Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-03-21

| ought to be worth saving to the work they
know so we'll. Hence we are iourneying
owards our own green hills again, away
rom our loved work, and the burning
plains in the great valley of the Ganges,
| God has blessed us in these years and
las raised up an extensive work with
scores of native laborers-thousand of
school and Sunday school children and a
loving native church. Of all our partings
his last was most trying. The 100 girls
IN Mrs. Parker's boarding school, who
had been under her constant care until
hey seemed like our own family, clung to
her and gathered around her weeping as
hough their mother were leaving them,
and when the carriage drove off the girls
| followed to a corner to watch it till the
last. The presents of the native children
and of the native church at our farewell
meeting will be highly priced But our
hope is to recruit soon and go back to a
loved work.
We left Bombay Friday. February 9th,
in company with DR.. and Mrs. Reid and
Bishop Foster. on q "P. g. o." steamer,
| 'Rashgar" These steamers of this East
! India line are perfect in all the comforts
| provided for passengers, and they move
at an average speed of nearly II miles per
hour, and they carry the mail with
regularity almost equal to the great
railway lines.
On February 18th we reached Alden at
exactly the fixed time, and sent the mail
ashore, and after six hours took back the
mails from the steamers from various
points which center here. One is aston
ished at the amount of mail that is being
carried round this world at the present
time. On board the steamer is postoffice,
as on the railways. and mail is distributed
and got ready between the stations at
which We stop. Our next point is Suez.
There the mails are conveyed to the
railway postoffice and carried across
Egypt, where the steamer that started one
week before we did will be waiting to take
the mail to Brindise. Thus the mail gains
a full week on the steamer. From Brndise
it goes by rail again and is soon in London.
A person in haste follows the mail and
can 60 from America to India in 80 days
We are not following the mail but are
trying to rest and recruit and learn, as we
move homeward. Hence we leave this
steamer at Port Said, the Mediterranean
end of the Suez canal. and take another
steamer for a days run to Zafa (Joppa)
and thence we 60 to Jerusalem. Returning
to Z.fa we 60 to Beirut and up to Damas
Gus, and again we take steamer and
touching at Cyprus and Rhodes we pass
on to Smyrna from whence we 60 up to
Constantinople to see and learn of the
work for Mohammedans .there. while Dr.
Reid and Bishop Foster see Athens. From
Athens we all 60 on together to Naples.
In Italy we hope to see Rome and Venice
and the Italian conference over which
Bishop Foster presides at Turin, April
18th, and thence via Paris and London we
shall reach our old home. 1t is but little
off our route to visit these places. and after
spending these years in dark, depressing
India the mind needs to be refr sshed and
revived by contact with light and life and
power. and hence the great gain to US of
such trip. We must pass by all these
scenes and it would seem unwse not to be
quickened and taught by them.
To-day, the 10th of February. we are in
the Red sea, sailing for Suez. This sea
has become the great highway of the
nations. At Alden there were eight or ten
large steamers stopping few hours for
water, coal or mail like ourselves and to.
day we have met about rs many more
passing on their way east. The passage
at points is narrow and at one of these
the rocks. The Suez canal has changed
the mode of the entire eastern trade
Sailing vessels are little used, while large
steamers are being multiplied. Beside
other cargo our steamer has 20O0 tons of
cotton on board. There are 26 first class
passengers aboard. A large reduction IS
made for missionaries on these steamers.
To-day in this highway of the enlishten-
ed nations of the world we are forcibly
reminded that we pass between the most
dark and unenlghtened nations of the
earth. On one side is Arabia where the
son of lshmael proves true to the word of
God, that his hand should be against
every one. On the other side is dark
portion of Africa. This vicinity is not
favorable to the belief that the work of
the gospel is completed among the nations,
and that therefore the end is near.
To-day, the Goth, we are passing through
the gulf of Suez and on either side is
historic land. On one side is Mount
Sinai and on the other tho land of Egypt.
We will speculate this evening concerning
the exact place where Moses smote the
waters and passed through this sea, over
which we ride, on dry land. Some suppose
that the sea at that time extended much
farther inland than at present, and that
the place where Moses crossed is now a
bed of sand tlaversed by the Suez canal.
There are, however, indications that the
place of crossing was not far from the
entrance to the gulf near Suez.
Our trip from Bombay to this place has
been very pleasant Bishop Foster has
preached once and given one lecture on
the Extent of the Universe" as shown
by the worlds and the suns which look
like points of light in the heavens above
us. DR.. Reid has also preached once