m'^mm 6 . /er-. / >y PRINCETON. N.J. >* */•; '4 Purchased by the Mary Cheves Dulles Fund. BV 3625 .K33 C3 I' Benham, Marian S. Henry Callaway, M.D. ,D.D. , first bishop for Kaffraria o5=i Callaway (BpO'MerS&ff By ^Marian S ■ ■ Benham, jyortr ait, cr. 8vo, cloth, 25. it<9b HENRY CALLAWAY M.D. D.D. ( JIIN - i )914 HENRY CALLAWAT^ M.D., D.D. FIRST BISHOP FOR KAFFRARIA H/S LIFE-HISTORY AND WORK A MEMOIR 15Y MARIAN S. BENHAM EDITED BY THE REV. CANON BENHAM AUTHOR OF ''CATHERINE AND CRAUFURD TAIT," &C., AND JOINT-AUTHOR OF "the life of archbishop TAIT " MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. NEW YORK : MACMILLAN & CO. 1896 Richard Clay and Sons, Limited london and bungay. EDITOR'S PREFACE In submitting this volume to the judgment of the reader as a valuable contribution to Missionary history, I hope I shall not be considered blinded by prejudice because the writer is my daughter. When the mate- rials were entrusted to me some few years ago I was in hopes of being able to write the book myself, but I found that I had so much work on hand that I was obliged to relinquish the idea, and am now very glad that I did so, for my daughter has made it a labour of love to follow up every clue, and read everything which she could find bearing on her subject. She desires me to express her grateful thanks to Prebendary Tucker and Mr. Pascoe, of the S.P.G., for their great kindness in giving her access to all the original letters of the Bishop in the possession of the Society ; and the latter gentleman's Digest of the work of the Society has been a rich mine of informa- tion to her. I believe this present book to have a twofold interest. First it shows us the mental struggles of a thoughtful, earnest man, so eager for God's truth that he was vi PREFACE ready to make any sacrifice to find it. Such men must al\va}-.s be lights in the world, even when we cannot sec eye to eye with them. But further, Callaway's work throws a bright and clear light upon that difficult and at present most important subject, the methods to be pursued for the evangelisation of the world. His heart was in his work with a grand, unselfish earnestness, and whatever were his perplexi- ties or his mistakes, they were those of a man who sought first, not his own advantage or advancement, but the Kingdom of the Redeemer. I knew as a dear friend Samuel Clark, the Quaker whom Maurice had prominently in his mind when he wrote his Kingdom of Christ. His struggles into the light were very similar to those of Henry Callaway, and when Edmund Venables lent Maurice's book to Callaway, the latter found to his great joy that he had worked his own way, on independent lines, to the whole of the essential conclusions of it. Clark's name does not appear in this Memoir ; whether they ever met and compared notes on their conversion I have now no means of ascertaining. In each of the two cases the conversion was a call to work, faithfully obeyed. The interest of the following volume deepens as we are told how Callaway, returning to the Church he had deserted, felt a summons to give his life to labour in the Mission vineyard, and " was not disobe- dient unto the heavenly vision." PREFACE vii The problems which he had to face on reaching heathen Africa were such as have bewildered many others. He brought to them a calm judgment, extra- ordinary powers of labour — though he was always a delicate man — acuteness of observation, and above all a large heart. How he sometimes failed, but on the whole succeeded, these pages tell. If, in spite of his difficulties and disappointments the results of his labours had not been such as to encourage those who come after, the record would hardly have been worth the writing. Difficulties formidable enough beset the path of every missionary who, like Callaway, has to break new ground. But his difficulties were increased past the telling by a special trouble, namely, the fierce con- troversy which arose about Bishop Colenso's writings, just when unanimity was needed so sorely. His calmness of judgment happily stood him in good stead here also, but it was a very serious hindrance to his work to be dragged into the conflict. That controversy caused more bitterness and angry words than any other that has occurred within my recollection. But it has so far subsided that men have already learned that many hard words might have been spared on both sides. To say that the leaders made great mistakes is no detriment to the memory of good men ; it is only saying that they were human. The most ardent partisan of Bishop viii PREFACE Colenso will hardly repudiate the touching eulogium which he passed on the zeal and piet)^ of his opponent, Bishop Gray, on his death ; nor will those who regard Colenso's writings with aversion, but who know any- thing of his uncompromising endeavours for justice for the poor blacks, read the tender and generous words of Dean Green (Bishop Gray's chief supporter in Natal), after Colenso's death, without unstinted sympathy. It will be rightly said, however, that the recognition of what was good, noble, truly Christian in these men, though a fact that we can all rejoice in, leaves the subject of the controversy in which they were engaged untouched. This is quite true ; and we have unwill- ingly to go back to that controversy, and form our judgment upon it. That Bishop Colenso said many things that were true, many of the younger genera- tion of clergy have come now to believe. That he said those things in an abrupt, startling, even offensive manner, is also the conviction of still more ; as it is also that other of his utterances were rash and dan- gerous, and unbecoming a bishop. And probably there are very few men who have studied what is called the Capetown judgment, that is, the elaborate condemnation which Bishop Gray pronounced upon Colenso preparatory to declaring him deposed, who will undertake to defend it point by point. Bishop Gray was a hard worker, but not a trained theologian; the questions raised by his brother bishop were new PREFACE ix and strange to him ; he had no precedents to guide him ; is it any wonder that he was bewildered, and found himself in difficulties, from which he did not always emerge successfully ? There are generally two sorts of people who become prominent when contro- versies arise. The first are those who, being dragged in, do the best in their power to solve the difficulties, grap- pling courageously with them ; and the second class are those who loftily criticise and point out the blun- ders, while they have not put out one of their fingers to help. To the first class Bishop Gray belonged. He pronounced boldly on questions which more learned scholars and theologians treat with wariness as insoluble mysteries ; and he claimed powers which in the opinion of the majority of Churchmen did not really belong to him. I was Vicar of Addington during the acutest moment of the conflict, namely, at the time when Archbishop Longleyhad invited the Bishops in communion with the Anglican Church all over the world to the brotherly consultation known as the First Lambeth Conference ; and I was witness of the Archbishop's anxiety, mainly caused by the Bishop of Capetown's determination to force that Conference to ratify the course that he had taken. The Archbishop, with the grace and gentleness which marked him above any man I have ever met, firmly refused to have the case discussed ; and though there is no doubt whatever that the sympathy for Bishop X PREFACE Gray was unanimous, it was a relief to the whole body to feel that Longley had steered the vessel wisely in the course he took. But I have always felt that this worry shortened his life. Dr. Callaway took what 1 venture to call the moderate and calm view. He had found reason to differ from Bishop Colenso even before the pub- lication of his books. I need not here state again what will be found in the life about his serious objec- tion to what at first sight may seem a trifle, namely, Colenso's choice of the Zulu word to express the name of God. Callaway thought it a dangerous approxi- mation to Arianism. He was still more grieved at the Bishop's translation of o X6709 o-ap^ ijevero. If it was not Arianism, it would be very difficult for plain people to distinguish between them. But he felt that this called upon him to be the more cautious lest, in striving for the Catholic faith, he should be led to commit himself to the untenable positions which Bishop Gray's judgment had taken on certain points. Discrimination was as needful as zeal ; and he had a strong conviction that Bishop Gray's claims of juris- diction were not tenable. And yet, as will be seen, after some hesitation he acquiesced in the Bishop of Capetown's judgment so far, that when the latter consecrated Bishop Macrorie, Callaway gave in his adhesion to him. And if it be said that he did so on selfish grounds; to preserve his PREFACE xi position, the answer is obvious — his whole self-devoted career contradicts the insinuation. It must Jdc remembered that the complication was not at an end when Dr. Macrorie was consecrated as Bishop of Pietermaritzburg. It was not merely that there were now two rival bishops, inasmuch as the Privy Council had declared Colenso's deposition to be null and void. The schism, so Bishop Colenso's partisans declare now, would have died a natural death had not Bishop Gray framed and carried a new constitution for "the Church of South Africa," in which the English law was repudiated, and they bound themselves not to be under Privy Council judgments. That was a course which Callaway deeply regretted ; but he felt himself bound to accept it, rather than let the strife go on. And here again, while some think he should have held out, the majority of Churchmen probably share both the regret and the conviction that he took the only practical course. They feel that though it would have been really much better if the South African Churchmen had continued to cast in their lot with the mother Church at home, and though no hardship would have followed if they had done so ; yet, as the step was taken by the majority, it was better for the rest to acquiesce, and to trust that the public opinion of the Church would go on being guided by the grace of God, and the unity with the mother Church would remain unbroken. This was xii PREFACE the line, at an)^ rate, which Callaway took, and ever)-- thing since seems to indicate that it was " the best working hypothesis." That is a poor and weak faith which refuses to believe that the Providence of God, which has guided the Church through so many dangers and difficulties until now, will do so more and more unto the perfect day. Let me venture to trust that the following record of a noble and unselfish life may kindle fresh interest in the welfare of a Church which has a bright future before it. Joyous and sorrowful tidings come mingled from across the sea. One bishop goes forth in hope, and has hardly reached his post before a sudden accident takes him away. Another, of tried zeal and holiness, pushes forward for the first time into Mashonaland. The poor blacks are being lifted out of their ignorance and are learning — alas ! it was not always thus — that the English are their friends, not their foes. And whatever the Christian world may think of Colenso's theology, friends and foes join in pronouncing that he acted as a faithful Christian when he became the defender of the poor savage men against oppression. No heartier supporter of him in this could there be than Callaway. The good that he did lives after him, let the rest be interred with his bones. W. BEN HAM. PREFACE The materials from which the following Memoir is compiled are of three kinds : — (i) Henry Callaway's private journals, voluminous during the early part of his life, but growing scantier as mission work in all its branches occupied his time more fully. (2) His letters from South Africa to friends in England. The greater number of these are addressed to his most intimate and life-long friend, Mr. Cor- nelius Hanbury. (3) Notices of his life and work, collected from the publications of the S.P.G. and other societies, and from local South African papers. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE Birth and Education — Early Call to the Ministry — Joins the Society of Friends — Enters on the Study of Medicine — Establishes a Practice and Marries — Illness . . .1 CHAPTER n Winter in the South of France — Gradual Severance from the Quakers — Farewell to the Society — Uncertainty as to Future Course . . . . . . .21 CHAPTER HI Return to England — Qualifies as a Physician — Winter at Bon- church — Ma.nxice' s A'mgdom of Christ — Return to the Church of England — Offers himself to Bishop Colenso as Missionary — Ordination ....... 37 CHAPTER IV Settles at Pietermaritzburg — Plans and Discouragements — Services in Kaffir — Difference with Colenso on Kaffir Word for God — How best to gain the Natives — Plan for establishing a Native Christian Village . . . . -47 xvi CONTENTS CHAPTER V PAGE Expedition to select a Site for the New Settlement — A Rough Journey — Spring Vale — Planting and Building — Kaffir Characteristics — How the Collection of Native Traditions Began — Umpengula . . . . . .60 CHAPTER VI Spring Vale Church opened — Kaffir Superstitions : the " Ama- tongo" and " Abatakati " — Party Spirit in Natal— Colonists and Natives — Question of Marriage between Christian and Heathen Natives ...... 79 CHAPTER VII Illness at Pieterniaritzburg — Recovery and Return — The Spider and the Fly — Increasing Responsibilities — Traditions and Translations — Kaffir Ideas of Good and Evil, and of God — Mission to Zululand — Christian and Heathen Ideas of Death — The Mission of the Plough — " Medicine Men " — A Flood ........ 92 CHAPTER VIII Bishop Colenso's Books and their Reception in England and Natal — His "Deposition" — Consecration of Macrorie — Callaway's Attitude — Personal Differences — Refuses to attach himself to either Party — Submits under protest to Macrorie's Jurisdiction^Diocesan Synod of 1870 — Callaway's Views on Authority, on the marrying of Divorced Persons, and on Universalism . . . . . .ill CHAPTER IX Bishop Colenso's Letter to the Archbisliop of Canterbury on Polygamy —Callaway's Reply . . . . -134 CONTENTS CHAPTER X PAGE Progress and Discouragement — Usetemba's Tale — Changes wrought by Four Years' Work — The Black Man and the White — " Highflats " and its Development . . . 146 CHAPTER XI Printing-press started — "Village Regulations" — William Ncg- wensa — Mr. Blair's Letter- — A General Depression at Spring Vale — A "Revival" — A Native Murder; Dr. Callaway's Journey of Investigation — Travelling a Hundred Miles to see a Sick Child — The Hospital Scheme — Need for a Native Ministry — Two Native Deacons ordained . . -163 CHAPTER XII Griqualand — An Exploration Party — Clydesdale Mission Started — Links between Africa and England — Reason and Revela- tion — Generosity of Spring Vale Natives — A Missionary's Daily Life — Literary Work — Whites and Blacks — Progres- sive Christianity — Darwin and Max Miiller — Proposed New Diocese of Kaffrari a ...... 190 CHAPTER XIII Research into Native Life and Tradition — Difficulties of Investi- gation — Lang and Codrington — Early Work — Method — Scientific Study of Primitive Records — E. B. Tylor — Zulu Folk-Tales — Elucidation in Customs and Mental Attitude of Tale-Tellers — Employment of Comparative Method ........ 224 CHAPTER XIV Religious System of the Amazulu " — Native Beliefs and Ritual — Ancestor-worship — Recalling the Dead — Ancestral and Healing Snakes — Prayer — Divination and Familiar Spirits — b xviii CONTENTS FAOE Tribal Songs — Wide Range of Investigation — Native Visions, Diviners, and Clairvoyance — Zulu Language — Native Thought and Expression — Native Law and Premature Legislation ....... 238 CHAPTER XV The Episcopate of South Africa — Position of Kaffraria — Its Missionary History — Petition to the Scottish Episcopal Church for a Bishop — Callaway invited to accept the Office — Leave-taking and Voyage to England — Consecration — "Missionary Journeys" — Future Plans — A Physician's Vocation ........ 255 CHAPTER XVI Return to Africa — Parting Gift to Spring Vale — English Helpers — ^Journeying in the Wilderness — Clydesdale Synod — Pondoland Mission — First Ordination — Removal to the Umtata ........ 274 CHAPTER XVII 5ite for Umtata determined on — Visit to Griqualand — Paul Bonsa —Difficulties and Disheartenment — Umtata Synod — Mission Work spreading in the Diocese — Disturbances among the Natives — War breaks out — Fortification of Umtata — Visitation to North of the Diocese — War at Kokstad Its Results — ^^How Dr. Callaway prepared the Way for the Training College — Disaster followed by renewal of Energy ........ 295 CHAPTER XVIII Laying the Foundation-stone of .S. John's College, Umtata — Bishop's Charge ; Causes of Success and Failure — " Remarks on the Zulu Language " — Hospital started at last — Illness — Voyage to England — English Hospitality — CONTENTS xix I'AGE War during his absence — Old and New Friends — Return to Africa . . . . ■ 3^1 CHAPTER XIX Hope changed to Disappointment— Overtaxed Strength — New Buildings at Umtata — Appointment of Bransby Key as Coadjutor Bishop — Callaway settling at " Bishopsdene," Clydesdale — The Last Synod — Death of Thurston Button — Resignation — Return to England — Last Years and Death — " Callaway Memorial College " .... 344 Postscript by Dr. Callaway's Literary Executor . . . 359 r^ HENRY CALLAWAY CHAPTER I Birth and education — Early call to the ministry — Joins the Society of Friends — Enters on the study of medicine — Establishes a practice and marries — Illness. Henry Callaway's journals date from 1834 (he was then seventeen years of age), and he prefixed to them an autobiography, from which we learn the chief facts of his parentage and boyhood. His father had been a bootmaker, following the calling of his fore- fathers ; but he had had a fair education, and, finding that the profits to be gained by his trade did not keep pace with the needs of an increasing family, he left his home in Somersetshire and settled at Lymington as an exciseman. Here the eleventh child, Henry, was born on the 17th of January, 18 17. They moved shortly afterwards to Southampton, thence to London, and finally Mr. Callaway was appointed supervisor at Crediton, and settled there with his wife and six children (the others having died early), on an income of ^200 a )-ear. ^^ B 2 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. Henry seems to have inherited from both parents the qiiaHties which raised him from these humble sur- roundinLjs. He says of his father, that "the natural strength and superiority of his mind appeared to raise him quite above those with whom he associated ; " and of his mother, a farmer's daughter from Minehead, that " she was a bright, clever woman, most tenderly attached to her husband and children." They were members of the Church of England, and brought up their children carefully, but gave them little religious instruction. The only teaching of the kind which he received at this period was from the mother of one of his schoolfellows ; and he speaks afterwards (from a Quaker standpoint) of the " ceremony of Confirmation, as it is called," as having awakened serious thoughts, and formed a starting-point in his career. At Crediton Grammar School, under Dr. Lightfoot, he received the rudiments of a sound classical educa- tion, and made such good progress that at the age of sixteen (May 1833) he went to Heavitree as assistant- teacher in a small school. The head-master, William Dymond by name, was a Quaker ; an earnest, con- scientious man, who at once gained the boy's affection, and without apparently using any direct influence was doubtless the first to draw his attention closely to the views of the Society of Friends. Meanwhile he tells how, in reading of the labourers sent into Christ's vineyard, there had come to him "a clear and indubitable call to the ministry," which henceforth became the motive power of his life. The I EARLY ASPIRATIONS 3 difficulties to be surmounted were, as will be seen, great and manifold ; but at no time was this object put out of view, and even when the course of his life seemed to lead him further away from his purpose, he was undergoing a training of incalculable value to his after-life. At first the way seemed clear enough. " From that time," he says, " I read more on serious subjects, looked deeper into doctrine, paid more attention to sermons that I might catch the style, and employed myself in English composition, for I had no other view than that of becoming a minister of the Church of England." But doubts were already beginning to arise in his mind as to the sacramental nature of the Lord's Supper and the efficacy of written prayers and sermons. He was leaning towards the Quaker belief in " direct revelation " as the only means of guidance, and his conviction of the immediate call sent to him- self had perhaps strengthened the idea. Other troubles darkened the summer of 1834 ; William Dymond was obliged by ill-health to give up his school, and the heavy work which thus devolved upon Callaway brought on two severe attacks of illness. The new master was beyond his predecessor in education, but his influence was not so good ; and while his help was of great value to the a.ssistant in his preparation for the college career he was hoping for, there was lacking the sympathy and experience which had drawn him to William Dymond for help in questions of religion. Restless and dissatisfied — tempted also, as he tells us, B 2 4 HENRY CALLAWAY cmap. by curiosity — the \oung man turned his thoughts to the Societ)' to which his friend belonged. In the quietude and devotion which pervaded the Mxeter meeting-house he bcHeved he had found the rest which he had been seeking. Many }'cars later he writes : " I find it difficult to determine what was the true cause which brought me among Friends. Subsequent occurrences induce me to believe that it was God's Spirit, who by a constrain- ing influence which I could not oppose was leading me on by a way that I knew not to a place and service in His Church; but I believe there was a great mixture of feeling, and it is no wonder if in now re- curring to that time I see many things too hastily adopted, and many things too readily parted with. . . . No worldly motives had any influence on my deter- mination ; indeed, worldly interests and friendships appeared to be quite in the other direction. . . . My relations were much opposed to any change in my views. . . . " There was one grand bond of union between Friends and myself, the belief in the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit in His Church ; and afterwards, uport examination, I found that in many things in which I thought my views peculiar, Friends held similar opinions. That the Christian religion was essentially practical in its genius, and destined to bring about a new creation by regenerating the soul, and that God's love in Christ Jesus was universal and unbounded by race or clime, were strongly fixed as truths in my mind. I DRAWN TOWARDS QUAKERISM 5 " My studies were pretty much laid aside, and my attention almost exclusively given up to religious subjects, and the perusal of Friends' books I was particularly pleased with the close reasoning of Robert Barclay, which set my mind for a time very much at rest as to doctrines." The winter vacation of 1834-5, spent as usual at Crediton, was not a happy one, for his friends natu- rally used all their influence to induce him to give up his new notions, and put obstacles in the way of his attending meetings at Exeter, eight miles away. But, as he said himself, they did not understand the depth of the impressions which his mind had received, and he w^alked the sixteen miles every Sunday, com- forting himself with the belief that he was being called upon to suffer for righteousness' sake. In consequence of the decline of the school it was decided that he w^as not to return to Heavitree, and in the early spring of 1835 he went to Wel- lington as private tutor in a Quaker family, with whom, though he had not yet formally joined the Society, he began to use the " plain language of Friends." Upon his next visit to Crediton in the autumn of 1835, Henry found that his family had somewhat changed their minds as regarded his religious views, and his favourite sister, Mary Ann, was disposed to follow him. These two were deeply attached to each other, united by similarity of mind and temperament J but the brother's seriousness was exaggerated in the sister to a kind of religious melancholy, which her 6 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. brother's absence, and the lack of s}-mpath}' at home, probably tended to increase. Henry never saw his mother again after this vaca- tion ; he was summoned home on account of her illness early in 1836, but arrived too late to sec her alive. Her death was the first that had ever deeply touched him, and there was an added regret in the remembrance that his change of opinions had made — not an estrangement, the mother and son were too devoted to each other to make that possible — but a strain on the bond of perfect sympathy between them. The )'car that followed was a very dark one. Henry still dcla}'ed to take the final step which should sever him from communion with the Church of England, and it was not till the spring of 1837 that he was formally admitted into membership of the Society of Friends. But the peace he sought for was not found ; on the contrary, he was beset on all sides by diffi- culties where he had looked for clear guidance, and the doctrines of the Society forbade him to believe that such difficulties might be part of the very help he needed, sent to lead him " by ways that he knew not " into the right path. He waited at meetings for the Holy Spirit to direct him — sometimes felt himself called upon to speak, and doubted whether the call was a real one ; and often when he had yielded to what he believed was a Divine inspiration he was so troubled, either in success or failure, by his own self- consciousness, as to doubt whether after all he had been doing right. His sensitive temperament was an in- I ins QUAKERISM DISSATISFIES HIM 7 cessant trouble to him through all his Quaker days. But the pain he suffered showed that the desire for holiness was real and earnest, and his faith in God remained firm when he believed himself to be cast away from His presence. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." At the same time Callaway was troubled by the low state to which Quakerism had fallen in Wellington ; he could not reconcile either the tenets or the conduct of its members with the writings of its founders, and when later on it appeared that there was the same discrepancy in other branches of the Society, new doubts and questionings arose and would not be laid to rest. Meanwhile he began to have scruples as to the teaching of " immoral " Greek and Latin authors. In a memoir of the Quaker James Parnell, compiled by him in 1846, he writes (quoting from Parnell's journals), " His wicked natural propensities were nourished by the education he received, so that whilst at school and after leaving it the same depravity of heart remained, and he continued to follow the vanities of the world." How far Parnell's undoubted genius and strength of character were due to his " carnal education," was a question that would never for an instant have occurred to the writer. It was fortunate that Callaway had worked industriously at his own classical studies before they were cut short by reli- gious scruples ; as it was they were apparently the cause of his giving up his situation at Wellington, and entering, not without much hesitation and searching of heart, on a new line of life. He became (in July 1837) 8 HENRY CALLAWAY cilAl'. assistant to a chemist and druggist at Bridgwater, and thus began the study of medicine which proved of such incalculable value to him in after life. He himself regarded the business onl)' as a means where- by he might be enabled to achieve the desire of his heart, and become a minister of the Church. He could not foresee that it would not only accomplish this for him, but would be the means of perhaps trebling the value of that ministry. In the meantime the work gave him constant occupation, and turned his thoughts into a more healthy channel, by making him think of other matters than his own short- comings. At the time, however, the want of leisure for meditation was a sore trouble to him, and when- ever he had time to make an entry in his journal, it is the same record of failure, dejection, " falling off from grace." In April 1839 he entered, by the advice of Mr. Cornelius Hanbury, the service of a chemist at South- ampton. Though his new employer was also a Quaker, he was not in the habit of using the " plain language " in addressing customers, and it was a sore trial to his assistant to be obliged to violate his principles by conforming to the general usage. It was a satisfaction when he received an offer from a former acquaintance, E. C. May, to live with him at Tottenham in the capacity of surgeon's assistant. He left Southampton accordingly, and took the oppor- tunity of spending a short time at Credilon. It was a very happy visit after so long an absence, and he was especially glad to be able to cheer his favourite 1 THE RESTLESSNESS IS UNABATED 9 sister, who had had a lonely life since her mother's death. It was the last time he ever saw her. Two months later he received the news of her death. Henry had formed high hopes of his future at Tottenham, and especially of the help he would gain from the Quaker ministry there. Here he was des- tined to disappointment — neither in doctrine nor in eloquence could he trace the true inspiration he sought, and he fell back again into the sorrowful belief that God was at least for a time abandoning His own Church on account of the sinfulness of its members. In later years when he had taken a wider view of life and religion he took, it may be, a some- what more unfavourable view of the Quaker tenets than he would have done had he read more of their later writings. He thought that they " did not accept the Atonement, or at least did not put it in the right place, nor believe in the Trinity," that they " put the Spirit above the Saviour, and so Jesus Christ is not honoured," and that " though they accept the Scrip- tures as coming from God, they give a key of inter- pretation which in many respects entirely closes them to the understanding." This may be a perfectly legitimate induction from the wTitings of some of the community, but there are others who would fairly repudiate the views thus attributed to them. There is little mention, in the journals of this date, of his daily life and occupations ; in spite of constant regrets for the dcadness of his heart to spiritual matters, his journals have space for little else. Hitherto he had received no salary, and even now 10 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. his earnings were quite insufficient for his needs, but it seems that wealthier friends came forward to help the intelligent and promising young student. He looked forward to completing his medical training at the London hospitals, if means and opportunity could be found ; but, knowing the temptations that surround such a life, he trusted in God to frustrate the hope if it should be likely to hinder the efficienc}^ of minis- terial work. He dreaded entering on this calling without the needful qualification — " Although I con- sider a Gospel minister [called to] the highest office with which a human creature can be dignified, yet I would rather never open my mouth than speak for Him without a commission. ... If I am not called, I shall have hereafter to rest heavily under con- demnation as being a liar before God. But if I am called and refuse to go, if I turn away from His commandments, will not the heaviest of all charges come against me .'' will not the blood of souls be required at my hands .'' " Thus he lived in perpetual self-torment, measuring his spiritual growth by the warmth of his feelings, and unable to see that uncertain health and frequent over-work were the chief causes of failure. Bright gleams of happiness were not altogether wanting, for in spite of the press of work he found time for occasional intercourse with other members of the Society with whom he was in sympathy, and who evidently looked up to him as on a higher plane than themselves. There are numerous letters on theological subjects written about this period at the I RENTS IN THE CLOUD ii request of his friends, showing in what esteem his opinion was held by the Society. They show a considerable power of thought and logical reasoning, overweighted at times by the bias of Quakerism so as to lead to hasty and wrong conclusions. Narrowed as his mind had become by the habit of looking at everything from one point of view, he was too apt to ignore the value of the opinions of others, even of members of his own religion, when they were in opposition to his own. That his kindness of heart was victorious over narrow-mindedness is evident from a letter to a fellow-student, who, after a good beginning, had fallen into evil ways, to his friends' great sorrow and disappointment. There is a tone of hopefulness in the letter, very different from the despondency with which Callaway regarded his own shortcomings as originating in an inherent evil which tended to separate him from God. Again, in the case of a man who holds what he deems heretical doctrines, he writes in his journal, with a tolerance one would not have looked for in these early years : — " Harassed by the thoughts of the multiplied divisions of the Christian Church, I was comforted by being able to look forward to the time when all divisions shall cease — when none will be anxious to establish the fact of his being of Paul, Apollos, or Cephas, but rejoice in being in Christ. In very many instances our differences consist only in a varied pronunciation of our Shibboleth. So that I feel willing to give cordially a right hand of fellow- ship to all who really love the Lord Jesus Christ, and 12 HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP. manifest by their fruit that He is aHvc in them and that they arc ahve unto Him. This view appears not incompatible with a firm and consistent maintenance of our own views of Christian Truth," He occupied himself a good deal with literary work at this time, .sending contributions, chiefly of a controversial nature, to the Irisli Friend. Early in 1841 Callaway began studying at St. l?artholomew's Hospital, and notwithstanding qualms of conscience which troubled him as to the advis- ability of exposing himself to temptation, he fortu- nately held to his post. Among the many enduring friendships made at this time may be mentioned those with Dr. (afterwards Sir George) Burrows, and with Mr. (afterward Sir James) Paget. Two examinations which he passed — the Royal College of Surgeons, in July, 1842, and the Apothecaries' Hall, April, 1844 — were in each case followed by severe illness, brought on by over-work and anxiety — a warning, verified in later years, of considerable delicacy of constitution. He was now fully qualified to practise ; but ill- health, and the doubt which haunted him as to the genuineness of his vocation, combined to delay for some little time the taking up of definite work. Left alone by the breaking up of the old home, there was no one of his own people who could advise or en- courage him. " Others had homes or relatives," he says, " I was homeless." He waited in expectation of some direct call, and was grieved and depressed that no such revelation was vouchsafed to him. Throughout the )-cars of studentship he hud felt 1 BECOMES A PHYSICIAN AND MARRIES 13 satisfied that he was doing right, since the means had been provided for him ; and he believed that he was in this manner preparing himself for work in the Church. The idea of eventually maintaining himself by medicine never entered his head. But a definite course of action had now to be decided upon, and there were difficulties which made him loth to con- tinue in his transitional state of " preparation." To take up medicine as a profession would necessitate borrowing capital to buy a practice, unless he deter- mined to devote all his time and energy to making one for himself — a course which he feared might turn him aside from the life-work he had set before him. As however there seemed at present no other way open, he decided on the latter course. He took rooms in Bishopsgate Street in the summer of 1844, and in a short time succeeded in making a fair practice, which extended itself steadily and rapidly as time went on. Success in worldly matters never caused him much satisfaction so long as he had only himself to provide for ; he was always afraid that he might thereby be drawn away from the desire for higher things ; but not long after this he met and became attached to Ann Chalk, another member of the Society, and thus furnished himself with a new motive for exertion. The wedding took place on the 14th of October, 1845. His journal contains an account of the curious ceremony, the silence of the little meeting broken only by oc- casional prayers and addresses from the surrounding friends. 14 HEXRV CALLAWAY CHAP. In addition to his private practice, Callaway now- held posts at the Red Lion Square (now Soho Square), Hospital, St. Bartholomew's, and the Farringdon Dispensary. There were plenty of opportunities in such a life — especially to a man so deeply impressed with the sense of a clear vocation — for giving help to his fellow-creatures in other ways than by healing their bodies ; but Callaway never seems to have divested himself of the belief that his profession was a snare to him, and that he was allowed to hold it only on probation. A new interest had lately come into his life, in the care and friendship of a young apprentice, Cornelius Hanbury, junior — a friendship which was destined to grow and ripen through all time, absence, and change. About 1848 he took a house in Finsbury Circus, and here they lived for four )'ears. An entry in his journal. May 12th, 1849, is of con- siderable significance viewed by the light of later events. He wrote at length a statement of his faith, and of doubts which were constantly assailing him as to the doctrines and constitution of the Quaker sect ; but the passage is scratched out so as to be in parts quite illegible, and some pages are cut out altogether. He regarded such doubts as the symp- toms of a diseased mind and morals, excusable in a measure because caused by the strain of work under which he had been living, but which must nevertheless be eradicated at any cost. It was not long before they had to be faced and honestly dealt with, but for the present he believed them to be con- I THE PERPLEXITIES DEEPEN 15 quercd, and when, in November 1849, he was " recorded as a minister in unity," he had no quahns of conscience about accepting the call except such as arose from a sense of his own unworthiness. " lOtJi month, 1849. How do I long to become a preacher of righteousness not only in words but in daily life and conversation ! . . . What are the duties of the minister of a Christian people ? His is the office of an under-shephcrd, appointed by his Divine Master to feed the flock, and to lead them through His aid and in accordance with His directions to right places of pasture. ... I have earnestly longed to be a faithful minister to [the congregation of Friends], one who shall declare unto them, in demonstration of the Spirit and with power, the wJiole counsel of God, without addition and without diminution. What are the opinions of men compared with the truth of God } I long to seek this truth only — to have my mind simply open to receive it — to be held back from all narrow and sectarian feeling — to be prepared to embrace all true Christians with the open arms of Christian charity." In July, 1850, prompted by an inward call, he offered to the Society his services in visiting the meetings and individual members in Devon and Corn- wall. The offer was accepted and the journey taken accordingly ; but when it was over, Callaway fell back into the old perplexity as to whether the call had been a Divine one, or whether it had been prompted by self-love, and would therefore bring evil consequences on himself and, far worse, on his hearers. i6 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. Two children were born to him, the first of whom died within a few hours of birth. The second came in April, 1850, and there .seemed to be every hope that he might live. The short-lived hope only made the sorrow deeper when within a month illness came, and this child also, which proved to be the last, was taken away from them. The parents' faith remained unshaken, but this grief, combined with overwork and mental anxiety, undermined Callawa}''s own health, and the short entries in his journal during the months that followed tell of struggles against bodily weakness and mental trouble. In the autumn of 185 1, symptoms of phthisis showed themselves ; the doctors regarded the case with grave anxiety, and he himself fully believed that his life's work was ended. Brought thus face to face with the near possibility of death, he once more set himself to con- sider seriously the state of his mind with regard to religion. The result arrived at may be quoted from a written statement made by him in August, 1852. "When about seventeen or eighteen, I fell among Friends; and whilst before that time, with a firm belief in the necessity of having the Holy Spirit's assistance to make me an able minister of the Gospel, I had been most diligent in cultivating my intellectual faculties by the study of languages and mathematics. ... I now took up Friends' more narrow view as to the work of the ministry, for narrower I verily believe it is. . . . These years were not passed in an unwavering belief in the soundness of the body of Christians to which I had attached my.sclf. . . . But when the doctrines did I HOPE THAT MAKETH NOT ASHAMED 17 not accord with what I believed was revealed by God, I felt more and more doubt, not of the principle, but of the authority of those who professed to be actuated by it. " Believing that Barclay had stated the truth accord- ing to the Gospel, I had no other idea but that of labouring in an outward calling whilst also engaged in the ministry ; but my chief view in studying medicine was that it was intended to aid me in the work of a missionary in Africa. ... I completed my studies, commenced practice, married. Yet in spite of these steps I had still in view the ultimate object for which I had entered the profession. . . . " When the words of the Apostle to his young minister, ' Give thyself wholly to these things,' was presented to my mind as my duty, how, with the con- stitution of the Society of Friends, was it possible for me to obey .'' I sat still in expectation that God would provide for my having a maintenance, which the Society to which I had united myself did not allow its ministers. " This has not been provided ; and when hope deferred had made the heart sick — when I found that an increasing practice more and more engrossed my time — when I feared that I might utterly fall away, and that my preservation was almost a miracle of grace, I laid aside the opinions of men, and carefully collected all the passages in the New Testament which alluded to the subject of the maintenance of ministers ; and came to the conclusion without the shadow of a doubt that God has ordained that they who preach the C 18 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. Gospel shall live of the Gospel ! And whilst still believiiii^ that each believer in Jesus Christ forms one of the priesthood, is in reality a priest, Jesus Christ Himself being the High Priest, }et I felt persuaded that it was in accordance with God's will that a body of men should be set apart from all worldly occupa- tions, for the work of the ministr}-. " This conclusion was, as it were, a striking away of the foundation of the ministry according to the opinions of Friends. And although it is now three or four years ago that I came to this conclusion, it was a long time before all its necessary concomitant doctrines also came clearly before my mind. But as )ears have rolled on, their truth has become more and more clear to my mind, and more weighty arguments have presented themselves for it ; also the whole question of the foundation of the ministry, as held by Friends, has been sifted, and I have concluded upon it, that their view is a grave mistake, arising from a one-sided apprehension of Christianity. " I make this record to state it as my firm belief that through Quakerism my services as a minister of the Gospel have been lost ; unless indeed it please God in His mercy still further to illuminate my mind, to open the way for me to become connected with some other Church, and restore my health that I may be enabled to fill aright the arduous post of a teacher of His people. " I still believe, and most joyfully and consolingly lay hold of the truth, that God's Spirit is given to His ministers ; that it is by His grace alone that they I NEARING THE LIGHT 19 can preach efficaciously to the saving of souls. But what I conclude is not true is, that a perceptible direction is given to His ministers, specifically and un- mistakably directing where, when, and what to speak. " Terrible were the struggles of my soul to ascertain the mind of God, to know whether He was saying to me. Go and preach thus or thus. And after all I have been obliged to conclude that I did not walk by sight, that is, I did not receive 2. perceptible direction, \i\x\. had to walk by faith that certain impressions on my mind were produced by the Holy Spirit. And then I inquired. In what then really consists this boasted iiiunediate guidance? In what in reality differ the ministrations among Friends from the ministrations among others .-* Good men believe themselves called to the work of the ministry; in this faith they prayerfully seek to attain a knowledge of God's mind ; they study and prepare, in humble dependence that God's illumination will rest upon them, and thus they prepare a discourse for others. Which then is most likely to speak truth, he who in faith believes himself called, and prayerfully employs all the means of God's appointing to qualify himself for the work ; or he who waiting for an immediate direction neither prepares nor studies, but rises in the assembly of the people to utter an unpremeditated discourse, his mind often the more disqualified for such a task by the excessive exercise to ascertain God's will, and the consequent nervous depression t " Give me, O Lord, I humbly beseech Thee for Jesus Christ's sake. Thy good Spirit to instruct me. C 2 20 UEXRY CALLAWAY chap. I Make me willing to leave all and follow Thee, though it please Thee to lead me into a path of contempt and tribulation. Let me, O my Father, have Thy blessing ; be Thou with me, and I am ready to go whithersoever Thou wouldst have me. Here I am, do with me as seemeth good in Thy sight. Amen." CHAPTER II Winter in the south of France — Gradual severance from the Quakers — Farewell to the Society — Uncertainty as to future course. The summer of 1852 brought a temporary im- provement in Henry Callaway's health, but the doctors agreed that he must leave England for the winter. Whether or not he should ever settle again permanently in London, his work as a general practitioner was pronounced too great a strain, and he decided to sell his practice, by which he had latterly been earning as much as ;^ 1,000 a year, and to study to qualify as a physician, in case no other course lay open to him. In October they left the house in Finsbury Circus and travelled by easy stages to the south of France, arriving in November at Montpellier, which was to be their headquarters for the winter. It was the first time that either husband or wife had been abroad, and they were naturally much interested by the journey and by the sights of Paris, the only place in which they stayed for any length of time. It is curious to notice how within the last few years Henry Callaway's attitude had changed towards the Roman Catholic religion, which he had been accus- 22 HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP. tomcd to regard \\ith horror, as tending to shut out altogether the true h'ght from the hearts of its adherents. " [Paris] \otJi vioiit//, 20. There is that power in Christianity that can exert itself and bring forth fruit notwithstanding the external forms with which it maj' be associated ; these forms may hinder it in its operations and may in some instances make it in- effectual by causing the soul to rest in them, to the neglect or want of comprehension of the truth which they were intended to represent ; }'et it possesses a living and leavening power which, even with a de- fective system, makes itself felt in the inmost principles of the soul, and silently affects the great work of restoration to spiritual health. ' Let us not judge one another any more.' I have my errors, the Roman Catholic has his. I trust that my errors of ignorance or of education, of temperament, of circum- stance, may not be permitted to mar the work of grace in my soul so as to shut me out at the last from the presence of my God and Saviour. And so I would trust that the same all-merciful and all-knowing Lord will not allow the errors of education and of prejudice, the deadening influence of an external formalism, to mar in any Roman Catholic brother the work of grace ; but that with all our incompleteness of faith, and all our want of clear perception of the Divine Will and of the Truth of the Gospel, with all our defects in doctrine and in practice, wc may stand together before the throne of God ' accepted in the ]5cloved.' "... lie was much interested in the II FIRST IMPRESSIONS ABROAD 23 cemetery of Perc-la-Chaise, and was evidently sur- prised to find how much genuine faith there was, shining through and overcoming superstition. " 10/// month, 25 [1852]. [He left Paris by the 10.35 train for Chalons]. . . . Two English gentlemen were in the same carriage with us. . . . Mr. [a clergy- man of the Church of England] and myself had a long conversation on many subjects, chiefly religious. We agreed pretty well on most subjects, for I cannot now defend the peculiar system of Quakerism, and he, although a decided Churchman in his sentiments, expressed his opinions with moderation. It is in conversation with such men that I find I have passed from the sectarian platform. ... I sometimes wish I had never left the Church of England. I did so at a period when I was young and inexperienced and ignorant ; and sincerity of heart, honesty of intention, and well-meant zeal do not save us from error, if they are not associated with a well-informed judgment, i . . A merciful Providence has been with me, and care- fully guided my footsteps, so that if I then stepped out of a right way, He has not permitted me to be entirely lost in labyrinths of error. " wtJi month, 25 [Montpellier]. Attended worship at the ' Temple,' for so the church of Protestants is designated, the term Eglise being restricted to the churches of the Catholics. Since coming to France, the question of attending other places of worship has, for the first time since I ceased to attend the Church of England, claimed my serious consideration. I have concluded that the exclusiveness of Quakerism had its 24 HENRY CALLAWAY chai'. origin in its own supposed election to be God's pecu- liar people, and that it is not a Christian exclusive- ness. I have not therefore hesitated to attend other places of worship. ... I often praj' to God that He will be pleased to grant me His grace that I may be enabled to do what is right. I trust I accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my all in all ; I desire to do so more and more, and day by day to grow in the knowledge of my own utter worthlessness and His all glorious sufficienc}'. Thus it matters not to what section of the visible Church I belong. Each section has its peculiar defects. None of them are without some taint. I suspect that as fallen humanity forms one of the elements of the Church, there will be a mixture of good and bad ; the Church without spot and blame- less is not the Church militant, but the Church trium- phant. . . . " \2th month, 5. A great noise and bustle here to- day, in consequence of proclaiming Louis Napoleon Emperor. . . . " \2th mouthy 12. Man}', very many and very deep are the disquietudes and troubles of my mind. I desire earnestly to know the Lord's will concerning me ; and very much have my thoughts been occupied since coming to Montpellier with the question of what my future engagement in life shall be, should it please the Lord to restore me to health. ... I look back to the time when I first came among Eriends, a time of sincerity and of religious earnestness, but when the mind was neither sufficiently informed nor sufficiently matured to determine between the relative values of II REGRETS AND HOPES 25 the communion I was leaving and that with \\hich I was about to associate m)'sclf. . . . Warm, imagina- tive, and impulsive, there was something attractive in the Quaker system of worship ; I entered into its spirit and fully comprehended its idea. There seemed to me to be an unspeakable beauty in individual souls presenting themselves in the Divine presence, not to listen to the word of man, but to worship God in spirit, to receive of Him that instruction which their individual state might require, and to hold communion with God through the medium of the Holy Spirit. This was the attraction, and my inability to ascend to the height of the idea was attributed to my infantile condition ; and great indeed was the strain upon my nervous system, whilst, sitting in these silent meetings, I endeavoured to attain to that entire abstraction of mind in which I might find myself alone with God ; bitter often was my self-reproach when other thoughts intervened between myself and my Saviour, and the meetings, instead of being times of spiritual edifica- tion and refreshment, often became sources of dis- couragement and bitter after-reflections. Yet there were times when my spirit was " Wrapt into still devotion which transcends The imperfect offices of prayer and praise. " Again and again various opinions came before my mind and were subjected to scrutiny ; but the scrutiny was made from the Quaker ground and things were seen with the Quaker s eyes ; and for )'ears I succeeded in reasoning 26 HEXRV CALLAWAY ciiAr. down the objections wliich would ever and anon arise in ni\- mind. By the system of worship I was held as by a chain ; and while I saw defects I attributed them to degcnerac)' in the body, and thought that a reform- ation might be effected. It is possible tliat had it been permitted to me to fill the place of a private Christian, I should never have called in question the princii)lcs of the Society ; I should have sat in their silent meetings, received instruction and edification, and thought little of the general condition of man- kind. But it was not so ; my place I believed was to minister to others, and with this prospect, to make myself acquainted with the real principles of the Gospel. TJtcrc arose the first little cloud which obscured in my sight the purity of Quakerism. I was called to the work of the ministry, yet I was also . . . called upon to have a secular occupation. To my consciousness the two things were incom- patible. . . I did not then see, however, what was the full dcv^elopmcnt of this idea of incompatibility ; I did not call in question the jMnnciple ; the freedom from charge to the Churches of the Gospel ministry appeared to me a beautiful feature of the self-denial of Christian Jove, and I accepted it from my heart. But I did not for myself inquire by a rigid scriptural examination what was really the mind of God on the subject ; ho, I expected that He would in some way or other provide means for me independent of the Church, and of my own exertions. . . . The medical profession, whilst it necessarily took away my thoughts from religious subjects exclusivcl)-, tended to develop my II NO LONGER \ QUAKER 27 intellectual powers, and give a wider range to my thought. ... I often wish that I had pursued my studies to be ordained a minister of the Church of England. . . . but as I had turned out of that way, I cannot but regard it as an unspeakable mercy that another profession was made the means of my intel- lectual culture. " I am no longer a Quaker. I feel no longer bound by [Quakers'] rules, it seems almost hypocrisy to practise them. ... It would be sinful in me not to be willing to enter into communion with other Christians. I differ from [the Quakers] on the great question of the maintenance of mini.sters, and should hardly feci at liberty to refuse the payment of tithes, should I ever again be so circumstanced as to have the demand made. Inefficient as we are, — utterly incompetent as the machinery of our Society must be admitted to be to act upon the masses and to evangelise the world,— the practical failure of the principle of a non-paid ministry which our history affords forbids us to stand in the way of other more active Christians ; it becomes us rather to join hand and heart with all who seek to advance the cause of truth and righteousness. . . . " What shall I do then } My health is such that it does not appear very probable that I shall ever be able to speak much. Yet I know that if it be God's will that I should be a preacher of His Gospel, He can heal all my diseases." As regards the statement above quoted, that he might have always remained in the Quaker com- jTiunion with untroubled conscience if he had not 28 HENRY CALLAWAY chai>. thought of becoming one of its ministers, one cannot but think that the probabilit}- would have been in the other direction. In all earnestness and conscientious- ness he seems to have renounced whatever secular reading or occupation was not necessary to the stud}' of medicine ; whereas if his intellect and good sense had had fair play, he might long ago have gained the clearer light which was now dawning, and which in good faith he had unconsciously been trying to shutout. The quiet routine of the life at Montpellier resulted in a steady though gradual return to health. Callaway devoted his time to studying French and natural history ; he read much theology, and, later on, began to practise a little among the English residents. The French was a matter of some difficult}- at first. " I said to the garcon soon after our arrival, ' I suppose you have great difficult}^ in comprehending my odd French V lie answered, ' Not at tAX^/ov I am accus- tomed to hear spoken broken-legged and left-handed French.' " On the 17th of January (his birthday) 1853, the tidings reached him of the death of his father. They had not met for some eight or nine }'ears, partly on account of the distance between them, partly because of the wider alienation arising from religious differ- ences. But there had been no ill-feeling, and they had continued to correspond till the time of the son's leaving England. '■^ 2nd viout/i, 1853. It is wonderful to mc how differently the Bible is read when I have put off the shackles which Ou.'d " Believe me, my dear Sir, yours faithfully, " Henrietta Townsend." There were indeed innumerable difficulties to be encountered from all sides during these early years. " Scarcely anything has turned out as I expected," he wrote to a friend in England. " I had formed no gorgeous expectations, no enthusiastic visions of the future ; indeed I am not sure that I was sanguine enough. I looked at missionary work, not with the vivid imaginings of a young and ardent convert, but with a judgment sobered by many years of bitter V STATUS OF KAFFIR WOMEN 71 conflict — how bitter at times none but God can tell. I had still very many things to learn ; and I trust I am not above being taught, either by the advice, the example, or the errors of others. But as all my life long, so now, I must think and act for m3'self, and it may be by myself." When they were at length settled at Spring Vale the work of the mission soon grew and prospered. There was an almost overwhelming amount of sin, superstition and ignorance to be combated, and the missionary found that he was able to do even more by personal intercourse with the natives than by Church- teaching. Diary. ''■ Juljf 8, 1858. Two lads came to-day, each attended by a girl somewhat younger than himself The girls were carrying all the burdens. I asked the young men why they did not help them ; one of them replied, pointing with his finger as he spoke, ' She is my ox ; and she is his.' From their very childhood the male is taught to look down upon the woman as his inferior and slave, and the woman is accustomed to submit. " A few days ago two old women brought some thatching grass for sale, and Anne gave them some salt. . . . They danced round her, kissed her hand . . . and told her, they were her dogs ! We should greatly mistake if we imagined that here was a humility which would readily submit itself to the moulding influences of Christian teaching. It is a degraded want of self-respect. They are tenacious enough of their habits and superstitions, and our ' dogs ' only 72 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. when tlic)- think they can get anything by it. ... I tell them that I do not wi.sh them to be dogs ; they are men, and as men have a holy impress made by the very finger of God upon their hearts . . . made by God with powers to know Him, to do His will and to be modelled in His image." ^^ ScptCDibcr lo. . . A man from a neighbouring kraal came to work for me to-day. He returns to his home at night. This I think is a healthy state of things to be encouraged. It is not desirable that men should leave their homes, wives and families for months together. Their doing so is not to be regarded as a s)'mptom of distress, as it is among the poorer classes in some parts of England and Ireland; for there is no such distress here, what few wants they have are readily supplied. But it is to be regarded as a symptom that there does not exist any strong bond of union between the man and his family ; the marriage-bond is feeble, easily broken ; the child's obedience to his parents very slight, and the hold of the parent upon the child frail. This people requires to be entirely regenerated — the Gospel alone is the remedy for the deep-seated evils of their social condition. " October' 9 . . . Wanting a servant, I told Udingezi that Mrs. Callaway would like to have a servant of that size, pointing to a young woman of marriageable age. His answer was an objection founded on the fact that she was one whom they wanted to buy cattle with. There is no doubt but that they speak of the transaction by which their daughters become wives as an act of sale." V KAFFIRS AND ASTRONOMY 73 In October, 1858, there was a comet which caused great consternation and wonderment among the Kaffirs, who came to Dr. Callaway for enlightenment. Satisfied on this head, they proceeded with further astronomical questions. " Where does the earth end ? What do you see when you come to the place where the sun rises .'' Are there two heavens, then, one above the other ? Did any one ever get to the sun ? " And finally, " I should like to have the magnet, to deceive the people and get a great many cows ! " By the autumn Spring Vale presented the appear- ance of a respectably-sized village. There was Dr. Callaway's own house, " made of wattle and daub ; 42 feet long, 10 feet broad and 7 feet high ; divided into four rooms, three bedrooms and one sitting- room, and with two little lean-to rooms, 6 feet wide, for stores, &c., at one end." There were also the long room of Dr. Callaway's own building, already mentioned, which was used as a store-room for timber, tools, &c. ; a long oblong hut of his contrivance, con- sisting of one large room divided into two parts by a curtain, and used when no longer needed as a chapel as a guest-chamber for travellers ; and the huts of the Kaffirs. They were also at work on the first temporar}- school-chapel — " a wattle andjdaub room, 24 feet by 12, 5 feet of which at the upper end were railed off for a chancel and raised nine inches ; with a three-feet deep verandah in front, and narrow verandah rooms at the back and one side, used as surgery and bedroom." 74 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. The Kaffirs took an immense interest in the build- ing of the little church. "A spirit of happiness and contentment, for the most part, pervades the station. The people have been inconvenienced both as regards their food and dwellings, but it is rarely that a murmur has been heard ; and now that they are beginning to see the satisfactory results arising from steady in- dustry, as plans which they could not understand are beginning to be deyeloped, their quiet acquiescence in what we were doing has changed to an active, earnest co-operation." Within a few months they had begun to replace the wretched native huts by brick cottages. The necessary funds were derived partly from Govern- ment grants, partly (his own and his colleagues' in- comes included) from grants from the S.P.G. and partly from the generosity of English friends. But till the end of his missionary life Dr. Callaway never had sufficient means to carry out his unlimited plans of enterprise. Of the Kaffirs living at Spring Vale, five or six, who had come as part of Dr. Callaway's household, had been baptised already at Pietermaritzburg. There was no opportunity at present for Confirmation, but he had decided to admit them after due instruction to Holy Communion. The first baptism which took place at the mission station was that of Umpengula's child. The Kaffirs, whether desirous of Christian teaching or not, were fully impressed with the desirability of attaching themselves to a Christian missionary ; many came for the purpose of learning the arts of agriculture, and others who had no wish to V CHRISTMAS AT SPRING VALE 75 learn themselves were anxious to have their children taught. On the other hand it occasionally happened that heathen parents brought the children in the hope that they would be taken off their hands, but were angry at their receiving a Christian education — for of course secular and religious teaching went hand in hand. Diary. "December igth [1858]. Mary has hired a little girl named Unomali. I had proposed to vaccin- ate her with the rest, but they thought it would be de- sirable to mention it to the father. To-day the old man came to take away his child. He did not wish to have her vaccinated ; he did not understand it. He thought it was a medicine which when introduced into the arm had the power of making his child believe." The first Christmas at Spring Vale was kept with due rejoicing. A few days' holiday was given, and on Christmas Day after the morning service a feast was held in the schoolroom, and presents given to all the Kaffirs on the station. Christians and heathens alike. " It was a very wet day. We have had a long drought, and the rain so far from diminishing our pleasure has added to it. Mary said to Jane (Miss Button), ' De people so happy, Missie ; dey say God has covered de table with plenty of food, and given dem rain.' I fancy the heathen Kaffirs connected my bounty in some way or other with the rain." Callaway's Kafiir studies had already started him on a new work — work taken up as it were by chance, 76 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. and of which at first he himself scarcely estimated the \alue. To Mr. Hanbury. " Spring J^alc, Upper Unikoiiia]izi, December i6, 1858. ... It is of course uphill work, this labourint^ against the ignorance and deeply-rooted prejudice of a clever, shrewd and selfish people. ... I have been very busy lately writing accounts, from the mouth of different Kaffirs, of their habits, traditions, belief, &c. Some of these are extremely interesting, and I think tend certainly towards the conclusion that the Kaffirs have degenerated from a much higher position intellectually and morally than they now hold. My object in writing these 'dictation lesson.s,' was simply with the view of improving my knowledge of their language ; now I continue not only with that view, but for the intrinsic value of the information itself. I hope some day to be able to give some account of this people, such as will be quite new. Their doctors are, I believe, great villains, probably the descendants of some old priesthood, and retaining all the evil influence and cruel tyranny of priestcraft over the minds of the people. . . . They are our most formidable opponents, and are to be conquered, I fancy, by the slow process of a siege rather than by assault. One is tempted to long at times to see some more evident fruits of one's labours, and to doubt whether anything is being really effected by our poor instrumentality. " . . . . We have about twenty people settled with .us ; and when I look at their rough way of living and V UMPENGULA ^^ their oddly-varied costumes (dirty and torn frequently, notwithstanding our constant endeavours to get them to cultivate habits of neatness and order) and compare them with ourselves, I think a stranger would not think them improved. The naked Kaffir with his bright-greased skin, his native dress consisting of a small apron round the hips, his beads and his sticks, is a far nicer-looking man than our half-civilised people, who dress, but — do not wash as they should. . . . But when I compare them with the other Kaffirs in rela- tion to their daily habits — when I see them in school reading with interest the word of God, struggling to master enumeration or labouring to comprehend the mystery of carrying in addition, or coming and asking for a MS. book that they may keep notes (!) — I begin to feel sure that they have escaped heathen- dom and are progressing towards something not only better as regards their world but higher and holier." Umpengula has been several times mentioned as a valuable w^orker, but it was not till they had been settled for some time at Spring Vale that Dr. Calla- way began to see that there were qualities in him which raised him many degrees above the ordinary Kaffir. He had found him intelligent and industrious, and consistent in his daily life ; and he now found, on calling him one morning into his study to give some assistance in the absence of the usual Zulu teacher, that Umpengula had a singular power of lay- ing hold of truth, as well as a w^ide knowledge of the subtleties of his own language. The two qualities 78 HENRY CALLAWAY chap, v combined to make him a most useful helper, first in the grammatical study of the language and afterwards in translations and in the collection of Zulu traditions. From that time he began to spend several hours almost daih' in the doctor's study, to the mutual advantage, as will be seen hereafter, of doctor and native. CHAPTER VI Spring Vale Church opened — Kaffir superstitions; the " Amatongo " and "Abatakati" — Party-spirit in Natal — Colonists and natives — Question of marriage between Christian and heathen natives. The little church was opened at New Year, 1859 ; with its chancel and simple fittings — the latter were gifts from English friends — it was a great improvement on the old schoolroom, which was now left free for its legitimate use. The congregation already averaged between forty and fifty, a number bearing, however, but little proportion to that of the people who were indirectly under Christian influence. Umaraule, a Kaffir chief of the district, came to Dr. Callaway for advice and assistance in his disputes with neighbour- ing potentates, and listened willingly to his reproofs and his teaching ; too proud to renounce his own faith, he was yet fully prepared to allow his people to come to Spring Vale for instruction. Diary. ^^ March, 1859. — The Governor left us to- day ; I accompanied him in the hopes of finding a road to the bush where I want to cut timber. It was a misty unpleasai"kt morning. . . A great many Kaffirs followed us from mere curiosity. I wished to be quite sure of So HENRY CALLAWAY chap. the meaning of a phrase Ukiikatiira ihlonibc, which I supposed to mean ' carried away by excitement,' and asked Umpcngula its meaning ; one of the men who was running by our side laughed and . said, ' We are, for we are following you without being asked.' " We halted at 4 p.m., the mist being so great that we could not be certain of our whereabouts. . . . In the water, saw some very curious animalcute, which appeared to be green with a transparent centre in the form of a S. Andrew's cross. It is possible that time spent on the microscope would lead to many discover- ies ; but I have other work. " Had a good night, sleeping alone in the dining- room tent. It is a hard bed the bare ground, but when one is tired one does not mind it much. " March ^th. . . . Set off about 9. Our object was to head the Ixobo, but during the progress of the day we got entangled in its branches, and had to make in two places a road for the waggons to cross. It became quite clear to me that there would be no possibility of sending a waggon for timber by the road we were going ; so I determined to return home to-morrow. " On the top of a hill we saw two messengers who had arrived from Pietermaritzburg ; they had brought the English letters, and mine with them. We were in a most exposed place, the sun looking down on us with fierce perpendicular rays, and not a single bush to be seen in any direction. I had a letter from John Morland, most kind and affectionate, giving me an VI FEELING AGAINST CONVERTS 8i account of what they had collected for me — the total about ^250. . . . " [On the way home] I had a long talk with an old doctor, whom I met with three attendants and abund- ance of medicines, dried roots and green. They all professed to have unbounded confidence in their remedies, and, if we may believe their own account, no one ever dies who is treated by them. " March 1 1 . — Usetemba [one of his converts] came to me to complain that the Christian Kaffirs were harassed and treated unkindly by the heathen Kaffirs, who are engaged as labourers on the station. ... I have endeavoured as much as possible to prevent a feeling of class springing up between Christian and heathen. There is very soon apparent a marked difference between them. ... I had hoped that the influence of the Christians would be a leaven among the unbelieving, and that a good would result which could not be accomplished in any other way. But the time will possibly come when a separation must be made. They have different thoughts, wishes and pursuits — the heathen cannot be coerced to think and act as a Christian. I trust I shall be able to do what is right in the matter. I urged Usetemba to be patient and trustful, and to be careful not to give needless offence, yet to be firm in what is right." Whether the " leavening " process was likely to succeed or not. Dr. Callaway's personal influence and tact at least rendered it possible in some cases to make the experiment. For instance, a young native girl, G 82 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. Umatyingana, contrived against her parents' wishes to come to school, and one day asked permission to stay at Spring Vale altogether. Her mother inter- fered, and Dr. Callaway told the child that she must obc)- and return home ; but the subsequent ill-treat- ment which she suffered at her mother's hands made the case a very hard one to deal wnth, and on her reappearance, instead of sending her back at once, he applied himself to the apparently hopeless task of influencing the parents. On inquiry it appeared that she did not " belong to " them at all. Her mother had married again, and as her stepfather had been too poor to pay all the cattle — the Ukulobola — to his wife's relations, he had given this girl in part payment. The owner accordingly sent to fetch her, saying that he was going to administer medicine (z>. a dose which the native doctors gave to converts to rid them of their Christianity), but Dr. Callaway interfered, de- clared that she was under his protection, that he would if necessary be responsible for the Ukulobola, and that if further attempts were made to molest her he should bring the case before the authorities. With regard to the parents, he had appealed to their common sense, rather than to any higher motive, for the right man- agement of the girl ; and when he now sent her back to them they treated her kindly and made no objec- tion to her returning to the mission station to be educated. In the end the mother herself came to see the child, and showed herself interested and impressed by all tha.t was being done for her. VI DIFFICULTIES AND ENCOURAGEMENTS 83 To Mr. Hanbury. '' Spring Vale, March 21, 1859. . . . I cannot say I expect numerous converts at present. They are so deeply steeped in absurd superstition, their daily habits are so low, their social life so debased, and their apparent worldly interest so wrapped up with the customs of their social life, that it is no easy matter to bring them even to listen to the word of the Gospel. There cannot be a doubt that we are influencing them in a variety of ways. Speaking to an old man a short time since upon some of the follies connected with their worship of the spirits of the dead, called Itongo, plural Amatongo, he said, ' But since you came here, we do not say the Itongo has looked upon us, but tJic Lord! How much real sincerity there was in this remark, and how much of the Kaffir subtlety or politeness which makes him like at least to appear to resemble his superiors, I cannot say ; but it is clear that he had exercised some amount of thought upon the subject, and had learnt to distinguish a myth from a reality. This at least is something. We endeavour to teach them the value of clothes, of improved agri- culture, of using other edibles besides the mealie and amabele (a kind of corn) ; and to show them that we are really anxious to benefit and to raise them, in the hope that, seeing that, they will listen to that higher truth which we have especially come to proclaim. . . . " I am getting on with the language ; every day gives me increased strength. I am again going through Genesis, which I hope will soon be in a print- G 2 84 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. able condition. It will not be perfect, after all the pains I have taken ; it will be grammatical and intel- ligible to the Kaffir, and idiomatic to a certain extent. I have in m)' mind to complete this. Exodus, the four Gospels, and the Psalms. I have also already made considerable progress in translating the collects of the Prayer-book, with the Epistles and Gospels attached to them." Diary. '■'■ April i. Umaraule, a chief who lives about twenty miles distant, sent requesting me to come and see a sick man. ... I found Umaraule at home; the patient was suffering from a chronic disease, promising little prospect of successful treatment under any circumstances, and none at all unless he became a resident at the station. They ascribed it to the influence of the Abatakati. I told them such diseases were common enough in England, where there were no Abatakati. Thisappeared to be a causeof astonishment, and a source of comfort to the patient, who appeared to feel that he had been befooled by the doctors. " The Kaffirs trace all disease to injuries or to secret poisoning, and the inhabitants of the kraal look around for the Umtakati or poisoner. They do not proceed in such inquiries as we should ; there is no investigation of evidence ; no attempt to trace the poison in the food, or the means which any particular person has adopted to mix poison with it. But a few men are sent to a diviner or seer, and he gives or pretends to give them such information as is sufficient to lead them to suspect some one, The truth is that VI HEATHEN ABOMINATIONS 85 they have fixed on some one before they set out, and the seer by artful questioning and suggestions obtains from the inquirer some hints which he repeats to them as an authoritative description of the Umtakati. This having been done, they go to their chief; and in the absence of a White Government he would call an assembly, at which the seer is present, Jiiuiself armed and Ids friends, to protect them against any violence from the Umtakati or Jiis friends ; when he is publicly denounced as the author of the death about which the inquest is held. I presume from description that it is a very exciting assembly, and calculated to elicit anything but the truth. The seer has his suspicions ; it is even probable that he has been directed by the chief or some other great man to point out some particular person, obnoxious either from his temper and habits or from his increasing power and wealth. The persons also among whom the death has occurred have their suspicions and are probably in communi- cation with the seer. All the assembly have branches of trees, and with them they smite the ground whilst the seer describes the death of the de- ceased, the mode in which he has had poison ad- ministered. During the whole time he walks round the circle of men by which he is enclosed. As he approaches the victim he looks at him, perhaps in- clines his head towards him with a searching gaze ; the others also look at him with fierce suspicious eyes. He then begins to describe his person, and the intima- tion that he is the poisoner becomes more and more marked ; he half points at him as he passes, as though 86 HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP he were almost but not quite certain of the man. This is enough to make him fear his approaching fate ; he begins to tremble and to smite the ground with his branch with a less amount of decision ; and to join in the people's cries to have the suspected poisoner named with a less degree of energy. These signs are readily interpreted as evidences of guilt ; and towards the end of the day the seer and his people arm and the name is pronounced. ... If the assembly agree with the seer, the proscribed poisoner is at once seized and killed together with such of his family as have been pronounced to have been his accomplices. In this way a chief gets rid of a too powerful subject — a neighbourhood of a troublesome kraal — a younger son of his father, mother, and the heirs to the property ! " On one occasion the supposed poisoner, Umzwazwa, who had been accused by the friends of the deceased without the formality of a " trial," came to Dr. Callaway for protection. The latter endeavoured to arbitrate ; but, as not unfrequently happens, the parties were only willing to submit to his decision if it was made entirely in their favour, and the case was therefore sent before the magistrate. The principal offender, Uzita, was sent to prison for three months, and those who had repeated the accusation or persecuted the " Abatakati " were sentenced to a fine of ten shillings each, or a month's imprisonment. But Umzwazwa, unfortunate man, went in terror of his life henceforth ; he firmly believed in witchcraft, and said, " I am dead — the people of Uzita have killed J VI RELIGIOUS PARTIES 87 mc." The people would still suspect him, and try to bring him to account ; and to his fear was added that of the vengeance of the men who had been punished for accusing him. In the following year Umzwazwa died, and as the friends of his accusers had lately slaughtered a bullock it was argued that no further proof of foul play was needed — it had clearly been done to bring about his death. So strong was the belief in witchcraft that the dead man's family refused to stay in the neighbourhood, and removed to a kraal some miles away. To Mr. Hanbury. "•Spring Vale, June 15, 1859. . . . From habit I have dated from home, but in reality I am at Pieter- maritzburg ; I came here on Saturday that I might be present at the Church Council, and preach three sermons during the week. Indeed they have put pretty much upon me, and I shall preach, D.V., in all six times in eight days besides having one service with the Kaffirs. We are in a divided state here, but I trust things are improving. The bishop sent and asked me to deliver the sermon at the opening of the Council. I felt it a great responsibility laid upon me, but have determined to avoid party questions and to urge to mutual love. I am going to preach on ' For- bearing one another in love.' Some, I have no doubt, will think they see party spirit even there. ... I en- deavoured to maintain a strict neutrality, and suc- ceeded in doing so for two or three years, getting thereby a little more credit for High-Church views 88 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. than I deserve. . . . The conduct of the ultra- High Church party here has at length driven me from my neutral ground, and I shall not hesitate to speak out on the questions of the day when it appears desirable. . . . But I prefer the quiet atmosphere of Spring Vale to the troubled air of religious controversy. . . . " There is a feeling among the colonists of Natal which would very easily pass into a disposition to en- slave. They leave their native place where an over- stocked labour-market makes it difficult for men to live, and come into a country which promises vefy fair to the enterprise of capital and labour. There is apparently abundance o{ hands ; but to get labour out of them is quite another question. . . . The white man is irritated when he sees these men apparently doing very little, yet coolly refusing to labour for him for money ; he sees his cattle suffer, his harvests in danger of being ruined, and all this in the presence of an abundant supply of labour. . . . The colonists, many of them, speak as though they thought that all this question about labour could be settled at once and satisfactorily by a latu ! How are 8,000 widely scattered whites to compel 200,000 coloured to labour, against their will .-' The Kaffir has scarcely any necessities which he cannot readily supply by a small amount of labour ; and if he is industrious and works hard he very soon makes for himself a position of actual wealth. I wonder what inducements the white man can offer to cause them to quit their present position for one resembling his own, so full of care, anxiety, and expense. . . . They see we are better VI DOUBTFUL PROSELYTES 89 than they ; yet many of them cHng with a kind of superstitious attachment to the past, and to their traditions and customs ; and that even after years of culture. I fear the absurd management of some of the colonists will sooner or later lead to a collision, and that then the Kaffir will retire before the white man, and seek in distant regions the peace, the liberty, and simplicity of his own native state. ... I feel quite sure that the difficulties so many white people complain of in the management of their Kaffirs is the result of a fault in the management. There is no doubt an immense amount of patience required in many, perhaps in all instances, and they will not for generations do things as we like to see them done. The only way of rheeting the difficulty is to learn their language or to teach them ours, and take pains with them as we should be obliged to do with a wild English peasant girl. . . . We have had a great addition to our numbers — the only objection one can feel is that they have come a little too fast for our means." To one of the Natal Clergy. " Spring Vale, September 20, 1859. ... I quite agree with you that we have no right to sit in judg- ment on the natives as to the objects which induce a man to apply for baptism. We are bound, I think, to regard the application as arising from at least incipient faith, and to receive him accordingly into the list of catechumens. But we have no right to shut our eyes to facts which may teach us that the application is 90 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. made from some selfish or worldly object. I do not say that we should reject even such an application ; but that we should be very careful in the preparation for baptism of one making it, and keep him in suspense if need be rather than hasten him to the vows of baptism. My custom is to watch as much as possible those around me, that so observing their daily conduct I might judge of the effect of the Word preached. It has rarely happened that a person has first spoken to me of being baptised — it generally originates with myself. . . . But sometimes a question strikes a chord which has been already vibrating ; and if it does not, it sets thoughts in motion which sooner or later bring him to baptism. " In preparing a person for baptism I take our baptismal service and explain it sentence by sentence. If [afterwards] I still have doubts as to his proficiency, I may repeat it, questioning rather than teaching. I find that it rarely happens that a Kaffir is satisfied till he has attained a considerable clearness of idea of what he is being taught." The low social status of women among the Kaffirs was recognised by Dr. Callaway as one of the chief hindrances to his work. The burden of labour fell almost entirely on the women and children, and the idleness of the men induced a want of moral fibre which barred their progress in spiritual not less than in worldly things. From his example they had begun to appreciate the value and dignity of labour, and day by day the result grew more apparent in the Kaffir labourer's increasing intelligence and self-respect. VI THE QUESTION OF NATIVE MARRIAGE 91 The number of men brought under Christian influence was thus larger than that of women, and it became a question how far intermarriage between Christian and heathen Kaffirs should be allowed. Dr. Callaway de- cided that as a rule it would not be wrong to allow a Christian to marry a heathen woman, otherwise many young men would be condemned to celibacy and thus exposed to temptation ; and at the same time he would in all probability use his superior influence to raise his wife to his own level. But the fact of the minority of Christian women gave no excuse for their marriage with the heathen, which if allowed might expose them to persecution from those in every way more powerful than themselves. One man, Utyanje, who had some time before applied for baptism, delayed to offer him- self, making now one excuse, now another ; it was at last found that he was seeking a wife, and wished to bring her with him that they might be baptised together. CHAPTER VII Illness at Pietermaritzburg — Recovery and i-eturn — The spider and the fly — Increasing responsibilities — Traditions and translations — Kaffir ideas of good and evil, and of God — Mission to Zululand — Christian and heathen ideas of death — The mission of the plough — " Medicine-men " — A flood. In September, 1859, Dr. Callaway received a sum- mons to attend a patient in Pietermaritzburg, and as the case was supposed to be a dangerous one he made the journey, contrary to his usual custom, in one day. The fatigue of travelling and of the few days spent in, town, added to a thorough drenching which he got coming back one night from the cathedral, brought on symptoms of illness which he nevertheless con- trived for some time to ward off. During October he suffered from weakness and sleeplessness, and was occasionally obliged to give up the church services ; but he struggled on till the middle of November, when Governor and Mrs. Scott, hearing of his ill- health, invited him to stay at Government House, in order that he might have the benefit of proper doctor- ing and nursing. The offer was accepted, and a light travelling-waggon was sent in which the journey was CHAP. VII DANGEROUS ILLNESS 93 made in four days, with all the care and comfort that was possible. But it proved altogether too much for him, and in two days after reaching Pietermaritzburg his illness became so alarming that his life was de- spaired of by the three doctors who attended him as well as by himself The only method by which they could keep up his strength was by strong stimulants, and he rebelled at last, saying he did not wish to die drunk. And when one tried to reassure him by say- ing there was no great danger, he held out his wrist, saying, " Feel that, doctor, and tell me whether it isn't the arm of a dying man .? " For some days his life hung in the balance, and then came a change for the better, and a very gradual return to health. Bishop Colenso and Dean Green showed him great kindness throughout his illness ; but above all he felt deeply the loving care with which he was tended by his host and hostess, and which was to him a lifelong source of gratitude and happiness. It was not till the end of January that a return to Spring Vale was possible. The journey thither was not as comfortable as one would think desirable for a convalescent, especially one night when a thunder- storm came on, just before they had to cross the Umkomanzi. " The biting of gnats, the weariness of excitement, the dreary darkness occasionally broken by the flashes of lightning, the dead silence broken by the thunder, and the pattering of the rain on our waggon-tent ; besides our waggon being on the slope of a steep hill, and our feet being consequently a foot 94 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. or two lower than our heads ; all these things did not permit our having a very refreshing night." But the patient's strength had so far returned that he was none the worse for these discomforts, and on the third day of travelling the)- reached Spring Vale. "As we were descending the hill towards our home the mist and rain cleared a little, and some of the people catching sight of us, the whole village turned out, and rushed out to meet us. The signal of our coming first reached us by the shout of one of the boys. ... It was a touching meeting ; there were such warm, loving and earnest congratulations. We found that they had all intended to have gone to meet us, but the rain of the previous day had led them to imagine it quite impossible that we should arrive so soon. Nor could we have done so if wc had stayed with the waggon, which did not reach home till Sun- day " (three days later). " I found in conversation with Udedizwa that the Kaffirs generally attributed my illness to witchcraft, exercised against me by the people of Uzita in revenge for the protection I had given Umzwazwa ; and that had I died the people of Uzita would have been regarded as guilty of my death ; and it would have been cited for many a day to come, as another instance of the deadly power of the wizard, that even a white man was not safe ! " There were great arrears of work to be made up after so long an interruption — it was four months since he had been really able to carry on his regular (juties — and the months that followed were very busy VII A NATURAL-HISTORY NOTE 95 ones. He gave up henceforth all manual labour, for which there was now no real need, since many of the Kaffirs were sufficiently good workmen to be able with a little supervision to do all that was required in building or cultivation. They thought their dear Umfundisi ^ had made himself ill by working with them, and were anxious to show that they could manage everything without needing to expose him to any further risk. By Easter Sunday he had prepared six converts for baptism, and the Baptismal Service with its accompanying festival, which had been de- ferred from Christmas on account of his absence, was held now, with a service of thanksgiving for his recovery. To Mr. Hanbury. " Spring Vale, Mardi 26th, i860. — I have just made a curious and interesting discovery in natural history. ... I have been aware for some time that there is a certain fly — probably of the wasp genus — which feeds on spiders. It boldly enters their webs, which seem to have no power to entangle it ; the spider is in great alarm, and very soon becomes a prey to his agile, long-legged foe. . . . Last year I found, whilst the men were ploughing, a kind of cell with a lot of spiders in it, but had no idea of con- necting this collection with the fly, merely thinking it an instance of gregarism in spiders. But a few days ago I found several holes stopped up with a white substance ; and as the said holes were not such 1 Teacher. 96 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. as should be stopped — one being in my writing-desk, for receiving the knob of the brass which fastens the drawer, another the mouth of a powder-flask, the other the mouth of my stethoscope, I took the liberty to unstop them, and was pleased to find again m)' old friends, the supposed gregarious spiders. But there was one thing which rather set me a-doubting ; the spiders were not of the same size, nor apparently of the same kind. The day after, I was writing in my study when my attention was attracted by a loud buzzing, and looking up I observed a fly in the mouth of my stethoscope ; and on shaking it out, found a diaphragm of white substance thrown across it, about an inch from the opening. I of course did not disturb it. The next day the nest was completed and covered in by a similar white substance, and during the day was visited by the fly, who appeared to be either put- ting a finishing stroke or two to his work, or to be ex- amining into the safety of the structure. I now began to suspect that the cells contained a winter store of provisions. When this error was corrected by one of the cells becoming accidentally broken, and when its contents were poured out, to my great satisfaction I found not only spiders, but a white grub actually eat- ing some of the spiders. Thus it is a store laid up for the offspring by the parent, of which we have already so many instances. The grub with his food is now in a pill- box. He has not lost his appetite by change of posi- tion, but is growing fat, and whenever I look at him, is eating. There are two things that require elucidation. How is it that the spiders, which arc 7iot dead hut only VII CULTIVATING, PREACHING, DOCTORING 97 stupefied, are thus mesmerised or chloroformised ? and how is it they do not decay ? I will try to give you the result in my next. I may add, however, that the fly at work in my study is of a very dark green ; that caught at Pietermaritzburg was red. . . . " [Dr. Livingstone] mentions a spider which he says he has observed sitting on a circular flat piece of web, but does not know what it is about. I have observed this disk of web again and again, and have further found out that it is double, and that the eggs of the spider are placed between the layers. I have a specimen which I intend to send to England. ... I am continually seeing something worth observing and collecting, but have not the time to give my attention to it." There were plenty of troubles and anxieties to be contended with ; to the expenses of his long illness was added the loss by lightning of several of his best draught oxen, and the same thunderstorm caused heavy damage to the wattle-and-daub mission house, which it became evident must soon be replaced by a more enduring structure. In i860 the number of residents had increased to thirty-six, four of whom were children newly intrusted to the missionary's care ; he would never refuse to take them if he could help it, and their maintenance necessarily entailed a consider- able expense which there were no regular funds to meet. But the very multiplicity of his occupations pre- vented Dr. Callaway from looking despondently at the future. Teaching and preaching, doctoring (he was H 98 HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP. becoming as famous for his treatment of animals as for that of human beings), superintending his work- men, trying experiments in cultivation — all these cares more than fully occupied his time and thoughts. The success which was bound to follow such whole-hearted industr)-, and which, with rare exceptions, attended every branch of his work, was his daily encourage- ment, and perhaps caused too great a disregard to the limited means at command. He had always the sanguine belief that as the work was given, the necessary means would be found ; and it proved a little embarrassing at times for those who had to find them. But as a matter of fact it was very seldom that the needful supplies did not arrive, sooner or later, and justify him in still further extending his labours. In the midst of so many occupations the work of translating and transcribing still went on. " I have " (he writes on May 28th, i860) "many hundred pages of Kaffir MSS., written at dictation at the mouth of different Kaffirs. They are tales, myths, customs, &c., and may some day be translated for my English friends' amusement. ... I go over [this] carefully, write it out clearly, call the Kaffir who has told me the tale, or another, and get him to explain everything I cannot fully understand ; the explanations are also written and appended to the paper. This is pure Kaffir, not adulterated by foreign idioms, and must become the basis of teaching. It is very different from the very best translations. " I inclose for your amusement a curious specimen of a colonist's original poctrj-. It was written by a VII UNEMBEZA AND UGOVANA 99 man who bought eight young pigs of me, and was the note sent by the man who came for them ! " Diary. "■June 17, Sunday. — The Kaffirs have two words, Unembeza and Ugovana, to express the opposing principles of good and evil, which are at work in the heart of man, among these savages as well as among Christians. Unembeza is very much like what we call conscience ; it is the witness for good in a man, the principle which urges him to act in accordance with his supposition of what is right. Ugovana is the carnal mind, that which impels a man to act against the Divine law of right. I took up these two words, and pointed out to them that the existence of such words among them showed ' the work of the law written on their heart,' of which the word of God was the great expositor ; that it was wanton, therefore, to separate themselves from the missionary by saying the Bible is the white man's law, but we have ours ; the Gospel is good enough for him, but we do not want it. They proved by the use of these very words that, independently of the missionary, they had a sense of right and wrong — imperfect indeed, and in some instances defective and erroneous, but still there it was — at work within them, urging them to do justice, to avoid sin, to choose the good and to avoid the evil. " Jnne 18. — Rode with Jane to the new kraal of Uzita's people. They have chosen a beautiful site, but have so placed their huts that the first heavy rain will sweep through them. I pointed this out to them and said, ' Then your children will be ill, and some II 3 loo HENRY CALLAWAY chap- will die, and )'OU will look around )"OU to find out an Umtakati.' Unsukusonke said, ' Oh no, wc will not again look out for an Umtakati — wc will obey Uncm- beza ! ' " ^'August 3. . . . I spoke to [Umncuke] of his duty to God, and what he owed Him. He said, ' Our Lord is Unkulunkulu, yours is Udio. You pray to Him, we will pray to Unkulunkulu.' But I said, 'What do you say of Unkulunkulu .-' Do )'ou not say He made all things .•* And we say of God, He made all things. There could not be two Creators of all things, could there .■' We worship Him who made all things, and ask you to worship Him and to become His.' He would not admit this reasoning, till I said ' What is there in the name of Unkulunkulu or Udio .-* let us speak of the Creator: He is One.' His mother, who was standing by . . . joined in, saying, ' Truly, He is One and not another ; there are not two Creators.' I said, ' You know that by the white people I am called Callaway ; the black people have given me another name, Umdvusela ; am I not therefore the same person as before .'' Am I another person be- cause I have another name 1 ' He said, ' No, truly you are the same person.' ' So,' I replied, ' God the Cre- ator is One, by how many different names soever He might be called.' " Aiigiist 4. . . . [Ujabisana] said, 'There are no such things as Amahlozi ; I know now.' I said, ' I would not say that, Jabisana ; T would rather say, you have mistaken their nature and power. What we call spirits you call Amatongo. When a man dies, there vii REASONING WITH THE KAFFIR loi goes out from him a spirit or Itongo ; but the spirits of the dead have not power to help us as you imagine. Don't give up the truth that there is a spirit within us, when you give up the fables with which you have sur- rounded the fact, which you beheve, of man's having a spirit which does not die when the body dies.' He assented. I. went on to say, 'Now I know so much about your behef, I am very anxious to point out to you how much of real truth there is in these traditions which you have received from the ancients ; and that these truths should have become obscured, altered, and mixed up with falsehoods and fables, is really no wonder ; such alterations must take place in all oral traditions. Men cannot possibly remember them cor- rectly if they do not commit them to writing.' He was much struck with this, and turning to John, said, ' Yes, I see, it is because they had not a book that they have made so many blunders.' I said, ' You know you say that Unkulunkulu made all things, and yet you give him another name Umvelinganzi, which implies that he had an origin : whence then did he spring.^' ' I do not know.' ' If he had an origin, he originated from something having a previous exist- ence ; he therefore could not have made all things. You say too he died, and that he was a man — the first man. Now here is a great truth and a great deal of fable. You acknowledge a Creator of all things ; but you say he had an origin, was a man and died, and no longer is able to help or to hear you. But what do we teach .'' That our Creator was not man, had no origin, but an eternal being ; that He I02 HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP. did not die, cannot die ; that He is with us now, and helps and keeps us every day.' " August 1 8. — UnomaH's father was here to-day. . . . I asked him when [Unomali] was coming back again. He said he loved her too much to let her come back. I said ' Why .'' She gets nothing but good here ; and what kind of paternal love is that which does not like the child to get all the good she can .'' The truth is, I suspect, you are afraid that if she comes here she will become a believer, and you may lose the Ukulobola. He said yes, he liked oxen, ten, twenty, thirty. ' Yes, more than you like your child, in fact. You say wc shall eat your children ; but it is in reality you who eat them by buying cattle with your own flesh and blood.' .... " There is so broad a gulf between the heathen Kaffir and the Christian mode of thought that it re- quires the utmost patience and tact to gain his ear at all. The Bible is to him a fearful kind of thing. He regards it as the Ubuti of the white teacher, whereb}- he is to be turned into another man, have all the springs of his natural enjoyment poisoned and his whole life made bitter. But speak to him from ' pro- phets of his own ' — show him that underneath their tradition there is a wonderful substratum of truth — show that their own ancients knew more than they, and that it is clear that traditions orally received have lost much in transmission and had much added to them ; you are then meeting them on their own ground ; they hear words and thoughts to which they are accustomed made standing points from which to VII MISSION TO THE ZULUS 103 proceed to make known to them higher and holier truths." It was no Httle help to the teacher that his servant Umpengula, who had already shown himself one of the steadiest characters and best workmen among the natives in Spring Vale, was thoroughly imbued with the missionary spirit, and would talk to the men with whom he worked or traded of the " good news " which his master had come to teach. Knowing his kins- men's language and mode of thought he had an ad- vantage which even Dr. Callaway, with all his study, could not have ; and perhaps the help which this man gave suggested to Callaway's mind the idea which henceforth gained an ever stronger hold upon him — that Christianity could hardly take firm root in the colony till it could be propagated by native teachers. At present that prospect was far distant : he knew that it would take years to manufacture his raw material into educated, well-trained clergymen, and that it could only be done by getting hold of the children and giving them a thorough training, remov- ing them as far as possible from the evil influence of their heathen neighbours. During the past year Bishop Colenso had spoken several times to Dr. Callaway on the feasibility of starting a mission in Zululand. There was especial need for evangelisation in the great tract of country stretching to the north and west of Natal ; and the bishop, in laying his plans for the starting of such a mission, looked to Dr. Callaway as likely to be most helpful. " He is the only one of my missionaries pro- I04 HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP. ficicnt in the [Zulu] language," he wrote to the Secre- tary of the S.P.G. The success he had met with at Spring Vale, and the experience he had gained there, made him the fittest man to be chosen to undertake the work ; but on the other hand he was himself loth to start afresh on new ground just as his Spring Vale labours were beginning to repay him, and he was very thankful when after much debate it was decided that Mr. Robertson, who had been in the colony rather longer than himself, should take up the work. Calla- way's health would probably have suffered if he had had to undergo again the hardships which had attended the settlement at Spring Vale ; and the Kaffirs were happily advancing beyond the stage when, as he said, they " could admire and understand only physical qualities anci mechanical knowledge." They were learning to appreciate intellectual worth, and further to grasp the idea of the value of justice and truth and holiness. Physical labour had been throughout only a means by which higher things were to be taught ; and the time was coming when the teacher might lay it aside to give all his strength to the harder work of spiritual training. The guiding of his wayward " children " was a far harder task than the guiding of the plough, and the building up of their characters than house-building. " It is a constant labour," he writes, " to keep those right who have entered the narrow ^\'ay, and to induce those who are unbelievers to enter." Diary. " September C)t/i, i860. — One of the laws of Unkulunkulu transmitted by oral tradition is that the VII SORROWFUL, BUT FULL OF HOPE 105 husband may beat his wife. And in their thoroughly heathen state such a beating sometimes takes place, and the wife sometimes bears it, sometimes leaves. Thus Usoguja beat his wife, by giving her a slight blow" (she had previously half bitten his finger off) " and she left him at once and has not yet returned, and it is said she has become the wife of another man. Such is the sacredness of marriage among the Kaffirs ! " October \st. — John's little girl, Annie, (Et. about seven months, was taken ill last Tuesday, and died on Friday. . . . The effect of Christianity is not perhaps more strikingly seen than in the difference with which the Christian and heathen Kaffirs con- template death : the latter with a loud wailing of Maye, maye,' which is repeated at the arrival of all fresh visitors, and they as they approach the kraal where the death has taken place will themselves take up the wail, and the sound extends far and wide over the sur- rounding hills. But with John and Elizabeth there was the silent expression of a deeply-wounded but submis- sive heart ; the tears flowed, but not as of those who are without hope. . . . As I spoke a few words of comfort [John] assented at once with a choked and half-sobbing utterance. They did not like the body to remain in their cottage during the night. It is their custom to bury immediately. It was therefore taken into the church, and when placed in its coffin and nicely laid out all the people liked to come and see it. Many of the heathen also came, and as they looked on the Christian baby, looking rather asleep than dead, they io6 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. saw what possibly they never saw before, that the recollection of joy may linger around the memory of the grave. Some expressed themselves as pleased and surprised at seeing the care we bestowed on the body. We have not yet had any place marked out as a graveyard, this being the first death amongst us. We therefore dug its grave within the enclosure of our garden, and then the interment took place. ... I believe every person in the village of every age, and some from neighbouring kraals, attended. Little Johnny did not appear in the least degree to com- prehend death. When taken into the church to see his sister before nailing down the coffin, he looked and laughed and said ' Annie,' and then ' She is asleep.' " October 2nd. — Perhaps nothing, short of a real persuasion of the truth of the Gospel, will have so great a power to break down the miserable system of polygamy as the plough. [The Kaffirs] purchase women, whom we call their wives, that they may have plenty of food and a large number of friends. The plough is a cheaper producer to them than a wife. They can purchase a plough with two oxen ; eight more will enable them to break up the first year, and two after, when the ground has been already broken. They give from ten to fifteen oxen for one wife ! And must needs for }'ears keep themselves poor by purchasing others. . . . The false system works nothing but evil, and among the rest a want of prosperity, and inability to press forward on the road of healthy progress and elevation of character." VII THE NATIVE DOCTORS 107 Twenty head of cattle was sometimes given for a wife, who was then set to dig, and beaten if she did not do it fast enough. Apart from the trouble which the " Umtakati " superstition caused in its strong hold on the Kaffir mind. Dr. Callaway was sorely tried by the native doctors and their constant interference with his treat- ment. It was evident to him that they had some powerful remedies, and he was anxious to find out how much they really did know, and what part faith-healing might play in their successes. He contrived to gain the goodwill of " a celebrated Doctor of Medicine " so far that the man brought him a patient, and listened while Callaway explained the nature of the disease. " He was evidently disposed to be communicative afterwards. He saw a turkey- cock and asked its value, adding, it was a bird to make Umsiji from. Umsiji is a charcoal produced by burning animal remains — large birds, snakes, tigers, &c. They have great faith in this as a remedy They sacrifice and rub it into the cuts. . . . He had evidently never seen such a bird before, yet he examined it as a medical connoisseur and [ex- pressed .-'] himself with the utmost confidence in the remedial power to be obtained from such and such parts." These were all so many difficulties to be fought with and conquered ; and encouragement was not wanting either from outsiders or from his own experience. io8 HENRY CALLAWAY To Mr. Hanbury. "•Spring Vale, Novcinhcr ist, i860. — I have never liad, a.s )'ou appear to tliink from }'our letter, any fixed idea of returning to England even for a sea.son. I clearly should not only not be ju.stified in incurring .such an expen.se, but my work here would aLso .suffer. Nothing but a clear necessity must take me to England. ... I believe Africa is my future home. I have not the least shadow of the shadow of a wish to leave my work, to return to the country of my birth and education to reside there. I should like to visit you, to interest English people in mission work, to try to get means for more vigorous efforts, and to qualify myself for the great labour of evangelising and civilising the native races here. . . ." Diary. ''November 25///. — There has been a great deal of rain lately, and our little river has again and again filled to its highest banks. . . . We can rarely see the waterfall in the height of its beauty, for when the river is highest the grass is thoroughly saturated, and numerous little watercourses usually dry arc converted into streams. It requires the enthusiasm of a new-comer and the power of novelty to tempt one to sally out for the sight. But to-day, after a warm morning and sultry afternoon which betokened an evening storm, just before the time for chiming the evening service the tempest began ; the rain came down in torrents, the ground already saturated could take in no more, and the river not onl)^ filled but VII A SIGHT OF BEAUTY 109 overflowed its banks, rushing across the flat below the house Hke a large river. ... I was called to go into the verandah of the church. There I saw a splendid sight ; it was moonlight, dimmed by clouds ; at the foot of the opposite hill, and winding around to [within] a hundred and fifty yards of our house, the swollen river could be seen rolling its turbid course ; not roaring however as it does sometimes — it was too deep for that — rushing violently along, its wavelets sparkling with white foam. The people in the upper part of the village were running through the rain to reach John's cottage, which with William's hut is on the river's bank below us. ... I thought it best to go and look after them myself, for they have little or no judgment, and will often do very silly things in times of emergency. ... I set out, but soon found that I had to wade through water ankle-deep. . . . As we proceeded the evil increased ; the ditch behind the kraals was full and overflowing, and but for a trench I made yesterday to divert the water from the back to the side of the kraal the buildings would have suffered considerably. ... I satisfied myself and pointed out to the people that there was no appre- hension. As we returned we met John at the corner looking the picture of merriment and content. ... At this point [the sight] was very beautiful — islands were formed here and there of greater or less extent, and trees just raised their heads above the water. The people said ' The Umkomanzi has come here,' and in truth it looked a river as big as the Umkomanzi — looking up the valley, the streamlet which proceeds no HENRY CALLAWAY chap, vii from it, and which is fordable at ahnost every point, had also swelled into a broad and deep and foaming sheet of water. ... A large fire-fl)-, like a star, was disporting itself over the water. Altogether it was as beautiful a scene as I have witnessed in South Africa." CHAPTER VIII Bishop Colenso's books and their reception in England and Natal — His "deposition" — ConseCTation of Macrorie — Callaway's attitude — Personal differences — Refuses to attach himself to either party — Submits under protest to Macrorie's jurisdiction — Diocesan Synod ot 1870 — Callaway's views on authority, on the marrying of divorced persons, on universalism. The twelve years that followed, though full of work and of grave anxiety, were marked by few important events ; and it seems best therefore to set aside strict chronological sequence and to class together the sub- jects which during this time principally occupied Dr. Callaway's mind. Three dates may be given by way of land-marks: — (i) The starting of a new mission- station at " Highflats," an offshoot from Spring Vale, in 1863 ; (2) The consecration of Macrorie as Bishop at Capetown in 1869; and (3) The establishment in 1 87 1 of a mission in Griqualand, which was called Clydesdale, and which to a certain extent took the place of Spring Vale as a missionary centre. The most important of Dr. Callaway's work, and that to which he would fain have devoted himself ex- clusively, was, of course, the education — Christianisa 112 IlEXRV CALLAWAY chap. tion — of his native flock. But it was impossible to make any real progress without sometimes coming into collision with the work which was being done by other missionaries in the country, and Callaway found him- self — for this reason if for no other — drawn into taking a conspicuous part in the controversies which were already beginning to trouble the Church in South Africa. No one would wish to read here a detailed account of the well-worn " Colenso controversy," but it will perhaps be as well to give in as few words as possible the main facts, in order that Dr. Callaway's attitude in the matter may be understood. In i860 Bishop Colenso had published his Coui- mentary on tlie Epistle to the Romans, in which he put forward certain views, as to the doctrine of the Atonement and the question of eternal punishment, at variance with the then generally received opinions of orthodox Churchmen. Almost at the same time ap- peared the volume of Essays and Rcviczvs, which raised widespread alarm and suspicion ; and the publication two years later of Colenso's book on the Pentateuch, called forth a universal outer}-. It at- tacked the belief in "verbal inspiration," and was looked upon by many as striking at the very root of the Christian faith. The anger and alarm thus excited was naturally at its highest in and around Natal. Bishop Colenso, and the Metropolitan, Bishop Gray of Capetown, were both in England at the time ; but the latter returned to his diocese and summoned Colenso to appear VIII DR. COLENSO^S "DEPOSITION" 113 before him at Capetown to answer to the charge of heresy. Colenso remained in England, but sent a representative, Dr. Bleek, to enter a protest against the illegality of the whole proceeding. The Court met in November, 1863, and Bishop Gray, supported by Bishops Cotterill of Grahamstown, and Twclls of the Orange River Free State, condemned the obnoxious books and " deposed " Dr. Colenso from his episcopal office. But during this controversy another case had been tried in Capetown which had consider- able bearing on this. Bishop Gray had " deprived " one of his clergy for contumacy in a theological dis- pute. The latter had appealed to the Privy Council, who annulled the deprivation on the ground that the letters patent held by Bishop Gray having been received in 1853 were of no value, inasmuch as the Cape Government, which had been created three years previously, had sole authority to sanction them. Dr. Colenso appealed to the Privy Council, and judgment was given jn his favour on similar grounds ; Bishop Gray, it was said, had no authority by his letters patent to act as he had done. But Bishop Gray was by no means daunted. He claimed under any circumstances j//;7/;/ir?/ jurisdiction over the South African bishops, and when Dr. Colenso rejected his claims and returned to his work at Natal, Bishop Gray launched against him the sentence of excom- munication. Colenso treated this, as he had done the deprivation, as a mere bnituin ftiluien. and after wait- ing for several months, proceeded through the Civil Courts to eject from their benefices the Natal I 114 HENRY CALLAWAY chaI'. clergy who treated him as excommunicate. Thus a schism was created which is not even yet fully healed. In England, too, the controversy was hot. The greater number of the clergy, no doubt, were on the side of Bishop Gray, but there was a large and influential minority who felt not only that he had assumed powers which the law did not give him, but that some of the grounds on whicli he had condemned Colenso were theologically untenable. It was not merely those clergy who might be supposed to agree with Colenso's views, — they were few — -but calm judges like the Archbishop of York (Thomson), the Bishop of London (Tait), Peterborough (Jeune), St. David's (Thirlwall), Ely (Harold Browne), Lincoln (Jackson), who felt compelled to refuse what Bishop Gray somewhat peremptorily called on them to do, namely, to ratify his sentence. Nevertheless, being supported by his friends, he was determined to carry his point. The Rev. W. J. Butler, Vicar of Wantage, on his recommendation was elected bishop by the Natal clergy, but after much hesitation declined the see, by the advice of Archbishop Longley and l^ishop Wilberforce. The former of these prelates expressed himself most firmly and uncompromisingly as to the mischievous character of Dr. Colenso's books, but he also saw clearly that the peace of the Church would be endangered by rashness. And when at length Bishop Gray secured his new bishop in the person of the Rev. W. K- Macrorie, and the more ardent of Dr. Colenso's op- ponents were eager, as Bishop Gray was, to have the VIII CONSECRATION OF BISHOP MACRORIE 115 consecration in England, the Archbishop pronounced against it, and was supported by his suffragans. They saw that grave confusion must follow such a step. In the end, after many delays, Mr. Macrorie was con- secrated at Capetown on the Feast of the Conversion of S. Paul, 1867. We have seen that Callaway had undertaken missionary work under Bishop Colenso, and had at first attached himself warmly to him, believing that in essentials they were in full accord. He had after- wards discovered that they had many points of dis- agreement which it was impossible to bridge over without to a great extent hindering his own work. The difficulty had not diminished with his removal from, the immediate scene of disturbance. He was troubled with the bishop's Scripture translations ; for some time his had been the only Bible in Kaffir, and Dr. Callaway's own work of transla- tion was much hindered by the innumerable calls upon his time. To give one instance of the danger he dreaded : " The Word zvas made Flesh " was translated " became a mere man " ; and in con- versation Callaway ascertained, as he believed, that the bishop had not made a mistake in the language, but had used the words as a distinct assertion of his own belief. Callaway was, however, determined that a difference in theological opinion should not interfere with the respect he owed to one set over him by the Church ; he was " bound," he said, " to support him as bishop, and to oppose the partisan spirit which was causing him trouble." This had begun as early as I 2 ii6 HENRY CALLAWAY cii.vp. 1858 (the " Unkulunkulu" difficulty earlier still), and. far from healint^, the division widened as time went on. The bishop's books were, perhaps, as much dis- liked by Callaway as by any one ; but he recognised the fact that the opposition to them was to a great extent raised by men who had not thoroughly studied the questions at issue, and whom it would have been easy for the bishop to silence. The following letter shows what position he himself held with regard to Colenso's teaching. '^October 20, i86r. . . . The clergy for the most part .... have their attention fixed on the probable non-eternity of punishment. . . . Who would not wish that there may be a disciplining process going on in the punishment after death, which should issue in the restoration of all things not only to a constrained obedience to the power of the Almighty, but to willing, loving allegiance to Eternal Love ? I, for one, should be glad to believe in such a doctrine, and at any rate it is on the side of what appears to us human creatures the lovely part of the Divine character, I sdiy appears, for what really do we know on the question ? Punish- ment may be, and probably is, as great an exhibition of love as forgiveness. But men are apt to talk of such questions as though they arc better acquainted with the Infinity of the Godhead than any one is or can be even with the most finite of creatures. Erro- neous on this question, the bishop's opinions, I believe, are subv^ersive of Christianity in others. While he says a great deal about grace, and the Son of God, he does not believe in grace as we believe, neither does VIII DANGER OF COLENSO'S VIEWS 117 he make the Son of God the Mediator as He is re- vealed in Holy Scripture. He would have us stretch over Him and reach the Father without Him. . . . When one reads the book, one cannot help asking of what use Christianity, the Bible, the Church, or Chris- tian ministers are .'' And, for one, if I could believe it true, I should give up missionary work and preaching ; it would appear a useless work of supererogation, and possibly a positive interference with God in His work and a hindrance in the way of salvation." In the summer of 1862 a more personal difference arose between Dr. Callaway and the bishop. The former had on his own responsibility, and with his own money, " taken up" the grant of the land on which Spring Vale stood ; the sum granted by Government had then been employed for purposes of cultivation, building, &c., which Dr. Callaway felt was the best possible means of training the Kaffir population. As this public income was never large enough to carry out his manifold schemes of improvement, he had always spent as much of his own private income as could be spared from private needs towards making up the deficiency. Bishop Colenso now (in the summer of 1862) objected to this system, which he said was regarded with suspi- cion by Natal colonists ; and requested that Callaway should give up the land to the control of Government. Callaway believed that the bishop had no right thus to dictate to his clergy in private matters, and he thought too that the request was unjust, since he had never derived any personal profit from this land Ii8 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. investment ; and he was still more loth to resign his claim, as he believed the conditions under which Government would carry on the work would not be so favourable to the growth of the mission as his own methods. On the other hand, there was to be con- sidered the harm that might be done to the people if he set himself in opposition to the bishop ; and to avoid schism he consented to resign all claim to half the land (on which he had spent in all;^900) retaining the rest, with his own cottage, as personal propcrt}-. It was done as a matter of policy, and seems to have left a soreness in his mind which the bishop's later acts did not tend to heal. Callaway withdrew as far as possible in the }-ears immediately following from the agitation that troublctl the Church. His letters show nevertheless that he was watching with deepest interest a strife of such vital importance to his own life. To Mr. Hanbury. " Spi'ing Vale. JMay gt/i, 1868. . . . There is a great deal that is terribly false in the theology of the day. It must be shaken before it can be corrected. It sometimes puzzles mc how some of the things I read in books could ever get into people's heads ; much more how they could ever delude themselves with the notion that they got them from the Bible. I tell you candidly I do not believe the ultra-High Church party, represented by our good but mistaken Metropolitan, is going to correct these faults. Neither VIII AND OF BISHOP GRAY'S ACTION 119 do I believe that Ritualism will do it. We want more reality— inward reality, — not more external ceremony ; and I do not believe the external ritual however much extended will lead to this reality which is so much needed. Colenso has stirred up the Augean stable ; and it may be that the streams of scepticism such as he is occasioning may help to clear out the accumu- lated filth of ages ; but as these streams carry away the filth they too will go with it, and we may hope leave Christ's Church somewhat purer." To the same. ^'Spying Vale, August 1st, 1868. . . . There are some indications that an attempt wall be made to force [me] to side with Capetown, or to have my missionary income withdrawn. With my present feelings I should accept the latter with all the con- sequences. And if it is still God's will that I should carry on His work at this place, or in the way I am' at present carrying it on, He will provide me means. . . . " I believe Colenso's conduct has been much mis- represented. And it is this misrepresentation which, looking at what is passing on around me, appears to me like intentional lying, or that kind of gross exaggeration and mis-statement of facts which is just as mischievous, and if made simply from prejudice and carelessness involves just as much responsibility, that disgusts me with the Natal Cape party. Had Colenso on his return been met by the calm firmness I20 llEXRY CALLAWAY chap. of Christian men ; had no wrong-headed opposition been made to his legal position ; had the part}' opposed to him not carried out in a very offensive way, the principle of putting the Church — or rather their own notions — above the law ; — Colenso would have taken no action against any clerg\-man or con- gregation in Natal. . . . There are several perfecth' orthodox clergymen who act with hini ; that is, thc\' refuse to acknowledge his doctrines, actually preach against them and speak against them, but acknowledge his legal position until he has been removed by com- petent authority. These are denounced by the oppo- site party just as much as Colenso himself, and everything [done .'] to damage their private and public character. "... I am not afraid of free thought, not even such free thought as Colenso's. It will be but a means eventually of sifting out precious grains of golden truth which are hid beneath the accumulated rubbish of conventionality and tradition. But I am afraid of the tendency of the opposite part)' ; and there are two or three points in which I feel I could never agree with theiri. (i) The position of the priest. ... (2) The confessional. ... (3) The eucharistic views. . . . Do you think that if I were now to separate, and identify myself with this party, and then spoke out on these three evils as I should speak out, that they would have cars to hear, or that they would not look upon me as being as much a heretic as Colenso .-'... If I thought as Colenso, I must take my stand outside the Church, and bow all the powers of my mind VIII REFUSAL TO BE A PARTISAN 121 to root out from God's fair earth so vile a superstition. For to my mind if Colenso is true, Christianity is the greatest farce, the greatest He that has ever captivated and deceived mankind. These and such Hke thoughts terribly trouble me. I hate religious controversy. It is the food of irreligious minds, and the destruction of the simple. And I see clearly that there is a higher and holier faith than that which separates us, a higher and holier conception of Christianity than the gene- rality of men even imagine. I am simply sitting still to see what God will do. I feel that I am utterly unable to decide on any line of conduct for myself at present. All I can do is to work and wait. The time may come when I shall have to take action, and then I shall have sufficient litjht and strength to act." To the same. " Spring Vale, September 22, 1868. ... I do not at all like the action of Convocation. It is arbitrary and founded on very dangerous principles which will work great evil, not being, as it seems to me, founded on truth and equity. London alone appears to me to have a correct appreciation of the case .... " Suppose that I or any other person should think it our duty, in accordance with our ordination vows, to strive to drive away what we regard as the false and erroneous teaching of the party which in Natal is acting against Colenso, what is to be our protection 122 HENRY CALLAWAY chap- against the same party ? what is to prevent their setting up their wills and private judgments over and above law, and casting us out ? " The Capetown party endea\oured to secure Calla- way to their own side by representing to him that if he did not accept Bishop Macrorie the S.P.G. would probably withdraw his income. " Let them ! " he said. It was not such arguments as this that would draw him ; and indeed, with his many friends in England and Natal there was little likelihood that he would ever have been left wholly without the means of carrying on his work, though of course such a pro- ceeding would have seriousl}- crippled him. To Mr. Hanp.urv. '^Spring Vale, March 3, 1869. ... I quite agree with what you say as to the want of what I call the 'judicial sense' in a body of ecclesiastics. We could not have a more striking instance of it than in their conduct in the Colenso case. They abuse schismatics, and put down schism among the deadly sins, 'the rending of the body of Christ.' And yet when by ordinary actions of law they cannot get rid of an erring brother, they at once create a schism. . . . They assert their oneness with our Church while they refuse to abide by her laws, by those very laws which were in existence when they accepted high office in her ranks. About three weeks ago Macrorie reached Natal, and at the same time I received a letter from VIII BOTH SIDES WOO HIM 123 [the Bishop of] Capetown informing me of his con- secration at Capetown, and expressing a hope that I should at once be able to accept him as bishop, as now was the time which must finally determine our relations to each other for the future ; and at the same time telling me, as a matter which 'concerned me,' that the S.P.G. had written to him to [put ?] their missionaries in Natal under him. The letter was a very kind one, but unmistakably points out two things: — (i) If I do not acknowledge Macrorie I break with the Metropolitan ; (2) If I do not accept him I break with the S.P.G. . . . " Then came a letter from Archdeacon Fearne giving me official notification in the name of the Metropolitan that he has placed me as one of the S.P.G. missionaries under the 'episcopal superin- tendence ' of Macrorie. ... I wrote at once to Macrorie officially notifying him of the receipt of these letters ; and telling him, ' I heartily wish I could accept the position thus thrust upon me. But I do not see how I can accept the results of the acts of a party in the Church, without at the same time com- mitting myself to principles which I have all along strenuously opposed, and without committing myself besides to an unknown future.' At the same time telling him I am ready to co-operate with him in anything that does not involve my recognition of the schism which has been effected in Natal, and offi^rino- to meet him to discuss matters with him. . . . " At the same time as the above letters I got one also from Colenso, vcr}' kind and very affable, telling 124 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. mc that the case of appeal ai^ainst his judgment in the matter of the Dean of Pietcrmaritzburg and other clerg}'men had been abandoned by them ; and that he intends to fill up the vacant places in the cathedral. What this means I can pretty well guess, he would like to get me to Pietcrmaritzburg. But I have written, my judgment in the matter has not altered since I last wrote to him, and offering to resign my canonry if my retention of it interferes with his plans and wishes. " Then a circular address to the Archbishop of Canterbury [Tait] comes from Archdeacon Gray for my signature ; which, after complaining of the intrusive bishop, goes on to say, ' they do not feel themselves called upon to sit in judgment on the opinions of the Bishop of Natal, or [to say] whether they are legally tenable by a clergyman of the Church of England or not.' " To this I reply that I could not sign such a docu- ment, because I thought it my duty to sit in judg- ment on said opinions, and have really done so and formed a definite conclusion, as I suppose most clergy- men have. I could not therefore sign it without affectation. That whether legally tenable or not, I felt satisfied they arc not morally tenable. That I am willing to co-operate with them to get the case tried before a proper court ; but if that court determined such opinions were legally tenable in our Church I should quit the Church at once." I VIII COLENSO'S VEILED THREATS 125 To the Rev. Edm. Venables. ''Spring Vale, February 227id, 1869. . . . One's heart does indeed recoil from some of [Colenso's] doctrines. . . . On the other hand there are some views he advocates, especially on the universal love of our Heavenly Father, and the importance and duty of critical and scientific investigation, with which I entirely agree Then his opponents have not acted a very Christian part. ... I believe that their miserable narrow-mindedness and party spirit have done more harm in Natal than Colenso's heresies. There need not have been a schism. ... It is not all the Metropolitans in the world, nor all the Convoca- tions in the world, nor even a General Council, that can make the movement against Colenso in Natal anything but a schismatic movement." To Mr. Han bury. " MarcJi ^t/i. [I have received] a letter from Colenso which seems to say two things — (i) Resign your canonry. (2) Do not officiate as a Church of England minister in Natal if you cannot acknowledge my legal position. He has, I believe, no power to command me to cease to officiate as a clergyman of the Church of England except in buildings over which he has con- trol as a minister [i*]. This is all the court here has determined. I believe he can do nothing here, for remarkably enough, contrary to my wish and frequent efforts to make it otherwise, all Church property here 126 HENRY CALLAWAN" cHAf. is xvl)/ private property. ... I have therefore written to him, telling him, that (i) I understand him to wish me to resign my canonry, and that (2) he interdicts me from officiating in any building over which he has any control, and that I shall respect his wish in both cases." A few weeks later, April 13th, Dr. Callaway wrote to the secretary of the S.P.G. to say that after much anxious thought he had decided to defer to their wish rather than work in opposition to them and to his Metropolitan ; he would therefore submit to the jurisdiction of Bishop Macrorie. But he wished it to be understood that his judgment on the matter re- mained unaltered. Having once declared his alle- giance he henceforth devoted himself entirely to his new head. Bishop Macrorie, in writing home to the S.P.G. after the holding of his first Diocesan Synod (June, 1869) says, "Dr. Callaway was an immense comfort and blessing ; he is working most heartily with me, and the universal respect in which he is held throughout the colony will tend to win respect for the cause to which he has attached himself." In many ways the change was for the better, at least in as far as it restored peace to the agitated Church in South Africa ; but it did not remove all difficulties. The portion of land which Dr. Callaway had decided to make over to the Church had not yet been transferred, and now the question arose, in whose name was the transaction to be carried out .-' Legally Colenso was still head of the Natal diocese, but it was useless to give property in trust for the Church, into VIII THE NEW CONSTITUTION 127 the hands of a man who would in fact have no power to deal with it. The great danger which now seemed to threaten Natal was the want of cohesion among the clergy, a tendency to strike out individual lines for themselves rather than act in perfect unison with a bishop whose position was at least not wholly secure. The advance of ritual in Pietermaritzburg was greatly disliked by most of the laity and by Callaway himself, whose strong High Church opinions were too conservative to admit a " fancy religion of emotion and taste," as he called it ; " fit for women and children, and effemin- ate men — I mean fit to please them ; whether it does them any real good I cannot say." And he feared that the indifference manifested by these clergy to public opinion would lead to much mischief, if not to complete alienation from the body of the Church. At the Diocesan Synod held at Pietermaritzburg in June, 1870, Dr. Callaway took the opportunity of stating clearly his views on many matters of Church discipline. The subject under discussion was the " Constitution and Canons of the Church of the Province of South Africa," which Dr. Callaway declared himself willing to accept, though he could not approve of them. And he went on to state his reasons. " I saw that by [refusing to accept them] I should be acting in direct opposition to the principle by which ever since coming to this diocese I have attempted to guide myself That principle is this, — If there be anything wrong in the body with which I am con- h 128 HENRY CALLAWAY chai'. ncctctl, the proper course to pursue is, not to separate myself from that body, but to endeavour by all con- stitutional means to remove that which I think to be objectionable. I think the only correct course for us to take is to accept [the Constitution] as it were pro- visionall}% and in the meantime take steps to correct what appears to be either wanting or erroneous. . . . " I will say at once that the chief objection I feel to them is the spirit which pervades the whole . . . By these canons the inferior clergy alone are really affected ; almost all the laws have reference to them, are intended to take cognizance of them, and to punish them if they offend. And they stand between these two powers, the Episcopate and the Laity, and are, as it appears to me, in danger of being crushed between them. The spirit that pervades this document is that of episcopal absolution. The bishops are everything ; the inferior clergy and laymen are nothing ; but the la)^men have a way of escape and of self-assertion, clergy have not. . . . " On page 2, paragraph 5, 1 find the following words, ' The rightful authority of the episcopate in matters of faith and doctrine.' . . . What is this rightful authority.'' It has been said that a South African waggon with twelve oxen can be driven through an adjective ; and surely that may be done with this word rightftil. . . . But in looking over the newspaper accounts of the Provincial Synod I find in these words what [it is that] is probably meant — ' Authoritatively defining and pronouncing on questions of faith belongs essentially to the episcopate of the Church.' For one i VIII WHAT IS "RIGHTFUL" AUTHORITY? 129 I cannot accept this. ... I maintain, and believe that I am maintaining the teaching of our Church, that such authority does not reside in the episcopate by itself, but that above the episcopate there is a greater power — the whole body of the Church. " I take it that at Capetown there were found the same difficulties as have been found in Ireland ; the bishops claiming an absolute authority, and the other members of the body demurring to their claim. And so this clause about ' rightful authority ' — which may mean anything or nothing — got into the document as a compromise between the opposing parties. . . . " So far from wishing to take away from the bishops any rightful power that belongs to them, I should in some respects be disposed to allow a greater amount of power than practically belongs to them in England, the power of exercising discipline over offenders in a more expeditious and less expensive manner. But this power must not be arbitrary but constitutional ; not according to the sole will of the bishops, but in accordance with and in administration of the laws which govern the whole body. "... On page 6, I find an apparent contradiction. On the one hand there is the declaration that we receive ' the doctrine, sacraments, and discipline of Christ as the same are contained and commanded in Holy Scripture, according as the Church of England has received and set forth the same in its standards of faith and doctrine ' — and a disclaimer of the right of altering the standards of faith and doctrine : and on the other hand a promise .... [that] ' interpretation K I30 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. of all such standards and formularies is to be reserved to the ecclesiastical tribunals of the province.' Why, ever)thinc^ depends on the interpretation ! . . . By re- serving to our ecclesiastical tribunals, that is to the epis- copate, the right of interpretation, we do in reality put our standards of faith and doctrine in their power." He then goes on to protest against two laws actually framed by the " Constitution " ; the first forbidding any clergyman to marry persons, either of whom has a divorced husband or wife living ; the second ordain- ing that "no clergyman of this Church shall unite in the conduct of divine service or the administration of the sacraments with any but such as are appointed or allowed to minister in this Church." With regard to the second he contended that the wording was ambiguous ; but if it meant that he was not to allow Dissenters to communicate in his church, or to address his congregation, he protested against such exclusive- ness. " I believe," he said, " it would do my people good to hear a minister of another denomination, — one who followeth not with us, — yet gathering together with us into Christ's fold, preaching the same truth, directing them to the same Saviour. That is what my individual conscience dictates ; but the corporate conscience says I must not act thus." The law against marrying divorced persons he was prepared, he said, to obey, though reluctantly, until the Provincial Synod should rescind it. But he showed that his position made this matter specially difficult. " The greatest difficulty we missionaries have to con- tend with is that which arises from the relations VIII THE DIVORCE QUESTION 131 between man and woman. This is the great obstacle in the way of the acceptance of the Gospel by the natives of Natal. It is not easy to make them feel the evil, — the sin of polygamy, — and when brought . . . under the influence of Christian faith, and when married by Christian rites, it is not easy for them to feel the solemnity of the engagement they enter into by marriage, the sacredness and permanent obligation of the tie. When difficulties arise — such difficulties as those which Christian-educated Europe is beginning to allow [to be] sufficient to justify divorce — it is not to be wondered at if they too fancy that they justify divorce, and the old mode of thought which they had as heathen wakes up again. . . . If in addition to re- fusing to unite a couple, one of whom has separated on insufficient grounds from a previous partner who is still living, we are also obliged to refuse to unite in holy marriage an innocent person whose wife or husband has separated and is living with another, wc shall be guilty of inflicting a great injury on the innocent party ; and I doubt not that if the law be carried out it will tend to produce uncleanness, im- purity of living, deception, and backsliding." This speech naturally involved Dr. Callaway in a somewhat warm controversy with his more orthodox brethren. The Natal newspapers of 1871 and 1872 were the scene of a good deal of more or less amicable warfare with which we need not concern ourselves ; but two such controversies need to be mentioned : — (i) A discussion arose between himself and the sup- porters of the Bishop of Natal, on the Efficacy of K 2 132 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. Prayer (in connexion especially with the illness of the Prince of Wales), as to which an outsider cannot but feel that the opposite parties were in reality contend- ing for the same truth from different standpoints. (2) A sermon was preached by a Natal clergyman which was understood to support " the erroneous doctrine put forward by Dr. Colenso " on the subject of " Universalism." Dr. Callaway was asked to judge whether the sermon was of heterodox tendencies, and decided in the negative ; but he took the opportunity of expressing his own opinions of the " new doctrine," as its opponents called it. " The questions of universalism and of progressive perfectibility have occupied my thoughts. ... I do not say for twenty, but for nearly twice twenty years. . . . I feel they are questions of sufficient difficulty, and in- volve so many different issues, that I should be the last man to blame Mr. should he have come to a different conclusion from what I have. The doc- trine of Universalism is one that probably suggests itself naturally to a man of warm affections and tender instincts ; and it may be when such a one has taken a comprehensive view of all God's works and of all God's revelations, and has con- cluded that Universalism is a doctrine that cannot be maintained in accordance with what he sees in them, there may still linger in him a longing that it may be true notwithstanding ; a yearning to believe that his instincts may after all be a more faithful in- terpreter of the future of God's universe than the conclusions of his reason. Very tenderly I have VIII UNIVERSALISM 133 always felt ... for any man who is forced, as it were, against the conclusions of his judgment to accept this doctrine. I believe, however, that he accepts it from taking a one-sided view of things ; and that to hold it logically he must give up more than as a Christian man he is prepared or would even dare to do." CHAPTER IX Bishop Colcnso's letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury on poly- gamy — Callaway's reply. It will be remembered that Dr. Callaway spoke before the Synod of the difficulty encountered by mis- sionaries in dealing with the relations between man and woman among the natives of Natal. This dif- ficulty was greatly increased by the fact that the missionaries themselves differed widely in their opin- ions on this cjuestion. In cases of wilful wrong-doing all were of course agreed that no compromise was possible ; but there was no doubt that polygamy was not to be treated in the same way, however great a hindrance it might be to the progress of Christianit}'. How was an even balance to be kept between the purity of the Church on one side, and justice towards the people on the other .-' As early as 1855 Bishop Colcnso had written a pamphlet on the treatment of polygamy as found already existing among converts from heathenism- In 1 86 1, when the question had waxed rather warm, and accusations had been brought against him of being CH. IX COLENSO'S PAMPHLET ON POLYGAMY 135 in favour of polygamy, he addressed a long letter, in- tended for publication, to the Archbishop of Canter- bury. It will be necessary, in order to understand and judge of Dr. Callaway's writings on this subject, to give a very brief summary of this long document. Colenso's aim in writing the letter, he said, was that the question, being of, so vital an importance, ought to be considered impartially by Churchmen in England, in order that rules might be laid down to be observed by all the clergy of South Africa, rather than that each mission- ary should treat individual cases on his own responsi- bility. For his own part he believed that the forcible putting away of wives was an act of injustice and oppression, and in nowise warranted by the teaching of the Bible. He held that (i) although in the creation of man and woman, polygamy was forbidden by God, yet that God overlooked the disobedience to His com- mand, even as far as blessing men who were living in a state of polygamy, although Abraham, Jacob, David were all far enough advanced in holiness to have been able to bear a reprimand. (2) Neither in the Law nor the Prophets is there any denunciation or condemnation of polygamy ; therefore it is not, when committed in ignorance, sinful or dis- pleasing in God's sight. (3) It is evident that to the Jewish mind polygamy was not adultery ; therefore it is not adultery among Kaffirs under similar circumstances. (4) There is no direction in the writings either of the Apostles or of the early Fathers to guide the 136 HENRY CALLAWAY CH.M'. Church in this matter ; hence it is to be supposed that it was not recognised by them as a difficult}-. (5) S. Paul provides for a somewhat similar case when he allows the permanence of mixed marriages. But his admonition implied at the same time the un- lawfulness of polygamy and divorce, and tended there- fore to bring them into disuse in the Church. (6) Our Lord's teaching was directed not so much against polygamy as against the economical method of dealing with polygamic wives — namely, to divorce them. All this Bishop Colenso regarded as supporting his views as to the illegality of putting asunder poly- gamists and their wives. And he went on to consider the obstacles which would present themselves to such a mode of treatment. Such marriages, he said, could not be violently broken without injury to the wives and children ; and wilful injury is clearly an evil, whereas, as he had pointed out, polygamy was not evil in itself. He asked, how could he read to his people the story of how Jehoiada provided new wives for Joash, and Nathan sanctioned the possession by David of a plu- rality of wives, and then declare that the Kaffirs who had ignorantly married more wives than one were living in adultery ? That polygamy is an evil he did not deny ; but as the choice lay between two evils, he thought it more just to allow the Kaffirs to retain their wives "till God in His Providence should interfere" than to commit an act of hardness and wrong in en- forcing their putting away. IX COLENSO'S VIEWS ON POLYGAMY 137 Again, there could be no doubt that the wives of polygamists, though not married in the Christian sense of marriage, were yet wives according to the native law ; although they held different ranks, and the son of the first wife was not necessarily the heir. This would create much confusion if separation were insisted on. Who should decide which wife was to be retained ? whether the first, or the best-loved, or the weakest, or the strongest ? or should all alike be put away ? And what of the children ? If their father is under the obligation to support them, are they there- fore to be kept from their mother ? Finally, he asserted that the missionaries were trying to begin at the wrong end, and to reprove polygamy as the source of evil when it was in reality the conse- quence. The right course would be to strike at super- stition, sensuality, covetousness, indolence, through the teaching of the Church, and trust to that teaching to bring out the better nature of the Kaffirs, which would lead them ultimately to remedy the evil of their own accord. At present the uncompromising attitude which the Church had taken caused the natives to dread Christianity, which could only be admitted into their midst at the expense of home-ties and affections. The bishop added that many of the clergy in Natal were at one with him in these views, but that there were also many who thought otherwise, and that Canon Callaway was altogether opposed to the admis- sion into the Church of polygamists as such. And the latter confirmed the statement by publishing in 1862 138 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. a pamphlet entitled Polygamy a Bar to Admission to the Christian ChurcJi. In this he answered the bishop's arguments as to the dispensation granted to saints of the Old Testament by saying that the bishop had not made the due distinction between sin and the guilt of the sinner. Sin is the transgression of a Divine Law dictated by the will of God ; and a broken law is certain to revenge itself on the transgressor whether he be wilfully or ignorantly guilty. This is clearly understood in physical laws, and all experience proves that the moral law is equally unalterable. Colenso said that polygamy is not condemned by the Bible. Callaway (following here the Dean of Pietermaritzburg) replied that God made one woman to be the friend and helpmeet for one man ; and all acts by which she is placed in a position inferior to man arc acts contrary to God's law of love and of justice. The sin of polygamy was certainly tolerated by God, as the deceit of Jacob and Rebekah was tolerated ; but it was not therefore true to say, as Colenso said, that God "recommended" it ; it would be as logical to affirm that deceit was recommended by God, or any of the sins which "in the time of man's ignorance God winked at." The forsaking of our Lord by His Apostles — the denial by Peter — all might be found to be in accordance with the Divine Will, because these sins did not shut out the sinners from their discipleship. Callaway therefore holds that we are not justified in setting aside a law which was obscured in evil IX CALLAWAY CONTROVERTS COLENSO'S VIEW 139 times, only to be re-established by Christ and His followers. Of all the sins of adultery, polygamy is the most injurious, because it is not merely an act of sin, but a sinful state of life which the more it is prolonged destroys the innocence and happiness of the wives and children. And -when S. Paul insisted on the indissolubility of the marriage-bond, which cannot be annulled for differences of faith or of temperament, he is to be understood as speaking always of monogamic mar- riage, any offence against which has de facto destroyed that bond. In the same way Christ always upheld the sanctity of monogamous union. We, His followers, to whom He has brought new light, and with it new responsibility, are not to be regarded as in the same position as the Kings and Prophets of the Old Testament. So much for the light thrown by the Bible on this knotty question. And Dr. Callaway turns now to the present state of affairs in Natal, to inquire how far the theory may be carried out without transgressing the boundaries of reason and common sense. He finds in the first place that marriage, though valid and theoretically sacred according to Kaffir ideas, is not held by the natives in the same respect as is the Christian marriage by Christians. The covenant made is too often merely a question of barter ; it is entered into by the man for the sake of the status in society which a multiplicity of wives gives to him ; and by the woman because her family will grow rich with the cattle for which she is exchans^ed. i4o HENRY CALLAWAY chap. The compact thus made may be broken for barrenness or for the most trivial causes — for ill-temper or disobe- dience : but since separation involves a loss of status to the husband, it usually happens that it originates on the side of the wife, who is jealous of one of her rivals or who, having married for the sake of her family a man whom she does not love, deserts him after a few years for a more favoured suitor, leaving as compensation to the first husband children who will grow up to be also of market value. He adds bitterly that when a polygamous marriage is thus broken the only redress possible to the injured husband comes, not from his own people, who might be thought anxious to right what they would consider a social wrong — but from the English magistrate. His own experience, in working among the Kaffirs, had invariably been that the daily life of Kaffir polygamists was one of misery, through jealousy, adultery, and slander ; and that it constantly gave rise to quarrels which ended in bloodshed. Disputes as to inheritance would arise at first between the mothers, afterwards between the children, and would to a great extent mar the enjoyment of that " home- life " which Bishop Colenso was afraid of destroying. The number of children in a polygamist's household is usually small in proportion to the number of his wives. This is owing partly to the large rate of mortality among the children, but partly also to the fact that many of his wives are wives only in name. The first wife is usually the "beloved one" — Inkosikazi — and her rivals sometimes try to win IX HOLDS POLYGAMY A DEADLY EVIL 141 their husband's affection from her to themselves b}- magic arts, or plot against her life, or (to spite her) against the husband. Or, forming connexions with other men, they people the kraal with illegitimate children. But whether legitimate or not, the children of a hated wife are liable to the father's hatred. Colenso had asserted that wives separated from their husbands would be degraded in their own eyes and in the eyes of the world ; and that they would be reduced to starvation if deprived of the husband's support. Callaway replied that the State would guarantee that no dishonour should attach to women who had entered into polygamy in ignorance ; that they would probably be regarded by their friends as martyrs rather than as outcasts ; and that since it is the woman who works for the man, rather than the man for the woman, there could be no possible hardship in relieving her of an onerous charge. Two diffi- culties, he said, stand in the way of toleration, (i) How should one deal with a woman who has become Christian while married to a polygamist ? To force her, or even to render it legal for her, to stay with her husband, would often be an act of cruel injustice, " binding upon her a heavy burden grievous to be borne." And (2) How may one hope to distinguish zvilfiil from ignorant breach of God's law .'' A Kaffir wishing to take a second wife and forbidden by one missionary to do so might easily leave his own kraal for another, and after marriage might represent himself to another missionary as having sinned in ignorance, and so be admitted to baptism. 142 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. There is, he maintained, practically no limit to the amount of evil which may enter in if the Church once opens her doors to wilful wrong-doers. The purity of the Church must be upheld at whatever cost of ap- parent expediency — to lower her standard in this matter would be to lower it in every way, and she would lose her power of raising her children to the higher life which she sets before them. " Let the Church dare to abide faithful ! " not doubting but that the power of her Lord can overcome all the hindrances that seem to lie in her path. Again, polygamy had been shown to be an evil from a political point of view, since it forms a barrier to steady progress and elevation of character. The colony suffered greatly from the want of a steady supply of labour, for men would always remain idle so long as they had women to work for them, and the toleration of polygamy would supply them with enough " hands " for their own personal needs. They would not dream of letting their wives work for others, even if the State were willing to employ them. Whereas the demand among colonists for strong young labouring men has the beneficial result of raising these to a position and habits of in- dependence enabling them to maintain a wife. The women arc thus allotted to more suitable husbands, and in course of time society returns to a more natural order. As he had said, the plough is the most powerful antagonist to polygamy. There is no question, he continued, of legislation in the course the Church is called upon to take ; she would not force IX CALLAWAY'S PROVISIONAL PLAN 143 the separation between husband and wife ; but she would forbid baptism to those who were still living in polygamy, and trust that time and influence would do the work for which mere legislation is powerless. As a matter of fact, he had met with few cases in which polygamists had presented themselves as catechumens, because, as he believed, the at- tendant evils of polygamy hinder all spiritual pro- gress. The Kaffirs themselves are fully aware of the opposition exercised by the Church against every form of evil, and know that, putting polygamy out of the question, they would be obliged to give up the sins that they would fain keep. As regards the bishop's denunciation of '"injustice and oppression," Dr. Callaway was in perfect accord that the wives and children must be treated with justice and kindness. The Christian law of love could under no circumstances allow of the driving away of helpless women and children who were without means of support. If the usual order of things is so far reversed that it is the Kaffir man who works for the maintenance of his family, his duty clearly is to continue to do so until the children are of an age to work for themselves, or until the mother marries a man willing to provide for them. The course that Dr. Callaway thought it right to adopt, while the question was yet undecided, was to admit polygamists as catechumens, but to keep them outside the pale of the Church till Christian teaching had done its work. 144 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. The question was again brought forward at the Synod at Pictermaritzburg, in June 1872. Dr. Calla- way, who spoke on the subject, still held firm to his opinion that polygamy was not to be tolerated inside the Church ; but he agreed that sudden abolition of the system of " ukulobola," on which much of the evil depended, might give occasion to the increase of immorality. There were, he said, many obstacles to be removed before native monogamic marriage could be firmly established without fear of abuse — the hut- tax, which caused overcrowding in the kraals — the heavy marriage-fee, and the facility at present existing for obtaining divorce on insufificient grounds. His final dictum was given in the tenth }'ear of his episcopate, but it may be referred to here as showing that his views had not changed, though they M'ere somewhat developed in detail. He continued to defend the course he had always taken ; but added, (he is speaking of catechumens), " Christian faith does not exempt a man from moral obligations entered into before he believed ; on the contrary, [it] more obliges him to give effect, so far as is within his power, to all legal or covenanted obligations entered into with his several wiv-es ; and further, the moral obligation of endeavouring to bring them to Christ is now added to the legal. " If his wives, or any of them, wish to leave him, either because they are offended by his faith, or because they have themselves accepted the faith, he should release them formally from any legal claim on [him], and allow them to go. But if they wish to live with IX DIFFERENCE IN THE SEXES 145 him as heretofore, for the sake of their love for him and their children, let them stay and come with him within the circle of the Church's teaching and influence, that he, they and their offspring may be taught for Christ. " The woman is in a different position from the man. . . . The sin of polygamy is his, not hers ; she has no power over her position. If then one of the wives of a polygamic family becomes a convert, she may be baptised, and admitted in due time to all the privileges of Church membership. By allowing this the Church of this day would be acting on the same principle as the early Church, when it made it canonical to admit a concubine to Baptism and to Holy Communion, she still living in concubinage. I do not think the Church ought to admit that her husband or friends have any right to stand between her and her God. We leave them legal power over her person, until she can be legally freed from their authority, whilst we demand for her spiritual freedom. ... I can see no reason why a converted woman may not use all the means of obtaining a separation from her polygamic husband, open to her by the law and public opinion of her people." Dr. Callaway's views as to jurisdiction in this and other social questions will be found fully stated in the evidence given by him in 1881 in answer to an en- quiry instituted by Government into native laws and customs. CHAPTER X Progress and discouragement — Usctemha's Talc — Changes vvrouglit liy four years' work — The black man and ihc white — " Highflats " and its development. By the end of i860, Spring Vale had grown to be a thriving Httle village, extending its influence far beyond the 3,000 acres of its own territory, and including amongst its Church congregation many Kaffirs who would walk in from the surrounding kraals week by week to listen to the white man's teaching. Dr. Callaway was one of those who have the gift of inspiring an instinctive confidence, and the natives would come to him for advice in all the details of their daily life — for his mediation in family quarrels, for redress of grievances, for directions as to building or planting, and for healing of all diseases, mental and spiritual as well as physical. It need hardly be said that through his gift of innate sympathy, he learnt from such ap- plicants as much perhaps as he taught them. The diaries abound in character studies — which it is often impossible to separate from their context — showing that his many theories for the government and guidance of CHAP. X THE KAFFIR CHARACTER 147 the people were not impracticable ideals, but were the outcome of years spent in watching their lives from his peculiarly fortunate vantage-ground. It was as impossible to generalise for the Kaffir character as for that of any other nation — perhaps more so, since no gloss of civilisation had as yet begun to smooth the angles of their individualities to a common level. In most cases it was possible to get some hold upon the most intractable by appealing to the religion of their ancestors, and the principles of truth and right contained in it. But among the wilder fighting men there were some who laughed at their fathers' faith as old wives' fables, and would scarcely have acknowledged — in spite possibly of their deeper instincts — any higher power than that of men stronger than themselves. One of these warriors, Ududula, came to Dr. Callaway to tell how his wife and cattle had been stolen from him. He denied the accusation that it was his own quarrelsome nature that had laid him open to in- justice. " ' Ududula is no scamp. They took away his wife — but Ududula placed his head low and said nothing. They took away his cattle, and again Udu- dula placed his head low and said nothing.' And then, shaking his finger in the air he said ' Eh ! eh ! eh ! ' meaning probably that their day [would come, and [he] would have his revenge. . . . He is a great hero. He fought in the wars against Utyaka, and points out Utyaka's wounds — then he has Udingane's wounds — and the lion's wounds." L 3 148 HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP. To Mr. H anbury. " spying Vale, September ilth, 1861. . . . Wc arc considered by all who visit us to be getting on ' won- derfully ' with our work here. And I believe we are getting on ; but there is something beneath the sur- face which the casual visitor does not sec, and which cannot be conveyed by words, but which makes one feel at times very meanly about the work. The native character is untrustw^orthy ; one does not know how much is sincere and how much hypocritical in his professions ; and I do not know that, when the life does not become moulded in accordance with our idea of a Christian, we ought at once to conclude that all the profession or a considerable proportion of it is hypocrisy. It is a very difficult task, that of bringing the people to God. ... It is possible that there is as much of truth and sincerity and real goodness as among any similar number of white people ; but I get to know a great deal of duplicity and deceit." Miss Townsend, Dr. Callaway's friend and fellow-worker, writing at this time on the same subject to the secre- tary of the S.P.G., said, " Regularity and stability of labour are among the last things the Kaffirs learn ; still Dr. Callaway is beginning to be able to place dependence upon some. . . , The Kaffirs from the outside kraals are often astonished at his intimate knowledge of their thoughts and doubts and reason- ings and questionings." One of his most intelligent converts, Usetemba, was encouraged by Dr. Callaway to dictate to him the X PROGRESS AT SPRING VALE i49 simple story of his life, which was translated literally into English and published with a view to enlisting the sympathy and interest of English friends. It is a pathetic little tale of close family affection broken into at first by the young man's attraction towards the new teaching, and knitted together more strongly through the patient unselfish steadfastness which won his mother (after the father's death) to his own side. All through r86i preparations had been going on for the erection of the little school-chapel which was to take the place of the already overcrowded school- room. No one worked more diligently than the doctor himself; he directed the quarrying and carry- ing of the stone, the brick-making and timber-felling, and was always to the fore during the actual building to superintend the not very competent labours of his men. The church was sufficiently completed to allow of its being used for service by July, 1862, and this being done, Dr. Callaway set to work on his own house. One of the party who had accompanied him on the journey of exploration into these wild lands, re-visited Spring Vale in the October of 1862, in the fifth year of the mission station's existence. " At the time of our first visit," he says, " all that was to be seen was a rude Kaffir kraal and two Kaffir huts in the wilderness. . . . [And now] after traversing the steep, rocky and tangled defiles of the valley of the Umkom- anzi, and cantering over a few miles of pleasant upland downs, you come in sight, suddenly, of the groups of white buildings, the broad tract of ploughed land, the little wooden belfry, and the cheerful green, sloping ISO HENRY CALLAWAY chap. down to the rocky stream. . . . All this at the head of a little upland valley with mimosa-sprinkled slopes on the opposite side, and down the stream the rugged hills of the Umkomanzi valley. It is a complete oasis in the wilderness of unreclaimed nature. . . " First there is the church, on the colonial plan ot a central building with verandahs and lean-tos all round it. By a happy thought the hospice (or hospital in the old sense of the word) forms part of the church- building, three large verandah-rooms being appropri- ated as guest-chambers — an arrangement specially desirable in a remote station like this, where houses of accommodation are unknown, and hospitality to strangers is once more becoming as in the olden time a cardinal virtue. This building is about 54 feet long by 33 feet wide. Then there is a large workshop and cottage attached, solid stone-walled kraals, stable and out-buildings ; the temporary wattle-and-daub house of the missionary, and a school-building adjacent. A large building, intended as a permanent residence for Dr. Callaway, is now being erected. Besides all this there is a little hamlet of huts and cottages for the natives attached to the mission. "As regards industrial training we see some forty or fifty acres all ploughed up and fenced in by the natives on the spot, and a large and well-arranged kitchen-garden with neat walks, the work of a Kaffir gardener under the eye of Dr. Callaway, who is the presiding genius of the spot, and whose knowledge certainly ought to be encyclopaedic, inasmuch as he X RELIGIOUS TEACHING 151 seems to have to perform the duties of universal instructor and referee in things secular as well as sacred, besides his medical functions. Six ploughs stand ready for use as soon as the rains begin to fall, and these will all be worked by native ploughmen. One Kaffip'iad is at work in the carpenter's shop .... another rvr.tive is with Dr. Callaway aiding him in perfecting his knowledge of the Kaffir tongue, ... At nine o'clock [every morning] a Kaffir service, wisely brief, is held, when the average daily attendance (though of course altogether voluntary) numbers about sixty, comprising most of the natives resident at or working upon the mission lands. This over, all return to their proper occupations. . . . *' On Sunday morning the missionary addresses [the Kaffirs] in a familiar extempore discourse ; in the afternoon the instruction is catechetical after the mode of the primitive Church ; in the evening the Gospel and Epistle of the day are explained, and those present are invited to ask questions. All these arrangements are dictated by a wise, common-sense view of the objects to be attained and the circum- stances and antecedents of the hearers." In 1863 a Saturday evening class was started for men, the object being to encourage them to ask questions on all subjects that interested them. " I felt," Dr. Callaway said, "all the difficulties which would attend such a meeting. They might raise scepti- cal difficulties which I might find it not very easy to answer so as to satisfy them. But again, I thought it would be far better that I should know the real 152 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. state of matters than that they should be left alone to toil with the darkness and doubtings of their own minds." To Mr. Hanbury. "■Spring Vale, May igt/i, 1863. ... It is not easy to determine how best to work so as to give one's influence an effectual bearing on [the natives'] elevation intellectually, morally and religiously. It is a curious psychological study to see into what strange combina- tions they place the new thoughts [with] their old notions. . . . The children improve much on their parents by early training, but still among them the savage comes out continually, and they are much less under control than our children. . . , We have had a great deal of low fever amongst us since Christmas, above thirty cases, almost entirely among the young people. They have allowed me to a great extent to manage the cases, but it has been a severe task, for we had to do the nursing as well as the doctoring. One nice little boy died, and in that case I fear the death was occasioned by some interference unknown to me. . . . The niniia diligentia media is the rock on which they split. ... I sometimes am doubtful of being ever able to accomplish much with them, certainly not to the extent of giving them a distinct national existence. The white man is coming on in increasing numbers and is treading on their heels in every direction ; before they have time to grow into a people^anothcr people will have occupation of I X THE BLACK MAN AND THE WHITE 153 their places. They do not by their mode of Hfe become do?id fide occupiers of land. They move continually — two or three years is generally the longest period they remain in a place, and a very slight thing sets them on the move. And when they have left their old habitation they leave behind nothing but a few irregular patches where they have dug, which soon pass into the unreclaimed waste around — a few straw houses of which every trace is swept away by the first autumnal grass-burning ; and the heap of their cattle kraal, which gradually spreads itself into a level, to become after a few years the garden of some fresh arrival. The white man comes in and the waste is reclaimed, there are houses of stone or brick, enclosures, trees, and if the white man were to be driven out to-morrow the signs of his presence would be here for half-a-century or more. It is a problem not easy perhaps to be solved — perhaps impossible when, as at home, mere feeling guides the judgment — what right have these people to keep out the white men } . . . They live for them- selves ; a little maize and other cereals, the milk and flesh of their herds, and the hunt, supply them with all they need. Is it right to keep out the struggling, hard-working, white man for such an unprogressive people as this .-' I am often struck with the new feeling towards the coloured man which springs up in the Englishman's heart when brought into close contact with him. At home it is a sentiment. The colour of the skin is a halo of glory around the black man. ' He is the man and the brother.' But when 154 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. the Englishman comes out here and is brought into daily contact with his habits and his waywardness, this is rapidly exchanged for a feeling which would soon lead under exciting circumstances to extermina- tion or slavery. The Dutch made bondmen of them. And it is a curious fact that a feeling is growing among the natives that it is easier to live with the Dutch and to please them than the English, who exact nothing by mere power and pay them for their labour. . . . We do not exercise power enough over them. A native who comes from a Dutch service is generally a knowing and useful servant, but one brought up with an Englishman is often saucy and intolerable and at the same time inefficient. *'....! believe [the Kaffirs] sometimes think me a very ignorant, good-for-nothing doctor, because I decline to treat cases which I do not see. Their own doctors undertake to treat anything upon their report. But my answer is, ' I cannot see so far, my arm will not reach him,' and at length they are beginning to under- stand that it is a rule with me, and to treat it accordingly by bringing the patient to me if practicable." A gentleman (Mr. Newnham) who went out to Natal in the early summer of 1863 to help Dr. Calla- way in school and mission work was struck by the way in which the natives manifested their love for their master. " Far and near," he said, " he is held in universal respect. A man with them may be an ' Inkosi,' chief, in virtue of his office, but they never accord that title to one without the official right to it, except he be a man whom they respect and obey. I I X SCHEME FOR EXTENDING THE MISSION 155 was agreeably surprised therefore to find the doctor addressed by that title interchangeably with " Um- fundisi,' teacher, and ' Baba,' father. . . ." The success which, notwithstanding his own occa- sional diffidence and disheartenment, had attended his work at Spring Vale, made Dr. Callaway eager to begin extending branches of the mission into outlying districts, for the sake of his own people as well as of their heathen neighbours. For it was inevitable that converts still " weak in the faith " should be drawn back towards heathenism by such of their own people as held most strongly to the ancestral Kaffir beliefs, especially if, as too often happened, their re- luctance to hear the white man's doctrines sprang from a clinging to evil habits which they knew the mis- sionaries would require them to give up. Dr. Calla- way wrote, accordingly in February, 1863, laying his scheme before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, through whose help he had been enabled to carry out most of his earlier plans. " I want to see established some system for visiting the Kaffirs at their homes. . . . This is one centre, and with proper management a circuit of from fifteen to twenty miles might be placed under systematic visita- tion. From here we might get more and more influence over Uhuhulela's people, and other offsets might be gradually established. ... If the Society would provide me with funds to establish a mission among the people of the three petty chiefs Unjan, Kaduju and Umunyu, and obtain me a good clergy- man for the purpose, and if they could supply me with 156 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. funds to establish a mission near Umaraule's kraal, I think we mitjht without further delay commence a work which has long seemed to be calling me to take it in hand. . . . My idea would be that I should my- self take upon mc the opening and early roughing of the new station or stations, being assisted by one or other of the new missionaries." To Mr. Hanbury. " Spring Vale, Febnimy yth, 1863. . . . I am day by day more and more bound to my work and by it, and hope soon with the blessing of God to have a wider sphere of labour, more care and more toil. Among other things, I want to establish a white colony of true loving friends, who would love the natives for our corrimon Saviour's sake, and throw the influence of their daily life into the scale. ... I do so long to sec the colonist doing his duty, — feeling himself as a Christian to have a priestly ofifice to perform towards the heathen, instead of barely tolerating them as means of supplying his own necessities. You will understand that I want no maudlin sentimentality to be exercised towards the natives ; what we want is a ivell-regiilated, judicious, Christian cJiarity. " This country is beautiful in many respects. There is a great deal of bright sky, and except for a few months the heat is not very oppressive. The cold of winter may be counted by days, and can be easily guarded against by clothing and proper habitation. . . . The place I am looking at is situated at the source of X A LOVELY COUNTRY SPOT 157 a river, and is high and breezy. . . . The night after returning from a hasty inspection, I awoke with the name Highflats — Einpakonieni, — running in my mind, a beautiful name for our station, suggestive, I trust, of what it shall be, a City on the Heights, which shall be seen afar and attract many to the true Zion. Down the river towards the sea there is a beautiful country consisting of slight undulations breaking off to the right and left, that is north and south, into the two rivers which run into the sea. Each vale between these hills has its spring which bubbles and sparkles and becomes a streamlet ; these little river-sources are in the midst of small forest-clumps varying from two to twelve acres. It is a country already made to hand — laid out as few parks in England are. It is not occupied only because it is too far from the bay . . . if at any time the mouth of the Umkomanzi be opened up as a port, which is probable, the value of this neighbourhood would increase fifty-fold, and we should be brought close to civilisation. . . . " The present hot weather rather curtails my power for working ; but I am not idle. Scarcely a day passes but I long for more power — bodily, mental, spiritual — that I may devote all to that great work before me. I shall be very glad of Newnham. He is a real good fellow, and we love each other, and on many things think alike." To the same. "Spring Vale, July 22nd, 1863. . . . My firm persua- 158 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. sion is that colonisation by Christian people will do more for the natives than the isolated efforts of solitary- missionaries dotted here and there about the coiintr}- — men, many of them of narrow notions, who say truly enough ' the Gospel is the remedy for all evils, social and moral ' ; but who miserably mistake the means of bringing the Gospel to have a bearing on the people and to get an entrance into their hearts. It is per- fectly clear that we cannot with any wisdom or justice address untutored savages as we should address edu- cated and well-informed Christians who have lived all their lives in the atmosphere of Christianity. Here, more than anywhere, example is more than words ; and I attribute the widespread and increasing influ- ence I have over the heathen around me simply to the general cheerfulness and good temper of my daily life, and to the attempt to act towards them as an elder brother or a father. This system is infinitely more telling than any number of Sunday sermons. My best sermons are preached when I am engaged with them in labour ; and ... it is clear that a work of this kind not only may be carried on by laymen, but ought to be by every Christian layman, in his character of a priest unto God. . . . " I feel sure that unless [the natives] arc taught good habits as well as good doctrines, the latter alone will not save them from temporal ruin ; and the Kafiirs, like other coloured races, will gradually disappear before the white men. . . . " The progress of things must be natural ; and we must not adopt any hotbed, high-pressure system X SUPERIORITY OF COLONISATION 159 Commercial prosperity is insured, not by putting men into positions for which they are unsuited, or by using property in a wrong way, but by a kind of free-trade system which allows things to find their level according to the unfailing principle which is determined by supply and demand." Dr. Callaway's original plan of planting a colony of Englishmen to civilise and Christianise the natives could never be fully carried out ; but with the aid of his new helper, Mr. Newnham, and a few hard-working laymen, the new station of " Highflats" was started in 1863. It is about sixteen miles from Spring Vale, and accordingly within tolerably easy reach of the mission- workers, many of whom gave what time they could spare from Spring Vale duties to helping with the building, land-enclosing, &c., of the new village. Per- haps the best worker of all was Umpengula, who had been trained by Dr. Callaway in every kind of manual labour during the early days of Spring Vale, and who was able now to set going and superintend the opera- tions in his master's absence. As soon as a fair-sized hut was completed a Sunday service was started there ; the doctor rode over as often as possible, generally on alternate Sundays, and in his absence a young catechist, Mr. Kinloch, carried on his work. By March, 1864, the congregation had increased to an average of forty-five — " as many," Dr. Callaway wrote, " as at Spring Vale after many years' work. There is no separate village of what they call believers at whom they look with suspicion and jealousy— sus- picion, because they have cast off their relatives and l6o HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP, separated from them — ^jealousy, lest they should stand between the missionary and themselves. It was still some time before Highflats manifested; such outward signs of prosperity as a well-built church or proper school accommodation ; but the delay was only due to a want of funds. The natives them- selves were greatly interested in the growth of the new colony, and gave their money and their labour towards the building ; the Natal Government made a grant of land to be added to that already bought, and substantial help arrived from friends in England ; so that by April, 1866, they had been able at a cost of ;^300 to build a small church, which was opened amid general rejoicings. The day was kept as a holiday by Christians and heathens alike, and was regarded by Dr. Callaway as a very satisfactory " ob- ject-lesson" to savage neighbours. He still hoped to be able eventually to settle there, leaving the mother- village of Spring Vale in its comparative civilisation to the care of younger men. But he was never able to see his way to doing it, and, as he said, he was not now as fit for " roughing it " as he had been ten years before. Instead of this, he had a light cart made in which he could do the journey in less time and with less fatigue than by riding — although the drive was '' no joke," the roads being only " such as your own wheels have made." By 1868 Highflats had developed greatly in point of converts and workers, though it remained " a naked- looking place" owing to a mora.ss which ran through the valley and which could not be drained X DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHFLATS i6i in the present lack of funds. The doctor always cherished the hope of adding this to his other labours. As it was, the swampy nature of the place involved him in some expense by causing floods which wrought havoc from time to time among the buildings. In December, 1868, the little chapel was almost destroyed. Dr. Callaway looked on the place as capable of great development, and far better adapted by its physical position (where " all the roads meet ") to be the centre of operations than Spring Vale, To the Rev. W. T. Bullock (Secretary of the S.P.G.). ^' June \tJi^ 1869. . . . We do not contemplate mak- ing Highflats what the late Bishop Wilson of Calcutta called ' a missionary compound ' — a hotbed for the reception of natives professing Christianity. Such a system has always seemed to me of doubtful expedi- ency, and as I see and know more of the native character and the working of missionary institutions, it appears less and less desirable. There is a danger of such stations becoming permanently Rocks of Adullam — refuges for characters of the worst de- scription. . . . We should try to develop Christianity among the natives in their own homes, and not separate them, as soon as they believe, from their relations, to form a distinct class in the country. As Christians they become ' the salt of the earth ' and ' the light of the world,' and should be encouraged to bring their newly derived power to bear on their fellow countrymen. . . . We propose to make Highflats a M i62 HENRY CALLAWAY chap, x centre round which the better and more advanced natives may gather ; where there may be an institu- tion for teaching native lads, and training them, if they appear fit, for the ministry. ... At this place, too, as it develops, young Englishmen wi.shing to become missionaries to the heathen may receive instruction in the language and in the rudiments of medicine, and go out to their several spheres of duty wiser, better and more efficient men." CHAPTER XI Printing press started — -"Village regulations" — William Ncgwensa — Mr. Blair's letter — A general depression at Spring Vale — A "revival" — A native murder ; Dr. Callaway's journey of investigation — Travelling a hundred miles to see a sick child — The Hospital scheme — Need for a native ministry — Two native deacons ordained. Meanwhile at Spring Vale itself there were indi- cations of more decided progress than had yet shown itself among the natives on whom so much labour had been spent. The attendance at church and school became daily more numerous, and several new families settled in the neighbourhood in order to get education for their children and themselves ; confidence in the doctor and his healing powers increased to an extent that was almost overwhelming, but was welcomed nevertheless as a sure way of gaining personal influence ; and steady thorough work so far improved the condition of the Kaffirs that they were able to buy their own ploughs and other implements and set up little homesteads of their own, to the envy and emula tion of their more backward neighbours. They were only too glad to build their own cottages in European M 3 i64 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. fashion, and to be able to do so without ncedini^ assistance from their hard-worked teachers. A grant of ;!^200 was made by the local government for the carr^Mng on of industrial training at Spring Vale. Part of this was to be devoted to printing Dr. Callaway's collection of Zulu tales, for which purpose a printing press was erected, and in course of time a first-rate English printer engaged to superintend the native training. " But notwithstanding these signs of progress and awakening," wrote Dr. Callaway in December, 1864, " we must not close our eyes to the existence of much that is unsatisfactory among the native converts. It is evident that they have come out of very much that is heathenish — they are different men, if not absolutely new men ; they believe in God and His Christ, and are capable of being influenced by arguments founded on that belief in reference to their daily life. Now they are like men perplexed, struggling and tottering in a position to which they are not accustomed. They have new principles, and doubtless many of them have higher and holier aims ; but old habits cling about them, and it is not uncommon to find them appealing to force to settle disputes." So trying were these constant worries that the missionary adopted a plan, as did Moses of old, whereby rules might be enforced without always needing his own intervention. He drew up a list of " village regulations," comprising rules as to " the care of the school and chapel ; salutations and conduct to superiors ; cleanliness ; regulations for cattle, fences, XI WILLIAM NCGWENSA 165 &c. They have the character of pohce regulations rather than of anything else, but they will be extended according to circumstances. The people themselves are to be the agents in carrying them out, and also are to have a voice in framing them." Usetemba was one of the five " officers " appointed, but the " chairman of the committee," unanimously elected by his colleagues to the post, was William Ncgwensa, of whom little mention has hitherto been made. He had begun his connexion with the mission under sad circumstances, in Dr. Callaway's early Pietermaritzburg days. When a child of about ten years old he had fallen or been drawn into a habit of hemp-smoking, and in a fit of insanity which the practice had induced he murdered his father, the chief of a small native tribe. He was sentenced to im- prisonment, but the sentence appears to have been given more for protection than punishment, for he was taken into the service of the keeper of the prison, and allowed almost entire liberty. He had been baptised at Pietermaritzburg shortly before Dr. Callaway's arrival there, had become a regular attendant at church and school, and had, on the departure of the prison-keeper, been admitted into the Callaway household first as servant, then as pupil. The doctor had been greatly interested in the boy, recognising his capabilities for good as well as his weaknesses. Now, after eight years of faithful service, he had fully justified the confidence placed in him, by showing himself the aptest and most diligent of scholars, a practical workman, and, in spite of the drawbacks of i66 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. his early life, a man to be thoroughly relied on as a teacher and example of good. His intellect was of a somewhat different order from that of Umpengula — more brilliant, perhaps less deep — and he also had been able to give valuable assistance in Dr. Callaway's literary work. Among other labours taken up by Dr. Callaway about this time was the learning of Dutch, which he felt to be indispensable if he was to undertake a mission in Griqualand, to which his fellow clergy, the Griquas themselves, and his own inclination were already urging him. The printing-press, which Mr. Blair had brought from England in June 1865, also to some extent increased his work ; it had been somewhat disheartening to go on adding to his stores of " copy " while there was no clear prospect of render- ing them useful. The press was set up, Mr. Blair says, in the " verandah-rooms of the school-church, next to the doctor's study. Once started, its work went on at the rate of about seven hours a day, the doctor continually adding to his stock of MSS. Nothing disturbed the daily " plodding " of Dr. Calla- way and his printer for years ; in fact, the work was only broken into when Dr. Callaway became bishop, when Mr. Blair removed his press to the more com- modious building at Highflats, rejoining the bishop later on at Umtata. Mr. Blair goes on to say, in the letter he has kindly written, telling of his connexion with the doctor at Natal : — " It was one of his characteristics that he would always teach others something of what he was XI MR. BLAIR'S REMINISCENCES 167 doing himself. He took an active part in farming, saying that the colonial missionary, situated as he was fifty miles from a town, should be able to grow his own corn, vegetables, and meat. He was very fond of animals — his horses were pets, as were his cows, sheep, and perhaps the pigs. . . . He was never idle, but attended to all these outdoor things as a short change from the study. He seldom went anywhere, except to Highflats, for months together, being very fond of home and his work there. " One of the native names of the doctor (for the natives usually give a white man a name of their own) was Umvunywa. It means ' one who is assented to,' or 'one with whom we agree' — one who is not con- tradicted. So a native on his way to see the doctor for the first time would have a hint, in the name itself, that he must assent to everything the doctor said as everybody else assented. Nobody contradicted him. In his intercourse with the people he was always on the lookout for some new phrase or sentence or idiom which he might utilise in preaching or translating. Discoveries of this kind were a favourite topic at the table. The doctor translated into Zulu the greater portion of the Prayer-Book, and had it printed, [1866], and although, after his departure from Natal, efforts were made to " run " amended translations, the doctor's Prayer-Book is still in favour with the natives, who after all are the best judges. It must not be supposed that he was right in every point for which he contended in the matter of translating, but in the mass of work which he did verbal inaccuracies are few. i6S IIENRV CALLAWAY C1Iai\ His hymns are still sung by native congregations in South-east Africa. " Very much might be written of a characteristic of Dr. Callaway which is impressed on my memory — his large-heartedness. He seemed to entertain everything that came or was laid before him, especially if he could help in the matter. That is a reason why he always had so much work on hand. I never recollect his saying ' I'll have nothing to do with that,' as busy people will say sometimes. The presence of a sick helpless person suggested the idea of a hospital, with its staff of doctors and nurses; the casual call of a white man in search of work would suggest the advisability of undertaking some new building or farming, so that that man might have employment. With others he would have ' agreements,' so that they lived on his land for the mutual benefit of both. " His rule was to do everything in the best possible way. He sometimes said that if it had been his lot to black shoes he would black them properlyr During the latter part of 1866 there had been several deaths among the more influential natives; several newly-made converts were inclined to ascribe the calamity to displeasure on the part of the Aniatongo against the new religion. Accordingly many had left and gone back to their own people and their own traditions — though loving messages came back from time to time, showi ig that they were not happy away from their teacher. Even among those who remained there was a good deal of despondency, and in some cases a falling back into sin, which sorely distressed the XI RELIGIOUS EXCITEMENT 169 doctor. One man named Caleb, who had come to the station a year or two before with his family, and who had been baptised, and always set a good example, now fell back into the old ways, and in so doing dra^cred his sister with him. His own sins had not troubled him, but he was roused to indignation at finding that she had returned to native customs, and to remorse when she reproached him with being the cause. His repentance not only gave Dr. Callaway better hopes of the man than he had had before, but seems to have been one of the chief causes of a " revival " which took place in 1867, and which was, perhaps, largely due also to reaction from the de- spondency of the previous year, since no other indi- vidual case of repentance had produced anything like the same result. It took a strong and even alarming hold on the excitable natives, and there seem to have been few who did not come to some extent under its influence. " For several days before he [Caleb] came to me, during the evening and before daybreak, the sur- rounding quiet would be suddenly broken by the loud wail of anguish, or the cry of earnest prayer they were raising to God in the surrounding bush or by the riverside. I naturally felt very anxious lest all this should prove a mere temporary excitement, which would pass away, leaving their poor spirits darker and duller than ever. It must be understood that so far from encouraging any such thing, I have been afraid of it, and have discouraged it, and have trusted solely to the simple preaching of the Gospel, believing that 170 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. the order is (i) The Word of God, (2) hearing, (3) faith. But I could not ignore what was happening. A great awakening had taken place. I must help and guide it, and by God's grace prevent it from passing into fanaticism on the one hand, or on the other cooling back into a smooth-faced hypocrisy. . . . " [Two girls who came for counsel] seemed to think that the work which was going on in them was some- thing absolutely new, that God had come to them for the first time. But I pointed out to them that it was not so — that God had come to them again and again by a gentle loving voice .... and they had some- times listened and stirred a little, and then fallen back again into slumber, and even into sin. They must not imagine that God was in any way altered. It was His wish always to bless them and give them joy ; and if they were not blessed, if they did not rejoice, it had been simply because they had not received that great mercy which God was always ready with open hand to bestow upon them. " I showed William Ncgwensa how much danger there is in these excitements. 1 acknowledged the results and was thankful, because I saw that the Spirit of God was really using them as a means of arousing the people. But I was still afraid lest their hearts should again become cold, and they should return with increased greediness to the sins they had left. I could quite understand how with certain temperaments, when God begins to awaken in the heart by His Spirit a real sense of Divine things and of the evil of aliena- tion from God, they Avould be so agitated that they XI A TOUCHING NARRATIVE 171 could find relief only in loud vvailings and prayer. But that was the human side of the work, the undesir- able side of it, which would be better not to be, if the heart could only quietly and trustingly commit itself to God in Christ." Among the natives influenced by the movement was an old woman, whose son with his wife and large family w^ere all to be admitted to baptism. She was nearly eighty years old, and almost in second child- hood, and there was a question as to whether it would be advisable to baptise her with the others. Dr. Calla- way set one of the native catechists to speak to her, the result of which was that on the following day she came to the mission-house, a distance of nearly a mile, of her own accord to see the missionary himself. " Do you believe in this good Lord .'' " he asked her ; and the reply was " Should I have tottered up to speak with you, if I did not believe in Him.-"' And he found that she had been to the hill-top to pray, having been told by some of the new converts that her prayers would be heard there more readily. Needless to say that she was taught the truth, and admitted with her children to baptism. Umpengula's child was the first baby born at Spring Vale, in 1858, the summer of Dr. Callaway's settlement there, and the touching and simple record of his short life has been preserved in the father's writing. His parents had him baptised by the name of Sajabula — i.e. "He continually rejoices" — and delighted in the beauty and intelligence which de- veloped as he grew, and which set him apart from 172 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. their other children. As time went on the tiny child learnt to help his father in little duties about the farm and garden, and would of his own accord run out at sunset to bring home the calves and to earn his father's smile of thanks. " And I his father used to say ' My child will be better than I ; for he lived like a true man.' " Umpengula was intensely devoted to him, and watched him with a care that was half joy, half dread, for there was something unearthly in the child's goodness. " His face was as if it told some very beauti- ful tale." " In time of his health I used to see death," he said. In 1863 a kind of low fever broke out in the village and Sajabula took it. He was not very ill at first and seemed at one time to be almost well again ; but his strength failed, and there were times of suffering which told the parents too surely that their fears for him were to be fulfilled. Dr. Callaway was constantly with them. The child's strength ebbed from day to day, and medicine seemed only to bring him fresh suffering. The father, remembering a native super- stition, said, " It is well that we loosen our hands that it be not we who cause him suffering." " I [had taught] him the Lord's Prayer with which men begin to pray . . . and when he was ill . . . he knelt whilst he had strength, and still overcame the disease at the time of prayer." And later " although he was no longer able to speak, he used to say the word ' Lord ! ' . . . we hear nothing else, we do not know what he says." And one night the missionary came, and putting aside his remedies as useless, he knelt and XI A PAINFUL JOURNEY 173 prayed by the child, and Umpengula's heart said " That prayer is as it were a farewell." As morning dawned the child " was like one asleep ; the moaning now ended, the restlessness ceased. I said ' Go in peace, my child.' He was dead." Diary — ''June i, 1867. — At the request of the resident magistrate of Richmond, I set out to-day to go some distance to investigate a case of murder. ... I thought, from the account given me of the distance, that I might go, and return to Highflats to sleep and take the Sunday service. . . . After asking my guides again and again ' Are we nearly there .'" and receiving again the same answer, ' It is close at hand,' at 3 P.M. (after being in the saddle six hours) we found ourselves on the edge of a precipice running north and south for miles, and cutting off an upper plateau to a lower, which probably extends to the sea. . . . The guides pointed to a native kraal about half a mile off — ' That is where he was killed ' — and then to the most distant visible hill — ' And yonder he is buried.' ' Why, how can I get there to-night, to say nothing of return- ing } ' I said, rather shocked at the work before me. " Trusting to their account I had left my sleeping- rug and provisions at Highflats on my way, and now I had no prospect but that of a ride till near midnight on weary horses, or of having to sleep at a Kaffir kraal. " We descended by a precipitous path, and reached by another steep ascent the kraal where the man had been killed. ... A bride had come with her father 174 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. and friends to her future home. During the wedding- dance some altercation arose, blows were exchanged, and at length the bride's father, whilst attempting to mediate, was stabbed in the chest. The bridal party was at once broken up, and the bride went home with her friends. . . . " We did not reach ourdestination [i.e. the kraal where the murdered man was buried] till about 4.30 P..M.,and had only half-an-hour of daylight and no moon. The body, being that of a man killed by an assegai wound, was not buried in the kraal but at some distance. . . . When we had finished our investigation it was nearly dark, and total darkness very soon follows the sunset. I fully intended to get to Highflats — knowing that I could not reach it before 10 o'clock — not at all liking the prospect of sleeping in a native hut without extra clothing and without food. But the native policeman who was acting as our guide and who, like myself, had travelled the path for the first time, missed his way in the dark ; and Undabazizwa, my own boy, is not way-wise. . . . We concluded to go on by the path we were in, knowing that a path leads somewhere, and that if we turned back we might wander again and be wandering all night. . . . We were recommended to dismount. ... It was so dark that I could not see the outline of the precipitous and rough path in which I was walking, and had to feel the way with my feet, and sometimes with my hands, to prevent myself from falling." (Two streams had to be crossed, the first by stepping-stones which had to be groped for in the darkness, the second through mud ankle-deep, and J XI IN A KAFFIR KRAAL 175 then came a path almost perpendicular, which necessi- tated constant stoppages for breath.) " We reached the top at length, and soon' after the kraal we were in search of But by this time I was fairly exhausted, having been in the saddle about ten hours, and having eaten scarcely anything since the morning. My horse too was tired and hungry, so I gave up all thoughts of going on. " I was soon introduced into the chief hut, a clean mat was spread for me near the fire, and a native pillow — viz., a small four-legged stool — handed to me. The prospect of the night was anything but pleasant — no food such as I was accustomed to, no wrapper, a very hard bed, a not very comfortable pillow ; plenty of companions both human and animal. ... In due time a pot, capable of holding about two quarts, of porridge of maize and pumpkin, was presented to me, full to the brim, and a clean wooden spoon placed on the top. A kid which the people had brought in was then placed on an eating mat, and distributed to us and to the natives in the hut who had assembled to talk with me. " As might be supposed I had a very restless night. A very high and cold wind arose during the night, and reached me in spite of the great fire which was kept up. I rose early, intending to reach Highflats by breakfast-time. But our horses had got away, and could nowhere be found. My own man was out seek- ing for them before sunrise, and others followed, but we could get no tidings. It was a beautiful morning^ so still, so bright, no longer cold ; and I walked up 176 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. and down watching the cast as it began to glow with the rising sun, and thinking happy earnest thouglits of my home and my work. . . . "At length I determined to borrow horses of the natives, and leave the care of finding my own to the chief man of the kraal. I broke my fast with half a teacupful of new milk, and set out with Undabazizwa on two native horses a little after 9. We reached Highflats in about two hours, but I was so exhausted with hunger and want of rest that I left the Sunday- school and service to Mr. Blair who had come over for the purpose. " It was a very amusing but practically not al- together pleasant chapter of accidents. We often read of missionaries and travellers complaining of such things, but really these and other like discomforts are generally the result of mere mismanagement." Another subsequent entry shows this was by no means a unique experience. '^ Nov. 8, 1868 {Sunday). Just as I was going in to the first morning service a messenger came from Mr. Wilson, Resident Magistrate, Alfred County, with a most urgent request that if possible I would go and see them. A few months ago they were at Port Elizabeth, and there lost their eldest child, a most lovely girl, of diphtheria ; they have just lost their youngest of the same disease, and their only surviving child, a boy, is ill of the same. The letter was so urgent and of so sorrowful a character that I could not refuse to go. But the road ! In a straight line probably not more than fifty miles ; but to get over XI ANOTHER TOILSOME JOURNEY 177 that road involved much difficulty; steep hills and deep gorges — no white inhabitants intermediate — the Umzimkulu to be passed at an unfrequented ford, and if full impassable it maybe for days; and the only way of travelling, on horseback. I determined therefore to send medicine, and to drive by the coast road, a distance of about 100 or more miles ; I therefore set out im- mediately after service with Petrie and two horses. . . . " Nov. loth. . . . As we proceeded the roads grew worse and worse ; it was only by the most careful driving that we got on at all. At length we reached the Ifafa. Formerly the ford was some hundred yards higher than the present one, — the bottom good, and a good road ran along the opposite bank. But this road has been washed away, and we had to pass over a rocky uneven bed, and on the opposite side to pass up a steep bank through a foot or more of loose sand left there by the recent floods. In this sand we found a loaded waggon stuck fast — no very bright prospect for us in crossing with somewhat jaded horses ! I sent our guide, an intelligent good native, forward to test the ford. He got into water nearly to his armpits, and then came to a rock which rose almost perpen- dicularly." A place was at last found where the cart could cross, and as a sharp thunder-shower had made the roads less slippery the journey was for a time a little less difficult. Next day, Nov. 1 1 th, " we came to a morass through which the waggon-road ran ; the rushes and reeds were higher than the horses, and we could not see the road. . . . One of the horses sank to the saddle, N 178 HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP. and the cart was nearly upset. . . . Petrie took the horses' heads, and they ascended the bank which was about three feet perpendicular in height ; but they could not drag the cart up, for the steps caught in the bank and would not allow of its passing without breaking." Some natives were found to dig away the bank, and they succeeded in lifting the cart bodily on to a firmer road. They reached a mission station on the Umyanbi with no further trouble, and leaving the horses here Dr. Callaway went on to Mr. Wilson's on horseback, under the escort of a native guide. " [He] was very unwilling to go, and wished me to allow him to return as soon as he reached the waggon-road to the Umzimkulu. But I persuaded him that he must go on to the river, or even to Mr. Wilson's if there was not another guide to be found at the ferry. Before we reached the waggon-road we had got on excellent terms with each other, and he most cheerfully went with me the whole way. I crossed over [the ferry] in the boat and the horse swam across. Here Mr. Wilson had left directions that I should be cared for, and after taking some refreshment and procuring a new guide I left about 7 P.AL for Mr. Wilson's." It was a pitch- dark night, and the responsibility of finding the way had to be left entirely to the native guide. After three hours and a half spent in riding over uneven ground, through interlacing trees and the beds of several streams. Dr. Callaway found that the man had been wilfully misleading him, and that they were only three miles from the place they had started from. Happily they fell in with some natives who came out with XI A MISSIONARY'S HUT 179 torches to guide him. " They whirled round pieces of lighted firewood, thus keeping up a considerable light, some before and some behind me. It was a wild weird scene, the black figures just discernible by their fire-sticks — the fire, as they whirled them round, thrown into all kinds of fantastic shapes — and the savage native songs breaking the surrounding dead silence." They took him to the house of a German missionary with whom he passed the night. Setting out early next morning he reached Mr. Wilson's before breakfast, and was glad to find that the medicines he had sent had proved efficacious and that the child was out of danger. The journey home was by a longer but easier road, and was made in comparative comfort. One night was spent in the hut of a Griqualand missionary, who was absent on a visit to a sick woman. His hut was " made of poles planted in the ground about eight feet apart at bottom and meeting at the top — in fact, the roof of a Jioiise on the ground. It is forty feet long, has a door, and two windows of calico. This is his schoolroom ; there are a few rough primitive desks and forms, books and maps. The bed on which I was to sleep was placed on two planks and a portion of a third, supported at one end by a box, at the other by a bag of meal. I could not help thinking that Mr. Murray's mode of living was very much like that of a hermit — quite as much self-denial is required to live as he does as was required by hermits of another period. He is their minister, schoolmaster, and doctor." Such long journeys by rough roads (or no roads at N 2 i8o HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP. all), and in all weathers, involved, as may be imagined, an amount of time and strength quite out of pro- portion to the actual result — the willing service was invaluable to individuals, but meanwhile all his other duties to the colony were at a standstill. He there- fore set himself more ardently to consider ways and means for carrying out a plan which had for some time been taking shape in his brain — namely, the establish- ment of a small hospital. The advantages it would give him seemed to him to make it almost indispensable. In the first place there were his scattered patients, who necessarily suffered and often died through want of his constant care, and, more fatal still, through the inter- ference of the native " medicine-men." He was able to make room for one or two urgent cases in the " verandah-rooms " of the school-chapel or in adjoin- ing huts ; but the accommodation was a poor substi- tute for proper hospital comfort. Then there was the advantage which such a building would have in offering hospitality to friends at a distance, travelling missionaries, etc., who would rest there as travellers of the middle ages did at the monasteries ; and in this way the Church would be felt to be literally a bond of union between man and man. And there were other considerations from a strictly medical point of view — the encouragement of the study of medicine among the Kaffirs, the systematising of re- cords of cases, etc., and the collecting of a medical library, which might be used by many besides the actual hospital staff. " It seems too great and good a work to be entrusted to mc," he wrote to Mr. Hanbury. XI STEPS TOWARDS A HOSPITAL i8i And too great it proved indeed to be, for he laboured during the ensuing years only that other men might enter into his labours. But there is no doubt that the work was his throughout, though the final accomplish- ment was taken out of his hands. In these early days, however, the difficulties seemed small in the light of his enthusiasm. " There is every prospect of my being able to enter on the work before very long ; that is I have [ 1 868] £ i oo towards it, and the almost assurance of other help ; probably also help of an efficient kind from Government, who would look on it as a good public benefit. What I want is not only to erect a hospital but to endow it. It must not be a thing resting on any one life. ... It should be at Highflats, which I feel sure ought to be our centre. I would not hesitate a moment if I could command the private funds which have been sunk here. But you must know that ten years of labour in this station [Spring Vale] have told on me considerably. I am in first-rate health, never perhaps better, but I am older and cannot bear physical fatigue as I could, and am obliged to humour myself as formerly was not neces- sary. My roughing days are over. Then again my hands are full of work ; I could not personally superin- tend the w^ork at Highflats as I did here, and therefore the average expenses would be much greater. But I have always found the needful means come to hand when the work I have had to do is God's work ; and if this be His, sooner or later the means will be provided." Not only did his own people look with great interest l82 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. on the project ; as soon as an appeal for funds appeared in the Natal Alercury it was responded to by the people of Griqualand, a territory bej'ond the Umzimkulu River, and outside British dominion. The Griquas held a council to discuss how far they could help, and wrote (through a Wcsleyan minister who had been working among them) to offer such wealth as they had, namely timber for building, and cattle and sheep for maintenance. Others followed their example, and a goodly herd of cattle was collected and main- tained, and contributed to the support of Dr. Calla- way's patients in the long interval which had yet to elapse before the actual building was started. Dr. Aldridge, the principal practitioner in Pietermaritzburg, looked on the plan as one which would greatly ad- vance the progress of medical science in the colony, and used every means to awaken interest among his patients. Altogether things seemed to promise well, and the doctor may be pardoned if his eagerness made light of the obstacles that lay in his way, and if his plans were somewhat too extensive for accom- plishment. To Mr. Hanbury. " Spring Vale, November 2nd, 1868. ... I am much obliged to you for the information you give me of the kind friends who have subscribed for the hospital. Do if you can convey to them in some way my feeling of gratitude for their help. ... I purpose to build it on the plan of S. Bartholomew's, XI HOPE DEFERRED 183 four wings enclosing a square. We think we can build the front wing with what we have, hoping to get more as we go. 1 have been working on the plan to- day, and have nnade it with two wards capable of taking seven beds each. Accommodation for super- intendent . . . and three other small rooms in which separate cases may be placed. . . . " I believe it is a good work God has put into my heart to do, and that He will enable me to carry it out. It is quite possible that I may be doing it for someone else — I mean that we may find it necessary to get a medical man from England to take charge of it." Another idea was to have three wards, one for coloured men, one for white, and the third for women. But in either case it was estimated that even this small building would cost ^1,000, and not half that amount was yet collec.ted. A terrible flood which occurred during the latter part of this year caused a general commercial depression — Government had to curtail expenditure in every direction, and was more likely to withdraw grants than to launch out into new ones ; and the means of private individuals were of course equally straitened. The dearly-loved plan must therefore remain for the present in abeyance, which was all the harder to bear since the natives had already begun to ask to be admitted as in-patients. They took it for granted that their all-powerful master only needed to make up his mind to anything, and it would there and then be accomplished. As it was, the doctor could not refuse some of the cases that were brought to him, i84 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. and his own small house continued to be the Hospiz of the neighbourhood. The Griqua contributions were invaluable in defraying the heav)- expense. Dr. Callaway's English friends were somewhat dis- tressed at the long delay. By the end of 1870 the funds only amounted to ^^450, and, as he said, this would be more than swallowed up by the building of even a " cottage hospital," exclusive of furniture, and with no margin for the current expenses which must be incurred at first, until its development into a medical school would render it largely self-supporting-. There was nothing for it but to bide his time. " If I could afford it I would come to England to plead my own cause," he wrote ; but as that also was for the present impracticable the matter must remain uncertain. "It is a public work, and the public must take the respon- sibility or go without the benefit." And thus it was that the hospital did not come into existence till he had entered a wider sphere of work which would not allow of his keeping this branch of it in his own hands. It has been already mentioned that Dr. Callaway had set his heart on educating the most intelligent and promising of his natives to carry on the work of the ministry. For some time he had been able to leave the congregation in charge of Umpengula and other native " catechists " when he was obliged to be absent at Highflats and elsewhere, and had found them fitted for any work of teaching, reading, or visiting, that could be carried out by laymen. It was evidently impossible to get together an efficient staff of English XI NEED OF A NATIVE MINISTRY 185 clergymen to do all the work that was needed in the Colony — the funds at command would not supply a quarter of the requisite number, though there were self-sacrificing men already working on an income barely sufficient for their daily needs — and further, the natives had, as we have seen, advantages over the white men in their closer intimacy with the ways and thoughts of their own kindred. The question was brought forward at the Pieter- maritzburg Synod in June 1871, and the Bishop asked Dr. Callaway what qualifications he considered should be looked for in native candidates for Holy Orders. He replied that of course a high standard of education must not be required, and that he had found that simple earnest men could sometimes, by their very simplicity, teach the ignorant natives more efficiently than those whose education might lead them to " entomb rather than enshrine Christian truth." " We must expect disappointment in prepar- ing native ministers, and heresies peculiar to South Africa may spring up ; but this should not hinder us. . . . The Apostles would have ordained such men without requiring literary qualifications." He would not debar them altogether, he said, from a classical education ; but he saw in it a danger which must be carefully guarded against. " Book learning " of any kind was still an unwonted exertion to a race whose education had only begun some fifteen years back ; and any attempt to force their powers brought a re- action of physical depression and a consequent ten- dency to give up working in despair. For this and i86 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. other reasons he agreed with Dean Green that it was as a rule a mistake to send the natives to England to be trained at S. Augustine's or other theological colleges — the best training was a life of action, of mixing with men and women and learning some- thing of the human nature with which they had to deal. Dr. Callaway proposed his own two helpers, William and Umpengula, as fit subjects for ordina- tion, and with Bishop Macroric's approval he devoted himself during the ensuing months to their training. It was an arduous task, for there were no books in the native dialect except his own translations of the Prayer-Book and parts of the Bible, and the teaching had to be done orally. He taught them, as one would teach children, the history of the Old and New Testament, questioning them daily on the lesson of the preceding day ; went through the Creeds, their history and significance, the office for the making of Deacons, the Thirty-nine Articles, and the Church Catechism, besides setting them to read for themselves such passages in their translation of the Bible as had a particular bearing on any great Christian truth. He also made them prepare written sermons for him, and found that, as might have been expected, they were far inferior to the men's spoken teaching. On one occasion Umpengula had preached a sermon so striking that his master asked him to repeat it that he might write it down. But it lost half its force when delivered thus apart from his audience. A young Englishman, Thurston Button — whose XI AN ORDINATION SERMON 187 sister had for some time been with Dr. and Mrs. Callaway as their adopted daughter and their right- hand in all their labours — had been for two years in training at S. Augustine's, Canterbury, and had re- turned to Natal early in 1871 for his deacon's ordina- tion. (He tells in a letter to a friend how the whole population of warm-hearted natives came out four or five miles to meet him on his arrival at Spring Vale.) He now received priest's orders from Bishop Macrorie, at the same time that the natives were ordained deacons, at S. Saviour's Church, Pieter- maritzburg, on the fourth Sunday in Advent, 1871. Dr. Callaway preached the sermon. His text was from the third chapter of the Epistle to the Colos- sians : — " Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him ; where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free ; but Christ is all and in all." It was for the most part an address of advice and encourage- ment to the young men on the work they were entering upon ; but he took occasion to allude to this fulfilment of his hopes and to the promise it gave for the future. " I believe," he said, " that not to attempt to raise a ministry for the natives from among the natives them- selves would be a proof of our own great weakness, and of want of faith in the power of that Gospel in which we profess to believe. . . . The white man, if he be a man of any power and capacity, is looked i8S HENRY CALLAWAY chap. up to as a superior being, and the natives will servilely assent in his presence to what he sa)s. . . . They imagine that the word of the Gospel is the white man's word, good for him, but not good for them. ... As set forth to them by him it is frequently a mere transcendentalism. . . . But they must begin to think in another way when they hear one who a few years ago was living in the same savagedom, in the same ignorance and want of culture as themselves, speaking to them of the high and holy things of God. . . . " Think not for a moment that I am not aware of the prevalence of infidelity, blasphemy, and immorality among our white population. . . . There is in the great cities and towns of England a criminal popula- tion not outdone in evil-doing by any heathen in this land. Had the Church waited to convert these men before sending her ministers into foreign parts we should ourselves have no ministers, no churches, no sacraments. The apostles did not tarry at Jerusalem till unbelief and sin had been eradicated by their labours. . . . In sending forth her messengers to other lands the Church does not weaken by scattering her forces, but is simply fulfilling her mission, and her labourers in distant harvest fields are really reaping rich blessings for those at home whom they have left but not forsaken, and whom they love with no less love because, constrained by the love of Christ, they love others also." As he had expected, the promotion of these two men was a source of great interest and joy to the XI A RICH FRUIT 189 Spring Vale people. " As William came out of church after the first celebration in which he had administered the cup, the people gathered round him with much warmth of affection and shaking of hands, and some of the old women kissed his hand — a mark of great respect." They at once took their places as Dr. Callaway's curates, giving their time especially to parish work. Mr. Button worked for a short time at Highflats before being intrusted with a more responsible charge. CHAPTER Xll Griqualand — An exploration party — Clydesdale mission started — Links between Africa and England — Reason and Revelation — Generosity of Spring Vale natives — A missionary's daily life — Literary work — Whites and blacks — Progressive Christianity — Darwin and Max Midler — Proposed new diocese of Kaffraria. To the south-west of Spring Vale, beyond High- flats, and beyond the Umzimkulu River, hes a large tract of flat country inhabited originally by the Amabaca tribe, who had in past times proved some- what troublesome neighbours. In the spring of i860 consternation had prevailed in Spring Vale at a rumour (which proved on this occasion to be un- founded) that they were coming on one of their predatory raids under the chief Utiba, who thought nothing of punishing his offending subjects by cover- ing them with dry grass, setting fire to it, and then throwing them into the river. The tales may have been e>:aggeratcd, but there was no doubt that they were in their wild state people whom it would be well cither to avoid or to civilise. At that time the country was known as " No Man's Land." In 1863 a new people had, with Sir George Grey's permission, migrated hither from the Free State, and placed themselves under British protection. These CH. XII A PICNIC EXCURSION 191 were the half-caste Griquas, Dutchmen who had inter- married with Hottentots or other natives, and whose leader was Kaptyn Adam Kok, a man of strong and interesting personality who held in his hands the whole civil government. The new-comers had to a great extent reduced the Amabaca to order, had given their name to the country — Griqualand — and had become the more important if not the more numerous part of the population. Some efforts at evangelisation had been made here by the Wesleyans, but hitherto the Church had done nothing. The people who came across the Umzim- kulu into Natal territory had seen the well-built houses and cultivated land around Spring Vale and Highflats, and the prosperous-looking people each with his own hut and garden ; they had heard of, and in many cases proved for themselves, the missionary- doctor's medical skill ; and they had several times sent a pressing request that a mission-station might be started among them also. We have seen already how they welcomed the idea of a hospital and sent as much as their means would allow for its building and maintenance. Everything pointed to the need for a church and resident clergyman here, and the time seemed to have come when practical steps might be taken towards establishing them. At the end of May 1870, Dr. Callaway took advan- tage of the school-holidays to organise a " picnic- party " to spy out this unknown country. The party consisted of himself and Mrs. Callaway, their adopted daughter. Miss Button, and Miss Newland who was 192 HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP. acting as schoolmistress, and four or five natives. They travelled in the waggon which had so often served as his own carriage, dining-room, and bed- room ; and two other tents were taken to form the nightly encampment. They were a very happy holiday-party, despite the many drawbacks involved in so primitive a mode of travelling. A long drought had dried up the vegeta- tion — never very luxuriant here at the best of times — and only the total absence of roads prevented their being blinded by dust. As it was, the way lay chiefly along dry grassy plains or the roughest cart-tracks. Provisions in abundance were supplied, sometimes by the natives, more often by the colonists whose houses they passed, and who gladly welcomed to a meal and a chat any travellers of their own race. Reports as to the Griqua people did not grow more encouraging as they drew nearer their destination. One gentleman assured Dr. Callaway that he would never succeed in planting the Church among them, that they hated Christianity as taught them by the Wesleyans, and would refuse to listen to other Christian teachers. Another, a clergyman sent out by the London Mis- sionary Society, spoke from personal experience of the discouragements that he met with in all directions ; but his offer to interpret if Dr. Callaway would hold a service showed that he was friendly disposed towards a Church of England mission. It was a question of considerable anxiety therefore whether the leader of the Griquas, Kaptyn Adam Kok, would accord them a favourable reception. XII WELCOMED BY THE CiRIQUAS 193 However he received the mission-party graciously, spoke sensibly of the advantages which would be given by such a settlement, and almost promised that no opposition would be offered by the authorities. The people themselves welcomed him still more cordiall}'. They came to the mission-tent for hymn-singing, and on the Sunday morning, June 5th, Dr. Callaway found about a hundred of them assembled in the chapel for an early morning service — a clear sign that there was not a universal hostility to Christianity as he had been led to expect. In fact, he soon found that they were an essentially religious people. " They were for some time — years it may be — without a regularly-appointed minister ; yet they did not give up religious duties, but had their regular church meetings, and did what they could to keep themselves alive. I speak of course of those only with whom I have been brought into contact ; and of these I must say they appear to me to be good, earnest Christian people." The numbers were estimated by one of the English colonists as 5,000 Griquas, and some 15,000 Kaffirs, Amabaca and Basutos. The travellers reached Spring Vale on June loth, after twelve days' absence, and with no misadventures but one night of sharp frost, and a gale of high wind which threatened to blow the fire they had kindled into the surrounding dry waving grass, and to set the whole land in a conflagration. Kaptyn Kok appears to have felt that he had gone further than he meant — at all events the matter was not settled till a few months later. O P 194 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. To The Rf.v. W. T. Bullock. ''Spring Vale, September i6, 1870. On Monday last, September 1 2, 1 received a special messenger from Kaptyn Kok asking me to meet him at the Umzim- kulu on Tuesday. I went accordingly and met him and his council. We had a long talk in which many difificulties, real and imaginary, were raised by them, not to the establishment of a mission by the Church, so much as to the character and conduct of the men that might be appointed to the work, and the diffi- culties that might arise if men that could not work with them should be appointed, if they gave the Church a bond fide title to the land. But when I pointed out to them that it would be an utter impossibility to begin a mission upon a principle which would leave entirely in the hands of the Government the power to judge of the character and conduct of a clergyman .... and that to visit on the Church the misdeeds of any individual would be to punish in a wrong direction and in a wrong way .... they saw that the prin- ciple I was contending for was a right one, and agreed to place the land in trust for Church purposes under a committee appointed by the Volks Raad. " Nothing could be more hearty than the way in which they expressed themselves as willing to receive and co-operate with us, notwithstanding all the under- current of suspicions which they say is justified b)' past experience." Opposition being removed, there still remained the XII MISSIONS NECESSARY 195 old and constant difficulty of funds. An Englishman offered to sell a large tract of land amounting to 4,500 acres, with a cottage and other buildings, for the small sum of ;^300 ; and this was so clearly an advantage that Dr. Callaway sent an urgent appeal to England for funds to enable him to make the purchase, and for men to come and carry on the work. " No half- hearted man will be of any use in native work. A half-hearted man may be forced to work among white people ; public opinion forces him, and in actual work his half-heartedness may pass away. But the influ- ences among natives are all dragging down. And if a man is not really earnest he will sink down into apathy, and into unbelief in the reality of his work and of that of others. The higher the training of a man, if earnest, the better. The natives appreciate a gentleman. But they appreciate too reality of charac- ter in those who are working among them." [1868.] The Griqualand mission would, however, need to extend to Europeans as well as Africans, and Dr. Callaway felt that this work was, to say the least, not less important than the " mission work " properly so called. " I cannot but feel," he wrote to Mr. Bullock (February 10, 1871), ''that this objection [to missiona- ries undertaking work among whites] is founded on a false theory, supported though it may appear to be by facts. I cannot conceive any right-minded man — any Christian minister with a spark of the love of Christ burning within him — anyone possessed of a clear com- prehension of the work of His Church in the world — finding it possible to sit still and confine his attention O 2 196 MF,\R^' CALl.AWAV cji.M'. to the coloured races, when lie sees his own country- men, Christians by descent and profession, sinking into lower and lower degradation around him, for want of the means of grace and the means of even elementary education for their children. The mission of the Church must be to the total population of the country. It is only because w^e are out of joint that it is possible for us to break up the population of a countr)' into classes. The white people properly attended to, really reached b}' the Church, really sen- sible of their dut}-, become the great means in the (^lurch's hand for the evangelisation and elevation of the natives. The white people neglected, sensible that an inferior people, a foreign alien people, claim more attention and sympathy than they, become reckless and indifferent to that Church, and too often to the truth which that Church is sent to teach, when they see the Church is indifferent to them." The appeal was responded to almost at once. Enough monc}' was collected to allow of the purchase being made, and Mr. Parkinson undertook to settle as resident clergyman on the Upper Umzimkulu, with Mr. Budd, a catechist, as his coadjutor. The mission was to be known henceforth as Clydesdale ; a small temporary church was to be built, to be enlarged or rebuilt as circumstances might allow ; and three out- lying villages, one five miles off, the others each twenty-five, were to be visited from the mission. This would prepare the way for the establishment of new stations later on. Unfortunatcl)', Mr. Parkinson's health failed within XII MR. BUTTON AT CLYDESDALE 197 a month or two of his going to Clydesdale, and it became necessary for him to abandon the work. This of course occasioned further delay and much worry to Dr. Callaway, who was constantly taken away from his literary and other work to superintend the building, etc., and to arrange the business of the transfer of land. There was also some anxiety caused by the increased efforts of the Wesleyans, who were naturally anxious to hold their own against the church about to be planted in their midst. Dr. Callaway dreaded the evil effect on the natives of the sight of two religious bodies, each teaching what to the Kaffir mind would seem similar doctrines, and yet in the position of antagonists. The post of mission- ary would, he knew, be a difficult and responsible one. He decided to appoint Thurston Button, who had for the last year and a half been working most earnestly and successfully at Highflats, and whose long ac- quaintance with the Kaffir people and two years' English training adapted him equally for the two branches of work to be done. The event fully justified his choice. By the end of the year (1872) the place had greatly developed ; there were good Sunday attendances, a flourishing school, and a general interest and enthusiasm among the people which gave every promise of good results. As church furniture was not to be had, and the natives were not skilful at carpentering, Mr. Button set to work with his own hands to fit up the church with desks and stools. He collected a few good workmen, to supply the immediate wants of the place and to instruct the 198 HEXRV CALLAWAY CHAP. people in v^arious trades ; and he allotted the land in small portions to the householders, that they might each have a certain independence. His Spring Vale training stood him in as good stead, perhaps, as the more directly " missionary training" of college. A further interview which Dr. Callaway had with Kaptyn Kok showed that the latter was not only reconciled, but most friendly disposed towards the new settlers, and ready to give them all the help he could. The Griqua Government gave land of the value of ^200 for the benefit of the school chapel and of a medical dispensary, and opportune help came from the S.P.C.K. to establish the little mission on a firmer footing. Dr. Callaway began to look forward to a time when the fertile soil under proper cultivation might make Griqualand the " granary for the whole of Africa." While the daughter villages of Spring Vale were thus extending and developing, it must not be sup- posed that the chief station was not also making progress. The growth here, however, was rather in spiritual depth than in outward prosperity ; and its course may be best judged of by gleanings (which we have not separated from their context) from Dr. Callaway's letters. One ought to remember that, amid the press of work in which he lived, and tried as he was from time to time by failing health, he was not always in a position to judge impartially as to the general progress of the community. But in spite of occasional ph}'sical weakness, his mental vigour was perhaps at its highest development during the years XII WIDER VIEWS COME WITH AGE 199 immediately preceding his consecration. Since giving up manual labour, he had been able to give his time almost exclusively to clerical and literary work, and at the same time to interest himself keenly in the vital questions of science and theology which were stirring in England and the Colonies. If it should appear at times that his ideas are wanting in origin- ality, it should be remembered that he had been separated for many years not only from England, but — except at rare intervals — from the society of Englishmen of his own intellectual standing, and was therefore dependent only on the comparatively few books which he could collect in his "home in the wilderness," and which his busy life would allow him leisure to read. To Mr. Han bury, who had sent him a list of subscribers to the Hospital Fund. " Spring Vale, May 9, 1868. ... I fancy at one time thought me a very wrong-headed religionist. . . . As we get nearer heaven we get nearer each other, and begin to learn that opinions may vary — ay, and vary very greatly — but that the Spirit's life is one and unchangeable, and that the great Spirit of the Son of God can and does work by various means and ways to carry on His work in different minds ; that our one- ness is in Him, our diversities of ourselves — sometimes intellectual, sometimes natural. ... It is so difficult to know how to convey the expression of one's feel- ings of obligation to such kind unknown friends. One 200 HKNKV CALLAWAY chap. feels more obliged, it seems to me, for help for our work, than we should be for personal favours conferred on ourselves. There is the feeling of brotherhood in one Head, brotherhood which overleaps those minor causes which separate us into distinct sections in the Church. . . . " could not understand my movement when I left Friends. But they did not cease to love me, nor wholly to believe in me. There were others who seemed to give up all faith, if not love. . . . But had they known the years'-long struggle — the trial of heart and intellect which I was passing through with all the cares of my profession — they would themselves have told me I could not have done otherwise, and would have wished me ' God-speed ' in the way in which our one Head called me to work for Him. . . . " I am quite prepared to admit that there may have been, and [may be] still, much mistaken, false, and dangerous in the views which many entertain of the Bible. And I also believe that there are some things that have crept into it which are not of God, and which a rightly-conducted criticism will expunge. . . ." To the Same. ''Spring Vale, August i, 1868. ... I am not a believer in Darwin, but I have not yet read all his book. ... I know more of Darwinism, as it is called, from his friendly expositors and unfriendly opponents than I do of him and his exact opinions. XII DARWINISM 20I " There are \hcsc prima facie objections which have occurred to me : — "(i) Nature seems to act with a view to keep things at a certain level ; it is a great mistake to give the female to simply the strongest. There are in- dividual likings on the part both of female and male which prevents connexion being determined by physical strength. ... It seems rather to go by a rule of contraries. This, of course, refers to the human species especially, but the same thing is seen among animals. " (2) The sterility of hybrids, which is opposed to the creation of a new species. Why should there be any such opposition if all species are but offsets of a common germ .-* " (3) I believe I am right in saying that the lowest forms do not appear first in the geological chart on the stage of being. " (4) It is not the physically strong that can main- tain itself best in the struggle for existence. Intellect much more. What w^ould man be if the physical alone ruled .^ It would seem that, whilst man got physically weaker and weaker, before his intellect had time to develop, he yet maintained himself against greater and greater odds against stronger animals. " I am not sure that Darwinism might not get over the male and female argument. The hermaphrodite they would say is the intermediate link. " It is one of the questions of the day about which I ought to be able to speak. But how much one has 102 HENRY CALLAWAY CHAP. to read to keep up with the vastly rapid progress of the day ! " To the Same. "Spring Vale, October 6, 1868. ... I have read 's lecture on Colenso and his difficulties with much pleasure. . . . An ex-Quaker knows how to deal with Colenso's fallacies on the inward light. . . . The fact is, most errors are half-truths — or truths seen on one side only. And it has long been a favourite thought of mine that it would be better to acknow- ledge the half of an error which is true, than to meet it by an opposite only half-truth, which is the usual way of dealing with error of opinion. Why should not the Christian Philosopher take in all that is true in Deism, for instance, in science, in everything, to sanctify it by the teaching and for the service of his Lord ? Surely it can be done. The God of nature and of grace is one ; and one truth proceeds from God speaking by nature and by grace. The error is in our misapprehension of what he says, and misin- terpretation. ... I should much like to see Darwin's works. I quite agree with what he says about the rabidness of some religious (?) writers against science. Darwin has no doubt brought together a great many facts, but is probably utterly wrong in his interpreta- tion of them. But if his interpretation were right, I do not see that it would affect a single Christian doctrine or revealed truth. We may go back as far as we like ; trace perfect forms through their evolution and developments to their most primordial condition, xtl THE PERSONAL CREATOR 203 yet at last \vc must come to the Purposing Mind, which gave that primordial condition such wondrous capabilities. It seems to me very absurd to be afraid of science, and, it may be, very unbelieving too. For we are seeking tnitli — and whatever is not true we ought to be glad to cast away. " Our Church is still unsettled. I yearn after a greater charity, and half envy , who could say he was bound by nothing deno7ni)iational. I do [not] think that I am practically — at least I feel that I can stretch across all denominational difficulties to shake hands with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." To the Same. ''Spying Vale, October 20, 1868. ... I have just finished The Darwinian Theory Examined, by a Graduate of Cambridge. I think he brings up many unanswerable arguments against the theory. At the same time I confess I do not greatly admire the book. It appears to me that he does not understand the theory he attacks, or if he understands it he purposely misrepresents Darwin. I do not profess to have thoroughly read Darwin, for I have only looked into a borrowed copy, and I never can read a borrowed book so thoroughly as I do one of my own. I cannot mark the margin and make notes. But I have formed these conclusions : " (i.) The transmutation theory is true within certain limits. Many of the facts mentioned by Darwin are facts of my own observation too, and conclusions 204 IIKXRY CALLA^VA^" chai\ drawn by him similar to ccjnclusions formed by myself. " (ii.) But he is wrong in extending the theory beyond the limits, and making observations on varieties apply to species, genera, families, and classes. " (iii.) The theory is not necessarily atheistic, nor opposed to the existence of a Creator, even now actively upholding and superintending all things. I do not say what it may be in the hands of those atheistically inclined. . . . "The graduate makes many great mistakes. What is he .'' Not a physiologist. He does not know the difference between growth and development. The latter word sadly puzzles him. He has probably simply read iip to answer Darwin. " Then he docs not understand what Creation is. . . . He seems to think that that only is Creation which is effected by an immediate, direct act of the Creator. But is this the case .'' Do we not teach children that God created tJiem ? . . . \ have no doubt that every- thing pertaining to man, the highest of God's work in this world, is derived from God instrumentally through the parents. So is every young animal— every tree from the seed which is derived from the parent. This is God's way of creating by secondary means, which He works at, guides, superintends, but which I le uses as instruments. If God chose to create a primordial germ, from which all organised beings should proceed — if He chose to create one thing directly and all other things indirectly by its instrumentality, what is Xfl UNWISE DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH 305 that to us ? It docs not limit but extend His power. . . . " Let us just consider what a wonderful thing is the development of a man from the germ-cell which is derived from the parents. ... A simple cell, by appropriation of materials from without, becomes changed into all sorts of textures . . . blood, muscle, bone, nerve, elastic tissue, hair, etc. . . . And as bone never changes into muscle, nor muscle into nerve ; as, so far as wc can sec, some tissues retain their generic difference, whilst others are capable of a kind of transmutation . . . what difficulty is there in sup- posing that a genus once established should maintain its character for ever, and that species once established should be kept within certain bounds which they should never trespass .''... There is a potential dif- ference in the germs of different creatures which never admit of development in more tJimi one direc- tion — a frog-germ would never produce a toad . . . nor a gorilla-germ a man. . . . This is the real weak- ness it seems to me of Darwin's theory — it is unsup- ported by geological records, and by facts going on around us. . . . " I do not like the way in which [the Cambridge graduate] speaks of a thing as impossible. What is impossible ? Many things formerly appeared to our forefathers as impossibilities which we now know to be simple facts, and which we are able to interpret. It is irreverent, and contrary to the very object he has in view, to pronounce anything impossible with God. ... 2o6 HENRY CALLAWAY CHAi'. " What is true in Darwin will stand, what is false will pass away. It is a most comfortable thing to have faith in God, and to believe that, though there are daily taking place transmutations in human thoughts, }'et lie is ruling such transmutations, and leading the race onward and ever onward to a greater knowledge of Him and of His works." To tJie Same. ''Spring Vale, December 22, 1868. ... I have had a great sympathy with the intellectual movement of the age, and have found myself working out in private the same problems which are being discussed in public. ... It is perfectly clear that Reason would never have found out by itself the truths of Revela- tion. They are entirely out of its sphere. It can collect no data on the subject. But Reason can go to the Bible, and from the data there given discover ivhat God has revealed, just as it can go to God's works and find out what He has revealed there. "... A man maybe able to understand the science of a thing without being in the least able to carry out his scientific principles in art ; and as the artisan can teach the man of science even as to the extent and bearing of the principles which he has, it may be, originally got from the man of science ; so it is in religion. The practical Christian, — he who knows God in Christ Jesus, — who, if I may so speak, is prac- tising the art of Christianity, knows more of it than the theoretical theologian," XII SPRING VALE CHARITY 207 To the Rev. W. T. Bullock. " Spring Vak, December 21, 1868. . . . Our school must always be rudimentary. As soon as the boys and girls grow up they go off to work or to marriage, and perhaps in the present state of the native class in Natal, industry is more important for their welfare than literature. . . . On the whole I believe the natives are as moral, as truly religious, as reasonable and as deferential to the advice of their teacher as any such class of white people anywhere." To the Bishop of Bloemfontein (who had visited Spring Vale two years before). (^End of December, 1868.) "... We read your Pas- toral Letter, and knowing that our poor people had a very pleasant recollection of your visit to us, and took an interest in your work, I determined to devote our Christmas offertory to your cathedral. . . . On Christ- mas Day we had a goodly number of communicants, all in the village who could attend. They are suffering at the present time from famine. ... I did not there- fore expect more than a small amount to send to you as an expression of their love and goodwill. But the offertory amounted to £^ lys. ^d., and it was evi- dently given with willing and loving hands. After church, those who are not communicants, and the little children, brought to me their offerings. One man brought me 4^-. 6d., saying, ' It is but a small sum, but many little rivulets fill a large river.' . . , 2o8 HEXRV CALLAWAY CHAP. We had got bound the translation of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, and thej- were given to man}- as Christmas presents, so that on the whole the)- were very happy." A short time before Dr. Callawa)- had spoken to the members of his evening class as to the possibilit}- of helping their brethren on the coast, who were more affected by the famine than themselves ; and they had responded by bringing him the next evening thirty shillings collected from their own small means. To tJic Rev. Edmund Venables. " Spri)io ]^ale, Fcbniary 22, 1869. ... It has been a very arduous, uphill work. How different things have been from what I expected when we used to talk of such matters at Bonchurch ! I expected to escape for the rest of m}' life from controversy, and to work at the practical work of bringing men to God. But I soon found that there were bitter personal feelings at work, and self-seeking and party-spirit. ... I stayed at Pictermaritzburg about three }'ears, having a white congregation and native work. During all that time I was like a man working in a strait-jacket. ... It was a very trying time — a time in which, more than any other perhaps, I was obliged to separate the real groundwork of Christianity from the accessories which men had heaped upon it. And I came to the conclusion that the Foundation is sure for ever, and that it is about the accessories of human addition that nicn for the most part quarrel. ... I was glad to get xn THE MISSIONARY'S DAILY LIFE 209 to my work here ; and a very hard work it was in every way for several years. But things are now wonderfully opening up. I cannot see the possible limit of the development of what we have begun, if only we could get men, — suitable earnest men, — and means. It is remarkable that very few who have ever come into close connexion with our mission seem able to shake off the influence. I have baptised 132, and at the present time there is a great awakening in the natives around us. . . . " You ask about our daily life. . . . We get up with the sun (in winter before the sun) and I work till 7.30, when we have a white service, shortened by necessity, followed by a native service. . . . When breakfast is over, Janie and I go to see the cattle, pigs, and garden ; at 9 I get into study and spend the time till 12 or i in translation, teeth-drawing, giving medicine, listening to troubles, settling disputes, etc. (At 10 there is school, about 60 to 70 children.) After dinner I get a rest, and generally read some light book till 3, when there is afternoon school, which the elder boys and girls attend, and as many women as are able, who are taught sewing. I am again in my study till 4 or 4.30 . . . [then] we ride or walk. After tea study till 9 — at 9 supper — and general reading till 10, II, or 12 according to my fancy. . . . " Every four weeks I go, and Janie with me, to the other station, where we have a larger white congrega- tion than here. The intermediate services are taken by natives and by the white printer. . . . There is besides the secular department of the mission to be P 2IO HENRY CALLAWAY chap. attended to ; I have however got my men into such order that this causes me very little trouble. " In detail our daily work is almost infinitely varied. This is a beautiful climate on the whole, few days that are unbearably hot, scarcely any that are pain- fully cold. The summer is our wet season, sky clouded and the heat of the sun thereby mitigated. In winter a clear blue cloudless sky for months together, the whole country dry, clouds of dust in every direction. A pleasant time when there is no wind, but very disagreeable when there is. " \Vc have a nice cottage and good out-buildings ; our garden supplies us abundantly with vegetables and fruits — at the present time our trees are breaking down with peaches, and many barrowfuls are given to the pigs — our dairy supplies butter and milk — our chickens eggs — our pigs pork, our sheep mutton. Thus in the wilderness we have all we want. We produce for ourselves everything but groceries and clothes. It is a happy life ; like the old abbeys, mutatis mutandis. The natives around us are growing. They do not advance in civilisation so rapidly as we could wish, but there is a wonderful change and improve- ment. . . . " The Colony has become almost bankrupt ; the enormous falling off of imports has caused a great diminution of the income of the Colonial Government. This imperatively demands a reduction of expendi- ture ; they are cutting off in every direction, and I expect daily to hear that the grant to this mission will be stopped or considerably reduced It is used for XII PROGRESSING AGAINST DIFFICULTIES 211 my printing-press, which is almost wholly supported by Government. But they appear to be thinking that the absolutely necessary must take precedence of the desirable, and we cannot wonder if they conclude that comparative folk-lore is rather a luxury to be attended to by a poor exchequer." To Mr. Hanbury. " Spring Vale, September \\th, 1869. ... I think our work as a mission is progressing. We appear to have a widespread influence, and people like to gather round us ; but we can never tell with such a people. We probably stand out before them as the least of evils rather than as any great good. They are un- certain, and sometimes when we have reason to hope that all is going on well, something happens to damp our hopes to the uttermost, and to lead us to fear that all the apparent good that we have done or may be doing is an illusion. " I am getting on with the translation. You know, I suppose, that S.P.C.K. granted me ;i^8oo for printing the Bible and Prayer-book in Zulu. I have a ' com- mittee ' of natives sitting on the translation ! Each of the three natives has a translation by some one else in his hand, and I read ours, verse by verse. We do not get on ver fast, but I am quite satisfied with what we have done. It corroborates me in the belief that hitherto nothing has been printed which at all approaches to what ours will be when completed. But I sadly want more help — such as I sometimes P 2 -12 HENRY CALLAWAY chai\ think my two boys might have given me were they h'ving now ! . . . There is so much a young hand might help me in — copying corrected MSS., taking care of plants, etc., when collected, and many of which arc lost through my being unable to attend to them. I am collecting the snakes of Natal . . . and hope to get up a paper on the native snakes and poisons. . . . I should like to mount them well, and when mounted give them to the museum of the Natal Society." About the same time Dr. Callaway wrote to Mr. Bullock that he was making good progress with Part III. of the Ama2u/u,aind found that it would probably be necessary to run into a fourth volume to make the work complete. A treatise on " Sorcery and Super- stitions," which was to form the subject of the fourth part, was, he thought, "as important to aid in the com- prehension of a people's mind as their more strictly religious theories." It was the more depressing there- fore that the Government threatened to withdraw their grant, and thus to render the work for the time practically useless. To Mr. H anbury. '''Spring Vale, December \yth, 1869. From habit I have written Spring Vale, but I am at Pictermaritz- burg — I left home on Monday to do some Church work here ; discuss some matters with other clergy; to preach ; and to speak at a missionary meeting. . . . We arc a most happy party at Spring Vale — hard worked, but cheerful and contented. . . . The XII LITERARY WORK 213 peculiarities of mission-work are so great that good people in another position are all at fault as mission- aries." To tJie Same. ''Spring Vale, Jamiary \ZtJi,\%'jo. . . . The Ladies' Association has given me a young lady, Miss New- land, to help, and the S.P.G. has given me, or is to give me, a S. Augustine's student at ^125 a year to be with me for a time, to study mission-work and Dutch, that he might in connexion with me become a missionary to the Griquas. " I told you some time ago . . . that I am writing some lectures on * Spiritual Manifestations ' for the Natural History Society here. I have had the lectures copied for you, and send them by this mail. ... I should like to send you three sermons I preached some time ago on a very difficult subject — Satan tempting David to number Israel. That was the text, and the subject the laws which regulate the growth or degra- dation of a human spirit, showing that there are laws as unalterable and determinate in the spiritual as in the physical world . . . liable to be constantly counteracted and practically set aside by some other laws. The notion of a special election to grace or condemnation seems to me to be swept away utterly. ... I am sure the nineteenth-century mind requires something different from the humdrum of the past. Men have reached a different standpoint, and see things — not a bit less true and real than formerly — from a different side ; it is needful to gather up for 214 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. them all the truths which man has discovered in the past — as distinct from man's opinion about truth — and to add to them the mighty truths of the present. . . " I used as a young man to groan under my secular occupations. ... It sometimes seemed to me that the more I cried to be delivered like Jeremiah from the prison ' lest I should die there,' the more secular work God gave me, till at times it felt to me as if I had really ' died there ' and all was over. Even now there is an immense amount of strictly secular work on my shoulders, but [such duties] become very light when we can say ' these too are a part of my ministr}-,' and strive to attend to them for God's sake and not for their sake or the love of them. " The S.P.C.K. has put me in a fix — they sent me some type, &c., and object to my using a portion of their grant to erect a building to put it in. And I have actuall}' built a cottage for printers, and an office, now nearly complete." " So far as the native literature is concerned," he wrote at this time, " I am doubtful whether I shall ever begin [to print] Part IV.; it would take nine months, and the grant is to cease in June." To the Same. " Spring Vale, April \tJi, 1870. ... I was request- ed to get up a small service-book in Zulu for schools and families. This I did, and as usual sent copies to the papers. The Witness had what it called a review ; but it was an attack on the Zulus and the Zulu lan- guage, evidently by someone ignorant of both. [My XII A NEWSPAPER ATTACK 215 reply] called out a leader in which was deprecated all intention of finding fault with me or the work, but reiterating its attack on the Zulu language. ... So I wrote the article in question, which is to be printed in pamphlet form. It is rather peppery perhaps and severe in some places, but I believe it has done good and excited a good deal of surprise and interest. I shall send you three copies for yourself, Max Miillcr, and Edward Tylor. . . . " I have just completed the translation of the Psalms into Zulu, and am engaged in revising the New Testament, and am passing the Psalms through the Press, and a Zulu Reading Book, and Part IV. of the Religious System of the Zulus. . . . Triibner suggests that I should get influential men in Natal to guarantee me from loss by becoming subscribers. He offers to be a subscriber himself and to take 150 copies. . . . But I do not think there is any chance of getting any number of subscribers in Natal. We are all poor to the last degree. . . . " My people are becoming so numerous that it is necessary to provide for them some remunerative kind of labour, and I have determined to try castor-oil and cotton. . . . The people came to me a little after Christmas and begged me to find them labour, as they did not wish to leave home in search of it. I told them I could not pay them wages for unremunerative labour — if they would work honestly and steadily I would try cotton for them. . . . " We are getting a congregation of whites settling around us ; they are interfering with and disturbing a 2i6 HENRY CALLAWAY chai'. good deal the natives. They arc taking up the land, and the natives have no place to herd in and have to go further back. . . . No efforts made artificially can pre- serve them from quiet extinction. ... It is possible that they may try an issue of strength with us. W'c arc disturbing them in many wa)-s, taxing them, mak- ing them pay rent — making them work, — beginning to interfere by law with their customs, and unsettling them in many ways ; and we do not give much in re- turn that they can appreciate. They have security for life and property, good roads, market for produce and labour — that is if they choose to be producers and to work — and thus the means of being and of living better is brought home to them. But when they put these things in the scale against what they are obliged to give up, they think very little of the advantages, and it is said that many are emigrating from the Colony. " Moshesh, the Basuto chief, is dead. . . . The people will now probably try to exalt some other chief and build their hopes on him to drive the white man into the sea, and gain again their native hills and valleys. Cetshwayo, the son of Mpanda the Zulu chief, is thought a great deal of. It is quite possible he may form a temporary centre. It is said he is purchasing guns and powder to fight with the Trans- vaal Dutch ; if he should be successful against them he will try witli us. They have great faith in guns, and imagine that we owe our success entirely to them, forgetting that the most important thing is the ' thing behind the gun.' " XII DIVERS (;iFTS, THE SAME SPIRIT 217 To the Same. ''Spring Vale, October i^th, 1870. ... I have long thought that we are utterly unable to tell what is needed for a fellow-spirit, and when I see earnestness, and a grasping of essential Christian truth, I look at that with thankfulness ; and whilst seeing that the orbit is different from that in which I may be circling the Central Life, }-ct there arc points of intersection . . . which show that it is one Central Power which is at- tracting both of us. ... I cannot help believing that God is revealing Himself everywhere to each human spirit — by various means and in various ways — in some way suited to the infinitely various conditions of different spirits, and in some direct proportion to their receptivity of divine light. . . . When I see another, whether child or man, stretching out his hands to God — even though I see that it is done without that real appreciation of God's character which Christ would teach us as He taught the woman of Samaria — I would not rudely find fault with that want of apprecia- tion, but encourage that stretching out of the hands to God ; feeling sure that that at least is His work, — that He has begun it, raised the wish, given rise to the devout approach to Himself, and that He will Him- self correct the mistake. . . . The Samaritan I doubt not met his God at Gerizim, as well as the Jew in the Temple ; Antony in his cell ... as well as Moses in the burning bush. And I cannot but believe that the yearning of the heathen spirit — the stretching-out of spirit through dark and terrible rites — is the stretching 2i8 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. out of the spirit after God, and is recognised and blessed by the Father of spirits. . . . " We had yesterday a very nice visit from Bishop Wilkinson, the lately ordained Bishop of Zululand. . . . He confirmed for Bishop Macrorie thirty-four, — thirt)-- one of whom were natives, — and on Sunday last fift>-- two communicated. It was a precious day, and made me feel very happy and very encouraged. In the evening I appointed Umpengula, a native teacher, to preach. He preached a capital sermon, on ' Be ye followers of God as dear children,' and I doubt whether a better sermon was preached during the day in Natal." To the Same. "■ Durban, July Jt/i, 1871. . . . I believe that did any theologian attempt to support Christianity with a hundredth part of the gaps in the evidence [that Darwin has in his theory] he would be cried down for a fool. But my conviction is that we arc on the eve of great changes which I believe will be for the better. , We have been accustomed to regard the Bible as the onl)' Revelation made by God to man, and some . . . believe its words, even when speaking of natural phenomena incidentally, to be a revelation and scientifically true. The first breach made in this dark fortress of past misbelief was the growing feeling among men — arising, though they knew it not, from the greater prevalence of the real spirit of Christianity — that it was impossible that an all-loving and almighty God should leave the world for generations without that Light by which XII AN ENLIGHTENED HOPE 219 alone it could see light. And now increasing know- ledge of man has brought out clearly to the light that God has not left Himself without witness among them, but that God's testimony both in nature and in human spirits has aroused men to such a knowledge as is really Divine. . . . We have been accustomed to despise all religious knowledge formed without Chris- tianity, thus raising up an image of a horrible God and consigning to perdition the masses of mankind. I have no doubt that new views which are now being rapidly developed will in many respects very materially alter men's notions of Christianity; but Christianity as the highest of God's revelations will stand, and the accretions of human imaginations be taken away from it. My own idea is that ultra-theologians on the one hand, and such philosophers as Darwin and Spencer [on the other], will have each to give and take from the other. At present they are in antagonism, and both are in error ; and they are fighting about the errors rather than about the truth. . . . " Miss Townsend tells me that the Anthropological Institute has read and discussed and is to print my paper which I sent you on Ghosts, etc. ... I am here on my way to Zululand for the purpose of consulting with the Zulu missionaries on the subject of transla- tions. I gave a lecture last evening at the Athenaeum Club, on Herbert Spencer's Social Statics, to a crowded room. I preach this evening, and twice on Sunday. On Monday I start to ' trek ' — that is ' pic- nic ' — to Zululand. How I wish I could have you with me ! You would so enjoy it. The oxen travel about 220 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. three miles an hour, and go about twcntj'a day. We have time to get out and [hunt .-•] the neighbourhood if so inclined, and on halting pitch our tents and have a very co.sy time of it. I sleep in the waggon, Mr. Broadbent in one tent, and the men in another." To Miss Button. " Uin/i/eli, July ilt/i, 1871. . . . God is ever work- ing and never tired ; so His working is His rest. His rest and work are both eternal — He works and rests in the ' eternal iwzv.' Put ' ceased ' for ' rested ' and it becomes another thing and gives another idea — ' He ceased from His works,' viz. those relating to that special act of creation in this world. We must not extend it farther. ' My Father worketh hitherto and I work.' . . . ." To " Spring ]\ile, October \st, 1871. . . . I have started an evening class for young men. It is strange to see these great strong fellows, who have spent the day at hard work, sitting down patiently to write round hand, and to learn reading from a little Kaffir spelling-book. The natives are extremely fond of music, and can sing many of the old rounds and glees one knows in English schools." To Mr. H anbury. " Spn)ig J^a/e, October 20th, 1871. . . . I am getting on with the Bible ; I am printing the Prophets, and XII CURRENT THOUGHT AND THEOLOGY 221 have got to the end of Lamentations. Genesis is also in print. But the means at my disposal for this work are not only limited, but hedged round with conditions which are sadly cramping and hindering. And what is it to be for .'' Is this people to die away, as others have here .'' Or will they if they survive, in some modified form, the ' struggle for existence ' use the language I am working at .-' Will South African diamonds and gold sweep both people and language away into the deep fathomless abyss of the past .'' " ' Pangenesis ' ! I want to know something more definite about what men mean by it. ... If I take in the meaning attached to it, it seems to me to require a huge faith, or rather credulity, to accept it. Physical truth it is not, if true ; and metaphysical — well, I do not believe any metaphysician would accept it. It is a strange mixture of imagination and observation. " I am reading Darwin's Descent of Man. . . . It is but an hypothesis. But the number of i^hysical facts which are brought together in the book will cause thousands to look upon Darwin's hypothesis as a philosophical system, resting on observed facts as a foundation, and proved by them. ... To get fully into the subject requires reference to books which I have not by me, and which are not in the Colony. . . . " My work just now seems growing in importance, and my sphere of action to be extending beyond Spring Vale. But to enter into all the matters which come before me, requires an iron constitution. I scarcely know any rest, except for a day or two, when I am really forced to it by overwork." HENRY CALLAWAY chap. To the Same. " Spring Vale, Febniary Ztli, 1872. . . . Very many- thanks for Frasers Magazines, containing Max Miiller's Lectures on the Science of Reh'gion. . . . With an infinitely less amount of reading, and rather, as it were, by instinct and ^^//'/c;'/ reasoning, I have for years held the position now taken up by Max M tiller, and have regarded that position as absolutely necessary on Scriptural grounds. The opposite opinion, which restricts the knowledge of God, God's saving grace and efficacious operation among men, to Christian countries, is a godless heresy whoever maintains it ; and not only so, but I feel very strongly, that whoever maintains it does thereby prove that he does not understand the Christian Revelation, and that he is most effectually barring the way against its light. . . . I have from time to time spoken out very strongly on the subject, as last year in a sermon on the Education of the World . . . [but] I have been shy of being too forward with the teaching. It tells perhaps more widely than Max Miiller is himself aware of; I think I see the bearings of it, and the necessary results, deep and practical, which must follow its acceptance ; and yet it may be I do not see how widely its acceptance may affect current theological teaching." To the Rev. W. T. Bullock. "■Spring Vale, November 2d>th, 1 872. . . . A great change in very many ways has taken place since I XII THE LIGHT ENLIGHTENING ALL MEN 223 have been in Natal and in this neighbourhood. The native mind has opened, and they now Hsten with intelligence to what appeared to them formerly nothing but fables. The belief in God — that is, in a Creator and Lord of all, — is extensively taking possession of the native mind, not as yet expelling the old faith and worship of dead ancestors, but contending with it and ultimately destined to displace it." To the Same. ''Spring Vale, March lyth, 1872. . . . They have been speaking to me of becoming Bishop of a diocese that is to be created if possible for Kaffraria, the country farther south. But I have no idea that it would be right to quit my present position. I have taken root here, and should not transplant well ; unless God transplant me with His own Hand. . . . There is a great deal of work which no one else will do if I do not, cut out for me." Notwithstanding which, before many months had passed, the transplantation had taken place, and the work was destined to be finished — if it were to be finished at all — by other hands. Here seems the time to review the literary work of Dr. Callaway, especially his contributions to the anthropology and folk-lore of South Africa. For the two chapters which follow I am indebted to the pen of Miss G. M. Godden. CHAPTER XIII Research into native life and tradition — Difficulties of investigation — l.ang and Codringlon — Early work — Method — Scientific study of primitive records — E. l*. Tylor — Zulu folk-tales— Elucidation in customs and mental attitude of tale-tellers — Employment of com- parative method. Tin: scientific work of Bishop Callaway possesses a two-fold value. With a mind already trained by his early profession of medicine, he began the study of native life on reachiiig Kaffraria, and continued it for nearly thirty years. We have thus the careful observation of a man living long in the midst of his subject. But beyond this, it is the spontaneous out- growth of gradual familiarity with, and growing interest in, the material around him. From the pre- conceived theory and the artificial point of view the permanent part of his work may be said to be practically free. The facts that he preserved are not lifeless selections arranged in arbitrary classifica- tions. They are the living thoughts and habits of a primitive race, told in the native speakers' own words, and illustrated by the translator's intimate knowledge of native life. XIII DIFFICULTIES OF INVESTIGATION 225 An active and keenly-observant mind, permit- ting no theories or formulas to vitiate the simple presentation of fact, and living in daily contact and increasing ' intimacy with the forms of life under study, should yield a valuable record. The following chapters contain a brief sketch of this record, and the methods by which it was attained. As early as 1855 Dr. Callaway was attempting to arrive at the religious beliefs of the Kaffirs, but was consciously hampered by his then imperfect know- ledge of the language. Three years later he writes of " dictation lessons " received from different Kaffirs, on such subjects as their habits, traditions, and belief, not only with a view to acquiring the lan- guage, but also for the intrinsic value of the in- formation itself ; and his Journal, for this and the two following years, abounds in valuable notes of native customs and beliefs, with some graphic sketches of native life. By 1 860-1, six years after his first arrival in Africa, many hundred pages of Kaffir manuscript tales, myths, and customs, had accumulated. The Journal of i860 has an admirable passage on the peculiar care needed in investigations of this nature : — " It is very important whilst tracing out their traditions to be careful not to mingle with them sug- gestions of our own, or thoughts which they have already had suggested to them by others." This is an interesting anticipation of the warnings published more than twenty years later by two leading writers 226 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. on the subject — Mr. (afterwards Bishop) Codrington/ and Mr. Andrew Lang.- In 1 86 1 Dr. Callaway published a pamphlet, of which he writes in a letter, " I think it will interest all who wish to know something of the Kaffir mind and habits of life." In the same letter he comments on the omission, in some cases, of " any profound con- sideration of the Kaffir's mode of thought and conduct on moral and religious subjects " ; adding that he already had much material on native traditions, religious notions, and practices, with a brief summary of what then seemed to him the mainsprings of these traditions. The pamphlet is a Kaffir's autobiography, with a careful footnote or two on native usages, and in a letter Dr. Callaway speaks of it as perhaps more instructive for Kaffir thought and custom "than a formal essay." Here he touches the special value of his own work, in bringing before us a living and not formal presentment of primitive life. A paper written in the following year, on the question of tolerating polygamy among Kaffir Christians, investigates with characteristic thorough- ness the nature of the native marriage laws. The paper affords a good instance of the value of Dr. Callaway's work for research, even when pursued with no scientific aim. " We must know what polygamy ^ "The questions of the European are a thread on which the ideas of the native precipitate themselves."— ^ti«;v/a/ of the Anthropological Institute, February, 1881. '^ Myth, Ritual, and Religion. Appendix B, p. 336. XIII EARLY WORK 227 as it exists around us is, before we can come to any conclusion as to the propriety of tolerating it in the Church." He accordingly proceeds to dis- cuss the subject with a careful, if rather one-sided, effort to disclose the real practical working of the native marriage law. In an appendix the native marriage contract and its significance is dealt with in detail. Dr. Callaway's letters of 1863 give various notes of Kaffir life and thought, and in this year there is a pathetic cry for time in which to devote himself to his materials. We must bear in mind that his was not the work of a professed student, but was accomplished amid the incessant labour of developing the physical, mental, and spiritual resources of his district. In 1866 Dr. Callaway, as the local secretary for Natal of the Anthropological Society, sent an inter- esting letter to the journal of the Society, in which he comments on some suppositions of M. Broca, and gives in detail analogous Kaffir evidence and its in- tent. The letter is an example of the instructive light thrown on theories by a scientific knowledge of facts. A letter written two years later gives a glimpse of his activity in research into the native pharmacopoeia, " I have now four hundred names of plants. . . . but after all it is a history of super- stition rather than of medicine." These early years were not only occupied by entries in journals and letters, and occasional pamphlets. A thorough knowledge of the language, and the incidental accumulation of a mass of what may be called native 2 228 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. literature, was vigorously pursued. It is this material which formed the first work published by Dr. Callawa}-, namely, his collection of Zulu folk-tales and traditions ; — the traditionary tales of the natives' forefathers "in the same words as they have heard them around their hut fires." How this book came into existence may best be told in Dr. Callaway's own words. T^inding himself almost without printed aid in his study of the Zulu language, he early began " to write at the dictation of Zulu natives, as one means of gaining accurate knowledge of words and idioms. ... A native is requested to tell a tale ; and to tell it exactly as he would tell it to a child or a friend ; and what he says is faithfully written down . . . what has been thus written can be read to the native who dictated it; cor- rections be made ; explanations be obtained ; doubtful points be submitted to other natives ; and it can be subjected to any amount of analysis the writer may think fit to make. Such is the history of the mode in which the original Zulu, here presented to the public, has been obtained." ^ But as the materials increased a further value soon became apparent — " they became not merely a means of learning the Zulu language, but also a means of obtaining a knowledge of Kaffir customs, histories, mode of thought, religion, &c. And what was com- menced as a mere exercise-lesson was soon pursued with the further object of discovering what was the character of the mind of the people. , . ; and of ' First preface to the Zulu Tales. XIII HIS- METHOD 229 endeavouring to trace out their connexion with other nations by the similarity which might exist in their traditions and myths, their nursery tales and pro- verbs.'' In a preface to the complete volume in 1868, Dr. Callaway says : "The issue of the First Part aroused a spirit of enthusiasm among the natives of the village who were able to read,^ and several came and offered themselves as being capable of telling me something better than I had printed. From this source of in- formation thus voluntarily tendered I have obtained by far the best part of the contents of this Volume." The result is a book of 374 pages, in parallel columns of Zulu and English, with numerous notes. It is hardly necessary to point out the value that work, so unbiased by a priori theory, and so accurate, must have for any scientific study of primitive peoples. Some space has been given to the way in which this book came together as throwing a strong light on Dr. Callaway's character as an active-minded observer, quick to perceive the value of the human document growing under his hand, and rigorous in the scientific method of his work. In the preface to the complete volume, he says : " I have been feeling my way all along ; and have dis- covered that there exists among the people a vast store of interesting traditional tales, which may yet be collected ; and it is possible that I have only just learnt the way of collecting them." Of the worth of the material Dr. Callaway speaks with no uncertain note. Such legends, he says, are ^ The book is printed in Zulu as well as English. 230 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. " the history of a people's mind in one phase of its existence." And beyond the tribal Kaffir interest — " The least incident which can throw light on the nature and history of man. . . . becomes a treasured fact to be placed among that ever accumulating mass of materials from which hereafter a faithful record of man as he was in the past, and of the cau.ses which have influenced him, and the varying states through which he has passed to the present, shall be compiled." But the mere assertion of the worth of any series of facts is a barren thing unless some effort be made to read their significance. The vexed question of whether the occurrence of similar legends in the most remote countries and times indicates early racial union, or simply the prevalence of similar conditions of life and thought, had been stated, three years before the publication of these Zulu tales, by Dr. Tylor in his first work on early culture. The ever-recurring problem of the student of comparative mythology, Dr. Tylor says, is to distinguish between racial connexion, and " analogies which may be nothing more than the results of the like working of the human mind under like conditions." ^ It is this latter method, the method of interpreting myth and legend by tracing in the varying stages of human development the varying forms of thought common to those stages, — that was put forward by Dr. Callaway as early as 1868, although among English writers it waited for Dr. Tylor's work on Primitive Culture published in 1871, ^ Early History o^ Mankind, p. 3J3. XIII COMPARATIVE MYTH 231 and Mr. Andrew Lang's more popular handling of the same subject in his Myth, Ritual and Religion of 1887, to bring the new learning systematically to the light. Legends such as these Dr. Callaway says in his pre- face of 1868, "if carefully studied and compared with corresponding legends among other people, . . , will bring out unexpected relationships, which will more and more force upon us the great truth, that man has everywhere thought alike, because everywhere, . . . under every varying social and intellectual condition, he is still man, — one in all the essentials of man, . . . one in his mental qualities, tendencies, emotions, passions." We may place beside this, the words of Dr. Tylor published three years later in his Primi- tive Culture : — " The treatment of similar myths from different regions, by arranging them in large compared groups, makes it possible to trace in myth- ology the operation of imaginative processes recurring with the evident regularity of mental law ; and thus stories of which a single instance would have been a mere isolated curiosity, take their place among well- marked and consistent structures of the human mind."^ And again "legend, when classified on a sufficient scale, displays a regularity of development which the notion of motiveless fancy quite fails to account for, and which must be attributed to laws of formation. . . . So uniform indeed is such development, that it be- comes possible to treat myth as an organic product of mankind at large, in which individual, national, and ^ Prlinilivc CtiUurc, edition 1873, ^i PP- -S- — 9- 232 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. even racial distinctions stand subordinate to universal qualities of the human mind." ^ The solitary student in Africa and the most notable of living English anthropologists reached, though under widely different circumstances, the same conclusion. The book was published under the somewhat un- fortunate title of the Nurseiy Talcs, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, and in the cumbrous form of parallel Zulu and English text, with many notes. Accounts of fabulous animals, fables, &c., arc added "in order to give a more general idea of the native mind." The work had of course also its missionary point of view, as giving the necessary knowledge of the Kaffir mind and mode of thought ; but with that we are not concerned here. Among the reviews which appeared, those of Pro- fessor Max Miiller- and Dr. Blcek^ are of interest. Professor Max Miiller comments on the praise de- served by the author in breaking ground on the at first sight unattractive and unpromising field of African tradition, and notes the difficulties involved in the collection of these talcs. Of their worth he says, " fifty }'cars hence the collection of these stories may become as valuable as the icw remaining bones of the dodo." Dr. Bleek draws attention to the effective manner in which some of these tales are told, — " nothing .... could be better than the episode of Uthlakanyana's ^ Printiiivc Cull tire, i, ;>. 415. - Saturday Kevic-M, 1S67. ■' In an African paper. xiii INTERESTING REVIEWS 233 getting the cannibal's mother boiled instead of him- self." The story of Uzembeni he believed to be " fully equal to many of Grimm's household tales." He notes also the elements of wonder and romance in the tales: — "Cannibals; people like the Yahoos of Gulliver ; creatures who resemble a man cut in half, with one leg and one arm ; horrible monsters, of gigantic proportions, who are able to devour whole armies of cattle and men, trees, &c., which come safely out again when the monster is cut up . . ." To these " ingredients drawn from the witch cauldron of early native imagination " a word should be added as to the more graceful plots ; the love stories, though still with elements of the miracu- lous ; the helpful beasts ; and the lost, transformed, or hidden children that are given back again to their parents. But for our present purpose the notes claim chief notice. It was Dr. Callaway's method to let the facts recorded stand by themselves, and to confine all com- ments to footnotes and appendices. The result is a modestly hidden wealth of investigation. Thus in one tale the miraculous powers of an infant hero are illustrated by Irish folk-lore, Northern European usage, Danish tradition, and analogous opinions held by Luther concerning demon children. To the charming tale of Usikulumi, the hero of which no spear could slay, a note is added on the incident of invulner- ability, based on the principle of seeking the explana- tion of irrational story in the mental state and ordinary habits of the story-teller, a method perhaps 234 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. too exclusively credited to Mr. Andrew Lang's recent volumes. After citing the instance of Balder, " Whom no weajion pierced or clave," Dr. Callaway says: "Whether such a legend arose spontaneously all over the world, or whether, having had an origin in some poetical imagining, it has travelled from a common centre, and become modified in its journeying in accordance with place and cir- cumstances, it is not easy to determine. The possibility of a hero rendering himself invulnerable by medicinal applications, is not only quite within the compass oi a Zulu's imagination, but appears to be something that w^ould very naturally suggest itself to him. At the present time he has his iiitekai, plants of various kinds, by which he can ensure correctness of aim : his assegai flics to the mark not because of his skill, but because his arm has been anointed. And the doctors medicate a troop before going to battle, to render it invulnerable to the weapons of the enemy." At the conclusion of the tale of Untombinde, with its many-syllabled monster the Isikqukqumadevu, Dr. Callaway cites monster legends from Greek, Italian, Highland, German, Polynesian, Hindoo, Mussulman, American Indian, and Northern myth and lore, and adds: "The untrained mind naturally looksoutside itself for a power to aid or to destroy; and sees in all striking natural phenomena, and in all unusual and unaccount- able events, the presence of a personal agency ; and nothing is more natural than to proceed to a descrip- tion of the imaginary agent, — to clothe the idea with a XIII WIDESPREAD IDEAS 235 form more or less in correspondence with the charac- teristics of the visible phenomenon whether of terror or of health-giving ; and then to give it a ' local habita- tion and a name.'" It is unnecessary to point out what light this brief sentence throws on all the em- bodied terrors that have fought with men from the " dread Charybdis," to that Polynesian Kupe's " mon- strous cuttlefish " who would devour canoe and crew together. In such scattered notes as these, inserted in the arduous Zulu translation, we best realise the loss sustained by comparative research when Dr. Callaway entered the mission service. The difficult task of distinguishing between purely native legend, and imported products, is touched on in a note on the possibility of Zulu contamination with early Semitic literature z'/c? mediaeval traders, and with Northern Africans via the probable Hottentot migra- tion, and in a curious legend taken to arise from a perverted tradition of the Life of Christ, probably in- troduced by the Portuguese. Concerning the tale of Ukcombekcantsini Dr. Callaway anticipates the subject to which Mr. Hartland has lately devoted so much space, — the miraculous birth, — citing analogies from many sources. The world-wide belief in the oracular and mysterious powers of birds and their capacity for communicating with men is dealt with in an appendix to the tale of Ukcombekcantsini. A strange case is quoted at length of reputed comprehension of the meanings and sayings of a wagtail, by the brother of one of the bishop's natives, and Zulu instances of bird- oracles are given. Space does not permit quotation of 236 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. the instructive native account of the man, and of the origin and limitation of his divining powers ; but the remarks which close the long array of analogies show too clearly the important fact of savage confusion, in arguing from effect to cause, to be passed over. Speaking of a subsequent account of the habits of the honeybird, Dr. Callaway says : " It is quite pos- sible that many of the superstitions relating to birds had their origin in such or similar manifestations as are here described. The childlike mind has no theory to support ; it makes no arbitrary distinctions between intelligence as manifested by man, and intelligence as manifested by brutes ; where it sees actions implying intelligence, there it believes intelligence exists. Such a thought is probably at the bottom of the theory of transmigration, and of the possibility of there being an inter-communication between man and the lower animals." The concluding application of the principle may be too limited for the wide phenomena involved, but this docs not invalidate the value of the principle it.sclf. Appendices of special interest deal with native food taboos, and with primitive law, with details of the intricate laws of the inheritance, precedence, and so forth, in the poh-gamic households of a Zulu chief It has been necessary to devote some space to this book, which is now out of print and probably little known, in order to give any adequate idea of Dr. Callaway's method and results. The above sketch may close with the final words of the preface, written in 1 866. " I would remind those who may read the follow- XIII A MODEST PREFACE 237 ing pages that ' he who first undertakes to bring into form the scattered elements of any subject can only accomplish his task imperfectly.' No one will be more sensible of the many imperfections that mark my work than I am myself If, however, the result of my labours be to lead others to a deeper study of the Kaffir language, and so to a deeper knowledge of the Kaffir people ; and by their own investigations to fill up the gaps which exist in many subjects here brought before them, I shall be satisfied." CHAPTER XIV " Religious System of the Amazulu " — Native beliefs and ritual — Ancestor-worship — Recalling the dead — Ancestral and healing snakes — Prayer — Divination and familiar spirits — Tribal songs- Wide range of investigation — Native visions, diviners and clairvoy- ance — Zulu language — Native thought and expression — Native law and premature legislation. The legendary tales of the Zulus were hardly through the press before the publication of the first part of Dr. Callaway's chief work — TJie Religious System of the Ainaz7ihi. Of the aim and method of this book he writes : " My object is to show that they hav'e a well-defined religious system. Before it is possible to show what this system is, we must care- fully collect, examine, and collate the traditions of the past and the present customs of the natives." We need hardly inquire whether the motive of such work is a purely scientific one or not. That Dr. Callaway conceived that such an investigation was a most efficacious missionary instrument need not dimin- ish its value for scientific research. If there is any danger that the motive would unconsciously influence the results, this danger is quite as potent for the CH. XIV THEORY OF THE CREATION 239 scientific investigator, with his mind necessarily full of preconceived theories, and trained to deal with facts as well as to record them. The book was first published in four parts under the headings of : " The Tradition of Creation as existing among the Amazulu and Other Tribes of South Africa," " Amatongo ; or. Ancestor Worship," " Diviners," and " Medical Magic and Witchcraft ; this last part was unfortunately never completed. The form of double columns of Zulu and English, used in the legendary tales, was repeated, and many notes are given. A one-volume edition appeared in 1870, and a fresh edition was published by the Folk Lore Society in 1884. The first part, chiefly occupied with the difficult subject of the native beliefs concerning the Creation, and First Man, called Unkulunkulu, was the outcome of long and careful investigations. In a letter of 1868 Dr. Callaway writes : " You will have received long before this reaches you the Unkulunkulu part. ... I hope Max Miiller will look at it. . . . There is much information in it utterly unknown to others, even to the oldest missionaries in South Africa." In an inter- esting letter, written in the same year to a local paper, he says, speaking of the discussions as to the word Unkulunkulu : " When a controversial spirit enters into any such discussion the judgment is blinded, and we attempt to support an opinion instead of steadily pursuing the subject in a scientific, truth-loving spirit. I have endeavoured faithfully to investigate the ori- ginal tradition, and I have good grounds for being 240 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. persuaded of the general accuracy of the results of the investigation." The difficulty of this portion of the work was en- hanced by the fact of the material being legend and belief, rather than tangible rites and customs. The natives, Dr. Callaway thinks, without exception,^ do not worship the remote First Cause, although possess- ing somewhat elaborate legends of creation and origin. Their ritual worship is reserved for the nearer Ances- tral Spirits, in accordance with the Zulu creed — " the dead know all of the living, and continually help them and do not forsake them.""^ The first man, Unku- lunkulu, is too far away ; his " praise-giving name " is no longer known. This first part is not only occupied by the legends accounting for the existence of men, animals, corn, fire, food, marriage, chieftainship, and so forth; there are also many valuable details of ritual in the matter of sacrifices and prayers ; the strange legend of how death came into the world by reason of the tardiness of the first messenger sent by Unkulunkulu to say " Let not men die " ; and an essay on the native beliefs and customs regarding the powers over the sky — in whose hands are the lightning and thunder, — and the " mysterious bird of Heaven " that descends in the thunderstorm, and whose fat enables the " Heaven doctors " to act on the heavens without injury to themselves. In a passage on these beliefs we find a clear ex- pression of the view which sees in widespread analogy ^ Religions System of the Amaztilu, p. 85. ^ Ibid. p. 176. XIV ANCESTOR WORSHIP 241 the outcome of a common culture, rather than of a common race. " In almost every country there is some such notion of a heavenly being, — a relic possibly of heaven-worship ; or it may be merely a natural suggestion of the human mind, springing up spon- taneously -among differciit peoples, and everywhere leading to' a similar conclusion, that where there are such manifestations of power, there is also a personal cause." ^ As Sir Henry Maine had written a few years earlier, " It is now clearly seen by all trustworthy observers of the primitive condition of mankind, that in the infancy of the race, men could only account for sustained or periodically recurring action by supposing a personal agent." ^ Part II. is devoted to the " Amatongo; or Ancestor Worship." The native evidence is fully given on the nature of this worship, and on the intricate and exact ritual of the sacramental sacrifices ; on the active belief in the power of the Amatongo to save and to injure ; and on the snake form in which the deified spirit is supposed to come to man. The pathetic rite is here described of calling back the ghost of a dead chief " from the open country to his home." After the sacrifice of an ox or a goat, the latter chosen because of the noise it makes when pricked before the sacrifice, ' we say, Come home again .... We are troubled if we never see you, and ask, why are you angry with us ? for all the cattle are still yours ; if you wish for meat, you can say so, and the cattle be slaughtered, without any one denying you.' ^ Religious System of the Ainaziilii, p. 117. - Ancient Lazu, p. 4, R 242 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. So the doctor of ubulawo ^ practises his art; he mixes the ubulawo, caUing the dead man by name, and puts the ubulawo in the upper part of the hut, and says, ' I say, you will see him to-day, and talk with him ; although }'ou have not seen him for a long time, to-day he will be clear.' Such then is the means employed to bring back a ghost ; it is brought back by sacrifice and ubulawo." - The passage is of interest as showing the kind of record placed by this volume before students, as well as for its intrinsic value. The cry to the ghost to come home recalls the entreaty to the dead man's spirit of the Ho tribes of India : — " We never scolded you ; never wronged you ; Come to us back ! We ever loved and cherished you ; and have lived long together Under the same roof ; Desert it not now ! Come to your home ! It is swept for you, and clean ; and we are there who loved you ever ; And there is rice put for you ; and water ; Come home, come home, come to us again ! "'* The tribal and household nature of the worship is clearly marked ; and the power for evil, especially as regards disease, which ill-disposed ancestral spirits can exert, with the elaborate propitiatory sacrifice and ritual. In a pamphlet on the Zulu language, speaking of the forms used in addressing these spirits, with ■• A medicine made of roots of plants. See Dr. Callaway's instruc- tive note on the uses and kinds of this magic preparation. — Editions System of the Amaziiiti, p. 142. - Religious System of the Ai)iazulii, p. 143. '^ Piiiiiilive Culture^ E. 13. Tylor, ed. 1S7J, W. p. 32. TRANSMIGRATION 243 their simple trust, and strange capacities of irreverence, Dr. Callaway says, " If they imagine they are suffering from the capricious malice of the dead they abuse and scold them .... they regard them as belonging to their own family." In the method of "stopping out" a troublesome ghost by means of the doctors and " medicine," we have the converse to the rite of recalling a spirit. The doctrine of transmigration is carried out with curious exactitude. The chiefs take the body of one kind of snake ; the common people and chieftainesses another ; a lame man is recognised in a lame snake ; and a man with a scar by the scarred snake skin — " That is how they are known, for men usually have some marks, and the snakes into which they turn have similar marks. The man who had no marks speaks in dreams." And further, if a snake enter a house in a rapid lawless fashion " it is known to be the Itongo - of a man who was a liar. . . . and he is still a liar." In one graphic tale of how an ancestral snake glided into a hut where his son lay sick, and cured the boy by touch, we seem to be rather among the healing snakes of the temples of ^Esculapius, than in a Zulu kraal. In this connexion it is interesting to note that the " doctors " derive knowledge and power for healing from the ancestral spirits. This second part concludes by native accounts of ^ In an earlier part of the Religious System of the A/iiazuIii, it is incidentally observed that the Amatongo are worshipped "more sedu- lously to avert evil than to acknowledge good." - I.e. ghost. R 2 244 HENRY CALLAWAY chap. ecstasy, dreams, and subjective apparitions, psychical phenomena which are intimately wrapped up with the Amatongo in the native mind. The foregoing sketch of the two first parts of the book may indicate something of the vivid light they throw on the obscure region of primitive religious thought and custom. The following is a passage from the native account of the slaying and eating of cattle, translated from the original Zulu : — " When all is finished, the head man and another man who carries a feeding-mat go a little towards the head of the cattle-pen, and the head man says, ' Be perfectly silent.' And the assembly becomes very silent. He says, 'Yes, yes; our people, who did such and such noble acts, I pray to you — I pray for pros- perity, after having sacrificed this bullock of yours. I say, I cannot refuse to give you food, for these cattle which are here you gave me. And if you ask food of me which you have given me, is it not proper that I should give it to you .'' I pray for cattle, that they may fill this pen. I pray for corn, that many people may come to this village of yours, and make a noise, and glorify you. I ask also for children, that this village may have a large population, and that your name may never come to an end.' " ^ The remaining part of the book is devoted to Diviners, Medical Magic, and Witchcraft. In a letter ' In a long Appendix to Part L under the heading "Utixo" (p. 105), Dr. Callaway enters in detail into the question of the name used by various South African peoples for their conception of the Deity. The Appendix includes a curious Zulu explanation of the praise-giving name of an ancient brave, similar in origin. Dr. Callaway thinks, to Utixo. XIV MAGICAL POWERS 245 of 1870, speaking of the book, Dr. Callaway says, " I have now decided to add another part on Sorcery and Superstitions, which is perhaps as important to aid in the comprehension of a people's mind as their more strictly religious theories." A mass of native evidence is collected on such subjects as the initiation of diviners and the tests to which the aspirant is subjected ; the method of ob- taining oracles from the diviner for cases of sickness ; the mystic food which the diviners eat to gain clear insight ; the power exerted through magic decoctions on distant persons ; and the investing of a chief with knowledge of divination by the diviners. Perhaps one of the strangest narratives is that of the divina- tion by familiar spirits. The spirits accompany the diviner, and answer the questions ; demand food and cattle (consumed by the diviner) ; fight for their bene- factors with the hostile spirits who are inflicting trouble ; drop " things of wicked sorcery " from the ceiling ; speak in a voice " like that of a very little child ; " — and behave generally very much after the manner of all spirits from the days of Genesius to those of modern spiritualists. Part III. concludes with a very detailed account of the native beliefs concerning the sky, sun and moon, and the various methods of " treating the heaven " in case of storm, drought, &c. An interesting note incidentally records that each tribe has its tribal or national song, called " The chief's song." This song is sung on two occasions only : on the feast of first- fruits, when if there has been continued drought 246 HENRY CALLAWAY chai'. it is supposed to be capable of causing rain ; and secondly by an army overtaken by continuous rain on the march, in order that the rain may cease. Some of the chiefs' songs " consist of words more or less intelligible, and once had doubtless a well-understood meaning ; others of mere musical sounds which have no meaning whatever." This primitive and practical form of national anthem should be worth the notice of those interested in earl)' literature, and obscure poetic fragments. In the unfinished fourth part, on Medical Magic and Witchcraft, there is an account of a terrible tree, which is said to contend with men who would pluck its leaves, and to slay animals. This tree settled a contention between two rival " doctors " (both known to the narrator) by completely routing the inferior magician. The book breaks off in narrating the means taken by a " doctor " to prevent birds from destroying the corn. It is interspersed throughout with notes elucidating the text, citing native usage, and giving analogies from other peoples. It is impossible in a brief sketch to do full justice to the mass of information and elucidation conveyed in such a volume as this. The whole range of savage life, both in the body and out of the body, passes before us. Every kind of savage rite, from solemn ritual sacrifice to the magical scarecrow, or the love charm of a Zulu swain, is here in vivid presentation. Had a selection been added on the social institutions of tribal and household law and custom, hardly any important branch of primitive life would have escaped XIV NATIVE DIVINATION 247 investigation.^ This omission must be regretted, but where so much is given it is ungracious to complain. In the words of Dr. Tylor, written in an appeal for funds to complete the book on the unfortunate with- drawal of the Government grant, " It is scarcely too much to say that no savage race has ever had its mental, moral, and religious condition displayed to the scientific student with anything approaching the minute accuracy which characterises the half- completed works now threatened with an untimely end." In 1 87 1 Dr, Callaway contributed a valuable paper to the Anthropological Institute, on " Divination, &c., among the Natives of Natal." After an intro- ductory sketch of some general mental phenomena, the paper passes to the African evidence under the headings of phenomena occurring spontaneously in certain exalted conditions of mind ; self mesmer- ism ; and the native divination. The first class in- cludes those curious terrific " visions " which assaulted the newly converted Zulu, in strange repetition of the experiences of the early Christian Saints. We have also the nervous and brain disturbances which generally precede the power of divination, culminating in an accredited diviner, in tested powers of clairvoy- ance. It is noticeable that what the natives call "the disease which precedes the power to divine " runs in ^ These subjects are dealt with in evidence given before a Govern- ment Commission in 1881, at present only accessible in the publications of the Colonial Office. See infra, p. 251. 248 HENRY CALLAWAY chap.