V.

A VIEW OF OUR INDIAN MISSIONS.

GENERAL REMARKS.

WE

not see.

an eye-witness.

E rarely feel much interest in what we do Next to seeing is the report of With a view to awaken in our brethren a deeper interest in the missions they sustain, I undertake a pen portrait of our mission stations in Hindostan.

In the year 1857 Rev. Dr. Butler was sent out to found an Indian mission for the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was the man for the work-prudent, pious, sagacious, with a courteous bearing, a just self-respect, an enterprising spirit, and a profound regard to the authorities by whom he was commissioned. By his selection of a field, choice of stations, management of the finances, and general oversight of the work, he evinced eminent abilities; and although, in consequence of a want of facility in inspiring in others the spirit of obedience and

respect for official superiors, which was both a sentiment and habit with himself, and did not, perhaps, call forth the affection of his fellowlaborers to the extent to which he was entitled to it, yet he could but provoke their admiration at the proud monument which, in departing from India, he left behind him.

In October, 1864, he met me at Calcutta, and proceeded with me by railway up the Ganges, about eleven hundred and fifty miles, to Delhi.

FROM DELHI TO MEERUT.

Leaving the railway at this celebrated city at II o'clock, P. M., we started by horse ghary to Meerut. As the traveling in Hindostan, in consequence of the heat, is by night, the conveyances afford facilities for sleeping. On our way we encountered a cyclone of dust, so dense as to be almost suffocating. The driver, evidently alarmed, stopped, and inquired what should be done; but he was told to keep on as long as he could find the road. In about an hour we got out of the circle.

MEERUT TO BIJNOUR.

After taking a cup of tea at Meerut, we started by dhooley dak for Bijnour.

The dhooley is not, as Burke supposed, a wild

animal, but a cheap palanquin. It is carried by four men, who are relieved every half mile by four others, preceded by a musalche, bearing a lamp, for the double purpose of lighting the way and keeping off wild beasts, and followed by a bangy wallah, carrying the luggage on a bamboo, and are discharged after running about ten miles, satisfied with about eight cents wages each and bukshish, though sometimes they will run two chowkies for double pay. Experienced travelers can sleep in the dhooley, but not others. The noise of the bearers, as if distressed, the motion of the vehicle as they rushed forward, the shifting of the bamboo from shoulder to shoulder, the torch, every now and then flashing in the face, the conversation of the coolies, and their shouts when they feared a wild beast, or approached a relay, drove sleep from my eyes and slumber from my eyelids. When morning came we were threading our way, through water and mud, over stubble ground, newly plowed fields, along hedges. and mud walls. The opening of the Ganges canal on the country, in consequence of the drought, so impaired our path that we did not. reach Bijnour until ten o'clock next day.

When for the first time I saw the dhooley, I thought, what a mercy that I, instead of some of my colleagues, was sent! But when I saw my

companion appropriating the shelves in my ve hicle, on which he was stowing away bread, bacon, pots, and kettles, I found that I was to be brought up to a respectable weight avoirdupois, and that our two sets of coolies had their burdens equalized. While we cooked breakfast by the roadside, the coolies, seated some distance off in a circle, smoked the hooka, the stem of which they passed from mouth to mouth.

BIJNOUR AND ITS OUT-STATIONS.

Arriving at Bijnour, a provincial city of Rohilcund, we were kindly met by Rev. I. L. Hauser, the missionary. Our first attention is given to the school. The average attendance is eightynine, all boys. There are five teachers; namely, two Hindoos, two Mohammedans, and one Christian. The head master is a Hindoo, but the school is opened with prayer and the reading of the Bible. Pagan and Mussulman teachers will teach the Holy Scriptures as ours do Homer. An examination of the classes in the ordinary branches and the Bible was quite satisfactory. The mission-house, of brick covered with cement, sixty-four feet by seventy-four, with verandas, stands upon a tract of eighteen acres. It cost $3,250, and is valued at $2,650. Near by is a bungalow belonging to the mission, situated on a

tract of two acres. Cost, $425; present value, $300. A school-house, sixty-four feet front by seventy-four deep in the clear, with veranda before and behind, each ten feet wide, is building. Its main walls are two feet thick, and it stands on an inclosure of two acres. There are two native helpers' houses, which cost $150, now worth $75. The chapel, used as a school-house, is worth $100. There is also chapel furniture, $42; school requisites, $160; tents, etc., $78; other property, $10. The whole land belonging to this mission is twenty-two acres. The deeds are quit-claim, and subject to an annual rent. The Government gives $1,875 toward the erection of a schoolhouse, and requires the rest to be paid by subscription. This building is suitable and substantial, and if finished according to the original plan will be ornamental. In taking subscriptions for it, the preacher promised that it should be used for scholastic purposes only, his object being twofold; namely, to increase the liberality of the non-Christian citizens, and put the Christian under bonds to build a church.

The number of members at this station is ten, excluding the missionary and his wife, all adults; there are seven probationers, also adults. Class-meetings and prayer-meetings and Sabbathschool are held weekly; the last numbers but