Chapter IV. The Province of South Africa

THE Church Controversy has monopolized our attention to a degree which some may consider disproportionate. But the constitutional struggle which lay behind the personal questions will be seen to be of such consequence to the whole Colonial Church as to justify the otherwise disproportionate space allotted to it. It was this controversy which led to the first origination of the Lambeth Conference of Bishops which now takes place every ten years. It is the solution of this vexed question which has been the chief contribution of the South African Province to our modern English Church history. But it is time now to return to the story of Church Expansion in the other dioceses which, along with Capetown and Natal, form the Province of South Africa. Our survey will show that controversy was not the main element of Church [86/87] life, but that on every side souls were being cared for, and ground won for Christ.

Diocese of Capetown

Of the Diocese of Capetown we have already spoken at some length, but only up to the date of Bishop Gray's death in 1872. The choice of a successor was ultimately delegated by the Elective Body at the Cape, with the consent of the Bishops of the Province, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Edinburgh, and the Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The choice fell on the Rev. William West Jones, who has filled the office of Metropolitan of South Africa (under the title, since the Lambeth Conference of 1897, of Archbishop of Capetown) from that day to this. The new Bishop had been successively Scholar and Fellow of S. John's College, Oxford, and afterwards Vicar of Summertown and Rural Dean of Oxford. He was consecrated in Westminster Abbey on May 17, 1874. Some difficulty arose over the question of the oath of canonical obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury, which the form of Consecration in the Prayer Book demanded. This oath had ceased to be appropriate in the [87/8] case of a Metropolitan after the decisions which have been recorded, making it clear that the Church of the Province was not part of the Church of England as by law established. The difficulty was met by an explanatory document signed by the new Metropolitan as well as by the Archbishop of Canterbury, explaining in what sense the oath was taken and administered. The difficulty was removed not long afterwards by Lord Blachford's Colonial Clergy Act.

The task to which the new Bishop succeeded was no easy one. It is true that the broad foundations of the Church in South Africa had been laid by the Provincial Synod of 1870, and the legal proceedings respecting the Bishopric of Natal were at an end. But the dual Bishopric in that diocese left an unstable equilibrium, and in his own diocese the Metropolitan had three congregations which remained so far aloof from the provincial organization that they sent no lay representative to the Synod, though their clergy attended it. However, a working basis had been obtained, and the new Bishop was able to devote himself to the work of peaceful construction and development, which he did with great devotion and marked success.

[89] The difficulties associated with the mixture of many alien races was acute in the Diocese of Capetown, as, in addition to the many aboriginal races of Africa, there was the large Malay population and the still larger element of half-castes who are known as "coloured people." Writing in 1900, Bishop Gibson gives the number of members of the English Church in the diocese as sixty-three thousand, of which thirty thousand were coloured people. The number given in the South African Provincial Church Directory for 1908 is "about 100,000," of whom probably half are coloured.

Although, as we have seen, the Church of England was late in the field, while much work had been done in the earlier years of last century among these half-caste people by the Moravians, the Rhenish Missionary Society, the Berlin Mission, and English Nonconformist Missions, the last half of the century showed great activity, and the growth of many vigorous centres of missionary work. Pre-eminent among these stands the work of the late much-loved Archdeacon Lightfoot at S. Paul's, Capetown. He arrived in the colony in April, 1858, and, from that time until his death on [89/90] November 12, 1904, he continued to give his whole heart to the Cape Malays and the coloured people, and the poor and distressed of every nationality. For nearly half a century his was one of the most conspicuous figures in Capetown. In any visitation of deadly sickness he was the first to minister to those who were stricken down, and in every charitable and philanthropic movement he took a leading part. An interesting sketch of the "Life and Times" of the Archdeacon, by H. P. Barnett-Clarke, has lately been published. In an introductory memoir the Archbishop of Capetown writes:--"It was among the privileges of my life to have known him, and to have felt the power of his influence. He was the most loyal of friends, the most warmhearted of men, the most faithful of advisers. As a missionary he had but one thought, to win souls for Christ. He was the devoted friend of the poor, and his love for little children was really wonderful. The poor in Capetown almost worshipped him." In 1858, and again in 1882, there was a terrible epidemic of smallpox; and in 1867 typhus fever raged among the filthy dens in which some of the coloured people of Capetown lived. In all these epidemics

Archdeacon Lightfoot was untiring and fearless in his devoted ministrations. It was this selfless and unsparing devotion which, perhaps more than anything, won the hearts of the heathen and Mohammedan population to the man himself and to the Creed which inspired him, and which his life and labours preached even more eloquently than his sermons. His name was a household word throughout the province; and, when he died, Capetown, without distinction of creed or race, was moved as it was never moved before. Long before this date the Archdeacon had been reinforced in this work by the Cowley Fathers and others. Before his death, Bishop Gray had written to Father Benson inviting him to make Capetown one of the fields of work for his Community, but it was not till some years later that the invitation was accepted. Father Puller arrived in 1883 to act as chaplain to the All Saints' Sisters, and to help in their numerous charitable works. He soon saw, however, that the Mohammedan work was not one that could be undertaken merely in the spare moments left by other ministries; and accordingly, in 1887, the Rev. W. U. Watkins was sent out by the Society charged with this [91/92] special commission. He continued for a few years to contend with the immense difficulties of the work, though with small encouragement as far as the number of converts was concerned, but in 1890 he was withdrawn to the still more trying work for lepers and lunatics in Robben Island. In 1896 the Mission was again re-inforced from Cowley by a visit from Father Page and the arrival for more permanent work of Father Waggett, who brought with them a lady doctor, Miss Pellatt. The work of the Cowley Fathers was not, however, confined to the Cape Malays. Father Puller had already begun work among the Kafirs in 1883, and three years later he started a Boarding House in Sir Lowry Road, which he called S. Columba's Home. In 1898 a new S. Columba's Home, which had been built under the direction of Father Waggett, was blessed by the Archbishop of Capetown with his comprovincial Bishops who were present at the Provincial Synod of that year. As the result of training in this home, Father Powell, writing in 1900, records that at that time one hundred and seventy-five men had been baptized after careful preparation. The Home has also been the centre of [92/93] much evangelistic work, with preaching stations at Simonstown, Woodstock, Salt River, and Mowbray, and other places. Since the formation of the Kafir Location at Maitland, some few years ago, the native work of the Cowley Fathers, now presided over by Father Bull, is mainly concentrated there. The formation of a separate parish (in place of the former district) of S. Philip's, Capetown, under the Rev. B. Guyer, has set the Fathers free to devote themselves to their Kafir work at Maitland and elsewhere, and gives them leisure for holding Retreats throughout the province.

Prominent among the Church Institutions for Kafirs in the Cape Diocese stands the Native College of Zonnebloem, near Capetown. It was founded, in 1858, primarily for the sons of native chiefs. It has trained not only Kafirs, but Zulus, Basutos, and other tribes; it is doing a great work among the coloured people, as well as the natives.

Most of the work we have mentioned is in Capetown and its neighbourhood, and from the nature of the case Capetown plays a larger part in relation to the whole diocese than is the case with regard to most dioceses and their [93/94] cathedral cities; for not only is the population of the Cape Peninsula very large in comparison with that of the country districts, but the proportion of Dutch to English, which in the country districts is largely in favour of the former, is reversed in the neighbourhood of Capetown, so that in 1900, out of ninety clergy in the diocese fifty-one were working in the Cape Peninsula. But in all the scattered country parishes there is mission work among the native or coloured population going on side by side with that among the whites. Indeed, the special feature of this diocese may be said to be the work that is being carried on among the coloured people. In the large country parishes there are sometimes ten or a dozen out-stations, generally ministered to by coloured or white catechists, with large congregations drawn from the farm labourers, or fishermen, who speak nothing but the "Taal." In other dioceses a similar work is carried on among natives who speak Kafir, Sesuto, or Sechuana. Here the problem is a different one: different as regards race, language, conditions of life, and degrees of civilization; but the life is as truly a missionary life. The foundation of a coloured ministry has just been laid by the [94/95] ordination to the diaconate of Mr. Zeeman, who has for many years done a most valuable work at Malmsbury as catechist and schoolmaster.

The tiny white congregations, consisting sometimes of only half a dozen people, in the back country, have been supplied with the Sacraments for some years by two itinerant priests, who work directly under the Archbishop or his Coadjutor. In not a few cases Sunday Services are held by licensed laymen.

It is a remarkable fact that the half-century which has elapsed since the consecration of the first Bishop has seen only one change in the occupant of the episcopal throne of Capetown, though during the same period there have been seven Archbishops of Canterbury. In the whole history of the Anglican communion there have been few more memorable episcopates than that of the present Archbishop of Capetown, who, in spite of much physical weakness and suffering, has so devotedly and so effectively ruled his diocese for the space of thirty-three years with the respect and reverence and affection of every Churchman in South Africa. [Since this was written and printed the good and much-loved Archbishop has passed to his rest. The end came suddenly on May 21, 1908. Less than three weeks before he had presided at the Annual Festival of the South African Church in London. At that meeting he spoke gravely as to his health, and said that he was there against his doctor's wishes. But none of us realized how soon the end was to come. The funeral was, most appropriately, at Oxford, which, as Fellow of S. John's, Vicar of Summertown, and Rural Dean, he had loved so well. And it was a happy circumstance that the approaching Pan-Anglican Congress had brought together in England ten (past and present) South African Bishops, all of whom attended the funeral as pall-bearers.

[No one could have done the work of a peacemaker in stormy South Africa better than the late Archbishop, for even those most opposed to him in opinion could not but love him for his loving kindness, and reverence him as one for whom spiritual things were the supreme reality, and as one who lived at all times very near to his Lord and Saviour.]

[96] Diocese of Grahamstown

The Diocese of Grahamstown, as we have seen, was formed at the same time as that of Natal. After Bishop Armstrong's short but active episcopate, Bishop Cotterill was appointed in 1856. He found the foundations well and truly laid, by his predecessor, of an immense work among the natives. For this large enterprise the Church had greatly to thank Sir George Grey, the Governor of the Cape. In New Zealand he had shown his practical sympathy for the Maori, [96/97] and when, on taking up his office in South Africa, he found himself confronted with the constant danger of risings among the unsettled Kafirs upon his borders, he determined that the one thing which could effectively pacify and consolidate the Kafirs on the side of law and order was the spread of earnest missionary and educational work among them. He therefore conceived a vast scheme, in which he invited the co-operation of the Church. It was, as he said, a "bold step" to pledge Imperial funds to the extent of £40,000 per annum in providing schoolmasters, agricultural and industrial teachers, and all necessary apparatus. He appealed to the Church to provide and support the missionary staff. "The Church," he said, "has now an opportunity of retrieving her character, of recovering lost ground. She will greatly embarrass my government if she does not rise to her duty." Bishop Gray warmly responded to this appeal, and backed up the application of his brother of Grahamstown to the Church at home to supply what was needed. "Now, then," he wrote, "is our time or never. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ought for the next few years to back up the Bishop of Grahamstown more [97/98] largely than any other Bishop. The work will be done in ten years by us or by others, and Government will pay at least three parts of the expense."

The Society responded by a grant of £1,500, and, with the help of a devoted band of missionaries whose names have become well known--Merriman and Waters, Greenstock and Mullins--four new mission-stations, named after the four Evangelists, were opened. One of the survivors of that devoted group, Canon Mullins, has kindly written his recollections of those far-off days. He writes:--

"Although from the arrival of Bishop Gray in 1848 much and lasting work had been done for the half-castes in the western part of his huge diocese, it was not till its subdivision in 1853 into the Dioceses of Grahamstown and Natal that any steps could be taken by our Church--alas! so often the last in the field--towards the evangelization of the huge masses of Kafirs and Fingoes upon the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony. Upon the arrival of Bishop Armstrong, October, 1854, there were only some eighteen clergy, including garrison military chaplains, to minister to the Europeans, and no native work had been [98/99] attempted. Upon the immediate frontier of the colony there were after the close of the war of 1850-52 the territories of three semi-independent tribes of Kafirs proper, located upon the western bank of the Great Kei, and also several large locations of Fingoes, who had been of great help to us during the late war. Archdeacon Merriman had done what he could to make preparations for permanent mission work, and a week after Bishop Armstrong landed in his vast diocese, his heart was gladdened by hearing that the work had been started on October 18th, S. Luke's Day. It was, indeed, the day of small things, but before the close of 1855 the following centres had been selected, and missionaries sent to the following tribes:--

"1. The Amandlambi, under Umhala, between King William's Town and the sea: S. Luke's Mission.

"2. The Fingo largest location at Keiskama Hoek, under the mountains: S. Matthew's Mission.

"3. The Amangqika, under the famous Sandilli, our late enemy: S. John's Mission.

"4. The Amagcaleka, under the great chief, Kreli, in the Transkei: S. Mark's Mission.

"Little or no progress was made in the work until these proud and haughty natives had by [99/100] their own determined action committed what has aptly been called national suicide. In this extraordinary madness but very few of the Fingos joined, but the other three tribes, listening to the voice of the great witch-doctor, Umhlakaza, who was backed up by the orders of the chiefs and amapakati, or counsellors, destroyed all their cattle and goats, and were soon starving. It was early cattle in 1856 that the first rumours of the 'cattle-killing' mania were heard. But as week after week and month after month passed, rumour became fact, and nearly all their vast herds of cattle were slaughtered, and left to rot by the hundred. The crops reaped in 1856 were the heaviest they had reaped for many years, so heavy that the cattle were turned into the fields before the harvest was completed. This corn was duly threshed and put into the corn-pits. But the prophets' orders were that there was to be no ploughing or sowing in the spring (September and October), 1856. The harvested corn was to be taken from the pits and thrown away: no food of any kind grown in 1857 was to be eaten, because on a certain day in February that year all their ancestors and chiefs long dead and gone would rise from their graves rejuvenated, their cattle and goat-pens would be [100/101] crammed with numerous herds, and their gardens produce enormous crops spontaneously. They would listen to no persuasions to the contrary. The orders were literally carried out by the majority belonging to the Xosa tribes. By May tens of thousands were starving. Men, women, and children were to be found digging up roots, barking the mimosas, gathering gum, crushing the bones of the cattle they had destroyed, picking up any offal to appease the pangs of hunger. Thousands died in their huts, hundreds fell by the roadside as they endeavoured to make their way into the colony to obtain food. Then it was that the colonists who had so lately suffered so severely from the prolonged war of 1850-52--many losing their all, having had their farm-houses burnt, their cattle and sheep swept off in a night, their brave sons murdered--showed how strongly is implanted in a Christian's heart the gospel of love. Subscriptions were raised, soup kitchens started at given centres, starving children fed and clothed, orphans, unable even to feed themselves from weakness, carefully tended till they gradually recovered or death ended their sufferings.

"It was now that the heathen Kafir first began to listen to the missionary--they were humbled. [101/102] The Word so long rejected was at last listened to, and the first small handful of the immense harvest was reaped. Since that date the work has gone on and spread. At times, perhaps for a year or two, little progress had been made--but few souls gathered in. In 1856 the message was sent to the large Tembu tribes, the Dungwanas and Tshashus. In 1859 began that work that is ever growing amongst the Amaqwati and Amangcina tribes to the north, and in 1864 the late Bishop of S. John's, our stalwart vanguard, went to the Mpondomisi.

"So rapidly grew the work that it was found necessary to separate the Transkeian Missions from the Diocese of Grahamstown, and in 1873 the new Missionary Diocese of S. John's, Kaffraria, was inaugurated.

"To the north-east, meanwhile, a start had been made in the large locations of the Herschel district. The first missionary was sent there in 1886. Under God's blessing the work has greatly prospered here, and 'the little one has become a thousand.'

"In 1860 it was decided to start an industrial training school at Grahamstown. The lads who were sent there were at first those who had been rescued from death during the cattle-killing famine. [102/103] Others followed from the central mission stations. For many years the supply of native catechists and schoolmasters came from this institution, and some twenty-five native clergy have, in whole or in part, received their education and training here. Since 1874 one marked feature of the work has been the training of carpenters; and the work sent to the Intercolonial Exhibition, London, some years since, and the highly-finished stalls and choir-screen of the Grahamstown Cathedral--the work of these native apprentices--witness to the care with which they have been taught the trade.

"Grahamstown, although for many reasons an excellent centre for a training school, is somewhat far from the now scattered locations, and it was found advisable to strengthen the industrial work and training that has for a long period of years been carried on at S. Matthew's, Keiskama Hoek. There a large number of boys and girls are being trained as teachers and catechists, and it is hoped that in the near future many may be called and chosen for the native ministry.

"If the Native Church is to grow and prosper in the land it is absolutely indispensable that--

"(a) There should be a well-trained native ministry.

[104] "(b) This should be supported entirely by the natives, and no help given from Europeans, at least not from grants made by Missionary Societies.

"(c) All native Christians should be taught from the first to contribute with great regularity to a native ministry fund, and this fund used for the native ministry only, and not for catechists or schoolmasters."

One of the largest and most successful centres of mission work was, and is, that already mentioned by Canon Mullins--S. Matthew's, Keiskama Hoek. First under the Rev. W. Greenstock, and afterwards under the Rev. C. Taberer, it has educated and converted very large numbers of natives. The mission work in the city of Grahamstown under Canon Mullins has also been greatly blessed from Bishop Cotterill's time down to the present day. In 1863 the Bishop held his first Synod, which was attended by thirty-two clerical and thirty lay members. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel handed over to the diocese the administration of its grant, as recognizing that the Church had reached the stage of full organization and corporate life. But, on the other hand, the Government, which had [104/105] been so generous under Sir George Grey, was now withdrawing all support to the mission schools. But, in spite of these hindrances, the work, both among colonists and natives, continued to increase, so that 1,500 baptisms are recorded in a single year at the S.P.G. stations, and Colonial Church members numbered 12,500. In 1871 Bishop Cotterill was translated to the See of Edinburgh, and Archdeacon Merriman (at that time Dean of Capetown) was nominated as his successor. His consecration took place on S. Luke's Day of that year. Immediately before his consecration the Bishop-elect made a journey of 800 miles "on two small ponies" through Kaffraria to the borders of Natal, to judge for himself as to the needs of the work in that district and the project which was then being discussed of forming the new Diocese of Kaffraria. Bishop Cotterill, in his farewell charge, had foreshadowed the arrangement subsequently concluded, whereby the missions in Kaffraria "would form a link between his old diocese and Edinburgh "; and he added, "I should be thankful if that Church in which I shall be a Bishop should be able to plant and maintain a mission of its own among the Kafir tribes."

[106] The result was that the Metropolitan of South Africa entered into immediate negotiation with the Primus of the Scottish Church, who readily promised his countenance and support to the proposal, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in February, 1872, expressed its satisfaction at the arrangement, and pledged itself to recognize and co-operate with a Bishop so accredited by the Scottish Church. So the new Diocese of Kaffraria has been, from its first creation, one of the distinctive spheres of the Episcopal Church in Scotland. Bishop Merriman, whose zealous work left a lasting mark upon the Diocese of Grahamstown, died, as the result of a carriage accident, on August 16, 1882; and in the following year Bishop Webb was translated from Bloemfontein to take his place. Under Bishop Webb, Grahamstown became the centre of many most thriving and valuable ecclesiastical institutions. It is, perhaps, more like an English cathedral city than any other South African town. The Sisterhood which he introduced has gradually extended its operations, and, under its saintly and devoted Superior, Mother Cécile, whose recent death has been a loss to the whole Anglican Church, became a recognized centre [106/107] for the training of teachers for the whole colony. The Superintendent of Education at Capetown, though not himself a Churchman, had such confidence in Mother Cecile and her staff that he invited her so to increase her buildings as to be able to undertake this work on a wider scale; and she gave her life to this great undertaking.

Grahamstown also became the centre of another most successful work which is extending every year, and proving more and more its effectiveness. This is the Railway Mission, under the superintendence of the Rev. Douglas Ellison. Its object is primarily to minister to the men employed over the thousands of miles of railway in South Africa, station-masters, gangers, plate-layers, and their families. But it does much more than this. The mission-car is a movable church, which supplies spiritual ministrations to pioneer settlers in new districts where, as yet, there is no church building. It serves to form the nucleus of congregations which, in no long time, are able to build their own church, and furnish themselves with the ministrations of a resident clergyman. The Railway Mission thus occupies new ground. It is the first on the spot. And again and again new parishes have thus been formed through its [107/108] pioneering work. It is now no longer a diocesan institution, but forms, in fact, one of the provincial organizations (although its central home is still in Grahamstown), its operations having been extended as far as the Diocese of Pretoria and Mashonaland.

Grahamstown is also a great educational centre. S. Andrew's College for Boys is perhaps the most thriving Church school in South Africa, and has had the training of many of the chief citizens of the Cape Colony. Canon Espin, for many years its venerated warden, was able to boast that, next to Eton, his college had sent more old boys to the front in the late war than any English school. The Girls' High School has also done invaluable work; while the Kafir Institution, under Canon Mullins, has furnished a constant supply of well-trained Christian natives for the ministry and for educational work.

In 1897 Bishop Webb resigned the See of Grahamstown, which he had held for fourteen years, and not long after was appointed to the Deanery of Salisbury, which he held until his death in 1907. His successor was Canon Cornish, at that time Vicar of S. Mary's, Redcliffe, who was consecrated in 1899.

[109] A difficult problem, in the solution of which Bishop Cornish has taken a leading part, is that of the Ethiopian movement. This was a movement on the part of the natives of South Africa to form a Church exclusively for the black population. Finding that the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States was a distinctively African Church, they formed an alliance with it, and their leader, Mr. Dwane, went to America and received such Episcopal Orders as that Church could confer. The movement was regarded with some suspicion and much misgiving by the civil authorities, as having a dangerous political tendency. On further study of Church history, Mr. Dwane and some of his followers became somewhat uneasy and dissatisfied as to their ecclesiastical status, finding that the Methodist Episcopal Church had no claim to historical continuity and Apostolical succession; and they accordingly put themselves into communication with some of the Anglican clergy, as to the possibility of allying themselves with the historic Church of England. After much personal communication with the clergy and a long correspondence with the Archbishop of Capetown, it seemed that they were really in earnest in the [109/110] matter, and had an intelligent grasp of the whole question; and at last the Archbishop felt that the time had come to put their petition before the Bishops who assembled in an Episcopal Synod at Grahamstown in 1900. This petition was that they might be received into the Church, but without losing their corporate existence as the "Ethiopian Church." It was pointed out to them by the Bishops that the Church could not recognize an imperium in imperio, and that to acquiesce in racial separatism within the Church would be to contradict S. Paul's definition of the Church as knowing no distinction of "Greek or Jew . . . barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free." After much consultation, however, the Bishops formulated a proposal to form within the Church an Ethiopian Order; and drew up a proposed constitution of such an Order, providing for the instruction of the members of this Ethiopian movement individually, and their reception by Confirmation into the Church, and thereafter for the regulation of the affairs of the Order by a Provincial and a Chapter, and also for the adjustment of the relations of this Order to the Provincial Synod, to the Bishops, and to the existing missions of the Church. This proposal was [110/111] explained in detail to the leaders of the movement, and by them to the conference of their own members which was assembled at the same time at Grahamstown to the number of some four hundred. The result was that the proposal was unconditionally accepted, and Mr. Dwâné was confirmed by the Archbishop of Capetown in the presence both of his own followers and of the Bishops.

The Bishop of Grahamstown then took over the superintendence of the work of instructing individually the members of the Ethiopian body, and with the help of funds from the Church at home, and of special missionaries furnished first by the Church of the Province, and afterwards sent out from England, a large number of them were, in due course, confirmed. The negotiations with Mr. Dwâné took place while war was still raging and considerable parts of the country were inaccessible, so that there was no chance of communicating with the "Ethiopians" living in those districts. When, at last, communications were reopened it proved that by no means all his followers were prepared to follow Mr. Dwâné's lead, and some disputes arose. Then, again, as was to be expected, there were difficulties as between [111/112] the members of this new body and the older mission-stations. Partly owing to these difficulties and partly for other reasons, it has been found best to appoint, for the time being, an English Provincial of the Order in place of Mr. Dwâné; and accordingly the Coadjutor Bishop of Capetown (Dr. Cameron), who had had more than ten years' experience of native life in the Diocese of S. John's, where he was Warden of the college at Umtata, and latterly Provost of the cathedral, and at a later date had spent more than a year (1902-3) in South Africa as Chaplain to the Order of Ethiopia, has now been appointed to the office of Acting-Provincial.

The Diocese of Grahamstown has rendered another great service to the province in the establishment of a Theological College for Europeans (S. Paul's Hostel). The clergy in the province number about 540: of these some sixty-six are Bantu, but less than thirty are colonial. Of the latter, the Diocese of Capetown claims more than half. It must, of course, be borne in mind that the European Church population throughout South Africa is itself, in reality, very small: but it is also stated on excellent authority that not a few young men have been deterred from [112/113] offering themselves for the ministry by the difficulty and expense of the necessary education. This reproach has been largely wiped away by the establishment of S. Paul's Hostel and the generous support given to it by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The Theological College was formed in 1902, and has been fortunate in having for its Wardens, first, the late Canon Espin, and now the Rev. E. C. West. During these few years thirteen men (colonial-born, or at least already resident in South Africa) have been ordained, and there are at present ten students in connection with the college.

Diocese of Bloemfontein

The Diocese of Bloemfontein consists of the Orange River Colony, Griqualand West, Bechuanaland, and Basutoland. It originally formed part of the undivided Diocese of Capetown, and as such we have seen Bishop Gray visiting it in his early journeys. In the year in which the Diocese of Capetown was divided, the Orange River District was handed back to the Dutch and became a republic, known as the Orange Free State. As such it was excluded from the three [113/114] Dioceses of Capetown, Grahamstown, and Natal, and the English settlers had for many years very little spiritual ministration. In the year 1863 the Diocese of Orange River, as it was at first styled, was formed, and the Rev. E. Twells was consecrated its first Bishop. The Bishop found his diocese in a condition of spiritual destitution, many of the settlers having become Wesleyans or members of the Dutch. Church, owing to the neglect of the Church of England. The only English church in the diocese was in ruins, and the Bishop had to accept the hospitality of a Wesleyan chapel in which to preach. The first centres of work were Bloemfontein itself, where a clergyman and a schoolmaster were placed, Fauresmith and Smithfield. From these centres, during the next two years Winburg, Cronstadt, Bethlehem, Harrismith, Reddesberg, and other places were visited, and occasional services were held. Mission work was also started among the natives, and in November, 1866, the first church was consecrated at Bloemfontein, and a house was built for the Bishop, who up to that time had lived as a lodger in a single room.

In 1865 came the war between the colonists and the Basutos under their chief, Moshesh. This [114/115] war greatly interrupted the mission work among the natives, and inflicted heavy losses on the farmers. In a single day's raid some 70,000 sheep were captured from the district of Smith-field; and the losses of one month were estimated at £200,000. Moshesh was one of the few great leaders whom the native tribes of South Africa have produced. For many years he had preserved his independence and defended the interests of his tribe against all comers with marked success. In the war of 1865 a determined assault was made by the Boer settlers on his hitherto impregnable fortress--a flat-topped mountain called Thaba-Bosigo--but a well-aimed bullet from one of the few rifles of the defenders struck the leader of the storming party, Wepener, when only thirty yards separated the party from victory, and the column faltered and fell back. Moshesh, however, was diplomatist enough to know that his only chance of ultimate escape was to make terms with his white foes, and he cleverly threw himself on the English, and asked that he might henceforth live "under the wide folds of the flag of England." The High Commissioner received his overtures and intervened, declaring the Basutos to be British subjects, and in 1869 peace was concluded with [115/116] the Free State. The result of the war was to remove certain hindrances to mission work by diminishing the power of the chiefs, and that work went steadily forward. Hopeful beginnings had been made among the Griquas at Philip-polis (1863), among the Kafirs at Bloemfontein (1865), and among the Barolong at Thaba 'Nchu. In 1867 the mission work of the Modderpoort Brotherhood was started by Canon Beckett.

In 1869 Bishop Twells resigned, and Archdeacon Merriman having declined a unanimous call from the diocese, the Rev. A. B. Webb was consecrated to the vacant see on S. Andrew's Day, 1870. In that same year Moshesh, the Basuto chief, died. Before his death he had asked Bishop Gray to send missionaries to his people, and in 1876 two strong centres of missionary work were established in Basutoland. One, in the north, at Thlotse Heights, was placed under the charge of Canon Widdicombe, who for more than thirty years did splendid service there, establishing a handsome stone church, a well-built mission house, and a training school for lads who are preparing to be Church workers, either as school teachers or catechists. The other [116/117] station, in the south of Basutoland (Mohale's Hoek), was under the care of the Rev. E. W. Stenson, and afterwards of the Rev. M. A. Reading. Another active centre was founded at Sekubu, thirty miles north of Thlotse Heights, where the Rev. T. Woodman did long and faithful service. The band of well-known Basuto missionaries includes the names of Father Carmichael, Canon Spencer Weigall, and the Rev. J. Deacon; while in Bechuanaland the Church of the Province has been represented for over thirty years by the singularly self-denying life of Canon Bevan.

The Missionary Brotherhood founded by Canon Beckett, and associated so long with the name of Father Douglas, has now for some years given place to the Society of the Sacred Mission.

In 1883 Bishop Webb was translated to Grahamstown, and after a long interregnum, during which the diocese was administered by Archdeacon Croghan, Bishop Knight Bruce was brought from the East End of London to the sunny hills of the Orange Free State, and consecrated as the third Bishop in 1886. The new Bishop was a great traveller. In his own diocese he at once made long rides from parish to parish [117/118] and from mission to mission, making up the arrears of Confirmations which three years had caused since his predecessor's departure. He also travelled into unknown parts of Basutoland, being the first Bishop to visit the celebrated Falls of the Malutsuanyane River. A still longer and more arduous pioneering journey was that which he made beyond the limits of his diocese into what was then undiscovered territory in Matabeleland. His interest in this new country led to his translation when the new Bishopric of Mashonaland was founded in 1891. His successor at Bloemfontein was Bishop Hicks, who was well-known as a college tutor at Cambridge, and who supplied to the Episcopate of South Africa a valuable element of scholarship and theological learning. He was also a successful organizer, and did much to introduce into the mission work of the diocese a more effective system of discipline among the native congregations. Latterly, however, his health gave cause for anxiety, and after a visit to Natal in 1899, in which he conducted a Quiet Day for the clergy and preached at the consecration of the new chancel of the cathedral, he died at Maseru almost at the very hour at which President Kruger's [118/119] "Ultimatum" expired in October of that year. His death was followed by another long interregnum, as the war which was then raging prevented the calling together of the Elective Assembly. During this interval, Bishop Webb revisited the scene of his former labours, and gave valuable help as temporary Bishop of such parts of the diocese as were accessible. At last, in 1901, the Elective Assembly met and appointed the present occupant of the see, Bishop Chandler, whose preparation for South African work was, like that of Bishop Knight Bruce, in the very different surroundings of East London. Bishop Chandler was consecrated in Capetown Cathedral on the Feast of the Purification, 1902.

Diocese of S. John's

The Diocese of S. John's, Kaffraria, was, as we have already seen, founded by the Scottish Church. In December, 1871, the Bishops of South Africa addressed an appeal to the Primus of Scotland and his suffragans. In it they said, "Having heard that it has been the wish of the Scotch Episcopal Church to found a mission to the heathen within, or adjacent to, the territories [119/120] of the British Empire, which shall go forth as a distinct mission from that Church . . . we venture to invite the attention of the Bishops of that Church to the great field of South Africa. . . . Within this field there lies a tract of country inhabited by different Kafir tribes, who are, for the most part, wearied out either by continued warfare among themselves, or . . . by a quarter of a century of ineffectual struggle against British rule.

"Our English Church missions across the Kei--now four in number--together with several out-stations held by native teachers, need a closer superintendence than they can now receive; and the invitations given us to extend our missions eastward from these . . . (and bring them) into closer connection with the station newly planted in Adam Kok's territory from the Natal Diocese, seem to indicate the propriety of trying to establish now what was designed and almost carried into execution some years ago, viz., a Bishopric for Independent Kaffraria. Should the Episcopal Church of Scotland consent to take up the work ... it would . . . complete the as yet broken chain of the Church's missions from the extreme west of Cape Colony to Natal and [120/121] the regions beyond, stretching up nearly to the Zambesi River."

The Scottish Episcopal Church accordingly invited the co-operation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and an agreement was made that a Board of Missions should be established in Scotland, and that a Bishop and staff of helpers should be provided for Kaffraria. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was to place its missionaries under the Bishop's jurisdiction, and relinquish part of the grant it had hitherto been receiving from the Scottish Church.

The man chosen as the first Bishop was Dr. Callaway, who had done a great missionary work in Natal under Bishop Colenso and subsequently under Bishop Macrorie, at Spring Vale and High-flats, with an important outlying station at Clydesdale on the Umzimkulu. Dr. Callaway was a remarkable man who had come to the Church of England from the Society of Friends. His parents had been Church people in humble station in Somersetshire, but he had been brought into contact with the Quakers through his headmaster at Crediton School. He did not long find rest, however, within the Society. In much distress and [121/122] unrest of mind he betook himself to medical studies, and in 1841, being then twenty-four years old, he entered S. Bartholomew's Hospital as a student. He never seems, however, to have contemplated medicine as his permanent vocation. He was much influenced by reading Maurice's Kingdom of Christ, and in 1853, for the first time since his secession, received the Holy Communion in the Church of England; and, on the appointment of Dr. Colenso to the See of Natal in that year, he volunteered for service under him as a missionary. Accordingly he was ordained at Norwich in 1854, and he and his wife sailed for Natal with Bishop Colenso on his return to his diocese from which he had come back after ten weeks of investigation of its needs. Being possessed of fairly ample private means, Dr. Callaway decided to take up a farm on the south side of the Umkomazi River, which was then being offered by the Natal Government on easy terms, and to found a mission station there. The place was called Spring Vale. The buildings, which still remain (though much injured by white ants) still attest the grand scale of Dr. Callaway's operations. His hold on the native flock which he had gathered there was remarkably evidenced [122/123] by the fact that when he was called to the Bishopric of Kaffraria about one-third of his people decided to accompany him, leaving their homes and their possessions in order still to be near the "Father" whom they had come to love so much.

The new diocese extended from the Kei River to the Umtamvuna, between the Drakensberg Mountains on the north-west, and the Indian Ocean on the south-east. It contained many native races--the Pondos, Gcalekas, Fingoes, Bacas, Tembus, and Griquas. The Bishop was consecrated in S. Paul's Church, Edinburgh, on All Saints' Day, 1873. Before leaving England he set himself to obtain the needful materials for his new work, and his visions of what was needed included (1) a boys' institution, (2) a girls' school to lead the native Christian girls away from the social surroundings of their heathen life, (3) a printing press, (4) a training college for the native ministry, (5) a cathedral of simple beauty and dignity, (6) a library for the colonists, and (7) a hospital. He sailed for his new diocese in August, 1874, and, after a touching farewell to his friends at Spring Vale, and munificent gifts of property there to the Diocese of Natal, he pitched [123/124] his tent on the S. John's River, which it was decided should give its name to the diocese and its Bishop. Before long, however, it was found more suitable to make Umtata, instead of S. Andrew's in Pondoland East (where his temporary headquarters had been fixed), the centre of the diocese. Here a site was selected, a cottage purchased, and a little iron church brought up from Durban to serve as the pro-cathedral. In 1877 the Bishop's work was sadly interrupted by an outbreak of war with the Gcalekas, during which the little cathedral had to be fortified with a palisade and a trench, and many of the mission stations had for the time to be abandoned. One of the Bishop's cherished schemes was carried into effect at Umtata in 1879, when, in the presence of his Diocesan Synod and of several of the native chiefs, the Bishop laid the foundation-stone of S. John's Theological College for the training of natives for the ministry, or for the work of teaching. Already, in 1877, the first native priest, Masiza, had been ordained, and there were several native deacons at work in the diocese. In 1880 Bishop Callaway was attacked by a stroke of paralysis, involving temporary [124/125] loss of sight. This involved a return to England and a period of complete rest in Scotland; and, although the Bishop was able to return to his diocese full of hope for a renewed period of activity, his health continued to cause anxiety, so that, in 1883, the Rev. Bransby Key, who Bishop had been engaged in missionary work in the diocese for more than twenty years, was consecrated as Coadjutor Bishop. On the death of Archdeacon Button, who had been throughout the Bishop's right-hand man and personal friend, Bishop Callaway decided that his health demanded a severance from the diocese which he had created and served so well; and, accordingly, he sent in his resignation to the Metropolitan in June, 1886, and Bishop Bransby Key became the second Bishop of S. John's. Bishop Callaway returned to England, and died in 1890.

The new Bishop found a network of mission-stations where, before the diocese was formed, there were but four. The chief of these were S. Mark's and S. Peter's, at Butterworth, in the south, the former with some thousand communicants, and the latter with 600. The Mission of All Saints, a little further north, had been formed, in 1861, by the Rev. John Gordon; [125/126] S. Alban's, begun originally as an offshoot of All Saints' by the Rev. D. Dodd, had become a separate mission. S. Augustine's Mission to the Mpondomisi was begun in 1865 by Mr. Key, and carried on after 1883 by the Rev. Alan Gibson, who for many years was Bishop Key's right-hand man, and afterwards became Coadjutor Bishop of Capetown. Clydesdale is a Griqua village near the Umzimkulu, where a flourishing mission work was founded by Bishop Callaway, while he was still a missionary in Natal, and managed by Archdeacon Button. S. Stephen's, Matatiela, was begun by the Rev. T. W. Green in 1886 amongst the Basutos in the extreme north-west of the diocese. Umtata, the foundation of which we have already recorded, became the centre of many activities--educational establishments not only for catechists and clergy, but also for boys and for girls, with a hospital and two churches.

During Bishop Key's episcopate a large number of churches was built, some twenty--many of them for white congregations--in stone or other durable material, and many of less solid structure as outposts for native converts, to be replaced in time by permanent churches.

[127] Since the withdrawal of Bishop Callaway from Pondoland S. Andrew's, the Church had had practically no work in Pondoland, where, however, the Wesleyans had (as they had and have elsewhere) large stations. This part of the country which was the last portion of" Independent Kaffraria" to come under British rule, remaining under its native chiefs till 1894, was a special care to Bishop Key. On the withdrawal of Dr. Johnson from Umtata in 1892, a medical mission was started among the Pondos, which was placed under the charge of the Rev. Dr. Sutton. Through the instrumentality of a well-known trader in those parts--Mr. Strachan--an interview was arranged between the Bishop with these two medical missionaries and the Pondo chief, who promised that he would instruct his people to receive the "abafundisi," or missionaries. The result was the founding of S. Barnabas' Mission in Western Pondoiand in 1893, while in East Pondoiand another flourishing Mission was conducted by the Rev. P. Hornby. In July, 1900, Bishop Key was travelling through Pondoiand, having visited S. Barnabas' Mission and Port S. John's, and was proceeding towards Clydesdale and Kokstad, when he met with an accident through the overturning of a post-cart. [127/128] The accident did not seem at the time to be very serious, though it injured the Bishop's eye, and he had to abandon his journey and to be nursed for a few days at S. John's. He recovered so far as to hold an Ordination in September, and to return to England: but the injury was more serious than at first appeared, and in January, 1901, it ended fatally. There have been few stronger or humbler men in the South African Church than Bishop Bransby Key, few who have had so little thought of self, and who have worked with such whole-hearted devotion to the missionary cause, and certainly there has been no South African Bishop who has understood the natives as he did. He was succeeded by the present Bishop, Joseph Watkin Williams, who for many years had been chaplain to the Archbishop of Capetown, and in that capacity had been in close touch with all the problems of South African Church history, and knew much of the work of a South African Bishop. His episcopate has already been marked by the building of a dignified cathedral, in memory of Bishop Key, at the consecration of which both the Archbishop of Capetown and the Bishop of Glasgow were present, and by the completion of [128/129] what is probably the finest mission church in the province. The latter is the Church of S. Cuthbert, the station which, since 1883, has been the centre of the old district of S. Augustine's. Here it was that the Brotherhood of S. Cuthbert (founded by the Rev. G. Callaway, whose name is so dear to many natives and Europeans) had its home, until it was merged in the Society of S. John the Evangelist, which, under Father Puller, has been in charge of the mission work in connection with S. Cuthbert's since 1904.

S. John's is notable for its devoted band of colonial clergy. Both Archdeacons (E. L. Coakes and T. Chamberlain) are South Africans, one from Natal, the other from Cape Colony. Canon Waters is the son of one of the most earnest and self-denying missionaries that South Africa ever knew, the late Archdeacon Waters, and his son, again, is a deacon working in the diocese. One of the missionaries in Matabeleland (the Rev. J. W. Lucy) comes also originally from the old S. Augustine's. But it is, perhaps, in the training of native clergy that Umtata has made itself most conspicuous. A third of the whole number in the province are to be found in this diocese; and one, Canon Masiza, who lately passed to his [129/130] rest, proved conclusively that it is possible for a native to minister to colonial congregations, and to be loved and respected by those not of his own colour.

Diocese of Natal

We have already devoted much space to the Church in Natal (in the text and Appendix A), but a word or two may be added on that which has not been mentioned--its work among the natives and Indians. Bishop Callaway's work at Spring Vale and Highflats has been noticed incidentally. The work there has been carried on by many missionaries--in recent years by the Rev. Philip Burges and the Rev. J. G. Chater. Many new out-stations have been started. Further south is the Mission of S. Luke's, where, at Enqabeni, good work has been done by an old missionary, the Rev. P. Turpin. A grass fire destroyed his church and house some years ago, but the disaster proved a blessing in disguise, for a much larger and better church has taken the place of the old one; and the influence of the mission spreads far into the surrounding districts, among the people of the half-caste chief, Tom Fynn, who [130/131] is himself a Christian. In Pietermaritzburg itself a considerable work among the natives has been long carried on by the Rev. F. Green, a son of the venerable Dean of Maritzburg. For some time Mr. Green was the Principal of S. Alban's College for natives, which was then in Maritzburg but has now been removed into the country, a few miles from Estcourt, under the charge of Canon Troughton, a son-in-law of Dean Green. The college is quite full. Among the students are natives from the Diocese of Zululand, as well as from Natal itself. They are being trained as catechists and clergy. Attached to S. Alban's, under Canon Troughton's general supervision, a school has recently been opened, called S. Bede's, with a trained master at its head, for the education of native teachers for mission schools. The old College of S. Alban's in Maritzburg is now used as a hostel for native Christians passing through the town or coming in from a distance to attend classes and services. Canon Troughton succeeded a most devoted missionary, Mr. Thompson, who lost his life through fever contracted while making a pioneering expedition with the Bishop of Lebombo. The headquarters of this mission were formerly [131/132] at Enhlonhlweni, about ten miles from Lady-smith. The work there, under Canon Troughton, so outgrew its buildings that the old mission house was left to Miss Cooke and other lady workers who had started a boarding school for girls, and Canon Troughton removed to Riverdale near Estcourt. During the siege of Ladysmith Canon and Mrs. Troughton were practically prisoners, as Enhlonhlweni was in the midst of the Boer lines, between Spearman's Hill and Ladysmith. Miss Cooke's boarding school, at which native girls are trained for domestic service and, when they show sufficient ability, for the work of teaching in mission schools, has now been formally constituted a diocesan institution, and new buildings, badly needed to take the place of the present house of unburnt brick, will be taken in hand as soon as the necessary funds are forthcoming. Enhlonhlweni is in the parish of Ladysmith, and it is in this parish and in the parish of Estcourt that there are some of the strongest centres of missionary work in the Diocese of Natal. In addition to the English clergy who supervise this work, there are engaged upon it the Rev. Walter Mzamo and the Rev. R. Radebe (priests), and the Rev. S. [132/133] Mabaso, who is in deacon's Orders. Behind them is an excellent body of native catechists, mostly trained at S. Alban's College. At Bulwer, in the district of Polela, under the Drakensberg, west of Maritzburg, the Rev. B. Markham has long worked among both Basutos and Zulus. In addition to these mission-stations there is work going on in nearly all parishes under the supervision of the incumbent, and in many cases with the assistance of native deacons or catechists. Many of the clergy whose primary duty is to European congregations take the keenest interest in the evangelization of the natives within their parishes. In Durban for many years the Rev. D. Mzamo (for a long time the only native priest in the diocese, though now his son and two other natives have joined him in that Order) worked as Priest-in-charge of S. Faith's under the Vicar of S. Cyprian's. After working for a time among the native Christians at Greytown under the Rev. G. E. Pennington (now Canon), Mr. Mzamo has returned to S. Faith's. This church, though enlarged not long ago by the addition of an aisle, is still too small for the large and earnest congregation, almost entirely composed of men, which crowds it every Sunday. [133/134] The lessons learnt at S. Faith's are taken by the natives back with them to their homes in the country, and from time to time strong little centres of missionary work, created by these lay evangelists, have been discovered. A year or two ago the present Bishop started the system of a Superintendent of Native Missions, to act as a sort of native archdeacon, and Canon Burges resigned his parish--the Karkloof--in order to undertake this work. He has lately been appointed to the office of Archdeacon of Maritzburg. His work as Superintendent of Native Missions has produced a more systematic organization of the missionary operations in the diocese, and an increase of interest in the work among the European congregations.

Natal is remarkable for its large Indian population. In the first instance these natives of India came, chiefly from the Madras Presidency, to work as coolies on the sugar plantations. But many more have come since for other work, and there is all over the country a considerable number of Mohammedan traders, who are popularly called "Arabs," but are really natives of Gujarat. Dr. Booth, a medical man, gave up his practice nearly a quarter of a century ago [134/135] on purpose to become a medical missionary among these Indians. His headquarters were at Durban, where a mission house and an orphanage and several schools and a dispensary and a little church, dedicated to S. Aidan, were built. For seventeen years Canon Booth did devoted and successful work among these Indians, until, in 1901, he became Dean of Umtata. The work extended to other parts of the colony, and was assisted by several Indian priests and many teachers. The mission is now in the charge of Canon A. H. Smith. S. Aidan's, in Durban, is still the centre of this work, but a college has been built at Sydenham, a suburb of Durban, which has become a centre of strength and hope for this Indian work. For there Christian Indian boys are being trained under an excellent staff to be teachers in the Indian mission schools round Durban, and scattered throughout the colony. At Sydenham, also, a home for Indian orphans is managed by ladies trained and sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In Maritzburg, also, ladies from England have long been engaged in the work, among whom Miss Payne-Smith, a daughter of the late Dean of Canterbury, deserves honourable mention. [135/136] Two European priests are working in the Indian Mission under Canon Smith--the Rev. A. Bevill Brown and the Rev. A. French. They have as their colleagues two Indian priests, the Rev. S. P. Vedamuttu and the Rev. J. Nullathamby.

Diocese of Zululand

Passing on towards the north we come to the Diocese of Zululand, which is now politically part of Natal. The mission work of the Church began here in 1860, when the Rev. R. Robertson was sent by Bishop Colenso and established himself at Kwa Magwaza. We have seen that Bishop Colenso's archdeacon, Charles Mackenzie, became first Bishop of the Universities' Mission at the Zambesi. After his death, however, that work was for the time abandoned, owing to the unhealthy nature of the country; and, instead a Mackenzie Memorial Mission was sent to Zululand. In 1870 Bishop Wilkinson, now Bishop of Northern Europe, was consecrated first Bishop of Zululand. He resigned in 1875, and was succeeded by Bishop Douglas McKenzie. His headquarters [136/137] were at Isandhlwana, the fatal battlefield of the Zulu War of 1879.

[137] Mr. C. Johnson, a son of a Natal colonist, had already begun work in these parts. He is now' Archdeacon of Zululand, and has a mission-station which, for numbers of converts and workers, and for the size of its central church and the number of its out-stations, is second to none in South Africa. Valuable testimony was borne last year, at the time of the Zulu rising, by Sir Charles Saunders, the Commissioner, to the influence for good which the Mission of S. Augustine's, Rorke's Drift, exercised over the natives.

Bishop McKenzie died in 1890, and was succeeded by Bishop Carter, who came from the Bishop Eton Mission in Hackney. For thirteen years he did devoted work among the Zulus, continually making long journeys, and constantly sleeping on the veld or in Zulu huts. In 190^, at the end of the Boer War, he was translated to Pretoria, and one of his clergy, the Rev. W. L. Vyvyan, was consecrated as his successor.

In addition to the work already mentioned at S. Augustine's, Rorke's Drift, there is at Isandhlwana a McKenzie Memorial College for native lads, which for many years was under the care of the Rev. R. B. Davies. This is intended to [137/138] supply the diocese with native teachers. Largely owing to a grant of £500 from the Marriott Bequest, through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, large and commodious class-rooms have been added to this college. A five-roomed house has also been built there, the gift of Canon R. B. Davies and his sister, which is now being used by the Bishop as his residence. Several of the students at the college have won Government certificates.

In the year 1903 the great Church of S. Augustine's, Rorke's Drift, was dedicated in the presence of some 2,300 natives and many European residents. It was built largely of stone, and almost entirely by native labour. In the same year a native evangelist, Charles Hlati, who had worked for some years under the Dutch Reformed Church, applied to Archdeacon Johnson, asking that he and his followers, about 1,800 in number, might be received into the Church of England. The Archdeacon approached the Dutch Reformed Church ministers, urging them to provide for these people, but they were unable to do so, having, at that time, no ministers free for the work. Accordingly, Hlati and his people were gradually received into the communion of the [138/139] Church, and several congregations of them are now supervised by the Rev. W. H. Hallowes at Kambula, and the Rev. A. Rowand at Utrecht. At Kambula a large farm of 1,500acres was bought, and a church of stone, as well as a parsonage, has been built there by native labour and Mr. Hallowes' own work; and within the present year a church of brick, a successor to a wood and iron church, has been built at Utrecht. Land has also been purchased in other parts of the same district, in order to secure a firm footing for the establishment of out-stations from Kambula. Hlati was ordained to the diaconate in 1907.

At Utrecht a handsome stone church for the Europeans has also been built, and towards this the Dutch people and Christians of other denominations gave kindly and generous assistance.

The first Native Conference was held at S. Augustine's in 1904, when 133 native clergy, catechists, and elected delegates from all parts of the diocese discussed many matters relating to Church life, and, amongst other resolutions, one was passed that all adherents should contribute towards the payment of the native catechists and teachers not less than five shillings each male and two shillings each female, annually.

[140] In the same year the first regular Diocesan Synod was held at Vryheid, with lay representatives as well as clerical.

There is a steady increase in the number of natives ordained to the sacred ministry, and there are at present in the diocese six native priests and three native deacons.

Magistrates have assisted in the laying of foundation-stones--the magistrate of Nqutu at the church at Esilutshane in S. Augustine's district, and the magistrate of Melmoth at the laying, in 1907, of the foundation-stone of new buildings at the boarding-school for native girls at Kwamagwaza. This last-named building is to provide for increased accommodation for the girls, and for their instruction in cookery and laundry work and other useful branches of knowledge.

At Ingwavuma, on the Lebombo Mountain, a fresh beginning of the work was made in 1902, and in the present year a married priest has gone up with his wife to reside in that far-off spot, where there are a large number of natives all along the top of the mountain range.

At Etalaneni, near the Nkandhla magistracy, the two thousand Christians in S. Augustine's district, with some fifteen exceptions, remained loyal to [140/141] the Government in a time of great trial when surrounded by rebels.

The industrial work at S. Augustine's of carpentry and stone-cutting is, though on only a small scale at present, of much value, and receives a grant of £50 a year from the Natal Government.

At Annesdale, Inhlwati, a church of stone was built by native labour, and dedicated by Bishop Carter before he left the diocese, in memory of the first English Church missionary in Zululand, the Rev. Robert Robertson, who died at that place, the last station which he founded.

During the past two years farms have been opened up for sugar plantations and other industries on the coast lands, and the Rev. Canon Davies has inaugurated itinerary work amongst them.

Eshowe has much suffered from the recent depression in trade, and the consequent retrenchments of the officials resident there.

The wide prevalence of East Coast fever has almost destroyed the cattle in Zululand, and the outlook is very serious as regards ploughing and crops and transport.

At S. Augustine's, the five thousand Christian natives attached to Archdeacon Roach's [141/142] mission-station not only remained absolutely loyal to the Government during the rebellion of 1906, but also in many cases rendered valuable assistance. A Cottage Hospital has been set up, where more than 2,000 patients were treated in the first year, and a ward is also to be built for European patients. A highly-trained nurse, Miss Mallandaine, is in charge of this, and the local doctor provides medical supervision. It is hoped to establish similar hospitals at other stations, as they are of great value, and especially in combating the superstition and ignorance prevalent among the Zulus. Native girls are to be trained in nursing work.

Adjoining the Osutu kraal of Dinuzulu there has been for some years an out-station in the charge of a native catechist, who is preparing for the diaconate: a part of the work superintended by Dr. Walters, of Nongoma.

The diocese has now two Archdeacons, who divide the districts between them.

In 1907 the Christians at Isandhlwana took part in sending one of the native clergy, who had long been ministering among them, first as catechist, and then as deacon and priest, the Rev. O. Nxumalo, as their missionary to the Swazies: [142/143] the first mission from the Zulus to their former enemies.

The Europeans' contributions towards the stipends of the clergy and for other purposes amount to about £1,000 per annum, and those of the natives to a like sum. There are, roughly speaking, 10,000 Christians of the Church in this diocese, with 157 native helpers, exclusive of the clergy, seventy stations and out-stations, and twenty-six European and native clergy, and twelve European lay workers.

The college at Isandhlwana is staffed with two European clergy, the girls' school at Kwamagwaza with four European ladies.

At most of the magistracies and European townships and settlements services are held at regular intervals, though in some more frequently than in others.

In the Transvaal portion of the diocese a church, for which the native Christians made, freely, 100,000 bricks, has been built at Holy Rood, Endhlozana, by the hands of Canon Mercer and some native workmen. And the Europeans at Piet Retief, Amsterdam, and Hlatikulu support amongst them a priest who serves all those three places.

[144] In Swaziland, which is also within the diocese, there are now two European priests and one native priest; and a wood and iron church, given by Sergeant-Major Vine, of the South African Constabulary, has been built for Europeans at Mbabane; a church for natives has also been built at the same place, the headquarters of Government, in addition to the native churches at other out-stations; and eighty acres have been bought, with a house thereon, at Forbes' Rief, as a centre of future work in that colony.

Diocese of Pretoria

In the Transvaal, before the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, there were but few English settlers, and the Dutch had, of course, their own church. Church work here was therefore scanty until recent years. In 1864 the recently-appointed Bishop of the Orange Free State paid a visit to the country, and soon after sent a catechist, and later a deacon (the Rev. W. Richardson) to Potchefstroom. In 1870 the Rev. J. H. Wills was appointed to Pretoria. But for many years after this the country depended upon occasional visits of neighbouring Bishops for Confirmation and other episcopal offices.

[145] It was in October, 1877, when the Metropolitan visited the Transvaal, that it was decided to form the country into a separate diocese to be called by the name of the capital--Pretoria. The Bishop selected for the post was the Rev. H. B. Bousfield, Vicar of Andover. He was consecrated in England on the Feast of the Purification, 1878, and reached Pretoria on January 7, 1879.

The Bishop arrived in stormy times, as the Zulu War was then in hand, and the end of that year saw a revival of hostilities with the native chief, Sekukuni, who had more than once before given serious trouble; and this was followed in December, 1880, by the revolt of the Boers and the first Boer War. The result of that war was, of course, to put back the work of the English Church, as many of our countrymen left the Transvaal. Much, however, remained to be done both among the English settlers and among the natives. The Rev. A. Temple, who afterwards became Archdeacon, was at this time active among the natives of the Potchefstroom district; and for the English mining population of Johannesburg the Rev. J. T. Darragh was appointed Priest-in-charge, and afterwards Rector of S. Mary's, a post he has held ever since. He has done splendid work for [145/146] the Church of CHRIST both before and since the war.

In 1902 Bishop Bousfield died, and was succeeded by Bishop Carter, translated from Zululand. His coming, which synchronized with the termination of the great Boer War, has been followed by immense strides in the Church work of the diocese. Before the war there had been, beside the Bishop, thirty-two clergy, nearly all of whom had been expelled from the Republic at the outbreak of hostilities. When Bishop Carter took over the charge of the diocese in November, 1902, he found only twenty-six clergy at work. By the end of 1904 there were sixty-one. In that year alone ten fresh districts were provided with resident clergy, ten new churches were built and five enlarged, while two more were started, and two parish halls. There are now seventy-nine clergy (including four Archdeacons) in addition to five Army chaplains and five clergy of the Railway Mission, a great part of whose work lies within the diocese. The expenditure from the Central Fund for last year (apart from the stipends raised by congregations for their clergy) was £11,129, just about half of which was [146/147] contributed directly in subscriptions by individuals and companies, many of the larger firms giving as much as £500 or £600 each, while the total grant from England through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for the year was only £1,170, showing that the diocese is in a fair way to becoming self-supporting.

The missionary opportunities of this diocese are unique, for, in addition to the large native population residing in the country, there are large numbers of men of various tribes brought from various quarters to work on the Rand. Excellent work among these has been done by the Community of the Resurrection, whose headquarters are at Mirfield, in Yorkshire. At the urgent request of the Bishop of Pretoria they established a branch house in Johannesburg in 1903, and the members of the Community minister to both whites and natives. The Rev. L. Fuller (one of the members of the Community) has been entrusted by the Bishop with the organization of native work along the reefs in the country districts immediately around it. In the Potchefstroom district the native work has been for some eighteen years past under the care of Archdeacon Roberts. The Diocesan Report of four years ago shows that [147/148] there were then some 3,000 native communicants in the district. In the Pretoria district Canon Farmer has been in charge since 1895, and is assisted by a native priest. Canon Farmer has done a great work in itinerating. The Rev. W. A. Goodwin, a son-in-law of Bishop Bransby Key, after rendering invaluable service both in the S. John's Diocese, and as Principal of S. Alban's native College, in Pietermaritzburg, is now doing good work among natives under the Bishop of Pretoria.

The educational work of the Wantage Sisters at Pretoria and of the East Grinstead Sisters at Rosettenville is a valuable addition to the resources of the diocese. Many familiar English institutions, such as the Girls' Friendly Society, the Mothers' Union, and the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society have found their way to the Transvaal. The diocese now boasts its own Lay Readers' Association, in addition to many branches of the Church of England Men's Society.

Diocese of Mashonaland

Passing further north we come to the Diocese of Mashonaland. This country came under British influence in 1888, when Mr. Rhodes [148/149] obtained a concession from Lobengula, King of Matabeleland. The following year the British South Africa Company was formed under Royal Charter, and a pioneer expedition started under Col. Pennefather, with two hundred Europeans and one hundred and fifty natives, to open up the country and construct roads. The peaceful occupation of the country was, however, soon interrupted by war. First a dispute arose with the Matabele, which was brought to a successful termination in the short space of five weeks, in October and November, 1893, during which the King Lobengula died of smallpox. Then two and a half years later--in the spring of 1896--a rising took place among the same people, owing to the removal of the police force in connection with the Jameson Raid. This rising was subdued by August, but not before one hundred and forty-one Europeans had been massacred. Finally, a further revolt took place among the Mashonas, involving a more serious war, which lasted more than a year, and in which the regular army had to be called in.

This rising furnished a remarkable example of what is at once our weakness and our strength in dealing with native races--our extraordinary [149/150] capacity for trusting them. On the whole, it is that trust that is the secret of our power to govern and win them. But occasionally it is misplaced. It was so in this instance. No sooner had we conquered the warlike and independent Matabele than we assumed that they were to be at once and for ever our firm friends and faithful subjects. Englishmen settled down among them in widely scattered and lonely farms, people travelled about the country without arms or escort, and, with almost reckless confidence, Dr. Jameson withdrew the Matabeleland mounted police, in November, 1895, to Pitsani, in Southern Bechuanaland, in view of the rising in Johannesburg. This confidence in the peaceable intentions of the inhabitants of Matabeleland had, no doubt, a certain justification. The more warlike Matabele had been killed or driven across the Zambesi. Many of those who were left were sincerely relieved from the perpetual fear of Lobengula's tyranny. They expressed this relief to Dr. Jameson by saying, "Now we can sleep." And the other inhabitants of the country--the Mashonas and Makalakas--were regarded as so unwarlike as to be a negligable quantity. But as against these grounds of confidence there were serious reasons, [150/151] as we can now see, for uneasiness. The natives had grievances for which there was some justification. They disliked the hut tax, which is a regular part of our native policy. (It is considered the best method of taxing luxuries, as each wife has a hut to herself, and only the wealthier natives can afford many wives). The perennial grievance as to land was also a factor in the case, as farms were at once taken up, and it was obvious that this policy would in time lead to the confinement of the old inhabitants within narrower limits, or else their exploitation as labourers by the new occupiers of the land on which they were living. It happened, also, to add to the unrest, that there was at that time a bad outbreak of rinderpest. The Government, in order to arrest the disease, had in many cases to order the destruction of healthy animals in infected areas. This was naturally hard for the people to understand, and led to the idea that the white man was set upon their ruin. No wonder, then, that when there came the withdrawal of the ordinary police force of the country, and, following this, the report of their defeat by the Boers, the Matabele thought that the time had come for them to reassert their independence and to drive out the encroaching white men.

[152] Church work in Mashonaland was planned in 1874, when funds were provided through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for an expedition under the Rev. W. Greenstock. Owing, however, to the death of his companion at Durban, the expedition had for the time to be abandoned. The actual beginning of work dates from the pioneer expedition of Bishop Knight Bruce, in 1888, which we have already mentioned. This notable journey marked him out as the most suitable man to be appointed the first Bishop of Mashonaland, and to this office he was translated in 1891. His work at first was among the natives of Mashonaland. Matabeleland he left to the care of the London Missionary Society, which he found in full activity there.

The termination of the little war of 1893, however, changed the aspect of affairs. It brought many English settlers into the country, so that the Church was called to minister to her own members; and Buluwayo, which had been Lobengula's kraal, became the European capital of Matabeleland and the chief centre of the Church's work there. In 1894 Bishop Knight Bruce broke down in health, and was warned by his doctors that it was imperative that he should return to England. [152/153] He died two years later as Vicar of Bovey Tracey. His successor was William Thomas Gaul, then Archdeacon of Kimberley. Under his energetic guidance the work of the Church rapidly increased among both natives and Europeans. The Bishop's experience among the mining population at Kimberley, many of whom he met again in Rhodesia, and his own hearty and exuberant personality, made him just the man for the pioneering work among Mr. Rhodes' young men who began to flock into the new territories.

Foremost among the new enterprises was the creation of a native college near the town of Umtali, as a memorial to Bishop Knight Bruce, which was liberally supported by the Home Church through both the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and superintended by the Rev. D. R. Felly. This College of S. Augustine, near Penhalonga, which has now for some years had as its head the Rev. E. H. Etheridge, who is supported by a very efficient band of colleagues (two of whom, the Rev. R. Alexander and Brother Sherwin Smith, may truly be said to have borne the burden and heat of the day), seems to be in a fair [153/154] way to solve the difficult problem of native education. While all the morning (after the morning services) is spent in school, the whole of the afternoon is spent in manual labour, in which is included gardening, agricultural work, and building. In spite of the fees charged, there are applications from many more students than the college can accommodate; and the raising of fees does not in the least check the flow of applicants. At S. Monica's, on the same beautiful estate, there is a flourishing school for girls and women, under the charge of Mother Annie, and two other ladies. Native schools were also established in all the towns, and a native church built, mostly by the people themselves, at Buluwayo; while the white people are ministered to at Salisbury, Umtali, Buluwayo, Gwelo, Selukwe, Victoria, and Francistown. At Salisbury there is a pro-cathedral, and at all the other centres there are churches--that at Selukwe, however, is only just begun. The work north of the Zambesi has been carried on by the Archdeacon of Matabeleland (the Ven. F. H. Beavan).

The chief centres of native work are (a) in Mashonaland--1, S. Augustine's, Penhalonga, where there is an industrial school for boys, [154/155] numbering at present about 170, and an industrial boarding school for girls (S. Monica's), with about eighty. There are also four out-stations at this mission. 2, Rusape, with S. Faith's Mission, and the Mission of the Epiphany, and several out-stations. Two lady workers are engaged at this station with its day schools. 3, All Saints', Wreningham, with a boarding school for about thirty scholars, and out-stations. 4, Mission of the Transfiguration, at Victoria. 5, S. Mary's, Huny-anyi. 6, S. Bernard's, Mangwendi. There are also native churches in the towns of Salisbury and Umtali. (b), In Matabeleland--1, S. Columba's, Buluwayo. 2, the Industrial Mission of S. Aidan, at Bembezi; and 3, S. Matthew's, Umguza. There are now, beside the Bishop, twenty clergy, including two Archdeacons, working in the diocese, beside a considerable number of native catechists and teachers. Archdeacon Upcher has been in the diocese since 1892, and has proved himself an ideal missionary, full of zeal, and ready to turn his hand to anything: no man is so well known or loved throughout Rhodesia. Archdeacon Beavan, who came into the diocese in 1903, has made it his special work to follow up the isolated white man; and he has succeeded in keeping in [155/156] touch with our fellow-countrymen in North-West Rhodesia so thoroughly that when the new diocese, which the province, thanks to the generosity and labours of Bishop T. E. Wilkinson, has in contemplation there, is formed, there will be found a nucleus of Church work ready to hand.

At the beginning of 1907 it had become plain that Bishop Gaul, like his predecessor, had made overdrafts upon his strength, and that, if his life was to be continued, he must give up the work he loved so well. His resignation was accepted by the Bishops of the Province, and, after an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Bishop Campbell of Glasgow to accept the post of Bishop of Mashonaland (to which he was much drawn by his South African experiences in connection with the Mission of Help sent out from England in 1904), a successor was found in the person of the Rev. E. N. Powell, Vicar of S. Stephen's, Upton Park, E., who was consecrated in Capetown on S. Matthias' Day, 1908.

Diocese of Lebombo

At the beginning of 1891 the South African Bishops decided that the time had come for the formation of a new diocese, to be called Lebombo, [156/157] from the Lebombo range of mountains, consisting of the districts around Delagoa Bay--Lourenco Marques and Inhambane, in Portuguese territory--and South Gazaland with Lydenberg and Zoutspanberg, in the Transvaal. This country, though nominally in the Diocese of Zululand, had been hardly touched by Church work. In 1881 Bishop McKenzie of Zululand had paid a visit to Delagoa Bay, and had secured a site for mission premises, but he was unable to prosecute the plan further till 1889, when he paid another visit. His account of what he found there is depressing:--"No one anxious for Communion," "Europeans and natives alike much addicted to drink," and "the Name of GOD only heard in oaths." Bishop McKenzie's death again delayed the plans for mission work in this country; but on All Saints' Day, 1893, the Rev. William Edmund Smyth, then a missionary in Zululand, was consecrated in Grahamstown Cathedral as first Bishop of the new diocese. It was slow and uphill work, and for some years, the Bishop plodded on almost alone. Of late years, however, the progress of the diocese has been marked and fairly rapid. There are now, beside the Bishop, an archdeacon and eleven [157/158] clergy, twenty-five native catechists and teachers and other workers, and fourteen English lay workers.

A good work is being done at S. Christopher's College, founded in 1901, where some twelve native students are being trained for the work of the ministry in the diocese. Three of these have already been appointed sub-deacons. One of the special difficulties which has to be faced in this diocese lies in the number of languages which must be learned, owing to the variety of tribes among which work is being carried on. Fortunately the Bishop is not only a devoted missionary but also a man of linguistic gifts.

Diocese of S. Helena

We have incidentally mentioned the island of S. Helena, which, though remote from South Africa, forms part of the Ecclesiastical Province. The history of Church work there goes much further back than that of most of the other parts of the Province. As early as 1704 we find the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel allowing a grant of £5 for small tracts for the Rev. Charles Masham, "a minister sent to S. Helena by the East India Company," [158/159] and two years later a further grant was made him. The island, however, does not appear again in the Society's records for more than a century. On Bishop Gray's appointment to Capetown he sent the Rev. W. Bousfield to join the Rev. R. Kempthorne, who, up to that time, seems to have been the only clergyman, besides a military chaplain, to minister to a population which was then estimated at 5,000. Bishop Gray, who visited the island on his voyage to England, gives a grim account of the cargoes of liberated slaves which our Navy was at that time constantly discharging on to the island. It roused a deep and earnest determination in the Bishop's heart to prosecute missionary work among them. In 1859 he succeeded in getting a Bishopric established for S. Helena, with the Islands of Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; and Dr. Piers C. Clauehton was consecrated as the first Bishop, in Westminter Abbey, on Whitsunday of that year. His episcopate was, however, a short one, as in 1862 he was translated to Colombo.

His successor was the Ven. T. E. Welby, then Archdeacon of George in the Diocese of Capetown, who served the Church in the island for [159/160] the long term of thirty-seven years. He died in 1899, and was succeeded by Dean Holmes of Grahamstown in 1899. Bishop Holmes only lived a few years after his consecration, and was followed by Bishop Holbech, who had been Dean of Bloemfontein. In 1865 the population of S. Helena was 7,000; but the diversion of trade, owing to the opening of the Suez Canal, has greatly changed the position and prospects of the island. Much poverty was caused by the loss of the ocean trade, and in a few years the population had fallen, by emigration and other causes, to one half its former number, viz., 3,500.

Only a small proportion of the inhabitants are of European birth, the greater part of the islanders being coloured people of mixed race, their forefathers having been brought there either as servants of the East India Company or as slaves. The island is divided into three parishes, each with its own clergyman, the cathedral being in the centre of the island.

Aided by the Rebecca Hussey Charity for the education of the children of released slaves, the Church has done much for education in S. Helena, and. now has six schools under its care.

[161] This diocese has the honour of possessing one of the most isolated cures of souls imaginable: the island of Tristan da Cunha, now, for the third time, occupied by a resident priest, the Rev. J. G. Barrow.

The island of Ascension is held by a naval garrison, for whom the Admiralty long ago built a church, which was consecrated by Bishop Claughton.

Diocese of Walfish Bay

In 1901 and 1903 the Coadjutor Bishop Capetown, Dr. Gibson, whose devoted work as a missionary in the Diocese of S. John's has been mentioned, having learnt that no provision was made by the English Church for her members south of the Congo, made two long journeys, lasting several months, through German South-West Africa and a portion of Portuguese West Africa, with the view of supplying ministrations to the scattered Church people, and also of seeing what openings there were in those regions for missionary work on the part of the Church of the Province. The expenses of the first journey were defrayed almost entirely by the people visited; for the second, a liberal grant was made by the [161/162] Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1906, having been ordered to rest for at least two, if not three, years, the Bishop resigned his post, and was succeeded by his old friend, Dr. Cameron, of whom mention has already been made. Under Bishop Cameron's fostering care the difficulties which were only to be expected in connection with such a movement as that which resulted in the Order of Ethiopia have been very largely smoothed away.

Early in 1907, the South African Bishops in Synod requested Bishop Gibson to accept the office of Missionary Bishop for Walfish Bay (which he had already visited some four times) and the neighbouring parts with which his journeys had made him familiar. It is the sincere hope of all his friends that his health may allow of his taking up the work thus allotted to him, but for the present the Bishop remains under doctor's orders in Europe, and the office is of the nature of a titular one--in partibus infidelium.

It is, perhaps, worthy of notice that, although no colonial man has yet become a Bishop in South Africa, of the twelve Bishops now belonging to the Province no less than eight had been working in the country at some time or other before they [162/163] were raised to the episcopate. Two, it is true, had returned to England, but six were actually on the staff of South African priests at the time of their election or appointment.

The Mission of Help

An enterprise which has been of the greatest importance and profit to the South African Church, and which, on the scale on which it was carried out, is unique in the history of the Anglican communion, remains to be recorded. This is the movement which received the name of the "Mission of Help" sent out by the Mother Church in the year 1904. The idea of such a mission had been germinating for many years. Its first inception is to be traced to a visit which Bishop Wilkinson (who had just resigned the Bishopric of Truro) paid to the Cape in 1892, and to conversations which he then had with his hosts, Sir Henry and Lady Loch. The idea of a general mission had been mentioned in the Provincial Synod of 1898, and the matter was left in the hands of the Bishops. The Bishops met in an Episcopal Synod in August, 1900, when a letter from Bishop G. H. Wilkinson was read asking whether an effort to send out a considerable body of English clergy [163/164] would meet with the approval of the South African Church. Canon Gore (as he then was) was also associated with the proposal. It was suggested that, when the unhappy war which was still raging should come to an end, the moment might be opportune for making a great united effort to deepen and perpetuate the graver thoughts which the sufferings of the war had aroused, and to preach the gospel of national righteousness and reconciliation. The offer was warmly accepted by the Bishops in Synod. A committee was then formed to take the matter in hand, and the first step decided on was to send out a pioneer expedition in 1902, to survey the ground, and ascertain the feelings and needs of the several Dioceses of South Africa. The Rev. V. S. S. Coles, Librarian of the Pusey House at Oxford, the Rev. J. Hamlet, Vicar of Barrington, and the Rev. L. Sladen, Vicar of Selly Oak, formed the first band, charged to visit the Dioceses of Grahamstown, Bloemfontein, and S. John's, Kaffraria. They were followed by Bishop Hornby (now of Nassau), the Rev. M. B. Furse (now Archdeacon of Johannesburg), and the Rev. J. P. Maud (now Vicar of S. Mary's, Redcliffe), who went to Capetown, Natal, Zululand, Pretoria, Lebombo, and [164/165] Mashonaland. This Pioneer Mission did great things in the way of enlisting the interest and eager expectation of the colonists with regard to the larger mission which was to follow, and it brought back a most valuable report as to the needs of the Church of the Province.

After what has been recorded in the foregoing chapters, the truth and importance of the following words in this report will be realized: "It is no disparagement to say that the Church of the Province of South Africa has of necessity been largely engaged in evolving her system of external organization." What was now needed was a fuller sense of the end to which all outward machinery was the means--a fuller outpouring of the Spirit within the Body. And the report, with a fine sense of proportion, added:--"It should now be indisputably seen that the Church's campaign is simply one for righteousness." And the report also gave evidence of an equally fine sense of proportion on the part of the colonists in the way in which the mission was received. "It was wondrously cheering to find the universal admission that the most solid asset in the State is character, and its most valued product the lives of its people."

[166] A second preparatory visit was paid in the following year by the Bishop of S. Andrews, Canon Scott Holland, and Provost Campbell (now Bishop of Glasgow). The object of this mission was less to acquire information than to definitely prepare the minds of Church people in South Africa for the arrival of the full band of missioners in the following year. On their return an interesting conference took place in the Jerusalem Chamber between the missioners and the pioneers and the members of the committee, many of whom had already had experience of South African conditions of life and of the special problems of its Church.

The actual mission consisted of a body of thirty-six Bishops and clergy. They were divided into two groups. The first of these was assigned to the Dioceses of Capetown, Grahamstown, Natal, S. John's, and Zululand. Its leaders were the Bishops of Gibraltar and Burnley (now Bishop of Southwell). The second group was to go to the Dioceses of Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Mashonaland, and was to be under the charge of the Rev. C. T. Abraham, Vicar of Bakewell. The first detachment, seventeen in number, sailed on April 7, 1904. The rest of the missioners [166/167] followed at intervals, some of them having volunteered for six months and others for shorter periods.

The enterprise was, naturally, a very costly one. But the expenses were more than met by the splendid efforts of an influential band of ladies, headed by Adeline, Duchess of Bedford, who, under the inspiring lead of the Bishop of S. Andrews, organized the work of collecting funds throughout the English dioceses.

The results of the mission are everywhere described as surpassing the most sanguine expectations. This remarkable manifestation of the care of the Mother Church for her South African daughter seems to have deeply struck the imagination of the colonists, and everywhere the missioners were met by large and expectant congregations. People undertook long and toilsome journeys in order to be present at the services, and many who had drifted away from all spiritual influences seem to have been reached and profoundly affected. There is every reason to believe that the enthusiastic response which the mission evoked was something more than the mere excitement and emotion of unusual services and famous preachers, and that in a large number of cases the results have been [167/168] true and lasting. The last service of the mission was held in the Cathedral of Capetown on October 25th; and on November 15th a great thanksgiving service was held in S. Paul's Cathedral. The sermon was to have been preached by the Bishop of S. Andrews, who had been throughout the inspiring and sustaining force behind the mission, as he had been its original projector. Ill-health, however, prevented him, and his place was filled by Canon Scott Holland, who, after the Bishop, had done as much as any one to make the mission a success. Now that Bishop Wilkinson's work on earth is ended, it is a happy memory to look back on this great mission as forming a splendid climax to a life which was pre-eminent, if not unique, in the spiritual influence which it exerted on people of all classes.

This brief review of South African Church history has shown us that that figure-head which first confronts the voyager beneath the Southern Cross, and which stands for what lies beyond it, is indeed a cape of storms. The different traditions, the misunderstandings, the varying aims and ideals of many races, have produced, and [168/169] will continue to produce, many a conflict. One thing alone can reconcile those misunderstandings, and draw hearts into stable and loving union--the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the enthusiasm of the one all-embracing and all-satisfying kingdom of God. But the solid and evergrowing work of good men which the record describes is slowly but surely revealing the vision, and kindling the enthusiasm, of that kingdom, lifting the eyes of men to those holy hills. South Africa, though physically a vast country, is, on its human side, a very small country, closely knit together. The people of Capetown know all about the people of Port Elizabeth and Durban, and those of Durban and Kimberley know all about those of Johannesburg and of Buluwayo. Family connections and business relations unite them. And, therefore, ideals and standards of life and thought which touch Johannesburg to-day will affect Capetown and Durban to-morrow. And the tone of the towns affects the farmers in remotest districts, whose links with the towns and their markets and their society are many and close. And the native races draw in through every pore the spirit which prevails among the white men around [169/170] them. So the way of the LORD is prepared, every valley is exalted, and every mountain and hill is made low, and the crooked made straight, and the rough places plain. Can we doubt but that the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and the whole great country shall yet, in God's good time, fulfil the promise of its early name--The Cape of Good Hope?

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