A BISHOP IN TH E ROUGH BISHOPiOF NORWICH • The University of British Columbia Library \y THE CHUNG COLLECTION ^HSTttN^ W3 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH — !■ " - — ^^mm^mm REV. JOHN SHEEPSHANKS, Frazer River, 1860. Frontispiece.] BISHOP OE NORWICH, 1908. (Photo Maull & Fox, London.) i BISHOP ROUGI ALLACE DUTHIE OF SIR JOHN FASTOLF" HIRD H V&TIBL iACB --~- . ^ -. . I JOHN BHEEF8HAN1 ■'razer River, I860. Maull & Wo&¥ Li ■ ■ ■ i A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH EDITED BY. THE REV. D. WALLACE DUTHIE AUTHOR OF "THE CASE OF SIR JOHN FASTOLF" WITH A PREFACE BY THE EIGHT REV. THE LOED BISHOP OP NOEWICH ILLUSTRATED THIRD IMPRESSION LONDON SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15, WATERLOO PLACE 1909 All rights reserved\ ■ ' -J- ■ PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BFCCLKS. PKEFAOE if A few prefatory words may be necessary to explain how it has come to pass that this volume appears now, and in its present form. From time to time, in lectures and addresses and in private conversation, I have been led to relate incidents of my past life which have been received with more or less interest. And from many quarters, from my own dear relatives, from friends and brother clergy, there has come " A prayer of earnest heart That I would all my pilgrimage dilate Whereof by parcels they had something heard." I was in some degree able to gratify this wish, for I had always, even in trying circumstances, at the gold-mines of Cariboo or on the arid steppes of Asia, kept a fairly full journal. And at odd times of my present life, when on my annual holiday, perhaps in some simple Tyrolese inn, I have found amusement in filling out my journal from my own recollections. I thought that possibly my children might like to have it printed after my decease. But a few months since one of my clergy, the Rev. D. Wallace Duthie, himself an author of repute and experience, most kindly offered to undertake the work of revising and piecing together the portions of my journal and preparing them for the Press. * 1 VI PREFACE This kind offer was readily accepted; for I had neither the leisure, nor perhaps, through indolence, the inclination to do the work myself, yet would gladly see some of my reminiscences of the past years in print. So all the labour was in fact performed by Mr. Duthie, who has also, as will be perceived, with much trouble and skill, supplemented the narrative where needed; and the book, under the auspices of the excellent publishers, is now launched upon the public. There is a serious, and in truth a sad, consideration which causes me to welcome the opportunity of setting some of my experiences in foreign, and especially in heathen, lands before the public. It is to me a striking thought that this earth is undergoing far more rapid changes than at any former period of its history. Not only are the means of travel enormously improved, the railroad and the motor-car now penetrating into countries absolutely untravelled but a few years ago; not only are countries quite unknown in the days of our grandparents, such as the vast continent of Africa, being traversed in every direction, but to me, a much more interesting thought, the animals and men that inhabit the earth are rapidly changing year by year. Many of the most beautiful beasts of creation are disappearing with melancholy rapidity. As a young man I have followed the tracks of the buffalo on the prairies of North America. Now, as wild creatures {ferae naturae), they have ceased to exist. Only a few miserable creatures are preserved in Canada and the Yellowstone Park. Those beautiful creatures that thronged South Africa fifty years ago, whose wonderful horns we beheld with admiration in the halls of our gentry, grandsons of the hunters, the antelopes, the elands, the springboks, are either exterminated or driven indeed, as PREFACE away into other latitudes, I hope, steps are taken to there to preserve vii perish, unless them in their wild state of nature in extensive parks. Even the ungainly hippopotamus is, we are told, vanishing from the sluggish rivers. Similarly the cariboo and the moose are disappearing from Northern Canada. The Englishman with his deadly rifle, under the guidance of the great modern god, sport, gives no quarter. But sadder far than this is the fact that races of men are disappearing. The natives are gone from Tasmania. In Australia the I black fellows | have dwindled to a wretched remnant. The Indians of North America are either dying off or degenerating—they are but few in number compared with what they were when I first knew them, fifty years ago—or they are being domesticated or amalgamated with the whites. My grandchildren will see the time when, north of Mexico—I do not know that I need even make that qualification—there will be not a single I Wild Indian" in North America. The " noble savage " is being improved off the face of the earth, and some of us lament him. I cannot now dwell upon the causes of the disappearance of these people, though, alas! some of them I know right well. But my point is that they, with their traditions, legends, manners, and thoughts, are in fact disappearing, and the world will soon know them no more. Any work, therefore, which gives a truthful and realistic account of their lives and manners should be of some interest as the time goes by, though another volume will be necessary for those particulars of their history and religion of interest to the ethnologist which came under my observation. Similarly, though perhaps in a less degree, there may be some interest in the sketch of the community at Salt Lake b I Vlll PREFACE City under the astute absolute government of President Brigham Young. That state of affairs has now passed away for ever. Even the comparatively immutable Asia is changing. The railway has penetrated Mongolia to the astonishment and, I suspect, disgust of the simple nomads. Motor-cars have appeared in the sacred city, and I suspect that before long the bizarre customs of the Mongols and the strange religious rites, the fire-worship, and the adoration of the Khutuktu, will be matters of the past, and but scantily recorded in the memoirs of travellers. It has been suggested to me that, as a kind of finish to these memoirs, I should append some reminiscences and reflections upon the work of the Church at home, as it has come under my observation during the past sixty years, in the belief that they might be useful and not without interest at the present time. I do not know that I can write anything of value, except to testify to the enormous improvement in the activity and work of the Church during this truly wonderful period. In the forties and fifties of the last century the | Oxford Movement " had effected a change in the religious and churchly opinions of a considerable but not, I think, a very large number of Church-people. But those new or revived opinions and theories had as yet but a very slight practical effect upon the Church life of the parishes. At least in middle England we occasionally, but only occasionally, met with a clergyman who had daily prayers in his church, and perhaps even preached in a surplice, and was in consequence dubbed a " Puseyite "; but, in general, things went on much in the old way. There were good men who did their duty according to PREFACE ix their lights, but there was but little pastoral skill exhibited in the working of the parishes, and but few attempts at new methods or more complete organization. The idea of work of the ordinary clergyman might perhaps be set forth in three sentences: two full services on Sunday (with no omissions), careful attention to the sick, kindly "relief" given to the poor. No one, I think, contributed more, if as much, to set up a wholly different standard of parochial work than the man who gave the impulse to my own life—Walter Farquhar Hook. He translated the principles of the Oxford revival into actual work. For many years, by his life and doings at Leeds, and by his writings, he exercised a practical influence over the character and work of the Church which, I think, has not been exercised since by any presbyter of the Anglican Communion. Until the day of his death he was in the habit of receiving large numbers of letters from clergy, and indeed from laity also, asking for instruction and advice upon matters of faith or conscience or discipline. In this correspondence Mrs. Hook, a very clever woman, and one who well knew her husband's mind, was of great help to him. When Dr. Hook went to Leeds as Vicar in the year 1837, the Church of England was in fact in that rising town nowhere. The various Dissenting bodies were numerous, zealous, wealthy, and progressive. The poor Church was altogether behind. His appointment, as being that of a High Churchman, roused hostility. When the churchwardens, eight in number, were elected, it was found that the Dissenters had carried every seat. The Vicar manifested no anger, told the newly elected wardens that he relied upon them to fulfil their X PREFACE legal duties, to be present at church and keep order, and that he had no doubt that they would get on very well together. To their surprise the wardens found that there were not, as they supposed, considerable funds at their disposal; but, on the other hand, it rested with them to provide means for carrying on the services of the church. Accordingly— strange fact, unprecedented, I should suppose, in the history of a great parish!—collections were made in the Dissenting chapels for the carrying on the services of the parish church. The Vicar continued on pleasant terms with his churchwardens, until at the end of the year they were replaced by Churchmen. Some of them had learned in the mean while to respect their Vicar and appreciate his ministrations, and continued on as worshippers at the parish church. If the secret of his remarkable personal influence be inquired of, the first and comprehensive answer must be returned that it was his own personal goodness. No one who was ever associated with him could have any doubt of his personal piety. He was a large-hearted, generous, lovable man, with nothing small or mean about him. Strongly holding decided views, and ever ready strenuously to oppose what he held to be doctrinal error, he was yet personally truly humble-minded. No one ever saw a sign of pride or assumption in him, and his subordinates, the youngest curates, he ever treated as though he were their elder brother, and was met in return with enthusiastic loyalty. The parish was mapped out into different districts, one of the eight curates being assigned to each district, though sometimes a junior, a deacon, was put under the care of one of the priests. This staff was under the immediate direction and superintendence of the senior curate. PREFACE XI The Vicar always took the utmost care in the selection of the curates, who were as a rule invited to stay at the vicarage " on likes " before any engagement was made. If the Vicar were quite satisfied as to the character of the man —and he made no mistakes—he was put over a district, and apparently left much alone, under the superintendence of the senior curate. There was much independence left to each curate, who might set agoing new machinery and make new ventures of faith in his district with the general concurrence of his immediate superior. Yet the Vicar's eye was over the whole, and he knew pretty well what was going on in all the districts. He was always ready to be referred to, and would often visit peculiar cases at the request of the curate in charge. There can be no question that one of the chief causes of his very remarkable influence in Leeds was his preaching. He regarded preaching as a solemn, responsible converting ordinance, took great pains with his sermons, and, when at home, preached always every Sunday morning and evening and usually on Saints' days. In his latter years, believing preaching to be a work to which he was specially called, and having reason to believe that his sermons were often greatly blessed, he preached a good deal in all parts of England; for he regarded an invitation to preach as a Providential call, so that the jocose saying sprang up, " Bait Hook with a sermon, and he is sure to take." Doubtless there are those who, now reading his sermons with, to the present day, their rather unattractive style, will wonder at the effect which they unquestionably had. But those who heard him in his own church would cease to wonder. The secret of his influence, which is the secret of all the deep effect which is ever made by oratory, lay in the XII PREFACE fact that he was entirely en rapport with his audience, and they with him. Of the multitudes of rich and poor who, Sunday after Sunday, hung upon his lips for three-quarters of an hour— we felt we were defrauded if the evening sermon were less than forty minutes—there were very, very few—I should think only a handful—who did not thoroughly believe in the Vicar. They knew that he was carrying out in his life the truths and the precepts which were uttered with so much power yet softness by his magnificent yet truly human voice. One important point in his preaching, and indeed in all his ministrations, was his singular knowledge of human nature. All other men whom I have been associated with in my life have made mistakes, and sometimes grievous mistakes, in their judgment of human character, but Hook never. His accurate knowledge of the principles which guide human conduct was of the greatest value to him in his preaching. I remember on one occasion the senior curate and I walked behind the Doctor and Mrs. Hook on our way to the vicarage, where we always had supper on Sunday night and arranged the work for the week. As the Doctor walked up the steps to the vicarage, a man, who had been following hard upon his footsteps, sprang up behind him and began to talk eagerly. We, of course, stood still. On entering the vicarage, after the man's departure, the Vicar, with a curious smile upon his sympathetic countenance, told us what the poor fellow had been saying. " * Ah, Vicar, you were too 'ard upon me to-night \ 1 (i.e. in the sermon). "* I don't say you were wrong. But if you had known all the circumstances, you wouldn't have PREFACE xin been so *ard upon me—you wouldn't, indeed.'" Of course the Vicar knew nothing whatever about the poor man. Another point in his preaching was this—that he always set up a high, but never an unattainable, standard. I have heard a baker, an enthusiastic admirer, say, "The Vicar never tells us to do anything but what we might do, and ought to do. He knows how to make allowances. There is no preacher like t'ould Vicar." Mrs. Hook, within my own hearing, attributed the Vicar's success in great degree to his bonhomie, and I have no doubt that she was right. He was always genial with everybody. On one occasion he was trying to persuade a man of intemperate habits to take the pledge. At last the man replied, "Well, Vicar, I will take it if you will." I Done! " was the quick reply. Rather taken aback, the man retorted, " But how shall I know if you keep it ?" Many men would have been ruffled by such a doubt. But not so the Vicar. "You ask my missus, and I will ask » * yours His "bonhomie was very useful on many occasions, as sometimes when he was in the chair at meetings. He was, of course, Rural Dean; and sometimes hot discussions would arise, for those were days of eager controversy. If the discussion became sharp, the President would intervene. Rolling about in his chair, somewhat after the manner of Dr. Johnson, he would plunge into anecdotes, and tell * Sometimes in his genial good humour he would, with much amusement, tell a story against himself, such as the following. Calling upon an old friend at Coventry, a pretty little girl came into the room, and walking up to the Doctor, and gazing at his bulky form and massive face, said deliberately, "Tve seen zu before." "Have you, my dear?" "Yes. I've seen zu at ze Zoological Gardens!" m f j XIV PREFACE us some capital story of one of the notabilities of his acquaintance. And the laugh restored us all to good humour, except, of course, the two who wished eagerly to press their own views. I have drawn this slight sketch of Dr. Hook, because, learned as he was, and an authority on pastoral theology, he was, I think, unquestionably the foremost parish priest of his day. And this because the principles upon which he acted, increasingly adopted since the time he first advocated them, appear to me to be the true principles of the Church of England, and well calculated to promote her work. He certainly was feiix opportunitate vitce. He raised the Church and increased the strength of the Church enormously in Leeds, and indirectly throughout all Yorkshire and the North. The change that has passed over the episcopate during the last sixty or seventy years is, I suppose, to the full as remarkable as that which has passed over the work and character of the parochial clergy. The worst days of the eighteenth century had indeed departed for ever. The Bishops were no longer found haunting the ante-room of the Prime Minister to make interest for promotion to a better, i.e. a richer, See. But bishoprics were still often, perhaps usually, given to political adherents, or to oblige a great man, or under the influence of private friendship. The object aimed at, as indeed is too often the case'now—the object which commends itself to those who desire preferment to benefices—was to oblige and benefit the person preferred, rather than to seek out the man most likely to do well the work of the vacant post. The person, not the work, was the predominating consideration. PREFACE xv Bishop Bathurst, of Norwich, and his friends were bitterly angry because at the age of eighty-three the important and onerous See of Winchester was not offered to him by the Liberal Government. And in actual fact, in the year 1831 the Archbishopric of Dublin was offered to him, when eighty-seven years of age, by the Prime Minister, Lord Grey. He was well known to be an enthusiastic supporter of the Reform Bill. There were many excellent men upon the Episcopal Bench, but they knew little of the science of episcopal work. They remained usually in their cathedral cities, unless they were in town, and scarcely ever went into their dioceses, except when on their periodical rounds for the purpose of holding Confirmations. I remember well one worthy Bishop, a kindly, courtly old man with an aristocratic lisp, speaking thus at my father's table: " Some of my Right Rev. Bwethren say they find the work of their dioceses vewy onerous. I cannot but think this is from want of method, want of method. What I do is this. I have a map of my diocese, and draw an imaginary line—an imaginary line—across it, dividing it into two fairly equal moieties. I go through the one half one year, confirming the dear young people. I go through the other half the next year, confirming the dear young people. And the third year—why, haw, haw, haw! I have a holiday." Similarly, the excellent Bishop of the then vast diocese of Lincoln writes to the Bishop of Norwich in 1833: " The present is my idle year: I have neither Visitation nor Confirmations, and can therefore, without the slightest inconvenience, hold Confirmations for you." I do not suppose that these Fathers in God had any I. w li xvi PREFACE idea that there was more that could be done. There was no tradition in the English Church of a Bishop going frequently throughout his diocese, visiting the clergy in their own parishes, and preaching in the village church. Such was an idea never broached. There were excellent Bishops wishful to do their duty, but some one was wanted to show the way. Our own Bishop was a country clergyman, who got his bishopric through the interest of his patron, who became a Cabinet Minister in the Whig Administration. He was a very kindly man, and certainly on one occasion, in which my own honoured father was concerned, exhibited singular humbleness of mind. It is remembered to this day how his kindness of heart once nearly got him into trouble. Walking along the highroad, he saw a carter beating his horse rather cruelly. Whereupon the Bishop stopped and remonstrated strongly with the man, who, however, not knowing him, only gave him " sauce." So the Bishop went on his way somewhat perturbed. A gentleman coming up, who had seen the two conversing, asked the waggoner if he knew who it was. " No," he says; " but I gave him a piece of my mind." " That was the Bishop." "The Bishop! Why, we rent land under him. I'll run and beg his pardon." The good Bishop, still ruffled, chanced to look behind, and saw the carter tearing along with his long whip in his hand, doubtless to administer personal chastisement. So he took to his heels and trundled along the road as well as his age would let him, the carter gaining on him fast. Fortunately, before long there was a cottage by the roadside, where the panting prelate took refuge. The carter PREFACE XVII followed. An eclaircissement took place, and a suitable apology appeased the good-natured Bishop. The traditional mode of administering Confirmation was deplorable. In the West Riding of Yorkshire, and in the great East Anglian See, Confirmations were held only once in seven years. Of the former, Dean Stephens says: " A vast number of ill-prepared young people were brought together in waggons from great distances. The occasion was frequently a scene of scandalous festivities and improprieties, and many of the candidates returned to their homes initiated in vice, instead of being confirmed in goodness." Upwards of 1000 candidates were presented at Leeds on the occasion of the first Confirmation of Dr. Hook's vicariate. It was much the same in East Anglia. The custom of the diocese is, and has been since the Middle Ages, for the Bishop to hold his Visitation of the clergy once only in seven years. My brethren of the Episcopate will envy me. When the appointed time arrived the Bishop's carriage was brought round. On one or two of these Visitations, so the story goes, the Bishop and Mr. Gurney exchanged horses for the occasion, the Bishop's four bays going to Mr. Gurney's stables, and Mr. Gurney's four blacks going to the Palace. Then in step the Chancellor, the Registrar, the Chaplain, and the Bishop himself, all in wigs and gowns and canonicals, to go off in solemn procession all round the diocese, visiting and confirming. This solemn progress had been handed down from mediaeval times, when the Bishop stayed at his various stately houses, visited the clergy, instituted and even ordained others. On one of these progresses, immediately after the " Black — xvm PREFACE Death," some hundreds of priests were ordained. The children, results of the seven years' waiting, were brought in to the various centres in crowds, in carts and waggons. Incidentally, Bishop Bathurst mentions in one of his letters that the day before he had confirmed between 1600 and 1700 young people in one of the fine churches at Bury St. Edmunds. There were eatings and drinkings and junketings in the public-houses, and the candidates went back to their often distant homes in the gloaming. The certain dangers and probable sins of such gatherings as these are obvious, and so too the distaste they would breed in the minds of pious Dissenters to the blessed ordinance of Confirmation. This progress occupied about two months. I myself was confirmed in the noble church of St. Michael, Coventry, with between 300 and 400 others. The Bishop gave us no address at all before the laying on of hands—which would suit well enough some of our modern critics. But after the Confirmation, mounting the pulpit and drawing from his silk cassock his black velvet sermon case, he gave us what was then styled his " charge." His opening struck me, and has never since been forgotten : | My dear bwethren, we have just been engaged in a vewy interesting, and I must confess, as far as I myself can perceive, a wholly unobjectionable ceremony." The sharp schoolboy thought that, if that were all that could be said, he might as well perhaps have stayed away. But indeed in those days very little was said, except by an occasional " Tractarian," on Confirmation as being one of the blessed God-instituted means of grace. It was regarded rather as being the taking upon one's self the vows of Holy Baptism—a useful ceremony. There is no need to point out the contrast between the PREFACE xix Ordinations of the present day and those of the time to which I am referring. I believe I am doing no injustice when I say that the matter which apparently was then thought of the greatest importance was that of the examination. The candidates had the briefest possible private interview with the Bishop, perhaps none at all. His legal secretary, on the Saturday evening, told the assembled gentlemen with an affable smile that they were all " through," and must be at the cathedral next morning at half-past ten. There were no days of meditation and prayer, no kind of a "retreat," as now, between the examination and the Ordination. At Norwich, as one of my clergy tells me, whose uncle went through the experience, "Very little work was done in the Ember days; and in the evenings they all met in the Palace and played whist. And for no inconsiderable stakes, too." There were great difficulties and obstacles handed down from the past which thwarted the earnest efforts of most zealous clergy. In some parts of the country there were the hunting parsons, and in all parts there were the nonresident parsons. The dreadful hindrance to the work of the Gospel presented by non-residence is strikingly brought out in that interesting and iUuminating book, the " Life of Bishop Stanley," by his son Arthur Stanley. Some of the facts there brought out seem almost beyond belief, e.g. that there was an instance of fifteen benefices being held by three brothers. "In 1837," writes a gentleman from Norwich, " I saw from my window nine parishes, of which only one contained a resident clergyman." In driving through the diocese the coachman has often pointed out to me the knoJJ, not far from the church, XX PREFACE i! where the parish clerk would stand and wave a white handkerchief to the parson, as he rode by on his cob, to signify that there was no congregation, and that he might ride on and take the duty at his next living. It is delightful to see what a change the firm and righteous administration of the new law enforcing the residence of the clergy by good Bishop Stanley effected in all this. I suppose that there is no branch of the work of the Church which has developed in a more remarkable way than the work of missions to the heathen. For long years after the Reformation the Church, in trials and difficulties, was trying to maintain her position in England. Then came the Deistic movement and the miserable Erastianism and deadness of the Georgian era. Missions to the heathen were not only neglected, but derided. In grubbing among the books of my father's library, I once fell upon two handsome volumes of sermons by Dr. Coetlogon, a divine of considerable repute in his day. Being always fond of sermons, I set about their perusal, and came to this question, "Are we bound to send missionaries to convert the heathen ?" Will it now be believed that the answer was | No" ? And the reason given was this: " The preaching of the Gospel at the first was authenticated by miracles. To attempt to preach the Gospel to* heathen without the power of working miracles would be futile. We now have no power of working miracles; therefore to send missionaries for their conversion would be useless." I read no more. Matters were improving. Good and earnest men, more particularly the Evangelicals, were showing increasing zeal for the good work; for, indeed, zeal fo? the conversion of PREFACE xxi the heathen is the thermometer of love for Christ. But generally Church-people were languid and indifferent, or even hostile, to the cause. " Charity begins at home." How cleverly Satan makes use of proverbs! Milner, in his "End of Controversy," makes zeal and success in the conversion of the heathen one of the notes of the Church, and pours scorn upon the miserable attempts of the "Protestants." And I have heard extreme Tractarians do the same. Since that time the Pope himself has sounded the note of alarm for the zeal of the " Protestants " and the increasing success of their missionary efforts. But no enthusiasts in their wildest dreams would have thought it possible that within a century there should take place such a gathering as that of the late " Pan-Anglican Congress "—not that personally I think we have any ground for exultation or self-complacency in that world-wide gathering. When we contrast our position in the mission- field and the position of our Church in the Colonies with our influence as a nation, the enormous wealth of those who call themselves members of our Communion and the efforts and the results of the work of other Christian bodies, who have also all their home needs to supply, I feel sure that we have cause for soul-searching and shame. The condition of the foreign work of the Church is analogous to that of her work and prospects at home. It fills us with humiliation because of our deficiencies, and yet gives us hope because of our improvement and progress. But for this it would have seemed unkind and invidious to have touched upon the lamentable neglects of the past. But these matters show us two things: (i.) the difficulties that we have inherited from the past—the amount of leeway which the modern Church has had to make up; (ii.) XXII PREFACE that while the present condition of the Church, with regard to her influence upon the nation, is indeed truly saddening, yet we are improving. The tide is not on the ebb, but on the flow. God, in spite of our sins, has watched over His Church. A new movement and a fresh life has stirred within her during the past seventy years, j The Church is no longer thought of and spoken of as " The Establishment." She is regarded as the Spiritual Body, to which more especially God has committed the work of ministering to the great Anglo-Saxon race. The old methods —or, perhaps, rather the old non-methods—of work are regarded as unsatisfactory. New ideals have sprung up, and new and more thorough methods are being employed. By God's good providence good men were raised up to show us, in a concrete form, how the work of the Lord might be improved. Such among the presbyters were men like Dr. Hook, of Leeds, and Mr. Claughton, of Kidderminster. And for the raising of the standard of episcopal life and work, the great Bishop of Oxford, Dr. S. Wilberforce, showed the way. Look to the Church now, and the contrast between the work being done at the present day and that which was being done sixty or seventy years ago is indeed remarkable. We believe that " the good hand of our God has been upon us." But whether the results achieved are commensurate with the improvement in the work done is another and a difficult and a doubtful question. Is the Church, with regard to the nation, stronger than she was seventy years ago? I do not doubt that there is far less hostility. The Establishment was odious, as a rule, to all Radicals. It was regarded as a privileged institution, opposed to all progress and liberality of thought. The conduct of the Bishops and PREFACE XXlll clergy, especially of the former, in their persistent opposition to the Reform Act, was still tenaciously remembered Church rates were regarded as a hateful impost. At a fiercely contested election, no leading Churchman and Tory—for, alas! the two were synonymous—was safe from insult. When the mob, with colours and band and banners, the Liberal "rally," swept round the town at election time, they always paused before my father's house, though he was personally greatly respected, and was indeed a Liberal until his latter years. We children were bidden not to show ourselves at the windows, and cowered behind the blinds while the yelling and the hissing and the opprobrious epithets went on. All this has passed away. Some excellent legislation has been carried; among the rest the Church Rates Abolition Act, dreaded and opposed by the clergy, but indeed a blessing in disguise. The greater earnestness and zeal of the clergy have been recognized. The Church has learned to depend less and less upon the aid of the State, and more upon the devotion and liberality of her own members. And in proportion her strength has increased. We need to go further in the same direction. But has the Church a greater spiritual influence upon the masses, and especially upon those forces which, as is inevitable in the long run in a democratic country, are rising up to increasing power amongst us ? Is it not a startling and lamentable fact, if it be true, that of the large contingent of I labour members " in the House of Commons, only one professes himself to be a member of the Church of England ? What is the explanation of this ? A sufficient answer would require treatment at considerable length. I will only briefly put forward two considerations: (i.) Politics. An established Church has almost t XXIV PREFACE n inevitably a tendency towards conservatism. The clergy have a shrinking from democracy, and offend therefore the advocates of popular rights. To give but one instance. There is no doubt that the great majority of the clergy were opposed, or were generally thought to be opposed, to the extension of the franchise to the agricultural labourers, and were certainly believed by them to sympathize and to act with those who would deny to them what they regarded as their interests and legitimate ambitions. The result of this, and the consequent hostility of the "Agricultural Labourers' Union," was seen in what was called the " exodus of the labourers," when thousands of the labourers openly left the Church, and either joined the Nonconformists or more usually dropped into the vast army of the indifferents. I trust and believe that this alienation from the Church is dying out, and the labourers, especially the younger men, are becoming increasingly attached to our Communion.* But great harm was done. My own conviction is that while a clergyman, as an individual, has as much right to his opinion and the exercise of his vote as any other citizen, for the ministers of the Gospel to take such a line in purely secular matters as alienates a section of the nation, and indisposes them to accept the ministrations of the Gospel at their hands, is wrong and indefensible; for we are ordained not to teach secular politics, but to save souls. (ii.) Such men as our artizans, a fine class of men whom * At the time of my first Visitation, in 1893, there were only a few hundreds of communicant labourers in the diocese. By my second Visitation, in 1901, the number had increased to 4527, and by 1908 to 7119—a good increase, yet the number ought to be many times greater. The population of the rural districts has in the mean time considerably decreased. PREFACE XXV we wish to win for the Gospel, are alienated from the Church, as they say, because they seem to have no place in her Communion. The artizan can go to the parish church, if he please, unless indeed it be, as is not unlikely, a pew-rented church; in which case it is not the place for him. Otherwise he can go and no one notices him. Perhaps the musical service, the intoning, the anthem, the short sermon, do not suit him. But he has no opportunity of advocating any change. The church is managed by the vicar, with perhaps the aid of a few "influential people." Oh, that expression, the "influential people "! What harm it has done! There are those who appear to think that the Church exists for the influential people. To this I cordially assent, if we may merely omit the word "influential." The artizan knows that none of his sort has any part in the work or management of the church. Nobody accosts him when he attends, or extends to him the right hand of fellowship, or misses him when he stays away. He thinks he is neither welcomed nor wanted, and will go elsewhere where he will be, or else he gives up religion as a bad job. I contend that in such parishes as the bulk of our town parishes, consisting partly of the affluent, partly of the working classes, partly of those who belong precisely to neither, it should be known and understood that people of every class are welcomed and invited to take part in the work and management of the church. In fact, every such local church should be managed upon democratic lines. While the spheres of doctrine and worship are reserved, all the temporal affairs of the church—the finances, the temporal undertakings—should be managed by the laity under the presidency of the parish priest. k Utt XXVI PREFACE And care should be taken that upon this body of management every class should be adequately represented by those who are ascertained (by votes, if necessary) to be genuine representatives of the class. The aid and co-operation of every man of good character, willing to help, is thankfully welcomed. A place and a work of some kind should, as far as possible, be found for every one. All should be brought in, and there should be a keen sense of brotherhood among all who listen to the same Gospel and kneel together at the same holy table. There are churches where this is being attempted, and with happy results being done. Were they multiplied a hundred-fold, the Church would be stronger and the work of the Church's Lord better done. I must express my cordial thanks to Miss Claudet for the kind loan of photographs by my late dear friend F. Claudet; and also to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge for permission to make extracts from my work (" My Life in Mongolia and Siberia ") published by them. # JOH: NORVIC: Christmas, 1908. ii CONTENTS PKEFACE PAGE . v—xxvi CHAPTER I THE CALL TO THE WEST At Leeds—"Come over and help us"—Choice of route—West Indies—Haunts of the buccaneers—First acquaintance with gold-miners—The Vigilance Committee—Arrival in San Francisco ...•••••• CHAPTER II NEW WESTMINSTER Esquimault Harbour—The beginnings of New Westminster- Roughing it—Shooting at sight—Through the woods- Replenishing the larder—Christmas away from home . 1-14 15-27 CHAPTER III FIRE AND THE AVENGERS OF BLOOD Forest fires—Fight with the flames—Canadians to the rescue— Native Indians—Tsilpeyman and his race for life—Bloodshed averted—Jack Sprague in goal and out of it . . 28-35 CHAPTER IV THE NORTH-AMERICAN INDIAN His treatment by the white races—His impending fate—The ravages of the bottle—His personal appearance—Mr. Sheepshanks as a "Resurrectionist" . .... • ob-40 xxvii " 1 XXV111 CONTENTS ml I CHAPTER V UP COUNTRY The unspeakable mosquito—Dinner under difficulties—Indian encampment—Method of teaching—Return home—Visit to settlers—Beavers and their work ..... CHAPTER VI SPORT, ILLNESS, AND COLD Chinamen in British Columbia—Their gratitude and generosity —Amongst the big fish of Canada—Rheumatic fever—A hard winter—Stag-hunting extraordinary . , CHAPTER VII NORTHWARDS—TO THE GOLD-MINES The men of the pick and cradle—A fellow-worker—Crazy craft on the Frazer—On horseback and foot—Experiences by the way—A judgment of Solomon—Double or quits—La Fontaine Indians—Care for body and soul—Effects of the lancet ......... CHAPTER VIII ON THE CARIBOO Incidents of travel—"Green timber"—Disappointment and retreat—Loss of money—Loss of life—Antlers Creek— An unconventional service—Methods of mining CHAPTER IX THE TALE OF THE YOUNG ENGLISHMAN Autumn in North America—Forest and lake—Treachery and attempted murder—A faithful dog—The long watch— Reliefparty CHAPTER X ORDERED NORTH AGAIN The " varsities " in the wilds—A landlord Senior Optime—Men in place of mules—A bear in the way—Work in Richfield —A lending library—Bruin once more—Intelligent native PAGE 41-51 52-59 60-71 72-82 83-87 88-97 CONTENTS XXIX CHAPTER XI A LONG TRAMP HOME Frozen out—The despatch rider's last journey—A hanging jury —The work of an evangelist—A gift of bells—Trade depression—Leave of absence PAGE 98-104 CHAPTER XH ACROSS THE CONTINENT Yosemite Valley—Virginia City—Night and day travel— Mormonism — Salt Lake City—Brigham Young — The Danites—The President's womenkind .... 105-110 CHAPTER XIII SALT LAKE CITY A green oasis—Climate and people—A superstitious religion— Sunday at the Bowery—Wild predictions—Brigham Young as a theologian 111-115 CHAPTER XIV THE RULE OF BRIGHAM YOUNG A notable man—The President at home—Education and amusements in Utah—A singular experience—Bishop Woolly— Undercurrents of feeling—Polygamy—Night at the theatre 116-12 2 CHAPTER XV THE FOUNDER OF THE LATTER DAY SAINTS Josephite Brethren—Apostle John Taylor—An unhappy wife — Story of conversion — History of Joe Smith — His assassination ........ 123-128 CHAPTER XVI DESERT AND PRAIRIE Hasty meals—Fatigues of travel—Rough companions—The friendly Alsatian—Accident to coach—Sioux brave— Buffalo hunt—A lament ...... 129-137 XXX If f 1 I I I ft ,: CONTENTS CHAPTER XVII MAMMOTH CAVES OF KENTUCKY Rail and steamboat once more—Niagara—Disappointment in Washington—Three days' exploration of caves—The PAGE magic of song 138-143 CHAPTER XVIII ENGLAND AND BACK American hospitality—The old country—A successful beggar— Afloat again—Cornish miners—Jamaica—Negro Insurrection— Governor Eyre — San Francisco — Imperturbable Chinaman ........ 144-149 CHAPTER XIX FAREWELL TO BRITISH COLUMBIA Bad news from home—Resignation—Farewell visit to Victoria — Paul Legaick — His. murderous career—Indian forebodings—A good investment—Positions reversed . . 150-154 CHAPTER XX THE SANDWICH ISLANDS On board the Bernice—Generous to the last—Intemperate officers and an ill-found boat—Wine for water—Hawaii— Criminals bathing—Honolulu ..... 155-160 CHAPTER XXI MAUI AND HAWAII Boys at school and play—Staff of life—Kanaka crowd—Poi— Traces of Mormonism—-Worship of the shark . . 161-168 CHAPTER XXII TRIP TO HILO Scnool of the Devonport Sisters—Kukui tree—A half-breed passenger—Some pattern babes—Hospitality in Hilo— An American host—Sudden festivities .... 169-175 CONTENTS CHAPTER XXIII A FAMOUS VOLCANO XXXI PAGE Through the forest—Inland vegetation—Diminishing population—Halfway house—Native geography—A precious export—First sight of Kilanea—Primitive hotel . . 176-186 I CHAPTER XXIV EXPLORATION OF CRATER A walk on hardened lava—Possible dangers—Burning lakes— Kilanea—Slowly dying superstitions—Volcanic eruptions —A Christian heroine—Defiance of Pele—A strange bathhouse 187-196 CHAPTER XXV IN THE KOA WOODS Indigenous animals—The coming of the mosquito—Wild geese —Wandering in the forest—A contrast of character— Captain Cook's death explained—Aquatic sport . . 197-202 CHAPTER XXVI EXCURSIONS IN OAHU Picnic inland—Merry school-girls—Kanaka farmhouse—Native singer—Expedition to Waikiki—Ancient temples—Human sacrifices—House of refuge ..... 203-208 CHAPTER XXVII VOYAGE TO CHINA Setting out for Asia—On board the Ethan Allen— Fellow- passengers— Becalmed — Dread of pirates — Captain's diplomacy—Hong Kong CHAPTER XXVIII A NEW WORLD Hong Kong—Its thoroughfares and people—A British colony- Canton—Riverside population—Street sights-Confused feeding—Chinese artificers—Pawnbrokers' shops . . 216-224 209-215 1 II XXX11 CONTENTS CHAPTER XXIX CANTON Merchants' guild-—Scene of the willow pattern—Its legend— Private grounds—Suburban residences—Lunch with the ladies .......«• CHAPTER XXX A CHINESE GOLGOTHA Opium eaters—Place of execution—Cemetery—Monastery at Honan—Temple service—Idol worship—Chant of adora tion—Forbidding ceremonies PAGE 225-230 231-238 CHAPTER XXXIlj SHANGHAI TO TTJBN-TSIN Just in time—A story of the drought—Irrigation on river-banks —Watchmen and their drums — Tien-tsin—Belated melodies j. 239-242 CHAPTER XXXII ON THE ROAD TO THE CAPITAL Mule carts—Their discomfort—Attempts at imposition—The village inn—Pest of insects—Life in small towns—The story teller—Where are the women?—An unexpected burst of speed—Sleepy driver 243-249 CHAPTER XXXni PEKING Impressions of city—Visit to lamasery—The lordly Superior— Basso profundo prayers—Disciplinary measures—Refreshments—Ludicrous scene ...... 250-254 CHAPTER XXXIV A LOST TRIBE OF ISRAEL Bishop Schereschewsky—His history—Disguise and expedition to Kai-Feng-Fu—His discovery—"The smew that shrank "—Buddha and Mahomet for Jehovah—Inspection of Mohammedan mosque ...,;., 255-261 CONTENTS XXXlll CHAPTER XXXV THE ALTAR OF HEAVEN FAGS System of examinations—Successful candidate—Proud parent —Temple of Heaven—Burglarious entry—Bribery and corruption—Three terraces—More palm oil and a little violence—A prayer-meeting—Sequel .... 262-270 CHAPTER XXXVI TOWARDS THE FRONTIER Preparations for departure—Farewells—Man and beast in China—Bird companions—Fishing with cormorants— Racial deliberate!] ess—Attempted extortion—Successful ruse—Ruined crops—Improved temperature ♦ * . 271-277 CHAPTER XXXVH NEARING MONGOLIA Passing sights—Effects of drought—Wayside inn—Mohammedan landlord—Dishonest servant—Flooded stream— More roguery—Nemesis—The country of the conventional 278-289 CHAPTER XXXVni AT "THE ENTRANCE GATE i Across Asia—Little wall of China—Kalgan—Tea trade—Horse fair—Agriculture under difficulties—Great wall—Travellers' equipage—The tedious camel .... 290-296 CHAPTER XXXIX A HOME OF EMPIRE Backward glances—Chinese qualities—The maker of Mongolia —World ruler—Extent of conquest—Odd proceeding— Argol—Psychological problem—Bara and Geluga . . 297-303 CHAPTER XL THE DESERT OF GOBI A leaky abode—Entering upon the desert—Wells—Mongol guides—Yourts and their furniture—Etiquette in Gobi—A praying race 304-309 I f XXXIV CONTENTS CHAPTER XLI AMONGST THE TENTS PAGE Killing a sheep—Uninvited guests—Mongol and Chinese women—Lama visitors—Exorcism—More about the camel —A friendly brute ....... 310-316 'i CHAPTER XLII CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS Monotonous scenery—Daily routine—Barq's homegoing and return — Dangerous dogs — Hospitality — Salutations — Objects of worship—Keeping the peace—Tea drinking— Prayer cylinder—A memorable procession . . . 317-323 CHAPTER XLIII NEARING THE SACRED CITY Weary camels—Mirage—Banks of the Tola—Exciting crossing —Parting from Bara and Geluga—Mixed races—No women 324-328 CHAPTER XLIV OURGA A collection of huts—The city proper—No sanitation—Prosperous trade—Visit of pilgrims—Women and their dress— Lamas—Their head-gear and character . . . 329-333 CHAPTER XLV THE KHUTUKTU A human god—Mongolian Buddhism — Grand Lama — His dangers—Successor—The three manifestations of Buddha —Wise intervention—Prayer-wheels—A purchase . . 334-339 CHAPTER XLVI ADORATION OF GRAND LAMA Unique experience—Potentate leaves for country quarters— Waiting crowds—Costly presents—Procession—Ceremony —Interior of temples . ..... 340-345 CONTENTS XXXV CHAPTER XLVII FIRE WORSHIP Traces of Shamanism Officiating priest — Preparations — deeding the f Tedious ceremony—Refreshments Curious vestments—Feeding the furnace—Incantations— CHAPTER XLVHI TO RUSSIAN TERRITORY Journey from Ourga—Obi worship—Kiachtka—Decaying prosperity—Cathedral—Russo-Chinese boundary—Maimatchin -Return to civilized life—Mr. Grant—Off again—Old Lithuanian—Selenga River . CHAPTER XLIX LAKE BAIKAL Prolific stream—Holy Sea—Sudden storms—Home of Shamanism — Monseigneur Benjamin — Deadlock — Mimicry — Bouriats—Old religion of Asia—Mr. Birkbeck and the Archimandrite ........ CHAPTER L THROUGH SIBERIA First steamboat—Irkutsk — Governor's kindness — Interview with Archbishop—Clergy and work—Greek Liturgy— Memorable drive begins—Travelling companion—Taran- tass—River of Paradox ...... CHAPTER LI ON THE GREAT POST-ROAD Sensations of travel—Empire highway—Coming of the locomotive—Roadside change houses—The age of wood— Peasantry in Siberia—Resources of country—Intemperance—Tomsk ........ PAGE 346-350 351-357 358-364 365-370 371-376 CHAPTER LII THE LAST STAGE Exiled in Siberia—A natural prison—Omsk—The Urals— Ekaterinburg—The boundary-post—Rush for the steamer —On the Volga—Nijni-Novgorod—Moscow—Home . 377-382 INDEX 383-386 : m LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS » » Rev. John Sheepshanks, Frazer River, 1860: Bishop of Norwich, 1908 Frontispiece The Beginnings of New Westminster, 1860 . To face p. 17 Holy Trinity Church, New Westminster Holy Trinity Church and Rectory Brigham Young, Mormon President House of Brigham Young's Wives, Salt Lake City monseigneur benjamin, blshop of the trans-baikal Mission The Travellers' Tarantass 35 35 „ 110 „ 110 „ 364 „ 364 XXX VII 1 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH CHAPTER I THE CALL TO THE WEST At Leeds—" Come over and help us "—Choice of route—West Indies— Haunts of the buccaneers—First acquaintance with gold-miners— The Vigilance Committee—Arrival in San Francisco. I Go by all means. I hope you may do some good out in British Columbia. Anyway " (with one of his sweet smiles), II think you will get good yourself." This was the encouragement given to the future Bishop of Norwich in the contemplation of work and wanderings that were to fill up the next eight years of his life. It was no common man who spoke it. Tall, red-haired, with large mouth, so little was he beautiful to outward seeming that he wrote in his diary, " Terrible ugly fellow I am, but I can't help it," and placed on record the fact that his granddaughter I cried at the sight of me." To most people the sight of him was welcome and inspiring. Of most quaint and beautiful nature, apt and droll in language, vigorous beyond the common in mind and body, no citizen of Leeds but delighted in the brave and vehement old Churchman, Dr. Hook. To his curates he was as a father. Advice from him was more urgent than commands from i B L 2 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH other lips, so that Kstening to his sanction his young colleague knew he must respond to the voice which had already called to him across the Pacific. Few men were more fitted for the task which lay before him than John Sheepshanks. Though he went down from his University of Cambridge undistinguished as an athlete, he had happily the physical qualifications which fitted him to be a pioneer of the Church. How much of fatigue and weariness he was capable of enduring, how little the loss of comfort and convenience affected him, this record will show. It was no school for skulkers in Leeds. There they heard nothing but manly notes. Possessed of the missionary spirit from his earliest youth, he now turned to the colonies with the advantage of a training in so good a workshop. But why leave Yorkshire, that county of broad acres? Why desert Leeds when sin and sorrow were for ever clamouring at the door, where work was eager and absorbing ? His face was set to leave his native land because of compelling claims in British Columbia. Gold had been discovered there, and with that magic word thousands had hurried to the new domain which lay by the wash of the North Pacific. By the end of 1858 a rush had been made into the country, especially from the United States, whence no less than twenty thousand souls had landed on Vancouver Island. All sorts and conditions were amongst them— Scandinavians, Germans, Italians, and other alien nationalities ; men of business with offices closed and neglected; lawyers and doctors, their clients left behind; sailors who had deserted their ships, and shopmen with souls above yard measures and tape; farm hands and teachers; the strong and the weak, the starving and the well-to-do, they were AT SEA all there, and all on fire to make or mend their fortunes. Nor in the Babel of tongues were there wanting the distinctive accents of our own islands, for multitudes from Great Britain and Ireland had pressed on to the far West by steamers and sailing vessels. Here, then, were the opportunities for a young and ardent Churchman, his resolution for service abroad approved by " surely the most delightful vicar a young curate ever had," as well as by his more immediate relatives. He was soon ready to set forward with the added encouragement that a friend, the Kev. E. Dundas, had engaged to journey with him, and share in the task of breaking up the fallow ground under Dr. Hills, the newly appointed Bishop of British Columbia. Their travels began at a time when the great, the incredible drama of the Mutiny was drawing to a close, a time when John Brown had made his famous raid into Harper's Perry to ,be captured, shot, and gathered to the Immortals. The year of grace was that of 1859. As for the season of the year, it was so far forward in the summer that the blossoms in the Warwickshire orchards were already changing into fruit. There were various routes open in making for Western Canada—by New York, then across the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, with its steamboat service to Victoria; or by Quebec and Lake Superior over the Rockies, a long and fatiguing journey; or they could reach their desired port in Vancouver after a four months' voyage by plunging round the Horn in a sailing vessel. They chose rather to visit the West Indies and the island of St. Thomas, bearing away along the shores of South America. From his youth Mr. Sheepshanks had been ffli A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH H I H) enamoured of those islands and magical seas; he was hungry to see the quaint cities of the Conquistadores, where the sandalled sentinels cry through the night the same reassuring watchword, just as they did hundreds of years ago. The swell ran high, and out in the open there were I skippers' daughters I when the two young men found themselves on board the mail steamer La Plata bound for the West Indies. 1 There was nothing remarkable about our voyage in the W.I. mail steamboat La Plata to the West Indies, though to me, who had never previously been for a long voyage, everything was novel and full of interest. We had the rough weather usual round this tempestuous island of ours. The usual bird, wearied, almost spent with fluttering over the waste of waters, settled upon the bulwarks, was nursed and fed and then dismissed, probably to die. Then came the blue cloudless skies, the burning sun, and the ocean smooth as a mirror, the flying fish flitting over the water. Then there was the harbour of St. Thomas and its sharks, the brown hills and the desolate, ruined sugar plantations of the island." From this point the voyage was continued in a vessel destined to make history. The Battle of Bull's Run, with all that it meant of humiliation to a great and patriotic people, was still unfought. But the time was not far distant when the heroic age of the American Commonwealth was to begin, and to begin with that, struggle for life or death, between slavery and the principles of freedom, in which the fate of the flag with the stars and the stripes was to stagger. Messrs. Slidell and Mason, representatives of the south at the Courts of St. James' and the Tuileries, were to be forcibly removed from the protection and neutrality of a. vessel flying ON BOARD THE TRENT 5 the Union Jack, a breach of international law to be resented by the English Government, atoned for indeed, yet to leave behind it an iU-will, deepening to hatred, between the two countries. It was in the Trent that Mr. Sheepshanks sailed into the harbour of St. Thomas, to find it much as Charles Kingsley described it a few years later, " as veritable a Dutch oven for cooking fever in, with as veritable a dripping-pan for the poison, when concocted in the tideless basin below the town, as man ever invented." He was not sorry when they steamed out of port. Yellow Jack had come aboard, and the captain, with sixteen of his crew, of whom one died, were down with the fever. Calling at St. Martha and Carthagena, "miserable places, brown and dusty, the earth brown, the men's faces brown and sallow, the houses looking as if they had at first been made of soft gingerbread, and then had been baked a yellowish brown by the soft sun," the young parson had an eye to past ages and mused on the changes that had happened since our enterprising privateers lay in wait for the treasure- laden galleons rolling heavily homewards through these waters. How often had the English buccaneers welcomed the sight of the enemies' topsails in these seas! History brooded over that part of the world; of all these towns, posted along the shore, not one of them was without its legends, survivals of the hundreds of years of violence and bloodshed they had known. At Aspinwall they said good-bye to the old Trent and her cockroaches, and crossed the isthmus by rail to Panama. A stay of several days enabled Mr. Sheepshanks to make short excursions into the neighbouring country. "I had often dreamed in England of the gorgeous 1 ! i ||| Vi * 1 6 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH 91 vegetation of the tropics, and at last I beheld it around me. There is something new, some fruit or flower unseen before, at every step. The road is lined on either side with the cactus, the caoutchouc, the acacia, and the prickly pear. Great ants are clearing a way for themselves across the path, or hurrying up the trees with leaves for their home. "Mighty gourds hang above the shrubs and white blossoms, and scarlet berries shine out from among the foliage. Creepers hold out their orange and lilac flowers across the path. The flowering trees, which I think are always beautiful in our eyes, are brilliant with colour. The branches of the mango are now laden with the rich luscious fruit. High above, the palm leaves droop in the sultry air. Tall trees of the palm species, with long fernlike leaves, are crowned with masses of bright yellow berries, and round and round them there are wreathed skeins of parasites, hanging in festoons from tree to tree, and falling down to the earth in graceful folds of drapery. " Nor is the jungle devoid of life. Beetles quiver round the blossoms, myriads of insects fill the air with their ceaseless hum. Gaudy butterflies zigzag across the path, and the timid iguanas steal away through the leaves at the sound of footsteps. Creeping quietly along by the banks of a stream, I came across a whole family of these inoffensive creatures playing on the bank. " The scene somewhat changes as the morning advances, and the sun ' coming out of his chamber rejoices as a giant to run his course.' The freshness of the early morning disappears. The moisture is licked up, and nature seems to faint. The burning rays beat down upon the jungle and the mire with savage strength. The palm trees droop, and the insects fly for shelter beneath the leaves. Their hum LIFE IN THE TROPICS 7 gradually subsides, and before long there is perfect silence. Everything seems to be beaten down by the intense heat, and the sun, that glorious tyrant, is the conqueror. "But go forth again in the evening, and the scene is changed. Scarcely has the sun set in the Pacific, glaring fiercely to the last, when the world seems to awaken from its trance and gives signs of life. The air becomes moist and balmy. The air scintillates with fire-flies; they gleam out from the leaves and grass. The shrubs, too, rejoice in the departure of their tyrant; their leaves once more are strong and crisp, and the palm again lifts up her head. " The insects, too, begin to stir, and the f Whirr, whirr, whirr, cheep, cheep, cheep,' go on increasing in volume. The frogs croak out their thrilling drone from every pool and steaming morass until the air seems to vibrate with the chorus of sounds. And then, down upon the whole scene, upon shrubs and trees, upon ferns and grass, the moon, never so lovely as in the tropics, pours down her floods of silver light." Mr. Sheepshanks formed an opinion, unfavourable in the highest degree, of the state of the Christian religion in those parts of Central America—an opinion confirmed by travellers like Humboldt before him, and by contemporary judgment, both Roman Catholic and Protestant. The churches were filthy and full of tawdry images; congregations there were none, or of the scantiest; priests, repulsive in look, gave an appearance of irreverence as they gabbled through their offices; the people themselves were superstitious and immoral. Even the Pope himself was able to effect no reformation, though he had been rightly concerned, and had sent a high ecclesiastic to cleanse, if it might be, this Augean stable. A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH P:< J; HI After a few days' interval, the boat from New York, for which they were waiting, arrived in A spin wall with seven hundred passengers. Whilst these were urging a wild career across the isthmus, Mr. Sheepshanks and his companion, their tickets for San Francisco in their pockets, made their way to the railway station on the western edge, whence a small steamboat bore them to the Golden Age at anchor out in the gulf. And here they were met by the first and most picturesque signs of the new life to which they were committing themselves. " The cars arrived; and out at once rushed some hundreds of dirty, shabby, bearded men, all of them, as Americans of this class always are, in an amazing hurry to be first. They swarmed along the pier, every man for himself, each absolutely regardless of others. Why not? Other people are able to look after themselves. They dragged vehemently behind them boxes of all shapes and sizes with as much vigour as if thousands of pounds depended upon their getting them into the steamboat without a moment's loss of time. "At once they ensconced themselves, each in the best place that he could secure, with an utter disregard of everybody's comfort but his own, which I think even surpassed that of the ordinary travelling Englishman. That done, they promptly bought up every eatable that was being vended along the pier. Bread and cakes, mangoes, bananas, and shaddocks vanished in a twinkling. And then they began at once to vociferate that the boat must immediately \ go ahead.' " Accordingly—for these men were not to be trifled with— ' go ahead' we did, and were soon on the deck of the Golden Age, the most commodious, comfortable, luxurious steamboat that I had hitherto seen. " I may as weU put down here my first impressions of ! !i UNCONVENTIONAL PASSENGERS that remarkable class of people, of which our fellow-passengers almost entirely consisted, the Californian gold-miners and adventurers. As regards their appearance, they were generally shabby, nearly all bearded, though some wore only a i goat-tee,' and all dirty. Let it not be inferred, however, that they were all poor. By no means. That portion of them which had already been to California, and were now returning—perhaps only after an absence of a few weeks— and these constituted the great majority—had what we in England would consider plenty of money in their pockets. If high stakes were required for a bet or a game at cards, the money was always forthcoming. And, as a rule, the grimiest of them possessed each his handsome gold watch, chain, and seals. I They might, had they chosen, have been clean and well dressed, and at certain times would be; but to be ordinarily shabby and dirty was their way. They were used to it; and certainly it was a way to save them a good deal of trouble. The only peculiar articles of their dress were the boots and hats; the boots being almost always top-boots coming up to the knee, and going over the trousers; the hats being wideawakes of every size, shape, and hue. The favourite was, I think, a high-crowned hat, shaped like that of the old Puritans, with about four inches cut off the crown, and of a tawny orange colour. In face they were hairy and brown, with a keen look, very bright restless eyes, and a person, though some were mere youths, broad and muscular. | To leave their appearance. The first thing that struck me was their shocking profanity—of this I had been warned before; but the reality exceeded my expectations. Every sentence had its oath. And this, not an ordinary oath, but one of the most horrible description. I was particularly n hi V! i Hi 10 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH struck with the constant use of the Saviour's name. They appeared to disdain the ordinary forms of swearing, and to search for the most far-fetched and shocking oaths with which their imagination could supply them. " The youngest men were by far the worst. These oaths when talking with a clergyman they always avoided. Perhaps one might occasionally drop out inadvertently; but for this, if they noticed the fact, they would at once apologize, not as having said what was wrong, but as having committed a breach of good manners. "All spoke to each other on good terms of perfect equality; and mere youths made impudent, sarcastic, and even contemptuous speeches to men who could have killed them at a blow. And yet, as far as I could see, this never bred any ill-feeling; and the older men treated the youths as if in all respects their equals. Age gave no superiority of any kind. " I observed that they looked upon England as in all respects a foreign land, and upon Englishmen as though they had no more in common with them than with men of any other European country. In this there was a marked difference between them and Americans of the more cultured class. "Of their habits the most noticeable was their constant chewing of tobacco—with its concomitant. Upon this I need not enlarge; but may mention that the most important item of the furniture of the upper deck was two or three long rows of spittoons, each of which was always [ engaged.' And it was one man's work to take charge of these most indispensable articles, and to sweep up the fragments of tobacco lying about upon the deck." Fifteen years before Mr. Sheepshanks sat down in the MINERS AT MEALS ii cabin with these Californians, Charles Dickens had offended their countrymen with his description of their habits and manners. The grudge borne to the novelist has long ceased; few there are who cannot laugh heartily over the humorous exaggerations of Martin Chuzzlewit. Remembering, however, the soreness of feeling which pervaded the whole of American society on what was regarded as the caricature of Transatlantic life; how Lowell deemed it deserving a special word of condemnation in his article on " a certain condescension in foreigners"; remembering, too, that Kipling, in his own trenchant way, has insisted " the American has no meals. He stuffs for ten minutes thrice a day," let us see how the American at table presented himself to the observant traveller of 1859. " Their manners with regard to eating were characteristic. At the sound of their own dinner bell—there were several dining-hours during the day—they were off. Every man instantly left his place on the upper deck and rushed below. " Arrived at the table, every man promptly helped himself from the dish nearest to him, then perhaps took some of the next, and of the next; all was heaped upon the same plate and disposed of, as if life and death depended upon their speed. As a rule, they drank nothing but water. The next course was then cleared off, and so on till they could conscientiously declare themselves ' through.' " The dessert was placed upon the table. Dash went every man's hand into the dish, and lo! nuts and oranges and figs were gone, stored in the pocket for a munch up above. Then a move to the bar for a I liquor up.' A cocktail, consisting perhaps of a little spirit, a Httle syrup, and a little water, was mixed by the bar-keeper and swallowed Hi iM If 12 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH down at a gulp; and then to the upper deck for nut-cracking and a chew and a smoke. One of these men will be 'through' with his dinner in twelve minutes. A smart fellow, if supplied with dishes with sufficient rapidity, in about seven." In this company the two clergymen heard much of the doings of the famous Vigilance Committee, whose summary methods had purged a city of its ruffianism almost in an hour. For the California of these days was the California of Bret Harte and Tennessee's partner. In the absence of law, settled and inflexible, there had arisen the wildest kind of justice. Its verdict pronounced, the desperado or thief, after a few minutes of passionate expostulation or sullen silence, was run up to the nearest bough, or riddled with shots from a score of revolvers. There was no place for the casuistries of a law court; extenuating circumstances, that sobering influence which interposes between the commission of a crime and its punishment, were little known. Decisions were sudden as death itself. It was significant of the force of popular opinion that the Federal Government had at last organized its justiciary in California, for its first representative was one of the Golden Age's passengers, and on his way to become head of the Supreme Court of San Francisco. How Judge Lynch came into existence, Mr. Sheepshanks learned from the lips of those who had firsfc seen his sudden and terrifying appearance. "It was at the time of the greatest excitement of the gold fever. California was the centre for the desperadoes of the world. Crimes were of constant occurrence, and were i:M THE COMING OF JUDGE LYNCH open and mostly unpunished. The breakers of the law were men often who had been successful in mining and had plenty of money at command. Jurors, or lawyers, or warders, or, so it was whispered, possibly even the judge, might be bribed. Crimes increased in number and the malefactors in audacity. Confidence in the power of the law to protect life and property was rudely shaken, and there was a general feeling of insecurity and alarm throughout society. " It was felt time a remedy must be found; and secretly numbers of the citizens of San Francisco formed themselves into a 'vigilance committee/ which soon felt itself strong enough to take drastic measures. On a prearranged night all the fire bells of the city were set ringing, and citizens poured out into the streets, which were thronged with people. The crowds poured down to an open space near the quays, where preparations had been made for a rough administration of justice. IA number of well-known desperadoes, murderers and other law-breakers, had been secured, and they were now put up to trial. The name of some notorious feUow was called out, and at once witnesses stood up and testified. 11 was present when he shot a man at the gaming tables at Stoney Creek. His name was So-and-So.' f1 was there too, and wiU swear to it.' f1 saw him shoot down a man in a drinking-bar at Sacramento.' And so forth. " The prisoner had an opportunity of speaking in his own defence, and then his case was decided. " The next case was then rapidly dealt with. The men were notorious criminals. There was and could be really no doubt about their guilt. So rough justice was done. Some four or five men were promptly hanged, and two or three times that number were told to f skedaddle' out of the ii mi y.ft 14 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH country at once. If they were found in California in three days' time, they, too, would be hanged. " Quiet, law-abiding people in the East were shocked at such proceedings. But if law becomes powerless, society in the last resort must protect itself. A wholesome fear fell upon criminals. And before long the law was able to resume its sway." On the 15th of August the adventurers thronged the deck with shining eyes, already " Talmapais was lifting its shapely head from the sea;" a few more hours and the city of San Francisco, with the blue expanse of the bay, were discovered. It was the promised land! But of those who seemed to descry against the rising sun "the spires of Eldorado," how many were to return disenchanted! From the interior men were retiring in disappointment and wrath, yet with the arrival of every ship the stream poured on to the gold-mines. 111 In CHAPTER II NEW WESTMINSTEB Esquimault Harbour—The beginnings of New Westminster—Boughing it—Shooting at sight—Through the woods—Replenishing the larder —Christmas away from home. Fkom the Pacific capital the Northerner carried the traveller another stage towards his destination, landing him at Esquimault Harbour, where H.M.S. Ganges was lying at anchor with his brother on board as mate. This was a happy meeting—with nothing to forecast the coming of that terrible day off the coast of Spain when H.M.S. Captain was to turn turtle, carrying most of the crew, Commander Sheepshanks amongst the others, to the bottom of the sea. Of the trip in the Northerner', Mr. Sheepshanks says— "The incident of this voyage which is most deeply impressed upon my memory, is connected with the first officer, Mr. French, a Welshman by birth, but by adoption a decided American. At dinner one day he was offered a glass of claret, but refused it on the ground of his being a 'dash-away* (Anglice, 'pledged teetotaller'). Afterwards, when smoking in his cabin, he offered to tell us his story." From this it appeared that, convivial as he was by nature and habit, he had, after one particularly humiliating 15 I ■St 16 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH experience, abandoned strong drink out of love for wife and child. He had been wise enough to see when a man makes a fool of himself and loses self-control through liquor, he should take the first train to the safe and serene land of Abstinence. There was a strain of the heroic in this unpretending seaman. A few months afterwards, Mr. Sheepshanks, sleeping in the cockpit of the Ganges, on another visit to his brother, heard two bluejackets at midnight describing the total wreck of the Northerner with the loss of many lives. The first to swim ashore with a line was French. It was he who returned to the vessel to bring others back with him to the safety of the shore. Yet once again he swam out to the aid of a woman seen helpless on the deck. In this supreme effort his strength, not his courage, failed him, and he sank not to rise again. The wayfarer was now not far from the end of his journey. The scene of his labours was New Westminster, the capital of the colony, and the future seat of government. Hither he proceeded on one of the Hudson Bay Company's steamers. As they bore along shore, with the land on their port beam, there streamed before them an interminable labyrinth of watery lanes and reaches, ever-changing visions of greenness and forest, with mountains in the distance touched with whiteness to their tips. " On either hand, as we steamed up the noble river, the Frazer, the dense forest stretched away over the low lands which formed the delta. The distant view was indeed shut out by the mighty pines, which shot upwards to a height of between 250 and 300 feet. ill Ii ft i u■:' 11 I < .' '> J E-i CQ M CQ o CQ C5 1—» m H H EH A THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW WESTMINSTER 17 " On turning a corner of the river, after an hour or two of steady steaming up stream, at about fifteen miles from the mouth of the river, the captain, who was standing by my side, said, 'There, sir, that is your place.' I looked up a long stretch of the river, and there on the left-hand side I saw a bit of a clearing in the dense forest. Mighty trees were lying about in confusion, as though a giant with one sweep of his mighty arm had mown them down. Many of the trunks had been consumed by fire. Their charred remains were seen here and there. The huge stumps of the trees were still standing in most places, though in others they had been eradicated and consumed. " And between the prostrate trees and stumps there were a few huts, one small collection of wooden stores, some sheds and tents, giving signs of a population of perhaps 250 people. This clearing continued up river to the extent of somewhat more than a quarter of a mile. And the dense pine-forest came down to somewhat less than the same distance from the river's bank. This was New Westminster." It is difficult for an Englishman accustomed to the trim landscapes or ordered streets of his native country to imagine a place like New Westminster—the place was so new and of so odd a pattern. Along the horizon there arose no spires of venerable churches; at the end of any vista nothing but sky and water and the eternal and interminable timber, with glimpses of the snow-clad summits of the Cascade Range. There were few neighbours, no proper roads, no streets of solid houses. It would have been no matter for surprise had the young man's courage failed him as he stepped ashore: the tren- chancy of contrast was almost overwhelming. Behind him a crowded city and the settled ancient laws of England, the c 18 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH ji li chime of bells, the stiles and hedgerows of his native land; before him the forest, the wilderness, the naked heavens, camps of shaggy men lost in the lust of gold, Indians decked in the rags of civilization trooping in to see the stranger. Moreover, the voice of the settlers had declared that in British Columbia there should be no State Church, so that an English clergyman must dismiss from him ideas of privilege and endowment—must, indeed, enter upon his strange task after the old Apostolic fashion. Destined to make good proof of his ministry, neither cold, nor wet, nor indifference, nor dead opposition to progress—the things that daunt the spirit of most men—must shake him. He had to rough it from the first. About him were wooden houses still sweating from the axe, paths unworn and sketchy, wanting, indeed, in the litter and discoloration of civilized life, yet with few of its conveniences. His first house was a log hut, placed at his disposal by three Canadian miners whose turn it had already served. "It was rather draughty, as the wind came in at the interstices between tbe logs; so I gathered moss and stuffed it well into the crevices. The floor was only of mud, but I had some boards put down, and put in a sheet-iron stove with stove pipe. I also, for cleanliness' sake, had it lined with calico. It is about ten feet long by seven broad, and is made of pine logs. There'is a square hole cut for a window. There is no sash in it at present, for sashes are rare, but only a piece of calico, which I draw across the aperture by night and open by day. " There are curious little dodges for supplying the necessary light. The man in the next hut to mine, just lower down the bank, has out with his axe a number of holes in the waUs of his cabin of the size and shape of a bottle, and i ! ROUGHING IT 19 has jammed a number of white transparent gin-bottles into these holes. So he gets his light. "I have a wooden 'bunk' for my bed, and can sit on the bunk and open the window, and shut the door, poke the fire in the stove, and get down anything from off the shelf Without moving from the bunk. I have opened my big boxes and taken out some of my theological books, so that I have plenty of food for the mind. " You may fancy how novel were my sensations when I closed the door and found myself alone with my luggage, bedding, and blankets. The first thing that I did was to sit down on the wooden frame or ' bunk,' as I have called it, that forms my bedstead, and have a very hearty laugh. My next was to get a broom and bucket and axe. With the first I swept the floor, and with the second I trotted down to the little stream that flows down the ravine and got a supply of water, and with the last I set to work and soon obtained a good supply of wood for fires. I made my bed, and got out some paper and ink, and soon made myself quite snug. I find I get on very well. " Every day makes me add to the list of ' needless luxuries' what I used to class as 'comforts,' and to the category of ' comforts' what formerly I considered ' necessaries.' I now believe that there are but six necessaries, viz. shelter, fuel, water, fire, something to eat, and blankets. I am really quite well off. I toast some bread for breakfast, and make some tea. Butter is too expensive, i.e. fresh butter, being a dollar per pound. I do the same for lunch, and then dine out very often at the Mess, of which the officers have kindly made me an honorary member, sometimes at a restaurant in the \ town,' kept by an old Irish woman." I 20 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH 11 rii! Amongst his new parishioners there existed but one Prayer-book; of his flock, composed of a few Engl^hmen and Americans, some Canadians, one or two negroes, a handful of Germans and Scandinavians, not one of them— excepting an English lady—was a communicant. At the first service held in the Custom House, only seven or eight men, no women, put in a shamefaced appearance. There were no vergers, no sacristans, and no church cleaners. The new rector himself, with a borrowed axe, cut up wood from the fallen timber lying about, lit a fire, put out some blocks and boxes, and sounded a gong, which had probably formed part of the loot in a recent China war. One helper there was whose history was typical of the wild Californian life of those days. In the grief and terror of his tragical experience, it is not unlikely that his mind was unhinged, or perhaps his loneliness became a burden too heavy to be borne. At any rate he suddenly disappeared. " There was a little pale-faced man who was usually quite early for the service; and then offered to take my place in sounding the gong on the verandah. Observing this I asked him one day whether he would not undertake always to be present and beat the gong for me. Willingly he would do so, he replied, but before acceding to my request it was right that he should let me know something about himself. "' I am only just out of the gaol at San Francisco,' he said, f Indeed! And what were you in gaol for ?' ' Murder,' was his startling reply. His story was sad ; but not a very uncommon one. He had unwisely taken his wife with him to California, a country dangerous for women not of weU- iM (■ SHOOTING AT SIGHT 21 grounded virtue. For there were numbers of men there attractive, unscrupulous, unrestrained by considerations of religion or morality, and with abundance of money which they were lavish in spending upon the object of their desires. The unhappy woman fell, and her outraged husband meeting her seducer in the street, shot him through the heart. " This crime, with such provocation, was not thought to be very heinous, and after conviction he was let off with three months' imprisonment. I dropped my offer, yet sometimes allowed him to assist me. No one else in the settlement knew his sad history. He was a baker by trade, and supplied me with bread for some years. I used to see his pale face, which looked as if it would never wear a smile again, at the bottom of the church. But after two or three years he became wild-looking and strange in manner. I lost sight of him, and fancy he must have left the colony while I was up-country at the gold-mines. " These shootings were matters of not very rare occurrence then in the Western States. But it was not in accordance with the code of honour to take a man unawares, so that he had 'no show' at all. The correct thing was to send a written notice, usually to this effect, 'You d d villain. I give you notice: I shoot you at sight.' Each man then went about with his revolver—indeed, in the wilder parts of the country, it was a common practice to wear such a weapon —and if they met in the street, or elsewhere, it was a question which of the two beheld his adversary first and was the readiest with his pistol. Sometimes, the first shots not taking effect, they would stand firing at each other, and then passers- by would duck their ^eads and run for shelter. But it is to be observed that these things only took place among the roughs. Quiet, well-conducted people were safe enough." ¥ i I ■ i vs j ll : 22 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH Begun under such conditions the little church community gradually spread in numbers, until after a few months it outgrew its temporary home, and was removed to the Court House. Autumn gave place to winter, and the rigours of the climate set in. The rainfall in the year is sufficient to cover the whole of the territory to the depth of at least four feet. Milder and more like our own English seasons on the coast, it was this humidity which attracted Mr. Sheepshanks' notice during his first winter. The spell of the woods fell upon him. When once in the forest he found it difficult to turn homeward. " All woods lure a rambler onward." The emptiness of them gives a feeling of freedom and discovery as he walks. It is well, however, that his senses should be quick to notice the direction in which he moves, or that the heavens have signs by which he can guide his way. Fitting pioneer in a country far beyond the extreme of railways, Mr. Sheepshanks was a backwoodsman by nature. His senses grew keener; he could guide himself about the woods on the darkest night by touch and instinct. "There is something very solemn, many would think melancholy and depressing, in a walk in such a forest as that of the lower Frazer. In winter-time the stillness, the absence of life and sound, is weird and impressive. For weeks there will not be a breath of wind. I have known a woodman walk home from his work after nightfall for some weeks with a naked candle in his hand. "When the snow is on the ground you may perceive indeed the footprints of animals, of birds, of deer, or occasionally of a bear, but you hear no sound, not a cry, not a THROUGH THE WOODS 23 whisper, not the rustle of a leaf. Sit down upon a fallen tree and the silence becomes oppressive, almost painful. It is relief even to hear at last the sough of the fall of snow from the boughs of the cypress, the pine, or the yew which stretch like dark green horse-plumes across the trail. "In summer-time the scene is somewhat different. The prevailing colour is a sombre green. The undergrowth is but scanty. The ground is covered, more or less thickly, according to the soil, with scrub, ferns, and berry bushes. Yet the wood is dense and impervious, for above the scrub there are deciduous trees. In many places the trunks of the forest trees are covered with moss, for the air is damp where the rays of the sun cannot penetrate, and drooping masses of grey lichen, not without beauty in themselves, hang down from the branches towards the ground, and add to the sombre melancholy of the scene. "There are everywhere mighty trees lying upon the ground. Commonly their roots, which have not struck down deep into the soil, stand up, the light soil still adhering to them, to the height of a one-storied house. If they are still living, they draw up moisture through a tap-root and still send their boughs upwards, and if, as is more often the case, the mighty trunks are rotting on the ground, seeds dropping on them from neighbouring trees soon germinate, and all along their length saplings and young trees are sprouting forth into luxuriant life. So here, as elsewhere, decay is seen to have its uses, and from death renewed life springs forth. Above all this the wood of mighty pines towers upwards, rising to a height of some three hundred feet, the branches overhead almost meeting at the top, so that it is only a narrow strip of sky that is seen from the trail below. " It is no easy work making a way through this forest. i! fit ii 24 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH The mounting some of these fallen decayed giants; the creeping under others; the brushing aside the branches; the crossing streams; the getting across the ravines—this was no easy work. We thought it good travelling to get through at the rate of half a mile an hour. " There is almost the same strange and impressive silence in the woods in summer as in winter. Occasionally one hears the pattering feet of the squirrels, the screeching of the jays, the crowing of the wood pheasants, and near a stream the pleasant little song of the water-birds. But this is all. Usually there is no sound whatever, but 'all the air a solemn stillness holds.' What a contrast to our dear English woods, vocal with the sweet songs of our English birds! Assuredly England is the land of song. " On my lonely walks I sometimes took my gun with me, for the sake of getting a bird or two. At first the pheasants, unused to the sound of firearms, were dazed at the explosion, and would perhaps flutter on the tree on which they were sitting—probably a crab-tree—but not take flight. I have not infrequently shot two birds consecutively off the same tree, being at some distance and not seen by them. No doubt the sportsman will consider this but tame work, but I shot not for sport, but for the pot. " Usually, however, there was a good deal of interest of a peculiar kind about this shooting. Walking along a forest trail, birds which had been feeding on the partridge berry would start up at one's very feet. In a second, before the gun could be raised to the shoulder, they were in the wood hidden by the trees. Standing quite still, one listened to ascertain the direction in which they had flown and the distance they had gone. Practice enables the sportsman to gauge their flight with singular accuracy. REPLENISHING THE LARDER 25 " Then, quitting the trail—first, perhaps, taking a glance to note the position of the sun—he plunges into the wood, parting the branches and climbing over the trunks of the fallen trees. As he draws near to the spot where he believes the birds to be, he creeps along as quietly as may be, looking up as he goes, in the somewhat dim light, into the branches; for it is a question of which spies the other first. If the sportsman first perceives the long neck of the bird as he peers round from among the branches, he pots him. But very commonly the pheasant is more on the alert, and takes a second flight further into the forest, perhaps in a somewhat different direction. This may be repeated four or five times; and when the sportsman has secured his bird or abandoned the pursuit, the question arises, especially if he be not habituated to the woods, ' Where is he ?' "Fortunately for me, I have been endowed with an unusual faculty for locality, and in the woods had an intuitive feeling in which direction I had come, and whereabouts lay my home. This faculty, which has often stood me in good stead, is susceptible of development. The mind, I imagine, takes a mental note of the direction in which one has come, and then of subsequent changes of direction, and is able to make aUowance for them all. "I never lost knowledge of my whereabouts but once, when I had been moving about in various directions in a very dense wood for a considerable time. Then it flashed across me that I knew not where I was. Fortunately I knew that the moon was at the full and would rise ere long, and so, sitting down upon a fallen tree and lighting my pipe, I waited for this occurrence; for there were no landmarks near, nor any stream, and in wandering about I might only have gone further into the forest. After some time I saw, to lr if 1 ill 26 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH if; f: my satisfaction, a silvery glimmer through the trees, and was thus enabled to take my bearings and make my way out of the wood." It may seem a cheerless career, that of the Rector of New Westminster, as he figures in those early days: his hut rough and comfortless; a prey to the domestic cares of a bachelor; a wintry sky above him, and a desolate landscape around him. Yet he was not unhappy. Nor was the element of sport wanting, though we have seen it was not so much the lust of killing as the demands of the larder which urged him on. Still, it was discouraging to a young and ardent man fresh from the memories of the crowded parish church at Leeds and the abounding life of that great town, to find himself in a spiritual desert. His first Christmas in the new country brought with it poignant recollections of home. "On Christmas Eve (1859) I spent the day in calling upon all those who, as far as I could judge, ought to be impelled to keep the birthday of the dear Lord in such a way as would be acceptable to Him, by coming to our worship to offer their spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving and to partake of the Blessed Sacrament. But I found very little encouragement. "It was a miserable evening; a soft mild wind was blowing, drizzle was falling; it was soon pitch dark, and in the neighbourhood of the huts and stores the mud was deep and sticky. I floundered about in the darkness, occasionally tripping over a stump, feeling very warm in the moist air with my waterproof garments; and now and then, when down by the riverside, I heard the voices of men in the drinking-bars shouting and singing, and the light gleaming from the saloon fell upon the black mud and cast-away CHRISTMAS AWAY FROM HOME 27 playing-cards that I was treading underfoot. And I thought of happy scenes at home, and old friends at Leeds, and the dignified, uplifting services at the parish church. " But still, it was all right. It was delightful having the society of friendly, highly educated men at the camp. We had a nice number of communicants on Christmas morning, and the message of Christmas is always one of' good news.'" CHAPTER III FIKE AND THE AVENGEKS OF BLOOD Forest fires—Fight with the flames—Canadians to the rescue—Native Indians—Tsilpeyman and his race for life-—Bloodshed averted —Jack Sprague in gaol and out of it. Those who have lived abroad are familiar with the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night telling of a conflagration in the distance; they know the peculiar acridity of the hot dry air as it hangs over a town and proclaims that the woods are afire. Consternation and disaster follow in the train of these fires, kindled, it may be, by trifles. The settlers lay down everything, or run from their beds to work like demons to stop the onward rush of the destroyer. British Columbia was not free from these visitations, as an early and startling experience of the Rector of New Westminster declares. " Yesterday and to-day my housekeeping has been nearly brought to an abrupt termination. There was a large cedar felled a short time ago a little below my hut, and a Canadian, who wanted to break it up, set it on fire. It blazed steadily and quietly for about a week until yesterday, when a fresh breeze arose. The fire immediately began to spread. " During afternoon service, while I was preaching in the Treasury not far off, I heard the loud crackling and roaring of the flames; and when the service was over I was told 2S FIGHT WITH THE FLAMES 29 that my hut was in danger. After a spell of dry weather a fire spreads with marveUous rapidity, and is indeed almost resistless. The ground is covered with dry vegetable matter, leaves, twigs, bark, and moss. Above, there is a network of branches; masses of decayed wood smoulder away inextinguishably, and the dry fallen cedars and pines act as strongholds for the flames. " Moreover, you never can be sure that the fire is put out. The ground is permeated with roots, which stretch for yards beneath the surface. These often act as conductors for the fire; so that when it appears to be extinguished in one quarter, it suddenly breaks out again, yards from the spot. " I hurried off, accompanied by one or two helpers with axes and spades. It was indeed high time. The fire was coming right onwards, spitting and crackling, licking what trees there were in its course, and sending before it clouds of smoke. It is a fine sight to see the gigantic pines catch fire. The fire runs up the trunk until it reaches the lowest of the branches, which are very high up, perhaps 180 to 200 feet from the ground; and when it catches the leaves it flares up, and there is a great conflagration. With a rush, and with the sounds of an explosion, the flame sweeps upward to the very top of the tree; showers of sparks fall to the ground, and a column of smoke floats away before the breeze. In the darkness of the night this looks very fine. " There was a path between us and the fire, and this we took as our line of defence. One cut through branches which extended across the path; another tore up the roots; while another turned up the soil with a shovel. By these means and by throwing water, of which we had only a small 1 ff!i 3o A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH supply, upon the places to which the fire had advanced, we arrested for this time its progress. " I had an evening service at the camp, and was obliged to go, leaving my hut, my goods, and chattels to the care of a Yankee, a regular ' down-Easter,' late a grog-shop keeper, a quondam soldier under ' General Scott' in Mexico, a somewhat rough diamond, but a kind-hearted and generous man. On my return at night I found that the fire had extended greatly, and was burning quietly past my hut up into the woods. " Being tired with my day's work, and not wishing to be disturbed by the crackling and the smoke and the consciousness of risk, I engaged a bed in the ' town,' but was awakened in the morning by the announcement that the fire was extending round my cabin. Hastily dressing and hurrying off with a friend, an assistant in one of the stores, I found that the flames, having made a detour, were besieging my citadel, which was being gallantly defended, for good fellowship's sake, by three Canadians. They had cleared away the brush immediately round the house, and my friend and I now took up the defence, and continued it for some hours. He threw buckets of water upon the blazing ground, while I fetched mud from a piece of marshy ground near at hand, and with it made a pathway round the house. There was a decayed upright tree blazing away about twelve yards off, from which the breeze blew sparks towards us. The walls of a log hut are made of the trunks of trees placed horizontally one upon another, with moss stuffed between the interstices. This moss was quite dry and likely to catch fire, so we threw buckets of water over the walls and the shingle roof every few minutes. In short, we did everything possible, and succeeded. TSILPEYMAN AND HIS RACE FOR LIFE 31 "At first it appeared as if nothing could arrest a fire. The bright line comes creeping along the ground, blazing up and rejoicing over every little heap of dry wood. It comes on like a rapid flood tide, gaining yard after yard, and leaving all behind it smouldering and blazing, bright with flames and white with ashes. It reached within two yards of the hut, but got no further. Its attacks became feebler and feebler, and at about 2 p.m. the enemy retired baffled and discomfited. The large logs and trunks are still blazing around. I see them now while I am writing, through my little window, and they will probably continue burning for a week." From time to time he was reminded that he was on the hereditary continent of the red man. An Indian, suspected of the murder of an old Irishman, escaped from his sapper guard to flee for his life, his pursuers firing upon him with their revolvers as he ran. " One man, an Indian, named Tsilpeyman, known to be a bad character, hated and feared by his tribe, and suspected by them of having been implicated in the murder, was given up by a party of the Musquioms across the river into our hands. He was kept somewhat loosely guarded at the camp, a young sapper named Meade being specially told off to watch him. During the afternoon he managed to divest himself of his clothing, and sat with only a blanket wrapped round him. " In the evening he watched his opportunity and darted away from his guard. They were armed with revolvers, and rushed after him firing. But the revolvers had been loaded for some time, and hung fire. Young Meade had sprung towards him as he started off; but the Indian cleverly threw his blanket over him, and sped away down the bank 32 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH \tt towards the river. It was then quite dark, and for some time eager search was made with lanterns in the water, and out of the water among the stores and sheds. " I was going my rounds at the time, visiting the families of the sappers, and wondered what the shouting and firing could mean. The poor fellow had indeed leapt into the river, which was rushing along filled with floes of ice at about freezing temperature, to swim for his life. A sergeant, Jock M'Clure, a knowing, cool-headed Scotchman, guessing what had happened, and knowing that there was a spit of sand some few hundreds of yards lower down the river round which the tide would be sweeping—for he was one of those men who notice everything—quietly ran down to the spit and waited for what he believed would come to pass. It was pitch dark, and he could see nothing except the waters rushing swiftly by. Listening, however, intently, he heard a sound which he knew, a choking sound and a faint ,cry, and then all was still. The Indian was heard of no more, and after a little while his tribe recognized the fact that he was dead. His kloochman (wife) wept for him, and his blankets were given away. "The Musquioms were divided about this matter. It was old Tsimlanogh, the chief, a man who was always very friendly with the whites, who had given up the Indian to our people. Another party of the same tribe was much angered at this, and determined to have their revenge. Accordingly, they crept through the forest and began firing through the bush upon Tsimlanogh's ranch. He and his sons returned the fire, and it seemed as if there would be loss of life. The Engineers, hearing the firing, sent an armed party across the river to protect an American family that was residing there. 1 II A HAPPY INTERRUPTION 33 " But the fighting was stopped by a very happy circumstance. The colonel had purchased a large steamboat beU to serve as a church bell and summon the soldiers and their families to Divine worship. Fortunately, this day happened to be a Sunday, and in the height of the firing the church bell was heard sounding across the river. The Indians were startled at the unwonted sound proceeding from the camp, not knowing what was going to happen, and stopped their fighting. Peace was soon afterwards, I believe, patched up between the two factions." When Mr. Sheepshanks could not exercise the great human gift of talk amongst his neighbours, he burned, literally, the midnight oil in his studies. Thus the hours of evening, when he was once more "curtained with the friendly dark," sped lightly. So many have suffered when the means of all intellectual life has been lacking: without libraries or stimulating converse, the mind has become like a garden long uncultivated. Not so with this disciple of the great teacher in Leeds who thought his morning wasted that did not begin at five and witness some striving of the brain. If it be true that "books should be read amongst the cooling influences of external nature," he was able, with a brain at rest and in a plain, unfevered temper of mind, to address himself to the great thinkers whose words were to serve him so well in after-years. That the great majority of the settlers had expunged Sunday from their calendar; that Americans and native- born Colonials were ready to give generously to Church work, and even levy a friendly tax on their neighbours for the benefit of the new Gospel ship; that his own countrymen were laggards both in their gifts and in encouragement, were D 34 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH M facts that he came to recognize quickly. To him, the endowments of the Church in the old country, and the scanty demand made upon the liberality of her children, were responsible for this astonishing lukewarmness and niggardliness. The truth of the matter was that many of them were poor specimens of the religion they were supposed to cherish. " Jack Sprague was a notorious criminal who came under my charge in the gaol, a typical American desperado. He himself told me that he believed he had committed every possible offence against the laws except one. He made a resolution when he began his career that he would not shed blood; and though he might by shedding blood have escaped arrest more than once, he had never done so. He knew several modern languages, and learned German while he was in prison, chiefly by talking to his neighbour through the wooden wall which separated them. "He had never read a page of the Bible, and did not know a prayer. I lent him a Bible; and when he returned it to me after some weeks, his comment was this: ' Well, sir, that book shows me that crowds of men who pretend to believe that book really do not. For if they really believed it, they could not possibly live as they do.' If Jack had met me in the highway and thought I was a rich man, no doubt he would have robbed me if he could. But if he thought I was poor or suffering, I do not doubt that he would have relieved me liberally. " Jack was a striking instance of what the ' common school' system in the States sometimes leads to. I asked Jack, when his term of imprisonment was over, what he should do. His immediate reply was this: ' Why, sir, I shall clear out of British territory without delay,' which was rather a compliment to our Government." I 111 it lr |i HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, NEW WESTMINSTER. HOLY TRINITY CHURCH AND RECTORY. (The log hut is the Rectory.) DAILY ROUTINE 35 But, alas! Jack Sprague was destined to be "cleared out" altogether—and by way of the gallows. During the day Mr. Sheepshanks' time was well occupied. No man can be described as idle who visits, collects subscriptions and gifts, supervises a work of building, teaches a Sunday school, preaches four sermons on the seventh day with the usual offices of the Church, and walks five or six miles in the performance of that duty. The church building progressed. There was a " bee " for the clearing of the ground. A considerable number of people put in a day's work, brought shovels and pickaxes, cleared the ground of stumps, rolled away logs, and made a pathway from the road up to the church lot. But the labours in the settlement were intermitted by an order from the Bishop to go up country and visit the miners and the Indians. 111' CHAPTEE IV THE NORTH-AMERICAN INDIAN His treatment by the white races—His impending fate—The ravages of the bottle—His personal appearance—Mr. Sheepshanks as a | Eesur- rectionist." The miner was a picturesque and interesting figure, but the personality which arrested and fascinated the young missionary was that of the aboriginal dweller in the land. A lover of the Indian, his character and claims, he resented as if it had been a personal grievance of his own the injuries which indifference under one flag, and positive wrong-doing under another, had inflicted on the native. To an Englishman it was a matter of gratulation that the chapter of the Indian was not written in red blood as in the neighbouring territory of the United States, where the moral feeling proper to a Christian people was in the early days wanting. Assumption and incivility had passed into hostility and outrage; natives were harassed and shot down by a people who did not understand their speech or their passions. The early chronicles of gold-mining in California are full of the reckless and indiscriminate slaughter of these helpless people. To shoot a buck Indian was no more a crime than to shoot a buck. Evicted from the best parts 36 THE PASSING OF THE INDIAN 37 of their own hereditary continent, subject to the extortion of unworthy whites, denied the reservations which were theirs by the Government's own provisions, and driven out into the more inhospitable parts of the country, their wrongs made up a sorrowful chapter of injustice and indignity. In British Columbia, where they had been treated with tolerance and guarded by merciful laws, their lot had been less hopeless. Yet even there their record was dismal and evil enough. Attended with whatever of amelioration and compassion, the civilization of the white man means the disappearance of the aboriginal. Well may his countenance wear a sadness prophetic of his fate, for drink and the diseases of an alien race will destroy him. Many things he may survive—his own barbarous rites, the tribal and desultory fights pursued almost without intermission, the growing domination of the white man—but he cannot survive the civilization of the bottle. The most malignant figure which rises up from the shore of every sea is that of the pioneer trader with his stores and cheap maddening liquor, bringing ruin and extermination to the unhappy, ignorant folk who buy a short cut to a wild kind of happiness. Mr. Sheepshanks has recorded in his diary his earliest impressions of this doomed race. 11 was at first deeply disappointed with the appearance and manner of living of the native tribes, commonly called the American Indians. They are as unlike as can well be imagined to the idealized Indians of Fenimore Cooper's novels. In appearance they are evidently of the Mongolian type, being probably the descendants of some of the last waves of immigration which long ago crossed over from Northern Asia, either by Behring's Straits, or, as is perhaps * 38 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH more likely, by the Aleutian Islands. Their faces are large and flat, with short broad noses, large mouths, and slightly Mongolian eyes. They have masses of black hair, parted in the middle—the parting being sometimes painted vermilion—plastered with fish oil, falling down in a straight mass nearly to the shoulders, where it is cut short. At first they used a good deal of paint, chiefly vermilion, and sometimes black. But we laughed them out of this to a great extent, for there is nothing that the Indian dreads and shrinks from so much as ridicule. " In person they are rather short, but often strongly made. The coast Indians live chiefly on fish, and pass a good deal of their time in their canoes. They will paddle for hours and hours, sometimes for a day with little intermission, and their legs being curled under them while they paddle, are commonly not properly developed. So that you may observe an Indian who appears a fine, muscular, well-developed man while he is sitting down; but when he rises and stands upright his legs, being somewhat attenuated, do not appear to correspond to his fine chest and shoulders. The expression upon their countenances is grave, soft, and undoubtedly melancholy, though when pleased or amused they have a pleasant smile. "Several of the different septs of the Cowichan nation which inhabit the Lower Frazer are 'Flatheads/ so called from their curious custom of flattening the head. The process is of this nature. The little baby is carried about in a wicker basket, shaped like an open coffin, and slung on the mother's back. As the child lies in this basket a pad, perhaps of bark, is placed upon his forehead, and strong sinews are so placed and fastened with screws into each side of the basket that they press upon the pad, and by HUNTING FOR A CRANIUM 39 turning the screws every now and then additional pressure is put upon the infant's forehead before his skull has grown quite hard. Thus the fore part of the skull is pressed down, and as a consequence the top and back part is bulged out. Thus the normal shape of the skull is changed, and it takes a comparatively oval form. It might be thought that the power of the brain would be injuriously affected by this strange custom. But I am not aware that it is so. I think the ' Flatheads' are to the full as intelligent as any other of these tribes. " Canon Greenwell of Durham, a well-known craniologist, begged me to get him, if possible, one of these skulls. It was rather a delicate job to undertake, as the Indians are mostly careful about sepulture. However, I set off on my quest, and knowing of an old burying place of the Musquiom Indians, I paddled across the Frazer with two Indian boys to seek out the spot. The lads were very inquisitive as to what I wanted, and why I had taken an empty sack with me. But I would not satisfy their curiosity. They put me ashore, and I made my way through the forest to the place where the burying ground had been. I should mention that the Indians do not put their dead into the ground, but usually fasten them up in trees. If the dead man be a chief or brave warrior, they put his arms and accoutrements around him, and thus leave the body to decay. "It was a long time before I found the object of my search, but at length I came across a small skull, apparently that of a female, obviously a flathead, yet not so excessively flattened as some that I have seen. My lads eyed me and my burden very curiously as I returned with my sack. I would give them no information as to what I had brought 4Q A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH *' away. One of the sharp young rogues guessed it, however, for after making several guesses, he turned round upon me in mid-stream and said, ' It is a Siwash letete'—Siwash, corrupted from 'sauvage,' being the word by which they designate themselves. It is not unlikely that the lads, when my back was turned, had, after the Indian fashion, stolen after me through the bush, watched my proceedings, and then crept back to the canoe." CHAPTER y UP COUNTRY The unspeakable mosquito—Dinner under difficulties—Indian encampment—Method of teaching—Eeturn home—Visit to settlers—Beavers and their work. On this journey he was to make the acquaintance of the mosquito at close quarters. Macdonald's account of the Columbian variety reads like a traveller's tale, for he asserts that mosquitos have actually brought horses and cattle to a painful and lingering death, have forced whole families, by the discomfort they inflict, to leave their homes for months together. Mr. Sheepshanks bears witness to the severity of their attacks. I In England—favoured land!—we are practically unable to realize the full meaning of the ' plague of flies.' But it is very different in lands of forest and jungle and undrained marshes. A few mosquitos had already made their appearance at New Westminster, and I had been interested in taking note of the operations of the little creature. I watched him as he would settle upon the back of one's hand, and then dig his little proboscis, or trunk, into the flesh and pump and pump away in so greedy and engrossed a way that he was commonly lifted off his hind feet as his proboscis dug itself deeper and deeper into the flesh. But a minute 41 I 1 \w 111 42 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH or two ago when he settled, he appeared as shrunk and bodiless as poor insect could be; but soon he begins to take the hue of pink, and ere long he is like a little pink bladder supported on his legs. Then comes the Nemesis, and he is crushed. " But what mosquitos could be I had no notion until this journey. I have since heard, with some amusement, travellers speaking of the intolerable nuisance of mosquitos on the Continent, at Yenice, or Yerona. What would they think if the numbers there were multiplied by thousands! On the Douglas trail I met with the Indians covered with paint, carrying branches of trees in their hand, which they were sweeping round them as they walked. They were evacuating their country, being temporarily driven out by these pests. Life was simply not livable. If by chance you arrived at a clearing or an open space where there appeared to be immunity from them, ere long they would appear, for I suppose they scent the human body afar off. " Quite early in the morning after meeting those Indians I issued from my tent and found an open space on the river's bank where I could get my bath. But no sooner had I emerged from the water than I found swarms of them assailing me, and do what I would, slaughter them by dozens, I suffered severely. " It was on that same day, dining at a wayside house, that I took part in a scene which I never can forget. What was there to be seen ? Some twenty or twenty-five men, nearly all miners going up to the mines. Food was on the table. There was a ceaseless hum in the apartment; for it was literally brown with hundreds, I do not doubt thousands, of mosquitos. There was a small hive of them buzzing in the air, trying to find an ingress at any part of every man's person. AN UNCOMFORTABLE MEAL 43 "It was swelteringly hot, yet every man had made himself as impervious as he could. Each man wore his coat buttoned up, strings were fastened round his cuffs, and trousers also, if he had not top-boots. He had gauntlets on his hands, his hat on his head, and a veil hanging down covering his face and neck. He would stick his fork into a piece of meat and pop in under the veil as quickly as possible. When drinking their coffee the men would hold the cup underneath the veil, first clearing out the bodies of the mosquitos which possibly had been feeding upon the hairy miner close at hand. " Not a word, I believe, was uttered during that brief meal, for we were beaten down and cowed by the insects. The first words spoken were by a miner in pushing away his chair from the table, 'Oh, this God-forsaken country!'" In passing from this point to Lillooet, he was fortunate enough—for the lake must be crossed—to find an empty boat. In this, rowing hard with his Indian, he made the spit of land where he found his Diocesan already encamped. His task of instructing the aboriginal began at once. There were many Indians in this encampment under the chief Chil-hoo-seltz—a man with all the fine self-sufficiency and grave politeness of the hunter and the savage. " Chil-hoo-seltz, the chief of the Lillooet Indians, an excellent and most attractive man, was a fine figure. Short in stature, but strongly made, with his fine features, intelligent and amiable expression, clad in a hunter's coat of deer-skin, ornamented with strips of the same, black cloth trousers, scarlet leggings from the knee downwards, embroidered moccassins, cloth cap ornamented with the tail of a silver fox, he was indeed a picturesque object." The young missionary had made himself familiar with 44 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH the jargon called Chinook. Poor enough as a medium, he had found that with a few earnest words in it he could kindle the faces of his savage listeners, whilst it also enabled him to interpret for others. " That evening away galloped Indians to inform different parties of their tribe, some of whom were engaged in salmon- fishing ; and next morning quite early, before I left my tent for the matutinal plunge into the Frazer, I heard parties of Indians arriving. We had a large gathering, and the Bishop addressed them, I acting as interpreter. They all sat in two semicircles on the sand, and were, as usual, fixed in their attention. As hundreds of miners were passing up through their country, and grog-shops were being set up in all their villages, we made a point of warning them strongly concerning the evils of the drink. Good Chil-hoo-seltz supported us in all that we said. " Usually in these meetings we would teach the Indians a prayer; and did it in this fashion. I would write out a prayer in Chinook, and taking one or two of the most intelligent boys, who knew the Chinook best, would tell them to translate this, sentence by sentence, into the local dialect. This I wrote down phonetically from their lips. Then calling other boys to me, I would read over this prayer as I had written it down, and make them translate it for me into Chinook. Thus I became sure that I had made no mistake, and that the Indians would understand what I taught them. Then we all knelt down, and I would recite the prayer sentence by sentence. And the Indians, shutting their eyes, would repeat the sentence all together in a loud monotone. Thus, going over it again and again, they before long knew it by heart. "Then we would appoint some one whom the chief THE PROCESSION HOMEWARDS 45 approved, perhaps the chief himself, to be their leader, and tell them to meet every day and repeat the prayer. This, I believe, they invariably did. It was very cheering on one or two occasions, visiting the same tribe again after the lapse of a year, to find that they had carefully and gladly kept to their prayer-meeting." With the Bishop he visited mining bars, an unpromising sphere for a clergyman's ministrations, yet one singularly free from incivility or ridicule. After a few months' stay the little company retraced their steps. " We returned homeward by the river route to Fort Hope. There was no road in those days. We therefore followed the rough trail which went partly through* open country, and then over ' Jackass Mountain' and across the river ' slides' and so to the ' Cascade' range of mountains. When we were going along the forest trails our progress was rather slow. " First came the tall, grave, dignified Bishop. So tall was he, and so long of limb, that riding on a big horse, if he dropped his whip on the ground, he could pick it up while still in the saddle. "Next came the young presbyter, his chaplain, by no means so correct in his appearance, in wide-awake, serge coat, clerical tie—which he never abandoned—corduroy trousers, and hob-nailed boots. " Next came ' the faithful William,' the Bishop's servant, not much relishing the rough work of missionary travel, and the calvacade wound up with two packed horses and the packer. "The Bishop was always kindly and considerate; but sometimes his English clerical ideas of propriety were a little disturbed. The young chaplain had a 'way,' the same 46 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH ' way t which in Mr. Sam Weller so disturbed the equanimity of Mr. John Smauker, of putting his hands in his pockets and whistling as he went. It appears that this fidgeted the stately Bishop and shocked his sense of the proprieties. So one day the reproof fell: ' I cannot think how you can indulge in that habit of whistling. It is so undignified. I might say so unclerical.' There was a twinkle in the chaplain's eye, and a smile flickered round his mouth. But he had too genuine a respect for his superior to make any reply, and a pleasant conversation ensued. But a while afterwards, perhaps after the midday meal, the chaplain would strangely enough find himself half a mile behind the others, and lo! again the sombre forest would re-echo with the popular airs of the period." At home again Mr. Sheepshanks found his church, a wooden structure, and the first to be built in the colony of Church people, nearly finished. By December it was consecrated. It would seat about three hundred people, and its erection completed the happiness of its first incumbent, who was able, henceforth, to exist on the free-will offerings of his people. The temper of the future and democratic Bishop of Norwich was to be seen in the share of Church government committed to the laity of his first parish. With him, as with so many of the clergy in the colonies, there were many and pathetic inquiries for relatives. His search for the missing son was usually unavailing or of pitiful result, and many a letter remained unanswered not through neglect but from compassion. Released from the restraint of home and English life, the wanderer, in too many instances, had yielded to immorality, or a passion for drink. LIFE IN THE SETTLEMENTS 47 The experience of Mr. Sheepshanks abroad early convinced him of the folly of sending "remittance men" and ne'er-do-wells into the remote corners of the earth in hope of amendment. He is of the same mind as R. L. Stevenson. " For the weakness of drink and incompetency, this trick of consigning men overseas appears to be the most foolish means of cure," since there is nothing in a sea voyage or a new country to give any one a stronger mental or moral fibre. His battle must be fought to some extent before he quits the shores of England. He must change his character, or, let him go where he will, he will be a failure until he die. " It is the height of folly to pack off young men who are inclined to be' fast' to some colony, where there are stronger temptations and fewer restraints and safeguards. This is sometimes done, I fear, selfishly, that the evil doings may not be seen, nor bring disgrace. But it is likely to end in deeper ruin. Nothing can strengthen a young man against the temptations of such a colony as ours except religion." The routine work of the town was varied by occasional expeditions into neighbouring settlements. One of these, undertaken with a clerical colleague, is thus described. (It is interesting because of the domestic details given of a settler's home and life.) | A settler's life in a wilderness such as this is certainly interesting, and, I think, instructive to one brought up in a highly civilized country. Picture to yourself a small room, about one-third of the size of the dining-room at home, with a low roof slanting down till on one side it is only just above your head. A pretty girl is boiling coffee and potatoes and salt salmon for the meal at the stove up in the corner. There is a good pile of firewood with which she keeps the pot boiling. The old man, of good Irish family, with weather- 48 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH beaten countenance and fine grey beard, is talking to the two parsons, one of whom, the Rector, has the one chair, the seat of honour. " The old man is sitting on his bed, covered with an opossum skin brought from Australia, in the corner opposite to the stove. The two young men, tired with their day's work, are lounging about listening to the conversation and teasing their sister. Two fine strapping fellows they are, manly, modest, hard-working, courageous, fearing God, and Him only. I hope to present both of them before long for Confirmation. They know more of their Bible than eighty per cent, of the men that go to the University. "The room itself looks like a magazine. On shelves fastened to the wall, or hanging from nails, are the articles which a settler must always have ready to his hand—a gun, powder and shot flask, axe, hatchet, saw, pots and pans, clasp-knife, matches, flour, etc. " And thus we sit and talk by the flaring light of a rush lamp, fed with fish oil, till a fork stuck into the potatoes shows that they are cooked, and supper is announced. Supper ended, more talk, and then prayers and exposition of Scriptures, and then to bed. And in what a queer place! In a large outhouse used as a store. There were deposited all their tools, spades, picks, shovels, a huge pair of bellows for a forge, seeds, a few cabbages, strings of onions, etc., etc. At one end were two large bedsteads, with no bed-clothes or mattress. On one of the two the brothers rolled themselves in their blankets. On the other Knipe and I also rolled ourselves up like two mummies—for we had, of course, brought our blankets with us—and though the place was average cold—by day you can see the light shining through everywhere—were soon fast asleep." BEAVER-LAND 49 On this visit an opportunity was given to the young clergy of seeing the homes and haunts of the beaver. " Going any distance by land through these woods, unless there is a trail cut, is, as I have told you before, out of the question. So we had to paddle up-stream in a canoe. A boat in these very swift, and at places very shallow, streams would be of no use. "And I may observe that paddling a canoe up one of these swift little rivers is uncommonly hard work; how hard you may judge from the fact that we were an hour and three-quarters going up what it only took us six minutes to come down. Generally we paddled as vigorously as we could. Sometimes we poled. Sometimes quite spent with our work, but not daring to desist, as we should immediately be swept down by the stream, we paddled into the bank, and held on by the overhanging bushes. Sometimes to avoid a 'shoot' we got out and lifted our canoe over a sandbank or log. There were three of us, Knipe and I and Ned, the younger of the brothers. "At length, however, we arrived at the slue, or small branch brook, up which was the beaver dam. We soon discovered signs of these truly marvellous creatures. Whole clumps of young trees lay upon the ground, cut through about two feet from the ground, apparently felled, as the uninitiated would think, by the woodman's axe. These have been gnawed through by the beavers for the sake of the bark upon which they feed. Some of the trees were standing half-gnawed through, the work, as it seemed, of the day before. "We came upon the first dam a little way up the stream. The ingenuity here displayed by the little creature j.s wonderful. They know where they want to place the e Eh i» 11 It ii i ! t • ir 50 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH trees, and they gnaw through them in such a way that they fall them across the stream as cleverly as could be done by the experienced axeman. Then they fasten sticks into the mud to prevent the young trees that they have felled from being carried away. How they do this I do not know. Some say that they hammer the sticks down with their tails. They carry small branches and twigs upon the dam thus begun; and earth and sand brought down by the brook consolidate the work. If the stream seems inclined to run round their dam, they continue it a long way. This was the case in the present instance. "It is curious to observe how they take advantage of every tree and bush that will serve as a pier or buttress to their work. The dam being made, of course quite a pool is formed above it; and thus they are enabled to float down logs to their holes, peel them, and lay up the bark for the bad weather. In this case there were three or four dams, and therefore quite a chain of pools. " There are those who aver not only that the beavers pat down the earth upon the dam with their tails, but also that, in guiding the logs to their holes, they sit upon them and use their tails as a propeller. It may be that this is going too far. Their ingenuity and sagacity are so extraordinary that it is not surprising if men add further marvels that are not based on fact. The words of Job are apposite: 'Ask now the beasts and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air and they shall tell thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind ?' "Having inspected the dam, we turned homewards. RETURN TO THE TOWN 5i Then came the excitement. Down we glide with the pace of a railway train. We shoot by the bushes. We turn the corners rapidly. We fly by rocks and snags, sometimes scraping the bottom, sometimes gliding down a shoot into a deep boiling pool, paddling lustily all the while in order to be able to steer. We are quite sorry when it is over, and we are once more on shore. Next day we returned to New Westminster." ■ <( It CHAPTER VI SPORT, ILLNESS, AND COLD Chinamen in British Columbia—Their gratitude and generosity—Amongst the big fish of Canada—Eheumatic fever—A hard winter—Stag- hunting extraordinary. In the autumn, at the Bishop's request, Mr. Sheepshanks went up to Fort Hope. On his way he met with an illustration of the social gratitude of the " heathen Chinee." From what he had already learnt of them, he did not share in the disfavour of the Chinese, so common amongst Americans. Whilst here and there there was a desperado combining in one person the depravities of two races, in general they were worthy and useful members of the community. Their virtues, their industry, their grateful recognition of a kindness commended them to him. "On board the river steamboat there was a Chinaman, with whom I conversed, and who was much astonished at my acquaintance with the religions of China, and inquired my name. It appears that he mentioned the circumstance to his fellow-countryman with whom he was to lodge, and it happened that this man had been for a few months at New Westminster, and I had taught him to read. So he set to work to find out where I was staying, and presently brings me an offering of a very handsome purse and a 52 STURGEON AND SALMON S3 bracelet of sandalwood. Right glad he was to see me, and we shook hands and nodded and grinned at each other heartily. "Next day I called upon him at his store, and he served up refreshments for me. The Chinamen are not only personally grateful for benefits or kindness received, but they have a racial gratitude. Because I did my best to teach a few Chinamen at New Westminster, and was of course courteous and kind to them, I was always most kindly and hospitably received by Chinamen throughout the colony. When I visited Victoria I was welcomed by Chinese store-keepers there, and was invited to partake of refreshments—tea and ginger and preserves wherever I called." His run of robust health was at length to receive a shock in the shape of a fever due to imprudence. Setting out in the morning for a long paddle with Mr. Knipe, he was drenched to the skin by a heavy downpour of rain. Arrived at a friend's cabin, that of Mr. Atkins, he thoughtlessly dried his clothes at the stove amidst clouds of steam. This was the first risk. The second came with an expedition for salmon-fishing undertaken with Ned Atkins after the midday meal. It will be known that the Frazer is a famous river for that 1 royal fish," sturgeon. "The Indians kill and take them in a curious way. They have a long wooden spear, about the thickness of a hop-pole, but quite straight, about nine feet in length, and sharpened at one end. At the extremity is a wooden haft, about seven inches in length, so notched at one end that it fits upon the sharpened end of the spear, and having at the other end a keen steel blade. One end of a stout Iff 54 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH piece of cord is attached to this haft, the other end is held by the fisherman. "A canoe, manned by two Indians, floats in silence down the centre of the mighty river. One of the two paddles gently; the other holds the spear down into the water. Their skill is so great, their knowledge of the bottom of the river so accurate, their touch so fine, that they feel when the sharp blade is passing over the sturgeon lying on the bottom. When this is felt, the man strikes strongly, the haft comes off the spear, which is lifted and laid in the canoe. The sturgeon is hauled in by the cord. The spectator beholds a mighty splash by the side of the canoe. The great fish is drawn to the side, beaten upon the head with a club, and then lifted into the canoe. " They vary a good deal in size and weight. Those that I have seen have been usually, I think, from 70 lbs. to about 200 lbs. I must not omit to mention the hooligars, a small, delicious fish, about the size of large sardines. For a short while in the early summer they are caught in great abundance. They are full of oil: so full that it was asserted that when dried they will burn like a candle. But I never saw this tried. I have no doubt that if put up like sardines they would be every whit as good. But I have not heard whether this has yet been done." But the quest was not for sturgeon, but for salmon. "The fish that Ned Atkins and I were after was a species of white salmon. After paddling for perhaps half a mile from the shanty we anchored our canoe by a large stone, and jumped into the stream, the water being about halfway up our thighs. The weapon that we used was the sturgeon spear which I have just described. " We had scarcely taken our station, one a yard or two M DOWN WITH FEVER 55 above the other, when my companion called out, 'Here they come,' and I saw a shoal of perhaps a dozen large salmon coming rapidly up-stream, and darting past us. I made my lunge, and missed. My companion secured a fine salmon. Presently I again made my stroke, and again missed. My friend threw, with a laugh, another fish into the canoe. However, after some experience, and making allowance for the speed of the salmon and the glittering of the water, I too succeeded very well. So that in an hour and a half we had secured about twenty fish, averaging, I should say, 10 lbs. each. The bottom of the canoe was filled with the great creatures. And then returning to the shanty we found that Mr. Atkins and his other son had been employed in our absence in digging trenches across the garden. Into these the great fish were thrown; for though not very good for food—though the Indians dry them—they make excellent manure." The drenching of the day before, and the sport, thigh- deep in the river, had a serious result. That night he was tossing in a rheumatic fever. Yet this indisposition, grave enough in itself, had at least one good effect. It led to the provision of a modest rectory house. " I was getting better, when one day there came a knock at the hut door, and when it opened there was the Governor, Sir James Douglas, in his uniform. I can recall now his look of horrified surprise as he stooped his head to come in, and then stood upright. ' This must not be,' he said; ' this wretched place is no place for a clergyman, a gentleman, and a scholar.' "I had become so habituated to my surroundings that I was rather surprised at this depreciatory view of my household. But, however, he went away and stirred up 56 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH Si various people, and set on foot a movement for the erection of a house, heading the list of subscribers himself, so that in a few months' time a lot was cleared and a beginning made with a modest wooden rectory house." In January, 1862, winter set in with a severity unusual even in British Columbia. As the parsonage was not yet ready for occupation, the two young clergymen lived together in a smaU house, with an Indian lad as house-boy. The Frazer below them became gradually filled with large floes of ice: these, carried up and down by the ebb and flood of the tide, floated backwards and forwards many days. "A wonderful sight it is to see the huge fields of ice being hurried along by the rapid current, grating against the fringe of strong ice which clings to the shore until they have cut it, and it has cut them as straight and as evenly as a glazier cuts an irregular piece of glass with his diamond— and to see them when brought to a jam crunched against a projecting piece of land, and smashing up and still borne on by the current, forming quite a mound of ice fragments—and to see them overlapping each other, and forced on to each other's backs, and slipping about until broken, or welded together by the frost. All this is striking, and the sound perhaps still more so. It is grand and solemn to hear morning, noon, and night that continual crashing going on," The frost brought with it opportunities which no Englishman can resist. For the first time since the Creation skating began on the hardened surface of the river. Early one morning the young Siwash rushed into Mr. Sheepshanks' room to tell him, in much excitement, that a Boston man (that is, American) was moving about in a very quick and surprising way upon the ice. " It being then apparent that we were in for a spell of JACK FROST AND HIS DOINGS 57 wintry weather, various preparations were made, notably by the Canadian portion of the population for winter amusements. Sleighs were rapidly made, and presently the ladies were being driven about in the rough equipages, made smart with skins, and jingling with bells. Hockey sticks were cut from the forest, and the male portion of the population, officials, parsons, storekeepers, woodmen, and Indians, were engaged in this exciting game upon the broad river. This has continued now for some weeks. Occasionally carts come down the river upon the ice, and cattle are driven across to the other side. Business is at a standstill, and sleigh-driving and hockey have been the order of the day." i Communication with the outer world ceased. This sent up the price of provisions, but had an effect even harder to bear, since it stopped all news from England at the time when the Northern and Southern States of America were at death grips, and the Mason and Slidell incident made the peace of Great Britain itself tremble in the balance. : Accustomed though they were to rough it, the winter of 1862 brought with it more demands upon the patience and endurance of the settlers of New Westminster. " When I awake in the morning the bucket of water for my bath is frozen solid. The first thing to be done is to light a fire—taking care not to touch a piece of iron or steel—put a lump of ice into a saucepan, and so get some water, then pour that, when hot, upon the bucket of ice, and so we can wash. " My blind fell down the other morning, and I fastened it up again by driving a nail in with my sponge. I cannot easily comb my hair, for it is frozen together. My uppermost blanket is hoary with my frozen breath: I make a snowball of the hoar-frost and throw it at Knipe. 1 58 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH " All the bed-clothes near my mouth are stiff with ice. When one proceeds to breakfast, the cups and saucers are stuck hard to the cupboard. The bread is frozen, and must be put in the oven before it can be eaten. The ink is solid, and in the evening the camphine will not burn. But, notwithstanding, I like the weather. The cold affects one more in England because of the damp and wind. Here, in the heavy frost, there is no wind. Indeed, if there were, we could not live." For no less than four months the great river remained fast bound in ice. Milder weather brought with it water and slush on the surface, but the ice still remained, showing how deeply the frost must have penetrated. No steamer was able to come up from Burrard's Inlet: life with the outer world still languished. A sporting incident came to break the monotony of their daily life. "One morning, I think it was in the first week of March, we were having breakfast when our young Siwash, who went to look out at the window, uttered a cry of surprise. Looking up the river we saw a noble stag coming slowly down the river upon the ice, evidently tired, and apparently unable to get away to the woods. He was soon perceived in the town, and the storekeepers came out with their rifles, and, hurrying along the shore, were taking long shots at the poor animal. They did not hit him, however, and after awhile he stood still. " Presently one or two white men brought out a canoe, and pushing it before them as a safeguard, stepped out upon the ice and made for the stag. At the same time it was seen that two Indians on snow-shoes had set out from the other side. It was a race between the two parties, and for some little time the issue appeared doubtful. The Indians, A REDSKIN TRIUMPH 59 however, had rather less distance to travel, though it must have been toilsome walking in snow-shoes on the rotten, melting ice, and the foremost Indian, coming up to the stag, which did not move, while the other party was yet some thirty yards off, brought the noble creature to his knees with one blow of his club, and then despatched him. "The jubilation of our boy over the success of his countrymen was comical to witness. He scoffed at the 'Boston men.' He mimicked their shooting, and went through the whole scene. He gloried in the superior skill of the ' Siwashes.' He laughed and danced about the room. He was a merry fellow, and we were much amused." Meanwhile the clergy found full scope for their energies. They visited the people and ministered to the sick, and taught in the day-school at the camp: consoled those in the hospital, and talked with the prisoners in the gaol: fulfilled their ministrations in the church on Sundays and Saints days, varying their labours in the town by occasional visits to the settlers in the woods. By this time the services in church were well attended: the singing was good—for not only did the Royal Engineers, who came down from camp, provide an excellent choir, but on festivals swelled the music with their admirable band. Mil IB 1 1 II 11 '1 r ii 1 Til 'iU 1 -—----' M^k D^tM I1 1 ll r 11 1 J ! . 1 CHAPTER VII NORTHWARDS—TO THE GOLD-MINES The men of the pick and cradle—A fellow-worker—Crazy craft on the Frazer—On horseback and foot—Experiences by the way—A judgment of Solomon—Double or quits—La Fontaine Indians—Care for body and soul—Effects of the lancet. Mr. Sheepshanks was now to address himself more immediately to the miners—to the men who, penetrating into the interior of the country, had made its empty spaces swarm with industrious hands. They were mostly young men, scorning restraint, who had crossed the Atlantic, or climbed the Rocky Mountains, to fight for their own hand in the great battle for gold. For in those strenuous days there was not so much need of the thinker or inventor or skilled tradesman, but of muscle and thew, human flesh and blood that could work hard and work untiringly. At their coming the face of the country had changed— camps had grown up as by enchantment; tracts of land had been cleared and settled, while the bear and the Indian had been scarce aware of their approach; the treasure for which they sought had been drawn from its secret resting- place. That the life they lived was a rough and godless one may not be denied—but it was given to the large-hearted m FORT YALE 61 parson to see the wind of hope and humanity which was blowing through this lust for gold, and to rejoice in it. He was now instructed to travel north, up to the rich gold-fields of Cariboo, with Mr. Dundas as a companion. Fortunate in so good a comrade, and one with so keen a relish for what he saw, he took his passage on a steamboat plying on the Frazer to Fort Yale. A current fed by freshets from the melting snow made it difficult to proceed. Readers of the "Mississippi Pilot" will remember the catastrophes which ensued through the racing of the rival steamboats on the great American river. No such sporting element entered into the navigation of the Frazer, but the boats labouring against the rapid tide sometimes came to a like end. Two steamers blew up whilst Mr. Sheepshanks was in the colony. As he watched the fragile vessel quivering under the strokes of the stern wheel, the steam bursting from her side to waft away in jets as from a huge kettle, the purser advised him to sit as far away from the wheel as possible, lest the worst should happen. Safely arrived at Yale, the long journey into the interior on foot or horseback commenced. " Travelling in those early days through the interior was primitive, but in fine weather, though laborious, yet very healthful and very agreeable. It was before the days of roads and conveyances. It was the time of rough trails and long tramps. " We purchased a horse which carried all our goods and chattels. On the horse's back there was placed a Mexican pack-saddle, shaped somewhat like a St. Andrew's cross, the horse's back being between two of the limbs. Our goods were put up in three packages—one containing our tent (weighing 7 lbs.) and blankets; another our food, and pots 11 1 h! * P'% Ki: \mk ' i!1 y 62 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH and pans; the third our personal belongings, clothes, books, etc. One bundle was placed on one side, between two of the limbs of the cross, another on the opposite side balancing it, and the third on the top, then the whole three were bound together with a rope in the intricate way known as the Mexican knot, and an indispensable axe was thrust in between the packages. " The food that we took was a bag of flour, with a tin of yeast powder; a piece of bacon and a bag of American beans; a packet of preserved apples or, peaches, which go in a small compass and swell out in the cooking; some tea and sugar. We required a frying-pan for the bacon, the slap-jacks (Australian ' dampers') or pancakes, and cakes of bread, a saucepan for the tea, and a larger one for the beans, metal plates and tea-cups. With knife and fork, and matches added, one could go anywhere. " Our little tent was an oblong. We took no framework with us, but took care to pitch it in the neighbourhood of trees and not far from a stream. First of all three quite young trees were cut down—or branches were cut off larger trees. Two of these, forked at the top by the cutting of a branch, were forced into the ground about seven feet apart; upon the third, carefully stripped of all branches, the tent was strung, an incision being made for this purpose at each end of the ridge of the tent. This pole was then lifted up and placed upon the other two as a ridge pole. The cords were stretched out and fastened into the ground with pegs, the curtain hung down to the ground and the tent was ready. When the poles and pegs were cut, two of us, after a little experience, could pitch the tent in seven minutes. Inside, two men could just sleep. We each of us had a waterproof sheet or blanket, and two very large warm blankets. THE IRISH MAGISTRATE 63 " Sometimes the forest was very wet. I have occasionally pitched my tent and slept on ground so wet that my feet sank an inch or two into the soft mud. Then one would strew pine leaves on the ground to a depth of several inches, and spread the waterproof blanket upon them. I did this also on other occasions if there were time to spare. So an excellent bed was made, and the scent of the pine leaves was delicious. We never caught cold from the wet surroundings. Indeed, for a healthy man, living in a tent is a preventive of cold. A cold bath in the morning is also hardening and invigorating. I have crunched the ice beneath my feet, as I have run in the morning to plunge into the ice-cold river, and in the mountains have rubbed myself with newly fallen snow by way of a tub, and this, as I think, formed a preservative against colds and chills. " When pitching the tent in the wet forest, the ground covered with moss, and grey beards of lichen hanging down from the trees, the mist and drizzle coming steadily down, it was sometimes very hard work requiring patience and skill to light a fire. When once lighted it seemed to change the melancholy scene as by magic. No wonder the ancients fabled that fire was stolen from heaven. " But a difficulty even greater and more distressing was that of finding fodder for the horse. I was often greatly distressed by the half-starved condition of our poor animal. Multitudes of horses perished on the way to the mines." At Ashcroft they were entertained by a very delightful Irishman, with all the bonhomie and resource of his race. As a magistrate, he had knotty cases to decide, and showed the wisdom of Solomon in dealing with them. " On one occasion two Chinamen, who were working at a bar close by, appeared before him, each claiming to be the 64 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH lawful owner of a nugget of gold, which was produced, Chinaman number one told his tale, which proved conclusively that of right it belonged to him. Then John Chinaman number two told his story, which proved beyond doubt that he was the fortunate owner. One was lying, of course. But which of the two it was not possible to say. " My friend, the magistrate, thought for a moment, and then stepping to the corner of the room and fetching thence his shillelagh, with a look of infinite wisdom on his face, delivered his decision. ' I do not know now to which of you two the nugget belongs. But I shall know to-morrow. Let the true owner come here for it. But if the one to whom it does not belong, the liar, come here, I shall smash his head as I smash this saucer/ And down came the shillelagh with tremendous force upon a saucer lying on his table and smashed it into fragments. "The magistrate had been told that in some of their transactions the Chinamen ratify the matter by solemnly breaking a piece of china. No doubt the two men went away duly impressed. " Next morning, sitting at his desk and looking down the slope which led up to the Court-house from the village, the magistrate saw one of the Chinamen coming slowly up. The shrewd Irishman noted his slow and hesitating manner. The knock came at the door. 'Come in,' shouted the magistrate. John slowly opened the door and poked in his shaven, pig-tailed, oblique-eyed face. The magistrate, bouncing up, rushed to the corner for his shillelagh. Slam went the door, and John was seen from the window fleeing for his life down the road. The magistrate resumed his seat with a smile. "Presently the other Chinaman was seen steadily A YANKEE WORSTED plodding up the road duly watched by the Irishman. The knock comes at the door. ' Come in,' roars the magistrate. John opens the door. The magistrate bounds up, and, rushing to the corner, clutches his shillelagh. Turning round he sees that John is standing there, having shut the door behind him. ' There is the nugget,' he says; ' you may take it.' " Before coming to Lytton my friend was placed at the frontier in the valley of the Columbia, when one of his duties was to collect toll on the cattle imported into the colony from the States. "On one occasion, when his constable happened to be away or ill, an American drover brought in a herd of cattle, for which he stoutly refused to pay the toll. The magistrate would not let him pass, and he, seeing that there was no force at hand, resolutely maintained his refusal to pay. So there was a deadlock, from which there appeared to be no way of escape. Was the man to pay the toll or not ? At last the American offered to the magistrate to fight him for it. 'Well, you know,' said he to me with an inimitable smile, ' that was playing into my hands! So we had it out, and,' added he, with a droll look, ' he paid the toll.' As I looked at him I admired his magnificent proportions more than I did the wit of the Yankee who challenged him to the combat." At Lytton the travellers left the Frazer and descended the valley of the Thompson River, walking about twenty miles a day to camp at eventide when opportunity served in the neighbourhood of an Indian settlement. A visit paid to the La Fontaine Indians was memorable first of all because Mr. Sheepshanks drank of the alkaline waters of Lake Vert with disastrous results. He was very sick, ulcers F \l |py If 66 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH broke out on his gums, loosening his teeth, whilst for many days he could eat no solid food. The other event is worthy of a detailed account. "As my dear friend Mr. Dundas and I were tramping along the trail, and towards evening were drawing near to Lake Vert, a couple of Indians in their picturesque costume, with hunter's coat and scarlet leggings, galloped past us, taking off their caps as they speeded by, hurrying on to tell the Indians of the La Fontaine tribe that two ' King George Leplate,' i.e..English priests, were on the trail. "Accordingly shortly afterwards, about five p.m., we found at the foot of a low mountain, at the base of which we were passing, a small group of Indians, consisting of the head chief, his wife and daughter (a sweet-looking girl), and two others, by whom we were affectionately greeted, and invited to visit their camp. Having assented, we were conveyed up the slope to the encampment situated on a small plateau on the hill side. " It was a singularly picturesque spot, looking out on a semicircular group of hills, or low mountains, and upon the lovely emerald green lake just below. Following my inveterate habit of bathing, I was rash enough to take a bath very early next morning in the lake. Immediately I sank nearly up to my knees in the whitish slime, which, as I have said, usually extends for some yards from the margin in these lakes, and, as the water bubbled around me, a sickening fetid smell arose as of decayed vegetable matter. As quickly as I could I extracted myself with some discomfort. "But to resume. Being arrived at the plateau the Indians at once took us under their wing. One having unpacked our horse, led him away to the pasture. Some 111 AN UNREGISTERED PRACTITIONER 67 pitched the tent, others made a fire, fetched water, and, under Dundas' superintendence, began to prepare our supper. "I took advantage of this time to vaccinate the tribe. Just then the small-pox, for the first time introduced, was making terrible ravages among the native tribes, and before starting on our mission I thought it well to get some instruction in the art of vaccinating from Doctor Seddall, the good doctor of the Royal Engineers, who gave me a quantity of dry vaccine matter, and also a lancet, which, by the way, I discovered nearly thirty years afterwards in an old pocket- book which had contained the vaccine, with the point broken off against the tough skin of an old Indian chief, and gave to one of my young daughters. " Accordingly, sitting down upon a fallen tree and taking out my lancet, I told the chiefs that I wished to cut them all slightly in the arm and put in a little good medicine, which I hoped—I tried to express myself carefully—would preserve them from the bad disease. It was a matter of simple faith for the Indians, who, of course, had never heard of vaccination, but were quite prepared to take my word. So they formed themselves into a line—there were about eighty of them—in order of dignity. "First came the head chief; then his wife, then his daughter, then the chief second in rank, and so forth. One after another, turning up the sleeve of the left arm, they presented themselves to me, as I sat upon the log, lancet in hand, to undergo the mysterious operation. They came up with the intense gravity peculiar to the Indians, as though they were going to the stake, but soon perceived the simplicity of the process. " It was pretty to see the mothers as they brought up the fat, copper-coloured babies, placing their hands across ill! W\ 68 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH the little one's eyes, and drawing his head a little on one side, as I believe English mothers do, to prevent his being frightened and seeing the tiny speck of blood. So true it is that' one touch of nature makes the whole world kin.' "When the operation was gone through and we had partaken of our supper, we summoned the Indians, as they expected and desired, to preach to them. They formed themselves in two semicircles and squatted upon the ground in front of our tent, while I spoke to them. Mr. Dundas said but little, as living in the town of Victoria, and seeing very little of the Indians, he did not know the Chinook so well as I. Some of the old people here, as elsewhere, did not know the Chinook jargon. So we placed boys, who all knew it well, at intervals; and while I was speaking in the Chinook, the boys kneeling on the ground were translating each sentence into the La Fontaine tongue. And the old people pressed near to the boys that they might hear and understand. " It was difficult, and not what one would wish, to speak to these dear people through such a poor medium whereby one could do little more than state facts, such as those of the Apostles' Creed, set before them a few simple truths, and enforce a few plain moral lessons. Yet, though the preaching was so imperfect, it was delightful and very touching to see with what gladness these wild, untaught people received the Word. How great a contrast to multitudes of our people at home, who in the preaching of the Gospel are indifferent, wearied, bored, thus refusing to respond to the message that comes from their Father! "But to these poor dear people of the prairie or the forest, the message brought is indeed the ' Gospel,' the ' good- spell,' the glad tidings of great joy. And at the announce- THE GLAD TIDINGS 69 ment of the simple revealed truths of Christianity, when we told them of the one God, the Father, and that He is a Being of love, and that He loves all His children, the redskins as much as the white-skins; that we are all His, and that He has sent His Son Jesus to live and die for us; and that there is a happy world beyond the grave for all those who love Him and His Son, and who resist sin and try in life to please Him—at these truths, trite and inoperative as they are to many nominal Christians in our own land, the heart of the wild, untaught savage is moved within him. "They are not news to the multitudes of indifferent hearers in our own land, who think they know all about them; but to those who have been ' sitting in darkness' they come like a stream of light from heaven to cheer and console them, to fill them with a blessed hope. The painted faces that a while ago looked stern, almost threatening, are now changed, and soft expressions play now upon their features. The eyes that were so wild now look calm and gentle; and the old people nod their heads, and with shut eyes exclaim,' Klosh klosh, klosh' (' It is good; it is good'). " If there be a pause, they will ask,' Did you say, chief, that the great Chief up on high loves us all as His children ? Did you say there is life after death ? It is good. Tell us that again.' And they repeat the saying over again to themselves. " At length the sermon ended; they are dissatisfied, not that it has been so long, but that it has been so short. ' Tell it us again, chief,' they cry, as the light of the fire, which is between us and them, falls upon their painted faces with their eager but kindly expressions. We spoke for a long time, until we were tired; and after we were in our tent, wrapped in our blankets, we still heard them talking round 7o A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH the fire of what they had heard, and muttering the prayer that we had taught them. I One wished we could have given them more thorough instruction, yet it seemed to be a gracious privilege to be able to speak to them at all, and to instil into their hitherto dark minds some idea of the love of God, and to brighten their lives with a ray of hope. " During the night a storm of wind arose, which in that exposed situation came upon us very heavily, and our tent was blown down upon us. Whether the Indians, being unused to the work, had put it up insecurely, I do not know. It was cold work, being dressed only for the night, putting it up again. However, we managed somehow, and in the morning wished the dear people good-bye. I was never there again." But though Mr. Sheepshanks was never to look upon that encampment again, he was to be kept in grateful remembrance by the people he had literally " saved alive." The kindly hand of a white man was to bring to the little community the antidote to that deadly disease white men had imported. There are still in England those who look upon vaccination as a loathsome and pernicious thing. Though the prejudice—once carried to the verge of martyrdom—has somewhat abated, it is still sufficiently alive to bring into strong relief the sequel to this visit. " It was about a year and a quarter after this event that I was coming down country from Cariboo alone, driving my little horse bearing my baggage before me. It was the same day, I remember, that a prairie wolf frightened my horse by galloping across the prairie just in front of us. I was drawing near to the Thompson River, and was doubtful whether I should find means for getting across. VACCINATION VINDICATED 7i "Coming in sight of the sparkling, rushing river, I perceived the figure of a man, evidently, like myself, wishing to cross. Approaching, I saw that he was an Indian; and he, recognizing me, ran up and embraced me in an affectionate and touching manner, stroking down my arms as I stood before him, looking up in my face with a soft expression, and saying in gentle tones,' Ah tyee, ah tyee, ah, chief, my heart is with your heart.' ' You know me ?' said I. ' Ah yes, chief; I remember you when you came to us of the La Fontaine tribe, and cut us in the arm for the bad disease.' Well, and what was the result ? j ' We are all well, chief; we none of us got the bad disease. But a few of our tribe' (I am not sure whether he said three or five) ' were away when you came, having gone up the river to pick berries, and they took the disease and died.'" U f! til 1 CHAPTER VIII ON THE CARIBOO Incidents of travel—"Green timber"—Disappointment and retreat— Loss of money—Loss of life—Antlers Creek—An unconventional service—Methods of mining. The journey was now daily bringing them, not merely in its scenery but in its experiences, into the wilder, rougher life associated with the name of goldfields. The desperado of the Californian mines was notably absent, but revolvers were a part of every man's equipment, robbery was not infrequent, murders not unknown. "After leaving the silent, sombre forests of the lower country and passing through the canons of the cascade range, the tramp over the intervening country, mainly prairie, to the commencement of the Cariboo range, some two hundred miles, though laborious and trying both from the fatigue and the heat, was on the whole pleasant enough and healthful. " We sometimes slept in one of the wayside houses, often mere log hovels, that were beginning to spring up here and there along the trail. Then, wrapped in our blankets, we lay down on the dirty floor of the cabin along with miners or storekeepers going up to or returning from the mines. If the latter, they were sometimes carrying their gold-dust with them in belts round their person, and the revolver was 72 A TIMELY GIFT 73 placed, perhaps somewhat ostentatiously, conveniently at hand. A friend of mine, an inoffensive, peaceable man, was put into a nervous flutter by the frank declaration of a miner close by. ' Wal, mates, I give notice, that if I hear any one moving hereabouts, I shall shoot.' " It was much pleasure camping out. But inasmuch as there was no pitching of a tent, and no fire-lighting nor cooking—for the master of the house would serve up beans and bacon—it was a considerable saving of time to put up at a wayside house, especially if we wanted to make an early start in the morning. "We got along very fairly well with our cooking. Occasionally we had a little variety in the shape of fresh vegetables, such as radishes and lettuces, but this was very seldom. Once a good Scotchwoman, delighted to find a compatriot in Dundas, gave him a tin of fresh butter. This was the first I had tasted for many months, for the bad salt butter I could not manage. " At the first, fresh butter was not procurable, and afterwards it was not less than a dollar (4s.) per pound. All dairy produce was equally dear, eggs being a dollar a dozen. The acquisition of this butter caused us some amusement, for that afternoon we fell in with some wild gooseberries, and I succeeded in making two cocked-hat gooseberry pasties, which I think were the greatest triumph in cuisine that I achieved. To make good bread and bake it I found not easy, especially if, just when the dough was being kneaded and was hanging in flakes from one's hands, swarms of mosquitos would find us out and attack my bare arms and face when it was not possible to defend them." Nearing the Cariboo country, they were now, in the midst of incessant rains, to understand the difference between 74 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH "burnt timber" and "green timber." The one was land smoothed out, not by the axe, but by the forest fires which from time to time sprang up and galloped through these hills and ravines, threatening to leave the plains of Cariboo as bald as the Norfolk broads. Desolation reigned, yet the trail which ran through the land so robbed of its timber was comparatively dry and firm. " But, oh, the green timber! The rays of the sun could not get down to the narrow trail, which was in some degree walled in on either side by the felled trees and the logs that had been rolled out of the way. Thus the hundreds of pack animals, mules and horses, all the time going up to or returning from the mines, had trampled the trail into a long continuous line of quagmire. The tramp of the animals had worn the trail into ' ridge-and-furrow' steps. " And there was no way of escape. One must stick to the trail; it was not feasible to go through the forest. Nor was it practicable to step upon the ridges, which were often more than a foot high and very slippery. The only thing to do was to lift one's foot over the ridges as the mules did, and step into the little pools of mud, some inches deep in the ' furrows.' "This was fatiguing; and the mud being continually churned by the feet of the animals and brought into a paste-like consistency, gave forth a sickening stench. At the 'bottoms/ or sometimes where the trail was crossed by a rivulet, the mud was very deep, and perhaps afforded no firm footing for the animal, which here, therefore, ran a risk of being bogged. It was a piteous sight to see a poor overloaded-mule lose its foothold, and, frightened, struggle frantically and fall over and lie on its side exhausted. Unless quickly rescued, it must soon be IN FULL RETREAT 75 smothered. The packers rush to its help, cut the rope, and carry the packs into the wood if they can. Then they throw a rope round the poor beast, and try to haul him out upon the dry ground. We took a hint from Dandie Dinmont and his horse Dumple, and usually allowed our horse to choose his own way, which answered very well. "Day after day we met groups of men, chiefly young men and Englishmen, turning back, never having reached the mines, disappointed, broken down, haggard, furious with those whose lying representations (as they said) had brought them to this accursed country. 'Back, back,' they cried; ' to go on is madness. You will never get to the mines. Very few who start will ever get there alive. Provisions are at famine prices. The men are starving. All have gone back except the thieves and gamblers. Oh, that Times correspondent, if I catch him ! Oh, this God-forsaken country!'" In the English newspapers, notably in the Times, descriptions of the most extravagant nature had been given of the wealth and prospects of the mines; page after page of the Press was but a story of sudden enrichment, of nuggets, and shovels and equipment. Reading them now, one sees in these articles a vast virgin ignorance of the life and conditions of British Columbia. But the young' English parsons were not wanting in pluck; they set their faces like a flint towards the spot described as the " abomination of desolation," and they lived to hear the miners say, " Wal, whether those chaps do much good I don't know. But anyhow they've got grit." So far they had been journeying as those who are, if not affluent, able to pay their way. By an unlucky accident they were to become a pair of tramps, depending, like the 76 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH mendicant friars of another age and country, upon the goodwill and charities of the settled inhabitants. "One afternoon, when we were drawing near to the ' Forks of Quesnel River,' we arrived very hot at a delicious- looking stream at the edge of the ' green timber.' Dundas had a small leather bag strung round him, in which he was good enough to carry both his and my money for our expenses at the mines—some £70. I lay down upon the ground by the edge of the brook, and plunged my face into the water and drank. Refreshed, we proceeded on our way. | Just as we were entering the ' green timber' three men emerged. I only saw the face of one: a villainous face, of deathly pallor. On we went into the wood, and when we had proceeded some two or three miles, Dundas exclaimed, 'I have left the purse behind. It must have been at that brook.' So he returned to seek for the money, while I went on with the horse to wait for him at the nearest wayside house." After a few hours Dundas arrived, but with no tidings of the money. It was gone. Next day murder rose up and confronted them. Making their way to the coast, with a good deal of gold- dust in their possession, three Jews had been waylaid and done to death, their bodies being found by a search party in the forest. Viewed in the outhouse where they were lying, they showed no more sign of their taking off than the small blue mark in the temple through which their life had passed out. In spite of hue and cry, their assailants effected their escape. Beneath inclement skies, with mire unspeakable around them, with feet that sunk and slid in the laborious business of walking, the two companions, leading their starving "JUMPING" A HUT 77 horses, came at last to Antlers Creek. Desolate enough, with the grip of frost upon it, and wearing the wintry aspect of a village four thousand feet above the level of the sea, they were glad to reach it. " That night," says Mr. Sheepshanks, " I spread my blankets on the floor of a store, and next day looked out for a domicile. Walking up the A creek'—for the word in American parlance means simply a brook or stream—I was fortunate enough to find an empty, well-built log hut, about a mile from the clump of stores. This hut, imitating the hermit crab, I incontinently took possession of, and at once removed my traps thither, and setting to work with my axe, soon succeeded in lighting in the fireplace, rudely made of rough stones, a blazing fire which showed to any one who cared to know that some one was in possession. " Nor had I any fear of being disturbed, for whether the miners paid any heed to our ministrations or not—and the latter, with some few exceptions, was the case—they were quite willing that we should be there, and would, I believe, have resented any personal incivility or rudeness done to us. When my dear friend Mr. Knipe was on this same creek the year before, the miners, respecting him and wishing to make him comfortable, actually lifted a small wooden house from a lot where it could not be allowed to remain, on to another lot, in order that he might live in it. For myself, I never received anything but kindly and respectful treatment from the miners while I was in the Colony. " My hut suited me very well. It was weather-tight, and had a nice look-out across the creek which, after rain, was rushing along below. It was quiet and secluded, and a little brook which fell into the creek supplied me with water, and, when dammed, with my bath. 7* A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH " The only slight drawback was its distance from the village, and the difficulty of finding my way home after late visiting or an evening service. But I soon learned to know the various pitfalls, and have always been able to see fairly well in the dark. I had a few books with me, and trimmed the midnight lamp. Between midnight and dawn some good-sized animal used to come into the hut, no doubt down the short, broad chimney. It was, I believe, of the stoat or weasel kind; but it did not trouble me, and I never saw it." On the first Sunday evening the largest drinking saloon in Antlers Creek presented a scene not unworthy of the pen of Bret Harte. It must have been strange to see the services of the Anglican Church held, as they were, in a saloon, with the raw young Englishman reading at a table, and to hear the singing of the hymns and the reading of the eloquent prayers of the Liturgy mingling without with the strange, humorous vein of talk that marked a miners' camp. " The monte tables were swept away at the further end of the saloon, and benches and chairs put out for the congregation and a small table for me. I rang the dinner bell up and down the street and at the door of the saloon, and soon had a gathering of about thirty men. There was not a woman on the creek. " We took three packets of good-sized cards with us in bags. On one there was printed an abbreviated form of matins and evensong, on another a select number of psalms, and on the third some selected hymns. These cards I handed round. " The men sang fairly well, and listened attentively and gravely. Levity or obvious inattention would be thought bad form. If a man did not care for what was going on he "O COCKTAILS IN CHURCH! 79 would rise quietly and go away. But this was of very rare occurrence. "At the other end of the saloon' bar-keeper' was handing out occasional cocktails. Men would come in, cigar in mouth, but they were perfectly silent, and would listen for a little while and then go away, or occasionally throw away the cigar and join us. "When 'the preaching' was over, as I was thanking ' bar-keep' for his courtesy, he politely offered me a drink. ' Thank you, I don't use it; but I will take a cigar.' This answered the purpose just as well of allowing him to show one a kindness. ' Wal, sir, I guess you had the whole crowd here this evening.' ' Whom do you mean ?' ' Why, sir, all the gamblers. Did you observe that handsome Jew right opposite you ? That was Lichenstein, who keeps the bank. Wal, doc', good night.'" Gambling, it may be noticed, had been elevated at the mines to the dignity of an honourable profession. Lichenstein the "handsome Jew" invited Mr. Sheepshanks to visit him in his own home in Victoria, which the diary describes as " an orderly, well-conducted house and a united family." Mining on the Cariboo differed from the primitive work with rockers and cradles upon the bars of the Frazer River. "The system pursued upon the creeks of Cariboo was necessarily somewhat different, for while fine gold-dust was found upon the banks of the Frazer, being brought down from above, the coarser gold must be sought deeper down, either upon the ' bed rock,' or in some stratum, often called pay-dirt, immediately above it. The process, then, is this: "Wooden troughs or 'sluices,' as they are called, are constructed and supported upon tressels, along which the i So A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH water of the stream is conveyed. Frames of wooden latticework are placed in these to retard the flow of the water and dirt. Quicksilver, which has the quality of retaining and amalgamating with the gold, is plentifully poured into the sluice boxes. The miners then dig down into the bed of the stream, and the pay-dirt is thrown up by spades, or, where it is considerably below the surface, a shaft being sunk, it is hauled up in buckets, and cast into the sluices. The rush of water carries away the soil and many of the stones, and the gold-dust is caught by the quicksilver and retained in the boxes. I From time to time, more or less frequently according to the circumstances, the water is turned off and the sluice boxes ' cleaned up.' All the stones are thrown out, and the gold amalgamated with the quicksilver is carried away in pans and placed in the miners' cabin. The process of cleaning up, especially in the more flourishing claims, is always regarded with much interest by a number of lookers- on. It sometimes transpires that, good pay-dirt having been struck, a man from utter poverty has suddenly become rich. " One evening, not long after my arrival upon the creek, I was present at a cleaning up, and the sluices were glittering with gold to the amount of several hundreds of pounds. The principal proprietor was hailed by a man at my side, ' Say, mate, do you remember when you and I came over the bald mountain t'other day what money we had between us ?' ' Why, we had a dollar.' ' And what did we do with it ?' ' Why, we went and had a drink.' " In a letter home, dated September 22 (1862), I find that I wrote as follows: ' You see that I am still at the dig- gings. This creek has turned out rather a failure. There A RISKY CALLING 81 are but few really rich claims; and owing to the very dry weather there has not been sufficient water in the creek for the mining machinery, so that a good many men have left the place. William's creek, however, has turned out astonishingly rich, and miners from other creeks have rushed thither. "' Dundas, who was stationed there, having gone down country with the Bishop, and Richfield, the village, being only twelve miles from this place, I walked over and took duty there for two Sundays. I' The mode of mining there is somewhat different from ours here. For the gold is found at from forty to sixty feet below the surface in the narrow valley through which the creek runs. A shaft is sunk at no great distance from the stream until the bed rock, which is there a blue slate, is struck; and if no gold be found, they then "drift," i.e. excavate in a straight line until they strike the pay-dirt, which is then hauled up with rope and bucket and thrown into the sluices. I saw there pay-dirt so rich that a wash- hand basinful would yield from two to three pounds sterling in gold-dust. 1' Each miner is allowed to take up 100 feet square of ground; but usually four or five men combine and take up a " claim I of 400 or 500 feet together. Perhaps in this claim there may be no gold at all. Perhaps the "lead" may run right through it, and it may take them two or three seasons to get out all the gold, in which case they may be said to be rich men. Gold-mining in this country is therefore a very risky calling. A man may come up here, and not be able for a long time to get a claim. I' The creeks already discovered may be all taken up, and he may be obliged to go and "prospect," i.e. search round about for new diggings. Or he may buy into a claim, and G 82 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH nm it may turn out a failure. Or he may go to work upon an unoccupied piece of ground, and spend some hundreds of dollars and find nothing. Or, on the other hand, he may, and possibly one in every twelve does, light upon a rich claim, and in a few months with hard work, much excitement, and anxiety, realize a small fortune. But it is clear to me that a return for honest labour is less certain in gold- mining than in any other lawful occupation that I know of. It is this element of gambling, together with the wild life, that constitutes the great charm of gold-mining to men of adventurous minds.'" CHAPTER IX the tale of the young englishman Autumn in North America—Forest and lake—Treachery and attempted murder—A faithful dog—The long watch—Belief party. Autumn still held the land under its mellowing touch when Mr. Sheepshanks went back to his own fold in New Westminster. " The autumn was, as usual, very beautiful. I have seen and admired the lovely autumn tints in many countries, but nowhere so lovely as in North America. For the forest is still; wind cannot penetrate to its recesses, and the trees silently change into their varied brilliancy. " Search out an open glade where deciduous trees are round you, and the tall, sombre pines in the background. The trees are full of leaf, and exhibit almost every shade of yellow, red, and russet. But step a little further. There is a sight for a painter's eye. See that maple. Not a dozen leaves have fallen. Every leaf is on its stem, and every leaf is a brilliant gold. You look with delight upon the glory. It is a sight to be remembered. " You stand still and note how the radiant colours are set off against the pines and yews of the wood you are approaching. You listen, but there is not a sound. And the scene 83 - I 84 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH for a moment appears like one of the imagination only. But you pass on. " And if you come again in a few days' time and wish to see again that tree of glory, lo! it now stands bare, with not a leaf, and beneath it the ground is carpeted with gold. "Such scenes as these naturally gave birth to some reflections. Being out in the forest, I have at times pushed my way slowly and with difficulty through the tangled bush, climbing over the great fallen trees and forcing a passage through the intricate masses of boughs, and have stepped out upon a savannah by the side of a little lake, and there have seen with delight the strange beauty of the spot—the lake smooth as a mirror fringed with sedges; the water clear as crystal; the great pine trees fallen into the lake, lying and decaying upon the bottom; the trunks clearly seen many feet below; the branches stretching up towards the surface. " Not a sign of life is there except now and then a string of wild ducks speeding in rapid flight above the surface of the water. The ground is carpeted with flowers, mostly of brilliant colours. Delicate lichens of varied shades of grey droop in light, feathery masses from the trees. Underfoot are rich glossy mosses. Kneeling down one admires their exquisite structure. " It is a fair spot. But who has ever seen it ? No canoe has ever been steered upon that lake. What is the use of beauty but to be seen ? These fair flowers and mosses have shown their beauty here, for aught I know, for thousands of years. It may be that no human being has ever before beheld them. There is nothing to bring the savage here, and if by some strange chance one had wandered thither, he would see no more beauty here than the bear whose tracks A REMARKABLE ADVENTURE 85 I noticed. And beauty is useless until it meets the eye of one who appreciates and is delighted by it." About this time, whilst on a visit to Victoria, he saw limping through the streets of the town a tall young Englishman, the hero, or the victim, of a very remarkable adventure. I He had gone up North on a prospecting expedition, and paddled up the Stikine River for many days, having with him an Indian, of whom he knew but little, and also, providentially, a favourite little dog. It was the wintertime or early spring, and the weather was very cold. They would paddle during the greater part of the day, and land towards evening and camp on a suitable piece of ground on the river's bank. " One evening, when they had ascended the river a good many miles, they went ashore and cooked their meal, and made preparations for the night. The tent that they pitched was of a rude but not unusual description. Two stout poles, cut from the neighbouring wood, were driven into the ground about six feet apart, and a cross-piece fastened on the top from one to the other. Two quite short stakes with a cross- piece were fixed on one side, and a sheet of light canvas spread from the higher cross-piece over the lower one and fastened to the ground with heavy stones. Thus there was protection from the rain or snow, and it was so put up as to afford shelter from the wind; but the other side was, it will be observed, quite open and looked towards the forest. " Mr. W., of course, slept rolled in his blankets, with his feet towards the open part, and his belongings around him. He was awakened very early in the morning by the report of a gun close by his head, and he felt himself frightfully wounded in the thigh. Instinctively it flashed across him 86 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH that the Indian had taken his gun and was attempting to murder him. There was yet another loaded barrel, so, lest he should give some guidance to his assassin, he lay perfectly still. The other barrel was fired, but mercifully missed him. The murderer had not dared to look him in the face, but was shooting from behind through the canvas. " Now, however, thinking his murderous work was done, he came round with the axe in his hand to despatch his victim. But to snatch up his revolver which lay by his side, cock it, and present it to the Indian was for Mr. W. but the work of an instant. The Indian at once fled into the bush. "Mr. W., agonized with pain, soon fell into a state of semi-stupor, from which he was aroused by the vehement barking of his little dog. Rousing himself, he saw his would- be murderer again approaching, axe in hand. But again the revolver was presented at him which he dared not face, and again he retired. "The same thing recurred at intervals during the day. The poor Englishman was lying, hour after hour, faint from pain and loss of blood, his head swimming, half unconscious. Again and again he would be aroused from his stupor by the barking and yelping of the little dog, and again the murderer would shrink from the pointed weapon. | Then nightfall came, and with it snow, which floated in at the open side and covered his blankets, and, I suppose, mitigated the fever of his wounds. He could not move his lower limbs, but providentially there was a bag of sugar within the reach of his arm; and I suppose there could be no better sustenance for him than that. " The same incidents recurred during the next day. Mr. W. could occasionally see the Indian skulking or moving in the bush, and every now and then creeping towards him. RESCUE AT LAST *7 But the little dog did not sleep, and the right arm and the revolver were always ready. "The Englishman could more than once have shot his enemy. But he felt that that would mean his own sure death by starvation; for no one knew that he was there. No Indians would be coming up the river at such a time as that. His only chance of communicating with the outer world must be through the murderer. So he held his hand. " Thus the day passed and the night. The morning after the Indian could bear it no longer. He was being starved; for there were no berries, and he had nothing to eat. So it was with intense relief that Mr. W. saw him get into the canoe and paddle down stream. " That day passed and the night. And in the morning the sound of paddles was heard, and a canoe came up to the bank full of Indians, who stepped ashore and came towards him. The intrepid Englishman pointed his revolver towards them, and bade them take him up and put him in the canoe, or he would shoot them every one. " It is probable that, anyway, they had kindly intentions towards him, for the evil-disposed among them are few. The miscreant had told them that there was a 'King George man' up the river dead or dying. They might go and take possession of his belongings. " So they went. They lifted him up carefully and placed him in the canoe, took him down to the ranch, where their squaws nursed him until he was better. Then, hearing that there was a party of white men at the mouth of the river some two days' journey off, he sent them down a message, and in due time a boat arrived which took him down the river, and thence he made his way to Victoria. Whether anything was done to his would-be murderer I never heard." CHAPTER X ORDERED NORTH AGAIN If The " varsities " in the wilds—A landlord Senior Optime—Men in place of mules—A bear in the way—Work in Bichfield—A lending library —Bruin once more—Intelligent native. Mr. Sheepshanks and his fellow-clergyman, Mr. Knipe, were again ordered North by their Bishop to resume their mission amidst the army of bearded, reckless men in the mines of Cariboo. Even in the wilds of British Columbia, Mr. Sheepshanks was to make and renew the acquaintance of men, like himself, of University training. Meeting in the far country, whether they hailed from Oxford or Cambridge, some ready-made affection joined them on the instant. "One meets here with every conceivable variety of character—men who have filled almost every position in life, and men who are experiencing precisely the reverse of their former circumstances; rich men now who hitherto have always been poor; poor men now who in time past have been usually rich; employed who were once employers; employers who up to the present have been employed. " You will be interested in hearing how singularly one sometimes runs up against University men. Last year, when going down country, Knipe and I stopped at a wayside house, a wretched hovel, where the only food that we 88 COLLEGE ACQUAINTANCES 89 could get was American beans and bread. A young man with a wild head of hair, who as we entered was employed in baking a loaf of bread on the hearth, welcomed us courteously. He was in his shirt-sleeves, and was clad in a flannel shirt—of course not over-clean—pants, and moccassins. There was no woman in the house, as usual. He was the landlord, and did, I fancy, all the work, and was a Cambridge Senior Optime. I We rolled ourselves in our blankets, and lay down on the not over-clean floor of the one room. I conversed a little while about Cambridge with mine host, who threw himself down upon a bunk above me; and then he took down a book from a shelf above his head, and I fell asleep. " Having the curiosity to see in the morning what book it was with which he had beguiled the time, I found that it was ' Goodwin's Course of Mathematics.' " As Knipe and I were coming up this time we passed a gang of men (labourers you would call them in England) who were making the road. As we passed, one of them, leaning on his shovel, cried out with a cheery voice,' How d'ye do? Have you got any tobacco? because we're out.' I No,' said we,' we haven't.' Then added Knipe, ' Haven't I seen you before up the country ?' ' No,' was the answer; I but I have seen you at Oxford.' "The other day, just before getting into William's Creek, I fortunately for me, lit upon a tent of Captain Grant's with two sappers. Captain Grant was away. The sappers were very good and kind to me, as usual, and gave me some welcome supper—good bacon and beans, and bread and coffee —and then I sat by the fire warming myself with that sense of satisfaction which one has when a day's arduous work has been done. 90 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH if Ktt | It was a fine starlit, frosty night, for we were at a considerable altitude. These were hard times on the Creek, for there was a great rush then, and the weather had been bad, and hundreds of mules had died. Food was scarce, and at a fearfully high price, and men had been engaged at five dollars a day to carry on their backs two sacks of flour over the mountain range into the Creek. "There came a man out of the wood in the obscurity, broad-shouldered, muscular, haggard, obviously dead-beat, and flung himself down on the ground by our fire, and called out,' For God's sake, Digby, give me something to eat!' He was roughly clad, and begrimed with dirt. I Yet his intonation showed to what grade of society he belonged. He had been earning money by carrying flour over the mountains; but now, as mules were again able to get into the Creek, that employment had come to an end, and he was obliged to go below. I thought at first sight that I knew my man, and so I asked him, ' Have I not met you before at Cambridge ?' ' Very likely,' he said; ' I was there a few years ago.' The last time we had met was on the 5th of November, when we had let off fireworks and pelted each other with squibs and crackers in his rooms in the new Court of St. John's." An encounter of more singularity than this took place on the waggon road coming up. Mr, Sheepshanks had tarried at a wayside house to buy fresh meat, of which his party were in need; hurrying on to overtake the others, he was aware from a rise in the road of a huge black bear pushing its way in his direction. His first and natural inclination was to bid this hairy, dangerous brute a respectful and rapid adieu. But he held his ground. " With strong but supple motion, he stepped on to the "TAKING UP THE COLLECTION" 9i road between fifteen and twenty yards ahead of me. Having reached the middle of the road, he stood still and looked up it wistfully. ' Now,' I thought, ' he will next look down the road.' So, while he was thus looking, I confess to having taken two steps backward, so as to get a little bit more of a start for a run, still, however, keeping my face towards him. "' Now we are coming to it,' thought I. He looked, and I looked. I thought he was an ugly-looking customer. What he thought of me I don't know. But apparently he thought me beneath his notice, for he continued his quiet, springy walk, and stepped up from the road on to the opposite bank, and disappeared in the bushes. " I waited a little while, and then walked on, looking curiously at the brake where he had entered. It is singular enough that, though I have seen so much of the country, and have travelled some hundreds of miles along lonely trails, and without a trail, yet though I have no doubt I was once very near a bear before, I have never seen a wild beast till then, and that then it should be in broad daylight and on ' the Queen's highway.'" Settled down at Richfield, the young missioner determined to leave permanent traces of his ministry in a substantial log church. A site having been obtained from Government at a cost of five hundred dollars for pre-emption grading and improvements, the building was begun. It remained for its founder to collect the money necessary for its erection. He gives us a good idea of the unconventional nature of the task, and of the generosity of the miners. " In going round the claims I usually found out beforehand the name of the chief man. In the open claims the men would be working from ten to fifteen feet below the surface. I would ask by name for the chief proprietor, or, if Ill jgjfflf lil 1 11*1 If 11 92 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH I did not know his name, would inquire for * the boss.' A man would pause from his work, roll his quid in his mouth, expectorate, and look up. In a few, very few, words I would tell him of my scheme for a church and library, and add that I had brought up the books. "He would listen, but not many words would pass. ' Wal, doc', have you got a piece of paper about you ?' You may be sure that I always had pieces of paper, and one would go floating down into the claim. The boss would take out his leathern bag or purse from his pocket, jerk some grains of gold-dust into the paper, as one might jerk peppercorns out of a packet, screw up the paper, and then,' Here, doc', catch!' The paper was caught, thanks were given, and ' doc' departed. Sometimes two or three men in a claim would give, the rest being hired workmen. The amount was usually about £2. After a few weeks of this I got nearly all the money." The church completed, a lean-to was provided for its minister, which had little pretension to comfort, none to respectability. Sufficiently airy and cool in the warm weather, with a gaping chimney of rough stones, it leaked unconscionably in the days and nights of rain. Yet it provided him with a healthy dwelling-place, always well ventilated, never deserted by the outdoor freshness of the woods and open spaces. Mr. Sheepshanks wisely provided himself with a library, and the books procured him a welcome where the sight of a clergyman's face was otherwise regarded with disfavour. Every one of his publications claimed a reader. Not only "Dickens in Camp," but hard theological works that had to be brazed in the mortar of the mind. "The books were undoubtedly useful. Many of the LOOSE MORALS 93 miners, indeed, would read nothing; but not a few were very glad of a book to read in the evening when the work was done. We had a few novels of the standard kind, but there was more demand, I think, for books of science. Travels were popular. A few hard-headed fellows would like a good strong intellectual nut to crack, such as ' Butler's Analogy.' Most people would be astonished to hear that a book which was highly appreciated by one or two was ' Pusey's Sermons.' One man especially, so Mr. Knipe told me, was much taken with its condensed thoughts and severe simplicity of style, with no rhetoric or flowers of speech." In those early days morality was not of a high order. The missioner found himself in Richfield before the railway and statutory laws and honest women and the Ten Commandments were thjere. " On one occasion, when I was walking down the Creek to see a sick miner, I met a man and woman coming up. Wal, doc', me and this young woman were coming up to look for you. We want to know if you can marry us?' ' Oh yes, certainly, if all is right, and after proper notice.' ' Wal, y' understand, it is only to be for the season.' " With some indignant remarks I walked on, rather suspecting that the parties had been having drink. A week or two afterwards that same woman started off alone on horseback to go down the country. I am afraid she was far gone in drink. She did not put in an appearance at the wayside houses lower down the trail, and it was evident that she had strayed from the trail and was lost. " This was enough to rouse the Creek. No matter under such circumstances about her character, she was a woman; that was enough. Parties were organized, and the woods were scoured. For several days no traces of her could be 94 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH iBn found, and it was feared that she had perished. But after some time—I believe it was four days after her disappearance—she was discovered many miles from the spot where she had wandered from the trail. Her life had been sustained by the few berries that were yet to be found upon the bushes; but she was in a fearful state, and at the time was quite out of her mind. Whether she ever regained fully the use of her faculties I never heard." Mr. Sheepshanks' love of pedestrianism led him again to the edge of an adventure. " One afternoon about this time I took a good long walk up the hillside, through the forest, and then up a bald mountain, some 6000 feet high, to see the sun set. It was a fine evening, and the scene was singularly beautiful. I sat down on the summit and watched the glory moving down the western sky, the last gleam, and then the lovely, somewhat melancholy afterglow, with the brilliant yet soft colours changing and gradually fading. " I then awoke to the fact that I had lingered too long, and ran down the upper slopes; but it was getting quite dusk when I entered the forest, and, to my chagrin, I perceived what I had forgotten, that the denseness of the forest and the narrowness of the opening, the trees almost meeting overhead, shrouded the trail in semi-darkness, so that, but for its lighter colour through the churning of the mud, I should have found it very difficult to keep the track. "However, I made my way slowly and with some difficulty, stumbling over the stones in the trail, and the obscurity steadily increasing; but had not gone very far, perhaps three-quarters of a mile, when my steps were arrested by a noise immediately in front of me. It was a crashing sound of the brushing aside and snapping of HOME IN A HURRY 95 branches, as some great body, evidently of a wild animal, was forcing its way through the bushwood from the slope of the hill down towards the track. "I stood still, not knowing what might happen, and I could tell that the beast came down to the trail and was standing upon it not more than five or six yards from where I was; but there being a sharp turn in the trail, I could see nothing. The animal then gave forth a series of pants, which in the dead silence of the forest sounded astonishingly loud, and such as I had never heard before. I felt that it was conscious of my proximity, and seemed to be waiting for me. If I did not go onwards, it might turn the corner and come to me. I At this thought I bounded over the logs and branches that formed the fringe of the trail, and, despite the semi- darkness, ran as fast as I could down the mountain-side. At that spot the underwood was by no means thick, but I soon caught my foot in a root and fell, rolling over. However, I was soon up again, and hurried on down through the forest. My bump of locality made me pretty confident that at the bottom of the mountain I should find a stream that would lead me down to Richfield. " And so it was. After about an hour's walking, splashing through the water, and scrambling over the debris of deserted claims, I saw the lights of Richfield, and was soon in my little hut. On speaking of this incident to a group of miners who knew the woods well, one of them remarked, I That, sir, was a b'ar. And if it was a grizzly—and there are not a few of them hereabouts—p'raps it's just as well, sir, that you made tracks.'" The straying of his horse served to bring into relief a characteristic Indian and savage trait. ! if 96 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH m " On arriving at Richfield I had tethered him while I looked out for some place where to spread my blankets, and some passer-by had cut the cord and let him go, possibly out of mercy, for I grant the animal had been badly fed and was very tired. Several days passed, and I heard nothing of the animal; but some one told me that he had been seen standing by the trail about half a mile from the town. " Captain Grant happening to mention that he had a fine, intelligent Indian with him, I got hold of him, and asked him if he would try to find my horse for me. This he readily undertook to do; so I walked with him to the spot where, as far as I could tell, the horse was last seen, and simply telling him that the animal was a large, oldish, chestnut with a white nose, left him to do what he could. It was -rather interesting to watch the Indian setting about his work, and I sat on a fallen tree and looked on. "He walked very slowly and carefully about in the bushwood above the trail, for below the mountain sloped down to the creek, peering into the scrub before him to see if there were any sign of twigs being broken, and carefully parting the berry bushes and undergrowth to scrutinize closely the ground for any marks. For, I suppose, a quarter of an hour he went backwards and forwards above the trail, yet never going again precisely over the same spot. I began to doubt whether he would find any clue, but gradually he moved up the hill, and though I could see him no more, he appeared now to be going in a straight line. " Knowing their extraordinary sagacity, I thought I would leave him, and so continued my walk; for it was my regular practice to take a constitutional, both for the sake of exercise and also to gather berries as an antidote. FOUND 97 to scurvy. And on my return, some two hours afterwards, I found the old chestnut tied up to my hut. The Indian was gone. "He did not want any reward, and I never saw him again. But I heard afterwards from Captain Grant that he had tracked the horse all through the dense jungle right up to the top of the mountain. There, on the summit, stretched an open, grassy space, on which several escaped horses were grazing. The Indian, however, spotted the animal that he was in search of, caught him, and brought him down." H CHAPTER XI A LONG TRAMP HOME Frozen out—The despatch rider's last journey—A hanging jury—The work of an evangelist—A gift of bells—Trade depression—Leave of absence. With the commencement of the cold weather large numbers of the miners began to leave Richfield, and made for the coast. Warm enough in summer, with the thermometer climbing amongst the nineties, later in the year Fahrenheit registered thirty to forty degrees below zero, the mercury occasionally freezing. A clergyman who had dared these rigours to continue his ministrations all through the year had been severely frost-bitten. But a thousand of the men resolved to winter in the creek. Usually if they remained in camp during the winter they must needs consort in the most unbroken idleness. It happened, however, their claims were so situated below the surface, and worked with a shaft, that with some intermission they could be exploited through the cold weather. Mr. Sheepshanks would willingly have remained to minister to them, but the demand for his presence at New Westminster was urgent. With an animal entrusted to his care by a Jew, who wished to send it down to the Lower Frazer, he set out on a lonely tramp of 320 miles to return home. After a few 98 THE EXPRESS-MAN'S FATE 99 days' march he found himself on the track of a great crime. Arriving at a wayside house where he was to sleep, he heard the particulars of a murder which had occurred about forty- eight hours before. The despatoh riders of America were a well-known and picturesque feature of the early days. Mostly youths, mounted upon wiry and active nags, they would carry their despatches for a hundred miles at a time, at the rate of about eight miles an hour. With four changes of horses, they would accomplish their mission, returning to their stations next day. " At that time a very extensive and important company (Wells, Fargo, and Co.) was engaged in conveying letters, parcels, and gold all over North-West America. Their express-man had set off from Richfield with a considerable consignment of gold-dust, in company with a friend, on a big black horse. The two men had slept at the wayside inn, and had set out together early in the morning on the down- country trail. But the house was full of other men, two of whom had started on foot yet earlier. " As soon as the two horsemen emerged from the wood upon a bit of prairie they overtook two pedestrians, who as they approached drew up across the trail, and whipping out their revolvers began firing. The horsemen drew out their revolvers, and several shots were exchanged, but without effect, for the horses were excited by the firing and began capering about. The express-man, who was a brave, resolute little man, jumped from his horse and grappled with the foremost of the murderers. He succeeded in throwing him upon the ground, and was so far master of the situation that he called out to his companion, asking him how he was 'making out.' 100 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH " But at this moment the big man's horse turned round, and, his rider being unable to control him, bolted from the scene and galloped back to the wayside house. So at least the big man averred. "But of course there were those who impugned his courage. An armed party at once set out, and hurried to the scene. There lay the little express-man on his face, quite dead. The second miscreant, freed by the flight of the big man, had come up and shot him in the back of the head. His death must have been instantaneous. The party galloped down the trail, but no one was to be seen. " The murder was followed by a long chase—a chase of days and nights. The country was in a state of excitement, for the little express-man was very popular. Ropes were stretched across the road, and parties of men were on the watch. But no arrest was made—the murderers had evidently taken to the bush. " There was no reason, however, for me to feel any misapprehension. As the old adage says,' Cantabit vacuus,' etc. And, moreover, I felt sure that the two villains would hasten to make their escape from the country; and they had two full days' start of me. "A group of Indians reported that two 'Boston men' had burst upon them, and with presented revolvers had demanded and taken their food from them. And for full ten days there was no further news. Then, however, we heard that Captain M'Lean, an old settler residing in the Buonaparte Valley, hearing of a man in a miserable plight, and not able to give a satisfactory account of himself, had ridden out and brought him, with a rope round his neck, to his house and shut him up there. " In due time the man was tried. In truth, there was HANGED BY THE NECK 101 but slight legal evidence against him; for the survivor, the big man, when confronted with him, could not swear to him. The man had no gold-dust upon him; for it had so happened that at the time of the murder the big man was carrying the gold-dust for his friend. All that the prosecution could prove was that the man arrested had slept in the wayside house the night before the murder, that he had set out on the fatal morning before the express-man, and, I think, that he and his companion were the only men that had done so. "There was also the negative evidence that he had not called at any of the wayside houses down the trail and had not been seen upon the road, and therefore that, as it appeared, he had left the road and gone down through the forest. That was all. "But the jury went in for hanging—and the judge, I think, was not unwilling—and so the man was convicted and hanged. No one, I think, had any moral doubt that he was guilty. And about the time of his arrest the dead body of another man was found in the Thompson, who had apparently been trying to cross the river, avoiding the ferry. And this was supposed to be the corpse of the other murderer. Thus ended one of the tragedies of the gold mines. " My journey down the country was healthy and, on the whole, pleasant. The average altitude of the road was, I suppose, about 2000 feet, so the air was cold and bracing. A fair amount of the country was now being cultivated, and it was agreeable once again to partake of milk and butter and vegetables. " There were still some autumnal flowers, though not the same as in the summer, when not a few of our English garden flowers may be seen growing wild by the side of the 102 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH trail. I have noticed the larkspur, Michaelmas daisy, lupin, and groves of syringa. " I walked from twenty-two to twenty-four miles per day, and put up at the wayside houses. This was less comfortable than sleeping in the tent; but it saved the time of pitching and striking tent and cooking meals. As a rule, the keepers of these rough houses, unless they were Englishmen, would charge the clergy nothing. " It was interesting work tramping all day through the keen autumnal air, instructing and preaching to groups of Indians, and administering to them pledges of abstinence whenever possible, resting on the Lord's day, and holding Divine Service for whatever white people could be got together. One got into fine training, and I arrived at New Westminster, as one of my friends told me, looking ' as hard as nails.'" The fortunes of New Westminster were not improving; the vision of men, women, and children pouring out of Europe, crowding into the ships and spreading over the country, had not been fulfilled. It was only as the nineteenth century closed that the tide began to set in fairly for British Columbia. The helpful, friendly Engineers were ordered home, and embarked for England to the tune so hard for exiles to bear, " Home, sweet Home." The monotony of Church life was broken by what may be called the Battle of the Bells. " About this time we heard in the Victoria, V. I., newspaper of a beautiful peal of bells for the Bishop's church at Victoria, given by Miss (afterwards Lady) Burdett-Coutts. And in due time the arrival of the ship with the bells was chronicled. I happened to be in Victoria at the time, and meeting my good friend Mr. Holbrook, who also chanced to THE BATTLE OF THE BELLS 103 be down there, we agreed to go on board the vessel and have a look at them. " Accordingly we went on board, and, the hatches being open, we looked down and saw one or two of the bells being uncovered. I climbed down into the hold and read the inscription on the tenor bell, and I remember well the shout of delight with which I called up to Mr. Holbrook, who was looking down from the deck above, to tell him that the inscription was * for the Church of St. Stephen, New Westminster.' " There was always a good deal of rivalry and jealousy between Victoria and New Westminster, and we knew that every effort would be made by the people of Victoria to retain the bells there. With regard to this fine peal of bells, it was true that our church was not dedicated in the name of St. Stephen, yet the crucial point, we thought, was the place, and as they were inscribed 'New Westminster,' we believed and maintained that of right they were ours. " We took measures accordingly, and got up a public meeting and began a movement for the erection of a bell- tower, and memorialized the Bishop. And, in short, we showed ourselves so unanimous and insistent that we gained our point, and in a few weeks' time the bells were deposited on the bank of Frazer River." Winter gave place to spring, and spring to summer; still there was depression in the town and straitened commerce, whilst the trans-continental railway, which was to transform the face and fortunes of the place, seemed as though it would never come. Further to the north, despite the glowing paragraphs in the Times, luck had failed, but little metal rewarded the w 104 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH pick and shovel, and many of the miners departing left their quarter of the world to deer and grizzlies. At such a time, and with the work so well advanced that it might safely be left to the care of a substitute, Mr. Sheepshanks determined to visit his native land to beg for his church. i m CHAPTER XII i j a ACROSS THE CONTINENT Yosemite Valley—Virginia City—Night and day travel—Mormonism— Salt Lake City—Brigham Young—The Danites—The President's womenkind. In the early summer of 1864 Mr. Sheepshanks sailed for San Francisco. Here he saw the famous Yosemite Valley, with its En talkative, merry, good-natured, mercurial, quick, good-tempered ; in social Hfe immoral, immodest, unchaste, and in the married state unfaithful. "The North-American Indian in his natural state is modest, chaste and faithful, proud, trustworthy, if trusted, reserved, crafty, vindictive, and, though liking a joke in season very well, habituaUy grave. " The difference of their behaviour to other ' barbarians' is very marked. The Hawaiian women intermarry freely with Chinamen. In walking through the streets of Honolulu one may see Hawauan girls caressing Chinamen in the retail shops, and hanging round their shaven wooden faces. Indian girls, except the very degraded, would scorn this. "The Indian despises Chinamen and Kanakas; indeed, he looks down contemptuously upon all races except the white race and his own. ' John,' as the Chinaman is generally called, is, they say,' no better than an Indian,' and then he is unwarlike, timid, and effeminate. The Chinamen, as they pass through the Indian country, must give the pas to the lord of the soil, and unless they are in formidably large gangs the Indians wiH mock and ridicule them, and imitate their strange, shrieking language as they pass by. In intellectual gifts, and a capacity for civilization, the Kanakas are vastly superior to the majority of the Indian tribes. "WhHe at the volcano I made several inquiries as to the traditions current among the natives concerning the death of Captain Cook, a man in whom every Englishman must feel such deep interest. " I found that it was generally held that his death was the result of misapprehension, not of maHce aforethought, SURF SWIMMERS 201 and was generaUy deplored by the Hawanans at the time. They thought he was their god Lono, and this idea was strengthened by the fact of his smoking, or breathing fire as it was imagined. " There can be little doubt that the great navigator was much to blame in not discountenancing this error—nay, he appears from Captain King's narrative, unintentionally let us hope, to have afforded encouragement to the idea, for he permitted himself to be treated with the honours that the natives would only pay to their divinities, was clothed in red garments, and had hogs offered before him. After his death it is said that the natives ate his heart and entrails that they might, according to a common superstition, become partakers of a portion of his spirit. This action they now look upon with horror, and I have heard that when quarrel- Hng it has been a not uncommon sarcastic accusation of one against another to say,' Your grandfather was one that ate Captain Cook.'" Before leaving HHo, Mr. Sheepshanks saw an exhibition of surf-swimming, one of the characteristic sports of the islands. " One evening I saw fifty or sixty of the youths of the island strip themselves of their scanty clothing upon the beach, and swim out to sea in company. Each one took with him his surf-board, a narrow plank, from five to ten feet in length, made of some light wood, generally of the willi-wiRi. " For the distance of nearly a mHe out to sea the water was covered with breakers that foam over the coral reef below, and come rolling grandly in a strong wind towards the shore. As each breaker came upon him, every youth would dive below it, and again swim on, taking his surfboard with him untU he reached the open sea. Then each A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH one mounted his plank, lying upon it on his chest, and guiding it by the motion of his hands. Thus they floated towards the shore. The outermost wave would catch perhaps twenty of them at the same time, and they would come on in a row, riding upon the crest of the biUow, driven towards the land with marvellous velocity, guiding their surf-board with the utmost skill, enveloped in the spray, and shrieking out their triumphant delight. " If any one, through a comparative want of skill, were upset, it was astonishing to see the readiness with which he would dive, still retaining his plank, and reappearing, ride on again upon the succeeding wave. It is, I beHeve, very discreditable to quit hold of the surf-board. Thus again and again was the feat repeated. It seemed dangerous, but in truth is not so to these expert swimmers. The most skilful will not infrequently kneel, and sometimes, I was told, stand upright upon their boards in their swift career; but this I did not see. The most noted place in the islands for the practice of this sport is Lahaina, in Maui." CHAPTER XXVI EXCURSIONS IN OAHU Picnic inland—Merry school-girls—Kanaka farmhouse—Native singer— Expedition to Waikiki—Ancient temples—Human sacrifices—House of refuge. Soon after his return to Honolulu, Mr. Sheepshanks joined in an excursion to the windward side of Oahu, which showed the natives as adepts in riding as well as in swimming. Included in the party were a number of the elder scholars from the mission schools. " Our course lay up the Nuaanu valley and over the famous pali or precipice, of which I have already spoken. At the summit of the pass an almost unequaUed view lay before us. The abrupt descent, of many hundred feet in height, was clothed with the beautiful tropical vegetation. Thence a plain of verdant savannahs stretched away towards the east. Rugged hills, including several extinct volcanoes, stood Hke huge martello towers upon the extreme edge of the island. And beyond that, broken into many bays and creeks, and sometimes forming lagoons far inland, lay the exquisitely blue Pacific. I The sea was perfectly calm, and to Windward the horizon was clear; but on the mountain tops to the right 203 Ill1 it win \"\ '! I m •! E > 204 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH hand and the left duU clouds were gathered; heavy showers were falling around us, and tiny cascades bubbling behind augmented the stream that rushed down the vaUey towards the west. " Dismounting from our horses we led them down the rough track which has lately been made up the ascent from the plain below, and then the merry party broke into a joyous gallop over the verdant meadow land. " This was especially deHghtful to the school-girls of our party. The natives are singularly bold and skilful riders; their great fault being that they are merciless to their beasts, and care little for injuring them by their reckless riding. A want of consideration for animals is commonly found among savage tribes. But, as they say, horses are cheap in the islands. The native women, until they become quite converted to the usages of the whites, sit their horses astride—our school-girls, of course, imitated their white teachers in this respect—and manage refractory animals with great address. " I once came upon a native woman taming an untrained horse upon a hiUside near Honolulu. She had apparently but just caught it from among a number that were grazing around, and had placed a rope round its nose, and mounting it, without either saddle or stirrups, was careering madly around. The horse gaUoped wildly over the hillocks, and up and down the slopes, anxious apparently to get rid of its dusky burden; but the more it plunged and kicked and snorted, the more the brown Diana was deHghted, and her black eyes sparkled and she screamed for joy. " When intent upon a riding party, in which they indulge at least every Saturday, the women usuaUy put on a long flowing skirt, which they wind around their feet; they MIRTH AND SONG 205 twine chaplets of flowers or berries, commonly of the bright yeUow ohelo, around their hair; they put green wreaths over their shoulders, and as their long robes are almost always of bright colours, red and yeUow being their favourite hues, their cavalcade generaHy wears a gay and animated appearance. Our school-girls had avoided the red and yellow and contented themselves with wreaths, and thus looked picturesque and abundantly happy. "Our destination was a Kanaka farm-house, where preparations had been made for our reception. Ovens had been prepared in the earth, and pork had been cooked with hot stones, and vegetables (luau) placed between the layers of meat in the orthodox native fashion. The dinner was not quite ready, so we sauntered about and bathed and gathered water-cress. Water-cress is not indigenous to the island, but some seed was obtained from England and sown in the streams, and now there is scarcely a brook in the island which does not produce an abundant crop—an exceUent proof of the benefit that is often conferred by accHmatization. Our dinner we found, excellent; the plan of cooking the meat with the vegetables was pronounced admirable. Then followed songs; a young Kanaka favoured us with one of the native meles, squatting upon the ground and waving his arms, and droning out his monotonous chant in the usual most inharmonious fashion. In the evening a heavy storm of rain came on, and we rode home over a muddy traH and through dripping foHage." On another occasion he went with some companions on a riding expedition to Waikiki, a viUage containing the favourite summer residence of the king. " Near this spot there are the remains of one of the great heathen temples, in which the natives formerly offered their A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH idolatrous worship. A temple (heiau luakini) was in shape a parallelogram, between perhaps two and three hundred feet in length, and one hundred feet in width, of stone walls open towards the sky. The waHs would be from eight to twenty feet high, according to the lie of the ground, and perhaps ten to twelve feet thick at the base, and narrowing towards the top, upon which there was a walk. " Within, the enclosure was divided into several courts. At the prescribed end was the platform with the idols. If the front of the temple were towards the north, the idols were at the east, if at the east the gods were at the north. The idols were usually of the wood of the ohia. "Solemn ceremonies were observed in the fabrication The tree was carefully selected by the priest, and at the felling of the tree and sculpture of the idol, hogs were sacrificed, and there was a strict kapu. The head and neck of the god were often of wicker-work, covered with red feathers and adorned with sharks' teeth. A helmet would be placed upon his head, whence there hung down long tufts of human hair. Some of these idols were brought to England by Lord Byron. " Before the platform there was a stone pavement, and on that the altar (rere). The offerings were usually hogs, dogs, and fowls. Human sacrifices were also offered, malefactors and prisoners taken in war. The victim was not slain before the idols, but was kHled, usuaUy by strangulation, outside the heiau, and then his corpse was brought in and laid among the other offerings before the gods. "Any one who infringed the kapu was summarily despatched. A missioner was sent who approached the offender with guile, lest he might escape to one of the enclosures of refuge, and he was slain, though he might be SANCTUARY 207 in the midst of his friends, generally without resistance, by a blow of a club. "The building of a large temple (luakini) was accompanied with great formaHties. It was generally done by a king or high chief after a victory or some notable success in gratitude to his god. Everything was done by the king and priests in concert with kapus and omens. At the commencement of the bunding, and indeed at every important step in the work, there were sacrifices and immense slaying of victims: hundreds of hogs and dogs were slain. If the omens were favourable and the hogs permitted themselves to be slain in perfect sHence, and no rain feU the foHowing night, the work was acceptable, and the king would be prosperous. "They were often a long time in erecting one of these heiaus. On one occasion as much as ten years was consumed on the binlding. For if the omens were not favourable, a strict kapu was laid on and the work discontinued. As this was a time of great power and profit to the priests, it may be surmised that the signs were not infrequently pronounced inauspicious. "The enclosures of refuge (puhonna) aUuded to above were large enclosures from five to eight hundred feet long and four or five hundred feet wide, surrounded with a stone wall, and having several entrances. To them the manslayer might escape, 'he that smote his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times past,' the thief, and the breaker of the kapu. Within the waHs there were several heiaus with idols. At some Httle distance aU round the enclosure they fixed poles with flags or hair attached. These signified that the place was kapu, and if the hunted criminal could but touch these poles he was safe—no one could harm him. It IB[: I i h -ijV! 1. 4 1 Ei 208 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH was possible for him to Hve a long time in this city of refuge, if desirable. This merciful provision is very singular, and I am not aware that it was found in any other savage nation. Its simHarity to the custom among the Hebrews need not be pointed out." CHAPTER XXVII VOYAGE TO CHINA Setting out for Asia—On board the Ethan Allen—Fellow-passengers— Becalmed—Dread of pirates—Captain's diplomacy—Hong Kong. Mr. Sheepshanks' visit now drew to a close; his native land beckoned him to return. But in the belief it was good for every man to see some little, not of the British Empire only, but of the great world and the strange folk who move about in it, he determined to bend his travels eastward. No ill-considered wanderings were these; they were undertaken with the deHberate intent to behold with his own eyes the progress of missionary adventure, as well as to acquaint himself more thoroughly with Shamanism—the religion of the North-American Indian—in its original home. Wonder and respect drew him towards China, the country where gunpowder and printing were ancient speUs before his own forefathers had learned the alphabet; where its sages read the handwriting of the heavens before England had lifted its eyes from the ground; a country with reHgions and phHosophies that went back to the dawning of civiHzation, and with quaint old ways and habits which exist nowhere but within the circuit of the Great WaU. 209 P i!M A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH "After having seen all that I was particularly anxious to see in the Sandwich Islands, I soon became somewhat impatient for the arrival of a vessel to take me to China. There is a considerable amount of trade carried on between San Francisco and Ihe Chinese ports, and in summer-time merchant vessels that are employed in carrying flour and silver bullion from California to the Celestial Kingdom, not infrequently call in at the islands for supplies and passengers. "It seemed quite uncertain how long I might have to wait for a passage, and for a little time I was kept in a state of anxious expectancy. However, before my patience was by any means tired out—for Hfe in the islands is very pleasant, and my EngHsh friends were most hospitable—the approach of an American barque bound for the flowery kingdom was telegraphed from Diamond Head. It proved to be the Ethan Allen, so called from an old hero of the American war of independence, of whom all I know is this, that he once summoned a British force to surrender 'in the name of the Great Jehovah and the American RepubHc,' a summons which, I believe, was promptly obeyed. It turned out that she was an excellent vessel, reputed a fast sailer and well commanded, so that here was just the opportunity that I was seeking. I bade good-bye to all my kind friends. I rode down to Waikiki, a quiet spot near the ocean, where, looking over the deep blue waters, one could see the stately ' ships go sailing on,' to bid adieu to an English famHy who had shown me much kind hospitality." On a certain bright day of May, 1866, he drew out of port and bore with a fair wind for Canton. "We expected a quick passage before the trade winds, but were disappointed. Whatever wind there was, was fair,. THE DAY'S WORK 211 but we had but a little, and, though our vessel saHed well, we made slow progress. Besides myself, there were but three passengers, an English lady and an American gentleman going to China, and a Spanish priest bound for ManiHa. The last mentioned afforded us no little amusement, for he was quite a character, and went by the name of the Don. He had been employed in ChiH in the training of the choirs, and was about to be employed in the same work in ManiHa. He was very Hvely and talkative, and ever cheerful. "I managed to get through the time well enough in reading, and making up my journal; but some of the others, I fancy, found the time hang very heavily upon their hands. The constant succession of calm was certainly rather trying to one's patience. Morning after morning, on emerging from our cabins, we would* find the ocean smooth as a mirror. The sun would rise and glimmer over the grey waters, but bring with it not a breath of air. Every stitch of canvas was spread in vain; the saHs would only flap heavily against the masts; and surely there is not a more dreary, sickening sound than that flapping of the saHs and shaking of the yards. The steward would look at his provisions, and empty out the cases of preserved meats and throw the straw overboard, where it would float lightly alongside; the saHors in the bows would fish for the heavy bonitas; and the mate would pace the deck slowly, and whittle any stray piece of wood for occupation. The sun would get high in the heavens, and the heat become intense. "In the morning we passengers would chat indolently with the skipper, a smart, gentlemanlike young Yankee; but the conversation would soon flag, and the only sound of Hving creature would be the chirping of the canary in the cabin. As the sun rose in the heavens there would be A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH less and less protection from the saHs, and we would all crawl into the lessening patches of shade to escape the fierce rays of the sun. " There was one terrible hour at midday, when the sun was vertical and stood right above the masts. That we always dreaded. The deck was unendurable, and we were fain to fly for refuge to the stifling cabin. Silence reigned in that hour; we were beaten, and nothing was heard throughout the ship but the monotonous 'tick, tick' of the unwearied clock in the captain's cabin. "All the whHe the sea was strangely calm. I would look sometimes over the vessel's side, and the sun would shine down, down into the stiU water, and the blue pencHs of Hght would pierce down into the depths, converging more and more, until from fathoms deep a great eye of sHver Hght would seem to be looking upwards in answer to the sun's ardent gaze. The dreaded hour passed, once more shadows were thrown across the deck, and the sun hastened on his course and pointed to the land where we longed to be; we would begin again our languid talk, and the Don would take out his cigars; the fierce heat diminished, the evening came on, and the sun sank, hissing into the expanse, gilding the white saHs, until we seemed like a ' painted ship upon a painted ocean.' But the sea was still calm; the straw thrown overboard in the morning would stiU be floating alongside, and we knew that no way had been made. During the night the ship would roll quietly from side to side, and when morning dawned we were just where we were the day before. " So the time flew by. Such incidents as the flying of one of the fowls overboard, or the capture of a booby by the skipper, who stalked him cleverly and caught him by IN PIRATICAL WATERS 213 the leg whHe settled in the bulwarks, were quite noticeable events in the monotony of our life. " Our fresh meat soon began to run short. We had brought a number of pigs and fowls with us, but they were aU slain. One little black pig outlasted all the rest. He escaped frequently from the steward's hands, and would haunt the deck for hours. He became a great favourite. We christened him Othello, and the steward spared him as long as he could. But the inevitable hour arrived, and OtheUo too succumbed. "There is, however, an end to everything. We passed through the Ladrones, sailing within cannon-shot of one of the islands, a huge rock which rose abruptly on aU sides from the waves. We passed the Philippines, and saw in the distance lofty mountains gleaming through the haze, and then entered the China seas. Here we found a better breeze, and were soon bowling away merrily. "We now began to see the junks scudding along with their fan-like saHs, and the skipper ordered all the men on deck, that we might show as imposing a force as possible." This was done in dread of pirates. Mr. Sheepshanks does not appear to have been staggered by the grisly tales that went the round. But the danger was no imaginary one. The crew were scanty, the cargo valuable—and the Httle drama of a sudden leap on deck, the ship carried at a rush, and the ship's company butchered, had been enacted before in the Chinese Archipelago. Under Chinese control, Hong Kong was a nest of thieves and murderers. A few years previously Dr. Martin, a weU- known missionary, with another clergyman, a Bishop, had been captured in these waters on their way to Patu. Their ■ --■ r 214 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH lift captors were certainly " the mHdest-mannered men that ever scuttled ship." " They invited us to share their breakfast on the deck of our own vessel, but they took possession of all our provisions, and our junk too, sending us to the island in a small boat and promising to pay us a friendly visit. One of them, who had taken my friend's watch, came to the owner to ask him how to wind it." No piratical experience, either wholly tragic or touched with the humorous, was in store for the Ethan Allen and her passengers; at any rate, on that voyage. "Upon nearing Hong Kong we returned the signal of one of these junks, and took a pilot on board. The skipper, in a friendly way, expressed his earnest hope that I should not think it my duty to interrupt him if he did not speak quite ' upon the square,' for our Hves might be in jeopardy, and then called on deck every man on board. " The junk came dashing up, the great saH being suddenly let down, as a lady shuts up her fan, and there on her deck we looked down upon about one hundred as viUainous-look- ing creatures as I ever cast eyes upon. The skipper would only allow the captain of the junk to come on board with the pHot. And then there ensued a conversation not quite upon the lines of veracity. ' Where you from, captain ?' in pigeon English. 'From New York.' The vessel had really come from San Francisco. 'What you have on board ?' ' Corn and notions.' Really she was taking bars of silver from California to ManHla. ' How many days you outV 'A hundred and eighty.' She had really been about seventy days from San Francisco. It was a question of conscience. But 'I lay low, and said nuffin',' Hke Brer Rabbit. No doubt the skipper feared that, though no attempt was made upon us then, his vessel would be ASHORE 215 watched if it were known that he had sHver on board, and he might be attacked on his way to ManiHa. "And, indeed, I had some reason to think that it was so. I know it was stated at Honolulu that the Ethan Allen, after her departure from Hong Kong, was not heard of again; and friends in the Sandwich Islands wrote home to England lamenting my (supposed) sad fate. But reaUy I have no evidence whether the ship was captured or lost or not. Fortunately my letters from China arrived home before the alarming rumour got to the ears of my famHy. The pHot, a spare, bronzed, half-naked Chinaman, took the ship in charge, and late in the evening of the same day, June 28, after a forty days' passage from Honolulu, we anchored in the harbour of Hong Kong." CHAPTER XXVIII A NEW WORLD 11 w 'i Hong Kong—Its thoroughfares and people—A British colony—Canton— Biverside population — Street sights — Confused feeding—Chinese artificers—Pawnbrokers' shops. On shore, Mr. Sheepshanks was at once plunged into the bizarre experiences of a new world. "I was so amazed at the utter novelty of everything around that I could make but slow progress through the streets, and tried the patience sorely of the poHte Compra- dore who, with his men, accompanied me with my luggage. What struck me most at first was the crowded state of the streets, and the throng and ceaseless bustle of the principal thoroughfares. No women, indeed, were to be seen, but crowds of men, chiefly lean, shaven, pig-tailed, oHve-coloured, and half naked. "The shops were still open, and in the by-streets the citizens were stiU working with the patient industry characteristic of Chinamen. The fruiterers' and greengrocers' stalls were laden with aU manner of tropical fruits and vegetables, and purchasers could be seen bargaining with the hucksters, and carrying away smaU pHes of fruit in return for small sums of cash. In the alleys and passages obese, shaven Chinamen were smoking their absurdly small pipes, and 216 mm STREETS OF HONG KONG 217 chattering loudly and laughing, having no clothing only a pair of drawers and thick-soled shoes. "In the greater thoroughfares, which in Hong Kong, being an English town, are broad and weU kept, but few vehicles or animals could be seen. The passengers were either on foot or were carried along the road in sedan-chairs, each sedan being supported by two or three bearers. The occupant, either a native of wealth and consequence or an European merchant or officer, was sitting within in state, and the bearers trotted along briskly, shouting or grunting to warn bystanders out of the way. They too were clothed simply enough in breeches roUed up at the waist, shoes, and perhaps the well-known broad-brimmed straw hats, with napkins hanging loosely on the shoulder, with which, during any pause for rest, they wiped the perspiration from their face and body. Indeed, so meagre was the clothing of all that the general prevaHing impression, look where one would, was of bare, moist, oHve-coloured flesh. Everywhere there was a ceaseless babble of high-pitched human voices. i The streets blazed with Hght from the many-coloured lanterns. The shops in the chief thoroughfares gHttered with works of Chinese art, vases and smaUer vessels of porcelain, shelves of carved ivory, gaudy fans with grotesque figures, bright banners and pictures; the warm, moist air was laden with the peculiar scent of the tobacco and other Oriental odours. The busy scene of shifting phantasmagoria seemed passing strange after the sombre, sHent forests of America." From the island of Hong Kong, where the flag of Queen Victoria was flying, he crossed over to Canton, and found himself for the first time in Chinese territory. " There is nothing in the least imposing about the first A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH appearance of a Chinese town. On the contrary, whHe the flatness of the ground prevents the seeing any large portion of it at once, so that the vastness of its extent is concealed, the total absence of any imposing edifice, and the lowness and uniformity of the buildings, give to the whole a mean and poverty-stricken appearance. " There are no openings in the expanse such as are made in European cities by the squares, streets, and gardens, for in the Chinese towns the so-called streets, which we should rather designate as passages, are very narrow, generaHy only some five or six feet wide, so that, when viewed from a Httle distance from an elevation, or the deck of a steamer, the whole appears nothing more than a huge conglomeration of huts. Such is Canton. " The sight all around of low, dingy houses, whose level is only broken by a few large, tower-like buildings, which, appearing to the first sight of the stranger to be fortresses, are in fact pawnbrokers' warehouses, is, though very strange, certainly disappointing to one's expectations of a huge Asiatic city. " At one's first walk through the city of Canton, perhaps the most noticeable and novel sight is that of the sampans, the inhabited boats with which the river and its numerous arms and creeks which run through the city are crowded. They are not large in size, being about fifteen feet long, and are covered over, except in the bows, with a permanent awning of wicker-work in two or three pieces, one overlapping the other, to protect the inhabitants from rain and the fierce rays of the sun. Some of them are caUed sHpper-boats, from the fact that they are shaped precisely Hke the Chinese sHppers. Some are of a superior class, and are adorned in the native manner with gHt and coloured ornamentations. THE CITY OF SAMPANS 219 In these boats the inhabitants are born and bred and Hve and die. " Some of the people earn a scanty living by conveying passengers across the river or to different parts of the city, which is intersected by its various streams. Many of the others belong to the labouring class, who have employment in the city, but find it cheaper to live rent free in the boats than to hire a house in town, for house-rent is high in Canton. In the boats they eat and sleep, using for the purposes of cooking small portable stoves, or braziers, fed with fuel which perhaps they pick from the mire and place in fragments in the bows, or upon the quays, to dry in the sun. All their property is carried about in their floating homes, and you see the chHdren sprawling about, and perhaps a brood of ducklings waddling across the deck. "Sometimes by an ingenious and thoroughly Chinese contrivance they wiU place a covered wicker basket outside the boat and just on the water level, in which a melancholy goose wiU be seen sitting with his feet just dabbling in the water. Kindness to animals and birds and an inteUigent study of their ways are characteristic of John Chinaman. " The different branches of the river which run through the town are Hterally covered with these sampans, so that it is with some difficulty that a clear passage is kept in the middle of the stream. AU along the sides and by the quays they are locked together, so that one might often walk for a considerable distance from boat to boat. But the inhabitants are in a constant state of activity, and are all the time talking to each other or shouting to persons in the streets, and are always on the qui vine for a fare. The boats are propelled by means of a long oar at the stern with which they scull and steer, and also by a bamboo about twenty-five A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH feet long with which they pole at the bows, pushing it deep into the mud, and, when not moving, fastening their boat to it by the head. " The streets of Canton, as I have intimated, are very narrow, being only from four to six feet in width—the houses almost meeting overhead—and are paved with granite, and sometimes covered overhead with boards or glass frames, so that scarcely any sun or rain penetrates to the thoroughfare. This, of course, is the object aimed at. They are perpetuaUy crowded with men passing to and fro on their various business. No vehicles are used, except palanquins, neither are horses or cattle to be seen in the streets. | OccasionaUy oxen are conveyed through the town, in which case they are led and not driven. The stream of men is incessant; cooHes, naked to the waist and below the knee; shopkeepers and merchants in their cool, white garments, and with fans in their hands; scholars with long white robes almost reaching to the feet; Buddhist priests, palanquin-bearers, water-carriers, are ever thronging the narrow ways. Scarce any women are to be seen. I suppose one meets at least fifty men to one woman. Women of the labouring classes, who are to be distinguished by their feet being as God made them, may be seen in the by-streets where they reside. " And occasionally a woman of the better class, with her feet Hke a donkey's hoof, comes walking slowly and stiffly along, just as though she had wooden legs, leaning perhaps upon the arm of a servant, and moving from shop to shop upon a woman's favourite occupation. But, as a rule, the streets are thronged with men only. And as one wanders about hour after hour, one's general impression is of naked oHve Hmbs, smooth faces with small Oriental eyes, shaven CANTON SHOPS 221 heads, and a close atmosphere redolent of joss-sticks and stifling, oily, aromatic odours. I Before the shops are long, many-coloured pendant tablets inscribed with Chinese characters. These are signboards, and teU the passer-by the name of the shop, and at how cheap a rate goods may be obtained within. They hang from almost the top of the houses nearly to the ground, and impart a very gay, picturesque appearance to the scene. There are also handsome lanterns hanging down in front of the shops, painted in gay colours, large and small, round and square. The coolies go hurrying by with heavy burdens slung to a pole borne upon the shoulder. Often at each end there will be a bucket of water, but sometimes a heavy pig encased in a wicker basket, grunting and squealing; sometimes pairs of fowls, or joints of meat, or baskets of rice. At each end of the street there is an image of the god of wealth, joss-sticks burning before him. " At the entrance of each shop, on the ' grunsell-edge,' is a niche in honour of the same god, in which his name is inscribed. Here in the morning the tradesman makes his offering, beseeching the god to prosper his work for the day; and here in the evening he may be seen pouring out libations with reverential prostrations, the joss-sticks smoking in the niche, while he thanks the god for his profits. His service of Mammon is open and honest, anyway. " As we walk along it appears that every species of trade is being carried on, and almost every kind of produce exposed for sale. Here are the rich sHks and fabrics of the land; next door, a lapidary, then a druggist, next a lacquer- dealer ; opposite, a shop full of china, that would make an English collector's mouth water. Taking a turn, the shops are of a different kind. There is a group of greengrocers' 222 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH 1 l *wM stores stocked with vegetables. Boys sit at the entrance peeHng cucumbers. There is a fruiterer's stall with trays of oranges, mangoes, pine-apples, plums, pears, lichis, bananas, whampees, water-melons, walnuts, and almonds. Next is a butcher; then a shop with very curious-looking meat. As you look you recognize a bunch of skinned rats, portions of a dog, and some smaU carcases that look not unlike rabbits, but which after inspection prove to be cats. " You may go into the shop, as I did, and order a cat for luncheon. It wHl be served up to you minced up into little pieces with green salad. And if you go and Hsten at the door at the further end of the room, you wHl hear the tabbies that are being fattened for the table mewing within. A Httle further on is a blacksmith, then a shoemaker. In a large room inside another shop you will actually find a mHl. Some six or eight smaU Chinese oxen are turning as many mill-stones, and so grinding flour for the cakes which are eaten in the houses of entertainment, and in a corner a man is sifting the flour by means of a very primitive machine worked with the feet. | The next street seems to be devoted to the dead. Here are made sacrificial papers, on which messages are written to dead friends, paper fans, and even paper clothing, which being burnt wiU cover the nakedness of the departed. A little beyond European goods are for sale; next door is a tobacconist, then a stone-cutter, where you see large lumps of the beautiful jade being cut and prepared for the lapidary; beyond, there is a ribbon-weaver, where the ribbons are made which tie up the ladies' small feet. "Turn down a few more streets to the west, and you find yourseH in the midst of a population weaving sHk. In one house you see vats of dye, and the silk which has been just PAWNBROKERS OF THE EAST 223 taken out hanging from the lofty ceHing. Then come rows of houses, in which half-naked men are at work with the loom, a machine which the Chinamen have used time out of mind. There you may watch the manufacture of beautiful fabrics of aU colours and of elegant patterns. " As you walk on through the next street you may perchance come across a bird's-nest soup shop. You wHl see trays of the glutinous nests upon the counter. The soup, which is eaten with plovers' eggs, is exceedingly good and somewhat expensive. Then comes a carver in wood; beyond, a candle-maker; next door a manufacturer of fireworks; opposite, a maker of buttons, which perhaps are "stamped with the name of an English firm and exported. There are rope-makers, and basket and rattan makers, and then a shop pHed up with coffins. " Here you may perceive the idol-maker's estabHshment, and may watch the artificers carving a Buddhist or Taoist divinity, and may perhaps—oh, how strange and sad it seems!—see the figure of the crucified Saviour or of St. Mary. Then there is a weaver of mats or a maker of confectionery or a lantern-maker. At the corner there are refreshment staUs with queer-looking eatables, meat and vegetables chopped up small in little blue basins, and trays of varied sweetmeats and cakes, the bean cakes for all the world like pats of yeUow soap. Hard by is a fortune-teller's staU and a gambler's. " Down the next street are the poulterers' and fishmongers' shops, the birds of the former and the fish of the latter being sold aHve. The pawnbrokers' shops, or rather perhaps warehouses, which I mentioned before, are very curious. They are, as I intimated, the only edifices that rise above the level of the houses, and are built like towers. i iff lil lil! ij ll Illfl 1 [Mi 224 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH " It is said that the people build their houses so low that they may not interfere with the spirits which, according to the Taoist theory, are ever coursing about just above the earth. This is one of the notions handed down from the old times of Shamanism, or demonolatry. But the pawnbrokers seem to be superior to any fear of the resentment, whether of demons or of the spirits of the departed. Their warehouses are five or six stories high, and tower far above the houses. They are, in fact, not only pawnshops in our sense of the term, but also repositories in which goods may be placed for safety. Should there be occasion for a rich man to be away from home for awhile, he may perhaps send his valuables, possibly his best suit of clothes, to the pawnbroker to be taken care of. The whole buHding is stored with miscellaneous articles caref uUy enwrapped and docketed. " In the centre of the building, rising from the base to the top, is a separate compartment of wood, containing the more valuable articles, such as jewelry. The walls are of thick brickwork, and the apertures are furnished with iron shutters. Mounting by ladder staircases to the top you emerge upon the roof, where there are jars of water in case of a sudden fire, and perhaps a large jar of vitriol to be thrown in the faces of assailants. For attempts are sometimes made to scale these repositories of loot, and the fat, oily, wealthy pawnbroker is a determined man, and has a band of resolute assistants. Looking down upon the city, one saw that most of the houses have numerous jars of water upon the roofs." CHAPTER XXIX CANTON Merchants' guild—Scene of the willow pattern—Its legend—Private grounds—Suburban residences—Lunch with the ladies. By the kindness of Mr. Gray, the colonial chaplain, Mr. Sheepshanks was enabled to see the places and objects of most interest in Canton. " One of these was the institution of the merchants' guild. The meetings of the merchants to settle the price of tea are held there in an open quadrangle, ornamented at the cornice with curious carvings. Merchants come hither from the neighbouring country to discuss the tea trade, and are lodged in rooms attached to the bunding. " In a further open court there is an artificial pond, in which the sacred flower, the lotus, is growing luxuriantly. This pond is spanned by a narrow bridge, in the centre of which there is carved the sign of the yin and the yang, symbol of the coition of the productive powers of nature. For the Chinese have from time immemorial been acquainted with the duality of sex that runs through the whole of the animal and vegetable kingdom; and it is part of their phHosophy that from the union of the two aU things have their origin. It was from the coition of the heaven (or sky) 225 Q Mi 226 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH the masculine active principle, and the earth, the female receptive principle, that life was brought into being. It is of this part of their plnlosophy that the yin and the yang is the symbol. In this instance the symbol was covered over to preserve it from profanation. " In an open shrine before the bridge is an image of the god of the tea trade. Behind this court are various buHdings connected with the estabHshment, and covered gaUeries. Every door and opening in the galleries is in the form of some flower or fruit. One of the outlying courts has a quaint interest of its own. 'Look round here,' said Mr. Gray, 'and see if anything strikes you.' I looked and saw an artificial pond, with a narrow granite path across it leading up to a small highly arched bridge, and over it to an arbour by which stood a tree. Two of the Chinamen who were standing about were asked to go to the arbour; and accordingly they walked along the narrow way and over the bridge. ' Why,' I exclaimed,' there is the willow-pattern plate.' " Yes, indeed, so it was: this is said to be the spot whence the willow pattern was taken. The story is this. " A long time ago all this ground formed the garden of a Chinese gentleman of whom it was purchased by the guild. ' He was a rich merchant that in Canton did dwell, and he had a young daughter, an uncommon fine young girl,' whom he against her will engaged to an eligible rich young man of his acquaintance. But next door over the wall Hved another young man, who had won her affections. This youth would climb the wall and have stolen interviews with his Dinah in her father's garden. "One evening the cruel parent was informed that the lovers were together in his grounds, and accordingly comes with his attendants threatening horrible things. The APOTHEOSIS OF LOVERS 227 trembHng lovers retreated, pursued across the water and over the bridge, where, when they were on the point of being captured, they were changed by the god of marriage into a couple of doves, and so flew away; the fact probably being that they escaped so expeditiously by a ladder of ropes that the baffled pursuers came to the conclusion that they must have taken wings. It was refreshing to find that the same romances go on in the land of pig-taHs and wisdom as among the Western barbarians; and hence the Chinese version of young Lochinvar and VHlikins and his Dinah. " The mode of laying out gardens with ponds and bridges and summer-houses is the usual fashion in Canton. I was able to see some very extensive and elaborately arranged grounds, the property of a private gentleman of fortune, but there was only a recurrence of the same objects. Artificial ponds, filled with the lotus, and supplied with water from the river; covered causeways crossing the ponds, so as to divide them into rectangular sheets of water, the galleries covering the causeways being of wood painted black, supported on long rows of red posts ornamented with gHded wood cut in diamonds and tablets inscribed with moral sentences ; numerous summer-houses, large and small, some of them buHt in the pagoda style, the largest of them possessing an atrium, sheltered often by fine trees, the apartments filled with costly furniture, marble chairs and mirrors; and somewhere, attached to one of these pagodas, that luxury indispensable to the wealthy Chinaman—a theatre. " These were the saHent features of the grounds. It was all very costly, novel, and bizarre, but quite artificial; and there was nothing that to our eyes could be called beautiful, or that could give one that feeling of seclusion, restfulness, 228 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH r I 1 I ia I . 5 and mental satisfaction which one looks for in that spot so dear to an English heart—a garden." From the town Mr. Sheepshanks passed out into the country to see the suburban residences of the wealthier Cantonese. Crossing the river, he and his friend were met by one of the sons of a well-known merchant, who made them welcome —with the Eastern exaggeration of politeness—to the house with its grounds and various buHdings. " In the first place, we were conducted to the house of our young entertainer, who regaled us with some superb tea, and chatted pleasantly upon various topics, England among the rest, and asked me questions about my visit and how I Hked China, and so on—just as any other gentleman would do. "He was a younger son, and was married; yet, as is customary among the wealthy, lived on in the family estab- ment. Upon this same plot of ground there were several establishments of different members of the fannly, aU living close to each other in patriarchal fashion. " We gathered from our friend that his expenses amounted to about £5000 per annum, and those of the whole estabHshment to £25,000. Attached to the establishment there were a domestic physician and painter. The latter was at work in the room into which we had been ushered, painting fans. The apartment, Hke most of the sitting-rooms which I saw, was open to the air on one side, opening out into a smaU court. At the opposite end of the room from the court there was a recess somewhat larger than a large fireplace. This also opened upward to the air, so that there was abundant ventilation in the apartment; and in this recess there were flowering shrubs and young trees. There were A MERCHANT'S HOUSE 229 chairs in stiff rows, and smaU round tables inlaid with marble in set positions. " The Chinese chairs are in general uncomfortable enough, of hard black wood, with low backs and marble seats. Marble whose veins bear a greater or less resemblance to some animal or bird is much valued. In aU the houses and summer-houses of the wealthy, slabs of this marble are to be seen, and in some instances the resemblances are so remarkable that it is difficult to think that they are not artificial. "After wishing good-bye to our poHte entertainer, we walked through the grounds, by ponds and lotus plants, and granite paths leading to summer-houses, and past the residences of the several sons of the famHy. " In the heart of the city the houses of the weU-to-do tradesmen are much less extensive. There the room in which the ancestral shrine is set up is used as a sitting and eating apartment, one side of it being open upon a small court, beyond which are the sleeping-rooms and, perhaps, on one side, what we should caH the drawing-rooms. " Calling one day upon a merchant in the city, we entered his house through a porch opening into a street. Crossing a smaU court, we came to a second porch, where our further progress was barred by large doors only partially closed, looking through which I could see, across another smaU court, the ladies of the famHy just rising from their midday meal. But here we turned to the right, and entered what in England would be styled the drawing-room. It was a spacious apartment, reminding me in its style of the Roman architecture of the time of the empire. The end at which we entered was evidently the portion of the apartment habituaUy used by the inmates. The roof here was upborne by two % i 230 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH rows of piUars or supports, and in line with them there were two stiff rows of the uncomfortable Chinese chairs. Over the central part of the haU was a skylight or atrium, and its sides were also of glass backed with quicksHver, forming a number of mirrors. The further portion of the haU beyond this was commonly used as a theatre. " The rich Chinese are very fond of theatrical entertainments, and companies of actors can always be hired for private representations. The walls of the drawing-room are usuaUy covered with pictures, but in this instance they had been removed, as the family was in mourning. The master of the house happened to be away from home; but Mr. Gray was very well known to all the members of the famHy, and we had the honour of taking lunch with the ladies of the household. They did not, indeed, partake of the food along with us, but they sat and chatted pleasantly whHe we were waited upon. They were very nice-looking, very refined in manner, and exceedingly courteous." 1 if CHAPTER XXX A CHINESE GOLGOTHA Opium eaters—Place of execution—Cemetery—Monastery at Honan—• Temple service — Idol worship — Chant of adoration — Forbidding ceremonies. "It was on the same day that we paid a visit to a very different place—an opium den. "I was prepared for something unpleasant, but the reaHty was far more distressing than my anticipations. There were recesses Hke berths round the apartment which we entered, and a few divans, on which one or two human beings were lying in a state of dull insensibiHty. The distressing sight was that of these ' human beings.' " At the first glance I thought that there must have been a mistake, and that we had entered a house for women. The ' human beings' with their pallid, pasty faces, long queues, lack-lustre eyes, and emaciated limbs looked Hke young women in one of the last stages of consumption. Yet they were of the male sex, I can scarcely caU them men, for they had no sign of virility about them. They spoke no word in the few minutes we were there. One of them took a few whiffs at his opium pipe and lay down on a divan for his dreams. Poor creatures! created by God for life and love and usefulness. They were on the road, 231 232 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH I suppose, to an early and lamented death. It was a bitter and humiliating thought that the drug which was ruining them had been manufactured by the British Government, and practicaUy forced upon their country for the sake of the revenue which it brings in to our Indian exchequer." The traveUer was anxious to visit "the City of the Dead," the cemetery where the bodies of strangers and citizens were deposited, the former until they could be taken away to their own country, the latter until some suitable resting-place had been found for them. On the way thither— "We passed through the execution ground, where criminals, and in yet vaster numbers rebels, have suffered the penalties of the inexorable Chinese laws. "Here in this little spot of ground, not more than a good-sized courtyard, thousands and tens of thousands of men have been hurried out of the world by a violent death. Here in the time of that great man, Mr. Commissioner Yeh, whose name is yet well remembered amongst us, as many as eight hundred heads would be struck off in a single day. ' RebelHon must be put down,' he said,' he was there not to make the law but to administer it,' and so ' off with their heads.' "The criminals are kHled in various ways; sometimes decapitated, sometimes strangled. They are often decapitated when hanging upon crosses. There were at the time several crosses leaning against the waH of the enclosure, upon which but lately the bodies of the slain were hanging. The cross was only between seven and eight feet in height, and made of two strong rough pieces of wood, Hke branches of trees, not squared and planed, but the one naHed and strongly A CHARNEL HOUSE 233 fastened across the other. It was stiU stained with dark red blood, and the walls were also sprinkled with the dry blood of the victims. Skulls lay upon the ground. The place seemed to the imagination to smell like a slaughter-house. I was glad to get away and proceed onwards. " We entered the city of the dead, which I found covered a considerable extent of ground, through an entrance-gate and passed the never failing pond, on the other side of which there was a fine grove of trees, the home of hundreds of sacred cranes who were making a noise and flapping their wings and moving from tree to tree and bending down the branches with their weight. The enclosure, I found, was surrounded by a wall pierced for musketry. The reason for this is that when a man of consequence dies and is brought hither there would be a risk of robbers breaking in and carrying away the body and holding it to ransom. The friends of the deceased will therefore send in a guard along with the corpse, and precautions are taken so that if necessary the place may be defended. "Turning in at another gate we entered what may be caUed the cemetery, where the bodies rest tiU they are buried. The ground was laid out in Httle paved streets, or alleys, of dark grey bricks; aU the houses, or rather apartments, being exactly alike. As we walked along we could look into each apartment, or ceU, through the open door. In each of them there was one, or perhaps two coffins placed upon tressels; and near the door and between it and the coffins stood an altar-table, with candles and joss-sticks (i.e. long pastilles), where devotions and libations are offered to the spirit of the departed. The coffins are nothing but sections of the trunks of trees split open and %$■ 234 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH hoHowed, and then carefuUy shut down. The better ones are well lacquered, and look solid and handsome. " At the time of my visit there were about two thousand corpses in the city. Many of them are the bodies of Chinamen from other provinces, waiting till they can be transported to their own place. But many of them are the bodies of residents waiting tiU the geomancer has found a propitious place for the burial. "Chinamen have a very curious theory of the Fung Shui, or the relation subsisting between the elements of nature, earth and water. For instance, it is proposed to build a house in a certain place; but the appointed geomancer says that such a hill disturbs the Fung Shui, and a pagoda must be buHt in an opposite direction to counteract it. Otherwise the spot would be unlucky. Or again, some tall bmlding that a foreigner proposes to erect cannot be permitted because it would throw the Fung Shui into confusion. A lofty telegraph station that was to be built at Shanghai was prohibited on this ground. Should a foreigner erect a house that at aH overtops his neighbours, it is not an uncommon sight to see poles and bamboos projected from the neighbouring houses to throw back the evn influence. The geomancer who goes about the country estimating the Fung Shui, and thus finding out lucky or unlucky places for houses or tonibs, is a very important and responsible personage." Since the desire to obtain some experimental knowledge of its religions and worship had brought Mr. Sheepshanks to the Flowery Land, it was with peculiar interest that he directed his steps to the large and splendid Buddhist temple and monastery at Honan. "Having entered the gates which led into the sacred ADORATION OF THE "PRECIOUS ONES" 235 precincts we saw before us a large open space, or grassy court, across which a granite path led up to the porch of the principal temple. " My attention was attracted by a noise from the interior, which showed that the evening worship was going on within. I hurried, therefore, to the central door, and, passing through a group of natives who stood outside and readily made way for me, beheld at once a scene which was indelibly impressed upon my memory. Immediately before me, fronting the central entrance, sat the ' Three Precious Ones,' colossal idols, fifty feet high, I should suppose, made of wood brightly and handsomely gHded, and painted in red and black. In the centre sat Ometo (contracted from the Sanscrit Amitabha 'infinite Hght'), the intermediate Buddha, by whom men may become a Buddha; and on his right the image of Nirvana, with closed eyes and hands resting on knees, the sign of repose through absorption into the infinite. There, tranquH in appearance as the Sphinx figures of Egypt, almost majestic were it not for the thought of the idolatrous adoration that was paid them, sat the three divinities, showing to the misguided worshippers (as they think) the divine being that each might become—Him through whom the perfection might be attained, and the final, desired end. I Before the huge idols there was placed an altar-table, with a large metal pot, or brazier, fuH of incense-stick ashes, in which incense-sticks were then burning, and stands with artificial flowers; in front of the table a round mat. Between this and the entrance there was another table, with also a mat in front of it. On either side, on the right hand and on the left as one looked in, and facing each other, there stood three long rows of priests, clad in ;, il A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH grey tunics, with long yellow silk capes over the left shoulder and under the right arm, heads entirely shaven, and pale, emaciated countenances. They stood perfectly still and, aU upon the same note, chanted a monotonous chant, accompanied by three priests, who stood by the first altar striking upon hollow wooden drums and a small wooden ball. "We stepped inside and retired to a corner, no other person being admitted, and watched the proceedings. The chanting continued for nearly half an hour, and I had leisure to look around. On either side of the temple against- the wall there was ranged a row of images in black and red, effigies of holy persons who have distinguished themselves in the service of Buddha and have given up all for him. By these stood in rows those of the bonzes who had not yet attained the honour of the priesthood. They wore no yellow cloaks, but were all in grey. The yellow garments of the priests, I noticed, were not in one piece, but were made up of many square patches. This is in token of their supposed poverty. The countenances of nearly aU were fatuous to a painful degree, and many of them bore an expression that was quite repulsive As I observed these evH-looking beings, I could readily beHeve aU that I had heard from residents in China of their abominable Hves in their monasteries. " These so-caUed priests, I afterwards found, are generally hated and despised by the people. It is frequently possible for a criminal to escape execution by enrolling himself among their number. After a whHe a change took place in the beating of the drums, and the chanting ceased. Then the officiating priest, the youngest of the assembly, came forward to the OMETO FO 237 first altar, and, standing there, took incense-sticks and with prostrations elevated them before the divinities. Then, prostrating himself upon the mat, he bowed thrice, touching the ground with his forehead. Then, going to the second altar nearest to the door, he offered, with bows, oblations of rice and water, again elevating them before the Sacred Three. These offerings he poured out upon a hewn stone outside the door, where the birds are supposed to feed upon them. Thence, returning again, he prostrated thrice before the Three Precious Ones, touching the ground with his forehead. " Then another change, and two priests, coming forward with the beating of the wooden baU, knelt at the open door with their backs to the Buddhas and worshipped the heavens with muttered prayers. This is not pure Buddhism, but, in accordance with the policy of that form of beHef in China, has been adopted from the Confucian system. This concluded, a procession was made in single file round the temple, the line passing round by the back and so in front of the Sacred Three, and, as they went, again they all chanted in hoarse, monotonous tones,' Ometo Fo, Ometo Fo' —Fo, the corruption of a Manchurian word, being the equivalent for Buddha, the idea being that merit is acquired by the mere repetition of the sacred name. "Towards the end the time graduaHy quickened, until at the close it became quite a quick march. But aU the time this long row of priests, consisting of perhaps a hundred and fifty hideous shaven men clad in grey and yellow vestments, were shouting out before the gigantic idols, ' Ometo Fo, Ometo Fo, Ometo Fo.' After a little pause, each standing in his place, the scene was over. "Though I had once or twice previously been in a Iffl 238 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH heathen idol-house, yet never before had I been witness of idolatrous worship; and this scene, with its incense and bowings and prostrations and elevations, its hoarse chant and the impression made upon the mind by the idols, huge, staring, impassive, had an effect upon me that I could not describe. It was horror." CHAPTER XXXI SHANGHAI TO TIEN-TSIN Just in time—A story of the drought—Irrigation on river banks—Watchmen and their drums—Tien-tsin—Belated melodies. As the month of June drew to its close, Mr. Sheepshanks' visit to Canton came also to an end. Sailing from Hong Kong to Shanghai, he was fortunate enough to escape by a few hours the fury of a typhoon which wrought havoc amongst the junks and shipping. Shanghai, the most European of Chinese towns, presented no fresh features of interest; he quickly passed on to Tientsin and the Taku forts, with the memories of their bombardment in 1859. The heavens were as brass above him; the land was gasping for rain. A missionary, who had come on board, told a story of the drought in a certain district, and of the fear of the inhabitants lest famine should fall upon them. "The pagans accordingly resolved, Hke the followers of Baal, to caU upon the god Pak-Ti for rain. His image, therefore, a life-size figure made of terra-cotta, coloured red and black and blue, with fierce face, glaring eyes, and ferocious moustache, was placed upon a bier, Hfted upon men's shoulders, and, accompanied with hoarse monotonous 239 1 -rbb 1 240 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH prayers and cries and the beating of drums, was carried in procession round the country. "Before long the sky was overcast, the prayers were redoubled, and sure enough the rain came. The heathen triumphed, the Christian converts were silenced. But the rain came pouring down, and Pak-Ti began to show signs of damage. His colours began to get mixed. The priests grew anxious, and covered the god with garments. But the garments were quickly soaked through, and made matters worse. It happened that they were passing through a tract of country where there was no shelter. "Still the rain came pouring down, and poor Pak-Ti became a mass of many-coloured paste. First one limb fell off, and then another, and at length his head, now a shapeless mass, rolled off into the mire, and nothing was left on the bier but a lump of reddish mud. It was then the turn of the Christian converts to triumph. " So long-continued had been the drought, that even the land upon the banks of the Peiho was irrigated after a common Chinese fashion seen in pictures A tall fork of a tree is planted on the bank, upon which a long pole is tied and balanced. At that end of the pole which is nearest to the river a bucket is suspended, balanced at the other end by a large stone. A man is constantly employed from morning tiH night in baHng water from the river by means of this bucket, whence a smaU trench circulates it over the land. The trees by the water-side are willows, acacias, and fruit trees—peaches, apricots, pears, and apples. "Every mHe or two we passed villages swarming with people who dweU in houses made of dried mud, large and well built, with holes in the walls, covered with lattice-work, for windows. At most of these vUlages, and at intervals all I Mi "THE THROBBING OF THE DRUM" 241 up the river, smaU docks had been made, in which the junks and boats are repaired and preserved during the. winter months while the ice is on the river. Portions of the gardens were fenced in with wicker fences made of reeds, ingeniously plaited to keep the strong winds from levelling the crops. "And in the neighbourhood of populous places little cages are made for watchmen to keep an eye over the crops, and warn off poor starving cooHes who otherwise would assuredly commit depredations upon the fruit and vegetables. These watchmen's dens at a Httle distance might be mistaken for beehives. They are raised from the ground on small props and covered with matting, and only contain space enough for a small man to crawl into. "The watchmen, after a very Chinese fashion, as they perambulate the gardens and the streets of the town, sound a smaU drum of wood and skin to frighten the rogues away.* The foreign residents generaUy employ one of these men to walk about their premises during the night to watch their houses and ' godowns' (the word current among the residents for warehouses), and often, if sleepless from the heat, one may hear the pig-taHed Dogberry going his rounds, beating his dismal drum. One naturaUy wondered at first why the merchants did not stop this noise, so calculated, one would think, to defeat the very purposes of watching. But no! This would never do. For, true to his office, Dogberry would straightway compose himself to slumber in the shadow of some wall. Whereas now, if the sound of the tell-tale drum be missed but for a Httle whHe, some wakeful barbarian wiU * Here Mr. Sheepshanks observed much the same custom as that which passes amongst the watchmen of Constantinople, where they beat the pavement with their sticks to show that they are awake and on their rounds. R A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH descend and rouse the Celestial from the arms of Morpheus with a stimulative kick. On our way up the river we passed not a few fishing junks, the crews of which appeared to be almost, if not quite, naked." In Tien-tsin Mr. Sheepshanks remained only twenty-four hours. "In the evening of the day I was there, I was much surprised in walking through the dirty streets to hear a blind old Chinaman playing upon an accordion, and playing in a very correct and spirited way some of the best-known operatic airs, which promptly carried one back in thought to former years. Upon inquiry, I found that the old man had picked them up from hearing them played by the English regimental bands when our men were here in 1860, and played them from ear." i CHAPTER XXXII ON THE ROAD TO THE CAPITAL Mule carts—Their discomfort—Attempts.at imposition—The village inn— Pest of insects—Life in small towns—The story teller—Where are the women ?—An unexpected burst of speed—Sleepy driver. "It was on the evening of July 19, at about seven o'clock, that I started for Peking in one of the mule carts of the country. These mule carts are somewhat like tiny waggons, being about six feet in length, four feet of which is covered over, having what, for want of a better term, we may caU a 'boot' behind for packages or food for the mules. The breadth of the vehicle is about three feet, so that there is not much accommodation for the traveUer, especially when it is considered that this is his habitation by day, and in hot weather usuaUy his sleeping-place by night. "It is in these vehicles that aU the travelling in this part of China is done. They are drawn by mules, generaUy two, driven tandem, but not harnessed as a tandem is in England, both the ropes of the leader being on the same side of the wheeler. As the carts possess no springs, and the art of macadamizing has not yet penetrated to the Celestial Empire, the process of this journeying is to one unaccustomed to it sufficiently agonizing. The only plan is to pack the bottom of the cart well with straw, blankets, 243 244 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH m and, if you have them, which I had not, bed and piUows, and then by means of them and other clothes and packages to wedge one's self so tightly in as to defy the most ferocious jolts; and then, if the thermometer be at 105 in the shade, as it was when I was at Tien-tsin, the condition one gets into may possibly be imagined. " For my own part I preferred traveUing by night, and resting in the middle of the day, for the heat was not to be withstood. So accordingly at 7 p.m., having assured my timid drivers of the resoluteness of my character and my preparedness to encounter any amount of robbers, though indeed the only weapon that I possessed was a cotton umbrella, we set out amid the kind fareweUs of the friends that I had made on board the steamboat, who assembled on the quay to witness my departure; for they knew that I was setting forth on a long journey homeward. We lumbered on by the river and through the crowded streets of Tien-tsin, until, passing the waHs and the suburbs, we began to emerge upon the open country. "Here was made the first attempt upon the purse of the stranger unacquainted with the customs and language of the country. By words and signs the drivers of my two carts gave me to understand that we must have a Hght, and they must have money wherewith to purchase candles. This was an imposition, I knew, and though a trifling one, yet as being the first it was to be resisted. There is some sHght advantage, though indeed a great deal of awkwardness and discomfort, in being unacquainted with the language of the country; and I would not understand them. They asked for money to buy candles, and I told them that I had no candles to give them. Thus we persisted, to the great delight of a crowd of half-naked people, who marvelled STRANGE BEDFELLOWS 245 doubtless at the denseness of the barbarian. After a Httle while, however, a candle was somehow procured and fastened to the leading mule, and on we went. But in fact the light was not needed, as I perfectly weU knew, for the moon shortly arose, and the candle was either extinguished or aUowed to go out. "On we jogged, through the villages and parched-up country, along the dusty road, and did not again stop until about 2 a.m., when the drivers declared that the mules must have food, and that we must rest. We hammered accordingly lustHy at the gate of a viUage inn, and amid the baying of dogs and shouts of drowsy men drove into the courtyard. Determined to make the best of the circumstances, I sat upon the ground and called for tea and rice, and as the morning dawned began to realize the situation. "It was a queer and not very cheerful sight. One- storied apartments, principaUy guest-rooms and kitchen, ran around three sides of the small square, and the fourth was taken up with a long, low shed in which mules and asses were munching provender at the mangers. On the ground in different parts of the court a dozen or twenty men whoUy or partially nude were sleeping, some upon the sand, others with a thin piece of matting spread beneath them. Odd- looking forms enough they were, with their coffee-coloured skins, shaven heads, and pig-taHs. Rough dogs and fat pigs were also lying about without a sound. "Pigs and dogs usually are noiseless in China. The latter slink about, and only yelp at a barbarian; the former, horribly fat, He upon the ground or stand about quietly. The slowness of the people seems to affect the brute creation. The swarms of flies in the sultry summer night made no buzzing, and exasperated one all the more by their as f 111 II 24f5 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH pertinacious crawHng. And as the light of dawn increased I could see crowds of fat black beetles moving slowly on the ground, and creeping over the bodies of the prostrate sleepers. My drivers, squatting on the ground, took in a stack of provisions, and shovelled rice into their mouths, and picked the chopped meat and vegetables with their chopsticks, and sipped the samshu and drank the inevitable tea with gusto. After somewhat more than an hour 1 ventured to teU them we must be off. " Then came attempted imposition number two. I must pay for their food and that of their mules. This I promptly refused to do, as it was not in accordance with our agreement. Whereupon they intimated that they would not proceed, but would stay there and sleep. Stay there they might: I could not well prevent that; but sleep I was determined they should not. They had bargained to travel by night. So whenever either of them disposed himself as comfortably as he could upon the ground, preparatory to a nap, I poked him up and told him quietly that we must be off. Persistence in this course had its effect, and by a Httle after four we were on our way again, and did not stop until we arrived at Hu-siwu, the halfway halting-house, near to which the Chinese troops fled so manfully before our men in 1860. Here we rested during the heat of the day, and then set out for the completion of our journey. "The glimpses that one gets of Chinese Hfe in passing through the vHlages and small towns are very curious. One sees the folk crowding to the shops, or perhaps tea restaurants as they might more aptly be called, where they assemble in the evening and drink great quantities of tea from the Httle blue and white handleless teacups. The room—not large— is filled with very small tables, at each of which four or five I INVISIBLE WOMEN 247 men wiU be sitting so crowded together that their half-naked bodies are almost touching. Each man, of course, has his fan and a smaU pipe which he is continuaUy refilling, and relighting at a twisted pastile which is burning on the table. An incessant talking goes on, and a ceaseless fluttering of fans. The roof is low, and the room is lighted with odoriferous oH lamps. The outer air is sultry, and within the atmosphere reeks with stifling odours. However, 'De gustibus,' etc. This is their idea of enjoyment; and in truth it is fuHy as sensible as some of the notions of enjoyment current among ourselves. " Or, again, you may see in the dusk a Httle crowd of men, perhaps fifty or sixty, crowding together upon the side-walk and squatting upon the ground listening to a reciter or storyteller. " In the centre of the group is the performer, sitting or standing or walking about with a fan in his hand and reciting loudly and in a theatrical manner, and freely gesticulating. It is difficult, I beHeve, to follow these feUows in what they say. Good Chinese scholars have told me that they could only understand a part of what is said. Sometimes the performer relates a story; sometimes he wiU break out into a rhythmical chant, perhaps from an old play; and then perhaps wiU drop into a famHiar dialogue. The men wHl sit for hours listening with apparent deHght, of course smoking and fanning themselves aU the while. " The question naturaUy arises in one's mind, ' Where are the women all the whHe ?' Wherever they are, they are not to be seen. OccasionaUy in the streets of the towns, or in passing through the country, one sees one or two women, either shopping in the one case, or in the other standing or sitting at the doors of houses, in the latter case being the ^M 248 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH 11 m it i v,t wives of the poorest class; but seldom or never do they appear in the company of men. One or two of them may be talking together, and perhaps one or two girls may be standing near; but, as far as a stranger can see, the men do not care for their society. " Family Hfe, as we understand it, does not seem to be known in China, and the men and the women appear to see but little of each other. Certainly the latter make but a smaU appearance in the outward face of society. One sees, I should suppose, fully one hundred men for every woman, and but for the occasional appearance of the smaU, distorted, feet one might forget their very existence. "We traveUed on all through that night, stopping but once for half an hour, but making only Httle progress. Whenever I awoke from my nap in the cart, I found the mules only crawling along and the driver sleeping on the shaft. Early in the morning we gave the mules another rest, and one more attempt was made upon my purse. The attack, however, was sustained with less confidence than before, and was more easHy repelled. " We then set out for the final stage. The men were sleepy and the mules tired, and the sun was hot before we reached Peking. Sitting on one of the shafts, as the place where more air could be obtained, I put up my umbreUa to keep off the heat, which being done suddenly so startled the mules that they dashed off at a surprising rate. There was not the sHghtest cause for alarm, for the cart could not easily have been upset; but the driver seemed to get into a ludicrous state of terror. Had it not been for this, I should certainly have tried the experiment again; for the sensation, of rapid motion was as exhHarating as novel. Matters,' however, were arranged and the harness disentangled, and SLUMBER AT A VENTURE 249 once more my friend John settled down to his quiet doze. No figure could be imagined more absurd. He hung over the wheeler with his mouth wide open, and only recovered himself by a spasmodic action. He lurched heavHy against me, and then, drowsHy awaking, struck the mule and tried to look as though, like Mr. Justice Stareleigh, he thought most profoundly with his eyes shut. His pig-taH became entangled in the awning, and he was temporarily aroused by the tugs which in consequence he got in his lurches. Every moment I thought, as I contemplated him with amusement, he would assuredly be off. But no! Again and again he contrived to. recover himself in the strange manner pecuHar to sleepers. At last, however, a heavy roU of the cart threw him over, and the startled mules dashed off at fuH speed. But he was master of the situation, and held on to the ropes like a man. It was lucky that he did so, for I was so convulsed with laughter that I could not help him. He soon recovered himself and joined heartily in my laugh, and 'chin-chinned' amazingly." II in ia flifil 1 I ill] 1M11 ■if if if •f^ 1 X it II ll I CHAPTER XXXIII PEKING Impressions of city—Visit to lamasery—The lordly Superior—Basso pro- fundo prayers — Disciplinary measures — Kefreshments — Ludicrous scene. " The first impression which Peking made upon me was the same as that which, after I had made considerable acquaintance with it, was stiU left upon my mind. It is strange, vast, impressive, barbaric. The lofty massive walls and huge rude gates are indeed imposing, but give the idea of the greatness of the past rather than of the present. Within the outer waHs the city is divided into three distinct quarters—the Imperial city, the residential, and the mercantile. " The mind, after the first sight of it, has the impression of large open spaces, thronged streets of low houses, and of fine pagoda-buHt temples. The so-called streets or roads are broad; but commonly there is only a practicable way on a raised causeway in the middle. On each side of this causeway there is an impassable bit of road, either dusty and in hiUocks, or foully muddy with pools of water here and there. It is a strange contrast to the more civilized Canton." In company with one of the resident missionaries, Mr. 250 IMPORTANT PERSONAGE 251 Sheepshanks drove in one of the Chinese carts to a large Buddhist monastery: thence to an important lamasery or institution for lamas. " The gates of the hall of worship were speedily opened, and at the sound of a wooden horn the lamas came trooping up in numbers, and made adoration upon the steps looking towards the images of the Sacred Three, with folded hands thrice touching themselves upon the forehead and breast, thrice prostrating themselves, and thrice three times touching the marble steps with their foreheads. They were clad in their long, duH, red robes, thrown over the left shoulder and under the right arm, that limb being left quite bare. Some of the superior priests were in yeUow, and others in grey. " Presently way was made among them for the presiding lama; of what rank he was in the hierarchy we could not learn. He came stalking along with an air of vast self- importance in a red robe, handsome Chinese black satin boots, and a very lofty and very grotesque wooUen helmet of a bright yeUow colour. His right arm was bare, and an attendant walked behind him. AU the lamas wore helmets quite as lofty, quite as yeUow, and quite as grotesque, but not quite of the same pattern, and carried theirs in their hands. " Soon after the arrival of the Superior the service began. He stepped forward into the open space between the door and the altar, and an attendant vested him with a yeUow robe or cloak put over his red tunic, and the lamas began to chant. They were seated cross-legged upon their low settles with the desks before them, and each half of the assembly faced the other. We were not permitted to enter the temple, but stood at the open entrance, whence we had an exceUent view, and watched the strange scene. 2<>2 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH r " To what can I compare the chanting ? To the lowest notes of a vHe country organ, the grunting of very bass pigs, or the growling of cross-grained bears. Imagine some two or three hundreds of such sounds mixed up together, and you may get a faint idea of the noise that they made. I could not tell whether it was the more novel or ridiculous. It is the result, I was told, of constant practice from boyhood, which unnaturaUy distends and enlarges the throat. Some of them sent forth this hoarse beUow with an astounding roar, and I could see large lumps moving up and down their throats. At first the notes they uttered were very monotonous, but some of the succeeding changes, in which they were led by a Httle priest in a yeUow robe who sat among the rest, bore a strong resemblance to the Gregorian tones. They kept on in this way for, I suppose, half an hour, and all the time were growHng bass notes and shifting their robes; many of them laughing and grinning at each other, as if thinking it prime fun, and some of them refreshing their energies with pinches of snuff. " In the mean time the Superior, as I have caUed him, a taU and portly man, with a joUy fleshy face, strutted about between the rows to preserve due order. With his felt-shod shoes he could walk very quietly, and on one of his rounds came unexpectedly upon a youth grinning forth his merriment. With one sweep of his brawny arm he brought down his open hand upon the poor boy's cheek with a smack that resounded through the temple. Like the others, the boy was sitting cross-legged, and his head went back and his other end went up, and he feU, rolling upon the floor amid the smothered laughter of his companions, the Superior meanwhHe stalking on with unmoved countenance, looking as if nothing had happened. LARGESSE 253 " At the expiration of about half an hour, a priest clad in his yeUow robe, with a red stole over his left shoulder and under his right arm, ascended the steps which led to the altar, and Hghted three smaU oH lamps in the front of the altar. There had been five burning there previously. He then came down and made nine prostrations, each time folding his hands and touching his forehead and dreast, and then going upon his knees and touching the ground with his forehead. Then a small bundle of handkerchiefs was brought forth—handkerchiefs are greatly used as gifts among the Mongols—and one was placed by the priest upon the altar, and one before several of the priests. This, however, seemed to be a mere formaHty, as they were afterwards taken away. " Then there were brought in some bottles of Mongolian tea, and each lama produced a smaH wooden bowl from under the desk before him, in which there was a smaH rag for cleansing it, and each one partook of a Httle tea, of which the poor feUows certainly had need after aU their bawling. Then the Superior chanted forth some prayers without a book, standing before the altar, and holding his yeUow helmet before his face, somewhat in the way in which English gentlemen used to gaze into their hats before the Divine Service. The prayers were in the Thibetan language. That being done, some large parcels were opened which had been lying upon the desks, containing cards of Thibetan prayers. These were rapidly scanned by the lamas and put away again. Then the chanting began again. After this, long strings of cash were brought in and distributed, each lama getting five. ' Cash,' I may remark, is the name for the current change of the country. Five cash would be about equal to three-fourths of "a penny. This is the Emperor's dole for the pocket-money of the lamas. M 11 1 254 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH "AU these monasteries are supported by the Emperor. This is an easy way of propitiating the Mongols, who are satisfied if their lamas are weU treated. " Then a lama walked rapidly round with a metal bottle of holy water, from which he besprinkled those who desired it. They held out their hands, and smeared their faces with the water. Then more tea was imbibed, and the lamas all clapped their hands simultaneously several times. Then with a wave of the hand the Superior dismissed the assembly. They all put on their lofty yeUow helmets, presenting a most absurd appearance, and rushed tumultuously from the temple. The Superior stalked solemnly away accompanied by his attendant, and the service was over. "Never had I witnessed a more ludicrous scene. The whole time I was stifling my laughter, but managed to preserve at least as sedate a countenance as many of the worshippers. Had it not been for the fact that these poor creatures claimed to be worshipping the unseen, the whole would have been simply laughable. As it was, sadness was largely mingled with one's sense of the ridiculous. It should be observed that this is supposed to be Buddhism, a form of reHgion which it is the fashion with some to admire and extol. But what would Gautama himself have thought of it!" CHAPTER XXXIV A LOST TRIBE OP ISRAEL Bishop Schereschewsky—His history—Disguise and expedition to Kai- Feng-Fu—His discovery—"The sinew that shrank"—Buddha and Mahomet for Jehovah—Inspection of Mohammedan mosque. " One blazing hot day, when sitting on the ground in Mr. Burdon's compound, in the shade of one of his outbuildings, writing my journal, I observed a man, apparently a Chinaman, in Chinese garments, and with a pig-tail hanging down his back, coming in at the back gate and walking briskly towards the house. "' Never,' thought I,' did I see an Oriental walk with a step and a gait Hke that.' As he drew near to me I was struck with his keen, handsome face, full of intelligence and vigour; and whHe he was passing me he gave me a pleasant nod and a cheery greeting: ' Uncommon hot, is it not ?'" "This was the Rev. S. J. J. Schereschewsky, a truly remarkable man. By race a Hebrew, by country a Pole, he was converted early in Hfe to Christianity under the Roman form. Migrating to the United States, he then left the Roman Communion and joined the Protestant Episcopal Church, was ordained deacon and priest, and subsequently became a bishop. Having in fuU measure the abilities of his gifted race, he had become a great Hnguist, and having 255 256 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH ii> come to China as a missionary before long acquired an almost perfect command of the Chinese language. " Those who are interested in missionary work among the heathen wiU be aware that a good many years ago—I do not precisely know how many—great interest was aroused among Christian people by the news, derived from Chinese sources, that in the heart of China there was a smaU settlement of a foreign people, who, by the account given of them, could be no other than Jews. Whence came they ? How long had they been there ? Did they stiU preserve their ancient faith, shut up as they were in the heart of heathendom ? " These were questions that deeply interested the Christian mind. No one, however, had hitherto ventured upon an attempt to visit them. This Schereschewsky, admirably qualified as he was, resolved to do. Accordingly, habiting himself as a Chinaman, shaving his face and the fore part of his head, and purchasing a pig-taH, which he contrived to fasten into his hair behind, he set out with a Chinese boy, whom he hired to go with him, for Kai-Feng-Fu, the place where this strange colony was reported to be found. It was actuaUy upon his return from his adventurous journey that I encountered him in the manner that I have just described. " He had succeeded in the object of his journey, and had found the people that he was in search of. They were indeed Jews—or, rather, had been; for, alas! they had aU given up their faith. They had, indeed, been 'mingled among the heathen and learned their works. And served their idols, which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devUs.* Schereschewsky managed to get hold of one or two copies of the law, and came to the conclusion that the people were Persian Jews, and had been, ill »<18i AN ECLIPSE OF FAITH 257 I think he said, about one hundred and fifty years in China. " It is an interesting fact that they had kept their faith as long as they had a rabbi to instruct and minister to them. But their last rabbi had died some fifty or sixty years before, and from that time they began to faU away. At the time of Schereschewsky's visit they had abandoned every truth, every practice of their holy reHgion—except one. No one, I should suppose, could possibly guess the one and only parr ticular that they had clung to, when aU else was gone. They were known among the Chinese as the sect that would not eat of the sciatic nerve, the 'sinew that shrank.' How instructive as Ulustrating the innate formaHty of the human heart is this fact, that, while they had surrendered the great truths, aU that was spirituaUy valuable in their reHgion— their beHef in one God, living and true, their Father and Protector—they should cling to this one shred, this arbitrary tradition which could not inform their consciences nor touch their hearts. Jacob, their forefather, whose faithful soul would indeed have been wounded had he thought that his descendants could ever come to such a pass—him they had forgotten, yet, not knowing him, they traditionally kept up the curious custom that told of the crisis of his life. I Some of the Jewish boys, easHy recognized by their features among the dull-faced Chinese, were actually being brought up with the idea of their becoming Buddhist priests. Schereschewsky resolved, if possible, to get hold of one or two of these lads, and bring them up as Christians; but at this point he was discovered, he knew not how, to be an European and a Christian. The literati began to stir up the people against him, in the manner of the Jews of old against the Apostles, and he was fain to flee for his life to Peking." 1 258 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH 11 1 Buddhism was not the only lapse of these fragments of the ten tribes. Forgotten the sacred tongue, lost the roll of the law, departed from that reserve which marked off the chosen people from all other races, some of these IsraeHtes had escaped the worship of a rabble of divinities, preserving their monotheism by the desperate expedient of turning Mussulmans. The presence of Mohammedanism in China is a portent not easHy explained; its mosques are many, its adherents in millions. Polytheism they hold in horror, and whenever, as frequently happens, a follower of the prophet of Mecca intermarries with a daughter of the country, his Chinese wife must needs adopt the creed of Islam. A mosque proved worthy of a visit. " We were received in the court by the moollah, a jolly, good-tempered-looking old man, dressed in the Chinese fashion, with partially shaven head and a long queue, who showed us courteously over the building. There is but one court, in the centre of which stands the mosque. It is buUt in the Chinese style, but has only one roof, and therefore gives the impression of being but of one story, and is ornamented, as usual, with green and white and red and gold, the colours being also, as usual, tastefuUy handled. Over the entrance, and in various other conspicuous places of the buHdings, there were inscriptions in Arabic. " Upon entering, we found ourselves in the porch of a smaU, rectangular buUding, the porch being separated from the rest by a transverse row of wooden pUlars. In the porch, right before the entrance to what we should caU the nave, there was placed an altar-table, bearing a tablet with the usual Confucian inscription in Chinese characters, ' May the Emperor Hve ten thousand times one hundred thousand WITHIN THE MOSQUE 259 years'; and before this there were some metal incense-urns, ostensibly for the production of the customary fumes. This is, of course, an infringement of Mohammedanism; but it is a mere sham, and done to propitiate and deceive the Chinese authorities. " Passing beyond the porch, we entered the body of the mosque, which, being low, rather dark, supported by rows of columns with arches, and having but smaU windows, had somewhat the appearance of a crypt. The pillars were painted a dull red, and the roof decorated with bright colours. The floor was covered with matting, and the moollah told us we must take off our shoes. My companion, Mr. Schereschewsky, who was dressed in the Chinese garb, readily sHpped off his felt shoes; but it would have given me a little trouble to take off my laced boots, so I murmured an excuse, and the mooUah, who was a good-natured fellow, allowed it, and let me pass on. The crowd of men and boys who had accompanied us were left behind in the porch as we entered the mosque. " At the west end of the buUding, looking towards Mecca, was the' kebla,' not unlike a very smaU English chancel, and railed off, the end waU being decorated with texts from the Koran in Arabic. Near the junction of the kebla with the body of the mosque on the north side, stood the pulpit, which, however, was fiUed with carved woodwork, the preacher standing upon the steps and looking down the mosque while preaching. There was nothing else in the buUding worthy of comment. It was clean and well kept; and one felt relieved and thankful to be in a buHding intended for worship in which there were no idols, and where at least there was set forth the cardinal truth that there is but one God living and true. SI II 1 11 26o A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH " Opposite the east door, by which we had entered, in the court, there was a tower about thirty feet high with a gaUery at the top. This is for the muezzin and his call to prayer. It was flanked by two paviHons on each side containing monuments. One, I beHeve, was in honour of the founder of the mosque; the purpose of the other I did not learn. These three buHdings were aU in the pagoda style, each with three roofs, and the colours were fresh and bright. There was a look of care about this estabHshment which contrasted weU with the state of decay and neglect in which we found so many of the Chinese idol temples. In the courtyard I noticed a sundial, which the mooUah said had been there since the foundation of the mosque. " Our friend the mooUah was a great controversialist, and showed a laudable desire to convert us to the creed of Islam. We were conducted into the audience chamber; and there, amidst a crowd of men and boys connected with the establishment, he insisted on arguing with my companion, Mr. Schereschewsky, who interpreted a part of what he said to me. The conversation was carried on in Chinese. He repeated again and again the common Mohammedan story that it was not Christ who was crucified, but one who personated Him—a curious acknowledgment, as it seems, of the power of the Cross. "While the conversation was going on I had leisure to scan the countenances of the audience. A few of them had purely Chinese faces, with the obHque eyes that are the unmistakable characteristic of the race. Others possessed countenances as plainly not Chinese, and, notwithstanding their dress, would have been recognized as Arabs or Persians all the world over. The greater part had just that admixture of features and expression which one would expect in such a. II A GOOD CHARACTER 261 mixed race. They appeared to have much more vivacity than the pure Chinese. Many of them could speak Arabic and Persian, and classes are held in both those languages. As we came away the crowd of boys thronged us inconveniently, and at our departure raised a ringing cheer, such as might have been given by the lads of an EngHsh National School. " The impression made upon me by this visit was, as wHl be seen, relatively quite favourable. When compared with polytheism and its degrading results, even bare monotheism has a favourable effect upon human character. The Mussulman is brave and honest, trustworthy, industrious, and sober." ii CHAPTER XXXV THE ALTAR OP HEAVEN M System of examinations—Successful candidate—Proud parent—Temple of Heaven—Burglarious entry—Bribery and corruption—Three terraces—More palm oil and a little violence—A prayer-meeting— Sequel. It is well known that the Chinaman some centuries ago anticipated one of our modern theories in giving away posts under Government according to the results of competitive examinations. In no country is a successful candidate so glorified. Examinations for the highest positions take place—nominaUy —in the presence of the Emperor himself. He who heads the list ranks amongst the proudest of the land with governors and viceroys; over the place where he was born rests an undying halo; people of good birth and standing select so auspicious a town or village for their own residence, and rents rise. "The ordinary examinations are held in a building speciaHy constructed for the purpose. There is a long row of cells with no window or door, but quite open on one side to the air. All the way along opposite to these cells, at a distance of about four feet from them, there is a blank wall. And in the space between the waU and the cells an official walks up and down, looking into the cells as he passes to 262 ii VICARIOUS HONOURS 263 prevent copying or any unfair dealing. In each cell there is a smaH table and chair for the use of the student. They are examined only in the Chinese classics, large portions of which they are expected, I beHeve, to learn by heart. The classics are obscure and sufficiently unedifying. " Proficiency in such an examination wiU show no doubt inteUectual superiority of a certain kind, but can be no guarantee for moral qualities, such as are required for important posts of trust. They who distinguish themselves in these examinations are highly honoured; but the signs of honour are bestowed rather upon the successful student's father than upon himseH. WhHe I was at Canton a young man had distinguished himself in the Government examination, and his father was carried about in procession amid the congratulations and acclamations of the people, the young man, I was told, looking on doubtless with much pleasure. "The most interesting building in China—perhaps the most profoundly interesting non-Christian buHding in the world—and the one which, personaUy, I was the most anxious to see, was the Temple or altar of Heaven. "To this, therefore, I determined to pay a visit if possible, though of late years it had become increasingly difficult for foreigners to obtain an entrance. In order to avoid as far as possible any of the officials, we arose very early in the morning and set off, a party of four, in two of the carts of the country, for that part of the southern city in which the altar with its temples, courts, and surrounding park is situated. The whole enclosure is said to be about three mHes in circumference, showing that the Chinese Emperors have not grudged space in their capital for the national worship. "Arriving at the first wall, it was thought useless to I 1 i 11 lil 111 *^^_^ -^, . ^te. X .L 264 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH apply for admission at the gate, as it would certainly be refused, and needless also, as at a Httle distance further on it was practicable to get over the wall without troubling any one. For some purpose or other a great quantity of soil had been carted either in or out of the enclosure, and a large mound was left at the waU, by ascending which on the one side, climbing over the top of the wall, and then descending the mound on the other side, we were able to pass the barrier without molestation. We were thus within the first Hne of barriers, and walked on over some parkHke ground and along an avenue of fine locust trees, I for my part experiencing somewhat of a boy's delight in trespassing, until we arrived at the second wall. "Here there was an obstinate janitor, who for awhHe would Hsten to no persuasions. No doubt he would certainly be well whipped by the officials if it were discovered that we had been admitted, and it was therefore simply a question of how much would recompense him for a flogging. Fortunately two of my companions were admirable Chinese scholars, and understood thoroughly the character of the people. They at length persuaded him that it was some time since he had had a flogging; he could run the risk of another for a doUar. And to this view, after some demur, he assented. "But then arose the nice question whether he should open the gate or we give him the doUar first, each party mistrusting the other. On this point, however, he was firm as a rock; and after many asseverations the doUar was paid him, the gate was unfastened, and we were within the second Hne of barriers. From this gate a paved path of about a quarter of a mHe in length brought us to the enclosures surrounding the altar. We passed two low walls, THE ALTAR 265 each painted red and capped with coloured tHes, the first being a square and the second circular. Each of these walls had four archways of three spans, those of the square wall being in the middle of each side, those of the circular one corresponding with those in the square. Each archway is adorned with piUars of white marble, terminating in a curious finial, like a prince's plume with the two lower plumes turned upward instead of downward. Between the first and second waU there stood a large open furnace of large weU-made bricks, for the cremation of the sacrifices, cased with green porcelain tHes and ascended by steps, whence looking down into the furnace one could discern charred bones lying at the bottom. In a Hne with the furnace there stood a row of iron grates or baskets for the consumption of sacrificial paper. "Within the circular wall stands the altar, consisting of three circular terraces, one above another, all of white marble, and ascended by three flights of nine steps which correspond to the archways in the walls. There are, therefore, four of these series of ascents, one for each point of the compass. The steps are broad; but the middle part is not trodden on, for it is smooth, with representations of the dragon carved upon it. Ascending the first flight of steps, one comes to a narrow platform upon which there stands a large metal urn for incense, a white marble balustrade both at the top and bottom of the steps running round the altar. Ascending the second flight of steps, one reaches the second platform, with another urn and adorned in Hke manner. " Mounting the third flight, one stands upon the summit of the altar, which is quite flat, circular in form, and about twenty-five paces in diameter. Thus the altar may be briefly described as a circular erection, under the open sky of three 266 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH fti ascents, the whole steps and balustrades being made of white marble somewhat discoloured by age and neglect. Upon the flat top of the altar there was nothing but a metal urn and a row of five marble tripods. " It is hither that the Emperor comes once a year at the winter solstice, and after fasting for two or three days upon the premises ascends the altar and offers sacrifices to' heaven' (tien). The ' Ii-ki,' the Chinese book of rites and ceremonies, a work of great authority, lays it down that ' the Emperor has the right to sacrifice to the Heaven and the earth, the mandarins sacrifice to the inferior gods.' This scene has never, I beUeve, been witnessed by a foreigner. It is said that the fasting is sometimes done by deputy. " Descending the altar upon the other side, we skirted a temple with a roof in the pagoda style of blue tiles, and surrounded by a high wall which permitted us only to see the roof. Having passed round this temple, in which I was told there was nothing worth seeing, we came to another wall and gateway where the janitors had to be propitiated. We had seen them running thither hastily a little while before in order to intercept our progress. Some talk, however, and, what was yet more efficacious, a doUar managed to get us through this, and we proceeded along a high paved causeway with a fine avenue of Arbor vitse on either hand. Fine avenues to the right and left, and some artificial escarpment of the ground, made me think for a moment of VersaiUes. "At the end of this causeway our further progress was arrested for awhile by another gateway, held in force by the guardians within. But one of our party, weU acquainted with the ground, had run round to a side entrance, and coming in at the rear endeavoured to unbar the gate, amid II jj VENIAL CUSTODIAN 267 the vehement remonstrances of the janitors. Seizing one of these, our friend bade him unfasten the gate, which for a time he pretended to do, but at length declared that he was unable as long as the EngHshman kept his hold upon him. " By this time the sky had become overcast and it was raining heavUy, and we were standing in the shelter of the porch, looking through the crevices of the gate. Our friend loosed his hold for a moment, when away ran the Chinaman at full speed, the Englishman after him. Chinamen are by no means active, and the Celestial was soon roughly seized by the pig-taH. The ground was slippery, and in the struggle both pursuer and pursued feU upon the earth and rolled over in the mud. Back to the gate was the Celestial dragged by his queue, and forced to open it, whHe his four or five timid companions stood by, not daring to lift a finger. When we had gained our point, half a doUar quite pacified the discomfited Chinaman, for it was mere cupidity that had caused him to hinder our entrance. "We passed one more wall through an open gateway, and then stood in a square with outbuildings used in the sacrifices on either side, another furnace with grates on the right hand, and the great temple before us. It was a very imposing buHding, about one hundred feet in height, and stood upon a raised platform, resembling that of the ' altar of heaven,' of three ascents, the steps and balustrades being, as before, of carved white marble. The usual style, which I have termed the ' pagoda' style, was again found here. The buUding was, as so often, of three stories, having three verandah roofs, the second being of somewhat smaUer circumference than the first, and the third than the second. Were one to make use of a hideous but faithful simUe, it might be said—place three Chinamen's pointed hats one upon another, 268 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH 1 the second and third being each smaUer than the one on which it rests, and you get an idea of the style. The Hlus- tration is not worthy, for indeed it was a fair and striking edifice. The position, elevated upon its platform of white marble and with plenty of space round it, was fine. The height was considerable, and the colours harmonious, the roof being of dark blue, in imitation of the vault of heaven, and the portion of the walls immediately under the eaves a subdued green, sparingly used, and white; The lower story was fiUed with windows of open woodwork. " We were admitted into the interior for a small fee, and found a circular domed apartment, originaUy richly ornamented, but now much tarnished, supported on an outer and inner row of wooden pillars. Opposite the entrance was the rich throne which the Emperor was wont to occupy when he came hither to pray for the year. On the right hand and on the left were eight thrones, to represent the Emperors of the Manchu dynasty who have reigned in China, the one being reckoned in whose reign the country was conquered by the Manchus, though I believe he never entered Peking. The thrones were richly ornamented with gHding, but much tarnished, and the floor was covered with dust. "Once again everything spoke of neglect and decay. The tablet of each Emperor was in his throne, and there were also incense urns for worship before each. The animals for the sacrifices, principaUy oxen, were kept in a distant part of the grounds; and there was a long dismal walk, along which, I beHeve, they were brought to the temple to be immolated; but these we did not see. "Beyond the great temple, at the further end of the square, there was an entrance temple, dedicated to Shang Ti. For it is to be remembered that we did not see these various STUNG BY A SCORPION 269 edifices in their proper order, but forced a burglarious entrance by the rear. The Emperor, it is said, coming in by the proper entrance, goes first to the temple of the year, and then onward to the ' altar of heaven' (or the sky). This fine temple of Shang Ti has, I am afraid, been burned down since my visit. It was built, and the altar also, by Yung-low, the third of the Ming dynasty, who removed the seat of empire from Nankin to Peking at the beginning of the fifteenth century. " We might doubtless have seen the temple of Shang Ti had we determined to do so. But there is nothing, I believe, about it especiaUy remarkable. And at this time the guardians came round us and begged us to go away, as it was getting late, and some of the officials might be expected before long. We accordingly turned back and left the temples by the same route by which we had entered. The various janitors were quite willing to let us go, and nodded affably as we passed. They had got their fees, and escaped the whipping." Before leaving the city Mr. Sheepshanks joined with the missionaries and others in a final act of Christian worship. An invitation to a prayer-meeting seems harmless enough, yet the acceptance of this one brought with it a painful experience. " To this suggestion I readUy assented, and accordingly a Chinese covered cart was hired, and we set out on our voyage. "Yes, it reaUy was a voyage, for the so-called roads through the city, always rough with ruts and pools and Httle hiUocks, were in such a frightful condition through the recent heavy rainfaU, that our little cart roUed about like a ship in a gale of wind.. Puring a succession of heavy lurches, A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH which threatened to upset us altogether, I clutched hold of the pole by my side, to which the awning was attached, and was immediately stung by a scorpion, which, it seemed, had hidden itself in the folds of the awning. It was fortunate for me, I was told, that the recent cool, rainy weather had somewhat lessened the vigour of the venomous creature and diminished the virulence of the sting. It was, however, pretty bad, meaning sleepless nights and visits to an English doctor. But we went on to our prayer-meeting. "The medical man who attended to my wound was a handsome young fellow, with a charming wife, to whom he had just been married. I promised them that, at my first opportunity, I would caU upon their friends and describe their pleasant home and happy Hfe. When I arrived in England, some three months afterwards, I called at the address given before proceeding to my own home. " A lady dressed in black came into the room, and I told her I had recently returned from China, and had left her relatives in Peking well and happy. ' Ah!' was her reply, ' you have not heard the news. They are both dead!' " From what she said to me, the doctor went to Tien-tsin, to the bedside of a colleague ill with yeUow fever, taking his bride with him. The coUeague recovered, but his wife became HI with the fever and died. Her husband, broken-* hearted, set out for Peking, but succumbed on the way " CHAPTER XXXVI TOWARDS THE FRONTIER Preparations for departure—Farewells—Man and beast in China—Bird companions — Fishing with cormorants — Racial deliberateness — Attempted extortion—Successful ruse—Ruined crops—Improving temperature. " I was to start from Peking for Chang-kia-keu, the frontier town, early in the morning of July 29, but the mules did not arrive. On sending to inquire the reason, it was answered that they had been expecting a message to say that I was ready. It is very difficult sometimes to make a Chinaman understand the simplest arrangement, especially if it be not in exact accordance with the usual custom. However, at length the mules were at the door, and we prepared to depart. "First the mule-litter—for it is by this mode of conveyance that one travels this first part of the journey—had to be loaded. It is like a large box slung upon poles which are borne by the mules, one before and one behind, with a window on each side and in front. Inside is a false bottom of cane, upon which one is supposed to He down. I preferred to have it so arranged that I could adopt a sitting posture. Under this seat aU the light luggage is stowed away. " Then the pack-mule with my heavy boxes of provisions had to be loaded. The Chinamen have a peculiar mode of 271 272 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH i ai packing of their own. In Mexico and North America, where packing is much used, the blankets, pad, and wooden pack- saddle, with rope attached, are first placed upon the animal. Then a box is lifted by the packer upon one side of the pack- saddle, and made fast by the rope. Then another, to balance it, placed upon the other side. A third package is put upon the top, and the whole securely fastened with the weU- known Mexican loop. In the north of China the pack- saddle is balanced upon a small wooden horse, and the packages secured; then the whole is lifted by two or three men upon the mule's back. 1 The chief difficulty of the latter plan is this, that if a breakdown occur, or the pack becomes disarranged by the way, one packer, or perhaps two, are unable to lift the burden upon the animal's back, and there is some difficulty in arranging matters. We experienced this once or twice on our journey. On the present occasion, however, the thing was quickly done. I said good-bye to my dear friend Mr. Burdon, who had shown me such true hospitality and genuine kindness, the pack was now weU fastened, and I stepped into the litter, and was hoisted up upon the mules, while my hospitable friend upon the doorstep gave directions to the driver, and impressed upon him that if he would take me to Chang-kia-keu in four days he would get an extra tael- and that he had better make haste, therefore, since thereby hangs a tael. A few hearty words of fareweU, a ' toch' from the driver, and off we go. " I may take the opportunity here of remarking that I know of no country where there seems to be such a perfect understanding between men and the animals as in China. The muleteers have a small vocabulary of three or four words or sentences, which their animals perfectly understand, so QUAINT COMPANIONS 273 that there is no occasion for the foremost mule to be led, or for a muleteer to go on ahead to show the way; but the leading mule steps out first, and foUows the directions of the driver, who is behind, turning either to the right hand or to the left, or stopping, or going faster or slower according to his directions. And the same syUables are, as far as I could learn, at least on this route, used by all the drivers. Thus 'toch' is 'go on,' 'wo-ho' 'to the right,' 'hi' 'to the left,' and ' ye,' with a peculiar tone,' stop.' "And this faculty of instructing extends also to other animals—birds, for instance. Nothing is more common than to see a Chinaman, perhaps a portly old gentleman, walking along with a bird for his companion perched upon a stick which he carries in his hand. He gives a little jerk with the stick, and the bird mounts up into the air, and flies cheerily along over his head untU at the sound of a peculiar whistle the bird wiU descend and perch again upon the stick. I have seen a Chinaman come out of his house, and with his whistle bring down a smaU bird like a sparrow that was flying over the house. He then made a pecuHar' chick,' and the bird came and settled on his shoulder, and was carried into the house. " It is a curious sight, I beHeve, to see the men upon the Yang-tze river fishing with cormorants. They go out upon the river in boats, and their birds dive into the water after the fish, and carry them to their masters. They never carry the fishes to the wrong boat. Should the birds be lazy, the fishermen lash the water with sticks, and they go to work with alacrity. Rings are placed upon the necks of the birds to prevent their swaUowing the prey. This I have not seen myself, but have been informed by several who have witnessed it. T I : ll f 1 326 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH Men and horses had oftentimes been drowned in the passage. It was not practicable to ford the river; its current was too high and rapid for the safety of the cart. Bridges, of course, there were none, but a temporary raft for the carrying of vehicles was in existence. A staff of helpers was therefore hired from neighbouring huts, and the passage commenced. The baggage placed upon two rafts was speedHy piloted by Bara across the stream. The cart came safely to land, with much shouting and pushing, after the same manner. But there was more difficulty with the live stock. The ponies, indeed, swam across with Httle urging, to walk away quietly into the neighbouring pasturage and crop the grass. They left behind them the camels, wretched in the extreme, turning their long necks every way to avert their eyes from the water they so much dreaded. These had to be forced into the current. On one side of the river drovers, who had brought their herds with them from the steppes, were engaged in urging their cattle into the water, beating them vigorously with their long whips to compel them to take to swimming. The irrepressible boy—this time shaven as to his crown, and in training for a lama—crowded the banks in considerable numbers, and entered heartily into the spirit of driving the oxen into the stream, and preventing them from turning back when once across. The river crossed, the town of Ourga lay before them. Here Mr. Sheepshanks came into touch again with civUization. Making his way through the Chinese town, he took up his abode with a smaU Russian colony, comprising officials who were there for purposes of trade and poHtics, and a priest 1 IN THE SUBURBS 327 attached to the Church. To these he had been commended by letters of introduction from the Archimandrite at Peking, Mgr. PaUadius. And here .he bade fareweU to his Mongol attendants, when their tale of sHver had been duly weighed out and paid over. Men, trustworthy and of a good courage, who took foul weather and even perils on the day's journey, and made no outcry, they were exceUent representations of a good- humoured, hospitable, and peaceful race. The first entrance into Kuren conveyed the impression that he had fallen unawares into China, for Chinamen stood at the shop doors; obHque, cunning Oriental glances met him at every turn; and the costume, so far from being MongoHan, resolved itself into loose garments, round hats, and the flowing pig-taU. The houses too were Chinese, timbered, and of one story with a long ridge, gaily painted and decorated, such as constantly presented themselves to the eye in any of the towns and viUages in Northern China; Chinese the rough, unpaved streets along which the cart jolted and rolled along. The streets were gay with costumes of many fashions in red and blue and other colours; demure women newly arrived from the country moved along with their relatives and friends, whose long frocks lined with wool marked them as shepherds; mixing with the crowd everywhere were the lamas, distinguishable by heads artificially bald and a certain smugness of look. Indeed, he was stiU to aU intents and purposes in the Flowery Land, for this was the suburb of the Sacred City, where Chinese merchants, traders, and shopkeepers resided and carried on their business. They offered a signal contrast to their Mongol neighbours, who in commercial dealings vll A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH are simple and honest, an easy prey to the more wHy Chinamen. Women there were none. The Chinese Hve in Ourga in self-inflicted banishment without wives or famiUes, eagerly anticipating the time when their fortunes should aUow of their return to relatives and native land. f\> CHAPTER XLIV OURGA A collection of huts—The city proper—No sanitation—Prosperous trade —Visit of pilgrims—Women and their dress—Lamas—Their headgear and character. Ourga itself is a city set down in a vaUey between two ranges of hiUs on the banks of the river Tola, of some 40,000 inhabitants. What Mecca is to the Mohammedans, such is Ourga to the Mongol of the steppes. His thoughts and his heart are for ever turned towards it; for in this high and holy place Uves a god incarnate. In its position it reminded the traveUer of another sacred place, endeared to the foUowers of Joseph Smith— the Mormon Mecca of Salt Lake City. For the greater part it consists of a coUection of mud huts and wooden buHdings. Its dweUers stiU continue the customs famHiar to those in the steppes, and instead of permanent buHdings of any kind, the foreigner is aware only of the conical-shaped tents covered with felt with which he has been famHiar in the heart of the desert. Should occasion arise, it is easy to remove one's belongings at a few hours' notice and transfer them on the back of camels to any locality that may be chosen. But these tents differ from the yourts of the desert by being surrounded with the protection of a high wooden 329 i W \i\ 330 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH fence or paUsading, a tribute to the danger or chances of town life. In the city proper none but the lamas and those dedicated to the life of meditation and prayer may reside; nor may any woman sleep within its hallowed boundaries. No roads offer their faculties to travellers, but mere tracks that recall the difficulties and dangers of the wayfarer in England in the mediaeval ages. A system of sanitation is as much unknown as in Central Africa, whHst the dogs who prowl about in large numbers serve the functions, not alone of scavengers but of undertakers. Ourga is a place of much prosperity. Apart from its position as a great distributing centre for tea, it manufactures the high Mongolian saddle and Mongolian head- wear, the clothing worn by the richer inhabitants of the country, together with pipes, tobacco and pouches, and girdles. It receives and entertains no less than 200,000 pHgrims yearly. These are a lucrative source of income to it. At the time of the visit now on record, the city was filled with pHgrims who had come in from the surrounding country to pay their homage and present their offerings to their Hving Buddha. "Strangest perhaps of all the features in the Hfe of Ourga was the full-dress costume of the females. Nothing could be more odd. I remember weU my feelings of astonishment and amusement when I first beheld it. Dare I attempt to describe it! Inspiring genius of Le Follet, come to my assistance. Let me begin with the hat. It may best be described as a wideawake with broad upturned brim of fur. The crown is of yellow sHk, surmounted Panjandrum-like with a Httle round glass button at top of FEMALE ATTIRE 331 some bright colour. Hanging underneath the hat, and dependent upon the forehead of the fair (?) wearer, there is an oval ornament composed of worked sHver and coral beads. " The face must be supposed to be of a ruddy brown, with high cheek-bones and smaU Oriental eyes. The hair, which is of a raven-black, is manipulated into a most extraordinary coiffure. Two huge braids depend on either side of the face to the waist. From the points where the braids depart from the temples, two ornaments of sHver and coral, like large earrings with three or four short chains, hang down upon the cheeks. The braids are flat and of great width—fuUy eight inches—and the hair, which is smoothly plastered with some oHy substance, is confined by bands of flat sHver chains. The ends of the braids are inserted into silver tubes of about a foot and a half in length, and three or four inches in width, embossed at the top and bottom and centre. They hang down considerably below the waist, and, not being fastened, sway about with the motions of the wearer. " The frock, which is usually of a bright colour, either red or blue, is of the same width from the shoulders to the ankles, and is confined round the waist with a band. There is an opening from the throat to the side, underneath the right arm, fastened with buttons. The singular part of the dress is the sleeves, which are of very great size, quite balloon-like and puckered. They rise very high upon the shoulders Hke epaulets, and are usuaUy of a different colour from the frock: e.g. if the frock be red, the sleeves wiU perhaps be yeUow; if the frock be blue, the sleeves wHl be red. There is some simple embroidery about the elbows, and thence the sleeves, which taper in breadth and are so long as almost to hide the hands, are of the same colour as the gown. 1 M ;ii 332 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH "There is a large crescent-shaped ornament upon the bosom of embossed sHver and coral, and a huge sHver ornament, which I am unable to describe, hangs far down the back, terminating in three or four chains. A large sHver chatelaine is suspended from the waist on either side, consisting of a toothpick, an earpick, tweezers, and several other utensHs, which are, however, I believe, merely ornamental. Large, unshapely boots of the Chinese fashion complete the attire. "It wHl be seen from the amount of silver employed that the full-dress costume is very costly. In fact, having an eye to a purchase, I made inquiries, and found that the dress and ornaments could not be obtained much under seventy pounds sterUng. The material of the dress among the more wealthy is silk. In case the reader may wonder how I am able to give so minute a description of the attire, I may explain that in addition to my notes I made several sketches of the ladies as they stood before me. Unlike the men, who came and looked over my shoulder as I was attempting to sketch, the ladies usually put on an indignant expression and walked away, so that I soon learned to take out my note-book and commit my impressions to paper when unperceived." Moving in and out of the crowds were the lamas. They were readily known by their number and by their head-gear. They meet one at every turn, from the heads of monasteries firing the atmosphere with the glowing red of their long silk garments to the humble lama from the desert, clad in frock of grey, and Hke his lay brethren in aU respects except his shaven crown. Hats of every shape and degree were worn—high-crowned and low, mere cn-cular pieces of yeUow felt with long yeUow LAMAS *3 11 333 wool hanging round the head, or the erections on the heads of dignitaries, very wide in the brim, rising by steps towards a diminishing point at the top, stiff with gUt. The wearer of such a head-piece was ever sure of the obeisance of the passer-by. These lamas, who form such an important part of the population—more than a moiety, it is affirmed—did not commend themselves to the good opinion of the traveller. He found them unprepossessing in person and character, with the inquisitiveness of the ordinary Mongol layman, combined with the superciUousness and domineering airs of a superior caste. The recitation of their prayers degenerated often into a mere formaUty; their repetitions of the sacred language often meaningless, for they were ignorant of Thibetan; they were irreverent, and in the most solemn moments frivolous. Regarded as celibates—for they are sworn to chastity— they are often the fathers of famines. To such an extent does the scandal prevaU, that the State recognizes their offspring, the sons becoming lamas by virtue of their parentage. The lama system has been greatly honoured from its earliest times by the Chinese emperors; the theocracy of Mongolia is largely of their creation, and from interested motives. Under that system the country is more easHy governed: the spirit of progressiveness and independence is held in check. CHAPTER XLV THE KHUTUKTU i: A human god—Mongolian Buddhism—Grand Lama—His dangers- Mwm Successor—The three manifestations of Buddha- —Prayer-wheels—A purchase. -Wise intervention If the people who thronged Ourga had been asked the Scriptural question," But what went ye out for to see ?" they would have shown no hesitation in their answer. The incarnate Buddha was the object of their reverent quest; heaven itself drew near to them in the outward and visible presence of heaven's King. For the Buddhism of MongoUa, unlike the mystical doctrines of India and Ceylon, has materiaUzed and taken a singular form. It appeals, not only to the heart and imagination, but to the actual sight of its beUevers—the simple children of the steppes. From the time the first missionaries of Buddhism presented their gospel in Mongolia, the great lamas at the head of the spiritual hierarchy had been commended to the reverence and superstitious regard of the common people. But it was not tiU the fifteenth century that men were taught the dogma of a perpetual reincarnation. Then they learned for the first time that the deity known to true beUevers as Ananda was become incarnate in the^ 334 WHOM THE GODS LOVE DIE YOUNG 335 head of their own hierarchy, never again to die, but merely to transmigrate. Hence it comes to pass that though the temples are filled with a rabble of gods and goddesses, who scowl from their images sitting on the shrines, or twist in hideous delineations from the banners hanging from the roofs, it is for the man Hke themselves, with human passions and feelings, yet with the undying nature of a god, that the Mongols reserve their most passionate adoration, their most reverent worship. Through some strange fatality, constantly repeated, the Hving deity never attains the years of mature manhood. From early chUdhood he must remain within the enclosures of his own palace at Kuren, leaving it only to visit his house in the country, or to come forth in state to show himself to the people, and to bless and be adored by them. And he must never grow old. In aU this is seen the hand of the suzerain power. The deified sovereign who sits secluded in a monastery is not the true master of Mongolia. He sits in Peking. Round the unfortunate deity of Ourga are wound the threads of political intrigue. An intelUgent, energetic, daring man at the head of the Mongols might revive their ancient daring, and become dangerous to China. Under any circumstances the protracted influence of a god over his people is to be feared by a government far away. So the Hving god never grows old: he remains young, and, by some mysterious fatality, he dies. This sudden death is one of the most constant miracles of the deity. With the growing influence of Russia, it should be mentioned, the chances of surviving under a Russian consul are now greater than in the days when Mr. Sheepshanks r 336 A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH passed through the Khanates, and death was certain. For this, diplomacy rather than humanity is to be held accountable. Once or twice it has happened that the Grand Lama of MongoUa has been permitted to attain the age of twenty-two or twenty-three. But his destiny does not permit him to survive the limit of such an age. Summoned to Thibet to be consecrated to the rank of " Geloon," his fate overtakes him on his way home, or soon after his return. The deity within him passes away to some other man child newly born. A deputation of lamas is at once despatched into Thibet in search of the child. Recognizing him by secret marks discernible by no other eye, or possibly coming to terms with suitable and compliant parents, they carry him away for honour and seclusion at Kuren. For it must be remembered that Thibet is the natural home of the deity. Buddha is said to delight in living upon the earth, dwelling in the bodies of three men—three men alone in the world. One of these, chief of the Trinity, is the Dalai-Lama of Thibet; the second Uves also in Thibet; the third, the Khutuktu, is the Grand Lama of Mongolia, and dwells in Ourga. The Dalai-Lama of Thibet is the most sacred, and even in Mongolia aU other pretensions pale before his. On one occasion he was compeUed to leave his own country and take refuge in Ourga, with the result that the shrine of the local deity was forsaken in favour of the more powerful incarnation. Immense crowds flocked in from the country to propitiate the greater deity. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Lama of MongoUa stiU obtains over some 70,000 men, but the civH administration is in the hands of nominees of the Chinese Government. DANGER OF RIOT 337 At the time of our traveller's visit, the governor of Kuren was not a Chinaman, but a Mongol of the severest sect of the Buddhists. ScandaUzed by the uncommon vice which had made its home in the sacred city, he endeavoured to enforce an ancient ordinance forbidding merely secular people to live within two miles of the paviHons, whose gUt roofs, rising above the lofty palisades, indicated the abode of God's vicegerent on earth. This would have been to provoke a riot or worse, since around the lamaseries had grown up a town of 7000 inhabitants. Here the influence of the Khutuktu was exercised to good effect. Since the people were already there, and could be driven away only at a considerable risk from their shops and homes, and since they neither injured him nor the interests of Buddhism, it was poUtic to aUow them to remain. So they continue, but in greater numbers, to this present day. Temples are, of course, a prominent feature in the Ufe of this mournful city, whose thoughts of death and of a future existence find constant expression. Banners inscribed with prayers and sacred characters everywhere flutter in the breeze; lugubrious reUgious exercises constitute a large part of the yearly routine of the inhabitants. The temples themselves are structures of wood, with a superficial resemblance to a Greek church. In the porch are to be found several large prayer cyHnders, of a height extending from five to six feet. At first sight these machines, so much in vogue in and out of the temples, seem to be but ingenious contrivances for the economy of effort such as is seen in other directions. For the people who enrich the poor by scattering fragments of paper with fictitious money value on them, and who send z 33^ A BISHOP IN THE ROUGH t Vii in horses to travellers in distress by throwing to the wind paper representations of these animals, which they are persuaded wiU become most useful animals, are not without imagination. CasuaUy considered, it seems as though their prayers were of the same labour-saving nature. Not only in the temples, but at the gate of each of the enclosures, there is fixed a prayer-wheel, to the revolving drum of which two or three small sails are attached. Caught by every wind (and Ourga is a windy place), from the gentlest breeze to the strongest gale, they revolve at a great rate, and cause a perpetual whirr throughout the place. The common notion in the mind of a European is that these are contrivances to save trouble, and are born of ingenuity and indolence. But the idea is—as with the numerous streamers affixed to the poles, and fluttering with the sacred words written upon them—that aU this movement causes the prayers to ascend more quickly to the Buddhist heaven. Prayer-wheels to be worked by hand are in the possession of many of the people, and probably of aU the lamas. As they are turned, the formula of the sacred name is exhibited to the four quarters ; whHst by means of a rosary held in the left hand the revolutions are duly counted. So that they serve the purposes, not of manufacturing prayers, but of showing forth the glory of Padma-Pani. The traveUer found a prayer-wheel more difficult to obtain than an Indian skull or a MongoUan rosary. A lama may not dispose of one under terms of extreme ecclesiastical censure. Nor may he give it—a course of action unlikely to occur to him. Mr. Sheepshanks was fortunate enough to find one in a receptacle near the temples for worn-out paraphernalia. 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With Facsimiles of Five Authentic Autograph Signatures of the Poet. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Fta~ffST1^- A REPLY to Mr. GEORGE GREENWOOD, M.P.* By the Reverend CANON BEECHING, D.Litt., Canon of Westminster, Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s. net. SCOTSMAN.—'Dr. Beeching's handling of Mr. Greenwood and his "case" is most masterly and yet perfectly fair.' DUNDEE ADVERTISER.—'Canon Beeching examines Mr. Greenwood's " case " in a way that will delight all anti-Baconians.' POEMS. By J. GRIFFYTH FAIRFAX, Author of 'The Gates of Sleep, and other Poems.' With a Silhouette Frontispiece. Crown 8vo. 4s. net. DAILY CHRONICLE.—' A Rising Star of Song—this little book shows him to possess a genuine poetic gift, which, if it develops progressively, should win him a high place among the singers of our day.' London : SMITH, ELDER, &. CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W. A^TY>\/ zk T Stf* fx 2.- £. W. Duthie, edited by,'Illus. 382 pp. & index. Load. 1909. Based on the journal kept by the Bishop (Rev. John Sheepshanks) Missionary in B.C. Hew Yfestminster, the Cariboo, 'Victoria ■{V.I.") California, Salt Lake City, Hawaii, . . ai^MBBBMMMMBBBMMiMBBWBBBMMMMMBBMMK: , . 43050