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CHAPTER III.

FIRST VISIT TO ACHILL, AND ITS RESULTS.

"Fierce was the wild billow,

Dark was the night;

Oars labour'd heavily,

Foam glimmered white;

Trembled the mariners,

Peril was nigh.

Then said the God of God,

'Peace, it is I!'"

NEALE.

HE year 1831 was a calamitous one for Ireland.

The western part of Connaught suffered severely from a famine occasioned by disastrous winds which destroyed the potato crop-precursor of that greater famine which a few years later laid prostrate the whole country, and drove thousands into an untimely grave.

A friend who was actively engaged in sending supplies of food to the famishing peasantry in the West, requested Mr. Nangle, on behalf of a Committee with which he was connected, to take his passage on board a steamer-the Nottinghamwhich was bound for Westport with a cargo of Indian meal, and to bring back a report of the actual condition of the peasantry reported to be starving.

The Nottingham was commanded by Captain Bibby, an officer whose name as Commander of the Cambria had, some years before, acquired a wellmerited celebrity. It was Captain Bibby who was instrumental in rescuing a considerable number of the passengers and crew of the Kent East Indiaman, which was destroyed by fire at sea in 1825. Among the passengers saved from death was Colonel, afterwards General, Macgregor, with his infant son, who is now so well known for his travels in the Rob Roy canoe (whence the name by which he is familiarly known, "Rob Roy Macgregor"), and still better known, perhaps, as an earnest Christian worker in every country which it has been his lot to visit.

It was late on a Saturday evening when the Nottingham left the Liffey for the West Coast of Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Nangle were on board. On the next day Divine service was held in the saloon, all hands being present except the helmsman and one of the stokers. On Monday the northern coast was reached. On Tuesday a strong breeze from the west was encountered. By the following day the wind had increased to something like a gale. At sunset on Wednesday evening Achill Head was seen. The storm continued to blow with increasing fury-fit emblem of the moral and spiritual storms which were yet to be encountered in connection with the Achill Mission. The gigantic cliffs of Croghan enveloped in clouds towered majestically above the ocean, and gave to the sublime scene an

expression of awe and mystery. At the base of the rocky precipice the sea was lashed into a great sheet of white foam; and as each mighty wave spent itself against the rocky barrier, one could not but shudder at the bare possibility of being dashed with gigantic force against that iron-bound shore. The captain felt an amount of uneasiness which he vainly tried to conceal. He never for a moment quitted the deck. At last, by God's mercy, about ten o'clock the vessel got into the shelter of Clew Bay, and an hour after anchored within a short distance of Westport.

One of the passengers on that occasion was the Rev. James Freke. A letter of his, written to Mr. Nangle more than thirty years after, was published in the Achill Herald of August 1864. Mr. Freke, who at the time he wrote was Rector of Dumes, near Bantry, says: "Well do I remember your lecturing on board the Nottingham on the 107th Psalm. Well do I remember the heavy sea off Blacksod Bay, and Captain Bibby deliberating whether it might not be necessary to lighten the vessel by throwing overboard some of the Indian meal which we were bringing for the relief of the starving people. I have vividly before my mind at this moment the exciting scene which took place as we entered Clew Bay, and several persons sprang into the sea out of their curracks, and were drawn by ropes into the steamer, in their anxiety to secure the pilotage.

"I recollect also after we got to the anchorage near

Westport the deep attention with which you were listened to while reading and speaking, in Irish, from the 6th chapter of St. John, an attention unbroken for a considerable time, notwithstanding all that there was to divert the mind in the novelty of the scene-the arrival of the first steamer that had ever entered these waters, and the number of boats coming alongside. . . . You remained behind to organise the Achill Mission, and I returned in the vessel. We have scarcely met since, but I often think of that voyage and the good men whom I met on that occasion, though my first stay was but for a few days."

As Mr. Nangle, from the deck of the Nottingham, gazed on the magnificent mountain Croagh Patrick, the lofty peak of which is the most prominent object on the southern coast of the bay, he could not help thinking of the thousands of his deluded countrymen who, year after year, acting under the direction of their blind guides, then lacerated their limbs on its rugged surface, vainly hoping to find in their selfinflicted torture that peace of mind which is to be realised only by means of a living faith in Jesus Christ. While he was leaning over the gunwale of the ship engaged in these meditations, Captain Bibby, who was going ashore, came up to him to say "good-bye,” and as he shook hands with Mr. Nangle he said with deep solemnity, "You are not perhaps aware of the impression which your words have made on my mind." The two never met again except for a few

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minutes some months after in the streets of Dublin. The next tidings that were heard of the Captain were that he had died of cholera in Liverpool; and, says Mr. Nangle, "I cherish the hope that I may meet him again in the deathless kingdom of Jesus."

Before Mr. and Mrs. Nangle quitted the steamer, the Rev. William Baker Stoney, who at that time was Rector of Newport and afterwards for many years of Castlebar, came on board to claim a portion of the cargo which had been intrusted to him for distribution in his parish, where the famine was very severe. The acquaintance thus formed with Mr. Stoney was one of the providential incidents which in after years tended greatly towards the success of the Achill Mission. He became a member of the Committee, and a most intelligent and efficient helper. This excellent clergyman gave Mr. and Mrs. Nangle a pressing invitation to his house, and under his hospitable roof they spent the first night of their sojourn in the West of Ireland.

Before leaving Dublin Mr. Nangle had heard much about Achill from a friend who had a short

time previously visited the island. Mr. Stoney added a good deal to this information, and further stated that the distress of the peasantry in Achill and the adjacent islands was very great.

Mr. Nangle therefore determined to see and judge for himself, and the day after his arrival at Newport he started for Achill mounted on a pony and accompanied by a Scripture reader. He visited