A Lady of England 52

A Lady of England 52

TO MRS. HAMILTON.

 

‘BATALA, _Jan. 9_.

 

‘Florrie and I hired four extra kahars, took earlier breakfast,

and started this morning for O----, the village in which, as

you may remember, I encamped for two or three days with my

Margaret, about ten or twelve months ago.

 

‘We started on foot, as it was not at all too hot for a walk;

and though we never walk in the city, we have no objection

to doing so in the country. Our dulis, white and red, with

eight kahars, followed us. When we had walked about a mile,

whom should we meet but the postman, with the English letters!

I popped the rest of the things into the duli, but read my

Laura’s despatch as I walked along the dusty lane. Very many

thanks both to you and to dearest Leila. _The_ bonnet has not

yet arrived,--I dare say it will be very elegant,--and yet, as

well as the bag, owe its chief value to the love sewn up in it.

Your lovely tidies ornament my Batala home.

 

‘When F. and I returned from the village, being rather tired of

going about twelve miles in a canvas box,--of course there is

no seat in it; one sits half-Oriental style on a kind of coarse

carpet,--I got out to walk the last mile home.’

 

‘AMRITSAR, _Jan. 13_.--My note to dear Leila will tell you of

the change which now a good deal engrosses my mind. You did not

like my going to Batala; and as far as we can see, our Heavenly

Father does not intend us to remain there. He is Wisdom; and

what to us seems mysterious and trying must in the end be seen

to be right....

 

‘Ah, well, it is doubtless good to have the branches shaken, on

which we perch; and happily I have built no elaborate nest.’

 

TO MISS ‘LEILA’ HAMILTON.

 

‘BATALA, _Jan. 20_.

 

‘I am writing in such a dismantled room, making a table

of a chair, and sitting on the floor. My luggage went off

yesterday--such a quantity! My big boxes and little boxes,

chairs, tables, almira, sofa, etc. I do not intend to unpack

more than I can help, for I rather hope to have another move

before long,--a move back to dear Batala....

 

‘I have been round to the six schools and three Zenanas,

explaining the sad cause of our sudden departure. I have found

sympathy and kindness. On three faces at least there were

tears. Facts are often more eloquent than words! The Batala

people have seen B--n suffering keen anguish for Christ’s sake;

they see that the property which was ----‘s is his no more,

for Christ’s sake. They have seen two ladies going fearlessly,

trustingly, amongst them, one of them old, and the other so ill

that she has fairly broken down in her work--for Christ’s sake!

These things may tell more even than preaching.... With God’s

blessing Batala will yet be ours.

 

‘Strange to say, the Mission has just bought a house in the

midst of the City; not hired, but bought it out and out. I went

over it yesterday.... There is room on that ground to build a

church on. And, please God, we shall have a church there some

day. _Nil desperandum._’

 

To another she wrote on the same day: ‘It seems very sad, when there had

been such a promising beginning; a new and interesting Zenana opened to

me only yesterday; and I must quit Batala to-day, for one lady cannot

stay by herself. But I am not in the least discouraged. I believe that

the Almighty will not suffer the Mission to be permanently broken up. He

will send some one to take poor Florrie’s place; and then I am ready, at

twenty-four hours’ notice, to return to my post. I hear that the women

are very sorry for our going. I have myself seen tears on brown faces.’

Her confident hope was soon to come true.

 

‘MISSION BUNGALOW, _Jan. 29_.--Here I am, back again in my

nice large room. My nieces would have it so, and made all

arrangements during my absence.... I must tell dear Leila what C.

H. said one day, absurd as it sounds; but it was a compliment

to _her_ work, therefore I repeat it. “How bonny the Auntie

looks in her new bonnet!” There is a bit of flattery, spoken

for once by one who is particularly plain-spoken! But it was

the bonnet that was bonny, not your loving old sister.’

 

TO MISS ‘LEILA’ HAMILTON.

 

‘_March 5, 1877._

 

‘Many thanks to you and your sweet Mother for your loving

notes and the _Illustrated_. I am glad that I have not been

sent _Froggy’s Brother_. Not only am I afraid of shedding one

useless tear; but I seem to have scarcely any time for reading

what is unconnected with my work. I have begun the Koran, which

will be rather a tedious task,--only in English,--but I think

it well to read it, and a few books of manners and customs.

Then I have two Munshis; and with my imperfect memory, I must

be perpetually going over and over what I learn, so as not

to lose it. Then I ought to write, whenever I can, and visit

Natives a little; and we have so many interruptions. The day

passes so fast; and perhaps at the end one feels--“What has

been done?--how little!” But as for sitting down to amuse

oneself with an English story-book,--how can that be done by

your attached old Missionary Auntie?’

 

TO W. F. T. HAMILTON.

 

‘_March 9, 1877._

 

‘I am about a very tedious work, reading through the Koran

in English. I think that it may be very desirable for me

to be able to say--“I have read your Koran right through.”

But, oh, how sleepy one gets over the book! It is so full of

repetitions; the same ideas and stories over and over again.

I am perfectly well, and the weather is now charming,--such a

comfort to get rid of the cold!--but I believe that I twice

this forenoon went to sleep, simply from reading the Koran. I

read and read, then leant back in my comfortable chair, and

took a nap!

 

‘The poor Muhammadans must get a painful idea of the Almighty

from their book. It seems almost a mockery to head almost

every “Sura” with “In the Name of God the Compassionate, the

Merciful.” One is so perpetually reading of the torments of

unbelievers, the fires of Gehenna, etc.! Our Lord is written of

with great respect, and His Birth regarded as quite miraculous;

but the Muhammadans will not believe Him to be the “Son of

God.” There is a great deal about Abraham, Moses, Joseph,

etc., in the Koran; Old Testament stories altered and enlarged

upon, to suit Muhammadan tastes. I have met with no reference

to the Blood of Atonement; in the account of the Exodus,

given over and over, there is no allusion to the Paschal Lamb;

Muhammadanism appears as a religion of works.

 

‘It would seem to me to be a dreary kind of religion, and well

suited to make men hard and stern. Of the three religions in

the Panjab, I think Sikhism by far the best; but then the race

of those who profess it in purity seems to be dying away....

The Enemy would not leave poor Man even the scraps of Truth

bequeathed by the noble Guru Nanak. It is a sad pity. Hearts

which had only known _pure_ Sikhism might have formed a rich

soil to receive the seed of the Gospel.’

 

Early in March it was arranged, to her great joy, that before the close

of the month she might expect to be back in Batala again, living there

with Mr. and Mrs. Beutel. When the time came, the roads being especially

bad with the heavy rains, Miss Tucker performed her journey from Amritsar

to Batala in what she called ‘a most luxurious conveyance,--the big,

heavy Government dâk gari,[64] in which one can recline at ease, as

if in a bed.’ The twenty-four miles’ drive proved, however, to be not

altogether luxurious; for on the worst and roughest part of the road the

whole gari went over on its side,--‘one big wheel aloft, another big

wheel below.’ Miss Tucker being entirely unhurt, thought mainly of the

safety of her desks and of her ‘dear travelling clock.’ She found them,

to her great relief, ‘quite serene,’ as serene as she was herself in her

‘funny position,’--the clock ticking placidly on, undisturbed by the jar.

Describing the scene afterwards, she continued:

 

‘A number of men came to the aid of our forlorn conveyance,

down in the mud. The horses were of course released from the

traces. Many hands make light work; so, with a good deal of

pushing and shouting and tamasha, the carriage was set up

again on its wheels. I got out, thinking that I should have to

trudge through the mud on foot, carrying my clock in my hand.

But I was not obliged to make my entry into my palace in so

humble a fashion. I was able to re-enter the gari. Of course, I

presented the natives with a reward.’

 

* * * * *

 

‘_April 14, 1877._--I wrote to our Commissioner to ask his

permission for fish to be caught in the large tank, close

to which our mansion is built. He politely replied that we

were welcome to fish with hook and line, but that a net

is prohibited. I am rather amused to find that our dear,

kind-hearted Germans cannot bear to give to the fish the

suffering which a hook would inflict. I think that we shall do

without fish.

 

‘Such stormy--oh, such stormy weather as we have had, night

after night! There have been such thunder and lightning,

and rushing blast, and banging of doors and windows, as if

in this great echoing house there were pistol practice....

Those Indian unmanageable doors and windows are the worst of

it, particularly if any inmate of the house has headache or

fever. One wanders about in the dark,--perhaps helped by the

lightning,--to find the region of a door that is the chief

offender. The one which I managed to shut in the night, for the

first time since my coming chose to shut itself in the morning,

so that neither I nor my Ayah could open it. Some one had to go

round by another route to lift the latch, which had gone down

without being touched.’

 

In the same letter, speaking of a young Indian, who had eagerly said to

her that ‘the Bible is the light of our eyes, and the root of our faith,’

she sadly remarked that it was ‘almost sickening’ to think what the young

Muhammadan ‘would have to endure, did he openly confess Christ,’--even

while earnestly hoping that he _would_ be constrained ‘by the cords of

love’ to leave all and come forward.

 

TO MISS LAURA V. TUCKER.

 

‘_May 2, 1877._

 

‘Thanks many, darling Laura, for your dear, sweet letter. You

speak of the flowers. Ah, if I could but give you a sight of

the glorious pink water-lilies or lotuses out of our nice

tank! I am not sure, however, whether I would not change

them for--cabbages; certainly I would for cauliflowers. It

is not very easy to get our vegetables, twenty miles away

from an English garden. However, V. brought two cucumbers

to-day,--a welcome sight,--and a Native presented us with some

kelas,[65]--more welcome still. My experience is that fruit and

vegetables are particularly conducive to health in India.