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ture, expense, and details of every church which is built, or proposed to be built in India; every application for salary of either clerk, sexton, schoolmaster, or bellringer must pass through my hands, and be recommended in a letter to Government. am literally the conductor of all the Missions in the three Presidencies; and, what is most serious of all, I am obliged to act in almost everything from my own single judgment, and on my own single responsibility, without any more experienced person to consult, or any precedent to guide me. I have, besides, not only the Indian clergy and the Indian Government to correspond with, but the religious societies at home, whose agent I am, and to whom I must send occasional letters, the composition of each of which occupies me many days; while, in the scarcity of clergy which is, and must be felt here, I feel myself bound to preach, in some one or other of the churches or stations, no less frequently than when I was in England.

"All this, when one is stationary at Calcutta, may be done, indeed, without difficulty; but my journeys throw me sadly into arrears, and you may easily believe, therefore, not only that I am obliged to let slip many opportunities of writing to my friends at home, but that my leisure for study amounts to little or nothing, and that even the native languages, in which it has been my earnest desire to perfect myself, I am compelled to acquire very slowly, and by conversation more than by reading. With all this, however, in spite of the many disadvantages of climate and banishment, I am bound to confess that I like both my employments and my present country. The work is as much as I can do, and more than, I fear, I can do well; but a great deal of it is of a very interesting nature, and India itself I find so full of natural beauties and relics of ancient art, and there are so many curious topics of inquiry or speculation connected with the history and character of its inhabitants, their future fortunes, and the policy of Great Britain concerning them, that in every ride which I have taken, and in every wilderness in which my tent has been pitched, I have as yet found enough to keep my mind from sinking into the languor and apathy which have been regarded as natural to a tropical climate.

". . . The labours of our missionaries in those parts of India which I have seen have not as yet produced any great or striking show of converts, but they have undoubtedly been as successful as could fairly be expected, considering the short time which has elapsed since the attention of the English Church was called to this new harvest. In the south the number of native Chris

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tians, even without reckoning the Syrian and Romish churches, is great, and has been stated to me on the best authority as between 40,000 and 50,000. And I have myself set on foot a new mission among the Paharees, whose different ramifications extend from Rajmahal on the Ganges, through all Central India, to the Deccan and the Arabian Sea, which already wears a promising appearance, and from which I anticipate, perhaps too sanguinely, very great advantage.

"Many thanks for the interesting details which you have sent me of your own pursuits, and of our beloved little flock at Hodnet. I rejoice that you have become acquainted with my excellent and kind-hearted uncle and aunt, whom nobody can know without loving and valuing. * Your accounts of the poor old people have carried me back very forcibly (I hardly know whether painfully or agreeably) to some of the happiest days of my life, though I have never had reason to complain of a want of happiness, and you will much oblige me by remembering me most kindly to some of my best-known parishioners. May I also request of you to take charge of ten pounds, to distribute next Christmas among any of the inhabitants who need it most."

From Bombay also Heber sent what proved to be his last letter to Maria Leycester :

"BOMBAY, 3rd June 1825.

"... It has not been altogether business which has prevented my writing; for, busy as I have been and must always be, I could still long since have found or made time to say how gratified I am by your keeping me in recollection, and with how much eagerness I open letters which bring me near to such valued friends at so great a distance, and which call me back, as yours do, for a time, from the broad, arid plain of Rohilkhund to the quiet lanes and hedgerow walks of Stoke or Hodnet. There are, however, alas! so many painful associations connected with my handwriting since the period of my letters to Augustus and Mrs. Stanley, that I have felt, to say the truth, a strange reluctance to address a letter to you, out of a fear to disturb afresh the grief of an affectionate and innocent heart, which had been so severe a sufferer by the events which took place at the commencement of my present journey. . . . For myself—

"My tent on shore, my pinnace on the sea,

Are more than cities or serais to me.'

So far as enjoyment only is concerned, I know nothing more agreeable than the continual change of scene and air, the exercise, the good hours, the good appetite, the temperance, and the freedom from the forms and visiting of a city life to which we are enabled or compelled by a long march, encamping daily with our little caravan through even a moderately interesting country, nor, except during the intense heat and the annual deluge of rain (which, by the way, it must be owned, occupies one half of our tropical calendar), I should desire no other than a canvas roof during the rest of my abode in India. Many indeed as the dis

comforts and dangers of India are (and surely there are few lands on earth where death so daily and hourly knocks at our doors, or where men have so constant warning to hold themselves in readiness to meet their Maker), and much as, I cannot help feeling, I sacrificed in coming hither, I have never yet repented my determination, or have ceased to be thankful to God for the varied interest, the amalgamated knowledge, and, I hope and think, the augmented means of usefulness which this new world has supplied to me. . . .

"Adieu, dear Maria.

That you may be blessed with all temporal and eternal happiness is the earnest wish of your sincere and affectionate friend, R. CALCUTTA."

CHAPTER XI

BOMBAY AND CEYLON

1825

A RESIDENCE of four months in Bombay and Poona delighted Reginald Heber, although continued overwork in the hot and rainy seasons caused the fever of the earlier part of his tour to be succeeded by dysentery. The sea, the beauty of the position, the races of Asia and Africa of whom it is the almost imperial centre, the cave temples and the society of his host, the Governor, Mountstuart Elphinstone, were all sources of fresh delight, which he shared with his wife. To his sister he wrote this description of the city, contrasting it with Calcutta :

"BOMBAY, 11th May 1825.

"... Of Bombay, from my own experience, I should judge favourably. Its climate appears, in productions, in temperature, and other respects, pretty closely to resemble the West India islands, its heat, like theirs, tempered by the sea breeze, and more fortunate far than they are in the absence of yellow fever. But I know not why, except it may be from the excessive price of all the comforts of life on this side of India, the provisions made against heat are so much less than those in Calcutta, that we feel it quite as much here as there; and the European inhabitants do not seem either more florid, or at all more healthy than in Calcutta. On the whole, I am inclined to think that, since I cannot live at Meerut, Calcutta is the best place in which my lot could be thrown (as it is certainly the place in which the most extensive and interesting society is usually to be met with), and

both my wife and myself look forwards to returning thither with an anxiety which you will easily believe when you know that she was obliged to leave her little Harriet there.

"Inferior, however, as Bombay is to Calcutta in many respects, in some, besides climate, it has very decidedly the advantage. With me, the neighbourhood of the sea is one of these points; nor is there any sea in the world more beautifully blue, bordered by more woody and picturesque mountains, and peopled with more picturesque boats and fishermen, than this part of the Indian Ocean. I know and fully participate in your fondness for lateen sails. They are here in full perfection; nor do they ever look better than when seen gliding under high basaltic cliffs, their broad white triangles contrasted with the dark feathers of the coco-palm, or when furled and handled by their wild Mediterraneanlooking mariners, with red caps, naked limbs, and drawers of striped cotton. All these features are peculiar to the Malabaric or western coast of India, and are a few out of many symptoms which have struck me very forcibly of our comparative approach to the European Levant, and the closer intercourse which is kept up here with Arabia, Egypt, and Persia. In Calcutta we hear little of these countries. In Bombay they are constant topics of conversation. It is no exaggeration to say that a very considerable proportion of the civil and military officers here have visited either the Nile or the Euphrates; arrivals from Yemen, Abyssinia, or the Persian Gulph occupy a good part of our usual morning's discussion. The sea-shore is lined every morning and evening by the Parsee worshippers of the sun; Arab and Abyssinian seamen throng the streets; and I met the day before yesterday, at breakfast with the Governor, an Arab post captain; or at least, if this title is refused him, the commander of a frigate in the navy of the Imâm of Muscat. He is a smart little man, a dandy in his way, speaks good English, and is reckoned an extremely good

seaman.

"The society of Bombay is, of course, made up of the same elements with that of Calcutta, from which it only differs in being less numerous. The Governor, Mr. Elphinstone, is the cleverest and most agreeable man whom I have yet met with in India, and the public man of all others who seems to have the happiness and improvement of the Indians most closely and continually at heart. He reminds me very often of the Duke of Richelieu, when Governor of Odessa, but has more business-like talents than he had. . . . His popularity is also very remarkable. I have found scarcely any person who does not speak well of him.

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