St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-02-09
Correspondence.
THE RETURN TO INDIA


trance of the Red Sea. Down this
sea our passage was pleasant,
though the weather was so hot That
many of the passengers carried their
beds on deck and slept there. At
Alden we made our last stop, and
then steered straight for Bombay
and had a very pleasant passage all
the way. Our passage, however,
was slow and instead OF 10 days, as
we had expected, we were p days
from Genoa. Our captain had tod
us we would land Tuesday morning,
and he did not care to get IN tn
morning, but he next talked OF Tues
day noon, then Tuesday evening IN
time to land. We however did not
get our ship into dock Tuesday, but
at nine O'Clock at night came to an
Choir in the harbor Our kind Bonn
bay agent William Watson & Co."
had his man aboard with letter to
us within a few moments, and we
asked-"What time does the train
for Lucknow start?' eat 10, just
one hour" Can we reach the
train ?" Eyes, have a boat
and can get you there" Can you
at this time Of night get me India
money for my cheque?' Yes, |
can get you money enough to buy
your tickets and will send you
the balance" "All right then, make
for the train" The customs officer
was aboard by this time and passed
our luggage, and we pulled for the
landing nearest the depot. All went
right our agent borrowed money
at the depot for us, and we secured
good accommodations on the
through car for Lucknow-made up
our beds and were soon moving
rapidly up through the coast noun
tains for the plains OF India. All
night, all the next day and the next
night we rolled on, till on the second
morning we run into the large, mag
nihcent depot at Cawnpore, the first
station in our North India mission.
Here friends met us and we spent the
time set apart for breakfast in talk
ing of work and changes. Our
through car was changed to another
road and we were soon off for Luck
now, as thankful and happy as NOR
tails can be in this life. At one in the
afternoon our train drew into the
depot and there were the mission
aries from the college, the publishing
house and the ladies nome, with col
lcge students, all to bid us welcome.
How different from the old times
when we worked our way up country
to begin work where no one well
coined the missionary. We were
now taken possession of and driven
to Presidency Hill" near our college,
where many of the friends had been
invited to.lunch with us. Our "home
coming" in dear old Vermont was
blessed indeed, and this second
"home coming" was equally blessed,
for is not our work here
We remained at Lucknow but little
more than a day, for the delay of
our ship had delayed our work
much work was waiting to be done,
and we went to work at once. Nine
quarterly conferences were held and
on December 18th we met in a
beautiful mango grove at Barabanki
for our district conference and camp
meeting. When we spent our last
winter in Vermont it was not very
good weather for camping out in the
middle of December. But we had
beautiful weather-cool and dry
all through the meeting which lastec
one week. There were about 1906
present, encamped on the ground
most of the people living in httl,
booths made of long coarse gras.
and reeds. Perhaps the most en-
couraging feature of the meetin.
was the large number of well edu
Gated, trained wide awake nativ
preachers and teachers who were a
this meeting. They numbered NOR
than $50. The next cheering featur
was the large number of voun,
people from our schools. Their
were about 800 of these and tn
Epworth League day was YER
interesting one. The spirit of tn
entire meeting all through the wee
was one of sincere devotion an
faith in God for victory in the wor
of saving these idolaters around u.
Could our friends who are intereste
in this work have heard our victor
song, which was sung often in tn
great congregation, they would hav
felt with us the spirit of victory. w
sang GLORY Glory Haleluiah we
gain the victory" We sang i
Hindustani, but to the old "Glor
Hallelujah" tune that many so
dier has sung in a different hgh
from ours. That meeting is ais
over the people have returned t
their homes, the preachers and teacl
ers to the work, and we are bot
back in Bombay again to attend tt
great Decennial Conference of a
societies and denominations
lodia. We expect about six hundre
missionaries. | may make SON
notes of this meeting for vol
reading. E. w. Parker.