And he, the bird of hundred dyes, Whose plumes the dames of Ava prize. Our English fairies never trod ! Yet who in Indian bow'rs has stood, But thought on England's 'good greenwood'? And bless'd, beneath the palmy shade, Her hazel and her hawthorn glade, And breath'd a prayer (how oft in vain !) To gaze upon her oaks again? A truce to thought: the jackal's cry And through the trees yon failing ray It is it must be-Philomel! I "I wrote this, endeavouring to fancy that I was not alone. believe only one note is necessary. The bird of hundred dyes' is the mucharunga, many-coloured.' I am not sure whether I mentioned the fact before, but I learned at Dacca, that while we were at peace with the Burmans, many traders used to go over all the eastern provinces of Bengal, buying up these beautiful birds for the Golden Zennana; at Ummerapoora it was said that they sometimes were worth a gold mohur each." Another eighteen days were spent in the slow voyage from Dacca to Bhagulpore, during which he received news of the illness of Harriet, his second child :— "FURREEDPOOR, 28th July 1824. "Alas! alas! my beloved wife, what have you not gone through? Your letter of 24th July has just reached me from Dacca. God's will be done in all things! Your joining me is out of the question. But I need not tell you to spare no expense of sea-voyage, or any other measure which may tend to restore or preserve our dear children or yourself, so soon as such a measure may appear desirable for any of you. ... "I am, at this moment, strangely tempted to come to you. But I fear it might be a compromise of my duty and a distrust of God! I feel most grateful indeed to Him for the preservation of our invaluable treasures. I pray God to bless Lady Amherst, and all who are dear to her, and to show kindness tenfold to her children, for all the kindness she has shown ours. "I am going on immediately, with a heavy heart indeed, but with trust in His mercies. Farewell! "REGINALD CALCUTTA." When on his way from Dinajpore to join Marshman and Ward at Serampore, Carey first preached Christ in their own tongue to the hillmen of Rajmahal and Santalia. "I long,' " 1 he wrote in 1799, "to stay here and tell these social and untutored heathen the good news from heaven." Corrie afterwards felt the same longing, and made ineffectual attempts. Now the set time had come with Reginald Heber. Delighting in his call and in his power as "chief missionary," he made Bhagulpoor, the comparatively healthy centre for the hill 1 Life of William Carey, D.D., 2nd ed. p. 106 (John Murray). country, the base of a mission. At its head he placed Rev. Thomas Christian, who had been sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to Bishop's College. Commending the new missionary and his work to Colonel Francklyn, worthy successor of the young Cleveland,1 who had begun the civilisation of the people among whom he had laid down his life, and charging him also to minister every month to the residents of Monghyr, who had no chaplain, the Bishop proceeded on his tour with a joyfulness reflected in all he wrote at this time. Mr. Christian showed himself as devoted as Cleveland, and his career was as brief. Having mastered the hill language and introduced among the people portions of the Scriptures, he taught them in their own villages for the healthy season of each year, and then took with him to Bhagulpoor their most hopeful youth for training as catechists. But in three years jungle fever carried off both him and his wife. Under the care of the Church Missionary Society, the Free 1 The Persian inscription was thus translated by Francklyn: "This monument is erected to the memory of Mr. Augustus Cleveland, Collector of Bhagulpoor and Rajmahal, who died the 3rd of January 1784" (Hindoo and Mohammedan dates follow). "The Zemindars of the district and the Amleh (native officers of the court), in memory of the kindness and beneficence exhibited towards them by the late Mr. Cleveland, have, at their own expense, furnished this monument, A. D. 1786." Church of Scotland, and others, forty years after, and with the aid of administrators like Sir George Yule, though not till the Santal rebellion of 1856 had convinced the East India Company that the missionary is a better tamer of highlanders than the soldier, the Santalees began to flock into the kingdom of God's dear Son.1 Heber thus wrote to his successor and brother-in-law in Hodnet Rectory of the good work in the uplands of Bahar : : "TO THE REV. C. CHOLMONDELEY AND MRS. CHOLMONDELEY "RAHMATGUNge, between CAWNPOOR AND LUCKNOW, 19th October 1824. "MY DEAR CHARLES AND MARY-I write to both in one letter because, from the rambling nature of the life which I have been for some time leading, and still more from the number of business letters which I am obliged to attend to, I have far less time than I could wish to thank my friends at home for the kind and interesting packets which I receive from them. Of those packets, I can assure you none has given Emily and myself more pleasure than Charles's account of the birth of your little boy. "The language of Bengal, which is quite different from Hindostani, is soft and liquid. The common people are all fond of singing, and some of the airs which I used to hear from the boatmen and children in the villages reminded me of the Scotch melodies. I heard more than once 'My boy Tammy,' and Here's a health to those far away,' during some of those twilight walks, after my boat was moored, which wanted only society to make them delightful, when amid the scent and glow of night-blowing flowers, the soft whisper of waving palms, and the warbling of the nightingale, watching the innumerable fireflies, like airy glowworms, floating, rising, and sinking, in the gloom of the bamboo woods, and gazing on the mighty river with the unclouded breadth of a tropical moon sleeping on its surface, I felt in my heart it is good to be here. "As we approach the frontiers of Bahar, these beauties dis 1 Heber specially mentions the hill country to the south of Mandargiri, Vishnu's hill, and away to Deoghur, Shiva's shrine, once held by the Buddhists, as a land for the missionary. Rev. Dr. J. M. Macphail, from Chakai as a centre, has for some years itinerated there, healing the sick and proclaiming that the Kingdom has come nigh to the weary peoples. appear, and are replaced by two or three days' sail of hideously ugly, bare, treeless, level country, till some blue hills are seen, and a very pretty and woody tract succeeds with high hills little cultivated, but peopled by a singular and interesting race, the Welsh of India. . . . I have now taken measures for placing an ordained missionary of the Church of England among them, and hope to be the means, by God's blessing, of gradually extending a chain of schools through the whole district, some parts of which are, however, unfortunately very unhealthy. I had myself not much opportunity, nor indeed much power of conversing with any of them; but I have since had the happiness of hearing that one old soubahdar said that he and his men had a desire to learn more of my religion because I was not proud; there certainly seem fewer obstacles to conversion here than in any part of this country which I have ever seen or heard of. "On leaving the hills of the Jungleterry district, the flat country of Bahar and Allahabad, as far as Benares, shows a vast extent of fertile, cultivated, and populous soil. . . . The whole scene, in short, is changed from Polynesia to the more western parts of Asia and the east of Europe, and I could fancy myself in Persia, Syria, or Turkey, to which the increasing number of Musalmans, |