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 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.
 
 BRUSSELS. — PRINTED BY H. GOEMAERE.
 
 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS : 
 
 THEIR AGEiNTS, 
 THEIR METHOD, AND THEIR RESULTS 
 
 T. W. M. MARSHALL. 
 
 A FRUCTIBUS EORUM COGNOSCEIIS LOS. 
 S. MiTT. VII, 16. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 LONDON, 
 
 BURNS AND LAMBERT, 17, PORTMAN STREET; 
 
 PORTMAN SQUARE. 
 
 BRUSSELS, 
 
 H. GOEMAERE, RUE DE LA MONTAGNE, 52. 
 
 •1862 
 
 The right nf translativn is reserved.
 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 
 
 It will be expedient to confine within compaia- 
 lively narrow limits the history of Christian Missions 
 in this Island. The brief period subsequent to the 
 establishment of British authority, though that rule 
 dates only from the commencement of the present 
 century, will more than suffice to afford us abundant 
 illustrations of the contrast which we have already 
 traced in other regions. 
 
 A Protestant Missionary Society, assembled on a 
 solemn occasion, and moved by an unwonted impulse 
 of candour, appreciated in the following terms the 
 work of the three great Powers which have held 
 sway, either together or in succession, in the land 
 of spices and pearls. « The exertions of the Roman 
 II. 1 
 
 4 CAA ^QO
 
 2 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Catholics in the conversion of the nalives having heen 
 greater than those of the Dutch, and those of the 
 Dutch having greatly exceeded the British, it is in 
 the same proportion that the three classes possess a 
 permanent influence over the native mind. » (1) The 
 admission is not without value, especially from such 
 a source, hut it might have heen more complete. 
 The influence of the British, as far as religion is 
 concerned, has yet to he acquired; that of the Dutch, 
 so long supreme in the island, lias vanished without 
 leaving a trace; while that of the Catholics, which 
 preceded them hoth, has survived the dissolution of 
 the one, and gained its peaceful triumphs in spite of 
 the jealous hostility of the other. These three posi- 
 tions we shall now establish, by the evidence of 
 Protestant witnesses of many creeds and various 
 social position, but all familiar, from personal ob- 
 servation and scrutiny, with the facts which they 
 record. 
 
 The first period of tlie history of Christianity in 
 Ceylon we will dismiss, for the sake of brevity, 
 with a few words. The Catholic Missionaries in this 
 island, during the whole epoch of the Portuguese 
 dominion, were such as we have already seen them 
 in China and India; and there is perhaps no need to 
 desci ibe again a type of character, or to recount the 
 details of an apostolic warfare, with which by this 
 time we are sufficiently familiar. St. Francis was 
 one of their number, and where he was we may be 
 sure the Angels were not far distant. In his gracious 
 
 (1) Report of the Society for Missions to Africa and the East ; 
 10"' Anniversary, p. 79.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 3 
 
 form the Cingalese recognised a prophet of the true 
 God, and by his companions and their successors 
 thousands were converted to the faith. « Illustrious 
 examples of pious devotion to the Saviour's cause, » 
 says a candid Wesleyan missionary in Ceylon, « were 
 furnished by the missionaries of the Roman Catholic 
 faith. » (1) Jesuits, Franciscans, and Oratorians 
 rivalled each other in wisdom and charily; and so 
 solid wars their work, here as elsewhere, that neither 
 afflictions nor temptations, neither the cruel per- 
 secutions of the Dutch, nor the more dangerous 
 enticements of the English and Americans, have had 
 any other effect upon the Catholic natives than to 
 prove, as Protestants will presently assure us, their 
 invincible constancy. 
 
 Ceylon, like every other land in which the failh 
 has been planted, was fertilised by the blood of mar- 
 tyrs. As early as 1S4-6, men who had come from 
 distant lands with the message of peace found here 
 a glorious death. In 1548, one of the kings of the 
 island was converted, and the Franciscans already 
 numbered twelve thousand native Christians in Co- 
 lumbo. » (2) In 1602, the sons of St. Francis wel- 
 comed a new band of auxiliaries, de Guzman, de 
 Mcndoza, and other fathers of the Society of Jesus, 
 who came to share the burden of their toils. In 1616, 
 Fathers John Metella and Louis Pelingolti of that 
 Society, having |)enelrated into the interior, yielded 
 up their lives in testimony of the truths which they 
 preached. Four new victims hastened to offer them- 
 
 (1) A Narrative of the Mission to Ceylon, by the Rev^ William 
 Harvard, Introd. p. 03. 
 
 (2) Henrion, tome 1, 2''" partie, p. 465.
 
 4 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 selves in their place. Sociro was the first captured, 
 and the first martyred. In the following year, 1628, 
 Matthew Fernandez and Antony Pecci embraced the 
 same lot. And the heathen, as a modern historian 
 observes, were not the most implacable enemies of 
 these generous apostles. De Lyma and Moureyra 
 were attacked at sea by the Dutch, and their vessel 
 burned. Moureyra, having cast himself into the 
 waves, was pursued by the Calvinists, and killed 
 with harpoons. Antony de Vasconcellos, who had 
 resigned ihe highest dignities to embrace the apostolic 
 life, died by poison in 1655; and in the following 
 year, Andrada perished in the same manner, (1) And 
 these generous martyrs were succeeded by others 
 who, in their turn, fought the good fight, and were 
 able lo inspire even the effeminate Cingalese, as 
 Baldoeus confesses, in words which shall be quoted 
 hereafter, with courage enough lo welcome the same 
 fate. Let us hasten at once to later times, and lo 
 events of which we may accept the history from 
 Protestant witnesses. 
 
 31 ■■ Pridham, a recent writer on Ceylon, — whose 
 sentiments may be inferred from his own avowal, 
 that he greatly prefers « the tenets of Buddhism, » 
 with all ils madness of idolatry and superstition, « lo 
 the insensate and infinitely more debasing tenets of 
 Rome, » that is, lo the religion of Ferielon and 
 St. Francis Xavier, — will first give us his valuable 
 testimony. It is curious to see this gentleman forced, 
 by a power which even prejudice so intense could 
 not resist, to utter blessings when his mouth was 
 
 (1) Cretineau Joly, tome III, ch. iv, p, 250.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. S 
 
 filled with curses. iVP Pridham, then, thus describes 
 one of the later Catholic Missionaries in Ceylon, the 
 Oralorian Father Vaz. « He went about from place 
 to place, through swamps and jungles, making many 
 converts among the heathen by the austerity of his 
 manners. His voluntary poverty was such that he 
 would not accept money; his modesty such, that in 
 confessing women he would avert his eyes; and his 
 temperance such, that besides frequently abstaining 
 from food, he lived on the coarsest diet. Catholicism 
 appeared to revive throughout Jaffna, and the Dutch 
 attributed it to the revival of some Jesuit in disguise.* 
 But the Dutch, whose only argument was violence, 
 caught the Oratorian, and shut him up in prison. 
 Here, says M"^ Pridham, « he applied himself to the 
 study of Singhalese, in which he made himself a 
 proficient. » Prisons, it seems, are but a clumsy 
 mode of fighting against God, as the Jews found 
 when they had taken Peter captive. Like him, Father 
 Vaz became free again ; and as a deadly pestilence 
 was now raging, j\P Pridham, who thinks ihe reli- 
 gion of Vaz « more debasing » than even Buddhism, 
 tells us what he did next. « He followed the sick 
 into the jungles, and building huts as well as lime 
 and place would permit, there sheltered them from 
 the elements and the attacks of wild beasts : in a 
 word, he contrived to supply every want, temporal 
 and spiritual, performed the most menial services, 
 opened hospitals in the deserted houses, and dared 
 every thing for their relief. The result was that 
 numbers who were cured joined the Church, and 
 had their children baptized. The admirable conduct 
 of Vaz gained him the confidence of the King, who
 
 6 . CHAPTER IV. 
 
 was only prevented from rewarding him by being 
 assured that he was loo disinterested to accept any 
 thing. » But j\F Pridham was not permitted to stop 
 even here, and so he continues his instructive nar- 
 ration as follows. « To relate all the undertakings 
 of Padre Vaz, and to unfold the full tale of his 
 energy, boldness, austerity, and devotion, would be 
 incompatible with our design : suffice to say, that 
 the Dutch w^re never able to eradicate the faith thus 
 planted by his courage, and Catholicism continued 
 to increase in Ceylon till it arrived at its present 
 position. » (1) 
 
 Such were the evangelists who laboured in Ceylon. 
 If their Master had not blessed them and their work, 
 Christianity would be only an idle fable. But He suf- 
 fered them and their spiritual children to be assault- 
 ed by the enemy, like their brethren in other lands, 
 because He knew they could bear the trial. It was 
 the Dutch Calvinists whom the Evil One employed 
 as his instruments to vex and torment them; let us 
 see how the Protestants of Holland fulfilled their 
 mission, and with what results. 
 
 The Dutch have not acquired a high reputation, 
 even among their co-religionists, as judicious or suc- 
 cessful missionaries. « I never saw such cold calcu- 
 lating people, » says D' Joseph AV'olff, as the members 
 of the Dutch Missionary Society. » (2) And as he saw 
 more of ihem, the impression was only confirmed; 
 for at a later period he once more declares, « There 
 is scarcely any where such a lukewarm set of people 
 
 (1) Ceylon and its Dependencies, by Charles Pridham Esq., 
 vol. II, app. pp. 808-11. 
 
 (2) Journal, p. 39.
 
 MISSJONS IN CEYLON. 7 
 
 as ihe members of the Dutch Bible and Missionary 
 Societies; they are as watery as their country. » 
 Even their own countrymen seem to have avowed 
 the same opinion, for the Captain of a Dutch ship 
 of war told him, in confidence; « Our missionaries 
 in the Dutch Colonies made many converts, but 
 Government would not permit them to convert any 
 more, for when they were converted, they got drunk, 
 and refused lo work on Sunday. » (1) 
 
 But D"^ Wolff is not alone in his unfavorable esli- 
 male of Dutch missionaries. In India, in the great 
 Indian Archipelago, in Ceylon, in South America, 
 every where and always, they have been the same, 
 and have provoked the same comments. Even in Ja- 
 pan, where they so long possessed a kind of com- 
 mercial sovereignly, their real character appears to 
 have been accurately discriminated. « The Dutch 
 assured the Japanese, » we are told by Golownin, 
 « that they were no Christians, and obtained permis- 
 sion to trade with them. » (2) « I took the liberty, » 
 says Count Benyowski , who visited that country 
 towards the close of the eighteenth century, « to ask 
 the king whether he thought the Hollanders were 
 Christians; and he replied, that merchants had no 
 religion, their only faith consisting in getting money, 
 while they gave themselves very little trouble about 
 the belief of a God. » (5) Their direct missionary 
 efforts have produced just the results which the spirit 
 imputed to them by this sagacious monarch would 
 
 (1) Journal, p. 14. 
 
 (2) Recollections of Japan, by Captain Golownin, ch. ill, 
 (1819). 
 
 (3) Travels of Comle de Bcmjowski, vol. I, p. 399. (1790).
 
 g CHAPTER IV. 
 
 be likely to secure. Thus M"" KolfF, though a native 
 of Holland, tells us, that in their island of Damma, 
 « by far the greater portion of the inhabitants are 
 either heathens, or individuals once Christians, who 
 have returned to their foriner habits ; » while of the 
 Arm islands the same witness unwillingly reports, 
 « Our religion has retrograded, while Islamism has 
 advanced considerably, » (1) 
 
 The same facts are repeated, with exactly the same 
 comments, by many English writers, in spite of their 
 religious sympathies. Of Balavia, where the Dutch 
 converts have long enjoyed « a translation of the 
 whole Bible, » D"" Morison writes as follows. « It 
 is painful to remark that the native Christians of 
 this city, if such they can be called, are sunk in 
 deplorable ignorance and vice, and in no way re- 
 markably distinguished from their heathen brethren, 
 except by the formal abandonment of idolatry, and 
 the equally formal adoption of the Christian name. » 
 The same Protestant historian confesses, that 
 although « in Amboyna and the surrounding is- 
 lands there were upwards of fifty churches, » — 
 the inhabitants having been « compelled by law » 
 to profess Christianity, — « they were, after all, 
 but baptized pagans; » and he adds, « it seems an 
 absolute burlesque upon the New Testament to speak 
 of the mass of the Dutch converts in Amboyna as 
 Christians. » (2) 
 
 In 1855, M''Gerstaecker reports once more, that the 
 
 (1) Voyafjes of the Dourga, by D. H. Kolff ; ch. vi, p. 93; 
 ch. xn, p. 195. 
 
 (2) The Fathers of the Loudon Missionary Society, by John 
 Morison, D. D., vol. I, pp. 71, 75.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 9 
 
 Mahommedans are in every respect superior to the so- 
 called Christians. He even affirms that the results of 
 « conversion » have been, « in almost every instance, » 
 so deplorable, especially in the augmentation of im- 
 morality, that « Government does not like to see 
 Missionaries go amongst the people, and if it does 
 not prevent their teaching, most certainly does not 
 support it. » (1) Lastly, Sir John Bowring and 
 M"" Oliphant confirm, with ample details, these 
 gloomy statements. « The interests of trade, » says 
 the former, contrasting the wordly spiiil of the 
 Dutch with the religious zeal of the Spaniards, 
 « have ever been the predominant consideration 
 among Dutch colonizers. » (2) « In carrying out their 
 ruthless policy against the Christians, » observes 
 M"" Oliphant, « the Japanese always found in the 
 Dutch ready and willing assistants. » It was the 
 latter who « bombarded, at the behest of the Japa- 
 nese government, 37,000 Christians, who were coop- 
 ed up within the walls of Samabarra. » And these 
 eager Protestants, who not only denied that they 
 were Christians themselves, but gladly assisted pa- 
 gans in slaughtering those who were, have failed in 
 securing the very prize for which they committed 
 crimes almost unparalleled in human annals. At 
 home, they have seen the fairest provinces of their 
 kingdom severed from them; while in Japan, « they 
 have not even had the profits of a lucrative trade to 
 console them for the ignominy with which they have 
 been treated ; on the contrary, it has steadily dimin- 
 
 (1) Voyage, etc., vol. Ill, p. 257. 
 
 (2) Visit to the Philippine Islands, cli. v, p. 94. 
 
 II. *
 
 10 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ished in proporlion as ihe indignities to which they 
 have been exposed have increased. » (1) M"" Sou- 
 they will lell us hereafter (hat tlieir conduct, and its 
 results, were exactly the same in South America. 
 
 >F Temminck, who has written an enthusiastic 
 apology of Dutch government in the East, declares, 
 as if he desired to redeem their sullied reputation, 
 that « religious toleration » makes their Indian pos- 
 sessions quite a « terrestrial paradise. » (2) We 
 shall see immediately that Ceylon, under their go- 
 vernment, formed no part of this apocryphal para- 
 dise ; hut hefore we return to our immediate subject, 
 let us adil, in conclusion, the following impressive 
 statement, by an energetic American Protestant, of 
 what the Dutch have really done in the Indian Ar- 
 chipelago. « For two hundred years and more, three 
 millions of Christian Dutchmen have been the mas- 
 ters over seven generations of about fifteen millions 
 of Mahometan and Pagan Malays, Javanese, and 
 other races of the Archipelago, — not less than one 
 hundred millions in all; and for what purpose? to 
 fill the coffers of stolid men of Amsterdam and Rotter- 
 dam! » The whole fruit of their conquests in the 
 Kast, he says, is this, « that after two hundred years 
 the natives display the same ignorance of the religion 
 which their masters profess to believe. » (o) Even 
 literature and science owe them hut little, for as the 
 learned orientalist Mohl complained, in 1844, to 
 
 (1) Lord Elgin's Mission, vol. II, ch. ll, p. 49. 
 
 (2) Possessions Neerlandaises dans I'lnde Archipelagique, 
 par G. J. Temminck, tome I, ch. ii, p. 214. (1846). 
 
 (3) The Prison of Wetevi'eden, etc., bv Walter M. Gibson, 
 pp. 133, 446.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 11 
 
 the Asiatic Society of France, « We are still using 
 the Japanese grammars and dictionaries published 
 two centuries ago by the Jesuits, and the Dutch do 
 nothing. » (1) And now let us see what they did in 
 Ceylon. 
 
 In this island, as in Western India, the Dutch 
 succeeded the Portuguese, from whom they wrested 
 the possessions which (hey were themselves destined 
 (0 forfeit in turn to the English. These children of 
 Calvin found their new territories peopled by Ca- 
 tholics. « The Island of Ceylon, » says M' Irving, 
 with some exaggeration, « is said to have been so 
 completely Roman Catholic when it came into the 
 possession of the Dutch, that, unable to convert ihe 
 natives to Calvinism, they took measures to promote 
 idolatry... they are said to have sent lo the mainland 
 for priests to re-establish Buddhism! » (2) But this 
 singular policy, with which these ardent Prolestanls 
 inaugurated their reign in Ceylon, need not surprise 
 us. We have seen even Anglicans, both lay and cle- 
 rical, confessing that they prefer the Hindoo or Chi- 
 nese idolaler to the disciples of St. Francis, St. Au- 
 gustine, and St. Paul. Let us continue, by the help 
 of Protestant writers, the history of Dutch Calvinism 
 in Ceylon. 
 
 « It cannot be predicated in favour of the Dutch, » 
 says M"" Pridham, whose information will be very 
 useful to us, « that they entered upon the task of 
 propagating the Reformed religion either with equal 
 ardour or from similar motives to the Portuguese. » 
 
 (1) Rapport, iOjuillet, 1844, p. 70. 
 
 (2) The Theory and Practice of Caste, cli. v, p. 130.
 
 12 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 M"" Hugh Murray told us exaclly the same tliiug of 
 the English in India, and we shall hear it again in 
 future chapters of this history. But the Dutch, find- 
 ing Buddhism an impotent ally against Catholics, 
 proceeded to try the plan which has cost Protestant 
 Missionaries such enormous sums in every heafheu 
 land. They could not convert the Cingalese by argu- 
 ment, hut they might perhaps do so by bribes. « The 
 Dutch went about the business coolly, » says Lord 
 Valentia, « and held forth the temptation of requi- 
 ring the profession of the Protestant faith as a quali- 
 fication for all public offices. « (1) « They sought, » 
 we are told by M"^ Christmas, who is of the school of 
 M"^ Pridham, — for we are compelled lo employ wit- 
 nesses of this class, — « to bribe the Cingalese lo 
 adopt Dutch Presbyterianism by the offer of places 
 and siluations. » (2) The olfer was accepted, but with 
 such results as might have been anticipated. Thou- 
 sands of Cingalese became Protestants, without ceas- 
 ing lo be Buddhists; and as the universal hypocrisy 
 and corruption which such conversions geneiated 
 only added new crimes to those which were indigen- 
 ous in Ceylon, Lord Valentia remarks truly, that 
 « many of the vices of the Cingalese seem to be the 
 creation of their late masters. » But we must hear 
 other witnesses. 
 
 A Dutch protestant, who visited the island shortly 
 before his countrymen were dispossessed by the En- 
 glish, gives this frank description of ihem. « So far 
 from making any account of the Dutch, the inhabit- 
 
 (1) Travels, vol. I, cli. vi, p. 261. 
 
 (2) The Hand of God in India , p. 1 11 .
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 13 
 
 anls of Ceylon (real ihem with a kind ofconlempl; 
 but the Dutch liave the prudence to overlook such 
 trifles, minding the main chance, the amity of the 
 King of Candy, that he may not take it into his head 
 to break with them, which would be a very sensible 
 wound to their commerce in this charming is- 
 land. » (1) 
 
 A Baptist missionary, who notices the significant 
 fact , that « the Portuguese left most people , the 
 Dutch most buildings, » thus estimates, in 1832, the 
 results of their missions. « The Dutch filled their 
 territories with christians who knew nothing of 
 Christianity except the name. It is not uncommon 
 even now for a native to say, in the same breath, 
 that he is a good Christian and a good Budd- 
 hist. .. (2) 
 
 D' John Morison, the historian of the London Mis- 
 sionary Society, thus describes the Dutch Missions. 
 « Of these missions it is difilcult to speak in terms of 
 high commendation, on account of the loose and un- 
 scriptural principles on which they were conducted. 
 Though ihey increased to a large extent the nominal 
 territory of Christianity, it is much to be feared that 
 they did but comparatively little towards the real 
 conversion of the heathen world. » And then he des- 
 cribes their method. « All that was required by the 
 Dutch divines of a Cingalese convert, prior to baptism 
 and admission into the Christian Church, was, that 
 he should be able (o repeat the Lord's Prayer and the 
 
 (1) A Voyage to the Island of Ceylon in ilil, by a Dutch 
 Gentleman, p. 18. English edition. 
 
 (2) Missionary Tour in Ceylon and India, by Joshua Russell, 
 ch. n, p. 11. (1852).
 
 J 4 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Ten Commaiulmenls ; » aunounciiig at the same lime, 
 « that no native should rise lo rank in the army, or 
 be admitled to any employment under the Govern- 
 ment, unless he professed himself a member of the 
 Protestant Church. » The Cingalese, D"" Morison 
 adds, « pressed into the communion of so profitable 
 a faith. » (1) The Dulch no longer needed to stimu- 
 late the progress of Buddhism, in order to spite the 
 Catholics; it was enough lo induce a Cingalese lo 
 profess himself a Protestant, and his adhesion lo 
 Buddhism was effeclually secured. Calvinism accept- 
 ed this compromise, and by the close of ihe seven- 
 teenth century, « the Dutch ministers in Ceylon had 
 baptized three hundred thousand of the inhabitants. » 
 It is true, as we shall see immediately, that they 
 were precisely such « converts » as Protestantism 
 has made in China and India, that they still practised 
 all the rites of heathenism, and were a scandal even 
 lo their own counlrymeu by the new vices which 
 ihey now displayed. But still these nominal conver- 
 sions continued during the whole period of the Dulch 
 occupation. At one time by constraint and violence, 
 at another by an organised system of bribery of 
 which ihe details were prescribed by legislative 
 enactment, they mulli plied the disciples of the « re- 
 formed leligion. » And the masters of Ceylon were 
 content with a process which produced such satis- 
 factory numerical results, though it made Christian- 
 ily a bye -word among the heathen, an object of 
 hatred lo those who affected to embrace, and of scorn 
 lo those who openly rejected it. « The vices, the 
 
 (1) Vol. I, p. 66.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 13 
 
 cupidity, and the flagrant immoralily of the Dutch 
 administration, as well as of their private conduct, » 
 says M. de Jancigny, « tended necessarily to cast 
 discredit upon their oUTicial profession of failh. » (1) 
 At length the inevitable hour of their downfall arri- 
 ved, and then was revealed, to their confusion and 
 dishonour, the result of their presence in Ceylon. 
 But that result is too curious and instructive, as well 
 as loo characteristic of the real influence of Protest- 
 ant missions in pagan lands, to he dismissed with a 
 passing allusion. 
 
 The Dutch had two main objects during iheir oc- 
 cupation of Ceylon, bolh of which ihey pursued wilh 
 a keen avidity and an unscrupulous injustice second 
 only to that which distinguished their commercial 
 traffic ; the first was to force the natives to become 
 Protestants, the second to crush or exlirpaie the Ca- 
 tholics. The first aim was partially accomplished, 
 after a fashion which shall be more fully described 
 presently; the second utterly failed. But we must take 
 the hislory of that failure from Protestant witnesses. 
 
 Sir Emerson Tennent, the highest authority on all 
 which concerns the island of Ceylon, and whose well 
 known work is justly commended by a Protestant 
 minister as « very impartially drawn up, » writes 
 as follows. « In 1748, it was forbidden to educate a 
 Roman Catholic for the ministry, but within three 
 years it was found necessary to repeat the same 
 prohibition, as well as to renew the proclamation 
 for putting down the celebration of the Mass. Not- 
 
 (I) Ceylan , par M. de Jancitjny ; VUnivers Pittoresque , 
 tome VIII, p. 053.
 
 16 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 willislauding every persecution, however, ihe Roman 
 Catholic religion retained its influence, and held good 
 its position in Ceylon. It was openly professed by 
 the immediate descendants of the Portuguese, who 
 had remained in the island after its conquest by the 
 Dutch; and in private it was equally adhered to by 
 large bodies of the natives, both Singhalese and 
 Tamils, whom neither corruption nor coercion could 
 induce to abjure it. » (1) Yet both were freely used, 
 though with no other result than to show, that the 
 pastors of this persecuted flock were worthy of their 
 vocation, and that their courageous disci|)les were 
 not unworthy of them. « The Roman Catholic priests 
 made their way into the low country, visiting in 
 secret their scattered flocks, and administering the 
 sacraments in deGance of the plakaats and prohibi- 
 tions of the Government. » And so the battle went 
 on. But the issue of such a conflict could never be 
 doubtful. Sir Emerson Tennent tells us what it was. 
 Father Joseph Vaz, to give only a simple example, 
 « in an incredibly short space of time added to the 
 Church upwards of thirty thousand converts from 
 the heathen. » In vain they bound the apostle in fet- 
 ters, martyred his disciples, or condemned them to 
 the galleys for life. In vain they devised those inge- 
 nious cruelties which forced even a Protestant mi- 
 nister to exclaim, in spite of his hatred of their 
 Catholic victims, — « Their blind, pharisaical vin- 
 dicliveness can only be cordially abhorred. » (2) But 
 
 (1) Christianity in Ceylon, ch. ll, p 42. 
 
 (2) Romanism in Ceylon, bv the Revd Edward J. Robinson, 
 p. 17. (i 855).
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 17 
 
 this was their melhod of conversion, and they knew 
 no olher. The persecution never slacked ; « but the 
 proclamations of the Government, » we are told, 
 « were either loo late to be eflFectual, or too tyran- 
 nical to be carried info force; and in 1717, only two 
 years after a renewed proclamation, the Roman Ca- 
 tholics were in possession of upwards oi four hundred 
 churches in all parts of Ceylon. » Still the Dutch 
 pursued their policy of savage repression. They had 
 already prohibited all education to Catholics, and 
 now they forbade them, under terrible penalties, 
 « either to marry or bury ; » and finally, as it was 
 possible to improve still further this too lenient code, 
 « freedom was conferred upon the children of all 
 slaves born of Protestant parents, whilst those of 
 Roman Catholics were condemned to perpetual ser- 
 vitude. » (1) 
 
 Such are the counsels which the enemy of man 
 suggests to the agents whom he employs to do his 
 work. But they come to naught, in Ceylon as else- 
 where; and the Protestant historian of Christianity 
 in this island frankly confesses, that they only con- 
 firmed « the rising ascendancy of the Roman Catho- 
 lics, whose numbers had actually increased under 
 persecution. They had churches in every district, 
 from Jaffna to Columbo; and in 1734 they extended 
 their operations to the Southern Province, and with 
 such success, that the Presbyterian clergy of Galle, 
 distracted by the impraclicabilily or apostasy of the 
 natives, gave way before this accumulation of hostile 
 influences : from 1743 the district was left for some 
 
 (1) Sir E. Tennent.ch. ii, p. 53. 
 11.
 
 18 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 years allogelhcr withoul ihe services of a Proteslanl 
 minister. » (1) 
 
 It is very satisfactory to have a Protestant narrator 
 of so remarkable a history; but he has more to tell 
 us. All the penal laws, futile as they were in their 
 effects upon men whose faith made them invincible, 
 were still in force. The Government still compelled 
 Catholic parents, wherever they were within reach 
 of the iron hand of the jailor, or the scourge of the 
 policeman , to send their children to Protestant 
 schools. By 1750, however, the native Christians had 
 become strong enough to protest openly against this 
 barbarous tyranny, and they publicly presented a pe- 
 tition to the authorities, in which they complained 
 tbat they were compelled by violence « to send their 
 families to be instructed in doctrines which they 
 rejected. » They confessed that if, in the towns, they 
 had hitherto submitted, it was only from fear of the 
 merciless penalties; but that whenever, by a violence 
 which they could not resist, their children had been 
 « baptized by the ministers of the Reformed Cburch, 
 they were in the habit of having the same children 
 baptized a second time by a clergyman of the Church 
 of Rome. » The « Consistory of Columbo, » com- 
 posed of Protestant ministers, urged the Government 
 peremptorily to reject ibis humble prayer of Christian 
 fathers and mothers, who presumed to have a care 
 for the souls of their little ones. They went still 
 further, and besought the Government to deny, by 
 virtue of its supreme pontifical authority, « the va- 
 lidity of baptism administered by a Catholic priest; » 
 
 (1) P. 58.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 19 
 
 and to declare, lliat « none but Protestant headmen 
 should be invested with authority in the different 
 districts. » The civil authorities desired nolhing bet- 
 ter than to comply with this demand, but there was 
 a difficulty through which they could not see their 
 way, and which they proposed in despair to the 
 Protestant ministers ; they would gladly appoint only 
 « Protestant headmen, » they said, but where could 
 they find them? « It was practically impossible, » 
 the government sorrowfully replied, « as the number 
 of Protestant converts had become too scanty to af- 
 ford a sufficient field for selection. » (1) The « Consis- 
 of Columbo » had asked for too much. 
 
 However, « the prayer of the Roman Catholics was 
 rejected, » and it was not unlil the Christian natives 
 rose in insurrection, — for though it is sometimes a 
 duty to suffer persecution for ihe faith, it is some- 
 limes also a duty to resist it, — that the frightened 
 Government gave way. The enemy was already 
 knocking at their doors, and their long reign of 
 cruelty and fraud was drawing to a close. As early 
 as 1730, the English had made themselves masters 
 of the whole coast of Ceylon, and in 179G the colony 
 was annexed to the British crown. But before we 
 speak of the new form of Protestantism which was 
 now to be introduced, and of its fortunes in Ceylon, 
 let us see what the English conquest revealed as to 
 the final results of Dutch missionary operations in 
 thai island. They boasted that (hey had induced mul- 
 titudes to embrace their religion, — let us enquire 
 how far the assertion was true. 
 
 (t) P. 61.
 
 20 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Baldseus, the most celebrated, and apparently the 
 most upright of the Dutch missionaries, « candidly 
 stales, » as Sir Emerson Tennent remarks, that his 
 converts were only « Christians in name » — sine 
 Christo Cli risticmiti. 
 
 « They could refute the popish errors concerning 
 purgatory, the mass, etc., » says this Calvinist Mis- 
 sionary, hut unfortunately their religion was con- 
 fined to such negative formulse; for, as Baldfeus 
 reluctantly admits a few pages later, « though they 
 hear ihe name of Christians, they still retain many 
 of their pagan superstitions. » (1) And his testimony 
 is the more valuable, because he was describing the 
 fruits of his own labour. He could teach them, he 
 admits, to argue against some of the most sacred 
 doctrines of Christianity, but he could never persuade 
 them to accept even those meagre and distorted frag- 
 ments of it which constituted his own religion. Like 
 the Protestant missionaries in India, he could plunge 
 them into the pit of atheism, but all his efforts could 
 never draw them out again. 
 
 Yet even such confessions hardly prepare us for 
 the prodigious facts which are unfolded in the fol- 
 lowing statement of the Rev. M"" Palm. « Of 182,226 
 natives enrolled as Christians at Jaffna, but sixty- 
 four were members of the Church, » — he means the 
 Protestant Church ; « of 9,820 at Manaar, only five 
 were communicants ; and in the same year (1760) at 
 Galle and Malura there were only thirty-six members 
 out of89,000who had been baptized! )>(2)It appears, 
 
 (1) In Churchiirs Collection of Voyages, vol. Ill, p. 737. 
 
 (2) Tennent, ch. II, p. 65.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 2! 
 
 iherefore, from this remarkable statement, that out 
 of more than two Imndred and eighty thousand no- 
 minal Christians, who had all received baptism, not 
 more than one hundred and five were regarded, even 
 by teachers who had so many motives for exaggera- 
 ting their number, as Christians in any sense what- 
 ever. 
 
 But even this is not all. We have seen that thou- 
 sands of the natives of Ceylon, moved partly by the 
 attraction of bribes and partly by the fear of persecu- 
 tion, enrolled themselves as Protestants, while in se- 
 cret they continued to practice their own idolatries; 
 but there is still a fact to be noticed of which the 
 force and gravity would only be impaired by any 
 reflections which we could offer. While in health, 
 the Buddhist affected to be a disciple of lhe« reform- 
 ed religion, » and even assumed the character with 
 tolerable success; but when sickness or peril over- 
 took him, his conscience, upon which Protestantism 
 had failed to exert even the faintest influence, began 
 to reproach him, and he hastened to appease the 
 gods whom he had offended by the semblance of 
 adhesion to a worship which in secret he despised. 
 « A large proportion of these nominal Christians, » 
 says Sir Emerson Tennent, « have been betrayed in- 
 to apostasy in times of sickness and alarm. » 
 
 We shall see, before we conclude this chapter, 
 what manner of men the Catholic natives have pro- 
 ved, and how they have manifested the effects of 
 true conversion ; but now we are speaking of those 
 whom the Dutch admitted into the ranks of Protest- 
 antism. « It is a remarkable fact, » says a writer 
 who has been already quoted, « that notwithstanding
 
 2-2 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 llie luiiulreds of ihousautls of Singhalese who were 
 enrolled by ihem as converts, ihe religion and disci- 
 pline of ihe Dutch Presbyterians is now almost 
 extinct among the natives of Ceylon ! Even in Jaffna, 
 where the reception of those doctrines was all but 
 unanimous by the Tamils, not a single congregation 
 is now in existence of the many planted by Baldseus, 
 and tended by ihe labours of Valenlyn and Schwartz." 
 The religion, he adds, and here we may conclude 
 this sketch of Dutch Missions in Ceylon, « has long 
 since disappeared almost from the memory of the na- 
 tives of Ceylon. » (I) 
 
 And now we come to the English epoch, and to 
 the missionaries of the Eslablished Church, and of 
 the various sects which she has begotten. 
 
 The English had scarcely begun the administration 
 of their new conquest when they perceived, with 
 that infallible good sense which rarely deceives them 
 when their interests are at stake, and which enables 
 thcFTi to restrain their docile bigotry even in its fier- 
 cest mood, that Ceylon would not be worth holding 
 on Dutch principles, and could not be governed by 
 Dulch maxims. They gave religious freedom to Ca- 
 nada, as Burke remaiks, because they feared to lose 
 it; (2)*lhey refused it to Ireland, because she was 
 within arm's reach. In Ceylon they wished to pursue 
 their commercial operations in peace, and ihe Ca- 
 tholic naiives had shown that ihey could neither be 
 bribed nor terrified. Still there was a momentary 
 conflict between prudence and prejudice, and it was 
 
 (1) Tenncnt, cli. ii, p. 11. 
 
 (2) « Government itself lately tlioiiglit tit to establish (he Ro- 
 man Catholic religion in Canada, n Works, vol. IX, p. 221.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 23 
 
 nol till 1806, under the governmeiU of Sir Thomas 
 Maitland, and at the urgent solicitations of the Chief 
 Justice, Sir Alexander Johnston, thai the old perse- 
 cuting laws were finally repealed, and religious toler- 
 ation proclaimed. After ten years hesitation, they 
 thought it best for their commercial interests to leave 
 the Catholics alone. 
 
 The first fact which occurs in the history of the 
 English period is perhaps the most curious in the 
 whole chapter. Expecting, from their experience of 
 the past, to he still persecuted by the Government, 
 the Dutch « converts » now lost no lime in announ- 
 cing themselves, by way of precaution, as English 
 Protestants, to the number of 342,000! « W Lam- 
 brick, the first Church of England missionary at 
 Cotta, recounts that he one day asked a native of 
 Cotta of what religion he was; and the answer was, 
 Buddha a. So then you are not a Cbrislian? Oh, yes, 
 to be sure I am ; I am a Christian, and of the Re- 
 formed Dutch religion too. » (1) But as soon as they 
 comprehended that the Dutch reign was over, they 
 transferred their allegiance to that new religion which 
 they now heard of for the first lime. It was always 
 safe to be of the religion of their masters. When, how- 
 ever, they ascertained, by the new enactments, that 
 they were « no longer to be paid for apostasy, » and 
 that" a monopoly of oflices and public employment » 
 was not to be reserved for the submissive professors 
 of the state religion, they showed at last their real 
 character; and then was enacted one of the most 
 notable scenes in the annals of Protestant Missions. 
 
 (1) Tennent, ch. vi, p. 313.
 
 24 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The hour of freedom had come for these poor Cinga- 
 lese, and while the Catholic natives stedfaslly ad- 
 hered in this new era of tranquillity to the faith which 
 they had professed through long years of torment 
 and suffering, the so-called Protestants flung away 
 with joy the hated disguise, and the Church of Eng- 
 land lost her 342,000 memhers hefore she had even 
 time to count them. « Almost with greater rapidity 
 than their numbers had originally increased, they 
 now commenced to decline. In 1802, the nominal 
 Protestant Christians amongst the Tamils of Jaffna 
 were 150,000; in 1806, Buchanan, who then visited 
 Ceylon , described the Protestant religion as ex- 
 tinct. » (1) We have seen that at the same moment 
 D'Claudius Buchanan described the Catholic churches 
 of Ceylon as thronged wilh worshippers. « The whole 
 district, » he says, speaking of Jaffna, « is now in 
 the hands of ihe Romish priests from the college at 
 Goa. » (2) It was no doubt, an unwelcome fact, but 
 he was obliged to confess, « they have assumed quiet 
 and undisturbed possession of the land. » What then 
 had become of the 542,000 Protestants? Sir Emerson 
 Tennent supplies the answer. « Vast numbers had 
 openly joined the Roman Catholic communion, to 
 which Ihey had long been secretly attached, and the 
 whole district was handed over to the priests from 
 the college of Goa. » In Ihe other districts the defec- 
 tion « was equally deplorable, and numbers of Pro- 
 testants were every years apostatising to Buddha. » 
 Finally, « within a very few^ years, the only Christ- 
 
 (1) Tennent, cli. in, 86. 
 
 (2) Christian Researches in Asia, p. -i-i.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 25 
 
 tans ivho were to be found in the Peninsula were the 
 members of the Church of Rome. » (1) 
 
 The Englisli Protestants, then, — for we have 
 heard enougli of their predecessors, - to whom the 
 Dulch had hequealhed a doubtful heritage, which had 
 aheady vanished when they put forth their hands 
 to grasp it, did not gain much by the legacy. They 
 had no alternative hut to begin the v/ork anew, and 
 this time with other weapons, and by a different 
 process. It was loo late for persecution, even if they 
 had wished to try that feeble and exploded method; 
 and moreover, the new race of preachers were more 
 humane than the terrible « Consistory of Colombo. » 
 They resigned themsehes, therefore, to the employ- 
 ment of milder means. At first the Church of Eng- 
 land, by an unusual privilege, had the field all to 
 herself; but wherever she is, the unwelcome forms 
 which dog her steps in every land, the d/rce fades of 
 her kinsfolk and rivals, are sure to appear sooner or 
 later in their accustomed procession. And so, before 
 many years had elapsed, all the sects which we have 
 seen striving, with feigned words of amity, to trip up 
 each other in China and India for the instruction and 
 amusement of the heathen, were gathered together in 
 Ceylon. Each had its own partisans, whose eager 
 sympathies followed it across the sea, and who never 
 ceased to transmit to it from their remote dwellings 
 
 (1) P. 86. Captain Knox, who was four years a prisoner in 
 Ceylon, noticed of tlie Catholic natives, that their religion « bred 
 in them a kind of love and afTection towards strangers, and men 
 shall hear them oftentimes upbraiding the highlanders for their 
 insolent and rude behaviour. » Captivity in Ceylon, ch. II, 
 p. 159. (1818).
 
 26 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 llie gold wilhoul which il woukl have refused even to 
 altcmpl a lask in which gold was to be the chief 
 agent. The Americans alone, as Lord Torringlon has 
 told us, had received long ago 100,000 1., and they 
 have received a good deal more since. What the 
 others have absorbed we need not stay to calculate. 
 It is probable that in this one island Protestantism 
 has expended, how vainly we shall hear presently, 
 as much as would suffice to maintain all ihe Catholic 
 Missions throughout the earth for a quarter of a cent- 
 ury. But Protestant Missions, we know, are expen- 
 sive, and their agents would smile with pity at the 
 indecent poverty of St. Paul, who lived on alms and 
 had apparently only one cloak, or of his Catholic suc- 
 cessors, who have often none at all. 
 
 Bui it would be unreasonable to expect that re- 
 spectable fathers of families, having complicated social 
 duties to discharge, should condescend to the meagre 
 outfit with which apostles have braved the longest 
 voyage. When St. Francis was preparing to start for 
 India, St. Ignatius made him accept a waistcoat on 
 discovering that he did not possess one : it is true 
 that he took off his own to supply the want. Yel 
 St. Ignatius, unlike the agents of English or Ameri- 
 can religions, who seek to mend their fortunes by 
 assuming the title of « missionaries, » « was of a race 
 so noble that its head was always invited to do homage 
 by a special writ, » (1) even in the proud court of 
 Spain. The scantiness of apparel which such men 
 accept would be altogether incongruous and unseemly 
 if proposed to missionaries of the modern school. Il 
 
 (t) Ranke, book II, ch. i, vol. I, p. 121.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 27 
 
 is iheir own friends who protest most warmly against 
 the unjust demand; and not content wiih repudia- 
 ting on their behalf all claim to the apostolic characler, 
 declare, with almost perplexing frankness, that they 
 too easily yield lo the seductions of covetousness and 
 luxury. « In [ndia I supported the Missionaries, » 
 said M"" Leilh in 18o5, and the House of Commons 
 printed his ^Yords ; « but I say that they have not 
 followed the Gospel. Christ said, ' Leave all and fol- 
 low Me; ' they say, ' Take all, and follow Me. ' » 
 The statement is harsh, but apparently true, and not 
 less true in Ceylon than in Ilindoslan. An historian 
 of Protestant Missionary Societies, who chronicles 
 with impassioned eulogy all their works, thus depicis 
 their mode of life in Ceylon. « A poet's imagination 
 could scarcely conceive a spot more suited for the 
 residence of a Christian Missionary. » Perhaps you 
 conclude that he is noting the facilities which its 
 position offers for the conversion of the neighbouring 
 pagans? He has no such thought; he is only contem- 
 plating with wistful admiration the « spacious 
 lawns » (1) with which the missionary mansion is 
 adorned, and all those picturesque and attractive 
 appendages which sometimes provoke the surprise of 
 the heathen, but rarely their respect. Let us not en- 
 quire, however, loo curiously into the domestic life 
 which is deemed an appropriate mode of existence 
 for a Protestant missionary, in Ceylon as elsewhere; 
 or at least let us be content to take the account from 
 their own associates, who know more about it than 
 we do, and are more impartial witnesses. 
 
 (1) Smith's History of the Missionary Societies, vol. II, p. 641 .
 
 28 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Rev. Howard Malcolm, who visited Ceylon 
 among olher places, and was deputed hy the Amer- 
 ican Board of Foreign Missions to report on the oper- 
 alions of his missionary brethren, fiilfdled this part 
 of his inquisitorial functions in these words. « Rulers 
 and princes, at some stations, are unable to live as 
 the Missionaries do. It is altogether undesirable to 
 see carved mahogany sofas covered with crimson 
 silk, engravings, cut glass, silver forks, etc. in the 
 house of a Missionary; the house itself resem- 
 bling our handsome country seats!.... Several Mis- 
 sionaries have confessed to me that, on their first 
 arrival in the East, they were shocked at the style 
 in which they found their brethren living. Yet 
 they had been carried away by the current. And 
 so, generally, will be their successors. » (1) We 
 comprehend, therefore, that even the ample largesses 
 of the generous subscribers at home, profuse and 
 abundant as they are, are not superfluously liberal. 
 Protestant Missions, we have already observed, are 
 expensive. 
 
 But other witnesses, less reserved than M"" Malcolm, 
 and writing for the public rather than for a Mission- 
 ary Board, are willing to introduce us into the inte- 
 rior of the pleasant « country houses » in which he 
 was a familiar guest, though he prudently leaves his 
 readers at the door. These unofficial visitors afford us 
 an opportunity of contemplating their opulent hosts 
 in the tranquil repose of their daily life. The scenes 
 which they reveal are worth noting. « In Persia, 
 China, India, every where, » says one who dwelt 
 
 (1) Travels inS. Eastern Asia, vol. II, p. 319.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 29 
 
 amongst them in many lands, « I found ihem living 
 quite differently from what I had imagined. They live 
 quite in the manner of opulent gentlemen, and have 
 handsome houses Ctled up with every convenience 
 and luxury. The Missionaries repose upon swelling 
 divans, — their wives preside at the tea-tahle, — their 
 children feast on sweetmeats and confectionary ; in 
 short, their position is one incomparably pleasanler 
 and freer from care than that of most other people; 
 they get their salaries punctually paid, and take their 
 places very easily. » 
 
 The picture is too instructive not to merit closer 
 examination. « In places where several Missionaries 
 are settled, they have what are called * meetings, ' 
 three or four times a week, supposed to be devoted 
 to business, but which are little else than parties at 
 which their wives and childien appear in tasteful 
 dresses. At one of the Missionaries houses the meeting 
 will be a breakfast, at another a dinner, at a third 
 a tea party; and you will see several equipages and 
 servants standing in the court-yard. There is, indeed, 
 on these occasions, some little talk of business, and 
 the gentlemen remain togelher perhaps half an hour 
 discussing it; but the rest of the time is passed in 
 mere social amusement. " (1) It is satisfactory to 
 know that, by the alms of worthy persons who sup- 
 pose they are assisting to convert the heathen, the 
 revenues of the Missionary Societies steadily increase. 
 They have evidently need of all their wealth. Let 
 their subscribers, however, only continue faithful, 
 and there is no danger lest the peaceful enjoyments 
 
 (1) Ida Pfeiffer, Voyage round the World, pp. 221-2.
 
 30 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 of iheir agents should be curtailed, or their pleasant 
 career compromised. 
 
 But it is time to enquire \Yhat they have actually 
 accomplished towards the conversion of Ceylon. 
 They will tell us themselves. They do not always 
 conceal the truth, seldom, except under compulsion, 
 or when writing to their official employers, who 
 would promptly resent all superfluous and unpro- 
 fitable candour as a perfectly useless indiscretion, 
 and perhaps reply to their imprudent servant, as his 
 offended lord did to Cassio, — « I love thee, but never 
 more be officer of mine. » Indeed they confess that it 
 is the proper function of their foreign agents to do a- 
 broad what « the highly salaried travellers » do at 
 home, and to furnish, as a well known Anglican 
 minister observes, « the anecdotes which form the 
 great staple of a good deputation's talk, » and « the 
 lovely trails of piety » which stimulate fresh sub- 
 scriptions; and they do it wilh so much vigour, and 
 relate such moving tales of the results accomplished 
 in various lands by English or American gold, that, 
 as their Anglican censor pleasantly remarks, « it 
 puzzles one's philosophy to account for the fact that 
 the same means do so little at home. » (1) It is 
 true that they sometimes venture to resent, but 
 rarely without inconvenient results, the hard service 
 exacted from them. Thus, in 1830, two Protestant 
 missionaries presumed to remonstrate against, « those 
 monstrous errors and misrepresentations with which 
 the Annual Report abounds; » and they were both 
 immediately dismissed for the indiscretion. « Excite- 
 
 (1) S. G. 0., The Times, April, 19, 1860.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 31 
 
 ment, » lliey dared to say, « not principle, is the 
 leading feature of missionary zeal in England; and, 
 as a natural consequence, pleasing statements from 
 Missionaries, rather than facts, are sought after to 
 fan the flame. » (1) And then, as if they fell that they 
 could not compromise themselves more fatally, these 
 honest missionaries resolve to unhurden their souls, 
 whatever it may cost. « The want of strict truth in 
 the Annual Reports, and the encouragement that is 
 given to the Missionaries to send home loo favour- 
 able reports of their lahours to the Society, these 
 things cause our hearts to ache. The Directors seem to 
 judge of people by what they say, not by what they 
 do. Hence the enquiry is not. What are the labours 
 w hich a missionary is carrying on at his station ? but. 
 What sort of letters does he write to the Directors? » 
 It was natural that the indignant « Directors » should 
 chastise such improvident candour by prompt dis- 
 missal. 
 
 Another missionary agent, who served for some 
 years an Anglican association called « the Palago- 
 nian Missionary Society, » dared on a certain occa- 
 sion to rebuke « the selfishness and arrogance of 
 missionary labour, » and frankly confessed, « the 
 whole missionary work seems to me to be a strange 
 compound of piety and irreligion. » This gentleman 
 also was dismissed, with circumstances of great 
 cruelty, when he declined to countenance what he 
 considered the immoral projects of his « society, » — 
 which included the « purchase of natives from their 
 chiefs, » who were to be discreetly located, « where 
 
 (1) Quoted by Forbes, Unrefutcd Charges, etc., p. 35.
 
 32 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 they could not run away; » the « making Keppel Island 
 a cattle colony ; » « entering into mercantile specu- 
 lations by trading between Monte Video and Stan- 
 ley; » (1) and other equally ingenious modes of 
 acquiring nominal disciples, and preparing what the 
 judicious « secretary » called « a graphic account » 
 of imaginary conquests, by which fresh funds might 
 be obtained to pay his own salary, and save ihe 
 Palagonian Missionary Society from premature ex- 
 tinction. 
 
 But to relurn to Ceylon. Here also are found 
 some few sufficiently independent by character or 
 position to brave the indignation of « the Directors; » 
 and so, in their moments of frankness, they thus 
 describe the character of their converts, and the 
 manner in which they are recruited. « I have reason 
 to believe, » says the Rev. M"^ Percival, in 18o4, 
 « that converts have in some cases been again and 
 again baptized by the same minister, being presented 
 by a mercenary catechist on special days, to swell 
 the number of candidates, and induce the belief that 
 the work of conversion was steadily advancing. » 
 And then he explains the secret motive of these inge- 
 nious catechists. « One so zealous and successful could 
 not but be well reported, and eventually as certainly 
 benefited by promotion. » (2) 
 
 The annalist of Protestant attempts to convert the 
 heathen, though anxious to exaggerate their success, 
 writes as follows of their result in Ceylon : « This 
 mission has now been carried on for between thirty 
 
 (1) Tierra del Fuego, by Captain W. Parker Snow; vol. II, 
 p. 313. The Patagonian Missionary Society, p. 8. 
 
 (2) The Land of the Veda, ch. xvii, p. 406.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 33 
 
 and forty years with much fewer trials und hind- 
 rances than most of the Society's missions, yet its 
 progress has been small, as regards its great and 
 primary object, the conversion of souls to Christ. 
 Perhaps an ulter indifference to all spiritual religion, 
 rather than hypocrisy, describes the slate of heart 
 of most of the nominal converts. » (1) And this ac- 
 count is confirmed, with graphic brevity, by another 
 Protestant historian of Missions in Ceylon. « Hea- 
 thens, Mahometans, and Roman Catholics, » says 
 D'' Smith, who always ranks these three classes to- 
 gether, as identical in their spiritual stale, « were all 
 bigoted to their respeclive systems; the greater part 
 of the Protestants were perfectly indifferent about 
 the religion which they professed. » (2) And pre- 
 sently he declares of the Pioteslantconterfs, — «They 
 are Buddhists in belief, but politically Christians. » 
 Heber, who visited Ceylon officially, had long be- 
 fore remarked in his mild phrase, « there is among 
 the Cingalese and Tamul population a very large 
 amount of nominal Christians; » (3) but it was 
 leserved for later travellers to reveal their (rue cha- 
 racter. The English, we shall see, were destined to 
 be, if possible, even less successful than the Dutch, 
 though they imitated their policy so far as lo hold out 
 temporal rewards as an incentive to conversion. The 
 Rev. George Bisset, the secretary of the « Columbo 
 Auxiliary Bible Society,* reported with satisfaction to 
 the parent society, — « far from any disgrace attach- 
 ing to those who are converted to Christianity, » — 
 
 (1) Hist, of Prop, of Christianitij , vol. II, p. 365. 
 
 (2) Hist, of the Missionary Societies, vol. II, p. 479. 
 
 (3) Indian Journal, vol. If, p. 2i6. 
 
 II. 5
 
 34 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 as ill India, — « iheir private reputation is increased, 
 and their political capacity enlarged; new situations 
 of rank and emolument are brought within their 
 reach, and the native Christian may aspire to a pro- 
 motion from %Nhich the heathen, under this Govern- 
 ment, has been long excluded. » (1) The Cingalese, 
 however, declined to embrace Anglican Protestantism 
 even on these favourable terms. The proffered liber- 
 alities of the English were still less persuasive than 
 the brutal menaces of the Dutch, except in the 
 case of famished and degraded outcasts, who now 
 compose the Protestant congregations of Ceylon, and 
 who are thus described even by their masters and 
 teachers. 
 
 « The greater part of the Cingalese whom I desig- 
 nate nominal Christians of the Reformed Religion, » 
 says M' Harvard, a Wesleyan Missionary, « are little 
 more than Christians by baptism. They have no ob- 
 jection to the Christian religion, » and so they bap- 
 tized them, « but for their amusement are apt to 
 attend the Buddhist festivals. ISumbers of them make 
 no difficulty in asserting that they are both Buddhists 
 and Christians. » (2) 
 
 But they are not always so candid. Sometimes 
 they think it more prudent to be Protestantsin public, 
 and Buddhists only in private. « Amongst those \Nho 
 profess Christianity, » says Colonel Forbes, « con- 
 siderable pains are taken to conceal the unhallowed 
 rites which they secretly practise. » (5) « 1 consider 
 
 (1) Owen's History of the B. and F. Bible Society, vol. 11, 
 p. 272. 
 
 (2) Narrative, etc., Iiitrod. p. 61. 
 
 (3) Recent Disturbances in Ceylon, p. 39. (1850).
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 85 
 
 llic lelurn officially made lo the Government alto- 
 gether ridiculous, » says Colonel Campbell, speaking 
 of the Church of England Missionaries, « but ihe 
 Cingalese have shown great readiness to assist these 
 reverend gentlemen in building their houses. » And 
 then he gives a particular instance. « The village 
 wheie these gentlemen reside contained 1,644 nomi- 
 nal Christians, but the greater part of ihem were 
 Christians in name only ... most of them continue 
 to worship devoutly, or rather to fear, the host of 
 devils they firmly believe in. » (1) « A converted Bud- 
 dhist, » says another British officer, « will address 
 his prayers to our God, if he thinks he can obtain 
 any temporal benefit by so doing; but if not, he 
 would be just as likely lo pray to Buddha, or to the 
 devil. » (2) « Nominal Christians often join in idol- 
 atrous devotional exercices, » says another Protest- 
 ant official, « with apparently as much zeal as the 
 professed Buddhist. » (3) M"^ Sullivan, a capable and 
 impartial witness, notices the slill more singular fact, 
 that they will pass in the same hour from the Protest- 
 ant service to the abominations of their own idolatry, 
 so little impression has the former produced upon 
 them. « The Cingalese, » he says, from his own 
 observation, « will attend chapel, listen with attention, 
 and apparently assent with understanding, but he 
 will go from chapel to his idol, from the preaching 
 of Christianity lo the abominations of his degrading 
 profession, without the slightest trace of change ef- 
 
 (1) Excursions in Ceylon, vol. I, cli. vi, p. 1:21. 
 
 (2) Baker's Rifle in Ceylon, p. 85. 
 
 (3) Ceylon : an historical Sketch, h\ Henry Marshall, F. R. S. 
 E.,etc. p. 23G.
 
 36 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 fecled. » (i) « It is a subject of general regret to the 
 missions, » says M"" Bennett, an enthusiastic advocate 
 of the missionaries, « that, although in the imme- 
 diate neighbourhood of a nominally christian popu- 
 lation, scarcely one native family out of a hundred, 
 unless immediately connected with them, abstains, 
 on religious principle, from the ceremonies and 
 practice of devil worship. » (2) And all these wit- 
 nesses, who thus disclose the incurable impotence of 
 Protestantism, are themselves enthusiaslic Protest- 
 ants. Let us turn from these official writers lo the 
 missionaries themselves, who thus confirm their un- 
 welcome evidence. 
 
 The Rev. James Selkirk, a Church of England mis- 
 sionary, reporls of his colleague M' Browning, thai 
 « the multiplicity of his labours, and the little suc- 
 cess he met with, were such as greatly lo depress 
 3P B'' mind. » But W B. and his friends had other 
 vexations. « We are constantly pained, » adds M"" Sel- 
 kirk, « to behold vast numbers infatuated by the 
 mummeries of popery. » (3) It was, no doubt, try- 
 ing, but the contrast might have suggested other 
 emotions than empty regret or restless mortification. 
 
 « The Church of Rome, here as elsewhere, » ob- 
 serves Sir Georges Barrow, « sweeps into its fold 
 all it can get. » (4) Apparently the Church of Eng- 
 
 (1) A Visit to Ceylon, by Edward Sullivan, ch. vil, p. 75. 
 
 (2) Ceylon and its capabilities, by J. W. Bennett Esq, , F. L. S. , 
 late Ceylon Civil Establishment, ch. vu, p. 61. 
 
 (3) Recollections of Ceylon, by the Rev^ James Selkirk, 
 ch. VII, p. 201. 
 
 (4) Ceylon, Past and Present, by Sir George Barrow, ch. vii, 
 p. 168. (1857).
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 37 
 
 land tried lo do ihe same, and no one blames ihe 
 allempl; but why should it be laudable when it 
 failed, and criminal only when it succeeded? « The 
 Roman Catholic priests, » says Captain Percival, 
 « with their usual industiy, have taken advantage of 
 the current superstitions to forward the propagation 
 of their own tenets. » (1) lie does not explain his 
 meaning, nor need we attempt the unprofilable task; 
 but he also is very angry at the « vast numbers » of 
 iheirconvcrls, whose real character and manner uf life 
 other Protestant witnesses, quite as prejudiced as Sir 
 George Barrow and Captain Percival, but somewhat 
 more candid, will describe to us presently. Mean- 
 while, let us hear M Selkirk again. 
 
 « Very few of the heathen, » he says, « i. e. na- 
 tive Kandyans, could be induced to come to hear the 
 word preached, or, if they came for a short time, to 
 be regular in their attendance. » This was in 182G, 
 let us see if things improved as lime went on. In 
 1827, « there were several things to discourage. 
 Some of those who were communicants were seldom 
 at church, except on that particular Sunday on which 
 the Lord's supper was administered, » — which was 
 probably very rarely. But they did not always come 
 even then. « On one occasion there was not one of 
 the cojnmunicants present, though notice had been 
 regularly given the Sunday previous. » And these 
 were the flower of their converts. 
 
 Years pass by, and still no improvement is record- 
 ed. « The Buddhists, » M' Selkirk sadly relates, « re- 
 main prejudiced and bigoted lo their own system of 
 
 (1) Account of the Island of Ceylon, ch. ix, p. 226.
 
 38 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 error. The Roman Catholics eoiiliiiue stedfast in 
 their perversions of the Scriptures, and adherence 
 to vain superstitions : and the majority of Protestant 
 Christians, both European and natives, are lament- 
 ably indillerent to vital godliness. » (1) Is it possible 
 to avow more candidly, that Proleslanlism is the least 
 influential form of religion known amongst men? 
 
 In 1850, « the slate of things had not much altered 
 for the better. » In 1855, for we need not give the 
 whole dismal history, year by year, « out of 580 
 souls, in 125 families, » — this was a Church of Eng- 
 land mission, — « 80 children were unbaptized, 
 and in between thirty and forty families the paients 
 were living together unmarried. By far the greater 
 part of the whole visited are utterly careless, and live 
 as if they had no souls, and act as if they believed 
 with their heathen neighbours that there was no 
 God. » (2) Vet these were the « converls, » who 
 furnished the materials for « annual rcjiorts, » and 
 whose instruction and maintenance costs England 
 every year a kings's ransom. 
 
 Again ; of the « nominally Protestant Christian 
 population of the soulhern and middle parts of Cey- 
 lon, » he says, « the worship of the devil is still 
 practised among them. » 
 
 Once more ; if any one doubts the accuracy of Co- 
 lonel Campbell's frank statement that « the return 
 oflicially made to the Government is altogether ridi- 
 culous, » let him weigh the following really horrible 
 account of the same Protestant missionary. « The 
 
 (1) Recollections, etc., cli. vil, p. 204 
 
 (2) P. 2t7.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 39 
 
 Governmenl native preachers, called Proponenis, 
 havesonielimes baptized two or three hundred infants 
 and elder children at a lime. » They are paid, it 
 seems, in proportion to the number, and therefore lay 
 hold of all they can catch, employing as « sponsors » 
 any one, pagan or nol, who may be passing by; 
 while these official baptists, who save the mission- 
 aries much labour, are themselves, says M"" Selkirk, 
 « persons as ignorant of Chrislianity, as if there were 
 no such religion in the world, and who perhaps have 
 never been baptized themselves. » And then, as if 
 this deplorable caricature of Christian missions were 
 nol sufficiently complete, he adds this frightful fact : 
 — « Indeed, almost all the Buddhist priests in the 
 maritime provinces are persons who have been bap- 
 tized in their infancy. » (1) 
 
 It appears, moreover, that not only have inulti- 
 ludes of Buddhist priests received Protestant baptism, 
 and therefore been celebrated as converts at English 
 missionary meetings, but that others, who have not 
 enjoyed the same advantage, are fully recompensed by 
 more appreciable benefits. « The Governmenl, wsays 
 M' Bennett, in 184.5, « allows a monthly stipend to 
 forty two Buddhist priests. » (2) And twelve years 
 after, M"^ Baker is still able to notice the same ama- 
 zing facts. « In Ceylon , » he lells us, « we see a 
 protection granted to the Buddhist religion, while 
 flocks of missionaries are sent out to convert the 
 heathen ! We even stretch the point so far as to place 
 a British sentinel on guard at the Buddhist temple in 
 
 (1) P. 515. 
 
 (2) Ceylon and its capabilities, cli. Ll, p. 415.
 
 40 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Kandy, as tliough in mockery of our Proleslanl 
 church a hundred paces distant. » (1) 
 
 And tliese have heen the only results, beyond the 
 luxurious maintenance of a vast number of mission- 
 aries and their families, of all the Church of England 
 and other Protestant missions in Ceylon, up to the 
 present hour. In 1849, M"^ Pridham, who, it will be 
 remembered, prefers Buddhism to the Catholic Faith, 
 gives this report. « The results of the Church of Eng- 
 land Mission have been almost entirely of a negative 
 character. Christianity itself has made but lee- 
 way. » (2) And this eternal sterility, which marks 
 all the operations of the Church of England, not only 
 in Ceylon but in every other land, is still more signi- 
 ficant w hen we consider, that her missionaries, some 
 of whom are of course educated and zealous men, 
 have in several cases con\inced the Buddhists of the 
 irrational folly of their religious tenets. « Its minis- 
 ters, » as M"" Pridham observes, « have succeeded in 
 sweeping away a vast mass of the prejudices which 
 formerly confronted them. » Yet ihey can only suc- 
 ceed in making them infidels, never in making them 
 Christians. They persuade them sometimes to reject 
 the religion of Buddha, but cannot induce them to 
 accept their own in its place. They can destroy, 
 here as elsewhere, but ha\e not yet learned how to 
 build up. 
 
 It is so great an advantage to be assisted to a 
 knowledge of these instructive facts by such a wit- 
 ness as W Pridham, — just as in our enquiry 
 
 (1) Eight Years Wanderings in Ceylon, ch. xi, p. 352. 
 (1855). 
 
 (2) Ceylon, etc., p. Ui.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 41 
 
 about India we received so much valuable aid from 
 M"" Kaye, — thai we will refer lo him once more. 
 We have heard Protestant Missionaries denouncing 
 with considerable energy their own converts in Cey- 
 lon, but it appears that the day arrived when (hey 
 were inclined to retract iheir former censures, not 
 as unjust, but as weak and insufficient. « A minute 
 and careful examination of the native converts gene- 
 rally, » says M"" Pridham, « has led even the Mis- 
 sionaries to form a less favourable opinion as to their 
 sincerity than they formerly entertained. » (1) And 
 the Rev. M"" Tuppcr confirms this gloomy conclusion 
 inl8o6, when he says, that « all accounts agree in 
 reporting unfavourably of the slate of Christianity 
 among them. Every one whom I asked said, it was 
 generally a hollow profession. » (2) They did not say 
 so in writing home to their employers, who would 
 have refused lo receive such imprudent confessions, 
 hut they relieved their minds by saying it to every 
 body else. M"" Tupper considers, however, that in 
 spile of the .unvarying experience of ihe last sixty 
 years, and the possession of every temporal and po- 
 litical advantage, they are not without motives, « lo 
 encourage Missionary work; » a conclusion which 
 we shall presently see additional reasons for decli- 
 ning to adopt. 
 
 In the same year, 1836, the Rev. D' Hawks, who 
 examined all the facts on the spot with a candour not 
 unusual in Americans, says; « There are mission- 
 aries of various sects engaged in efforts to evangelise 
 
 (1) P. 44-2. 
 
 (2) Out and Home, by llie Revi' W. G. Tupper, JM. A., p. 128.
 
 42 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 the native heathen, but with what success did not 
 appear. » (1) 
 
 And this is the language of every Protestant wri- 
 ter, except a few of that class who, in the words of 
 an impartial witness, « become missionaries from 
 interested motives, and whose relations of conver- 
 sions and \ictories in the spiritual warfare are, lo 
 any one who has visited the scene of their exertions, 
 as unfounded as they are mischievous. » (2) M"^ Baker 
 also, than whom no traveller has enjoyed better op- 
 portunities of judging, honestly admits, in 1855, 
 after more than half a century of missionary exer- 
 tion, « the stationary, if not retrograde, position of 
 the Proleslant Church among the healhen; » and 
 eloquently laments ihat England should have ruled 
 so completely in vain over « the conquered nations 
 (of tlie East), who have been subject to her for half 
 a cenluiy, but know neither her language nor her 
 religion! » (5) 
 
 In 1857, for lapse of time brings no change, 
 Ar Binning, a vehement Protestant, repeats once 
 more that « Christianity has, as yet, gained but 
 little footing among the natives of this island, » and 
 that « ihe work of evangelisation seems to be scarce 
 begun » (4) after the toils of half a century ! Lastly, 
 iVP Sullivan declares from his own experience and 
 observalion, « supported by the testimony and opin- 
 
 (t) American Expedition imder Commodore Perry , by Francis 
 L. Hawks, D. D. ; ch. ni, p. 120. 
 
 (2) Sullivan, ch. vn, p. 75. 
 
 (3) Eight Years, etc., ch. XI, p. 351. 
 
 (4) Tuo Years Travel in Persia, Ceylon, etc., by Robert 
 B. M. Binning Esq., vol. I, ch. vn, p. 101.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 43 
 
 ion of unprejudiced persons, whose long residence 
 amongst them has made them acquainted with all 
 their hahits, that scarcely one real convert, whose 
 belief is sincere and lasting, annually rewards the 
 labours of the hundreds who are engaged in the spi- 
 ritual warfare. » And this fact he proclaims because, 
 he says, « it is the duty of travellers to offer the fruits 
 of their experience, and to expose the almost utter 
 uselessnessof a system that... squanders sums which, 
 if expended at home, would bring to perfection fruit 
 that has been implanted in a good soil. » (1) 
 
 Perhaps all further evidence of the character and 
 results of Protestant Missions in Ceylon may be deem- 
 ed superfluous, but we must not conclude without 
 quoting the testimony of so capable and impartial an 
 authority as Sir Emerson Tennent. All his sympathies 
 were with the men whose failure he thus describes. 
 « The Clergy of the Church of England are indefati- 
 gable in their labours amongst the heathen ; but al- 
 though the section of the peninsula which is occupied 
 by their mission contains a dense population of up- 
 wards of thirty thousands Tamils, the number who 
 ordinarily attend their ministrations se/c/om exceeds an 
 average of twenty individuals. » (2) And this is con- 
 firmed by a writer, formerly an Anglican missionary in 
 Ceylon, who repeats, in 1848, the statement of ano- 
 ther Anglican clergyman, « a man of great upright- 
 ness and untiring zeal in his work, » who declared 
 in his presence, — « I do not believe that there are 
 six real converts in the whole island. » (3) 
 
 (1) A Visit, etc., ch .vii, p. 76. 
 
 (2) Christianity in Ceylon, ch. iv, p. d68. 
 
 (3) Dublin Review, vol. XXV, p. 104. (1848).
 
 U CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Americans also, by far the most energetic in 
 liieir methods of operation, confess, tliat after all their 
 enormous expenditure, and « after thirty years of toil 
 and devotion, ihey have enumerated not more than 
 680 nominal converts, who have been, at one time 
 or other, received into communion with their church- 
 es; and the number now in connection with them 
 is but 357! » This is certainly a feeble result com- 
 pared with the 300,000 whom the Dutch reckoned, 
 especially as even the fidelity of these is extremely 
 doublful and precarious. « Of the whole number, » 
 adds Sir Emerson Tennent, « one seventh has been 
 eventually excommunicated for their relapse into 
 heathenism, and even of the remainder the Mission- 
 aries modestly remark that the proportion who are 
 ' real Christians ' can only he known to God. » (1) 
 « The Church of England Missionaries, » he repeats, 
 « speak w'ilh equal humbleness of iheir own labours 
 during the past. » 
 
 A curious example of the real character of the so- 
 called converts is furnished in the official reports of 
 the American Board for Foreign Missions, in (he year 
 1837. « During the year, » they inform their sub- 
 scribers, « forty-nine were received in to the church- 
 es, and twenty-four were excommunicated. » (2) 
 
 If, lastly, we enquire what the Wesleyaus, whose 
 published reports are far from manifesting the same 
 spirit of humbleness, have effected, there are not 
 wanting Protestant witnesses to tell us. « It is cer- 
 tain, » says an English officer, who appears to have 
 
 (1) P. 170. 
 
 (2) P. 282.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLAN. 4S 
 
 Ijeeu much struck by ihe « superabundance » ol" mis- 
 sionaries of ihis active sect, « thai their exertions 
 and privations are greatly exaggerated. Their reli- 
 gious zeal seems directed to the inculcation of their 
 own peculiar tenets, rather than to the general diffu- 
 sion of the light of Christian knowledge. Instead of 
 constantly visiting and residing at the various out- 
 slations, where the bulk of the uninformed population 
 dwell, they confine their wanderings within the limits 
 of the most desirable places of jesidence in the 
 island. » (l)This infirmity we shall find imputed to 
 them in other regions also, and especially in >ew 
 Zealand and America. 
 
 But it is fair to the Wesleyans to admit, that this 
 avoidance of hardship is no distinctive peculiarity of 
 their sect. A Protestant writer, who spent eight years 
 in Ceylon , and who deplores very candidly « the 
 enormous sums hitherto expended, with little or no 
 results, upon missionary labour, » gives us the fol- 
 lowing information. « For many years I have traver- 
 sed the wildernesses of Ceylon, at all hours and at all 
 seasons. I have met many strange things during my 
 journies, but I never recoiled having met a mission- 
 ary. » He means a Protestant missionary, for he 
 continues thus. « Nevertheless, although Protestant 
 missionaries are so rare in the jungles of the interior, 
 and, if evei- there, no vestige ever remains of such a 
 visit, still, in spots where it might be least expected, 
 may be seen the humble mud hut, surmounted by the 
 cross, the certain trace of some persevering priest of 
 the Roman faith. These men display an untiring zeal, 
 
 (1) Rambles in Ceylon, by Lieut. De Butts, ch. xiv, p. 279.
 
 46 CHAPTEH IV. 
 
 and no poinl is loo remote for iheir good offices. 
 Probably ihey are not so comfortable in their quar- 
 ters in the towns as the Proleslanl missionaries, and 
 thus ihey have less hesitation in leaving home. » (1) 
 The explanation is somewhat inadequate, but let us 
 return to the Wesleyans. 
 
 The Rev. D"^ Brown has described their operations, 
 especially those directed by a certain D"^ Coke, who 
 seems to have been a sort of ruler among them. « The 
 schools which were so numerous, » he says, « and 
 so numerously attended, were alter some years found 
 to be in a very inefficient stale, and to have done 
 little good. In some places the congregations contin- 
 ued good, but in Columbo, and others of the prin- 
 cipal stations, they fell off greatly; they were small, 
 fluctuating, and very discouraging. Even the children 
 educated in the schools, when they grew up frequent- 
 ed the idol temples, and scarcely a youth was to be 
 seen at chapel, unless he was still a scholar... Dis- 
 appointment, in short, nas felt in every department 
 of the mission. » (2) 
 
 This plan of schools was tried, as in India, by all 
 the sects, and with precisely the same results. They 
 could make atheists, but they could not make a Christ- 
 ian. « In Jaffna, » we are told by Sir Emerson Ten- 
 nent, « while the educational labours of the American 
 mission have produced almost a social- revolution 
 throughout the province, » — it appears that their 
 schools were organised wilh skill, and maintained at 
 enormous cost, — « the number of their nominal 
 converts has barely exceeded 600, out of 90,000 
 
 (1) Baker, p. 360. 
 
 (2) Hist, of Prop, of Christianity, vol. I, p. 515. (1854),
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 47 
 
 pupils! » Aiul again, speaking of llie general results 
 obtained, by all ihe seels, througlit the agency of 
 literary or educational efforts, he thus appreciates 
 the costly failure. « As an instrument of conversion 
 to Christianity, the press has hitherto been product- 
 ive of but limited success in Ceylon... The moral 
 results have been limited and unsatisfactory, though 
 industriously applied to the multiplication of the 
 8criptures and Scriptural tracts, and to the prepa- 
 ration of school-books for the educational establish- 
 ments. » (1) The Americans appear to have surpassed 
 all others in prodigal expenditure. « The boarding 
 school system, » we learn from an official report, 
 « has been carried to a greater extent than in any 
 other field to which the Board has sent missionaries.)) 
 The contributions forwarded from the United States, 
 in the single year 1858, ranged from 20 to 550 dol- 
 lars for each pupil in the Batticotla school ; yet, in 
 spite of a liberality which it is difficult to estimate 
 but impossible not to admire, not one per cent, of 
 these favoured pupils, though instructed with energy 
 and skill during a long series of years, has made even 
 a nominal profession of Christianity! Wealth, talent, 
 and perseverance, combined with unquestionable hu- 
 manity and benevolence, have utterly failed to obtain 
 results which divine grace alone, without these 
 human aids, has power to accomplish. In Ceylon, 
 as in every other land, Protestant missionaries have 
 employed a leverage powerful enough to move a 
 world, and after the convulsive eflbrts of half a 
 century have not succeeded in lifting a straw. 
 
 (1) Gh. VI, p. 203.
 
 48 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 They tried also, as a last resource, — and in this 
 the various seels appear, as usual, lo have com- 
 peted with each other, — hospitals, orphanages, and 
 other eleemosynary institutions, which are thus al- 
 luded lo hy Captain Laplace, who commanded the 
 Arleniise on her voyage of scienlilic discoveiy. « The 
 numerous philanthropic institutions, destined to pro- 
 pagate Christianity and civilization among the natives, 
 thecharilahle estahlishments, in which a fewsuffereis 
 tind relief in their misfortunes, only serve to hide 
 from the eyes of ihe vulgar the wretched condition 
 in which the population of Ceylon languish, although 
 their desliny has heen confided for many years lo 
 that which claims lo he the most philanthropic nation 
 in the civilised world. » (1) 
 
 And now that, by the aid exclusively of Protestant 
 witnesses, we have traced the history and results of 
 Protestant Missions in Ceylon, — Dutch, American, 
 and English; it only lemains to enquire in conclu- 
 sion, what the Catholic Missionaries have done, and 
 what sort of converts they have rescued from the 
 cruel bondage of Buddhist superstition and idolatry? 
 The same witnesses will tell us. 
 
 We have heard already, from Protestants of vari- 
 ous classes, not only that « vast numbers, » of ihe 
 natives of Ceylon have been converted lo the faith, 
 and, as M"" Selkirk lamented, are being « daily con- 
 verted; » but ibal, in the words of Sir Emerson Ten- 
 nent, « neither corruption nor coercion could induce 
 them to abjure it. » « Their numbers actually in- 
 creased under persecution, » says the same writer; 
 
 (1) Voijaije (k rArtemise, tome III, p. 78.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 49 
 
 « ihey conliuue sledfasl in their adherence » lo the 
 faith, says M' Selkirk, though up lo 1848 there were 
 only thirty Catholic Missionaries to serve400 church- 
 es, and nearly 200,000 Christians; they arc « big- 
 oted » to their creed, adds D' Smith, by which he 
 means constant and inflexible. 
 
 Baldseus had confessed long before, that « the most 
 cruel persecutions of the kings of Jaffnapatam » could 
 not shake the faith of the Catholic converts, though, as 
 lie observes, « they baptized many of the new convert- 
 ed natives with blood, after they had received the bap- 
 tism by water. » (1) And the history continues the 
 same to the end, for Sir Emerson Tennent declares, 
 that, « their ranks are said to be daily increased by 
 an accession of fresh converts from the heathen. » (2) 
 
 Nor has any Proleslaul writer ventured to give any 
 other accountof them. TheCatholic Missionaries, they 
 complain with one voice, succeed in winning the alle- 
 giance of their hearts and souls, while iheir unsuccess- 
 ful rivals only reckon converts who deride their reli- 
 gion even while they nominally profess it, go out from 
 a Protestant sermon lo « worship devils, » and boast that 
 they are Buddhists arid Christians at the same lime. 
 « The ascendancy exercised by the Romish priests 
 over the minds of their flocks, » says M' Pridham, 
 « is veiy complete in the places where thai religion 
 chiefly obtains, far exceeding that of their Buddhist 
 predecessors. » The Rev. James Cordiner, Protest- 
 ant Chaplain to the Garrison of Columbo, sorrow- 
 fully records, that « a great body of the inhabitants 
 
 (1) In Churchill's Collection, vol III, p. 716 
 
 (2) Ch. Ill, p. 115.
 
 50 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 now continue, voluntarily, firm in their adherence 
 to the Church of Rome. » Of the Catholic clergy 
 he candidly confesses, « they are indefatigable in 
 their lahours, and are daily making proselytes. » 
 Their chapels, built and endowed by the contri- 
 butions of the natives, » — not of the Government, 
 nor of the Missionary Societies, — « are neat and 
 well furnished. » (1) « And they are continually 
 building new ones. Fifteen Catholic churches were 
 in progress of erection in 1837, in the single province 
 of Jaffna. « It is unquestionable, » says an official 
 writer already quoted, who had noted all these 
 facts, « ihat the natives became speedily attached lo 
 their ceremonies and modes of worship, » — that is, 
 to their faith and practice, to call things by their 
 proper names, — « and have adhered lo them with 
 remarkable tenacity for upwards of three hundred 
 years. » (2) 
 
 Such is the first feature in the contrast between 
 Catholic and Protestant converts in Ceylon, but there 
 are others, still more worthy of our notice. « One 
 remarkable circumstance is observable in their con- 
 verts, » says Sir Emerson Tennent; « that the number 
 of nominal Christians is infinitely smaller amongst 
 the Roman Catholics than amongst the professors of 
 any other church in Ceylon. » (5) But this is too 
 momentous a distinction to be left to the testimony 
 of a single witness, however competent and impartial. 
 We could hardly have ventured to anticipate thai 
 
 {\) A Description ofCeijlon,hy the Rev^i James Cordiner, A. M., 
 vol. I, ch. V, p. 154. 
 
 (2) Sir E. Tennent, II, US. 
 
 (3) Id., Ill, 9G.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 51 
 
 Proteslanis would exalt llie superloiily of Catholic 
 converts, yet Providence lias arranged this also, and 
 in using them to proclaim their numbers to the 
 world, has forced (hem to confess iheir virtues at 
 the same lime. It is a Weslcyan Missionary, — full 
 of the most extravagant prejudice, so ihat he is not 
 ashamed to call an image of our Lady and ihe Infant 
 Jesus, « a female idol with a child in its arms! » — 
 who thus describes, in obedience to a power of which 
 he was unconscious, the Catholics of Ceylon. « It is 
 but justice to this class of native Christians to slate, 
 that in general they are more deiached from the 
 customs of the pagan inhabilants; more regular in 
 their attendance on the leligious services of their 
 communion ; and their general conduct more consist- 
 ent with the moral precepts of Christianity , than 
 any other religious body of any magnitude on the 
 island. » (1) But this gentleman was so impressed 
 by their marvellous constancy, under all trials and 
 temptations, that he could not restrain his reluctant 
 admiration. The following example might well excite 
 the astonishment of one who was familiar only with 
 Proleslanl converts. « More than two centuries, » he 
 says, after the Portuguese had been driven out, « two 
 small colonies of Roman Catholic Christians, the fruit 
 of the Portuguese Mission, were discovered embosom- 
 ed in the Kandyan jungles. Though unsupplied 
 with priests, they had continued a separate people, 
 and preserved their attachment to the Christian name 
 and ordinances. A copy of the New Testament, 
 Iranslaled into the vernacular tongue by an European 
 
 (1) Harvard's iVrtrr«i/De, Introd. p. 67.
 
 52 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Catholic prit'Sl, was found in llieir possession; and 
 noUsilhslanding llie errors of iheir system, ihe author 
 cannot hut avow liis con\iclion, that such a trans- 
 lation, in connection wilh the singuhu- preservation 
 of llie congregations referred to, furnishes a strong 
 prcsumj)tion of tlie purity and sincerity of those who 
 laid ihe foundation of the work. » (1) Certainly so 
 wonderful a fact might well suggest this conclusion, 
 and wc have reason to he surprised that (his was all 
 the effect it produced. 
 
 The superior morality of the Catholic natives was 
 also generously attested hy Sir Alexander Johnston, 
 Chief Justice of Ceylon, who honorahly confessed to 
 the Archhishop of Goa, « thai in a circuit he had 
 lately made though the island, theie was not a single 
 Catholic brought for trial. » 
 
 All ihc Protestant witnesses appear to notice with 
 surprise, some with peevish displeasure, another 
 striking contrast between their own adherents and 
 the disciples of the Catholic faith. Sir Emerson Ten- 
 ncnt, after deploring « the trifling aggregate contri- 
 butions » of the Protestant converts, says; « The 
 Roman Catholic converts are by far the most willing 
 to conlribule from their own means to the support 
 of their clergy and churches, and their donations for 
 these purposes are on a scale of extreme liberality. » 
 And this liberality is displayed by all ranks alike; 
 although, as xVP Bertolacci observes, « poverty pre- 
 vails in Ceylon more than in many other countries, 
 because (here are so very few manufactures carried 
 on in it. » (2) « All the fishermen, » says a Presby- 
 
 (1) Harvard's A'a/ra^H'e, Introd. p. 6i. 
 
 (2) Vieiv of Ceijlun, by A. Bertolacci Esq., p. 205.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. S3 
 
 terian writer, « are said lo be Roman Catholics, and 
 the tithe (hey pay to be worth 10,000 I. a year. » (1) 
 « Many of the Romanist churches in Columbo, » says 
 IM"" Pridham, « have been built from the funds wrung 
 from the earnings of the devoted fishermen. » lie says 
 « wrung, » though he knows the gift is one of vo- 
 luntary charity, and does not stop to consider 
 what makes them « devoted. » M' Selkirk, though 
 not less influenced by angry prejudice, says; « The 
 Roman Catholics of the Fisher-Caste are building a 
 new church at Ncgombo entirely at their own ex- 
 pense. They refuse to take money which people of 
 other casles, though Roman Catholics, are willing to 
 subscribe. They give up the produce of their fishing 
 one day in the week for this purpose. » (2) M"^ Sel- 
 kirk, though a missionary, calls this « a specimen of 
 the zeal of the Roman Catholics which might put 
 Protestants to the blush. » JM"" Robinson also, though 
 he loses all self-possession when bespeaks of Catho- 
 lics, was so struck by ihc same class of facts, that 
 be uses exactly ihe same expression : « The zeal of 
 some of the poor Roman Catholics in Ceylon might 
 put many English Protestants to the blush. » (3) We 
 shall presently bear even a pagan Cingalese making 
 the same remark. 
 
 It is worthy of notice, and a sufficient refutation 
 of M"" Pridham's unwise calumnies, that the natives, 
 from whom their Catholic pastors have no need to 
 " wring » the contributions which their zeal sponta- 
 
 (t) Six Years in India, by M''« G. Mackenzie, vol. Ill, ch. iv, 
 p. HO. 
 
 (2) Recollections, etc., p. 391. 
 
 (3) Romanism in Ceylon, p. 10.3.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 neously offers, will someliines build churches even 
 in places where ihere is no Catholic missionary, in 
 the hope that iheir unsolicited munificence may in- 
 duce one to compassionate their need ; and the writer 
 who records this striking and unexampled fad, and 
 who once lived amongst ihcm, says ; « We know of 
 a single priest who, under not extraordinary cir- 
 cumstances, baptized more than 112 adults in the 
 course of one year. » (1) 
 
 But besides building churches out of their poverty, 
 and at the instigation solely of their own pious zeal, 
 we learn from Protestants to Whose honour they 
 dedicate them. It appears that M"" Selkirk, in spile of 
 his dislike of the « mummeries of popery, » some- 
 times ventured to enter the Catholic churches. « Of 
 course I could not understand ibe service, » he says, 
 hut « the name of ' Maria ' came often over, and 
 some of them repeated at intervals tlie name of 
 ' Jesus, ' in a very feeling manner, and smote their 
 breasts, crying out, ' My sin, my great sin. ' » We 
 who do « understand the service » have no difficulty 
 in comprehending, even from tbis defective account, 
 what these good peo|)le were doing, and Whose 
 praises they were celebrating. 
 
 And now we have sufficient Protestant evidence of 
 these facts, — that the Catholic natives of Ceylon 
 exist every where in great numbers, that new con- 
 versions occur « daily , » tbat nothing can seduce 
 their constancy, and that they are moral, diligent in 
 prayer, subject in all sincerity to their pastois, and 
 profuse in sacrifices and alms-deeds. It is not from 
 
 (t) See Dublin Revieir, vol. XXV, p. 106.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON, S5 
 
 Catholic witnesses, lo wliom we have no need to 
 apply, that wc learn this, but from men who record 
 it with grief and dismay. We cannot be surprised, 
 then, to learn, and this may be our final observation, 
 that even the heathen Cingalese, both educated and 
 ignorant, easily discriminate between them and the 
 nominal Christians of the Protestant sects. 
 
 The Journal of « Bishop Chapman of Colombo, >• 
 of the year 1850, — for all the facts we have noticed 
 remain unchanged up to the present hour, — records 
 the following instance of the estimate which the 
 healhen themselves have foimed of the results of 
 Protestant conversion. A kandyan chief, invited by 
 an Anglican Missionary lo allow his son to be bapti- 
 zed, gave him this answer. « What! would you have 
 me make him a drunkard? » (1) Another Protestant 
 writer, in 1854, gives a recent example still more 
 curious and instructive, and one which will render 
 all further testimony superfluous. 
 
 M"" Knighton, who was familiar with the interior 
 as well as with the maritime provinces of Ceylon, re- 
 lates in his interesting work four conversations which 
 he had with an educated Buddhist, Marandhan, a 
 Kandyan Colonel, who was « a fine specimen of his 
 class, » and whom he endeavoured to convert to 
 Christianity. Marandhan remarked to him that he had 
 obser\ed « the rancorous hatred between Protestants 
 and Roman Catholics, » and continued thus : — 
 « Well, with respect to these two great bodies of 
 Christians, I have observed this — and I am sure 
 )ou will not be offended at my mentioning it. » 
 
 (1) Colonial Church Chronicle, vol. V, p. 269.
 
 56 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 knighton. « Certainly not, any observations of 
 yours on the subject I should be glad to hear. » 
 
 M. « Well, this : — Protesttints talk most of their 
 religion, Roman Catholics believe most. The former 
 seem more eiilighlened on the subject, the latter put 
 their trust in Christianity more firmly and more un- 
 hesitatingly. Many of the former seem to be sceptics, 
 and none of the latter. Of this, too, I feci certain, 
 that, generally speaking, the latter will make more 
 sacrifices for their religion than the former. » 
 
 The Kandyan, — who was apparently a keen 
 observer, and whose remarks upon the contrast 
 which he had delected go some way towards explain- 
 ing the failure of Protestant missions in all lands, — 
 then instanced a recent case, an abortive attempt to 
 colled subscriptions for a Protestant missionary from 
 among the planters, and went on thus; — 
 
 « Considering the number of planters in this pro- 
 vince, how small a proportion was willing to aid the 
 original purposes of the scheme in carrying it out ! I 
 saw the list in the newspaper, not one twentieth 
 part of the entire planting population, and yet all had 
 been applied to ! Now, had they been Roman Catho- 
 lics, instead of Protestants, do you think that result 
 would have followed? » 
 
 K. « Problably not. The unhappy disunion amongst 
 us was the cause, however, of the failure of the 
 scheme. » 
 
 M. « Another result of private judgment I » 
 
 K. « Perhaps so. We are wandering, however, 
 from Buddhism. » (1) The conversation was appa- 
 
 (1) Forest Life in Ceylon, by W. Knighton, M. A., vol. II, 
 app. pp. 411, 12.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 57 
 
 renlly taking an unpleasant turn, and M"" Knighton 
 hastened to divert it into a safer channel. He found 
 it easier to attack Buddhism than to shield his own 
 religion from the assaults of so intelligent an adver- 
 sary. 
 
 We have been told that the heathen in other lands 
 are quite as observant of « the unhappy disunion » 
 which is the characteristic of Protestantism as the 
 natives of Ceylon. The Chinese replies to the mis- 
 sionaries of the various sects which present their 
 conflicting religions for his acceptance, « You must 
 have as many Chrisls in Kurope as we have gods in 
 China; » and the Hindoo says, as M"" Le Bas told 
 us, « I should like your Christianity belter if there 
 were not quite so many kinds of it. » Let us hear 
 what Protestant writers relate of the same mode of 
 reasoning in Ceylon. 
 
 « I cannot but regret, » says Major Forbes, « the 
 numerous and perplexing divisions of the Christian 
 community. » (1) He had seen what were their 
 bitter fruits, which a more philosophical writer thus 
 describes at large for the admonition and instruction 
 of his co-religionists. 
 
 « A serious obstacle to the acceptance of reformed 
 Christianity by the Singhalese Buddhisis has arisen 
 from the distinctions and diflerences between the 
 various churches by whose ministers it has been 
 successively offered to them. In the persecutions of 
 the Roman Catholics by the Dutch, the subsequent 
 supersession of the Church of Holland by that of 
 
 (i) Eleven Years in Ceylon, by Major Forbes, vol. I, cb. v, 
 p. 112. 
 
 ir. 4
 
 58 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 England, the rivalries more or less apparent between 
 the Episcopalians and Presbyterians, and the pecu- 
 liarities which separate ihe Baptists from the Wes- 
 leyan Methodists — all of whom have their missions 
 and representatives in Ceylon — the Singhalese can 
 discover little more than that they are offered some- 
 thing still doubtful and unsettled, in exchange for 
 which they are pressed to surrender their own an- 
 cient superstition. Conscious of their inability to 
 decide on what it has baffled the wisest of their 
 European teachers to reconcile, they hesitate to ex- 
 change for an appaient uncertainty what has been 
 unhesitatingly believed by generations of their an- 
 cestors, and comes recommended to them by all the 
 authority of antiquity; and even when truth has 
 been so far successful as to shake their confidence in 
 their national faith, the choice of sects which has 
 been offered to them leads to utter bewilderment as 
 to the peculiar form of Christianity with which they 
 may most confidingly replace il.» (l)If the experience 
 and observation of Sir Emerson Tennent had issued 
 only in this pregnant statement, it would have been 
 impossible to over-estimate its value. 
 
 We have already seen, in reviewing the history 
 of Protestant missions in other lands, and we shall 
 meet with fresh examples in every chapter of this 
 work, that the most evident effect of the presence 
 of Protestant missionaries in pagan countries is to 
 render their conversion impossible. The instincts of 
 human nature suflice to condemn a form of religion 
 which cannot unite even its own disciples in a 
 
 (I) Sir E. Tennent, ch. v, p. 196.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. S9 
 
 uniform profession; and ihe healheii only smiles al 
 the pretentions of a doctrine in which he detects the 
 inconstancy, contradictions, and incoherence which 
 helray even to his dull eye its earthly origin. He 
 knows that whatever be truth, this it cannot be. And 
 Protestant travellers, affrighted by the unwelcome 
 portent which confronts them at every step in their 
 wanderings, have contended with one another in 
 uttering cries of warning, rebuke, or entreaty, which 
 attest indeed the mortal influence of the evil they 
 deplore, but do not even suggest a remedy. « In 
 Ceylon and in India, » says one who had visited 
 many lands, and brought away the same sorrowing 
 conviction from each, « the Protestant Church has 
 no chance in competition with the Roman Catholic. 
 The importance of the precept. In vestc larietas sit, 
 non sit scissura, is fully recognised by the latter 
 Churchy which admits of no schism to affect its form 
 of worship, thereby offering a marked contrast to 
 the varied forms and conflicting doctrines of the 
 Protestant faith, that not only weaken and nullify 
 her al home, but utterly confuse and astound the 
 ignorant heathen abroad. » (1) And another writer, 
 — for all who have no private interest to serve use 
 the same language, — after noticing that the only 
 converts made in Ceylon are Catholics, thus explains 
 the sterility of the Protestant missions. « Among the 
 confusion arising from our multitudinous sects and 
 schisms, the native is naturally bewildered. \A'hat 
 with High Church, Low Church, Baptists, Wesleyans, 
 Presbyterians, etc., etc., etc., the ignorant native is 
 
 (1) A Visit to Ceylon, by Edward Sullivan, ch. vii, p. 78.
 
 60 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 perfectly aghast at the variety of choice. » (1) 
 And now \se may ask, since it is the only enquiry 
 which remains to he satisfied, what explanation do 
 Protestants offer of this new example, attested hy 
 themselves, of the contrast helween Catholic and 
 Protestant missions to the heaihen? Most of them, 
 it appears, maintain in this case an ahsolule silence, 
 and are content to acknowledge a fact which the 
 researches of their own friends have disclosed. They 
 proclaim the complete and unchanging success of 
 the Catholic, the perpetual failure of the Protestant 
 missionaries, — and then they are silent. But Sir 
 Emerson Tennent, though too upright and intelligent 
 to countenance any disingenuous pleadings, and 
 though he sharply rehukes both English calumny 
 and Dutch cruelty, is of too ardent a temper not to 
 attempt at least some solution of the problem. He 
 puts aside, first of all, as might be expected in such 
 a man, the immoral fictions of writers like Hough 
 and Cordiner, who try to obscure an unwelcome 
 fact by boldly asserting, that the Catholics « com- 
 pelled the natives of Ceylon to adopt their religion. » 
 « I have discovered nothing, » says Sir Emerson, « in 
 the proceedings of the Portuguese in Ceylon to justify 
 the imputation of violence and constraint; but unfor- 
 tunately as regards the Dutch Presbyterians, their 
 own records are conclusive as to the severity of their 
 measures, and the ill success by which they were 
 followed. » But if the earlier Catholic missionaries 
 disdained such criminal and profitless measures, even 
 when the civil authorities were, in some instances, 
 
 (1) Baker, Eight Years, etc., ch. xi, p. 361.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 6< 
 
 men of iheir own faiih ; much less could ihey dream 
 of adopting ihem during the last two centuries, 
 when they were themselves the ohjects of ceaseless 
 and unsparing persecution. Yet it is precisely during 
 the latter epoch, under the Dutch and English go- 
 vernments, that iheir successes have been most 
 conspicuous. 
 
 We are not surprised, then, that a writer like 
 Sir Emerson Tennent, should refuse to adopt an 
 explanation at once so inadequate and so arbitrary. 
 He suggests, however, in grave and temperate lan- 
 guage, two considerations, which appear to have 
 impressed his own mind, and which deserve our 
 respectful notice. The inflexible stability, as well as 
 the superior morality of the Catholic natives, may, 
 he thinks, be partly attributed to « the over-ruling 
 influence of the Confessional, and the unintermitted 
 control which it exerts over the feelings and the actions 
 of its votaries. » And then he adds, — « in fact, if 
 any evidence were wanting to substantiate the real 
 ascendancy thus acquired and maintained by the 
 Church of Rome, it would be found in the munifi- 
 cence with which the natives contribute habitually 
 for its support. » 
 
 With this statement we find no fault. No doubt 
 the Sacrament of Penance produces the same healing 
 effect in Ceylon as in other lands. No doubt they are 
 happy who taste its salutary power, whether in 
 Ceylon or elsewhere. But the use of this Sacrament 
 is the elfect, not the cause of conversion. Men seek 
 the tribunal of penance when their consciences are 
 enlightened, they abhor it while enslaved by self- 
 love. They come to it of their own free will, moved
 
 62 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 by divine grace, and the deep searchings of the 
 heart. Bui so far is the « over-ruling influence of 
 llie confessional » from explaining the conversion of 
 pagans, — though it may partly account for their 
 subsequent constancy and virtue, — that it would be 
 more reasonable to regard it as an additional impedi- 
 ment to their adoption of a religion which imposes, 
 upon all its disciples alike, so wholesome but mor- 
 tifying a discipline. The confessional. Sir Emerson 
 Tennent may be assured, makes men excellent Christ- 
 ians when once admitted into the Church, but it 
 deters no small number from entering. The Sacra- 
 ment of Penance has fortified the Cingalese in the 
 practice of religion, but it was not the Sacrament of 
 Penance which first led ihem to embrace it. 
 
 The second suggestion of ibis excellent writer has 
 less claims to our respect. It is the « gaudy cere- 
 monial » of tlic Catholic Church, he says, which has 
 retained the Cingalese in her communion. But let 
 us quote his own words. « There is palpable evidence 
 to eslablish the fact, that once enrolled as Roman 
 Catholics, the imagination of the Cingalese became 
 exciled;, and their tastes permanently captivated by 
 striking ceremonial and pompous pageantry. » This 
 is a common Protestant explanation of the triumphs 
 of Catholic Missionaries. It has been applied to their 
 work in all parts of the world. It was this, says 
 Count Hogendorp, (1) which fascinated the Japanese. 
 He says it boldly, as if no one could deny it, though 
 he very well knew that tens of thousands of Japanese 
 were converted by men who had no other earthly 
 
 (1) Coup (Tail sur Java, par le Comte de Hogendorp, cli. xi, 
 p. 389.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 63 
 
 possessions llian a cassock, a crucifix, and a breviary. 
 And what is true of Japan is equally true of every 
 other pagan land. Does Sir Emerson Tennent sup- 
 pose that Fatlier Joseph Vaz, for example, when 
 a fugitive in the swamps and jungles of Ceylon, 
 converted thirty thousand idolaters by « pompous 
 pageantry? » Did St. Francis Xavier, whose eccle- 
 siastical apparatus was limited to a hand-bell and a 
 catechist, convert seven hundred thousand souls by 
 « gaudy ceremonial? » Did the Venerable John de 
 Britlo gain his tens of thousands in the forests of 
 Marava by the splendours of an imposing ritual? Was 
 it by the aid of such accessories that the martyred 
 apostles of China and Corea, whose churches were 
 huts and their vestments rags, won their triumphs? 
 Was it « pageantry » w hich rescued 1 ,500,000 South 
 American Indians from the worship of demons? Was 
 it « ritual » which caused the Holy Name to be adored 
 on the banks of Lake Huron, by the borders of the 
 Ohio and the iMississippi, and again, at a later date, 
 in the plains of Oregon and the valleys of the Rocky 
 Mountains? Is it by a « gaudy ceremonial » that the 
 Franciscans are at this moment renewing their an- 
 cient victories in the far interior of Brazil, or the 
 Lazarisls in Syria, or the Jesuits in Columbia, or 
 the Marisls in the islands of the Pacific? What, then, 
 shall we think of a cause which strives to cloak its 
 eternal humiliation, and to excuse its perpetual mis- 
 adventures, by a plea which it knows to be false, and 
 by attributing the conquests which it vainly envies 
 lo means which it was absolutely impossible to use, 
 and which would have been utterly inadequate and 
 ineffectual even if they had been employed?
 
 64 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The solitary explanation which Protestants ven- 
 ture to suggest of the triumphs of Catholic mission- 
 aries, attested in every land by their own witnesses, 
 but every where denied to themselves, deserves fur- 
 ther consideration. Let us examine it once for all, 
 that we may not have to notice it again. It is their 
 only argument; and yet it is at variance, not only 
 with historical facts, but even with the universal 
 practice of man, both heathen and christian, and 
 with the instincts of his nature. And Qrst, it is at 
 variance with facts. 
 
 There is not so mucli as one example, literally not 
 one, in the whole history of missions, of the heathen 
 being attracted towards the Catholic religion simply 
 by its ritual accompaniments. Only wilful ignorance, 
 or incurable petulance, could attribute the conver- 
 sions in India or China to such a cause ; while in 
 every other land in which missionary operations are 
 now in progress, the poverty of the Catholic evan- 
 gelists has become a proverb. In the islands of the 
 Paciflc, of which we shall have to speak hereafter, 
 we hear of Catholic missionaries wanting even the 
 common necessaries of life, and of their Bishop 
 using « the back bone of a whale for his episcopal 
 throne, » In America, even at the present day, they 
 have not always food to eat; though in some pro- 
 vinces, as in Texas, Oregon, and California, it is 
 habitually of the coarsest kind. In South America, 
 they willingly share the life of the poor Indian, who 
 honours them in spile, perhaps because, of their 
 apostolic poverty; and obeys them, as his fathers 
 obeyed theirs, with loving reverence. An American 
 Protestant, who not long ago visited the Valley of
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 6S 
 
 ihe Amazon, — in whose dislant solitudes he en- 
 countered Catholic missionaries whom he descrihes, 
 with generous enthusiasm, as the very ideal of apos- 
 tolic teachers, — makes this observation; « I was 
 amazed at the poverty of the church, and determ- 
 ined, if I ever went back, to appeal to the Roman 
 Catholics of the United States for donations. » (1) 
 And this is conGrmed by an English officer, who 
 traversed the same remote regions, where he found 
 Catholic missionaries honoured with « the greatest 
 respect and deference, » even by natives who « showed 
 no deference to any one but the Padre, » but where 
 he describes almost every church which he saw, from 
 the Andes to Para, as little better than « a huge 
 barn. » (2) Yet we are asked to believe that the 
 Church wins souls to God only by the fascinations 
 of a « gaudy ceremonial. » 
 
 But this popular explanation contradicts, not only 
 the facts which are admitted and proclaimed by 
 every competent witness, but also the most notorious 
 phenomena of heathen life. The pagan, though he 
 has reared many a gorgeous temple, and decorated 
 it with such skill as his knowledge of art allows, 
 has never even conceived the idea of devising a spe- 
 cious ceremonial as a substitute for a more active 
 and intellectual worship. Everywhere he retains, in 
 spile of his fall, the primitive traditions oi sacrifice, 
 prayer, and mortification. The very Hindoo would 
 despise the imposture of a hollow ecclesiastical pa- 
 geantry. He does not even worship idols, if we may 
 
 (1) Lieut. Hcrndon's Valley of the Amazon, ch. xi, p. 225. 
 
 (2) Narrative of a Joiirneij from Lima to Para, by Lieut. 
 W. Smytli, ch. viil, p. 148 ; ch. xi, p. 213, 
 
 XI. *.
 
 66 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 believe Protestant writers, but « symbols of ibe 
 Almighty's power; » (1) and Sir William Hooker 
 affirms generally of the Buddhist devotee, that he 
 « attaches no real importance to the idol itself. » (2) 
 His worship is demonology, but still it is worship. 
 He comprehends, unlike the Protestant, those great 
 principles which the latter alone of all mankind seem 
 to repudiate in their practice, — the sovereign rights 
 of the Creator over His creature, the obligation and 
 efficacy of penance in a fallen race, and the principle 
 of sacrifice as the essence of worship. Hence it is 
 easier to convert him than the children of Luther 
 and Calvin, who have lost even these primary no- 
 tions. The disciples of Buddha and Confucius, of 
 Brahma and Mahomet, nauseate, in spite of their 
 spiritual penury, the sapless food of pageantry and 
 ceremonial, as incapable of appeasing the famine of 
 their souls. And they have shown, in many a land, 
 that they know how lo discriminale between the 
 solemn ritual which veils and symbolises the august 
 mysteries of ihe Christian Altar, and those chili 
 forms of Protestantism which symbolise nothing; — 
 dreary accompaniments of a religion which rightly 
 eschews ceremonial, because it has nothing to hide 
 and nothing to reveal, because it begins and ends 
 with man, and contains no deeper mystery than the 
 varying accents of the human voice. And thus it 
 comes to pass, as we have read in this chapter, that 
 the heathen will hurry immediately from a Protestant 
 service to the adoration of his ow n divinities, because 
 
 (1) The Wonders of Elora, cli. xiv, p. 3i7. 
 
 (2) Himalayan Journals, vol. I, ch. xiv, p. 32-4,
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 67 
 
 he has delected that in the former there was not 
 even the semblance of worship. lie has hardly been 
 conscious that so frigid a ceremony, in which he 
 has seen only a man reading out of a hook to other 
 men, often without much sign of interest on either 
 side, had even the pretence to be a religious service. 
 He has perceived in it nothing hut a tedious and 
 unmeaning formality, which he has deemed, like the 
 Hindoo, only a new eccentricity of his incompre- 
 hensible rulers. Yet he has confessed, at the first 
 glance, on entering the humblest Catholic oratory, 
 that there men were offering worship. In both cases 
 his instinct has guided him aright. 
 
 There is no form of religion in the world, as De 
 Maistre has shown, save only Protestantism and 
 Islamism, of which sacrifice is not the chief act. 
 « Ubi corpus fuerit, » said our Blessed Lord, « ibi et 
 aquilee congregabuntur ; » (l)in which divine words 
 we have, so to speak, the whole distinction between 
 the Catholic and Protestant religions. And a learned 
 English writer tells us, that even « to the Hindoo the 
 ideas of a Sacrifice, an Incarnation, and a Trinity 
 are already familiar : » (2) so that when the true 
 notion of these divine mysteries has been unfolded 
 to his consciousness by men whose manner of life 
 corresponded with his own conception of what befits 
 a teacher of religion, he fell on his knees and adored, 
 confessing the supreme majesty of that tremendous 
 Altar and Sacrifice by which, as the last of the pro- 
 phets had foretold, the Name of God should become 
 
 (t) St Luke, XVII, 37. 
 , (2) Life of Baber, Emperor of Ilindostan, by R. M. Caldccoll 
 Esq., p. 336.
 
 68 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 « great among the Gentiles. » (1) This is the secret 
 of conversion, and not the ritual which does but 
 feebly minister to it. 
 
 On the other hand, the religions of the so-called 
 Reformation, upon which the heathen looks, in every 
 land, either with unmoved apathy or with angry 
 contempt, are thus described even by their most 
 eminent advocates. « The characteristic badge of the 
 Protestant world, » says Menzel, « is religious indif- 
 ference. Every thing depends in the Protestant form 
 of worship upon the preacher for the time being. For 
 the Catholic, all his churches are alike, and he con- 
 ducts his devotion without the priest, as it makes but 
 little difference what priest officiates. Hence there 
 prevails, if I may so say, an undisturbed equanimity 
 of devotion every where among the Catholics. Among 
 the Protestants, however, every thing depends upon 
 the personal character of the preacher; for his sake 
 alone, and only when he is present, do people go to 
 church; people regard him alone, are concerned with 
 him alone, because nothing else in the Protestant 
 church attracts attention. » (2) He only stops short 
 of the confession, which could not be expected from 
 him, that this is the very apostasy predicted of old, 
 which should set up man in the place of God, and 
 having « taken away the Daily Sacrifice, » should 
 bring in « the abomination of desolation. » (3) 
 
 And we have seen that such an impression exists 
 even in the heathen mind with respect to it. Every 
 where they doubt whether Protestantism be really a 
 
 (1) Malachias, i, H. 
 
 (2) German Literature, by Menzel, vol. 1, p. 147; (ed.Feltoii.) 
 
 (3) Daniel, xi, 31.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 69 
 
 religion at all. « They marvel, » says JVr Forbes, 
 « whether the English have any religion. » The Per- 
 sians, M"" Walpole and olhers tell us, make (he same 
 remark. The Turks, as IVP Warburton noticed, call 
 ihem « the prayerless. » The Chinese, as D"^ Morrison 
 complained, « are irreverent, and laugh. » The Kurds 
 claim the English as co-religionists, because « they 
 keep no fasts and say no prayers ; » and even the 
 Druses, the atheists of Syria, have learned to consider 
 the Protestant religion, as we shall be told hereafter, 
 « a species of freemasonry which very much resem- 
 bles their own. » Why, then, does Sir Emerson Ten- 
 nenl attempt to explain the success of Catholic and 
 the failure of Protestant missionaries by a suggestion 
 which deals only with the surface of things, and 
 leaves Iheir substance untouched? The Iriie explana- 
 tion lies deeper. It is not a question of rilual, but of 
 doctrine. The Catholic succeeds, not only because his 
 vocalion, his gifts, and his faith, are all from God, 
 but because he can erect an Altar on which He is 
 really present ; the Protestant fails, because even the 
 heathen detect that he is only a man like themselves, 
 and though he affects to be the minister of a divine 
 religion, can entertain them with nothing more divine 
 than ihe sound of his own voice. 
 
 One more observation we may offer, before finally 
 quilting a subject to which it will not be necessary 
 hereafter to recur. It there be in the w orld a class of 
 men who, in a certain sense, are absolutely indifferent 
 to « ceremonial, » although obliged to use it, and 
 who in celebrating the mysteries of their holy religion 
 are almost unconscious of its presence, the Catholic 
 belongs to that class. Whether he assists at the Holy
 
 70 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Sacrifice, which coiislilules ihe chief act of his reli- 
 gion, or at any other of the divine offices which 
 allracl him with irresistible power to the house of 
 prayer, his eye and heart are fixed, not on sensible 
 objects, but on that Awful Presence, — stupendum 
 supra omnia miraculum, — which at one time is 
 veiled in the Tabernacle, at another manifested to the 
 gaze of the faithful. Vestments, music, and incense 
 — whatever meets the eye or ear — he hardly notes, 
 for there is something there which speaks to the soul, 
 and taxes all ils powers. Let the accompanying cere- 
 monial be meagre or imposing, it is ^^ith the mind of 
 a Christian, not of an artist, that he marks its pre- 
 sence ; all he asks is, that it shall not distract him — 
 the rest, in the presence of those stupendous myste- 
 ries, is of little import. Like Mary and Salome, he is 
 thinking of the Body which he has come to adore, 
 not of the « sweet spices » which he has brought to 
 anoint it. lie provides indeed, out of leverent love, 
 the « fine linen, » the « myrrh and aloes, » (1) and 
 whatsoever else his de\otion may inspire or the 
 Church appoint, for in this august action she leaves 
 nothing to human caprice or invention ; but all these 
 accessories of his worship, from the least to the 
 greatest, — the cloud of incense, the blazing lights, 
 the swelling choir, and the jewelled robes, — have 
 no worth and no significance but as offerings to Ilim 
 who gives them all their value by deigning to accept 
 them, « All these are signs and symbols; for the 
 devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is the adoration of 
 the Uncreated Majesty Verily there is no pomp 
 
 (1) S.John, XIX, 39.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 71 
 
 but ihal of a believing and loving Heart, wbieb pays 
 welcome or respeclful court to tbis Sacramental 
 King. Wben we gaze iberefore upon tbe wbite robes 
 of tbe Immaculate King, tbe ligbls and flowers of tbe 
 sancluary seem lo fade away, and tbere open before 
 tbe eyes of faitb interminable regions of various 
 splendour and consummate beauty, over wbicb as 
 Man He is at tbis moment wielding His far-reacbing 
 sceptre of dominion. » (1) 
 
 It is true ibat tbis is not tbe idea wbicb Protestants 
 entertain of Calbolic worsbip, but Proteslanis are 
 hardly competent judges in sucb a matter. For tbem, 
 — wbo consistently despise « ceremonial, » because 
 ibey abolisbed long since tbe Daily Sacrifice, and cast 
 the Altar to tbe ground, — only ibat wbicb meets 
 tbe eye and ear bas any meaning, and even ibis tbey 
 pervert or misconceive. Wben INP Selkirk enters a 
 Calbolic cburcb in Ceylon, and tells us, « of course 
 I could not understand tbe service, » be accurately 
 represents the qualifications wbicb Protestants bring 
 lo tbe critical examination of Catholic worsbip. Wben 
 D' Clark notes tbe breathless devoiion of a congrega- 
 tion in Seville Caihedral, and then adds with con- 
 tempt, that it was some « picture » which bis roving 
 glance had detected that tbey were really worship- 
 ping; (2) be knew not that he was probably the only 
 person in that silent throng wbo was even conscious 
 of its presence. Wben another Episcopalian clergy- 
 man goes to a High Mass at St. Peter's, celebrated by 
 the Sovereign Pontiff, and then hurries home to write 
 
 (1) Father Faber, T/te B/essed Sacrament, book IV, § 2, p. 432. 
 
 (2) Glimpses of the Old World, by the Revd I. A. Clark, D.D.
 
 T2 CHAPTER IV 
 
 in his journal, « Alas ! no religious feeling could for 
 a moment be connecled with it! » (i) — he only 
 proves llial lie Avas looking for man, and listening 
 for man's voice, where the company of the faithful 
 saw God alone. It is ever thus with spectators of this 
 kind. Like the Jews who thronged the streets, going 
 up to the Passover, they see a Child sealed on an ass, 
 and a Maiden by His side; hut they hurry on, and 
 know not that it is the Lord of Heaven and His Im- 
 maculate Mother whom they have just passed by. The 
 « Sacramental King » is as effectually hidden from 
 the sectary, as the Incarnate God was from the Jew. 
 They wander into the temple, they hear the music, and 
 see the lighls, — for they can exercise sensual func- 
 tions, — but of what is really going on in that place, 
 what mean those bended knees and downcast eyes, 
 why that ministrant is covered with cloth of gold and 
 demeans himself like one standing in the court of 
 Heaven, — all this is as completely hidden from them 
 as if the Cross had never been lifled up on Mount 
 Calvary, nor the Pure Oblation known amongst men. 
 And so ihey smile on one another, and then go home, 
 like M"" Selkirk, to talk of « the mummeries of po- 
 pery. » So utterly unconscious are they of that which 
 is the joy and life of all other Christians, as it-is the 
 supreme blessedness of the Angels in heaven, — so 
 effectually have they banished God even from their 
 temples, in oider to enthrone man in His place, — 
 that ihey can only scoff while men who have known 
 Him from their childhood upwards are holding their 
 brealh in His Presence, so deeply absorbed and 
 
 (1) Memorial of the Holy Land, by the Revd George Fisk, p. 25.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 73 
 
 entranced by that coming amongst them of the Holy 
 One, ihougli His majesty be clouded by the sacra- 
 mental veils, that they forget, not only music and 
 incense and vestments, but even the intrusion of these 
 jesting critics, who with unbent knee and head erect, 
 in all the wisdom of complacent ignorance, are pas- 
 sing sentence upon ihem. 
 
 Jf it were possible for aliens to know, for one 
 brief hour, what is the Presence of God in ihe Church, 
 and how it is manifested, they would comprehend 
 at last, that the « ceremoni«l » which (hey deem so 
 imporlant an element in Catholic worship has no 
 charm either to beguile Christians or to convert the 
 heathen. They would learn also to rebuke and detest 
 the light judgments of foolish men, whom the Prince 
 of the Apostles calls, in terrible words which only 
 an Apostle might use, « irrational beasts, blasphe- 
 ming those things which they know not. » (1) 
 
 And now we may conclude. We have heard 
 enough of the history of religion in Ceylon, and of 
 Protestant comments upon it. The evidence which 
 might have been obtained from Catholic sources has 
 been excluded, in spite of its interest and import- 
 
 (t) SJ S' Peter, ii, d2. Since « the Blessed Sacrament is the 
 greatest work of God, the most perfect picture of Him and the 
 most complete representation of Jesus, it must needs follow that 
 it is Ihe very life of the church, being not only the gift of Jesus, 
 hut the very living Jesus Himself... It is the central devotion of 
 the church. All others gather round it, and group themselves there 
 as satellites ; for others celebrate His mysteries , this is Himself. 
 It is the universal devotion. No one can be without it, in order to 
 he a christian. How can a man be a christian who does not wor- 
 ship the living presence of Christ? » Father Faber, The Blessed 
 Sacrament, book IV, § 7, p. 541.
 
 74 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ance, because il is proposed in these volumes , for 
 obvious reasons, to leave historical proofs to Protest- 
 ants alone. Il is from them we have learned how the 
 native Catholics of Ceylon have resisted, during three 
 centuries, both the savage assaults of persecution 
 and the politic benevolence of heresy. From them 
 also we have learned what is the character of their 
 own converts, and how exactly they resemble those 
 whom they have gained in other lands. We may 
 be satished with their unwilling testimony ; and 
 if we add, in conclusion, a few words from one 
 whose name is honoured in many a Christian house- 
 hold throughout Ceylon, it is only as an example of 
 the revelations which we might have obtained abun- 
 dantly from similar sources. 
 
 In December, 1832, Bishop Bettachini, the Vicar 
 Apostolic of Jaffna, gave the following account of 
 occurrences within his own Vicariate, w hich includes 
 only the northern portion of the island. « The num- 
 ber of conversions, of Gentiles and Protestants, du- 
 ring the past year, amounts to 501. » Of Trincoma- 
 lee, he says ; « It is the residence of a Lombard 
 Priest, Dom Vincent Cassinelli, who is much es- 
 teemed by all parties. A considerable number of 
 conversions from Prolestantim is made here every 
 year, so many indeed, that the Methodists, who had 
 a station here, have been obliged to give up the con- 
 test for want of proselytes. » Of Chilan, this is his 
 report. « A large church, with three naves, is in 
 course of erection here, sufiicienlly spacious to ac- 
 commodate five thousand persons. » There are no 
 contributions from missionary societies, nor gifts 
 from official patrons, but religious zeal supplies
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 75 
 
 their want. « Men and women, » says the Bishop, 
 « boys and girls, have set to work with incredible 
 zeal. The judge of the district, who is a convert 
 from Proleslanlism, has given upwards of 40 1. as 
 his subscription. The chief merit of the work is due 
 to Dom Froilano Oruna, a Spanish Benedicline, who 
 has acquired marked influence over the population. » 
 Of the mission of Valigamma, close to Jaffna, the 
 Bishop notices, that though the Protestants have im- 
 mense institutions, « an extensive printing establish- 
 ment, a large college for the education of boys, a 
 large seminary for girls, in both of which pupils are 
 received gratuitously, ninety schools^ two doctors, 
 eight or nine ministers, and several calcchisls, » — 
 who are all maintained by subscriptions from Eng- 
 land and America, — the results, by their own 
 admission, have been so nugatory, that « it is pro- 
 bable they will soon disappear altogether. » Lastly, 
 he thus mentions their attempts to corrupt the Cath- 
 olic natives, by offers of books and money. « When 
 the Protestant ministers visit them, to distribute 
 their books among them, these good Christians not 
 only reject with contempt the poison offered to them, 
 but often confound the distributors by various embar- 
 rassing questions, which render the apostles of error, 
 who are at a loss to answer them, objects of 
 scorn. » (1) 
 
 The facts referred to by the Bishop in these ex- 
 tracts are once more confirmed, in 1860, by an autho- 
 rity who shall be our last witness. « From the latest 
 published Reports of the Protestant missionary So- 
 
 (i) Amats, vol. XIV, p. 164.
 
 76 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 cielies, it appears, that the Protestant Native Con- 
 verts, of all sects, in the whole Island, amount only 
 to 4,259. » And even this scanty number is constantly 
 diminishing, in spite of the various attractions held 
 out to them. Thus in the single Vicariate of Columbo, 
 in the course of the year 1837, 4H adult Protestants 
 were received into the Church; in 1858, 422; and 
 in 1859, 289; making a total of 1,122 adult Pro- 
 testant converts in three successive years, in one 
 only of the ecclesiastical provinces into which Ceylon 
 is divided. (1) 
 
 Once more we have applied the divine rule, By 
 their fruits ye shall know them. Let the reader, who 
 will have observed that all our evidence has been 
 derived from Protestants, condemned to awaken the 
 conscience of others by publishing facts which pro- 
 duced no eflect upon themselves, draw his own con- 
 clusions. It is no new thing that Almighty God should 
 employ the enemies of the Church to proclaim their 
 own humiliation and her glory; but it seems to be 
 His will, not only that the hopeless sterility of Pro- 
 testantism, in spite of the talents and even the virtues 
 of some of its professors, should be everywhere man- 
 ifest, but that everywhere there should be a Pro- 
 testant historian to detect and record it. They will 
 accompany us in all the lands which we have still to 
 visit, and in each they will tell us the same tale — of 
 wealth idly wasted, and labour leading to nothing. 
 Every where they find God absent from their coun- 
 cils, every w here they proclaim the dreary void which 
 that absence creates. Missionaries, tourists, and ofli- 
 
 (1) Madras Catholic Directory for I860, pp. 178-180.
 
 MISSIONS IN CEYLON. 77 
 
 cials go forth from England or America, in the gaiety 
 of iheir hearts, to chronicle the baneful influence of 
 the Ancient Failh, and to sing the triumphs of the 
 new; and when at last their books are published, 
 the world is amazed to find, that they have uncon- 
 sciously obeyed the inspiration of God rather than of 
 their own hearts, and that the glories of the Catholic 
 Church are divulged by her most unscrupulous ene- 
 mies, and the impotence of Protestantism elaborately 
 proved by the most enthusiastic of its own disci- 
 ples.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 
 
 We have now, for the first time, to speak of regions 
 in which, by a singular exception, the Protestant pre- 
 ceded the Catholic Missionary. In Australia and New 
 Zealand, during a long course of years, the agents of 
 English missionary societies conducted their opera- 
 tions in the presence of friendly witnesses alone. No 
 competitors were there to impede their free action, no 
 I'ivals to dispute their influence. Three nations of pagan 
 and uncivilised men, whose lands seemed to have long 
 invited a new possessor, had opened their gates lo 
 England and her emissaries. With unlimited resour- 
 ces, and hacked by ihe whole power of one of the 
 greatest empires on earth, they had only lo reign in 
 peace, and command these deserts to revive and
 
 80 CHAPTER V. 
 
 flourish, like a field on which the dew of heaven has 
 descended. Here, at length, was an opportunity of 
 showing what the « reformed religion » could eff"ect, 
 in a sphere where its dominion was supreme and 
 uncontested, towards the conversion of the gentiles. 
 It had often hoasted its power, the moment had ar- 
 jived to test it. Australia, New Zealand, and Tasma- 
 nia were added to the long catalogue of Britain's 
 colonial conquests ; let us see whether she has 
 played in them a nohler part than in India or Cey- 
 lon. 
 
 We should only echo the complaint of her own 
 sons, if we were to say, that of two out of the three 
 England has made a moral cesspool. But this fami- 
 liar reproach, which, on the one hand, is harsh and 
 unjust for want of due limitation, on the other, takes 
 no account of far more real crimes than those which 
 it loo hastily condemns. It was surely no unpardon- 
 ahle oft'ence, unless we deny the fundamental maxim 
 of Roman jurisprudence, to banish from the society 
 which they had outraged the felon and the homicide. 
 But it was cruel and impious to treat these unhappy 
 outcasts like brutes condemned to the slaughter, and 
 to provide for ihem, in the land of their exile, only 
 shambles and an axe. iMore than any of the sons of 
 men they needed — for it was all which now remained 
 to them — the hope of reconciliation, and the promise 
 of the future. Their bodies they had forfeited, and 
 could henceforth move hand or foot only at the bid- 
 ding of the taskmaster; but their souls were free, 
 and in that freedom they could still seek after union 
 with God , still propitiate a Judge who wipes away 
 the tears which He has caused to flow, and in the
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPOUES. 81 
 
 very actof chastising hasalready begun to pardon. Yet 
 the first ship which bore away its freight of despair, 
 — of bruised hearts, and woful memories, and fearful 
 expectations, — would have left the shores of Eng- 
 land without even a solitary minister of religion, but 
 for the timely remonstrance of a private individual! 
 The civil authorities deemed their work complete 
 when they had given the signal to raise the anchor 
 and unloose the sails — the rest was no concern of 
 theirs. 
 
 Half a century later, the same disgraceful fact re- 
 curred. « An oversight equally remarkable took 
 place, » says Judge Burton in 1840, « upon the re- 
 cent expedition to Port Essington. » On this occasion 
 also, « H. M. S. Alligator sailed from England with 
 upwards of five hundred souls, unprovided with any 
 minister of religion, » (1) 
 
 But this is not all. In Australia, as in India, they 
 neither provided ministers themselves, nor would 
 suffer others to supply the defect. Among the emi- 
 grants to the new continent were some of those 
 children of Ireland, whom Providence seeiijs to have 
 dispersed through all the homes of the Saxon race, 
 that they might one day rekindle amongst them the 
 light of faith which their own long misfortunes have 
 never been able to quench. To these exiles it was ne- 
 cessary to convey the succours of religion. The first 
 Catholic priest who arrived in Australia on his mis- 
 sion of charity, and whom the policy of self-interest 
 should have persuaded the authorities to greet with 
 eager welcome, was treated with derision, and « was 
 
 (I) State of Religion and Education in N. S. Wales, p. 72.
 
 82 CHAPTER V. 
 
 directed, » as one of his most energetic successors re- 
 lates, « to produce his ' permission, ' or hold Inmseif 
 in readiness for departure by the next ship. » (1) 
 He was alone, and therefore a safe victim; while 
 his presence was irksome lo men who seem to have 
 felt instinctively that his proffered ministry was the 
 keenest rebuke of their ow n cruelly and profaneness. 
 
 But we need not pursue the details of a history 
 which is absolutely uniform from its opening to its 
 final chapter, and which contains only two facts, — 
 the one, that not even a solitary native of Tasmania 
 or New Holland has ever been converted to the faith; 
 the other, that the aboriginal tribes of the first have 
 utterly ceased to exist under British rule, while those 
 of the second are rapidly dying out. Such, as we 
 shall see more fully hereafter, has been the invariable 
 destiny of the savage, in Australia, in North America, 
 in South Africa, in Polynesia, — wherever he has 
 found Protestant masters; while in the Philippines, 
 in Oceanica, and in Western and Southern America, 
 he has dwelt in peace and prosperity, nay, has 
 increased and multiplied under Catholic rulers. Let 
 us briefly trace this history in Australia, and the in- 
 fluence of Protestant missions, conducted wilh every 
 advantage which power and weallh could imparl, 
 upon her aboriginal tribes. 
 
 The subject is meagre, and need not detain us 
 long. A few characteristic facts w ill suffice. They are 
 Protestant witnesses who will tell us, once more, the 
 familiar lale of worldly and covetous missionaries, of 
 the immorality of the English colonists, of money 
 
 (1) A Reply to Judge Burton, by W. Ullatliorne, D. D., p. 10.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 83 
 
 squandered in vain, and of final and admitted failure. 
 D"^ Lang, the Protestant historian of New South 
 Wales, — who reports, in 1852, « there is as yet no 
 well authenticated case of the conversion of a hlack 
 native to Christianity, » — will assure us that this 
 lesult is not due to insufficiency of temporal resour- 
 ces. « In the year 1828, » he says, « when the whole 
 population did not exceed 56,598, (of whom ahout 
 one half helonged to other communions,) the cost of 
 the Episcopalian estahlishment of the colony exceeded 
 22,000 1, » And apparently even this failed to satisfy 
 the class amongst whom it was distributed. « AccouiUs 
 of (he most discreditable character were trumped up 
 by individual chaplains, who had ample salaries and 
 allowances of every description besides. In this way 
 the two Episcopalian chaplains in Sydney presented, 
 one an account for 700 1., and the other an account 
 for 500 1., which were both paid them, in addition 
 to all their regular and accustomed demands. » (1) 
 Archdeacon Scott, he says, after failing in business 
 in England, then acting as a clerk or secretary, finally 
 merged into an ecclesiastical dignitary, and was sent 
 out with a salary of 2, 000 1. And though these revela- 
 tions may be fairly attributed to sectarian animosity, 
 this Presbyterian witness is at all events perfectly 
 candid, and does not conceal « the cold-blooded and 
 unnatural indifference which, I am sorry to acknow- 
 ledge, the Church of Scotland evinced at that period, 
 and for many years thereafter to the moral and reli- 
 gious welfare of her people in the colonies. » 
 
 (1) History of New South M-a/t'A, by JohnDunmoreLang, D.D., 
 vol. II, ch. XI, p. 4G5. (1852.)
 
 84 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Perhaps the excessive opulence of the Episcopa- 
 lian clergy may partly account for certain character- 
 istic facts which we may notice at once, for the 
 sake of gelling rid of them. When D"" Broughton, 
 who was their bishop, was examined by a Committee 
 of the House of Commons as to his success in con- 
 verting the aborigines, the following opinion was eli- 
 cited from him. « Have you found it absolutely impos- 
 sible to inslil into their minds any adequate idea of the 
 Deity and of Christianity? Of Chiistianily, certainly, 
 I should say. » (1) It is only fair to the Wesleyan 
 witnesses, before the same Committee, to say, that 
 they emphatically rej)udiated this opinon, and appa- 
 rently with reason. A scientific writer, who had ex- 
 amined the question as a physiologist, gives his verdict 
 in favour of the Wesleyans. « Examination and 
 comparison have shown, » he says, alluding to the 
 j)hysical characteristics of the Australian race, « ibat, 
 instead of peculiarities, strong analogies are found 
 lo the skulls of while men. » (2) And another ca- 
 pable witness confirms this dictum of science by the 
 conclusive fact, that there was not wanting evidence 
 of distinct « religious traditions » among them. (5) 
 
 Indeed a large number of writers on Australia ap- 
 pear anxious to refute the discreditable plea of 
 D"" Broughton. « They are as apt and intelligent, » 
 says Sir George Grey, who had carefully studied 
 their habits and character, « as any other race of 
 
 (1) Parliamentary Papers, vol. VII, p. l-i, Cf. p. 201. 
 
 ("2) Physical Description of N. S. Wales, by P, E. de Strze- 
 lecki, § 7, p. 335. 
 
 (3) Savaye Life and Scenes in A ustralia and New Zealand, by 
 George French Angas, vol. II, ch. vn, p. 224.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 85 
 
 men I am acquainled willi. » (1) « Their belief in 
 spirits is universal, » we are lold by M"^ Angas. 
 « Certain it is, » says M"' Marjoribanks, « that they 
 believe in ibe immortality of the soul, and the exist- 
 ence of evil spirits. » (2) « There is no doubt w hal- 
 ever, observes M. de Rienzi, after careful investiga- 
 tion, « that the Australians are capable of being 
 civilised. » (3) « There is some reason to think, » 
 adds M"" Bennett, « thai the aborigines believe in the 
 metempsychosis; » (4) an opinion confirmed both 
 by M"" Parker, who held the office of Protector of 
 Aborigines, and by Mgr. Salvado, who has dwelt 
 among the tribes of the interior, and gives conclusive 
 proofs of their remarkable aptness, (o) « The work 
 of evangelising them may be unpromising, » says 
 3P Young, a Wesleyan missionary, « but il presents 
 no greater difficulties than those which, in other 
 parts of the heathen world, have been overcome. »(6) 
 Finally, M"" Gerstaecker, an experienced German tra- 
 veller, in proving the « abilities and talents » of the 
 Australian native, gives this decisive example. He 
 visited a school, in which native children not only 
 « read the New Testament with a great deal more 
 expression and emphasis than children commonly 
 
 (1) Journals ofTivo Expeditions in Australia, vol. II, ch. xviii, 
 p. 374. 
 
 (2) Travels in Neiv South Wales, by Alexander Marjoribanks, 
 ch. IV, p. 92. 
 
 (3) Oceanie, parM. G. L. Domeny de Rienzi, tome HI, p, 517. 
 (i) Wanderings in N. S. Wales, by George Bennett Esq., 
 
 F. L. S., F. R. C. S., vol. I, ch. 5, p. l'31. 
 
 (5) Memoires historiques sur VAuslralie, par Mgr. Rudesindo 
 Salvado, 3me partie, p. 258. (ed. Falcimagne, 1854.) 
 
 (6) The Southern World, ch. v, p. 111. (1854).
 
 86 CHAPTER V. 
 
 exhibit in English village schools, » but afterwards 
 gave an explanation « which proved the excellent 
 memory of I he children. » (1) Here was surely 
 some material to work upon. D"" Broughlon, how- 
 ever, had decided that he and his wealthy colleagues 
 could do nothing with such people. We may, there- 
 fore, put aside the Episcopalian clergy, but not with- 
 out noticing Iwo facts which identify them with their 
 class in every other land. 
 
 D'" Broughton, who thought the Australian inca- 
 pable of receiving truths which are addressed equally 
 to every creature of God, was more solicitous about 
 the progress of (he Catholic religion in INew Souih 
 Wales than about the conversion of savages; and 
 distinguished himself chiefly by sending home fretful 
 protests against the « schismalical » archbishop of 
 Sydney for using a title which D"^ Folding had received 
 from the successor of St. Peter, and D"" Broughton 
 from the successor of Henry VHI. The Catholic pre- 
 late took no notice of his invectives, which hardly 
 provoked any other comment than the remark of a 
 French writer in the Correspondant, that « an Angli- 
 can charging a Catholic with schism is like Ishmael 
 calling Isaac a liastard. » 
 
 The second fact referring to D' Broughton and his 
 colleagues is the following. It appears that there was, 
 not long ago, a sort of conference of Protestant 
 bishops at Sydney, at which a majority expressed a 
 quasi- o&\c\a\ opinion in favour of the doctrine of 
 Baptism , the adoption of which they cautiously 
 recommended to their ecclesiastical inferiors. The 
 
 (1) Voyage, etc., vol. Ill, ch. ii, p. 88.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 87 
 
 « clergy of Auslralia, » liowever, immeilialely re- 
 solved, thai « the coiislriiclioii put by the Bishops, 
 if imposed, would be tantamount to a new article of 
 faith. » The laity also prolested against the innova- 
 tion, while the clergy of V^an Dieman's Land solemnly 
 addressed their bishop to record « iheir regret, that 
 after ihe decision of the Privy Council, and two 
 Archbishops, » he should entertain such unsound 
 views. (1) In the presence of such facts we have^ 
 surely no reason to marvel, when Count Sirzeiecki 
 informs, us, that « the attempts to civilise and christ- 
 ianise the aborigines have ntferly failed. » (2) 
 
 When we have mentioned one or two examples of 
 the efforts made, and of their result, the tale will be 
 complete. « Efforts prodigal indeed in zeal and mo- 
 ney, » says Colonel Mundy, speaking of the Australi- 
 an native, « have been made to civilise and christ- 
 ianise him, but they have hitherto met wilh signal 
 failure. » The Colonel then quotes a Missionary Re- 
 port, referring to « the greatest of all the mission 
 stations on this continent, » at which large sums 
 had been expended, during nine successive years, 
 in feeding, instructing, and preaching to the na- 
 tives. « Amongst all those young men, » says the 
 Report of the year 1842, « who for years past 
 have been more or less attached to the Mission, 
 there is only one who affords some satisfaction and 
 encouragement. » (5) And the results of all this 
 
 (t) New Zealand and its Inhabitants, by the Revi Richard 
 Taylor, M. A., ch. xx, p. 304. 
 
 (2) Physical Description, etc., §7, p. 350. 
 
 (3) Colonel Mundy's Australasian Colonies, vol. I, ch. vil, 
 p. 241.
 
 88 CHAPTER V. 
 
 care, and of an education prolonged through many 
 years, are still more darkly depicted by M*" Hood, 
 in the following year, 1845. « It is said that cases 
 have occurred of persons who when young had heen 
 educated at the Mission, murdering (heir children in 
 after years. » (1) M. de Rienzi mentions the case of 
 one who was brought up from childhood by a bene- 
 volent Englishman, sent lo England, and exhibited 
 at many public meetings as a specimen of the success 
 of Protestant education; but who^, on his return to 
 the colony, fled to his native forests, where he lived 
 in a stale of nudity, and was finally executed for 
 rape. (2) Yet the missionaries had, no doubt, done 
 their best, though with lillle efl"ect upon scholars 
 many of whom, as Colonel Mundy observes, « learned 
 merely by rote, but all enjoyed the good feeding; the 
 words Missionary and Commissary were synonymous 
 terms with (hem. » Like their brethren in other 
 lands, the missionaries could feed, clothe, and in- 
 struct, but they could not convert. 
 
 Another expensive trial was made in the Mission 
 of Lake Macquarie. «The great cost of this mission,)) 
 says D"^ Lang, « and the peculiarly unpromising 
 character of the field, very speedily induced the 
 Society to abandon it. » (3) 
 
 Another case at Lake Colac, in which the Wes- 
 leyans were agents, is thus described by i\F Byrne, 
 in 18/f8. « An extensive tract of land, and annual 
 assistance in the shape of a money grant, was af- 
 forded by the Government, the total amount of the 
 
 (1) Australia and the East, by John Hood, ch. vil, p. 207. 
 
 (2) Oceanie, tome III, p. 507. 
 
 (3) History ofN. S. Wales, vol. II, c!i. xi, p. 507.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 89 
 
 latter since 1836 approaching 5,000 I. But here 
 again the Executive recognised the inulilily of all 
 altempts for the civilisation of the aborigines ; and 
 the grant to the Colac Mission is now only 100 I. 
 per annum, a sum that merely enables it, under the 
 superintendence of the Rev. M"" Tuckfield, to linger 
 out its existence without a hope of any advantage 
 being obtained by it. » (1) Indeed M"^ Young, a Wes- 
 leyan minister, confesses, six years later, that « the 
 work had to a great extent been abandoned as a 
 hopeless undertaking. » 
 
 As early as the year 184-2, « the expences of every 
 Mission to the Aborigines within the Colony, » says 
 one of its historians, « amounted to 51,807 1. We 
 must honestly say that little or no value has been 
 rendered for it. » He quotes also a missionary who 
 made the following singular report. « In whatever 
 direction I go, even at a distance of forty or sixty 
 miles, the parents conceal their children, as soon as 
 they hear that a missionary approaches their camp ; 
 and when I have come upon them by surprise, I have 
 the grievance to observe these little ones running into 
 the bushes, or into the bed of the river, with the 
 utmost rapidity. » (2) 
 
 But these discouraging facts were not always so 
 candidly admitted. If the natives avoided the mis- 
 sionaries, the latter did not on that account abandon 
 their lucrative functions. A few years ago the colonial 
 journals related, with appropriate comments, the 
 case of a Protestant clergyman, who regularly re- 
 
 (1) Twelve Years Wanderings, etc., vol. I, p. 367. 
 
 (2) History of N. S. Wales, by J. H. Braim Esq., Principal 
 of Sydney College, vol. II, cli. vi, p. 237. 
 
 II. s.
 
 90 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ceived during some years a grant towards the support 
 of a mission which he was supposed to he conduct- 
 ing in the interior, and of the progress of which he 
 forwarded annual reports; hut who was accidentally 
 discovered at last to he engaged in the peaceful pur- 
 suits of agriculture, which his stipend as a mission- 
 ary had sensihly aided, and to be the pastor of a 
 « mission » which had no existence whatever, except 
 in his own ingenious reporls. 
 
 We have heard enough, however, to prepare us 
 for the final account which is given in 1853 by 
 .AP Gerstaecker, who says, « The missionaries have 
 given up the work of conversion in despair; » and 
 in 1858 by M"" Minturn, the latest traveller in these 
 regions, who once more declares, — « All mission- 
 ary efforts among them have failed ; they are, in fact, 
 rapidly dying away, and disappearing before the 
 white race. » (1) 
 
 And this is the only result, as far as the natives 
 are concerned, of the English dominion in Australia. 
 They had a nation to convert ; ihey have only cre- 
 ated a desert. « Another ten years, » says iN^ Byrne, 
 « and an aboriginal native will be as great a curio- 
 sity in Sydney, or within the boundaries of the co- 
 lony, as he is at present in Europe. » (2) Of the 
 same fact in Van Dieman's Land, we are told, « the 
 extermination of nearly a whole race has been the 
 work of twenty years. » (5) Of the new colony of 
 Victoria, jV^ Weslgarth says, that whereas in 1854 
 
 (1) From JSew York to Delhi, ch. ui, p. 24. 
 
 (2) Vol. I, ch. v, p. 279. 
 
 (3) The Catholic Mission in Australia, by W. Ullathorne, 
 D. D.,p.47.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 91 
 
 ihere were from 20,000 to 2S,000 natives « within 
 the limits of the present Victoria," they have dwind- 
 led away so rapidly under English rule that « they 
 now stand at 2,S00 for the ivhole of Victoria, » — 
 nine tenths having perished in twenty years, — and 
 that even this feeble remnant has been relegated to a 
 barren tract « useless to the colonist. » (1) Lastly, 
 of New Zealand, M"" Paul says, « the New Zealanders 
 are annually on the decrease, and will no doubt in 
 the course of time, perhaps 40 or 50 years, be- 
 come nearly if not entirely extinct; » (2) a fate 
 which Lord Goderich reported to Governor Bourke 
 was inevitable, though, he added, it was impos- 
 sible to speak of it « without shame and indigna- 
 tion. » (3) 
 
 « It seems, indeed, » says the Rev. D"" Lang, with 
 great composure, in reviewing these results of Pro- 
 testant colonisation, « to be a general appointment 
 of Divine Providence, that the Indian wigwam of 
 North America, and the miserable break-wind of the 
 aborigines of New Holland, should he utterly swept 
 away by the flood-tide of European colonisation,... 
 and the miserable remnant of a once hopeful race 
 
 (1) Victoria and the Australian Gold Mines, p, 51. 
 
 (2) Australia, Tasmania, and Netv Zealand, by R. B. Paul, 
 p. 252. (1857). 
 
 (3) New Zealand, its advantages and prospects, by Charles 
 Terry, F. R. S., F. S. A., p. 112. « Within the first two or 
 three years after the establishment of the Society's settlement at 
 the Bay of Islands, not less than one hundred at least of the na- 
 tives had been murdered by Europeans in their immediate neigh- 
 bourhood. » The British Colonization of New Zealand, published 
 for the New Zealand Association, p. 167. (1837).
 
 92 CHAPTER V. 
 
 will at lenglh gradually disappear from the land of 
 their forefathers. » (1) 
 
 Yet there are lands, as we shall see hereafter, in 
 which the wigwam of the Indian slill stands, except 
 where it has heen replaced by a more solid edifice; 
 and in the Catholic islands of Oceanica, as well as 
 by the banks of all the rivers which flow from the 
 Andes to the Ocean, — by the Amazon and the 
 Orenoco, by the Rio jNegro and the Parana, and the 
 thousand iribularies which mingle with their mighty 
 streams, — his race dwells in peace, and calls upon 
 the true God. Even in the northern continent, where 
 the Indian in contact with Protestantism « has not 
 ceased to degenerate, » as M. de Tocqueville observed, 
 and where llie savages diminished by seventy- four 
 thousand between 1850 and 1856; the populations 
 under Catholic intluence, as we shall learn in a later 
 chapter, « slill thrive or increase, » and an American 
 officer could report to his Government « the prodi- 
 gious work effected by the missionaries » in the far 
 West, and even declare of one of the most powerful 
 tribes, « They are hardly Indians now. » But in 
 these cases the teachers of the savage were men who 
 carried with them from Europe no treasures but the 
 Cross of Christ and the Gospel of salvation, and 
 therefore were able, as we shall see when we trace 
 their history, to gain millions of barbarians to such 
 a degree of civilisation and prosperity as excited the 
 admiration even of a Southey and a Voltaire. 
 
 We have now exhausted I he religious history of 
 Australia, as far as the natives are concerned, and 
 
 (1) History of N.S. \]ales, vol. I, ch. ll, p. 26.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 93 
 
 liave no motive to enquire curiously about its other 
 inhabitants ; yet a few words may be added upon 
 ihem also, before we pass to tlie missionary annals 
 of New Zealand. D"^ Lang has described, with his 
 accustomed frankness, holh the clergy and the peo- 
 ple ; though we may well believe there are some 
 exceptions to the character which he depicts. Of the 
 missionaries he gives this report. « There were in- 
 stances — repealed instances — of men, who, al- 
 though it was known that their characters were 
 blasted at home, were nevertheless recommended as 
 fit and proper persons for the colonial field. » (1) 
 And the people appear, if we may believe his account, 
 to be worthy of such pastors. M"" Lancelott, (2) and 
 other writers on the Antipodes, deplore in energetic 
 terms the profound immorality of « the most influen- 
 tial citizens, » while D"^ Lang thus speaks of « the 
 higher classes of colonial society. » « Even their pro- 
 fession of Christianity is unquestionably far more 
 hurtful than beneficial to the cause of pure and 
 undefiled religion. In short, the influence of uo incon- 
 siderable portion of the higher classes in N. S. Wales 
 has all along been decidedly unfavorable to the morals 
 and religion of the country. » 
 
 ' « The extent to which the labouring classes of 
 emigrants become contaminated, » observes JV^ flen- 
 
 derson, in 1851, « is immense Education, in most 
 
 cases, is in a most lamentable stale; in fact, in the 
 greater part of the country there is none, except what 
 
 (1) Vol. II, ch. XI, p. 492. 
 
 (2) Auitralia as it is, by F. LanceloU Esq., vol. II, ch. v, 
 
 p. 72.
 
 Qi CHAPTER V. 
 
 parents themselves can bestow. » (1) This applies to 
 N. S. Wales; while of Van Dieman's Land M"^ Puse- 
 ley reports, in 1858, that « ihe number of ofTences 
 committed in the city of Ilobarl, with a population 
 t)f only 23,000, exceeds by fifty per cent, that of 
 Liverpool, with its 296,000 inhabitants. » (2) 
 
 On the whole, Frotolanlisni does not seem to 
 have redeemed in Australia its misadventures in other 
 lands. It has failed, in spite of every temporal ad- 
 vantage, to convert even a solitary pagan; while its 
 own professors, in large numbers, have practically 
 abandoned Christianity. And Protestants have not 
 omitted to contrast these results with those which 
 mark the influence of an older and purer faith. Thus 
 D"" Lang is angiy with Sir Thomas Brisbane, who 
 must have been the most candid of Australian gover- 
 nors, because he bluntly replied to a « Presbyterian 
 memorial » for public aid, on the ground that it was 
 given to Catholics, that « it would be time for the 
 Presbyterians to ask assistance from the government 
 when they showed they could conduct themselves as 
 well as the Roman Catholics of the colony. » (5) 
 M"" Hood also, a perfectly impartial observer, ventures 
 to suggest to his co-religionists, that « the Protest- 
 ant population will do well to imitate their Roman 
 Catholic brethren in their exertions on behalf of the 
 rising generation; » and whereas M"" Henderson has 
 told us that education amongst the Protestants is at 
 the lowest ebb, IVP Hood candidly observes, « the 
 
 (i) Excursions in N. S. Wales, by John Henderson Esq.; 
 vol. II, ch. XI, p. 288. 
 
 (2) Australia and Tasmania, by D. Puseley, p. 196. 
 
 (3) Hist. N. S. Wales, vol. II, cli. xi, p. 461.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 95 
 
 Roman Catholic Church, with ils usual exemplary 
 zeal, has pushed schools and seminaries into e\ery 
 corner of the colony. » (1) « They lose none of their 
 members, » says M"^ Braim, v.ith evident regret, 
 « nor abate any of their zeal. » 
 
 Finally, Colonel Mundy makes the following ob- 
 servation upon those incessant religious divisions 
 which are not less conspicuous in the Antipodes than 
 in China, India, Ceylon, and every other land in 
 which the new religion has displayed its multitudi- 
 nous forms. « The Roman Catholics here, as gene- 
 rally in these colonics, appear to have increased in 
 number and consequence at a much greater ratio 
 than other denominations. The reason is obvious. 
 Union is strength. The Protestants are s})lit into 
 sects — every man must set up a creed for him- 
 self. » (2) 
 
 If there is a fact still more remarkable than these 
 ample and almost perplexing confessions of Protest- 
 ant writers in every land, of which we have already 
 heard so many, it is surely the singular composure 
 with which they offer their evidence, and then turn 
 away as calmly as if they had been recording only 
 the averages of a price-curreni, or the variations of 
 the thermomcler. They are loading with infamy their 
 own religion, and do not even seem to be conscious 
 of it. They address to more thoughtful and anxious 
 hearts the most formidable admonitions which man's 
 experience can offer or receive, and recite them with 
 cool monotonous indifference as if they had no menn- 
 
 (1) Australia and the East, ch. x, p. 325. 
 
 (2) Australasian Colonies , vol. Ill, ch. ii, p. 42.
 
 96 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ing or significance. They suggest lo others deep coun- 
 sels and prompt action, remaining themselves indif- 
 ferent and unmoved ; ready to repeat to morrow 
 without emotion ihe avowals which they made yes- 
 terday without regret. 
 
 The only Protestant admission of success on the 
 pai't of Catholic missionaries in civilising tlie natives, 
 after the long and fruilless efforts of iheir unsuccess- 
 ful rivals, is recorded hy a candid American writer 
 in these words. « The Roman Catholic clergy have a 
 nali\e missionary establishment at Victoria Plains, 
 where they make the natives useful by taking every 
 means of civilising them. A very good feeling exists 
 between the natives and the Roman Calholics. » (1) 
 
 Yet the Catholic missionary, here as elsewhere, 
 had to contend with that almost insuperable obstacle, 
 found only in pagan lands tenanted by Protestants, 
 the contempt or aversion of the heathen for a religion 
 which he had already learned to despise, before the 
 professors of a holier creed presented themselves to 
 him. If the Apostles had appeared every where, each 
 accompanied by a lady, and most of them by a group 
 of children; eagerly solicitous, like other men, about 
 money, luxury, and ease; contradicting one another 
 in every discourse, and distinguished from their 
 pagan hearers only by the profession of truths of 
 which their own daily life was the most efTective 
 refutation; — in other words, if they had been pro- 
 teslanl missionaries; — Christianity would hardly 
 have extended outside the walls of .Jerusalem, and 
 would not have attracted much attention within them. 
 
 (1) Voyaijes to India, China, etc., by W. S. Bradshaw ; cli. Yl.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 97 
 
 In spile of the formidable difficully which apostles 
 must now expect to encounter in all lands, and espe- 
 cially in those which are under the dominion of Eng- 
 land, the Benedictines ha\e commenced in Western 
 Australia one of those generous undertakings, so 
 often initiated hy the first followers of St. Benedict, 
 in converting the ancient barbarians of Europe. On 
 the 2"'' of June, 1859, more than forty Benedictines, 
 — the first Vicar General of Australia, now an Eng- 
 lish Bishop, had been a member of the same illus- 
 trious Order, — attended, under the guidance of 
 Bishops Serra and Salvado, at the solemn benedic- 
 tion of a new monastery in the district of Perth. 
 From that hour hope dawned upon the native of 
 Australia. Bishop Serra has lately communicated to 
 his friends in Europe this account of the present 
 condition of his community. 
 
 « The example of their habits of industry has 
 already been followed by many natives, who, aban- 
 doning their erratic life, have turned their attention 
 to the cultivation of the soil, and are noiv living 
 upon its produce. Moreover, as every Benedictine 
 foundation is traditionally known as a nursery of 
 learning as well as an asylum of penance and prayer, 
 a college has been established under the direction of 
 the Fathers, and, amongst the pagan youths who 
 have Ijeen gratuitously received as pupils, three 
 young Australians have already been sent to Rome 
 to complete their education. » (1) Perhaps this re- 
 mote colony of England, hitherto abandoned to utter 
 darkness, may be destined to receive from the child- 
 
 (1) Annals, May 1860, p. 120.
 
 98 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ren of Si. Benedict the same inappreciable blessings 
 for which the mother country is indebted to the fa- 
 mily of the same glorious Saint. 
 
 Even ihe Protestant inhabitants of the colony a|)- 
 pear to anticipate, without deriving any satisfaction 
 from the prospect, ihat I he Benedictines will not 
 labour in vain. Thus a colonial journal quotes with 
 disapprobation a recent letter of ihe superior, « as 
 showing ihe untiring and unsparing energy of the 
 Church of Rome in proselytizing within ihe territo- 
 ries of Great Britain. » Considering that Great Bri- 
 tain has done nothing for the inhabitanis but deprive 
 them bolh of their lands and their life, ihe complaint 
 seems a little unreasonable. « Our plan of proceed- 
 ing, » says the Bishop, as quoted by ihe protestant 
 journalist, « is as follows. We shall join the first 
 savage tribe which we meet; we shall go wiih them, 
 and share their nomad life, until we are able to fix 
 them in some favourable situation, when we propose 
 to teach them, by our example, how to obtain their 
 subsislence by agriculture. When we have thus at- 
 tached them to the soil, we shall begin to speak to 
 them of religion, and iniliate them in ecclesiastical 
 knowledge, in order that we may find in the sons of 
 Australia future missionaries who may assist us in 
 instructing their still savage brethren. When we have 
 the good fortune to see new fellow-labourers arrive 
 from Europe, we shall locate them in ihe monastic 
 huts already established, leaving them to beslow 
 their labour on the tribes already attached to the 
 soil. This will leave us at liberty to advance further 
 into the interior, and to win other tribes to the faith 
 of Jesus Christ. If we can in this manner establish a
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 99 
 
 chain of monastecies, the conversion and civilisalion 
 of Australia will he complele. » 
 
 A still laler account hy Mgr. Salvado informs us 
 ihat these hopes had hegun to receive iheir accom- 
 plishment. The natives only laughed, he says, when 
 they first saw the monks |)loughing and sowing; hut 
 when they gathered in the first crop, these agricul- 
 tural toils appeared to ihem worthy of imitation. And 
 whereas prolestant missionaries relate, that the na- 
 tive children run away, or hide themselves, at their 
 approach ; the Benedictines commend hoth the zeal 
 with which their parents send them for instruction, 
 and the remarkahle aptness of the scholars. They 
 record also that five Australians had already left for 
 Europe to complete their studies, and add the aston- 
 ishing fact, that two others had actually heen admit- 
 ted as novices in the Convent of the Most Holy Tri- 
 nity della cava, in the kingdom of Naples. (1) 
 
 On the whole, we may conclude that Bishops Serra 
 and Salvado would not agree with Count Strzelecki, 
 who was acquainted only with Protestant missions, 
 that « all attempts to civilise and christianise the 
 ahorigines have utterly failed ; » nor with the Rev. 
 M"" Young, that « it is a hopeless undertaking; » nor 
 with ]Vr Gerstaccker, that « they have given up con- 
 version in despair ; » nor, least of all, with D' Brough- 
 lon, who assured the House of Commons, that « it 
 was impossible to instil any idea of Christianity into 
 them. » 
 
 And now let us come to New Zealand. In reading 
 
 (1) Memoires historiques sur I'Austrulie, 2mcpartie, pp. 145, 
 198.
 
 100 CHAPTER V. 
 
 the accounts which Protestant writers of various 
 sects have given of the history of iheir own religion 
 in this colony, our first impression is one of aslonish- 
 menl. So eager do they seem to proclaim to the world 
 the turpitude of ihe very men whom they profess to 
 esteem as the preachers of a « scriptural » faith, that 
 we are compelled to remind ourselves, from lime to 
 time, as we listen to iheir scornful invective, that 
 ihey are partial and reluctant, not hostile or preju- 
 diced witnesses. It seems incredible that writers of 
 so many creeds and classes, but all more or less 
 warmly inlerestcd in the success of Protestant mis- 
 sions, many of them ardent advocates of the mission- 
 aries, and not a few their personal friends and asso- 
 ciates, should have consented to make revelations 
 which are certainly without parallel, except perhaps 
 in the records of ihe same class of agents in South 
 Africa and Polynesia. 
 
 The slory of Protestant missions in New Zealand 
 opens after this manner. « I have a manuscript ac- 
 count, » says one who belonged lo the class which 
 he describes, « which I drew up myself, from un- 
 questionable authority, so early as the year 1824, of 
 every missionary that had set foot in New Zealand 
 up till that period, as well as of every important 
 transaction w hich had occurred till then in connection 
 with the New Zealand Mission, » (1) It is not often 
 that history is written by a witness at once so com- 
 petent and so impartial, and it is impossible not to 
 anticipate with some curiosity the results of such 
 careful observation. He goes on thus, addressing 
 
 (1) New Zealand in 1839, by J. D. Lang, D. D., p. 30.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 101 
 
 liiiiiself to Lord Diiiham, who at that time held high 
 office under the crown of England. « I am confident, 
 my Lord, it would he impossihie to find a parallel, 
 in the history of any Protestant Mission since the 
 Reformation, to the amount of inefficiency and moral 
 worthlessness which that record presents. Indeed, 
 Divine Providence appears to have frowned upon the 
 New Zealand mission all along, and hlighling and 
 hiasting from Heaven seem lo have rested upon it 
 even until now. » And then he adds these examples 
 fiom his manuscript record, in order to juslify such 
 a denunciation. « The first head of the New Zealand 
 mission was dismissed for adultery ; the second for 
 drunkenness ; and the third, so lately as the year 
 1836, for a crime still more enormous than ei- 
 ther. » (1) 
 
 This account was published in 1859, and other 
 witnesses will presently carry it on lo our own day; 
 meanwhile, let it be nosiced that l)"^ Lang finishes in 
 1859 as he began in 1824. « There is still, » he says, 
 « a most flagrant abuse tolerated and practised by 
 the great majority of its members, of sufficient 
 magnitude to neutralise ihe efl'oits even of a whole 
 college of Apostles. » 
 
 Such is the dark opening of a history which 
 resembles rather the shameful records of a criminal 
 calendar than the annals of Christian missionaries. 
 In New Zealand, Protestantism was alone, free lo 
 develope according lo its nature and instincts. Let us 
 see what it became, and what it has done for the 
 noblest race of barbarians in the southern hemisphere, 
 
 (1) New Zealand in 1839, by J. D. Lang, D. D., p. 30.
 
 402 CHAPTER V. 
 
 during llie half century of its uninterrupted inter- 
 course with them. 
 
 A protestant naturalist and physician, D"^ Ernest 
 Dieffenhach, declares, that « of all the natives of the 
 Polynesian race the ISew Zealanders show the lea- 
 diest disposition for assuming a high degree of civili- 
 sation. » (1) It was permitted by Providence, for 
 reasons which we cannot penetrate, that the christian 
 religion should first he announced in ihis promising 
 field by the agents of Protestantism. The mission of 
 New Zealand was founded by M*^ Marsden in 1814, 
 after unsuccessful attempts by others in 1800, and 
 1807. (2) « He was originally, » we are told, 
 « brought up as a blacksmith; » (3) but became 
 ultimately an episcopalian minister in N. S. Wales, 
 w here for many years he combined the two functions 
 of preacher and agriculturist. Having amassed a con- 
 siderable fortune as a sheep farmer, without preju- 
 dice to his spiritual character, and having acquired a 
 very accurate knowledge of the value of land, of 
 cattle, of crops, and of a good many other things, he 
 seems to have paid a visit to New Zealand on behalf 
 of the Church Missionary Society. The directors of 
 that institution showed considerable discrimination 
 in the choice of an agent who knew, by long experi- 
 ence, how to blend together in a prolific union the 
 arts of the clergyman and the farmer. His first step 
 proved that they were not deceived in him, and 
 ]Vr Marsden inaugurated the nascent mission by pur- 
 
 (1) Travels in New Zealand, by Ernest Dieffenbach, M. D., 
 vol. II, ch. IX, p. 139. 
 
 (2) Ne^l' Zealand, jjy Edward Brown Fitton, ch. I, p. 17. 
 
 (3) The Gospel in New Zealand, by Miss Tucker, ch. iv, p. 36.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 103 
 
 chasing 200 acres of land, chosen hy himself, for 
 12 axes. (1) The transaction was perhaps not apost- 
 olic, but the directors of the Church Missionary 
 Society would have smiled at so unreasonable an 
 objection : it was not even honest, for the poor sava- 
 ges, as they afterwards complained, did not know 
 the value of their land; but it was an excellent bar- 
 giiin, and a very good beginning of the New Zealand 
 mission. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, M' Marsden's felicitous 
 contract suggested to others , quite as capable as 
 himself of appreciating the keen negotiation, a spirit 
 of eager commercial enterprise which soon led to 
 very notable results. The Episcopalian and Wesleyan 
 clergy, who now congregated with startling promp- 
 titude in this land of promise, rivalled each other in 
 « purchases » the fame of which traversed half the 
 globe, and began to fill the ears of busy and thought- 
 ful men in the marls and cities of England. It pene- 
 trated even the courts of law, and found an echo 
 within the walls of parliament. This was the term of 
 its progress; for then arose such an outcry of many 
 voices, such a chorus of mingled laughter and indig- 
 nation, that the Government had no alternative but 
 to adopt instant measures to thwart the exorbitant 
 cupidity of the missionary societies and their agents. 
 A little later, and a large part of the soil of iSew 
 Zealand would have passed into the hands of the 
 Church of England and Wesleyan missionaries. Let 
 us examine, solely by the aid of Protestant witnesses, 
 
 (1) New Zealand, liy J. L. Nicholas Esq., vol. II, ch. vii, 
 p. 193.
 
 104 CHAPTER V. 
 
 the process by which this appropriation was being 
 gradually effected, until the hour in which it was 
 fatally checked by ihe inexoiable edicts of the Colonial 
 Secretary. 
 
 We have seen that the acquisitiveness of which 
 we are about to trace Ihe results was first mani- 
 fested by M"^ Marsden, the founder of the New Zea- 
 land mission. His example was fruitful ; and only five 
 years later, in 1819, as we learn from D" Morison, 
 the historian of the London Missionary Society, « five 
 missionaries and artisans » — they not unfrequently 
 cumulated these professions — « j)urchased thirteen 
 thousand acres for forty-eight axes. » (1) For thirty 
 years this lucrative commerce continued; the parlies 
 to the contracts being, on the one side, men who 
 called themselves missionaries, and on the other, 
 ignorant and inexperienced savages, to whom they 
 had introduced themselves as messengers from God. 
 « In many cases, » says M'" Terry, « the natives were 
 quite unconscious of what they had really conveyed 
 by these ready-made deeds;... tracts of land larger 
 than counties in England were sold oi- conveyed for 
 comparatively a (rifle, on half a sheet of paper. Al- 
 ready thirly-two millions of acres are claimed. » (2) 
 Between 1850 and 1835, at Hokianga and the Bay 
 of Islands alone, « twenty-seven square miles were 
 purchased by missionaries. » (3) 
 
 « At first, I\P Byrne informs us, « these purchases 
 
 (1) The Fathers of the London Missionary Society, vol. II, app. 
 p. 598. 
 
 (2) New Zealand, etc., p. 73. 
 
 (3) The Story of New Zealand, by Arthur S. Thomson, M.D.; 
 vol. I, p. 268.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. iOS 
 
 were made for little more than a nominal consideration ; 
 a few beads, a musket, some blankets, and a little pow- 
 der and ball, were sufficient to purchase tracts which 
 were measured, in the language of the Missionaries, 
 by miles. » (1) Let us give a few examples of a co- 
 vetousness which is described by Protestant writers as 
 so eager and unscrupulous, that even when detected 
 it knew not how to blush, and which, when finally 
 baffled and rebuked, and compelled in many cases 
 to disgorge its prey, resented the loss of its spoils 
 rather than the public exposure of its fraudulent 
 greed. 
 
 Among the many missionary claimants up to 1841 
 were the Rev. J. Matthews, for 2, SOS acres; the 
 Rev. R. Matthews, for 3,000 acres; the Rev. T. Ait- 
 ken, 7,670 acres; Rev. W.Williams, 890; M^ Clarke, 
 19,000; M-^ Davis, 6,000; M^ Fairburn, 20,000; 
 M-^Kemp, 18,000; M-" King, 10,300; M^ Shepherd, 
 11,860; and Anally, for we cannot reckon them all, 
 the Rev. H. Williams, at first for 11,000, (2) and 
 afterwards, as D'^Thomson reports, for 22,000 acres. 
 
 The last named gentleman should not be con- 
 founded with the crowd of obscure competitors in 
 this active commerce. He was conspicuous among 
 the missionaries whom, as M*" Earp playfully told 
 the House of Commons, « the natives regarded as 
 having done them. » « The Rev. Henry Williams, 
 the chairman of the Church Mission in New Zea- 
 land, » we are told by M*" Wakefield, « under the 
 pretence of securing a piece of land for a native teach- 
 
 (1) Tivelve Years, etc., vol. I, p. 48. 
 
 (2) Terry, p. 12-2. 
 
 II. 6
 
 106 CHAPTER V. 
 
 er, had obtained an assignment to himself of forty 
 acres of the best part of the proposed site. » (1) And 
 he appears to have displayed similar talents during 
 a long series of years. In 1852, D"" Shaw relates that 
 he passed « miles of barren district » in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Auckland, the unproductiveness of which 
 he found, on further enquiry, was due to the spe- 
 culative schemes of its reverend owner. « It was 
 explained, » he adds, « from the fact of an Arch- 
 deacon Williams, one of the missionaries, who had 
 got possession of it, and would not sell it; thereby 
 putting an end to cultivation and rural industry in 
 that part of the country. » (2) D"^ Lang speaks of a 
 Rev. M"^ Williams, whom he calls « the ordained 
 head of the New Zealand mission, » who became 
 ultimately an Anglican bishop in that colony. If it 
 was the same individual, his career may be regarded 
 as a pleasing example of continuous and progressive 
 prosperity. 
 
 But ]\r Williams, if never surpassed, was some- 
 times equalled by his missionary colleagues. «l\rShep- 
 herd, » we learn from a Protestant historian, « bought 
 a large tract of eligible land, having a frontage of from 
 four to five miles on one of the navigable rivers in 
 the Bay of Islands, for two check shirts and an iron 
 pot. » (5) ]\P Marsden, if his life had been prolonged, 
 would have been tempted to envy his successors. But 
 M' Shepherd was not satisfied with one such bargain, 
 
 (1) Adventure in New Zealand, by Edward Jerninghara Wake- 
 field Esq., vol. I, cli. Yll, p. 190. 
 
 (2) Notes of a Ramble in Australia and New Zealand, in 1852, 
 by John Shaw, M. D., F. G. S. ; p. 289. 
 
 (3) Lang, New Zealand in 1839, p 31.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 107 
 
 and knew how to accomplish slill more hrillianl 
 operations, when spiritual engagements left him lei- 
 sure, hy the aid of check shirts and iron pots. He has, 
 we are not surprised to hear, « another estate to- 
 wards the North Cape, where he is at present stationed 
 as a Missionary. » Indeed the success of these gentle- 
 men has been so complete, that we are told of 
 M"" Fairhairn, M"^ Williams, and others, that the 
 very timber on their ample estates was « worth half 
 a million sterling. » 
 
 These examples of the skill of Christian mission- 
 aries in the discharge of their profitable stewardship 
 are instructive, and it is only too easy to add to their 
 number. The Rev. Richard Taylor, who has written 
 a book about New Zealand, full of unction and run- 
 ning over with texts of Scripture, is thus described 
 by IVF Wakefield in 1845. « The Rev. Richard 
 Taylor, who only went to New Zealand in the year 
 1838, was a claimant before the Land Commissioners 
 of 50,000 acres of land! » (1) In ]>P Taylor's book 
 we only read of his zeal for the Gospel, and his 
 tender interest in the salvation of the natives. It 
 is true that he soon abandoned the care of their 
 salvation to other people; but perhaps this was 
 only because so extensive a landowner might rea- 
 sonably aspire to greater dignities at home. It 
 is true also that, ultimately, ibe decision of the 
 authorities deprived the ex -missionary of more 
 than forty-eight thousand acres of his claim; and 
 D"" Thomson notices that a well known periodical 
 « suggested he should have his picture hung up in 
 
 (1) Adventure, etc., vol. II, ch. xiv, p. 34i.
 
 108 CHAPTER V. 
 
 the Church Missionary Society's hall, wilh the words 
 * fifty thousand acres ' under it. » (1) Yet if you read 
 his book, you will be almost tempted to think that he 
 went to New Zealand to preach the Gospel to the 
 heathen. 
 
 The Rev. William Yate, also a « Church Mission- 
 ary, » deserves our particular notice. He too has 
 written a book on New Zealand. Three missionaries, 
 he says, were sent to that colony with an annual 
 allowance of 800 I., an income which he considers 
 despicable, and is surprised they should be expected 
 to do any good with such « necessarily inadequate 
 means. » Yet such a sum, which would suffice to 
 maintain twenty-five Catholic missionaries for a year 
 in China or India, was surely recompense enough 
 for men who had so many other means of adding to 
 their income, and of whom their colleague thus 
 speaks. « So far did some of them dishonour the 
 self-denying doctrines of the Cross, which they had 
 been sent here to teach, that no less painful a plan 
 could be adopted than an ignominious erasure of their 
 names from the list of the Society's labourers. » (2) 
 
 M' Yate's own admiration of the same self-deny- 
 ing doctines was no doubt perfectly sincere; and it 
 was probably before he had learned to value them 
 that he permitted himself some occasional relaxation 
 of their strictness, after a manner which was thus 
 revealed to a Committee of the House of Commons. 
 M'' Yate used to prohibit the natives, the House was 
 informed, from selling their pork to the whalers, not 
 
 (1) Vol. II, p. 156. 
 
 (2) An Account of Neiv Zealand, by tlie Rev J William Yate, 
 cli. IV, p. 168, 2J edition.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 109 
 
 from any unkind feeling towards ihose adventurous 
 mariners, but because he preferred to buy it himself 
 at one penny per pound, and then to sell it at five (1) 
 The sentiments which M'' Yates expresses in his book 
 justify us in assuming that he afterwards regretted 
 his transactions in pork, which he probably felt had 
 been more advantageous to himself than to the w^ha- 
 lers whom he mulcted, or to the natives whom he 
 instructed so persuasively in « the self-denying doc- 
 trines of the Cross. » 
 
 Such, according to their own testimony, were the 
 Protestant missionaries in New Zealand, for more 
 than thirty consecutive years, and such the exam- 
 ples which they afforded to its aboriginal inhabi- 
 tants. Tliese were the Riccis, the Verbiests, the de 
 Brittos, and the Xaviers of Protestantism. In 1842, 
 3PHeaphy still deplores in energetic terms « the rapa- 
 ciousness of the Missionaries. » (2) In the same year 
 Mr Terry reproaches them with the fact, that « many 
 of the Missionaries are now possessors of very large 
 property. » (3) As late as 1845, we find a member 
 of the Legislative Council once more lamenting that 
 « many of the Church Missionaries undoubtedly are 
 traders and land-jobbers. » (4) « Scarcely one of the 
 servants of the Church .Missionary Society, » — ihey 
 
 (1) Parliamentary Papers. M>' Earp's evidence, vol. VII, 
 p. 156. W Earp told the Committee, « That has been Ihe case a 
 great deal in the past history of the Missionaries. « 
 
 (2) Narrative of a Residence in various parts of New Zealand^ 
 by Charles Heaphy, eh. i, p. 5. 
 
 (3) New Zealand, etc., p. 180. 
 
 (i) New Zealand and its Aborigines, by WilHam Brown, ch. II, 
 p. 89.
 
 ^10 CHAPTER V. 
 
 were all Anglican ministers, — says M"^ Wakefield in 
 ihe same year, has been free from this blemish of 
 self interest. "(I) And this is the language of all the 
 witnesses, of every sect. « The missionaries of the 
 Church Missionary Society in New Zealand, » says 
 D"" Lang, « have actually been the principals in the 
 grand conspiracy of the European inhabitants of the 
 island to rob and plunder the natives of iheir land. » (2) 
 Yet we shall presently find these « traders and land- 
 jobbers, » not only speaking complacently of them- 
 selves as devoted and self-tlenying missionaries of the 
 Cross, but reviling their Catholic rivals in terms 
 which only such men could use, and opposing them 
 by arts which only such men could employ. 
 
 Some, no doubt, were better than others : but all 
 the authorities represent the Church of England mis- 
 sionaries as the least scrupulous of any. A\'hen 
 ]VP Earp was examined by the House of Commons, 
 and asked by Lord Jocelyn if there was any difference 
 of character « between the Wesleyan and Church 
 missionaries, » he replied ; « There is nothing to 
 choose between them. I think the Church mission- 
 aries have the predominance ; they have made much 
 larger speculations in land than the Wesleyans. » 
 
 Yet some of the latter had proved formidable rivals 
 to Archdeacon Williams, M' Shepherd, ]>r Taylor, 
 and the other Episcopalian clergy. D' Lang tells us 
 that M' While, a Wesleyan missionary at Hokianga, 
 was obliged to retire in consequence of detected « im- 
 morality, » and adds; « this reputable individual is 
 
 (1) Adventure in Neir Zealand, vol. II, ch. xvii, p. 449. 
 
 (2) New Zealand, p. 33.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. Ill 
 
 now a nierchanl of ihe highest class. » Nor does any 
 amount of exposure correct the fraillies of these sin- 
 guhir missionaries. As late as 18S0, — for time, 
 wliich changes all human things, does not change 
 them, — we have the following curious account of 
 the Rev. Walter Lawry, « General Superintendant 
 of the Wesleyan Mission at Auckland. » It is one of 
 his own colleagues who thus describes him. 
 
 « He lends money, and now has money out at the 
 modest interest of 20 per cent. » It is his delight, he 
 adds, « to watch the market, and to buy, sell, lease, 
 and mortgage to the best advantage; so that he is 
 now owner of land and houses, and one of the weal- 
 thiest men in Auckland. » What follows is still more 
 impressive. « He is doing as much business as ever; 
 almost every week we hear of some fresh purchase 
 or sale.... He now talks of going to England. He is a 
 graphic narrator, and has a fund of interesting ma- 
 terial, and may produce a good impression on behalf 
 of these missions. But I pray God we may see his 
 face no more, unless he get re-converted. » (1) In 
 the next chapter we shall find M"" Lawry, as we 
 might have anticipated, invoking maledictions upon 
 Catholic missionaries, and quoting Holy Scripture 
 against them. 
 
 Even in 1857, nearly fifty years after Marsden 
 made the first missionary contract in New Zealand, 
 M' Ilurslhouse thus describes his Anglican succes- 
 sors. If he uses the language of jest and irony, who 
 can blame him?)) It appears that the Church Mis- 
 
 (1) ^ Voice from New Zealand, by Rev^' Joseph Fletcher, 
 Wesleyan Missionary at Auckland, pp. 2, 3.
 
 112 CHAPTER V. 
 
 sionary gentlemen had come to like New Zealand. 
 The natives were still addicted to cannibalism and to 
 preserving each other's heads; but the natives were 
 ' missionary christians, ' attentive in chapel, and not 
 bad workmen in the glebe. Their lines had fallen in 
 pleasant places. Liberal of the Society's converting 
 blankets and tobacco, they had already acquired for 
 their thirteen confederated chiefs some 500,000 acres 
 of land. » (1) 
 
 « Several missionaries, x.^P Bidwill had previously 
 observed, in 1841, « claim tracts of from one to six 
 hundred thousand acres in different parts of ihe coun- 
 try. » (2) In 1845, M' Hawes told the House of 
 Commons, that, besides being land-jobbers, « they 
 had, at least some of them, become more or less tra- 
 ders also. » (5) And so notorious had their cha- 
 racter now become, that ]>!■■ Charles Duller, writing 
 officially to Lord Stanley, did not hesitate to speak 
 of them as men who would not dare even to offer 
 any defence of their own conduct. « The Mission- 
 aries are not in a state to encounter public dis- 
 cussion of their past proceedings, and would enter- 
 tain any terms ofl'ered to them in a very mitigated 
 spirit. » (4) They had become at last a jest and a 
 proverb ! 
 
 Finally, even D"^ Dieffenbach, their familiar friend 
 
 (1) New Zealand, the Britain of the South, by Charles Hurst- 
 house, vol. I, cli. I, p. 37. 
 
 (2) Rambles in New Zealand, by John Carne Bidwill, p. 86. 
 
 (3) Report of the Debates of the House of Communs on the 
 state of New Zealand, p. 115. 
 
 (4) Eighteenth Report of the Directors of the New Zealand 
 Company, p. 42.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 413 
 
 and conslant advocate, was conlrained, by his own 
 experience and observation, to speak as follows of 
 men whom he desired only to praise. « The Church 
 Missionaries in the Bay of Islands possess large pro- 
 perties in these districts, which is perhaps the reason 
 that they have not long ago gone into the interior, 
 where they would have been far more usefully em- 
 ployed than in the Bay of Islands, which is princi- 
 pally a shipping place. Some of the stations occupied 
 by them are nearly deserted by the natives, and they 
 have therefore no congregations, unless they choose, 
 like St. Antonio, to preach to the fishes. » But in 
 default of congregations they had their estates, which 
 they probably considered a satisfactory compromise. 
 « Their efficiency would undoubtedly have been 
 greater, » D"^ DieflFenbach mildly observes, « if they 
 had shared the adventurous spirit of the settlers, and 
 had lived amongst the interior tribes. » But such a 
 life had no attractions for them, and « the conse- 
 quence has been that many of the older missionaries 
 have become landed proprietors ; and many, by other 
 pursuits, such as banking, or trading with the pro- 
 duce of their gardens or stock, have become wealthy 
 men... Some of these persons are now retiring on 
 their property. » (1) Their sons also, hereditary 
 merchants, learned to imitate the virtues of their 
 fathers, and « the relatives of the Church Mission- 
 aries, » Colonel Mundy relates, « contracted for the 
 supply of provisions » to the army and fleet, « and 
 their sons did undoubtedly reap a rich harvest. » (2) 
 
 (1) Travels in New Zealand, vol. II, ch. v, p. 75. 
 
 (2) Australasian Colonies, vol. II, p. 222, 
 
 II. 6.
 
 114 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Such is one of ihe most characteristic chapters in 
 the history of Protestant missions. We shall find 
 many like it in the lands which we have still to visit, 
 as we have already found others in China, India, and 
 Ceylon; but we will only so far anticipate the 
 evidence which has still to be adduced as to observe 
 here, that the same witnesses whom we have just 
 heard will tell us presently, in spite of vehement 
 prejudices, that the Catholic missionaries in this land 
 have been conspicuous for ihe evangelical purity, 
 zeal, and disinterestedness which they vainly search- 
 ed for in their Protestant rivals. To these true 
 apostles of Jesus we owe an apology for even compa- 
 ring them, though by way of contrast, with such 
 emissaries as England has sent to New Zealand du- 
 ring fifty years, to represent her religious opinions. Yet 
 these men professed to be « missionaries of the Gos- 
 pel, » and teachers of the « self-denying doctrines of 
 the Cross. » Most of them have written books exalting 
 their own apostolic triumphs, and challenging the 
 admiration of their partisans at home. How far they 
 deserved it, we have seen, from their own confes- 
 sions, or the narratives of their friends. Perhaps even 
 their warmest advocates, — though they have eagerly 
 read the romantic biographies in which such men as 
 Marsden, and Taylor, and Yate, and Leigh, and 
 many others, are depicted as « angels of light, » — 
 may at last comprehend their true character, and 
 the hollowness of iheir religious profession, if they 
 will only refer to the Acts of the Apostles, and 
 contemplate for a moment the model there exhibited 
 of the Christian Missionary. Let them at least inter- 
 rogate their own hearts, and say whether the men by
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 115 
 
 >vhose labour God has in various ages converled the 
 healhen to the knowledge of His Son were ever sucli 
 as these? Let them lell us, whether they can imagine 
 St. Paul claiming thousands of acres in Thrace, or 
 an estate in the suburbs of Corinth; St. Barnabas 
 bartering domestic utensils for a vineyard in Cyprus ; 
 St. Augustine robbing the Saxons of their pork to 
 sell it to the Welsh; St. Boniface lending money at 
 twenty per cent, on the banks of the Danube; or 
 St. Francis Xavier a thriving cattle-dealer on the 
 shores of the Persian Gulf? 
 
 In this lamentable history there is, however, one 
 consolation. The day of retribution came at last; and 
 England nobly disavowed, by the voice of her rulers, 
 the turpitude of her missionaries in New Zealand. 
 Some of them indeed had anticipated the coming 
 storm, and « retired on their properly; » but their 
 cupidity, as ]\r Brodie notices, led to « the enactment 
 of a law declaring all titles to lands purchased from 
 natives invalid. » (1) Many who were striving to 
 emulate their prosperous predecessors were rudely 
 interrupted in their dreams of wealth, and even 
 compelled to abandon the prey which they thought 
 they had secured. « Many of the purchases, » says 
 M' Chamerovzow, though he includes the colonists 
 as well as the missionaries in his reproaches, « have 
 since been declared invalid by the local government, 
 being repudiated by the native owners, on the plea 
 of inadequate compensation,... wilful double-dealing, 
 or actual fraud. » (2) « The Church of England mis- 
 
 (t) Remarks on the Past and Present state of New Zealand, 
 by Walter Brodie, p. 52. (1845). 
 
 (2] TAei\'eu'Zea/anrf(3((e*h'ott, by Louis Chamerovzow, eh. I, p. 4.
 
 116 CHAPTER V. 
 
 sionaries, » says a writer in 1860, — for it is a no- 
 table feature, as we saw in India and China, of Pro- 
 testant missions, that their latest annahsls are as full 
 of rebuke as all who preceded them , — « claimed 
 216,000 acres of land; » and the arts by which the 
 reverend claimants had appropriated them are suffi- 
 ciently revealed by the fact, that the final judicial 
 award compelled them to resign 150,000! « Arch- 
 deacon Henry Williams and some others, » adds the 
 same authority, were at lenglh admonished, but not 
 till it was found that the English public would no 
 longer tolerate their proceedings, « that they must 
 either give up their excessive grants of land, or leave 
 the service of the mission. The Archdeacon chose the 
 latter course... When he had suffered suspension for 
 five years, he was restored » — to become once more 
 a guide to the heathen, and an ornament of the An- 
 glican Church in New Zealand. 
 
 The missionaries had now no alternative but to be 
 content with their salaries, and to trade or speculate 
 only through the agency of others. But the Societies 
 at home had prepared at least a partial compensation, 
 by arranging that the wealth of their agents should 
 vary as the number of their children. The tariff of 
 missionary rewards, we learn from D' Dieffenbach, 
 was on the following scale. « When the question of 
 providing for the children of the Missionaries was 
 brought before the Committee of the Church Mission- 
 ary Society in London, two hundred acres for each 
 child was thought to be a liberal allowance. » He 
 adds that « ten acres of arable land must be regarded 
 as sufficient for all reasonable wants of an indivi- 
 dual. » But we have seen that the revenues of the
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. H7 
 
 missionary societies are large, and the benevolence 
 of their subscribers inexhaustible. (1) 
 
 One circumstance only remains to be noticed. The 
 too prosperous career of the Missionaries in New 
 Zealand attracted attention, as we have observed, 
 even in the assembly of Parliament. In a debate 
 which took place in the House of Commons in 184S, 
 « the conduct of the Catholic missionaries, » of 
 which we shall hear more presently, was contrasted 
 by more than one speaker with that of the Protest- 
 ants. The lale Sir Robert Inglis, the official apologist 
 of the Church of England , on all occasions and 
 against all adversaries, offered to the House of Com- 
 mons this explanation. « It must always be recollect- 
 ed, ;) he said, « that, after no length of time, could 
 the Roman Catholic missionaries have to provide for 
 families. » The same thing, happily for the progress 
 of Christianity, was true of the first Apostles; but it 
 was not to be expected that Sir Robert Inglis should 
 introduce this consideration to the notice of the 
 House. 
 
 A more candid and better informed critic, who 
 had seen both classes of missionaries at their work, 
 while he laments that the Proteslant teachers « were 
 very censurable, » adds the very reflection which 
 Sir Robert Inglis prudently suppressed. « The Roman 
 Catholic missionaries, » D'' Thomson remarks, 
 « would not take advantage of the trade; for the 
 missionaries of this church in other countries have 
 generally obeyed ihe spirit of the holy injunction to 
 
 (1) In like manner. « the Chaplains of New South Wales were 
 gratuitously presented with IGOO diCrcs per child. » Excursion in 
 New Zealand, p. 50.
 
 118 CHAPTER V. 
 
 the flrst Christian missionaries in the world : * Take 
 nothing for your journey, neither slaves, nor scrip, 
 neither hread, neilher money, neither have two coats 
 apiece; ' » — a contrast which we have seen empha- 
 tically traced l)y another witness, when he told the 
 House of Commons, « Christ said, Leave all; they 
 say, Take all. » 
 
 And now that we are sufficiently acquainted with 
 the missionaries themselves, it is time to enquire 
 what has heen the result of their labours. In the first 
 place, it is undeniable that a large number of the 
 natives have gradually been induced, like the Cinga- 
 lese during the Dutch occupation, to profess a no- 
 minal Christianity, Irresistible motives have conspired 
 to provoke their external acquiescence in the religion 
 of their masters. From them they have learned many 
 European arts, tending to augment their ease and 
 enjoyment; and « their fine intellect enables them at 
 once to perceive the great value of these crafts. » (1) 
 From them they learned the value of land, and of its 
 products, for which they quickly understood the 
 strangers would be their surest customers. « The 
 success of the Missionaries in New Zealand, » ob- 
 serves jVP Brown, « is chiefly referable, not by any 
 means to a wish on the part of the natives for reli- 
 gious instruction, but to their hope of selling their 
 land, building houses, or general trading. » (2) 
 
 The same observation has been made by many 
 other writers. « Utilitarian motives, » says Colonel 
 Mundy, « have undoubtedly been very powerful 
 
 (1) Brown's New Zealand, ch. u, p. 60. 
 
 (2) P. 90.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 119 
 
 auxiliaries to their reception of the Christian 
 faith. » (1) « The greater part of the so-called 
 Christian natives, » M"" Carne Bidwill informs us, 
 « have only heen attracted to hecome converts hy the 
 easy mode of life which they enjoy at the missionary 
 establishments. »(2)« They seem to understand little, 
 and to care less, about the principles of the Christian 
 creed, » says another independent witness, but they 
 appreciate the « many useful arts » which the mis- 
 sionaries can teach them, and easily understand that 
 it is « their policy to support and encourage the mis- 
 sionaries. » (3) « Many have been the supposed con- 
 verts to missionary instruction, » says M"" Polack in 
 1840, « from the crafty feeling of bettering their 
 present condition. » (4) « We are growing old, » is 
 an expression which M' AVakefield sometimes heard 
 amongst them, « and want our children to have pro- 
 tection in people from Europe. » (o) « The natives, » 
 says M"" Hay, « are anxious to be placed under the 
 protection of British law, and would be willing to 
 receive any person vested with power to enforce 
 it. » (6) « All, » says D"^ Thomson, « looked upon 
 the missionary and his effects as their own pro- 
 perly, » (7) And so well was this understood by the 
 
 (1) Australasian Colonies, vol. II, ch. iv, p. 133. 
 
 (2) Rambles in. New Zealand, p. 36. 
 
 (3) Rovinfjs in the Pacific, by a Merchant long resident at 
 Tahiti, vol. I, ch. ix, p. 227. 
 
 (4) Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders, hy I. S. Po- 
 lack Esq., vol. II, ch. XXII, p. 235. 
 
 (5) Adventure in New Zealand, vol. I, ch. iv, p. 73. 
 
 (6) Journal of the Royal Geographical Socielij, vol. II, p. 134. 
 
 (7) Vol. I, p. 316.
 
 •120 CHAPTER V. 
 
 authorities in New Zealand, that when a new tribe 
 announced their adhesion to the missionary party, 
 M*" Forsailh, who held the office of « Protector of 
 Aborigines, » contented himself with reporting to 
 the local government that it had « nominally em- 
 braced Ciu'isiianity. » (1) What the profession was 
 worth we shall see presently. 
 
 It is evident, then, that far from encountering even 
 the preliminary difficulties which commonly impede 
 the progress of Missions in heathen lands, every thing 
 tended in iVew Zealand to promote and accelerate it; 
 so that M"" Brown reproaches the missionaries, with 
 apparent reason, that « they have themselves to 
 blame that success has not been much greater. » 
 Every human aid which could promote that success 
 was freely placed at their disposal. If a new mission 
 is to be opened, the Governor does not disdain to ac- 
 company the missionary in person, and goes to in- 
 duct him, surrounded by such pomp and circum- 
 stance as his ^wasZ-regal office permits; (2) and thus 
 forcibly admonishes the « fine intellect » of the na- 
 tives that the power which they may never more 
 hope to resist, and from whose patronage alone they 
 can henceforth expect grace and favour, is perma- 
 nently enlisted on the side of their Protestant teach- 
 ers. To them they must now look for prosperity, 
 for instruction in domestic arts, and even for daily 
 employment. The very agents selected from amongst 
 the natives as « catechists » or « assistant preachers » 
 are thus described by M"^ Wakefield. « The principal 
 
 (1) Parliamentary Papers, vol. XXX, p. 173. (t846). 
 
 (2) See Sir George Grey's Overland Expedilion from Auckland 
 to Taranaki, 1850.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. ISl 
 
 teachers under the Missionaries are generally llieir 
 house-servants at the same lime, black iheir shoes, 
 clean their windows, make their beds, groom their 
 horses, and cook their dinner. » And we cannot be 
 surprised that barbarians whose aculeness has be- 
 come a proverb, and who enjoy daily opportunities 
 of exercising it, should reflect seriously upon the 
 ample resources which they perceive to be at the 
 disposal of their masters. They may be ignorant of 
 the exact annual revenue of the various missionary 
 societies, but they have detected that it is large 
 enough to justify the shrewd calculation, that even 
 the generous living of the missionaries will notwholly 
 exhaust it, and that a considerable surplus will be 
 applicable to their own wants. 
 
 It was remarked by M"" Terry, in 184-2, that « at 
 the enormous annual expense of above fourteen 
 thousand pounds, in the twenty-fifth year of its 
 establishment in New Zealand , the Church IMis- 
 sionary Society only provide for the religious and 
 scholastic instruction of the Aborigines eight Mis- 
 sionaries, and sixteen Catechists. » (1) Many years 
 later, we are told by D"" Selwyn, of whom we shall 
 have to speak more fully hereafter, that the result 
 of one appeal for pecuniary contributions to the New 
 Zealand mission was this, — that « the post for some 
 days seemed to rain bank notes. » (2) The Wesley- 
 ans also, as the Rev. M''Turton relates, had spent 
 80,000 1. before 1844. (3) Lastly, the Canterbury 
 
 (1) New Zealand, etc., p. 189. 
 
 (2) The Melanesian Mission, by G. A. Selwyn, D. D., Lord 
 Bishop of New Zealand, Letter I, p. 51. (1853). 
 
 (3) Brown's New Zealand, app. p. 273.
 
 122 CHAPTER V. 
 
 selllement, the latest missionary enterprise in this co- 
 lony, was conducted from its very origin with such 
 careful financial forethought, ihat « one third of the 
 entire proceeds of the ' Land Sales ' is appropriat- 
 ed, » we learn from ]VP Hurslhouse, « to religious 
 and educational purposes; » (1) and in 1850 ihe 
 projectors cheerfully estimate their eventual share 
 from this source at one million sterling. (2) 
 
 The natives, then, had manifold and urgent mo- 
 tives for close alliance with the Protestant mission- 
 aries. So clearly did ihey perceive that they had 
 every thing to gain and nothing to lose by the no- 
 minal profession of Protestantism, that considera- 
 tions of interest overcame, in the case of large num- 
 bers, the repugnance with which the avarice of the 
 missionaries had inspired them. It was indeed 
 strongly suspected, as M"" Tyrone Power observes, 
 that « a struggle for temporal advantages » chiefly 
 influenced the latter; (3) or as D"" Dieffenhach re- 
 lates, « that the missionaries sought to convert them 
 only with a view to their ow n aggrandizement ; » (4) 
 but if the natives could share in the benefits by 
 which a more active commerce was sure to be ac- 
 companied, ihey were willing to overlook this defect 
 in their religious teachers, and even to do their best 
 to imitate it. In this, as all the witnesses affirm, they 
 were entirely successful. The natives still said, in- 
 deed , and sometimes even in the presence of the 
 
 (1) New Zealand, etc., p. 155. 
 
 (2) Canterbury Papers, p. 7. (1850). 
 
 ^3) Sketches in New Zealand, by W. Tyrone Power, D. A. 
 C. G., ch. XVII, p. 147. (1849). 
 
 (4) Travels, etc., vol. I, ch. viii, p. 169.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. laS 
 
 missionaries, that « their only reason for coming 
 to New Zealand was that it was a heller country 
 ihan their own. » (1) But this conviction did 
 not deter them from proflting hy iheir instructive 
 example. With what fatal resulls thai example has 
 been attended is sufficiently revealed in the following 
 passages. « They have become covetous, suspicious, 
 and unfortunate, » ?ays D"" Dieffenbach, the friend 
 and associate of the Protestant missionaries. « They 
 have lost a great pari of iheir hospitality and polite- 
 ness, and their refusing aid when the stranger is 
 most in want of it, or exacting exorbitant lecom- 
 pense for it, makes travelling now very annoying. » 
 M'' David Rough, another Protestant traveller, who 
 was on a certain occasion the guest of « Archdea- 
 con Brown, » relates ihal « the demands made were 
 so exorbitant, « even for the smallest services, that 
 his host lent him « his own men rather lhan suffer 
 us to submit lo imposition. » And so little ashamed 
 were these « Christian » natives of their new vice, 
 thai, as M' Rough adds, they openly boasted of 
 « their success in exacting high pay. » (2) « Instead 
 of enjoying themselves with song and the merry 
 dance, as formerly, » says j>r Brown, « they are 
 absorbed in thinking of their next bargain with the 
 Europeans. » « How is it likely, » asks another Pro- 
 testant writer, « that their avarice should be subdued, 
 when they saw those people who came to preach the 
 6ros/3e/ grasping to obtain large landed property, and 
 
 (1) D'" Lany's New Zealand, p. 42. 
 
 (2) Narrative of a Journey through part of the North of New 
 Zealand, by David Rough, p. 18.
 
 124 CHAPTER V. 
 
 lliose who were guilty of dowiiright vice ? » (1) 
 It appears, loo, that (hey had already learned to 
 quote the Protestant Bible in defence of their greed 
 and impurity. M'^ Fox gives examples, in 18oI, such 
 as tlie following. « One of them, whom the governor 
 was upbraiding with having sold his land three or 
 four times over to different parties, justified himself 
 by quoting the passage, ' After thou hadst sold if, was 
 it not thine own? ' And a very intelligent native, to 
 whom I was pointing out the impropriety of having 
 ihree wives, replied; ' Oh, never mind, all ihe same 
 as Solomon ! ' A much more serious misapplication of 
 the Scripture, occurred during the late war, when 
 many of them tore up their Bibles to make wadding 
 for their guns. » (2) Even the native « preachers, » 
 whom the missionaries somewhat imprudently de- 
 puled to represent them in the interior, and who 
 were of course the flower of their « converts, » 
 « raised a very considerable income, » we are in- 
 formed by M"" Shorlland, « in the shape of iron pots, 
 boxes, blankets, and fire-arms, as fees for perform- 
 ing the ceremonies of marrying, burying, etc. » (5) 
 It would be easy lo multiply these melancholy 
 statements, which for the honour of our race and 
 nation we would have gladly suppressed, if they had 
 not been already recorded by a crowd of Protestant 
 writers, — but we may content ourselves with adding 
 the testimony of M"^ Wakefield, than whom no writer 
 
 (1) Letters from Wanganui, p. 39. (18-i5). 
 
 (2) The Six Colonies of New Zealand, by ^Yilliam Fox, p. 82. 
 (1851). 
 
 (3) The Southern Districts of New Zealand, by Edward Short- 
 land, M. A., p. 268. (1851).
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 125 
 
 on New Zealand has enjoyed belter opporlunilies of 
 estimaling the native character, and the effects of 
 Protestant missions upon it. « Tlie most disagreeable 
 and saddening remark, » says this intelligent writer, 
 « which I made, was this, that the natives appeared 
 to have entirely abandoned their primitive and beau- 
 tiful hospitality, the great redeeming point in the 
 character of the most ferocious and treacherous hea- 
 then native, whom no influence of any sort has yet 
 changed for the better, or perverted from the customs 
 of his fathers. Every village (of the ' christians') 
 reminded me of the ' touters ' on the pier at Bou- 
 logne, seeking to pounce on an unfortunate traveller. 
 Instead of the former dignified reception, with a 
 house assigned you by the chief, the whole popu- 
 lation rushes at you; but you soon find that, which- 
 ever you may choose, you have to pay for each small 
 kit of potatoes, for the carrying of water, or of fern 
 for your bed, and even for every stick of fire-wood 
 before you are allowed to burn it. » (1) And this 
 account is confirmed, in 1859, by the latest writer 
 on New Zealand, who, while noticing that even at 
 that date « their religion consisted more in words 
 than deeds, » still adds the same sign of declension, 
 — that« Christian natives were less given to hospital- 
 ity than the heathens. » (2) What they have become 
 at last, we shall learn at the close of this chapter. 
 Such, as their own friends attest, is the first and 
 most obvious result of the action of Protestant Mis- 
 sionaries upon the natives of New Zealand. Let us, 
 
 (1) Adventure in New Zealand, vol. II, ch. xiv, p. 358. 
 
 (2) Dr Thomson, vol. II, p. 164.
 
 126 CHAPTER V. 
 
 enquire, in ihe nexl place, and still from the same 
 impartial witnesses^ what is the nature of the religion 
 which they have been induced to profess, how far it 
 resembles Christianity, and what influence it exerts 
 over their habits and character. As the evidence is 
 copious, and, in spite of the diversity of the wit- 
 nesses, absolutely uniform, it will perhaps be most 
 convenient to follow the older of dates. D' Lang has 
 traced for us the results of Protestant Missions in 
 New Zealand up to 1859; other authorities, equally 
 competent and unexceptionable, will carry on the 
 history to ihe present hour. 
 
 Already, in 1852, a writer in the Asiatic Journal, 
 after a review of some of the facts which we have 
 been considering, pronounced this verdict upon the 
 missionaries in New Zealand and the islands of the 
 South Sea. « We have come to the painful conclusion, 
 that the presence of the Missionaries in New Zealand 
 and Otaheite has been productive of more mischief 
 than good. » (1) And in the same year, M' Earle, 
 who indignantly reproaches their wordly and uncha- 
 ritable lives, and exposes the real character of their 
 « converts, » emphalically declares, — « I never saw 
 one proselyte of their converting. » (2) 
 
 In the year 1855 we come to M"^ Yate, a Church 
 of England missionary, whose operations as a dealer 
 in provisions have already been noticed. Here is a 
 conversation which he relates between himself and 
 one of his male converts. 
 
 (i) Asiatic Journal, vol. VIII, p. 106. New Series. 
 (2) Nine Months Residence in New Zealand, by Augustus 
 Earle, p. 201.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 127 
 
 M"" Yale. « What is the new heart like? » Answer; 
 « Like yours, it is very good. » 
 
 « Where is lis goodness? » 
 
 « Answer; « It is altogether good : it tells me to 
 lie down and sleep all day on Sunday, and not to go 
 and fight. » 
 
 « When did you pray last? » 
 
 « This morning. » 
 
 « What did you pray for? » 
 
 « I said, 0, Jesus Christ, give me a hianket, in 
 order that I may helieve. » (1) 
 
 This view of the proper objects of prayer seems to 
 have been universal with Protestant New Zealanders. 
 Here is a letter which ]>P late received from one 
 of his neophytes, and his book contains similar spe- 
 cimens of their epistolary style. « M'^ Yate — how do 
 you do? Sick is my heart for a blanket. Yes, for- 
 gotten have you the young pigs I gave you last sum- 
 mer. My pipe is gone out, and there is not loi)acco 
 with me to fill it : where should I have tobacco? 
 Remember the pigs which I gave you : you have not 
 given me any thing for them. I fed you with sucking 
 pigs; therefore I say, do not forget. » (2) M' Yale 
 was evidently doomed to be reminded of an animal 
 with which his missionary career had made him too 
 well acquainted. 
 
 Advancing to 1840, we come to M"^ Polack, and 
 to the careful and minute account which he has aiven 
 of New Zealand and ils inhabitants. « The attempts 
 to instil a real belief in ihe Christian religion into the 
 
 (1) Account of New Zealand, cli. v, p. 222. 
 
 (2) P. 271.
 
 128 CHAPTER V. 
 
 minds of the benighted natives, » he says, « has 
 hitherto decidedly failed » — after an experiment 
 which already lasted twenty-six years, aided by 
 every human advantage which it was possible to pos- 
 sess. Not a few, he adds, have professed Protestant- 
 ism, with the hope of « bettering their present con- 
 dition ; but almost in every instance, where a contrary 
 conduct ensured present benefit, the adults have 
 renounced their lately received opinions, and held 
 aloof from their instructors. » (1) 
 
 In 1841, we have three witnesses, of very different 
 characters, but all conversant with the natives and 
 with their habits. M' Bidwill, though a friend and 
 advocate of the missionaries, says; « 1 have certainly 
 observed that the ' missionary ' natives are the most 
 impertinent and least willing to work. » (2) M"^ Bright, 
 a member of the medical profession, is more emphatic. 
 The converts, he says, « keep the Sabbath, » go to 
 chjirch, and even « subscribe to the Church and Wes- 
 leyan missionaries; » and then he adds, « they are, 
 however, no more honest in their general transactions 
 than the rest; » and again, « the slight hold religion 
 has of them is frequently attested by their aberrations 
 under common temptations. » Once more; « I should 
 say thai more than one fourth of the native popu- 
 lation can read and write their own language, and 
 that they have a sense of moral obligations. Further 
 I would not give them credit, as it is doubtful whether 
 piety has entered the soul. » (3) Lastly, a Catholic 
 
 (1) Manners and Customs, etc., vol. II, ch. xxn, p. 235. 
 
 (2) Rambles, ete.,p.20. 
 
 (3) A History of Neiv Zealand, etc., by John Bright, M. R. 
 C. S., ch. VI, p. 127.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES 129 
 
 missionary, the Abbe Peliljean, who visiled the na- 
 tives at Wangaroa this year, whom he found « almost 
 enlirely Protestant, » and making habitually the most 
 ludicrous perversions of the Bible, says; « Will it be 
 believed that these poor people did not know that 
 there is one God in Three Persons; that the Word 
 became Man and died for us; yet their teachers 
 have been in New Zealand for more than twenty 
 yars! » (1) 
 
 In the following year, 1842, D"^ Dieffenbach, 
 though he endeavours to make the best possible case 
 for the missionaries, gives this account of tbe effects of 
 Protestant conversion. « Instead of an active warlike 
 race, they have become caters of potatoes, neglecting 
 their industrious pursuits... and they pass their lives 
 in eating, smoking, and sleeping. » In several places 
 he indicates that they retain as Protestants their 
 pagan customs, and that they exhibit the influence 
 of their new religion chiefly by a superstitious and 
 irrational observance of the ' sabbath, ' which « the 
 ill-judged directions of the missionaries » (2) have 
 taught them to regard as the capital tenet of Christ- 
 ianity. 
 
 At the same date, M"" Heaphy, who had visited the 
 various provinces of New Zealand, thus recounts the 
 results of his observation. « I estimate the good which 
 the Missionaries have done as about the same which 
 would have resulted from the settlement, for the same 
 period, of a like number of respectable settlers of 
 various avocations ; with the exception that the setl- 
 
 (1) ^«rea/5, vol. II, p. 154. 
 
 (2) Travels, vol. I, ch. vii, p. HO.
 
 430 CHAPTER V. 
 
 lers would probably liave taught the natives many 
 useful aits, and inlroduced industry amongst them, 
 \vhich the Missionaries have not. » And presently he 
 adds, « much of what the missionaries have endea- 
 %oured to teach the New Zealanders has had any but 
 a good effect upon them. » (1) 
 
 In 1843, M"^ King, an unusually candid mission- 
 ary, says; « The number of natives under Christian 
 instruction is very large, but ihe number of those 
 who arc decidedly Christian is very small. » (2) Yet 
 twenty-nine years had now elapsed since the Protest- 
 ant missionaries entered New Zealand, and (hey had 
 to deal with perhaps the most apt and intelligent race 
 of barbarians in the world. 
 
 The year 1845 furnishes six witnesses. The Amer- 
 ican Commodore Wilkes, who commanded the United 
 Slates Exploring Expedition, relates that « perhaps 
 those who have become somewhat attached to the 
 Christian religion may be a Utile improved, » — but 
 he confesses that he only heard of a solitary instance 
 of such improvement. « The iMissionaries of the 
 Episcopal Church, » he adds, « appear to keep aloof 
 fiom (he natives, and an air of stiffness and pride 
 seems to prevail. They appear to be doing but little 
 in making converts. iMost of ihe natives have morning 
 and evening prayers, but their practices and character 
 show any thing but a reform in their lives. » (5) 
 M"" Brodie notices in ihe same year, as a proof of ihe 
 
 (1) Narrative, etc., ch. v, p. 52. 
 
 (2) Polynesia and New Zealand, by the Right Revd M. Rus- 
 sell, ch. .K, p. 361. (2d edition). 
 
 (3) United States Exploring Expedition, by Charles Wilkes, 
 U. S. i\., vol. Ill, ch. XII, pp. iOO, -iOl.
 
 MISSION'S IN THR ANTIPODES. 131 
 
 feeble influence of Proleslanlism, thai D'"SeKvyn and 
 his colleague D"" Williams tried in vain to prevent 
 their own followers from fighting. (1) M"" Brown at 
 the same dale observes, — and his position gave him 
 unusual opportunities of judging, — that « ihe Church 
 iMissionaries in particular » — meaning the Kpiseo- 
 palians — « have not found their way to the hearts 
 of the natives, and are not so much respected as they 
 ought to have been. One powerful cause of this has 
 been iheir adoption of a peculiarly Jiard and illiberal 
 system of dealing wilh ihe natives in commercial 
 matters, which has produced a highly unfavorable 
 contrast in this respect wilh the conduct of the other 
 settlers. » (2) Thirty years, it seems, had effected no 
 change in their character. 
 
 M"" Wakefield confirms, in his well known work, 
 the same facts. Of the so-called Christian natives he 
 says, « they appeared to be lamed without being 
 civilised; » and he gives examples of the imprudent 
 boasts and exaggerations by which the missionaries 
 too oflen attempted to deceive iheir supporters at 
 home. Hongi and Waikato, two New Zealand chiefs, 
 were sent over and exhibited by them to English 
 audiences as « perfect and very devout Christians; » 
 but as soon as the former, enriched by the presents 
 of his credulous admirers, relurned to his own 
 country, « he appeared in his true character as an 
 ambitious and blood-thirsty warrior. » One of his 
 first acts was lo destroy « the Wesleyan Mission at 
 Wangaroa. » IJul without multiplying these charactei- 
 
 (1) Remarks, etc., p. 39. 
 
 (2) Ch. II, p. 84.
 
 132 CHAPTER V. 
 
 istic details, let it suffice to quote the following 
 impressive statement, in which M"" Wakefield appre- 
 ciates the historical results of Protestant missions in 
 New Zealand. « It was a matter of constant observa- 
 tion, among all classes of settlers, that the results of 
 the missionary system of instruction were not by any 
 means satisfactory. At Wellington no less than at 
 Wanganui, and at other places where there were 
 no white settlers, this fact began to startle the im- 
 partial observer. The only good result that appeared 
 to have been obtained, was the strict and rigid adhe- 
 rence to the mere forms of the Christian religion. But 
 il was hardly a matter of doubt that ihe conversion 
 penetrated no deeper than the mere forms. As a body 
 they were distinctly inferior in point of moral cha- 
 racter to the natives who remained with their ancient 
 customs unchanged... At some places, such as Patea, 
 where their religious enthusiasm was carried, in 
 form, to the most extravagant pitch, they maintained 
 the very worst character for honesty, and courtesy 
 to a stranger. It must be remembered that no while 
 man had dwell there. The Missionary system had 
 therefore enjoyed a fair trial, without the interference 
 of civilizalion. » (1) 
 
 In ihe same year, another Protestant witness 
 writes as follows from Wanganui. « I slate my belief 
 that the Missionaries have done very little, if any 
 thing, towards the improvement of either the civil or 
 moral condition of the Maoris. It will be urged, that 
 Ihe natives must be better than before, as they are 
 nearly all Christians. Truly as far as the name they 
 
 (1) Adventure, etc., vol. II, cli I, p. 11.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 133 
 
 are — but Nvhal else? 1 appeal to any one who 
 knows any thing of thcni, whether ihey are one jot 
 more moral or more civilized than iheir neighbours 
 the ' Devils ' , as the unchristian natives ai e styled 
 par excellence; whether, in fact, you would not 
 sooner, at any time, trust or believe a ' Devil ', rather 
 than a ' Missionary? ' » (1) Another witness from 
 the same place, and in the same volume, says of the 
 Protestant converls, — « generally speaking, ihey 
 aie distinguished from the unconverted natives as 
 rogues, thieves, and liars. » (2) A third declares 
 that « Polygamy is still not uncommon, the principal 
 chief at Puliki having three wives, all Mission- 
 aries. » (3) 
 
 Lastly, still in the same year, D' Selwyn tell us 
 of « a native teacher who relapsed into sin, » and of 
 a Chief who told him, that « his own backwardness 
 of belief was owing to the bad conduct of the baptized 
 natives. « (4-) Thirty-one years had now elapsed. 
 
 In 1846, M"' Fitzroy, a friend and campanion of 
 the iMissionaries, reports still more unfavorably. 
 « Religion » he says, « has lost much of the limited 
 influence which was acquired previous to 1840. » 
 And then he explains his meaning. Hitherto, the 
 Protestants had at least none but friendly witnesses 
 of their failure, in this chosen field of their operations. 
 This advantage they were now losing for ever. 
 « Roman Catholics » INF Fitzroy adds, « have entered 
 the field which was exclusively Protestant till 
 
 (1) Letters from Wanganui, p. 8. 
 
 (2) Ibid., p. 35. 
 
 (3) Ibid., p. 2t. 
 
 (i) Church in the Colonies, Number vn, p. -ii.
 
 134 CHAP 1 EH V. 
 
 1838. » (I)Il was apparently higli time, and nvc 
 shall see presently what welcome they recei\ed. 
 
 In 1847, M' Angas, a friend o!" D"" DiefTenbacl], 
 still notes ihe force of the old suj)ei'slilions, and 
 records ihal « esen those nalises who have emhraced 
 Christianity, » are suhject to their influence, and 
 especially to « the dread of the supposed power of 
 witchcrafi. » (2) 
 
 In 1849, — such a history should he pursued to 
 the end, — a British ofllcer visits New Zealand on 
 service. He is amazed to find himself fighting against 
 « Protestant natives, » of whom he prohahly knew 
 nothing but from the florid nariatives of missionary 
 records, and this is his reflection upon the curious 
 fact. « It appears to me unaccountable, but it is 
 nevertheless true, that nearly the whole of the nati^es 
 who took part with John Heki against the Govern- 
 ment in the Cay of Islands icere Protestants. » (5) 
 Heki himself was a notable specimen o! the influence 
 of Protestant « conversion, » and deserves a mo- 
 ment's notice. « This man was educated by the mis- 
 sionai'ies, » says D' Thomson, « and had acquired a 
 deep knowledge of the Bible; he was baptized in the 
 presence of the British Resident, and ihe tears he 
 shed on the occasion showed how keenly he felt the 
 solemnity of that Sacrament. » And what was the 
 efl'ect of Protestantism upon this noble savage, 
 « whose mind was of the oider found in the front 
 
 (1) Remarks on New Zealand in t8iG, liy Robert Fitzroy, 
 ch. vn, p. 63. 
 
 (2) SaiKKje Life, etc., vol. I, ch. ix, p. 331. 
 
 (3) Reminincences of Twelve Months service in New Zealand, 
 by Lieut. H. F. Mc Killop, R. N., p. 80.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODF.S. 135 
 
 rank of inlellcctiial progress? » Here is ihe answer. 
 « He fell back inio healhenij^ni, and look tlclighl in 
 religious dispules ; he argued againsl the Irulhs of 
 Scrij)(ure, and confounded Clirislians with their 
 own weapons. » And thai ihe miserable form of 
 Chrislianily presented to him, and especially its 
 incessant divisions and the malice displayed in them, 
 produced this effect, is proved by his own expressive 
 taunt; « One bee-hi\e is very good, several are trou- 
 blesome. » (1) 
 
 In 1850, M"' Brunner thus describes the Anglican 
 Mission at Taramakau. « The natives here are mem 
 hers of the Church of England, and attend service 
 regularly; but they appear to he very ignorant of its 
 nature or meaning. » (2) 
 
 The year 1831 supplies three valuable witnesses. 
 The first is M' Shorlland, a friend of D"^ Selwyn, and 
 apparently liimself a missionary. This gentleman 
 gives us a description of the higher class of « con- 
 verts, » w hose special merits had earned for them ihe 
 lucrative distinction of being employed as assistant 
 preachers of Protestant doctrine, and by the aid of 
 whose superior intelligence it was j)roposed to act 
 vigorously Uj)on the native mind. M' Shortland em- 
 ploys one of them, who had been « educated in the 
 house of an English Missionary, » to preach for him 
 on Sunday. It was a rash experiment. « I afterwards 
 saw cause, » M"^ Shorlland observes, « to legret that 
 I had not dissuaded him from undertaking an oflice 
 he was little (jualified to discharge. » Of another 
 
 (1) D'- Thomson, vol. II, p. 96. 
 
 (2) Journal of the Royal Geographical Society yVol.W, ^.dbS.
 
 136 CHAPTER V. 
 
 B native preacher » of ihe same class, he says, « as 
 parts of his composition were oflen very absurd, 
 1 thought it right to foibid him the use of extempo- 
 rary prayer, and to confine him to our old forms. » 
 But it was only by ihrealening to dismiss him alto- 
 gether, which would have involved the loss of his 
 salary, that he restrained his dangerous improvisa- 
 tion. Speaking generally of the whole class, he writes 
 as follows. « The Missionaries anticipated good re- 
 sults from sending out the best instructed of their 
 young converts as preachers and missionaries among 
 the more distant tribes, whom ihey were unable 
 ihemselves to visit. The attempt seemed at first 
 crow ned with extraordinary success — vast numbers 
 being daily added to the body of professing Christians 
 — and very favorable reports on the subject were 
 constantly forwarded to the Society in England. But 
 after a year or two it was discovered that great 
 abuses had been introduced into the ])!actice of the 
 Christian religion by these native missionaries. » (1) 
 M"" Shorlland has told us, what we might safely have 
 assumed, that only the « best instructed » were em- 
 ployed in these functions, and these were the best! 
 We have already seen that they « raised a very con- 
 siderable income, » by levying contributions in kind 
 from the flocks entrusted to them by the English mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 i>F Fox, in the same year, gives further examples 
 of the veracity of the missionary reports, and of the 
 real character of missionary converts. « An intelli- 
 gent clergyman, » he says, describes Rauperaha, one 
 
 (1) The Southern Districts of New Zealand, p. 268.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. iSl 
 
 of the most conspicuous of these converts, as « now 
 to be seen every morning in his accustomed place, re- 
 peating those blessed truths which leach him to love 
 the Lord with all his heart. » We can imagine the 
 sensation which this pleasing picture would create 
 at a missionary meeting in England, and the lavish 
 donations which it could not fail to provoke. Unfor- 
 tunately, however, the virtues of this eminent con- 
 vert existed only in the imagination of the « intelligent 
 clergyman. » Only « a few days before his death, » 
 M"" Fox tells us, « two settlers called to see him. 
 While there a neighbouring missionary came in, 
 and offered him the consolations of religion. Raupe- 
 raha demeaned himself in a manner highly becoming 
 such an occasion ; but the moment the missionary 
 was gone, he turned to his other visitors and said, 
 ' What is the use of all that nonsense? that will do 
 my belly no good. ' He then turned the conversation 
 on the Wanganui races, where one of his guests had 
 been running a horse. » (1) Captain Cruise relates a 
 parallel story of the chief Tool, who had been long 
 in England , where he was exhibited as a model 
 convert; (2) and M"" Hursthouse informs us that bis 
 fellow christian Rauperaha used to say of Captain 
 Fitzroy, the Governor, who was as easily beguiled 
 as the intelligent clergyman, — « he is soft, he is a 
 pumpkin. » 
 
 M"" Fox sums up his own observations in these 
 remarkable words; — « I am often asked what the 
 effect of the influence of the Missionaries has been. My 
 
 (1) The Six Colonies, p. 73. 
 
 (2) Captain Cruise's Journal, p. 38. 
 
 II. ».
 
 138 CHAPIER V. 
 
 answer is, up to a certain point beneficial — beyond 
 ibat, injurious in a very high degree. » Of ibeir con- 
 verts be gives a description worlby of careful study, 
 and whicb we only omit for ibe sake of brevity. 
 
 Our last witness for tbis year, tbe tbirly-sevenlh 
 of Protestant eflorts in New Zealand, is a gentleman 
 engaged in commercial pursuits, and wbo gives, from 
 actual observation, an account of tbe missionaries 
 ibemselves wbicb we can bardly venture to quote in 
 full. « It is rigbl tbat ibe world sbould know; » he 
 says, « tbat tbere have been as many wolves as 
 shepberds amongst tbe folds. » And then be continues 
 thus. « I esteem and venerate holy men who act ac- 
 cording to ibeir profession, and am aware tbat no 
 man is infallible ; but when one yields to the ' old 
 man ' tbe corrupt portion of bis nature, and finds 
 himself inca])able of subduing bis sensual p;issions, let 
 him resign the sacerdoial character, and not doubly 
 pollute his soul and body, bringing contempt on 
 the missionary cause, and standing forib to tbe bea- 
 ibeu a mocking comment on the Word of God. » 
 We can bardly be surprised, when this gentleman 
 adds, — and tbe examples of Rauperaha, Hongki, 
 and other chiefs may assist us to believe him, — 
 that « instead of imj)ioving the native character, the 
 missionaries have superinduced upon their other bad 
 qualities hypocrisy of the deepest dye. I speak dis- 
 passionately when I say, that I conscientiously be- 
 lieve tbe moral character of the natives has not been 
 impioved by missionary intercourse. » (1) 
 
 We have almost exhausted our witnesses. In 1854, 
 
 (1) Rovings in the Pacific, vol. 1, cli. IX, p. 223.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. J39 
 
 aiiolher Proleslanl Iravellcr thus describes a scene 
 in a church. « The service consisted in singing a 
 psahii, rapidly reading a chapter, and as rapidly 
 reading some of the Church prayers. I fancied I saw 
 a resemblance lo the lifeless formalily with which 
 some of our Cathedral daily services are attend- 
 ed. » (1) We almost expected this familiar image. 
 
 In the same year, we have one of those conclusive 
 testimonies which leave nothing to be added. The 
 Rev, Robeit Young, who went to New Zealand as a 
 « deputation » from the Wesleyan Society, and had 
 no personal interest in the work which he was only 
 charged to examine and appreciate, thus describes its 
 real character, exactly forty years after it had been 
 commenced by Marsden's advantageous purchase. 
 « In many cases their Christianity is merely nomi- 
 nal. They feel not its saNing power. » (2) 
 
 In 18o5, an English lady, of a class which only 
 ejJisls in England and America, produced a book 
 which she entitled « The Gospel in New Zealand. » 
 It need not detain us long. When the natives scoff at 
 her missionary friends, whom she depicts as at least 
 equal to the first Apostles, she calls them « barba- 
 rians, whose extermination seemed far more desirable 
 than their conversion » — a sentiment in which zeal 
 seems lo triumph over charily. But she says other 
 things more worthy of notice. Speaking of an epoch 
 more than twenty years subsequent to their estab- 
 lishment, she relates how « the Missionaries mourn- 
 ed over the unfruitfulness of their labours as to the 
 
 (1) A Swmwicr's Excursion in N. Z., p. 178. 
 
 (2) The Southern World, ch. vii, p. 161.
 
 140 CHAPTER V. 
 
 conversion of souls, » and ihen comes the following 
 passage, in which we might suspect a lurking irony, 
 if she were capahle of jesting on so grave a subject. 
 « It had been comparatively easy, » she remarks, 
 « lo dig their fields and plant their gardens, — and 
 it was pleasant to gather the abundant produce, — 
 to drop a peach stone into the ground, and ere long 
 to enjoy the delicious fruit ; but » — and then she 
 confesses, in a language peculiar to herself, that their 
 spiritual husbandry was much less fruitful. 
 
 Let us hear this lady once more. In spile of her 
 wish to represent her missionary friends as almost 
 more than mortal in their virtues, she draws but a 
 gloomy picture of iheir success, and terminates her 
 lamenlalions with this characteristic discourse. 
 « The dangers of Popery are added to those of 
 worldliness! The efforts made by this false religion 
 are unceasing; and though in those districts that 
 have long had the blessing of Scriptural leaching, they 
 have failed in producing much lasting effect, » — we 
 shall learn more on that subject presently, — « yet 
 in the newer districts they have been but too suc- 
 cessful among the half-awakened, and the remain- 
 ing heathen , and cause our Missionaries much 
 anxiety. » (1) 
 
 In 18o7, ]\F Paul filly sums up the history of 
 Proleslantism in New Zealand by the usual announce- 
 ment, that « the New Zealanders are annually on 
 the decrease ; » and ventures lo prophecy that the 
 final result of the English rule will be, that « they 
 
 (1) The Gospel in New Zealand, by Miss Tucker, ch. x, p. 1 1 7; 
 ch. XX, p. 253.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 141 
 
 will become nearly, if not entirely, extinct. » (1) 
 Lastly, in 1859, ihe whole series is closed by 
 various and pregnant testimonies, of which it will 
 suffice to notice only a few. D"^ Thomson, whose 
 sympathies were all on the side of the Protcslanl 
 missioiiarics, thus describes the final result of iheir 
 labours after fifty years of cosily effort. Thirtii six 
 per cent, he says, of the surviving population are 
 still avowed pagans; while of the nominal Christians 
 this is his candid account. « The Christianity of 
 many of them is a rude mixture of paganism and the 
 cross, an adoption strengthened by superstition more 
 than a conversion. Missionaries will deny this : but 
 Christian natives, suffering under sickness, frequently 
 appeal to their old gods for health, » — the reader 
 will call to mind the same extraordinary fact in 
 Ceylon, — « and healthy Christians dread violating 
 the tapu, lest the gods who watch over that code 
 should punish them with sickness. » (2) And then 
 he sums up the whole history of half a century in 
 these impressive words, — « The work of Christianity 
 in New Zealand is only begun. » 
 
 In the same year, 1859, an official document was 
 published at Auckland, by order of the colonial 
 government, and with the revelations contained in 
 that document we may at length determine, without 
 the risk of error, the real influence of Protestant 
 missions in New Zealand, after an expenditure which 
 we may imagine, but can hardly estimate. And first, 
 this curious paper, which professes to investigate the 
 
 (1) Australia, etc., p. 252. 
 
 (2) Vol.1, part. II, ch. iv, p. 317.
 
 U2 CHAPTER V. 
 
 true causes of llie rapid decrease of llie native popu- 
 lalion of llie islands, attests the grave fact, tliat it 
 had already dwindled at that dale to 56,409, — so 
 that neaily seven eighths had disappeared, if Cook's 
 estimate were true, since the while man tel fool in 
 New Zealand. 
 
 Secondly, all tlie witnesses concerned in ohtaining 
 materials for the solution of the piohlem proposed lo 
 them are perfectly unanimous on ihese points, — 
 that nothing can now arrest the decay of the popu- 
 lation, and that universal immorality and misery are 
 its chief determining causes. « An increasing tasle 
 for spirit drinking, » says M*" liaise, « is prevalent 
 among hoth sexes, hut more particularly with llie 
 young, who lesoi't lo all kinds of de\ices lo ohlain 
 it. » « In my opinion, » ohserves M"" Fenlon, hy 
 whom the evidence was collected and printed, « the 
 social condition of llie iMaories is inferior lo what 
 it was five years ago. Their liouses are worse, their 
 cultivation more neglected, and their mode of living 
 not improved. The mills in some places have not 
 run for some lime, and the poverty of the people 
 generally is extreme. At the same lime there has 
 appeared a remarkahle activity of mind, directed lo 
 the development of political ideas. » « There is reason 
 lo fear, » he adds, that nothing can save « a popu- 
 lation which has once reached such a slate of decre- 
 pitude as thai exhihiled hy the xMaori inhahitants of 
 this country. » Lastly, one of the missionaries, and 
 they are all of one mind, declares, that « the greatest 
 cause of decrease is uncleanness, outwardly and in- 
 wardly, in diet, dress, and hahilalion, in hody and 
 mind, in all their thoughts icords, and actions. »
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPADES. 143 
 
 Such have been llie elTecls of Proleslanlism upon 
 lliis noble race, and lo ibis climax D"^ Thomson 
 points when he says, « The work of Chrislianily in 
 New Zealand is only begun. » Thai work will j)ioba- 
 bly be al lenglh complete when there is no longer 
 a New Zealander in existence, and paganism will 
 have disajipeared when the last pagan has perished 
 from the land. 
 
 The facts which have now been traced for us by 
 so many Proleslanl witnesses, each independent of 
 the other, and all recording ihc results of personal 
 observation, do not require any comment. This was 
 the fruit of half a century of missionary labour. This 
 was all that Proleslanlism could do, as its own 
 agents confess, with such human aids and aj)pliances 
 as never missionaries possessed before, foi- peihaps 
 the noblest race of barbarians now extant. To uproot 
 their healhen virtues, which might at least have 
 earned a temporal reward, and to substilule for them 
 new and strange \ices, — indolence, treachery, and 
 avarice; lo teach them, by their own exam|)le, that 
 the Christian religion was so worthless, that even its 
 ministers might be lyjtes of selfishness, luxury, and 
 worldliness ; lo abuse their simplicity by mean crafl, 
 and rob them both of their land and its produce, 
 wilh a Bible in one hand and a fraudulent contract 
 in the other; and finally to cheat souls which were 
 capable of supernatural virtue by a nanow and 
 superstitious formalism, or corrupt then into sys- 
 tematic hypocrisy; such, as their own associates 
 eagerly attest, has been the work of Protestant mis- 
 sionaries in New Zealand. Yet even lliis is not all. 
 
 Tiicre was still another evil, the same which has
 
 144 CHAPTER V. 
 
 made England a bye word throughout Christendom, 
 which it was possible to carry across the sea, and 
 transplant even in her most remote dependency. The 
 war of sects, the licence of crude and shifting opinion, 
 the strife of texts, and endless discord of opposing 
 creeds, — it was necessary that New Zealand should 
 possess them all. Fatal gift! against which even 
 pagans would have lifled up the cry of fear and 
 supplication, if they had known what it would bring 
 in its train. But this is the final chastisement which 
 ages of impenitence have brought upon the heathen 
 world in these last days, and which not even 
 Apostles — though ihey were as wise as St. Paul, 
 as mighty as St. Gregory Thaumalurgus, or as fer- 
 vent as St. Francis Xavier — could now avert from 
 ihem. Protestantism is the last scourge of heathenism. 
 
 Let us see, before we conclude this history, what 
 the missionaries themselves relate of the effects of 
 leligious divisions in New^ Zealand. « ^^'e need not 
 wonder; » says D"" Selwyn, « at the controversies 
 which are raging at home, when even in the most 
 distant parts of this most remote of all countries, in 
 places hitherto unvisited by English Missionaries, » 
 — he is speaking of Rvapuke, to w hich only native 
 teachers had been sent, - « the spirit of controversy 
 is every where found to prevail, in many cases to the 
 entire exclusion of all simplicity of faith. » (1) Such 
 is the phenomenon upon which, in conclusion, we 
 must offer a few remarks. 
 
 The fact admitted by D"" Selwyn is illustrated, in 
 still more energetic language, by a multitude of wil- 
 
 (1) Church in the Colonies, No vni, p. 23.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. US 
 
 nesses. Even in ihe most retired spols , observes 
 Mr Brunner, in 1850, « ihougli in some places liicre 
 are only six or seven natives, yet they have separate 
 places of worship, — Church of England and Wes- 
 leyan, — and are always quarrelling about reli- 
 gion. » (1) « Contention, animosity, distrust, and 
 intolerance, » says the Rev. Elijah Hoole, « are but 
 the mere outlines of that slate of feeling \vhich at 
 present exists among our divided people. The spirit 
 of Christianity is lost in the form, and the very form 
 itself has become the subject of incessant and angry 
 dispute. These, together with other circumstances of 
 a painful character, have contributed to destroy much 
 of that missionary influence which it is of the utmost 
 importance to possess. » (2) 
 
 In earlier times they made war on each other in 
 tribes, and now that they are restrained by the strong 
 hand of Government, they display their ferocity in 
 sects. « Tribes hereditarily hostile, » says D"" Thom- 
 son, « adopted through jealousy different modes of 
 faith; and these ccnverled New Zealanders were 
 ready to abuse each other for religious creeds they 
 did not understand, and the precepts of which they 
 daily disregarded. » « Schismatic differences have 
 already arisen among the natives, » says ]\r Polack 
 in 1840, « who have ranged themselves on diflerent 
 sides. In 1857, a serious fight, during which several 
 persons were shot dead or wounded, arose between 
 the Wesleyan neophytes and the sticklers to the old 
 belief. » « I found , » says Mr Shoitland ten years 
 
 (1) Journal of Royal Geographical Society, vol. XX, p. 361. 
 
 (2) Year Book of Missions, pp. 213, 222.
 
 146 CHAPTER V. 
 
 lalt'i', « llial the professing Christians weie divided 
 Ijelween the Church of England and llic Wesleyans, 
 the two parlies heing very hos!ile lo each other. » 
 « The most revolting religious feud was going on at 
 W'aimale, » 31' Wakefield relates in 1845, « between 
 near relations in two septs of this trihe — Wesleyan 
 and Episcopalian — when I passed through the dis- 
 trict. » « The whole po])uIalion of natives, » he adds, 
 « struck me as being in the most repulsive and piti- 
 able condition. They were all ' missionaries, ' but 
 divided in their creeds. The most dreadful religious 
 schisms occured daily between the nearest relations. 
 And this virulence of dispute, on the most abstruse 
 as well as the most trifling points of religion, both in 
 form and doctrine, I found very much replacing the 
 strict puritan observances and adherence to absurd 
 exaggerated forms. » 
 
 In the province of Otago, M"" Paul says that even 
 the colonists fought with « a virulence that turns the 
 sanctity of their professed Christianity into ridicule, 
 and makes religion a subject of discussion for arous- 
 ing the worst passions of man. » « The minds of the 
 natives,)) M' Brown reports, « are perfectly distract- 
 ed. The first eirect is the lejeciion of the teaching of 
 both parties. It is lamentable, however, to think that 
 the influence of religion has no sooner subdued and 
 eradicated their saNage feuds and enmities, than that 
 very religion is converted into an occasion of strife 
 
 and bloodshed The natives are now at open war 
 
 with each other; they have forsaken their own ani- 
 mosities for the no less deadly hatred and enmity 
 engendered by (he teaching of different professors of 
 the same meek and merciful religion ; and unless
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. '147 
 
 some effeclual remedy be devised for llie growing 
 evil, all llie good thai Missionaries have e\er done 
 may soon be as nolhing compared with llie e\il 
 which threalens to accompany it. » 
 
 « I had heard that religious differences prevailed 
 to a serious extent, » says anothei- writer, « but I did 
 not believe it possible that these differences should 
 lead to such defined separation. » (1) The agents of 
 the Missionaries, we are (old by one who held the 
 oftice of Protector of ihe Aborigines, « busied them- 
 selves with making pioselyles with moi e of the native 
 than the christian spirit, and have caused a schism 
 between the inhabitants of almost e\ery settlement, 
 one party styling themselves childien of Wesley, the 
 other the church of Paihai. The distraction of their 
 minds thus caused has essentially interfered with 
 their happiness, by producing ill feeling and separa- 
 tion among members of the s;;me family. This would 
 seem to suggest the expediency of not sending mis- 
 sionaries of different breeds among the same tribe at 
 least, as they must iieutralise each other's labours, 
 and may possibly cause an uncertainty of belief in the 
 minds of the nali\es, ultimately destructive of the 
 cause they seek to promote. » (2) 
 
 Finally, the Rev. M' Turlon, a \^ esleyan mission- 
 ary, completes the narrative in these terms. « We 
 have the awful sight of father and son, mother and 
 daughter, hating each other with a mortal haired. In 
 some cases they are dividing themselves into separate 
 pas; in other cases into separate divisions of the same 
 
 (1) A Summer's Excursion, p. 148. 
 
 (2) Parliameniarii Papers, vol. XXX, p. 153. (18-46).
 
 148 CHAPTER V. 
 
 pa : and in one village, wilhin eighl miles of this 
 selllement, has the party spirit risen so high hetweeu 
 near kinsmen, that one of these pas has erected a 
 fence across the Kainga, and lined it thickly with 
 fern, not as a hreak-wind or shelter, hut, as he told 
 us, that the one parly might not be able even to look 
 upon the other. » (1) 
 
 Such are the gifts of Protestant England to her 
 colonies. To sow in all lands the tares which the 
 enemy has planled in her own, — to present Christ- 
 ianity to the heathen as the symbol of confusion and 
 disorder, the fruitful mother of jealousy and hate, — 
 to strip the savage of the new virtues which he was 
 ready lo assume, and revive the old enmities which 
 he was willing to forget ; such is the terrible mission 
 which she has chosen for herself. It is her own 
 children who fling this reproach at her ; it is her own 
 agents and emissaries, regretting too late their fatal 
 success, who cry to her from every region of the 
 earth, from every island which the sea has cast up 
 to its surface, and seem to pray that her ships may 
 pass far from their shores, and carry elsewheie their 
 cargo of pestilence and death. But the prayer comes 
 too late; the seal is opened, the plague let loose; 
 « the waters have become wormwood, » and souls 
 shall die « because the founlains of waters have been 
 made bitter. » (2) 
 
 Let us retuin for a moment to the story of New 
 Zealand, that we may bring it to an end. « You Eu- 
 ropeans are not even agreed amongst yourselves, » 
 
 (1) Quoted in Mr Brown's New Zealand, app. p. 261. 
 
 (2) Apoc, vni, 11.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. •149 
 
 said a powerful chief, « as to what is the true reli- 
 gion. When you have agreed amongst yourselves 
 which is the right road, I may perhaps he induced 
 to take it. » (1) Who will cast (he first slone at this 
 barbarian, or convict him of error? « Had there been 
 one uniform creed and prieslhood, » says Colonel 
 Mundy, as if determined to justify the argument of 
 the savage, < one cannot doubt that the success of 
 the Christian Missions would have been incalcu- 
 lably greater — perhaps literally catholic, universal, 
 throughout the native population of these islands. 
 The observant Maori cannot be blind to such open 
 and wide schism, nor deaf to the virulence of secta- 
 rian animosity. » He is, in truth, neither blind nor 
 deaf. If this be your boasted religion, he says, and 
 these its fruits, we are belter without it. Even pa- 
 gans can judge such a mockery of Christianity. «They 
 say, and they are right in saying it, » exclaims a 
 Protestant missionary, as if some strong spirit forced 
 the avowal fi'om him, « that heathenism in love is 
 better than Christianity without it. » (2) 
 
 We have still to speak of the efforts of an individ- 
 ual whom, for several reasons, it was inexpedient to 
 compare with his companions. It would be indecent 
 to confound the resj)ecled name of D' Selwyn with 
 that of his predecessors and colleagues. Most Eng- 
 lishmen are familiar with his honorable career. Dis- 
 tinguished even in youth by the manly energy of 
 character which made him pre-eminent amongst all 
 rivals both at school and college; exhibiting all the 
 
 (1) Neiv Zealand, by William Swainson, H. M. Attorney Gen- 
 eral, p. 36. (1856). 
 
 (2) MrTurlon, quoted in Brown's app. p. 268.
 
 150 CHAPTER V. 
 
 qualities which compose ihe highest !ype of excel- 
 lence recognised by his countrymen and co-religion- 
 isls ; D"" Selwyn had only to make his own choice 
 amongst the various dignities which popular sympa- 
 thy awards to its favorites. In the army, he would 
 have risen to high command ; the bar would have 
 admitted him amongst its leaders; having selected the 
 ecclesiastical profession, he naturally became a bish- 
 op. Anglicanism could not desire a belter represen- 
 tative. Let us follow D"^ Selwyn to New Zealand, and 
 see what his talents and virtues have enabled him lo 
 effect, after many years of labour, as the acknow- 
 ledged head, both by character and position, of Pro- 
 testant missions in that colony. 
 
 We have seen already that, like Heber and Mid- 
 leton in India, he contents himself with recording as 
 an unwelcome fact those implacable religions divi- 
 sions which Anglicanism every where generates, but 
 for which he does not even affect to suggest a remedy, 
 and which others declare are mainly due lo his own 
 influence. « He has not rested satisfied, " says a 
 member of the New Zealand Legislative Council whom 
 we have already quoted, « with promulgating the 
 doctrines of Christianity, but has waged war on his 
 fellow labourers, by denouncing their teachings as 
 unsound. » D"" Selwyn had perhaps good reason for 
 denouncing his various rivals in New Zealand, and 
 for warning the natives against their version of 
 Christianity; but as the Episcopalians and Wesley- 
 ans had co-operated together as one body for nearly 
 a quarter of a century before his arrival amongst them, 
 had always recognised each other as fellow-ministers 
 before the heathen, and had even been accustomed,
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 151 
 
 y\e are (old, during all that period « lo partake 
 of the sacrament » together indifferently, — his ad- 
 monition naturally provoked two comments; the Hrst, 
 that it came too late; and ihe second, that it was a 
 far more severe condemnation of his own church, 
 and of her capricious inconsistency, than of the Wes- 
 leyan teachers, who at least had the advantage of 
 being always of one mind. We shall presently hear 
 both these arguments urged with great force, and 
 apparently with triumphant effect. 
 
 That D"^ Selwyn has not succeeded, in spite of his 
 eminent natural gifis, in changing the character of 
 the IVew Zealanders, any more than Marlyn succeed- 
 ed in India or Tomlin in China, is sufficiently proved 
 by what we have already heard, as w^ell as by his 
 own admissions. « Bishop Selwyn complains, » we 
 are told by M"" Fox, who refers lo his own words, 
 « that the Missionaries can obtain no hold on the 
 minds of the natives, owing to the loss of influence 
 of the chiefs. They are, he says, ' a rope of sand; 
 the young men escape from all control. ' » (1) Even 
 his own « converts » appear obstinately indifferent to 
 the peculiar tenets which he has endeavoured lo re- 
 commend to them , and especially to the most ele- 
 mentary notions of what he would call « church 
 principles. » Thus D"" Selwyn, after relating that on 
 a certain occasion a native chief insisted upon rend- 
 ing the prayers, while he himself preached the ser- 
 mon, goes on thus* < This, you will say, was an un- 
 usual combination : a New Zealand war chief reading 
 prayers, and an English Bishop preaching; but you 
 
 (1) The Six Colonies, \). 5'J.
 
 152 CHAPTER V. 
 
 must not al present judge us by the ordinary rules 
 of Church discipline. (1) Most people will be so little 
 disposed lo judge this occurrence harshly, that they 
 will see in the concession made to the headstrong 
 chief only a proof of D"" Selwyn's good sense ; but we 
 may fairly observe, that while Catholic missionaries 
 have no difficulty in fixing deep in the hearts of their 
 converts, however rude and uncivilised, all the stu- 
 pendous mysteries of the apostolic doctrine, Anglicans 
 cannot so much as induce their own countrymen, 
 much less the heathen tribes, to observe even the 
 formal decencies of ecclesiastical discipline. The 
 « war chief » probably thought himself quite as ca- 
 pable a minister of such a religion, which consists 
 only in the utterance of words, as his episcopal col- 
 league, and D"^ Selwyn had no alternative but lo 
 comply with his humour. No such anecdote, however, 
 will be found in the annals of Catholic missions; and 
 the Catholic convert of lo day, though yesterday but 
 a pagan savage, has already been laught by God both 
 that religion has its sanctuaries, and that he may not 
 dare lo intrude into them. 
 
 As we are now speaking of D"" Selwyn, not in the 
 character which his many friends justly admire, but 
 in that of an apostolic missionary, — for this is his 
 profession, — we are obliged to notice the following 
 characteristic fact. He is on a journey, not more 
 arduous than common men undertake every day for 
 business or })leasure, but slill a journey, and he has 
 left his family behind. A feeling of lassitude comes 
 over him, and he lells us from what source he derived 
 
 (1) Church in the Colonies, No vn, p. 8.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. ISS 
 
 comfort and slrenglh. « I consoled myself with a let- 
 ter from M'^ Selwyn, giving an excellent account of 
 herself and William, upon which I took heart. » (1) 
 Let il be freely admitted that such a sentiment is 
 perfectly natural and becoming in the nioulh of a 
 Protestant bishop, even though a « missionary; »but 
 if we would comprehend all that such language im- 
 plies, let us try to fancy St. Andrew or St. Bartho- 
 lomew, or even the most obscure Catholic missionary 
 of the nineteenth century, gravely writing, that being 
 on an embassy from the Most High God, he was re- 
 freshed and « took heart, » because he heard good 
 tidings of his wife and family. In such words is reveal- 
 ed the whole difference between a mere man, ami- 
 able and educated, but possessing only the natural 
 virtues; and an aposlle, filled with divine gifts, 
 and deriving from his union with God a higher 
 consolation than the purest domestic joys can ever 
 yield. 
 
 « How shall we preach to the world detachment 
 and contempt of earthly things, » said the great 
 apostle of China, in a treatise of almost incompa- 
 rable eloquence and force addressed to the Literates 
 of that land, « if we do not contend against covetous- 
 ness by holy poverty, and against voluptuousness by 
 chastity? We resign freely that which is our own, in 
 order to teach the world not to covet what belongs to 
 another; and we refrain even from lawful marriage, 
 to admonish it against forbidden pleasures. There 
 will never be wanting fathers of families, to set an 
 example of. domestic virtue, and yet many of these 
 
 (1) Church in the Colonies, Novni, p. 34. 
 
 II. a
 
 154 CHAPTER V. 
 
 are more occupied in destroying religion than in ex- 
 tending it. Let some at least be altogether given to 
 the latter. We do not respect man for what he has in 
 common with the brutes. To aim at perfection is his 
 true calling. Man can more safely dispense with bread 
 that with justice, and the world would be better 
 without inhabitants than without religion. The im- 
 portance of religion is, then, a sufficient motive with 
 some men to neglect marriage ; but is marriage so 
 important that we ought to neglect religion for it? 
 Death itself should not hinder us from following the 
 Divine will; why, then, should the necessity of re- 
 nouncing marriage do so? Our office is to preach the 
 Faith in all the earth. If we fail in the ^\"est, we hasten 
 to the East; if they refuse to hear us in the South, 
 we turn to the North. We are not lied to one place ; but 
 marriage binds a man and attaches him to his family. 
 
 Married persons may quit each other no more 
 
 The membeis of my Order are ready, at a moment's 
 warning, to carry the Faith to any region, though it 
 were distant thousands of leagues. They have not to 
 provide for a family. They have God for their father, all 
 men for brothers, and the world for a home. A virtue 
 as high as the heavens, as wide as the oceans, is it 
 not far above mere conjugal fidelity?.... We do not 
 contemn marriage; they who marry sin not; but 
 we who are missionaries abstain from it, while we 
 readily admit that not all who observe celibacy are 
 saints. » (1) 
 
 It is curious that, almost at the same moment 
 that D"^ Selwyn was « taking heart » in his 
 
 (1) Lettres Edifi antes, tome XXV.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. IBS' 
 
 faligues, the Catholic Bishop of New Zealand, 
 whose character Protestant witnesses will presently 
 expound to us, was writing home to his aged mother 
 in France, not to complain of his solitude, or of all 
 that he had left in Europe, but to ask her prayers, 
 — the prayers of his own mother, — that God would 
 grant him the grace of martyrdom, and let him finish 
 his apostolic career by shedding his blood for his 
 Master. 
 
 It remains only to allude to D'^Selwyn's attempts to 
 introduce « high-church principles » in New Zealand, 
 and the results to which they have led. He is the 
 first Protestant missionary by whom the experiment 
 has been tried; and his own mode of action, the 
 comments which it provoked in others, and its 
 final results, are too instructive not to merit special 
 notice. 
 
 Before D"^ Selwyn's arrival in the colony, the clergy 
 of the established church, occupied chiefly in making 
 their fortunes, and caring as little about « church 
 principles »as the majority of their brethren at home, 
 were hardly to be distinguished, except by their 
 superior wealth, from Wesleyans, Independents, or 
 Presbyterians. The different sects dwelt together in 
 harmony, and were too keenly absorbed by more 
 pressing interests to quarrel about their ecclesiastical 
 distinctions. D"^ Selwyn was of another class ; he had 
 not come to New Zealand to make money, and he had 
 a strong opinion about the « priesthood » and the 
 « sacraments, » or at least about two of them. He 
 bade his clergy tell the natives, for the first time, 
 that the Weleyans were unauthorised agents, without 
 orders or mission. Then arose that furious strife of
 
 156 CHAPTER V. 
 
 seels which has made New Zealand a batlle-field from 
 one end to the othei', and of which the effects have been 
 described to us by D"" Sehvyn himself. But the Wes- 
 leyans were not disposed to retire from a field which 
 ihey had occupied for a quarter of a century; they 
 accepted D"" Selwyn's challenge, and they replied to 
 his arguments after this manner. 
 
 For more than twenty years, said M"" Turton, who 
 represented the Wesleyan body, and who conducted 
 the official correspondence with their new' and un- 
 expected adversary, your clergy have invariably co- 
 operated wilb us. Either they were wrong then, or 
 you are wrong now, unless the Church of England 
 has the privilege of changing its principles every 
 twenly years. The argument was forcible, and hardly 
 admitted of reply; but M^ Turton then proceeded to 
 discuss the probable effects of the new « church 
 principles » upon the natives. « They are shrewd 
 men, » he observed to D"" Selwyn, and will be sure 
 to ask, « Why have we not heard of this schismali- 
 cal church before? Is ihis a new Church of England 
 that has lately sprung up? And what has this new- 
 bishop been doing for the last twenty years, that he 
 could not hasten hither before now^ to warn us of 
 our danger? » M"" Turton seems to have felt that he 
 had a strong case, and was determined to make the 
 most of it; so he went on thus. « Your lordship has 
 placed the Church Mission, and her past operations 
 amongst the New Zealanders, in a most awkward 
 position. She must either acknowledge herself to 
 have been egregiously wrong in holding the least 
 sympathy with ' scliismatics, ' or she must defend 
 the course which she has taken for the last twenty
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 157 
 
 years in the exercise of ' brotherly love ' towards the 
 Wesleyans. » (1) 
 
 D"" Selwyn was far too inlelligent not to feel the 
 « awkward position » quite as keenly as his Wes- 
 leyan correspondent, and appears to have sought 
 escape from it in this way. In public he continued 
 to condemn the Wesleyans, while in private he did 
 just what his clergy had done « for the last twenty 
 years. » Familiar as w'e are with the Church of 
 England, and with her constant betrayal even of the 
 truths which she professes to uphold, it is difficult to 
 realise that such words as the following were written 
 by D*" Selwyn. « The Wcsleyan Missionaries received 
 me in a most friendly and hospitable manner, and all 
 our differences of systeiji seemed to be forgotten in 
 the one absorbing interest of the work in which we 
 were all engaged for the conversion of the heathen... 
 It icas of little consequence whether these babes in 
 Christ were nourished by their own true mother, » 
 — meaning, apparently, the establishment in Eng- 
 land and Ireland, — « or by other faithful nurses, 
 provided that they were fed only with the sincere 
 milk of the word. » (2) 
 
 Elsewhere he says, « I went to the house of 
 M' Walkins, Wesleyan missionary, by whom I was 
 hospitably entertained. In the evening I catechised 
 his natives. » (5) But this assertor of « church 
 principles » could discern and acknowledge « faithful 
 nurses » any where. « I may confess , » he says, 
 writing from another place, « the pleasure which 
 
 (1) III Brown's appendix, p. 259. 
 
 (2) The Melanesian Mission, Letter I, p. 17. 
 
 (3) Church in the Colonies, N" viii, p. 17.
 
 158 CHAPTER V. 
 
 / felt in kneeling down to family prayers in the 
 house of the lesidenl Missionary, a minister, I he- 
 lieve, of the Independent persuasion. » (1) 
 
 These are not the only passages of llie same kind in 
 D'"Selwyn's halters, hut we need not add to them. The 
 Wesleyans and Independents were prohably satisfied 
 that such an adversary was not likely to do them much 
 injury, and that « church principles » were far more 
 harmless than they had supposed. What D' Selwyn's 
 explanation of ihese contradictions may be, we do not 
 stay to enquire. He has only done what Heher and 
 olhers did before him, and many more will do after 
 him; but he has added one more proof to the thou- 
 sands which already existed of the real character of 
 the Anglican Church, and has shown that she only 
 differs from the various sects which have sprung from 
 her in this, — that while they form each a separate 
 community in order to enjoy the exclusive profession 
 of a particular heresy, siie, in the person of her 
 bishops, professes them all at once, and has therefore 
 a right to be astonished that they should have 
 thought it necessary to leave a communion, possess- 
 ing ample revenues, in which they might have held 
 any opinions whatever, without the superfluous cost 
 of endowing a new race of ministers to leach them. 
 She has had « bishops, » like Cranmer and Hooper, 
 who denied the Episcopate; she has « priests, » like 
 nine tenths of her present clergy, who deny the 
 Priesthood; and she is so tolerant of the privileges 
 of error, that after preaching, like D"^ Selwyn, against 
 the enormity of schism, she always finishes, like 
 
 (1) The Melunesian Mission, p. 25.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 159 
 
 him, by « feeling great pleasure » in going to prayers 
 with schismatics. 
 
 We can hardly be surprised to learn that D"" Sel- 
 wyn, in spile of liis energy and ability, has failed, 
 like Middleton, and Heber, and other equally con- 
 spicuous Anglican ministers, even to correct the in- 
 lirmilies of his own flock. « Dishop Sehvyn, » says 
 D"" Thomson, « complained with deep emotion of his 
 flock's lukewarmness, and they whispered, in exten- 
 uation of their conduct, that ihey objected to exclu- 
 sive clerical rule in church management. The mem- 
 bers of the Roman Catholic church in New Zealand, 
 although strong advocates of political freedom, 
 bowed to the authority of a priesthood they revered, 
 and with whom they regarded it wrong to dispute. » 
 D"" Selwyn, like his brethren at home, was less suc- 
 cessful in appealing to the docility of his followers, 
 « The English Church did not flourish, and the 
 reason was obvious. At home it is supported by en- 
 dowments and dignities which enable the clergy to 
 rule, and make them leaders rather than servants of 
 the laity ; in New Zealand there are few dignities 
 and endowments; and, as the lay members have no 
 faith in the infallibility of their priesthood, they 
 wished to have some share in the management of a 
 church they as yet chiefly supported. » (1) 
 
 D"" Selwyn had recourse to the only measures 
 available to a Protestant bishop. « The bishop, per- 
 ceiving this feeling, purchased and procured grants 
 of land in the colony for endowments » — we have 
 seen that, in his own words, it sometimes « rained 
 
 (1) Vol. II, p. 2G4.
 
 160 • CHAPTER V. 
 
 bank notes. » And then he tried another scheme. 
 « He Nisited England to obtain from her Majesty a 
 government for the Church in iXe\Y Zealand. » If 
 money and ihe aid of the state could not remedy the 
 « lukevvarmness » of his flock, the case was hopeless. 
 « But the Secretary of Slate informed him, that the 
 settlers had now the law in their own hands, and 
 that a church constitution, if necessary, must ori- 
 ginate wiih the colonial parliamenl. » And then he 
 went back, and summoned, in 1837, « a convention 
 of the English Church at Auckland for the purpose 
 of settling what should be done. » D"" Thomson 
 adds, « no interest was taken in its proceedings by 
 the public; » and even in the « Canterbury settle- 
 ment, » destined to be exclusively Anglican, the same 
 undiscerning « public, » as we shall hear immediate- 
 ly, only interfered to place the established church 
 on exactly the same level as all the other sects. Is it 
 wonderful that men who cannot even conquer the 
 lukevvarmness or hostility of their own nominal 
 flock, should fail to convert (he heathen? 
 
 But the proceedings of so distinguished a person 
 as D' Selwyn, and the fortunes of « High Church » 
 principles in New Zealand, deserve further notice. 
 We have seen that D"" Selwyn himself actively co- 
 operated in public, in spite of his theoretical views, 
 with men whom he continued to rebuke in private 
 as « schismatics. » He did more, — he gave up the 
 whole contest, when he found that he could not pre- 
 vail, and assigned his reasons for doing so. « The 
 keen sighted native convert, » he told the University 
 of Oxford, « soon detects a difference of system, and 
 thus religion brings disunion instead of harmony
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 161 
 
 and peace. » It was necessary, iherefore, to affect a 
 unity which did not exist, in order to re-assure « (he 
 keen sighted native ; » and so , instead of insisting 
 any longer upon principles which, if they were 
 apostolic verities, should have heen maintained at 
 the risk of life itself, D"^ Selwyn began to consort 
 with Wesleyans and Independents. « Above all other 
 things, » he said, « it is our duly to guard against 
 inflicting upon them the curses of oi/r disunion, lest 
 we make every little island in the ocean a counter- 
 part of our owii divided and contentious church. » 
 The Wesleyans, therefore, were glad to claim 
 D"" Selwyn, as they had claimed all his predecessors, 
 as a witness to their value as « faithful nurses ; » 
 and one of their number was able lo appeal to a still 
 more consoling fact in the following words. « The 
 venerable and truly Christian Bishop of Melbourne 
 has publicly stated, that in that form of Christianity 
 designated Wesleyan Methodism there is a peculiar 
 adaptation to the population of this very remarkable 
 island continent. » (1) D' Selwyn had only admitted 
 them to be as good as himself; another Anglican bish- 
 op « publicly stated » that they were much better. 
 The assertors of « church principles » in England, 
 in spite of the zeal and ability of many among them, 
 have not been successful ; in the colonies, and before 
 the heathen, they have been, if possible, still more 
 unfortunate. In New Zealand they established the 
 Canterbury settlement, with the avowed purpose 
 of displaying to the world the power and efllcacy of 
 those principles. M"" Cholmondeley relates in 1854, 
 
 (I) Rev' R. Young, The Southern World, ch. xviii, p. 402. 
 
 II. 8.
 
 4 6^ CHAPTER V. 
 
 and M"" Fuller in 1859, the aclual resull of their 
 operations. If D' Sehvyn deplored the « lukewarm- 
 ness » of Ids followers, the gentlemen at Canterbury 
 had still less reason to be satisfied with the docility 
 of theirs. Even their « land fund, » from which, as 
 we have heard, they anticipated so much wealth, has 
 been forcibly diverted, by their own co-religionists, 
 to the support of « schismatics. » « The colonists 
 altered the previous rule, » says M"" Fuller, which 
 gave « the third part of their land fund for the sepa- 
 rate service of the Church of England, » and peremp- 
 torily decided that « the funds voted for educational 
 purposes » should henceforth be distributed, not by 
 a favoured sect, but « through the ministers of dif- 
 ferent religious bodies » (1) — which was probably 
 much less agreeable to the promoters of the Canter- 
 bury settlement. And this mortifying result was ac- 
 companied by another, — of which indeed it was 
 the direct correlative, — the growth of a population 
 which repudiated more and more energetically the 
 religious tenets of their founders ; « the mass of the 
 people at large, » as ^I"" Fuller observes, « being 
 decidedly of what are termed Low Church views. » 
 « From the first, » says M*" Hodgkinson, speaking 
 of the same province, « the majority of the members 
 of the Church of England have opposed all Traclarian 
 doctrines and ceremonies. » (2) M' Cholmondeley, 
 though apparently one of their advocates, goes much 
 further in describing their failure. « The Maories, 
 
 (1) Five Years Residence in New Zealand, by Francis Fuller 
 Esq.,ch. I, pp. 17, 21. (1859). 
 
 (2) A Description of the Province of Canterbury, by S. Hodg- 
 kinson, M. R. C. S., p. 15. (1858).
 
 MISSIONS-IN THE ANTIPODES. 163 
 
 as such, » he says, « are disappearing; and the 
 young people look mean, squalid, and sickly, and 
 the children miserable in the extreme. » Of the 
 colonists he speaks as follows. « The truth at pre- 
 sent is, that there is no religious character in the 
 British colonies : and those are especially indifferent 
 who in the old country belonged to the Church of 
 England. » Of Canterbury he says, « Often when at 
 church in Lyttleton or Christ-church, I have been 
 struck with the English character of the attendance 
 at divine worship; I mean, the pretence and hypo- 
 crisy of the whole thing. » And then he adds, « let 
 our church remain in her present unformed condi- 
 tion, and the sons of her people will become either 
 Roman Catholics, or Atheists and Materialists. » (1) 
 We have only one more remark to make on D"^ Sel- 
 wyn and his missionary career, of which, as his 
 own friends relate, these are the deplorable results. 
 He is willing, we have seen, to hold close commu- 
 nion with the very men whom he calls, in technical 
 and professional language, fautors of heresy and 
 schism, and even to acknowledge them as « faithful 
 nurses » of the heathen ; but he has evidently no 
 such spirit of forbearance towards the servants of 
 the Catholic Church. For them he has only bold 
 words of anger. Hear what he says. In one of his 
 journeys he comes to a Catholic Mission, so he takes 
 his pen, and writes quickly, — « 07ie of those blots 
 upon the Mission system — a Romanist station. »(2) 
 Whether these words represent his own sentiments, 
 
 (1) Ultima Thule, by Thomas Cholmondeley, ch. xvi, p. 196; 
 ch. xvni, pp. 271, 281. (1854). 
 
 (2) The Melanesian Mission, f. 19.
 
 164 CHAPTER V. 
 
 01' were only a concession to the prejudices of friends 
 and supporters at home, we cannot tell. In either case 
 they are disappointing. It is sad to hear from D"" Sel- 
 wyn language which even many of the least distin- 
 guished memhers of his sect would blush to use, and 
 which are equally repugnant to truth, piety, and 
 good taste. 
 
 And now we have only to add a brief account, or 
 rather to quote that which has already been publish- 
 ed by Protestant witnesses, of the character of the 
 Catholic Missionaries in New Zealand, and the re- 
 sults of their labours. We have no need of partial 
 evidence on either of these points, for they are 
 avowed enemies whom Providence has employed, 
 without their knowledge or consent, to furnish ample 
 testimony to both. 
 
 It is not easy to conceive a more hopeless or im- 
 practicable project , as far as human means were 
 concerned, than that which was attempted by the 
 first Catholic Missionaries in New Zealand. Every 
 thing was against them, except the Power in which 
 alone they trusted. For more than a quarter of a cen- 
 tury, the only form of Christianity with which the 
 natives were acquainted , and which was recom- 
 mended to them by the irresistible authority of their 
 masters and rulers, was one of which the very 
 existence is a protest against the Catholic Failh. And 
 lest this should not suffice to prejudice them against 
 the new comers, no efl'ort had been neglecled by 
 their powerful and wealthy patrons to kindle betimes 
 a feeling of bitter animosity towards ihem. With 
 unscrupulous fraud they had been represented as the 
 agents of a foreign state, whose secret object was to
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 165 
 
 seize the islands and kill or enslave their inhabit- 
 ants. The natives were told, as M"^ Wakefield in- 
 forms us, thai if the Catholics were once admitted, 
 they would cut their throats or drive them out of 
 their land. In a memorial which they were per- 
 suaded, no doubt by the missionaries, to address to 
 William IV, they said, — « We have heard that 
 the tribe of Marian is at hand, coming to take away 
 our land; » (1) and they pray his majesty to protect 
 them against these formidable pirates ! And when at 
 length they arrived, a few defenceless foreigners, 
 scowled upon by the government, and by every au- 
 thority whom the natives were accustomed to fear; 
 bringing neither money nor goods, and introducing 
 a doctrine which was hateful to the ruling class, and 
 which began by forbidding covelousness, lying, and 
 impurity to their subjects; is it wonderful that, as 
 M"" Bright mildly observes, « they were not much 
 inclined » to them? « In their eyes, » the same writer 
 adds, « much trade gives respectability of charac- 
 ter; » and the first announcement of the Catholic 
 Missionaries was, that they would not trade at all, 
 and had nothing to trade with. It was impossible to 
 invite more persuasively the contempt of the natives, 
 or to convince them more effectually that they had 
 nothing to gain, and every thing to lose, by mortally 
 ofl"ending their masters and employers in order to 
 
 (1) The New Zealand Question, by L. A. Chamerovzow, 
 ch. HI, p. 69. Cf. Colonial Constitutions, by Arthur Mills Esq., 
 p. 331 ; who relates that « thirty-five chiefs subscribed a de- 
 claration, constituting themselves into an Independent State » 
 — expressly to resist the anticipated attack of the French, whom 
 they had been told to expect !
 
 166 CHAPTER V. 
 
 propitiate auxiliaries so helpless and destitute as 
 these. The conclusion was obvious, and the natives 
 could not fail to adopt it. 
 
 Yet the Catholic Missionaries, in spite of iheir 
 v\eakness and poverty, had one thing in their favour. 
 It is the nature of man, whether savage or civilised, 
 to reverence purity and disinterestedness. He may 
 be unwilling to imitate, but he cannot refuse to ad- 
 mire them. This is the secret of the triumphs of 
 Catholic Missionaries throughout the world. Like 
 the first Apostles, ihey win their way by wisdom, 
 holiness, and charity. Their virtues have first dis- 
 armed the hand which was uplifted to strike them, 
 and then extorled respect for a religion of which 
 they were ihe fruit and evidence. And so in New 
 Zealand, as early as 1842, we learn from D"" Dief- 
 fenbach the significant fact, that, in one of the most 
 populous provinces, « the number of converts to each 
 creed is about equal, although the Roman Catholic 
 mission was established so much later than that of 
 the Church of England. » (I) But we must not anti- 
 cipate this surprising result until we have first 
 shown l)y what manner of men, and in spite of what 
 complicated difficulties, it was accomplished. 
 
 We have seen that the natives had been induced 
 by their Protestant teachers to regard the Catholic 
 Missionaries, even before their arrival, as men of 
 blood, conspirators, and malefactors. The same un- 
 pleasant view of their character was still more dili- 
 gently enforced upon them after they had commenced 
 their apparently hopeless task. « The Protestant na- 
 tives, » says D'" Diefienbach, « regard their Roman 
 
 (I) Travels, vol. I, ch. xxvn, p. 407.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 167 
 
 Catholic brethren as belonging to the devils. » Their 
 masters, who could teach them nothing else, could 
 leach them this; and it was natural they should at- 
 tempt to do so, when even a missionary describes 
 them thus, in 1853, not to a native, but to an Eng- 
 lish audience. « Satan had taken care, » says tbc 
 Rev. M"" Sirachan, « (o strengthen all his natural 
 defences by a fresh importation of auxiliaries from 
 France. » (1) The Calholic Missionaries, according 
 to this gentleman, were the agents of Salan. Let us 
 see what other Protestant witnesses say of the cha- 
 racter and mode of life of men whom an unsuccessful 
 rival could thus describe. 
 
 D"" Dieffenbach, after noticing with evident repug- 
 nance the worldly and covetous habits of the men 
 towards whom his own sympathies attracted him, 
 frankly confesses, that, on the other band, « ibe 
 humble and disinterested manner of living of the 
 Catholic Priests, and the superior education which 
 they have generally received, have procured them 
 many friends both amongst Europeans and naiives, 
 and also many converts amongst the latter. » And 
 again ; « in accordance with the spirit of the Roman 
 Catholic Missionary system, they are generally with- 
 out fixed places of abode, and the Bishop, whose 
 diocese extends over several Archipelagos in the great 
 ocean, is continually travelling from place to place, 
 accompanied by priests. » (2) This is certainly more 
 like St. Paul, who was « in travels oft, » not in a 
 commodious yacht, but in the first vessel which came 
 
 (1) Life of the Rev S. Leigh, by the Rev^ A. Strachan, ch.xv, 
 p. 439. (1853). 
 
 (-2) Travels, ch. ix, pp. 163, 169.
 
 168 CHAPTER V. 
 
 to hand; and D' Dieffcnbach, who has told us how 
 the Protestant missionaries preferred to reside in the 
 Bay of Islands, rather than « go into the interior, » 
 seems, in spile of himself, to recur again and again 
 to the unwelcome contrast. But he is not the only 
 Protestant writer who indulges in such reflections. 
 M*" Augustus Earle, who gives a still more unfavour- 
 able account of the Protestant missionaries, cannot 
 refrain from instituting a similar comparison. « I 
 have visited many of the Roman Catholic missionary 
 establishments, » he says, « and their priests adopt 
 quite a difTerent line of conduct; they are cheerful 
 and kind to the savage pagan, polite and attentive to 
 their European bielhren; they have gained the es- 
 teem of those they have been sent to convert, and 
 however we may diflfer in some tenets of religious 
 belief, we must acknowledge the success of their 
 missions. » (1) 
 
 It appears that AF Earle, like other travellers, 
 had occasion to deplore the churlish and inhos- 
 pilable behaviour of his opulent co-religionists. Thus 
 he notices, with pardonable disgust, that even on 
 a Christmas Day the missionaries shut their doors 
 against him and his party, whilst travelling in the 
 interior, and that even the sa\ages spoke with con- 
 tempt of their morose and uncharitable conduct. 
 M"" Rochfort also, at a much later dale, makes the 
 same complaint, and adds; « I must say the Catholic 
 Missionaries are generally the more hospitable of the 
 two » (2) — iu spile of the exiguity of their re- 
 
 {\) Nine Months Residence, etc., 11 1. 
 (2) Adventures in New Zealand, by John Rochfort, ch. ni, 
 p. 28.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 169 
 
 sources. \\e shall find Proleslanl tourists making 
 the same ohservalion in olher lands. 
 
 But the writers on New Zealand have more to lell 
 us ahoul the characler of the men whom M' Slrachan 
 represents, without any misgiving, as the agents of 
 Satan. The leader of the Catholic mission was Bishop 
 Pompallier, a man heloved hy all who have had the 
 good fortune lo know him, but who, though worthy 
 to he numbered with those apostolic missionaries of 
 w hom France has produced so many, « was attacked, » 
 as M"" Wakefield relates, « by both sects of Protestant 
 missionaries in the most intolerant manner. » One of 
 his own clergy observes, in 1840, — « Scarcely had 
 we quilted the tribe of xMototapu when ll;e Protestant 
 ministers came to sow discord amongst its members. 
 One of them made an attempt lo degrade our vene- 
 rable bishop by giving his name to impure animals. 
 All the natives were indignant at this conduct. » (1) 
 It is interesting to learn how this French prelate, 
 who might have appealed to his own great nalion for 
 succour, rebuked by « patient continuance in well 
 doing the malice of evil men, » and finally won the 
 esteem and sympathy of all who were capable of ap- 
 preciating a courteous gentleman and a devout christ- 
 ian. « The gentlemen of the club, » says W Wake- 
 field," and others who had enjoyed his acquaintance, 
 spoke highly of his urbane manners, and his phil- 
 anthropic views with regard lo the nalives. » He was 
 something better than a philanlhropist, who is often 
 only a refined heathen, but we must leave our wit- 
 nesses to use their own terms. « Bishop Pompallier, » 
 
 (1) Annals, vol. Ill, p. 2G.
 
 no CHAPTER V. 
 
 says one whose own accomplishments enabled him 
 lo admire higher qualities in others, « is a man pe- 
 culiarly adapted for the purposes of the mission of 
 his Church. By education a scholar, in manners 
 engaging, in countenance prepossessing and expres- 
 sive, added lo sincere and earnest zeal in the cause 
 he has undertaken,.... it may easily be imagined that 
 he creates no ordinary sensation among the Abori- 
 gines. » (1) « I would not attempt, » says the Pres- 
 byterian D' Lang, « to conceal my own serious 
 apprehension of M. Pompallier's success; » (2) but 
 he is satisfied with expressing his alarm, and does 
 not talk about « Satan. » A Sydney journal, on the 
 aijthority of New Zealand letters, observes at the 
 same date; « the Rev. D"" Pompallier is said to have 
 made great progress in the conversion of the natives of 
 Ilokianga, where the Wesleyan mission is... some 
 of the leading chiefs have promised his Lordship to 
 attend to his new mode of worship. » (3) It was prob- 
 ably these facts of which the authoress of the Gos- 
 pel in New Zealand spoke, when she said, « they 
 cause our missionaries much anxiety. » 
 
 Happily the motives of their anxiety became more 
 and more urgent, as time went on. In 1841, M"" Bright 
 writes as follows. « With those Maoris to whom the 
 Vicar Apostolic is known he seems popular. He has 
 converted the oldest chief in the Bay of Islands, his 
 sous, and people, although previously attendants on 
 the Church Mission." (4) Perhaps it was such events 
 
 (1) Terry, p. 190. 
 
 (2) New Zealand, p. 43. 
 
 (3) Asiatic Journal, vol. XXIX, p. 189. N. S. 
 
 (4) History of New Zealand, ch. vi, p. 126.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 171 
 
 as this which made D' Selwyn describe a Calholic 
 slatioii as « a blot upon the Mission system. » But 
 M"" Bright continues. « The Vicar Apostolic says he 
 had not been sent to trade, and that he is not a buyer 
 of land. » And these were the results of his abstinence 
 from such questionable pursuits. « When I embarked 
 to inspect a county on the East coast, I was surprised 
 to meet Moka, » a chief from the Bay of Islands, 
 « with about thirty of his people, men, women, and 
 children; during the passage, three times a day, 
 their discordant voices were raised together, chanting 
 the Mass, or some service of the Catholic faith. » It 
 was not the Mass, but that is of no consequence. 
 At Opo-tee-kee also he meets the same phenomenon : 
 « the very children were humming over some por- 
 tions of Masses in their play. Twice a day the chapel 
 was crowded, chorussing together, although perhaps 
 not twelve of all of them had ever seen the Vicar or his 
 cures. » (I) So in another district, the same writer 
 tells us, — « the Vicar Apostolic settled down amongst 
 them, and before he could have attained their lan- 
 guage he made converts, of whom most had sub- 
 scribed to the Church Missionaries. » Even in the 
 Canterbury Settlement, destined to be the exclusive do- 
 main of Anglicanism , M"^ Rochfort informs us thai 
 « there are many Roman Catholics, and their cathe- 
 dral is the finest building in Wellington. » 
 
 M"" Angas loo, who is unable lo record such facts 
 with composure, is not afraid of exciting merriment 
 in his readers by calling New Zealanders « a com- 
 munity of Jesuit natives. » Many of the Taupo na- 
 il) History of New Zealand, p. 121.
 
 172 CHAPTER V. 
 
 lives, » he says, « are Catholics; » and then, un- 
 willing to let iheir conversion speak for itself, he 
 suggests that it was « with the aid of beads and 
 crosses, » and olher equally valuable « presents, » that 
 the missionary « succeeded in making numerous pro- 
 selytes to the failh of Ronie. » Yet M' Angas knew 
 that however the Catholic missionary might surpass 
 his rivals in some respects, the power to bribe was 
 not one of them. At Molupoi also, « the chief is a 
 Roman Catholic; several of his people have also 
 embraced Popery, and at sunset they performed 
 their vespers in front of the chiefs house. » (1) This 
 time M"" Angas says nothing about presents. 
 
 Again, at Kororarika, the American Commodore 
 \\'ilkes notices that the Catholic mission « was making 
 many converts, » — which he also attributes to « pre- 
 sents, » though the value of the crosses, religious 
 pictures, and olher donations bestowed on the natives, 
 after their conversion, rarely exceeded the modest sum 
 of one penny. They would hardly have deserted their 
 Protestant masters for such a reward as this. Yet 
 even so intelligent a writer as D"" Thomson could 
 seriously suggest this as the true explanation of a 
 phenomenon which he notices in these words; « It 
 has been observed that Roman Catholic missionaries 
 have converted natives abandoned by the Protestants 
 as hopeless » (2) the secret of their success, he sug- 
 gests, being « gifts » which were more likely to excite 
 the contempt than the cupidity of those to whom 
 they were }»ro(Tered. 
 
 (1) Savage Life, etc., vol. II, ch. ni, pp. 118, 121. 
 
 (2) Vol. I, p. 316.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 473 
 
 Sometimes ihe writers on New Zealand, inspired 
 by a candour which it is impossible not to admire, 
 venture even to eonlrasl the Catholic and Protestant 
 natives, and always to the advantage of the former. 
 Such statements almost exceed what we might fairly 
 expect even from the most upright of our enemies. 
 In 18b4, a gentleman who made a tour in New Zea- 
 land gives this testimony. He is at Olaki, amidst a 
 Catholic tribe, and says ; « The resident priest I heard 
 very well spoken of, and certainly the stale of the 
 mill, and every thing connected with it, evidenced 
 the influence of a master mind. » The next village he 
 arrives at is a Protestant one, and he goes on thus; 
 « There w^as a very observable difference in dress 
 and personal cleanliness between the natives here 
 assembled and those at Olaki, much in favour of the 
 latter. » (1) 
 
 Such testimonies are scarcely less honorable to 
 those who offer them than to the objecis of their 
 generous praise. Here is another and still more stri- 
 king example of the noble candour w'hich sometimes 
 distinguishes our countrymen. Sir George Grey, then 
 Governor of New Zealand, addressed to Earl Grey, 
 in I80I, a despatch which contains the following 
 words. « The Roman Catholic schools in this country 
 are exceedingly well conducted, and not only reflect 
 great credit upon the Roman Catholic bishop and his 
 clergy, but give them a great claim to any proper 
 consideration which can be shown to them. » (2) 
 Perhaps it was in consequence of the encouragement 
 which such language afforded, that some of the na- 
 
 (1) A Summer's Excursion in N. Z., p. 157, 165. 
 
 (2) Parliamentary Papers, vol. XLV, p. 12. (1854).
 
 n4 CHAPTER V. 
 
 live females, taught by Sisters of Mercy, whom the 
 cliarity of Christ had moved to cross the great ocean, 
 ventured to adress a leller to the sovereign of Great 
 Britain, imploring aid for their generous teachers. 
 It was no doubt with regret that succour was re- 
 fused, and the petition unnoticed. 
 
 It is evident, then, without adding superfluous 
 evidence, that the Catholic missionaries had oullived 
 the dislike, and overcome the opposition, of their 
 numerous and powerful enemies. Once more they 
 had accomplished one of those triumphs in which 
 there are victors but no vanquished. With calm pa- 
 tience they had pursued ihcir way, aided only by Him 
 to whom they had dedicated their lives, and esteem- 
 ing the poverty of Jesus more than the riches of the 
 world. If they had failed to gain a single convert, 
 their very lives would have sufficed to prove the truth 
 of their religion ; for they were pure amidst corrup- 
 tion, patient in adversity, charitable towards all men, 
 and especially towards those who reviled them, and 
 so irreproachable in their humble and disinterested 
 career that even calumny was abashed in their pre- 
 sence, and dared not sharpen its tongue against them. 
 And so when the evil day arrived, and tribes which 
 had nominally embraced the religion of their rulers 
 thirsted for their lives, and rose up in fierce insur- 
 rection against them, the abode of the Missionaries of 
 the Cross was still a sacred spot; and Colonel Mundy 
 relates that « the missionary station presided over by 
 Bishop Pompallier was the onhj portion of the town 
 spared by the invaders. » (1) It was on the eve of the 
 
 (I) Australasian Colonies, vol. II, cli. vi, p. 179.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 175 
 
 conflict, in which Proteslant natives fought against 
 their teachers and destroyed their lives and property, 
 that the Captain of an English frigate offered a refuge 
 to the Vicar Apostolic, and a shelter where he might 
 hide his alarm till the danger was past. The friendly 
 off"er was refused, in a letter which announced his 
 intention to commit himself to the guardianship of the 
 savages, and which disowned the apprehension which 
 he was supposed to feel in the apostolic words, — 
 « I fear nothing hut sin. » 
 
 Finally, if we ask for the numerical result of 
 lahours begun at so fearful a disadvantage, and con- 
 tinued under every trial and difficulty which could 
 beset missionary efforts, — so that success might 
 well seem impossible in a battle where all human 
 means of attaining it were on one side, and none on 
 the other, — one of the latest writers on New Zea- 
 land has furnished this surprising statement. In 184S, 
 the Catholics were already estimated by M"^ Clarkson 
 as one twentieth of the population, while the Wesley- 
 ans, who had been thirty years in the field, and 
 had spent vast sums of money, were one seventh ; but 
 in 1854, the Wesleyans, opposed at all points by 
 the Episcopalians with their enormous wealth and 
 official patronage, had dwindled to one eleventh, and 
 the Catholics, against whom all had combined in a 
 common hostility, had steadily advanced till they had 
 become one seventh of the whole population. (1) 
 
 It appears, however, that even this statement 
 underrates the fact; for while the Catholic mis- 
 sionaries represent their followers, good and bad, 
 
 (1) A Summer's Excursion, p. 14.
 
 176 CHAPTER V. 
 
 as amounling to about twenty thousand, we have 
 seen, by a recent official statement, that the whole 
 number of natives now remaining is only 56,049, 
 of whom thirty-six per cent, are avowed pagans. The 
 proportions are probably destined to be further 
 aifected by the war now raging (1861) in this 
 ill fated colony, and which will perhaps only termi- 
 nate when all the pagan and prolestanl natives have 
 been exterminated. It is surely a suitable conclusion 
 of the history of Anglicanism in New Zealand, that, 
 fifty years after it began, the natives are found once 
 more in arms against teachers whose influence, in 
 spite of thcii' wealth and the use which they make of 
 it, has only become more feeble year by year, till at 
 length it appears to be utterly extinguished. « Despite 
 the remonstrances of the Bishop of New^ Zealand, of 
 the most influential clergy, and of those chiefs who 
 still remain loyal, the flag of the self-styled King of 
 the Maoris has been publicly hoisted » both in the 
 settlements of Auckland and Wellington; and even 
 this significant fact does not fully reveal the final 
 catastrophe, nor exhaust the incidents in the closing 
 chapter of Protestant missions in New Zealand. 
 « Among the most formidable symptoms is the re- 
 ported tendency to ' recur to old barbarous customs ', 
 and tbe * decreasing influence of the mission- 
 aries. ' » (1) 
 
 Such, in its broad outlines, is the history of Mis- 
 sions in New Zealand. The very savage, as he reviews 
 in his own mind, or relates to his children, its suc- 
 cessive phases, though he may care too little about 
 
 (t) The Times, September 14, 1860.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 177 
 
 his soul to act upon his conviclions, easily detects on 
 which side is truth, on which side God and His holy 
 Angels. Two classes of teachers have claimed his 
 attention. In the one he has seen, through a long 
 series of years, and with rare exceptions, corruption, 
 vanity, and worldliness; in the other, purity, chas- 
 tity, and a blameless life. « Their continence, » says 
 D' Thomson, « produced a strange impression on the 
 mind of the natives » — accustomed to a diflerent 
 exhibition of the Christian character. With ihe first 
 comers, as he knows to his cost, have been introduced 
 the myriad evils of confusion and disorder, of shifting 
 and incoherent doctrine, and passionate religious 
 strife; with the last came peace, unity, and love. 
 Finally, while the one could attract only nominal 
 converts — whose vices are attested by themselves — 
 by appealing to the coarse instincts of worldly int- 
 erest and the grossest appetites of our nature; the 
 others, obliged to begin by inviting the half-civilised 
 native to abandon even the temporal rewards which 
 he had already earned, and for which they had no 
 recompense to offer him, have yet succeeded in win- 
 ning him, not only from the darkness of heatiienism, 
 but even from his lucrative association with the 
 various sects in which he had been previously en- 
 rolled. 
 
 We are far, however, from asserting that all the 
 native converts to the Faith are as yet intelligent and 
 consistent Christians , or that all afford ummixed 
 consolation to their pastors. Such a statement would 
 be a culpable exaggeration, which the spontaneous 
 testimony of their spiritual guides would suffice to 
 rebuke. Not all the disciples even in the primitive 
 
 II. 9
 
 178 CHAPTER V. 
 
 age, not all who heard the Voice of the Master 
 Himseir, deserved this praise; and ihe modern mis- 
 sionary knows how to accept trials from which the 
 first apostles were not exempt, and must he content, 
 like them, to gather into his net hoth good and had 
 fish. 
 
 Some of the converts from the Protestant sects, 
 though they reverence the unwonted virtues of their 
 new teachers, have heen too deeply corrupted hy 
 previous hahits of hypocrisy and fraud to he easily 
 or effectually reformed. Christianity has long since 
 appeared to them a purely nominal religion, of which 
 the professors contiasled unfavourably even with 
 pagans, and whose very teachers and ministers were 
 to them only models of incontinence, cupidity, and 
 injustice. Some also, though rescued from such in- 
 fluences, arc hut partially instructed; while their 
 pastors, unable to cultivate the whole field which 
 lies) before them, can sometimes only cast their seed 
 by the wayside, and then pass on, hoping, yet hardly 
 expecting, that they may one day find leisure to 
 watch its after growth, to tear away the noxious 
 plants which may threaten to choke it, or to bind up 
 the weak stems which may have been trodden under 
 foot. Yet it is pleasant to read the following account 
 of the best class of native converts by one who 
 knows them so well. 
 
 « I am often moved to tears, » says the honoured 
 Prelate to whom New Zealand owes so much, and 
 whose virtues even his adversaries have so often 
 confessed, « when I see the chief of some tribe come 
 many leagues through the forests to consult me on 
 some point which embarasses the delicacy of his
 
 MISSIONS IN THE ANTIPODES. 179 
 
 conscience. » (1) Here again we have an example of 
 Ihal powerful « influence of ihe Confessional » which 
 Sir Emerson Tennent remarked in Ceylon, and with- 
 out whose aid the Calliolic Missionary knows that 
 all hope of confirming men in hahils of virtue is vain 
 and chimerical. « Scarcely have they received in- 
 struction in the law of God, » Bishop Pompallier 
 continues to say, « when iheir only study is to con- 
 form iheir conduct to it. With what simplicity do 
 they open their mind to the minister of salvation, 
 and with what sincere attachment to us do they re- 
 turn the services we render them... They might he 
 taken, from their dress and appearence, for a hand 
 of robbers; yet they are inoflensive sheep, who fol- 
 low the footsteps of him whom Jesus has given them 
 as their shepherd. » The Bishop even adds, that 
 many who are not Catholics have learned how lo 
 distinguish between « the trunk, as they call the Ca- 
 tholic Church, and l\\e severed 6ra«c/i churches. » 
 
 So little difficulty have the true apostles in winning 
 these rude minds to the comprehension of « church 
 principles, » as well as of the other great evangelical 
 truths with which they are inseparably connecled; 
 while their rivals, busy with ceaseless strife and fill- 
 ing the air with mutual reproaches , fail to teach 
 them even the doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the 
 Incarnation, make religion only the occasion of new 
 crimes, the Bible itself an excuse for committing 
 them, and after half a century of unblessed effort 
 have only forced the reluctant savage to accept a lot 
 more full of calamity and malediction than even his 
 
 (1) Annals.
 
 180 CHAPTER V. 
 
 original slate, — the dread responsibilities of Christ- 
 ianity Nvithout its gifts and graces. And lastly, the 
 annalists of New Zealand missions confess, with sor- 
 row and shame, that the natives, familiar with the 
 incessant divisions and unappeasable conflicts of the 
 Protestant sects, have at length delivered that me- 
 morable verdict, so often recorded against Protestant- 
 ism by the instinct of pagan nations, — that verdict 
 which is at once the measure of ils influence, the 
 monument of its results, and the summary of its 
 triumphs, — « You have taught us that Heathen- 
 ism with love is better than Christianity without 
 it. »
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANIC A. 
 
 In that wide waste of waters which for ages have 
 rolled their floods helween the Old and New Conti- 
 nents, and where once the sea-bird found no rest for 
 his foot, a hundred islands, cast up from their deep 
 ocean-hed by some convulsive throe, are now secure- 
 ly anchored. Once naked and unsightly, they have 
 long since been clothed with grass, and flowers, and 
 trees. Upon their low hills cluster the dark myrtle 
 and the slender palm ; and through their valleys, 
 rich with spreading ferns, bright rivulets wind their 
 course. Here the sugar cane and bread fruit grow 
 untended, and a thousand edible roots, unknown in 
 other climes, lurk in the untilled soil. To these fair 
 islands, sheltered by coral barriers from the ocean
 
 18-2 CHAPTER VI 
 
 wave, men found llieir way, — from what land, 
 when, and how, only ihe angels know. By what 
 strange migrations tliey were peopled, history will 
 never tell. This is God's secret. 
 
 Yet science, which is never more honorably oc- 
 cupied than in the invesligalion of such problems, 
 has applied its patient induction to this; and if it has 
 not absolutely determined how ihe islands of Eastern 
 and Western Oceanica were peopled, has at least 
 suggested how they might have been. William Von 
 Humboldt considers that he has established the iden- 
 tity of the Malays and Polynesians; and Prichard, 
 who adopts his conclusion, calls the latter « Malayo- 
 Polynesians. » (1) M. de Rienzi, indeed, is certain 
 tbat they came originally from the island of Borneo. 
 Other writers are of opinion that the natives of some 
 of the Pacific Islands can hardly be distinguished 
 from the Caucasian family. But Sir George Simpson, 
 Governor of the Hudson's Bay territories, — who 
 reports, in 1847, that « the whole group of the 
 Sandwich Islands is known to be slowly but surely 
 continuing to rise, to be still, as it were, in the 
 throes of creation, » — speaks as follows of the 
 origin of the Polynesian race, whose religious his- 
 tory we are to narrate in the present chapter. « From 
 what country, then, of Asia, did the Polynesians 
 spring? Almost to a moral certainty from some 
 point, or rather points, between the southern ex- 
 tremity of Malacca and the northern limits of Ja- 
 pan. » (2) Many considerations, which need not here 
 
 (1) Natural History of Man, § 32. 
 
 (2) Narrative of a Journey round the World, vol. II, ch. I, 
 P 7
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 183 
 
 be noticed, combine to recommend lliis conclusion; 
 yet the origin of the Malays themselves is still un- 
 certain, and while some look for their birth-place on 
 the South-eastern shores of China, Bopp thinks their 
 language derived from the Sanscrit. (1) 
 
 From the Polynesians themselves no aid has been 
 received in the discussion of ihis problem of ethno- 
 logy ; and the Abbe Caret, referring especially to 
 I he Gambler Archipelago, in which he long resided 
 as a missionary, warns us « not to ask of the popula- 
 tion of these islands any explicit informafion concern- 
 ing their origin ; all your questions would remain 
 unanswered; on this subject their traditions are si- 
 lent. Perhaps these tribes had their origin in the 
 remotest antiquity : it takes a very long lime for a 
 people to forget the history of its origin. I have 
 heard the best informed of the natives enumerate as 
 many as fifty kings, who are said to have presided, 
 one after the other, in the government of the Archi- 
 pelago. » 
 
 One source of information, which existed at an 
 earlier period, and from which a careful enquirer 
 might perhaps have constructed at least the frag- 
 ments of a history, has been, in many of the islands, 
 imprudently destroyed, by men whose proceedings 
 will be presently recounted to us by competent wit- 
 nesses. « One fault, » says the learned Mosblech, in 
 his treatise on the dialects of Eastern Oceanica, « for 
 which we can never pardon the Methodist ministers » 
 — he means the Protestant missionaries — « is their 
 
 (1) Mohl, Rapports fails a la Societe Asiatique, tome II, ch. i, 
 p. 8.
 
 184 CHAPTER VI, 
 
 having destroyed, by an irrational zeal, all the poetic 
 composilions of this people. No one can be blind to 
 the injury which they have thus inflicled upon science 
 and history. The Catholic missionaries, guided by 
 their intelligent chief the Archbishop of Chalcedon, 
 who admirably appreciates not only what belongs to 
 religion but also the things which relate to science, 
 have acted with more caution. » (1) 
 
 It appears that the mythological, as well as the 
 pastoral and erotic compositions of the natives, some 
 of which were no doubt of questionable purity, but 
 which had at least a scientific value, were violently 
 suppressed by their English teachers, and not only 
 suppressed but destroyed. AA'ith them perished all 
 the lays and rythmical legends which they had re- 
 ceived from their forefathers. What their new mas- 
 ters gave them instead, we shall see hereafter, and 
 how far they have profited by the change. 
 
 But we must now enter, without further preface, 
 upon the wide field which lies before us, and in 
 which we shall once more trace, by the aid of the 
 same class of witnesses, the impressive contrast of 
 which we have already seen so many examples. It 
 will be necessary to begin by dividing into groups 
 the island world which we are about to visit, and 
 in this task we have no choice but to adopt the clas- 
 sification which both history and geography pre- 
 scribe. 
 
 Of the various groups which we are about to no- 
 tice, and whose religious annals we shall find to be 
 
 (1) Notice sur la langue de VOceanie Orientale ; Journal Asia- 
 tiqiie, tome III, p. Hi, lm« sdrie ; 1844.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. -185 
 
 pregnant with lliose startling contrasts which urgent- 
 ly invite our consideration, — not only because they 
 decisively reveal the respective influence and char- 
 acter of Catholic and Protestant Missions, but be- 
 cause they remove to the clear region of historical 
 facts that old controversy which is obscure and un- 
 profitable while it turns only upon cunning words 
 and distorted texts, — some have been visited by 
 Catholics alone, some have belonged exclusively to 
 Protestants, and others have been occupied by both. 
 In the first, religion has gained its accustomed and 
 undisputed victory; in the second, enormous expen- 
 diture has been attended by universal corruption and 
 admitted failure; in the third, heresy has waged its 
 usual warfare of violence and calumny, has been 
 combated by patient charily and long-suffering, and 
 has finally confessed its discomfiture and defeat. 
 This is the history which we are about to trace. 
 
 Let us begin with the Philippine Islands, and 
 those contiguous groups which lie nearest to the 
 main-land, whose happy fortune it was to be dis- 
 covered by men who laboured for God rather than 
 for themselves, and who carried with them wherever 
 they went the faith which was the light of their own 
 souls, and the charity which obliged them to com- 
 municate it to others. 
 
 Argensola, the careful and conscientious historian 
 of these regions, whose intelligent candour has earn- 
 ed the applause, not only of the Council of the Indies 
 by whom he was employed, but even of his English 
 editors, has recounted all the details of that generous 
 apostolate which won the Philippines to the Cross of 
 Christ. From him we learn how the false Prophet
 
 186 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 came lo be honoured even in iliese remote islands of 
 the Easl; how Persian and Arab conquerors carried 
 thither the plague which had enveloped half the 
 world, and from which it is ihe glory of the Roman 
 See to have saved Eui ope by that long series of efforts 
 which alone preserved Christendom from the de- 
 stroying legions who had overflowed the earth from 
 the Pillars of Hercules to the wastes of Tartary, and 
 who once threatened lo hang up in every temple of 
 Europe the impure banner which they had already 
 planted on Mount Sion. 
 
 Against such adversaries the first apostles of the 
 Philippines lifted up the Cross, and though they fell, 
 like their brethren in other lands, cut down by the 
 sword of iMoslem or Pagan, consumed by fire, or lorn 
 into fragments on the scaffold, ihey conquered even 
 in death. The conflict did not last long; the decree 
 had gone forlh that here the Cross should triumph, 
 and « the false and corrupt memory of Mahomet, » 
 as Mendoza simply relates, « was with ihe Gospel of 
 Christ easily rooted out. » (1) A few words will 
 suffice lo describe the events which let lo this result. 
 
 The Philippines were discovered by Magellan, as 
 Gemelli notices in his history of ihe Ladrone Islands, 
 in lo21, but it was not lill a later period that they 
 were subdued and colonised by Spain. The inhabitants 
 of ihe Ladrone gioup, for we may speak of ihem 
 together since they have a common history, « had 
 no notion of a Deity, » we are told by Le Gobieu, 
 « nor any religious worship, nor had ihey any temple, 
 
 (1) Historie of the Kingdotne of China, vol. II, ch. XIII, 
 p. 26t ; published by the Hakluyt Society.
 
 iMISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 187 
 
 priest, or forms of worship. » Their only religion 
 consisted in « some irregular notions of a hell and a 
 heaven. (1) » Towards the close of the sixteenth 
 century, as we learn from Argensola, more than six 
 thousand Christians had already heen martyred in 
 the single province of Ternate, « that so, » he adds, 
 « the foundation of our faith may be in all parts 
 cemented with the blood of the faithful. They dis- 
 membered the bodies, and burned the legs and arms 
 in the sight of the slill living trunks. They impaled 
 the women, and tore out their bowels; children were 
 pulled piece-meal before their mothers eyes, and in- 
 fants were rent from their wombs. » (i) 
 
 Yet all these tortures were bravely endured by 
 neophytes w ho had seen their pastors tread the same 
 Via Dolorosa w ith unfaltering step, and even children 
 learned to imitate the fruitful example of such teach- 
 ers. A Portuguese vessel, sailing by the coast of Am- 
 boyna, picked up a crowd of fugitives swimming near 
 the shore, « and having viewed them at leisure, » 
 says Argensola, « found that none of them were above 
 twelve years of age. Yet at this same time, when 
 cruelly advanced God's glory, idolaters and Mahome- 
 tans were converted, and our religious men preach- 
 ed and catechised without any fear of punishment, 
 which they rather coveted, and thought themselves 
 unworthy of. » He allows, indeed, that many apos- 
 tatised, overcome by anguish, and this need not sur- 
 prise us. In 1697, ten of the missionaries had been 
 
 (1) History of the Ladrone Islands, in Callander's Terra Aus- 
 tralis Cognita, vol. Ill, p. 53. 
 
 (2) Discover ij and Conquest of the Molucca and Philippine Is- 
 lands, bj B. L. de Argensola, book III, p. 65. (1708).
 
 488 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 martyred in the Ladrone Islands, and for a lime llie 
 rest ^vere obliged lo fly, bul it was only to return 
 when the storm had passed. (1) In the island of Say- 
 pan, Father de Medina, a man of illustrious birth, was 
 the first martyr, in 1670. In 1672, Sanvitores, also 
 belonging to one of the noblest houses of Spain — for 
 these men began by flinging away the wealth and 
 honours which others consume a whole life in en- 
 deavouring to acquire — was martyred in the island 
 of Tinian. By his first discourse, — unaided by the 
 the « ceremonial » which is supposed to be so efl'ect- 
 ive in such cases, — he won fifteen hundred con- 
 verts; and before he died had established the faith 
 in 13 islands, founded 3 seminaries, and baptized 
 30,000 idolaters. In 1699, idolatry had almost be- 
 come extinct in the Ladrone Islands. Surely martyr- 
 dom was a suitable termination of such a career as that 
 of Sanvitores; who, it may be added, predicted the 
 future conversion of the islands of Oceanica, though 
 he was only acquainted ^^ilh two of them, the Pelew 
 and the Caroline groups. (2) 
 
 In the Philippines the success of the missionaries 
 was so complete, that even at the close of the six- 
 teenth century Mendoza could say, — « According 
 unto the common opinion, at this day there is con- 
 verted and baptized more than four hundred thousand 
 souls. » In 1598, as an ardent Protestant observes, 
 in his account of the Voyage of Oliver Noort, and 
 speaking of what he calls the « Lussou » islands. 
 « Tliere are few Spaniards, and but one Priest, which 
 
 (1) Gemelli,inChurcliiirsCo//fc/io»o/' V'oJ/a^e«,vol.IV,p.462. 
 
 (2) Henrion, Histoiie des Missions Catholiques, tome II, 
 2dc partie, p. 539.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 189 
 
 is of great esleeme; and had they Priests enough, all 
 the neighbour nations would be subject to the Span- 
 iards, » — for, he adds, « the Jesuits are in reputa- 
 tion with their converts as demi-gods. » (1) And this 
 work continued, until, as later Protestant writers 
 will presently tell us, the four million inhabitants of 
 these islands had embraced that Catholic Faith from 
 which they have never since swerved. Such is the 
 first chapter in the history of Polynesian Missions. 
 How far it resembles the same apostolic work in the 
 lands which we have already visited, and especially 
 in characteristic solidity and permanence, we shall 
 now learn from Protestant witnesses, whom Pro- 
 vidence seems to have employed to this end, that 
 their co-religionists might the more readily accept 
 their testimony. 
 
 The Rev. David Abeel, — a Protestant missionary, 
 w ho seems to have wandered over the lands beyond 
 the Ganges, searching for something to do and finding 
 nothing, and whose book is simply a record of the 
 triumphs of Catholics and of the choleric disgust with 
 which he witnessed them, — thus writes of the Phi- 
 lippines. « The Church of Rome has here proselyted 
 to itself the entire populatioti. The natives have be- 
 come bigoted Papists. The influence of the Priests is 
 unbounded. » It is only fair, however, to this gen- 
 tleman to add, that he considers the conversion of the 
 Philippines, accomplished by such men as Medina 
 and Sanvitores, a remarkable example of « the power 
 of the Beast. » (2) 
 
 (1) Purclias' Pilgrims, vol. 1, lib. 2, ch v, pp. 75, 76. 
 
 (2) Journal of a Residence in China, ch, xvi, p. 328.
 
 190 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Ill the year 1858, A^ Crawlurd, >\hose writings 
 are well known in ihis counlr} , and who was for- 
 merly Governor of Singapore, made the follow ing de- 
 claration at a public missionary meeting. « In the 
 Philippine Islands the Spaniards have converted se- 
 veral millions of people to the Roman Catholic faith, 
 and an immense improvement in their social condi- 
 tion has been the consequence. » (1) 
 
 « iMuch credit, » says Sir Henry Ellis, in spite of 
 incurable prejudice, « is due to the Spaniards for the 
 establishment of schools throughout the colony, and 
 their unremitting exertion to preserve and propagate 
 Christianity by this best of all possible means, the 
 diffusion of knowledge. » (2) « It is said, » observes 
 the wife of the American na\igator Captain Morrell, 
 that in Manilla there are more convents than in any 
 other city in the world of its size, and the general 
 voice of natives and foreigners declares that they are 
 under excellent regulations. » And then she descril*es 
 their inmates. « They all seemed full of occupation. 
 There is no idleness in these convents as is generally 
 supposed » — and as her own account of the various 
 works accomplished in them sufficiently proves. {More- 
 over, « iheir devotions begin at the dawn of the day, 
 and are often repealed during the whole of it, or 
 until late in the evening in some form or other. » 
 Altogether the effect produced on the mind of this 
 lady was remarkably different from that which 
 M"" Abeel records. « I was born a Protestant, » she 
 says, « and trust that I shall die a Protestant, but 
 
 (1) Times, 2"'' December, 1858. 
 
 (2) Journal of an Embassy to China, ch. vui, p, 442.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 191 
 
 hereafter I shall have more charity for all who profess 
 lo love religion, whatever may be their creed. » (1) 
 
 lu 18o5, M. de La Giroiiiere, who spent twenty 
 years in the Philippines, informs us that the pre- 
 sent race of missionaries are not unworthy lo be 
 compared with their martyred predecessors. Thus 
 he relates how Father Miguel de San-Francisco, a 
 friend of his own, used lo collect the young men in 
 his house, four at a time, keep them with him a 
 fortnight under diligent instruction, and then send 
 them in diflerenl directions to communicate lo others 
 the lessons which ihey had received from his patient 
 charity. In this way he would contrive gradually to 
 leaven a whole district. M. de La Gironiere also no- 
 tices the important fact, that while Manilla and its 
 suburbs contain about 130,000 souls, the Spanish 
 and Creole population hardly amount to one tenth of 
 that number. (2j 
 
 In 184S, an American statistical writer addressed 
 to M' Ingersoll the following account of the Philip- 
 pines. « The colony is in a very flourishing condition. 
 Most of the native Tagalos and Horaforos have been 
 converted to the Catholic faith. There are three 
 Suffragan Bishops in the Provinces; one of them, 
 the Bishop of New Segovia, Island of Luzon, wrote 
 me in 1857, ihal his diocese consisted of upwards 
 of 600,000 christian souls. » (5) Let these facts be 
 
 (1) Narrative of a Voyage, by Abby Jane Morrell, ch.ii,p.4-i; 
 ch. v, p. 90. 
 
 (2) Vingt annees aux Philippines, par P. de la Gironiere, 
 p. 89. (1853). 
 
 (3) Letter to the Hon. Charles I. Ingersoll, etc., by Aaron 
 H. Palmer, p. 14.
 
 192 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 compared with the history of Dutch or English 
 Protestant missions in the same part of the world. 
 
 The remarkahle influence of the clergy, in spite of 
 the small proportion of Spaniards to natives, is 
 attested by many writers. In the early part of the 
 present century, M. de Guignes remarked, from his 
 own observation, that « the European priests are 
 greatly respected by the Indians, who always con- 
 sult them in their various undertakings, and even 
 about the j)ayment of taxes; » (1) which agrees with 
 what M' Abeel says impatiently of their « unbounded 
 influence. » Sir John Bowring, in 1859, confirms 
 the testimony of AI. de Guignes, and once more 
 reports of the clergy ; « They exercise an influence 
 which would seem magical were it not by their 
 devotees deemed divine. » (2) 
 
 D"" Ball, an American Protestant traveller, agrees 
 with M. de la Gironiere and others as to the cha- 
 racter of the Spanish clergy. Of one ^^hom he met at 
 Manilla, he says, « He has a fund of knowledge on 
 almost esery subject, speaks six or seven languages, 
 and has declined an ofl'er of the president of the semi- 
 nary here, preferring to remain always in the capacity 
 of missionary. » (5) 
 
 Lastly, that we may hear e\ery kind of witness, 
 and yet not encumber ourselves with superfluous 
 testimony, let us cite one more Protestant writer, 
 who tells us, in 1861, the impression which he had 
 formed of religion in the Philippines, in spite of the 
 
 (1) Voyages dPekin, Manille, etc., tome III, p. 391. 
 
 (2) A Vhit to the Philippine Islands, by Sir John Bowring, 
 L. L. D., F. R.S. ; ch. xii, p. 210. 
 
 (3) Rambles in Eastern Asia, ch. xxiv, p. 200.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 493 
 
 prejudices both of creed and country which threatened 
 to warp his judgment. M"^ Mac Micking, who spent 
 some years in these islands, where he only partly 
 unlearned earlier prepossessions, declares of the 
 natives, that « the warriors who gained them over to 
 Spain were not their steel-clad chivalry, hut the 
 soldiers of the Cross; — the priests, who astonished 
 and kindled them by their enthusiasm in the cause of 
 Christ. » He confesses also that the suppression of 
 the Jesuits, who were banished from the Philippines 
 in 1768, « was attended with the worst effects to the 
 trade and agriculture of the islands. » The people, he 
 allows, are so truly what M"" Abeel calls « bigoted 
 Papists ; » that « religious processions are as fre- 
 quently passing through the streets as they are in the 
 Roman Catholic countries of Europe. » And presently 
 he adds, « the church has long proved to be, upon 
 the whole, by much the most cheap and efficacious 
 instrument of good government and order; » while 
 even the common people « very generally learn read- 
 ing by its aid — so much, at least, as to enable them 
 to read their prayer-books or other religious manuals. 
 There are very few Indians who are unable to read, 
 and I have always observed that the Manilla men 
 serving on board ships, and composing their crews, 
 have been much oflener able to subscribe their 
 names to the ship's articles than the British seamen 
 on board the same vessels could do. » (1) Lastly, he 
 admits that the present rulers and pastors of these 
 islands have in no degree degenerated from their an- 
 
 (1) Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines, by Robert 
 Mac Micking Esq., p. 45.
 
 )9i CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ceslors. « The enlightened and benevolent govern- 
 ment of Don Pascual Eniile, who was Captain Gen- 
 eral of the Philippines from 1851 to 185o and his 
 entire administration, has left behind it the happiest 
 results for the people he governed, » — a statement 
 confirmed in 18o9 by Lord Elgin's secretary, who 
 also visited Manilla, and found that « the advanced 
 views of Don Pascual Enrile have in many instances 
 been improved upon, and carrie>I out by the present 
 governor. » (1) Of the clergy M' Mac Micking speaks 
 as follows. « Most of the priests I have been in con- 
 tact with appeared to be thoroughly convinced of, 
 and faithful to, their religion in its purity » — a large 
 concession from a Scotchman. Of « the present Arch- 
 bishop of Manilla)) he speaks with the utmost respect, 
 and especially of his « piety, and good feeling towards 
 all men, )> though be naturally resents the refusal of 
 Christian burial to Protestants; and he sunjs up his 
 frank admissions by the following generous account 
 of the modern Spanish missionaries. « These good 
 men have penetrated where soldiers dare not enter 
 with arms in their hands, and in their case truly the 
 sword has given place to the gown, with good effects 
 to all concerned in the reduction of these wild In- 
 dians to the Roman Catholic faith, and the arts of 
 civilized life; for many hundreds of them, nay, I 
 believe thousands, are now peaceful cultivators of 
 the soil , which these good fathers have taught 
 them how to till, instead of living, as they formerly 
 did, at warfare with mankind, and solely on the 
 produce of the chase. » And they continue the same, 
 
 (1) Narrative of Lord Elgin's Mission, vol. I, ch. v, p. 82.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANINA. 195 
 
 he says, up to the last hour; for whereas there are 
 still in the remole mountains of Ylocos and Pangasi- 
 nan some tribes of pagan Indians, « the well-directed 
 energies of several enthusiastic missionaries, who 
 have as yet only found an entrance among them, are 
 likely to civilize and ameliorate their condition. » (1) 
 
 Eight years later, Sir John Bowiing, in spite of 
 scant sympathy with Catholics or their religion, — 
 though he always writes with temper and modera- 
 tion, and confesses that he « found among the clergy 
 men worthy of being loved and honoured, » — relates 
 that in the diocese of Ylocos, in 1859, there were 
 15,775 baptisms, and that the number of Christians 
 was 357,218. (2) 
 
 Such have been the peaceful triumphs of reli- 
 gion in that part of Eastern Oceanica which Provi- 
 dence has confided, as if to show her inexhaustible 
 fecundity, to the healing power of the Church, and 
 the fruitful ministrations of her servants. Whole 
 nations of savage men, numbering several millions, 
 have been converted, civilized, and instructed by 
 successive generations of pastors, and have ne\er 
 ceased to repay their apostolic labours by loving 
 confidence, devout and obedient service, and un- 
 shaken constancy in the faith. Blessed are the feet 
 of the messengers of peace, and blessed the lands to 
 which they bear them. « Beautiful upon the moun- 
 tains are the feet of him that sheweth forth good, 
 that preachelh salvation, that sailh to Sion : Thy 
 God shall reign. » 
 
 (1) Recollections, etc., ch. xxxiii, p. 290. 
 
 (2) Ch. xn, p. 213.
 
 196 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 We are now lo pass lo other scenes. We do not 
 slay to speak of Protestantism in the Philippines, 
 because it has no existence. « To our shame be it 
 said, » observes a British officer in 1859, « there is 
 no Protestant place of worship on the island ; and 
 even the burial ground is in an unseemly position 
 and condition, and, I believe, unconsecraled. » (\) 
 Let us proceed, then, with our narrative. Thus far 
 we have spoken of evangelists who abandoned all 
 which the natural man craves, — home, parents, 
 and kindred, — that they might with greater free- 
 dom proclaim « the unsearchable riches of Christ. » 
 We have now to tell of others, who also assumed the 
 title of « missionaries, » but only in order to improve 
 their worldly estate. Each class was successful in the 
 object of its ambition; the one found toil and mar- 
 tyrdom, the other wealth and repose. 
 
 Let us go forth into the wide ocean, leaving far be- 
 hind us the coasts of Asia, and we shall come to the 
 islands of which we spoke in the beginning of this 
 chapter. They have been called « the latest conquest 
 of modern navigators ; » and it was natural that, 
 lying mid-way between East and West, they should 
 first be visited by the ships of those sister nations, 
 whose vast commerce seeks to link the two hemi- 
 spheres in one, by multiplying the stations between 
 them. England and America, rivals in a traffic which 
 embraces the world, and which is equally honorable 
 to the skill and enterprise of both, have carried their 
 flag to every islet to which the ocean gave access. 
 
 (i) Hong-Kong to Manilla, by H. T. Ellis, R. N. ; ch. xui, 
 p. 244.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 497 
 
 With their mariners, a hardy and adventurous race, 
 went men of another order, whose ostensihle purpose 
 was the conversion of the healhcn. It was from Eng- 
 land and America that they went forth ; and a writer 
 of the latter nation , who warmly espouses their 
 cause, and, unlike most of his countrymen, speaks 
 of the Catholic Church in language which is always 
 trivial and generally indecent , tells us why they 
 went. « The divine command, ' Go ye and teach all 
 nations, ' » he crudely observes, « was obeyed by 
 that people who had been the most alive to ils com- 
 mercial advantages. » (1) The missionaries whom 
 he defends, or at least most of them, appear to have 
 obeyed the difficult precept from the same politic 
 motive. We shall see them presently at their 
 work. 
 
 A French WM'iter, who had examined all the facts, 
 as far as they were then revealed, which we are 
 about to notice, observed a few years ago, that the 
 Protestant missionaries in Oceanica appear to have 
 aimed at establishing, in all its islands, « a theocratic 
 and commercial fief for their numerous posterity. » 
 The latter half of this design has been partly accom- 
 plished in some of the groups, the former has been 
 wholly unsuccessful. Let us visit, in order, the scenes 
 of their labour, and begin with the Society Islands, 
 where they first commenced the operations which 
 we are now to relate. 
 
 Most people have heard of the « missionary voyage 
 of the ship Duff. » It was in this vessel, more hon- 
 
 (1) History of the Sandwich Islands, jjv James J. Jarves, 
 ch. XI, p. 357.
 
 198 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 cured ihaii ihe sacred galley of Alliens, or ihe bark 
 which carried ihe fortunes of Caesar, that England 
 despatched to the favoured isles of the Paciflc her 
 first missionaries. We need not recount here the well 
 known « instructions » addressed to « M"" and M""* Wil- 
 son, » — the solemn injunctions laid upon the mis- 
 sionaries committed to their joint oversight, — nor 
 the hymns of triumph which heralded the parting 
 ship, and accompanied her on her way. Who is not 
 familiar with the tale? Who is ignorant that if it 
 provoked a smile in some, it has excited, during a 
 long series of years, the vehement sympathy of 
 others? Even as lale as 18o9, one of the most emi- 
 nent of English Reviewers slill speaks of lhe« voyage 
 of the Duff, » with a burst of uncontrollable enthu- 
 siasm, as « one of the manifestations of the pious zeal 
 of the nineteenth century, fraught with a promise 
 very different from that of the crusades of the middle 
 ages. » (1) The crusades, which saved religion and 
 civilisation, were, according to this authority, only 
 a trivial incident in human annals, compared with 
 
 « the missionary voyage of the ship Duff. » 
 
 Let us enter this historic vessel, and form some 
 acquaintance with her passengers and crew. Even 
 the latter, we are assured by the Rev. D"" Campbell, 
 in 1840, « were many of them as truly godly men as 
 the missionaries themselves; » whose « character 
 and vocation, wthis historian of missions adds, « were 
 purely spiritual; » so that he exulls, after the lapse 
 of so many years, in the consoling recollection, that 
 
 « Christianity, in her first approach to Polyue- 
 
 (1) Quarterly Review, July 1859, p. 176.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 199 
 
 sia, appeared arrayed in her native purity. » (1) 
 Conspicuous as a leader among these celebrated 
 missionaries, whose praise is slill in all Protestant 
 churches, was the Rev. iV^ Lewis. It was this gen- 
 tleman who was chosen by his colleagues as their 
 « first moderator, » (2) and who presided both at 
 their periodical devotions, and in the daily selection 
 and exposition of Scripture texts. Such a distinction 
 appropriately attested the rare merits of the future 
 missionary, and in the discharge of these grave du- 
 ties he wore out the voyage, amid the applause of his 
 companions. Arrived at length in Tahiti, he justified 
 after this manner their good opinion. « For some 
 lime, » says the Rev. D' Brown , « his behaviour 
 towards theTahilian females had been extremely in- 
 decent; »(o) and this was only the beginning of evil, 
 for a little later, as M"" Ellis, a well known mission- 
 ary, adds, « ]\r Lewis intimated to his companions 
 his intention of uniting in marriage v^ ith a native of 
 the island. Considering her an idolatress, » his com- 
 panions protested against the proposed nuptials; (4) 
 and when the « first moderator," defying their remon- 
 strance, had espoused a pagan savage, their Sunday 
 journal records his apparition at chapel in these re- 
 proachful words, — « M"^ Lewis and woman attended 
 the service. » Finally, he perished, apparently by 
 
 (1) Maritime Discovery and Christian Missions, by John Camp- 
 bell, D. D.; ch. VII, p. 260. 
 
 (2) Missionary Voyaye to the South Sea, ch. v, p. i6. 
 
 (3) History of the Propagation of Christianity, etc., vol. II, 
 p. 125. 
 
 (4) Polynesian Researches, by the Rev^ William Ellis, vol. I, 
 ch. IV, p. 95.
 
 200 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 the hand of his heathen relatives, being found lying 
 on his face, with his skull cleft asunder. 
 
 The next of this famous company is the Rev. 
 ]>r Broomhall. He too was « a shining light » among 
 his fellows, great in the interpretation of Scripture, 
 and had been for some time, M"" Ellis says, « highly 
 serviceable to the mission. » (1) When >F Lewis 
 lapsed, he was foremost in addressing to him the 
 most solemn admonitions. Unfortunately, he also, in 
 spile of his eminent qualities, as D"" Smith relates, 
 « successively connected himself with two Otaheitan 
 females, and with one of them he continued to coha- 
 bit till he quitted the island. » (2) Before his depar- 
 ture, we learn from the same Protestant historian, 
 « he seemed entirely devoted to the principles of infi- 
 delity; » and his companions observe in their journal, 
 forwarded to the missionary society at home, that 
 « the state of iM"" BroomhalTs mind is very awful ; he 
 professes himself no Christian, neither desires to be 
 one. » (3) 
 
 The third in dignity of this too celebrated troop, 
 whose evangelical triumphs have been so often the 
 theme of missionary orations in England and Amer- 
 ica, and are still eulogised with enthusiasm by Eng- 
 lish writers, was the Rev. ]>P Veeson. He also, 
 though able to manipulate texts as skilfully as his 
 friends, « cohabited with one of the Tonga women, » 
 as D"^ Brown relates ; then began « mingling with 
 the heathen, and showing a strong disposition to 
 
 (d) Polynesian Researches , vol. I, p. 103. 
 
 (2) History of the Missionary Societies, vol. II, p. 56. 
 
 (3) Otaheitan Journals, quoted in Missionary Transactions , 
 vol. I, p. 184.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 201 
 
 learn iheir ways, in which he al length made a woful 
 proficiency, and threw off the mask of Christianity 
 completely. » (1) 
 
 The Rev. M"" Harris , another of these earliest 
 « heralds » of English Protestantism, who introduced 
 Christianity to Polynesia « in her native purity » is thus 
 descrihed hy D"^ Russell. « It was manifest that he had 
 hecome paralysed by fear, his ardour quenched, and 
 Ills firmness shaken. » And these were not his only 
 infirmities. « He expressed his deep disgust with 
 the food and other matters. » Finally, after « the 
 frightened missionary had been on the beach all 
 night, » the people of the ship went to his aid, and 
 « found him in a most lamentable condition, and 
 almost deprived of inlellect. » (2) 
 
 The Rev. Francis Oakes, who appears to have 
 also travelled in the Duff, « left the island a isvelve- 
 month after, » we learn from D' Lang, « in conse- 
 quence of some hostile demonstration of feeling on 
 the part of the natives, and settled as chief constable 
 at Parramatta. » (3) 
 
 Finally, of eleven missionaries, who seem to have 
 reached New Zealand, from which they again fled 
 for fear of the natives, we are told by D"" Smith, an 
 eager partisan, that « instead of achieving any thing 
 for the honour of the Gospel, some of them afforded 
 melancholy proof that Olaheite would not have been 
 
 (1) Hist. Prop. Christianity, vol. II, p. 200. 
 
 (2) Polynesia and New Zealand, by the Rt Rev^' M. Russell; 
 ch. v, p. 186. Cf Fanning's Voyages round the World, ch. x, 
 p. 131. 
 
 (3) History ofN. S. Wales, vol. I, cli. v, p. 103. 
 
 U. 10
 
 202 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 eventually beuefiled by their continuance in that 
 island. » (1) 
 
 Such, by the testimony ol" Protestant annalists, 
 were the passengers by the ship Duff, and such the 
 expedition « fraught with a promise » which casts 
 even the crusades into dim shadow. And it is of such 
 men that English clergymen and English reviewers 
 could deliberately speak, a quarter of a century after 
 their crimes and their apostasy, as « godly men, » 
 busy with « manifestations of pious zeal, » and ge- 
 nerous benefactors of their race. 
 
 But this is only the first scene in the Protestant 
 missions of Oceanica ; we shall find others quite as 
 worthy of our attention, for they have the faculty of 
 reproducing themselves, in the later history of the 
 Society Islands, and especially in Tahiti, the chief 
 member of the group. That history we will now 
 examine, as it has been unfolded by Protestant 
 witnesses. 
 
 Captain Laplace, the commander of the French 
 frigate Artemise, who visited almost all the islands 
 of the Paciflc, noticed, in 1855, that « the methodist 
 ministers have never dared to attempt the conver- 
 sion of the frightful and sanguinary tribes of New 
 Caledonia, New Hebrides. New Guinea, » etc. These 
 formidable disciples they preferred to abandon to 
 missionaries of another faith, who, as the same dis- 
 tinguished officer testifies, « have courageously ven- 
 tured into the midst of them, and pursue their work 
 with success at this moment, chiefly in New Cale- 
 donia, where they already count a considerable 
 
 (i) Vol. II, p. 41.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 203 
 
 number of neopliyles, whose habits they have suc- 
 ceeded in changing to an astonishing degree. » (1) 
 
 The Protestants, however, chose more tranquil 
 fields of labour, and selected for their first operations 
 an island which is thus described by M' Herman Mel- 
 ville. « The ineffable repose and beauty of (he land- 
 scape is such, that every object strikes an European 
 like something seen in a dream; and for a time he 
 almost refuses to believe that scenes like these should 
 have a common place existence. >> (2) Long before this 
 writer visited Tahiti, De Bougainville, who noticed 
 with admiration « the mild behaviour of ihe natives, » 
 had been « delighted with the beauty of its hills and 
 valleys, the verdure of its swelling acclivities, the 
 cool shades afforded by its groves, and the pleasant 
 associations connected with its grassy plains and 
 murmuring rivulets. » And, once more, De La Ri- 
 charderic bore witness, more than sixty years ago, 
 to that « sweetness of manner and benevolence of 
 disposition » (3) which all the earlier navigators 
 attest with one accord, but of which every vestige 
 has long since disappeared. The vices which now 
 make Tahiti a proverb, — theft, drunkenness, cruelty, 
 lying, covetousness, and fraud, — all date, as their 
 own friends will presently tell us, from the arrival 
 of the Protestant missionaries, and were almost un- 
 known at an earlier period. 
 
 It was to a gentle and winning race, inhabiting 
 one of the fairest regions of the earth, that the emis- 
 
 (1) Camparjne de Circumnavigation de la Frigate VArtemise, 
 tome V, ch. iv, p. 425. 
 
 (2) Omoo, ch. XVIII, p. 66. 
 
 {?>) Bibliotheque Univcrselle dca Votjages, tome VI, p. 370.
 
 204 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 saries of ihe English missionary societies first pre- 
 sented llieinselves, in the guise of apostles, charged 
 with a message from heaven. The first elTect of their 
 presence, as we have seen, was to introduce shame- 
 less inconlineiice, and to teach the natives how easy 
 it was even for its preachers to apostatise from 
 Christianity; the second, as they themselves confess, 
 was to destroy for ever the peace which their pre- 
 sence disturhed, and to kindle the flames of merciless 
 wars in every grove and valley which they visited. 
 
 « It is a very remarkahle fact, » says the missionary 
 Williams, unconsciously pronouncing sentence upon 
 himself and his companions, « that in no island of 
 importance has Christianity heen introduced without 
 a war. » (1) His own « converts, » he admits, 
 « acted with great cruelty towards their enemies, 
 hewing them in pieces while ihey were begging for 
 mercy. » Already they had become cruel and san- 
 guinary, and the most impartial witnesses affirm, 
 that it was the missionaries who made them so. 
 « The new religion, » says Von Kolzebue, « was 
 forcibly established, and whoever would not adopt 
 it jmt to death. With the zeal for making proselytes, 
 the rage of tigers took possession of a people once so 
 gentle. » And presently he adds, « the bloody per- 
 secution instigated by the Missionaries performed 
 the office of a desolating infection. » (2) And again; 
 « Ambition associated itself to fanaticism. » 
 
 And this is confirmed in 1843 by the American 
 
 (1) Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the S. Sea Islands, 
 by the ReyJ John Williams, ch. xu, p. 49. 
 
 (2) Kotzebue's New Voyage round the World, \oL I, pp. 159, 
 169.(1830).
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 205 
 
 Commodore \\'ilkes, a disinleiesled but anii calholic 
 Nvilness, who says, thai a war which lie found raging 
 al Tongalahoo was « a religious contest, » promoted 
 by llie Missionaries. In vain he remonstrated against 
 their proceedings. « I was much surprised and struck," 
 lie says, « with the indifference with which ]>F Ra- 
 hone spoke of the war. He Avas CNidently more in- 
 clined to have it continue than desirous that it should 
 he put a stop to; viewing it, in fact, as a means of 
 propagating the gospel! I had little hopes of being 
 instrumental in bringing about a peace, when such 
 unchristian views existed where it was least to be 
 expected. » (1) 
 
 Catholic missionaries, in all lands, have been ac- 
 customed to offer the sacrifice of their own lives, but 
 have never assisted in taking away life from others. 
 Whcm we come to speak of America, we shall find 
 instances of Protestant « 3Iissionaries » actually 
 slaying the heathen with their own hands and exult- 
 ing in the fact; meanwhile, let it be noted that, in 
 the Pacific, as Williams admits. Protestantism has 
 nowhere been introduced « without a war. » This 
 is the first mark by which it may be known. 
 
 And how, it is natural to enquire, were the natives 
 of Tahiti induced to profess a religion introduced by 
 such teachers, and which lliey were encouraged to 
 propagate by such means? JVP Williams, who was a 
 principal agent in these proceedings, will tell us. 
 « Some ihoughl that by embracing Christianity, ves- 
 sels would be induced to visit them ; many hoped by 
 adopting the new religion to prolong their lives. » 
 
 (1) United States Exploring Expedition, vol. Ill, ch. i, p. 12.
 
 206 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 And iheii he quotes ihe speech of one of their cliiefs, 
 who thus recommended llie English religion lo his 
 people. « Look at the wisdom of these worshippers 
 of Jehovah, and see how superior they are to us in 
 every respect. Their ships are like floating houses, 
 so that they can traverse the tempest-driven ocean 
 for months wiih perfect safety; whereas, if a breeze 
 blow upon our canoes, they are in an instant upset, 
 and we are sprawling in the sea. Their persons are 
 covered from head to fool in beautiful clothes, while 
 we wear nothing but a girdle of leaves... Their 
 knives too , w hat valuable things they are ! how' 
 quickly they cut up our pigs, compared with our 
 bamboo knives! iNow I conclude that God who has 
 given lo his white worshippers these valuable things 
 must be wiser than our gods, for they have not given 
 the like to us. We all want these articles; and my 
 proposition is, that the God who gave them should 
 be our God. » (1) It was impossible to reason more 
 sagaciously ; and having come to this conclusion, 
 they eagerly agreed to assist the missionaries in for- 
 cing all the other tribes to adopt a religion which 
 imparted to its happy votaries such beautiful clothes, 
 and such excellent knives. 
 
 But this point deserves further illustration. « When 
 Pomare embraced Christianity, » says Lord W'alde- 
 grave, « ihe whole island, in obedience to his will, 
 adopted the Christian religion. It was, however, only 
 a state conversion not understood, and therefore not 
 sincere. » (2) « The truth is, » says D"^ Russell, « the 
 
 (1) Narrative, etc., ch. xxxii, p. 1-49. 
 
 (2) Journal of Geoyraphical Society, \o\. Ill, p. 182.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 207 
 
 chiefs had already perceived so many lemporal ad- 
 vantages connected wiih Christianity, that they be- 
 came desirous, on secular grounds alone, to extend 
 its principles among their dependants ; » and he 
 cfuotes the ingenious letter of Pomare the Second to 
 the London IMissionary Society, in which, after ask- 
 ing for a supply of missionaries, that acute monarch 
 added, — « Friends, send also properly, and cloth 
 for us, and we also will adopt English customs. » (\) 
 M"" Stewart, an American missionary, tells us of 
 another Polynesian sovereign, who urged the Pre- 
 sident of the United States to send emissaries to her 
 dominions, because « our harbours are good, and 
 our refreshments abundant. » (2) Lastly, M''Cargill, 
 also a missionary, relates, that having asked a chief 
 if he believed what he said was true, — « True ! 
 every thing is true thfit comes from the while man's 
 country : muskets, and guns, and powder, are true, 
 and the religion must be true. » (5) 
 
 The Protestant missionaries were now definitively 
 established in Tahiti. From that hour, during many 
 successive years, such accounts of their uninterrupt- 
 ed success were forwarded to England as might well 
 stimulate the hopes and sympathies of their support- 
 ers. Idolatry, they reported, had given way before 
 them; and so great was the devotion of their disci- 
 ples, as the missionary records annually testified, 
 that Tahiti became a watchword among all the advo- 
 cates of missionary enterprise. « Our congregations 
 
 (1) Polynesia and New Zealand, cli. iv, p. 151. 
 
 (2) A Visit to the S. Seas in the U. S. Ship Vincennes, by 
 C. S. Stewart, A. M., vol. II. Letter VII, p. 50. 
 
 (3) Dr Brown, Hist. Prop. Christianity, vol. I, p. 542.
 
 208 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 increase, » said ihe Rev. W Osmund , as late as 
 1842, « and many are pressing in(o our churches. 
 F'or goodness of temper, general moral conduct, cor- 
 rect scriptural knowledge, decided attachment to the 
 gospel, and, in the aggregate, pleasing consistency 
 as churcli members, I am bold to say that they are 
 fit to be placed on a footing with any equal number 
 of professing christians, in any church, in any part 
 of the world. » (\) Every word of this statement 
 should be carefully weighed, for it was the common 
 language of the missionaries, in all (he letters which 
 they addressed to the Society at home. How far it 
 was justified by facts, including their own secret 
 confessions, we shall learn presently. 
 
 D"^ Russell, in his account of the Polynesian mis- 
 sions, observed, nearly twenty years ago, as if antici- 
 pating the disclosures which would one day reach Eu- 
 rope, — « It is almost inseparable from the duties of 
 an uninspired missionary to exaggerate the amount of 
 his success. » Already, even in his time, the unwel- 
 come truth was beginning to be revealed. « An im- 
 pression has been very generally produced, » he re- 
 luctantly admits, « that the European teachers have 
 to answer for more evil than will ever be compen- 
 sated by their most zealous services. » (2) Let us 
 now review the facts which created this gloomy 
 impression, and we must receive them exclusively 
 from Protestant witnesses, since no other testimony 
 would suffice to prove them. We will follow, as in 
 former instances, the order of dates, which range 
 
 (1) Hist. Prop. Christianity, vol. II, p. 185. 
 
 (2) Ch.m, p. 113.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 209 
 
 ihrough a period of thirty years, from 1829 to 1859. 
 
 Our first witness is the Rev. William KIlis, a 
 clergyman of the Church of England, well known 
 hy his various writings on China, Polynesia, and 
 Madagascar, and accounted by no mean authority 
 « an enlightened and accomplished missionary. » (1) 
 M'' Ellis considers the Catholic religion « one of the 
 most absurd and fatal delusions which the powers 
 of darkness ever invented for the destruction of 
 mankind. » This is his deliberate estimate of the 
 religion which, — to say nothing of St. Dominic 
 and St. Francis, St. Bernard and St. Philip, — was 
 preached in later times by Bossuet and Fenelon ; 
 admitted to be divine by Puscal, Leibnitz, and Gro- 
 lius; and which has captivated in our own age the 
 intellect and the affections of such men as Stolberg 
 and Schlegel, Galilzin and Schouvaloff, Hurler and 
 Overbeck, Newman and Faber. But .M' Ellis has 
 decided that it is an absurd delusion. 
 
 IVP Ellis visited Tahiti. Speaking of the beneficial 
 influence of his own presence in that Island, he says ; 
 « With what augmented joy must that honoured and 
 distinguished saint, the late Countess of Huntingdon, 
 in strict obedience to whose last bequest and dying 
 charge the South Sea Mission was attempted, have 
 viewed the pleasing change! »(2) We are, of course, 
 not acquainted with the feelings of that amiable lady; 
 but if her contemplation embraced the proceedings 
 of the missionaries who travelled in the ship Duff, 
 and who inaugurated the Mission in which she fell 
 
 (1) Quarterlij Review, July 1859. 
 
 (2) Polynesian Researches, ch. x, p. 261. 
 
 Jl. 10.
 
 210 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SO much interest, we may perhaps doubt whether her 
 joy was sensibly augmented. But less us examine 
 more closely M' Ellis's own operations, and endeav- 
 our lo learn from his published statements what 
 he considers the Irue method of evangelising the 
 heathen. 
 
 « We instructed them, » he tells us, « not lo con- 
 sider Baptism as possessing any saving efficacy, ot^ 
 conferring any spiritual benefit, but being on our 
 parts a duly connected wilh our office, and on theirs 
 a public declaration of discipleship. » (1) So much 
 for ihe Sacrament of Baptism. 
 
 « We fell no hesitation, » he adds, speaking of 
 the « Lord's Supper, » in using the roasted or baked 
 bread-fruit, pieces of which were placed in ihe proper 
 vessel. » And again; « We have sometimes been ap- 
 prehensive that we might be under the necessity of 
 substituting ihe juice of the cocoa-nut for thai of the 
 grape » — which he confesses some of his colleagues 
 actually did. (2) M"^ Ellis has no doubt often read 
 St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, and can per- 
 haps explain, how that Apostle would « discern the 
 Lord's Body » in roasted bread-fruit and the juice of 
 the cocoa-nut. This Anglican missionary may cer- 
 tainly boast that he has efl'eclually sequestrated the 
 only two sacraments w hich his church had retained. 
 WHiether it is law ful for men thus to suppress the 
 ordinances of God, and lo substitute for His sacra- 
 ments new inventions of their own, M"" Ellis would 
 probably consider a trivial enquiry. 
 
 (1) Ch. IX, p. 256. 
 
 (2) Ch. XI, p. 309.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 211 
 
 Having thus dealt wilh ihe sacramenls of Baptism 
 and the Holy Eucharist, this clergyman of the Church 
 of England next proceeded to aholish all creeds. « We 
 did not, » he says, « present any creed or articles of 
 faith for their subscription. » Perhaps some may 
 he tempted to ask, the sacraments and creeds being 
 now blotted out, what portions of Christianity M"- El- 
 lis had reserved from the common destruction? This 
 (juestion we are unable to answer. He tells us, in- 
 deed, that in « the strict observance of the Sabbath 
 the Tahitian resembled the Jewish more perhaps 
 than the Christian Sabbath, » which he may pos- 
 sibly have considered an adequate substitute for sa- 
 cramenls and articles of faiih; but we search his 
 book in vain for any definite account of what he 
 actually taught the people of Tahiti. 
 
 We learn from it, however, much more distinctly 
 what he thought of the position of a missionary in 
 such a land. « The only earthly solace, » ]>P Ellis 
 observes, « which a Missionary enjoys among an un- 
 civilized people, except what he derives from his 
 w'ork, is found in the social endearments of the 
 domestic circle. » And again; « The greatest trials 
 the Missionaries experience are those connected with 
 the bringing up of a family he experiences a con- 
 stant and painful struggle between the dictates of pa- 
 rental affection and the claims of pastoral care. » (1) 
 « He is divided, » said St. Paul, alluding to this 
 very perplexity; and ihat sublime Missionary thus 
 warned all who would give iheir whole hearts to 
 God against this very snare. « I would have you to 
 
 (1) Ch. xvni, pp. 542-4.
 
 21"i CHAPTER VI. 
 
 be without solicitude. He ihat is without a wife, is 
 solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how^ 
 he may please God. But he ihal is wiih a wife , 
 is solicitous for the things of the world , how 
 he may please his wife : and he is divided. » (1) 
 M"" Ellis seems lo have felt the inconvenience of this 
 position, which indeed ultimately deprived the Ta- 
 hiliansofhis presence; for «lhe severe and prolracled 
 illness of M'" Ellis, » sent them home, though he had 
 protested twenty times in the course of his book ihat 
 nothing should ever separate him from this field of 
 labour, — he lived lo visit many others, and to write 
 a book on each of them, — and so he adds, with in- 
 finite composure, — « we took our final leave of the 
 Polynesian islands, and the interesting people by 
 whom they are inhabited. » To what extent the 
 people had profited by his abode amongst them , 
 we shall learn more satisfactorily from other wit- 
 nesses. 
 
 Tiie very year after ]VF Ellis published his book. 
 Von Kotzebue, an intelligent and perfectly impartial 
 authority, thus described, from actual observation, 
 the religion of Tahiti. « The religion taught by the 
 -Missionaries is not true Christianity, though it may 
 possibly comprebend some of its doctrines, but half 
 understood even by the teachers themselves. A reli- 
 gion which consists in the eternal repetition of pre- 
 scribed prayers, which forbids every innocent plea- 
 sure, and cramps or annihilates every mental power, 
 is a libel on the Divine Founder of Christianity. » 
 And then this celebrated navigator gives a descrip- 
 
 (1) I, Cor. vii, 33.
 
 MI.SIONS IN OCEANICA. 213 
 
 lloii of llie dark and tyrannical system under which 
 the natives of Tahiti were already groaning at the 
 time of liis \isit, and by which they were crushed 
 till the happy interference of France released them 
 from their bondage. « By order of the Missionaries, » 
 he says, « the flute, which once awakened innocent 
 pleasure, is heard no more. One of our friends having 
 begun to sing for joy over a present he had received, 
 was immediately asked by his comrades, with great 
 terror, what he thought would be ihe consequence, 
 should the Missionaries hear of it? » « The oppressed 
 people, » he adds, and many witnesses confirm the 
 fact, « even sufl"er themselves to be diiven to prayers 
 by the cudgel. » His final impression he records in 
 these grave words. « The religion of the Missionaries 
 has neither tended to enlighten the Tahitians, nor lo 
 render them happy. » On the other hand, <« each Mis- 
 sionary possesses a piece of land, cultivated by the 
 natives, which produces him in superfluity all that 
 he requires. » (1) 
 
 In 1830, we have the evidence of a gentleman 
 well know n for the energy of his religious opinions, 
 Captain, afterwards Lord Waldegrave. « The mis- 
 sionaries, » he reports, after much personal obser- 
 valion, « are all engaged in trade, which I am afraid 
 interferes in some degree with their usefulness. 
 At present they have the monopoly of cattle, so that 
 the shipping are almost wholly supplied with fresh 
 beef by them. They also appeared lo deal in cocoa- 
 nut oil and arrowroot. « Of their conserts this ardent 
 Protestant cautiously confesses, « the tenets of the 
 
 (1) Vo;j(i(je Round the World, ^o\.U,^p.\12-203.
 
 214 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Gospel have not in many taken deep root. » (I) 
 The next year, 1831, gives us another ^^itness of 
 the same class, having, like Lord Waldegrave, no 
 motive whatever hut to tell the truth. Captain Bee- 
 chey disclaims any hut a friendly feeling towards the 
 English Missionaries, but says he « felt himself cal- 
 led upon to declare the truth, » and not « to increase 
 the general misconception, » created by missionary 
 reports. The natives, he reports, like those of New 
 Zealand, had already learned ihe vice of covetousness, 
 and were accustomed to sell false pearls, « ingeniously 
 made out of an oyster shell, » and to exult in the 
 success of their fraud. « Without amusement, and 
 excessively indolent, they now seek enjoyment in 
 idleness and sensuality. » The Tiokeans, he reports, 
 « are still reputed to be cannibals, notwithstanding 
 ihey have embraced the Christian religion. » He 
 shows also that ihe violent suppression of all inno- 
 cent amusements, which marked this strange form of 
 Christianity, extended even lo the king's household. 
 Ue was present at an entertainment given in his hon- 
 our by Pomare, of whom we shall hear more present- 
 ly, but « it was necessary that the vivo, or reed pipe, 
 should be played in an under tone, that it might not 
 reach the ears of an aava, or policeman, who was 
 parading the beach, in a soldier's jacket, with a rusty 
 sword; for even the use of Ibis melodious little in- 
 strument, the delight of the natives, from whose 
 nature the dance and the pipe are inseparable, is 
 now siriclly prohibited! » (2) Of the other islands of 
 
 (1) Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. Ill, p. 180. 
 
 (2) Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific, vol.1, ch. ix, pp.286, 307.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 215 
 
 ihe Pacific, Captain Beechey gives a similar account, 
 as we shall see when we come lo speak of them. 
 
 In the same year, the Protestant author of the 
 Mutiny of the Bounty thus speaks of the natives of 
 Tahiti. After descrihing with admiration their earlier 
 character, before the Missionaries had visited them, 
 he says; « what ihey now are it is lamentable to re- 
 flect! All their usual and innocent amusements have 
 been denounced by the Missionaries, and, in lieu of 
 ihem, these poor people have been driven lo seek for 
 resources in habits of indolence and apathy : that 
 simplicity of character which atoned for many of 
 their faults has been conveited into cunning and 
 hypocrisy; and drunkenness, poverty, and disease 
 have thinned the island of its former population to a 
 frightful degree. » And then he shows, « on the au- 
 thority of a census taken by the Missionaries, » that 
 in thirty years the population had dwindled to less 
 than one third! And even this was probably too favor- 
 able an account, for whereas Bligh reports that « the 
 inhabitants of Otaheite have been estimated at above 
 100,000, » (1) Lord Waldegrave reduced this esti- 
 mate, in 1830, to 0,000. 
 
 What follows is still more impressive. « All the 
 smiling cottages and little plantations of the natives 
 are now destroyed, and the remnant of the popu- 
 lation has crept down (fiom the fertile grounds) to 
 the flats and swampy ground on the sea shore, com- 
 pletely subservient to the seven establishments of 
 Missionaries, who have taken from them what little 
 trade they used to carry on , to possess themselves 
 
 (1) Bligh's Voyayp to the South Sea, ch. vi, p. 80.
 
 216 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 of it; who have iheir warehouses, act as agents, 
 and monopolise all ihe cattle on ihe island. » A few 
 years later we shall find the very Society which 
 employed them admilling these facts. Well might 
 this author add, — « How much is such a change, 
 brought about by such conduct, to be deprecated! 
 How lamcniable is il to reflect, that an island on 
 which Nature has lavished so many of her bounteous 
 gifts, should be doomed to such a fate! » (1) 
 
 Il was now the turn of the Tahitians to enjoy the 
 advantages which every where attend the presence 
 of Protestant missionaries. In China, as M"" Sirr has 
 told us, ihey augment their incomes by diligently 
 « attending auctions » ; in India, as a crowd of wit- 
 nesses relate, « their cry is only, ' money ' » ; in 
 Ceylon , they rejoice in « spacious lawns, » hand- 
 some country houses, » and « social meetings »; in 
 the Antipodes, they deal in land and provisions; in 
 Tahiti, ihey cheat the poor natives of their humble 
 commerce, « to possess themselves of it » — and il is 
 from their companions and advocates that we learn 
 these facts. Let us continue their history. 
 
 Once more, in the same year, a celebrated writer, 
 reviewing Captain Beechey's work, thus appreciated 
 the influence of the missionaries in Tahiti. « Unhap- 
 pily, in eradicating idolatry, the missionaries, from 
 whatever cause, have failed to substitute any belter 
 principles in its slead; and the only elTect of the 
 change produced has been, to degrade Christianity to 
 the level of the most brutish idolatry, without making 
 one step towards raising these miserable idolaters to 
 
 (J) History of the Mutimj of the Bountij, cli. I, pp. 37-39.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 217 
 
 tlic rank of Christians. The people, consequently, are 
 as much barbarians and savages as ever, — or rallier, 
 they are worse; for lliey have borrowed from civili- 
 zation nothing but the vices by which it is dishon- 
 oured. » (1) 
 
 In the next year, 1852, a writer in the Asiatic 
 Journal, comparing the public and official reports of 
 ihe missionaries with their private confessions, thus 
 discloses the want of harmony between the two. « As 
 a proof of what the Missionaries themselves really 
 think of the Otaheitans, I will give you an extract of 
 a letter written by them to a friend of mine. ' The Pit- 
 cairn islanders are arrived, but I am afraid their mo- 
 rals will soon be corrupted by the Otaheitans ' ))(2) — 
 whom M"" Osmund, it will be remembered, described, 
 in an official report designed to attract fresh sub- 
 scriptions, as models of « general moral conduct, 
 correct scriptural knowledge, and decided attachment 
 to the gospel. » The same writer adds the charac- 
 teristic fad, that up to that year, 1832, « more than 
 100,000 I. sterling has been expended on the mis- 
 sions to the Society Islands)) — that is to say, on the 
 missionaries and their families. 
 
 In 1834, the London Missionary Society, unable 
 to conceal the fatal evidence which was now multi- 
 j)lying on all sides, confess at last in their annual 
 report, — « the tidings which have been received 
 by late arrivals have been more unfavorable than 
 any. » (3) And in 1835, M"" Williams, whose career 
 
 (1) Edinburg Review, JSo 53, p. 217. 
 
 (2) Asiatic Journal, vol. VIII, p. 107. 
 
 (3) Report of London Missionary Society, 1834; in Asiatic 
 Journal, vol. XIV, p. 196.
 
 218 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 shall be noticed presently, and Nvhose accounls of 
 friumpliant progress had exactly resembled that which 
 has been quoted from M"" Osmund, thus writes to 
 the Directors of the same-Society. « Although it 
 would be much more pleasant to myself to state that 
 the former prosperity continued, this is not my hap- 
 piness on the present occasion.)) All that he ventures 
 to add, by way of apology, is, — « that in all the 
 lamentable defections from Christian doctrine and 
 purity which have taken place among us, 1 have never 
 heard of one individual who has even thought of re- 
 turning to the worship of their former gods. » (I) 
 
 The oflicial reports of the missionaries were now 
 beginning to agree with their private confessions, and 
 with the voluntary testimony of more independent 
 witnesses. The fact that the backsliding natives did 
 not renew the worship of their wooden gods was but 
 a feeble consolation; for, as the historian of Protest- 
 ant Missions observes, « the truth appears to be, that 
 in the Islands of the Pacific Ocean, idolatry had a 
 very slight hold on the minds of the natives; » (2) 
 and another writer declares the same thing of the 
 Sandwich Islands, where « idolatry had, as if by 
 miracle, given way, even before the coming of the 
 mission. » (3) 
 
 The well known work of the Rev. John Williams, 
 of which the thirty-fifth edition was published in 
 1841, now claims our attention. M"" Williams lost 
 his life in one of the islands of the Pacific, and has 
 
 (1) Quoted in Asiatic Journal, vol. XVIII, p. 115. New series. 
 
 (2) Dr Brown, vol. II, p. 218. 
 
 (3) Voyaye of H. M. S. Blonde to the Sandwich Islands, by 
 Captain Lord Byron, p. 147.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 219 
 
 been regarded by his admirers as a martyr. His 
 evidence, on several accounts, deserves particular 
 consideration. 
 
 We have already learned from him, that the form 
 of Christianity which he taught was not introduced 
 into any of the islands « w ilhout a war. » He next 
 admils that polygamy was sanctioned by the mission- 
 aries, even while legislating for its suppression. They 
 had admonished their polygamist « converts » to 
 select one of their wives, to whom they should be 
 united formally by a religious ceremony. The in- 
 junction was apparently obeyed; but when, at a 
 later period , the natives repented of their first 
 choice, urging, as M"^ Williams reports, that « had 
 they known it to be permanent, they should have 
 made a different selection, » (1) they were consider- 
 ately allowed to choose again, — a licence which 
 would somewhat obscure their apprehension of the 
 sanctity of Christian marriage. 
 
 Of the real character of the nominal converts, 
 M"" Williams, towards the close of his career, fur- 
 nishes an accurate estimate, though not very con- 
 sistent with his own earlier reports. Thus he had 
 described Rarotonga, at least twenty times, as a 
 kind of Paradise, and its inhabitanis as model 
 Christians ; yet he confesses, in his book, that « as 
 vast numbers of those who professed Christianity 
 were influenced by example merely, no sooner had 
 the powerful excitement produced by the transilion 
 from one stale of society to another subsided, than 
 they returned to the habits in which, from their in- 
 
 (1) Narrative, etc., ch. viii, p. 35.
 
 220 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 fancy, lliey had been trained. » Of ihe converis of 
 « the whole Hervey Island group, » he says, « I do 
 not assert, I wouki not intimate, that all the people 
 are real christians; » and of another group, « I by 
 no means affirm that many, or even that any, of the 
 Samoans had experienced a change of heart. » (1) It 
 is only to he regretted that ihese confessions were 
 delayed until they were extorted by the unexpected 
 revelations of others. 
 
 But there were some converis whom M*" Williams 
 was unwilling to include in the general catalogue, 
 and of ihesc king Pomare was the most conspicuous. 
 3r AA illiams was his friend in life, and attended him 
 on his death bed. « I confidently hope, » he says, 
 « that fie was a subject of Divine grace; » indeed he 
 was quite sure of i(, for he adds, — « I visited him 
 in his last illness, and found his views of the way of 
 salvation clear and distinct. » 
 
 Unfortunately, however, the reports of more im- 
 partial witnesses do not permit us to share the cheer- 
 ful conviclion expressed by M"" AX'illiams. « Pomare 
 was the first convert to Christianity, » M"" Ellis says, 
 « in the island of which he was king... during the 
 latter part of his life, his conduct was in many re- 
 spects exce[)lionable; » which means, as M^ Ellis 
 goes on to remark, that he had « habits of intemper- 
 ance, and was also reported to be addicted to other 
 vices. » (2) On ihe other hand, this writer assures 
 US, in the peculiar phraseology of his class, that 
 Pomare « was not averse to devotional engagements, 
 
 (1) Ch. xxxii. 
 
 (2) Polynesian Researches, vol. II, ch. xvin, pp. 532-4.
 
 MISSIONS IX OCEAMCA. S'it 
 
 and gave a steady patronage to the Missionaries. » 
 But we must endeavour lo arrive at a more exact 
 knoNvledge of the real character of this « subject of 
 divine grace. » « Their zealous king, » D"" Russell 
 tells us, « was not the only native of Olaheite whose 
 conscience permitted him to combine the worship of 
 Jehovah with a relaxed code of morals. » « He was 
 as dexterous a thief, » says M"" TurnbuU, « as any 
 amongst them ; » and yet he declares that « the Ota- 
 heilans are thieves in every sense of the word. » (1) 
 The examples which he gives of Pomares « relaxed 
 code of morals » do not certainly encourage a high 
 opinion of that royal personage. But let us pursue 
 our investigation. «The chiefs, » says the Hon, Fred- 
 erick Walpole, who had been their guest, « were 
 too powerful a body to be touched by the Mission- 
 aries who framed the laws; so as they, the Mission- 
 aries, only owed their existence to them, they al- 
 lowed them lo retain many of their old savaae 
 privileges » — including, as it appears from his 
 graphic account , lewdness , theft , and drunken- 
 ness. (2) Lord Waldegrave also, after describing the 
 house of this « subject of divine giace » as one of 
 those unclean slews for which language has no 
 name, or only one which cannot be employed, adds; 
 « Poinare, ihe king, sal in the room, a witness of, 
 and indifferent to, the addresses paid to his wife, or 
 the open debauchery of his mother in law. » (3) On 
 the whole, we are reduced rather to hope than lo 
 believe that the real character of Pomare justified 
 
 (1) Turnbull's Voyage round the. World, ch. xi, pp. 281-3. 
 
 (2) Four Years in the Pacific, vol. I, cli. xi, p. 245. (1849). 
 
 (3) Journal, etc., ubi supra.
 
 222 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 the sanguine estimate of M"" Williams. His « views » 
 may have been excellent, but bis morals were detest- 
 able. 
 
 But it is lime to leave this gentleman — not, how- 
 ever, without adding a word upon the manner of his 
 death. It is true that M"^ Williams was killed by the 
 natives, as Captain Cook had been ; and it is impos- 
 sible not to compassionate his dismal end, when we 
 are informed, that he was not only struck down iu 
 the prime of life, but that « his body was roasted 
 and eaten. » (1) Yet history, while it deplores bis 
 melancholy fate, can never admit his claim to* the 
 title of « martyr. » If this unfortunate gentleman, 
 by his own or his childrens act, provoked the just 
 reprisals of men whom they had cruelly injured and 
 robbed, the frightful penalty may inspire sorrow 
 and regret, but nothing more. M^ Williams had been 
 conspicuous amongst those who, in the words of 
 JM"" Leiglch Ritchie, « are said to have usurped many 
 of the functions of government, and to have taken 
 advantage of their position to obtain an undue share 
 of trade ; » (2) or, as another w riter expresses it, 
 he was one of the missionaries « who are deter- 
 mined to get the whole commerce into their own 
 hands. » (3) He had even been publicly and oflicially 
 censured by the very Society which employed him 
 for his own share in such transactions, and especially 
 for his traffic in South Sea tobacco. He was « largely 
 engaged, » says Archdeacon Grant, « in private spe- 
 
 (1) Incidents and Adventures in the Pacific Ocean, by Thomas 
 Jefferson Jacobs, cli. xxvi, p. 235. New York, 184 i. 
 
 (2) The British World in the East, vol. II, p. 416. 
 
 (3) Asiatic Journal, vol. VIII, p. 106.
 
 MISSIONS li\ OCEANICA. 223 
 
 culalions; » (1) and M"" Ebenezer Pioul, his enlhu- 
 siaslic biographer, who seems ahiiosl disposed lo 
 defend even this incidenl in his life, says ; « M'' Wil- 
 liams received a letter from ihe Directors, in which 
 his speculation vyas condemned, and his conduct 
 censured. But his spirit, though bowed down, was 
 not broken, » (2) 
 
 In 1841, the same Directors were obliged to 
 acknowledge that « some of the Missionaries have 
 from lime to time been extensively engaged in 
 mercantile transactions , and the practice , besides 
 lowering the general tone and character of the mis- 
 sion , has, we fear, frequently brought ihem into 
 invidious and degrading competition with their 
 own people, whose interests happened lo be em- 
 barked in the same line of traffic. » (5) And in all 
 these proceedings poor Williams appears to have 
 been fatally compromised. To augment his own for- 
 tune and that of his children had long been his chief 
 concern. Commodore Wilkes reports that he visited 
 « the tiny ship-yard of his son, M' John Williams, 
 who was taken by his father to England, and there 
 taught all the mechanical trades... by the aid of a 
 few natives he has already built himself a vessel 
 about twenty-five tons burden, which he proposes to 
 employ in trading among these islands. » (4) And 
 JM' Walpole throws more light on this sad story, 
 when he tells us, that « the son of a Missionary at 
 Tahiti fitted out a brig, armed her, and, assisted by 
 
 (!) Bampton Lectures, Lect. VII, p. 239, 
 
 (2) Life of the Rev^ John Williams, ch. iv, p. iQi. 
 
 (3) Quoted by D'' Brown, vol, II, p. 184, 
 
 (4) U. S. Exploring Expedition, vol, II, ch, iv, p, 93.
 
 224 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 a number of natives of Boiabora, made a descent on 
 one of ihe Figie Islands, drove the people into the 
 mountains, ait clown all their sandal wood, burnt 
 their villages, and made off. » (1) Whether this 
 man, who, it is added, « now enjoys a capital posi- 
 tion at Tahiti, » was the son of Williams, is not 
 distinctly staled; but we have heard quite enough to 
 explain the tragic fate of the solitary « martyr » of 
 Protestant Missions. St. Austin once noticed the 
 claims of a martyr of the same class, but contented 
 himself with saying to his admirers ; « Et cum 
 vivatis lit latroncs , mori vos jaclatis lit mar- 
 tyres. » (2) 
 
 Resuming now the course of our narrative, we 
 come to the evidence of the Rev. D' Brown, the Pro- 
 testant annalist of missions to the heathen. In Sep- 
 tember, 1843, the Rev, William Day, he tells us, 
 admitted « ihe unchanged hearts, after the lapse of 
 ten years, and unaltered lives, of many who have 
 attached themselves to our ministry. » This lardy 
 confession relates to Upolu. Of his colleagues gene- 
 rally, D"^ Brown says, as if he felt that it was useless 
 to deny it any longer, — « We apprehend that the 
 religion of their converts is often very superficial, 
 and is not even founded in any proper knowledge of 
 the principles of the Gospel. » Even the Directors, 
 he adds, « express in successive rej)orls unfavoura- 
 ble views in regard to the moral and religious condi- 
 tion of the people; and it is very unlikely they would 
 do so on insufficient grounds. » (3) 
 
 (1) Four Years, etc., vol. I, ch. xiil, p. 289. 
 
 (2) Contra Litteras Petilian, lib. 2. 0pp. tome IX, p. 431. 
 
 (3) Hist. Pro}). Christianitij , vol. II, p. 183.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 
 
 Nothing, in Iruth, could be more unlikely, seeing 
 that they had continued to publish, as long as it was 
 possible to conceal the truth, such reports as those 
 of M"" Osmund. The Rev. William Orme, foreign se- 
 cretary to the London Missionary Society, had him- 
 self circulated an account of these missions, in order 
 to obtain additional funds, which, but for its irrever- 
 ence and puerility of language, might have been a 
 description of the primitive saints and martyrs. 
 D"" Brown might well call it a « painful » exaggeration; 
 and I\F Timkin, a missionary in the Sandwich Is- 
 lands, had the courage to confess, that it was « a 
 picture of the South Sea Mission for which there is 
 no original in the Pacific, and in our judgment will 
 not be for a century to come. » (1) 
 
 D"^ Brown also speaks of the entrance of Catholic 
 missionaries into these islands, to which we shall 
 refer immediately, and avows his own decided opin- 
 ion, that Louis Philippe was dethroned by the divine 
 anger because he sent them to Tahiti — an account 
 of that prince's downfall which we may venture to 
 reject, since the whole influence of his policy was 
 directed against, and not in favour of religion. 
 
 In 1840, we have the testimony of M"^ Bennett, an 
 English naturalist, and an apologist, as far as truth 
 would permit, of the missionaries. The latter, he 
 says, « speak of the native character in terms of se- 
 vere reprobation. » We have seen, however, that in 
 their public reports they spoke of it with admiration. 
 And then he describes the actual state of Tahiti, 
 where he saw « scenes of riot and debauchery that 
 
 (1) Hist. Prop. Chrixtianitij, vol. II, p. 191. 
 
 II. 11
 
 226 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 would have disgraced the most profligate purlieus of 
 London. It was vain to attempt to recognise, in the 
 slovenly, haggard, and diseased inhabitants of the 
 port, the prepossessing figure of the Tahitian, as pic- 
 tured by Cook! » 
 
 M"" Bennett appears to have been as much struck 
 with the prosperity of the missionaries as with the 
 squalid misery of their disciples. Their « tastefully 
 furnished dwellings » attracted his notice, as also the 
 fact that « the principal sugar plantations at Tahiti 
 are those belonging to Mess"^" Bicknell, Henry, and 
 Pritchard » — all missionaries. 
 
 Of Raiatea, where Williams resided « for many 
 years," he gives this account. Chastity was unknown, 
 « either in the single or the married state; » not 
 « even the most devout members of the church » hav- 
 ing any respect for that particular virtue. « The 
 worst eff'ects of debauchery, » he adds, were apparent 
 on every side. We shall hereafter find the same wit- 
 ness celebrating the « modesty » and other graces of 
 Catholic converts of exactly the same class. (1) 
 
 In 1841 , M' Francis Olmsted reports, that« Tahiti 
 is far behind any of the Hawaiian islands in industry, 
 knowledge of government, and religion. »(2) Yet the 
 latter, as we shall learn in due time, are in a suffi- 
 ciently deplorable condition. 
 
 In 1842, the very year in which 31' Osmund de- 
 picted the extraordinary virtues which raised the Ta- 
 
 (1) Narrative of a Whaling Voyage, by F. Debell Bennett Esq ; 
 F. R. G. S. ; vol. I, ch. m, pp. 81, 87 ; ch. iv, p. 109 ; ch. vii, 
 p. 220; ch.xi, p. 350. 
 
 (2) Incidents of a Whaling Voyage, by Francis Olmsted, 
 ch. XXVI, p. 312.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 227 
 
 hitians to a level with « professing Christians in any 
 part of the world, » — we have an account of these 
 regions by M"" Daniel Wheeler, an American philan- 
 thropist, and a member of the Society of Friends. He 
 was also an occasional preacher, and we could not 
 desire a more valuable or unexceptionable witness. 
 His evidence is perfectly conclusive. « There is 
 nothing, perhaps, in Tahitian habits more striking or 
 pitiable than their aimless, nerveless mode of spending 
 life.)) « Certainly, ))he says elsewhere,* appearances, 
 as to the religious stale of the community, are un- 
 promising; and however unwilling to adopt such a 
 conclusion, there is reason lo apprehend that Christ- 
 ian principle is a great rarity. » (1) 
 
 M"" Wheeler was not the salaried officer of a mis- 
 sionary society, and, having no fear of resentful « di- 
 rectors, )) could afford to speak truthfully. Of Raro- 
 tonga, which M"" W^illiams once described in such 
 glowing colours, he reports ; « Out of the whole popu- 
 lation of the island, I understand not more than one 
 hundredth part are regularly initiated into church 
 membership. )> (2) Of Eimeo, he says; « The same 
 compulsory system which obtains in Tahiti ensures 
 for the present in Eimeo an external attention lo the 
 services of the chapel, but the very existence of this 
 detestable regulation indicates unsoundness. The fact 
 that the poor native is subjected to a penally if he 
 absents himself from the chapel, and the sight of a 
 man with a stick ransacking the villages for wor- 
 shippers, before the hour of service, — a spectacle 
 
 (1) Memoirs of Daniel Wheeler, app. p. 757. 
 
 (2) P. 778.
 
 228 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 we have often witnessed, — are so utterly abhorrent 
 to our notions that I cannot revert to the subject 
 without feelings of regret and disgust. » (1) 
 
 In 1845, M"^ Wilkes, also an American Protestant, 
 affirms, that « in spite of the devotion manifested 
 within the church , the conduct of the women after 
 the service was concluded left room for believing that 
 their former licentiousness was not entirely overcome 
 by the influence of their new religion. » He notices 
 too the exorbitant cupidity of the native traders, and 
 that the Missionaries, in spite of their official enco- 
 miums upon their flocks, « bring up their own children 
 to look down upon them.» « I no longer wondered," 
 ]>P Wilkes forcibly remarks, « at the character, which 
 I was compelled by a regard for truth to give, of the 
 children of missionary parents in Tahiti. » Speaking 
 of the Paumotu Group , he says, that the catechisls 
 employed by the missionaries « are ignorant of most 
 of the duties enjoined upon a Christian » (2) — and yet 
 thinks they may be usefully employed! What this 
 genlleman says of the Catholic missionaries, we 
 shall hear at the end of this chapter. 
 
 In 1847, another American writer, M"" Herman 
 Melville, reports, that « the hypocrisy in matters of 
 religion, so apparent in all Polynesian converts, is 
 most injudiciously nourished in Tahiti. >» He also 
 remarked, like M"^ Wilkes, that the missionaries kept 
 their children aloof from the natives, from fear of 
 contamination; « and yet, strange as it may seem, 
 the depravity among the Polynesians, which renders 
 
 (1) P. 763 
 
 (2) U. S. Exploring Expeditioti, vol. I, ch. xv, p. 328.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 229 
 
 precautions like these necessary, was in a measure 
 iinknownhefore their intercourse with the whites. »(1) 
 The examples of M' Lewis, M"" Broomhall, and the 
 other English missionaries of the ship Duff, were 
 surely not unlikely to produce such results. If the na- 
 tives had now become incurably immoral, they might 
 at least plead the example of their Chiislian teach- 
 ers. 
 
 In the same year, D"^ Coulter, an English phy- 
 sician, after a second visit to this unfortunate is- 
 land, says; « I found Tahiti much as I left it. There 
 was only one difference, and thai was, the natives 
 were evidently fast breaking through their mission- 
 ary and temperance laws. » (2) 
 
 In 1849, we have two witnesses, M"" Pridham, 
 who prefers Buddhism to the Catholic religion, and 
 ^rWalpole. The former gentleman assures uslhat «loo 
 many » of the missionaries in the Pacific, as well as 
 in the West Indies and South Africa, « have deemed a 
 sordid greed and agrarian acquisitiveness, audacious 
 exaggeration and the vilest hypocrisy, impudent 
 meddling and vulgar insolence, to be necessary com- 
 ponents of the missionary character » ; and that they 
 « added by their own presence a plague to the evils 
 they had come to cure. »(5) The latter, more temper- 
 ate in form, though equally emphatic in substance, 
 writes as follows. « On the Missionaries il is dan- 
 gerous to touch; but with all humility I would beg 
 they might be first examined at home, to see if the 
 
 (1) Omoo, cli. XLVi, p. 177; ch. xi.vni, p. 187. 
 
 (2) Adventures on the Western Coast of South America, \o\.U, 
 ch. xvin, p. 269. 
 
 (3) Ceylon, etc., vol. I, ch. VH, p. 444.
 
 230 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 preacher is filled for his task... And let them not 
 relate lo the world such very exaggerated stories of 
 hardships and dangers; the unlrulh of these makes 
 many doubt the truth of any part of the account. » 
 Of the results of their work he gives this account. 
 « It is sad, as the eye rests on the scanty congrega- 
 tion which no%v fills the churches, lo think how all the 
 good they did is passing away ;... that faults and er- 
 rors mainly brought this aboutniay hardly with justice 
 be denied. » Presently he adds, — « nothing remains 
 but many, alas! of the vices of civilisation, and most 
 of the follies of the savage... day by day, ihe Mis- 
 sionary loses his hold, he has no longer temporal 
 power to back his precepts. » (1) 
 
 Yet there was a time — a period of many years — 
 when these men exercised supreme influence over the 
 natives, and declared to them all which ihey themselves 
 knew of the Cliiistian religion. D"" Smilh tells us that 
 they had a chapel in Tahiti of such dimensions that 
 they used to preach from three pulpits simultaneously. 
 "Brother Henry occupied iheeastpulpil, and preached 
 from » — no matter what ; « Brother ^^'ilson, in the 
 middle pulpit, preached from; — Brother Bicknell, 
 in the west pulpit, preached from. — » (2) And this 
 was the end of all the preachings of Ellis, and Wil- 
 liams, and Wilson, and fifty more. The Catholics 
 came, freedom was given to the native, and straight- 
 way the chapel, into which the Tahitians had so 
 often been driven by the scourge, became a desert. 
 
 Let us hear M'' Walpole once more. « The mission- 
 
 (1) Four Years in the Pacific, vol. I, ch. vn, p. 162; ch. v, 
 p. 84. 
 
 (2) Hist. Miss. Societies, II, 77.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 231 
 
 aries were beginning lo feci niucli slrailened ; already 
 ihe effects of ihe opposition were sadly operating; 
 their mission at Papawa was deserted; and the house 
 was empty, save Pomare the First's chair, wliich was 
 stored up, as a relic, I suppose. » Lastly, that we 
 may not omit all allusion lo the special characteristic 
 of Protestant Missions, M' Walpole tells us of the 
 Samoan Group, « as every variety of dissenters exists 
 among the teachers, some confusion must occur in 
 the but half-awakened mind of the savage, as one 
 sect succeeds another at the different missionary sta- 
 tions. » (1) 
 
 And as time progressed, the witnesses still con- 
 tinue unanimous in their reports. In 1831, — for we 
 are approaching the end of the history, — D^ Lang, 
 himself a missionary, thus describes his brethren in 
 Polynesia. « Missionaries who had been sent forth 
 with the prayers of the British public, and the bene- 
 diction of the London Missionary Society, lo convert 
 the heathen in the numerous isles of the Pacific, were 
 al length found converted themselves into stars of the 
 fourth or fifth magnitude, in the constellations Aries 
 and Taurus; or, in other words, in the sheep and 
 cattle market of New South Wales. » (2) 
 
 In the same year, the Rev. Henry Cheever, also a 
 missionary, though he lauds, in other places, both 
 himself and his order, in a moment of forgetfulness 
 breaks out as follows. « Becoming missionaries has 
 not made them saints, nor procured them exemption 
 from the ordinary infirmities and peccability of men ; 
 
 (1) Ch. XVI, p. 368. 
 
 (2) Ilist.N. S. Wales, vol. II, ch. xi, p. 459.
 
 232 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 nor do we find Ihe odour of sanctity, nor that 
 imaginary halo of holiness wilh which certain me- 
 moirs have surrounded the Missionary's person and 
 office. » (1) 
 
 In 1835, Captain Erskine, ihough a warm advo- 
 cate of the missionaries, notices with indignation 
 their intolerahle arrogance, and « dictatorial spirit 
 towards the chiefs and people. » « One of the mission- 
 aries, » he says, « in my presence sharply rebuked 
 Vuke, a man of high rank in his own country, for 
 presuming to speak to him in a standing posture! » (2) 
 And lastly, in ISoo, M' D'Ewes still repeats what 
 so many equally impartial witnesses had avouched 
 before him, — « the native Christian population, 
 except in name and outward observances, know little 
 of the real spirit of Christianity. » (3) 
 
 In the presence of facts attested, during so many 
 years, by Prol<.slant writers, we are prepared lor the 
 following account of Captain Laplace. After express- 
 ing his astonishment at finding that the missionaries 
 still possessed « the finest houses, the best estates, 
 extensive coffee and sugar plantations, as well as 
 the monopoly of all the trade with Europe, » that 
 officer thus describes his impression of the actual 
 condition of the natives. « These people, formerly so 
 gay, so happy, and so clean, and at the same time 
 so generous towards strangers, have become gloomy, 
 
 (1) The Island World of the Pacific, by the Reyi Henry 
 T. Cheever, ch. vr, p. 135. 
 
 (2) The Islands of the Western Pacific, hy iohaE\ph\ns[one 
 Erskine, Capt. R. N., ch. iv, p. 131. 
 
 (3) China, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, by J. D'Ewes, 
 Esq.,ch. V, p. 144. (1857).
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 233 
 
 dirty, brutalised, cheats, and liars. Such is the con- 
 dition to which, with whatever good intentions, the 
 Proteslant Missionaries have reduced Tahiti and its 
 interesting population. » (1) And with this testimony 
 we may close the series, offering no other com- 
 mentary than the unwilling confession which has 
 been already quoted from one of their own profes- 
 sional advocates ; — « the European teachers have to 
 answer for more evil than will ever be compensated 
 by their most zealous services. » 
 
 We must not, however, terminate the history of 
 religion in the Society Islands, and the adjoining 
 groups, without a brief allusion to the incidenls 
 which compose its final chapter, — the entrance of 
 the Catholic missionaries, and the fortune which 
 attended them. In Tahiti, as in New Zealand, they 
 disembarked on a hostile shore, and it was not from 
 the heathen, but from their christian rulers, that 
 they received the first blow. However cold the re- 
 ception which had greeted them in the Antipodes, 
 however arduous the trials prepared for ihem, they 
 had at least nothing to apprehend from actual vio- 
 lence. In New Zealand there was a responsible govern- 
 ment, guided by the inflexible maxims of European 
 polity, and which, though irritated and unfriendly, 
 would neither delegate its office to others, nor tole- 
 rate in subordinates an unprofitable tyranny of which 
 the ignominy would have recoiled upon itself. In 
 Tahiti, on the other hand, the Missionaries were 
 both the founders and the administrators of the civil 
 government. The power which had crushed the na- 
 
 (1) Campagne de I'Arkmise, tome V, p. 389.
 
 234 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 lives, and stamped out their national life, — which 
 had rohbed them of their possessions, decimated them 
 by war, and instructed them in new forms of lubricity 
 and fraud, — was not likely to spare defenceless 
 strangers, whose very presence was at once a re- 
 proach for the past and a menace for the future. 
 How the missionary merchants of Tahiti confronted 
 the new enemy, and what was the final issue of the 
 combat, we shall now learn from the same impartial 
 witnesses who have already been quoted. 
 
 The first Catholic missionaries, who, fortunately 
 for the progress of religion in Tahiti, were subjects 
 of a nation Avhich does not suffer its citizens to be 
 outraged with impunity, belonged to France. They 
 had scarcely landed when they were seized, as Cap- 
 tain Laplace relates with an indignation which was 
 both christian and patriotic, flung on board a small 
 vessel, and driven out to sea without even the clothes 
 and provisions necessary for the voyage which they 
 were forced to undertake. But we must not leave 
 such facts to the testimony of a Catholic witness, 
 however honorable and trustworthy. American Pro- 
 testants, who speak from personal knowledge of all 
 the details, will describe to us this singular warfare. 
 « Invariably treated with contumely, » says M"" Her- 
 man Melville, in 184-7, « they sometimes met with 
 open violence; and, in every case, were ultimately 
 forced to depart.... and finally carried aboard a 
 small trading schooner, which eventually put them 
 a shore at \\'allis Island, a savage place, some two 
 thousand miles to the Westward! Now, that the 
 resident English Missionaries authorised the banish- 
 ment of these priests, is a fact undenied by them-
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 235 
 
 selves. I was also repeatedly informed, that by their 
 inflammatory harangues they instigated the riots 
 which preceded the sailing of the schooner. Me- 
 lancholy as such an example of intolerance on the 
 part of the Protestant Missionaries must appear, it 
 is not the only one, and by no means the most fla- 
 grant, which might be presented. » (1) 
 
 We shall see, indeed, worse cases presently, con- 
 fessed by the missionaries themselves. The Rev. Wal- 
 ler Lawry, one of their number, whose proceedings 
 as a usurer and general dealer in New Zealand have 
 been described to us by his own companions;, but 
 who was gravely styled in missionary reports « the 
 patriarch of the Pacific, » reveals the feeling which 
 inspired them all. « This people, » he says, speaking 
 of Tonga, « might be moulded to any thing at pre- 
 sent, » — we have seen what the unhappy people of 
 Tahiti had been « moulded to » by (he same hands, — 
 « but if a Romish priest should land there, what will 
 become of our fair blossoms?» And presently he cries 
 out, — « May it please the Lord to preserve this field 
 from the Roman ' boar out of the wood. ' » (2) The 
 prayer of the usurer was not destined to be heard ; 
 and Commodore Wilkes, who mentions examples of 
 the barbarity of M"^ Lawry's colleagues, records with 
 regret the inevitable efl'ect, that « their intolerance 
 caused much remark among the natives themselves,)) 
 and no doubt hastened the rapid desertion of which 
 ihc first symptoms coincided with the arrival of the 
 Catholic missionaries, and the introduction of a new 
 era of freedom and peace. 
 
 (i) Omoo, ch. XXXII, p. 124. 
 
 (2) Friendly and Feejee Islands, pp. 19, 95.
 
 •236 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 But the honest disgust of the natives was not the 
 only result of these proceedings. « These islands, » 
 says a German Protestant, « like the Sandwich 
 group, have lo thank intolerant missionaries for the 
 difficulties ihey got into with the French nation — 
 difficulties that overthrew their whole policy, cost 
 them the independence of their country, and brought 
 death and misery to hundreds of families. » (1) It is 
 now a matter of history, that the imprudent violence 
 of the missionaries, blinded by a mistaken calculation 
 of their own commercial interests, had so nearly 
 provoked a war between England and France, that 
 only the moderation of M. Guizot, whose national 
 ardour was perhaps tempered in this case by reli- 
 gious sympathies, prevented the collision. Ar Pril- 
 chard, — the hero of a contest in which blood was 
 shed, but, as usual, the blood of the innocent, by 
 whose death the guilty were saved, — seems to have 
 regretted his own share in these transactions. He 
 received indeed an indemnity, and the rank of Con- 
 sul ; but we cannot speak harshly of one who so far 
 repudiated earlier faults as to offer his own house, 
 at a later period, as a residence for the Catholic mis- 
 sionaries. Jle had perhaps learned, from the events 
 of which he was a witness, to appreciate them at 
 their real value. 
 
 We have seen that the first Catholic missionaries 
 were transported by their merciful rivals to Wallis 
 Island. Entering it as fugitives, they immediately 
 commenced amongst its fierce tribes the apostolate 
 
 (1) Gerstaecker, Voyage round the World, vol. II, ch. vn, 
 p. 255.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 237 
 
 which had been so rudely interrupted, though only 
 for a brief season, in the milder region of Tahiti. 
 « The Catholic missionaries have commenced their 
 good work, » says M"" Wilkes, « and are reported to 
 have performed it effectually. » He might well say 
 so, for already, in his own words, « they have suc- 
 ceeded in gaining over half the population. » (1) A 
 little later, as we shall learn hereafter, they had con- 
 verted every soul in the island. And this was not the 
 only fruit of their forced dispersion. « While in the 
 Feejee group, » says the same gentleman, « I learned 
 that a Catholic Mission had already been established, 
 that it was prospering, and that it had already been 
 the means of saving an English vessel from capture, 
 by a timely notice to the crew. » It was thus that 
 they revenged themselves on their English persecu- 
 tors. 
 
 Meanwhile, their rivals, though the day of their 
 downfall was now at hand, continued inexorable to 
 the last, — that is, till the artillery of France was 
 ringing in their ears, and Admiral Dupetit Thouars 
 had obtained « perfect equality for Catholic and Pro- 
 testant missionaries. » Thus at Apia, in the Samoau 
 Group, they would not even suffer the Catholic mis- 
 sionaries to land, but drove them away at once, re- 
 fusing, with their accustomed charity, even a small 
 supply of provisions; and the men whom they thus 
 expelled, but who shortly after found an entrance, 
 are thus described by an English gentleman, whose 
 dislike of their religion could not restrain a reluctant 
 confession of their virtues. « The priests at Faleata, 
 
 (1) Exploring Expedition, vol. Ill, ch. v, p. 149.
 
 238 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 the district where they lived, were most polished, 
 gentlemanly men, spoke several European languages, 
 and displayed so high a lone of feeling in their con- 
 versation, that one fell, alas! how, under such in- 
 fluence, their baneful doctrines would spread. They 
 have already many converts, and gain more daily : 
 there was certainly more tolerance and good feeling 
 among ihem than in the other mission, nor between 
 the men themselves could a comparison be dared. » (1) 
 What was the final issue of the combat which had 
 already passed ihrough its first phase, we shall see 
 at the end of this chapter, not only as respects the 
 Society Islands, but all the other groups of Eastern 
 and Western Oceanica. ]\Jeanwhile, it is pleasant 
 to hear from M"" Walpole, that as soon as the French 
 missionaries had triumphed in Tahiti, by obtaining 
 permission to announce to its afflicted people « the 
 liberty wherewith Chrisl has made us free, » not 
 only did they attract « every reverence and respect, » 
 but all the dismal superstitions which had hitherto 
 usurped the place of true religion gave way to inno- 
 cent joy and peace. The whole island seemed to ce- 
 lebrate its resurrection from the grave, and, in ihe 
 touching words of M^ Walpole, — « The native girls, 
 no longer restrained by the wholesome dread of the 
 missionary, used to assemble and dance in all the 
 joyousness of recovered liberty. » It is a Protestant 
 who describes this national festi\al in honour of the 
 downfall of Protestantism. How complete that down- 
 fall was, we learn from the Rev. Henry Cheever, a 
 Protestant missionary, who announces, in character- 
 
 (1) Four Years, etc., ch. XM, p. 369.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 239 
 
 istic language, in the year 1850, llial « the roaring 
 lion and raging bear of Frenchism and Romanism 
 have nearly devoured the Society Islands » — a cli- 
 max which M'^ Cheever considers especially odious, 
 on account of the comparatively limited commerce 
 of the French nation. « There has never been, » he 
 complains, « but one cargo of goods imported from 
 France! » (1) It was intolerable to be defeated by 
 people who did not even possess any « goods. » 
 
 Let us now quit for a time the Society Islands, 
 cross the equator, and going northwards we shall 
 reach a group lying in the 20'" parallel of north 
 latitude, of which the religious history is slill more 
 remarkable than that which has just been related. In 
 the Sandwich Islands, which we are now to visit, 
 the same facts occur again, but on a larger scale, and 
 with still more impressive results. 
 
 It was in 1820 that the American Missions were 
 first established in these islands. « They are actually 
 inhabited, » we are told by M^ Caswall in 18o4, 
 « by large numbers of Americans, and the aborigines 
 are rapidly wasting away. The government is, in 
 fact, in the hands of Americans. » (2) For forty 
 years they have now ruled in the Hawaiian group, 
 with what success we shall soon learn. Meanwhile, 
 let it be observed, that if they have failed, like the 
 English in Tahiti, it has not been for want of means. 
 In 1844, they had a\iesi(\y seventy-nine missionaries 
 in the Sandwich Islands, and had circulated nearly 
 one hundred million pages of printed matter in the 
 
 (1) Cti. VI, p.ll7. 
 
 (2) The Western World Revisited, ch. ix, p. 257.
 
 240 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Hawaiian tongue. (1) In 18ao, ihe salaries alone 
 which had been paid lo the missionaries up to that 
 dale amounted to more than fifty thousand pounds 
 sterling, an expenditure which seems excessive, but 
 which is perhaps partly explained by the fact that 
 « nine of the mission families, » of which there 
 were forty, « numbered fifty-nine children. » (2) The 
 total « cost of missionary enterprise, » we are in- 
 formed, exceeded nine hundred thousand dollars. (5) 
 The cost of a single « deputation » from the London 
 Missionary Society to their agents in the South Sea 
 was 7,920 1.; though this pleasant expedition was 
 described by the missionaries themselves, irritated 
 by the supercilious vanity of these luxurious tourists, 
 as only « a tour in search of the picturesque. » (4) 
 
 We are now to trace the effect of this enormous 
 expenditure, defrayed mainly by the generous con- 
 tributions of the American people, who have a lively 
 interest in Christian Missions , display unbounded 
 liberality in their support, and have certainly a right 
 lo ask how far it has accompli.shed the end which 
 it was designed to promote. But we must first notice 
 a fact, anterior to the operations of the American 
 missionaries, and too significant, as a presage of 
 events which occurred at a later period, to be altoge- 
 ther omitted. 
 
 In 1819, the year previous lo the arrival of the 
 Protestant missionaries, the Abbe de Quelen, a cousin 
 
 (1) Religion in the (J. S. of America, by the Revd Robert 
 Baird, book VIII, ch. ni, p. 691. 
 
 (2) Cheever, The Island World of the Pacific, app. p. 397. 
 
 (3) Sandwich Island Notes, by A. Haole, app. p. 483. 
 
 (4) Forbes, Unrefuted Charges, etc., p. 31,
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 241 
 
 of the Archbishop of Paris, visited the Sandwich 
 Islands, on the occasion of the voyage of ihe Frencli 
 frigate i/ran/e, of which he was the chaplain. Among 
 the visitors lo the frigate was the chief minister of 
 the king; and this man, after a conference with 
 the Abbe, was converted and baptized. The Cross, 
 therefore, had won its first conquest; and it is per- 
 haps lo this occurrence that we may attribute the 
 pbenomenon which tbe American missionaries re- 
 marked with astonishment, — the disappearance of 
 idolatry, « as if by miracle, » even before they com- 
 menced their labours. 
 
 AF Jarves, an American writer who published in 
 1843 a History of the Sandwich Islands, apparently 
 with the sole object of defaming the Catholic Church, 
 and defending his countrymen from the reproaches 
 which then began to assail them from all quarters, 
 affects lo regard the success of missions in the South 
 Sea as a struggle for « supremacy » between France 
 and America, and a question of « commercial advan- 
 tages. » And this seems to be a popular view with 
 many of his countrymen. M"^ Hurslhouse, however, 
 remarks, with considerable force, that it was evi- 
 dently intended to make the South Sea islands « a 
 select preserve for a handful of missionaries; » (1) 
 and the statement is confirmed by the proceedings 
 which we are about lo relate. 
 
 It is undeniable that apparent success promptly 
 followed the appearance of the Protestant mission- 
 aries. The natives of Hawaii, like those of New 
 Zealand and Tahiti, easily comprehended ihe solid 
 
 (t) Netv Zealand, etc., by Charles Hurslhouse, p. 51.
 
 242 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 advantages which they inighl derive from association 
 Avilh iheir new and opulent guests. Even M' Jarves 
 admits thal« interest more than intelligence conspired 
 lo produce an outward conformity, » and that the 
 barbarians accepted tbe religion of their masters 
 « because their importance was increased, and their 
 chance of political preferment better. » (1) And this 
 view of the subject has prevailed up to the present 
 time. « My subjects naturally wish,« said the king of 
 the Sandwich Islands in 18o4, « to learn the English 
 language, which is employed in all public transac- 
 tions. » (2) No doubt the words were written for the 
 poor savage by his advisers, who, as we sball see, 
 had long befoie that dale relieved him of the care of 
 all « transactions, » both public and private. 
 
 The missionaries were now installed, and then 
 began, once more, that eager race after wealth and 
 power, — cruel, greedy, and unscrupulous, — which 
 their own friends have so often nairaled, but which 
 even they have rarely attempted to palliate. M"^ Bing- 
 ham was for many years their leader, and Bingliam 
 is thus described. « Bingham meddles in all the affairs 
 of government, » says Kotzebue, « pays particular 
 attention to commercial concerns, and seems to have 
 quite forgotten his original situation, and the object 
 of his residence in these islands, finding the avoca- 
 tions of a ruler more to his taste than those of a 
 preacher. » And again ; « that Bingham's private 
 views may not be too easily penetrated, religion is 
 made the cloak of all his designs Perhaps he al- 
 
 (1) History of the S. Islands, ch. x, p. 299. 
 
 (2) Annuaire Historique Universel,^. 233.(1854).
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 243 
 
 r€fady esteems himself the absolute sovereign of ihese 
 islands. » (1) 
 
 Lord Byron, who was struck by the same feels, 
 observes; « M"^ Bingham loses no oj)porlunily of 
 mingling in every business. » (2) M-" Bingham's 
 example was effectually imitated by his companions, 
 each in his own sphere. « It will hardly be credited, » 
 says Captain Sir Edward Belcher, « that one of the 
 chief Missionaries look an active part in destroying 
 a considerable cane [)lanlalion ; that the ground 
 was given for school or religious purposes; and 
 that the same individual is now cultivating the pro- 
 scribed cane on the same ground ! » This independent 
 witness speaks, in the same page, of « the tyranny 
 of fanatics, who have already caused a disgust for 
 the Protestant creed, and will probably, in the end, 
 be expelled. » « No slavery under the sun, » he adds, 
 « deserves to be questioned so severely as thai of the 
 Sandwich Islands. » We shall see presently in what 
 it consisted. Sir Edward also tells us a fact vvhich 
 we might have ventured to anticipate, and which we 
 have encountered in other lands, — « several have 
 already seceded from the Mission, and are enjoying 
 their rich farms. » (5) These men are every where 
 the same. 
 
 M"" Melville, though a Protestant and an American, 
 confirms the evidence of these distinguished naviga- 
 tors in the following energetic words. « There is some- 
 thing decidedly wrong in the practical operations 
 
 (1) Voyage round the World, vol. II, pp. 255, 261. 
 
 (2) Voyage H. M. S. Blonde, p. 117. 
 
 (3) Narrative of a Voyage round the World, by Captain Sir 
 Edward Belcher, vol. I, pp. 264, 270.
 
 244 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 of the Sandwich Island Missions. Those who, from 
 pure religious motives, contribute to the support of 
 this enterprise, should lake care to ascertain that 
 their donations, flowing through many devious chan- 
 nels, at last effect their legitimate object, the conver- 
 sion of the Hawaiians. I urge this not because I doubt 
 the moral probity of those who disburse these funds, 
 but because I knov) that they are not rightly applied. 
 To read pathetic accounts of missionary hardships, 
 and glowing descriptions of conversions, and baptisms 
 taking place beneath palm trees, is one thing; and to 
 go to the Sandwich Islands, and see the Missionaries 
 dwelling in picturesque and prettily furnished coral- 
 rock villas, whilst the miserable natives are commit- 
 ting all sorts of immoralities around ihem, is quite 
 another. » (1) 
 
 M"" ^^'heeIer, also an American, could not help 
 remarking the « comfortable houses of the mission- 
 aries, built, as nearly as circumstances will admit, 
 in home style; » while Lord Byron attests, that 
 the men who were so indulgent to themselves dis- 
 played only rigour towards others. « The Mission- 
 aries, » he says, « forbid the making of fire, even to 
 cook, on Sundays; they insist on the appearance of 
 their proselytes five limes at church every day. » 
 And this extraordinary system attained at length 
 such a character of gloomy severity, except within 
 the immediate circle of the missionaries and the prin- 
 cipal chiefs, that Sir Edward Belcher, who judged it 
 as a frank and intelligent Englishman, proposes this 
 question : — « Is it reasonable to expect, that the 
 
 (1) The Marquesas Islands, ch. xxvi. p. 220.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA, 245 
 
 millions inhabiling ihe islands in these seas can, 
 from a stale of the most unlimited enjoyment, he 
 brought hy this to believe that the christian religion 
 is to ameliorate their condition, when the very habits 
 and countenances of their would-be pastors are al- 
 most distorted by severity? » (1) The italics are his 
 own. 
 
 Lastly, Sir George Simpson, also an Englisii 
 Protestant, recounts his impressions in the following 
 words. « The missionaries were regarded as the in- 
 ventors of a servitude such as the islands had never 
 known before; and, even during our visit, some of 
 our party, who were black, found themselves objects 
 of suspicion and fear, till they disclaimed all con- 
 nexion with the * mikaneries. ' » (2) 
 
 One of the effects of the ceaseless tyranny under 
 which the Hawaiianswere now groaning, and which, 
 as Captain Laplace notices, rendered the mission- 
 aries « odious to the greater part of the natives, » 
 was a depopulation so rapid, that a prejudiced writer 
 in the Quarterly Review calls it « as unaccountable 
 as it is ominous. » (3) We have seen, however, and 
 shall see yet more clearly, that it is a law which has 
 no exception in heathen lands tenanted by Protest- 
 ants. In the Gambler Islands, occupied by Catholics, 
 the population has sensibly increased; (4) while in 
 the Philippines, so long subject to the same influence, 
 we have seen, by the testimony of iM"^ Crawfurd, that 
 « an immense social improvement*) has accompanied 
 
 (1) Narrative, vol. II, p. 27. 
 
 (2) Vol. II, ch. XH, p. 103. 
 
 (3) July, 1859. 
 
 (4) Laplace, tome V, p. 351.
 
 246 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 the presence of ihe Calholic civil and religious au- 
 thorities, and the progressive increase of population 
 has followed the usual law in European countries. 
 In the Sandwich Islands, however, where Protest- 
 antism reigned supreme, we find the same frightful 
 declension which has marked its influence in the 
 Antipodes, in North America, in New Zealand, and 
 in Tahiti, — where two thirds of the whole popu- 
 lation melted away in thirty years. Already in 1841, 
 M"" Olmsted, an American writer, reported, that, « the 
 depopulation of the Sandwich Islands is steadily mo- 
 ving forwards, and, unless it is speedily arrested, the 
 total extinction of the nation is inevilahle. » « The 
 annual decrease of the population, » was then, « upon 
 an average, over six thousand. « (1) In 1851, the 
 Rev. Guslavus Hines, an American Protestant mi- 
 nister, after observing that, « the astonishing rapidity 
 of the decrease of the Hawaiian population is perhaps 
 without a parallel in the history of nations, » adds, 
 thai in the course of four successive years it dimin- 
 ished by 21,730. (2) And W Dana, also an American 
 writer, reports at a still later date, that they are now 
 disappearing « at the rate of one fortieth of the entire 
 population annually. » (3) Yet the robust vigour of 
 this « doomed people, « as iM"^ Dana calls them, was 
 wont to excite the admiration of all the early navi- 
 gators; and forty years ago. Von Langsdorff, noti- 
 cing their strength and symmetry, declared, that 
 « many of them might very well have been placed 
 by the side of the most celebrated chef-d'oeuvres of 
 
 (t) Incidents, etc., ch. xx, p. 262. 
 
 (2) Life on the Plains of the Pacific, cli. xi, p. 210. 
 
 (3) Ttvo Years before the Mast, ch. xxvni, p. 174.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 247 
 
 antiquity, and would have lost nothing hy the com- 
 parison. » (1) 
 
 And now thnt we have seen something of the 
 character of the missionaries, of the nature of their 
 operations, and the effect of iheir presence, let iis 
 introduce without further delay, and as usual in the 
 order of dales, the witnesses who will tell us what 
 they have actually accomplished, during their long 
 sojourn, towards the propagation of Christianity, 
 and the social improvement of the natives. 
 
 We will begin, as before, with Mr Ellis, in 1829. 
 In this case he was not personally concerned, and 
 therefore revealed the whole truth. « Idolatry had 
 indeed been renounced, » he says, referring to the 
 period of his own visit, but « the great mass of the 
 people were living without any moral or religious 
 restraint. » (2) Perhaps nine years was too short a 
 period for the desired change. 
 
 In 1850, Kolzebue gives us an actual specimen of 
 a « convert » , the Queen of Hawaii. « I enquired the 
 grounds of her conversion. She replied that she could 
 not exactly describe them, but that the missionary 
 Bingham, who understood reading and writing per- 
 fectly well, had assured her that the christian faith 
 was the best. If, however, she added, it should be 
 found unsuited io our people, we will reject it, and 
 adopt another. » (3) 
 
 In 1831, Captain Beechey says, « ihe residents in 
 Honolulu well know what little effect the exertion of 
 the Missionaries have produced; » and he adds that 
 
 {]) Voyages, etc., cli. iv, p. 108, (1813). 
 
 (2) Polynesian Researches, ch. xvili, p. 544. 
 
 (3) Vol. 11, p. 208.
 
 !248 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 «lhe system of religious restraint was alike obnoxious 
 to the foreigners residing upon the island, and to the 
 natives. >> (1) 
 
 In 1832, D"" IMeyen, a Prussian naturalist, travel- 
 ling with a purely scientific object, and free from 
 all religious prepossessions, confirms the testimony 
 which we have already received from witnesses as 
 capable and impartial as himself. He also speaks with 
 disgust and indignation of « the doings of the Mission- 
 aries who oppressed these islands, » and proves, as 
 an English writer observes, that « almost everything 
 had certainly deteriorated. » (2) « Let us publish it 
 aloud, » says this candid German, « it is neither the 
 glory of the Supreme Being, nor the zeal of a noble 
 vocation, which has impelled these hypocritical mis- 
 sionaries to visit these distant shores, but a greedy 
 cupidity, and an insatiable thirst for honours. » 
 Several of them, he adds, had already amassed a 
 considerable fortune, at the expense of the riatives, 
 « who by their detestable frauds are reduced to 
 penury. » (5) 
 
 In 1835, one of their own witnesses admits, that 
 « in all the islands, » (4) though thirteen years had 
 now elapsed, only 669 were deemed Christians even 
 by such masters; and in the same year ihey confessed, 
 in an official rej)orl to the American Board, — 
 « Great numbers forsook the schools; the congrega- 
 tions on the sabbath were reduced at least one half; » 
 
 (1) Fo?/a^e, etc., vol. I, ch. x, p. 319; vol. II, ch. ni,p. 101. 
 
 (2) Quarterly Review, vol. LIII, p. 330. 
 
 (3) Annales, tome VIII, p. 11. 
 
 (4) Missionary Report , quoted in the Chinese Repository , 
 vol. II, p. 379. '
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 249 
 
 and ihey explain the defection by saying, "Multitudes 
 became christians in form, never expecting that any 
 thing else could be required of them. » (1) 
 
 In 1835, M"^ Reynolds, a scientific American Pro- 
 testant^ whose candid evidence about the Catholic 
 missionaries shall be quoted hereafter, says calmly, 
 « The improvement and advancement of these is- 
 landers has been considerably exaggerated. •> (2) 
 
 In 1838, D"^ Ruschenberger, an American writer 
 of the same class, forgetting national and religious 
 prejudices, writes as follows. « The friends of the 
 Missionaries have drawn overwrought pictures of the 
 prosperity and prospects of the islands... Though we 
 are all ready to accord our praise to the pleasing 
 fictions of a novelist, we expect rigid accuracy from 
 the pen of the divine, and are not disposed to allow 
 him to envelop facts in the glowing language of a 
 poetic fancy. » And then he goes on ihus : — « The 
 Missionaries stationed at the Sandwich Islands as a 
 class are inferior to all those whom it has been our 
 fortune to meet at other stations during the cruise. 
 Many of them are far behind the age in which they 
 live, deficient in general knowledge,.... and deal 
 damnation, in a peculiar slang, to all whose opinions 
 and course of life differ from their own. This is no 
 sketch of fancy; and we can only lament there is no 
 power to shield the pulpit from the vulgar spoutings 
 of unlettered ignorance. » He adds, however, — « I 
 have no doubt the ' Board for Foreign Missions ' 
 
 (1) History of American Missions, by the Rev^ Joseph Tracy, 
 p. 242. 
 
 (2) Voijage of the Frigate Potomac, ch. xxn, p. 417. 
 
 II. 12
 
 2u0 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 sends abroad the best they have at command. » (1) 
 Yet it was at this very lime that these singular mis- 
 sionaries wrote as follows lo the Society which paid 
 them, and which always rewarded such lausuase. 
 « The strength of religious principle among the 
 people, and their preparation lo act from their own 
 convictions of duly, are more manifest than ever! » 
 
 In 1840, Commodore George Read, an American 
 officer, and M^ Debell Bennelt, an English traveller, 
 record iheir impression of the progress of religion 
 and civilisation in the Sandwich Islands, by the 
 efforts of more than seventy missionaries, and an 
 expenditure of a quarter of a million sterling. The 
 former observes, with evident reluclance, « I must 
 say that the mass of the natives, notwithstanding all 
 the efforts of the Missionaries, appear to be still 
 indolent, licentious in disposition, and quite ignorant 
 of the term virtue. » (2) Yet this very year the mis- 
 sionaries wrote lo their employers in these words : 
 « The past year has been one of signal triumphs of 
 divine grace; » (3) and their employers printed and 
 circulated the report. 
 
 It is worthy of observalion, ihat nearly twenty 
 years later, an English Protestant, — of a class which 
 is not yet extinct, and whose extraordinary ignorance 
 of the religion of St. Auselm and Sir Thomas More 
 is wonderful even in an Englishman, —confesses 
 that he heard a sermon, preached by a « Reverend 
 
 (1) Voyage Round the World, by W. S. W. Ruschenberger, 
 M. D., ch. XLUi, p. 464. 
 
 (2) Around the World, by Commodore George G. Read, vol.11, 
 p. 309. 
 
 (3) Tracy's History, p. 181.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA 231 
 
 M"" Pans, » ill which the preacher informed his au- 
 dience, consisting of three or four hundred natives, 
 « that the measure of their iniquities being full, 
 offended Heaven was about to cut them utterly ofT 
 from the land, that their place might be filled by the 
 children of a worthier race. » (1) The poor natives 
 had by this time been robbed of every thing else, and 
 even the missionaries could find nothing more to steal 
 from ihem but their land, which, with the help of 
 « offended Heaven, » they were prepared to do. 
 
 Mr Bennett speaks as follows of what he saw in the 
 Sandwich Islands. « In worldly mailers the IMission- 
 aries in this group are particularly well favoured, 
 few of the foreign residents possess belter dwellings, 
 or more available comforts. » Of Maurua he says, 
 « the females were bold in their amours, and the 
 people generally were more prone to petty larceny 
 than was allogelher creditable to their morals. » And 
 then he went to ihe Lobos Islands, and at St. Lucas 
 Bay he writes thus. « The inhabitants live contented, 
 and consequently happy; and their conduct towards 
 each other, as well as to ourselves, was equally 
 courteous and hospitable. The women are notable 
 and modest. They profess the Roman Catholic reli- 
 gion. » « The Jesuit missionaries, » he adds, — pro- 
 testant travellers always call a Catholic priest a 
 Jesuit — « would appear to have performed their 
 duty with assiduity and success; the native Indians, 
 with the exception of a very few tribes , having 
 adopted in a great measure the language, religion, 
 
 (1) Travels in the Sandwich and Society Islands, by S. S. Hill 
 Esq; ch. XX, p. 329.
 
 252 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 and habils of iheir civilised teachers. » (1) Have 
 we not reason to say that the contrast, always 
 attested hy Protestant witnesses, is every where 
 the same? 
 
 In 1842, the Protestant missionaries in the Sand- 
 wich Islands hegin at hist to confess, in their own 
 peculiar dialect, that « the assiduous efforts of the 
 papists have not failed of success painful to every 
 benevolent mind; » and that « Romanism has un- 
 questionably made some considerable advances, and 
 penetrated many districts where it was before un- 
 known. » (2) A little later they will give us more 
 ample information of its progress. 
 
 In 1843, we have the unsuspicious evidence of 
 Sir Edward Belcher, who not only asserts that the 
 general influence of the Missionaries is ruinous to the 
 character and happiness of the natives, but furnishes 
 the following instructive details. « Is it not strange, 
 with all the influence the American Missionaries are 
 said to have over the king, that it is not properly 
 exerted to improve his moral character? To compass 
 any object having for its end injury to the interests 
 of their own merchants they are keenly awake,... 
 yet they permit the pattern, by which all law acquires 
 moral force and energy, to commit sins and inconsis- 
 tencies, not only without control, but without ex- 
 pressing their opinion in ihat manly form which (hey 
 pretend their mission so imperatively demands of 
 them. » And then he adds, as if to complete the pic- 
 lure, — « Perhaps the greatest excesses are commit- 
 
 (1) Vol. II, ch. I, pp. 9, 10. 
 
 (2) Missionary Herald, \q]. XXXVIII, p. 473.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 253 
 
 led within the missionary circle, \vhich includes ihe 
 king and chiefs. » (1) M"" Stewart, himself an Amer- 
 ican missionary, hut who was perfectly candid he- 
 cause he had ahandoned the work, confirms incident- 
 ally this slalcment of Sir Edward Belcher, when he 
 tells us, that Riho-Riho « attended all the services of 
 the day, » though during the week he had been « in- 
 toxicated four or five days. » He appears at last to 
 have died in that stale. (2) 
 
 In 1845, M"" Melville, though an American, says; 
 « Not until I visited Honolulu was I aware of the 
 fact that the small remnant of the natives had been 
 civilized into draught horses, and evangelised into 
 beasts of burden. But so it is ! » And then he goes on 
 to describe « a Missionary's spouse, who day after 
 day, for months together, look her regular airings in 
 a little go-cart drawn by two of the islanders. » (o) 
 
 And this singular fact is confirmed by M. Duflot 
 de Mofras in 1844, who noticed that « the natives 
 now discharge the office of beasts of burden ; » (4) 
 and by a correspondent of the Sandwich Islands Ga- 
 zette in 1839, who relates that he saw « a heavy 
 horse waggon drawn by fifteen females, harnessed 
 like beasts of burden, and found that they were per- 
 forming a penance imposed by the Missionaries. » (o) 
 But to return to M"" Melville. 
 
 (1) Narrative of a Voyage, etc., vol. I, p. 26i. 
 
 (2) Journal of a Residence in the Sandwich Islands, by 
 C. S. Stewart, p. HO. 2d edition. 
 
 (3) The Marquesas Islands, ch. xxvi, p. 218. 
 
 (I) Exploration du Territoire de VOregon, etc., tome II, 
 ch. Ill, p. 87. 
 
 (5) Quoted in Asiatic Journal, vol. XXXI, p. 4.8.
 
 284 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 This vigorous though iiidelicale writer sums up 
 his observations in these words. « How little do some 
 of these poor Islanders comprehend, when they look 
 around them, that no inconsiderable part of their 
 disasters originate in certain lea-pai ly excitements, » 
 — he alludes to the « missionary meetings » at 
 home, — « the object of which is to ameliorate the 
 spiritual condition of the Polynesians, but whose 
 end has almost invariably been to accomplish iheir 
 temporal destruction. » 
 
 Bui he cites facts also in confirmation of his opin- 
 ion. ^^'hen Lord George Paulef, in 1843, released 
 the unfortunate natives from the tyranny of their mis- 
 sionary rulers, and gave ihem at length an opportunity 
 of showing whether their profession of religion was 
 voluntary , and how far the missionaries had really acted 
 upon their hearts and minds, — then was revealed, as 
 in Ceylon and in Tahiti, the true character of Protest- 
 ant converts from heathenism. « >\'ho thai happened 
 to be at Honolulu during those ten memorable days 
 will ever forget them ! The history of those ten days 
 reveals in their true colours the character of theSand- 
 wich Islanders, and furnishes an eloquent comment- 
 ary on the results which have flowed from the labours 
 of the Missionaries. Freed from all restraints of severe 
 penal laws, the natives almost to a man plunged vo- 
 luntarily into every species of wickedness and excess, 
 and by their uller disregard of all decency plainly 
 showed, thiit although they had been schooled into a 
 seeming submission to the new order of things, they 
 were in reality as depraved and vicious as ever. » (1) 
 
 (1) Appendix, p. 285.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 25!) 
 
 In 1849, M"" Walpolc, a gentleman whose pre- 
 judices against the Catholic leligion even the facts 
 which he unwillingly records fail lo admonish, writes 
 as follows. « The great interest I feel for the natives, 
 and my heart felt desire for iheir well being, lead me 
 to deplore much that the missionaries have done ; and 
 happy indeed should I be to hear the grave asper- 
 sions they labour under dis[)roved. The bitter perse- 
 cutions, even to death, of natives who for conscience 
 sake preferred to die, rather than betray their Roman 
 Catholic faiih, and the undenied monetary dirtinesses 
 ihey are accused of, are grave charges indeed. » (1) 
 We shall hear presently what he says of the Cath- 
 olics, and of their pastors. 
 
 In 1850, M"^ Beilhold Seemau , after noticing, 
 apparently with surprise, that « the majority of the 
 king's counsellers are seceders from the American 
 Mission, » — missionaries converted into officers of 
 the state, — adds; that their royal pupil still per- 
 mitted himself « all kinds of unholy and immoral 
 practices; » (2) and in the following year, j\P Gers- 
 taecker found that, owing to « a severe attack of 
 delirium tremens, he was not fit to be seen during 
 my whole stay in Oahu. » 
 
 In 18bl , we come to a writer with whose evidence 
 we may terminate these extracts, — representing ex- 
 clusively the opinions of eager Protestants — not 
 because he is the latest in date, but because his 
 confessions are so frank and abundant that it would 
 be superfluous to add to them. The Rev. Gustavus 
 
 (1) Fours Years in the Pacific, vol. I, cli. xi, p. 249. 
 
 (2) Narrative of the Voyage of H. M. S. Herald, by Berthold 
 Secman, F. L. S. ; vol. II, ch. ix, p. 153. (1853).
 
 256 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Hines, an American Protestant iMissionary, whose 
 extraordinary candour we can only attribute to the 
 fact that the Sandwich Islands were not the per- 
 manent sphere of his own h^bour, has recounted with 
 considerable detail ihe actual results of Protestant 
 missions, after thirty years of uninterrupted effort. 
 The imprudent and interested exaggerations of earlier 
 days were now to be finally exposed and rebuked, 
 and it was impossible that the sentence should be 
 pronounced by a more competent or impartial judge. 
 Two years later, Captain Erskiue noliced the « exag- 
 gerated accounts, » tlie « pJiraseology repugnant to 
 readers of ordinary taste, » the tyrannical spirit of 
 the Protestant and the courtesy of the Catholic mis- 
 sionaries. M"" Dana also, though an American Pro- 
 testant, registered the proverb, « that the greatest 
 curse to each of ihe South Sea Islands was the first 
 man who discovered it ; » and again, that « the curse 
 of a people calling themselves Christian seems to 
 follow them every w here. » And M"" Gerstaecker had 
 remarked, in the same year, as a fact which met his 
 observation every wliere, that « the Missionaries' 
 estates are among the best on the island. » (1) 
 
 But neither of these writers could speak with the 
 authority of M"" Hines. And it required some courage 
 to tell ihe whole truth. For many years a certain 
 section of American Society had been fascinated 
 with romantic tales of the triumphs of Protestantism 
 in the South Sea. One is almost ashamed to quote, 
 even by way of specimen, the language which was 
 addressed to every missionary meeting, and always 
 
 (1) Voyage round the World, vol. II, cli. U, p. 86.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 257 
 
 greeted wilh enlhusiaslic applause. « Tlie smiles of 
 Jesus, » wrote the Rev. M"" Green, « on the efforts 
 made to convert the inhabilants of Plawaii have been 
 signal : » (1) and they immediately sent him five 
 thousand dollars as a reward for words in which the 
 profane and the ludicrous struggle together for the 
 mastery. Yet this was the common phraseology of 
 the missionaries, during a long course of years, in 
 the reports which they forwarded to the United 
 states ; and it was the influence of such reports which 
 extracted from women and children — for we can 
 hardly suppose that grown men were amongst the 
 subscribers — upwards of one million dollars, to be 
 consumed by the missionaries and their families in 
 the Sandwich Islands. M' Hines will tell us, though 
 a Protestant, a Missionary, and an American, with 
 what effect this prodigal expenditure has been at- 
 tended, and he will speak from his own experience 
 and observation. 
 
 « Notw ithstanding all that has been done for their 
 benefit, the state of the nati\e Hawaiians is still truly 
 deplorable, » after thirty years of uninterrupted mis- 
 sionary eff'ort! « To call them a christianised, civi- 
 lised, happy, and prosperous people would be to 
 mislead the public mind in relation to their true 
 condition.... To an enquiry which 1 made of the 
 Rev. Lowel Smith, one of the missionaries in Hono- 
 lulu, concerning the prosperity of the natives, I re- 
 ceived this reply : * The evident tendency of things 
 is downward. ' Downward it is rapidly, in point of 
 
 (i) Quoted by Strickland, History of the American Bible So- 
 ciety, ch. XXV, p. 2H. 
 
 II. 12.
 
 258 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 numbers, and if llie ratio of decrease shall continue 
 the same for only a few years, il does not require the 
 eye of a prophet to see what will be the result. The 
 epitaph of the nation will be written, and Anglo- 
 Saxons will convert the islands into another ^^'est 
 Indies. » (1) 
 
 A little later, M' Hines offers this summary of his 
 experience as to the ultimate results of missionary 
 influence. 
 
 « Religion, in every department of Hawaiian so- 
 ciety, however genuine the system which is taught 
 there may be, » — il is due to him to say, that he 
 does not seem to have even suspected its genuine- 
 ness, — « is of a very superficial character. Of this 
 the missionary residing among them is more sensible 
 than any other man can be, and one of them, in 
 answer to the enquiry, ' How many pf your people 
 give daily evidence of being christian? ' replied; 
 ' None, if you look for the same evidence which you 
 expect will be exhibited by christians at home. ' » 
 And M' Hines declares that this account of them is 
 true, « from the hut of the most degraded menial to 
 the royal palace. » Yet if the reader will consult the 
 annual « Reports » of the missionary societies, he 
 will find, that they never cease to represent the 
 triumphant progress of religion, education, and social 
 order, among these very people, of whom privately 
 the missionaries gave only such accounts as M"^ Hines 
 received from them. 
 
 Lei us hear M"^ Hines once more. « In attending 
 the native churches one is struck with the lisllessness 
 
 (1) Life on the Plains of the Pacific, ch. xi, p. 232.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 259 
 
 and inattention which prevail in the congregation. No 
 matter how important the truths, or how impressive 
 the manner of the speaker, he seems scarcely to 
 gain the hearing of the ear. » (1) 
 
 Finally, as if he thought that such an account of 
 a missionary work continued for more than thirty 
 years, at enormous cost, without let or hindrance, 
 and hy people claiming to be the only advocates of 
 « scriptural religion, » required the support of some 
 terrible and conclusive fact, M"" Hines informs us, 
 that the immorality of this nominally converted people 
 is so shameless and universal, that « it is not an easy 
 matter for an Hawaiian to tell who his father is. » 
 
 If perchance the reader has by this time foigotten, 
 in following the course of so different a narrative, 
 the account of Missions in the Philippines, conducted 
 by apostles and martyrs, with which this chapter 
 opened, he may now be conveniently reminded of it. 
 « In examining the new social state of the Sandwich 
 Islands, » says Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, 
 in 1853, « I was involuntarily reminded of the Indian 
 of the Philippines, joyous and free to this hour under 
 the yoke of the law which he confesses, finding in 
 the ceremonies of religion the recreation which he 
 most prizes, and in the doctrines of his simple faith 
 fewer subjects of discouragement than of hoj)e. » (2) 
 Such, once more, is the contrast between Catholic 
 and Protestant Missions, between the work of God 
 and the work of man. 
 
 But that contrast admits of fuller illustration, and 
 
 (1) Ch. xm, p. 253. 
 
 (2) Revue des Deux Mondes , tome III, p. 38, (1853).
 
 260 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 it is the main object of these volumes to supply it 
 We have seen that the later hislory of Tahiti fur- 
 nishes further evidence of it; but that evidence may 
 he supplemented by the still more striking incidents 
 which have occurred in the Hawaiian group, and 
 in the other islands of the South Sea. There was a 
 class of conNcrls of whom M^ Hines makes no men- 
 tion, though M"" Walpole has candidly told us that 
 they resisted, « even to death, » all inducements to 
 abandon the Catholic faith. Perhaps M"" Hines had 
 not mixed with them, or found it embarassing to 
 speak of them. Others will supply the defect in his 
 narrative, and disclose the facts which he seems to 
 have wished to suppress. 
 
 Seven years elapsed from the visit of the Abbe 
 de Quelen to the Sandwich Islands before another 
 Catholic missionary landed on their shores. In 1826, 
 a prefect apostolic, attended by two companions, 
 arrived at Hawaii. The ground was preoccupied, and 
 all human influences were against them, but they 
 immediately commenced their mission of mercy. 
 Protestant writers will tell us how they fared, and 
 what was the issue of their labours. 
 
 The intelligent historian of the Voyage of the Po- 
 tomac, who saw and conversed with these flrst mis- 
 sionaries, generously says, and D"^ iMeyen uses almost 
 the same words; « They were men of learning, and 
 agreeable manners and conversation, and, in all their 
 acts and behaviour, appeared sincerely pious. Pleased 
 with their manners and instructions, the natives 
 came in numbers to be taught by them, so that the 
 school and place of worship began to be crowded... 
 They never attempted to draw the natives to them-
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 261 
 
 selves, except by amiable and kind depoiimeiil. In- 
 deed, ibey were exemplary in all their actions. But 
 their- success was too great, and tliey were ordered to 
 discontinue their worship... The natives were forced 
 from their houses of worship by native soldiers, or- 
 dered by authority... finally, the Missionaries were 
 conveyed to the coast of California, on board a little 
 rickety vessel, and there inhumanly set ashore, on a 
 barren spot, and distant from any settlement! » (1) 
 The de[)ortation had been effected with such complete 
 success that one of them died on the passage, and it 
 was only the corpse of the Abbe Bachelot which was 
 carried to land. 
 
 In this first combat the Protestant missionaries 
 gained an easy triumph. But the day arrived, which 
 they should have foreseen, when they were summon- 
 ed lo justify an action which France was not unlikely 
 to chastise, and which all that was noble in England 
 and America condemned. Their defence contained 
 only two pleas, — the first, that the violence was 
 the act of the native authorities; the second, that the 
 Catholic missionaries were justly banished, because 
 « permission from the government to remain had 
 never been obtained, or even asked. » (2) With re- 
 spect to the latter statement, we do not read in the 
 Acts of the Apostles that St. Paul was accustomed lo 
 « ask permission » from the heathen to preach Christ 
 lo them, or that he refrained when forbidden lo do 
 so. 
 
 (1) Reynolds, ch. xxii, pp. 417-18. 
 
 (2) Refutation of the Charges brought by the Roman Catholics 
 against the American Missionaries at the Sandwich Islands, p. 14. 
 Boston, 1843.
 
 262 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 It is true thai it was once made a reproach to ihe 
 Master Himself, « conlradicit Ccesari ; » but it was 
 reserved for Protestant missionaries to rebuke His 
 servants for presuming to preach the Gospel, without 
 having fir^t obtained the permission of that pitiful 
 caricature of Caesar, the king of the Sandw ich Islands. 
 ]>!■" Mark Wilks — who eagerly defends them, and 
 observes, with a well - timed pleasantry, that their 
 Catholic rivals « were conveyed to the diocese of Ca- 
 lifornia » — gravely affirms, that the latter ought to 
 have obejed the Polynesian magistracy, and that it 
 was « shameless effrontery to set its laws and police 
 at defiance, » (1) The Jews, who imprisoned St. Pe- 
 ter and scourged St. Paul, were probably of the same 
 opinion, and chastised the « shameless effrontery » of 
 those Apostles with the same energy which M"^ \\'ilks 
 applauds in the Sandwich Islanders. 
 
 Willi respect to the plea that it was « the authori- 
 ties » who banished them, we may leave the answer 
 to Protestant writers. 
 
 D'' Ruschenberger, who had discussed the matter 
 with Bingham, who was the real « government, » 
 writes with the candour of an educated and liberal 
 American. « \ leading member of the Mission told 
 me, » he says, « he had no doubt but that answers 
 which he gave to questions on the subject by the 
 chiefs had veiy considerable influence upon their de- 
 termination... It is clear to my mind that the mis- 
 sionaries embraced every opportunity to present the 
 Roiuan Catholics in the hideous aspect in which they 
 themselves view them. I am convinced that the mis- 
 
 (1) Tahiti, etc., by Mark Wilks, p. 10. (184-i).
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 263 
 
 sionaries were the cause of iheir expulsion. » (1) Sir 
 George Simpson also says, « some of the Proleslanl 
 Missionaries were, beyond all doubt, chiefly respon- 
 sible; » and he adds, that it was not bigotry alone 
 which influenced them, but that « there is strong 
 reason for suspecting that their real motives were 
 in a great measure secular. » (2) l\r Gerslaecker, 
 though unfriendly to the Calholic missionaries, de- 
 clares without hesitation of the same proceedings, « the 
 Protestant preachers, in their mad, intolerant zeal, 
 excited the easily moved natives more and more by 
 their sermons; » (3) and he evidently agrees with 
 Sir George Simpson as to their motive. 
 
 The conflict of which we have seen other examples 
 had now commenced in earnest, and was sustained 
 on the part of the Protestant missionaries by actions 
 which we should have refused to credit, if they were 
 not attested by their own friends. It seems impossible 
 that the scenes which we are about to describe should 
 have been enacted in the nineteenth century. From 
 the hour in which the « little rickety vessel » bore 
 away to California the exiles of whom only two were 
 destined to reach it alive, and who were inhumanly 
 exposed to such a fate, as Protestants tell us, for no 
 other crime than this, that « their success was too 
 great, » Hawaii and all the islands of the group were 
 filled with the loud clamour of their enemies. Europe 
 was many a league across the sea, and the avenger 
 seemed to tarry. And so from every hill and valley 
 went up the cry of rage and malice against the Catholic 
 
 (1) Cli. XLiii, p. 474. 
 
 (2) Vol. II, ch. XII, p. 115. 
 (3j Vol. II, ch. vu, p. 236.
 
 264 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 missionaries, whose virtues were a perpetual rebuke, 
 like ihe calm face of Mordecai standing in the gate ; 
 as well as against the converts who had dared to 
 follow them for their wisdom, and to love them for 
 their Iruth. Protestant writers, generous and upright 
 men, declare with one accord, that nothing could 
 surpass the atrocity of calumny and invective of 
 which they were now the victims. Every pulpit re- 
 sounded with the maledictions heaped upon them ; 
 and even the native teachers , hired for wages to 
 repeat the lessons of their masters, hurried hither 
 and thither to re-echo words which they neither 
 believed nor understood. M'^ Cheever, exulting in the 
 excesses which he records, recites the following ex- 
 tract from a sermon, probably of his own composition, 
 preached by « a native assistant missionary. » « Be- 
 lieve not that the Pope is God; he is nothing but a 
 man, whose dwelling place is in Rome. » (1) Such 
 were the instructions ofl'ercd to the people of the 
 Sandwich Islands, in spile of their urgent need of 
 other precepts, day after day, and hour after hour, 
 by lips whose accents had long filled them with 
 terror and dismay. They might mock Christianity by 
 their lives, and outrage every enactment in its moral 
 code, so long as they consented to frequent the Pro- 
 testant chapels, and forfeit their land and their goods 
 to Protestant missionaries; but they must at least 
 hate the Pope, and learn to revile his ministers, 
 even when inviting them to virtue. Let crime reigu 
 through all the land, as i>F Ilines says, « from the 
 hut of the most degraded menial to the royal palace, » 
 
 (1) The Island World of the Pacific, p. 157.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 26S 
 
 bullet not llie hated rivals who had shown that they 
 could break its spell gain a fooling amongst iheni. 
 But il is time lo speak of cvenls which, though 
 cruel and barbarous, it is impossible to regard with 
 unmiiigled regret, because they served to reveal the 
 character of the Catholic converts, and prepared ihe 
 way for the final trium|)hs of the religion which had 
 made them what they were. It was by their suf- 
 ferings, according to the immutable law of Chrislian 
 Missions, and by the constancy with which they 
 endured them, that thousands were led lo embrace 
 the faith which had inspired so much courage and 
 fortitude. Long before the decisive act which led lo 
 the death of (he Abbe Bachelol, the measures which 
 the Dutch adopted in Ceylon, and the English in 
 Tahiti, had been employed by ihe Americans, — not 
 without indignant protests from their counlrymen, — 
 throughout the Sandwich Islands. M. Bachelol him- 
 self, not long before he commenced his last and fatal 
 voyage, wrote ihus lo his friends in Europe. « Our 
 Christians continue lo be persecuted, bul in the 
 chains with which they are loaded their attachment 
 to the faith seems lo redouble. After years of seduc- 
 tion and violence, during which our enemies left no 
 means untried, there has not been a single example 
 of apostasy amongst them. » Even the examples 
 which we have already seen of invincible constancy 
 in the inhabitants of China, India, and Ceylon, hardly 
 prepare us for such a display of fortitude in the 
 Sandwich Islanders. Bul grace produces everywhere 
 the same fruits. M. Bachelol continues as follows. 
 
 « The mode of punishment now adopted is to 
 have the Catholics conducted in chains lo the public
 
 266 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 necessaries, and to oblige them to remove with their 
 hands the most disgusting ordures. The triumph 
 which t!ie Meihodisls seem then to enjoy consists in 
 listening to the railleries of Nvhich the Catholics are 
 the objects. They, however, support all with joy, 
 because, they say, ' religion is our only crime. ' » (1) 
 And when this tide reached Europe, conflrmed by 
 Protestant testimony which we will presently quote, 
 it awakened that righteous indignation of which 
 Captain Laplace was the worthy instrument, and 
 filled the sails of the frigate Artemise, which bore 
 freedom to the Hawaiian Catholics, in 1839, after 
 thirteen years of oppression and servitude. « History 
 will record, » said an eloquent French voice, « (hat 
 men who dared to call themselves ministers of a 
 civilizing religion, in the middle of the nineteenth 
 century, in the face of heaven and earth, condemned 
 Christian females to gather up daily with their hands 
 the ordures of a garrison ! » 
 
 And these were not the only tortures inflicted by 
 the Protestant missionaries upon the Hawaiian na- 
 tives, who dared to believe in the midst of infidelity, 
 and to be virtuous when surrounded by corruption. 
 They were beaten, imprisoned, worn out with heavy 
 labour, and sometimes starved, but all in vain. 
 A Caiholic woman being cruelly beaten with a stick, 
 because she refused to attend the Protestant wor- 
 ship, hei- husband made this observation, worthy to 
 be compared with the historic words of the early 
 confessors. « Before I became a Christian, I should 
 have thought it no harm to revenge my wife, by kill- 
 It) Annals, vol. I, p. 353.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 267 
 
 ing him who struck her; but I was silent, and recol- 
 lected (hat the first Christians did not complain when 
 their limbs were cut off, and that they offered their 
 bodies to the flames for Jesus Christ. » And M. 
 Bachelot, who relates this anecdote, adds; « Many of 
 the natives were so touched by this example of truly 
 christian patience and resignation, that ihey have 
 asked to be instructed, notwithstanding the dangers 
 to which they are exposed from the Protestant Min- 
 isters. » He tells us also, that « the English Consul, » 
 a worthy representative of his great nation, « mani- 
 fested his sympathy for the prisoners. » Some he took 
 under his immediate protection, but his generous aid 
 came too late, for « many of them died shortly after, 
 ■victims of the hardships they had endured. » (1) 
 
 It is not to be supposed that such incidents could 
 occur without exciting the lively indignation of the 
 residents in these islands. We have seen in what 
 terms they are noticed by English and American 
 writers; and Sir Edward Belcher has told us, that 
 « the tyranny of fanatics, » — « illiterate fanatics, » 
 M"" Forbes calls them, « willi cargoes of bibles and 
 religious tracts, » (2) — inspired « disgust » in men 
 of all classes. M. Casimir Plenricy, one of the officers 
 of ihe A7teniise, who « mingled with the natives day 
 and night in their huts, » discovered that « the mis- 
 sionaries are cordially detested by the population. 
 Their insatiable cupidity has made them objects of 
 horror. Ferocious oppressors, shameless monopoli- 
 sers, trafficking in the Word of God, they have pro- 
 
 (i) Annals, vol. I, p. 355. 
 
 (2) California, by Alexander Forbes Esq., ch. v, p. 237.
 
 268 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 cured for themselves a concert of curses. » Bui ihey 
 were wearing out the patience bolli of God and man, 
 and the hour of their humiliation was at hand. 
 
 An American Protestant writer informs us, in 
 iSoi, that when they venlured to confirm their fail- 
 ing dominion by the extreme measure of forcibly 
 expelling the Catholic missionaries, so great was the 
 sympathy in favour of the latter, that « their stay 
 was encouraged by the English and French offi- 
 cials. » (1) And so universal had this feeling now 
 become, even amongst the better class of Protestants, 
 — perhaps because they found their commercial pur- 
 suits frustrated by the jealousy of the missionaries, 
 who aimed at keeping the whole trade of the islands 
 in (heir own hands, and after robbing the natives 
 endeavoured to ruin their own countrymen, — that 
 even the local journals began to espouse the cause of 
 the Catholic victims. In the Protestant. Gazette of the 
 Sandwich Islands, of the 29th of June, 1859, the 
 year in which M. Bachelot perished, the following 
 anecdote is narrated. Two native women being « ac- 
 cused of the crime of Catholicism, » one of them was 
 suspended from the branch of a tree, « her toes scarce- 
 ly touching the ground, » the other to a projecting 
 beam of a house, « her feet tied with a chain. » For 
 eighteen hours they were left in this condition, when 
 they were forcibly delivered by some Euiopeans, in 
 an almost lifeless state. One of these charitable per- 
 sons had previously gone to inform Bingham, the 
 missionary dictator of Hawaii, of what was taking 
 place. >r Bingham, we are told, « came in his coach, 
 
 (1) Sandwich Island Notes, by A. Ilaole, p. 55. (1854).
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANIGA. 269 
 
 but conlented himself wilh observing, thai ' he would 
 not interfere with the execution of the laws of the 
 country. ' * In saying this, he put his horses lo the 
 trot, and drove off. ' » (1) Yet M"" Bingham has writ- 
 ton a book, filled wilh Scripture texts, from Genesis 
 to Revelations, and celebrating his own exploits, not 
 as a ruler or a merchant, but as a preacher of ihe 
 Gospel, and a minister of Christ. 
 
 And now let us record the final result of these 
 exiraordinary proceedings. In July, 1859, Captain 
 Laplace arrived, and M' Bingham and his friends 
 were informed, in accents which they could not mis- 
 take, that the Catholic natives of Hawaii had found 
 a protector, strong enough to defend the oppressed 
 and to chastise the oppressor. The patient constancy 
 of thirteen years was now to receive ils due reward. 
 « The natives who had been victims of persecution, » 
 says Captain Laplace, « and had confessed their faith 
 admidst the most cruel treatment, now manifested 
 the utmost joy. » But in the Sandwich Islands, as 
 in the other groups of the South Sea, they were as 
 moderate in the day of triumph as they had been 
 resigned in adversity. When the Captain of the fri- 
 gate Allier resolved to make an example in the island 
 of Fuluna, where Father Chanel, a French mission- 
 ary, since Beatified, had been cruelly murdered; it 
 was Bishop Pompallier who solemnly protested 
 against the threatened vengeance, declaring that they 
 had no need of human justice, and that they would 
 perish to the last man rather than invoke its aid. 
 And when the ship had departed, her gallant crew 
 
 (1) Quoted in \.\\c Annals, vol. I, p. 530.
 
 270 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 more filled wilh atlniiralion of ihe missionaries llian 
 haired of their cowardly oppressors, Bishop Pom- 
 pallier remained among this sanguinary tribe, till he 
 had converted the king of Futuna and the assassin 
 of the Blessed Father Chanel, and baptized one hun- 
 dred and fourleen of his subjects wilh his own 
 hand. (1) At the pre>ienl day, Futuna is said lo be 
 not only wholly Christian, but to present the most 
 extraordinary example in the Pacific of complete and 
 effectual conversion, in its largest sense. (2) 
 
 But it was not the Catholic natives only who were 
 now released from their bonds, and able at length lo 
 worship ihe God of Clirislians in peace and security; 
 the Protestants also, profiling by the interference of 
 Lord George Paulet and others, threw off the hated 
 yoke of the missionaries, and solaced their long pri- 
 vations by one immense and frantic debauch. They 
 also had a season of joy, but it was the joy of animals, 
 not of christian confessors, who had earned, by pa- 
 tient endurance in trial, the right to sing a canticle of 
 praise and thanksgiving. And now the conditions of 
 the conflict which had lasted so long were no longer 
 the same. The iMissionaries of the Cross went about 
 their work in peace, and Protestants will tell us how 
 they prospered. They were still feeble in all human 
 resources, but upon these they were not accustomed 
 to rely. The Vicar Apostolic of Eastern Oceanica 
 wrote gaily from the (iambier Islands, in 1857, in 
 these words : « During the first years of the mission 
 we lay upon hurdles, and had no other seats than 
 
 (1) IV, 331. 
 
 (2) New Glories of the Catholic Church, ch, v, p. 254.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 271 
 
 blocks of slone, or Iruiiks of trees. I administered 
 baptism in one of our cbapels to eighty persons, and 
 during the ceremony used for my episcopal throne 
 the back bone of a whale! " (I) « The priests are for- 
 tunate," he added, «when they can find time to mend 
 their clothes and wash their linen. » And six years 
 later, in 1845, when the Bishop visited Fathers Che- 
 vron and Grange at Tongataboo, « the destitution in 
 which we found them diew tears from our eyes. » At 
 Wallis also, « we found Father Balaillon, » after- 
 wards Bishop, « without hat and without shoes, 
 having only miserable clothes in rags. » (2) And then 
 they embraced, like St. Paul and his fellow mission- 
 aries, and went on their way rejoicing. 
 
 They had reason to rejoice, for all their desires 
 were accomplished ; and in bringing this chapter to a 
 close, we will now briefly describe the results which 
 they have already obtained. Let us begin with Hono- 
 lulu, because it is the principal city of that Hawaiian 
 group which Protestantism had made its own, but in 
 which Catholics had purchased, by patient suflfering, 
 the right to a flnal and undisputed triumph. 
 
 In 1847, Sir George Simpson, a Protestant writer, 
 and a British official, who had closely watched their 
 operations in other lands, gives this leport. « In 
 addition to being engaged in building a large cathe- 
 dral, the reverend fathers kept two schools, which 
 were attended by about nine hundred young petjple of 
 both sexes, natives and half-breeds; and many of the 
 pupils had made great progress in various branches 
 
 (1) I, 233. 
 2) VI, 28.
 
 272 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 of education, while a few of lliem spoke French 
 with considerahle fluency. The new faith ivas daily 
 extending its influence among the natives, through the 
 untiring zeal of its teachers; but though it was no 
 longer exposed to legal persecution, yet it was still 
 subjected to the rude anathemas, spoken and writ- 
 en, of the Protestant Missionaries. We had a good 
 deal of intercourse with the priests, visiting their 
 schools and occasionally attending their chapel, and 
 were, on the whole, strongly prepossessed in their 
 favour. » (1) 
 
 Perhaps it is due to this generous Protestant to 
 confirm his account by at least a specimen of the lan- 
 guage which the baffled missionaries now habitually 
 used. At an earlier period, while they still hoped to 
 banish the Catholic missionaries by violence, they 
 had gravely reported to their employers ; « It is mat- 
 ter of devout thankfulness that the islanders are so 
 well piepared for these events by the extensive pre- 
 valence of piety among them » — though they pro- 
 bably smiled at one another as ihey wrote it, A little 
 later, they begin to change their tone, and tell their 
 paymasters; « We are unable to measure the disas- 
 trous consequences which have resulted, and which 
 will continue to flow, from the introduction of » the 
 Catholic Missionaries, « and their efforts among this 
 people. We mourn that any of our flocks ' are so 
 soon turned aside into another gospel, ' but this has 
 been permitted by the great Head of the Church for 
 wise and holy purposes. » At last they lay aside all 
 restraint. « They have wandered after the Beast, » 
 
 (1) Vol. II, ch. XII, p. 113.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 273 
 
 is now their account of the natives who were desert- 
 ing them in thousands. « As the Man of Sin ad- 
 vances, » they say in one of (heir official reports; 
 « he developes more and more of his real character... 
 But his days are numbered; his bounds are fixed; 
 beyond ihese he cannot pass. » If they purchase the 
 temporary return of one or two of their fugitive dis- 
 ciples , ihey cry out ; « They have escaped out of 
 Sodom » ! And then these men, fed with the spoils 
 of their unwilling hearers, and whose own religion 
 was perhaps the least attractive caricature of Christ- 
 ianity which the world lias ever seen, say of the 
 Catholic Faith; « The spread of this heresy amongst 
 us has a tendency to humble our hearls. » (1) Sir 
 George Simpson does not appear to have done them 
 any injustice. 
 
 A little earlier, M"" Forbes, also a Protestant wri- 
 ter, contrasting with much animation the two classes 
 of missionaries, whose proceedings he also had dili- 
 gently and honestly compared in various regions, 
 commends the paternal wisdom of the Catholic pas- 
 tor, « indulging the innocent foibles and propensities 
 of the natives; » and then notices « the sour, ascetic 
 methodist, who takes from his own followers, » but 
 not from himself, « all their pastimes and pleasures; 
 but it must be admitted, » he adds, « that the con- 
 trast in the numerical results of their conversions is 
 no less striking. » The Protestant, this traveller says, 
 « takes away the few comforts the poor savage en- 
 joyed — and what does he give him in return? Why, 
 he promises him, that if he lay aside the song and 
 
 (1) Missionary Herald, vol. XXXVIII, pp. 480, 8d . 
 
 It. 13
 
 274 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ihe dance, foregoes all pleasure and mirth, puts on 
 a sour instead of a laughing countenance, attends to 
 the rapsody of the preacher — then he promises, 
 that he may perhaps escape from being damned for 
 ever, and avoid passing his eternity amid fire and 
 brimstone prepared for him in the world to 
 come. » (1) And this somewhat grotesque picture, 
 as D"" Ruschenberger allows, « is no sketch of fancy, » 
 but an exact image of what met the eye and ear of 
 English and American travellers, wherever they di- 
 rected their course among the islands of the Pacific, 
 
 In 1849, we have the testimony of M"" Walpole, 
 who arrived after Ihe epoch of persecution had come 
 to an end. After describing the Protestant church, 
 he says; « In the town now stands a Roman Cath- 
 olic cathedral, » the building of which Sir George 
 Simpson had marked the rapid progress; «and I much 
 fear the congregation of the one tends daily more 
 and more to the other. Of the Abbe, who is at the 
 head of the Roman church here, no eulogy would be 
 too high. Their schools are excellent, and they invite 
 scrutiny... They have now about twelve thousand 
 converts; one hundred schools; three thousand pu- 
 pils... Most earnestly is it to be hoped, that by strict 
 purification of themselves, and more strenuous exer- 
 tions towards the natives, the teachers of the pure 
 Gospel will endeavour to regain the ground they have 
 lost. .. (2) 
 
 And now we have heard enough of the*Sandwich 
 Islands. Here was the result of thirty years of Pro- 
 
 (1) California, p. 244. 
 
 (2) Ch. XI, p. 249, Cf. The Natural History of the Varieties 
 of Man, by R. G. Latham, M. D., p. 201.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 27S 
 
 testant effort, and to this bitter humiliation, — the 
 scorn and compassion of their own friends, — tlie 
 « teachers of the pure Gospel, » as IVP Walpole calls 
 them, had come at last. « In this single island, » says 
 a Catholic missionary, — and after hearing so many 
 Protestant witnesses, we may well claim to listen to 
 one at least of our own, — « more than five thou- 
 sand persons have, within twelve months, forsaken 
 the ways of error to follow those of truth. » And then 
 he speaks, not with anger, but with a kind of gentle 
 compassion, of his mortified rivals, reaping at length 
 the fruits which they had improvidenlly sown; and 
 seems almost to pity men who, « after such vast 
 sums had been expended during many years, saw 
 what they used to call their Model-Mission more 
 than half overturned, in so short a time, by a few^ 
 poor missionaries, destitute of every thing, and 
 without any other support than the Cross of their 
 Divine Master. » And if the CNidence of this victim 
 of their cruelty be deemed insufticient, here is their 
 own account, addressed to the Missionary Society in 
 America, of the same facts. 
 
 In 1845, they had confessed, « the number of 
 Hawaiians baptized by the Roman priests is 12,500, 
 besides some in a course of preparatory training ; » (1) 
 and at another dale they gave the following details. 
 « In the districts of Kona and Waimea on Hawaii 
 the papists number many converts and boast great 
 things. On Kanai the excitement in consequence of 
 the spread of Romanism is considerable. Two priests 
 
 (1) United States American Board for Foreign Missions, Re- 
 ports, p. 186.
 
 276 CHAPTER VI, 
 
 are there labouring with indefatigable zeal, and we 
 are sorry to say they have a good deal of success... 
 On the rsiihau, where there is a population of about 
 one thousand, it is said a considerable number of 
 the people have joined them. On Oahu they number 
 many followers, and in the districts of Waialma, 
 Waianae, and Koolauloa it is thought that nearly one 
 third of the population have gone after them. » (1) 
 But it was not only in the Society and Sandwich 
 Islands, with whose religious history we are now 
 sufficiently acquainted, that the Catholic missiona- 
 ries had defended their Master's cause. In the Philip- 
 pines, as we have seen, they had carried His Cross 
 triumphantly through the ranks of Pagan and Ma- 
 hometan legions ; in all the other groups they had 
 used it as a sword to resist the cruelties of mercenary 
 zealots. And every where the result was the same. 
 P>om Tahiti, as we have seen, they were transported 
 to I he savage shores of Wallis Island, where it was 
 ho[>ed they might find an obscure and unknown 
 grave. Vain project! and cruel as it was vain. In 
 1841, Father Balaillon could report that « out of 
 2,300 inhabitants which the island of Wallis con- 
 tains, 2,000 are already converted. » And in the fol- 
 lowing year his report is in these words. « The Bish- 
 op, Monseigneur Pompallier, is about to quit us, 
 after having baptized and confirmed all the inhabit- 
 ants of (he island. Glory and benediction be given to 
 the infinite mercy of God! Thanks be rendered to 
 Mary, our august Queen, to whom, immediately on 
 my arrival in the island, I consecrated it. This is- 
 
 (1) Missionary Herald, vol. XXXVIII, p. 473.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. ill 
 
 land, but lately abandoned lo the most ridiculous 
 superslilions, lo the grossest vices, now adores the 
 only true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, 
 and the one only Saviour, Jesus Christ, His Son. 
 The conversion of Ouvea is, in my opinion, one 
 of the greatest prodigies of our time. It was, ac- 
 cording lo the account of every body, the wickedest 
 island of Oceanica... How great is God in His works! 
 How do the weakest instruments become strong in 
 His hands! » 
 
 In the same year, Father Chevron, whose apos- 
 tolic destitution forced tears from the eyes of his 
 Bishop, says; « A living failh, an ardent charily, 
 extreme delicacy of conscience, and an insatiable 
 avidity for the Word of God, such are the virtues 
 which we see flourishing here. The natives pass half 
 their nighls in prayer, in mutual instruction, in llie 
 singing of canticles, and in reciting the rosary. Their 
 ardour in the exercise of piely is solely the eflfecl of 
 grace. » 
 
 Towards the close of ihe same year. Father Viard, 
 afterwards Bishop, mentions that sixty natives of 
 Wallis, who had been absent two years, and had 
 been baptized by Protestant missionaries in another 
 island, returned, under the guidance of a chief who 
 was the brother of the king. They were full of malice 
 and calumnies against the Catholic religion, of which 
 they knew only what the Pioteslant ministers had told 
 ihem; but Father Viard adds, « several of these 
 erring islanders have already been converted. » Of 
 the king himself. Father Chevron relales that he said 
 lo Bishop Bataillon; « I thank thee for thy affection 
 towards me. I was ignorant. I repulsed ihee. I wish-
 
 278 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ed to drive ihee away. But thou didst love us. Thou 
 hast taken patience; thou hast suffered much. I thank 
 thee. In saying these words large tears fllled his eyes. 
 How powerful is grace! Potens est Deus de lapidibus 
 istis suscitare filios Abraltoe. » 
 
 In the Gamhier Islands equally auspicious results 
 followed ihe patient lahours of the missionaries. 
 A few words will suffice to describe them. The Holy 
 Sacrifice of the Mass was offered for the first lime in 
 this group on the 15"' of August, 1854; and by the 
 9"' of May, 1835, almost all the inhabitants had 
 been converted and baptized. In 1851, a Protestant 
 writer, a friend of M"^ Pritchard of Tahiti, thus 
 attests, in characteristic language, this surprising 
 fact. « Within the last seven years, three French 
 missionaries, of the papal persuasion, have established 
 themselves upon the island of Mangareva; and the 
 control they have contrived to acquire over the simple 
 inhabitants must be seen lo be believed : it is so 
 absolute, that their very movements appear lo be 
 guided by what the missionaries would think of 
 them. » (1) 
 
 It was not to be expected that this gentleman 
 should notice, what be probably did not know, that 
 in these islands is witnessed one of those mar- 
 vellous triumphs of religion, which Protestants do 
 not pretend to emulate even at home, much less 
 among savages, and which only the immense power 
 of divine grace can explain. In 1841, six years after 
 
 (1) Ravings in the Pacific, vol, I, ch. xi, p. 284. « In modo 
 che nel 1838 iion eravi piu un pagano. » Wittnian. Storia Uni- 
 versale delle Catloliche Missioni, vol. I, cap. IV, p. 162. (Mi- 
 lano, 1843.)
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 279 
 
 their conversion, these islands had aheady produced 
 a large number of those peculiar « spouses of Christ, » 
 whose glorious privilege it is to he united to Him by 
 a kind of sacramental marriage. « They now amount 
 to fifty three, and are entirely separated from the 
 rest of the natives. For nearly five years they have 
 continued to live in the most edifying manner. Five 
 schools are kept by them in the great island.... 
 amongst the boarders are all the young girls of the 
 royal family. » (1) Who will refuse to praise God for 
 such a fact? the crowning token and evidence of the 
 working of His Holy Spirit. A false religion can 
 indeed produce, at particular epochs, a few simulated 
 « religious, » of whom the best always end by be- 
 coming Catholics ; while the rest are of that class of 
 whom the great Bishop of Hippo speaks as « hcereticce 
 sanctimoniales, » and whom, with all the weight of 
 his great authority, he solemnly charges to bear in 
 mind, that « an obedient wife is better than a disobe- 
 dient virgin. » (2) 
 
 « I am sure, » says the Vicar Apostolic, — in a 
 letter to the Superioress of the Convent of the Sacred 
 Heart in Paris, — « that you would recognise in the 
 greater number of these young persons sufficient 
 obedience and piety to form excellent novices. I know 
 not whether you have amongst your own children 
 any of more grave or modest deportment. We do 
 not seem to attach any importance to their pious 
 assemblies, but we often admire the virtue and angelic 
 purity of these young hearts which have received in 
 
 (1) Annals, II, 255. 
 
 (2) In Psal. 45, torn. IV, p. 564.
 
 280 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Baptism a new creation. Of what is not the grace of 
 Jesus Christ capahle! » 
 
 It is not surprising that missionaries who could 
 convert even the pagan savages of the Pacific into 
 humhie and devout religious, capahle of choosing 
 Mary's « good part, » and of dwelling alone, in 
 secrecy and silence, at the feet of Jesus, should find 
 no difficulty in teaching the same class those eccle- 
 siastical principles which the hest order of Protestant 
 ministers proclaim in vain to educated hearers in 
 England and America. A young native of Oahu, who 
 had made some progress in Latin composition, wrote 
 a letter to the superior of a religious community in 
 Paris, in which, after contiasling the success of his 
 Catholic teachers with the convulsive hut sterile 
 efforts of the Protestants, he added this explanation. 
 « It is because the net of St. Peter is fit to catch 
 the fish. The net of the heretics takes nothing, 
 because Jesus Christ does not assist their fishing, 
 and has not entered their bark. » (1) Such is the 
 reflection of a converted savage on the contrast 
 which only divine grace could have taught him to 
 appreciate. 
 
 In the island of Akaman, Father ITonore Laval 
 relates that a chief, who had heard that a Protestant 
 missionary was coming from another island, informed 
 him how he proposed to deal with the expected 
 emissary. « I will ask him who sent him; if he does 
 not say, ' Gregory, ' » — the Pope who had sent the 
 French missionaries, — « I will say, begone, you 
 are no missionary of Jesus Christ. I shall ask him 
 
 (1) Atimh, II, 258.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 281 
 
 in the next place, lo whom do those children and 
 that woman belong? he will answer, they are mine. 
 Begone, I will say, you are no missionary. Jesus 
 Christ had no wife, and His missionaries have none. 
 We are ihe children of Peter, and you are only a 
 man like us. » (1) It is probable that this worthy 
 chief was wholly ignorant of the fact, that he was 
 closely following the advice of no less a person than 
 St. Francis of Sales, who, long before the Gambler 
 Islands had been discovered, gave this exhortation 
 from his pulpit : — « mes freres, tenez cetle 
 preuve pour fondamentale, et demandez a ceux qui 
 vous veulent relirer du sein de TEglise : Quis te 
 misW^. » (2) 
 
 We have almost completed our history, in which 
 these is no variation from the first to the last page. 
 In the Marquesas, D' Russell confessed, in 1843, 
 that every Protestant effort had ended in utter fai- 
 lure; and M"" Melville repeats, in 1846, « the Pro- 
 testant Missions appear to have despaired of re- 
 claiming these islands from heathenism. » Of the 
 Church of England mission to the Falkland Isles 
 W Parker Snow says, in 1857, after a fruitless 
 expenditure of 10^000 1., — I could not shut my 
 eyes to the fact that the mission was a failure. » (5) 
 At Nukahiva, where D"" Coulter found three American 
 missionaries in 1844, « the insults of the natives 
 were scarcely endurable, and I was afterwards told 
 
 (1) Annales, tome IX, p. 156. 
 
 (2) Sermon pour le Dimanche de la Septuagesime, (Euvres, 
 tome II, p. 56. 
 
 (3) Two Years Cruise off Tierra del Fiiego, vol. I, ch. xvili, 
 p. 271. 
 
 II. 13.
 
 282 CHAl'lER VI. 
 
 that ihey were obliged to leave it. » (1) The terrible 
 Feejee islands, as Captain Laplace notices, they did 
 not even attempt, till others had prepared the way, 
 « leaving the field perfectly free to our poor mission- 
 aries ; "who, by force of patience and devotion, amidst 
 a thousand cruel fatigues and privations, supported 
 with a truly evangelical resignation, braving mar- 
 tyrdom every day, have partly effected amongst the 
 ferocious inhabitants of this sombre archipelago the 
 same admirable w ork w hich they had already accom- 
 plished in the Gambiers. » 
 
 At Upolu, in the Navigator Islands, M"" D'Ewes, 
 after noticing the absence of Protestants, describes 
 « the Catholic Cathedral, with a large establishment 
 and school attached to it, that appeared to be well 
 attended. » (2) In the Solomon Islands, where Bishop 
 Epalle was martyred, on the 16"' of December, 1845, 
 we might trace (he same facts ; and so well was the 
 contrast between the two classes of missionaries 
 understood, even by American Protestants, that Cap- 
 tain Porler, who visited iMadison's Island, where he 
 charitably endeavoured to « explain to the natives the 
 nature of the christian religion, » frankly says ; « Had 
 a Catholic priest been with me at the moment, he 
 might have made converts of every individual in the 
 valley. » (3) Lastly, even a Secretary of the London 
 Missionary Society confesses of another island, far 
 distant from these which have been mentioned, — 
 
 (1) Adventures in the Pacific, by John Coulter, M. D.,ch. xv, 
 p. 242. (1845) 
 
 (2) China, etc., ch. vi, p. 170. 
 
 (3) Cruise to the Pacific Ocean in the U. S. Frigate Essex, 
 vol. II, ch. XV, p. 114.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. -283 
 
 « With regard lo Mauritius, the only parly increasing 
 rapidly is the Ronfian Catholic. » (1) The facts, then, 
 are every where the same, and every where there is 
 a Proteslant witness to reveal them. 
 
 We have now examined with sufficient, perhaps 
 with excessive, minuteness the history of Missions in 
 Oceanica. Upon that history we need offer no com- 
 ment. Protestant writers have sufficiently performed 
 that task, and have even accepted, at least in part, 
 some of the practical conclusions which it suggests. 
 It is from them we have learned holh ihe virtues of 
 the Catholic missionaries, and the vices of their ri- 
 vals, — the constancy displayed by the converts of (he 
 first, and the immorality and misery of the nominal 
 disciples of the last. As early as 1845, M"^ Jarves, 
 the anli-calholic historian of the Sandwich Islands, 
 was already lamenting that « from present appear- 
 ances it is to be presumed that Roman Catholicism 
 will eventually settle into a flourishing sect. oM"^ Olm- 
 sted, a graver but equally prejudiced writer, had 
 also told his American readers, that the Catholic 
 missionaries had « gained a permanent footing upon 
 many of the islands of the PaciGc ; » and had added, 
 with unconcealed regret, his own opinion, that« their 
 religion is destined to have the ascendancy in most 
 of these islands. » 
 
 We have seen how these anticipations were gra- 
 dually accomplished, throughout all the islands of 
 the South Sea, in spile of persecutions prolonged 
 through many years, and of cruellies which would 
 have been more consistent in Chinese mandarins 
 
 (1) Tour in S. Africa, by J. J. Freeii an, cli. xvi, p. 387.
 
 284 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 lliaa in Protestant ministers. The whole narrative 
 is before us, — from that great « manifestation of 
 pious zeal » which was displayed in the voyage 
 of the ship Duff, whose passengers, we have been 
 told, exhibited religion « in her native purity, » 
 to the death of the abbe Bachelot, and the final 
 humiliation of his assassins. AVith the past, then, 
 thanks to the candid histories of Protestant travel- 
 lers, we are sufficiently acquainted : and if we de- 
 sire to look into the future, the actors in these varied 
 scenes are themselves willing to assist us in the at- 
 tempt. It is a Protestant missionary who assures us, 
 in language worthy of himself and his cause, that 
 « the natives of the South Sea Islands appear to be a 
 people upon whom the Mother of Harlots » — that is, 
 the Catholic Church — « shall operate for the pur- 
 poses of superstition and error. » (1) It is thus that 
 he confesses the unwelcome fact, which even he can 
 no longer deny, that the battle is over, and the vic- 
 tory won, — a victory so complete, that twenty 
 years ago, in 1840, there were already in Oceanica 
 7 Catholic Bishops, 1,200 priests, and so great a 
 multitude of converts that even this host of pastors 
 was insufficient for the work. And then this Protest- 
 ant witness adds, in words w ith which we may more 
 fitly close this instructive history than by any obser- 
 vation of our own, that as he and his companions 
 failed to convert the natives while they were heathen, 
 their only remaining hope is to corrupt them now 
 that they are Christians. He admits indeed that this 
 will be considerably more difficult, and does not af- 
 
 (1) Friendly and Feejee Islands,^. 133.
 
 MISSIONS IN OCEANICA. 285 
 
 feci to be sanguine of success; but he is willing at 
 least to reveal the final issue of Protestant missions 
 in Oceanica,and ihe real character of those who took 
 part in them, in these notable terms. « Unless we 
 bestir ourselves, the probability is, that we shall 
 have to convert many of the South Sea islanders from 
 Popery, instead of from Heathenism, which is much 
 more difficult and dangerous. »
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 
 
 More than a thousand years after the Roman 
 empire had passed away, the land of Africa — a name 
 which once included only the provinces of Tunis and 
 Tripoli — was still to the inhabitants of Europe only 
 the narrow but fertile region which stretched from 
 Egypt to Morocco. Of the vast continent which ex- 
 tended in an unbroken line nearly 5,000 miles to- 
 wards the south, — far away beyond the Atlas 
 mountains, beyond the great Desert, beyond the 
 sources of the Nile, the Niger, and the Senegal, — 
 Europe had no knowledge. And when at length, in 
 the fifteenth century of our era, the mariners of Por- 
 tugal weathered with slow and hesitating course the
 
 288 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Capes which had barred the way to all former na- 
 vigators; planted colonies on the banks of the Rio 
 Grande and the Gambia ; won for their king the new 
 title of « Lord of Guinea; » established their aposto- 
 lic missionaries in the heart of Congo; and finally, 
 under the guidance of Bartholomew Diaz, gazed with 
 wonder and awe on the « Slormy Cape, » w hich from 
 that moment became to all Europe the « Cape of Good 
 Hope; » — even the boldest would hardly have ven- 
 tured to predict that the flag of Portugal would soon 
 be canied past it in triumph by Vasco de Gama, on 
 his return from the Indies, in the last year of the 
 fifteenth century. It is of this land, of which every 
 bay and gulf and promontory have since become 
 familiar to us, that we are now to speak. 
 
 In attempting, however, to trace the outline of the 
 history of missions in this vast continent, we en- 
 counter for the first lime a difiiculty from which there 
 is no escape. In the narrative which we have now to 
 present there can be neither unity nor connection, 
 because there is none in the regions to w hich it refers. 
 The four extremities of Africa, corresponding with 
 the cardinal j)oints, have been hitherto as completely 
 isolated fiom one another as though the united wa- 
 ters of the Atlantic and Pacific were spread between 
 them. Egypt is almost as efi'eclually separated from 
 Guinea, Morocco from Abyssinia, Tunis from KafFra- 
 ria, Angola from Natal, as though the Andes had 
 been piled on the Himalays to part them asunder. 
 It is not one nation or people of which we have now 
 to speak, but many; distinct in their origin, their 
 history, and their customs. In one respect only they 
 seem to ha\e a common destiny. When the prophet
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 289 
 
 of old proclaimed the curse of ihe Avenger upon 
 Egypt and Ethiopia, — when he said lo ihe first, 
 « I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel mas- 
 ters; » (1) and to the second, « Woe to the land 
 which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, » (2) — the 
 malediction was not for a time, hut for ages and 
 generations, mighty enough to over-leap the frontiers 
 of many lands, and to run like a consuming fire 
 through all the wide plains of Africa, from ihe Red 
 Sea to the Atlantic, and from the mouths of the Nile 
 lo the Indian Ocean. And so enduring, as it seems, 
 has been this ancient curse, — though we are sure 
 it has changed its character since the coming of the 
 Redeemer, — that even at the present hour it appears 
 a kind of paradox to speak of religion in connection 
 with Africa, as palpable as if we were to search for 
 the snows of the Caucasus, or the cool streams which 
 they discharge, in the burning sands of the Sahara ; so 
 that we are almost tempted to turn away, with doubt 
 and fear, from any enquiry into the religious annals 
 of a land whose history seems lo be summed up in 
 this one fact — that it is still, after a thousand years, 
 the home of the iMoor, the Negro, and the Kaffir. 
 
 Yet even here we shall trace once more the con- 
 trast which it is our purpose to illustrate in all lands; 
 even here we shall see, as we have seen elsewhere, 
 the unchanging beauty and power of the Church, the 
 feebleness and confusion of the Sects ; even here we 
 shall learn what manner of men they are, and what 
 they can accomplish, who bear a divine commission; 
 
 (1) Isaias, xix, i. 
 
 (2) xvm, 1.
 
 290 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 and also, what comes of prelending to do an apostle's 
 work without an apostle's vocation. 
 
 Let us begin with the northern provinces — Al- 
 giers and Morocco, the Numidia and Mauritania ot 
 the Romans; Tunis and Tripoli, the Africa Propria, 
 whence Carthage sent forth her fleets against the 
 mistress of the world ; and Egypt, w here even now 
 the promise begins to he fulfilled which said of old, 
 « In that day there shall he an altar of the Lord in 
 the land of Egypt. » A few words, however, must 
 suffice, for we have hereafter to pursue our way 
 round all the long coasts of Africa ; and it is not here 
 that the Cross has won its accustomed triumphs, 
 nor the Church her wonted victories, though here 
 St. Augustine preached, and St. Louis died. « With 
 St. Austin, » says a modern writer, « the Church of 
 Africa expired. » (1) Already in the third century, 
 schism and heresy, sure precursors of final apostasy, 
 had spread like a plague along the Southern shores 
 of the Mediterranean; till in the sixth, the avenging 
 hordes came out of Arabia which in the fifteenth 
 were to vanquish the last Constanline in the capital 
 of the Western Empire, and barbarism swept away 
 in a common destruction both religion and civili- 
 zation. 
 
 It would be beside our purpose to offer even a 
 sketch of the earlier history of these ill-fated pro- 
 vinces. Corrupted almost from the beginning by 
 heresiarchs of every school, — at one time over-run 
 by Donatists; at another convulsed by the Arian 
 excesses ; or cruelly scourged by the Vandal kings, 
 
 (1) LAfrique Chretienne, par M. Jean Yanoski, p. 45.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA, 291 
 
 with whom the Donalists leagued themselves out of 
 hatred to ihe Church ;(1) or yet more grievously chas- 
 tised by the Arab inundation under the Caliph Omar 
 in 547, till 130 years later the Roman name was 
 finally eflfaced from Africa, and the Moors embraced 
 the religion of their Arab conquerors; — these un- 
 happy lands are still paying the penally of guilt not 
 yet absolved, and even at the present hour, with the 
 exception of a single region, are the special field of 
 that « great and momentous struggle between Islam- 
 ism and Paganism » (2) of which Africa has been the 
 most remarkable theatre during nearly a thousand 
 years. 
 
 If, however, the provinces of North Africa have 
 not yet been reconverted from the Mahometan aposta- 
 sy, it has not been for want either of apostles or 
 martyrs. In the single year 1261, more than two 
 hundred Franciscans were martyred by the Mussul- 
 mans ; and not long after, as if this were an incom- 
 plete sacrifice, one hundred and ninety Dominicans 
 received from thesame hands the baptism of blood. (5) 
 We may not stay to relate their history. They knew 
 what destiny awaited them; yet from Lyons and 
 Genoa, from Rome and Naples, they hurried to ihe 
 battle field, content to shed their blood that others 
 might one day gain the victory, of which that blood 
 was to be the price. Forty years earlier, in 1219, 
 St. Francis of Assisi left Ancona on the same errand; 
 but though even the ferocious Moslem bowed in re- 
 
 (1) Histoire de la Domination des Vandales en Afrique, par 
 Yanoski, p. 85. 
 
 (2) Barth, Travels in Africa, preface, p. 22. 
 
 (3) Henrion, tome I, ch. vi, p. 81.
 
 292 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 verence before him, and declared that « God alone 
 could have formed such a man, » he gained admirers 
 only and not disciples; and at length was forced to 
 admit, in spite of the charity which filled his soul, 
 that their hour was not yet come, and to speak to his 
 fellow- labourers those memorable words — « Away 
 from this place; let us fly, let us fly far from these 
 loo humane barbarians, whom we can neither compel 
 to adore our Master, nor to persecute us who are His 
 servants. » (1) 
 
 Yet Africa was not abandoned by Christian cha- 
 rity, ever as ingenious in repairing defeats as patient 
 in enduring them. In 1630, the Franciscan John de 
 Prado, still honoured as the patron of Tangier, sealed 
 with his blood the new mission which he had founded, 
 and of which a living writer observes; « There is 
 nothing more sorrowful, from the beginning to the 
 end, than the history of this mission, perpetually 
 destroyed, yet perpetually springing up again from 
 the ashes of the martyrs. » (2) In 1646, the insti- 
 tute of the Lazarist Fathers, who are now scattered 
 through the whole East, from the banks of the Nile 
 to those of the Yellow Sea, was founded by St. Vin- 
 cent of Paul. Other religious societies had preceded 
 it, and it was to the Fathers of the Order of Mercy 
 that the captive Cervantes, while planning in his 
 dungeon the liberation of 25,000 Christian prisoners, 
 owed his own redemption from the Moors. (5) But 
 of all the missionary communities which have chosen 
 
 (1) « Les Maures sont les hommes les plus doux de la Bar- 
 barie. « Alger, par M. P. Rozet, p. 9. 
 
 (2) Le Maroc, par M. Godard, p. 16. 
 
 (3) Alf/eria, Past and Present, by J. H. Blofeld Esq., p. 297.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 293 
 
 Africa for llie field of their labours, none have sur- 
 passed the children of St. Vincent; who, as Count 
 St. Marie relates in 184o, not only « rendered im- 
 portant services to commerce, but many of tliem ac- 
 quired great influence Nvilh the Deys, who oflen 
 appealed to them for counsel in questions of difficully. 
 Their influence has protected ihe Christians from 
 much misery. » (1) And another Algerian aulhorily 
 notices the slill more striking fact, that when France, 
 in a moment of delirium, cast out the family of one 
 of her noblest sons, Tunis afforded ihem protection 
 and succour. « The venerable establishment founded 
 by St. Vincent of Paul, » says Baron Baude, « re- 
 ceived protection from the Divan when, in an access 
 of stupid impiety, the ('onvention destroyed it. A 
 Catholic Church was consecrated at Tunis, and the 
 ministers of the Dey contributed 16,000 piastres 
 towards its construction. » (2) 
 
 Even in Morocco, il was not till the year 1822 
 that the Franciscans were finally restricted by the 
 Sultan to Tangier, and that the Catholic Church ceased 
 to be represented throughout the empire, except by 
 a single religious of the province of San Diego in 
 Andalusia. « The revolutionary follies from which 
 Spain has failed to preserve herself have caused this 
 result, » says a French missionary, filled with the 
 generous ardour of his order and nation; « and if 
 the province of San Diego has no longer strength to 
 cultivate the heritage of its fathers, more energetic 
 
 (1) Algeria in 1845, by Count S' Marie, cli. v, p. 185, En- 
 glish edition. 
 
 (2) V Algeria, par le Baron Baude, ex-commissaire du Roi en 
 Afrique, tome II, p. 368.
 
 294 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 workmen will receive fiom the Holy See its aban- 
 doned patiiinony. » (1) But we must revert for a 
 moment, before we consider ibe actual state of reli- 
 gion in Norlb Africa, to an earlier epoch. 
 
 The story of the combats of the children of St. Do- 
 minic and St. Francis, by whose blood the sterile 
 soil of Africa was so often moistened, and to whom 
 its future conversion will be mainly due, need not be 
 recounted here. Whatever divine charily could in- 
 spire, or superhuman valour allempi, was dared by 
 men who were so little discouraged by what seemed 
 perpetual failure, that it was the sure promise of tri- 
 bulation which most powerfully attracted them to 
 this thankless land. Some were captured even before 
 they could touch its shores ; others fell almost within 
 sight of the vessel which they had scarcely quitted ; 
 while the rest carried hope and consolation to many 
 a capiive whose bonds they lightened by sharing 
 them, or wasted away in dungeons which their pre- 
 sence converted into sanctuaries. 
 
 And the toils of these victims were not in vain, 
 though the Moslem thought their defeat final, and 
 the world deemed their work madness. The Church 
 will yet reap the harvest of which they planted the 
 seed. It is to what they did while on earth, and per- 
 haps still more to what they have done since they 
 quitted it, that we may attribute the blight which 
 has now fallen upon Islamism, once so arrogant and 
 mighty, and the ignominy and decrepitude in which 
 the mortal enemy of the Cross is pining away before 
 the eyes of Christendom, no longer united, in arms 
 
 (i) LeMaroc, p. 18.
 
 MI?S10NS IN AFRICA. 298 
 
 or in faith, against the common foe. The dead have 
 won the victory of which ihe living are to gather the 
 spoils. 
 
 And already, as we shall see more fully when we 
 enter the lands which lie to the east of the Nile, the 
 blood of the martyrs is yielding its accustomed fruit. 
 If St. Francis fled away from a people who offered to 
 himself the homage which they refused to his Master, 
 the children of St. Francis have at this day altars at 
 Jerusalem, at Bethlehem, at Nazareth, « wherever 
 the history of the Redemption has left a memorial. » 
 This has been their reward. And the same recom- 
 pense another Saint seems to have won for North 
 Africa. When St. Louis lay on his bed of ashes, as- 
 sisted in his last moments by Ihe Bishop of Tunis, 
 and exclaiming with his latest breath, — « For the 
 love of God let us obtain the preaching of the Gospel 
 in Tunis; » in that hour, as a Christian writer of 
 our own age observes, « he obtained for France the 
 privilege of one day regenerating Africa. » (1) Let us 
 see how far France has fulfilled her mission, and 
 with what prospects of future success. 
 
 Once more we shall be able to refer, as in former 
 chapters, to Protestant writers, whom Providence 
 seems everywhere to employ to this end ; and our 
 first witness is an eminent clergyman of the estab- 
 lished church, widely known amongst his country- 
 men as an able and learned writer. This gentleman 
 will inform us, with the candour which might be 
 expected in so distinguished a person, that the Church 
 still produces in the nineteenth century exactly the 
 
 1) Baron Henrion.
 
 296 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 same class of evangelists whom St. Augustine led in 
 the fifth and St. Francis in the thirteenth. 
 
 Of the See of Algiers, and its two first occupants, 
 JM"" Blakesley speaks in the following terms. « The 
 See has since its constitution heen filled by prelates 
 of great zeal and intelligence, and the influence of 
 the clergy has done much towards improving the 
 character of the European part of the population, » 
 Their first efforts were directed, as charity required, 
 to the amelioration of that vagabond class of soldiers 
 and adventurers who swarmed in Algeria from the 
 earliest period of the invasion, and whose coarse im- 
 moralities were a scandal even to the natives ; so that 
 the Kabyles, as Colonel Walmsley notices, were ac- 
 customed to say of the French — « they do not fol- 
 low the doctrines which they profess. » (1) 
 
 They might well say it, considering the character 
 which even French writers have given both of the 
 military and civil colonists of Algeria. Not only the 
 common soldiers, by their boastful impiety, have too 
 often shocked both the Moor and the Arab; but even 
 amongst the officers, as Count St. Marie relates, 
 « there are few examples of honourable conduct. » 
 If France has done more than any modern nation to 
 promote the glory of God, she has also done more to 
 outrage it. « Since your religion is so noble and be- 
 neficent, » said Abd-el-Kader to the Vicar General 
 of Algiers, « why do not the French observe it? » (2) 
 And the answer which some of them have made to 
 this reproach is a cynical jest such as the following. 
 « Depuis Tcveque et le procureur-general, » says 
 
 (1) Sketches of Algeria, by H. M. Walmsley, p. 138. (1858). 
 
 (2) Annals.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 297 
 
 M. Pellissier, «> jusqu'au sacristain et au garde cham- 
 petre, on pourrait a la rigueur se passer de tout en 
 Algerie, mais on ne saurail se passer de rarmee. »(1) 
 It was with the embarassments resulting from the 
 profaneness of his own countrymen ihat the first 
 Bishop of Algiers had to contend, and amongst his 
 greatest difficulties his successor still reckons « des 
 discours d'une infernale perversite tenus aux indi- 
 genes. » (2) Even the civil administration, infected by 
 the spurious liberalism of the age, and adopting the 
 maxims of government which modern statesmen have 
 consented to borrow from proleslant sources, has 
 often been openly hostile to the progress of religion. 
 The Sisters of Charily were ordered to remove the 
 crucifix from their hospitals, — a command which 
 they refused lo obey, — lest the sensitive conscience 
 of the Arab should be wounded ; and a formal cen- 
 sure was addressed by the minisler of war to the 
 Bishop of Algiers, in 1846, for not repressing effica- 
 ciously the « proselyting schemes » of the Sisters, (3) 
 — which consisted in recommending their dying pa- 
 tients to have a care for their souls. As late as 1850, 
 the celebrated Pere de Ravignan presented a memo- 
 rial to the minisler, in which he solicited liberty to 
 preach the Gospel to the Arabs, and the petition ap- 
 pears to have received no reply. (4) 
 
 (1) La Colonisation Militaire en A Igerie, par E. Pellissier, p. 1 8. 
 
 (2) Lettre Pastorale de Monseicjneur Pavy ; Orateurs Sacres, 
 tome LXXXIV, p. 1082, Ed. Migne. 
 
 (3) La Colonisation de F Algerie, par Louis de Baudicoiir, 
 ch. VII, p. 265, (1856). 
 
 \i) Vie du R. P. Xavier de Ravignan, par Ic P. A. de Pon- 
 levoy. tome II, p. 160. 
 
 n. n
 
 298 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Il was in ihe midst of such discouiagernents ihal 
 ihe first Algerian prelate commenced his formidahle 
 mission ; while two priests in Algiers, one at Oran, 
 and another at Bone, comprised in 1859,aSiM'Blakes- 
 ley remarks, « the whole of the ecclesiastical es- 
 lahlishment in the French possessions of North 
 Africa. » Within seven years, however, the Bishop, 
 3Igr Dupuch, « had estahlished, almost entirely at his 
 own cost and that of his friends, forty-seven churches 
 and chapels, and forty almonries, hospitals, prisons, 
 penitentiaries, and other institutions, which employ- 
 ed thirty-nine regular and three supernumeraiy 
 priests, hesides a large number of Sisters of Cha- 
 rity. » 
 
 A French authority observes that, by the year 
 184G, he had 91 priests, 60 churches, and 140 Sis- 
 ters of various orders. (1) Such were the works of 
 the first Bishop of Algiers, of whom the great leader 
 of the Arabs, even when flying from the French 
 arms, said to the Abbe Suchet; « I know all that he 
 has done for Algeria, and have a great veneration for 
 bin person. » (2) So universal is the admission both 
 of his private virtues and of the success of his la- 
 bours, that M. St. Marc Girardin could say, with 
 general approval, « of all our establishments in Al- 
 giers, the strongest and most efiicacious is the bish- 
 opric. » (3) 
 
 « M. Pavy, the successor of M. Dupuch, carried 
 
 (1) Histoire de la Conquete d' Alger, par M. Alfred Nettemeiit, 
 p. 6-24. 
 
 (2) Annals. 
 
 (3) Quoted by the Rev^ Thomas Debary, The Canary Isles, etc , 
 ch. XXIV, p. 301.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 299 
 
 on ihe work which the olher had begun wiih no less 
 tact than vigour, and so far as French power is con- 
 solidated in Northern Africa, it is mainly due to the 
 moral influence of the clergy. » And then M*" Blakes- 
 ley, a witness as capable as he is truthful, des- 
 cribes, as far as a stranger could, by what process 
 that influence was acquired. « They operate upon the 
 natives, not by formal attacks upon their creed, but 
 by those works of charily which are common to 
 Christianity and Islam, and which more than any 
 olher religious act are appreciated by the votaries of 
 the latter. The hospitals especially, into which the 
 Moslem population is freely admitted, and the service 
 of which is, in many cases, performed by females of 
 one or olher of the religious orders, exercise a pow- 
 erful influence, and most deservedly so, over the 
 conquered race. I visited one of these — the civil 
 hospital at Oran — and was exceedingly struck with 
 the appearance of cleanliness, order, comfort, and 
 even cheerfulness, which reigned throughout. The 
 calm demeanour of the Sisters seemed to be felt like 
 a sun beam in the chamber of death. There was no 
 sourness of look, no parade of self-devotion, no ex- 
 pression of the least wish for any thing but more 
 ample space to enable them to receive all the patients 
 that ofl'ered. I talked of the unheallhiness of the sum- 
 mer season, when the wards would be full of fever 
 patients; but I could not elicit a word implying that 
 they themselves would then be exposed to greater 
 risk, or compelled to greater labour. The Apostle's 
 exhortation to let works of mercy be done with 
 cheerfulness came forcibly into my mind, when I 
 thought of the conventional unction in which the
 
 SOO CHAPTER Vfl. 
 
 philanlhiopisls of London platforms are wont to 
 indulge. » (1) 
 
 Other Catholic institutions receive from M"" Blakes- 
 ley equally generous notice, and especially the or- 
 phan asylums originated by Pere Brumault, of the 
 Society of Jesus, and conducted with the most auspi- 
 cious results, in spite of the vexatious meddling of 
 the administration, which tried to extort from him 
 a pledge that he would not convert the orphans to 
 Christianity! The IMarechal Bugeaud, to whom he 
 appealed, decided that as he was the real father of 
 the poor outcasts, he had a right to do as he pleased 
 « with his own children. » (2) In 1830, he had 270 
 orphans under his charge; in 1835, they had increa- 
 sed to 490. 
 
 Finally, M' Blakesley observes that in the Grsl fif- 
 teen years of the French occupation, in spile of the 
 decay of noble traditions once dear to the heart of 
 France, the civil administration, learning wisdom 
 from expeiience, had provided thirty-seven new 
 churches , « independently of others due to private 
 efforts, » and that within the same brief period the 
 ecclesiastical establishment had increased to four 
 vicars-general and about one hundred priests, a num- 
 ber since largely increased. 
 
 Thus far France has proved that she is not unequal 
 to the mission which Providence has imposed upon 
 her. A century of revolutions may have changed her 
 who once rejoiced to be « the most Christian » nation, 
 — too many of her sons may have embraced the im- 
 
 (1) Four Months in Algeria, pp. 43-48. 
 
 (2) De Baudicour, ch. vii, p. 292.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 201 
 
 pious maxims of a shallow and inept philosophy, — 
 even her soldiers, throwing away the banner of ihe 
 Cross under which their fathers fought, may have 
 proved that the same men can be physically brave 
 and morally cowards, can face with a smile the 
 assault of an enemy while they meanly cringe before 
 the sarcasm of a comrade; but France is still mighty 
 to atone for the crimes of her apostate children, still 
 rich enough in the treasures of grace and wisdom to 
 supply the demand which daily reaches her from 
 every land for evangelical labourers; and here is one 
 more proof of her inexhaustible strength, one more 
 company of that incomparable phalanx which she 
 offers, even in the nineteenth century, for the service 
 of the Church. 
 
 « On the spot where the battle of Slaoueli was 
 fought and won by the French, » says a recent Eng- 
 lish writer, « a large convent now stands, » — fit 
 memorial of a victory which gave to North Africa the 
 first promise of Christianity and civilization. That 
 convent and its inmates are thus described in 1857 
 by another witness, an Anglican clergyman, candid 
 enough to avow the impressions which they produced 
 on a heart sufficiently delicate and refined to appre- 
 ciate them. « The establishment at Staoueli, » says 
 the Rev. j>F Davies, « is remarkable enough in its 
 features to require no surreptitious aid to render it 
 an object of the deepest interest to every thinking 
 mind ; and it is impossible for any one to visit it with- 
 out pleasure and advantage to himself. » 1\F Davies 
 was admitted into the chapel of the convent, and thus 
 describes what he saw. « Never was devotion more 
 fervent and fixed than theirs appeared to be; not an
 
 30i2 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 eye was lifted nor a muscle moved to indicate that our 
 j)resence distracted their thoughts; hody and soul 
 were engaged together profoundly in the great work 
 of adoration. The contemplation of this solemn scene 
 has left its impression on our memories, and we pray 
 for ahslraction in prayer like that of the monks of 
 Slaoueli. » And these monks, — whose « indolent » 
 and « useless » lives have long formed one of the 
 world's most popular jests, « have eslahlished, » as 
 Colonel ^^'almsley tells us, « one of the finest model 
 farms in Algei ia ; » and have even completed, as 
 ]>!•■ Blakesley adds, « the collection of a series of im- 
 porlant meteorological ohservations. » Devotion, agri- 
 culture, and science are the occupations of the com- 
 munity at Slaoueli ; and M' Davies was probahly not 
 mistaken when he infeired from « their mild and 
 smiling countenances, which indicated nothing but 
 rest and sweet contentment, » that « it was thai 
 ' peace which passeih all understanding ' which these 
 men so unmistakeably enjoyed. » (1) 
 
 Such are the men whom France sends to do the 
 work of God in Algeria. That they will ultimately 
 succeed in their holy mission, we may reasonably 
 believe ; and already the tokens of success are becom- 
 ing manifest both to Christian and Mussulman. The 
 very legends of the Arabs, and those mysterious pre- 
 dictions which in all ages have issued even from 
 pagan lips, announce the future triumph of the 
 Christian law. Not only in Algei ia, but even through- 
 out the Sahara, such ominous voices are heard, de- 
 
 (1) Algiers in 1857, by tlie RevJ E. W. L. Davies, M. A. Vicar 
 of Ardlingflcet, p. 63.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 303 
 
 daring ihe coming fall of Islam. « This is so general 
 an idea, » says a recent, African traveller, « lliateven 
 ihe ignorant Mahomedans of ihe East firmly believe 
 thai the Amhara, or Christian population of Abyssi- 
 nia, will at a future time seize Mecca, and destroy 
 the temple. » (l)One hundred and thirty years ago, 
 as General Marey notices, the French invasion was 
 prophecied by the Hadji Aissa,a Marabout of Laghou- 
 at; and the prophecy, which was repeated to the 
 General by a lineal descendant of Aissa, contains, 
 amongst others, the following verses. 
 
 " A Christian army, protected by God, advances towards us. « 
 
 « The power of the Christians will have no limits. » 
 
 « The Mosques will be abandoned. » 
 
 « The religion of the faithful is dead at Algiers, h (2) 
 
 A succession of remarkable events has conspired 
 to conflrm these anticipations. One of the earliest 
 converts was the wife of the Bey of Constantina, as 
 one of the latest has been a daughter of Abd-el-Kader, 
 now a Sister of Charity; and though hitherto insig- 
 nificant in number, almost every class — Arabs, 
 IMoors, and Jews — has proved itself open to Christ- 
 ian influence. But it is the gradual and almost uni- 
 versal destruction of ancient prejudices, and the tardy 
 recognition of the immense superiority of the Christ- 
 ian race, which more especially claims attention. By 
 the year 1845, three Mosques in the capital had 
 
 (1) Travels in Southern Abyssinia, etc., by Charles Johnston, 
 M. R. C. S., vol. I, ch. xvu, p. 267. ^1844). 
 
 (2) See Algeria and Tunis, by Captain J. Clark Kennedy, vol. I, 
 ch. XI, p. 236; and Algerie, par M. E. Caretle, pp. 121, 2.
 
 304 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 already become Catholic churches; (1) and when the 
 cenlral Mosque of Algiers was solemnly blessed for 
 Christian worship, it was the Mufti Ben Ekbati who 
 said to General Count D'Erlon, in words of which it 
 is impossible not to feel the significance, — « Our 
 Mosque will change i(s worship without changing its 
 master, for the God of the Christians is also our 
 God. » (2) 
 
 The change of feeling which such notable words 
 imply, is manifested in a thousand ways. Already 
 « the Arabs of Algeria, » says Count Saint Marie, 
 « respect the Catholic Priest as much as they do the 
 Marabout. » He notices also the extraordinary afTecl- 
 ion displayed by tbe Arab and Moorish students at 
 El Biar towards the Jesuits, and especially towards 
 Father Brumault, the founder of that institution, 
 from which the Bishop hopes hereafter to obtain a 
 native clergy. « It is but justice, » adds this writer, 
 « to the Jesuits, lo say, that their conduct in this land 
 of misery and suffering is admirable... There is no 
 calamity which they do not endeavour lo alleviate; 
 and the French soldiery, though little inclined lo 
 bigotry, respect these men for their uniform courage 
 and devotedness to the cause of humanity. » (5) 
 
 Lastly, — for we may not linger in one province, 
 since so many others remain lo be visited, — a Ger- 
 man Protestant writer thus appreciates, in 18o5, the 
 effect of the French conquest upon the inhabitants 
 and the religion of Algeria. « Closer acquaintance, » 
 says D"^ Wagner, « has greatly conciliated the Mus- 
 
 (1) Algeria, by J. Reynell Morell, cli. v, p. 84. 
 
 (2) St-Marie, cli. v, p. 192. 
 
 (3) Ch. vni, p. 276.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 305- 
 
 sulmen to llieir antagonisls in failh, and they do not 
 now consider the presenceof Chrisliansas desecrating 
 their places of worship. » And he sums up his candid 
 reflections with this comparison : — « A great im- 
 provement in the lot of the Algerine Arabs has been 
 the result of their conquest by France... In a moral 
 point of view, the French have some right to be satis- 
 fied with the results of their rule in Algeria, when 
 contrasting what they have done in twenty three years 
 with England's century in India! » (1) 
 
 Let us quit Algeria, and going eastwards we come 
 to the province of Tunis. Here also the influence of 
 Christian France is yearly increasing. When the last 
 new church was built, the Bey refused to sell the site 
 for which application had been made to him, but 
 insisted upon presenting it as a free gift. (2) Here the 
 Abbe Bourgade, the author of the Soirees de Car- 
 thage, « has succeeded by his evangelical zeal in 
 erecting a hospital at Tunis, from charitable sources 
 
 (1) The Tricolor on the Atlas, from the German of D'' Wagner, 
 by Francis Pulszky, ch. x, p. 401. « Autrefois le marabout seul 
 pratiquait la culture des lettres. L'homme d'ep^e, comme nos 
 barons du moyen 9,ge, avail tout savoir en m^pris... Les arabes 
 se sont aper^us que Tinstrucfion 5tait un litre a nos favours. 
 Nombre d'enlre eux, enfin, se sont dit avec une resignation me- 
 lancolique ces paroles que j'ai recueillies un jour : ' Autrefois 
 nous pouvions vivre avec I'ignorance, car le calme el le bonheur 
 elaient parmi nous; niais dans ces temps de perturbation que 
 nous sommes obliges de traverser, il faut que la science nous 
 vienne en aide.' Ainsi noire influence accomplil Icntement, jus- 
 qu'au sein du desert, cette ceuvre civilisatricc, etc. Les Ma;urs 
 du Desert, par le General E. Daumas, p. 384, (5"'c Edition). 
 
 (2) Description de la Regence de Tunis, par le D'' Louis Frank ; 
 2'ie partie, ch. xviii, p. 205. 
 
 II. n.
 
 306 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 alone, for the poor Christians. » He has also founded 
 « the European college, under the direction of zealous 
 and learned missionaries, where the Mussulman and 
 Jewish children are instructed together with the 
 Christian » — to the astonishment of all who witness 
 so unexpected a triumph over the most inveterate 
 passions and prejudices. Lastly, when the Bey, 
 Ahmed Pacha, visited France in 1846, he addressed 
 these parting words to the attendants who assisted 
 at his emharkation. « Others have aspired to the title 
 of' pilgrim of Mecca, ' let mine be hadjy frandjy, 
 ' the pilgrim of European civilization. ' » (\) Is the 
 prayer of St. Louis about to be accomplished? 
 
 One does not expect to find Protestant missions in 
 North Africa, and the only attempts which appear to 
 have been made are thus described. « A station was 
 occupied at Tunis by M"" Ewald and others, from 1829 
 to 1846, under the London Society. It has since been 
 abandoned. » (2) M"^ Ewald himself relates, with 
 cautious indignation, that he had previously been 
 forced to quit Algiers by the peremptory orders of the 
 Due de Rovigo against Protestant preaching. He 
 consoles himself, however, with the assurance, that 
 « many a son of Abraham had been made acquainted 
 with the Redeemer, » — an assertion which presently 
 dwindles into the statement, that « several hundred 
 copies of the Holy Scriptures had been circu- 
 lated," (5) which our know ledge of the eflecls of bible 
 
 (1) Dr Frank, p. 2U. 
 
 (2) The Land of the Morning, by H. B, Whitaker Cliurton, 
 ch. IX, p. 155. 
 
 (3) Journal of Missionary Labours, etc., by Revd F. C. Ewald, 
 Introd., p. 7.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 307 
 
 dislribulion does not permit us to accept as an equi- 
 valent fact. 
 
 The year after M"" Ewaid departed from Tunis, 
 where he only repealed his Algerian experience, a 
 fresh attempt was made by some Scotch missionaries. 
 >MVIargolioulh reported to Lord Palmerston, in 1847, 
 that they had established two important schools, from 
 which great results might be expected, and that they 
 were about to « erect an edifice » for a church, which, 
 he cheerfully anticipated, would effectually stop «lhe 
 taunt in the mouths of the French Roman Catholics 
 against British Protestants. » The result was not in 
 accordance with his hopes. A few disciples were 
 collected, of the same class which China and Hindos- 
 tan have furnished to British missionaries, but of 
 such extreme irregularity of conduct that they fell 
 under the observation of the native authorities; and 
 when their teachers appealed to Sir Thomas Reade, 
 the Consul General, that officer, whose religious 
 prepossessions did not blind him to the real character 
 of these « sons of Abraham, » coldly declined to 
 afford protection to « those wretches. » And then 
 came the usual climax, unwillingly related by 
 M'" iMargolioulh himself in 1850, — « The mission, 
 the chapel, and the schools were abandoned. » (i) 
 
 We have now reached Egypt, — still, as of old, a 
 land of bondage and shame. « The Christians of 
 Egypt, » says one whose mission it is to unite them 
 in one household, « may be compared to the children 
 of Israel, living under the dominion of Pharaoh; and 
 
 (1 ) A Pilfjrimage to the Land of my Fathers, by the Rev<i Moses 
 Margoliouth ; vol. I, pp. 281,382.
 
 308 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 this State of things will continue till European pre- 
 dominance, either hy counsel or by the sword, like 
 Moses of old with his rod, succeed in freeing them 
 from the servitude of ages. » (1) Yet here also we 
 may trace (he eternal contrast between the Church 
 and the Sects; here also the first has produced mar- 
 tyrs, the latter only merchants ; the first has draw n 
 to herself the children of error, the last have been 
 sucked, one after another, into the abyss of apostasy ; 
 the first has struggled to gather all into one fold, the 
 last to scatter even what was united ; the first has 
 done the work of God, the last have been active only 
 in the service of the evil one. Here is the latest 
 example of the manner in which the sects do his 
 bidding. 
 
 The Christian Copts, now numbering only 230,000 
 — who have continually lapsed into Islamism, (2) 
 among whom the rile of circumcision is commonly 
 practised, whose priests, as M. de Chabrol remarks, 
 « are generally as ignorant as the lowest of the 
 people, » (5) and whom heresy has degraded almost 
 below the level of the Turk, — disposed themselves 
 on a recent occasion to seek by a return to unity the 
 gifts and blessings which they had forfeited. « Four 
 years had elapsed since ihe death of their last Patri- 
 arch, » — says the Franciscan Bishop Guasco, Apos- 
 tolic Delegate in Egypt, writing from Cairo in the 
 
 (1) The Bishop of Fez, and apostolic Delegate in Egypt; Annals, 
 Feb. 1856, vol. XVII, p. 251. 
 
 (2) Histoire de VEgijpte, par M. J. J. Marcel, de I'lnstitul de 
 TEgypte, ch. iv, p. 120. 
 
 (3) Essai sur les Mceurs, etc., ap. Pancoucke, tome XVIII, 
 ch, 1, p. 19; ch. ll, p. 61.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 309 
 
 year 1856, — « and ihe Copls had not yet agreed in 
 the election of a successor. Finding it impossible to 
 come to an agreement among themselves, the Coptic 
 Bishops and the leading men of their nation unani- 
 mously resolved to have recourse to me for the choice 
 of their Patriarch. Of course I could not accept any 
 such mission, except with a view to reconcile Alex- 
 andria with Rome; and there is every reason to 
 believe that I should have succeeded, if the English 
 Methodists had not interfered. These men, although 
 they had nothing whatever to do with the matter, 
 and no one asked their interference, yet managed, by 
 means of intrigues with their consul, to induce the 
 viceroy of Egypt, by religion a Turk, to elect a Christ- 
 ian Patriarch, and to impose him upon the schisma- 
 tical Copls as their administrator. The whole affair 
 was contrived by the power and intrigues of the 
 Prolestants. » And thus, by the intervention of Eng- 
 lish Protestants, a quarter of a million of sectaries, 
 ignorant of the first elements of Christianity, were 
 replunged into the miseries from which they seemed 
 about to escape, in order that the Church might be 
 hindered from performing her divine mission by im- 
 parting to them religion and civilization. 
 
 But there is nothing in this fact to surj)rise us. It 
 is the mission of Protestantism to scatter and destroy. 
 In such triumphs its emissaries find their delight; 
 and we have seen, in various lands, thai they openly 
 avow' their preference of Buddhism, Islamism, or any 
 other form of evil, to the Catholic Church. Here are 
 fresh examples of the same fact. A Protestant clergy- 
 man, of the High Church school, though he represents 
 the schismatical Coptic Patriarch as spending his
 
 310 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 whole (lay in smoking and sleeping, and hopelessly 
 sunk, like his flock, in ignorance and slolh, ohserves 
 with gravity that « he occupies the see of St. .Mark; » 
 but this writer does not so much as once allude to 
 the Catholics of Egypt, whose prelates and congrega- 
 tions more candid Protestants will presently describe 
 to us, lest he should be obliged to confess their superi- 
 ority. (1) « Mahommedanism, » says another Pro- 
 teslanl minister, who bears the title of « Doctor of 
 Divinity, » and was not content with silent animosity, 
 « was some improvement upon the system which it 
 supplanted » — that is, « Christianity in the fifth and 
 sixth centuries! » And then this professor of theology 
 says, — « It is really a relief to pass from one of 
 these idol-shrines into the sternsimplicity of a Moslem 
 mosque. » He had just come out of the Church of the 
 Holy Sepulchre, and this was the reflection which 
 that place suggested to him. (2) 
 
 The language of this gentleman deserves a mo- 
 ment's attention, not perhaps for its own sake, but 
 because it reveals a condition of mind almost peculiar 
 to English Protestants. IMahometanism, he says, was 
 an « improvement » upon the Christianity of the fifth 
 and sixih centuries. Now it was during this very 
 period that the world was illumined by the presence 
 of such men as St. Chrysostom and St. Jerome, 
 St. Augustine and St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Hilary 
 and Si. Benedict, St. Simeon and St. Gregory of 
 Tours; and by such women as St. Gene\ieve and 
 St. Clotilde. It was during this period also, which 
 
 (1) See Travels in the Holy Land, bv the Rev^ J. A. Spencer, 
 M. A. (1850). 
 
 (2) The Desert of Sinai, by H. Bonar, D D., ch. ill, p. 63.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 311 
 
 he selects for unfavorable comparison with Islamisni, 
 ihatChristianily encountered and overcame the great- 
 est trial which any system or polity, human or 
 divine, has ever survived. The Roman empire was 
 then in the agonies of dissolulion, and the wave of 
 barbarism had inundated Europe from the Elbe to 
 the Mediterranean. Before this storm every thing 
 perished except the Church. « It was the Christian 
 Church, » says an eminent Protestant, « which saved 
 Christianity, which vigorously resisted both the 
 internal dissolution of the empire and barbarism ; 
 which conquered the barbarians, and became the 
 bond, the medium, and the principle of civilization 
 between the Roman and barbarian worlds... Had the 
 Christian Church not existed, the whole world must 
 have been abandoned to purely material force. The 
 Church alone exercised a moral power. » And even 
 this is not all. « From that epoch, » says M. Guizot, 
 « the Church powerfully assisted in forming the 
 character and furthering the development of modern 
 civilization. » (1) And not only did she save at this 
 crisis in the world's history both Christianity and 
 civilization; not only did she preserve the Holy 
 Scriptures and the apostolic traditions; but she 
 rescued from destruction, in spite of the barbarians, 
 jurisprudence, letters, and philosophy. It was during 
 this very convulsion, which upheaved and shattered 
 the whole framework of society, that the monaster- 
 ies became, as M. Guizot observes, « philosophical 
 schools of Christianity — it was there that intellectual 
 men meditated, discussed, taught. » And once more. 
 
 (1) History of Civilization in Europe, Lect. II.
 
 312^ CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Conlrasling llie inlelleclual life of the civil and eccle- 
 siastical societies of this very epoch, the same distin- 
 guished person observes, that ihe latter alone « were 
 active and potent at once in the domain of iiJellecl, 
 and in that of reality ; their activity is rational, and 
 their philosophy popular... philosophy and religion 
 were saved (by the Church of the fifth and sixth 
 centuries) from the ruin which menaced them. » So 
 that M. Guizol does not hesitale to declare, in spite 
 of prejudices as imperious and tyrannical as ever 
 oppressed a noble and generous heart, that « it may 
 be said without exaggeration that the human mind, 
 proscribed, bealcn down by the storm, took refuge 
 in the asylum of churches and monasteries. » (1) 
 
 "The fifth and sixth centuries, » says a learned 
 Prussian writer, ^referring especially to the Arme- 
 nians, the first people who as an entire nation 
 embraced Christianity, and at that lime so remarkable 
 by the position which they occupied wilh relation to 
 the rest of Christendom, — « were the brightest 
 period of the Armenian literature, during which a 
 vigorous inlelleclual intercourse was carried on with 
 the West : the classical works of Europe were trans- 
 lated, wilh a profound comprehension, instances of 
 which I have before mentioned in the works of Plato 
 and Aristotle; » while that version of the Bible was 
 then executed, « which, in the judgment of the 
 Mechitarists, and of many scholars, is the finest of 
 all translations of the Bible, and remains to the 
 present day a model of the pure Armenian lan- 
 guage. » (2) 
 
 (1) History of Civilization in France, Led. IV. 
 
 (2) Von Haxlhausen, ch. x, pp. 337, 339.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 313 
 
 And il is of such an epocli as ihis, so fruitful in 
 blessings (o humanity, so inexpressibly glorious to 
 the Church, that a British Protestant does not blush 
 to say, that it was happily replaced by Islamism, the 
 great dcslroyer bolh of leligion and civilization! Such 
 is the dull imperturbable audacity, not of lofty and 
 disciplined reason, jealously sifting its own conclu- 
 sions, but of blind prejudice and contented igno- 
 rance. 
 
 Let us briefly notice, before we resume our pro- 
 gress in Africa, the actual state of religion in Egypt. 
 « Christianity has only remained among the mixt race 
 of Copts, » says a Protestant historian of Egypt. (1) 
 The Catholics he does not even mention ; though 
 another English writer observes, apparently with 
 regret, the notorious fact, that « the Church of Rome 
 has induced some to forsake the tenets of their an- 
 cestors » — including the tenet of circumcision — 
 « and to join the community of Catholic Copts. » (2) 
 She has induced so many to take that step, that a 
 recent traveller in these lands tells us, that « of late 
 years the number of Coptic Catholics has greatly 
 multiplied, and il is now estimated at one third of 
 the whole Christian population of Egypt. » (3) 
 
 D'' Durhin, an American Protestant, also confesses 
 of the oriental christians generally, — « It is not to 
 be denied that their intercourse with the Roman 
 Catholic Church tends to elevate them in the scale of 
 
 (1) History of Egypt, by Samuel Sharpe, vol. II, cli. xix, 
 p. 345. 
 
 (2) Modern Egypt, by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, vol. I, p. 395. 
 
 (3) Journal of a tour in Egypt, etc., by J. Laird Paltersdn, 
 M, A., app. p. 403. (1852).
 
 314 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 civilization, as the priests sent to serve them, being 
 generally educated men, diffuse European knowledge 
 as well as manners among them. » (1) D'' Robinson, 
 a well known anti-catholic writer, gives this descript- 
 ion of a catholic oriental prelate, who preached a 
 sermon in Arabic, at Cairo, which D' Robinson and 
 other Protestant ministers heard. " He was a man of 
 noble mien ; his manner dignified, full of gesture, and 
 impressive. His sermon, according to the judgment 
 of my companions, was well-ordered, logical, full of 
 good sense and practical force." (2) And the increa- 
 sing power of the Church in these unhappy lands 
 is freely admitted by all the belter class of Protestant 
 witnesses. Thus IM' Jowetl noticed, some years ago, 
 the opinion expressed by M"^ Barker, at that time 
 British Consul at Aleppo. « All Syria and Egypt he 
 considers as comparatively occupied by the Roman 
 Catholics : even Aleppo, he says, is gradually draw- 
 ing, and nearly drawn over to them. » (3) We shall 
 see more ample illustrations of these facts in the next 
 chapter. 
 
 On the other hand, here are the accounts which 
 Protestant writers give of the operations of their 
 co-religionists, backed by the wealth of England and 
 America, in the land of Egypt. A few examples will 
 suffice. « I am sorry to tell you, » is the report 
 addressed from Cairo to the « ^lalta Protestant Col- 
 lege » in 1851, « that very little Protestant progress 
 has been made here, and that I find every thing poor 
 
 (1) Observations in the East, by John P. Durbin, D. D., Lale 
 President of Dickinson College, vol. II, ch. 34, p. 287. 
 
 (2) Biblical Researches in Palestine, vol. II, p. 458. 
 
 (3) Asiatic Journal, vol. VI, p. 503.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 3l5 
 
 and without life. But, on the contrary, wherever you 
 turn your eyes you see Roman Catholic progress : 
 buildings every where, churches three or four, and 
 schools three; missions in (lie villages, » etc, etc. (1) 
 And exactly the same report is given, by another 
 Proleslant witness, of Alexandria. « Whilst the Roman 
 Catholics establish schools, build convents and church- 
 es, and have a large number of their clergy here, » 
 says M'^ Ewald, the fugilive from Algiers and Tunis, 
 « the Proteslanls have withdrawn all their mission- 
 aries, and M"" Winder is the only Pioteslant minister 
 of the Gospel at this important place. » (2) Mean- 
 while, the progress of the Catholic mission appears 
 to have been so well sustained, that in 1860 the 
 Lazarists had « an admirable school, » aliended by 
 200 boys « of every nation and religion ; » the Christ- 
 ian Brothers a second, which was equally successful ; 
 and the Sisters of Charily a third, frequented by a 
 still larger number of girls. » (5) At Cairo, by the 
 same dale, the school of the Sisters of the Good 
 Shepherd counted about 300 pupils; while the oper- 
 ations of the proleslant agents are thus described. 
 
 « They have been, » says D"^ Durbin, in 1845, 
 « about fifteen years engaged in the mission at Cairo, 
 designed for the benefit of the Copts ; but such is the 
 jealousy of these native Christians ihat missionaries 
 can have but Utile access lo them. I twice attended 
 divine service in the mission chapel , and found 
 
 (1) Fifth Annual Report of the Malta Protestant College, 
 p. 19. 
 
 (2) Journal, p. 264. 
 
 (3) Un Hiver en Egypte, par M. Eugene Poitou, ch. xvi, 
 p. 448. (1860).
 
 3 16 CHAPTER VII 
 
 perhaps iwenly persons present ;, and most of these 
 Franks. I think lliere were not half a dozen native 
 christians. » Yet these missionaries had maintained 
 schools, both male and female, for many years, and 
 at gioal cost; hut with the same results which have 
 attended their educational efforts in every other land. 
 « Most of them, » D' Durbin confesses, « resume ihe 
 same religious views and feelings which prevail 
 among their people. » (1) They are perfectly willing, 
 in spile of iheir « jealousy, » to be taught and fed by 
 protestant missionaries, but they go elsewheie for 
 iheir religion. 
 
 And this fact became at length so apparent, even 
 lo those who were most reluctant to admit it, that 
 an Anglican clergyman informs us, only six years 
 after D*" Durbin's visit, that « M"" Lieder's school, the 
 Church Missionary Institute, has, alas, been relin- 
 quished, owing to the expense of such an establish- 
 ment, and the supposed inadequate appearance of 
 fruil. » (2) Nor was the school the only instrument 
 of conversion which sustained a check. Even ihe 
 preaching appears lo have languished, and to have 
 lost, what it probably once possessed, the merit of 
 originality; for a critical English traveller relates, a 
 little later, that « M"^ Lieder gave us a good plaiu 
 sermon, probably not his own composition, for I had 
 heard it before. » (3) 
 
 D" Wilson had reported, indeed, and perhaps be- 
 lieved, that « a spirit of serious enquiry had begun 
 
 (1) Vol. I, ch. vn, p. 67. 
 
 (2) The Land of the Morning, by H. B. Whitaker Churton, 
 M.A., ch. I, p. 10. (1851). 
 
 (3) Shadows of the East, by C. Tobin, p. 83. (1855).
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 317 
 
 to appear among a few of the Copls ; (1) hut the 
 enquiry seems to have hcen barren of results. Even 
 D"" Bonar, who prefers a mosque to the Church of 
 the Holy Sepulchre, relates of the American mission- 
 aries at Cairo, that « the door, » at which they have 
 been knocking, for so many years, « does not seem 
 by any means an open one. » (2) D"" Yates also de- 
 plores ihat the protestanl agents have so completely 
 failed to persuade the natives to regard them as re- 
 ligious teachers, in any sense whatever, that « the 
 less informed Mahommedan, )>as he resentfully styles 
 him, « supposes that the people called Christians » 
 — he means Protestants — « have no religion at 
 all. >. (5) 
 
 The facts, then, which we have noticed iu so many 
 other regions of the earth, present themselves once 
 more in Egypt. We need not multiply them. The 
 characteristics of Catholic and Protestant missions 
 are everywhere invariable. 
 
 « In Lower Egypt alone, » says the Apostolic De- 
 legate whom we have already quoted, « seventeen 
 martyrs are numbered as belonging to one order. Our 
 Religious, immoveable at their posts, endured exile, 
 imprisonment, every sort of trial and persecution, 
 and death itself. Nothing but a special Providence 
 could assuredly have preserved their establishments 
 from destruction, menaced as they have been through 
 ages of fanaticism; but at length the day has arrived 
 
 (1) Lands of the Bible, by John Wilson, D. D., F. R. S., 
 vol. II, p. 528. 
 
 (2) Ch.iii, p. 36. 
 
 (3) Modem History of Egypt, by W. Holt Yates, M. D., vol. I, 
 ch. Ill, p. 85.
 
 318 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 when Catholics are permitted publicly to open their 
 churches, and lo found schools and hospitals. » And 
 then he shows what has been done of late under his 
 own eyes. « During the sixteen years that I have been 
 in the position of apostolic delegate, it has afforded 
 me great satisfaction to see Catholic churches erected 
 here for all the Oriental rites. New religious bodies 
 have also afforded us their zealous co-operation. 
 Thus, in 1844, this vicariate welcomed Priests of 
 St. Vincent of Paul, and Sisters of Charity, both of 
 whom are now in possession of very Gne establish- 
 ments at Alexandria. In 1846, ihe Sisters of the 
 Good Shepherd, from Angers, established themselves 
 at Cairo, where ihey now have a flourishing semin- 
 ary, a house of refuge, and an orphanage. These 
 Religious also conduct a day school, which is well 
 attended by poor Arabs. In 1854, there was founded 
 in the same capital an excellent institution for tlie 
 education of youth, confided to ihe care of the Christ- 
 ian Brothers.... What can be the cause of so great a 
 change? Has not God, in His divine mercy, granted 
 it as a recompense for the past, in consideration of 
 the labours of the former Missionaries, of their pa- 
 tience in bonds, and, above all, of the blood which 
 they so generously shed for the faith? » (1) 
 
 Whatever may be thought of this reflection of the 
 apostolic delegate, it is at least certain, by Protestant 
 testimony, that his own colleagues are not inferior 
 in heroism and generosity to their martyred prede- 
 cessors. « 1 allow , » says D^ Joseph Wolff, — in 
 explanation of his own residence at Cairo during the 
 
 (1) Annals, ubi supra.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 319 
 
 outlireak of cholera, — « lliat the example of the 
 Pope's Missionaries at Cairo induced me more than 
 any thing else to prosecute my journey; for whilst 
 during the plague in Egypt the Lutheran Missionaries 
 shut themselves up, as I myself (I say it to my shame) 
 did at Beyrouth, when there during the plague with 
 my wife and child, the i^Iissionaries of the Propa- 
 ganda of Rome visited those infected with that dis- 
 ease, so that six Roman 3Iissionaries died out of 
 seven. » (1) 
 
 The Christian heroism which excited the admira- 
 tion of D' Wolff was natural in men who wei e the 
 heirs of Claude Sicard, the representative, as has 
 heen well said, « at once of the Church and of the 
 Academy of sciences » in Egypt ; (2) who converted 
 Id one week the Greek solitaries of the Thehaid, and 
 the next enriched Europe with those luminous essays 
 on the monuments, the geography, or the chemical 
 products of the land of the Nile, by which later re- 
 searches have been aided; and who died at last at 
 Cairo, in 1726, a martyr of charily, ministering to 
 the victims of the plague, and falling himself by the 
 side of those whom he had no longer power to 
 bless. 
 
 Let us leave Cairo, embark on the Nile, and 
 journeying towards its source we shall come to 
 Khartoum. If we stay for a moment at this place, 
 which brings us almost to the frontiers of Abyssinia, 
 it is only for the sake of noticing an account of the 
 Mission of the White Nile, by one of those candid 
 
 (1) Journal, p. 334. 
 
 (2) Cretineau Joly, tome V, p. 17.
 
 320 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Protestanls of whom we have encounlered so many 
 ill these pages. This Mission has lately been alluded 
 to by a French traveller, who is nominally a Catholic, 
 but who, like too many of his countrymen, seems 
 to think a reputation for wit the highest object of 
 man's ambition, especially when it is some religious 
 topic which inspires the sorry jest. M. Charles Didier 
 is of opinion that all « pacific missions » are neces- 
 sarily failures, and that the only apostles who can 
 achieve success are those who travel, like Mahomet, 
 sword in hand. (1) An English writer thus describes, 
 almost at the same moment, the work in which the 
 Frenchman only saw an opportunity for an indiffer- 
 ent joke. 
 
 « One of the most interesting establishments in 
 Soudan, » says M"^ James Hamilton, in 1857, « is the 
 Mission for the conversion of ihe pagans of Central 
 Africa, respectable both for its object and the cha- 
 acter of the men who compose it. » M"^ Hamilton then 
 notices the untimely death of the well known Padre 
 Ryllo, from whose enlightened labours great results 
 had been anticipated, and continues thus. « Should 
 the Mission be crowned with success, the spiritual 
 conquest of the vast unknown regions of the centre 
 will be amongst the most glorious triumphs of modern 
 limes. Artificers of various kinds, the pioneers of 
 civilisation and religion, are attached to the house, 
 so that the pupils may learn and carry back to their 
 countrymen many useful arts. The Superior takes 
 yearly journies of inspection up the ^Miite Nile, 
 where three stations have been established; and if, 
 
 (1) Cinq cents lieues sur le Nil, par Charles Didier, ch. HI.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 321 
 
 as I have every reason to believe, his patience and 
 discretion equal his zeal and that of his fellow- 
 labourers, they cannot fail in time to overcome the 
 immense diflicullies which sunound their underta- 
 king. Both among Turks and Arabs, Abuna Suliman, 
 as D"" Ignatius Knoblecher is called, enjoys the high- 
 est consideration ; far and near I heard him spoken 
 of with respect, and even by the Copts, the least 
 likely persons to appreciate his qualities. This is 
 already a great success, alone worlh the large sums 
 which the Mission has cost, for it is the breaking 
 down of prejudices of colour and religion, if not as 
 old as nature, older than history or tradition. » This 
 intelligent and conscientious writer next proceeds 
 to furnish details which appropriately illustrate the 
 primary subject of these volumes. « Many of the 
 missionaries have already fallen victims to the cli- 
 mate, and perhaps also to the excessive austerity of 
 their lives, but in dying they have done good. Those 
 who have been long enough in the country to be 
 known have left a memory venerated even by the 
 pagans, and the funeral chant of one who died last 
 year at his station up the river, Don Angelo Ninco, 
 a gentleman of Verona, is still sung in their assem- 
 blies, as composed by the blacks themselves. » (1) 
 Have we not reason to say, that Catholic mission- 
 aries are everywhere and always the same? 
 
 The honorable testimony of M' Hamilton is con- 
 firmed by an American Protestant traveller, who was 
 a guest of the apostolic prefect, whose « thorough 
 
 (1) Sinai, the Hedjaz , and Soudan, by James Hamilton, 
 ch. XIV, p. 332. (1857).
 
 ,32-2 CHAPTER Vll. 
 
 cullivalioii » and varied knowledge he warmly eulo- 
 gises, and who frankly reports « the success allend- 
 ing the efforts of ihe Catholic priests in Khartoum 
 ill educating children. » (1) 
 
 ]>r Hamilton notices with regret the impiety of 
 the European traders, whom the desire of gain has 
 attracted to these regions, and then adds, — « Some 
 of the anecdotes which I heard when at Khartoum 
 of personal violence offered to the vicar general and 
 his colleagues, and submitted to, although they had 
 ample means of successful resistance, raised my ad- 
 miration of their exemplary patience. » 
 
 It is curious that even in these remote and almost 
 unvisited spots, Protestant w riters are found to trace 
 for us the contrast which we could hardly have 
 proved without their assistance. « A certain German 
 missionary » — said an English writer, only a few 
 months before M' Hamilton wrote the above account 
 — « well known in this part of the world, exaspera- 
 ted by the seizure of a few dollars, advised the autho- 
 rities of Aden to threaten the ' combustion ' » of 
 the place where he was mulcted. « A traveller, » 
 M"" Burton calmly adds, « even a layman, is bound to 
 put up with such trifles. » (2) 
 
 And now let us pursue our journey, and enter 
 Abyssinia. The history of missions in this kingdom 
 has been written, with their usual decision of style, 
 by certain Protestants, most of whom were never 
 within a thousand miles of the place, or had any 
 knowledge whatever of the events which they affect 
 
 (1) Journey to Central Africa, by Bayard Taylor, ch. xxill, 
 p. 300. 
 
 (2) First Footsteps in East Africa, ch. I, p. 13. (1856).
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 3'23 
 
 to describe but what they had borrowed from the 
 reports of Catholic missionaries. Oiir acquaintance 
 with Abyssinia, Congo, and other interior regions of 
 Africa, was derived exclusively, as even the English 
 authors of the Universal History remark, « from the 
 missionaries who have penetrated into those torrid 
 and unwholesome climes, and amongst the most bar- 
 barous nations, with the utmost hazard, and through 
 the greatest hardships and discouragements, to pro- 
 pagate the Gospel among them. » These Protestant 
 annalists add, that heat, disease, and want of food — 
 lo say nothing of continual marlyrdonis — « made 
 such dreadful havoc amongst them, that scarce one 
 in ten outlived the first six months. » (1) 
 
 In spite of these notorious facts, some modern 
 Protestant writers — exulting in the certainty, as 
 ihey deemed, that Catholics had been finally driven 
 fiom Abyssinia, an anticipation which we shall see 
 hereafter has been signally disappointed — have pub- 
 lished to the world their view of the circumstances 
 which led to this result. One official writer, willing 
 to borrow weapons in such a cause from any arsenal, 
 is not ashamed to quote what he truly calls « Gib- 
 bon's melancholy picture of the wicked arts practised 
 by the Jesuits. » (2) The Jesuits who went to Abys- 
 sinia, says the Rev. Professor Lee, in his preface lo 
 D"^ Gobat's Journal, were prodigies of infamy and 
 cupidity, — his actual words are somewhat coarser, 
 — and had no other motive but to pilfer the precious 
 metals and other treasures with which this opulent 
 
 (1) Universal History , vol. XI, p. 163. 
 
 (2) Journal of a Deputation to the East, vol. II, p. 8i9. (1854).
 
 3-24 CHAPTER VII, 
 
 country abounded. It would be quite as rational to 
 say, that St. Paul went to Greece with the same 
 design. 
 
 Abyssinia, as M. Desvergers not long ago remark- 
 ed, is a region so utterly destitute of wealth, though 
 fertile in agricultural resources, that « nothing but a 
 purely religious motive » could have induced the 
 educated and well-born missionaries of France, 
 Spain, and Portugal to enter it; (1) and a modern 
 missionary. Padre Montuosi, writing from Gondar 
 in 1840, tells us that he found one of the kings of 
 this country « clolhed only with a pair of drawers, 
 and having for his throne a miserable rag of cloth 
 spread over a little straw. » (2) A recent English 
 traveller records also his astonishment at finding 
 « the capital of one of the most powerful kingdoms 
 of Ethiopia nothing but a large straggling village of 
 huts, mostly thatched with straw. » (o) Other wri- 
 ters will presently assist us still further in correcting 
 the fables of D' Lee, in which a corrupt imagination 
 has supplied all the facts, and a malice verging on 
 frenzy has elaborated all the comments. Almost the 
 only book on which he founds his calumnies, is Lu- 
 dolf's pretended History of Ethiopia, of which an 
 English Protestant has lately said; « it is such an 
 evident compilation of what ought to be the faith of 
 the Abyssinian Church, rather than what it evei" 
 was, or is at the present day, that any account found- 
 ed upon it would be one of the grossest impositions 
 
 (1) Abyssinie, par M.A. N. Desvergers, p. 10. 
 
 (2) Annals, vol. II, p. 348. 
 
 (3) Psivkyns, Life in Abissinia, vol. I, cli. xill, p. 161,
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 325 
 
 that could be palmed upon ihe reading public. » (1) 
 Perhaps Dr Lee had partly derived his inspiration also 
 from Bruce, who calls Father Paez an impostor, (2) 
 and Father Lobo « the greatest liar amongst the 
 Jesuits » — such are the amenities of Protestant 
 literature; although D' Heke, a learned and honest 
 Protestant, who visited Abyssinia at a recent dale, 
 confesses, that « Paez discovered and described the 
 source of the river Abai long before Bruce, » and 
 even hints that the latter probably « composed his 
 own account from the description furnished by the 
 very missionaries so much slandered and depreciated 
 by him. » (3) 
 
 But these are the weapons with which her enemies 
 assault the Church, and Professor Lee is willing to 
 reveal his own special qualifications as a christian 
 historian by informing us, with respect to the here- 
 sies of Nestorius and Dioscorus, that « the disputes 
 which have so long divided the Eastern Church 
 amount to nothing more than a battle about words. » 
 And that we may still more clearly appreciate his 
 zeal for the honour of God, he immediately adds; 
 «« both Monophysiles and Nestorians hold the Divin- 
 ity of our Lord ; their disputes respect only the 
 mode of His incarnation ! » (4) Why should D"" Lee 
 show^ more respect for the virtues of Catholic mis- 
 sionaries than he does for the Incarnation of our Re- 
 deemer? 
 
 (t) Johnston, TravelsinSouthernAbyssinia,\o\.U,ch.v,'p.^O 
 
 (2) Travels, vol. Ill, pp. 617. 623. 
 
 (3) Memoire Justificatif en rehabilitalion des Peres Paez ei 
 Jerome Lobo, p. 69. 
 
 (4) History of the Church of Abyssinia, p. 5.
 
 3-26 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Let US Uiro from this genlleman to graver writers, 
 who possess a more accurate knowledge both of 
 Christianity and of its history in Abyssinia. From 
 ihem we learn that Frumentius, the disciple of 
 St. Athanasius, was ils first Bishop; and M' D'Ab- 
 badie reports that the Abyssinian Christians, fallen 
 as they are, still celebrate a yearly festival in his 
 honour. Ethiopia, subject from the first to Ihe patri- 
 archal see of Alexandria, embraced like it the heresy 
 of Dioscorus, and from that hour ils long history of 
 suffering began. The empress Theodora, an eager 
 partisan of the Eulychian errors, sent emissaries to 
 propagate them in Ethiopia : and though it is now 
 impossible to trace with minute accuracy the gradual 
 progress of heresy in these regions, it seems probable 
 that by the ninth century, at the latest, the work of 
 destruction was complete. It was not, however, till 
 the sixteenth that Abyssinia, still nominally Christ- 
 ian, was finally subjugated by the Mahometan forces 
 which she had so obstinately resisted, and thus in- 
 curred the last and most grievous penalty which 
 divine justice has inflicted upon all the heretical 
 churches of the East. They, as De Bonald said of the 
 Greeks, have becon.e, like the Jews, an accursed 
 people, « the only Christian nation subject to masters 
 who are not so. » 
 
 And now the downfall of Abyssinia was accom- 
 plished. « Islamism, » as M. D'Abbadie remarks, 
 « at the present day so much enfeebled in Europe, 
 has revived in Africa. » Already it has « perverted 
 to its doctrines the savage or half-christian tribes 
 which surround Abyssinia, and having excluded it 
 from the rest of the Christian world, this fatal sys-
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 3-27 
 
 (em keeps encroaching upon and gradually absorbing 
 this ill-fated country. » « The Turks and Arabs, » 
 says Werne, « are jusl as strenuous in their exert- 
 ions to make proselytes as the expensive European 
 missionaries ; » (1) and heresy is too weak to resist 
 them. « It is said, » observes AP AVarburlon, « that 
 considerable numbers annually become apostate to 
 the Moslem creed, lor the sake of marriage, or mo- 
 ney, or both. » (2) 
 
 Such, in its outlines, is the history of the Church 
 founded by Frumentius, and once guided by the coun- 
 sels of St. Athanasius; and such the results of its 
 separation from unity. And now let us see what Cath- 
 olic charity has attempted towards the re-building of 
 this ruined temple. 
 
 In 1850, the Patriarch Nugnez, chosen by St. 
 Ignatius for this perilous mission by the request of 
 Julius III, sailed from Lisbon, together with the 
 small body of Portuguese troops by whose heroic 
 valour David, king of the Ethiopians, was assisted 
 against the Mahonietans. In his suite was Father 
 Oviedo, by whom numerous converts were made, and 
 who subsequently became Patriarch in his turn; but 
 after .seeing many of his brethren martyred, was 
 finally driven into exile by the arts of his implacable 
 enemies, and exposed to perish by famine (3). Thus 
 far partial success, constantly checked by greater 
 reverses, had attended the Catholic missions. In 
 1S89, as Gibbon scoflingly relates, « the patience 
 
 (1) Expedition to discover the sources of the White Nile, 
 vol. 1, ch. II, p. 39. 
 
 (2) Crescent and Cross, vol. I, ch. xiv, p. 139. 
 
 (3) Nouveaux Memoires du Levant, tome IV, pp. 277 el seqq.
 
 3ii8 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 and (lexlerily of forty years (1) » seemed at lenglh 
 to have triumphed; and Paez received the solemn 
 abjuration of the king, who, as M"" Murray observes, 
 « not only professed hiinselfa convert to the Romish 
 faith, but made it the established religion of his do- 
 minions, which it continued to be for a long series 
 of years. » (2) On the M"' of December, 1624, the 
 Abyssinian Church solemnly abjured the Alexan- 
 drian errors, and submitted to the Holy See. 
 
 In consequence of these events, which appeared to 
 establish religion on a solid basis, Mendez was sent 
 as Patriarch; but once again the people, capricious 
 and fickle as Greeks, revolted; and at the death of 
 Socinios, in 1 632, his successor Facilidas, harassed by 
 a civil war, once more ordered all Catholic mission- 
 aries to quit the kingdom. From thai hour it was only 
 at the risk of death that they could force an entrance. 
 Invariably ma^sacred, either by the xMahometans, or 
 by the still more ferocious Gallas tribes, they could 
 henceforth be victims only, not apostles. In 1698, 
 Louis XIV^ sent the physician Poncet, attended by 
 Father Brevedent of the Society of Jesus. « I may 
 truly say, » was the report which Poncet gave of the 
 latter, who died of dysentery after entering Ethio- 
 pia, « that I have never known a man more bold and 
 intrepid in all dangers, more firm and ardent in de- 
 fending the interests of religion, more modest and 
 devout in his whole life and conversation. » (5) 
 
 Once more, in 1752, three Franciscan Fathers, 
 fearlessly braving death, penetrated even to Gondar, 
 
 (1) Gh. 47. 
 
 (2) Discoveries in Africa, vol. II, ch. i, p. 36. 
 
 (3) Lettres Edifiantes, tome III, p. 299.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 329 
 
 in the time of Yasous II, and « instructed many of the 
 royal family in the Catholic faith ;» (1) but the king, 
 in spite of his attachment lo them, was ultimately 
 forced, by the perpetual anarchy and disorder which 
 reigned among his ignorant and heretical subjects, 
 lo dismiss them from the kingdom. And so this 
 unequal contest continued; for the Church, like her 
 Divine Head, never abandons those whom she has 
 resolved to save, and never calls in vain upon the 
 servants whom she invites to such labours. She 
 knows that the sure prospect of suflfering and death 
 will rather animate than discourage iheir zeal. Let 
 us briefly stale, in conclusion, what they have since 
 done in Abyssinia, and what they are doing at the 
 present hour. 
 
 In 1840, Father Montuosi wrote in these words 
 from Gondar to his friend the Abbate Guarini, at 
 Rome. « Towards the middle of September, 1839, we 
 left Cosseir for Djeddah. We embarked on board an 
 Arabian vessel, engaged in carrying corn for the go- 
 vernor of Egypt. The voyage was far from agreeable, 
 but why speak of privations and dangers? We accepted 
 them as the welcome augury of the sacrifice which 
 we were going to offer in the heart of Ethiopia... On 
 the 1'' of November we reached Aduah, the first im- 
 portant city of Abyssinia; Father Sapito came to 
 meet us... The Mahommedans have here more liberty 
 than the Christians. Father de' Jacobis and I were 
 obliged to recite the Office in a low voice, so as not 
 lo be overheard; we seldom celebrated Mass, and 
 w henever we did , it was always in secret, as if in 
 
 (1) Sail's Tmvds in Abijsxinia, app. p. 34. 
 
 II. 11.
 
 330 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 the catacombs. » Finally, leaving Father Jacobis at 
 Aduah, he at length n ached Gondar, « the capital 
 whence have issued at different epochs so many san- 
 guinary edicts against the Catholic Missionaries. »(1) 
 Let us leave him here lor a moment, and return to 
 his companion, whom lie had left, as he says, « not 
 without tears; » al Aduab, like Daniel in the den of 
 lions. 
 
 On the SS'^'' of April, 1842, Father Jacobis wrote 
 as follows, from Massouah, to the Abbate Spacca- 
 pielra, at Naples. « On the 14"' of February, the 
 day on which we quilted Cairo to pursue our journey 
 towards Abyssinia, we were witnesses of an edifying 
 sight. In that city, in the convent of tbe Franciscans, 
 were assembled Bishops and Missionary Priests ; 
 some of whom, recently arrived from India and 
 Arabia, were proceeding to Rome to render an ac- 
 count to the common Father of the faithful of their 
 apostolic labours; while others were on their way 
 to Ethiopia or China, to fill the places which the 
 martyrs had left vacant. Prostrated al the foot of the 
 same altar, we renewed to our Lord the sacrifice of 
 our lives, and, after bidding each other a fraternal 
 and last farewell, we separated, appointing to meet 
 again in heaven. » 
 
 Their caravan was composed of ten Missionaries, 
 of whom six were destined for the interior provinces 
 of China. In four days and nights, travelling chiefly 
 on foot, « because of the humbleness of our means, » 
 they reached Suez. Here, a week later, « the whole 
 city, not excepting even the Mussulmans, rendered 
 
 (1) Annals, vol. II, p. 347.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 331 
 
 homage to the Calliolic religion , by hailing wilh atl- 
 miralion the arrival of a humble colony of Nuns, six 
 ladies belonging to the Society of Jesus and Mary, 
 who were on iheir way from Lyons, accompanied 
 by ihe Abbe Caffarel , to found a school for girls at 
 Agra, in the East Indies. » (1) It is pleasant to 
 know that these ladies accomplished ibeir long pil- 
 grimage in safely. 
 
 Father Jacobis, to whom we will now return, was 
 on this occasion on his second journey to Abyssinia, 
 having conducted to Home, in 1841, a body of 
 Abyssinians whom he had induced to pay a visit to 
 the Sovereign Pontiff. Tw^o laymen, Captains Gali- 
 nier and Ferret, officers of (he Staff, have recorded 
 the results of his journey. « The Abbe Jacobis reach- 
 ed Abyssinia, » they say, « at a moment of universal 
 anarchy, in consequence of the defeat of Ubie, king 
 of Tigre, at the battle of Devra-Tabor. The road 
 which leads from Massouah to Aduah was full of the 
 greatest perils, yet M. Jacobis did not fear to return 
 to his post, and all the revolted chiefs whom he met 
 on the way treated him with the greatest respect. 
 A large number of the inhabitants of Aduah went out 
 to meet him, and greeted him as a father whom they 
 rejoiced to see again after so long an absence. » And 
 then these gentlemen continue their report as follows. 
 
 « The journey of M. Jacobis to Rome has already 
 produced its fruits. The Abyssinians who accom- 
 panied him are now Catholics from conviction, and 
 fear not to avow it before their countrymen. They 
 have the greatest veneration for the Holy Father.... 
 
 (1) Vol. IV, p. Hj.
 
 332 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The king, Ubie, has the highest esteem for M. Jaco- 
 bis, and sent a messenger to him from the mountains 
 of Semen, to congratulate him on his arrival, and lo 
 promise him that, if he should recover his kingdom, 
 he would do his best to he of service to him. But 
 although Ubie should not re-ascend his throne, 
 M. Jacobis would not be without protection. The 
 most powerful chief of Tigre, who knew by re- 
 putation the admirable Missionary, has also sent 
 to compliment him, and has offered him a place in 
 his country, Vojjerat, with permission to build a 
 church and to celebrate the riles of his religion. 
 Thus, whichever prince may triumph in this struggle, 
 the Catholic Mission will be established in Abys- 
 sinia. This happy result we owe to the edifying 
 conduct of our xMissionaries, but above all lo the in- 
 exhaustible goodness, the zeal and ability of the Abbe 
 Jacobis. » 
 
 Let us add, that when D' Beke visited Abyssinia 
 a little later, he says, though a Protestant, « the Ita- 
 lian priests of the Roman Catholic mission, the Ab- 
 bate de' Jacobis and his colleagues, received me more 
 like a brother than a stranger ; » (1) and M"^ Mansfield 
 Parkyns relates, with the candour of a liberal and 
 educated Englishman, that « it was well known that 
 the esteem and influence which his truly Christian 
 conduct and well-regulated charity had earned for 
 him among the people were sore subjects of jealousy 
 and causes of dislike in the hearts of the (Abyssinian) 
 priests. » (2) 
 
 (1) Statement of Facts relative to the British Mission toShoa, 
 p. 17. (1846). 
 
 (2) Life in Abyssinia, vol. II, cli. xxxi, p. 89.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 333 
 
 And now lei us leave Father Jacobis, in his turn, 
 pass over an interval of eight years, and in 1850 we 
 come to the recital of fresh events, communicated by 
 Father Leon des Avraiiches in these terms. He writes 
 from Massouah, on the Abyssinian coast, on the 
 12"" of March in that year, after « three years of 
 persecution. » 
 
 « The ancient Abyssinian empire, no longer in 
 existence since the invasion of the Gallas, is at pre- 
 sent divided into three kingdoms : Tigre Amhara, 
 where Ubie rules; Shoa, mainly consisting of the 
 Gallas tribes; and the kingdom of Gojam. » It was 
 to Shoa that the English government sent a mission 
 a few years ago, the failure of which shall be noticed 
 presently; while of its inhabitants D^ Beke reports, 
 in 1847, that they display « the lowest form in 
 which the Christian religion probably exists on the 
 face of the globe. » (1) Yet it is of such « christians » 
 that Ludolf and other Protestant writers speak with 
 sympathy and admiration, apparently for no other 
 reason than that they reject the Catholic faith, and 
 treat Catholic missionaries after the manner recited 
 in the following narrative. 
 
 « Bishop Massaia , the Vicar Apostolic of the 
 Gallas nation, » says Father Leon, « has just return- 
 ed to this town, on the shores of the lied Sea. After 
 spending ten months in visiting the various Christian 
 tribes dispersed through the kingdoms of Shoa and 
 Gojam, he found himself compelled to quit his Mis- 
 sion, on account of the persecution raised by the 
 
 (1) Christianity amomj the Gallas, bv C. J. Beke, Ph. D. 
 
 (1847).
 
 334 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 schismalical bishop of Abyssinia.... Although ihe 
 Christians of Abyssinia profess the error of Diosco- 
 rus, which was condemned in the Council of Chal- 
 cedon, a great number of them live in total ignorance 
 of the matter, and su))pose that their Bishop, the 
 Abouna sent to them by the schismalical palriarch 
 of Cairo, is in communion with the Pope. According 
 to the laws of the country, there can be only one 
 Bishop in Abyssinia : the usujper of the title is sub- 
 ject to the penalty of death. This furnished the motive 
 for the persecution raised against Bishop Massaia. 
 The actual Abouna, before he became a bishop, was 
 a poor youth, whose only properly was an ass, which 
 he let out to travellers. After studying two years at 
 Cairo, he was deemed suflicieutly instructed to per- 
 form episcopal functions; he was ordained, and des- 
 patched to Abyssinia, together with some Anglican 
 ministers, who were subsequently expelled by the 
 people. » 
 
 By this singular prelate Bishop Massaia was « ex- 
 communicated, » and condemned to death; « ihe 
 sum of one hundred talaris being also promised to 
 any one who would bring him the head of a Catholic 
 missionary. » (1) But the project was thwarted by 
 the precautions of Father Jacobis, and « this out- 
 burst only served to extend the knowledge of the 
 Catholic creed. The name of the Right Reverend 
 D' xMassaia was thenceforth on every tongue; all 
 parties spoke of Ihe new Abouna sent by ihe Pontiff 
 of Rome. » Preseived by the chief of a Catholic tribe 
 from assassination, ihe Bishop finally escaped to 
 
 (i) Annals, vol. Xll.p. 330.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 335 
 
 Aden ; the Christians declaring that if he gave him- 
 self up lo the Abouna, — as he proposed to do, in 
 order to save his flock from vexation, — ihey would 
 all die with him. 
 
 During his temporary exile, a touching scene was 
 enacted on the island of Dhalac, near Massouah, 
 where he had found refuge, by the connivance of the 
 Ottoman governor, together with Father Jacohis. 
 For more than a year the latter had been in possess- 
 ion of Bulls from the Sovereign Pontiff, appointing 
 him to the dignity of the episcopate, wbich his hu- 
 mility had resolutely declined to accept. Even the 
 remonstrances of Bisho|) Massaia were fruitless; till 
 at length he was obliged to « command him, by vir- 
 tue of the holy obedience which he owed lo the 
 Church, lo receive the episcopal consecration, » — 
 and the humble missionary became Bishop of Mlo- 
 polis, and Vicar Apostolic of Abyssinia. Twenly-five 
 native priests also received ordination from D"^ Mas- 
 saia, and « after a fraternal embrace, the two out- 
 lawed Bishops separated, » the one seeking a refuge 
 in the mountains of Altiena, the other remaining a 
 few days to converse alone with God on the rock of 
 Dhalac. 
 
 And now a new incident revived the hopes of the 
 suffering Catholics. Teclafa, an Abyssinian Abbot, 
 the Superior of more than one thousand monks, aj)- 
 peared before Bishop iMassaia, to make in his hands 
 his abjuration of heresy. « After this astonishing 
 profession of I'ailh, he withdrew, and proceeded to 
 proclaim at the court of the kings of Abyssinia, and 
 in the very heat of persecution, that he had become 
 a Catholic Priest. Such a courageous declaration, »
 
 336 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 .^dds Father Leon, « from the lips of a neophyte, 
 made our enemies crest-fallen, and restored courage 
 to our Christians. None ventured to lay a hand on 
 Teclafa, from dread of a popular insurrection. On 
 his return to his monastery, all his monks likewise 
 declared themselves Catholics. But his zeal did not 
 confine itself within these hounds. Like another 
 St. Paul be now devoted himself to the conversion of 
 his brethren, and already three Christian congrega- 
 tions have been associated, by his exertions, lo the 
 (>hurch of Jesus Christ. » 
 
 The scattered missionaries had now all reached 
 once more the frontiers of the Gallas tribes, and 
 their Bishop could not restrain the desire to be again 
 in the midst of his brethren. Leaving Massouah in 
 disguise, D"^ Massaia again entered Abyssinia, 
 where a price was set upon his head. Having 
 shaved his long beard, and put on a Turkish 
 dress, he joined a caravan proceeding lo Gondar, in 
 the character of a poor trader. Jn thirteen days he 
 reached the camp of Lbie, who sent him on his way, 
 « accompanied by a soldier, with orders that the 
 same honours which were shown to the king should 
 be paid to the Bishop. » He reached Gondar, but 
 only to be once more banished by the cruellies and 
 exactions of his enemies; then ascending the Blue 
 iNile to its source, for nothing could daunt his courage 
 nor exhaust his patience, he sought the presence of 
 Ras Ali, one of the most powerful of ihe Abyssinian 
 princes, having at that time 100,000 men under 
 arms. The Ras was baptized, but in heart a Mussul- 
 man, and little advantage resulted from his interview 
 with one who resented in private the homage which
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 337 
 
 he was forced to pay to Chrislianily before his 
 followers. As he came out of the royal tent, he was 
 accosted by M"^ Bell, an English traveller settled in 
 Abyssinia, and a captain in ihe army of Ras. « He 
 had a tent prepared for the Bishop and his compan- 
 ions, and though he was a Protestant, always 
 showed himself I heir friend and protector. » 
 
 It would, however, be an error to suppose that 
 the obstacles to the conversion of this country pro- 
 ceed mainly from the Abyssinian heretics, or their 
 miserable Abouna. « Islamism, » says D' Massaia, 
 « walchcs ihe whole coast of this vast continent, and 
 an immense bell of fanatical populations, constantly 
 excited by emissaries from Mecca, obstruct all transit 
 for Christians towards the interior. Their means of 
 action are unlimited, their proselytism ardent, their 
 progress unfortunately rapid. Already two-thirds at 
 least of the Gallas nation are Mussulmans. In Christ- 
 ian Abyssinia they form a third of the population. 
 In the capitals of Gondar, Tigre, and Shoa, they are 
 in the ascendani, in consequence of their wealth and 
 influence... The Christians, who are only heretics 
 by birth, would willingly embrace our religion, if 
 they were not oppressed by the Abouna and the 
 Mussulmans. » 
 
 In spite of these formidable difficulties, and of 
 the grave fact aflirmed by Bishop Massaia, that 
 « Mahometanism tends to supremacy within a short 
 period, » -- for none of the heretical communities 
 of the East have life enough to resist its progress, — 
 the Catholic missionaries still j)ursue their arduous 
 toils, always in peril, yet never dismayed, and 
 leaving the result to Ilim whose servants they are.
 
 338 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Already, six years ago, lliey had received the abju- 
 ration of nioie than ten thousand Abyssinians, 
 including ihcir most eminent ecclesiaslics; and 
 within the last two years iheir influence has power- 
 fully increased, even their most invclerale enemies 
 being subdued by their unalterable patience and 
 charity. In May, 1860, one of the most intelligent 
 and influcniial of the Abyssinian princes « was 
 restored to (Catholic unity, together with all his 
 people. » (1) A litlle earlier, Negoucie, another of 
 the native polenlates, sent a solemn embassy to the 
 Pope, announcing the free exercise of the Catholic 
 religion throughout his dominions, and expressing 
 his own desire to be received into the Church. (2) 
 
 It is evident that but for the potent influence of 
 Islamism, and its ceaseless intrigues, they would 
 soon convert all Abyssinia. The Abbot of Guend- 
 guendie, one of the most important personages in 
 the country, lately exclaimed aloud in the presence 
 of Ubie , to some of the chief opponents of the 
 missionaries; « If you would combat the Catholics 
 with success, you must begin by leading as Christian 
 lives as they do. » Bisho|) Jacobis, who relates this 
 anecdote, adds, — « Thanks to our Divine Saviour, 
 the exemplary conduct of the Abyssinian Catholics 
 wonderfully justifies this reasoning. As for the 
 Abbot, he does not confine himself to barren 
 speeches; impatient to confirm them by his actions, 
 he solicits without intermission the favour of being 
 admitted into the number of the faithful. We should 
 
 (1) Annals, n" 126, p. 125. 
 
 (2) L Abolition de VEsclavage, par Atigustin Cocliin; tome II, 
 p. 522.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 339 
 
 already have yielded to the eagerness of his desires, 
 if the conversion of a personage placed so high in 
 general esteem, on acconnl of his perpetual fasting, 
 did not require sundry precautions, suggested by the 
 interests of religion itself. This is, however, a sure 
 conquest, although adjourned, and our temporising 
 only serves (o mature it by fasting and prayer. » (1) 
 And now, since we have sufficiently manifested 
 the character of Catholic influence in Abyssinia, and 
 of the generous apostles by whose I oil it is main- 
 tained, we may quit a subject which our limits do 
 not permit us to exhaust. From Abyssinia, where 
 the creed of St. Athanasius is evidently destined to 
 triumph over the errors of Eulyches and Dioscorus, 
 the faith is spreading even among the barbarous 
 Gallas tribes. « I enjoy perfect liberty in the exercise 
 of my ministry, » says Bishop Massaia, now Vicar 
 Apostolic of the Gallas, at the close of 1855. « A 
 few years of patient perseverance will enable me, 
 I feel convinced, to enter into communication with 
 Sennaar. » Seven years later, a Protestant missionary 
 will tell us that the brave bishop had penetrated far 
 beyond even that remote place. « I have with me 
 here (Sandabo) two pupils, one an Abyssinian, the 
 other a Galla ; the latter exceedingly fervent, and 
 whom, in the course of another year, I shall be able 
 to ordain Priest. Nothing but death shall separate 
 me from my neophytes ; and if my corpse is nol 
 followed to the grave by a numerous procession of 
 Christians, the land at all events is here cheap 
 enough to afford sepulture to my unworthy remains. 
 
 (1) Vol. X, p. 307.
 
 340 CHAPTER VIF. 
 
 Let me only succeed, before ihal hour arrives, in 
 planliug ihe Cross, and in kindling ihe evangelical 
 fire which already begins to burn in the hearts of a 
 few individuals, and ihe whole Gallas nation will be 
 saved. » (1) 
 
 Six years later, (he apostolic labours of this 
 courageous prelate had already produced so much 
 fruit in this savage soil, — which only zeal like his 
 would have dared to cultivate, far from all human 
 succour, and deprived of all human means, — that 
 he found it necessary to consecrate a coadjutor, and 
 the native clergy consisted of five priests, a deacon, 
 and seven religious. 
 
 It is of the labours of such a man as this, and of 
 his venerable colleagues, — who, as A^ Hamilton 
 observes with admiration, were not rarely « victims 
 to the excessive austerity of their lives, » and who 
 won ihe reluctant veneration of the Moslem, the 
 Nubian, and the Galla, — that a proteslant minister, 
 D"" Wilson, could deliberately write as follows. 
 « The apparent success of the agents of Rome at 
 present in Abyssinia is to be attributed principally 
 to bribery and corruption. Let ihem beware of all 
 uni igliteousness and hypocrisy, for tlie day of reck- 
 oning may come sooner than they expect. » (2) 
 Has D"^ Wilson forgotten that it w ill come for himself 
 also? 
 
 Let us return for a moment from the country of 
 the Gallas to Abyssinia, before we pass to other 
 regions, in order to notice, according to our custom, 
 
 (1) Vol. XV, p. 178. 
 
 (2) Lands of the Bible, vol. II, p. 593.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 341 
 
 !he atlempts of Protestant missionaries in (he latter 
 kingdom. 
 
 The Abyssinian christians, fallen as they are, still 
 profess a sincere belief in the Seven Sacraments; and 
 as M. Rochet d'Hericourt — whose salutary influence 
 with the king of Shoa M'^ Johnston describes and 
 laments — lately observed, display so much rever- 
 ence for the Mother of God that ihey celebrate thirty- 
 three annual festivals in her honour. (1) Such devo- 
 tions, always rewarded by her Divine Son, will no 
 doubt hasten their reconciliation with the Church, 
 in spite of the defects which accompany them. 
 Meanwhile, they have won for the Abyssinians the 
 reproachful sympathy of Protestants, who reprove 
 their agreement with Catholic doctrine as much as 
 they laud their opposition to Catholic unity. In order 
 to check the one and stimulate the other, M'^ Gobat, 
 the gentleman who now represents, without believ- 
 ing, the Anglican religion at Jerusalem, — in spite 
 of the ineffectual protests of men who are accustomed 
 to « protest » without gaining, or expecting to gain, 
 any thing by it — paid a visit to Abyssinia. He had 
 been preceded by others, one of whom, apparently 
 M"^ Isenberg, was happy enough, before he was ex- 
 pelled, to dissuade some of the natives from embra- 
 cing Maliometanism. Let us hope that he may receive 
 an abundant reward for this good aclion. 
 
 M"" Gobat seems to have been less successful. His 
 manner of life, he tells us, and especially his invin- 
 cible repugnance to bodily mortifications in general 
 
 (1) Second Voyage dans le Pays des Adeh et le Royaume de 
 Choa, p. 227.
 
 34-2 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 and to fiisliiig in particular, did not allracl the esleein 
 of the Ahyssinian christians. « The greater part of 
 the monks, » he complains, « have hecome my ene- 
 mies, and call me ' Mussuhiiau, ' because I condemn 
 the adoration of the \'irgin Maiy, and have no con- 
 fidence in her intercession. » (1) And so he found it 
 expedient to depart, the people obstinately lefusing 
 lo believe that a man could be any thing better ihan 
 a Turk ^vho never fasted, had « no confidence » 
 in the all-powerful Mother of Jesus, and publicly 
 asserted that she « was a sinner. » 
 
 As such a statement may appear impossible, even 
 in the mouth of one who seems to be, at the same 
 moment, a German Lutheran, an agent of the Church 
 Missionary Society, and an Anglican bishop, it may 
 be well to add, that M"^ Gobat records in his Journal, 
 for the advantage of English reader^, the very argu- 
 ments which he proposed without success to the 
 Abyssinians. The Immaculate Virgin was evidently 
 a sinner, he says, for two reasons; first because she 
 called our Blessed Lord her Saviour; and secondly, 
 because she allowed Ilim lo wander from her on the 
 journey from Jeiusalem ! A French w riler observes 
 that M" Gobal might have proved, by the same rea- 
 soning, that our Lord was also a sinner, because He 
 submitted to be baptized, and because He voluntarily 
 left the company of our Lady and St. Joseph. (2) 
 
 But if tlie Abyssinians refused to believe thai 
 M' Gobat was a Christian, he was equally surprised 
 that they could resist the attractions of his lenient 
 
 (1) Journal of a Three Years Residence in Abyssinia, ch. iv, 
 p. 323. 
 
 (2) Les Lieux Saints, par Mgr Mislin, tome III, ch. xxvni.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 343 
 
 religious code, and reject ihe cheerful form of 
 Chrislianily which he oHered iheni. « If the Priests 
 choose lo marry, » he remarks, severely reproving 
 their indifTerence lo that source of enjoyment, « Ihey 
 have nothing lo fear, except a litlle contempt, to- 
 gether with the prohibition of their officiating as 
 priests. »(1) To this hour, M"" Gobat can neither un- 
 derstand why these Ethio|)ians look him for a Turk, 
 nor why they rejected his cordial invitation to« defile 
 themselves with women;» (2) because, as he observes, 
 all they had to apprehend was « a liltle contempt, » 
 and degradation from the priesthood. By such inade- 
 quate motives they were restrained from embracing 
 the religion of M' Gobat. 
 
 If M"" Gobat had selected Kurdistan , instead of 
 Abyssinia or Jerusalem, as the scene of his labours, 
 there is reason to believe that in the former country 
 he w ould found the disciples whom he failed lo at- 
 tract by the rivers of Ethiopia or under the shadows 
 of Mount Sion. That Kurdistan would have received 
 him, if not wiih enthusiasm, at least with sympathy, 
 we may infer from the remark of a Kurd to an Eng- 
 lish traveller, to whom he confidentially observed, 
 that the English and Kurdish religions were evi- 
 dently identical, — « for we eat hog's flesh, drink 
 wine, keep no fasts, and say no prayers. » (5) 
 
 M' Gobat asserts, however, that he did make at 
 least one convert inx4.byssinia, and we are able to cor- 
 roborate the slalement by the testimony of a fellow 
 
 (1) Ch. V, p. 349. 
 
 (2) Apoc. XIV, 4. 
 
 (3) Nineveh and Persepolis, by W. S. Vaux, I\l. A., ch. ii, 
 p. 23.
 
 344 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 missionary. « Girgis, an Abyssinian, » says D'' Jo- 
 seph Wolff, « was converted by Gobal. » The faci, 
 then, is authentic; but D"" Wolff adds immediately, 
 as if to check undue elation, that this solitary con- 
 vert first sold two children into slavery who had been 
 entrusted to his care, « and afterwards turned Mu- 
 hammedan at Cairo. » (1) 
 
 It is characlcrislic of the levity which accepts 
 and propagates such fictions, that in a biography 
 of M"^ Gobal, published by what is called « the 
 Evangelical Alliance, » this very Girgis is pre- 
 sented to the admiration of English Protestants as 
 « a noble Abyssinian, » and a devout pupil of Kugler 
 and Gobal, « whose inslruclions, combined with the 
 diligent study of the sacred Scriptures, were bles- 
 sed greatly to promote his advancement in divine 
 things! » (2) 
 
 When M"^ Gobat retired from Abyssinia, to con- 
 tinue elsewhere his unfinished career, he was suc- 
 ceeded by D' Lewis Krapf, who appears to have 
 resembled the Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, both in 
 his views of Christianity and in the success with 
 which he taught them, M' Gobat, indeed, was con- 
 tent to recommend matrimony to the Abyssinian 
 clergy for its own sake; D"" Krapf from higher mo- 
 tives. « JMy experiences convinced me, » says the lat- 
 ter gentleman, « that an unmarried missionary co?</rf 
 wo^ eventually prosper. » It might perhaps be sug- 
 gested that this opinion betrays an imperfect ac- 
 quaintance with the history of Christianity ; nor does 
 
 (1) Wolff's Jowrttfl/, p. 331. 
 
 (2) Evangelical Christendom, vol. I, p. 77.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 345 
 
 D"" Krapfs own career encourage the belief that mar- 
 riage is an infallible guarantee of missionary success. 
 Everywhere he failed. « I am specially grieved, » he 
 says, « by the indifference of the Wanika, » — who 
 had largely shared in his « thirty chests full of Bi- 
 bles. » « My dear fellow-labourer Rebmann had at 
 one lime collected a flock of children at Bunni, and 
 begun to teach Ihem; but they soon dispersed. » In 
 the midst of these vexations, « it was very conso- 
 latory, » he observes, « to remember the words, Fear 
 not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great 
 reward. » The only reward, however, which he ac- 
 tually records is his appointment to a comfortable 
 position in Germany, for which he abandoned the in- 
 sensible Wanika. 
 
 D"^ Krapfs view of the efficacy of marriage in pro- 
 moting missionary work appears to have been modi- 
 fied by later observations. « The wish to settle down 
 as comfortably as possible, » he remarks, « and to 
 marry, entangles a missionary in many external engage- 
 ments which may lead him away from his Master 
 and his duly. This wish naturally prompts him to 
 trouble himself about irrelevant and subordinate 
 matters, such for instance as house-building, all sorts 
 of colonizing schemes, etc., etc. » D"" Krapf appears, 
 therefore, to have been at least partially converted to 
 St. Paul's doctrine on the same subject. 
 
 D"" Krapf records one convert , like M"^ Gobat, but 
 D' Krapf is an honest man , though an unsuccessful 
 missionary, and tells us his real character. Wolda 
 Gabriel, D"" Krapfs hired servant, was a native of 
 Shoa, and having been sent to Jerusalem," became 
 acquainted with the Bible and the Protestant faith. » 
 
 II. IC
 
 346 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 He could even, says his master, « defend pure Christ- 
 ianity against Mohammedans and higoted Christians 
 of the Greek, Romish, and Abyssinian churches. » 
 But this was the sum of his merits. He had reached 
 that point heyond which no disciple of Protestant 
 missionaries ever advances, and « in spite of all his 
 intellectual acquirements, his heart was still unre- 
 newed and un regenerate. » 
 
 On the other hand, D"^ Krapf, like D' Smith in 
 China and M"" Tomlin in India, was able to delect 
 that the labours of Catholic missionaries, iu spite of 
 their being unmarried, were more fruitful than his 
 own. We even learn something from him about Bish- 
 ops Massaia and Jacobis, and the colleagues who 
 shared their toils. « The Abuna said that the Gallas 
 would not allow white people to visit Kaffa, espe- 
 cially if they were provided with fire arms. In spite 
 of this, some Romish missionaries seem to have suc- 
 ceeded in reaching Kaffa, where they are said to have 
 been very well received by the King of the country. » 
 « Some lime ago, » he adds, « an Italian priest is 
 said to have penetrated to Gezan, which is apparently 
 twelve days south of Sennar, and thence to have 
 proceeded to Fadasi, the chief place of the tribe 
 Bene Shongol. He seems to have purposed to reach 
 Enarea and Kaffa, where are some Romish mission- 
 aries, who went to Kaffa from Abyssinia. » The mis- 
 sionary executed his bold project , and at Fadasi 
 « gained the favour of the prince by curing his sick 
 son, » 
 
 But D"" Krapf has more to tell us. Unable, like his 
 co-religionists in other lands, to relate any victories of 
 bis own, he is content to celebrate those of Catholics.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 347 
 
 « The Romanists made converts in Halai, Dixan, 
 Kaich, Kur, and in other places, on the frontieis of 
 Tigre, as many priests in the interior played into 
 their hands. » Towards himself, if we interpret his 
 silence rightly, the same priests were less favorably 
 disposed; yet their Abuna was willing to give him 
 free scope, and he relates, with great simplicity, 
 how bluntly that intelligent functionary intimated 
 his personal conviction that he had nothing whatever 
 to fear from Protestant missionaries. «The Protestant 
 missionaries, « he told D^ Krapf, — who repeats the 
 words without the slightest suspicion of their irue 
 meaning, — ado not injure the Abyssinian Chnrch, for 
 they circulate the Bible, and that only; » a practice 
 which the Abuna had good reason to know would 
 lead to very harmless results, « such as the wrapping 
 up of snuff, » as ]>P Parkyns has told us, « and such 
 like undignified purposes. » The « eight thousand Bi- 
 bles » which D' Krapf himself distributed had made 
 no other conquest than the « unrenewed and unre- 
 generate » Wolda Gabriel. 
 
 But « the Romanists, » the Abuna assured D"" Krapf, 
 were insupportable, « and interfered with my go- 
 vernment of the Church. » Moreover, they were 
 making converts in all directions, especially among 
 the higher ecclesiastics, and were in every way oflen- 
 sive. For this reason, when Kasai attacked Ubie 
 in 1853, the Abuna promised his co-operation, if 
 the former would banish the Catholic missionaries 
 from Gondar; which that prince did, to the great 
 but premature exultation of D"^ Krapf. The Catholic 
 religion is accustomed to outlive more formidable 
 adversaries than Kasai, as D"^ Krapf quickly dis-
 
 348 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 covered. And so, he observes, « Ubie worked so 
 strenuously in the interest of Rome, » having learned 
 to venerate such representatives of the Holy See as 
 Massaia and Jacobis, « that the Abuna could not 
 prevail upon the prince even to cherish the Abys- 
 sinian church to whicli he belonged. It was there- 
 fore evident that the Protestant Mission must entirely 
 abandon Abyssinia, and seek elsewhere for a sphere 
 of labour; and such was the result. » Whereupon, 
 says D"^ Krapf, « I bid farewell to my household, 
 after prayer and scriptural meditation. » (1) And so 
 ended the Protestant iMission in Abyssinia. 
 
 M"" Gobat and D"^ Krapf, and their immediate as- 
 sociates, were not, however, the only emissaries of 
 Protestantism who were ejected from Abyssinia. The 
 Moravians also, we learn from M"" Mansfield Parkyns, 
 maintained a costly mission in that land, and this 
 was the result of their operations. « Having expended 
 a large sum in books and property distributed and 
 lost, they left not one single convert, nor even one 
 individual who would say more of them than that 
 ihey were good natured, open-handed people, but 
 that it was a pity they were such desperate heretics : 
 even those whose gratitude for what they might have 
 gained in lucre induced them to pay the good breth- 
 ren such negative compliments, were few indeed 
 compared to those who openly spoke of them as in- 
 fidels and worse than Turks. » 
 
 This verdict, however severe, was not altogether 
 arbitrary and unprovoked. Not only did the Moravi- 
 
 (1) Travels in Eastern Africa, cli. VII, p. 87 ; ch. viii, p. 110 ; 
 ch. XF, pp. 185, 437, 465.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 349 
 
 ans resemble M"" Gobat in their conlempt for the 
 Saints, and dislike of bodily morlificalion, — pecu- 
 liarities which were far from recommending them lo 
 the sympathy of the Abyssinians; they even adopted, 
 as M"" Parkyns relates, the decisive plan of « killing 
 meat in the Mission House during one of their most 
 solemn fasts, to tempt the poor and hungry to sin 
 against their own consciences. » But the famished 
 Abyssinian was only revolted by this characteristic 
 proceeding, Avhich excited such universal loathing 
 and indignation, that « the missionaries were de- 
 clared to be no Christians, » and when they finally 
 departed, « they left not a single friend behind. » (1) 
 Such, in a few words, has been the issue of all 
 the Protestant missions in Abyssinia. They have 
 failed to convert a solitary individual, and their con- 
 clusion has been greeted by the natives with a chorus 
 of maledictions. Without, however, employing the 
 vehement phraseology of the christians of Shoa and 
 Tigre, we may content ourselves with observing, — 
 that if Protestant missionaries, of all sects and ranks, 
 venture upon actions which shock the instincts, and 
 provoke the disgust and astonishment, of the least 
 spiritual races of the human family; if even the best 
 of them lead everywhere, and with a kind of osten- 
 tation, a life which, however decent and orderly, is 
 as manifestly earthly and un-supernalural as that of 
 their own domestics; while their religion consists 
 only in periodical fits of emotion, and in an incessant 
 talk about mysteries which they never realise, and 
 doctrines which they never interpret, and graces 
 
 (1) Life in Abyssinia, vol. I, ch. xil, p. 148.
 
 350 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 which ihey never display; Ihey have no reason lo be 
 surprised at the judgment which has long ago been 
 passed upon iheni, with a terrible unanimity of aver- 
 sion, by ihe whole heathen world. 
 
 It was a rule of the great Apostle to be « all things 
 lo all men, » and even to adapt his exposition of 
 divine truth, so far as the integrity of ihe faith per- 
 mitted, to the ideas and perceptions of his hearers. 
 He spoke even to the lascivious Greek and the effem- 
 inate Syrian of the vigil and the scourge; but if he 
 had preached in Hindostan or Abyssinia, he would 
 willingly have fasted all the year round. Protestant 
 missionaries disdain these apostolic arts. Fathers of 
 families, and absorbed by secular cares, they hate 
 fasting, silence, and every other mortification, and 
 never scruple lo avow their antipathies, for which 
 they have always a « scriptural » justification, lo 
 all who will listen lo them. But in doing so, they 
 effectually alienate, not only Christians, but even 
 pagans and mussulmans. 
 
 « The people bother my life out about fasting, » 
 says an English traveller in Africa. « Two young 
 Touarick women came to me — 
 
 ' Thou Christian ! dost thou fast? ' (they having 
 never seen a person before who did not fast.) 
 
 ' No; the Christians dont fast. ' 
 
 The girls. — ' Dont the Christians know (roc/?'»(l) 
 
 Major Cornwallis Harris, another English Protest- 
 ant, was not less initaled by similar remarks on the 
 part of Abyssinians, who used to ask one another, 
 
 (1) Ricliardson, Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, \o\. I, 
 ch. v, p. 149.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 3ol 
 
 will) respect to the members of llie English mission 
 whom that officer conducted to Shoa, — « Wliat can 
 they be? Are they Jews? or IMahomelans, or what? » 
 And when some charitably suggested that they might 
 possibly be a kind of degenerate Christians, the 
 bystanders would reply; « Christians! Impossible. 
 They observe no fast. » (1) 
 
 M"" Gobat, j>F Richardson, and Major Harris might 
 have told them, if so disposed, that Christians of the 
 school of St. Paul do fast; not, like Mahometans, to 
 avenge at night the mortification of the body by day; 
 nor, like heretics, as if fasting, without measure and 
 without rule, were a substitute for more important 
 virtues; but with such a prudent and holy fast as 
 St. Paul enjoined, « to bring the body into subject- 
 ion, » and chastise its disorderly appetites — a fast 
 expressive of humility and contrition, inspired by 
 charity, imposed by law', and consecrated by obe- 
 dience. They might have told them, too, if they had 
 remembered it, that the only two men who ever 
 appeared in glory with the Redeemer of the world, 
 were also the only two who ever received power to 
 imitate His supernatural fast of forty days and nights. 
 
 We have spoken of the English mission to Shoa. 
 M'' Johnston, alluding to its utter failure, says; « I 
 know, from personal experience, that the merchant 
 and the missionary must now seek other situations 
 for carrying out their interesting and philanthropic 
 projects for the regeneration of Africa. » The Eng- 
 lish mission, he seems to think, which was designed 
 to counteract that of Catholic France, ruined those 
 
 (1) The Highlands of Ethiopia, vol. II, cli. XXU, p. 184..
 
 352 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 projects finally ; and « the missionary, » he adds, 
 « now grieves for influence ihal is gone for ever. »(1) 
 The French mission, unlike the English, has been 
 supremely successful in all its aims. Aided by the 
 powerful influence of the Bishop and his apostolic 
 companions, the dignity of whose character has con- 
 ciliated even their enemies, it has already import- 
 antly served the interests both of religion and of 
 France. The delegate of the Holy See is at length 
 enthroned in the capital of Abyssinia, and fresh con- 
 quests reward his patient and enlightened zeal. Only 
 the enemies of the Church, and of her work of re- 
 generation, have reason to deplore this new triumph 
 of faith and civilization; but tlieij do not conceal 
 their displeasure. A French Protestant lady, whose 
 deplorable language makes one forget her sex, met 
 in M"^ Lieder's unsuccessful school at Cairo an Abys- 
 sinian youth, who seems to have made the usual 
 progress towards utter infidelity under his English 
 teachers, but who gave this candid account of his own 
 native district. « There was an English missionary in 
 my country, but they sent him away ; there is now 
 an Italian missionary, who has built a chapel : ihey 
 love the French religion better than the English. »(2) 
 And an emissary of a London Society lamented a 
 little later that the contest was over, and that « the 
 endeavours of Protestants to send other agents into 
 the country have hitherto been frustrated by the in- 
 trigues of the Jesuits. » (5) The truth is, as we have 
 seen by Protestant testimony, that they were driven 
 
 (1) Vol. II, ch. v, p. 70, and 84. 
 
 (2) Journal (Tun Voyage au Levant, tome II, p. 4-46. 
 
 (3) Journal of a Deputation to the East, vol. II, p. 849.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 353 
 
 away by the indignation of the people, who needed 
 no stimulus from a few helpless foreigners to rid 
 themselves of teachers whose worldly lives and un- 
 christian doctrines led the Abyssinians, in spite of 
 their own imperfections, to regard them « as infidels 
 and worse than Turks. » 
 
 And now let us turn our faces westwards, traverse 
 the vast regions which have already proved fatal to 
 so many of the apostles of human science, — Ledyard 
 and Park, Burkhardt and Bowditch, Lang and Clap- 
 perton, and, in our own day, Barlh and Warring- 
 ton, (1) —and without lingering in that great central 
 waste into which the Catholic missionary alone can 
 ever introduce religion and civilization, let us com- 
 mence on the opposite coast of Africa the investi- 
 gations which we have already attempted to pursue 
 along its eastern frontier. 
 
 The Pere Labat, in his account of Western Africa, 
 endeavours lo prove that the Normans visited that 
 coast in the beginning of the fourteenth century. (2) 
 If it were so, they left no materials, and Avere not 
 likely to leave any, for the history which we now 
 propose to trace. Four nations have, since that date, 
 partly from religious and partly from commercial 
 motives, made settlements on different points of the 
 Atlantic coast. The Portuguese, who led the way in 
 the fifteenth century, now retain only in Lower Gui- 
 nea — including the Kingdoms of Congo, Angola, 
 and Benguela — the authority which they once 
 exerted through a wider range ; Sencgambia, and 
 
 (1) Statement of the Society for exploring Central Africa, p. 7. 
 
 (2) Nouvelle Relation de FAfrique Occidentale, tome I, ch. ll. 
 
 II. i«.
 
 354 CHAPTER VII, 
 
 the Mantlingo race, acknowledge the influence of 
 France; the Cape Coast region forms part of the 
 ample colonial conquests of Great Britain ; and 
 America seeks, by her merchants and her mission- 
 aries, to dispute at Cape Palmas and a few other 
 points, by the energetic action of the Maryland Co- 
 lonisation Society, the religious and mercantile su- 
 premacy of Europe. Let us begin with Sierra Leone 
 and the contiguous districts, which, for more than 
 half a century, have been appropriated as their pe- 
 culiar field by the agents of English commerce and 
 religion. 
 
 England has not usually been happy in the earlier 
 representatives of her church and polity in foreign 
 lands. It is true that the Anglican Church has, in 
 every instance, employed members of other com- 
 munilies to convey her doctrines to the heathen — 
 because her own ministers, salaried officials of a 
 civil corporation, invariably refused the task. As 
 in India and Ceylon, in Syria and thJ Levant, and 
 in many other places , so in West Africa , she 
 has been represented chiefly by Germans. Even the 
 Americans, each of whose multitudinous sects has 
 its own distinctive missionary organization, freely 
 remark upon the reluctance of the Church of Eng- 
 land clergy to act as missionaries. « The Church 
 Missionary Society, » observes the Rev. Joseph 
 Tracy, in a work on this subject, « sent out Ger- 
 mans; for, after several years of eff"ort, no English 
 missionary could be procured. » (1) This statement 
 
 (1) Colonization and Missions, by J. Tracy, Secretary of the 
 Mass. Col. Socy, p. 30.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 355 
 
 may not be literally true ; for the Rev. William 
 Moislcr, an African missionary, informs us, thai the 
 « Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in For- 
 eign Parts » sent a clergyman to Cape Coast Castle 
 as early as 1751. Possibly, however, this gentleman 
 was also a German ; but whatever his nation may 
 have been, « very little impression, » we are told, 
 « seems to have been made upon the minds of the 
 natives. » And then ]\P Moister adds a very instruct- 
 ive anecdote. The clergyman returned to England 
 after four years absence, bringing with him three 
 native boys for education. The fate of two of 
 them is not recorded; but the third, Quaque, recei- 
 ved the highest privileges which England and her 
 national church could bestow upon him. He was sent 
 to Oxford, « ordained, » after completing his studies 
 at that venerable university, and finally despatched 
 to his own country as the government chaplain. 
 « This post, » says M" Moister, « he continued to 
 occupy for mof^e than fifty years; but it does not 
 appear that he was instrumental in turning any of his 
 fellow countrymen to the faith of Christianity. Nor is 
 this matter of surprise, when it is known that, on his 
 death-bed, he had, at least, as much confidence in 
 the influence of the fetish as in the power of Christ- 
 ianity. » (1) 
 
 Commencing our history with this characteristic 
 example of the combined influence of England's prin- 
 cipal church and university, let us now examine the 
 successive events which that history records. Not 
 
 (1) Memorials of Missionary Labour in W.Africa, ch. I, p. 41 . 
 Cf. Ashantec and the Gold Coast, by John Beecliam, ch. x, p. 258.
 
 356 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 that Quake was really the first representative of 
 English protestantism in Africa ; for as early as 
 1555, as M"" Hugh Murray relates, Windham con- 
 ducted an expedition to these shores which came to 
 naught, « through the flagrant misconduct of those 
 entrusted with it. » The same fate attended a good 
 many succeeding expeditions. When Granville Sharp, 
 « the indefatigable benefactor of the Africans, » — 
 at least in intention — sent D' Smealhman in 1786 
 to found a selllement near Sierra Leone, « about 
 sixty whiles, but who were chiefly women of 
 abandoned character, debilitated by disease, were 
 embarked on board the transports furnished by Go- 
 vernment. » Again, in 1792, when the island of 
 Bulama was ceded to Great Britain, « the majority 
 of those who went out with M"" Dalrymple were 
 persons of the most infamous characters and vicious 
 habits. » (1) 
 
 In 1795, two missionaries were sent, « hut owing 
 to indiscretion on the part of the one, » and the 
 illness of the other, « the mission was speedily aban- 
 doned. » (2) 
 
 In 1796, the London, Scottish, and Glasgow mis- 
 sionary societies, after deliberating on past failures, 
 resolved to make « a united attempt. » But unity 
 and protestantism do not co-exist; so « this also, » 
 we are told, « owing to sickness and dissension, was 
 attended with no belter success. » (5) 
 
 In 1799, the African Association sent out Frederic 
 Horneman, the son of a German clergyman. When 
 
 (1) Discoveries, etc., vol. II, ch. iv, pp. 263, 281. 
 
 (2) Western Africa, by J. D. East, ch. xi, p. 277. 
 
 (3) Ibid.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 357 
 
 lie and his parly reached Scivah, ihey were menaced 
 with instant death as Christians; and then was 
 enacted one of those curious scenes which are found 
 only in Protestant annals, but which are perhaps less 
 curious than the comments made upon them by 
 Protestant writers. « On this diflicull occasion, » 
 says Murray, — a vehement satirist of the Catholic 
 religion, — « Horneman acted his part ivith great 
 courage. » Perhaps you anticipate that he gave his 
 life for the faith? But this was not JV^ Horneman's 
 view of the value of life; so « he drew out a copy of 
 the Koran, and displayed his skill in reading and 
 interpreting that sacred standard of the Mussulman 
 faith. » Having produced « a deep impression, » says 
 the Protestant historian, by this unexpected action, 
 « our traveller, who had thus established his reputa- 
 tion as an orthodox Mussulman, left with the cara- 
 van. » Finally, in 1803, Sir William Young was 
 informed by the British Consul at Tripoli, that Hor- 
 neman was living amongst the IMahometans, « highly 
 respected as a Marabout or Mussulman saint. » In 
 that dignity he seems to have died about 1809. (1) 
 
 In 1810, an Englishman, one Adams, was cap- 
 tured by Mahometans, and carried to Timbuctoo. 
 There he appears to have solaced his retirement by 
 certain irregularities, which might have been over- 
 looked, says Murray, but that they were deemed « a 
 truly unpardonable crime ' in a Christian who never 
 prayed. ' » (2) 
 
 Thus far the history is uniform, and Africa had 
 
 (1) Murray, vol. II, p. 445. 
 
 (2) /C/..D.501. 
 
 (2) /c/.,p.501
 
 358 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 not yet incurred any sensible obligations to England. 
 And even a quarter of a century later, we still en- 
 counter the same phenomena, which the annalist of 
 Protestant missions, wherever their scene may he, 
 strives in vain to avoid. « It has happened to myself, » 
 says one who represented the British government in 
 these regions, in I82o, «to have seen one missionary 
 lying drunk in the streets ; to have known a second 
 living with a negress, one of his parishioners ; and a 
 third tried for the murder of a little boy whom he 
 had flogged to death. » And then he adds; « That 
 system does not work well, in which the removal of 
 such individuals requires a representation from the 
 governor of a colony to the secretary of a private 
 society, who becomes the judge whether the govern- 
 or's objection shall be acquiesced in or not. » (I) 
 
 (I) Travels in Westei-n Africa, by Major Alexander Gordon 
 Laing, p. 393. When we consider what is, in every case, Ihe 
 ostensible profession of a missionary, and that he is voluntarily 
 pledged, before men and angels, to exhibit in the sight of the 
 heathen the loftiest type of Christian perfection, we may reason- 
 ably feel surprise at the apprehensions which the Directors of Pro- 
 testant Societies appear to entertain of the probable frailty of 
 their agents. So difTident are they of the purity of their emissaries, 
 and so imminent do they consider even such calamities as Major 
 Laing records, that some at least of their number have devised a 
 special machinery to deal w'ith these familiar cases. This singular 
 fact is incidentally revealed by D^" Morrison, of Canton, in for- 
 warding to his Society certain disclosures « of an unpleasant 
 nature, » relating to some of his younger colleagues, which, he 
 suggests, « should be considered in the secret department. » [Me- 
 moirs, II, 34.) D"" Campbell relates, that in the solemn exhorta- 
 tion to the missionaries who introduced Christianity to Polynesia 
 II iu her native purity, » the prescient clergyman who occupied 
 the pulpit gave this unusual but not superfluous warning : —
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 359 
 
 It is time to notice, without further delay, the 
 final result of operations which commenced so in- 
 auspiciously. We may slate it in a few sentences. 
 We have seen that the first Protestant emissary 
 reached Sierra Leone in 1751, — the gentleman who 
 afterwards conducted Quaque as an undergraduate 
 to Oxford; more than a century has elapsed, there- 
 fore, since the inauguration of missionary efl'orts in 
 this colony. Afzelius, a Swedish holanist, relates 
 that « un hatiment rempli de missionnaires metho- 
 disles, » started from London in October, in 1797; 
 and that a similar expedition the previous year had 
 been completely unsuccessful (1) What with « indis- 
 cretion » in some, and « dissension » in all, the ear- 
 lier attempts were evidently a series of failures. At 
 length, the English Government being solidly estab- 
 lished throughout the colony, and the natives not 
 only reconciled to their new masters, but full of ad- 
 miration for the opulent missionaries who paid them 
 with unexpected liberality for their presence at school 
 and chapel, the constitution of the various missions 
 was permanently organised, and Sierra Leone re- 
 joiced in the possession of nineteen different forms 
 of the Protestant religion. We cannot be expected 
 to trace the history of them all, still less of those 
 modifications of Christianity which the negroes have 
 invented for themselves, and which, being admin- 
 istered by black preachers, — such as « Domingo 
 
 « Sons of men, Ijeware of the daughters of women ! » The Catholic 
 Church, sure of the vocation of her apostles, is content to say to 
 them, as St. Paul said to St. Timothy, « Neglect not the grace 
 that is in thee. » 
 
 (1) Precis sur Sierra Leona, par C. B. Wadstrom, p. 87.
 
 360 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 tlie Independent, » and « Hector the Baptist, » 
 — have attracted the special sympathies of en- 
 thusiastic congregations. Some of the sermons de- 
 livered in these chapels are not altogether such as 
 a refined ear would hear wilh satisfaction, and the 
 expositions of « the Bihle » of which they are appro- 
 priaie theatres would perhaps be more revolting to 
 a Christian than any sounds which were ever uttered 
 in these regions before Protestantism set its seal upon 
 them. Let us confine ourselves, however, to the oper- 
 ations of the Anglican missions, of which a volumi- 
 nous history has been compiled by the Rev. Samuel 
 Walker, and which may be taken as a type of the 
 rest. 
 
 There would be more profit in following M"" Walker 
 through the six hundred pages of his volume, if it 
 were really a history of benefits conferred upon this 
 unhappy population; but as his work consists mainly, 
 not to say exclusively, of panegyrics upon the extra- 
 ordinary virtues of the missionaries and their wives, 
 and incessant records of their marriages and of the 
 fortunes of their children, the natives themselves are 
 only noticed parenlhetically. Still we may glean 
 something even from his somewhat monotonous bio- 
 graphies, though they resemble one another so exactly 
 that a single individual might have been the hero of 
 them all. 
 
 In 1856, then, ]\F Walker relates that« the jour- 
 nals of the Missionaries are this year abundantly 
 supplied with proofs of the obstinate adherence of the 
 natives, although professing Christianity » — he 
 means Protestantism — « to the superstitious usages 
 of their country. » And then he notices, that some
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 361 
 
 at least of ihese « obstinate » disciples were « com- 
 municants » of the Church of England! (1) 
 
 Elsewhere M"" Walker candidly intimates, that in 
 spile of (heir weallh, and their long occupation of 
 the field, they cannot compete with their Mussulman 
 rivals. « The spread of Mahommedanism at Charlotte 
 this year was most distressing to the Missionaries, 
 who observe, in their report for the year, — ' the 
 emissaries of the false prophet have manifest advan- 
 tages over the teachers of the Christian religion in 
 this colony, the latter having so few natives to sup- 
 port them. ' » (2) 
 
 Yet through the whole period, in spite of such 
 confessions and many more like them, — in spite of 
 the acknowledged paucity of their disciples, and the 
 fact that the best of them, the « communicants, » 
 obstinately adhered to pagan usages, — reports were 
 forwarded to England exactly such as the mission- 
 aries used to transmit, with such courageous indif- 
 ference to truth, probability, and common sense, 
 from the islands of the Pacific, Thus one of the 
 missionaries, the Rev. M"" Johnson, — who describes 
 his congregation to his friends in England as « 500 
 black faces prostrate at the throne of grace » — de- 
 clares, in language which one is ashamed to repeal, 
 that « all the people seem to be hungering after the 
 righteousness of Jesus. » And again, « it is really 
 wonderful to see the dealings of the Lord with ihis 
 people. » (o) 
 
 We should probably err, however, in supposing 
 
 (1) The Church of England Mission in Sierra Leone, p. 379. 
 
 (2) P. 305. 
 
 (3) Africa's Mountain Valley, cli. vii, p. 117. (1856).
 
 362 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 these statements to be, in every case, deliberale 
 unlrulhs. They admit of another explanation. Mere 
 physical excitement, \vhich such teachers often mis- 
 lake for religious emotion, though it comes and goes 
 like a summer cloud, will partly account for them. 
 And moreover, to receive a bible, to quote it as 
 readily as a popular song, to come occasionally to 
 chapel, and to assume the name of a Christian — 
 these were the accepted tokens of « conversion, » 
 and all who could do thus much, no matter from 
 v^hat motive, were sincerely described as « hungering 
 after righteousness. » They satisfied ihe aspirations 
 of their teachers by this remote imitation of Christ- 
 ianity, and ihe pastor and his flock were mutually 
 content. (1) 
 
 (1) « If there Le one thing more than another about the popular 
 religion of the day, it is the cultivation of the religious feelings... 
 For tliis reason it is that we see around us so many strange devel- 
 opments of a religion of mere feeling... In vain does reason point 
 out that they can tell us but little of the deep heart within. They 
 are the mere phenomena of our own consciousness; they are the 
 mere lights and shadows which float over the surface of our being, 
 and have but little to do with our real inward life. They come and 
 go, and are dependent upon a thousand things, which are not our 
 real selves... We do not perceive that we are mistaking the lights 
 that play upon the surface of our souls for its deepest depths; so 
 eager are we to hear news of God in our exile. We think that 
 God is talking to us when we are, in fact, only talking to our- 
 selves. 
 
 ... Each of the errors which we have noticed is a desperate 
 spring at the substance of God across the wide gulf which yawns 
 between fallen humanity and its Creator... The conversion of the 
 Methodist is the fanatical eagerness of the soul to know the day 
 and hour of its reconciliation to God. Even the sickly self contem- 
 plation of the Evangelical arises from the same desire to feel the
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 363 
 
 Another, and a conclusive proof of effectual con- 
 Tersion consisted in iheir « observance of ihe Sabbath 
 day, » « The Africans, » says a Protestant mission- 
 ary, — who Avas evidently quite sure of his audience, 
 and knew what they could bear, — « rose to the 
 enjoyment of the Sabbath-day. » (1) To that enjoy- 
 ment let us leave them , in the hope that they may 
 one day aspire, not in vain, to a deeper and truer 
 religion. Meanwhile, two facts represent the final 
 results which we have no space to illustrate further. 
 England has reason to be satisfied with her colony, 
 because « the total gain to tbe industry and revenue 
 of the mother country cannot be less than 600,000 1. 
 per annum; » and England's religion is perhaps con- 
 lent with the modest success revealed in the follow- 
 ing figures, supplied by M"" Walker, who admits, in 
 1847, that although there were 5,311 children in 
 the various schools of the Colony, the whole number 
 of « attendants on public worship, » including those 
 who did not even profess any definite religion, and 
 the communicants who still adhered obstinately to 
 their ancient superstitions, was only 6,S76, after 
 the labours of a century. (2) 
 
 That some good has been effected, at least by 
 
 present God. All long for repose in God, and so far they are right. 
 They err with a fatal error in taking the phenomena for the sub- 
 stance, but it is better to seek the reality than to give r.p all search 
 for God and to acquiesce in the world. 
 
 ... The fall was the universal shipwreck, and men » — outside 
 the Church — « are tossing about the wild waves on a broken 
 raft, driven to madness by their thirst for the living waters. » 
 F. Dalgairns, The Holy Communion, ch. ill, pp. 69, 70. 
 
 (1) Africa's Mountain Valley, ch. x, p. 179. 
 
 (2) Introd., p. 29, and p. 589
 
 364 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 individuals, and especially in thedifFusion of element- 
 ary education, we may easily believe, though we 
 shall presently be warned by Protestant writers not 
 to feel loo confident even on this point; but that any 
 thing like primitive Christianity has been established 
 amongst this people, or could be by such teachers, 
 who, at the best , were only examples of domestic 
 propriety, we cannot venture to hope. Men whose 
 chief employment, as M"" Walker shows, is « marry- 
 ing and giving in marriage, » may display many 
 natural virtues, and even persuade the heaihen, in 
 rare cases, to outward decency of life; but to make 
 them Christians indeed is a work which God has 
 reserved for those who begin by offering to Him the 
 sacrifice of iheir own lives, and who, like Massaia 
 and Jacobis, have the vocation of apostles, and the 
 spirit of martyrs. 
 
 Let us add, however, — for it is pleasant to meet 
 with even a solitary exception in the dreary history 
 which we are tracing, — that, of lale years, some of 
 the Protestant missionaries in this colony have 
 shown higher qualities than are commonly displayed 
 by their class ; and, though they have shared the 
 incoherent opinions of their colleagues, have mani- 
 fested a certain zeal and benevolence which deserves 
 the sympathy of Catholics, and suggests the prayer 
 which St. Augustine once offered for men of a similar 
 character, « that God may teach them the truth 
 which they think they know. » 
 
 Senhor Valdez, the latest writer on Western Africa, 
 though professing to be a Catholic, appears to have 
 spent most of his time with Protestant missionaries. 
 They have « done all, » he observes, « that human
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 365 
 
 ingenuity could suggest for the amelioration of the 
 temporal, and for the promotion of the spiritual 
 condition of the liberated Africans. » A little later, 
 he is « astonished at their great knowledge of the 
 Scriptures ; » and then he adds, like M"^ Cruickshank, 
 M"" Duncan, and other Protestant witnesses who 
 shall be quoted, « I only wish their general conduct 
 was more in unison with the divine precepts; for 
 1 was informed that some of them were very partial 
 to their heathen customs, especially polygamy, and 
 were in other respects immoral. Man may give 
 instruction, but he cannot give grace. » (1) It is 
 pleasant, however, to be able to believe, from this 
 gentleman's account, that some of the English mis- 
 sionaries, apparently of more than one sect, have 
 displayed of late both zeal and perseverance in their 
 attempts to improve the lot of the African, and if 
 they cannot make him a Christian, have at least 
 done all which they knew how^ (o do with that 
 object. 
 
 If now^ we leave Sierra Leone, and travel south- 
 wards, we shall come to the Gold Coast, and to the 
 kingdoms of Ashantee and Dahomey, IVF Brodie 
 Cruickshank, of Cape Coast Castle, a friend of the 
 missionaries, and a member of the Legislative Coun- 
 cil, will describe to us the operations on the Gold 
 Coast. Alluding to all that was attempted previous 
 to the suppression of the slave trade, this gentleman 
 says; « It was one long, dark career of unfeeling 
 selfishness, without a single aspiration for the im- 
 
 (1) Six Years in Western Africa, by Francisco Travassos 
 Valdcz, vol. I, ch. vi, pp. 274, 287.
 
 366 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 provement of the natives. Our motives were per- 
 fectly underslood by them, and placed us at once on 
 an equality of footing with them. » And then he enters 
 into details about the missionaries. « The pay given 
 by them, » he says, — and they corresponded with 
 him confidentially as one of their own school, — 
 « to the young men whom they employed as teachers 
 being fully equal to that given by the merchants, and 
 a greater number of them being required for this 
 service, the missionary employment became an object 
 of ambition with many, as much, we are assured, in 
 many instances, for the sake of ihe loaves and fishes, 
 as from a sincere and earnest desire to promote the 
 cause of Christianity. This inducement drew a 
 number of the best educated natives within the pale 
 of the Society ; » — while « masons, carpenters, 
 labourers, » and others employed by the missionaries 
 in building, « in like manner swelled the ranks of 
 the Christian community. » (1) 
 
 Thus far we have an authentic account of the mode 
 in which their congregations were collected; and 
 Commander Foote, of the United States navy, judi- 
 ciously observes, that the missionaries have this 
 additional advantage in their contest with the Maho- 
 metans, that the natives easily perceive that « Christ- 
 ianity now stands contrasted with Mohammedanism, 
 as being the deliverer, while the latter is still the 
 enslaver. » (2) In spite of these inappreciable aids, 
 M"^ Cruickshank gives precisely the same account of 
 
 (1) Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa, vol. II, ch. iv, 
 p. 68. 
 
 (2) Africa and the American Flag, ch. xxxiv, p. 388.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 367 
 
 the Protestant converts ^^hlch we have heard in so 
 many other countries. Of their use of the Bible, he 
 says, that « texts which seemed to hear some refer- 
 ence to the peculiar situation of individuals were 
 wrested to suit their views, and to minister to their 
 inclinations and wants. » And then he goes on thus, 
 though he was the associate of their teachers, and 
 the earnest advocate of their efforts. 
 
 « We are constrained to believe that many of the 
 converts were either labouring under a hypocritical 
 delusion, or that the frailty of human nature exhibit- 
 ed itself with a uniformity of weakness truly humil- 
 iating and deplorable. » « There are only a very few 
 exceptions, » he adds presently, « to a general relapse 
 into immorality, when motives of personal interest 
 no longer bound them. » And again, as if the picture 
 were not sufficiently gloomy, « it is lamentable to 
 have to state, that many of the best educated and 
 most intelligent men, who, some years ago, were 
 most distinguished for zeal for Christianity, and who 
 occupied the first rank among the office-bearers of 
 the Society, are now living without its pale, while 
 the offices are filled by an inferior class. » lie allows 
 that some good is done by the numerous Protestant 
 schools, which the natives attend solely to qualify 
 themselves for advancement, but « it is rare for a lad 
 leaving the school to observe such a correct deport- 
 ment as will admit him to the honour of member- 
 ship. » Finally, after a painful description of the 
 « gloomy and morose austerity which seems to 
 pervade the ministrations of the missionaries, » he 
 concludes with these words; — « it has often been 
 a question, whether, with the pecuniary means pla-
 
 368 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ced at the disposal of the Gold Coast Mission, greater 
 resiills might not have been expected. » (1) 
 
 Throughout the whole region the same invariable 
 facts recur. Of the Episcopalian missionaries at Cape 
 Palnias, M' Tracy, a Protestant minister, reports 
 thai, as late as 1842, « the chiefs entered into a 
 conspiracy to kill the missionaries and plunder their 
 premises. » (2) M"" Kelly explains, in the same year, 
 that « the disorder originated in I his way. The Pro- 
 testant ministers had forestalled almost all the trade 
 of the coast, to the great injury of the American 
 merchants. Deplorable consequences flowed from this 
 rivalry... The king and his subjects took up arms, 
 and appeared resolved to set fire to the Protestant 
 establishments. » Meanwhile, we are told, the Cath- 
 olic missionaries « continued to visit the sick and 
 to teach the catechism, without meeting with the 
 slightest insult; » — for even the angry natives 
 knew^ that they had no interest in the schemes of the 
 rival traders. (3) 
 
 Again; the American Board of Foreign Missions 
 confess, with respect to the operations conducted in 
 the same place under their special superintendance, 
 that even « the colonists, as a body, regard the mis- 
 sionaries and their enterprise with ill will; » (4) be- 
 cause they find them their most formidable rivals in 
 all commercial speculations. D"" Morison tells also 
 the usual tale of a certain « M"" H., » a Protestant 
 
 (1) Pages 73 and seqq. 
 
 (2) Historical Examination of the State of Society in W . Africa, 
 p. 25. 
 
 (3) Quoted in Annals, vol. IV, p. 246. 
 
 (4) East, p. 295.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 369 
 
 missionary, who « fell into a slate of mournful back- 
 sliding, and greatly dishonoured his sacred call- 
 ing. »(1) Yet it is to maintain such persons and their 
 families in opulent idleness, that England and Amer- 
 ica consume annually nearly three millions sterling, 
 with no result whatever hut to make Christianity a 
 proverb among the heathen. Most of them, too, as we 
 have seen in China and elsewhere, do not even take 
 the trouble to learn the dialects of the people to whom 
 they are supposed to preach. « I cannot but express 
 my surprise, » observes a Protestant minister, who 
 was deputed to visit the West African missions di- 
 rected by his own community, «that in eighteen years 
 no attempt has been made to acquire and speak the 
 languages of the country. » (2) 
 
 Of Dahomey, Commander Forbes relates lhat« the 
 Mohammedan religion, spreading over the vast con- 
 tinent of Africa, is gaining millions of converts; »(3) 
 while M"^ Duncan, another friend of the Protestant 
 missionaries, gives ihis candid report as to the work- 
 ing of their schools. « All that these young men aspire 
 to, is to get something in the fashion of European 
 clothing, and to seek employment as clerks. » He 
 deplores the « little benefit » of « a partial education 
 by merely reading the Scriptures, » and adds that, 
 « in many instances this partial education is only the 
 means of enabling them to become more perfect in 
 villainy. >^ (4) Yet the missionaries, in order to swell 
 
 (1) The Fathers of the London Missionary Society, app. p. 596. 
 
 (2) Life and Journals of the Rev<i D. West, ch. vill, p. 184. 
 
 (3) Dahomey and the Dahomans, vol. I, p. 170. (1851). 
 
 (4) Travels in Western Africa, vol. I, ch. Ill, p. 42; vol. II, 
 ch. XIII, p. 303. 
 
 II. 47
 
 SIO CHAPTER VII. 
 
 their funds, could gravely describe these poor Afri- 
 caus as « prostrate before the throne of grace, » and 
 « hungering after righteousness. » 
 
 And now let us attempt a brief review of Catholic 
 missions in West Africa. From Senegambia to Congo 
 and ihe southern limits of Guinea, through nearly 
 forty degrees of latitude, on both sides of the equator, 
 — and from the Atlantic towards Soudan and for 
 three hundred miles into the interior, — the Catholic 
 faith has been preached, with an eflScacy, as Pro- 
 testant writers will tell us, which sufficiently attests 
 its divine power. It was in the fifteenth century that 
 apostolic missionaries commenced their labours in 
 the kingdoms of Congo, Loango, and the contiguous 
 regions. To discover a new realm, and to despatch 
 to it without an hour's delay the messengers of peace, 
 was the unfailing practice of Spain, Portugal, and 
 France, animated by still more zeal for the salvation 
 of souls than for conquest and renown. About the 
 year 1485, as Merolla relates, three Dominican Fa- 
 thers entered Congo : the first was martyred, and the 
 other two died of the climate. (I) Their successors, 
 as well as the sons of St. Francis, « penetrated deep 
 into Congo, » as D"" Leyden remarks, « and even into 
 the regions behind, explored by no other Euro- 
 pean. »(2) A little later, the Jesuits carried the Cross 
 into the same country ; and that we may comprehend 
 at once, by one prodigious fact, — revealed to us by 
 Protestant testimony, — what was the nature of their 
 work, let us hear an English witness, who writes 
 
 (1) Voyage to Congo, Pinkerton, vol. XVI, p. 215. 
 
 (2) Discoveries and Travels in Africa, by J. Leyden, M. D., 
 vol. I, ch. I, p. 77.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 371 
 
 from the Cape of Good Hope, in llie year 1859. At 
 that recent dale, the Protestant editor of an African 
 journal declares, that « the Jesuits, before llieir ex- 
 pulsion, effected so much, that the natives in the 
 large districts are still taught to read and write, the 
 work of education being carried on by native teach- 
 ers, « (1) 
 
 This remarkable fact, characteristic of the strange- 
 ly enduring influence of the Catholic apostolate, is 
 more than confirmed by D' Livingstone, who tells 
 us, with the frank honesty which distinguishes that 
 manly writer, that « the Jesuit teaching has been so 
 permanent » — in spite of a century of abandonment 
 and calamity — that even at this day « the Prince of 
 Congo is professedly a Christian, and that there are 
 no fewer than twelve churches in that kingdom, the 
 fruits of the mission established in former limes at 
 San-Salvador, the capital; » (2) and further, that 
 the poor deserted natives, to whom Portugal, fallen 
 from the glory of other days, has no longer Jesuits 
 to send, still try, in spite of their ignorance, « to 
 keep up the ceremonies of the Church ! » Woe to 
 the men who robbed Africa of her apostles, and res- 
 tored to the enemy so many victims who had been 
 rescued from his dominion. 
 
 There is no need to trace in all its details the his- 
 tory of the missions of which D' Livingstone and 
 others have noticed the actual remains, and which 
 declined because, — in consequence of the constant 
 mortality of the missionaries, the forcible suppress- 
 
 (1) The Cape and Natal News, January 31, 1859, p. 80. 
 
 (2) Missionary Travels in S. Africa, ch. x\i, pp. 411, 426.
 
 372 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ion at a later period of religious societies in various 
 parts of Europe, and the total absence during a long 
 course of years of apostolic teachers, — there was 
 no one left to maintain them. It was the special mis- 
 fortune of Western Africa to be connected with an 
 empire already corrupted, faithless to Catholic tra- 
 ditions, and rapidly hastening to ignominious decay, 
 owing to the gradual extinction of all religious prin- 
 ciple amongst its rulers ; and Proyart was probably 
 not mistaken when he said, that the immoralities of 
 the Portuguese accelerated the ruin of their missions 
 in Africa. 
 
 In India, the influence of Portugal, once a chosen 
 instrument in the designs of Providence , has for 
 many years been unfavorable to religion and moral- 
 ity. Since the hour when Pombal, loo well imitated 
 by his successors, cast away the traditions which 
 had made her one of the noblest and mightiest of 
 European nations, and adopted the political philoso- 
 phy of Protestantism, which refuses to the Creator 
 any share in the government of civil society, decay 
 and ruin have marked the history of Portugal; till 
 at length the « most faithful » kingdom has become 
 contemptible in the eyes of the world, and her colo- 
 nies, with the exception of Brazil, are a proverb for 
 the feebleness and disorder which Brazil only es- 
 caped by timely separation. « It is deplorable, » says 
 Senhor Valdez, speaking of a colony of 5,000 Cath- 
 olic Africans, in the island of Anno Bom, « to see 
 such destitution of religious services as exists among 
 them. » (1) And this is not a solitary case. But Por- 
 
 (1) Vol. II, cli. I, p. 63.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 373 
 
 tiigal, which has losl all religions fervour at home, 
 excepl in ihe hearls of the poor, is mnvorlhy lo be 
 any longer a nursery of apostolic missionaries, and 
 ihe cloud which broods over the land of De Britio 
 and Laynez casts its shadow even upon the « stream- 
 less deserts » of Africa. 
 
 From 1SS4 to 1626, eight bishops ruled in suc- 
 cession the Church in Congo; but from 1648, « the 
 kingdom remained without any clergy, » (1) and in 
 1814 the king vainly implored the Portuguese mon- 
 arch to « send clergymen to Congo. » Yet we learn 
 from Proyart, that when some missionaries visited 
 the interior towards the close of the 18lh century, 
 they found a province (Sogno) in which, after their 
 long abandonment, « the people still continued 
 Christians, and publicly professed the faith, and 
 their horror of idolatry, » and were accustomed to 
 oflfer prayers lo God lo send ihem a missionary. (2) 
 Such facts, proper lo the history of Catholic mis- 
 sions, sufficiently indicate the influence once exerted 
 in these countries by men, who, as Murray scornfully 
 relates, « sometimes exercised an authority almost 
 paramount to thai of the sovereigns. » 
 
 The same unfriendly annalist repeatedly admits 
 the courage and firmness wilh which they « insisted 
 upon a strict conformity lo the Christian rule. » 
 Hoefer tells us of one of them who « converted the 
 king of Mahonga and all his family, » and yet found 
 leisure lo publish a grammar and dictionary of the 
 
 (1) Valdez, vol. II, ch. ll, p. 85. 
 
 (2) Histoire de Loango, Kakongo, et aiUres Royaumes iVAfrique, 
 par M. Tabbe Proyarf, ch. xvn, p. 317. (1776).
 
 374 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Boiula language; (1) and an infidel French writer 
 confesses, llial « there is something marvellous » in 
 the fact, that « a few ignorant missionaries, » as he 
 absurdly styles such men as Colombini and Canne- 
 caltim, « were able to snatch a whole people from 
 their ancient customs and their gods. » (2) 
 
 « It is astonishing, » says a Protestant writer al- 
 ready quoted, « to find what a hold the Portuguese 
 have got upon the tribes far into the interior, and it 
 is impossible not to conclude that the enlightenment 
 and happiness of Africa in future ages will depend 
 very much upon them. » (o) May Portugal once 
 more prove worthy of ihe sublime mission Nvhich 
 Providence entrusted to her in earlier days! Already 
 there are signs of her resurrection. It is D"" Living- 
 stone who (ells us, that « the good influence of the 
 Bishop of Angola, both in the city and the country, 
 is universally acknowledged, » and that he is espe- 
 cially active in « promoting the establishment of 
 schools. » The same excellent writer reports of the 
 abandoned district of Ambaca, which he traversed, 
 that « it is now quite astonishing to observe the 
 great numbers who can read and write in this dis- 
 trict. This is the fruit of the labours of the Jesuit and 
 Capuchin missionaries, for they taught the people of 
 Ambaca ; and ever since the expulsion of the teachers 
 by the Marquis of Pombal, the natives have continued 
 to teach each other. These devoted men are still held 
 in hich estimation throuehout the country to this 
 
 (1) AfriqueAustrale, par M. F. Hoefer, p. 471. (1848). 
 
 (2) Encyclopedic de Voyages, par J. Grasset de S. Sauveur; 
 Mcfurs des Habitans du Congo, p. 16. 
 
 (3) The Cape and Natal News.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA, 375 
 
 day. All speak well of tlieni — os padres Jesuitas. » 
 And ihen D' Livingstone utters a regret, — which 
 we also may share, though not for precisely the same 
 reasons, — that the Jesuits did not « give the people 
 the Dible, to be a light to their feet, when the good 
 men themselves were gone. » (1) 
 
 Yet this distinguished traveller will confess, that 
 to translate the sacred Scriptures into ihe African 
 dialects, — a work in which Protestant missionaries, 
 wilh all their leisure, have not hitherlo been very 
 successful, — was hardly possible to men absorbed 
 by ihe toils of their apostolic calling, and speedily 
 worn out by exhaustion and the influence of such a 
 climate. And we may add, without disrespect to this 
 w^orlhy man, thai, from his own account — which 
 we shall have the advantage of quoting presently — 
 these very men effected so much more, without the 
 aid of such translations, than his own colleagues have 
 accomplished with them, that for upwards of a cen- 
 tury their potent influence has survived them; nor 
 will he deny, with the fads of Protestant missions 
 before him, that while millions of Christians, during 
 the early ages, attained to the closest union with 
 God, though they never saw^ a Bible, — thousands in 
 our own day, who have almost learned it by heart, 
 are still as far from any saving knowledge of Him as 
 the pagans themselves. 
 
 We have now only to state, in conclusion, what 
 Catholic missionaries are doing in West Africa at 
 the present moment. 
 
 Twenty years have not elapsed since D"" Barron, 
 
 (1) Ch. XIX, p. 382.
 
 376 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 formerly Vicar General of Pliiladelphia, was ap- 
 pointed by the Holy See Bishop of Conslantina and 
 Vicar Apostolic of Upper and Lower Guinea. Land- 
 ing at Cape Palmas during the rainy season, with a 
 band of missionaries ^vho were immediately dis- 
 persed to various points along the coast, but who 
 did not find so much as a roof to shelter them, almost 
 all were cut off by death in rapid succession. The 
 Abbe de Regnier fell first. « Tell my family and 
 friends, » were his last words, « that I rejoice at 
 having left all for our Divine Master. » Father Bou- 
 chet was the next to sink, followed in a few weeks 
 by Fathers Audebert, Laval, Roussel, and Maurice. 
 Finally, of seven who had arrived in health and 
 vigour, one only, the Abbe Bessieux, remained 
 alive. 
 
 Six months after, in June 1845, the solitary sur- 
 vivor wrote as follows from Gaboon. « I shall soon 
 see zealous colleagues succeeding the friends whom 
 I have lost, encouraging and sustaining my feeble 
 steps. For, God forbid that you should forsake this 
 poor Africa! » Already he had discerned that the 
 tribes on the sea-coast had formed their estimate of 
 Europeans from the miserable examples before their 
 eyes, and had judged the spurious Christianity offered 
 to them ; but, he added, there are tribes in the in- 
 terior, « reared in privations, inured to toil, and fa- 
 mous for their courage. They know that there is 
 nothing in common between the Catholic Priests and 
 the foreign traders. To them we will go first : this is 
 a conquest which the ministers of error will not ven- 
 ture to dispute with us. » 
 
 Four months later, the same intrepid missionary
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 377 
 
 had twelve native cliildren residing under his charge, 
 and could say; « I do not fear to assert, that there 
 is at Gaboon a multitude of souls ready to receive the 
 heavenly seed. » But he was alone, and poor, with- 
 out as he observed, the immense resources of the 
 Protestant ministers. » (1) Let us leave him for a 
 moment, to follow the steps of others. 
 
 In 1847, his colleague Father Briotde la Maillerie 
 wrote from Ndakar, a station on the Gaboon. Al- 
 ready they had established a training seminary, in 
 which were « twelve native Lcvites, whose good 
 conduct and docility have singularly edified us, »and 
 who had learned to sing in the Wolof tongue « the 
 praises of Jesus and Mary. » In the same year these 
 students were present at the ordination of the Abbe 
 Gallais, and « their joy was at its height. They mu- 
 tually excited each other to hasten the time for their 
 ordination. Each fixed already the district which he 
 would take! One would go to Cayot, another to 
 Fouta,... and thus the whole apostolic vicariate was 
 appropriated ! » « Be persuaded, » said the Abbe 
 Gallais, a little later, « that these negroes are not 
 such as calumny has so often been pleased to depict 
 them. » They were now in the hands of apostles who 
 could not only talk to them of a far-off Saviour, but 
 guide them to His feet. 
 
 In 1852, the Abbe Durand sends these tidings 
 from the mouth of the Gambia. « Praise be to God, 
 in spite of numerous obstacles, amongst which the 
 snares of the Methodists are not the least, the Cath- 
 olic religion has made rapid progress in this coun- 
 
 (t) Annals, vol. VIII, p. 76.
 
 378 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 iry. In the year that has jusl elapsed, we have had 
 one hundred and thirty baptisms, and have admitted 
 forty to their first communion. The dispositions of 
 our neophytes are excellent. » 
 
 By the year 1854, out of a total of seventy-five 
 Missionaries sent to Western Africa , forty-two had 
 already perished; but there remained at that dale 
 two bishops, fifteen priests, eleven lay brothers, and 
 nineteen sisters. « Our Christians, » says the co-ad- 
 jutor Vicar Apostolic in that year, « are generally 
 faithful to their religious duties, especially in localities 
 not frequented by Europeans. We have forty pupils 
 in the central house of studies at Ndakar, » — by the 
 following year the number had increased to sixty; 
 « henceforth many of the principal difiiculties may be 
 regarded as overcome; traditions have been formed, 
 an administrative organisation has been established, 
 and is beginning to work with regularity. » (1) 
 
 But the bishop was destined to encounter a trial 
 which even Apostolic zeal could neither avert nor 
 resist. Twice since the dale of his letter every Cath- 
 olic missionary, including all the Bishops, has been 
 swept away by pestilence. Warned by these repeated 
 calamities, the ecclesiastical authorities appear to 
 have adopted the conclusion, that the evangeliza- 
 tion of Western Africa must henceforth be mainly 
 committed to a native clergy; and to secure a staff of 
 competent native missionaries is now the aim of the 
 Holy See. But the dead have not laboured in vain. 
 
 At Goree, by the year 184o, there were already 
 twelve hundred Catholics ; and a Protestant mission- 
 
 (1) Vol. XV, p. 330.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 379 
 
 aiy reports, in 18o0, « ihe people of Goree were all 
 either Mahometans or Roman Catholics, »(\) 
 
 The native king, a Mahometan, assured the Abbe 
 (le la Maillerie, that he had no objection to his com- 
 mencing a school for his people, « since if was for 
 a good object; » and a little later Father Arragon 
 could give this encouraging account. « At Goree, as 
 in all Africa, the harvest to be gathered is immense... 
 The Marabouts are pleased to see us in this country; 
 they salute us when they meet us; they are fond of 
 saying that they esteem us, because we love the great 
 God. Again, the people are warmly attached to us, 
 and show themselves grateful for the smallest ser- 
 vices... With regard to the Mahometans also, we 
 are not without grounds of hope... The blindness of 
 this people arises chiefly from their ignorance ; far 
 from repulsing the truth, they in general wish for it; 
 and the progress of the Gospel will be commensurate 
 with the means of instruction. » He then relates this 
 anecdote. « One evening two Marabouts came into 
 our house while a little black was giving out prayers 
 to the other children. This sight filled them with 
 surprise. One of them observed to his companions, 
 ' these people will be taking away the Koran from 
 us. ' Then addressing himself to me, he said ; ' If you 
 only slay two years at Ndakar, there will be no more 
 Mahomet — nothing but the Missionary.' May his 
 prediction be accomplished, and God alone be adored, 
 served, and loved by a people to whom He has been 
 so long unknown. » (2) 
 
 (1) Moister, cli. ll, p. 70. 
 
 (2) Annah, vol. VIII, p. 89.
 
 380 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Let US add, in conclusion, a single example — for 
 there is no need of many — of the manner in which 
 converls are made in this country, and in which Ihey 
 subsequently display the evidence of their reconcilia- 
 tion to God. One of the missionaries. Father Poussot, 
 had been attacked in the night by a fanatic, and se- 
 verely wounded. Shortly after, V^ane, the chief of a 
 neighbouring village, presented himself before his 
 companion Father Bouchet, with these words. « Fa- 
 ther, I have long been a Christian at heart, but I am 
 determined to be one in deed. Wash me wilh the 
 water of prayer (baptism)... You (old me ihalyour 
 God loved mankind, and sent His Son on earth lo 
 save them ; that this Son died for them on a Cross, 
 and that instead of taking revenge upon His execu- 
 tioners, He pardoned them, and even prayed for 
 them; and you planted a Cross in our village. I 
 thought all this very fine, but still I was not in heart 
 a Christian. » Then raising his voice, and continu- 
 ing with great animation, he said; « But do you re- 
 member our coming home together one day through 
 the forest of Mpongues? You were told that the 
 Father, your companion, had been wounded the pre- 
 vious night by a slave, and that his face was cut 
 open. I was enraged at his cowardly and shameful 
 act, and if I had met the slave, I should have slabbed 
 him. But you. Father, said nothing; you raised your 
 eyes to heaven. I was watching what you would do. 
 You pardoned the slave; you begged that he might 
 not be punished. The wounded Father also came 
 some time after, not yet quite recovered. He was not 
 angry. He spoke and prayed with us in his usual 
 manner, and had a meeting with his intended mur-
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 381 
 
 derer. Then I said to myself and others; This Father 
 loves us; he does what he says; he pardons his en- 
 emies. His word, therefore, is true. From that mo- 
 ment I was in heart a Christian, and I am now 
 resolved to be so for ever. » (1) 
 
 The chief was instructed and baptized. « The 
 whole family, » Father Bouchet adds, « have fol- 
 lowed the example of their chief, and form at the 
 present day a nucleus of fervent and courageous 
 Christians, already tried by persecution, and, if call- 
 ed upon, prepared for martyrdom. » The trial came 
 — destitution, cruelly, loss of friends and relatives, 
 and menaces of a worse fate. All, even the children, 
 endured it with unmoved fortitude. When the father 
 was loaded with chains by the infidels, and they were 
 about to carry him away, his second son exclaimed, 
 « Take me instead of my father; he is infirm, I shall 
 be of more use to you. » The ofl"er was accepted, and 
 the youth consigned to prison, with no other consola- 
 tion than a crucifix, which one of his sisters con- 
 veyed to him. The pagans proposed to restore the old 
 chief to his former position, if he would consent to 
 apostatise. « I am a servant of the great God, » he 
 replied, « and must obey His orders rather than yield 
 to your desires. I have said it, henceforth nothing 
 shall persuade me to depart from the will of God. » 
 « Admirable and holy old man, » exclaims Father 
 Bouchet, the witness of these scenes; « how often 
 have I wept for joy over his conversion ! At Mass, in 
 a special manner, his devotion is beyond all praise, 
 when kneeling absorbed in meditation on the adora- 
 
 (1) Vol.XVlI, p. 216.
 
 382 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ble mysteries. There it is that his failh is constantly 
 revived, and from this source he derives courage to 
 say with St. Paul : ' I can do all things in Him who 
 fortifies me. ' » 
 
 It is impossible to read the history of Christian 
 missions in this part of Africa, during the last twenty 
 years, without admitting, that if the Catholics poss- 
 essed even a small portion of the immense temporal 
 resources which the two richest nations in the world 
 continually place at the disposal of the Protestant 
 emissaries, so as to enable them to found educational 
 institutions, and to promote the other works of cha- 
 rity so urgently needed in this land of poverty, the 
 conversion of the heathen would be immensely ac- 
 celerated. But poverty is not the greatest obstacle 
 to the success of the Catholic mission. There is a 
 yet more formidable and fatal hindrance. When the 
 heathen or the mahometau has learned, in spite of 
 ignorance and prejudice, to venerate teachers who 
 lead an apostolic life, and who display even to his 
 dull apprehension the marks of a supernatural call- 
 ing ; when the power of the demon is already shaken, 
 and light begins to dawn upon the soul; the half-* 
 awakened native is sure to be presently confounded 
 and embarassed by the apparition of others, also 
 styling themselves ministers of ihe Christian religion, 
 though attended by groups of females and children, 
 surrounded by comfort and opulence, and leading 
 before his eyes the common life of common men; 
 and when these teachers speak to him, in strange 
 and unnatural accents, about a Book of which they 
 comprehend nothing but the letter, and a Saviour of 
 whom they know nothing but the Name ; the perplexed
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 383 
 
 enquirer begins lo suspect thai, after all, Christian- 
 ity is only a delusion, its advocates only impostors. 
 The grave and devout pastors whom he had begun 
 to love and admire, he is now told, are but the insi- 
 dious professors of a wicked and false religion; while 
 the wordly and immorlifled men, who hasten lo offer 
 him their gold and iheir Bibles, are the only preach- 
 ers of pure Christianity. What marvel if ihe angry 
 heathen confound the religion and its professors in a 
 common sentiment of contempt and aversion? or 
 resolve, at the bidding of the baser instincts of his 
 nature, lo make the Christian religion a source of 
 gain, and lo sign a contract which leaves his con- 
 science untouched, while it redoubles his repugnance 
 to teachers who are themselves the first victims of 
 the hypocrisy which they create and recompense? 
 We have said, and it may be repeated without exag- 
 geration , that Protestant missions are everywhere 
 the worst and most fatal impediment to the conver- 
 sion of the heathen; because they add to the difTi- 
 culties w hich beset him, in common w ilh those which 
 were surmounted by the primitive converts, a mul- 
 titude of others, unknown to the pagans of earlier 
 days, which had no existence till Piolestantism 
 arose, and with which even the Apostles themselves 
 would perhaps have contended in vain. Protestantism 
 — let us once more declare it — is the last scourge 
 of heathenism. 
 
 Before we approach the only region of Africa 
 which now remains to be visited, it may be well to 
 resume, in the words of a Prolestanl minister, formerly 
 a missionary in these regions, the history which we 
 have briefly traced. In 1856, nearly one hundred
 
 384 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 and sixty years after England had carried Protest- 
 antism to Weslern Africa, ihe character and results 
 of missionary lahour in these provinces were thus 
 appreciated by M"" Leighton Wilson. « The Church 
 of Rome deserves great praise for the zeal she dis- 
 played in following up all the Portuguese and Spanish 
 discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 
 with efforts to extend ihe Christian faith. The Por- 
 tuguese government ilself, at the commencement of 
 these enterprises, was influenced as much by a desire 
 to propagate the catholic failh, as by any expect- 
 ations of commercial gain. In the course of time, 
 when unexpected sources of wealth were opened up 
 by ihese discoveries, she lost sight, in a great mea- 
 sure, of the former of these objects, and gave herself 
 up wholly lo an absorbing pursuit of the lalter. The 
 Church of Rome, however, was not diverted from 
 her purpose by any such motives. She addressed 
 herself to the one great object of converting these 
 newly discovered tribes lo the Romish faith, and 
 she pursued her calling with an energy, zeal, and 
 perseverance worthy of a better cause. » 
 
 On the other hand, the emissaries of Protest- 
 antism, who have been described to us by their co- 
 religionists as often profoundly immoral, and almost 
 always engaged in the eager pursuit of wealth, are 
 thus noticed by the same writer. « Had Protestant 
 nations and the Protestant church pursued the same 
 work with half the zeal and steadiness, the moral 
 aspect of the world at the present time would have 
 been very difl"erent from what it is. » And then 
 he gives this account of the actual fruits of their 
 operations, backed by the support of England and
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 385 
 
 America, and aided by immense resources, during a 
 century and a half. « As yet, the missionaries have 
 done little more than possess themselves of the out- 
 posts; hut, in accomplishing even this much, they 
 feci themselves greatly indebted to what has been 
 done by the squadron. » (1) 
 
 Once more we have received the confessions, 
 with which we are now familiar, and which we 
 shall hear again in every land which we have slill 
 to visit. Once more we have been told by a Pro- 
 testant missionary, who had himself abandoned 
 the unprofitable work, the accustomed tale, which, 
 in default of his testimony, we should have learned 
 from others. There was as much prudence as can- 
 dour in ]>P Wilson's tardy admissions. In 1842, 
 the mission of Baraka, the principal station on 
 the Gaboon river, was inaugurated by that gen- 
 tleman. In 1861, after twenty years of costly effort, 
 M. Paul Du Chaillu, the intimate associate of the 
 missionaries, records their own avowal, that they 
 despair of acquiring any influence over the adult 
 natives of Western Africa. They have some hope, 
 he says, of the children in their schools, — they have 
 always hopes which are doomed never to be accom- 
 plished, and have already educated one generation 
 in vain, — but « it is only upon the children that the 
 labours of the missionaries can have any important 
 effects. » They may well be « discouraged, » he sug- 
 gests, « at ;the slight result of their hard labour. » 
 « The positive success of the mission, »he reluctantly 
 
 (1) Western [Africa, by J. Leighton Wilson, ch. in, p. 446; 
 ch. V, p. 481.
 
 386 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 observes, « is not great; » and we may accept his 
 imparlial estimate of it, when he relates that, after 
 the « inculcation of Bible precepts » during nearly a 
 quarter of a century, « the older natives adhere to 
 their vile superstitions, and are with difficulty in- 
 fluenced. If they come to church, it is too often out 
 of curiosity, or to please the preacher, or from some 
 fancied advantage to themselves. » (1) In other words, 
 a human religion is incapable, in Africa as in every 
 other land, of effecting what only a divine ministry 
 can profitably attempt, or of imitating those triumphs 
 of a holier faith which the agents of Protestantism 
 are always occupied in recording, and always con- 
 trasting, in spite of themselves, with their own 
 blighted hopes and unfruitful toil. 
 
 The southern portion of the vast continent of whose 
 religious history we have now offered an imperfect 
 sketch still remains to be noticed. We have spoken 
 of the Moor and the Negro, some account must be 
 given in conclusion of the Kaffir and the Hottentot. 
 
 In 1632, Van Riebeck inaugurated the Dutch reign 
 in South Africa. Twenty-eight governors followed 
 in succession, till in the year 1793 Holland forfeited 
 her possessions to Great Britain. In 179S, General 
 Craig, the first representative of English power, as- 
 sumed the government of the Cape Colony. It is of 
 the progress of religion among the heathen since the 
 commencement of the latter epoch that we now pro- 
 pose to speak. 
 
 The numerous writers on South Africa are in ac- 
 cord, as their own words will presently assure us, 
 
 (1) Adventures in Equatorial Africa, cli. I, pp. 5, 6.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 387 
 
 on one point only, — that both the Hottentot and the 
 Kaffir have degenerated morally during the period 
 of English rule; but an eager conflict has arisen 
 amongst them as to the real cause of this deterio- 
 ration. While the missionaries assert in self defence, 
 that it is the colonists who have ruined both Kaffir 
 and Hollentot, the latter confidenlly retorl , with 
 wonderful unanimity, — to whatever rank or class 
 they belong, civil or military, — that it is mainly, and 
 with rare exceptions, the teaching and influence of 
 the missionary which have corrupted all the native 
 tribes who have had the misfortune to come within 
 the reach of either. When we have considered the 
 evidence which they ofl'er, we shall be able to judge, 
 without much danger of error, on which side is 
 truth. 
 
 The first facts which claim our atlonlion, and 
 which constitute the distinctive features of Protest- 
 ant missions in every land, are, enormous expendi- 
 ture, and ceaseless multiplication of sects. Nearly 
 twenty years ago D"" Grant remarked before the uni- 
 versity of Oxford, that already the following religious 
 bodies had been transplanted to the Cape Colony : 
 — 1 . Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ; 
 2. Scottish Missionary Society; 3. United Brethren; 
 4. French Protestant Society; 5. German Mission- 
 ary Society; 6. London Missionary Society; 7. Wes- 
 leyan Missionary Society ; 8. Baptist Missionary 
 Society; 9. American Board of Missions; 10. Rhe- 
 nish Missionary Society; 11. Paris Missionary So- 
 ciety. (I) 
 
 (1) Bampton Lectures for 1843.
 
 388 CHAPTER Yll. 
 
 We have seen in olher lands llie hopeless confusion 
 and disorder, as well as the perplexity occasioned to 
 the heathen, by such a colhwies of sects. In 1835, 
 ^PMoodie, a judicious and temperate writer, com- 
 mented in the following words upon this disastrous 
 but inevitable result. « Unfortunately each sect has 
 some peculiar dogma, which they generally inculcate 
 to their followers, too often to the partial exclusion 
 of more imjiorlant doctrines. » And then he proceeds 
 thus : — « Each sect is ambitious of increasing the 
 number of its followers; a spirit of rivalry amongst 
 them is the necessary consequence of this party zeal, 
 which, joined to that external gloom and austerity 
 which distinguishes them all, naturally creates a 
 further distaste for their instructions. » (I) 
 
 And time, the sovereign remedy of so many 
 human evils, only aggravates this. Tbus, as late as 
 1855, the Rev. W Holden tells us, even of the new 
 province of Natal, that he found seven different 
 religious denominations in one spot ; « enough, one 
 would suppose, to meet the diversified creeds, tastes, 
 and desires of the inhabitants. » (2) Two years later, 
 we find D"^ Armstrong, a Protestant bishop in South 
 Africa, deploring in these words the same incurable 
 dissensions. « I could not but be saddened by the 
 thought of our religious divisions! No less than 
 three places of worship were visible, as I approached 
 the town — Cradock — besides the Church of Eng- 
 land. This, in the midst of a population of some 
 
 (1) Ten Years in South Africa, vol. II, ch. xiv, p. 280. 
 
 (2) History of the Colony of Natal, by the Revd W. C Holden, 
 ch. IX, p. 246.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 389 
 
 700 people, was indeed a melancholy spectacle. »(1) 
 This gentleman had also to lament, as we shall see 
 when we come to examine his testimony, the impla- 
 cable divisions within as well as outside his own 
 sect, and his own incapacity to heal them. 
 
 Such is the spectacle which, in Africa as in every 
 other land, Protestantism displays to the heathen, 
 with no other effect than to warn them against 
 adopting a religion of which these are the invariable 
 fruits. 
 
 D"^ Morison relates of a number of missionaries 
 sent out by the Scottish Missionary Society, that 
 « they unhappily differed among themselves, upon 
 some minor points of theology, and some of them 
 failed to exhibit that spirit of charity and forbear- 
 ance which ought to distinguish the Missionary of 
 the cross. » (2) M^^ Priugle also describes the voyage 
 of some English Protestants, who were always « en- 
 gaged keenly in polemical discussions under the 
 guidance of two preachers. » They fought, he says, 
 with so much bitterness, that they soon « ceased to 
 regard each other with sentiments of Christian for- 
 bearance.)) (5) Lastly, D' Livingstone tells us, in 1857, 
 that « in South Africa such a variety of Christian 
 sects have followed the footsteps of the London 
 Missionary Society's successful career, that converts 
 of one denomination, if left to their own resources, » 
 — which apparently means, when they cease to be 
 paid, — « m-e eagerly adopted by another ; and are 
 
 (1) Memoir of Bishop Armstrong, by the Rev*' T. T. Carter, 
 p. 347. (1857). 
 
 (2) Vol. II, app. p. 593. 
 
 (3) Narrative of a Residence in South Africa, ch. i, p. 7.
 
 390 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 thus more likely to become spoiled than trained to 
 (he manly Christian virtues. » (1) 
 
 It would be superfluous to offer any illustrations 
 of the other point, — the enormous expenditure of 
 these jealous and conflicting sects, each outbidding 
 the other. Even the Government adds its liberal 
 contributions to those of the various missionary 
 societies. Some years ago the Education Grant within 
 the Cape Colony already exceeded 5,000 1. per 
 annum; (2) and we are told, in the life of D"" Arm- 
 strong, that Sir George Grey, the distinguished and 
 justly popular Governor, « proposes to spend no less 
 a sum than 50,000 1. a year on missions. » (5) 
 D"^ Armstrong asked, for his own share, 4,000 1. 
 a year. What the other seels spend, we may imagine, 
 but need not stay to calculate. And now let us 
 approach, without further preface, the grave ques- 
 tion of results, after more than half a century of 
 uninterrupted efl'ort. 
 
 On this point there are, of course, two classes of 
 witnesses; the missionaries, who loudly asseit, — 
 with the exception of truthful and respectable men, 
 like Livingstone, Calderwood, Armstrong, and a few 
 others — that they have rivalled the first Apostles; 
 and the crowd of lay writers, who as vigorously 
 proclaim^ in spite of their sympathy with the mis- 
 sionary projects, that they have utterly failed, and 
 even, as a rule, have proved most injurious to the 
 character and welfare of the natives. We will hear 
 both classes. 
 
 (1) Ch. VI, p. 115. 
 
 (2j Acts of the Government of the Cape of Good Hope, 1854-7. 
 
 (3) P. 309.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 391 
 
 The 40"' Report of the Glasgow Missiooary Society 
 announces to the British public — or at least to 
 thai portion of it who subscribe to such objects — 
 that « religion was striking its roots deeper and 
 deeper in the native soil. » Another report says, — • 
 « our missionaries are everywhere scattering the 
 seeds of civilisation, social order, and happiness." (1) 
 It need hardly be said that the various Societies 
 emulate, and indeed often surpass, this style of 
 narrative. 
 
 Their agents also assist them with materials for 
 such compositions. The reports of M'' Moffat — who 
 seems to have proposed to himself the journal of 
 M"^ Morrison, of Canton, as his model — are worthy 
 of particular attention. Speaking of the weekly as- 
 semblies of his Hottentot dependents, he says; « A 
 delightful unction of the Spirit was realised, espe- 
 cially in our Sabbath convocations. » (2) If a poor 
 savage, who had borrowed from civilisation nothing 
 but its vices, dies in the neighbourhood of a « mis- 
 sion ; » « his disembodied spirit, » we are (old, 
 « entered into the realms of eternal rest. » The 
 singular favours of what these gentlemen call, appa- 
 rently for the sake of euphony, «the Triune Jehovah* , 
 are constantly showered upon the privileged Hotten- 
 tots. Bloodthirsty savages, who afterwards became 
 the bitterest enemies both of England and of her 
 missionaries — such as Tzatzoe and Africaner, 
 Pato and Macomo — are described, at one time by 
 
 (1) Researches in South Africa,hy the Rev* John Philip, D. D.; 
 preface, p. 9. 
 
 (2) Missionary Labours in Southern Africa, by Robert Moffat, 
 ch. XI, p. 172.
 
 39-2 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 the London Missionary Society, as zealous in « diffu- 
 sing the name of Christ; » at another by D'' Philip, 
 as « elevated lo a surprising height in the scale of 
 improvement; » or, hy an American Society, as 
 remarkable for « an experimental acquaintance with 
 the Bible! » And vast sums were collecled from 
 women and children, both in England and America, 
 on the faith of the^e representations. But we shall 
 pcihaps obtain a clearer view both of the character 
 of the missionaries and the results of their labours, 
 if we introduce the witnesses in chronological order : 
 the unvarying uniformity of their testimony, during 
 fifty successive years, will not escape the attention 
 of the intelligent reader. 
 
 The introduction of Protestant missions into this 
 part of Africa appears to be due to Van Der Kemp, 
 whom Colonel Napier calls « the foundation stone 
 of the South African missions, » and who has been 
 celebrated with much applause in missionary reports. 
 His history exactly resembles that of Buchanan, and 
 other luminaries of the same order. He became a 
 missionary, because every other profession was 
 closed against him. He was originally, we are 
 informed, a captain of dragoons in the Dutch service, 
 was dismissed from his regiment, and then became 
 notorious as a professed atheist. Ultimately he found 
 refuge in this remote dependency of Holland; and 
 Lichtenslein, one of his admirers, gave, in 1812, 
 this account of his disciples. « They could sing and 
 pray, and be heartily penitent for their sins, and 
 talk of ' the Lamb of atonement; ' but none were 
 really belter for all this specious appearance. » It 
 was solely, he adds, the « convenient mode of getting
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 393 
 
 themselves fed, » which « attracled many of ihe 
 most worthless and idle among the people, and all 
 who applied were indiscriminalely received into the 
 establishment. » (1) 
 
 Van Der Kemp himself was accustomed to report 
 of them officially as follows : « the zeal of our con- 
 verted Iloltentots is e\idently an extraordinary gift 
 of God's spirit. » 
 
 From Lichtenslein we also learn that both Van 
 Der Kemp, who now assumed llie title of « doctor of 
 divinity, » and his English colleague M' Read, — 
 whom a lively biographer calls « devoted heralds of 
 mercy, » — married Hotlenlot girls; while of another 
 of their company, famous as a preacher, the same 
 friendly witness relates, that « his influence over 
 the minds of ihe female part of his flock was em- 
 ployed for the base purpose of seducing a young 
 woman » (2) 
 
 It would be necessary to apologise for introducing 
 such details, if it were possible for the annalist of 
 Protestant Missions to avoid topics which form so 
 large part of their history. 
 
 Lichtenslein lived amongst these missionaries, and 
 knew them intimately; and though he makes an 
 exception in favour of the iMoraviaus, he declares 
 that « the English and Dutch missionaries, with few 
 exceptions, were idle vagabonds, or senseless fana- 
 tics. » Indeed the language of this traveller, who is 
 the earliest in date of our witnesses, is sometimes 
 
 (1) Lichtenstein's Travels in Southern Africa, \o\. l.ch.xvii, 
 p. 236, (1812). 
 
 (2) Cli. X, p. 144.
 
 394 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Still more energetic; for he does not hesitate to call 
 them « a swarm of idle missionaries, who find it 
 more agreeable to be fed by the devout colonists, 
 than to pursue the proper object for which they 
 were sent out — the endeavouring to instruct and 
 civilize the neighbouring savages. » Of Kicherer, 
 who long shared with Van Der Kemp the homage of 
 English Protestants, and of whose work « so much 
 boasting has been made by himself and his friends 
 in England, » Lichlenstein says ; « The Bosjemans, 
 when they found there was nolhing left to eat, 
 hesitated not a moment to apostatise from Christian- 
 ity. » (1) Such is the evidence of one who had 
 watched the work , and was himself an ardent 
 Protestant, and such the characteristic commence- 
 ment of Protestant missions in South Africa. 
 
 D"^ Sparrman, a learned Swedish Protestant, qua- 
 lifies Lichlenslein's eulogy of the Moravians, by 
 relating, that Smid, one of their number, « was 
 banished out of the country of the Hottentots, for 
 having illegally made himself a chief among the 
 Hottentots, in order to enrich himself by their labour, 
 and the presents they made him of cattle. » (2) Many 
 of the witnesses, however, seem disposed to contrast 
 the Moravians with the other missionaries, appa- 
 rently on account of the greater simplicity of iheir 
 lives, and their habit of leaching mechanical trades. 
 Yet most, or all, of them probably felt that they had 
 gained promotion by settling in Africa; for, as 
 
 (1) Vol. II.ch.XLi, p. 183. 
 
 (2) Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope^ by Andrew Sparrman, 
 M. D., ch. v, p. 213.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 395 
 
 M"" Thompson remarks, nearly all of ihem had « ori- 
 ginally been common mechanics. » (1) 
 
 In 1822, M"" Burchell, an unexceptionable witness, 
 familiar by actual observation both with the mission- 
 aries and their work, writes as follows. « It is much 
 (0 be lamented that the community at home are 
 misled by accounts catching at the most trifling 
 occurrence for their support, and showing none but 
 the most favourable circumstances, and even those 
 unfairly exaggerated. » The nominal converts, he 
 reports, listen to the missionaries « as long as it suits 
 their worldly convenience and advantages. » The 
 motives of the missionaries themselves 3F Burchell 
 seems to have easily penetrated. « Two of them in 
 particular, as I was informed at Klaarwaler, had 
 carried on the traffic in ivory with much success. » 
 Finally, as an example of what even the best of their 
 converts were really worth , he notices « the three 
 converted Hottentots » who were taken to England 
 by M"^ Kicherer, « and exhibited as specimens of 
 missionary conversion, » (2) and whose history de- 
 serves a moment's attention. 
 
 Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm which they 
 created among « the favourers of missionary la- 
 bours. » Even country subscribers were allowed an 
 opportunity of seeing these selected specimens of 
 African Protestantism, and of thus appreciating the 
 excellent use to which their own contributions had 
 been applied. At length they were withdrawn from 
 
 (1) Travels in Southern Africa, by George Thompson Esq., 
 vol.11, ch. vm, p. 91 ; 2nd edition. 
 
 (2) Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, by William 
 J. Burchell Esq., vol. II, ch. v, p. 155.
 
 396 CHAPTER Ml. 
 
 the public gaze, after reciting, with surprising 
 accuracy, innumerable texts of Scripture, and other- 
 wise manifesting to delighted audiences their intel- 
 ligent zeal for the Protestant religion. The mis- 
 sionary, satisfied with such encouraging success, 
 re-conveyed his disciples to Africa, where he took 
 them at first into his house as domestic servants. 
 But the drama was now played out, and the curtain 
 dropped ; and M"" Burchell informs us, that as they 
 immediately resumed their real character, proved 
 to be inveterate drunkards, « and in other respects 
 immoral and undeserving, their protector found him- 
 self compelled to put them out of his house. » (1) 
 
 Unfortunately this climax became known in Eng- 
 land; and the Missionary Society, — displaying 
 a tardy repentance for the fraud which had been so 
 beneficial to their funds — thought it expedient to 
 affirm, for the inslruction of their resentful subscri- 
 bers, that « the Hottentots were not brought to Eng- 
 land by the desire of the Society. » (2) We need 
 only add that M"" Kicherer, whose indiscretion had 
 been so profitable to « the Society, » and probably 
 to himself, ultimately abandoned missionary work 
 allogelher. 
 
 In 1828, we come to D"^ Philip, the most conspi- 
 cuous amongst (he whole body of missionaries, and 
 a gentleman whose proceedings, as recorded by 
 himself or his contemporaries, excite in us — to 
 speak frankly — such overpowering sentiments of 
 repugnance, that we must be careful to express them 
 
 (1) Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, by William 
 J. Burchell Esq., vol, It, ch. v, p. t55. 
 
 (2j Missionary Transactions, vol. II, lutrod., p. 5.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 397 
 
 only in the words of others. Let us hear first his 
 accoiinl of his converts. 
 
 « John Tzatzoe, » he tells us, « is of great use to 
 M"^ Brownlec in his lahours; » and then he shows 
 that he was, in fact, an assistant missionary. 
 D"" Pliilip, mindful perliaps of !\F Kicherer's example, 
 delermined to renew the experiment. Tzatzoe, in 
 his turn, as Colonel IVapier remarks, « was paraded 
 at Exeter Ilall. » At the fifty-first general meeting of 
 the London Missionary Society, long after he had 
 returned to Africa, where the astute harbarian re- 
 vealed himself in his true character, the following 
 report was gravely communicated to an audience of 
 whom the « directors » and their « secretary » pro- 
 bably felt quite sure. 
 
 « John Tzatzoe, and the other native assistant, 
 have made extensive journies through the year, for 
 the purpose of diffusing the name of Christ and the 
 knowledge of His salvation. » Nor was this all. 
 A painting was executed, of which engraved copies 
 were widely circulated, in which D"^ Philip appeared 
 in the foreground in an impressive attitude, and the 
 « native missionaries, » with prayerful countenances, 
 in the rear. The effect, as is invariably the case with 
 such performances, was triumphant. It is true that 
 it did not last long, though probably quite long 
 enough to secure the objects aimed at. Tzatzoe, says 
 Colonel iXapier, « who excited such ill-directed sym- 
 pathy in England, appeared foremost in arms against 
 us during the late Kaffir war. » (1) And M-^^ Ward 
 
 (1) Excursions in Southern Africa, by L' Col. E. Elcrs Na- 
 pier, vol. II.cli. XIV, p. 275.
 
 398 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 adds, llial when she saw ihe report of the Missionary 
 Society above quoted, « my first impulse was to 
 laugh, knowing ihat Tzalzoe, ihe propagator of 
 Christianity in 1845, has been foremost in the mis- 
 chief of 1846 ; but it is melancholy to think how we 
 have been imposed upon. » A little later this lady adds, 
 « the British public was completely imposed upon 
 by this savage heathen, for such he is, was, and ever 
 will be. » (1) In the able reports of the London Mis- 
 sionary Society he was wholly absorbed, as we have 
 seen, in works of piety, and in « diffusing the know- 
 ledge of salvation. » 
 
 It is certainly worthy of observation, if we had 
 leisure to dwell upon such details, that the. arts 
 practised by English Missionary Societies have been 
 frankly compared, even by friendly voices, to the 
 unhandsome « shifts » of traders and attornies. Their 
 operations, we are assured, exactly resemble, except 
 in their ostensible object, those of commercial asso- 
 ciations of the meaner class. «j\o mercantile houses, » 
 says a well known Anglican clergyman, « lake more 
 pains to solicit orders than do the ' societies ' » ; of 
 which, he adds, « some are simply large trading 
 firms, dealing with the money of others. » Even their 
 « balance-sheets, » the same authority declares, being 
 designed rather to hide than to reveal the real distri- 
 bution of their revenues, are not only « very often 
 intentionally delusive, » but exhibit « in several the 
 existence of a system of deliberate fraud. » (2) The 
 
 (1) Five Years in Kaffir Land, by Mi's Harriet Ward, vol. II, 
 ch. IV, p. 116-, ch. X, p. 277, (1848). 
 
 (2) S. G. 0., The Times, January 17, 1860.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 399 
 
 facts already noticed, and which we will now re- 
 sume, appear to indicate that the same spirit inspires 
 all their operations, in England, in Africa, and every 
 where else. 
 
 Another distinguished « convert, » who was for 
 some time a sure source of income to the Societies, 
 was Africaner, who, in ihe eloquent report of D"^ Phi- 
 lip, was « elevated to a surprising height in the scale 
 of improvement. » This account of him was for- 
 warded even to America, where, however, it was 
 deemed too tame to be safely submitted to audiences 
 accustomed to the more violent forms of religious 
 excitement. In the United States, therefore, D"^ Phi- 
 lip's eulogy of his pupil was published in the im- 
 proved and expanded statement, that « he was of 
 undissembled piety, and much experimental acquaint- 
 ance with his Bible. » (i) 
 
 The real history of Africaner is less attractive. He 
 was originally one of the flock of a certain M"^ Ebner, 
 who candidly described his own disciples to 1\P Mof- 
 fat as « a wicked, suspicious, and dangerous people, 
 baptized as well unbaplized. » (2) And apparently 
 M*" Ebner was the only person not deluded by him, 
 nor anxious to delude others. Africaner, who mani- 
 fested such undissembled piety, became, like Tzalzoe, 
 one of the most dangerous adversaries of the very 
 missionaries whose schemes he had unconsciously 
 served, and « a bitter opponent, » as M"^ Francis 
 Galton relates, of their work. (5) 
 
 (1) Life of Africaner, by the American Sunday School Union, 
 p. 23. 
 
 (2) Moffat, ch. VIII, p. 103. 
 
 (3) Journal of Geographical Society, vol. XXII, p. 142.
 
 400 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Bill if D' Philip habitually re|)resen(etl wicked and 
 treacherous savages, such as Tzalzoe and Africaner, 
 as devout Christians and valuable assistant mission- 
 aries, and his employers willingly profited by the 
 fraud, there are not wanting grave and responsible 
 witnesses to inform us — they have already declared 
 it before the British Parliament — that it was he who 
 stimulated them, for his own purposes, to the very 
 excesses which cost so much blood and treasure, and 
 which even a British army had some difficulty in 
 chastising. It was his object to gain influence over 
 them at the expense of the British government, and 
 therefore, says Colonel Wade, he « drove the Kaffirs 
 to outrageous proceedings and depredations (1). » 
 Sir Benjamin d'Urban also, though well-affected to 
 the missionaries, reported officially to Lord Glenelg; 
 that <f among the causes of the Kaffir invasion was 
 the injudicious and most dangerous tampering with 
 their discontents, practised (doubtless without inten- 
 tion of mischievous consequences) by D"" Philip, of 
 the London Mission, and his subordinate partisans. » 
 And then he distinctly charges this person, that « he 
 never apprised the Governor » that the Kaffirs were 
 about to « shed blood, » though he was perfectly 
 cognisant of their intention. (2) 
 
 But enough of such a « missionary » as this, who 
 in obliged to confess that Lord Howden, another 
 African official, reported « that the disinclination to 
 increase, oreven maintain, the missionary institutions 
 already established in the colony, « is almost uni- 
 
 (1) ParUamentatij Papers, July 1835, vol. VII, p. 373. 
 
 (2) 1837, vol. XLIII, p. 380.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 401 
 
 versa!; » and thai in reluctantly consenting to the 
 continuance of the seditious « mission » at Klaarwa- 
 ler, he expressed the hope, that it might become 
 « something better than the refuge of many wicked 
 and disorderly persons, who are obliged to fly from 
 justice. » (1) 
 
 It would occupy to much space to trace the gra- 
 dual modification in the tone of the home reports, in 
 consequence of the unwelcome statements of officials 
 and travellers, which now began to reach England, 
 and suggested to directors and secretaries the neces- 
 sity of caution. A single example will show into 
 what language these unexpected revelations were 
 cautiously translated, in order to produce the least 
 possible shock upon their subscribers. Of one of the 
 very worst cases, where the native disciples had be- 
 come notorious throughout the colony for idleness 
 and profligacy, D"^ Smith observes; « the Directors » 
 — who could not afford lo put out loo gloomy a view 
 of the character of their pensioners — « lament the 
 prevalence of a Laodicean spirit among the greater 
 part of ihem. » (2) To have said that the so-called 
 christian natives were wallowing in vice under the 
 very eye of the missionaries, might have compromised 
 the annual revenue; so they were only affected by 
 « a Laodicean spirit. » 
 
 In 1827, M'^ Thompson, a well known African tra- 
 veller, accidentally reveals, evidently from inadver- 
 tence, the prudent inaccuracy of his missionary 
 
 (1) Researches, etc., vol. I, cli. xvill, p. 370; and vol. II, 
 app. p. 382. 
 
 (2) History of the Missionary Societies, vol. II, p. 182. 
 
 II. *»•
 
 402 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 friends, and exposes the real character of those well 
 known* reports, » in which there was often nothing 
 authentic but the date and the signature. None have 
 surpassed, few have equalled, M"" Moffat, of whose 
 « sabbath convocations » we have already heard. 
 ]\P Thompson became the guest of this gentleman, 
 and having ventured, with ihe blunt frankness of a 
 traveller, to express his surprise at the scanty at- 
 tendance of the natives in chapel, — whom M"" Moffat 
 had described officially as attending in crowds, — 
 received this hasty and unguarded confession : i At 
 no time, the Missionaries told me, has the attendance 
 been considerable. » M"" Thompson adds, at a later 
 date, after personal examination, « Few or no con- 
 verts have been made! » (1) 
 
 In 1829, M"^ Cowper Rose — our witnesses are all 
 ardent Protestants — contents himself with protesting 
 against the popular delusion, that « the Missionary is 
 a man who has taken up the Cross, and renounced 
 all that the wordly minded seek." And then he notices 
 their « convenient habitations, » and their « wives 
 and families, » and the fact which continually met 
 his observation, that they were « not deprived of 
 social enjoyments. » (2) 
 
 In 183S , we have the important evidence of 
 M"" Moodie, a particularly moderate and careful 
 writer, who spent ten years in Africa, and visited the 
 numerous missionary stations with warm interest 
 and sympathy, which only painful experience was 
 able to extinguish. 
 
 (1) Travels, etc., vol. I, ch. ix, p. 193. 
 
 (:2) Four Years in Southern Africa, Letter VI, p. 138.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 403 
 
 For more than thirty years the missionaries had 
 now been at their work, without let or hindrance, 
 and .\r Moodie will assist us to appreciate accurately 
 all that they had accomplished during that long pe- 
 riod, in which one generation had already passed 
 away. Of the iMoravians, who are usually preferred 
 by otherwriters, because they generally content them- 
 selves with following the trade or calling which they 
 had pursued at home, he speaks thus. « I have gen- 
 erally found the Hottentots who have come from the 
 Moravian stations inore improvident and lazy than 
 those who come from other missionary institutions » 
 — which he attributes to iheir « obliging the Hot- 
 tentots to deposit all their earnings in their cus- 
 tody. » (1) 
 
 Sometimes he speaks of individual missionaries, 
 and here is an example. M"^ S., missionary at Laura 
 Brack, being in reduced circumstances, « had taken 
 up the trade of an instructor of the heathen. » He 
 first made the Hottentots build him a house, « for 
 which they were not paid ; » then got them « to labour 
 for months in leading out a spring of water from a 
 ravine in the mountain, to irrigate a strip of rich 
 land : this he kindly allowed them to clear from 
 brushwood, and bring into cultivation on their own 
 account for a year or two; and then, the moment the 
 principal difficulties were overcome, he very coolly 
 appropriated the ground to his own use, without 
 giving them any remuneration for their labour. » He 
 adds that « M' S. was allowed to remain for many 
 
 (\) Ten Years in South Africa, by Lieut. J. D. W. Moodie, 
 vol. I, ch. IV, p. 82.
 
 404 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 years to tyrannise over this hapless people. Nothing 
 could exceed the appearance of wretchedness in the 
 institution. » Finally, « his misdeeds, I am happy 
 to say, have at last occasioned his expulsion. » (1) 
 
 Again. « At all the missionary stations in Kaffre- 
 land, I could not help remarking the gloomy and 
 desponding expression which pervaded the counten- 
 ances of ihe people;... we cannot for a moment sup- 
 pose that this could be the effect of true religion. » 
 And then he shows how the unnatural gloom of the 
 whole system, and the fanatical denunciation of the 
 most « innocent amusements » — which these teach- 
 ers seem to regard as the essential tenet of Christ- 
 ianity — fully accounts for « the general disinclin- 
 ation of the Kaffres for the Christian religion. » And 
 finally he observes, lhat« as most of the missionaries 
 must be fully aware of the total inadequacy of the 
 system hitherto pursued, they should confess the 
 truth, instead of flattering the hopes of their em- 
 ployers by sanguine if not exaggerated statements of 
 their progress. » (2) 
 
 There is much more in M"^ Moodie's sensible work 
 which illustrates the real character of Protestant 
 missions to the heathen, but we must hasten to hear 
 others. « The improvement which has been effected, » 
 he says, in any measure, and in particular places, 
 « the missionaries must well know is chiefly to be 
 attributed to causes over which //ie?/ have no control." 
 Again ; « I have often been surprised to find that na- 
 tives who bore the very worst character among the 
 
 (1) Vol. I, ch. V, p. 94. 
 
 (2) Vol. II, ch. XIV, pp. 280-283.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 405 
 
 farmers, and had conducted themselves very badly 
 in my own service, were considered quite ' saints ' 
 at the missionary stations, where they find it their 
 interest to assume the greatest sanctity of demeanour." 
 « I believe their system to be radically bad, and 
 productive of the worst consequences as respects the 
 interests and improvement of all classes of the com- 
 munity. » And finally he sums up in these grave 
 words the results of missionary teaching. « It is no- 
 torious to all the colonists, that the Hottentots who 
 have resided for any time at the missionary stations 
 are generally the most idle and worthless of their 
 nation. » (1) 
 
 In July of the same year, 1855, various witnesses 
 were examined before Parliamentary Committees on 
 the results of Protestant missions in South Africa. 
 « Do you think that the Missionaries have improved 
 the character of the Kaffirs, » was a question ad- 
 dressed to Captain Aitchison, who had lived long 
 amongst them. « Not in the least, » was his reply; 
 « with the exception of Kama, and one or two of his 
 tribe, I have not seen the slightest improvement by 
 the iMissionaries among them; in fact, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Chumie, wheie the great missionary 
 station is, they are the icorst behaved Kaffirs of the 
 whole tribe. » (2) 
 
 Major Dundas reported, on the same occasion, 
 « I believe they have hardly christianised a single 
 individual; » (3) and we shall find this admitted to 
 be true, even by missionaries, twenty years later. 
 
 (1) Vol.11, p. 292. 
 
 (2) Parliamentary Papers, July 1835, vol. VII, p. 12. 
 
 (3) Ibid.,\>. U2.
 
 406 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Sir Harry Smith, an ardent advocate of extreme 
 Protestant opinions, observed, that « the house of 
 the Rev. iV^ Brownlee » — whom he calls « an exem- 
 plary man, who had resided years with these people* 
 — was burnt to the ground, and shortly after that of 
 every other missionary^ except the Chumie and Burn's 
 Hill, which were ransacked. » And the Rev. Wil- 
 liam Culmers, of Chumie, confessed that, after so 
 many years, they had not acquired the slightest in- 
 fluence with the natives, when he said; « An angry 
 look just now would be enough to send all the mis- 
 sionaries into eternity. » (I) At Burn's Hill they were 
 rescued by the military, at the earnest solicitation of 
 the missionaries themselves ; some of whom after- 
 wards protested, when the danger was past, that 
 they had never been in the least danger amongst their 
 attached flocks ! 
 
 In one of the later Kafiir wars, that of 1850, 
 a still more characteristic fact occurred, and one 
 which shows, that as the Negro Anglican « converts » 
 at Sierra Leone were at the same time « communi- 
 cants » and « obstinate » followers of native super- 
 stitions; so in South Africa, the same class exhibit 
 an equally remarkable duality of profession. At a 
 place called the « Shilo Missionary Institution, » 
 « The Church, or missionary chapel, was held most 
 resolutely by the enemy, garrisoned chiefly by those 
 very Hottentots who, not a month previously, had 
 received the Holy Sacrament within its walls. » (2) 
 
 (t) Vol. XLIII, pp. 359, 37 1. 
 
 (2) Narrative of the Kaffir War of 1850-i , by R. Godloiilon, 
 ch. xvn, p, 215.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 407 
 
 Tn 1837, Sir James Alexander, though favorable 
 to missionary schemes, says of the missionaries, — 
 « little care is taken at home in the selection of the 
 instruments; » and of the missionary schools, — 
 « schools of idleness they are, instead of schools of 
 industry, as they ought to be, » in which « the Hot- 
 tentots were kept in a stale of pupillage, immorality, 
 and concubinage. » (1) 
 
 In 1839, M"" Bannister, a member of the Abori- 
 gines Protection Society, says ; « Missionaries have 
 for the most part proved themselves incapable of 
 protecting the natives polilically, or of improving 
 them so rapidly that ihey might become iheir own 
 proleclors. » (2) 
 
 In 1842, we come to M"' Moffat, and to his ac- 
 count of missionary labours in South Africa. If 
 this gentleman announces in animated phrase his 
 own continual triumphs, he at least permits no 
 such pretentions on the part of his colleagues and 
 friends. Of M' Edmonds he tells us, that he aban- 
 doned the work owing to « an insurmountable aver- 
 sion on his part to the people. » (3) His companion, 
 M"" Ebner, as we have already heard, deplored the 
 wickedness of his flock, « baptized as well as un- 
 baplized. » Of a tribe of Namaquas, « which had 
 long enjoyed the instructions of missionaries, » he 
 
 (1) Voyage Among the Colonies of W. Africa, by Sir James 
 E. Alexander, K. L. S., vol. 1, ch. xvi, p. 402; vol. II, oh. xx, 
 p. 75. 
 
 (2) Memoir respecting the Colonization of Natal, by S. Ban- 
 nister Esq., Member of llie Aborigines Protection Society, pre- 
 face, p. 10. 
 
 (3) Missionary Labours, etc., cb. ll, p. 27.
 
 408 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 says ; « They had not the least idea of a God or a 
 I'uluie slate. They were lilerally like the beasts which 
 perish. » (1) Again, of M"^ Edwards and M"" Cox, two 
 Protestant missionaries, who « settled in the Bechuana 
 country, for the ostensible purpose of preaching the 
 Gospel to the natives, » he gives this account : — 
 they took to farming and trading, and « on this rock 
 these men appear to have struck, and both were 
 wrecked. » « Edwards, » IVr Mofl'al adds, « is now, or 
 was some years since, a hoary-headed infidel. » (2) 
 His own interpreter also, « brought home a concu- 
 bine with him, and apostatising, became an enemy 
 to the mission. » « W Evans relinquished the mis- 
 sion altogether. » Of the natives generally he con- 
 fesses, that they were « sensible only of the temporal 
 benefits enjoyed by those who have received the 
 Gospel. » (5) 
 
 It appears, therefore, that M' Mofl'al, though he 
 does full justice to himself, is at least perfectly candid 
 in his estimate of others. It is only necessary to add, 
 that they, in their turn, speak with equal frankness 
 of him. Thus, the Rev. D"^ Brown, alluding to Mof- 
 fat's florid narratives, says bluntly ; « of these awa- 
 kenings, we confess, we entertain great doubts. » 
 And again ; « flourishing accounts were at diff'erent 
 periods given of the progress of religion, but some of 
 those accounts were probably much exaggerated, 
 while others were founded on mistaken judgments.* {h) 
 
 (1) Ch. IX, p. 124. 
 
 (2) Ch.xiv, pp. 215, 16. 
 
 (3) Ch. xxxHi, p. 608. 
 
 (4.) History of the Propagation of Christianity among the 
 Heathen, vol. II, p. 239.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 409 
 
 ]y[r Freeman also, a secretary of ihe London Mission- 
 ary Society, confessed nine years later, after a visit 
 to Kolobeng, which had so long enjoyed M" Moffat's 
 presence; « The whole mission-work of the station 
 is quite in an incipient state. » And then, as he was 
 not speaking of operations in which he had any per- 
 sonal share, he proposes this candid question : — 
 How far is a Missionary justified « in remaining with 
 a heathen people, when, though they are glad of his 
 presence, from the shield it serves to throw around 
 them in their civil and polilical condition, they not 
 only do not embrace the gospel which he preaches, 
 but resist and oppose, and scarcely ever come to 
 him? » (1) M"" Moffat should have remembered, when 
 he wrote home about « the unction of the Spirit 
 realised in our sabbath convocations, » that in these 
 days people travel far and fast, and almost always 
 publish an account of their travels when they are 
 ended. 
 
 In 1844, M"" Backhouse, — who was apparently a 
 preacher, and whose work is a painful specimen of 
 complacent fanaticism, — was obliged to admit, with 
 respect to South Africa, « the little that has been 
 effected, as well as the tardiness of its progress. » (2) 
 
 In 1848, — for lapse of time brings no change, 
 and after half a century of barren effort not the 
 slightest sign of improvement is recorded, — M"" Bun- 
 bury, a scientific Protestant traveller, ihus remarks 
 on the pretended influence of the missionaries among 
 the Kaffirs. « Yet it is certain, that in the present 
 
 (1) Tour in S. Africa, by J. J. Freeman, ch. xii, p. 291. 
 
 (2) Visit to the Mauritius and S. Africa, by James Backliouse, 
 app., p. 5t.
 
 410 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 outbreak the Kaffirs have shown themselves far more 
 powerful and formidable, and at the same time have 
 displayed a more sanguinary and merciless spirit 
 than at any former lime. The task of reclaiming and 
 civilising these people is evidently not to be accom- 
 plished by missionaries alone. » (1) 
 
 In the following year, IS^O, we have the testi- 
 mony of Colonel Napier to the same facts which so 
 many other equally capable and impartial witnesses 
 have already attested. « Notwithstanding those fla- 
 ming accounts which have been published to the con- 
 trary, » this distinguished officer says, « it is noto- 
 rious, it is a fact which cannot be contradicted, that 
 all attempts to convert the Kaffir race have hitherto 
 proved complete failures. » It is just the history of 
 China, India, Ceylon, and Australia over again. 
 « Kaftirs, Korannas, and Bushmen, spile of the 
 falsely asserled success of missionary labour, are 
 still in a slate of most brutalized ignorance, as re- 
 gards religion or worship of any description. » 
 
 Of the Hottentots, he says, — « their Christianity 
 consists in thai love of idleness, and a lazy useless 
 stale of existence, which they so fully enjoy at those 
 establishments formed by their soi-disant spiritual 
 instructors. » Their natural vices, he affirms, « are 
 shamefully countenanced and encouraged at most of 
 the missionary establishments within the limits of 
 the Colony; » which, he adds, « are hotbeds of 
 lazyness, and have moreover, in many cases, been 
 converted into nurseries for harbouring deserters and 
 
 (1) Journal of a Residence at the Cape of Good Hope, by 
 Charles J. F. Bunbury, F. L. S., ch. xi, p. 255.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 4H 
 
 vagabonds of every descriplion. » II is here, Colonel 
 Napier reporls — as Sir B, D'Urban and others had 
 ah'eady done — ihat « discontent and suspicion, and 
 in some instances open rebellion, » are foslered « by 
 men professing lo disseminate among the heathen the 
 holy truths of the Gospel. » And then he complains, 
 with natural indignation, that « drunken ruffians, » 
 such as Macomo, Pato, and others, should he repre- 
 sented by the missionaries, with the most unworthy 
 objects, « as converts to Christianity. » Finally, after 
 describing the missionaries as « men sallying forth 
 to convert the heathen with a bible in one hand, and 
 a Hottentot ' vrouw ' in the other, » — he thus ap- 
 preciates, in the same sentence, the teachers and 
 their disciples : — « The Hottentots are more drunken 
 and dissolute than ever, and some reverend person- 
 ages have not — to their shame be it said — set them 
 the most rigorous examples of morality. » (1) 
 
 If we still multiply evidence which, during fifty 
 years, we have found to be absolutely uniform, and 
 which, proceeding exclusively from Protestants, ef- 
 fectively illustrates the real character of a religion 
 of which these are the unvarying fruits in every land ; 
 it is only in order that its weight and volume may 
 bear some proportion to the mass of prejudice and 
 ignorance which it may possibly assist to remove. 
 For this reason, let us continue the chain of witnesses 
 down lo the present hour, and the next, in 1831, is 
 the Rev. Gustavus Hines, who thus describes the 
 influence of his brethren in South Africa. 
 
 (1) Excursions in Southern Africa, Introd., p. 10; vol. I, 
 ch. V, p. 58 ; ch. vii, p. H 1 ; vol. II, ch. xxii, p. U2.
 
 412 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 « Large numbers had professed to be converted, 
 but very few had continued for any length of time to 
 give evidence of a genuine change of heart. Indeed 
 it appears to he the case in Africa, as well as in 
 olher henthen countries, that it is much easier to get 
 the people converted than it is to keep them so. » (1) 
 And in the same year an English writer, not less 
 favorably disposed than M"" Hines towards the mis- 
 sionaries, makes the same revelations as all the other 
 witnesses both about ihem and their converts. Of the 
 first he deplores that they should « put down every 
 thing thai is pleasant, connect the devil with the 
 most innocent enjoyments, and make hymn-singing 
 the only overt act of hilarity ; » while of the last he 
 says, — « Any thing more dreary and uncomfortable 
 than a converted savage I have never seen in the form 
 of humanity. » And then he gives a specimen of one 
 who had been taught to sing about « the sufferings 
 of the Lamb, » but who « attached no meaning to 
 the words, and knew no more about the Lamb, or 
 His sufferings, than one of the lower animals. »> (2) 
 
 In 1832, M'" Cole, after five years of personal 
 observation, thus confirms all his predecessors. « Out 
 of every hundred Hottentot Christians (so called), 
 I will venture to declare, that ninety-nine are utterly 
 ignorant of any correct notion of a future state. 
 I speak from experience. I have frequently been by 
 the bed-side of the sick and dying Hottentot, who 
 has been a constant attendant at some missionary 
 
 (1) Life on the Plains of the Pacific, ch. xv, p. 308, Cf., 
 Sketches of the Caffre Tribes, 1851. 
 
 (2) To the Mauritius and back, ch. v, p. 197.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 413 
 
 chapel, and I have asked him whether he liad any 
 fear of dying? He has smiled, and said, 
 
 * None. ' 
 
 I have asked him whether he expects to go to 
 heaven? and he has answered, 
 
 * No. ' 
 Where then? 
 
 * Nowhere. ' 
 
 This I have heard, over and over again, from the 
 lips of some of the ' pet' Christians of missionaries. » 
 
 Is it possihle to desire a more impressive demon- 
 stration of the incurable impotence of Protestantism? 
 
 Like all the olher witnesses, M'' Cole explains the 
 fact that many Hottentots call themselves « christ- 
 ians » by the « great pecuniary advantage » which 
 they derive from the profession. At also, like Lich- 
 lenstein, and Burchell, and Moodie, and Napier, and 
 the rest, declares that « it is notorious that the people 
 living at the missionary stations are the idlest and 
 most useless set of people in the colony ; » while at 
 some of them, he adds, « promiscuous intercourse 
 between the sexes was winked at, if not absolutely 
 sanctioned. » (1) 
 
 In 1833, M"^ Gallon explains, like 31' Cole, the 
 motive of the missionary in still continuing his un- 
 profltable career. « The missionary is, » he says, 
 « to all intents and purposes, lord paramount of the 
 place. » (2) 
 
 In 1854, we have the evidence of Archdeacon 
 
 (1) The Cape and the Kafirs, etc., by Alfred W. Cole, ch. viil, 
 p. 145. 
 
 (2) Tropical South Africa, by Francis Gallon Esq., cb. ii, 
 p. 29.
 
 414 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IMerrimaii, whose frank and genial style can hardly 
 fail to allracl the sympathy of his readers, as his 
 character seems to have won that of his friends. 
 « The reformed Church of England, » this gentleman 
 observes, judging it by its proceedings in Africa, 
 « has yet to learn the elements of real systematic 
 mission work. » With equal candour, he rebukes 
 '< the exaggerated accounts of missionaries, » of whom 
 he does not appear lo have formed a high estimate. 
 Excepting certain « foreign » missionaries, he says ; 
 « Not a few South African missionaries seem to quit 
 the employment as soon as an opening occurs either 
 to farm advantageously, or to enter the employ of 
 the Government. / meet with examples of this 
 ivherever I go. » 
 
 The true missionaries of the Cross, from the lime 
 of St. Paul to our own, have always died at their 
 work; by martyrdom, by toil, by disease, or by old 
 jige. They do not « retire upon their property, » like 
 the Anglican missionaries in New Zealand, nor upon 
 a pension, like those in India; they never « cease 
 to call themselves missionaries, » like M"" GutzlaflF, 
 M"^ Kicheier, and their fellows; still less do they take 
 to farming, banking, or other modes of augmenting 
 their imperceptible resources. They give much to 
 the world, but they borrow nothing from it; except 
 the grave in which, after having « confessed a good 
 confession before many witnesses," (1) they lie down 
 in peace, expecting the day of account. 
 
 M"" Merriman seems to forget his own exception 
 in favour of « foreign » emissaries, when he afler- 
 
 (1) Tim. VI, 12.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 41S 
 
 wards relates of the « French Mission Stations, » 
 that « the missionaries are extensively engaged in 
 farming on their private account. » D'' Hawks does 
 not increase our esteem for the same class, when he 
 notices the rumour, « that the Caffres have been 
 instructed in the art of war by a French missionary 
 settled among them, who passed his early life in the 
 army. » (1) 
 
 Another singular fact which M"^ Merriman men- 
 lions agrees with M"" Godlonlon's account of a paral- 
 lel occurrence. Of certain rebels, who acted with 
 great ferocity against the English, he says; « These 
 men had all partaken of the Holy Communion toge- 
 ther the Sunday previous! » Anglican communicants 
 in the colonies do not seem to be of a high class. 
 
 Lastly, M'' Merriman, who seems to have been 
 every where distressed and embarassed by what he 
 calls « our hateful religious disunion, » relates how 
 he tried to prevent its evil elfecls upon the heathen. 
 He was, on a certain occasion, about to preach from 
 a waggon, just as a Wesleyan missionary had taken 
 up a rival position under a neighbouring hedge. A 
 prompt resolution saved appearances. The next mo- 
 ment the savages would have seen Protestantism 
 under an unfavorable aspect, but a rapid colloquy 
 was followed by a reluctant truce, and i>P Merriman 
 offered to read Anglican prayers while tlie other 
 should give a Wesleyan sermon. The comj)romisewas 
 accepted, and for the flrst time a pagan audience was 
 persuaded to believe in the unity of Protestantism. 
 
 (1) American Expedition under Commodore Perry, by Francis 
 L. Hawks, D. D.; cli. in, p. 103.
 
 416 CHAPTER Vll. 
 
 It is curious, however, that a liltle later we find 
 ihis Anglican Archdeacon, who was far from being 
 elated by so questionable a triumph, envying even 
 the Dutch Calvinists in South Africa on this ground, 
 that at least they all professed the same heresies. 
 « Ten limes the number of English, » he observes, 
 « could not do, in consequence of their religious 
 divisions, what the Dutch so easily achieve. » (1) 
 
 In 1853, a more remarkable witness appears, and 
 one who will assist us to comprehend not only llie 
 failure of Protestantism lo impress itself on ihe 
 heathen mind, but also its real influence even upon 
 some of the most respectable of its own professors. 
 D"^ Colenso is, or was, an Anglican bishop in iNatal; 
 a man far beyond the reach of any imputation on ihe 
 score of personal character, highly inlelligenl, full 
 of honest zeal, and probably as superior to most of 
 his companions in moral worth as he certainly is in 
 intellect and attainments. Towards this gentleman 
 personally it would be irrational lo entertain any but 
 kind and respectful feelings. Yet he is perhaps ihe 
 most striking example in the whole hislory of Pro- 
 testant missions of ihe withering influence of a re- 
 ligion which could make such a man, full of ability 
 and good intentions, avow opinions such as that 
 w hich we are about lo notice. 
 
 D"^ Colenso, embarassed by the obstinate adherence 
 to polygamy which he observed among the Kaffirs, 
 came to the resolution — afler conference, it is said, 
 w illi olher Anglican authorities of the highest rank — 
 
 (1) Journals of Archdeacon Merriimn, pp. 37, 52, 116, 178, 
 185.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 417 
 
 to remove the difficully by a process which, though 
 adopted in a well known case by Luther and Me- 
 lancthon , had not previously received the official 
 sanction of Anglican bishops. As polygamy would 
 not yield to Protestantism , D"^ Colenso agreed to 
 consider polygamy a « scriptural » mode of existence. 
 Here are his own words. 
 
 « I must confess that I feel very strongly that the 
 usual practice of enforcing the separation of wives 
 from their husbands, upon their conversion to Christ- 
 ianity, is quite unwarrantable, and opposed to the 
 plain teaching of our Lord. » And then he proves, of 
 course from the Bible, that polygamy is not incon- 
 sistent with the all-holy religion of the Gospel. Here 
 is the proof. « What is the use, » he asks, « of our 
 reading to them (the heathen) the Bible stories 
 of Abraham, Israel, and David, with their many 
 wives? » 
 
 One should have thought it easy enough lo explain 
 to them, as St. Paul did, that ihe New^ Law not only 
 proposes a higher standard of holiness than the Old, 
 but gives power, through the Sacraments of the Pre- 
 cious Blood, to attain it; and that while the prophet 
 of Israel permitted divorce to the Jews, « by reason 
 of the hardness of their hearts, » the Apostle of the 
 Gentiles dissuaded Christians even from marriage. 
 But the awful sanctity of the religion of Jesus is 
 a foolishness » in the eyes of men who know it to be 
 unattainable by themselves, and who do not blush to 
 claim for the Christian a license greater than that 
 which was a reproach even to the Jew. St. Francis or 
 St. Ignatius is a portent as baleful to the Protestant, 
 as St. Paul was to the Greek. When our Lord said
 
 418 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 of the counsel of virginity, « All men take not this 
 word, but they lo whom it is given; » (1) we know 
 for whom He reserved , in all ages , the angelic 
 gift. 
 
 But D"^ Colenso was not without support in his 
 view of polygamy. « The whole body of American 
 missionaries in Burmah, » he observes, « after some 
 difference of opinion.... came lo the unanimous de- 
 cision lo admit in future polygamisls of old standing 
 to Communion — but not to offices in the Church » : 
 as if the last were a greater privilege than the first! 
 « I must say this appears lo me the only right and 
 reasonable course. » (2) 
 
 Yet j>F East assures us, and we hardly needed 
 the assurance, ihat « intimately connected vviih po- 
 lygamy, and in pari at least, resulting from it, is the 
 degradation of woman in Africa. » (3) It is certainly 
 a remarkable fact, that if any unusually strange doc- 
 trine is announced among Protestant missionaries, — 
 any new outrage upon the Incarnation, as when the 
 Anglican bishops in India soliciled an alliance with 
 the Syrian Nestorians; or upon the Blessed Euchar- 
 ist; or the Sacrament of Holy Baptism; or the 
 Creeds ; or the Mother of God ; or the Sacrament of 
 Marriage; it is sure to proceed, not from the un- 
 lettered Baptist or Wesleyan, but from some highly 
 respectable minister of the Anglican Church. 
 
 D' Colenso speaks favorably of the Kaffir cha- 
 racter, and of their « faithfulness and honesty, » as 
 
 (1) S. Matt. XIX, li. 
 
 (2) Ten Weeks in Natal, etc., by J. ^Y. Colenso, D. D., 
 Lord Bishop of the Diocese , pp. 140, 14.1. 
 
 (3) Western Africa, p. 50.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA, 419 
 
 Levaillanl (1) and olher early writers on South Africa 
 were accustomed to do. But it seems to be the mis- 
 sion of Protestantism, by the testimony of its own 
 agents, to rob the heathen even of his natural virtues. 
 D'" Colenso declares, and we may safely trust so in- 
 telligent a witness, that the Kaffirs display « traces 
 of a religious knowledge, however originally derived, 
 which their ancestors possessed long before the ar- 
 rival of the Missionaries. » Yet Protestantism, with 
 every human advantage on its side, could only suc- 
 ceed in exciting the antipathy of these vigorous bar- 
 barians; and D' Colenso himself mentions a Chief, 
 who, after listening with courteous patience to a 
 sermon, enquired eagerly, the moment the preacher's 
 voice ceased, « How do you make gunpowder? » (2) 
 
 The only other statement which we need borrow 
 from this writer, is an expression of opinion, founded 
 no doubt upon personal observation, which is not 
 likely to be acceptable to Prolestant missionaries. 
 « Wives often ruin a Mission, » he says, « by their 
 tempers and animosities, breaking up the harmonious 
 action of their husbands. » (3) 
 
 In 1856, that we may continue the chain of wit- 
 nesses, M"" Andersson, a friend and associate of the 
 missionaries, gives such examples as the following 
 of the complete nullity of their efforts. Of Schep- 
 mansdorf, in the country of the IVamaquas, he says; 
 « Although M"" Bam (the missionary) had used every 
 effort to civilize and christianize his small communi- 
 
 (1) Voyage dans I'lnterieiir de fAfriqxie, 1780-1785. 
 
 (2) P. 117. 
 
 (3) P. 52.
 
 420 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ty, all his endeavours had hitherto proved nearly 
 abortive. » Of the Damaras, again, this is his account. 
 « IVr Hahn, who is liked and respected by the na- 
 tives, never succeeded, as he himself told me, in 
 converting a single individual. » 
 
 Speaking of the nominal converts, under all classes 
 of missionaries, M"^ Andersson says; «So long as they 
 are fed and clothed, they are willing enough to con- 
 gregate round the missionary, and to listen to his 
 exhortation. The moment, however, the food and 
 clothing are discontinued, their feigned attachment 
 to his person and to his doctrines is at an end, and 
 they do not scruple to treat their benefactor with 
 ingratitude, and to load him with abuse. » (1) Such 
 a history, uniform in every land, and for every race, 
 sounds like an echo of the prophetic malediction; 
 « You shall be as an oak with the leaves falling ofl", 
 and as a garden without water. And your strength 
 shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work as a 
 spark. » (2) 
 
 Five years later, to anticipate a ease which exactly 
 resembles that of the Namaquas and Damaras, we 
 are told that the Makololos, in spite of their profit- 
 able intercourse with Protestant missionaries, had 
 just robbed a party of them of every thing which 
 they possessed, and driven them out of the country. 
 M'' Price, the wife of one of the ministers, « was 
 buried under an isolated tree in the immense plain 
 of the Mabobe; » and, « after the party left, the 
 Makololos disinterred the body, and cut off a portion 
 
 (1) Lake Ngami, etc., by Charles John Andersson; ch. ii, 
 p. 27; ch. IX, p. 103. 
 
 (2) Isaias, I, 30, 31.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 421 
 
 of the face to exhibit in iheir town. » (1) Such was 
 the progress which the missionaries had made, during 
 the interval, in acquiring ihe reverence of their Afri- 
 can disciples. 
 
 In 1837, the Rev. Joseph Shooter had arrived at 
 the conclusion, suggested by the unvarying experience 
 of half a century, that « we must not estimate the 
 results of missionary labour merely by the number 
 of converts. » Yet any other estimate would appa- 
 rently be still less acceptable, for he adds that long 
 observation of their character only « tended to weaken 
 his confidence in the religious professions of this 
 people. » (2 ) 
 
 In the same year, 1)"^ Armstrong, an anglican 
 bishop, confirms all the other witnesses, but with 
 special reference to the misadventures of his own 
 religious body. « If ihe Kaffirs, » he says, « abound 
 in the diocese of Grahamstown by thousands, the 
 Church of England has yet done nothing for them. » 
 The representatives of that institution were fully oc- 
 cupied, it appears, in dealing with the domestic 
 phenomena which the Establishment is now exhibit- 
 ing to the Kaffirs, after offering them to the contem- 
 plation of the heathen in every other land. « Port 
 Elisabeth, where I first touch my diocese, » observes 
 D"" Armstrong, « is full of Church troubles. » He 
 adds, indeed, as might be expected, that « many 
 bright features present themselves, » and then reit- 
 erates the accustomed lament, « but there is some- 
 thing sad in beginning with internal strife. » 
 
 (i) The Times, May 2, 18G1. 
 
 (2) The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country, app., 
 pp. 369, 371.
 
 4ii2 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 D"" Arsmtrong found, like the rest of his hrelhreii, 
 that the end corresponded with the beginning, and 
 the « briglit features » became clouded. A little later 
 he had to deplore « the secession » of part of his 
 flock, who adopted this mode of protesting against a 
 clergyman who preached in a surplice; and the event 
 was the more painful, because, as his biographer 
 remarks, « he made many efForls to retain the dissi- 
 dents, but in vain. » At Uitenhage also, he found it 
 expedient to suspend one of his clergy for a dispute 
 about « the offertory. » Such anecdotes^ no doubt, 
 are trivial ; but in speaking of the Church of England 
 as a missionary body, the most industrious historian 
 searches in vain for graver materials. 
 
 D"" Armstrong's principal clergy, like Heber's, 
 seem to have been German Lutherans, with an in- 
 fusion of English Wesleyans, both classes accepting 
 the « orders » which he was able to offer them. Yet 
 he suffered much annoyance, we are told, from « the 
 opposition of the Wesleyans, » as Heber and his suc- 
 cessors did from the hostility of the Lutherans. And 
 meanwhile the heathen looked on, and formed their 
 conception of the nature of Protestantism. 
 
 « The reports, » D' Armstrong says, — meaning, 
 probably, the private as distinguished from the offi- 
 cial reports, — « do not really speak of many con- 
 verts. There are many listeners. A chapel will be full 
 every Sunday, and yet but very few converted and 
 baptized. As a fact there are very few Christian Kaf- 
 firs. » (1) 
 
 (1) Memoir, by the RevJ J. J. Carler, pp. 264, 269,281, 
 307. 347, 381.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 423 
 
 The Wesleyans were even more candid than 
 D"" Armstrong; for Sir Benjamin D'Urban relates, 
 that « they all acknowledged to him, that they could 
 not flatter themselves they had ever made a lasting 
 salutary impression upon one of the race of Kaf- 
 firs. » 
 
 In 1857, D' Livingstone published his interesting 
 work on South Africa. From such a writer we ex- 
 pect the truth, and the expectation will not be dis- 
 appointed. The first « element of weakness » which 
 he noticed in his fellow missionaries, was their de- 
 termination not to venture beyond the tranquil bor- 
 ders « of the Cape Colony itself. » « When we 
 hear, » he remarks, « an agent of one sect urging 
 his friends at home to aid him quickly to occupy 
 some unimportant nook, because, if it is not speedily 
 laid hold of, he will * not have room for the sole of 
 his fool; ' one cannot help longing that both he and 
 his friends would direct their noble aspirations to 
 the millions of untaught heathen in the regions be- 
 yond, and no longer continue to convert the extremity 
 of the continent into, as it were, a dam of benevo- 
 lence. » 
 
 D"" Livingstone, with the freedom from prejudice 
 which is the privilege of manly natures, proposes 
 this question to his readers. « Can our wise men tell 
 us, why the former mission stations (primitive mon- 
 asteries) were self-supporting, rich, and flourishing, 
 as pioneers of civilization and agriculture from 
 which we even now reap benefits; and modern mis- 
 sion stations are mere pauper establishments, with- 
 out that permanence or ability to be self-supporting 
 which they possessed? » We may be allowed to re-
 
 424 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 gret llial a writer of so much integrity and good 
 sense did not attempt to answer his own question. 
 
 Of the actual and final results of the labours of 
 sixty years in South Africa, D"" Livingstone gives this 
 cautious but impressive estimate. « Protestant mis- 
 sionaries, of every denomination, all agree in one 
 point; that no mere profession of Christianity is 
 sufficient to entitle the converts to the Christian 
 name. » (1) It is impossible, in presence of such 
 facts, to think without horror of the multitude of 
 sacrilegious baptisms which, in Africa as elsewhere, 
 appear to be the sole fruit of Protestant missions. 
 
 In 1858, for there is no defect in the chain of evi- 
 dence, the Rev. H. Caldcrwood gives this report. « If 
 we view the Kaffirs as a nation, they may be said to 
 have refused the Gospel. The Kaffirs, as a people, 
 are just as uncivilized and degraded, their customs 
 are as impure and cruel, and they are apparently as 
 unmoved, as they were on the day when Vander 
 Kemp first stood on the banks of the Tyume. » (2) 
 
 And so notorious is this result of all the English 
 missions in South Africa, including the operations of 
 nearly twenty different sects, that in 18o0, President 
 Pretorius, of the Transvaal Republic, could thus 
 openly jesl at them in a public speech. « It was his 
 decided opinion, that the emissaries of the London 
 Missionary Society have done, and continue to do, so 
 much harm, and so little good among the natives, 
 that it has become absolutely necessary for the Raad 
 to decide, whether or no their continued labours, and 
 
 (1) Missionary Travels, ch. vi, pp. 116, 117 , ch. ix, p. 190. 
 
 (2) Caffres and Caffre Missions, ch. vn, p. 96.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 425 
 
 even iheir presence, lo the north of Vaal River shall 
 be longer tolerated. » It is true that the English wri- 
 ter who quotes this speech angrily retorts, that the 
 Boers « are as a class far more dangerous to civili- 
 zation than even the irreclaimable savages of Moffat 
 and C\ » (1) 
 
 It would be idle to offer even a word of comment 
 upon such a history, in which, though every sentence 
 is penned by Protestant writers, we read only an 
 unvarying record of covetousness, immorality, world- 
 liness, confusion, and failure. St. Paul has written 
 the same history, but in fewer words. When the 
 Apostle enumerates « the works of the flesh, » he 
 seems lo sum up, in one brief sentence, the principal 
 incidents in all Protestant missions ; — «uncleanness, 
 luxury, contentions, emulations, quarrels, dissen- 
 sions, sects. » (2) Such, as we have seen in every 
 laud, are their only fruits; and it is lo gather them 
 once more in a new field, that vast sums of money, 
 which might have alleviated the lot of thousands of 
 our heathen population at home, have here been ex- 
 pended, during three quarters of a century. Two 
 races of pagan men have in this case been submitted, 
 during three whole generations, to all the influences 
 which Protestantism could exert upon them ; the one 
 « have refused the Gospel, » the other, wherever 
 ihey have accepted the instructions of a Protestant 
 missionary, have only become « the most idle and 
 the most worthless of their nation. » If it were pos- 
 sible lo admit that the agents in such a work are, as 
 
 (1) The Cape and Natal News, Jan. 3i, 1859, p. 77. 
 
 (2) Galat, v, 19. 
 
 II. 19.
 
 426 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ihey assure their disciples, ihe interpreters of divine 
 truth, and of truth « reformed » by a kind of second 
 revelation, the supposition would perhaps involve 
 the most frightful satire upon the God of Christ- 
 ians which the subtlest impiety has ever conceived. 
 
 It is lime to quit a subject which is full only of 
 regret and humiliation, and to endeavour to seek 
 more grateful scenes in other lands. But first we must 
 say a word, in conclusion, upon Catholic missions 
 in South Africa. 
 
 A Protestant writer has observed, with allusion 
 to the facts of which we have now completed the 
 survey, that in South Afiica « the Roman Catholic 
 community, until these few last years, vvere a pro- 
 scribed people. By an old law of India, Jesuits and 
 Roman priests were to be forcibly apprehended, and 
 immediately deported. » (1) Bishop Devereux, Vicar 
 Apostolic of South Eastern Africa, notices the same 
 fact, in 1830, in explaining the absence of Catholic 
 missionaries from these regions during the Dutch and 
 English occupation. « These proviuces, » he obser- 
 ves, « have been hitherto, so to speak, a sealed book 
 for Europe. First the Dutch East India Company 
 forbade, throughout the whole Colony, the exercise 
 of our religion, enforcing the interdict by severe pen- 
 alties. The English domination succeeded, which, 
 after manifesting an almost equally intolerant spirit, 
 concedes, even at the present day, only a reluctant 
 consent to our ministry. » (2) It was not till 1838 
 that the existing mission, in spite of the frowns of 
 
 (1) The Cape of Good Hope, by John C. Chase Esq., Secretary 
 to the Society for Exploring Central Africa, p. 438. 
 
 (2) Annals, vol. XII, p. 12.
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 427 
 
 hostile officials, was constituted by Bishop Griffith, 
 the first Vicar Apostolic. For some years the insuffi- 
 cient number of the missionaries, and the necessity of 
 attending to the wants of the Catholic population, 
 forbade all attempts to organise systematic efforts for 
 the conversion of the heathen. The « children of the 
 household » had the first claim. In 1855, D''Colenso, 
 who evidently does not share the vulgar prejudices of 
 his order, and is too generous to employ their lan- 
 guage, appears to have visited the Catholic Bishop in 
 Maritzburg— « a very gentlemanly Frenchman, with 
 a benignant expression of countenance, and an appear- 
 ance of sincerity and earnestness about him which 
 I was rejoiced to witness. He told me that there 
 were not yet any missionaries of his Church among 
 the natives; but he w^as about, without delay, to set 
 some at work. » In 18o6 the project was executed, 
 and the Mission of St. Michael opened in Kaffraria. 
 In 1858, the Rev. H. Calderwood, writing from the 
 same part of the country, says;« the Roman Cathol- 
 ics are on the increase. There are two bishops and a 
 number of priests, who are able and energetic men. 
 It is quite clear that Protestants are not to have it 
 all their own way in South Africa. » (1) Lastly, 
 M*" Cole very candidly intimates what the final issue 
 of the new Catholic mission is likely to be, when he 
 says, — « The Catholics are steadily progressing in 
 numbers, and make, I verily believe, more genuine 
 converts among the coloured classes than any other 
 sect. » (2) 
 
 (i) Cuffrcs and Caffre Missions, ch. I, p. 12. 
 (2) The Cape and the Kafirs, ch. ix, p. 155.
 
 428 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 We may now quit Africa, not without the consola- 
 tory belief that the work of true conversion has at 
 length begun, and that a later annalist will record the 
 same apostolic triumphs in this land which we have 
 already traced in so many others. Let the reader com- 
 pare, for his own instruction, the historical facts 
 which we have now imperfectly reviewed; the war- 
 fare of the martyrs of North Africa, of Egypt, and 
 Abyssinia, — never more truly apostles than when, 
 like our Lord at Bethsaida or St. Paul at Antioch, they 
 seemed for a season to preach in vain, — and the later 
 toils of the generous men who in our own day have 
 succeeded both to their office and their gifts, with 
 the narrative of turpitude and confusion which we 
 have just closed; and let him apply once again the 
 divine rule, By their fruits ye shall know them. And 
 that he may comprehend the whole lesson which 
 this history contains, let him note in this case also 
 the accustomed fact, that the agents of the Sects have 
 not only failed, — in Africa, as in India, Ceylon, and 
 the Antipodes, — but that they have failed, in spite of 
 the advantage which in all these countries ihey en- 
 joyed as the representatives of an irresistible power, 
 and the dispensers of almost unlimited wealth. Silver 
 and gold ihey had, but it could not purchase a single 
 soul, for even the pagan mocked the preachers who 
 came to him with such gifts, when he saw that they 
 could give him nothing better. The Catholic apostles, 
 penetrated with other truths and holier maxims, gave 
 the life which was all they could call their own, and 
 gave it with more than royal munificence, content 
 that a later generation should reap the fruits of a 
 sacrifice of which they tasted only the gall and vine-
 
 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 429 
 
 gar. And they did not offer il in vain. Already from 
 the north of Africa the Cross has begun to cast its 
 healing shadow towards the mountains which bend 
 down to receive it, and the deserts which smile at its 
 approach; and from the iXile to the Ocean, from 
 Egypt to Morocco, the disciples of Islam are hiding 
 their faces before the mysterious Sign which tells 
 them that their hour has come. From the East also a 
 voice is heard, which reaches even to the West, and 
 is echoed from the mountains of Ethiopia and the 
 cities of Abyssinia, across the burning plains of the 
 Soudan, to the rivers of Senegambia and the parched 
 solitudes of Angola and Benguela; and if in the South, 
 long abandoned to unfruitful husbandmen, who sow 
 but never reap, and whose labour is as unprofitable 
 as their repose, the field seems to be preoccupied; 
 yet here also the Church will accomplish the victory 
 of which we have lately followed the irresistible 
 march in all the Islands of the Pacific, and having 
 silenced the discordant cries of struggling and con- 
 flicting sects, will at length enlone the hymn which 
 shall annouDce to heaven and earth that the curse is 
 removed from Africa, and that the blood of her mar- 
 tyrs has not been shed in vain.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, SYRIA, AND ARMENIA. 
 
 Many lands have now been passed in review, and 
 each has proclaimed in turn ihe same unvarying lale. 
 We have visited the Chinese and the Hindoo, the 
 Cingalese and the Maori , \]\g Pliilippine and the 
 many tribes who people the island world of the Pa- 
 cific. We have interrogated the Moor and the Copt, 
 the Negro and the Abyssinian ; and now at length the 
 Kaffir and the Hottentot have added their voice, and 
 have told us, that they too, in spite of the mists 
 which cloud both heart and brain, arc learning to 
 discriminate between the apostles of Jesus and the 
 emissaries of man. All have bowed in turn before 
 the meek but fearless pastors who went amongst
 
 432 CHAPTER- VIII. 
 
 lliem bearing ihe Cross, and have confessed, in love 
 or in hale, ihal they indeed came from God ; while 
 all have agreed to spurn, as only men like themselves, 
 the crowd of rival teachers, having neither the gifts 
 nor the calling of apostles, and to uller the testimony 
 which the evil spirits have so often been forced to 
 proclaim by the mouth of the heathen, — « Jesus I 
 know, and Paul I know, but who are you? » (1) 
 
 And now we approach the regions where the 
 mightiest races of the human family have in turn 
 reigned or served, and the lands, immortal both in 
 sacred and profane story, where Christianity yielded 
 its first martyrs, and won its earliest triumphs. They 
 have changed since then, yet not as other lands have 
 changed; for in this mysterious East, which still 
 silently rebukes by its grave and solemn mien the 
 fickle and clamorous races of the West, even error 
 knows how to simulaie the prerogatives of truth, 
 and still wears the same outward form, after (he 
 lapse of centuries, in which it defied the sentence of 
 God at Ephesus and Chalcedon. The lessons of a 
 thousand years, and the abject misery of the last four 
 hundred, have failed to admonish the disciples of 
 Pholius and Eutyches and Nestorius; until in these 
 last days a new call to repentance and conversion has 
 been heard amongst them, of which we are about to 
 trace the noble results. AVe are going to speak of the 
 Greek and the Syrian, — of the Moslem who rules 
 over both, — and of the Russian who is planning in 
 secret how he may set his heel on them all. 
 
 We have come from Africa, and must therefore 
 
 (I) Ads, XIX, 32.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 433 
 
 enter the Mediterranean through that famous strait 
 at whose mouth England keeps watch from her 
 strongest fortress. Let us hegin our new voyage from 
 this spot; for even in Gibraltar, where hut a few 
 thousand men are crowded together, we shall find 
 one more example, worthy of a moment's attention, 
 of the eternal contrast between the children of the 
 Church and ihe children of the world. 
 
 An Episcopalian clergyman, who had left his flock 
 in America, but addressed to them from every place 
 which he visited pastoral letters, of which the main 
 object seems to have been to keep alive during his 
 absence their aversion to the Catholic Church, found 
 materials for an animated discourse even in Gibral- 
 tar. He visited both the Catholic and Protestant 
 church in that place, and then despatched to his 
 remote congregation a description of what even he 
 was constrained to call « the striking contrast. » In 
 the Protestant church, he tells them, he never saw 
 « one of the attending soldiers on his knees; » 
 and then he exclaims, « to what advantage do the 
 Catholics appear in this striking contrast! » « The 
 hundreds that stood there, » he adds, when he had 
 passed from the worship to the preaching, « were 
 all eye and ear; but here (in the Protestant church) 
 nothing could be seen but yawning, and drowsiness, 
 and inattention. » (1) 
 
 This unfavorable report of an American minister 
 is more than confirmed by an Anglican writer who 
 
 (1) Glimpses of the Old World, by Ihe RevJ Jolin A. Clark, 
 D. D., Rector of S' Andrew's Church, Philadclpliia, vol. I, ch. H, 
 pp. 56, 68.
 
 434 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 observes ; « The stale of religion when I was at Gib- 
 raltar was most dishearteniug... There is literally 
 no Church feeling in Gibraltar. » (1) 
 
 It is perhaps worthy of remark, that a Russo- 
 Greek traveller, the amiable Count Schouvaloff, 
 seems to have owed the grace of conversion to his 
 continual observation of the same « striking con- 
 trast » which produced only a transient impression 
 on D"^ Clark. « What struck and ediGed me in the 
 Catholic churches, » he says, « was the profound 
 recollection of the faithful in the act of prayer. I 
 compared their modest and humble attitude w ith the 
 often unbecoming movements, the deep ennui, and 
 the distracted looks, of a great number of my co- 
 religionists during the divine office; and I was 
 obliged to confess, in spite of myself, that there was 
 more piety among the Catholics than among the 
 Greeks. » (2) 
 
 Let us stay also for a moment at another fortress, 
 also a symbol of Anglo-Saxon might, which we shall 
 pass on our way to the Isles of Greece. Malta has 
 been for more than a quarter of a century the head 
 quarters of Protestantism in the Levant. Nearly forty 
 years ago ]\P Jowett recommended it to English mis- 
 sionary societies as a centre for their operations, 
 because, as he said, « it is very far from unhealthy, 
 British protection is here fully enjoyed, together with 
 a degree of comfort seldom to be attained in foreign 
 countries ; rendering it a peculiarly eligible residence 
 
 (1 ) The Canarti Isles, etc . , by the Rev^ Thomas Debary , M . A . , 
 ch. xviii, pp. 213, 225. 
 
 (i) Schouvaloff, Ma Conversion et ma Foca/t'on, ch. in, p. 209.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 43S 
 
 for a missionary family. » (1) These cliaraclerislic 
 considerations prevailed, and for thirty years an 
 eruption of tracts and bibles has flowed out of Malta, 
 and covered both shores of the Mediterranean. In the 
 single year 1831 they boast to have issued from this 
 eligible residence « 4,760,000 pages, all in modern 
 Greek. » (2) By the same year the Americans alone 
 had dispersed « about 350,000 volumes, containing 
 21,000,000 pages. » (3) Both English and Ameri- 
 cans have been dispersing them at an increased rate 
 ever since. How many converts have been made by 
 this abundant literature, and of what sort, we shall 
 learn presently. 
 
 It is here also that the « Malta Protestant College » 
 has been established, with the object of providing 
 suitable instruction, as well as food and lodging, for 
 any orientals who could be induced to enter it. Of 
 the actual results obtained in this institution, which 
 appears to have been hitherto a kind of hospital for 
 astute adventurers of every class, we shall have a 
 sufficiently accurate notion when we have completed 
 our review of missions in the Levant. It was here that 
 Achiili found refuge ; and it may be doubled whether 
 any four walls in Christendom have contained within 
 them, at a given moment, so singular an assemblage 
 of adroit comedians as the Malta Protestant College. 
 Even Achiili is not, as we shall see, an exaggerated 
 specimen of its inmates. The gentleman who bears 
 
 (1) Christian Researches in the Mediterranean,^. 376 ; S""'' edi- 
 tion. 
 
 (2) History of American Missions, by the Revd Joseph Tracy, 
 p. 213. 
 
 (3) P. 235.
 
 436 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 the tiile of « bishop of Gibraltar, » we are told, 
 « said he was not pleased with Achilli, as he ex- 
 pected, after the friendly intercourse they had had, 
 knowing the favorable opinion he had of the Church 
 of England, that he would have joined himself to our 
 Church, rather than have laid the foundation of ano- 
 ther. .' (1) 
 
 No doubt Achilli, who is said to have become 
 ultimately a Swedenborgian, had encouraged this 
 expectation, and found his profit in affecting esteem 
 for the Cburch of England. A person so fertile in 
 resources would find little difficulty in outwitting the 
 amiable gentleman of whom a well known traveller 
 gives this irreverent description. « D"" Tomlinson 
 acted like an episcopalian tigbt-rope dancer, always 
 balancing himself between Puseyism and Evangeli- 
 calism , and so distracted the few Protestants at 
 ]Malta. He is eminently a man of no decision of 
 character. » (2) Achilli and his companions appear 
 to have delected this infirmity. But the Malta College 
 wanted recruits, and was willing to accept them on 
 their own terms; and this fact becoming known 
 throughout the Levant, the revenues of the College 
 were constantly dilapidated by ingenious orientals, 
 who adapted the new drama of « Achilli and the 
 bishop of Gibraltar, » through every possible modi- 
 fication of comedy and burlesque, but always to their 
 own advantage. A few examples, recorded by Pro- 
 testant writers, deserve attention. 
 
 (1) i>'' Achilli, and the Malta Protestant College, p. 9. (1851). 
 
 (2) Richardson, Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, vol. I, 
 ch VIII, p. 235.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 437 
 
 The fiisl is the case of D"" Naudi, reported at 
 length by D"" Clark. Professing to be a Protestant 
 convert, Naudi was long supported by the Church 
 Missionary Society, to whom he forwarded welcome 
 periodical reports, setting forth the rapid increase of 
 oriental proteslants, and the inconveniently crowded 
 slate of his own chapel in consequence. The « spread 
 of Protestantism in the Levant » became the theme 
 of many a glowing oration, till D"" Joseph Wolff, 
 always active and inquisitive, resolved to visit 
 « Naudi's place of worship, » in order to be an eye- 
 witness of his evangelical triumphs ; — and ihen 
 was revealed an unexpected fact. « He ascertained, » 
 says D"" Clark, o that D"" Naudi had never held 
 service here, although he had for years made his 
 reports in relation to what he was doing, and receiv- 
 ed funds from England lo enable him to carry on his 
 operations. » (1) 
 
 The next case is related by D"^ Wolff himself. 
 « Antonio Fabri, the Cancelliere of the British 
 Consul, told us he was convinced of the truth of the 
 Protestant religion. » Bui Antonio was a very inferior 
 performer to D"" Naudi, and betrayed his secret loo 
 soon. « We found out, » says D'' Wolff, « that he said 
 this in order to induce us lo give our consent lo his 
 marrying our English maid-servant. » (2) 
 
 Stephanos Carapiet was another of the same class 
 of converts. « He arrived from Beyrout, and asked 
 me lo give him money lo go lo Malta, to join the 
 American Missionaries there, by whom he said he 
 
 (1) Glimpses, etc., cli. Vlll, p. 165. 
 
 (2) Journal, p. 161.
 
 438 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 had been coiiverled. He was a Greek priest. » Appa- 
 rently D"^ Wolff was generous enough to comply with 
 the request, for he adds, « after he had staid a few 
 days he got extremely drunk, so we sent him 
 away. » (1) 
 
 D"" Carne also tells us, amongst other examples, of 
 « two brothers, » who came from M' Lebanon, — 
 the fame of the Protestant missionaries having evi- 
 dently spread in all directions, — « clever and 
 designing fellows both of them, who agreed to be 
 baptized and become useful agents, on the promise 
 of some hundred pounds , to be paid them by a 
 zealous and wealthy supporter of the cause. » (2) 
 We shall hear of many similar cases when we get 
 into Syria, and these may suffice for the present. 
 It is curious that these playful orientals never even 
 attempt to practise their frauds upon Catholic mis- 
 sionaries, perhaps because they have detected that 
 the latter do not pay for conversions ; and that it is 
 the English, who deem themselves the most discern- 
 ing, and the Americans, who claim to be the keenest 
 people in the universe, who are their only vic- 
 tims. 
 
 Let us leave Malta and its college, the value of 
 which we shall learn to appreciate still more exactly 
 hereafter, but not without noticing words which it 
 seems to have chosen as its motto and device. « Here 
 we are, » says one of its officials, and the College 
 printed and circulated the announcement, « safe 
 
 (1) P. 148. 
 
 (2) Letters from the East, by John Carne Esq., vol. II, p. 115; 
 S^'' edition.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 439 
 
 from the wilhering influence of Puscyism, Roman- 
 ism, and all the rest of Satan's isms. » (1) 
 
 And now we come lo Greece, famous for great 
 actions which she has long ceased to imitate, more 
 fruitful in words than in works, abounding rather 
 in poets than in prophets, and as careless in the 
 nineteenth century as she was in the fifteenth of the 
 miseries which her errors have provoked, and the 
 blessings which her crimes have forfeited. If there 
 be a people in the world whose history may be 
 compared to that of the Jews, and who seem, by the 
 singularity of their fate, to have been struck by the 
 heavy hand of God before the face of all nations, the 
 Greeks are that people. From the hour in which the 
 Photian schism was accomplished , and Michael 
 Cerularius first uttered a curse, in 1053, against the 
 Vicar of Christ, they have never ceased to endure 
 such aflniction and ignominy as no other Christian 
 people ever knew. (2) Again and again reconciled lo 
 the Church, it was only to relapse into schism. 
 Vainly they were warned by prelates of their own 
 nation, perpetually affirming their allegiance to the 
 Holy See, or admonished by chastisements which 
 their pride refused to comprehend. But the Greeks 
 were fast filling up the measure of their crimes, and 
 judgment was at hand. Already, as Pachymeres, 
 Gregoras, and other Greek historians relate, « there 
 was scarcely a city in the empire which had not been 
 
 (1) The Fifth Annual Report of the Malta Protestant College, 
 p. 13. (1853). 
 
 (2) A few lines are inserted here from a paper, written some 
 years ago, on the « Russo-Greek and Oriental Churches >» and 
 printed by the author in the Dublin Review, Dec, 1847.
 
 440 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 twice or thrice in the presence of an enemy. » 
 Already they had this in common with that fated 
 race to whom their prodigious calamities have caused 
 them to be compared, that every fresh act of faith- 
 lessness was promptly followed by some signal 
 judgment. (1) The West had sent forth the avenging 
 hosts which scourged the one, and now the East was 
 arraying the more terrible armies which were to 
 crush the other. The fearful power which was 
 destined to trample them under foot was gathering 
 strength day by day. The Ottomans were knocking at 
 their gates, and, like raging lions, « demanding their 
 prey from God. » 
 
 At this moment, fear and dismay, false and hypo- 
 critical even in their deep abjection, urged ihem once 
 more to seek reconciliation with the Chair of Peter; 
 and at the Council of Florence, in 1459, all the 
 prelates of the Greek and Oriental churches again 
 confessed, with one voice, that « the Roman Pontiff 
 is the true Vicar of Christ and head of the whole 
 Church, » — and Joseph, the Patriarch of Constan- 
 tinople, bequeathed from his death bed, as his last 
 legacy to his nation and peoi)le, that famous exhor- 
 tation to obedience and unity of which he had him- 
 self given an immortal example, and in uttering 
 which he yielded up his soul to God. (2) 
 
 But Greek perfidy was still to provoke another and 
 a final judgment. Gregory, the successor of Joseph, 
 after struggling in vain against the new schism, re- 
 
 (1) Leo Allatius, De Eccles. Occident, et Orient. Perpet. 
 Consens.; Maiinbourg, Histoire du Schisme des Grecs. 
 
 (2) Maimbourg, liv. 6, ami. 1439.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 441 
 
 tired to Rome in 1451, predicting the coming fall of 
 Constantinople. Isidore, the metropolitan of Russia, 
 and delegate of the Patriarch of Antioch; and Bes- 
 sarion, once the ablest champion of the Greeks, fol- 
 lowed his example. In vain the Sovereign Pontiff, 
 Nicholas the Fifth, warned the twelfth and last Con- 
 stantine, in the spirit of prophecy, that « if before 
 three years they did not repent and return to holy 
 unity, they w^ould be dealt with as the fig-lree in the 
 Gospel, which was cut down to the roots because of 
 its sterility. »(1) The prophecy was spoken in 1451, 
 the Moslem gathered round the devoted city, and in 
 1453, « struck by the hand of God, » in the words 
 of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the schismatical 
 metropolis fell. Two hundred thousand barbarians, 
 more merciless than the legions of Titus, ceased not 
 to strike till their weary arms could no longer hold 
 the sword. Here fell the lasl Byzantine emperor. 
 Here the most gorgeous temple of the Christian faith, 
 polluted by incurable schism, became a temple of the 
 Arabian impostor. « Weep, o weep, » said a Greek 
 Bishop, one of the captives of that sorrowful day, 
 « weep for your miseries, and condemn yourselves 
 rather than others; for like the Jews carried away 
 captive to Babylon, you have despised the prophet 
 Jeren)y, foretelling the destruction and the captivity 
 of Jerusalem. » (2) 
 
 The judgment so long provoked was now consum- 
 
 (1) Gennadi us, 4 rft;. Grcecos : TheoLog. Curs. Complet. lom.V, 
 p. 480. 
 
 (2) Leomrdi Echiensis, Episc. Witylen, Lib. de captivitate 
 Constantinopolis. 
 
 II. «o
 
 442 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 mated. From that hour, misery, contempt, and oppres- 
 sion have been the bitter portion of the erring com- 
 munities of the East. « Confounded with barbarians," 
 says an eminent philosopher, « they bear the penally 
 of their schism, and remain — significant judgment! 
 — the only Christian people subject to masters who 
 are not so. «(\) The destruction of Constantinople by 
 Mahomed II, and the subsequent fate of the Greek 
 people, present, as Montesquieu observed, all the 
 marks of a divine judgment. (2) And to this hour, 
 with the exception of those who have been reconciled 
 to unity, and have recovered by a noble submission 
 the freedom and dignity which they had lost, the 
 Pbotian sects are still (he most degraded of all Christ- 
 ian races. « Since they fell away from the centre of 
 unity, » says one who has long dwelt amongst them, 
 « they have been completely isolated from the move- 
 ment of civilization and of science w hich is ever sti- 
 mulating the onward march of the other people of 
 Europe. All intellectual activity has died away among 
 them... In losing the elevated sense of Christianity, 
 they have transformed it into a religion of purely 
 Pharisaical ceremonies. The priests have no longer 
 the virtue of the celibate ; and all the bishoprics, inclu- 
 ding the patriarchate of Constantinople, have become 
 the object and the prize of base intrigue, upon which 
 the temporal power eagerly speculates, while it 
 openly exposes to auction these sacred dignities. Si- 
 mony has spread itself like a leprosy over the whole 
 
 (1) M. De Boiiald, Legislation Primitive, tome IV, § 5, 
 p. 175. 
 
 (2) Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, ch. xxil.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 443 
 
 hierarchy, and they make merchandise of holy 
 things. »(1) 
 
 « The sport which they make of the miserahle dig- 
 nities of the Greek Church, » said Edmund Burke, 
 « the little factions of the harem to which they make 
 ihem subservient, the continual sale to which they 
 expose and re-expose the same dignity,... is nearly 
 equal to all the other oppressions together, exercised 
 by Mussulmen over the unhappy members of the 
 Oriental church. » « The secular clergy, » he added, 
 « by being married... are universally fallen into such 
 contempt, that they are never permitted lo aspire to 
 the dignities of their own church. » (2) 
 
 But enough upon the well known abasement of the 
 Greek and other schismatical communities of the 
 East. We shall visit them, one by one, in the course 
 of this chapter. « Notre plume se refuse, » says one 
 who bad traced their earlier history, « a tracer des 
 tableaux qui ne sont que trop humiliants pour notre 
 triste condition humaine. » (3) 
 
 The very Turks themselves, detecting the immense 
 distinction between the Latin and Byzantine Christ- 
 ians, denote by certain habitual and emphatic designa- 
 tions their respect for the one and their contempt 
 for the other ; and as two centuries ago they styled 
 Catholics Beysadez, or « the noble, » and the Greeks 
 Taif, or « the populace » — so they still call the for- 
 mer Francs, the term of respect and honour, and the 
 
 (1) M . Eugene Bor5, Correspondance et Mdmoires dun Voijageur 
 en Orient, lome I, p. 152. 
 
 (2) On the Penal Laws against Irish Catholics, Works, vol. VI, 
 pp. 285, 290. 
 
 (3) Grece, par M. PouqucviUc, Membre de I'lnstitut, p. 447.
 
 444 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 latter Kafirs, the Mussulman syuonime for « a man 
 without any religion. » 
 
 The Moslem, we are told by a modern traveller, 
 « is astonished when he hears them classed amongst 
 the great family of the Christians of the West. » 
 « They have preserved, » he adds , « nothing of 
 Christianity hut the name. The clergy do not even 
 comprehend the prayers of the liturgy. We have seen 
 them selling prayers to Turkish women, who came 
 secretly to drink the waters of some miraculous foun- 
 tain. We have seen them selling brandy at the door 
 of iheir church, and converting, so to speak, the 
 sanctuary into a tavern, before the eyes of the Mus- 
 sulmen, justly disgusted by the profanation, » Even 
 woman, who owes all her dignity and influence to 
 the Christian religion, has relapsed, throughout the 
 schismalical communities of the East, into a kind of 
 barbarism ; and while modern Protestants, who shall 
 be quoted hereafter, notice the nobility and freedom 
 of the Catholic women among the same races, sole 
 exceptions to the general humiliation because they 
 alone have kept, or recovered, the faith, « the schisma- 
 lical Greeks and Armenians have caused their social 
 system and their families to retrograde towards the 
 Mussulman level. Their women fly from the sight of 
 a Franc with a barbarism even more wild and sense- 
 less than that of the Turkish females. » (I) 
 
 The fads here indicated are all confirmed, with 
 ample details, by English and American protestauts 
 of our own day, who have been eye-witnesses of 
 them. « The utter desolation of the unhappy Greeks," 
 
 (1) M. Bor^. Cf. Ubiciiii, Letters on Turkey, vol.11, Letter 2.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 445 
 
 says D"" Carne, « forces itself on one's notice every 
 day. » (1) « The gross ignorance of the inferior 
 clergy, » observes M"" Spencer, « not only in theology, 
 but in the common rudiments of education, the dis- 
 sohite habits of too many of the highei' ecclesiastics, 
 and the infamous practices carried on in the monas- 
 teries, have become househokl words throughout all 
 Greece. » And this applies to Greece Proper, of 
 which, he adds,« the inhabitants are more demoral- 
 ised than they were under the rule of the Turk. »(2) 
 « To the Greek, » says M"" Warrington Smyth, in 
 18o4, « a large proportion of the crimes of the coun- 
 try is to be traced, » even within the Ottoman domin- 
 ions. (3) « The Patriarchate, » an American writer 
 reports, in 1861, « is a seat of barefaced corruptions. 
 Nine tenths of the Greek clergy are ignorant, vulgar, 
 drunken debauchees... They are, therefore, detested 
 by a large majority of the members of that reli- 
 gion." (4) « Divorce is nearly, if not quite, as easy, » 
 says Sir Adolphus Slade, « in the Greek religion as 
 in the Mussulman »— and as it is now in the Angli- 
 can or Prussian. « The licence is much abused, and 
 the bishops, each of whom has the power, grant it 
 on the slightest pretext. » And then he adds, by way 
 of contrast, of the Catholic population, « divorce is 
 not permitted among them. » (5) But we reser\e the 
 full exhibition of this contrast to a later period. 
 
 (1) Letters from the East, vol. I, p. 37. 
 
 (2) Travets in Europeati Turliey, vol. II, cli. xv, pp. 280, 289. 
 
 (3) A Year with the Turks, ch. xni, p. 295. 
 
 (4) Constantinople Correspondent of the New York Herald, 
 April 16, 18G1. 
 
 (5) Records of Travel, etc., ch. xxui, p. 444. (1854).
 
 U6 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Yet there are nol wanting men in our own country, 
 who have agreed , for parly purposes , to exalt the 
 Greek as a convenient ally of Protestants against the 
 Catholic Church. It is true that the Greeks, and all 
 the oriental communilies, ha\e again and again an- 
 athenialized the Anglican religion, and vehemently 
 declined, in spite of their own miseries, even the 
 semhlance of intercourse with any of its professors. 
 Not long ago, as an English writer lamented in 1854, 
 the schisniatical Greek patriarch hluntly described its 
 emissaries in the Levant, in an official document 
 addressed to his co-religionists, as « satanical here- 
 siarchs from the caverns of hell. » (1) But this does 
 not deter Anglican writers, always soliciting a re- 
 cognition which they everywhere implore in vain, 
 from an affectation of sympathy with communities 
 which display such repugnance towards their own ; 
 and whose chiefs, after reciting on a solemn occasion 
 — the deposition of Cyril Lucar — the tenets of 
 Anglicanism as set forth in the « 59 Articles, » de- 
 clared all who hold them to be « heretics who vomit 
 forth blasphemies against God, » and then promul- 
 gated their decree, by the hands of Jeremy of Con- 
 stantinople, as « A reply to the inhabitants of Great 
 Britain, » to whom its anathemas principally refer- 
 red. (2) 
 
 It is a notable feature in the oriental communities, 
 that they spurn the modern errors w hich they have 
 never accepted, as obstinately as ibey reject the an- 
 cient truth which they once held. When the advo- 
 
 (1) Journal of a Deputation to the East,\o\Al,f.SiQ.{\85i). 
 
 (2) Tlieincr, Pieces Justificatives, p. 363.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 447 
 
 cales of Pi'Olestantisni, vexed rather ihan convinced 
 by the terrible array of evidence in Nicole's celebra- 
 ted work, la Perpetuite de la Foi, appealed in des- 
 pair to the oriental sectaries in support of their pro- 
 fane denial of the Sacrament of the Allar, they did 
 not gain much by the appeal. Instructions were sent, 
 as Prince Galitzin notices, to all the ambassadors and 
 consuls throughout the Levant, and « professions of 
 faith were received from the patriarchs, archbish- 
 ops, and bishops of all the various churches of the 
 East, affirming in the most positive terms the doctrine 
 of the Real Presence, and bitterly complaining of the 
 calumny » which they thus effectually refuted. (1) 
 Let us see how they have replied in our own day lo 
 the same overtures which in earlier limes they re- 
 jected with such vehement disdain. 
 
 We are going lo trace briefly the efforts which 
 have recently been made by Protestants lo introduce 
 their opinions in ihe Levant. It is from Protestants 
 exclusively that we shall, as usual, derive all our 
 information. But it may be well to observe, before 
 entering upon this subject, that when Anglican or 
 American teachers, of a particular school, contend 
 with one another to exalt the long extinct glories of 
 what they call « the Eastern Church, » — with the 
 sole object of defending, not the orientals, but their 
 own ecclesiastical theories, — they seem willingly to 
 delude both themselves and their disciples. There is, 
 in fact, no such institution as « the Greek Church, » 
 or « the Oriental Church. » There is no other con- 
 
 (1) UnMissionaire Russe, par le Prince Aurjustin Galitzin, 
 p. 83.
 
 458 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 neclion between Alliens and Conslanlinople, between 
 Alexandria and Jerusalem, or between Moscow and 
 any of ihem, tban ibat semblance of fictitious con- 
 cord wbicb unites ibe conflicling sects of Protestant- 
 ism in a common boslility to ibe One Cburcb. Indeed 
 Ihey are not cemented even by ibis precarious tie. 
 « Tbere is not at ibis day, » says Scbou\aloff, speak- 
 ing of Russia, « a single individual, priest or lay- 
 man, wbo believes in the unity of bis cburcb. » And 
 nuicb more is ibis true of tbe smaller Pbolian com- 
 munities. 
 
 « I am sorry to learn, « said D' Wolff many years 
 ago, » tbat tbe Greek Cburcb is no longer under tbe 
 Patriarcb of Constantinople. » « Tbe new kingdom 
 of Greece, » observes a more eminent person, in 
 imitation, and by the counsels of Russia, bas with- 
 drawn itself from obedience to tbe patriarcb of Con- 
 stantinople. » And tbis grave event, as tbe same w riter 
 lemarks, wbicb would bave convulsed wilb anxiety 
 and distress any portion of tbe Catbolic Cburcb, 
 « was accomplisbed in Greece without a shock, and 
 even without a rumour! So feeble is the tie which 
 attaches to the pretended chief of the oriental church 
 the churches most contiguous to him, even those of 
 which the bishops were bis own suffragans! » (1) 
 
 Nor is there any real unity or cohesion in the 
 severed communities which, after falling away from 
 the Chair of Peter, have at length renounced their 
 allegiance to the throne of the usurper. « Although 
 of the so-called * Greek ' Church, » says a Protestant 
 writer, « the greater part of the Christians of Euro- 
 
 (1) Persecution de VEglise Catholique en Russie, p. 386.
 
 \ 
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 449 
 
 pean Turkey have no aflinily willi, and no sympathy 
 for, the Greeks. » (1) And this solution of all 
 ecclesiastical affinity has hecome universal. Only 
 political ties now unite even the hrokcn fragments 
 of what was once « the Greek Church. » « The 
 clergy of Georgia, » observes General Monteilh 
 in 1856, long ago formed a connection with the 
 Archin)andrile of iMoscow, expressly « lo separate 
 them from ihe patriarch of Constantinople, under 
 whom they had previously been. » (2) More recent 
 examples of the same kind have occurred in Bulgaria, 
 as well as in some of the islands of the Greek Archi- 
 pelago. 
 
 The fallen prelate of Byzantium, who borrows 
 from his dependents the price of the see for which 
 he is obliged to outbid his competitors, must now 
 console himself with the empty sound of the titles in 
 which his predecessors delighted, and which, by an 
 appropriate judgment, are all that remains lo their 
 successors. « The words Oiiental Church, or Greek 
 Church, » as De Maistre observed, « have really no 
 kind of meaning whatever. It is not true that the 
 Russian Church belongs to the Greek. Where is the 
 bond of co-ordination? What jurisdiction has the pa- 
 triarch of Constantinople over the Russian j)riesl- 
 hood? » And then he proves, by notorious facts, that 
 he would no more dare lo make his voice heard in 
 Russia, or even in Greece, than in France or Spain; 
 and that « all these bishops, thus independent of a 
 common authority, and stiangers one to another, 
 
 (1) Warrington Smylli, ch. \n, p. 275. 
 
 (2) Knrs and Erzeroum, ch. I, p. 17. 
 
 H. "•
 
 450 CHAPTER Ylll. 
 
 the miserable puppels of the temporal power which 
 deals with them as with its soldiers, perfectly com- 
 prehend iu their own hearts what they are — that is, 
 nothing. » (1) We shall hear some of them presently 
 bewailing their own shame. They have rejected, 
 through jealousy and pride, the gentle rule of ihe 
 Vicar of Christ, and are now the slaves of the Caliph 
 or the Czar. As late as 1821, the Sultan, wishing to 
 turn the schismatical Patriarch out of his residence, 
 hanged him, wiihoul ceremony, with all his assistant 
 priests, at the door of his church, on Easter Day. »(2) 
 And his brother pontiff, the emperor of Russia, is 
 a master equally absolute, and scarcely less unscru- 
 pulous. Such is the lot of men who have once made 
 it their boast, « We have no King but Caesar. » 
 « I recognise, » said Peler the Great, when solicited 
 to restore the Russian Patriarchate, « no other legi- 
 timate Patriarch but the Bishop of Rome. Since you 
 will not obey him, you shall obey me alone. Behold 
 your Patriarch ! » (o) From that hour they have had 
 no other. 
 
 It was to the vassals of such lords as these that 
 the Protestant churches of England and America 
 resolved to send ambassadors, by whom they hoped, 
 after so many misadventures, to negotiate at last a 
 treaty of alliance. For more than a quarter of a cen- 
 tury they have dwelt amongst them, distributing on 
 every side, according to their wont, bibles and gold, 
 tracts and dollars. The Americans boast that by them 
 
 (i) Lettre a une Dame Riisse, sur le Schisme et sur T Unite 
 Catholique. 
 
 (2) Persecution, etc., p. 171. 
 
 (3) Theiner, p. 46.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 451 
 
 alone « llie annual sum spent for several years » is 
 15,000 1. (1) The English, as usual, have been still 
 more profuse; and D"^ Wilson exults in the fact, (hat 
 « the whole sum expended by Protestants in mission- 
 ary efforts is annually double of that expended by 
 Rome, » (2) though the former have neilher churches 
 nor flocks, while the latter numbers its converts alone 
 by hundreds of thousands. Thirty years ago, the 
 active emissaries of the United Slates were circula- 
 ting, not only bibles and tracts which nobody looked 
 at, but « geogiaphies and arithmetics, apparatus for 
 lectures, and compendious histories, » which recei- 
 ved a much heartier welcome. (3) Indeed for many 
 years the education of the various sectaries of these 
 regions was mainly in their hands. We should not 
 perhaps exaggerate in supposing that the Protestant 
 missionaries in the Levant have consumed already 
 more than a million sterling. If we ask them what 
 has been the actual result of efforts prolonged through 
 so many years, they are willing to tell us. 
 
 Let us begin at Athens. The English, as usual, 
 have employed only agents who could persuade no 
 one to listen to them. An emissary of the British and 
 Foreign School Society, as D^ Wolff relates, « was 
 sent for the purpose of establishing schools, but he 
 soon gave up that project, and delivered lectures 
 on political economy.)) (4) The Americans have been 
 
 (t) Journal of a Deputation, etc., p. 826. 
 
 (2) Lands of the Bible, by John Wilson, D. D., F. R. S., 
 vol II, p. 599. 
 
 (3) Excursions to Cairo, etc., by the Rev^ George Jones, 
 ch. XXI, p. 32t. (1836). 
 
 (4) Journal, p. 97.
 
 452 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 more successful. « Our country, » says an ardent 
 American, « has reason to be proud of its mission- 
 aries here. » (1) In ihe following year, another ci- 
 tizen of the Uniled States, still writing from Athens, 
 exclaims; « The cause of education and Christianity 
 is making rapid progress. » (2) It was not quite true, 
 as we shall see, but it was hoped thai it might be 
 verified later. « In Greece, » says a third trans- 
 atlantic writer, with equal complacency, « the only 
 schools of instruction are those established by Amer- 
 ican Missionaries, and supported by the liberality of 
 American citizens » (5) Nearly twenty years earlier, 
 an English writer had noticed, that 500 Greek child- 
 ren already attended the American schools in Athens; 
 and that in those which were taught by M'^ Hill, the 
 wife of a missionary, « the daughters of many of the 
 first Greek families of Constaniinople, as well as of 
 the most distinguished of Greece Proper, » received 
 their education. (4) Dr King also rivalled M"" and 
 M'* Hill in influence and in the number of his pupils. 
 If, however, from these facts we infer that these 
 gentlemen and their companions were making pro- 
 gress as missionaries, the real aim to which all their 
 efforts tended, lalerevents will dispel the illusion. Like 
 their brethren in all parts of the world, they were 
 tolerated for such benefits as could be derived from 
 them, but the moment they began to mistake their 
 
 (1) Wanderings in Europe and the Orient, by Samuel S. Cox, 
 ch. XIV, p. 197. (1852). 
 
 (2) Yusef, by J. Ross Browne, ch. \\, p. 100. 
 
 (3) Incidents of Travel, by J. L. Stephens Esq., ch. xxviii, 
 p. 212. 
 
 (i) Greece Revisited, by Edgar Garston ; vol. 1, ch. v, p. 101.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 453 
 
 posilioii, and to venture upon ilie subject of religion, 
 grave incidents occurred to admonish ihem of tiieir 
 error. In spite of the influence which they had ac- 
 quired by their relations with the higher classes, — 
 in spite of the services which they had unrjuestion- 
 ably rendered as secular teachers, and of the active 
 sympathy of the Queen of Greece, — no sooner did 
 they allempt to emerge from the humble function of 
 schoolmaster to assume that of missionary, than a 
 menacing murmur, which soon became a loud and 
 universal outcry, revealed to them their real position. 
 For twenty-four years M"^ and M'^ Hill had conducted 
 their schools in peace, and might well consider iheir 
 permanence secured; but at the first hint they under- 
 stood what was coming, « and thought it best to dis- 
 continue their school for boys. »(1) D' King attempt- 
 ed to brave the storm, « in spite of episcopal and 
 patriarchal anathemas, » but the resistance was more 
 energic than effectual. The Greeks, though enfeebled 
 by schism, were at least resolved (o fail no lower; 
 and so intense, was their indignation at the attempt 
 (0 introduce Protestantism among them, that, as 
 M"" Ireneeus Prime relates, « there were serious and 
 deeply concerted schemes for D' King's assassin- 
 ation, » (2) — whose life was only saved by trans- 
 ferring the consular flag to his residence, « a flag, » 
 as a sympathising fellow-counlryman observes, « con- 
 taining quite a number of stripes, and more stars. » (3) 
 
 (1) Notes of Travel in the East, by Benjamin Dorr, D. D., 
 ch.xv, p. 353. (1856). 
 
 (2) Travels in Europe and the East, vol. 11, cli. xiv, p. 188, 
 (1855). 
 
 (3) Cox, ch. XIV.
 
 454 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Finally, an English traveller informs us, in 1854, 
 that « last year at Alliens, an American missionary, 
 the Rev. D"^ King, was tried by the civil courts, and 
 condemned to fifteen days imprisonment, and to be 
 banished the country, for preaching the Gospel to 
 the natives in his own house, and publishing a pam- 
 phlet opposed to some of the doctrines of the Greek 
 Church. » (1) It seems that in his pamphlet he spoke 
 against devotion to our Blessed Lady, a crime which 
 even Greeks are not prepared to tolerate, nor able to 
 witness with composure. 
 
 At the same lime, a M"" Buell, also a Missionary, 
 who refused to allow a crucifix to be suspended in 
 his school at the Piraeus, was summoned before the 
 tribunals, his school closed by order of the Govern- 
 ment, and a fine of fifty drachmas imposed upon the 
 profane schoolmasler. (2) 
 
 Such was the termination of the educational la- 
 bours of a quarter of a century. The Greek con- 
 science, though not fastidiously delicate, was outraged 
 by the first accents of Protestantism, and while its 
 agents were branded by the Patriarch as « heresiarchs 
 from the caverns of hell, » the people answered its 
 invitations by a shout, which came from the heart of 
 the nation, of « anathema » and « banishment. » 
 
 It is not uninteresting to notice the effect of this 
 popular outburst upon the Protestant missionaries 
 and iheir supporters. Hitherto they had spoken, 
 always with respect, often with a kind of reverence, 
 of this « ancient » and « venerable » church, in the 
 
 (1) Journal of a Deputation, etc., p. 590. 
 
 (2) Journal d'un Voyage au Levant, pp. 281, 311.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. -ioS 
 
 hope that it might be induced to countenance their 
 own more recent institutions. The language of praise 
 was now to be heard no more. We have seen that in 
 India, as soon as the IVcslorians, upon whom so 
 much courtesy had been lavished, declined the re- 
 spectful overtures of the Anglican authorities, these 
 disdainful heretics were consigned to ignominy by 
 proleslant prelates, whose precarious « orders » they 
 had refused to recognise, and even stigmatised as 
 « worse than Romanists. » The same thing happened 
 in Greece. « The Greek Church, » said D' Wilson, 
 recording the discomfiture of his co-religionists, 
 « agrees with the Church of Rome in most matters 
 of the greatest moment. It has the essential charac- 
 teristic of Antichrist. » (1) 
 
 It was thus that these gentlemen revenged them- 
 selves upon the Greeks, once objects of almost timid 
 eulogy. « I would say, » adds D"" Wilson, confessing 
 at length the futility of past missionary schemes, 
 « that at present it seems a very diflicult matter to 
 impregnate the Greek Church with evangelical truth 
 and influence; and that its circumstances are much 
 less encouraging than those of the other Oriental 
 churches. » So they turned to these more promising 
 fields, with what success, we shall see in the course 
 of this chapter. 
 
 « In regard to the Greeks, » says D"" Hawes, an 
 American protestant minister, « the success of elTorls 
 made in their behalf has been less than was reason- 
 ably anticipated; » and then, as if he felt that this 
 was hardly an adequate account of the matter, he 
 
 (1) Lands of the Bible, vol. 11, p. 4GG.
 
 456 CHAPTER Vlll. 
 
 tulds'; «Thc missionaries have fell themselves ohliged, 
 for the present, to withdraw, in a great measure, 
 from this field. » (1) 
 
 Mess"^' Eli Smith and Dwighl, more emphatic in 
 iheir resentment, confound the Catholics wilh the 
 Greeks, and even seem lo attribute their misadven- 
 tures to the influence of the former. « A missionary,)) 
 they observe, « can hardly set his foot upon any spot 
 in that field — the Mediterranean — without en- 
 countering some sentinel of the ' Mother of Harlots ', 
 ready to challenge him and shout the alarm. » (2) 
 Yet the Greeks do not appear to have needed any 
 suggestions from that quarter, and would certainly 
 have received them with surprise if they had been 
 offered. 
 
 Lastly, a representative of English Protestantism 
 swells the gloomy chorus, and discovers, a quarter 
 of a century too lale, that « the Greek Church is 
 opposed lo the general circulation of the Bible; » and 
 that « the j)riests have always strenuously opposed 
 the distribution of the Bible in modern Greek. » (3) 
 Yet the Bible Society used to assure its subscribers, 
 as we have seen, that they had no more promising 
 sphere of action, and that even the Greek soldiery 
 fortified themselves wilh the Protestant version during 
 the intervals of combat, « while encamped, and in 
 expectation of the enemy. » It was, no doubt, to 
 gratify this pious habit of the Greeks, that the 
 English missionaries issued in a single year from 
 
 (1) Travels in the East, by J. Hawes, D. D., p. 168. 
 
 (2) Missionary Researches in Armeiua, Letter XI, p. 210. 
 
 (3) Journal of a Deputation, p. 594.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 4o" 
 
 iheir fortress at Malta « 4,760,000 pages, all in 
 modern Greek; » and that ihe Americans had al- 
 ready dispersed, thirty years ago, «ahoul 550,000 vo- 
 lumes, containing 21,000,000 pages. » And of this 
 enormous but perfectly useless distribution, since 
 increased fifty-fold, the Protestants of these two 
 enlightened nations have cheerfully, but not wisely, 
 defrayed the whole cost. 
 
 We must admit, however, before we pass from 
 Greece to Turkey, that Protestant leaching has not 
 been absolutely without effect in the former king- 
 dom. Let us notice a single example of its influence. 
 An accomplished Greek lady, of rare intelligence and 
 attainments, the eloquent advocate of her race and 
 nation, had the misfortune to lose her parents, and 
 was brought up by a Protestant pastor. The result 
 of his instructions, if we may judge by her own 
 writings, has been to substitute for faith a cold and 
 arrogant scepticism, — to engender a fierce haired of 
 the Catholic religion, ^vhich this lady calls « Christ- 
 ian Mahometanism, » — and to give her courage to 
 assert, that divorce, which has become a kind of 
 national institution in Greek and Protestant lands, is 
 not an evil, but an engine of morality! (1) There is 
 a good deal more of ihe same kind in the writings 
 of this distinguished lady, which it would be both 
 l»ainful and unprofitable to notice, but which may at 
 least confirm our conviction, that Greece did well in 
 crying « anathema » to Proleslant missionaries. 
 
 What the Catholic apostles have done for the 
 
 (1) Les Femmes en Orient, par Mn'c la C^sc Dora D'lslria, 
 pp. 71, 8 i. (1860).
 
 488 CHAPTER Vlll. 
 
 Greeks, by iheir own confession, we shall see a lilile 
 later, but Nviil first follow their rivals to Turkey, 
 that we may complete the history of their operations 
 in the Levant. 
 
 In European Turkey, the English do not appear 
 to have organized any systematic missionary efforts; 
 and throughout the Levant the Anglican establish- 
 ment has been represented, almost exclusively, as 
 in India and elsewhere, by members of other com- 
 munities. M"" Perkins, an American missionary to 
 whom we shall have to refer presently, remarks, 
 that the employment of « so many men of a different 
 religious communion reveals a painful deficiency in 
 the missionary spirit of the Church of England, that 
 men of devotion to the cause caiuiot be found in 
 sufficient numbers within her pale to go in person 
 and apply her missionary funds. (1) « At present, » 
 adds a Protestant historian of American Missions, 
 with quiet contempt, « she has more means than 
 men. » (2) 
 
 Perhaps, however, the Church of England has no 
 reason to regret this fact, considering the impression 
 which her rare representatives usually produce upon 
 the oriental mind, ^^"hen M"" Jowelt, one of her 
 clergy, was asked by a schismatical Greek bishop, 
 what was the doctrine of his church about the 
 « Double Procession » of the Holy Spirit, his answer 
 must have astonished even such an enquirer. « It is 
 a point, I replied, w Inch, in the present day, has not 
 
 (1) Residence in Persia among the Nestorian Christians, by 
 RevJ Justin Perkins, ch. ni, p. 52. 
 
 (2) Tracy, Hisiortj of American Missions, p. 594.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 459 
 
 been much conlroverled, being considered as some- 
 what indifferent! » (1) 
 
 But several years have elapsed since M"^ Jowetl's 
 visit, and the Greeii prelates have had time to forget 
 both him and his church. So complete has been the 
 oblivion, that when M"^ Curzon not long ago presented 
 a letter of introduction from the Queen's Archbishop 
 of Canterbury to the Sultan's Archbishop of Con- 
 stantinople^ the following curious conversation oc- 
 curred. 
 
 « And who, quoth the Patriarch of Constantin- 
 ople, the supreme head and primate of the Greek 
 Church in Asia, who is * the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury? ' 
 
 What? said I, a little astonished at the question. 
 
 Who, said he, is this Archbishop? 
 
 Why, the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 Archbishop of what, said the Patriarch. 
 
 Canterbury, said I. 
 
 Oh, said the Patriarch. Ah! yes! and who is 
 he? » (2) 
 
 The Americans have acquired more notoriety in 
 these regions. Their operations in Turkey commenced 
 in 1826, and by 1844 ihey had already thirty-one 
 missionaries in that country. (3) Not that they have 
 "attempted any conversion except oi the Christians, » 
 as M"" Walpole remarks; the Turks, he adds, they 
 are « afraid » of provoking. (4) But they are active 
 
 (1) Christian Researches , etc., p. 17. 
 
 (2) Monasteries of the Levant, ch. xxil, p. 336. 
 
 (3) Baird, Rclifjion in the U. S. o/'^lmenca,bookVlIi,ch.lll, 
 p. 691. 
 
 (4) The Ansayrii, etc., ch. xvi, p. 366.
 
 460 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 enough amongst the Armenian sectaries, both here 
 and in Armenia, as we shall see when we enter the 
 latter country. Meanwhile, it seems to be a tranquil 
 and jocund life which ihese thirty-one missionaries 
 lead in Turkey. « Personal trials are very few, » 
 says ihe candid wife of one of ihem ; « many are the 
 comforts and pleasant things about this life in the 
 East. » (1) And she was evidently not singular in her 
 keen appreciation of them. The Rev. Justin Perkins 
 tells us of a missionary wedding at Constantinople in 
 these terms. « M"" Schauffler was married lo Miss Rey- 
 nolds, February 25lh. I could not lielp feeling thai there 
 was a moral sublimity in the scene presented. » (2) 
 Perhaps there was; but another witness, Sir Adol- 
 phus Slade, who knows these regions even better 
 than M"^ Perkins, and is e\idently much less impress- 
 ed by the moral sublimity of missionary nuptials, 
 gives the following candid account of the Protestant 
 missionaries in Turkey and the Levant. 
 
 « To what purpose do the missionaries on the 
 shores of the Turkish empire frequent them ? to 
 convert those who are already Christians. The utter 
 unprofitableness of these gentlemen cannot be suf- 
 ficiently pointed out. One comes lo Malta, and settles 
 there with his lady. Another comes to Tino, and 
 while learning Greek, to be enabled to labour on the 
 continent, falls in love, and marries an amiable Tin- 
 iote — his spiritual ardour takes another course. 
 Another fixes himself at Smyrna, finding that denii- 
 Frank city pleasanter than the interior of Turkey, 
 
 (1) Memoir of M^s Van Lennep, ch. xi, p. 267. (1851). 
 
 (2) Residence, etc., ch. iii, p. 76.
 
 MISSIONS IX THE LEVANT, ETC. 461 
 
 whilher he was destined. Anolher lakes a disorder, 
 and dies of it on the shores of the Persian Gulf. An- 
 other quietly pursues his own studies at Alexandria, 
 regardless of others' souls, to qualify himself for a 
 situation in one of the London colleges. All are living 
 on the stipends granted hy the Missionary Societies, 
 and occupied in forwarding their particular views. 
 Far be it from me to say that human weakness does 
 not merit indulgence; but they who embark in a 
 holy cause should quit it when they find that the 
 flesh overpowers the spirit. Religion is the last asy- 
 lum where hypocrisy should find shelter. » (1) 
 
 Admiral Slade adds, — « It will scarcely be cre- 
 dited that Missionaries arrive in the Levant, to 
 preach, to coiivert, knowing absolutely no other 
 than their mother tongue! » Yet we shall presently 
 hear one of their number asserting, with perfect in- 
 difference to the more veracious testimony of a crowd 
 of Protestant writers, that he and his friends had 
 done more for education in Syria in twenty years 
 than « all the Catholic missionaries » in two centu- 
 ries; though the former have had neither scholars 
 nor disciples, and were for the most part perfectly 
 incapable of teaching them if they had. 
 
 A few words will suftice on the final results of 
 Protestant missions in Turkey. The American Episco- 
 palians sent D"" Souihgale, one of their bishops, to 
 recommend their form of religion to the inhabitants. 
 He seems to have had some vague idea of ecclesiasti- 
 cal principles, and is even charged by his own coun- 
 trymen, of other sects, with supporting the schisma- 
 
 (1) Ch. xxvii, p. 517.
 
 462 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 tical oriental bishops in their resistance to the 
 proselyting schemes of the Protestant missionaries, 
 whom he openly taxed with introducing amongst the 
 Armenians « the revolutionary sentiments of Euro- 
 pean radicalism.)) He had, too, sufficient courage and 
 honesty to confess, after ample experience, that the 
 Protestant converts are « infidels and radicals, who 
 deserve no sympathy from the Christian public. » (1) 
 
 D"" Southgate recommends also the employment of 
 missionaries « unrestrained by family ties, » — 
 though he does not suggest where they are to be 
 found, — and after deploring the activity of « our 
 brethren of other denominations, » predicts this as 
 the only fruit of their labours : « Horrid schism will 
 lift itself up from beneath, and rend and scatter the 
 quivering members of the Body of Christ. » (2) Yet 
 this gentleman, who bad so much dislasle for horrid 
 schism in others, actually intrigued to get a firman 
 issued against the Catholics, whom he could only 
 oppose by physical force, in favour of the Jacobite 
 heretics, whose « numerous points of affinity » with 
 his own sect he had detected with satisfaction. (5) 
 
 We are not surprised to hear that D^ Southgate 
 failed. For a long time, he confesses, his mission at 
 Constantinople received from a single congregation 
 in Philadelphia one thousand dollars annually. But 
 money could not save it. « The mission, » we are 
 
 (1) ChristianiUj in Turketj, by Revd H. G. 0. Dwight, cli.x, 
 p. 244. (1854). 
 
 (2) Narrative of a tour in Turkey and Persia, by Rev^ Horatio 
 Southgate, vol. I, ch. xxiii, p. 305. 
 
 (3) M^ Southgate and the Missionaries at Constantinople, p. 27, 
 (Boston, 1844).
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 463 
 
 told in 18S2, « has been abandoned, at least for (be 
 present, after a beavy expenditure. Bisbop Soutbgate 
 has returned to the United States, and resigned the 
 appointment of Missionary Bisbop to Turkey. » (1) 
 Two years later another Protestant authority says; 
 «lhe Bisbop bad to acknowledge the complete failure 
 of bis mission, and was recalled by his Society. » (2) 
 It is exactly the tale which we have heard in so many 
 other lands. Not one of the customary incidenis is 
 wanting, and they follow one another in their usual 
 and invariable order : first, « horrid schism; » then, 
 « heavy expenditure; » and finally, « complete fail- 
 ure. » 
 
 Of the operations of the other American sects at 
 Constantinople, there is no need to speak. We shall 
 presently survey them on a larger scale in Syria and 
 Armenia. M'' Dwight, in a work which reveals the 
 real designs of bis co-religionists in the East, declares 
 in 18b0, that « at the capital the number of Armeni- 
 ans who declared themselves proteslanls rapidly in- 
 creased. » (3) Their number is, in fact, perfectly 
 insignificant; and many Protestant writers will tell 
 us, before we conclude this chapter, as D"" Soutbgate 
 has already told us, what an Armenian really be- 
 comes when he professes to embrace Protestant ten- 
 ets. They will also assist us to comprehend what even 
 they consider the work of « corruption and demor- 
 alization » in which the American missionaries are 
 engaged , though happily , up to the present date, 
 
 (1) Colonical Church Chronicle, p. 396. (1852). 
 
 (2) Journal of a Deputation to the East, vol. II, p. 806. 
 
 (3) Christianity revived in the East, p. 32. (1850).
 
 46i CHAPTER VII. 
 
 within a narrow sphere. It is true, however, thai 
 they have succeeded, by lavish expenditure, — we 
 have been told that ihey consume thirty thousand 
 pounds per annum in Turkey, — in collecting toge- 
 ther a few Jews and Armenians, who have more 
 admiration for their dollars than their doctrines, and 
 who abandon their old religion without adopting a 
 new one; and that these form what they call the 
 « Protestant Church, » or, as ]\r Dwight styles 
 them, « the people of God, » in Constantinople. 
 Such are the « wild grapes » of which they make 
 sour wine, to set their own teeth on edge. « The 
 Protestant Church of Turkey, » says M"" Cuthbert 
 Young, « is now recognised by the Government, » 
 owing to the energetic action peculiar to this branch 
 of the Anglo-Saxon family, « with an officer of the 
 Porte, a Turk, as its temporal head. This last cir- 
 cumstance cannot be regarded as auguring well for 
 the interests of vital Christianity. » (1) The Porte, 
 we shall see, was well advised in appointing an offi- 
 cer of its own to supervise such an assemblage, and 
 was probably quite as capable of promoting « vital 
 Christianity » as the Hebrew and Armenian disciples 
 to whom it lent a temporal head. 
 
 And now let us speak briefly, before we enter 
 Asia, of Catholic missions in the regions which we 
 are about to quit. Not that we can hope to give, 
 within the limits at our disposal, even a sketch of 
 labours as distinguished by supernatural patience and 
 charity as any which we have hitherto narrated. A 
 few examples must suffice, but they will abundantly 
 
 (1) The Levant and the Nile, ch. ill, p. 76.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 468 
 
 illustrate the familiar contrast which we have pro- 
 posed to trace in all lands. We are going to speak, 
 though unworthy even to record their names, of a 
 band of apostles whom even a Protestant minister 
 calls, with honest enthusiasm, » the best instructed 
 and most devoted missionaries that the world has 
 seen since primitive times. »(1) We have heard what 
 sort of agents the Sects employ ; let us contemplate 
 for a moment another order of workmen, and see 
 what the munificent bounty of God can do for men 
 whom His own decree has called to the apostolic life. 
 Too long we have listened to the mean sounds of 
 earth, — it is time to open our ears to voices from 
 Heaven. 
 
 As early as 1610, the sons of St. Ignatius had 
 begun to convert both Jews and schismatics at Con- 
 stantinople. So irresistible was the influence, here 
 as elsewhere, of men in whom religion displayed its 
 most fascinating form and se//" was all but annihila- 
 ted, that, as Von Hammer notices, the Grand Vizir 
 told de Solignac, the French ambassador, « that he 
 would rather see ten ordinary ecclesiastics at Pera 
 than one Jesuit. » (2) A century later, for these men 
 do not change, a schismatical Armenian patriarch 
 thus addressed a Catholic who had abandoned the 
 schism, and was about to be martyred: « Your blood 
 be upon the Jesuits who have converted you and so 
 many members of our Church. » (3) 
 
 In the single year 1712, for we must not attempt 
 
 (1) Williams, The Holy City, vol. II, cli. vi, p. 570. 
 
 (2) Histoire de l' Empire Ottoman, par J. Von Hammer, 
 tome VIII, liv. Ill, p. 166, cd. Hellert. 
 
 (3) Ibid., tome XIII, liv. LXII, p. 186. 
 
 II. 21
 
 466 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 to trace the whole history, Pere Jacques Cachod, to 
 whom ^Yas given the noble title of « Father of the 
 Slaves, » reconciled three hundred schismatics to the 
 Church. (1) Five years earlier, nearly one third of 
 the population of Constantinople died of the plague; 
 and it was at that dale that Pere Cachod, compelled 
 by holy obedience to give an account of actions which 
 he would have preferred to hide, wrote as follows to 
 his superior, Pere Tarillon. 
 
 « I have just quitted the Bagnio, where I have 
 given the last sacraments to, and closed the eyes of 
 eighty-six persons... The greatest danger which I 
 have encountered, or to which I shall perhaps ever 
 be exposed in my life, was at the bottom of the hold 
 of a ship of war of 82 guns. The slaves, by the con- 
 sent of their guards, had obtained my admission into 
 this place in the evening, in order that I might spend 
 the whole night in hearing their confessions, and say 
 Mass for them very early in the morning. We were 
 shut in with double locks, according to custom. Of 
 fifty-two slaves whom I confessed and communicated, 
 twelve were already plague-stricken , and three died 
 before I quitted them. You may judge what sort of 
 an atmosphere I breathed in this enclosed space, to 
 which there was not the slightest opening. God, who 
 by His goodness has preserved me in this danger, 
 will save me also from many others. » Twelve years 
 later he perished, struck down by the pestilence 
 which he thought he might henceforth defy. And 
 the only reflection which such a narrative, and such 
 a fate, suggested to the other Fathers was this ; « If 
 
 (1) Lettres Edifiantes, tome I, p. 14.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC 467 
 
 ■we were more numerous, liow much more good we 
 could do! » (1) 
 
 But if these generous apostles displayed a zeal 
 which knew not fear, it was regulated always by 
 prudence and forethought. « During the seasons of 
 the plague, » says one of them, « as it is necessary to 
 be close at hand in order to succour those who are 
 seized by it, our custom is that only one Father 
 should enter the Bagnio, and that he should remain 
 there during the whole time that the pest rages. The 
 one who obtains the permission of the Superior pre- 
 pares himself for this duly by a retreat of some days, 
 and bids farewell to his brethren, as one about to 
 die. Sometimes his sacrifice is consummated, at 
 others he survives the danger. The last Jesuit who 
 died in this exercise of charity was Father Vander- 
 
 mans since his death, the only victim has been 
 
 Father Peter Besnier, so well known for his genius 
 and rare gifls. » 
 
 It is impossible to trace here the details of the 
 apostolic history of which this is only a characteristic 
 episode. The public cemetery of Constantinople, filled 
 with the bodies of Jesuits who died between 1583 
 and 1756, is their only monument. Smyrna, Aleppo, 
 Trebizonde, and many other oriental cities, gave a 
 tomb to missionaries of the same class. At Smyrna, 
 where ten thousand perished by plague in the same 
 year, a Jesuit Bishop became a martyr of charily at 
 eighty years of age. In Aleppo, Father Besson, — 
 « who united to his immense labours perpetual mor- 
 tification, allowed himself but scanty repose at night, 
 
 (1) Lettres Edifiantes, tome i, p. 23.
 
 468 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 and rose long before the dawn in order to spend 
 many hours in prayer, » — « after having procured a 
 holy death to a large number of persons, found the 
 crown which he sought. » He was followed, both in 
 his life and death, by Father Deschamps ; and almost 
 at the same moment, Father de Clermont, of the 
 illustrious family of that name, was added to the 
 company of martyrs. It was at this time, and by 
 the labours of such men, that the schismatical Pa- 
 triarchs of Armenia (Erivan), of Aleppo, Alexandria, 
 and Damascus, were all reconciled to the Church. 
 
 In 1709, Michael Paleologus becomes the disciple 
 of Father Braconnier. Father Bernard Couder is the 
 next in this baud of Christian heroes. More than nine 
 hundred families in the city of Aleppo were formed 
 by him to a life of piety. Six times he solicited and 
 obtained the coveted permission to devote himself to 
 the plague-stricken ; and so perfect was his obedience, 
 that when ordered by his superior to quit a city in 
 which he had attracted a veneration which might 
 prove dangerous to his humility, « he began on the 
 instant to make his preparations for departure. » 
 
 In 1719, when the plague raged in Aleppo from 
 3Iarch to September, « I was often obliged, » says 
 the celebrated Father Nacchi, «to bend down between 
 two victims of the pestilence, to confess them by 
 turns, keeping my ear glued as it were to their lips, 
 in order to catch their dying sounds. » And when 
 death had done its work, these apostles, nurtured 
 themselves in delicacy and refinement, often the 
 most accomplished scholars of their age, and not 
 unfrequently members of illustrious houses, would 
 wash ihe bodies and clothes of the dead, « reeking
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 469 
 
 with a horrible infection, » and having borne ihem 
 with their own hands to the common cemetery, 
 hasten back to repeat the same office of charity for 
 others. 
 
 Such deeds, which Catholics have learned to con- 
 sider natural in their clergy, of whatever rank, would 
 hardly deserve mention, but that we are tracing a 
 contrast. There is probably not one of the thousand 
 Priests in our own England who would not imitate 
 them to-morrow, and few of their number who have 
 not already exposed their lives, many a lime, with 
 the same tranquil composure. It is not many years 
 since an English Bishop, and fifty Priests, died 
 within ten months, ministering to the victims of 
 typhus. « The good shepherd giveth his life for the 
 sheep. » But let us complete the narrative which we 
 have begun. 
 
 « Father Emanuel died in my arms, » says the 
 learned Nacchi, « after devoting himself incessantly 
 for four mouths to the victims of the plague. After 
 him I assisted Father Arnoudie, and Brother John 
 Martha, both destroyed by the same disease. » Fa- 
 ther Clisson, after an apostolate of thirty years in 
 Syria, met the same death; and was followed by 
 Father Nau, of whom his companions used to say, 
 « he has received from heaven all the gifts necessary 
 for the apostolic life. » Then came the noble brothers 
 de la Thuillerie, Joseph and James, the elder dying 
 on the bosom of the younger. The next was Father 
 Rene Pillon, for they fell fast, whose only form of 
 recreation was to visit and console the sick, and 
 whose daily prayer it was « that he might die in the 
 service of the dying. » To him succeeded Father
 
 470 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Blein, whose liumilily so touched the hearts of the 
 Greeks that ihey flocked to see his dead body, and 
 though he died of the plague, carried away fragments 
 of his clothes as relics. Beyrout saw the last com- 
 bat of Father John Amieu, « who predicted his own 
 death lo one who lay ill by his side, but assured the 
 latter of his recovery. » (I) And these are only a few 
 names out of a multitude known to God, and written 
 in the book of life. Of them it may be truly said that 
 ihey resembled one another so exactly, that they 
 were like brothers of one family. And even the most 
 malignant spirit of heresy could not resist them. 
 « You seek only our conversion, » was a common 
 saying of the sectaries, « the others ask for our 
 money. » And ihey often contrasted their manner of 
 life with that of the Protestants who had already 
 begun to dwell amongst them. « The English and 
 Dutch in Aleppo, » one of the missionaries remarks, 
 « observe neither fast nor abstinence, to the scandal 
 of every body. The people of the country say that 
 they cannot be Christians, and even the Turks regard 
 them as void of religion. » And the results of a con- 
 trast which even pagans have noticed, in every region 
 of the world, were such as these. In Damascus, 
 where there were only three Catholic families when 
 the Jesuits arrived, there were in 1750 nearly 
 9,000 converts. In Smyrna and Aleppo, almost the 
 whole schismatical population has been converted; 
 the work being continued in our own day, as Pro- 
 testant travellers will presently assure us, by men in 
 whom even they recognise the apostolic virtues of 
 
 (1) Ibid. p. 200, Cf. .Vissions du Levant, tome IV, p. 39.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 471 
 
 ihcir predecessors. Throughout all Syria, as we shall 
 learn from the same witnesses, the heirs of the mar- 
 tyrs are now labouring with such fruit, that from the 
 banks of the Orontes to those of Ihe Tigris and the 
 Euphrates, the wanderers are flocking to the true 
 fold, and even Chaldea, as we shall be told by men 
 who vainly strove to mar the work, has become a 
 Catholic nation. 
 
 When the Society of Jesus was suppressed, the 
 enemy triumphed for a moment in Turkey and the 
 Levant, as in so many other lands. But the Fathers 
 of the Order of St. Lazarus were chosen by Provi- 
 dence to supply their place, at least for a lime, and 
 we must now say a word of iheir labours in the 
 East. 
 
 In 1840, there were already in Greece Proper 
 4 Bishops, 100 Priests, and 23,000 Catholics. At 
 the same dale, in the three principalities of Moldavia, 
 Wallachia;, and Servia, there were 3 Bishops, and 
 71,000 Catholics. In the kingdom of Turkey there 
 were H Archbishops, 423 Priests, and 281,000 
 Catholics. (1) This total of 375,000 has probably 
 trebled during the last twenty years, so that Lbicini 
 reckons the whole number of Latin Christians in 
 European Turkey alone, in 18oG, at 040,000, of 
 whom 505,000 were natives; (2) while the tolal 
 number of Greeks under the sceptre of the Sultan 
 had dwindled twenty years ago to 1,000,000. (3) 
 It is even said that there is hope of the eaily recon- 
 
 (1) Annuls, vol. I, p. 4.0G. 
 
 (2) See Ubiciiii's Letters on Turkey. 
 
 (3) La Turquie clEurope, par A. Boue, tome II, cli. I, p. 21,
 
 472 . . CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ciliation of ihe entire Bulgarian nation, though the 
 influence of Russia will no doubt be employed to 
 prevent it. 
 
 At the close of the year 184-0, the celebrated 
 Lazarist Father Elienne gave this report to the heads 
 of his Order. « The chief obstacle opposed by error 
 to the progress of the Gospel is profound ignorance, 
 the common basis both of heresy and Islamism. The 
 first means, therefore, of favouring the triumph of 
 the Gospel is the education of youth. The Koran has 
 still its disciples, but only because it proscribes all 
 education. At present, however, this prohibition is 
 no longer regarded by the great, whose contempt for 
 the law of Mahomet is only imperfectly concealed 
 under a few exterior practices. » An English protest- 
 ant traveller confirms this account, when he says, 
 that the present religion of the Turks « is a kind of 
 gross Epicurean scepticism. » (1) 
 
 Father Etienne, however, gives interesting proofs 
 of the respect which they begin to manifest for the 
 Catholic religion, and the remarkable acquaintance 
 which some of them display with its doctrines; and 
 he adds, that « once permitted to frequent our schools, 
 the Gospel and science will find them equally docile 
 to their instructions. From the moment the Turks 
 are allowed to enjoy liberty of conscience and the 
 blessings of education, the Church will be on the eve 
 of counting them amongst the number of her child- 
 ren. » (2) 
 
 (1) Two Years Residence in a Levantine Family, by Bayle 
 St John; ch. xxiii, p. 267. 
 . (2) Annals, vol. II, p. 71.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 473 
 
 Lei it be permilled, al this point, to offer, under 
 correction, a consideration suggested by the present 
 aspect of Islamism. Perhaps there is nothing so 
 marvellous in the annals of mankind as the history 
 of the Mahometan religion, — its triumphant pro- 
 gress through the three continents of the old world, 
 checked only by the union of the Catholic nations 
 under the inspiration of the Holy See, — and its 
 puissant dominion of a thousand years. What provi- 
 denlial scheme was this mystery, strange and unique 
 in the annals of our race, designed to serve? The 
 present condition of Islamism seems to suggest the 
 explanation. 
 
 When the East was enslaved by heresy and schism, 
 then the legions of the false prophet came out of 
 Arabia. For centuries they have been permitted to 
 scourge the Oriental Christians, treading them under 
 foot as vermin. In human history there are no such 
 oppressors, no such victims. « Crushed and degraded 
 below the level of humanity, » in the words of 
 M"" Spencer, « generation after generation of the 
 unhappy Christians have passed away like the leaves 
 of the forest. » Nor is this the darkest feature in 
 their history. It was from apostate Greeks and mo- 
 nophysites that the legions of Antichrist were per- 
 petually recruited by tens of thousands. «Mahommed- 
 anism, » as Von Ilaxthausen forcibly observes, 
 « represents the pure monotheistic direction which 
 the Eastern Church, especially in its sects, had 
 already indicated and followed, one-sided and dogma- 
 tical. » Even in our own day it continues to enlist 
 the same class of fallen Christians, helpless because 
 severed from unity, — Copts, Greeks, and Abyssin-
 
 474 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ians. At Trebizoude, in 1858, we are told, « the 
 Greeks professed Islamism abroad, but lived as 
 Christians in the interior of their houses. » « Apos- 
 tasy is, in fact, so obvious a sin in these countries,") 
 says an English prolestaut miuisler, « that even 
 little children, as I was informed by the Bishop of 
 Smyrna, will sometimes, when in a violent passion, 
 threaten their mothers that they will turn Turk.»(l) 
 Damascus, once wholly Christian, became almost 
 entirely Mahometan ; and the same fact occurred in 
 most of the cities of the East. « Issuing from Arabia, 
 and absorbing in its passage the Christianity of the 
 East, the Mussulman tonent traversed the Bospho- 
 rus,and carried forward the crescent to the European 
 provinces of the Greek Csesars; for it was no longer 
 with the degenerate Christianity of the East as with 
 that which flowed, full of life and strength, from the 
 apostolic Roman fount. The latter had quickly a65or6- 
 ed into itself all the conquerors of the empire; the 
 former bowed down without resistance under the 
 code of the Caliphs, and the Christian populations 
 of Asia, deserting the faith of Christ, adopted, in 
 vast numbers, that of the false prophet, and recruited 
 the armies of his vicars. » (2) 
 
 Such is the contrast between the Christianity of 
 Rome and Byzantium; and such, for centuries, has 
 been the influence of the Mahometan over the corrupt 
 and schismalical communities of the East. But Islam- 
 ism has done its work, and may now disappear. It 
 came to chastise, by an unparelleled judgment, an 
 
 (1) Jowett, p. 23. 
 
 (2) Persecution et Souffrances, etc., p. 240.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 475 
 
 unexampled offence. And now , when the oriental 
 churches are visihly returning to unity, and the voice 
 of the Supreme Pastor is once more heard amongst 
 them, Islamism — as if conscious that it may no 
 longer play the part of the Avenger — is hastening 
 to decay. We seem to touch already that great epoch 
 of Catholic unity, — of which the recent definition 
 of ihe Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God 
 is the surest pledge and precursor, — that consolida- 
 tion of all helievers into one household and family 
 which Her love will obtain for the Church before 
 the world is abandoned to its final judgment, and 
 even the Church shall plead for it no more. 
 
 Let us return for a moment to Father Etienne, and 
 to the account which he gives of religion in Turkey. 
 « At Constantinople, » he says, « the clergy of our 
 congregation are at the head of a college, in which 
 the children of the first families of the city are educa- 
 ted : ihey have also a school, which is frequented 
 by loO scholars. » This refers to the stale of things 
 twenty years ago. « Three other schools are directed 
 by the Sisters of Charity. The 230 pupils whom they 
 receive are not all Catholics; Russians, Arabs, Ar- 
 menian and Greek schismatics come to the same 
 source to obtain knowledge and wisdom. » The 
 Sisters had also under their care a hospital, towards 
 the expences of which (he Sultan contributed 100 1. 
 Even the Mussulmen, he adds, filled with admira- 
 tion for the charity of the Sisters, « who neither 
 will nor can receive any recompense, » arc accus- 
 tomed to ask, — « Whether they came down thus from 
 Heaven"! » « May we not presume, » says M. Etienne, 
 « that the Sisters of Charity are destined by Provi-
 
 476 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 dence to effect the long wished-for union between 
 Turks and Christians? » 
 
 An English Protestant writer, in spite of custom- 
 ary prejudice, thus confirms the account of Father 
 Etienne. « Short as the lime has been since these 
 zealous Christians have entered upon this new-field 
 of labour, it must be owned in all justice that the 
 progress they have made, and the beneficial effects 
 of their judicious efforts, are most surprising... The 
 admiration, as well as confidence, with which both 
 they and the Lazarists have inspired the Turks is 
 unbounded. » (1) And this is confirmed once more, 
 in 18o9, by another English Protestant, who con- 
 siders, « a visit to the Convent of the Sisters of 
 Charity interesting and instructive, as showing how 
 human beings possessed of education and personal 
 attractions can leave everything which makes life 
 dear for the sake of God. Here, as every where else, 
 these ladies do a great deal of good, particularly in 
 education of the Arab children. » Of their hospital 
 « for the special use of strangers, » of all creeds, 
 « who may chance to fall ill here » — Beyroul — 
 he adds that, the sufferers, « when tended by the 
 devoted Sisters, scarcely miss the absence of their 
 friends. » (2) 
 
 When we have shown that the missionaries have 
 not degenerated from their fathers, but still resemble 
 a Cachod, a Besnier, and a Vandermans, we may 
 pass to other scenes. « M. Elluin, » says Father 
 Etienne, « catechises the poor in Greek, and with 
 
 (1) Way faring Sketches among the Greeks and Turks, ch. IX, 
 p. 184. 
 
 (2) Two Years in Syria, ch. xxvil, p. 235.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 477 
 
 ihe most consoling success; his instructions are fre- 
 quented every Sunday by 300 persons, children and 
 adults. M. Bonnieux, another Missionary, whose 
 indefatigable zeal I could not but admire, spends his 
 life in hearing the confessions of the Catholics, scat- 
 tered throughout the city and the environs. Every 
 morning he sets out, taking in his course both sides 
 of the Dosphorus, penetrating into the interior of 
 families, distributing consolation and advice, and 
 often returning without having tasted food, except 
 the morsel of bread he had taken with him. Often, 
 too, surprised by the night far from his home, he 
 passes it in some miserable hut, offers there the 
 Holy Sacrifice in the morning before he leaves, and 
 continuing his route of the previous day, returns at 
 length to his brethren full of joy. This laborious 
 ministry is never interrupted, either by the rigour of 
 the season or the ravages of the plague. » 
 
 Such are « the comforts and pleasant things » 
 which these men choose for their portion. And the 
 results of their patient charily are such as the fol- 
 lowing. M. Bonnieux alone, in the course of a few 
 months, reconciled to the Church 122 heretics. The 
 most conspicuous among his converts was Mgr. Ar- 
 lin, schismatical Archbishop of Van, in Armenia. 
 An immense crowd of the former disciples of the 
 converted prelate assisted at the ceremony of his ab- 
 juration; and after listening to the fervent exhortation 
 which, from a heart newly kindled with divine 
 charity, he addressed to them, « more than twelve 
 hundred persons were found to imitate this me- 
 morable conversion. » (1) 
 
 (1) Annals, II, 76.
 
 478 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The impulse given lo education by the toils of the 
 same workmen, is the only additional fact which we 
 need notice. « It is very certain, » says Ubicini 
 in 1858, « that the number of the schools founded by 
 the Lazarists, with the assistance of the Sisters of 
 Charily and of the Christian Brothers, increases yearly 
 in a remarkable degree. » And then he observes, that 
 already in 1849, « the latter had six hundred child- 
 ren in their schools of Pera and Galata , » w hile 
 the former had, at the same dale, eight hundred and 
 sixty pupils. (1) Other writers will inform us that 
 they are diffusing the same benefits in the principal 
 cities of Asiatic Turkey. 
 
 We have no space for further details. For twenty 
 years the work has progressed, every where by the 
 same agents, and always with the same results. Even 
 Protestants attest its power. « The Catholic religion 
 in the East, » says Admiral Slade, in 1854, appre- 
 ciating these events from his own point of view, « has 
 ever offered a secure asylum for wavering minds of 
 the Greek and Armenian sects. » He declares, also, 
 from actual observation, « that it has made men live 
 in peace among each other, and under their govern- 
 ment, whatever that government be. » (2) 
 
 D"^ Wilson, — who has perhaps employed more 
 intemperate language than any living writer, and has 
 been more abundant in those vehement invectives 
 which sound like imprecations, and remind one of 
 the text, « Whoso hateth his brother is a murderer, » 
 — is constrained by a Power which uses such men 
 
 (1) Letters on Turkey, vol. II, Letter 3. 
 (i) Records of Travels, ch. xxvn, p. 511.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 479 
 
 to proclaim the very truths which they ahhor, to 
 make the following confession. The Greeks, he says, 
 when they become Catholics, « are amongst the 
 most liberal and intelligent native Christians in the 
 East. » (1) 
 
 D"" Robinson, an American writer of the same 
 class, — who laments that the movement of conver- 
 sion among the Greeks, after spreading though Syria, 
 «< has now extended itself into Egypt, » — admits 
 with evident reluctance, that « the result is a certain 
 elevation of their seel. » (2) D' Durbin also, another 
 American protestant, declares wilhout reserve of a// 
 the oriental communities, — « It is not to be denied 
 that their intercourse with the Roman Catholic 
 Church lends to elevate them in the scale of civiliza- 
 tion. » (3) We shall hear many similar testimonies 
 when we enter Syria. 
 
 We may now cross the Bosphorus, and continue 
 in Asiatic Turkey the investigations which we have 
 hitherto confined to her European provinces. Let us 
 begin at Smyrna. If we would find Protestant mis- 
 sionaries in Pagan or Moslem lands, much expe- 
 rience has taught us to look for them on the coast. 
 They abound in Smyrna. « The number of iMission- 
 aries who have been sent to Turkey, » says an 
 English protestant, « and are established at Smyrna, 
 is very considerable. » (4) « They find that dcmi- 
 Frank cily pleasanter, » we have been told,- « than 
 the interior of Turkey; » and, as a matter of taste, 
 
 (1) Lands of the Bible, vol. II, p. 581. 
 
 (2) Biblical Researches, vol. Ill, § 17, p. 45G. 
 
 (3) Observations in the East, vol. II, ch. xxxiv, p. 287. 
 
 (4) Wayfaring Sketches, etc., cli. VI, p. 118.
 
 48a . CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 they are probably right. M. de Tchibalcheff, a Rus- 
 sian traveller, found some of the American mission- 
 aries, in 1856, occupied in meteorological observa- 
 tions; a useful and honorable pursuit, for which he 
 seems to think they had abundant leisure. (1) What 
 else they have done, we may easily learn, either 
 from themselves or their friends. 
 
 The English , who have had representatives at 
 Smyrna for a long course of years, do not even claim 
 any success. A gentleman who is apt to exaggerate 
 their influence candidly admits, in 1854-, that « al- 
 though Smyrna has long had the advantage of resi- 
 dent Missionaries, and of the faithful ministry of a 
 devoted clergyman, in the Rev. W. B. Lewis, the 
 British Chaplain , there are few signs of religious 
 life among the native population. » (2) There are, in 
 fact, ample signs of life, but not such as this writer 
 could detect or appreciate , because they were all 
 external to his own communion. Within its narrow 
 limits his description is apparently accurate. « Jt is 
 in the spirit of enterprise, » says M"" Jowett, « most 
 especially, that the Church of Christ » — he means 
 the Church of England — « appears defective. » (3) 
 « There is little of a practical and active missionary 
 spirit to be found among the members of the Church 
 of England, » said the late M"" Warburton. « When 
 I was in Syria, there was not an English missionary 
 who had taken a University degree; nor, with one 
 exception, was there a Christian-born minister of 
 
 (1) Asie Mineure, par P. de Tchihatcheff; ch. I, p. 5. (1856). 
 
 (2) Journal of a Deputation to the East, vol. II, p. 570. 
 
 (3) P. 392.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 481 
 
 our church. » (1) Admiral Slade mentions a single 
 Anglican clergyman, whom he considers an excep- 
 tion by character to his companions, and adds ; 
 « Where did his labours lie? — Among ihe Greeks, 
 and without effect! » (2) 
 
 The Americans, as usual, have been, not more suc- 
 cessful, but more ambitious and aggressive. D'^Dur- 
 bin, their fellow citizen, informs us, in 184S, that 
 they had printed in Smyrna up to that date 
 52,247,760 pages. D"" Wilson records, in his ac- 
 count, an increase of some twenty millions. What 
 the inhabitants of Asia Minor have done wilh all 
 this printed paper, — amounting to about 150,000 
 octavo volumes, — does not appear. Indeed the only 
 effect of the presence of the various Protestant sects, 
 in Smyrna , — who distribute pensions which are 
 much esteemed, and books which no body reads, — 
 has been to afford amusement to these languid Asia- 
 tics, though only for a brief space. The excitement 
 lasted a few months, and then both Turks and 
 Greeks decided, as Protestant travellers assure us, 
 that the missionaries had ceased to be enlertaining. 
 « Even the Armenians themselves, » says D"" Valen- 
 tine Molt, with unfeigned astonishment, « though 
 professing Christianity , joined with the deluded 
 Turks in suppressing the Protestant schools! » (5) 
 And D"^ Durbin, also an American preacher, relates 
 that his co-religionists, of various denominations, 
 were loo much occupied in their accustomed pastime 
 
 (1) Ch. viii, pp. 117-18. 
 
 (2) P. 518. 
 
 (3) Travels in Europe and the East, by Valentine Molt, M. D., 
 p 404.
 
 482 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 of figluing with one another, to allow a combiualion 
 of their efforls against the oriental sects. « It is lo 
 be regrclled, » he observes, « that they have come 
 into collision with each other in the midst of these 
 ancient churches, and in the presence of the Turk. 
 The chief ground of collision is the validity and 
 authority of their respective ministries » (1) — a 
 question which, he seems lo think, they might have 
 discussed more advantageously at home. 
 
 Another sympathising writer, who laments the 
 trivial superstition which makes « keeping the Sab- 
 bath * the chief article of the missionary creed, says, 
 « We draw down contempt on that which we seek 
 to further, when we make it seem as though our 
 religion consisted in the observance of the Sab- 
 bath. » (2) Yet the Protestant missionary always 
 begins and ends with this precept. 
 
 Both the English and Americans have been espe- 
 cially unsuccessful with the Greeks, the very class 
 to which they have mainly directed their attention. 
 M"^ Arundell, a man of learning and intelligence, who 
 was for some years British Chaplain at Smyrna, 
 expresses much dissatisfaction with their « ingrati- 
 tude, » as well as with the levities which they 
 practised in their conduct towards himself. He sent 
 a young Greek, after due instruction, and an expen- 
 diture from which he hoped belter results, as school- 
 master to Kirkinge. Unfortunately he paid him in 
 advance. « He went to Kirkinge, looked at it, said it 
 was an askemos topos, * a horrible place, ' and 
 
 (1) Vol. II, cti.xxxv, p. 298. 
 
 (2) Wayfaring Sketches, ch, viii, p. 170.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 483 
 
 setlled himself in Syria, without deigning to write 
 me a word » — a discourtesy which M' Arundell 
 resented the more keenly, hecause he had « for some 
 lime assisted in keeping him and his mother from 
 starving. » (1) 
 
 Bui these Greeks are incorrigible — until they are 
 brought within ihe influence of the Church. Angli- 
 canism and Methodism are too weak lo hold Ihem, 
 and only succeed in inspiring their ingenious malice. 
 Nothing less mighly than the Church can baffle iheir 
 intrigues, or rouse ihem from their pelulanl indiffer- 
 ence. « Are you acquainted with Ephesus, » said 
 the Count D'Eslourmel to a Greek, whom he wished 
 lo employ as a guide lo ihe antiquities of the apostolic 
 cily. « Yes, » replied the luxurious Demetrius; 
 « I have ealen larks there with M. de Slackelberg, 
 and drank Chian wine with M"^ Dodwell. » (2) These 
 were his recollections of Ephesus. 
 
 Bui there is a power in Smyrna which can stir 
 ihe hearts even of such men as these. « The success 
 which attended the Romish Missionaries, « says 
 M'" Jowell, « evidence of which exists in their numer- 
 ous converts throughout every part of this region, 
 should be an encouragement to Protestants. » (3) 
 He did not consider that if Protestants would emu- 
 late that success, they must first become Catholics. 
 Thirty years later, another English writer, though 
 he is unable to record any Protestant progress during 
 that long interval, observes, that « the Romanists 
 comprise probably five sixths of ihe Frank population 
 
 (1) Discoveries in Asia Minor, vol. II, ch. xi, p. 271. 
 
 (2) Journal (Txm Voyage en Orient, tome 1, p. 213. 
 
 (3) P. 368.
 
 484 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 at Smyrna. » (1) In ten years — from 1850 to 1840 
 — they more than doubled their numbers, though 
 they have not been able to purchase a single convert, 
 or bestow a single pension, and are not only poor, 
 but have sworn before the Altar to remain poor to 
 the end of iheir lives. 
 
 « JMy greatest hope, » said the Archbishop of 
 Smyrna some years ago, « is in our schools, in 
 which the population of Smyrna, by the religious 
 education imparted to them, are completely regenera- 
 ted. » Already the Lazarist Fathers had 2o0 pupils 
 in their male schools, and the Priests of ihe Missions 
 tltrangeres 120 students in their college. Twenty 
 native priests, added to an equal number of European 
 missionaries, atlesled the influence of the education 
 which they had received. Noble institutions have 
 since then been created, and Smyrna now rejoices in 
 possessing those Sisters of St. Vincent who teach, 
 by their presence and example, the charity which 
 only the true Faith can inspire. « In seasons of sick- 
 ness, » says W Worlabet, — whose profession of 
 Protestantism does not prevent his admiring the Sis- 
 ters of Charily, — « whilst others flee to the moun- 
 tains for a belter atmosphere, they have been seen 
 going from house to house, heedless of contagion 
 from cholera, fever, or holes steaming wilh heat and 
 stench, enough to make any one sick. One by one 
 falls down by the bed-side of ihe dying sufferer. 
 They die, but their memory lives, and no wonder 
 many rise up to call ihem blessed. » (2) 
 
 (1) Young, The Levant and the Nile, ch. Ill, p. 74. 
 
 (2) Syria and the Syrians, ch. xv, p. 104. (1856).
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 48S 
 
 If any further proof of the influence of the Catholic 
 religion in Smyrna, and of the virtues displayed by 
 its teachers, be required, it is impressively conveyed 
 in the angry confession of a Protestant missionary, 
 the Rev. 1. Calhoun, — a confession appropriately 
 recorded by the pen of D"^ Wilson, — that even 
 « among the Protestants there are few who are deci- 
 dedly anti -Roman Catholic. » (1) 
 
 But there are other cities which claim from us a 
 brief visit. Beyrout is one of them. « There are ten 
 thousand Christians in Beyrout, » says the Rev. 
 D'^ Durbin, « the great majority of whom are Roman 
 Catholics. » Yet a few years ago they were insignifi- 
 cant in numbers, and moreover, « Beyrout is the 
 centre of the American Missions in Syria, » and 
 « the Missionaries have several presses here. » 
 W Neale notices « the superb nunnery in course of 
 erection here for the Sisters of Charity, whose advent 
 has given great satisfaction to the Catholics of Bey- 
 rout; » as well as their « boarding school for young 
 ladies, day-school for poor girls and Arabs, and hos- 
 pital for sailors. » (2) M"" Cuthbert Young observes, 
 in 1848, that « the Jesuit establishment at Beyrout 
 is said to be one of the most efficient, and many 
 3Iaronite and Greek children are educated in their 
 school. » Lastly, the candid M"" Warburton says; 
 « I was much struck by the zeal, talent, and tact 
 exhibited by the Monks. » 
 
 Aleppo is still more worthy of our attention. Even 
 D"" Wilson tells us that the Jesuits here « applied 
 
 (1) Lands of the Bible, vol. II, p. 577. 
 
 (2) Syria, JPalestine, etc., vol. I, ch. xill, p. 2il.
 
 486 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 themselves to the study of the Eastern languages 
 wilh a devotion seldojji surpassed. » And then he 
 adds, — « They hrought a considerahle numher of 
 persons within the pale of the Romish Church, and 
 they paved the way for the ultimate estahlishment of 
 the papal-Greek, papal-Armenian, and papal-Syrian 
 sects, » But if this gentleman finds nothing to say 
 against the earlier missionaries, he seeks relief by 
 informing his readers, without the least hesitation, 
 that as to the present Jesuits in this region, « their 
 morality is of the loosest kind. » (1) Probably he 
 never saw one of them, and knows nothing whatever 
 about them ; but it was a safe assertion, and was sure 
 to be welcomed by his readers. 
 
 We need not reply seriously to such an assailant ; 
 but here is an example of these modern Jesuits, 
 whose loose morality D"^ Wilson deplores. Father 
 Riccadonna wrote a few years ago to his superior 
 in these terms, in obedience to directions which re- 
 quired an exact account of his position. « I will tell 
 you, in confidence, that we are living in destitution, 
 without clothes, without shelter, without provisions. 
 What others cast aside would be piecious to us. A 
 little thread, some buttons, and a packet of needles, 
 would be a most acceptable gift. For want of these 
 we go for months together with our clothes in rags. 
 Praise be to God ! It is necessary to have tasted these 
 precious sufferings to know their value and their 
 sweetness. May it be my lot to suffer them al- 
 ways. » (2) 
 
 0) P. 573. 
 
 (2) Annates, tome VII, p. 241.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 487 
 
 Let us return to Aleppo. In 1818, the British 
 Consul General reported that « Aleppo is gradually 
 drawing, and nearly drawn over to the Roman Calh- 
 olics. » (1) In 1854, a zealous Protestant relates, 
 that of 20,000 Christians, 17,500 are already Cath- 
 olics. (2) 
 
 Monseigneur Brunoni, Archhishop of Taron, and 
 Apostolic Legate in Syria, gave this account of them, 
 in October, 1855. « The Catholic community in 
 Aleppo, governed hy pious and zealous pastors, ap- 
 pear docile to their teaching, and animated with 
 religious sentiments in a manner very consoling to 
 witness. I speak of what I have seen, having been 
 invited to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice in the churches 
 of the different liturgies, on which occasions the evi- 
 dent devotion and fervour observable in all was very 
 edifying. The day on which I officiated for the Ar- 
 menians, the pious and learned Paul Balit delivered 
 an excellent discourse in reference to the conversions 
 of the previous year, and on the majesty and superi- 
 ority of the Catholic religion. His words made the 
 truth so evident that an inhabitant of the neighbour- 
 hood, who was a schismatic, and happened to be 
 present, was convinced of his errors, and renounced 
 them on the spot. » (o) 
 
 « In Aleppo, » says a Protestant minister, the 
 Rev. G. Badger, in 1852, « where they once num- 
 bered several hundred families, not more than ten 
 Jacobite families now exist, the rest having joined 
 the Church of Rome. » This unwilling witness adds, 
 
 (1) Asiatic Journal, vol. VI, p. 503. 
 
 (2) Journal of a Deputation, vol. II, p. 822. 
 
 (3) Annals, vol. XVII, p. 137.
 
 488 , CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ihat « the same secession has left Ihem only a name 
 at Damascus. The Jacobite community of Bagdad 
 has followed the example set them by their brethren 
 at Aleppo and Damascus. » And then he performs 
 the usual task for which Protestant travellers seem 
 to be employed by Providence in all parts of the 
 world. « If the truth is to be told, it must be con- 
 fessed that however much to be deplored this seces- 
 sion may be, the Syrian proselytes to Rome are 
 decidedly superior, in many respects, to their Jaco- 
 bite brethren. » (\) Yet this gentleman « deplores » 
 that they should cease to be heretics, sunk in cor- 
 ruption and ignorance, though they become « deci- 
 dedly superior » as members of the Catholic Church. 
 He does more; he rails at the Catholic missionaries 
 for « forming a schism, » and then proposes to the 
 Anglican Establishment to re-convert these neophytes 
 from their « Romish » errors! It seems that if we 
 desire to find unequalled examples of this kind, we 
 must now look for them in the Anglican clergy of 
 the High Church school. But we shall hear of 
 M"" Badger again. 
 
 The Turks appear to discriminate more exactly 
 than M"^ Badger between heretics and Christians. 
 Bishop Bonamie reports, that at the Catholic funerals 
 in Aleppo, « janissaries, who are themselves Maho- 
 metans, precede the Cross, and oblige all whom they 
 meet on the way, without excepting the Turks, to 
 behave with respect and reverence before this sign 
 of our salvation. » (2) 
 
 (1) The Nestorians and their Rituals, by the Rev^ G. P. Badger, 
 vol. I, pp. 63, 180. 
 
 (2) Annates, tome VIII, p. 553.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 489 
 
 Of the Protestants in Aleppo, — for they have there 
 also their usual printing press, which works night 
 and day with the usual results, — an eager advocate 
 tells us; « On more than one occasion have the ec- 
 clesiaslical authorities ordered all Prolestant books, 
 all Bibles from Prolestant presses, e(c., to be burned, 
 destroyed, or delivered into their hands. » (1) Of one 
 school of missionaries in that city, M"" Walpole says; 
 « The Presbyterian mission here bides its time, and 
 perhaps I may say nothing has yet been done by 
 them. » He remarks also that the missionaries do 
 not even « kneel » at prayers ; which, he observes, 
 « seems a cold form of adoration. » (2) Their Moslem 
 neighbours are probably of the same opinion. 
 
 Returning towards the south, let us visit Damas- 
 cus. Here also we meet the usual facts. « The 
 Christians, » says W Warburton,« for the most part 
 belong to the Latin Church. » Times are changed 
 since, in 1351, twenty-two Catholics were crucified 
 in Damascus on the same day. (3) « I believe about 
 20,000 are Christians, » says M"" Churton in 1851, 
 « principally Greek Catholics. » (4) « The Syrian 
 Catholics of Damascus, » D"^ Robinson observes, « arc 
 recent converts. ))(5) It was in 1832 that the Syrian 
 Bishop of Damascus was reconciled to the Church, 
 together with his numerous household and rela- 
 tives. (6) At Ihe present day, D"" Wilson informs us, 
 
 (1) Journal of a Deputation, p. 822. 
 
 (2) The Ansayrii, vol. I, ch. xill, p. 205. 
 
 (3) Henrion, tome I, ch. xvill, p. 195. 
 
 (4) The Land of the Morning , ch, xv, p. 271. 
 
 (5) Biblical Researches in Palestine, p. 4G2. 
 
 (6) Annates, lome VI, p. 291. 
 
 II. a
 
 490 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 the Catholics have « the most splendid church which 
 Damascus contains ; »(1) and then he adds, as if to 
 counterbalance these unwelcome proofs of their pro- 
 gress, « in its services it is difficult to recognise the 
 simplicity of Christian worship, » 
 
 The « simplicity » of his Presbyterian co-religion- 
 isls,at Aleppo and elsewhere, who refuse to kneel in 
 the presence of ihat God before whom the Archan- 
 gels hide their faces, and even their Immaculate 
 Queen worships with awful fear, is more agreeable 
 to D' Wilson. To insult the Most High, even while 
 they imagine they are adoring Him, is commendable 
 « simplicity, » — though Daniel « fainted away and 
 retained no strength, » even before the presence of 
 an Angel. (2) If D"^ Wilson had seen that other An- 
 gel, « having a golden censer, » to whom « was given 
 much incense, » that he might offer it « before the 
 Altar » in Heaven ; (3) he would perhaps have sug- 
 gested to St. John, who did see it, that it was a very 
 « unscriptural » ceremony, and extremely deficient 
 in simplicity. If he had entered that temple, in which 
 even the « nails of gold, » and the « wings of the 
 cherubim, » and « the curtain-rods » were all pre- 
 scribed and fashioned by divine inspiration, and 
 where priests arrayed in jewelled robes offered a 
 mystical sacriflce by divine command , — he w ould 
 perhaps have ventured on the same criticism. It 
 would have been imprudent, for the Hebrews made 
 short work of blasphemers. Yet Calvin, the author of 
 
 (1) Lands of the Bible, p. 581. 
 
 (2) Dan. X, 8. 
 
 (3) Apoc. VIII, 3.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC 491 
 
 the Presbyterian religion, pushed ihe claims of « sim- 
 plicity » slill further, and marvelled that the Son of 
 God did not rebuke the « superstition » of the woman 
 in the Gospel, who was healed by touching « the 
 hem of His garment. » It was intolerable that God 
 should thus sanction the principle of relic worship, 
 and the Genevan bade his disciples take note of the 
 error. (1) Surely the Prussian philosopher had 
 reason to exclaim, « the Calvinists treat the Saviour as 
 their inferior, the Lutherans as their equal, and 
 Catholics as their God. » (2) 
 
 Let us return to Damascus. Another English wri- 
 ter, of the same school as D"" Wilson, notices in 
 1854, that « there are in Damascus three Latin 
 Monasteries; the buildings are good, and have li- 
 braries attached to them, containing good collections 
 of books in the Oriental and other languages ; there 
 are also large day-schools under the direction of the 
 priesthood : » (3) and then he scoffs at them as 
 « concealed Jesuits. » The Jesuits have not the habit 
 of concealing themselves, and the objects of his dis- 
 like were, in fact, Franciscans and Lazarists. That 
 their schools are more accurately appreciated by the 
 Damascenes than by this Protestant tourist, we learn 
 from D"" Frankl, who says; « It is worthy of notice 
 that the Jews and Mohammedans sometimes send 
 their children to the schools taught by the French 
 
 (1) « Scimus quam proterve ludat super stitio... Quod a vesle 
 hoesit potius, forte zelo inconsiderato pauliilum a via deflexit. » 
 Comment, in Nov. Test. torn. I, p. 220, ed. Tholuck. 
 
 (2) Dictionnaire des Apologistes Involontaires, Introd., p. 31 , 
 Migne. 
 
 (3) Journal of a Deputation to the East, vol. II, p. 488.
 
 492 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Missionaries of ihe order of St. Lazare. » Ubicini 
 also relales, lhat« iheir two schools were frequented, 
 in 18S6, by four hundred and fifty children, » — 
 which perhaps accounts for the irritation of their 
 English visitors, — and that at Beyrout, Salonica, 
 Aleppo, and wherever the Lazarist missions extend, 
 « hundreds of children of all creeds receive element- 
 ary instruction freely and gratuitously. » 
 
 A well known German protestant, who visited the 
 Franciscan schools at Damascus, expresses surprise 
 and admiration at the patient charity of men who had 
 abandoned all — they have since been massacred by 
 Turks — to labour in this field, and exclaims ; « The 
 natural and primitive simplicity with which they 
 follow their calling delighted me much. » (1) Yet 
 an Anglican missionary who, during a long residence 
 in Syria, had only learned to defame the works 
 which he knew not how to imitate; who spent his 
 time in sneering at Franciscans and Lazarists, and 
 even at those Sisters of Charity of whom the more 
 discerning Moslem speaks with affection and rever- 
 ence ; aifecls to deplore the miserably defective edu- 
 cation which attracted scholars of every class and 
 creed, and of which other Protestants will presently 
 describe to us the real character. (2) It is creditable 
 to English and American travellers, that almost the 
 only individuals of either nation who use such lan- 
 guage are the missionaries themselves. 
 
 We should perhaps not err in attributing the exas- 
 
 (1) Countess Hahn-Hahn, Letters, etc., vol. II, Letter 21, 
 p. 55. 
 
 (2) Five Years in Damascus, by the Rev^ J. L. Porter, M. A.; 
 vol. I, ch. Ill, p. 145.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 493 
 
 peralion which Lelrays itself in such expressions (o 
 the morlificalion of personal failure. Afler many years 
 of lavish expenditure, ihey had so utterly wasted 
 their time and money, that M"" Worlahel unwillingly 
 confesses, in 1856, that the five Protestant mission- 
 aries in Damascus had only secured sixteen precarious 
 pensioners, who were probahly all their servants and 
 dependents; (1) and D"" Frankl pleasantly adds, — 
 « the Missionary Society has as yet thrown out its 
 golden net at Damascus in vain. » (2) 
 
 On the other hand, English and American travel- 
 lers attest in chorus the contrast to which they could 
 not close their eyes, and the continual triumphs of 
 the Catholic faith, throughout all Syria, in spite of 
 the poverty of its apostles. « At Diarbekir, some 
 years ago, » says M"" Badger, « the whole Greek 
 community in the town became Romanists. » (5) 
 The Neslorians in the neighbourhood quickly fol- 
 lowed their example. « At Ainlab, an American mis- 
 sionary, » who had been distributing bibles, « was 
 driven out of the town by the Armenians, » says 
 A^Walpole; « not, I believe, without insults and 
 some violence. » (4) And so uniform are these facts, 
 as we shall see more fully hereafter, that a Protestant 
 witness observes ; even in places « where a few years 
 ago there were no Roman Catholics, we now find a 
 fair share of the population belonging to that 
 faith. « (5) M"" Jowett had reason to say , « All 
 
 (1) Syria and the Syrians, ch. vil, p. 203. 
 
 (2) The Jetvs in the East, vol. I, ch. vni, pp. 292, 7, 9. 
 
 (3) Badger, vol. 1, p. 3. 
 
 (4) Walpole, ch. xvi, p. 255. 
 
 (5) Wortabet, vol. II, ch. xiv, p. 86.
 
 494 CHAPTER Vlll. 
 
 Syria is comparatively occupied by the Roman Cath- 
 olics. » 
 
 Before we quit Syria to enter Palestine, it seems 
 impossible to omit one or two reflections upon what 
 we have already heard. Jt is proved, by Protestant 
 testimony, that throughout these regions the Church 
 is constantly attracting to herself great numbers from 
 the various dissident communities. « Men of virtue 
 and piety, » says a learned English writer, familiar 
 with many of the forms of oriental society, « are 
 often found to pass from the Eastern to the Roman 
 Catholic communion, while no instance, perhaps, or 
 scarcely an instance can be adduced even of an indi- 
 vidual of acknowledged piety and learning passing 
 over to the eastern church. » (1) 
 
 Some Protestant writers are slill more emphatic, 
 and we must not conclude this portion of our sub- 
 ject without noticing their remarkable language. 
 « Not one of the ancient Churches, » says the Rev. 
 George Williams, formerly a chaplain at Jerusalem, 
 « but was visited by Missionaries of the Propaganda, 
 or the enterprising members of the Society of Jesus... 
 When we consider the zeal, ability, and persevering 
 practice of the best instructed and most devoted 
 missionaries that the world has seen since primitive 
 times, it is no matter of surprise that their self- 
 denying labours were crowned with abundant suc- 
 cess. » (2) 
 
 « It is diflicult, » says another English Protestant, 
 familiar by long experience and observation with the 
 
 (1) Palmer, Dissertations on the Orthodox Communion, p. 13. 
 
 (2) The Holy City, vol. II, ch. vi, p. 570.
 
 MISSIONS IX THE LEVANT, ETC. 493 
 
 East and ils various races, « to meet and converse 
 with ihe zealous and talented missionaries of the 
 Propaganda in the East, and not feel Avarmly for 
 their situation. They are exposed to no ordinary trial 
 of patience. Educated at Rome, accustomed to Italian 
 refinement and conversation, then sent to some 
 remote spot — remote from causes of association 
 rather than from distance — destined to pass their 
 lives with a people as far beneath them in mental 
 culture as separated by habits, they may be truly 
 said to be banished men in the sharpest sense of the 
 term. Still we might at times rather envy than pity 
 them. Commiseration is lost sight of in our admira- 
 tion at the disinterestedness and perseverance which 
 they ever display in the performance of their duties — 
 a good conscience their reward, heaven their guide. 
 i\o shadow of preferment looms in the distance, no 
 hope of distinction cheers them on, not one of the 
 ordinary inducements to exertion prompts them. 
 Courteous with the gentleman, confiding with the 
 peasant, caressing with the distressed, they are, as 
 St. Paul expressed himself to be, ' All things to all 
 men. ' Multiply the generations since the Osmanleys 
 conquered the country, and it will appear that mil- 
 lions of sotils have been saved by these advanced 
 sentinels of Christianity, ever at their post, to 
 reclaim the wavering and confirm the steadfast. » (1) 
 D' Durbin, an American Protestant minister, who 
 visited the same lands, contents himself with admit- 
 ting the facts. « It is not possible, » he says, « to 
 estimate the success of the Romish Missions to the 
 
 (1) Slade, Turkey, Greece, and Malta, vol. II, cli.xx, p. 425.
 
 496 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 Oriental Churches, but the general fact is clear, that 
 they have divided them all; so that there is in Asia a 
 Papal Greek Church, a Papal Armenian Church, a 
 Papal Church among the INestorians, a Papal Church 
 among the Syrians, and also many of the Copts in 
 
 Egypt- »(0 
 
 Other Protestant writers, deeply impressed, in 
 spite of incurable and fatal prejudices, with the 
 grave lessons which they have brought away from 
 the East, — and especially with the demoralizing 
 influence of Protestant missions, — do not hesitate 
 to avow their condemnation of efforts which lead 
 only to evil. 
 
 « I frankly avow my opinion, » says the Rev. 
 IM"" Spencer, who seems to be a Scotch Episcopalian 
 minister, « that missions from the various religious 
 bodies who contribute to the support of the gentlemen 
 labouring in Syria can never be productive of per- 
 manent results. I was astonished to learn how little 
 bad, after all, been done. » And again. « It deserves 
 to be well weighed by Protestants at home, that no 
 mission of theirs to the Oriental Christians has 
 succeeded to any extent commensurate with the 
 means, the men, the time devoted to their conversion : 
 may it not properly be asked — are we ever likely to 
 succeed any better? » (2) 
 
 D' Wolff says, — « I cannot help thinking that 
 the Church Missionary Society, though they might 
 send their Lutheran Missionaries to the heathen, 
 
 (1) Vol. II, p. 287. 
 
 (2) Travels in the Holy Land, by the Revd J. A. Spencer, 
 M. A., Letter 22, pp. 483-4. (1850).
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 497 
 
 oughl never lo send ihem to the Eastern Churches. 
 It is a gross insult to ihem — » (1) and apparently a 
 very unprofitable one. 
 
 M"" Williams also observes, though probably with- 
 out much hope of obtaining a hearing; « There is 
 surely an ample field in the East for the European 
 and American Missionaries, without encroaching on 
 other churches. » Jews, Druses, Mahometans, Arabs, 
 and others, are the avowed enemies of Christianity, 
 as he remarks, yet the luxurious emissaries of Pro- 
 testantism hardly even attempt to make any impres- 
 sion on them, and invariably fail when they do. 
 "They are merely playing at Missions,)) adds M-'Wil- 
 liams — and with this frank confession we may 
 conclude — « while they limit themselves lo a task 
 involving no risk, and requiring no sacrifices. » (2) 
 
 It is impossible not to be struck by such unex- 
 pected language as has now been quoted, from Pro- 
 testant writers of various and conflicting schools, in 
 illustration of the eternal contrast which even they 
 discern between Catholic and Protestant mission- 
 aries. But there is yet another emotion, more painful 
 than surprise, which such testimonies awaken. The 
 witnesses record their evidence, in spite of natural 
 prejudice, and careless of the resentment of their 
 less candid co-religionists; and this courage none 
 will refuse to applaud. But we may be permitted to 
 deplore that such men, so truthful and generous, 
 should have been equally successful in banishing 
 another kind of fear, more noble and legitimate — 
 
 (t) P. 232. 
 
 (2] The Holy City, vol. II, ch. VI, p. 597.
 
 498 CHAPTER Vlll. 
 
 the fear of Him who has said, « Out of thine own 
 mouth icill I judge thee. » 
 
 And now let us go lo Jerusalem. The project of 
 the King of Prussia, the chief of the Lutheran com- 
 munities, was eagerly adopled hy a Church always 
 striving to make alliance wilh other heretical bodies, 
 and always unsuccessfully. At last she has succeeded. 
 The Church of England — in spite of the unmeaning 
 prolesis of a class who seem to think, like Pilate, 
 that it suflllces to wash their hands in order to secure 
 immunity for acts which they invariably make their 
 own by acquiescence — consented to exercise, alter- 
 nately wilh a Lutheran, the right of nominating a 
 Protestant Bishop at Jerusalem. The present holder 
 of the office is D' Gobat, of whom we heard in 
 Abyssinia. An English biographer, of similar reli- 
 gious opinions, tells us, that « Gobal, far from re- 
 cognising the Church of England as the sole, or even 
 the most scriptural Church upon earth, long declined 
 receiving her ordination. » (1) This writer plainly 
 intimates that he would never have received it at all, 
 but it was the turn of the Establishment lo nominate, 
 and he was obliged to submit. The accounts of the 
 Protestant mission at Jerusalem, and of its results, 
 are so absolutely uniform, with the exception of one 
 or two writers who shall be noticed, that we may 
 call our witnesses at random. The more serious class 
 of Anglicans are ashamed of the whole proceeding, 
 and would be glad to bury it in oblivion : we, how- 
 ever, have no motive for declining to discuss it. 
 
 D"^ Gobat's biographer, who is almost indiscreet 
 
 (1) Evangelical Christendom, vol. I, p. 79.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 499 
 
 in his frankness, reveals ihe secret aim of his party, 
 when he says, — « The Jerusalem episcopale ought 
 to be a Protestant patriarchate. » Let us enquire 
 how far this project has been realised. 
 
 If we take the evidence in chronological order, it 
 will run as follows. In 1841, an English visitor to 
 Jerusalem says, « We went to church at the Consul's, 
 and our congregation amounted to only ten, inclu- 
 ding an American missionary, » and the traveller's 
 own party. « As to the advance of proselytism,» adds 
 the writer, « Mr Nicholaison does not consider more 
 than five converts have been made during the last 
 period of his residence, nine years. » (1) 
 
 In 184-2, an Anglican clergyman still reports the 
 congregation to consist of « the architect, the bish- 
 op's family, with a portion of his household, and 
 two missionaries. » But, on the other hand, this 
 gentleman found about eight-hundred Catholics at 
 Nazareth, « particularly well conducted and habited 
 for the country; indeed the children who attend the 
 school of the monastery were quite cleanly, and 
 spoke Italian with fluency. » (2) And one of the 
 most distinguished of the Anglican clergy remarks 
 of the same mission, where he heard Arab converts 
 sing the chants of the Latin Church, — « there is 
 no church in Palestine where the religious services 
 seem so worthy of the sacredness of the place. » (3) 
 
 In the same year, an American traveller, who 
 
 (t) M>'s Dawson Damer, vol. I, p. 309; vol. II, p. 33. 
 
 (2) Egypt and the Holy Land, by W. Drew Stent, vol. II, 
 ch.ll, p. 44; ch. VI, p. 148. 
 
 (3) Sinai and Palestine, by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, M. A., 
 p. 437.
 
 800 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 omils even to allude lo the « Protestant patriarchate, » 
 as if he had failed to discover it, writes as follows. 
 « Every traveller who has visited Jerusalem must 
 have been struck with the contrast between the in- 
 telligence, wit, and learning of the friars of the Latin 
 Convent, and the besotted and gross ignorance of the 
 Greek monks, whose superstitious fanaticism is but 
 little removed above that of the Mussulmen. » (1) 
 And this is confirmed, with characteristic felicity of 
 language, by the author of Eothen, when he says of 
 the « Padre Superiore, » and the « Padre Mission- 
 ario » of the Jerusalem monastery, — « By the natives 
 of the country, as well as by the rest of the brethren, 
 they are looked upon as superior beings; and rightly 
 too, for nature seems to have crowned them in her 
 own true way. The chief of the Jerusalem convent 
 was a noble creature; his worldly and spiritual 
 authority seemed to have surrounded him, as it 
 were, with a kind of ' Court, ' and the manly grace- 
 fulness of his bearing did honour to the throne which 
 he filled.... If he went out, the Catholics of the place 
 that hovered about the convent, would crowd around 
 him with devout affection, and almost scramble for 
 the blessing which his touch could give. » (2) 
 
 In 1843, IVr Millard arrives at the gloomy convic- 
 tion, « that Jerusalem is of almost all other places 
 the least accessible by Protestant missionary la- 
 bours. » (3) 
 
 In 1844, a witness of a different class appears. 
 
 (1) Tour through Turkey, Greece, etc., by E. Joy Morris, 
 vol. I, ch. VI, p. H6. 
 
 (2) Gh. X. 
 
 (3; Journal of Travels in Egypt, by D. Millard, ch, xvi, p. 262.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. SOI 
 
 The reader may possibly remember ibe Rev. I. Tom- 
 lin, an Anglican minister, who visited China and so 
 many other places, always in submission to « calls » 
 which he had not courage to disobey. M'^ Tomlin 
 says, « the labours of the Protestant Bishop of Jeru- 
 salem have been remarkably blessed of the Lord. » 
 He says it quite seriously, and evidently without 
 forecasting what later witnesses might possibly re- 
 cord on the same subject. M" Tomlin adds, — « the 
 Roman Legions are gone forth, and are fast pre- 
 occupying the ground , » and then he exclaims, as if 
 resenting a personal wrong, — « they covertly creep 
 in by the way which Protestant Britain has open- 
 ed ! » (1) The observation betrays some defect of 
 historical accuracy. There was once a Christian 
 « kingdom of Jerusalem, » as M"" Tomlin might have 
 remembered, which lasted nearly two hundred years; 
 and as Catholic missionaries have now been there 
 for a good many centuries, we may perhaps say, 
 without too much severity, that the notion of their 
 recent and covert arrival under British protection is 
 altogether worthy of M' Tomlin. Protestant Britain 
 has not often been very generous to « the Roman 
 Legions, » and has certainly not hitherto afforded 
 them much assistance at Jerusalem. 
 
 In 184-7, D"" Rae Wilson, who had perhaps not 
 read M^ Tomlin, and was evidently unconscious of 
 being « remarkably blessed » in his solitude, says; 
 « At this time I was the only Protestant in Jerusa- 
 lem. » (2) 
 
 (t) Missionary Journals , etc., Introd. pp. 13, 15. 
 (2) Travels in the Holy Land, etc., cli. xvm, p. 385.
 
 502 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 In the same year, Tischendorff gives this accounl 
 of the operations of the « patriarchate » which 
 D"^ Rae Wilson and M"" Joy Morris failed to discern. 
 « With respect to the baptism of converts in Jerusa- 
 lem, il is, as far as I know, framed to an accommoda- 
 tion with the most modern Judaism. Six thousand 
 piastres (about fifty pounds) are offered to the con- 
 vert as a premium; other advantages are said like- 
 wise to be considerable, » (1) 
 
 In spite of these attractions, the results could 
 hardly be deemed satisfactory; for in the same year 
 Lord Castlereagh expressed this opinion, founded on 
 personal examination. « The progress of conversion, 
 and the interests of Christianity, do not at present 
 seem to require or warrant so large a church estab- 
 lishment as is here maintained. I enquired in vain 
 for any number of converts that could be properly 
 authenticated. » And then he describes once- more 
 the scanty official audience with which we are al- 
 ready familiar; « the bishop has scarcely a congre- 
 gation, besides his chaplains, his doctor, and their 
 families. » (2) 
 
 D"" Gobat, however, did sometimes make a con- 
 vert, as we saw in Abyssinia, in the case of the 
 « noble Abyssinian » Girgis, who abandoned the 
 Anglican tenets for Mahometanism. Here is one more 
 specimen of D' Gobat's success. A certain « Joseph, » 
 was « acknowledged by the missionaries Gobat and 
 Mueller as a sincere convert. » (3) Indeed Admiral 
 
 (1) Travels in the East, by Constantine Tischendorff, p. 159. 
 
 (2) A Journey to Damascus, etc., vol. II, ch. XIX, p. 3. 
 
 (3) Wolff, p. 285.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. SOS 
 
 Slade says, and it is perfectly true, ihal he « figured 
 more than once in the reports of the Bible Society, 
 and has been cited as an instance of the success 
 attending the missionaries labour. » He was even 
 « strongly recommended as one admirably qualified 
 to preach the Gospel among the Arabs. » The qua- 
 lifications of this favorite of the Bible Society were 
 these. D"" Wolff, to whom he gave lessons in Arabic, 
 says that he was « the most infamous hypocrite and 
 impostor I ever met with » : and he had good reason 
 to say it, for this « admirably qualified » missionary 
 broke open l)-^ Wolff's trunk, stole all he possessed, 
 and then ran away. (1) D"" Gobat is evidently not 
 happy in his converts, nor the Bible Society in its 
 heroes. 
 
 In 1848, we have an official account by D-^ Gobat 
 himself. « Our little congregation, » he says, « goes 
 its quiet way. I regret that we have not more spirit- 
 ual life... I believe there is growth in grace with 
 some, and there is less division. » (2) 
 
 In 1852, an English clergyman, who describes the 
 singular use made of « the Bibles and tracts so profuse- 
 ly spread among the eastern nations, » gives this grave 
 account of the converts who had been obtained up to 
 that date. « Their belief is a blank, and their prin- 
 ciples distinctly Anlinomian. I maintain, from ob- 
 servation, that to one class or other of these all the 
 proselytes made to Protestantism in the East belong. 
 They are either worthless persons — or sceptics and 
 infidels. The reports of the Missionary Societies 
 
 (1) Slade, p. 521. 
 
 (2) Marcjolioulh, vol. II, p. 295.
 
 504 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 themselves exhibit the truth of ihese allegations... 
 The work of the Protestant Missions is simply des- 
 tructive; they first make a tabula rasa of minds, on 
 which they never aflerwaids succeed in inscribing 
 the laws of a sincere failh or consistent prac- 
 tice. » (1) 
 
 Two years later, in 1854, the representative of 
 an English missionary society slill confesses of these 
 ambiguous « converts, » that « they have not un- 
 frequently some hidden motive of worldly advan- 
 tage. » (2) M'e shall hear them presently discussing 
 the real motive amongst themselves. 
 
 Admiral Slade, in ihe same year., prepares us for 
 future revelations by this statement. « I will not say 
 that any of them are gained by actual bribery, but 
 they certainly are by promises of employment in 
 the missionary line — promises often not fulfilled, 
 in consequence of which the converts are reduced to 
 distress. » (3) The Rev. Moses Margoliouth, now an 
 Anglican clergyman, incidentally confirms this un- 
 favorable statement. This gentleman, an associate of 
 D' Gobat, while he deplores the exceeding frailty of 
 Hebrew Protestants, does not on that account permit 
 himself to be discouraged. He even derives consola- 
 tion from an unexpected source. « I do not affirm, » 
 he says, « that baptized Jews do not afford instances 
 of consummate rascality. So do the clergy of our 
 beloved Church. » (4) 
 
 In 1855, M"^ Bayard Taylor, an intelligent Amer- 
 
 (1) Patterson, Journal of a Tour in Egypt, p. 455. 
 
 (2) Journal of a Deputation, vol. II, p. 351. 
 
 (3) P. 549. 
 
 (4) A Pilgrimage to the Land of my Fathers, vol. II, p. 334.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. SOS 
 
 ican, relates, that as ihey could not make converts at 
 Jerusalem, Protestant Jews « were brought hither 
 at the expense of English Missionary Societies, for 
 the purpose of forming a Protestant community. » 
 The process was costly, for he adds that « it is esti- 
 mated that each member of the community has cost 
 the Mission about 4,S00 1. : a sum which would 
 have christianized tenfold the number of English 
 heathen. Tbe Mission, however, is kept up by its 
 patrons as a sort of religious luxury. » On the other 
 hand, this gentleman observes; « many others be- 
 sides ourselves have had reason to be thankful for 
 the good offices of the Latin Monks in Palestine. I 
 have never met with a class more kind, coi dial, and 
 genial. » (1) 
 
 « The Latins, » says a German Protestant, — for 
 all the independent witnesses use the same language, 
 — « receive all strangers with the greatest liberality, 
 I mean liberality of sentiment. » It is true this writer 
 adds that Protestants would imitate the hospitality 
 of the Catholic Monks, if they could, for they see 
 with displeasure their co-religionists dwelling as 
 guests within the Latin monasteries; but « a Pro- 
 testant establishment is quite out of the question, » 
 for the following reason. « The several parlies would 
 not easily agree to whom it should belong, whether 
 to the Calvinists, or to the Lutherans, to the Presby- 
 terians, or to the Anglican church. » (2) A little 
 later, however, tbey escaped from their embarass- 
 ment : they could not unite in erecting a monastery 
 
 (1) The Lands of the Saracen, ch. v, p. 78; ch. vi, p. 100. 
 
 (2) Countess Hahn-Hahn, Letter 29.
 
 506 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 or a church, but ihey combined iheir resources and 
 built an hotel. 
 
 In 1857, M"" Gibson repeals a tale which has now 
 become somewhat monotonous. « As yet, few He- 
 brews have been induced here to profess Christian- 
 ity. Some even of these have gone back to Juda- 
 ism, » (1) 
 
 The failure, after twenty years of prodigious ex- 
 penditure, had now become so evident, and people 
 at home were beginning to talk of it so loudly, that 
 the missionaries seem to have resolved that they 
 must make a diversion amongst the Christian sects, 
 rather than continue to do nothing. But there was 
 this difficulty, that they were pledged not to attempt 
 to proselyte the oriental sectaries. Relief came to 
 D'" Gobat in this perplexity from an unexpected 
 quarter. The narrator of the incident is the Rev. 
 D"" Stewart, who tells us, that « Lord Palmerston 
 has authoritatively stated that the bishop has a right 
 to receive those from other communions who apply 
 to him for instructions. » This pontifical decision of 
 the eminent statesman removed, as might be expect- 
 ed, all difficulty — except that of procuring the ap- 
 plicants for instructions. In this Lord Palmerston 
 could not ofl'er them any assistance. They were left, 
 therefore, to their usual methods; and D"^ Stewart 
 suiTiciently indicates what they were, when he ex- 
 presses his regret that « there is no way of making 
 trial of a convert's sincerity before his admission 
 into the institution; » and then frankly allows, that 
 
 (1) Recollections of other Lands, by William Gibson, B. A., 
 ch. xxxviii, p. 40 i.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. SOT 
 
 « the principle of giving support lo every convert I 
 deem faulty. » (1) 
 
 We have perhaps heard enough of the Jerusalem 
 Protestant Mission and its results, but we must not 
 quit the subject without a brief notice of three im- 
 portant witnesses — D"^ Frankl , D'' Robinson, and 
 jVP Williams — a Jew and two Protestants, who 
 have all dwelt in Jerusalem, and who confirm each 
 other's testimony in an unexpected way. 
 
 The first of these writers, whose work has been 
 introduced to English readers by M" Beaton, gives 
 this account. « The Protestants give earnest money, 
 and demoralize families. When a father sternly re- 
 bukes his children, it is not unusual for them to re- 
 ply with the insolent threat, ' I will go to the Mis- 
 sion. ' » He mentions an example of a Jew who had 
 got into difficulties by stealing 2,500 piastres, and 
 who, when his co-religionists « refused to intercede 
 for him, out of revenge went lo the Mission; » but 
 as the thief had still some religious prepossessions, 
 he implored D' Frankl to lend him the sum abstract- 
 ed, « to save him, his wife, aud six children from 
 being baptized! » D"^ Frankl adds, that this case 
 « may serve as an example of the morals and prin- 
 ciples of those who are converted; » and that so 
 little importance is attached to the momentary pro- 
 fession of Protestantism by a Jew, that his family 
 content themselves with observing, « He will soon 
 come back, after he has helped himself. » Indeed we 
 are told by a friend and countryman of D' Gobat, 
 
 (1) A Journey to Syria and Palestine, Ijy Robert Walter Slew- 
 art, D. D., (Leghorn) ch. viii, pp. 294, 303.
 
 508 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 that the Hebrew proselyte, when he has exhausted 
 Protestant benevolence at Jerusalem, « has become 
 more than ever a Jew by the time he has reached 
 Jaffa, Hebron, or Tiberias. » (1) 
 
 D"" Frankl relates also the curious fact that « con- 
 verts » from (he Jews « receive baptism in different 
 cities before they reach Jerusalem, » where they are 
 Anally re-baptized, with a fresh payment for the 
 operation : an account which is confirmed by the 
 amusing authoress of « Travels in Barbary, » who is 
 much defamed by M"^ Margolioulh for presuming to 
 say of one of his Jewish converts, — « This is at 
 least the twentieth time he has been baptized. » 
 And even this was so far from a solitary case, that 
 a Polish Jew remarked to some of his friends, — 
 « Baptism was the only good business we had, and 
 who has spoiled it? The Jews themselves, by un- 
 derselling one another. » (2) 
 
 D"^ Robinson, the author of a well known work on 
 the topography of Jerusalem, conCrms all the other 
 witnesses. « The efforts of the English Mission » he 
 seems to think unworthy of serious notice ; while of 
 his own countrymen, the Americans, he gives the 
 following account. « The house of — » one of the 
 Missionaries — « was large, with marble floors, and 
 had on one side an extensive and pleasant garden, 
 with orange and other fruit trees and many flowers. 
 It furnished indeed one of the most desirable and 
 beautiful residences in the city. » We have been told by 
 the wife of another American missionary, that* many 
 
 (1) Mislin, Les Lieux Suints, tome III, ch. xxvill, p. 65. 
 {'2) The Jews in the East, vol. II, ch. ii, pp. 53, 54.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 809 
 
 are the comforts and pleasant things about this life in 
 the East, » and her countrymen evidently agree with 
 her. Surrounded by so many enjoyments, to which 
 Ihey would probably have aspired in vain in Boston 
 or Philadelphia, we are not surprised to learn from 
 D"^ Robinson, that « the plague and other circum- 
 stances » soon scattered these opulent missionaries, 
 and even a conspired to suspend wholly, for a time, 
 the labours of the American Mission in Jerusalem. » 
 
 There is another class of missionaries whom the 
 plague sometimes kills, but never puts to flight. The 
 Protestant agents, — who would undertake at any 
 moment to teach a St. Francis, a Bonnieux, or a Ric- 
 cadonna, a more « scriptural » and enlightened piely, 
 — prefer to run away when danger knocks at their 
 doors ; and so D"" Robinson relates, as if the precau- 
 tion of his missionary friends was too natural to re- 
 quire any comment, that though on this occasion the 
 plague only acted « mildly, » « the 3Iissionaries broke 
 off their sittings, and those from abroad hastened to 
 depart with their families. » (1) 
 
 It was almost at this moment that the author of a 
 celebrated English book published the following nar- 
 rative. « It was about three months after the time of 
 my leaving Jerusalem, that the Plague set his spotted 
 foot on the Holy Cily. The Monks felt great alarm; 
 they did not shrink from their duly... A single monk 
 was chosen, either by lot, or by some other fair ap- 
 peal to Destiny; being thus singled out, he was to 
 go forth into the plague-stricken city, and to per- 
 form with exactness his priestly duties... He was 
 
 (1) Pages 327, 368.
 
 510 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 provided with a bell, and at a certain hour in the 
 morning he was ordered to ring it, if he could; but 
 if no sound was heard at the appointed time, then 
 his brethren knew that he was either delirious or 
 dead, and another martyr was sent forth to lake his 
 place. In this way twenty-one of the monks were 
 carried off. » (1) 
 
 D"" Robinson, who does not love Catholics, is fain 
 to confess that they do not much resemble his own 
 friends. Of their inflexible constancy, although sur- 
 rounded by every evil example, he gives this in- 
 stance. « The Christians of the Latin rile (native 
 Arabs) are said to be descended from Catholic con- 
 verts in the times of the Crusades. » Centuries have 
 left them unchanged. The Catholic College in Kes- 
 rawan, in which they teach Arabic, Syriac, Latin, 
 and Italian, « takes a higher stand, » he says, « than 
 any other similar establishment in Syria. » What he 
 relates of the Maronites, we shall learn hereafter. 
 The Protestants, he superfluously observes, «-do not 
 exist in Syria as a native sect. » 
 
 Lastly, M"" Williams, a highly respectable Angli- 
 can clergyman, and once a chaplain at Jerusalem, — 
 who, like most of his order, remains wholly unim- 
 pressed even by the lamentable facts which he 
 discloses, — gives us the following information. « It 
 was an unfortunate circumstance for our Church that 
 it was first introduced to the Christians of Jerusalem, 
 in later times, by a Danish Lutheran minister. » The 
 Church of W Williams has usually been introduced 
 by persons of the same class. This one, he says, was 
 
 (1) Eothcn, ch. x.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 511 
 
 admitted « to Orders in the English Church, on 
 grounds of convenience rather than of conviction. » 
 But the Church of England, if she cannot produce 
 missionaries of her own, is wealthy enough to pay 
 for the services of others. « A Church capable of ac- 
 commodating four or five hundred persons was 
 commenced, » M' Williams remarks, « while as yet 
 there were but eight or ten individuals for whom it 
 would be available, and even they were there simply 
 with a view to its construction. » They were, he 
 adds, « the clergyman, the architect and his clerk, 
 the foreman of the works, the carpenter, an apothe- 
 cary, and one other. » (1) For this professional 
 congregation a church was commenced which , 
 D"" Durbin says, « will cost about 150,000 dollars. » 
 M*^ Williams next describes the operations of the 
 gentlemen who minister in this Church. " The ]Mis- 
 sionary operations of the Society's agents have not 
 been such as to exhibit to the Natives an example of 
 earnest zeal for the conversion of the Jews, nor the 
 treatment of the Converts such as to impress them 
 with a favorable idea of their discretion. » He laments 
 the « serious errors and defects in the faith, scanda- 
 lous irregularities and excesses in the practice, of the 
 ill-instructed members of this small congregation. » 
 Finally, he observes, that « self-sacrifice and simple 
 trust were not taught either by precept or example 
 by the Missionaries at Jerusalem. (2) « Yet ]>r Wil- 
 liams has probably no doubt whatever that the system 
 will continue, at the same enormous cost, under the 
 
 (1) The Holy City, pp. 579, 587. 
 
 (2) P. 593.
 
 512 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 direction of the same class of meu, and with precisely 
 the same results. 
 
 This amiahle writer, who records facts but seems 
 never to draw conclusions, describes also « the very 
 unsatisfactory native Protestants » made by4he Amer- 
 icans, — during the intervals of « the plague and 
 other circumstances, » — and gives examples of the 
 class generally. One, an unfortunate Greek apostate, 
 « the most favorable specimen by far, » after being 
 first an Independent, then an Anglican, « had fallen 
 into a state of listless indifference and unconcern 
 which it was most grivous to witness. » A second, a 
 Greek monk, « offered himself to Bishop Gobat as a 
 Protestant convert. » His sole motive was, « that the 
 Patriarch had imposed upon him some discipline to 
 which he did not choose to submit. » Another, « a 
 monk from Mount Lebanon, lold me he v>ished to 
 become a Protestant. ' Why?' ' I want to marry. 
 ' No other reason? ' ' None.' » (1) 
 
 Such, by the testimony of her own clergy, is the 
 history of the Church of England in Jerusalem. It 
 resembles her history everywhere else, but in the 
 Holy City such facts seem to acquire additional gra- 
 vity. Nor is this all. Not only do Protestants fail, in 
 Jerusalem as elsewhere, to propagate their own re- 
 ligious opinions; they appear even to lose, in no 
 small number of cases, whatever sentiment of reli- 
 gion they originally possessed. None but a Catholic 
 can safely visit holy places, much less the scenes 
 where the Son of God passed the years of His human 
 life. « It is useless to deny, » says iM"" Stanley, « that 
 
 (1) Pages 578, 595.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 513 
 
 there is a shock to the religious sentiment in finding 
 ourselves on the actual ground of events which we 
 have been accustomed to regard as transacted in hea- 
 ven rather than on earth. » (1) In other words, only 
 the believer, whose religion is faith and not senti- 
 ment, and who is able to penetrate with unerring 
 glance all symbolical and sacramental veils^, and quick 
 to recognise the Footsteps which the instinct of love 
 alone can detect, may venture to put himself in con- 
 tact with Kebron, Gethsemane, and Calvary. They 
 are death to others. So like do they look to other 
 places, so little do they reveal to the natural eye their 
 stupendous secrets, that many who come to gaze 
 cease even to believe. « The commander of an En- 
 glish man of war told me, »says a writer of our own 
 country, « that he once accompanied a party of 
 twenty from his own ship to Jerusalem, and that, out 
 of that number, seven returned unbelievers, not 
 merely in the authenticity of localities, but iu Christ- 
 ianity itself. » (2) Such is the value of « religious 
 sentiment. » 
 
 And even when the results of their visit are less 
 fatal than this, they are in a vast number of cases 
 sufficiently serious. It is hardly possible to find a 
 Protestant writer, of any country, who does not apply 
 to the Holy Places precisely the same tone of criti- 
 cism in which he would discuss the ruins of Pom- 
 peii, or the fossils of Maine and New Jersey. Indeed 
 he displays, not unfrequently, a far deeper interest 
 in relics of the latter class than of the former, as 
 
 (1) Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 426. 
 
 (2) IVfs Dawson Damer, ch. iv, p. 92.
 
 M4 CHAPTER Vlil. 
 
 well as a more intelligent submission to the testimo- 
 nies of history and science. In Jerusalem he is « scan- 
 dalized » at every step. « The American, » says a 
 Missionary of that nation, « who has been pointed to 
 (sic) Plymouth Rock, Bunker Hill, or Mount Vernon, 
 and yielded to the hallowed impressions of certainty, 
 must beware how he carries the same reverential 
 feelings into the East. »(1) What, he seems to say, 
 are the true sites of the Scourging or the Anointing, 
 compared with Bunker Hill and Plymouth Rock? 
 
 But M"^ Perkins is rivalled by English writers. 
 « The one spot, » says M"" Dawson Borrer, « which 
 arrested more especially my attention, » — in that 
 City which was to him only « a horrid atmosphere 
 of mockery, » — was, not Calvary, nor the Ccenacu- 
 lum, nor the Hall of Judgment ; but a certain « spot,» 
 on which it was probable that a bridge of Jewish 
 construction once existed! » (2) 
 
 Another English traveller, of great repute, the 
 learned D^ Clarke, tells his readers that St. Helena 
 was « the old lady to whose charitable donations 
 these repositories of superstition were principally in- 
 debted; » while of one tradition, referring to the 
 dwelling place of the Holy Family, a subject which 
 only excited his merriment, he briefly remarks, — 
 « A disbelief of the whole mummery seems best 
 suited to the feelings of Protestants. »(3) Perhaps he 
 was right. 
 
 (1) Residence in Persia, etc., by Revd Justin Perkins, p. 275. 
 
 (2) Journey from Naples to Jerusalem, by Dawson Borrer Esq., 
 cli. XXIV, p. 404. 
 
 (3) Travels in Various Countries, by E. D. Clarke, L. L. D., 
 vol. IV, ch. IV, p. 174.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. S15 
 
 It is certain, at least, that most of his co-religion- 
 ists agree with him. « As I toiled up the Mount of 
 Olives, » says a Protestant writer in 185o,« in the 
 very footsteps of Christ, 1 found it utterly impossihle 
 to conceive that the Deity, in human form, had walk- 
 ed there before me. » And so, he adds, « I preferred 
 doubting the tradition. » (1) 
 
 Yet there is perhaps nothing in which all races of 
 men, save only Protestants, are so absolutely of one 
 mind, as in the traditions which relate to the holy 
 sites. « Even the Mussulmans themselves, » as a 
 learned archaeologist observes, « have always been of 
 one mind with the Christians as to the authenticity 
 of our sanctuaries. » (2) « The voice of tradition at 
 Jerusalem, » says the author of Eothen, « is quite 
 unanimous, and Romans, Greeks, Armenians, and 
 Jews, all hating each other sincerely, concur in 
 assigning the same localities to the events told in the 
 Gospel. » 
 
 But there is no admonition in these facts for men 
 who would trace with a puerile enthusiasm the path 
 of some favorite hero or national idol, and even strew 
 it with costly monuments; but who, when it is a 
 question of One who is to them little more than an 
 historical phantom, or at best an object of « religious 
 sentiment, » prefer « doubting the tradition. » 
 « Many Protestants, » says a well known writer 
 already quoted, « look upon all the traditions by 
 which it is attemj)ted to ascertain the holy places 
 of Palestine as utterly fabulous. » (3) The house of 
 
 (1) Bayard Taylor, ch. v, pp. 74., 84. 
 
 (2) La Terre Saiiite, par M. I'abb^ Bourass^, ch. iv, p. 65. 
 
 (3) Eothen, ch. ix.
 
 SI 6 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Shakespeare, the birlh-place of Newton, or the coat 
 of Nelson, are relics which they defend against all 
 comers, for in these they avow a personal interest; 
 but the house of Joseph, the birlh-place of Mary, or 
 the robe of Jesus, — these are only the (heme of a 
 jest, or scouted as « utterly fabulous. » It is worthy 
 of men and philosophers to guard in sumptuous 
 shrines the mementoes of fellow men, who no longer 
 afl'ord nourishment even to worms ; but it is only a 
 feeble superstition which is careful about the des- 
 pised relics which the God-Man, or His Immacu- 
 late Mother, have left on earth. Protestants prefer 
 « doubting the tradition » which relates only to such 
 memorials. 
 
 This method of obliterating importunate traditions 
 which ihey desire only to discredit « meets with 
 much approbation, » we are told, « in speculative 
 Germany; » — where, however, they venerate 
 Luther's inkstand, and other relics of the same value. 
 « I have undertaken, » says a German writer, « to 
 convey to the American missionaries at Jerusalem 
 the pamphlet of a Protestant clergyman, who dis- 
 putes the locality of the Holy Sepulchre, without 
 ever having been at the place. » (1) If he had been 
 there, he would perhaps have disputed the Cruci- 
 fixion. 
 
 Indeed these gentlemen are prepared to dispute 
 any thing. « Even the Via Dolorosa » D"" Robinson 
 gaily remarks, « seems to have been first got up 
 during or after the times of the crusades ; » although, 
 as TischendorfF observes, « the real road along which 
 
 (1) Countess Hahn-Halin, Letter 27.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 617 
 
 Christ walked must have laken this direction. » 
 D"" Rohinson appears in this ease lo have been guilty 
 at least of an anachronism. Half a century ago, 
 people used to accept language of this kind in place 
 of wi(, and many reputations were cheaply gained 
 by such means. The world has grown more exacting, 
 and no longer regards a bad jest as a substitute for 
 modesty, wisdom, and learning. (1) 
 
 « Alas! for the pilgrim, » said the lamented 
 M"" Warburlon, — to whose soul may God giant 
 rest — « who can scoff within the walls of Jerusa- 
 lem ! » But there are men who can do worse than 
 scoff, not only in Jerusalem, but within the precincts 
 of the Holy Sepulchre. In that spot, where Angels 
 tread with fear and awe, but where schismatics jest 
 and harangue, the writer was lately informed by a 
 relative, an Anglican clergyman, that « the only 
 visitors who were not prostrate on their faces were 
 Turks and English Protestants, but that the former 
 were much the more reverent of the tw^o. » And this 
 very reverence at the tomb of Christ, before which 
 the holy women once watched with heavy hearts, 
 
 (1) How different is the temper of Christian failh! « The faith- 
 ful have a special light, over and above tradition, » says one who 
 appears to have been taught by the Holy Ghost, « to keep them 
 right about the sites of the Holy Places. » The same writer observes, 
 « that devotion to the Holy Land is a hidden support to Catholic 
 Kingdoms, — that our Lady prayed that Catholics might always 
 have the sanctuary of Bethlehem in their hands, — that heathen 
 and misbelievers gain temporal blessings from living in the vici- 
 nity of the Holy Places, » — and finally, « that the sins of men 
 have forfeited the peculiar custody of the Holy Places whicii our 
 Lady established. » Maria Agreda, quoted by F. Faber, Bethlehem, 
 oh. vn, p. 382.
 
 518 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 only moves the disdain of the disciples of Lulher and 
 Calvin and Crannier. « I have never seen anything 
 so abject, » says one of them, « as ihe conduct of the 
 pilgrims before the altar in the Calvary chapel. You 
 can scarcely recognise them as men. » (l)To lie 
 prostrate, and to weep, at the tomb of the Saviour, 
 this gentleman deems abject degradation. And this 
 exactly agrees wilh the equally cynical remarks of 
 an Anglican missionary in Ceylon, who once wit- 
 nessed certain ceremonies in a Catholic Church 
 which provoked a similar comment : — « The great 
 events of our Lord's conception, birth, and life; His 
 last agony, trial, death, etc. are all acted as upon a 
 theatre. The poor enthusiasts are pleased and affected 
 at these scenes. » (2) He seems to marvel that ihey 
 did not share his own indifference. 
 
 One effect of the temper displayed, with rare 
 exceptions, by Anglican and American missionaries 
 in the East, is to be traced in the intense scorn and 
 indignation which they have excited amongst the 
 oriental races. Thus the Maronites, we are told, 
 « now confound under the common name of biblicals 
 all who belong to the British nation, and the English 
 tourist can hardly traverse the Libanus without 
 peril.)) 
 
 M"" Farley, however, while he patriotically declares 
 that, without compromising his personal opinions, 
 he enjoyed, in every part of Syria, the most cour- 
 teous and cordial reception both from priesls and 
 people, and that it is the fault of every English tra- 
 
 (1) The Wanderer in Syria, by G. W. Curtis, ch. xi, p. 211. 
 (2 Revd Mr Clough, quoted in Asiatic Journal, vol. I, p. 582.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 519 
 
 veller if he does not experience llie same hospitality, 
 allows that the Americans, whom it was not his 
 business to defend, are universally detested. « This, 
 I think, is to he attributed to the manner in which 
 they speak of everything. Sterne says, ' I hate the 
 man who can travel' from Dan to Beersheba, and 
 say, ' T is all barren ; ' but such is the usual mode of 
 expression with American travellers. The traditions 
 of ages are overturned, and the local prejudices of 
 the people are shocked by the bold and free manner 
 in which they express their thoughts. Kefr Kenna is 
 not the Cana of Galilee; the Grotto of the Annuncia- 
 tion is not the veritable grotto; Mount Tabor is not 
 the Mount of Transfiguration ; the Workshop of 
 Joseph is a myth ; and so on. They would even deny 
 that the Fountain of the Virgin is the true fountain ; 
 but, unfortunately, there is not another fountain in 
 the place. What a pity there is not a fountain at the 
 other end of the town, so as to afford some reason 
 for doubt!.. (1) 
 
 It is creditable to the more enlightened class of 
 protestants, that the excesses of the missionaries are 
 generally corrected by the spontaneous testimony, 
 sometimes by the indignant rebukes, of lay travel- 
 lers. The readers of M"^ Farley's work on Syria will 
 remember the case of « the Rev. John Baillie, 
 Minister of the Free Church of Scotland, .. whose 
 « vulgar and brutal bigotry ». in the monastery of 
 Mount Carmel was repudiated, with such eloquent 
 disgust, by a multitude of English and Scotch tou- 
 rists. But to return to Jerusalem. 
 
 (1) Two Years in Syria, ch. xxxiv.
 
 820 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1 1 is true that ihe Holy Cily is ihe scene of almost 
 daily scandals, ^vhicll dishonour Christianity in the 
 sight of the unheliever; hut this is only another of 
 the bitter fruits of schism. « 11 s'y passait des choses 
 hien plus conveiiables a des salles de spectacles et a 
 des bacchantes qu'a des temples et a des coeurs con- 
 trits. » (1) Yet even these horrors are as nothing to 
 those which were enacted on the same spot eighteen 
 centuries ago, before the same two classes of specta- 
 tors; of whom, then as now, the one « wagged their 
 tongues and shook their heads, » the other « smote 
 their breasts » and went home to weep and pray. 
 
 It is no doubt with regret that France, Austria, 
 and Spain, once the guardians of the Sepulchre of 
 Jesus, look on in silence, and suffer the Russian to 
 pollute by his monks that holy place. « The Greek 
 Easter, » says M"^ Stanley, and here we may agree 
 with him, « is the greatest moral argument against 
 the identity of the spot which it professes to honour 
 — considering the place, the time, and the intention 
 of the professed miracle, it is probably the most 
 oifensive imposture to be found in the world, » (2) 
 But the nations are no longer one, and with division 
 has come feebleness and dishonour. Hence the pre- 
 sence of the Muscovite, the Anglican, and the Calvi- 
 nist in the Holy City — hence the scorn of the iMoslem. 
 « It is much to be deplored, » says M"" Curzon, « that 
 the Emperor of Russia, by his want of principle, 
 has brought the Christian religion into disrepute. » 
 But he is only fulfilling his mission as the head and 
 
 (i) Palestine, etc., par S. Muiik, p. 6i6. 
 (2) P. 464.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 52! 
 
 ponlifF of a « national » church, nor does il concern 
 him to purify this defiled temple. His spiritual sub- 
 jects are only political agents, and both he and they 
 know it. He knows too that the Protestants are his 
 sure allies; that they, like him, would rather see the 
 Turk ruling in Jerusalem than the Frank ; and thai 
 even the « abomination of desolation » is less offen- 
 sive in their sight than the Cross would be, if il were 
 planted again on Mount Sion. 
 
 We have alluded to the influence of Russia in the 
 East, and the selfishness of its aims. It will not be 
 out of place to notice briefly, in this place, her pre- 
 tentions as a missionary church. 
 
 We have seen that in China, in spite of her long 
 residence and advantageous position, she has never 
 even attempted, in a solitary case, to convert a Con- 
 fucian to the religion of Christ. Her agents in Pekin, 
 like her representatives in Jerusalem, are incapable 
 of any nobler mission than that which Russia im- 
 poses upon all her subjects alike, — her own com- 
 mercial or political aggrandisement. « It is quite im- 
 possible, » observes a spiritual writer of our own 
 land, « for true love to co-exist with an un-mission- 
 ary spirit. » (1) Yet Russia, as Schouvaloff observes, 
 « has never produced, since her schism, either a 
 single missionary, or one Sister of Charity who 
 deserves the name. » (2) Not only does she neither 
 possess, nor wish to possess, any missionary organi- 
 zation, — so supremely indifferent is she to all which 
 does not concern Muscovite interests, — but even 
 
 (i) The Creator and the Creature, p. 242, 
 (2) Ma Conversion, etc., p. 361. 
 
 n. "•
 
 522 CHAPTER VIll. 
 
 within her own territories, if the increase and con- 
 solidation of national power can be better promoted 
 by the agency of pagan tribes, she willingly abandons 
 them to heathenism, and prohibits all attempts to 
 convert them. « It is to the Russian Church, » says 
 Theiner, « that we must attribute the disgrace which 
 attaches to Christian Europe, in seeing still in the 
 \9^^ century so many pagans within her bosom. 
 Whole provinces, united during many ages to the 
 Russian Empire, are still filled with Gentiles. » 
 And this strange fact is thus explained by another 
 writer. 
 
 « Not only do the Russian government, and its 
 slave the Synod, remain perfectly indifferent to the 
 sad destiny of so many souls perishing in ignorance; 
 the former even opposes itself systematically and by 
 policy to their conversion to Christianity. The em- 
 peror has formed and taken into his pay several 
 squadrons of cavalry, drawn from the populations 
 of the Caucasus. All these men are Mahometans; 
 they live in the midst of a Christian capital, where 
 they have mosques constructed and ornamented at 
 the expense of the treasury. Many children also from 
 the countries of the Caucasus are brought to St. Pe- 
 tersburg, and there receive a gratuitous education. 
 But it is most rigorously forbidden to admit them 
 to Christian instruction with their companions, or to 
 attendance at their church. » He even adds that 
 « you may often see them weep and lament » at this 
 forced separation from their Christian companions; 
 but the motive is imperious. « These children are 
 destined to return one day to their native country, 
 where their office will be to preach to their (heathen)
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. S23 
 
 compatriots the advantages which they may derive 
 from absolute and irrevocable submission to Russia.* 
 It is supposed they will do this more effectually as 
 pagans than as christians, — therefore, it is forbidden 
 to convert them. « And the ' most Holy and most 
 Orthodox Synod ' has no remonstrance to offer against 
 measures so barbarous! Dominus horum vindex 
 est. » (1) 
 
 But whether Russia forbids the conversion of the 
 heathen, or attempts, for purely political objects, to 
 make proselytes either amongst them or amongst 
 Christian communities, she is always the same. « The 
 Russians, » says Gibbon, » refused a passage to the 
 missionaries of Rome, who aspired to convert the 
 Pagans beyond the Tanais. » And during the last 
 two centuries, down to the present hour, it is by 
 brutal force alone that she is able to bar the way to 
 Catholic apostles. Thousands of Armenians, as we 
 shall see presently, have been converted by living 
 missionaries of the Church, who have assumed the 
 functions which the Russian and Byzantine clergy 
 were too indifferent to perform. But it is in Russia 
 that they have found their chief adversary. The 
 Russian government, solicitous about religious ques- 
 tions only so far as they affect national interests, 
 and eager to mar within its dominions the apostolic 
 works which it has neither the will nor the power 
 to rival, « forbids the priests to give instructions to 
 the Armenians who have passed into its territories, 
 and interdicts the approach of every foreign ecclesi- 
 
 (1) Persecutions et Souffrances de VEglise Catholique en 
 Russie, p, 519.
 
 324 CHAPTER Mil. 
 
 aslic. » (1) And they still pursue this policy of Anti- 
 christ. « The Catholic priests in Trans-Caucasia, » 
 says D"^ Wagner, « are strictly forbidden to make any 
 proselytes. One of the Capuchins informed me, thai 
 if they were allowed free scope, they could convert 
 many hundreds of ihe Pagan and Mohammedan 
 mountaineers. He added, that multiludes of Suan- 
 etians and Abchasiaus, most of whom were genuine 
 heathens, had announced their wish to receive bap- 
 tism iu the convent of Kutais, but they were ordered 
 away; for every priest who endeavours to convert an 
 idolater into a Roman Catholic is threatened with 
 transportation to Siberia, — a specimen of oppression 
 and compulsion that has never been devised by any 
 Potentate before, as far as I know. » (2) 
 
 How the Czar, who thus stands between God and 
 His creatures, has dealt with the Catholics both of 
 Poland and Russia, Gregory XVI reminded Nicholas 
 to his face, when the Pontifl* summoned the Auto- 
 crat, who not long after expired iu a paroxysm of 
 anger and mortiflcation, to meet him before the judg- 
 ment seat of Christ. Yet his successor, untaught by 
 all that has gone before, is walking in his father's 
 steps. 
 
 All writers who have actually examined the oper- 
 ations of the Russian church or government, and the 
 one is only the instrument of the other, appear to be 
 unanimous in their judgement of both. Haxthausen, 
 a friendly witness, notices « le peu de preparation du 
 clerge Russe au role de missionnaire; » (5) and does 
 
 (1) Eugene Bore, tome I, p. 401. 
 
 (2) Travels in Persia, etc., vol. 11, ch. ni, p. 204. 
 
 (3) Etudes sitr la Russie, tome I, ch. xiv, p. 441.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. S25 
 
 nol hesilale to affirm that the slerilily of whal he 
 calls Ihe « Eastern Church, » « is undouhtedly at- 
 tributable to its separation from Rome. » TourgenefF 
 describes the fallen condition of the clergy, and the 
 « haughty disdain » manifested towards them by the 
 upper classes in their own country; (1) by whom 
 they seem to be treated with as little ceremony as 
 Lord Macaulay says was displayed towards Anglican 
 chaplains in the seventeenth century. If a wealthy 
 proprietor, we are told by M. Golovine, himself a 
 Russian priest, ask an Archbishop to make a sa- 
 cristan a priest, « a priest he will be, even though 
 he know not how to write. » (2) And this aristocracy, 
 exercising an influence which such prelates dare not 
 dispute, are too often themselves perfectly indilferent 
 to the religion in whose ministers they recognise only 
 an inferior order of slate police. « Noblesse legere, » 
 says M. Leon Deluzy in 1860, « superficielle, egoiste, 
 corruplrice, et corrompue. » (3) « They show a strong 
 tendency observes an English writer who has lived 
 among them, « to add infidelity to their immoral- 
 ity. » (4) But in Russia, as Madame d'Istria remarks, 
 « la religion est une partie de la consigne militaire, » 
 and under the rule of the Czar even unbelief submits 
 to discipline. « Every one knows, » says M. Golovine, 
 « that the number of unbelievers in Russia contin- 
 ually increases. » M. de Gereblzofl" also notices the 
 « general tendency — enlrainement — to religious 
 
 (1) La Russie et les Russes, tome III, p. 103. 
 
 (2) Memoires d'tm Pretre Russe, par M. Ivan Golovine, cli. x, 
 p. 202. 
 
 (3) La Russie, son Peuple el son Armee, p. /t5. 
 
 (4) Dissertations on the Orthodox Church, p. 293.
 
 526 CHAPTER Mil. 
 
 incredulity, and the unbridled gralificalion of brutal 
 passions, » which began to manifest itself in Russia 
 during the last century ; » (1) and at the present day, 
 while corruption spreads like a gangrene through all 
 ranks, and only a thin varnish of decency covers the 
 universal license, the worst crimes of all are com- 
 mitted in the name of religion, and the titles of « Holy 
 Orthodox Russia » are gravely invoked by men who 
 have ceased even to believe in sanctity, and who 
 might boast more truly than the worst class of 
 French sophists, « Nous sommes les enfants de Vol- 
 taire. » 
 
 Even the so-called « Holy Synod, » — an institution 
 which has superseded all ecclesiastical authority in 
 Russia, and itself is governed, or was not long since, 
 by an aide-de-camp of the Emperor, who was a ca- 
 valry officer and a Protestant, — confesses in a Re- 
 port not destined to be published in Europe, that 
 in 1857 the number of ecclesiastics condemned by 
 the public tribunals was 1 in 24; in 1858, 1 in 25; 
 and in 1859, 1 in 20. During four years, from 1856 
 to 1859, the Synod reports to its imperial master, 
 that 15,445 ecclesiastics, of all grades, or one sixth 
 of the whole number, were under judgment, and 
 that, as the « supreme procurator » adds, for infa- 
 mous crimes. » (2) 
 
 What marvel if such a church and such clergy 
 should fail to convert the healhen, or even to make 
 the attempt? What marvel if in Russia, as in Eng- 
 
 (1) Histoire de la Civilisation en Russie, par Nicolas de Ge- 
 rebtzoff, tome II, cli. xii, p. 519. 
 
 (2) Theiner, ch. vi, p. 138.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. o27 
 
 land, religious earnestness almost always leads to 
 separation from the state church? « It is by religious 
 divisions, « says de Cusline, » that the Russian em- 
 pire will perish ; » (1) and at least one Emperor of 
 Russia appears to have confessed the truth of the 
 statement. « The Russians, » observes M. de Donald, 
 « have a religion entirely composed of words, cere- 
 monies, legends, and abstinences, which is to gen- 
 uine Christianity nearly what the Judaism of the 
 Rabbis, followed by modern Jews, is to the Mosaic 
 worship. » (2) « It is, » says Schnilzler, speaking 
 of their ecclesiastical position, « stationary, withered 
 by the spirit of formalism, and deprived of every 
 principle of liberty. » (3) And if the people of Russia 
 still adhere, sometimes even with fervour, to the 
 profession of Christianity, we cannot doubt that 
 their constancy is due to the veneration which they 
 still pay to the Mother of God, and to that constant 
 habit of invoking her sweet name which has ever 
 been the surest guard of the doctrine of the Incarna- 
 tion. If Russians should ever cease to be devout to 
 our Lady, they will become a nation of deists. 
 
 When we have noticed a few examples of the mode 
 in which « conversions » are made in Russia, we may 
 resume our enquiry in other fields. In 1838, the tribe 
 of the Bouriates, amounting to ISO, 000 souls, after 
 fruitless invitations to embrace tbe Sclavonic uni- 
 formity, decided that, in order to find repose, they 
 would indeed change their religion — but they se- 
 
 (1) La Russie en 1839, Lettre 22, p. 134. 
 
 (2) Legislation Primitive, tome IV, p. 176. 
 
 (3) Histoire Intime de la liussie, Notes, p. 472.
 
 528 CHAPTER Vlll. 
 
 lecled thai of the Grand Lama. Even when ihey are 
 persuaded lo adopt the national profession, it is after 
 the manner descrihcd in the following cases. 
 
 Admiral Wrangell relates of the Tschuklschi, who 
 had all received baptism, « it must be admitted that 
 they are as complete heathens as ever, and have not 
 the slightest idea of the doctrines or the spirit of 
 Christianity. » (1) « The Ossets, of Georgia, » says 
 Lady Shiel, « have been subject to Russia since the 
 lime Georgia was annexed lo thai empire, more than 
 fifty years ago. A portion of the tribe is said to have 
 adopted a sort of nominal Christianity. It appears 
 that, conversion being attended with certain advan- 
 tages, the same proselytes had been repeatedly regis- 
 tered under diflerenl appellations. » (2) The same 
 thing is said lo be true of many of the Tartars, who 
 are atlracted by the present of a pelisse, and « con- 
 verted » in considerable numbers at the approach of 
 winter, but, long before the spring arrives, « have 
 returned lo their gods as before. » Haxthausen, 
 though well disposed towards Russia, says; « The 
 majority of the Ossets are nominally Christians, and 
 belong lo the Greek Church;... they are, in fact, 
 semi-pagans, indeed some are wholly and avowedly 
 heathens. They offer sacrifices of bread and flesh 
 upon altars in sacred groves. » (5) Turnerelli notices 
 the same facts with respect to tribes on the banks of 
 the Volga. « A great part of the Tcheremisse, as 
 well as the Tchouvash, are still Pagans; » while of 
 
 (1) Expedition to the Polar Sea, ch. vi, p. 121. 
 
 (2) Life and Manners in Persia, cli. iv, p. 51. 
 
 (3) Transcaucasia, p. 395.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 529 
 
 the nominal converts he says, « in general, even 
 these remain secretly attached to their ancient cus- 
 toms. » (1) And it has been thus from the beginning 
 of the history of the iMuscovite Church. Laurent 
 Lange, who v^'as sent on a mission from St. Peters- 
 burg to China in 1713, after relating the « conver- 
 sion » of a tribe who were baptized by the order of 
 Prince Gargarin, adds ; « but they have not the slight- 
 est conception of the difference between Christianity 
 and paganism. » (2) 
 
 Lastly, a distinguished English writer notices, in 
 grave and weighty words, that even where every 
 political influence is in her favour, and e\ery motive 
 conspires to stimulate her to religious zeal, or at least 
 to the affectation of it, Russia still remains speech- 
 less and inactive, when it is only the glory of God 
 and the salvation of souls which invite her sympa- 
 thy. The Convent of iMount Sinai, ftp Slanley ob- 
 serves, « is a colony of Christian pastors planted 
 amongst heathens, and hardly a spark of civilisation, 
 or of Christianity, so far as history records, has been 
 imparted to a single tribe or family in that wide wil- 
 derness. It is a colony of Greeks, of Europeans, of 
 ecclesiastics, in one of the most interesting and the 
 most sacred regions of the earth, and hardly a fact, 
 from the lime of their Crst foundation to the present 
 time, has been contributed by ihem to the geography, 
 the geology, or the history of a country, which in all 
 its aspects has been submitted to their investigation 
 
 (1) Kazan, etc., vol. II, ch. iv, p. 155. 
 
 (2) Journal dti Voyage a la Chine, p. 93. Cf. Nouveaux Me- 
 moires de la Moscovie, tome I, p. 193.
 
 530 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 for thirteen centuries. » (1) It is not surprising that 
 such an ohserver as j>r Stanley should have delected, 
 and frankly proclaimed, « the superiority of the Latin 
 to the Greek monastic orders. » (2) 
 
 Enough, then, of Russia and her « Holy Synod » 
 as a missionary power. The Russian Church, which 
 resembles the Anglican in its sterility and in its sub- 
 jection to the civil authority, diflfei's from it in this; 
 that whereas the latter attempts, sometimes sincere- 
 ly and religiously, to make Christians, the former 
 only seeks to make Russians. They equally fail, but 
 the one in result only, not in intention; the other in 
 both. 
 
 If now, after this long digression, we resume our 
 journey in Palestine, and leaving the Holy City be- 
 hind set our faces towards the north, we shall come 
 to the forests and mountains of Lebanon. Here con- 
 solation awaits us and refreshment. Here we shall 
 find a nation profoundly Catholic both in its social 
 and religious life, contrasting in every feature with 
 the less privileged tribes of the East, constant in the 
 faith, stedfast in filial devotion to the Holy See, and 
 recompensed by a generous Providence with gifts 
 and qualities which have not only merited the bene- 
 dictions of the Church, but extorted the admiration 
 of her enemies. 
 
 When we consider the position of the Maroniles, 
 surrounded on all sides by Mahometans, idolaters, 
 or heretics ; exposed to every evil influence which 
 has gradually corrupted the other christian natives 
 
 (1) Sinai and Palestine, p. 56. 
 
 (2) Ibid., p. 346.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 531 
 
 of this land; weak, except by the nature of their 
 country; owing all their security to their own va- 
 lour, all their prosperity to their patient and cheer- 
 ful industry ; we are tempted to ask in surprise, by 
 what mystery have they alone preserved through 
 ages the dignity of character, the purity and simpli- 
 city of life, which even the most prejudiced travel- 
 lers agree in ascribing to this favoured race? The 
 answer, which we need not anticipate, will be suf- 
 ficiently revealed in the evidence which we are about 
 to produce. 
 
 We have not hitherto had recourse to Catholic 
 testimony in proving the contrast which it is the 
 main object of these volumes to trace, both because 
 the controversial value of such testimony would be 
 insigniOcant, and because Providence, as we have 
 several times observed, has forced Proteslants to 
 collect everywhere and to publish to the world, all 
 the facts which illustrate that contrast. We shall 
 adhere to our rule in this case also, though it would 
 be pleasant to quote some few at least of the magni- 
 ficent eulogies which eminent writers have pronoun- 
 ced on the Maronite nation, the nobility of their cha- 
 racter, and the unswerving constancy of their faith. 
 Let us claim, for the first time, this indulgence. 
 
 « In spite of their great numbers, » says M. Achille 
 Laurent, — they are estimated by the French con- 
 sular agents at 512,500 in the Libanus, and 30,000 
 in the plain, (1) « and though surrounded on every 
 side by infidels, heretics, and schismatics, never, in 
 relation to the faith, has the least difference been 
 
 (1) De Baudicour, ch. vi, p. 24G.
 
 532 CHAPTER Vlll. 
 
 known amongst them ; never has any schism disturb- 
 ed their unity; never has one individual amongst 
 them corrupted the purity of the Catholic doc- 
 trine. » (1) « This Catholic colony, » says M. Jules 
 David, « seems to recall by its charity, by the sim- 
 plicity of its manners, by its smiling industry and 
 community of labour, the primitive Christian society; 
 a society of united and active brothers, a society of 
 equality before God, a veritable communion of which 
 the Church is the sublime centre. » (2) Lastly, — 
 for we may not linger even over testimonies which 
 are like music to the ear, — an apostolic missionary, 
 one of that noble band of discalced Carmelites who 
 have dared to imitate their Lord in His utter poverty, 
 gives this account of them, in 18o8. After describing 
 their various neighbours, — the barbarous Moslem, 
 the pastoral Turcomans, the reckless Ansayrii, the 
 false and hypocritical Druses, the haughty iMetualis, 
 — disciples of the anti-caliph Ali, « of whom it 
 would be difficult to say whether they hate a Christ- 
 ian or a Turk the most » — and lastly, the schis- 
 malical Greeks, « the ignorance of whose priests is 
 only equalled by the moral degradation of the peo- 
 ple, » he continues as follows. « We come now to 
 the Maronites. The heart has been dried up and the 
 soul saddened by the confused disorder of idolatry 
 and schism. It is now our turn to rejoice. The ardent 
 faith of primitive Christianity, its sweet piety, inno- 
 cence, and simplicity of manners, is found repro- 
 duced amongst the Maronites. They appear like a 
 
 (1) Relation Historique des Affaires de Syrie, tome I, p. 403. 
 
 (2) Sjjrie Moderne, p. 2t.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 533 
 
 people fresh from the hand of ihe Creator, or from 
 the regenerating hath of llie Baptism of Jesus. Oh, 
 blessed people ! how great are you in your oppres- 
 sion ! how rich in your poverty! » (1) 
 
 It is not thus, of course, that Protestants speak of 
 them , for they have attempted to creep into this 
 Paradise and have been somewhat rudely ejected; 
 but (heir language, though tinged with resentment 
 and mortiflcalion, abundantly confirms the reports of 
 more impartial witnesses, 
 
 « The Maronites, »says Colonel Churchill — who 
 does not share the petty passions of the Protestant 
 missionaries, « are slill the ' fideles ' who welcomed 
 Godfrey de Bouillon and his associates. » (2) While 
 all has changed around them, centuries have left them 
 unchanged. They are « the slanchest Romanists in the 
 world, » says the Rev. M'' Williams — which only 
 means, that they resemble true Catholics everywhere. 
 « So bigoted is this Romanist sect, » says iM"" Drew 
 Stent, « that very little can be effected » — that is, 
 they spurned the heresies of Anglican and Calvinist 
 teachers, and stoned the false prophets who tried to 
 find an entrance amongst them. « The missionaries,)) 
 says M"^ Worlabet, alluding to the Protestant emis- 
 saries, « had to retire before pelting stones, and an 
 angry mob. » « They were driven out, » says 
 M"" Walpole, « by the fanatic population, and I do 
 not believe they ever procured the satisfaction they 
 ought. The Maronites are very proud of the victory. » 
 
 (1) Annals, vol. XIX, p. 271. 
 
 (2) Mount Lebanon, by Colonel Churchill, vol. Ill, ch. vi, 
 p. 6G.
 
 534 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 He confesses, however, in spite of wounded sym- 
 pathies, that « the attempt was worse than folly. » 
 And so purely spontaneous was the popular move- 
 ment which expelled the foreign teachers, — because 
 they came, with money in their hands, blaspheming 
 the Mother of God, the Sacrament of the Altar, and 
 the Communion of Saints, — so wholly independent 
 of any political or ecclesiastical influence, that a Pro- 
 testant association confesses, in 18o4, that « a strong 
 proclamation came out from the Maronite and Greek 
 Catholic Bishops at Beirut to all their people, requi- 
 ring them to guard carefully and protect all the mem- 
 bers of the American Mission. » (1) 
 
 Let us hear other witnesses. « They are most 
 bigoted adherents of the Papacy, » observes one wri- 
 ter, « allowing not merely the claims of his Holiness 
 as Head of their Church, to dictate their creed, but 
 submitting also to his paternal government in matters 
 of discipline. »(2)« The Maronites, » says D"" Robin- 
 son, — and all Protestant writers use the same lan- 
 guage, — « are characterised by an almost unequalled 
 devotion to the see of Rome. » They have lately con- 
 verted, he adds, two Emirs of the Druses, together 
 with their families, « so that now almost all the 
 highest nobility of the mountain are Maronites. » (3) 
 
 This may suffice. No one will deny, in the face of 
 such testimony, that the Maronites are devoted Cath- 
 olics. But perhaps they are servile, ignorant, and 
 priest-ridden? The Rev. J. L. Porter, of whom we 
 
 (1) American Board for Foreign Missions, Reports, p. 110. 
 (1854). 
 
 (2) North American Review, vol. LXXXI, p. 78. 
 
 (3) Biblical Researches, etc., p. 4.60.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC, 53S 
 
 heard at Damascus, and who had to avenge both his 
 personal misadventures and those of his colleagues, 
 says with emphasis; « They are as ignorant a set of 
 priest-ridden bigots as ever polluted a country, and 
 no stranger » — he means no Protestant missionary 
 — « can pass through their streets without meeting 
 insult, and often abuse... they are as tyrannical, as 
 unjust, and almost as bloodthirsty, as the haughty 
 Moslems. » (1) We have said that it only English 
 and American missionaries, but chiefly the former, 
 who soothe their mortiflcation by outbursts of this 
 kind ; and as it is quite true that the Maronite nation 
 owes it character, habits, and institutions solely to 
 the influence of the Catholic religion, it may be well 
 to compare M"" Porter's account of them with that of 
 other Protestants, not less prejudiced, but having 
 more respect for truth, for themselves, and for their 
 readers. 
 
 « They are, » says Colonel Churchill, in 18S3, « a 
 community of Christians who are virtually as free 
 and independent as any state in Christendom.)) (2) 
 
 « They are, » exclaims M"" Bayard Taylor, in 
 1855, « the most thrifty, industrious, honest, and 
 happy people in Syria. » « The women, )) he adds, 
 « are beautiful, with sprightly, intelligent faces, 
 quite different from the stupid Mahometan females; )> 
 and their home « is a mountain paradise, inhabited by 
 a people so kind and simple-hearted, that assuredly 
 no vengeful angel will ever drive them out with his 
 flaming sword. )> (5) 
 
 (1) Five Years in Damascus , vol. I, ch. xvi, p. 279. 
 
 (2) Mount Lebanon. 
 
 (3) The Lands of the Saracen, cli. xii, p. 174.
 
 S36 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 « They are, » writes the Countess Hahn-Hahn, 
 « that industrious band of Christians who have 
 adorned these mountains with cornfields and vine- 
 yards, with villages and convents. » (1) 
 
 Thus speak an English , an American , and a 
 German Protestant. Let us confirm iheir testimony 
 by other witnesses. M"^ Farley has told us that their 
 kindness and hospitality, even to Protestant travel- 
 lers, were so universal, until they were irritated by 
 the selfish intrigues and impertinent bigotry of mis- 
 sionaries whom they would liave been content to des- 
 pise if they had not been constrained to abhor them, 
 that any Englishman was sure of a cordial welcome 
 amongst them, and that he could never forget the 
 « extreme courtesy » of the Maronite clergy towards 
 himself. 
 
 M" Monro, an intelligent Anglican clergyman, who 
 had the good sense not to insult his hosts, and bad 
 no personal motive for libelling them, not only con- 
 trasts their frank hospitality with the suspicious ex- 
 clusiveness of other Syrian races, but adds; « The 
 kind manners and energetic carriage of these people 
 afforded a striking instance that where industry pre- 
 vails, the flowers of happiness will blossom, and 
 abundance ever be the fruit. » (2) 
 
 IVP Walpole, in spile of strong religious antipathies, 
 declares that their valour is as conspicuous as their 
 industry. « The Maronites rose against their oppres- 
 sors, the Meluali, and drove them fairly out of the 
 
 (1) Countess Hahn-Hahn, Letter 21 . 
 (2; Travels in Syria, by the Rev^ Vere Monro, vol. II, 
 ch. XXIV, p. 107.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. S3T 
 
 dislrict... The Meluali have a high character for 
 warriors and courage. This shows what the Catholic 
 population might become if united. » The general 
 prosperity, he says, was so remarkable, that « it 
 exhibited a scene which made one feel proud that at 
 last the Christian dared improve. » He observes also, 
 that the family of Sheebal, descended from Mahomet, 
 had just been converted, and adopted into the Ma- 
 ronile nation. (1) 
 
 M"" Keating Kelly cannot speak of them without 
 enthusiasm. « The condition of this people is essen- 
 tially happy. Its religion is free and respected; its 
 churches and its convents crown the summits of its 
 hills; its bells that sound in its ears as a welcome 
 token of liberty and independence, peal iheir summons 
 to pray night and day ; it is governed by its own he- 
 reditary chieftains and by the clergy it loves ; a strict 
 but equilable system of police preserves order and 
 security in the villages; property is respected and 
 transmitted from father to son; commerce is active; 
 the manners of the people perfectly simple mid pure. 
 Rarely is there seen a population whose appearance 
 more bespeaks health, native nobility, and civilisation, 
 than that of these men of Lebanon. »(2) 
 
 Lastly, even a Syrian Greek, who cordially hates 
 both their religion and iheir nation, and who seems 
 by converse with English Protestants to have become 
 indiflferent to his own religion without adopting 
 theirs, makes the following confession. « They are 
 
 (1) The Ansayrii, with Travels in the Further East, vol. Ill, 
 ch. I, p. 7 ; ch. xviii, p. 434. 
 
 (2) Syria and the Holy Land, by Walter Keating Kelly, ch. vill, 
 p. 97.
 
 538 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 a most industrious, contented, happy people... and 
 so manly and courageous that, until the year 1845, 
 they had never been conquered by the Mahometans;*) 
 and then he adds the most magnificent eulogy which 
 it was possible to pronounce upon a Christian peo- 
 ple, that, « owing to the influence of the Bishops, 
 crime is in a great measure unknown amongst the 
 Maronites. »(]) 
 
 In reading these impressive testimonies, from wri- 
 ters of various creeds and nations, to the virtues of 
 a Catholic people, we have ahnost forgotten M"" Por- 
 ter. Let us quote him once more, for the sake of add- 
 ing a new example of the language in which passion 
 finds vent while reason is mute, and of the class of 
 agents whom Protestantism sends forth into every 
 land, but only to augment everywhere the repugnance 
 which is entertained, by all races of men, towards 
 England and her representatives. 
 
 The Maronite clergy, M"" Porter says, « are igno- 
 rant, bigoted, and overbearing, » and their religion 
 « senseless mummery. » It is of the Syrian clergy, 
 professors of the same faith, that a more enlightened 
 English Protestant says ; « It is a sublime spectacle 
 to contemplate these men devoting themselves to deeds 
 of charity and mercy, and welcoming a long martyr- 
 dom for conviction's sake. » (2) « I can imagine St. Ba- 
 sil the Great, » says another educated Englishman, 
 « or the Gregories, just such persons in appear- 
 ance. »(3) « If Titian were about to paint a Doge of 
 
 (1) The Thistle and the Cedar of Lebanon, by Risk Allaii 
 Effendi, cli. xvi, pp. 269, 273. 
 
 (2) Farley, Two Years in Syria, ch. xxxiv, p. 291 
 
 (3) Patterson, p. 322.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 539 
 
 Venice, » says an accomplished French traveller, 
 speaking of the Maronite Patriarch of Cilicia, « he 
 would ask for no other model. » (1) Even M*" Porter, 
 in an access of involuntary admiration, confesses 
 « their staid dignily and noble bearing. ))(2) 
 
 But M"" Porter speedily resumes his usual tone. 
 « The education of the people, » he observes, « they 
 never think of; » and as if even this statement 
 admitted of improvement, he adds, « the idea of 
 imparting religious instruction is quite out of the 
 question. » Presently, as if the accounts of other 
 Protestant travellers suddenly occurred to him, and 
 suggested the necessity of caution, he says; « It is 
 true a few schools have been established, but these 
 are got up by the people » — who, although « igno- 
 rant, bigoted, bloodthirsty, and polluters of the soil, » 
 he now represents as going beyond their pastors, to 
 whom he declares they are slavishly subject, in pro- 
 moting education. 
 
 Yet M*" Ubicini has told us, that in every province 
 of Asiatic Turkey, Catholic schools are multiplying 
 in all directions, and are eagerly frequented by child- 
 ren of all sects. D"" Robinson declares of the Maronite 
 college of Kesrawan, in which the Jesuits teach 
 Arabic, Syriac, Latin, and Italian, « that it takes a 
 higher stand than any other similar establishment in 
 Syria. » M"^ Farley speaks in the same terms of the 
 Lazarist college at Antoura, « where some hundreds 
 of students, who come from Beyrout, Aleppo, Da- 
 mascus, and other towns in Syria, as also from 
 
 (1) La Stjrie avant 1860, par Georges dc Salverte, ch. vni, 
 p. 100. 
 
 (2) Vol. II, ch. XVI, p. 296.
 
 •540 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Persia, Egypt, and even from Nubia and Abyssinia, 
 are taught, » in addition to « the usual branches of 
 education, » « the Arabic, French, Italian, and Latin 
 languages. » M. de Salverte reports, in 1861, that 
 the ecclesiastical seminary at Ghazir, in which he 
 found ninety students, is so efficient, that its excel- 
 lence dispenses them from seeking education in the 
 colleges of Rome. (1) J>r Wellsted relates, that even 
 in Alep|)0, « most of the children can read and write 
 at an early age. (2) And lastly. Risk Allah, though 
 he affects, in order to please his English readers, to 
 deplore what he has learned to call the « Romish 
 tendencies » of the Maroniles, honestly confesses that 
 « their schools are really excellent; » and whereas 
 the Protestant missionary affirms that the Maronite 
 clergy « never think of education, » this Syrian 
 Greek avows, in spite of national and religious anti- 
 pathies, that « one great advantage which the Maro- 
 nites possess, and which must eventually prove very 
 beneficial to them , is the fact , that education in 
 spreading universally amongst them. » (3) 
 
 But in all this there is no lesson for M"" Porter. 
 He had a defeat to avenge, and after five years of 
 unprofitable labour had convinced even himself, that 
 it was lime to quit Syria. And so in his anger he for- 
 got prudence as well as truth. Education is so liter- 
 ally universal among the Maronites, though their 
 clergy « never think of it, » that whereas, in the 
 words of the late M"" Warburton, « there is not an 
 
 (1) Ch. VIII, p. 96. 
 
 (2) Travels, etc , by J. R. Wellsted Esp., F. R. S., vol. II, 
 ch. V, p. 91. 
 
 (3) Ch. XYI, p. 270.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 541 
 
 Egyptian woman \vho can read and write, exccpl a 
 daughter of Meheniel Ali, and the few who have heen 
 educated in the school of M"^ Lieder, the Maronite 
 women of the Lehanon, though of the same Arah 
 race, are generally instructed. » (1) « Education, » 
 says M"" Kelly, « though limited to reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, and the catechism, » — we have seen 
 that for the class above the peasants the course 
 includes Arabic, Syriac, Latin, French, and Italian, 
 — « is universal among them, and gives them a 
 deserved superiority over the other tribes of 
 Syria. » (2) Whether such an amount of education 
 can be said to be « universal » in England, we need 
 not stay to enquire. 
 
 But M"" Porter had still something to add. It was 
 possible to clothe his enmity in still more impressive 
 language. The Maronites, like all the Oriental tribes, 
 severely exacting in their estimate of a Christian 
 apostle, had rejected him and his companions, with 
 an energy proportioned to the ardour of their faith, 
 as ministers of the Evil one. M"" Porter repays the 
 indignity with the following announcement, in which 
 he appears to have uttered his last farewell to Syria 
 and the Syrian mission. «The protestant missionaries 
 have done more for the advancement of education 
 within the short period of twenty years than the 
 combined priesthood of all Lebanon and all Syria 
 has done during centuries. » It is our turn to bid 
 farewell to M-" Porter, to whom we have perhaps 
 given an undue share of attention, and we cannot do 
 
 (1) The Crescent and the Cross, vol. I, ch. xi, p. 100. 
 
 (2) Ubi supra.
 
 S4"2 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SO more filly than in the words of his co-religionisls. 
 
 From Mr Williams, himself a proleslanl minisler, 
 we have learnetl, on the one hand, thai the Protestant 
 missionaries in Syria « are merely playing at Mis- 
 sions, » and thai « self-sacrifice and simple trust » 
 are not to be learned from their example ; and on the 
 other, that the Catholic Church has sent to this land 
 « the best instructed and most devoted missionaries 
 that the world has seen since primitive limes. » 
 D"^ Southgate, a Protestant bishop, has assured us 
 that the rare discij)les of M"^ Porter and his colleagues 
 « are infidels and radicals unworthy of the sympathy 
 of the Chrislian public; » and Sir Adolphus Slade 
 has added, that many of the missionaries ihemselves, 
 who have « done more for education, » though they 
 have neither schools nor scholars, than all the Ca- 
 tholic clergy for centuries, «know absolutely no other 
 than their moilier tongue. » 
 
 Finally, the same Proteslant writer, long resident 
 in Syria, conversant during many years with all 
 which has occurred in that land, and full of admira- 
 tion of the apostolic men by whom, as he observes, 
 « millions of souls have been saved » in these regions, 
 lends us the following appropriate words with which 
 to take leave of M' Porter. « Proteslant missionaryism 
 is much exiolled; it certainly costs a great deal; but 
 the good it may efi"ect is as a drop of water, com- 
 pared with the sea of benefits spread by the Roman 
 Catholic Church, silently and unostentatiously, all 
 over Turkey. » (1) 
 
 It is time to quit the mountains and valleys of 
 
 (i) Turkey, Greece, mid Malta, vol. II, cli. XX, p. 423.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 543 
 
 Lebanon, where we have found, in the hearl of a 
 land long abandoned lo every error and impiety, a 
 picture which a Christian may well love to contem- 
 plate. On the one hand, deep religious conviction, 
 unshaken through ages, and that instinctive horror of 
 heresy which is one of the surest signs of election ; 
 on the other, as even enemies allow, valour, dignity, 
 purity, gentleness, industry, prosperity, and peace. 
 Such, by protestant testimony, is the influence of the 
 Catholic religion upon generous natures, penetrated 
 by its healing power, and such its results even 
 amongst a people of Arab origin, though surrounded 
 by races and tribes with whom faith is a dream, and 
 virtue a jest. 
 
 It is characteristic of ihat singular form of religion 
 which seems instinctively to prefer crime and igno- 
 rance in union with heresy to virtue and enlight- 
 enment in connection wilh the Church, that (he only 
 reflection suggested to another episcopalian clergy- 
 man, of the same class as M"^ Porter, by the contrast 
 which we have just delineated, found expression in 
 these words. « How sad, » exclaims the Rev. George 
 Fisk, « that Popery should taint even the remains of 
 the glory of Lebanon ! » Greeks and Armenians, sunk 
 in mental and moral decrepitude, M"" Fisk would 
 embrace with love, because, as he seriously observes, 
 they hold « the great leading truths of the Gospel; » 
 and though « in many respects superstilious, and 
 manifestly corrupt, » they have this merit, which 
 amply supplies the want of every other, that « they 
 have never merged in the apostasy of Rome. » (1) 
 
 (1) A Pastor's Memorial, ch. ix, pp. 398, 400, 410.
 
 844 CHAPTER Vlll. 
 
 M"" Fisk has apparently not read, or perhaps for- 
 gotten, the testimonies of Protestant writers, \s'ho 
 declare — as we have already heard and shall hear 
 again presently — that the only Greeks and Armeni- 
 ans who deserve the name of intelligent or consist- 
 ent Christians are precisely those who have deri- 
 ved new life from reconciliation with the Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 Allusion has heen made to the Druses, the implaca- 
 ble and hereditary foes of the Marouites. If we add 
 a few words with respect to the former, it is only for 
 the sake of noticing the characteristic relations of the 
 Protestant missionaries with them. Banished by the 
 Maronites, with every maik of contempt and disgust, 
 they look refuge among their hostile neighbours, and 
 endeavoured to make alliance with them. The infamy 
 of their character, and their indifference to any form 
 of religion, was no impediment to the negotiations 
 which now ensued. To protestantise the Druses, and 
 to vex the Maronites, would be a double triumph; 
 but it was one which they were not destined to 
 enjoy. « The Druses, » said D"" Yates, with great 
 confidence, « will unite with the Protestant Christ- 
 ians, and the power of the Osmanlis will cease. » (1) 
 ]\P Fremantle, an Anglican clergyman, was of opin- 
 ion that they would become « independent Episcopa- 
 lians; » and as if this were not enough to stimulate 
 the hopes of his co-religionisls at home, he gravely 
 added, — in a report which was actually published 
 by lhe« Society for Promoting Christian knowledge,* 
 — that « they desire to be united to the English 
 
 (1) Modern History ofEytjpt, vol. II, ch. iv, p. 158.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 545 
 
 Church. » (i) Whether M"" Fremanlle really be- 
 lieved this, we need not question. The Druses, as 
 M"" Chasseaud observed in 1855, are unscrupulous 
 hypocriles, and will affect to be of the religion of any 
 society in which they happen to find themselves. (2) 
 They pretend, says M"" Paton, to be Mahoniclans 
 when it suits them. (3) All European writers agree 
 in describing them as impious, false, and blood- 
 thirsty. D"" Clarke says, « some among them cer- 
 tainly offer their highest adoration to a calf. » (4-) 
 Risk Allah declares, apparently from his own obser- 
 vation, that « while they profess to be Mahommedans, 
 they have no hesitation whatever in denouncing 
 Mahommed as a false prophet; » and he adds, that 
 the Druses, like the Kurds, have formed such an 
 estimate of the creed of « English Protestants » as to 
 assert, « that their religion is a species of free-ma- 
 sonry, which very much resembles their own; » and 
 one of their leaders assured him that « a tall English 
 emir » had told him so. (5) 
 
 How surely these atheists of Syria reckoned upon 
 the sympathy of « English Protestants, » and how 
 much reason they had for doing so, is sufficiently re- 
 vealed in the comments made by the latter upon the 
 Turco-Druse insurrection of 1860. All their apolo- 
 gies are for the Druses, all their sarcasms for the 
 Maronites. « The Maronites are mere savages, » says 
 
 (1) The Eastern Churches, pp. 44, 49. 
 
 (2) The Druses of the Lebanon, by George Wasliinglon Chas- 
 seaud. 
 
 (3) Modern Syrians , p. 309. 
 
 (4) Clarke's Travels, vol. IV, p. 136. 
 
 (5) Ubi supra, p. 292. 
 
 11. «*•
 
 546 CHAPTER Vlll. 
 
 one of ihe ablest organs of intellectual Protestantism ; 
 and as if this were not venturesome enough, he 
 gravely adds, that until « the hour of their triumph 
 the conduct of the Druses had been unimpeach- 
 able! » (1) It is but a new version of the old cry, 
 non hunc sed Barabbam. The worshippers of a calf 
 are preferred before the disciples of the Cross; and 
 the latter, though travellers of all sects confess with 
 enlhusiasm their nobility and virtue, are perempto- 
 rily described, by that instinct of hale which can cor- 
 rupt even genius into imbecility, as « mere savages. » 
 An equally eminent authority observes , that 
 « the great Druse Chief Mohamed En-Nasar, the 
 instigator of these butcheries, counted on English 
 support, and therefore it need not be added on an 
 English reward. » (2) His calculation has been 
 abundantly justified. « The Druses, » observes a 
 traveller who has lived amongst them, « seek refuge 
 in the arms of England, because they know that 
 every other nation of Europe has judged and con- 
 demned them ; » (3) while another relates that he 
 heard an Englishman say to a Maronite sheik, that 
 England gave her support to the Druses solely in 
 order to counterbalance the influence of France 
 with the Christians. « You admit, then, » replied 
 the Maronite chief, « that as soon as France begins 
 to labour for God, England takes up arms for the 
 devil. » (4) 
 
 (1) Saturday Review, April 20, 1861. 
 
 (2) The Times, September 1, 1860. 
 
 (3) La Verite sur la Syrie, par Baptistin Poujoulat, Letlre 43, 
 p. 489. 
 
 (4) Mislin, Lcs Lieux Saints, tone I, ch. vi, p. 156.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 547 
 
 I) appears, however, that in spile of the avowed 
 sympathy and alliance between the Druses and the 
 English, the former only amused themselves at 
 ]\r Freman lie's expense when they encouraged his 
 cheerful expectations; for iM"" Walpole tells us, — 
 eleven years afler thai gentleman's sanguine predic- 
 tion, — « With the Druses the Protestant iMission- 
 aries have made, I believe, no progress. » They are 
 not yet aftiliated to the « English Church, » nor is 
 there any immediate promise of that event. « Many 
 professed ihemselves converts, » says M"" Walpole, 
 « but directly the minister refused them some re- 
 quest, turned round and said ; We w ill listen to you 
 as long as you pay us. » (1) This was iheir view 
 of the value of Protestantism. 
 
 These are not the only operations of Proleslauls 
 in the Lebanon, though precisely the same result has 
 allended all their efforts. We have heard of the two 
 « designing brothers » who went to Malta, and 
 « agreed to be baptized » on condition of receiving 
 some hundred pounds. Others have imitated these 
 neophytes of the Lebanon with still greater success. 
 D'^ Carne relates the story of « the noted Eusebius, 
 bishop of Mount Lebanon, » who far surpassed, as 
 became his more elevated rank, the performances of 
 his ingenuous flock. This Greek prelate « was chap- 
 eroned through many of the colleges at Oxford by 
 one of the Masters. » In such society his anti-Roman 
 views made him a welcome guest; but the crafty 
 oriental was only speculating on the inexhaustible 
 credulity of his sympathising hosts, by which he and 
 
 (1) The Ansaijrii, ch. xvi, p. 350.
 
 5i8 CHAPTER Vlll. 
 
 bis class have so oflen profited. Eusebius obtained, 
 says D"" Carne, « a capital printing press, and about 
 800 1. in money. When we were at Sidon, we found 
 that this eastern dignitary was living in a style of 
 excessive comfort, and to his heart's content, at a few 
 hours distance. With this money, which was a for- 
 tune in the East, he has purchased a good house and 
 garden ; not one farthing has ever gone to renovate 
 the condition of the Christians of the East, and the 
 printing press, or some fragments of it, were known 
 to have found their way to Alexandria. » (1) Oxford 
 should have learned by this time to mistrust pseudo- 
 converts, especially when they come from the East. 
 
 We may now take our departure from Syria, in 
 order to pursue in Armenia the investigations which 
 we have almost completed. It is in the latter province 
 that the Protestant emissaries from America boast 
 to have obtained the greatest numerical results, and 
 are at this moment engaged in operations which de- 
 serve particular attention. But we must first say a 
 few words on Catholic Missions to the Armenians. 
 
 Nearly twenty years ago D"" Joseph ^\'olff announ- 
 ced to Europe, that « about sixty thousand Armenians 
 have joined the Church of Rome. » (2) Since that 
 date, the great movement of reconciliation among the 
 Armenian nation has steadily progressed; and it may 
 be said without exaggeration that, at the present 
 time, hardly a week elapses w ithout a fresh instance 
 of conversions, often on a large scale, and all attest- 
 ing the wonderful restoration of this people to unity. 
 
 (1) Letters from the East, vol. II, p. 115. 
 
 (2) Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara, ch. ui, p. 114.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 549 
 
 Aud tliis remarkable fact is perpelually recurring, 
 ill spite of thai « strong national bond » which, as 
 Ilaxthausen notices, assimilates the Armenians to 
 the Jews, « whose nationality no human power can 
 destroy, » and which knits them all into one tribe 
 and family, from China to Morocco. So powerful is 
 this ineradicable instinct of nationality, — a senti- 
 ment always more or less fatal to Christianity, — 
 that Armenians, when converted to the Church, are 
 obliged, like converts from certain European races, 
 to repudiate that false and exaggerated patriotism 
 which has rent Christendom into twenty jealous, 
 selfish, and hostile bodies, « and proudly renounce 
 the name of Armenians, to call themselves Cath- 
 olics. » (1) 
 
 During the last two centuries this consoling move- 
 ment has received a constant impulse from the la- 
 bours of European missionaries. In 1711, Pere Ri- 
 card reconciled 1 Bishop, 22 Priests, and 875 lay 
 persons. (2) Three years later, in 1714, Pere Monier 
 received the abjuration of more than 700, and short- 
 ly afterwards, in company with Ricard, penetrated 
 into Kurdistan. They were both chained and impris- 
 oned by the Pacha of kars, at the instigation of 
 the Armenian schismatics, whose vengeance followed 
 them to their new field of labour. By such men, and 
 with similar results, the combat has ever since been 
 maintained, the heretics always invoking Moslem aid, 
 and seldom in vain. And these incidents have marked 
 the conflict up to the present hour. « Recently, » says 
 
 (t) Haxlhausen, ch. vn, p, 224. 
 
 (2) Nouveaux Memoires du Levant, tome III, p. 290.
 
 550 CHAPTEU YIII. 
 
 M. Eugene Bore, « ihe schismalical paliiarch pur- 
 chased from llie vizir for 2,000 purses llie right to 
 prevent a memher of his church from becoming a 
 Catholic. » (1) So uniform is their practice of seek- 
 ing Mahometan auxiliaries in all their difficulties, 
 that, as M" Walpole notices, in 1831, the Bishop of 
 Van « bribed the Pacha » to assist him in ejecting 
 the American missionaries from the neighbourhood 
 of Etchniiadzin. 
 
 Even Protestant travellers are almost unanimous 
 in affirming ivvo facts, — the worthlessness of the 
 schismatical and the superiority of the converted 
 Armenian. « The Armenians, » says the Rev. 
 M"^ Dwight, « appear to hold even a lower place in 
 the scale than either the Greeks or the Latins » (2) 
 ■ — after which he evidently felt that he had nothing 
 more to say. He confesses, however, that even they 
 are witnesses for the Church, since they hold all the 
 Catholic doctrines controverted by Protestants; a 
 fact confirmed by a Prussian writer, who lived in 
 intimacy with the heads of the sect, and was led to 
 make the following important reflections. « The Ar- 
 menian Church bears a marked testimony to the an- 
 tiquity of the Catholic Church. All the dogmas 
 attacked at and since the Reformation are held by 
 it, — the Saints, the Seven Sacraments, Transub- 
 stantiation, the Sacrifice of the Mass, and Purgatoiy. 
 The dogmas which the Armenians hold in common 
 with the Catholic Church must be of high antiquity, 
 for as early as the Council of Chalcedon, in 4S1, the 
 
 (1) Armenie, p. 138. 
 
 (2) Christianity in Turkey , p. 7.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 551 
 
 Armenian Church possessed an organisation of its 
 own, and jealously guarded itself from foreign in- 
 fluence. » (1) This learned writer also observes, and 
 proves by well known examples, that « the Armenian 
 Church not only acknowledges that its founder, 
 St. Gregory the Illuminator, received the Armenian 
 Patriarchate from Rome, but it has several times 
 submitted to the Pope, as the centre of Unity and the 
 Supreme Patriarch. » He had reason to speak with 
 confidence of the sentiments of the highest class of 
 Armenian prelates, since Narses, the patriarch of the 
 separated Armenians, gave him the following explicit 
 assurance with his own lips, when he met him at 
 St. Petersburg in 1843. « On the whole we are in 
 harmony with Rome : the Armenian Patriarch usu- 
 ally sends a notice to the Pope of his elevation to the 
 Patriarchate... There is no essential difference in 
 doctrine between the Armenian and Latin churches; 
 indeed perfect agreement has been repeatedly attain- 
 ed. Jealousies and disputes have been much more 
 frequent with the Greek Church. » It was impossible 
 to omit testimony so interesting, though it probably 
 reveals more accurately the convictions and wishes of 
 Narses himself than of the corrupt and ignorant col- 
 leagues whom he nominally governs, and of whom 
 Haxlhausen declares with regret, — « avarice, envy, 
 hypocrisy, and even gross sensualily are common 
 amongst them. » 
 
 Such are the penalties of separation from the Holy 
 See, even where the apostolic doctrine is nominally 
 retained. Captain Wilbraham observed at Etchmi- 
 
 (t) Haxthausen, ch. ix, p. 313.
 
 552 CHAPTER VIll. 
 
 adzin ilself, llie headquarters of the schism^ and iu 
 ihe cathedral, the « want of atlenlion, and even of 
 decorum » which was displayed by the congregation; 
 and added, « there was none of thai apparently sin- 
 cere, though perhaps blind devotion, which I have 
 so often remarked in Roman Catholic chapels. » 
 « The Calholicos, » he says, or Patriarch, « nomin- 
 ally presides over the Synod, but a rnoderator has 
 been appointed by the Russian government, without 
 whose approval nothing can be done, which makes 
 the Emperor virtually the head of ihe Armenian 
 Church throughout the world : » (1) a fact of which 
 IVarses bitterly complained to Baron Von Ilaxlhau- 
 sen, in these expressive words. « How undignified 
 is the posilion of the Patriarch! Every letter must 
 pass through the hands of the Governor General of 
 Caucasia, and is opened in his office, where every 
 clerk may read it ! » Narses, a man superior to most 
 of his race and order, might have reflected, that this 
 is the usual fate of those w ho consent to preside over 
 « national » churches. 
 
 1>P Walpole declares, from his own observation, 
 that « the falsehood of the Armenian monks was 
 dreadful, as they asserted that so and so was the be- 
 lief of such and such a church. » 
 
 D"^ Morilz Wagner, also a Protestant, confirms 
 these dismal statements. « Gross ignorance, stupid- 
 ity, covetousness, and immorality, are the predom- 
 inant characteristics of these ecclesiastics... They 
 readily assume an external show of virtue and self- 
 
 (1) Travels in the Trans- Caucasian Provinces of Russia, 
 cl). IX, pp. 95-98.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 553 
 
 denial, whilst, in secret, they indulge freely in vice. 
 Envy and jealousy reign supreme among ihem. They 
 do not appear to have a shadow of hrotherly or 
 neighhorly love, or of kindliness and courtesy, in 
 the Christian acceptation of those terms. » (1) And 
 these are the men who perpetuate the schism. 
 
 D' Friedrich Parrot notices also « the moral cor- 
 ruption in which their priesthood is sunk, » and 
 gives this explanation of their profound and univer- 
 sal ignorance. « Every laic, provided only he be cho- 
 sen by the congregation, and have passed fourteen 
 days in the prescribed fastings, and ritual observances 
 in a church, may get ordination from the bishop, 
 without either preparation or subsequent educa- 
 tion. » He agrees with Colonel Drouville, that « their 
 priests and Bishops are all as ignorant at it is possible 
 to be; » and notices the usual phenomenon in all 
 heretical bodies, that they have split into three sects. 
 « There is an independent Calholicos at Sis, in Cili- 
 cia, and another, who has maintained himself in this 
 dignity for 700 years, in the island of Akhthamar, 
 in the lake of Van. » (2) 
 
 Lastly, D-^ Wilson observes, — though he would 
 probably have said nothing about it if they would 
 have welcomed his friends, — « the Armenians par- 
 take in the monothelile as well as the monophysite 
 heresy » — a statement which is not true of the 
 whole nation, especially in Western Asia. 
 
 Such, by Protestant testimony, are the unfortu- 
 nate communities who are paying the penally of he- 
 
 (1) Travels in Persia, etc., vol. Ill, p. 51. (1856). 
 
 (2) Journey to Ararat, ch. iv, p. 92; cli. v, pp. 105-110.
 
 554 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 resy and schism, and whom the Church, with the 
 patience and zeal of a mother, has resolved to restore 
 to truth, charily, and ohedience. How far she has 
 succeeded in this aim, we may now briefly slate. 
 
 We have aheady heard from D"^ WoWf that sixty 
 thousand had been reconciled when he visited ihem. 
 Captain ^yilbraham admits that « a considerable 
 proportion have returned to the Catholic Church, 
 from which this nation seceded, when, in the year 
 491, ihey rejected the authority of the Council of 
 Chalcedon. » (1) D' Parrot, though a Russian Im- 
 perial Councillor of Stale, allows that « no small 
 portion of the clergy, and laity also, have attached 
 themselves to the Roman Catholic Church. » (2) 
 « Romanism, » says the Rev. Justin Perkins, of 
 whom we shall hear moie presently, « is taking root 
 and extending, » — which he considers « the con- 
 version of the Armenians from bad to worse. » 
 « Very few of the Neslorians now' remain, » he adds, 
 « on the western side of the Koordish mountains, 
 who have not yielded to the intrigues and usurpa- 
 tions of Papal domination. » (5) This gentleman is 
 apparently of opinion that the operations of the 
 Americans, which shall be described immediately, 
 involve neither intrigue nor usurpation. 
 
 But the conversions effected by Catholic mission- 
 aries have not been confined to Armenia Proper. « At 
 Constantinople, » says ]\P Curzon, « a great number 
 of the higher and wealthier Armenians give their ad- 
 
 (1) Ch. XXXI, p. 352. 
 
 (2) P. 110. 
 
 (3) Residence in Persia, p. 4.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 555 
 
 herence to ihe Roman Calliolic creed. » Of the C/m/- 
 rfean Catholics, D' \\'ilson observes; « they form, I 
 am sorry to say, a great portion of the Neslorians 
 west of the mountains of Kurdistan. » Bagdad and 
 Mosul have yielded to the same beneficent power. 
 « Emissaries from Rome, » says M'^ Perkins, « have 
 been laboring wilh a zeal and perseverance worthy of 
 a belter cause, to effect the conversion of the entire 
 Nestorian church... M'' Perkins received a letter 
 from a pious English lady who resides in Bagdad, in 
 which the writer says, * the religious slate of this 
 city is very unsatisfactory — the Roman Catholics 
 carry the day in every way... A large body of bish- 
 ops and priests are going to ^Mosiil in a day or two, 
 to form a convention to endeavour to bring over all 
 the Chaldeans to the Papal faith.' » Fortunately, we 
 can trace the results of this expedition; for a little 
 later M"" VValpole tells us, with an angry commentary 
 hardly worthy of so intelligent a traveller, that of 
 « the fourteen Christian churches at Mosul belonging 
 lo the different sects, several are now in the hands of 
 Roman Catholics... whether by right or otherwise," 
 — how could a few poor missionaries gain them 
 except by persuasion? — « the Catholics have gather- 
 ed to themselves many congregations. » 
 
 The expedition from Bagdad was evidently suc- 
 cessful ; indeed D' Soulhgate was able lo report, 
 with unfeigned regret, that « the whole body of the 
 Neslorian Church is now a branch of the Church of 
 Rome, and with a sad propriety may the Papal Nes- 
 lorians assume the national name of Chaldeans. »(1) 
 
 (1) Vol. II,ch.xvi, p. 183.
 
 556 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 « The Nesloiiaiis who once inhabited the iMosul dis- 
 trict, » says D"^ Asahel Grant, « have all embraced 
 the Romish failh. » (1) « The whole Chaldean na- 
 tion, » adds an English traveller, « may now be es- 
 teemed Catholics. » (2) 
 
 Finally, the Patriarch of the Chaldeans, writing 
 from Mosul in 1855, could already report that 55,000 
 wanderers from that nation alone had been restored 
 to the true fold, and that « the opposition of the Me- 
 thodists » — he means the Anglican and other mis- 
 sionaries — was the chief impediment to the con- 
 version of the few who were still in schism , but 
 whose imperfect faith was in danger from contact 
 with Protestant neology, as their morals were from 
 the lavish distribution of Protestant gold. (5) The 
 mission of Protestantism seems to be everywhere the 
 same. Its agents cannot make Christians themselves, 
 but they can prevent others doing so. By the banks of 
 the Tigris, as by those of the Nile and the Jordan ; 
 in the cities of China, as in the villages of Hindoslan; 
 in the islands of the Pacific, as in those of the Medi- 
 terranean; their aim is to rend unity, to mar the 
 work which they can neither understand nor imitate, 
 to confirm the heathen in his unbelief and the heretic 
 in his corruption ; and the only triumph to w hich 
 they aspire is to keep back a fev^, when all around 
 are waking to a new life of truth and virtue, from 
 sharing the blessings which, but for their presence, 
 would perhaps regenerate the world. 
 
 (1) The Nestorians, ch. ill, p. 27. 
 
 (2) Patlerson, app. p. iOl. 
 
 (3) Revue Orientate et Algerienne, tome IV, p. 357.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 5o7 
 
 Let US return for a moment, before we conclude 
 this part of our subject, to Armenia Proper. The 
 movement of Catholic regeneration of which Wes- 
 tern Asia is now one of the most conspicuous thea- 
 tres, has at last penetrated to the very heart and 
 centre of the Armenian schism. Rumours had reach- 
 ed Europe towards the close of 18o9 of extraordinary 
 and almost unprecedented conversions in the regions 
 which surround Etchmiadzin, An Armenian gentle- 
 man , who arrived in England in the month of Sep- 
 tember of that year, brought intelligence of the 
 almost simultaneous conversion of ten thousand Ar- 
 menians in the neighbourhood of Erzeroum. Appli- 
 cation was made (o the proper authorities for au- 
 thentic information with respect to so remarkable an 
 event, and through the intervention of a venerable 
 prelate a letter has been obtained from the Catholic 
 Armenian Primate , dated Constantinople, Octo- 
 ber 26, 18o9, which contains the following state- 
 ment. 
 
 « I willingly communicate to you the details of the 
 conversions which take place almost every week from 
 the schismatical Armenian church to the centre of 
 unity in these latter times, and especially during the 
 last two years, in which so great a religious move- 
 ment has been manifested in various parts of Asia, 
 that il might more filly be called a religious revolu- 
 tion — die potrei meglio intitolare una rivohizionc 
 reJigiosa. In Karput and Arabghir, cities in the 
 neighbourhood of Erzerum, more than five bundrcd 
 families with some of their priests have been con- 
 verted to Catholicism. In Tadem, Sartorici, and 
 Garmir, regions adjacent to Karput, about one hund-
 
 558 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 red families. In Malatia and Adjaman, also conli- 
 guous districts, one hundred and fifty families with 
 their priest. Last week I received letters from Palo, 
 also in the territory of Karput, and containing more 
 than two hundred villages, which inform me that 
 fifty families have expressed their desire to be admit- 
 ted to Catholic unity. In Marasci, near Diarbeker, 
 more than six hundred families, with some of their 
 clergy, have become Catholics, and other families in 
 the neighbouring districts. At Rodosto, near Adri- 
 anople, and again at Bandyrma, in the diocese of 
 Byrsa in Bithynia, seventy families, beside others 
 similarly disposed, have addressed petitions to me 
 to be received into Catholic unity. » The illustrious 
 prelate does not state the exact numerical total of the 
 converts, which was probably unknown to him ; but 
 as they amount already to about fifteen hundred fami- 
 lies, besides others similarly disposed, we may easily 
 form an approximate estimate. But even this is not 
 all, for the Archbishop immediately adds; « I omit 
 to speak of other districts in the like condition, and 
 especially of one vast province, with respect (o which 
 I am also conducting negotiations, in favour of more 
 than ten thousand families. » 
 
 Such is the work of God, in these last times, 
 among the schismatical communities of the East. 
 Worn out by the exactions of simoniacal priests and 
 bishops, scandalised by the ignorance and immorality 
 of their fallen pastors, conversant in many cases 
 with the superior virtue and dignity of their coun- 
 trymen who have been reconciled to the Church, and 
 above all touched by the compassionate grace of God 
 and the purity, wisdom, and goodness of the apostles
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 859 
 
 whom He has sent amongst them, — they begin, in 
 this eleventh hour of their history, to turn wistful 
 eyes towards the source of unity and peace, and (o 
 marvel that they have so long despised the blessings 
 which they knew not to be within their reach. 
 
 It only remains to show, — once more by Pro- 
 testant testimony, — that as soon as they enter the 
 Church, they begin to acquire the freedom, virtue, 
 and enlightenment to which they had so long been 
 strangers. This also, thanks to the copiousness and 
 exuberance of Protestant literature, we shall be able 
 to prove. 
 
 « The Roman Catholics, » said an Anglican clergy- 
 man some years ago, « having compassed sea and 
 land, have made and still retain proselytes to the 
 Papal Supremacy from every Christian community 
 and nation, Abyssinia excepted. » If M"" Jowett had 
 written a little later, he would have been obliged to 
 omit the exception. Other writers, who share 
 M'' Jowett's prejudices, will now tell us, in language 
 more emphatic than could be expected from such 
 witnesses, though far below the truth, what influence 
 these conversions have produced upon the life and 
 character of their fortunate subjects. 
 
 Let us begin with the Greeks. Of the converts from 
 this nation we have been told, by men who can 
 hardly speak with composure of the Catholic Church, 
 such truths as the following. « They are, » says 
 D' Wilson, in words already quoted, « amongst the 
 most libeial and intelligent native Christians in the 
 East. » They exhibit, since their conversion, says 
 D"" Robinson more cautiously, « a certain elevation." 
 « Their intercourse with the Roman Catbolic
 
 560 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Church, » adds D"" Durbin, « tends to elevate them in 
 the scale of civilization. » And these are all vehement 
 prolestants. 
 
 Of the Armenian Converts, equally hostile wit- 
 nesses give exactly the same account, though we may 
 be sure they speak with reluctance and constraint. 
 « Like the Christians in other parts of Turkey, » 
 says Mess" Smith and Dwight, eager partisans of 
 Protestant missions, « they who have embraced the 
 faith of Rome are more respectable for wealth and 
 intelligence than their countrymen. » They add that 
 « most of the native Christians employed by Prolest- 
 ants in the Levant are of the Romish persuasion » 
 — a fact which they consider discreditable to the 
 officials, merchants, and others, who employ them 
 solely on account of their superior trustworthiness, 
 because it encourages « the Pope's anlichristian 
 power. » (1) 
 
 « The Catholic Armenians, » says Captain Wil- 
 braham, « are generally superior in education and 
 intelligence to their countrymen » — which this gen- 
 tleman attributes, « in some measure, to the circula- 
 tion of knowledge occasioned by the literary labours 
 of the Catholic Armenian Convent in Venice. » (2) 
 In olher words, they are brought by iheir conversion 
 into contact with Catholic intelligence and learning. 
 
 « The Roman Catholic branch of the Armenian 
 Church, » says M^ Curzon, « has done much more 
 for literature and civilization than the original body.» 
 Of the converts he says their minds are more en- 
 
 (1) Missionary Researches in Armenia, letter i, p. 20. 
 
 (2) Ch. XXXI. p. 352.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC*. 561 
 
 larged, they are less Oriental in their ideas, » etc;(l) 
 an emphatic testimony, by a capable witness, to the 
 civilising influence of the Catholic religion. IVf Cur- 
 zon also observes, that « the Armenian Monks at 
 Venice printed the Armenian Bible in 1805; and 
 entirely by their energy, the small spark which alone 
 glimmered in the darkness of Armenian ignorance in 
 the East has gradually increased its light. » « The 
 Mechilarists , » says Haxthausen, « have printed 
 Armenian translations from all the languages of 
 Europe, and in every department of literature. » 
 
 Of the Syrians, even D"" Southgate notices the 
 pregnant fact, that « the adherents of the Church of 
 Rome have all been themselves converted individu- 
 ally, » and that « they are zealously and intelligently 
 attached to their new faith. » (2) 
 
 Of the Chaldeans, we have heard that they have 
 become a Catholic nation ; and of the Maronites, who 
 owe all the « deserved superiority » which even 
 Protestants recognise in them to the influence of 
 their religion, we need say nothing more than has 
 been already related by English and American wri- 
 ters. 
 
 Of the converted Jacobites, M"" Badger confesses, 
 in spite of that uneasy dislike and jealousy of the 
 Catholic Church which is now perhaps more intense 
 in Anglicans than in any other class; « If the truth 
 must be told, they are decidedly superior, in many 
 respects, to their Jacobite brethren. » (3) 
 
 Lastly, the eventual triumph of the Faith in all the 
 
 (1) Armenia and Erzeroum, cli. xv, p. 230. 
 
 (2) Narrative, etc., vol. II, cli. xxill, p. 28i. 
 
 (3) Vol. I, p. 63. 
 
 II. SB
 
 S62 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 long-separated communities of the East appears so 
 certain to a German philosopher who had watched, 
 with cold but inlelligenl impartiality, its irresislihie 
 progress, that he does not hesitate lo announce in 
 these emphatic terms the inevitable issue. « There is 
 no doubt that the theology of the West will in time 
 penetrate the Eastern Church, with all its divisions, 
 Greek, Armenian, Nestorian, and Coptic. » (1) 
 
 And now we have heard enough of Catholic Mis- 
 sions in the Levant, Syria, and Armenia, of their 
 uninterrupted success, and of the character both of 
 the missionaries and their disciples. The history 
 exactly agrees with what we have heard in every 
 other land. On one side we have found God and His 
 gifts, on the other only man and his frailties. The few 
 Protestant converts, attracted only by offers of pay- 
 ment, and spurning the hand from which they receive 
 it, are, as D'' Southgate admits, « infidels and radi- 
 cals; » or, as Ml" Williams, M"" Patterson, and others 
 report, notorious for « scandalous irregularities and 
 excesses — either worthless persons, or sceptics and 
 infidels ; » while even a Protestant minister not only 
 confesses the universal failure of his co-religionists 
 in Syria, but candidly asks, « Are we ever likely to 
 succeed any better? » Such is one more example of 
 the momentous contrast which has not hitherto been 
 revealed to the world, because neither genius nor 
 learning could have anticipated, much less dispensed 
 with, the facts which living writers have collected for 
 our instruction. 
 
 And what explanation do Protestants offer, in this 
 
 (1) Transcaucasia, by Baron Von Haxthausen, cli. in, p. 67.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 563 
 
 case, of ihe success of Catholic missions and the fail- 
 ure of iheir own? In China, they assure us that, 
 « in becoming Papists, » and subsequently martyrs, 
 « they give up nothing. » (1) In India, « Popery is 
 better adapted » to the illogical Hindoo. In Ceylon, 
 and in other lands, it is « ceremonial » which 
 accounts for the contrast. And what is it in Syria? 
 In this province, the explanation is still more unex- 
 pected, and the very hypothesis which unites in itself 
 the largest measure of extravagance and impossibility 
 is precisely that which has been selected for the occa- 
 sion. Who would have anticipated that, in the land 
 of the Moslem, « where, » as M^ Walpole observes, 
 « the Christian exists only on sufferance, » it is by 
 « cruelty and violence, » that a few Lazarisls, Fran- 
 ciscans, and Sisters of Charity, win their way? 
 « Romish tyranny, » says the Rev. M'' Fremantle, for 
 the special instruction of the Anglican Church, « has 
 been insulting and persecuting, and assisting the 
 Mahommedans to oppress the fallen churches. » And 
 this account, which would be received with a shout 
 of laughter by a Druse or a Mussulman audience, is 
 repeated by other English writers, with various 
 modifications, as the true history of Catholic victories 
 in Syria. 
 
 Yet as late as 1845, we find a competent authority 
 making this declaration, in the form of an appeal to 
 Europe. « I know for a positive fact, that at this 
 moment all classes, sects, and denominations, are 
 crying aloud for European protection. » (2) Fourteen 
 
 (i) The Land ofSinim, ch. iv, p. 132. 
 (2) Memoir on Syria , by Gliarles Fiott Barker , formerly 
 Secretary to M"" Consul General Barker, p. 50.
 
 564 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 years later, M"" WingQeld still reports, thai « the 
 assassination of Christians, even of the richer class, 
 is unhappily of no very rare occurrence. » (1) M"" War- 
 rington Smyth relates, about the same lime, that he 
 himself saw a new church in Bulgaria wantonly de- 
 stroyed, « crushing in an hour the hopes of years. » (2) 
 « The various Christian seels who occupy the plains 
 of Syria, » says Colonel Churchill, « live in perpet- 
 ual dread of some outbreak of Mohammedan fanati- 
 cism. » (3) How reasonable that dread was, the 
 dismal tragedy of 1860 has once more proved. Even 
 the Maronites, whose numbers and valour, as well 
 as their geographical position, appeared to give them 
 an exceptional security, fell, betrayed and ensnared, 
 in thai cruel conspiracy of Druse, and Turk, and 
 Meluali; and were at all limes so exposed, in spite 
 of the nominal protectorate of France, whose gener- 
 ous designs were thwarted by the policy of a jealous 
 and non-catholic nation, thai as one of their Bishops 
 observed to M. David, « Dieii seiil est bon pour la 
 Stji'ie. » In Antioch itself, though it is, as M"" Paton 
 remarks, « nominally the metropolis of the orthodox 
 Greeks, » « the Moslems are so fanatical, thai they 
 do not allow ihe Christians to have a church in the 
 town. » (4) And it is in such a state of Society as 
 this, in which the Catholics exist, like the sect- 
 aries, « only on sufferance, » and in daily peril of 
 destruction; that helpless missionaries and religious 
 
 (1) A Tour in Dalmafia, etc., by W. F. Wingfield, M. A., 
 ch. VI, p. 158. 
 
 (2) A Year with the Turks, ch. ix, p. 239. 
 
 (3) Mount Lebanon, vol. Ill, ch. xxvil, p. 387. 
 (i) Modern Syrians, ch. xix, p. 220.
 
 MISSION'S IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 563 
 
 women, who allracl lens of ihousands by the sweet 
 odour of iheir virtues, from all ranks and seels, arc 
 said to do so by « insults and tyranny, » and by 
 « persecuting the fallen churches! » Such is the 
 Protestant explanation of their success, and it is, as 
 usual, an Anglican clergyman who suggests it. 
 
 Before we close this chapter, let us add a few 
 words, in further illustration of the contrast, on 
 Protestant missions in Armenia. Hitherto wc have 
 encountered grave and earnest men, fit preachers of 
 the evangelical truths of which their own apostolic 
 lives were the most impressive illustration; ha\ing 
 the counsels of Holy Writ in their hearts rather than 
 on their tongues, and still more eloquent by example 
 than in speech. Hence their peaceful triumphs, hence 
 their acceptance among all the Oriental races. We 
 have now, in conclusion, to notice briefly a class of 
 men towards whom we need not afl'ect an esteem 
 which even their co-religionists have refused ; men 
 to whom Holy Scripture appears to be every thing 
 except a teacher; men whose mouths are full of im- 
 precations against the pure and the just, while they 
 do not even attempt to imitate their least merits; 
 whose whole life is one unbroken course of littleness 
 and self-indulgence, united with irrational contempt 
 for the manly virtues which they hate without under- 
 standing; whose mission seems to consist in marring 
 the Unity for which Jesus prayed, and in beguiling 
 others to reject the blessings which they have for- 
 feited themselves; and whose own friends confess, 
 with one voice, that the few hearers whom they 
 entice are only ten times more immoral and unbe- 
 lieving than they were before.
 
 866 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The principal historian of Proleslanl missions in 
 Armenia is the Rev. Justin Perkins. Let us hear his 
 account of himself and his worii. 
 
 i\P Perkins quotes the following passage from the 
 « Instructions >• to llie American missionaries by the 
 Society which employed them. « You are not sent 
 among these churches to proselyte. Let the Armeni- 
 an remain an Armenian, if he will; the Greek a 
 Greek; and the Nestorian a Nestorian. » « The object 
 of the American missions to Syria, and other parts 
 of the Levant, » said D' Robinson, « is not to draw 
 off members of the Oriental churches to Prolestant- 
 ism. » Such was perhaps the original programme, 
 and for a time caution restrained the American 
 agents. They offered only secular education, the use 
 of books, medical treatment, and other harmless 
 boons. When they thought their position assured, 
 they assumed their real character, and boasted, as 
 we have seen, of the very operations which their 
 nominal instructions forbade them to attempt. 
 
 They even claimed to have the field all to them- 
 selves, and warmly resented the intrusion of other 
 Protestant sects, and especially of Anglicans. The 
 Report of the American Board for 1841 protests en- 
 ergetically against the English for entering into com- 
 munication with the Neslorians, because such a pro- 
 ceeding may « tend to awaken the thought among the 
 Nestorian ecclesiastics, that there are rival Protest- 
 ant sects and interests, upon which they may practice 
 for the private gratification of avaricious desires. » 
 As a financial precaution, in order to keep down the 
 price of converts by having only one bidder, there 
 was much wisdom in this view; but the Anglicans an-
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 567 
 
 swered, by llie mouth of ]VP Badger, an episcopalian 
 ininisler, that the prudent suggestion was « as pre- 
 sumpluousas it is ludicrous. »]\rBadger even observed 
 that his American rivals « seemed to lay claim to 
 inspiration, and decided ^vhat was truth and what 
 was error with the assurance of apostles. » Mean- 
 while, the Nestorians looked on, and began to enter- 
 lain « avaricious desires. » 
 
 We have seen that M"^ Badger was no less in- 
 dignant with the Catholic missionaries for their 
 endeavour to draw the Nestorians out of the pit 
 of heresy, ignorance, and corruption which even 
 Protestant writers of the most advanced school have 
 described to us. This Anglican clergyman, attracted 
 by their sounding titles, and rejoicing in their separa- 
 tion from unity, evidently thought them a far more 
 privileged class than either Catholics or Protestants. 
 It is true they deny the Incarnation, but they are 
 outside the Church, and were therefore welcome 
 allies for M"^ Cadger. « The Nestorian Church, » he 
 says, « abounds in noble gifts and rightful titles! »(J) 
 
 There was a time when even the most advanced 
 Protestants, while Catholic traditions still lingered 
 faintly amongst them, professed to reverence the 
 Council of Ephesus, and to anathema lize the Nes- 
 torian heresy. Now, it seems, they anathematize 
 nothing; and in this new Pyrrhonism they see only 
 a sign of their own progress and improvement. 
 Geneva itself once taught its students to say, — 
 « I abhor all the heresies which were condemned 
 by the first Council of Nice, the first of Ephesus, and 
 
 (1) The Nestorians, etc., vol. II, cli. XLVi, p. 351.
 
 S68 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 that of Chalcedon. » (1) We detest all sects and 
 heresies, » said ihe French Proleslant communities, 
 at what they called « the Synod of Paris, » in 1559, 
 condemned by the same Councils. (2) At the present 
 day, e\en Anglican clergymen, especially those of 
 the High-Church school, celebrate the « noble gifts 
 and rightful lilies » of Nestorianism! The Rev. Webb 
 Le Bas calls the title OsoroKcq a « blasphemy, » (3) 
 — though even La Croze was ashamed to say less 
 than that « the title has nothing contrary lo sound 
 theology; » (4) and the celebrated Calvinist Baldaeus 
 flally asserted, that the INeslorians « teach points 
 contrary to salvation. » (5) But an Anglican clergy- 
 man, when he once begins lo speak against the 
 Catholic failh, is prelly sure to surpass both Cal- 
 vinists and Lutherans. The Rev. D"^ Kerr, also an 
 Anglican, called ihe monophysites of Malabar « a 
 precious remnant of a pure and valuable people. »(6) 
 D"" Soulhgale, a Protestant bishop, speaks of « the 
 Nestorian heresy if such it must be reputed » (7) — 
 implying that the Fathers of Ephesus were the real 
 heretics. The Rev. Henry Townley considers the prin- 
 cipal tenet of Nestorianism « a point of orthodoxy 
 
 (1) Ruchat, Histoire de la Reformation de la Suisse, tome VII, 
 p. 291. 
 
 (2) Quick's History of the Reformed Churches in France, 
 vol. I, p. 7. (1692). 
 
 (3) Life of Bishop Middleton, vol. I, ch. xi, p. 319. 
 
 (4) Histoire du Christianisme des hides, tome I, livre I, p. 16. 
 
 (5) Ap. Churchill, vol. Ill, p. 576. 
 
 (6) Report on the State of the Christians of Cochin and 
 Travancore, p. 8. 
 
 (7) Narrative, vol. II, ch. xi.\, p. 224.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 569 
 
 on which we are agreed, » (1) M-^ Layard says of 
 the Chaldean Nestorians, « there are no sects in the 
 East, and few in the West, who can boast of such 
 purity in their faith, » (2) and M"" Walpole adds 
 of the same class, that they are « pure and untaint- 
 ed, professing nearly as we profess. » (o) Lastly, 
 M"" Ainsworth, after enumerating the distinctive ten- 
 els anathematized by the Council of Ephesus, con- 
 fidently asks, « In all this where is there any here- 
 sy? » (4) Evidently W Badger is not alone in his 
 admiration of the Nestorians — an admiration which, 
 however, he would perhaps liave concealed, if he 
 had i?ead the historian Evagrius, who relates that the 
 founder of their religion, the heresiarch Nestorius, 
 was not only anathematized by an OEcumenical 
 Council, but that he died, like Herod, by the judgment 
 of God, his tongue being gnawed by worms. (5) 
 Let us leave M"^ Badger to accompany M"^ Perkins 
 and his American colleagues. Here is a description, 
 by D"^ Asahel Grant, of the country which they se- 
 lected for their residence. « A plain of exuberant 
 fertility is enclosed between the mountains and the 
 lake, comprising an area of about SCO square miles, 
 and bearing upon its bosom no less than 300 hamlets 
 and villages. It is clothed with luxuriant verdure, 
 fruitful fields, gardens, and vineyards, and irrigaled 
 by considerable streams of pure water from the ad- 
 jacent mountains. The landscape is one of the most 
 
 (1) Answer to the Abbe Dubois, p. 230. 
 
 (2) Niniveh and its Remains, vol. I, p. 268. 
 
 (3) The Ansayrii, vol. II, ch. I, p. 10, 
 
 (4) Travels in Asia Minor, vol. II, ch. xu, p. 272. 
 
 (5) Hist. Ecclesiast., lib. I, cap.vii. 
 
 II. «•
 
 570 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 lovely in the East. » Some writers have suggested 
 that it was the site of the terrestrial paradise. 
 
 Here the Americans eslahlished their dwelling, 
 and here commenced the operations which M"" Per- 
 kins has described. A few extracts from his narra- 
 tive, supplemented by other witnesses, will explain 
 their nature, and the character of the missionaries. 
 , They hear that the Neslorian Patriarch at Jula- 
 merk is about to embrace the Catholic faith. In a 
 few hours a messenger is bearing across the plain 
 an urgent remontrance, in which they address to 
 him, amongst other enquiries, this question; « Is 
 there Paul, or Peter, or the Pope at Rome, crucified 
 for us? » (1) It does not appear how^ far he was 
 aflfecled by this interrogation. 
 
 M"" Perkins professes much disdain for his Nesto- 
 rian friends. « They are very degraded, » he says, 
 and their religion is « a revolting form of Christ- 
 ianity. » On the other hand, they feasted with him, 
 and jested with him, and by his advice look wives 
 and begat children ; and, above all, they accepted his 
 bibles and tracts, which, as he observes, « gives us 
 a glorious field of common ground. » 
 
 Here are some examples of his dealings with the 
 Nestorian bishops who became his pensioners. Of 
 one of them, he says, — « under the influence of the 
 Mission, he has got so much the better of his canon- 
 ical scruples on the virtue of episcopal celibacy, 
 that he has married a young wife, and is rearing a 
 family. » 1\P Perkins was much encouraged by this 
 easy triumph, and his companions resolved to rival his 
 
 {■[} Residence in Persia, p. 163.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 571 
 
 success. « The American Missionaries, Mess'^' Good- 
 ell and Bird, » says D' Wolff, « have succeeded in 
 converting two Armenian Bishops from the establish- 
 ed Armenian symbols and ancient liturgy to the 
 vague and uncertain creed of the congregationalisis 
 of America ; from (heir attachment to their Patriarch 
 of Elchmiadzin to the half neological writings of 
 Professor Moses Stuart, of Andover. » (1) He adds 
 that they did this « merely for the sake of a wife, » 
 that both of them married immediately, and that in 
 order to quiel the troubled conscience of their wives, 
 they frequently expounded to them « 1 Tim III. 2 » 
 — with the inteiprelation which their American 
 friends had suggested. 
 
 And when they have pulled down these unfortu- 
 nate men to their own level, they call it « bringing 
 them under Zion's king ; » and having collected to- 
 gether a few such as these, by exciting lust, or avar- 
 ice, or both, — having sapped all faith and religion in 
 them, and taught them to sing their shame in texts 
 of Scripture, — they call them « God's infant 
 church ! » (2) « Wo to you, » said our Lord to such 
 as these , « because you shut the kingdom of heaven 
 against men, for you yourselves do not enter in, and 
 those that are going in you suffer not to enter... For 
 this you shall receive the greater judgment. Wo to 
 you, because you go round about the sea and the 
 land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, 
 you make him the child of hell twofold more than 
 yourselves. » (5) 
 
 (1) Journal, pp. 148, 9. 
 
 (2) Christianity in Turkey, ch. v, p. 130. 
 
 (3) Malt, XXIII, 15.
 
 57i CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 M"" Perkins look Mar Yohannan, an ex-Nesloriau 
 bishop, lo the United Stales, — just as Tzalzoe and 
 Africaner were conveyed lo England, — and when he 
 arrived there, the Episcopalian Protestants claimed 
 him as an ally. « You belong lo us, » they said, in a 
 formal address, and they protested against the inde- 
 cency of his herding with methodists, presbylerians, 
 anabaptists, and other children of the « reforma- 
 tion, » from which ihey derived their own origin. 
 Under the tuition of his American guides, this poor 
 man, once a Bishop, made the following official 
 reply. « I do not wish lo hear you say, you belong to 
 us ; I have not come here to make difference among 
 Christians. » And then he expounded his new eccle- 
 siastical views. « I love Episcopalians, and Congre- 
 galionalists, and Presbylerians, and Dutchmen, and 
 Methodists, and Baptists... there is no difference in 
 them with me. »(!) 
 
 Such was the general result of the influence of 
 M"^ Perkins. What the complexion of his theology 
 was, we may infer from the following facts. Of j\es- 
 lorius, and his denial of the BsoroKoq, he says, « Pro- 
 testant Christians would certainly never have thought 
 the worse of him ; » and then, forgetting the descrip- 
 tion which he had himself given elsewhere, of « the 
 revolting form of Christianity » professed by Nesto- 
 rians, he exclaims, — « their belief is orthodox and 
 scriptural ! » With respect to the sacrament of Bap- 
 tism, he derides the oriental Christians because they 
 « appeared to suppose that this rile possessed some 
 mysterious charm that involved the agency of the 
 
 (1) Residence in Persia, p. 367.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 573 
 
 Holy spirit. »(1) Such are the teachers whom Amer- 
 ica sends to promote the fortunes of Protestantism in 
 the East. 
 
 M' Perkins would perhaps have remained in Arme- 
 nia till the present hour, but the care of his wife 
 and family, as usual, put an end to his labours. Ar- 
 menia was a pleasant residence, but did not offer 
 any career to his offspring. « The children of IMis- 
 siouaries, » he says, « should be to the Churches 
 objects of deep interest, as well as of lender sympa- 
 thy; » and for this reason, because the promise of 
 our Lord to all who who should leave « father or 
 mother, or wife or children, for His sake," applies in 
 a special manner « to the children of His missionary 
 servants! » (2) It appears, therefore, that the divine 
 promise of special benediction to all who abandon 
 these worldly ties means, in the opinion of M"" Per- 
 kins, that « they shall have a double blessing who 
 retain them. » Finally, « >P' Perkins' health » sug- 
 gested a return to America ; and as he seems to have 
 suspected that his retirement from Armenia might 
 possibly suggest malevolent interpretations, he com- 
 plains apologetically, and by way of precaution, that 
 « there is a sensitiveness in the Christian community 
 on the subject of the return of Missionaries. » It is 
 probable, in spite of the protest of >P Perkins, that 
 this sensitiveness will continue. 
 
 Perhaps we have now sufficient knowledge of the 
 character of American missionaries, but here is one 
 more, and it shall be the last illustration. In a series 
 
 (1) P. 247. 
 
 (2) P. 344.
 
 574 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 of volumes, bearing a grave litle, and recommended 
 lo public allcnlion by one of ihe scienlific societies 
 of America, ihe reader will encounter ihe following 
 passage. « K. is on her prancing pony, M"^^ T. is on 
 the lank , thin-chested , but deep-chested mountain 
 horse, M'' T... has mounted kicking Sada, and I'm 
 aloft on tibn-devouring Malijub » This is not, as 
 might have been supposed, a sportive account of a 
 pic-nic party, addressed by some Syrian Aspasia lo 
 a sympathising friend, but the official narrative of « a 
 missionary tour, » extracted from « Notes of a Tour 
 in Mount Lebanon, by a Missionary of the Amer- 
 ican Board in Syria, » and solemnly read before the 
 American Oriental Society! (1) 
 
 Here we might have terminated our notice of Pro- 
 testant missions in Armenia, but that Providence has 
 provided a witness to their real character and results 
 whose remarkable evidence it would be wasteful to 
 neglect. In every country we have found Protestant 
 writers lo tell us, from personal observation, what 
 the emissaries of England and America are really 
 doing among the heathen, and what are their rela- 
 tions with other sects. Armenia is no exception to 
 this rule. If there is a country in the world in which 
 the agents of Protestantism have been more boastful 
 and self-complacent than in any other, it is the pro- 
 vince in which we are now going lo resume their 
 operations. Catholic travellers could have told us 
 how fruitless, except in corruption and unbelief, 
 those operations have been — but we have resolved 
 not to hear Catholics on this point. It is from Pro- 
 
 (1) Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. II, p. 237.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 5"5 
 
 leslanls alone thai we can receive such facts, since 
 only by their unsuspicious evidence could they be 
 adequately proved. 
 
 D' Moritz Wagner, who seems to profess some 
 form or modification of Anglicanism, who was the 
 intimate friend and constant guest of M' Perkins and 
 his colleagues, who warmly professes « esteem and 
 love » for his hosts, and considers « their devotion 
 entitled to all praise» — is exactly the witness whom 
 we should desire to interrogate. Fortunately that 
 intelligent naturalist has anticipated our wish, and 
 here is his account of the Protestant mission- 
 aries and of their work in the fertile plains of Ar- 
 menia. 
 
 Let us hear first what he relates of the manner of 
 life of his opulent hosts. « The institution at Urmia, » 
 he says, « costs the North American Missionary So- 
 cieties about fifty thousand dollars annually; » and 
 he will tell us immediately how that substantial re- 
 venue is spent. A writer of his own nation, also a 
 guest at Urmia, had already informed the world that 
 the mansion of the missionaries « is furnished with 
 so many conveniences and comforts, that it seemed to 
 me as if I were not under the roof of simple follow- 
 ers of Christ and teachers of the Gospel, but in that 
 of some wealthy private gentleman. Here were four 
 ladies, a whole troop of children, etc. » (1) — but 
 we will not pursue the narrative of a witness who, it 
 is fair to add, was so impressed by the uniform as- 
 pect of Protestant missions in all parts of the world 
 as to become ultimately a Catholic. D-^ Wagner, who 
 
 (1) Voijage round the World, by IdaPfeifFer, p. 221.
 
 S76 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 has not as yet, so far as we know, imitated this 
 example, modestly laments that he has not sufficient 
 power « to depict the charms and features of this 
 missionary residence, » of which he declares with 
 emotion that « the whole idyllic scenery » will never 
 be effaced from his recollection. But this was only a 
 portion of the missionary delights. They had also« a 
 summer residence at Seir, scarcely four miles from 
 Urmia, inclosed by a wall flanked with four towers, 
 and covering the upper terrace of a hill, from which 
 the eye commands a wonderful prospect of the vast, 
 blooming plain of Urmia, with its three hundred and 
 sixty villages. » And these palatial mansions, with a 
 suitable income of more than ten thousand pounds 
 per annum, were the selected abodes oi five mission- 
 aries, and of what D"" Wagner calls, no doubt justly, 
 « their amiable housewives. » We are not surprised 
 to learn from their privileged guest, that « the mis- 
 sionaries not only live comfortably, but even luxu- 
 riously, as was testified by their stables, which were 
 almost filled with horses of all Oriental breeds. » 
 D"" Wagner adds, however, without the least intention 
 of jesting, that his friends had generously quitted 
 America, where both their dwellings and their stables 
 were probably on a smaller scale, « for the propaga- 
 tion of Christianity. » 
 
 It was in these well furnished halls that M"^ Justin 
 Perkins held his court. « All the gentlemen, » says 
 D' Wagner, « were capitally mounted, » but M"" Per- 
 kins was distinguished even among his peers. « I have 
 never seen throughout the East a finer horse than the 
 snow white mare of M"^ Perkins. Each movement of 
 the beautiful animal, which had cost a considerable
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 577 
 
 sum, was full of grace. Il looked lo the greatest ad- 
 vantage when kneeling down to drink. » 
 
 But M" Perkins and his friends had one trial, in 
 the midst of these fabulous enjoyments ; they were 
 obliged to share their wealth with the needy Arme- 
 nians, who positively refused their preferred alliance 
 on any other terms. The « Patriarch » led the band. 
 « He had good reasons, » our German informant ob- 
 serves, « for showing civility to IVP Perkins, and 
 allowing him to preach without interference the Gos- 
 pel according to Presbyterian views, for he received 
 a considerable subsidy from the Mission, exceeding, 
 by twice the amount, the income he received from 
 his congregations. The same motive applied to the 
 priests of lower degree, whose cringing politeness lo 
 the missionaries was sufficiently explained by their 
 poverty, their love of lucre, and their monthly sala- 
 ries. » 
 
 And these were not the only classes who dilapi- 
 dated the fifty thousand dollars which annually flowed 
 into the missionary treasury from enthusiastic sub- 
 scribers at home, who were perhaps not fully ac- 
 quainted with the mode in which their contributions 
 were consumed. « The missionaries showered their 
 gold, » says their favoured guest, « with a liberal 
 hand, and not only taught the youth gratis, but gave 
 them a weekhj gratuity.,. Each bishop receives from 
 the Americans a monthly allowance of three hundred 
 Turkish piastres, and ordinary ecclesiastics from a 
 hundred and fifty to two hundred piastres. On the 
 condition of this allowance being continued, the 
 Nestorian clergy permit (he missionaries to preach 
 in their villages, to keep schools, etc. AVithout this
 
 578 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 payment, or bribery, of the priests for a good end, the 
 missionaries could not maintain their fooling in this 
 country. Even the peasant is only carrying on a pe- 
 cuniary speculation, in sending his child to school. 
 Each scholar receives, weekly, a sahefgeiau; and 
 though this gift is small, the schools would become 
 directly empty, if it were to cease. » 
 
 Finally, if we ask D' Wagner to tell us frankly 
 how many converts were really gained by this enor- 
 mous expenditure — amounting, in thirty years, to 
 one million and a half dollars, or more than three 
 hundred thousand pounds sterling — he is willing 
 to gratify our curiosity, and honestly confesses, that 
 it has converted nobody! Even Nestorians, though 
 willing to accept any amount of American money, 
 do not cease to despise American doctrine. Amongst 
 the domestic servants in the palace of M"" Perkins 
 were two, the one a Jew% the other an Armenian, 
 who professed to be disciples. D"" Wagner, a very 
 amiable man, was charitably disposed to think well 
 of the Armenian, who constantly expressed an 
 earnest desire to vissit Europe and America ; but « the 
 other missionary servant, a converted Jew, who had 
 been my guide to Seir, hinted slyly that it was not so 
 much the devout impulse of a pilgrim which prompt- 
 ed his friend John to visit Europe and Christendom, 
 as selCshness and ambitious aspirations. He implied 
 that the shrewd INestorian fancied that, if he knew 
 the English tongue belter, he could play the part of 
 Mess" Perkins and Slarking among his countrymen.* 
 These intelligent « converts » evidently appreciated 
 each other, and the acule D"^ Wagner seems at last 
 to have appreciated them all. « As a missionary ser-
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 379 
 
 vant, » he says, « John was a very unimporlanl per- 
 sonage in ihe land. But as Missionary, and supported 
 by the mission fund, even the higher clergy would 
 have paid court to him, which was enough to excite 
 the ambition of the Nestorian youth. » And then fol- 
 low these grave words, in which the true character 
 of these costly missions, — always appealing to the 
 meanest sentiments of the human heart, and openly 
 conducted on the worst principles of human cunning, 
 — is exposed by this friendly and capable witness. 
 « If we except a few^ Jews, won over from motives of 
 gain, these expensive establishments have made no 
 converts. » This is all that has been accomplished, 
 he says, by « America's evangelical apostles, who are 
 so splendidly remunerated, and the wealthy members 
 of the societies, who have never yet raised their 
 voices against negro-slavery, and the hunting down 
 of the poor red skins by rifle shots and blood hounds, 
 but who pay many hundred thousand dollars lo sup- 
 port their useless missions in the East. » «The Amer- 
 ican Mission, » he declares, and with this final 
 testimony we may close our Armenian narrative, 
 « cannot boast of splendid results in relation to the 
 improvemtnt of morality, stimulus by virtuous 
 examples, or the advancement of culture. Even 
 M^ Perkins admitted this. » Yet in his official rejiorts 
 that gentleman only spoke of his continual triumphs, 
 and even relates in his book such tales as the follow- 
 ing. « The Rev. William Goodell dropped a copy of 
 the Tract entitled the Dairyman's Daughter in Nico- 
 media; » and this, he affirms, knowing what the 
 home subscribers could bear, created , without the 
 aid of any missionary, « a considerable number of
 
 380 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 enliglUened , spirilual Christians! » And the man 
 who could ihus mock the well-meaning contributors 
 to his own luxury, privately confessed to D"^ Wagner, 
 who fortunately made a no!e of the words, that « he 
 thought almost all hope must be given up, in the case 
 of the present generalion. » (1) Thus, by the aid of 
 a little patience and industry, we have arrived at 
 last, by exclusively Protestant testimony, at a full 
 knowledge of the character and results of all the 
 Protestant missions in Armenia, Syria, and Turkey. 
 We need not pause to offer any reflections upon 
 the history which we have now completed. Once 
 more we have traced a contrast, and one which 
 solicits no comment. Once more we have advanced a 
 step in that controversy which, as we have said, God 
 has already taken out of the hands of men, to decide 
 it Himself. He knows how to distribute His own gifts, 
 and we have seen upon whom He confers, to whom 
 He refuses them. But if we abstain from superfluous 
 comment upon the history of missions in AVeslern 
 Asia, it is impossible to omit the truly remarkable 
 reflections which that history has suggested to a 
 learned German, familiar with the religious phenom- 
 ena of these regions, and accustomed to estimate 
 them with the scientific precision of a mind which 
 professes to be wholly unbiassed either by preference 
 or hostility. It is surely a notable fact that a German 
 philosopher should attest, by his own experience and 
 observation, the universal law, that separation from 
 the Catholic Church is fatal to the life of religion; 
 and even confess, in express terms, the fitness of that 
 
 (t) Travels, etc., vol. Ill, ch. vni, pp. 234-258.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. §81 
 
 glorious lille, Our Lady of Victories, which the 
 Church in grateful love has given to the Mother of 
 God. « Rejoice, Holy Virgin Mary, » says the 
 Spouse of Christ in one of her solemn offices, «hecause 
 Thou alone hast overcome all heresies throughout the 
 world. »It is in the following striking language that 
 Von Haxthausen, who had witnessed their influence 
 in Asia, seems to recognise Her royal prerogatives. 
 « In all the nations of Catholic Christendom, of 
 the Western as well as the Eastern Church, it is a 
 popular helief that the worship of the Virgin, the 
 invocation of the .blether of God, confers a peculiar 
 blessing, especially earthly happiness to the individ- 
 ual, and in families brings harmony and love. The 
 service of the Virgin has become the strongest basis 
 of nationality in its higher forms, as well as of poli- 
 tical life, among the nations of Europe... The wor- 
 ship of the Virgin has unquestionably given rise to 
 a high degree of refinement, especially in the position 
 to which it has raised the female sex. It is worthy 
 of remark, that among the Sclavonic nations of the 
 Eastern Church, the Russians , among whom the 
 most fervent adoration of the Virgin prevails, are 
 those people who have become the most powerful, 
 by their capacity for civilization, warlike disposition, 
 and political success : whilst, on the contrary, we 
 see the Greeks, among whom the service of the Virgin 
 is spiritless and neglected, have fallen into a slate of 
 semi-barbarism, oppression, and political feebleness, 
 notwithstanding their remarkable natural abilities. 
 Amongst the latter people, domestic and family life 
 is in general upon a low grade, because woman has 
 not her true position and respect, but is treated with
 
 582 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 more or less Oriental oppression... perhaps the poli- 
 lical weakness of the Byzantine empire may be 
 mainly atlributable to these considerations. How was 
 it that the Romano-Ge^^manic nations were so far 
 superior to the Greeks in the Middle Ages, not only 
 physically but morally, notwithstanding that the 
 latter were so highly gifted by nature, the inheritors 
 of classical refinement, and, individually, intellectual, 
 brave, and warlike? If it be said that the Germano- 
 Scandinavian nations, among whom the worship of 
 the Virgin is no longer found, as the Swedes and 
 English, nevertheless enjoy high political culture and 
 prosperity, this is no valid aigument. It must be 
 remembered, that these peoples have had this wor- 
 ship, have been educated in and by it, and that they 
 did not relinquish il until their political training was 
 completed, and the whole structure of their national 
 and family life was formed and settled. Among the 
 Armenians unattached to Rome, the worship of the 
 Virgin is neglected ; and this has had an injurious 
 effect on the position of the female sex and on family 
 life... On the contrary, among those who are attached 
 to the Church of Rome, ihc worship of the Virgin 
 appears to have raised the position of the female sex 
 to a greater freedom and independence, and human- 
 ized the domestic usages. » And then he adds these 
 concluding observations, of which the gravity will 
 be appreciated by every intelligent reader. « Until 
 this humanizing influence, this recognition of the 
 dignity of woman , shall become diffused generally 
 among the Armenian nation, ihey cannot hope to 
 attain a full measure of civilization. If ever Christian- 
 ity spreads widely in the East, accompanied by a
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 583 
 
 worship of the Virgin, and without this it will never 
 spread there, the female sex will be emancipaled 
 from their present degraded position. The very 
 trifling success which has attended the Protestant 
 missions in that part of the world, notwithstanding 
 the amplest means, may he in a great measure ex- 
 plained by the above remarks. » (1) 
 
 We might pursue our researches, at the risk of 
 wearying the reader, in Georgia, and even in Persia, 
 and every where we should find the same facts, every 
 where trace the same contrast. In Georgia, — where, 
 as early as the thirteenth century, Catholics were 
 detected by being ordered « to trample on the cruci- 
 fix, » and multitudes gained the crown of martyr- 
 dom, (2) — (here are now German, American, and 
 Scotch missionaries. Here is one example of each 
 class. An English traveller, who visited the German 
 colony near Tiflis, under the Lutheran missionary 
 Dittrich, says; « I was sorry to learn from M"" Dit- 
 trich that the German colonies had not flourished... 
 He told me that great disunion prevailed amongst 
 the colonists, principally from differences of religious 
 opinion. » (3) Yet they thought themselves qualified 
 to convert the Armenians to one or other of their 
 own shifting creeds, or to all of them at once. 
 
 To the Americans at Shoosha, in Georgia, the Rus- 
 sian emperor sent the following admonition. « Learn- 
 ing by the real state of things that you, since the 
 lime of your settlement at Shoosha, have not yet 
 
 (1) Hax than sen, Transcaucasia, ch. x, pp. 344, 5. 
 
 (2) Histoire de la Georgie, par M. Brosset, tome I, p. 504. 
 
 (3) Wilbraliam, Travels m the Trans-Caucasian Provinces, 
 ch. XVII, p. 182.
 
 584 CHAPTER VUI. 
 
 converted any body, and, deviating from the proper 
 limits » — the conversion of the heathen — « have 
 directed your views to the Armenian youth, which, 
 on the part of the Armenian clergy, has produced 
 complaints, the consequences of which may be very 
 disagreeable; his Majesty's ministers have concluded 
 to prohibit you all missionary labours, and for the 
 future to leave it to your own choice to employ your- 
 selves with agriculture, manufactures, or mechanical 
 trades. It has pleased his Majesty the Emperor to 
 confirm this decree. » (1) 
 
 It is true that the emperor tried to silence the 
 Catholics also, not because they had failed, like the 
 Americans, to convert the heathen, but because they 
 would have converted the whole country if he had 
 not prevented them. Yet D"^ Wagner found eight 
 hundred Catholics « at or near Kutais, » who all 
 spoke the Imeritian dialect; while the pupils of the 
 convent, to the number of thirty of forty, « could 
 read and write Georgian, and read Italian with toler- 
 able facility. » He notices too « the respect and es- 
 teem which (ihe Superior of the Franciscans) had 
 obtained in the town and country, » and observes, 
 — « I frequently witnessed the child-like veneration 
 in which he was held by the Armenian boys. » (2) 
 Baron Von Haxlhausen also mentions an Italian mis- 
 sionary, who « died thirty years ago, and the Geor- 
 gians number him among their Saints. » Such men 
 were opposed by the Czar, as the Americans were, 
 but for very different reasons. 
 
 (1) Quoted by Perkins, p. 221. 
 
 (2) Trave}s,\ol. II, eh. ill, p. 202.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC, 585 
 
 It is a curious illustration of the different policy 
 of England, and of the deplorable influence which 
 she everywhere exerts in support of seditious fana- 
 ticism or meddlesome unbelief, that when M"^ Per- 
 kins, whose operations we can now appreciate, soli- 
 cited the sympathy of the Right Hon. Henry Ellis, 
 British ambassador in Persia in 1835, he received 
 the following characteristic reply. « The proposed 
 introduction of the pure doctrines of the Reformed 
 church among the Nestorian Christians in this coun- 
 try cannot fail to be a matter of deep and serious in- 
 terest to His Majesty's government. » (1) Russia , 
 with more discretion, promptly dismissed the friends 
 of i\P Ellis as likely to prove, « very disagreeable, » 
 and suggested to them the more congenial pursuit of 
 manufactures or mechanical trades. 
 
 Lastly, — for we need not stay to multiply testi- 
 monies of which we have learned by this time to 
 appreciate the universality, — Sir Robert Porter 
 gives this account of the emissaries from Scotland. 
 « A Scotch colony of missionaries have established 
 themselves in the neighbourhood of Konstantino- 
 gorsk; but it may be regarded as an agricultural so- 
 ciety, rather than a theological college. » (2) 
 
 In Persia, — w here Jesuits once received honours 
 even in the lent of Nadir Schah, as their brethren did 
 in that of Akbar ; (3) and w here in our own day, Na- 
 poleon, comprehending with his infallible sagacity 
 all that such men could efl'cct, stipulated, by the 
 treaty of 1808, for protection in favour of all Jesuits 
 
 (1) Residence in Persia, etc., p. 219. 
 
 (2) Travels in Georgia, vol. I, p. 47. 
 
 (3) Cretineau Joly, tome VI, cli. I, p. 51.
 
 S86 CHAPTER VHI. 
 
 whom France might send lo ihal land, — Catholic 
 missionaries, having the apostolic graces of chastity 
 and holy poverty, have won the respect even of the 
 disciples of the false prophet, while a crowd of 
 American missionaries dispense on every side the 
 enormous funds entrusted to them. « The money 
 they lavish, » says the Prefect of the Armenian mis- 
 sions in Persia, « presents a strong temptalion to 
 certain Armenians, who follow them for a while, in 
 order to profit hy their profusion , but invariably 
 adhere to the tenets of their own religion. » (1) The 
 Armenian clergy, we are told by the wife of a Bri- 
 tish ambassadoi', « receive salaries » from them, like 
 their fellows in the neighbourhood of Urmia. Of the 
 French Lazarists, the same lady says, « These gen- 
 tlemen abounded in zeal and activity, but they were 
 poor, and wholly unable to contend against the trea- 
 sures of Boston. » (2) Such is every where the in- 
 fluence, when they have any, of Protestant mission- 
 aries. To generate corruption and immorality, 
 without producing even the semblance of religious 
 conviction ; to destroy failh, but never to inspire it; 
 and to hinder those who, in spite of their poverty, 
 know how to kindle the light of truth and charity in 
 all hearts — such is their deplorable work. And 
 their partizans at home are never weary of sending 
 them money to be employed in such aims. 
 
 They do not even attempt, as might be anticipated, 
 to convert the Persians, who suppose, like all Orien- 
 tals, that thev are atheists. Indeed M"^ Perkins in- 
 
 (1) Annals, vol. I, p. 95. 
 
 (2) Life and Manners in Persia, by Lady Sliiel, 
 
 p. 356.
 
 MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT, ETC. 587 
 
 cautiously relates an anecdote which shows, that the 
 Persians are quite as likely to convert the Protestants 
 as to be converted by ihem. « A pious English family 
 in Persia, » he says, « were surprised and shocked 
 on one day finding their little girl, then four years 
 old, kneeling with her face towards Mecca, and lisp- 
 ing the devotions of the false prophet. » (1) 
 
 But it is time to close this chapter, already extend- 
 ed to undue limits, and we may conclude it with an 
 anecdote not less curious than that which we have 
 just heard. Not long ago, a French traveller, jour- 
 neying from Ispahan to Bagdad, came upon a small 
 Catholic colony towards the close of a sultry day. 
 They were assembled together in the house of one of 
 them, and having recited vespers, were engaged, 
 when the traveller joined them, not in asking gifts 
 for themselves, but in praying for the conversion of 
 England! They seem to have understood, even in 
 their far home beyond the Tigris, that, in spile of 
 the zeal of some and the good intentions of many, 
 England is still, by her relentless warfare against 
 Unity, the great impediment to the conversion of the 
 heathen ; and that the surest way to obtain for them 
 admission into the family of God, was to solicit for 
 her the recovery of the gifts which she has lost, and 
 of the faith which she has denied. And these Persian 
 Christians were right. If England had remained 
 Catholic, it is probable that at this hour there would 
 not have been a pagan altar in the world. 
 
 (1) P. 343.
 
 TABLE OF GONTEiNTS. 
 
 VOL. II, 
 
 Chapter IV. — Missions in Ceylon P. 1 
 
 » V. — Missions in the Antipodes 79 
 
 » VI. — Missions in Oceanica 181 
 
 » VII. — Missions in Africa 287 
 
 )' VIII. — Missions in the Levant, Syria, and 
 
 Armenia 43 1 
 
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