Part I, Chapter IV — The Selection of the Foreign Mission Field in India
The Telugus, among whom Heyer had been directed to estabUsh the American Evangelical Lutheran Mission in India, inhabit that part of the peninsula which extends northward from the city of Madras along the coast of the bay of Bengal almost as far as the Mahanadi River, to the confines of Bengal, and far inland into the heart of the Dekkan, cover- ing a territory somewhat larger than Spain.
The Telugu country lies in the tropical zone between 13° and 20° north latitude, on a line with Central America, the southern part of Mexico and the islands of Jamaica, Hayti and Porto Rico. Two large rivers, the Godavery and the Kistna, flow through the Telugu country. The delta-land of the Godavery is very fertile, numerous canals irrigating the soil and furnishing also a means of travel and traffic. The chief products of this country are rice, sugar, cotton and indigo. Among the tropical fruits which are cultivated the mango is especially prized. "What the apple is to the American people the mango is to the people of India. It grows everywhere. Often large mango trees fine both sides of a public road or occupy waste ground near villages, and being free to the poor, these become a great boon during the fruitage season." Palm trees of all kinds are numerous; the teak of the native forests is used in the con- 1 "This tract of country comprehends the British districts of Ganjam, Vizagapatam, Godavery, Kistna and Nellore, the greater portion of the Nizam's territory, the districts of Kurnool and Cuddapa, the northern and eastern portions of Beliary and the eastern parts of Mysore and North Arcot." Arden's "Telugu Grammar."
"The Telugu or Tenugu nation (which foreigners call Telinga) fills a country larger than Spain to the west and north of Madras town. In some English books it is called Telingana or Golconda. It is contained in circles which we may describe on the map around Kadapa, Rajahmundry and Kondapilli, the radius extending to Madras; also one round Visakhapatnam reaching to Ganjam toward Puri (Paory) in Kattack, often called Jagannath."—Introduction to "Brown's English and Telugu Dictionary," Part I.
SELECTION OF THE FOREIGN MISSION FIELD IN INDIA 43 struction of the better class of houses; and the Indian banyan, noted throughout the world, is a familiar object to the natives.
The Telugus are one of the most numerous of the Dravidian tribes which were forced down from the high plateaus of North India into the southern plains by the invasion of the Aryans through the passes of the Himalaya Mountains. According to the census of 1901 the Telugus numbered 20,696,872; all Dravidians, 56,000,000. To-day the number of the Telugus may be about 23,000,000. Compared with the Aryans of North India, the Dravidians have a darker complexion, longer heads, flatter noses, more irregular features, and are shorter in stature. In heu of physical strength and vigor they possess, to a marked degree, the power of patient endurance. By the side of a highly developed mystical sense there exists a very low standard of morality, both being largely the products of the prevailing religion.
Like all India, the Telugu country is a land of villages. "Ninety per cent, of the population lives in towns or villages, which, although differing in size, do not vary much in general appearance." Cases of a moral nature are decided by the headman of the village, assisted by a clerk and a council of four elders. A town is an overgrown village and has a mag- istrate and a petty court to manage its judicial affairs. The cultivated land around the villages is frequently owned by absentee landlords, called zemindars, whose bond-servants the farmers usually are. The homes of wealthy natives are large bungalows with capacious verandas; those of the middle and lower classes are gloomy and unattractive, usually consisting of one or two rooms, earthen floor, mud walls and a thatched roof of palm leaves. Little furniture is used, and in many homes cows, calves, buffaloes and bullocks are received on intimate terms. A few brass plates, cups or mugs, earthen cooking vessels and water-jars, a knife but no forks are the ordinary kitchen utensils. They are kept scrupulously clean lest the food should be defiled and the caste broken.
The Christian home, as we know it, is unknown to the Hindu, "there being no equivalent for the word in any Indian language." The young husband brings his wife to his father's
44 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA house, where she becomes subject to her mother-in-law. She never appears in public in the company of any man, not even of her husband. If a son is born of the wedlock, the husband does not, usually, seek a second wife, but the wife who has no son is sometimes cast off or, at least, treated with contempt. Only a small percentage of the high caste Hindu women are secluded in zenanas. Betrothal takes place when the bride is a mere child or even a helpless babe; and if the husband betrothed dies, the baby-wife becomes a widow and may never remarry. A widower, however, may marry again. Many marriages are merely mercenary transactions. The legal age of actual marriages was raised from ten to twelve years by the "Age of Consent Bill" in 1891.1 The ordinary daily food of the people is rice with curry, or some form of millet. Their clothing is scant, and, as a rule, children wear no clothing until they are four or five years of age. The passion of the people for jewelry, the love of dis- play, feasting at weddings and festivals, and the litigation in which they are often involved, frequently leave them for years in the clutches of the money-lender.
The prevailing religion of the Telugus is Modern Hindu- ism, an undefinable religious composite of gross polytheism and underlying pantheism, with absurd superstitions, innumerable deities, low moral standards, foolish ceremonies and a tyrannical caste system. The divisions and sub-divisions of caste are altogether too numerous to mention; but, in general, we may distinguish between the Brahmins or priests, the Sudras or middle-class, the Panchamas (fifth class) or outcasts. The following are the principle rales of caste: Intermarriage is forbidden; occupation is hereditary; per- sons of different caste may not eat together nor drink out of the same vessel; no man of an inferior caste may touch the food or enter the cook-room; the higher caste-man is a vegetarian; an ocean voyage beyond the confines of India is prohibited. The caste system has for ages strangled am- bition, choked aspiration, and held back progress. It has made ' In 1901 the widows of India numbered 25,891,936, of whom 391,147 were under fifteen years of age.
SELECTION OF THE FOREIGN MISSION FIELD IN INDIA 45 unity of thought, purpose or action for the common good a practical impossibility, and has fostered suspicion, jealousy, and selfishness. It has preserved the position and power of the Brahmins as the religious autocrats of India and has been the greatest impediment to the work of Christian missions.
To this land and these people, the Telugus, Heyer was sent to preach the Gospel and estabhsh the Church of Jesus Christ. Other Protestant missionaries had been there before he came and had begun missions. We will let him tell us the history of these earlier missions up to the time of his arrival in India:
"The Rev. Dr. Schultze, one of the early Halle-Danish Lutheran missionaries, was the first to turn his attention to the Telugu people. A large number of the people of Madras are Telugus, also called Gunturs. For their benefit Telugu schools were established by Schultze.^ He also translated the Bible into Telugu, but, having as yet no means of printing it in Madras, he took it to Halle on his return to Germany. The manuscript was sent to London, where it is still to be found in one of the museums. It is stated that Dr. Schultze's munshi or Telugu teacher became a true Christian and may be con- sidered as the firstfruits to Christ among the Telugu people. "In 1805 the first settled mission to the Telugus was commenced by the London Missionary Society at Vizagapatam, where Messrs. Cran and Desgrange were appointed to labor. These missionaries were much encouraged by the aid fur- nished them by a Telugu Brahmin, who had been baptized by the Romanists and afterward was received into the Lutheran mission at Tranquebar.^
"The second mission among the Telugus was founded at
' Schultze began work as a Christian missionary in Madras in 1726.
^ Heyer continues the history of this first Protestant mission among the Telugus as follows: "Mr. Cran died in 1809; Mr. Desgrange, in 1810. The London Missionary Society sent out Messrs. Gordon and Lee to continue the work at Vizagapatam. They were soon joined by Mr. Pritchett, who had been compelled to leave his mission in Rangoon. Mr. Lee left in 1815 and Mr. Dawson arrived the same year and took his place. The translation of the New Testament was completed and put into circulation before Mr. Pritchett's death in 1820."
46 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA Caddapah in 1822 (London Missionary Society). Until 1836 Vizagapatam and Cuddapah were the only missions among the Telugus. The next station was established at Narsapur by Messrs. Bowden and Beer in 1836. These laborers for Christ, who had come to India anxious to carry on missionary work while supporting themselves by their trades, were two young tradesmen from Barnstable, England. The latter part of their scheme failed as it does elsewhere, but Christian friends took up their cause and sent them support. Both succeeded in learning the language well and became very useful in the region of the country which they occupied.
"The London Society established in 1839, at Chicacole, an- other mission, which was an offshoot of Vizagapatam. The Church Missionary Society was the next to come into the field. Two of their agents, Messrs. Noble and Fox, arrived at Masulipatam in 1840. Since that time the station has been well managed and well supplied and is, perhaps, one of the most efficient missions in the Telugu country. Nellore was occupied by the American Baptists in 1840, the Rev. Messrs. Jewell and Douglass now being the missionaries."^
Reaching Madras on April 16, 1842, Heyer was welcomed and hospitably entertained by several American, Enghsh, and Scotch missionaries laboring in that city. They advised him to remain a number of months in the city and devote himself to the study of Telugu. He decided to follow their advice. "The number of Telugu people residing in Madras," wrote Heyer, "is estimated at 100,000, and I will endeavor during my stay in this place to become acquainted with some of them. I have engaged a young Brahmin as teacher who is to instruct me in Telugu. A Telugu Brahmin who can speak some English called to see me in the afternoon. Among other things he desired to know my name. Being told that it was Heyer, he smiled, and said, "I do not mean your office, but your name." Pointing to himself, he continued, "I am an Eyer (i. e., a priest, a Brahmin); your name, sir!" It ' Quoted from a letter written to the Sunday School of the First English Lutheran Church, Pittsburgh, and published in "The Lutheran Observer," July II, 1856.
SELECTION OF THE FOREIGN MISSION FIELD IN INDIA 47 was my turn now to explain. I had already been told that Heyer signifies a priest, a Brahmin, and, therefore, remarked that it was both my name and my office. He thought it was rather a strange coincidence, and so it may appear to others, that the first Lutheran missionary to the Telugus should be a priest, a Brahmin, by name and by office."
After a month of study Heyer's desire to find, as soon as possible, a suitable location for the mission he had been sent to establish, impelled him to leave Madras. Early on the morning of May 19th he was on his way to Nellore, making the first stage of the journey, to Sulurpet, in an open boat, "depending on the palankeen for shelter from the direct rays of the sun." It was a hasty and hazardous step, for May is the hottest of all months in southeastern India. In his eagerness to accomplish something, Heyer scorned the danger and for- tunately remained unharmed. Arriving at Nellore May 23d, he met the American Baptist missionaries. Day and Van Husen, the former lying on a bed of sickness. Here he remained until the hot season was over, meanwhile visiting the schools of the mission, dihgently continuing his study of Teluga, in which he heard the Gospel preached at Nel- lore, accompanying the Rev. Mr. Van Husen and his native helpers on their rounds of mission work and preaching a few times in English to the families of the missionaries and other English and American residents. On one occasion he visited a heathen festival at lanavada, and besides witnessing the dis- gusting scenes of a heathen celebration he had an oppor- tunity of noting, also, how such gatherings of idolaters may be improved in the interest of mission work.^
i"In the afternoon," wrote Heyer, "I ascended a mountain about two miles distant, where a large pagoda had been erected in honor of Narahsimhadu. The number of people who gather at this annual festival on this mountain is said to amount to 20,000. The Brahmins tell the people that Lakshmi, one of the wives of Vishnu, having become dissatisfied with him on account of his incontinency, attempted to escape from him; but being overtaken on this moun- tain a quarrel took place between them. On one of the rocks a stone surrounded by a brick wall is shown, which is said to contain the mark of Lackshmi's footstep, made by her stamping violently on the rock. But in this case, as with many of the popish relics, the thing contradicts itself, for instead of an indentation in the rock, the shape of a large foot appears about an inch and a half above the level of the stone; and instead of the under part of the foot, the upper part showing the nails is represented."
48 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA Through an interpreter he preached his first sermon to a Telugu congregation in Nellore on June 12, 1842. Just before leaving this station and after having witnessed the horrible practice of the swinging festival of which he gave a graphic description, he wrote these significant words: "You may think it must be an easy thing to convince these deluded people of their folly, but . . . they are joined to their idols. ... I fear many years will elapse before the strongholds of the devil in these regions can be destroyed and the Redeemer's Kingdom be built upon the ruins thereof; unless professing Christians bestir themselves more in days to come than they have done in times past." After having studied the situation from Nellore, as a point of vantage, Heyer selected three towns as places where he might establish his mission, namely, Ongole, eighty miles north of Nellore; Guntur, seventy miles north of Ongole; and Ellore, sixty miles north of Guntur. The Rev. Mr. Van Husen accompanied him on his tour of inspection. They left Nellore in July. "We came to Ongole," wrote Heyer, "where formerly some government ofl&cials with their families had resided. The bungalows which they had occupied, we found in a dilapidated condition; but they might have been repaired for the accommodation of a missionary. My conclusion was that I would settle down at Ongole, if the up-country did not offer a more favorable station. We went on our way from village to village until we reached Guntur, July 31, 1842. Here we met with a very kind reception from H. Stokes, Esq., an ardent friend of missions and missionaries, as well as a very exemplary Christian gentleman. The inducements which Mr. Stokes held out and the kind offers of assistance which he made, were far preferable to anything I could expect at Ongole. Hence I decided in favor of Guntur, and after prayerful consideration concluded to commence mission operations forthwith."
Henry Stokes, Esq., Collector of the Guntur District, had long been anxious to secure a resident missionary for Guntur, As a member of the Church of England he had addressed several appeals to the Church Missionary Society, asking that
SELECTION OF THE FOREIGN MISSION FIELD IN INDIA 49 one of its missionaries be stationed at Guntur, but the Society felt itself unable to comply. After Heyer had introduced himself to the Collector, Stokes inquired of The Church Mis- sionary Society missionaries in the Telugu country, whether it was the intention of the Society to occupy Guntur, and re- ceived a negative reply. Moreover, The Church Missionary Society missionaries advised Stokes to persuade Heyer to remain in Guntur. Therefore Stokes offered Heyer the use of a building in his compound as a dwelling and, early in September, 1842, formally transferred to him the Enghsh-Telugu school which for some years had been conducted under the patron- age of the Collectors and other English residents in the town. The actual beginning of the Guntur Mission, however, maybe fixed somewhat earlier than the date of the formal transfer of the English-Telugu school. The work was really inaugurated on the first Sunday in August, 1842, when in the schoolhouse in the Collector's compound a service was held, at which sermons were preached by the Rev. Mr. Van Husen who had accompanied Heyer to Guntur, and the Rev. Mr. Porter of the London Missionary Society, who had stopped over on his way from Vizagapatam to Cuddapah. Thereafter Heyer conducted a service every Lord's Day, preaching to the Telugus through an interpreter. This is the true story of the selection of Guntur as the American Evangelical Lutheran Mission field in India. Like many another story it has been embellished, but the embel- lishments are ffctitious.
After having selected Guntur as the mission field, the most interesting, not to say the most romantic period of Heyer 's life began. Imagine a man nearly fifty years old, pos- sessing a burning zeal, large experience, firm faith in God, deep devotion to duty, great strength of purpose and inde- fatigable activity, entering upon an entirely new and untried sphere of labor in a foreign land among a people whose lan- guage, mode of life, habits of thought, customs and religion were ahen to him. A less courageous spirit would have shrunk from the task. And what was the task? Nothing less than the inauguration of a movement which should change
50 AMERICAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN MISSIONS IN INDIA the world of the natives' ideas and ideals— their conception of the Supreme Being above them, of the earth under their feet, of their fellow-men around them, of life and death and eter- nity; change them so completely, that the transformation would be a re-birth of souls, of lives, of communities, of tribes, of the whole nation. Heyer's ministerial experience in Amer- ica, rich and varied as it had been, could avail but little in the performance of the task of christianizing a heathen commun- ity. Though he was zealous, his zeal as a pioneer foreign missionary had to be kept up at high pressure in order to prevent his spirit from flagging. Though he was vigorous in mind and body, he needed to guard his health with scrupulous care and devote himself to his daily duties with unquestioning fidelity and unabating hope, if his single-handed labor was to result in the permanent estabhshment of the Mission.
Without doubt Heyer was chosen of God to be the first foreign missionary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and it was providential that such a man as Mr. Henry Stokes, the highest official in the district, a man of Christian faith and unblemished life, noble self-denial, unselfish liberality and ardent missionary zeal, should have welcomed Heyer to Guntur and given to the Mission in its infancy his personal iaterest and most cordial support.