history of the telugu mission
TRANSCRIPT
TH E LO NE STAR.
T H E
HISTORYOFTHETELUGU MISSION
O F TH E
AMERICAN BAPTISTM ISS IONARYUNION
DAVID DOWNIE,D . D . ,
M IS S IO NARY AT NELLO RE.
PH ILADELPH IA
AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY,
1420 Chestnut Street .
En tered . according to Act of Congress, in th e y ear 1893,by th e
AM ERICAN BAPTISTPUBLICATION S O CIETY,In th e O ffice of th e Librarian of Congress , at Washington .
C O NTENTS .
CHAPTER I.
THECOUNTRY AND PEO PLE,
CHAPTER II.
ORIG IN or TH EMIS S IO N,
CHAPTER III.
NELLOREOCCUPIED,
CHAPTER IV.
THELONESTAR,
CHAPTER V.
FAITH REWARDED ,
CHAPTER VI.
BRANCH ING O UT
CH APTER VII.
ONG O LE
CH APTER VIII .
RICH HARVESTFIELDS ,
4 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
THEG REATFAM INEO F 1876—78 ,
CHAPTER X.
THEG REATING ATHERING,
CHAPTER "I.
RESULTS O F TH EG REATREVIVAL ,
CHAPTER XII.
RAM APATAM ,
CHAPTER XIII.
TH EDECCAN,
CHAPTER XIV.
KURNO OL, CUM BUM AND M ADRAS,
CHAPTER XV.
ENLARG ING THEBOUNDARIES ,
CHAPTER XVI.
TH EM IS S IO N’
S JUB ILEE,
M EM ORIAL S KETCH ,
PREFA C E.
THEhistory of the Telugu M ission, says Dr. Bright, of
the “ Examiner,
” “ is interesting even to romance. Thathistory should be told in every church and S unday-school as
an inspiration to greater hope and patience in all ou r work.
Would not the prayerful consideration of so memorable
and blessed a history of missionary triumphs , as is furnished
by the Telugu Mission , be the highest possible incentive to
renewed consecration and a further development of the grace
of giving"” It is with some such hope as this that the
writer has undertaken the task of furnishing a ful ler historyof the Mission than has yet been written ,
and thus afford its
friends additional facilities for the prayerful consideration”
of G od ’ s wonder-working power among th e Telugus.
It was only after repeated efforts had he n made to induce
another, in all respects better qualified , to undertake this
work,that the writer consented to do it . The only advantage
he possesses over the one first selected is a long residence
among the people and an active participation in the work he
seeks to describe.
In presenting this book to the friends of missions,the
writer claims very little in the way of original authorship .
Like most books of its kind,it partakes largelv of the nature
5
6 PREFACE .
of a compilation . H e h as not hesitated to take from any and
every source within his reach facts bearing on the M ission ’ s
history. M any of these facts were gathered from conversa
tions with nativ e Christians who were school children in M r.
Day’
s time . S ome have been told before, though not always
correctly ; some are here given for the first time.
The author is under especial obligation to M iss M . M . Day,
of M adras,for the reading of her father’ s private letters ;
also to Dr. Clough for the use of his M issionary M agazines
from 1864 to 1873 likewise to the MissionaryUnion ’ s Jubilee
Volume and M agazine , Dr. M cKenzie’
s Lone S tar,
”and to
several of th e missionaries who have aided him in various
ways ; for all of which aid he extends his warmest thanks.
NELLO RE, IND IA , 1 892.
THEH ISTORYOFTHETELUGU M ISS ION.
CHAPTER I.
TH ECOUNTRY AND PEOPLE.
Th e Aryan in vasion of In dia . Previou s invasion s. Deri vation of nameTelugu . Th e three “ l ingas .” Th e coun try and its location . Th e M on
80 0 11 8 . Th e climate. Th e occupan t s of th e coun try. English ru le in India.B lessings derived therefrom. Th e agri cu lture of th e coun try. Th e originof th e Tel ugus. Th e castes of th e peop l e. Their physical characteristics.Their language. Not S an skrit. Th e popu lat ion of th e coun try . Numberun certain . Not m igratory. Telugus in Burm a. Burmese civi lizationfrom them . Th e rel igion of th e Telugu s. Th e Vedas and Brahmans Th elaw s of M anu . Th e n umerou s gods. Ido l worship. Not origin ally a partof w orsh ip. Now u n iversal. Caste adheren ce. Num erous trade castes.Not whol ly ob serv ed by al l. Pariahs even rising. Level ing by rai lroads.Infl uen ce ofm ission schools. Caste st il l a factor.
HEN the great Aryan race first invaded India
(B . C . it settled in the neighborhood ofthe river Sindhu . The Persians called it H indhu and theGreeks called the people Thus we get the wordsHindu and Hindustan which were originally applied onlyto the regions of the Indus . AS the Aryans spread fartherand farther south and east
,the name followed them
,until
now Hindustan is applied to the entire pen insula of India.
Previous to the incursions of the Aryans,India had
been invaded by several mixed races from Cen tral Asia,
Tartary, and Tibet. Some of them were Scyth ian andsome Mongolian. Among them were what are now
8 H ISTORY O F TH E TELUGU M IS SION.
called the Dravidian races of South India. The termDravidas was first applied to the Tamils on ly
,but now
includes the Tamils , Telugus, Canarese, Malayalams,Gonds, and some others.The Telugus were originally called by the Aryan con
querors,Andhras ; but the Andhras were divided into twonations
, one of which was called the Kalingas, whooccupied the seaboard
, while the Andhras occupied theinterior northwest portion of the Telugu country. Al
though the Andhras were better kn own to the Aryans, and
were probably the more cultured of the two nations
speaking a common tongue, yet it is from the Kalingasthat the modern term Telugu comes. From Kalinga cameTalinga and Tenugu— the name which is even now fre
quen t ly used by pundits for Telugu .
The favorite derivation of Telugu pundits for Teluguis Trilinga , or country of the three lingas.
”O ne of the
earliest of Buddhistic writers frequently designates theTelugu country Trilinga, and describes Kalinga as a portion of Trilinga . Ptolemy also speaks of a country inIndia as T6 w e Tpc
'
l zn’ u v flown /15 5W
,The kingdom of the
three lingas.
”
These three celebrated lingas are said to be at Kalahas
try in the south, S reesalem in the west
,and Dracharamu
in the north. But a better known boundary of theTelugu country is Pu licat
,about twenty-fiv e miles north
of Madras in the south, Chicacole in the north,and U d
ghiri in the Nizam ’s domin ions in the northwest.The country thus described contains about seventy-threethou sand seven hundred and twenty- eight square miles,and is for the most part flat . It is
,however
,divided by
THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE . 9
a range of mountains running generally north and southcalled the Eastern Ghauts. The highest peak is calledPenchalaconda and rises to a height of three thousand sixhundred feet
,and next to it is Udayagiri Droog, which is
three thousand and sixty-nine feet . The difference of tem
perature between the plains and the summits of these hillsis about ten degrees. The portion of the Telugu countryembraced in the Nizam’s dominions, while also level, is ona higher plain
,Secunderabad being two thousand feet
above the level of the sea,while Nellore is only S ixty feet.
The Telugu country lies between latitude fourteen andeighteen north
,and hence twice in the year, about May
l 0th and August l st, the sun is vertical . If there wereno coun teracting influences
,the temperature would be
pretty nearly equ al in all parts of the Telugu country ;but the trade winds called monsoons exert such an infl uence on the climate that it is difficult to give a generalstatemen t. Thus while May and June are the hottestmonths in Nellore
,March and April are the hottest west
of the Ghauts. In Secunderabad the thermometer falls tofifty
-fou r degrees in December,while in Nellore sixty-four
degrees mark the lowest record,and that very early in the
morning. The average temperature of the Nellore Districtis eighty-two degrees
,and this is probably not far from the
average of the whole Telugu country. The averagemaximum temperature is about n inety-fiv e degrees , thoughin some sections it frequently reaches one hundred and tendegrees in the shade.There are two monsoons during the year
,i. e the pre
vai ling winds blow from one of two directions throughoutthe year. The southwest monsoon is supposed to begin
10 H ISTORY O F THE TELUGU MISSION.
about the middle of February, but its effects are not veryperceptible unt il early in June. It lasts till about themiddle of August, when the northeast monsoon is supposedto set in
,though here again the effects are not felt until the
middle of October. These monsoons usually set in withhigh winds followed by heavy rains. The rains are not anecessary sequence of the mon soon, but they are so generalthat when they do not come— as is sometimes the case;
the monsoon is said to have failed. The rains of an average monsoon last about six weeks
,during which time
n early the entire year’s supply of rain falls. But somesections of the Telugu country share in both monsoons.
The average rain-fall of the Nellore District is aboutthirty-fiv e inches. In Madras it is forty-one inches. Thusit will be seen how vitally important are these monsoonrains to a country so dependen t as India is upon its agriculture. Another effect of the monsoons is their influenceon the cl imate. With the sun so nearly vertical the yearround
,but for the monsoon s the C limate would be
simply unbearable. By a glance at the map,it will be
seen that the southwest monsoon coming over the IndianOcean reaches India on the west coast. Laden withmoisture
,these winds strike the Western Ghauts the
moisture is condensed and fa lls in torrents of rain . Theearth thus cooled and the cool ocean breezes give to thewest coast a climate very much like that of Burma —not
exactly cool,but certain ly cooler than that of the east
coast. But while these ocean winds cool and refresh theWest
,they have a very different effect upon the East. Long
before they reach the Bay of Bengal a vert ical . sun hasconverted them in to what are called “ land or hot winds.”
THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE . 1 1
It is all but impossible to convey to one who has not ex
perienced it the effect of these hot winds. A huge prairiefire with in a mile or two of your dwelling
,with a wind
blowing in its direction at the rate of thirty or forty milesan hour
,would furnish some idea of the effect. Toward
evening, however, a counteraction usually takes place. Theintense heat of the sun during the day so rarities theatmosphere that the cooler air of the ocean rushes in andgives
,at this season, what is called the east breeze, which
lasts a few hours ; but as the earth cools down the prevailing west wind resumes its sway.
About the middle of October,the northeast monsoon
sets in,but the relative effects on the east and west coasts
are not exactly reversed ; for by this time the sun has
traveled several degrees south, so that whi le the west coasthas a land wind ” it cannot have the hot winds ex
perienced on the east. The only compensation for this isthat the hot winds while very trying are not generallyregarded as unhealthful . Following the rains of the northeast monsoon there is a brief season of ten or twelve weeksof delightful weather. I
Prev ious to the Aryan invasions, the Telugu country, or
Telingana as it was then called , was governed by its own
kings ; but while there is no evidence that they were everconquered by the Aryan s . the latter seem gradually tohave assumed control of the country. The Aryans werein turn displaced by the Mohammedan and Mogul conquer
ors. Sin ce the occupation of the English, in the early halfof the eighteenth century
,the greater part of the Telugu
country has been under direct British rule. The north
west portion ,however
,is under the governmen t of the
12 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISS ION.
Nizam ofHyderabad . This native prince is to some extent independent, but he is aided in his government by aBritish resident who guards the interests of the BritishGovernment. A large British force is maintained atSecunderabad, supported at the expen se of the Nizam .
The force serves the double purpose of protecting BritishIndia from the Nizam, and the Nizam from a foreign inv asion .
Much has been said against British rule in India bytran sient visitors, and even by those who have never seenit or carefully studied its history. Spoliation of India
,
”
Bleeding to death,” etc., are among the favorite epithets
employed by such critics. But nothing could be moreunj ust or farther from the truth. For many centuriesbefore the British came, India was the scen e of invasionafter invasion ,
war upon war, conquest upon conquest.Scarcely a year passed in which thousands were not slain .
The Aryan s,with all their boasted civilization
,made war
fare and bloodshed a part of their religion . In the RigVeda
,Indra w as invited to quaff the soma—juice abnud
antly, and urged to destroy its enemies“ Hurl thy
hottest thunderbolt upon them" Uproot them" Cleavethem asunder" The Mahabharata
,the great epic poem
of the Hindus,is simply a history of successive wars ending
in the almost total destruction of the contending parties.Nor were the Mohammedan invasions less destructive orcruel . During seven hundred years
,the warring races of
Central Asia and Afghan istan kept up perpetual warfare,
pillage, and cruel massacre. In twen tv -three years duringthe last century, no less than S I" Inv asIon S of India took
place. The first was bv the Persians who, in a single
TH E COUNTRY AND PEOPLE. 1 3
forenoon, are said to have hacked to pieces thirty thousand men
,women
,and children in the streets of Delhi .
Then followed five successive invasions ofAfghans, no lesshorrible. They sacked and destroyed the temples andmurdered the priests they burned whole cities with theirinhabitants
,slaying with sword and lance those who
attempted to escape.Whatever else may be said of British rule in India
,it
has at least put a step to these bloody invasions, and hasgiven the country peace. The annual cost to the inhabitants of India for maintaining the army which secured and
perpetuates this peace is about one rupee (about fiftycents) per head . But the value of the produce even froma single province reclaimed from devastating hordes of invaders more than covers the cost of the entire Indianarmy.
But peace is only one of the many blessings England has secured to India. Crime has been repressedthugism has been rooted out the cruel rites of suttee
(widow burn ing) have been abolished ; human sacrifices toHindu demons have been prohibited law and order have
been established ; the health of the people has been promoted ; famines have been mitigated, and the resources ofthe country developed ; education has been extended ; thelibertv of the press has been conceded and absolute freedom of worship and propagation of religion granted without regard to creed or nationality. Under such a government
,it is safe to say, the country never was better
ruled and the people never were more prosperous, con
tented, or happyAs in nearly all other parts of India
,agriculture is the
1 4 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISS ION.
chief industry of the Telugu country. In the low landsalong the coast, and especially on the river deltas, rice isthe chief product. For rice cultivation large supplies ofwater are a necessity. During long dry seasons
,the
fields become baked, so that they must be submerged beforethey can be plowed . The seed is sewn upon
"
the water,and during the entire growth, the fields have to be almostdaily flooded. This could not he don e by depending uponthe periodic rains. Hen ce, artifical meanshave to be employed for storing up the vast quantity of water that fallsduring the rainy seasons. For this purpose extensiveirrigation works are to be found all over India. To givesome idea of these works, those in the v icinty of Nelloremay be described. F irst, there is the great Nellore tankor lake
,partly natural and partly artificial. It is nearly
round,is about six miles in diameter
,and when full has
about three feet of water. Part of the water comes fromthe rains and part from the river Pennar. On this tankfour thousand acres of land are dependent for theirsupply of water. Across the Pennar
,close to the town
,is
an anicut which serves the double purpose of a bridgeand a dam for diverting the water into irrigating channels.By th isvmeans about three thousand acres of land are furn ished with water during most of the year. Twenty milesfarther up the river, a second anicut h as lately been con
structed. It cost three m illion seven hundred thousandrupees
,or say one million five hundred thousand dollars.
It has thrown into cultivation forty-fiv e thousand acres ofwaste land and forty-fiv e thousand acres heretofore on lypart ially cultivated for lack of water. The annual taxfor the use of this water is about two dollars to two dollars
1 6 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU M ISSION.
period, or whether they may be called the aborigin es ofthecountry, it is quite impossible to say. Physically theydiffer in no respect from other Telugus
,except that usually
they are darker- skinned .
H ow far these five classes whom we call Telugus, becauseliving in the Telugu country and speaking the Telugutongue, have amalgamated, would be a very difficult problem . The laws of the Brahmans forbid the marriage ofone caste with another
,but unfortun ately this by nomeans
decides the question .
Physically the Telugu s compare favorably with theother races of South India. The Reddis, or farming classof the Sudras
,are a particularly fine-looking set of men .
They are tall,erect
,and well proportioned. Generally the
Telugus are of average height,but the lower l imbs are
much more slender than those of the average European .
Telugu women are rather below the average height, andmuch more slender than Europeans ; but they are equal,and in some respects
,superior to their southern sisters, the
Tamils. They are modest in their manners, and theirdress is particularly gracefu l and becoming.
The Telugu language ranks at least second in what areknown as the Dravidian languages of South India. Tamilbeing probably more ancient, as it certainly is more copiousand more independent of foreign words, has generally beenassigned the first place. In euphony and melodioussweetness, however, Telugu deservedly holds the first rank,not on ly ofDravidian
,but of all other languages ofIndia.
From this latter quality it has been likened to the Italian ,
and has in fact been called the Italian of the East.” Asmight be expected from the dominating influence of the
THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE. 1 7
Aryans,the Telugu
,in common with the Tamil and other
Dravidian languages, has incorporated a large number ofSanskrit terms . Of the higher, or literary Telugu , fullyone-third of the vocabulary is Sanskrit. The proport ionis less, however, in the language of the common people. Itis chiefly because of this large Sanskrit element in theDravidian languages that some have claimed for them anAryan origin. But Dr. Caldwell, admittedly the foremost scholar in the Dravidian languages, in his comparative grammar says on this point “ The supposition of thederivation of the Dravidian languages from Sanskritthough entertained in the past generation by a Colebrook,a Carey, and a Wilkins , is now known to be entirely destitute of foundation . Those Orientalists
,though deeply
learned in Sanskrit and well acquainted with the idioms ofNorthern India
,were unacquainted
,or but little acquainted
with the Dravidian languages. No person who has any acquaintan ce with the principles of comparative philology,and who has carefully studied the grammars and v ocabu
laries of the Dravidian languages, and compared them withthose of Sanskrit, can suppose the grammatical structureand infl exional forms of these languages and the greaternumber of their more important roots, capable of beingderived from Sanskrit by any process of development orcorruption whatever. Much more might be said and
many more arguments adduced to prove that the Drav id
ian languages are Scythian in their origin . But this hasbeen done so thoroughly and successful ly by Dr. Caldwellthat we may safely accept his con clusion that Telugu isof Scythian origin— or at all events
,that it is not Sanskrit .
But whatever its origin may be,Telugu has certainly as
B
1 8 H ISTO RY OF TH E TELUGU M ISS IO N.
sumed a Sanskrit dress. There is scarcely a book of anynote that was not originally written in Sanskrit and translated into Telugu . Telugu pundits delight in imitatingthe San skrit
, and are reluctant to admit that it is not anoffshoot ofSanskrit.The Telugus are the most numerous of the Dravidianraces. Their number
,however
,has been greatly exagger
ated by som e,and unduly lessened by others . This may
be accounted for in two ways : (1 ) By a loose use of theword Telugus. If we were to include all who live in theTelugu country
,as some have done, the number might
be put at eighteen or twenty million s. But this would in
clude for example a large number of Mohammedans, whoare almost as distinct in race and religion as Hindus andAmerican s. (2) It has been almost impossible to get atthe exact or even approximate number of Telugus in theNizam’s dominions owing to a very defective system oftaking the census of that country. At best it has been aguess
,and accordingly the estimated number of Telugus
has ranged between fourteen and twenty millions. Ac
cording to the census of 1 891 , the number of Telugus in
the Madras Presidency— that is,the number who gave
Telugu as their mother tongue, was
Telugu coun try ,M adras Presiden cy .
Th e N izam ’s Dom inions
M ysore
S cattering in Burma and e lsew h ere .
Tota l.
The Telugus are not now and never have been a migra
TH E COUNTRY AND PEOPLE. 1 9
tory people, and hence it is not quite correct to say as has
been said that “ they are to be met with in all parts ofH industan,
”ifby that is meant more than is implied by the
remark that Americans are to be found in all parts ofthe world.
”It is true that in Madras there are nearly
one hundred thousand Telugus ; but though Madras is a.
Tamil city,it is but twenty-fiv e miles from the Telugu
country,and is the capital of the presidency, and natu
rally draws Telugus for the purpose of trade,for which
they have a natural liking and fitness . A very large percentage of the native tradesmen ofMadras are Telug us.Besides Madras and Mysore
,the only settlements that
resemble aTelugu'
colony are those found in British Burma,chiefly in Rangoon and Moulmein . Dr. Stevens, of Rangoon
,says : In the ancient times when the Telugus were
subj ect to their own raj ahs or kings, the more enterprising ofthem appear to have ventured across the Bay of Bengaland established trading station s on the coast of Pegu and the
Tenasserlm province. They must have exerted a civ iliz
ing influen ce over the barbarians with whom they traded,
for from the Telugus the an cestors of the Peguans oh
tained their written characters . To the most casual observerthe general similarity in the shape of the letters and thevowel sounds of the two languages Is quite striking. Com
binations of circles and parts of circles are characteristic ofboth . Indeed
,it seems probable that the term Taleing, by
which the Burmese designate the Peguan,is derived from
Telinga. The progenitors of the Burmese nation movingdown the Irawadi valley toward the sea, discovered a
people more civilized than themselves possessing books.To the mixed population of Peguans and black foreigners
20 HISTORY OF TH E TELUGU MISSION.
of the Telugu kingdom they appear to have given onecommon designation of Telinga or Talcing. From theTaleings the Burmese derived their alphabet, and withsome modifications, their system of spelling. It will beseen then that the Burmese owe to the Telugus the firstimpulse which brought them up from a state ofbarbarismto the position which they now occupy among the halfcivilized nations of the earth. The books which thedifferent tribes in Burma are reading to-day, whetherwritten with a stylus upon palm-leaf in some Buddhistmonastery
,or printed upon foreign paper on the mission
press,may all be traced back more or less directly to
ancientTelingana.
The religion ofthe Telugus is Hinduism, a corrupt formof Vedism. Vedism was the earliest form of religion ofthe great Indo-Aryan family. Their scriptures or sacredwritings were contained in the Vedas
,written as they
claimed by inspired men called Rishis. The Vedas are acollection of songs, invocations, and prayers. These wereaddressed to natural obj ects, such as the wind, the sun, fire,and rain ,
as divine obj ects, but sometimes all were un itedinto the one word God .
Brahmanism followed Vedism. It united all the forcesof nature into a personal being called Brahma. Brahmawas the only self-existent being ; all else were but man ifestations of the one great Spirit. The Brahmans addedto the Vedas a sacrificial system ofworship
, and embodiedit in a series of sacred writings called the Puranas
,which
were a ritual to guide the priests in their services,and also
the history oftheir wars.O ne of the most important developments of Brahman
THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE . 21
ism was the belief in a future state,and that rewards and
punishments in the next world awaited all men accordingto their conduct in this. But perhaps the most remarkable idea in the whole system was that the gods were onlymortals till by sacrifices and austerities they merited andobtained immortality from the Supreme Being. Men
seek ing merit and immortality followed the same course.The more valuable the sacrifice the greater the merit ;hence human sacrifices became a part of the system .
The next addition to the sacred w ritings w as the Lawsof Manu .
” We say sacred not because they relate exclusively to religion. Almost all distinctively H indubooks are sacred
,though they treat of subj ects purely
secular. Thus the Mahabharata,which is sometimes called
the Fifth Veda, is held to be most sacred, though it issimply a poetical history of the wars of the Kurus and
Pandas— two races of rival kings. The laws of Manuelaborated and codified the laws of caste. They professto be a commentary on the Vedas
,but they are more than
that. There is no caste in the Vedas, and the merest intimation of it in the Puranas ; but in the laws of Manu it isfully developed . H induism grew out of Brahmanism. Itwas as Monier Williams says, Brahmanism gone to seedand spread out into a confused tangle of divine person
alities and incarnations.” Besides, Brahma the creator,Vishnu the preserver, and Siva the destroyer, the l aterPuranas enumerate no less than three hundred and thirtymillions of Hindu divinities. Though they are not regarded as equ al to Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, yet they areall worshiped as gods, so that the gods of the Hindus
are more numerous than the Hindus themselves.
22 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISSION.
l
Idol worship was not at first a part of the H indu sys
tem,and even now the educated Hindu says he does not
worship the idol,but simply uses it as the med ium through
which he approaches the one l iving and true God. Somego even farther and say that the idol is nothing, and neverwas intended for them, but for the ignorant who couldhave no idea of God unless he were V isible. But letany one go to a Hindu temple at the time of worship, andespecially at a festival, and whom does he see, the ignorant
,that is
,the low and uneducated only" Nay, verily"
high and low, rich and poor, educated and uneducatedare there to worship their particular divinity Perhaps
,
in a few cases, God may be the obj ect of worship, but inthe vast maj ority of cases they are there to worsh ip simply the idol, with no thought of a higher god . India isfull of idols. Every village
,however insignificant
,has
its temple,and in cities they can be counted by hundreds.
Besides the public temples every house has its shrine andhousehold gods.The Telugus in common with all other Hindus tena
ciously adhere to caste. If Hindu caste were simply asocial in stitution, little could be Said against it. Such acaste is common to all countries, even to democraticAmerica. But Hindu caste is altogether a different institution from the social class distinctions of other countries . It is to-day, and has been for more than twothousand years essential ly a religious institution . Its fundamental idea Is that God created distinct classes of men,and that it is utterly impossible to change this divin eorder. A Brahman is born a Brahman, and be he neverso base he can by no possibility cease to be a Brahman so
24 H ISTORY O F THE TELUGU MIS S ION.
of the dead ; let no man hold any intercourse with them.
Western civilization has done much to change all this .Formerly when a caste-man met a Pariah on the publicroad the latter was ob liged to jump in to the hedge orditch to allow the high-caste man to pass uncontaminated .
But when railways were introduced,rather than pay
second or first-class fare, the caste-man took his place in athird-class carriage with his Pariah brother. Formerlyno caste-man would receive from aPariah ’s hands a letteror a parcel, but it had to be placed on the floor at somedistance. Now caste and non-caste men mingle more orless freely in government oflices.When mission schools were opened to caste H indus , aswell as Christians and Pariahs, the Brahmans scorned theidea of sitting on the same bench with a Pariah or Christian . But as the success of mission schools did not depend on Brahmans, they could afford to dispense withtheir presence. But not so easily could the Brahmansdispense with an education . Now all classes alike sit sideby side without remonstrance.But notwithstanding all these innovations
,caste is still
a most powerfu l factor in the H indu system,and is of all
others the most formidable obstacle to the Spread of civilization and Christianity in India. To break caste is thevery last thing a Hindu is willing to do it is the climaxof all self-den ial . Rather than take food or water fromthe hands of a low-caste man or Christian , many H induswould prefer to die. No stronger proof can be given ofa man’s conversion than his willingness to break his caste.Even after his conversion the probabilities are that hisinnate caste prejudices will keep cropping out. We sel
THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE. 25
dom,if ever
,find a Christian from the Mala class select
ing for a wife a girl from the Madigas,although
,strictly
speaking, both of these classes belong to the out-castes .There are not wanting many and striking indications
that caste is losing its hold upon the people , but its com
plete destruction w ill not be seen in th is generation o rthe next. It will be a slow process, bu t it must come,and when it does, H indu ism wil l be no more.
CHAPTER II.
O RIGIN O F TH E M IS S IO N .
M r. Day’s and M r. Abbott’s w ork contrasted. M ission of th e London M issionary S ociety amon g th e Telugus . Preparation of th e S criptures. Them ission at Vizagapatam . Com ing of M r. Day. Estab lishmen t of a missionat Chicacole. Removal to M adras. Form ation of an En ; l ish Baptistchurch . M r. Day’s removal to Nellore. D ifficu lt ies of th e tran sfer. Routefin al ly chosen . Comp let ion of canal and railroad facili ties .
T was a strange providen ce that gave to the Rev . Samuel S. Day the undiv Ided honor of being the founder
of the Telugu Mission . With him had been associatedthe Rev. E. L. Abbott. Both were appointed by theBaptist Board as missionaries to the Telugus
,September
,
20,1835. Together they sailed from Boston in the shipLouvre
,September 22
,1 885, and arrived in Calcutta,
February 5, 1 836. The Rev . Howard Malcom aecom
panied them as a deputation from the Baptists of America to visit our Asiatic Missions . When they reachedCalcutta it was decided that Mr Abbott should not goto the Telugus
,but to the Karens of Burma instead.
Very differen t was the reception these two servants ofChrist were to meet in their respective fields. Abbottwent to a field already prepared to receive “ the whitebook and “ the white teacher.” The people were in astate of expectancy. When they heard of the whiteman ’s arrival many of them went long distances to findhim and see the white book.
Not so did the Telugus wait for Mr. Day. The mis26
H istory of th e Telugu M i ssion . Page 26.REV. S A M UEL S . DAY.
ORIGIN OF THE MISSION. 27
sionary had to make long j ourneys through an enemy’s
country to find those who were even willing to hear thegood news he '
had brought to them.
The London Missionary Society was the first to establish a Protestant mission among the Telugus. As this
has frequently been described as a feeble effort,which
was attended with little or no su ccess, and w as eventuallyrelin quished,
” a brief account of it may be interesting.
The labors of our own mission aries will be better understood
,and possibly better appreciated, when we know
what had been done and some of the difficulties that hadbeen encountered and overcome by those who precededthem.
The mission was commenced in 1 805 by two missiona
ries who had been sent out to the Tamils of Tranquebar ;but after a few months it was deemed exped ient for themto undertake mission work in some part of India whereChr ist had not been named . Their attention was directedto the Telugus by a gentleman in the government serv i ce,who thus wrote of one of the difficulties they wou ld haveto meet I am sorry it is not in my power at present tofurnish you with any elementary books to facilitate youracquisition of this fine dialect. There is, however, a manuscript rudimental grammar to be procured
,which may be
of use.
”
Notwith stan ding the great scarcity of books,the lan
guage was acquired, and in 1 81 8 a version Of the New
Testament was prepared and published . H ow far thetranslators were aided by the translation of Dr. Carey itis impossible to say. The Old Testament was alsoroughly translated, though not published until some
28 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISSION.
years later. This was, probably, entirely their own
work .
From 1832 to 1 835 there was no missionary at Viza
gapatam,and this probably accounts for the impression
that the mission was “ relinquished .
” The condition ofthe mission at this time seems to have been like that ofour own from 1 846 to 1 849, with this difference, that whileour Board seriously discussed the question of abandon ingNellore, we have no intimation that such a question hadever been raised by the London Mission respecting Viza
gapatam .
In 1 835, the Rev. J. W. Gordon, son of a former missionary, arrived in Vizagapatam. Several conversion stook place that year. Thirteen schools were maintainedin and about Vizagapatam. The Rev. E . Porter j oinedthe mission that year, and Mrs . Gordon and Mrs. Porterhad a girls
’
boarding school of from eighty to one hundred native girls. In 1 836, the first Protestan t chapelamong the Telugus was built. The Sunday-school numbered one hundred and fifty. A press was set up fromwhich were issued a rev ised version of the New Testamentand portions of the Old Testament above referred to alsotwen ty thousand tracts, averaging five pages each , wereissued annually, besides elementary school-books, Pilgrim
’
s Progress,Peep of Day, etc., all prepared by the
missionaries of Vizagapatam.
This w as the condition of the London Mission whenMr. Day landed at Vizagapatam,
March 7 , 1836 . Thenew missionaries were kindly received by the Rev . and
Mrs. J. W. Gordon ,of the London Mission . Mr. Day
preached frequently for M r. Gordon, and in other ways
80 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISSION.
Hence, on the 9th of February, 1 840, he announced to
the church in Madras that he had decided to remove toNellore
,and accordingly resigned his ofiice as pastor.
Although the distance from Madras to Nellore is on lya hundred and eight miles
,the j ourn ey in those days
,es
pecially with a family of small children, was a considerable undertaking. M r. Day had the choice oftwo routes.F irst there was the great Northern Trunk Road whichconnects M adras and Secunderabad and passes throughNellore and Ongole. To make the j ourney by this roadwould require five or six carts drawn by bullocks
,and oc
cupy six nights, stopping during the day at rest houses orbungalows along the way to av oid the heat and to restand feed both passengers and bullocks. The other route,and the one Mr. Day selected, was by canal to S ulurpett,which was at th at time the limit of what is now known asthe Buckingham Canal
,named after the Duke of Buck
ingham because completed under his administration as
governor during the famine. Mr. Day provided two
rude native boats for himself, family, and effects,and
started in the evening making the j ourney to S ulurpett intwo nights and one day. That was the easiest part ofthej ourney. From S ulurpett to Nellore is sixty miles, andover the rough road between the two , Mrs. Day and two
children were carried in a palanquin little Malcom and
his ayah (nurse) in a dooly— a sort of extempore palanquin— and the rest in country carts. Thus they reachedNellore in about the same time that would have been re
quired had they gone by road, but with much less fatigue.The facilities of travel between Madras and Ne llorewere somewhat improved by the completion of the Buck
ORIGIN OF THEMISSION . 31
ingham Canal both with respect to time and comfort .The canal reaches within sixteen miles of Nel lore, and thestyle of boats has been much improved, so that the j ourneycan now be made with comfort in forty-eight hours
,or
less if the wind is favorable. The boats can only sai lwhen t h e wind is fair ; otherwise they are drawn by coolieson the bank or poled along in the lakes and back-watersThere is now a railway which connectsNellore with theMadras and Bombay Railway, and gives it railroad communication with all the principal cities of India. Thereare also two other l ines of railroad under construction, anda third is proj ected which when finished will connect almostevery station in the mission w ith every other. So that theday is not distant when the whole ' system of missionaryitinerancy in this mission wil l be completely revolution
CHAPTER III.
NELLO RE O CCUPIED .
Th e Nellore District. M ean ing of distri ct.” Th e city of Nel lore. S igu incan ce of name. S ettlemen t of missionaries at Nellore and acquiremen t of acompound .” S igns of progress. Bap tism of th e first Telugu convert. A
con vert at O ngole. Progress in th e schools of Nellore. O rgan ization of achurch . Departure of M r. Van H usen . Th e need of help . Th e return ofM r. Day. Th e m ission in charge of th e Eurasians Return of M r.Day w ithM r. Jewett and w i fe. Re—commen cement of th e work . Re—e stabl ishment ofgirls’ school . Con version of Julia.” Th e posi tion of schools. A m issionary tour. Th e impetus of three years. Visit of M essrs . Peck and G ranger.
ELLORE is the chief city of the Nellore District.As this word “ district will frequently occur in
these pages, it may as well be explained that the presideney ofMadras is divided into twenty-two districts, eachof which is governed by an English official called thecollector. Besides being the collector of revenue, he isthe chief magistrate of the district. His position hardlycorresponds to that of the governor of a State, and yet it isnearer to that than anything else in our home government.His salary is one thousand two hundred pounds a year.The judge of the district occupies the same official rank,and receives the same pay , but his duties are exclusiv elyconfined to the court. Besides these, there are other Engl ish officials
,such as the surgeon , the district engineer,
superintendent of police, etc., and an almost endlessnumber of native subordinates. The Nellore District isone hundred and seventy miles long from north to south,and seventy miles w ide from east to west, and contains
82
NELLO RE OCCUPIED . 33
eight thousand seven hundred and fifty-one square miles
of territory,and about one and one-fourth millions of
people.Nellore town or city, for it is a municipality, is onehundred and seven miles north of Madras and S ixteenmiles in land from the sea. It is situated on the south bankof the river Peu nar, and contains very n early th irtythousand people. The name Nellore, like so many otherTelugu names
,had its origin in a legend . There is said to
have been a chief called M ukkanti Reddi who had l argeherds. Among them,
there was a cow into which the sou lof a Brahman woman was supposed to hav e passed . This
cow had a revelation that Siva had appeared on earth inthe form of a lingam . This ston e was situated under atree called the Nelli-chettu (philanthus emblica). The
cow was observed to resort daily to the stone and bedewit with its milk . For this the cowherd struck the cow ,
Ivhefeupon blood flowed from it. M ukkanti,who had had
a vision, was directed to erect a temple on the spot, which
he accordingly did . The adjoin ing village received thename Nelli-uru
,from nelli the n ame of the tree
,and uru
a village,hence Nelluru or Nellore. Nellore was formerly
surrounded by a rampart wall,and had a fort of consider
able importance ; but on ly portions of the wall can now beseen
,and the fort is dilapidated, though still used for
gov ernmen t offices .Mr. Day and family left Madras, February 1 8th , andarrived in Nellore
,February 26 , 1 840. He was soon
afterward followed by the Rev . S . Van Husen and wife,
who had been appointed to the Telugus,and sailed from
Boston ,October 22
,1 839
,arriving in Madras in March ,
34 H IS TORY OR TH E TELUGU M I S SION.
1840. Mr. Day at first rented a small bungalow,but
with the aid of Judge Wa lker,who became a warm
friend of the mission ,he obtained a grant from govern
ment of eight acres of land for a mission compound. O n
this compound,the present bungalow or mission house
was erected in 1 841,and soon after a small chapel directly
in fron t of it and close to the read .
If we may j udge from the size of the bungalow and thesolid manner in which it was built, we should say thatMr. Day must have had a decided conviction that he hadat last found a place where he meant to stay
,or at least
where the m ission was destined to stay. H ow far Mr.Day ’s faith reached into the future we cannot say
,but
there are many eviden ces that he saw by faith what wehave since beheld w ith the natural eye.During the erection of the bungalow,
an inciden toccurred which shows the gross superstition Of the peopleat that time
,and the progress that has been made in
”
dispelling their darkness. The foot-path between two of the
pettas or hamlets of Nellore lay directly through what isnow the mission compound . The n ative who superin
tended the work, had been much annoyed by the constantpassing and repassing of the people. To get rid of them ,
he secretly informed a few that the missionary, in orderto make his building more secure
,intended capturing a
lot of the ch ildren ,and having cut OH their heads
,and
offering them in sacrifice to his God,would bury them in
the deep holes (foundations) he was digging. This not
only had the desired effect,but it so terrified the whole
commun ity that for many months Mr. Day had thegreatest difficulty to persuade the people of the utter
36 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MIS S ION.
Nellore teinple on the river bank, they sang a hymn themissionary read a few passages of Scripture
,and explained
the nature of the ordinance about to be celebrated . Bythis time a large crowd of natives had assembled
,and Mr.
Day embraced the opportun ity to preach to them of Jesusand the great salvation . A brief prayer was then offeredand Venkappah , the first Telugu convert
,was led down
into the river and baptized into the name of the Father,S on ,
and Holy Ghost. It was a strange sight to the wondering multitude
,but a happy experience to Venkappah ,
and probably one of the most blessed privileges of Mr.Day ’s life.About this time an old man from Ongole came to Nellore on business
,and hearing that missionaries were there
called to see them . He said that almost two years before,
he began to examine the Christian religion,and that he
was satisfied of its truth, and believed in Jesus Christ forsalvation . He admitted that all Should open ly professChrist before men ;
“ but,said he
,
“ Ongole is a largeplace there are no missionaries
,no disciples of. Jesus
Christ there ; what can I do"” He was supplied withportions of the Scriptures and some tracts, and wen t backto his family, followed by earnest prayer. The next yearMr. Van Husen Visited Ongole and found this old man.
He was in the habit of praying and reading the Scriptu res to his family and others. His w ives at first opposedhim
,but afterward listened q uietly. This old man was a
Sudra,and although n ever baptized
,he was in the hab it
of preaching the new religion among the people of O n‘
gole. By whom he was led to the truth we do not know ,
but it is probable that Venkappah , the‘
first convert, who
NELLORE OCCUPIED. 37
lived beyond Ongole, had frequent conversations with him .
Thus early in its history the influence of the mission hadreached out into those regions that have since become sofruitful an d famous.The attendants in the schools in Nellore made good
progress in learn ing the Scriptures. The native assistantswere earnest and faithful
,and though embarrassed by sick
ness,the missionaries were en couraged.
“ Yet we aregrieved and disappointed,
” wrote Mr. Day, because theinterest felt by our denomination in the missionary causeis not such as to enable the Board to send any more missionaries here.”
The Nellore Church was organized October 12, 1844,composed of eight members, namely : Rev . S . S . Day
,
Mrs. Day, Rev . S . Van Husen , Mrs. Van Husen, Eliz abeth Jackson
,Christian Nursu
, J. Cay and El isha. Asin the church
_
in Madras, the Confession of Faith adoptedwas the Danville Articles.
”
At this time Mr. Van Husen was in a very precariousstate of health . For a time he removed to Madras forchange and better medical treatment, but instead of improving, his symptoms became more alarming. Nothingshort of a return to America was l ikely to be of any avail
,
an d even with this his recovery was extremely doubtful.Hence it was decided that he should go home. On Sunday, April 20, 1 845, letters of dismission were granted toMr. and Mrs. Van Husen
,and in the evening Mr. Van
Husen admin istered the Lord ’s Supper and bade farewellto the little church . They left Nellore the same weeknever again to return. The parting was painful to all
,but
especially so to Mr. Day, who was thus left alone, and that
38 H ISToRY O F TH E TELU G U M ISSION.
too,in very feeble health . He wrote home most earnest
and touching appeals for help, but no help came. At thistime cholera broke out in Nellore
,so that the schools had
to be closed . The following year (1846) Mr. Day’s
health had so far declined that his physician s ordered hisimmediate return to America. The thought of Visitingour native land
,
” he said, gives little satisfaction . Oh"the mission we leave— the little church— t he few inquirers— the schools— the heathen— yes, the hundred thousandheathen immediately in our vicin ity— the million in thedistrict— the ten millions in our mission field— what willbecome of them"”
The n ecessity of spending so much money in takingmissionariesfrom the field rather than bringing men to it,or of Supporting them while in. it, was very painful to Mr.Day
,and God mitigated the pain in his own case by rais
ing up friends for him in Nellore and Madras, who prov ided the entire amount for the passage of himself and
family to the United States.The mission was left in the care of two Eurasians, whohad done good service while the missionary remained
,and
seemed to be trustworthy. But it proved far otherwise.AS soon as the missionary had departed they entered upona most reckless career. The schools were disbanded, thechurch was scattered, and the mission bungalow,
conse
crated by the prayers and l ives of devoted men of God , became the scene of drunken revels and shameless debauch.
It is,perhaps
,well that this state of affairs was not
known to the Missionary Union in 1 848,when the ques
tion was discussed at the annual meeting of that year,whether the mission should be continued or abandoned.
H istory of th e Telugu M ission . Page 39.REV . LYM AN JEWETT.
NELLO RE OCCUPIED . 39
Had it been kn own,their decision to reinforce it might
have been reversed . But that was not God ’s plan . H is
plan was to save the Telugus, and hen ce he put it intothe hearts of his people to continue the mission .
It is said that the darkest hour of the twenty-four isthat on e jiist before day-break . Th e year 1 848 wasdoubtless the darkest in the history of th is m ission .
Nothing could appear more utterly hopeless,if its real
state could have been kn own,than the condition of the
mission at this time . But it was in that year that God
pu t it Into the heart of Lyman Jewett to consecrate h islife to his service among the Telugu s. That was at leastthe beginn ing of the dawn , as w e shall see by-and-by.
Mr. Day ’s health having in some measure been restored,
he left his fam ily at home,and again sailed for India on
the l 0th of October, 1 848, in the ship Bowditch fromBoston . He was accompanied by the Rev . Lyman Jewettand w ife. During the voyage, the captain was convertedan d many of the seamen were seriously impressed by thepreaching
,conversation
,and lives of the missionaries .
O n their arrival in Nellore,Mr. Day was S hocked at
the sad havoc Satan h ad made among the ' little flock.
Almost every trace of h is former work had been obliter
ated . But he had not lost his faith in God, nor yet in thework he had sent him to do . Hence he did not falter
,but
bravely sought to rebuild the waste places .” He resumedthe chapel services on the 26th of March
,1 849. His text
was : For I determ ined not to know anything amongyou
,save Jesus Christ, and him crucified . He found
he had not forgotten his Telugu,but had much freedom
in preach ing. There were some indications that serious
40 HISTORY OF TH E TELUGU M IS S IO N .
impression s had been made on some “of his hearers. Mr.and M rs. Jewett were present, and in the even ing meet ingMr. Jewett prayed most fervently for a b lessing on the
preached word .
M r. and M rs. Jewett m ade rapid progress in acquiri ngthe Telugu
,so that Mr. Jewett is said to have preached his
first Telugu serm on in n ine months after his arrival . Mrs.Jewett ’s command of the colloquial Telugu was remarkab le. She early became interested in a girls
'
boardingschool. Such a '
school had existed in Mrs. Day’s time,but
it had been scattered . They began the school with twoor three little girls
,one of whom was Ju lia
,
”now so w ell
known,and two or three little orphan boys. Mr. Day was
deeply in terested in the chi ldren . He watched over themas he would his own, and frequently performed such actsof men ial service for them as few fathers would care todo even for their own children . He taught them dailyin the school
,prayed with them,
and in every way tried tolead them to the Saviour.
Julia was the first fruits of this school,and if there
had n ever been another convert,she alone would be ample
compensation for all it has cost. But Julia was not
secured without a struggle,not with her
,but on account of
her with her heathen mother. A deep religious spiritpervaded the little company of bel ievers, and the Spirit ofthe Lord seemed to be with them . Julia evidently wasmuch impressed and expressed an earnest wish to be baptized .
‘
Her mother also appeared'
to be inquiring, andJulia had no fears about getting her mother ’s consent toher being baptized. But when the request was made
,she
seemed to be possessed . She came to the missionaries and
NELLORE OCCUPIED . 41
demanded her child . She would listen to no argument orreason . She professed to be S ick and needed her daughterto wait on her. She wept and wailed until Ju lia overcome
by a sense of duty to‘her mother j oined in her request to
be allowed to go . So she had to be given up, but it wason ly for a time.
O n the 28th of March, 1852, Julia and Mrs. Gilmore,the matron of the school, were baptized by Mr. Jewett inthe great tank Or lake in Nellore. These were the firstconverts Mr. Jewett baptized, and it was a happy day forthe missionaries and the little company of native believers.Jul ia says of that event : “ It was truly a happy day forme" The sun was j ust rising, and everything was sobeautiful . Father Da v led me out into the lak e andFather Jewett baptized me. I have had many affliction ssince then
,but I have never lost the sweet comfort I then
found in following my precious Saviour.”
Besides the boarding school,Mr. Day had Opened
several day schools in which English as well as Teluguwas taught. The chief portion of the time was given tothe Bib le
,and the reading books were prepared on
Christian principles . So that in these schools,some two
hundred and seventy were receiving a thoroughly ChriLtian education from which the mission aries looked formuch precious results. Hence, it was a sore bereavementto Mr. Day when he received from the Executive Committee an order that al l such schools S hou ld be closed
,
and no appropriations for such work would be made forthe year beginning October 1
,1 850. There was no alter
native but to obey and close the schools.
Mr. Day was a pronounced evangelistic missionary.
42 HIS TO RY OF TH E TELU G U M ISSION.
He had no idea of educating people into the kingdom ofGod . At the same time be regarded schools with great favoreven as an evangelistic agency. Hence
,he felt that this
order was as a severe blow to the mission . The presentpolicy of the mission in regard to schools is not very dif
feren t from that which Mr. Day appears to have heldforty years ago . But it does not follow that our presentschool system would have been a wise one then . Circumstances are very different. Though we admit heathenchildren to our schools, and hope for and even expecttheir conversion
,yet our primary obj ect in open ing
schoo ls,is for the education of our Christian y outh .
O n the spot now occupied by the girls’ school thereused to be a small Hindu temple
,which was a source of
great annoyance to the mission . M r. Day had made frequent attempts to get it removed
,but in vain . But at
last the old priest died, and as his chi ldren could not
carry on the work of deception which brought the oldman so much gain, they decided to sell it, or rather theland it stood on . Funds were col lected
,the old temple
was purchased and removed,and in its stead a small
building for the boarding school was erected . It costsome seven hundred rupees
,most of which was given by
the friends in Nellore. This serv ed the purpose till 1876,when it gave place to the present building.
In January, 1 851 , M r. Day made a tour to the westas far as Udayagiri . At Sungam,
twenty miles west ofNellore
,he m et Mr. and M rs. Jewett, and spent a deligh t
ful Sunday with them in worship and social intercourse.Leaving them to continue their work about Sungam,
he
proceeded to Atmakur. He had rather a difficult j our
NELLORE OCCUPIED . 43
ney, as there were no such roads then as there are
now .
H is path lay across rice fields,along ridges scarcely
wide enough for his pony to walk on ,groping his way in
the darkness,and every now and then stumbling into a
ditch . Once his pony tumbled and threw him into themud . Stil l he pushed on ,
and in due time arrived at Atmakur
,glad enough to find his tent pit ched and ready for
him. After preaching in Atmakur, and the surroundingneighborhood
,he continued his j ourney w estward. At
the next halting place he entered a Village called Kara
tampaud to preach. But he was immediately ordered out.He protested and remonstrated, but the people would listento no reason
,and out he was acth ally driven . This was
quite illegal,and Mr. Day might have had the villagers
punished,but that was not his way. When
,however
,
they get ou tside the vi llage and on the highway, Mr.Day refused to be driven any farther, and there hepreached to the crowd that had gathered .
After spending ten days on the top of Udayagiri Droog
(a fortified hill), they came down and resumed their workof preaching and distributing tracts and Scripture portions. On leaving Udayagiri, Mr. Day exclaimed : Oh
,
for a couple of mission families to l ive somewhere in thisregion
,and to labor among this people"” If it is per
mitted the redeemed to look down upon the scenes of theirformer labors
,Mr. Day now sees that wish literally ful
filled,for since 1 884, Mr. and Mrs . Burditt have faith
fully labored at Udayagiri, and Mr. and Mrs . Stone arestationed at Atmakur.In the three years that had now passed since the arrival
44 H ISTORY or TH E TELUGU MIS SION .
of the missionaries, notwithstanding many discouragements
,a very hopeful impetus had been given to the
work. The number of converts, it is true, had been veryyet
,still there were indications of greater prosper
ity. But in January, 1 853, a second deputation, consisting ofMessrs. Peck and Granger, v isited Nellore. Theyfound the missionaries laboring faithfully and hopefullybut as the conversions had been so few,
and as Mr. Day ’shealth was again in a very precarious condition , the report carried home was not very inspiring.
CHAPTER IV.
TH E LO NE STAR.
An other crisis for t h e m ission . Resolu tion of th e Board to close it. Th eLon e S tar.
” Effect on th e M issionary Un ion . Th e question at Nel l ore .M r. Day again laid asid e . M r. Jew e tt at O ngole. Prayer-m eeting h i l l .Th e m ission ary’s pred iction verified . Accession of M r. an d M rs. Douglassto th e m ission . Two converts— Can ak iah and Lydia. A nn a th e Prophetas s.
” An appeal for additional h elp. M r. Jew ett’s remonstran ce. Th edeath ofNu rsu . Th e sch ools of th e m ission . Payin g children to at tend .Th e I ndian mut iny. Purchase of property at O ngol e . Failure of M r.
Jew et t’ s health . Th e w ork of M r. Douglass. Native evangel i sts. S u spen
s ion of their work,and departu re of M r . Douglass.
TH Eyear 1 853 will ever be memorable in the historyof the mission , owing to
‘
two very remarkable events,
one of which occurred at home, the other at Ongole . Theannual meetlngs of the Missionary Union were held thatyear at Albany
,N . Y. O n account of the v erv indifferent
success that had attended the Telugu M iss ion for seventeen years
,the question came up for the second time,
Shall the mission be re inforced or discon tinued"” TheUnion naturally turned to th e deputation just returnedfrom Nellore, but they had nothing very definite or decisive to report. O n the one hand
,the field was wide and
Open ; the missionaries had acquired the language, and afew converts had been made . But on the other hand, theprogress made had been very small, and the field cou ld
be cared for by other societies laboring among theTelugus
,though at some distance from the field occu
pied by our missionaries. Viewed in the l ight of the45
46 H ISTORY OF TH E TELUGU MISS IO N .
Lord’
s commission,there was nothing which warranted a
retreat.The question was referred to the Board
,where a prep
osition was made that a lettter be written to Dr. Jewettrequesting him to close up the mission and remove to Burma. Dr. Edward Bright
,then acting corresponding
secretary,said
,And who will write the letter"and who
will write the letter" intimating,by repeating the ques
tion and by the tone of his voice,that write it who might
,
he certainly would not .
In the evening,when the question came up in the public
meeting for discussion , a number of very earn est and eloquent addresses were made. One of the speakers
,in the
course of his address,turn ed to the mission map which
hung on the wall, and pointing to Nellore, called it theLone Star Mission , there being but the one station .
The Rev. S. F. Smith,D . D .
,author of our National
Hymn,caught up the words “ lone star
,
”
and before heslept wrote the following lines
TH ELO NE STAR.
S h ine on,
Lon e S tar" Thy rad ia nce brigh tS h al l spread o
’
er all th e eastern sky
M orn break s apace from gloom and n ight
S h in e on,and bless th e pilgrim
’s ey e .
S h in e on,
Lon e S tar" I w ou ld n ot d im
Th e ligh t th at gleam sWi th dubious ray ;Th e lon e ly star ofBe th leh emLed on a brigh t and glorious day .
S h ine on,
“ Lone S tar"” in grief a nd tears,A n d sad rev erses oft baptiz ed
S h ine on am id thy sister Sph eres
Lon e stars in h eav e n are n ot despised .
48 H IS TO RY OF THE TELUGU M ISSION.
convert s had been baptized, and were now added to thechurch . Inquirers were mu ltiply ing and fresh hopes wereInspirIng the little band of Christian laborers.But in the midst of this flush of prosperity
,God once
more sorely tested their faith by again laying aside fromactive service the father of the mission . Mr. Day’s healthbroke down , and he was obliged, for the second time, toquit the mission and the coun try
,never again to return.
When in addition to this, the report reached Mr. Jewettthat it had been proposed to remove him to Burma
,it had
a most depressing effect. He said,I would rather labor
on here as long as I live than to be torn up by the rootsand transplan ted . Faith and my own conscience tell methat I am not laboring in vain in the Lord.
”
It was toward the close of 1 853 that the other event towhich referen ce has been made took place. M r. and Mrs.Jewett, with a few native helpers
,made a tour to the north
as far as Guntur. They reached Ongole the last week inDecember
,and spent five or six days preaching in the
streets. The people heard them,if not gladly
,at least re
spectfully. There was no abuse,no violence, and above
all they were not “ assailed with hootings and stones,as
has been reported . It had been a custom at the missionhouse in Nellore for some years to hold a prayer meetingearly on the first day of the n ew year. It was thereforearranged that on this New Year’s day (1 854) they shouldhold their prayer meeting on the top of the hill which everlooks Ongole. Accordingly
,at 4 o ’clock in the morn ing,
Mr. and Mrs. Jewett, Christian Nursu , Julia, and Ruthstarted from their tent
,and climbed the hill. Julia says :
I carried a stool,and Ruth carried a mat
,and when we
TH E LONE STAR. 49
reached the top of the h ill we all sat down . First, wesung a hymn
,and Father Jewett prayed then Christian
Nursu prayed then father read a portion of Isaiah ,fifty
-second chapter, How beautifu l upon the mountainsare the feet of him that bringeth good tidings. ’ ThenMother Jewett prayed
,then I prayed
,and then Ruth
prayed . When Father Jewett prayed, I remember hesaid
,As the sun is now about to rise and shine upon the
earth so may the sun of righteousness arise quickly andshine upon this dark land .
’ After we had all prayed ,Father Jewett stood up, an d stretching out his hand, saidDo you see that rising piece of ground yonder
,all covered
over with prickly pear" Would you not like that spot
for our mission bungalow and all this land to becomeChristian" H ow would you like it"Well, Nursu
,Julia
,
that day will come" Then we all spoke our minds,and
just as the meeting closed , the sun rose. It seemed as ifthe Holy Spirit had lifted us above the world, and ourhearts were filled with thanksgiving to the Lord .
”
The first part of Dr. Jewett’s prediction has been fulfilled to the letter
,for it is on the very spot pointed out that
Dr . Clough ’s house now stands. And this is the more remarkable
,because it was not selected by the mission
,but
by a gentleman who built the house for himself, and after
ward sold it to the mission . The second part of the prediction seems a long way off as yet
,but scarcely more so
than the first seemed at that time . But be it near or far,
it is as sure to come as God ’s word is true. Thus,both
at home and in the mission, an earnest faith in God’s word
and in the mission led its friends to predict with almostprophetic assurance a glorious future for the Lone Star.”
D
50 HISTO RY OF TH E TELUGU MIS SION .
In October,1 854, the Rev. F. A. Douglass and wife
sailed from Boston to j oin the m issioh . They reachedNellore early the following year. Mr. Douglass was ahard worker. He became exceedingly fond of the Teluguand acquired an exceptionally good command of the 0 0 110
qu ial dialect. He made exten sive tours into the district,and did much in scattering the good seed of the gospel .Among the few converts of this time there were two whodeserve more than a passing notice. One was Canakiah ,a Schoolboy
,who became the first ordained pastor of the
mission the other was Lydia,whom Dr. Smith called
Anna the prdphetess.
”
C anakiah was the son of a Sepoy belonging to the 1 7thMadras Light Infantry . He was born at Bangalore
,in
the n ative state of Mysore,in 1 837 , while the fegiment
was at that station . His parents belonged to the Naidudivision of the Sudra caste . When abou t eight years oldh is father took his pension and was return ing to his nativeplace
,Vizagapatam
,but stepped at Nellore to Visit a rel
ative. This relative was a pen sioned subahdar, an Officercorresponding to sergeant
,who had been converted while
his regiment was at Moulmein , and was baptized by Dr.Haswe ll. While in Nellore
,C anakiah
’
s father died, andwas buried in the m ission burying ground. After hisfather ’s death he attended the mission school as a dayscholar
,but after Messrs. Day and Jewett arrived, in
1 849,he was admitted into the boarding school.
Thus for a number of years he had been under Christian influen ce
,and by the time he reached his eighteen th
year he was fully convinced of his need of a Saviour, and
of the truth of Christian ity. He was baptized by Mr.
H istory of th e Telugu M i ssion . Page 50.REV. N. CANAKIAH , FIRST O RDAINED PASTO R .
THE LONE STAR . 51
Jewett, January 10, 1 855. H is rapid growth in graceand knowledge of the Scriptures
,as well as his earnest
l ife and the great scarcity of l aborers, led the m issionaryto put him into the work while yet very young. At firsthe taught school
,- and occasionally went out with the
missionary on his preaching tours . For this work he de
v eloped special qualifications, and hence was soon relievedof his school work
,and devoted himself entirely to evan
gelistic work .
On the 20th of August, 1 856, Canakiah was married toJulia
,and on the 14th of December, 1 861 , he was
ordained pastor of the Nellore Church,and thus became
the first ordained native preacher of the mission . Butthis pastoral relation lasted only a few years, owing to thepressing need of evangelistic laborers and Canakiah ’
s spe
cial qualifications for that work . Hence,soon after Mr .
Jewett’s arrival,in 1 865, Canakiah was relieved of his
pastoral duties and devoted himself to evangelistic labors,in which he has continued up to the present time.AS a Christian
,Canakiah
’
s record is clean. H is hon
esty is absolutely above suspicion . No man in the mission has been trusted more
,and certainly no man is more
worthy of confidence. He is an able and eloquentpreacher
,and though his educational advantages have
been l imited,his general influence for good has probably
never been surpassed by any of the native assistan ts.Lydia was a woman of the Sudra caste
,and l ived at
Vizagapatam at the time of her conversion,which took
place in her forty-n inth year. Return ing from one of thegreat H indu festivals
,Lydia’s attention was directed to a
house where a number of Christians were assembled . She
52 H IS TO RY O F TH E TELUGU M I S S ION.
stopped,and they began to preach to her about Christ.
She became very angry and Spoke rudely to the Christians. She tried to defend her religion ,
claiming that therewas no difference between their religion and hers. Thenext day she wen t again to the Christian s and heard themread the Bib le. Again she went away angry
,but could
not ban ish from her mind the words she had heard . Thethird day she went again
,and with a sim ilar result. A
fourth time S he visited the Christians,but this time it
was not to dispute,but with the question H ow can I ob
tain salvation"” They told her She would understandall if she on ly read the Bible. But
,
” she said,I can
not read. Then they told me,
S he continued, if Iprayed to God he would en l ighten me .’ I started fromthere with much sorrow. Then I went to the seashoreand got some sand
,and next day went to the Christian ’s
house and laid down the sand,and asked the Christians
to teach me my letters,and by
-and-by I would be able toread the Bible.” In a very few mon ths Lydia hadlearned to read . Her caste people discovered her secret,and would have made troub le for her, but they feared thedisgrace they themselves would fall into if they exposedthe fact that one of their caste-women had learned to readthe Bible.Although fully convinced of the truth of Christianity
,
and in all probability truly converted,Lydia tried to be
a secret Christian,and did not dare attend a Christian
church, much less be bapt ized . But the Lord bothopened her eyes and prepared the way for her to confessChrist. Her people removed to Nellore, and though theyurged her to come
,she refused and stayed in Vizagapa
54 HISTO RY OF THE TELUGU M IS S IO N .
Dr. Smith ’s “ Lone Star. So one day,when Dr. and
Mrs . Smith were sitting on the veranda of the bungalow,
Lydia came and sat down at their feet. Taking themboth by the knees, she said We hav e never seen Abraham and Sarah, but we see you .
”By which she meant
to say that the next best thing to seeing Abraham andSarah was to see Dr. Smith and his wife
,who had inter
ceded for the Telugus, and had predicted with almostprophetic assurance the glorious things that had sincethen come to pass .Lydia is now very feeble and almost blind . It is on lywhen she prays that she exhibits anything of her formervigor ; but in this she seems as much at home as ever.She says she is simply waiting for the call of God
,and
hoping to enter very soon into the presence of her Lord.
Would that all were as certain of “an abundant en
trance.”
In 1 855, the missionaries united in a most earnest appealto the Executive Committee for additional help . In reply,the members of the Committee said that seldom , if ever, hadthey listened to an appeal that carried with it such force
and conviction, yet at the same time they felt their utterinability to respond to it . Not only so, but they said thatthe expenditure must be still further reduced if therewas not a large advan ce in the liberality of the churches.To this Mr. Jewett replied in April, 1 856. He deplered the condition of the churches at home that couldtolerate the idea of retrenching their foreign mission
work . Oh,Father
,forgive the churches he ex
claimed . To rob God ’s treasury is not to distress mis
sionaries pecun iarily, but it is a robbery of souls— Shutting
TH E LO NE S TAR. 55
away eternally the gift of life . The missionary must partwith what he loves far more than any earthly boon
,yet
Christians at home refuse the help th ey could so easilygive . The very idea of retrenClnn ent is hosti le to everything that deserves the name of missionary. Satan says
Stop giving ; Jesus says : Go ye in to all the world andpreach the gospel. ’
In November of this year,the mission suffered a
grievous loss in the death of the faithful,devoted colpor
teur and preacher, Christian Nursu . In the room wherethe writer now sits, a little company of Christians gathered around the dying Christian . Nursu assured themthat all was well, and although the monsoon storm ragedwithout
,all was peace and calm within. The same
truths,
” said Nursu ,that I h ave preached to others
,are
now my j oy and support.” And thus in the triumph ofChristian faith his soul passed from earth to heaven .
The mission could ill afford to lose the service of sovaluable a helper ; but to witness such a triumphant death
was worth all the sacrifices that had been made an d l aborexpended to secure it. It was an inspiration to those
who witnessed it. How many were saved by Nursu’
s
life no one can tell,but
,by his death
,at least one man
for whom he had earnestly labored was led to give him
self to Christ .By 1 857 , the boarding and day schools had made con
siderable progress . In the case of day scholars, the practice of paying the parents a small sum of mon ey to inducethem to send their children to school
,was still in vogue .
In our day this w ould be regarded as a very doubtfu lpolicy , and it is a question whether it ever was, on the
56 H IS TO RY OF TH E TELUGU M IS S ION .
whole,a wise one. The reasons for adopting it were first
,
the extreme poverty of the people, requiring them to puttheir children out to work as soon as they could earn twoor three farthings a day at cooly work second
,their
total ign orance of the value of education ; and third,the
desire of the missionaries to impress the children with thetruths of Christian ity. O n the other hand
,it may well be
questioned whether this practice did not foster the conv iction ,
almost un iversal among the n atives,that anything
and everything don e to gratify the missionary ought to bepaid for. That the mission treasury might not be chargedwith this expense
,a “ Juven ile Benevolent Society was
organ ized. The children were taught to sew and maketheir own clothes. A sale of the articles made w as heldand a considerable sum realized. Still
,the money paid to
the paren ts came from the mission ary, and it mattered notto them where nor how the m issionary got it. B ut whetherthe practice was wise or otherwise, it has long S in ce beenabandoned.
Early in this year Mr. Douglass and family re
moved to Madras owing to the ill health of Mrs. Douglass. This was the year of the terrible Sepoy mutiny
,and
although Nellore was far remote from the scene of actualwar
,yet all India was more or less disturbed, at least by
rumors of impending danger. Hen ce,acting on the ad
v ice of friends,Mr. Jewett and family also removed to
Madras in August and remained ti l l January, 1 858, whenboth missionaries returned to Nellore. Thirteen werebaptized that year
,the largest number yet received in any
one year.The death of Jacob
,a faithful and efficient helper, and
TIIE LO NE S TA R. 57
a number of exclusions from the church,caused much
sorrow. But these reverses were followed by a preciouswork of grace
,and the baptism of six converts. Among
them was a girl named Maha-Lukshumammah,who after
ward became the w ife of Rungiah , now the head assistantof the missionary in Perambore
,Madras .
In 1 860, Mr. and Mrs . Jewett, their daughters Addie
and Hattie, and Canakiah spent three months in Ongole,from January to April . It was at this time that Mr.Jewett negotiated for the house and land which becamethe mission bungalow and compound . He did not kn owwhere the money was to come from
,nor who would occupy
the house,but he believed that the prediction he had
made in 1 854, on the hill top, would be f ulfilled, andthat God would sen d the money and the m an too . Sothe house was bought, and Mr. Jewett, after asking themoney from the Lord, wrote to a friend and classmate athome about the matter . IVhen the letter w as received
,
the friend had just been considering what to do with a
sum he wished to invest in the Lord ’s work : He immediately sent it to Mr. Jew ett, and it was j ust sufficient topurchas e the ho u se and land, and make some necessary
repairs.It was also during this stay at Ongole that Mr. Jewett
baptized the first convert in Ongole . His n ame was
Obulu,w ho became and remained a faithful preacher till
his death,in 1 880 .
After thirteen years of earnest and faithful labor, inwhat many regarded as a fruitless and almost hopelesseffort to establish a mission at Nellore, Mr. Jewett
’
s healthbroke down in 1 862
,and he and his family were obliged
58 H IsTO RY OF TH E TELUGU M IS S IO N.
to return home. Being obliged to relinquish his muchloved work was a great grief. He said : “ The trial of
leaving home in the first place was less than nothing compared with that of leaving the mission field to return .
”
Mr. Douglass was thus left alone in charge of themission . He continued preaching In the chapel and in
the streets of Nellore and touring among the villageswith great earnestness
,and with some measure of success.
During the summer of 1 863, Mr. Douglass’ health
broke down,and be with his family went to Coromandel,
by the sea, where they remained several months. Soonafter his return to Nellor ; he baptized four converts, towhom he thus refers : As I stood in the water
,and these
trophies of a Saviour’s love came down one after anotherinto the water
,my heart said
,amen ; the heathen shall
yet come in crowds. Many Brahmans were Spectators.The scene will not be forgotten on earth, and I trust willnot be disown ed in heaven .
”
In 1 864, a new departure in the l ine of itinerating wasmade. Up to that time the native preachers had notengaged in this work , except as they accompan ied themission ary. Now they were sent out alon e. In Septemberof that year, a number of them made a tour among thevillages in the region of Ongole. They were gon e abouttwo months
,and brought back a most encouraging report
of the work in that n eighborhood .
For want of money this work had to be suspended,and
that too , at just the time when the m issionary could j oinin it . This was a painful experience. iVith the languageat his command, the people ready to hear, a few ab le andfaithful helpers eager for the work
,and the weather
THE LO NE S TAR. 59
favorable for traveling, to be kept in the station for wantof money was very trying, indeed . But there was no helpfor it
,for mission work cannot be carried on without
money.
The schools at this time were in a most hopeful condition. The annual examinations proved that good andfaithful work had been done. And better still
,the Spirit
of God was among them, and four or five were hopefu llyconverted. The baptiz ing of these converts closed Mr.Douglass’ mission work, and he left for home in April,1865.
CHAPTER V.
FA ITH REWARDED .
Th e question of abandon ing th e m i ssion again presen ted M r. Clough joinsM r. Jew ett . En couragemen ts in th e work. A visi t to O ngole. Con versionof Periah . H is earnestn ess in th e w ork of making Ch rist know n . M r.
Jewett ’s appeal for two more m en . Th e in -gathering a t Tu llakond apaud .
Depletion at Nel lore.
T the annual meeting of the Missionary Union heldin Providen ce
,in 1 862, the question
“ Shall theTelugu mission be abandoned "” came up for the thirdand last time . A resolution recommending its abandonmen t was offered
,and its passage urgently demanded . It
would no doubt have passed, but for the influence of thecorresponding secretary
,the Rev. Dr.Warren , who plead
that the question might be deferred until the arrival ofMr. Jewett, who was then on his way home. This w asreluctantly agreed to
, and it w as v irtually the settlementof that oft—repeated question ,
for when Mr. Jewett arrived,he S imply declined to entertain any proposition to abandon the m is sion . He had spen t thirteen years among apeople he had loved
,had already gathered some precious
fruit,and had strong faith that “
the Lord had muchpeople among the Telugus . He told the ExecutiveCommittee
,in the most emphatic terms
,of his determina
tion never to give up the Telugu Mission . If the Un iondecl ined to aid him
,he would go back alone, and live and ,
if need be, die among the Telugus. Such courage, faith ,60
62 H ISTORY OF TH E TELUGU M IS S ION .
had been designated to Ongole, he expressed a readinessto go to either of these new stations. But subsequentevents will Show that God had arranged all that.In March
,1 866
,Mr. and Mrs. Jewett, Mr. Clough and
C anakiah made a visit to Ongole, having special referenceto seeing Periah
,who wanted to see th e missionaries and
to be baptized . He was not in Ongole, as had been ex
pected, but returned in a few days . So eager, indeed, washe do this that he left a meal unfinished
,at which he was
seated when the intelligence of the arrival of the missionaries came to him. In relating his experience , Periah saidFour years ago
,I went north to Ellore
,and there heard
f or the first time the gospel from Mr. Alexander, of theChurch Mission. After that I went to Palacole
,and
heard from Mr. Bowden, and saw the native Christians.After my return ,
the Lord enlightened my mind,and I
began laboring for the con v ersion of my family. Aftereighteen months
,my wife was converted, and several
others w ere awakened .
”
This simple recitation of God ’s dealings with this man;
belonging to a class almost too degraded to be despised,un able to read a word, and yet giving such a clear testimony
,made a deep impression on the missionaries. The
simplicity of his story,the sincerity of his faith
, and theardor of his love, all testified to the saving power of God
’sgrace.His w ife, in the same spirit of S implicity, faith, and love,told the artless story of her conversion .
“ These,said
Mr. Jewett,“ were some of the happiest moments of my
life. I was ready in a moment to baptize them.
” Thelittle company proceeded to a tank about two miles off
,
"
FA ITH RLWARDED . 63
and there as the sun was setting, the two happy convertswere baptized . These were the first converts from the
M adagas— the c lass from which the great mass of the
Ongole Christians have come .
Periah made the most of his opportunity, while themissionaries were in Ongole, to get all the knowledge hecould about the new religion, for he was anxious to becomea witness for Christ. In course of time, he became anearnest minister of Jesus Christ, and is still the patriarchof the Ongole preachers.
Two months later, Can akiah , Rungiah ,and Rungashia,
three Nellore native preachers, went on a preaching tourto the northwest
,to a territory including Periah ’
s village .They were greatly astonished to find Periah bu rning withzeal for the souls of his fellow-men . It stirred them up
greatly to find him far ahead of themselves in his desire topreach . He used to stir them up long before daybreak togo to villages at a distance. The weather was at its hottest, and Periah would carry a great pot of buttermilk onhis head for the preachers to drink when thirsty. Theselabors were greatly blessed, and when the preachers returned to Nellore
,they reported that probablv two hundred
people in the region around Tullakondapaud were believing in Christ. From that time on Mr. Clough becameimpatient till he was permitted to proceed to Ongole.After returning from Ongole
,Mr. Jewett baptized
three converts in Nellore . One was the only survivingson of Christian Nursu
,already spoken of. The second
was a Tamil woman, formerly of Madras, who had been animmoral character ; for several months, she had attendedthe chapel
,and after a time manifested a deep abhorrence
64 H ISTORY O F TH E TELUGU M ISS ION .
of her past life,frequently rose for prayers
,and at last
found peace in believ ing in Christ. The other convertwas a pupil of the boarding school .In concluding his annual report for 1 866, Mr. Jewettexpresses an earnest wish that the Board would keep inmind the appeal for two men
, one for Alloor and one forRamapatam . This he said would by no means supplythe demands of so vast a field
,but it would givé a line of
stations from Nellore to Ongole,and would be a good
beginning tovVard what eventually must be don e.The year 1 867 was one of great blessings. Mr. Cloughhad removed to Ongole the prev ious year, and the first ingathering had taken place at Tullakondapaud . Referring to that
'
event,Mr. Jewett wrote : “ I am glad Mr.
Clough is in possession of ample means,and what is better
still,that he has found a field ripe for the harvest . Are you
not now glad that we tugged so hard to get a footing inOngole" Has not God put honor on n ative agency"”
A severe blow fell on the mission at this time in thedeath of Venkataswamy, a valuab le helper in Nellore.He was bookkeeper, Sunday-school teacher
,and preacher
all in one,and his loss seemed almost irreparab le . He was
taken il l with cholera January 1 3,and died the same
n ight . He was one of the brightest trophies of redeem inggrace that had yet been won in the Telugu Mission, andhis end was peaceful and glorious beyond expression . Buth is departure for the better world left a sad vacancy inthe mission .
This sad ev ent , together with the withdrawal of laborersto the Ongole field
,drove the little band at Nellore to
make the most of what remained ; and committing all to
FA ITH REWARDED. 65
him who is able to make possible the greatest resultsfrom the smallest means
,they labored on in faith . A
special effort was made to arouse the church to the importance of every member doing his best to make Christknown all around. The result was the accession of tenprecious converts.
CHAPTER VI .
BRANCH ING O UT.
Large accession s to th e m ission . Increased prosperity. M rs. Jew ett ’s returnhome. Arrival of M r. and M rs. Down ie a t Nellore. Pol icy regarding n ewm issionaries. M astering th e l anguage sufficien t w ork a t first . A d ev astat
ing flood at Nel lore . Loss and privat ion at th e compound. Rebuildin g byt imely aid . Excel len ce of th e w ork . In creased attendan ce at th e schools .Th e fam in e year. First con verts from t h e farmer caste. Th e story ofRam iah . Conversion and educat ion . S truggle as to field of labor. H is
triumph among his people . A new chapel at Nel lore. Its corner—ston efrom a H ind u tem ple . Visit of Dr. S F . Sm ith and w ife at Nellore. Re
spite for th e m ission aries . A new girl s’ sem inary. Addition s to th e w orking force . Visit of Dr. Ashmore. M rs. Down ie’s return to Ameri ca. Visitof Dr. M ab ie. Profound impression and usefulness.
lH ERev . A. V. Timpany and wife j oined the missionat Nellore in May
,1 868. Here they remained
studying t lze language and assisting Mr. Jewett ti ll Feb
ruary, 1 870, when they removed to Ramapatam. TheRev. Jno. M cLaurin and wife arrived in Madras
,Febru
ary 1 1,1 870, and proceeded at once to Ramapatam . The
Rev. E . Bullard also j oined the mission that year, reach
ing Nellore in November . He was the first of our mis
sionaries to come out our the Suez Can al . A fuller accoun t of these brethren wi l l be found in connectionwith the stations that formed the scene of their labors .By the end of 1 870, the number of church-memberswas one hundred and eighty-three, with fifty pupils in thetraining school . There were seven out-stations, with an
aggregate attendance of one hundred . The government66
68 H ISTO RY OF THE TELUGU MIS S IO N.
which he will find difficult to lay aside while the pressureof work con tinues or he will acquire a sloven ly style ofspeech, halfEnglish and halfTelugu . It is a wrong tothe mission , for other things being equal, a man is usefulto the mission in proportion to his thorough knowledge ofthe language of the people. It is a wrong to the Un ion
,
because by assumption of burdens he is unable to carry,at the very outset of his career a missionary is very liableto injure his health and prematurely break down . Theother extreme of doing absolutely nothing the first yearor two but study, is by no means j ustified by what hasj ust been said . Such cases are not altogether unknown,but fortunately they are rare. There is much a n ew mancan do and ought to do the first year besides study, but itshould be as an assistant without responsibility
,and
subordinate to his chief work of acquiring the language.In October, 1 874, a devastating flood , the greatestNellore had ever know n upto that time, v isited the town ,carrying ruin and desolation in its course . By the breaching of the Pennar river, which flows about half a milenorth of the mission compound, the course of the riverwas changed, and for three days it rushed through the compound. The houses were built of mud, and crumbled down
one after the other, leaving the sticks and straw floatingaround . As the huts in the neighboring hamlet were destroyed
,many of the people, Christian and heathen, came
to the missionaries for shelter,carrying all their earthly
possessions on their heads. The men we admitted intothe chapel
,the women and children being cared for in
the west end of the bungalow. For three days all waitedthe subsiding of the waters. The missionaries had no
BRANCH ING OUT. 69
stores of supplies, and only one chicken on hand. Thethird day of the flood the only loaf of bread in town was
brought to them by the k ind-hearted baker, who, thougha heathen outwardly
,had for years given evidence of be
ing a Christian at heart. For a while after the flood,little could be done but remove debris and rebuild . Inthe compound
,only the bungalow
,chapel
,and girls
'
schoolhouse remained standing
,the last two in a damaged
condition,necessitating speedy removal. These were dark
days.In response to an appeal for a n ew girls’ school
,the
Woman ’s Board of Boston sent two thousand three hundred dollars . NVith this and a government grant-in—aidof three thousand rupees
,the present schoolhouse and
dormitories were erected in 1 876 . The open ing serviceswere attended by nearly all the European and Eurasian
people of Nellore,together with our own native Chris
tians. The collector of the district presided and delivereda most kind and encouraging address. O n e of the girlsread a portion of Scripture in Telugu, and the singing bythe school gave much pleasure and satisfaction to all .The building was pron ounced by government to be “ amost suitable and substantial building.
”
W ith the en larged and improved accommodations,the
number of girls was greatly increased . There were thirtygirls in the boarding school
,and a considerable number
of day scholars. Two years before it was with difficultythat even Christian parents could be induced to sendtheir children to school ; now many applications for ad
mission had to be refused . There was also at this time agreat demand for village schools ; but suitable Christian
70 H ISTORY OF THE TELUGU MIS SION.
teachers were hard to find, and there was no mon ey tospend on village schools taught by heathen teachers.Where suitable teachers could be found schools weremaintained.
The year 1 87 7 is memorable as the year when the greatfamin e began . As the famine extended over the largerpart of the mission territory
,and engaged so large a
portion of the missionaries’ time in nearly all the stations,
and was in fact the most important item of the mission ’shistory during two years, it wil l be treated in a separatechapter.When the writer first came to Nellore, Dr. Jewett calledhis attention to three young men of the Reddi , or farmercaste, living at Razupalem, on e of the out- stations ofNellore
,who
,he said
,if not already Christians, he believed
would some day come to Christ : and then he added, hiseyes gleam ing with delight at the thought,
“ When weget the Reddis, brother Down ie, our mission will bemade.” Four years after the conversation
,the youngest
of the brothers was baptized. He is a strong-built manover six feet in height, and with a passion for knowledgenot often seen . It was a struggle for him to throw off theShackles of caste, and leave his family, For three days,his people hung around trying to persuade him to returnJust for one day to comfort his weeping fam ily,
"S ) they
said. B ut their intention was to burn with‘ red-hot gold thetongue that had confessed Christ. Ramiah
,that is the
young man’s name, took his place in school, sitting on thesame bench with boys scarcely reaching his waist
,and
began his studies. In due time he passed from the stationschool to the seminary. When he graduated
,the question
B RANCHING OUT . 7 1
where he should labor came up . The missionary had afirm conviction that Ramiah ’s field of labor should be hisown village
,and among his own people. Then ensued a
struggle which neither the missionary nor Ramiah islikely to forget . To live in the mission compound surrounded by Christian friends, was one thing ; but to goand l ive in his own village, and among his own people, whonow regarded him as an out-caste or Pariah, was a verydifferent thing. After a good deal of discussion
,he finally
con sented to go . He was gone about ten days, but returned
,and said he could not stand it. His friends abused
him and entreated him : Is it not,
” they said,enough that
you shou ld disgrace us by leaving your caste,without
coming here to remind us daily of our disgrace" Go, livewhere you like
,but let us not be put to shame by your
presence among us.
” It did seem like a hard case,and
for a time the missionary was half inclined to yield buthe well knew that if he did, Rami ah
’s influence amongthe caste people would be forever gone. He prayed over it,and got Ramiah to pray over it ; reasoned, counselled, andencouraged
,and finally said : “ Ramiah
,you must go to
Razupalem,and live. YOu may save your people. God
seems to me to call you there, and there you must go .Ramiah said he could not
,and would not . Again he
was urged to pray over it. Twe days later he came witha smil ing, but d etermin ed face, and said, I
’ l l go to Razupalem and l ive or die, as the case may be. He went
,
and when his people saw his determination to live amongthem
,and labor for their spiritual good
,all opposit ion
immediately disappeared, and so far from abusing him,
theyhave ever since treated him and h is family with kindness.
7 2 H ISTO RY O F TH E TELUGU M ISS ION.
Ramiah has gathered around him .a flourishing little con
gregation, and though none of the caste people have asyet believed, they listen respectfully to the word preached,and there is every reason to hope that they will yet turnto Christ in large n umbers.For forty years the thatch-covered zayat built by Mr.Day had done good service as the Lon e Star ” place ofworship . But it had long ceased to be suitab le or worthyof the mission . About the close of 1 879, Mr. Clough ,while on a visit to Nellore
,said to the missionary If
you build a chapel that will accommodate five hundredpeople, I wil l give toward it a hundred rupees.
” Thiswas precise ly what the missionary wanted. A subscrip
tion book was open ed,headed by a liberal subscription
from J . Grose,Esq.
,collector of the district. A number
of the missionaries followed w ith one hundred rupees each.
The native Christian s of Nellore gave to the full extentof their ability. In this way enough was raised to laythe foundation s.O n the 29th of December, 1 879, the corner-stone waslaid with appropriate ceremon ies . The stone had beendug from the ruins of a Hindu temple, and in the receptacle
,which once contained the emb lem s of idolatry, were
placed a copy of the Telugu Bible,the Telugu Bap tist,
”
and copies of our American denominational papers. Dr.Jewett, Messrs. Clough,Williams, and others were present .The ceremony of laying the ston e was performed by J.
Grose,Esq.,
collector of the district. H ere the workstopped for want of funds for nearly a year
,when enough
was in hand~
to raise the walls . Again the work had tostop. The time was approaching when the missionary
BRANCHING OUT. 73
wou ld have to go home, but he could not bear the thoughtof leaving the chapel in its unfinished state. Some ad
vised him to borrow the money,and trust to getting it at
home,but that he did not like to do . The matter was
laid before the Lord, and in due time an appropriationof one thousand five hundred dollars came from the Exec
utive Committee,and thus the cha
'
pel was completed, anddedicated the Sunday before the m issionary left Nellore.The cost of the chapel was nine thousand four hundred
and sixty-eight rupees.One of the most remarkable events of this period was
the visit of the Rev. S. F . Smith , D . D .,and wife . The
profound interest Dr. Smith h as had in the missionalmost from its origin made this visit one ofpeculiar interestand pleasure . Dr. Smith has published his experiencesin the Telugu Mission in his Rambles inMission F ields,
”
and to that very excellent little volume we refer ourreaders for a racy and most interesting accoun t of hisimpress ion s of the work at Nellore and elsewhere.The Rev . J . F. Burd itt was transferred from Ongole to
Nellore in April,1 882
,to relieve Mr. Downie who
,with
his family,sailed from Madras on the l 6th of the same
month for the United States . Mr. Burd itt carried on thework till Mr. Downie ’s return , October 1 3, 1 884, when heremoved to Udayagiri .
\Vhile at home, Mr. Down ie received from Mr.WilliamBuckn ell, of Philadelph ia, three thousand five hundred doll ars for the erection of. a girls ’ seminary in Nellore . Thisbuilding was completed in 1 886 . The school has a threefold obj ect. 1 . A Bible school for the training of Bib lewomen. 2. A normal school for the train ing of teachers .
74 H IS TORY O F THE TELUGU MIS SION.
3. An industrial school for in struction in useful occupations . The school has no appropriations from the Society.
The students earn their own board and clothes. The aimis not on ly to make the school entirely self-supporting,but also to aid in supporting the other station schools.M iss Jenn ie E . VVayte arrived in Nellore, October 13.
1 884,in company with
“ Mr. and Mrs. Down ie. She wasdesignated by the IVoman
’
s Board of Boston to Bible andZenana work in Nellore . She also has charge of thegirls’ and boys ’ schools, and indeed she, like every othergood missionary, is ready to do cheerfully and with hermight what her hands find to do.The Rev. J . Heinrichs arrived in Madras
,November
1,1 889
,designated to Vinukonda. But in anticipation
of Mrs. Down ie ’s return home, the Executive Committeeauthorized Mr. and M rs. Heinrichs to proceed to Nellore
,
and there spend the first year in the study of Telugu .
This gave Mr. Heinrichs exceptionally good advantagesin acquiring the language, and at the same time enabledhim to render va luable assistance in the work at Nellore.Dr. Ashmore, then Home Secretary of the Mission aryUn ion
,paid a visit to the mission in the early part of
1 890. He arrived first in Madras and then proceeded toSecunderabad
,thence through Gun tur to Bapatla and
Ongole. Here a special meeting of the missionaries wascalled to meet h im . From January 9th to 14th a dcl ightful time was spen t in consultation respecting theneeds of the mission, and in prayer and conference. OnSunday
,Dr. Ashmore preached through an interpreter to
a large congregation of native people,and in the evening
to a goodly company in English. It was arranged that
BRANCH ING OUT . 75
Dr. Ashmore should accompany Dr. Clough on an evan
gelistic tour over a portion of the Ongole field, where Dr.
Clough believed many converts were awaiting the ordinance of baptism. But before this could be carried out,Dr. Clough ’s health was such that the plan was aban
dou ed .
From Ongole our visitor went to Ramapatam,visited
the seminary,addressed the studen ts, and then came to
Nellore . H is three days at Nellore will be remembered
for many a year. He addressed both the English andTelugu Sunday- schools, and preached to the Teluguchurch in the morn ing and the English church in theevening. Both congregations were large
,and listen ed
with rapt attention . The native Christians tendered Dr.
Ashmore a reception at the bungalow. In their address
of welcome they had but one request— two more missionaries for Nellore.This visit of Dr. Ashmore was an inspiration and abenediction both to the missionaries and the native Chris
tians.For more than a year the state of Mrs. Down ie ’s health
was far from satisfactory , and at times gave rise to con
siderable anxiety and even alarm . Her daughter,Alice
,
also had reached that age when both health and education would seriously suffer by a further stay in India
,and
hence it was decided best that they should retu rn home.They sailed from Madras
,March 1 6
,1 890. Mr. Down ie
accompanied them as far as Colombo,an d then returned
to h is lonely quarters to continue his work for two yearslonger
,when he hoped to be permitted to rejoin his
family.
76 HISTORY O F TH E TELUGU M ISS IO N.
In just one year and one month from the time of Dr.Ashmore’s visit, we were again permitted to welcome toNellore his successor as Home Secretary
,the Rev. H. C.
Mab ie,D . D .
,an l his friend
,the Rev. Dr. Waterman . By
the arrival of an urgent cable message from the Executive Committee to return home at once, Dr. Mabie wasabout to cut short his visit to the Telugu Mission
,and
hence called a con feren ce of the brethren to meet him inNellore
,which w ould be the only station he could visit.
This cable message was sen t to Nellore while Dr. Murdock was ill. Some days later, Dr. Murdock becameaware ofwhat had been done, and immediately sent anothermessage Mabie fin ish Telugu Mission .
” This messagereached Nellore while Dr. Mabie was addressing the people in the Nellore chapel . There was a very deep con
v iction that this was a direct answer to the earnest prayersthat had gone up to God
,that he wou ld gu ide all our
plans and deliberations. This changed Dr. Mab ie ’s plans,and enabled him to proceed to Ramapatam, Ongole, andCumbum . These were happy, blessed days in Nellore,and Dr. Mab ie left a profound impression on the missionaries and native Christians
,that will keep for him a warm
place in their hearts .At Ramapatam ,
Dr. Mab ie addressed the students ofthe Seminary
,and then visited each of the classes sepa
rately, observing the methods of instruction and imparting words of counsel and cheer. The closing chapter onOngole will tell more of this visit
CHAPTER VII .
O NG O LE.
S uggestiveness of th e name O ngole. Association of M r. Clough’ s n ame therew ith . Begin n ing of w ork there. M r. Cl ough’s qual ification s for it. Be
ginn in g w ork in Nel lore. Removal to O ngole . Erect ion of a new building. Earnest commen cement of th e w ork . First ingathering at Tu llak on d apaud . M r. C lough ’s pi tchin g h is ten t there. F inding disciples .First bapti sms. Appea l for more men . Persecuti on of Chr i stians. Con
verts from th e low er cl asses. Reason s for this . Inciden t i l lustrating th eobstacle of caste. Caste peopl e refusin g associat ion w ith out-castes. S tandof t h e m ission aries and its resu lts. In te llectual superiority of caste people.Their com ing a s trength n eeded by th e church Delayed bu t sure. In
crease of th e O ngol e Church. S e w ing and reaping. A m ission ary of oneidea.” Circums tan ces changing methods .
NGOLE is situated on the Great Northern TrunkRoad
,one hundred and eighty-two miles north of
Madras,and ten miles from the Bay of Bengal. It is
the second largest town in the Nellore District, and isthe headquarters of the sub-collector. Its populationin 1 891 was nine thousand two hundred .
The Rev . John Everett Clough and Ongole are namesthat can never be dissociated : the one naturally suggests
the other. As we trace the history of the mission at O ngole we shall find unmistakable evidence of God ’s wonderworking power in the great work that has been aecom
plished . We have seen how God had already begun tobless a feeble native agen cy in the awakening and conversion of souls on that great field before the missionaryarrived there
,and we shall see how he continued it when
the work passed into new and inexperienced hands. And77
H IS TORY O F TH E TELUGU M IS S IO N.
yet, while we recogn ize the work as God’s work , we can
not fail to see that he raised up and especially fitted Mr.Clough as the agen t through whom he was to accomplishit. If we were called upon to name Mr. Clough’s specialqualification s for the particular work to which he hasbeen called
,we should say that they were these : A ca
pacity to command the situation and to marshal its resources ; a sound con stitution and an indomitable spirit ;a strong love for Christ and the souls of men ; a successful term of pioneer service in the Western States, and astrong faith both in God and in himself as God ’s ap
pointed agent for the accomplishment of a great work .
We have already n oted Mr. and Mrs . Clough ’s arrivalin Nellore in 1 865
,and the enthu siastic manner in which
they entered upon their work . It was evident from thevery beginn ing that they had come to India for a purpose
,and thev burned to have it accomplished . That
purpose was to preach Christ to the Telugus. Hence itwas that before Mr. Clough could speak half a dozensentences in Telugu correctly, he began talking to thepeople in the streets and bazaars of Ne llore .
O n the even ing of September 12th , 1 866, Mr. and M rs.
Clough and their little boy Allen left Nellore for‘
Ongole.After a somewhat tiresome j ourney, the party reachedOngole on the morn ing of the 1 7th .
O ne of the first things a missionary wants in a n ew
station,after a place to cover his own head, is a chapel.
Mr. Clough had scarcely settled in Ongole before he setto work to get a building
‘
that should be chapel andschoolhouse comb ined . The estimated cost of such abuilding as he proposed to erect was one thousand five
HISTORY O F TH E TELUGU M IS SION.
these v isits, as well as from the reports brought by thepreachers, it was evident that a spirit of inquiry prevailedin that region . As soon , therefore, as the week of prayerwas closed, Mr. Clough determined to make a visit toTullakondapaud and the region s beyond . He intendedto spend several weeks on this tour, but a little experiencesoon taught him that he was not prepared for it. Theroads were rough
,and he traveled in a bullock cart by
night, halting by day to rest the bullocks . He madeslow progress, of course, but it gave him an opportun ityto preach in such villages as were near enough to theroad to be reached on foot.At Tullakondapaud, he pitched his tent in a tamarindgrove, and sent word to all the surrounding villages thathe had come to visit them,
and asked them to come to thetent and see him. The following day, some thirty or fortypeople arrived
,bringing with them a supply of food to
last several daysrand also a change of clothing to put onafter they were baptized ; they said they had come tolearn more about Jesus
,but that they believed already
,
and wanted to be baptized.
For five days the meetings were held . At the end ofthe fifth day
,January 20, twenty-eight converts were
baptized on profession of their faith in Christ. It was aprecious season which Mr. Clough will probably neverforget. Moved by some such impulse as moved Peter tosay on the Mount ofTransfiguration, Let us make herethree tabernacles
,Mr . Clough expressed the Wish that
he might spend at least six months of the year in tents,
moving about the country preaching Christ . But to dothat he must be better equipped ; and besides Ongole as
ONGOLE. 81
the centre of operations had claims which could not beneglected . This latter consideration led Mr. Clough torenew the appeal for two more men
,and predicted that
the time was near when the Telugus would come to Christby thousands.This precious work of grace, while it was an inspirationto the missionaries
,and doubtless caused j oy in heaven
,
had a very different effect upon the surrounding heathen .
Satan does not willingly relinquish his hold on men . Nosoon er had these converts abandoned his service andentered the service of the Lord
,than the devil put it into
the hearts ofhis emissaries to persecute the poor Christians.Water from the public wells was denied them
,and false
charges of crime were trumped up against them,and they
were thrust in to prison . But the Lord delivered them,
and the false accusers were publicly reprimanded and
cautioned to let the Christians alone . This deliverance,
and the addition of others from the same region rej oicedthe missionaries greatly.
It h as been a wonder to many why it is that the Christ ians have come almost exclusively from the lower classes.It need
‘
not have been so . Had the m issionaries beendisposed to pander to the caste prej udices of the Hindusas the Roman Catholics, and even some Protestants do,and excluded the poor out- castes, or at all events giventhem a separate and lower place in the church
,many caste
people would no doubt have professed Christianity. Butthey could not do that without violating their consciences.What a struggle it cost to take and maintain this positionmay be illustrated by the following incident, which tookplace at Ongole. In January, 1 867 , a number of caste
82 H ISTO RY OF THE TELUG U M IS S ION.
people came to Ongole,and professed faith in Christian
ity and asked to be baptized. B ut they had heard oftheMadigas
,who had been baptized at Tullakondapaud , and
obj ected to being in the same church with them . Themissionary said they were forty miles away
,and could
not harm them . For a while this seemed to pacify them.
But in April,twelve more converts came from Tullakon
dapaud to be baptized . The m issionary almost hopedthey would fail in the examination . But they gave goodevidence of conversion . Here was a dilemma. Couldthese converts be rej ected to please a heathen prejudice"The missionaries sought counsel of God. Without design
on his part, Mr. Clough turned to 1 Cor. 1 26—29 : Forye see your calling
,brethren
,how that not many wise
men after the fl esh,not many mighty, not many noble,
are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of theworld to confound the Wise ; and God hath chosen theweak things of the world to confound the things which aremighty and base things of the world, and things which aredespised
,hath God chosen
,yea
,and th ings which are not,
to bring tol nought things which are that no flesh shouldglory in his presence.” In a separate room, at the sametime
,Mrs. Clough read this same passage, yet with no
knowledge of what her husband was doing. Coming fromtheir closets each related what had tran spired. They hadno longer any doubt as to God
’s will. The convertswere baptized, much to the disgust of the caste people,who said : “ If these are received, we cannot enter yourchurch.
”
This even t,though apparently unpropitious, was pro
bab ly on e ofthe most fortunate circumstances in the history
84 H ISTO RY O F TH E TELUG U MIS SION.
fin itely better that the coming in of the caste peopleshould be delayed than that they should bring into thechurch a religious caste. Hence the wisdom of God incalling the poor out-castes first. When the caste peoplecome— as come they must— it will only be when theircaste has been thoroughly broken and abandoned. Thiswill be the strongest possible eviden ce of the genu inenessof their conversion .
By the close of 1 867, the Ongole Church had increased from eight members at its organization to seventyfive ; the new chapel was completed and paid for, almostwholly from funds collected in the country. The gospelhad been preached to the people of over eight hundredvil lages, and over seventy thousand pages of tracts and
Scripture portions had been distributed . Besides theselabors of the mi ssionary and his assistants
,Mrs. Clough
had conducted a school in Ongole,and frequently went
out with the wives of the preachers to labor among thevillage women . Thus the good seed of the kingdom wassown broadcast, and even while sowing the seed, the Lordof the harvest graciously permitted the sewers to gatherin many sheaves of precious grain . But what appearedto be a shower of divine grace
, was simply a few dropsbefore a more copious rain .
In his report of 1 867, Mr. Clough referred to an An
glo-vernacular school he had started,from which he had
h oped for good results. But soon after, he changed hismind and wrote to the Board that he had closed theschool
,dismissed his En o lish teacher
,and determined, by
God ’s help,to be a missionary of on e idea,
”and devote
all his energies to raising up a class of native helpers to
ONGOLE . 85
preach Christ to the Telugus in their own tongue . TheCorresponding Secretary strongly commended this course
,
and,quoting Mr. Clough
'
s words, said They are verysuggestive
,and may well be pondered~
.by all.”
Perhaps no one pondered these words more thanMr. Clough himself
,and w ith the result ' that he long ago
ceased to be the missionary of one idea that he thoughthe was. As far back as 1 875 he started the movementwhich resulted in the present high school
,which is pre
cisely what he discarded ih 1 867 . Circumstances altercases
,and the missionary who can recogn ize the changed
condition of the people and change his policy accordingly,
is wiser than he who persists on a given course irrespectiveof the new conditions . Mr. Clough was probably right
in discarding Anglo-vernacular schools in 1 867 , but notmore so than in advocating them in 1 875. They werenot needed then ; new they are.
CHAPTER VIII.
RICH H ARVEST F IELDS .
A prophetic scene. An extended service. Th e Cumbum field. Persecut ionat M arkapur. Additional baptism s. Introduction of M r. M cLaurin to th e
field. M r. Clough ’s return to th e Un ited S tates. M r M cLaurin ’s fi tness to
be h is substitu te. Dissatisfaction among th e O ngole Christian s at th echange . Fever at Cumbum . Progress of th e w ork. Return of M r. Clough ,and organ iz ation of th e Canadian Baptist M issi on . M ore men and m ean sfor th e Telugus. Change of w ork compelled.
N the garden of the Ongole compound Mr. Cloughconstructed a baptistery, which was dedicated on the
first of August,1 869, by the baptism of f orty-two converts.
It was a most interesting occasion, and filled the missionaries with great j oy and thanksgiving. To some extent they had in this baptismal scene a glimpse of thegreater similar events before them . But they littledreamed that in less than ten years from that day morethan ten thousand would be added to their number bybaptism.
An hour after these first baptisms in the Ongole baptistery the company gathered in the chapel and celebratedthe Lord ’s Supper. The Christians were not disposed toreturn to their villages
,but lingered on to hear more
,and
to rehearse their troubles occasioned by the heathen.
Un til nearly midn ight the missionary continued, adv ising, exhorting, and encouraging them .
Soon after this,Mr. Clough made a tour to the west as
far as Cumbum. The whole tour from beginning to end86
H istory of th e Telugu M i ssion .Page 77.
REV. JO H N E. CLO U G H .
RICH HARVEST FIELDS . 87
furnished unmistakable evidences that the good seed hadbeen scattered
,and in many places was taking root. Near
Cumbum,some fifty or sixty asked to be baptized . Of
these, twenty-fiv e were received and baptized in theG oondlacumma river. This was the beginning of theCumbum field
,which now bids fair to rival even Ongole
in fruitfulness
At Markapur, another important town about twen tymiles north of Cumbum
,Mr. Clough found a few Chris
tians who had been sorely persecuted bv their heathenneighbors. Some of them had been cast into prison .
Some of them were too weak to withstand the persecutionand went back into heathenism ; but most of them stoodfirm
,and through the m issionary ’s influence were soon
delivered from their persecutors . This,of course, gave
courage to the faltering,and no doubt influenced others
to j oin the Christians.In November
,seventy-four were baptized in Ongole.
This was the largest number that had yet been receivedat one time. Mrs. Clough , in writing abou t it
,said that
although they had expected great things from the Lord,
this was beyond their expectations,and a rebuke to their
little faith . In December, Mr. Clough made another tourto the district of Cumbum . Great crowds everywheregathered to hear the word preached
,and as the result of
the effort three hun dred and twenty-four were baptized .
Thu s the year 1 869 closed with a total increase of sixhundred and forty-eight.In 1 870, the work w as continued with unabated zealand success. An other trip was made to Cumbum, theRev . Jno. M cLaurin being of the company. This was a
88 HISTO RY OF THE TELUGU M ISS IO N .
fortunate circumstance,for on the way Mr. Clough was
taken seriously ill,and although this cut Short the tour, a
large number of converts was baptized by Mr. M cLaurin .
Mr. Clough went to Ramapatam to rest awh ile by thesea
,hoping thus to be able to con tinue his work . He
derived ben efit from this,and so was ab le to remain in
India through the year.During 1 87 1 , Mr. Clough made three extensive toursover his field accompan ied by Mr. M cLaurin . As the latterwas to succeed Mr. Clough in Ongole, this introduction tothe work was of great value. By the end of this year theOngole Church numbered one thou sand six hundred and
fifty-eight. In November, Mr. M cLaurin removed his
fam ily from Ramapatam to Ongole, and in February,1 872, after seven years of incessant labor,Mr. Clough and
his family return ed to the Un ited States for needed restand recuperation .
Mr . and Mrs. M cLaurin had by this time been in thecoun try two years, having landed in Madras, February1 1
,1 870. They went direct to Ramapatam , where they
at once began the study of Telugu . Mr. M cLaurin had
a passion for language,and speedily acquired an excep
tionally good command of the Telugu . This, with his opportunities of mingling with the people while tou ringwith Mr. Clough, and thus practicing what he had learned,fitted him in an emi nent degree for the great work whichlay before him. Few missionaries are so earlv calledupon to assume charge of a field involving graver responsibilities, harder work, or the exercise of greater diseretion ; and fewer sti ll could have discharged the responsib le duties more successfully.
RICH HARVEST FIELDS. 89
Still, the Christians did not like the prospect of partingwith the only missionary they had known
,and exchang
ing him for one whom they did not know. This Spiritof dissatisfaction was manifest even before Mr. Cloughleft O ngOle, and no sooner had he gone than it broke outinto open rebellion. But Mr. M cLaurin
’
s discretion,
firmness,patien ce
,and kindness soon convin ced the people
that he was their friend, and would do for them all thatthey could reasonably expect him or any other to do. Inaddition to this trouble in Ongole
,a panic had seized the
Christians at Cumbum,owing to a violent type Of fever
having broken out. The heathen declared that the Christians were the cause of it. The gods were angry becausethey had forsaken their worship , and this fever w as sentas a pim ishment. As the custom is, a great sacrificehad to be made to appease the anger of the gods
,and the
Christians were told that they must j oin in it. Some didso
,while others stood firm in their refusal. A number of
boys from this part of the field w ere at school in Ongole.To them Mr. M cLaurin gave medicine and such instru ction as he could
,and sent them off to Cumbum to care
for their sick relatives and friends. This accomplished adouble purpose. It reduced the number of discontentedones in Ongole
,and diverted the m inds of some Of them
from making mischief to doing good ; and it also reassuredmany at Cumbum who were wavering in their faith . B e
fore the year closed all these troubles were ended,and the
people rallied around Mr. M cLaurin j ust as they haddone around Mr. Clough .
During the first year Mr. M cLaurin travelled over avery large portion of the field
,. preaching in a large num
90 HISTO RY OF THE TELUG U M IS S ION .
ber of villages, including Vinukonda and Nursaraopett,
now flourishing stations. There had been seventeenpreachers and three colporteurs employed . The latter hadsold six thousand five hundred tracts and eight hundredBible portions
,besides giving many away. There were
one hundred and thirteen pupils in the compound school,
ten of whom entered the seminary that year. There werealso twenty-two village schools.The second year of Mr. M cLaurin
’
s labors in Ongolediffered from the first on ly in degree. More travelingdone
,more converts baptized
,and more instruction given.
The Christians grew in grace and were gradually gettinga better understanding of the prin ciples of the gospel.During these two years Mr. M cLaurin baptized one
thousand one hundred and eighty-fiv e, four hundred and
seventy-seven the first year,and seven hundred and eight
the second,which was the largest number thus far bap
tized in any one year. Mr. M cLaurin handed over hischarge to Mr. Clough
,February 2
,1 874, and immediately
proceeded to Cocanada to organ ize the new Telugu mission of the Canad ian Baptists.Before setting out for America, Mr. Clough was commissioned to secure four new men for the mission and anendowment of fifty thousand dollars for the theologicalseminary. When this request was laid before the Executive Committee
,it was thought to be a pretty large de
mand and much doubt was entertained as to the possibilityof securing it. However, after a time consent was givento make the attempt
,provided it could be done without
interfering with the general collections of the Un ion .
When this consent was secured, Mr. Clough set to work.
CHAPTER I".
TH E G REAT FAM INE O F 1 876—78.
Th e great famine. Fam in es comm on in India. Due to fai lure of th e men
soons. Periodic in their visitation s. H istori c fam in es. Fam in e of 1 876—78.Failure of th e monsoon s . Apprehen sion s of fam in e. Price s of grainincrease . G rai n riots . Importation of rice . Widespread dis tress. Deathsfrom s tarvat ion . H orrors of th e fam in e. Rel ief organ ized. H indus first toth e rescue. Natives not alw ays fairly represen ted. Charitable in disposition .
M any depen den t ones. First indicat ion s of fam ine. Rumors of p len ty.
Lack of measures to meet th e em ergency. Pri vate charity abundan t.Thousands thus fed . G overnm en t act ion taken in M adras. Conspicuoushelpers. Work of th e pol ice. Rel ief elsewhere. G oxernm en t w orksestabl ished . Efli crency of government recogn iz ed. Appea ls of m issionaries fo r he lp . Rel ie f in th e Nellore compound . M r. Clough as a con
trac to r Th e M an sion H ou se fun d. Format ion of relief comm ittees . Th eNel lore Comm ittee. S ystematic visitat ion . Ruin to th e smal l farm ers.Loss of catt le. Distress am ong other classes. Efforts to rel ieve it . Day
nurseries. S uccessfu l w ork by th e Nellore M ission . Efficien cy of th e m issionaries. Large loss of life despite rel ief measures. Th e nat i v es notu ngrateful . G rateful thanks expressed.
LTH OUG H the famine was common to the wholemission
,yet as the next chapter on the Great
Ingathering is so closely connected w ith the famine, itseems very desirab le that an account of it should be
given .
India has been subj ect to fam ines from the earliest historic periods. Large port ions of the coun try always willbe liable to serious agricultural vicissitudes owing tothe uncertainty of the ra infall during the southwest andnortheast monsoons. The failure of these monsoon rainshas been the chief and almost exclusive cause of famines
in India. In a w instances,war has augmented and
92
TH E G REAT FAM IEE O F 1 876— 78 . 93
even caused famine,but in the great maj ority of cases
want O f rain has been the sole cause. Thus of the fortythree famines of which we have records, all but three orfour of them were caused by the failure of the monsoonrains. Except in Burma and East Bengal, where the rainnever fails
,and in Scinde, where it seldom or never comes
and the people depend solely on river irrigation ,some
part of India suffers two years in every nine from famine.That is
,taking the whole of India, a famine of some sort
may be expected in one provin ce or another every fourthor fifth year
,and a bad famine every twelfth year. Or
to put it in another form , the entire population of twohundred and fifty millions of people suffers from famineevery half century.
The earliest famine of wh ich we h ave any record wasthat of A . D . 1345, which was one of the very few thatwas caused more by the disturbed state of the countrythan by drought. It is said to have been very dreadfulin its effects
,especially around Delhi . The one of longest
duration was that of A . D . 1396, which extended over thewhole of South India
,and decimated
’
t he en tire coun tryaffected . It lasted for twelve years and in some sectionsthere was a scarcity for thirty years. Of the famines of
the present century, that of 1 868— 69, extended over thelargest area
,affecting two hundred and n inety-six thousand
square miles,whil e the famine of 1 876—78 affected the
largest number of people,via
,fifty
-eight millions. It isof this last that w e have now particularly to speak .
No one who was in South India toward the end of 1 876is likely to forget the intense anxiety with which the coming of the northeast monsoon was watched and prayed
94 H ISTO RY OF THE TELUGU MISSIO N.
for. A cloud, though no bigger than a man’s hand
, was
eagerly hailed as the possible harb inger of the longlooked-for rain ; but each cloud came and went, and stillthe heavens were as clear and bright as ever. Never perhaps were clear Skies so thoroughly un appreciated.
As early as August a good deal of anxiety had begunto be felt
,for the southwest monsoon failed to bring the
usual amount of rain,and in some section s it was almost
a total failure. In September, reports began to reach thenewspapers regarding distress in some districts. Towardthe end of October, no signs of the northeast monsoonbeing apparent
, and the effect of the partial failure ofthe southwest monsoon being experienced in increasingmeasure in the central districts, it was apprehended thata dreadful famine was at hand ; pan ic seized the people,and the grain merchants began to hoard up their grainand to import large quantities from other provinces .Prices rose to double and even treb le the ordinary rates
,
and threats were made O f “ looting ” grain bazaars. In
some sections grain riots actually did take place, andalthough they were speedily checked yet they added muchto the general anxiety of the government and panic ofthe people.At this point the government of Madras thought itexpedient to import grain
,but the general government
deprecated this as an infringement of the rights of privatetrade. If grain was imported at all it was to be strictlyas a reserv e ” Notwithstanding this, however, theMadras Government imported thirty thousand tons ofrice and distributed it all over the affected districts
,selling
it at rates within the reach of the people.
96 HIS TORY O F THE TELUGU MISSION.
a bunch of greens to be cooked for the family ; he exclaimed,
“ My eyes are dim,
”and falling to the ground
,
he died. Half the horrors of the famine have not andcannot be told .
”
F . Rowlandson, Esq ., said At one place the faces
of some of the children haunted us so much that we gaveorders for two hundred of the worst cases to be collected .
You should have seen them,for I could not hope to give
you an adequate idea of their misery. In some,the last
forces of th eir system seemed to have been expended in
growing, and I never saw out of Doré’s drawings
,human
beings whose length was so hideously disprOportionate totheir breadth . Others were tiny and wizened in every way,as if an attempt had been made to see into how small acompass a suffering body could be compressed . Thewhole party
,after we had inspected them ,
were marchedoff to a relief camp
, bu t over a hundred of them slippedaway
,and on ly ninety-six of them reached the new home.
The poor wee runaways preferred, I suppose, the evils theyknew of, bad as they were, to the h orrid, vague unkn own .
Those that allowed themselves to be taken care of were ,
fed , and seen that line Of beauty, the curve, was substi
tuted for the hideous famine angles. These are but isolated specimens of what might have been seen all over thecountry from the latter part of 1 876 to th e close of 1 877 .
It will be a surprise to some who read these pages toknow that the first to enter the l ists as dispensers of relief
in this dire calamity were the H indus themselves. Missionaries and others have not always been quite fair to theHindus in this
,as indeed in a good many other respects .
Private charity in time, of d istress is a duty incumbent
THE GREAT FAMINE OF 1 876—78 . 97
On every one who has the means wherewith to help hisbrother
,and there are no people on the face of the earth
more given to charity than the H indus. The motivewhich prompts a Hindu to charity may be very difi
'
erent
from that which prompts a Christian,and yet even here
the difference,in many instances
,may not be so great as
at first appears. But we are not now speaking of me
tiv es, but of acts. In all Christian countries the poor aresupported by the State
,while in India they are supported
by private charity . That is, beneficen ce to the poor in
India is bestowed voluntarily,while in Christian coun
tries it is rendered by government. Christian ity in th
concrete will not allow people to starve,but individual
Christians do not feel so strongly as Hindus the claims oftheir rel igion in respect to charity. In Christian coun
tries multitudes of beggars are supported by the State,
who might and ought to be supported by their own relatives and friends. But on the other hand, it is a questionwhether this private charity does not foster pauperism .
Certain it is,a fearful ly large number of the population
of India is whol ly or in part dependen t on the charity oftheir famil ies and co-religion ists . This is one of the manycauses which keeps the great mass of the people so miserably poor, and which makes a famine a thing to bedreaded .
Among the first indications of the famine was the fl ocking of great crowds of men
,women
, and children to thecities and larger towns . In Madras especially this wasmost noticeable. In many of the rural districts a reporthad gotten abroad that in Madras “ there were moun tainsof rice and oceans of ghee
,
”and all they had to do was
98 HIS TORY OF TH E TELUGU MIS SION.
to go there and be fed. In this connection,Mr. Digby saysThe general public ofMadras, as well as the government ,
w as taken aback by the rapid manifestation of distress inOctober—December, 1876, and no organized measures weretaken of a nature adequate to meet the need . The Friendin -Need Society, a charitable institution for the relief ofpoor Europeans and Eurasians, strengthened its organization
,but this was all. For the natives nothing was done
on a scale commensurate with what was wanted. A suggestion was made that in Madras subscriptions should beraised, and non -official aid secured in relief measures
,but
the idea was looked upon co ldly, or actively opposed, asin one of the daily j ournals of the city, where it was
p ointed out th at the disaster was so terrible that on ly agreat organ ization like that possessed by governmentcould hope to cepe with the difficulty. Consequen tly
,
nothing was done in an organized manner. Nev ertheless,much charity was being displayed
,particularly among
the n atives. There was scarcely a family which had not
some poor relatives from the country who looked to themfor food
,which was cheerfully given not for a few weeks
or months only,but in many cases for more than a year.
Conversation with n ative gentlemen on this point hasserved to bring out many cases of heroic self-sacrifice .
Half rations were cheerfully accepted by respectab le peop le
,so that their relatives might share with them such
food as they had . Even, however, when all the wandeners who had k insfolk in town were provided for
,there were
still many people who had no food, and in accordancewith religious teaching
,and the promptings of their own
hearts,several Hin du gentlemen in the northern d ivision
1 00 HISTORY OF THE TELUG U MISSION .
are incapable of laboring for their l ivelihood,and that
the establishments where the poor are fed shall be opento the inspection of an officer deputed by the government.’
“ Madras town relief thus passed, in December, 1 876in to the hands of the police, who frequently had as manyas twenty thousand people daily to feed, and whose workwas done with a thoroughness beyond all praise. Thenceforward
,for nine mon ths
,only fugitive acts of charity
,
save through the Friend-ih -Need Society,were performed
the public,save as taxpayers
,had no part or lot in the
efforts Wh ich were being made to save the perishing multitudes.
What had happened in Madras was characteristic in ameasure of' al l the large towns in the presidency ; all werecrowded with infirm
,sick
,aged,and destitute poor. At
tempts were made,unofficially, to relieve these . The
collector Of North Arcot reports that at Arconum theEuropean railway officials and some of the native community subscribed handsomely to provide a fundwhereby the poor might be fed daily. In G udiathum
,
also,the nativ es of their own accord , and without solicita
tion or ad v ice from European official s,established a relief
committee . In these places,however
,as in many others
,
the relief committees merely paved the wav for the formation of relief camps
,entirely supported by governmen t
and under oflicial control .”
But neither the importation of grain by governmentnor private charity was at all adequate to meet the exigeh eiss of the hour. The country might be full of rice,but as the people had no money to buy, it was of little
THE GREAT FAMINE OF 1 876—78 . 101
use to them. Hence government saw that relief works ona large scale must be set on foot. Some of these weregovernment works already under way, such as the Buckingham canal and unfinished railways others were new
works started expressly to furn ish employment to thoseable to work . Thus in August, 1 877 , there were on government relief works nine hundred and eighty-three thousandfive hundred and five
,while those gratuitously relieved
were one million one thousand five hundred and eightynine
,making a total of one mi llion nin e hundred and
eighty-fiv e thousand and ninety four people fed by thegovernment of Madras alone. In the Bombay PresIdencyand the native States the same thing was going on.
TO the credit of the government of India, both thelocal and the supreme
,it must be said that although it
was slow in waking up to the great emergency ; and notwithstanding the tiresome
,and as some thought, senseless
amount of red tape that had to be observed , yet it displayed an amount of energy and resource that was simplymarvelou s
,and in every way worthy of England ’s great
name . Besides the relief works, government opened extensive relief camps all over the presidency. These
,of
course,were located in central places, so that while vast
multitudes of the helpless men,women, and children,
were thus saved,there were still other multitudes far be
yond the reach of those camps, that must have perishedhad not private charity come to the aid of government in
savmg life.As soon as it became evident that the northeast monsoon had failed
, and that a famine was inevitable, some ofour missionaries
,and notably M r. Clough, sent out ap
102 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISSION .
peals to England,America
,and Burma for aid . To these
appeals many gen erous responses came,and we were
thus enabled in some degree to relieve a large numbertill the Mansion House fund became available. Thefirst response received at Nellore was on e hundred poundsfrom Deacon IVilbur
,of Boston . Among the first forms
of relief at Nellore was the organ ization of a “ reliefcamp on a small scale
,in the mission compound, for the
care of starving children, under the superintendence ofMrs. Downie
,and at the expense of Mr. Grose, collector
of the district. In this way nearly a hundred childrenwere fed daily
,and most of them preserved alive.
In addition to gifts and loans from personal friends,
Mr. Clough took a contract to cut some four miles of theBuckingham canal as a relief work for the Christians ofthe Ongole field and their friends. By this means
,hun
dreds and thousands were saved from starvation and
death .
" The engineer in charge complimented Mr. Cloughfor the manner in which his work was done. "He said“ Of the th irty-fiv e miles under my charge your portionOf the canal is the best.”
ToW. Digby, Esq., then editor of the Madras Times,
belongs the hon or of suggesting the Mansion House fund,
one of the most gigantic pieces of spontaneous charity theworld has ever seen . By his persistent efforts in the face ofconsiderable indifference
,and e ven opposition
,but warmly
supported by many leading gentlemen in Madras,and
notably Sir William Rob inson , a meeting was heldAugust 4, 1 876, at which His Grace, the Governor, presided . The obj ect of the meeting was to consider thepropriety of soliciting aid from England . Resolutions
104 HISTORY O F THE TELUGU M ISS ION.
Down ie, as honorary secretary and treasurer. For therelief of Nellore town
,eight sub-committees were ap
pointed,whose duty it was to V isit every family
,ascertain
the distress,and fix upon a weekly dole of money . Lists
were prepared, and according to these lists the doles werepaid every week. A similar committee was appointed foreach of the Talugs, but in these, relief was given in alump sum to each family according to its needs. Sometimes it was for food, sometimes for seed grain, houserepairs
,walls
,etc. Besides the general work of secretary
and treasurer,the missionary was chairman of one of the
sub-committees.A famine in India means total : ruin to that large andindustrious class
,the small farmers; who depend upon
the cultivation of their little patches of land for a living.
Not on ly did they suffer from the loss of their crops,but
by 1 877 many of them had lost their cattle also . For atime the poor cattle were kept alive on weeds, leaves,prickly-pear
,etc.
,and finally the thatch of the peeple ’s
huts was taken from the houses and given them. Inmany cases the cattle were sent adrift to find food as theycould
,or given away to any one who would feed them .
For th is class,the form of relief usually was a sum of
money for the purchase of seed-grain or bullocks or todig a well
,and to re cover their huts.
An other large class that was among the first to sufferand the last to recover from the effects of the famine wascomprised of the weavers and shoemakers. The weavers,especially
,were great sufferers. There were six hundred
thousand of them,exclusive of families in the presiden cy,
and their condition speedily became very bad . All custom
THE GREAT FAMINE OF 1 876—78 . 105
was gone and they were literally without the means of securing a livelihood . In Nellore
,we purchased for this class
ten thousand rupees’ worth of thread, which was woven
into cloths and brought into the town. For their work
they received about one-half more than the usual rateand th is was all the relief they obtained. Of the manythousands of cases in which the writer advanced moneyor thread
,he does not remember a single one in which
the cloths were not returned . These cloths were usuallydistributed to the destitute women and children .
At one time,when fever was raging, ten thousand
blankets were purchased and distributed at an expense often thousand rupees . Large quantities of quinine andfebrifuge were bought and distributed. For months themission house and compound seemed more like a merchant ’s establ ishment than a mission .
In Nellore,two day nurseries were Opened under the
superv ision of Mrs . Grose, Mrs. Simpson, and Mrs.Downie . Two meals a day were served to emaciated andstarving children
,and women who had babies . In each
of these nurseries some four hundred children were feddaily for seven months. Among the many forms ofrelief
,there were perhaps none that were so much needed
,
none that were regarded with more favor, none more suc
cessful, and none more economically managed . Theaverage cost of feeding a child was about eight pices ortwo cents a day. The average death rate was also smallerthan almost anywhere else. A few were too far gonewhen admitted to recover, but the great maj ority werepreserved alive. It was a heart-touching sight to see thepoor l ittle skeletons as they appeared when first brought
1 06 H ISTORY O F TH E TELUGU MIS SION.
in . A few spoonfuls of milk or cunjee was all that they
could stand at first, but they soon were able to eat theiraccustomed rice and curry.
The Nellore committee received two grants aggregatingtwo hundred and fifty thousand rupees . Of this sum themissionary distributed with his own hand direct to thepeople relieved thirty thousand rupees. In addition tothis he received six hundred rupees through Mr. Digbyfrom the Baptists of England
,seven hundred rupees from
the “ Merrill fund,Boston
,and many smaller sums
through the Society ’s treasurer,from personal friends in
America.As a mission we do not claim to have been exceptional
in our efforts to save life and relieve distress. When in1 877 the Government of India said : “ We say thathuman life should be saved at any cost and effort, webelieve no body of men entered more heartily into thatsen timent than the missionaries. At the closing meetingof the central committee in Madras
,Mr. Digby said :
“Among the most valued agents ofthe committee have beenthe missionaries of all creeds who have been
,in many
cases, the only available mean s by which the sufferingcould be reached. In some cases several months havebeen devoted exclusively to this work
,and the mission
aries have lived for weeks together among the people,traveling from village to Village personally inquiring intocases of distress and relieving wants with their own
hands.”
It is difficult to estimate the actual cost of the famine.The loss of revenue was of course enormous, but how farthat h as been recovered we have no means of knowing.
1 08 H ISTO RY OF TH E TELUGU M IS S ION.
kindly help, and enabled them to preserve themselvesand their children
,to rebuild their huts
,to sow their
fields an d reap a harvest when they despaired of l ivingto see another on behalf of millions of such of mycoun trymen
,I now express their most grateful than
CHAPTER ".
TH E GREAT INGATH ERING.
Th e fam in e an d accession s . M r. Clough’s can al contract . Comb in ing workw ith Chri st ian teaching. Effect upon th e cooli es . Th e infl uen ce of helpfuln ess. Baptism s deferred Larger accession s . O n e day ’ s baptism s . Reasonab len ess of th e pen tecostal addit ion . Doubts expressed as to this Teluguingatherin g. M r. C lough
’o view s . Delay of con verts seem ingly impossible.
Efforts to keep them back . These un successfu l. Baptism alon e asked forby th e mu l titudes . Th e request acceded to. In th e Ramapa tam field.Th e fam in e rel ief fu n ds not alon e th e procuring cau se. The m ovem en t ofG od . Departure of M rs. Clough and h er chi ldren from O ngo le. H er
efficien cy. A des tructi ve cyclon e. Devastat ion at O ngole . Energeti crestorat ion . Royal vis i tors. Native steadfastn ess. M r. Clough’s testimonythereto.
Tis useless to deny that there was a very close connection between the famine and the large accessions
which followed it . IVe do not say that the relation wasthat of cause and effect, for in that case we should haveto account for the fact that in many places there was thecause bu t no corresponding effect . But that the faminewas one of the l inks in the chain of causes
,we have no
more doubt than we have that the famine in Egypt wasone of the steps in Joseph ’s elevation to the governorship
,
and his consequent blessing to his own people.The simple facts in the case were these : In additionto th e distribution of famine relief funds all over hisfield, amounting to one hundred thousand dollars moreor less, Mr. Clough took a contract to cut three and onehalf miles of the Buckingham canal
,which government
was digging as a famine relief work . Mr. Clough ’s sole109
1 10 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISSION.
obj ect in undertaking this work was to find employmentfor his Christian s and other poor people in his field.
Quitting all other work for the time, he appointed hispreachers, teachers, colporteurs, and others, as his overseers.During the intervals of rest these preachers gathered thepeople together and preached to them about the greatsalvation. In this work the missionary encouraged themand engaged himself as far as he could find time. Thusfor months thousands of coolies were brought into closecontact with Christians of their own class
,with the
preachers from whom many of them had no doubt heardthe gospel for years in their own Villages
,and with the
missionary who they knew was striving to save theirbodies from starvation as well as their souls from death .
The coolies were frequen tly changed. Some, after gathering a few rupees, would start off to their villages andothers would take their places on the work. And thus itcame about that a great many thousands were broughtunder this influence of Christian ity
,and at a time when
they were peculiarly susceptible to its influence. Nowwhat wonder if
, under such circumstan ces, multitudeswere impressed with the truths of Christian ity" Theysaw that Christians gave freely of their money to savethem from starvat ion . They had n ever received suchtreatment from their Hindu countrymen
,and especially
from the Brahmans,who were their religious teachers.
But now they saw ,chief of all
,the missionary distribut
ing relief everywhere and to all classes alike who neededhelp . W’ hat wonder if their conclusion was that thereligion which leads men to act so must be true"But to avoid receiving members into the church with
THE GREAT INGATHERING . 1 1 1
no higher motives than the pecuniary benefits referred to,all applications for baptism were denied during the fifteenmonths in which the missionary and his assistants wereengaged in relief work . Not till all this was ended
,and
there was no more hope of any further relief, were applications for baptism entertained . Then, however, the missionary and his ass istants saw no reason why they shouldlonger refuse to baptize those whom they believed Godhad saved . They therefore commenced baptiz ing on thesixteenth of June, and by the end of December had baptized on profession of their faith in Christ
,nine thousand
six hundred and six converts,making the total member
ship of the Ongole Church,twelve thousand and four.
The largest number baptized in any one day was twothousand two hundred and twenty-two
,which comes so
near to the three thousand added to the church on theday of Pentecost as to demand special mention. It was
the third of July,1 878 . The baptistery was th e Gund
lacumma river at a place called Velumpilly, on theNorthern Trunk Road
,about ten miles north of Ongole.
There is no bridge,but a sort of causeway over which
carts may pass when the water is not too deep . The riverat the time was not full, but on either S ide of the causeway the water was sufficiently deep for the ordinance, andthe candidates had to take but a step or two from thebanks to reach the admin istrator. The examination ofthe candidates had been held on the previous days. Theconverts were arranged on the bank on both sides of thecausewav and men appointed to lead them in and out ofthe water . At six o ’clock in the morning, two ordainednative preachers took their places in the water
,one on
1 1 2 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU M ISSION .
either side of the causeway. Prayer was offered and thebaptiz ing commenced . When these two administratorsbecame tired, two others took their places, and they inturn were relieved by stil l other two . At eleven the workstopped for the usual mid-day meal and rest . It wasresumed at two, and about five o ’clock the two thousandtwo hundred and twenty-two converts had been “ buriedwith Christ in baptism by six men
,on ly two of them
officiating at the same time. It will thus be seen that itoccupied the time of two men for about eight hours . Hadthe S ix officiated at the same time
,it would have occupied
about tworhours and forty minutes . If six Telugu ministers can baptize two thousand two hundred and twentytwo converts in two hours and forty minutes, how longwould it take twelve apostles to baptize three thousandunder similar circumstances" Just one hour and fortyminutes . Granting that the circumstances were notequally favorab le
,and that some had to go to one pool and
some to others,is not this question of the time required
too absurd to call for serious n otice"When the report of these large accessions got abroadthere was, as might be expected , a good deal of surpriseand doubt expressed as to the expediency of baptizingsuch crowds of poor
,ignorant people, with little or no
previous instruction,except that they had heard the gospel
preached for a longer or shorter time. And to many itseemed especially hazardous to receive them so soon afterthe distribution of such large sums of famin e relief money.
But on the other hand,while Mr. Clough appears to have
anticipated such doubts and obj ections,and appears to
have made every possible effort to delay the baptisms,
1 14 H ISTO RY O F THE TELUGU MISSION.
tude ofieonv erts off two or three months longer,that all
the friends of missions might be free from doubts,although
personally, I had been convinced for above a year that thework was of God . But to delay was impossible
,for God’s
time had fully come to glorify h imself.“ The first Sunday in Julv was to be our bi-monthlymeeting but I w ished to keep as many out of Ongole asI cou ld . Small-pox w as prevalent in many villages. Thetom-toms had been beaten time and again
,by order
of governmen t officials,warning all villagers to go to
their homes, as neither government nor the MansionHouse committee could do anymore for them . The townwas very dirty, and the fear of small-pox or epidem iccholera was considerable : hen ce I wrote letters, and sentthem to all the native preachers
,telling them to leave the
wives and children at home, not to allow a S ingle Christian
,un less now and then one or two of the leading mem
bers who had urgent requests to make, to come withthem
,and to meet me atVelumpilly, the first station north
of Ongole, on the G undlacumma river
,ten miles distan t.
I told them the fear O ngoleans were in ,and that in the
Villages on the way small-pox was very bad, etc. : hencethis order I had given them would
,if obeyed, result in
good on ly,while to disregard it might scatter this con
tagious disease far and wide,and cause the death of
many. Notwithstanding my letters and the efforts of thepreachers
,the converts would not stop behind . As soon
as the preacher had been gon e a few hours, the convertsup and followed .
The first preachers that arrived at Velumpilly wroteto me that they had done their best to follow the requests
TH E GREAT INGATHERING . 1 1 5
made in my circular,but that the converts had not obey ed
them,but were coming in crowds from every side. I
hastened off, and hoped to get most to go back to theirhomes for the present. It could not be done without taking too much responsibility. The multitude one and all
said,through their leading men and preachers, We don
'
twant any money we will not ask you for any, eitherdirectly or indirectly
,either now or hereafter. ’ Only a few
had ever been assisted,except by their pay for their work
when on the canal ; and said they,‘As we have lived thus
far by our work,
- by the blisters on our hands we canprove this to you
,—se we will continue to live, or, if we
die,we shal l die ; but we want you to baptize us.
’
“ Iv e held a special service ; and, after much prayerand consideration
,we decided to baptize any and all who
had given to the preachers evidence extending over somemonths that they w ere Christians, and who had an intelligen t understanding of the main facts of the Christianreligion . The evidence of the preachers, with that of theleading members of the church in their localities who hadbeen baptized years ago, or other reliable informationconcerning their change of heart, was decided to be sufhcient. The result was the baptism of three thousand fivehundred and th irty-six in three days.In the Ramapatam field, lying between Ongole and
Nellore, there was no such general movement, yet oversix hundred were baptized during the same time. InNellore
,where almost as much relief work was done by
the missionary as was done at Ongole, excepting the canalcontract
,the movement was scarcely felt. This is signi
ficant, and goes against the idea that it was wholly a result
1 1 6 HISTORY O F TH E TELUGU MISSION.
of the famine. The famine may have b een and probablywas the immediate cause of this great movement
,just as
the financial crisis in theUn ited States in 1 857 was the immediate cause of the great revival that swept all ov er theland. But we prefer to say that God used not on ly thefamine
,but the preaching and the praying and the whole
comb ination of circumstan ces,to lead the people to cast
away their idols,embrace the new religion , and devote
their lives to the serv ice of the living God.
Perhaps the most memorable even t in the OngoleStation in 1 879, was the departure of Mrs . Clough and herch ildren for America . After five of the most trying yearsin the history of the mission
,Mrs . Clough ’s health broke
down,and it became evident to all that she must return
home,if her life was to be preserved . All through the
terrib le famine,and the subsequent and almost equally
terrib le siege of cholera,Mrs. Clough stood resolutely at
her post,ministering to the famished and plague-stricken
people,and in her own quiet but effectual manner, assist
ing her husband in every good word and work . It is nodisparagement to Mr. Clough to say that much of his
grand success was due to the faithful and devoted helpmeet he had in Mrs. Clough . Mr. Clough accompaniedhis family as far as England, leaving Madras May 1 3th,and after seeing them safely on board a steamer for New
York,returned to h is work
,reaching Ongole on the 1 5th
of August.During Mr . Clough ’s absen ce
,the station was in charge
of Rev. W . B . Boggs,who arrived in M adras, January
1 8,1 879, and proceeded direct to Ongole, and successfully
carried on the work till Mr. Clough ’s return.
1 18 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU M IS S IO N .
mission had been arranged, bu t was broken up by a supposed case of small-pox in the compound . At Ongole
,
however,a visit was paid to the mission , which was much
enj oyed both by the royal party and the missionaries.Before leaving
,His Grace seeing the devastation that
had been made by the cyclon e asked permission to re
build two of the dormitories, and handed M r. Boggs acheck for four hundred rupees for the purpose.No one expected that of all the vast multitudegathered into the church since 1 878 there would be nonewho would fall away. Indeed
,the wonder would be that
in such a harvest there were not a good many taresgathered with the wheat. But according to the testimony Of the missionary the tares seem to have been veryfew indeed . The following extract from a letter writtenby Mr. Clough , dated April 1 , 1 880, will show how hefound the Christians whose villages he visited two yearsafter the baptisms “ O n account of the famine and
mu ltiplicity of station work after the ingathering of 1 878,the itinerating work of the Ongole field had been neglected . O n the 1 7th of January I started on an evan
gelistic tour. I was absen t from Ongole j ust two months.I Visited n inety-eight villages where our people live saw
delegates from perhaps one hundred other villages andbaptized one thousand and sixty-eight persons on profession of their faith in Christ. I never had suchhearing before In five or six Vi llages the Christians were doing badly. In one village fiv e persons wereexcluded for contracting infant marriages. In two villages two were excluded for adultery ; and in anothervillage eleven were excluded because they confessed that
T IIE GREAT INGATHERING . 1 1 9
they had deceived us when they were baptized Inall the other villages we felt daily that the need of morepreachers and teachers was great, and that for the want ofteaching the Christians had fallen in to some errors insome places On the whole, I fully believe that thegreat mass of converts are living as well as they know,
and that after we are able to teach them more fully andgive them pastors
,they will become strong men and
women in Christ Jesus.”
This is certainly an excellent testimony from‘ one whoknows the field and the people as no other man does. Evenafter making all due allowance for the fact that thesepeople cling to Mr. Clough as children to a father, andthat he exerts over them a powerful and magnetic infiuence, it is simply marvelous that after two years ofvery imperfect watch care so few had to be excludedfrom such a vast mass of poor, ignorant Christians.
CHAPTER XI.
RESULTS O F TH E G REAT REV IVAL .
An interest ing inciden t . An even tfu l service. O rdination of n at ive preachers. Excellen ce of th e candidates . S ermon by M r. Down ie. Parts performed by native preachers . Accession to th e m ission of M r. and M rs.
M an ley. Death of “ O bul u .” Dr. S . F. S m i th ’s visit . A dem an d forschool s. Christian ity compelling school s. Establi shmen t of schools in th eO ngole field. The O ngole H igh S chool. M r. M anley’ s report. Diflicu lt
exam ination s. S uccess of candidates. Th e staff of teachers. Th e arrangemen t of primary in struction . DIfferen t classes of scholars. Th e n eeds ofth e school . Th e Christian influen ce of th e school . Elevation of th e schoolto t h e grade of a college. Th e vastness of th e O ngole field . Th e fieldd ivided. New stat ion s . A trip to th e Un ited S tates for Dr. Cl ough . Pre
sen ting th e m issions n eeds. Early death of M r. and M rs. Ra y". Th ew ork of th e w om an ’s society at O ngole. O ther large accession s . Dea th ofM r.Edw ard A. Kelly. Dr. M abie‘s visit again . Bapti sm s by h im and hi scompan ion . Th e accession s main ly from th e non - caste M adigas. Tenden cyoi other classes tow ard Ch ris tian i ty . Probab il ity of in crease in th e movem en t . Th e caste people . Rest for Dr.
’
C lough . H elpers during his absen ce.A n addition al force for th e high school . S uggestion s as to th e w ork at
O ngol e. Danger of unworthy mot ives . Fal se in fl uen ces among th e Christian s. Possib le di saster through change of leaders. N eed of doctrin altrain ing. Another subdivision of th e mission n eeded . Reorgan ization ofth e churches. A larger staff of m issionaries. Respon sib il ity of th e homechurches.
EXT to the baptism of two thousand two hundredand twenty-two converts on a single day, the most
interesting incident in connection with the great ingathering was the ordination of twenty-four native min isters onthe 1 6th of Apri l
,1 880. The following account of it is
given by M r. Boggs : According to appointment the
preachers, teachers, helpers, Bible-women , etc., connectedwith the Ongo le mission ,
assemb led here on Saturday,120
1 22 H ISTO RY OF THE TELUGU MISSIO N.
the Ongole missionaries and native brethren. There werepreviously seven ordained native preachers in the Ongolefield. The council was organ ized by the choice of Bro.Williams as moderator
,and M. Ezra (ordain ed native
preacher) as clerk.
“ The examination was close and deliberate, and occu
pied two days and a half. It embraced,as usual
,the im
portant poin ts O f conversion and call to the min istry,
and an outline of Christian doctrine many testing questions were asked both by the m ission aries and n ative delegates . and
'
the answers were gen erally very satisfactory.
Their knowledge of Christian doctrine seemed surprising,especially after hearing each one of them,
in relating hisexperience
,speak of the time
,on ly a few years back , when
he was worshiping idols,and was in utter ignorance of
the true God and the way of life .The result was that twenty-four of the best
,most ex
perienced , and successful preachers connected with theOngole station were considered worthy of the confidenceimplied in this act of public recogn ition . They are menwho for years have faithfully
,consistently
,zealously,
and with abundant fruits proclaimed the gospel of Jesus ,and cared for the flocks over which they have beenplaced . Several of them have enj oyed the advantageof a four years’ cou rse at the seminary at Ramapatam .
These men will continue to labor in the same fields wherethey have already been so u seful
,and continue to feed
the flocks which have been gathered largely throughtheir instrumentality.
“ A large congregation assembled in the spaciou sOngole chapel on the afternoon of the 1 6th . Mr. Down ie
RESULTS OF THE GREAT REVIVAL . 1 23
preached the ordination sermon from 1 Tim . 4 15,
Meditate upon th ese things ; give thyself wholly to them ;that thy profiting may appear to all.’ It was a condenseddiscourse
,containing much truth in few words. Mr.
Williams delivered an earnest charge,in which he ad
dressed both the people and the candidates on theirrespective responsibilities and duties. Then the twentyfour all knelt
,and the hands of the presbytery were laid
on them while the ordain ing prayer was offered by Rev .
N . Canakiah of Nellore ; after which the benediction waspronounced by Yerragoontla Periah
,the oldest man
among those j ust ordained,and the spiritual father of a
multitude of children.
”
At the beginn ing of the year the Rev. IV. I . Pricearrived from America to j oin the mission
,.but after a
few months he retired from this station,feeling that duty
called him to labor elsewhere. The vacancy,however,
was soon supplied by the arrival in August of the Rev.W . R . Manley and wife, from Burma, who had beenconnected w ith the Telugu mission work in Rangoon forthe previous six months . M . Obulu ,
“ a good m in ister ofJesus Christ
,
” was called to his rest September 5th . Hisdeath was a great loss to the Ongole field .
On the 8th of March , 1 881 , after V isiting Nellore,Alloor, and Ramapatam,
Dr. S . F . Smith and Mrs .Smith
,paid a Visit to Ongole. As in the case of Nellore,
we refer our readers for an accoun t of this Vi sit to Dr.Smith ’s Rambles in Mission F ields.
While evangelistic work has ever held the first placein the policy of the mission , and we trust will always
HISTORY O F TH E TELUGU MISS IO N.
continue to dg so, education undoubtedly deserves thesecond. Following the great ingathering a demandsprang up for schools . Ignorance and Christian ity arediametrica lly opposed . Education does not n ecessarilymake a community Christian
,but a Christian commun
ity invariably demands education . There are thousandsof villages in India which have schools and no Christians
,
but very few Christian vi llages, if any, which have no
school . To meet this demand on the Ongole field a largen umber O f schools were established . In 1 877 , the num
ber of village schools was forty-two . This was increasedto eighty-three in 1 878, and later the number was onehundred and seventy-six schools with two thousand onehundred pupils. The station schools were also largelyincreased
,and made more efficient. The mis ion high
school was opened in May, 1 880, under Mr. Edward A.
Kelly as head master. In this year,the Rev. W. R.
Man ley,who had been laboring among the Telugus of
Rangoon was transferred to Ongole,and in August, 1881 ,
was appoin ted to the principalship of the high school.The aim and work of this high school may be gathered
from Mr. Man ley ’s report of 1882, from which we quoteas follOWS ' “ This institut ion
,although located in
Ongole, is intended.
to meet the entire wants of the Telugumission , so far as higher education is concerned, just asthe seminary at Ramapatam does in the matter of theelogical training. It is not merely the on ly one in theTelugu mission : it is the only institution of the kindbetween Nellore and Guntur. The curriculum of studiesis that prescribed by the Madras University. It embracesa course of seven years’ study
,and is so arranged as to
RESULTS OF THE G REAT REVIVAL . 1 25
give a native student, in addition to a knowledge ofthe grammar and literature of h is own language, a fairEnglish education . The vernacular is retained throughout the entire course
,but English becomes the lan
guage O f the text-book and recitation after the thirdyear. The very patent reason for this is
,that it is only
through the medium O f some other language than their
own ,that any education , in the proper sense of the term ,
can be given to these people . The Bible forms a regularpart of the course in all except the two lowest classes.
“ There are two very difficult examinations ; one atthe end of the fifth year
,by the government
,termed the
m iddle school examination, which makes the successfulcandidate eligible to employment in the government civi lservice ; and the other at the end of the seventh year, bythe Madras University
,termed the matriculation exami
nation . This year a class of fifteen boys was preparedfor the middle school
,and one of nine for the matricula
tion examin ation . Of the former, all passed but three,four of them being in the first grade. Of the latter
,only
three passed ; but as this is as good as the average for theentire Nellore District
,it is not quite so discouraging as
might at first appear.“ The staff of teachers embraces
,in addition to the
principal, two Eurasian, and six native teachers . There
is also an alphabet class connected with the school ,though not really a part of it
,for the ben efit of our
Christian boys and others who are not prepared to enterthe first class . There h ave been opened also two primaryschools— one in Ongole, and the other at Kottapatam,
ten miles east of Ongole— to serve as feeders for the high
1 26 HISTORY O F TH E TELUGU M IS SIO N.
school. There are fifty or sixty boys in these two schools,
many of whom will come into the high school as soon as
they are prepared .
“ Among our students there are Brahman s,Sudras,
and Mohammedan s, besides our Christian boys. NO distinctions of caste or religion are allowed ; but all thesedifferent classes sit together on the same bench
,and recite
the same lessons. The school has grown to such anextent that there is not sufficient room in the presenthouse . There is also great n eed of books O f referenceand apparatus.There have been during the year
,including the
alphabet class, one hundred and seventy-eight boysenrolled, with an average monthly attendan ce of one
hundred and forty-six . Of these,according to their
religions, fifty-four were Christians,almost all of whom
have been baptized, seven were Mohammedans, and one
hundred and seventeen were Hindus .”
While Dr. Clough was at home in 1 891 , he presenteda petition to the Executive Committee requesting thatthe high school be raised to the grade of a college
,and
that fifty thousand dollars be provided for its endowment.Believing that such a college would be needed in thenear future for our Christian boys
,and at the same time
wishing to take advantage of Dr. Clough ’s presen ce inthe country to raise the funds
,the Committee granted the
request with the understanding that the money should becollected in such a way as not to interfere with the ord in ary contributions to the Union . The money was secu red,and the college will be opened when there are Christianstudents to enter it. Non-Christians will, of course, be
1 28 H ISTORY O F TH E TELUGU M IS S ION.
at the time w as sadly in need of largely increased contributions . It is needless to say that the meetings secured alarge attendan ce
,and that Dr. Clough ’s addresses were
listened to with deep interest .When the immediate necessities of the Un ion were met
,
Dr. Clough was permitted to present certain claims of theTelugu M ission . These w ere
,first
,two mission houses for
Madras,and second
,an extensive addition to the high
school building. Both of these obj ects were accomplished .
During Dr. Clough ’s absence the station was in chargeof Rev. D . K . Ray l
,who arrived in Ongole August 1 6
,
1 882. When Mr. Rayl left New York he was to allappearance a strong
,healthy man . The seeds of con
sumption must,however
,have been in him , for soon after
he reached India the disease began to make rapid progress,
and inMay,1 884
,he quit India and set out for home, which
he succeeded in reaching on ly to die. His wife survivedhim on ly twenty days
,dying of the same disease .
Miss Emma Rauschenbusch,an appointee of the
Woman ’s Society of the West, arrived in Madras Nov ember 30, 1 882 . Her original designation was to Ongole,but circumstan ces seemed to favor her remaining inMadras.
The following year,however
,the claims of Ongole were
brought to bear on her, and S he was induced to proceedto that station in July
,1 883
, and take charge of the boys’
school and Bible woman ’s work . The Society of the Westprovided for her a handsome bungalow
,a large boys’
school,and a Bible woman ’s house
,all of which were fin
ished in 1 885. Miss Rausch enbu sch continued her workin Ongole till 1 887 , when her health broke down,
and shewas obliged to return home.
RESULTS O F TH E GREAT REVIVAL.
In 1 890, another remarkable movement took place,resulting in the largest number of accessions S ince 1 878 .
The quarterly meeting at Ongole was an unusually largeone
,and before it closed three hundred and sixty-three
were baptized . The interest was unusually great, and aslarge numbers were reported ready for baptism
,but who
could not come to Ongole at that time,a second meeting
was called for December 27th and 28th . On the latterday one thousand S ix hundred and seventy-one were baptized on profession of faith in Christ. By the first of March ,1 891
,this number was increased to four thousand and
thirty-seven . At Cumbum some three thousand five hundred were baptized between October and March
,and if we
include the smaller numbers baptized in other fields thetotal accessions will not fall far short of the great ingathering of 1 878 .
A severe blow fell upon the Ongole field in the death ofMr. Edward A. Kelly
,who entered the mission service first
as the head master of the high school in 1 880. Twoyears later he received an appointmen t in governmentservice
,but in 1 888
,he returned to the mission as an
assistant to Dr. Clough . Here he did good and faithfulservice til l called to his reward . He won the esteem andaffection of all who knew him
, and his death was a sorebereavement to his family and Dr. Clough
,and a great
loss to the mission .
We have already referred to Dr. Mabie ’s visit toNellore and Ramapatam . From the latter place he wen ton to Ongole
,where he spent two or three days looking
into the work in and about the station . On Sunday,the 8th of February, Drs . Mabie and Waterman baptized
I
H ISTORY O F TH E TELUGU MISS ION.
ninety-seven converts. On Monday,Dr. Clough and his
visitors started across the country to strike the railwayen rou te for Bombay. On the way they encamped at aVillage called Chandaloor, where they held a two days
’
meeting. Some twelve hundred people assembled in agrove
, and l istened attentively to the word preached . Alarge number professed faith in Christ
,and of these Drs.
Mab ie and Waterman baptized fiv e hundred and eightyfour
,and on the following day one hundred and sixty
more were baptized . These baptisms are included in thefour thousand and thirty-seven referred to above.Although this late movement is not confin ed to what is
now the Ongole field, yet it is confined to what was theO ngold field in 1 878 . There is not a station in the missionthat has not had more or less additions
,bu t these large
accessions have been almost exclusively from the sameclass of people
,namely
,the Madigas, and from the same
region as those in 1 878 . This is a very sign ificant fact,and should be considered in discussing the question of
these mass movements ” toward Christianity. Theyindicate what may reasonab ly and confidently be ex
pected when Christian ity takes hold of the other greatdivision of the non-caste people, the Malas, and also
,
though probab ly later, the people of the various castes.In other parts of the Telugu country
,and in other mis
sions, the Malas give evidence of such a disposition to
move en masse toward Christian ity. But so far,in our
own mission , the indications of such a movement are notapparent
,although our work in Nellore and elsewhere
started with the Malas,and our converts generally have
been from that class.
HIS TORY O F TH E TELUGU MIS SION .
Prof.Lewis E .Martin and Rev . Oscar R.M cKay arrivedin On
’
gole in December, 1 891 . Mr. M artin was speciallydesignated as principal of the high school
,a work for which
he was especially fitted,having held a similar position in Ja
pan . But ev en for such a position, when most of the workis in English
,it was deemed best to leave Mr . Martin free
to study the language before assuming the duties of hisposition . In the ev ent of the school becoming a collegethe expectation is that both Mr. Martin and Mr. M cKay
will devote themselves to that work .
We might linger at Ongole and give more details ofall the wonderful work that has been accomplished inthat fruitful field. But enough, we trust, has been saidto give a fairly adequate View Of the field
, of the workaccomplished
,and of its stil l greater possibilities. Before
leaving it, however, we may be permitted to offer a fewsuggestions as to the dangers to which Ongole isespecially exposed
,and the precautions which Should be
taken to avoid them .
In the first place,it must be admitted that when con
verts have come in such masses,and especiallv when they
have come from the very lowest class of society, there isa likel ihood that at least some of them were influen ced byunworthy motives ; and that others who w ithout any desireto deceive
,were borne on by the curren t of prevailing feel
ing, and baptized without any real conviction of S in orconversion to God . Hence church disciplin e should beexercised with the greatest care and Vigor.Secondly. As these converts are from the very lowestclass of society, few of them being even able to read, theyare in danger of being influenced not only by heathenism
RESULTS O F THE GREAT REVIVAL . 1 33
by which they are surrounded, but also by Roman Catholi
cism and other false forms of Christianity. Indeed, thisvery danger was one of the causes which precipitated thegreat movement in 1 878 . The Roman Catholics werenot only ready to receive the converts
,but two priests
w ere on the ground planning to baptize them . But forGod ’s interposition
,and the skill and vigor Dr. Clough
displayed in turning the movement in our direction, theywould in all probability have gone over to the Romanists,and that would not only have been a curse to the converts, but would have been a serious hindrance to theprogress of God ’s work in this district for all time . Solong as Dr. Clough with his great influence and powerremains on the field
,this danger need cause no special
alarm. But should he die,or be permanently removed
from the mission,and a man with less ability to hold the
people,or with different ideas of how mission work ought
to be conducted take his place,a very little thing might
create a panic which would prove disastrous . Hence itis of the greatest importance that these converts bethoroughly trained in the principles of our faith . Todo this, the Ongole field ought again to be subdividedinto three or four fields and a missionary placed in each .
Thirdly. The churches ou ght to be more thoroughlyorganized on the New Testament model . Nominallythere are sixteen churches on th e Ongole field
,but ordi
narily the ordinances and business of all the chu rchesare attended to at Ongole j ust the same as before the Village churches were set off. This is probably unavoidable
,
and will be til l the field is again divided and a verymuch larger staff of missionaries is on the ground .
134 HISTORY O F TH E TELUGU MISSION.
It remains for American Baptists to say whether thesedangers are to remain or be averted . If men are supplied in sufficient numbers, there is practically no end tothe numbers that will believe and -j oin the Lord ’s hosts .In October
,1 892, thirteen men , married and single,
sailed from Boston to j oin the mission . Of these,five or
six will be station ed in different parts of the presen t O ngole field. As soon as they have acquired a workingknowledge of the language new fields will be formed andthus, it is hoped, the dangers above referred to will beaverted.
136 HIS TORY OF TH E TELUGU M ISS ION.
compound of nearly a hundred acres and two bungalowsall ready for occupation . As there was no prospect of anygovernment Ofiicial requiring the premises
,the property
was thrown into the market and offered at a comparativelysmall price.It wil l be remembered that after the occupation ofOngole
, Ramapatam was one of the places selected by themissionaries as the most desirable location for a stationbetween Nellore and Ongole
,and also that the Rev . A.
V. Timpany and wife, who were to occupy the n ew station ,
were already in Nellore. Mr. Timpany had searchedover the whole region for a suitable place for the station ,
but not one could be found . B ut as soon as he reachedNel lore he heard of the proposed change of the sub- collectorate. Shortly afterward this magnificent propertywas purchased for the n ominal sum of three thousandrupees. O ne of the bungalows was occupied
,by Mr. and
Mrs. Timpany, February 5 , 1 870, and the other wasspeedily converted into a chapel
,and thus the missiona
ries were enabled to begin their work at once.O n the 25th of March, a church was organ ized composed of members from the Nellore and Ongole churchesand numbern thirty-fiv e. This was increased to one
hundred and fifteen by the close of the year. Therewould probably have been a much larger number received
,
but a spirit of persecution broke out and many of theChristians were shamefully treated . This led some to turnback
,and others who man ifested a disposition to renounce
heathen ism were deterred . The immediate cause of thispersecution was the refusal of the Christians of Kondiah
palem to eatmeat sacrificed to idols.
RAM APATAM . 137
Mr. Timpany shared very largely the faith of Messrs.Day, Jewett, an d Clough, respecting the conversion oflarge numbers of Telugus in the very near future. Thegenuineness of his faith was evident in the manner andcharacter of his life and work. He believed the heathenwere dying
,and the sincerity of his faith was seen in the
way he devoted his life to ‘save them .
M iss Peabody,the first single lady sent to this mission
,
arrived in Ramapatam in 1 872. After two years of studyand prospecting as to how and where she shou ld beginwork for the women and girls for whom she had come tolabor
,she decided that a girls’ boarding school presented
the best field. This was probably wise, and it certain lywas safe
,since it had been found to work successfully both
in Nellore and Ongole . Accordingly,a building was
prepared and a school begun with six girls. In 1875, thenumber had increased to forty-fiv e .
In 1 877 , Miss Peabody became the wife of the Rev.
Geo. Pearce, a retired missionary of the English BaptistMissionary Society
,and then living at Ootacamund
,on
the Neilgiri Hills. This, however, did not end Miss Peabody ’s missionary career. Mr. Pearce still h ad much
missionary zeal,and although himself unfamiliar with the
Tamil,he had gathered a company of Tamils at C otaca
mund and employed a native catechist to preach to them.
He also had an English congregation . Into this serviceMrs . Pearce entered earnestly.
By the end of the fifth year of the new station at Ramapatam two churches had been organized, with a totalmembership of seven hundred and sixty-nine ; two stationschools, a number of Vi llage schools, and seven out-stations
1 38‘ H ISTORY OF THE TELUG U M IS S ION .
established. The confidence of the heathen had beensecured . At first the missionary was regarded as an enemyand shunned
,now he was everywhere warmly welcomed
as a friend . All classes came in crowds to hear himpreach . Mr. Timpany had some knowledge of medicin ewhich
,besides enabling him to relieve much suffering
,
was a great help in securing the confidence of the people.The caste people at first refused to take medicine mixedwith water, but finding it was that or nothing
,they S O O II
laid aside their prejudice and received the remedy.
Mr. and Mrs. Timpany returned to America in February, 1 876 . During the two years he was at home, Mr.Timpany studied medicine and took the degree of M . D .
Being a Canadian he was urged to leave our mission and
j oin that of the Canadian Board . This caused him agood deal of anxious thought and it was only after aSevere struggle that he finally felt compelled to j oin themission of his own country. He loved his old field atRamapatam,
but felt that duty called him to Cocanada.Here he labored earnestly and faithfully until the 1 9thof February, 1 885, when he was seized with cholera and
in a few hours entered in to his etern al rest .The Rev. A. A . Newhall j oined the mission in 1 875,
and succeeded Mr. Timpany at Ramapatam . It was amost unfortunate time for a young and inexperiencedmissionary to have thrust upon him the care and respon
sibility of a large mission station . The great famine was
j ust impending,and instead of having the first year or two
for study and getting acquainted with the field and people
,he had to lend a hand in the one great work of the
hour,famin e relief.
140 H IsTO RY OF THE TELU G U MIS S IO N.
been practiced by the heathen, and, I am sorry to sav, bya few of the so-called Christians
, and have diverted manya rupee from the end for wh ich it was sent out and given .
This fact made the work of distributing relief money verydifficult, and now opposes a great obstacle to the prosecution of mission work : that is, su ch mission work as allintelligent friends of missions delight in . But there hasalso been awakened, evidently by the Holy Spirit, a desireto embrace a religion that exhibits such fruits of love andbenevolence in such marked con trast with the crueltyand selfishness of heathenism. God has seemed to makethis recent benevolence of the English and Americanpeople an entering wedge for the gospel in multitudes ofcases where the evidences of true conversion are clear andsatisfactory. The difficulties of the present ingatheringare in the cases of multitudes who seem to have mixedmotives for desiring baptism : and some of them are ofthe most puzzling character. Some after answering theusual question s satisfactorily, on being asked what advantage it is going - to be to believe in Christ and j oin thechurch
,will frankly confess that it will bring them
c lothes and food and the favor of the missionary.
”
During 1878 there were five hundred and twenty-sixbaptized on the Ramapatam field . The station schoolswere continued
,but with great difficulty, after Mrs. New
hall ’s death . It is of the greatest importance that everystation should have a missionary familv . A man withouta wife is badly handicapped in such work . Still
,the work
of the year was on the whole very prosperous, and forthat very reason it is all the more painful to record theutter collapse of the Ramapatam mission field in 1 879.
RAM APATAM . 141
Up to 1 878 there had been but one church at Ramapatam
for the Christians generally and the students of the seminary. B ut during the great revival a large number ofconverts had been gathered by the teachers and studentsof the seminary. At first, these converts were baptizedinto the station church . But as the number increased
,
questions arose respecting their reception, which led tothe formation of an independent seminary church. Thisled to further '
complications which greatly marred thepeace and harmony of the station .
Previous to his departure for the United States,Mr.
Drake invited Mr. Newhall to leave Ramapatam andtake charge of the Kurnool field . This Mr. Newhal lwas not altogether willing to do, but was willing to um
dertake the care of both fields til l help shou ld come fromhome. But owing to the great distance between the twofields
,this was an almost impossible task . He
,however
,
undertook it,and the result was that in a few months be
completely broke down while out on a tour,and was
carried into Nellore, to al l appearances more dead thanalive. No one believed it possible that he could recover ;but skillful treatment and careful nursing at the missionhouse brought him up from the very gates of death . As
soon as he was able to travel he was ordered to quitIndia. He sailed from Madras in September
,and as it
would have been dangerous for him to face the w inter ofEngland
,he went to the south of France, where be re
mained till spring.In the absence of a man to take up the Ramapatam
work,the field was temporarily divided between Nellore
and Ongole,while a circuit of ten miles was given to the
HISTORY O F TH E TELUGU MIS SION.
seminary. This arrangemen t continued till the establishment of a new station at Udayagiri which natural lytook up a large portion of both the n orth and southsections of the old Ramapatam field . But this by nomeans sufficiently provided for what was the Ramapatam
field . There ought to be,and probably will be at an
early day,a station at Kavali
,a growing and important
town ten miles south of Ramapatam .
Ramapatam Theological Seminary has had a very importan t part in the work among the Telugus. It hasfrequently been said that if India is ever to be evangelized
, it must be done to a very large extent by nativeagen cy. This is so universally believed that there isscarcely a mission of any importance in India that hasnot a school of the prophets to prepare nat ives for theministry. Soon after Mr. Clough moved to Ongole
,he
began to agitate the question of a theological seminaryfor the Telugus. B ut it was
not till 1 870 that the subj ecttook definite shape. At the mission conference of thatyear, held at Ramapatam,
it was Resolved,That a theo
logical seminary is,in our Opinion,
an immediate necessityfor the Telugu Mission .
” This,with several other reso
lutions bearing upon it, were unanimously passed and Mr.Clough was asked to correspond w ith the Executive Committee on the subject. The result of this action was thatthe Executive Committee sanctioned the request for theseminary and provided funds for the necessary buildings.By unanimous consent the seminary was located at Ramapatam
,and this being the case the erection of the bui ld
ings was naturally entrusted to Mr. Timpany. The sem
RAMAPATAM . 1 43
inary was opened in Apri l, 1872, under the managementof Mr. Timpany, assisted by the native teachers. Thenumber of students the first year was fifteen .
In the absence of anything like a high school in themission
,Mr. Timpany arranged the course of study to
cover six years,the first three being preparatory and the
last three purely theological. But this course was neverstrictly followed, and for two reasons. In the first place,the class of students sent to the seminary was not
,as a
rule,such as could take up the higher secular studies that
had been prescribed. Some did take them up and pursued them w ith credit
,but they were in the minority.
The students were generally somewhat advanced in years,
and some of them were married men with families. Hence,
like studen ts for the min istry at home in similar circum
stances, a few years of biblical study were al l they caredto take. Another reason was
,the pressing need in the
mission for preachers with even a very limited educationmade the missionaries impatient to get back the few thathad been sent to the seminary. Still
,the preparatory
course was retained and followed more or less closely forseveral years.In his first annual report of the seminary
,M r.Timpany
said : It is our purpose to raise up a class of fairlyeducated men
,simple in their habits
,with no artificial or
imported wants— a ministry that the poor churches willnot find it impossible to support.”
The Rev . B . R .
1Will iams, who had been designated tothe seminary
,arrived in Ramapatam,
January 10, 1 874,and immediately took the charge from Mr. Timpany.
Although the latter remained on the list of teachers for a
144 H ISTO RY OF THE TELUG U M I S S ION .
short time,yet the whole burden of the seminary fell on
Mr. Williams . This was hard, for he was obliged tobegin teaching by the help of an interpreter. This atbest is very unsatisfactory
,especially to the teacher
,as it
gives no fair opportunity to get the language as a man insuch a position ought to get it . The tendency is thatwhile he may get a large vocabulary in a very short time ,he fails to get a correct idiomatic kn owledge of the language or gets it only with an extraordinary amoun t oflabor. If the ordinary missionary n eeds at least the firstyear free for study
,much more should a man in such a
position . Moreover,there is a very decided conviction in
the mission that the man who presides over the theologicalseminary should have a few years of active missionarywork on the field before taking up his seminary duties,and thus learn by experience the real needs of the fieldand the kind of train ing the students require . But wehave to do
,not so much with what ought to be as with
what is. It should be said to Mr. Wil liams’ credit, thathe entered upon his duties with great enthusiasm and succeeded better than the untoward circumstances warrantedany one to expect .We have already referred to the successful efiort ofMr. Clough
,when at home in 1 872, to raise an endow
ment of fifty thousand dollars for the seminary. Fromthe income of this endowment the teachers and studentsare supported. Unmarried students receive three rupeesa month
,free quarters
,and two suits of clothes each year.
Married students receive six rupees and clothes for boththemselves and wives. This is ample for all their n eeds,and more than most of them are said to get after they be
146 H ISTO RY OF THE TELUGU M ISSION .
tiv ity, restoration , the desolation of their country, and
destruction of their beautiful temple,and their dispersion
among the Gentiles,etc. The prophecies con cern ing the
Messiah and his kingdom are traced from the firstpromise made in the garden of Eden throughout the OldTestament to their fulfillment in Jesus Christ and hischurch, as revealed in the New Testamen t. Specialattention is given to the study of the New Testamentduring the three years. The Gospels are memorized withthe historical portions of the New Testamen t, while theEpistles are analyzed , and the great truths thoroughlystudied . During the study of the pastoral Epistles
,a
course of lectures is given on the constitution of thechurch
,its membership
, cfiicers, ordinances, and work .
We also del iver a course of lectures on church history ,beginn ing where the New Testamen t leaves off, and givethe more important facts of church history during theearlier periods . In order to give the students instructionin sermon izing
,we have two services a week for preach
ing. The members of the senior class preach in turn .
The main object of these services is to give instruction tothose who bear, but we make suggestions and criticise thesermons
,to some exten t .
At the close O f each year, a committee of examinersis present , and the classes are examined carefully in thework of the year. They are required to go over all the
ground, as far as possible, during the three days O f examination .
“ The field within a radius of ten miles of Ramapatam
is cultivated by the teachers and students of the seminary.
There are thirty-fiv e towns and vil lages in which there is
RAM APATAM . 147
regular preaching as well as Sabbath-schools. Weusual ly send out two men to a village, one from the senioror middle class with a junior. The former usually doesthe preaching and the latter conducts the Sunday-school .We have no building which will accommodate all of thestudents of the seminary and station schools
,to say
nothing of the Christians on the field . Three of theseminary teachers have been ordained to the work of theministry. They are faithful and efficient men
,bearing
many of the burdens which heretofore rested wholly onthe missionary. They visit the churches
,baptize con
verts,administer the Lord ’s Supper
,and instruct them in
all things pertaining to the work of the church of Christ.During our few days of vacation we made a trip
,going
over as much of the field as we could . The interest wastruly great. The students’ work never appeared so satisfactory as now. They have done much hard work
,and
God has accepted it by giving them precious souls.”
In February,1 881 , Mr. Williams sailed for the United
States. In his absence, the seminary was in charge ofthe Rev. W . B . Boggs
,who carried on the work success
fully till Dr. Wil liams’ return in December, 1 882, whenMr. Boggs removed to Cumbum,
to open a new station
there.It was while Mr. Boggs was in charge of the seminarv
that the Rev. Dr. S. F. Smith visited the mission . Foran account of this visit we again refer our readers to Dr.
Smith ’s Rambles in Mission F ields.”
During Dr. Williams ’ soj ourn in the United States, he
secured fifteen thousand dollars for a new seminary build
ing. This building is Of stone and teak , and is a fine,
148 H ISTORY on THE TELUGU MISS IO N .
large,and substantial structure. It has ample accommo
dation for class rooms on the lower floor, and over them aSpacious hall, for chapel purposes. He also received fromMr. William Bucknell
,of Philadelphia
,one thousand
dollars for the purchase of a seminary library, and fromother sources
,money for the purchase of a press, which
has been set up,and on which a good deal of the mission
printing is done.The continued illness of Mrs. Williams rendered itnecessary for them to return home in 1 886 . They sailedfrom Madras on the sixth of July
,and reached home in
safety. The seminary was left in charge of Dr. Clough,who undertook to give it a general oversight, and to visitit once a month to make the payments . But the workof the seminary was left with th e n ative teachers. This,of course
,was only a temporary arrangement till a new
president should be appointed.
The Rev. W . B . Boggs had given such perfect satisfaction during the two years he acted for Dr. Williams
,that
there was a very general desire that he might be appointedpresident of the seminary. He had on ly been at hometen months when the Executive Committee offered himthe appointment
,and he immediately can celed the bal
ance of his furlough and returned to India. He arrivedIn Ramapatam on the twenty-second of March, 1 887 , andimmediately took up his new duties.The work has grown to such an extent that Dr. Boggsfelt he must have an assistant . It was, therefore, a greatj oy to him when his own son,
Mr.W . E . Boggs,after com
pleting his college and seminary course,offered himself
to our Board for education al work,and was accepted and
CHAPTER XIII.
TH E DECCAN.
Derivation of term Deccan . Lim its of territory. Conterm inou s w ith Nizam ’s Dom in ion s. Exten t and inhab itants of these. Their cap ital . Th eposit ion and power of th e British Residen t. Prospecting tour of M r. Campbel l . S ett lemen t at S ecunderabad . Beginn ing w ork . Establ ishing schools.O vercoming false impression s. First converts. Tou ring among th e villages. Novelty of voluntary , unselfish service. M issionary colportage .S ecuring a m ission bungalow . Advantages of its location . Tenure ofproperty at S ecunderabad. Rights of holders . Land tenu re in B ri tishIndia. O f two kinds. G overnm ent justice. Fai lure of M rs. Campbel l ’shealth . S in cerity of iddlaters. An i ns tance given by M r. Campbel l .Pow er of th e caste system . Its great hin dran ce . teCOgn it ion of it by so
called Ch ristian m ission s . Balefu l character of caste. Peopl e convin cedb ut h eld back. Trying transfer of m issionary w orkers. A new stat ion at
Nalgonda. Withdrawal of the Campbel ls because of i l l heal th . Difficult tounderstand . M ission at H an amakond a. Derivation of name. S ituationof. Establ ishment of M r. Loughridge. H is first convert . G oing and
com ing of m issionaries. S elf- support of th e m ission . H igh character ofth e work done by un salaried n a ti ve hel p ers . Th e policy of sel f-support.Work at Palmu r. Establ ishmen t of m ission by M r. Chute. Caste peopl ereached . O rgan izat ion of a church and school. O pen ing of a governmentschool . O pposi tion on accoun t of caste . G overnmen t protection . S tationat Nalgond a. Th e m issionary from Russia. S upported by th e Baptistchurches of that country. S uccess of th e m ission .
HE term Dekhan or Deccan is from the San skrit wordDakshina, south, and was originally applied to
the whole pen insula of Hindustan south of the VindhyaMountains. Later
,however, it was restricted to that por
tion lying between the rivers Nurbudda and Krishna.Strictly speaking
,therefore, Cocanada, B Imilipatam, etc.,
may al l be said to be in the Deccan. But as the greater
portion of it is included in the territory of the Nizam of
THE DECCAN. 1 5 1
Hyderabad,the term is usually confined to his dominion s .
At all events that is the meaning given to it in these pages.Under this title will be considered our four station s
,
Secunderabad,H anamakonda
,Palmur
,and Nalgonda .
The territory of the Nizam ’
s Domin ions covers an areaof ninety-fiv e thousand square miles, and contains a population of ten millions . Although the Nizam is a Mohammedan
,most of h is subj ects are Hindus
,and among the
latter are over four millions of Telugus. The Nizam ’scapital is Hyderabad— from haider
,a lion
,and bad
,a town .
It is well named,if we may judge
“
from the fierce,savage
,
and wicked appearance of its inhabitants .Secunderabad is fiv e miles distant from Hyderabad , andcontains about fifty thousand inhabitants . It is a Britishcan tonment
,having one O f the largest forces of British
troops in India . Between these two cit ies is the Britishresidency
,a small city of itself. Besides the palace of the
resident and a number of officers’ houses, there is aecommodation for a regiment of troops. The State is nominallyindependent
,but practically is governed
,to a large extent
,
by the British Resident . He is supposed simply toadvise the Nizam and protect British interests
,but h is
advice is seldom disregarded .
The Rev. W . W. Campbell, who accompanied Mr.Clough on his return to India in 1 874, made a prospecting tour up into the Nizam
’s country at the close of thatyear
,with a v iew to open ing a mission station if it should
appear inviting. He left Ongole on the 7th of December,
traveling by road in a country cart,wh ich en abled him
to see much of the country and the people among whomhe sought to labor . He reached Secunderabad on the
1 52 HISTO RY OF TH E TELUGU MISSION.
23d of the same month,and Spent a week gathering what
information he could . The impressions received were sofavorable that he at once wrote to the Executive Committee requesting an appointment to Secunderabad. Thiscame in March
,1 875, and on the 23d of June Mr. and
Mrs. Campbell set out for their new field . They reachedSecunderabad on the 3d of July, and the following day,Sunday
,they began their work by holding. a service in the
travelers’ bungalow where they had halted . There wereon ly four natives present . But this attendance was .ih
creased to thirteen the next time they met . Mrs. Campbellentered earnestly in to the work
, and succeeded in gathering from the native hamlets sixteen dirty and ragged littlechildren whom She organ ized into a Sunday-school . NextSunday she had twenty-three . S he also opened a day schoolwhich grew until there were forty-seven pupils
,when a
panic was raised by a rumor that the children were to beforcibly baptized. This reduced the number to fourteen
,
but by Mrs. Campbell’s persistent efforts the stampede wasarrested
,and by November the number had increased to
seventy.
O n the 14th of November,1 875, a church was organ ized.
The constituent members consisted of a few native helpersfrom Ongole, and a few native Eurasian and EuropeanChristians of Secunderabad
,altogether fourteen .
Although most of Mr. Campbell ’s time was occupied ingetting settled in Secunderabad
,he found time to do con
siderable touring among the villages. In these tours hewas usually well received
,though in many places it was
the first time the people ever saw a missionary. Hereand there he met with opposition
, but he soon convin ced
1 54 HISTO RY OF THE TELUGU MISSION.
Mr. Campbell, like every other good missionary, laidmuch stress on colportage. He usually kept at least oneman who devoted his whole time to selling tracts and Scripture portions. He also expected his preachers to do moreor less of this work
,but as they labored chiefly among the
lower class,few of Whom could read, their sales were not
large. The colporteur, on the other hand , went among theeducated classes and sold many tracts and books . Healso Opened a book depot in the city, where religious andeducational books were sold .
In 1 878 , a mission bungalow was secured in a veryfavorable location . It is near enough to the native population to be convenient for work, and yet sufficientlydistant to avoid the nuisan ce of a too close proximity to anative village. In 1 881
,a building adjoin ing the bunga
low was secured and remodeled into a chapel and schoo lhouse. The holding of property in Secunderabad is peenliar. Being a British can tonment
,all the land is held by
government and can neither be bought nor sold. It issimp ly leased to the owners of houses with the distinctunderstanding that it must be given up whenever requiredfor government purposes. In such cases
,however
,the
government usually takes the buildings at a fair price,but
if on account of the price offered, or any other reason ,the
owner refuses the terms,he is at liberty to remove his
buildings,but must give up the land . In British India
the land tenure is of two kinds . (1 ) That which is heldby government and leased to occupants
,and (2) that
which is given or sold outright. In the latter case theland is as absolutely the owner ’s as property in theUn itedStates
,and is never interfered with by government except
THE DECCAN. 1 55
when required for some such purpose as a railway, or otherworks that are for public good. In such cases the landcan be taken up
,but compensation is given not only for
the market value of the land, but for bui ldings, trees , andevery other legal or reasonable claim . Thus a strip ofland has recently been cut off from the Nellore compoundfor the Nellore Railway. The land original ly cost only
two hundred and fifty rupees,but in settling the compen
sation,the question was not what it originally cost, but
w hat it was worth when taken up, and hence it realizedto the mission three thousand one hundred rupees .For several years the health of Mrs . Campbell had
been very poor. Every possible means were employed toregain health
,and avoid relinquishing the work to which
she was devotedly attached . In the judgment of some
She remained much longer than her health warranted ;but S he was finally compelled, in May, 1 881 , to lay downher much- loved work and return home. She was ca ° riedon board the steamer at Bombay on a cot
,and great fears
were entertained that she would never see her native land.
But she rallied on the voyage and reached home in safety,
but has never been able to return to India . Mr. Campbell returned in November
,1 882
,and resumed his work .
The Rev. E lbert Chute and u ife arrived in Secunderabadat the same time, and began the study of Telugu, with aview to opening a new station in the Deccan.
In giving an accoun t O f his work for 1 883, Mr. Campbell says : I have been led
,during the year, to realize
more ful ly than ever the S incerity of the poor idolater .The example which has particularly impressed me is thatof a carpenter
, who has been considerably in my employ,
1 56 HIS TORY OF THE TELUGU MYS S ION .
teaching the schoolboys his trade. He is a most devoutidolater. He has a room set apart to his household gods,where he performs each morning his worship . I haveseen him at it many times
,and he has shown me his idols,
and prides himself on his devotions. I have had manytalks with him. He acknowledges the truth , but does notforsake his idolatry. He attended our chapel services anumber of times
,and I gave him a New Testament . I
think I was leading him on , and that he was becomingmore and more interested
,when his friends began to mis
trust that he was being influenced, and opposition began .
He was taunted about reading the New Testament, etc.He told me of this, and said : My relatives, of whom Ihave many here
,are all in this way .
’ As much as tosay I cannot break from them and their religion .
’ Thepower of caste and social relation s is a mighty power ofSatan to keep souls in his grasp .
”
This is by no means a rare case. We know of oneidentical in almost every particular
,where a carpenter
expressed his purpose to be baptized,and even broke his
caste by eating w ith Christians, but at last yielded to theseduction s of Satan
,and abandoned the worship of God
for that of dumb idols. Those who predict the speedydownfall of Hinduism because of the wide-spread infl uence of education
,Bible distribution
,and even a mental
acquiescence in the truths of Christianity,little know the
terrible hold that caste has upon its victims. Mr. Chute,in his first report
,says “ Several of the caste people
have asked for baptism,but after learning that they must
sacrifice caste,have stopped to con sider the subj ect.”
And so thousands and ten s of thousands of Hindus are
1 58 HISTORY OF TH E TELUGU MISS IO N .
applied to government for a piece of land for a m issioncompound . This was secured, and a small mission housewas erected as a sort of rest house for the missionary tilla better could be supplied . The work in this section was
most en couraging,and Mr. Campbell had great hopes re
specting it. AS we shall see later on,his expectations
were not disappointed .
The Rev. R. M aplesden , formerly of Nursaraopetta,
returned from his furlough and arrived at SecunderabadDecember 7th, 1 887 . Ow ing to the continued and seriousillness of Mrs . Campbell, M r. Campbell was called home,and arrived in New York June 7th, 1 888 . It is verydifficult to understand why two such earnest and devotedmission aries shou ld be kept at home
,when the work they
so dearly loved suffers for the lack of j ust such laborers.We must, however, trust the prov idences of God.
Mr. Campbell ’s departure left Mr. M aplesden in solecharge at Secunderabad . The Nalgonda portion of thefield continued to in terest the missionaries greatly, and inJanuary
,1 889
,Mr. M aplesden reported the baptism of
forty converts. This led him to renew with greater emphasis the appeal for a man for Nalgonda. The Boardresponded to this by appointing the Rev. A . Friesen, fromSouthern Russia
,who
,with his wife, arrived in Madras
November l 6th,and proceeded at once to Secunderabad .
The mission at H anamakonda may occupy our atten
tion for a little.H anamakonda derives its name from H anaman
, themonkey god
,and konda
,
” a hi ll ; hen ce,“ the hill of the
monkey god .
” It is a town in the Nizam’s Dominions
THE DECCAN . 1 59
situated between the rivers G odav ery and Kistna, and iseighty-S ix miles northeast of Secunderabad . It is fourand a half miles from VVorungal, the capital of the an
cient Telugu kings,and is built within the walls that sur
rounded that once famous city. The population is abouteight thousand .
In December,1 878 , Messrs. Campbel l and Loughridge
paid a v isit to H anamakonda,and were so favorably im
pressed that M r. Loughridge applied to the ExecutiveCommittee for permission to open a station there. Thiswas granted
,and Mr. and Mrs. Loughridge arrived
,and
began mission work there January 1 1 th,1 879. Although
Mr. Day had visited and preached in H anamakonda
over forty years before,the field was practically new ,
so far as the gospel was concerned . t atev er effectMr. Day’s preaching had produced , had long since
passed awav .
After a year of labor among this people wholly given
up to idolatry, Mr. Loughridge baptized his first convert,and soon after
,four more. A church was organized on
the 4th of January, 1 880, and Sunday services and Sunday-school were established , and continued from that dayon . A small day school had also been open ed . Mrs.Lo
'
ughridge entered earnestly into th is school work andwork among the women of H anamakonda , and continuedit for about a year, when her health completely brokedown
,and she was obliged to leave the country. She
sailed for home in March,1 881 . Mr. Loughridge went
w ith her as far as England . Before he returned,Mr.
Campbell had gon e to Englan d on the same errand . SoMr. Loughridge took charge of Secunderabad until Mr.
1 60 H ISTORY OF 'IHE TELUGU MIS SION.
Campbell returned, and then resumed his own work atH an amakonda .
The Rev . A.A. Newhall, after several years’ absence
,in
the Un ited States,returned to India in January
,1 883,
and j oined Mr. Loughridge in work at H an amakonda.
As the latter was busy erecting a bungalow,Mr. Newhall
devoted his t ime chiefly to touring in the district . In1 884
,after completing the bungalow and chapel, Mr.
Loughridge returned to America,leaving Mr. Newhall
in charge of the work .
O n the 22d of September,Mr. Newhall and Miss Marie
Menke,of Madras
,were married at Secunderabad
,and on
the 24th proceeded to H an amakonda . In November,
Miss Bertha Menke,arrived from Germany and un ited
with her sister, Mrs. Newhall, in work among the girlsand women of H anamakonda . At the close of 1 884 themembership had increased to sixteen
,with twelve pupils
in the day schoolBoth Mr. Loughridge and Mr. Newhall had made anearnest effort to make the work at H anamakonda selfsupporting. Hitherto the on ly two native preachers hadsupported themselves by cultivating a small piece of land
,
and preaching in their own neighborhood as they hadopportunity. This may perhaps account, in part at least,for the slow progress that had been made. In 1 885
,a
departure from this policy had been made in the appointing of two young men ,
who had received some trainingat the station school, as preachers on a small salary .
The following year,however, one of these was thrown
upon his own resources and the other partially adopted bythe church. The next year Mr. Newhall reported that
1 62 HISTORY OF THE TELUG U MIS S ION.
Broken health compelled Mr. and Mrs. Newhall toleave their work and return home early in 1 890. Mr.M aplesden undertook to look after the work at Hanamakonda, as well as his own , till a successor to Mr. Newhallcould be sen t out from home.
Palmur is a village in the Deccan,about fifty miles
south of Secunderabad . The Rev. E. Chute an d w ifearrived in S ecunderbabad in November
,1 882. After
spending some time in the study of Telugu,Mr. Chute
began mak ing short tours in the southern portion of thatfield. The work Opened up S O well in the vicinity ofPalmur that it was selected as a suitable place for a newstation . He continued working the field from S ecunderabad till M ay , 1 885, when he and his family removed toPalmur. Soon after arriving he applied to governmentfor a piece of land, and secured some fiv e acres in ahealthful location .
A peculiarity of the work at Palmur is that from thevery start the caste people appear to have been reached,and quite a number of the leading natives of the districtwere converted and baptized. A chu rch was organ izedon the 28th of June, consisting of twenty-seven members.A school was also opened, which in a few mon ths hadeighty-two pupils. In this school a number of the casteswere represented and it was open to all alike . This work
,
however,received a serious check the following year by
the open ing of a government school in the village, and alaw was passed that all the caste pupils shou ld attend thisschool. The mission school work was therefore confinedchiefly to the boarding school .
TH E DECCAN. 1 63
But the evangelistic work went on with more and more
success, even among the caste people . Still there was agreat deal of O pposition on account of caste, so much thatthe missionary had to resort to the courts for protectionand redress. The authorities be ing friendly, the opposerswere intimidated and the Christians greatly encouraged.
Building operations prevented the missionary from touring as much as he would have desired ; still some tourswere made and everywhere with most encouraging success . There were now Christians living in about thirty
villages of the d istrict .Miss Leoni Chute j oined her brother in mission workat Palmur
,December 5, 1 887 . This was a welcome
addition to the missionary force and one from which
much good was confidently expected .
Nalgonda is the fouth station in the Deccan,and the
last that was added to the mission up to 1 891 . It is S ituated about sixty miles southeast of Secunderabad . Theplace was selected as a mission station by Mr. Campbell,who erected a small building as a place for the missionaryto stay while touring in the vicinity. The Rev . A .
Friesen was designated to this station, and after spendingabout a year at Secunderabad studying the language, heand Mrs . Friesen removed to Nalgonda in October
,1 890.
Mr. Friesen is supported by the Baptist churches ofRussia. He is a man of excellent spirit
,and from the
first his work at Nalgonda has been prosperous. Fortyseven converts were baptized very soon after Mr. Fries enremoved to h is new station.
CHAPTER "IV.
KURNO OL, CU M BU M ,AND M ADRAS .
Th e m ission at Kurnool. A deputation to O ngole. A tour by M r. Clough .
Resul ts therefrom . O rganizat ion of churches at Kurnool and Atmakur.Postponem ent of baptisms. Fai lure of M r. Drake’s heal th. Need of“ spare ” men at th e m issions . Reinforcemen ts and mission prom ises.Decrease of m embership. Account ing for this. M r. M organ ’s account.Want of mission chapel felt . Backwardness of education . Discon tinuanceof mission schools . A sign ifican t fact. Possible causes of th e m ission ’sdecl ine. M r. M organ ’s il lness and departure from th e field . Assumptionof w ork by M r. S i l liman . A discouraging field . Changes at th e mission .
S ecu ring needful buildings. Th e m ission at Cumbum . M r. Boggs' ap
poin tmen t and re appointment. O pen ing a m ission station . Th e w ork oftrain ing th e converts. Famin e impetus tow ard Ch ristiani ty . Among th eM adagas prin cipal ly. Idol houses giving pl ace to schoolhouses. Lack ofa spirit of independen ce among th e H indus. Answ er of caste peopl e.Native u nconsciousness as to “ ought .” Need of a n ativ e reformer. M r.
Boggs as a railway con tractor. En forced change of m issionaries again. A
ripened field. S uccessfu l w ork of a new missionary .
“ Smal ler fields ormore missionaries.” A successful school A new bu ngalow . A l arge increase. M adras . Th e English found ation . Commercial importance.Laek of h arbor facilities . Reason s for th e establ ishment of a missionthere . Beginn ing by Dr. Jewett. Zenan a w ork. Add i tional forces. Needof perm an en t quarters. Their securemen t by Dr Clough. A new com
pound . Th e construction of a new chapel . Costing a m issionary’s l ife.O ther changes. Caste schools Return thence of th e Jew etts . Deathof M r. Waterbury . Th e English m ission church . M r Drake’s pastorate.Work among th e w om en and girls G eneral i nfluence of th e m ission .
M ere numbers not its measure. Numbers in M adras l ikely to be smal l .
URNO OL is on the Tungabudra River, about onehundred and sixty-eight miles west of Ongole and
about the same distance south of Hyderabad. It has apopulation of twenty thousand three hundred and twentynine
HISTO RY OF THE TELUGU MISSION.
had died and two were excluded for drunkenness. Theday following the organ ization thirty-one converts werebaptized . A week later seventy more were baptized in
another village . At the close of the year, three hundredwere reported ready for baptism
,but it was considered
best to postpone the baptisms till after the famine .In January
,1 879, famine relief being all ended, Mr.
Drake felt that he could no longer refuse baptism to thosewho for more than a year had professed faith in Christand were begging to be baptized . He fully expected tobaptize several hundreds
,and had begun the work when
he was prostrated with illness and was obliged to relin
quish his field in the very midst of a precious harvest.He succeeded in baptizing twen ty-n ine at one place and
thirty-fiv e at another, and still others were importuninghim to be received ; but he had not the strength to continue
,and reluctantly he had to leave Kurnool and pro
ceed to Madras, from which port he sailed for America,March 25
,1 879.
For a missionary in the prime of life to break downand be ob liged to leave his chosen work is sad enoughunder any circumstan ces, but it is peculiarly so when thishappens in
“ the midst of a glorious ingathering. One isconstrained to ask
, will the time ever come when, in amission like this, there will be a spare man to step intosuch a gap and gather in the sheaves instead of leavingthem neglected on the field"In December, 1879, the Rev. F. E. Morgan and wifearrived in Nel lore
,and soon after removed to Kurnool.
There was as yet no mission bungalow,so that Mr. and
Mrs. Morgan had to l ive in a small h ired house,neither
KURNO O I., OUMBUM, AND MADRAS 1 67
v ery comf ortable nor in a very healthful location . This,however
,was on ly temporary. An appropriation of five
thousand rupees was made that year for the purchase of asite and erection of a mission house . This was com
pleted and occupied in 1 882.
During 1 880, Mr. Morgan had baptized forty- seven,making the membership two hundred and ninety-seven .
But in the following year the number had decreased to
two hundred and eighty-three ; in 1 882, to one hundredand ninety-one ; and in 1 884, to one hundred and fortyfour. It will be j ust for all parties con cerned if we letMr. Morgan speak for himself in accounting for thisdecrease in membership . Under date of July 1
,1 882, he
wrote : “ I hav e for a long time known that there weremany who showed little or no interest in the work of thechurch, and that unless they reformed they would in timehave to be excluded . I felt that the time had come whenit was necessary for the church to take action aboutthem . The preacher at Atmakur
,in whose j udgment
and piety I have confidence,and who is personally
acquainted with the facts in regard to most of these persons, concurred with me. At a meeting in April, thirtynine members of the Atmakur Church were excluded ;and at a meeting of the Kurnool Church
, the third ofJune
,fifty
-six persons were excluded . Previous to theJune meeting, the two nativ e preachers made a tour tothe villages for the especial pu rpose of exhorting toChristian fidelity many who had long neglected theirduties . Of these n inety-fiv e persons, there are some whohave not attended a meeting of the church sin ce I cameto Kurnool . Of those excluded
,fourteen l ived in a v il
1 68 HISTO RY OF THE TELUGU MISSION.
lage three miles from Atmakur ; and though they go toAtmakur frequently on market day (Sunday) they neverattend meetings, which are reg ularly held in the chapel .Others were excluded for sins, such as drinking and contracting heathen marriages
,in addition to neglect of their
church duties.In July, the church felt compelled to exclude a large
number who had for a long time neglected the ordinances. Very few persons
,aside from the small number
of Christians resident in Kurnool, have attended theSabbath-school and preaching services regularly held inthe mission bunga low .
” We have emphasized the last twowords because
, while we believe in the strictest possiblediscipline
,an d that neglect of the ordin ances is a suf
ficien t cause for discipl ine, yet we think it possible thatneglect to provide a suitab le p lace for the ordinances maybe at least an excuse if not a reason for such neglect. Itis now more than twelve years S in ce the Kurnool Churchwas organized, yet Kurnool is to-day w ithout a chapel .
”
There is another peculiarity about the Kurnool fieldwhich may, in part , account for this unprecedented decreasein numb ers. In the mission report of 1 880,M r. Morganwrote In the matter of education the field is in a verybackward state. A number of our Christians are fairscholars
,but are too young to teach . We now have a
good school at Kurnool,and are preparing a few young
men to teach,so that a want we feel so much will soon
be in a measure supplied .
” The fo llowing year the Kur
h ool school,Atmaku r school
,and two village schools,
were reported in a fair state of prosperity. But in 1 882,the report was : The Christians, as a rule, show too little
1 70 HISTORY OF TH E TELUGU M IS SION.
of the excluded members had been restored. Only onepaid assistant had been employed during the year and theAtmakur Church was without a pastor. O n the whole
,
the work was still very discouraging.
Early in January, 1887 , Mr. Morgan ,who was then in
the Madras General Hospital for treatmen t for an abgcessin the threat, was advised to go home immediately. Hewith his family accordingly sailed from Madras
,February
4th , under circumstan ces which gave rise to great fearsrespecting his life, and very little encouragemen t to hopethat he would ever return to India. He carried with himthe profoundest respect and deepest sympathy of the mission
,and was followed by earnest prayer that God would
graciously spare his life and,if possible
,return him to
India.The Rev. E . E . Silliman, who j oined the mission atMadras in 1884
,was appointed to take charge of Kurnool
after Mr. Morgan ’s departure . As M r. Silliman hadalready command of the language, he was enabled toenter at once into the work . Two months after hisarriv alfhe reported having visited the larger portion ofthe field
,and having personally conversed with a maj ority
of the Christians. He said that the coun try west ofKurnool was a most discouraging field. The instab ilityof the first converts in that section
,he said , has
brought the church into great disrepute . Other portions of the field
,and notab ly Atmakur, he reported as
much more hopeful . There were three churches in afairly prosperous condition
,the least satisfactory being
the one in Kurnool town .
Mr. S illiman’
s health being in a very unsatisfactory
KURNOOL, CUMBUM, AND MADRAS . 1 7 1
condition, and acting upon the advice of the best medicalauthority in Madras, be handed over the charge of theKurnool field to Mr. Drake, and sailed for America onthe 25th of March , 1 888. AS Mr. Drake had his own workto attend to in Madras, he could give but little attention toKurnool, and hence th is unfortun ate field was left withoutproper missionary care unti l December
,1 890, when the
Rev . G. N . Thomssen arrived from America and tookcharge of it .As Mr.Thomssen had some years’ experience as a mis
sionary at Vinukonda, he did not need to spend a year ortwo in getting ready for direct evangelistic work, butentered upon it at once . But he saw the need of someadditional bu ildings
,and particularly a chapel
,before his
work in Kurnool could be very effective. To the procuring of these he applied himself with every prospect ofsuccess .
Cumbum is a small town in the Ku rnool D istrict, and issituated on the G undlacumma River, sixty-seven milesdue west of Ongole. It contains about eight thousandinhabitants. Being near the foot of the Eastern Ghauts,a very had type of fever usual ly prevails in the town.
For this reason the mission compound is situated threem iles out of town, in a fairly healthful locality.
The Rev.W . B . Boggs was first appoin ted a missionaryby the Baptist Board of the Maritime Provinces. ofCanada
,and sailed for Siam to j oin the seven m issionaries
who had gone out the year before in search of the Karens
that were said to be found in that country. The searchproved to be a fruitless one, and in 1 875 the whole party
1 72 HISTORY on TH E TELUGU MISSION.
was transferred to India to un ite with the Upper Canadian Telugu Mission recently established at Cocanada.Six months after his arrival at Cocanada
,Mr. Boggs
broke down in health and had to return to Nova Scotia.In 1 877 , he had so far recovered as to be anxious toreturn to his work
,but the Provincial Board hesitated to
send him back . In 1 878, however, he received an ap
pointment from the Missionary Union,and in November
sailed for Ongole,where he arrived Jan
'
uary 27 , 1 879.
For two years Mr. Boggs was associated with Mr.Clough
,and the following two years he had charge of the
theological seminary at Ramapatam . On the return toIndia of Dr. Williams
,in 1 882
,Mr. Boggs removed to
Cumbum to open a new station at that place.Cumbum is one of the regions which shared to a largeextent in the great ingathering of 1878, so that Mr.Boggs did not enter a barren or unfruitful field . It hadyielded large numbers of converts
,and they were stil l
coming by the hundreds. But while he did not have toSpend long, weary years of seed-sowing before a harvestcould be reaped
,he had what was perhaps quite as d iffi
cult a task,namely
,the train ing of the masses of poor
,
ignorant, and degraded Christians, who had come in withthe multitude
,knowing very little indeed about the prin
ciples of Christian ity. This task was all the more difficult
,because Cumbum was too remote from Ongole to
receive much attention from the missionaries there.Many had relapsed into their former life after the firstimpulse had subsided . Others were in a luke-warm
,in
different state, while the maj ority, perhaps, were com
parativ ely steadfast.
1 74 H ISTORY OF TH E TELU G U MISSION.
great want in the Hindu character is the want ofindependence in thought and action— the want of indiv iduality. The first answer with multitudes in all classesand castes is If the rest do so and so
,I will If such
a leading man believes, I will ; if he does not, I will not ;‘If my people Should become Christians
,I would.
’ Ofcourse it is easy, by a few illustrations, to Show them theabsurdity of this but while they laugh at themselv es forbeing so foolish
,they con tinue in the same way. Very
few Hindus seem to appreciate the power of that littleword ‘ought,
’ —I ought to do this, or I ought not to dothat. The times seem to be waiting for a Hindu Hussor Luther. When will he arise and lead forward amighty movement" All the hopes that centred in Ke
shub Chunder Sen have been blighted : he has finishedhis earthly course ; and he was not the reformer that Indiamost needs. If God should raise up an Indian Paul, whatmultitudes of the caste people might bow to the truth"”
This quotation,besides giving a reason why the caste
people do not embrace Christian ity, confirms what hasbeen said above
,respecting the mass movement among
the M adagas.
The construction of a railway passing through Cumbum
,presented ah opportun ity to M r. Boggs to secure
employment to a large number of native Christians, andat the same time of securing money for the erection of amuch needed chapel . He
,therefore
,took a contract to
build a section of the road near Cumbum. The chapelwas in due course erected, at a cost of about S ix thousandrupees
,every rupee of which came from the railway con
tract.
KuRxooL,CUMBUM
,AND MADRAS . 1 75
Mr. Boggs and his family were repeatedly attacked by
the Cumbum fever, which few Europeans escape whostay for any length of time in that region, so that by theclose of 1 885 it became evident that they must relinquishtheir work for a t ime and return to America . In viewof this change
,Mr. and Mrs. Newcomb , who had come
out as assistants to Mr. Campbel l at Secunderabad, wereappointed to occupy Cumbum until Mr. Boggs should return. They arrived in Cumbum in December, 1 885, and Mr.Boggs and his family sailed for America in March
,1 886.
Mr. Newcomb entered a field not only already ripe forthe harvest
,
”
bu t one where large harvests had already beengathered . To put a new man, with very little knowledge ofeither the language or the people
,upon such an important
field, was somewhat of a risk, but Mr. Newcomb appears tohave managed wisely
,and the work went on in a very
satisfactory manner. His able corps of assistants, consisting of six ordained and twelve unordained preachers
,con
tinued their faithful labors, and two hundred were addedby baptism in 1 886 . One of the serious obstacles Mr.New
comb complained of was the large extent of territory thefield covered
,and the impossibility of one missionary
giving it the supervision which effective work demanded .
Smaller fields or more missionaries was what was neededto secure the best results. Three thousand Christians
,
and two hundred thousand heathen to look after, is certainly too much for any one man.
"
And,yet
,we have
fields in the mission with double the number of heathen,
and scarcely more than one-tenth the number of Christians, which ought to be still a harder field for one manto care for.
1 76 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MIS S ION.
Mrs. Newcomb carried on vigorously -and successfullythe station school established by Mrs . Boggs. In 1889,this school earned a gover nment grant-in-aid of six hundred rupees, and twenty-five of the boys entered the highschool . This was very good work, indeed .
The year 1890 was by far the most fruitful and successfulyear of the mission’s history
,at least since the great in
gathering of 1878 . The number of baptisms was twelvehundred and six
,which brought the membership up to
fiv e thousand and seventy. There were eight hundredchildren in forty-fiv e schools. Mr. Newcomb spoke inhigh terms of the labors of his preachers
,and of his able
assistant,Mr. Peacock . An appropriation of eight thou
sand rupees was made in 1 890 for the erection of a newmission b ungalow, to replace the temporary one, whichh as served the purpose since the station was opened .
The city of Madras is the capital of the presidencyof that name
,and is the third city of India, in respect
to size and political and commercial importance. It isdistinguished as being the first territory in India ownedby the British . It is situated on the Coromandel coast,on the western shore of the Bay of Bengal, in latitude1 3
°5
’north . In 1 639, the English purchased a strip of
land Six miles long,and one mile inland, on which they
erected a fort,and called it Fort Saint George , a name
which,in official documents
,the city bears to this day.
For a commercial city,its location is most unfortunate.
It is flat,and only a very few feet above the level of the
sea,and hence its drainage is most imperfect ; and yet,
strange to say , it is not regarded as a specially unhealth
1 78 H ISTO RY O F THE TELUGU MISS ION .
wish Of the Executive Committee that he should locatein Madras ; but Dr. Jewett had a decided preference toreturn to his old field in Nellore. He accordingly wentto Nellore
,and remained there several months. In Sep
tember,however
,he was induced to reconsider his de
cision, and removed to Madras to open th e new station .
O n the first Sabbath of October he held his first servicein a small chapel in the compound of a house he hadrented in Royapuram. The number present at this firstservice was thirty. Their plan was to conduct Sundayschool and service in the chapel in the morning, and topreach in the bazaars and surrounding pettas in the evening. Preaching was also con tinued in the afternoon Of
week days,and a prayer meeting held in the chapel every
Friday evening. A day school was commenced in themission compound
,with ten pupils. Also one in Konde
tope,from which the first convert came . Zenana work
was attended with somediffi culty,because it was a new de
parture in that part of the city . Still, during the first
year, S ix houses were regularly visited, and fourteen pupilstaught . Both the school and zenan a work was under thesuperintenden ce of Mrs. Jewett .
The Rev. S. “7 . Nichols and wife j oined the missionDecember 5, 1 878 . M rs. Nichols (daughter of Dr. andMrs. Jewett), being a native of Nellore
,had not quite
forgotten all her Telugu , or, at all events, it came to hervery rapidly ; and hen ce she became a most valuable addition at a very early period of her missionary career.The First Telugu Baptist Church was organized De
cember 8, 1 878 , with fourteen members, who had broughtletters from Nellore and Ongole. A number of additions
KURNOOL,OUMBUM
,AND MADRAS . 1 79
was made by baptism and letter, so that at the end of 1 880
the membership was twenty-seven, and the pupils in schoolnumbered one hundred and three . Miss M . Menke j oinedthe mission December 13, 1 880, and continued to laborchiefly in school work till 1 884
,when she became the wife
of Rev. A . A . Newhal l, and remov ed to H anamakonda .
In June, 1 881 , the Rev. N . M . Waterbury was ap
pointed a missionary to the Telugus and designated toM adras
,where he arrived November 7 , 1 881 . Some time
previous to this the station had been removed from Royapuram to Vepery. But when in August
,1 882, Mr.Wa
terbury took over the work from Dr. Jewett, the latterreturned to Royapuram . All these years, and until 1 885,the Madras work suffered for want O f a fixed dwellingplace
,— the missionaries having to live in hired houses,
and hence subj ect to frequent changes. By the efforts ofDr. Clough
,while at home
,the money for two houses was
secured . The Madras work was thu s divided into twosections, according to the location Of the houses .From August
,1882, Mr. Waterbury continued the
work at Vepery,and also acted as mission treasurer during
Mr. Downie’s absence in America. A second church wasorganized October 6
,1 884
,with a membership Of eighteen
,
who were dismissed by letter from the Royapuram Church .
In 1 885, Mr. Waterbury purchased a house and compound in Perambore, in the northwest corner of Madras .It was thought by some that this selection w as not a wiseon e
, being too far removed from the centre of the population, and the compound itself, though large and Open, wastoo low and wet and difficult to drain
,and hence likely to
be unhealthful. But on the other hand , good compounds
1 80 HISTORY OF TH E TELUGU MIS SION.
in the most desirable location s were difficult to Obtain andvery expensive ; and in the opin ion of the missionary,Perambore was a growing section , and sufficiently nearthe Telugus to be readily accessible. Dr. Clough madea visit to the place
,and approved of the selection but
it was at a time when one of the chief O bj ections to itcould not be detected
,—namely
,the marshy nature of the
land .
AS soon as Mr. Waterbury got possession of the property, which was attended with a great deal of labor,worry
,and vexatious delay
,he set apart a portion Of the
house for a chapel and schoolhouse, so that the work wasnot interrupted. He continued the out- stations that hadbeen established
,and added to them . Preaching in the
surrounding pettas was continued daily,and the work
pushed in every possib le direction . He had few assistants
, and , with one exception, not very efficient, but'
hemade the most of what he had, and the work progressed.
But he felt handicapped for want of a suitable chapel forthe regular services
,and hence began at once to lay his
plans for securing a chapel . The regular offerings of thechurch were chiefly devoted to this object. As the amoun tneeded for the purchase and repair Of the mission propertywas less than the appropriation for it, he asked and Obtainedpermission to use the balance for the chapel . The buildingwas accordingly begun . We mean something more thana figure of speech , when we say that in to this work Mr.Waterbury literally put his life . His mean s were limited , and he planned accordingly ; but to secure the bestpossible results for the money at his disposal
,he labored
hard,and attended personally to almost every detail.
1 82 H ISTORY OF TH E TELU GU MIS S IO N.
zenanas was visited, and the women taught . In 1 884,
Miss M . M. Day removed to Madras, to engage with Mrs.Jewett in this work. At first
,Miss Day took the caste
school, but when Mrs. Jewett’s health failed
,Miss Day
succeeded to the entire women ’s work in Royapuram . Inthis department she has had much encouragement andsuccess.Toward the close of 1 885, Mrs . Jewett
’
s health was soshaken
,that her departure from India was deemed the
only hope of saving her life. Dr. and M rs. Jewetthad been looking forward with fond expectation to aspeedy return to the scenes of their former labors in thevicin ity of Nellore. Since Mr. Bullard ’s departure fromAlloor
,no one had been permanently settled there and,
on account of the pressure of other work, it cou ld bebut indifl
'
erently cared for by the missionary at Nellore.Appeals for a man for Alloor had so far been in vain ;and as Dr. and Mrs. Jewett knew the field, and asRoyapuram had been provided for by the arrival of Mr.Silliman
,they applied for and obtained permission to
remove to Alloor. But, in the meantime, and to theregret and disappointment of all concerned , Mrs. Jewett
’
s health gave way,and they were ob l iged to return
home. They left Madras in December and , after a briefsoj ourn in Malta
,reached home in safety .
The saddest even t,and severest blow to our work in
Madras,was the death of Mr. \Vaterbury, which oc
curred on the 1 1 th of November, 1 886 . Ov erwork ,and especially the supervision of the erection O f thenew chapel, brought on an attack of enteritis, whichafter a week ’s illness ended his life. He was but thirty
KURNOOL,OUMBUM
,AND MADRAS . 1 83
years of age, and had j ust completed h is fifth year ofmissionary servi ce
,when he was called to his rest and
reward . The m ission conference met that year at Perambore, when the new chapel was dedicated . The ab
sence of Mr. Waterbury at this service made it exceedingly sad and impressive. The Scriptures read on theoccasion w ere selections which Mr.Waterbury had chosenfor this service. The dedication sermon was preached bythe Rev. A . A . Newhall .M rs. Waterbury would gladly have labored on inMadras, but her health was not at al l good. She
,there
fore,left the following spring, with her two little chil
dren, and with great difficulty reached home in a very
feeble condition .
The Rev. W . R . Manley and wife, of Ongole, were onthe eve of returning home when this sad vacan cy oc
curred iu Madras. They were, however, induced to defertheir departure for a year
,until some one cOuld be sent
out to occupy the place. They accord ingly removed toPerambore in March , 1 888 .
The Rev. D . H . Drake, after an absen ce of nearlyseven years
,rej oined the mission in December. He was
requested,for the time being, to remain in Madras, and
accordingly Mr . Manley handed over the work to him,
and,on the 9th of February, Mr. Manley and his family
sailed for the United States on furlough .
On the passage out, Mr. Drake became deeply interested in a young lady, Miss Alexander, who was on herway to engage in missionary work in connection withthe Canadian mission at Cocanada. The result of thiswas that Miss Alexander became Mrs . Drake on the
184 HISTO RY OF TH E TELU G U MISS ION .
1 7th of January, 1889. The Canadian brethren weregreatly disappointed at the loss of so valuable a helper,but what was loss to them was gain to us, and thus theequation was maintained .
The Rev . Charles Hadley was appointed as the successor of Mr. Waterbury, and arriv ed in Madras on the27th of November, 1 890. In July, of th at year, M r.
Drake became pastor of the Madras English BaptistChurch
,but continued in nominal charge of the Peram
bore w ork till October, 1 891 , when Mr. Hadley assumedfull charge .The Madras Baptist Church formerly had some sort
Of connection with the English Baptist Missionary S ociety. But for many years it has been, to a large extent
,independent. Since 1 882, it had been without a
pastor,but the services had been kept up by means of
pulpit supplies by missionaries and others. All efl’
orts
to secure a suitable pastor had failed,and at length the
church was advised to seek admission to ourmission . Withthis in view, Mr. Drake assumed charge of the church,and continued to labor in connection with it till January
,1 892, when he returned to America. A few months
previous to his departure,Mr. Drake was sore ly bereaved
by the death of his excellent and beloved wife. Shew as a devoted missionary, and her death was a greatloss to the mission . The Rev. Mr. Beebee was sent toMadras
,to take up the work laid down by Mr. Drake,
until some permanent arrangement can be made . Besidesministering to a worthy class of English speaking people inMadras
,it is expected that this enterprise will prove a very
valuable auxiliary in the general work of the mission.
CHAPTER "V.
ENLARG ING TH E B O UNDAR IES .
New station s. M ission s of other denomin ation s. Den om in ational protestsagain st territorial occupation . Bap tist grow th in th e Kistn a D istrict.Th e m ission at Bapat la. Advan tages of location . M r. Bul lard’s w ork.
Formation of a church a t A lloor. M r. Bu l l ard ’s sett lement at Bapatl a.Procuremen t of prO perty . Importan ce of touring. In crease of schoo lfacilities. Bapti sms from th e Lu theran m ission . Causes leading to this.Retirement of M r. B a llard from th e field
,and arrival of M r. O w en .
S tation a t Nu rsaraope t ta . Protest of th e Lutheran s. Th e number of converts demandi ng a stat ion . A w elcome more appropriate than a protes t.A ccession of M r. M ap lesd en to ou r m ission . Erection of build in gs andorganization of a church . Accessions and education . Perpetuat ion of th eimpulse of 1 878 . S ubsequen t ingatherings largely due to that. Breakingdown of missionaries . Expanding w ork . Vinukonda. M ean ing of term .
H indu trad i tion . Railw ay comm un icat ion s. Arrival of M r. Thomssen .
Erection of buildings . Tribute to M r. Clou h . Need of Christ ian train
ing. Native self-support . Th e true ideal . Distan t yet as to realization .
Numerous con verts. Ripen ess of th e field . M issmn aries not unopposed.A “ heathen revival .” Extract from M r Th omssen . Appeasing Ank amma.
H eathen mul ti tudes and (‘
k ristian sow ing . “ G od ’s army.
” Failure of'
heal th,and ret iremen t of M r. Th om ssen . Th e w ork under M r. Clough’s
supervision . Progress therein . M ission at Udayagiri . View from th e
h i ll n ear by. S ign ificance of name , Udaya.” An an sw ered prayer. M r.
Burditt assuming his w ork . Difficul ty in erect ing buildings . Isolat ionof th e field. H ardness of it . D ifferen ce betw een a region partly Christ ian
,and pu re heathenism . Extract from M r. Burditt . M aterial benefit
influencing th e people. S om e frui ts . Accessions from th e O ngole field.Vil lage school s. B righten ing prospects . A sad bereavemen t. Appeal sfor a chapel . S ecuring one. Excel len ce of M r. Bu rd itt’s w ork . Need edrest.
NDER this head will be given a brief account ofthe new stations, Bapatla, NursaraOpetta , Vinu
konda,and Udayagiri . The first three are in the Kistna
District,which adj oins that of Nellore
,on the north . Its
186
ENLARGING THE BO UNDARIES . 1 87
capital, or chief town, is Masulipatam,on the sea
,and
next to it in size is Guntur,n ear the centre of the dis
trict .
The first mission established in this part of the Telugucountry, was that of the Church mission
,in 1 841 , at
Masulipatam . In 1842,the American Evangelical Ln
therans established a mission at Guntur. We do not knowwhether it was the custom in those early days for a mission to claim the whole district in which it was locate d,nor whether the Church mission sent out “ An Appealand Protest to all England and America against theencroachmen ts of the Lutherans. If it did
,we have
never heard of it,j ust as our children will probably
never hear of the one of recent date,which our Lu
theran brethren issued when the American Baptists dared
to follow the m ultitudes of baptized believers who demanded care in the portions of the Kistna Districtadj oining our own mission. But
,however that may be,
it is a fact that we have in the Kistna District more thandouble the number of communicants contained by theLutheran and Church missions combined .
Bapatla is situated about twenty-fiv e miles west of themouth of the Kistna River, and forty miles northeastof Ongole . B ut the river delta forms a sort O f promon
tory j utting ou t into the sea, and thus a bay is formedbetween this point and the coast farther south ; so thatBapatla is within five miles of the sea, but with thepeculiarity that from Bapatla it is to the south, instead
O f the east. Th is gives Bapatl a an advantage of climate
shared by no other station in the mission. The south
1 88 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU M ISSION.
wind,so trying in all other stations
,becomes at Bapatla
a pure ocean breeze. The population is about S ix thousand . In the Hindu temple there are a number of ihscriptions dat ing back to A . D . 1 154.
The Rev. E . Bullard,as already stated
,arrived in
Nellore in 1 870, where he spent the first three years ofhis service. In 1 873, he removed to Alloor, eighteenmi les north of Nellore
,and began a new station . This
was one of the places selected by Messrs. Jewett and
Clough for a station as early as 1 866. A fine compoundof eight acres
,with a good garden and a house, which,
with some repairs,might answer for a time, had been
purchased . But Mr. Bullard thought it would be betterto tear down the house and use the materials, as far as
he could,and erect a chapel
,which he could use as both
chapel and bungalow,till a permanent dwelling house
could be provided .
A church of sixty-six members was organized the firstyear
,a majority of whom were dismissed by letters from
the Nellore Church. At the close of 1 876, the churchhad in creased to n inety-seven
, w ith an out-station atAtmakur
,fifty miles west. This was very fair progress
,
but Mr. Bullard was not altogether satisfied, and he proposed to the mission ary at Nellore to abandon Alloor, asa station
,and make it an out—station of Nellore, while
he S hould take over all the field work of both fields , outside a radius of twenty miles from Nel lore. This planwas adopted
,and Mr. B allard entered the new work
with a good deal O f enthusiasm. But it was Short- lived,for
,in 1 87 7 , he returned to America on account O f ill
health .
1 90 IIISTO RY O F TH E TELUGU M ISS ION.
village school-teachers,a normal school was organiz ed
in 1 888 . It began with fifteen pupils. Two hundredconverts were baptized that year.In 1889
,Mr. Bullard baptized a considerable number
of Christians,who had formerly belonged to the Lu
theran m ission at Guntur. From Mr. Bullard ’s report,we gather the following particulars of that movementSome years ago a d ivision took place in the Lutheranmission by the withdrawal of one of their missionaries,taking with him fourteen hundred members and fiftyworkers. For a time
,this was practically a separate
mission . But it was but short- lived,for the missionary
soon felt compelled to leave the country and return toAmerica. Even before he left
,however
,many of his
people had asked to be baptized and received into ourmission . The helpers and a majority of the people re
fused to return to the Lutheran m ission . They professedto have changed their v iews on the subject of baptism,
and,after satisfying himself of the sincerity O f their
profession,Mr. Bullard baptized twenty of the helpers
and two hundred of the members, and many others wereexpected to follow. Of course, this caused a good dealo f hard fee ling among the Lutheran s But Mr. Bullardprotested that it was from no unkind motives, nor any desire to proselytize or build up his own mission at the expen se of another
,that h e consented to receive these people
into our mission ,but solely because he believed them
sincere in professing a change of belief ; and , under thesecircumstan ces
,he could not do otherwise than receive
them and be true to himself, or the cause he served.
In 1 890, the number baptized was four hundred and
ENLARGING THE BOUNDARIES . 1 91
ninety-three, more than double that of any previous year,and still there were hundreds more said to be awaiting
the ordinance .The incessant labor and mental strain of the six years
since the opening Of the station ,together with exposure
to the sun, greatly debilitated Mr. Bullard’s health, and,
in the hope of prolonging their stay in the country ayear or two longer, he and his family went to the Neilgiri Hills in March
,where they remained till November,
1 891 . But he derived no permanent benefit from hisstay on the hills
,and hence
,early in 1 892, he and his
family returned to America. Mr. and Mrs . Owen, whoh ad recently arrived in Nellore
,were sent to Bapatla to
look after the work there.
Nursaraopetta, the second of the Kistna stations, isabout twenty miles west of Guntur
,and forty miles north
of Ongole . It was against the occupation of this station that the Lutherans most loud ly protested but
,most
unreasonably, as it seems to us. In the district aroundNursaraOpetta, we had some two thousand eight hundredand seven communicants
,more than the Lutherans had
in the whole district . TO care for these converts as weought
,demanded that a missionary should be settled
among them. In addition to this, there was the vastpopulation to the west and north of Nursaraopetta whichthe Lutherans did not and could not care for. Itwas to supply this w ant that our mission entered theKistna District, so that instead of a
“ protest,
”one would
have supposed rather that a hearty welcome would beextended.
1 92 H ISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISSION.
The Rev. R. Maplesden , who had been for some yearspastor of the Madras English Baptist Church
, j oined ourmission in January
,1 882 . Strangely enough
,this resig
nation Of the pastorate became the indirect cause of thechurch ’s becoming affi liat ed with our m ission
,for it was
unable to secure a successor to Mr. M aplesden till Mr.Drake took charge of it
,eight years later.
M r. M aplesden remained at Ongole for some time, butwent t o Nursaraopetta, in 1 888, to open the new station .
He secured a piece of land for a compound,and erected
a bungalow and small schoolhouse. A church was or
gan ized on the 7th of October, 1 883, and on the sameday one hundred and twenty-three were baptized intothe n ew church .
This was a very encouraging beginn ing of the newenterprise, and Mr. M aplesden entered upon the workwith a good deal of enthusiasm . He saw in his fieldwhat others had seen in theirs
,the great n eed of train ing
the masses of poor,ignoran t Christian s
,and of providing
primary education for their children. AS to further ingatherings
,he had no anxiety. He said : “ The work
has gained su ch an impetus that it will go on independently Of the missionary.
” Perhaps some of the missionaries might not be willing to adm it so much as that, butthere can be no doubt that the impetus given to the workin 1 878 had mu ch to do with the subsequent ingatherings . In no other way can we account for the fact thatthese subsequent ingatherings have been almost exclusively confined to the same class of people, and to thesame regions as that of 1 878 . In other fields , and
among other classes, where equally good and faithful
1 94 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU M IS SION.
count of the tradition which makes this'
the spot whereRama heard the news of the abduction of his wife Seetamma. The place abounds with H indu remains of veryancient date. A railway has recently been constructed
,
which runs through both Nursaraopetta and Vinukonda,
and puts these two stations in rai lway commun ication withMadras and Bombay. The population of Vinukonda isabout six thousand, and , like Nursaraopetta, it has beenone of the fru itful sections of the former Ongole field.The Rev. George N. Thomssen arrived in MadrasMarch 4
,1 882. His first year was spent partly in O u
gole,and partly in Ramapatam. During this time
,he
made two extensive tours with Dr. Clough. O n the 3dO f August he went to Vinukonda. A good site for acompound was secured, and a comfortable and substan
tial bungalow erected. He also put up a neat littlebuilding
,which answered the double purpose of chapel
and schoolhouse.Like the other missionaries of these new fields
,Mr.
Thomssen spoke Of the grand evangelistic work of Dr.Clough
,but saw the same pressing need of training the
Christians,many of whom seemed ignorant of even the
first prin ciples of Christianity. Building kept the missionary in the station much of the first year, yet one hundred and seventy-six were baptized .
At the July,’
84, quarterly meeting, the missionary andthe preachers
,after in teresting discussions
,arrived at the
conclusion (1 ) that the time had come, or was near athand
,when the childhood of Telugu Christians must
pass away ; and (2) that they must understand that thework O f the Missionary Un ion was to provide for the
ENLARG ING THE BOUNDARIES . 1 95
evangelization Of the heathen, while the Christians mustsupport their own pastors
,build their own schoolhouses,
and take care of their own widows and orphans. Theonly mistake about this is the “ time ”
; for after sevenyears
,Vinukonda
,and indeed the mission generally
,
seems about as far from that ideal as it was then .
In 1 885, M r. Thomssen made several extensive toursover his field. Everywhere he found the people readyboth to hear and believ e the truth . Four hundred andten converts were baptized, and this was on ly a part ofthe hundreds who were asking to be baptized . The greatbody of these inquirers came
,as in other sections
,from
among the Mad igas. But there were some among thecaste people a s . two of whom were baptized . The fieldtruly seemed ready to be reaped .
But if any one supposes that missionaries are havingit all their own way
,and that the great enemy of souls
is not fully awake to the danger that threatens his holdupon the Telugus
,perhaps the following account of what
Mr. Thomssen calls a “ heathen reviv al,
" may tend tocorrect that impression.
“ While I am writing this,a
din deafens me . M any tom-toms are being beaten,h orns
are being blown,goats and S heep are b leating
,sky
rockets ascend,fire- crackers explode
,people shout and
sing. But what means this" During the last monthsmany houses have been burned. The wily
, w icked Brahmans tell the people th is is the work Of Ankamma . Thewrath of this goddess has been incensed, and sh e is burning up the houses and the crops and now the people aresacrificing thousands Of goats and Sheep, spending enormous sums of money to appease the goddess, and to feed
HISTORY O F TH E TELUGU M IS SIO N.
the lazy, good-for—nothing Brahmans . The Ankamma
temple is back of our mission compound, and so we are
disturbed day and night by unearthly sounds. Thisfeast has been in progress for n early two months, andnone can tell when it will come to a close. By this means,we have had an Opportunity of preaching the gospel tothousands
,who before this have never heard the name of
Jesus. We have been sowing the seed ; and we fully believe that in due time it will germinate and bear fru it.
In my travels during the last months, in almost everyvillage I have been met by bands of people
,carrying an
idol-house on bamboos,bearing torches
, and every man,
woman,and child having a staff with a bunch of leaves
tied to the top. On inquiry, I have been told each bandis Rama da ndu i. e.,
God ’s army. So far as I can learn,this is a commemorative celebration of the exploits O fRama
,in his war with the giant B ay anah . It is reported
in H indu mythology,that Rav anah abducted S eetamma ,
the wife of Rama. At Vinukonda, the mount of hearing, Rama heard of this ; and seventy-two million monkeys assisted him in the war with Rav anah . This hostof monkeys was called Rama dandu , or God’s army.
These bands of wandering devotees must sleep and eatin three difl erent villages, on three successive n ights.All castes, as well as out-castes, are represented in theranks. The procession moves on, while tom-toms arebeaten
,and horn s and other instruments are played.
The people shout and sing,
‘Rama,as in former days
seventy-two million monkeys assisted thee. so we comeup to thy help .
’ I am told that for forty years therehas not been such a revival of idolatry as this.”
1 98 HISTORY O F TH E TELUGU MISSION.
Seven hundred and fourteen were baptized in 1 889, andfive hundred and forty-three in 1 890.
Udayagiri is a v illage of some three thousand inh abitants
,situated abou t sixty miles west of Nellore
,with
which it is connected by a good road. It lies at the baseof an isolated hill
,which rises to a height of three thous
and and seventy-n ine feet, from the top O f which a magnificent view may be obtained . On the east may be seen
,
on a clear day,the si lvery line of the ocean
,seventy-fiv e
miles distan t ; on the north and south a stretch of lev elcountry, and on the west the Eastern G hauts. It is aglorious place for seeing the sun both rise and set. It isthis that probably gave the name to the place Udaya
,
”
rising or morning,and giri
,
” a hill ; hill of the rising, orhill of the morning. The hill was once strongly fortlfied,being entirely surrounded by three tiers of battlements
,
and having fifteen bastions for heavy gun s, all in a veryfair state of preservation . Down to 1 840 it was held bya petty prince
, but on account of his suspected treasonableplots the fortress was disman tled.
As early as 1 851 , Mr. Day, while on one of his tours,selected this place as a suitable one for a mission station,and prayed for a man to be sent there. The answer tothat prayer was long delayed
,for the man had to be born
,
and converted, and educated, but at last he came in the
person of Rev. J. F . Burditt.Mr. Burditt was originally designated to Ongole, butwas transferred to Nellore
,to act for Mr. Down ie during
the latter’s two years’ absence in America. On beingrelieved
,in 1 884, Mr. Burditt proceeded to take up his
ENLARGING THE BOUNDARIES . 1 99
new appointment at Udayagiri. His first work was theerection of a mission bungalow. This was attended withgreat difficulties and delays
,owing to the absence of ex
perien ced workmen and suitable materials. Still, by persev ering efforts, the bungalow was completed and occupiedin 1886, and a creditable beginning was made in thework.
There is probably not another station in the missionso thoroughly cut O ff from civilized l ife, or a harder ormore discouraging field than this at Udayagiri . It isl iterally in the j ungle
,and ,
although the missionaries ofNellore and Ramapatam from Mr. Day
’s t ime have made
occasional visits to it, and now and then a convert ortwo, it is to all intents and purposes virgin soil, and veryhard and stony at that. But th ere '
is nothing too hard
for the Lord,and
,as we shal l see
,even in such regions
as Udayagiri, the gospel faithfully preached will find itsway to the stony heart .To begin a new station in such a field as this is a very
different thing from Opening one in a region containinghundreds and thousands of Christians. The Christiansmay be ignorant, and the task of developing them intosomething approximating a Christian church may be adifficult one
,but still it is a much more trying and dis
couraging work to begin de new in such a barren ,heathen
soil as Udayagiri. But there is, at least, this one com
pensation, that as Paul“ strived to preach the gospel,
not where Christ was named,lest I should build upon
another man’s foundation,
” the missionary in such a field
as Udayagiri has that privilege, without striving for it .
In one of his early reports,Mr. Burditt said : “ At
200 H ISTORY OF THE TELUGU MIS SION.
present we are surrounded by the thick darkness ofheathenism. Pioneer work is not a thing of the past inthis section of Telugu land
,at least. The people seem
to have hardly any sense of sin, or desire for salvation ;no concern as to death, etern ity, or anything future.Their whole thought in regard to our message is
,
‘Canyou promise material benefit if I embrace this religion"If not, then we don
’t want it .’ May we be supported bythe prayers of God
'
s people .Mr. Burditt spent a large portion of 1 886 in touring.
He began this work on New Year’s day, and on thattrip preached in many villages where the gospel hadnever before been heard . His second tour was on thatportion of the field formerly belonging to Nellore. Onthe l i th of July a church was organized, and ten convertswere baptized . During the same year a section of whatwas once the Ramapatam field was handed over to Mr.Burditt by Dr. Clough . With it came a number ofhelpers
, and quite a number of Christians. Mr. Burditt found that the Christians had suffered for want ofproper watch-care
,owing to their great distan ce from
Ongole. Discipline was much needed,but this was
wisely postponed to see what could be done by instruotion and reproof.The following year touring w as con tinued, and thestation work began to be more hopeful and fruitful. Bythe close of this year the membership had increased tothree hundred . A small boarding school had been conducted by Mrs. Burditt, also a Bible class for women, andnine village schools were kept up.
The year 1 889 opened brightly for the new station.
202 H ISTORY O F‘ THE TELUGU M ISS ION.
great reluctance that they availed themselves of the in«
v itation of the Board to return home for a season Of rest.Nor would they hav e done it, but for the fact that thestate of their health demanded it. They left Udayagirion the 1 3th , and sailed from Bombay on the 1 8th of
April,1 891
,for England, en rou te for America.
The Rev.W . R. Manley, having returned from his furlough
, was appointed to Udayagiri unti l Mr. Burdittshould return .
CHAPTER "VI.
TH E M IS S IO N’
S JUB ILEE.
The Jubilee celebrat ion . H eld at Nel lore. Th e selection of th e date re~markable. G athering of m ission aries and others an inspiring sight . Ad
dress oi J. G rose,Esq. Regret a t Dr. Jsw ett ’ s absen ce. An expression of
appreciation . Early struggles and present success. Permanence and sta
bility. Recogn ition of th e m ission ’s efficien cy. Recogn ition of progress .An en couraging recital. Rem in iscence of a visit to O ngole. Thanks toDr. Clough for educat ion al advan tages . S chool w ork an d m ission w ork .
Education of converts absolu tely n eeded. Native evan gelists shou ld bethorough ly equipped . A con fusion of creeds in India. Th e n ative races.Th e modified Turan ian ism . Brahman ism
,and its system of caste. M o
h ammedan ism and Buddhism . Progress of Chri stian ity. Efforts of thinkers for a n ew faith . Present religious unrest and in tel l ectual ferm en t .In come tax and exchange . Necessary impartial att itude of th e government . Opportun ities for m ission aries . An en couraging h Ope . M emorial sketches . Fitn ess of them . M ortal ity among m is sionaries . Th efounder of th e m ission
,M r. Day . H is field of labor. H is discourage
ments an d perseverance. H is labors and death . S ubsequen t successow ing much to h im . Career of M rs. Day. Faithfulness in w ork . S urv iv
ing h er husband . M r. and M rs. Van H usen . Excell en ce of character andfaithfulness in w ork. M rs. W i l l iam s and M rs. Newhal l. Fai thfu l laborsand brief careers. Rev . S . W . N ichol s and others . Especia l m en tion ofRev . A. V.Timpany. H is devot ion and su ccess . Falling in th e harn ess .Conclusion . G rat itude for th e past . Vas tly more to be accomplish ed .Christ’s travai l and coron at ion .
LTH OU G H the proceedings of the Jubilee celebration have been
”
published in a small volume,eu
titled “ The Lone Star Jubilee, this h istory would beincomplete if it did not contain some account of thatmost deeply interesting and memorable occasion. Wecannot
,of course, reproduce the whole Jubilee volume,
and to discriminate and make a selection of a few203
204 H ISTO RY O F THE TELUGU MISSION.
portions from so much that is excellent,is a somewhat
delicate task. But we see no way other than to assumethe responsibility.
The Jubilee was held at Nellore almost as a matterof course ; for while the mission did not, strictly speaking,originate at Nellore, yet it was there that it first foundits permanent location, and hence Nellore is the parentstation . When the 5th of February, 1 886, was fixedupon as the day for beginn ing the Jubi lee
,it was not
known to the committee that had the matter in hand,
that it had hit upon the exact date on which Mr. Daylanded in India
,fifty years before. Of course the mem
bers of the committee might have kn own,had they tried
,
but the fact that they did not know, and yet selected theexact date
,seemed remarkable .
To see thirty-One missionaries from twenty differentstations in the Telugu country gather at Nellore
,the
once “ Lone Star,” was a grand sight, which will not
be soon forgotten by those who witnessed it .After a devotional service (which preceded each session), the Rev. D. Down ie, of Nellore, delivered an Address of Welcome. This was followed by Remin iscen cesof Rev . S . S. Day, by Miss M . M . Day, which are for themost part embodied In the early part of this history. Theafternoon session of the first and succeeding days wasgiven to services in Telugu of a deeply interesting nature.Of the many valuable papers read and addresses delivered
,during the six days of the Jubilee Conference,
we have selected the following as perhaps the most important to the general reader, and which ought to fin d aplace in this volume.
206 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU M ISS ION .
absolutelyto you , of expressing my sympathy with yourlabors, and my appreciation of the results which thoselabors have obtained in this and the surrounding districts. I need add nothing to Mr. Down ie’s story of howGod kept - the mission together till the long and wearystruggles of the beginning passed into the success whichnow attends it ; but I must say someth ing as to its permanence and stability, and as to the recogn ition whichthe work of the Lone Star Mission has compelled . I
find its name well known in the remotest v i llages whichI visit . The aid which it gave to the people and to theauthorities at the time of the great famine has attractedthe attention O f government to it
,and established its
reputation as one O f the instruments on which go v ernmentmust rely In times of difficulty. The work it has done hasbeen so persistent and widespread that the consequencescan never disappear. The thousands who owe to it noton ly a u se In social status, but a knowledge Of the inestimab le lov e of God in the redemption of the world byour Lord Jesus Christ
,the means of grace, and the hope
of glory,are not on ly a proof of its efficiency as an
evangelizing mission,but a security that its memory will
never be forgotten . All the mission wants is support,and work so good as itswork is, is sure to find support ;so that we may be confiden t that its existence will remainun impaired till its work is fully done.
“ Our thanks are due to Mr. Down ie for the historywhich he has given us of the mission , showing how thelitt le church of eight members at Nellore
,with its single
m issionary , estab l ished as the result of n ine years’ hard
work after the mission had commenced, has dev eloped
THE MISSION’S JUB ILEE . 207
into the institution as we see it at present,with its
thousands of converts, with its numerous missionaries,with its successful schools at Nellore and Ongole, andwith its theological college, and what the sub -collectorcalls its cathedral— I have only seen it myself from thedim distance of the canal— at Ramapatam , and its chapelhere. When I say our thanks, I mean the thanks of usoutsiders especially. No doubt you missionaries knewbeforehand the kind of story Mr. Downie would have to
tell,but we, who are outside, knew less about it, and it
was extremely encouraging to hear how strong faith,
long-continued through stony paths,had led the mission
upward and onward , so as to prove that the Lord of allpower and might is with us still, ready as ever to helpthose who help themselves.
The presence th is ev ening Of many of the faces I seebefore me reminds me of my visit to Ongole in 1 884, andof the pleased aston ishmen t with which I found activeschool work with hundreds of children going on in
Spacious bui ldings, public worship celebrated in a man
ner which seemed more fit for our largest town s thanOngole, and signs all around that a great evangelizing
work was in rapid progress . I remember saying, whenthe foundat ion stone of this chapel was laid , that I lookedforward with much interest and great hopes to the Opening of the high school by this mission at Ongole, and Iam glad to know that m y hopes have been amply fulfil led . My thanks, as collector of this district, are dueto Dr . Clough , who proj ected the school, who has watchedover it from the beginn ing, and who has induced thegenerous people of America to give it a new building,
208 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISSION.
now it has outgrown the first one. He has been ablyseconded by Mr. Man ley, but the credit of the con cep
tion belongs to him alone . I know of no place in thispresidency
,or
,indeed
,in all India
,where a school of this
kind was so much wanted, and it is a glory to the mission that it has supplied the want.
“ I have already said that a great evangelizing work isin progress at Ongole
,and it seems to me the proper
complement of the scholastic efforts w hich are beingmade there
,that the number of converts at Ongole is
large in itself, and is increasing steadily. In this
country, it seems to me that school work must be a partof mission work. I know that the subj ect is a wel l-wornone
,and that I cannot hope to say anything new about
it,but I feel it my duty to state my Opin ion,
that thepeople who con tend that all m ission money should bespent in preaching the gospel
,and little or none in teach
ing children, are wrong. The notion, it seems to me, isa notion which springs from ign orance or misapprehension of Indian conditions, and from undervaluing thepower of caste. The converts who can be got at firstare peop le whose children have to be taught good hab its
,
and skill at handiwork,in order that they may do Chris
tianity credit, and not disgrace it. More than that, theevangelizers of the future— and native members Of thechurch must be employed as evangelizers before work sowide is done that the face of Indian society can bechanged
,and Christ reign triumphan t from shore to
shore— these native evangelizers must be furnished withall the weapons supplied by Western education, beforethey
'
can compete with the champions of heathen ism,
210 H ISTO RY OF TH E TELUG U MISSION.
religions comes Mohammedanism,which fights with all,
but has not su cceeded in routing any. Among them was
Buddhism ; but Buddhism,though it prevails through
out all the Eastern world except India,is dead
,or almost
dead,in India
,where it began . Last Of all comes Ch ris
tianity, which , if we believe our Bibles, we must be surew il l eventually extirpate all others. The state of societyis such that its progress must be slow ; but, though slow,
it has been sure . Education is aw aking the country, andmaking its best men dissatisfied with Hinduism and caste.Our government, in freeing the land from war
'
and an
archy,has given the people time and opportunity for
speculation . The thinkers are trying now ,very natu
rally,to discover some new sy stem better and higher than
Christianity,but we know they will fail in this ; and
when they fail,and ackn owledge their failure
,the foun
dations of caste being loosened , and all eyes looking fora new light
,Christianity will come in and take posses
sion.
“ Yet in this country where,it must be remembered,
the conditions are such as to make social changes slowerand less frequent than they are in other countries, sothat they excite unusual atten tion when they come, thereis a vast amoun t of unrest and upheaval going on atpresent. Noisy schemes of self-government fill the air
with clamor. The people of India, or rather of thepresiden cy towns, have tried for the first tIme to infl uence the course Of a great election in England . O ur
frontier has been shown to be vu lnerable ; though, thankGod, it has not been penetrated yet. A short and com
parativ ely bloodless war has added a new State to our
THE MISSION ’S JUBILEE. 21 1
great empire. The expense thus incurred has imposedon us a renewal of the dreaded in come tax, which is allthe more dreaded in these days when the rupee is suffering from the disease called ‘exchange .’ Curious religious systems are having their birth, welcomed with stillmore curious enthusiasm . The education of boys hasprogressed till it h as created a public Opinion , an d theeducation of girls has assum ed S O much importan ce th atit may be reckoned as a factor in the government of the
State. The government has continued triumphant so
long,that it may now safely assert its religion
,though
it had so long to act as if it were -of all religions, andhas still to preserve an impartial attitude. This time ofchange is full O f opportunities for missionaries, and fornone more than you , who, with the example of Mr . Dayand the other founders Of the mission before you
,may
be trusted to take full adv antage of it.I must conclude by expressing my hope
,indeed my
certainty, that this mission, which h as now lasted fiftyyears, will continue to the
-s end the good work which it
has begun. I won’t hope that it wi ll have many moreJubilees , for each Jubilee will mark the fact that fiftyyears have passed away. But now, as I have told you,affairs are beginning to progress more rapidly ; v ic
tories will be more frequent and significant. The occsion s for celebrating them w ill come more often, andI trust that there may be many such occasions as in
teresting as this Jubilee, and even more full of rej oicing.In the meantime
,the missionaries wi ll continue— and
they cannot do better or stronger work— to tell thepeople of ,
21 2 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISS ION.
Th at G od , w h o ev e r liv es and lov es
O n e G od , on e law ,on e e lem ent,
And on e far-off div in e e v en t
To w h ich th e wh ole crea tion mov es.
This inspiring and appreciative address by the collector of the d istrict was received enthusiastically bythose present
,and others followed that were equally full
of thankfulness for the past and hope for the future.The entire series of meetings, we may say, was helpful inthe extreme.
2 1 4 H ISTORY O F TH E TELUGU
Of these,six: died in active service in India, and six after
their return to America.
REV. S . S. DAY .—This number includes the founder
of the mission,Rev. S. S. Day. He was born in O u
tario,Canada
,in 1 808 he received his education at Ham
ilton Literary and Theological In stitution, was appointeda missionary to the Telugus in 1 835, and arrived atCalcutta
,en. rou te to Vizagapatam, February 5, 1836,
fifty years ago to—day. He was located temporarily at
Vizagapatam,Chicacole
,and Madras
,and made earnest
evangelistic efforts at each place ; but in 1 840 he established the mission permanently at Nellore. In thoseearly days progress was slow,
for prej udice againstChristianity was strong.
Those were the trying times of clearing the ground,breaking up the hard soil
,and sowing the seed the times
that test faith and patience. B ut through all discouragements and obstacles, he faithfully persevered in hiswork as a messenger of Christ to
\
these idolatrous myriads. He visited America in 1846, and on his return tothis coun try, in 1 848, w as accompanied by Mr. and Mrs.Jewett . On account of feeble health
,he wen t again to
America in 1 858, and was never again able to resumehis loved work in India. Then followed long years O fwaiting and suffering
,his enforced absence from the mis
sion field being very painful to him ; but in the beautifulwords of Milton , on his own blindness :
Th ey also serv e w h o on ly stand and w ait .
He was, however, engaged as an agent of the Mission
MEMORIAL SKETCH . 21 5
ary Union for two or three years in Canada, and, doubtless
,the interest of Canadian Baptists in mission work
among the Telugus may be traced prin cipally to hisefforts. He also served in the pastorate and in the oc
casional supply of several churches in New York State,as far as his health permitted . Aft er years of greatphysical sufl ering, he at last peacefully entered intorest on Sunday
,September 1 7 , 1 87 1 , at Homer, N. Y
Will not many Of the sheaves since gathered in withrej oicing be reckoned to him
,the faithful sower
,who
went “ forth weeping bearing precious seed"” Should
not the greatness of the superstructure enhance the praiseof those who, far back and deep down laid the foun
dation"
M RS . DAY .— Miss Roenna Clarke, who became the
wife of Rev. S. S. Day, was born at Stoddard, New
Hampshire,October 1 2
,1 809. She was a true partner
of her husband ’s missionary labors and trials at Viza
gapatam,Chicacole
,Madras
,and Nellore
,and of his
subsequent min isterial work in America. Josiah Burder, who became a faithful and successful m inister ofChrist in the Canadian Mission , ascribed his conversionto the efforts of Mrs. Day, when he was a pupil in herschool at Chicacole. In all the years that followed herreturn to America
,she always continued earnest in pro
moting the cau se to which her earlier years had beengiven in India . She was also a prominent worker in theWoman ’s Christian Temperance Union . She survivedher husband nine years
,and died at Homer
,N . Y.
,May
1 9, 1 880. It was her privilege to be helpful in founding
21 6 H ISTORY OF THE TELUGU M IS SION.
a mission,which has since become known throughout the
Christian world,en couraging her husband in days of
despondency,comforting him in sorrow
, watching overhis health
,and sharing with him in the patience of hope
and the labor of love ; and with him,the founder of the
mission,she shares the h igh honor and the everlasting
JOY
REv . STEPH EN VAN HU SEN . Mr. Van Husen wasborn at Catskill
,N. Y .
,December 5
,1 81 2 ; was educated
at Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution ; sailedfor India in 1 839, and arrived at Nellore March 21
,
1 840. H is missionary service extended to five yearsonly
,failing health leading him to return to America in
1 845. The data necessary for a more detailed sketch ofhis life are not available. He was associated w ith Mr.Day here at Nellore
,and w as a faithful, devoted man.
His death took place December 13, 1 854, at Brattleboro,Vermont.
.M RS . VAN HU SEN.— O f Mrs . Van H usen
’
s history, we
have been able to gather a few facts only. She was bornat Lima, N . Y .
,March 1 0, 1 81 1 . We have it on the
testimony of one who knows,that she was a most excel
lent woman and devoted missionary,and that she re
garded her leaving the mission work as the greatesttrial of her life. She died
,we believe
,at Niagara Falls
,
N . Y., but the date is uncertain.
M RS . VVILLIAM S .—T~he n ext name on the roll of these
sainted ones brings us down to quite a recen t date in the
2 18 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISSION.
back to Ramapatam,and laid to rest near the scene of
her devoted efforts.
M RS . NEWH ALL .—The next year, 1 877 , took another
from our ranks in the prime of life,and usefulness
,and
hope,— Mrs . Newhall, of Ramapatam. Miss Mary A.
IVood was born at Bridgewater, England, in July, 1 845.
She went as a child to America with her parents, andliv ed at Belvidere, I llinois. It was there that she professed faith in Christ. In 1 867 , she graduated at theRockford Female Seminary. At that time, she waslonging to be engaged in mission work, and was con
sidering the question of coming to India, but her healthdid not then seem to warran t it. But after spendingseveral years in teaching, she Offered herself for foreignmission service
,and was accepted by the VV
O In an’
s S o
ciety of the West. She sailed from New York, September 1 9, 1 874, and reached Nellore January 2 , 1 875.
In March,of the same year, she went to Ramapatam ,
and was there associated with Miss Peabody in the workof female education .
On the 1 9th of July, 1 876 , she was married to Rev.
A. A. Newhall, and with him shared in the missionwork
, and in the Special toils and trials whi ch theterrible famine of 1 877 brought. She was serious lyill on several occasions
,each of which left her in a
more precarious state . At length , she was broughtto Nellore for medical treatmen t
,and for a time eu
couraging hopes were entertained regarding her. Buta change came, and although all was done that love andskill could do, on the 9th of October, 1 877 , she passed
MEMORIA L SKETCH . 21 9
away to the better land . Her remains were interred inthe Nellore Cemetery . Judged by the standard ofmonths and years
,her service was Short ; but reckoned
by her heart ’s love for perishing souls,and her S incere
consecration to the work of bringing them to Christ, itwas long.
REV. S . W . NICHO LS — H e was born in Vermont, andat his conversion became a member of the church inBurlington . He. studied at Madison University
, and
was ordained at Brookfield, N. Y .,September 26
,1 877 .
After spending a year in the pastorate,he offered him
self for foreign missionary service,and in pursuance of
his appointment,reached India in company with Mrs.
Nichols In December, 1 878 . He was stationed at Madras, to labor in co-operation with his father-in- law
,Dr.
Jewett. He entered on the work of preparation withearnest purpose
,but most Of the time he was struggl ing
to bear up under increasing disease. The last few mon thsof his life were spent amid much depression and sufl
’
er
ing. On December 8, 1 880, having been only two yearsin India
,he died at Madras
,aged about thirty-four years .
M RS . N ICH O LS — Miss Hattie Jewett, wife of Rev. S.
W . Ni chols, and daughter of Dr . and Mrs. Jewett, wasborn at Nellore
,in 1 854. She went to America w ith
her parents when she was nearly seven years O ld , whereshe remained un til her return to this country as Mrs.Nichols . She graduated from the high school at Gran dRapids
,Michigan
,and the normal school at Oswego,
220 HISTORY OF TH E TELUGU MISSIO N.
Having spen t her earlier years in this coun try, theTelugu language came to her more readily on her return,and she was able to enter upon zenana teaching andother branches of mission work comparat ively soon .
Her energy and ability gave promise of much usefulness
, but in 1 831 her health began to decline, and shegradually sank until
,on the 1 7th day of December,
1 881,a year after the death of her husband , she passed
beyond the veil,at the age of twenty-seven. Her rest
ing-place is by that of her husband, in the Pursewaukum
Cemetery,at Madras .
REV. D . K. RAYL .—A feeling of peculiar sadness is
awakened by the recollection of this dear brother ; hisearnest purposes and plan s ended in such early disappointment. With him,
the sun went down while it washigh noon. He was in India only about one year and
a half,and the latter part of that period was spent in
struggling with an incurable malady.
Brother Rayl was born at Fredericksburg, Ohio, Jahuary 8, 1 849. Soon after his conversion
,he felt drawn
toward the work of the Christian ministry. Desiringmental culture, he succeeded in taking a course of studyat Den ison Un iversity
,Granville
,Ohio
,and subsequently
at the theological seminary at Morgan Park . Responding to the earnest call for more laborers in the Telugumissions
,he received an appointment
,was ordained Au
gust 1 6,1882
,and with Mrs. Rayl
,landed in India in
November,1 882. He was located at Ongole, and besides
studying the Telugu language, assisted in the work of
the mission as he was able, especially after Dr. Clough’s
222 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU M IS S ION.
It was in their hearts to serve God in India,but such
service was not long permitted them. And it is the heartthat God takes special c ognizance of.
REV. A . V. TIM PANY .— Most prominent and useful
among the workers in India was Rev .A . V.Timpany. Hewas a burn ing and a shin ing light in both these m issions,and his name will long remain sacredly enshrin ed in thememories of his co- laborers both in India and America,and also in the hearts of multitudes of Telugu Christians.He was born at Vienna, Ontario, Canada, December
21,1 840 ; was educated at the VVO Odstock Institute, or
dained at Brantford,October 1 4, 1 867 , and being called
of God to the foreign missionary service, came to Indiaunder appointment of the American Baptist MissionaryUnion. He and his wife landed at Madras in April,1 868 . After spending the period of preparation at Nellore
,he removed in February
, 1 870, to Ramapatam,
where he opened a new station, and cultivated the fieldw ith great devotion and marked success. The name ofA. V. Timpany seems inseparably connected with Ramapatam . When the theological seminary was commen cedin April
, 1 872, Brother Timpany was put in charge of itas temporary principal un til Rev. R . R. Williams wassent out especially for that work . Being an assiduousstudent of the Telugu language
,and deeply interested in
Bible work and all measures designed to upl ift and blessthe people
,he was chosen as one of the Telugu Revision
Committee of the Madras Auxiliary Bible Society. Hedevoted to literary efforts the time that could be spared
MEMORIAL SK ETCH . 223
from his active evangelistic work, and prepared and published a “ Compendium of Theology in Telugu .
In 1 876, he and“his fami ly went to America on fur
lough,and while at home his transfer from the Ameri
can to the Canadian Mission was effected most amicably.
Afte r rendering very efficient service to the mission during his stay in Canada
,he returned under the auspices
of the Board O f Ontario and Quebec. He arrived in
India,the second time, in December, 1 878 , and was sta
tioned at Cocanada, Mr. M cLaurin removing to Samulcotta to take charge of the newly established seminary.
Re—entering upon the mission work with his accustomedzeal and vigor
,he continued to sow the seed and reap the
harvest, to pray, and rej oi ce, and hope, until called torest. To him the cal l came very suddenly. On the 19thof February
,1 885, at h is home at Cocanada, in a few
hours he passed from his usual state of health to thegrave . In the morning he was seized with cholera
,and
in the evening was buried .
A noble- spirited man ; a zealous, faithful, wise, suc
cessful missionary ; a warm-hearted,true friend "The
tidings of his sudden departure sent a peculiarly sharppang of grief through all our hearts throughout all theborders of the Telugu Mission . But to whom,
if not tohim
,shall the Master’s approval be spoken
,
“ Well done,
good and faithful servant"”
M RS . DRAKE— Mrs . Drake was born Jun e 20, 1 854,n ear Niagara, Canada. She was a daughter of Rev.
John Alexander,at present pastor of one of the Baptist
churches in Toronto . She came to India as M iss Isabella
224 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU MISSION.
Alexander. She had the full confidence of the BaptistMissionary Society of Ontario and Quebec, under whoseauspices S he was sent out, was beloved by members in thechurches wherever she was known
,and was followed by
their prayers. She sailed from Boston October 6,1 887 .
O n the 1 7th of January, 1 888, she was married at Cocanada
,to Rev. D . H . Drake, of the American Baptist
Telugu Mission,and soon after settled at Perambore,
Madras,where Mr. Drake was stationed . Here she en
tered at once on the study of the Te lugu language,and
engaged in active Christian work wherever an opportunityofl
’
ered,and here, for three years, she gave herself most
earnestly and faithfully to the work of Telugu evangelization and instruction . When Mr. Drake took the pastorate of the English-speaking Baptist church in Vepery,Madras
,they removed to that part of the city, and there
she continued to labor assiduously up to the last,both
as a pastor’s wife and as a missionary. On Sunday,Sep
tember 20th, she taught her Sunday-school class as usualin the aftern oon , came home feeling ill, w as seized withcholera
,and on Monday morn ing met death with perfect
resignation and Christian hope. Her body rests in St.Andrew’s Cemetery
,Madras
,n ear the grave of another
devoted Telugu missionary,Rev. N . M. Waterbury, who
fell asleep in Jesus at Perambore, in November, 1 886 .
As a friend,Mrs. Drake was genial
,hospitable, warm
hearted ; as a missionary, earnest, faithful, and loving,constantly engaged in the work for which the Lordcalled her to India. Beloved by all her fellow missionaries
,both in her own society and in others
,and by
all the native Christians who came within the range O f
226 HISTORY OF THE TELUGU M IS SION.
We have reached the end of our allotte'
tl task . Theresults of these fifty-six years Of seed-sowing and harvestamong the Telugus are ample to cal l forth our profoundest gratitude to the God of missions. But it Should alsobe borne in mind that what has been done
,is as nothing
compared to what yet remains to be accomplished. Notyet can the Saviour see of the travail of his soul and besatisfied . Nor will he
,until these thousands who have
been redeemed shall be multipl ied by tens and hundredsof thousands— nay, not till this whole Telugu peopleS hall be brought to Christ
,and he by them be crowned
Lord of all.”
TH E
GENERAL INDE".
PAGE
Abbott, Re v . E. L. : associated
goin g to BurmaAryans :
w arl ike character ofAshmore, Dr. visits to m ission s
74,75
A sia, Central : m ix ed races from.. 7
Atmakur : visit of M r. Day to 43
Bapatla : situation of. 1 87
church organiz ed . 1 88
securin g a bungalow 1 89
d ifferen ce w ith Lutheran s at 1 90
Board , Woman ’ s : “ H om e ” of atNew ton Centre
contribution s of forsen ding m ission ary
Boggs , Rev . W. B . : arrivin g at
1 16
at O ngole 1 1 7
appoin ted to 127
at Ramapatam .. 147
chosen president of seminary 148
appoin ted first by Can adianBoard . 1 7 1
,1 72
at Cumbum 173, 1 74
a rai lw ay con tractor 174
succumbing to fever . 1 75
Brahm an s “
: w itn essing a bapt ism 58
fail ing as re l igious 1 10
deceiving th e people 1 95 , 196
Brahman i sm : foll ow ing 20
and other creeds . 209
Brigh t,Dr. Ed w ard 46
Campbell,Rev . w . 155
,157
,
1 58,
50
51
51
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
PAGE
Bucknell , M r . Wi lliam : gift of forschoolcon tribut ing library for Ramapatam 148
Buddh ism : a past faith in India 210
Bull ard,Rev .E 66
,1 88-191
Burditt,Rev . J. F . : tran sferred
toN ellore . .appointed to Udayagiri .building a chapel
Burmese : progen itors of
Canak iah : conversion of.married to Juli arecord of
Canal,Buck ingham : n am ed forduk e of
conven ience ofCarey, Dr. : tran slators aided
by .
Caste : orders i na rel igious in stitutionn ames of cl assesobstacl e to Christian ity in
India 24 156
losing its hold 25
H induism dependen t on 25
l ast thing surrendered 81,82
not yielded to 83
m embers of cas te reached 1 62
di ssatisfacti on w i th 210
C h and aloor : meetings at 1 30
Chu te . Rev . Elbert 155, 156 , 157 , 1 62
227
‘
228
PAGE
Clough,Rev . John E. arriving atNellore 61
visit to O n 62
removal to O ngole 64
en couraging N ellore 72
associated w i th O ngol e 77 78
building a chapel 78
visiting 79 80
holding precious m eetings 80
starting a vernacu lar school 84
a missionary of one idea 85
touring 86 88return to Un i ted S tates 88
securing m en and m ean s 90 , 91
a canal con tractor 102,1 09
secretary of relief comm i ttee, 103keeping c‘on verts from bap
attachment of n atives to 1 19
raismg endowm ent for O n
gole schoolw elcom ed homeraising endowmen t. for Ramapatamassum ing extrainfluen ce recogn ized .
Cumbum : large accessionssituat ion of
sharing infield too
Day, Rev . S . S founder of Telugu
at Vizagapatamat M adras .building athealth declin ing an d restored
38 39
position of as to schools 42
tour to Udayagiri 42,43
health fai ling againat 159
sketch of 214
Day, M rs S . S . : sketch 215
GENERAL INDE".
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O
O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O
England : bl essings secured to
India,
appeal to for aidfam ine reliefinfluenced by India
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
o o o o o o oo
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
G hau ts,Eastern : highest peak of.
G hau ts,Western : influence
G rose, J .
,Esq . : chairman of fam
ine comm ittee
9
10
PAG B
Deccan,th e : mean ing of term 150
l im its of its territory 150
Digby,W.,Esq 103
,106
Down ie,Rev . D. : designated to
Telugu M ission 67
rebui ldin g 69
advancing school interests 69 70reaching th e Red d is 70
building a new chapel 72
w ife’s health failing. 75
secretary of rel ief committee 1 04address by . 204
thanks due to 2116
Douglass,Rev . F. A 50 , 56, 58, 59
Drake,Rev . D . 166
,184
Drake,M rs. D . IL : sketch of. .223, 224
Dravidian : race s so-cal led 8
languages 16 1 7
Famine in year 1877 70
inciden t to India 93
approach of 94
horrors of 95 96
people driven to town s by 97
inadequacy of relief for 98
grapp ling w ith distress 99
subscription s to relieve 100 101
351113110 works to meet 101
aid for from abroad 102
means ruin to farmers 104
deaths from 107
fam in e subscription s 107
related to great in 1 09
Friesen,Rev . A 158
,163
230 GENERAL INDE".
PAGE
M adras Presiden cy irrigated land
products ofpopu lation ingovernm ent of, importing
M ahabharata : character of.fifth y eda t
M adras : Telugus i n3,Tamil city t
formation of English Bapt istchurch 29
removal of M r. Douglass 56
famin e relief comm ittee in 1 03
importance of 1 76 1 77
a m issionary station at 1 78
mission church organ ized at 1 78
dedication of chapel at 183
w ork slow at 185
M an ley, Rev . W. R 123,
202 298 t
M an sion H ouse : fund of 102,103
M anu : law s of 21
n ot n ow wholly observed 23
quotation from 23, 24
M aplesden , Rev . R 127,158, 192, 193
M cLaurin,Rev . John : association
of w ith M r. Clough 87 88
fill ing M r. Clough’s place 88 89
difficu lt position oforgan iz ing a new m ission
M issionaries : treatment of changed 1 75, 176
for th e 35
M plormg for addi tional help. 54
n eeding first year for 67
uny ield ing to caste prej u
dices 81 82
M ohammedan : invasion s 12
M organ , Rev . F. E 1 66- 171
M onsoons : n umber of 9
influen ce of on 9
effect on rains 10
famine due to fai lure of 93
failing in S outh India 93, 94
Nalgonda
N el lore : low est temperature atgreat tank ofquestion of abandon ing mission at
M r. Day removing torai lway con nectionchief ci ty of districtderivation of namesuperstition at
progress in its schools.church organ ized atdisaster in chu rch atvisit of M essrs. Peck and
G ranger toreport fromchurch at reorgan izedearnest spirit atw eaken ing by w ithdraw alsfrom . 64
arri val of M r. Down ie at 67
flood at 68
schoolh ouse and dormitories 69
a new chapel 72 73
girls’ sem inary at 73
relief measures at 104, 105, 106
j ubi lee at 204
N el lore District : average temperature of
rain fal l indimen sion s of
New comb,Rev . John
Newhall , Rev . A . A
—162
Newhal l,M rs. A . A : sketch of 218
New ton Centre : H ome at 67
Nichols,Rev . and M rs. S . W
sketch 219
Nizam : dom in ion s of 8 9 151
British Resident w i th 12
territory of 151
Nu rsaraopetta 19 1 193
Nursu,Christian : at O ngole 48
,49
peaceful death of 55
GENERAL INDE". 231
PAGE
O ngole : prayer meeting 48
first con vert at 57
M r. Clough visi ts 62
baptisms at 63
si tuation 77
chapel built at 78 79
opposi tion to converts at 81
increas e of church a t . 84
bapti stery at 86
dissatis fac tion at 89
l arge addit ion s to church In 1 1 1
relief O peration s closed in 1 13
cyclon e at 1 17
ord in ation of n ative preachers at 1 20
,121
, 122, 123
high school at 124 - 126
school at , seeking coll egegrade 126
con trast in 207
siz e of church at 127
field at 127
new m issionaries at 131 , 132
subject to dangers 132,1 33
an addit ion to th e force at 134
t e-subdivis ion of n eeded,
1 33
Pariahs : positio n 1 f
Palmur : situat ion ofpecu l iari ty of w ork atsecuring groun d atopposition at
Persian s : in vasion s byPeriah : conversion ofusefuln ess of
Pri ce , Rev . W. I
Ptolemy : phrase fromPuranas : gods en umerated
Ramapatam : station to be atm ission ariesvisit s of Drs. Ashmore and
M abie 75, 76, 129
situat ion ofacquirement of property 136
PAGE
organ iz ation of
tO Q O Q
medical m is sionRama : war w ith Rav anahRam iah : conversion of
success ofRayl , Rev . D . K
sketch ofRayl , M rs. D . K . sketch ofRed d is : importance ofRig-Veda : quotation from
S an skrit : differing from Dravi
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O
0 0 0 0 .
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Ramapatam
churches at 137
fie ld at divided 138
theological sem inary at 142, 145,
146
149
1 96
70
71
71 72
128
220
221
70
12
17
books ofTu lugus in 1 8
S cythian s : relation of to India 15
S chools : boarding and 55,56
paying for at tendan ce at 55,56
in hopeful condit ion 59
governm en t gran t-in-aid for 67
demand for 69
Anglo-vernacu lar 85
great demand for 124
at M ad ras 185
at Bapatla 189
importan ce of 208
S ecunderabad : situation of 9
fall of thermometer at 9
su ccessful w ork at 152 153
holding property at 154
M r. Loughridge at 159
S illim an,Rev .E. E 1 70
,171
,181
Sm ith , S . F .,D. D . author of
poem Lo ne S tar ” 46,47
honored by Lyd ia 54
visit to N el lore 73
at Ramapa tam 147
S ociety : London M i ssionary ; firstin Telugu field
mi ssion begu n in 1800
232
PAGE
S ociety : Friend- in-n eed, 99 100
S tar, Lone th e poem 46
jubilee of 203
infl uence of 206
Telugu coun try : governm en t of.. 1 1
boundaries of.. 8
l ati tude of 9
agricul ture in 14
first convert of bapt ized 36
d ark hour a t th e m ission 39
Telugus : cal led Andhras 8
origin of 1 5
am algamation of. 1 6
physical stature of 1 6
language 1 6
members 1 8
not m igratory . 18 19
in Nizam ’s domin ion s 1 8
in B ritish Burma 1 9
religion 20
ten acious of caste . 22
first m ission among 27
first Protestant chapel among. 28
resu lts among calling for
grat itudeTelugu : derivat ion of
M ission ,question of discon
t inuance 45,60
Testam en t,New : version of in
TeluguTestament
,O ld : tran slated in to
27
portion s of prin ted 28
Th omssen,Rev . G . N 127
,171 , 194—197
Timpany, Rev . A . V. j oin ing th em ission
removal to Ramapa tam
return ing to America
GENERAL INDE".
PAGE
Timpany, Rev . A. V. : presidentof Ramapatam
sketch of.
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
O O O O O O O O O O O O
O O O O O O O O O O O O O O QQ O O O O
O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Udayagiri : M r. Day’s v isit to 42 43
m eaning of term 198
heathen soi l at . 199
chape l build at 201
Un ion , M i ssionary : meeting of atA lbany
at Providenceproposed w ork for
Van H usen , Rev . S . : appointedto th e Telugusvisiting O ngoleleaving Nel loresketch of
Van H usen , M rs. : sketch of.Vedism : earliest form of rel igion
in IndiaVenk appah : first Telugu con vert.Vizagapatam condition at in
1 835
Waterbury, Rev . N. M . : sent toM adras 1 79
putting h is life in h is w ork 1 80
securing a chapel . 1 81
death of 182
W i l l iams,M on ier : quotation from 21
William s , Rev . R. R. : designatedto Ramapatam 143
,144
l abors and success of 145
securing money for semin arybuilding 147 , 148
leaving for home 148
W il liams,M rs. R. R. : sketch of 216
Winds,
“ hot character of 1 1