them some amusement and employment for 
 their half -holidays. Dear boys ! they are so good and 
 helpful, and my favourite boy Theodore, after a severe 
 thrashing two days ago, is so good just now that I am 
 happy and hopeful about him again ! . . . Our chancel 
 already looks so well ; I wash you could see it. It has a 
 dome- shaped roof under the thatching, contrived in the 
 following way. We split into four pieces each a number 
 of large bamboos ; they w^ere then pliable in the extreme. 
 Of these w^e made a huge framework, on the' inside of 
 which we sewed together a number of a particular kind 
 of reed mats ; we then bent the whole over into an arch, 
 
 CM. H 
 
gS Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 and erected it on the top of the south and north walls. 
 It forms a very pretty looking roof, and is a wonderful 
 set off to the dull red of the walls. It answered even 
 better than we had expected ; how long it will last is 
 another question. . . . All our work here just now seems 
 very hopeful, and opens out on all sides. I pray it may 
 continue such, and that the three of us — (we are a very 
 happy trio, agreeing well together) — may be spared to 
 work on many years. 
 
 Masasi, August, 1877. 
 As head of the station I have a good deal of responsi- 
 bility on my own shoulders, and something or other is 
 always turning up that I must give my personal attention 
 to ; but so far as I have a daily round of regular work 
 it is as follows. I take the first hour of the school in 
 the morning (8.30 to 9.30), always Scripture or catechism, 
 followed by writing or singing. Then I have an hour's 
 work at Yao under the tuition (?) of one of our Mbweni 
 people who knows both Yao and Swahili fairly well. 
 The following hour I spend in the kitchen making a 
 pudding or bread, or cooking a fowl, or showing the boys 
 how to cook things in new ways. (Perhaps 3^ou will laugh, 
 but you must know that I have, by force of circumstance, 
 become quite a cook of late, though I will honestly 
 confess that my batter puddings are still very heavy, and 
 one of my meat pies upset us all. N.B. — Please send 
 a recipe book at once.) [Practice makes perfect. In the 
 end he became a very good cook. — Ed.] In the afternoons 
 Williams comes to me for an hour's theological coaching ; 
 on Monday afternoons I have the school as well, and the 
 rest of my time which is not spent in superintendmg the 
 building, planning out the houses and general over- 
 looking, is spent in preparation for the Sunday, for 
 classes, for Williams' instruction. Hitherto I have had 
 the evenings after tea to myself for reading and writing. 
 
[i877-] Li^^e at Masasi. gg 
 
 Twice a week I have a catechumens' class, one for 
 women and one for men, for those under preparation for 
 holy baptism, and there is scarcely anything here that 
 I am more anxious about at present. I have selected for 
 each class about ten or a dozen people, of whom Johnson 
 &peaks most highly after his experience with them during 
 the past nine months. I am in hopes of being able to 
 baptize at least some of them before next Easter. They 
 are all people who were at our establishment at Mbweni 
 [in Zanzibar Island] from one to two years before they 
 came up here, so I do not take them as quite raw, un- 
 taught heathen. They are Nyasas, with a sufficient know- 
 ledge of Swahili to understand what I say. . . . "We 
 both agreed [he and W. P. Johnson] it was of the 
 utmost importance to try our very best ... to set a 
 school a-going for the natives here in conjunction with 
 the one we hold each day for our own boys. [Eeleased 
 slave boys brought there from Zanzibar.] Accordingly 
 last Monday I set out to visit the chief, who lives eight 
 miles off — at the other side of the Masasi range. His 
 name Bin Fumo. . . . After a long and unsatisfactory 
 parley with him I gained my point, and secured two boys, 
 and then found out that the old man had been very dis- 
 contented with the present we had brought him from 
 Zanzibar. I then walked back and made a detour in 
 order to visit another chief, Nakamu, and carry off two 
 boys from his village. He was more cordial . . . and 
 after I had amused him by showing him Williams' watch, 
 and letting him hear it tick, he at once picked out two or 
 three of the most intelligent lads. I returned here with 
 my little troop. Two more boys came from Nakamu the 
 next morning, and so our scliool began ! Each day now 
 ABC goes on briskly for three or four hours, one of 
 our six Zanzibar boys being told off to teach the new- 
 comers. We have also two day boarders. . . . 
 
 H 2 
 
100 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 And now to tell you a little more about our own 
 Mbweni people up here. We have in all about 55. . . . 
 They all receive from us their daily allowance of food, 
 meal or beans or rice generally ; in return for this and 
 their houses and shambas, v/hich were given them, they 
 work for us three days a w^eek, and it is by their work 
 on these days that we get all our building, &c., done. 
 If they w^ork on the other three days, as some are willing 
 to do, we pay them for their labour in cloth. I make 
 attendance at the morning service in church compulsory 
 for all of them four times a week, includmg Sundays, 
 and I am very glad to say there is always on the other 
 days a very fair sprinkling of them at the services. The 
 punishment for lighter offences is the taking away the 
 allowance of food for a time ; for heavier offences they 
 are tied up and thrashed, and for the most grievous sins 
 of all, e.g., the breaking of the Seventh Commandment, 
 they will in future be expelled altogether. This is now 
 clearly understood by all. 
 
 [It must always be remembered that this village was 
 formed of freed slaves brought down from the Mission 
 at Zanzibar, and therefore necessarily under the civil 
 government of the missionaries. See remarks in his 
 letter on page 117.] 
 
 I am told that as the time has gone on there has been a 
 marked and steady improvement amongst them all, fewer 
 quarrels between husbands and wives, a general heartiness 
 in work, and very little discontent and grumbling. So you 
 see we are a very happy parish, and " the vicar " (your 
 youngest son) is now anxious to extend his borders and 
 increase the number of his parishioners. You will like 
 to hear how our Sundays are spent. We begin with 
 a celebration of the Holy Communion at 7 ; at 8 break- 
 fast, after which the boys say their Collects ; at 10 we 
 
[i877.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 lOI 
 
 have full matins and sermon — all in Swahili ; at 12 
 dinner ; at 2 Smiday school (this I have put entirely 
 into the hands of Williams, who makes it his pet piece 
 of work) ; at 3 we have Litany and catechizing 
 (Swahili); after this I take a walk with Williams and the 
 boys, and then at 5.30 we have evensong without 
 sermon; and tea at 6, as on other evenings. For all 
 the Sunday preaching and catechizing I have to be 
 wholly responsible, Johnson, as yet, not trusting himself 
 to say much in Swahili. I find now that I can preach 
 extempore in Swahili as easily as in English, and so am 
 now giving my attention to the Yao language. . . . Our 
 six boys from Kiungani, most of whom were originally 
 Yaos, are quickly picking it up again ; its main 
 difficulty lies in the pronunciation, which is exceedingly 
 strange. . . . 
 
 Here it occurs to my mind to ask you to send me 
 without fail a recipe for making mead. We have so 
 much honey that I am anxious to put it to various uses. 
 We make some very nice mtama (millet) cakes, with the 
 honey mixed with the mtama. Kice shortbread is another 
 thing I have made with some success ; ingredients are — 
 rice flour, semsem oil, sugar, and eggs. We bake bread 
 once a week, three small loaves, which lasts from 
 Saturday over the Sunday ; the rest of the week ship 
 biscuit is our fare. I am obliged to go in for cooking 
 and for contriving different dishes, for the only meat we 
 get is fowl, which we have three times daily. . . . We 
 open one tin of preserved meat on Sundays, which 
 makes one meal, and sometimes one other in the course 
 of the week ; but everything else is one continued round 
 of fowl, fowl, fowl! (N.B.— The fowls (?) are very often 
 aged cocks !) We have a fine crop of Yao peas coming 
 on, to which we are looking forward, the Yao peas being 
 nearly, if not quite, as good as English ones. . . . 
 
102 Life of Chauncy ]\Iaples. 
 
 What do you think of a tamarind souffle, custard and all 
 complete? I made one the other day, and it was 
 pronounced by us all a complete success. Chocolate 
 pudding, too, -we have succeeded in. Tamarinds are, 
 with the exception of bananas, our only fi*uit, and we 
 make great use of them in the culinary line. [After- 
 wards, when the fruit trees they planted came into bearing, 
 there was a much greater variety of fruit. — Ed.] Do you 
 like to hear all this kitchen gossip? I suppose some 
 would say I ought to be ashamed to write it. Well, let 
 them live on fowl every day for a month — African fowl, 
 mind you ! — before they despise the missionary who 
 spends half an hour a day sometimes making a pudding ! 
 I will even go so far as to ask you to send me half-a- 
 dozen bottles of the principal essences. . . . Please 
 remember that our "kitchen" is a wood fire in the 
 middle of the yard, and om* saucepans, etc., only native 
 earthen pots ! 
 
 I find the air of Masasi agreeing with me wonderfully 
 so far, and ever so much more invigorating than that of 
 Zanzibar. 
 
 Masasi, September ofh, 1ST7. 
 I do not find this place free from fever, and fever 
 here is certainly more trying than at Kiungani, but 
 on the whole I like the climate better. . . . You 
 will be amused to hear that I have taken to pigeon 
 shooting — not, indeed, for the sake of the sport, 
 for which I don't care a bit, but for the sake of 
 our table. I am pretty good at knocking the pigeons 
 down, or else pigeon shooting is very easy. . . . ' I 
 am now very anxious about our school, . . . being con- 
 vinced that the training up of the children of the heathen 
 in Christian teaching is one of the first and most 
 important works of a missionary anywhere, especially, 
 perhaps, amongst these tribes. The great honesty of 
 
[1877.] Life at Masasi. 
 
 103 
 
 the people surprises me. . . . We leave everything about, 
 and never lose anything. Neither do the natives steal 
 from one another ; the duty of man to his neighbour is 
 well understood. The duty of man to his God they have 
 yet to learn, and we are here to teach them it. Uphill 
 work it is, too, for I will not disguise the fact that these 
 people are gross materialists, having no sense of the 
 unseen, and very little care for the morrow so long as 
 they prosper to-day. . . . Are there any changes amongst 
 the servants at No. 10 ? Please remember me to those 
 of them I knew. . . . The cotton plant grows all 
 about here, and our boys make very good cotton thread 
 if they want to do a bit of sewing. I believe it is rather 
 good cotton. . . . We don't cultivate the plant, neither do 
 the natives, but it grows naturally all about this district. 
 TobacGO is cultivated here, and is rather famous in these 
 parts. . . . 
 
 Masasi, September dth. 
 To-day we buried . . . one of the best of our women. 
 . . . She had hardly received any training in Christian 
 truth, and was not even admitted a catechumen, yet 
 she was one of those who, not having the law% are a 
 law unto themselves," always conducting herself well, 
 working cheerfully, and remaining faithful to her husband. 
 Thus when w^e buried her this morning we had much hope 
 for her, grounded, of course, in the uncovenanted mercies 
 of God. ... As I sat a few minutes with her yesterday 
 she expressed her alarm at the witchcraft of the night 
 before, when, as it appeared, one of these horrid witch- 
 craft men " had been down the village, and with his silly 
 nonsense frightened many of our people, this poor 
 woman amongst the number. I said all I could to allay 
 her fears, and then left her. In the middle of the night 
 we were called up by some of our women, who said she 
 had just died. It appears just at the last she asked for 
 
104 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 me, saying she thought I was in the room. The women 
 told her I should come in the morning. She then said, 
 " Yes, I know I am dying now, but it is not through the 
 witchcraft man. I die by the will of God." She died 
 immediately afterwards. . . . 
 
 (Private.) 
 
 September 29th. 
 
 I know I shall have been much in your prayers and 
 thoughts, and that is very comforting, for, in truth, though 
 my letters have been generally expressive of great joy, 
 I have my times of deep depression, and each day brings 
 with it its regrets and sorrows as well as its comforts. 
 I have thought it right not to dwell too much on these, 
 and thus, perhaps, you have not quite the idea of my 
 state of mind and general condition of spirit I could wish 
 you to have. For instance, I cannot but be cognizant 
 of the fact that, from one cause and another, I am very 
 far from being the example of industry and earnestness 
 and zeal I ought to be. This, indeed, is in great 
 measure due to the constant fatigue and exhaustion 
 induced by the climate, and the utter inability I feel to 
 conquer it ; but there is a very wide margin which must 
 be left for downright sinfulness in this respect. ... I 
 reject crosses that are sent, and, I fear, try to make the 
 life here easy. But, what is worse still, I do not think I 
 have a single eye to God's glory in what I do, or reflect 
 to any appreciable extent that I am but an instrument 
 in God's hands. This leads me often to give judgment 
 on questions brought before me without prayer, and in 
 times of success, when things are going well, to become 
 shockingly forgetful of the presence of God. These, on 
 looking back, seem to be the principal sins growing on 
 me of late, though there are many, many others. I 
 have no wish to excuse myself, but it only shows you 
 
[i877.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 105 
 
 how body and soul are bound up together. So much of 
 this comes upon me along with the bodily fatigue which, 
 as I number month after month out here, increases upon 
 me. The midday rest, which I find so necessary, and 
 other symptoms have determined me to seek a return to 
 England ... in another eighteen months, at the end 
 of which time I shall have completed three years out 
 here. You must not think, in spite of what I have 
 said, that I begin to lose interest in this work, and 
 wish for some other. It is not so at all — indeed, 
 rather the reverse ; but I feel it is prudent not to 
 risk long stays here, feeling that my life is more likely 
 to be spared to carry on and continue what we are 
 now beginning, by timely returns for change and 
 rest to the old country. ... 
 
 Masasi, October 11th, 1877. 
 Alas ! the new dormitory still lags ! But we have the 
 benefit of our nice new dining hall, in which, by-the- 
 bye, Williams and I both sleep at night now the hot 
 weather has come and the rats in our room take away 
 all sleep. We were a little timid at first, for one end of 
 the hall — one of its broad sides, rather — is entirely open, 
 and thoughts of the leopards' possible intrusion made us 
 pause ; but now we think nothing of that, and sleep as 
 soundly as possible — with a well-loaded gun between our 
 beds. No leopards have been known in these parts to 
 do otherwise than run away at sight of man — unless 
 ATTACKED. We cxpcct the rains very soon now ; two or 
 three sharp showers have already been watering the 
 earth about here and causing its "green things" to 
 sprout forth. The rapid growth here is always very 
 noticeable, as is also the remarkable number of flowering 
 trees, many of which have the most beautiful perfumes. 
 There is one tree just now in flower with no leaves on it 
 
io6 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 at present; each twig ends with a mass of red flower 
 resembUng red salvia very closely. You may imagine 
 how lovely it looks ! . . . I send you a couple of the 
 hair combs used at Mataka's. Chumah brought them 
 down with him. Women and men wear as many as 
 twenty or thh'ty of these combs in their hair all at once. 
 The combs of this part of the country are not so good, 
 and, for the most part, small-er. 
 
 October 19th. — Williams says to-day we had better 
 have a bamboo fencing or Venetians to the other side of 
 our dinmg-room, ... so don't be frightened about our 
 sleeping insecurely, as we mean, after all, to take pre- 
 cautions against a possible visit of a leopard. ... I 
 have to-day been preparing, in Swahili, Daniel iii. for 
 Sunday. It was so puzzling trying to get suitable 
 equivalents for Nebuchadnezzar's band of sackbut, 
 psaltery, dulcimer, &c. Did we know more about those 
 instruments I have little doubt good equivalents could 
 be found out for all from the crowd of noise-making 
 articles to be found in use amongst the Swahili 
 people. . . . 
 
 Masasi, Novemler 29thy 1877. 
 I have just returned from a three weeks' journey ; . . . 
 altogether we accomplished a circuit of 250 miles. . . . 
 [Some details of this journey have been given above, 
 pages 14-18. — Ed.] Our school has now eighteen regular 
 boarders, for I was able to get a few boys on the 
 journey, and others have come from the neighbour- 
 hood. ... I am full of joy to think that soon we shall 
 have a branch station about three days (fifty miles) 
 from here. . . . 'The station of Newala.j One gets 
 great times of depression sometimes as instances of 
 deep sin amongst the boys or men here from time to 
 time come to light ; but then we can remember that 
 we are but beginning the work of evangelisation, 
 
[I877-] 
 
 Life at Masasi 
 
 107 
 
 and it is vain to look for results. . . . We have just 
 been building a food house, about eight feet square and 
 six feet high, in which to store mtama in the ear (the 
 best mode of preserving it). As soon as the house is 
 filled we mud it up and make it quite air-tight and 
 rat-proof, and the grain will be found in February or 
 March quite good and ready for use. . . . Williams is 
 most good and helpful — full of energy, good nature, and 
 earnestness ; I don't know what I should do without 
 him. He puts up with all my impatience and sharp 
 language (which Africa calls out) so wonderfully, that I 
 cannot love him too well. He understands and carries 
 out so well with the people my different plans in the 
 building, cultivating, and other lines that I have no 
 trouble on that score, and can go on with my teaching 
 fully satisfied that plenty of work is going on outside. . . . 
 I don't feel very fit for being head of things up here, 
 especially as the place increases in size and importance. 
 A much firmer hand than mine is wanted for these 
 people, and I often long for a more subordinate posi- 
 tion; but perhaps this is an unworthy shrinking from 
 responsibility. I can't say. . . . 
 
 December 21th, 1877. 
 I wish I could send you the fine bunch of flowers 
 which this afternoon carried off the first prize at the 
 Masasi flower show ! — orchids and lilies which would 
 have been the admiration of all had they been exhibited 
 at a horticultural flower show at home. But I must give 
 you in detail an account of our Christmas festivities. 
 On Christmas Eve I stayed in bed with fever and arrow- 
 root ! till the evening. I gave the boys general leave to 
 go out in different directions to get flowers, &c., for the 
 church. ... A profusion of flowers accordingly turned 
 up by twelve o'clock, and amongst others a quantity of 
 
loS Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 a certain kind of lily, of which Mr. Capel gave a specimen 
 to Mr. Xohle's gardener, who told him they were worth 
 a guinea a bulb ! . . . By the time we began the decora- 
 tions my fever had gone, and I felt very thankful to feel 
 myself quite well as the morning of Christmas Day broke 
 gloriously over our hills. . . . We formed a procession 
 to march down the village singing hymns ; then followed 
 the celebration. How I thought of and prayed for you all 
 then — ^just three hours, I suppose, before all of you at 
 home partook of the Holy Feast. After breakfast we 
 rancr our new bell for half an hour, and then formed a 
 procession and marched into church, singiug, as we went, 
 " 0 ! come, all ye faithful." We had a hearty and full 
 sen-ice, and were out of church again about 10.30. Then 
 began the busiuess of gettiug the "feed" ready and 
 giving the Mbweni people their rations. ... At twelve 
 we said grace and sat down, five chiefs — ^two Makna and 
 three Yao — sitting down with us to their rice and 
 fowl. . . . 
 
 Feast of the Circumcision, — A few more words to you 
 on the first day of a new year. One is natm*ally looking 
 back on the five months of our stay here. ... On the 
 whole I think progress — though perhaps in some 
 branches almost imperceptible progress — ^has been made 
 all round. . . . Preaching to the same set of heathen 
 people Sunday after Sunday is difficult ; it is so hard 
 often, to avoid addressing them as though they were 
 Christians, and yet this certainly ought to be avoided. 
 You read in the chronicles of other missions of people 
 spontaneously coming forward and desiriug baptism. I 
 can tell you of nothing of the sort, neither do I expect 
 it from om- people, knowing what they are. ... If at 
 times I am tempted to think them all very bad indeed, 
 I look at the natives round, and at once can recognize 
 the obnous fact that, whatever we may say or think here 
 
[1878.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 log 
 
 of our people, they certainly do lead far better lives than 
 those of the untaught natives around us. . . . Nearly 
 every day Williams and I take a tour of the young fruit 
 trees, trimming, weeding, and pruning. All, I am 
 glad to say, are thriving, and making wonderful pro- 
 gress, especially two pomegranate trees, which for rapid 
 growth seem to outstrip everything. The bananas 
 which the Bishop planted when here about fourteen 
 months ago are all beginning to bear. ... A banana 
 plant, you must know, only bears once — one large 
 bunch, averaging generally about one hundred ba- 
 nanas; then it is cut down, young plants at its side 
 taking its place. . . . The fine leaves of the banana 
 are nearly always torn into shreds by the wind, so 
 that it is at best a ragged looking plant, very unlike 
 the specimens of it you may see any day at Kew 
 Gardens. . . . 
 
 Jamiary Srd. — Certainly teaching easy arithmetic, 
 dictation, and reading for so many hours a day is very 
 irksome at times, but I feel that if I did not do this work 
 there is no one else on the spot to do it, and so it 
 naturally falls to me. . . . By-the-bye, Bishop Patteson 
 describes Melanesian fowl as a bunch of white strings : " 
 ours are just that ; no wonder we don't think fowl a 
 luxurious repast. . . . 
 
 (Describing a visit from Matola, chief of Newala.) 
 
 Masasi, January 23rd. 
 
 Matola is a very tall man, and with his clothes thrown 
 loosely over his shoulders resembles exactly the story- 
 book pictures of King Saul. On Saturday evening I had 
 an opportunity of explaining to him the Gospel scheme, 
 and why we are at issue with the Arabs. This he asked 
 me to do, although he had already told me that, knowing 
 
no 
 
 Li!e of Channcj Maples. 
 
 Y - 
 
 W- P. JollBS lC 
 
 . - - DonolietiL: 
 
[1878.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 Ill 
 
 but what we have plenty to eat too ; AVilliams is becoming 
 an excellent cook, and turns out first-rate omelettes ; bar 
 the lack of butcher's meat we do very well. No, we 
 ought to be very contented here, and my friends are all 
 wrong entirely when they write ''your Kfe of bitter 
 toil," " Christian heroism," and the hke — I suppose 
 they mean what they say, but it is not true a bit. As to 
 food, I am in sober earnest when I say that I enjoy our hot 
 coffee without sugar or milk far better than I ever enjoyed 
 besugared and bemilked coffee at home. Of coturse now 
 and then one sighs for a day with you all at home, but 
 there is plenty to keep our thoughts on our work, and 
 fresh interests arise every day. Oui* boys are affectionate 
 and sociable, our men are cheerful and willing, and our 
 look-out from this house is glorious and lovely. The 
 work ? — well, every one requires teaching, and nearly all 
 are unbaptized heathen. Here is work and an abimdance 
 of it : our occupation is to be envied, I am sure ; would 
 that worthier ones than ourselves were engaged upon it. 
 One gi'eat secret of dealing with these people is to avoid all 
 hastiness ; they reason obstinately — absurdly at times — 
 but hear them to the end of their inconsecutive and 
 inconclusive reasoning, they will be satisfied then if you 
 dissent from them ; but if you cut them short, it is " the 
 superior European over-riding us," and they will become 
 your enemies. I put it down more to the gentleness of 
 their natural disposition rather than any merit of my own 
 that no one refuses to do anything in reason that I ask him 
 to do : this being the case, it is not difficult, I find, to rule 
 these people. But to win their souls to God, to wean 
 them from earthly interests, ah ! it will be a successful 
 missionary who does that for these East African 
 people. . . . We killed a deadly snake in Williams' room 
 about a week ago. Williams called me into his room 
 and said, " There's a noise of something under those 
 
112 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 papers !" " Yes," I said, " and I see a tail. It is a lizard, 
 I think," and I stooped down to lay hold of it. Then I 
 heard an angry hiss, and in an instant a black snake 
 four feet long issued into the room. I and one of our 
 men demolished it with repeated blows from a long 
 bamboo, but the rapidity of its movements amazed 
 me. . . . 
 
 February 26i/i. — I have just recovered from six days of 
 fever ; Williams and I were ill together with no one to cook 
 for us, so I will not enlarge on the trial our sickness was 
 to us. . . . Mission affairs are at a low ebb with us, 
 scarcely a boy left in the school, and the most fearful 
 wickedness come to light amongst some of our people. 
 I thought things were going on too smoothly to last. . . . 
 There, I will add no more to this letter, or you will get 
 nothing but groanings and complaints, and I don't want 
 to charge the Mission a shilling for sending these through 
 the post. ... I think I could bear any English worries 
 after what one has to bear here ; one's back gets broad, 
 and, I fear, one's heart hard, in Africa. 
 
 Masasi, April 2nd, 1878. 
 I fear the Nyasas in the village will never live in peace 
 with the Yaos, tribal jealousy is so strong amongst 
 African races, and in the late troubles we have had, the 
 Nyasas, T think, were in the wrong. ... I wish you 
 could see a crop of mtama growing ; it reaches fourteen 
 to fifteen feet high, and far out-tops the houses of the 
 people. The grass in many places, owing to the rains, is 
 equally high, and, as a consequence, we are now perfectly 
 beset by leopards. . . . Last night we set four gun traps, 
 and as we were sitting on the baraza with the boys . . . 
 we heard one go off. Immediately there was a rush for 
 guns and lanterns. I took a lantern and a double- 
 barrelled gun, and we soon arrived on the spot, hoping to 
 
[1878.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 find a wounded leopard and finish him off. No such good 
 luck ! he had got off ; and upon inquiry it turned out the 
 gun had been loaded with shot instead of bullets ! Then, 
 again, last Saturday night a leopard came and carried oft' 
 one of our best goats. In the morning we traced him by 
 the marks of his feet to a place halfway up the nearest 
 rock, and there we found the goat not eaten but with its 
 head almost severed from its body. We took back the 
 body and head, dosed the latter with strychnine, and 
 returned it to the place where we had found it, but the 
 leopard did not return to its prey. Three nights ago we 
 heard a lion roar about half a mile off, and last week a 
 large buffalo was killed by the Makuas just one and a 
 half miles from here. . . . There is a curious insect 
 that is vocal in the nights now, and makes a noise very 
 sepulchral and very like a Jew's harp ; they tell me it 
 eats nothing and has no stomach, so I suppose its notes 
 come straight from the throat ! Amongst other curious 
 superstitions, the natives will have it that there is a 
 certain kind of bird that follows the leopard about 
 wherever it goes, seated on its tail. . . . The castor oil 
 plant, or rather tree, grows freely everywhere, and the oil 
 is much used by the natives, who use it for smearing them- 
 selves all over with, and also for their clothes, which are 
 always oiled when they begin to get shabby to prevent them 
 from rotting. Mkuti, the Makua chief near here, brought 
 his child aged three for medicine. I was feeling ill at the 
 time, and administered castor oil to the child ; of course 
 it was all slobbered out, whereupon the fond father 
 smeared it all over from top to toe. This was too much 
 for me in my then state, and I didn't appear again till 
 the evening. . . . 
 
 Monday in Holy Week, — To-day we picked the first 
 of a crop of rice grown by ourselves down in the moist 
 part by the water. 
 
 CM. 1 
 
114 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Ajyril 22nd. 
 
 I am much disappointed that you have sent so few things 
 in the way of games. Surely if at twenty- six years old I 
 ask you to buy a conjuring box for the amusement of my 
 boys with my money I might have expected that you 
 would not have "ignored " the request. I want games 
 to help to keep our boys from vicious amusements, for 
 the same reason I wanted the chemical chest, which 
 indeed has arrived, but without the usual accompanying 
 book, and therefore is of really no earthly use until such 
 a book comes. Again, I asked for games to be bought iviili 
 my money y and E. and K. pack up old imperfect games 
 and puzzles that I used when I was eight or ten years 
 old ; the boys are bitterly disappomted. . . . Satan 
 finds mischief for idle hands." Well, out of school our 
 boys are perfectly idle, because I have no games for 
 them. Two of the biggest have been guilty of the grossest 
 sins, and have been expelled, all through temptation 
 which assailed them in the long hours of lounging idle- 
 ness. We strain every effort to keep our boys with us 
 and away from the surroundmg evil of a heathen popu- 
 lation. There — haven't I written angrily ! But please 
 send the book for Statham's chest, or it will be com- 
 pletely useless to me. . . . The kitchen things are just 
 what we wanted ; we baked a cake in one of the tins 
 to-day. . . . We are quite feasting it now. A bit of 
 salt beef from the ship in which Clarke came to Lindi 
 is our great treat at present, and though it makes our 
 tongues sore, so salt it is, it is a boon we are very 
 thankful for ; it is, I think, a part of the ribs. . . . 
 We have now 84 or 86 people in the village, nearly all 
 Nyasas, so my charge has increased ; four of the new- 
 comers are baptized. 
 
 [There is scarcely a letter which does not mention 
 
[1878.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 115 
 
 the illness of one or other member of the staff — very 
 often his own. But as the record of dysentery, ulcers, 
 fevers, &c., is monotonous, I have generally omitted 
 them.] 
 
 Masasi, June 10th, 1878. 
 About a fortnight ago we discovered one morning that 
 thieves had broken into our storeroom and absconded with 
 goods to the value of forty dollars. It was a most daring 
 robbery, for the thieves had actually cut away a part of 
 our bamboo fence and then a part of the bamboo wall of 
 the storeroom. I immediately called in Namkumba, the 
 powerful Makua chief, who rules the whole district, and 
 who gave us the land we occupy here. When he heard what 
 had been done he was highly indignant, declared it was 
 some of the lying, thieving Yaos who had done it, and that 
 he would expel them from the country. He said, "You 
 Europeans, my friends and guests, to be insulted by 
 these miserable Y^aos, who are here on sufferance, and 
 who have bothered me ever since I gave them leave to 
 come and settle in these hills ; I won't stand it." And 
 then he enumerated over and over again our losses 
 which seemed to him untold wealth. He said he was deter- 
 mined to find out the thieves and bring them to justice. 
 Well, he summoned a council of all the other Makua 
 chiefs from the neighbourhood . . . and we carried on 
 our debate in the Yao language, for I don't know one 
 word of Makua. Their proposed plan was to smear a 
 certain stuff on the track of the thieves, which they said 
 would make the men who had committed the robbery 
 tremble and show themselves up. Of course, I told them 
 we could not have resort to nonsense like this, and tried 
 to persuade them to give it up for ever. Next they 
 proposed to turn every single Yao out of the country. 
 Neither to this would I agree ; so they said they would 
 send men all about to make every possible inquiry in 
 
 I 2 
 
ii6 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 order to discover some clue whereby we could apprehend 
 the thieves. After four days Xamkumba came to say 
 that he had found a man who saw four men pass his 
 house on the night in question with our goods on their 
 heads ; further, that these men were Bin Fumo's men 
 (the Yao chief to whom we have shown the most attention, 
 and whose boys have lived with us as scholars from the 
 first), and that the Makua had recognized each one of 
 them. It is now well known that this wily old Bin Fumo 
 actually sent these men to commit the robbery. He and 
 his people are notorious for being liars and thieves, and 
 are not at peace with even the other chiefs of his own 
 tribe here. Namkumba asked me what reparation we 
 wished from Bin Fumo. I have said that we must have 
 the four thieves, that I may send them to Zanzibar to be 
 dealt with by the Consul, and, secondly, that we must 
 have the value of the stolen goods restored to us. I can 
 ask for nothing short of this, I think, considering the 
 very aggravated circumstances of the offence. Bin 
 Fumo, it appears, gave out that he wanted to make war 
 with us, and by way of beginning it, sent these men to 
 steal our property. He did not think that he would 
 bring all the Makuas down upon him. As a settlement 
 here, not merely a mission station, we must teach the 
 people that they cannot thus molest us with impunity. 
 So I am led to ask Namkumba to take up the matter on 
 account of the safety of the people under my charge. 
 
 June 10th. 
 
 No letters have arrived, no Johnson, no Chuma. Also 
 matters have come to a serious crisis with us, for poor 
 Williams is so much worse that I am going to have him 
 carried to the coast to-morrow, so I shall be left the 
 solitary European in these parts. . . . Yesterday was 
 our great day, the day on which I baptized sixteen 
 
[i878.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 117 
 
 catechumens, and so planted the Nyasa Church at 
 Masasi. ... It now remains for me to give them all the 
 help I can in the way of spiritual exhortation and advice, 
 to enable them to keep their washed robes unsullied, and 
 again to prepare them for Confirmation and admission to 
 the Holy Eucharist. . . . Yakobo is a very great help, 
 and the people get on with him. I feel, too, that I have 
 their confidence, having had lately many little proofs of 
 it, while, at the same time, it is not hard to maintain 
 discipline and punish the offenders. Sometimes these 
 last have to be very severely beaten ; however, I never 
 resort to this method without carrying the opinion of the 
 majority of the men with me. In this w^ay the justice of 
 the punishment approves itself to the best of our people, 
 and that is all that is wanted. You must remember that 
 I am not only priest or chaplain or missionary to these 
 people, but absolutely their ruler as well, and as such I 
 am responsible to all the neighbouring chiefs for the 
 good behaviour of our own people. It is a curious 
 position to find oneself in, and by no means one which 
 I should have chosen for myself ; yet, finding myself 
 in it, I do not dislike it, and I get to like our people 
 better and better as I know more of them. 
 
 June 21th. 
 
 I am without flour or biscuit, and have no substitute 
 except in boiled rice, which has neither learned to like 
 me nor I to like it ! The only meat I have is an 
 occasional dove which I have to shoot myself ; there are 
 no more goats, and I am too tired of fowls to eat them. 
 However, I get on pretty well with various egg puddings, 
 &c., and I expect flour will arrive before long. Native 
 food I have often tried, but it entirely disagrees with my 
 stomach. . . . Now the very bad people are being 
 scouted by the others, and certainly feel more shame 
 
ii8 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 than they did formerly, which is at least a step in the 
 right direction even for them. 
 
 Masasi, September 11th, 1878. 
 . . . We killed one of our oxen the other day, and are 
 feasting on the most excellent roast beef, while the 
 dripping comes in for cakes and puddings, so that at 
 present we scarcely miss the absence of bread and wheat 
 flour. ... I shall very much like to read the biography of 
 Mr. Hinton next year if I return. ... A large caravan of 
 slaves from Mtarika, on the river Lujenda, to Machemba, 
 whom I visited last year, passed close by here and 
 encamped for the day (they don't march much in the heat), 
 one and a half miles from here, at the place where we go 
 to bathe. I walked out to see them, and counted more 
 than five hundred. . . . The slaves were all cooking an 
 excellent dinner, and looked " very jolly under the cir- 
 cumstances ; " save a few with slave sticks who looked 
 uncomfortable, but they were a healthy-looking, robust 
 party on the whole. Still it was a sad, sad sight. I had 
 never seen a slave caravan before. Perhaps you will think 
 my first impressions of one somewhat peculiar. Five hun- 
 dred slaves is a good number for one caravan. They were 
 nearly all Yaos and Nyasas, and probably some few from 
 tribes on the other side of the Lake, Bisas and others. . . . 
 We are very proud of our new church, and are looking 
 forward to the chancel adornments which will shortly 
 arrive. The height of our roof is twenty-three feet, the 
 admiration of the natives, who say, "We could not build 
 anything so high as that even if we wanted to do so." 
 I have a long and rather trying letter from the Bishop, 
 but I have already answered it. There are always so 
 many puzzling questions to refer to him by every mail. 
 Sometimes we agree and sometimes we don't about a 
 matter, but of course his word is always my law, and 
 
[1878.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 119 
 
 though he can't always understand our position or 
 circumstances here in matters that crop up, I alwa^^s 
 court his advice, eagerly receive it, and almost always 
 follow it. . . . He himself, in spite of everything, works 
 on in his own manful, energetic way, and is a lesson and 
 example to us all. 
 
 Masasi, Odoher 2nd, 1878. 
 I believe I say one thing at one time and quite the 
 opposite at another, and thus it is difficult for you to 
 reconcile what I say at one time with my words of a later 
 date. ... I always try to write just as I feel at the time, 
 and since I never feel the same I can never write the 
 same. For instance, at one time I might tell you that 
 I don't feel particularly dull without a companion (as I 
 am still) ; at another I should write the exact opposite. 
 Indeed it is dull without a companion, and I don't think 
 really that one ought to be left without one if it can 
 possibly be helped. Our Lord Himself never intended 
 missionaries to work alone, but in pairs, even as He sent 
 them forth Himself. . . . Anyhow, I am ashamed to 
 grumble about it to the Bishop at Zanzibar, and he is 
 most anxious to send AVilliams up again. ... As for 
 Williams himself, he is only too anxious to get away from 
 Zanzibar, which both he and Johnson look upon as a 
 kind of prison. . . . I am busy reading Charles Kingsley's 
 Life. . . . Only once I heard him, that was at Chester 
 about six years ago, at a kind of natural history conver- 
 sazione. I remember his fine head and brow, and his 
 words were very good, though his stammer was very 
 painful. I remember he quoted — 
 
 " Be to my faults a little blind, 
 And to my virtues very kind." 
 
 But I did not know then as I seem to know now the true 
 humility, aye, and the sweet tenderness of what was 
 
I20 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 really an extremely gentle character. ... I had no idea 
 before of his real power and depth, and had always more 
 or less wondered that he should have had such a follow- 
 ing. . . . The book is most charmmg, and I am rejoiced 
 to find I can now respect the man who as novelist wrote 
 ''Westward Ho ! " . . . Here comes the " Vulture " to 
 interrupt me — but I forgot, you don't know the 
 "^^Yulture ; " he is a Makua chief living near here, who 
 always looks so hungry, as if he had a vulture gnawing 
 away at his vitals : so we call him " Vulture.'' Poor 
 old " Vulture," he is getting old now, but I suppose he 
 will die with his wives around him, a heathen to the end 
 of the chapter. We live amidst awful grossness and e\'il. 
 There is Bin Fumo, of whom I have spoken. Last week he 
 burned two of his people alive just because he fancied, or 
 chose to say he fancied, that his illness — he is very old, 
 and quakes in his limbs — was owing to their witchcraft. 
 Poor things, they were led out to the forest, tied to trees, 
 and burned ! I did not hear of it till after the deed was 
 done, or I should have tried to influence him to desist 
 from the crime. . . . Our dear boy Sulemani, of whom 
 we are so proud, so really good is he, was this morning 
 scratched by a most venomous snake. I thank God from 
 the bottom of my heart he was not bitten, else at this 
 very moment I doubt not but that I should have been 
 burying him. I sent him to cut down some bananas 
 which were ripe. He took the bough in one hand, when 
 a snake darted from the fruit and just scratched his hand 
 as he quickly drew it back. He came to me quietly and 
 said, " A snake has bitten me." To my intense reHef I 
 saw at once that the teeth had not pierced the skin, and 
 that the boy was safe. However, I rubbed in some 
 ammonia, and just one tiny half-drop of blood oozed out 
 from the scratch, which rather alarmed him, and, again, 
 an hour after he complained of a heavy feeling about the 
 
[1878.] Life at Masasi. 121 
 
 scratched part. This, thank God, was all ; the fancied (?) 
 itching went off, and he is quite well again. I could not 
 have borne to see him die, our one really thoroughly 
 upright boy, whom we value almost more than words can 
 tell. . . . 
 
 October im, 1878. 
 My writing room on this occasion is a somewhat odd 
 one, for here I sit in a sort of cave, high up in the vockf 
 mass which forms the hill immediately on our south, and 
 quite close. It overlooks the whole village, and as I sit 
 here I can hear the babies crying and witness all the 
 scenes that are the every-day occurrences incidental to 
 life in an African village. ... In truth it is a wonderful 
 view that I get from this spot. I believe the elevation 
 at which I am gives me a distant line of level horizon 
 not nearer than thirty miles from where I sit, the whole 
 country between being a thick forest ; trees, trees, trees, 
 as far as the eye can reach. As I have often said, 
 it is exactly like a great sea, and the distant, silent 
 granite boulders and rocks, some of them rising out of 
 the " sea" to a height of 500 and 600 feet, inspire one 
 with a feeling of awe it is very difficult to describe. It 
 reminds me strongly of the Mediterranean, near Sicily, 
 where there are several similar blue and purple-looking 
 boulders and islets, whose effect upon the scene is just 
 the same as our own granite hills here. As for the 
 forest or " bara " — as we call it here — paths thread their 
 way through it to the Kovuma and inhabited spots, but it 
 is for the most part w^aterless, the haunt only of wild 
 beasts, reptiles, and birds ; but how many thousands of 
 poor chained slaves yearly pass through it to the coast, 
 who can number ! In one direction indeed this huge 
 Yao forest stretches in one unbroken line to the shores of 
 Nyasa, a distance of certainly not less than two hundred 
 and fifty miles. ... Do you know, at times I feel more 
 
122 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 like the governor of a gaol than a missionary — these are 
 the sad times when the misdemeanours of our bad ones 
 have to be punished. . . . There are those who seem to 
 think that the heathen should be admitted to the holy rite 
 (of baptism) upon a very scant knowledge of Christian 
 doctrine, and upon a very indefinite and half-hearted 
 wish for this sacrament ; but this was not primitive 
 practice, neither does it at all approve itself to those 
 who have any acquaintance with Africans and the 
 African character, least of all does it approve itself to 
 our good Bishop. As for my own knowledge of African 
 character, I am just at that stage at which I know how 
 very little I know about it. . . . At any rate, I hope I 
 may not be idle in the cause when in England. A short 
 rest, and then a good deal of running about and tongue 
 exercise, if by any means I may win recruits for our 
 scantily furnished mission ; but I do look forward to a 
 quiet peaceful time with you all at some sea-side place 
 next year. . . . 
 
 November 4th. 
 
 More than a month has passed since I wrote the first 
 part of this letter, so you won't get it by Christmas, as I 
 had hoped. Still we get no news or letters, and it is 
 wearisome and dull to a degree being left all alone as I 
 am. . . . Our people understand what following a pattern 
 means ; indeed, none have independent spirits. Authority 
 they bow to ; they call for a leader, some one to follow ; 
 and now they are shown the One Leader whom to follow 
 is life eternal. They grasp well the idea of Christ our 
 Master leading us unto all truth. Some of them, at least, 
 I am sure do. . . . 
 
 November 4dh. 
 
 I have had a month of bread again, which did wonders 
 for my health, but the flour is again finished, and I may 
 whistle for bread now. I have no books and no papers 
 
[1878.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 123 
 
 unread, and I can't help feeling dull. Only experience 
 teaches one how dull one can feel. The mass of 
 heathenism, too, around is so depressing when there is 
 no one with whom to share the burden. . . . 
 
 November 23r(?, 1878. 
 My food now is fried yam and eggs and coffee — 
 breakfast, dinner, and tea all alike ; not disagreeable, 
 but not particularly strengthening, as I begin to find 
 out. ... I am going to enlarge the churchyard, and 
 plant some mangoes therein, to cast a pleasant shade for 
 generations of missionaries to enjoy long after we, the 
 planters, are dead, and perhaps buried there. . . . 
 
 [Note. — At the end of November Maples received letters 
 containing the news that his second and companion 
 brother was drowned whilst bathing at Rhyl, North 
 Wales.] 
 
 Masasi, November 21th, 1878. 
 The long-expected letters came two days ago. ... As 
 is my wont, I tore open the Bishop's first, and then 
 came to the words, ..." Our home news is full of 
 disasters, and one at least that will touch you very 
 closely, you have our deepest sympathy." I snatched 
 up the mother's letter at once, and rushed off to read it 
 where I could be alone, with the one thought, "Which 
 is it? " in my mind. . . . Almost at once I saw " Dear 
 Charlie's fatal accident," but in vain did I search for 
 your letter, which mother told me to read first ; it had 
 not come. ... It adds greatly to my distress that it 
 may be months ere I hear the details of my dear, dear 
 brother's death. . . . Not a single detail do I know 
 beyond the bare fact that he was drowned at Rhyl on 
 August 24th. ... I feel nearly certain that he was 
 bathing, and taken by a current or tide he could not 
 stem, . . . Dear Charlie was a very poor swimmer 
 
124 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 indeed ; I, though nothing beyond the average, could 
 beat him either at pace, endurance, or distance quite 
 easily. ... I love to think chiefly of our Charterhouse 
 days together, where he so nobly fought my battles for 
 me, and smoothed the roughness of early days at a 
 public school. ... I went to Charterhouse first about 
 the middle of January, 1865. He and I both started in 
 a cab just after late dinner. I was in a flood of tears 
 which I could not control, and so Charlie, to try and 
 make me laugh through them, gave the order to the 
 cabman, Drive to Charterhouse, the school; and I say, 
 don't take us to St. Thomas's Eagged Schools." I was 
 more or less tearful all through the drive, but he did all 
 he could by pleasant chat to divert my attention, and 
 succeeded. When we arrived he found out where I was 
 to sleep, and calling one of the biggest boys m that bed- 
 room, put me under his charge. Even that night I was 
 bullied and sneered at for saying my prayers, and I soon 
 saw that my protector (?) was a brutal character ; how- 
 ever, I determmed not to tell Charlie or act sneak in any 
 way. But the third night my protector stuffed a pair of 
 socks into my mouth when I was saying my prayers, so 
 I told him then and there that I should tell my brother. 
 I told Charlie next morning, and I never saw him so 
 angry in his life ; he gave that boy the severest thrash- 
 ing I ever saw at Charterhouse. But it is a witness to 
 the respect in which Charlie was held, that that boy at 
 a later period actually thanked him for thrashing him, 
 and said he richly deserved it. Charlie's advice to me 
 was always excellent, and he judiciously took care that 
 I should not learn to depend too much on his protection, 
 though he always gave it when it was really needed. . . . 
 The other boys used to say, " Well, if old Maples says a 
 thing his brother is sure to stick up for it too," and vice 
 versa. One day he had had an argument with . . . 
 
[i879.] 
 
 At Zanzibar. 
 
 125 
 
 our two monitors in Haig Brown's house, as to the 
 pronunciation of the word epitome. He had taken up the 
 idea of pronouncing it wdth three syllables only, and was 
 not convinced by them a bit ; so at last they said, *' Well, 
 ask your brother." He appealed to me, and of course 
 I could not support his idea ; there was a general laugh 
 because the two Maples' had not endorsed each other's 
 words. . . . Only the day before I received this sad 
 intelligence I was making the boys laugh by telling them 
 of the different ways in which my two brothers received 
 their first lessons in shooting from you — Willie keeping 
 one hand in his pocket, and Charlie getting close up to a 
 rabbit and blowing it literally to pieces ! . . . 
 
 December 6th. — You will see my letters to father and 
 mother where I have dared to express my feeling of 
 thankfulness for his sake [his brother] that the fret of 
 the world is over for him. ... Oh ! what a kind elder 
 brother he w^as to me, w^hat a champion at school, 
 what an affectionate, helpful friend at all times ! . . . 
 
 :Masasi, January V6th, 1879. 
 . . . We have added to our orchard lately a number 
 of mulberry trees, different from English mulberries, 
 very, but still a good fruit and an elegant bush (it is 
 scarcely a tree). ... As my time for leaving here 
 approaches, I am filled with a thousand regrets as I 
 think what I might have done as against the miserably 
 little that actually has been done. . . . 
 
 Mkunazen"!, Zanzibar, March 31s^, 1879. 
 By the above address you will see that I am once more 
 in Zanzibar. Williams and I and our sixteen people 
 arrived here safely on the 18th of this month, having been 
 exactly one month on the way. . . . While at Lindi, the 
 best man of those I was taking to Zanzibar sickened and 
 
126 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 died. It was very sad losing him, though we have for 
 him the Christian's best hope. We buried him one calm 
 evening in a beautiful spot about a mile out of Lindi, I 
 using, for the first time in the Swahili language, the 
 words of our own beautiful burial service ; and there we 
 left him, perhaps the first Christian ever buried in those 
 parts, by the side of the beautiful river which makes the 
 harbour of Lindi. . . . 
 
 SS. "BuRMAH," offEas Haftjn, 
 
 Eighty Miles South of Cape Guardafui, 
 May 8th, 1879. 
 
 From the above address you will see I am fairly on my 
 way home. . . . One of these Portuguese (passengers) is 
 a Major Pinto [Serpa Pinto, the Portuguese explorer] 
 who has just crossed Africa, starting twenty-nine 
 months ago from Benguela on the West Coast 
 and emerging at Durban. He is a very intelligent, 
 pleasant fellow, and his journey has no doubt resulted 
 in some important geographical results. . . . He left 
 Benguela with six hundred men, only eight of whom 
 reached the Coast with him ; these eight are now on 
 board, and will be sent back to their homes when we 
 reach Lisbon. ... I spend a little time each day copy- 
 ing out my Makua grammar and vocabulary, so as to 
 have it ready for publication soon after I reach Eng- 
 land. . . . Did I tell you that the Bishop has now 
 completed the translation of the whole New Testa- 
 ment in Swahili — quite an epoch in the history of our 
 Mission ? . . . 
 
 SS. " BuRMAH," off Eas BDlfui^. 
 Here I am on my way home, at present enjoying a 
 most delightful voyage, of which I am afraid eating and 
 sleeping are the principal part. As you know, I am 
 taking a rest, and hope to arrive in England somewhat 
 
[i88o.] 
 
 In England. 
 
 127 
 
 ruddier and brighter than I was in Zanzibar a week ago, 
 when I had a narrow escape of dysentery. . . . 
 
 [He arrived in England on June 13th. In the 
 winter he had a sharp attack of bronchitis, and when 
 convalescent had to rest at Torquay for two months.] 
 
 Torquay, Felruary 2Uh, 1880. 
 Ellen and I play a symphony of Haydn's right through 
 every evening after tea, each evening a fresh one. I 
 enjoy this immensely, and I think she likes it also. 
 There are twenty-four symphonies in all, and then we 
 have Beethoven's and his overture. . . . 
 
 February 2Gth. 
 
 In point of interest, nothing comes up to Kent's 
 Cavern. . . . 
 
 [He went into the subject of the different stalagmite 
 floors, and their several periods, &c., with all his usual 
 eagerness and thoroughness.] 
 
 February 11 th. 
 
 The sun is shining very brightly on my twenty-eighth 
 birthday, and reminds me of the anniversary of this day 
 last year. . . . The greater part of it was spent in making 
 that sketch of the church which I brought home with me. 
 I contrast this convalescing business after bronchitis 
 with the convalescing (?) after fever and other African 
 maladies. My colleagues in Africa would laugh if they 
 saw me now seriously convalescing ! . . . 
 
 March SOth. 
 
 I preached to-day at the 5 o'clock evensong ; offertory 
 amounted to £32 odd and one pair of gold earrings. . . . 
 
 Torquay, March, 1880. 
 Ellen and I have been down here nearly five weeks. 
 I was laid up in bed a fortnight in February with bron- 
 chitis, and came down here to recruit. . . . IMy first 
 book is just coming out, though I fear it is hardly Hkely 
 
128 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 to be a publication that "^ill interest you, being " A 
 Grammar of the Makua Language." I have also just 
 published the Gospel of St. Matthew in the Yao language, 
 and am very busy revising proofs of the entire Prayer 
 Book in Swahili. [This translation was princijDally 
 Bishop Steere's.] Also I have written a long paper about 
 Masasi and Eovuma for the Geographical Society, so 
 you will see I have not been altogether idle since I 
 have been home. By-the-bye, if you want to hear your 
 old friend hold forth in a pulpit, I may add that on 
 Whit Sunday I shall be preaching at Mr. Wilkinson's two 
 churches, St. John's in the morning, and St. Peter's, 
 Eaton Square, in the evening. . . . 
 
 [At the end of June, 1880, Chauncy Maples sailed 
 again for Africa.] 
 
 SS. " German," off Sidmouth, July 1st, 1880. 
 ... I feel in high spirits, and ke^n for another 
 African campaign. . . . Just now we saw Portland Eace 
 curling and eddying under the land four miles off, and I 
 thought of the time when Henry Wauton and I were 
 battling there against the waves in the old Tartar. . . . 
 
 SS. "German," Juhj loth. 
 
 Wilson [Herbert Wilson died in September, 1882] and 
 I spend a good deal of time on the forecastle with the 
 men, whom we have taught to ring the hand-bells very 
 well. They can now manage the changes and tunes very 
 well, and are to take part in the concert. . . . [He gave 
 a reading from " David Copperfield " at this concert.] 
 
 SS. ''German," July 20th. 
 
 We are within seven hundred miles of Cape Town. . . . 
 Our party for the Mission is likely to be swelled, for 
 there is a young man on board who is very anxious for 
 me to take him on to Zanzibar, although he came out 
 with the intention of setting up as a schoolmaster at the 
 
[i88o.] Second Voyage to Africa. 129 
 
 Cape. His name is Bradley ; he has had a fair educa- 
 tion ; . . . his age is nineteen ; and he has no home 
 ties. He has with him a good testimonial as to character 
 and ability, and so I expect I shall finally decide to take 
 him on with us in the Nyanza. We had just four hours 
 in Madeira. . . . We wandered about the streets of 
 Funchal, visited Mr. Addison, the English chaplain, and 
 went to the cemetery. . . . 
 
 July ^Ist. — Our concert came off very well last night. 
 . . . The most distinctive feature of it was certainly 
 Mons. Dedicke's account of his shipwreck on board the 
 American. He was exceedingly humorous, and had 
 written it all in first-rate English. ... I was so glad to 
 see the Southern Cross again, as it reminded me of 
 old days (or rather moonlit nights) at Masasi, where 
 that constellation was always conspicuous. I cannot 
 help regretting at times that I know nothing of mathe- 
 matics. They would have been helpful to me in 
 acquiring a knowledge of taking observations, lunars, 
 &c., which latter at least are beyond my capacity ; nor 
 have I the time to work up the necessary details. Well, 
 there are other things, and more important ones, to be 
 done while life lasts. I find myself for ever contrasting 
 the heat and discomfort of the other route [to Zanzi- 
 bar via the Eed Sea] with the coolness and comfort of 
 this one ; though on the score of monotony this has the 
 disadvantage. ... A few days ago we passed some 
 beautiful little nautili sailing along over the waves, and 
 we are hoping to see the far-famed albatross in these 
 southern latitudes. . . . 
 
 S.S. ''Nyanza," 600 miles south of Durban, 
 
 July 30th. 
 
 Still on our long, long voyage, though just a month 
 has passed since we sailed from Plymouth. ... I must 
 
 CM. K 
 
130 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 now give you an account of our doings and " seeings " at 
 the Cape ere they get mixed up in my mind beyond all 
 clear recalling. Well, we cast anchor in Table Bay on 
 Thursday, 22nd. . . . The next morning a letter was 
 handed in to me while I was dressing . . . from Jack 
 Masterman, saying he would shortly be on board to take 
 me with him to breakfast at Government House. In due 
 time he arrived as I was walking up and down deck with 
 Clarke, whom I had espied on board the African y which 
 was in the docks, and which had just brought him down 
 from Zanzibar. You may imagine how I plied Clarke 
 with questions about Masasi, and how absorbed we 
 became in each other's news. Alas ! the saddest news 
 almost that I could possibly have heard about my people 
 there he had to give me ; and I am unable even now to 
 shake off the grief with which his communications filled 
 me as regards the nearest and dearest of my African 
 friends. I try to console myself with a thankful feeling 
 that I shall soon be back there again, and God will give 
 me strength to face this great trouble and to bear the 
 blow that this falling away has been to me. . . . We 
 were soon on our way to the Freres, who were most 
 hospitable and kind. Sir Bartle especially seemed 
 to take a most lively interest in hearing all about the 
 Mission, while Lady Frere bade me and my party to 
 Government House that same evening. Breakfast was a 
 lengthy affair owing to the particular liveliness and brisk- 
 ness of the conversation, which never flagged, nor even 
 allowed me to make trial of some excellent Cape goose- 
 berry jam which temptingly stood in a dish before me. 
 After breakfast Jack and I took our leave and went off to 
 the Museum and Gray Library for the purpose of talking 
 philology with the famous Miss Lloyd, as well as to see 
 her collection of Bushmen drawings, and photographs of 
 the colony and its peoples. . . . We sallied forth in the 
 
[i88o.] Capetown. 131 
 
 afternoon to take the train for Wynberg, which Hes on the 
 other side of Table Mountain amidst some very beautiful 
 scenery, richly wooded and with gorgeous flowers on all 
 sides. Meanwhile I had said good-bye to Clarke, who 
 sailed that afternoon for England, only wishing that he 
 could turn back then and there and return with me to 
 Masasi. I remained with Jack at Wynberg till the 
 evening, and returned to Capetown in time to dine with 
 His Excellency at Government House ; the only other 
 guest was our captain of the German, In the evening 
 Madan, Porter, Wilson, and Chapman came in, as well as 
 an old schoolfellow, Lane Fox, specially asked to meet 
 me. The Freres' only son had been at school w^ith me 
 at Dr. Huntingford's, and I very well remembered the 
 fact although I did not see him, for, unfortunately, he was 
 away from the Cape at the time of our visit. Two or 
 three of the Cape clergy also dropped in in the evening, 
 one of them. Canon Lightfoot, bidding me to preach in 
 the Cathedral on the following Sunday. We left the 
 Freres at a very late hour, Wilson having sung such 
 a succession of songs. . . . From Simon's Bay we 
 quickly took a boat and went off to the Boadicea, where 
 Jack entertained us for a couple of hours. ... On Sun- 
 day we went to the early celebration at the Cathedral, 
 and afterwards to the morning service there, where we 
 were introduced to the Bishop, and invited by him to 
 take part in the service, so Wilson sang the Litany, and 
 I read the First Lesson. . . . We went to lunch with Mr. 
 Bindley. ... In the afternoon I excogitated a sermon, 
 which I preached afterwards at the Cathedral, to a con- 
 gregation of not less than one thousand, at the crowded 
 evening service. . . . The next day we went by train to 
 Claremont and were met at the station by the Bishop, 
 who showed us Bishop Gray's grave, Claremont church 
 and village, and then took us off with him to his palace 
 
 K 2 
 
132 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 at Bishop's Court. Fortunately, the Bishop of Grahams- 
 town had arrived that mormng, so we had the great 
 pleasure of meeting him. Bishop Jones was very 
 charming, and gave us a smnptaous luncheon and a taste 
 of the Cape wines, Constantia, &c. He himself has a 
 vineyard, he told us, which is more or less profitable. . . . 
 We sailed away again from Capetown on Tnesdaj . . . 
 and arrived in Port Elizabeth yesterday ; there we 
 remaiued about six hours, during which we went ashore 
 and distinguished ourselves by being cropped very close 
 as to our head-pieces, thus affording an ionocent amuse- 
 ment to our fellow-voyagers, and greatly comforting our- 
 selves now that the weather b^^ to get hot again. . . . 
 Capetown itself was a great disappointment ; its chnrches, 
 pubHc buildiags, all alike mean and poor in the extreme ; 
 one wonders if the Australian cities can show up anything 
 better. 
 
 Zanzibar, Avgugt 20a, 1880. 
 . , . We found every single member of the Mission in 
 excellent health, and all delighted to welcome so large a 
 number of recruits. I was much struck by the really 
 grand appearance of the interior of the Cathedral now 
 that it approaches completion. ... I find myself in a 
 rare fidget to be off to Masasi again, though that cannot be 
 for a full month as yet. ... It was a happy day, the 
 day after our arrival, when my own Masasi boys came in 
 from Kiungani — Eustace, Charlie, and Edwin — to pay 
 their salaams. You would have been amused — ^not 
 knowing Eastern manners — ^had you witnessed our meet- 
 ing when they rushed up the stairs, and catching hold of 
 my right hand in both of theirs gave it the kiss of salu- 
 tation. But all the boys who came down from Masasi 
 with me have won golden opinions from those who haTB 
 had to do with them here. Of course they are eager to get 
 back to what we all consider our home, and tel like me 
 
[i88o.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 133 
 
 that here in Zanzibar we are but strangers and sojourners. 
 . . . Send plenty of letters, and I will write as often as of 
 yore, if I keep my health. . . . We had a pleasant week 
 at Natal, and saw a number of the principal people at 
 Durban. . . . 
 
 Mkunazini, Zanzibar, September ISth, 1880. 
 I feel now more than ever the desire to stay out here 
 as long as ever I can, and I trust that nothing but absolutely 
 required change will take me back to England for 
 another six years. I have seen you all once again, but 
 I think I can never feel the same obligation to return 
 home that I did on the first occasion. If we are to do 
 the work out here well, it must be by living entirely with 
 the people. ... I am going back to all sorts of troubles 
 at Masasi. . . . 
 
 Masasi, Odoher Ut, 1S80. 
 We arrived here in perfect health and safety on the 
 afternoon of Michaelmas Day, finding all our people well 
 and holding high festival; there had been nine fresh 
 baptisms in the morning. We were quite unexpected 
 when we arrived, and so our friends were all the more 
 delighted to see us. We have done the journey in the 
 shortest time it has ever yet been done in, namely, ten 
 days and one hour from Zanzibar ; we were but one day 
 at Lindi, and we rested one whole day at Abdallah 
 Pesa's. . . . Our journey w^as full of incident, and 
 anxiety on the score of water, which, however, did not 
 after all fail us where we had expected it to do. Our 
 porters were obstreperous, and two of them ran away. . . . 
 Masasi is much bigger than when I left it a year and 
 eight months ago ; the church is the only part that looks 
 just the same. A large stone house, which promises to 
 be more durable than our former "bird-cages" [it was 
 said in jest that the members of the Mission at Masasi, 
 and later on at Likoma, lived in bird-cages. Ed.] , is in 
 
134 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 course of erection at present. Our flock of sheep numbers 
 sixty, our head of cattle six, and goats five. I have 
 only been here two days, and can make no report as to 
 the spiritual progress made in the past eighteen months ; 
 I can only now tell you of the outside appearance of 
 things. ... I have not had a single day's illness since 
 I have been in Africa this time, so I am inclined to 
 hope that I may have less fever than the last time I 
 was in the country. We have plenty of fresh milk now 
 from one of our cows ; we have also flour for bread, and 
 meat killed once a week ; so that really we have next to 
 no wants. . . . 
 
 Masasi, October 21th, 1880. 
 My hands are very full, for I have a great number of 
 classes, besides the school, the services, the doctoring, 
 and the care — spiritual and moral — of the whole village. 
 John Swedi, the native deacon, is invaluable. . . . To- 
 morrow I hope to celebrate in church the first marriage 
 at Masasi. 
 
 [The first Christian marriage. Maples says, " The rever- 
 ence of the onlookers in this respect was a great contrast 
 to the bulk of weddings that one sees in England."] 
 
 The couple is an excellent one ; the bride, one of the 
 prettiest as well as one of the best women we have, and 
 the husband one Patrick Mabruki. ... I am just 
 beginning a translation of St. Matthew in the very 
 difficult Makua language. I find it no light task; the 
 Yao was a trifle to it. . . . 
 
 Masasi, October SOth, 1880. 
 Yesterday we heard from Newala, where Messrs. Janson 
 and Goldfinch seem to be having some anxiety over 
 their house-building, which the Newala people are 
 making difficulties about. They find the sheep and 
 goats a great trouble, and Janson tells me he finds 
 
[i88o.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 135 
 
 amateur shepherding does not come off ! . . . they . . . 
 are charmed with the place. ... I have been dosing 
 little babies with castor oil lately, and have been reading 
 up in the medical books we have here the treatment of 
 infantile ailments. . . . You seem to have had a happy 
 time in the country this year. I sometimes used to wish 
 we could have had some more lawn tennis together. 
 Tell me all the home news and gossip, and your own 
 thoughts, and hopes, and fears, and everything, and be 
 sure that I try to keep up with everything that goes on 
 at home, though I know well that it will be a long time 
 before any of you see me again, if ever. 
 
 Masasi, November Mli, 1880. 
 . . . The peacock and the harmonium draw a number 
 of people every day to see and hear the two per- 
 formances. Theodore [one of the native boys] is sitting 
 on the other side of this table writing, and desires his 
 thanks for the gay handkerchief, of which he is very 
 proud. . . . My only companion for work at Masasi now 
 is Bradley — the young man we picked up on the German, 
 I like him very much, though I expect he finds me very 
 trying at times, indeed I am often conscious of being 
 so. . . . 
 
 Masasi, November l^th, 1880. 
 A large caravan passed near us the other day en route 
 for Lindi from the Lake, and I am sorry to say there 
 were a great many slaves on their way to be sold. . . . 
 We of course can do little more than simply report the 
 matter to Dr. Kirk. ... I have been reading lately 
 with much interest Dr. Pusey's new book about ever- 
 lasting punishment. . . . People who find a difficulty 
 in the dogma are generally those who unconsciously 
 assume a great deal of knowledge as to who actually are 
 lost and who saved. They seem to measure God's 
 
136 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 forgiveness, and then ccmplain that everlasting punish- 
 ment is a horrible dogma ; whereas, as a fact, Christ has 
 never told us who will be saved and who will not : and 
 when He was asked, ''Are there few that be saved?" 
 He refused to answer the question, so that really we 
 know absolutely nothing as to the proportion of the lost 
 to the saved. "We must not limit by mere suppositions of 
 our own, God's saving grace, or attempt to fix the point 
 at which it is withdrawn from any one soul which we 
 may have been tempted to regard as irrecoverable. 
 God's ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our 
 thoughts. So, too, we here living amongst the heathen 
 are not inclined to take the view of "perishing souls" 
 that some missionary societies and reports are fond of 
 dwelling on. These heathen people will undoubtedly be 
 judged, for judgment is for all, but as certainly will 
 they be judged by a different rule from that by which 
 we enlightened Christians will have to take our judg- 
 ment. And here again we are left in utter ignorance 
 as to ho2v they will be judged, for we know not the ways 
 of the Spirit with them, nor aught of the measure of His 
 grace that they have received in their heathen state; 
 indeed much that they do, which to our eyes appears 
 gross sin, may not be sin at all in God's eyes, who 
 searches and knows (as we cannot do) their hearts. Dr. 
 Pusey's book teaches one most useful lesson, which is 
 this — we must be careful in this matter of ''everlasting 
 punishment " to distinguish . . . Church teaching on the 
 subject from vulgar error or superstition or "popular" 
 belief bred of Calvinism, or any other "ism" which is 
 other than true Church Catholicism. Certain Old 
 Testament texts have been pressed into the service for 
 twisting and distorting into error a most wholesome 
 and true doctrine; but even if we are fond of "as the 
 tree falls so must it lie," we must remember that we do 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 not know how it falls. Do you remember our talk about 
 the Book of Ecclesiastes ? I hold to my opinion about 
 it. We must always bear in mind that its author, 
 whether Solomon (which I doubt), or any one else, lived 
 in Old Testament times, and knew little of the " better 
 hope," or of the "grace and truth" — the "life and 
 immortality" which came into the world by Jesus Christ. 
 I know that " what was written aforetime was written 
 for our learning," and no doubt this Ecclesiastes also, 
 but let us confess it is a full doleful wail. . . . The 
 extreme beauty of its language is always captivating, 
 and it has of course very many lessons for us, but 
 between it and one of the Pauline epistles say, there is a 
 great gulf fixed. . . . 
 
 Masasi, November 29th, 1880. 
 Amongst other things I have been preparing transla- 
 tions of the carols you and I heard last year in St. Mary 
 Magdalen's, for use on Christmas Eve. We have good 
 news from Newala ; they are snugly housed in there, and 
 find Matola very friendly and helpful. . . . 
 
 Masasi, December loth, 1S80. 
 . . . To-morrow I am going to send sixty miles off to 
 buy a cow which has come down to be sold all the way 
 from the Masai country, north of Magila ! I shall offer 
 as much as 4Z. if it is a good one. ... I was glad to 
 hear of my father shooting ; did he hear of my shooting 
 into the middle of my caravan ? It was a mercy I did 
 not pick off anybody with the mischievous bullet, which 
 should have pierced the side of a gnu, but instead, clave 
 • thin air ! ! . . . 
 
 Masasi, January 8th, 1881. 
 
 ... I have had a tiring week, and am just back from 
 Newala, whither I started hence on Monday, since which 
 day I have walked one hundred miles, visited the 
 
138 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 station, spent Epiphany there, and tramped on through 
 the lonely forest, drinking bad water, getting violent 
 diarrhoea in consequence, enduring great fatigues, and 
 now, by the mercy of God, well again. ... In the first 
 place, I want to make it plain to you, that with my so 
 much increased work, and having verily now the care 
 of all the churches" [there were now two branch stations 
 at Newala and Abdallah Pesa's. Ed.] in these parts, my 
 letters cannot be either so many or so long as heretofore. 
 Will my good brothers and sisters, aunts, cousins, and 
 others " kindly accept this intimation " ? Will they try 
 and not feel hurt if they don't hear from me individually 
 half so often as they write to me ? Will they, in a 
 measure, accept the long letter I always hope to write to 
 you as in part, at least, an answer to them ? . . . I was 
 deeply interested in all that you told me about your visit 
 to Oxford ; my thoughts very often turn thitherwards, 
 especially when I am taking long journeys, and tramp 
 on for hours and hours together. Somehow though, the 
 recollection of the old Tottenham childish days, when 
 Charlie, Ellen, and I played together, and when the 
 world seemed such a paradise, are the most vivid, and 
 what I love best to dwell on. The very strange silence of 
 these African forests, the blue sky, and the white clouds 
 coursing overhead, are powerful reminders at such times 
 of the days when to extreme youth innocence was added, 
 and one knew nothing, or next to nothing, of the sin and 
 evil which mars all that is beautiful in the world around 
 us. Oftentimes the scent of some flower, as we pass 
 along the winding paths, brings back the Tottenham 
 garden, or the evening walks with Frisby by the, banks 
 of the Lea, or the green stretches of meadow land, 
 watered by the same river, with their spring carpet of 
 cowslips, we used to delight in so intensely. Certainly 
 in our long journeys here the vast expanse of country 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 139 
 
 sometimes spread out before us, as we gain some height, 
 whence we can look down on it, is very awe-inspiring; 
 an3 the breeze reaching our ears as it blows towards us 
 over the long miles of forest, brings back so forcibly, yet 
 with a pleasing melancholy, "the days when we were 
 young.". . . 
 
 Masasi, January ISth, 1881. 
 The native chief of these parts came to me two days 
 ago on purpose to ask me to pray for rain — pretty good 
 for a thoroughgoing heathen as he is. . . . Your 
 brother's present to our church, the corona, looks so^ 
 very well. I am sure many natives look at it with 
 envious eyes, wishing that all the brass that is in it 
 could be melted down into bangles for their wives' necks 
 and arms. . . . We went in for carol singing . . . this 
 Christmas, and in full procession and with surpliced 
 choir sallied forth at midnight on Christmas Eve, 
 singing them through our own village and beyond, 
 amongst our Makua friends on the opposite hills. . . . 
 By-the-bye, the Cathedral at Zanzibar is really a perfect 
 gem in its way. I had no idea it would in its completed 
 state have looked so handsome as it does. . . . 
 
 Masasi, February 9th, 1881. 
 [Note. — In this letter Maples mentions the proba- 
 bility of his return home in a few months, and even 
 the possibility of his not being able to return to 
 Central Africa owing to the disordered state of his 
 spleen. He speaks of the possibility of his going to New 
 Zealand or Melanesia. " I am still under thirty years 
 old," he says, " as you know, and it seems as if life was 
 only just beginning, and that I have many years before 
 me," or "possibly" he says, "God has just given me these 
 four years of African work to fit me for some He has 
 for me to do in England." Also he speaks of Janson's 
 
140 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 serious illness ; and Bradley, too, was ill. It must be 
 remembered that in those days there was no doctor at 
 the Mission Station.] 
 
 He goes on :"Add to this a very sore trial that 
 oppressed us all mentally, in the defection of one of our 
 people, and other village troubles. I found in my own case 
 nothing checked the diarrhoea until we improved our diet, 
 and got meat six days a week instead of three. You at 
 home can hardly realize what a boon in our late ill- 
 health a jar of good brandy and a little special tea have 
 been to us, to say nothing of a tin of potted meat, which 
 whetted our appetites when we turned from everything 
 else with a feeling of nausea. These things are not 
 luxuries out here ; they just make the difference between 
 not being able, and being able to eat at all. . . . We still 
 get a little milk every day from one of om* cows, and 
 our sheep seem to improve with the fi-esh grass which 
 is now not lacking. . . . Mr. Porter, whose house at 
 Mkwera (ten miles off) is built and ready, is staying 
 here to help us in our present crippled condition, so the 
 work goes on somehow. . . . We here, with our "boxes 
 from England " to unpack, are like schoolboys with 
 their hampers. . . . 
 
 Masasi, February 12th, 1881. 
 . . . Mr. Trench (the Archbishop's son) is sending us 
 out a fine magic lantern, with Scrip tm-e slides, which we 
 shall very gladly welcome, and presents are promised us 
 on all sides. ... I had to hold a trial three weeks ago 
 to decide the truth or falsehood of a very serious accusa- 
 tion brought against one of our men. We had no jury, 
 but I sat as judge and examiner, with Porter and Janson 
 as my assessors. I was cross-examining witnesses hard 
 for three and a half hours, and at the end of it we were 
 relieved in coming to the unanimous conclusion that the 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 141 
 
 accusation broke down entirely; we were a very little 
 time in coming to the conclusion and giving judgment 
 accordingly. ... Of course the whole trial was carried 
 on in Swahili, and the satisfactory thing about it was, 
 that whereas previous to the trial we felt low and 
 desponding, thinking that there was practically no 
 evidence likely to be forthcoming to show the innocence 
 of the accused, the result proved exactly opposite. The 
 unfortunate thing, however, is that, although we pro- 
 claimed loudly his innocence, these simple people who 
 know nothing of trials, evidence, and the like, all firmly 
 believe in his guilt, so that we thought it best that he 
 should return to Zanzibar.*. . . 
 
 Masasi, March Wi, 1881. 
 . . . Snakes abound, but no one has been bitten. I 
 shoot them when they are very lively and rapid in 
 motion ; the more sluggish kinds a long bamboo will 
 effectually finish off. We were practising the " Te Deum " 
 in church the other night when my choir suddenly 
 started aside, for a big snake had suddenly made his 
 appearance curling and twisting on the ground at their 
 feet. . . . When thus you were probably going to bed 
 (10.15 p.m.), I was called away to the bedside of one of 
 our catechumens who had died suddenly. I had seen 
 him in the afternoon, when, as he seemed to be suffering 
 from pleurisy, I doctored him accordingly, and did not 
 think his life in any danger ; had I thought he was 
 likely to die I should certainly have baptized him, as he 
 was the steadiest and best of the class under instruction 
 and probation for baptism. When I went to the house in 
 the evening I found his poor wife and some thirty of his 
 friends weeping and wailing ; they were quiet at once, 
 though, when I prayed with and talked to them; and 
 
 * For more of this affair see page 176. 
 
142 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 then some twelve of our best ChiistiaDs followed me to 
 the churchyaFd, where we at onee began diggmg tibe 
 grave. We dog it ten feet deep, under a bright moon, 
 completing oar work about midnight. I treated him in 
 death as a baptized Christian, and boned him next to 
 one of our very best Christians who had departed a year 
 agp, and whose widow and two little children are still 
 amongst us. While we were digging the grave other 
 friends of the deoGased were q[aietly and rever ently 
 preparing him for burial, and in fonr hours after his 
 death all was ready for the funeral, wbkh. took place at 
 5.30 the nest morning, l^otfaing, I think, coold have 
 been nicer than the behaviour of all who attended him 
 to the grave and who stood near while I said the iHig^t 
 words of faith and hope of onr own bnrial service in its 
 SwahiU dress. After a greatdealof thoo^tldelennined 
 to read over him as a Christian in wiQ (though not 
 actually baptised by reason d his sodden death) the 
 whole of the burial service save one danse only. Thoog^ 
 we have no distinct aothority on tiie sobject, I believe 
 catechumens were thus buried in early tones, and in all 
 things we most follow primitive custom, or show reason 
 (and very good reason, too) that our changed circum- 
 stances suffice to change the custom. According to the 
 habit of these Nyasa people, the poor wife sat up 
 through the whole ai the nig^t by the side of her 
 hosband's body, singiag a strange wild song ina plaintive 
 minor key, of which the chief burden was, " Ah, why 
 did yoo leave me, my master Mjalali (his name) f I did 
 not tire of yoo, I did not refose at any time to cook yoor 
 food and bring it to yoo. Ah, as yoo were jost leaving 
 me you called me to your side and said, caUing me 
 Mawezai, Mawezai, Mawexai, good-bye, I go away ; now 
 call for me and salaam thee my brother Mpotene and 
 Kgatnma ; and I told yoo, my master mine, Hmj have 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 143 
 
 not come back from the fields, they have not yet 
 returned." All this was thrown into a metrical shape 
 and sung most touchingly. Death is always called a 
 " going away " by these people, even in their natural 
 heathen state, quite sufficient evidence in itself of a 
 belief, however indefinite, that they hold no theory of 
 annihilation, but rather are so far convinced of a future 
 existence beyond the grave. . . . 
 
 I have just finished a course of ^lessons with my class 
 of boys on the Acts of the Apostles ; it has covered five 
 months, and we had our examination on it the other day. 
 The papers were very well done : Theodore came out 
 first, with Eustace close at his heels. They were very good 
 at the answer to " Give an account of the first black 
 man's conversion to Christianity." Sometimes these 
 boys ask very intelligent and thoughtful questions. Not 
 long ago I was called out into the yard to give them a 
 full account of how the separate books of the Bible (Old 
 and New Testaments) "came together " into one book, 
 and were so handed down by the Church. The second 
 question I was asked was, "How did bishops get to fill 
 the places occupied in the first instance by the Apostles?" 
 or in other words, "What is the precise relationship of 
 the Apostolate to the Episcopate?" Ask E. and K. 
 whether they would be prepared to answer either of 
 these questions satisfactorily straight off, if asked them 
 at Sunday school. 
 
 Monday, lAth. 
 
 Yesterday Porter, Janson, and Bradley, all three down 
 with fever, and I had an extra amount of work to do in 
 consequence. Janson had to come out in the middle of 
 the celebration, and took to his bed directly after break- 
 fast. Porter, who had arranged to preach for me at 
 matins, had to be led out just as he had begun his 
 sermon, and I had to take it up and do all the rest of the 
 
144 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 work . . . but it is quite ridiculous how constantly we 
 are bowled over by illness here one after another, like 
 so many ninepins. 
 
 Two days ago a man was killed hj a snake ; he died 
 about eighteen hours after he was bitten. One of his 
 children is one of our day scholars. A very large snake 
 visited our sleeping room on Saturday morning, but 
 escaped before we could slay him. He seems to have 
 taken a fancy to this apartment of ours, for at night he 
 again appeared, and took up his abode on one of the boys' 
 beds — this before they or we had retired. On being 
 disturbed he again disappeared, nor did we succeed in 
 getting a bang at him. . . . The Indian corn is just now 
 in season, and a boiled cob of it in the green state is quite 
 a delicacy. . . . 
 
 March ITfA, 1881. 
 I was mentioning in my letter to the mother that a man 
 died of snake bite a few days ago. The snake that bit 
 him was the terrible " mamba " of the Natal country, 
 called here mwikoma ; you may have read stories about 
 it. There is one remarkable one, for instance, in the last 
 volume of " Livingstone's Last Journals." The chief facts 
 about the "mamba " are these : it deliberately pursues and 
 attacks man, lying in wait for him ; its bite is most deadly, 
 and in a very few hours its victim is dead. It is about 
 twelve feet long, and has a kind of crest like a cock's comb 
 on its head ; it also makes a noise resembling the crowing 
 of a cock ; it haunts rocks, and is also found in the forest. 
 If one is ever met with near one of the paths, that path 
 is at once deserted, and with no undue reason, for this 
 snake is known to oppose whole caravans, killing, one 
 after another, all who attempt to pass by the tree or 
 other position where it may have for the time taken up 
 its quarters. This mamba" is by no means uncommon 
 about here, and the hill near where Mr. Porter's house 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 145 
 
 stands is its favourite haunt. About six people (or in 
 other words three in 1,000) have died here during the 
 last year from snake bites. . . . The sudden changes of 
 temperature at this time of the year are exceedingly 
 trying to one's lungs. I often wake up in the night and 
 cough incessantly for a full hour, which is very 
 exhausting. . . . Mr. Porter is too ill to come over, 
 and asks me to let him know how he can make a light 
 pudding out of one or two impossible materials he 
 mentions ! 
 
 March 2eth. 
 
 Yesterday a slave caravan encamped outside our 
 village on its way to Lindi. I counted about fifty 
 slaves, all in first-rate condition, but with the sticks on 
 their necks. There were also some very fine tusks of 
 ivory. . . . 
 
 Masasi, Easter Tuesday, 1881. 
 In the first place, let me tell you I am perfectly 
 well. ... All the other things will be most useful on 
 journeys of which I trust I shall be taking more than 
 heretofore, for we feel convinced that w^e must give 
 much attention to evangelistic preaching and tours. 
 I am exceedingly interested in Livingstone's ''Life," of 
 which I have read about half. The great point about it 
 is that it brings out so clearly Livingstone's missionary 
 consistency and steadfastness to the one purpose — the 
 seeking God's glory throughout his Hfe in whatever he 
 did. . . . Well, Easter has come and gone. The great 
 day broke with a glorious sky and a fresh breeze blowing. 
 We began of course with a celebration of the Holy Com- 
 munion, at which every single one of our communicants 
 were present, and at ten we had our matins with a 
 sermon (Swahili extempore) from Janson. We had 
 processions down the village before the celebration and 
 at matins, with our beautiful processional cross borne 
 
 CM. L 
 
146 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 in front. The hymns we sung at the processions and 
 afterwards were three — ''Jesus lives," "Jesus Christ is 
 risen to-day," and a newer Easter hymn, the English 
 of which I can't remember just now. . . . My friend 
 Matola has sent me over a leopard's skin, considerably 
 larger than the one I had already. . . . The captain of 
 the London has kindly got me a berth for Theodore as 
 interpreter on one of the ships ; he will get very good 
 pay, Is. 6d. a day. . . . Our chief flower in our Easter 
 decorations was the old-fashioned " love-lies-bleeding," 
 which you will probably remember. Christmas and not 
 Easter is the time for flowers in these parts. . . . 
 
 Masasi, Mat/ 8f^, 1881. 
 One of our men tried to hang himself a few days ago. 
 He succeeded in suspending himself in mid air by a rope 
 from a tree, but while he was dangling he was seen, and 
 cut down before he had sustained much injury; perhaps 
 small weight and stature saved his neck the severe 
 wrench one would have thought it must have had. To 
 save the credit of the village I will add that he was not a 
 Christian, although the occurrence was painful enough 
 as it was. ... A great deal of my time is taken up 
 now-a-days with what are called "magambo" — i.e., dis- 
 cussions and decisions upon questions that arise as to 
 property, injury, &c., between two parties, of which one 
 is in our own village and the other in the village of a 
 neighbouring chief. To put it briefly, " magambo " 
 amongst these primitive people is simply what the 
 administration of justice is in England with all its 
 paraphernalia of judges, counsel, jury, and the rest of 
 it. They are very interesting and generally very satis- 
 factory, for if the justice we obtain therefrom is sometimes 
 rough it is always sure, and so anything like outlawry is 
 a practical impossibihty ; or what I should rather say is, 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 147 
 
 an outlaw here is just what an outlaw would be in a 
 civilized country, and subject to the same conditions. 
 No life can be taken here with impunity, no theft com- 
 mitted, no serious wrong done — all such offences are 
 brought up before the bar of these "magambo," and get 
 their deserts according to the laws which prevail between 
 tribe and tribe — unwritten, indeed, but well understood 
 and closely adhered to. . . . 
 
 May mil, 1881. 
 
 With more leisure I might have commented at length 
 on the questions you raise anent "hell fire," "the 
 worm that dieth not." The Church, you see, has 
 never laid it down as de fide that material flames are 
 intended; yet she has not denied it, and perhaps it 
 would be presumptuous in any one of us to do what she 
 has not done in this matter. Yet the words are full of 
 force, and one does not like to take them in an alto- 
 gether allegorical sense — as against doing so, one would 
 remark, I think, that the wicked are to receive the due 
 reward of things done in the body — is it not then likely at 
 least and reasonable that " in the body " {i.e., physically), 
 as well as morally, the punishment should come ? We 
 are here, and we shall be there, creatures of hody and 
 spirit, not severed but joined — surely then receiving in 
 the one and in the other part of our natures the reward 
 or punishment of our lives here. But then as to "fire" — 
 do we actually know what fire is, as it has already (on 
 this subject) been pertinently asked ? And, again, re- 
 member when we rise, we rise in spiritual bodies, about 
 the nature and conditions of which, and the limitations 
 of which, we cannot pretend to know anything at all at 
 present. Certainly I have always thought that whereas 
 the great anguish of hell will be the realized separation 
 from God and the Beatific vision, yet pains of severe, 
 material punishment reaching and torturing the body, 
 
148 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 cannot be absent. Remember we are to fear Him who 
 is able to destroy both the body and soul in hell." Our 
 Lord's words seem to me to be too strong to allow of our 
 using language about or thinking of hell as a place of 
 mental anguish alone. Alas ! I should always fear that 
 as men sow in the body and the soul the evil that ruins 
 them, so in the body as well as in the soul (if unreached 
 by the mercies of Christ through their impenitence) they 
 must reap the terrible fruits. People are fond of arguing 
 in this way — Hell is the greatest possible anguish, but 
 the anguish of the mind must be greater than that of the 
 body, therefore the anguish of hell is mental anguish." 
 I submit that there is a fault in this argument as to the 
 assumption about mental anguish ; human natm-e does 
 not like to confess it, but are we quite sure that we are 
 prepared at any moment to exchange the greatest mental 
 agony or grief we know of for the most excruciatuig bodily 
 torment ? Now if this is not certain, where is the necessity 
 for the wicked to suffer mental or spiritual punishment 
 only and not physical punishment equally with it ? . . . 
 
 I was very glad to see that a public memorial of Sir 
 W. Erie will be erected, and I do hope that the sculptor 
 of his bust will catch something of that gentle and 
 kindly look, which, always shining in his face, was such 
 a mirror of the real loftiness of his character. I very 
 often think of him. . . . The superintending of the 
 church building occupies all my time at present. One 
 has to adjust and re-arrange so much of the masonry 
 for our inexperienced masons. I am constantly walking 
 up to the walls, and pulUng away bits that have been 
 rising crookedly. . . . 
 
 Masasi, May I2thy 1881. 
 . . . Our chief duty just now is the church btiilding, 
 
 which steadily progresses. To-night our ladies have all 
 declared their inabihty to go on bringing our lime in 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 149 
 
 from the spot where we burn it, unless we give them 
 what practically amounts to Sd. instead of 6d. for the 
 two bucketsful which they valiantly carry poised on their 
 heads, and which would break the neck of the most 
 powerful English Hercules two or three times over in 
 the course of the journey, which is six miles from place 
 to place ! Were we very weak ? We gave in to the 
 feminine remonstrances, and our Graces now declare 
 their ability and readiness to carry for us three bucketsful 
 upon a proportionate increase of wages. All is pleasant 
 and smiles again ! 
 
 Masasi, June 2nd, 1881. 
 ... I do not think I have yet thanked you for the 
 capital rug and waterproof bag you sent out ; I have now 
 determined to take both on the journey. [A journey he 
 was on the eve of taking, to explore the country between 
 Masasi and Mozambique for Missionary purposes. Ed.] 
 The dews lately have been very heavy, and when we w^ake 
 up in the morning there is generally a snowy- white mist 
 enveloping our hills, and often — like a thick fog — rendering 
 objects a few yards from us quite invisible. I have two 
 leopard skins for you, but lack opportunity to send them ; 
 perhaps in course of time I shall be able to supplement 
 with other skins or horns, but these things don't come 
 much in our way. . . . We just manage to struggle on 
 somehow, most of us ; but we never have long spells 
 of anything like perfect health, nor perhaps ought we to 
 expect it. . . . 
 
 Masasi, t/^Mne 4f7i, 1881. 
 [Note. — Mr. Janson had taken typhoid fever, and they 
 were nursing him as best they could without either 
 doctor or nurse. Maples mentions that out of one 
 hundred and thirty days Janson had spent at Masasi, 
 sixty-three had been " spent in sickness on his bed." 
 This before he took typhoid.] 
 
150 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 I think the longer we live amongst these people, the 
 more we realize what the absence of grace really leads 
 to — what people are who are not Christians. To put 
 it simply, I should say that heathenism in itself is a 
 simple working out in every possible detail of self- 
 indulgence — everything has to give way to this. Com- 
 plete egoism, absolute non-recognition of altruism in 
 any shape or form, however low. It is, then, almost on a 
 level with the beasts that perish, who push everything 
 animate or inanimate aside that they may get their 
 food. In some cases the whole course of self-seeking is 
 very subtilely worked out, and it seems quite certain that 
 Christianity, whose one fundamental principle was Hved 
 out and died out (you understand this expression) by 
 its founder, presents in this, its guiding principle, 
 the precise opposite of the main principle of heathenism. 
 This being the case, one does not look to find this or 
 that vice more fully developed than in Christianized 
 countries ; but one does find that whatever the vice may 
 be that is most pleasing to the heathen, in that he 
 never attempts self-restraint, but rather aims at taking 
 his fill of it. But beyond this, I don't think that these 
 heathen ever try from any feeling of shame to throw 
 even a thin disguise over their main object in Hfe, which 
 is to get whatever they can for themselves, and when 
 got to take care to share it with no one else. It 
 is very interesting to us to see Christianity coming in 
 and making its own great differences m all this, and 
 really raising the people to a different and higher level. 
 And yet, again, in this first generation of Christians what 
 a quantity of the old leaven sticks and sticks, and 
 almost refuses altogether to cede its place to the new. 
 I don't think any one in England could really know, 
 from his experience there, the thoroughness of selfishness 
 when worked out as it is here, without any restraint 
 
[i88i.] Life at Masasi. 151 
 
 from conscience or from lower motives, such as the world's 
 opinion and the like. If you are selfish here — thoroughly 
 so — the heathen world commends you rather as a 
 man of wit and sense. . . . Last night I had fever, 
 and having been reading the siege of Phalsburg {Le 
 Blocus)y I imagined in a kind of waking fever that I had 
 to go to give Janson chicken broth, through a number of 
 half-starved Phalsburgians, whom somehow or other I 
 must feed. Porter has fever to-day. The strain on us 
 both has been very great — perhaps more on him, for 
 he has had more of the sitting up at nights. . . . 
 
 Saturday night. — . . . Janson is much better. I leave 
 on Monday early. There is nothing more to add save 
 my very best love to all and adieux. If I arrive at 
 Mozambique I will send you a letter thence. . . . 
 
 [The diary kept on this journey has not yet been 
 published.] 
 
 Masasi, August 2oth, 1881. 
 
 Here I am once more, by the grace of God, safe and 
 sound at Masasi ; arrived this morning after a walk of 
 just nine hundred miles. ... I shall send down my regu- 
 lar despatch zvith my journal, written expressly to interest 
 you [his mother. Ed.] and kept day by day through- 
 out the two and a half months of our travelling. We 
 got to Meto, emerged at the coast at Luli, proceeded up 
 the coast to Chisanga, and walked thence hither in a 
 fortnight. It is useless for me to enter into details ; the 
 journal will tell you of all our adventures and experiences 
 terra marique. ... I only had fever once all the two 
 and a half months occupied by our tour. ... I shall 
 be sending a paper to the Eoyal Geographical Society 
 with my maps. ... I feel so glad and happy to be back. 
 
 Masasi, September 13th, 1881. 
 
 .... I have lately been looking into the Revised 
 Version, and I must say that what I have seen of it I 
 
152 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 really like very much. I do think that the revisers have 
 one and all done their best to preserve the rhythm and 
 general style of the Authorized Version, as far as they 
 possibly could, intact. I do not detect any needless altera- 
 tions, and I feel pretty sure that much that has hitherto 
 remained obscure to those who could not read our Bible 
 in the original, or spend time in studying commentaries, 
 will now be made clear. Sometimes a seemingly trifling 
 change has revealed a whole amount of meaning obscured 
 in the unrevised translation. Take, as an instance, 
 something that occurred in last night's lesson. I mean 
 St. Mark xi. 24. What a wealth of new meaning is now 
 laid bare for those who had not known what were the 
 tenses used ; how misleading perhaps the old translation, 
 and how clear the new. Or take again a few lessons 
 ago — did you understand clearly the meaning of St. 
 Mark vii. 11 ? As it now stands, the shifting of one 
 clause has been sufficient almost by itself to remove 
 all obscurity. I, too, feel very glad at the " evil one " 
 being substituted for "evil" in the Lord's Prayer. How 
 useful in these days for people to know that that is 
 probably the best translation, and that our Lord's 
 meaning — in these days when false teachers go about 
 to persuade people that evil has no one Personal centre 
 working with a real will to spread sin abroad in man's 
 heart. The revisers' careful preface, explainmg, as it does, 
 their prmciples of revision and the rules which guided 
 all their alterations, is well worth a careful perusal. 
 I have not yet found time to give the book anything like 
 a real study, but m the Gospel of St. Mark and 
 1 Corinthians I thoroughly like all the changes I have 
 noticed. One is so glad that dear old words which have 
 from old and early association so precious a sound, 
 are not removed in favour of colder somiding though 
 commoner ones — I mean such words as "wist," "wot," 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 153 
 
 *' straightway," and a thousand others, nearly all of 
 which have been reverently retained. Take the wonderful 
 cadences and musical rhythm of 1 Corinthians xiii. In spite 
 of the important, and I do think the necessary, change of 
 love " for " charity," there is nothing else in the altera- 
 tion that (to my ear) breaks the rhythm or disturbs it in 
 the least : this one chapter is enough to show, I think, 
 that what the revisers say was probably most true — " the 
 longer we have been engaged upon it the more we have 
 learned to admire its simplicity, its dignity, its power, 
 its happy turns of expression, its general accuracy, and 
 we must not fail to add, the music of its cadences, and the 
 felicities of its rhythm." I should like to know now 
 what you think of the revision — new Bible " as I expect 
 poor people will begin to call it. ... I have lately, too, 
 been skimming the Duke of Argyll's famous "Reign 
 of Law.' The part that particularly interests me is his 
 explanation of the laws that govern the flight of birds, 
 and the wonderful adjustments of the wings and feathers 
 to the laws of gravitation, atmospheric pressure, &c., 
 which enable birds to propel themselves through the air, 
 and, more wonderful still, to travel through it in the 
 direction they want to go. Ever since reading this 
 I have been watching the crows and hawks about here 
 with a fresh interest ... as they soar and dive and 
 gyrate high up above us under our blue sky. With 
 much the same object in view as the Duke of Argyll — 
 viz., to show the master mind working at the back of 
 all the wonderful adjustments to laws that go on in 
 animal and plant life — does an interesting article in the 
 current " Church Quarterly " set forth some facts in 
 plant life. . . . Scientists, in spite of themselves (and some 
 of them, as we know, would not, alas ! be at all anxious 
 to trace to one all-ruling Will, the wonderful facts they are 
 constantly bringing to light), are really forced to use 
 
154 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 "words, when describing various processes in nature, 
 which do most emphatically imply personal agency 
 and a designing will — they really cannot help it, so 
 abundantly now-a-days do all the revelations of science 
 confirm the theological dogma of the unity of all things 
 from and in God. . . . We have no bread or milk 
 just now, so our daily fare is — eggs, fowls, yams, and 
 tamarind jam, with rice, of course, ad lib. Beef and 
 mutton for six days consecutively would, I believe, drive 
 my ulcers away altogether. 
 
 September I9th. 
 
 You will remember to-day's anniversary and the 
 church at Cuddesden six years ago. I believe the day 
 altogether is scarcely less vividly impressed on your 
 memory than on mine. Well, six years have passed, 
 and here I am still in the same sphere of work that on 
 that day I knew I was shortly to be given, and, as you 
 know, still feeling that mine is a very happy lot. Is it 
 though, I sometimes ask myself, too happy ? And 
 visions of lean curates in smoky towns or the " black 
 country" rise up before me as I gaze at the clear azure 
 here, or cast my eyes over the glorious stretches of forest 
 and the far-off granitic hills, which are ever before our 
 eyes to enchant us. Well, these visions don't exactly 
 disturb me, for I never doubt that I was truly called 
 here, and am ever mindful that I may at any time be 
 called elsewhere. Meanwhile though, as I say, my 
 missionary calling is a happy lot ; in spite of sickness, 
 isolation, and other minor distresses, it is a privilege to 
 be out here. . . . Cashew apples are just coming in. 
 We use them largely, stewed as jam. I read an interest- 
 ing thing about them the other day, a pj'opos of the 
 relation of insects and birds and animals in connection 
 with the fertilization and dissemination of plants, and 
 flowers. They say the cashew apple is really a juicy 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 155 
 
 stalk ; at the end of the stalk, or apple, grows the nut, 
 which is really the seed. Monkeys are attracted to the 
 juicy fruit, pick it, and carry it away to eat. When they 
 have eaten they would naturally eat the nut too, and so 
 it would not find its way into the ground and produce 
 another cashew tree, but its juice is very acrid, producing 
 blisters. This the monkeys know, so they throw away 
 the nut, and so it enters into the ground, and in due 
 time shoots forth. Thus the cashew apple tree gets 
 propagated. Pombe drinking is our great enemy just 
 now. It is, I am sorry to say, spreading very much in 
 the village, and naturally leads to quarrels and the like. 
 We are meditating some strict rules and prohibitions. . . . 
 
 Masasi, September 1th. 
 
 We are trying now to do more work in the way of 
 out-preaching than heretofore, but I think the neigh- 
 bouring chiefs look upon us as " bores," with whose 
 
 fads " they must nevertheless try and put up for the 
 sake of the cloth and presents they get from us ! 
 The Makuas and Yaos around us are very far from 
 
 stretching out their hands unto God " — in fact, what 
 they desire is, to remain in the same ignorance of Him 
 as they were in before we came here. Our preaching 
 never produces as a result anything more than idle 
 laughs ; one cannot say that the slightest interest is ever 
 stirred up. This would, perhaps, be disheartening if our 
 duty were not quite clear in these circumstances, which, 
 however, it happily is. No, we must trust mainly to the 
 work that goes on in our own village, and the influence 
 extending from within, to those without. . . . 
 
 Odoher 1st, 1881. 
 ... As to your expressing great surprise that I should 
 have allowed a heathen to marry a Christian — first of 
 
156 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 all you must try and throw yourself into our position — 
 a few, very few Christian men with fewer Christian 
 women — yet marriage must go on. You cannot say to 
 a man — " Now you are a Christian, but there are no 
 Christian women here now, nor are there likely to be 
 any here for some years to come, therefore you cannot 
 marry." To do this would be, as we know, to put a snare 
 in the man's way, and to expose him to the very strongest 
 temptation to sin, and this, too, when there is no law of 
 the Church that Christians and heathen should not 
 intermarry. You must remember that the standard of 
 morals is shockingly low, that adultery and fornication 
 are of common occurrence, and hence, that we are forced 
 to consider marriage very much more often in one of its 
 lights than in any other — the light, I mean, that marriage 
 is God's remedy for sins of the flesh. You will re- 
 member that this way of regarding it is especial^ 
 mentioned in our own marriage service framed for the 
 needs of a Christian country. Now what I did in the 
 case I mentioned was this. A lad past his teens wished 
 to settle here, an old Kiungani [Boys' school at Zanzibar] 
 boy whom I knew well. I said, I allow no men to settle 
 in our village as bachelors. Are you willing to marry ? " 
 "Yes, I want particularly to marry." "Have you a 
 sweetheart amongst the girls at Mbweni?" [Girls' 
 School in Zanzibar.] "No." "Are you particularly 
 anxious to take a wife from their number ? " " No ; and 
 what is more, they are all engaged ; I might have to wait 
 years till I could get one." " Well then, Sellim, if you 
 don't wish to go to Zanzibar, and if you wish to 
 marry and to live here, there is a very nice woman 
 whom I think very highly of, and who, I think, 
 would make you a very nice wife. She is not a Christian, 
 but she has had some instruction, is one of our own 
 people, and will shortly join the catechumens' class." 
 
[i88t.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 157 
 
 The end of it was, Sellim proposed to this woman, 
 was accepted by her, and was married in the way I 
 described. They are exceedingly happy together, and 
 she was, and is, one of the best and steadiest of all our 
 "ladies." Now, who says it was wrong thus to have 
 married these two people — not the Bible, not the Church, 
 not the law of God — who then ? By-the-bye, Sellim's 
 wife is the widow of the catechumen who was buried on 
 my birthday, and of whom I wrote to you before. It is 
 certainly my view that if, out here, a Christian man 
 desiring to marry sees two women, one of whom, though 
 a Christian, is idle, vicious, and bad, and the other, though 
 a heathen, is thrifty, loving, and industrious, he ought to 
 be encouraged to marry the latter instead of the former. 
 The Christian girls from Mbweni make notoriously bad 
 wives,* and I am very glad Sellim did not take one of them. 
 Men out here, if they have the choice of their wives, 
 never by any chance choose them for good looks. In this 
 respect they are more sensible than some English people 
 whom one has known. . . . 
 
 [Note. — A long dissertation on marriage here fol- 
 lowed.] 
 
 . . . Now do you begin to see why it is I can 
 
 contemplate with pleasure and satisfaction a married 
 couple living together in mutual love and affection, of 
 whom one is nevertheless a heathen ? It will be indeed 
 an additional pleasure when, as I hope it soon will be, 
 I can see the two take their places together amongst 
 the Christians in our church here. [In the church the 
 Christians, catechumens, and hearers sat in three different 
 divisions. Ed.] 
 
 * This, remember, was sixteen years ago, in the early days of the 
 Mission. Also the girls at Mbweni were mostly released slaves — 
 bad material to work on. 
 
158 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Masasi, October 1st, 1881. 
 . . . You will have heard something of my own tour. 
 I was able to map out roughly a good deal of new 
 country, south of Eovuma, as well as to determine the 
 exact whereabouts of the Maviti, and an important 
 district called Meto, which lies rather more than halfway 
 between here and Mozambique. My ablest colleague 
 here, viz., C. A. Janson, is just about to leave for 
 Makanjila's . . . a large town on the South East shore of 
 the Lake (Nyasa). . . . I shall miss him greatly: his wise 
 advice and prudence have helped this place much during 
 the past year, and his knowledge of principles of law has 
 contributed to the better government of the village. He 
 was, as you may know, a barrister for some five years 
 before taking orders, and is not a little fond of the law, 
 for which he was allowed to have some capacity. . . . 
 All my friends seem to have married, or to be about to 
 do so ; all, I think, except those who are missionaries like 
 myself, and who, like myself, probably feel that a wife 
 out here would be more of a grief than a pleasure. . . . 
 
 ]VL\SASi, October 29th, 1881. 
 Our new church is all but ready. . . . Although 
 we talk rather grandly of it as the " stone church," you 
 must remember that after all only the outside walls and 
 the chancel are of stone ; the old plan of wooden poles 
 supporting an immense roof of bamboo and thatch is 
 preserved in the new building. The elevation of the 
 chancel is considerably higher than that of the old one, 
 and this departure from the old model is decidedly a 
 good one. ... As to darkness — well, we certainly have 
 secured the dim religious light " ^ith a vengeance, 
 although it is not due to the darkening of the light 
 admitted by "storied windows richly dight." I fear we 
 shall be sometimes reduced to candles even at midday 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 159 
 
 when our rainy season darkens the outside atmosphere 
 with its clouds overcast. . . . By-the-bye, all the letters 
 this time, save yours [his mother's. Ed.], seem to have 
 been affected by the damp weather outside, which you all 
 mentioned as occurring on the day you write. Tell 
 Ellen and Kate especially to choose a bright sunny day 
 the next time they write, since gloom without causes 
 gloom within, and gets reflected by pen and ink on the 
 sheets that get sent out to me here. 
 
 Masasi, Novemher oth, 1881. 
 
 [Note. — Mr. Johnson had returned unexpectedly, 
 having been turned out of Mwembe by the chief.] 
 
 ... It is such a real treat to see Johnson again, and 
 hold converse together as in old days. For months 
 together at Mwembe he was sorely pressed by famine, 
 with only one meal a day, and for many weeks that 
 meal consisted only of leaves and herbs and grasses — 
 not even pumpkins. Many people died of starvation 
 there, and many shocking deeds were perpetrated. If 
 ever missionary endured hardships in modern times, 
 that missionary is my friend Will Johnson. He tells us 
 the tale in his own simple, unadorned manner, but it is 
 thrilling enough, however told. He tells of his sitting 
 down eating what there was, and then looking hungrily 
 at the empty plate, and waiting till next day to waylay 
 the women coming in from the fields with the herbs and 
 leaves. The very skins of the last goats he killed were 
 gnawed and eaten by poor skeletons who came by night 
 to steal what they could for food. God has preserved 
 Johnson's health in a wonderful way, though his poor 
 ulcered hands were in such a state when he arrived at 
 Livingstonia that Dr. Laws told him had he arrived a 
 few weeks later he could not have answered for his life. 
 . . . African natives never kill anybody unless they are 
 
i6o Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 afraid of them, and they certainly are not afraid of us. 
 . . . My " son " (as you would call him) Theodore has, 
 I am sorry to say, not been doing well in Zanzibar on 
 the London^ where, after a great deal of thought, I sent 
 him. He got into bad company, and was not thought 
 suited for an interpreter's post. He accordingly left, 
 and, contrary to all advice, enlisted himself in Seyid 
 Barghash's army, which I fear it will be hard for him 
 ever to leave, even if he wants to. . . . It is very, very 
 disappointing that he, with so many advantages and 
 opportmiities of getting on well, through weakness of 
 character becomes his own enemy. I am grieving over 
 him sadly, but one is more and more driven back to the 
 prayer, " God help him, for vain indeed is the help of 
 man ! " The other boy, Eustace, who has been with me 
 from the first, is married, and doing well here as a 
 teacher. . . . '\Miat a terrible thing from one point of 
 view is human affection — so great, so divine, and yet so 
 liable to become a sin and a snare. I mean that we 
 must always remember that no love of one for another 
 which is not a love in Christ can be acceptable in God's 
 sight. And this helps us to look forward to meeting those 
 we have loved here when they and ourselves (if by God's 
 grace it may be so at the last) are made perfect in the 
 Divine life — in the life of Christ, the life of Him who 
 is Love itself. Do we love others for anything that is 
 wholly apart from what is the manifestation of the 
 Christ-life in them ? If so, where is the sanctification 
 in such love ? Here it is that, it seems to me, we must 
 be careful when, in the impulsiveness of our nature, we 
 get swept along in the love for another human being 
 like ourselves. We want always the sanctification of 
 our human love for one another, the sanctification that 
 comes from the mergmg of the lower love in the higher 
 — the love of Christ manifesting Himself, as by His 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 i6i 
 
 great condescension He does manifest Himself in those 
 who are near and dear. . . . 
 
 November 6th, 1881. 
 I have been very much depressed lately — not dis- 
 contented with my lot, nor wishing in any way to change 
 it, but depressed, I thmk, in consequence of hopes dashed 
 where they had been strongest, in reference to individuals 
 who, after much time and care and thought bestowed on 
 them, turn out in a way that one grieves over. These 
 things do distress me, and where there is so little society 
 it is difficult to avoid brooding over them, and getting at 
 times despondent. Though I ought not to be grumbling, 
 for having Johnson here again is a refreshment I had 
 not dared to look for. Through all his hardships and 
 adventures his health has been preserved to him in a 
 most wonderful manner, and we cannot be too thankful 
 for that. He is the real hero of the lot of us, and of this 
 there can be no shadow of doubt. 
 
 Masasi, November llth, 1881. 
 I write to you, my dear old Ellen, when I have been 
 thinking more particularly than usual of you, as during 
 these last few weeks. Several times lately I should so 
 much have enjoyed a good long talk with you, as know- 
 ing my weaknesses and sentiments on some subjects 
 better than most people in the old home. I have felt 
 particularly lonely and upset on a matter that you would 
 have understood. However, I don't mean to write to 
 you about it, for long ere you get this letter I shall have 
 pulled through into a happier frame of mind. ... I 
 am sending by this mail a short paper on Makua customs 
 to " Mission Life," and if they stick it in I shall follow 
 it up from time to time with other articles on missionary 
 subjects. . . . 
 
 CM. M 
 
i62 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Masasi, November 11 tk, 1881. 
 
 . . . Yet, of course, my life and lot are cast here, and 
 the longer I stay the deeper I get rooted to the country, 
 and the more strongly do I feel that this is my home for 
 life, and the place where some day I hope to die. If we 
 want to win these people it is of no use going home ; all 
 the threads get broken, and it is so difficult to pick them 
 up again when one comes back. I mean never to go 
 back again until sheer illness drives me away. The 
 importance of what we try to do out here is enhanced 
 tenfold in my eyes now, and to get a real grasp one must 
 stay, stay, stay. It is the European who is always going 
 backwards and forwards who never gets a hold on the 
 work. . . . By-the-bye, how shocked your brother would 
 be if he could see the way in which we travel. Johnson, 
 for instance, with simply nothing to lie down on at 
 night, nothing to change, tearing away through the 
 forest forty miles a day, and with the gnawings of hunger 
 hard on him — but this was from stress of circumstances ; 
 though, certainly, the longer we stay out here the more 
 independent we get of rugs, portable bedsteads, water- 
 proof sheets, tents, and the like. . . . 
 
 November IWi. 
 
 I often get despondent, but the despondency never 
 takes the form of a restless longing to be at other work 
 or elsewhere, and the fact that one's life will most likely 
 be much shorter than in England is by no means an 
 unhappy one. I don't know that I ever thought long 
 life an enviable possession, and I certainly don't think it 
 so now. To married people it must appear different, but 
 marriage, again, is very distant from my thoughts. . . . 
 
 IkLvSASl, Advent Sunday, 1881. 
 . . . I am sending more articles to " Mission Life " this 
 mail. . . . Well, I suppose you and I have by this time 
 
[i88i.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 outgrown all foolish vanity about seeing our silly selves 
 in print, eh ? Be assured, too, that in taking up the pen 
 now and sending the articles I speak of, I have a really 
 important end in view ; I want to elicit criticism, and get 
 my views corrected where they are wrong, by older and 
 wiser heads. The subjects I have treated of are all, from 
 a missionary point of view, of the utmost importance. I 
 have lately been reading Mozley's University Sermons " 
 over again. That one on " the peaceful temper " does shew 
 a wonderful knowledge of character and motives. . . . 
 I feel more strongly than ever that mine is a missionary 
 vocation till I fall at the post ; the feeling has increased 
 tenfold within the last eight or ten months. 
 
 November 2Sth. — I employed myself this morning in 
 painting the wooden pillars which support the roof of the 
 new church red and white, also in building a step whereon 
 to stand in front of the lectern. . . . 
 
 LLiSASi, December 1st, 1881. 
 . . . Masasi is a haven of peace and rest compared 
 with all the country we pass through, as Johnson very 
 fitly remarked the other day. ... I assure you the 
 fame of his [W. P. Johnson] wonderful courage and 
 bravery, and moral earnestness in all his privations 
 and dangers, has struck deeply into the mind of, 
 one might almost say, the whole Yao tribe. The 
 country side rings with the tale of the wonder- 
 ful "Mzungu" (European) who endured so much 
 so dauntlessly. For my part I feel that the whole affair 
 will prove eventually to have done wonders for the w^ork. 
 ... I have been reading to-day all the accounts of 
 President Garfield's illness and death and funeral. How 
 extremely touching and beautiful it is ; it seemed to let 
 one into an entirely new side of American character that 
 one never knew of before. ... I was so deeply interested 
 
 M 2 
 
164 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 in it all, and the newspapers seldom interest me out here, 
 though I like to have them. I enjoy the illustrated ones 
 though, and get quite fascinated by some of the pictures 
 — those clever social sketches that bring back to one's 
 mind so oddly here old associations and memories of 
 English life before one had a fixed and definite purpose. 
 My dear mother, I wish you could realize that your goose 
 is no swan ; even if you were out here you wouldn't, from 
 a mother's partiality, or more truthfully, prejudice. But 
 as a matter of fact, I am a very average sort of person 
 indeed, and by no means an able or " active missionary," 
 as silly newspapers have put it. Everybody out here 
 knows this, though I am allowed to be, to a certain extent, 
 enthusiastic and attached to the work. But we certainly 
 have just one or two hero missionaries, notably Johnson, 
 and Janson too, in a different kind of way. I sometimes 
 almost feel the colour mounting when I read some of the 
 expressions in your letters about ''leaving all," and 
 " devotion to the Master's cause," and the like. I feel my 
 motives at the best of times are all horribly mixed, and 
 many very unworthy. You and my father were always 
 very good in never praising me to my face ; but if you 
 write such things I shall think you are beginning to 
 depart from one of the best rules you, as a mother, could 
 have observed. I grieve to say that, odious as it really is 
 when one thinks calmly about it, still flattery becomes a 
 snare at times. One thing one always feels : God knows 
 our hearts better than our flatterers do ; and the older 
 one gets the more one feels the hollowness of most human 
 praise. One expects flattery and praise from silly people, 
 but not from the best and most sensible of mothers, so 
 you must really avoid all suspicion of it for the future. 
 And here let me add that if I were to die here, and you 
 had a wish to erect a cross over my grave, take very 
 great care what kind of text you write on it ; none that 
 
[i88i.J Life at Masasi. 165 
 
 doesn't express the mercies of God to the wicked. But I 
 am also bound to say that if you were desirous of follow- 
 ing out my wishes rather than your own in this matter, 
 I would rather have nothing over my grave ; the mound 
 of red earth that I have seen heaped up over the grave 
 of several whom I have buried here is all I should like 
 when the time comes. ... Do you know that sometimes 
 the scope of our work out here rises up before one's mind 
 and quite appals one. We are doing little indeed, but 
 see the vast extent of country over which some day — I 
 trust not all too distant — our influence might extend. . . . 
 I'm afraid I sha'n't do much with the flute ; this is not a 
 climate where one likes to get hot over wind instruments. 
 . . . I expect you imagine our dangers to life are far 
 greater than they are; however, you will judge better 
 after reading my journal. Of course, one has a few 
 risks, and possibly, now and then, a few narrow escapes, 
 but they never come when they are expected. We 
 have killed two deadly snakes lately in church in the 
 evening. . . . 
 
 Masasi, December SOth, 1881. 
 [Note. — On Christmas Eve the new church was dedi- 
 cated. Here follows a description of the dedication 
 service.] 
 
 ... At 2.30 the gong sounded for a quarter of an 
 hour, and then the bell for another quarter, while we 
 assembled for a great procession. When I had got all 
 the people in order, I dh'ected the cross- bearer to proceed 
 slowly forward, we five priests (Janson, Johnson, Clarke, 
 Porter, and self) followed him, striking up " The Church's 
 one foundation ; " behind us walked (1) the baptized, (2) 
 the catechumens, (3) the hearers — arrived in church as 
 we were singing the last verse of our processional hymn, 
 I then shewed these three classes of our men to their 
 
i66 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 respective and clearly marked-off places, and then, leaving 
 them standing there, I left the church with the cross- 
 bearer and called in the women, distributing them through 
 the church in a similar manner. Then, going to the 
 place where the third class, or hearers, are divided off 
 from the others, I bade them all kneel down, and then 
 prayed for them to the Holy Spirit. Leavmg them all 
 solemnly kneelmg, we priests and the cross advanced to 
 the second division, where the catechumens are marked 
 off from the baptized. Motioning to the former to kneel 
 down, I then prayed for them to God the Father. Lastly, 
 I and my brother priests walked to the foot of the chancel 
 steps, and then all the baptized, including them, kneeled 
 down, I alone remaining standing. There was a great 
 silence at this point, which I was unwilling to break, so 
 we paused, and then I prayed to the Son for ourselves, 
 the baptized Christians. Then we walked up the steps into 
 the chancel, and sang the famous old chorale, *' Now 
 thank we all our God," in our Swahili version of it. 
 After that followed three special psalms, and then three 
 special prayers. 
 
 (1.) For the prayers offered in the church. 
 
 (2.) For the Word preached and read. 
 
 (3.) For the Sacraments. 
 
 Then I stood up and declared the building set apart 
 for the worship of God, in the name of the Holy Trinity. 
 Our dedication service over, evensong followed imme- 
 diately, and we left church in recession, smging " Onward, 
 Christian soldiers." . . . Altogether I think there were 
 from three to four hundred people in the church. . . . 
 On St. Stephen's Day . . . after church, we had rifle 
 shooting, followed by foot races for adults and boys. 
 One of the races was actually one between Clarke, 
 Johnson, and self ; what becomes of sobriety after this ? 
 Yet it thoroughly amused our people, and under our 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 167 
 
 circumstances out here, there seemed nothing unbecoming 
 in our thus adding to the day's sport ; what think you ? 
 Clarke ran in slippers, a kanzu, and with a cigar in his 
 mouth. It looked odd, certainly, but it is best to be 
 natural, and there was nothing unnatural in his doing 
 this, I thought. . . . 
 
 [The next day Messrs. Johnson and Janson started for 
 Nyasa, and the Kev. Charles Janson died, rather more 
 than two months afterwards, on arriving at the Lake.] 
 
 I bade good-bye to my two staunch friends ; then, 
 turning back hitherwards, I wondered when I should 
 ever see either or both of them again. But partings 
 give me very little pain now — they would, if one only 
 had one's anchor down in this world ; but one trusts that 
 one has " tripped" it for the waters of this world, and 
 is sailing on free towards another, where we may let it 
 down where there is a sure bottom that will hold it fast. 
 . . . There is a definite movement astir amongst the 
 Yaos now towards Christianity, and the number of our 
 catechumens and hearers is already treble of what it 
 was three months ago. All this is, of course, a great 
 joy to our hearts. . . . The Yaos are wonderfully ahead 
 of the Makuas in all this, and this is no surprise to us 
 knowing as we do the differing characteristics of the two 
 tribes. . . . 
 
 Masasi, January 9th, 1882. 
 . . . Let my thanks be conveyed very particularly 
 to the children of Holy Trinity Schools for the things 
 they worked. Although one gets very hard out here, 
 there is something to me very touching to read on some 
 simple pincushion the name of the child who worked it, 
 with " aged eight years " after it. I hope one will never 
 get so old as not to be moved by the thought of child- 
 hood's innocence ; it is possible, too, that in a heathen 
 
1 68 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 country one feels tliis even more. ... If I am snccessfal 
 in getting Theodore out of the Sejid's army and back 
 here, I shall reserve one of the bridal dreeses for his wife 
 when he marries. I have found him a sweetheart in a 
 neighbouring Yao Tillage, with whom he wiU be delighted ; 
 indeed, I think he knows something of her already. 
 I wish yon had told me what part of my jonrnal inte- 
 rested you and my father most. And when I read of yonr 
 reading it aloud on two saecessiTe evenings, I ean hardly 
 refrain from asking whether you had to wake my fatiher 
 np during the course of it. Now do tell me this. ... 
 
 Ma&lsi, F^awarg ISO, 1882. 
 
 . . . We are indulging the hope, though I fear it is 
 a faint one, that tlie Bishop may come up here, when the 
 rains are over, to pay us a thoroug^y episeopal visit, 
 confirm, &e., &c ... A few evenings ago, Iwas return- 
 ing from an afternoon preaching at a town seven miles 
 away, and was just entering a gorge where the grass and 
 reeds are very tall, when I heard close to me the rustle 
 of a leopard, and saw the long grass parted. Ihadonlyan 
 umbrella in my hand, and so feared to pass along the path. 
 I therefore retreated to a village some two hundred yards 
 behind me, and with an ^eort of two lads passed by 
 another path home ft-ga-in. Since that I have made a 
 resolve not to be alone on that path so late again. . . . 
 
 11th. — ^And so here I am, thirty years old to-day. . . . 
 I do most sincerely believe and confess with shame that 
 I am as wayward, self-willed, and capricious at thirty as I 
 was at fifteen. . . . If I live to be doublg the age at which 
 I have arrived to-day I should be nearfy yours and my 
 father's age ; but it is not likely I shall, nor should I 
 wish it If one ought to wish for any particular term 
 of life, though of course CMoe ou^t not and may not, 
 I should be inclined to say, let me live fifteen years more 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 i6g 
 
 out here, if they can be made useful ones, and then let 
 me die somewhere in this country.* But putting aside all 
 such thoughts, I may and do pray for some better living, 
 better doing, better praying, better faith, better hope, 
 and better charity, in the years, whether they be few or 
 many, that lie before me. As to feelings, I don't feel a 
 day older than I did at twenty, and my " natural force " 
 — i.e., what measure I have had of it — is certainly not 
 yet abated ; neither, to pursue the thought of Moses 
 passing away in the hey-day of health and still in his 
 prime, is my eye dim, save indeed for a great sty, 
 which prevents me from so much as seeing out of the 
 right one to-day ! . . . I have been scrutinizing very 
 narrowly this morning some beds where we planted 
 English potatoes three weeks ago. We had feared they 
 had all rotted, but I am pleased to notice that at last 
 they are sprouting, so we shall be able to eat our potatoes 
 and mutton, three months hence, in thoroughly English 
 fashion. A very large crop of guavas and limes, and a 
 fruit which we call " green dragon," and which you can 
 never have seen, help us much just now. What do you 
 think of our having a fine cabbage rose here ? It was in 
 full bloom three weeks ago, and I brought it up from the 
 valley, where Johnson had planted it, and gave it a place 
 in the churchyard. I rather fear the result of the trans- 
 plantation. . . . 
 
 Masasi, Fehruary 21st, 1882. 
 
 . . . The Bishop is greatly pleased at all that has 
 been going on here lately, and certainly the sudden 
 movement of the neighbouring Yaos in a mass towards 
 Christianity quite startled one ; it was, like many of 
 God's ways, so unexpected. Other Zanzibar correspon- 
 dents tell me that the letters in which I conveyed to him 
 
 * He was forty-three years old when he died. 
 
i jo Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 the details, acted like a tonic at a time he was feeling 
 very low and depressed. . . . My old friend and school- 
 fellow, E. A. Floyer, is . . . just publishing his book, 
 Unexplored Beluchistan." . . . How books of. travel 
 are being multiplied in the market now ! . . . 
 
 February '21sf, 1882. 
 
 . . . There seems a chance of my figuring as a 
 geogi-aphical discoverer, for the secretaiy of the Eoyal 
 Geogi-aphical Society writes me a letter by this mail 
 to say, that if my discovery of the snow mountain is 
 realized, " it will attract great attention, and form one 
 of the chief geographical events of our day." How- 
 ever, I am not ambitious in this respect, and care but 
 little whether or no a future generation of children are 
 taught to learn in the geogi-aphy of Afi-ica — "Mount 
 Maples, a lofty snow mountain near Mozambique." 
 This is of course only chaff. No new name would be 
 given to a peak already bearing the sweet- sounding 
 name, Irati." . . . My eye falls on a passage in yoiur 
 letter as I write, it is, " this house does not seem very 
 substantially built." I laugh — reason why — here am 
 I writing under a grass roof through which, almost 
 straight above my head, I can see the moon and Suius, 
 while a few minutes ago the rain was pouring through 
 on to the very table where I am writing. My building 
 energies were all thrown into the church last year ; but 
 I suppose I must build some new dwelling rooms, 
 &c. . . . 
 
 Masasi, March 23rd, 1882. 
 . . . You were interested in Sellim — the Christian who 
 married an unbaptized wife — well, she is to be baptized 
 most Likely at "WTiitsuntide. The couple have got on 
 very happily together, and Sellim has done so well that I 
 hope to get him also appointed Reader before long. . . . 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 171 
 
 Our graves — those of the Christians who have fallen 
 asleep here, are bright with many-coloured zinnias — do 
 you know the flower? — a little like an aster. . . . We 
 have so many kind friends now in England who send us 
 "goodies" that I feel constrained to tell you not to spend 
 your money in that way for us any more, with the one 
 exception of hot currie powder, such as you have sent 
 often. I get this nowhere else but from you, and it is 
 the thing of all others that is most useful from a culinary 
 point of view, and more especially when one is travelling. 
 My spleen is still of abnormal size, but otherwise I feel 
 very well now, and up to plenty of work. . . . Certainly 
 had I contemplated so many people reading my journal 
 as seem to have done so, I should have avoided that 
 greedy-sounding request for cocoa, &c. At any rate, if 
 you send a copy to anybody else, I should like that 
 sentence to be erased. . . . 
 
 March 2m, 1882. 
 . . . Numbers of our catechumens have now gone off 
 to cut indiarubber in the neighbourhood of Mtua, where 
 Williams is located. They will be absent over this work 
 some three months or so. They make the indiarubber 
 up into balls the size of an orange, and sell about eight 
 for one dollar at the coast. This indiarubber trade is in 
 fact the only trade of these parts. Ivory and slaves come 
 from much further inland, and we see little of the ivory 
 trade where we are. ... I am trying hard to persuade 
 the Bishop to come up here this year, but I am afraid no 
 amount of pressing will succeed, and it does seem doubtful 
 whether he can travel so far again. . . . 
 
 Masasi, April \2tli, 1882. 
 [Speaking of Easter, he says (Ed.) : — ] 
 . . . The church was crammed ; we had never had 
 such a large congregation, Clarke and Porter took the 
 
172 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 service between them, I presiding at the harmonium, 
 reading the First Lesson, and preaching. My sermon 
 was in Yao for the benefit of the large numbers of 
 Yaos from the outside who did not understand Swahili. 
 Eight Yao chiefs were present, and the congregation, 
 large as it was, was nevertheless most quiet, reverent, 
 and attentive. It was a right joyous service in very 
 truth. ... On Easter Tuesday ... at seven, I gave 
 an hour's entertainment with conjuring tricks, and 
 after this Mr. Porter and I acted a shadow pantomime, 
 just as Ellen, Kate, and I used to do it in the nursery, 
 years gone by. This evening entertainment was vastly 
 appreciated if we may judge by the rounds of applause 
 which greeted all we did. In fact, the raptures of the 
 *' house " knew no bounds when I, as M.D., cut off the 
 false nose — shadowed on the sheet in enormous propor- 
 tions — of that reverend senior, my worthy colleague, 
 Mr. Porter, " got up " for the nonce as an aged patient 
 seeking relief for cold and catarrh at my skilled hands ! 
 Thus, and thus, and thus, we two seniors follied away — I 
 trust in harmless mirth-making — an evening in Easter 
 week for the benefit of our day scholars. . . . 
 
 April ISth, — Since I penned the above, we have re- 
 ceived the news of Janson's departure hence. He passed 
 away quietly, though after great agony, on Shrove 
 Tuesday. . . . Janson's death is a great triumph. We 
 can't speak of it with sorrow, any of us. He was a truly 
 saintly character, and, if one may dare to say it, ripe for 
 Paradise. ... Oh ! Why do natural feelmgs some- 
 times burst through our better sense and make us wish 
 them back here and in the thick of temptations, a prey 
 to the malice of the evil one. . . . Our school and classes 
 are in a most flourishing condition, and things never 
 have looked brighter here than they do now. Things 
 really seem to go on of themselves, no longer like pushing 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 173 
 
 a cart uphill, which, if you let it go for an instant, will 
 at once slip down. . . . 
 
 April 28th, 1882. 
 . . . The fact is I am getting horribly fat, autocratic, 
 and lazy, and Masasi being the place it is, there is "no 
 credit in being jolly " here any longer, as Mark Tapley 
 would say. It does not do to get too rooted to a place 
 whose fortunes one has watched from the first, and I 
 greatly fear that I am in danger of Nebuchadnezzar's sin, 
 and that so I shall deserve his fate — Nebuchadnezzar, 
 who strutted about his capital and said, " Is not this 
 great Babylon that I have builded?" . . . I am meditating 
 an addition to our poultry yard in the shape of a couple 
 of geese (I believe one is a gander) which I understand 
 are for sale near Lindi. But as to the poultry yard, my 
 ambition will not be satisfied until a fine large turkey 
 cock, which they say is dragging out a lonely existence 
 near the governor's fort at Lindi, finds its way up here. 
 You see we stick to domestic animals and birds, though 
 it is a disappointment not to be able to boast a menagerie 
 for wild animals. A propos of these last, I really do believe 
 leopards are beginning to make themselves scarce round 
 about us. I have identified lately some of the commonest 
 antelopes about here ; thus our ndandala " is the koodoo 
 (two beautiful specimens in the Zoo "), our " mbunju " 
 is the eland, our " sindi "or nyumbu " is the brindled 
 gnu. These three animals are all conspicuous in the 
 " Zoo," in case you go there this summer. . . . 
 The rice harvest has begun, the millet will follow in 
 June. . . . The people mainly depend on the millet {alias 
 "mtama," alias Kaffre corn), and this grows fifteen feet 
 high, and sends out a perfect spray of grain at the head 
 of the stalk. Very beautiful it is just now, tossing itself 
 in the breeze against the blue, blue sky. In England it 
 is the ** waving corn,". . . but here the effect is as of a 
 
174 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 proud tossing, just as suggestive to the imagination. At 
 night a particular insect, which we call the " Jew's harp," 
 from its note so exactly resembling that unmelodious 
 instrument, comes and feeds on the pollen (?) when the 
 corn has just burst into flower. One week only, and lo, 
 you don't hear the " Jew's harp " again till this time next 
 year. . . . 
 
 Maij Ist, 1882. 
 
 ... I am sorry to say one of our neighbouring chiefs, 
 and he one of the most friendly, has committed a cruel 
 murder, and it has been necessary to forbid him our 
 village. As a " hearer," too, I was obliged to take notice 
 of the fact in church, and yesterday publicly declared him 
 debarred from all approach to it, until such time as he 
 shall show repentance. ... He is, however, being dealt 
 with by the ruling Makua, and will probably have to pay 
 some fine. . . . 
 
 May 27id. — I am quite well again to-day I am thankful 
 to say, but very much grudged having to be woke up in 
 the middle of the night to decide upon a quarrel between 
 a man and wife, which threatened to be serious, although 
 springing from a most trivial cause. Our people are such 
 babies sometimes that they will quarrel about a fowl or 
 a hoe. . . . We have had quite a run of family jars in 
 the village, and the settlement of these is very trouble- 
 some, and I fear, sometimes, far from satisfactory ; but 
 it is, of course, most difficult to get at the truth, and it 
 is at least a consolation that these disturbances occur, for 
 the most part, in the tail of our village, and not amongst 
 the Christians. . . . 
 
 May 23rd, 1882. 
 
 You will be interested to hear, I think, that on Ascen- 
 sion Day I married my first convert, Charles Sulimani, 
 to a charming young widow, by name Ruth Lafrani, and 
 that she wore one of the bridal dresses you sent out, on 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 175 
 
 the following Sunday. . . . Being rather vain, she looked 
 every bit as if she was thinking, " Now don't I look nice 
 and pretty in this European dress?" and, as a matter of 
 fact, it really did suit her very well. ... I have been 
 much annoyed for some six days past with what doctors 
 know as muscce volitantes — i.e., an affection of the eyes. 
 . . . Sometimes this affection is, I believe, the precursor 
 of blindness, and of course it fidgets me rather, as I can't 
 see a doctor about it. . . . It began quite suddenly . . . 
 the day after I had been looking at the sun a good deal 
 through a smoked glass at the eclipse, which, however, 
 was not visible in our latitude. [This affection of the 
 eyes remained to the end of his life, and prevented him 
 taking a sure aim when shooting. — Ed.] ... I want a 
 good text-book of geology of modern date. . . . Our 
 formation here is all what is known as " primary," and 
 the rocks are all mica, schist, and gneiss. ... I want to 
 know all that can be known about them. . . . 
 
 May 26th. 
 
 , . . What does Colin at the War Office know of the 
 portable wells (?) that were used in the Ashanti war for 
 attracting water ? . . . 
 
 Masasi, June Uth, 1882. 
 . . . We are getting sick at heart for news, and as I 
 have already told you, our batch [of letters] is certainly 
 lost. . . . We have baked our first batch of Masasi 
 bricks, and they have turned out very well, we think. 
 . . . Clarke . . . has sent up some books to read, and 
 I have begun on one, " The IVIaid of Sker," by Blackmore, 
 who is a very favourite author of mine. . . . 
 
 Masasi, June 26th. 
 Aren't you getting tired of dances by this time ? But 
 I don't know when a young lady's dancing days are 
 supposed to be over, though I remember Janson and I 
 
176 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 once discussed the question here; there were very few 
 questions, by-the-bye, we did not discuss. . . . This is 
 not a time of 3'ear when we do much out-preaching, but 
 all our work is at home in this precious house-building, 
 and other secular matters I would fain wash my hands 
 of if I could, but there is no one else to do it all. . . . 
 
 Xote. — The letters dated June 26th dwell much on the 
 subject of a difference, which had arisen between Maples 
 and Bishop Steere, with regard to the line which had 
 been taken at Masasi in the previous year on a question 
 of discipline, by Messrs. Maples, Janson, and Porter. 
 The missionaries at Masasi were in a difficult position. 
 They were obHged to exercise temporal as well as spmtual 
 jui'isdiction over the colony of released slaves whom they 
 had brought into the country from Zanzibar, and for ^ 
 whose good conduct they were responsible to the chiefs " 
 who ruled around. On page 140 the incident which 
 caused this difference has been already mentioned. A 
 correspondence had taken place between the Bishop and 
 the missionaries at Masasi on the subject, as the Bishop 
 was not altogether satisfied with the line which had been 
 taken. A further development of the difference was 
 occasioned by some articles which Maples sent to '* Mission 
 Life," and which were printed in that paper. These 
 papers were on the village Ufe of Masasi, more especially 
 in regard to the rules and laws for the maintenance of 
 order and discipline. Li one of these articles allusion 
 was made to the trial in 1881, as an illustration of how 
 law was administered by the missionaries at Masasi. On 
 these difficult points there must of necessity be more 
 than one opinion as to the course to be pursued. The 
 articles were mtended to incite criticism, and they 
 certainly received it ! A rejoinder was published — or 
 rather a condemnation — in a subsequent number of the 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 177 
 
 magazine. It may or may not have been an error in 
 judgment on Maples' part to write with such frankness 
 in a magazine intended for general circulation, but as a 
 result of the publication of this paper, the Bishop issued 
 an order that no member of his staff should publish any 
 article on subjects connected with the Mission which had 
 not previously been submitted to himself, the secretary, 
 or the committee for perusal. This was a slightly high- 
 handed proceeding, which hurt and annoyed Maples 
 greatly. 
 
 [To his Father.] 
 
 Masasi, June 2bth, 1882. 
 Many thanks for your views, &c. as to this business 
 about my articles. . . . The short criticism on my paper 
 is full of misstatements — notably as to my having had 
 instructions to the effect that expulsion alone is permitted. 
 In exact contradiction to this, I can produce a letter from 
 the Bishop, written to me up here in December, 1877, 
 and containing these words : Don't send any one away 
 except for an offence for which you would feel justified in 
 killmg him. He belongs to you wherever he is, and I 
 have found again and again that a boy or man one 
 wished to drive away has turned out better than a 
 favourite. You are in the position of kings who cannot 
 get rid of their subjects any more than they of them. 
 Punish as you can, but trust a good deal to words sharp 
 and clear. AMierever you pmiish you must carry the 
 opinion of your men with you, or you will be doing no 
 good. Do everything that is possible to get the voice of 
 the men against the offender, by showing them clearly 
 that he really is guilty of an offence." Now, my dear 
 father, if you turn to my article you will see that our 
 system of punishment is regulated by this distinct 
 instruction of the Bishop's, which he seems to have 
 
 CM. N 
 
178 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 forgotten. Again, I draw your attention to several other 
 facts : — (1) No scheme of government has ever been 
 drawn up by the Bishop or Home Committee. (2) I was 
 given charge of this place — told to do the best I could. I 
 sought advice from the Bishop, and wherever it was 
 given, strictly followed it. I have never disobeyed the 
 Bishop's orders, as is implied in " One of the Mission's " 
 article, save in the one respect, of not calling in the 
 native chief to serious cases, where his people were 
 not involved. I, Johnson, Janson, and Clarke, I believe, 
 have all in times past told the Bishop this was 
 practically impossible, and we believed he accepted our 
 word and waived that order. As to the special case, I 
 did not mention even in my article the part of the action 
 taken which, and which alone, we understood him to 
 have condemned. And here observe that the Bishop to 
 me personally maintained a total silence on the whole 
 subject, and has never once even alluded to it in his 
 dozen or so of letters since the occasion arose. This I 
 say a propos of your words " after all that passed between 
 you and the Bishop on the subject." Again I observe 
 that the Bishop has never, either in writing or by word 
 of mouth, censured or expressed downright disapproval 
 of any action I have ever taken here. That he has 
 expressed to others disapproval of various errors of 
 judgment, mistakes, follies (?), &c. &c. from time to 
 time, I very well know, but I submit that it is not for 
 me to pay heed to these where the Bishop has not seen 
 
 fit to express them himself to me. The case, it is 
 
 true, stands apart, but I need not here, I think, enter 
 into a very distressing train of circumstances. AYhat I 
 contend is that the certain parts of our action in that 
 complicated matter which elicited very, very strong 
 expressions of condemnation from the Bishop, are not so 
 much as touched on in my article, unless he will say that 
 
[i882.] Life at Masasi. 179 
 
 he disapproved of our holding an inquiry at all. We 
 understood, however, that his second letter, written after 
 he had received further explanation of the circumstances, 
 did not press that point. The Bishop said in his first 
 letter that were he not willing to believe that my 
 mistaken course of action might be explained by my 
 ill-health, he should have severely censured me. I at 
 once told Janson that would not do, and that he must 
 very clearly tell the Bishop I was perfectly well and 
 accountable for all I did, thus intentionally challenging 
 him to send the censure if he thought I deserved it after 
 reading the further explanations in Janson's and Porter's 
 letters. The censure did not come, but we were certainly 
 told that certain proceedings that had been allowed must 
 never be allowed again, nor have they, nor will they, and 
 to this we pledged ourselves. The correspondence may 
 or may not be extant ; if it is, and if (in the event of this 
 matter growing to serious proportions) you desire to see 
 it, doubtless the committee would allow you the perusal, 
 and then you will see that the weakest part of it is my 
 letter to the Bishop — only one ; nor did he answer it to 
 me. I considered — and so did the three of us here — that 
 the inquiry was most satisfactory. . . . This article 
 ** Audi alteram partem,'' now suggests a thought — and a 
 new one to us — that the Bishop disapproves of inquiries 
 altogether. If so, I trust he will at once say so. We 
 greatly miss Janson now in this matter, but Porter and 
 myself, in putting our heads together, find the impressions 
 we have as to what we did pledge ourselves to are the 
 same. The last paragraph in " Audi alteram partem " is 
 a strange misrepresentation of facts, but I need not 
 trouble you with it, and I sincerely trust no one else 
 either. ... I shall send this letter open that the Bishop 
 may read it, and see the line of thought I take after 
 receiving your letter, and seeing the article in answer to 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 mine. . . . How natural all that she [his mother] said 
 of my articles, but also there is much truth. Only if 
 one does feel called to contribute matter to a controversy 
 on discipline, necessarily things must be plainly spoken 
 of. . . . 
 
 Masasi, June 26th. 
 
 You ask me to make a little sketch of the church, but 
 it is so exactly like a magnified example of the first one, 
 bar its low stone walls at the sides, that you may consider 
 you already have a sketch of it in the old one I took 
 home with me. . . . 
 
 It is no mere form of words to say that she [an old 
 invalid cousin] and IMiss Elliott (a great sufferer and a 
 great saint at St. Leonard's) often come to my thoughts 
 in a helpful way — I mean as really putting one to shame 
 in times of impatience and irritability. You know what 
 one means by that expressive word, " chastened," but 
 perhaps it is more to older people than myself that a 
 holy calm is given. . . . About my articles, and 
 especially, I suppose. Part II., I feel the truth of all 
 you say, though at the same time the question of 
 " discipline " is a very great one, and if it is to be dis- 
 cussed at all it must be fully gone into. A paper like 
 
 IVIission Life " is, as a matter of fact, the only organ for 
 ventilating such a subject. ... I do not think that if 
 my articles have provoked further criticism in " Mission 
 Life," that criticism will be wholly adverse. . . . You ask 
 about Brown and the Calcutta IVIission ; he writes and 
 publishes a good deal. . . . They print and publish at 
 their Mission press a series of " Occasional Papers on 
 Missionary Subjects." ... I recently forwarded to him 
 for publication in the above series a paper on The 
 Method of Evangelizing Uncultured Eaces." ... I am 
 reading Church's " Anselm " — vei-y interesting — and there 
 are several other good books here waiting my leisure. . . . 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 i8i 
 
 Masasi, August Hth, 1882. 
 
 . . . Our only news is that to-day, exactly at 12 o'clock, 
 our old church, recently used as a school, fell down with 
 a crash, and at this moment some forty "ladies" are 
 busy carrying away the debris. Had the accident taken 
 place one hour sooner, several of our school children 
 would probably have been killed. Every single one of 
 the poles broke short off at the point where they entered 
 the ground. They had been completely eaten away by 
 white ants below the surface of the floor. . . . Our 
 potatoes were a case of " great cry and little wool," but 
 we now cook yams in a way which makes them taste 
 very like the good old English esculent. . . . The har- 
 monium music was a great treat. I was able to 
 ''execute" a good deal of it, and thrummed away at 
 Wely's " Offertoires " to my heart's content. 
 
 (I'o his little Niece,) 
 
 Masasi, August 21th, 1882. 
 . . . There are a lot of little children in our village 
 here — quite black, of course, but they toddle about just 
 like Baby Alice does ; and when I am at breakfast I like 
 them to come and peer up on the table and spy out 
 things to eat ; then I give them to them. To-day we 
 had some cheese for breakfast, and one little thing 
 stretched out her tiny hand for some. So I gave it a 
 piece, but it didn't like it all, and so spat it out again 
 and made a very wry face ; and so I took a nice sweet 
 date and popped it in its mouth, and then it laughed, and 
 was quite comforted again. Some people don't like the 
 little black toddlekins at all, and call them " dirty," but 
 I like them very much, and so most of them are quite 
 ready to come to me and play, and are not a bit afraid 
 of my ghostly white skin. . . . 
 
iSz Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Masasi, Arifjust 29th, 1882. 
 . . . Farler and I seem to be vieing with one another 
 in making our respective stations famous for their 
 orchards. . . . 
 
 * Masasi, September 11th. 
 ... Do not be alarmed. Only God knows whether 
 our lives are now . in jeopardy or not. ... I have 
 harangued our people again to-night, and told them 
 that whatever happens Mr. Porter and I mean to stay, 
 God helping us, here. So far, our people, who are a mere 
 handful after all, have remained tolerably firm, I thank 
 God, but most of our neighbours are fast making away 
 — we should hardly have expected it otherwise. I do 
 not myself think that we are in much danger, if any at 
 all, so don't be alarmed. I only thought it best to tell 
 you how things are. ... 
 
 [After a consultation between Mr. Porter and Maples, it 
 was decided that the latter should go out, with a few of 
 the natives, to meet the Magwangwara, and try to persuade 
 them to draw off without attacking the village. Unfor- 
 tunately, as related below, Maples missed them.] 
 
 t On Wednesday, September 13th (1882), I left Masasi 
 with five companions, Peter Sudi, Paolo Mpoteni, Patrick 
 Mabruki, Seth Hamsini, and Akumpatsa. We followed 
 the Majeje road, and, after walking sixteen miles, en- 
 camped for the night at a place called Mkangaula. We 
 were up and away betimes on Thursday, and after cross- 
 ing the Mbangulia river (dry at this season) we reached a 
 w^atering place known as Kangomba, where we cooked 
 and rested for three hours of the hottest part of the day. 
 At about 3 p.m. we pursued our journey again, but, when 
 we had walked for about an hour, we were much be- 
 wildered by seeing on the path the recent footmarks as 
 
 * On the eve of the Gwangwara raid. 
 
 t This account is reprinted from " Central Africa." 
 
[i882.] The Gwangwara Raid. 183 
 
 of a great army ; the marks showed that the army was 
 going toivards Masasi, and not from it, as we were. 
 Somewhere near to where we first noticed them, they 
 had quitted the path, and so had passed us without our 
 knowing it. What was to be done? We were sorely 
 perplexed. If we turned back at once and went as hard 
 as ever we could, there was a possibility that we might 
 reach Masasi before they did, give the alarm, assemble 
 our people in the yard, and ourselves standing on the 
 baraza, be ready to treat with them. On the other 
 hand, there was a strong probability that only a part of 
 their entire body had moved, and if so, these would wait 
 for the others, whom we still hoped to come up with 
 at some place ahead of us. Eelying on this latter pro- 
 bability, we pursued our journey till sunset, when we 
 arrived at a watering place by a rocky spot known as 
 Ndwika. Here, however, the sight which met our eyes 
 left us no further doubt, for we had reached their freshly- 
 quitted camping ground, and the size and extent of 
 it told us at once that the whole body of them must have 
 slept there. It was then 6 p.m. on Thursday, 14th. 
 We cooked hastily, and braced ourselves up for our 
 night's march back to Masasi, which was by this time 
 left thirty-six miles behind us. On and on we sped, 
 regardless of the stumbles and falls which the darkness 
 of the night and the stony path caused us. Every two 
 or three hours or so we took a short rest, and once at 
 midnight cooked some tea, speeding on again, bent 
 on one thing only — viz., to reach our village, and give the 
 alarm, before the enemy. As the day dawned, we reached 
 the rock Matambuzi, ten miles only from our homes, and 
 thence with the new light we were able to run over the 
 next six miles far quicker than when the darkness was 
 baulking us. It must have been about 7 a.m. when we 
 arrived at Agaya, a watering place but four miles distant 
 
184 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 only from our village, and the boundary of the maize and 
 millet gardens belonging to Masasi people. From this 
 place is obtained the first view of the Masasi hills and 
 rocks, and as I looked for them, my heart sank within 
 me at the sight I beheld, for I saw between, and curling 
 around them, and again entirely obscuring them, volumes 
 of black smoke. A faint hope remained that possibly 
 the Gwangwara had not set fire to our houses but only 
 to those of our Makua neighbours. I quickly bade our 
 men climb a tamarind tree that was standing hard by, 
 but the better view they obtained from its upper branches 
 only confirmed their belief that all was lost. Standing, 
 as we then all fully believed ourselves to be, on the 
 verge of eternity, we kneeled down with one accord, and 
 prayed for some time. Then, getting up again, I asked 
 my five followers, "Have you any counsel?" and the 
 answer was, " We will follow you, master, and do what- 
 ever you tell us." I replied, " You see all is lost, the 
 houses are burnt, no terms have been accepted, our 
 friends have either been killed or carried away, escape 
 for them or for us there is none ; come, let us go straight 
 on and die with them." 
 
 In solemn silence, the five men shouldered their loads 
 again, and leaving the water's side, we emerged into the 
 path, and turned our steps in the direction of our village. 
 We had not, however, advanced five paces when we heard 
 some shrill voices behind us, and at once perceived that the 
 Gwangwara were upon us. Our men, who throughout 
 obeyed my every word, upon my telling them what to do, at 
 once laid down their loads and guns, and we all sat down to 
 await the issue, guessing, and guessing rightly, that any 
 attempt to make away would only the more surely seal 
 our fate. The voices we heard were those of two or 
 three Gwangwara lads, whose business it is to play the 
 scout, and who, on seeing any one, call loudly to the 
 
[i882.] The Gwangwara Raid. 185 
 
 older members of the band, hidden in the bushes round, 
 to bring them upon him. A few moments elapsed 
 before these last heard the call and we made use of the 
 time in telling these boys that we wished to make no 
 defence with our guns, that we would give ourselves up 
 quietly and offer a large ransom. While we were yet 
 speaking, some ten full-grown Gwangwara rushed upon 
 us with great force, and immediately felled to the ground 
 three of my five men. Just as they were about to 
 dispatch them with their spears they saw me, and at 
 once stayed their hands. Their well-known fear of a 
 European white face was our safety. I, knowing this, 
 determined to trade with it all I could. I therefore 
 remained sitting motionless and speechless, but taking 
 care to keep my eyes steadily fixed on the men, who were 
 holding their spears threateningly one inch from the hearts 
 of the three men they had knocked down, now crouching 
 before them. Not one of the ten men had so much as 
 shaken his spear at me, and I saw, with a thrill of 
 thankfulness, that as long as I could be close to my men 
 they would not be killed. Not removing my eyes from 
 the men on whom I had fixed them, I got up quite 
 slowly, that they might see I neither feared them nor 
 intended moving away until they did. When I had risen 
 from my sitting posture I stood close to the three men in 
 greatest danger, and endeavoured, by pointing to our 
 guns purposely thrown aside, to show our enemies how 
 entirely we, for our part, wished to avoid all violence, even 
 to the extent of rejecting self-defence. This sufficed. 
 In another moment the Gwangwara made a kind of a 
 bow of acknowledgment to these gesture-explanations of 
 mine, and making a sign to our men lying at their feet 
 to rise, themselves withdrew to a short distance. Patrick 
 Mabruki then began in their language to explain that we 
 were willing and anxious to come to terms of friendship, 
 
i86 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 in answer to which they said, " Our elders are on ahead, 
 go on to the village ; you can see them there." Accord- 
 ingly we proceeded once more on our way, but the rising 
 smoke before us seemed to say that we had had only a 
 respite, and that certain death awaited my followers or 
 certain slavery, if we persisted in going on. While I 
 myself was cogitating in my own mind, and beginning to 
 reflect that to march on deliberately to our fate was more 
 foolhardy than courageous, if there remained any means 
 of escape — and while I felt certain that, being unarmed, 
 there was no chance of our being able to do anything 
 to save others, even if we ourselves should reach the 
 village — Patrick Mabruki turned to me, and giving 
 utterance to very much that was in my own thoughts, 
 proposed that we should strike away off the path to the 
 eastward and try to get to Newala, where, if any of our 
 people had been fortunate enough to escape, they would 
 most likely be found. 
 
 No time was to be lost, so with a prayer for right 
 guidance, I accepted the plan, and sadly enough we 
 turned away from Masasi, and crept hurriedly and 
 cautiously away into the forest. We knew that it 
 was almost hopeless to suppose that we could escape 
 falling into the hands of another band of the enemy, 
 unless without delay we could manage to put many miles 
 between us and the centre of the danger ; but after the 
 forced march, with absolutely no food throughout the 
 day, with a blazing sun above us, we hardly succeeded in 
 getting more than sixteen miles away from Masasi, nor 
 did we dare emerge into any path. Towards sunset 
 I sprained my leg about the thigh, and was in such 
 agonies for the first two hours of the night, that with 
 shame, I must confess, I could not refrain from crying 
 out with pain at the imminent risk of bringing the 
 Gwangwara down upon us. Towards 9 p.m. the 
 
[i882.] The Gwangwara Raid. 187 
 
 intense agony lulled, and though I had had no food 
 since the evening of the day before (Thursday), I scarcely 
 felt hungry, and even slept soundly for several hours. 
 At dawn my sprain was so much better that to our 
 surprise I was able to walk. Our first object was 
 to gain the Newala road, and this we succeeded in 
 doing in about two hours after we began our march. 
 We knew exactly where we were when we reached 
 the road, that thirty-two miles still lay between us and 
 Newala, and that in all that distance there was no 
 chance of our getting any food. My resolve was to 
 ward off the pangs of hunger, if they should come upon 
 me, by drinking water to excess, and at whatever risk, for 
 I thought my case was desperate. 
 
 By that night (Saturday) we had reached Mkoo, which 
 is but eleven miles from Matola's own house and our 
 own. (at present deserted) buildings at Newala. Peter 
 Sudi managed to pick up two wild sour fruits, nearly 
 all stone, but with some soft pulp about them, the 
 edible substance of which, in the two together, would 
 be as much as is contained in one very small apple. 
 These two fruits, which are called *'matonga," were 
 the only morsel of food I had tasted between Thursday 
 evening and Saturday at 10 p.m., at which time I got 
 two pieces of cassava root. Strange to say, during 
 all that time, owing, as I think, to the quantity of 
 water I drank, I really did not feel jyarticulady hungry. 
 Of course the intense mental excitement helped to 
 prevent it ; but more than all, God was saving me, 
 I felt certain, for further work in His service. We sank 
 down to rest on Saturday night, feeling at least safe 
 from the Gwangwara, but not knowing whether on 
 the morrow we should find Matola in his old quarters 
 at Newala, or whether, like all the others, he had fled 
 into the deep thickets of the Makonde, which alone, it is 
 
i88 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 believed, give security against the Magwangwara method 
 of warfare. In the thick tangled brushwood of the 
 Makonde hills there is an impenetrable barrier for the 
 shield of the spear-bearing tribes, whether Maviti or 
 Magwangwara, and there alone the guns of the Yaos 
 have the advantage. Sunday morning dawned, and 
 slowly and wearily we dragged on over the stony hills 
 that lie between Mjombe's village, which we found 
 entirely deserted, and Newala. Not a creature was to 
 be seen anywhere, and our hearts sank, as all hope that 
 we should find Matola and his people dwindled away to 
 the faintest possible spark. At length we met a man 
 carrying fowls, and to our eager inquiry, whether we 
 should find Matola in his village, he at once replied, 
 " Yes, he said he would not leave until he had heard 
 what had become of you, for if Masasi had been destroyed, 
 he felt sure some of you would be able to make your 
 escape to him, and so he remained to help and receive 
 you, but all the other Yaos and Makuas have fled from 
 their villages up the hills, and have gone far into 
 the Makonde country." On we pressed, blessing Matola 
 for his noble unselfishness, and thanking God for thus 
 putting it into his heart to wait for us. In one horn- 
 more we were in Matola' s baraza, and he and his people 
 and all of us on our knees in an act of thanksgiving. 
 
 Had Matola not been there, I must have died from 
 starvation that day, and so I do not hesitate to say that 
 it was he who saved my life. Very carefully he tended 
 me, giving us all his fowls and available food, and then 
 working with his own hands as a gunsmith to get us 
 more. On the Monday and Tuesday I became very ill 
 with my sprained leg and violent dysenteric diarrhoea. 
 This, however, passed away rapidly, and soon, with the 
 exception of my leg, I was quite well again. The days 
 passed very slowly, but they came and went not without 
 
[i882.] 
 
 The Gwangwara Raid. 
 
 189 
 
 some comforting reports that our village had not been 
 burnt, and that our people were believed to be safe, and 
 my colleague, Mr. Porter, actively employed in redeeming 
 those who had been taken captive on that fatal Friday. 
 Matola would allow no man to come near me with news 
 until he had sifted the tales that came himself ; then, 
 when he was tolerably satisfied as to what was true and 
 what was false, he came to me with the result. In this 
 way, and owing to Matola's great shrewdness, I heard 
 little that did not turn out eventually to have been 
 perfectly true. On Monday, 18th, I despatched two of 
 my four men to a place fourteen miles off, in the direction 
 of Masasi, to try and find out what they could as to the 
 state of affairs. They reached this place, but found that 
 the enemy were scouring the country far and wide just 
 below the hills, and so they were unable to proceed to 
 Masasi with the letter I had entrusted to their care for 
 Mr. Porter. Eventually they reached Masasi on Sundaj^, 
 October 1st, only one day before I arrived in person. On 
 Wednesday, 20th September, the alarm was given that the 
 enemy were close upon us at Newala. My sprain at that 
 time had become so serious that I w^as quite unable to 
 move ; I was therefore carried up the hill, while all Matola's 
 people followed, to a place of safety near to Matola's town, 
 where he lived when we first knew him five years ago. 
 
 On that same Wednesday, Eustace Uledi,* our Masasi 
 schoolmaster, arrived with definite information as to 
 what had happened on the day the Gwangwara 
 entered Masasi. From him we learned that only two 
 or three of the houses of our people had been burned, 
 that the Gwangwara had surprised the village at early 
 dawn, dividing themselves into bands, and rushing into 
 it from all sides, carrjdng off men, women, and children, 
 
 * Or Malisawa, the writer of the letter to me in 1896, printed 
 amongst the " Keminiscences."— E. M. 
 
igo Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 entering and pillaging all the houses, desecrating the 
 church, driving away the sheep, cows, and poultry, and 
 then finding that no armed resistance was made, or guns 
 fired at them, finally settled at the bottom of the village, 
 and began negotiations for the ransoming of the people 
 they had carried off at the first onset. Eustace himself, 
 at the first alarm, rushed up the hill, which almost 
 overhangs our yard, and, hiding in a cave, remained there 
 all day. Fearing either to remain there, or to return 
 to the village, he made his escape through the night, 
 and so reached Newala. He knew nothing as to who 
 had been killed, nor could he tell us how many captives 
 had been carried off, though it was an unspeakable relief 
 to hear from an eye witness that things had not been 
 so terrible as we were at first led to suppose. While we 
 were at Newala nearly all Mwandingo's people and 
 Makoloji's arrived. These had escaped with their lives 
 before the attack was made, though many of them had 
 been all but overtaken as they fled aw^ay. All the time 
 I remained at Newala, the enemy, making their head- 
 quarters at Masasi, kept sending out bands of twenty and 
 thirty to a radius of thirty to forty miles all round to 
 seize and to kill, to burn up and destroy : the country 
 was literally swept by them, their paths afterwards were 
 traced everywhere. For thirteen days they kept up 
 their raids in the vast circle they had agreed to devastate, 
 always brinc;ing to their camp captives, destroying whole 
 villages, and burning up the houses wherever they went. 
 At length, on September 30th, Charles Sulimani arrived 
 at Newala with the news that the enemy had left Masasi 
 on the 27th, and had gone to Majeje, with their spoil 
 and captives, there to wait until we could get up from 
 Lindi cloth wherewith to redeem the latter. He was able 
 to give me a full and correct account of all that happened 
 in our village during those thirteen long weary days, so 
 
[i882.] The Gwangwara Raid. igi 
 
 full of anxiety and fear and perplexity, and also he brought 
 me the news of our Bishop's death at Zanzibar. 
 
 My leg was well enough to allow of my starting off 
 next day with him, and on Monday, October 2nd, 
 at 3 p.m., I arrived once more at Masasi. It is 
 heart-rending even to write the account of what had 
 happened both on the terrible day, when the enemy 
 made their attack, and of all the destruction and ruin 
 they wrought while they remained in the district. It 
 was at 5.30 a.m., at very early dawn on Friday, 
 September 15th, and while we (of my party) were still 
 nine miles away, that the whole of the fierce band, 
 though split up into many parties, rushed in upon the 
 village on all sides. Our people, as they heard the noise 
 of the host of armed savages swooping down upon them, 
 ran terrified from their houses, hoping to escape to our 
 stone yard. Only a few succeeded in reaching it. 
 Others tried to flee to the hills and join the Makuas, 
 who had the day before taken up their position there. 
 In this attempt two of our people, including our poor 
 teacher, Sellim Njalemba, were slain ; while a third, 
 who was chased for more than a mile, at length fell 
 dead, speared to the heart by the wretch who was 
 pursuing him. Most terrible of all was the wanton 
 cruelty which prompted some of these fiends to kill 
 outright, and before the eyes of their parents, four of the 
 young children of our people in the main road of our 
 village itself. Thus, at the first terrible onset, no less 
 than seven of our people fell victims to the assegais of 
 these remorseless savages. The bulk of the people 
 were taken captive at once, and where no resistance was 
 made no particular force was used. Not one of our men 
 fired a gun. To a man they kept our order on this 
 point. Poor Sellim tried to fire his, and it was probably 
 this attempt at resistance that cost him his life. 
 
ig2 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 With regard to far the greater number of our people 
 who were taken captive, all escape was impossible, for 
 the Gwangwara adopted their well-known plan of 
 posting one of their body at each entrance to the house, 
 with assegai ready poised with intention to kill any 
 occupant who might try to escape them. Immediately 
 after the first attack a scene of confusion took place. 
 The church was entered, and every single ornament, 
 decoration, and vessel was carried away. The harmonium 
 was broken up, the brass candlesticks wrenched from 
 their sockets ; nothing but the bare altar, reading desks, 
 and altar-piece were left. The storeroom was broken 
 into, and two bales of cloth were stolen from my room, 
 before it was possible to keep out the thieves. While 
 some of the elders of the party, seeing that there 
 was a willingness on our part to come to terms, made 
 real efforts to restrain the attempts at indiscriminate 
 plunder, cloth and goods were being brought out to 
 satisfy the violent demands for black-mail. At last the 
 people about the baraza having to a great extent 
 quieted down, mats were spread out, a parley was begun, 
 and bales of cloth were given and accepted on an under- 
 standing that the village should be spared further violence. 
 At length the marauders retired from our baraza to 
 their camp two miles distant, and then a bale was taken 
 to them, LQ the belief that in return for it a fair number 
 of the captives would be restored. Some two or three 
 only were sent back. During the course of the next few 
 days several attempts were made to ransom the rest 
 of the captives, but these being found to be futile, 
 negotiations were made on behalf of each captive with 
 his or her respective captor. From time to time some 
 of the Gwangwara head men came to our baraza for 
 interviews with Mr. Porter, taking advantage of the 
 opportunity for asking for presents, in otlier words, for 
 
[i882.] The Gwangwara Raid. 193 
 
 exacting blackmail. It was hoped that their visits would 
 be few, and that the enemy would soon withdraw from 
 Masasi. No one dreamed that their stay would be pro- 
 longed to twelve days. Strict orders, however, were 
 given by their chiefs, which were well observed, that none 
 of their people should pass through our village after 
 the first day, or further molest any of our community. 
 
 When all our available cloth had gone out, there still 
 remained twenty-three adults and six children unran- 
 somed. These were actually carried away, when the 
 army withdrew on September 27th. On that same day 
 twenty-four of our men were despatched to Lindi to buy 
 cloth, for the Gwangwara promised that they would 
 only go as far as Majeje (seventy miles), and that they 
 would wait there some time to give us the opportunity 
 of ransoming the remaining captives. We were able to 
 get the cloth, and even to reach Majeje with it on the 
 seventeenth day after their departure, only to find that 
 they had left Majeje, and were far advanced on their home- 
 ward journey. Two of the captives had escaped, but all 
 the children had been killed. At Majeje we met not only 
 these two men, but also Edward Abdallah, the head of 
 the party I had sent to Mr. Johnson at Ngoi five months 
 before. He, it appeared, had nearly died of thirst, and 
 his agonies had been so intense that he was sorely 
 tempted to shoot himself, but the thought of dying with 
 that sin on his conscience restrained him, and after five 
 days without food or water he at last was able to quench 
 his thirst at a pool. His account of the Gwangwara 
 is sufficiently ominous as regards what may shortly be 
 our fate here, if we do not speedily make arrangements 
 for removing our people to a place of security. He and 
 the rest of his party accompanied Mr. Johnson in July 
 on his visit to the Gwangwara in their own homes. 
 After the latter had stayed there a few days, he returned 
 
 CM. O 
 
194 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 to Ngoi, leaving Abdallah and his party behind him, in 
 order that they might get food for their journey, and 
 then come on to us here at Masasi. No sooner was his 
 back turned, than the Magwangwara called Abdallah, 
 and very plainly told him what their plans were with 
 regard to the raid upon us. They said — " This European 
 who has just gone, says God tells us to leave off war and 
 raids, and to keep peace with all men. We cannot do 
 that. God has given us this work of war ; He has told 
 us to fight with "everybody, and to try and make all serve 
 us. Let the European fight with us, and if he conquers 
 us, then we will acknowledge that his words are true and 
 that God is on his side ; then we will do what he tells us, 
 and help him to pray to God. Our work is war, nothing 
 else. We have heard that all the Europeans who have 
 come into the country, are fierce, and brave, and strong. 
 We know one of them is. He who lives at Komanga can 
 conquer us. We recognize him as our better ; we are in 
 subjection to him, we know he is strong, and that we 
 dare not molest him. Now we want to try the Europeans 
 at Masasi. We are just going to make war upon them ; we 
 shall surprise them before sunrise, carry off their people, 
 and get all their property if we can. We shall not kill 
 the Europeans themselves this time, but we shall try 
 them to see if they are fierce and can conquer us. If 
 they are not strong, if they are gentle and soft, and 
 refuse to fight us, we shall then know that we can get 
 the better of them, and having carried off their people., 
 we shall, after some months, make a second war upon 
 them, destroying them utterly, and shall, having killed 
 the Europeans themselves, cut out the heart of the chief 
 one and carry it away as a charm by which we shall 
 be able to bring all other white men who come into the 
 country into subjection." Abdallah then told me how 
 he and his followers were bidden not to pass on until the 
 
[i882.] The Gwangwara Raid. 
 
 195 
 
 raiding party had taken their departure for Masasi, and 
 how they feared and trembled to think that they might 
 only arrive, after all, to find us killed off and the village 
 destroyed. And although I was able to ease his mind of his 
 worst fears, yet what I had to tell him sufficed to prove 
 how entirely they had carried out the first part of the 
 terrible programme they had so openly declared to him. 
 
 Edward Abdallah is one of our very best Christians. 
 I hold it for certain that he has faithfully recounted to 
 me the words of our enemies. It is needless to say, that 
 in view of our imminent danger I have had no choice 
 but to decide at once upon sending back to Zanzibar 
 forthwith the whole of our released slave community. 
 We ourselves must remain with our converts among the 
 Yao communities, seeking with them a more possible 
 security than we can have here at Newala with our 
 friend Matola. I calculate that the total number of 
 victims who were slain by the assegais of the terrible 
 foe in this district cannot have been less than seventy ; 
 probably a far larger number were carried away captive. 
 Food was seized and destroyed ; houses everyw^here were 
 burnt. Most of our Yao neighbours fled at the first 
 alarm to the country of the Makonde, whence, even at 
 this date, many have not returned. Almost all the 
 Makuas near us fled up Chironji hill, whither the enemy 
 were not able to pursue them for fear of the stones and 
 boulders, that the former were ready, when once they 
 had attained the highest ridges, to roll down upon them. 
 Undoubtedly theirs was a wise plan, though beforehand 
 we had thought that no security was possible for them in 
 the spot they had chosen. There can hardly have been 
 less than from four to five hundred of the enemy. Truly 
 it was a formidable horde. 
 
 Great and grievous as this disaster has been, one cannot 
 conclude this paper without placing it on record how far 
 
 o 2 
 
196 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 more terrible the results might have been. If the hand 
 of the Almighty has been heavy in jadgment — and who 
 of us is not ready to confess that onr shortcomings and 
 offences had merited a yet more awful scourge ? — ^we have 
 found Him a Strong DeUverer ; and each day and each 
 horn* since the enemy swooped down upon us have shown 
 His abounding mercy. 
 
 Chaukct Maflbs. 
 
 Masasi, 
 
 October IGth, 1882. 
 
 LeTTEBS PtESmiED. 
 
 MAiSAM, OdobeT'Uk, 1882. 
 
 I arrived here yesterday, weak as a feather, and 
 thinned down to nothing after all the physical suffenngs, 
 privations, and mental anxieties of the last three weeks. 
 I can't now write of them ; it excites my brain, and 
 upsets me. . . . God has kept me aUve through all 
 because He has further work for me to do here, so I shall 
 live on, I firmly beheve. . . . Our Bishop at Zanzibar, 
 we hear, is dead ; but we are so stunned by our own 
 disasters up here that we can hardly take in that 
 ^t. . . . We shall fortunately escape all stigma as 
 
 fighting missionaries." ... I cannot deny that I 
 feel terribly depressed, but it is "cast down, but not 
 destroyed." . . . 
 
 [When giving a lecture (with lantern slides) to some 
 children in England in 1884-85, he was vividly describing 
 the raid, when a Httle boy called out excitedly, " And did 
 you Uck them ? " " No, my boy," replied Maples, " I'm 
 sorry to say they licked us."j 
 
 Masasi, Odober 9(h, 1882. 
 ... I am almost at my wits' end to know how to 
 arrange matters for the best. . . . We have begun 
 school again to-day — the first time since the enemy left 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 197 
 
 us. It is minus at least six children who fell victims to 
 the spears of the Gwangwara. I am writing a full 
 account of their terrible raid. ... I hope you will read 
 it all carefully. After such a terrible routing it is very 
 difficult indeed to pull our work together again. ... I 
 hope you did not hear the report of my death ; if you did, 
 it will have made you sad ; but be assured, though this 
 letter is not a long one, I am very much alive just now, 
 and so is Mr. Porter. . . . Ah ! my dear mother, you 
 who always thought my constitution such a weak one, 
 will marvel indeed at all the physical distress I have 
 gone through. . . . My dear mother, believe me, there 
 is a great deal of life and vigour about me just now, so 
 don't expect me home next year. You know I must stay 
 where my work lies, and Masasi is dearer than ever after 
 all these reverses and troubles. . . . The Bishop's last 
 letters to me were all kind and considerate, but full of the 
 same old thorough miscomprehension of our position here. 
 
 [It was unfortunate that Bishop Steere was never able 
 to visit Masasi after his first journey there to plant the 
 station in 1882.] 
 
 Masasi, Odoher 11th, 1882. 
 Neither Mr. Porter nor I dare to leave our posts, come 
 what may. Do you pray for us that we may be found 
 faithful to the end. What are earthly lives ? Do you, 
 my dear mother, henceforth only pray for my soul, and 
 that I may, when I die, be found acceptable in His 
 sight. . . . Yes, tell Eobert, with my love, I must sadly 
 confess there are indeed savages in this part of Africa; 
 but it has taken me close upon six years to find it 
 out! . . . Meanwhile, my dear father and mother, I 
 assure you both, I am wonderfully well, and even strong. 
 As to good food — wine, cocoa, bread, meat — we simply are 
 in luxury. ... On Saturday I walked thirty miles, the 
 
ig8 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 next day thirty-four, and got back here at early dawn 
 yesterday. ... Do not forget that a heathen chief — 
 Matola — now almost a Christian, saved my life. ... A 
 threat of the retm^n of the Gwangwara is God's good 
 warning to us to try and prepare ourselves. ... I 
 wanted the Webster dictionary much. These native 
 languages make me so forget English spelling that I get 
 quite ashamed at times. . . . 
 
 [Speaking of his parents leaving town and going to 
 live in the country — ] 
 
 Take care first to inquire whether there be not a 
 branch of the Magwangwara tribe within 400 miles of 
 your retreat, or you may be pressed hard some day, and 
 I don't think my father will like to see a naked savage 
 threatening him with a well-poised assegai from behind 
 some choice rose-bush any more than I did when I saw 
 some dozen of such uncanny individuals burst out upon 
 us from our African bush. Four hundred miles ! the 
 whole length, aye, and more than that, of your little 
 island home, my mother; and yet for these people the 
 distance is near enough to keep us now in the certainty 
 that we are no longer safe from a second attack by them. 
 
 Masasi, Odoher 2oth, 1882. 
 . . . Matola came late on Saturday night and went 
 away the day before yesterday. . . . We called a meeting 
 of all the neighbouring chiefs and unfolded our plans. . . . 
 I forthwith bade Matola build us a large new house at 
 Newala, and told him that in January, or rather, as soon 
 as our caravan to the Gwangwara returns,* we shall 
 move most of our effects from this place, and take up our 
 quarters with him at Newala, one of us only remaining 
 
 They had sent an emhassy to the Gwangwara with goods to 
 ransom the remaining captives, 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 igg 
 
 here. ... I suppose you often watch this beautiful 
 comet ; with us it rises now about one hour or one and 
 a half hours before dawn. I believe our enemies were 
 much frightened by it, and consider it a sign of God's 
 anger with them for this raid, but such a thing is not 
 likely to leave a lasting impression. ... I should so 
 much like to be able to carry to Matola a present that 
 came straight from you and my father for him, as a kind 
 of recognition of his noble unselfishness and care for me 
 at considerable risk of his own life and that of his 
 people. ... I do not think that I have yet told you that 
 when I was trying to make my way with my four 
 men to Newala on that 15th and 16th September, I 
 constantly prayed to God to put it into Matola's heart to 
 wait for us, and when I told him this afterwards he was 
 not a little pleased, and at once said, "God is over all 
 our actions, and we do as He guides us, though we often 
 forget this altogether." ... I sometimes think I bother 
 you all very much with commissions and questions — what 
 does my father say ? . . . 
 
 Masasi, November 8th, 1882. 
 . . . With him (Williams) came, to my inexpressible 
 delight, my boy Theodore, who, on hearing of our 
 disasters, actually went before the Seyid himself, and 
 craved and obtained permission to come and see if there 
 was anything left of us. He got leave only on the 
 condition that he would return to his work as soon as he 
 had paid his visit here. Now that I have got him here 
 I expect to be able to persuade the Sultan to allow him 
 to stay. . . . The death of my dear friend Wilson was a 
 great shock, though one never seems able to dwell on 
 these events. . . . This letter is abrupt and disjointed, 
 because I am trying to write it and teach a pupil at the 
 same time — a difficult and almost impossible achieve- 
 ment; add to this, 3 p.m. in November at Masasi is 
 
200 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 a very sleepy time always. ... [It was the hot season.] 
 I bought from one of our people who was returning to 
 Zanzibar a quantity of green ginger he had grown here ; 
 I then preserved it ; and it is so good that it would not 
 disgrace its place if made one of the dishes at a dessert 
 after one of your "eighteen gunners " in the season. Ellen 
 will remember a joke which I might here apply and say — 
 " What ! preserved ginger, and at such a time ! " But 
 the saintly Borromeo said he would not be ashamed to be 
 found playing chess if the Master were to come, and so we 
 preserve our ginger or make our marmalade, not knowing 
 but what the Gwangwara may come and rout us all 
 out ere it is all bottled off ! . . . 
 
 Masasi, November IWi, 1882. 
 . . . Now, don't be alarmed, and don't imagine that I 
 in these remote parts — these " partes infidelium " — am 
 going in for sestheticism if I ask you to get me some good 
 seeds of the sunflower — no, I am not going to make my 
 luncheon by gazing at it when fowls are scarce, but I feel 
 pretty certain that it is a flower sure to flourish out here, 
 as being indeed of the family of the African marigold, 
 whose shrunken and wizened blossoms even the smoke 
 of dingy London could not quite stifle in the old back 
 garden at No. 10. . . . We had such a successful 
 magic lantern entertainment two nights ago. . . . The 
 chief provoker of mirth was a picture showing H. M. 
 Stanley giving out medicine to a party of natives. . . . 
 It is just six years . . . since the Bishop came up here 
 with the first sixty people and planted the colony of 
 released slaves, and in fact " started " Masasi, and now we 
 have just seen the return of all these people [to Zanzibar] . 
 Who shall say what another six years will bring forth ? 
 
 Masasi, November 20th, 1882. 
 
 , . . I feel this hot weather and the climate makes 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 201 
 
 me very, very irritable, and the being so mach alone 
 with one's own thoughts and no one to exchange views 
 and opinions with one, very bad for me. . . . 
 
 [He was at this time the only European at the station, 
 Mr. Porter having gone to the Magwangwara.j * 
 
 I will honestly confess to you that I have found really 
 great relaxation in perusing the bound volumes of Punch 
 for the last three years with Du Maurier's fine skits on 
 the aesthetes and the toadies. For myself I cannot but 
 consider them infinitely superior to all John Leech's 
 work in wit and the pencil in an earlier generation. . . . 
 To-day really I had, as the advertisement says, "to fly 
 to Eno and obtain relief," and I do think that medicine is 
 sometimes beneficial ; it seems, at any rate, to accelerate 
 perspiration and take a weight off the head. 
 
 8 p.vi. — But now it is cool, delightful night, with a 
 glorious moon overhead, and one's spirits have revived 
 and one feels quite fresh again. . . . Tell Charles I was 
 so pleased and interested with his letter from Fresh- 
 water . . . how I wonder if Polypoclium thelepteris (the 
 "marsh fern ") is still growing where I used to find it, 
 and whether that strange fresh-water spring that rose and 
 fell with the tide is still in the pine clump on the opposite 
 down. . . . Does Charles remember some lines of 
 Tennyson inviting F. D. Maurice to go and rest himself, 
 after his worries from his theological foes, at Fresh- 
 water ? The place is prettily described in several of the 
 verses, if I remember rightly, " close to the ridge of a 
 noble down." . . . There were the blackberries, too, in 
 one particular hedge just the size and shape — I had 
 almost said " and the taste " — of mulberries ; did Hilda 
 find them out? . . . Finally, there was the croquet, 
 
 * Magwangwara and Gwangwara are both used, Ma being a 
 prefix — the people of — the Gwangwara. 
 
202 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 whereat we all tried to appear as if we never lost our 
 terapers, only we did though. . . . Those long level 
 sands . . . how Charlie and I would walk along those 
 sands to Brooke, run up the chine and pick watercresses, 
 or chip out the fossils from the petrified forest exposed 
 at low tide — one can never forget it all, though it was . . . 
 twenty long years ago. . . . 
 
 Masasi, December \st, 1882. 
 ... I wish they would publish two fat volumes of 
 our good Bishop's correspondence rather than write a 
 life of him. A short biographical sketch by one who 
 appreciated him is all that is wanted, but the letters 
 would show his grasp of mind and ability, which, to my 
 thmking, are what made his greatness . . . but others 
 may think very differently, and whatever is put forth 
 biographically will be intensely interesting to me. . . . 
 
 December 14th. 
 
 A projws of the Bishop, it is only fair to say that the 
 last letter I received from him was exceedingly kind, so 
 evidently the letter of one who believed himself writing 
 to me for the last time. 
 
 Masasi, December Uth, 1882. 
 
 . . . Here is an answer to your question as to my 
 average day ; but I give it to you as it is at the present 
 time. It may be very different two months hence, though 
 some features of it — viz., the hours of matins and 
 evensong — would always remain the same : — 
 
 6 a.m. — Bise, dress, &c. 
 
 6.30 a.m. — Matins. 
 
 7.15 a.m. — Pay out cloth, beads, &c. ; set out-door 
 work for the day, and breakfast. 
 
 8 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. — Arithmetic class, with first class 
 of six boys. 
 
 9.30 a.m. to 11 a.m. — Translation and theology 
 classes, with Charles Sulimani and Theodore. 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 203 
 
 11 a.m. — Visit any sick people in the village, look 
 round the building, planting, and superintend the 
 cooking. 
 
 12. — Dinner. 
 
 12.30 p.m. to 2 p.m. — Oh ! horrors ! chiefly snoozing, 
 dozing, with a little desultory reading. Are you terribly 
 shocked ? But it is to this long midday rest that I owe 
 my ability to stick to work in Africa, as well as my 
 present good health. 
 
 2 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. — Classes with Charles Sulimani, 
 Theodore, and others. 
 
 5.30. — Evensong. (Just now. Advent, short address 
 every evening after second lesson.) 
 
 6 p.m. — Tea. 
 
 * 6.30 till 9 p.m. — Eeading, writing, or thinking for 
 sermons, &c. 
 
 Of course, I have constantly to be called away both from 
 my professedly resting time, and at others, to see chiefs 
 on the baraza, to listen to complaints, to organize 
 caravans to the coast, and a dozen other things. 
 Occasionally I walk ten or a dozen miles to see some 
 one who is ill ; this is not often, mind. You will see 
 my programme points to a very light day's work, and 
 yet I feel convinced I could not do much more in the 
 day without soon knocking up altogether, or doing the 
 extra in so unamiable a way as to spoil everything. . . . 
 
 [In a letter, dated October in this year, to a missionary 
 friend in India, he says: ''I look at your pj^per of the 
 day's routine — the regular hours, the set times, the 
 steady, unchanging round of duties. Oh ! how great the 
 contrast all this to one of my own days here ; not one 
 thing at all alike, and yet we are, as a matter of fact, 
 actually at the same work." Then he proceeds to give a 
 sort of time-table of an average day much as related above, 
 only this specimen day begins with Holy Communion at 
 
204 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 5.30 a.m. And then he speaks of the building, church 
 building just then, which he had to superintend.] 
 
 I should be less careful of myself, I think, if I felt there 
 were plenty coming on to fill my place if I were to 
 smash up suddenly ; but I don't think so, hence this 
 cool and calculating " conservation of force " on my 
 part, and which, as you see, I so unblushingly confess 
 to. By-the-bye — did I mention it? — bed at 9 or soon 
 after, and jolly sound sleep right away on till 5 a.m. 
 Oh ! you m?^s^ read the "Life of Charles Lowder " ; I have 
 been perfectly fascinated by it. I had the privilege of 
 actually shaking hands with him in Oxford in '79 when 
 he went ... to hear my juvenile prattle at Canon 
 King's [now the Bishop of Lincoln. Ed.]. 
 
 Masasi, December Hth, 1882. 
 . . . We have at last got our oleanders in bloom, 
 and very beautiful they are ; all pink ones as yet. Our 
 lemon and citron grove is just now a glorious sight with 
 all the trees in full bloom. Bar the ulcers, I am very 
 well, and we are having a very nice quiet, steady time 
 of it just now. . . . One is a great deal too comfortable 
 and lazy out here. I expect now I shall have to go 
 home and buckle to in some London curacy just to 
 assure myself that I can endure hardness, which I begin 
 altogether to doubt. . . . 
 
 Masasi, Decemher SOth, 1882. 
 . . . How thoroughly any of them [his nephews and 
 nieces. — Ed.] would enjoy a week or two here picking 
 the flowers, to them all new and strange, and sucking the 
 lemons and limes, and, I should say, literally devouring 
 the mulberries and mangoes which just now, together 
 with the pineapples, are making a goodly show. They 
 would also chase the butterflies, and scream with delight 
 at the gaily coloured Httle birds Theodore has been busy 
 
[i882.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 205 
 
 catching all this week and hanging up in cages on all 
 the neighbouring trees. Then the granite rocks and 
 boulders and the hills would be just the place for the 
 bolder spirits, such as Fred or Charlie. I don't quite 
 know how they would like to go without puddings and 
 do without milk in their tea or butter on their bread ; 
 but just for a week or so I think they would all 
 thoroughly enjoy themselves. Masasi has now just 
 completed six years of its existence as a Missionary 
 station, and in that time there have been celebrated 
 here seventy - two baptisms, adult and infant to- 
 gether ; seventeen Christian funerals, five Christian 
 marriages. Such are our statistics as I find them 
 by referring to our registers. . . . Some convol- 
 vulus seeds which Johnson brought up from Zan- 
 zibar in '79 give us each wet season a profusion of 
 the most beautiful and varied blossoms you can con- 
 ceive. ... I train them to run up the roof of our 
 schoolroom, below which we have some gay zinnias 
 doing nicely. These two flowers, together with oleander, 
 hibiscus, red and white (though not blue) periwinkles, 
 ^ besides a small red acacia and a rare blue creeper, are 
 the chief ornaments of our churchyard and garden at 
 this time of the year ; we leave the red gladiolus to grow 
 where and as it will untransplanted. . . . The mul- 
 berries I have spoken of are the small Persian variety — 
 not grown in England — no larger than elongated black- 
 berries and, perhaps, with not so rich a flavour as English 
 mulberries. Still they thrive wonderfully here, and are 
 very sweet and toothsome. . . . The question of witch- 
 craft in a heathen country like this is a curious one. 
 I wonder what English sages would make of it. Certainly 
 there is a power in it, and it would seem natural to find 
 it in full exercise in a country where Christ is not known, 
 and where, nevertheless, idol worship is not the form 
 
2o6 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 in which the Devil gains over the people to rebellion 
 against God. I think I have heard that there are some 
 remarkable passages on the subject in the preface to 
 Lecky's ''Morals in Europe," or it may be in Buckle's 
 still more celebrated book. Anyhow, neither of them is 
 here, and so I can't consult them. Meanwhile I always 
 take a very serious view of any case coming before me 
 of a man convicted of employing witchcraft ; for whatever 
 power there may or may not be in the thing itself, it is 
 certainly clear that he or she who seeks it, does so with 
 the worst intentions, and in the full belief that the evil 
 they desire will actually come about by the witchcraft 
 they procure. Nearly every native chief who is of a 
 serious turn of mind about here, asks me how to deal 
 with the matter. Matola hailed as a grand and certain 
 result of Christianity spreading in his country the fact 
 that witchcraft would be driven out before it. He has 
 got as much faith in the power Christianity will have 
 and the good it will do, when once fully accepted by the 
 Yao people, as the most sanguine of us Missionaries 
 could have. . . . 
 
 Masasi, January 11th, 1883. 
 
 I write this letter from my bed, but don't be alarmed. 
 My complaint is a very bad ulcer on the shin of my 
 right leg. ... I began to lie up two days ago, because 
 the increasing pain took away all sleep at night. . . . 
 Theodore goes back to the coast and to the Seyid's army 
 to-morrow ; the Seyid was inexorable, and would not let 
 him leave altogether. I have much enjoyed the boy's 
 three months' visit, and I hope he may be allowed to 
 come again some day. . . . There seems to be a 
 regular exodus of returning Missionaries from Zanzibar 
 this year ; I hope I sha'n't have to join the throng. . . . 
 
 January ISth. — A few lines extra. Mr. Porter returned 
 safe and sound yesterday with, alas ! only eight of the 
 
Life at Newala. 
 
 207 
 
 people who had been carried away. He stayed twenty- 
 seven days with the Gwangwara, and found them a 
 terrible set. They, however, broke the point of the spear 
 they had left behind with us as a pledge that they would 
 not make war again, and we have the spear with us. One 
 of themselves returned with Mr. Porter and party, with 
 his shield and assegais all complete. He came as guide. 
 They left here — as you will remember [Mr. Porter and 
 party], on November 1st, arrived at the Magwangwara on 
 December 2nd, after a walk of 360 miles. They stayed 
 there till December 29th, and arrived yesterday, January 
 17th. The results of the journey are not really satis- 
 factory in any sense. It seems quite certain that the 
 Gwangwara will require us every year to pay them a 
 large quantity of cloth, salt, &c., and they plainly say, 
 *' unless we go and build and live there, no real lasting 
 friendship is to exist between us." Tliey [the Gwang- 
 wara] say that all the Makuas and Yaos and everybody 
 else of these parts are now to look to us as theii* masters 
 and lords, and we on their behalf are to pay cloth, salt, kc.y 
 to the Gwangwara as our conquerors. That is really our 
 position at present, and it is very unsatisfactory. . . . 
 If my ulcer gets well, I hope to start in May on a second 
 journey to the Gwangwara. It must be done, and 
 probably I ought to do it if I am well enough. . . . 
 
 Xewala, January 2'drd. 
 
 . . . Fancy, I have at last read The Heir of Eedclyffe." 
 Isn't that an achievement you'd never have expected me to 
 accomphsh ? But I really thoroughly liked it, though I 
 had feared I had got too hard out here for anything of 
 that kind. . . . I've not yet told how dehghted we all 
 were with the " Lady Maud," it made us quite thu'st for 
 " The Wreck of the Grosvenor " and " A Sea Queen " by 
 the same gifted author [Clarke RusseU] .... 
 
2o8 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Jfarckia^ 1883. 
 
 Hob I am still in bed, wliae I hsve lain vitiboni 
 nKmngfiram it ever mnce my last letter [on aceount ofhn 
 bad ulcer. Ed.]. . . . Thewantof agoodsuqp^offreBh 
 vegetaUeB is &e real leaaon it won't heal; Hie pain is 
 intense at nig^t, and I am oUiged to bmve leeo um e to 
 opiates. . . . Porter is goodness iftsdL I often fed I 
 should die but far Ida kind care and attpntion in every 
 way. . . - Don't get alarmed aboot my state ; there is 
 no danger, I bdieve, so long as one can eat and de^ 
 . . . We have KngHsh ^TegetaUes coming op in the 
 garden, and vdicn they are ready fer taUe I e^eet I'-ezi 
 to do iraodecB far me. ... 
 
 (To his FmAer.) 
 
 . . . Yon seem now so thoroogjhly to have grasped onr 
 poatkm. with all its difficoltieB that I cannot but feel 
 that yoor presenee at thoGe meetrngs [committee], or 
 even a klter soot to Penney to be used at Ihem, is of flie 
 greatest poasiUe vabie to "poor ns" (jLt^ Porter and 
 sdf) out here. I have asked Penney to let yon have 
 the perusal ot a short letter I have jnst sent him, by 
 which yon will see how nttedy im^ossiUe it would have 
 been — nay, more, what madness it would have been — had 
 ' we encounged our pei^e to defend flienisetveB. . . . 
 
 You will be ^ad to hear that I can give a nmch better 
 account of my log. I think it is now really healing up, 
 . . . thou^ wifli such a verf large soce it win still take 
 many days to heal vp altogether. ... Of course, with 
 tins altered state of heaMi, lam beginning to hope that 
 I may be aUe to stay out here at least another year. . . . 
 I am, fronfihj *B I have said, much better, yet quite 
 unaUe to put my leg to the ground. . . . Some one has 
 
[i883.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 sent us wine and brandy. ... I am thinking it may 
 be you after all. . . . My improved health is, I think, 
 greatly due to the wine, cocoa, and other good things I 
 have had sent me from relatives and friends. Certainly, 
 at one time, this horrid ulcer did look a most hopeless 
 affair. Common as they are in Africa, I have never 
 seen such a bad one as mine, except on a native's leg. 
 . . . We have a small crop of undersized turnips, which 
 we are now enjoying, but all the other vegetables Porter 
 sowed so hopefully two and a half months ago have 
 belied their early promise and come to nothing, which 
 God grant our work out here may never do, for we have 
 been some years at the sowing. But in this the promise 
 as yet has not deceived us, and in spite of all external 
 troubles, of which in truth we have had our share, 
 internally we have a little band of God-fearing men and 
 women who look forward to better things than they can 
 ever find on earth. So it is, you see, that I am content, 
 nay, anxious to prolong my present stay in Africa beyond 
 this year at least, if it may be. 
 
 Masasi, March 28th, 1883. 
 . . . Two large, common-looking glasses, sent up by 
 Clarke from Lindi, give great amusement. Here in 
 my sick room I hold my levees frequently. Sometimes 
 I have about ten or twelve little girls from the various 
 villages. They come partly to see me, partly to eat 
 dates and fruit, and partly to see pictures and the 
 other wonders of European craft and skill which we have 
 about us. I said little girls, and so they are, yet most of 
 them are married — the wives of our catechumens and 
 hearers. ... I have been giggling like a school-boy 
 over that wonderfully clever book, Vice Versa." . . . 
 Writing a great number of letters in bed is a very 
 fatiguing business. . . . 
 
 CM. p 
 
210 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Masasi, April Uh, 1883. 
 . . . My leg is still progressing favourably. I drink two 
 glasses of wine a day, and have an enormous appetite. . . . 
 
 April 9th. 
 
 ... I am still in bed, and for the last six or seven 
 days my leg has made no progress, but I think this is 
 due to the weather, which is winding up the rainy season 
 with some tremendous downpours, and these are always 
 bad for ulcers out here. . . . 
 
 Masasi, St. Philip and St. Jame8\ 
 ..." Lead, kindly Light," is, I think, of all others the 
 hymn to take for a birthday one, and perhaps more than 
 ever so for one who, like yourself, has passed the prime 
 of life — more simple trustfulness and less questioning, 
 more of the return to the child-nature, and so a larger 
 sense of rest and a more complete happiness in feeling 
 that to be led is oh ! how far better than to seek for 
 oneself, the path through a thorny world. Yet I speak 
 of things I have hardly learned to realise myself — would 
 it were otherwise. Last week Matola paid us a visit, 
 during which I tried my leg beyond its powers, and have 
 considerably retarded the healing process thereby. No 
 doubt the folly of standing up, exhibiting a magic lantern 
 for one and a half hours, with a bad ulcer on one's leg 
 would have been more excusable in one somewhat 
 younger than I am ; but you will never look for prudence 
 in me, and thus it will not surprise you. . . . 
 
 Masasi, May 16th, 1883. 
 
 . . . My leg is still very bad, and I expect there is no 
 cure for it but a journey to England. I wish I could 
 think that such a journey was likely to be a near event, 
 but there seems no chance of my being able to get away 
 at present. ... I suppose long ere this the new Bishop 
 
[i883.] 
 
 Life at Masasi. 
 
 211 
 
 has been appointed ; but we have heard nothing as yet, 
 and are beginning to be anxious about our letters. 
 
 Masasi, June 30th, 1883. 
 . . . Three long months have passed since we heard from 
 any of you, and we are not a little impatient for news, as 
 well as for the advice of the Committee or new Bishop. 
 Meanwhile we have already sent over to Newala more 
 than two-thirds of our own and the mission property at 
 Masasi, and probably shall soon find ourselves settled there 
 in our new house. My leg is getting well, but the question 
 is, shall I be able to keep it quiet when the scarifying 
 process is completed, for if I do not continue to give it 
 entire rest for long after the healing up, it is sure to 
 break out again. The word " scarifying " suggests in a 
 punning kind of way another form of scarifying that is 
 going on largely now — I mean the constant scares that 
 the Gwangwara are coming again. These affect us in this 
 way, namely, in causing all the womankind of the village 
 to flee to the hills and sleep in little grass huts on the 
 " Alpine mountains cold," represented here by the great 
 tree-clad granite masses that rise one and a half miles to 
 our north-east. I dare not refuse them leave to go there, 
 for who knows but that some day their cries of wolf, 
 wolf ! " might prove only too true. But all this shows how 
 great is the necessity to quit Masasi and seek a place where 
 our people can live in safety. [Most of the people had been 
 sent back to Zanzibar, but about forty remained. — Ed.] 
 . . . You will be glad to hear that I keep in excellent 
 health in spite of the offending leg. If I had but a pair of 
 stout English crutches I don't think I should confine my- 
 self any longer to my room and couch. . . . Enough of 
 this subject, and more than enough, were it not that I 
 remember that it is to you I am writing ; you who ever 
 (and after the manner of most mothers) so anxiously 
 
 p 2 
 
212 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 inquire as to the state of my bodily health. Eeally I am 
 honest when I say that so acclimatised do I feel, that I 
 now fear the English climate much more than I do this 
 one, and I should feel somewhat shy of facing an English 
 winter again. My early convert, Charles Sulimani, was 
 formally given his freedom by his Makua master to-day 
 — given, do I say, — no not given, for he bought it with 
 thirty dollars. But we feared cheating, so we made the 
 old rascal who all these years has owned him come here 
 and sign two or three papers in the presence of several 
 witnesses and ourselves. The affair reached its climax 
 when the "great seal" was produced and the crossed 
 arrows of all the Mapleses stood out in bold relief from 
 the wax which Mkuti (Charles Sulimani' s master), all 
 trembling and of a quake by reason of the awful solemnity 
 of the act, was invited to press with his flabby finger. 
 It was almost too much for the poor man, and I believe 
 the old reprobate was of opinion that the whole business 
 was a bit of awful European witchcraft, ten times more 
 terrible than any he had ever practised. Alas, alas, he 
 and most of his brother chiefs are every bit as much of 
 heathens as they were when we first came here six years 
 ago, and the impression made upon him to-day by this 
 bit of secular business is the only impression at all we 
 have ever succeeded in making on him. . . . 
 
 Newala, July 25thy 1883. 
 
 Now that we have been settled here nearly a week I 
 find leisure to write you a few lines. . . . Nearly all our 
 people who remained with us when we sent the bulk of 
 them back to Mbweni have followed us here, so we have 
 still some fourteen couples at present, with the prospect of 
 their swelling to twenty-five couples before long. But at 
 that number ... I mean to stop, and steadily refuse to 
 take the charge of others on the old terms. Matola is 
 
[1883.] Life at Newala. 
 
 213 
 
 exceedingly pleasant and helpful. . . . My leg is really 
 much better and possibly may quite heal up now ; I have 
 begun to walk again a little and get to church. . . . We 
 are laying out our village in a sort of triangle, our own 
 houses, school, &c., being the base, those of our people 
 forming the two sides, and the space in the middle being 
 occupied by the church and churchyard that is to be. . . . 
 From our house and yard we can see the yellow band of 
 the Eovuma dividing the great forest upon which our 
 eyes rest, with its broad sands and islets and its shallow 
 waters. Beyond, again, in hazy outline, we trace the 
 distant hills of the Maviti, whom Goldfinch and I visited 
 two years ago. We find it colder here than at Masasi, 
 but we believe it to be very healthy. ... It cost just 
 33Z. removing all our property, effects, and ourselves from 
 Masasi here, while our house here cost us 151. We are 
 forty-six miles from our old abode and E.S.E. of it. 
 . . . We left Masasi with comparatively few regrets, so 
 decided had been the rejection of Christianity by the 
 Makuas there ; and so little security henceforth is there 
 likely to be there for converts. I will not say that we 
 do not miss our stone church, our buildings, and our 
 orchards, but we have a good hope of raising, in time, 
 all these things here, where certainly a far more ready 
 acceptance of the Faith seems assured. This last fact 
 makes up, and more than makes up, for all we lose 
 by leaving Masasi. 
 
 Newala, JuIt/ 29th, 1883. 
 . . . Last night we were surprised by a terrible 
 invasion. Let me tell you the exciting details. When 
 all was silence and blackest darkness, and when we had 
 all been long asleep, a fearful scrawking was heard in the 
 fowl-house which woke up some of the boys directly. 
 They, in dread alarm, seized firebrands and prepared 
 themselves for the worst. The scrawking increased fear- 
 
214 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 fully, and the unfortunate fowls beat their wings in 
 futile rage against their bamboo prison. With hearts 
 beating so loudly they might have been heard at Tim- 
 buctoo, the boys advanced stealthily to the walls of the 
 fowl-house, and holding up their brands, which threw 
 a lurid glare into the building, they descried the foe, all 
 armed to the teeth and some hundreds of thousands 
 strong. What was to be done ? Mr. Porter was fast 
 asleep, and I was only just waking up to the sense that 
 another fearful calamity had overtaken us. The boys 
 now added squeals and yells to the scrawking of the 
 fowls, and made a perfect pandemonium ; but it was 
 time for action. On came the enemy in myriads, and 
 now they swarmed into the kitchen and overran the 
 sleeping places of the poor lads so rudely waked from 
 their slumbers. But then the enemy were met, their van 
 was turned, their flank was routed, while the rear-guard 
 fled in terrible confusion before the burning brands of 
 the tiny defending force. The fowls ceased scrawking and 
 roosted again, the boys once more curled themselves up 
 by the fire to sleep till morning, and I dozed off again, 
 thankful that the enemy had not made their way up my 
 four-poster. Now our foe was not a horde of Gwang- 
 wara or Maviti ; we had only been visited by a vast 
 armament of the so-called travelling ants," whose heads 
 carry two sharp prongs, which they dig into you when 
 they get the chance, with the most dire effect, and who, 
 it is said, travel immense distances both by night and 
 day, thousands, and even millions, strong. They are a 
 good half-inch long, and don't allow you to forget them 
 in a hurry when they have once insisted on thrusting 
 upon you their most disagreeable acquaintance. . . . 
 We are sending down to Williams a pretty extensive 
 order for beads and cloth. You have no idea how very 
 particular the people are as to the kind of beads, the 
 
[i883.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 215 
 
 colours, and the size. We have to write very careful 
 orders to Williams, or we should be liable to get up 
 a quantity of utterly unsaleable ones. . . . African 
 natives are very independent, and they don't care 
 either to sell their food or do work for us, unless we 
 provide the special articles they require in payment for 
 the same, so false is the idea that anything gaudy or 
 showy will please them. . . . 
 
 Chilonda, Newala, July ^Qth, 1883. 
 . . . What makes me feel very old is the fact that so 
 many of those who began this African life either just 
 about when I did or after, have already been removed 
 from all earthly labour ! But what are your particular 
 reflections, I wonder ? I wish we could exchange some 
 conversation, such conversation as the short limits 
 of a letter will not allow of. Though one is happy 
 enough here, it does make one rather homesick getting 
 no letters for four long months, and I don't think it 
 tends to sweeten one's temper — this hope deferred 
 making the heart sick. 
 
 Newala, August 19th, 1883. 
 . . . We have received no letters from England since 
 those you wrote at the very beginning of February. . . . 
 My time each day is nearly all spent in teaching, and 
 doing the courteous to chiefs and visitors with whom I 
 hold long converse sometimes, getting in a word for God 
 (as Methodists phrase it) as and when I can. With 
 Matola, however, I have much longer and more important 
 conversations. We still feel what a great change it is 
 having him for our host, rather than the drunken 
 Masasi chiefs, whom we never seemed able to influence 
 in the slightest degree. ... On Sundays he (Mr. Porter) 
 celebrates, as I cannot stand yet, but I do all the 
 preaching, sitting in rather unpriestly fashion with my 
 
2l6 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 leg stretched out on a chair in front of me ; happily no 
 one here thinks it odd. Sunday is a nice day altogether 
 with us, and we both enjoy having Matola as our 
 Sunday guest for dinner. He is full of information on 
 native subjects and likes imparting it ; he is also a good 
 listener and keen to learn. Although we hope very soon 
 to make him a full catechumen, his four wives will be 
 an insuperable obstacle to his baptism, I fear. For his 
 part he is willing to put three of them away, but as they 
 threaten suicide if he does, he feels justly that he cannot 
 press the matter. . . . We can only wait patiently and 
 hope that a door may be opened for him some day, and 
 that we may be enabled eventually, and yet before he is 
 on his deathbed, to admit him by baptism into Christ's 
 fold. ... If the harmonium is lost there is some 
 consolation in the thought, that had it arrived, it would 
 probably be some months ere my foot could pound away 
 at the bellows. We've some splendid peas and cabbages 
 coming on [The soil is much better at Newala than at 
 Masasi. — Ed.] , which is satisfactory, as I am sure that 
 fresh vegetables are more useful than anything else in 
 the way of diet for residents in tropical parts. To 
 explain how it is so is to go into technicalities about 
 gastric juices, their supply, replenishment, &c., subjects 
 on which there is no necessity to enlarge here, though 
 you can't think how wise we are both becoming by the 
 aid of Dr. Quain's " Dictionary of Medicine ! " We are 
 expecting our Keader Charles Sulimani from Masasi this 
 week. We hear that the catechumens and others in the 
 Yao villages there have been very steady in going to the 
 Sunday services kept up by him. . . . But what makes 
 things appear so much more hopeful here, is the fact that 
 the chiefs are such a very different stamp of men, although 
 I would not have you suppose that I wish to represent 
 them all as paragons of virtue. The three principal 
 
[i883.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 217 
 
 ones, however, are quite free from the influence of drink, 
 and that is an enormous point. ... As I may in future 
 letters cursorily allude to them, let me here mention 
 their names — Matola, Mlipa, and Mtuma. The two first 
 are Yaos, and the last is a Makua, who just now has 
 pinned his faith on to a certain huge bottle of thicture of 
 the perchloride of iron that usually resides in our medicine 
 cupboard. He believes that this drug is an infallible 
 remedy for about half a dozen complaints which he 
 declares himself to be suffering from. ... I should be 
 glad to go to the expense of about 2^., if for it can be 
 bought a thoroughly well illustrated book of natural 
 history, containing good pictures (if possible coloured), 
 of all animals, wild and domestic. . . . This is really 
 quite a want here, and the thing that is more popular than 
 anything else we have to entertain people with. . . . 
 
 Newala, August 21th, 1883. 
 ... I was grieved to find that Argles of the Calcutta 
 Mission had been so soon called away ; his was a truly 
 saintly character. . . . My leg is much better, and all 
 thoughts of a return to England are farther than ever 
 from my mind. . . . Our released slaves here are now re- 
 duced to about eight or nine steady-going couples, whom it 
 is a real pleasure to have the care of, but no one thinks 
 we are really safe from our last year's enemies. . . . 
 
 Newala, August 26th, 1883. 
 Yesterday we were overjoyed to get the long missing 
 letters. . . . The pistol has arrived, and I duly pre- 
 sented it to Matola on Saturday night, and although he 
 is very particular about not mixing up weekday matters 
 with Sunday rest he could not resist the pleasure of 
 bringing it down to-day to show to his friends. It is not 
 etiquette with African chiefs to send words of thanks, 
 but I gave him your and my father's message, and 
 
2i8 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 while I am sure he was thoroughly pleased with the 
 present, I also think he felt himself not a little honoured 
 by my father's attention. I must say it was with a good 
 deal of satisfaction that I gave it to him, as now that we 
 see him daily and have a much closer connexion with 
 him than heretofore, he rises steadily in our estimation, 
 and we both agree m thinking him far, far superior 
 to any other heathen African we have yet known. I 
 think I told you he has early dinner every Sunday with 
 us, and generally stays talking with us till it is nearly 
 time for the afternoon service, which he attends, and 
 then returns to his house and village for the rest of the 
 day. ... I have been preaching during the last five 
 Sundays on the first five Commandments, and in default 
 of a true Yao word for " Commandment," I used the 
 common Swahili word, which I fancied would make itself 
 understood, but no ; Matola told me on Sunday that the 
 other chiefs had asked him what it meant. Of course 
 Matola knew, and could tell them, but next Sunday I 
 must phrase it " the great word," and thus the Ten 
 Commandments will be in Yao, " the ten great words of 
 God." . . . 
 
 New ALA, Septemher 4th, 1883. 
 
 . . . To-day there arrived here all safe and well, and 
 duly ransomed, the little boy, aged ten, who was carried 
 off by the Gwangwara last year, and whom for some time 
 we had thought dead — speared by the enemy. However, 
 here he is with fine tales of the rare and scanty food, and 
 of the hard servitude to which he was subjected. Two 
 other of our people are also ransomed, so only five captives 
 now remain to be brought back. Ah ! when ? . . . 
 
 [The letters of this period are much taken up with 
 his anxiety, &c., on account of his mother's serious 
 illness.] 
 
[i883.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 2ig 
 
 Newala, September Sth, 1883. 
 ... I suppose any son would love his mother dearly, 
 if he only felt how his mother loved him. But I never 
 think of our mother's love for us without the thought of 
 the unselfishness of her love. No matter how, in the par- 
 ticular form which my Churchmanship has taken, I may 
 have differed from the particular type to which from early 
 years she has ever been attached, I still feel that what- 
 ever power religion has exercised over me is to be derived 
 distinctly from her teachings in all the first fourteen or 
 sixteen years of my life. And this is what I mean by the 
 unselfishness of her love for us. She loved us so well 
 because she loved Christ so well, she loved us for Christ's 
 sake. I am quite certain of this, and it has been always 
 to me one of the strongest evidences of the truth of 
 Christianity, especially at times (of school-life) when I 
 fear religion was a very small part of my life. I can 
 conceive of nobody in the world, no priest nor saint 1 
 have ever heard of, being able to do for me what my 
 mother thro' the holiness of her love did for me. . . . 
 As to my going home. [The Committee of the Mission 
 had advised him to come home for change. — Ed.] Plainly 
 I am afraid to face the English winter with a plunge, as it 
 would be, were I to start now and arrive in December. 
 I think there is now no alternative but to wait till April 
 or May next year. . . . My leg doesn't trouble me much 
 as long as I am content not to walk much on it, but it 
 has not healed up. . . . 
 
 September 8th. — . . . The papers of the last few months, 
 which I am scanning, announce the deaths of several 
 Oxford friends and contemporaries of mine at Oxford . . . 
 Arnold Toynbee, senior bursar of Balliol, — my age, — I 
 knew him well at Oxford. He was a great social reformer. 
 He, too, has died quite young, and will be much 
 missed. . . . 
 
220 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Newala, September 10th, 1883. 
 As to our work, it goes on but very slowly. People are 
 not willing to give up for Christ, tho' ready enough (were 
 we to allow them) to take up with Christianity, to come 
 to church, to adopt externals^ &c. Our school, however, 
 thrives. . . . 
 
 September 15th, 1883. 
 . . . And now I must thank you for the tops, balls 
 and toys. They really seem to have given a good deal of 
 innocent amusement, and the boys have been playing 
 with them quite vigorously to-day, which I was most 
 pleased to notice. The trumpets, especially the little brass 
 or tin ones, are very popular. If ever you are inclined 
 to repeat the dose, cheap musical instruments of all 
 sorts are as good as anything. . . . Humming tops 
 would be liked, those you sent don't hum, though they 
 spin very well. I read to-day of a top, price 2s. 4cZ., 
 that hums in chords ! sold as a novelty somewhere in 
 Cheapside. Swans and fish with magnets to draw them 
 thro' the water — are these things of the past now in 
 toyland, I wonder? Then I must thank you for the 
 towels, two sponges, tooth brushes and lint ; but you 
 don't know what a stock of tooth brushes and sponges 
 you are sending me. My dear mamma, I do assure you I 
 desire to keep clean, but if I were to use all the sponges and 
 tooth brushes you have sent me during the last two years, I 
 should have to wash six times a day, in order to wear them 
 out in a reasonable time. You really must draw it mild. 
 Then, you threaten another towel ! Very many thanks 
 for the one you've sent, it is very useful, but why should 
 I have another directly, it won't wear out all in a hurry, 
 that one, it can^t ! . . . 
 
 Sunday, Sejjtember 16th. 
 . . . My friend Johnson this week will complete his 
 seven years in Africa — a longer spell than any one in 
 the Mission has ever had, I believe. . . . 
 
[i883.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 221 
 
 Newala, October 2nd, 1883. 
 . . . I'm still wonderfully well, tho' the ulcer 
 doesn't heal up. We are getting on happily here. 
 Don't trouble yourself to think w^e are on short commons ; 
 such a feast of watercresses, French beans, peas, turnips, 
 and cabbages as we are getting now ! . . . 
 
 October I6th, 1883. 
 The harmonium arrived in very good order on the 
 whole, and Matola and I were able to put it together 
 without much trouble. . . . Just now I am very busy 
 building a new church and schoolroom here. It will be 
 nearly as large as the Masasi church, but not of stone, 
 and thus only about a sixth of the expense. ... On 
 this hill we are on sandstone, and the soil and the rock 
 is the same — sandstone. At Masasi, our rocks were 
 gneiss, and our soil was very unsuitable for English 
 herbs, &c. ... I consider this place even more healthy 
 than Masasi, the air being so much more invigorating. 
 Fancy dear old bracken {Pteris aquilina) growing on the 
 slopes of these hills ; it is so homelike, even though, as 
 we brush thro' its tall-standing fronds, no dappled 
 deer are startled from their cover. ... An elephant 
 was killed near where Williams is stationed, three weeks 
 or so ago, which had been half killed in '81, and which 
 had been unsuccessfully hunted from time to time ever 
 since. At last it was killed by a man from Meto, but 
 by the unchanging laws of African etiquette, the animal 
 with its valuable ivory (sold at Lindi for 401., i.e., 200 
 dollars) is the property of the man Abdullah Pesa, 
 who first wounded it two years ago ! You will laugh at 
 this, but it is a fact nevertheless. Elephants are very 
 rare in all these parts, and therefore, the identification 
 of the animal is a matter of certainty. Williams sent 
 me a bit of the flesh of this particular beast, by-the-bye. 
 
222 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 He said he had found it palatable after a six hours* 
 boiling. We were not hungry enough to try the experi- 
 ment, and between ourselves, if I had been, I think I 
 would have boiled my shoes in preference. Buffalo and 
 eland meat are, however, delicious, and Hterally melt in 
 one's mouth. No wonder natives are keen in hunting 
 them. . . . 
 
 October 17th. — . . . We go on much the same from 
 day to day, with little to break the daily routine, and with 
 but slow progress to chronicle. But things must be slow 
 here in Africa, and the conquest of the country for Christ 
 is not, as we seem to think, a matter for a few years' 
 accomphshment. . . . My leg continues much about the 
 same. I've got a pah' of crutches, but they cut my anns 
 and hurt them, so I prefer walking about without 
 them. . . . 
 
 Newala, Noi^mber 9th, 1883. 
 . . . You will, I think, be glad to hear that we are at 
 last giving our attention to the Abyssmian tube well, 
 and- find it a very easy matter driving it, after all. As 
 yet we have only tried it near our house and regular 
 watering place by way of practice, but so far with great 
 success, obtaming a capital supply of the purest water 
 at twelve feet. To-morrow, however, we start — a large 
 party of us, for I have to be carried — to make experi- 
 ments at a place just under the Makonde cliff, which we 
 think could be made impregnable against an enemy if 
 only water can be obtained. . . . "We are very happy 
 here and feel that Matola is a real friend. In every way 
 he is most helpful, and if he feels it to be an advantage 
 to him our being here, certainly we feel it no small 
 advantage his beiag our host. . . My ulcer makes me a 
 stick-at-home by necessity, but Porter gets about a good 
 deal and so manages to extend to a considerable distance 
 some knowledge at least of our teaching and work. . . . 
 
[1883.] Life at Newala. 
 
 223 
 
 November 9th, — We've got a new pet — a falcon, whom 
 we regale daily with the heads of our daily fowls, and 
 doesn't it enjoy them ! You should see it picking out the 
 eyes and gloating over them — as an epicure over his 
 oysters — then the tongue and the gullet are evidently 
 tit-bits. . . . 
 
 November 21th, 1883. 
 . . . Although we have been at work very vigorously 
 at the Artesian well-tube and have been able to drive it 
 to a considerable depth in various places, we have not yet 
 succeeded in getting the desired element — water. . . . 
 
 December 19th, 1883. 
 . . . We had a porcupine for dinner the other day — 
 it was very good, just like sucking-pig. . . . 
 
 January 23rfZ, 1884. 
 ... I am glad to tell you that my plan for going 
 home this year is not materially changed, though the 
 Bishop's arrival and possible visit here may postpone it 
 by one month or so. In any case I shall hope to arrive 
 in England while the days are still long and sultry, as I 
 have no mind to sight the cliffs of Albion first in chill 
 October. . . . 
 
 January 2^rd, 1884. 
 . . . We were much interested in all the little scraps 
 of information culled from various quarters as to our new 
 Bishop. ... Oh ! I was nearly forgetting the tomatoes ; 
 
 was quite right, they are just the vegetable that does 
 
 better than any other out here. . . . The sunflowers, 
 though, never showed any signs of life. Doubtless the 
 seed had gone bad. . . . 
 
 Newala, February ISth, 1884. 
 . . . My birthday yesterday, and I was thirty-two ! 
 How many men have made themselves famous and done 
 a whole life's work by that age ! It makes one feel 
 
224 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 ashamed of one's own feebleness and littleness, and 
 scanty work and the like. I was thinking yesterday of 
 Mendelssohn, when playing to Joseph Williams some 
 things of his, and I think he was an instance of a man 
 who by thirty-two had done and produced all those great 
 works that have made him so famous a name. Did he 
 not die at thirty-five or thirty-six years of age ? We are 
 just beginning our new potatoes, and a great treat they 
 are ; but the strong sun of the tropics seems to have 
 drawn up all the strength from the roots, and while 
 there is a profusion of green leaves and flower, the 
 potatoes themselves are very small. . . . The harmonium 
 did arrive quite safely and gave thorough satisfaction. 
 Just lately I have been playing on it a good deal at odd 
 times, by way of getting my hand in for some strumming 
 on the Zanzibar organ, if I have to stay a month there. 
 . . . Thanks for the charcoal powder ; I tried it one day 
 but with no effect, and I was not encouraged to try it 
 again. It's of no use drying up an ulcer as long as the 
 ulcerating process is going on. 'WTien my constitution 
 gets braced up again by our English chmate — or mayhap 
 on the voyage — the place will heal up of itself, without 
 having to rob any of your London chimneys of their — 
 well, soot, though I think you called it charcoal. . . . 
 
 [When he arrived in England in June of this year, 
 the ulcer on his shin bone was still quite four inches 
 in diameter, though it had gradually decreased during 
 the voyage home. Within six weeks of his arrival, the 
 place had healed and he was playing lawn tennis!] 
 
 I am grieved to hear of the death of my kind friend . 
 
 . . . Only the day before I received your letter witfi the 
 intelligence of her departure, Patrick Mabruki (vide 
 
 Central Africa " for Jan. or Feb., 1883) came up to me 
 with some little native curios (combs, &c.), which he 
 
[i884.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 225 
 
 begged me to take with me for her. He added that he 
 wished me to write down some native stories at his 
 dictation for her to read. I readily promised to do this, 
 and then the next day had to call him up and tell him 
 that the kind friend who, reading of him in " Central 
 Africa," had sent him out, some eight months ago, a 
 drinking cup, had completed her earthly pilgrimage, and 
 was now in Paradise. When he brought me the combs, 
 he also paid for some beads, which he wanted in order to 
 make them up in native fashion, that she might know 
 what sort of necklaces are worn by his people and tribe. 
 . . . The matter is interesting, because the whole thing 
 was the man's own thought, without the slightest hint 
 or suggestion from me or any one else. . . . We were 
 terribly alarmed yesterday, as just after the afternoon 
 service two of our people, a man and his wife, were 
 taken suddenly and violently ill. Diagnosis is difficult 
 for amateurs, but the symptoms presented appeared to 
 us to point to an outbreak of (Asiatic) cholera. But it at 
 last turned out that the sickness, &c., was evidently due 
 to the eating of some doubtful mushrooms, and the two, 
 after good doses of laudanum, are quite themselves again 
 to-day. It is curious, but nevertheless a fact, that 
 the common English edible mushroom which grows 
 here, is the one kind eschewed by the natives, who marvel 
 at our intrepidity when, after a good " find," we bid the 
 cook get ready the frying-pan, and afterwards sit down 
 to a full and fair discussion of the delicious esculent. 
 However, we think ive know a real mushroom when we 
 see it, and this very evening at tea have eaten a plateful, 
 not one whit intimidated by what befel the aforesaid couple 
 last night. Katie used to be interested in earthworms, 
 though not otherwise (as far as I know) bitten with 
 Darwinism. Perhaps you are fond of snails, and there- 
 fore I may tell you that in Newala (and Africa generally) 
 
 CM. Q 
 
226 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 snails are often as big as a very large orange, and 
 they make frightful havoc of young vegetable marrows, 
 cucumbers, and the like. They are fond of convolvulus, 
 too, and balsams — and indeed of pretty nearly everything 
 we grow, whether as pleasing to the eye or to the palate. 
 So you see, one recognizes a use in these snails. They 
 come to tell us not to grow too fond of these things, and 
 to snatch them from us when we are giving too much 
 attention to them. . . . 
 
 February 12th, 1884. 
 
 ... I have just started three more plaguey little 
 ulcers all about the right leg — two above the knee, and 
 another which occupies towards the old original one 
 pretty much the position of the moon in regard to the 
 earth. The analogy does not hold good on every point, 
 as I am glad to say that the moon-like ulcer is not 
 "crescent," but neither again (and here too the analogy 
 won't hold) does it show signs of "waning." However, 
 don't suppose I'm very bad ; I get about, as much as it 
 is necessary to do during the rainy season (full on now). 
 . . . This is a jolly healthy place. One never has fever 
 here ; neither did one at Masasi of late years, for the 
 matter of that. . . . 
 
 SS. "Mecca," off Ejswere, 
 
 Monday in Holy Week, 1884. 
 
 Here I am then, steaming pleasantly from Lindi to 
 Zanzibar ; time about 8 p.m., on a very good ship. . . . 
 I need give you but few details of our journey to the coast, 
 save to say that I travelled very comfortably down in the 
 hammock-net you worked, and which had already proved 
 so useful. ... I shall be in Zanzibar probably one 
 month and three days. ... If all goes well, shall be in 
 England on June 21st. . . . 
 
[1884.] Return to England. 227 
 
 [He staid in Zanzibar for the synod, which the new 
 Bishop (Dr. Smythies) was then holding.] 
 
 Easter Monday, April I'ith. 
 
 . . . We arrived in Zanzibar . . . last Wednesday. 
 To our great surprise we found that the Bishop was 
 not expected till after Easter. . . . My leg was so much 
 better that I was able to take a good share in the Good 
 Friday and Easter Day services in Bishop Steere's most 
 glorious church — as indeed I am fain to call it, now that 
 I see it for the first time after its completion. ... I 
 wore the Bishop's gorgeous vestments (not the mitre, by 
 the way!). . . . My old friend Theodore is here, just 
 going to be confirmed and married, and of course I 
 see a great deal of him. . . . Matola [Matola had come 
 down with the party from Newala. — Ed.] and our other 
 guests seem much interested in all they see, as well they 
 may be. . . . 
 
 SS. "Java," anchored off Lamu, 
 
 May mil, 1884. 
 
 . . . The last two days spent at Zanzibar were 
 interesting to me, for on Sunday I was present at a 
 Confirmation held by the Bishop in the Slave Market 
 Church, whereat my old friend Theodore was one of the 
 five candidates. . . . Later on in the day, I rode over on a 
 donkey to Mbweni, in order to take part next morning at 
 the wedding of Theodore, who was duly married to one 
 Alice Msapamwana. . . . Some of my fellow passengers 
 are interesting people. First comes H. H. Johnston,* the 
 clever young artist, author, and botanist, whose book on 
 the Congo and sketches in the Graphic on the same 
 subject you doubtless have seen or heard of. . . . He is 
 now travelling to explore and investigate the flora and 
 
 * Sir Hany Jolinstoii, K.C.B., who (1897) has just published a 
 new book on British Central Africa." 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 Life of Chaunc}^ Maples. 
 
 natural bistoi\v generally of the Ivilimanjaro district. . . . 
 He and I have made great friends, and I was quite sorry 
 to say good-bye, when, on Wednesday, we left him at 
 Mombasa, which is his jjoint de depart for Kilimanjaro. 
 Another passenger is a Dr. Joest, a German, who has 
 travelled everywhere, and is now collecting curios . . . 
 for the Imperial Museum at Berlin. Another passenger 
 is a Frenchman of some repute and fame, a Mons. 
 Kevoil, also collecting curios. He collects for the 
 Trocadero, and is well acquainted with these parts and 
 peoples, and has made some interesting discoveries in 
 connection with the origin of the Somali people — always 
 a great mystery. . . . We reached Mombasa at sunset 
 on Tuesday evening. Mr. Handford,* whom I had not 
 seen since the year 1877, came off, and was very genial 
 and pleasant. . . . After two or three hours very 
 pleasantly spent [at Frere Townj ... we returned to 
 the ship, and got under way about four o'clock. . . . The 
 ship's doctor is a good hand at ulcers, and so he dresses 
 my leg for me, and it is already much better mider his 
 hands. . . . 
 
 Adex, ^aij 21th. 
 
 . . . Should arrive in London June 21st. All well. 
 I travel via Algiers. 
 
 [From the end of June till the end of September he was 
 more or less at home.] 
 
 Leeds, October, 1884. 
 On the whole I think it best to start right away for 
 Africa in February. Do not try and dissuade me from 
 this. If I were to be dissuaded it would be against my 
 conscience, and if one deliberately does what is against 
 one's conscience one can only expect retrogression in the 
 spiritual life. You would not wish that, for the gratifica- 
 tion of seemg a little more of me, I should suffer spiritual 
 ♦ Of the Chui'cli Missionary Society. 
 
[i884.] 
 
 In England. 
 
 229 
 
 loss ; yet this is how it would be. I look upon it in no 
 other light. ... I do want to do what I feel I am called 
 to do, and I feel a strong call to go out earlier. I am 
 quite well and quite recruited. My work is in Africa, 
 and I seem to hear God's voice, as it were, saying " Why 
 tarriest thou here ? " My dear mother, let it be so ; and 
 I am quite sure that if I go back feeling that you too 
 wished only that I should obey what I feel is God's call, 
 it would be an everlasting source of spiritual strength to 
 me in Africa in the years to come. You can hardly 
 realize this, but it is so. I am helped by you when I am 
 in Africa just so far as you pray and desire that I should 
 only live to follow God's will. This way, and this way 
 only, does our love for one another become really 
 heightened and ennobled. Human affection, even that 
 between mother and son, is only holy and sanctified if it 
 meets in the love of God, and our love for God can only 
 be developed by our seeking to do His Will always and 
 sacrifice all things that that Will may be also ours. 
 Do try and look at it in this light, and then our parting 
 in February will be a blessed, nay, also a happy one. . . . 
 Earthly affection must be made heavenly here in this 
 state of existence ; and thus, and thus only, will it be 
 able to live on and grow, when death comes to one or the 
 other of those who share it. . . . You have taught me 
 much in the past, let me now teach you this one thing — 
 to sacrifice your will to God's in this and kindred matters ; 
 it is the only safe way, it is the only way that can bring 
 us peace at the last. . . . 
 
 Novemher, 1884. 
 
 The anti-slavery meeting [at Manchester] was a tremen- 
 dous sight. The Free Trade Hall was crammed so that 
 it is estimated that there were not less than 5,000 people 
 present. We were obliged to hold an overflow meeting 
 in an adjoining hall for the 1,500 who were turned away 
 
230 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 from the doors. The great attraction at both meetings 
 was, of course, Stanley, who, like myself, addressed both 
 audiences. I spoke for about' twenty minutes at the one 
 meeting, and fifteen minutes at the other. Cardinal 
 Manning and the Eoman Catholic Bishop of Salford 
 were the other speakers. I found that I was able to be 
 heard very well, and considering that I came after 
 Stanley I was very well and patiently listened to. Not 
 only have I never addressed so large an audience, but 
 also I have never even seen so vast a concourse of 
 people gathered together. . . . Eailway journeys, u-regu- 
 lar meals, strange houses, new people, are all more or 
 less trying. . . . 
 
 [On the 18th March, 1885, Chauncy Maples sailed for 
 Africa for the third time.] 
 
 SS. " India," off Portugal, 
 
 Thirty Miles South of the Eiver Tagus, 
 
 March 22nd, 1S85. 
 
 ... I have kept very much to myself . . . indeed, 
 I am not sure that I am not becoming somewhat morose, 
 and am surprised at my own quietness and reserve. The 
 fact is I feel a great deal older than I was on my last 
 voyage, when in company with dear Wilson and our 
 large party, and it is only by an effort that I can be 
 lively now with strangers. I certainly did enjoy this 
 afternoon, which I spent entirely on deck, reading and 
 watching the sea and land, and constantly going off into 
 reveries and revi\ing old memories. . . . The piano on 
 board is kept in the ladies' room, so I have not been able 
 to attack it. One lady, however, played yesterday (and 
 the strams penetrated to the saloon) Weber's Livitation 
 a la valse." I had never heard it played so rapidly 
 before, and I hope I shall never hear it played so rapidly 
 again. . . . 
 
[1885.] Third Voyage to Africa. 231 
 
 Neab Cape Box, in the MEDirEBRAXEAX, 
 
 March 26th, 1885. 
 
 ... I have been much interested in Simcox's 
 "Beginnings of Church History," an old subject treated 
 in rather an original way — the author brings out some 
 fresh points and writes with a good deal of \-igour. The 
 chapter on the relation of the Empire to Christianity is 
 especially good. . . . 
 
 SS. ''India," in" the Eed Sea, 
 
 Easter Monday, April 6th, 1SS5. 
 
 Since I wrote you those few hurried lines from 
 Alexandria ... I seem to have seen and heard so much 
 that will be of interest to you and the home circle, that 
 I feel in spite of the heat of this Eed Sea and the shaking 
 of the engines, which seems greatly to have increased with 
 our increasing speed, I must make an effort " and give 
 you some details anent my Uttle tour through the land of 
 ancient mystery and classic lore, and modern battles. . . . 
 My friend F lover and I repaired to the Consul (at 
 Alexandria), a Mr. Cookson, C.B., who entertained us at 
 lunch, and proved an interesting and interested host. . . . 
 We then visited Miss Robinson's Alexandria branch of 
 her great work for soldiers throughout the world, the 
 main headquarters of which are, as you probably know, 
 at Portsmouth. . . . From Alexandria to Cairo is a run 
 of 129 miles by the train. . . . ^Tien we reached the 
 great Egyptian capital, the moon was shining brightly 
 on the many fantastic minarets and cupolas, that are so 
 prominent and pleasing a characteristic of this great 
 Eastern city. ... As it would be necessary for me to 
 start for Suez on Thursday so as to catch this steamer 
 again there, I was obliged to be contented with only one 
 day and part of a second at Cairo. Early on "Wednesday 
 morning, therefore, our plans were made for a drive to 
 the Pyi'amids, and as much else as we could get in in the 
 
232 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 course of a day. . . . Our way took us . . . through the 
 suburb of Boulak, and then across the ancient river, at 
 this time of the year rather low and keeping its own 
 channel ; the huge stretches of country which for so 
 many months are submerged on either side of it, being at 
 this time green with swelling crops and vegetation of all 
 kinds. Our road took us for some little distance along 
 its banks, and then we struck off in a westerly direction 
 along a straight road planted on either side with one of 
 the countless species of acacia in which all Africa abounds, 
 and raised above the level of the inundations, so that at 
 one time of the year its appearance would be that of 
 a great causeway across a sea. At the end of this road 
 the limit of the inundated part of the desert is reached, 
 and a well-defined line of green ending abruptly in the 
 desert sand showed unmistakably what was the " thus 
 far " of the Nile overflow. From the pomt where the 
 road left the Nile proper and struck across its alluvial 
 and fertile plain to the Pyramids, must have been a 
 distance of five or six miles, and all along it we saw, 
 gradually growing in majesty as it seemed to us 
 approaching them, the great wonders of the world, the 
 three great Pyramids of Ghizeh, buildings, remember, 
 that were probably scarcely more modern-looking when 
 the king — the great Pharaoh, who " knew not Joseph " — 
 oppressed the children of Israel, than they do at this 
 day. ... It was a long time before I was able, as I 
 stood near Cheops' Pyramid, to realize its great height, 
 exceeding, if I remember rightly, that of St. Peter's at 
 Eome, but certamly that of our own St. Paul's, and most 
 other, if not all other, buildings in the world. I think the 
 reason that I failed to be impressed with its vast height 
 was the fact that the atmosphere was so clear that as I 
 stood near the base of the pyramid, its top did not seem 
 to recede from me (as of course it does with its own 
 
[i885.] 
 
 In Egypt. 
 
 233 
 
 natural slope), but it seemed, but for its height, to be 
 just as near to me as did the base, looking like a straight 
 perpendicular wall rather than a line of gigantic masonry 
 running off from the ground at a very obtuse angle. It 
 was when I was neither very near nor very far from the 
 pyramid that I realized best its vast proportions. . . . 
 Cheops' is the largest of all, though no longer running 
 up into a peak as does that of its nearest neighbour ; its 
 form at present is thus — 
 
 All round it are the remains of the other smaller 
 pyramids, twelve in number, of which only the foun- 
 dations are now visible. ... Of the other two, the 
 next largest is still, as all were at first, partly cased 
 in alabaster. Fifteen miles away there are some other 
 pyramids, . . . and formerly, pyramids, one cannot say 
 how many, extended all the way from these Pyramids 
 of Sagurrah to those we visited. Close to the Pyramid 
 of Cheops is, as you know, the famous Sphinx cut 
 out of the solid rock, and standing, even without its 
 buried parts, at a height of more than forty feet from 
 the sand. The countenance is like the modern Nubian 
 type. Near the Sphinx there are the remains of a 
 temple, remarkable for being made of huge blocks of 
 syenite (red granite), which fit so closely to one another 
 that, although compacted with no mortar, it would be 
 impossible to insert the blade of a knife at their joints. . . . 
 I picked up the shell of a beetle — the scarab£eus — the same 
 beetle which has been an inhabitant of Egypt from the 
 earliest times, and which in stone, crystal, or composition, 
 formed the chief charm and amulet worn 6,000 years 
 
234 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 ago. Even at this day they are dug up and picked up 
 constantly, and form the principal element in the famous 
 trade in " antiques," TN'hich the Bedouins of the desert 
 ply with so much profit to themselves. It was no 
 " antique " that I picked up, you will understand, but 
 simply the decaying body of a little creature that probably 
 had died since I saw you last. . . . We repaired to a 
 modern villa hard by, which had been built for the enter- 
 tainment of the Empress Eugenie, when she " did " the 
 Pyramids, and there we had an al fresco lunch to fortify 
 those of us who intended to explore the interior of old 
 Cheops' tomb. . . . We haggled and bargained with a 
 select party of four out of the many importunate Bedouins 
 who crowded round us for backsheesh, and committed 
 ourselves unreservedly to their guidance. In a few 
 moments we had left the outside world, and by the light 
 of a couple of Egj-ptian lamps (alas ! no, they were in 
 fact two incongruities called composite candles) were 
 plunging and stumbling and scrambling up the slippery, 
 sloping shaft that leads from the mouth to the very heart 
 of the Great Pyramid. We had literally to be dragged 
 along. I don't know whether it was a kind of grim 
 humour that caused the stout son of Ishmael, who had 
 me firmly by the hand, to say, "I want you to be 
 satisfied." When he said this I was creeping along in 
 almost total darkness with my head bowed down to my 
 knees to avoid hitting it against the low roof. It seemed 
 as if we were penetrating to the ver}- bowels of the earth 
 rather than to the interior of the Great Pyramid, so long 
 and difficult was the gloomy shaft that at last led us to 
 the king's chamber, where stood the great sarcophagus 
 that, as I suppose, once contamed the mummy of Cheops 
 himself. Although we had been ascending all the way 
 along a tolerably steep incline which, but for the rude 
 notches that served for steps in the stones, we could 
 
[i885.] 
 
 In Egypt. 
 
 235 
 
 never have climbed at all, yet when we reached the 
 king's chamber, although in the very middle of the 
 pyramid, we were not more than one-third of the way 
 from the base to the summit. However, we were quite 
 satisfied, and so after a visit to the Queen's chamber just 
 below, we made our way back to the outer air once more 
 Before leaving the King's chamber though, we were 
 invited to sound its acoustical properties. This I did 
 with so much effect that a breath to which I gave a 
 slight though deep intonation, rolled away with all the 
 force and power of a great thirty-two feet organ pipe 
 diapason. . . . The Bedouins who dragged us through 
 the dark passages of the interior of the Great Pyramid 
 seemed to be able to talk a little of every language, and 
 seemed quite puzzled to find that there was a language 
 (Swahili to wit), of which they could not understand one 
 word. . . . We . . . drove back the way we had come as 
 far as the outskirts of Cairo, when we made a detour 
 in order to visit the Boulak Museum. . . . You may 
 remember that some four or five years ago, or perhaps 
 earlier, an account appeared in the newspapers of the 
 discovery of the entrance into a rock temple on the 
 Nile, some way above Cairo. I remember then seeing 
 sketches in the Illustrated London News of some of the 
 more interesting relics, and amongst them the actual 
 mummy of Eameses II. himself. That mummy is now 
 in this Boulak Museum. . . . Eameses II.* was the very 
 Pharaoh who reigned in Egypt at the time that Jacob 
 and his sons went up there at Joseph's invitation. The 
 name, date, &c., of the king was found inscribed on the 
 outside cloth in the old cursive Egyptian character. . . . 
 I sent you one or two photographs, . . . amongst them 
 
 * In a later letter lie corrects this mistake, saying it was the 
 Pharaoh who knew not Joseph and oppressed the children of Israel 
 that is now believed to have been Eameses 11. 
 
236 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 is a most wonderful statue in wood, remarkable for the 
 extraordinary power displayed in the life-like expression 
 of the countenance, yet this statue (belonging, I think, to 
 the Fourth Dynasty), is more than twice as old as any of 
 the Elgin marbles preserved in the British Museum. . . . 
 I like to linger over these pyramids in thought, and wonder 
 whether the children of Israel were as much struck with 
 them in their day as the children of Victoria are in 
 ours. . . . When we got back to the Floyers' house in 
 Cairo, there being still another hour to sunset, and the 
 energy of two of us at least not being exhausted, we 
 determined to pursue our sight- seeing a little further . . . 
 and drove off to the citadel of Cairo, visiting on our way 
 there one very famous mosque of vast and yet most 
 elegant proportions, called the mosque of Sultan Hassan. 
 It dates from about 1356 a.d., I believe, and is somewhat 
 decaying now, but in its outer court it contains one of the 
 noblest arches, I should think, that could be found any- 
 where. From the apex of the arch to the floor below must 
 be not less than eighty feet, and it is at the same time of 
 extreme breadth. In the inner part of the mosque the 
 inlaid wood, though now in some decay, was such as is 
 seldom seen. At the citadel the principal feature is the 
 celebrated mosque of Mohammed Ali, not more than 
 forty or fifty years old . . . it is here that the "holy 
 carpet" is annually brought on its way from (or to?) 
 Mecca. ... I could not help wishing that this glorious 
 and superb mosque had been a Christian church, yet we 
 may hope that prayers offered up there by pious Moslems 
 may have reached the Throne, and may have been 
 accepted by the One God whom they, however imper- 
 fectly, worship. The sun was setting when we left the 
 mosque, and we gazed for some while from the ramparts 
 of the citadel on this fair city of Cairo. There was the 
 old Nile flowing as it had flowed through the ages of 
 
[i885.] 
 
 In Eg}^pt. 
 
 237 
 
 Egypt's ancient civilisation, when neither modern nor 
 even ancient Europe had emerged into history. There 
 were the Pyramids Hfting their heads far away on the 
 edge of the desert, and all around us were the minarets 
 and cupolas and domes of this fantastic and fascinating 
 Eastern capital. . . . 
 
 [The next morning he visited a Coptic church.] 
 We set out, driving through old Cairo, for the church 
 of Abu' Sifain (or Two Swords "), dedicated to St. 
 Mercury, " Mercury" being, in this case, a corruption of 
 the name Macarius, a well-known early Egyptian saint. 
 . . . Out of a population in Cairo of four hundred 
 thousand, it is estimated that one hundred thousand at 
 least are Coptic Christians. ... St. Mercury (Macarius) 
 is a very old building, believed to date from the year 
 956 A.D. It is divided into three parts, screened off from 
 one another, and on slightly different levels, with a side 
 chapel of the Blessed Virgin, and a baptistery. There 
 are, all round, some extremely old and quaint pictures of 
 various Biblical scenes, the eleven apostles, saints, &c. 
 The altar was placed as in all old Eastern churches, and 
 like ours at Zanzibar, with the seats for the presbytery, 
 and the throne in the middle for the patriarch. There 
 is a large painting of the patron saint with a case of 
 relics (his arm, I believe) just below it. On the lectern 
 was a vellum MS. of the Gospels in Coptic, splendidly 
 illuminated. ... It is a characteristic feature of the 
 Coptic Church that scarcely any service is held which is 
 not immediately followed by a celebration of the Holy 
 Communion. . . . The priests looked very simple crea- 
 tures — unlearned, I should fancy — but, let us hope, sincere 
 and true. Two little boys — acolytes,! suppose — were assist- 
 ing the priests, dressed in white kanzus* (! !), embroidered 
 
 * The dress worn by the Swahilis at Zanzibar, and by the native 
 Christians. 
 
238 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 with Coptic crosses in red. All squatted on the floor, 
 cross-legged, Eastern fashion, and only one or two of the 
 congregation had books. The prayers wore chanted in 
 strange, but not wholly unmusical fashion, I thought. 
 We noticed a very old inlaid marble pulpit, which was 
 probably scarcely less ancient than the fabric of the 
 church itself. . . . The church of Dair Abu Sifain 
 happened to be close to the most famous mosque in 
 Egypt — namely, the mosque of Anir. . . . We therefore 
 went to see it. This mosque is the oldest in Egypt, and 
 one of the very oldest in the world, having been built about 
 the time of the prophet himself, and so being nearly 1,300 
 years old. The Mohammedans have a saying that when 
 the mosque falls then Mohammedanism will come to an 
 end. The architectural features of the mosque are not 
 particularly striking, though it has something like 200 
 pillars surmounted by capitals, Greek, Eoman, and 
 Egyptian, rifled from temples and public buildings all 
 over the country by the builder of the mosque — doubtless 
 some of them formerly adorned Christian churches. 
 One of the pillars, say the Arabs, was brought from Mecca 
 by a miracle. Mohammed, they say, struck it with his 
 whip (of which blow the dent is shown), and bade it fly 
 to Cairo, which it promptly did. . . . Floyer had seen a 
 great deal of General Gordon, and shewed me one very 
 interesting letter — the last he had received from him. 
 The occasion of it was interesting. Floyer, it appears, 
 had volunteered to prepare him a seal with his name in 
 Arabic characters upon it. For this purpose he chose 
 an old coin, which he partially melted and refashioned. 
 When the seal was completed, it was found that two 
 words that had been on the coin were still quite legible 
 there. The words were in Arabic, and were " The 
 messenger of God." Gordon noticed them, and was 
 much pleased, and in the letter in question commented 
 
[i885.] 
 
 At Zanzibar. 
 
 239 
 
 on them, saying he prayed he might always remember 
 to be as the messenger of God to the Soudan people, and 
 so forth. Gordon used this seal, I believe, on all the 
 documents he signed while shut up in Khartoum. . . . 
 
 SS. " GoA," AT Anchor off Kilwa, 
 
 April 2Vh, 1885. 
 
 You will like to know exactly how I spent the two brief 
 days in Zanzibar. ... On Friday morning I celebrated 
 Holy Communion in the Slave Market Church, and 
 immediately after breakfast, divesting myself of nearly 
 all my clothes, and enlisting the services of Mercer, the 
 organist, proceeded at once on the tuning of our fine 
 instrument. It was very hot work, but as you know, I 
 was very much interested in it, and the hours slipped by 
 all too quickly. At 1 p.m. some dinner was sent to us 
 in the vestry, and then we set to work again, and con- 
 tinued tuning till 6 p.m. Tea at half-past six, and 
 immediately afterwards the Bishop carried me off to be 
 closeted with him in close conversation till nearly 1 a.m. ! 
 Then I left him, and found my old friend Theodore wait- 
 ing to talk with me (it was the only opportunity), and so 
 it was 2.30 a.m. before I got to bed. . . . Next day the 
 Bishop celebrated at 6.30 a.m., then breakfast, then to 
 my tuning again, promising the Bishop that whether I 
 had finished tuning all the stops or not, I would desist 
 at 1 p.m. in order to see more of him and discuss plans 
 further. So all that morning, from 9 a.m. to 1.30 p.m., 
 I did what I could to tune the greater part of the stops 
 on the swell organ, and to set to rights some of the 
 mechanism of the instrument which had got out of order, 
 and then, much to my chagrin, had to leave off, not 
 having had time to tune the pedal stops, or to get in order 
 a delicate stop, which, though not much out of tune, was 
 almost dumb from dust and other evils induced by the 
 four years of neglect that the poor organ had had to 
 
240 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 submit to — neglect, I mean, of its internal economy, for 
 it had certainly been played on nearly every day. It was 
 with no little satisfaction that I felt I had mastered the 
 tmiing pretty thorouglily, and found my task quite easy. 
 Thus I was repaid for those hours I spent at Willis' organ 
 factory during my last two months in England. After 
 another hour or two of conversation with the Bishop, he, 
 Clarke and I set off, towards evening, for a walk towards 
 Kiungani. . . . We returned to Mkunazini to supper, 
 after which the Bishop and I had our farewell conversa- 
 tion, and when he had given me his blessing I said good- 
 bye, and Clarke went with me -to the ship. . . . 
 
 New-axa, East Central Africa, May \%th, 1885. 
 Itis just a fortnight since we arrived here. . . . Yester- 
 day and to-day I have had fever. ... I find my Yao is 
 rather rusty, and I am apt in preaching to mix it up with 
 Swahili. This will wear off after a month or so. As you 
 will readily believe, I was delighted to get back here — to 
 the pic-nic kind of existence, the open-air life, &c., and 
 much more than these things, to my black flock, in spite 
 of all their shortcomings. . . . 
 
 Masasi, June 8th, 1885. 
 The above address will show you where I am. I 
 walked over here last week to spend a few days with my 
 colleague and friend Porter, who is now in charge of our 
 Christian converts at Masasi. The house where he lives, 
 and in which I am writing this letter, is full five miles 
 from our old houses and shamba, but it is Masasi never- 
 theless, and the people he has about him are the Yao and 
 Makua converts of the time before the Gwangwara raid. 
 This is my first visit to Masasi since I left it for Newala 
 in July, 1883, and I am very glad to look up all the 
 people and the place again. . . . Mr. Porter is carrying 
 on the work alone here, but I shall try and send some- 
 one else to be here with him, who will take his place 
 
[i885.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 241 
 
 altogether when he goes home next year. . . . InWhitsun 
 week I took all the boys of the house and some of the 
 adults into the forest, and we slept out three nights. I 
 collected a large number of garnets, and also some of 
 the beryl crystals, but I don't think any of the stones I 
 picked up were so good as the two I had cut and polished 
 in England last year. But we did not make a very diligent 
 search, or do any digging where we found the beryl — we 
 only picked up what we found on the surface. . . . We 
 have had some trouble at Newala lately, the boys of the 
 house giving way to temptation and getting too much to 
 drink. . . . We shall be very glad to welcome more 
 workers here ; we haven't half enough for the work in 
 these parts. . . . We have a great many sick people 
 coming to Newala every day for medicine, most of them 
 ulcer cases. Weigall is rather a good hand at doctoring, 
 and knows more about it than I do, having gone through 
 a hospital course before he came out here. . . . The 
 quoits have arrived safely, and we have started them in 
 the village as a game for our own people, hoping they will 
 take to them. . . . There seems no present fear of the 
 Gwangwara swooping down upon us this year, either 
 here or at Newala, so we don't contemplate a move after 
 all. . . . 
 
 Newala, E. Africa, July 8th, 1885. 
 ... A very sad, yet very solemn and impressive, 
 thing was enacted in our church last Sunday, namely, 
 the solemn excommunication of an erring member of 
 our flock. Here we are perfectly able to restore the 
 ancient discipline of the Church, to the great and 
 inestimable benefit of the body of the faithful. And it is 
 on occasions like the one I am alluding to that the 
 power of the Church as a spiritual institution is empha- 
 sised and realised. Our Christians are holding no 
 converse whatever with the excommunicated person, 
 
 CM. B 
 
242 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 who in this way, by God's mercy, will probably be 
 brought to realize the heinousness of her offence, and so 
 be led to tears of penitence, which may at length issue 
 in her restoration to Christ's kingdom, from which at 
 the present time, though baptized, she is an outcast. 
 
 Newala, Julij IQth, 1885. 
 
 ... It is very nice having the use of my leg again 
 out here. I can walk about and see the chiefs and 
 people in their own villages — an attention they always 
 seem to appreciate. . . . We have now been settled at 
 Newala exactly two years, and I think that in that time 
 as much has been effected in the way of drawing the 
 people towards Christianity as we could reasonably have 
 expected. Nearly all Matola's men come regularly to 
 church and class on Sunday, some three or four of 
 whom are on the verge of baptism. No work is done on 
 Sunday throughout the district ; immorality or drunken- 
 ness are steadily on the decrease. At least half a dozen 
 of the boys in the school can read and write nicely, 
 and sum a little as well, while nearly every boy in 
 the neighbouring villages comes with fair regularity to 
 school. I have a small class for the native women of 
 Matola's village once a week, and a service held for the 
 Yaos every Sunday is usually attended by some seventy 
 or eighty people. No doubt also our influence is largely 
 felt in the outlying districts, and things which used to go 
 on there are now given up m consequence of our teaching. 
 
 . . . Goats have been very plentiful here lately, 
 indeed we have had fresh meat nearly every day. . . . 
 
 LlNDl, July 28th, 1885. 
 [Note. — He was on his way down to Zanzibar, 
 whither he was taking some of his boys to be educated 
 at I^iungani College.] 
 
[i885.] 
 
 Zanzibar. 
 
 243 
 
 ... On my way down to this place I fell in with 
 a good-sized slave caravan, and there are two other 
 caravans with not a few slaves in them encamped outside 
 the town. This is the time of year when they chiefly 
 arrive at the coast. . . . 
 
 Mkunazini, Zanzibar, Sunday, August 2nd. 
 We arrived here safe and sound on Friday last. . . . 
 I shall only be here ten days more, and then go off again 
 to Lindi, and round to the Kovuma mouth in a boat as I 
 have said. . . . 
 
 KiUNGANi, Zanzibar, August lUh, 1885. 
 . . . The Seyid has been much interested in the 
 Newala garnets, and I gave a few to Sir John Kirk the 
 other day to take to him. . . . Farler and I have been 
 very busy revising the Swahili Prayer-book in prepara- 
 tion for a new edition shortly to be published. I go on 
 board the Mecca to-night, and we sail at daybreak for 
 Lindi. ... I have been very well all the time I have 
 been down here — even late dinners on the ships and 
 with European residents in the town have proved 
 innocuous. . . . 
 
 August I4ith. 
 
 . . . Last Saturday I spent six hours inside the organ 
 and completed the tuning that I had not been able to find 
 time for in the brief two days I spent in Zanzibar in April. 
 
 . . . The four boys I brought with me from Newala 
 have taken high places in the school and seem to be 
 shaking down well. . . . 
 
 Newala, September Ist, 1885. 
 I arrived here on August 28th, quite well ; next day I 
 rested. On Sunday I got fever by 2 p.m., and had it 
 badly all that afternoon, night, and most of yesterday ; 
 to-day I am quite well. ... I came here via the 
 Eovuma, and was ten days from Lindi to Newala. . . . 
 
 R 2 
 
244 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Masasi, Septemher Srd, 18S5. 
 ... It is when I think of you and my father getting 
 into years, and the various concomitants of increasing 
 age coming into prominence, that I sometimes think of 
 a quiet rectory in the country, with a small charge and 
 a commodious . . . house and garden where you and 
 he could spend not a few of your months m these later 
 years, and where you, who have certainly lived "laborious 
 days," might not think it unworthy of a time of life far 
 advanced in its seventh decade, to taste at least some- 
 thing of the " luxurious ease " which a Greater than the 
 poet bids us younger ones be careful to avoid. In the 
 last part of what I have just written, there lies that 
 which would make it impossible for me to seek such a 
 retreat, even though on grounds of human affection, and 
 from a spirit of filial desidcrium, I might be inclined 
 to indulge serious thoughts of such a change of life as I 
 have indicated. As it is now, you know that I neither 
 have, nor could have, any thoughts of anything else 
 than my present sphere of labour, where your prayers 
 follow me, and where I trust God gives me His blessing. 
 ... But we arc very well off. Did I tell you of Mr. 
 Harvey's present of I don't know how many dozen of 
 very dry champagne ? It helped me wonderfully in my 
 fever the other day. . . . 
 
 New ALA, St. Michad and All Angds, 1885. 
 . . . After my return from Masasi I had ten days of 
 sickness, fever, . . . &c., and my ulcer broke out agam. 
 I am now, however, quite well . . . and even the 
 ulcer is closing up again, having responded fast to the 
 rest and antiseptic treatment I have given it. . . . At 
 present our party consists of four — two at Masasi and 
 two here. I hope we shall be recruited shortly. . . . 
 There are rumours of the Gwangwara being out on the 
 
[i885.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 245 
 
 war-path again. . . . Whether they are true or false it 
 is very unlikely that we shall sustain another attack this 
 year. ... At this season of the year we have no fruit 
 or vegetables, but we have a great quantity of very fine 
 watercresses which are certainly most acceptable during 
 this hot w^eather. ... I hope the river excursion was a 
 success; ... on the whole I think May and June are 
 the months for the Thames, when the whitethorn is in 
 blossom, and if it be early May, the hyacinths carpeting 
 the woods and river-side copses with blue ; we have 
 nothing like all that out here, I wish we had. Scarcely 
 a flower of any kind did I see all the way up the 
 Eovuma, though Borassus palms and a few other 
 noticeable trees prevented it being too ugly and too 
 uninteresting. Then, too, there were the pelicans and 
 hippos, which certainly do not haunt the Thames. I 
 have read several reviews of Frank Buckland's life. . . . 
 I shall much enjoy its perusal when you are able to 
 send it, ... I do not know whether it is the heat or 
 whether it is the nine years of African life beginning to 
 tell on me, but just now from about 10 or 10.30 a.m. 
 to 4 p.m. I feel almost too exhausted and tired to 
 do anything but sleep or rest. ... I am beginning to 
 write a series of papers in " Central Africa," to be called 
 "Papers from Newala;" the "Introductory" which I 
 am sending to the editor this month will explain to you 
 their object and purpose. . . . There have been a large 
 number of slave caravans passing through this district 
 to the coast during the past three months. . . . 
 
 Newala, September SOth, 1885. 
 . . . Weigall started this morning for some villages 
 near the Eovuma where we occasionally go preaching. 
 He sleeps out and will return to-morrow evening. We 
 have been able, from a variety of untoward circumstances, 
 
246 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 to do very little of this out-preaching of late. I hope we 
 shall be able to manage a little more of it again now. . . . 
 We are looking forward to Mr. Taylor's coming, but are 
 seriously afraid that Farler will snap him up for Magila. 
 ... It was a great thing my ulcer closing up again in a 
 fortnight. I thought I was going to have the whole 
 business over again. . . . Tell them [two of his nephews] 
 that I saw altogether about a hundred hippopotami when 
 I was on the Kovuma a month ago. ... I am writing 
 this letter in the cool of the "palace," i.e., the new 
 house or hut we have built in readiness for "his 
 lordship." 
 
 Newala, Octoher 2Srd, 1885. 
 
 ... I will now try to answer the question asked 
 
 you to put to some clergyman. ... I don't think there 
 can be any doubt about its being really wrong to beg to 
 be taken from this life because a great sorrow, even the 
 greatest possible earthly sorrow, has come upon us. In 
 the first place, we are bound to look upon the life God 
 has given us, even in this troubled, fallen world, as a 
 blessed thing, and a thing to be used throughout the 
 whole length of it for His glory. Every day we thank, 
 or ought to thank, God for it as a blessing. Our very 
 prayers, the public prayers of the Church, recognise 
 this, as witness the General Thanksgiving. Then again, 
 if a great part of this life has been brightened for us by 
 a very blessed gift (such as is that of a beloved wife to 
 the husband) , and if then that gift should be taken away, 
 we must still try to say with Job, " The Lord gave, and 
 the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the 
 Lord!" Indeed, we cannot, I feel sure, do right unless 
 under such a trial we pray o^ily for resignation to God's 
 will. Our Lord's words are so clear, " Except a man 
 take up his cross." But to pray to be removed from 
 life is to pray for the cross to be taken away, and then 
 
[1885.] Life at Newala. 
 
 247 
 
 what follows? If the cross is avoided, where will be the 
 crown ? Would any one who is a Christian consent to 
 forfeit the crown, forfeit eternal happiness, for the con- 
 sideration of the removal of a great grief which only lasts 
 with the duration of this short life ? . . . Again, I would 
 urge the following. Is not this life a probation? Are 
 we not being put on our trial every day, and is it not 
 according as we stand the trial that we shall be judged 
 hereafter ? Who then is there that is conscious of his 
 own shortcomings and imperfections — nay, of his sins — 
 that would not thankfully accept a further time given 
 him in which to make his calling and election sure, and 
 prepare and fit himself for heaven, where surely all his 
 hopes must be fixed ? . . . The thought of you all at the 
 Lakes this year made me think of Wordsworth. I hope 
 you may have had my handsome copy of the poems with 
 you, or have perused them since. Little as you care for 
 poetry, I think you make an exception in favour of him, 
 and if so it is the very best possible exception, for he is, 
 as has said one of his more recent critics, " one of the 
 very chiefest glories of English poetry, one of the chief 
 glories of England being her poetry." I think I owe it 
 to you, amongst a thousand other debts, my first love for 
 Wordsworth, a love that I should be very sorry to lose 
 even if I live to be your age. In some of his own words 
 I may say of my love for his poetry, 
 
 " So was it when my life began, 
 So is it now I am a man, 
 So be it when I shall grow old, 
 Or let me die." 
 
 The fiddle is actually at Lindi. Well, it isn't a Strad., 
 and it is not a Guarnerius ; it isn't even a Jacobus 
 Stainer, but it cost an honest 51., so I trust it neither 
 squeaks nor screams more than the very best Cremona 
 
248 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 would certainly do under my inexperienced fingers. I 
 think you are right ; the solemn tones of a 'cello would 
 perhaps have been more appropriate to a priest, but 
 there are notable clerics who are fiddlers. J. H. Newman 
 for instance, that "old man eloquent," within the walls 
 of the silent oratory at Edgbaston even now, at his 
 advanced age, awakes the echoes as his aged fingers stop 
 the strings with something of the old skill he is said to 
 have attained on the poet of all instruments in former 
 days. Don't abuse my fiddle. 
 
 How the years go by, to be sure. People here begin 
 to say that I am becoming a " very old man " (" mtu 
 mzee sana"). I don't suppose you would think so, 
 though. . . . 
 
 Newala, October 23r£Z, 1885. 
 ... I find my correspondence rather increases, but 
 my energy, alas ! certainly does not increase in propor- 
 tion ; in fact, I begin to feel a middle-aged man. . . . 
 If I had been with you at the Lakes I should certainly 
 have pursued my boyhood's hobby — ferns. I would 
 have climbed that great hill or mountam which has the 
 slate quarry at the top [Honister Crag], with a truck run 
 all down its side, in search of Asjjienium viride ; I would 
 have spent many days hunting for Asplenium septen- 
 trionale, and Asplenmm fontannm, and a number of other 
 rare varieties besides. I fear, though, your strength 
 would not have permitted you to join me in these 
 rambles as in the days — twenty years ago — when we 
 used to make short and easy work of a walk from Sea 
 View to Wootton Creek. How often out here I go back 
 in thought to those days, and days like them, which 
 now really do begin to seem "long ago." I thought of 
 you all as at the Lakes only yesterday when I whiled 
 away half an hour with my life-long favourite poet. . . . 
 Of course I read again — indeed, it is almost sacrilege to 
 
[i885.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 249 
 
 open the volume without reading them — the Tintern 
 Abbey lines, and The Daffodils," which seem to bring, 
 like a flash upon one, a revelation of the unseen, such as 
 not unfrequently one is transported by in a Beethoven 
 symphony or a Bachian fugue. . . . 
 
 I could wish to hear that up there at the Lakes you 
 have met none of the familiar London faces, but that you 
 only marked Michaels " and "Cumberland Beggars" 
 and the like, as it was with Clifford (say at the Feast of 
 Brougham Castle): 
 
 ' * Love had he found in huts where poor men lie, 
 His daily teachers had been woods and hills, 
 The silence that is in the starry sky, 
 
 The sleep that is among the lonely hills." 
 
 What do yoii say ? Do you find, as I do, that I some- 
 times gaze at a sunset or across a great stretch of bound- 
 less forest, and long and long to feel towards it, and to 
 be taught by it, lessons such as it imparted long ago ? I 
 don't think it is right if it is so. I remember dear 
 Charles Janson once saying to me that a beautiful 
 piece of scenery was far more to him now than when 
 he was a boy. I feel that is how it ought to be, only 
 I feel sadly it is not so. There, that will do. If I say 
 much more I shall grow maudlin, perhaps ; as it is you 
 will doubtless think I have transgressed the limits of 
 legitimate sentimentality. . . . 
 
 Newala, November 2bth, 1885. 
 Our Bishop is still here. . . . Mr. Last came and 
 stayed three days, and then proceeded on his way to 
 the Lujenda and Kovuma junction, Meto, Namuli, &c. 
 . . . We are actually seven Europeans here just now, 
 for when the Bishop went to Masasi he brought back 
 Smith and Porter for a retreat. Soon Taylor and I will 
 be left alone again, for Weigall will have to go and see 
 
250 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 about house building at Chitangali before Christmas. . . . 
 The Bishop stirs us up wonderfully. ... It is grati- 
 fying to hear him praise our "table," i.e., the cooking, 
 &c. He said the other day, Keally, this is the most 
 delicious coffee in the world.'' I suppose he meant 
 in Africa; but he certainly said in the world." 
 Perhaps a fit of sheer enthusiasm carried him away, and 
 made him employ the language of hyperbole. Tell me 
 how you like "Papers from Newala" in "Central 
 Africa." About Matola's admission into the catechu- 
 menate I won't write, as you'll see my full account of it 
 in " Central Africa " soon. But it ivas a happy event, 
 and we did rejoice, as you may well believe. . . . 
 
 Newala, November 28th, 1885. 
 . . . The Bishop is making some progress in Swahili. 
 I generally interpret for him when he preaches ; some- 
 times into Swahili, sometimes into Yao. Sometimes he 
 writes his own sermons in English, and then turns them 
 into Swahili (also in writing) at my dictation. Then 
 in this form he preaches them. He finds it a very 
 good way of learning the language. 
 
 [Before the Bishop arrived on this, his first visit to 
 Newala, Matola had been carefully instructed as to his 
 position, namely, that though Maples was Bwana, i.e., 
 master, the Bishop was Bwana Mkubwa, i.e., the great 
 master. Probably the chief was disappointed to find 
 that the Bishop could not speak his language, for he said 
 to one of the Europeans, " Bigger he may be in body, 
 but he is not bigger in words." Bishop Smythies was 
 over six feet high, and Maples barely of average height.] 
 
 He held a "retreat" for us all this week— three days 
 of it. . . . Such an opportunity is, of course, a great 
 advantage to us up here in our busy lives, that are 
 
[1885.1 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 251 
 
 perforce taken up with so many secular details. I have 
 had very little time for reading since the Bishop has 
 been here, but there are plenty of good books to be read 
 when the time for reading them is available. ... I have 
 nothing to do with the doctoring nosv, as there are so 
 many here who know so much more about it than I do, 
 and it is not work that I care for much either. . . . 
 
 November 28th. 
 
 , . . To-morrow, Advent Sunday, the Bishop will hold 
 a Confirmation, at which two of our adult Christians will 
 be confirmed. . . . We have just received letters from 
 Mr. Last, who writes from Ngomano. One of his porters 
 has been terribly mauled by a lion, which attacked him 
 as he was following the honey bird, which was guiding 
 him to a tree where there was honey. ... 1 7ievcr' have 
 fever now-a-days. I am sure it is just a question of 
 acclimatisation. . . . The German question is by no 
 means at an end yet. So far it has not affected our 
 position here. At Magila no doubt it has. . . . 
 
 Newala, Decemher Isf, 1885. 
 . . . My two colleagues. Porter and Smith, at Masasi, 
 are daily expecting another raid from our foes the 
 Gwangwara, but we do not a second time anticipate 
 any danger to life if they do swoop down upon our 
 villages, though we fear the natives outside us may get a 
 very rough handling. We w^ent in procession round the 
 village yesterday (St. Andrew's Day) singing the Litany, 
 with intention that God would hear us in respect of the 
 threatened invasion. . . . We killed in one of our rooms 
 the other day a very curious snake, whose body was not 
 round but triangular. ... I was very much interested 
 in all you wrote about your boys. If they do seem a 
 little impatient of the exercise of maternal authority I 
 
252 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 think you may be quite sure that they will think of it 
 with love and gratitude in years to come. I can safely 
 say that to this day, and I hope and think it will be so to 
 the end of my life, the thought of what my mother was 
 to me in my early years is the most powerful influence I 
 know or ever have known. ... I think you will laugh 
 when I tell you that at the advanced age of thirty-three 
 I am about to take a companion to help to solace my 
 more lonely hours ; but you need not smile, for the 
 companion is only a violin ! I fear, however, that we 
 shall not get on, for probably my fingers are too stiff and 
 clumsy, and that while I am seeking harmony only 
 frightful discord will be the result. . . . Advent just 
 beginning makes one think of the time when the great 
 awakening will come, and when those we have been 
 parted from so long will be with us round the throne, 
 and when, at any rate, we shall be standing before a 
 Judge who, while He is all-righteous, is also all-merciful. 
 The word " separation " cannot have the gloomy associa- 
 tions that it has for those who so unhappily cannot 
 realise the present existence of our departed dear ones in 
 Paradise, waiting for us, praying for us, and doubtless 
 also in part cognisant of our present conditions, our 
 hopes and joys and troubles. Advent at least helps us to 
 feel how short the time is here, and how soon we shall be 
 with them again ; is it not so ? . . . 
 
 New ALA, December \Qth, 1885. 
 ... I only got this precious violin (it w^as bought in 
 Bombay) four days ago, and have just begun to see a 
 little bit how to hold and manipulate the bow. As yet, 
 I must confess, the sounds I produce are somewhat 
 excruciating, and are hardly suggestive of that delightful 
 world of romance into which the skilful violinist leads 
 his hearers. ... I was much pleased with Canon 
 
[i885.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 253 
 
 Westcott's and A. L. Moore's Church Congress papers. 
 Did you read them ? Also Mr. Spottiswoode's, which was 
 very good. . . . How do harp and vioKn go together? 
 We might try that combination. But fancy proposing 
 things to be done four years hence ; isn't this what 
 people term " tempting Providence?" Such a strange 
 expression that, I always think. . . . 
 
 Newala, Decemlcr IQtli, 1885. 
 ... I have often thought of the three boys lately in 
 connexion with " our pets " here, i.e., the various little 
 animals which we try to rear — civet cats, tiger cats, a 
 kind of ocelot, galagos, &c. Some of these little animals 
 are very interesting, but they are very dainty in their 
 feeding. One must have raw meat, another wants only 
 milk, while a third squeals aloud if he doesn't have 
 bananas. The one that only takes raw meat is generally 
 made happy with the insides (I beg pardon) of fowls. 
 We are very careful about him, because we want him 
 when he " comes of age " to do good work for us in 
 killing the rats with which our house is always infested. 
 It may interest Fred and Co. to know that the animal I 
 am now speaking of is at present very tin}^, like a two- 
 weeks-old kitten. It has a pointed head and nose like a 
 fox's, is beautifully marked like a leopard, has very sharp 
 claws, and a long spotted tail. I do not know the 
 English or scientific name [in another letter he supplied 
 the name — genet. — Ed.] of this pretty little creature, but 
 I have often wished I could send it to the boys. I 
 suppose Fred would say, " W^hat's the good of wishing he 
 could send it, if he doesn't do it ? " and I am inclined to 
 think there is something in that ; though, at the same 
 time, as you will imagine, it is practically impossible to 
 send it, neither would you thank me, I expect, if I did. 
 . . . Here's Taylor just come in to ask me to have a 
 
 r 
 
254 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 game of quoits with him, and thus wishes to beguile me 
 from this letter. Quoits seem to be rather " adapted to 
 the clergy," and though a little mild and out of date, serve 
 as useful exercise when we don't want to ramble from 
 the premises. So I shall go when he has got them 
 ready ! . . . Matola's people seem to be getting on very 
 well, and show a stronger disposition than ever to be 
 taught, so that we feel in good heart about our work, 
 and are not a little encouraged. No doubt the good 
 example Matola himself shows them has a very great 
 deal to do with it. . . . 
 
 Newala, December IGth, 1885. 
 I've just come in after one and a half hours' planting 
 in the rain. It may interest you, now that i/ou have some 
 interest in turnips and carrots in that little garden of 
 yours, ... to know what I have planted this afternoon. 
 Well, then, I've put into the ground, seeds of melon 
 (three kinds), cucumber (two kinds), peas, tomatoes 
 (three kinds), cabbages (two kinds), turnips, lemon, 
 beetroot, besides about half an acre of potatoes (these I 
 got a bevy of Makua damsels to plant). Yesterday I 
 put in flower seeds, viz., phlox, cineraria, epiglossis, 
 convolvulus, sunflower, marigold, zinnias, petunias, 
 balsam, portulaca, amaranthus, &c. ; but remember, it 
 is only a few of these flowers probably that will take 
 kindly to our African soil, and reward our care in 
 planting them. But what do you think of forty large 
 bushes of the Persian mulberr^^ all in full fruit just 
 now up here ? I planted them as cuttings just two 
 years ago, and now we are reaping the benefit of my 
 providence. But hold, I grow boastful, you will say. 
 . . . Taylor has just left the room after we had been 
 talking about Egypt — it amused him to hear that I 
 was immensely struck by the Sphinx, and had not yet 
 recovered from the blow ! 
 
[i886.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 255 
 
 Newala, December ISth, 1885. 
 
 . . . Just now we are having mangos from Masasi 
 and mulberries here, but these only extend over a 
 couple of months each year at the outside. . . . You 
 will wonder, perhaps, what it is that I have enclosed. 
 Well, the paper-like substance is really all that was 
 left of the thickness of one of the deal half-inch boards 
 which formed the lid of a packing case, after it had 
 been eaten away by the white ants. Sometimes a box 
 that appears to be all right and sound turns out to 
 have been reduced to the thickness of a piece of paper 
 by the ravages of the white ants. As they abhor the 
 light they never eat right through, so that they may 
 be able to work in total darkness. . . . 
 
 Feast of St. John. — Our Christmas . . . has passed 
 very pleasantly. All our communicants but two came to 
 the Holy Communion and communicated, either on the 
 day itself or St. Stephen's Day, and our services through- 
 out the day were very well attended. ... As Weigall 
 and our native reader were ill, most of the day's events, 
 including the services, &c., fell to my share, Taylor 
 helping when he could and as he could. . . . After 
 church this afternoon I walked round our potato garden, 
 and was glad to find the seed we sowed a fortnight ago 
 already sprouting. But the petunias and asters and 
 phlox don't come up, and so I suppose they won't 
 come up at all. The sunflowers and zinnias, on which 
 I have often dilated, never fail us, and are, with the 
 convolvulus, very beautiful this year. . . . 
 
 Newala, January llth, 1886. 
 
 . . . Yesterday Matola was lucky enough to shoot a 
 certain kind of eagle that for eight years I have hoped 
 to get, but hitherto it had baffled us all because of its 
 always soaring so high. At last we have a specimen 
 
256 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 which Weigall has very carefully and cleverly skinned. 
 I am sending it home to you. ... I should not be 
 surprised to hear that no specimen of this magnificent 
 bird has ever been taken to England, either dead or 
 alive. In this case it would be of great value probably 
 to scientific collectors, but I would rather that you have 
 it, though it ought to be reported on to the Zoological 
 Society as a bird in all probability new to science. 
 . . . The eyes must be made a dark brown with black 
 centre. ... On my way to Masasi I shot the biggest 
 snake I have ever seen in Africa, except pythons, 
 which are, of course, very big but comparatively harm- 
 less. I had to give the contents of both barrels and 
 then one more shot before the venomous beast was 
 approachable. It was exactly eight feet long. This 
 does not sound very big, but as a matter of fact is 
 longer than any of the snakes you will see at the Zoo 
 except pythons and boa-constrictors. I bought from 
 Coggan a beautiful Martini-Henri rifle, which turns 
 out a first-rate gun, being wonderfully well sighted. 
 When I was taking aim with it at a herd of antelopes 
 the other day on my walk to Masasi, I could not help 
 thinking how you would have liked to be in my place 
 just for the moment. At Masasi I found our little 
 band of converts very flourishing, though I am afraid 
 another raid from the Gwangwara seems imminent. . . . 
 
 New ALA, January 2\st, 1886. 
 I am afraid I shall not be able to write you much 
 of a letter this time, owing to fever hanging about 
 me. . . . Yesterday afternoon my temperature ran up 
 to 105°, remmding me of some of the very bad fevers 
 I used to have nine years ago at Zanzibar. ... I 
 cannot help feeling that "low spirits" and "mental 
 depression " are upon the whole, and generally speaking, 
 
[i886.] Life at Newala. 
 
 257 
 
 things rather to be ashamed of than to be pitied for, 
 but this only, I say, as a general rule. Sometimes we 
 say, Ah ! so-and-so is so differently constituted ; he 
 always gets depressed when he is ill " — but probably 
 there lurks under that expression ''differently con- 
 stituted" a great fallacy; it would be more true in 
 most cases to say, " So-and-so has so little religion, 
 he always gets depressed when he is ill." There, I 
 have been led away into a sort of philosophical analy- 
 sis of " low spirits." ... I read through Thackeray's 
 "London" the other day. You were right in foreseeing 
 it would have a special interest for me. . . . When I 
 have completed my ten years out here, it will depend 
 very much upon circumstances whether I remain much 
 longer ; the health question will have to be seriously 
 considered, and others too. ... I only say this much 
 that no one may be surprised if I should happen to 
 return and take up work in England. Perhaps I 
 should not even have said as much as this if I were 
 not more or less influenced by the fever of yesterday. 
 Did you read the account in the ' ' Church Missionary 
 Society InteUigencer " of the martyrdoms in Uganda? 
 It was deeply interesting. . . . 
 
 P.S, — Feast of Conversion of St. Paul {January 25th), 
 . . . Only to-day do I feel myself again, or I would 
 have put in a line or two to Bessie, if only to tell 
 her that last week the only thing I could touch — or 
 rather swallow — was some of the soup she sent. I am 
 very glad that it was so, for it took away some of the 
 feeling of shame that one cannot help feeling when 
 friends send "goodies." . . . 
 
 Newala, February Gth, 1886. 
 ... I am sorry to say the eagle I wrote about has 
 become a prey to the damp, and in spite of all our 
 
 CM. S 
 
25B Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 precautions bred insects, which have caused its head 
 feathers to drop off; it is therefore useless to send it 
 home. . . . 
 
 February IQlh. 
 
 ... I see you have put my name and to-morrow's 
 date in " The Life of Frank Buckland " — for w^hich I 
 have to thank you and my father — your birthday 
 present to me. I have already read it, and, of course, 
 with great interest. ... I am now deep in " Gordon's 
 Journals," a book certainly not less interesting than the 
 former. . . . Just now we are enjoying English and 
 native cucumbers, which are full in season ; also Cape 
 gooseberries, a fruit I have described, I think, on former 
 occasions. I am sending home nothing by Mr. Porter 
 except a bottled lizard to a professor of science in 
 Dublin who trusts me to find for him some day a 
 certain wonderful fish which is supposed to exist (by 
 him) in lakes, ponds and rivers near here. He is 
 wrong, and I am just writing to tell him so, but am 
 sending the lizard to make up for his disappoint- 
 ment. . . 
 
 February 17th. — . . . How well I remember this day 
 ten years ago when you came up into my bedroom in the 
 early morning and wished me happy returns of the day, 
 and said sorrowfully that you felt it was the last time for 
 many years, perhaps altogether, that you would come 
 to offer me in person the greetings of the day. You 
 gave me at the time a little silver pencil-case which 
 I treasure carefully. It always reminds me of that day, 
 to which I often and often revert mentally, you may be 
 sure. . . . We have a particularly nice set of boys in our 
 school up here just now — there are twenty-five in all — 
 the head of them, a boy named Machina, is a perfectly 
 model boy. I shall be baptizing him and some others at 
 Easter, 1 hope. A little time ago we had thii*ty boarders, 
 
[i886.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 259 
 
 but some get tired and hanker after the lazy do-nothing 
 life of their own homes, and as we cannot force them to 
 stay with us, we are obliged to suffer them to take their 
 departure. . . . 
 
 Newala, March loth, 1886. 
 . . . We have quite a menagerie just now. ... It is 
 very amusing watching the habits of the medley collec- 
 tion. The mangouste [mungoose ?j on being given an egg, 
 immediately goes to a wall and, turning its back to it, takes 
 the egg in its forepaws and throws it backwards, between 
 its legs, hard against the wall so as to break it. It does 
 break, whereupon the mangouste greedily sucks the shell 
 completely dry. The funny thing is that whatever we 
 give it that looks like food — say, an old bone — it 
 evidently thinks is an egg and treats it in the same 
 manner. To the feeble mind of the mangouste the 
 whole world, when given to it in portions, is ''eggs." 
 It really is very ridiculous seeing it for hours together 
 trying to break a round stone or a bone in the above 
 manner. 
 
 Newala, March 11th, 1886. 
 At Easter I expect to baptize from fiffeen to twenty 
 boys and adults, whom now I am busy preparing. Most 
 of them have been under preparation for two years or 
 more, but just at the last it is usual to increase the 
 number of times we call them together for instruction 
 and preparation in each week. . . . Lately I have been 
 reading Helmholtz's Lectures on Scientific Sub- 
 jects." . . . Had I been gifted with a mathematical head 
 I think I should have tried to follow up in my leisure time 
 various branches of natural science, but as it is — I mean 
 without any knowledge of mathematics — I am obliged 
 to be content with the beggarly elements of acoustics, 
 astronomy, optics, &c. Perhaps it is better as it is, for 
 such studies might have become a snare, and the queen 
 
 s 2 
 
26o Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 of sciences — theology — is the study I am pledged to 
 by my office, and to which I certainly mostly incline. 
 Certainly, however, the interest that attaches to this 
 dabbling with the violin, which I have begun, is chiefly 
 due to what little I have learned of the laws and causes 
 which govern the production of sound from the vibration 
 of a string. What I mean is, that this particular interest 
 prevents me from feeling the first clumsy efforts at 
 playing on the instrument as an intolerable nuisance 
 and a weary piece of drudgery. The laws concerned in 
 the production of "harmonies" and "overtones" as 
 affecting the quality (timbre) of the tone produced, are 
 all intensely interesting and can be thoroughly enjoyed 
 even when all one does in the way of playing is to throw 
 out a major or minor scale. . . . 
 
 Newala, Ajyril Idth, 1886. 
 
 . . . Had I been destined to a Zanzibar instead of an 
 up-country life, I should by this time be either back in 
 England with orders never to come back to Africa, or else 
 in my grave. It is the climate after all, the salubrity of 
 these two places, Masasi and Newala, [But it is only, 
 comparatively speaking, that they are healthy. — Ed. J that 
 has enabled me to feel so little the effects of a residence 
 extending over ten years, in a tropical country. . . . 
 
 Ajn'il ISth. — . . . Fossils you mention. . . . Only 
 
 this mail sends me a post-card asking "Are there 
 
 any fossils in your district?" to which I at once 
 answered, pedantically perhaps you'll say, " No, we are 
 on metamorphic rocks, and therefore it would be futile 
 to look for organic remains. Hard by, it is true, there 
 is red sandstone of the old Devonian sort, but if you 
 have ever searched for fossils in that particular formation, 
 you will not expect me to be over keen about digging in 
 our red sandstone for what may be there." ... I wish, 
 
[i886.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 261 
 
 now, that between-whiles in my own schooldays I had 
 scraped up a little botany ; it would be very useful to me 
 now. . . . Geology I always have dabbled in a bit, during 
 the last fifteen years. . . . But our animals keep us 
 going wonderfully ; for instance, there are three wild pigs. 
 They had a fearful set-to this morning in the stye and 
 there was much blood spilled. The battle was initiated — 
 I am proud to tell you — by one of the other sex ; no irate 
 boar began the fray, but an elderly sow, who considering 
 her years ought really to have known better, made a 
 most unprovoked attack upon a gentleman who, in the 
 opposite corner of the stye, was munching his morning's 
 piece of cassava. Of course the four others could not 
 bear this sort of thing, so sides were rapidly taken and a 
 fast and furious battle ensued. The frightful yelling 
 actually penetrated to the church, where matins was 
 quietly going on. After the service was over all hands 
 were called in to separate the combatants and peace was 
 at last restored. . . . 
 
 April 14tth. — ... I have this year planted a large 
 number of young orange and other fruit trees, the fruit 
 of which others will enjoy ; for although at Masasi I did 
 stay long enough to eat the fruit of many a tree I had 
 planted from the seed, this is hardly likely to be the 
 case a second time. . . . 
 
 An old chief of much importance at a town twenty- 
 three miles from here has just died, and as a consequence 
 of his death, a young chief, who is a Christian and 
 was baptized by Johnson at Masasi in '80, inherits his 
 sceptre and position. We shall watch his progress with 
 much interest. We have already built a house at the 
 town in question, and no doubt we shall soon occupy 
 the station. ... It is on the way from here to the coast 
 and is a Yao community. There are already several 
 Christian boys there who can read and write, &c., and 
 
262 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 we hope therefore that Christian influences may extend 
 rapidly there, now that this young man I speak of has 
 come into power. . . . 
 
 We are going to have our adult baptisms on Easter 
 Eve. We use the form for adult baptism just as it is 
 found in the Prayer-book, with the exception that I shall 
 insert just before each candidate kneels to be baptized, 
 the renunciation of Satan (with hand uplifted and facing 
 westwards), and the acceptance of Christ (turning to the 
 east). Each candidate will be directed to do this, in 
 accordance with the ancient and universal rule of the 
 early Church. . . . This little ceremony is very solemn 
 and impressive. 
 
 NEWAiiA, May Ith, 1886. 
 Two days ago a man brought us a present — a young 
 antelope three days old, which he had caught in the 
 woods. It was of the kind called kudu (or koodoo) and 
 is a most beautiful little creature. We feed it on gruel 
 and milk every day and expect it to be able to begin to 
 eat grass in another week or so. It is most beautifully 
 marked, and we make a great pet of it. It is already 
 very tame. We tried keeping our porcupine with the 
 pigs, but the pigs ate it, quills and all. The quills were 
 soft, however, as the animal was quite young. . . . 
 
 Newauv, June 1th, 1886. 
 The letters that miscarried . . . came a week ago 
 to-day, and with them the following party of Europeans : 
 the Bishop, W. P. Johnson, Wood, Pollard, Hainsworth, 
 Wathen, and our native deacon, Cecil Majaliwa. All, 
 with the exception of dear Johnson, very well indeed. 
 He, poor fellow, seems very ill. ... So large a party 
 to provide for is rather a strain on our commissariat 
 department, but Cape gooseberries and tomatoes in fine 
 abundance certainly cover a great many deficiencies and 
 
[i886.] 
 
 Life at Newala. 
 
 263 
 
 are much appreciated. On Ascension Day the Bishop 
 confirmed twenty candidates whom I presented, nearly all 
 of whom had been baptized at Easter. They will make 
 their first Communion next Sunday — Whit-Sunday. . . . 
 The Bishop's visit stirs us all up ; he is so very earnest 
 about saving souls, and devotes such infinite pains to the 
 work of trying to bring home to lapsing Christians the 
 error of their ways. 
 
 [Writing of a relation of whose death he had just heard] 
 . . . He was, I know, an unselfish, good man, who surely 
 strove to do his duty in that state of life in which God 
 placed him, and who ever maintained a lively faith in 
 God's promises through Christ. He read, I know, a great 
 many books of the day, books treating of the conflict 
 between science and faith, if conflict really there be, and 
 from conversation I had with him it was easy to see that 
 what he read he never allowed to shake his faith and 
 confidence in Him in whom his heart, and not his intellect 
 only, had taught him to believe. How very little after all 
 we know of each other ; plenty indeed of each other's out- 
 side, but how very little else as compared with what God, 
 ever looking, because He is able to look, at the inside, 
 knows of us all. We see a little and guess a little from 
 what we do see ; perhaps we guess that little rightly, but 
 what a little after all it is. But the consolation is, God 
 knows all, and He knows what He will accept, and what 
 He finds in men and women with whom we have 
 travelled for long years of the journey of life without 
 really getting to know what is best in them. . . . 
 
 Newala, June 10th, 1886. 
 I wrote my letter to the mother three or four days ago, 
 and since then our plans are all altered, and I have some 
 news that will surprise you rather. Dear Johnson is 
 very, very ill, and while we are arranging for him to be 
 
264 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 carried to the coast we have also to re-arrange our plans 
 about Nyasa. The result is that I proceed at once with 
 the Bishop and Wathen to the Gwangwara, and the 
 Lake. ... I feel I have lived all too long here in ease 
 and comfort while others — so notably my dear, dear 
 friend here, now lying so low, and so very weak and ill — 
 have been bearing the burden and heat of the day ; 
 Therefore I hail this opportunity gladly. God grant me 
 grace to serve Him more faithfully henceforth, so that at 
 the last I may not be afraid to die in active service. . . . 
 Of course, it is sad leaving all old friends here, never 
 probably to return to live among them again, . . . but 
 our Lord didn't aim at keeping near, in His bodily 
 presence, that is, those whom He had convinced of sin, 
 and whose sins He had healed. We read of one that 
 Christ ** took him and healed him and let him go,'' So 
 I, too, must " let them go," and go where there are 
 other sick souls, who as yet know Him not, to whom I 
 may minister. Newala and I, therefore, are, you see, 
 shaking hands with each other and wishing each other 
 good-bye. We have got on very well together, and the 
 parting is sorrowful. To part with Matola, too, will be a 
 real sorrow. If I have helped him a little he has helped 
 me much, and I am not likely ever to meet again an 
 African chief at all like him. Meanwhile my regrets are 
 only of a personal character. I leave Newala in excel- 
 lent hands. Weigall and Wood will probably, after a 
 little time, do far more for it than Weigall and Maples, 
 though the now "dissolving partnership" has been a 
 pleasant one while it lasted. ... I am leaving the violin 
 behind till I know where I am going to be, but it shall 
 follow me eventually ; now obviously is no time for 
 fiddling. 
 
 [Note, — Matola died at Newala in October, 1895, barely 
 
[i886.] Life at Newala. 
 
 265 
 
 six weeks after Bishop Maples' death. The Bishop of 
 Zanzibar, who was in the Newala district at the time, 
 writes : " Matola, the chief of the village, died, and was 
 buried on Tuesday morninej. He was very ill when I 
 first got here, and at times quite unconscious. A little 
 time before I came he was so very ill that Mr. Simpson 
 baptized him. He had been a catechumen for years 
 (since 1885) and he at last put away his wives except 
 one. The subject of polygamy and all connected with 
 marriage is a great difficulty with us here."] 
 
 (To his Mother), 
 
 Newala, June loth. 
 
 . . . My thoughts are, and will be on the march, more 
 than ever with you. Tramping through these forests on a 
 march of four hundred miles or so certainly is helpful 
 in one way, one has more time to think, and more time 
 perhaps for serious thoughts ; thus I look forward some- 
 what eagerly for its own sake to this march up to the 
 Lake. I wish you could even now know of our plans 
 that I might have your special prayers ; but I shall often 
 feel that you are sustaining me by your prayers, although 
 you will make them in the thought of me as still here. It 
 is now especially, at this season of Whitsuntide, that I am 
 asking for the gift of the Spirit that I may have " a right 
 judgment in all things ; " at the Gwangwara especially it 
 is what I must pray for. Good-bye, then, from Newala. 
 . . . Dear Johnson was carried away yesterday terribly 
 weak and ill, and we hardly dare to speak of his depar- 
 ture. It seems so doubtful whether we shall hear of his 
 safe arrival at the coast. Still, he was a trifle better 
 when he started. ... I fear that he will never gain 
 strength enough to return to up-country work, but he 
 has prepared the way and gone through privations and 
 
266 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 hardships that none of us had either the physical 
 or spiritual strength even to face, much less to go 
 through. . . . 
 
 Chogovale, neak Masasi, East Africa, 
 
 Jane 'list, 1SS6. 
 
 . . . Since I wrote there have been great changes with 
 us. Poor Mr. "Wood's sad sudden death last Friday, the 
 day after we left him at Xewala just recovering, as we 
 thought, from fever. . . . '\Mien we were half way to 
 Masasi a messenger brought a letter announcing his 
 death. . . . This sad and sudden occurrence warns me 
 to be careful of young men just coming out, so I have 
 counselled the Bishop not to take young Wathen on with 
 us. . . . The dangers and risks attending a journey to 
 the Gwangwara are so great that the Bishop has taken 
 the advice I and others of experience have given him, 
 and has decided to take only a very few bales of goods 
 there, and only a comparatively small number of people. 
 In consequence of this we shall split into two parties at 
 about 150 miles from here at a place on the Eovuma called 
 Kanyenda's. I and thirty- eight people go to the Lake 
 by a route to the south-west, through Mtarika's to the 
 Lake at Makanjila's. The Bishop was much vexed at 
 the alterations in his plans, and blamed us all for mis- 
 representing things about the Gwangwara to him. We 
 could only protest that we thought we had made it clear to 
 him that when we talked of it being quite safe " to go 
 to the Gwangwara we only meant that our lives would 
 not probably be endangered. He had thought that we 
 meant that they would not be likely to steal our property, 
 &c., but this we none of us — who know the Gwangwara 
 — could possibly have intended to say. ... He (the 
 Bishop) was fain to put everything in my hands and 
 get me to arrange the start to-day. Of course, I am 
 
[i886.] Journey to Lake Nyasa. 267 
 
 disappointed that I am not going to the Gwangwara, . . . 
 but I told him that I was ready to do anything he Hked, 
 and he elected to go to the Gwangwara himself, and to 
 get me to take the larger party round the other way. 
 Our joint caravans number seventy souls in all. . . . 
 
 MaJEJE, 66 MLLES FROM ALVSASI, 
 
 Friday, June 2oth, 1886. 
 
 . . . The Bishop and I are both wonderfully well, and 
 are enjoying this walk immensely. . . . We have walked 
 our sixteen and seventeen miles per day, coming in in 
 the evening as fresh as when we started in the morn- 
 ing. . . . To-day we have been stopping here to buy 
 food, &c., taking the opportunity this afternoon to 
 preach at some length to the inhabitants of these charm- 
 ing hills, bolder in their outline, and, perhaps, grander 
 even than our much-loved Masasi. Last night a lion 
 disturbed our slumbers with his roaring, but he kept at 
 a respectful distance. There are few flowers to be seen 
 at this time of year, but on these schist and gneiss rocks 
 the beautiful pink adenia flourishes and flowers every- 
 where. There are also some handsome aloe-like plants 
 which bear a fine bright red flower, which forms a 
 striking contrast to the dark grey and black rocks on 
 which it grows. We have seen no animals since leaving 
 Masasi, and have remarked no birds that were new to 
 us. ... I came to this place once before in 1882, . . . 
 just after the Gwangwara raid. . . . 
 
 In the Wild, 210 miles W.S.W. of Masasi, and perhaps 
 150 miles from the Lake shore, 
 
 Sunday, July llth, 1886. 
 
 . . . Last week was rather a broken one as we had to 
 stop a whole day at Mponda's bringing food and arrang- 
 ing for a guide to take us on from here to another Yao 
 chief's town . . . while another day was spent in crossing 
 
268 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 the Rovuma, &c. So since last Sunday we have not walked 
 more than sixty miles, whereas our average walking for 
 the week is from ninety to a hundred miles. We reached 
 Mponda's, which is the last inhabited spot on the 
 Rovuma right away to its source where Gwangwara 
 villages are situated, last Friday morning. It was here 
 that four and a half years ago Johnson and Janson, one 
 of their porters having died, had to leave a box of 
 provisions that had been his load, behind. What was 
 our surprise to find that the faithful Mponda had taken 
 charge of that box all these years, and actually produced 
 it with all contents intact. . . . There were in it some 
 twelve or fourteen tins of cocoa and milk which had kept 
 quite good, and a large tin, inside of which were tablets 
 of compressed soup ; these had gone bad as might have 
 been expected. . . . More than half my caravan are 
 Christians, and all the rest are on the way to becoming 
 Christians, so there is little to jar against one's feelings 
 either in their behaviour or their conversation as they 
 lie about in the encampment, enjoying the Sunday's rest 
 and at intervals cooking their food. As to food, by- 
 the-bye, I am living luxuriously on this march. Madan 
 seems to have provided every possible thing one could 
 want. For instance, my breakfast this morning was oat- 
 meal and milk, fresh eggs, bought at Mponda's yesterday, 
 biscuits, tamarind jam and cocoa. Presently I shall 
 dine off stewed fowl, cassava root fried in cakes by way 
 of vegetable, and a pudding to follow — this last, one of 
 my own invention and admirably adapted to camping out 
 entertainments ; ingredients as follows — millet flour, 
 sugar, eggs, milk, mixed and made in less than ten 
 minutes, to be eaten plain or with tamarind jam accord- 
 ing to the taste of the consumer. I am rather ashamed 
 of writing these details, but I do it because I know 
 everything interests you that helps in any way to set 
 
[i886.] 
 
 Journey to Lake Nyasa. 
 
 269 
 
 forth how one lives out here. ... I have just finished 
 reading Dr. Edersheim's " Prophecy and History in 
 Kelation to the Messiah," and to-day I hope to begin 
 Godet's "Studies on the Old Testament," but of course 
 I do not find very much time for reading on the 
 march. ... I am thankful to say I am enjoying 
 excellent health and this journey agrees with me 
 vastly. . . . 
 
 Encamjjed in the bed of the LusiNYANDO RiVER, 
 
 three-quarters of the way from Masasi to Nyasa, 
 
 July loth, 1886. 
 
 ... I had rather an adventure with an elephant 
 which I would have narrated here if only to interest the 
 three boys, but as a short account of the same will doubt- 
 less appear in Central Africa," can read it to them 
 
 when it comes out in print. ... I am now on the same 
 bit of road that Livingstone followed when he left the 
 Kovuma exactly twenty years ago, and I came across the 
 different hills and streams just where he marked them. 
 This road is far from safe, being infested by bands of 
 plundering Gwangwara who, we fully expect, will molest 
 us before we reach our journey's end. While we were 
 following the course of the Rovuma we saw a great many 
 animals, though I did not get many chances with my 
 rifle, the noise of the caravan always giving them warn- 
 ing and allowing them to get away. However, I got a 
 good many guinea-fowl with my other gun, and with the 
 rifle secured one large wart hog. We are in an elephant 
 country just now ; this morning we saw traces of them 
 everywhere, but my friend of yesterday is the only 
 actual specimen I have seen. Considering that my work 
 out here is not elephant hunting, I don't think I shall be 
 quite so ready to stalk these gentlemen again as I was 
 yesterday. . . . To-day some of our men saw a large 
 
270 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 herd of zebras. I, who was walking ahead, did not see 
 them. . . . We are now, by aneroid barometer, about 
 2,600 feet above the sea. . . . 
 
 Four miles from Mwisomhe^s and about sixty miles from 
 LosEWA on the Lake, 
 
 Jail/ im, 1886. 
 
 . . . Dm-ing the last four days we have been winding 
 round and round and up and down in a very moun- 
 tainous country where, at an altitude of 5,000 feet, I can 
 tell you we find it very cold — too cold indeed for me to 
 hold the pen and write after the sun has gone down ; still 
 one enjoys the different scenery. We are still on meta- 
 morphic rocks, but the flora is slightly different, and the 
 streams we cross are now more of the nature of mountain 
 burns. Fancy my joy yesterday when near one of them 
 I came upon clumps and clumps of splendid Osminida 
 rcrjalis, and^for the Eoyal Fern fears no rival — all 
 round and about, tufts of marsh fern {As2)idium the- 
 ly2)teris) and its first cousin, mountain polypody {Polij- 
 podiiun oleopteris) — how the sight would have moved me 
 twenty years ago. As it was it was a real pleasure to see 
 these three old English favourites all growing together. 
 How the sight recalled different occasions in bygone days 
 when I have found all three of them — never, though, 
 all three growing together. ... I have had two days of 
 fever, but I determined to walk on, knowing that this 
 was the best thing to do, and so I am as well as ever 
 again. ... I got a flying shot at an eland three days 
 ago, but missed it, to my great regret, as our men that 
 day were very short of food, and one or two of them 
 could hardly climb the hills at all for lack of it. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA Island, Lake Nyasa, August 2nd, 1886. 
 You will, I think, be pleased to hear that I arrived 
 here safe and sound some four days ago, and that I 
 
[i8S6.] Arrival at Likoma Island. 271 
 
 am in excellent health, bar a few ulcers on hands and 
 feet. The Bishop has not yet appeared. . . . The party 
 here . . . have been settled on this island since January 
 last. . . . Our walk from Masasi I calculated as being 
 just four hundred miles long, by the more or less 
 circuitous route we had to follow on account of the 
 Gwangwara. We left Masasi on June 21st and reached 
 Chitesi's on the mainland opjDOsite this island on July 
 29th, so that we were rather more than five weeks in 
 coming. The Bishop and I parted on the Eovuma 
 about July 1st. ... I am charmed with the prospect of 
 the work before us — so many people and villages along 
 the shores of the lake for at least one hundred miles of 
 its length. . . . There is a very good library here. . . . 
 I left all my books at Newala and came away with very 
 little property of any kind. . . . 
 
 Tuesday, August 'drd. 
 
 The Bishop came after all, yesterday. . . . He has 
 got on very well on the whole up at the Gwangwara, and is 
 quite well. ... I shall be left in charge of all this work 
 on and about the lake to forward it as best I can. . . . 
 This island is about five miles long and about one mile 
 broad and is hilly. Soil not fertile, yet we think fruit 
 trees will grow here, so I shall get all kinds of seeds 
 from our Scotch friends at Blantyre. . . . This island is 
 thickly populated ; ... it is just as far from the main- 
 land as the Isle of Wight at Eyde is from Stokes Bay. 
 Chitesi's, just opposite, is a very large and populous 
 village, with the houses built and crowded together as 
 close as ninepins on a strip of land only thirty or 
 forty yards wide, the lake bounding it on one side and 
 a marsh on the other. [The houses are built in the 
 manner described as a protection from the raiding of the 
 Gwangwara. — Ed.] Most of the villages on the Lake 
 
272 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 shores are inhabited by Nyasas, but there are some large 
 Yao towns as well. ... 
 
 Blantyre, Shir]6 Highlands, 
 
 August 2Ut, 1896. 
 
 I hope you have by this time bought a good map of 
 Nyasa and the district south of it as far as Quillimane ; 
 if so you will be able to see where I am. Blantyre is 
 the flourishing mission station of the Scotch Established 
 Church (Presbyterian), and here the Bishop and I are at 
 present staying as the guests of our very kind Scotch 
 friends. . . . We left Likoma on August 9th in the 
 " C. J." * We called in at various large Yao and Nyasa 
 towns, . . . and reached Matope, about forty miles 
 down the Shire, on Friday 13th. . . . Thence we walked 
 by moonlight and during the greater part of the next 
 day till we reached Mount Zomba, where the three 
 Buchanan brothers who are planters are stationed. . . . 
 Here too we met the consul, Mr. Hawes, and had much 
 conference with him. 
 
 Sunday morning was wholly taken up with services. In 
 the afternoon the Bishop and I walked up to the top of 
 Mount Zomba, 5,000 feet, and from its summit obtained 
 a very fine view over the south country and the corner 
 of Lake Shirwa. 
 
 ... On Monday, bidding them good-bye we started 
 for Blantyre, forty-two miles distant, reaching here 
 about three in the afternoon of Tuesday. . . . Mandala, 
 one mile from here, is the station of the African Lakes 
 Company, presided over by the Brothers Moir. We dined 
 there two nights ago, sitting down fourteen ! . . . The 
 Moirs have a nice piano, and I had to do what I could 
 on it. . . . Mr. Hetherwick [of Blantyre] is a very good 
 Yao scholar, infinitely better than I am ; I have already 
 learned much from him, indeed we have been absorbed in 
 
 * The mission steamer Charles Janaoiit 
 
[i886.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 273 
 
 Yao the last few days. . . . Last Sunday upon Zomba, 
 we saw such quantities of wild flowers — mallow, Michael- 
 mas daisy, bramble, bracken, African marigolds, &c., &c., 
 in glorious profusion and wealth of hue and colour — it 
 did remind one of England. . . . 
 
 Likoma, Lake Nyasa, Septemher 6th, 1886. 
 
 ... It might appear that, living on an island as we 
 do, our work is likely to be cramped and confined. But in 
 reality it is not so at all; for, in the first place, the island 
 is sufficiently large for it to take a very long day indeed 
 to walk all round it, while also it is most thickly popu- 
 lated, the numerous valleys all round its shores affording 
 ample scope for missionary work for more than one 
 person and for many years to come ; while secondly the 
 Charles Janson enables us to go easily and rapidly to the 
 mainland at any hour of the day or night. . . . 
 
 We Mapleses are certainly not good folk at being to 
 others faults " a little blind." Don't you feel that ? 
 
 . . . Certainly as we grow older it is a bad sign if we 
 are not in some measure trying to get the better of a 
 failing, by no means an amiable or light one ; but I 
 won't moralize further about it. . . . There is a great 
 deal of cattle and many goats on this island, so that 
 milk and meat are cheap and plentiful. There are no 
 wild animals save hy raxes and galagos.* There are snakes 
 of various kinds ; plenty of crocodiles in the lake, making 
 bathing quite unsafe ; and fish eagles and divers in 
 considerable numbers. The island is rocky and stony 
 to a degree, yet there are a certain amount of trees, 
 and in the rainy season, grass, &c. Little or no corn of 
 any kind is grown, the natives subsisting almost entirely 
 on cassava and fish. We are now building a church 
 
 * Also there were plenty of otters, 
 CM. T 
 
274 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 which we hope will be sufficiently near completion to 
 allow of the Bishop consecrating it before he goes. . . . 
 Our Scotch friends have promised us all kinds of cuttings 
 and plants and young fruit trees ; so we hope in time to 
 turn to good account even the barren soil of this island ; 
 peaches, apples, figs, all flourish at Blantyre. . . . 
 
 Yesterday, Sunday, we got a congregation to the 
 " heathen service " held at 9 a.m. under a tree, of nearly 
 two hundred people. . . . 
 
 Sejptemher Sth, 1886. — . . . The Nyasas who live on 
 the island are rather a rough set, but I think when we 
 get better known by them, there is no reason to suppose 
 that they will not give themselves up to ameliorating 
 influences, and even come forward for the instruction 
 we are here specially to impart. I have long since 
 learned to lay aside any hopes of finding a people in 
 these parts who en masse will be earnest in coming 
 forward to embrace Christianity. A great deal has to be 
 warred down in their hearts before they can be expected 
 to crave for what alone can secure them true happiness 
 both in this world and in the next. Meanwhile we go 
 round to their villages and preach to them, and exhort 
 them, and entreat them. In God's own time the result 
 of all this will be manifest, but we have no right to 
 claim that the manifestation should be in our life-time. 
 In coming here I have a new language to learn — the 
 Nyasa tongue[Chinyanja]to wit, as it is spoken here. It 
 is easy, and will not be hard to pick up I can tell. . . . 
 
 . . . We have a flourishing school of thirty boarders, 
 many of whom can already read and write, although they 
 have not been under instruction a full year yet. . . . 
 
 September 19th, 1886. 
 
 You will see what I have written to my father on the 
 subject of the promotion the Bishop has been pleased to 
 
[i886.] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 275 
 
 bestow upon me, which will cause you to address your 
 envelopes to me differently ; just eleven years ago you 
 changed Esquire into the Reverend, and now you will be 
 changing the Reverend into the Venerable. Ah ! my dear 
 mother, ten or even six years ago I might have felt a 
 little vain about being made an Archdeacon ; but now I 
 can only regard the distinction, such as it is, as one which 
 my eleven years of work here verily have given me very 
 little claim to. Mistakes, mistaken judgments, rash 
 actions, shortcomings, sins — these make up the tale of 
 my missionary labours in East Africa ; rather than such 
 good service as might warrant a Bishop in making me 
 an Archdeacon. The Bishop I think was anxious that, in 
 view of the numbers who are likely to centre towards this 
 part of the Mission, there should be no mistake as to 
 who was to take the supreme conduct of affairs here 
 under himself. . . . 
 
 [Note. — In a letter to his father written at this time 
 he signs himself ''Your affectionate and 'venerable' 
 son."j 
 
 SS. ''Charles Janson." 
 
 October nth, 1886. 
 
 One of the quietest times for writing is such an one as 
 1 have chosen to night ; to wit, when we are lying at 
 anchor in a bay on our weekly cruise to the villages 
 south of us. . . . On Tuesday we call at two or three 
 large towns, and preach as we can make opportunity to 
 do so, and by Wednesday we reach the large town of 
 Ngomanje's which, in our weekly cruise, is our furthest 
 point south and some fifty miles south of Likoma. On 
 Thursdays we run back to the island, and on Friday 
 the steamer usually, though not always, takes a rest. 
 Once a month she has to go over to the opposite side of 
 the Lake to Bandawe to leave our mails and pick up those 
 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 that have arrived for us. ... I was somewhat busy 
 last week writing some reminiscences of Bishop Steere 
 for Mr. Heanley's biography of him. I think I have 
 ahready told you that all my feUow-helpers here are most 
 ready and willing in every way to forward my wishes, 
 and to accept my judgment and advice, so that I really do 
 begin to feel a little elderly ! . . . Yesterday after the 
 open-au- service, to which some two to three hundred 
 people came, Mrs. Swinny and I played hymn tunes 
 to the people as duets on violin and harmonium. . . . 
 I was very much pleased with a pretty story, called 
 "Our Little Ann," by the author of "Miss Toosey*s 
 Mission." By-the-bye, I wonder whether you have ever 
 read that book. Our library here is a good one, but there 
 are no light books, no story books, so one like " Little 
 Ann" coming now and again is a great refreshment, 
 though novels as such — except those by very famous 
 writers — I have no liking for. Biographies, travels, like 
 you. I am always fond of. . . . 
 
 Odober 12th. 
 
 To-day we called at the large Nyasa town where 
 Janson lies buried, and found his grave kept in beautiful 
 order. The chief of the town is rather a pleasant old 
 man, not too fond of begging, like most of the others. . . . 
 
 Novtmher 3r<f, 1886. 
 Whenever you happen to be sending me a box of 
 things, a few bottles of sweets or some chocolates would 
 be very acceptable, as there are so many children here 
 who come about the place, to whom one likes to have 
 sweets to dispense. We seldom get fish here. Although 
 the natives are always fishing and casting their nets, 
 they don't seem to care to bring their fish up for sale, as 
 it is the only food they have to eat with their cassava 
 porridge. Then, too, a whole party of them go shares in 
 
[i886.] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 277 
 
 a net, and consequently every " catch " is divided up 
 amongst the shareholders, and so we seldom have fish, 
 though the lake has plenty of good fish in it, and one 
 way and another a good many are taken. . . . 
 
 Noveviler 2nd. 
 
 . . . The drunkenness of the people on this island is 
 greater than I have ever known it elsewhere. ... I am 
 afraid we are little likely to wean any of the older 
 members of the community from this vice. It is with 
 the young that our main hope lies. . . . The white ants 
 are more destructive here I think than anywhere I have 
 found them. One hears them workmg away in the 
 reeds that make our house walls in the silence of the 
 night. The houses here will hardly last two years I 
 should say. . . . We shall be able in future to procure 
 sugar, treacle, coffee, and wheat flour in the quantities 
 we require, from Mr. Buchanan's plantation at Zomba, 
 and at very fairly moderate prices, thus : Coffee 61L per 
 lb., sugar 4|(Z., and flour at del. . . . 
 
 Likoma, November 2lst, 1886. 
 ... I preached my first sermon in Nyasa to-day, 
 extempore, and without using an interpreter. As I have 
 done little towards learning the language in these three 
 months and a half, you may imagine that it is an easy 
 one to pick up, or I should not so soon have been able to 
 give tongue in it. . . . 
 
 Likoma, Novemhtr 1886. 
 . . . One of my chief recreations here is amusing the 
 children, and especially the little girls, who are, many of 
 them, very interestmg. One m particular is a sweetly 
 pretty child of about eleven or twelve years old. I don't 
 think I have ever seen a prettier child, white or black. 
 She has a mother living, and two sisters, who are all 
 free, but she is a slave, and I am going to ransom her, 
 
278 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 so that she may not be torn away from her mother at 
 any time when her master sees fit to sell her into a 
 caravan going to the coast. Of com'se if I ransom her I 
 shall have the right to control her future a bit ; that is to 
 say, when she is older I shall be able to prevent any 
 worthless fellow taking her in marriage, and shall, on the 
 other hand, be able to marry her to one of our own boys, 
 they both being by that time, I hope, Christians. In 
 many respects I take things much easier here than I was 
 wont to do at Newala. I meddle little with domestic 
 arrangements, Mrs. Swinny is so good a housekeeper, 
 though I could easily beat her at puddings if I wanted 
 to. I never build here ; Alley, our carpenter, is so good a 
 builder. On the other hand, I feel the responsibility 
 here far greater than at Newala, and I have the feelings, 
 and idiosyncrasies, and fancies of a larger number of 
 colleagues to consider and allow for. The position 
 requires more tact and more powers of government. 
 Still, if the years of life in Africa have not made me 
 a mine of wisdom and good judgment, they have at least 
 taught me something ; and since I have come into this 
 place not by my own seeking, I may humbly trust that 
 God will give me a portion of that "right judgment in 
 all things " which my present work requires. You say 
 you don't like solitude. No, and I am sure I should not 
 like it either. This island life in particular would be 
 unbearable without the child life there is about it, and 
 I should grow so homesick that I should have, I verily 
 believe, to cut and run, for somehow or other one does 
 feel very far off here — very isolated at times. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, December 8th, 1886. 
 . . . Johnson, [Mr. W. P. Johnson, finding himself 
 much better when he arrived at Cape Town, wrote to ask 
 the Bishop whether he might return from thence to 
 
[1887.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 279 
 
 Nyasa, and arrived at the latter place in October. — Ed.] 
 I am glad to say, has been much better, and the 
 steamer trips seem to suit him well. Now that he is 
 here I seldom cruise, he being able to do all that can at 
 present be done in preaching at the villages. ... I feel 
 specially anxious that the scores of little girls in this 
 island who scamper about everywhere, and who have no 
 one really to look after them or teach them any good 
 thing, should have some lady who would make them her 
 particular care. I am trying to do what I can with some 
 eight or ten who now live here, and who have from two 
 to three hours' teaching every day, which Mr. Frere and 
 I conjointly impart. . . . 
 
 Likoma, January loth, 1887. 
 ... I think lately we have had some sure signs that 
 the people in this island are more inclined to give heed 
 to our message than a few months ago. Johnson's 
 earnest preaching has had not a little do with this, I feel 
 very confident. . . . There is a tree that grows here 
 which is already famous in England (it grows all over 
 Yaoland and near the Zambesi also) for the poison it 
 produces, which is the medicine now for certain forms of 
 heart affections, taking the place, I believe, of digitalis. 
 The flower is a very pretty, well-shaped one, and the 
 seed pods, whence the poison is obtained, are very large. 
 [The Strophanthus ; the Swahili name is Komha, — Ed. J 
 . . . One great difficulty that always occurs, I fancy, at 
 Mission stations where the work has only recently been 
 begun, is found in the fact that the young men coming 
 forward so much more readily, and being so much easier 
 to teach than the girls, they get baptized much sooner. 
 Then they grow up, and of course want to marry, and 
 so often there are no Christian young women for them 
 to marry, and they are obliged to marry heathen wives, 
 which of course, to say the least of it, is a very question- 
 
28o Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 able thing, even if we are able to say that under these 
 exceptional circumstances it is not absolutely sinful. At 
 any rate, I am trying all I can to get the girls who are 
 engaged to be married to various boys in the school, to 
 come and be taught here and prepared for baptism, in 
 order, if possible, to avoid, or at any rate lessen the evil 
 I speak of. . . . 
 
 March 2nd. 
 
 . . . My legs are giving me trouble with ulcers just 
 now, and so I do a good deal of sitting down, with the 
 offending limbs in a horizontal position. . . . 
 
 [These March letters speak of the death of Mr. Swinny, 
 one of the workers at Likoma. He died at Bandawe, 
 the Scotch Mission Station on the opposite side of the 
 Lake.] 
 
 {To his Mother.) 
 
 Likoma, Nyasa, March I'Sth, 1887. 
 ... I send you ... a hymn I wrote a few days ago. 
 I send it to you, because I was thinking a good deal of 
 you when I wrote it. I do not think it has any merits, 
 poetical or otherwise, but you will like it for its simplicity, 
 or for the sake of its author, or both. ... I have always 
 felt there is now-a-days in our Church, far too little 
 worship directed immediately to the Holy Spirit, far too 
 little recognition of the important bearing on the religious 
 life of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit indwelling in 
 us. . . . You will be sorry to hear that I am at present 
 keeping to my room, in order to doctor a series of ulcers on 
 both legs. ' Tis a series, but they are not serious^ and I 
 trust to be quite rid of them in a week or so. 
 
 Likoma, April 2nd, 1887. 
 . . . Many thanks for the oatmeal. Brand, &c., but you 
 really must not send me any food again. We have all 
 
[i887.] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 281 
 
 things edible in abundance here, whatever it was in old 
 days at Masasi or Newala. . . . 
 
 April 2nd. 
 
 ... As to Pere Lourdel, versus Church Missionary 
 Society at Uganda, I could say a great deal, but it is difficult 
 to put it in a letter. The fact of those glorious martyrdoms 
 (and the converts to Eoman Catholicism and the converts 
 to Anglo-Catholicism met their deaths equally bravely) 
 prevents one almost thinking of divided Churches. I 
 should fancy, though, that the Eoman method of bap- 
 tizing, after scarcely any period of probation, must have 
 very serious disadvantages, however successful the work 
 of conversion seems to be. You must remember that 
 Mr. Mackay, who is really the leading spirit among the 
 English missionaries there-, and who has been there 
 from the first, is not a clergyman at all, not even a 
 deacon. I know him slightly, having met him once or 
 twice in Zanzibar, in 76. . . . 
 
 April eth, 1887. 
 . . . The Gwangwara send us very pohte messages, 
 but they are still a terrible scourge to the villages and 
 towns on the Lake shores. Quite recently two entire 
 towns have been swept away by them. . . . This island 
 looks so pretty now with all the greenness of the rainy 
 season about it. With the rains come the fish, which we 
 buy in plenty now, also milk in abundance, and rich. 
 Indeed we do very well, and Likoma is by no means a 
 place to lead us to starvation. . . . 
 
 Likoma, June I2th, 1887. 
 . . . We are having really coldish weather just now, so 
 that even at midday the sun seems to have but very little 
 power to diffuse heat and warmth, though as to light we 
 have plenty of that, and of glare too, with cloudless skies 
 and a wind-beaten, wave-stirred lake, with the " white 
 
282 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 horses " and all complete, just as in the salt sea, with 
 which you are better acquainted. Do you remember 
 years ago how you took up and studied, in a more or less 
 desultory way, geology? And so did I at an earlier 
 period. ... I now, after a lapse of a great many years, 
 am (again somewhat desultorily) taking up the subject 
 again, and am delighting in the flood of light that more 
 recent research and study has thrown on early geological 
 periods. . . . My master is Geikie, who I suppose is 
 reckoned by far the most distinguished of living geologists, 
 or at any rate of English ones. ... I find it very 
 interesting, though when I get those books on harmony 
 which I asked you to send, it will be all music and sound 
 with me again. Alas ! in all these subjects I cannot go 
 very far because of the mathematics, with regard to 
 which in point of thorough muddle my brain would vie 
 with any one's. ... I expect though you will open your 
 eyes and say — you certainly might — what have yon, a 
 clergyman, to do with such things ? Though I think you 
 understand me enough to know that this is only one 
 of my moods. Fine reasoning and brilliant discovery in 
 an abstruse and deeply interesting subject — geolog}^ — have 
 aroused my enthusiasm, and I write fresh from the 
 perusal of some of Geikie' s lucid — I had almost said 
 pellucid — passages. ... I have had a great deal of boat 
 sailing lately, and feel so glad that I can handle an open 
 boat with a sail in a rough lake and a stilBfish breeze. 
 This accomplishment (a slight one in itself) has stood me 
 in good stead lately. Our boat is the man-of-war's 
 pinnace Mr. Swinny bought two years ago, and which 
 will not last very much longer I expect. Our first adult 
 baptism took place here yesterday. . . . We are still 
 busy building. ... I am just now engaged upon a 
 house, seventy-six feet long, by sixteen feet broad. This 
 is, for us, very large. ... We have lately been arranging 
 
[i887.] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 283 
 
 for the catechumens and hearers to come to a sort of 
 ante-communion service, which is in fact exactly the old 
 " mass of the catechumens " of the early Church. . . . 
 My Yao vocabulary is finished, and it will probably go 
 down to Zanzibar with the Bishop, to be printed. Even 
 you, I think, would find something to interest you in the 
 " introduction," so perhaps I'll send you a copy some 
 day. ... I cannot think Likoma so healthy a place as 
 either Masasi or Newala. (A little garden note.) We 
 picked our first tomatoes to-day. . . . 
 
 {To his Niece.) 
 
 Likoma, JuJi/ IWi, 1887. 
 
 We are at last beginning to get a little influence over 
 the elder women and mothers, and some of them are 
 coming forward to be taught. This gives one an oppor- 
 tunity of trying to rouse in them some interest in their 
 own children spiritually. It is grievous to find how 
 little regard the mothers have for the moral behaviour 
 of the little ones. . . . They never correct them when 
 they are naughty, and don't seem to care one bit when 
 they do very wrong in the sight of God. In fact, you 
 see, we have to be both fathers and mothers to these 
 children in all respects, except in feeding them. This 
 will show you how very much there is to be done here, 
 and how everything has to be begun quite at the 
 beginning of things. . . . This very afternoon I was 
 grieving over a very wicked thing one of the children 
 had done, to her mother. And the mother actually 
 laughed, and told me not to be so sad about it — and yet 
 that was the child's very own mother. When I tell you 
 this, can you wonder that it takes so long to make many 
 converts in this land ? I think you will not. I'm very 
 sorry to think that I have written you such a melancholy 
 kind of letter, but it can't be wrong for us sometimes, 
 
284 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 at least, to think a little of the great power of evil there 
 is still in the world, for this helps us to pray more 
 fervently " Thy kingdom come," and it sets us thinking 
 what loe can do, which we are not yet doing, to help to 
 remove it. ... I think I must have had seventy or 
 eighty letters the other day, when the mails for four 
 months came in together. ... I am sure you will pity 
 me for having to answ^er all these. The only way to do 
 it is just to sit down whenever one can, and scratch off a 
 few lines as I have done to you now. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, August oth, 1887. 
 The Bishop and Joseph Williams arrived safe and 
 sound, just a w^eek ago. . . . 
 
 August 9th. 
 
 As at present arranged the Bishop will leave us four 
 or five weeks from now. He intends to walk by a direct 
 route to Masasi and Newala, and to stay there a month 
 or so before going on to Zanzibar. He told me the other 
 day that he is looking forward with mtense eagerness 
 to his return to England. He certainly has spent a 
 wonderful three and a half years out here, and has done 
 an amazing amount of good and excellent work amongst 
 us all. . . . 
 
 [The towns on the eastern shore of the Lake were so 
 unhealthy for Europeans, that it was thought advisable 
 no English missionary should live in them.] 
 
 Septcmher StJi, 1887. 
 
 . . . There are several teachers and their wives here 
 now, ready to be "planted out" at the large towns on 
 the shores of the Lake which the steamer regularly visits. 
 Johnson, however, has the supermtendence of all this 
 w^ork, and will have to see it carried through. . . . The 
 parcels of toys (looking-glasses, tin trumpets, &c.) have 
 all arrived safely, I am glad to be able to say ; and 
 
[1887.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 285 
 
 heaps of parcels from working parties, positively flooding 
 me with girls' dresses. . . . The Bishop has been out 
 for several expeditions in the boat. . . . He went with 
 W. P. Johnson and self to Chisumulu, and we walked 
 together all over the island, taking stock of its population, 
 &c. We slept on the sand there, and came back the next 
 day. . . . [Likoma and Chisumulu are the only inhabited 
 islands on Lake Nyasa. — Ed.] 
 
 Likoma, Se^jtemher Sth, 1887. 
 . . . The Bishop leaves us three days hence . . . 
 the day after he goes, Weigall and Bellingham leave . . . 
 a week later I start with a. party of fifteen porters for the 
 Gwangwara. I expect to be away on this journey about 
 a month, not longer, I hope. I am going there since the 
 Bishop wishes it ; but I have no longer the taste for 
 moving about which I once had. A journey there, 
 however, seems a necessity again this year, and I am the 
 only proper person here now to take it for various 
 reasons. . . . 
 
 Likoma, September I8th, 1887. 
 My old native teacher Eustace,* from Newala, has 
 followed me here, and will settle here with his wife and 
 child and sister (a little girl of twelve or so). ... I 
 think I have in my letters mentioned the baptism of six 
 boys here. They are very good boys indeed, and it was 
 a great happiness to me to see them baptized. The 
 Bishop administered this sacrament to them, and the 
 next day confirmed them. I am now about to prepare 
 them for first communion, which I hope they will receive 
 on Sunday week, just before I start on my walk. . . . 
 The weather is beginning to be very hot, and our tempers 
 with it ! . . . . 
 
 Eustace Malisawa. 
 
286 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 At the Gwangwara's, 
 
 October 1887. 
 Without mishap of any kind, and after an enjoyable 
 walk from the Lake of about 115 miles, I arrived here 
 yesterday afternoon. I have not yet been ushered into 
 the great man's presence, it being the etiquette with all 
 African chiefs, with any pretensions to greatness, to 
 leave their guests half a day or so before condescending 
 to see them. ... I am keeping both a journal and 
 some journey notes this time. ... As I am mentioning 
 in those "journey notes" everything of interest that 
 turns up, I will not reiterate here what you will read 
 there. I have derived much pleasure, while on the walk, 
 from reading Lady Burton's " Inner Life of Syria." . . . 
 Just before coming away I was cheered by receiving the 
 July letters. ... I have been much interested in 
 reading of the Jubilee day and all the great doings 
 thereon, especially of the children's fete in Hyde 
 Park. . . . For the first time since I have been in 
 Africa I have picked blackberries, . . . and for the first 
 time, too, I have seen real tree ferns. . . . 
 
 At the Gwangwara's, 
 
 Odoher 6th. 
 
 . . . My special mission here this year is to ransom 
 two or three women whom we have never got back since 
 the raid [at Masasi in 1882. — Ed.] , and if possible to get 
 leave to go on to see the really greatest Gwangwara 
 chief, Mhaluli, who has never yet been " at home " to 
 any European. This man Sonjela has been visited 
 twice by Porter, once by Swinny, once by the Bishop, 
 and now here am I knocking at his front door, though 
 meanwhile here I am stopping a jolly long while, by-the- 
 bye, in the servants' hall, so to speak. . . . 
 
 Odoher 1th. 
 
 ... So far we have got on very well with Sonjela, 
 
[1887.] Visit to the Gwangwara. 287 
 
 and he has expressed himself mightily pleased with our 
 present — one bale of calico, one box of little bells, and 
 Turkey twill, and one load of salt — really not a bad 
 present at all, and so he ought to be pleased. ... It is 
 a curious reflection for me to think that here I am, five 
 years afterwards, the guest — almost, I might say, an 
 honoured guest — of the man who sent his w^arriors 
 against us in that memorable year. ... I saw the 
 poor woman, whom I hope to ransom this time, yester- 
 day, and she complains of being very badly treated. . . . 
 Sonjela's three chief wives seem very sensible w^omen 
 and very well-mannered. . . . This walk has freshened me 
 up wonderfully ; walking always agrees wdth me. . . . 
 
 October 8th. 
 
 . . . We are now at Sonjela's, and he has sent a 
 messenger to the other chief — Mhaluli — to know if he 
 is willing to see us this year. . . . We had a fine ox 
 given us this morning, which is now being roasted (not 
 whole !) over slow fires, cut up in strips and salted, to 
 serve as relish for many days for our porters on their 
 march. I have been to an "at home" this afternoon. 
 Vide my journal for particulars. . . . Parties of Sonjela's 
 wives, and children, and sons, come in at all times of the 
 day, and are very conversational in their way. 
 
 Odoher 12th. 
 
 , . . The messengers only came back from Mhaluli 
 last night. As he declines to see us, unless we bring 
 him a very large present — i.e., from five to ten bales of 
 calico — we shall not go to him ; hence I start back to 
 Likoma to-morrow. The last two days here have been 
 very unsatisfactory . . . still, I do think we shall get 
 off without mishap to-morrow. . . . Songea (Sonjela) 
 has been in his cups so often that I have not had proper 
 opportunity to talk with him. This place is certainly a 
 den of thieves and robbers, and I cannot but think that 
 
288 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 any one of us permanently living here would meet with 
 but scant courtesy. . . . 
 
 October \2th. 
 
 I hope we may still be able to ransom the poor woman 
 I spoke of, but we have not got her yet, and Sonjela has 
 not helped us at all in the matter. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, Odoher 2^th, 1887. 
 ... I arrived here on Saturday, 22nd, having 
 walked from the Gwangwara to Chitesi's in eight days, 
 at the rate of twenty and twenty-one miles per day. . . . 
 [Chitesi's village is on the mainland opposite Likoma. — 
 Ed.] 
 
 Likoma, November I4:th, 1887. 
 . . . Our school thrives, and I am very well satisfied 
 with the progress and behaviour of the bulk of the 
 scholars. ... I believe more than ever in training the 
 young, though, of course, the elders must not be left 
 out. . . . We are beginning to vaccinate the children 
 here. The Vaccine Society — or whatever it is — sends out 
 lymph now by every mail, but it is always a chance 
 whether it has kept good on the voyage. Vaccination 
 is probably one of the very greatest material blessings 
 we can confer on the natives. . . . 
 
 December 21st, 1887. 
 . . . With our Scotch friends we have most friendly 
 comparing of notes as to our different systems of 
 teaching, . . . and altogether they are most pleasant 
 and kind neighbours. . . . [He is alluding to the Scotch 
 Mission Station of Bandawe, on the other side of the 
 Lake — about fifty miles distant. — Ed.] 
 
 December 21st. 
 
 Some very exciting and serious news reached us on 
 Sunday last from the north end of the Lake. The Ilala 
 came, bringing Dr. Cross, of the Scotch Mission, to seek 
 our aid in various ways — e.g,y by lending our steamer. 
 
[i887.] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 289 
 
 pinnace, &c., supplying guns, food, and ammunition to 
 the little band of ten or twelve Europeans who, at the 
 head of a native force, are endeavouring to drive the 
 Arabs, who first attacked them, from the country. The 
 Arabs, who trade between the sea coast and the country 
 adjacent to the North end of this lake and the South of 
 Tanganyika, have for a long time past been threatening 
 the station and store of the African Lake's Company at 
 Karonga's ; and so Consul Hawes, Mr. Moir, some of 
 the Scotch missionaries, Consul O'Neill and his brother- 
 in-law, and two or three elephant hunters, went there to 
 help to repulse the attack. On the 23rd ultimo the Arabs 
 tried to carry the fort by storm, but had to fall back 
 before the effective fire of the European force and their 
 followers. For five days these were under the fire of 
 the Arab guns, but none w^ere killed. Then they had 
 to abandon the fort owing to the sanitary conditions 
 becoming so bad. . . . Under a native escort of 5,000 
 men, armed with spears, our friends escaped to a place 
 thirty miles north, also on the Lake shores, where they 
 are now encamped, very short of food and ammunition, 
 but preparing for an attack upon the Arabs, in order, if 
 possible, to rid the country of them altogether. ... I 
 was able to supply a large quantity of native food, some 
 powder, caps, bullets, my Martini-Henry rifle, and 280 
 cartridges. I placed our pinnace at his (the Consul's) 
 disposal, and have wTitten to say that as soon as the 
 Charles Janson comes back from the South, I will urge 
 Johnson to allow her to be sent North (as the Consul 
 desires) in order that she may lie off the place where the 
 camp is, as a kind of city of refuge in case our friends get 
 worsted and have to fly. . . . 
 
 Likoma, Becemher Slst, 1887. 
 . . . To-morrow nine of our schoolboys and three of 
 our girls are to be made catechumens. . . . Our most 
 
 CM. U 
 
290 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 hopeful work is certainly that which we do wit±i the 
 young. Hence it is, I suppose, that, aft-er all, the schools 
 and attention to them, take up most of my time. . . . 
 
 January 1th, 1888. 
 . . . The rainy season has been early with us this year. 
 
 We had six inches in December, and although it is but the 
 7th of January the gauge already shows a rainfall of 
 upwards of five inches. Of course this has started our- 
 vegetables again, and we are able to have a salad at 
 least, nearly every day. Soon, too, our crop of tomatoes 
 will be coming in, and they are, I think, without 
 exception, the most useful vegetable there is. What 
 don't they make? one might well ask; for, whether as 
 jam, puddings, sauce, vegetables, salad, or garnish, they 
 are aHke excellent, and scarcely rivalled in any of these 
 departments of gustatory science. I charge you, Katie, 
 never hoil yom* tomatoes when you serve them as a 
 vegetable ; nay, rather you shall gently stew them, and 
 that, too, with such careful and kind anxiety, that none 
 of their rich juices shall waste their strength or pass 
 away in the noisy steam that a vulgar boiling would 
 inevitably generate. You may also roast or bake your 
 tomatoes as you would roast or bake apples, on hob or 
 in oven ; even so shall they prove most excellent. Or if 
 a more novel mode of enchanting any gourmet who may 
 be bidden to your table you would seek, you may even 
 place your tomatoes under your joint (turning and 
 roasting above), and let the gravy drop upon them as 
 they gently cook in the place from which they may have 
 ousted, for the nonce, the goodly Yorkshire pudding, 
 which by this time of course will have become at No. 17 
 the indispensable and most grateful accompaniment of 
 the "roast." Other ways there are of making this 
 prince of vegetables take its regal position on your table, 
 
[i888.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 291 
 
 but I feel that archidiaconal functions forbid the further 
 revelations of culinary mysteries. . . . 
 
 Likoma, January 10th, 1888. 
 [Note, This letter contains a lengthy description of 
 the fighting at the north end of the Lake, but, inasmuch 
 as a full account of this fighting will be found in Captain 
 Lugard's book, these details are omitted.] 
 
 What I am anxious about just now arises from a fear 
 that the Arabs, who have not been decisively repulsed, 
 may go round to the Gwangwara and incite them to 
 harass us, either in the way of levying blackmail, or 
 even through pressure on the chiefs (Chitesi and others), 
 by whose permission we live here, to compel us to go 
 away from the country. . . . 
 
 Likoma, February 6th, 1888. 
 ... I really think I am becoming quite a successful 
 teacher of singing. My last achievement is getting the 
 boys and girls to sing " Glory to Thee, my God, this 
 night," as a canon. I daresay you know the grand old 
 tune is a canon, and can be sung as such. ... I am 
 now teaching them to sing the chants for the Canticles 
 in parts ; and also rounds (" White Sand and Grey Sand," 
 &c.) in Chinyanja. The children enjoy the singing 
 immensely. I have also translated *'In Woodstock 
 Town," and I am teaching them that. ... 
 
 (Letter to his Godchild.) 
 
 February 1st, 1888. 
 I was so glad to get the other day your nice little 
 letter, which showed me you don't forget your godpapa 
 at all, just as he never forgets you. I wish you could 
 come here and dig in the sand and play on the shores of 
 our great big Lake here with the little black girls whom 
 I teach. I am sure you would like to do so; and you 
 
 u 2 
 
292 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 would not find their black faces at all strange after 
 just a week or two, I feel quite sure. . . . But I am 
 afraid you will never be able to come out here, so what 
 is the good of telling you all about it. Why it's just like 
 talking to people about strawberries when you've got 
 none to give them, and their mouths begin to water all 
 for nothing ! I don't think you'll see me in England 
 yet awhile, though I do hope to see you before you are 
 quite old and greyheaded, and before I am quite bent 
 double with age. ... I am too busy to write you a 
 long letter this time, but I send you lots of kisses. I 
 hope you'll look about for them in the envelope, and 
 you'll have to take the postman into custody if they've 
 all been stamped out at the post-office. 
 
 LiKOMA, February 8th, 1888. 
 
 ... In the Spectator I met with an admirable reply 
 to Canon Isaac Taylor's brilliant but misleading account 
 of " Islam and Christianity." Much that he said was, 
 however, very true ; and the Spectator's article gave him 
 full credit for all the truth that was mixed up with the 
 more abundant errors that bestrew his speech. . . . 
 Have you ever read any of Eichard Jefferies' books? 
 He is really a great writer — a sort of prose-poet. . . . 
 
 Fehruary 1th, 1888. 
 ... I am inclined to think that real storms on the 
 Lake are far less frequent than they are popularly 
 supposed to be. So far we have never had carried away 
 any spars or sails in bad weather. ... I think our 
 work here makes decided progress, and I, for my part, 
 never feel despondent about it, not expecting in my own 
 lifetime to see great visible results. Indeed, twelve 
 years out here are sufficient to correct all visionary ideas 
 about mission work, and I begin to feel quite a veteran 
 in the mission field. . . . 
 
[i888.] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 293 
 
 3Iarch oth, 1888. 
 
 ... I am SO sorry to hear such poor accounts of your 
 health. You certainly have a good deal to bear, but you 
 should make a distinct offering of your trial to God — an 
 offering for Christ's sake — and then it will be really 
 blessed to you. Some, you know, offer to God their 
 health, strength, and energies. You at least may offer 
 up your ill health and weakness to Him, a much better 
 thing to do than merely being resigned. . . . Eesigna- 
 tion may bring cheerfulness to the soul, but the other is 
 a surer way to it I am convinced. Therefore, ... I 
 myftryit. . . . Mind you read " Darwin's Life." Alas! 
 that such a man should have lost his faith. Yet it was 
 not his theory of evolution that caused him to lose it, 
 remember. Evolution he always held to be compatible 
 with a belief in a Creator ; miracles were his stumbling 
 block. . . . 
 
 Likoma, March Uth, 1888. 
 . . . The papers this time were to me very interesting, 
 and I note three subjects in particular — Jenny Lind, the 
 opening of Truro Cathedral, and Darwin's life. I think 
 you probably know that I had, when at school at 
 Wimbledon, some personal acquaintance with the 
 " Swedish Nightingale " of other years. ... On several 
 occasions I spent Saturdays and Sundays at her house, 
 her son, then at school with me, being one of my chief 
 friends. I have a vivid recollection of walking round 
 their pretty garden, she discoursing on the flowers, and 
 telling me with interest all their names. . . . Darwin's 
 life — the reviews thereof — was especially interesting to 
 me. ... It would seem that that part of his nature 
 adapted to the reception and cultivation of religious truth 
 got atrophied by disuse, and hence his discarding of 
 Christianity. These things are great mysteries, and 
 when we think of so great and really good a man as 
 
294 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Darwin was, we ought to avoid all appearance even of 
 seeming to know how he stood in God's sight when his 
 probation was over, and his soul returned to God who 
 gave it. . . . We should believe that God's pity is more 
 far-reaching than our intellects or our hearts can fathom, 
 and that many who seem to know Him not, may, after all, 
 have a truer knowledge of Him than some of ourselves. 
 Another great point about Darwin was that he never did 
 or said anything that could be construed into a desire to 
 disturb the faith of others ; if evolution has disturbed it, 
 it is their fault and not his. I confess to having a good 
 deal of belief in evolution, but it has never disturbed my 
 faith in revelation — no, not one jot. Truro Cathedral — I 
 read all the architectural details, as given so lucidly in 
 
 the Times, with greatest interest. . . . has sent me a 
 
 regular feast of good music. I revel in it, and sometimes 
 play to J. A. Williams in the evenings for nearly two 
 hours at a stretch.* This is a great refreshment to me, 
 such, indeed, as music always has been, and always will be, 
 I ween. . . . We have had a very meagre rainy season 
 this year, if, indeed, as seems likely, it is almost over 
 now. The island escapes a very great deal of rain ; we 
 often see it pouring on the mainland opposite, when not 
 a drop falls here, and it is very tantalizing. ... I have 
 taken a fancy lately for trying my hand at verse, and 
 especially at sonnets, which seem to me the best mould 
 into which to cast fugitive poetical thoughts. Two on 
 Lake Nyasa I sent to " Central Africa," where perhaps 
 you will see them. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, May 1st, 1888. 
 ... I am alone, so far as white men (or women) go. 
 I do not dislike this solitude at all, though I do not say 
 it is really good for me. I have been giving much time 
 to the study of harmony lately — always a subject I hoped 
 
 * On the hannonium ; they had no piano. 
 
[i888.] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 295 
 
 some day really to work hard at — and that you may not 
 think there are absolutely no practical results, I enclose 
 you two hymn tunes, which you will value for the sake 
 of the composer, if you don't care for the tunes them- 
 selves. ... I am employed nearly all day with the boys 
 and girls in the school. As to the latter, we get on very 
 fairly well without Mrs. Swinny, but I am not so vain 
 as to think I can be to them all that she was. Oddly 
 enough, instead of diminishing the numbers, when she 
 left, of the girls who board here, I doubled them. I could 
 not refuse some who were so very eager to be taken in. 
 The Ayah who lives with them manages pretty well, and 
 I try myself to be very watchful. It is a very responsible 
 charge, as you may imagine. Adults are pressing forward 
 to be taught, and we certainly are making progress as 
 regards them. . . . 
 
 Ascension Day, May lOth, 1888. 
 I am sitting under the shade of a great baobab tree, 
 some three miles from our house, watching our boys and 
 girls as they make holiday. They are all drumming 
 away to their hearts' content, while the cooks are busy 
 with their preparations on the shore. We began the day 
 with Holy Communion, at which every one of our Chris- 
 tians communicated (seventeen in all). Afterwards break- 
 fast, then matins, and then we came off here ; the day 
 beautiful and cool, and the bright lake scenery spread out 
 at our feet. I wish you could be transported here just 
 for the nonce. "Wliat a change indeed it would be for 
 you. ... It is only plain truth that in working out these 
 hymn tunes [speaking of some hymn tunes he had sent 
 home. — Ed.] I thought as much as to whether they would 
 give you pleasure as anything else connected with them. 
 Not because I think you are a superlatively good judge 
 of music, or very competent to appraise or criticise the 
 harmonies I have employed, but because as far as tune 
 
2g6 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 goes, you are, or should be, able to judge as well as most 
 musically educated people, and because my thoughts 
 these months turn very constantly to you, as I think 
 of your depression of spirits and "often infirmity," 
 and am anxious, when I can, from time to time, to 
 prepare little surprises to please you. Personally, 
 I think my hymn tunes are much better in their way 
 than my attempts at poetry are in theirs. ... I feel 
 seized with a desire to go on to the composition of 
 sonatas, marches, fugues, &c., but as soon as the 
 steamer comes back other thoughts and duties will 
 engross my time and attention — and it is well that it is 
 so. Accept, therefore, these eight or nine tunes I send 
 as a memento of a time of solitude, to which I shall 
 always look back with feelings of pleasure. . . . 
 
 [In another letter he writes, I think many of these tunes 
 will live long after everything else about me is forgotten. 
 'Tis a poor thing to be remembered just by a 'toon,' but 
 I am no missionary and not a very creditable parson!" 
 
 The next letters are principally on the subject of his 
 mother's illness, of which he had just heard.] 
 
 {To his Father.) 
 
 LiKOMA, May \6th, 1888. 
 
 ... I could never hope to be able to express to you 
 what my dear, dear mother's holiness and unselfishness 
 and love have been to me ; a sort of Bible in themselves 
 all through my life, to point me and direct me to God. 
 Doubtless it has been the same to you. . . . 
 
 {To his Youngest Sister.) 
 
 May 16th. 
 
 ... As I look back in thought on the beautiful letters 
 that during the past twelve years I have received from 
 her out here, I marvel at the picture of self-forgetf ulness 
 
[i888.] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 297 
 
 and of piety and of strong affection they have ever 
 yielded. Perhaps because I am unmarried, the dear, 
 dear mother is so much, so very much, more to me than 
 any one else on earth. ... I doubt if any of her 
 children have been or are worthy of her. I am certain at 
 least that I never have been, and I fear I never can 
 be. . . . 
 
 {To his Mother.) 
 
 June 26#A, 1888. 
 . . . This letter is but a poor return for your two long 
 ones of March and April, which came together, but the 
 steamer leaves with them in a few days, and I can't 
 make time, and am a better hand at losing than at finding 
 the same precious commodity. You say that I " dearly 
 love a bit of humour." Well, I do, but far less than I 
 did ; and there is much that goes under the name of 
 humour which in former years I should have enjo^^ed, 
 and which rather sickens me now — e.g., parodies on 
 novels, poems, &c. Still, I don't ever expect to care as 
 little for humour as you do — or Mr. Gladstone, or the 
 poet Wordsworth. I put you in excellent company, and 
 say of all three that you can hardly be said to know 
 what humour is ! ... I wish you could see my class of 
 twenty-eight adult catechumen women. I will, however, 
 try to get you a good photo of them. We took them the 
 other day and failed over it, and so we shall try again 
 next week. . . . 
 
 Likoma, September \st, 1888. 
 I know it is nearly ten weeks since I put pen to paper 
 on your behalf, but . . . we have had no opportunity of 
 sending off letters, for our steamer does not return ; 
 report says she has hopelessly stuck in the shallow 
 waters of the Shire. ... On St. Bartholomew's Day 
 ... I had the great happiness of baptizing nine of our 
 schoolboys and one girl, and two days later I baptized 
 
2g8 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 another girl, whom I am about to marry to our under- 
 schoolmaster here. This girl has been under my charge 
 since October, 1886, at which date she first came to me 
 as quite a child. Both these girls can read and write, 
 and have intelligent knowledge of their Faith, including 
 Gospel history and the Apostolic age of the Church. 
 We have now fifteen baptized boys and these two girls, 
 the first-fruits (not of Achaia, but) of Likoma." This 
 very day, three of these recently baptized boys were able 
 to witness to Christ, for immense pressure was put upon 
 them to join some bad ceremonies and dancing* which 
 take place at this time of the year. They stoutly refused, 
 and of course the people who tried to lure them away 
 said that I had hidden them, had prevented them, &c. 
 I called the boys and made them answer for themselves, 
 putting no pressure upon them whatever, and they all 
 answered bravely, " We don't want to go." Now, since 
 the ceremonies I speak of are the great heathen festival of 
 these parts, to which every heathen looks forward from 
 year to 3'ear, and never by any chance foregoes, we have, 
 I think, a good test of the genuineness of these conver- 
 sions. One could not help feeling very proud of these 
 boys earning so early the honour of being confessors " 
 of the Faith. . . . Joseph and I have been going on 
 steadily together, he preaching mainly at the \illages, 
 and I keeping an ever-watchful eye over the village, our 
 own people, our schoolboys, and our schoolgirls. A little 
 waif has fallen into our hands, thrown aside by his 
 mother when she was being carried off by the Gwang- 
 wara, having found him too heavy to carry at the pace 
 she was compelled to keep up. He fell into the hands of 
 
 * It is a necessary and difficult study with the missionaries to 
 discriminate between the native dances and ceremonies that their 
 converts may be allowed to join in still, and those which are 
 essentially bad. 
 
[i888.] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 299 
 
 some people who were letting him die as a useless 
 packet of goods, and so our cook, Stefano, who found 
 him in that plight, offered at once to ransom him in my 
 name. 'Twas accepted, and for 10s. little three-year-old 
 became our child, and a great pet I make of him, having 
 him put on a chair by my side at meals, &c. I am 
 genuinely fond of a little babe like this, as I think you 
 know. A child under eighteen months has no interest 
 for me, but very soon after that age I begin to like the 
 little ones. . . . My leisure time is still devoted to 
 musical composition. ... I hope to write (if I can) as 
 many as fifty really good tunes, and then publish them. 
 If I write seventy or so, and then weed them down to 
 fifty, I daresay I shall turn out a creditable collection. 
 You will say I write a great deal about this one subject, 
 but it is to be explained, I think, by the fact that in all 
 my life there is nothing in the way of recreation which I 
 have taken up with such zest or enthusiasm. . . . The 
 man who burnt to death the six people eighteen months 
 ago now comes regularly on Sundays, and is actually in 
 one of my classes for the more earnest ones, who really 
 want to be taught and brought on. Of course, what he 
 did was very shocking, even in a heathen, but then, too, 
 we must remember that it was a heathen who did it ; 
 and we always have to remember our Lord's words, " I 
 came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 
 ... A few things in my work here I believe I do 
 earnestly, but they are very few indeed, and I have not 
 at all learned to redeem the time " as others — brother 
 priests whom I could name — seem to do. I find too 
 great an interest in outside matters, and these often 
 absorb my thoughts and attention. . . . Shall I be here 
 this time next year, or there with you at home ? or — well, 
 God only knows, of course, but I do seem to want very 
 much to get home again. . . . 
 
300 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 LiKOiiA, October 2\st, 1888. 
 Still no news ! so in despair of seeing either of the 
 steamers here, I am sending over a canoe to Dr. Laws, 
 at Bandawe, with a letter asking for whatever (news) he 
 can tell me. ... I have some well-filled envelopes of 
 letters, photographs, and hymn tunes all ready ... to 
 send off, but they will reach you when our regular mail 
 service is re-established. I daren't send them across 
 more than forty miles of water in a rickety canoe. . . . 
 
 Odohet^ 2lst, 1888. 
 At last the Ilala has come with mails up to August, 
 for which we are very grateful. I have only had time 
 to open and read your August letter. The Ilala goes 
 away at midnight, and it is Sunday. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, Odoher 21th, 1888. 
 
 ... I sent off a good deal of matter for " Central 
 Africa " by last mail — accounts of our doings here ; bap- 
 tisms, marriages, &c. — so I won't tell you about all that 
 in this letter. . . . We are having a terribly hot October, 
 and I feel it, especially on Sundays, when I have (as 
 now) no one at all to help me in the services. Yet I am 
 wonderfully well — too well, my dear, for my own spiritual 
 good, I fear. Illness has its uses, be assured of that by 
 a brother who now-a-daj^s doesn't know what it is to 
 be ill, and feels himself distinctly at a disadvantage 
 in consequence. ... I have not done much with the 
 violin : I am too old, and it would have taken too much 
 time. I have occasionally, though, accompanied the 
 hymns with it in church instead of the harmonium. 
 I think you would think I looked rather odd standing 
 up in cassock and surplice and plajdng my own tune 
 (Higher Bebington) on the fiddle, in the chancel, and the 
 children singing " Onward, Christian soldiers " to it. . . . 
 
[i888.] On Likoma Island. 301 
 
 In a month from now, or less, we shall most likely 
 have the rains again, and it will be a relief. I sigh for 
 cloudy skies and cool refreshing rain. I wear almost 
 nothing, but shall have, of course, to step into some 
 proper clothes before the ladies appear ; my present 
 apparel would frighten any one away. ... 
 
 Likoma, October 28th, 1888. 
 ... I am dreadfully busy now, for when the Ilala 
 came with the letters a week ago she also brought the 
 news that two ladies will be here in three weeks, and 
 how I am to build a house and get it quite ready for 
 them in that time is a problem, I assure you. However, 
 I am very glad that they are coming. . . . 
 
 [In another letter he wrote, "I have simply nothing 
 whatever to furnish these ladies' rooms with — no tables, 
 chairs, beds or bedding. It is to be hoped they are 
 bringing some of these necessaries with them. I can 
 feed them well, however, and doctor them if necessary.] 
 
 . . . Meanwhile I jog on. I do an immense amount 
 of different kinds of work, but none of it well. I have 
 come to the conclusion that there are only two things I 
 do even at all well out here — (1) cooking — I think I do 
 cook well — and (2) my recently acquired accomplishment, 
 composing hymn tunes. Now, as neither of these 
 accomplishments have very much to do with the work, 
 I am beginning to think that I am little better than a 
 failure out here after all, and I am seriously thinking 
 whether it would not be best for me to stay in England 
 the next time I go there. . . . Our schools go on satis- 
 factorily, but work with adults is uphill work indeed. 
 However, now-a-days one never expects great things or 
 rapid conversions, and so one does not get discouraged 
 because Christianity is not eagerly embraced or diligently 
 
302 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 sought by the natives ; it is, indeed, but the sowing time 
 with us. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, All Saints' Day, 1888. 
 ... I am very busy and not altogether contented ; 
 secular details and management seem to fill up my 
 whole time now-a-days. I have no time for reading or 
 study or preparing for sermons or classes ; all the work 
 falls on my own shoulders. ... All our building 
 material comes from the mainland, and has to be 
 brought over in canoes, and it is slow work collecting it. 
 The Gwangwara have given us no trouble lately ; they 
 continue to send very civil messages for the most 
 part. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, Novemher 29th, 1888. 
 
 ... I want to tell you all about the Delta metal boat. 
 It is just ten days since she arrived on the scenes here, 
 and I have tried her several times. I am much pleased 
 with her on the whole, and think her very roomy and 
 convenient. I found, however, that without a great deal 
 of ballast I could not make her obey the helm at all one 
 way or the other, so that the first day I was out in her we 
 nearly came to utter grief on the rocks. Even now that I 
 have got her well ballasted, I find that the mizzen lug, when 
 set without the foresail, pushes her up in the wind against 
 all the helm I am able to exert. No doubt a few more 
 trips in her will show me exactly what she will do and 
 how to make her do it. . . . When I get the engines it 
 will be possible to get about in her, simply all over the 
 the lake. . . . We are just now a party of six here, 
 without the Charles Janson people. That worthy craft 
 we don't expect to see in these waters again till the 
 middle of February, if then [she had run aground on 
 the Shire river. — Ed.] ; but we have plenty of stores of 
 all kinds, and we have a boat at last which prevents us 
 feeling our insular position too deeply. . . . 
 
[i8S8.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 303 
 
 [The Charlotte, a boat, for sailing and steaming, was 
 designed by Chauncy Maples' brother-in-law, Stephen 
 Terry, Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers. It is 
 built of special bronze metal, is of the Mersey canoe type 
 with centre-board, and yawl-rigged, and is fitted with 
 compressed surface condensing engines.] 
 
 Likoma, Becemler ^tTi, 1888. 
 . . . We have had another long sail in her (the Char- 
 lotte). We were a party of fourteen on board, and we 
 had her well ballasted as well. She was drawing twenty- 
 six inches aft and eighteen inches forward, beating to 
 windward. There was a rough sea (? lake) on. She 
 went very slowly, but made less leeway than I had 
 thought likely she might do. She won't be thoroughly 
 useful to us till we get engines. The two ladies are 
 here, and prove a perfect success in every way. . . . What 
 is lacking in the one is supplied by the other, so it is just 
 right. ... I have just been reading the Minutes " of the 
 Lambeth Conference, and was glad to find that on the 
 question that most nearly touches us they adhere to 
 the old rule of not baptizing polygamists. The little that 
 can be said on the other side is probably much less than 
 people in England suppose. . . . 
 
 Likoma, December 4ih, 1888. 
 . . . Our work progresses slowly, but I am convinced 
 it does progress. I am always fairly content to see little 
 or no result of work done. As one grows older, one is 
 less susceptible to fits of the ups-and-downs, depression, 
 and the like, and sometimes I do feel very old. . . . 
 
 Likoma, December oth, 1888. 
 . . . The newspapers this time told of the deaths of at 
 least two people I loved and respected . . . Dean Burgon 
 and Mr. Rigaud. Although I knew all that would be 
 
304 - -auncy Maples. 
 
 aid about the iomicr, Urn ^anou ofaitnaiy notiees and 
 "In Memadams" were none Hie lem iiiia eH yu g. . . . 
 One is nol likely ever to meel agun one ao cntiielj 
 original aa he wws, nor ao l uu nui uu B, nor ao tood ii i ^y 
 Yon win haie noiieed idial I wrote to mj 
 
 up Afidn Boon; nol lor seaaana wwieriRd idfli healfli. 
 aa I lisfe aaid, bat beeaoae I begin to fldnk a dange off 
 iGphere would be good lor me. I dont bnow ^^leQicr it 
 win. to anyilung, and I may ibinb voLjif diffiBvonfiy 
 by ibiB lime next jear ; bat, eertainty, flda is flie finl 
 twelve jeais liiat I have ever tnmed my 
 fins diiedtianp and ao I fiked joa to know 
 about iL . . . I widi joa could aee Tifcnma joat now; 
 it is «o bcagiiffnl wHmayn in flie ninj acaaon; fihe bo^ 
 li^iiB^ and flie diadowa on fbe bilb and loda^and &e 
 ■nitf uift bfaie of flie laike; it iasomelimeBqiiitelikeafuEj 
 aoene. Tlien, too^ it is soeb a idb^ff to breailie Ae eod 
 air ag^in, and jet. idim tte eienii^ eamea, the ciradaa, 
 fmgH^ and fMffii^i* andi a dmiupaig aa ^iiito to 
 
 ilqdMi l> thft yamgii^ in chuidL. I am now 
 
 off ^^Lmfai, to start m 
 
 been in AUca twelve jean, and never beat biHen by 
 
 been bitten twioe by the off tiheae toopieal 
 
 ;3eoff 
 
 aink «*La doi^ 
 i-vninEngL 
 In flnee 
 
[iSSg.] On Likoma Island. 305 
 
 Ilala will be here with two more. ... So we shall be 
 eight in all without the Charles Janson's people and 
 W. P. Johnson. A goodly company — and five months 
 ago I was quite alone here. How things fluctuate in 
 Africa ! We are rigging out a canoe with mast, sail, and 
 outriggers. No natives ever sail their canoes on Lake 
 Nyasa, so we shall be teaching them something really 
 useful, I hope. . . . 
 
 Likoma, Lake Nyasa, Fehruary 26th, 1889. 
 . . . We are a very large party of whites just now, 
 and sit down fourteen to dinner, including the three 
 native teachers. We have never been so large a party 
 before. As for my own departure, I feel more uncertain 
 than ever, for I am quite well and need no change, so 
 that really, considering the pressure of events here, I 
 doubt if I am justified in going home this year. . . . 
 We have had, as I suppose, nearly all the rain of the 
 season now — twenty-six inches. 
 
 Likoma, March 26th, 1889. 
 ... I have now been here at Likoma more than two 
 and a half years, and in all that time I believe I have 
 only had four touches of fever, none of which were 
 serious at all. I certainly have enjoyed of late the great 
 blessing of health. . . . Classes and talks and inter- 
 views take up my whole time. I never read at all 
 now-a-days. . . . 
 
 Likoma, March 29th, 1889. 
 ... I am declimatized for England and acclimatized 
 here. Of this I am very certain. A cold winter in 
 England I dread now-a-days, but here nothing hurts 
 me, and I do with impunity things that would kill 
 others ; e.g., last week I crossed in the Charlotte to 
 Bandawe, and was becalmed, and had the full strength 
 
 CM. X 
 
3o6 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 of this tropical sun beating down on my devoted head 
 for three livelong days, and was none the worse for it. 
 It took me thirty- six hours going, and thirty-one coming 
 back. Now half an hour of such sun is enough to 
 knock up thoroughly any one of my companions here, 
 except perhaps Johnson, if they venture out in it. . . . 
 The war at the north end of the Lake seems intermin- 
 able, and our friends the African Lakes Company have 
 not succeeded in dislodging the Arabs, as they had 
 thought to have been able to do by this time. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, April ^th, 1889. 
 . . . Our classes increase, and very soon I shall have 
 received as many as seventy catechumens who have 
 received the cross ; while at Easter, or when the Bishop 
 comes ('? July), we shall be baptizing some thirty to 
 forty adults. So you see how difficult it is for me to 
 leave, unless there is some competent man to fill my 
 place. . . . We are busy building houses on Chisumulu 
 island, and I think J. A. Williams will be going there next 
 month. I have been much excited last week by the fact 
 that the Portuguese had persuaded Chitesi to fly their 
 flag, and I actually saw it flying there. I have, however, 
 been successful in getting it hauled down again, Chitesi 
 assuring me that he never intended to knock under to 
 Portugal or to accept her sovereignty over his district. 
 . . . The Charlotte is a most admirable boat, and 
 proves the most complete success. In her we can go 
 anywhere, and she will stand any weather almost ; 
 indeed she is better for good strong winds than for light 
 ones. The centre-board, &c., reminds me of the old 
 days of Colin' s Willoic. . . . My eyes are getting extra 
 quick from practice on dark nights when I come in in 
 the Charlotte belated, and have to keep a sharp look 
 out for the rocks, &c. I make this sailing fit in with the 
 
[iSSg.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 307 
 
 work I have to do, and it proves a great source of enjoy- 
 ment. . . . Mr. Belcher has built a capital pier, and 
 we are now contemplating a longer one, to which even 
 the steamer will be able to come alongside. Probably 
 this will be a pier and a pontoon landing-stage at the 
 end of it. For the pontoons we shall use the light and 
 cork-like stems of a particular palm {raphia is its 
 botanical name). . . . 
 
 Likoma, April llth, 1889. 
 ... I, who am generally so well, have just had two 
 touches of fever, which serve to remind me that one 
 cannot be sure of going on many years or months with- 
 out it. . . . 
 
 Likoma, May 11th, 1889. 
 
 . . . The two ladies both have a good deal of fever, 
 especially Miss McLaughlin, but they are brave about 
 it — ladies generally are brave in sickness. There's a 
 compliment for your sex. ... I have written seven 
 double chants, which I will send you some time or other. 
 We are going to use some of them here. You should 
 read Holland's * Sermons, " Creed and Character." 
 
 May 2^nd. — . . . 'Tis quite an epoch with us now, 
 since we have just sent out into the world, so to 
 speak, our first Likoma Christian boys, four of them 
 having this day left school, and having been formally 
 apprenticed to Mr. Belcher, on the steamer. Our choir 
 is now reduced from twelve to eight boys, but others 
 will be coming on, and more will be baptized when the 
 Bishop comes. . . . Our new man, Dr. Hine [now Bishop 
 of Likoma (1897) — Ed.] , is a great acquisition. He 
 is a thoroughly good doctor, and a very good preacher. 
 He has great literary tastes and various accomplish- 
 ments. We all like him very much. Johnson's large 
 steel boat has arrived, and with her huge masts and 
 
 * Canon Scott Holland. 
 
 X 2 
 
3o8 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 sails makes the Charlotte look very small indeed. Still, 
 I far prefer the latter craft ; she is much more handy 
 in every way. ... I am very curious indeed to know 
 what people at home will think of my action with regard 
 to the Portuguese flag. I am hoping it may lead to 
 good and important results — a British Protectorate here, 
 for instance, or something of the kind. . . . We have 
 quite an imposing fleet here now, and the boats look 
 very nice riding at anchor in our bay. . . . 
 
 [The British Protectorate, since established, includes 
 Likoma Island, but not the mainland at Chitesi's.] 
 
 May 2Srd. — . . . I, as little as any one I know, can lay 
 claim to a bump of reverence, and certainly I follow 
 no one in blind admiration, but certainly my Pope is 
 the dear Bishop of Lincoln, who, to me, comes nearest 
 to being Christ-like of any man I know. For my part, I 
 can bring no man into comparison with him. ... I now 
 find by the light of further study and experience that the 
 harmony to many of my hymn tunes is faulty, and so I 
 go on correcting, smoothing, improving. The melodies 
 have nearly always been more or less liked in whatever 
 quarter I have sought criticism upon them, and there- 
 fore I am encouraged to go on and do better. I think 
 I attempted rather too difficult harmony in some of 
 them without being able to manage it well. Then I 
 aimed too much at out-of-the-way chords and effects, 
 and so many of them appeared to people too laboured. 
 But much can be done, and I think in the end I shall be 
 able to make most of them sound well. Part writing 
 requires more study than I had given to the subject 
 a year ago. ... It is often a matter I blame myself for 
 that I write to you in such a scrappy kind of w^ay, so rarely 
 dilating on any really useful topic, and so rarely on any 
 very serious one. It comes about mainly by my generally 
 
[1889.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 309 
 
 writing to you when I feel more or less fussed and 
 flurried by the one hundred and more occupations that 
 fill up my daily round here in Likoma. . . . Ah ! 
 Mkwemba's end has been sad. He was the man who 
 burned four women two years ago. I told you that he 
 joined my class. After a few months he went across the 
 lake to some friends near Bandawe. He came back ill, 
 said he was bewitched, and got three or four people tied 
 up, whom he accused of working the spell against him. 
 We tried to get to see him, but he insisted on being 
 " not at home " to all of us ; consequently we could 
 do nothing for him. In vain I sent, in vain I even 
 threatened and denounced. All to no purpose, he would 
 not untie the people. At last he died (ten days ago), 
 and as soon as he died, three people were put to death. 
 We suppose he left orders for this to be done. So you 
 see another terrible tragedy has been enacted close to 
 our doors. I am sure you will be very sorry to hear all 
 this. . . . 
 
 Likoma, Mmj 28th, 1889. 
 My somewhat unusually long letter to my mother this 
 time must be my excuse for sending you a rather short 
 one. In that letter I have said all I need say in answer 
 to your appeal — if you would allow it to be considered an 
 appeal — to me to try and come home this year. What- 
 ever I may do or not do before the year expires, it is 
 clear I cannot start yet, and that being the case, I prefer 
 not adding anything to what I have already written. . . . 
 
 LiKOaiA, June Idth. 
 Nearly Midsummer Day with you, but about the very 
 coolest time of the year with us. Indeed, on the water 
 it is distinctly chilly by about half-past four in the after- 
 noon just now. ... J. A. Williams is on Chisumulu, in 
 very good spirits and very well. I have already visited him 
 
310 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 once, and I mean to go there regularly once a week. 
 We still have nocturnal disturbances, in the shape of 
 thieves entering our houses at night. When I was in 
 Chisumulu a few days ago I left my house in charge of a 
 teacher and a boy, yet these slept so soundly that a man 
 actually got in, broke open a box, and took away some 
 shirts, before they thought any one was in the room ! 
 Another disaster happened a few days ago. On Whit 
 Sunday evening one of our catechumens, I am sorry to 
 say, came and maliciously set fire to one of our people's 
 houses, and it was reduced to ashes. Dr. Hine's house 
 and the newly built dispensary very nearly caught fire 
 also. Luckily there was very little or no wind blowing 
 at the time. The chiefs are coming to-morrow to 
 me to settle the matter. ... I have recently read the 
 " Lives of Twelve Good Men," and enjoyed the book 
 immensely. . . . 
 
 [With regard to this incendiarism, he writes, at a 
 later date : — " The house was occupied by our head- 
 man, Charlie Nasibu, and he had had a quarrel with the 
 catechumen about a file. Charlie Nasibu was not to 
 blame in the least. The catechumen was on the verge 
 of baptism. Of course, now he will not be baptized for 
 another year, and not then unless he is in a very dif- 
 ferent frame of mind. In many respects he had been 
 doing well, but, unfortunately, the day of the quarrel 
 be had been drinking, and doubtless it was under the 
 influence of drink that he set fire to the house."] 
 
 June 19th. — . I ... am attempting some more 
 music — marches, minuets, &c. . . . 
 
 [On the subject of the religious instruction of children 
 — chiefly on the Sunday " question — he says : — ] 
 
 June dOth. — . . . Again, I think children cannot be 
 
[1889.] On Likoma Island. 311 
 
 taught too early what are the elements of a church ser- 
 vice, and in what the worship of God should consist. Of 
 how, that is, there must be (1) confession of sin, (2) thanks- 
 giving, (3) intercession, (4) acts of faith, (5) acts of adora- 
 tion and praise. It should be pointed out clearly and 
 definitely in what parts of the service of the Church of 
 England all these elements are found, how they succeed 
 to each other, and how they go to make up in combina- 
 tion the due worship of God. Children, I think, require 
 to have it pointed out to them that a church service is not 
 a vague congeries of pious aspirations and utterances, 
 but a definite business, if I may dare to use that word 
 in such a connection, and a business which can be 
 neglected with impunity by no true Christian. ... Of 
 my six Christian boys here who attend matins and 
 evensong, two sing bass, two treble, and two alto, while 
 I sing alternately all the three parts to keep them 
 properly up, and to help to keep them in tune. I only 
 accompany them on the harmonium on Sundays. . . . 
 
 Juhj Tith. 
 
 . . . The Bishop has brought with him several 
 interesting books, amongst them the much discussed 
 novel of last year, " Eobert Elsmere.". . . I have begun 
 upon it, and find it absorbingly interesting. ... I am 
 thinking that in eight months' time I shall be starting 
 homewards again, and indeed I do look forward very 
 keenly to seeing you all again. . . . The Bishop has 
 brought as one of his porters my old friend Charles 
 Sulimani, whom you may remember, and whom, on 
 Christmas Day, 1878, I baptized, naming him after our 
 dear Charlie. A few days before reaching here this 
 same Charlie was lying asleep (time about 8.30 or 
 9 p.m.), and the Bishop in his tent close by, when a lion 
 came by and seized what he mistook for Charlie's woolly 
 
312 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 head, but what was in reality a sooty cooking pot, half 
 full of porridge, which lay near Charlie's head. A 
 miraculous escape, verily. The lion dropped the pot 
 and returned ! But then a man saying his prayers 
 close alongside Charlie saw the lion, gave the alarm, 
 and the hungry lion fled frightened. Lions are cer- 
 tainly not to be laughed at, and we are all too careless 
 about them when travelling, I expect. . . . [Strange 
 to say, in all the years he spent in Eastern Central 
 Africa, Chauncy Maples never even saiv a lion. — Ed,] 
 
 July 28th. — . . . I do not feel so unsettled as to my 
 return here as I did a few months ago, and I for the 
 most part come round to the opinion that if I were to 
 leave Africa for good I am little suited for work at home. 
 Such abilities as I have — not great ones certainly — but 
 such as they are, are, I know, more or less adapted to 
 the work to which I believe God called me, and in which 
 I have now spent, by His grace and mercy, thirteen 
 years of my life. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, July 28th, 1889. 
 . . . The Bishop is here, and more than ever pleasant, 
 gracious, and kind. It gives us an immense lift, and 
 that is certain. ... I am very busy with candidates for 
 baptism ; forty are to be baptized next Saturday. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, August 17^7i,1889. 
 . . . We are just beginning to get our printing press 
 into shape, and I hope in a month's time or so to send 
 you some specimens of our work in this line. It will be 
 a great convenience to us, this press, for it is a long 
 business sending things to Zanzibar to be printed. 
 ... I often catch myself reckoning up the weeks till 
 the time when I shall flap my wings and make a start of 
 it homewards. . . . 
 
[i88g.] On Likoma Island. 313 
 
 LiKOMA, Septemher 2nd, 1889. 
 . . . The present Consul of Mozambique — H. H. 
 Johnston,* — whose books on the Congo, &c., &c., you are 
 familiar with, is on his way to the north end [of the Lake 
 — Ed.] on an important mission from the Government in 
 order to try to settle matters between the African Lakes 
 Company and the Arabs. He has asked for the loan of 
 our steamer, and the Bishop has given his consent. Pro- 
 bably Johnston will pay us a short visit here. . . . The 
 Bishop confirmed the Christians he had baptized . . . 
 and since then he has visited the villages on the Lake 
 shores where Johnson carries on his work, and has 
 baptized ten of Johnson's candidates. I have been busy 
 this week in drawing plans for the stone church which 
 the Bishop allows us to begin building. It will be of 
 brick and stone . . . the roof will be a pitched one, 
 and will be thatched with grass. ... I have got arches 
 and pillars on the brain just now. . . . Miss Woodward 
 has fever just now. She never has it very severely, but 
 she has it far too often ; once a fortnight is her average, 
 but Dr. Hine's is once in every nine days. ... I see 
 that Aubrey Moore has published a volume of his essays 
 and reviews, and it is most highly reviewed in the papers. 
 . . . We have now got the engines and boilers for the Char- 
 lotte, ... it is in the rainy season when there is no wind 
 that they will be most useful. To sail to Chisumulu takes 
 generally four hours more or less. If I start at 1 p.m. I 
 get in before dark generally. On Wednesday afternoons 
 you can think of me as sailing to Chisumulu. I go nearly 
 every week, and always on that day or not at all. . . . 
 
 Likoma, September 6tJi, 1889. 
 . . . We have been much troubled by thieves lately. 
 They break into our houses at night, and a good deal of 
 * Now Sir Harry Johnstoii, K.C.B. 
 
314 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 our property has been stolen. I am obliged to sleep with 
 a loaded revolver under my pillow. We caught one 
 thief and handed him over to Chitesi, who wanted to cut 
 his throat or burn him then and there. I, of course, 
 would not hear of this, and so he has been made a slave 
 instead. Of course if his friends like to ransom him 
 probably Chitesi will accept the ransom money. A clear 
 sweep of all the hangings, cross, and candlesticks from 
 the church was made about a fortnight ago, and we are 
 now trying to trace the thieves. . . . 
 
 September 9th. — . . . I am reading Sir E. Creasy 's 
 " History of the Ottoman Turks " — a difficult book to 
 remember, but interesting, and of course well written ; 
 do you know it ? . . . Just now is the time of year 
 when the great annual dancing goes on here — a time 
 of much licentiousness, and when a great deal of evil, 
 drunkenness, &c., goes on. I am anxiously hoping 
 that our new Christians and catechumens may not be 
 led into it all ; . . . anyhow it will be a time of real 
 temptation to many of them. It is something like what 
 a great fair would be in England, but here, indeed, 
 there is nothing bought or sold, but pombe flows in 
 rivers, so to speak. Our new Christians made their 
 first communion yesterday. We had thirty-eight com- 
 municants at the early service. . . . 
 
 September 9th. — . . . Our Bishop is here, but in very 
 feeble health, for the least exertion lays him on his back 
 at once. . . . Probably he worked too hard when in 
 England, and hence did not get the rest he certainly 
 needed. . . . We have now got sixty native communi- 
 cants in this island alone, so our work progresses. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, September 11th, 1889. 
 . . . We have just had a most charming visit from 
 H. H. Johnston on his way to the north end. ... It was 
 
[1889.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 315 
 
 he who secured Likoma being reserved as a " sphere of 
 British influence " — so we have much to thank him 
 for. . . . His varied interests and many accompHshments 
 combine to make him one of the most interesting men I 
 have ever met. . . . Thieves have been at us again. 
 Just a week ago in the middle of the night or about 
 1 a.m., I was asleep in bed with my door ajar. I was 
 sleeping lightly, and hearing a rustle I woke, to see in 
 my room (it was broad moonlight) a man who had 
 evidently just entered. My guns and pistol were not at 
 hand. I started up just as I was, and the man rushed 
 from the room as I leaped out of the bed after him. I 
 got aside, and then saw two other men under my eaves. 
 They did not immediately start away. I shouted for 
 guns, and soon people were astir, then the men took to 
 their heels. We fired four guns after them pretty 
 quickly too. As yet we have no clue as to who they 
 were, but I have sent an angry message to Chitesi about 
 it. I am certain these night burglaries will never cease 
 till we have caught and punished very severely one or 
 two of the offenders. If I had had my pistol under my 
 pillow that night I should certainly have fired at the 
 man's legs, as things have gone already too far for us to 
 take mild measures to prevent the perpetually recurring 
 nuisance. On getting up the next morning I found I had 
 lost my voice entirely from the shouting, and it took 
 a full week to get it back. . . . Three of our Likoma 
 schoolboys are going down with the Bishop to Zanzibar 
 to the college at Kiungani. This is quite an epoch in 
 our history. ... 
 
 {To his Mother,) 
 
 Likoma, Odoher 6th, 1889. 
 ... Dr. Hine will be sure to call on you very soon 
 after he reaches England. I have given him a handsome 
 
3i6 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 monkey's skin for you ; please accept it for yourself, and 
 have a muff made of it or something that you can wear 
 or use. Don't give it away ; I could have done that if 
 I had wanted any one other than yourself to have 
 it. . . . Johnson is well and strong, but your unworthy 
 son beats them all in this respect — he is never ill. I 
 went to Bandawe in the Charlotte last week, and thus 
 gave the new engines a fair trial. I drove them myself, 
 and got on very well, getting some four and a half miles 
 an hour out of the little boat. I started on Wednesday at 
 
 I. 30 p.m., I reached Chisumulu at 4, and stayed with 
 J. A. Williams till 11 p.m., then I went on board and got 
 up steam, and steamed all through the night. At early 
 dawn we were some ten miles north of Bandawe, having 
 got a little out in our reckoning. However, just then a 
 strong wind sprung up, so I let out the fires, and 
 hoisted the sails. By 8 a.m. we reached Bandawe, 
 but there was so high a sea on that we could not 
 land, so we rode at anchor till 4 p.m., and then got 
 ashore. I stayed with Dr. Laws till 11 p.m., and then 
 bidding him good-bye I went on board again, and got up 
 steam preparatory to another six hours of steaming. At 
 
 II. 30 steam was up, and under a bright moon we tripped 
 anchor, and shaped our course south-east for Chisumulu. 
 This was my second night, and I was sleepy, yet for six 
 long hours I had to watch the boiler and the steam-gauge 
 and attend also to the man at the helm, who had steered 
 so badly the night before. The Lake was as calm as 
 a pond, and w^e got into Chisumulu as the sun was 
 rismg. W^e blew our whistle, and this soon brought 
 J. A. Williams out of his bed to meet us. He got me a 
 cup of coffee, and then Nature asserted her sway. I, com- 
 pletely tired out, fell asleep, and slept for four hom*s. In 
 the afternoon, however, I got up steam again, and came on 
 here with J. A. Williams, arriving in Likoma at 4.30 p.m. 
 
[iSgo.] On Likoma Island. 317 
 
 on Friday. On Friday night a good long sleep took away 
 all my fatigue, and now I am quite ready for a similar 
 expedition any day. Ah, what a blessing is good health ! 
 What will you and my father think of me as turning 
 engine driver ? . . . 
 
 [The vacuum did not work properly at first, for the 
 boat should have steamed about six miles an hour.] 
 
 At Karonga's, North End of Lake Nyasa. 
 October 16th, 1889. 
 
 I am, as you will see by the above address, tripping it 
 on the Lake, and am now at anchor in the Charles Janson 
 at the celebrated station of the African Lakes Company 
 where all the fighting took place. We came here to bring 
 up the Consul, H. H. Johnston. Here also we have met 
 a Mons. Trivier, a French traveller who has just arrived 
 from the west coast. ... I have offered him a passage 
 in our steamer down the Lake. He came from the 
 Congo, and was accompanied by one companion and 
 hardly any porters. ... He seems an interesting man, 
 and two or three years of travel have not rubbed off his 
 French polish. ... I do not despair of seeing eventually 
 all the east side of the Lake under British protection. . . . 
 
 November 11 th. 
 
 . . . The Magwangwara have been raiding in the Lake 
 shore villages, and I have got all the teachers' wives up 
 here for safety. . . . 
 
 Likoma, January 8th, 1890. 
 ... In Easter week I shall start homewards, and I 
 hope to be with you all by the end of June or at the 
 latest by the first week in July. . . . 
 
 Likoma, February 6th, 1890. 
 ... I am writing this while watching at the bedside 
 of one of our own people who is ill with typhoid fever, 
 
3i8 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 and who has to be watched night and day. He is a 
 Christian, Musa by name, and as he is a really good man 
 and fit to die, as one may humbly trust, I do not feel 
 much anxiety about him. Also, thanks to Miss 
 McLaughlin's excellent nursing, he is likely to recover, 
 we hope. . . . We have lately had a sad case in which 
 one of our boys died from swallowing a fish bone. . . . 
 I am writing on only one side of the paper so as to spare 
 your eyes. I am sure the Mission can afford the extra 
 stamp that the letter may cost in consequence. ... A 
 fortnight ago I held a school examination here, the 
 results of which were fairly satisfactory I am glad to say. 
 We are going on printing our Chinyanja hymn-book, for 
 which I go on writing translations of hymns. . . . The 
 printing is being done admirably by Alley, who is my so 
 handy aide-de-camp up here, as you know. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, Marcli Srd, 1890. 
 
 The last, or the last but one, I hope, of a long series of 
 letters extending over nearly five years — for really, I do 
 believe that when the Charles Janson goes down the time 
 after this she will be taking me down on my way ''home." 
 . . . The Charles Janson only came in on Saturday, and 
 has to go away at once, so I've but little time to write to 
 you, unfortunately, and I ought to have followed an old 
 habit I used to have of getting ready a great part of a letter 
 to you before the Charles Janson' s return. But I have got 
 slack about this as well as about so many other things. 
 . . . Johnson has just had another very narrow escape 
 for his life, and was badly hustled at one of the Lake shore 
 villages. We half fear that if things go on like this the 
 Charles Janson may get seized some fine day. Johnson 
 has long felt that she ought to be armed, but the Bishop 
 opposed this. ... As to music, I have done no more lately 
 
[1890.] On Likoma Islan^d. 319 
 
 . . . but here is a list of my compositions, such as they are. 
 Besides hymns (in all some seventy to eighty) I have 
 written — 
 
 6 minuets and trios, 
 2 bourrees, 
 1 march, 
 
 1 aria (or song tune) . 
 
 I want when in England to ask an unprejudiced and 
 thorough musician whether any of these slight composi- 
 tions have any merit. Some of them please my ear, and 
 I want to know whether they do so justly, or whether, 
 after all, they are only very poor stuff. . . . When I 
 last wrote to you we were nursing one of our young men 
 who was ill with typhoid fever. He died, and as one 
 may say, his whole life was comprised in one year — 
 i.e., we ransomed him, baptized, confirmed, married, 
 and buried him all in the twelve months. His young 
 wife is a widow at something under sixteen years old, 
 and had only been married to him three months. On 
 the last day of his life, while I was watching by his 
 bedside, after being delirious and incoherent for some 
 hours, he suddenly raised himself on his bed into a 
 kneeling posture, and to my surprise began the Lord's 
 Prayer. I was quickly on my knees helping him, and 
 he remained conscious while I said some more prayers. 
 Two hours after that he died. ... I was sorry you could 
 give no improved account of poor Frisby's state. What a 
 sad realization of her oft-repeated saying to us when we 
 were children — yet one that she never intended — " You 
 children'll drive me mad, that you will ! " I often think 
 of her, poor thing.* It is now 12.45 a.m., and I know 
 you would not wish me to keep sitting up any later at 
 
 * When he came to England he went to see this old nui-se at the 
 asylum. 
 
320 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 the risk of fever to-morrow, so I'll ^at once wind up my 
 letter and say good-night and good-bye. 
 
 Bandawe, March 25th. 
 . . . We are at Bandawe, detained by stress of weather, 
 and as soon as we get back to Likoma the steamer will 
 have to start at once for the south. ... I felt very 
 thankful that your last letter gave such a good account 
 of the health of the dear trio [father, mother, sister — 
 Ed.], which I hope will ere long be swelled into a 
 quartette. I have been much interested in the review 
 of a book called " Lux Mundi," a series of theological 
 essays by the younger school of Oxford divines, my 
 friends Gore, Scott Holland, Paget, Aubrey Moore, and 
 the like. It is a book I shall devour when I get home. 
 Thmgs are moving forward very fast (politically speak- 
 ing) in these parts, but the London newspapers tell you 
 as much as I can on this subject, which has become all 
 of a sudden the principal topic of the day, or rather was 
 so, just at the time you despatched the letters I am now 
 answering. We are over here at Bandawe mainly to 
 inquire after our friend. Dr. Laws, who had been 
 very ill mdeed, almost, it was thought, at death's door. 
 I am thankful to say he is now much better again. . . . 
 I see that when I get home I am to be snapped up for 
 meetings and deputation work, but at any rate I can 
 abstain and refrain till the end of September, and have 
 a quiet two to three months with you all first. 
 
 Speaking of some photographs he had taken, he 
 says : — 
 
 Likoma, April Uth, 1890. 
 One of these groups represents the whole (black) 
 teaching staff, now at work in my Archdeaconry, for the 
 steamer brought up here for an Easter holiday all the 
 
[i8go.] Third Return to England. 
 
 321 
 
 teachers and their wives. Johnson and I are much 
 pleased with them and their work, and we have indeed 
 much cause to be thankful both for their steady behaviour 
 and the perseverance they have shown during the last 
 two years and more. Cecil Majaliwa's ordination to the 
 priesthood was, in itself, such a great event that through- 
 out the Mission we have made extra holiday this year 
 and extra rejoicing. . . . Our church was very full on 
 Easter Day, and nearly every Christian here made his 
 or her Easter Communion. ... On the Good Friday 
 we had the usual three hours' service, and to it all the 
 Christians came. . . . Nor did they seem to get weary 
 at all. It was rather an experiment bidding to that • 
 service the outside Christians, who had to come from 
 their villages and wait about silent till twelve o'clock, 
 and then three hours in church ; but it was an experi- 
 ment which in its result encourages us to do the same 
 another year. . . . 
 
 April 14:th. 
 
 ... I managed to take a large party over there [to 
 Chisumulu — Ed.] on Wednesday, and we made holiday 
 there till Friday. We went in the Ousel, our large steel 
 boat, which is now up here, and which for the next two 
 months we are going to use for carrying hither from 
 Bandawe the bricks Dr. Laws has kindly had burned for 
 us over there, which we shall use in our church build- 
 ing. . . . My room is being besieged just now by a 
 party of youths begging hard for fish-hooks ; Easter- 
 time has done this ! . . . With fond love and in hope of 
 a happy meeting not many months hence. 
 
 [On Monday, August 11th, 1890, Archdeacon Maples 
 arrived in London from Africa. He took a quiet holiday 
 with his family till the middle of October, and then began 
 preaching and deputation work over England. Space 
 forbids that I should quote largely from his letters written 
 
 CM. Y 
 
322 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 to his mother while in Europe, though they are full of 
 his usual keen interest in places, things, and people. 
 
 Writing from Durham, March 14th, 1891, after giving 
 a long and enthusiastic description of the University and 
 Cathedral, he says :] 
 
 How the time goes on ! But four months more and 
 I shall be for the fourth time on my way to the country 
 of my adoption ! Yes, and life harries on, bearing us all 
 relentlessly on its full flood tide. Whenever I am alone 
 (as to-day in this great dark tapestried room) the thought 
 of the solemnity of life, and, alas ! the thought of how 
 miserably little one as a rule realizes it, is a very present 
 one to my mind. We spend our time in criticizing 
 others, in finding fault (very often), and all the time the 
 only thing we ought to be concerning ourselves about — 
 " What are ice doing? " " How are ice living? " — is thrust 
 into a little corner of each day as it passes, or else is 
 ousted altogether. A few more years only, and our 
 earthly lives with all their calls, their opportunities, 
 their chances, will be over, and our probation will be 
 over. In view of this great fact, all other considerations 
 seem worthless, and the one thing we have to do is 
 surely to set about " to redeem the time " that remains. 
 
 'He spent the month of April on the Continent 
 travelling in North Italy, with two companions, the 
 Rev. Duncan Travers, and Dr. Hine. This tour was a 
 keen enjoyment to him. He kept a diligent journal, for 
 his mother's perusal.] 
 
 {From a letter of Adcice, 1891.) 
 
 I must attempt something in the way of an answer to 
 yours, though I fear I am but a poor spiritual adviser. 
 I beheve that the centre of help, and strength, and comfort, 
 and consolation, and peace, in this life is to be sought 
 
[iSgi.] In England. 323 
 
 for and found in the Holy Communion, which is, as you 
 know, the chosen means whereby to us Christians 
 the Life which is our only true life is imparted. . . . 
 May I say that my experience as a priest has led me 
 to believe that one particular temptation to which un- 
 married people of your sex are specially prone, is to be too 
 introspective. . . . I do ?2oi think self-examination can be 
 easily overdone, but I am quite sure that the constant 
 inquiry into the state of our feelings can be. ... I say I do 
 not think it is wise to multiply inquiries of this sort. . . . 
 I certainly think that contentment to a person (be it a 
 he " or a " she ") who is unmarried, can only come if 
 some very definite employment of a thoroughly unselfish 
 character be taken up and pursued with all the energy 
 and steadiness that health admits of. . . . It seems 
 to me that if we take up any form of work with the idea 
 and motive of getting joy out of it, v;q deserve disappoint- 
 ment. No doubt joy does come out of good honest hard 
 work, but this is always when the motive that impelled 
 to the work was a higher one, free from the palpable 
 taint of selfishness that hangs about all work under- 
 taken for the sake of the joy which it is to confer 
 upon the worker. Until we are resolved to look for all 
 our joys to the "hereafter," and not to the ''now," we 
 certainly shall never be satisfied with this life and what 
 it brings us. Remember that God is proving us, all along 
 our course through this world, by the very disappoint- 
 ments He throws in our path. If we take these disappoint- 
 ments cheerfully, nay, I will say it, thankfullij, we are 
 thereby standing this "proving," and gradually become 
 fitted, or at least less unfitted, for heaven. ... I feel 
 inclined to remind you, that God looks rather for what 
 we are than what we do. Eeally it is the first question 
 from day to day. "What am I to be to day?" rather than 
 " What m I going to do ? " Now if a person begins by 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 asking herself " What am I to he to-day?" a part at least 
 of the answer will point to what is to be done in the way 
 of w^ork ... To determine to be useful to others because 
 to do this is to please God is, of course, a really high 
 motive, and wdll bring its own reward. . . . The longer I 
 live the more convinced am I that this Anglican Church 
 of ours is, in spite of its many imperfections and short- 
 comings, still the purest and truest nineteenth century 
 representation of the Church of the apostolic age. This 
 being my belief, there is no wonder that I rejoice that 
 into this Anglican Church I was born and baptized. . . . 
 
 [And then on August 11th, 1891, he started for Africa 
 for the fourth time, travelling through France, and joining 
 the Ava at Marseilles. Mr. Atlay accompanied him.] 
 
 Makseilles, 2 p.m., Aiujmt 12th, 1891. 
 . . . We go on board in an hour's time. ... On 
 board (the mail from Dover to Calais) I met an old 
 Charterhouse and Oxford friend whom I had not seen 
 since 1873. . . . We talked aw^ay all the way from 
 Calais to Paris, and this prevented me from feeling 
 dull. ... If I never see you — any of you — again in this 
 life, I shall never forget God's mercy in allowing me to 
 find you all, three times over, since I first set sail for 
 Africa fifteen years and more ago ! I do pray that you 
 too may at least be not feeling more dull than I do just 
 now. ... I have read about one hundred pages of the 
 " American Girl in London," and am vastly interested 
 in it ; its naivete is charming. . . . 
 
 SS. " Ava," 30 Miles S.E. of Cuete, 
 
 Sunday, August 16th, 1891. 
 
 . . . Atlay and I have both kept very well indeed, so 
 far ... I expect to have just two days at Zanzibar, 
 certainly no more, and it may be less. . . . 
 
 Sunday, August 16th. — . . . I have often wondered 
 
[iSgi.] 
 
 Fourth Return to Africa. 
 
 325 
 
 how that day when I came away passed for you. In 
 
 imagination I long saw you and at the window, 
 
 and the servants standing on the steps, and my imagina- 
 tion, or rather my memory, was busy on a httle incident 
 of August 11th, 1890, when, after our meeting had taken 
 
 place, you preceded me upstairs to 's room, and, 
 
 throwing open the door, said in tones I shall never forget, 
 *' He has come." Ah ! these are memories that abide, 
 be very sure of it. . . . 
 
 SS. " AvA," Gulf of Aden, near Obock, 
 
 August 22nd, 1891. 
 
 To our intense relief we passed out of the Bed Sea at 
 about 10 o'clock this morning, and are feeling somewhat 
 refreshed by a strong breeze which greeted us as soon as 
 we were well through the Straits of Bab-el-mandeb. I 
 have never known the Ked Sea quite so hot as we have 
 found it this time. ... On Wednesday and Thursday 
 the thermometer stood at 98° for upwards of five hours 
 in the shade, that is to say, under the awning on deck, 
 while yesterday from about 12 o'clock, noon, to 4.30, it 
 actually registered 107°, a far greater heat than I have 
 ever experienced in the shade. . . . "We have taken baths 
 and shower baths in the afternoon, and have sat in them 
 in order to do something to reduce the temperature of 
 our bodies, though I felt rather nervous as to heat 
 apoplexy, which may be induced if one is not very careful 
 to let the water be on one's head at the same time that one 
 sits in it. I have written all about the heat, for really 
 the Eed Sea this time has suggested no other topic for 
 my pen. Even reading has been almost out of the ques- 
 tion, eating has been impossible, drinking unwise, sleeping, 
 often impossible too. One has simply panted to get out 
 of the Ked Sea all the time we were in it, and now, at 
 last, I am thankful to say, we are out of it. . . . 
 
326 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Zanzibar, Kittngani, Septemler 1st. 
 Here I am safe and sound with my companion Atlay, 
 delighted to be amongst all the old friends once again. 
 We start the first thing to-morrow in a German steamer 
 for Lindi. . . . We hope to get to Newala on the 10th, 
 . . . then on to the Lake. I am of course most anxious 
 to see the Bishop, and think it very likely we may meet 
 somewhere on the Eovuma. . . . The Bishop has 
 written me two or three letters. ... In them he says, 
 amongst other things, that he has come round to the 
 belief that there should be a division of the diocese, and 
 that the Nyasa district should now be under a different 
 Bishop. In other words, he himself has come round to 
 see that the appointment of a coadjutor would not be a 
 satisfactory solution of the problem before us. ... I 
 am very happy, and I do trust you are all cheerful, and 
 that things are going on well. . . . 
 
 Newala, Sefdemher 13ih, 1891. 
 . . . To-day is Monday. We arrived here last Thursday, 
 and we start for Masasi to-morrow morning. . . . We 
 had a pleasant walk up here from Lindi, though in rather 
 long stages of twenty miles and more per day. . . . Our 
 party is all well, though we feel the cold up here on the 
 high Makonde plateau. This station is now on its top, 
 three miles from the old station where I built when I 
 was here. . . . Matola, and all my old friends here, 
 seemed very glad to see me, as I was to see them. . . . 
 I had forgotten the Yao language so much that I could 
 not on Sunday preach without an interpreter. . . . 
 The Germans were all exceedingly pleasant at Lindi, 
 especially a certain Herr von Behr, who is here to-day, 
 and is going on to Machemba's and Masasi. . . . The 
 large number of tropical fruit trees I planted here in 
 1885 are growing up into a splendid grove. . . . The 
 
[iSgi.] 
 
 Masasi. 
 
 327 
 
 school is flourishing here fairly well, and Christianity is 
 slowly spreading and making its way. . . . The Germans 
 talk of establishing a kind of fort at Masasi for the pur- 
 pose of protecting the country against the Magwangwara 
 raids. I think it a good plan of theirs. I have been 
 talking from morning till night — simply all day long. . . . 
 
 Masasi, September 22nd, 1891. 
 The above address will, no doubt, take your thoughts 
 back, as it does mine, to years gone by, when I lived 
 and described my life and its occupations to you, at 
 "old" Masasi, as dear Taylor used fondly to call it. . . . 
 For myself, I am thankful to say I have enjoyed my usual 
 *' bouncing " health, but my companions have both been 
 laid on their backs with fever for the last four days. . . . 
 The walls [speaking of the old Masasi station. — Ed.] are 
 just as strong and firm in most places as when we built 
 them in 1880 and 1881, and every stone and every brick 
 seemed to kindle some old memory of those dear happy 
 days when, at least, our people were contented to live 
 under our rule. . . . With " the old folks at home" as 
 you and the dear father will not disdain to be called, my 
 thoughts are continually. . . . 
 
 Chamba's Town, Eiver Eovuma, E. Africa, 
 Odoher 10th, 1891. 
 
 . . . We had, very much to my regret, to leave young 
 Atlay behind [at Masasi. — Ed.], feeling quite sure he was 
 not up to what I knew lay before us in the way of sun, 
 fatigue, and other trials. Africa came out in him, so to 
 speak, so soon, that it would have been worse than folly 
 to have allowed him to accompany us to the Lake. . . . 
 I had one very bad day of fever and diarrhoea, but in 
 spite of it managed to do my sixteen miles of walking. 
 If one can do this, it is the surest way of throwing off 
 
328 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 the fever, but with a temperature of 102°, and all the 
 fever pains, headache, aching of all the limbs, &c., it is 
 hard enough. . . . We reached the Kovuma ; we camped 
 on its banks. ... As we had expected, we soon saw 
 numbers of various kinds of antelopes. ... I soon began 
 trying my new rifle, and after a couple of unsuccessful 
 shots, at last killed an antelope of good size, which is 
 called in Yao mbawala," but which I have not yet 
 identified as to its name in zoology. This provided meat 
 for our whole caravan. . . . Yery useful I found my 
 rifle, for as soon as all the meat of the first antelope 
 was finished I shot another, this time a *'pallah," 
 or, as we call it in Yao, " swala." Both these antelopes 
 happen to be very good eating. . . . Yesterday we 
 reached this place, I having again, in the early morning, 
 shot another antelope, this time a hartebeest. It was 
 one of a herd of some ten or twelve which we came upon 
 as they were feeding together with some gnus, at which 
 I also took aim, wounding one, but not bringing him 
 down. . . . We are resting, and preparmg for the long 
 march of one hundred and fifteen miles to the south-west, 
 which we have to take in order to reach Isombe's 
 town. ... A few nights ago we had lions very near us, 
 and some of our party were woke up by their roars. . . . 
 We leave the Eovuma on striking our camp on Monday, 
 and very sorry we shall be to do so, for what with the 
 animals and birds, the pretty reaches of the river, the 
 hippopotami, the gumea fowl, &c., &c., it has been a 
 very interesting part of the walk. 
 
 . . . With the exception of Unde's people and these 
 people here [Chamba's town] , we have seen little of the 
 inhabitants of the Kovuma valley, who are, for the most 
 part, Yaos. . . . Where we are now there is rather a 
 dearth of provisions. . . . We have, however, some 
 coloured handkerchiefs, which will probably extort the 
 
[iSgi.] Travelling to the Lake. 329 
 
 required flour and Indian corn. We ourselves manage to 
 buy a good many eggs, sweet potatoes, and even fowls, 
 with our emptied biscuit tins and tea canisters — in fact, 
 we have to-day done quite a thriving trade in these 
 things. ... As for yourself, as an old sportsman, I 
 doubt whether you would have consented to pot the 
 guinea-fowl as they sit in the trees ; but we shoot for the 
 pot — the cooking pot — and so we can't afford to be over 
 scrupulous or fastidious, whichever it be. . . . 
 
 Chamba's Town, Odoher 12th. 
 ... I have nothing worse than an ulcer to complain 
 of. You know how soon and easily a mere scratch or 
 insect bite develops into an ulcer in this country, and 
 you know also how difficult it is to get rid of them when 
 once they come. Mine was caused by a rather deep 
 scratch on the lower part of my left leg, as I tore through 
 the bush after an animal or a guinea fowl. I have bound 
 it up tightly, and I do not think it will affect my walking 
 powers at all. . . . 
 
 Isombe's Town, Yaoland, E. Africa, 
 
 Odoher 21sf, 1891. 
 
 . . . Our route from Chamba's has been exactly the 
 same as that I followed five years ago. . . . We passed 
 each day the remains of the sleeping booths of grass, 
 leaves, and sticks, which were made by the Bishop's 
 porters when he and his caravan passed along the road 
 three months ago. We noticed that his day's stages 
 were far shorter than ours, by which I judge that he 
 was weak and ill, and sadly unfit for the trying 
 journey. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, November 2nd. 
 We arrived here on October 29th. . . . The Bishop 
 himself, besides , , . . . were all on board 
 
330 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 [the Charles Janson] to greet us, but not, alas ! dear 
 Captain Sheriff [of the Charles Janson. — Ed.] , who, we 
 learned, had been called to his rest some months ago. 
 . . . The Bishop and I had many a long conversation 
 that day and the next, and then he collapsed utterly 
 with fever. ... I have been rather shaky, too, but am 
 better this afternoon. 
 
 LiKOMA, November 5th, 1891. 
 ... I have had fever every day since I have been 
 here ; it is fearfully hot. ... It is nothing serious, and I 
 expect to be quite well by Sunday. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, St. Andrew's Day, 1891. 
 ... I am afraid my last letter home must have read 
 like a long wail, and I know not how to prevent this one 
 resembling it, for in truth we have a great deal of 
 sickness here just now. . . . We have had no rain as yet, 
 but clouds and thunder and a coolness in the air betoken 
 its near approach. . . . The number of boys in our 
 boys' school has encouragingly increased since my 
 return ; we have now sixty-three boarders. I shall this 
 month be very busy with individuals in preparation for 
 their Christmas communion. The only way is to see all 
 the Christians privately and individually, then we do get 
 really to know their trials and temptations, and so we 
 can give them the particular spiritual help they each 
 individually require. It is the way, too, to keep 
 Christians from falling away, and falling back, and, as 
 I think, the only effective way all the world over. . . . 
 We have now on our communicants' roll here ninety- 
 eight Christians, most of whom have been baptized on 
 the island. One of our great troubles is not being 
 able to get our barter cloth sent up the river to us 
 properly. It only comes up in driblets, though plenty is 
 sent out from home. Often we are quite out of cloth, 
 
[iSgi.] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 331 
 
 then all building and other work has to stop, as we 
 cannot pay our way. As soon as we can get stone walls 
 to replace the flimsy reeds which we have, for the most 
 part, used up to the present time, our houses will be 
 more durable, and not always be threatening to collapse, 
 as they do at present. . . . To-day I began a vaccina- 
 tion class, always most popular in this island. I 
 vaccinated before, about three hundred people, and I 
 hope now to carry it on from Monday to Monday, 
 vaccinating fifteen or twenty or more people each time, 
 till all have come who will come. The mothers, in 
 particular, are very keen about their babies being 
 vaccinated, and the babies, except the very little infants, 
 are all interested in it themselves ! . . . 
 
 LiKOifA, December 3rd, 1891. 
 . . . Our steamer is away to-day on the other side of 
 the Lake ; it took some of our invalids to see the doctor 
 [at Bandawe] . I daresay one or two of them may be 
 sent home ; we are indeed a seedy household just now. 
 Dear Johnson, who never complains, is in a very weak 
 and reduced state of health, and ought to have a long 
 and thorough rest, though, of course, he will never 
 consent to take it. . . . 
 
 Decemher 8th. 
 
 P.S. — . . . Johnson is at last taking some rest, and 
 feeling the better for it. I cannot report any better as to 
 the state of my ulcer, otherwise I am very well. . . . 
 [This was his old ulcer of 1882 — 1883, which had broken 
 out again. — Ed.] 
 
 Likoma, Holy Innocents' Day, 1891. 
 . . . Our Christmas has passed away very pleasantly. 
 On the festival itself we had eighty-eight communicants 
 at the early celebration, a far larger number than we 
 have ever had before, I am thankful to say. . . . When 
 
332 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 my ulcer is better I will mention the fact in my letters, 
 or if it gets much worse, otherwise and henceforward I 
 will not mention it in my letters home. ... I do not 
 think I could get up any enthusiasm about the Holy 
 Coat at Treves, which it is certain cannot be what it 
 professes to be. How can one send one's critical faculty 
 to sleep altogether, and venerate a fraud? . . . How 
 unfair it seems to me, when people who ought to do so, 
 do not tell people of their serious faults. ... I fear the 
 church building will be a very great difficulty, increased 
 a thousand-fold by our insular position. . . . 
 
 {On a sorrow and loss in the Family.) 
 
 LiKOMA, December 30th, 1891. 
 
 . . . "One taken and the other left !" Why *'the one" 
 rather than "the other" we can never know here, but 
 we can and must believe that when it is so, the best is 
 done, because HE does it. Only our own true Christian 
 religion can really teach us this, and true Christians have 
 learned it, and know how to say "Amen" to those acts 
 of God which cause them the greatest pain, such as are 
 the callings away of father, mother, sister, brother, son 
 and daughter. . . . Our orange and lime trees are all 
 just bursting into blossom, and their sweet perfume is very 
 strong in the early morning when the dew or the night 
 rains are still upon the trees. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, January IStJi, 1892. 
 Our steamer suddenly appeared, and going off at once, 
 leaves time but for two lines. Terrible disaster at 
 Makanjila's — three Europeans, including Captain 
 Maguire, killed. Our steamer passed the Domira, but did 
 not see her, or could have rendered assistance and saved 
 lives. . . . My ulcer is nearly well again. . . . Domira 
 came here yesterday, and gave us all the sad news. . . . 
 
[1892.] On Likoma Island. 333 
 
 LiKOMA, January 26f/i, 1892. 
 
 . . . We have had an unusually wet January, nearly 
 twenty inches of rain having fallen since Christmas, 
 which is at least three times as much as we usually have 
 in our rainiest month. . . . 
 
 Fehruary 3rd, 1892. 
 
 When the Domira called in here the other day on her 
 way down south, she had on board one of Cardinal 
 Lavigerie's " White Fathers," who had been for eight or 
 nine years on Lake Tanganyika, and who was then on 
 his way home for a change, so we found out that the idea 
 that has been spread about, that the Koman Fathers 
 never go home, is all a myth after all. He told me 
 himself that he was merely going home to recruit. His 
 home was in Burgundy, near Dijon. He was a very 
 bright and cheerful person, evidently quite enjoyed 
 seeing us, and comparing notes with Johnson and myself 
 as to our missionary methods. . . . We did not waste 
 our time in controversy, I can assure you. He said 
 of us, as indeed I liked him to say, "You of your Mission 
 are very near us in doctrine and practice." . . . 
 
 Likoma, Fehruary Qth, 1892. 
 ... I am very thankful to say my ulcer has healed, 
 and I have left off bandaging. . . . We have now had 
 upwards of thirty inches of rain already, a heavy rainfall, 
 and beyond the yearly average of this place, and yet, to 
 judge from the time, there is still much more to come 
 down ere the rainy season concludes. . . . 
 
 Speaking of the division of the diocese, he says : — 
 
 February ISth, 1892. 
 It would of course be f^se modesty to affect to think 
 that my own name had not been thought of and talked 
 of in this connection, but I wrote to England a few 
 
334 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 months ago to say that in case of the post being offered 
 me, nothing would induce me to accept it. My reasons 
 are, for the most part, private, but so far as I was able to 
 give them I made no secrets. . . . 
 
 February 18<A. 
 
 . . . We hear by telegram forwarded from Zanzibar 
 that the Bishop of Carlisle* has died, a loss our Mission 
 will feel deeply. ... I do hope Dr. Hine will be able 
 to come back, for certainly our most urgent need here 
 is a medical man. ... A nice new book or two — 
 biography, travel, or theology — would be a great treat 
 just now. . . . Our printing establishment has had to be 
 temporarily closed for lack of paper, and we know not 
 how long we may have to wait ere we get any more. . . . 
 We have now had just forty inches of rain this season, 
 and as March is usually a wet month, we may possibly 
 run up to fifty inches before the rainy season is quite 
 over. . . . 
 
 Llkoma, March ISth, 1892. 
 ... I am in very fair health, though apparently more 
 susceptible of fever than I have been of recent years. 
 "WTien, however, I am prudent, and take eighteen grains 
 of qumine, and get under the blankets at once, I am 
 generally on the mend in the morning, and all right 
 again the next day but one. . . . Gore's Bampton 
 Lectures,"' I hear, are now pubHshed. I hope some one 
 may be sending that book out to us. . . . 
 
 LrKOiO., Easter Tuesday, 1892. 
 Shall I begm this time with a wail of woe? Well, 
 then, here it is ! Another of my boxes turned up with 
 the last lot of loads. It contained some of my clothes 
 and about twenty-five of my books, all absolutely spoilt by 
 
 ^- Bishop Harvey Goodwin was President of the Committee of 
 the Univeraitied' Mission to Central Africa. 
 
[1892.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 335 
 
 the wet, all soaked through and through, and the books, to 
 a great extent, mere pulp !* . . . We had one hundred and 
 eight communicants on Easter Day, and later on in the 
 morning I baptized twenty-eight adult converts. Johnson 
 was here with most of the Christians from the Lake side 
 villages, but they all went away again yesterday. . . . 
 It is deeply interesting to read that Times the mother 
 has sent me, with the accounts of the young Duke of 
 Clarence's death, and of Cardinal Manning's also. . . . 
 
 Speaking of a friend and connection — 
 
 Her manner always made me feel what somebody else's 
 manner makes me feel with shame — how infinitely better 
 our elders are than ourselves. I hope you heartily agree 
 in this sentiment. ... I see that my old tutor's! great 
 work on the Old Testament is published, and is very 
 highly reviewed. . . . 
 
 Likoma, Ajjril 20th, 1892. 
 . . . Our rainy season is just over, and we have a 
 great deal of building in contemplation, since several of 
 our houses show signs of toppling over, or tumbling 
 about our ears. Our kitchen was all but over in this 
 way two days ago. We rushed for long poles, and shoved 
 it up into the perpendicular again ere it came smash 
 down upon the pots and pans that were quietly and 
 peacefully boiling and stewing their savoury contents, 
 all unconscious of their impending doom ! However, 
 the doom was happily averted, and we didn't go to bed 
 hungry that night. ... As yet all these new doings and 
 arrangements [for the British Protectorate in Nyasa- 
 
 * The steamer which had taken his luggage was wrecked. The 
 boxes were subsequently recovered, but two or three were in the 
 condition mentioned above. 
 
 t Professor Driver. 
 
33^ Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 land. — Ed.] have not affected our position at all, and so 
 we go on in the same quiet way, just as before the British 
 flag began to float over N^^asaland. . . . We don't go 
 in for acting up here, but we had a dancing man on 
 Easter Monday whom our simple people thought infinitely 
 amusing. My tune " Harewood Square " has become 
 very popular here, and seems the favourite of our eight 
 tunes for the Easter hymns. Our boys sing it all over 
 the place, in season and out of season — rather too much 
 of the latter, I fear. . . . We shall soon be parched up 
 again, withered, dry, sandy, hot, unlovely. Likoma is 
 jealous of her best dress, and only wears it for two 
 months each year. Perhaps it is well, for we do. appre- 
 ciate it so when it is worn — and if never doffed it would 
 soon seem common in our eyes. Our head teacher is to 
 be married next week, and I have some other " matches " 
 in view ; for a veritable match-maker I fear I am, what- 
 ever people may think of me for it, by the force of our 
 peculiar circumstances out here. It is a great thing to 
 get our lads and young women happily married after a 
 Christian manner. . . . 
 
 April 20th, 1892. 
 . . . For mj-self, I think the future prospects of the 
 Anglican communion never shone brighter than they do 
 at present. Agnosticism or English Catholicism seem 
 to me the only two alternatives for intellectual English- 
 men of our time. . . . Now that I have had nearly six 
 months here, I begin to feel my usual self, and as little 
 liable to fever as I was during my last long stay here. 
 ... I think our rains are now quite over. We have 
 had just fifty inches this season. . . . We now count 
 400 " adherents " m this island — that is, out of a popu- 
 lation of from two to three thousand. Adherents " 
 includes Christians, catechumens, hearers, schoolboys, 
 and school ghls. . . . 
 
[1892.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 337 
 
 Likoma, Lake Nyasa, May 20th. 
 Never, I think, since I have been in Africa have I 
 written to you by means of an amanuensis, but necessity 
 has no law. . . . For nearly a fortnight I have been laid 
 on the shelf with an attack of purulent ophthalmia, 
 from which recovery is a slow process. I am introducing 
 into Likoma a money currency, and have just received 
 from H. H. Johnston a hundred pounds in specie. . . . 
 This coin will, I hope, alternate agreeably wdth our old 
 barter goods of cloths, beads, &c. . . . 
 
 June 1th. 
 
 ... I am just racing through "John Inglesant" 
 again — I think, for the thii*d time. . . . 
 
 Likoma, June Idth, 1892. 
 You'll be glad to hear my eyes are quite well and 
 strong again. . . . 
 
 Likoma, July Uth, 1892. 
 . . . Will you thank Aunt Emma for her kind thought 
 in sending me Dean Burgon's " Life " ? I am sure to be 
 *' vastly " (Dean Burgon's favourite adverb) interested 
 in it. . . . 
 
 [One of the Mission workers was very ill.] 
 
 When I resume the pen, I fear it wdll be to tell you he 
 has passed away. This is the first white man whose 
 death-bed I have attended. Fancy that, when I have 
 been in holy orders seventeen years ! 
 
 July 21st. — Yes, he has now gone from us, dying 
 somewhat suddenly at the last, while all of us (save 
 Miss McLaughlin, who was nursing him) were saying 
 evensong in church. . . . 
 
 July 2Srd. — It was a burial two days ago, and to-day 
 we celebrated a marriage, for such is life. . . . Atlay 
 is all I could wish both as a friend and a fellow- worker. 
 He is quite a man after my own heart. 
 
 CM. z 
 
338 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 August Sth. — Your book, too, has arrived.* I shall 
 devour it, and let you know my criticisms. 
 
 . . . I'm wonderfully well, building brick archways in 
 the sun with my own hands. ... 
 
 Septemher m, 1892. 
 . . . Our school has greatly increased lately as to 
 numbers, for we have now between eighty and ninety 
 boys, all of whom are boarders here. . . . We are just 
 now re-opening our prmting office in the " new premises," 
 and a very nice place it is, where we hope soon to be 
 printing book after book, and all of them in our native 
 dialect. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, August 2Ath, 1892. 
 Look at the date — St. Bartholomew's Day, our great 
 Mission anniversary. Eighteen years ago on this day 
 Bishop Steere was consecrated our Bishop, and a few 
 months afterwards he put up in the Union at Oxford 
 that simple notice on a scrap of blue paper that attracted 
 first Johnson's attention and afterwards my own. And 
 now it is eighteen years afterwards, and almost (there 
 are but three days to run out) ten years ago he was laid 
 in his grave behind the high altar in his own grand 
 church at Zanzibar. . . . We are building, building, 
 building, till the whole station looks changed — stone 
 walls and houses everywhere. . . . Still the building — 
 the church, ah ! that has not been begun yet. We must 
 have a special man for that, who can spend absolutely 
 his whole time on this particular work as long as it is 
 going on. . . . 
 
 {To his Mother.) 
 
 October 25th, 1892. 
 About ten days ago a most welcome mail turned up. 
 ... Of course I had intended writing to you all, at 
 
 * A story his sister had wTitten. 
 
[1892.J On Likoma Island. 
 
 339 
 
 some length in answer this time, but as it is you'll have 
 to be contented with the merest scrap by way of answer, 
 for two days ago (Sunday, nineteenth after Trinity) a great 
 calamity befell us, and almost half our houses have been 
 burnt to the ground, including the church, the library 
 with its 1,400 volumes, the dispensary and its medicines, 
 my new house, &c., &c. In all, eleven houses were 
 burnt to the ground. I have written an account of the 
 matter to " Central Africa." . . . We saved scarcely one 
 of the books out of the library, though very few of my 
 own volumes perished there, nor did I lose anything 
 that was in my house, or anything out of the church. 
 Still, a calamity it was, and very uncomfortable is it 
 to be burnt out in this way. . . . Only we men were 
 burnt out, the ladies' quarters escaped, and so did 
 the bulk of our new buildings, so we have much to 
 be thankful for. ... I am quite well, but dead tired. 
 . . . Our large schoolroom, to which I have several 
 times alluded, . . . makes a really fine temporary 
 church, a great improvement in every way on the one 
 out of which we were burnt on Sunday. . . . Your 
 July letter is dated 16th. I have forgotten to mention, 
 by-the-bye, that these letters, or rather those of 
 August 14th, that came with them, have reached us 
 in the shortest time I ever remember, namely, just two 
 months from August 14th to October 15th. . . . Thanks 
 for the poor little London primroses, that tumbled out 
 of the envelope as I opened your letter. [This letter 
 was sent in May from England. — Ed.] In answer to 
 your query, I seem to be quite fever-proof again. . . . 
 Now for the June letter. Then there was your golden 
 wedding. It is a pleasant thought for all of us that 
 you have reached that, and been able to celebrate it on 
 earth with us all, for I will say "us," though I was so 
 many thousand miles away on the day. . . . 
 
 z 2 
 
340 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Noremher 9th, 1892. 
 
 Another disaster has occurred! Just thirteen days 
 after our first great fire, on the 5th November we had a 
 second conflagration, when eight more of our principal 
 houses perished, including the ladies' quarters, girls' 
 school, kitchens, dining-rooms, <5cc. No lives lost and 
 very Httle property, but yet a fire causing the greatest 
 possible inconvenience to us. . . . Our ladies will all 
 have to leave us pro tern. . . . Crossing the Lake 
 yesterday and to-day I read G. W. E. Eussell's "Life of 
 Gladstone," in which you had put my name, on February 
 17th, your last birthday gift to me. . . . [He was 
 sailing over to Bandawe on this occasion, and in another 
 letter, speaking of this book, he says, "I have no 
 poUtics, but I cannot withhold an unbounded admira- 
 tion for the man. — Ed.] . . . 
 
 (To a Sister.) 
 
 November leth, 1892. 
 
 . . . You'll have heard of our two great fires. . . . 
 TVe have sent away what (if you are a reader of 
 Eudyard Kipling's books) you will know as our " mem- 
 logs," for, poor things, they were burned out, and now we 
 three, Atlay, Pullinger, and self, are doing what we can 
 to build up our poor station again. We lost in the two 
 fires nineteen houses out of thirty ; perhaps at a value 
 of £250. . . . Most fortunately our principal new 
 buildings . . . were saved, and in them, more or less 
 
 cabined, cribbed, confined," we are puddling now. 
 ... It was most fortunate that our printing office, with 
 all its expensive plant, was not destroyed. . . . We are 
 going to start an English newspaper for the Lake, and 
 print it here. I'll send a copy home. It will be a sort 
 of occasional paper," appearing three or four times a 
 year. . . . Gore's **Bampton Lectures" have been 
 
[1892.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 341 
 
 another intellectual feast of which I have partaken 
 lately. My adult classes for women thrive now-a-days. 
 I had 200 women listening to an instruction on Jacob 
 and Esau this morning. They were very attentive, and, 
 with all their faults, are wonderfully natural, and free 
 from many sins which civilized and cultured people are 
 prone to. I instance " pride " and " self-conceit " as two 
 in particular. . . . Now that the ladies are gone, we 
 have bidden adieu to tablecloths, and are " pigging it," 
 I fear, in all the severe simplicity of a free, if careless, 
 bachelor dom. . . . 
 
 December 31st , 1892. 
 . . . Crouch and Pullinger spent a great deal of time 
 on Christmas Eve making our church look well, and our 
 altar certainly shone out resplendent, and we spared not 
 the candles. I am not a keen Kitualist, but I liked our 
 illuminated altar and chancel, and the green festoons, 
 and the increased elevation of the altar dais, &c., and 
 found these things not without their helpfulness. I hope 
 others, many others, felt it too. We sung plenty of 
 carols, and poured out ecstatically that combination of 
 fine poetry and fine music which a Wesley and a 
 Mendelssohn have joined geniuses to produce. " Hark! 
 the herald angels sing" sounded well, and was joyfully 
 sung in Likoma church on Christmas morning, believe 
 me. Then in the evening I gave a dinner party to the 
 teachers and a few others — Christmas pudding, lights 
 out, and the pudding ablaze, burning " brandily " and 
 " bluely." The waiting boys cut out of the room in a funk. 
 Mince-pies and crackers eked out the feast, and roast beef 
 led it off. Afterwards we adjourned to my baraza and 
 had a sing-song. Crouch scraped away melodiously on 
 his violin, and we executed in solos and chorus "Hearts 
 of Oak " and a dozen others. There, don't say we can't 
 keep a Christmas in fine style in Nyasaland. Weca/i. . . . 
 
342 Liie of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Ah ! me, what drones we become, how all the " leap " 
 and "spnng" and "sparkle" of life dies out as one 
 grows older ; yet it is not so with you, I protest. . . . 
 
 {To his Father.) 
 
 LiKOMA, Jajiuary 6th, 1893. 
 
 I must send you a few lines, though it is now past ten 
 o'clock at night. (" Aren't you going to bed, Chauncy ? " 
 3^ou would be saying if you were just leaving me behind 
 in the drawing-room, with a flat candlestick in your 
 hand. And I should answer as I always did of old, you 
 remember: "Not just yet, I sha'n't be long," and 
 perhaps after, I stole up to bed noiselessly an horn* and a 
 half later.) Our letters are being sealed up for the 
 steamer ; they must be put on board to-night, for she 
 leaves to-morrow at daybreak. ... I do not write to 
 the dear mother this time, I simply dare not, but if she 
 is still with you she will see my letters. ... I am busy 
 Just now with this new venture of ours, "An Occasional 
 Paper for Nyasaland."* We hope it may do good, and 
 we feel that, though missionaries, it is good to do what 
 we can to show sympathy with our fellow-countrymen 
 out here who are pursuing other callings. Also we think 
 this publication may prove a useful means for mutual 
 support and sympathy in our relations with our native 
 friends. We want also to discuss matters of peculiar 
 interest to us all, and to put plain unvarnished accounts 
 of our doings before people who watch us very closely, 
 and who are apt to judge of us and our ways unfairly 
 through lack of trustworthy mformation as to our goings- 
 on. .. . When you read it . . . please remember that 
 it is intended for readers out here, and must be criticised 
 from that standpoint. . . . 
 
 * Afterwards published quarterly as "The Nyasa News." 
 
[1893.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 343 
 
 Likoma, January 25th, 1893. 
 ... A stray paper that has reached us from Fort 
 Johnston of date October 28th, contains the important 
 news of the appointment of Hornby to be our Bishop. . . . 
 I must end now as the Domira is in, and I have guests 
 to entertain. 
 
 {To his Mother.) 
 
 Likoma, Fehruary 3rd, 1893. 
 
 ... All the newspapers about Tennyson are deeply 
 interesting. ... I am very well in health still, but I 
 feel more and more to require long periods of rest in the 
 daytime, and for many hours seem to have little or no 
 brain power. Each afternoon, for instance, there are 
 about two hours in which I am fit for nothing, though 
 not suffering from headache or any other actual pain. 
 I cannot now-a-days do a really hard day's work, and 
 this often makes me feel that I am, as a matter of 
 fact, very lazy. . . . By-the-bye, in referring again to 
 Tennyson, it seemed to me that all the circumstances 
 that attended his death were indeed as truly poetic as 
 anything in this prosaic nineteenth century could be. A 
 veritable "passing of Arthur," the "vates sacer" lying 
 there with the full moonlight shining in upon his 
 majestic figure and wonderful visage in the still early 
 morning hours, and the stretch of moorland outside, and 
 he quietly, quietly passing out of life, silently " Crossing 
 the Bar." The pomp of the obsequies in the Abbey a 
 week later were somehow in not an altogether pleasant 
 contrast. . . . And now once more I must close my 
 letter to you, and as I do so I cannot help wondering 
 how many letters in all I have penned to you from 
 Africa. Enough at least to make a book of a good many 
 hundred pages, pretty closely printed, I should say. One 
 might almost calculate it thus : Thirteen and a half 
 
344 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 years, say fourteen letters a year, the letters averaging 
 two pages of print (some, of course, would be much more 
 and some less), that would make three hundi'ed and 
 seventy-eight pages of print, but I expect that would be 
 really a good deal under the mark, and that the average 
 number of letters per year and the average length (in 
 print) of the letter is under-rated, too. Anyhow, if all 
 my letters to you were to be thus printed in a book., 
 certain it is that no one in the world but yourself would 
 ever be able to get through it, for very weariness of soul 
 at its intolerable dulness. . . . 
 
 Llkoma, February 2Wi, 1893. 
 . . . Fom- days ago we actually had another great 
 alarm with fii-e, for our kitchen roof took fire. . . . 
 Most fortunately, however, no other building took the 
 contagion, and so the plague was stayed with only the 
 loss of this one building. . . . Though my ulcer has 
 never quite closed up, I am in other respects quite 
 well. I should be glad indeed if we could open some 
 new work somewhere in the hill country to the north-east 
 of the Lake, or even amongst om* old acquaintances, the 
 Magwangwara. . . . Om* staff of native teachers grows in 
 importance Eind strength, and Christianity and education 
 is creeping fm'ther and further into tillage after village 
 on the mainland opposite. . . . 
 
 March 16th, 1893. 
 Yes, why not ? yes, I u ill — will break off reading this 
 fascuiating volume of W. Sharpe's, '* Life of Browning " 
 to wit, and pen you a stave. I know you love Browning, 
 and so do I. I mean, I think the man is so fascinating. 
 I do not know much of his poetry — I have not even read 
 his longer poems, Ring and the Book," &c.j but, for 
 all that, fi'om what I do know of his poetry, I hardly like 
 to think that we have had a greater than he since 
 
[i8g3.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 345 
 
 Shakspere. ... It is the charm of the man, his 
 beautiful sunny life, his true faith — say what others will, 
 who would like to claim him on their own hazy side of 
 negation or doubt. Oh ! you must read the book, and 
 that wonderful letter about death towards the end of 
 it. . . . And this book, by-the-bye, is one of about forty 
 volumes, all charming, that Mr. Eussell has selected for 
 us and sent as his gift . . . just the cream of good 
 writing skimmed carefully for us and forwarded most 
 generously to our remote abode. . . . By-the-bye, 
 Bishop Smythies wrote me a very nice letter the other 
 day, very frankly telling me that while he had a great 
 admiration, &c., &c., he did not think I had quite the 
 gifts for a Bishop. It was all very nicely put, and he 
 was quite right. His reasons, although he was too 
 considerate to give them, would be, I am sure, much the 
 same as those I gave you in England for believing 
 myself unworthy to fill the high office. . . . 
 
 Likoma, April \st, 1893. 
 . . . To-morrow (Easter Day) I baptize in our church 
 here fifty-three candidates, the largest number ever 
 baptized at any one time in any one station in our 
 Mission, I believe. 
 
 Speaking of the difficulties and discouragements of 
 missionary work, he says : — 
 
 LiKOiiA, April mil, 1893. 
 The fact is, no one but a priest ought ever to have 
 charge of a Mission station. Only the closest dealing 
 with souls is of any avail in this country of the Devil's 
 power. . . . Yes, I should value the thought of some of 
 your last petitions at the Throne of Grace for these poor 
 wandering sheep of mine. . . . You, without intending 
 it, preach me the best sermons I ever read, in your 
 
34^ Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 letters ; sermons on patience, on trustfulness in God, on 
 kindliness, on charitable feelings to others, on Christian 
 faith and fortitude. And you do all this without ever 
 mentioning one of these words, or being the least aware 
 that you are doing anything else but writing a most 
 ordinary letter. ... As I write all this, I cannot but 
 reflect that perhaps you will never see what I have 
 written. . . . We are just now busy printing the second 
 number of the Occasional Paper." ... It has been 
 taken up very warmly in the country, and the Com- 
 missioner (H. H. Johnston) is himself most kind about 
 it, promising to write for it, &c. . . . [This was written 
 to his mother, and as she was very ill at this time, he 
 doubted w^hether she would be alive when the letter 
 reached England. — Ed.] 
 
 LiKOMA, April loth. 
 
 . . . Here's Mr. Atlay, who has just received a large 
 consignment of dolls. What is he to do with them ? he 
 asks. Build a dolls' house for them," say I. "No 
 thank you," says he. And then some one else sends us 
 a huge consignment of disrated, well-thumbed Christmas 
 cards. Yet let it never be said that we are ungrateful 
 for things that really are useful. [These African children 
 do not care for dolls. Ed.] . . . Things are moving on 
 very rapidly here.* We have not had IVTajor von Wiss- 
 mann to see us yet, but he is coming, and has sent me 
 several nice letters, and is most friendly. ... I like 
 these Germans. IVIost of them are thorough gentlemen, 
 and all of them very well informed. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, Maij 18th, 1893. 
 
 . . . The chief piece of news in all your letters this 
 time was that of the dear old grannie's peaceful end to 
 her long and famous (from the point of view of the 
 
 * With regard to the European occupation of Nyasaland. 
 
[1893.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 347 
 
 family) life. . . . [Old Mrs. Chauncy died at Bath in her 
 hundredth year. Her great-great-grandchild was three 
 or four years old at the time of her death ; thus there 
 were five generations in the family all living. — Ed.] My 
 ulcer never closes up, and never has closed up since it 
 began to open in November, 1891. . . . You'll be amused 
 to hear that the first books that reached us in answer to 
 H. H. Johnston's appeal were three volumes on the 
 Anglo-Israel craze. . . . 
 
 [Half of the new Bishop's party had arrived at Likoma, 
 and were nearly all down with fever directly.] 
 
 Whitstjn Monday, May 22nd, 1893. 
 
 . . . I, too, after a bronchial attack which confined me to 
 my bed and room for five days, had immediately to get up 
 and minister to four and then five sick people at once. . . . 
 We were just beginning to get on nicely with our new 
 temporary church, but now that Mr. Pullinger has fallen 
 so ill, I don't know who is able to take it up and finish 
 it. All this sickness is very disheartening. ... I feel 
 flurried and worried — but you'll agree that all this sick- 
 ness and the responsibility involved (we have no doctor) 
 is enough to cause it. I do my best, and doctor and 
 diet them all, but, alas ! my classes and more priestly 
 work suffer terribly in consequence. The only other man 
 who knows anything of the language (Atlay) also ill. . . . 
 I often think that if Johnson were not here I should go, 
 but now we have both been out here and associated so 
 long, that I know I should never leave the Mission so long 
 as he lives. . . . I will not write to him [his father. — Ed.] 
 this time, for I fear if I were to do so, I should only 
 begin grumbling, as I seem to be doing in this letter ! 
 Anyhow, between the grumbles you also get my 
 news ! . . . 
 
348 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 LiKOMA, June loth, 1893. 
 
 It is getting on for a fortnight since I received your 
 always most welcome letters along with the Bishop, Dr. 
 Hine, and Mr. Kerr. . . . Very thankful am I that Dr. 
 Hine was of the party, for the Bishop got ill directly, and 
 requires a good deal of attention. . . . His first fever 
 which he got almost directly reduced him to great weak- 
 ness, and there were some ugly symptoms along with it. 
 Happily he is much better to-day, and possibly may be 
 able to hold the confirmation, to which everybody is look- 
 ing forward, next Sunday. . . . 
 
 June IQth. — Alas ! there is no chance of the Bishop 
 being able to confirm my candidates on Sundaj^ poor 
 things, and they had really been so looking forward to 
 it! . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, July Srd, 1893. 
 
 . . . Our Bishop, I'm thankful to say, is quite well 
 again now. . . . He held the confirmation here on 
 the 21st June. . . . We have now got the Ousel up here, 
 as well as the Charlotte, while the new boat, the Sherriff, 
 [given by the Bedford school boys. — Ed.] is plying on the 
 river between Fort Johnston and Matope. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, July oth, 1893. 
 
 . . . Our state here is a somewhat curious one at the 
 present time. No less than six of our party are in bed, 
 including the doctor. I, as usual, perfectly well, and 
 having to cater for all the sick people and do what I can 
 for them. Meanwhile Atlay, who has long been my right 
 hand man here, has this day left for Chisumulu, there to 
 rebuild the houses, and pick up the threads of work we 
 had to drop for various reasons some four or five months 
 ago. The Bishop went with him, and I expect him 
 back to-morrow. . . . The strain of so many Europeans 
 
[1893.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 349 
 
 at one station, and so many of them ill at one time, is 
 almost too much for me, and there are so few of them 
 who can help me in the hundred and one odd bits of 
 work in the way of " serving tables " that some one must 
 do; e.g., getting the bread properly baked — five large 
 loaves every other, and sometimes every day . . . 
 necessitating that I, myself, should spend an hour or so 
 actually seeing it done properly. All this is very hard at 
 my age, and in my position ; and then when it causes or 
 obliges me to neglect great and important work which 
 again only I, of all those here, can do, it is distressing 
 to me in the extreme, and I begin to dread lest our 
 native Christians will begin to go back and back, because 
 I have not the time to give to hearing all their troubles 
 and advising them upon them. . . . 
 
 Likoma, August 1th, 1893. 
 Your last letter reached me when I was down at Fort 
 Johnston, whither I had gone in company with the 
 Bishop. ... I believe the little change it gave did me 
 good, besides being good for the station and every- 
 body ! . . . By-the-bye, I was really glad you did not 
 object to my putting the polygamy question so un- 
 disguisedly. If any good service is to be done, the truth 
 must be said about the subject, and one does not write 
 such papers for the drawing-room table. These are not 
 the times when we ought to shrink from calling a spade 
 a spade, are they? . . . [This with reference to an 
 article he had written for the " Nyasa News." — Ed.] 
 
 August 1th. 
 
 ... I send you this time a copy of the first number 
 of " The Nyasa News." It contains about three times as 
 much as did the first Occasional Paper," and is, I hope, 
 an improvement in some respects. . . . 
 
350 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 August 3\st, 1893. 
 
 It is now more than two years since we said good-bye 
 in the drawing-room, and here I am, answering a letter to 
 you that came with others that speak of your having 
 taken " quite a new lease of strength." I feel very 
 thankful for this, though I do not allow myself to begin 
 to think of another meeting in this life. If I go on as I 
 am doing now I should hardly feel it right to go to 
 England next year, though the year after I might take 
 such a journey possibly. ... I believe the inhabitants 
 of this island will soon be taxed (3s. per house per 
 annum) by the Administration. . . . Dr. Hine is already 
 beginning to study the Yao language in preparation for ' 
 his departure to Unangu. I rather wish I were going 
 there for a permanency. We are getting too much in 
 the world, and too civilized here for my tastes. It draws 
 one away from one's real work, all this entertaining of 
 Europeans, the calling of steamers, &c. . . . 
 
 August 29th, 1893. 
 . . . You know I really am (many affect it) very fond 
 of young children. While I have been writing this 
 letter no less than two young mothers have been into my 
 room to coax a tiny dress out of me for their infants in 
 arms, while little James (aged three), my prime favourite, 
 is even now sleeping peacefully on my bed in the 
 next room, whence I shall presently snatch him to 
 go through a course of bread and jam (tamarind with the 
 stones in) at our table when we lunch. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, Septemher I4th, 1893. 
 ... I am about to start on a new venture, and to 
 plant a station in Yaoland, at a populous place called 
 Unangu, ninety miles from here. Dr. Hine is to be the 
 boss there, for, as I have told him, he is by far too good 
 
[i893-] On Likoma Island. 
 
 351 
 
 and able a man to go on playing second fiddle to me 
 here. . . . 
 
 September 20th. — I have less time than ever to scratch 
 off a letter to you, as I go off to-morrow with Dr. Hine 
 to the Yao country. . . . The German steamer Hermann 
 von Wissman arrived here yesterday — her first visit to 
 us. ... I expect to be away on this little expedition 
 just over a fortnight. . . . 
 
 Likoma, October 20th. 
 ... I am only just recovering from an attack of 
 influenza, which has quite prostrated me. . . . We 
 have had our first visit here from one of the gunboats, 
 namely, the Adventure. Captain Kobertson brought her 
 last week. He staid three days. . . . 
 
 [Two gunboats had just been placed on the Lake by 
 the British Administration.] 
 
 Likoma, Novemher 4ith, 1893. 
 
 . . . The ^' Nyasa News " for November will tell you a 
 good deal of our news. . . . 
 
 We have been having a good deal of trouble lately 
 with quarrels and the like, and it is at times like these 
 that the latent heathenism in our first-generation- 
 Christians seems to spring into active life. The worst 
 of it is, there is a kind of morbid enjoyment of a quarrel 
 that speaks very sadly for the state of the Christian 
 heart.* . . . Our station is now thoroughly built up again, 
 and if we don't have another fire we shall do very well as 
 regards house room, &c. Our new temporary church is 
 a very great boon. . . . 
 
 Likoma, November 8th. 
 . . . My ulcer is quite healed. I think the walk to 
 Unangu and the colder air there were the chief means of 
 bringing about the cure. . . . 
 
 * This state of things is not altogether unknown in Christian 
 England, I fear ! 
 
352 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 Writing of the slavers and slave dhows on the Lake, 
 he sslJS : — 
 
 We all feel that if any one is to be punished it ought 
 to be Jumbe, of Kota Kota (on the west side of the 
 Lake), for he is subsidized by the Government or by 
 Cecil Ehodes . . . for which he is supposed to show 
 loyalty to the Administration and do what he can to 
 keep the petty chiefs in control and the country quiet. 
 As a matter of fact, he, at the present time, is doing more 
 than any one chief, to help the slave trade. Now this is 
 really known to H. H. Johnston, but the fact is he is 
 obliged, for the present, to wmk at it more or less, for he 
 has got his hands so full with the Makanjila business and 
 further troubles in the neighbourhood of the Shire. . . . 
 
 [Jumbe was afterwards brought to book, and his power 
 broken up by the Commissioner.] 
 
 TjTkoma Islaxd, L a ttr Nyasa, 
 
 December Srd, 1S93. 
 
 . . . Well, this large party of six 'a reinforcement of 
 workers] arrived six days ago, all well. . . . Eobinson 
 [the much-needed doctor] stays here. ... He seems 
 thoroughly keen about his medical work. The ladies 
 are getting into their quarters, and on Monday will 
 begin their school work, I think. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, December 27th. 
 . . . "Buskin's Life," by Collingwood. The author 
 was a scholar of University of my time, and I knew him 
 fairly well, he being in the same Shakspere reading as 
 myself. . . . Our next number of " Nyasa News " will be 
 very largely taken up with missionary questions. . . . 
 The Government newspaper or " Gazette " is just being 
 
[i8g4.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 353 
 
 started.* . . . The gunboats' officers and blue jackets 
 made themselves very pleasant on Christmas Day, and 
 we all liked their being here. . . . 
 
 December 27th. — . . . At the Holy Communion (on 
 Christmas Day) there were about 130 communicants 
 (native) and 12 Europeans. Afterwards we had a large 
 native gathering for outsiders under our " preaching 
 tree," at which the boys smig the carols, rather well, 
 I thought. . . . 
 
 Likoma, January 14^7^, 1894. 
 
 . . . The enclosed photo of our new church (tem- 
 porary) is for you. It has just been taken by 
 Miss Palmer, who is an enthusiastic photographer, as 
 also is Mr. Glossop, whose health so far has not been 
 very first-rate. It certainly is hard for people to get 
 acclimatized out here. . . . [Chauncy Maples did not 
 live to build the permanent church which he had had in 
 his mind's eye for several years. — Ed.] 
 
 Likoma, January Mli, 1894. 
 
 You are in my thoughts to-day, and, though no mail 
 has come in and none is going out just now, let me, in 
 this comparative leisure time, pen you a few lines. The 
 Charles Janson will be back to-morrow, and will almost 
 certainly bring us a mail with your October letters, to 
 which I look forward, as you can imagine, with alternate 
 hope and fear. You have prepared me for the news [of his 
 mother's death. — Ed.] I may get now almost by any 
 mail, and I feel I am ready for it when it comes. . . . 
 We are busy now getting the February number of 
 the *'Nyasa News" printed. . . . Eemember always, in 
 your criticisms, that we write primarily for people out 
 
 ♦The ''British Central African Gazette." 
 CM. A A 
 
354 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 here, and, secondly, so as to catch the ears of m- 
 fluential people in high place at home. . . . Now 
 that so many Europeans are flocking into the country 
 we missionaries are bound to do what we can to keep 
 up a high standard of morality, and to use our efforts 
 in every possible way to prevent its getting lowered. 
 Englishmen do deteriorate so terribly fast when away 
 from home in a savage country. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, February 2nd, 1894. 
 
 . . . Our Bishop starts for England in three days, 
 invalided home, and as ive think — though he does not — 
 never to return here again. . . . 
 
 Fchruary 4tth. — You ask of Neema. She is happy, and 
 doing fairly well. Her husband, a catechumen, will be 
 baptized at Easter. He is good-natured, and they never 
 quarrel. She had a little child — a girl — born to her, but it 
 only lived a week or two ; and I buried it in her house, 
 two feet only below the soil. . . . The little one was bap- 
 tized clinically by me about two days before its death. 
 Her other child, James, is a great pet ; he is now three 
 years old and three months. . . . James always comes to 
 meals with us, sitting in a chair beside me, and solemnly 
 munches away at whatever I put before him. ... I 
 suppose you heard all about her (Neema' s) husband 
 deserting her and relapsing into heathenism, and of her 
 marriage with her present husband. The dear father 
 and mother could not understand it all, and thought it 
 contrary to God's law, &c. ; but it is not so really, and 
 though such a re-marriage is not what one would 
 recommendy it is, as a matter of fact, allowable ; nor are 
 the Sacraments denied to the innocent party if he or she 
 elects to marry again after being deserted. The last 
 Lambeth Conference ruled this very clearly as to the 
 innocent party. ... In a heathen country like this 
 
[i894-] On Likoma Island. 
 
 355 
 
 there is no such thing as permanent widowhood, except 
 in the case of very old women. . . . The question was, 
 does the Church compel, under all circumstances, the 
 innocent party, in cases of desertion or return to poly- 
 gamy or adultery, to remain unmarried ? The answer 
 is that the Eastern Church very decidedly gives leave 
 for re-marriage to the innocent party, that the Koman 
 Church as decidedly forbids it, that our Church re- 
 luctantly allows it. We therefore here, were indeed 
 thankful to be able to avail ourselves of the wise ruling 
 of our own Church, in accordance as it is really with that 
 of the Churches of both East and West in the earliest 
 times as regards this subject. . . . People's passions 
 cannot be ignored, nor does the merciful ruling of our 
 Church ignore them, and I am very thankful indeed it is 
 so. Eemember, people at home are not judges of morals 
 out here, nor can they know what is possible or im- 
 possible as regards restriction and the like. ... Do not 
 make the common mistake of so many goody-goody 
 people at home, namely, that our Mission converts are 
 very saints. It is a mistake only second to the mistake 
 of our detractors, who like to say that all Mission converts 
 are scamps and rogues. Our converts, as a matter of 
 fact, are very ordinary men and women, better, very 
 much better, for their Christianity, but by no means 
 wholly emancipated from all heathen notions, and by no 
 means free from very great temptation to revert to 
 heathenism if not carefully guided and helped. . . . 
 
 February 19th, — . . . It is curious the letters I get from 
 Germany (Stuttgart, &c.) asking for the " Nyasa News " — 
 the editor of " Ueber Land am Meer," for instance — all 
 very civil letters in very good English. They send me their 
 papers, and ask leave to translate and transfer to their 
 pages some of our paragraphs and articles. ... I have 
 about fifty candidates preparing for baptism, rather a 
 
 A A 2 
 
35^ Life of Chauncy MaplcvS. 
 
 larger proportion of women than men. When will they 
 get confirmed ? . . . 
 
 My Dearest Mother, — 
 
 I will not now let any opportunity pass without 
 sending you a line or two. . . . Now that there are 
 more steamers on the Lake we have many more chance 
 opportunities of posting letters, and the present is one 
 of them. I am practically left alone with all the Lenten- 
 work on my own shoulders, so far as Likoma is con- 
 cerned, though I hope Mr. Wimbush may be back again 
 before Good Friday to take a share in some of the Holy 
 Week and Easter services. On Easter Day I hope to 
 baptize fifty people,* or perhaps one or two less — I can- 
 not quite say whether all the fifty will be ready by then. 
 I am busy with these candidates every day. We go 
 through each article of the Creed in instruction, and 
 they also learn to say it by heart ; then they are taught 
 some short private prayers — it is a very difficult thing 
 for uneducated African adults to learn to say anything 
 by heart; but they do manage to commit to memory 
 the Creed and these short prayers. Each candidate comes 
 privately to me once before his baptism and confesses 
 all the sins of which he has been aware since his or her 
 infancy ; and thus are our candidates here prepared for 
 baptism. The instruction takes place every day throughout 
 Lent except Sundays and Wednesdays, on which days there 
 are special services with sermons ; on Fridays, too, during 
 Lent, we have a special service. I am often with you in 
 spirit and thought ; and try to imagine myself at your bed- 
 side. We shall never meet again on earth, I know that ; 
 but we look for another home — that is eternal in the 
 heavens — to which may God in His mercy bring us all. 
 
 * By a coincidence just about the same number were baptized 
 the year before. 
 
[1894.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 357 
 
 Once again my dearest mamma, let me with fondest love 
 subscribe myself, 
 
 Your now middle-aged son, 
 
 Chauncy Maples. 
 
 March 8th, 1894. 
 
 This was the last letter Chauncy Maples wrote to his 
 mother. She never received it, as it arrived two or three 
 days after her death. 
 
 (Letter written to a Friend on the loss of her Sister.) 
 
 March 2Sth, 1894. 
 
 . . . And SO a great trial has come to you, and God 
 has called your sister home — another voice from Him to 
 you bidding you more and more fix your heart, your 
 thoughts, your desires, on Him, and your whole trust and 
 confidence in the land beyond the grave. By this time — 
 nay, much earlier — you will have got accustomed to con- 
 template with a softened calm of spirit and with a 
 thankful heart, your dear sister at rest in Paradise — 
 praying for you left on earth, it may be, as you are 
 praying for her ''eternal peace" with Jesus. Easter is but 
 just passed, and Easter thoughts are dominant: "Oh! 
 death, where is thy sting? oh ! grave where is thy victory?" 
 And we know that the sting of death is past, and that 
 the grave has no victory, and all because He is risen. 
 One cannot, my dear Miss Richards, write to you at such 
 a time, and with thoughts of your sister's passing away 
 from earth, in any other than a gladsome strain ; nor, 
 I am very sure, would you wish me to mourn with 
 you, rather than call upon you to rejoice that her sufier- 
 ing is over and that she is at rest in Jesus. I write all 
 this, momentarily expecting the German steamer to call 
 here with our mails, which for me, more likely than not, 
 
358 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 will bring intelligence that my beloved mother, too, has 
 been called home. She too is, I thank God, a very 
 saint, and I am determined I will not grieve if they tell 
 me, as these letters will, that I shall never see her again 
 on earth. We believe in the " communion of saints." 
 Let us strengthen and sustain each other by mutual 
 reminders of this our faith. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, March 2Sth, 1894. 
 . . . We get such a lot of visitors passing through 
 here, and I often entertain a party of sixteen or eighteen 
 at dinner (including our own staff, of course). The 
 Frenchmen w^ho pass through ( Eoman Catholic fathers, 
 Belgian officers of the Congo State, &c. ) never know 
 English, sol converse with them, either in my very broken 
 French, or in Swahili. The Germans nearly always talk 
 good English ; but it is not an unknown thing at my 
 table to hear all these languages talked at once — viz., 
 English, German, French, Swahili, and Chinyanja. . . . 
 Verily we've become quite polyglotic of late. . . . No, we 
 do not baptize the children of mixed marriages ( except 
 when in extremis) until the second party becomes 
 Christian. This has always been the rule in the Church, 
 and we are rigorous in keeping to it ; infant baptism can 
 only be safely encouraged when it is certain (morally) that 
 the children will be brought up in the Christian faith, 
 and there is no sure guarantee for this when only one 
 parent is Christian, especially, too, if only the father is 
 Christian. ... Do you know, I wear absolutely only one 
 garment — viz., a long thin white cassock with nothing 
 under it : then there are socks, and a pair of shoes, and 
 my sun hat, and these complete my wearmg apparel — 
 very inexpensive and adapted to my constitution, so 
 thoroughly Africanized have I become ! Our doctor 
 here has just performed two or three very difficult surgical 
 
[1894.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 359 
 
 operations entirely successfully. I always help him, and 
 administer the chloroform, being now (if I may say so) 
 quite an adept at that part of the business. The doctor 
 did an operation a week ago which took him four and a 
 half hours to perform (from 11.45 to 4.15), and I was 
 administering chloroform the whole time ; it was a 
 tremendous operation, and the patient all but died in 
 the middle — one part of the operation (the tying of the 
 jugular vein deep-seated in the neck) has only been 
 done in England during the past five years. Our doctor 
 had seen the operation, done twice at Guy's, but 
 had never done it before himself. The danger is of 
 the knife slipping and the vein getting pierced while 
 it is being lifted. Out of the three cases at Guy's one 
 terminated fatally through this accident ; and in our 
 case here the accident occurred, and we thought it 
 was all up ; the doctor, however, kept his nerve, and 
 managed to stop the vein and tie it before any air got 
 into it. Had air entered, immediate death would have 
 been the result. . . . Oh ! we icere relieved, for the patient 
 was a very dear fellow, one of our best Christian boys 
 here, whom I have known seven years, and trained up 
 from his very early boyhood ; he is now quite con- 
 valescent. . . . There is something very noble about a 
 surgeon's skill, and I must say I enjoy these operations 
 immensely. . . . 
 
 Likoma, April Uth, 1894. 
 . . . Pearson's book (" National Life and Character") 
 arrived by post this time — many thanks for it. Lugard's 
 book ( mind you read it ) has been lent to me by 
 Dr. Cross, he of the north end, who himself figures in the 
 book, and is one of the oldest members of the Living- 
 stonia Mission. ... I am busy on the " Nj^asa News " 
 for May, which I think will be a goodish number. People 
 seem to appreciate the " notes," so I am giving more 
 
360 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 of them this time. Contributors' MSS. are increasing 
 in numbers, so there is little fear of the magazine 
 having to be dropped now. The "notes" are not 
 to be signed this time, but I think you will detect 
 3'our brother's style, and be able to pick out unerringly 
 which are his. Eemember that anything signed Y. Z. is 
 by me. I hope you won't think my " fowl " verses 
 vulgar. . . . 
 
 {To his Nephew.) 
 
 LiKOMA, April 25th. 
 ... I used to think when I was your age I'd never 
 grow to be an old fogey, and yet somehow when I 
 read your letter about Winchester, it seems so far off 
 and distant — distant in time I mean, from my own 
 school-days — that I verily believe I'm an old fogey 
 already ! . . . You ask about my going back to England 
 — certainly not yet awhile. I'm thankful to say I 
 enjoy excellent health, better by far than any one here, 
 and I should not feel it right to leave unless I could leave 
 some one in my place fit to take it, and just now there 
 does not happen to be any one. Eighteen years of African 
 life has so accustomed me to the tropics that I feel far 
 more at home here than I ever could do in England were 
 I to return there and try to settle down. I say try, 
 because it w^ould only end in a miserable failure. I am 
 made for Africa, and African soil must one day provide 
 a resting-place for the worn-out bones (not that they are 
 that yet) of your uncle Chauncy. Of course, though I 
 do hope some day to go back to England to see you 
 all. . . . Here at Likoma . . . there are a great many 
 people coming on well — though that last expression is 
 more suitable to geraniums or roses, by-the-bye ; what 
 I mean is, there are a good many people in the island 
 who are really anxiously looking forward to becoming 
 
[i894-] On Likoma Island. 
 
 361 
 
 Christians next year : we always baptize at Easter. . . . 
 A new man has just joined. ... As soon as ever he 
 arrived, as soon as the anchor of the Charles Janson was 
 down, he got fever, and he has had it ever since. Oh! this 
 glorious climate of ours ! . . . 
 
 Likoma, April 23rd. 
 . . . Last Sunday nearly sixty more women were 
 admitted catechumens. Our new church is already 
 almost too small for our requirements now that the 
 number of Christians and catechumens go on increasing 
 so fast; yet we certainly can't attempt to build the 
 church till we get a proper builder for fine work. The 
 " Kreutzer Sonata " I suppose you have read. Have you ? 
 I want to know this rather. I did, long ago ; no, by- 
 the-bye, not long ago, in '92 I think it was. Such books 
 are not good for young people, but I think they ought 
 to be read by people who set themselves really to think 
 and to study great social questions, such as the marriage 
 question. 
 
 Likoma, May 16thy 1894. 
 . . . Dr. Eobinson is having his first attack of fever, 
 and having it rather badly. This month of May lays us 
 all low you see. [" This is the only time in the year 
 now-a-days that I myself get ill, but this is the second 
 time this month I've had fever," he writes later on in 
 May. — Ed.] I feel we must not speak of dear mother's 
 death as " the worst." Indeed, w^hen we have learned to 
 look back on it, as we shall be doing soon, I feel, may 
 we not speak of it rather as the best " ? Yes, I think we 
 shall. 'Tis of no use trying to cast an anchor in this 
 world. We must be in full sail still, ploughmg the waves 
 onwards, and for our anchor we must look beyond the 
 veil, as our dear mother has, I know, been doing now 
 for so long. . . . 
 
362 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 LiKOMA, Mat/ 31sf, 1894. 
 I had hoped to write you a decently long letter to-day 
 in answer to two of March dates received from you three 
 days or so ago, but yesterday I had fever, and am shaky 
 to-day. . . . Just fancy, the whole of Bishop Hornby's 
 party has now melted. There were seven, and now not 
 one is left at Nyasa — and all m one short year ! Three 
 have died . . . and four ^including the Bishop^ invalided 
 home. . . . There's food for reflection ! . . . Our work 
 gi-ows apace, and we are beginning to see the fi'uits 
 of it. . . . 
 
 LiK03>iA, June oth, 1894. 
 
 ... I think I never felt happier in Africa than I do 
 now, never more tied to the life here, never more 
 unwilling to be severed from it. . . .An important 
 (local) matter has cropped up. The whole Gwangwara 
 horde have sent an embassy to me to say that they want 
 to leave their present abode, which, you know, is within 
 German temtory, and come over the Eovuma so as to be 
 near us. ... I have promised them, therefore, that if 
 they come into Portuguese territory, and within any hail 
 of Likoma, we will start work amongst them ; and they 
 actually say they will do this, and want to do it. . . . 
 
 [The ambassadors brought an elephant's tusk as a 
 present to the Archdeacon. This ivory has since been 
 worked into the pastoral staff made for Bishop Maples, 
 and now is used by the present Bishop of Likoma. — Ed.^ 
 
 Likoma, June ISth, 1894. 
 . . . How do you like the enclosed ? — taken only a few 
 weeks ago — the most recent photo of two who in life, and, 
 I trust (almost), in death will be found "not divided."* 
 Dear old Will doesn't he look the spiritual giant he is, in 
 
 * This was a photoglyph of Archdeacon Maples and the Eev. 
 W. P. Johnson, taken at Likoma by Miss Palmer. 
 
Archdeacon Maples and Rev. W. P. Johnson. 
 
 [From a photograph taken by Miss Gertnule Palmer, at Likovm, in 1S94.] 
 
 [To face p. 362. 
 
[i8g4.] On Likoma Island. 
 
 363 
 
 this photo ? . . . A Bishop ? No, indeed, not I — never, 
 never, never anything more than I am, will I be. As a 
 priest I fail, and what would it be if they gave me a 
 mitre ? . . . My only gift is the being able to get on well 
 with all my young men and fellow-clergy, . . . but then 
 it is a natural gift, not a supernatural one. To me it 
 has come easily ; I have made no effort. Still it is nice 
 being liked, and having people loyal to you, and being 
 confident that you can get them to do what you want. I 
 have this feeling, and I have this confidence, but when I 
 have said this I have said all. I am terribly lacking in 
 spiritual gifts, and doubtless through my own careless- 
 ness and neglect of cultivating the side of one's life that 
 one is bound always to be cultivating if we are to find 
 true acceptance at the last. . . . 
 
 June 15thy 1894. — . . . I think it is the one thing 
 people out here would say of me, when I die, that this 
 gift was not denied to me, — the gift of being able to 
 manage and attract men (I'm speaking especially of my 
 European staff). I think, do you know, that peojple 
 would say that in this one respect I am thoroughly 
 successful. ... I have not, however, been equally suc- 
 cessful with ladies. ... I sometimes think they chafe a 
 little under a certain abruptness of manner, not to say 
 severity, that I am very conscious of having. You know 
 I'm not a bit of a ladies' man, and I don't think I ever 
 was, and so I am really very wanting in some of those 
 gentler courtesies of bearing and behaviour that are 
 naturally valued by those towards whom they are shown. 
 Africa makes me rather hard, and I have lived too long 
 outside the pale of civilization to have retained much 
 thought of or attention to such things. . . . We are so 
 thankful to be able to chronicle the fact that no less than 
 two hundred adults have been baptized here (at Nyasa 
 generally, not only in Likoma, or even principally here) 
 
364 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 already this year ! This means really a very great 
 deal. . . . 
 
 {A letter of Advice.) 
 
 LlKOMA, July 4th. 
 
 . . . You have, as you say, to endeavour always to 
 keep before you the thought of your responsibility to 
 God alone, and to obey your conscience, always remem- 
 bering that that faculty when carefully obeyed becomes 
 ever a clearer and a clearer guide in proportion as the 
 will acts upon its dictates, come what may. It is when 
 one is doubtful as to what one's conscience tells us, that 
 we should not be slow to seek some good spiritual guide 
 who is capable of making things clearer, and helpmg us 
 to be confident in the line we are taking. So long as 
 you do realize that to God alone you are responsible, 
 you are not likely to give over your conscience into 
 another's keeping (as the phrase runs), and as some 
 wrongly think that Eoman Catholics (for instance) 
 do. . . . You speak of your faith in God as a loving 
 universal Father as being very strong and ruling your 
 life. Ask Him then to show you more and more clearly 
 that His Son is indeed the revelation of Himself, and 
 believe it ; you can never really know God as your 
 Heavenly Father except through Jesus Christ. The 
 Fatherhood of God as a vital belief, as a moral dynamic 
 if you like, can only be realized when we have attained 
 to it through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Eemember 
 that Christianity is not so much a set of dogmas as a 
 life, and that the Christian religion is the religion of a 
 Person, and that that Person is the Religion Himself. In 
 other words, Christianity is Christ. When you know Him 
 truly icithin you, then you know God the Father, then 
 you know God the Father as Love, then you know Him 
 in His attributes truly. But I do not think that any other 
 
[1 894-] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 365 
 
 of the religions of the world can teach the Fatherhood of 
 God, though this one and that one may profess to do so. 
 I can speak from some experience of one at least that 
 fails to do this — the Mohammedan faith ; and if you 
 study Buddhism, you will see how utterly it falls short 
 of anything that can be called a revelation of God in 
 any true sense. You should read " Lux Mundi," and 
 then again Mr. Gore's Bampton Lectures of 1891, called 
 " The Incarnation of the Son of God." I have read of 
 Lilly's " Great Enigma," but not the book itself. I met 
 Mr. Lilly when in England, and talked a little on the 
 subject of conscience in heathens. He is a writer who 
 pleases me very much. You should read Dean Church's 
 " Cathedral and University Sermons," especially the 
 last six in the volume. In point of style, analysis of 
 motive, and the like, they are only surpassed, if indeed 
 they are surpassed, by J. H. Newman's. ... If Old 
 Testament questions cause you doubts, read such books 
 as Canon Driver's " Sermons on Old Testament Sub- 
 jects," Sanday's ''Lectures (Bampton) on Inspiration." 
 . . . There is nothing in this world I like better in those 
 I love than that they should tell me exactly how they 
 feel or have felt towards myself. Do not for one moment 
 think that I should ever feel hurt or offended. . . . 
 
 Likoma, Jul// 1th, 1894. 
 ... I am getting our doctor to write an article for 
 the August " Nyasa News" on malarial poisoning. 
 Possibly Dr. Stivens may be interested to read it, as also 
 H. H. Johnston's article on "Alcohol in Africa," which is 
 interesting and more or less technical. Do not build on 
 my going home this year or next. I see no prospect of 
 
 the possibility of my doing so. . . . seems to be 
 
 getting cheerful again. No doubt she has many trials ; 
 it is therefore a blessing that her disposition is naturally 
 
366 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 a hopeful one. "WTiat a frightful thing pessimism is ! 
 It crushes everything if one gives way to it. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, July ISth, 1894. 
 
 ... I am enjoying splendid health, and feel quite as 
 vigorous as I did three years ago. These last three 
 years do not seem to have told at all on my health, so 
 far as I can judge. We are just finishing the building 
 of the new European hospital, which will be a great boon. 
 It is small, intended only for three beds ; the native 
 hospital is more than double the size. , . . By-the-bye, 
 ... to comment on what you say as to myself being 
 possibly invited to the highest office in the Church — 
 that of Bishop. . . . Nothing would induce me ever 
 to accept, and so, my dear father, 3'ou will never see 
 your youngest son a Bishop, whatever else betides. . . . 
 
 LiKOMA, August 2nd, 1894. 
 
 Since I last wrote to you, we have heard the sad news 
 of Bishop Smythies' death, news that has affected me 
 not a little. ... As a missionary Bishop he has been 
 really great. . . . 
 
 [Before he wrote the next letters home, he had received 
 the long-expected news of his mother's death.] 
 
 LiKOMA, August 20th, 1894. 
 
 ... I thank God for her always that we have had 
 such a mother. . . . And now I thank Him, that she is 
 at rest, dear, sweet, holy mother ! . . . How I think of 
 her now whenever I am alone. 
 
 Aurfust 23r(7. — . . . Things in the political world out 
 here are going on pretty actively, and will do, I suppose, 
 so long as Cecil Ehodes goes on finding the funds for all 
 these developments. . . . Three out of ten of us . . . 
 now gone before. I am wondering who will be the next. 
 
[i894.] 
 
 On Likoma Island. 
 
 367 
 
 We have all lived a good long time, and are past our 
 prime. Your ties, being a family man, bind you to 
 life more than mine do. I have very little desire to live 
 long, though not discontented either with the present. 
 
 Likoma, Sejjtemher drd, 1894. 
 
 . . . What are my chances of getting to England ? 
 Well, you see how it is with us, one after another, all 
 our men seem to be either dying or getting invalided 
 home. . . . Here is Atlay, who has only been back here 
 three weeks, getting quite seedy already, his legs covered 
 with ulcers. ... I am thankful to say ulcer is already 
 nearly well again. . . . 
 
 Likoma, September 11th, 1894. 
 ... I am glad to tell you that I do trust, unless cir- 
 cumstances change very much out here, to start for 
 home directly after Easter next year. . . . You will 
 understand that I do not consider that my health in 
 the least requires that I should go to England, and so 
 this plan is made solely that I may see you [his father] 
 again. . . . 
 
 Likoma, September 11th, 1894. 
 
 I must send you a few lines ere starting for Unangu 
 to-morrow. Life is always uncertain, and rather more 
 so when one goes travelling. . . . 
 
 [Unangu is in the Yao highlands on the east side of 
 the Lake.] 
 
 Likoma, October 13th, 1894. 
 I got back here safe and sound from Unangu, having 
 been away three weeks. ]\Iy presentiment did not come 
 true [he had thought he should not return safely from this 
 journey. — Ed.] , but we had an adventure nevertheless, 
 about which I will tell you some day. We stayed at 
 Unangu three days, and then went on to IVItonya, forty- 
 five miles south of Unangu. ... On my return here I 
 
368 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 received a telegram that surprised me not a little and 
 perplexed me still more, for I hardly know how to 
 answer it. The telegram runs, Ai'chbishop selects you 
 for Nyasa Bishopric ; do you accept it?" . . . [I have 
 stated elsewhere the course Archdeacon Maples took with 
 regard to his answer. — Ed.] Within seven weeks from now 
 I hope to start for England, and to be with you all before 
 the end of February. . . . The only thing that really 
 pleased me when I got that telegram, was the thought of 
 the pleasure it would give my father to know that the offer 
 had at least been made, whether I accept it or not. . . . 
 
 [On the 21st February, 1895, he arrived in England, a 
 few weeks later he accepted the Bishopric. On June 29th 
 he was consecrated Bishop of Likoma in St. Paul's 
 Cathedral, and on July 11th, 1895, he sailed again for 
 Africa for the fifth and last time.] 
 
 SS. "Irawaddy," Monday, Jvhj loth, 1895. 
 
 ... So far we have had lovely weather, and are 
 getting on well towards the canal. ... I agree with you 
 m thinkmg the "Wages of Sin " a very powerful book 
 indeed, and exceedingly well written from almost every 
 point of view. ... In truth, life is a hard thing to live 
 well, and does not get easier as one goes on, I find. . . . 
 You will be glad to hear that I feel very well, in fact, 
 and, to borrow Uncle Gussy's expression, in a high 
 state of preservation." . . . Now that I am once started 
 I do not mind so much, for partings have become so 
 much a matter of com*se in my life. . . . 
 
 GrLF OF Aden, JtJy 22ud, 
 ... Ah ! how quickly those few months of mine in 
 England this year flew by. But it is the futm*e — the 
 future life I mean — that we must more and more set our 
 hearts and thoughts upon, remembering that the "things 
 that are not seen are eternal." 
 
[i895.] 
 
 Last Journey to Africa. 
 
 369 
 
 Chixde, August 6th , 1895. 
 I hope that a telegram from Zanzibar will have in- 
 formed you that we caught the German steamer and 
 came on at once, but as you will see by the above address 
 it is Chinde, and not Lindi, where we have come. I found 
 on arrival at Zanzibar that a telegram from Newala had 
 come to stop me going by that route on account of there 
 being a difficulty in obtaining porters. [This, on account 
 of tribal war. — Ed.] It was verij disappointing, but there 
 was no help for it, and so we came on here. ... I am much 
 shocked to hear of the death here, on July 8th, of Mr. 
 Fotheringham, the head of the African Lakes' Company, 
 who has always been such a good man and competent 
 manager. ... He will be greatly missed, and is already 
 deeply regretted. The country can ill spare such men as 
 he was. . . . We expect to be here about two days, and 
 then proceed up the river (the Zambesi). All bemg well 
 we shall be at Blantyre in less than three weeks, and 
 possibly at Likoma the first week in September ; we have 
 certainly lost no time en route so far. ... I had at 
 Zanzibar the inside of a day only. . . . Several of the 
 Chinde people have already been off to see me, offering 
 me hospitality, &c. There is a hotel started here now. 
 . . . One hears of so many deaths. Dr. Steele, of the 
 Bandawe Mission, has been called to his rest recently ; 
 he was a nice fellow, and a regular contributor to the 
 ** Nyasa News." . . . 
 
 Chinde, August 12th. 
 Here at Chinde we have been waiting six days, pur- 
 posely, for I was pressed to stay over the Sunday and 
 hold some services, and naturally felt I could not refuse ; 
 so yesterday, which was Sunday, I held three services 
 (Holy Communion, matms, evensong), at the last of 
 which forty Europeans attended. They said it was the 
 largest gathering of whites that had ever been assembled 
 
 CM. B B 
 
370 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 together here. You will read in " Central Africa " some 
 of my remarks a propos of what I hope to get established 
 here, so I won't enlarge on the subject. We leave Chinde 
 to-day, and hope to be at Blantyre, perhaps, in eight 
 days fi'om now. From London to Chinde took us only 
 twenty-six days, and I believe this is the record passage. 
 . . . This morning I am to breakfast with the Consul 
 again to meet the Portuguese, " Litendente," as he is 
 called — practically the " Governor *' of Portuguese Chinde. 
 All the time I have been here I have been the guest of 
 Mr. Irwin, of Shau-rer's Co. . . . 
 
 Chibomo, August 2(MA, 1895. 
 Here we are, you see, at Chiromo, on the confines of 
 British Central Africa, and it has taken us just seven 
 days from Chinde to come here. We stopped for the 
 Sunday at Port Herald (forty miles lower down the river), 
 and I was thankful to hold three services on board for 
 the few passengers and the two men stationed at Port 
 Herald. . . . After the services, I consecrated a bit of 
 ground at Port Herald as a cemetery. Li the afternoon 
 we went on our way a few miles, and stopped for the night 
 at a wooding station, and the next day (yesterday) we 
 came on here, and arrived just after dark. We shall 
 remain here all day and go on to-morrow. . . . Perhaps 
 we shall be kept at Blantyre eight or ten days, but I am 
 thinking of walking on to Fort Johnston, so as to catch 
 the German steamer there, and thus get on quickly to 
 Likoma. Ai'rived at Likoma, I expect to remain there, 
 and on the Lake, till about the middle of October, and 
 I daresay I shall go to Unangu with Mr. Wimbush, and 
 perhaps to Mtonya and that neighbourhood. The 
 steamer in which we are travelling wiQ not be able 
 to get beyond this place, so if we go on up the river 
 we shall have to get on in boats. . . . Our fellow 
 
[i8g5.] Last Journey to Africa. 371 
 
 passengers on board are Miss Eayner, . . . there is 
 Mr. Stuart, a lay missionary of the Livingstonia Mission, 
 and a German engineer for the Wissmann, named 
 Andersen ; that is our party, there are no others. Some 
 of our party have amused themselves shooting the 
 huge crocodiles, as we passed them lying on the sand 
 banks basking, but I think this poor sport. ... I sup- 
 pose Ken. [his nephew. — Ed.] will bring out a rifle, and 
 he may find crocodile shooting a novel kind of excite- 
 ment; I believe I did myself once, but those days are 
 long gone by now. A piano arrived at Chmde just before 
 I left, and as they sent some music with it, gavottes, 
 marches, &c., I was able to play to an interested — shall 
 I say an admiring ? — audience. The river is already very 
 low, and, consequently, we stuck several times. 
 
 [The following letters were received after the news, 
 by telegram, of his death had reached England] : — 
 
 Blajttyee, Monday, August 26th, 1895. 
 Just a few lines from here to tell you how I am pro- 
 gressing. I walked from Chiromo, starting on Tuesday 
 (late afternoon) and arriving 5 p.m. Friday (23rd), the 
 distance being about seventy-three or seventy-four miles. 
 I found myself in good walking trim, and am very well. 
 I preached in the Blantyre Church yesterday morning, 
 Hetherwick taking the evening service and preaching one 
 of his excellent sermons. I have seen Mr. Buchanan,* 
 and have had a long talk over Ken. and the coffee. 
 
 Mpln'DI, August 29th, 1895. 
 Since I wrote ... a few days ago from Blantyre, 
 I have been round by Zomba to see the Commissioner 
 and spend a day with him, and now I am down on 
 the river, waiting at Mpindi for the boats to come 
 
 * Mr. Buchanan died a few months after this letter was written. 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 up from Matope and take me on to Fort Johnston, 
 where I shall catch the Domira, and so get on to 
 Kota-Kota and Likoma. Young Alston is here,* whose 
 father and mother, as you may remember, I went to 
 call on in London. He is a very nice young fellow 
 whom the Commissioner much likes, and who is on 
 the way to Fort Maguire, on the Lake, where he is 
 to be stationed. At Zomba, where I arrived at 8 p.m., 
 having left Blantyre by machila\ at 9.30 a.m., I found 
 the Commissioner exceedingly pleasant, and, I think, 
 glad to welcome me. He was able to give me very 
 fairly recent news of Likoma, having only lately returned 
 from a tour round the Lake, spending two days at 
 Likoma. Apparently Dr. Hine was still up at Unangu, 
 but all the others were quite well and cheerful he 
 said. Zomba itself was looking lovely with all its 
 flowers, of which the Commissioner is such an ardent 
 lover. I was only there from 8 p.m. one day till 
 1 p.m. the next, but we had a good deal of conversation 
 on all sorts of subjects, and I was more struck than 
 ever with the Commissioner's cleverness and accomplish- 
 ments, and his power of doing so many things, as he 
 does, so very well. He is certainly a very remarkable 
 man indeed. . . . Lions have been a great pest lately, 
 and have proved a great danger in many places in 
 British Central Africa. I myself have seen nothing of 
 them, I'm glad to say. It is the sleepy time of day, and 
 I don't feel up to writing any more just now. 
 
 [Mr. W. P. Johnson, expecting that the Bishop would 
 travel, as indeed he had intended, by the Newala route, 
 had arranged with the African Lakes Company, that 
 their steamer, the Domira, should meet him at Mluluka, 
 on the east shore of the Lake, on the 20th September.] 
 
 * See page 28. + Macliila, a kind of hammock carried by men. 
 
[1895.] Last Journey to Africa. 
 
 373 
 
 Fort Johnston, Sttsday, 
 
 September 1st, 1895. 
 
 We arrived here at 4.30 p.m. this afternoon, and by 
 an extraordinary piece of good luck, our boat the Sherriff 
 arrived from Likoma just three hours or so afterwards, 
 and so, instead of waiting here twelve or fourteen days, 
 as we anticipated, we shall be able to start to-morrow. 
 Our steamer it appears is still undergoing repairs, and 
 so our two boats, the Sherriff and the Ousel, are 
 making regular trips up and down the Lake, taking 
 our stuff and letters up from Matope ; they say that 
 the Charles Janson will not be ready for another three or 
 four months. I wrote to the father from Mpindi, about 
 three days or so ago, and we have come on quietly 
 here in the Livingstone, a new, shallow-draught steamer, 
 belonging to the African Lakes Company. The boat boys 
 report that all are well at Likoma, and that Dr. Hine is 
 still at Unangu. Gold prospectors seem all moving up in 
 this direction, and they seem to start in from Kota- 
 Kota. Joseph Williams desires to be kindly remembered 
 to you. I shall drop him at Kota-Kota with Mr. Sim. 
 I ought to be at Likoma in eight or ten days from 
 now, all going well with me in the boat. . . . Will you 
 write to Horace Waller, please, and ask him to send 
 me some copy for the " Nyasa News"? 
 
 With much love to the father and yourself. 
 
 Always your very affectionate brother, 
 
 ^ Chauncy Likomensis. 
 
 The next day, September 2nd, he started in the 
 Sherriff] as has been already related, across the Lake 
 to Kota-Kota. 
 
374 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 IV. 
 
 NOTES AND MEMORIES OF CHAUNCY 
 MAPLES. 
 
 BY WORKERS FOR AFRICA AND AFRICANS. 
 
 SOME BECOLLECTIONS OF BISHOP MAPLES. 
 
 BY ONE OF HIS WORKERS. 
 
 Six weary travellers clarabered down the sides of the 
 Charles Janson, and were rapidly rowed to shore. We 
 had reached Likoma at last, after nearly three months' 
 travelling. It was the evening of November 27th, 1893. 
 
 The sun was sinking in a blaze of glory, and lighting 
 up a figure in white standing on the shore to welcome 
 us. I see Archdeacon Maples now, as I saw him then, 
 spare, and of middle height, with his piercing grey eyes, 
 which seemed to read us through and through. He gave 
 me the impression of being very anxious to see what 
 his three new workers were like. I do not remember 
 anything he said, beyond a few simple words of greeting. 
 He took possession of the doctor, and with those rapid 
 strides of his (I never knew any one who could keep up 
 with him easily), led the way to the Mission Station. 
 I thought his dress slightly comical, but then I was 
 fresh from England. A strip of Turkey twill served as 
 a sash for a white cotton cassock which bore evident 
 signs of being " rough dried." But very soon this well- 
 known costume spread more awe and consternation in 
 my mind (if I was getting into mischief !) than the purple 
 
Some Recollections of Bishop Maples. 375 
 
 of a Cardinal ! On his head he wore a grey pith helmet, 
 lined with very bright green, and surmounted by a 
 calico covering (which never quite fitted). It was kept 
 in its place, or, to be truthful, slightly over one ear, by 
 very obvious tapes. 
 
 Before six months were over we newcomers had gone 
 over to the majority. The smallest village child would 
 have laughed at our Sunday best ; but first impressions 
 are interesting. The Archdeacon's first thought was to 
 escort the ladies to their quarters. He looked so proud 
 and pleased over his preparations that I murmured as 
 hearty a " thank you " as I could muster when he threw 
 open the door of a sort of wigwam, made of sticks tied 
 to a bamboo framework, and roofed with grass, and told 
 me it was my home. The world by this time was rapidly 
 sliding into darkness, and I could only dimly descry a 
 rickety native bedstead destitute of furniture, a table 
 made of packing cases very thick with dust and cobwebs 
 (we were not expected that week), and a pail of water, 
 for my ablutions, of the sort usually found in stables. 
 "It is quite new," he said cheerfully, ''and made on 
 purpose for you (referring to the wigwam), but if you 
 like the old one over the way, you can move into it 
 to-morrow." Then he strode off, to point out to Miss 
 Woodward the beauties of her residence, which was a full 
 size larger than mine, and had the luxury of a verandah 
 roofed with grass or " baraza " as we call it. I nearly 
 sat down on my mud floor, tired and weary as I was 
 with long tossing on the Lake, and wept, but the gong 
 sounded, and after a hasty brush up. Miss Woodward 
 and I sped over to the large hut a few hundred yards 
 from our quarters, where the members of the staff took 
 their meals in common. 
 
 Two lamps were burning on a long table already 
 thronged with faces. A huge tin teapot — m the spout of 
 
37^ Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 which, as I afterwards learnt, cockroaches reposed at 
 night to meet with a watery death next morning — stood, 
 with an army of big white cups, on one side. Below it 
 sat the native teachers. 
 
 Little schoolboys, with bare feet, paddled in and out, 
 plunging into the darkness to return with some dish, which 
 they invariably set down crookedly at one end of the 
 table. The Archdeacon took the head, Mr. Wimbush the 
 foot. Miss Woodward presided, and the rest of us fitted in 
 between. We never began without the Archdeacon, and 
 he very seldom kept us waiting. More often than not 
 he came in carrying the baby Jamusi. Like many of 
 our greatest and best, he had a warm corner in his heart 
 for children. It made a pretty picture, the chubby face 
 pressed close to his, and the tiny black arms clasped 
 round his neck. Jamusi would be deposited on a chair 
 close up to the Archdeacon's own, and his plate kept 
 supplied with good things. Often, if the meal proved 
 tedious, Jamusi' s head dropped lower and lower, until 
 finally the curly pate sank quite on to the tablecloth, 
 and our little visitor was wrapped in peaceful slumber. 
 
 We usually had three courses — soup, roast fowls (or 
 goat), varied by rissoles of Chicago beef, or a potato 
 pie, the potato being " desiccated," the part that 
 wasn't potato being tinned salmon (this was a Friday 
 dish). Our vegetables were either pumpkins, yams, 
 tomatoes, or, now and then, for a treat, "love-lies- 
 bleeding," a nice old-fashioned flower, whose leaves, 
 when young, taste like spinach. The third course was 
 often a fruit tart, or, on other days, a banana fritter. 
 The " menu " was not half bad, but it lacked variety, and 
 we seldom had fresh fruit or salads. The Archdeacon 
 thoroughly enjoyed dinner, not the food part — he was no 
 great eater — though he would jokingly say, that the whole 
 of British Central Africa looked to him for cooks, as his 
 
Some Recollections of Bishop Maples. 377 
 
 fame as a trainer had spread far and wide. It was the 
 only part of the day he allowed himself any social inter- 
 course with his workers. 
 
 I shall never forget those meals — they were an edu- 
 cation in themselves. He would talk on every subject 
 under the sun, sometimes forgetting to carve as he did 
 so, seemingly obHvious of the hungry countenances of his 
 fellow-workers, who occasionally grew somewhat impatient 
 at the delay. History, music, poetry, philology, botany, 
 geology, and metaphysics — the list was endless. Your 
 part was to listen, and draw him out by a question or two. 
 As a rule, all other conversation at table was suspended 
 and every head was turned towards the Archdeacon. I 
 never expect to meet a man of such varied attainments 
 again. I often wondered if it would be possible to puzzle 
 him. He was not above taking an interest in light litera- 
 ture as well, and often and often he has convulsed the 
 table with laughter by a joke newly culled from Punch. I 
 shall never forget the keen enjoyment he derived from 
 " Mr. Footer" (whose absurd sayings he was never weary 
 of quoting) in that ridiculous story of Grossmith's " The 
 Diary of a Nobody." The only other book that ran it 
 close was " An American Girl in London." And he was 
 almost impatient with me because I would not allow that 
 some of his favourite passages were funn}^ or, at any 
 rate, as laughable as those in the " Diary." 
 
 He was not only a wide reader of books, but also of 
 human character. Though quick to notice faults, he was 
 the first to appreciate good qualities. You felt, too, that 
 he was a man of ready sympathy. Nothing was too 
 trivial, if it interested you, for him to take an interest 
 in it as well. 
 
 If he had to reprove, he liked to come out with what 
 he had to say, then and there, regardless of your feelings 
 and the surroundings, but once said it was over and 
 
37^ Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 done with ; there was no alluding to your delinquencies 
 afterwards. 
 
 He set us an example of ceaseless energy ; no one, 
 for very shame, could be idle in Archdeacon Maples' 
 company. He threw his whole heart into whatever he 
 happened to be doing, which, probably, was the secret 
 of his success. 
 
 Sometimes, as we sat at dinner, the steamer's whistle 
 would be heard, and the Archdeacon's face would light 
 up, and a place was hastily cleared for Mr. Johnson. 
 He and his old college friend would sit on the Arch- 
 deacon's baraza after dinner, talking until past mid- 
 night, and settling questions relating to the Mission. I 
 do not think either of them ever undertook any important 
 work without discussing it first with the other. 
 
 Archdeacon Maples loved music, and took a special 
 interest in his choir of little schoolboys. He hardly 
 ever missed an afternoon (and at 2 p.m., the hour he 
 chose, the day was at its hottest) without giving them a 
 singing lesson. I sometimes went to help, and when 
 he saw me appear, he always thanked me for coming, 
 and seemed specially pleased, but he never enjoined it 
 upon me as a duty, which he well might have done. 
 
 I used to marvel at the energy he threw into it, sing- 
 ing all the parts himself, treble, alto, tenor, and bass, so 
 as to help the boys and men to pick it up, all the time 
 working the bellows lustily with his feet, and playing 
 the air, times without number. He spared himself no 
 trouble. 
 
 The boys were very fond of the tunes he had written 
 for them. When he had gone to England, and I was 
 " choir-master," they always begged for his, if I let them 
 choose the chants and hymns. 
 
 While he was with us he never let any one but himself 
 preside at the harmonium. The only service unaccom- 
 
Some Recollections of Bishop Maples. 379 
 
 panied during the week was the choral celebration on 
 Sunday. The huge congregation drowned the instru- 
 ment, and he found he could keep them better together 
 without it, but he started the musical portions for them 
 from the altar himself. 
 
 And now I come to my recollections of those last sad 
 weeks at Likoma. Even now I can hardly bear to write 
 of them. We knew our Bishop was hurrying back to us, 
 but we were not sure whether he was walking overland 
 as he first intended, or coming up by the river. We were 
 all looking forward to a joyful meeting. The first heavy 
 cloud was caused by the death of Mr. Atlay, slain by 
 the Magwangwara. He had hardly been laid to rest 
 when our little community was stirred by a still greater 
 shock. The boat bearing our Bishop and Mr. Williams 
 had been capsized, and both the white men were drowned. 
 The news reached us on Wednesday, a week after the 
 accident happened, Mr. Johnson sending a hasty note 
 across from the mainland in a canoe. Miss Woodward 
 and I, according to custom, had retired to our quarters 
 directly after dinner, and Miss Woodward had locked 
 up for the night, when an unusual knocking was heard, 
 and Mr. Glossop begged to be let in. He broke the 
 sad news to my companion, and she in turn to me. 
 My first cry was — and even now at times I feel inclined 
 to re-echo it — " Oh ! it cannot be true ! " He, so strong 
 and full of life, with all his plans for the future, on whom 
 we all depended, lying cold and still at the bottom of 
 Lake Nyasa. 
 
 With his wonderful personality, he seemed essential 
 to the very existence of the Mission ; no one could ever 
 take his place. But calmer thoughts followed. Nothing 
 can happen unless it is God's will. Unknown to us, our 
 Bishop's work on earth was finished, and he, safe in our 
 Father's holy keeping. But oh ! the aching void of those 
 
380 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 first few days, as we tried to realize what his loss meant 
 to us. 
 
 Little Jamusi ran about the station as usual, but no 
 voice lured him into the dispensary and persuaded him 
 (sometimes with the aid of a lump of sugar) to repeat 
 with his baby lips the hymn we were preparing as a 
 surprise for his " Archideeki." There was no face to 
 light up with pleasure as Jamusi lisped the words 
 "Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me" — the last hymn the 
 Archdeacon translated into Chinyanja, and gave me in 
 manuscript before leaving. 
 
 I hardly know whether the child ever quite realized his 
 loss, but I have a vivid recollection of the heart-rending 
 sobs which shook his little frame when he saw Archdeacon 
 Maples sail for England. The plaintive cry floated across 
 the water, and was heard even on board the steamer, as 
 the anchor was weighed, and her head pointed South. 
 I am told by those on board, that it quite unnerved the 
 Archdeacon, and he had to go below. 
 
 The people of the island, like ourselves, were stunned 
 by the magnitude and suddenness of the disaster. They 
 could hardly believe it. 
 
 The women he had taught, and prepared for baptism, 
 came into our quarters by twos and threes, and sat sorrow- 
 fully down on the mud floors of our huts, trying in their 
 simple way to show their sympathy. 
 
 They spoke no word, but the tears coursed slowly down 
 their dark cheeks. They had lost in him more than a 
 father. 
 
 The Wissmann came in on September 15th and brought 
 me a letter from Bishop Maples. It was inexpressibly 
 sad to see it lying there. 
 
 If only he had waited, he would have arrived in the 
 steamer with his own letter — but God willed otherwise. 
 
 The letter lies before me as I write, dated June 9th, 
 
Reminiscences of Bishop Maples. 381 
 
 11.50 p.m. He had just been to Norwood, and after 
 alluding to the kind hospitality of his host, he goes on to 
 Bay " I did so enjoy preaching in that beautiful, most 
 beautiful church " (the church of St. John the Evangelist, 
 which must have been one of the last he visited before 
 leaving for Africa). And then he adds : — " I hope to be 
 in Likoma by the end of September, if all goes well 
 with me in my journey across country from Lindi with 
 Mr. Farler." And then, after mentioning the names of a 
 party about to start for Likoma, he writes " But I hope 
 to reach Nyasa before any of them, except Mr. Wimbush 
 and Mr. Brooke, who have already started." 
 
 Before the end of September our Bishop had reached a 
 better country." The long journey had ended ; he was 
 in a city whose Maker and Builder is God. 
 
 Gertrude Palmer. 
 
 January 9th, 1897. 
 
 KEMINISCENCES OF BISHOP MAPLES. 
 
 When going out to Nyasa in 1888 I felt I had one 
 friend in Likoma, for I had seen Bishop (then Arch- 
 deacon) Maples in England, and had heard so much 
 about him. We arrived at Likoma one moonlight night, 
 and I have a very vivid recollection of the scene on the 
 beach with the hearty welcome from Archdeacon Maples. 
 During the first few days we saw a great deal of him, for 
 he was continually running over to the girls' school to 
 help us in every possible way in the beginning of our 
 girls' boarding-school. Having taught the girls himself 
 before our arrival he always took a keen interest in them. 
 He was one who did not seem to consider any necessary 
 work drudgery ; he had often taken an alphabet class, 
 
382 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 which most of us consider very tedious work. After our 
 arrival Archdeacon Maples continued for some years to 
 give the more advanced girls daily religious instruction, 
 and for a time he gave them surging lessons. He never 
 seemed tired of takmg choir practices, and would sing 
 himself always. Before our arrival the Archdeacon had 
 kindly written out a little timetable, also a few rules to 
 help us. He impressed on us the necessity of looking 
 after things ourselves. I was much struck by his 
 measuring out the girls' food himself when we took 
 two of the girls over daily to receive it. He taught us 
 to look carefully after everything, saying it was often the 
 European's own fault if things were stolen. Few men 
 have as much patience as he had in listening to details 
 in school work or about school children. He realized 
 how necessary it was to stop at once the quarrelling 
 amongst the girls. All the girls felt he was their friend; 
 and on his return to Nyasa in 1891 the girls were wild 
 with delight. I have seen no other European receive 
 such a hearty welcome from the natives when returning 
 to Africa. Besides introducing us to the children. Arch- 
 deacon Maples wished us to know the mothers, for he 
 took a keen interest in the women ; and there have been 
 larger classes of women under instruction in Likoma than 
 anywhere else in the Universities' Mission. As the sad 
 news of the Bishop's death spread over the island, 
 w^omen from various parts came to show their sympathy 
 with us. 
 
 Archdeacon Maples liked meal time to be not only a 
 real rest from work, but a pleasant time. Often, when 
 tired or depressed, he would make an effort to start and 
 carry on some interesting conversation about a book or a 
 famous person. He would tell us not to look at the clock, 
 that he did not wish us to hurry away from the table ; 
 even when very busy he would not shorten this time. 
 
Reminiscences of Bishop Maples. 383 
 
 On Sunday afternoons we had tea out of doors, and this 
 he always tried to make a specially pleasant time. He 
 used to say he felt then that the greater part of his work 
 for the day was over. It was a busy day for one man. 
 At that time the Celebration was at 6.30 a.m. ; preaching 
 out of doors at 9 o'clock, after which catechumen's class, 
 and then matins at 11 ; at 2 p.m. catechizing the school- 
 children. 
 
 He did not like us to say, " It was so," but rather, " I 
 thought it was so." If he found he had been mistaken 
 in any assertion he had made he always told us afterwards, 
 and expected others to do the same. 
 
 M. W. 
 
 Of Bishop Maples as Bishop I knew nothing, for, alas ! 
 he never reached us. To us he was, and ever will be, 
 *' the Archdeacon," the moving spirit of the Mission on 
 Lake Nyasa. Bishop Smythies was scarcely there, 
 owing to the size of his diocese. Bishop Hornby through 
 illness had soon to retire, so that the Archdeacon had 
 always been the principal builder by the shores of Lake 
 Nyasa. One might recall many anecdotes, and especially 
 his own gift of telling them, but to us his brightness, 
 with his untiring energy, must chiefly remain an inspiring 
 memory. One would think of his work under two heads, 
 his influence over the band he was called to lead, and 
 his influence over the natives of Africa, to whom his life 
 was so singly and simply devoted. 
 
 It is often the case that a man who excels in one fails 
 in the other, Bishop Maples singularly succeeded in 
 both. From the first he struck me as a man whom 
 one could follow. Firm and masterful, he was withal 
 sympathetic and frank. He was a keen judge of 
 character, and had a gift of making a quick and 
 
384 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 accurate estimate of men. Yet he possessed a broad 
 and catholic power of sympathy, which was no doubt the 
 secret of his ability to lead, while his frankness, among 
 other personal gifts, made one love as well as admire. 
 
 Next, as to his influence with the natives. They all 
 speak of him as a true father — as one who sympathized 
 with then* own views and best aspirations, and dealt so 
 tenderly with their failings and weaknesses, a father in 
 the native idea of the term, that is, one who was to govern 
 and correct as well as love. 
 
 "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when He 
 Cometh shall find so doing ! " 
 
 A. G. B. G. 
 
 One of the Staff at Nyasa. 
 
 ^Editor's Note. — The following letters were written to 
 me by two native teachers at Nyasa. They were written 
 in Chinyanja, their native tongue. It will be mider- 
 stood that both Eustace and Augustine call Chauncy 
 Maples Bishop, in anticipation. These letters require 
 no comment, but I should like to draw attention to 
 what in Augustine's own simple words seems their key- 
 note when speaking of Bishop Maples he says — He was 
 one to make people happy.] 
 
 Translation of Eustace Malisaica's Account of 
 Bishop Maples. 
 
 KirxGAXi, January I9th, 1897. 
 
 Account of Bishop Maples on leaving Zanzibar for 
 Masasi and Newala — 
 
 When he arrived here in Zanzibar* he remained for 
 half a year, and then he was ordained to the priesthood 
 
 * In 1876 Eustace was then a boy at school at Kiungani. He is 
 now (1897) studj-ing for the diaconate. 
 
Eustace IMalisawa's Letter. 385 
 
 with Mr. Johnson, he (Bishop Maples) to the priesthood 
 and Mr. Johnson to the diaconate. Bishop Steere 
 had sent Mr. Johnson on first to Masasi with the 
 people from Mbweni, and Bishop Maples followed him 
 after nine months. And he chose six of us boys at 
 Kiungani to go to Masasi with Mr. Williams, and we 
 arrived at Lindi with the people from Zanzibar (the 
 porters). When we arrived at Lindi, other people from 
 Lindi were taken to carry the loads, and we arrived at 
 Masasi (after) a journey of seven days. We met Mr. 
 Johnson and a European, neither a priest nor a deacon, 
 but a layman. Later on Bishop Maples said to Mr. 
 Johnson, "You must go back to Zanzibar." At first he 
 refused ; afterwards he agreed, and he was carried in a 
 hammock, and Bishop Maples sent a person with him, 
 the first Christian of Masasi, Charles Sulimani, because 
 Mr. Johnson had ulcers on both his legs ; therefore they, 
 Bishop Maples and Mr. Williams, stopped alone. Notice 
 these people from Mbweni were not baptized, and they 
 were taught by him, and they were converted and became 
 Christians till only a few heathen were left. And they 
 built a very nice stone church ; they planted mangoes and 
 cocoanuts ; and there began to be Christians at Masasi. 
 And he went to the chief of Masasi, Bishop Maples said 
 to the chiefs named Che Namkumba and Che Mkuti, these 
 two chiefs, he said, "Look, we have come on purpose to 
 tell the words of God, we have not come to stay idly, 
 but to teach the words of God." And the chiefs said, 
 " Our gods are beer, and to hear cases, and to cultivate." 
 Then Bishop Maples answered and said, " If you refuse 
 to accept God, God will bring dreadful things on you 
 and this land where you live. Perhaps God will send 
 war, perhaps sickness." And the people refused. After- 
 wards Bishop Maples said, " Let us go and see the people 
 of the country that we may be reconciled with them and 
 CM. c c 
 
386 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 make friendship." Then we went and prepared for our 
 journey, with Mr. Williams and Kiongozi, Barnaba 
 Mwatuka and people from Mbweni. We went and we 
 came to a chief of Newala named Matola, a good and 
 honoured man. We stayed with him and when we 
 came away he gave us a goat, and a person to show us 
 the way; Matola gave us a man named Liwewe. In 
 the journey to Mawia the people were afraid of the 
 Angoni ; on the road they were much frightened. Bishop 
 Maples said, "Do not be frightened." 
 
 We arrived at a chief's named Che Liganga, a Yao. 
 After a little while, we saw Bishop Maples fall and 
 vomit. And Mr. Williams said, "Let us return because 
 Bwana is ill." We went back, but there was no food ; in 
 that country food was scarce. And we arrived at another 
 chief's named Akundonde. We met a great man named 
 Che Machilika, we stayed with him. Next day we went 
 to Newala to Che Matola, and he fired a gun to salute 
 us, and the chief Che Matola said to Bishop Maples, " I 
 want you to send me a teacher," and he said, " I want you 
 to teach me how to leave off work on Sunday, what am 
 I to do to leave it?" The Bishop said, "Bring some 
 *chitalaka ' " — beads (red with white inside). Some were 
 brought. The Bishop counted seven, and said, "When 
 you reach six, it is Saturday." And Matola said, " I 
 understand, I will do so." And he gave us two boys to 
 read (go to school) at Masasi. We left to go to another 
 chief, Machemba. First we passed another chief, 
 Akumitema, we talked with him. We went to the chief 
 Machemba, he was pleased with us, he said, " I have got 
 a good friend." Bishop Maples taught the words of God. 
 We stayed four days, we left and arrived at Masasi 
 November 21st. 
 
 Machemba gave us three boys and one man and his wife, 
 who had bad eyes. Bishop Maples sent her to Zanzibar 
 
Eustace Malisawa's Letter. 387 
 
 to the doctor ; the man's name was Che Ini. We stayed 
 and began to teach the people of Masasi. The Yao chiefs 
 Akumbemba and Akumachinga and Kalua came, and 
 some of their people received the cross. The j-ear the 
 Magwangwara arrived at Masasi, all the people ran away 
 for fear of the Magwangwara. Then Bishop Maples sent 
 Mr. Janson and a European and a black teacher to teach 
 at Newala, and they returned to Masasi, also Mr. John- 
 son returned from Mataka's. Bishop Maples sent Mr. 
 Janson and Mr. Johnson to Ngoi to the chief Chitesi, and 
 afterwards came the Magwangwara war. Bishop Maples 
 said, ''I am going to make friends with the Angoni,* 
 that they may come in a pleasant manner, and not kill 
 people ; let us make friendship with them." Then he took 
 five people with him. He left his companion, Mr. 
 Porter, behind. The Magwangwara went by another 
 path ; Bishop Maples had a very trying time. The 
 Magwangwara came to the village to kill people, and 
 little children. Bishop Maples loved his people ; 
 he did not love himself, but he stayed and gave up his 
 life for them. When they saw the village on fire he 
 said to some one, " Look, look at the village." He saw 
 they had set it on fire, but it was not our village but 
 other people's. That man said to Bishop Maples, The 
 Magwangwara are burning our village." Then Bishop 
 Maples said, ''Let us go to Newala to Matola ; " they 
 went, and on the road he hurt his leg in an elephant 
 pit. I met him at Newala because the war had made 
 us go out of the way. He asked me if the people 
 were alive, if Mr. Porter were alive? I said he was 
 alive. And he asked, ''How did you come here?" 
 And I said, " The war made me wander far from the 
 village, and the Angoni stayed fifteen days and then 
 went home." Bishop Maples returned to Masasi, but 
 * Angoni = Magwangwara. 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 he had still a bad leg. Then he said, " Who will 
 follow the Magwangwara to their homes ? " Then Mr. 
 Porter said, I will go." Bishop Maples said, It will 
 be well to do up some bundles of cloth to ransom the 
 people taken by the Angoni." The Bishop said, "He 
 who takes a truss of calico let him ransom his own 
 people." They had no wages. Many people went with 
 Mr. Porter. They arrived at the Angoni chief's, Sonjela. 
 Mr. Porter said to the chief, " Give me my people." 
 The chief said to his people, " Very well." He gave them 
 to him. He returned to Masasi and we stayed one whole 
 year. The Mbweni people returned to Mbweni for fear of 
 the Magwangwara, Bishop Maples sent them. They stayed 
 a little longer; then Bishop Maples said, *'Let us go to 
 Newala to Matola to teach, because these people refuse the 
 words of God." The Masasi people are of the Makua tribe. 
 And there was a great famine, people nearly died of hunger. 
 
 Then Bishop Maples got up to help them till the 
 famine was over. The people came and said, " Do not 
 go away to Newala." Bwana [Anglice master] said, 
 " We go because God has ordered us to go and teach 
 other people." We left one man, Charles Sulimani. 
 We began a school, we taught people, they believed and 
 were baptized. Afterwards the chief ordered that who- 
 ever had two wives should leave one, and the chief said, 
 it was well that his people had begun to be baptized. 
 
 Then Bishop Maples prepared to go to Meto with one 
 European and thirty-six people, to go on purpose to look 
 at the country, and afterwards send a mission. But when 
 he got to Mwalija (at) Meto, he had a trying time, because 
 the chief was a bad man, always drunk. This bad chief 
 said, " I have never seen a white man till to-day, so I 
 will kill him, that I may try killing a European." 
 Bishop Maples said to the people, " Don't be afraid, 
 God will save us from the hands of this bad chief." And 
 
Eustace Malisawa's Letter. 389 
 
 next morning they had a good journey, and so reached 
 Masasi. We were very glad to see him. He told us all 
 about his journey and all his trouble because of the 
 Gospel. He was a man who loved the black people. 
 He stayed, and gave up his own life for the black people. 
 He was not afraid in dreadful places. 
 
 Now about the journey to Newala to the chief Matola, 
 he who called for teachers to come to teach him. 
 
 We went and lived under this chief at Newala. Bishop 
 Maples began to teach the Gospel and to teach schools. 
 There was the work of teaching chiefs and young men and 
 women. Some were baptized. The chief himself received 
 the cross (became a catechumen). Some that he taught 
 in school have become deacons. We stayed four years 
 at Newala. Then Bishop Smythies said, "It will be 
 well for you to leave and go to Nyasa." He agreed 
 to the words of his Bishop ; he went at once. The 
 Newala people wept because of his going away, be- 
 cause their teacher was leaving. They accompanied 
 him two days' journey. He was one who loved his 
 people in the time of trouble, in the time of famine ; a 
 strong man, a brave man. One thought he would be 
 able to stay a very long time. And he himself said, " If 
 it were possible to cut myself in half, I would have 
 stayed at Nyasa and at Newala ; but I cannot. The 
 Lord will send some one like me to stay with you." 
 
 My beloved, my friend has left me alone; he who 
 brought me up has passed away. I may meet him when 
 I leave this earth. He left Newala ; then he stayed at 
 Nyasa. I am here (at Kiungani) preparing for the 
 diaconate. Greeting, my fiiend. May God take care 
 of you always. 
 
 Eustace Malisawa E.* 
 * E., i.e.. Reader. 
 
390 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 P.S. — I have four children, two were baptized by Bishop 
 Maples. Sonie are now deacons, who were taught by the 
 Bishop himself. Their names are : — Yohana Barnaba 
 Abdallah ; Daudi Machina ; Sipriani H. Chitenji — these 
 are deacons. Readers. — Samwil Chiponde E. ; Arthur 
 Kasembe E. 
 
 The Bishop left Newala, 1886, to go to Nyasa with me. 
 I went with him up to Nyasa. I returned to Newala. After 
 half a year, he wrote me a letter calling me to follow 
 him to Nyasa, and I followed him with my wife. We 
 lived at a village named Pachiya, he (Bishop Maples) at 
 Likoma. On a holiday we went to Likoma to see him. 
 
 Greetings to all the relations of Bishop Maples. 
 
 We left Zanzibar 1876. 
 
 We left Masasi 1881. 
 
 He was not afraid to go and meet the Magwangwara, 
 because he loved black people. 
 
 I am, 
 
 Eustace Malisawa. 
 
 [Editor's Note. — Bishop Maples left by his will a 
 legacy to three of the native teachers at Nyasa, of whom 
 Eustace Malisawa was one. The sum of money, though 
 small, was quite a fortune to an African. The day after 
 Eustace was told of this legacy, he came to the missionary 
 in charge at Likoma and said he wished to give a tenth of 
 the money to God.] 
 
 Translation of Augustine AmhalVs Utter, 
 
 KiuNGAXi College, January 23rd, 1897. 
 
 My Dear Dona, — 
 
 An account of Bishop Maples. 
 
 Ever since long ago we have known him, our head 
 teacher in Africa whom we have loved dearly. Now 
 
Augustine Ambali's Letter. 391 
 
 hear the account of our beloved Bishop Maples, when 
 he left Masasi to go to Nyasa in the year 1886 ; he 
 arrived that same year, 1886, at Likoma. We had gone on 
 before on to Likoma. The first priest to arrive at Likoma 
 was Mr. Swinny. When Bishop Maples came he found 
 him there. Mr. Johnson had bad eyes and was in 
 England. There were two priests in Likoma that 
 year. And Bishop Smythies was at the Lake that year, 
 he went by the Magwangwara path. Bishop Maples 
 got to Likoma first ; afterwards Bishop Smythies 
 arrived, and he thought it well to make him head in 
 the country at the Lake. And Mr. Maples was made 
 Archdeacon Maples of Likoma ; we had known him 
 (Archdeacon Maples) so much longer than Mr. Swinny. 
 He (Mr. Swinny) was a stranger in the land of Africa ; 
 but Archdeacon Maples knew all the customs of the 
 black people in Africa better than Mr. Swinny and the 
 other Europeans who were in Likoma at that time. 
 And Bishop Smythies thought it best to make him 
 head, Archdeacon of Likoma, and so he made him head 
 that year, and I was there at the time. I had known him 
 long ago in this Mission. He was one to make people 
 happy. Then Bishop Smythies went back to Zanzibar 
 and left us to be with our head, the brave Archdeacon 
 Maples. Ah! he was a strong man in all his work. 
 And he stayed at Likoma with me and So, long ago 
 — in 1886 — till Mr. Johnson arrived from England. 
 Then we rejoiced to see our two friends, who had been 
 so long in the Mission together in their work, loving and 
 honouring one another — Mr. Johnson and Archdeacon 
 Maples — till his death, never quarrelling at all. In 
 that year of 1886 he sent me to live on the mainland, 
 and to leave the island of Likoma and stay at Pachiya 
 to teach. 
 
 And now news of him at Likoma only. 
 
392 
 
 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 For in those days he did not travel, he stayed at 
 Likoma and kept to his work of teaching people. In the 
 year 1887 they divided their work, Mr. Johnson and he; 
 Mr. Johnson on the steamer, Charles Jauson, to teach 
 everywhere on the mainland. All the villages on the 
 mamland to Mr, Johnson, and Likoma and Chisumulu 
 to the Archdeacon. There was no one so valiant in his 
 work as Archdeacon Maples, truly, and to love the 
 people in the country of Africa as our father who has 
 left us. Bishop Maples. Even I and others truly we got 
 heart by seeing these two. Bishop Maples and Mr. 
 Johnson strong in their work, till we were bereaved of 
 one. We people of Africa truly, ah ! when we remember 
 Bishop Maples we shed tears truly. All his work was 
 thorough (strong), whether to teach the children smging 
 at the harmonium in church, he was steadfast (strong), 
 and did not tire, nor complain over his work. All the 
 children loved him, from the biggest to the smallest, 
 they loved him indeed. About his class for teaching the 
 elder people, he took them himself and taught them 
 indeed. And his preaching, if you ask any one, how did 
 Bishop Maples preach? he will answer quickly, **His 
 words are understood like one born at the Lake, he 
 preaches so well, and with meaning, beautiful words, 
 to enter hito your heart." He was clever in teaching, 
 and in drawing people to come and hear the words of 
 God. The Lord Jesus will keep him for everlasting life 
 in His kingdom. Because always he did his work well. 
 The Lord knows the work of Bishop Maples. 
 
 From 1886 to 1894 I worked with him, with both him 
 and Mr. Johnson, my chiefs. I can say with force that he 
 was one who did the work of the Lord Jesus as if he 
 were sent by God. He had no fear in his work. He left 
 the good things at home because of the Gospel, to teach 
 the African people, because he loved them ; he died for 
 
Augustine Ambali's Letter. 393 
 
 us. In the year 1894 when he took leave of us, he said to 
 me, Perhaps you and I, Mwalimu Augustine, we shall 
 see one another again. God alone knows." He came to 
 Msumba and slept there on his way to England. We 
 here at the Lake hoped he would return our Bishop, 
 our head, our father. In the year 1894 in the month of 
 November he passed to go to England to be consecrated 
 Bishop. In 1895, June, we heard he was consecrated 
 Bishop. We were delighted to hear he was made our 
 Bishop of Nyasa. We began to look forward, saying, 
 "When will he arrive here? " but God liked to take him 
 on the Lake of Nyasa, to consecrate {literally, make white 
 or holy) the water of this Lake, in the month of 
 September. This is the news of his death in this land 
 of the Lake. 
 
 These two people, Bishop Maples and Mr. Johnson, I 
 have worked with them at the Lake for ten years, from 
 1884 till 1894—1895, and then Bishop Maples left us. He 
 slept in the Lord Jesus, he was brave, he did his work with 
 his might till he died. I followed him, seeing his habit of 
 loving his work. He did not want to return to his nice 
 home, he wished much to stay with us in Africa. And 
 we got heartened to love this work. I did not live at 
 Masasi, but the teacher, Eustace Malisawa, lived at 
 Masasi with Bishop Maples. But I stayed with him a 
 long time at the Lake. He was a priest who loved 
 games, and at the big festivals like Easter and Christmas 
 he made the children happy with sports (running), and all 
 kinds of amusement. This was his custom, all the days 
 of his life, he was one to laugh with his people. He 
 used to teach the classes of catechumens himself, women 
 and men. And he went all round Likoma to look for 
 the older people, to teach them till they began to be 
 accustomed to come and hear his words on Sunday. 
 There was no one who did not like Bishop Maples. The 
 
394 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 chiefs, the older people, and the children, and the women, 
 all loved him, especially at Likoma. There is much to 
 tell about him, I cannot remember all. 
 
 But he (the Bishop) was truly trustworthy in his work 
 which he was given by the Lord, and he did it with his 
 might. He was not afraid at all of reprovmg and warning 
 people who left the way of the Lord and returned to their 
 heathen ways. He was truly the shepherd of the Lord 
 Jesus, VTho said, " Take care of the sheep of the Lord." 
 
 But the Lake and the wind cut off his work from 
 being finished. But the news of him of old is very good 
 indeed, of doing his work in the Universities' Mission at 
 Lake Nyasa. We black people, we say he followed it, but 
 there is none like him in our Mission. But one, his 
 companion, still stays in the country, perhaps he will 
 be like him when he has gone to sleep in the Lord. Now 
 I have finished my words. I know one thing. Bishop 
 Maples was one who loved his work till he died, because 
 of the Nyasa people ; he was strong till he died. But 
 we, his friends and children in the Lord, we hope to see 
 him again at the day of Judgment. Bishop Maples 
 is asleep, "R. I. P." He is in the bosom of Abraham, 
 he rests from all his work. 
 
 Augustine Ambali. 
 
 i 
 
Memories of Him by a Fellow-worker. 395 
 
 SOME MEMORIES OF CHAUNCY MAPLES. 
 
 One year seems to me to be especially marked out 
 from others — that during which it was my privilege to 
 live alone with Chauncy Maples at Newala — from 1885 
 to 1886. Few who have not tried it can imagine how 
 difficult it is for two men to really enjoy one another's 
 society under such conditions, even though they be 
 missionaries. It was certainly not so, at least from 
 my point of view, during that year. As a companion 
 he was charming. Whence the charm arose it is not 
 hard to say. Given an unfailing cheerfulness, a ready 
 sympathy, a natural humility, a keen intellect, a strong 
 sense of humour, and an open-hearted generous dis- 
 position, who could fail to be charming? And all 
 these belonged to him. One generally expects to find 
 people of his temperament enthusiastic and impulsive — 
 subject to fits of great depression, but it often struck 
 me as remarkable, that, whatever his mood might be, 
 he was never depressed. Perhaps it was owing to his 
 having such a great variety of interests outside of 
 those intimately bound up with a missionary's life. 
 Music, botany, geology, and astronomy, of all these he 
 had somewhat more than a superficial acquaintance. Any 
 question of natural history received his lively attention, 
 and he would often pore over his Wallace's "Geographical 
 Distribution of Animals," in order to identify some strange 
 beast brought to him by the natives. During that year 
 we kept a regular menagerie — eagles, hawks, baboons, 
 monkeys, galagos, a mongoose, a few wild river pigs, 
 a porcupine, a pangolin, and once a young koodoo, 
 which he fed carefully with condensed milk for a 
 
39^ Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 week, but it was brought to him too young to live 
 under such strange conditions. 
 
 The only time I ever remember to have seen him 
 really put out was one Good Friday, when, in the 
 middle of his sermon, a baboon of mine got loose, 
 bounded into church, and sat at his feet, evidently 
 determined to do the right thing. It was at length 
 ejected, after a lively chase and a pamful inteiTal. 
 
 In all his dealmgs with natives he was extraordinarily 
 patient, letting them have then* say, and to this a great 
 deal of his influence over them was probably due. That 
 he won their confidence to an unusual degree could not 
 be doubted. He understood them, and had a great 
 sympathy for them, being at the same time finn and 
 impartial. Between him and Matola, the chief of the 
 district, there was a sincere friendship. After he had 
 gone to Lake Nyasa, Matola used often to quote what 
 " Mapo," as he called him, had said, or done, or ad\'ised. 
 It was during this happy year, when we were daily 
 expectmg Bishop Smythies' arrival from Lake Xyasa, that 
 a caravan of porters turned up telling us that Bishop 
 Smythies had died of fever close to Blantyre. They 
 were quite certain about it. Maples was not. He had 
 had too much experience of native rumours to credit 
 them lightly. So he sent down to Lindi, one hundred 
 miles away, to make inquiries of another caravan of 
 porters who had lately come from Blantyre. They 
 corroborated the report in every particular. The Bishop 
 had died in his hut two days' march from Blantyre. It 
 all seemed so circumstantial — and the Bishop was already 
 so long overdue — that we made up our minds to believe 
 it. Maples wrote off volumes to the then secretary at 
 Delahay Street. We opened the Bishop's papers which 
 we had been keeping for him, we sorrowfully ate the 
 dehcacies we had been reservmg for him. And suddenly 
 
Memories of Him by a Fellow-worker. 397 
 
 there was heard the firing of guns close by, as of an 
 approaching caravan. In a few minutes in walked 
 Bishop Smythies, travel- stained and weary, but well 
 enough. He was a little surprised to find his papers 
 opened and the larder so scantily supplied, but shook 
 with laughter when Maples explained to him that if he 
 had not died at Blantyre he would have found things 
 otherwise. As a linguist Maples was very apt. He 
 spoke Swahili and Yao well, and had a smattering of 
 Makua — the hardest of all languages in those parts. 
 Later on these were discarded in favour of Ki-nyanja. 
 He took great pains to impress on the native congrega- 
 tion that they ought to bring offerings in kind to the 
 church. One old chief brought a small basket of grain, 
 and then squatted down for some hours just outside the 
 door of Maples's room. On being asked what he wanted 
 he said he was waiting to be paid for his offering. 
 Maples had to use all the Yao he knew to explain to the 
 old man that he would not get any payment in this 
 world. Maples had a boundless stock of anecdote and 
 reminiscence. We used to sit out in the open yard at 
 night watching the bread bake in a small stove, and then 
 he would talk of all kinds of things — his old schooldays 
 at Charterhouse, his college days at the University with 
 W. P. Johnson, his experiences of the Masasi raid. How 
 he used to laugh over his visit to Me to — with Goldfinch — 
 when Meto [Mwaliya, Sultan of Meto. — Ed.] , a really 
 bloodthirsty savage, who was most frightfully cruel, made 
 him sit in the midst of his counsellors with a red cloth 
 tied round his head to be jeered at. 
 
 He was never tired of speaking of his mother, and his 
 intense devotion to her. It was quite a sacred subject 
 with him. 
 
 It seemed as if he was born to be a leader, and he had 
 the great gift of inspiring enthusiasm in others. Those 
 
3g8 Life of Chauncy Maples. 
 
 who worked under him knew, that with all his familiarity 
 and open inter coui'se with them, there must be no trifling or 
 neglect of work. One could not mistake the foundations 
 of his character — the deep faith in Christ ; but he was 
 always repudiating the idea that any special merit was to 
 be attributed to the missionary life. '* Why don't people 
 look on us merely as privates in troops on foreign 
 service?*' he would often say. Knowing how he shrank 
 from the thought of anything being written in his praise 
 after his death, one hesitates to write as fully of him as 
 one's affection and admiration of him would naturally 
 prompt. 
 
 S. W. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abdallah, Edwaed, 193-5 
 
 Africa, voyages to: (1876), 45; 
 (1880), by the Cape, 128; (1885), 
 230 ; (1891), 324 ; (1895), 368 
 
 Agriculture, 224, 254 ; mid see 
 "Fruit," "Food" 
 
 Alston, Mr. Edward, 28, 372 
 
 Ambali, Augustine, reminiscences 
 of Bishop Maples by, 390 
 
 Animals : pet animals, 223, 253, 
 395 ; leopards, 105, 106, 112, 
 168 ; lions, 91, 92, 113, 251, 267, 
 311, 328, 372; koodoo, 262 ; ante- 
 lopes, 328 ; elephants, 221, 222, 
 269 ; eagle, 255 ; ants, 181, 214, 
 255, 277; mungoose, 259, 395; 
 animals at Likoma, 273 
 
 Apples : cashew, 154 ; custard apple, 
 81 
 
 Ascension Day, Likoma (1888), 295 
 Atlay, Rev. George William, 31, 
 324, 327, 337, 348 
 
 Banana, 109 
 
 Baraza (verandah) , 90, 375 
 Beryls and garnets, 241, 243 
 Bible, revised version, 151 ; African 
 
 translations, see "Languages" 
 Boating, 67, 282, 292, 302 
 Brickmaking, 175 
 Brown, Rev. E. F., reminiscences 
 
 by, 7-9 ; " In memoriam " verses 
 
 by, V. 
 Browning, 344 
 
 Chicken (African), 36 see 360), 
 
 101-2, 109 
 Chiefs, influence of local, 93-5, 99, 
 
 116, 120, 216, 261, 386-8, 397 
 Christmas Day, 80, 81, 107, 330-1, 
 
 341 
 
 Chumah. See " Livingstone " 
 Churches in Africa : Cathedral, 
 
 Zanzibar, 74, 132, 139, 227 ; 
 
 Kiungani, 55, 80 ; Masasi, 15, 
 
 96, 118, 148, 158, dedication 165 ; 
 
 Newala, 221, 241 ; Likoma, 273, 
 
 341 
 
 Clarke, Rev. Herbert, 62 
 Climate, 59, 68, 83, 85, 105, 149, 
 
 245, 260, 284 
 Currency, 337 
 
 Darwin, 293 
 Dawa (medicine), 63 
 Day's work, an average dav, 98, 
 202 
 
 Dioceses, arrangement of two, Zan- 
 zibar and Likoma, 25, 326, 333, 
 385 
 
 Drunkenness, native, 110, 155, 277, 
 
 286, 365 
 Dysentery, 115 
 
 Egypt, pyramids, &c,, 231 
 Erie, Rt. Hon. Sir WiUiam, 10, 85, 
 147 
 
 Excommunication, 241 
 
 Capes, Rev. W. W., 10 
 Castor oil tree, 112 
 
 Farler, Rev. J. P., 62-4, 74 
 Ferns, 221, 270, 286 
 
400 
 
 Index. 
 
 Fever, 22, 66, 81, 82, 84, 94, 112, 
 115, 143, 149, 151, 240, 243, 256, 
 334 
 
 Flowers, 107, 205, 254, 267, 273 
 Food, 92, 101, 117, 122, 123, 141, 
 
 154, 187, 222, 224, 268, 277, 280, 
 
 376, 382 (meal times) 
 Frere, Sir Bartle, 130 
 Fruit, 55, 64, 85, 102, 109, 125, 
 
 205, 258, 261, 286, 290 
 
 GEOGRAPHiCAii Societies, 15, 21, 
 
 128, 151, 170 
 Germans, 346 
 
 Glossop, Rev. A. B. G., reminis- 
 cences of Bishop Maples by, 383 
 
 Good Friday and Easter in Africa : 
 The Three Hours, 321, 145, 171, 
 227 
 
 Gore, Rev. Canon, 320, 334, 341, 
 369 
 
 Hainsworth. Rev. J., 262 
 
 Health, 115, 149, 215, 257. 
 See " Climate," *' Dysentery," 
 "Fevers," "Ophthalmic illness," 
 "Ulcers" 
 
 Heanley, Rev. R. M., biographer 
 of Bishop Steere, 276 
 
 Heathen, characteristics of, 103, 
 120, 150, 156, 274, 283, 299; 
 the Divine judgment of, 136 ; the 
 first lesson in Faith, 63 ; instances 
 of honesty, 93, 102, 268 ; thieves, 
 115, 287, 315; excluded from 
 presence at Church offices, 58, 
 122 ; a widow's wail on husband's 
 death, 142. See also " Natives 
 under mission influence," " Poly- 
 gamy," " Witchcraft " 
 
 Hine, Rt. Rev. John Edward (now 
 Bishop of Likoma), 307, 322, 351 
 
 Hinton, James, 6, 118 
 
 Hornby, Rt. Rev. Wilfrid Bird, 25 
 
 Indiarubber trees, 93, 171 
 
 Janson, Rev. Charles, 158, 164 ; 
 
 death, 167 ; 172, 249, 276 
 Jeddah, 52 ; a baptism there, 51, 
 
 64 
 
 Johnson, Venble. Archdeacon Wm. 
 Percival, 9, 15, 23, 26, 30, 43, 
 159, 161, 163, 263, 265, 278, 378, 
 391 
 
 Johnston, Sir H. H., 227, 313, 314, 
 
 346, 365, 372 
 Journeys in Africa, 60, 89, 92, 138, 
 
 151, 162, 267, 271 
 
 Kalinga, Samuel, 87 
 King, Rt. Rev. Bishop, 308 
 Kingsley, 119 
 Kirk, Sir John, 56 
 Kiungani, 56, 57, 80 ; pupils there 
 from Likoma, 315 
 
 Languages : Bishop Maples' know- 
 ledge of, 392, 396; Swahili, 47, 
 56, 61, 65, 85, 88, 92, 101, 106, 
 126, 128, 141, 167, 243, 250; 
 Yao, 97, 101, 115, 128, 172, 218, 
 283 ; Makua, 97, 126, 134 ; Nyasa, 
 274, 277; Chinyanja, 318, 384, 
 396 
 
 Lester, Rev. J. M., reminiscences 
 by, 9, 23 
 
 Life, intent and work of, 246 
 
 Likoma, 270-1, 273; life on the 
 Lake (Nyasa), 275, 315, 316; 
 Ascension Day (1888) at Likoma, 
 295; Good Friday and Easter 
 (1890) there, 321 ; Easter and 
 Christmas (1892), 335, 341 
 
 Lindi, 91 
 
 Litany in procession at Newala 
 
 (1885), 251 
 Livingstone, 16, 91 
 " Lux Mundi," 320, 365 
 
 Madan, A. C, 268 
 Magambo (judicial administration), 
 147 
 
 Magazine articles : "Nyasa News," 
 35, 365; "Central Africa," 182, 
 245, 294, 300; "Mission Life," 
 21, 162, 180 
 
 Magila, 62 
 
 Magwangwara tribe, 21; raid by, 
 
 183 ; 286, 317, 362, 387 
 Mahogo (cassava), 64, 92 
 Majaliwa, Rev. Cecil, 262, 321 
 
Index. 
 
 401 
 
 Makua tribe, 161, 213 
 Malisawa, Eustace, 189, 285 ; remi- 
 niscences by, 389 
 Mamba (a snake), 144 
 Mantis, 86 
 
 Maples, Et. Rev. Chauncy, Bishop 
 of Likoma, D.D. : birth and 
 parentage, 3, 4 ; mother's influ- 
 ence, 4, 26, 89, 219, 252, 296, 397 ; 
 early years, 7 ; personal charm, 
 " the child heart," 7, 8, 167, 210, 
 376, 394: Charterhouse, 7, 10, 124; 
 James Hinton, 6, 118 ; at Oxford, 
 8-10 ; call to Africa through 
 Johnson, 9 ; love of music and 
 poetry, 8, 10, 33, 87, 127, 229, 243, 
 253, 260, 293, 296, 299, 300, 304 ; 
 study of music, 153 ; Sir \Vm. j 
 Erie, 10, 147; offers himself to 
 Bishop Steere, 12 ; affection and 
 duty, 13, 42, 76, 89; sails for 
 Africa (1876), 12 {see "Africa, 
 voyages to"); work at Zanzi- 
 bar, 74 ; self depreciation, 78, 
 107, 164, 275, 301 ; journey to 
 Magila : ordained priest, 14, 73 ; 
 longings for work in interior 
 Africa, 66 ; at IMasasi, 17 ; tact 
 and patience with natives, i&ifZ., 
 
 111, 395 ; a day's work at Masasi, 
 98; a Sunday there, 100; a 
 Christmas, 107 ; an Easter, 145 ; 
 a quasi-ruler as well as mis- 
 sionary at Masasi, 117, 146, 176 ; 
 solitariness, 119, 123; depression, 
 
 112, 160, 162, 257; Rovuma 
 journey (1877), 15-19, 106; in 
 England again (1879), attrac- 
 tive as lecturer, 19 ; African 
 languages, 20 ; return to Masasi 
 (1880), 20; serious illness, 139; ' 
 journey 900 miles to Mozam- 
 bique, 21, 158; Fellow of Geo- 
 graphical Societies, 21 ; thoughts 
 on "eternal punishment," 135, 
 147 ; on the Duke of Argyll's 
 " Reign of Law," 153 ; on death, 
 162, 169 ; the Gwangwara raid on 
 Masasi (1882), 21, 367 ; at Newala 
 in place of Masasi, 23 ; in England 
 ill (1884), 22, 23 ; in Africa again 
 (1885) and established with Rev. 
 W. P. Johnson at Likoma (1886), 
 
 23 ; his preaching to natives, 
 392 ; appointed Archdeacon by 
 Bishop Smvthies, 23, 275 ; in 
 England (1890) for last visit to 
 his sick mother, 24 ; return to 
 Likoma, /fcic?.; his mother's death, 
 25, 366 ; Bishop Hornby resigns 
 bishopric of Nyasaland : Arch- 
 deacon Maples his successor as 
 Bishop of Likoma, 26-28 ; his 
 return to Africa as Bishop (1895), 
 368 ; Holy Communion and ser- 
 vices at Chinde, 369 ; services 
 and consecration of cemetery at 
 Port Herald, 370 ; with Sir H. H. 
 Johnston at Zomba, 371-2 ; last 
 letter (1st Sept., 1895), 373; ship- 
 wreck and death of the Bishop 
 and Mr. Williams, 29-33 ; the 
 Bishop's chalice saved, 33 ; re- 
 miniscences of, by Miss Palmer, 
 374 ; by ]\Iiss Woodward, 381 ; by 
 Rev. A. G. B. Glossop, 383 ; by 
 two African natives (Eustace 
 Malisawa, and Augustine Am- 
 bali), 384, 390; and by Rev. 
 Spencer Weigall, 394 
 Marriage of Christian natives, 134 ; 
 marriage with heathen, 156 {see 
 170, 191), 168, 174 ; marriage diffi- 
 culties, 279, 298 ; marriage and 
 divorce, 355 ; baptism of children 
 of mixed marriages, 358 
 Masasi, 94-96, 116, 172; progress 
 
 at, 205 ; abandoned, 213 
 Matola, a Yao chief at Newala, 15, 
 109, 188, 198, 216, 218, 250, 264 ; 
 his visit to Zanzibar, 227 ; 386, 
 396 
 
 MatoDga (fruit), 187 
 ]\Ibwcni, 59 
 I Medical work, 64, 241, 359, 365 
 I Missionary life : adoption of, 39, 
 1 89 ; joy in it, 66, 84 ; secular and 
 j domestic part, 75, 98, 101, 146, 
 302 ;* an average day, 202 
 Mkunazini (Zanzibar), 79, 90 
 Mkwemba, 299, 309 
 Mohammedanism, 52-4, 64, 91, 
 
 292, 359 
 Mosquito, 78 
 j Mozley, J. B., 7 
 I Mtama (millet), 101, 112, 173 
 
 CM. 
 
 D D 
 
402 
 
 Index. 
 
 Mulberries, 205 
 Mushrooms, 225 
 Mwikoma (snake), 144 
 
 Namkumba (Yao chief), his police, 
 115 
 
 Natives under mission influence : 
 "black babies," 59, 181, 277, 
 299, 354, 380; bovs and sports, 
 57, 59, 68, 85, 166, 172, 241; 
 toys, 97, 220 ; the first lesson in 
 religion, 103 ; slow progress, 64, 
 108, 155, 274; idea of a leader, 
 122 ; early marriage, 209, 277 ; 
 native teachers, 87, 160, 284; 
 converts and native dances, &c., 
 298, 314; apt questions, 143; 
 baptism, 117, 122, 142, 204, 259, 
 262, 297 ; relapses, 112, 114, 130, 
 133, 160-1, 174, 310, 355; ex- 
 communication, 241 ; deaths of 
 native converts, 141, 319, 355 ; 
 Holy Communion, see " Good 
 Friday and Easter ; " native 
 deacons, 390 
 
 Nautilus, 83, 129 
 
 Newala, 206, 212, 242 
 
 Nyasa Lake, fighting at north end 
 "(1887), 288; "consecration" of 
 the Lake, 393 
 
 " Nyasa News" Magazine, 35, 342, 
 352, 373 
 
 Nyasa Tribe, 112, 274 
 
 Officers, British, 28, 65, 78, 89, 
 
 90, 130, 272, 353 
 Ophthalmic illness, 175, 337, 386, 
 
 391 
 
 Orchards, 182 
 
 Palmer, Miss Gertrude, reminis- 
 cences of Bishop Maples by, 374 
 
 Pinto, Major Serpa, 126 
 
 Pollard, Rev. C. S., 262 
 
 Polygamy as obstacle to baptism, 
 71, 75, 216, 265, 303 
 
 Pomb6 (beer), 110, 155, 365 
 
 Porcupine as food, 223 
 
 Potatoes, 224 
 
 Poultry, 173 
 
 Priesthood and heathens, 345 
 Printing press, 58, 312 
 
 Red Sea, 325 
 Rice, 112 
 
 Roman Catholic Mission, 281, 333 
 Russell, Rev. Father E. F., 345 
 
 Scenery, love of, 249 ; in Africa, 
 55 (Kiungani), 62 (Magila), 91 
 (Lindi), 94, 96, 107, 121 (Masasi), 
 304 (Likoma), 372 (Zomba) ; and 
 see " Journeys" 
 
 Scott-Holland, Rev. Canon, 26, 
 307, 320 
 
 Scottish Mission, Blantyre, 271, 
 274, 288 
 
 Shamba ("estate"), 55 
 
 Shells, 58, 83 
 
 Sherriff, Mr. G., 330 
 
 Sim, Rev. A. F., 32, 33. See " Life 
 of Sim," published 1897 by the 
 Universities' Mission 
 
 Slaves : colonies of released slaves, 
 difficulties as to protection of, 
 20-22 ; questions with Bishop 
 Steere, 59, 100, 176-80 {see also 
 197, 202); slave-hunters, 77; 
 rescue of slaves, 60, 87 ; cara- 
 vans, 118, 135, 144, 243, 245; 
 effect (1876) of English policy 
 on Sultan of Zanzibar, 57 ; 
 emancipation of a slave, 212 
 
 Smythies, Rt. Rev. Charles Alan, 
 250, 263, 266, 284, 312, 366, 396 
 
 Snails, 225 
 
 Snakes, 111, 120, 141, 144, 251, 256 
 Spiritual advice, letters of, 246, 
 
 322, 357, 364 
 Steele, Dr. (Bandawe Mission), 369 
 Steere, Rt. Rev. Edward, Bishop of 
 
 Zanzibar, 11, 13, 15, 21, 61-4, 
 
 66,69, 81, 118 
 Strophanthus tree, 279 
 Sulimani, Charles, 120, 174, 212, 311 
 Sultan of Zanzibar, 56, 79 
 Sunday, an average, 100-1 
 Swedi, Rev. John (native priest), 
 
 59 134 
 
 Swinny, Rev. G. H., his death. 280 
 Swinny, Mrs., 278 
 
 Taylor, Rev. Theophilus Lupton, 
 
 249, 253 
 Tembo (wine), 64 
 
Index. 
 
 403 
 
 Tennyson, 343 
 Toynbee, Arnold, 219 
 Travers, Rev. Duncan, 322 
 
 Wimbusb, Rev. J. S., 356, 370, 376 
 Witchcraft, 103, 120, 205, 309 
 
 Women, classes for, 279, 283, 382 
 Wood, Rev. J. S. C, 262, 266 
 
 Ulcers, 159, 206. 209, 224, 271, 
 280, 329 
 
 Woodward, Miss, reminiscences by. 
 
 381 
 
 Wordsworth, 10, 247 
 
 Vaccination, 288, 331 
 
 Water, tube wells, 222-3 
 Wathen, Rev. P. M., 264 
 
 Yao tribe, 115, 167, 169, 206 
 Yorke, Rev. C, 67, 82 
 
 Weigall, Rev. Spencer, 245, 264; 
 
 Zambarau fruit, 85 
 Zanzibar, 55, 74 
 Zinnia (flower), 170, 205 
 
 reminiscences by, 395 
 
 Williams, Joseph, 107, 111 (drowned 
 
 with the Bishop) 
 
 Wilson, Rev. Herbert A. B., 199 1 Zomba mountain, 272, 372 
 
 N.B. — Furtlier details of persons, places, &c., incidentally mentioned 
 may readily he found in the " History of tlie Universities^ Mission to 
 Central Africa,'' imhlislied in 1897 at the Mission Offices, 9, Dartmouth 
 Street, Westminster. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 York, Rector of Korfay M^xrbm, and Rani Dean. VoL L oown Svo. 
 5^ . ; VoL IL crown 8vol 51. 
 
 LoodoD, New Yotk, and Bomlny : LONGMANS, GREEN, «: CO. 
 
A Select List of New Theological Books. 5 
 
 DEAN LUCKOCK. 
 
 The History of Marriage, Jewish and Christian, in Relation 
 
 to Divorce and certain Forbidden Degrees. By Herbert Mortimer 
 LucKOCK, D.D., Dean of Lichfield. Second Edition, Revised and 
 Enlarged. Crown 8vo. 6j. 
 
 ' This is a full and scholarly exposition of the marriage law in regard to the questions of 
 divorce and so-called marriage with a deceased wife's sister.'— Church Times. 
 
 ' This ver>' careful work consists of two parts— the former dealing with marriage in relation to 
 divorce, the latter with marriage in relation to the forbidden degrees, more especially that of the 
 wife's sister.'— Guardian. 
 
 REV. CANON MacCOLL, M.A. 
 
 Life Here and Hereafter : Sermons preached in Ripon 
 
 Cathedral and Elsewhere. By Malcolm MacColl, M.A, Second 
 Edition, with New Preface. Crown 8vo. ']s. 6d. 
 
 ' A volume of sermons of exceptional interest . . . enfordng and illustrating with very great 
 skill this tiuth about the unseen world and our relation to it.' — Guardian. 
 
 ' Everything that Mr. MacColl writes is suggestive and interesting, and this volume of 
 sermons forms no exception to this rule. There is a reserve of information and a richness of 
 imagination in the background.' — Church Times. 
 
 ' A statement of great truths set forth in a vivid and graphic style, with an original mode of 
 treatment.' — Ecclesiastical Gazette. 
 
 'We heartily welcome these essays on Christian philosophy— for such they are.' — Church 
 Review. 
 
 'Some striking and even brilliant discourses.'— Manchester Guardian. 
 
 ' These sermons contain many passages of spiritual elevation and high conception, and the 
 arguments in favour of continued existence include many that are cogent and reasonable. . 
 The volume is of a distinctly high class.' — Inquirer. 
 
 REV. LEIGHTON PULLAN, M.A. 
 
 Lectures on Religion. 
 
 By the Rev. Leightox Pullax, M.A. Fellow of St. John Baptist College, 
 Oxford, Lecturer in Theology at Oriel College - and Queen's College. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 ' The author gives a readable and stimulating account of the doctrine of more recondite 
 and more technical works on such subjects as the relation of Christianity to prior religions, 
 the development of various forms of ritual, and the conflict of view between Unitarian and 
 Trinitarian. The lectures discuss these and a number of other more or less closely allied topics 
 with a wide learning in the history of the Churches and of theology", ard put their matter in a 
 form which will prove speciallj- attractive to those who are not professed students of divinity.'— 
 Scotsman. 
 
 'There is much luminous suggestion and activity of thought in these lectures. . . 
 Throughout the book, however, there are signs ot a capacity for handling theological subjects in 
 a fresh and intelligible manner which is as rare as it is Yaluable, and the subjects of Christian- 
 Pagan Ethics, the Personality of Jesus, Christian Worship, and Catholic Dogma are treated 
 with considerable insight and power.' — Times. 
 
 London, New York, and Bombay : LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO 
 
6 A Select List of Neiv Theological Books. 
 
 REV. CANON MOBERLY, D.D. 
 
 Reason and Religion : Some Aspects of their Mutual Interde- 
 pendence. By R. C. IMOBERLY, D.D. Regius Professor of Pastoral 
 Theology, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. Crown 8vo. 4^. dd. 
 
 ' These deep thoughts on the mutual interdependence of reason and religion will command 
 attention in an age which is eager to read not only lighter books on religious subjects, but even 
 those which require real study to master their contents.' — Gu ardian. 
 
 ' There is much that is valuable in this little work.' — Church Quarterly Review. 
 
 'A great deal of suggestive matter will be found in the book, especially in his enforce- 
 ment of the proposition that the perception of truth can only be in a very small de^ee purely 
 intellectual.'— Times. ^ 
 
 ' This is a remarkable book from many points of view. It traces with clearness and precision 
 the leading points of mutual interdependence which exist between religion and reason, and correct? 
 some very common fallacies toviching such mutual relations,'— National Church. 
 
 REVS. ANTHONY BATHE AND F. H. BUCKHAM. 
 
 The Christian's Road Book. 
 
 Two Parts. By the Rev. Anthony Bathe, Author of * A Lent with 
 Jesus ' &c. and Rev. F. H. Buckham. 
 Part I. Devotions. Sewed, dd. ; limp cloth, \s. ; cloth extra, If. 6/. 
 Part II. Readings. With an Introduction by Canon W. J. Knox 
 
 Little, M.A. Sewed, \s. ; limp cloth, 2.s. ; cloth extra, 3J-. 
 The Two Parts complete in oiic volun^e, sewed, \s. 6d. ; limp cloth. 2s. 6d. ; 
 cloth extra, y. 6d. 
 
 ' Most of our rural cfergj' require a book of devotions to give to their people, suitable to 
 the 'arm labourer s comprehension. There are numbers of good devotional books, but most of 
 them are expressed in ""dictionary words," and poor people cannot understand them. This book 
 is very simple and plain. It would make a valuable present to any poor but devout communi- 
 cant, and fill an important void in our devotional literature.' — Church Review. 
 
 • The " Christian's Road Book," Part II., consists of sound, simple readings for a third 
 part of the Sundays of the year, intended for private or family reading, or in the place of a 
 sermon in meetings of colonists or on board ship. We can thoroughly recommend the readingf 
 as dealing well with the main truths and duties of Christianity.'— Gu.^kdi.\n. 
 
 ' The readings are sound and simply e.xpressed, and we cordially endorse the commendation 
 of Canon Kno.\ Little, who says in his introduction that they are "plain and practical, anti 
 deal in a simple and straightforward waj- with the great teachings of the Church on religion and 
 morality.'"— Chckch Ti.mes. 
 
 MISS ELEANOR TEE. 
 
 The Sanctuary of Suffering. 
 
 By Eleanor Tee, Author of ' This Everyday Life ' c^c. With a 
 Preface by the Rev. J. P. F. Davidson, M.A. Vicar of St. Matthias', 
 Earl's Court ; President of the ' Guild of All Souls.' CroAvn 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 ' The chief feature of the book will be found in the beautiful way in which the writer dwell^ 
 upon the mystery of pain as the great factor of human progressi* — Guardian, 
 
 'A thoughtful and profound religious book, evidently written out of deep experience, ll 
 will be welcome to many.'— British Weekly. 
 
 ' This devotional work is well calculated to soothe the sorrows of the afflicted and the suffering. 
 It is written in a true Christian spirit, and full of the application of the sweetest and most consola- 
 tory truths of our faith to the souls of the suffering. The passages on the Endless Life and the 
 movement of Divine Love deserve the highest commendation.'— National Church. 
 
 London, New York, and Bombay : LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 
 
A Select List of Neiv Theological Books. 
 
 7 
 
 REV. B. W. RANDOLPH, M.A. 
 
 The Law of Sinai : being Addresses on the Ten Command- 
 ments delivered to Ordinands. By the Rev. B, W. Randolph, M.A. 
 Principal of the Theological College, and Hon. Canon of Ely ; Examining 
 Chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln. Crown 8vo. 6d. 
 
 ' Ten very straightforward, manly, and earnest addresses on the Decalogue. Clerg^^men 
 who are likely to be preaching upon the Commandments — and they ought to be preached upon 
 at times— will find this book very helpful.'— Church Bells. 
 
 ' Written primarily for students preparing for ordination, it deserv'es to reach a wider circle 
 of readers, and will be found of a great value alike by the clergy and by the more thoughtful 
 among the laity. Never was plain teaching on The Laiv of Sinai, its fundamental and perma- 
 nent value, and its true relation to Christianity, more imperatively called for than it is to-day, 
 and we welcome these earnest and eloquent addresses as a real addition to the literature of the 
 subject.'— GuAKuiA.v. 
 
 REV. B. W. MATURIN. 
 
 Some Principles and Practices of the Spiritual Life. By the 
 
 Rev. B. W. Maturin, Mission Priest of the Society of St. John the 
 Evangelist, Cowley, Oxford. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. ^. 6d. 
 
 'We have read few bo)ks more likely to encourage and inspire tho-;e who, conscious of 
 their own weakness, are striving to serve and follow Christ. There is in it a wonderful com- 
 bination of pUin practical conimoa-sensc with deep spiritual insight.'— Madras : Christian 
 College Magazine. 
 
 ' This book is full of practical teaching. . . . The sermons are at once orthodox, logical, and, 
 w tliout any effort to make them so, eloquent. But their chief value lies in their practical 
 character as arising from the great experience the preacher has of the needs of individuals in all 
 sor.s and conditions of life.'— Chckch Review. 
 
 ' These papers are a very valuable addition to our devotional literature. By all, whether in 
 religion or in the world, who set before themselves a high aim, Fr. Maturin's book will be found 
 of great value.'— Chl kch Times. 
 
 REV. J. B. MOZLEY, D.D. 
 
 Rulin^^ Ideas in Early Ages and their - Relation to Old 
 
 Testament Faith : Lectures delivered to Graduates of the University of 
 Oxford. By J. B. Mozley, D.D. late Canon of Christ Church, and 
 Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford. New and 
 Cheaper Edition. 8vo. 6^. 
 
 ' Its price ought to put it within the reach of everyone ; and its strong learning and vigorous 
 common-sense make it wholesome reading in these days, when any hypothes's, however slight, 
 any fancy, however ridiculous, any theory, however ii reverent, is made to do duty for Ola 
 Testament Criticism. Everyone will be the better for reading again Dr. Mozley's masterly 
 treaiment of Abraham and his sacrifice of Isaac, his treatment'" oi the real bearing of the wars of 
 extirpation, of the complicated problem of the morality of Jael's act of vengeance, the law of 
 goel, and his theory of progressive revelation tested by the end.' — Church Ti.vies. 
 
 London, New York, and Bombay : LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 
 
8 
 
 A Select List of New Theological Books, 
 
 REV. ALEX. J. HARRISON, M.A. 
 
 The Church in Relation to Sceptics : a Conversational Guide 
 
 to Evidential Work. By the Rev. Alex. J. Harrison, M.A. B.D. 
 Lecturer of the Christian Evidence Society. New and Cheaper Edition. 
 Crown 8vo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 'Mr. Harrison modestly calls his really great book " a conversational guide to evidential 
 work." It is, in its present form, a cheaper edition of the work issued in 1892. Everyone will 
 welcome it. It is one of the most excellent manuals ever produced.' — Church Bells. 
 
 REV. E. F. SAMPSON, M.A. 
 
 Christ Church Sermons. 
 
 By the Rev. E. F. Sampson, M.A. Student and Tutor and tormerly 
 Censor of Christ Church, Oxford. Crown 8vo. [In the press. 
 
 REV. A. G. MORTIMER, D.D. 
 
 Catholic Faith and Practice : a Manual of Theological In- 
 struction for Confirmation and First Communion. By the Rev. A. G. 
 Mortimer, D.D. Rector of St. Mark's, Philadelphia. Crown 8vo. 
 
 [/« the press. 
 
 REV. J. CUNNINGHAM GEIKIE, D.D. 
 
 Hours with the Bible : the Scriptures in the Light of Modern 
 
 Discovery and Knowledge. By J. Cunningham Geikie, D.D. LL.D, 
 New Volume. Completing the New Testament Series. ST. PETER to 
 REVELATION. Crown 8vo. 6^. [In the press. 
 
 REV. H. C. POWELL, M.A. 
 
 The Principle of the Incarnation, with especial reference to 
 
 the Relation between the Lord's Divine Omniscience and His Human 
 Consciousness. By the Rev. H. C. Powell, M.A. of Oriel College, 
 Oxford, Rector of VVylye, Wilts. 8vo. [In the press. 
 
 REV. ALFRED EDERSHEIM, D.D. 
 
 History of the Jewish Nation after the Destruction of 
 
 Jerusalem under Titus. By Alfred Edersheim, D.D. Ph.D. New 
 Edition (the Third). Revised by the Rev. Henry A. White, ]\LA. 
 Fellow of New College, Oxford. With a Preface by the Rev. William 
 Sanday, D.D. LL.D. 8vo. 18^. 
 
 ' So much valuable information is to be found in this book that to review it as it deserves 
 would require a small volume. We have found little to dissent from and much to admire, and, 
 therefore, can earnestly recommend it to the serious-minded and inquisitive student.'— Specta i or. 
 
 London, New York, and Bombay : LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 
 
 20,000 '9/96. Spottiswoode Co. Printers, New-sireet Square, LonJon. 
 
March 1897. 
 
 A Selection of Works 
 
 IN 
 
 THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 Messrs. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 
 
 London : 39 PATERNOSTER Row, E.G. 
 New York : 91 ahd 93 Fifth Avenue. 
 Bombay : 32 Hornby Road. 
 
 Abbey and Overton.— THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE 
 
 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. By Charles J. Abbey, M.A. , Rector 
 of Checkendon, Reading, and John H. Overton, D. D, , Canon of 
 Lincoln and Rector of Epworth. Crow?i 8vo. ys. 6d. 
 Adams.— SACRED ALLEGORIES. The Shadow of the Cross 
 —The Distant Hills— The Old Man's Home— The King's Messengers. 
 By the Rev. William Adams, M.A. Crown 8vo. 3?. 6d. 
 
 The four Allegories may be had separately, with Illustrations. 
 i6mo. is. each. 
 
 Aids to the Inner Life. 
 
 Edited by the Rev. W. H. Hutchings, M.A., Canon of York, Rector of 
 Kirby Misperton, and Rural Dean. Five Vols. 2>'^viOt cloth limp, 6d. 
 each; or cloth extra, is. each. 
 
 OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. By Thomas X Kempis. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR 
 
 THE DEVOUT LIFE. By St. Francis de Sales. 
 
 THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SOUL. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT. By Laurence Scupoli. 
 
 Bathe.— Works by the Rev. Anthony Bathe, M.A. 
 
 A LENT WITH JESUS. A Plain Guide for Churchmen. Containing 
 Readings for Lent and Easter Week, and on the Holy Eucharist. 
 Sawf, xs.; or in paper cover, 6d. 
 
 AN ADVPCNT WITH JESUS, -^zmo, is.\ or in paper cover, 6d. 
 
 WHAT I SHOULD BELIEVE. A Simple Manual of Self-Instruction 
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 Bathe and Buckham.— THE CHRISTIAN'S ROAD BOOK. 
 2 Parts. By the Rev. ANTHONY Bathe and Rev. F. H. Buckham. 
 Part I. Devotions. Sewed, 6d. ; li?np cloth, is. ; cloth extra, is. td. 
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 or complete in one volume, sewed, is. 6d. ; limp cloth, 2$. 6d. ; cloth 
 extra, 3^. Gd, 
 
2 
 
 A SELECTION OF WORKS 
 
 THE FINAL PASSO\^£R : A Soies of Heditttkmi 
 RBSsin of oar Lord Jeas CIik^ Ike See R. V. 
 Benson. MJL.SaBtottof C3gaarfcMit,QrfMd, 
 
 VoL L— The RBpocnaoL 51. I VdL HL— The Ditdk Khmkte. 
 
 VoL n.— THECmCBAJOBK. I F^iiteL»iii.5K. 
 
 Part L I VoL IV,— The Lssfe 
 
 ftcrt n. 51. I G^TK. 5s. 
 
 YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER 
 a Bmsb hi Twelve Books. B|f Bdvakd HE3BKr BKXCKSTEra. D.D 
 B^hop of Esstax^ SikUSmg EdaHam, i&wi. If ad ratf im*rz 
 
 Blimt.— Woria bf Ike Rer. JOHX Hebrt Bixin; DJX 
 THE ANIMXTATED BOOK OF COlOiON PRAYER: 
 
 Histotial. 
 
 THE COMPENDIOUS EDITIOX OF THE ANNOTATED 
 
 OF qOlDi ON PRAYER: Fib m|> a ancase OmhUj ob ikr 
 
 DICTONAR ^wl> Scin^j^ ^^^a^tC^S^LTkmJXY. 
 
 mmowi^'w%El^^aws^ eocussiasticai. par- 
 ties and sceocx^ of reugiocsthocc^ht. £^v«ss 
 
 THE BOOK OF CHURCH LAW. Boi^aa EsposidaB He Lrs^ 
 Rlghis and DiEiies of Pvuttd Ck^ »d «^ I^ntf <tf 
 of Fi^wimI Rerased Sr Wiojra GL F. ^Bsusmms^ ^^'^ 
 DlCIT, aad GL Edvjluks Jcmste^ 
 7s.6rf. 
 
 A COMPANION TO THE BIBLE: 
 
 ScripURffisttvy.tD tibe eBdoflke ApoSkifeAse. T^rtBs.smuI! 
 
 Tbe Ou> Testament. 3c. 62. TBsNEwTterAnxrr. 51. fii 
 HOUSEHOLD THECHJOGfV: 
 
 H f i l l ip ^ Hdly mde, dae Pn^er 
 
 •tmxr^ ^Emui, A Isp At LsargBt EHimm, 3s. 6<. 
 
 ,— Wcaks bj fl« Rer. GfiCttGK B(M>y, D.D^ CaMm of 
 
 THE UFE €»r LOVE. A CoasecffLictf Lecms. xtau sc. 6aL 
 THE SCHOOL OF GALV.^RT; or. Lans of Onsbm Uie amaed 
 
 fcoHdke Crass, limna. 21. 6i 
 THE UFE OF JUSTIFICATION, k&mb. xs. 6£ 
 THE UFE OF TEMPTATION, i6na. 
 
 A COMMENTARY ON THE THIRTY-NINE 
 ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. % life Rer. 
 T. P. B uiJM.1— , fafaly Brincqpal ol ihe Loadon Cdfcgeof Dwaw^. 
 SL|cWsHaR.^BUny- CwwmmMam. 6k. 
 
IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 3 
 
 Bright.— Works by William Bright, D.D., Regius Professor 
 of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Oxford 
 and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. 
 THE ROMAN SEE IN THE EARLY CHURCH : And other Studies 
 
 in Church History. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 WAYMARKS IN CHURCH HISTORY. Crown Svo. 7s. 6d. 
 MORALITY IN DOCTRINE. Crown Svo. 7s. 6(i. 
 LESSONS FROM THE LIVES OF THREE GREAT FATHERS: 
 
 St. Athanasius, St. Chrysostom, and St. Augustine. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 THE INCARNATION AS A MOTIVE POWER. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 Bright and Medd.— LIBER PRECUM PUBLICARUM EC- 
 CLESIyE ANGLICAN.^. A Gulielmo Bright, S.T.P., et Petro 
 Goldsmith Medd, A.M., Latine redditus. Sma/l Svo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 Browne.— WEARIED WITH THE BURDEN : A Book of 
 Daily Readings for Lent. By Arthur Heber Browne, M.A., 
 LL.D., Rector of St. John's, Newfoundland. Croivn Svo. 45. 6ci. 
 
 Browne.— AN EXPOSITION OF THE THIRTY-NINE 
 ARTICLES, Historical and Doctrinal. By E. H. Browne, D.D.. 
 formerly Bishop of Winchester. Svo. 16s. 
 
 Browne.— WEARIED WITH THE BURDEN: A Book 
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 M.A. ,LL.D., Rector of St. John's, Newfoundland. CroT.V7i Svo. 4s. 6d. 
 
 Campion and Beamont.— THE PRAYER BOOK INTER- 
 LEAVED. With Historical Illustrations and Explanatory Notes 
 arranged parallel to the Text. By W. M. Campion, D.D., and W. J. 
 Beamont, M.A. Small Svo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 Carter.— Works edited by the Rev. T. T. Cartp:r, M.A., Hon. 
 Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. 
 
 THE TREASURY OF DEVOTION : a Manual of Prayer for General 
 and Daily Use. Compiled by a Priest. 
 xSmo. 2s. 6d. ; cloth limp, 2s. 
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 THE WAY OF LIFE : A Book of Prayers and Instruction for the Young 
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 THE PATH OF HOLINESS: a First Book of Prayers, with the Service 
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 Illustrations. i6mo. is. 6d. ; cloth limp, is. 
 
 THE GUIDE TO HEAVEN : a Book of Prayers for every Want. (For 
 the Working Classes.) Compiled by a Priest, iSmo. is. 6d. ; cloth 
 limp, xs. Large- Type Edition. Crown Svo. is. 6d. ; cloth limp, is. 
 
 THE STAR OF CHILDHOOD : a First Book of Prayers and Instruc- 
 tion for Children. Compiled by a Priest. With Illustrations. i6r o. 
 95. 6d, 
 
 [continued. 
 
4 
 
 A SELECTION OF WORKS 
 
 Carter —Works edited by the Rev. T. T. Carter, M.A-, Hon. 
 Canon of Christ Church, Oxford — continued. 
 NICHOLAS FERRAR: his Household and his Friends. With Portrait 
 engraved after a Picture by Cornelius Janssen at Magdalene 
 College, Cambridge. Crown Zvo. 6s. 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN KETTLEWELL. With Details 
 of the History of the Non-Jurors. With Portrait. Croicn Zzw bs. 
 
 Conybeare and Howson.— THE LIFE AND EPISTLES OF 
 ST. PAUL. By the Rev. W. J. Conybeare, M.A.. and the Very 
 Rev. J. S. HowsoN, D.D, With numerous Maps and Illustrations. 
 Library Edition. Two Vols. 8vo. zis. Students' Edition. One Vol. 
 Crown Svo. 6s. POPULAR EDITION. One Vol. Crown Svo. y. 6d. 
 
 Creighton.— A HISTORY OF THE PAPACY FROM THE 
 GREAT SCHISM TO THE SACK OF ROME (1378-1527). By 
 M. Creighton, D.D.. Oxon. and Camb., Lord Bishop of London. 
 In six vols. CrOiVn Sz-o. 6s. each. 
 
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 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 
 
 FRANCIS DE SALES' (ST.) THE DEVOUT LIFE. 
 HERBERTS POEMS AND PROVERBS. 
 KEMPIS' (A) OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. 
 WILSON S THE LORD S SUPPER. Large type. 
 ♦TAYLOR'S (JEREMY) HOLY LIVING. 
 * HOLY DYING. 
 
 * These livo in otu J 'olutne. 5^. 
 
 Devotional Series, 18mo, without Red Borders. Each \s. 
 
 BICKERSTETH S YESTERDAY, TO-D.\Y, AND FOR EVER 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. 
 
 FRANCIS DE SALES' (ST.) THE DEVOUT LIFE. 
 HERBERT'S POEMS AND PROVERBS. 
 KEMPIS (A) OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. 
 WILSON S THE LORD S SUPPER, Large h-pe. 
 ♦TAYLOR'S (JEREMY) HOLY LIVING. 
 * HOLY DYING. 
 
 * These two in one Volume. 2S. 6J. 
 
 Edersheim. —Works by Alfred Edershelm, ^LA., D.D., Ph.D. 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JESUS THE MESSIAH. Two Vols. 
 8vo. 24 s. 
 
 JESUS THE MESSIAH : being an Abridged Edition of ' The Life and 
 Times of Jesus the Messiah. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6ii. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE lEWISH NATION AFTER THE DESTRUC- 
 llON OF JERUSALEM UNDER TITUS. 8vo. i8j. 
 
IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 5 
 
 EUicott.— Works by C. J. Ellicott, D.D., Bishop of Gloucester 
 
 and Bristol. 
 
 A CRITICAL AND GRAMMATICAL COMMENTARY ON ST. 
 PAUL'S EPISTLES. Greek Text, with a Critical and Grammatical 
 Commentary, and a Revised English Translation. Zvo. 
 
 I COKINTHIANS. x6s. PHILIPPIANS, COLOSSIANS, AND 
 
 Galatians. 8j. 6d. Philemon, xos. 6d. 
 
 Ephesians. 8j-. 6d. Thessalonians. 7s. 6d. 
 
 Pastoral Epistles. 10s. 6d. 
 HISTORICAL LECTURES OS THE LIFE OF OUR LORD 
 JESUS CHRIST. 8vo. 12s. 
 
 Epochs of Church History.— Edited by Mandell Creighton, 
 D.D., LL.D., Lord Bishop of London. Fcap. Svo. 2s. bd. 
 each. 
 
 THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN 
 
 OTHER LANDS. By the Rev. H. W. 
 
 Tucker, M.A. 
 THE HISTORY OF THE REFOR- 
 MATION IN ENGLAND. By the 
 
 Rev. Geo. G. Pekry, M.A. 
 THE CHURCH OF THE EARLY 
 . FATHERS. By the Rev. Alfked 
 
 Plummer, D.D. 
 THE EVANGELICAL REVIVAL IN 
 
 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 By the Rev. J. H. Overton, D.D. 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. 
 
 By the Hon. G. C. Bkodrick, D.C.L. 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CAM- 
 
 BRIDGE. By J. Bass Mullinger, 
 
 M.A. 
 
 THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE 
 MIDDLE AGES. By the Rev. W. 
 Hunt, M.A. 
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE 
 EASTERN EMPIRE. By the Rev. 
 H. F. TozER, M.A. 
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN 
 EMPIRE. By the Rev. A. Carr, M.A. 
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE PURI- 
 TANS, 1 570-1660. By Henry Offley 
 Wakeman, M.A. 
 
 HILDERRAND AND HIS TIMES. 
 By the Rev. W. R. W. Stephens, M.A. 
 
 THE POPES AND THE HOHEN- 
 STAUFEN. By Ugo Balzanj. 
 
 THE COUNTER REFORMATION. 
 By Adolphus William Ward, Litt. D. 
 
 WYCLIFFE AND MOVEMENTS 
 FOR REFORM. By Reginald L. 
 Poole, M.A. 
 
 THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. By 
 H. M. GwATKiN, M.A. 
 
 Farrar.— THE BIBLE : Its Meaning and Stipremacy. By 
 Frederic W. Farrak, D.D., Dean of Canterbury, 8w. 15^. 
 
 \^Nearly ready. 
 
 Fosbery.— Works edited by the Rev. Thomas Vincent Fosbery, 
 M.A., sometime Vicar of St. Giles's, Reading. 
 VOICES OF COMFORT. Cheap Edition. Small Zvo. 3s. 6d. 
 
 The Larger Edition ( 7s. 6d.) may still be had. 
 HYMNS AND POEMS FOR THE SICK AND SUFFERING. In 
 connection with the Service for the Visitation of the Sick, Selected 
 from Various Authors. Small Svo. 3s. 6d. 
 
 Gore.— Works by the Rev. Charles Gore, M.A., D.D., Canon 
 of Westminster. 
 THE MINISTRY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Svo. 10s. 6d. 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CLAIMS. Crown Bvo. 3s. 6d. 
 
6 
 
 A SELECTION OF WORKS 
 
 Geikie. — Works by J. Cunningham Geikie, D.D., LL.D,, late 
 
 Vicar of St. Martin-at-Palace, Norwich, 
 
 HOURS WITH THE BIBLE : the Scriptures in the Light of Modern 
 Discovery and Knowledge. N'tiu Edition, largely rewritten. Com- 
 plete in Twelve Voltirnes. Crown 8vo. 6s. each. 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT. 
 In Six Volumes. Sold separately. 6s. each. 
 
 Creation to the Patriarchs. 
 With a Map and Illustrations. 
 
 Moses to Judges. 
 and Illustrations. 
 
 With a Map 
 
 Samson to Solomon. 
 Map and Illustrations. 
 
 With 
 
 With 
 
 Rehoboam to Hezekiah. 
 
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 7 
 
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8 
 
 A SELECTION OF WORKS 
 
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IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 9 
 
 Lear.— Works by, and Edited by, H. L. Sidney Lear. 
 
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 CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
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 A Dominican Artist : a Sketch of 
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 Henri Perreyve. 
 Gratry. 
 
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 Henri Dominique Lacordaire. 
 
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 Liddon.— Works by Henry Parry Liddon, D.D., D.C.L.,LL.D., 
 
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 LIFE OF EDWARD BOUVERIE PUSEY, D.D. By Henry Parry 
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 Illustrations. Four Vols, Svo. Vols. I. and II., 36J. Vol. III., i8j. 
 Vol. I V. ready shortly. 
 
 [continued. 
 
TO 
 
 A SELECTION OF WORKS 
 
 Liddon.— Works by Hknrv Parry Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., 
 LL.D,, late Canon Residentiary and Chancellor of St. 
 Paul's. — continued. 
 
 SERMONS PREACHED ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS, 1860-1889. 
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 EXPLANATORY ANALYSIS OF ST, PAUL'S FIRST EPISTLE 
 
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 [continued. 
 
IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 ii 
 
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12 
 
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13 
 
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 {continued. 
 
4 
 
 A SELECTION OF WORKS 
 
 Oxenden. — Works by the Right Rev. Ashton Oxenden, 
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 FAMILY PRAYERS FOR FOUR WEEKS. First Series. Fcap. ^vo. 
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IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 15 
 
 Pusey.— LIFE OF EDWARD BOUVERIE PUSEY, D.D. 
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