soldier. The public matter of interest was a most wonderful native confirmation. You remember those Muzhibi Sikhs (the 32nd Native Infantry). There has always been a strong Christian tendency in them, varying and uncertain, from the few and far between visits of the missionaries, and since these have ended, not growing at all. But all who were baptised have remained faithful, nearly all have fairly good characters, and their children, for whom there is a school, a very good one. Since the regiment came to Ferozepore, Smyth has held an Urdu service every Sunday for the Christians in it, visited them in hospital, regarded them as part of his flock, and prepared sixteen for confirmation. Though he has been unable to undertake any work with the heathen, yet these proceedings have roused again the Christian inclinations of the regiment, and they expressed a wish to come and see their comrades confirmed. Accordingly, on Thursday, November 3, the church was crammed the chancel by candidates for confirmation and Christians of the regiment, the transepts by the people of the station, the nave by all the heathen soldiers; and we proceeded with our Urdu confirmation, Smyth reading the Litany, Cowie the preface, and I the rest. What the heathen thought, I do not know; but the station people declared that the sight was one of the highest interest, many saying that they could never have believed that they should see such a thing in India, and that it had quite opened their eyes to the reality of missionary work.

To his Daughter.

Ferozepore, November 9, 1864.

I cannot write to you a long letter, for I have been ill, and am still weak and lazy; but I must send a line or two to my dearest little girl on her birthday, and say, as you do to me, May God bless you and keep you from all harm!' Also I have to tell you of a birthday present. I told you that Mr. Cowie had brought a dog, named Dot, with us. One morning we found that Dot had got five children! They are very pretty little puppies, and Mr. Cowie means to give one of them to you. As they were born at Lahore, they are to be called after the five rivers of the Punjâb: Jhelum, Chenab, Ravee, Beeas, Sutlej; and you are to have Jhelum. If you come back safe to

CH. XVII.]

BAREILLY AND SEETAPORE.

443

India, and go to the hills next year, he will be a nice little companion for you in your walks.

I want to ask you some questions about your travels in England:

Did you go to Doncaster in a dhooly?

Which is furthest, Doncaster to Chester, or Coonoor to Metrapollium?

Did you find the Pearl' at St. Leonard's?

Do the ladies at Cheltenham go out in jonpans?

Did you go to Lichfield in a dák ghari or a bullock waggon? Has Granny a good Khansáma ?

There, that is all that I can write, except that I hope that you are a good and wise girl now that you are seven.

My visit to this place cannot fail, as you will believe, to wear a melancholy character, in spite of the genial hospitality of our host, Mr. Inglis. For I cannot but think of the genuine pleasure and interest with which Burn would have entertained us, of the talks over old days, of the diocesan events of the year, and of his own work at Bareilly. To him now, however, such matters, except so far as they help on the triumph of Christian holiness, must appear infinitely small; but while the world is still around us, such meetings with old friends, pupils, and fellow-helpers are precious. I missed him greatly yesterday at the consecration of the church, which now completes the attractiveness of Bareilly. It is a Lombardic building, of brick, effective, though rather heavy outside, but strikingly good within, with its long nave of round arches, thick pillars, with capitals adorned with acanthus-leaves, and clerestory windows. The wooden roof is lofty and bold in design, so that altogether it is one of the most successful churches in the diocese.

To the Same.

December 22.

On Tuesday, the 20th, we reached Seetapore, and here we found a new regiment, the 12th, just arrived from England. We proclaimed our intention of holding service, and did hold

a spirited and effective one. church, declaring that, after a cessation of regular services, they were ready and desirous to go; and the service was most hearty. The regiment has a first-rate bandmaster, once a chorister, and thoroughly conversant with sacred music; and he has trained up an excellent regimental choir of men and boys, who chanted the Canticles and sang two hymns in admirable style, so that it was the best military singing that I have heard. Stirred up by all this and by the interest attaching to a regiment just landed from England, to whom India is unknown, I extemporised a sermon with as much vigour as I am capable of displaying, on How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land.'

The colonel marched his men to

·

CH. XVIII.]

RETURN TO CALCUTTA.

445

CHAPTER XVIII.

EFFECTS OF THE CYCLONE IN CALCUTTA-ORDINATION-CATHEDRAL CHORAL GATHERING-VISIT TO KRISHNAGHUR-CATHEDRAL MISSION COLLEGECONVOCATION OF UNIVERSITY-VICE-CHANCELLOR'S SPEECH-THE WAR IN BHOTAN-DUKE OF BRABANT-DEPARTURE FOR THE NORTH-WESTHALTS AT DELHI AND LAHORE-ARRIVAL AT MURREE-LETTERS-TOUR IN CASHMERE-THE MARCH-SRINAGAR-MEDICAL MISSIONS OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY-SIGHTS AND ANTIQUITIES IN THE VALLEY -EXPEDITION TO ISLAMABAD-JOURNAL EXTRACTS-RETURN MARCH BY ABBOTTABAD-ARRIVAL AT MURREE.

WHEN the Bishop reached Calcutta, early in 1865, the fearful cyclone of the previous October had not passed away from men's minds, and its effects were still visible in the loss of some of the finest trees, and in the great gap in the wall of the cathedral, filled up with canvas in place of the east window, which had been blown in and hopelessly shattered. The palace, like most substantiallybuilt buildings, and possessing no tall chimneys to catch the wind, was very little injured. The devastation on land fell chiefly on the trees and church spires or steeples, and on the property of the natives. Their fragile houses, their granaries, their rice crops over a large area of the south-eastern part of the delta, were swept away by the wind, and still more by the 'bore,' the terrific stormwave, which rushed up the mouths of the Ganges, swelling them and their tributary rivers into far-spreading and desolating floods. Thousands of human beings were left houseless and beggared by the havoc of a few hours. Owing to his absence up country, the Bishop missed the extraordinary spectacle on the Hooghly of the finest ships being torn from their anchorage, hurried helplessly

to ruin, and flung one upon another, battered and broken, in huge masses of wreck and confusion.

In a brief journal extract the Bishop reviewed his work at the end of a few weeks' residence at the palace :—

March 1865.

Seven weeks have been spent in Calcutta, and I have got through the work that I desired to accomplish. I have heard with my own ears how things are going on in all the Diocesan Societies, and shall feel conversant with matters as they arise on visitation. I have had a native and a European confirmation, and an ordination of four priests and seven deacons. A good deal of pains was taken with the examination. Besides the papers, vivâ voce morning expositions and general intercourse, we had the whole party assembled in the chapel on two afternoons, made each read parts of the service and of the sermon which he had done in the examination, and criticised and advised them freely. I was amused at the subject which Cowie selected for exhortation to them. One of his most remarkable characteristics during the late tour was his vehement dread of being late: so his parting precept to the candidates was, 'Always be in church a quarter of an hour before service begins, and when the communion is administered half an hour.' His more formal exhortation to them, when he preached the sermon on the day of ordination, was admirable; one of the best ordination sermons that I ever heard.

A choral gathering in the cathedral, planned at the last clerical meeting, last August, was successfully carried out under careful superintendence. Full choral service was performed by a hundred and fifty voices, but nothing attempted that was not quite simple; no solos, no unmeaning anthems selected only for their music and not for their words, only plain chanting, musical responses, and hymnody. I preached to a very large congregation, including almost all the members of Government; the Imperial Council having courteously adjourned that it might spend the morning in harmony instead of disputation. Accompanied by Stuart I took a four days' tour among the Church Missionary Society's missions east of Calcutta, through a country bearing grievous marks of the cyclone. Three hundred and ten native Christians were confirmed. Doubtless