UP THE NILE TO UGANDA.

JOURNAL OF MR. R. W. FELKIN. (Continued.)

ULY 2.-At 5.30 we mounted, and had a very hot and uninteresting ride to Ariab, at which place we arrived at 10.30. There is a small Arab village of about twelve huts here. The huts are made of bent poles covered with mats; no windows or doors-a space of about two feet is left at the ground which serves the purpose. The Arabs here are great thieves, and we had to keep a sharp look-out for our things. At night the soldiers

keep watch. The boys and girls run about quite naked, the girls having only a string of beads round the neck, arms, waist, and ankles. The boys' hair is shaved off part of the head, giving them the appearance of young clowns, which is very amusing. There are herds of cows, goats, sheep, and camels. We bought two sheep for 3s. 6d. each (about); and to give you an idea of Arab cuteness, soon after the sheep had been driven to our tent, the Arab who had sold them came and said he

wanted the skins, as he

had only sold the sheep, and not the skins. We told him we were not going to kill them, so

after a long time he went. Another man came and asked for dinner, saying "he had dreamt the night before that some people came and gave him some food." We told him in England people said dreams went by the contrary, so he should have none. We got some very good milk. What the cows feed on I cannot imagine, as there are only tufts of dry grass to be seen. We tried to buy a goat, but the people felt quite insulted at the idea. They never sell goats.

We stayed here till next day, as there is no water for the next two stages, and the journey must begin at noon, and our camels and ourselves were too tired to go on without rest. I was soothed to sleep by the grinding of the

we fill a bucket full of water, put a few filters in, and soon draw off enough water for drinking purposes. Then we have a wash if there is enough water, then prayers, and then food. The groups of soldiers round our hut door are always picturesque; they lie about, smoking, singing, or mending their clothes, and one of them sews very well indeed. Their food consists of a kind of millet seed, which they eat very hot with their fingers; a little curry-powder is added sometimes as a luxury. The head camel man has his food from us, only stipulating that we shall not give him pork, as his religion forbids him to eat it. He likes our tea very much, but drinks it without sugar. Our cook is a first-rate fellow so far, falling into our ways very well; but new brooms generally

grain, and the voice of our kavass singing of the wives he hopes to have when he shall have shuffled off this mortal coil, and have arrived in heaven. Poor fellow would I could make him understand a different creed.

The temperature in the evenings is between 90° and 95°, so you see it is pretty warm the whole time. I shall be very thankful when we get to Berber. The monotony of the way is very great; you cannot talk much from one camel to another.

When in a hut, we usually occupy one corner each with a bed; have our guns, filters, and bags hung up at our bed's head; our revolvers are under our pillows. We rig up our tables in the centre of the hut. The first thing that we do on arriving at a station is to begin and filter water;

sweep well, and how he will turn out I do not know. Our dragoman gets worse instead of better, he can eat and sleep as much as you like, but he makes more mistakes now than he did when we first engaged him, and does not seem able to understand the most simple things. He gives us plenty of amusement, but tries our temper very much -mine, at least.

July 3.-We spent a quiet forenoon at Ariab, and were not sorry for the rest, though I felt rather home-sick all the morning. At four P.M. all was ready for a start, and all our water-skins, tanks, flasks, and zemzimiers (?) carefully filled with water, for there is only one well before we get within two hours of Berber,

and that is salt water. I don't think I have told you how the camels are loaded. The saddle is N-shaped, with two pommels, one at each end; girths are not usually used, but if anything is used, it is a thick rope made of grass. The goods are slung over the saddle with ropes, two ropes going round each case and ending in a loop, through which

wooden peg is put which secures them. All that is required in unloading the camels is to steady the cases on either side, then withdraw the pegs, and the cases slide down to the ground. The camel of course lies down for loading and unloading. We

have on the camels we ride our bags containing our clothes for the journey, buckets, washing-basin, &c., and on the pommels our small bags, filters, guns, and water-bottles are slung. The rugs on which we ride require very careful packing, as the least uneasiness causes great discomfort. When a halt is made, most of the camels are hobbled, and then turned loose. They are strung together on the march by a rope behind the teeth, round the lower jaw, and if they should chance to get loose, stop at once till re-tied. We rode 8 hours to Matio, a rather dilapidated hut, without ring-fence, and no water. About eight we halted for twenty minutes, and had coffee by moonlight, and then our men lit up a lot of tufts of long dry grass, causing an immense light,

and lighting up the rocks and hills in a remarkable manner. We met a long caravan of some fifty camels; they looked so weird, silently winding their way through the darkness, and soon vanishing.

The silence of the desert is very impressive, but we often sing, both to keep ourselves awake and to pass the time away. When starting, and often on the road, our men cry out in a long shrill cry, "Sheikh Abdullah el Khud;" this is to invoke protection from some old Sheikh of the desert long since gathered to his fathers.

The men annoy us much in telling us distances. When asked, "When shall we halt?" they always say, "God knows,"-perfectly true, but that does not give us the required information, and an extensive conversation has to be held before an idea can be formed as to the length of a stage. After marching six or seven hours one gets tired, and asks how long to the station. "Oh, we are very near," or, " We shall soon be there"; this generally means in an hour or two we may get there. One of their soons meant three hours' march. We were glad to get to Matio, and were soon asleep; but I had no sooner got to sleep, as I thought, than I was conscious of a great noise, and on looking round saw them lading the camels. I had slept three hours, and we were to start again, they not even giving us time for coffee.

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July 4.-For the first two hours I had the greatest difficulty to keep on my seat, falling asleep every few minutes, till a jerk would rouse me again. It was, however, delightfully cool. About nine the sun was very hot, and then began three hours of the most intense uneasiness. My water was all gone, and the sun was so hot, and the wind so strong, I could not shade myself. It was too hot to speak, the wind drying one up completely. Silently on we went, each half-hour getting worse and worse. I was quite dizzy, and each minute expected to fall down; but all things have an end, and at twelve o'clock we arrived at Alame, another hut. We had not tasted food for sixteen hours, except a few dry biscuits, which I could hardly eat, because I had no water; you can imagine better than I can describe how we felt. And to make matters worse, we could not get a wash, as the water was too precious for that purpose. We could not sleep-it was 108° in the hut-so we lay and melted until six P.M., when off we were driven again. A march of five hours brought us to a place called Aletshu-no hut, but a nice plain at the foot of some hills. I was indeed thankful for a rest, as it was fairly cool.

July 5.-We started at five this morning; they tried hard to get us up at four, but it was no go-we would not stir. We soon left the mountains, and entered into the sandy desert, for which I am not sorry, as mountains, nothing but mountains, get tedious at last. The sand is so fine and soft, it is almost alive with insects, some of which are very curious. We arrived at Obach at nine o'clock, and have stayed here all day, killing a sheep, for which our men are always thankful. Obach is a hut in a very fallen-down condition on the top of a lot of sand-hills, the camels sinking deeply at every step, and going in consequence very slowly. There is a well here-but oh, what water! very salt, and full of sand. It is a good thing we have still some water left, and I hope that with care it will last us the remainder of the way.

It has been very hot to-day-110°; could get no sleep, so I am not sorry for the halt. It has also enabled me to write up my account, which I feel is very poor, but if you knew the difficulties under which it is written, you would excuse that. The sunset has been beautiful, and now as I write the moon and stars are brilliant, but still the same hot wind. I am getting tired of the word hot; but what else can one write, when one is burning for twenty hours out of the twenty-four?

We start at three to-morrow morning, which means getting up at two o'clock. There are now only three more stages, and I shall be thankful when they are over. I wish you could see our camp-five or six watchfires, around which the men are lying, dark forms flitting about in the firelight, camels stalking silently, but at the same time with an air of quiet dignity, about, and all backed up by the steel colour of the sky and the silver light of the moon and stars.

THE AFGHAN WAR-A MISSION HOSPITAL SPARED BY THE WUZIRIS.

O

UR readers may have noticed, in the recent news in the public papers from our Afghan frontier, a statement that the fierce Wuziri mountaineers had sacked the town of Tank, which is on the extreme border of British territory. At this place the Society has a Medical Mission, worked by the Rev. John Williams, a Native doctor and clergyman, whose portrait (with an account by Bishop French) appeared in the GLEANER of Jan., 1877; and last year he had 8,764 patients. His influence with all the Afghan population of the neighbourhood has always been very great; and a most remarkable illustration of this has now occurred. The Wuziris, when they destroyed Tank the other day, spared the C.M.S. Mission Hospital, avowedly on account of their affection for our Native brother. The Government dispensary was not spared. The Rev. R. Clark, in sending this intelligence, justly says, "It is one of the most striking facts connected with mission work that I have ever heard."

EPITOME OF MISSIONARY NEWS. We have much pleasure in announcing that the Rev. William Ridley, Vicar of St. Paul's, Huddersfield, and formerly a C.M.S. missionary in India, has been nominated to be the first Bishop of the new Diocese of Caledonia, which is (as mentioned last month) to be formed out of thei present Diocese of British Columbia, and which will include the C.M.S.: Missions at Metlakahtla, &c. Mr. Ridley was ordained in 1866, and laboured for three years at Peshawur, when illness compelled him to return home.

The missionary party for Uganda travelling by way of the Nile have been much delayed on their voyage up. The river has been unusually high, and the immense quantity of water loosened great masses of reeds and papyrus, which formed floating islands and blocked up the stream. The steamer also ran short of fuel, so that she was fast bound in the midst of marshes some distance south of Sobat during the greater part of September. This country is one of the most unhealthy in Africa, but the three brethren have been mercifully kept in fair health. On Nov. 2nd they left Lado (Gondokoro) for Uganda. Later sections of Mr. Felkin's journal now appearing in the GLEANER will by-and-by give our readers full particulars.

Our North India Mission has lost another labourer. The Rev. C. Reuther died at Kangra on Jan. 22nd. He first went out in 1843, under the auspices of the Berlin Society, but joined the C.M S. in 1849, and was ordained by Bishop Wilson. He has laboured at several stations in the North-West Provinces during the last thirty years.

Dr. Galt, the Society's medical missionary at Hang-chow, was compelled to leave China in December on account of his wife's health. They had, however, scarcely set sail for England when it pleased God to take her to Himself. She died on board the steamer on Dec. 30th, and was buried at Amoy the next day.

On Dec. 22nd Bishop French ordained Yakub Ali, of the Lahore Divinity College, for the pastorate of the Native congregation at Lahore. The Rev. C. P. C. Nugent received priest's orders at the same time.

The Rev. D. T. Barry, who has laboured energetically for the last three years as C.M.S. Secretary at Calcutta, being released by the return thither of the Rev. J. Welland, is on his way home, visiting the Society's China and Japan Missions en route.

The Rev. W. T. Storrs has returned to England after his eighteen months' work in the Santâl Mission, which formerly owed so much to him, and to which he has now been enabled to render valuable service.

Bishop Russell reports that he confirmed last year ninety-eight Chinese candidates in the Che-kiang Province. On Trinity Sunday he conferred priest's orders on the Revs. O Kwong-yiao, Wong Yiu-kwong, and Dzing Ts-sing. He writes in warm terms of the progress of the Training College at Ningpo conducted by the Rev. J. C. Hoare, and pleads earnestly for funds to provide suitable buildings.

The Rev. J. S. and Mrs. Hill, and Mr. W. Goodyear, who sailed in the autumn to join the New Zealand Mission, were shipwrecked on the voyage from Auckland to Tauranga. Providentially all on board were saved, but much property was lost.

The new Mission church and school at Hakodate were opened on Nov. 24th. The church, which will hold 300 comfortably, was filled with Japanese. A promising young convert named Sano was baptized by Mr. Dening, receiving the Christian name of Stephen.

On November 4th the Usborne Memorial School was opened at Palamcotta. This is a school for girls of the upper classes of Hindu society in connection with the Rev. A. II. Lash's network of female education agencies, and has been erected as a memorial to the Misses Usborne, who were liberal benefactresses of the Tinnevelly Mission. In the early morning and evening the building will be used as a Reading Room and Lecture Hall; and Mr. Lash opened the campaign with readings from the Pilgrim's Progress, accompanied by dissolving views, and a service of sacred song.

The Rev. H. D. Williamson, who was appointed in 1877 to join the Rev. E. Champion of Jubbulpore in commencing the long-deferred Mission to the Gônd tribes of Central India, but was detained for a while in Calcutta for other work, has now settled at Mandla, in the heart of the Gônd country. He finds the Gônds "very ignorant, very slow to move, very benighted," and begs for our prayers in this new effort to reach the non-Aryan people of India.

The annual reports from Ceylon show that the number of Native Christians is now 6,370, and the communicants 1,512. The baptisms last year were adults, 194; children, 217. There are 373 Native | agents, 222 schools, and 9,500 scholars; also 140 Sunday-schools, with | 2,666 scholars. The Native Christians contributed to religious purposes last year Rs. 13,321, and from European friends there was received Rs. 45,081, making some £2,500 raised in the island. One-half of the adult baptisms were in the Kandy Singhalese Mission, and 89 of these in connection with the Itinerancy, respecting which the Rev. S. Coles writes:" I doubt if ever there were before such a promising Mission, whose progress and development was retarded from lack of men.”

MARCHING ORDERS.

IV.

"Freely ye have received, freely give."-St. Matt. x. 8. HE context shows that we must not content ourselves with applying this only to silver and gold. Those to whom the command was spoken neither possessed nor provided any. Far greater gifts had they received, far greater gifts were they to give. What have we freely received? Our Bibles give us a threefold answer. 1. Love: God our Father says, "I will love them freely." 2. Justification: we are "justified freely by His grace," and by His blood." 3. Life: He says, "I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." And unto us has been preached this "Gospel of God freely."

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We are responsible not only for having received such gifts, but for knowing that we have received them; for "we have received the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." The whole Bible is one long inventory of the things that are freely given to us, and yet we cannot reckon our wealth, for "All things are yours." Possessing the one unspeakable gift, Jesus Christ Himself, is "possessing all things."

"As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same." How will you do this? Can you make it a question of shillings or sovereigns? Is that what you have received? Is that as you have received? Will you not say, "I will freely sacrifice unto Thee"? Sacrifice-what? "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice." Is there not one reader of the GLEANER who, having "received Christ Jesus the Lord," will go at His word, and "freely' make known the good news of life from the dead, and healing and cleansing through Him? There are so many who would delight to go, but whose way God has entirely hedged up. Are there none whose way is not so hedged up? He who spared not His own Son, but with Him freely gives us all things, is saying, very clearly and loudly, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Will any one who might "Here am I, send me !" refuse to say it?

say,

FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.

TINNEVELLY: THE CHURCH GROWING. ANY readers of the GLEANER know that about a year ago the news reached England that 16,000 heathen had joined the Christian community in Tinnevelly. This was in those parts of the province which are worked by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, whose Mission is conducted by Bishop Caldwell. In some of that Society's districts the terrible South Indian Famine had been particularly severe; and most generous contributions had been sent from England to the S.P.G. missionaries for the relief of the starving people. The result of this, and of Bishop Caldwell's unwearied diligence at the same time in preaching journeys from place to place, was that when the Famine was subsiding, the poor creatures whose lives had been saved came forward in large numbers to embrace the religion that had led English people to pity them. "The conviction generally pre"The conviction generally prevailed," wrote the Bishop, "that whilst Hinduism had left the famine-stricken to die, Christianity had stepped in, like an angel from heaven, to comfort them with its sympathy and cheer them with its effectual succour."

In the more extensive districts of Tinnevelly worked by the

Church Missionary Society, the Famine, though bad enough, was not so crushing in its severity; and the help rendered by the C.M.S. Relief Fund was not so large in amount. This, and some other reasons, may probably account for our not at first receiving similar news from Bishop Sargent. In a few months, however, the movement spread; and while the new adherents of the S.P.G. increased to 22,000 in number, 11,000 more came forward in the C.M.S. districts. The returns to Sept. 30th show that the Natives "under Christian instruction" in Tinnevelly, in connection with the C.M.S., numbered at that date 50,075, an increase of 8,582 on the preceding year; and this increase would have been larger but for the many poor Christians who were dispersed by the Famine.

Is not this something to thank God for? No doubt we must be careful not to think too much of it. We have not had 11,000 conversions. The conversion of one Brahmin like Ratnam or Krishnayya, or of one learned Mohammedan doctor like Imad-uddin, is more remarkable as a proof of the power of Divine grace. The poor people who have joined the Christians in Tinnevelly are mostly very ignorant, and although there are some who manifest a true desire for the salvation of their souls, many know little more than that the religion of Jesus is better than the religion of Siva. But yet it is a great thing that so many should give up their idol-worship, come to the village churches and prayer-houses and schools to be taught, and reckon themselves as on the side of Christ. No Christian nation ever became Christian in any other way. If ever India does become Christian in the same sense as many European countries now are, we must expect the majority to be Christians only in name, and the true believers to be a little flock, as elsewhere. Meanwhile let us pray God that many of these " new accessions" may be led, under the teaching they will now have, to an intelligent and living faith in Christ. As yet only a few have been baptized; the adult baptisms during the year were 811, against 349 the year before.

It is pleasant to find the Native Church girding itself to the work of teaching these new comers, and of preaching the Gospel still more assiduously among the surrounding heathen. Besides the 54 Native clergy and the 142 catechists and readers regularly employed, there are now 389 voluntary evangelists who give up their daily work for a day or half a day every week to go and preach in the villages and talk to the people, and in every chief congregation an evening is set apart for a prayer-meeting, at which these men tell what they have been doing. At the annual gathering of the Christians of Mengnanapuram, at which 2,000 persons were present in the great church built by old Mr. Thomas thirty years ago, Bishop Sargent called on the voluntary evangelists of that district to stand up, that he might say a few words specially to them. Men instantly rose to their feet all over the church, and on counting them their number proved to be 124. The Bishop affectionately showed them the advantage they possessed over paid agents, telling them that "the work itself was the best of pay, and the Master they had to look to was the loving Lord Jesus." He then called on any others to stand up who were now willing to join them. Thirty-eight at once responded. The Bishop gave these a cordial welcome, and then asked why the good work should be confined to men: would not the women do something? Seven women rose up and offered to do what they could; and the Bishop encouraged them by referring to the example of the woman of Samaria in bringing her fellowtownsmen to Christ. "I hardly know," he writes, "which to prefer in my thankfulness-the influx of so many heathen to receive Christian teaching, or the rousing up of our slumbering converts to a sense of their duty to the heathen."

UP THE NILE TO UGANDA.

JOURNAL OF MR. R. W. FELKIN. (Continued.)

ULY 6.-We left Obach at six, and had at first to cross the sand hills. These are very soft, and the camels sunk deeply at each step; they are a series of mounds, and so very steep that sometimes we nearly overbalanced ourselves. It took us about an hour to cross the hills, and then we entered the sandy desert, a flat plain, which extends from here to Berber. We saw here a few sand pillars formed by the wind, and one or two sand showers passed over us, but we have seen no sand storms. The largest lizard I have ever seen was caught by one man here; it was 2 feet in length. They say that the leaves of some tree are an antidote for its bite, but I cannot find out what tree it is. We rode on till twelve, and as we approached the hut we saw a few camels and a

man in a helmet like ours, so we thought it must be a European. As soon as we got to the hut he ran out and said, "Good day, gentlemen," and he turned out to be the Indian servant of Mr. Wild, who used to be consul at Jeddah. On alighting, Mr. Wild came and gave us a hearty welcome, and you can imagine how glad we were to see a jolly English face again, and to get a downright British shake of the hand. We soon became friends, and he told us he had just come from Khartum, where Colonel Gordon was expecting us. He gave us three fowls, which were a great treat, and a good deal of general information. He had a terrible journey to Berber three weeks ago. The monsoon blew against him for eight days, and he met several sand storms, so bad that his camels could not stand against them. His guide ran away; his men had one or two fights on the road; at one place he had great difficulty with the people: this news made us all the more thankful that we had got through safely. He had with him a young lion and two monkeys, which he was going to send to the Zoo, and a Nyam-Nyam, a boy who is a cannibal, and said he only wished he could get a bit of human flesh now! He gave

us some Nile water: it was almost like café-au-lait, so thick with mud. After a few very pleasant hours with him we left at 4.40, and arrived at 1.40 A.M. at Abailot, a broken-down hut without any water. We were very tired, having ridden fifteen hours in the day.

On this part of our journey we passed many dead camels; in fact, one could almost find the way from Suakim to Berber by the skeletons and dried-up remains of camels, so very numerous are they.

I also learnt a new dodge, viz., when wishing to go to sleep eat a moderate-sized onion, and you will be asleep in no time; this is useful to know, but I have no onions to try yet-shall get some in Berber.

July 7.-We had hoped for a good sleep after the long ride and fatigue of the previous day, but were sadly disappointed when our men woke us at four, and told us we must get ready for a start. It was hard work, but Mr. Wild had told us that five hours from Abailot there was a very large tree where we could rest during the heat, so we got ready, and were off at five. The first three hours were beautiful, so cool and pleasant, but at nine A.M. it became very hot, and we looked out eagerly for the

tree with its promised shade. No tree, however, appeared; sand, sand, nothing but sand in sight, with the mirage in the distance, which proved to be a great source of discomfort to us, as the view of what looked to be beautiful water only increased the heat and thirst.

On, on we went, our sheikh saying we should soon be there; our water was thick, hot, and nasty, the heat getting worse, and we were so tired. Several times we thought we must give up. We felt as though we could go no further. We tried walking, but each step was like putting one's foot into boiling water. There was no shade to be seen. At last, after going through a season of discomfort I look back upon with horror, we saw in the distance what seemed to be a hut. Nearer we came. Was it the mirage? No, that could not be; a hut, yes! truly a hut, and to our intense relief we found out that we had missed the tree, and by a forced march got to Moheber, the last station, and were only two hours from Berber !

Thank God, it is over, and our dangers and difficulties past, at least for the present, and you cannot think with what joy we dismounted and