Arthur Douglas, missionary on Lake Nyasa : the story of his life

Front matter

ARTHUR DOUGLAS ^.THE STORY OF " HIS LIFE

The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.

Preface

Very nearly a year has passed away since the subject of this memoir met his death on the shores of Lake Nyasa at the hands of a Portuguese corporal.

Arthur Douglas was out in Africa as a Christian missionary. The only " offence " which he committed was that of protecting some native girls from the unruly lust of another white man.

It is certainly not straining language, therefore, to say that he died a martyr's death.

At the kind request of his brothers and sisters and of the Universities' Mission I undertook this memoir, and its compilation has been a labour of love.

It has been my object to let the letters tell their own story, and it will be seen that they do, in no small degree, give a vivid picture of Douglas' life in Africa first at Kota Kota, then at Likoma, and lastly at S. Michael's College, while the letters themselves are supplemented here and there with recollections of their author which have been kindly sent to me by several of his fellow-workers in the Mission.

In the earlier chapters especially, and indeed throughout, I have been greatly helped by those who were nearest and dearest to him.

The two golden threads which run through his whole career are, I think, dutifulness and prayerfulness. Coming

V from an almost ideal home he had early learnt the lesson of implicit obedience to duty ; and as soon as he arrived at Ely the habit of prayer, which he had no doubt in the same way formed in childhood, began to grow and deepen. How beautifully these two threads wove themselves into his after life this little volume abundantly shows.

I pray God that the perusal of these letters may suggest the question to more than one reader — Am I too called to this blessed work, the work of Christ in Central Africa ?

B. W. RANDOLPH.

Clergy House of Rest, West Malvern.

Translation of King Edxvard the Confessor, 1912.

VI

Contents

CHAPTER PASE

Preface ........ v

I. Home and Early Life, 1871-1885 . . . i

Appendix

Retreat Addresses : The Mountain of the Transfiguration . . . 285 Ventures of Faith ....... 290

S. Peter's Denial ....... 296

The Great Commission . . . . . .301

MAPS .306

INDEX 308

Vil

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Rev. Arthur Jeffreys Douglas

Arthur Douglas, aged 3, 5 and 9 years

Arthur and Gerald Douglas, 1885

Marlborough College Chapel

Lincoln College, Oxford

Ely Theological College Chapel

Arthur Douglas, 1894

S. Edmund's, Salisbury .

Salwarpe Rectory

Salwarpe Church .

Salwarpe Rectory and Group

Salwarpe Church (Exterior)

Arthur Douglas, 1901

Salwarpe River and Church

Chiromo, River SniRi;

kota kota

The Mission Steamer " Chauncy Maples "

Girls Drilling Outside Church, Kota Kota

Kota Kota School-boys

Kota Kota Church (East End)

Kota Kota Church (West End)

Mr. Douglas mending his Boots

Mr. Douglas on his Donkey .

LiKOMA Island

LiKOMA Cathedral

Native Hospital, Likoma

Football at Likoma

Sunday at Likoma

Mr. Douglas leaving Likoma, 1907

On the River SniRi;

Mtonya .....

S. Michael's College Students

A Missionary Travelling

Pounding Corn

S. Michael's College Chapel

Chapel on the " Chauncy Maples

Maps

East Central Africa Lake Nyasa

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VIU

ARTHUR DOUGLAS THE STORY OF HIS LIFE

Chapter I Home And Early Life, 1871-1885

Arthur Jeffreys Douglas was born at Salwarpe Rectory near Droitwich on October 9, 1871. His -father was the Rev. WiUiam Douglas and his mother was a sister of Bishop Walsham How.

Arthur was the youngest but one of a very large family. His birth is entered by Mrs. Douglas in her Diary in the following terms : " Our 15th child and 6th boy was born about one o'clock " ; and his baptism she records a few weeks later, on Sunday November 12. Two little stories are told of Arthur when he was quite young, both of which illustrate the gentleness and courtesy and care for other people's feelings which were characteristic features of his later life.

When he was eight years old he had a bad illness ; during its course his mind wandered at times, but even in this condition his innate courtesy did not desert him, for on one occasion when he was unconscious he said to his aunt who was nursing him, " Would you be so very kind as to help me lift the coal-box ? "

Another day, when he and his brothers and sisters were skating, and one of them had to be sent back to fetch a gimlet, Arthur called after him, " Don't run up the drive for fear mother should think there has been an accident." It was his mother who taught him and his brothers before they went to school, carefully grounding them in Latin and other subjects. In 1881, when he was nine years old, he was sent to Mr. Lloyd's preparatory school at Hartford House, Winchfield.

The following letter, written to one of his sisters soon after his arrival, refers to the choir and schools at Salwarpe, which were to be such an interest to him in later years :

Hartford House, Oct. 23, 1881.

" Thank you very much for your jolly letter. I am top in my class for the exam., which I did not expect to be at all. ... It is most awfully cold getting up in the morning now ; we get up at half-past six on week-days and at half-past eight on Sundays. ... I suppose you have not got surplices for the choir yet' — has anything more been said about them ? How are the new schools getting on ? I wonder when they will be finished. I wonder whether they will be finished before the holidays. ..."

The following letter illustrates his fondness for riding and his interest in football :

Hartford House, Feb. 12, 1882.

" I am so very sorry that I forgot your birthday. I am looking forward to to-morrow, when I shall see father and mother — it will be awfully jolly. I had such great fun yesterday. One of the masters came up into the playground, which is altogether about the size of the ' Long Meadow,' on Mr. Lloyd's horse, and asked me if I should like to have a ride. Of course I said I should, so I got on, and he let me go four times round. It's such an awfully jolly horse, so very big, and he let me canter about by myself — he is so awfully jolly. . . . We are going to have the Wellington match next Saturday, it will be awfully exciting as our fifteen has grown much worse because of D. going ; before we used to beat them always, but now I am afraid it is rather a bad look out for us. . . ."

There is at least one point in one of his childish letters to which attention may be drawn. He is writing from school when nine and a half years old to his brother Gerald, aged five and a half, and he asks anxiously what he (Gerald) thinks of the Report !

" I wonder if you have had my report yet ; I did not do quite so well as I expected. . . . Mind to tell me whether you think my report good or bad. I'm afraid it will not be so good as last time. ..."

The following extract was found in one of his letters written about this time to his father :

" On the way to the Lord's house be thoughtful and silent or say but little and that little good. Speak not of other men's falts but think of your own of which you are going to ask forgiveness. When you reach the church never stay outside go in at once. Time spent within is exceedingly precious. In church kneel down very humbly and pray. Spend the time that remains in holy thought. In prayer remember the awful Presence in which you have come. Never look about to see who are coming in for any cause whatever. It matters not to you what others may be doing attend to yourself. Fasten your thoughts firmly on the Holy Service miss not one word. This need a severe strugle. The Blessed Sprit will strenthen you if you persevere. When service is over remain kneeling and pray. Be silent and speak to know one till you are outside. Do not cover your head untill you have left the porch. The charch is Gods house even when prayer is over. On going home be careful of your talk. The world will soon slip back into your mind. Love prayer and praise best. Preaching is but the help of that heavenly work."

The explanation of the above has been kindly given by Mr. E. W. M. Lloyd, Arthur's former headmaster. The paper is, he says, " a copy of a notice, framed and glazed, hanging up in the entrance porch of our church here (at Winchfield). The author's name is not given, nor do I know who it was — ^possibly George Herbert or Jeremy Taylor — but these are only guesses on my part. I had no idea that any of my boys had ever copied it out. It is very touching to think that Arthur did so. I think he must have got another boy to read it aloud to him while he wrote it, otherwise the mistakes in spelling would not have occurred." Mr. Lloyd adds: " Arthur was one of the very best boys I ever had in my school, and I was so grieved to hear of his sad death ; and yet it was a glorious death, that of a martyr."

There is nothing of special importance in these early days to chronicle ; but the following account, written by one of his sisters, gives a picture of the happy home life of the large family at Salwarpe.

" All through our nursery days there are few moments that I can recall with any clearness, a fact v/hich points to the even, happy, uneventful life of those years spent in that ideal nursery, whence, through barred windows, we looked across the lawn to the beautiful old church tower and to the rookery in the elms to the left of it. The nursery walls were bright with pictures out of the Christmas numbers of illustrated papers, and on the floor was a gay worsted-work carpet, worn threadbare in places, so that one of our favourite indoor occupations was to work over the ^bare canVas with brightly coloured wools, pattern and colour being left to our own choice.

" We loved games of all kinds, and time never hung heavy. Our chief delight was in ' dressing up,' and from those early days onwards Arthur took the keenest delight in acting. He was a nervous little boy, but nervousness and shyness were forgotten at such times, and this dramatic gift was his all through life ; his preaching, his letters, his teaching were always graphic. He was a peculiarly sensitive little boy, and this sensitiveness made him remarkably considerate of the feelings of others. An instance of this stands out clearly : One of us had been given a large

ARTHUR AND GERALD DOUGLAS, It pot of lemon marmalade, which was to be shared by the whole schoolroom party ; schoolroom fare was of the simplest, and we had looked forward eagerly to this unusual treat. But, alas ! the owner of the pot dropped it on the floor, and bitter was her grief. Arthur, quite a tiny fellow, seeing the accident, came quickly upstairs to find one of his sisters, and to beg her not to take any notice of what had happened.

" He was nervous and timid, two years younger than I was, and I remember his terror of a broken-off elm branch with which I used to chase him, making it spring along the Ikwn like an uncanny beast. I remember too how, when I would have trespassed into a field in spite of the warning notice-board, he hung back, fearing to break the law : and again, when for the first time in our lives we were allowed to go on a short journey by ourselves, he begged me not to get out at the station (though we both knew it was the right one) until we had seen the name on the station board.

" But in spite. of this natural timidity, he was plucky and courageous, and early learnt to discipUne himself and to exercise self-control. He was fond of riding, cricket, and football : whatever he did he did with his whole heart in it, and this determination to do the right whatever the cost must have been always noticeable. He loved country life, and was a very keen little botanist.

" From the time that he went to school he became a hero in my eyes. For his first home-coming for the hoUdays coloured handkerchiefs tied on sticks were hung out for him from the windows. How proud we felt, as we walked from the station with him, and how grown-up and loud I thought his voice had become, though he certainly never gave himself any school-boy airs.

" Always for the last day or two of the holidays a deadly feeling was in the air, and though I never remember anything being said, we knew that he was fighting against an overwhelming longing not to return to school ; when older he owned to having longed as a small boy that he might break a leg so that the dreadful day should be postponed. It is comforting to know that he was quite happy when once the new term had started : he loved both his schools, and naade many friends, and often invited them to spend part of the holidays with him at home.

"Up to the time that he went to school, Arthur, like the rest of the brothers, was taught by our mother, who grounded him well in Latin.

" He was very fond of music, but it was not until he went to Marlborough that he made up his mind to learn the violin. He had a good ear, and though he had not a very strong treble voice he sang carefully and with all his might : he loved the choir practices, and when quite a little fellow sang solos at the parish concerts.

" Through his boyhood as in his later years his reverence was always very marked. As he grew older no joke and no story bordering on the flippant could ever be told when he was in the room, without the teller regretting it : his silence, and perhaps a passing look of pain, made one immediately realise the flippancy if one had not done so before. But all other jokes he loved, however small, for his sense of humour was very keen."

Chapter II Marlborough, Oxford, Ely, 1885-1894

In September 1885 Arthur went to Marlborough, where he had gained a Foundation scholarship. In the following year he was confirmed at Salwarpe, his mother noting in her Diary, under date May 2 : "In the afternoon the Bishop came for the Confirmation, 36 candidates, 20 being our own, among them dear Arthur."

One of his sisters writes :

" Arthur was the only brother, I think, confirmed at home ; it was on the first Sunday after Easter, May 2, 1886. He was in the choir in his surplice, and I was sitting at the west end of the church and saw his face either as he returned to his seat or as he came with the choir in procession leaving the church. It had the most intensely earnest look on it, as if he were almost overwhelmed with what had happened, and was resolutely set on being the faithful soldier and servant unto his hfe's end."

On May 3, writes his mother in her Diary, " Early Communion. Arthur made his first Communion, and left us for Marlborough."

"Douglas," writes Mr. A. C. Champneys, who was at that time a master at Marlborough, " was a boy who could be trusted to do his work or anything else that was his duty. He was very cheerful and friendly, and with a decided sense of humour. He was rather small for his age air the time that he was at school, which handicapped him in games, but I remember his special pluck and determination as ' back ' in the House matches, which, considering his size, impressed his House and others as much as it did me. He was head prefect of his House before he left, and I remember his trustworthiness and good sense in a position which was, I fancy, none too easy. ... He was in the House known as B2 having the crescent for its badge ; it is curious that G. W. Atlay, also in the Universities' Mission, and who was killed in Nyasaland in 1895, was in the same House."

He appears to have been, as a boy and also in later life, naturally very sensitive, but this did not make him morose or touchy, but very careful of the feelings of others. His obedience and his deep sense of reverence were strong points in his character, and as he grew up he looked with great disfavour on anything approaching irreverence.

His love for the beautiful is shown in his letter written from Marlborough, in which he describes the opening of the new Chapel, dated October 3, 1886.

" I have just come in from Chapel," he writes, " so will have some time to write to you before dinner. First of all, I must tell you about Wednesday. The day was very fine here. The service was at eleven o'clock. The choir, prefects, masters and clergy, with the Bishops of Salisbury and Bath and Wells, formed in procession and walked round the outside of the Chapel singing hymns. After the keys had been handed to the Bishop and the petition for consecration had been read by the Earl of Devon, the procession entered and walked up the aisle chanting the psalm, ' Lift up your heads, O ye Gates.' The hymn Veni Creator was then sung to a beautiful tune, the first [verse] being sung as a solo. Dr. Bradley, Dean of Westminster, preached a very nice sermon.

" Of course Archdeacon Farrar was there and read the Gospel. The offertory amounted to £104 odd, besides £60 for a painted window. The service lasted about two hours and a half. I cannot describe how beautiful the Chapel itself is. The seats are oak, facing one another to the north and south, with an aisle up the middle. The teredos is very tall, made of carved stone with groups of figures in it. I don't much care for the windows, though I believe they are good, nor for the pictures underneath the windows, though they are exceedingly costly. There is a gallery at the west end beautifully decorated and finished off. Try and see the Graphic for this week as that gives you some idea of Marlborough. The floor of the Chapel is of polished wooden bricks which scarcely make any noise at all. The ceiling is magnificently decorated, and I don't think the whole inside of the Chapel could be more costly, though it is not quite finished yet."

He goes on to ask if he may attend a course of lectures on mammals, &c., by Professor Bell of the British Museum.

He spent five more years at Marlborough which passed happily and uneventfully. At the end of 1889 he tried for a scholarship at Keble, as the following letter will show :

The College, Dec. i, 1889.

" I don't believe I have written to you since we last saw each other ; so I shall begin a letter now before dinner. I hear you have begun a debating society at Ivy Bank, and that K. and J. spoke at the first debate. I should have liked to have heard them. Were they very gesticulative and did they wave their arms about ?

" I daresay you know that I go up to Keble on the 9th — to-morrow week, and between ourselves I shall be -very glad when it is over ; perhaps it would make it even worse, if I thought I had more chance of getting a scholarship ; but they only give one classical scholarship and one exhibition. They put me up and feed me in college, which is rather a comfort, for the moderate sum of 25s., during the time of the examination.

" Every Sunday afternoon I go to Mr. Pollock's musical ' at homes.' You know who I mean, don't you ? I enjoy them immensely, though, perhaps, hardly as much now as I used to, because he found out a month ago that I played the fiddle a little, so has since that always asked me to bring it. However I think I am getting over my nervousness of playing before people. I find there is nothing like reading the lessons in Chapel to get rid of nervousness.

" Did you hear of me being ' honourably mentioned ' for the Buchanan School Reading Prize ? The prize is open to the whole school. I had no intention of going in for it, till Mr. Champneys asked me to. After the first day's competition twelve of us were selected to read again, and on the first list the judges brought me out third. The first two got the prizes and I was ' hony. yd.' ; I should very much have hked to have got one of the school prizes, and being so near it was the more aggravating. However being a bad reader-out-loud, I was not a bit worth it." It was rather a terrible ordeal, as the reading was held in a big hall, open to all the school to come and hear.

" I have just received an august visitor, viz. Mr. Bell, who brought Mr. Arthur Ingram ^ up to see his old study, and the latter recognised me for a Douglas. I don't think I should have known him. He preached in Chapel this morning."

He was not successful at Keble, but later he gained a Classical Exhibition at Lincoln College,- Oxford, and entered there in October 1890.

His first impressions of Oxford are described in the following letter to one of his sisters :

Lincoln College, Oct. 19, 1890.

" I told W. that I would write to you when I got settled, so as I have a very long evening before me I wiU tell you of my first week at Oxford, and really there is so much to tell that I don't know where to begin. At present I feel in a most dissipated condition ; and when I am not at lectures my time is mostly taken up with breakfasts, teas, and coffees in other men's rooms and in returning calls, the latter of which so far take up all time from 4 to 6 in the afternoon. It isn't etiquette for freshmen to leave cards, so they have to go on calling till they find the occupants of the rooms ' in.' I should think I have been to some rooms a dozen

' Now Bishop of London. 10 times, but at last I am thankful to say the majority are done, although I expect a good many more will come. In o'ne way it is rather exciting calUng, as one doesn't know in the least what sort of a man has been to see you, as the seniors make a point of calling when you are out, so that they may simply leave their card. Everybody is so pleasant and friendly here, and by this time I have got to know most of the nicest men, though I see most of the ' freshers,' who seem a specially sociable lot.

" Yesterday I had the honour to play football for the College against Exeter, whom we beat — ^unexpectedly as they are supposed to be good. As I was commended at the end of the game, I hope I shall be asked to play again. It was my first game of football this season. I was specially glad to be asked to play as I have so got to know some of the leading men in the College. After playing I went to see Reggie Chesshire who had called on me. Of course I have seen a very large number of O.M's. Here there are two others besides myself, Chambers and a son of the town doctor at Marlborough, Morrice by name. The way I mostly spend my days is — Chapel at 8 o'clock, breakfast in my own or somebody else's room at 8.30, lectures or private reading from 10 to i, lunch 1.30, dinner at 7 o'clock, and as a rule, coffee in somebody else's room afterwards. Thus you see at present I am having a thoroughly lazy time, but I hope in another week I shall have sobered down, and certainly so far, I have seen the pleasant side of Oxford life.

" I went down to the boats on Thursday to be trained in rowing, but this term I shall play as much football as possible, though I believe it is difficult to get a game unless I play for the College.

" I have joined the Union, the big club and debating society up here. I find almost everybody joins, especially at colleges like Lincoln where there is no common-room. I have also been asked to join the Union Musical Society, and I think possibly next term, if not this, I shall do so. It is specially useful for fiddlers, as there are special classes free of extra charge for practising quartettes, &c. There are several very musical men I know who have strongly

II advised me to join. There is one other fiddler in college besides myself. I went to play in his rooms a few nights ago. He is going to take a musical degree.

" I haVen't told you how I spend my Sundays. The times of the services appear to a freshman rather inconvenient. There is the ordinary morning service, without sermon, and a Celebration at 8 o'clock, and Evensong at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. We only have two sermons a term, one to-day, being Hospital Sunday, from our Rector.

" There is a College Debating Society which holds its meetings every Sunday evening. I expect it is one of the best ways of spending Sunday evening here especially as it is a very long evening. Dinner on Sunday is at 6. I went to the debate last Sunday, but to-night did not feel inclined to, so have been writing to you instead. It was so joUy having F.i for an afternoon. I have got very small rooms, but the porter told me I should be able to change them at the end of the term or at any rate two terms, and now I have made them quite comfortable."

A college friend writes to one of Arthur's sisters :

" Your brother Arthur was the closest of my friends during all the four years we were together as undergraduates at Lincoln College, 1890-4. The first of my many reading parties was when we went off together with two others of our year in our first long vacation to Lynmouth. Many Sunday mornings, too, in term time we came together, he bringing his violin to my rooms, and against all CoUege rules we played together for an hour or so, despite longsuffering Dons. When he went down, and I stayed on at Oxford, out of all my friends I missed no one quite so much. And our correspondence together spread over twenty years. If it grew less frequent towards the end, that was due to my laziness and his manifold activities. Of him and of one other, also a Marlburian who has since passed away, I preserve the most lively and regretful memory. At college he was universally liked and esteemed. We drifted in

' His eldest sister. 12 different directions, he to the football field and I to the river, for four years. But tidings of his pluck as ' Full-back ' used to greet me many a winter afternoon. And this same pluck he carried with him to Africa. In one of the last letters I had from him there, he spoke with joy of his boys' football almost with as much deUght, it seemed, as of the building of his Cathedral at Likoma. His triumphant death in defiance of oppression was worthy of him, and we may well be proud of him at Oxford, and especially we ' Lincoln men.' "

His life at Oxford passed happily : his chief recreations were football and cricket, and he steadily went on with his violin playing which he had begun as a small boy. His love of music never deserted him, and his knowledge in this direction stood him in good stead in Africa, where he had to train the native boys and girls in singing.

He read steadily, and in 1894 he obtained a third class in the school of Littem Humaniores, taking his Bachelor's degree in October of that year.

From the first it appears that he never thought of any other career than that of a priest. Accordingly, as soon as he . had become a graduate, he went to Ely Theological College for a year's special training, entering on his life there on October 26, 1894.