themselves was shown by the willing contribution of the Caribs and Arawaks to the Patriotic Fund for the relief of sufferers in the late Crimean war, which was thus related by the Rev. J. Wadie, at that time missionary at Mornea :-"These poor people were literally without food, except the casualties which the forests afford, the heavy rains having completely destroyed their cassava, their great stay of life, before half grown. Yet these distressed creatures, haggard, careworn, with all the appearance of hunger depicted in their faces, day after day brought in their contributions to the fund. Many of them told me they no eat cassava (food) three days;' and still the money produced by their labour was devoted, and that most cheerfully, to comfort the heart of the widow and the fatherless stranger in a distant land. It must be borne in mind that the subscriptions, amounting to little more than 200 dollars, have been collected from a section of the poorest and smallest part of British Guiana."

To a considerable extent this may be considered a Missionary Diocese, and it may therefore for some years to come have to depend upon the Society's help for reclaiming and instructing the native tribes. But sure and encouraging evidence of progress in the work of the Church may be gathered from the charge delivered by the Bishop at the commencement of the past year (1864). The formation and harmonious working of a Diocesan Synod, in which clergy and laity unite to discuss questions of practical importance, the increasing efficiency of the Church Society, the almost universal establishment of the weekly offertory, and the consequent increase in the amount of alms dedicated to Christian uses, and the encouraging aspect of the Mission among the Chinese immigrants, are the topics of chief interest in the statement of the Bishop. His lordship also expresses his confident hope that in some three years from this

time the whole of the aid now given by the Society may safely be discontinued. That a considerable reduction of grants may at the proper time be effected, not only without injury, but with real advantage to the Missions to which it is applied, is aptly shown in a statement contained in the last report of the Rev. H. J. May. After relating some facts illustrative of the liberality of the people at the Kiblerie Mission, (but "who must still look for some considerable help, as it will be impossible for those who now do so much to do more,") he says, "The proprietors of the estate on which the church is built have given an extra 50%., and another proprietor has also given an extra 157., since your Society withdrew 607. of its old grant; thus have they shown their care for their own people; but this church as well as St. Andrew's is a district church, and has a population of 1,705 souls; the latter has a population of more than 2,400. I mention this to show that many others are benefited as well as their own people." In this case the withdrawal of 60%. has actually elicited aid to the amount of 657. liberally contributed by proprietors on the spot.

Surely, we may conclude in the words of the Rev. W. H. Brett,-"If it please God to spare our health and lives, we may hope to see much fruit to the glory of His name from these Missions but while we endeavour faithfully to do our Master's work, we must leave the event in His hands, and say as He has taught us, 'Thy will be done!""

CHAPTER VIII.

WORK IN AFRICA.

CAPETOWN-GRAHAMSTOWN-NATAL ST. HELENA-CENTRAL AFRICA-ORANGE RIVER.

CAPETOWN.

THE Cape of Good Hope was discovered by Bartholomew Diaz, in the year 1487, and called by him Cabo de los Tormentos-the Cape of Storms-but its name was changed by his master, the King of Portugal, to the one of better omen which it now bears. No European settlement was formed in the country until 1652, when the Dutch East India Company planted a colony there; and from the Dutch it passed finally under the power of the British Crown in 1806.

A colonial chaplain was appointed soon afterwards; but for a considerable period little interest was felt in the religious condition of the population, and no effort was made for the conversion of the heathen.

In 1820 the Society sent out the Rev. W. Wright to Capetown, where he was succeeded in 1831 by the Rev. Dr. E. J. Burrow. In 1840 a second clergyman was added to the Society's list.

In 1847 not more than ten or eleven churches had been erected, and there were found in all only thirteen clergymen

and one catechist ministering to widely-scattered congregations throughout a territory which (exclusive of the subsequent additions of British Kaffraria, the Sovereignty and Natal) was as large as Great Britain itself, and contained 200,000 souls. In vain had the colonists petitioned for the appointment of a Bishop; for this blessing they were at last indebted to the munificence of an English lady, Miss Burdett Coutts, the foundress, as we have already seen, of the Bishoprics of Adelaide and Columbia.

On St. Peter's-day, 1847, the Rev. Robert Gray was consecrated Bishop of Capetown, in Westminster Abbey ; and arrived in his new Diocese on the 20th of February, 1848.

Of the melancholy condition of the Church in this colony at that time, some idea may be formed from the following statements extracted from a speech delivered by the newly-consecrated Bishop before leaving England :— "When we took this colony, we found that the Dutch had taken pains to provide their own people-50,000 souls-with something like a religious establishment, there being from thirty to thirty-five churches with the same number of clergymen. It was agreed that their religious establishment should be continued as before, and it is maintained at a great cost by the Colonial Government. We have now had possession of the Cape for upwards of forty years we have been bringing into it a number of emigrants, 40 or 50,000 souls,—and what has been done to supply them with clergy, churches, and schools? All that has been done by the mother Church in this country has been to provide three clergymen (of the remainder, eight are supported by the colonists and two by the War Office)-not a single schoolmaster-nor have any funds been raised for the erection of a church or schools. There are not less than twelve distinct Protestant Missionary bodies labouring at the Cape of Good Hope, and the

Church of England has not been amongst that number. Those who are not in communion with our Church spend 20,000l. a year at the colony, whilst we spend but 5007.; and there are not less than 200 missionaries labouring at the Cape, to extend, imperfectly it might be, the Christian religion, such as they believed it to be in its truth, whilst the Church of England has done nothing more than has been stated. The consequence is that a very fearful amount of destitution prevails in the colony. Moreover, about 5,000 troops were at this time engaged fighting the battles of their country, and shedding their blood in defence of the border territory; yet there was not one single clergyman of our Church to minister to the spiritual wants of those brave men who were living and dying, literally without God in the world. During all this time the Hottentots were attended by their instructors, and the Mahometans by their priests; Christian England alone suffering five thousand of her children to go forth shedding their blood in her defence without caring whether or not they were attended by God's ministers, whether they lived and died like Christians, or whether they descended to the grave like the beasts which perish. Besides all this, when the English entered upon that colony they found various tribes of the heathen, not less than 100,000 souls, not including the Kafirs, who numbered 100,000 more, nor the inhabitants of Port Natal, who may be estimated at 60,000. Now what had the Church done, during the last half century, for winning these men over to the faith of Christ from the degradation in which they had existed? Why, nothing; whilst the Mahometans had been exercising great diligence in spreading a knowledge of their faith. This was a disgrace and a fact the equal of which the Bishop could not find in the annals of the Colonial Church; he could not find a similar fact stated where the Church was out-stripped by Mahometans in its career of good deeds."