with him. He wakened, however, soon after, called earnestly for me, and when I came, threw his arms round my neck and begged me not to leave him. They had given him laudanum, and his dreams had been unhappy. He soon grew composed, but said, 'This horrid drug confused my brain sadly, but now I remember all you told me, and all that God has done for me through His Son. Pray, pray, do not let them give me any more of it, for it makes me unfit to pray.' Then after a little pause, 'How sorry I am to have disturbed you! I will not call you again, but if I grow worse, Mr. Paterson will . . . and pray, pray, be with me when the hour comes!' He commended his poor sister earnestly to the care of myself and Emily, and said, 'Poor, poor girl! God, who is so good to a sinner like me, will not forget her!' "A great part of the following day he was light-headed, but always continued to know me, and when I said, 'Let us pray,' to fold his hands and compose himself to attention. When I brought him some nourishment he said, 'I know you will not give me laudanum.' Another time he said, 'It is very strange, everything else changes with me; I do not know what has happened to me, or whether I am among the living or the dead, but I always see your face near me, and recollect what you have been saying to me.' Soon after tea on Saturday night, after a short but severe fit of spasms, he sank into a quiet slumber, and, a little after midnight, died without a groan, leaving a countenance singularly calm and beautiful, with far fewer marks of death than it had exhibited in the course of the day, and not like a corpse so much as a statue. I myself closed his eyes, and, with the help of Mr. Paterson, laid out his body-the superstitions of my servants preventing them from giving any assistance. He was buried the next day in the European cemetery, which I myself consecrated exactly a week before. All the little society of English in Dacca, as well as the officers from the military station and a detachment of artillerymen, attended his funeral unsolicited. His youth, indeed, his recent arrival in India, the circumstances under which his illness visited him, and his amiable manners (probably), as reported by his medical attendants and the few others who had seen him, excited a great and remarkable interest in the settlement; and not only the Europeans, but some of the principal natives, particularly the Nuwab (Nabob he would be called in the barbarous pronunciation of England), were constant in their inquiries after him, their presents of fruit, etc. What his poor sister's plans are, as yet I know not. I have written to ask her to remain with us, but I suspect she will, under all circumstances, prefer returning to England. "This has been a painful dispensation to me, but I trust it will not be a useless one. It may teach me to value more the excellent friends who are yet spared to me, now that fresh experience has taught me how ill their loss can be borne, and on how slight a thread our social comforts hang. It may teach me to draw nearer to, and acquaint myself more with the Great and Only Friend Who will never leave me or forsake me. And, above all, now that I have seen how awful the approach of death was to one the far greater part of whose life had, I am persuaded, been innocent and useful, it cannot fail, I trust, to move me to timely repentance, and to teach me more and more the value and blessedness of that Cross which was poor Stow's only support and consolation. "I have sent you these details, my dear friend, partly because I was sure they would interest you, partly because I think you did Stow, while in England, some injustice in your opinions of him; and still more, because now that I am denied the happiness of conversing with you, it is a comfort to me to be able to write to you without reserve on such subjects as the present. This is the second old and valued friend (Sir C. Puller, Chief Justice, was the former) who has within these few weeks been taken from me. How long I am myself to tarry here God knows, but my trust in His mercy is that He will keep me always not unfit to die. "I have recommenced my long, and now my solitary voyage, but it is probable that in a few weeks I shall have companions. Emily, on hearing of Stow's danger, wrote to beg earnestly that, in case of anything happening to him, she might at any risk be allowed to join me at the Rajmahal Hills, where the Hoogly, on which Calcutta stands, diverges from the eastern branch of the Ganges, which I am now navigating. I have referred her to Dr. Abel, but am myself of opinion, from knowing her character, that her anxiety, if left behind under present circumstances, will do her more harm than is likely to arise, either to the children or herself, from the ordinary fatigues and privations of an Eastern journey. My own health has in all essential points continued excellent. My only plague has been boils, which in this climate during the hot months are very common and painful, but which generally disappear (as they are in my case doing) as the rainy season advances. I do not think Emily has suffered from the climate, and our children are perfect pictures of health and cheerfulness. Nor can I repent having come to India. The singular and beautiful scenery, the interesting habits of the people, the gliding day by day, as I am now doing, along noble rivers, between banks sometimes teeming with population, sometimes wrapped in almost boundless shade, and offering to a European eye some of the rarest and most splendid objects of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, would, under any circumstances, indeed, be a wretched payment for all I have left behind; though there have been evenings when, with palms waving over my head, and standing amid thickets of broad white night-blowing flowers, I have watched the fireflies, like airy glowworms, floating, rising, and sinking in the gloom of the bamboo woods, and gazed on the mighty river with the unclouded breadth of a tropical moon sleeping on its waves, and said in my heart, 'It is good to be here ! ' till I recollect, alas! how much more of health, of animal spirits, and intellectual enjoyment I had derived in former days from a ramble with you on a frosty morning under Overton Scar. But I am sure I came out hither desiring to do good, and though I have fallen far short of my intention, I hope I have not altogether failed in doing it. Even this journey, and what I have seen in the ancient and half-deserted city which I have just left, bids fair to open to me fresh and important doors for advancing the purposes for which I came out. I have been received with much kindness everywhere, and in my late sorrow found friendsdelicate, attentive friends—among utter strangers; all which I have experienced, in fact, increases my trust in God and my gratitude to Him. May He grant that it may also increase my zeal and activity in His service. Pray give my love (I can send no colder word) to your father, mother, sisters, and Conny. Remember me most kindly to Ned Davenport (who never writes to me), and to Miss Shute when you write to her, and believe me, dearest Charlotte, with perfect sincerity of affection, ever your faithful friend, R. CALCUTTA." From Dacca, where the first edition of Carey's Bengali New Testament (1800) had been the means of forming the new sect of truth-seekers known as Satya-gooroos, Heber wrote thus to Wynn of the Board of Control : Many of the younger Musalmans of rank, who have no hope of advancement either in the army or the State, sooner or later sink into sots, or kindle into dacoits and rebels. As a remedy for this evil, I have heard the propriety suggested of raising corps of cavalry of the same description, but of smaller numbers, than those of Skinner and Baddely, which might be commanded by the natives of highest rank, but kept in the Company's pay, and assimilated, as much as possible, to the rest of the army. They might easily, it was said, be stationed so as not to be dangerous, and at the same time to render regular troops disposable for other purposes. The idea somewhat resembles that of Forbes, before the year 1745, for raising Highland regiments; and, perhaps, it may be true that the best way to make men loyal is to make them respectable and comfortable, while to keep them employed is most likely to keep them out of mischief. They are not, however, the great men only who are inclined to copy the English; a desire of learning our language is almost universal even here, and in these waste bazars and sheds, where I should never have expected anything of the kind, the dressing-boxes, writing-cases, cutlery, chintzes, pistols, and fowling-pieces, engravings, and other English goods, or imitations of English, which are seen, evince how fond of them the middling and humbler classes are become. Here, too, a knowledge of the Christian Scriptures, in spite of the Abbé Dubois, is rapidly increasing. A Baptist missionary has established a circle of twenty-six day schools, containing more than 1000 boys, who all read the New Testament as their daily task, without any objection being made; and had the Church of England Societies a missionary at present to spare, he might in a month double the number. Of all these, indeed, few will be directly converted, but these examples, as well as my own experience (and I think I am now able to form an opinion), convince me that the Hindostani version, at least, is neither unintelligible nor contemptible." After eighteen days spent in Dacca, Heber hastened up the flooded rivers of the Ganges system to Bhagulpoor, where Archdeacon Corrie had arranged to join him, and where his wife also sought to be with him after such experiences. Often as, towards sunset, he sought exercise and opportunities of talking to the people on the bank, while the boats were slowly tugged against the current, he composed such lines as these, "the Christian Abdulla remonstrating with him because much exercise had turned his hair so gray since his arrival in Bengal: AN EVENING WALK IN BENGAL "Our task is done! on Gunga's breast And, moor'd beneath the tamarind bough, Upon her deck, 'mid charcoal gleams, Come, walk with me the jungle through; If yonder hunter told us true, Far off, in desert dank and rude, The tiger holds his solitude; Nor (taught by recent harm to shun Of fragrant tree and giant flower; And dusk ananas' prickly blade; While o'er the brake, so wild and fair, The betel waves his crest in air. With pendent train and rushing wings, 1 A shrub whose deep scarlet flowers very much resemble the geranium, and thence called the Indian geranium.-MRS. HEBER. |