GODMANCHESTER He who in brawls will interpose 293 and that this was eminently a case for the application of that homely maxim, the Bishop replied that he would not allow a breach of the peace before his very eyes and house, and, although sitting sick at the time in his velvet cap and dressing-gown, he went boldly in, clad as he was, and separated the combatants. It is related of Gully Maile,' very much to his credit, that he was touched by the courage of the vicar, and ultimately became a changed man and the Bishop's devoted adherent. Bishop McDougall's wanderings in the East and his genial humour filled him with a store of anecdotes, of which many are given in Mrs. McDougall's book, 'Sketches of our Life in Sarawak,' and there told far better than the author of these Memoirs could relate them. These it is not, therefore, desired to repeat, but one or two others may be given as examples of his conversation in the hours of social intercourse, only premising that very much is here lost in the telling. The rivers of Borneo form, as we have seen, the common highways of the country, and, shaded by the forest trees of the jungle along their shores, offer a delightful refuge to the traveller from the heat. The great branches stretch over the water, teeming with insect and animal life, and from them often hang the pendulous nests of the hornets, not a little feared both by European and native. It chanced, then, that at one time an expedition against the pirates was afoot, in which the boats of some of H.M.'s ships of war were engaged, and in one of them, in command, was an officer, a strict martinet, sadly unpopular with his crew. In his boat was a reckless, daring fellow, who had lately, and he thought unjustly, been told off for punishment, and as they passed under 'The name of Maile, or Mayle, is found no less than twenty-two times in Mr. Fox's book, in his list of Bailiffs of Godmanchester in the seventeenth century, but then disappears. one of these nests, Jack, as if seized with a sudden inspiration, cried out "Hulloa, here goes," and raising his oar struck down the nest into the boat. The enraged insects flew out in a swarm, and everybody was badly stung, but most severely the unpopular officer. His disgust may be imagined, but Jack and his fellows did not care, there was no offence within the articles of war, and they thought their own smart well repaid by the payment of their grudge against a common enemy.' The hornets of Borneo are formidable foes. Bishop McDougall once suffered from them. He was in the jungle with native attendants and he suddenly heard them cry, 'Hornets, Tuan, hornets!' as they fled. He tried to escape, but received several stings on his neck and head, and he describes the pain as very severe.1 Again, the Bishop would often tell how on one occasion he was in his cutter some miles from land on the coast of Borneo, when he saw what he thought was a great rock half covered with seaweed. Approaching as close as he could with safety, and thinking that he might possibly land upon it, he saw it, to his surprise, paddle off, trailing a forest of sea-weed behind it. It was a mighty turtle, and his Malay boatmen said that it was the father of all the tortoises.' As he was very accurate and truthful in his statements, the story is worth relating, as it goes so far to prove the belief that in those distant seas monsters may still survive which are commonly supposed to be extinct, and known only to the geologist in the fossil state as relics of prehistoric times. In the case of the gigantic chelonians this is the more probable, as they are described both by Pliny and Ælian as abounding in the Indian seas in their days. When he had accepted the vicarage, Bishop McDougall 1 The British insect is sufficiently repulsive. Has the reader ever seen his way with the honey-bee? Seizing her in his grasp, with his powerful jaws he shears off her wings, her legs, and her head, and flies off with her to his terrible nest. 'Ipsasque volantes Ore ferunt dulcem nidis immitibus escam.' CORRESPONDENCE WITH BISHOP OF NATAL 295 received after a long interval a letter from the Bishop of Natal. The two brothers-in-law, not having been in England together, had not met for many years, and although there had been constant friendly communication by letter between the families, and Bishop Colenso had regularly sent his books to Bishop McDougall, they had by a tacit consent avoided as much as possible those controversial questions by which Bishop Colenso was surrounded, and in which the two were not likely to agree. Their relations to each other will not be thought uninteresting. 'Bishopstowe, Natal: May 6, 1868. 'My dear Frank,-It is a long time since I wrote to you, but you will understand that this has in great part arisen from the wish not to involve you in any way in my troubles, and to leave you perfectly free to act as you thought best, so long as you held the office of Bishop of Labuan. Now, however, that you have retired, or have taken measures for retiring, from that office, I have no such difficulty, and shall let you know from time to time what we are about here, in hope that you may be able to counteract some of the gross misrepresentations which have been made of my doings all over England during the past year. 'But first let me congratulate you, as I do most heartily, on your having reached at last a haven, where you and yours may rest for a while after your exhausting labours. Now if you could have a canonry added, it would be very pleasant, and make you at least comfortable for the rest of your days, with all your children about you. As for us, we must, I sup-. pose, battle on at least until this fight is fairly fought out. If indeed the Bishop of Oxford and his friends had approached me in a proper spirit at first-if instead of denouncing me in pastoral letters and inhibiting me, after they had published in the "Times" their second notice and before I had any power to answer it, they had shown me a little brotherly love and sympathy, . . . they might in all probability have gained their wishes long ago, so far as my resignation of my see was concerned. But who would submit-what Englishman, at any rate -to the course of injustice to which I have been subjected?' Although Bishop McDougall disagreed in his theological views with Bishop Colenso, he was not insensible to the grandeur of his character and the true piety of his heart. This is not the place to dwell upon the events referred to in this letter, but it may be regretted that there should have been not only the divergence in views, but an entire misunderstanding between the Bishop and his opponents as to the position intended to be taken. When he came over to England he had not decided to publish his book on the Pentateuch, at least in the form in which it was issued, but he had printed the early part of it privately at Bishopstowe, in Natal, and brought over some copies to lay confidentially before his friends in England, including some eminent persons in whose theological learning he most trusted. He seems to have thought that they would either refute and convince him, or be themselves converted to his views. He would not be persuaded, in the guilelessness of his heart, that a circulation of this kind might be equivalent to publication, but such was the case. A theological opponent, the near relative of one who had received a copy, found it in his library, and, without another word, reviewed it in violent terms in a newspaper. The complete publication was thus precipitated. The position of the Bishop was then like that of Zeno in the 'Parmenides,' who says, 'A love of discussion led me to write the book, and some one stole the writings; I had therefore no choice about the publication of them.' It is then quite unjust to suppose that he threw them precipitately as an apple of discord into the religious world, and by addressing to the many that which should have been addressed to a few-ad clerum-wilfully shook the faith of the unstable. CORRESPONDENCE WITH BISHOP OF NATAL 297 Similar letters followed, those of the Bishop of Natal almost entirely relating to his own position and progress, and therefore not pertinent to the life of Bishop McDougall. When the latter was appointed to the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon, the Bishop of Natal wrote (February 11, 1870): 'I am delighted to hear of your appointment and hope that some friend will before long transfer you to a more southern living, where you will be less subject to a renewal of your old attacks. I am thankful to say that I have had no return as yet of the rheumatic fever, and, on the whole, thank God, am very well, although getting tired of so much horse exercise, which would better suit a younger man.' When in 1874 he came to England to plead the cause of Langalibalele and the Hlubi tribe of Kaffirs, his self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of justice struck an answering chord in the heart of Bishop McDougall. He sailed for Natal, never to return to England, at Christmas 1874, and his last visit en route for Southampton, where he embarked, was to the Close at Winchester. He died on June 20, 1883, at 2 P.M., the news travelling by the telegraph, aided by the difference in longitude, so rapidly, that it was in the London evening papers of that same day. On the 25th Bishop McDougall wrote to his brother-inlaw: 'I have had neither time nor heart to write a line about the very sad and startling news of our poor brother J. W. Natal's call to another world. I thought that he was likely to have outlived me, but God has willed it otherwise. John did what he thought to be his work and duty most earnestly and faithfully, and the good that he did or tried to do for others will, I trust, now meet its reward. His wife and daughter are much in my mind, their desolation must be terrible-poor dears, one can only pray the Father of the fatherless to support and comfort them, as He only can.' 'Harriette tells me you contemplate coming to us in July. You and yours are always welcome as flowers in May to us.' On the death of Bishop Colenso it was earnestly hoped |