Part I, Chapter III — Heyer's First Journey to India
HEYER'S first journey to INDIA
In the official call of the Executive Committee of the Missionary Society of the Pennsylvania Ministerium,^ Heyer was instructed to depart for East India as soon as he could prepare himself for the journey, and to begin his work as a missionary in India, "whenever the Lord would open the way." His travelling expenses w^ere to be paid and he was to receive an annual salary of $600. It was agreed that, if this sum proved more than sufficient, his salary was to be reduced "in proportion to his wants." On the other hand, the committee agreed to increase it, if it proved inadequate. The sum of $150 was advanced for an outfit and he was per- mitted to spend "a moderate sam for the purchase of picto- rial representations of BibHcal history, if he should consider them useful and necessary in the instruction of the heathen."
A special appeal for contributions addressed to all Luth- erans in the United States, written by the Rev. Dr. Baker, of Trinity Church, Lancaster, Pa., the treasurer of the society, was published in German in the " Kirchenzeitung " and in EngKsh in "The Lutheran Observer." The appeal reads as follows
To the ministers and congregations of the Evangelical Luth- eran Church in the United States.
Respected Brethren : The Missionary Society of the Evan- gelical Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania resolved at its last meeting to establish a mission among the Hindus in India. The Rev. Mr. Mueller in Tinnevelly, to whose 1 The executive committee which called him was constituted as follows: The officers of the society, namely, the Rev. Wm. Beates, president; the Rev. J. Haesbert, vice-president; the Rev. Fr. Schmidt, secretary; the Rev. C. R. Demme, D. D., corresponding secretary; the Rev. J. C. Baker, D. D., treasurer; and three directors, the Rev. H. S. Miller, Mr. C. Hager and Mr. J. F. Hein- itsch.
36 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA support we heretofore contributed, having again entered into connection with the Church Missionary Society, and that society being fully competent to sustain that mis- sion station, no further aid in his behalf is required from us. In order, however, to take an active part in evangel- izing the heathen, which we regard as a sacred duty of the Church of God, we have resolved in humble reliance on the great Head of the Church to send our beloved brother, C. F. Heyer, to the East Indies. He will, accordingly, proceed to that region to prosecute the work under the superintendence of our mission society. We indulge the hope that our con- gregations will effectually support us in this enterprise; and, whereas many Lutheran ministers belonging to other synods are not in favor of sending a missionary in connection with the American Board and have signified their willingness to afford assistance to our mission, we assure them that their donations will be thankfully received and applied to the above purpose. The treasurer of the society will present to the Church an exact statement of the receipts and expenditures. It is scarcely necessary to assure the Church that we shall not lose sight of our dispersed and destitute brethren in this country, espe- cially in the distant West; but we shall continue, as hereto- fore, to provide for them to the utmost of our ability.
May the Lord, our God, bless us and establish the work of our hands, yea, the work of our hands may the Lord estab- lish.
Written in the name of the Mission Society of the Evan- gelical Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania.
John C. Baker, Treasurer. The response to this appeal justified the faith of those who thus ventured on this pioneer project.^ On Sunday, October 5, 1841, Heyer, then forty-eight years of age, was solemnly commissioned at a public service in St. Paul's German Lutheran Church, Philadelphia. The ^ The congregations in York, Pa., the Rev. Mr. Lochmann, pastor, and in Baltimore, Md., the Rev. J. G. Morris, pastor, contributed liberally for Heyer's outfit. St. John's English Church, Philadelphia, gave him $60 for the establishment and maintenance of mission schools.
HEYER'S first journey to INDIA 37 charge was delivered by the Rev. J. C. Baker, D. D., and the missionary-elect preached a sermon, choosing as his text Jonah 3:2. Heyer spent several days in Boston with a num- ber of the members of the American Board and attended the service of farewell to that Board's missionaries, whom he was to accompany to Ceylon.
Before sailing Heyer received letters of recommendation and credentials from the faculties of Pennsylvania College and of the Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., and from the Executive Committee of the Missionary Society, which, besides whatever other useful purpose they may have served, greatly strengthened the heart of the missionary who was leaving behind all that was precious to him, in order that he might follow the call of the Lord to a land of which he knew practically nothing, excepting only this, that it needed the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In those days it was, indeed, a hazardous undertaking to go to a heathen land as a Christian missionary; and, though the Hindus were known to be a peaceable people among whom a missionary might labor without the fear of martyrdom, the voyage by sea in a sailing vessel around the Cape of Good Hope, lasting not less than live months, involved con- siderable discomfort and tediousness, not to say danger, as compared with our modern methods of rapid, comfortable and safe transit over sea and land. Moreover, sixty and more years ago, life in South India for an American or European lacked many of the sanitary safeguards and physical comforts of to-day.
The opening phrase of Heyer's farewell letter written in Boston just before sailing, ''This being the last Sunday which I shall probably spend in the United States," indicates that his mind was not entirely free from grave apprehension; but that the spirit of heroic faith suppressed all feelings of ' 'All ready to begin the voyage," wrote the intrepid pioneer. "I feel calm and fear is evident from the closing sentences.
cheerful, having taken this step after serious and prayerful consideration. The smiles of friends have cheered, and the approbation of the churches has encouraged me thus far. But
38 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA I am aware that, ere long, amidst a tribe of men whose language will be strange to me, I shall behold those smiles only in remembrance, and hear the voice of encouragement only in dying whispers across the ocean; and then nothing but the grace of God, nothing but a thorough conviction of being in the path of duty, nothing but the approving smile of Heaven can keep me from despondency.
'Farewell, a long farewell,
For we may meet no more,
Until we're raised in heaven to dwell
On Canaan's blissful shore.' "
The good ship "Brenda," under command of Captain A. Ward, left the harbor of Boston, October 15, 1841, carrying a cargo of ice and eight passengers, all of whom were mission- aries or wives of missionaries. In a letter written at sea several hundred miles east of Bahia, Brazil, dated November, 1 84 1, and forwarded to the United States by a whaling vessel, Heyer said that the voyage up to that time had been pleasant and that he had devoted much time to the study of Tamil. December 20th, the "Brenda" passed the Cape of Good Hope under full sail. Two weeks later the southern point of Mada- gascar was reached. Several days were spent in the island of Zanzibar, where the missionaries enjoyed a visit to the palace of Seyed Syed, Ben Sultan and Sultan of Muscat, who enter- tained them in oriental fashion.
Zanzibar and the eastern coast of Africa opposite impressed Heyer as a good field for missionary operations. In fact, he was strongly inclined to stay and labor there, but decided that the instructions he had received from the Executive Com- mittee demanded that he should proceed to India.
On Tuesday, March 15th, just five months after having sailed from Boston, the "Brenda" cast anchor in the harbor of Colombo, Ceylon, landing her eight passengers the next day. Seven of them had reached their field of labor. One of them, whom we shall follow farther on his way, still had a journey of about a thousand miles before him. After spending a number of days in Colombo in the com-
HEYER'S first journey to INDIA 39 pany of Protestant missionaries laboring in that city, and preaching a sermon in the church in which eighty years be- fore the venerable Christian Frederick Schwartz had preached and administered the sacraments, Heyer boarded the "La Felice," which weighed anchor during the night of March 19th, bound for Tuticorin on the Coromandel coast of South India. In three days that port was safely reached. "The dangers of a long sea voyage are overcome," wrote the pio- neer. "With heartfelt gratitude to the Father of mercies and God of all consolation and grace in Christ Jesus, our Redeemer, I raised my Ebenezer at Tuticorin on March 23, 1842." At Tuticorin Heyer engaged a palankeen and bearers for his journey inland. After an all-night run Palamcotta was reached. Here, where Rhenius had preached, labored, suffered and died, Heyer, on Good Friday, 1842, attended a Tamil service in the church built by Rhenius in 1826, and, for the first time, heard a Hindu preach.
The newly arrived missionary was greatly pleased to find that he could join the congregation in singing the Tamil translation of German hymns sung to their familiar tunes. Heyer, moreover, noted the customs, introduced by the Halle missionaries, of asking questions during the sermon and of writing the heads of discussion on palm leaves. One of these leaves he afterward sent, together with other curios, to the Seminary in Gettysburg. Under the guidance of the Rev. Mr. Hobbs of the Church Missionary Society, he visited the seminary for the training of native workers and the boarding schools for Christian boys and girls, as well as the schools for Hindu children, in Palamcotta, thus obtaining valuable information for the work which awaited him in the Telugu country.
After having purchased a second-hand palankeen in Tin- nevelly and engaged bearers, he proceeded to Kotaur where, most unexpectedly, he met the Rev. Mr. Mueller, Rhenius' son-in-law, with whom he was privileged to spend a few hours in profitable conversation. At Satur Heyer quietly spent his first Easter Sunday in India in a travellers' bungalow. March
40 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA 29th he arrived at Madura, once the seat of the powerful Pandyan monarchy, where missionaries Dwight and Ward of the American Board were estabUshing a mission.
As he approached Trichinopoly, early Sunday morning, April 3d, he looked forward with peculiar joy to a visit to scenes and places, which, more than any others, recalled the remarkable life and career of the great Schwartz. The Rev, Mr. Kohlhoff, his host in Trichinopoly, who had been born in India and whose father and grandfather had been missionaries there, guided him to the church and to the dwelling of the sainted Schwartz, and gave him an insight into the interesting life of a Hindu village and an opportunity to attend one of the monthly meetings of native workers, which, since the days of the first Halle missionaries had been a regular feature of mis- sion work in India. The next stage of the palankeen journey brought Heyer to Tanjore where he arrived on April 5th. In the company of the Rev. Mr. Thompson, a missionary in the service of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, he vis- ited the chapel in which the body of Schwartz lies buried. Standing near the pulpit he reverently viewed the grave and read the inscription on the granite stone, which Serfojee, the Rajah of Tanjore, had caused to be inscribed on it.
From Tanjore Heyer went to Tranquebar, where the memorials of the beginning of the Danish-Halle Mission by Ziegenbalg and Pluetschau, in 1706, occupied his devout atten- tion. Entering the New Jerusalem Church, he beheld the vault near the altar, which contains the earthly remains of the first Protestant foreign missionary, Bartholomew Ziegen- balg, and read the Latin epitaph on the copper plate on the vault. Continuing his journey northward through Cudda- lore and Pondicherry, Heyer finally reached Madras, April 16, 1842, half a year after his departure from America. Four days later he wrote: "Some of the brethren at Colombo told me that in travelUng overland at this season of the year I should suffer from oppressive heat; also that my road would lead through several districts where the cholera raged; . . . moreover, that it would not be an easy matter to get along with the natives on account of my imperfect knowledge of
A PALANKEEN FOR BRIDES AND BRIDEGROOMS
The common palankeen is less ornate.
A JINRIKISHA Dr. Amy B. Rohrer is seated in the Jinrikisha.
A r.i'Li.orK l;A.\l)^ AN KLEPIIAXT CART
HEYER S FIRST JOURNEY TO INDIA 41 the language. But the Lord has enabled me to overcome these difficulties and I have travelled four or five hundred miles in the interior of southern India without enduring any great hardships. The heat I found tolerable; the pestilence was not permitted to harm me; and with the native Indians I made out by words and signs as well as I could."