Of?, rs- Att24h BOOK 266.3. AN24H c 1 ANOERSON-MORSHEAD # HISTORY OF UNIVERSITIES MISSION TO CENTRAL A 3 T1S3 000b7a7fl 1 THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION TO CENTRAL AFRICA 1859-1909 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/historyofuniversOOande tibe Ibistor^ of the 6V xnnivevsities' fiftission \A^\ to Central Eftica 1859=1909 BY A. E. M. ANDERSON-MORSHEAD NEW AND REVISED EDITION XonDon OFFICE OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION TO CENTRAL AFRICA 9 DARTMOUTH STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. 1909 " From earth, the censer at His feet, Mounts to the Lord the savour sweet Of that which once for all He gave upon the Cross, and we Give daily, earth's release to be From daily use and thrall. * * * * Then mourn we not with drooping heart Though half the globe may seem to part Our prayers from home and friends. Our mattins meet their evensong And the dread Offering, all day Jong, All prayer, all duty blends." Keble. First Edition, 3,000, April 6. 1897. Second Edition (revised and enlarged), 2,000, March 6. 1899. Third Edition, 5,000, November, 1902. Fourth Edition, 2,000, February, 1905. Fifth Edition, 5.000, May, 1909. TO THE BLESSED MEMORY OF ALL THOSE WHO FROM CHARLES FREDERICK MACKENZIE. BISHOP, HAVE PASSED TO THEIR REST IN THE SERVICE OF THE MISSION, THIS RECORD OF FAITHFUL WORK IS DEDICATED. PREFACE IN the mediaeval pictures of the Adoration of the Magi, one king is usually represented with African features. By the wonderful instinct that guided those old Italian painters to teach truths in advance of their times, the African is seen to have his gift to offer at the cradle- throne of Christ. And surely no less precious than the gold of Asia, or the incense of European worship, is the myrrh which embalms the thousands of years of African suffering, and makes it meet for the Altar of God. This history aims at giving a simple account of how Central Africa has come forward in the last fifty years to make her offering in the Temple of the Most High. Fifty years have passed since, at the call, first of Livingstone and then of Bishops Gray, Wilberforce, and others, the net was cast in African waters by heroic hands. " Cast after cast, by force or guile, All waters must be tried." And we shall see how, when for a time the waters of the Shire failed of a harvest, those of Zanzibar were swept for many a year, until at length " the Fishermen of Jesus " cast their nets in the blue waters of Lake Nyasa. Here we attempt to portray the days and nights of wait- ing in utter patience, in many an up-country station. viii PREFACE in Bondeland, on the Rovuma, or among the Yao Hills, the Lakeside stations, or in the great heathen city of Zanzibar. It is hoped that some who read of the noble lives laid down for Africa, of those who form our Roll in Paradise, and of the tremendous work which remains to be done by those devoted men and women who still labour at the task to which Africa called and England sent them, may be themselves inspired to hear, amid the rush and roar of the ceaseless activities of the world's work and pleasure, the cry of those who, in Africa or elsewhere, call to the Father of all for Bread, and there is none to give it them. The twofold lesson of all history is to teach us to remember and forget. Remember our famous men, remember the trials and difficulties and the mistakes of the way, only to learn how they were surmounted and cleared away — only to give hope and courage for the future, and then " forgetting the things that are behind," the weariness, the falls and rising again, and even the splendour of the past, ' ' to press towards the mark." If this history helps to draw any to offer themselves for the work in Africa or elsewhere, it will have accomplished its aim. The night indeed is far spent, the breaking of the morning has come, and that which Livingstone, Gray, and Mackenzie saw darkly has come to pass, however im- perfectly, and the following pages tell the story of the drawing of the net, often broken, sometimes feebly drawn, but ever bringing to the Master's feet " The souls He died to win." A. E. M. Anderson-Morshead. Octave of All Saints, 1908. CONTENTS I. The Call to the Work . II. The Shire Highlands . III. War, Famine, and Pestilence IV. New Ground, 1863-70 V. A Fellow-worker VI. The Church in the Slave Market VII, Daily Work in the Island and on the Mainland VIII. On the Edge of the Wilderness IX. Lake Nyasa X. Last Days of Bishop Steere XL The Mission on the Lake XII. Christian Villages on the Rovuma XIII. Magila in the Bonde Country XIV. The Usambara Group of Missions XV. Ten Years in Zanzibar XVI. Two Chief Pastors XVII. The Mission on Lake Nyasa and River Shire XVIII. War and Peace at the Mainland Stations XIX. Half a Century of Work. The Last Decade XX. Slavery ...... PAGE I 14 29 43 60 76 91 III 127 138 152 170 189 215 232 257 279 316 344 387 APPENDICES I, Constitutional History 11. Home Organization . III. The African Ministry . IV. Synodical Action V. English Members of the Mission Index .... ix 411 420 422 423 431 440 [The publishers desire to thank Mr. John Murray, Messrs, Maulli & Fox, and Elliott S- Fry for permission to reproduce photographs ; to several metnbers of the Mission for the loan of photographs, and specially to Miss M. M. Mine, for several sketches.] ILLUSTRATIONS Abdallah, Rev. Yohana . 318 Atlay, Rev. G. . . . . 276 Bellingham, W. 136 Building Native Houses 116 Burrup, Rev. H. de W. . 7 Cape Town, St. George's Cathedral 9 Carnon, Archdeacon • 342 Chambers, Rev. P. R. H. . 318 Charles Janson, s.s. . 136 Chauncy Maples, s.s. 287 „ „ at Monkey Bay 276 Chiponde, Rev. Samwil 318 Daoma, Anne 25 Dickinson, Dr. 7 Eyre, Archdeacon 136 Farler, Archdeacon 212 Fort Jameson Church 25 George, Frank • 295 Glossop, Rev. A. G. B. 276 Goodyear, Archdeacon 364 Hainsworth, Rev. J. 342 Harrison, Rev. W. G. 212 Hine, Bishop 257 Hornby, Bishop . 10 Howard, Dr. R. . 276 Janson, Rev. Charles 136 Grave of 134 xi xu ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Johnson, Archdeacon . . . . . . .136 Jones-Bateman, Archdeacon . 364 Key, Canon Sir J. . . 369 King, Rev. Walter • 364 Kjrk, Sir John . 25 Kiungani .... • 235 group . . 364 Kizara Church • 319 „ ,, Interior . 319 Korogwe .... . 318 Kota Kota Church • 301 Kwa Makau .... . 328 Ley, Dr. Herbert . . 212 Likoma Cathedral Frontispiece „ „ East end • 297 „ „ Nave . 295 „ ,, Choir stalls . 295 „ „ Ground plan 296 Hospital patients . 366 Limo, Rev. Petro ..... . 318 Livingstone, Dr. ..... • 25 Luwatala Church ..... . 330 Machina, Rev. Daudi .... . 318 Mackenzie, Bishop .... 10 „ ,, Grave • 304 Hut in which he died 34 Madan, A. C. • 364 Magila ...... 212 Majaliwa, Rev. Cecil .... . 318 Malindi, Patients at . . • 366 Mangoche, Class at . . . • 301 Maples, Bishop ..... • 257 Map showing Field of Universities' Missior I 13 ,, ,, Dioceses of E. C. Africa . XXX Masasi Station ..... . 330 „ Church ..... • 342 Mbweni School • « . 141 ILLUSTRATIONS Xlll PAGE Mbweni Dispensary and Patients ..... 366 Misozwe Church .... 318 Mkunazini, Old Mission House 234 Mkuzi ...... 320 Mponda's Church . 302 School . 302 Women's Class 308 Mtonya Station 308 Murchison Cataracts 30 Ng'ambo .... 252 Porter, Canon 342 Procter, Rev. L. J. 7 Richardson, Bishop 257 Rowley, Rev. H. . 7 Scudamore, Rev. H. C. . 7 Sehoza, Rev. Samwil 318 Shire, River 18 „ ,, near Liwonde 15 „ ,, Cutting weeds 15 Houseboat on 30 Sim, Rev. A. F. . 276 Slave Dhow , 49 Smythies, Bishop . 10 Steere, Bishop 10 Theological Students, Zanzibai 318 Tozer, Bishop j 10 Trower, Bishop 257 Unangu 168 Waller, Rev. H. . 7 Weston, Bishop . . 257 Weti Church ■ 369 ,, First Church . 369 Woodward, Archdeacon . 212 Zachary, Rev. F. E. . 342 Zanzibar, Christ Church Cathedral • 355 „ „ „ ,, Interior • 355 •> »» i» >) Stalls > . 151 XIV ILLUSTRATIONS Zanzibar Hospital . . : ,, Harbour Old Slave Market . „ Palace after bombardment Coloured Map of Central and South Africa. 232 232 395 351 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE DATE 1854. 1857. Dec. 4. 1858. Nov, I. „ 23. 1859. Mar. 9. May 17. Nov. I. i860. Oct. 2. „ 6. Dec. 6. 1861. Jan. I. „ 12. March. May I. July 8. „ 16. August. Oct. I. EVENTS PAGE Bishop Selwyn's sermons at Cambridge stir an interest in Mission work, and influence Mackenzie . . 2 Dr. Livingstone appeals to the Universities at Senate House, Cambridge ...... 3 Bishop Gray's visit, and formation of Committees and of the " Oxford and Cambridge Mission to Central Africa "........ 4 Cambridge Committee formed ..... 4 Oxford Committee formed ..... 4 Meeting Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford . . . .4 The great Zambezi meeting in Senate House, Cambridge, and appointment of Mackenzie as head . . . 5-6 Farewell Service at Canterbury for first band of workers 8-9 The first workers sailed ...... 8-9 Rev. H. Rowley sailed ...... 15 Charles Frederick Mackenzie consecrated first Bishop in Cape Town Cathedral Sailing of the Lyra with Mission party Ascent of the Rovuma attempted The Zambezi entered .... Disembarkation at Chibisa's, on the Shire . First release of eighty-four slaves by Dr. Livingstone They are given to the Bishop .... War with the Yao (Ajawa), and settlement at Magomero Projected Church of St. Paul began at Magomero 10 II 15-6 16 19 23 24 25 28 XV] HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION DATE I86I. Nov. 29. 1862. Jan. 31. Feb. 22. Apr. 25. 1863. Jan. I. Feb. 2. „ 6. Mar. 17. June 26. Nov. 1864. June 23. Aug. 31. Sept. 4. „ 16. » 17- Nov. 4. 1865. May 24. June 28. Aug. 24. 1866. Feb. I. Mar. 2. Rev. H. de Wint Burrup, Dr. Dickinson, and Mr. R. M. Clark arrive ....... Death of Bishop Mackenzie, and burial by the Shire Death of Rev. H. de Wint Burrup at Magomero . The Mission leaves Magomero and settles at Chibisa's . 29 34-5 35 37 39 Rev. H. C. Scudamore died, and was buried by the Shire Consecration of the Rev. William George Tozer, IN Westminster Abbey, as Second Bishop Dr. Steere and Mr. Alington sailed for Cape Town Dr. Dickinson died, and was buried beside Mr. Scuda- more ......... Bishop Tozer reaches the Mission, and decides to re- move to Mount Morambala. .... Procter, Rowley, and Waller return to England, the latter removing children under his care to Cape Town 40-1 43 43 39 44-5 Bishop Tozer consecrates Mackenzie's grave . . 45 The Bishop and Dr. Steere land at Zanzibar . . 45 First Service of the Mission in Zanzibar ... 48 First five boys presented to Mission ... 48 Bishop and Dr. Steere remove from Consulate to Shan- gani . . ...... 48 Koorjee's Shamba (since named Kiungani) bought with Wells-Tozer Fund . . . . .51 Five boys and nine girls [given to Bishop Tozer from slave dhow ....... 50 Miss Tozer and Miss A. Jones reach Zanzibar as the first women workers ...... 50 First Public Baptism. Nine senior boys baptized, in- cluding John Swedi ...... 50 Arrival of Dr. Livingstone at Zanzibar ... — Foundation of Kiungani House .... 52 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xvn DATE 1866. Mar. 19. Sept. 20. Dec. 3. 1867. Aug. 13. Sept. 29. 1868. Jan. 20, July 17. Aug. 4. „ 9- „ 20. ., 24. Nov. 2. 1869. Apr. 28. June 6. Aug. 24. Nov. Dec. 10. 1870. Feb. 2. Mar. 21. Sept. 1871. Sept. 8. Oct. 18. 1872. Mar. 17. Apr. 15. July. Oct. 8. Dr. Livingstone enters Africa for the last time . . — Bishop Tozer sails for England . . . -51 Miss Tozer sails for England . . . . .51 Rev. C. A. Alington's first visit to Usambara . . 54 First interview with Kimweri, Chief of Usambara . 55 Second visit to Usambara. Mr. Alington occupies Magila ........ 59 Bishop Tozer returns from England ... — First Meeting of Mission Chapter .... — Dr. Steere sails for England ..... 65 Purchase of Shangani House, hitherto rented . . — Confirmation of the senior boys . . . .50 Bishop Tozer visits Magila ..... 58 The Rev. L. Eraser occupies Magila .... 57 Miss Jones returns to England .... 52 Baptism of eight boys and five girls .... — Cholera visitation ....... 52 Death of Rev. L. Fraser of cholera . . . .52 John Swedi and George Farajallah made subdeacons by the Bishop ....... 52 Death of George Farajallah ..... 52 Rev. O. Handcock and Rev. R. L. Pennell visit Magila 58 Purchase of Mbweni ...... 53 Opening of Kiungani temporary Chapel ... 53 Dr. Steere and Miss Tozer land in Zanzibar . . 66 Hurricane wrecked the Mission House . . . 66-7 The Rev. Lewin Pennell died ; and Bishop Tozer, broken in health, sails for the Seychelles . , 67 Sam Speare, John Swedi, Francis Mabruki, and Ben Hartley start for Magila . . , . .68 XViii HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION The First Day of Intercession for Foreign Missions is observed in England ... 83 Sir Bartle Frere's visit to Zanzibar .... 81 Bishop Tozer, having returned to England, resigns the Bishopric ....... 67 Dr. Livingstone dies at Ilala ..... 73 Treaty for abolition of Zanzibar Slave Market, and for restriction of Slave Trade, signed by the Sultan . 82 Part of Slave Market bought for Mission ... 83 Samuel Speare dies in England .... 73 Foundation stone of Christ Church, Zanzibar, laid by Captain Prideaux ...... 84 Mail sailed with Livingstone's body .... 74 David Livingstone's funeral in Westminster Abbey . 74 Dr. Steere sails for England, leaving the Rev. A. N. West in charge ...... 74 Aug. 24. Dr. Steere consecrated, in Westminster Abbey, as Third Bishop of the Mission .... 74 „ „ Thirty-nine children baptized in Zanzibar. . . — Sept. I. Girls' School opened at Mbweni . . . . — Dec. 25. Rev. Arthur N. West died ..... 83 [Note. — Some time early this year the Colony of Freed Slaves was planted at Mbweni.] 1875. Mar. 4. Bishop Steere returns to Zanzibar with the Rev. E, Randolph and Miss Josephine Bartlett . . 91 April. The Rev. J. P. Farler, Mr. H. W. Woodward, and several others join the Mission . . . . .91 July 7. The Bishop takes the Rev. J. P. Farler, Mr. Moss, and Acland Sahera to Magila ..... 92 Aug. 24. Consecration of Cemetery at Kiungani ... 94 ,, 31. Bishop Steere and party sail for Lindi, en route for Mataka's 127-8 DATE 1872. Dec, 20. 1873- Jan. 12. Apr. 20. May I, June 6. Sept. 5. Nov. II. Dec. 25. 1874. Mar. II. Apr. 18. July 4- CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE XIX 1875- Sept. 19. Service discontinued in old Consulate Chapel, and held in Town School ...... Dec. 10. Bishop reaches Mataka's ..... „ 13. Hospital work begun by Miss Allen at Mkunazini Peace made in Usambara, and Headquarters of Town Mission removed to Mkunazini during this year 1876. May 3. Rev. Chauncy Maples and Messrs. Yorke and Williams join the Mission ...... Sept. 29. Rev. C. Maples receives Priest's Orders, and W. P. Johnson, Deacon's, in Kiungani Chapel Oct. 16. Bishop Steere, Rev. W. P. Johnson, and Mbweni people start for Mainland ...... Bishop Steere and party arrive at Masasi Nov. 9. 1877. Feb. 8. Apr. 2. August. „ 23. Nov. 4. „ 28. Dec. 25. 1878. May. June 9. Oct. 7. 1879. May I. June 8. Nov. 12. Bishop Steere saUs for England Baptism of fourteen converts at Magila Rev. C. Maples and J. Williams reach Masasi The Rev. F. and Mrs. Hodgson arrive at Zanzibar Bishop returns, bringing Miss Thackeray . Stanley and his men return from the West Coast First Service (Swahili Mattins) said in Christ Church 95 94 97 97 113 114 lOI 100 102 102 87 Foundation of Newala under the Rev. Herbert Clarke 119 First baptism of sixteen adults at Masasi . , .119 Treaty of the Rovuma between the Sultan's Agents, the Makua and Maviti, made by Rev. H. Clarke . 119 Complete Swahili Liturgy first used ... — First Communion of Masasi folk in Zanzibar . . — Rev. C. Maples goes to England, and Rev. W. P. John- son takes his place at Masasi, helped by Rev. H. Clarke . . . . . , , .120 John Swedi ordained Deacon — goes to Masasi . 106 & 120 Rev. J. P. Farler appointed Archdeacon of Magila 106 XX HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION DATE PAGE 1879. Dec. 8. Arrival of Miss D. Y. Mills 106 „ 25. Opening of completed building of Christ Church (no Altar as yet) ....... 87 „ 29. Bishop starts for six days' tour in Zaramoland . .130 1880. Jan. 6. Rev. C. Yorke dies at Umba ..... 107 Nov. 3. The Rev. W. P. Johnson settles at Mataka's, the first station occupied in Yaoland . . . .131 „ Mtua occupied . . . . . . -171 Dec. 25. First Celebration in Christ Church, which now comes into daily use ....... — 1881. Oct. II. Founding of Mission at Mkuzi . . . . .217 Nov. 22. Lindi occupied by Rev. H. Clarke .... 172 Dec. 24. Dedication of new Church at Masasi . . 121-2 1882. Feb. 21. Death of the Rev. Charles Janson at Nyasa . . 133 Apr. 9. Magila temporary stone Church opened on Easter Day 192 Aug. 27. Edward Steere, Bishop, entered into rest . . . 143 Sept. 12. The Rev. H. A. Wilson died ..... 216 Dr, Petrie, first Medical Missionary of the Guild of St. Luke, arrives . . . . . . .193 „ 14. Magwangwara raid on Masasi, killing some Christians, and carrying others into slavery. Rev. W. C. Porter subsequently visits the tribe to redeem captives 122-4 Dec. 25. First Celebration at St. John's, Mbweni . . .149 1883. Jan. I. Central Africa (magazine) first issued . . .149 Magila rebuilt .190 June. Removal from Masasi to Newala . . . • i73 Sept. 14. Bishop Royston, of Mauritius, visits Zanzibar and holds Confirmations ...... — Nov. 30. Charles Alan Smythies, Fourth Bishop, conse- crated ........ 149 Rev. W. P. Johnson (after seven* years' work) returns to England to appeal for a steamer . . -135 Mr. A. C. Madan prepares Swahili educational works 248 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE XXI DATE 1884. Jan. I. Feb. 25. Mar. 31 May 5- July 21. >> 28. Aug. 24 Oct. 31- Susi becomes a Catechumen .... Bishop Smythies lands in Zanzibar . Bishop Smythies' first visit to Magila New Station opened at Misozwe First Synod of Zanzibar ..... H.M. Government grant £^ for each slave received Bishop Smythies' first visit to Newala First five Catechumens made at Mkuzi The Mission s.s. Charles Janson sent out in 380 packages Rev. W. P. Johnson blind with ophthalmia, and re- turned to England ...... A Theological branch started at Kiungani, and Arch- deacon Jones-Bateman appointed Principal . 150 232 195 219 237 174 218 135 136 237 1885. Jan. 28. Mlinga, the Spirit Mountain, ascended for the first time by the Bishop and Mr. Woodward Feb. 2. Bishop Hannington visited Zanzibar and Magila . Aug. 18. Disastrous fire at Ma tope, burning stores to value of 1^,000 „ 24. Bishop Smythies and Rev. G. H. and Mrs. Swinny obtain permission to settle at Likoma . Sept. 5. s.s. Charles Janson launched, and dedicated on follow- ing day ........ ,, 17. Bishop Smythies discovers source of Lujenda . Oct. 24. Bishop's second visit to Newala .... The Children's Tidings (now called African Tidings) first issued ....... 220 198 153 136 153 176 1886. Jan. 15. TheRev.H.W.WoodwardtakesupresidenceatMisozwe Mar. 25. Church of the Holy Cross, Magila, consecrated Apr. 4. Ordination of Cecil Majaliwa, third native Deacon • June II. Death of the Rev. C. S. Buchanan Riddell at Magila „ 13. Rev. Cecil Majaliwa put in charge of Chitangali „ 18. Death of Rev. J. S. C'. Wood .... July 21. Bishop Smythies discovered source of Rovuma . 220 200 177 200 177 153 XXll HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION DATE 1886. Aug. 2. >> 23- 1887. Feb. 13. Mar. 25- July 9- >j 29. Nov )> }> 5- 21. Jan. 6. Feb. 18. „ 27. Mar. 27. April. Sept. Oct. Nov. 6. „ 12. Dec. 6. 1889. Jan. 30. May. Bishop Smythies' second visit to Likoma . * .156 David Susi baptized at Zanzibar . . . • 151 Rev. G. H. Swinny dies at Bandawe . . . 157-8 Dedication of St. John Baptist Churcli at Umba . 221 Jubilee festivities in Zanzibar . . . . .240 Bishop Smythies' third visit to Lake Nyasa . .158 Bishop's fifth visit to Newala . . . . .179 Barnaba Nakaam confirmed . . . . .179 Great fire at Magila . . . . . .201 Opening of the Industrial Wing at Mbweni . 236-9 Churches begun at Misozwe and Msalaka opened 221, 225 The Sisters begin work at Magila .... 201 Dispensary in Zanzibar built ..... 240 Steere memorial studies built, Kiungani . . . 237 Second fire at Magila ...... 203 Tornado at Magila 204 Masai raid into Bonde ...... 204 Seyid Barghash, Sultan of Zanzibar, died, and was suc- ceeded by Khalifa ...... 240 Mr. Johnson and Mr. Buchanan seized at Makanjila's and held to ransom . . . . . .160 The s.s. Charles Janson stranded for eight months near Matope 160 First number of Msimtdizi, African Magazine . .238 School Chapel enlarged at Kiungani . . . . — The coast blockaded by England and Germany. Bishop Smythies left for Africa, was urged to withdraw from Magila, but refused ..... 207 Archdeacon and Mrs. Hodgson leave Zanzibar . . 243 Women begin work at Nyasa . . . . .160 Archdeacon Hodgson completes the translation of the Swahili Bible 243 Rev. Dr. Hine arrived in Zanzibar .... 281 Bishop Smythies' sixth visit to Newala . . . 181 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE XXUl i8 ^9. May 8. }» II. June 6. >> 24. July 22. Sept 13- >> 22. Nov. 28. 1890. Jan. 25- Feb. 13- Mar. 3- Apl. 17- June I. The Ousel sailing boat launched on Nyasa . .291 Rev. Herbert Geldart died at Mkuzi . . . 209 First Celebration on Chizumulu Island, Nyasa . . 161 Archdeacon Goodyear died at Magila . . .210 Bishop Smythies' fourth visit to Likoma ... — Edicts issued by Sultan Khalifa freeing all children of slaves born after January i, i8go . . 245 & 399 Rev. C. J. Sparks died at Zanzibar .... 211 The Sisters return to Magila . . . . .211 July I. Aug. 30- Nov. 7- 1891. Jan. II. May 12. >> 17- June 13- July 2. Aug. 2. »> 12. )> 27. 1892 Mar. 2. June 6. Oct. 23 Rev. Cecil Majaliwa, the first native Priest of the Mis- sion, ordained in Christ Church . Death of Sultan Khalifa, and accession of Ali Archbishop Benson's letter to the Guild of St. Paul Industrial Exhibition held at Kiungani James Chala Salfey ordained Priest Visit of Bishop Tucker, of Eastern Equatorial Africa Anglo-German Agreement signed, leaving our stations in Usambara and Rovuma in German territory The Sultan's visit to Kiungani Zanzibar placed under British protection . Several Magila Christians absolved by the Bishop Foundation laid of the Mission Hospital in Zanzibar Bishop Smythies' seventh visit to Rovuma district , Death of Miss Townshend .... Mission Station planted at Korogwe . Bishop Smythies' fifth and last visit to Likoma . Death of George Sherriff, captain of Charles Janson Opening of Mkuzi Church .... The Bishop's eighth visit to the Rovuma district Death of Janet Emily Campbell and Nov. 5. Disastrous fires at Likoma, destroying 1,400 books ....... Interview of Bishop Smythies with German Chancellor at Berlin ...... 182 245 245 247 211 248 265 245 212 251 250 226 164 164 224 251 165 264 xxiv HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION DATE 1892. Dec. 21. 1893. Mar. 5. „ 12. » 13- „ 19- April. May. „ 20. June 30. Sept. 21. Oct. 2 to Dec. 4. Consecration of Rev. Wilfrid Bird Hornby as Bishop of Nyasaland ..... 167 Death of Sultan All and accession of Hamed bin Thuwaini ........ 252 Zanzibar Hospital opened . . . . . 252 Denys Seyite made Deacon at Christ Church . . — Petro Limo made Deacon at Magila . . . .213 Mission opened at Kichelwe under Rev. Denys Seyite 368 Bishop Smythies' ninth visit to Rovuma district . 187 Baptism of first converts at Korogwe . . . 227 Second Synod of Zanzibar ..... 253 Foundation of Unangu Station under Dr. Hine . . — 16. Bishop Smythies' and Petro Limo's preaching tour through the Bonde and Zigua districts . . 228 Bishop Smythies' tenth and last visit to Rovuma . 187 Mar. II. May. >» 7- >» 29. June >> 24 August. >> 4- » 24 Sept 9- 1895- June 29 July 25. Aug. 26. .. 28. Rev. Petro Limo ordained Priest at Magila . .319 A serious locust famine begins in Bonde district . 316 Charles Alan Smythies dies, and is buried in the Indian Ocean ........ 267 Conference of Missions in London .... — Regular Services ceased in Umba Church . . 217-222 Little Boys' Home removed to Kilimani . . . 242 Bishop Hornby resigns on account of ill-health . .169 Yohana Abdallah ordained Deacon by Bishop Tucker. 318 Ordination of Samwil Sehoza at lona . . .318 Station at Kota Kota opened by Rev. A. F. Sim . 279 Consecration of the Venerable Chauncy Maples AS Bishop of Nyasaland, and of Rev. William Moore Richardson, for Zanzibar, in St. Paul's Cathedral ....... 270 First Baptism at Kota Kota — a penitent murderer . 280 Mr. Atlay murdered by the Angoni . . . 276 First Conference of Native Christians at Magila . 203 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE XXV 1895- Aug. 30- Sept . 2. Oct. 14. ti 22. » 29. Dec. 3- 1896. Feb. 13- j> 22. Mar. 15- June 129. July Aug. 25. Oct. 18. Dec. 9- 1897. Mar. 28. Apr. 5- >> 6. >> 27. May 29. August. Oct. 10. »> 25- Nov. 2. Dec. 25. Bishop Richardson lands in Zanzibar . . . 346 Bishop Maples and Williams drowned . . . 272 Death of Matola, Chief of Newala, soon after his baptism 331 Daudi Machina, Cypriani Chitenji, and Hugh Mtoka ordained Deacons . . . . . ,346 The Rev. Arthur Fraser Sim dies at Kota Kota . . 280 Stronghold of Mlozi, the last slave-dealer chief in the B.C.A. Protectorate, stormed .... 280 Consecration of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Korogwe ........ 325 Death of the Rev. Horace Waller .... — ■ Rev. Samwil Sehoza ordained Priest at Magila . • 3i3 Consecration of Dr. John Edward Hine, Bishop OF Nyasaland ....... 281 A Station opened at Mponda's Town ... Death of Sultan Hamad, followed by usurpation of Khalid, and bombardment of Sultan's palace by British ships ....... 352 Third Synod of Zanzibar ..... 346 School opened at Kasamba, Kota Kota . . .281 Bishop Hine arrives at Likoma . . . .282 Retreat and First Conference at Likoma . . .282 Legal status of Slavery abolished in Zanzibar . . 408 John Baptist Mdoe made Deacon (tenth native) . — Home Of&ce removed from 14, Delahay Street, to 9 and 10, Dartmouth Street . . . . .373 Work started in Pemba .... 369-370 Ven. Archdeacon Johnson arrived in England . . 282 Death of Percy Lisle Jones-Bateman, Archdeacon of Zanzibar ........ 362 Blessing of New House and Chapel, Dartmouth Street, by the Bishop of London (Dr. Creighton) . . 373 Temporary Church dedicated in Likoma by Bishop Hine ........ — XXVI HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION Mar. 6. Samwil Chiponde, Deacon ; Yohana Abdallah, Priest. 9 June 12. Augustine Ambali and Eustace Malisawa made Deacons 282 Dec. 17. New House for Ladies opened in Zanzibar . . 347 1899. Famine in Usambara ...... Rev. A. H. Carnon appointed Archdeacon of Masasi and Rev. H. W. Woodward, Archdeacon of Magila. June 17. Bishop Tozer died ...... ,, 24. Hugh Mtoka died ....... Oct. 16. The s.s. Chauncy Maples sent out in 3,481 packages ,, 24. Theological College at Mazizini opened 317 374 331 287 363 1900. Bishop Richardson returned to England Sept. 29. Opening of College at Msomba Nov. I. Unangu Church opened 1901. Jan. I. June 6. July 18. Nov. 10. Dec. 15. 1902. Jan. 25. Daudi Machina, Priest by Bishop of Lebombo Chauncy Maples launched Industrial House, Ziwani, opened Opening Kota Kota stone Church Bishop Hine enthroned in Zanzibar Cathedral 293-352 291 . 308 330» 364 . 288 • 350 . 294 • 352 Apr. 23- 25- Consecration of Rev. Gerard Trower as Bishop OF Nyasaland ....... 294 Chauncy Maples dedicated ..... 288 All Saints' , Kota Kota, consecrated .... 294 St. Katharine's Home opened . . . . . 347 Ordination of Leonard Kamungu, D., Nyasa . . 305 Regular work begun at Mahndi .... 300 1903. Mar. 8. June 27. Ordination of Samwil Chiponde and Silvano Ngaweje — Foundation stone laid, Likoma Cathedral . . . 295 ,, ,, Fourth Zanzibar Synod ..... 428 ,, ,, Zanzibar Cathedral consecrated and formation of chapter . . . . . . . 353-4 Sept. 29. League of Associates founded ..... 373 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE XXVll DATE 1903. Nov, „ 2. Dec. 22. Industrial Boys moved to Pemba Ziwani Cemetery consecrated Ng'ambo School opened . Women began work at Masasi . 350 357 334 1904. Jan, Mar, Apr. Aug. Sept. 22. 13- 7- Oct. 18 Nov. 9. Blind School, Kota Kota, opened Hegongo Girls' School opened Permission to place Schools in Nyasaland villages granted by Portuguese Government Korogwe Church consecrated. Women's work at Korogwe begun Kota Kota Hospital dedicated First Native Conference, St. Michael's College , Yao Prayer Book printed .... St. Luke's Church, Misozwe, consecrated . Stone House at Pemba opened 299 323 327 298 318 1905- Jan. Mar. 8. April. June 22. July 25. Aug. 28. Sept. 8. » 24. „ 29. Oct. 4. >) Dec. 25. 1906, Jan. Work on Shire extended . Blind School started Rev. Yohana Abdallah visited Holy Land Work begun at Kigongoi Mtonya Station opened . Foundation stone Masasi Church laid Masasi burnt by rebels First Baptisms at Sani . Plague in Zanzibar Nkwazi Church consecrated Likoma Cathedral dedicated . St. Andrew's, Likoma, Theological College opened First Certificates granted to Likoma women teachers Masasi re-occupied ..... Death of Arthur Mvenya at Blantyre Permanent Hospital, Likoma, dedicated Mangoche Station opened 302 299 309 319 309 335 337 299 360 297 293 340 314 301 XXviii HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION DATE 1906. Aug. 24. Oct. Dec. 21. 25- St. Mark's Theological College moved to Kiungani St. Cyprian's Church, Kasamba, dedicated St. Paul's, Fort Jameson, consecrated Rev. C. B. Eyre appointed Archdeacon of Mtonya Ordination at Likoma of Augustine Ambali, Priest, Eustace Malisawa, Priest, Leonard Kangati, Deacon ........ St. Monica's New House, Zanzibar, opened 690 Communicants, Likoma Cathedral 364 281 306 310 313 1907. Jan. 6. Feb. II. „ 24- Mar. 26. Aug. 21. Nov. 5. Dec. 4. Smythies' Memorial dedicated .... Memorial Church to Bishop Mackenzie dedicated Ordination at Msalabani of Francis Mzimba Deacon ... .... Women began work at Mtonya Ordination of Deacons at Masasi : Paul Kazinde Reuben Namalowe, Benedict Njewa Weti Church consecrated ..... Livingstone Jubilee Meeting at Cambridge. New Bishopric proposed ..... Brick Church, St. Michael's College dedicated . 355 304 372 375 1908. Apr. 12. Ordination at Zanzibar of Danieli Usufu, Priest „ Malindi Permanent Hospital opened. „ 14. Death of Kate Mabruki June 18. Magila celebrates its 40th anniversary 24. Ninety-two Baptisms, Likoma Cathedral Likwenu brick house built July Chinyanja Prayer- Book completed . „ 5. First baptism at Lozi Aug. 27, Bishop Hine resigned , Sept. II. Dedication Malindi hospitals . 26. Bells hung in Likoma Cathedral Oct. II. Consecration of Rev, Frank Weston as Bishop OF Zanzibar ....... 331 301 361 325 361 3" 300 380 297 381 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE XXIX 1908. Nov. 7. Dec. Bishop Weston enthroned . . . . .381 Zanzibar Synod and Conference .... 381 11,000 patients treated at Zanzibar Hospital, and 8,656 cases at Magila during year ..... 362 Shamba bought at Mkoani, Pemba, by Sir J. Key . 373 Kigongoi re-opened . . . . . . .323 Henry Semng'indo made Deacon .... 423 1909. April II. First baptisms at Chi Litete ..... ,, 18. Ordination at Likoma, Leonard Kamungu, Priest, Gilbert Mpalila and Michael Hamisi, Deacons . 303 ^ —^-' h \ZANZ] ^ i.t\ I \ 1 ^ "^ P J =sA; :^^ \\ -xJ^ m y 'Aikoma ^^ f: MOMBASA Ma^ni/J^, Tanganyika , ^Jbarl. ILINDI Masasi o Unang do /aland' ch ^BPMackenzies Grave 'CHINDE BEIRA 'ELAGOA BAY FIELD OFTHE UNIVERSITIES'MISSION SHOWING DIOCESES IN E.G. AFRICA Scale Railways thus 700 mile* EAST/CENTRAL AFRICA Showing the Dioceses of Zanzibar, Nyasaland, jN.E. and N.Wi Rhodeslai HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES MISSION CHAPTER I THE CALL TO THE WORK The Call of Bishop Selwyn, Dr. Livingstone, and Bishop Gray — Charles Frederick Mackenzie chosen for the work — Consecration in Cape Town Cathedral. IN reading the history of the world, we are struck again and again with the wonderful Patience of God. "The long-suffering of the Lord is salvation." That most Christian of astronomers, Kepler, said, when publishing his discoveries, " I may well wait a hundred years for a reader since God has waited 6,000 years for an interpreter of His work." And we sometimes marvel how the Divine Patience tarried all those years for the illumination of Darkest Africa. And yet He waited till the time arrived which in His providence He saw was the fitting time to send forth His immediate call to the work. Without that call, the Church could do nothing ; but when once it was heard, woe be to those who turned back from it. Let us trace out that call and see whence it came, and what was the response of the Church of England to those through whom the call came. From India and New Zealand, from South Africa and Central Africa, came the impulses which moved men 2 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION to begin the work, and which gained for that work its first leader. In April 1853, the Rev. J, S. Jackson, of Caius College, Cambridge, going out to head a new Mission at Delhi, tried to influence Charles Frederick Mackenzie to go with him. " After he left me," wrote the future Bishop, " I read a bit of Henry Martyn's Life before he left England, and I determined for the first time, and prayed to God to help me, to think what was best to be done, and to do it. I thought chiefly of the command, ' Go and baptize all nations,' and how some one ought to go ; and I thought how in another world one would look back and rejoice at having seized this opportunity of taking the good news of the gospel to those who had never heard of it, but for whom, as well as for us, Christ died. I thought of the Saviour sitting in heaven and looking down upon this world, and seeing us who have heard the news selfishly keeping it to ourselves." Thus the impulse was given, but in the ordering of God's providence it was turned aside from India. In the next year two bishops arrived in England from the colonial mission field. One of these was Dr. Colenso, the newly appointed Bishop of Natal, coming for recruits after a ten weeks' survey of his diocese ; the other that prince of Bishops, the first Bishop of New Zealand. In November, Bishop Selwyn preached four sermons on Sunday afternoons in Great St. Mary's, Cambridge, which were published as The Work of Christ in the World. These sermons Mackenzie heard, and was deeply stirred, as no doubt many another hearer was, by such words as the following : — " I go from hence, if it be the will of God, to the most THE CALL TO THE WORK distant of all countries. . . . There God has planted the standard of the Cross as a signal to His Church to fill up the intervening spaces, till there is neither a spot of earth which has not been trodden by the messengers of salvation, nor a single man to whom the gospel has not been preached. FUl up the void. Let it no longer be a reproach to the Univer- sities that they have sent so few missionaries to the heathen. . . . The voice of the Lord is asking, ' Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? ' May every one of you who intends, by God's grace, to dedicate himself to the ministry, answer at once : ' Here am I, send me.' " The immediate result was that Mackenzie offered himself to Dr. Colenso, who had already asked him to go to Natal as his Archdeacon. Thus was the future Bishop led to Africa and to an interest in African affairs. All this time a door was being opened into the heart of Africa by a way which the Church could hardly have guessed. For it was David Livingstone, the Scotch Presbyterian, working at first for the London Missionary Society, who during these years was making those journeys through the heart of Africa which made the entrance of a Mission possible, an account of which he published under the title, Missiojtary Travels in South Africa. During his visit to England in 1857, the simple, large-hearted hero took England by storm, and when he announced his intention of inviting the Church of England, represented by her two oldest Universities, to plant a Mission in Central Africa, it is no wonder that Oxford and Cambridge responded to his call. That the working of our national Church should have so im- pressed this great man, who was not of her sons, was justly felt to be a testimony to the life and vigour of the Church of England. He told his own story in each 4 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION University. On December 4 he appeared in the Senate House at Cambridge. " His reception was enthusiastic ; the undergraduates cheered as only undergraduates can cheer ; and after a lecture of real interest, adapted with great tact to the audience, Professor Sedgwick, at the Vice-Chancellor's request, expressed the satisfaction which every one present felt." Livingstone went, and in the next two years had opened up fresh ground along the Shire, and among the tribes lying round Lake Shirwa, and towards Nyasa ; but his parting words rang in the ears of the Universities : — "I go back to Africa to try to make an open path for commerce and Christianity. Do you carry out the work which I have begun. ' / leave it with you.' " Nevertheless, the fire which Dr. Livingstone had kindled in all hearts might have died out had not Robert Gray, first Bishop of Cape Town and .Metropohtan of South Africa, visited England the next year. He had a well-considered scheme for sending missionary Bishops and Clergy into those heathen lands which bordered on the already established dioceses of Cape Town, Graham's Town, and Natal, thus giving them a base of operations in the lands already Christian. But with his character- istic disposition to yield in non-essentials to the wishes of others, and to use the materials offered to him, he threw himself warmly into the new scheme. A Cambridge committee was at once formed. Oxford was asked to co-operate, and shortly after a great meeting in the Sheldonian, the Association took the name of " The Oxford and Cambridge Mission to Central Africa," its object being to provide funds for sending out at least THE CALL TO THE WORK six missionaries, under a head who should, if possible, be a Bishop ; while the field for the Mission was left entirely to the choice of Livingstone, with the sanction of the Metropolitan under whose care it was at first advisable to place the Mission. For a year then, stirred up (it should ever be remembered) by a curate in Cambridge — the Rev. Wm. Monk — the committees worked in faith, content to leave in God's hands the decision whom they should send, and in what land the Mission should be planted. Thus came round All Saints' Day, when the first year's Report ^ was presented in the Senate House at Cambridge. At this meeting spoke, besides the Vice- Chancellor and many other distinguished persons, Wilber- force, Bishop of Oxford, Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Sir George Grey, Governor of Cape Colony. It was on this occasion that the Bishop of Oxford made the memorable peroration to a long speech. Speaking of Henry Martyn and other departed missionaries in words too soon applicable to our own Mission : — " It seems to me as if even now their voices hung upon the charmed air, and called upon us in our day to follow their mighty example ; and on this day especially, when we have been blessing God publicly for all His Saints, departed this life in His faith and fear, I can scarcely help feeling as if they were beckoning us onward. . . . Pardon me if I say amongst them there seems to be one . . . who is beckoning me by the speciality of my position to take up, in however feeble a manner, the work he so nobly began, and to witness to the next generation, that England can ' See David Livingstone and Cambridge: A Record of Tliree Meetings, U.M.C.A. 6 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION never be clear from the guilt of her long continued slave trade till Africa is free, civilized, and Christian." And now the question, " Who shall lead the Mission ? " was to be answered. Archdeacon Mackenzie had been led to return to England from Natal by a series of what looked like accidents ; so that when asked, " Well, what has brought you to England ? " he replied with a laugh, " Upon my word, I am unable to tell you." Going, however, to preach in his own University on All Saints' Day he was present at the " Great Zambezi Meeting," and, noting the zeal and excitement of many, remarked, " I am afraid of this : most great works of this kind have been carried on by one or two men, in a quieter way, and have had a more humble beginning." The next day it was decided to offer him the head- ship of the Mission, which he at once accepted, Charles Frederick Mackenzie was at this time thirty- four years of age. He was the youngest of a large family, related to the Mackenzies of Seaforth. He was educated at Grange School, Bishop Wearmouth, and at Caius College, Cambridge, graduating in 1848 as second wrangler. When congratulated on his success, he replied simply, " that he had only done what was natural under the circumstances." This simplicity was a trait in his character ; and the man to whom it was natural to take so high a place in the mathematical tripos, found it natural, later on, to do his best wherever God called him. After several years more of college life, alternating with pastoral work in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, he was ordained priest in September 1852. One anec- dote of this period may be given. When acting as REV. HENRY CARTER SCUDAMORE. REV. HENRY DE WINT BURRUP. REV. HORACE WALLER. ^ JOHN DICKINSON, M.B. REV. HENRY ROWLEY. PIONEERS. THE CALL TO THE WORK Mathematical Examiner for Honours, he noticed a student who seemed nervous and faint, but who, according to rule, could not leave the presence of the examiners during the time allotted to the papers in hand. Mackenzie spoke to him, and took him out, made him swallow some soup, and brought him back to pass his examination. Early in 1855 he sailed for Natal, accompanied by his sister Anne, and was afterwards joined by another sister. He had playfully called them his white and black sister, in allusion to the interest felt by the one in the European and by the other in the native races. The four and a half years of African work that ensued before his opportune return to England in 1859 were justly felt by the Committee of the Universities' Mission to be a great qualification for the leader of this new work. To the six clergymen, it was now determined to add medical men, and industrial and agricultural workers, as likely to be important aids in the extirpation of the slave trade. The Universities of Dublin and Durham were asked to co-operate in the work, and in i860 the Association altered its title to that of the " Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, and Durham Mission to Central Africa." While still waiting to know their destination, Mackenzie gathered his recruits — Miss Anne Mackenzie, his "white sister"; the Revs. L. J. Procter and H. C. Scudamore ; Mr. Horace Waller, lay superintendent; S. A. Gamble, carpenter ; and Alfred Adams, agricultural labourer. It was said of them with truth at this time : — " To the leader and his associates in this noble enterprise it will personally be a matter of perfect indifference where they shall settle. They are prepared to go forth, in the spirit of 8 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION the Patriarch when called from Ur of the Chaldees, to take possession, in the name of Christ, of a country in which at present they have not so much as set their foot." A difficulty arose in the course of this year as to the legality of consecrating bishops for places beyond Her Majesty's dominion, as to their status, and the See to which they would owe obedience, and it was thought wise to refer the matter to the Convocation of Canterbury. A favourable report was in due time presented, suggesting obedience to the nearest Metropolitan, and the organiza- tion of a system of synods to regulate immediate needs and secure unity. On October 2, i860, there was a farewell service in the Cathedral of Canterbury, when the Bishop of Oxford (Wilberforce) thrilled all hearts by his parting address to the Mission : — " And as for thee, true yokefellow, and brother well- beloved, who leadest forth this following ; to thee, in this our parting hour — while yet the grasped hand tarries in the embrace of love — to thee, what shall we say ? Surely what, before he gave over to younger hands his rod and staff, God's great prophet said of old to his successor : ' Be strong and of a good courage, for thou must go with this people into the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them, and thou shall cause them to inherit it.' . . . When thy heart is weakest, He shall make it strong ; when all others leave thee, He shall be closest to thee ; and the revelation of His love shall turn danger into peace, labour into rest, suffering into ease, anguish into joy, and martyrdom, if He so order it, into the prophet's fiery chariot, bearing thee by the straightest course to thy most desired Home." The final meeting in that crypt of St. Augustine's at Canterbury, where now several rehcs of the Bishop THE CALL TO THE WORK are treasured, cannot but suggest a comparison with the Apostle of the Enghsh. To St. Augustine, leading his forty monks to win England — sent forth by St. Gregory — how small, how inadequate would have appeared that - V / ijT. George's cathedral, cape town little band, going forth like an advanced piquet into an enemy's country, under cover of whose apparent defeat the great army might advance to victory ! Archdeacon Mackenzie planted, at the request of the Dean, a Wel- lingtonia in the Deanery garden. " May our Mission," said the Dean, "resemble it in its growth and in its greatness." i ' See Central Africa, 1902, p. 170. 10 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION It was in St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town, on the Feast of the Circumcision, 1861, that Charles Frederick Mackenzie, the first missionary Bishop whom our Church had sent forth for a thousand years, was consecrated by Bishop Gray, Metropohtan, assisted by the Bishops of Natal and St. Helena. The oath then taken shows that his field of labour was settled : — " In the Name of God, Amen. I, Charles Frederick Mackenzie, chosen Bishop of the Mission to the tribes dwelling in the neighbourhood of the Lake Nyasa and River Shire, do profess and promise all due reverence and obedience to the Metropolitan Bishop and Metropolitical Church of Cape Town, and to their successors. So help me God, through Jesus Christ." A picture of the party at this time, while they waited several weeks at Bishopscourt, is given by an eye-witness: — " December 9, i860. — The other guests in the house were Archdeacon and Miss Mackenzie, Mr. Procter and Mr. Scuda- more (two young clergymen of the Mission), and Mr. Waller, who has the entire management of all the secular affairs belonging to the Mission. The Zambezians generally go to town every day on business. When they have started, kind Miss Mackenzie gives me a Kafir lesson. In the afternoon I generally find a Portuguese lesson going on on the Stoep. Dinner and evening are something perfect, but quite indes- cribable— quiet, grave discussion over the Mission, inter- spersed with all manner of little skirmishes and attacks on the Archdeacon and Mr. Scudamore, who are very boys for fun and brightness. Oh, but they are such a noble set of men, and it is such a pleasure and privilege to know them aU. "... December 13, i860. — I am just fairly in love with the Archdeacon : he is so bright and funny, and earnest lEDWARD STEERE WILLIAM GEORGE TOZER. CHARLES FREDERICK MACKENZIE CHARLES ALAN SMYTHIES. WILFRID BIRD HORNBY. BISHOPS OF THE UNIVERSITIES* MISSION, 1861-18Q4. THE CALL TO THE WORK II and kind. His elder sister, Miss Mackenzie, is one of those kind, winning sort of people who love everybody, and whom everybody loves. Mr. Waller is here, going to town every day to make purchases. I can't describe him more truly or honourably than the Bishop [Gray] does : ' He is a Christian gentleman.' You can't talk to him for a quarter of an hour without finding out what a noble fellow he is. L stayed here a few days. She knows all the party, too. . . . Fancy the news coming of the death of Mr. Helmore and his party — at least, some dead from fever, and some missing — so soon after their arrival ! L was here when the news came. She said for half a day, perhaps, they were not so boyishly bright as usual, and then it seemed as if the new danger gave them new courage and brightness." The deaths alluded to were those of a party of the London Missionary Society's men who were to work further up the Zambezi. There was in Cape Town a congregation of coloured people, now known as St. Paul's, under the care of the veteran missionary, Archdeacon Lightfoot. Among these were many liberated slaves, whom Mr. Lightfoot thought might help the Mission in its intercourse with the natives. One Sunday evening Mackenzie went and preached in the little rough, temporary church, and asked if any would volunteer for the work. Twelve coloured men stood up, three of whom sailed with the Bishop. They did not, however, stand the trial, and eventually had to be sent back. Finally, on January 12, the party sailed in H.M.S. Lyra from Simon's Bay, looking forward to whatever might await them ; in the words of the Bishop : — " Thus it may be that in the course of years we may 12 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION become, what I have sometimes thought we were like, the original and early sprouts that rise from the seed in the ground, and serve but to give life and vigour and energy to the shoots which rise above the ground afterwards. . . . That is the prospect we have before us — a prospect which does not depend upon our life or death, which does not depend upon our successes during our lifetime, but depends entirely upon the grace of God ; a prospect which will undoubtedly be realized in God's good time, for we know that * the know- ledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.' " Jtanfordi CfiJ graphical Estaiif , LondOth CHAPTER II THE SHIRE HIGHLANDS Up the Zambezi and Shire — The Yao and Nyanja Tribes — The Slave Gang — Life at Magomero. PATIENCE was certainly the first virtue the Mission party was called on to exercise, and in the end patience had " her perfect work." In H.M.S. Lyra sailed the Bishop, the Rev. L. J. Procter, and some black men, among whom was Charles Thomas. The rest of the party had started before in H.M.S. Sidon. There was a happy rest off Natal, where the Bishop took leave of his old work and of the sister who remained there. The final parting from English territory and friends was only to be compared to St. Paul's departure from his beloved Ephesian converts at Miletus. " Strong men fairly cried as they spoke of the kind heart, and loving deeds, and earnest Christian life of him who was going from amongst them." He did not shun to declare imto them the whole counsel of God. In a sermon " he spoke most openly on the treatment of the natives here as a shame to the white people. ... No sympathy with their home joys or sorrows, hardly credit given them for having within them deeper thoughts and feelings than they care to reveal to those who have so little human 14 "^•-^■1 ' *■_ '-t <^^*'^ m^^ V^V. ^^Sai PUSHING THROUGH THE REEDS. THE UPPER SHIRE RIVER. THE SHIRE HIGHLANDS 15 sympathy with them. While this was the state of things, to raise an interest in the tribes further off would be unreal." " On the shore we slipped away and had a few quiet collects together, till we were warned we must go to the boat. . . . Speaking of happiness, he said : ' Now till death my post must be one of care and unrest. To be the sharer of every one's sorrows, the comforter of every one's griefs, the strengthener of every one's weakness — to do this as much as in me lies is now my aim and object.' He said this with a smile, and oh, the peace in his face ! it seemed as if nothing could shake it." Here another missionary joined the party, the Rev. H. Rowley, the early chronicler of the Mission. The two parties of the Sidon and Lyra were united again at the mouth of the Zambezi, and here they found Living- stone and his party, who were to escort them to their field of labour. But Livingstone now objected to the plan of approaching Nyasa from the side of the Zambezi and Shire, partly owing to the difficulty of navigation, and partly to the absence of the friendly chief, Chibisa. The mouths of the Zambezi certainly form one of the most forbidding of ports. They make a low-lying delta, and the water of the Kongoni mouth, thought to be the best, is shallow, with a most dangerous bar. On the other hand, the Rovuma, which Livingstone was anxious to explore, flows 500 miles further north, and discharges a splendid volume of water by an unbarred mouth into a large and fairly sheltered bay. Naturally, but reluctantly, the Bishop yielded his judgment to that of the great explorer ; and, leaving the Mission party at Johanna, one of the Comoro Islands, l6 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION he, with Mr. Rowley, accompanied Livingstone up the Rovuma in the Pioneer, the Httle exploring steamer which our Government had just sent out to him. It was wasted time as far as the Mission was concerned. The Rovuma became so full of shoals, and the time of year (March) so late in the season, that, for fear of the water falling and stranding the party, they returned after only getting twenty-five miles up stream. The river was then thought to connect the ocean with Lake Nyasa, which was soon afterwards discovered to be a mistake. During this river voyage the Bishop worked as hard as any one in the navigation of the little steamer, and once narrowly escaped being eaten by a crocodile. Here they first noticed the hideous lip-ring with which the native women disfigure their faces. The thick upper lip is pierced, and a block or ring of wood inserted, round which the lip grows out into a fair likeness of a snout. Without this adornment no woman, it was believed, could be attractive enough to win a husband. The humihty, which causes them to be dissatisfied with their personal appearance as to improve it so carefully, leads to a difficulty in speaking and eating. After picking up the party at Johanna, the Mission at length entered the Kongoni mouth of the Zambezi on May I, exactly four months after the Bishop's consecra- tion. But it was not until July 8 that this river voyage ended, so that patience was still needed. The Bishop's sunny disposition helped much, as did the never-failing courage of Livingstone. " He and the Bishop," writes Bishop Gray, " get on famously together. The Bishop says they chaff each other all day like two school-boys." THE SHIRE HIGHLANDS 17 Dr. Kirk gave lessons in botany, that indispensable science for all pioneers, with the result that the Bishop made some progress ; whilst in graver moments we find him " steeping his mind " in such words as " perplexed, but not in despair " ; " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Sometimes the steamer took twenty-four days to ad- vance twelve miles. It burnt wood, and the wood had to be cut ; it stuck on a sandbank, and had to be pushed off. Those who worked it had fever, and so had most of the Mission party ; but, unfortunately, so lightly that it led them to despise the enemy, and to neglect the ordinary precautions which experience and prudence have since shown to be necessary if fever is to be warded off. It has often been remarked that in those far-distant lands, amid scenes where the Faith has never been preached, the differences of Christians sink into the shade, and their points of union are hailed with joy. Thus Mackenzie writes : — "Livingstone and his party come to our ordinary services. We have on board Morning Prayer, and sermon on Sunday morning, and every morning and evening the reading of ten or twelve verses and a few of the collects. On Whit-Sunday I proposed having the Litany, and asked Livingstone whether he thought it would weary the sailors. He said, ' No ; he always used it himself. ' We have always had it since. The}'' all attend Holy Communion." And the Bishop showed himself willing to learn from one not of his communion : — " I have been reading Moffat's missionary labours, and it has made me think more of the difficulties, not only of a practical outward kind, but still more of a spiritual kind. It i8 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION has helped me also to remember that God is our help, and that we attempt nothing in our own name." They followed the Zambezi for about eighty miles from its mouth, finding it a magnificent stream a mile broad, muddy, but well stocked with fish, flowing through THE RIVER SHIRE low banks clothed in long grass, abounding in birds of many sorts, while the hippopotamus and crocodile were seen everywhere. The former is sometimes used for food, and is eatable when quite young ; but the mature specimens they sometimes killed needed a good appetite and a strong digestion. The Pioneer now entered the Shire, a tributary of the THE SHIRE HIGHLANDS ig Zambezi on its north bank, about 300 feet wide, and very clear. The country here grew more mountainous and much more beautiful ; the heights of Mounts Morambala (4,000 ft.). Clarendon (6,000 ft.), and Milanje (8,000 ft.), came successively into view on the eastern side. The gentle tribes who peopled the country are called, in these early accounts, Manganja — a corruption of Ma-Nyanja or Lake-people, Nyasa being but another form of the word. They were mostly agricultural, living in small scattered villages, with very little union among them. Mankokwe was at this time chief of the land, but had little power. He received the Mission party graciously, but bade them depart in peace, and settle anywhere except in his village. The Pioneer therefore went on to Chibisa's, a village about 140 miles up the Shire, beautifully situated upon the south-western bank of the river, which is here studded with lovely islands, while a magnificent mountain view lies to the north and east. Chibisa himself was a mysterious hero, said by his people to be a chief and son of a chief — but by the Portuguese declared to be a slave. Possibly he was both ; — anyhow, he was quite the strongest man, and the seer of the land. Though dwelling on the Zambezi, near Tete, his aid was sought by the people for a hundred miles round. Here, then, at Chibisa's, the Mission first planted its foot. And here, with Chibisa's as his parish, the Bishop left Mr. Rowley, with Adams, Gamble, .and Job, one of the Cape Town men, to build huts and receive stores. Dr. Livingstone went on with the Mission party to settle them in their new home on the Highlands ; 20 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION for, though the river was the only thoroughfare in the land, it was also the most unhealthy place for a permanent settlement. With Livingstone went some of his Makololo followers, a Bechuana tribe in whom he had great and deserved confidence. Before going to England he had planted them at Tete, ordering them to wait there for him, and on his return in two years there they were still waiting. And so, to conquer the land and subdue it for Christ, this little procession set forth, the great Doctor tramping along at the head, with the even, steady pace with which he had walked through Africa. The Makololo, Sena- men, and Chibisians followed, bearing the burdens, including forty days' provisions ; lastly came the mission- aries, headed by their Bishop, and, like the Jews of old under Nehemiah, " Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other held a weapon." For, mindful that there was already war in the land, they were all armed. When the natives looked at the Bishop, and saw him carrying his gun in one hand, and his pastoral staff (the gift of the Cape clergy) in the other, they were more alarmed at the latter than at the former, whose properties they knew. Said one, " mfuti ? " (a gun). " Yetu, mfuti ikuru " (yes, great gun), said another. The Bishop writes : — " I myself had in my left hand a loaded gun, in my right the crozier they gave me in Cape Town, in front a can of oil, and behind a bag of seeds, which I carried the greater part of the day. I thought of the contrast between my weapon and my staff, the one like Jacob, the other like Abraham, who armed his trained servants to rescue Lot. I thought THE SHIRE HIGHLANDS 21 of the seed which we must sow in the hearts of the people, and of the oil of the Spirit that must strengthen us in all we do." And so at length in Central Africa " the sower went forth to sow his seed." At this point it is necessary to understand the state of the land at the time. Livingstone found it much changed since his former visit, and it is not wonderful that he did not realize the causes of the change ; still less wonderful is it that the missionaries did not understand them. Shortly put it was thus : The Matabele, of whose prowess we now know so much, had defeated a tribe in the far interior — the Banyai — and stolen or slain their women and children. The Banyai offered ivory to Portuguese slave dealers to supply them with wives. The Portuguese looking round to see where there was war, and consequently where there was a weaker party to be enslaved, discovered a part of the great Yao race, who lived, and still live, on the eastern side of Lake Nyasa, south of the Rovuma, and who were flying south before the incursions of the Mavia and other Makua tribes. This Yao race is in the Mission journals always called Ajawa ; Livingstone had met some of them near Mount Zomba years before, and formed a bad opinion of them. Pressed south, they came to the country round Lake Shirwa, and, as there was plenty of land, they would have settled peaceably, but for the Manganja or Nyasa race, who fought with their weary (and perhaps thieving) guests, and sold them in crowds to the Portuguese. They were but too much used to being seized for slaves, for annually numbers of them were sold at Zanzibar. By degrees the Yao found themselves the stronger, and turned 22 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION the tables on the Manganja, selhng them to the Portu- guese, instead of being sold themselves. Like most African tribes, the Yao were by turns enslavers and enslaved. It was at this juncture that the missionaries arrived, and only knew of the Yao as wicked marauders, helping on the thrice-accursed slave trade. Had they realized that they were a stronger race pushed south, and com- pelled to make homes for themselves by the universal law of replenishing the earth and subduing it, they would have known that it was hopeless to engage in any struggle with them, unless they meant to interfere regularly in native wars. This they had already resolved not to do. Bishop Gray, writing later on, says : — " It is curious that the question of using arms was freely discussed in my house, and that the party — the Bishop and Scudamore most especially — maintained that it was unlawful under any circumstances, even in defence of their lives. Their line was patient suffering." This is the line universally adopted now in the Mission, but no one had calculated the effect of the actual sight of a slave gang (in a place where there were no British forces to call in) on men with loving hearts and strong hands. Dr. Livingstone felt more than justified in what he did. Most EngHshmen, worthy of the name, and im- perfectly understanding the state of things, would have done the same. But interference, once begun, must be followed up. If patient suffering is to be effective, it must be consistent. " It must begin with non-interven- tion and end with non-intervention." Dr. Livingstone hoped one blow would be enough. It was not enough. THE SHIRE HIGHLANDS 23 After all, if the native policy of the Mission was a mistake, it was a mistake not unworthy of heroes. If we do not adopt their line, we can admire and follow their spirit. The party, now en route from Chibisa's on the Shire to Chigunda's station (Magomero) on the Highlands, had reached Mbame's. The natives were sitting round their fires, while the Bishop and others had gone to bathe, when a string of slaves was seen descending into the village, driven by slave dealers. Livingstone, his brother, and Dr. Kirk went out to meet them. There they were, eighty-four helpless captives, their necks in slave forks, bound with hard thongs of bark, men, women and children, on their way to Tete, to be sold into life- long captivity. Dr. Livingstone disarmed the six slavers and let them go ; while, with joy untold, the people around cut the bonds and set the bewildered slaves free. They stretched out their hands uncertainly, and gradually light dawned on them. They were free. Only the night before, one poor fellow had tried to loose his bonds, and, being discovered, was hung up to a tree for hours, by his wrists and ankles, till, all power of walking having failed him, he was taken aside, and an axe ended his torments. Bishop Mackenzie returned from his bath to find the slaves " clothed and cooking." No wonder his heart warmed, and he resolved to stand by Livingstone through good and evil report; for it is true that, as Paley says : — " Few ever will be found to attempt alterations, but men of more spirit than prudence, of more sincerity than caution, of warm, eager and impetuous temper. If we are to wait for improvement till the cool, the calm, the discreet part of 24 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION mankind begins it, I will venture to pronounce that (without His interposition with Whom nothing is impossible) we may remain as we are till the renovation of all things." Here was at once a nucleus of work for the party, and Dr. Livingstone gave all the captives to the Bishop, who, after offering them their choice of returning to their homes or staying with him, found that they had no homes left to which to return. The Bishop therefore had become at once father and head of a flock. They now marched on to Magomero, a village belong- ing to the chief Chigunda. Hearing fearful accounts of the Yao cruelties, Livingstone marched out to try and induce them to retire to their own country, not knowing that they would have done so only too gladly, but could not. Burning villages lighted the way to the Yao camp. It is difficult to say whether a Makololo or Yao fired the first shot ; but in a short time Livingstone drove off the Yao and burnt their huts. The Bishop took no active part in the battle, but his party lent their aid in this serious affray. It was now determined to settle at Magomero, and here Livingstone left them. Chigunda said he was " dead already " at the thought of these powerful Enghsh going away, and for the consideration of £i he gave them half his village. It was as bad a situation as the Highlands afforded, being regularly dowij in a hollow, and sixty miles from Chibisa's, whence all provisions must come. On the other hand, it was a strong situation, well watered, but not free from fever. As an outpost, it might perhaps stay the advance of the Yaos. The unfortunate fame of their former prowess spread far and wide, and a deputation of Nyasa chiefs prayed DAViD LIVINGSTONE SIR JOHN KIRK ANNE DAOMA. ST. Paul's, fort jameson, n.w. rhodesia (consecrated 1906). THE SHIRE HIGHLANDS 25 the Bishop to help them again. He, feehng pledged by the former action, and finding that families had really been carried off, agreed to help them, on a promise that they themselves would never buy or sell slaves again, and that any prisoners taken should go free. The Bishop, Mr. Waller, and Charles, Thomas went boldly forward to the Yao army on an embassage of peace, and barely escaped being shot down. The combat then began ; the Nyasa people fought well under the guidance of the English, and victory remained with them, a victory bloodless on their own side and nearly so on the enemy's side ; and the Yao fled, leaving their captives behind. To no one could the fight have been so dreadful as to the Bishop and his companions, Scudamore, Rowley, Waller, and Adams. But they had the happiness of re-uniting some of the captives to their families ; and out of this battle came some of the few visible fruits of the Magomero Mission. A little sick child, left to starve, was picked up on the way back, baptized by the name of Charles Henry, slept by the Bishop's side that night, and passed to rest in the morning — the first-fruits of the Nyasa race. And as they walked back to Magomero, the Bishop himself carried a httle girl named Daoma on his shoulder, " because she was such a little one." We shall hear of her again. And now came a very pleasant time at Magomero, The country quite close was at peace, slave traders came no more, the missionaries built themselves huts and encouraged their people to do the same and to plant gardens. The Bishop was very proud of having built himself the best hut, circular, nine feet in diameter and 26 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION ten feet high in the middle, his Cambridge mathematical precision standing him in good stead ; but his satisfac- tion was alloyed when it was pointed out to him that he had forgotten to make a door ! The missionaries were busy learning the language, which is something like Kafir. Bearing in mind the false impressions of God given by mission priests in China, who taught before they knew the language, they attempted no direct instruction, but such as arose out of daily necessities. For instance, news was brought that the Yao had burnt a certain village where the Bishop had once slept ; would the English come and help them ? Just as they were ready to start, the Bishop asked : " Where are we to meet ? " " At the chief's village." " What village ? " " The village where you slept," said the Nyasa, falling into the trap. " It is not burned, then ? " " No." " Did you lie when you said it was burned ? " The chief Nam'peko, grinning, repHed, " I did lie." " If a dog could do as you have done, I should kick it. cannot speak to you any more to-day." So once they found all their people busily shelling peas, which turned out to be stolen. When detected, some laughed, but some looked ashamed. Chigunda, the chief, begged them off from punishment, generously refusing to have the peas. The Bishop therefore paid the price in cloth, and gave the peas to the goats, warning them he would send away any one who so offended again. Another time three of their people robbed a Nj^asa man THE SHIRE HIGHLANDS 27 of a handsome brass bangle. The Bishop offered them the sors tertia of the old Winchester rule — a whipping — which was gratefully accepted by two, while the third was sent away. However, in two days he returned and begged for his flogging, which he duly received. The day's life followed a certain rule at Magomero. Rising at 6, there was a roll-call of natives at 6.30, which frightened them at first. The native breakfast was served in the open air, the boys arranged in circles, school- feast fashion, each having a literal " handful " of porridge. At 7, came mattins, and at 8, breakfast of goat's flesh, yams or sweet potatoes, Indian corn porridge, and a loaf, when it could be had, and tea or coffee with goat's milk. All then went to work, the natives having tasks assigned them when not engaged in their gardens. Mr. Scudamore drilled the boys, seventy-seven in number. They had a drum made of the skin of an elephant's ear, and they were taught to march in step and go through sundry exercises, ending with a plunge into a river at the word of command, by which they certainly learnt " heaven's first law " of order and obedience. Mr. Rowley undertook the purveying — no small task, with two hundred to provide for ; and also took some very elementary classes. Mr. Waller, assisted at first by Dr. Meller of the Expedition, acted as surgeon, and had in truth much practice on the terrible wounds of the slaves. He writes of the natives : — " They bear pain so well — little fellows submit to the cautery without wincing. One poor fellow had such a heel as I never saw. He was struck in it by accident with a fish spear ; the whole of the tendon is gone, and the bone decaying beneath. In this state he was driven some thirty miles 28 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION by the slavers, and came back forty with us. He never complains." The Bishop and his companions took classes for read- ing and teaching as far as they were able. Dinner followed at i, with a rest. Then work from 3 to 5 ; tea at 6, and prayers about 7.30. On Sundays and Festivals Holy Communion was celebrated, and gradually they managed to set apart a room as a chapel. But a church was their great desire, and on October i, the anniversary of the farewell service at Canterbury, Bishop Mackenzie solemnly set up the pillar of the hoped- for church, a good-sized tree, felled by Scudamore, calling it the " first and comer post of the Church of St. Paul." That church was never to be built, in spite of the bright hopes which clustered around its beginning. All but two or three of those who should have ministered and worshipped there were removed — how soon ! — to a " House not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Forty-five years later, not on that exact spot, but in sight of Mackenzie's grave at Chiromo, was erected a church in honour of the great Missionary Apostle, and in remembrance of the first Missionary Bishop. CHAPTER III WAR, FAMINE, AND PESTILENCE Troublous times — The Bishop's last voyage — Bishop Mackenzie dies — Deaths of other Missionaries — Magomero and Morambala abandoned. THE arrival of the first recruits in November caused great joy to the Mission. These were the Rev. H. de Wint Burrup, Dr. Dickinson, as medical officer, and Richard Clark, a tanner and shoemaker. Mrs. Burrup had been left at Bishop's Court, Cape Town, to follow later with Miss Mackenzie and Jessie Lennox, a servant devoted to the Mackenzies. Mr. Burrup arrived at Chibisa's, where Livingstone was anchored, in a marvellously short time, having pushed on with four natives, all the latter part of the way, in a small canoe. The Bishop, who had come down to see Living- stone, took him back to Magomero, and some fears were felt for the others who were behind with no quinine. " But," says Mr. Waller, " while chatting away at break- fast (November 29), we heard two guns fired, and a very few moments assured us of the coming of Dr. Dickinson and Clark. I was quickly across the river, when a hearty ' All right, sir,' from Charles, and the sight of two new faces among 29 30 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION a multitude of black men bearing burdens told me all our hopes and fears for their safety might now be cast to the winds, and my hurrah joined wth the others that came across to welcome them. " ' For these and all His other mercies, but especially for this mercy, God's holy Name be praised,' cried the Bishop." For thus began that stream of successors, which, though sometimes a slender stream indeed, has, in God's good providence, never ceased to flow from our land for the watering of our Master's heritage among the heathen. Warfare, meantime, had not ceased. The Yao and Nyasa races were ever fighting for space to live in, and for slaves, and once the slavers attacked Mr. Procter and Mr. Scudamore, and nearly killed them, as they were peacefully trying to open a path from Magomero to where the Ruo joins the Shire. War brought famine in its train. With the enemy in their land, many people had neglected to plant and sow. They were now running short of pro\dsions, and in a short expedition made by the Bishop and Mr. Scuda- more to punish the village which had attacked their friends, they foimd starving people. Starvation was beginning to bring on fever, to which all the Mission party fell victims in their turn ; on January 3, 1862, the Bishop and Mr. Burrup started on their last journey. They went to meet, as they hoped, the Pioneer, with the ladies of the party, and the stores which were badly needed, the rendezvous being Malo, at the confluence of the Shire, and its eastern tributary, the Ruo, now the bound ar^'^ of the Nyasaland Protectorate. j^"^' ^^m THE MURCHISON CATARACTS. J^ . HOUSE BOA I. THE RIVER SHIRE WAR, FAMINE, AND PESTILENCE 31 What followed must be given chiefly in the Bishop's own words : — " January 3, 1862. — This is the first time I have written in the name of this year. May it be to us and to you a year of greater grace and blessing than the last, and so may we abound more and more unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour. How curious sapng this to you, and probably the year will be far gone before you read it ! But you are sa5dng the same things, and God hears the prayers of both, and will shower down on each the showers of His blessing in answer to the distant prayer, just as the rain rises from the distant ocean, and falls on the thirsty ground where He has appointed it. . . . " January 8, — On Thursday, January 2, I got to Mago- mero. . . . We started next day. We have estabhshed the custom of having a few prayers at our church before start- ing, and after the return of any of our party on a journey. So we had prayers for those that remained and for those who were going, and we set off. It rained heavily, and we had hard work to get the Makololo into motion ; from that time till this morning we have had almost incessant rain. . . . We have seen the sun to-day, and this is a very beautiful place : a village perched on the top of a cliff overlooldng the stream, which is now swollen much, and commanding a view of the valley of the Shir^, or at least its lowest level, extending four or five miles to the eastern hills. The valley itself, in a freer sense, stretches many a mile behind us to the west, — fine fertile land, studded with shrubs and trees, and apparently fit for any cultivation. I suppose, however, it is not so healthy as the higher lands. " The men of this village are old friends most of them, and all looks bright. I have been having many a laugh with them already. Thus it is that God gives us bright spots in our hves at the darkest, and how often bright tracts stretching over much of it ! 32 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION " January 9. — I read Burrup this morning the Keble for xxvth Sunday after Trinity. I do so admire the last verses. ^ " Monday, January 13. — Our suspense is at an end. We got here, the Ruo mouth, on Saturday, to learn that Living- stone had passed down not many days before. This, though . . . involving our staying here a good while, seemed good news to me, inasmuch as we have not detained him by arriving ten days after the time. We had, on the whole, a prosperous journey down. The chief at Chibisa's undertook to send us down to a chief, Turuma, where we should be likely to get a larger boat. . . . Accordingly on Thursday we set off at three, and got to Turuma's in half an hour. It was delicious, the floating down that broad, green banked river. The uncertainty as to the length of the voyage gave it a dreaminess, like some parts of Southey's Thalaha. But, like Thalaha, our difficulties were not at an end. Turuma refused to see us, and declined to hire his boat to us. . , . Just then two of the Makololo, Zomba and Siseho, joined us, having walked down the bank. These (with Charlie) under- took to go down with us. So off we started, wondering at the way God was leading us. . . . Next morning ' ' The promise of the morrow Is glorious on that eve, Dear as the holy sorrow When good men cease to live ; When, brightening ere it die away, Mounts up their altar flame, Still tending with intenser ray Toward heaven whence first it came. " Say not it dies, that glory, 'Tis caught unquenched on high ; Those saint-like brows so hoary Shall wear it in the sky. No smile is like the smile of death. When, all good musings past Rise wafted with the parting breath. The sweetest thought the last." IV AR, FAMINE, AND PESTILENCE 33 we set off early. Burnip was far from well. ... At night we drew to the shore. By this time the mosquitoes were very troublesome. One of the men said, ' We are going on.' It was better, they thought, to work by moonlight than to be eaten up by insects. After half an hour we found ourselves stranded on the flooded bank. . . . " In a few minutes Zomba, the bowman, gave the signal for a start, and off we were again in silence. This time we were sooner in coming to grief. A sudden turn, which our bowman did not see in time, landed us again on a point where the stream parted in two ; the two men in the stern jumped out, up to their middle ; I followed immediately, Burrup after me. But in vain ; the canoe continued to fill, and we began to pull out our things . . . till we could get the canoe raised and baled out. Then the things were put in again, all soaking, and we wet up to our middles. . . . We were thankful our losses had been no worse, though it was not till next day we remembered that all our medicine was gone, and our spare powder. Fortunately the night was far from cold, or we might have taken harm ; as it is, Burrup is none the better for it. I think I have escaped any ill consequences. . . . " In the meantime we have been led to a very nice village. A benign, oldish chief, Chikanza, with a large population, occupying, I should think, about a hundred huts, willing that we should remain here. ... I have my hopes that our being here in this way may be intended to prepare the village for being one of the stations to be worked by our Mission steamer (the University boat), for which I hope to write by this mail. " So matters stand at present. Burrup is very low, and we have no medicine. Quinine, which we ought to be taking every day, there is none. But He who brought us here can take care of us without human means. If we should be down at once, Charlie will take care of us. The texts in Greek which we have learned day by day lately have been 34 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES* MISSION Romans ii. 29 ; iii. 21-23 ; vi. 23 ; vii. 24, 25 ; viii. 38, 39 ; X. 13-15. . . . Good-bye for the present." Such was his farewell to earth, and had he known that it was such, he could not have chosen more touching texts than the last two, — one of quiet confidence for him- self, the other of hope for the Mission. 1 One more letter, dated on the i6th, speaks of his plans of a Mission steamer, such as now plies on Lake Nyasa among a kindred race. THE HUT IN WHICH BISHOP MACKENZIE DIED We know little of the last fortnight. The Bishop soon fell ill, for want of the lost quinine. Mr. Burrup was too ill then tb help him much, and far too weak afterwards to give much account of the Bishop's last days. He was mostly unconscious, or else speaking wandering words of being safe at Magomero with his sisters, for whom his loving heart had so longed. The 1 " For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor princi- palities,'' etc. ; and, " How beautiful are the feet," etc. WAR, FAMINE, AND PESTILENCE 35 last words he is known to have spoken were to tell the faithful Makololo that " Jesus was coming to fetch him away." For the last week he was quite un- conscious, and in this state, on the morning of January 31, Mr. Burrup had the grief of carrying the dying Bishop out to die in another hut, which was of less importance to the chief Chikanza. The natives believe the spirit haunts the place where it leaves the body, and shut up a hut after a death. The Bishop's spirit passed awaj^ at 5 p.m., and the same night, weak as he was, Mr. Burrup (aided by the Makololo) was compelled to bury him. A grave was dug on the left bank of the Shire, under a large acacia tree, and in the darkness of night Mr. Burrup said as much as he could recollect of the Burial Service. And thus was laid to rest the first English missionary Bishop of modern times, and the first Bishop of the Universities' Mission, after just one year's work in the country which he believed God had given him for an heritage. The possession of a burying place was all he was to have ; yet that burying place has surely been the lode-star of mission effort. That apparently lost battle, fought by the brave little advanced piquet, has stirred up more " to follow in their train " than any other story of mission life. Mr. Burrup at once returned with the sorrowful news to Magomero, and in three weeks' time he too had suc- cumbed, and was buried at Magomero. He might have been saved had his friends been able to give him the nourishing food and stimulant he needed, but which he unmurmuringly went without. Meantime, Captain Wilson, of H.M.S. Gorgon, brought 36 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION Miss Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup as far as Chibisa's, before they heard the sad news, which the natives at Malo had concealed in fear of being held responsible. Since their dear ones now needed them no more, it was decided that they should at once return with Captain Wilson to the Cape, Miss Mackenzie being too ill with fever to realize all that had befallen them. But though she was not to do the work so sorely needed for the native women, Anne Mackenzie went home from the grave of her brother to work for missions as faithfully in England as others were doing in Africa. Not only as the founder of the Mackenzie Memorial Mission in Zululand, but as the " Providence " of many another Mission, for whose needs she collected, and with whose workers she kept up a cheering correspondence — the name of Anne Mackenzie was a household word for fifteen more years. Captain Wilson set up a simple cross, to mark the Bishop's grave, of materials at hand — the upright being a thick reed or pole, five feet high, with a bit of board nailed across, and the staves of a barrel heaped up round the base. The Bishop had left a memorandum at Magomero providing that the senior priest, or faiUng a priest, the senior deacon, or, failing him, the senior layman, should take temporary charge of the Mission ; and thus Mr. Procter became head of a singularly united band of fellow- workers. The Bishop also ordered several books to be sent home to his family ; among these his Conse- cration Bible, in which each of his consecrators had, at his request, written a text. This Bible, with the watch which stopped at the fatal immersion in the river, are now in the museum in the crypt of St. Augustine's WAR, FAMINE, AND PESTILENCE 37 College at Canterbury, that sacred spot whence the Mission had set forth. Three sore evils had now fallen on the Shire High- lands : war, for the Yao were steadily moving on with the certain advance of a strong nation ; famine, the result of drought and of war, for not only did the wretched natives try to live on the unripe corn and fruits, but by various misunderstandings the necessary stores failed to reach them ; and, as a sure consequence, pestilence was slaying its thousands. The Mission therefore decided to leave Magomero and the grave of Mr. Burrup, and, taking with them (of the released slaves) all the children, and such of the grown people as wished to come, they marched, in April, to Chibisa's. Here, finding that Dr. Livingstone's Makololo followers — who for some fault had been dismissed by him with only guns in their hands — had established themselves and grown rich by marauding, the workers separated themselves, and built a village on the opposite bank, only fifty feet above the stream. Here a small rough church of reeds was erected, with a gable end and a little porch. Two boxes, one on the other, covered with red velvet, formed the altar. The floor was laid with reed mats, and the seats were their store boxes. Clark, the shoemaker, writes : — " It being my province to superintend our men in their work, the honour fell on me of building the first place devoted to the worship of God in this part of Africa. My prayer is, that this may not be the last by many built in this land for the same great object, but I hope they may be more worthy of being styled churches than the present. The structure was begun and finished in five days. I must 38 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION tell you that we have no church bell, and that the substitute for one is a native drum." These words should be remembered now that many churches, all better than Clark's poor effort, are already dedicated in Central Africa ; and still more should they be remembered, when in the future far more splendid buildings may take the place of these ; for surely none will be more worthy than the church where these devoted men worshipped God in their day of sore trial : " Nor here the faithful eye can fail The brightening view to catch, That opened from that structure frail Of wicker work and thatch. For dear is e'en the first rude art That Holy Faith inspires : The whole is augured from the part, Achievements from desires." Good work was done here among their reduced number — about fifty of their people having died from famine and disease. But the neighbourhood of the marauding Makololo, who were identified with the English, caused difficulties. These people were afterwards sternly rebuked by Livingstone, and have since grown into a great tribe, very friendly to the English. Before the end of the year, the people of the land were living on roots. From this time the mission records are a heart-rending accomit of endeavours to supply even their own people with sufficient food. " Wild-looking men, worn almost to skeletons, and with cords tied round their waists to lessen the pangs of hunger, roamed about, grubbing up roots, until, unable to go on any longer, they sank down and died." Before January half the inhabitants of the Shire Valley had died of starvation. WAR, FAMINE, AND PESTILENCE 39 The missionaries undertook long journeys to get food, and their own sufferings were great. Mr. Scudamore fell ill. " He was admirably fitted for his work," writes Bishop Harvey Goodwin, of Carlisle, "cheerful, unselfish, well-judging, and appears to have been specially dear to Bishop Mackenzie, and in many respects not unlike him. No doubt the fever took hold on a constitution injured by unsuitable food. He became delirious, and on New Year's Day he passed away, murmuring, ' There remaineth a rest.' " Mr. Rowley writes : — " The Southern Cross was shining brightly over the hut in which he lay, and though my heart was sorrowful, I thought of the Cross of Calvary and was comforted." Another grave was dug by the Shire, and the natives mourned for their friend. He had mastered the language sooner than any of the party. Early in 1863, soon after a cheering visit from Mr. Thornton, the geologist, the Cape men, Charles, William, and Job, returned to Cape Town. They were not now needed as interpreters, and it was thought advisable that they should go back to South Africa. Alas ! another of the Mission band was to be taken. Brave and hard-working Dr. Dickinson, to whom almost every member of the Mission owed his life, succumbed in March. Mr, Procter prayed with him, and he followed every word, saying, almost with his latest breath, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner." He was laid beside Mr. Scudamore. " They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided." 40 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION Immediately after this, Dr. Livingstone and Dr. Kirk paid them a visit, and saved the Ufe of Clark, the church builder, who, however, had to go back to England, but only to return to the Cape Colony, where he was ordained in 1875. The Mission party now wrote word to the Metropolitan that if help and fresh stores, especially of animal food, did not reach them by June 15, they should feel compelled to abandon the country. By that time, however, things looked brighter ; the native com had grown, peace was restored, and, better than all, the new Bishop, Dr. Tozer, was on his way, with three clergy and three artisans. Before the end of June he arrived, and after much con- sultation, decided on removing the Mission to Mount Morambala, sending Mr. Procter, who had quite broken down, at once to England. Mr. Rowley was also obliged, by fever, to return with him. Dr. Livingstone still clung to his behef in the Shir6 Highlands, and no doubt he was so far right, as that Morambala could never become a base of operations. But when the time came for Mr. Waller to leave the Shir6, he could not bring himself to abandon the people who had trusted to the Mission. To take them all to Morambala was impossible. So he did a brave and wise thing. He sent to the dreaded Yao chief, Kapene, who now possessed all the highlands, and said, " Come down and speak to us." Kap6ne came, with his fifty mighty men well armed. Mr. Waller told him why they had interfered with his people, and explained how terribly the slave trade hurt all the African races. Then he asked Kapene to protect the people left behind by the Mission, and who ^vished to become his villagers. Kapene said WAR, FAMINE, AND PESTILENCE 41 they should be as his own children, and that as long as he could protect himself he would protect them. And he kept his word. Finally Mr. Waller, on his sole responsibility (for Bishop Tozer could not undertake it), brought down the few helpless people and orphans who had none to care for them to the foot of Morambala, and at length brought about twenty boys and one girl to Cape Town, placing the boys in the famiUes of Mr. Lightfoot's coloured congregation, who adopted them with that great and unselfish generosity which is one feature of the African character. The girl was Daoma, the Uttle one whom Bishop Mackenzie had carried on his shoulder. She was received by Miss Arthur, at St. George's Orphanage, and was baptized in the cathedral by the name Anne Rebecca. Never was a good deed better rewarded. Anne Daoma grew up a dear, good, gentle girl. Some years later, when Miss Arthur opened a day school for the very poor children around her, Anne was at once made infant schoolmistress. When Miss Arthur fell into ill-health, and had a difficulty in getting English helpers, she wrote warmly of Anne as one of her best assistants. Aime is now mistress, and lives at the Orphanage, the only home she can remember. " If only one soul were won for Christ, our labour would be amply repaid." How often we hear such words at meetings and in sermons ! If they mean anything, this, as far as we can judge, is one tangible result of the Mission, besides the twenty other children, and the roll in Paradise of infants and others baptized at the point of death. And we have for ever the blessed memory of 42 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION all that patient suffering, and of the holy lives and deaths of those whose graves have ever been the goal beckoning the Mission onwards to reoccupy this land. One more practical result cannot be over-stated. By an experience bitter beyond all possible expectation, the Mission had learnt the lesson that carelessness of life and of the precautions for preserving health, is not wise ; that none, however strong, can afford to play with a tropical climate ; that certain rules of health can and must be kept ; and that to remaili needlessly in a hotbed of fever, slighting the proper remedies, is not trusting, but tempting. Providence. These first missionaries had the bitter lesson to learn. To some extent they could not foresee these dangers, and did not know the precautions. But now that the lesson has been scored deeply on that page of Church history, those who neglect its warnings will die, not as martyrs, as Mackenzie, Burrup, Scudamore, and Dickinson did (the Church ever reckoning as such those who die for love, if they do not die for faith), but, in the words of Dr. Neale, as a very different character, described at some length in the book of Proverbs. CHAPTER IV NEW GROUND, 1863-7O The Second Bishop, William George Tozer — Mission removed to Zanzi- bar— Capture of a Slave Dhow — The First Children of the Mission — Purchase of the Sites of Kiungani and Mbweni — Usambara visited. THE second Bishop of the Universities' Mission was the Rev. William George Tozer, of St. John's College, Oxford, and Vicar of Burgh-cum-Winthorpe, Lincolnshire, " a man," wrote his friend and colleague, Dr. Steere, " who shrinks from nothing and succeeds in everything." Bishop Gray had hurried to England partly to consult the Home Committee about a successor to Mackenzie. The choice, entrusted entirely to the Metropolitan and the Bishop of Oxford (Wilberf orce) , fell on Mr. Tozer. Imme- diately his friends, the Rev. Edward Steere, LL.D., Vicar of Little Steeping, and the Rev. Charles Argentine Alington, volunteered to go out with him. Some mechanics, one of whom came from Burgh, and G. E. Drayton, from St. Augustine's, Canterbury, made up the party. The Consecration took place in Westminster Abbey, on the Feast of the Purification, 1863, when Bishop Tozer and the first Bishop for the Orange Free State were con- secrated by the Archbishop (Longley), the Metropolitan 43 44 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSIOI