CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE
Section VI: Missions to India

Part 5: North India Mission, 1817-1880
Part 6: North India Mission, 1817-1880

Extracts - Part 6

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Report on work in the schools at Mooltan by Mrs Annie Jane Briggs, wife of Rev William Briggs, 1878

“I am happy to be able to report you that our work is going on very satisfactorily. When I last went into the City I took the glorious Gospel in my hand & went in the City to see a Zenana friend. I found five females & two men in their house. My pupils brought their book to read their lessons to me. I was teaching them till it got quite late. So I was coming away without reading a chapter to them but the old lady of the house cried out and said Madam you are going away without reading us a nice story from the book you have in your hand… From here I went to examine one of my schools.
A girl was reading Booth’s Scripture History….”

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Inspection reports on Mrs Annie Jane Briggs’ schools in Mooltan, 1877

“I went with Mrs Briggs this morning to one of her city girls’ schools, and was very much pleased with what I saw and heard. The nice tidy appearance of the school room, the bright intelligent faces of the girls, and their cleanliness and good order were quite delightful. I heard three or four girls read very nicely out of the ‘Masturat i Baibal’ and they answered my questions intelligently. We also heard them sing some ‘bhajans’ and we saw some very creditable specimens of their needle work. The native Xtian women who assist Mrs Briggs seem to be active and efficient. It gave me great pleasure to see this work, and I trust it may be greatly prospered and blessed by the Lord.

August 12th 1877 E G HENDERSON

…. Shortly after coming to Mooltan I was taken by Mrs Briggs to see her schools in the city, amongst the many schools of a similar kind in different places which I have seen I must say those under the superintendence of Mrs Briggs would take a foremost place. She seems to exercise great judgement in the selection of the teachers and from what I saw and heard the system of teaching is evidently a good one, and attractive to the children. As is not the case in most other places, the children attend without any allurement beyond the education offered to them. Scriptural instruction occupies a prominent place in the teaching and they sing hymns very nicely. Mrs Briggs deserves every encouragement in her important work, which let us pray may be blessed from on High.

March, 1877 M K DOXEY”

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Annual Letter of Rev William Briggs, Mooltan, December 1874

“My dear Sir,

This letter is now nearly two months over due, and all I can do now is simply to offer some apology for and explanation of the delay that has occurred. On the 20th Octr I got an attack of fever which lasted till nearly the end of Novr & then left me so weak and helpless that I could not do much more than sit still. On the 6th Novr I accompanied Mr Clark (who had come to Multan to baptize a baby) to Amritsar for change of air. This step was taken by advice of the doctor. After remaining at Amritsar ten days & getting no better, I went by easy stages down to Calcutta to meet Mrs Briggs who landed from the ‘El Dorado’ on the evening of the 25th ult. I got my last attack of fever at Burdwan, the evening before I reached Calcutta. The debilitating fever of these parts has been more than usually severe on me this year. The doctor and my friends blame my walking backwards and forwards between the city and my house (a mile & a half) last summer….

It would be a great convenience to have a house either in or close to the city…. The house we now occupy is in the Civil Lines and too far away to be a suitable residence for a missionary. The missionary is lost to the people of the city…. When we first came to Multan and lived among the people, I was their ‘padre’, but now I am nobody and my influence is nil everywhere but in the schools….”

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Letter from Rev Robert Clark to the General Secretary regarding Native Agencies, April 1868

“My Dear Mr Fenn

I received your very welcome letter a few weeks ago, & have much pleasure in replying to it. My annual letter was sent through Mr Stuart at the close of last year. The subject of your letter is I believe one of the most important in all Missionary labour; namely that of carrying on Missionary work, as far as possible, through the agency of the Natives of the country in which our Missions are established. The feeling is now very general, that it is only through them that Christianity will really become indigenous in this land. We notice this feeling in almost every Report or Missionary address that is published; & it is brought forward prominently in every conference; & there are I believe but comparatively few Missionaries who do not concur in it. The experience of almost every Mission in every age and country, seems to show that the greatest success in Missionary work generally attends the efforts of those who are most diligent & skilful in selecting & training & guiding & organizing a Native agency….”

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Annual Letter from Rev Henry Davis, Kirampur, 1874

“…. We spent three weeks in the western portion of the Hiranpur district. The roads like most of those in Santalia were very bad. At one little stream the boulders were so large and slippery that we could not get across on horseback but were obliged to dismount and get across as well as we could. The horses slipped about as if intoxicated. The bullock gary with our plates & dishes rolled completely over & hardly any of the crockery survived the shock. The bullocks also came to grief & had a cold bath in the rocky stream…. To itinerate in the Santal district is very different from itinerating in Bengal where the missionary drives his buggy from place to place….

Our preaching has been kept up in the neighbouring villages as far as possible. As there are not less than 50 villages within an hour’s walk of Hiranpur it takes several months to visit each in rotation. We think this to be the best plan to follow till enquirers come forward. When enquirers do come forward we can give especial attention to those villages in which they live.

The dispensary has been well attended & the addresses have been patiently listened to, sometime a discussion arises but this I am sorry to say is not often the case. The people’s hearts want rousing and this the Holy Spirit alone can do….”

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Report on missions to the Afghans by Rev Thomas Valpy French, 1862-1863

“…. Constant attacks of fever & other sickness of the country made my work after this very broken. On reaching Dera I found the number of Povandars daily arriving or passing on into Hindustan very large. The streets were in parts, even the broadest, choked with the camels & bales & bulky frames of the stout, swarthy, afghans. The Caravanserai & the pathuns, or ferries across the Indus, as well as the corn and wool markets, were their great gathering places & our preaching places. When sufficiently restored, I set out to visit them in their strange, but not uncouth, villages, erected afresh year by year within their brushwood enclosures, & composed partly of boughs of the nearest shrubs of the desert, & partly of black blankets; literally, ‘tents of Kedar with curtains of Solomon’. In some of these villages I was received with true Afghan courtesy: & was able to maintain lengthened & friendly conversation with the chief men, who were sometimes of princely bearing & noble person. In others, the Moollahs would neither hear nor let hear. A few copies of single gospels, with which I was furnished by our Peshawar brethren, were accepted, & will, I trust, find their way across the mountain barrier to the west which these Povandars annually cross, the door at which the Gospel has hitherto knocked for admission in vain.

After so short an experience it is premature to hazard an opinion as to the probable result of missions to the Afghans. There are many special points of interest connected with that mission. They seem far more open to warmheartedness & friendship & genial, loving, sympathy, than the Mahomedans on this side the Indus. They do not seem to breathe that bitter spirit of antipathy & antagonism which perpetuates estrangement too commonly between the missionary & his Mahomedan hearers in Hindostan.”

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