A Lady of England 37
‘3. Not one woman in a hundred at least is so free from
home-ties as myself.
‘4. There is a terrible want of suitable literature for
Indian women. If God enabled me still to use my pen, intimate
knowledge of even _one_ Zenana might be an immense help to me
in writing for my Indian sisters.
‘Do not grudge me, dear one, to the work for which my soul
yearns. You see by the enclosed that my arrangements are made,
and that expostulation would but pain me. I would have told you
of my plan some time ago, only I feared to distress you when
you have had so much of trial. But why should you expostulate,
or why should you be distressed? Is not Missionary work of all
work the highest? I only fear that I am presumptuous in coming
forward; but it seems as if my dear Lord were calling me to it;
and my heart says,--“Here am I; send me.” I own with shame that
much that is unworthy mingles with my desire to serve the Lord
in India; but the desire itself has, I trust, been put into my
mind by Him.
‘Cheer and encourage and pray for me, my Laura, that my Autumn
may be better than my Spring and Summer--that the richest
harvest come in the latter days. Ask the Lord to give me Indian
gems in the crown which He has bought for His servants.
‘On the 28th February, at Holy Communion, I devoted myself to
the Zenana Mission. But I am bound by no vows. I go out _free_,
an honorary Agent of the Society.--Your loving
‘C. M. TUCKER.’
Writing again on the 7th of May, she said: ‘I have been formally
presented to the Committee of my own Society, who were very courteous.’
The Society was then known under the cumbrous name of ‘The Indian Female
Normal School and Instruction Society.’ A few years later it separated
into two distinct Societies; one of which, ‘The Church of England Zenana
Society,’ Charlotte Tucker joined.
As was to be expected, her new plan met with some opposition. Many who
dearly loved her were most sincerely grieved at the thought of such a
parting; and others were disposed to look upon the scheme at her age as
somewhat crazy. Small marvel if they did. Such an attempt had not been
made before; and the untried always contains unmeasured elements of
danger and difficulty. Probably her unusual fitness for the undertaking
was hardly realised as yet even by many of those who knew her best. She
had not, however, the pain of opposition from her best-loved sister, Mrs.
Hamilton. ‘It will be a sore pang to her to part with me,’ she wrote to
her niece, Mrs. Boswell; ‘but her feeling will be that she gives me to
God. And to my great comfort she does not attempt to stay me.’
Before going to India, she resolved to take another voyage--a trip to
Canada, for a farewell sight of her nephew, ‘Charley’; the youngest of
‘The Robins.’ She would have his brother, her other nephew, Louis Tucker,
for a companion on this preliminary journey. Of its perils and pleasures
Charlotte Tucker’s own pen can best tell the tale.
TO MRS. J. BOSWELL.
‘_May 24._
‘I had more than an hour to wait at Paddington, but ----, who
was with me, gave me a little lesson in Hindustani. P. E.
did the same yesterday; he let me repeat and read from the
Testament to him, and then he read a little to me. I generally
understood what he was reading when he went slowly. I am so
thankful to snatch lessons in pronunciation.... Louis and I are,
if all be well, to start in the _Nova Scotia_ on Thursday, at
one o’clock.... What a beautiful hymn there is in _Hymns Ancient
and Modern_, “for those at sea”! Not that I consider drowning
a worse way of going Home than any other. As a lady said, “We
cannot sink lower than into our Father’s Hand”; for it is
written, “He holdeth the deep in the hollow of His Hand.”’
TO MRS. HAMILTON.
‘GRESFORD, _May 26, 1875_.
‘I am almost packed, ready for my start to-morrow morning; but
I have a nice quiet time for a little chat with precious Laura.
Loving thanks for your sweet letter....
‘You wished me to see Dr. Griffith. I have seen him to-day,
though not in the character of a patient, I am thankful to
say.... The dear old man appeared to feel real gratification at
hearing of my going to India as a Zenana visitor, inquired
with interest about the language,--health did not appear to
enter his medical mind,--and really affectionately gave me
his blessing. I am glad to have it. I told him that I am
fifty-four, and Dr. Griffith made nothing of it. Dear Aunt is
so loving and motherlike; but she sympathises in the cause,
which is a comfort to me. It would have been very painful had
she disapproved,--almost as painful as if my favourite sister
had disapproved. Dr. G.’s visit really refreshed me.’
TO THE SAME.
‘ON BOARD THE NOVA SCOTIA,
_May 27, 1875_.
‘I did not think that I should have had an opportunity of
having a letter posted from Derry, but it appears that I shall.
I am now quietly scudding over the Atlantic. There is not much
motion in the vessel, which seems to me to be a very large one.
There are a great many emigrants, but I doubt whether it will
be easy for me to communicate with them.
‘You who are so kindly anxious about my comfort will be pleased
to know that I have a very fair amount of wraps, and am more
likely to suffer from heat than cold, seeing that my cabin
port-hole is never opened, and that the only way of ventilating
it is by leaving the door open,--a thing not to be thought of
at night, as ladies’ and gentlemen’s cabins are not at all in
separate parts of the vessel. By-the-by, the latter part of
that long sentence will not please you. I should have broken
the paragraph into two. I have at present the luxury of having
the cabin all to myself, and only hope that when we touch at
the Irish port, we will take in no fair passenger to share it.
‘Now I think I will go on deck.... I am perfectly well at
present. The only thing I fear is using up my oxygen at night.
I have had such a nice letter of welcome from Mrs. Elmslie.’[21]
CIRCULAR LETTER TO SEVERAL OF THE FAMILY.
‘_June 5, 1875._
‘“Yes, you will see icebergs, plenty, more than enough,” said
the Captain to me on the 3rd. “This is an exceptional year for
ice.” He spoke so quietly that I did not at the time give full
significance to his words.
‘But on the next day, the 4th, we beheld icebergs indeed,--I
believe more than a hundred, and some, O how glorious! Our eyes
were satiated with beauty. Now a bold iceberg rose before us,
reminding me of pictures of Gibraltar; but this berg was all
of snow,[22] and, as well as we could guess, about 150 feet
high. Then another, most graceful in shape, appeared, like a
sculptured piece of alabaster, wearing a huge jewel of pale
greenish blue; this, from its pure beauty, Louis called “The
Maiden.” We turned from its softer loveliness, to gaze on that
which I thought the finest iceberg of all, the ruins of some
huge amphitheatre.
‘As we gazed, some of the bergs changed greatly in shape. The
“Maiden” split quite in two. Fancy these glorious wanderers
from Greenland or Labrador, with the sea-spray dashing against
their sides, showing that they were aground; for, as you are
aware, the mass of ice below water is far greater than that
which is visible above it. One could not but think, “What a
mercy it is that we did not pass those large icebergs in the
night!” Had our great emigrant-ship, freighted with 2000 tons
of iron, dashed up against one of them, we should have gone to
the bottom like lead. Nothing more would have been heard of the
_Nova Scotia_, and the more than 600 mortals on board.
‘But the day was clear, and it was easy to give the bergs a
wide berth. Every one’s spirits rose. There was nothing but
enjoyment of the beautiful scene, admiration at the strange
sights before us. The sun at length sank; but a few icebergs
loomed in the distance, and I had an idea that we had almost
come to the end of the ice-tract. We had delightful music in
the saloon, and all appeared cheerfulness and peace. Even when
my attention was directed to strange dark objects on the ocean,
which I could see through the round saloon window, no thought
of danger came into my mind.
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