THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF AN EARTHLY PILGRIMAGE. 117 all people, but peculiarly to Missionaries, having, as it were, joined their ranks himself. The evangelization of the Hills was the great and holy theme of his thoughts and prayers, day and night, and to this object of his heart he turned all his energy, impaired, but not broken, by a long residence in a tropical climate. At the age of fifty-five he began learning the Canarese language, a dialect of which is spoken by the Badaga population. When others go to rest, he rose to earnest exertion, as if the evening of his life were the morning of a fresh day to be spent in the Lord's service. From our Society* he obtained first one Missionary, and then two more. In Canarese Mr. Casamajor made very respectable progress, being assisted by his knowledge of the Tamul and Telugu languages, so that after two years he was able to superintend a large Badaga School, established on his grounds, and supported by his liberality. Every day, his health permitting, he would walk up at noon to that School, built at some distance from the dwelling-house, on an open high ground, praying as he went for he was eminently a man of prayer-in order to hear the lessons of the poor half-clad, but smiling and intelligent Badaga boys. You would there see the honoured gentleman, who had sat on the bench of justice in the chief seats, who had held counsel with the rulers of the country, who had been the object of veneration to the good, and the terror of evil-doers, resting on a wooden box in the place of the Schoolmaster, rejoicing in the glory of thus serving his Lord, and overflowing with love to the poor heathen lads, for whom a day of Gospel light and grace, he firmly believed, had now dawned. Being full of love toward these people, he was not content with relieving their spiritual wants, or rather preparing the way for the deliverance of their souls, but did not think it beneath his dignity to attend to their bodily diseases, and to remove them as far as was in his power. There was a room in Kaity house, a sort of hospital, where Mr. Casamajor for a long time attended every morning from seven to eight o'clock, giving medicines to the fever patients, putting plasters upon the wounds and sores of the poor, giving clothes to the naked, and alms to the destitute. To our brethren he was a friend indeed, uniting the kindness and wisdom of a father with the cordiality and good fellowship of a colleague in the common work. I myself look back with sadness and joy to many a happy and hallowed hour spent in his company. He had the experience of a man arrived at the end of an active and long life spent in important offices: he was a wise counsellor, but he had also the simplicity of a child. His mind was richly stored with various learning, but his chief book, and the constant object of his meditations, was the Word of God. I have said above that he was a man of prayer. That he was. I know no man who is so careful, as our departed friend was, of spending a due proportion of his time in secret converse with God. He used to rise at five in the morning, but, with the exception of the hospital hour, he was accessible to nobody-not to the greatest personages-before ten or eleven o'clock. In the same manner he would spend the end of each day in solitude, retiring after five o'clock, and returning to the library or sittingroom after six. With social prayer, when there were guests-which was *The German Evangelical Mission. 118 THE AGED CHIEF OF TAUPO. rather the rule than the exception at Kaity-the day was closed, when, indeed, he spoke as in the presence of the living God, never making a speech instead of a prayer, but addressing in holy awe the almighty and righteous Lord of all in the name of Jesus, in whom he believed. His prayers will be heard in God's time, and his works will follow him. After his departure-he fell asleep on the afternoon of the 29th of May-his last will, if any further proof had been wanted, bore testimony to his unreserved devotion to the cause of the Gospel on the Nilgherries. With the exception of a few legacies, he bequeathed all that he had to the Nilgherry Mission. Among the whole population of the Kaity valley, and further, he was held in the highest veneration. When he died, they said they were sure "he would return soon." His name will long be remembered. After his death, which was indeed a peaceful falling asleep in Jesus, those who wished to see his body were admitted into the house. The villagers came to take leave of their friend. "He will come back," they said. One of our Mangalore youths, now on the Hills, gave an account of Mr. Casamajor's death to some of his brethren here, and added, "We were permitted to enter the room and to see the body. It lay upon a bier, very beautiful-the face full of smiles, very beautiful." But the glory of the resurrection will be greater, when He will have fashioned our vile bodies according to His own glorious body, by His almighty power. THE AGED CHIEF OF TAUPO. TAUPO is a very mountainous district, lying in the centre of the north island of New Zealand. The Natives have long been most anxious to have a Missionary settled amongst them. They have sent many messages, and some of them have made long journeys, in the hope of obtaining one. The Society has been most anxious to comply with their wishes; but the difficulties of making due provision for Missionary work in New Zealand have been very great: nor was it until February last that the Rev. T. S. Grace left England to labour amongst the Taupo people. The following touching anecdote will show with what anxiety his arrival has been looked for. Our Missionary, the Rev. R. Taylor of Wanganui, has been lately travelling in this district, accompanied by a young man, the son of one of the Taupo Chiefs, at whose village, Hiniharama, the Natives have set apart a piece of ground as a site for the house of the expected Missionary. They had passed the night at a village so remarkably situated that we cannot forbear describing it to our readers. The place where it is built is full of boiling springs, one of which at intervals shoots out water to a considerable height. Another displays a fearful gulf, opening down to a great river, the Waikato, which is seen far below foaming and struggling with the rocks that hinder its course. Around the brim of these boiling springs has been deposited, from their continual overflowings, a pavement of dazzling brightness. The hissing and boiling and bubling of these springs made our travellers' feet very insecure, and THE AGED CHIEF OF TAUPO. 119 led them to ask the Natives why they made choice of so strange a spot to live in. They said they did it to spare their women the trouble of gathering wood for fuel. They seldom have to light a fire, every thing being cooked in these springs. From some of the openings there issues no water, only heated gas. Here they hollow out a space like an oven, which they carefully line with mamaku branches, and on them place the basket containing the food, covering it over with some more branches. It is soon cooked. There is a slight taste of sulphur, and the Natives who constantly use food so prepared have their teeth quite discoloured. Leaving this village, Mr. Taylor and his party were met by some Natives from the young Chief's village, to tell him that his father was "mate," which signifies, in New-Zealand language, either dead, or at the point of death. Piripi understood it in the former sense, and commenced the tangi, or native lamentation, as he went along, bursting out every now and then into loud sobs, until he reached the river which formed the boundary of his own district, when his Natives crossed over and sat down, weeping loudly, whilst he remained on the other side doing the same a very affecting sight. At length they reached Hiniharama, and Mr. Taylor shall now tell us what happened there. March 18, 1849-I went to see the spot set apart for a Minister's residence, which they have already enclosed with a neat and substantial totara fence, and marked out the site for his house. The place is regularly laid out for a town, but, as yet, few houses have been built. I walked round the place, and afterward inquired where the corpse of Piripi's father was laid. They pointed out the spot. I went with Piripi to see it, and great was my astonishment at finding a human figure, with death strongly impressed on his features, sitting up, and holding out his shrivelled hands to welcome me. I expressed my surprise to my companion, who told me that he also thought his father was dead, from the message delivered to him. Such is the uncertain way in which a Native speaks of the sick, that even they are sometimes, as in this case, deceived: hence how liable are foreigners to be so. I spoke to him of the world to come, and also read portions of Scripture which appeared most applicable to him. He seemed to be leaning in simple faith on the Redeemer's merits. But now comes the touching part of the whole story. Mr. Taylor adds His illness was occasioned by over-exertion in making a fence for the residence of the future Minister of Taupo, and his chief concern appeared to be about him. The inquiry was, "When will he come?" Alas! how many there are, in different directions, whose eyes fail in looking toward us for help. How many, for whom just so much has been done as to convince them of their need; who have long hoped that a Missionary would be sent to them, but who have been disappointed, and who are now disposed to ask of us, "Wilt thou be unto me as waters that fail?" ( 120 ) THE RED INDIANS. LIKE snow in the heat of the noontide ray; Despoiled of the lands where their fathers reign'd, In the wilderness wilds of the further West; Alas! there are fetters around his soul, And now you may wander o'er wide-spread plains, Save when the howl of the wolves is heard, And something is needed these tribes to save Save the Gospel of Him in whom men are blest? |