
 
 
 
 <A^
 
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 LIE) RARY 
 
 OF THL 
 
 U N 1 VLRS ITY 
 
 or ILLI NOIS 
 
 B 
 
 K147b
 
 Escape of Dr. Kalley. 
 
 p. w-i.
 
 THE 
 
 EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 PEASANTS' COTTAGE IN MADEIRA. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. W. M. BLACKBURN, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
 No, 821 Chestnut Street.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 
 
 JAMES DUNLAP, Treas. 
 
 in the Clerk's OflBce of the District Court for the Eastern District 
 of Pennsylvania. 
 
 STE&EOTTPEI) BT WILUAM W. HARDING, PHILADELPHIA.
 
 B 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The work of the gospel in Madeira from 1838 to Ibou, uas 
 been called "the greatest fact of Modern Missions." Its his- 
 tory shows what Komanists can do, and what Bible-readers 
 can suffer in the nineteenth century. It proves the mighty 
 power of an open Bible, and of faith in the Son of God. 
 
 The author of this little volume acknowledges his indehted- 
 
 ness to several friends and authors, but especially to the Eev. 
 
 A. De Mattos, Pastor of the Portuguese Presbyterian Churches 
 
 in Illinois, to a little volume entitled, "Facts in Madeira," 
 
 and to the "Memoirs of the Rev. W. H. Hewitson." Much 
 
 care has been taken to present a correct narrative. It is part 
 
 of the history of the Presbyterian Church, and therefore may 
 
 very properly form a volume for the Presbyterian Board of 
 
 Publication. We may feel a chord in our hearts touched by 
 
 the term of reproach cast on the Bible-readers of Madeira — 
 
 *' the Calvinists." 
 
 W. M. B. 
 Erie, Pa.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGS 
 
 Madeira — The Purple Island — Its discovery — Colonized by 
 Portuguese — Vine introduced — Funchal — The people — Curious 
 sights — Cottages — Old fashioned bottles — Ignorance — Jails — 
 Famine — A story — What our little book will show — A parable. 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Dr. Kalley — How he was led to Madeira — "What he saw — 
 Need of Bibles — Errors in religion — Healing the sick — Mode 
 of teaching truth — The Bible by itself — Schools — Vote of 
 thanks— Meetings held — The glad tidings 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Bible readers — New discoveries — Bishop wants to see a 
 Bible — False charges — Bible cursed — Readers persecuted^ 
 Schools stopped — An Edict — A hasty arrest — How property 
 was lost — No justice in courts — Flight of the innocent — The 
 wood-sawyer — Leaving wealth for Christ's sake — Threats — 
 We'll not give up the Bible 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mrs. Alves — Enemies saw her light shining — Imprisoned — 
 Trial — Noble answer — Severe sentence — Death had no terrors 
 
 — Petition to the queen — Release— Exile.- 41 
 
 1* (5)
 
 6 CONTEXTS. 
 
 CnAPTER V. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 The Ret. "W. H. HE-wiTSoy — Dr. Kalley threatened — "Will not 
 flee — Modern Inquisition — Old law discovered — Dr. Kalley in 
 prison — The gospel in the jail — Crowds coming to hear him — 
 A new governor — Hints toward a St. Bartholemew's day — 
 Outrages — At Lisbon Dr. Kalley meets Hewitson — Hewitson's 
 youth — Studies — honours — Failure of health — Conversion — 
 Read a "living epistle" — Student of theology — His missionary 
 spirit — Travels — Call to Madeira — Ordained 47 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The tousg Missiowary — Church in the house at Madeira — 
 Many inquirers — A communion, ''the doors being shut for 
 fear" — An Apollos found — The carpenter — A puzzled priest — 
 The "Espirito Santo" — Plenty of jails in Romish countries — 
 Jeronymo — The Bible a cure for beggary — A poor cripple 
 thinking of the resurrection-body — The timid made bold — The 
 poor cursed by the priests — Elders chosen — Dark clouds — The 
 night-feast — Hewitson sick — Withered flowers — A Bible- 
 class — Romish anger — The missionary retires — Home again... 61 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Lawless vioLEycE — The Rutherfords— A meeting on Sabbath — 
 Letter from Hewitson — Mob about the house — Insults — Pleas 
 in vain — No law for " Calvinists" — An assault at night — A 
 lady's entreaty — The only refuge — The contrast — A sick lady 
 in danger — A cool consul — No protection — Insults to Eng- 
 land 76 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 Narrow escape of Dr. Kalley — The plan of attack — Choos- 
 ing the Sabbath — Vain appeals for protection — Dr. Kalley's 
 letters — Bolting the doors — Intent to kill — A marvellous escape 
 — Friends found — Violence — Sunday guns — Dr. Kalley carried 
 away in a hammock — Almost detected — Safe on a ship — Other 
 flights for life — Fiery trials 92
 
 CONTENTS. 7 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 The William op Glasgow — Bibles buried — Bible-readers for- 
 saking all — Refuge on ship-board — Prayers and hymns — Poor 
 Mariasinha— Barbarities — The sails unfurled — Joy and bro- 
 therly love — The true religion — Exiles for Trinidad 117 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A LOOK BACK AT MADEIRA — Why not a War with England? — 
 Officers deposed — No trial of the lawless — A decree — A bishop 
 in a pet — A wonderful letter 131 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Arsenio Nicos Da Silva — Two brothers — The priest and the 
 merchant — Arsenio's daughter — Disease — Dr. Kalley called — 
 Gospel taught — Da Silva learns the way of life — Is persecuted 
 — His son-in-law is a judge — Da Silva's flight 136 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Mr. Hewitsok in Trinidad — Visits Madeira on the way — The 
 exiles in Trinidad — How support themselves — Much suflfering 
 — Their spiritual condition — New arrivals — Da Silva becomes 
 pastor — Holding up both hands — Pilgrims and strangers — Mr. 
 Gonsalves visits them — Call from America 151 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Shepherd dying on the shore — Da Silva's health fails — 
 Comes to New York — His last hours — Burial — Letter to his 
 wife 166 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 An onTLOOK over the sea — Scattered exiles — No home found 
 — St. Kitts — Essequibo — Plan to come to America 174 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A FAREWELL TO THE IsLES — The finger of God — Arrivals — Letter 
 from Dr. Kalley — Partings — Welcome in the West — An old 
 woman — A happy death — A noble lady — Young ladies — The 
 exiles' testimony 182
 
 8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PA OB 
 
 Two HOUSEHOLD BANDS — The Vieira family — The Vasconcellas. 193 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A PASTOR FOR THE FLOCK — Hewitson's last labours and death — 
 Rev. A. De Mattos — Conclusion 208
 
 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PURPLE ISLAND. 
 ** The people that sat in darkness saw a great light.* 
 
 Out of the ocean rises Madeira. It looms up 
 before the voyager, rocky, brown, red, and purple, 
 with tinges of green from the forests and vineyards, 
 and tints of snow far up toward the blue sky. It 
 appears like one vast rock, grand and imposing, in 
 the distance. Coming nearer, under the mountain's 
 frown, the traveller finds that the coasts are set with 
 lofty cliffs, many of them more than a thousand 
 feet high. Above these rise the sharp pinnacles, 
 and jagged towers, shading the groves of heath and 
 broom. Coasting around, he sees, in the little nooks 
 where the cliffs are broken, small villages with white 
 walls, and the little Roman Catholic chapels up at 
 the head of the gorge. There are the homes of the 
 villagers, as snug and as quiet as the nests of doves 
 in the silent grove. 
 
 This is Madeira — Isle of Woods — or Isle of red 
 soil — or Isle of the colouring purple. It is not far 
 
 9
 
 10 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 from Morocco, and is six hundred miles from Spain, 
 the nearest civilized country. It is sixty miles 
 long, by twenty wide, though in some parts it is not 
 over five miles from one coast to the other. Around 
 it lie several smaller islands. Before the Christian 
 era there was some knowledge of this group, and a 
 scheme was proposed to make money there by col- 
 lecting a beautiful purple dye. They were then 
 called the Purple Islands. 
 
 About four hundred years ago, Gonsalves Zarco 
 was making a voyage for discovery along the 
 western coast of Africa. He was overtaken by a 
 violent storm, and all his crew expected to sink in 
 the deeps. They gave up all hope, when suddenly 
 an island appeared, and they made for its shores. 
 After landing they called it Porto Santo, or " Holy 
 Haven." Here a settlement of Portuguese was 
 formed. But the people were afraid to go to the 
 larger Island of Madeira. Some of them would 
 venture near it, but it looked so gloomy, and they 
 heard such strange sounds coming from its woods, 
 that they imagined it was the abode of awful giants 
 and terrific creatures — a land of darkness. 
 
 Gonsalves, however, ventured to pay a visit to 
 the awful island. The men on his vessel became 
 alarmed as they came nearer the shores, and thought 
 they saw monstrous giants on the coast. They 
 begged their commander not to expose them to 
 death. He kept on, until he proved to them that 
 their giants were only craggy rocks, and the horrid
 
 THE PURPLE ISLAND. 11 
 
 voices they heard were only the heatings of the 
 waves against the cliffs. He landed at a place 
 •which he named the *' Wolf's Den." The shores 
 were thick with tangled trees and vines. He 
 thought that men might live on an island where so 
 much wood was growing. 
 
 A colony from Portugal settled on the island. 
 They cleared the land by setting fire to the forests, 
 and thus they robbed it of its natural beauty. It 
 is said that these fires kept burning for seven years, 
 and left scarcely a tree on the island. This was 
 wrong, but not so wicked as the fires of persecution 
 kindled four hundred years afterward, to drive away 
 the Bible-readers. 
 
 A few slips of the grape-vine were brought from 
 the Isle of Cyprus and planted in Madeira. They 
 grew, and from them have grown the celebrated 
 vineyards of the Isle of Wines. The wealth of 
 Madeira is chiefly derived from its vineyards. 
 
 The traveller, making port on the south side of 
 the island, sees the Loo-Rock, grand and majestic 
 like a king on his throne, and the white pebbly 
 beach lies at his feet like the king's robe spread 
 on the floor. On this beach is the chief city, 
 Funchal. It looks white and brilliant, house above 
 house, Mid street above street, climbing up the 
 mountain side ; and outside the city, still on higher 
 terraces, are the cottages and ''quintas" or coun- 
 try residences. Yet higher up is the church of 
 "Our Lady of the Mount." One would suppose
 
 12 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 that if the "Lady" were very kind, she would have 
 given a hint to put her church lower down the hill, 
 so that some body might get to the door with a 
 little breath left in the lungs. It must be hard 
 penance to go up there to worship. 
 
 Were you to land at this harbour, you would be 
 met by many persons, all bowing to you, and some 
 of them besro-ing of vou. Off would go their tunnel- 
 shaped hats, and before you some poor cripple would 
 thrust himself, some boy with one arm, some woman 
 with a pale, soiled baby, or some black-eyed little 
 girl hoping for an alms. 
 
 You would think the streets were ail narrowed 
 down to lanes and alleys. If you wished to ride, 
 no fine horses and carriages would stand waiting, 
 but you would take a summer sleigh-ride. " Two 
 pleasant chubby little oxen" are harnessed to a thick 
 plank with low runners to it, and away they go 
 grating along over the pebbles with which the streets 
 are paved. It would be very much like riding on 
 one of the "scrapers" which we see used in making 
 turnpikes. 
 
 Palanquins are used to carry persons from one 
 place to another. Some of the wealthy class have 
 very fine sledges and palanquins cushioned and 
 covered with silk. A pony would be your best 
 vehicle if you were going up the mountains. Those 
 who wish to go up hill for eighteen miles may stand 
 by the Great Curral, or what seems to have been 
 an enormous crater. The visitor looks down six
 
 THE PURPLE ISLAND. 
 
 13 
 
 thousand feet, toward the earth's centre, and even 
 there sees the little houses and the chapel of some 
 village which is two thousand feet above the sea. 
 
 In the city there are many fine houses, but there 
 are more one story cottages with stone walls, stone 
 floors, stone seats, thatched roofs, and generally a 
 good coat of whitewash on the outside. 
 
 The stranger who never saw any old fashioned 
 bottles is amused to see the sheep-skins filled with 
 wine, and carried on the shoulders of peasants to 
 
 the market. Of course they know better than to 
 put " new wine into old bottles." It might not be 
 2
 
 14 
 
 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 very pleasing to a wine -bibber to look on tbe men 
 in their bare feet treading the grapes in the press, 
 especially in a warm, sweating day. 
 
 For many centuries there was deep mental dark- 
 ness on the minds of the people thicker than that 
 which alarmed the crew of Gonsalves. The Roman 
 Catholic religion did not make them intelligent. 
 They went to the little chapels, and heard mass, or 
 made confession, and thought these would take 
 them to heaven. Few of them could read, and 
 those who could read knew nothing of the true 
 Bible. Still fewer could write. This shows ih^t
 
 TUE PURPLE ISLAND. 15 
 
 the Bible-readers of modern times were among the 
 most intelligent classes. 
 
 There were plenty of jails where there were no 
 school-houses. Persons who had committed smaller 
 crimes were put in jail, to wait until their cases could 
 be tried in Lisbon. This kept them in prison many 
 years. Their expenses were to be paid by those 
 who complained against them. Hence accusers 
 became rare, for they did not like to pay for their 
 own accusations. This was not done however with 
 the Bible-readers, for they had to pay for their own 
 support in prison. There were plenty of accusers 
 when the word of God began to be read by the 
 more honest people. 
 
 A few years ago the vineyards began to fail. The 
 traveller could no longer pass along under the 
 shadow of the vines, and have rich clusters of grapes 
 hanging over his path. The fruit was cut off. It 
 brought a famine on the island. The Romanists 
 laid all this to the Bible-readers ! They said it was 
 a curse on the people for allowing such men as Dr. 
 Kalley and Mr. Hewitson to come among them and 
 establish schools, read the word of God, and have 
 meetings for prayer and praise. 
 
 The Christians of the United States took a deep 
 interest in the famishing people of Madeira. They 
 sent them the " finest of the wheat," and induced 
 them to cultivate such eatables as we raise in our 
 fields and gardens. And notice, the poor exiles 
 sent liberally of their "good things" to the very
 
 16 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 persecutors who had driven them from home. This 
 was returning good for evil. 
 
 The famine made many people poor. The women 
 of the island, who have always done most of the 
 labour, began to turn their skill to good account. 
 They made fancy articles of a very superior quality, 
 such as laces, edgings, paper-cutters, card-cases, 
 work-boxes, and writing-desks. They took the 
 dark Til-wood of the old wine-presses, and made 
 beautiful articles for foreign parlours. 
 
 A little romantic story may point the close of 
 this chapter : 
 
 Some years ago, a peasant girl was accustomed 
 to come down the mountain, barefooted but light- 
 hearted, with a bundle of small wood, which she 
 sold in the town. Her pleasant face and honest 
 manner attracted the notice of a wealthy gentleman, 
 who gave her a home in his house. She became 
 the lady of the mansion, the wife of her protector. 
 After his death, she became the wife of a young 
 lawyer of rising fame and excellent talents. He 
 rose to be the governorof the island, and she filled her 
 high position with elegance and courtly grace. The 
 most polite people admired her and thought that she 
 could not be excelled. No doubt this may seem 
 quite strange. 
 
 But our little book will show something far more 
 strange. It is this : The Lord can take a poor, 
 ignorant peasant and make him a child of God. 
 He did it in Madeii'a. He can take a crippled
 
 THE PURPLE ISLAND. 17 
 
 beggar and make him a bright ornament in his 
 kingdom, and a labourer in his vineyard. He did it 
 with poor Jeronymo. He can take a rich lady and 
 make her willing to suffer in the meanest prisons, 
 and cause her to leave a home of luxury, to be very 
 happy in a little narrow room on a foreign island 
 where she had not as much to eat as the bare-footed 
 peasant giid on the cold mountain. He did it with 
 Mrs. Yieira and Mrs. Alves. AVe have interwoven 
 many brief histories which show how much true 
 Christians can endure gladly for Christ's sake, and 
 how happy the Lord can make his suffering children. 
 When they enter the glorious mansions of eternal 
 rest, it will be said of them, '• These are they which 
 came out of great tribulation." 
 
 The Lord had a vineyard on beautiful Madeira. 
 On it shined the ^' Sun of righteousness." On it 
 fell the showers of grace and the gentle dews of 
 Ilermon. The vines grew full of goodly clusters. 
 The frosts came and ripened them. The persecu- 
 tors trod the grapes in the wine-press of suffering, 
 and the rich wine of love and patience was wrung 
 out of pious hearts. Enemies began to pull up the 
 Lord's vines, "so that they might never bear any 
 more fruit. They tore them up rudely, threw them 
 into the desert, and cast them into the seas. But 
 the Master took the torn vines and transplanted 
 them in another large and rich vineyard. Some of 
 them he planted in heaven. The grapes of Eshcol 
 were not richer thjm the goodly clusters ^Nhich these 
 2*
 
 18 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 vines bore for their Lord. He was saying to them 
 ■when they were broken and bleeding, " Herein is 
 my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." 
 
 Our little book "will tell the meaning of this 
 parable. It will not tell of such bloody scenes as 
 are written in the history of the Waldenses or the 
 Huguenots, or the Hollanders, or the martyrs of 
 Smithfield, and the Tolbooth of Scotland. It will 
 not tell of the wheel, the stake, the theatre of wild 
 beasts, nor the trap-door of the Inquisition. It is 
 not such a record of murders as Fox's Book of 
 Martyrs. But it shows that the "man of sin" is 
 just the same that he was in the olden days when 
 Rome put to death thousands of Christians in ways 
 too horrible to be described ; and that now, in this 
 time of light and mercy, he is as cruel toward Bible- 
 readers and praying believers as he dares to be. 
 There was cruelty enough, and blood enough shed, 
 to entitle Madeira to the old name of the Purple 
 Island.
 
 FIRST GOSPEL LABOURS IN MADEIRA. 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FIRST GOSPEL LABOURS IX MADEIRA. 
 
 Robert R. Kalley was a young physician in 
 Scotland, lie felt it his duty to go as a missionary to 
 China, and was ordained by the Free Church to 
 preach the gospel. In 1838 he and his wife left 
 their home to go to China. 
 
 On the voyage Mrs. Kalley was smitten with dis- 
 ease. Her friends thought she could not live to 
 reach China. There was no vessel to carry them 
 back to Scotland, and so they turned aside to visit 
 Madeira. There were then many English residents 
 on the island. There was a Scottish church in the 
 chief city. 
 
 Dr. Kalley thought, that while hindered from 
 labouring in one field, he should do all that he could 
 in another, just as the Apostle did, when prevented 
 from going to Italy. He knew not a word of the 
 Portuguese language. In a few hours after he 
 landed he began his task in the most practical way. 
 He rushed out of his dark room, entered a store and 
 asked for a candle. No one understood him. He 
 pointed to a candle, and asked the Portuguese name
 
 20 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 for it. He learned what to say -when he wanted a 
 candle. In this way he learned word after word. 
 No doubt he learned much from the English residents 
 who spoke the language. Probably too he had other 
 teachers. 
 
 He looked about on the people and pitied their 
 ignorance and blindness, just as Paul did in Athens. 
 For centuries they had been denied the use of the 
 Bible. The Romish priests may have had a few 
 Bibles, but they would not let the people have them. 
 It was a sin for any one to search the Scriptures for 
 himself. Many of the islanders had never seen a 
 Bible, nor known there was such a book. 
 
 Dr. Kalley says — "I met with few of them who 
 had ever seen a Bible, or seemed to know that the 
 New Testament was written by men who went about 
 with the Lord Jesus, when he dwelt on the earth — 
 who saw his miracles, heard his words, gazed upon 
 him as he went up to heaven, and described what 
 they knew by the testimony of their own senses. 
 When one part of it was shown to them as the work 
 of Peter, another as that of John, and a third as 
 that of Matthew, some doubted and wanted proofs, 
 others listened with eager interest, while a portion 
 of it was read to them as a specimen of its con- 
 tents." 
 
 None of them had in their possession a copy of 
 the Scriptures. A long time since a translation had 
 been made of the Bible into the Portuguese by 
 Antonio Pereira, a Romish priest. This had been
 
 FIRST GOSPEL LABOURS IN MADEIRA. 21 
 
 sanctioned by the Queen and the Patriarch of Por- 
 tugal. Eighty volumes of these are said to have 
 been sent to Madeira free of duty for the use of the 
 priests and a few government schools that were 
 formed on the island. 
 
 The people were Roman Catholics. They believed 
 in the Pope, and they worshipped the Virgin Mary. 
 Mary, whom we believe to be a saint in heaven, 
 would have been better pleased, if they had read the 
 -words of Jesus, and prayed in his name, as he taught 
 us all to do. They had images in their houses and 
 churches. They gave money to priests for masses, 
 and for saying prayers to release their friends from 
 purgatory. There is no such place as purgatory, 
 but they supposed there was. They confessed their 
 sins to the priests, and bought their pardons with 
 money. They sometimes went about wdth a staff 
 which had a little image of a pigeon on the top of 
 it, and a red cloth tied to it, asking men to worship 
 it, as the Holy Ghost ! If men would not bow to 
 the little image of Christ on the cross, they were 
 regarded as darinor infidels. 
 
 Dr. Kalley did not attack the errors of Romanism 
 at first, by trying to show the people how foolish 
 and useless many of their services and doctrines 
 "were. He took the better plan. He tried to get 
 the people to read the word of God. Many of 
 them heard of the wonderful book, and were anxious 
 to see it. Many of them could say as Luther did, "Oh 
 that God would give me such a book for myself!"
 
 22 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 Our Lord not only taught those who came to hear 
 his words, but also healed the sick, the lame, the 
 blind. Dr. Kalley resolved to do the same as far 
 as he could. He early prepared a large hospital, 
 and offered to give medicine to all who would come. 
 It was as well furnished with comforts for the poor 
 and the infirm as his means would allow. He had 
 his office in which he examined his patients, and 
 another room for his medicines in the same building. 
 All who came for medical advice were required to 
 be at the hospital by nine o'clock in the morning, 
 or he could not attend to them on that day. Often 
 there were fifty or more persons at that hour wait- 
 ing for Dr. Kalley. When he entered the hospital 
 they were assembled together. His first business 
 was to read a chapter in the Bible and then explain 
 it to them. Thus he began his daily work by call- 
 ing their attention to the word of God. After this 
 he distributed tickets among them. These tickets 
 were simply numbered one, two, three, &c. up to 
 the number of applicants. He then went into his 
 office, and each one came as his number was called. 
 When he had ascertained the disease of the patient, 
 he wrote his prescription, and it was taken to the 
 drug department, and the medicine was obtained. 
 
 He became known as an excellent physician, and 
 was often called to visit the sick at their homes. 
 He, in his kind manner, sought to do more than 
 heal the body. He examined the patient, and then 
 said that he could not give health ; God alone could
 
 FIRST GOSPEL LABOURS IN MADEIRA. 23 
 
 raise up tlie sick. Often did he kneel by the bed-side 
 and ask God to make him wise in giving the proper 
 remedy, and make it the means of restoring health. 
 
 When he had given the medicine, he would take 
 the patient by the hand and say, " Now you must 
 pray to the Lord Jesus Christ ; he is the great 
 Physician, and can heal the sick." He then had 
 an opportunity of telling of the wondrous works of 
 the Saviour. Sometimes he would say to the sick, 
 "You have another disease of which I have not 
 spoken, and it is a very bad disease." 
 
 " What is it, doctor ?" the sick would anxiously 
 inquire. 
 
 " It is a very fatal disease, and if not cured it 
 will ruin you. But bad as it is, there is a remedy 
 for it." 
 
 " But what is it, doctor ?" 
 
 " I will tell you. It is not a disease of the body, 
 but of the soul. It is sin. We are all sinners, and 
 our sins must be pardoned, or our souls must perish 
 for ever. I have a book with me called The Bible, 
 that will teach you how Jesus Christ came into this 
 world, and shed his blood and died, that sinners 
 might be saved." 
 
 This stranore news often led the sick to wish for 
 the wonderful book, and to be anxious to learn 
 more of the Saviour. The Bible was often read in 
 the sick room, and one person would tell another the 
 glad tidings. 
 
 Dr. Kalley left the Bible to tell its own truths as
 
 24 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 much as possible. Surely none could reasonably 
 object to this. When any persons came to him with 
 passages they could not understand, he showed 
 them other verses in the Bible, which would ex- 
 plain the meaning. He wanted the word of God to 
 do the work. He thus taught them how to prove 
 the newly learned doctrines by the Scriptures. 
 Some of the Bible-readers went to the priests, but 
 could get no light, and were rudely told to burn or 
 throw away the book. The readers often knew more 
 than the priests. 
 
 A school was soon established. The Bible was 
 the first book in which the people were taught to 
 read English. They learned very rapidly, so 
 anxious were they to know what was in the " good 
 book." Portuguese Bibles were distributed. One 
 of the visitors of the school said : " It is, I believe, 
 no exaggeration to say, that lumdreds of the j)eo2de^ 
 who before were almost as ignorant as the beasts 
 they drove, are now intelligent readers of the 
 Bible." 
 
 Other schools were established on the island, at 
 different points, not for religious instructions alone, 
 but for teaching the common branches of learning. 
 He paid the teachers from his own purse, and 
 furnished books for the scholars. In some of these 
 schools the teachers were Romanists, and the only 
 books were a small Romish primer, and a New 
 Testament translated by a Romish priest. Surely
 
 FIRST '^ 'CPEL LABOURS IN MADEIRA. 25 
 
 there ought not to have heen any objections to this, 
 by the Romanists. 
 
 It often happens that what costs nothing is worth 
 nothing, but the people did not think so in this case. 
 The schools became very popular. They prospered 
 beyond the expectations of their founder. Eight 
 hundred men and women were soon attending these 
 schools, and, how many children were with them, 
 we cannot tell. The private houses of some of the 
 people were turned into school-rooms, and filled 
 with scholars. Never had there been so much study, 
 so much improvement in mind and morals, nor so 
 much happiness in Madeira. 
 
 The people were amazed at the benevolence of 
 Dr. Kalley. He gained their hearts. The children 
 called him " the good man." They were learning 
 to sing for joy. He saw the harvest growing ripe. 
 The chief men in Funchal saw what a great work 
 was set on foot. They passed a vote of thanks to 
 Dr. Kalley for his acts of benevolence in establish- 
 ing a hospital for the poor and the sick, and schools 
 for the ignorant people. 
 
 It should be noted that the adult schools were 
 generally held in the evening. The number who 
 were thus taught to read the Bible, for themselves, 
 was over one thousand ; and as many as twenty-five 
 hundred adults had sought to grow wiser and better 
 by attending these evening schools. 
 
 Meetings were held as early as 1842, in different 
 
 places. Hundreds came to hear the word of God. 
 3
 
 26 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 When Dr. Kalley could not preacli to them, some 
 one stood up, like Ezra in old times, and read the 
 " Book of the Law." Ezra read almost half a day, 
 and still the people were not wearied. Nor were 
 these islanders tired of long readings and long 
 sermons. They were hungry for the word. If one 
 had preached, as Paul did, till midnight, they would 
 have listened gladly, and I much doubt whether any 
 Eutychus would have gone to sleep and fallen out 
 of a window. The word was "sweeter than honey 
 and the honey-comb." 
 
 Many walked ten or twelve hours to attend a 
 meeting. They climbed over mountains 8000 feet 
 high. And while they stood and heard of Christ 
 and his great love, they looked at the reader or the 
 preacher with solemn wonder, or raised the hand to 
 brush away the starting tear. Never had they 
 heard these glad tidings from their priests, and 
 perhaps the " Padre" who had hailed and threatened 
 them as they passed by the chapel of '* Our Lady 
 of the Mount," knew very little of the gospel him- 
 self. 
 
 For several months there were not fewer than 
 one thousand persons attending these meetings in 
 the open air, every Sabbath. Often there were two 
 or three thousand, and once they were reckoned at 
 five thousand. Many of these meetings were held 
 on the mountain side, like that on which the Saviour 
 sat, and uttered the great blessings of the sermon on 
 the mount. A few hymns were sung to such good
 
 FIRST GOSPEL LABOURS IN MADEIRA. 27 
 
 old tunes as the Portuguese Hymn, and Old Hun- 
 dred. Few were there who did not "join in the song 
 and love the praise." 
 
 The people began to talk about the "glad news" 
 while walking along the roads or resting in the fields. 
 Under many a vine a little group was gathered to 
 read or hear the story of the Cross. In many a 
 vineyard songs were sung, such as never before 
 echoed from Madeira's rugged cliffs. 
 
 Very little seed fell by the way-side, to be picked 
 up by the fowls of the air ; very little fell among 
 thorns, to be choked and destroyed ; very little in 
 stony places, to grow only for a few days ; almost 
 all the good seed fell in good ground, and was bring- 
 ing forth fruit an hundred fold.
 
 28 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BIBLE READERS. 
 
 People who love to hear the truth will always 
 want to read it. This was true of those islanders 
 who walked so many miles, and climbed such high 
 mountains, to hear the Bible read. This holy book 
 ■was offered them and they gladly took it, and began 
 to read it as the noble Bereans. Protestants always 
 urge every man, woman, and child to " search the 
 Scriptures," as the Saviour told us to do. 
 
 Some of these islanders read the Bible for several 
 days, and did not think how it condemned popery. 
 They perhaps thought they would soon find some- 
 thing about mass, penance, purgatory, and priestly 
 confession, but they could find nothing of the kind. 
 They could see how useless and foolish such doctrines 
 were. They could see that Jesus Christ died for 
 sinners — "once for all" — and hence there was no 
 need of mass. They read the words, " Confess your 
 faults one to another ;" and then thought thus, 
 "Now if that means that we should confess to the 
 priest, he also should confess to us ; and therefore 
 it does not mean either."
 
 THE BIBLE READERS. 29 
 
 More than one thousand persons were reading the 
 Bible. They carried it home. They talked to 
 their neighbours about it. They found out how 
 they had been cheated, and how falsely they had 
 been taught. But they learned to love their ene- 
 mies. They did not abuse nor injure the priests. 
 They did not go and break down altars nor burn 
 clmrches. They prayed that God would convert all 
 the people. 
 
 The Romanists at first pretended that they were 
 very willing for the people to have the Bible. 
 yes I all they wish is to keep them from having un- 
 sound and altered Bibles ! Thus they pretended 
 at Madeira. In 1840 the Bishop said that he would 
 be glad to see a copy of the Bible which the people 
 were so eagerly reading. One was soon sent to him. 
 He put it into the hands of some examiners. They 
 searched it. Two years after, they reported that 
 there was scarcely a chapter or verse, but had been 
 changed and corrupted. This was without a shadow 
 of truth. Dr. Kalley had the copies he circulated, 
 very carefully compared with the version which the 
 Romanists pretended to sanction, and the result 
 proved that the Bishop had only condemned him- 
 self. Certified comparisons were posted up in the 
 streets, that people might see how unjust the Bishop 
 was. A royal mandate arrived from Lisbon giving 
 full sanction to the very edition which Dr. K. was 
 circulating. This ought to have made the Bishop 
 3*
 
 30 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 careful lest he " be found fighting against God." 
 Bat it did not. He raged. 
 
 The Bishop pronounced a curse on the Bible, and 
 on all who should read it. The teachers under Dr. 
 Kallej were warned " not to teach any living being !" 
 If they did, they should be arrested ; and after such 
 an arrest there was little chance of liberty or life. 
 
 In 1843, a severe persecution began against all 
 the Bible-readers. If the people should read it, 
 they would be certain to renounce popery. The 
 Priests called it " a book from hell I" Its readers 
 knew it was a book from heaven. How it pained 
 their hearts to hear it proclaimed that '* the Bible 
 should be burned !" One spring day two converts 
 came to the Presbyterian church in Funchal, and 
 sat down at the Lord's table. This was only re- 
 nouncing Romanism. It required boldness to do it. 
 The Bishop heard of it and cursed them, I suppose, 
 "by bell, book, and candle." Nor were these idle 
 threats. Persons were forbid to even touch 
 them. " Let none give them fire, water, bread, or 
 anything that may be necessary to them for their 
 support. Let none pay them their debts." No 
 Bible-readers would ever be so cruel as this ! 
 
 One officer went to a school, which the English 
 people supported by their charities, and took away 
 thirty Bibles, with all the Testaments he could find. 
 A judge went, with some officers, to the jail, and 
 searched the boxes of the prisoners for Bibles. 
 They took away every one they could lay hands on,
 
 THE DIBLE READERS. 31 
 
 and probably burne<l tliem. But these readers 
 were ready to say, " We'll not give up the Bible." 
 They were cast into the worst prisons with the most 
 wicked men, who annoyed them day and night by 
 singing the vilest songs, while they were not allowed 
 to sing a hymn of praise to God. One of the jails 
 was near the cathedral, and the Romanists in pass- 
 ing by the Bible-readers, would spit in their faces, 
 while these converts would show a christian spirit 
 by praying for their enemies. On one prison door 
 was written, ^' No reading and no singing of the 
 Bible here!" 
 
 Of course the schools must be stopped ! The 
 church of Rome had, certainly, a good chance in 
 Madeira to show whether she was the friend of ed- 
 ucation. And she did show her regard for the best 
 schools ever sustained on the island, by aiming a 
 heavy blow at all the teachers. It is not often that 
 public documents make popular reading, but here 
 is a gem which must not be lost. It shows Rome's 
 friendship for education. It is an order sent to the 
 overseers in every parish : 
 
 " Sir : — On the receipt of this, you will summon 
 to your presence, the teachers male and female of 
 all the schools established and supported by Dr. 
 Kalley, existing in your parish ; and in the presence 
 of two witnesses, charge them henceforth not to teach 
 any living being. * If, after being duly notified, any 
 
 ** * Compare Acts iv. 16-18 ; where the rulers of the Jews attempted 
 to silence the Apostles : What shall we do to these men? for that
 
 82 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 of them should continue to teach, you can immedi- 
 ately send them to this administration in charge of 
 two officers of police. You will cause this order to 
 be faithfully executed, and report the result by 
 Monday next, giving the names of all ■vvho have 
 been notified. God save you." [Signed.) 
 
 In several personal sketches we will show how 
 these teachers were treated. One case we now 
 cite. An intelligent man, after sufi"ering many evils 
 from the priests, taught an evening school in a part 
 of the island. Not one word had he said to injure 
 the government. He w^as teaching the people how 
 to be well governed. They were improving in 
 morals and industry. But the school must be 
 stopped. Whether the above order was read to him 
 or not, is not known. But there was an unjust way 
 to take him, when there was a wicked will. 
 
 *' One night, during the hours of instruction, a 
 party of men, led by the Church beadle, came to 
 the school with a fictitious warrant, for the appre- 
 hension of the teacher. But as it was not issued by 
 a legal authority, and it was brought moreover at 
 an illegal hour, the teacher most properly refused 
 
 indeed a notable miracle hath been done by thein is manifest to all 
 them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But that it 
 spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, 
 that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they 
 called them, and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in 
 the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto 
 them. Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you 
 more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things 
 which we have seen and heard."
 
 THE BIBLE READERS. 33 
 
 to obey it. His scholars took part with him. !Many 
 of their relations and friends collected ; and the 
 bearers of the illegal warrant were obliged to with- 
 draw without the teacher, but also, it must be added, 
 without having been subjected to the slightest 
 violence. 
 
 " The conduct of the scholars was represented as 
 * sedition and resistance of justice,' and the public 
 prosecutor denounced them as Miguelites,* ledonby 
 Dr. Kallej ! On that day week the judge and 
 public prosecutor, with a notary, and about sixty 
 soldiers proceeded at night to the Lombo das Fayas. 
 The houses of the scholars, chiefly Bible-readers, 
 were broken open — thirty men and women were 
 taken prisoners — most of them were bound — many 
 of them were beaten, and some of them very severely 
 — and their houses were given up to be sacked by 
 the soldiers, who committed the most horrible atro- 
 cities." 
 
 They were put in prison, denied the liberty to 
 read the word of God, and driven to mass at the 
 point of the bayonet. For nearly two years they 
 lay pining in the jail, supported only by kind English 
 friends who learned their starving condition and 
 visited them. Had it not been for the English 
 residents many deaths would have occurred by star- 
 vation in the prisons. 
 
 After these converts were cursed by the Bishops or 
 priests, no one dared to do any business with them. 
 
 * Followers of Don Miguel the usurper and tyrant.
 
 34 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 Thus they lost their property. No one dared to 
 buy it. If two men were in partnership and one 
 became a Bible-reader the other could have all the 
 property. Two poor men were partners in sawing 
 wood. The one who owned two-thirds of the 
 machinery became a Christian, but the other con- 
 tinued to worship images and pictures like a devoted 
 papist. The first tried to sell out to the other, but 
 as he was "cursed," he could not induce him to 
 buy. He then proposed that both should sell out 
 and divide the profits, but this plan would not do. 
 He then appealed to a judge, and when the judge 
 learned that one was a convert, he gave the other 
 all the property, and made the innocent loser pay 
 all the costs ! 
 
 No Bible-reader could obtain justice from any 
 court in Madeira. No one could forsake the Bomish 
 church, or keep away from mass and confession, 
 without losing his property. If the converts had any 
 relatives who were Bomanists, the latter could take 
 their houses and lands; if there were no relatives, 
 the priests and the government divided the confis- 
 cated wealth among themselves. A few exiles, 
 before leaving the island, sold their property for 
 almost nothing, but even this was against the curse 
 of the priest, who decreed that it was wrong to touch 
 or talk with a Bible-reader. The lepers of old were 
 not more carefully to be shunned. This was a high 
 compliment to the power of the Bible and the in-
 
 THE BIBLE READERS. 35 
 
 fluence of Its readers. Before them Romanism could 
 not stand long. 
 
 Another very rich man became poor for the sake 
 of his Lord and Master. He would not allow his 
 Bible to be taken away. He and his family fled for 
 their lives. They escaped to the mountains, among 
 the vineyards, and hid among the vines. The 
 priests and soldiers could not find them, to put 
 them in prison. Around his large house in the 
 city were vines, plants, and flowers. It was a 
 beautiful home. To give up all this and be hunted 
 like a wild beast, where he could have no bed but 
 the hard soil and no shelter but grape leaves, was 
 surely a great trial. Yet he was not left unhappy 
 by his Lord. If we should be tried thus, we should 
 learn whether we have any faith or not. They at 
 last found refuge in a vessel bound for Trinidad. 
 
 One man was thrice in prison, and even saw his 
 wife put into a horrid dungeon. He would not 
 yield. Then severer measures were used. He was 
 beaten with rods, until he could not move for several 
 days. But he was firm. He told them, " they 
 might scourge him until he was dead ; he could die, 
 but he could not give up the Bible." He became 
 an Elder in the church, and came to this country 
 with the exiles. 
 
 The wealthiest land-owner on the island was J. 
 F. Lomelino. He was the oldest son in his father's 
 house, and inherited a large estate. According to 
 the laws of the island his property could not be
 
 36 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 taken from hira, and yet he lost it. He was for 
 some time an officer in Funchal, and was highly re- 
 spected as an intelligent and honourable man. He 
 retired when thirty-five years of age, to his native 
 village of St Da Sara, and became its chief magis- 
 trate. He heard of Dr. Kalley's school, though he 
 never attended. As the people were telling one 
 another of the wonderful things in the Bible, he be- 
 came curious to learn what such a book could con- 
 tain. 
 
 He went to Dr. Kalley asking, " What do these 
 things mean ?" The story of the cross was told to 
 him. It was to him very wonderful. Was it not 
 strancre that he had not heard it before ? If the 
 Romanists were true Christians, surely they would 
 teach that I But they had never taught him how to 
 be saved through the death of Jesus Christ. 
 
 He obtained a Bible, took it home, read it eager- 
 ly, and loved its truths. It was precious to him. 
 The people about him came to learn what he had 
 that made him so happy. They said, " This man 
 soon talk more strong on the gospel than any other 
 of the people." 
 
 But enemies soon were spying out his libert3^ 
 Some one told the Bible-haters that he read the 
 word of God, and denied that the bread in the sa- 
 crament was the real body of Christ. He was seized, 
 torn away from his family, tried before the court, 
 and of course put into prison. His foes might tor- 
 ture him if they chose, but he would not give up the 
 
 ^Zr-'
 
 TUE BIBLE READERS. 37 
 
 Bible. Thev could not take its truths out of his 
 head and heart. 
 
 In the jail of Funchal was a place called the 
 Bomba. It was a most disojustins: deu of filth. It 
 was only twelve feet square. In it were often 
 placed twenty persons, and when a friend would go 
 there to give them bread, he would come away sick and 
 almost unable to walk. It is most likely that Mr. 
 Lomelino was often put in the Bomba, for the spite 
 of his persecutors was so great that they tortured 
 him all they could. Other prisoners said that if 
 any severity of suffering, or abuse of words, or 
 loathsome condition, was to be endured, it was re- 
 served for him. They were ready to let a Barabbas 
 go free, but an innocent disciple of Jesus must 
 suffer. 
 
 The reason was plain. They hated him the 
 worst, because they feared him most. They did not 
 fear his hands, for he was meek, patient, and for- 
 giving. He was careful not to say a word against 
 the government or the religion of the island. If he 
 could have been free, he would not have forced any 
 one to read the Bible, nor done harm to any of his 
 persecutors. They knew this. What they feared 
 was his influence. lie was intelligent, and wouUi 
 lead others to read tlie word of God. 
 
 He was obliged to pay for his own support in 
 
 prison. After nearly two years' suffering, he, with 
 
 twenty-one others, was released from the jail. They 
 
 were told that if they did not return at once to the 
 
 4
 
 38 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 Romisli church, they should be imprisoned again 
 on charges which would be sure to convict them. 
 In those days if a witness did not give evidence to 
 please the priest, they threatened him with imprison- 
 ment. False witnesses could be hired, just as they 
 were against Jesus. 
 
 After these twenty-two persons were set at liberty 
 aorain, (and such liberty !) some enemies threatened 
 to murder them. Open violence soon broke forth. 
 On the very evening when they left the jail, some 
 Komanists were carrying the "host" in procession 
 past a poor Protestant's house. These bearers of 
 the host pretended to be very devout and solemn. 
 But some of them broke open the poor man's door 
 and destroyed all the property on which they could 
 lay their hands. On the same day another poor 
 man was quietly going home, thinking perhnps how 
 his house had been burned to the ground five months 
 before, or how he should provide for his large family 
 of children. He was attacked and cruelly knocked 
 down. His arm was broken by the first blow, four 
 wounds on his head laid bare his skull, and the very 
 women bit him as he lay on the ground ; one of them 
 tore the flesh from his cheek with her teeth ! 
 
 Mr. Loraelino went home, but his family were 
 gone. They too were Bible-readers, and had been 
 driven away. He was there but a few days when 
 he was arrested again. He admitted before the 
 court that he read the word of God. For this he 
 was sentenced to five years' banishment. But he
 
 THE BIBLE READERS. 39 
 
 appealed to the higher courts of Lishon, and re- 
 mained in prison on the island for eight months, 
 until the time of his further trial. Of course he 
 also lost his property. 
 
 One day his fellow prisoners gnashed on him with 
 their teeth and cried out, " Now, dog, prepare to die, 
 for your God dies to-day ! Dr. Kalley is to be 
 killed before to-morrow morning." He was aware 
 that plots had often been laid against his own life 
 in the prison, but he was not troubled by them. 
 He was, however, in great sorrow when he was told 
 that Dr. Kalley was to be murdered. How base 
 and ungrateful his countryman were to their best 
 earthly benefactor ! How awful their crime of kill- 
 ing a man who was doing so much to teach men 
 how to be saved ! Yet he thought of the suffering 
 Saviour, and felt able to say, " I am ready to die, 
 and expect to die ; or I am ready to live and suffer for 
 Jesus' name." He was not banished by the judges, 
 but was held in prison for several months longer. 
 
 When he came to the United States in 1848, he was 
 asked if it was not hard to live in a dungeon three 
 years, when he knew he was innocent. " Oh no," 
 said he, " it is not hard if you believe in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ and in the Bible." He said that he 
 often thought of Paul and Silas singing in the 
 prison at midnight, and he often wanted to sing as 
 they did, but was not permitted. The vilest songs 
 were allowed to be sung by wicked men who laughed 
 at his religion.
 
 40 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 In those days the Bible-readers fled to the caves, 
 to the woods, and a ^realthy young lady was so 
 closely pursued that she hid in a sewer of the street. 
 Some died in their efforts to escape. It would be 
 impossible to tell the half that was suffered. 
 
 At one time the government formed the idea of a 
 massacre of the Christians. They were told by 
 officers that if they still persisted in reading the 
 word of God, they should be burned; and thus an 
 end would be put to the heresy. 
 
 These converts replied in the true spirit of primi- 
 tive martyrs : " We are willing to be shut up in this 
 prison, and suffer here, and we are willing to be 
 burned; but we are not willing to give up this book, 
 and to give up our faith." 
 
 There is no doubt but this Bible-reading was the 
 prime cause of the persecutions that followed. 
 Romanism can never live among those who read the 
 Bible in their own houses. The cry of the great 
 corrupt church is, ''Away with the Bible !" The word 
 of our Lord is, " Search the Scriptures." The Be- 
 reans could not have been Roman Catholics. ^' They 
 searched the Scriptures daily." There was no 
 Romanism in the home of young Timothy, for he 
 knew the Scriptures from a child. But all Bereans, 
 all the Loises, the Eunices, and Timothys on Madeira 
 were persecuted. What would St. Peter have said 
 to all this ? '' Grow in knowledge."
 
 MRS. MARIA JOAQUINA ALVES. 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MRS. MARIA JOAQUINA ALVES. 
 
 " She has been called to such a trial of her faith as has fallen to 
 the lot of no other Christian woman in the nineteenth century." 
 
 This noble woman was the wife of Manuel Alves, 
 and the mother of seven children, one of whom was 
 a tender babe when she was first taken from them. 
 She lived in the village of Santa Cruz, twenty-five 
 or thirty miles from Funchal. It would seem that 
 her home was a pleasant one, and well furnished 
 with the comforts of this life. 
 
 In some way the Bible came into her hands. It 
 was a new book to her. She read it, and found that 
 Jesus was the only Saviour of sinners. She learned 
 that saints, angels, and the Virgin Mary, were not 
 able to save. She discovered that her former teach- 
 ers had deceived her. Her prayer was directed to 
 Jesus Christ, who heard her and forgave her sins. 
 Great was her joy in the Saviour. She told her 
 neighbours, as the woman of Samaria did, when she 
 invited the people to come and see Jesus. 
 
 Her light was shining and her enemies saw it. 
 They saw that her godly life and fervent prayers
 
 42 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 "would lead many to become lovers of God and his 
 word. Tbej thought they would fill the minds of 
 others with terror by making an example of her. 
 She was arrested and placed in the village jail for 
 nine months. Then she was removed to the prison 
 at Funchal. This loathsome place was her home 
 for years, where she breathed only the spirit of 
 prayer for her persecutors. She was put in a room 
 with twenty more, to be exposed to their ridicule and 
 insults. At length she had a separate room, but 
 there was no door to protect her. She took with 
 her a Xew Testament, concealed in her bosom, so 
 that in her lonely days she could still read the 
 words of comfort and faith. Soon however she was 
 searched, her Testament was found, and thrown 
 to the flames. Her friends gave her two others at 
 different times, but they were taken and burned. 
 Yet she was cheerful. Her mind was stayed on her 
 Saviour. It is wonderful how the truth and love 
 of God can make the greatest sufferers happy. She 
 was willing to die if that was her Lord's will. For 
 her children she must have been very anxious. 
 
 The more firm her faith was, the more angry were 
 her persecutors. They resolved that she should 
 suffer the severest penalty of the law. The long- 
 expected day for her trial came. She went into the 
 court room, prepared for the sentence of death. The 
 court made a great display. The judge was very 
 grave. Her indictment was read. Three charges 
 were written against her, " Apostasy, heresy, and
 
 MRS. ALVES. 4B 
 
 blasphemy I" She was tried only for blasphemy. 
 And what had she done that was blasphemous ? She 
 had refused to say that the " wafer" in the Romish 
 communion was the real body and the real blood of 
 Jesus Christ, and refused to adore it ! Just what 
 any of us who know what common sense is, would 
 refuse to do ! Never was this denial a sin. 
 
 The question was asked : " Do you believe the 
 consecrated host is the real body and real blood of 
 Jesus Christ ?' ' On the answer her life would hinge. 
 She knew it. But she dared not give a false answer. 
 *' I do not believe it," she calmly replied. All eyes 
 were fixed on a woman who could not be frightened. 
 She could boldly say, ''- 1 do not believe it .^" 
 
 What was now to be done ? One would suppose 
 that such an honest opinion of what is as plain as 
 day-light, would not meet with harshness. But 
 while all eyes were gazing, the judge rose and pro- 
 nounced upon her the sentence of death ! The 
 sentence was in these words : — 
 
 " In view of the answers of the jury and the dis- 
 cussions of the cause, &c., it is proved that the accused, 
 Maria Joaquina, perhaps forgetful of the principles 
 of the holy religion she received in her first years, 
 and to which she still belongs, has maintained con- 
 versations and arguments condemned by the church ; 
 maintaining that veneration should not be given to 
 images ; denying the real existence of Christ in the 
 sacred host ; the mystery of the most Holy Trinity;
 
 44 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 "blasphemiDg against the most holy Virgin, the 
 mother of God, and advancing other expressions 
 against the doctrines received and followed by 
 the Roman Catholic apostolic church, expounding 
 these condemned doctrines to different persons, thus 
 committing the crimes of heresy, blasphemy, &c. I 
 condemn the accused, Maria Joaquina, to suffer 
 DEATH as provided in the law ; the costs of the 
 process, &c. to be paid out of her goods. 
 
 " Funchal Oriental^ in public court, May 2d, 
 1844. 
 
 " Jose PerreiraLeito Pitta OrtegueiraNegrao, 
 Judge, &:c." 
 
 Such a sentence ought to go down to every gen- 
 eration that will know anything of Romanism. 
 Remember this was not done in the dark ages, but 
 in 1844 ! It was not for murder nor treason, but 
 for daring to deny an absurdity. She had not 
 united with any Protestant church ; she had simply 
 refused to believe an error ! 
 
 She thought the sentence would be as unchange- 
 able as the laws of the Medes and Persians. She 
 did not ask the court to reverse it. No apology 
 escaped her lips, no mercy was asked ; but she stood 
 with heroic firmness, and commended her persecu- 
 tors to God, praying for their salvation. Death had 
 no terror for such a spirit. Her Lord endured the 
 shame of the cross, and she was ready to die in any
 
 MRS. ALVES. 45 
 
 Bhameful way that they dare propose. Her expec- 
 tation was, soon to be in heaven. 
 
 The English people on the island were deeply 
 affected by such a cruel procedure. They drew up 
 a petition to the Queen of Portugal asking that this 
 Christian lady might not be so unjustly put to death. 
 An appeal was also carried up to the higher court, 
 and in 18-45, it was declared that as there had been 
 no trial for two of the charges (heresy and apostasy), 
 she might be released from the penalty of death, 
 but should be kept in prison for three months and 
 should pay a fine of six dollars. But how could she 
 pay the fine ? They would not allow her friends to 
 do it. So she must suffer out the fine. Month 
 after month she was kept in the dismal prison. For 
 those six dollars she was imprisoned twenty-three 
 months ! In all she was kept in prison more than 
 two years and a half ! 
 
 She had a sister with her part of these long 
 years as a fellow-sufferer. "When their days were 
 fulfilled, they were allowed to return to the family, 
 who were glad to meet her whom they never 
 expected to see at home again. Great joy was felt 
 by the Christian people at her release. To show 
 what foes she had to face, we quote a letter from 
 the Rev. Mr. Hewitson, the devoted missionary on 
 the island : 
 
 " July 11th, 1845. It was reported a few days 
 ago that a writer was to be posted at the door, to 
 take down the names of the people who might enter ;
 
 46 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 but as yet he lias not made his appearance. Mean- 
 while public notice has been given by means of 
 placards, I believe, lixed at the church doors, that 
 all who have not been attending the Roman Catholic 
 church, and not gone to confess to the priest, are 
 required to confess or attend church, within the 
 space of ten days, at the risk of being imprisoned. 
 The ten days have not yet expired. Maria Joaquina 
 was liberated from prison on Thursday of last week. 
 I saw her a short time after her release, and on 
 Saturday morning she was present at our meeting 
 for worship. She had been in prison for two years 
 and some months. She is an applicant for admission 
 to the communion." 
 
 This living martyr, with her husband, children, 
 and sister, afterwards fled to Trinidad. She after- 
 wards came to the United States. She seemed 
 always happy. A friend in New York asked her, 
 " Is your faith in Jesus Christ as strong now as 
 before, and are you as willing to die as when in 
 prison, and expecting to be executed ?" 
 
 " I feel," said she with a starting tear, " that my 
 faith in Jesus Christ is growing stronger and 
 stronger every day, and that I am willing to die 
 whenever he calls me." 
 
 She is hastening to the close of her pilgrimage, 
 when she shall come up before the bright throne 
 of glory "out of great tribulation." She went to 
 her western home in Illinois, there to be buried 
 and rest tiU the morning of the resurrection.
 
 THE REV. W. II. IIEWITSON. 4T 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE REV. W. H. HEWITSON. 
 
 Dr. Kalley had been often threatened. His 
 friends in Scotland wrote for him to flee the island. 
 But with Nehemiah he could say, " Should such a 
 man as I flee ?" In one of his letters written when 
 he expected every hour to be put in jail, he says, 
 *' You reminded me of the order given, when perse- 
 cuted in one city to flee into another ; but you will 
 also remember that it is said of the hireling that he 
 fleeth, because he is an hireling, and the wolf comes, 
 and catches the sheep. Were I to flee, I believe 
 the poor sheep of Christ's fold would feel deeply 
 discouraged, and the wolf would catch them. The 
 Lord can deliver out of the paw of the lion, and of 
 the bear. He would deliver them though I were 
 away ; but it is necessary for us always to examine 
 well, and seek to know the will of God, for it is not 
 for us to run whenever the lion growls. Let those 
 who have no hope, or confidence in the Eternal, 
 fear men that shall die, but let not us fear earth or 
 hell." 
 
 There was danger. He says, " In point of fact,
 
 48 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 the Inquisition is established in Funchal. There is 
 a secret tribunal of priests, who make investigations 
 in secret ; and without any citation or hearing of 
 the person, he is consigned to the civil power to be 
 put in jail, against even their own ecclesiastical laws 
 and civil rights." 
 
 Dr. Kallej was the special object of vengeance 
 from the priests and the government. But how 
 could he be arrested ? The treaty between England 
 and Portugal would forbid it. This treaty gave all 
 persons in Madeira the liberty to enjoy their own 
 religion without molestation. But the Romanists 
 were determined that Dr. Kalley should not sit 
 under this vine. So they hunted up an old law of 
 the Inquisition in 1603, which had no more force 
 there than a law from the court of Japan, and by 
 that they arrested him, tried, condemned, and put 
 him into prison. For five months he lay in the 
 gloomy cell. 
 
 Nor was he idle there. The friends of the 
 prisoners were allowed to visit them six or eight 
 hours every day, perhaps with the design of trying 
 to induce them to recant the new doctrines. The 
 jailer warned many of them not to visit Dr. Kalley, 
 and he took down the names of many who did visit 
 him, threatening to have them arrested. They 
 were however allowed to enter by threes, but there 
 was to be " no singing or reading of the Bible 
 there." On Sabbaths, from seventy to an hundred 
 friends came to hear him talk to them. As only
 
 THE REV. W. II. IIEWITSON. 49 
 
 three could enter at a time, tliere were many 
 gathered about the door, anxiously waiting their 
 turn. These persons were mocked and abused by 
 those who went to and from the cathedral. Dr. 
 Kalley was released in 1844. He often had six 
 hundred people to hear him, from whom he withheld 
 nothing which would benefit their souls. 
 
 A new governor was appointed. This man had 
 declared that if, he ever filled that office, he would 
 not rest until he had driven Dr. Kalley from the 
 island and put a stop to the work. He began in 
 earnest to do this, by every means at his command. 
 The free use of the cudgel was recommended as an 
 argument which country people could feel and 
 understand. ]\[urder was suggested in the public 
 papers as an easy way to get rid of the teachers 
 and readers of the Bible. Hints were thrown out 
 about a new St. Bartholomew's day ! or Sicilian 
 vespers. The officers did not rebuke such threats 
 in any public manner, if they did at all. Some 
 persons were beaten, some stoned ; three houses 
 were burned, two more were fired, and all at the 
 same hour, though far apart. The more the suflferers 
 complained and entreated, the more injury they 
 received. The dead were refused a grave except in 
 the highway. 
 
 Dr. Kalley expected to be driven away from the 
 
 island. He knew it would be best to avoid this if 
 
 possible. He went to Lisbon, and it was agreed to 
 
 stay certain proceedings against him. He was 
 
 5
 
 50 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 earnestly desiring help, so that by being less pub- 
 lic himself as a teacher, he might still labour for 
 those already converted. "Who would come ? 
 
 At Lisbon he met Mr. Hewitson, and learned, to 
 his joyful surprise, that he had been appointed by 
 the church in Scotland to go to Madeira, and was 
 on the way.* As this devoted man did so much for 
 the work on the island, let us learn more fully who 
 he was. 
 
 William Hepburn Hewitson was born at Culross 
 in Ayrshire, on the 16th of September, 1812. He 
 was not a remarkable boy. He was known as a 
 delicate pale child, having little taste for boyish 
 sports. He was, as all children naturally are, 
 worldly and ambitious. His earthly ambition was 
 love of praise. He would say in his childish manner 
 that he would be " either a minister or a king," and 
 he often asked how long it would take to be a king, 
 and how long to be a minister. Sometimes he 
 would mount a chair and, gathering the little band 
 about him, would strain every power to move his 
 hearers to tears. And they did weep at his words. 
 
 As he grew older he was devoted to books. Often 
 did his school-mates laugh at him for being a book- 
 worm. He was ambitious to qualify himself for 
 entering college, and had an energy that never 
 flagged. He was so independent that he would 
 hardly receive aid from his father in his studies. 
 '' All he wanted to know was that such and such 
 things should be done, and he set himself in right
 
 THE REV. W. n. HEWITSON. 5l 
 
 earnest to do them." *^ Alone and unaided he at- 
 tained to a greater knowledge and skill in languages 
 than most boys do at the best academies, with all 
 the help of tutors and teachers of first rate accom- 
 plishments. Then the foundation was laid of his 
 future eminence as a scholar and as a thinker for 
 himself." 
 
 lie was rigorously truthful. He could not endure 
 to show any appearance of falsehood in word or 
 action. The idea of being a minister of the gospel 
 often came to his mind, and he seems to have thought 
 no more of ever trying to be a king. *' Even in his 
 walks with me as a boy," writes one of his early 
 friends, *' he showed the loftiness and purity of his 
 aims, in declaring to me that he never would be a 
 minister unless he were first a Christian. He scorned 
 the mockery of setting up to preach what he did not 
 thoroughly believe, and feel, and live upon, himself. 
 Every thing must be reality with him, within and 
 without. You saw him just as he was." 
 
 At collecre he soon became known as amontj those 
 who were at the head of the list. The self-tauiiht 
 country lad had few compeers. When five contestors 
 were chosen by the votes of his class he was one of 
 the five, and at the top of the list of competitors. 
 The student next him, had been in the class already 
 for three sessions. Between these two there was 
 an intense struggle. At the first examination they 
 were pronounced equal — the professor not being 
 able to decide between them. At the second trial 

 
 52 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 he made a mistake. He saw it at once. He felt 
 that the prize was lost. But he was determined 
 that before the professor should enter the class to 
 announce his rival's victory, he would let him know 
 that the student understood his own blunder as well 
 as the professor himself. He therefore wrote a 
 polite note to the professor correcting the blunder, 
 but acknowledging that it was too late to be helped. 
 The professor announced the decision and read the 
 note. The students were loud in their praise of 
 Hewitson, and though he lost the medal that year, 
 they made it up by presenting him a copy of the 
 " Attic Orators." This delicate gift was honourable 
 to all concerned. The next year the professor urged 
 him to be a candidate and he took the prize very 
 easily. On the morning of March 31st, 1835, as 
 the gold medal was hung about his neck, he felt 
 almost to be the " king" of his childish years, and 
 the students were rarely so enthusiastic in hailing 
 him as the first man of his year. This was his prize 
 for the classics. But in Logic also he bore off the 
 palm over forty rivals. 
 
 There is a song about the nightingale, that when 
 young sat in the nest and picked the green leaves 
 of the rose. This was its pleasure. But after 
 awhile the rose unfolded itself, and then the bird 
 sang only of it, flew among the thorns, wounded 
 itself and died. Such young men as Kirke White, 
 PoUok, and Hewitson did this. They saw beauty 
 blooming on every thorny limb of the tree of
 
 THE REV. W. H. HEWITSON. 5^ 
 
 knowledge, and in trying to gain it they wounded 
 themselves — they almost died by reaching for roses 
 where once they gathered only leaves. 
 
 Hewitson paid dearly for his honours. They cost 
 him health, and that is hard to buy back when lost. 
 The night had hardly stopped him in his pursuit. lie 
 often had not slept till three or four in the morning, 
 and had risen at seven. He did not heed the warn- 
 ings of friends. He sometimes came in from class, 
 pale and weary, laid his hand on his heart, and drew 
 a long breath with evident pain, but still he gave up 
 all to study. 
 
 He made one other effort for an honour. A prize 
 had been offered to the students for the best essay 
 " on the Nature, Causes, and Effects of National 
 Character." Hewitson stretched forth his hand and 
 took it. In December 1837, his essay took the 
 honours. It was read, and highly applauded. A 
 listener, now known as Dr. James Hamilton of 
 London, exclaimed, " What a fine sense he has of 
 the sublime !" 
 
 Do you not imagine that the young victor had his 
 heart set on publishing the essay ? Not long be- 
 fore he would have leaped for joy at the proposal. 
 But now Professor Wilson urges its publication, and 
 Hewitson refuses ! All is changed ! 
 
 He felt that he had grasped a shadow; ah ! a sting- 
 ing serpent. He thought of himself and was ashamed. 
 He thought upon God and was troubled. He felt 
 that he must be a minister of the gospel, but how 
 5 *
 
 54 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 unprepared, how unworthy, how fearful ! He says, 
 *' that is the grand object of my existence — the 
 motive of all my exertions — identified with all my 
 hopes, and fears — the centre of my soul. If it be 
 not gained, a dark cloud will settle all around my 
 path, a blighting chill will benumb all my faculties, 
 and will make me useless to myself and others." 
 
 Oh if he only loved Jesus ! that is now his thought. 
 Once he loved to be praised, but now his soul is on 
 fire with a purer, nobler wish ; he wants to praise 
 Jesus and tell of his great love. His sad soul 
 mourns as he wishes his heart were full of love to 
 its God and Saviour, and yet finds it cold as ice and 
 hard as adamant. 
 
 And why, how, this change ? A "living epistle" 
 had come before his eye. He read the lesson and 
 learned it well. 
 
 . While at Leamington writing that prize essay, he 
 was aroused to something nobler than seeking 
 honours of men. He says, " I happened one day 
 to turn up to the mineral spring. A young man 
 entered the building, whose appearance at once at- 
 tracted my observation. His coarse linen frock 
 contrasted strangely with the gay apparel of the 
 groups before me. He was emaciated and walked 
 forward with a feeble step. After drinking of the 
 water (out of a vessel of earthen ware, which was 
 placed beside a number of tumblers), he, without 
 having apparently observed any one, again slowly 
 withdrew. After a little, I began slowly to descend
 
 THE REV. W. II. IIEWITSON. 65 
 
 the hill, in the middle of which the spring was sit- 
 uated, and found the young man sitting at one of 
 the bends of the winding path which slopes gently 
 down the declivity. I spoke to him. His diffident 
 tone of voice, and his modesty of manner, at once 
 enlisted my sympathies. During several weeks after- 
 wards I frequently visited his father's lowly cottage. 
 My intercourse with the young man soon gave me 
 ground to conclude, that, if my theoretic knowledge 
 of gospel truths was greater than his, he, unlike 
 myself, had experienced their sanctifying power. 
 Truly his was the better portion. When he spoke 
 of the Saviour's love to sinners, and of his obedience 
 unto death for their redemption, he at times gave 
 vent to his gratitude in tears of joy. Pointing to 
 his clothes on one occasion, he said, addressing his 
 father, " These will be no more needed ; I wish you 
 to sell them ; the price of them will be enough to 
 pay for my coffin." He seemed like one who had 
 obtained " everlasting consolation and good hope 
 through grace," to have not a shadow of doubt or 
 anxiety on his soul as to the prospect of eternal 
 glory. One evening about sunset he fell asleep." 
 
 The young prize seeker was struck with an arrow 
 from God. That peasant was such a " living epis- 
 tle," that no one could read it and not be affected. 
 The thought came, " I am a stranger to all this." 
 He asked himself, " Could / thus calmly pass into 
 the immediate presence of the holy and just Jehovah ? 
 Am /, like him, sheltered from the * wrath to come?*
 
 56 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 What must I do to be saved ? How miserable a 
 state of mind is that in which sorrow, like a heavy 
 load, weighs upon the heart, and tries to find relief 
 in tears, but cannot find it!" Well might he have 
 said as Cowper wrote : 
 
 "I was a stricken deer that left the herd 
 Long since ; with many an arrow deep infixed 
 My panting side was charged, when I withdrew 
 To seek a tranquil death in distant shades. 
 There I was found by One who had himself 
 Been hurt by th' archers. In his side he bore, 
 And in his hands and feet, the cruel scars. 
 With gentle force soliciting the darts, 
 He drew them forth, and healed, and bade me live." 
 
 His mind could not be turned from the ministry. 
 To be a king would only be playing with baubles. 
 But he doubts ever being capable to preach. Yet 
 he says, '' Let God dispose of me for time and for 
 eternity so as most to show forth his glory. If it 
 be his will that I am to be a minister of Christ, 
 blessed be his name ! If he dispose of me otherwise, 
 his will be done !" 
 
 In 1838 he became a student at Edinburgh where 
 Dr. Chalmers presided over Divinity Hall. For 
 talent and scholarship he was well known. But 
 there was a deep sorrow in his heart, which no 
 human eye could detect. He says, " I cried to the 
 unhiown God with my voice, and often cried in 
 despair. The cry seemed never to reach his ears, 
 and then I was so ' troubled that I could not speak.'
 
 THE REV. W. II. HEWITSOX. 57 
 
 At such a time would I pour forth to God such 
 lines as these : 
 
 " * Oh wherefore hnst thou left me now 
 
 In dej>perate struggles all alone ? 
 Wliat teiiipe:>t hules thine awful brow ? 
 
 What horror girds thy gracious throne ? 
 Thou art my Father — deign to look 
 
 Upon the anguish throbbing here, 
 And not regard with stern rebuke 
 
 The scorching agony of this tear.' " 
 
 But he came at length to the cross, and found his 
 burden gone. In 1840, he was brought under the 
 preaching of that burning and shining light, ^Ir. 
 McCheyne, and he was led to Jesus. He now 
 pressed forward " toward the mark for the prize of 
 the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." He now 
 wished to have " an ear deaf to the world's music, 
 but all awake to the voice of Him w^ho is ' the chief 
 among ten thousand and the altogether lovely.' '* 
 He too became a " living epistle," and when he 
 went again among his friends at home, " they took 
 knowledge of him that he had been with Jesus." 
 
 Still he was a student. He writes — '' In the 
 course of my walkings to-day, I have been in- 
 formed that I am studying twenty-four hours a day, 
 and I may reasonably expect ere long to be informed 
 that I am very ill in consequence of my hard study. 
 Oh that this indolent me were able to study hard !" 
 And again two months later he writes, *' I am not 
 troubled now either by the ' indolence of genius,' or 
 the genius of indolence. I was out of bed this morn-
 
 58 THE EXILES OP MADEIRA. 
 
 ing by four o'clock. I wish I could keep ' Mmshull' 
 hours regularly ; I dare say such hours were kept 
 by Adam and Eve when they were wont to close 
 their eyes in faith, and open them in prayer." 
 
 " God will not suffer me to be ambitious now," 
 he says. His fine genius was turned to the cross, 
 and he became a little child. He sold the gold 
 medal, once the idol of his heart, and put the pro- 
 ceeds into the Lord's treasury. 
 
 Thoughts of the missionary work now came into 
 his mind. " Such is the expansive energy of Chris- 
 tian love," he once said, " that wherever it sees a 
 brow like that which was mocked with a crown of 
 thorns, it will not be satisfied till on that brow there 
 be engraved the name of Jesus. ' I am a mission- 
 ary' is a thought which we should frequently — every 
 day that passes — entertain in our minds. We should 
 be ever ready to put the question, ' What as a mis- 
 sionary ought I now to do ?' " 
 
 "I am forbidden to study," he was compelled 
 at length to say. Disease shut him up in the house, 
 during the winter of 1841-2. In the spring he 
 went to Germany for his health. To a great suf- 
 erer he wrote while travelling. " You are tried by 
 sore pain in the morning ; at nine o'clock in the 
 morning Christ was nailed to the cross. All day 
 long you are afflicted with pain ; Christ hung on the 
 cross in an agony till three o'clock in the afternoon. 
 * Behold the lamb of God !' and amidst your suffer- 
 ings, take comfort from the sight of his wounded,
 
 THE REV. W. n. IIEWITSON. 59 
 
 bleeding body." Such a man -would make a "son 
 of consolation" to the people of God. 
 
 Again he was in the solitude of Dalmellington, 
 his home. His friends thought that he would soon 
 die of consumption. But he was intent on doing 
 some work for the Master ere he should go hence. 
 He thought of the south of France, and Malta, as 
 fields of labour, where his health might possibly 
 be regained. Little did he know yet, that God was 
 making a way for him in Madeira. The hour had 
 come, and a Mr. Sym proposed that island on which 
 such a grand scene was enacting. Yes, Madeira ! 
 it was the very place. God had sent one labourer there 
 through ill health, and now he has another ready 
 when needed. It was a pleasing idea to Mr. Hew- 
 itson. He wrote, October 15, 1844, '' It is, I un- 
 derstand, most desirable, at present, that a minister 
 should be sent out to Madeira to acquire the Por- 
 tuguese language, with a view to preaching the 
 gospel to the poor Portuguese in the island. Dur- 
 ing the year which would be spent in doing nothing 
 but acquiring the language, my health might be so 
 far recruited, by the blessing of God on the change 
 of air, as to enable me afterwards to labour in that 
 . part of the vineyard. Doubtless it would be more 
 consonant to my natural wishes, to be a minister of 
 the gospel at home ; but if in a way so unexpected, 
 the Lord be pleased to say, ' I will send thee far 
 hence unto the Gentiles,' it is my part to deny my- 
 self through his grace, and take up my cross and
 
 60 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 go. Madeira is at present the forlorn hope of 
 Christianity. There, more than anywhere else in 
 our day, has Popery breathed its natural element 
 of intolerance and persecution." 
 
 '* Yesterday," he writes, November 7th, 1844, 
 ** was a solemn day, one ever to be remembered. I 
 was ordained by the Presbytery of Edinburgh (Free 
 church of Scotland)." This was part of the pre- 
 paration for Madeira. " I go to Portugal as a 
 missionary and may have much to try me and put 
 my faith to the proof." " Pray for me, my dear 
 friend. Remember my trials and difficulties before 
 the Lord. Let us not forgets Saturday evenings at 
 seven o'clock. Then pray for fruit unto eternal 
 life from among the poor Portuguese." 
 
 Some one unwisely published the fact that Mr. 
 Hewitson intended to go to Madeira, but the Lord 
 overruled it for good. It made it necessary for him to 
 go first to Lisbon. There his Master took him 
 " aside, once more to give to his sickle a new edge." 
 The two months spent there did much to qualify 
 him for trying events, among enemies such as he 
 had never known, and could not fully know until he 
 should suffer persecution.
 
 TUE YOUNG MISSIONARY. 01 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE YOUNG MISSIONARY. 
 
 " Tuesday, January 28th, 1844. Mr. A- 
 
 called this evening to tell me that Dr. Kalley had 
 arrived from Madeira ; and while he was here, a 
 letter came from Mr. Sjm, intimating that I had 
 the consent of the Colonial Committee to go imme- 
 diately to Madeira. Thus, in a marvellous manner, 
 the- Lord has been answering the prayer which yes- 
 terday I offered up for direction and counsel." 
 
 Thus while the Lord was preparing a labourer for 
 the Held, he was also preparing the field for the 
 labourer. It must have overjoyed the heart of Dr. 
 Kalley thus to meet one, who, without his knowledge, 
 had been sent to stay up his hands, and reap a 
 glorious harvest. The young missionary was to 
 take his place. 
 
 There was no church yet organized among the 
 converts. Not many had openly renounced Popery ; 
 only twenty-five or thirty ; many were reading the 
 Bible and giving up the errors of Rome one by one. 
 They were truly as sheep without a she))lierd. Mr. 
 Ilewitson was entering upon a field where the 
 6
 
 62 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 enemy was strong. He was sent forth as a sheep 
 among wolves. He ran the risk of enmity, and im- 
 mediately sought after those who wished to. learn 
 the gospel. He lived with a Rev. J. J. Wood, of 
 England, and had a room in the dwelling for hold- 
 ing meetings. Here was the " church in the 
 house." 
 
 Every day converts and inquirers came to meet 
 him. Few came at a time, lest the officers of the 
 city should forbid any to go. In the Lord's way 
 he had learned their language at Lisbon. He spoke 
 it as a " gift from God," though he could not under- 
 stand them when they spoke. *' The good people," 
 he says, " are so anxious to be understood, that 
 when I ask them to speak more at leisure, they 
 speak all the faster !" Several persons applied for 
 admission to the Lord's table. They had gained 
 clear views from the Bible respecting Christ, and the 
 last supper. One lady, whose heart overflowed 
 with love to the Saviour, said she would rather be 
 put to death than to be silent when the truth was 
 spoken against. She " could not but speak the 
 thinors she had heard." 
 
 The little church grew. The difficulty was to 
 keep too many from crowding the room at one time. 
 Four parents came one Saturday evening, a four 
 hours* walk, and brought their children to be bap- 
 tized on Sabbath. Soon after that a communion 
 was held, in the evening, " the doors being shut for 
 fear." Thirty -four converts were there, with a
 
 THE YOUXa MISSIONARY. 63 
 
 happiness they never had known before. More 
 might have been admitted, but there was no room 
 in the house ; every thing had to be done in the most 
 quiet manner. 
 
 Now he found an Apollos, ^'mighty in the Scrip- 
 tures." Let us recite the beautiful story. Dr. 
 Kalley was staying one summer on the north side 
 of the island to enjoy the sea bathing. One 
 day an almost blind carpenter was led by the hand 
 over the mountains, to consult the doctor about his 
 eyes. The doctor did all he could to relieve him. 
 The visitor then asked — as few did — what he had 
 to pay. lie was told, "I do not want money, but 
 if God blesses the remedies and you wish to pay me 
 for my trouble, I would like you to learn to read 
 the word of God and do as he bids you." The 
 ignorant carpenter went home, taking a Bible with 
 him. 
 
 The next summer the same persons met at the 
 same place. The carpenter was as blind as at first. 
 But he had learned a great deal from the Bible. 
 He would speak of a truth and say, " You will find 
 the proof in such a chapter and such a verse." Ilis 
 sight had been restored — he had gone to school, 
 learned to read, read the Bible with prayer for 
 God's teaching, got married, and lost his sight 
 again — all this in a year. He was asked how he 
 had learned so much of the truth in so short a time, 
 and replied, " Gud could teach me more in five 
 minutes !"
 
 64 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 This carpenter had a priest, Padre Vigario. He 
 one day went to the priest with a tract, which Dr. 
 Kallej had given him, on which were the ten com- 
 mandments. *' Are these the true commandments of 
 God?" he asked. The priest declared they were 
 not. He abused Dr. Kalley most bitterly for giv- 
 ing such a tract to be read in his parish. But the 
 carpenter was determined to have the evidence of 
 his senses, for he could now see. He told the priest 
 that surely he had a Bible of his own, and asked 
 him to be kind enough to bring it forth so that they 
 might compare the tract with the record in Exodus. 
 The priest at first refused, but was forced to yield at 
 last. The Bible was brought. The priest either 
 could not, or would not find the chapter. He turned 
 to the beginning, middle, and end of the Bible. So 
 the carpenter took it and at once turned to the 
 20th chapter of Exodus. Then giving the priest 
 the one, he read the other. They were the same. 
 This man was ^' strong in the gospel." But the priest 
 was all the more angry, and declared that if the 
 English doctor ever entered his parish, he should 
 not leave it except piecemeal ! 
 
 This victory cost the carpenter his liberty. Not 
 long after he was visited by some persons, who were 
 carrying a little flag with a figure of a pigeon on the 
 top of the staff. They asked alms, as is done once 
 a year, for the Holy Ghost ! They knocked at the 
 door, were invited in, and then begged for alms for 
 the "Espirito Santo" (Holy Spirit). " This is not
 
 THE YOUNG MISSIONARY. 65 
 
 the Esplrito Santo," said the carpenter. " We 
 know no other," they replied. *' The Holy Ghost 
 is a spirit," said the reasonable man, "and that is 
 a piece of cloth fastened to a stick." The men 
 went and told the priest Vigario ; the priest reported 
 the case to the judge, and the judge had the poor 
 man brought to court, tried, and condemned to suf- 
 fer in the common jail. In Romish countries there 
 seem to be a great many jails — one always close by 
 where a Bible-reader is arrested ! He was there 
 for two months, but this did not convince him that 
 the parish priest was right, nor that the Bible was 
 wrong. This man came to Mr. Hewitson asking 
 baptism for his infant child. 
 
 There was a poor man on the island named Jeron- 
 ymo. "When seventeen years old a severe illness 
 made his mind feeble, his hands, head, and feet 
 tremulous, and his appearance quite boyish and 
 foolish. When Dr. Kalley first saw him, he was 
 about thirty years of age. He had learned a few 
 words of French and English, and used them in 
 begging from strangers. He was an idler of little 
 account to any one, as idlers usually are. The boys 
 often teazed him, and laughed at his stammering 
 words and strange gestures when angry. 
 
 One Sabbath in the spring of 1843, the police 
 were stationed at Dr. Kalley's door to prevent or 
 watch any persons who wished to hear the word of 
 God, from entering the house. Jeronymo took a 
 fancy to go in. One or two persons had been 
 6 *
 
 66 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 beaten for daring to enter, but tbe police did not 
 think it worth their while to hinder poor Jeronymo. 
 The time for worship had not quite arrived, and 
 some of the family thought that Jeronymo was sent 
 there to do some mischief, for they were alarmed at 
 his idiotic appearance. They sent him away with- 
 out Dr. Kalley's knowledge. But God, who often 
 chooses the weak to confound the mighty, would not 
 let Jeronymo be offended and go away. He lingered 
 about the gate. In the afternoon he came and took 
 his seat with the little band of worshippers. No one 
 invited him to leave this time. His eyes and mind 
 were riveted. With open mouth and staring face 
 he sat hearing of the wonderful works of God. He 
 learned that Jesus had died for poor Jeronymo, as 
 well as for John and Paul. 
 
 He came aojain and agiain to the house. It was 
 the best place he could find in the city. The boys 
 could not find him to teaze him any more. He 
 ceased to beg from strangers, and left off being 
 idle. He contrived to support himself by his own 
 hands. Nor was this all. He must read the Bible. 
 He studied and prayed, and at last became a reader. 
 He told others about the true religion and the great 
 and good book. TKe enemies thought that he was 
 not worth their persecuting attention, and therefore 
 he could labour unharmed. God was making the 
 foolish confound the wise. When Dr. Kalley was 
 in jail, this poor man would come and get supplies 
 of Testaments and tracts to distribute, or sell to
 
 THE YOUXd MISSIONARY. 67 
 
 tbose who would buy thcra. In this way he earned 
 something, and became very useful in the good 
 work. 
 
 When the enemies saw how much good such a poor 
 man couUl do, they resolved to stop it. Canon 
 Telles, a dignitary of the Romish church and a Jesuit, 
 once met him at his door, offering the tracts and 
 Testaments, and he gave him a terrible beating. 
 Which zeal was the best, that of the Jesuit for his 
 church, or that of the humble labourer for the cause 
 of Christ ? 
 
 Jeronymo was put into jail, but this was no great 
 hardship for him, for he had never seen much bodily 
 comfort in this world. For a good while he had 
 slept on the steps of some house so as not to be 
 caught and beaten. His home was a very poor one. 
 It was a little hut, in which his sister lived with an 
 idolatrous husband. They would not listen to the 
 new convert as he rebuked them for their false wor- 
 ship, and so he thought it was not best to live with 
 them any longer. Some one asked him where he 
 slept and he replied, with as much independence as 
 if he owned a palace, that he could sleep quite 
 well at any door, and the Lord always provided him 
 with a piece of bread. 
 
 It was no small pleasure to him to be in the same 
 jail with Dr. Kalley. One day when in the doctor's 
 room, the conversation turned upon the resurrection 
 of the body. Poor Jeronymo looked on his hands 
 and his feet very much grieved. lie could not feel
 
 68 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 happy, in thinking that the same hands and feet 
 would he given him at the resurrection. He had 
 hoped to he freed from his poor, weak, awkward hody. 
 He was then told that if he died trusting in Jesus, 
 he should he raised up " like to His glorious hody." 
 The expression of his face was instantly changed. 
 He looked again at his trembling limbs, and then 
 gazed upwards with wonder and delight, at the 
 thought of having that body made like the Lord's. 
 
 When out of prison he did all he could during the 
 day for his Master, and at night slept on the steps 
 again whenever he could find a place not exposed to 
 the violence of the enemies of Christ. In prison or 
 out of prison he was happy. One day he came to 
 Mr. Hewitson and heard him speak of the " hid 
 treasure." He was asked if he understood what it 
 meant. He came forward as one who had been 
 bruised by severe blows, and said that he knew what 
 the hid treasure was, for he had been beaten severe- 
 ly the night before because he loved his Saviour. 
 Poor Jeronymo could find no " good Samaritan" 
 among his own people, unless they had first been 
 taught the Bible. 
 
 Two or three would come to the young mission- 
 ary at a time, and others would wait anxiously for 
 their time to come. They often were not cautious, 
 and would linger at the door watching for it to be 
 opened. They seemed not to care for the danger 
 of being arrested and cruelly treated. Daily there 
 were additions to the church. He found that Mr.
 
 THE YOUNQ MISSIONARY. 69 
 
 Wood's house was too small as well as too public. 
 So he rented another with a garden on each side of it, 
 where the people might not be watched so closely 
 by the police. His health was still feeble. The 
 wonder is that it did not entirely fail. It should be 
 noticed that these people are naturally timid and 
 fearful of danger. They were persecuted at home 
 by friends and suspicious neiglibours. Often a 
 man's foes were thev of his own household. Yet 
 the love of God and of his truth made them bold. 
 
 A pony had been left by Mr. "Wood for the young 
 missionary to ride, when he sought the refreshing 
 air on the hills, or the music of the waves along the 
 shore. Coming toward his house from one of these 
 rides, he saw several policemen on the watch about 
 his house. He rode on past the house, and these 
 spies continued their watch for two or three hours 
 and then left. The few people in the house went 
 home, no doubt full of sorrow that their pastor must 
 refrain from his work. He wished to use all pru- 
 dence, lest these disciples should be beaten with many 
 stripes, have their houses burned, their property 
 taken away, and their privileges denied them by 
 arrest and imprisonment. 
 
 The curses of the priest fell on the poor, instead 
 of blessings. A poor man had by careful earnings 
 laid up seven pence to pay the priest for confessing 
 him. He offered it in the chapel, but the priest 
 turned round in anger, and with an oath " hoped 
 that he might turn as black as his hat if he would
 
 70 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 ever confess a man for less than ten pence !" The 
 poor man obtained another half penny and offered 
 that also, but was rudely turned off with a curse. 
 This was his last attendance at priestly confession. 
 He learned to confess his sins to God, who invites 
 us to come " without money and without price." 
 
 Several persons were examined by the officers in 
 order to find some cause for an arrest of Mr. Hew- 
 itson. The police were ordered to put him down in 
 some way. The treaty between England and Por- 
 tugal prevented an outrageous attack. Out of pru- 
 dence he discontinued his meeting for a few weeks, 
 in order that the black cloud of threats might blow 
 over a little. Yet the converts were bold, and their 
 enemies saw that imprisonment was a poor way to 
 cure them. The lion went about roaring, for he 
 knew not what to do with this devoted pastor and 
 the harmless people. 
 
 In making strong the church, Mr. Hewitson took 
 another important step. Let him tell it in his own 
 words, dated May 8th, 1845. " I have been contem- 
 plating the ordination of three or four elders. On 
 Tuesday last, I intimated to a godly young man, that 
 I wished him to become an elder, asking him if he 
 would object to undertake the office. He answered 
 that he would refuse to do nothing that was agree- 
 able to the will of God ; and, evidently referring to 
 a threatened attempt on the part of the enemies of 
 the truth to force him into the military service, he 
 added, that he would gladly enlist himself as a
 
 TUE YOUNG MISSIONARY. 71 
 
 soldier to defend the Lord's cause and people. The 
 young man is a devoted servant of God, with intense 
 love of Bible truth. He quotes the Scriptures with 
 great readiness and felicity." The missionary then 
 proposed that this young man should be assisted in 
 preparing for the ministry. " The time may be^ 
 not far distant," he says, " when I shall be obliged 
 to leave Madeira by the strong arm of persecution, 
 and it would be a great comfort to the afllicted 
 church here, amidst their privations, to have the 
 prospect of so soon receiving ordinances at the hands 
 of one of their own number." Elders were after- 
 wards ordained. 
 
 May 12th, he writes, " The horizon is becoming 
 more and more cloudy. Two or three days ago at 
 a dinner party, the Bishop of Madeira declared ex- 
 terminating war against the Bible. He said that 
 he had all the authorities on his side,* and he was 
 resolved to put down all dissent from the Roman 
 Catholic Church. Yesterday while the Bishop was 
 preaching, he fell down in a fit. This might teach 
 him that the Lord is mightier than he." 
 
 "An excellent young man, who should be made 
 an elder of the Portuguese church in Madeira, on 
 a person saying to him, * that the church of Rome is 
 the mother of us all,' had replied, " Then keep her to 
 
 ♦ Very much like the hoast of Sennacherib in 2 Cbron. xxxii. 10- 
 18, But the missionary could have said, " There be more with ns 
 than with him. With him is an arm of fletsh ; but with us is the 
 Lord our God to help us," ver. 7-8.
 
 72 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 yourself.' He was, for this, sent to jail four 
 months." 
 
 The police warned him not to continue the meet- 
 ings in his house, or he would be arrested, and the 
 court would not handle him mildly. He thought, how- 
 ever, that it was better to violate the Portuguese 
 law, than the law of Christ, and so he cautiously 
 held meetings under cover of the night. 
 
 Aug. 24, 18-i4, he writes, " This night we are 
 at eight o' clock to ' keep the feast' in secret, and 
 with closed doors and windows, in our dining-room, 
 with this poor and persecuted little flock of Christ. 
 The service if discovered will send his dear servant 
 to prison, but the Lord is his keeper." 
 
 The jailer was very kind at this time. He al- 
 lowed three prisoners to get out on parole, and go to 
 the *' Church in the house." He knew they would 
 come back, for they said they would. He knew 
 that these Bible-readers could be trusted. Honour 
 to that jailer ! 
 
 The Lord took his servant out of this danger. 
 He became too ill to labour in the city, and sought 
 rest and recovery by retiring to a village fifteen 
 miles distant. Disease crept more rapidly upon him. 
 He was brought back to Funchal, in a hammock, a 
 mode of conveyance in this mountainous land. Dr. 
 Kalley was absent in Scotland. The physician 
 almost despaired of seeing Hewitson well again. 
 Nor was the patient very hopeful. He said, " For two 
 or three days I scarcely expected recovery. I never
 
 THE YOUNG MISSIONARY. 73 
 
 went down so far into the dark valley, nor got so 
 steady a gaze over the verge of time into the depths 
 of eternity." For six weeks he could not meet, on 
 Sabbath, with the Scotch congregation worshipping 
 there. Yet he declared that these were the " sweetest 
 T^eeks he ever spent in Madeira." A friend sent 
 him some flowers and he wrote back, *' When we 
 find the Lord's flowers withering: in our hands, we 
 
 should not vex our souls as we are apt to do fie 
 
 is not hiding his face, though the flowers be dry. 
 He would have us be ever going again, through tlie 
 gentle dropping dews of prayer in the Holy Ghost, 
 to knock at his garden gate, and ask him for a 
 fresh gift of his choicest flowers. He withers the 
 flowers we have, that we may ask for more. Oh 
 matchless love of Jesus I He wishes us to come 
 a£i;ain and a^ain." 
 
 This sickness gave strenorth to his heart for the 
 good work. " Out of weakness he was made strong." 
 He did not think best to renew the public meetings 
 till Dr. Kalley should return, lest the foe should get 
 some advantage. But he set on foot a new method. 
 The converts should hold meetings from house to 
 house, and those best instructed should conduct them. 
 It was a happy plan. He organized a class, who 
 should study the gospel, in order to be qualified to 
 teach others. Some came eighteen miles to attend 
 it. One person, just released from jail, was asked 
 to lead in prayer, but feeling his need of learning 
 and good language, he said, " Excuse me, for I can 
 7
 
 74 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 only pray as I have been taught by the Holy Ghost !" 
 Would that all Christians could thus learn from the 
 Spirit of God ! 
 
 The rage of the enemy waxed more terrible ; more 
 was known of jails than of churches in those stormy 
 days. Hewitson was waiting daily for the call of 
 policemen to hurry him away to prison. Dr. 
 Kalley returned to the island. The missionary was 
 forbidden to preach or teach in the name of Jesus. 
 One of the judges was ordered to arrest him, but 
 declined. The Bishop went to Lisbon to get aid to 
 put down the religion of Christ. The English mer- 
 chants were forbidden to have any meetings of Por- 
 tuguese in their houses. It seemed best for Mr. 
 Hewitson to retire from the scene for a little while. 
 But he felt that he must get his class through a 
 good course of study. He toiled hard. In three 
 weeks eighty-seven Portuguese took the sacrament. 
 There were hundreds — yes thousands — ready to 
 listen to the word of God, but the hoof of oppression 
 kept them down. 
 
 One cheering fact occurred, just when the enemy 
 seemed to be most mighty. " A few minutes ago," 
 he wrote, " I have heard of a wicked man's conver- 
 sion. His wife called to ask me to visit the house." 
 That man had been one of the chief tools of the 
 angry priests, in carrying on their work of violenee. 
 This gave more of an impulse to priestly rage, while 
 it made it the more sad for the young missionary to 
 retire from the field.
 
 THE YOUNG MISSIONARY. 75 
 
 He left Madeira in May 1846, intending to 
 return after a few months. With a bounding heart 
 he soon excLaimed, "Again I am on British 
 ground !" Toward Madeira his thoughts often 
 turned. He heard how his flock were being scat- 
 tered by the storm. " Ah ! the tidings from Ma- 
 deira," he writes, " are truly sad. The dear people, 
 hunted like wild beasts on the mountains by their 
 savage foes, and forced on the resource of emigra- 
 tion, as the only means of escape from the dreadful 
 alternative of relapse into Popery, or of suffering, 
 it may be in many cases to death. One man brut- 
 ally murdered ! Several women beaten almost to 
 death ! Popery would exterminate grace itself 
 from the earth if it could !" 
 
 Of Mr. Hewitson's labours, Dr. Kalley wrote : 
 " He has been a source of incalculable good to 
 Madeira. I feel myself to be very much a hewer 
 of wood or drawer of water."
 
 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 LAWLESS VIOLENCE — ENGLISH LADIES MOBBED. 
 
 The Misses Rutherford were English ladies re- 
 siding in a quiet part of Funchal. They occupied 
 a summer residence called the " Quinta das Angus- 
 tias." One of them was an invalid, unable to leave 
 the house. A Miss Clarke acted as her nurse. A 
 young Portuguese lady, an orphan, a convert, and 
 a teacher, was also one of the family. 
 
 The Misses Rutherford were known to be Protes- 
 tants, and friends to the Bible-readers. They had 
 allowed some of the Portuguese women to come and 
 hear the Bible read in their house. They had been 
 '• helpers in the gospel." It was resolved by their 
 spies and foes, that they should be driven from the 
 island. All treaties for protecting English residents 
 were disregarded, and even when the British consul 
 ought to have shielded them from harm, nothing 
 was done. They were exposed to the rage of a 
 mob. 
 
 On a Sabbath morning, August 2nd, 1846, a com- 
 pany of thirty or forty worshippers of God met in 
 the "Quinta das Angustias." They met on this
 
 LAWLESS VIOLENCE. <T 
 
 holy day to sing praises, offer prayers, read the 
 Bible, and hear a letter from Mr. llewitson their 
 pastor, then absent in Scotland. The worship was 
 conducted by Mr. Da Silva, a man of influence and 
 learning, who had left all and followed Jesus. 
 
 During these hours a mob was collecting. It 
 was not headed by a drunken outlaw, but by a canon 
 of the church, an officer who assisted the Bishop in 
 his labours, and was one of his counsellors. He 
 was a Jesuit. Educated in England, he had seen 
 something of what power the Bible had over the 
 people. He had, no doubt, come from the Cathe- 
 dral that very hour, with his robes upon him, and 
 was now mustering a ruffian rabble to attack the 
 peaceable worshippers in the Quinta. 
 
 The meeting heard Mr. Hewitson's letter with 
 deep interest. It was like one of his rich sermons. 
 A few words from it would do us good. 
 
 " I remember you every day in my prayers before 
 God, giving thanks to him who called you out of 
 darkness into his marvellous light. 
 
 " Life, light, salvation, the hope of glory, all 
 spiritual and eternal blessings, are found in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord ; neither can they be found any- 
 where else. Christ is the storehouse of all the 
 heavenly goods ; Christ is the treasurer of all the 
 riches of divine goodness ; Christ is the fountain 
 from which rivers of living waters are always flow- 
 ing ; Christ is the Sun of the highest heavens, which 
 scatters and throws all the rays of divine wisdom 
 7*
 
 78 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 and knowledge both among the angels above and 
 the believers below. Whatever blessing you need, 
 seek from Christ Jesus. 
 
 *'If ye depart from Jesus, ye are poor, miserable, 
 blind, and naked ; ye have nothing. Coming to 
 Jesus, ye become partakers of his riches, his white 
 robes, his light, his wisdom, happiness, joy, grace, 
 and love ; his kingdom and glory. Come therefore 
 nearer to Jesus, and never leave off living and walk- 
 ing with him. Be very close to his pierced side. 
 Hide yourselves within his heart. Bathe your souls 
 in the waves of his eternal love. 
 
 " If you do not trust in Christ only, you cannot 
 be saved. If you trust in your tears, prayers, 
 works, persecutions, or tribulations, you are certain- 
 ly wrong, and walk far from the way of salvation. 
 Such thi^s are not Christ — such things are not 
 your Saviour. Do not trust in them, but only in 
 Christ. 
 
 " It is good to shed tears of sadness, thinking on 
 your sins ; but shed them looking to Christ crucified. 
 It is good to pray; and to pray more and more 
 earnestly ; but you ought to pray trusting only in 
 the merits of Christ. It is good to do the good 
 works of faith and love ; it is good to increase more 
 and more in fortitude, charity, purity, and meekness; 
 but see that you don't put any confidence in your 
 own works. It is good, if necessary, to suffer per- 
 secution, shame, and death itself, for the sake of the 
 name of Jesus. But we ought always to remember,
 
 LAWLESS VIOLENCE. 79 
 
 that it is not for the sake of our personal sorrow 
 and suffering, but only for the sake of the sufferings 
 which Christ endured, that we are saved. 
 
 *' If we have Christ, we have all ; without Christ, 
 we have nothing. You can be happy without money, 
 without liberty, without parents, and without friends, 
 if Christ is yours. If you have not Christ, neither 
 money, nor liberty, nor parents, nor friends, can 
 make you happy. Christ with a chain is liberty ; 
 liberty without Christ is a chain. Christ without 
 anything is riches ; all things without Christ are 
 poverty indeed." 
 
 Tears must have fallen from the eyes of these 
 devoted Christians, so soon to be persecuted. The 
 meeting was held until after twelve o'clock. As 
 these refreshed worshippers were about to retire, a 
 mob appeared at the gate. The Jesuit Canon Telles 
 was heard shouting defiance and revenge. Other 
 priests were with him. 
 
 Mr. Da Silva went first to the gate. The canon 
 instantly thrust an image in his face, and bade him 
 *' kiss it" and "adore his God !" Da Silva calmly 
 replied, ^'Whydoyou interfere with a peaceable 
 citizen ?" The canon then abused him, with the 
 names of "heretic, renegade, apostate," and other 
 insults. But the good elder, " when he was reviled, 
 reviled not again." 
 
 The canon then knocked oft' his hat in a violent 
 manner, and urged on the mob. Da Silva, after 
 such ill-treatment, managed to escape, and three or
 
 80 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 four others "with him. One young man was so brut- 
 ally attacked that he retreated into the house. The 
 rest were compelled to remain within doors. The 
 English ladies could not think of forcing them to 
 leave the premises. The house was besieged through 
 all the afternoon. 
 
 Dr. Kalley came in the afternoon to visit the 
 sick in the Quinta. He knew nothing of the mob 
 until he rode up to the gate. As he was told that 
 the sick English lady was in need of medical aid, 
 he felt that he must go in, though the mob should 
 rage the more. Voices hooted at him, called him 
 abusive names, threatened him, and shook their 
 fists and their clubs. When he came back he was 
 threatened again, and his groom was violently 
 beaten. The mob declared that they would kill him 
 if he dared to follow the doctor. He therefore ran 
 home, struck with fear and horror, reporting that 
 he had left his master in the midst of a murderous 
 mob. The doctor mounted his horse, and rode 
 through the crowd in the street, and some hats were 
 lifted in respect for him, and some voices were 
 heard saying, that it was an outrage to reward him 
 in such a way for doing good. 
 
 The mob would probably have disbanded and gone 
 away, had not Canon Telles and the priests been 
 determined not to abandon the ground. They went 
 about through the crowd, adding oil to their burning 
 fury. The police were there, but they did not dis- 
 perse the rioters. No law was read, forbidding such
 
 LAWLESS VIOLENCE. 81 
 
 outraojes. The scenes that fullowed tlurln^ that 
 night of violence are best described by quoting the 
 words of an eye witness, Lieut. J. K. Tate, in the 
 British service : 
 
 ** Having heard, late in the afternoon, of the 
 painful situation in which the Misses Rutherford 
 were placed by the threatening attitude of the mob, 
 I rode down to the Angustias, with a view to afford 
 them any protection, counsel, or comfort in my 
 power, as well as to watch the further motions of 
 the people. I arrived at half-past six, when I found 
 that the police had been withdrawn. Xhe canon, 
 however, with various other priests, was on the 
 ground, and an unusual number of persons were 
 walking and talking in the neighbourhood. I ac- 
 cordingly resolved upon returning at ten, and re- 
 maining in the house during the night, should my 
 presence be required by the ladies under the cir- 
 cumstances in which they were placed. Soon after 
 ten I returned, at which time Conego Telles was seen 
 in the road, with a crowd of people talking in groups 
 around the gate. Through them I was permitted 
 to ride in quietly, but not, as we afterwards discov- 
 ered, without much consultation on the subject 
 amongst the ringleaders of the mob. Being out on 
 the balcony about eleven o'clock, when the silvery 
 moon was shining peacefully through the trellis of 
 the verandah, and all nature quietly reposing in the 
 solemn stillness of the night, the sound of human 
 voices warned us that the mob had come within the
 
 82 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 gates. "We now perceived a number of men armed 
 with bludgeons standing at the front door, and at 
 once warned them oflf the grounds. 
 
 " Miss Rutherford addressed them in Portuguese, 
 using every argument to induce them to retire. She 
 reminded them that their appearance thereat such an 
 hour, and in such an attitude, was contrary to all 
 law, while their conduct was seriously endangering 
 the life of an invalid lady. She cautioned them to 
 beware of illegal proceedings ; she told them that 
 they might surround the house and wait for daylight, 
 or send for the police if they suspected there was 
 any criminal within ; for to the police, with a legal 
 warrant, she would open the door the instant the 
 sun was up. The people were at the same time 
 assured that the case would be represented in the 
 morning to her Britannic Majesty's representative 
 at Funchal. 
 
 " To this they replied that *they did not care for 
 the English consul' — * there was no law for the 
 Calvinists' — and ' they could appeal to the gover- 
 nor.'* 'They had a right, they said,' ' to do what 
 they liked, and all the Portuguese in that house 
 should die.' They then insisted on immediate 
 entrance, or that the Portuguese should be delivered 
 up to their vengeance. Both were, of course, re- 
 fused, when they declared their intention to force 
 their way ; with the threat that if they did so every 
 
 * The subsequent conduct of the governor fully confirmed the 
 ideas the ruffians had been led to form of him.
 
 LAWLESS VIOLENCE. 83 
 
 soul they found within shoukl die. A low whistle 
 was given by the ringleaders, which was immediate- 
 ly answered by a further rush of men, who now 
 amounted to fifty or sixty, armed with clubs and 
 bludgeons. Seeing all remonstrance vain, that the 
 people were partially intoxicated by liquor, and 
 were now planting their comrades in all directions 
 round the Quinta, we retired from the balcony into 
 the house, shutting and bolting the windows as we 
 went. Having done this, we repaired to the chamber 
 of the invalid, and committed ourselves unreserved- 
 ly to the care of Him who alone could overrule the 
 will of his enemies, and make the wrath of man to 
 praise him. 
 
 *' In a short time the smashing of the windows, 
 and crash of the bludgeons on the door, announced 
 that the money and liquor of the enemy were fear- 
 fully doing their work.* 
 
 " Amidst the yells of the mob, the cry was still 
 heard for admittance ; when Miss Rutherford again 
 addressed them in that calm, gentle, temperate, yet 
 firm and dignified manner which distinguished her 
 conduct through the night. One of the ringleaders 
 
 * " The money paid on this occasion waa in small sums of 3 bits 
 (fifteen pence) and upwards. This I have from relatives of those 
 who actually received payment. That paid to the ringleaders on the 
 occasion of the outrage on Dr. Kalley's residence was in much 
 greater sums — large subscriptions having, I was given to understand, 
 been raised among the priests and men of property." Rev. Mr. 
 
 MOBTON.
 
 84 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 desired her to speak in English,* but she answered 
 that ' she spoke not for his ear only, but for those 
 of all that were present.' She then, in the most 
 courteous way begged them to withdraw, urging the 
 danger they were incurring by so acting in violation 
 of the law. ' There are no laws for Cahanists,' was 
 the instant reply, showing that the impression pro- 
 duced by the long preceding course of authorized 
 persecution was, that Christians were outlawed by 
 the fact of being readers of the word of God, with 
 a further threat, that if the doors were not immedi- 
 ately opened they would burn the house to the 
 ground ! 
 
 " Another smash of windows followed, and one of 
 the mob called out aloud, ' You had better retire or 
 I'll kill you.' Miss Rutherford sprang back, and 
 a huge stone fell upon the spot which she had occu- 
 pied but the moment before. The smashing at the 
 door was now resumed with fearful violence, and 
 repeated at short intervals, xls each blow fell upon 
 the windows and resounded through the house, a 
 shudder passed over the invalid's weakly frame. 
 And though I am sure there was hardly a thought 
 of self within her, yet so deep was the sympathy 
 evinced for her suffering sisters in Christ, that we 
 expected every moment would have severed the 
 spirit from the body, and called it from a stormy 
 world to ' where the wicked cease from troubling, 
 and the weary are at rest.' Each crash seemed 
 
 * So that the mob would nut uuderstaud her plea. 
 
 ■i
 
 LAWLESS VIOLENCE. 85 
 
 like an electric shock, pervading every nerve ; so 
 true is it that * we, being many, are one body in 
 Christ, and every one members one of another.' 
 Thus when * one member suffers, all the members 
 Buffer with it.' 1 Cor. xii. 20. 
 
 *' Meanwhile Miss Rutherford and Clarke, her En- 
 glish maid, were exerting themselves to conceal the 
 poor Christians from the anticipated murderous 
 attack. They consisted almost exclusively of women ; 
 of harmless, quiet, inoffensive females ! But they 
 were Protestants — they had not been to mass, nor 
 had they lately paid the fees of confession. And so 
 their sex was no protection from the bludgeon of 
 the ruffian ! They were marked out by the priest- 
 hood for vengeance, and the end was to justify the 
 means. For their greater security they were hurried 
 into the kitchen, at the remote end of the house ; 
 that being the apartment likely to be last reached 
 by the assailants, and from which there was a stair- 
 door down to the garden. All but a poor blind 
 man were shut in here ; and he, perhaps the happiest 
 of the party, was put under a bed in a spare room, 
 over which some dresses were carelessly thrown to 
 conceal him from view. He was told that there 
 was no help but in his God, and that he must plead 
 with him to put out his arm and save him. 
 
 " We also commended the whole of our party to the 
 
 care of our heavenly Father, praying that he would 
 
 be to each of us individually a very present help in 
 
 this our time of trouble ; that he would teach us to 
 
 8
 
 86 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 pray, that he would help our unbelief and confirm our 
 faith; and above all, that he would uphold us, so that 
 not one of our number, for any pains of death, should 
 fall from him. The seats were then removed from 
 the room in which the meeting had been held. 
 Bibles and bonnets were put out of the way, so that 
 no additional cause for excitement might inflame the 
 rabble as they entered. Still crash succeeded crash, 
 and blow succeeded blow ! 
 
 " What a contrast, thought I, between those with- 
 out and those within the house ! Here was peace 
 and confidence ; there violence and hatred. Here 
 was the voice of Him who is love itself, and who had 
 permitted the storm to rise, whispering into each 
 one's ear, ' It is I ; be not afraid ; my grace is suf- 
 ficient for thee ;' there was the voice of Satan urg- 
 ing on his slaves to deeds of darkness and of blood. 
 Here, in a word, was Christ ; there was anti-Christ. 
 Here the seed of the woman ; there the seed of the 
 serpent. Alas, how true ! it was not against their 
 countrymen as men that their hatred, their rage, 
 their violence had been raised, for many of those 
 had come from the country, and were personally 
 unknown. It was not against them, but against 
 'Christ in them.' It was Jesus whom they perse- 
 cuted. After a few more crushing blows, the door 
 of the house flew open. Still none dared enter. 
 Portuguese cowardice, ready enough to attack the 
 helpless, aged female, and the blind, shrank from 
 encountering an unknown danger in the dark. The
 
 LAWLESS VIOLENCE. 87 
 
 ruffians sent for lights, which they made 'little boys* 
 carry in their front ! They tlien searched every 
 room in the lower part of the house, but in vain. 
 Their victims -svere not there. 
 
 "Soon after midnight, just as arrangements were 
 completed above, lights were distinguished on the 
 staircase, and almost immediately they entered the 
 drawing-room. Off this room was the invalid's 
 chamber, and thither the rioters directed their course. 
 Six or eight of the ruffians, preceded by boys 
 carrying lights, flashing in their faces, daringly en- 
 tered the room and demanded the Portuguese ; plac- 
 ing by this act of reckless cruelty, the life of a de- 
 fenceless invalid lady, guiltless of crime, in the most 
 imminent danger. They were informed that the 
 Portuguese were not there, and would not be given 
 up ; and desired, moreover, not to come farther into 
 the sick lady's room. They whispered together for 
 a few minutes, (every moment of which must have 
 been an agony to the ladies,) and then went grum- 
 bling and muttering away. A guard being left in 
 the drawing-room, they proceeded in search of their 
 victims ; a rather tedious process by the way, in a 
 house with twenty bedrooms and six sitting rooms, 
 besides a chapel and closets of all kinds. 
 
 " At length we heard the yell of triumph. The 
 victims had been found. Resistance was not thought 
 of, but they were all on their knees in prayer to 
 God. One was seized — his head laid open to the 
 bone, and himself thrown over the banisters to the
 
 88 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 ground. Here the mob was beating him with clubs 
 and dragging him out to be murdered in the garden, 
 'for it is a less crime,' said they, ' to kill him there.' 
 At the very moment of opening the door by which 
 to drag out their intended victim, the police and 
 soldiers entered, thus catching them in the very act 
 of outrage, and intended murder in a British sub- 
 ject's house. The mob was asked by what authority 
 they had entered that house, to which they replied 
 that ' they did not care for authority or law.' Two 
 of the ruffians were then secured, marched off, and 
 lodged in jail. 
 
 " The rest fled through the house, making the 
 ladies fancy for a moment that either the poor 
 victims were rushing to us for shelter, or that the 
 villains were returning to add us to the number of 
 their prey. We soon discovered that the police 
 were in possession of the kitchen, and taking our 
 party under their charge, they conducted them in 
 safety to their homes. No sooner had the invalid 
 heard of the safety of Christ's little flock, than nature 
 showed herself completely exhausted. The spirit 
 indeed was strong, but the flesh was weak. She 
 fell into a state of complete insensibility, from which 
 she had not recovered when I left the house in the 
 morning. The noise had, it appeared, been heard 
 in the town, but no force was in readiness to quell 
 the disturbance ; or in ten minutes they might have 
 reached the Angustias. The two policemen wlio 
 heard the noise were insufficient to face a mob ; they
 
 LAWLESS VIOLENCE. 89 
 
 hurried off, therefore, for military aid. Thus, not 
 the foresight of the magistrate, nor the vigilance of 
 the government, but the length of time spent in 
 searching the house, and the native cowardice of 
 the Portuguese, were instrumental in the hands of 
 an all-wise and all-merciful Providence, towards 
 bringing deliverance to his persecuted, but not for- 
 saken ones. 
 
 '• In the morning, at the request of Miss Ruther- 
 ford, I officially reported the outrage to the consul, 
 * in order that he might take such steps as he might 
 be pleased to think the case demanded as represen- 
 tative of the British crown.* I also beo:ored him to 
 
 CO 
 
 adopt such measures as might be necessary to pro- 
 tect British life and property from any repetition 
 of violence, the door being so smashed in that any 
 one could enter the premises at pleasure. This 
 letter I delivered in person, but soon found how 
 little we had to expect either in sympathy or assis- 
 tance at the hands of the representative of British 
 majesty. The subject was treated with the greatest 
 coldness and indifference. More regret was ex- 
 pressed at the meeting of a few Protestants for prayer 
 and praise in the morning, than indignation at the 
 violation of British rights and honour, and the 
 danger to which the lives of British subjects were 
 exposed at the hands of a lawless mob at night. 
 Although I looked, and still look at the outrage as 
 an affair to be judged of wholly irrespective of the 
 meeting or any other circumstance whatever, I 
 8 *
 
 90 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 ventured to assure the consul that not a word had, 
 at that meeting of friends, been uttered against the 
 religion of the state, which alone, according to Por- 
 tuguese interpretation of the law. could make such a 
 meeting illegal. 
 
 '•Besides. I added, had all the laws of Portugal 
 been broken. Miss Piutherford was amenable to those 
 laws, and to those laws only, and till tried and con- 
 demned bv them, was surely entitled to protection 
 from her countrv. She should not be criven over to 
 the tender mercies of a Romish priest and his reck- 
 less mob. The consul admitted that the outrage 
 was unjustifiable: and he * hoped." and 'trusted,' 
 and * felt assured" that the offenders would bp 
 punished. I suggested that in my humble opinion 
 the British government, in a case of such gross vio- 
 lation of British property, ^c. was entitled to demand 
 that active measures should be taken by the au- 
 thorities for the arrest of the offenders : or. at least, 
 that due punishment should be ensured to the two 
 persons captured on the previous night under cir- 
 cumstances that could a'imit of no kind of doubt as 
 to their guilt. 
 
 '• So far. however, from this being likely to follow, 
 I told him that no authority of any kind had been 
 near the scene of outrage : nor, so far as I could see, 
 were anv steps being taken for the furtherance of 
 the ends of justice. The consul stated, in reply, 
 that it was a case for the courts of la^s■. and not for 
 him to interfere iri ! I then asked the consul as to
 
 LAWLESS VIOLENCE. 01 
 
 the protection which the Misses Rutherford might 
 expect to their lives and property during the night ; 
 when (will the reader believe rae when I say ?) the 
 representative of Great Britain referred them to the 
 office of police ! * The head of police would, he had 
 no doubt, provide them with a sufficient force !' " 
 
 " Such outrages were committed on the 2nd of 
 August, 1846. Neither the British consul nor the 
 Portuguese authorities made any efforts to prevent 
 their repetition. The leaders of the mob well un- 
 derstood the disposition of the authorities, and were 
 encouraged in their work. 
 
 "Such, I may add, were some of the consequences 
 directly arising from the breach of the peace by a 
 canon of the cathedral church of Funchal, Carlos 
 Telles de Menezes, a dignitary of the church of 
 Rome!!!"
 
 92 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. KALLEY. 
 
 The enemies now found how far they might dare 
 to go in deeds of violence. They need fear nothing 
 from the governor, nor police, nor British consul. 
 It was in the power of the governor and consul to 
 restore order. A resolute word from them would 
 have put the rioters in fear. They were solemnly 
 bound by their oaths of office to protect all whose 
 lives and property were assailed. British Protest- 
 ants could claim the protection of all they had, by 
 the treaty between England and Portugal. It was 
 said expressly — " Their dwelling houses, warehouses, 
 and everything belonging thereto, shall be respected, 
 and shall not be subjected to any arbitrary visits 
 of search." It also secured them the right to wor- 
 ship God without any opposition. 
 
 The one man against whom the malice was strong- 
 est, was Dr. Kalley. It was determined to attack 
 him very soon. Through the week, after the attack 
 on the Quinta das Angustias, he was often insulted. 
 His name was called aloud in the streets, and he 
 was threatened. The cries of " Calvinistas," (Cal-
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. K ALLEY. 93 
 
 vinists,) and " Kallistas," (Kalleyitcs,) were very 
 loud in reproach of the Protestants. Large com- 
 panies of men marched through the city declaring 
 that all Protestants, foreign and native, should be 
 destroyed. 
 
 Miss Rutherford, before leaving the island, asked 
 such protection as even an enemy would give, if 
 there were any mercy for the defenceless and the 
 sick. But it was refused. From the head of the 
 police she received the following message : 
 
 " That he (the police magistrate) would not con- 
 tinue to protect Miss Rutherford's house so long as 
 Portuguese were admitted to hold divine worship, or 
 any that had been known to assemble themselves 
 together were permitted to frequent the place." And 
 he further required from her a promise in writing 
 *' that no meeting should be held in her house." To 
 this impudent and daring threat Miss Rutherford 
 replied by stating to the consul her thorough con- 
 viction that no Portuguese law prohibited such 
 meetings, in which nothing was said against the re- 
 ligion of the state. At the same time, as protection 
 was otherwise refused to the lives and property of 
 herself and family, she requested him to give such 
 promise in her name, if he considered the giving of 
 such a promise " extorted by threats," and which no 
 law and no treaty gave the magistrate any right to 
 prescribe, was compatible with the honour of the 
 British nation. If not, she demanded protection 
 from him. She was the more earnest because her
 
 94 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 friends thought that her sick sister could not endure 
 the removal from the house. 
 
 No such protection was granted, but she was 
 ordered to remove as soon as possible. The threats 
 against these innocent ladies, and the kind-hearted 
 Dr. Kalley, became more tierce during the week. 
 Knives were packed away in a house near the 
 Quinta das Angustias. The rioters were spying out 
 the Christians. One of the leaders was heard to 
 say, " If Dr. Kalley escapes this time, he must be 
 the devil !" 
 
 A letter was addressed by Dr. Kalley to the police 
 magistrate, informing him of the facts of the case. 
 The bearer of the letter was seized in the street, by 
 some " gentlemen," as they were called, and beaten 
 severely, so that he was forced to give up the letter. 
 Dr. Kalley then wrote to the governor a statement 
 of the facts. 
 
 The governor, in a very insulting letter, replied, 
 that the British residents on the island were looked 
 upon with "mistrust and disgust," and that the 
 disturbance " was the fruit of the tree he had planted 
 on the island, and it could produce nothing but dis- 
 cord and trouble !" Just so the apostles were falsely 
 accused of having turned the world upside down ! 
 
 To this insulting letter Dr. Kalley sent a manly, 
 respectful, and Christian reply. He recited the 
 events of the previous Sabbath, and said : " The 
 authorities are not ignorant of the facts. They 
 are notorious to your excellency, to the public
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. KALLEY. 95 
 
 prosecutor, to the British consul, and to the whole 
 population of Funchal. The actual state of the 
 house speaks volumes, but not one of the authorities, 
 either British or Portuguese, has jet looked near it. 
 The criminals are not unknown — two of them were 
 in the power of the authorities — actually in prison 
 — and were set at liberty ! Why does the public 
 prosecutor not raise an action against those guilty 
 of so public an outrage, unless it be true that the 
 authorities do not choose to repress the disturbances 
 by the punishment of the offenders ? 
 
 '" Houses have been broken into, and the inmates 
 beaten nearly to death. Other houses have been 
 set on fire at midnight, and burned to the ground, 
 and the authorities have not given any public de- 
 monstration of disapproval. Not one of the crim- 
 inals has been punished ; and when ruffians are 
 arrested by the police * in flagrante,' in a British 
 subject's house, they are forthwith set at liberty. 
 The assailants are released — the assailed are im- 
 prisoned and condemned in virtue of laws, respect- 
 ing which the judge, in the very sentence, declared 
 that they are abolished. 
 
 "Further the master of police dares to refuse 
 protection to British life, and British property, ex- 
 cept on condition of British subjects making promises 
 which no law and no treaty ever conveyed to him 
 any right to exact ; and for the want of energetic 
 interference, the residence of British citizens is ac- 
 tually placed in a state of siege.
 
 9^ THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 " If the authorities choose to proceed in such a 
 "way, the verdict of the world as to the cause of the 
 disturbances cannot be doubtful. The attempt of 
 the authorities to throw the blame upon others, will 
 only serve to remind the world of Nero, blaming the 
 Christians for the burning of Rome. 
 
 "A large loose rock, on the steep side of a hill, 
 may be easily kept in its place as long as it is at 
 rest ; but once in motion, how terrific its course, as 
 it sweeps and bounds impetuously down the mountain 
 side, bearing destruction along with it ! Who can 
 arrest it? So it is with the power of a lawless 
 mob." 
 
 Like the apostle Paul, when falsely accused, h6 
 referred to his past life in proof that he was aiming 
 to secure the best interests of men. '' My aim has 
 uniformly been to promote the health, comfort and 
 happiness of the Madeirans, as far as is in my 
 power. I have never taught anything at variance 
 with the doctrines, that men have one Father, the 
 living and true God, that we are all brethren, and 
 that our common Father commands all his children 
 to love one another, not in word only but in deed 
 and truth. 
 
 " I have never taught a syllable at variance with 
 the glorious truth, that when we had all offended 
 that most gracious Father, and deserved the doom he 
 had denounced, a Friend from heaven — a partner with 
 the Father in his throne — loved us, died for us, re- 
 deemed us with his blood, and thus laid us under
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. KALLEY. 97 
 
 Still raore powerful obligation to love our Lord — to 
 love one another — to love all men, even our enemies ; 
 and such doctrines are diametrically opposed to all 
 disturbance, injustice, and crime. 
 
 " I am bold to say, that my conduct, and that of 
 those who hold similar religious sentiments, has 
 never been such as to give any reason to suppose 
 that, in my creed, I approve of any kind of moral 
 evil. No one has ever dared to charge me with 
 teaching any man to defraud or injure his fellow- 
 man. Amid all the disturbances that ever occurred 
 at Madeira, there never was an instance in which 
 those who agree with me in my religious views, were 
 the aojorressors ; and among innumerable cases of un- 
 provoked, atrocious cruelty practised against them, 
 they have never, with one exception been charged 
 with striking a blow, even in self-defence ; for they 
 have learned of Him, who was meek and lowly of 
 heart — who, when he was reviled, reviled not again 
 — when he suifered, he threatened not, but com- 
 mitted himself to Him who judgeth righteously. I 
 feel, therefore, most fully borne out in repudiating 
 the charge which your excellency has brought against 
 me, as the cause of the disturbances referred to ; 
 and am convinced that, on an extensive, unprejudiced 
 investigation of facts, your excellency will exonerate 
 me from the charge." 
 
 The governor was now as silent as the police 
 magistrate had been. Dr. Kalley then wrote to tlie 
 British consul, whose name we now withhold, lest it 
 9
 
 9S THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 shame some honest and brave man that bears the 
 same good-sounding name. In this he said, 
 
 " The rioters must feel that the conduct of all the 
 authorities implies an approbation of their proceed- 
 ings, inferior only to the issuing of an edict, or the 
 offering of a reward for their perpetration ; and they 
 are accordingly becoming daily bolder, so that on 
 the night of the 5th instant, and last night, their 
 threats "were such that from sixty to eighty individ- 
 uals felt themselves obliged to flee from their houses 
 for their lives, and spend the night in the moun- 
 tains. 
 
 *'I have received vrarning from various Portuguese 
 gentlemen, that the rioters threaten to attack my 
 house, and two or more other British houses within 
 the next eight days ; and as your inattention with 
 respect to Miss Rutherford's case has favored the 
 presumption that our government will not interfere, 
 whatever atrocities be committed upon us, it seems 
 highly probable that an attack will be made. 
 
 " From the conduct displayed towards the Misses 
 E-utherford, (who had broken no laws, and, if they 
 had, should have been tried by the law, and not 
 left to the mercy of an infuriated mob,) and towards 
 the rioters ; it is impossible to regard the authorities 
 otherwise than as, at the very least, conniving at 
 the outrage, and therefore responsible for all the 
 results. 
 
 " If you, in your official capacity, do not demand 
 the adoption of such measures as shall effectually
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. K ALLEY. 99 
 
 secure British subjects against the repetition of such 
 atrocities, I am convinced that my life and property 
 will be in danger; and if, from your non-interfer- 
 ence, similar atrocities be again perpetrated, our 
 country will justly look to you as responsible for 
 them all. 
 
 " I believe it is intended that an attack shall be 
 made on other places, at the same time as upon my 
 house, so as to afford a pretence for no aid, under 
 the plea that the police ^ere occupied elsewhere." 
 
 Saturday came, and the signs were plenty, that 
 the mob intended an attack on Sabbath, just one 
 week after the exploits of Canon Telles in attacking 
 the house of some innocent ladies. Dr. Kalley sent 
 this message to the consul : 
 
 " ^th of August. — For several days the vocifera- 
 tions, threats, and abuse uttered by the lower orders, 
 when passing my house, have been incessant ; and 
 of such a nature as to be disgraceful to a country 
 professing to be civilized. They are never inter- 
 fered with. Every one who goes out, or in to my 
 house, is assailed with a volley of abuse, whatever 
 be their religious opinions ; and during the last night 
 my family was repeatedly alarmed by parties bat- 
 tering at my door with sticks. 
 
 " 2nd P. S. — Noon. I enclose an anonymous 
 letter just put into my hands, which I beg you will 
 return to me.* I must repeat that I am fully con- 
 
 * Tho anonymous letter contained a correct prof^ratnuie of what 
 was planned fur tho next day, in mobbing Dr. Kalloy in hid own
 
 100 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 vinced that this comes of liberating the prisoners, 
 and other conduct of the authorities ; and if ener- 
 getic measures be not instantly adopted, I shall feel 
 myself obliged to deliver up the key of my property 
 to you for protection, as I cannot, with a couple of 
 servants, defend it against a mob." 
 
 Dr. Kalley began the work of turning his dwell- 
 ing into a fort. Two ruffians disguised as towns- 
 men came and stationed themselves at the door, 
 watching all that passed. About six o'clock on 
 Saturday evening, ten or twelve soldiers marched 
 up as a guard to the house, and were posted in a 
 cottage at the entrance of the grounds. Dr. Kalley 
 asked them if they knew why these threats were 
 made against him. They replied that " they fan- 
 cied it was because he was opposed to the saints. " He 
 told them that this was a great mistake, for instead 
 of being opposed to them, it was his greatest aim 
 and wish to be one of the happy number. The 
 person in charge of the guard then added, "Well, I 
 don't know, but the authorities think these things 
 have lasted long enough." 
 
 " From these ominous words, and from preceding 
 events, the doctor felt assured, writes an eye witness, 
 that the authorities would be in no hurry to come 
 to his protection, and, therefore, returned to finish 
 the barricading of the house by every additional 
 
 house. And yet the consul did nothing ! Yes, he did go the next 
 day and look on the scene of violence against one of his own coun- 
 trymen I
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. KALLEY. 101 
 
 means that he could contrive. In the meantime five 
 or six of the soldiers kept watch at the gates, whilst 
 their comrades remained in the cottage. 
 
 *' At ten o'clock, a friend of Dr. Kalley's acci- 
 dentally met a boy returning from Santa Luzia, with 
 a load of iron bolts, which he knew had been ordered 
 for the barricading of his house. He accordingly 
 stopped the lad, and on enquiring the reason of his 
 not delivering them at the doctor's house, was told, 
 * that he could not gain admittance, and that the 
 soldiers had said they were not required !* The 
 doctor's friend then accompanied the boy back to 
 the house, and assisted the doctor in completing his 
 work. 
 
 " About two in the morning, all had been done 
 that seemed possible in the way of defence, and as 
 Dr. Kalley's friend was leaving, the doctor accom- 
 panied him to the outer gate. Providentially, on 
 reaching it, they overheard the guard in a familiar 
 conversation with men, either masked, or with their 
 faces blackened ; one of whom was sharpening a 
 large knife on the door lintel, preparatory, as he 
 said in Portuguese, to the * killing on the morrow !' 
 When several had gathered together, they fnrther 
 heard them consulting as to whether they should go 
 in then — the soldiers being still in their company. 
 One said, ' No, there will be plenty of time for all 
 to-morrow.' Another, ' Nay, but let us go in now;* 
 and the gate moved a little on its hinges. Now 
 this had been left shut, so that it could not have
 
 102 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 been opened but from within ; and when found 
 open, it was evident that the soldiers were traitors,* 
 and had come from the cottage and opened it. A 
 female servant was near, and when she saw it move, 
 she instantly shut it with all her force ; and having 
 the key with him, the doctor locked it. Convinced 
 of the treachery of his guard, and that he had now 
 no longer any security to his life, he returned with 
 his friend into the house, to consult as to what should 
 be done. After committing themselves to God in 
 prayer, and casting all their care upon Him who 
 ' careth' for his people, they felt satisfied that the 
 most prudent course was to withdraw from the house. 
 Dr. Kalley therefore disguised himself, as hurriedly 
 as possible in the country dress of a peasant, and 
 stealthily and silently withdrew. 
 
 " It was a glorious moonlight night, — too clear to 
 be favourable for his escape, but there was no time 
 for delay. He passed through his own grounds as 
 cautiously as if he had been a thief, and fearing as 
 much to meet a ruffian there, as, in other circum- 
 stances, a ruffian would have been to meet the right- 
 ful owner ! Having reached the boundary, he 
 looked carefully round ; but seeing no watch on this 
 
 * " The soldiers were ■well aware that what was about to happen 
 was both agreeable to the government, and encouraged by the 
 priests ; and, therefore their present conduct and bearing to the 
 leaders of the mob. Had they been called upon to act on the morrow 
 by their officers — or that night instructed by their superiors to do 
 their duty, I cannot doubt that, as soldiers, they would have un- 
 hesitatingly have done so."
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. KALLEY. 103 
 
 Bide of his property, he descended the wall, to creep 
 along the vineyards in his front. What a spectacle 
 "was here presented ! The best and kindest friend 
 that had ever visited Madeira — he that had spent 
 eight long years in active exertions to benefit her 
 people — who had been by night and by day minis- 
 tering to their wants, at the bedside of their sick 
 and their dying, and had been the means, under 
 Providence, of restoring thousands of them to health 
 and strength ; — was now leaving his home, at dead 
 of night, unattended and alone. He was fleeing 
 for his life ! The stars were shining in beauty 
 above — the mountains rising in noble grandeur on 
 his right ; rich vineyards lay before him, and on his 
 left appeared, over the city, the calm, placid, silvery 
 ocean. 
 
 " All was still. The winds were hushed. It was 
 the Lord's day morning. No sound broke the 
 sacred stillness of that hour. All contrasted fear- 
 fully with the tempest which the demons of supersti- 
 tion and persecution had raised in the hearts of 
 some of that deluded people ! Having descended a 
 little way, the sound of voices broke upon his ear, 
 and fearing it might be a watch of enemies, he 
 turned aside. But after a few more alarms especially 
 from meeting people in the way, and from the watch- 
 dogs of the peasants, he reached the Pinheiros in 
 safety, the Quinta in which I was residing with my 
 invalid sister and mother. This was a little after 
 three o'clock. He leapt the wall, gently tapped,
 
 104 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 and was received by those within with fervent grat- 
 titude for his escape from the assassins who sought 
 his life. With deep anxiety had the attention of 
 all in the Pinheiros been directed, for nights past, 
 to the residence which he had now been compelled 
 to desert ; and our eyes had been intently fixed on 
 the spot, almost to the moment when Dr. Kalley 
 made his appearance in person.* 
 
 '' In the home which he had left there were hearts 
 beating anxiously for him ; and we lost not a moment 
 in exhibiting the appointed signal of his safe arrival. 
 This being seen, the rest of the inmates of the house 
 consulted for their personal safety. An old and 
 faithful servant buried the silver plate — a few im- 
 portant documents were secured, and they left the 
 dwelling where the ignorant had been instructed, 
 the mourner comforted, the sick attended, and anxious 
 trembling sinners directed to the blood that ' clean- 
 seth from all sin,' but against which the leaders of 
 the misguided people had now threatened to direct 
 their rage. 
 
 " While the family escaped by the back way, 
 through vinevards and fields, as the doctor had 
 done before, the friend who had been with them 
 during the night returned through the front door, 
 leaving, as it would seem to the treacherous guard, 
 
 " * Our cook had visited Santa Luzia early in the evening, and he 
 had reported the very suspicious appearance of a number of " bad 
 men," in the neighbourhood of the doctor's house. The threats, too, 
 were so open, that we were continually dreading an attack."
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. KALLEY. 105 
 
 the whole party quietly within. It was now near 
 the break of day, and crowds were pouring up the 
 mount road to the Festa, which had juvst begun. 
 Soon after daylight I was up, and not a little startled 
 at the sight of the doctor's groom, who, remember- 
 ing probably the military outrage at the Serra, had 
 fled from his master's house as soon as the guard ap- 
 peared, and taken refuge in our stable. Fearing 
 that his being seen would serve to throw suspicion 
 on his master's retreat, I asked him a few questions 
 as to the time and circumstances of his leaving on 
 the previous evening. And having thus lulled the 
 suspicions of our own servants, if any existed, I re- 
 commended him quickly to seek a place of safety, 
 which he at once consented to do.* Thus was Dr. 
 Kalley in a place of shelter, unknown to a single 
 native in the island. 
 
 " It was now high time for Dr. Miller (Dr. Kalley's 
 brother-in-law) and myself to be acting. "We felt 
 assured that the threatened attack would take place 
 at the appointed hour ; but were thankful that we 
 had a British consul and a British flag that must be 
 degraded and trampled upon, ere a British subject's 
 residence, rendered sacred by treaty, could be 
 openly outraged under the Sabbath's noon-day sun. 
 We hastened, therefore, to the consulate for the 
 purpose of reporting the events of the night, and 
 
 * He returned, however, as I afterwards discovered, to the stable, 
 aud I subsequently took him oft' in a bainuiuck to the " Williuui," of 
 Gla:jgow, disguised as a woman.
 
 106 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 requesting the consul to hoist the union of England 
 over the property of Dr. Kalley. The reader may 
 imao^ine our utter amazement when we found that 
 in spite of all the warnings he had received, all the 
 details of the plot with which he had been furnished, 
 the very hour of the attack being known to him, the 
 British consul had actually gone away to his coun- 
 try seat, without any probability of his return to 
 Tunchal ! ! 
 
 " The Quinta dos Pinheiros, to which the doctor 
 fled commands an excellent view of Santa Luzia, 
 his residence. Dr. Kalley had, therefore, an op- 
 portunity of watching from the windows the motions 
 of the people below ; and who can tell with what 
 thrilling anxiety he must have gazed in the direc- 
 tion of his now deserted residence ? Ten o'clock 
 came, and all was quiet ; the soldiers kept watch, 
 and the intending assailants, who had their spies 
 in all quarters of the town, thought that their vic- 
 tims were safe within. Half-past ten o'clock struck ; 
 still no unhallowed sound was heard reverberating 
 there. 
 
 " It was a glorious Sabbath morning. The sun had 
 risen, and was shining in a blaze of golden light ; 
 the sky was cloudless — the earth lovely, every vine- 
 yard around us being clustered with grapes, scattered 
 by a heavenly Friend. But though the wild roar 
 of furious men was not yet heard, they were gather- 
 ino" from among these vineyards to perpetrate, in 
 the name of that God, a God of love, justice, and
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. KALLEY. 107 
 
 truth, outrage, cruelty, and it might he murder ! 
 The only subject of conversation in the streets 
 seemed to be the intended proceedings of the day ; 
 and Mrs. Kalley, when escaping in disguise, over- 
 heard persons say — ' Those who are in that house, 
 would need to-day, to be sure of salvation.' 
 
 ** Eleven o'clock struck, and still there was a 
 pause. Then was heard a rocket hissing through 
 the air. A little pause, and a second followed ; and 
 there began a hum of human voices, which soon 
 rose into wild bursts, like ocean's billows in their 
 angriest mood. It sounded nearer and nearer ; still 
 the Quinta and grounds were quiet. Another 
 moment and a dense mass of human beings emerged 
 from among the trees, and were seen surrounding 
 the house. There was one wild roar and then a 
 silence. They retreated, and a faint hope arose 
 that the soldiers would do their duty. But no : the 
 silence was again broken ; the people were not 
 mistaken, the approval of the authorities was indeed 
 real, and the work of the instigator of the riots, 
 who had, I understand, himself enjoyed the charitable 
 advice and medicines of Dr. Kalley, was commenced 
 in earnest. 
 
 " Sledge-hammers and clubs were soon in requisi- 
 tion. The ruffians worked hard, and the door was 
 forced. A tremendous yell arose, then disappoint- 
 ment and confusion. They had expected that the 
 doctor would be dragged out to satiate their infuri- 
 ated passions. But no ; he was not found ! During
 
 108 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 all tills time the governor and the police magistrate 
 were present, with a guard of soldiers ; and there 
 they remained while the house was being attacked, 
 broken into, and ransacked ; seemingly, as was re- 
 marked by a gentleman who passed at the time, 
 more as a guard to see the work of devastation well 
 done, than for anvthincr else. 
 
 " The consul arrived in the midst of the work of 
 destruction, and seeing that nothing but force could 
 restrain the mob, pressed the governor to ' fire, as 
 it was a case where it was necessary to sacrifice 
 life.' But this the governor refused to do. Guns 
 were, indeed, heard in the distance ; but it was at 
 the festival of ' Our Lady.' The corps of country- 
 police, which had, on former occasions, been called 
 out to prevent people from going to the doctor's 
 house to listen to the sacred Scriptures, were not 
 now called out to save his life. The militia, though 
 called to attend, and fire in honour of the Festa of 
 ' Our Lady of the Mount,' were not in requisition 
 when the lives and property of British subjects were 
 in danger. Nothing effectual was attempted by the 
 governor, who had at his command all the force of 
 the island. Who, then, can fail to see that the 
 presence of that functionary and the military, at 
 Dr. Kalley's house, was a most pitiful farce ? Nay, 
 it was more than a farce — it was an insult to the 
 British nation. 
 
 " Disappointed of human sacrifices, the ruffians 
 seized upon the doctor's valuable library, manu-
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF PR. KALLEY. 109 
 
 scripts, and other papers ; and those which were not 
 reserved for their priestly employers, were, amidst 
 fiendish yells of deliglit, cast into the road in front 
 of the house, thrashed with clubs, and afterwards 
 burnt. The sacred Scriptures were the objects of 
 especial hatred, and were all consigned, without re- 
 serve, to the clubs and to the flames." 
 
 As there was now no security either for property 
 or life. Dr. Kalley's friends resolved to convey him 
 secretly and in disguise to a British vessel. For 
 this purpose, a hammock was obtained, but they 
 had much difficulty in securing bearers. Finally 
 they succeded. 
 
 "Dr. Kalley was quickly disguised in female 
 attire, put into the hammock, and covered over (as 
 invalid ladies are when being carried in Madeira) with 
 a linen sheet. Soon we had fairly started on our 
 perilous journey, not wavering in doubt, but strong 
 in faith and prayer ; knowing that He that was for 
 us was greater than any host that might be arrayed 
 against us. At first one of the bearers refused to 
 carry any one whose face he did not previously see; 
 but his objection was fortunately overruled by the 
 servant of the consul. 
 
 " About a hundred yards from the entrance of 
 the Pinheiros two men were on the watch at that 
 point of the road which is crossed by the Levado, 
 and from which our course diverged to the left. 
 This was the first danger we encountered ; but, put- 
 ting on a bold face, we advanced towards the spies. 
 10
 
 110 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 A suspicious glance was directed at myself, the 
 bearers, and the hammock ; but as we appeared to 
 be oroing: away from those parts that would have led 
 them to suspect the hammock's contents, we were 
 allowed to pass on without molestation. 
 
 " Before we had gone far the end of the sheet 
 •was lifted by one of the bearers and an inquisitive 
 look directed within. I then handed into the ham- 
 mock a bottle of eau-de-cologne, which I carried in 
 my hand to dispel suspicion. In a little time ex- 
 pressions were heard indicative that ' it was no lady 
 they were carrying.' Still we proceeded on our 
 long, circuitous journey, passing, ever and anon, 
 little groups of curious people, talking over the 
 affairs of the day and gazing on the dense column 
 of smoke risincr from Dr. Kallev's burniDcr librarv, 
 &c., the papers from which were falling around us. 
 
 *'By and by we descended towards the town, and 
 the bearer who had lifted the sheet exclaimed, ' It 
 was hell for him, he could not go any farther ;' and he 
 stopped and laid down the hammock. The moment 
 was a critical one ; but as the weather was truly 
 oppressive (for we had come under a burning sun) 
 even to one unencumbered with the weight of a 
 hammock, I did not oppose their resting awhile. I 
 then gently pressed them to proceed, and in a few 
 minutes we were passing the deanery. Three 
 several times did they thus lay down, and as often 
 were they induced to resume their burden, each 
 time pressing earnestly to know whither they were
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. K ALLEY. Ill 
 
 going. This was a question that could be answered 
 only at the risk of our lives. I mentioned, there- 
 fore, the name of a street close to the pier from 
 which we were to embark, and by which it was ne- 
 cessary to pass. We were now fairly in the heart 
 of the town, and expressions were more than once 
 heard, 'It is he.' 
 
 *' We passed the convent of Santa Clara, and the 
 consul's servant declared he could not go a step 
 further and would not. It was a trying position, 
 and things were becoming imminent, for the mob, 
 having failed in obtaining possession of Dr. Kal- 
 ley's person at Santa Luzia, had assembled in front 
 of the consulate, where as I have already said his 
 wife and brother-in-law's family had previously 
 taken refuge. Here they insisted that Dr. Kalley 
 was secreted, and loudly demanded his person. 
 While thus engaged in insulting the British flag, 
 and on the very point of breaking into the official 
 residence of our consul, a party of soldiers sent by 
 Colonel Teixeira was drawn up in front of the con- 
 sulate. 
 
 "From the steps of St. Peter's another bearer 
 was procured, but the cry had just been raised, 
 * There's the consul's servant ; that must be Dr. 
 Kalley.' We hurried past the Franciscan convent 
 and the castle onwards to the beach, while the cry 
 of * Kalley !' * Kalley !' was being carried from 
 p-treet to street till it reached the British consulate, 
 xhree loud fiendish cheers, and the living mass
 
 112 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 swept impetuously towards the pier, diverted from 
 the siege of the consulate to the far more exciting 
 search for the doctor's person. At length we 
 reached the pier, the boat was in readiness, the 
 hammock put on board and we were launched upon 
 the ocean. I turned round and the whole beach 
 teemed with living beings. What a change had a 
 moment produced in our condition and in theirs ! 
 But a moment earlier and we had surely been sac- 
 rificed to the fury of the mob. We were now out 
 of danger — we were beyond the murderers' grasp !" 
 
 The little boat with its precious charge was 
 rapidly rowed towards the steamer. Only those 
 who suffer persecution for Christ, know how exciting 
 such an hour must be. Angry voices from other 
 boats were heard asking who was in the hammock. 
 The boatmen seem to have thought *' it was a sick 
 lady who was going to the AYest Indies." No one 
 of the Christians said it was a sick lady ; they 
 merely kept quiet and passed on. 
 
 When the little boat came alongside of the 
 steamer, Lieut. Tate mounted the deck, and asked 
 the captain to take the hammock on board. 
 "Awful disease," " Quarantine," thought the captain 
 at first. He hesitated. But the mysterious story 
 was soon told, and it drew forth his true generosity 
 and hearty welcome. Dr. Kalley was now on 
 board an English ship. Soon after Mrs. Kalley 
 and a native attendant were on board the vessel. 
 This was Dr. Kalley's earthly reward, for showing
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. KALLEY. 113 
 
 himself the hest friend of Madeira that ever landed 
 on her shores ; the best friend of the people ; — " the 
 man who had consecrated time, talent, property, 
 and life itself to promote their best temporal and 
 spiritual welfare. Not only he and his family were 
 obliged to flee, but his library, valued at §10,000, 
 was reduced to ashes." 
 
 The British Consul had laid aside the official 
 dress, and had taken down the flag from flying over 
 his house, signifying English protection ! The 
 consular uniform should not be seen, and the flag: 
 should be furled in the lockers at an hour when 
 they ought to have been used to save English life and 
 property. England was not to blame, but she was 
 insulted by her own consul, who went about in a 
 " sailor's round jacket !" Name not the man I 
 
 The consul went to the mob which was still raging 
 at Dr. Kalley's burning house, and told them that 
 he had escaped, and had gone on board an English 
 vessel. But they would not believe this, unless 
 they could see him. So the obliging consul went 
 to the shore with them and asked that Dr. Kalley 
 would show himself! This was an insult. The 
 consul plead that, if this was not done, he would be 
 suspected of harbouring Dr. Kalley in his house, and 
 it would be set on fire. It would gratify him, and 
 satisfy the mob if he would grant them an ocular de- 
 monstration. Dr. Kalley consented to this in- 
 dignity because he feared his dear friends would be 
 
 burned alive in their houses, or murdered in trying 
 
 10*
 
 114 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 to flee from them. It was too late to use any more 
 hammocks in carrying away disguised persons. 
 
 There were officers of the government ready to put 
 down these riots. They had some respect for life, 
 for property, for rights, and for the treaty between 
 nations. They came to the Governor and police- 
 magistrate who were present at the work of destruc- 
 tion ! *' The officer of the guard frequently asked 
 permission of the head of police to disperse the 
 mob, but was told on no account to do so ! Colonel 
 Teixeira, the military commandant, knowing what 
 was going on at Dr. Kalley's house, and having re- 
 ceived no requisition for more troops than a small 
 guard, proceeded in person to the scene of plunder, 
 told the civil authorities that he had field pieces and 
 plenty of troops ready for action, and asked per- 
 mission to bring them up. He was informed there 
 was no need whatever for them." 
 
 We see then what the Romanists are ready to do 
 on Sabbath, when there are Christians to be driven 
 away, and when there are no civil laws to hinder 
 them from riots. Two Sabbaths had been dese- 
 crated in the most bold and violent manner. One 
 week was not enough to spend in this wicked work. 
 The fury was still kept hot by the priests. No 
 Christian, no Bible-reader, was allowed to be safe 
 in the city, or any of the towns of the island. 
 
 On the next day after Dr. Kalley's flight, many 
 other English residents were forced to leave their 
 homes. The sick were treated without mercy.
 
 NARROW ESCAPE OF DR. KALLEY. 115 
 
 Eleven such families were insulted and threatened. 
 One English gentleman, who helped his friends to 
 get safely away on ships, was threatened with mur- 
 der and obliged to flee. It would not do to help 
 any one to remain safe on the island, nor to help 
 any one to flee away ! One British lady died after 
 reaching a vessel in the harbour, from the violence 
 to which she, in her sickness, was exposed; others 
 came near losing life through fatigue and alarm. 
 
 The native Bible-readers were severely perse- 
 cuted. Their houses were broken into and plun- 
 dered, their steps were watched by spies, and they 
 were driven by hundreds into the mountains, and 
 hunted down, like sheep upon an island of wolves. 
 
 "It is truly heart-rending," wrote one of the 
 English residents, " to hear of their sufferings. 
 "When discovered in their hiding places, they are 
 mercilessly beaten, to extort a promise that they 
 will go to confession. A few days ago a man was 
 most brutally murdered, and several women have 
 sustained injuries from which they are not expected 
 to recover." They were faithful to their Saviour, 
 and remembered that, by faith, men of olden times 
 endured fire and sword, even death for Christ. 
 
 There was no protection for Protestants on shore. 
 A placard was put on the governor's palace de- 
 manding that Protestants should leave the island on 
 that week, and stating that four thousand men 
 would come for the answer of the government on 
 next Sabbath.
 
 116 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 Not many years before, during the reign of ter- 
 ror under Don Miguel, one of the proscribed per- 
 sons took refuo:e under the flao^ of a foreign consul. 
 He was safe there, though he did not dare to leave 
 his room for many months. But he was not a Bi- 
 ble-reader! No Bible-reader could be allowed the 
 protection of a foreign flag, and the worst of our 
 shame is that an English consul should even deny 
 the use of his waving banner.
 
 THE "WILLIAM OF GLASGOW." 117 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE ''WILLIAM OF GLASGOW." 
 
 The converts and Bible-readers were now called 
 to enter the seven-times-heated furnace. Fire at 
 home, the cudgel in the streets, the treachery of 
 priests, starvation in the mountains ; all these 
 threatened them. They were persecuted on every 
 side. Their neighbours, who still adhered to the 
 Koman church, the priests and the police were con- 
 stantly on the alert to arrest them. They were 
 forbidden to read the Scriptures, or to pray to- 
 gether in their own dwellings. Every copy of the 
 word of God on which the priests could lay their 
 hands was immediately committed to the flames. 
 But thanks be to God, the Bibles were not all de- 
 stroyed. Some enclosed their Bibles in small boxes 
 and buried them in the earth. Others opened a 
 place in the stone wall of the house, put in the Bi- 
 ble, and then plastered over it. And others 
 wrapped them in cloth aiid hung them in trees of 
 very thick foliage. In such ways as ingenuity and 
 piety could suggest, we are assured by tliose who know, 
 that at least fifty Bibles and three hundred New
 
 118 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 Testaments were preserved from the destroyer and 
 are now on the island. From time to time there 
 has been a resurrection of those Bibles that were 
 buried during the violence of the persecution. The 
 fruits of " the seed of the kingdom" will, we trust, 
 yet be seen in Madeira. 
 
 Every night some new act of violence and cruelty 
 was committed. The vineyards of Protestants were 
 trodden down, and their property destroyed. They 
 were hated by men, because they loved Christ. There 
 was no human law for them, because they were de- 
 termined to obey the laws of God. There was no 
 earthly home for them, because they were seeking 
 the Father's house in heaven. They were praising 
 God in the mountains, or seeking refuge on English 
 ships. Guns were often fired from these ships, to 
 let the persecuted people know that they might find 
 a welcome on their decks. 
 
 The ''William of Glasgow" was anchored in the 
 bay of Funchal, ready to take on board as many of 
 the Protestants as could find room. Twelve English 
 refugees were on board. One of them who knew 
 much of the fury of the mob, thus wrote to Mr. 
 Hewitson : '' This ship is to take away two hundred 
 of your flock to Trinidad. Seventy are already on 
 board. The sound of the hymns is very sweet, as 
 it rises from the hold. It is a great privilege to be 
 near them in this time of need, and to see that their 
 faith does not fail. They never speak against their 
 persecutors — they only mention them with pity.
 
 THE ** WILLIAM OF GLASGOW." Il9 
 
 Sometimes I overhear them in prayer, praying for 
 their enemies, and for those who have turned back 
 again to the houses of idohitry. They have all 
 been in hidings on the mountains, and many of 
 them have nothing left but the clothes they wear." 
 "We quote a longer account of these exiles. It was 
 written by one on board the ship William. 
 
 " They soon heard that the ship William had re- 
 ceived on board those who sympathized in their 
 cruel sufferings. And the very first night after we 
 embarked, several of the poor persecuted ones were 
 safely treading the deck of the William. It was a 
 truly interesting sight to see the boat sweep along- 
 side, doubtful at the moment whom it might contain ; 
 then to see one after another mounting the side of 
 the ship — casting a wistful eye around, lest perchance 
 they might have missed the looked-for vessel ; to 
 witness the affectionate meeting, as they caught the 
 eye, and afterwards the hand, of a well known 
 sympathizing friend. It was most affecting to see 
 the tear of joy, the look of gratitude, that beamed 
 in the face of each poor sufferer as he first set foot 
 upon an English deck, and once more breathed the 
 air of freedom and of liberty. 
 
 " It rejoiced the heart to see the tear of gladness — 
 to hear the prayer of intercession for their enemies, 
 and the hymns of praise and gratitude from night 
 to night, as their numbers increased, and they now 
 flocked in crowds to seek amongst strangers that 
 shelter which their countrymen refused them. Old
 
 120 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA.- 
 
 and young, strong and infirm, girls and women with 
 children at their breasts — all hurried to the William, 
 knowinor that here were hearts beatino; with tender 
 affection for Christ's suffering flock. 
 
 " I wish I could recount the marvellous escapes 
 of some through the brushwood of the mountains, 
 while their enemies were in full pursuit — the hair- 
 breadth escape of others, who left their homes at 
 midnight, and never were permitted to enter them 
 again — who left them to the robber and the plun- 
 derer, and never found shelter more, till they found 
 it in the William of Glasgow. I have a letter before 
 me from one who, writing from Trinidad, speaks 
 thus of her wanderings in the mountains of Ma- 
 deira : — 
 
 *' ' I cannot narrate in writing the afilictions we 
 suffered, nor even bj word of mouth could I tell 
 them. I can only say we fled from our home on 
 Saturday night, and wandered fugitives for thirteen 
 days. But God in his mercy sent us a ship one day 
 after the sad 9th of August, to deliver his children 
 from the fangs of their enemies, and from the snares 
 of the devil. We cannot give the thanks due to 
 God for his mercy towards us. God fulfilled his 
 word : — " When thou passcst through the waters, I 
 will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall 
 not overflow thee ; when thou walkest through the 
 fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame 
 kindle upon thee.'' Isaiah xliii. 2.' 
 
 "Every night added to the list of native con-
 
 THE "WILLIAM OF GLASGOW." 121 
 
 verts rescued from the assassins' grasp. But all 
 did not escape so well. On the morning of the 9th, 
 the day of attack on Dr. Kalley's house, the nephew 
 of a poor woman, who had just been obliged to fly 
 from the house, was found at the door, as the ruffians 
 came to attack it. He was but twelve years old, 
 but his youth was no protection. He was knocked 
 down and violently beaten, receiving a dreadful 
 blow in the head, which for a considerable time con- 
 fined him to the hospital. On the same day a poor 
 old woman was dreadfully beaten, and the mob, 
 supposing her dead, dragged the body to the spot 
 where two of the converts had been buried on the 
 public road.* There they laid her upon the grave. 
 She remained in this state a considerable time, and 
 was then carried to the hospital ; but having refused 
 to attend confession, on which terms only she was 
 offered her life, she was cast out to perish. She 
 was afterwards taken in again, and notwithstanding 
 one arm was broken, and her whole body a mass of 
 
 * " As if it was not sufficient for the church of Rome to be continu- 
 ally persecuting the converts to Gospel truth, she denies, in direct 
 violation of the laws of Portugal, their very bodies sepulture in the 
 only legal cemetery, and decrees that they be buried in the public 
 roads. Scarcely twelve months since the authorities of Madeira, nut 
 content with ordering a Protestant's body to be thus buried in the 
 public road, insisted on its being buried in front of his own door, in 
 order that the family might daily step over it. Happily the rock 
 prevented the accomplishment of this iniquitous design, and he now 
 lies on one side of the door. Verily ' the righteous perisheth, and no 
 man layeth il to bearU' Isaiah Ivii. 1." 
 11
 
 122 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 bruises, recovered, and sailed in the Lord Seaton 
 for Trinidad. 
 
 " Poor Mariasinha ! hers was one of the most fiery 
 of all the trials of those stormy days. Canon Telles 
 attacked her again and again, and the most fearful 
 threatenings were employed to force her to confession. 
 She was five weeks alone amongst her enemies ; 
 speaking of which time subsequently to a Christian 
 friend, she shuddered, as she thought of the blas- 
 phemies she had heard from the lips of the 
 other invalids, and from the attendants. May her 
 patience, and her strong and simple faith have been 
 blessed as a lesson to some one among them ! It is 
 interesting to tell how this poor one of the flock, 
 weak both in mind and body, was made strong to 
 witness a good profession in the hour of trial. 
 During this conversation, which the English lady 
 declared to be a solemn lesson to her, she said : 
 * Much had been forgiven her, and truly she loved 
 much.' 
 
 " Another woman was treated in a similar way 
 some days later, and shortly after, a man was bar- 
 barously murdered in open day by five or six rufiians, 
 who, not content with having murdered him, jumped 
 and stamped, like fiends, over the mutilated remains. 
 For this murder four men were committed to prison, 
 and during the week a jail delivery was everywhere 
 spoken of, as the work of the coming Sunday. On 
 the Saturday preceding, being the eve of the great 
 Mount Festa, the city was filled with strangers. At
 
 THE *^ WILLIAM OP GLASGOW." 123 
 
 intervals during the day two English ships, lying 
 next to us, fired their guns, to show the people, as 
 the captain remarked, that afloat, at least, the 
 English could and would protect themselves. This 
 I believe, gave great offence to the Portuguese au- 
 thorities ; but there is no doubt the effect on the 
 people was good. 
 
 " The military officers, ashamed of the scandalous 
 affair of last Sunday, met together in their quarters, 
 and resolved amongst themselves to put down all 
 attempts at disturbance, independently of any re- 
 quisition from the civil authorities ; ' seeing,' as they 
 said, ' that the administrator of the council had lost 
 the public confidence, and had been the promoter 
 (as they were ready to prove, if the inquiry were 
 proceeded with) of all the disorder, in concert with 
 the Canon Telles and other priests;' and a message 
 to this effect was sent to the governor. Throughout 
 the week some very clever and ludicrous squibs were 
 posted in different parts of the town, and it was the 
 constant work of the police to search them out, and 
 pull them down. Some caricatures also appeared, 
 in which certain public characters were by no means 
 spared.* On Sunday, the 16th of August, a good 
 many boats were pulling and sailing about our 
 vessel, with insulting parties onboard, singing songs 
 against '' the Calvinists," and in one we recognized 
 
 * Some \TAg fixed, among other papers, on the door of tlie British 
 consulate — " To let, with immediate possession." "Furniture for sale, 
 the occupier being about to leave the island/' <&c.
 
 124 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 the boys who held the lights before the ruffians on 
 the night of the Angustias outrage, as they entered 
 the invalid's chamber. Crowds of people were in 
 the town from all parts of the island. Upwards of 
 two hundred assembled, as on the previous Sunday, 
 in the neighbourhood of the cathedral, armed with 
 bludgeons ; but on hearing of the determination of 
 the military, and not meeting with their friend the 
 police magistrate, as they had done before, dispersed, 
 or rather went in search of the native converts in 
 the country, fearing that an attack on the jail would 
 only meet with certain defeat and loss. The two 
 neighbouring ships continued firing their guns at 
 intervals throughout the day, for which, I believe, 
 they incurred the penalty of a consular reprimand. 
 
 " The William had now received on board all the 
 converts she could accommodate, and, as it was im- 
 possible for these poor persecuted ones, either to 
 appear on shore, or to satisfy the priests' demands, 
 it was necessary that something should be done to 
 remove the difficulties of procuring their passports. 
 A deputation accordingly waited on the governor, 
 and obtained from him a dispensation as to personal 
 application, and also as to the certificates of church 
 attendance, which are always insisted on before a 
 passport is given. So glad were the authorities at 
 this time to sacrifice any consideration to allay the 
 fever which they had themselves excited." 
 
 Thus did the great Head of the Church prepare 
 the way for the flight of his people from their native
 
 THE "WILLIAM OF QLASQOW." 125 
 
 country I What a company was tliis ! Wliat a 
 spectacle for the 10th century I Parents and chil- 
 dren, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, are 
 separated from each other. Among these tender, 
 natural, and social relations, some are persecutors on 
 shore, and others are fugitives on the vessel. Who 
 can tell the agony of these persecuted disciples 
 about to leave their country and friends for ever ? 
 What were their feelings, when they thought of the 
 darkness, delusion, and bigotry in which their 
 relatives were involved ; — when they anticipated 
 that their next meeting would be at the judgment- 
 seat of Christ, and especially when they thought of 
 the destiny of those who persecute the children of 
 God? 
 
 The day of their departure a'rrived. What a day 
 for them ! Alas ! What a day for Madeira ! It 
 seems as though the Gospel was to be taken away 
 from that infatuated people ; it looks like the de- 
 parture of the Saviour from their coasts ; it reminds 
 us of his declaration to the bigoted priests and 
 Pharisees who despised and rejected him ; " I go 
 my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your 
 sins; whither I go, ye cannot come." But our 
 prayer is, that they may not be abandoned to their 
 delusions. May the light of the glorious Gospel yet 
 shine upon them, and may they yet rejoice in that 
 light ! 
 
 *' On Sunday, the 23rd of August, the William 
 
 loosed her sails, and slowly and beautifully glided 
 11*
 
 126 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 out of the bay of Funchal. There was something of 
 deep solemnity about her every motion — carrying, as 
 she was, two hundred Christians from the land of 
 their fathers, to seek a refuge in a land of strangers. 
 Most of this large party had left their homes at 
 night, and could not, without risking their lives, 
 return to their ruined cottages to collect any little 
 property that might be left. Many of them came 
 on board with nothing but the clothes they had on, 
 and these in tatters from their wanderings in the 
 Serras. Yet during the days we sojourned among 
 them in that ark of refuge, not a word of repining 
 reached our ears, except from one or two unconverted 
 members of large families, who had not yet learned 
 to love the cause for which the rest rejoiced to suffer. 
 The language of all the others was that of joy and 
 thankfulness to Him who had called them ' out of 
 darkness into his marvellous light;' 1 Peter ii. 9 ; and 
 who had now in his mercy delivered them from their 
 enemies on every side, and gathered them together 
 in one family, and into one refuge. 
 
 " The more that was seen of this persecuted 
 flock, in circumstances the most trying, the higher 
 did their Christian principle rise in the estimation 
 of all. Those only who know the general character 
 of the Portuguese can form a just estimate of the 
 total change that must have passed on these con- 
 verts. They had become ^ new creatures' indeed. 
 In the distribution of clothes to the necessitous, 
 Matthew v. 44, it was most gratifying to witness
 
 THE ^'WILLIAM OF GLASGOW." 127 
 
 the good feeling shown by all on the occasion — to 
 see not merely their willingness to share with one 
 another the bounty of their Christian friends, but 
 their eagerness to tell of the wants of others more 
 destitute than themselves. And in no one instance 
 was there an attempt to deceive, by any conceal- 
 ment of what they possessed. The mate and steward 
 both repeatedly remarked, ' that they had never 
 seen folk love one another as these folk did.' 
 
 ** Among the two hundred and eleven passengers 
 of the "William, there was one Romanist family, 
 who had long persecuted the converts, and was now 
 seeking a passage to Trinidad as emigrants. Their 
 extreme poverty excited the compassion of those 
 around them. After the converts had each received 
 from the hand of charity their small supply of 
 clothing, some of them came aft to their benefac- 
 tors on the ship, and begged to know if they might 
 now consider it as their own property, and act ac- 
 cordingly. They were asked the reason of the 
 question, when they said, it was their wish to obey 
 the Lord's command — ' Love your enemies, bless 
 them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, 
 and pray for them which despitefully use you and 
 persecute you.' They w^ere cheerfully assured that 
 they might, and it was pleasing to see them share 
 their scanty store with their former enemies ; thus 
 affording a most beautiful specimen of the spirit by 
 which they were animated.
 
 128 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 " Their conduct throughout was such that the 
 Romanists openly expressed their wonder and as- 
 tonishment. They saw those who had little prop- 
 erties, (and there were both land and householders 
 in the William's band of Christians,) parting with 
 their houses and land, and all they possessed, for 
 the smallest trifle, counting ' all things but loss, for 
 the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus 
 our Lord.' Philippians iii. 8. One Portuguese gen- 
 tleman, talking on the subject, wound up by saying, 
 that ' if he were called upon to choose a religion 
 suddenly, and without further thought, he believed 
 he should fix upon that of these people, because he 
 saw them suffer without complaining.' 
 
 "As was their conduct under persecution on 
 shore, so was their conduct afloat. They had chosen 
 Christ, and the only subject of their glorying was 
 the Lord Jesus. They looked not back upon the 
 world with all its pleasures. From it, and from 
 self, they had been weaned by the Spirit of that 
 God who had been their friend through evil report, 
 and through good report ; who had been more than 
 a brother to them, in sorrow and in joy, by day 
 and by night, at all seasons, and in all circum- 
 stances. They knew that He, who had thus watched 
 over them, would not desert them in the land to 
 which they were now being driven before the perse- 
 cuting hand of man. Christ, when on earth, said 
 to his disciples, ' When they persecute you in this
 
 THE *' WILLIAM OF GLASGOW." 129 
 
 citj, flee ye into anotlior.'* The Christian's Iving- 
 dom is not of this ^vol•hl: his kingdom is a kingdom 
 set up by the God of heaven. It is a kingdom 
 which shall, in God's own good time, break in pieces 
 and consume ' all other kingdoms, but shall itself 
 stand for ever.' 
 
 ''Rather than sacrifice one's inheritance in that 
 kingdom, it were well to flee, during a whole life- 
 time, from city to city, or from one land to another, 
 however severe the trials, however great the earthly 
 losses, however cruel the personal suff"erings. ' The 
 disciple is not above his master, nor the servant 
 above his lord. It is enough for the disciple to be 
 as his master, and the servant as his lord.' 'If we 
 suff*er, we shall also reign with him.' 
 
 " And now why was all this grievous persecution 
 carried on against that little flock ? "Were they 
 traitors to their country ? There were none more 
 loyal. Were they disturbers of the peace ? None were 
 more peaceful. Never perhaps were the members 
 of any church more ' likeminded one toward an- 
 
 • " Matthew x. 23. After reading, in the simplicity of their faith, 
 the words, ' if they have persecuted lue, they will also persecute you,* 
 John XV. 20, and 'when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into 
 another,' they felt that they must suffer persecution, as God had said 
 80. And after talking together on the subject, they applied to a 
 Christian friend as to what they should do when persecntion came, for 
 they could not flee to other cities, unless God were to open a way 
 for them through the sea. His answer, delivered four years before, 
 they now called to mind, ' if persecution should come to Madeira, 
 God wauld also send ships to deliver those who keej) his word, aa 
 Burely an be delivered the Israelites from the power of Pharaoh.* "
 
 130 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 other, according to Christ Jesus,' Rom. xv. 5, than 
 the little flock at Madeira. Never was there 
 simpler faith, simpler hope, simpler love. Shining 
 as lights * in the midst of a crooked and perverse 
 nation,' they held ' forth the word of life ;' Phil. ii. 
 15, 16 ; constantly provoking each other to love and 
 good works. Their humility, gentleness, guileless 
 simplicity, and burning love, were seen and acknow- 
 ledged by their most bitter enemies. Like the 
 meek, who shall inherit the earth, they would fain 
 have been suffered quietly to delight themselves in 
 the abundance of peace. As followers of the 
 Prince of Peace, they were peaceable and peace- 
 makers. They desired peace with God, peace with 
 man, peace at home, peace abroad. But peace was 
 not to be purchased at the expense of principle. 
 ' The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then 
 peaceable.' James iii. 17. To appease the enemies 
 of Jesus, they would not cease to read and obey 
 the word of God. And this was the sum and ground 
 of their offence. They would obey the injunction 
 of their Saviour, to 'search the Scriptures,' and 
 learn of him, instead of subjecting their minds 
 and will to the guidance and thraldom of their fel- 
 low sinners, who in vain were serving God, ' teach- 
 ing for doctrines the commandments of men.' " 
 
 In the ship William there were about two hundred 
 of these exiles, and soon after this, the Lord Seaton 
 took about the same number.
 
 A LOOK BACK AT MADEIRA. 131 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A LOOK BACK AT MADEIRA. 
 
 Why did not these outrasjes on British life and 
 property provoke a war on the part of England ? 
 It probably would have done so, had not steps been 
 taken to prevent such a calamity. 
 
 ** When the tidings of these outrages reached 
 Portugal, the British ambassador there, more faith- 
 ful to his trust than the consul at Madeira, entered 
 his solemn protest against these reckless and un- 
 righteous proceedings. The Queen of Portugal was 
 compelled by this act to appoint and send a royal 
 commission to investigate the affairs at Madeira, 
 especially with reference to the treatment of British 
 subjects. 
 
 " This commission came and made their investi- 
 gations. In their view, the conduct of the govern- 
 ment at Madeira was so unjustifiable that they re- 
 quested the administration to resign. They all re- 
 signed except the administrador do conceVio. 
 
 " His dismission was immediately sent from Por- 
 tugal. A new governor was appointed at Madeira.
 
 132 THE EXILES OF MADEIKA. 
 
 In this change there was a show of disapprobation 
 on the part of the queen against those who had en- 
 couraged and sanctioned this persecution by their 
 silence and inaction. Whether this change was 
 made by the queen with a conviction of wrong 
 doing on the part of the authorities at Madeira, or 
 whether it was effected through fear of British 
 cannon, may be a question. 
 
 ^' There was also the external form of a trial of 
 some of those who had been the most active and the 
 most savage in this persecution. The result of this ap- 
 pearance of justice was the acquittal of all the 
 rioters. Even those who were arrested in the very 
 act of murdering the Bible-readers, were acquitted. 
 When the evidence of their guilt was too obvious to 
 be denied, no penalty was inflicted. The leaders of 
 the mob, such as Canon Telles, were not subjected 
 even to the form of a trial. 
 
 *' The painful conclusion to which we are driven 
 by these facts is, that the civil government and the 
 courts of justice connived at these enormous crimes, 
 and that the whole form of trial was a solemn 
 mockery or a farce." 
 
 Canon Telles was still active in his work of per- 
 secution. He circulated a petition to the Queen of 
 Portugal, begging her to issue a decree against the 
 Protestants, or, as he wrote, " Against foreign mis- 
 sionaries and their agents, foreign and native." It 
 was like the request of the Gadarenes to Jesus, 
 "that he would depart out of their coasts." As he
 
 A LOOK BACK AT MADEIRA. 133 
 
 was not himself working for the gospel in Madeira, 
 he could not say, ** Come over and help us." This 
 petition was signed by one hundred and seventy- 
 eight persons. Among the signers were the names 
 of the civil governor, judges, public prosecutor, 
 thirty-eight priests, and eighty-one relatives of the 
 priests. This strange petition, we believe, was 
 granted by the queen. 
 
 The Bishop was not asleep. Nor was he sitting 
 down behind the screen, laughing to see the work 
 of death or banishment going on so well. lie was 
 active. He ordered that all young persons should 
 be confirmed in the Romish Church as soon as pos- 
 sible, and that all the islanders should come at 
 once to mass and confession. If they did not 
 obey, they should be proceeded against for heresy 
 and for apostasy, as Mrs. Alves had once been 
 served. Death had been pronounced against her. 
 Only one step more and the Bishop would have had 
 the old Spanish Inquisition in all its power. 
 
 This Bishop had left Madeira early in 1846, say- 
 ing, in a pettish way, that he would not return until 
 Dr. Kalley was driven from the island. It must be 
 made more thoroughly Romish, or he would not 
 stay in it I In fact, too many people were just 
 making the great discovery that they could do 
 without him. 
 
 He returned in October after Dr. Kalley's expul- 
 sion. He sat down to write a "pastoral letter." 
 Now such letters are usually, among Protestants, of 
 12
 
 134 . THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 a mild, persuasive character. They are the letters 
 of pastors to their people. They are such as Mr. 
 Hewitson wrote, full of love and christian sympathy. 
 But how did the Bishop write ? 
 
 He called the religion of Dr. Kalley " proud and 
 Satanic philosophy ;" " doctrines of yesterday, con- 
 ceived in impiety, by caprice, and extracted from 
 the dark bosom of Protestantism." Did he not re- 
 member that Dr. Kalley had circulated the Bible which 
 was proved to be the true word of God, and which 
 did not differ in any important point from the one 
 the Bishop ought to have kept in good use ? The 
 Bishop was thus denouncing the word of God ! 
 
 To the influence of these doctrines he ascribed 
 the potato disease! blight of the vines! and all 
 other calamities. This same charge has been laid 
 to Protestants who lately left the Romish Church 
 under the labours of Rev. Mr. Chiniquy, in Illinois. 
 The failure of the harvests, and the sickness, the 
 want of money in the country, and all other tem- 
 poral trials, were said by the Romanists to be 
 caused by the little colony of St. Anne, when they 
 left the church that would not let them have the 
 Bible. Our Lord did not think Bible reading to be 
 such a sin ! No! it is his will that we "give atten- 
 tion to reading and sound doctrine," and "hold fast 
 the form of sound words." 
 
 The Bishop's zeal led him to f)en the most singular 
 expressions. " He speaks of the Divine aid and mercy 
 in enabling them to di'ive away the heretics. He
 
 A LOOK BACK AT MADEIRA. 135 
 
 says to Lis flock, that ' the Lord compassionating 
 your troubled situation, condescended to excite and 
 direct, by way of moderation and charity, (!) your 
 purified religious zeal, (!) and natural energy ; and 
 by an extraordinary mode, and perhaps strange in 
 the eyes of the world, to snatch from the midst of 
 this flock, already almost torn to pieces, that wolf 
 from Scotland. Blessed be the God of mercies, 
 and Father of all consolation, who thus conde- 
 scended to succour us, and console us.' As an 
 expression of their gratitude and joy, in view of 
 the things that had been done, he orders that in all 
 the churches they ' sing the hymn, Te Deum laud- 
 amus.' 
 
 " When the tidings of the Bartholomew massacre 
 reached Rome, in 1572, and the Pope and cardi- 
 nals marched to the church of St. Louis to give 
 thanks unto God for the victory over the Protestants, 
 then the Pope ordered the ' Te Deum laudamus' to 
 be sung. What then is the difi'erence between po- 
 pery in 1572 and in 18-46 ? 
 
 " May the daily prayers, ofiiered by the converts 
 from Madeira for the conversion of those who have 
 cast them into prison, and driven them from their 
 country, be graciously answered ; so that the final 
 destiny of persecutors may not be theirs."
 
 136 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ARSEXIO NICOS DA SILVA. 
 
 " He not only belongs to that class who are to be in everlasting 
 remembrance, but he is eminent among them." 
 
 In the most pleasant part of the chief city of 
 Madeira dwelt the family of Da Silva. Arsenio 
 Nicos was born in 1800. His father was a man of 
 wealth and high esteem. The garden about his 
 house was cultivated with so much taste that strangers 
 upon the island visited it as one of the notable places. 
 The rich variety of grapes, plants, and flowers, with 
 the politeness of the family, made it a delightful 
 resort. 
 
 The Da Silvas were members of the Roman church, 
 and believed in its rites and infallibility. They had 
 taken for granted what the priest said, and had not 
 searched the Scriptures to find whether they were 
 taught the truth. They believed that the priests 
 •were the holiest and greatest of men : adored the 
 Virgin Mary ; felt willing to kiss the Pope's toe ; 
 almost shuddered when a Bishop passed by ; and no 
 doubt they knew as little about the Latin mumbled 
 over at mass, as we do in hearing it read by a priest.
 
 ARSENIO NICOS DA SILVA. 137 
 
 Among their children were two sons, Arsenio and 
 Casirairo. These sons were carefully taught the 
 rites of Romanism, the fear of a priest, and the 
 worship of saints, Thej were every day presented 
 before the image of the Virgin Mary, as if it could 
 bless them, and she was entreated to watch over 
 these children and make them priests of the church. 
 Could Mary have spoken from heaven she would 
 have said, *' "Worship God," and pointed them to 
 Him who said, " Suffer little children to come unto 
 me." 
 
 These sons were sent to the best schools on the 
 island. No pains were spared to make them as learned 
 as any of the priests ever become. They grew fond 
 of books, and were very diligent in their studies. 
 They received some oflBce in the church called 
 *' minor orders," and were reported to be ready for 
 studying the theology of the church. 
 
 Thus far had they gone, but were unwilling to go 
 
 any farther. They refused to become priests. They 
 
 had eyes to see and ears to hear. They saw too 
 
 much of the sins of the priests, and did not wish to 
 
 be counted with such men. They perhaps had heard 
 
 and read of those strange transactions of popes, 
 
 cardinals, and priests, which once shocked a Luther 
 
 and a Calvin. It may be that they learned in some 
 
 way that there had been a great Reformation in the 
 
 16th century, and wondered why the church in 
 
 Madeira was not reformed. 
 
 Their parents were astonished. They besought 
 12 * ^ o
 
 138 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 them even with tears to remember how much their 
 education had cost, how many prayers and vows 
 had been made to the Virgin, how much honour 
 they would have if they became priests, and how 
 they might become Bishops and Cardinals ; but 
 they did not care for such entreaties. The father- 
 confessor could not persuade them to put on gowns 
 and shave their heads. 
 
 Casimiro loved money and lands, just as his 
 parents had done before him. His mother thought 
 she could touch that chord, and so she told him if he 
 would become a priest he should have a large estate 
 and be regarded by her as the favourite son. She 
 held out the shining gold ! 
 
 This appeal was very strong and went home to 
 his heart. It touched the intended chord, and he 
 felt the power of the music. He then began to feel 
 a struggle between his love of gold, and his hatred 
 of priests. He abhorred the vow of celibacy which 
 he would be required to take ; but he also abhorred 
 the loss of the riches which his mother promised. 
 Methinks — for we Protestants may think — that if 
 the Virgin had spoken to him she would have pointed 
 him to her poor Son and her glorious Saviour. 
 
 He yielded to the charm of riches. He became 
 a priest. He did not believe in what he was obliged 
 to do and say. He hated the office and the church. 
 His duties were a burden, and his soul was not at 
 rest. A request was made by him to be released 
 from the office. The "dispensation" was granted,
 
 ARSENIO NICOS DA SILVA. 139 
 
 and he took his money, settled down upon his estate, 
 and is now, we suppose, living as a gentleman re- 
 tired from office and business. 
 
 Arsenio could not be induced to enter the priest- 
 ly office. He had more stability of character, more 
 intellect, and more principle than his brother. His 
 conscience was not to be bought with gold or honour. 
 Yet he was not a believer in religion, lie knew 
 only one form of religion, and that he knew was 
 corrupt. lie could not then see that Romanism 
 was not Christianity, nor that Christianity was truly 
 from God. He saw how foolish it was to worship 
 the Virgin and other saints, but could not perceive 
 how wise and happy it would be to believe and wor- 
 ship Jesus Christ. 
 
 He became a merchant. He was polite, pleasant, 
 honest, and energetic, so that he soon had an exten- 
 sive business. He made himself a large fortune, 
 little knowing that one day he would gladly leave 
 all and follow Christ. 
 
 When about twenty-five years of age — when 
 Ilewitson was called the boy of a book, Arsenio 
 married a young lady of a very wealthy family. 
 She was gay, worldly, and by no means inclined to 
 take the black veil in a nunnery. She was admired 
 as very beautiful and highly accomplished. The 
 friends all thought this a most happy union. One 
 child smiled upon them to make home happy. They 
 made this only daughter an idol in their hearts. 
 They did all they could to make her as near a queen
 
 140 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 as possible. If she should live, she would one day 
 be very rich, and they wished to see her well edu- 
 cated, and adorned with every accomplishment their 
 city could bestow. Her "god-mother" was very 
 rich, and had made a will leaving her immense wealth 
 to this young lady. Perhaps too the bachelor uncle, 
 who satisfied both his love of gold and his hatred of 
 the priesthood, was supposed to have such a will in 
 reserve for his beautiful niece. 
 
 But God had other purpuses. He had a legacy 
 for that infidel father which only a Redeemer can 
 give. She was to be a link in the chain of means 
 which would bring her father to Christ. 
 
 Disease crept slowly through her veins and hid 
 itself there, only to work death the more perfectly. 
 Perhaps she had not played enough in the sunny 
 vineyards, or had studied too closely at school. The 
 visions of her future looked toward the grave. 
 
 The best physicians were called, but they could 
 do little good. The Virgin Mary was invoked and 
 she did still less. It is not her work to hear prayer 
 or heal the sick. She is engaged in praising her 
 Saviour in heaven. The young lady still declined, 
 and the parents would give anything they had to 
 restore her to health. It is a sad affliction for any 
 parents to follow such a daughter to the grave. 
 
 In 1840 Dr. Kalley had gained a great reputa- 
 tion on the island as a skilful physician. Many 
 came to consult him in very difficult and almost 
 hopeless cases. His success had been remarkable.
 
 ARSENIO NICOS DA SILVA. 141 
 
 God seemed to bless him. The reader will remember 
 the method he adopted to point all his patients to 
 the Great Remedy for the soul. 
 
 Da Silva was advised to send for the Scottish 
 physician. No doubt he was ashamed to do so, but 
 as a last resort for healing his beloved daughter, he 
 consented to go and consult him. It reminds us of 
 Kaaman going to Elisha. He found Dr. Kalley 
 very kind and ready to do all he could. As Dr. 
 Kalley came near the rich house, many eyes were 
 upon him. Even the servants exclaimed, " The 
 Doctor I the English Doctor !" 
 
 He entered softly, sat down by the bedside of the 
 young lady, and tenderly spoke of her sickness. 
 He learned all he could about the cause. Then he 
 prayed God to make him wise in prescribing the 
 medicine, and to make it a means of healing. He 
 also entreated the patient to look to Jesus as the 
 great physician, who alone could restore her to 
 health. No such physician had ever been in that 
 house before. While they all wondered, he re- 
 quested the parents to seek her recovery by prayer 
 to Jesus Christ. 
 
 Several visits were paid by Da Silva to Dr. Kal- 
 ley. He saw his dear child recovering day by day. 
 It seemed as if God was very merciful to him and 
 his family. He one day asked that he might talk 
 •with the doctor at his own house privately. He 
 came, and they sat down together. It seems that 
 he had already heard Dr. Kalley preach on the
 
 142 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 need of a change in the sinner's heart and life, and 
 he felt that he needed it more than all others. In 
 his business he could not forget the ring of gospel 
 words. The written word had become the voice 
 from heaven. And now as he sat down he felt wil- 
 ling to be as a little child. 
 
 " On what subject do you wish to speak ?" asked 
 Dr. Kallej. 
 
 " About the way in which a guilty man can, 
 under the government of a just God, escape the 
 punishment which he deserves." 
 
 " Well, tell me what you think about it." 
 
 " I understand that in baptism the death of 
 Christ is so applied as to free from original sin ;" 
 and then he went on to speak of penances and 
 masses, and good works as atoning for actual trans- 
 gressions. This is Romish doctrine. 
 
 "I understand," said Dr. Kalley, interrupting 
 him, " that the blood of Christ cleanses from all 
 sin." 
 
 "What?" cried Da Silva. 
 
 *' I understand that the blood of Christ cleanses 
 from all sin, of every kind." 
 
 "Tell me that again!" 
 
 " No : but here, read here, and here" — as the 
 Doctor pointed out several texts in the Bible. The 
 inquirer read, and great tears came coursing down 
 his cheeks as his eye fell on the plain words of God 
 which attested the wondrous truth. Then the light 
 of the cross seemed to break in upon his soul. He
 
 ARSENIO NICOS DA SILVA. 14S 
 
 could see why Christ died, and how he loved guilty 
 sinners. lie began to understand the doctrine of 
 God's free favour in pardoning the lost and undone. 
 He was wiser than Nicodemus, and more willing 
 than Naaman. Now he could see why the doc- 
 trines of the Bible produced such good effects on 
 those who loved, believed, and practised them. 
 
 "We would gladly know more of wliat passed dur- 
 ing that hour. He received then the first Bible he 
 had ever read. Yes, he had been once prepared to 
 study the theology of the priests, and yet had never 
 read a Bible ! Remember Luther. 
 
 Eagerly did he read the word of God ; gladly 
 did he become a convert to its doctrines. Boldly 
 did he defend it and the persecuted converts. 
 Humbly did he bow to Jesus, praying, " Create in 
 me a clean heart." Submissively did he yield to 
 the Holy Ghost to renew and sanctify his heart. 
 Willingly now would he sacrifice everything in this 
 world to the Lord Jesus. His case reminds us of 
 those who came first to Jesus to be healed, or to 
 have a friend healed, and who went away believing 
 in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Remember 
 Mary Magdalene and blind Bartimeus. 
 
 Dr. Kalley had heard him called "o avarento," 
 "the miser." At this time the Doctor was trying 
 to furnish a small hospital. Da Silva sent him a 
 large basket full of sheets, towels, and other ar- 
 ticles of comfort, and along with them a note, say- 
 ing, " My heart was gangrened ; it has felt the
 
 144 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 power of the love of God ; and I send jou the first 
 fruits of it." Good fruits were these to help a 
 "good Samaritan" in taking care of the poor and 
 the sick, but these were only an earnest of what 
 was to follow. No longer was he " the miser." 
 
 Da Silva had heard strange things of this "father 
 in Christ." The priests were obliged to admit that 
 he was a skilful physician, but they said he was in 
 league with Satan, to overturn the Romish Church. 
 One of them called him "a devil incarnate," and 
 hoped to see the day when he and his Bibles, and 
 all who believed them would be burned together 
 on the public square, in front of the Governor's 
 house ! This priest must have known little of the 
 Bible. 
 
 Da Silva heard nothing like that from his new 
 friend and brother, who wept with many tears, as 
 he urged men to flee for refuge to Jesus, or prayed 
 with deepest emotion for priests and people. He 
 was ever ready when persecuted to give response in 
 those words from the cross, " Father, forgive them, 
 for they know not what they do !" This rich convert 
 could see the difference between these preachers, 
 and he too wept while hearing the truth spoken in 
 love, or praying for his enemies. 
 
 How different, too, were the Bible-readers from 
 their opposers ! Even enemies were forced to say, 
 " We call these people ugly names, but they don't 
 answer back ; we spit upon them, but they don't get 
 angry; we beat them, and they seem pleased; we
 
 ARSENIO NICOS DA SILVA. 145 
 
 break open their houses, and destroy their prop- 
 erty, and they are happy; we put thein in jail, and 
 they sing; we can't make them unhappy I"' This 
 might have been said at Philippi in the days of 
 Paul and Silas. Da Silva could see the reason of 
 this contrast. 
 
 " Mrs. Da Silva, who had been persuaded by her 
 husband to hear Dr. Kalley, when she saw the tears 
 in his eyes, became very much troubled. She was 
 afraid that the servants or the people would hear of 
 the views Mr. Da Silva had of himself as a sinner, 
 and they would think he was a very bad man. She 
 had no doubt that her lord, (as ladies address their 
 husbands in Madeira,) was a perfect gentleman, and 
 ought not to be compared with those who had not 
 noble blood in their veins. She thought he had 
 mistaken his own character. 
 
 " The Bible became the companion of Mr. Da 
 Silva, and prayer his delight. He had not only 
 felt that he was a lost and wretched sinner, justly 
 condemned, but he had also experienced the power 
 of faith in Jesus Christ. The doctrine of justifica- 
 tion, only by faith, flashed upon his mind like light 
 from heaven. This opened his eyes to see the 
 awful state of those who sought salvation by virtue 
 of their own works. This filled him with the 
 deepest distress for the conversion of his wife, his 
 daughter, and his blind countrymen. He poured 
 out his heart in prayer to God for them. 
 
 "Before his soul rejoiced in the full light of the 
 13
 
 146 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 Gospel, it is interesting to see how the Spirit of 
 God enlightened his mind, and led him on from one 
 degree of knowledge to another. When reading 
 the Bible, he came to the Epistle of Peter ; he was 
 delighted to find an epistle from that apostle. He 
 was ignorant of its existence, up to the hour when 
 his eye rested upon it. As he had always been 
 taught that Peter was the supreme head of the 
 church on earth, he supposed here, if anywhere, he 
 would find the doctrines and ceremonies of the Ro- 
 man Catholic church. After reading it again and 
 again with the closest attention, he was surprised 
 to learn that nothing resembling the mass, purga- 
 tory, confession, praying to the saints and to 
 the Virgin, as taught by the Romish church, was 
 to be found in the writings of Peter. 
 
 " The epistles of Peter would make an excellent 
 tract to put into the hands of all Romanists who 
 have a high respect for the authority and suprem- 
 acy of that apostle. They would see, as in sun- 
 beams, how little gold and silver, and how much the 
 precious blood of Christ has to do in the salvation 
 of souls. 
 
 " The conversion of Mr. Da Silva was known to 
 all the inhabitants of Madeira, not merely because 
 he was a man of great wealth and influence, but es- 
 pecially by the remarkable change in his life. He 
 mingled with the Bible-readers, who were despised 
 and treated with contempt by those with whom he 
 had always been associated. Instead of attending
 
 ARSENIC NICOS DA SILVA. 147 
 
 the gay and brilliant parties, where his wife and 
 friends found their highest happiness, he went to 
 pray with the persecuted Bible-readers. In their 
 little circles of prayer he enjoyed richer blessings 
 than the gaiety or pleasures of the world could im- 
 part. 
 
 *' One of these meetings, for prayer and reading 
 the Scriptures, was held in a private family, about 
 a mile from his house. We are told, by some 
 members of that family, that Mr. Da Sil va was always 
 expected to be present. They depended upon him 
 to conduct the exercises, and to read and expound 
 the word of God. His whole soul was engaged in 
 this work. These precious meetings will never be 
 forgotten by those who attended them. They will ever 
 remember, with indescribable interest, the fervent, 
 tearful prayers, and edifying exhortations of Mr. Da 
 Silva. By these, as the means, their courage and 
 faith were increased at the time when they were 
 about to pass through the fires of persecution. These 
 seasons of previous communion with God, and with 
 each other, were continued, until the family had to 
 flee for their lives to the mountains." 
 
 One of the judges of the island married the 
 daughter of Mr. Da Silva. It pained his heart 
 not to see her also a follower of Jesus. She, who 
 had boon a means of brinsin^ him under the influence 
 of the gospel, and who had received such a blessing 
 from its messenger and from his God of mercy,
 
 148 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 would not "heed the things which were spoken." It 
 often occurs, that thej who are the most benefitted 
 bj a blessing are the least grateful. 
 
 This judge was he who declined to arrest Mr. 
 Hewitson, on the ground that his authority did not 
 extend over him ; perhaps the friendship between 
 his father-in-law and the missionary had some weight 
 in his mind. 
 
 Mr. Da Silva had become a member and an elder 
 in the church, under Mr. Hewitson. With such a 
 pastor and teacher, he must have grown rapidly in 
 knowledge and grace. It is a wonder that he was 
 not imprisoned. "Bonds and afflictions awaited 
 him." 
 
 The reader will remember the attack upon the 
 house of the Misses Rutherford, and the man who 
 had an image thrust in his face with the command 
 to "kiss it," "adore it," but who refused the idol- 
 atry. Rome owed that man a grudge. The abuse 
 of that hour was not enough. He was too prominent 
 a man to be allowed his liberty. Neither the power 
 of wealth, nor his high standing as a citizen could 
 screen him from harm. His near friends, of such influ- 
 ence as his wife and son-in-law ought to have exerted, 
 were not enough to save him from danger. He 
 must either return to the church of Rome, or fly 
 from his family and home, from wealth and native 
 land. Others were speeding away for life ; so too 
 must he. Already he was obliged to keep away
 
 ARSENIO NICOS DA SILVA 149 
 
 from the city. Among the mountains, so often 
 the kindest refuges God's people could find, he 
 "wandered, a sheep, yes a shepherd, hunted by the 
 wolves. 
 
 He could not bid farewell on a bright morning at 
 his own door, order his well packed trunks to the 
 harbour, get into a fine carriage, and pass through 
 the streets in style, bowing to many friends as they 
 bowed goodbye to him. Every pang of parting was 
 made as intense as possible. The love of his wife 
 was a small oflfset to her want of sympathy with him 
 in his religion. It was but a " drop of honey in a 
 quart of gall." Any respect of his son-in-law was 
 nothintj to the shameful refusal to defend and save 
 him from an exile. Of his daughter he could have 
 said, " How can I give thee up !" Once he had 
 been ready to give and do anything for her ; now 
 she is not ready to use all possible means to keep 
 him at home. 
 
 He was obliged to come from the mountains to 
 the city in the night, if he would see his family. He 
 hired a man to stand at the corner of a certain street 
 at an appointed hour. All was dark and silent. He 
 came and met this man who showed him to a house 
 where he could be concealed. Then he sent for his 
 •wife, obtained a little money, hastened to a ship and 
 Bailed for Lisbon. 
 
 Never again did he see his family. Letters 
 passed between them, and he would often say, years 
 13*
 
 150 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 after this, " I have a letter from my wife — kind 
 friendly letter, but no good, no spiritual in it — no 
 faith in Jesus Christ." 
 
 The Lord had a future work for this Christian 
 hero.
 
 REV. MR. HEWITSON IN TRINIDAD. 151 
 
 CIIAPTEIl XII. 
 REV. MR. HEWITSON IN TRINIDAD. 
 
 "He will guide me with his eye," wrote Mr. 
 Ilewitson while absent, " whether it be back again 
 to Madeira or not." lie learned that he must go 
 to Trinidad, " not only to administer gospel consola- 
 tion, but to reorganize the exiles into a compacted 
 church order." 
 
 January 2nd 1847, he sailed from Southampton. 
 The winds were contrary. He was soon lying sick 
 in his cabin, translating Mr. H. Bonar's hymn, " I 
 lay my sins on Jesus," into Portuguese, and a met- 
 rical version of the 23rd Psalm. This was the be- 
 ginning of a Hymn-Book for the Portuguese church. 
 
 lie felt that he must do something for the Master 
 on the voyage. If we do not work where we are, 
 we will not be likely to do any good in any other 
 place. " Among the passengers," he says, " I have 
 come in contact with only one who seems truly 
 desirous of walking with God." This was a man 
 who took an interest in the new mission as its thrill- 
 ing history was told him, and he gave ten pound3 
 for the Trinidad fund. Mr. Ilewitson gave him a
 
 152 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 copy of the old book called " The Marrow of Modern 
 Divinity,"* and he was so pleased with it that he 
 one day put a five pound note in the missionary's 
 hand, saying, " This book is worth that to me." Of 
 this kindness the sufFerins: exiles should have the 
 benefit. He was taking ^200 for their relief — what 
 was this among so many ? 
 
 Mr. Hewitson did not expect to have an oppor- 
 tunity of visiting Madeira. But he was gladly per- 
 mitted to do so. The vessel landed him at a secluded 
 point of the city, and two gentlemen quietly led him 
 to a house near by. Then he was put in a palan- 
 quin, and carried through the streets to the residence 
 of a sure friend, where his unexpected visit was re- 
 ceived with joy. Several converts came there to 
 see him. It was a happy hour. Then, veiled in 
 the palanquin, he made a few other calls, and was 
 taken back to the steamer, whose wheels were soon 
 working away to Trinidad. Remember Paul's short 
 visit at ^[iletus. 
 
 February 4th, 1847, he was at Trinidad. The 
 ** meetings and greetings, the embraces, the tears, the 
 laughinors" cannot be told. The welcome was kind 
 and cordial, from those whom he had well known in 
 Madeira. 
 
 There were now about four hundred and fifty 
 exiles in Trinidad, most of whom were numbered with 
 the converts to Christ. Eighty-five members of the 
 church were there. Three of the seven elders, and 
 
 * This lias been published by the Board of Publication.
 
 REV. MR. DEWITSON IN TRINIDAD. 153 
 
 four of the nine deacons had come from Madeira. 
 About thirty persons soon applieil for admission to 
 the church. 
 
 How were these exiles to be supported ? They 
 were in a strange land. They were not familiar 
 with the language of their benefactors. They found 
 all classes of people from several diflferent nations. 
 The island had become a sort of *' stowing-away 
 place," for sufferers and slaves from Africa and 
 India. Many of these foreigners were sunk in the 
 lowest state of superstition and wickedness. The 
 native inhabitants had been so overrun by these 
 heathen bands, that some of them left their estates 
 and retired to the forests to make new homes. Yet 
 there were some Christians among the islanders, 
 who had warm hearts to relieve the exiles of Ma- 
 deira. Several of the planters were willing to hire 
 them to work on the sugar estates. But remember 
 that these exiles knew nothing of that kind of 
 labour. Some of them had been wealthy, and their 
 hands were not skilful to toil for their daily bread. 
 Many women and children must have a lighter em- 
 ployment- 
 
 ** Something must be done," wrote Mr. Ilewitson, 
 "for the more safe employment of the exiles. I am 
 revolving a scheme which none but an Oberlin could 
 carry vigorously into effect, and I am not an Ober- 
 lin. Every weak muscle in my body echoes — * not 
 an Oberlin.' " A head to plan was not all the need. 
 Funds were wanted. The work of teaching, preach-
 
 154 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 ing, and perfecting the church was enough for more 
 than any one man. He resided at the capital, 
 called 'Port of Spain,' and there found most of his 
 church about him. He had his ' class' newly started ; 
 a Sabbath-school was commenced ; a day-school was 
 begun ; and he had many inquirers to instruct, many 
 mourners to comfort, many weak believers to en- 
 courage, and many poor to assist. He went regular- 
 ly to Arouca, fourteen miles distant, and held 
 meetings ; also to Santa Cruz, ten miles away, where 
 he found some Portuguese. Twelve of them were 
 Protestants, and eight were Romanists. All the 
 Protestants were together on one estate. After 
 their day's labour, they met together for worship. 
 Some of the Romanists gladly heard the word. 
 About one hundred of the converts were thus 
 scattered about on sugar estates and cocoa planta- 
 tions. He went to them all, and often preached 
 under the shadows of the trees. To learn how one 
 half-a-week was laboriously passed, read the follow- 
 ing letter to his parents, written March 31st : 
 
 *' On Wednesday, last week, I left this place in a 
 gig, at a little after six, A. M. and travelling ten 
 miles, preached to forty Portuguese in the open air 
 under the shadow of a large tree. Afterwards I 
 went a distance of six or seven miles more, and 
 preached in an upper room to about twenty Por- 
 tuguese. Then returning four or five miles, I 
 preached again in Mr. Brodie's church at Arouca, 
 to a number of Portuguese, who assembled, after
 
 REV. MR. IIEWITSON IX TRINIDAD. 155 
 
 their day's work, from a distance of two miles. On 
 Thursday morning I was here to breakfast, having 
 left Arouca pretty early. If the Lord will, I shall 
 be at Arouca again next Sabbath, administering the 
 communion and preaching twice." This was coming 
 very near to proving himself an Oberlin. We 
 wonder how such a weak body could endure such 
 labours, attended, as they were, by anxieties which 
 cannot be written. " Working in this hot climate 
 suits me ill," he writes ; " I scarcely know what it 
 is to be free from fatigue." 
 
 The Romanists saw and felt these labours. With 
 a glad heart he could write : 
 
 " ' In this island there are a considerable number 
 of Portuguese from Madeira, who came here staunch 
 Roman catholics ; and of these several have beea 
 led, by means of intercourse with their converted 
 countrymen, to embrace the Protestant faith. Three 
 of these have expressed a desire to be admitted to 
 the Lord's table, and another of them travelled 
 eighteen miles last Saturday evening in order to 
 attend public worship with us on the following day. 
 One of the most recent of the converts from Popery, 
 and one whose heart seemed to have been truly 
 opened by the Lord to receive the word of grace, is 
 labouring under a white swelling at the knee which 
 makes amputation necessary, as the only means of sav- 
 ing his life. Two or three Sabbaths ago, this man, 
 yielding to an irresistible desire to hear the gospel 
 in public, made the dangerous effort of travelling to
 
 156 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 church on crutches, and back again, a painful journey 
 of nearly two miles. Surely such as he will rise up 
 in the judgment against those who, possessing greater 
 advantages, yet *' neglect the great salvation," and 
 "forsake the assembling of themselves together" in 
 the house of God." 
 
 One glance at the temporal condition of the 
 exiles. On the sugar plantations many suffered. 
 The low marshy ground, so different from the vine- 
 lands of their native home, together with the hot 
 air, made their condition very sad. Many of them 
 had fevers of the deadly type. Others were obliged 
 to retreat to the highlands and to the capital. The 
 Governor ordered the removal. This Governor 
 was Lord Harris, of England, who exerted himself 
 most generously in behalf of the sufferers. Other 
 labourers on the plantations suffered from other 
 diseases, and especially from failure of eye-sight. 
 About fifty of the refugees were supported by cul- 
 tivating the sugar cane, when only sixteen of them 
 were able to do the work. Mr. Hewitson wrote : 
 
 " The greater proportion of the exiled brethren 
 have found occupation in the capital of the island, 
 Port of Spain, or its vicinity. Xot a few of them 
 are distributed in domestic service among: the fam- 
 ilies resident there. Some are occupied in garden- 
 ing and similar rustic labour. A few have com- 
 menced shopkeeping on a small scale, being unable 
 to gain a livelihood by any other means. While 
 those of them who are masons, carpenters, and
 
 REV. MR. HEWITSON IX TRINIDAD. 1.07 
 
 slioemakers, are endeavouring, in their respective 
 departments of labour, to earn a livelihood. The 
 female converts, who, in Madeira, were able to sup- 
 port themselves by needlework, are still dependent 
 on the same means of support, but their earnings 
 are comparatively small and precarious. Wliile 
 some of the brethren are, by the goodness of God, 
 in comfortable enough circumstances, not a few have 
 such difficulties to strufrffle with as tend at once to 
 
 CO 
 
 keep them hanging in daily dependence upon the 
 Lord." 
 
 Another glance at their spiritual condition. The 
 elders and the deacons had been faithful, and had 
 kept up meetings before Mr. Hewitson arrived. 
 Some persons had grown sorrowful under the heavy 
 burden, and had almost forgotten to cast it on the 
 Lord. They had remembered Egypt, and felt lonely 
 in the wilderness. One of them said, " In Madeira 
 it was not so difficult as it is here to walk with God. 
 I had some striking answers to prayer in Madeira, 
 but here God has not given such answers to my 
 prayers." The reason was plain. Family-worship 
 and secret devotion had been neglected. The ask- 
 inji had almost ceased, and the answers were with- 
 held. 
 
 The sword will be kept bright in the contest, but 
 will rust when the battle ceases. Take away the 
 iron hand of persecution, and the heart will very 
 naturally be thrown off its guard, and become 
 worldly. We often feel the chill of a summer ev- 
 14
 
 158 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 enino- more than Tve do the intense cold of the "^in- 
 ter, for we protect ourselves against the keen De- 
 cember storm. Thus some who had braced their 
 souls against the enmity of Madeira, felt the unsus- 
 pected chill of Trinidadj and grew cold in heart. 
 
 But not so with all. To the first communion 
 numbers came, hungering and thirsting for right- 
 eousness. They sat under his shadow with great 
 delio-ht, and his fruit was sweet to their taste. 
 Could they not lean on Jesus' bosom, and wash his 
 feet with their tears ? " Who is this that cometh 
 up from the wilderness leaning on the arm of her 
 beloved?" She was the refugee church, with bleed- 
 incr feet, and garments rolled in the blood of her 
 sons ! 
 
 Exiles from Madeira were still arriving. For 
 months there had been a succession of flights, when 
 the faithful, like Abraham, '-went out, not knowing 
 whither they went." They knew not how to be 
 fed or clothed. Fleeing from one enemy, they 
 knew not but they should rush into the face of an- 
 other. It might be '-as if a man did flee from a 
 lion, and a bear met him ; or went into the house 
 and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit 
 him." 
 
 Yet many had strong and pleasant hopes. They 
 felt assured that in Trinidad and the United States 
 there would be '-freedom to worship God." They 
 were willincr to leave all for this great right and 
 privilege. They sought a better country. '* It was
 
 REV. MR. HEWITSON IN TRINIDAD. 159 
 
 Bomething like the anticipation of heaven to tho 
 ■\veary and suffering Christian." 
 
 Persecution was sweeping Madeira well-nigh clean 
 of its choicest and worthiest people. Among the 
 thorns was here and there a lily left ; among the 
 tares some good seed was growing secretly. Among 
 the lawless was here and there one to hold up the 
 banner of truth, and testify that " there is a judg- 
 ment." The wrath of man could not entirely crush 
 out the word of God. The church of Christ was 
 not destroyed ; only removed to another clime. 
 
 Mrs. Alves was among those who were heartily 
 welcomed by her friends. Another, Philippa Rosa, 
 who, in a trying hour, had denied her Lord, was 
 there. Like Peter in her denial, she was like him 
 in repentance, and returned to her Saviour with 
 bitter weeping. A little boy, who saw his father 
 killed and thrown into the river, when trying to es- 
 cape to the vessel, came with his mother to Trinidad 
 and there saw his mother die. God found friends 
 for him. He afterwards came to America. 
 
 Every vine has its enemy ; every field of wheat 
 has its tares. Trinidad had its foes to a pure re- 
 ligion. At the very moment when Mr. Ilewitson 
 was writing about Philippa Rosa's tears of peni- 
 tence, one of his flock came to his house weeping, 
 and saying that in the house where she was acting 
 as a servant, she was most harshlv treated for re- 
 fusing to do evil. The family were Romanists. *'I 
 left Madeira," said she, " that I might be able to
 
 160 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 follow God, and for nothing else, and I wish now to 
 leave that family." This is a specimen both of the 
 spirit of enmity, and of Mr. Hewitson's calls and 
 labours. The shepherd must find a place for the 
 lamb. He wrote : 
 
 " Now, more than ever perhaps, the brethren who 
 are ' strangers' in Trinidad, need the prayers of the 
 church. They are exposed to temptations more 
 dangerous, because more subtile and insidiously se- 
 ductive, than those connected with a persecution 
 state. To be attracted by the world, under its 
 mask of a graceless Protestantism, is worse than to 
 be repelled by the world under its undisguised form 
 of hatred to the truth. Let the church then, — 
 even all who love the Lord Jesus, and who have 
 heretofore poured forth supplications in behalf of 
 the persecuted saints of Madeira, — continue in ear- 
 nest prayer for them to the Lord, that they may be 
 ' kept from falling, and presented faultless before 
 the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.' " 
 
 The organization of the church was completed in 
 April, 1847, about two months after the arrival of 
 Mr. Hewitson. He would leave for the cooler 
 north in May. It was important to find a leader 
 for the flock. 
 
 The eyes of the faithful had been directed to Mr. 
 Da Silva as the successor of Mr. Hewitson. He 
 had studied theology. His gifts and graces were 
 of a high order. The Free Church of Scotland 
 named him as their missionary.
 
 REV. MR. IIEWITSON IN TRINIDAD. IGl 
 
 Da Silva went with joy, and liis dear former 
 pastor had the great pleasure of handing over to 
 this strong fellow-hibourer the care of the exile 
 church. He was ordained and installed over his 
 first and only charge, at Port-of-Spain, in April, 
 1847. His former pastor said of him, " He seems 
 to have the Bible always in his heart, and his heart 
 always in heaven." 
 
 When the people were asked whether they would 
 receive Mr. Da Silva as their pastor, they were re- 
 quested to vote by raising the hand. But they 
 were too happy for this ; they all rose to their feet, 
 and raised both hands as high as they could ! He 
 would not lack for the Aarons and Hurs I 
 
 The good pastor often made one remark, which 
 became a proverb among the ministers on the island. 
 '''Patientia! Patientia!" he would say pleasantly 
 smiling, when anything dark or difficult came up. 
 Patience I Patience ! It reminds us of the tradi- 
 tion concerning John, the beloved disciple, in his 
 old age saying daily, " Little children, love one an- 
 other." 
 
 Six hundred in his flock, and all exiles ! Pilgrims 
 and sojourners indeed ! No other flock like it in 
 the world ! It was truly a charge. The labours 
 were great. But he was not in despaii*. The 
 property of the exiles, and the wretched prospect 
 of a better condition in Trinidad, were truly an 
 anxiety in his mind. No land could be obtained 
 for them to settle upon, and there was little hope 
 14 *
 
 1G2 THE EXILES OE MADEIRA. 
 
 of living by their toils so long as they niust become 
 mere slaves in the hot fields, or in the friendless 
 houses of strangers. 
 
 Like the Pilgrim Fathers in Leyden, they began 
 to look toward some other land for a home. Their 
 cry came to the Christians of the United States, 
 and instead of echoing back a cold, heartless mur- 
 mur, a voice of welcome rolled across the waters. 
 Our banner of religious freedom was held up above 
 the waves. Our ''great "West," with her grand 
 prairies, was pictured before their eyes. Our Chris- 
 tian people felt their hearts touched by that sad 
 wail from Madeira, which will ring awfully in the per- 
 secutors' ears at the judgment : " Ye did it not 
 unto the least of these my brethren !" 
 
 The American Protestant society sent the Rev. 
 G. Gonsalves to Trinidad, while Mr. Da Silva was 
 praying God that help might come. His mission 
 was to inquire into the condition of the exiles. 
 This " Good Samaritan" society was intent upon 
 looking after the temporal interests of the people, 
 as well as the spiritual. The exiles had not only 
 been beaten but cruelly robbed, or they could have 
 had their own means of finding happy homes. 
 
 Mr. Gonsalves had been born at Madeira. He 
 had been a Romanist. After his conversion he 
 came to this country, and for several years laboured 
 among the five thousand or six thousand Portuguese 
 on the sea coast of New England. It was refresh- 
 ing to his own heart to visit those once fellow-coun-
 
 REV. MR. HEWITSON IN TRINIDAD. 163 
 
 trymen, and feel the warm glow of their piety. 
 What he saw may be shown in one of their pastor's 
 letters to the Free Church of Scotland : 
 
 " More than one hundred and twenty commun- 
 icants take the Lord's supper on the last Sabbath of 
 each month. The solemnity and reverence with 
 which this act of worship is performed, touch the 
 heart even of the unbelieving. Besides, the regu- 
 larity with which the people attend on days fixed 
 for ordinary worship, and the general blamelessness 
 of their lives, exercise, in some degree, a beneficial 
 influence on the character of those among whom 
 we dwell. God, who has begun this good work among 
 them, will carry it on ; but till this day, through 
 many, many aflSictions have these children had to 
 pass. In the midst of them we constantly implore 
 his mercy ; and sure we are that he will hear us. 
 The suff'erings in which this church is at present in-^ 
 volved arise from the decaying state of this island. 
 With difficulty do the people at all find labour so as 
 to be able to support themselves and their families, 
 and to pay the rent of their houses, which are al- 
 ways exceedingly high. In circumstances of ex- 
 treme necessity, those of them who sicken, die as 
 much in consequence of want as from the severity 
 of their disease. Their little children are almost 
 naked, and have only rags to sleep on. Such of 
 them as are of age to be sent to school, are, as a 
 matter of sheer necessity, put to service for food 
 and clothing. And what is it that they learn?
 
 164 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 Everything that is opposite to the doctrine of the 
 gospel; and consequently the children, who should 
 grow up to take the place of their believing parents 
 in love to the Lord, are like seed-corn that is com- 
 pletely lost." 
 
 Mr. Gonsalves returned bringing a letter from 
 Mr. Da Silva, in which he says : "I do not see 
 here the prospect of keeping this people in the midst 
 of the present distress, as their labours are not paid 
 as they should be ; for in this sickly climate, when 
 the husband and father is taken to the hospital, the 
 wife and children are left destitute, and not being 
 able to pay the house-rent, they are turned into the 
 street, to beg from door to door. This state of 
 things led me to solicit of the governor of this island, 
 Lord Harris, a portion of land to be divided amongst 
 the Portuguese, that they might on the same build 
 their cabins, provided they could receive some aid 
 in advance, to be paid by them in the course of 
 time. But although the governor is friendly to us, 
 yet in his official capacity he said he could not com- 
 ply with our request. I have also written on this 
 subject to the Rev. Mr. Hewitson, of Scotland, who 
 answered that we should find it difficult to obtain 
 lands for families in these islands. And finally in 
 the midst of these efforts, the bank of the West Indies 
 failed, and sugars came down in price, and business 
 was prostrated to tbe ruin of many households. 
 Government works were stopped, and labourers can 
 find little or nothing to do. And worse than all,
 
 REV. MR. HEWITSON IN TRINIDAD. 165 
 
 our children whose morals should be preserved at 
 every expense, are mixed with a low, profane, 
 wretched Roman catholic population. 
 
 *' I do not ask for money, but for lands. I ask 
 what God has given to man, that he might earn his 
 bread by the sweat of his brow. Our people are 
 mechanics and farmers, virtuous and industrious ; 
 they will soon thrive with the blessing of God and 
 the labour of their hands. They will soon rejoice in 
 abundance, for they hate vice and love virtue." 
 
 Some of the exiles wished to go with Mr. Gon- 
 salves, but their pastor persuade^ them to wait 
 until they could remove as a band of pilgrims. 
 Little did he then think how soon he would depart 
 for America to seek health, reach the shore, and die 
 in the arms of those who were calling his people to 
 a land of liberty.
 
 166 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE SHEPHERD DYING ON THE SHORE. 
 
 "Although no relatives were present, yet many hearts mourned over 
 him, and many eyes were filled with tears as his body went down to 
 its last resting-place." 
 
 To pass from luxury into poverty is often severe 
 to health. Perhaps Mr. Da Silva was affected some- 
 what by this. But the separation from his family ; 
 the anxiety, like Paul's, for his kindred ; the change 
 of climate ; the charge of a people poor and in need 
 of much spiritual guidance ; the great labours of his 
 ministry — all these brought on disease in fearful 
 form. Toward the north he was pointed, and in 
 December, 1848, he came to New York. He was 
 not only on our coast, but on the shore of another 
 world. 
 
 Sad were the partings at Trinidad. But those 
 who had risen to their feet and held up both hands 
 in receiving him as pastor, now felt that it was a 
 "needs be." They crowded the wharf when he 
 sailed. Many risked their lives by entering small 
 boats and dashing through rough waves to the vessel 
 lying at anchor, that they might see his face once more,
 
 THE SilEPHERD DYING ON THE SHORE. 1G7 
 
 and hear some words from that man whose heart was 
 in heaven. Their enthusiasm was not yet lost. 
 Alas I this was their last vision of his face on 
 earth ! 
 
 Nor was health all that he sought. Dearer to 
 him than life was the exile church. He sought a 
 home for his people — a green pasture for the flock. 
 Some of the Madeira brethren were here before him, 
 and the meeting was one of great joy. Wanderers, 
 tossed on the seas or struggling over mountain passes, 
 always delight to meet and talk, and draw pleasure 
 from the past endurance. So with brethren, long 
 tossed and wearied on earth ; what will it be in 
 heaven ! 
 
 A candle, after the blaze is gone, revives in one 
 brighter glow, and then dies. The life of this man 
 of God had really lost its vigour. It revived for a 
 few days, and then sunk rapidly away. Truly 
 God's ways are not as our ways. It seemed as if 
 he could not be spared to conduct the toilsome en- 
 terprise of giving the exile church a home. But he 
 was not so necessary as Moses or Joshua, or he 
 would have been spared. 
 
 There he lay gasping on a bed of death. Every 
 thought of home, of his flock, of his plans, would 
 seem to point every dart of pain. Once rich, now 
 an object of charity ! Once dear to wife and child, 
 but now cast out as evil ! Once thinking of a splendid 
 monument, but now an exile grave ! Was he cast 
 down ? Oh these were nothing to his soul. For he
 
 168 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 knew all tliis well counted cost. Once he was blind, 
 now he sees ! Once he was lost, now he is found ! 
 Here is comfort. He has little anxiety for him- 
 self, for his name, or his body. His mind turns in 
 imploring pity toward his family and flock, as he 
 commits them to the merciful Lord. The man of 
 strong vigorous mind speaks like a little child. 
 
 A gentleman from Illinois was daily with him. 
 Da Silva had asked about the land, to his imagina- 
 tion so goodly. He said he wanted to go and see 
 all the land that he might find a good home for his 
 people. This he often repeated : '' You can do my 
 people good. I must go with you. They must 
 have a place and go to it, or they will all be 
 scattered." 
 
 " Oh ! I want to know more with you. You 
 teach me to speak English ;" he would say when 
 others spoke of the things reserved for those who 
 love God. 
 
 "Better?" asked this daily attendant one morn- 
 ing. " No, it is not better." He turned away his 
 head and wept. Hezekiah perhaps did not feel 
 more intense loncring; to live, than he did at that 
 moment, for he " remembered Zion." Soon re- 
 covering his submission he said, " God is good, 
 but I fear I not go with you to see my people set- 
 tled." 
 
 The all-absorbing topic, of an earthly kind, was 
 the good of his people. When hopes of life revived, 
 he praised God that there was some prospect of
 
 THE SHEPHERD DYING ON THE SHORE. 1G9 
 
 his living long enough to see them in a new home. 
 "Are you yet alive ?" his friend asked, after the 
 patient had been some time unconscious. 
 
 " Yes, but very sick, pain, swelled." Then he 
 ■wept in view of the goodness of God in bringing 
 reason back again. 
 
 On the last day of 1848, when he was fast sink- 
 ing, Mr. Kingsbury said : " It is Sabbath, clear sky, 
 and the sun bright; — is God good?" "Yes," he 
 replied. ^' Is Christ precious ?" "Y^es." "I fear," 
 said Mr. Kingsbury, "you will not live long." 
 " No," he answered, *' but yet I want to go with my 
 people." 
 
 On the 1st of January he was weak, restless, and 
 in severe pain. Mr. Kingsbury remarked : " Christ 
 alone can help and cure you." "Yes," said he, 
 " but my people will be alone. God is good. Every 
 thing seemed to go wrong since I came to America ; 
 — hindered here, could not go west and get homes. 
 No, but God will take care of the Portuguese." 
 
 To ]Mr. Kingsbury he said : " You are my friend ; 
 I love you very much." When told that we were 
 all his friends, but God was better than them all, 
 and he must love iiim ; he quickly replied : " Y^es, 
 yes, I love him, I love you." 
 
 He was sensitively grateful for every little kind- 
 ness. It was hard to be dependent on strangers. 
 He was told that Christ was thus showing that 
 " every one that hath forsaken houses, or bretliren, 
 or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, 
 15
 
 170 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hun- 
 dred fold, and shall inherit life everlasting." He 
 replied, " Oh, yes, good friends, Christ is better 
 than all." 
 
 *'Pain! sick! very sick!" he would say with 
 great effort ; and when told that Jordan's flood was 
 dark, deep, and rapid, but Christ had passed it 
 safely, he would say, " Yes, yes ! Though dark on 
 this side, the other is cheerful. Yes ! yes !" 
 
 In his last audible prayer he said : 
 
 " Lord God of Israel, thou hast been very 
 gracious to us poor Portuguese, who were in great 
 darkness in the island of Madeira. Of thy infinite 
 mercy thou hast given us the hope of eternal life 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 '' Lord, look in mercy upon thy servant who 
 is afflicted. But especially look in mercy upon thy 
 redeemed people in Trinidad. Lord, thou know- 
 est that thy servant has done what he could for thy 
 people, and now is ready to give up even the last 
 drop of his blood for them, even as thou, blessed 
 Lord Jesus, didst give thine for us poor miserable 
 sinners ! Lord, forgive my sins — give patience. 
 
 " Lord, I pray thee for my dear wife and 
 daughter. Lord, may they forsake the world 
 and give thee their hearts, and remember the advice 
 I have given them. 
 
 " I am weak, but thou art mighty. Let not, 
 Lord, thy persecuted flock become scattered, but
 
 THE SHEPHERD DYING ON THE SHORE. 171 
 
 establish them in the faith of the gospel and unity 
 of thy Holy Spirit. 
 
 " Lord, bless all good Christians in America ; 
 reward them for their kindness to us. These favours 
 I ask, in great weakness of body, through my blessed 
 Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen." 
 
 Just before he died, he asked Mr. Gonsalves to 
 write to his wife and daughter. " What shall I 
 write?" "Tell them to remember what I have 
 written in every letter." Yes, he had always been 
 earnest for them. There was no return to the Ro- 
 man catholic church. 
 
 One of the last questions proposed to him — " Is 
 God good to you?" — was answered: "Yes, he is 
 good to me; God is good to all I" 
 
 Though he could nol open his eyes toward the 
 last, yet the tear of love to Christ would roll down 
 his thin and sallow cheeks. At the last hour his 
 Portuguese brother knelt down to pray, along with 
 others who could not be persuaded to leave the room 
 where their dear pastor was dying. While the 
 prayer was ascending, the happy redeemed spirit 
 left for the heavenly land. He fell softly asleep. 
 
 He died in faith, January 10th, in the forty-ninth 
 year of his age. Scarcely landed from the waves 
 of ocean, so rough at his embarking, the billows of 
 death took him away, and they still murmur his 
 dying words, "Farewell in Christ Jesus." 
 
 At his funeral the Rev. Mr. Gonsalves, mission- 
 ary of the society, addressed, in their own language,
 
 172 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 the Portuguese exiles, who were present to mourn 
 over the death of their beloved pastor. At the 
 close of this, all the Portuguese present, (about 
 fifty,) rose and sung a hymn in their own language. 
 
 Every eye in the congregation suddenly filled 
 with tears, as the notes of these homeless and per- 
 secuted disciples fell upon the ear. The singing 
 was so devotional and hearty, and there was such a 
 sublimity in their rising when sufi'used with tears, 
 and their hearts overflowing with grief, that no one 
 could resist the subduing influence of the scene. 
 
 The body of this first martyr from Madeira was 
 then buried in the vaults of the Lafayette-Place 
 church, there to await the resurrection of the dead 
 in the last day. Beloved, blessed man, thou art 
 now at rest ! 
 
 It was a bitter cold day, but many were the wit- 
 nesses. The weeping Portuguese felt like Rachel, 
 refusing to be comforted. 
 
 After the death of this devoted "man of God" 
 a friendly letter was sent to Mrs. Da Silva, at Ma- 
 deira. It told her of her husband's sickness, and 
 his joyful death, and reminded her of his last mes- 
 sage to his family. She replied in a very lady -like, 
 but cool, business letter. Though she thanked 
 those who were kind to her husband, she expressed 
 not a word of sympathy for his religion, which was 
 his comfort in death. 
 
 To another letter sent her some months after, she 
 replied in a very difl'erent spirit. She referred to
 
 THE SHEPHERD DYING ON THE SHORE. 173 
 
 her "good husband whom it had pleased the Lord 
 to take to himself." Iler gratitude to his friends 
 was far more deep and hearty. She said that her 
 mind was in great darkness, and she could obtain 
 no comfort from the church which she had refused 
 to forsake. She was reading the Bible, but needed 
 some one to tell her what to do to be saved. And 
 this is all we know of her history. We hope the 
 entrance of God's word and Spirit gave her light to 
 the true cross. 
 15 »
 
 174 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AX OUTLOOK OYER THE SEA. 
 
 thou Eternal Ruler I 
 
 Who holdest in thine arm 
 The tempests of the ocean, 
 
 Protect them from all harm. 
 
 When a vessel is burning at sea, it often occurs 
 that the relief-ships carry the passengers in all di- 
 rections, and it is a long time before the mother 
 knows where her son was borne, or an anxious 
 people learn who were saved. It was thus with the 
 scattering of the Christians of Madeira. It was 
 long before the little bands could report their places 
 of refuge. Some had landed in Demarara, others 
 at St. Vincent, and others at St. Kitts. How many 
 fled from Madeira cannot be certainly told. Some 
 little bands may have perished, with no man left to 
 tell the awful story. Some were heard of in British 
 Guiana. Of others no news ever came. Of them 
 it could have been said, in the beautiful words of the 
 Bible, " They shall lift up their voice, they shall 
 sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry 
 aloud from the sea. Wherefore glorify ye the Lord
 
 AN OUTLOOK OVER TUE SEA. 175 
 
 in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of 
 Israel in the isles of the sea." 
 
 The Editor of the Defensor, a newspaper in Ma- 
 deira, was threatened with murder for publishing 
 the following facts, in 1846. In the parish of St. 
 Antonio, some persons met quietly on the Lord's 
 day evening, in their own house, to read and hear 
 the Bible. A band of armed men entered the 
 house violently, wounded the owner of it, and ar- 
 rested the unresisting company of friends. Re- 
 member Saul of Tarsus. " He made havoc of the 
 church, entering into every house, and haling men 
 and women, committed them to prison." 
 
 They were charged with resisting the officers of 
 justice ! It was not asked what they had done for 
 which the police could arrest them, nor proved that 
 they had showed any resistance. The police had 
 no right to go without the legal, written order, and 
 they could show none. "We think that our homes 
 are our strongholds, and that not even a King or 
 Governor has any right to enter by force, unless 
 proof is shown that we are guilty of some daring 
 wroncr. Not so in Madeira. "Where law ends, 
 tyranny begins." 
 
 Any one could see that the police and their band 
 were guilty of an assault. But the jury, sitting in face 
 of these arrested Bible-readers, would not see that 
 fact. So they found these innocents guilty of resist- 
 ance I Resistance for turning the other cheek after one 
 was smitten ! Madeira is a beautiful island, but we
 
 176 THE EXILES OF MADEIEA. 
 
 thank God that we were not born there. No one 
 could have a "vine and fig tree" of his own, and 
 be safe under it, if he had a Bible in his hand 
 
 "Alas for liberty !" wrote this editor. "Tyr- 
 anny is like fire." It gains strength by running. 
 The law that protects to-day, may be made to crush 
 the protected to-morrow. 
 
 These prisoners were condemned to lie in jail ten 
 months. "When the ten months were fully ended, 
 they were there still, with no prospect of release. 
 Why ? Because the public prosecutor imagined 
 that the sentence was not sufiiciently severe ! "Where 
 was the judge whose son-in-law was a Christian ? 
 
 The widowed mother of two of the sufferers was 
 released without trial. But while her children were 
 patiently waiting for the slow law to release them, 
 her dwelling was set on fire, the store-house burned, 
 and she was obliged to escape for her life. In the 
 West Indies she fell a victim to the fever, remem- 
 berinor how her husband had been buried in the 
 public road for his faith. 
 
 Who then would report the state of the people in 
 1848, if an editor were thus threatened with murder 
 in 1846 ? There were " the Lord's hidden ones" 
 on the island; but how many in 1848, no one could 
 tell. They were left to " glorify God in the fires." 
 
 " Poor Madeira !" wrote Dr. Kalley. " There are 
 very few believers in it now, unless they are con- 
 cealed ; and who knows how many the Lord has 
 * who have not bowed the knee to Baal ?' "
 
 AX OUTLOOK OVER THE SEA. 177 
 
 The English residents, for some time, were in 
 danger. Dr. Kalley advised a friend not to go there, 
 and also said : " The enemies are now very brave. 
 The priest says from the pulpit, that, unless Dr. 
 Miller does as he would have him, he will be treated 
 as Dr. Kalley was. Dr. Dexter was obliged to 
 leave the hospital. M. R. was much persecuted. 
 She was taken to the church to confess ; but did not 
 confess any thing." 
 
 Yet there was some good news. Some of " the 
 bravest of the enemies" became "among the firmest 
 of the converts." The Lord knew where they were. 
 One such man could say, " Sometimes I lift up my 
 heart to the Lord in prayer, and at other times I 
 break forth into singing praise to God; and always, 
 by this means, I get rid of the evil thoughts that 
 trouble me, and have my heart filled with joy." 
 Thus did the Psalmist sinoj in the nio;ht watches. 
 
 Mr. Hewitson, returning from Trinidad, visited 
 St. Kitts, preached fourteen times, and administered 
 the Lord's supper twice. He found about fifty 
 members there, and they afterwards became an hun- 
 dred. He left an elder there as their teacher and 
 guardian. 
 
 Martin Da Songa wrote a letter telling how many 
 exiles on the island of St. Kitts wished to go to the 
 United States. There were ninety-nine, who said 
 they wished first of all "to follow the word of God 
 and grow better," and then follow the exile church 
 to a new land. These persons were not "outlaws"
 
 178 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 of Madeira as their eneniies said, but were " men 
 of good report." Da Songa wrote : 
 
 " In the number I here send, there are none that 
 get drunk either on rum or wine, neither any that 
 may be called slothful. All this people are accus- 
 tomed to come to the prayer-meeting for a long 
 time, and there are some new ones who now attend ; 
 but I have admitted none in the number except 
 those I knew as believers before the reception of 
 your letter." 
 
 At Essequibo, in British Guiana, were nineteen 
 of the exiles. They heard that their brethren were 
 on the eve of going to the United States, and one of 
 them wrote to their old friends Da Silva and Miss 
 Rutherford to learn the facts. The letter is worth 
 reading: 
 
 " But, perhaps, before I proceed, I had better 
 inform you who and what lam. I am then a planter 
 and attorney, and manager of this estate — but the 
 Lord has also used me in his vineyard, and, through 
 me, has collected together a church exceeding one 
 hundred in number. We do not identifv ourselves 
 with any denomination, but the only test required 
 for fellowship is an interest in 'the blood of the 
 Lamb.' With us are united sixteen Portuguese, 
 besides our dear blind brother Antonio, and his sis- 
 ters Mary and Jokina ; they at present are in 
 Georgetown, Demarara. Of those sixteen, only 
 five were received into the church at Madeira. Of 
 these were Francis Da Silva and his wife Maria.
 
 AN OUTLOOK OVER THK SEA. 179 
 
 Several of the others were impressed with the truth 
 there, while others knew nothing of it till they heard 
 it from the Lord's people here. I know nothing of 
 Portuguese, but we have very profitable meetings 
 together notwithstanding. I mean, now, the meet- 
 ings particularly for the Portuguese. They sing 
 and pray in their own tongue, in which I sometimes 
 have owned fellowship, though it is but few words 
 I understand. They then fix on a chapter, or part 
 of a chapter, which one dear brother reads ; this dear 
 brother has wonderfully got on with English ; I believe 
 it is only about two years he has been here. His 
 wife has been in this colony many years ; she there- 
 fore also knew some English ; and then there is an- 
 other dear interesting young disciple, who was taught 
 to read in Dr. Kalley's school, in Madeira. Her 
 parents, with herself, and I think two other children, 
 emigrated to this country some five or six years 
 ago. She was living a poor lonely orphan, on an 
 estate about a mile from this, having lost her parents 
 and brothers or sisters. When she heard of the 
 Christian Portuguese here, (our blind brother and 
 his sisters were here at the time,) she came to see 
 them ; the Lord soon touched her heart, and she is 
 now, I trust, growing in grace and in the knowledge 
 of our Lord and Saviour. She is learning to read 
 in English, and can read the Testament pretty well 
 in this language. 
 
 " But, to return to our meeting, when the chapter 
 is read, I refer them to every text that I can, that
 
 180 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 I think will throw light on the portion read. I 
 then talk what I feel led to say ; this brother as- 
 sisted by those two sisters interpreting it to the others. 
 And I am happy to say there is an inquiring mind, 
 while the many questions asked show me plainly 
 they understand what is said. In our public meet- 
 ings, particularly at the Lord's table, I sometimes 
 try and speak to them a few words through this 
 brother." 
 
 Men who have come out of the fires, been trained 
 in dungeons, and tried on the mountains or in caves 
 and dens of the earth, will generally be found 
 *' steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the 
 work of the Lord." 
 
 Friends in England and America were active in 
 providing a way for these exiles to come, and a 
 home for them when they should arrive. They 
 should not leave their various refuges and start 
 "not knowing whither." They were willing to go 
 anywhere, if they could have a safe home and a 
 secure church. 
 
 Most of these exiles had learned '' to labour and 
 to wait." Da Silva's " patience" was not forgotten, 
 nor were Hewitson's lessons of industry. They 
 were now mostly farmers and mechanics. They 
 wished to be in a colony by themselves in a new 
 land. 
 
 At first a large agricultural company engaged to 
 give them a home in Illinois. They were to have 
 houses, good wages, and the comforts of life. To
 
 AN OUTLOOK OVER THE SEA. 181 
 
 every family of the colony ten acres of land were to 
 be given. Bonds were given to make secure the 
 contract. The place was about half way between 
 Springfield and Jacksonville, Illinois. The Ameri- 
 can Protestant society were to pay for their immi- 
 gration to the place. 
 
 Appeals were made to the Christians of England 
 and the United States to help transport the exiles, 
 who were in need of clothing and daily bread. The 
 response was generous. The Christian people felt 
 their hearts touched as they were asked to take an 
 
 outlook over the sea. 
 16
 
 182 THE EXILES OF MADEIKA. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A FAREWELL TO THE ISLES. 
 
 ** They come, they come ; — thine exiled bands, 
 Where'er they rest or roam, 
 Have heard thy voice in distant land3> 
 And hasten to their home." 
 
 Some of the exiles were already in New York. 
 Great preparations were making for the welcome of 
 others. Just then the first plan for their settlement 
 failed. New schemes must be devised. Stout 
 hearted men set about it in right good earnest. In 
 their will they found a way. A home was again 
 secured in Illinois. Christian friends in Jackson- 
 ville offered to take those already in New York and 
 provide for them. Springfield and Waverly were 
 proposed as points where others following should 
 be settled. 
 
 Here was the "finger of God." Had the exiles 
 left New York when first proposed, they would have 
 met with that terrible disease — the cholera — then 
 stealing victims from the lines of travel, and beset- 
 ting men at almost every point of rest. And fur- 
 ther, had they gone then to the place first selected,
 
 A FAREWELL TO THE ISLE. 183 
 
 they would have met with a severe disappointment, 
 and found no resting place for their feet. The 
 company which had engaged to give them houses 
 and lands had failed. The delay thus caused proved 
 a blessing. Though in the city when the cholera 
 raged, no death was known to occur among them. 
 
 One vessel after another arrived, bringing exiles, 
 until about five hundred were in the city. The 
 American Protestant Society had to find their daily 
 bread, and clothe the needy. Some were sick. All 
 were in a strange land. 
 
 Dr. Kalley had not ceased to remember these 
 people, many of whom were his " sons in the 
 faith." He wrote them from Malta in 1849. As 
 one band of exiles after another came, his letter 
 met them in their own language. In it he says : 
 
 " What are all the riches of this world without 
 the love of God ? Love is found in heaven. There 
 the blessed rejoice in love. They have no money 
 in heaven. There they do not need money. But 
 they could not be happy without love. Love there- 
 fore is celestial ; it is worth more than all the treas- 
 ures of the world. Love will remain when the fire 
 of God shall melt all earthly goods. Jesus said, 
 'Love one another as I have loved you.'" 
 
 He then warns them of false teachers. The les- 
 son is good for us all. *' The way in which these 
 enemies succeed in destroying souls, is by raising 
 doubts in the minds of the disciples as regards the 
 blessed truths of the Bible. In the same manner
 
 184 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 the Devil tempted our mother Eve; and he en- 
 deavoured to tempt Jesus in the same -way. In this 
 Tvay the Devil and his servants have destroyed mil- 
 lions of souls. They begin by saying that the 
 word of God is a book full of mysteries, and very 
 obscure, very hard for any knowledge of true re- 
 ligion by searching. Then they recommend the 
 writings of the fathers, saying that they contain the 
 truth which the church has believed in all ages. 
 They say that we must examine the writings of the 
 dead priests to know the true meaning or right in- 
 terpretation of the Bible. 
 
 *' Suppose a number of men should go to work 
 and make a common tallow candle, and, after light- 
 ing it, should place it in their midst, and then should 
 send out their preachers to inform the people that 
 without the light of their candle no one could see 
 in the day time, even if the sun should shine ever 
 so clear. AYhat should we think of such men ? 
 Why we should take it for granted that they had 
 run away, by some means, from the lunatic asylum. 
 Are not the words of God clear and plain ? Can 
 they not give assurance to the immortal soul ? Sup- 
 pose we should see a number of men digging at the 
 bottom of one of the huge mountains of Madeira, 
 and heard them say that the mountains were about 
 to tumble down, and that it was necessary for them 
 to work very hard in order to prevent so great a 
 calamity. Therefore one would bring a handful 
 of clay, another a broken reed, another a rotten
 
 A FAREWELL TO THE LSLE. 185 
 
 rail to hold up the mountain. What should we 
 think of such men ?" 
 
 Gladness is often the twin of sadness. It was on 
 the 10th of October, 1840. Nearly three hundred 
 exiles left New York on that day for their western 
 homes. Many eyes were on the pilgrim band. Among 
 them were three orphan sisters, who had been 
 wealthy in their native vine-clad isle. One of them 
 could have remained in the city and taught music, 
 had she understood the lanfrua^e. As she was 
 playing beautifully one evening, she was asked 
 where she left her piano. She said that she left it 
 in her own house, with all she had in the world, 
 and fled for her life. On the deck of the steamer 
 stood the wanderers. It was a sublime scene. An 
 eye witness says : 
 
 "As we began to grasp the hands of those pil- 
 grims, with whose trials and sufferings we were so 
 familiar, a scene of unspeakable tenderness was 
 presented. Never had we seen their tears flow so 
 profusely. AVe felt their warm grasp, but soon we 
 could not utter that last word — farewell. The three 
 orphan sisters wept aloud, not because they have 
 not a relative on earth, but because they left those 
 who were deeply interested in their welfare." 
 
 One old lady came the second time to bid fare- 
 well, and as she grasped the hand of a benefactor, 
 she closed her eyes and lifted her silent prayer 
 to God that all human kindnesses might be re- 
 warded. One hundre<l others followed soon after 
 
 10*
 
 186 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 them. Rev. Mr. Hale, of Springfield, Illinois, 
 vrrote of those who arrived there as follows : 
 
 " We are much occupied these days in minister- 
 ing to our brethren, the Portuguese exiles. They 
 arrived here just in time to enter on the severe win- 
 ter weather, which now they, in common with all of 
 us, have to endure. They are not much accustomed 
 to severe cold weather ; and as our city was very 
 full of people when they arrived, it was well nigh 
 impossible to provide them habitations ; to provide 
 comfortable dwellings was out of the question, as 
 everything worthy of the name was already crowded 
 full. But we have done what, under the circum- 
 stances, we could, and they are hoping for better times. 
 So far as I know, they are contented and happy. 
 Many of them find employment, at good wages and 
 ready pay. They are highly valued as labourers, 
 and will soon be able to take care of themselves 
 without the aid of others. Indeed, the last thing 
 to be looked for is that such men should long be a 
 charge to their fellow men. If they maintain their 
 religious principles and their habits of industry, 
 there is but one destiny for them here, and that is 
 'plenty — independence.' " 
 
 Among those who remained we may find charac- 
 ters of interest. One was a venerable woman, sev- 
 enty-nine years of age. Only five years before had 
 she heard there was a Bible in the world. She 
 made it her delight. She could say, " Thy testi- 
 monies are wonderful." For her devotion to that
 
 A FARE^NTilLL TO THK ISLE. 187 
 
 hdok, "which our Lord gave us to read, she was pub- 
 licly beaten bj those wlio professed to be the "only 
 true church." She left her native vineyard with 
 two less ribs than in our land we allow every Chris- 
 tian to have. But such wounds only reminded her 
 of her Lord's pierced hands, thorn-crowned brows, 
 and bleeding side. She was happy. 
 
 The first convert under the labours of Dr. Kalley 
 was on our shores, with her husband and ajzed 
 mother. She had aided Dr. Kalley in defending 
 his house in the days of fearful riot. She drove 
 the nails and fastened the bars over the windows. 
 She knew something of curses, blows, and jails. 
 
 This family had taken a wrong vessel at St. Yin- 
 cent, and were landed in the cold of winter on 
 Nova Scotia. The northern blasts were too severe 
 for the poor exiles of a southern isle. The chill 
 had wrought disease in the old lady. She was in 
 consumption's fatal grasp. AVhcn in New York, 
 she suddenly one day spoke cheerfully, " I am go- 
 ing to my Father, I am going to my Father." 
 
 *' Shall we pray with you?" asked her friends. 
 
 " Yes !" and then exclaimed, " My Lord is coming, 
 my Lord is coming." In the moment of the prayer 
 she said, " See the angels ! don't you see the 
 angels ?" 
 
 In a moment her spirit was wafted gently away. 
 That view of the angels! Was it illusive? May 
 writer and reader not deny it, but wait till our ex- 
 perience shall decide. Hebrews xii. 14.
 
 188 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 A ladj, named Antonia Da Conea, had once 
 gone to Dr. Kalley for medical aid. She expected 
 soon to die by a fearful disease. God blessed the 
 remedies of the kind physician, and she recovered. 
 She had learned how to read when a child, but had 
 forgotten it. She learned again, and obtained a 
 boon which would never let her forget how to read 
 as:ain. It was the Bible. She became one of the 
 most intelligent and devoted Christians in the church. 
 She taught her daughters the good news, and they 
 became teachers in the schools. Many of her friends 
 and neighbours were persuaded by her to love the 
 Lord tfesus. Her enemies saw how great her influ- 
 ence was, and they said that she had an enchanted 
 cup, from which if any drank they became " Cal- 
 vinists." 
 
 Her husband came with her to attend the class 
 which Mr. Hewitson taught before leaving Madei- 
 ra. He was thus well qualified to become an elder 
 in the church. He owned a good home, with a 
 beautiful vineyard about it. A band of ruffians 
 came to assault their house; it was Saturday night. 
 Next day they were to have a quiet meeting for 
 Bible-reading and prayer. Catching up a few 
 articles, they fled to the mountains. God's people 
 have often known what mountains are worth. It 
 has been so from the days of Lot. They walked all 
 night, and on Sabbath morning were upon a summit 
 to greet the rising sun. Glad were they to see a 
 spring, as Hagar was to see a well when her boy
 
 A FAREWELL TO THE ISLES. 189 
 
 ■was gasping in liis thirst. Here they hathed their 
 bleeding feet. Was Jesus ever wounded in climbing 
 the mountain sides for the nightly prayer ? Then 
 they sat down on the grass, read the word of God, 
 and praised Him who is the God of the mountains as 
 well as of the valleys. Softly did they sing, lest even 
 there might lurk an enemy. It was eighteen days 
 before they could reach a British vessel. They 
 went to Trinidad ; there the elder lost a limb and was 
 more lame than halting Jacob. At New York he 
 was brought near to that shore whence Da Silva 
 took his joyful departure for a better world than 
 this. But the Lord brought him farther on toward 
 securing a home for his survivors. 
 
 If anv Howard had soufjlit to know the condition 
 of the prisons and dungeons of Madeira, he could 
 have been well informed by those who knew too well. 
 ' Even the Bomba would no longer have remained a 
 mystery. Many had been there and could testify. 
 Mrs. Alves was one of the welcomed. All her 
 surviving children were with her. If she had any 
 fears concerning those left behind, it was, lest the 
 enemy might rifle the very graves. 
 
 The reader will remember the young woman who, 
 on the fearful night of Dr. Kalley's siege, locked 
 the gate and took away the key. She was among 
 the escaped. She was an orphan, without a living 
 relative on the earth. Her heroic deeds are worth 
 ^ recitmg. 
 
 ' For several years she was an inmate of the family
 
 190 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 of Dr. Kallev. She became a teacher, and in the 
 stormy year of 1846 her class of young ladies 
 numbered thirty. She was staying with the Misses 
 Rutherford when the mob committed the outrage 
 upon their house. She heard the mob cutting down 
 the door and breaking the windows. In a small 
 room up stairs she sought refuge. The rioters 
 rushed into the house. The soldiers came into her 
 room and ordered her to confess and return to the 
 Roman catholic church. She replied that she was 
 daily in the habit of confession, but she confessed to 
 God and not to man. To their threats she made 
 the same reply. " AVere you not afraid at that 
 hour?" a friend afterwards asked. " I believed that 
 my Father would take care of me." The mob left 
 the room, locked the door, leaving her in it, and 
 took the key. They then seized some of the Bible- 
 readers and committed the awful deeds of " outrage 
 and intended murder." 
 
 Again was this young lady called to the trial of 
 her CQuracre and faith. She was brought before the 
 governor of the island. In a large parlour she 
 must face the crowd of official dignitaries. A book 
 was brought to her on which was the sign of the 
 cross. She was requested to put her hand upon it, 
 and take oath that she would never leave the Romish 
 church. She refused with all the "boldness of 
 Peter and John." "But you will surely put your 
 hand on the book !" said the governor. " No ! 
 never I The Saviour says — Swear not at all ; neither
 
 A FAREWELL TO THE ISLES. 191 
 
 by heaven nor by earth, neither by Jerusalem, nor 
 by thy head ; it cannot be right therefore to swear 
 by the sign of the cross." 
 
 " Do you think, young woman," replied the gov- 
 ernor, " to teach us the Bible ? I know much more 
 about it than you do." A statement very doubtful ! 
 She was permitted to leave the room with no further 
 trouble at the time. 
 
 Two other family histories are reserved for the 
 next chapter, and we close this by appending a paper 
 signed by fifty-eight persons. It refutes any charge 
 that these exiles were " wretched outlaws," not fit 
 to live in Madeira. It had been stated in a public 
 paper that some of the refugees, after having their 
 way paid to New York, sought a Romish priest, 
 made confession, and returned to the church that 
 had robbed and driven them away. This may 
 do only for those who have nothing to say but 
 slander. 
 
 " We, the undersigned, are all natives of ^ladeira : 
 we were all born and educated in the Roman catholic 
 church : we have always been in the habit of attend- 
 ing mass, confession, and the various ceremonies, 
 feasts, and fasts of that church. We knew of no 
 other way of worship, because we had never seen 
 nor read the word of God. We did not know there 
 was such a book as the Bible, in which was found 
 the history of Jesus Christ and of the apostles, until 
 Dr. Kalley began to circulate it in Madeira. In 
 reading the Bibles we received from him, we learned,
 
 192 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 for the first time, that we must be saved by the blood 
 of Jesus, and not by penance, and mass, and purga- 
 tory. We found that the Virgin and saints are not 
 mediators, for there is only one Mediator between 
 God and man, that is, Christ Jesus. When we 
 began to rejoice in Jesus as our only Mediator, and 
 to read the Bible with joy, then we were forbidden, 
 by the priests and the government, to read it. The 
 priests began to take our Bibles, and to burn them. 
 Many of the Bible-readers were thrown into prison. 
 Some of us have been in prison about two years, 
 and others three years. We have been driven 
 from our houses and our country — have wandered 
 in the mountains, and slept in caves — because we 
 read the word of God, and desired to live accord- 
 ing to its precepts, and for no other reason. We 
 were compelled, by the priest and the government 
 in Madeira, to flee away, and leave all our goods, 
 and houses, and lands ; and on this account we are 
 now destitute in a strange country. To the truth 
 of all these things we are prepared to testify before 
 all the world." {Signed.)
 
 TWO HOUSEHOLD BANDS. 193 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TWO HOUSEHOLD BANDS. 
 
 On a warm day in August, 1841, three young 
 men were on the way to attend the feast of the 
 *' celebrated Virgin of the Mountain." The fame 
 of Dr. Kalley had reached their ears. Out of mere 
 curiosity they called to see him. They were polite, 
 and saluted the doctor with all respect. One of 
 them, N. Vieira, told him that he wished to buy a 
 Testament for his friend Henry. 
 
 *' Who will teach Henry to read the good book?" 
 asked Dr. Kalley. 
 
 ^'I will," N. Vieira replied. 
 
 "Can you read?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, I have read the catechism for six years 
 past in a school." 
 
 "Do you believe there is a God?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. I do believe in God." 
 
 "Give me some sure proof of his existence." 
 
 "He made the ocean and the fire." 
 
 "Do you believe you are a sinner?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. We arc all sinners." 
 
 "How do you expect to be saved?" 
 17
 
 194 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 *^'Bj my good works." 
 
 " Good works I What good works have you done 
 to satisfy the demands of God's law against your 
 sins?" 
 
 " If I clothe and feed the poor, these good works 
 will take me to heaven, after passing through the 
 purifying fires of purgatory." 
 
 "My friend, Christ came into the world to save 
 you. He has given his life for you : now believe in 
 Christ, read his words of advice, which are found in 
 the Bible. Read in the sacred book the kind invi- 
 tations of his gospel." 
 
 " Sacred Bible ! I do not know such a book. I 
 never saw one." 
 
 "Here is one. I will make you a present of this 
 holy book, if you promise to read it every day to 
 your family, after the labours of the day. "When 
 you find any passage you cannot comprehend, write 
 down all the points, and when you come to the city 
 bring them to me. I shall always be happy to see 
 
 you." 
 
 These young men took the good book and went 
 home. N. Yieira gathered his mother, and two 
 brothers and two sisters in a family circle, and com- 
 menced reading God's word. He began with the 
 creation of the world, and continued to read about 
 the wonderful works of God, until their interest was 
 so great that they could not keep it to themselves : 
 so they spoke to their neighbours and friends, from 
 house to house, of this new and wonderful book,
 
 TWO HOUSEHOLD BANDS. 195 
 
 A few months passed. The new Bible-reader 
 came again to Dr. Kallej, and told him these good 
 tidings. The " man of God" was exceedingly glad 
 to hear him speak of how he had found the Saviour 
 to be his Redeemer, and how his mother and sisters 
 were weeping over their sins. He invited N. Vieira 
 to come and live with him, visit his schools in various 
 parts of the island, and speak to teachers and 
 scholars of the love of Christ. The invitation was 
 laid before the family, and though they needed him 
 on the farm, yet they felt that he could do more 
 good in the way proposed. He gladly entered upon 
 the new work. 
 
 He was first requested to read the Bible, in the 
 hospital to the sick every morning. This he did, 
 and was blessed in the service. In the hot season 
 Dr. Kalley hired a house in the mountain district 
 of St. Antonio Da Serra, near where the Vieiras 
 lived. In their own house he established a school, 
 and Henry was appointed the teacher. Many 
 neighbours came to hear the word of God. 
 
 One Sabbath in 1843, the Rev. Mr. Weed of the 
 Scotch church was just about to administer the 
 Lord's Supper. N. Vieira and a friend requested 
 permission to receive the holy Communion. Dr. 
 Kalley tried to dissuade them at first, lest it might 
 be a rash act on their part. But they felt con- 
 strained by the love of Christ, and had no fear of 
 the rage of man. They were ready to die if need 
 be. Their greatest anxiety was that this " father
 
 196 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 in Christ" might not suffer on their account. They 
 "were examined, admitted, and seated at the Lord's 
 table. 
 
 Four days after this N. Yieira was arrested, 
 brought before the Magistrates, and charged with 
 bavins: forsaken the relio-ion of his fathers and of 
 the government. Now was a time to try him, 
 whether he would obey God rather than men. He 
 replied to the charge that he had never received re- 
 ligion from his earthly parents: that he now en- 
 joyed the love of God in his heart: that this re- 
 ligion came from the Bible which God gave to bis 
 people to read: and that he was but a follower of 
 Christ the Lord. As to purgatory, it was not in 
 the Bible. "The mere forms of religion," said be, 
 " have never quenched any thirst, but now I have 
 found a pure fountain in God's word which satisfies 
 my soul." 
 
 "Do you believe in the crucifix, that we should 
 worship the image on the cross?" asked the judge. 
 
 " Nay. God is a Spirit, and they that worship 
 bim must worship him in spirit and in truth." 
 
 " Very well ; go in peace." 
 
 Were they to go in peace ? A secretary of the 
 government was there, who wrote down all the an- 
 swers. They should hear from them again. Such 
 young men of promise must be checked in their 
 labours of love. 
 
 On the next Sabbath their names were read aloud 
 by the parish priests in all the churches, and their
 
 TWO HOUSEHOLD BANDS. 197 
 
 excommunication pronounced. People were foi]>id- 
 den to allow them to enter their houses, trade with 
 them, or even give a cup of cold water to them. * 
 
 Terror could not be struck into the minds of 
 other Bible-readers in this way. They saw that 
 somebody was wrong. The ignorant part of the 
 people were afraid of the Jesuits, for they imagined 
 that the Jesuits had all power at command. But 
 those who could read the Bible, read all the more, 
 in order to learn who was in the right. These per- 
 sons thought well of the converts, and applauded 
 their firmness. Nowhere is firmness of any account 
 unless it be on the side of right. Thus more and 
 more Bibles were in demand. The searching for 
 the "hid treasure" was earnest and intense. These 
 enemies did not understand human nature, or they 
 "would not have made these humble young men such 
 objects of curiosity and inquiry. Take a book from 
 a man by force, and you make everybody else want 
 to see what that book is. Thus many were led to 
 ask for the Bible; and who could give it to them? 
 
 The priests and the ofiicers of government were 
 not satisfied with this. They imagined that by 
 punishing these two young men very severely, others 
 •would be afraid to forsake the Romish church. So 
 they one day met to lay their plans. They were so 
 angry that they talked louder than they intended. 
 Remember the enemies of Paul, wlio banded to- 
 gether and took an oath not to eat or drink until they 
 
 * See Appendix, for the poiupoufl sentence. 
 17 •
 
 198 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 had killed him. They talked too loud about their 
 mad design. Paul's sister's son overheard the 
 plans, and went into the castle where his uncle was, 
 and told him that certain men had sworn that if he 
 ever came near them they would kill him. 
 
 There was a young woman, a convert, named 
 Ursula, who overheard some conversation about ar- 
 resting and imprisoning these two young Christians. 
 She hastened to Dr. Kalley's house and told him 
 that his young brethren, then in his house, were 
 threatened with death. Ursula had scarcely finished 
 her almost breathless story when the loud rap of 
 the police was heard at the doctor's gates. The 
 hunters had surrounded the innocent prey and 
 thought their hands would soon be laid upon them. 
 Not a moment was to be lost. Escape from the 
 house was impossible. The doctor knew there was 
 a niche in the wall behind his library case. So the 
 case was pulled away from the wall, and the two 
 friends were hid in the narrow space. The case 
 was then pushed back and no eye but that of God 
 could see them. The hunters rushed in, searched 
 the house, even went into the rooms of the sick, but 
 could not find the men they wanted. The doctor 
 did not say they were not there, but helped them 
 ransack the house. The police went away, hoping 
 for better success some other time, and the friends 
 came out of their hiding place with a song of de- 
 liverance in their hearts. 
 
 For six months these vounf' men were hidden in
 
 TWO HOUSEHOLD BANDS. 199 
 
 the houses of their friends. There came a decree 
 from the court of Lisbon that no one shouhl be mo- 
 lested or persecuted for religious opinions. The court 
 said that men might worship God according to the 
 dictates of conscience. The spider makes a beauti- 
 ful web to catch his prey ; so the Romanists made 
 a beautiful law, but it was only a trap to catch the 
 innocent. And many were caught. No convert to 
 Christianity could have his own religious opinions. 
 
 N. Vieira returned home to gladden his mother's 
 heart, and to exchange places with Henry. The 
 Bible-class was entrusted to Henry. The flourish- 
 ing school in Da Serra had N. Vieira at its head. 
 But there was no library case to hide him nor any 
 law from Lisbon which would protect him. The 
 haters had their cruel way. 
 
 The priests and the police soon saw that this family 
 paid no regard to the confessional, (they went to the 
 Protestant confessional — the Mercy-seat), and did 
 not obey the priests of their parish, nor care for the 
 Pope, nor bow to the Virgin Mary, nor have any 
 idols in their house. It was resolved to put an end 
 to this matter. Two officers with eighteen men 
 came by night to arrest the teacher. He was roused 
 from his sleep at midnight, and fled to the friendly 
 shelter of the mountains. Two hundred soldiers 
 were sent by the government to arrest him. For 
 more than a month they hunted him, but could not 
 find him. He was one of '•" God's hidden ones." 
 All this time he found no roof under which he could
 
 200 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 sleep. The caves were his refuge, the earth his bed. 
 David in his exile was not more homeless. Yet 
 David could sing and make Psalms even there. He 
 could look up and see the hart bounding on Bether's 
 hills and say, " As the hart panteth after the water 
 brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, God." So 
 with our heroic young sufferer. Though without a 
 change of raiment and almost starved, he could re- 
 joice in the Lord Jesus. 
 
 While thus wandering on the mountains he one 
 day came in sight of the large mansion where his 
 mother lived. It was about five miles from the ca- 
 pital. There he had played in his boyhood, and 
 in the vineyard he had toiled through many a weary 
 day. It was the old home. He probably intended 
 in some way to gain admittance there, and relieve 
 the mother who perhaps was weeping for her son. 
 But what fearful view broke on his vision ? He saw 
 the soldiers coming down like a wolf on the fold. 
 Never did a dove look down with keener pain of 
 heart on her nest just when the eagle's claws were 
 going to rifle it, than he did from the mountain top. 
 
 The soldiers arrested his mother, his sister and 
 her husband, and also a woman living in the house- 
 hold. One of his brothers, in delicate health, was 
 compelled to eat disgusting food, with the threat of 
 a severe beating. When they had secured their 
 victims, they took the furniture and tore the clothes 
 and bedding to pieces. Where was the husband of 
 this aged woman at this hour ? Though a Bomanist,
 
 TWO HOUSEHOLD BANDS. 201 
 
 one can hardly imagine how he could permit a scene 
 like this in his own house, and "with his own family. 
 They led their captives away, goading the age<l 
 mother with a stick pointed with sharp iron. A 
 bayonet would have been more refined. She was 
 too feeble to march as rapidly as they wished. 
 They insulted her by saying sumetliing like this : 
 ** Go along, you old Protestant fool." 
 
 Her son could see much of these cruelties, as he 
 stood gazing. His soul almost sunk within him. 
 What to do he knew not. "What would be the fate 
 of his family he dared not imagine. To rush to his 
 mother would not comfort her, for she could not feel 
 any happier herself by having her son as a fellow- 
 sufferer. His couraf^e and faith were almost failing. 
 Then he thought of his Bible. Into his troubled 
 mind came the words, " Who shall separate us 
 from the love of Christ ?" His mind rose with 
 Paul's in saying, " I am persuaded that neither 
 death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
 powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
 height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be 
 able to separate me from the love of God, which is 
 in Christ Jesus our Lord." He was comforted. 
 Famine might come, peril might hang about his path, 
 persecution might take his life ; he was ready to die 
 in the love of Christ. 
 
 Elijah found bread by the brook-side. This 
 wanderer found it in the mountains. No Christian 
 brought it, for no Christian knew his hiding-[)lace.
 
 202 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 Only one human being knew. This was a Roman 
 catholic girl. She was the only Romanist known, 
 by us, to have been kind to the converts. It was 
 a fearful offence to "give them fire, water, bread, 
 or any comfort ; or even to " touch" them ! Who- 
 ever did this was to be publicly cursed by all the 
 priests. 
 
 This young girl was tender-hearted and pitied 
 the suffering Christians. She did not dare tell any 
 one that she knew where one poor Bible-reader was 
 hid. But she took a little meal from the barrel, 
 and when her mother was absent, she make a cake 
 and baked it in the ashes, so that there might be 
 nothing to betray her. No doubt she made it as 
 large as she dared, and as good as she could. She 
 sought a favourable moment, and ran into the moun- 
 tains to give it to him. On this he lived four days. 
 It gave him strength to wander, and watch for a 
 vessel to take him away. One day he reached the 
 deck of a British vessel and was safe. He first 
 went to Demarara. 
 
 Where was Ursula, who had given warning to the 
 two friends at Dr. Kalley's house ? She was too 
 kind toward the persecuted to be safe. The spies 
 saw what she did. Her kindness betrayed her. 
 She was called a "convert," and so she became. 
 She chose affliction with the people of God, and 
 leaving a once happy home she fled for her life. She 
 reached St. Vincent, and there in a quiet grave her 
 body was laid to sleep till the resurrection.
 
 TWO HOUSEHOLD BANDS. 203 
 
 The family ■who had been taken from tlio man- 
 sion, when N. Vieira looked down upon the outra^je, 
 with about twenty others, were put on board a Por- 
 tuguese frigate, the largest one in the Portuguese 
 navy. They were told that they were all to be 
 taken to Lisbon, and there tried for heresy. But 
 they were deceived. In a few days they were shut 
 up in the dungeon at Funchal, where they were 
 closely kept for nearly two years. 
 
 Nor would the government give them bread or 
 water. They must die if no hand of charity would 
 provide relief. Foreign residents sent them their 
 daily food. Their enemies did nothing to prevent 
 starvation ; and had they starved, their persecutors 
 would not have been more guilty. 
 
 The time of their release came at last. The bars 
 of their prison were drawn back very slowly, and 
 they were told that if they would for ever leave their 
 native island, they might go wherever the ships 
 would carry them. They left all for the gospel's 
 sake. 
 
 One day in these stormy times, a ship touched at 
 Demarara. N. Vieira went to the wharf to see 
 who might be on board from his home. Often had 
 he wished to learn the fate of his mother, brothers, 
 sisters, and friends. To his utter surprise, they 
 were on the ship. The joy of such a re-union 
 seemed almost to repay them for the sorrows they 
 had all endured. Earth has few such meetings. 
 Heaven will have many even more joyful.
 
 204 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 They all remained in Demarara some months, 
 ■where they suffered from the fevers of the place. 
 They then sailed for Trinidad. Some of them came 
 afterward to this country. 
 
 The acred mother remained in Trinidad. She 
 had once lived in a large mansion, about five miles 
 from the chief citv. Her house had been filled 
 with luxuries, and many servants came and went at 
 her biddinor. But her exile-home was far different. 
 She lived in a small room, ten or twelve feet square, 
 glad to have the plainest diet for her daily bread. 
 She had left her husband, a Romanist. Nothing 
 had he done for her while in prison, nor for any of 
 his children. He probably is yet living upon the 
 estate. This Christian woman said that her little 
 home among strangers was the happiest she ever had 
 known, and the days of her exile were brighter 
 than all those past in the mansion. Christ was her 
 riches and her comforter. 
 
 The other family sketch is brief. 
 
 In the family of Yasconcellas, there were four 
 brothers, who were farmers. One of them, Joseph, 
 was about thirty years old when the persecutions 
 began. He saw how others were cruelly treated, 
 and asked the reason. He learned that they were 
 Bible-readers. He found out for the first time that 
 there was a book called the word of God. He ob- 
 tained one, read it with intense delight, and went 
 to hear Dr. Kalley preach. Then he attended the 
 meetings for prayer and inquiry. For some time
 
 TWO HOUSEHOLD BANDS. 205 
 
 he dreaded the Jesuits and the priests. Many 
 otliers at this time trembled under their threats, 
 and their attempts to excite the people to violence. 
 
 But as he read the words of Jesus he was made 
 bold, for he said, " Fear not them that kill the 
 body." With these words stamped in memory, he 
 became very decided. He ceased to attend the 
 Romish church. With mass, confession, and saint- 
 worship, he had nothing more to do lie began the 
 duties of a true Christian life. He became ''strong: 
 in the gospel." Without disguise he met with the 
 Protestants, and cared little if the police did see him. 
 
 They lived some distance away from the capital. 
 One morning before the sun rose, an armed police 
 was attacking the house. They chose the dark- 
 ness ; so did Judas. With horrid yells they were 
 asked to open the doors, which they did. The four 
 brothers and their aged father were bound with 
 thongs, shamefully treated, and hurried away to a 
 jail, which, of course, would not be far oflf in such 
 a country. 
 
 The mother and sisters fled, while the father was 
 parleying with the soldiers at the house. The old 
 man was afterwards released, and sent back home, 
 being told that he was too infirm to be shut up in 
 prison, and as four of his sons were captured, the 
 police would be satisfied. 
 
 The church and jail of the neighbourhood were 
 near together — very wisely. Into the jail twenty 
 persons were cast. There they remained three days 
 18
 
 206 THE EXILES OP MADEIRA. 
 
 •with nothing to eat or drink. They were then put 
 on board a Portuguese ship, and toki that they 
 should be taken to Lisbon for their trial. Here, 
 we suppose, they met the Yieira family, and were 
 deceived like them, and lodged in the prison at 
 Funchal. 
 
 During their imprisonment there was less favour 
 shown to some prisoners than to others — if indeed 
 a milder cruelty can ever be a favour ! One of 
 these brothers, Joseph Da Yasconcellas, had all along 
 been the object of special malice. He had been 
 more active in teaching the gospel, and had the 
 greater influence. Hence he was treated with 
 severer barbarity. 
 
 The mass was introduced into the prison, and the 
 inmates were required to express their adoration ; a 
 thing unknown there for generations. A little 
 image upon a cross was to be brought in. Joseph 
 was compelled to go with the priests to bring it. 
 They came to the church, took it from the altar, 
 and carelessly threw it into the basket which Joseph 
 carried. There it was, "upside down," and he was 
 blamed severely for having it thus carried. He 
 once would have shuddered at such a thought, and 
 even now would not have done such a deed. If the 
 priests had possessed any of their pretended rever- 
 ence, they would have never thus turned over the im- 
 age, much less play the false part they did. If they 
 did not reverence the image, why ask him to do it ? 
 
 When the mass was celebrated, the prisoners all
 
 TWO HOUSEHOLD BANDS. 207 
 
 refused to witness the ceremony. They were forced 
 to be present. Some of the more feeble were so 
 cruelly forced, as to bow against their will — a bow 
 obtained by breaking them down. Joseph stood 
 strong and firm. He was then struck terrible blows, 
 but persisted in refusing the idolatry. No name of 
 vile reproach was too bad for them to employ against 
 him. And this at their own mass ! ! 
 
 For refusing to confess to a priest, who showed 
 that he was anything but a "vicar of Christ," he 
 was manacled till his hands were blood-shot, and 
 then cast into the horrid Bomba, where the wonder 
 is he did not die in agony. 
 
 When two years had passed in prison, the Yas- 
 concellas were released. They returned home only 
 to be driven poor and unpitied to Trinidad. There 
 the aged parents were buried, and one of the sons 
 beside them. The surviving three came to this 
 country. They all said that through their various 
 trials the Lord had never forsaken them. Joseph, 
 if living, bears still in his body the signs of the 
 abuse cruelly inflicted upon him for refusing to wor- 
 ship the wafer, and bow to the image, with which 
 Christ is mocked and put to shame.
 
 208 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A PASTOR FOR THE FLOCK. 
 
 Mr. Hewitsox was not one who would put his 
 light under a bushel. It was put on a candlestick 
 on ship-board as he returned from the West Indies 
 in 184T. "I never had a vovacre like this," said 
 the captain. So all the company felt. '']S^ot a 
 Jonah had been on board, fleeing from the presence 
 of the Lord, but a Caleb, walking in the light of 
 God's countenance." Daily his voice was heard 
 in prayer and preaching in the ship. One sailor 
 felt the new kindling of love in his soul. '' I am 
 not in want of a closet to pray in," said this sun- 
 brown tar; "I can just cover my face with my hat 
 here at the helm, and I am as much alone with God 
 as in a closet." 
 
 Hewitson went home, to be "a bright and shining 
 light" in Scotland. He was settled in Dirleton, 
 where he died in August, 1850. He "turned many 
 to righteousness." While failing day by day he 
 could remark pleasantly : " The Lord has his own 
 way of dealing with his servants. He is pleased to 
 make one like a bowl of living water, which shall
 
 A PASTOR FOR THE FLOCK. 209 
 
 be handed round to refresh many souls. And he 
 takes the same bo^vl, empties it, turns it upside 
 down, and puts it on the shelf, saying, ' I have no 
 more need of thee !' " 
 
 As he laid him down to preach no more, he was 
 comforted with the "tenderness of Christ." "I 
 have seen further down of late into the depths of 
 his amazing love than ever I saw before." Not 
 without a tear did he dictate of his field of labour : 
 
 " No more I reap that harvest field ; 
 Its sheaves to others may it yield : 
 My call to hasten home is sealed ; 
 God's will be done." 
 
 There were many links to connect him still with 
 the Portuguese exiles. In his labours and his sick- 
 ness he often spoke of them. And they remem- 
 bered him. Here is a link worthy of note. Open- 
 ing a letter from New York he read thus : 
 
 " The Portuguese here are a very devoted band 
 of pilgrims. They love one another. They search 
 the Bible with great diligence. They enjoy a 
 blessed prayer-meeting morning and evening. . . . 
 Seldom is a prayer offered at the throne of grace, 
 from any one of the flock, that I do not hear your 
 name, that of Dr. Kalley, and the Free Church of 
 Scotland. . . . Can you, my dear brother, come to 
 Illinois next fall, and take charge of this interest- 
 ing, precious flock ? I know they all love you as 
 they love their own souls." 
 
 These people would have stood on their feet and 
 18 «
 
 210 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 held up both hands, if that could have made this 
 link of love a bond between pastor and flock. But 
 he was not to come to our land. He was to hold 
 forth the word of life a little while and then die, 
 leaving those death-bed words to ring through the 
 world, " I am better acqainted with Jesus than with 
 any friend I have on earth." 
 
 That star which had risen over the moors of 
 Scotland, and hovered a while over the isles of the 
 sea, ever moving on to where Christ was, seemed to 
 go down in the cold north : but no ! God took it 
 and set it in the firmament of his glory. It had 
 turned many to righteousness, and was placed on 
 high to shine, a star for ever and ever. 
 
 Hewitson was a minister in a far higher sense 
 than even his childish ambition involved. He was 
 also a king — a king in glory ! for there such humble 
 souls are " made kings and priests unto God." 
 
 The Lord of the vineyard raised up a pastor for 
 the exiles in their new western home. We would 
 be happy to present a brief account of his life ; 
 how he became a Bible-reader in Madeira ; how he 
 left friends and his father's house for the sake of 
 Christ ; how he fled from his native island, and how 
 he became a minister of the gospel. But he does 
 not wish any account of himself to be given, for he 
 wishes Christ to have all the glory, and all our at- 
 tention. We shall therefore only mention some 
 facts which have already been published. 
 
 Mr. Antonio De Mattes was one of the converts
 
 A PASTOR FOR THE FLOCK. 211 
 
 at Madeira. lie fled to Scotland in 1846, whcro 
 be became (jiialified for preacbing tlie gospel. Ho 
 was ordained to come to tbis country and take tbo 
 place of Mr. Da Silva, as tbc })astor of tbe scat- 
 tered flock. 
 
 He paid a sbort visit to his father's family in 
 Madeira. He saw forty of tbe converts in tbe 
 cbief city. He met tbem one by one, conversed 
 and prayed witb tbem, for it was not tboiigbt pru- 
 dent to liold public meetings. It was a most joyful 
 and refreshing visit to these young disciples. He 
 remained under tbe paternal roof until a notice was 
 posted on the door, that be must leave tbe island or 
 suffer death. 
 
 He then visited Trinidad on his way to this coun- 
 try. There be found more than four hundred ex- 
 iles, many of whom had come from other shores to 
 enjoy the protection oflfered tbem by the British g07-^ 
 ernment. Mr. De Mattos has been for several 
 years tbe pastor of the Portuguese Presbyterian 
 churches in Springfield and Jacksonville, Illinois. 
 In a beautiful letter now before us, he speaks of 
 their prosperity, their trials and temptations. There 
 are about one thousand Portuguese exiles in the two 
 places where he preaches. 
 
 The severe laws in Madeira will not allow any 
 one to go as Mr. Hewitson went, and labour among 
 the people. Yet there have been for several years 
 many Bible-readers there. Sometimes as many as
 
 212 THE EXILES OF MADEIRA. 
 
 one hundred have been reported. Thej would 
 meet together in little companies, as qnietlj as pos- 
 sible, for prayer in the night ; and often under the 
 vines their low tones of prayer would find an utter- 
 ance which no enemy could hear, but which did not 
 fail to reach the ever-listening ear of Him who never 
 slumbers. 
 
 Those Bibles and Testaments which the exiles 
 buried in the earth, or plastered in the walls of 
 their houses, were not hidden in vain. Many were 
 afterwards found, and many no doubt will yet be 
 brought to light. The good seed thus buried, will 
 one day bring a good harvest for the Master. 
 
 Our little volume now closes. As the reader 
 shuts it up, we hope that Holy Book which did 
 such wonders in Madeira, will be opened, and dili- 
 gently read. An open Bible, a well-read Bible, a 
 Bible believed and obeyed, is the only book that 
 can teach us the way of salvation. Persecutors 
 will probably never dare to take it from us. But 
 we may keep it from ourselves. We may cheat 
 ourselves of its great truths. We may neglect the 
 word of God, and be ignorant of the love of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 We often hear thanks rendered to God that " we 
 may sit under our own vine and fig-tree, with none 
 to molest or make us afraid." Truly this is a 
 great privilege. Let us read the Bible under the 
 summer shade, or by the winter fire, and pray to
 
 A PASTOR FOR THK FLOCK. 
 
 213 
 
 the Lord with earnest hearts, *M)pon thou mine 
 eyes, that I may behold wondrous thiutrs out of thy 
 law." 
 
 Holy Bible! Rook Divine f 
 Trecijus treasure, ihuu art iniiio ! 
 
 ^ ^ J^
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Dr. Kalley refers particularly to the sentence 
 of excommunication pronounced against two of the 
 converts. To gratify the interest, or curiosity of 
 the reader, we here spread out before him, this 
 pompous and unjust sentence as it was originally 
 uttered : — 
 
 ** Sebastiao Cazemiro Medinna Yasconcellos, Leader 
 of the Choir in the Cathedral, Synedic Examina- 
 tor, Vicar-General of the Bishopric of Funchal, in 
 the island of Madeira, for the Most Excellent and 
 Reverend Don Januaro Vicente Comacho of her 
 Majesty's Council, Dean of the Cathedral of Fun- 
 chal, Commander of the Order of Christ, Bishop 
 Elect of Castle Branco, Temporal Governor and 
 Vicar-General of the Bishop of Funchal, Porto 
 Santo and xVrguinot — 
 
 " To all the reverend vicars and curates, assistants 
 and chaplains, as well as to all judges and justices 
 of peace, to the delegates of the attorney-general, to 
 the administrators of councils, and all officers of 
 justice, and to all ecclesiastical and secular persons 
 (214)
 
 APPENDIX. 215 
 
 of every degree and condition in all the bishopric 
 and out of it, whom this my letter may reach, wlio 
 may hear it, or get notice of it any way, health 
 and peace for ever in Jesus Christ our Lord, who is 
 the true remedy and salvation of all. I make known 
 to you, that, having proceeded to an examination of 
 witnesses, as competent to my office, it was proved 
 by them, and confirmed by my sentence, that Fran- 
 cisco Pires Soares, married, and Nicolao Tulentino 
 Vieira, bachelor, both of this bishopric, residing in 
 the parish of Santa Luzia, near the parish church, 
 apostatized from the union and bosom of the Holy 
 Mother Roman Catholic Church, and became sec- 
 taries of the Presbyterian communion, incurring 
 by this, ecclesiastical censure and canonical punish- 
 ment of the greater excommunication. The censures 
 requiring to be aggravated, I ordered this present 
 letter to be written, by which I require and command, 
 under pain of the greater excommunication, all ec- 
 clesiastics, ministers and officers of justice, and 
 others above mentioned, as soon as they shall have 
 notice of it, not to touch or hold communication with 
 those who are excommunicated by the curse of 
 Almighty God, and of the blessed St. Peter and St. 
 Paul, with these of Gomorrah and of Sodom, Dathan 
 and Abiram, whom the earth swallowed alive for 
 their great sins and disobedience. Let none give 
 them fire, water, bread, or any other thing that may 
 be necessary to them for their support. Let none 
 pay them their debts. Let none support iliem in
 
 216 APPENDIX. 
 
 any case which they may bring judicially. Let all 
 put them aside as rotten and excommunicated mem- 
 bers, separated from the bosom and union of the 
 Holy Mother Catholic Church, and as rebels and 
 contumacious ; for if any do the contrary, which 
 God forbid, I lay, and consider as laid, upon their 
 persons, the penalty of the greater excommunication. 
 Therefore were their names and surnames expressly 
 declared ; and that all may know this, I order the 
 reverend parish priest to publish this at the meeting 
 on the first Sabbath or holy day, and to affix it on 
 the door of the church, from which let no man take 
 or tear it under pain of excommunication, until, by 
 making satisfaction for all, they merit the benefit 
 of absolution. 
 
 Given in Funchal, under the seal of the vicar- 
 general and my signature, on the 27th of April, 
 1843. Jacinto Monteiro Cabrae, Writer to the Ec- 
 clesiastical Council, wrote this. 
 
 Sebastiao Cazemiro Medinna e Yas.