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CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE
Section IV: Africa Missions

Part 20: Uganda Mission, 1898-1934

Part 21: Kenya Mission, 1935-1949

Part 22: Uganda Mission, 1898-1934

Part 23: Uganda, Tanganyika and Rwanda Missions, 1935-1949
Part 24: Mauritius, Madagascar and the Seychelles, 1856-1929

Introduction to Part 24

This part covers the papers for the Mauritius, Madagascar and Seychelles Missions. Included are Individual Letter Books, Letter Books, Mission Books, Précis Books and Original Papers covering the years 1856-1929.

Individual Letter Books

These contain copies of private and confidential letters, 1863-1871, 1876-1879, 1881-1886, 1888-1889, from the Secretary at headquarters in London to individual missionaries and bishops in the mission. In addition to containing personal matters the letters sometimes also contain discussions on topics of a personal interest to the Secretary. Each volume has a useful index.

Some highlights are:

• Letters to the bishop of Mauritius
• Letters to the bishop’s commissaries in Mauritius, Rev N D Mathews and later Rev W Gray
• Detailed account of the death of Major General C A Browne, Lay Secretary
• Proposals for a bishop of East Africa

Letter Books

The Letter Books, 1857-1926 and 1929, contain copies of correspondence from the Secretary at headquarters in London to the missionaries and the mission secretary on matters concerned with the mission. For the years 1884-1893 and 1895-1897 summaries of all the letters received are also included.

Topics include:

• Instructions from the Secretary to new missionaries going out to the field
• Letters to the Bishop of Mauritius
• Estimates for the mission
• Letters to Rev Paul Ansorge and Rev Stephen Hobbs regarding their work
• Letters to the secretary of the mission
• Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence.

Mission Books

The Mission Books, covering 1856-1862 and 1867-1880, contain copies of the Original Papers received at headquarters in London from the missions. The papers were entered into the books in the order in which they arrived at headquarters. Letters were copied in full, while a note of receipt was made for the printed papers, financial papers and some letters and from 1858 journals of missionaries. From 1870 Annual Letters were copied out (or if printed, pasted into) the backs of the volumes. The Annual Letters written by the missionaries give an account of their year’s work and contain fascinating details on many topics. Each of the volumes contains an index.

Contents include:

• Letters from Rev P Ansorge describing his arrival in Mauritius and from other missionaries such as Rev S Hobbs, Rev H Maundrell, Rev F H Sparshott, Rev H D Buswell, Rev W Dening
• Annual Letters from missionaries including Rev S Hobbs
• Letters from the Bishop of Mauritius regarding the work in the mission, including news on the Indian Mutiny
• Journals of Rev S Hobbs describing his itinerations in the mission
• Mission estimates
• Minutes of conferences
• Letters from Mrs P Ansorge, wife of Rev P Ansorge
• Minutes of the Finance Committee
• Notes regarding freed slaves admitted to the Seychelles
• Despatches
• Details on the sale of CMS property

Original Papers

These comprise all the papers sent by the mission secretary to headquarters in London. They cover 1856-1925 and consist mainly of letters, journals and reports together with minutes and papers of local CMS committees. The early papers up until1880 are arranged by bishop and alphabetically by missionary.

Highlights include:

• Letters and papers of individual missionaries, catechists and others such as: Rev P Ansorge and Rev S Hobbs, the first CMS missionaries in Mauritius; Rev Thomas Campbell and Rev
H Maundrell, the first CMS missionaries in Madagascar; Rev (later Bishop) P S Royston; Rev W B Chancellor, the founder of Venns Town in the Seychelles. The papers include journals, Annual Letters, reports on the missions, statistics of schools and pupils, details on slaves in the Seychelles, mission expenses, financial papers.
• CMS conference minutes
• Local Church Council papers
• Reports of the Mauritius Mission Committee
• Reports of the Mauritius Church Missionary Association
• Minutes of the Finance Committee and other financial papers
• Correspondence with Bishops of Mauritius and Madagascar
• Minutes of the Native Church Council together with financial statements and annual reports
• Annual Letters
• Statistics on pupils of the school at the African Institution at Venns Town with figures showing the number of coffee, cocoa, vanilla and cocoa-nut plants on the CMS estate at Venns Town, Capucin, the Seychelles
• Reports of the Mauritius Diocesan Church Society
• Report on the Plaisance Orphanage School, Mauritius
• Report on the CMS Girls’ School and Orphanage, Rose Belle, Mauritius
• Minutes of the proceedings of the Council of Education
• List of the charitable institutions in Mauritius with an estimate of the number of residents and funds received
• Printed reports on the Mauritius mission by Rev N Honiss with notes on contributions and expenditure
• Reports on the work of native catechists such as Ibrahim Jasson
• Mission estimates
• Lists of liberated African slaves admitted to the Seychelles
• News cuttings
• Minutes of women’s conferences

Précis Books

The Précis Books, covering 1897-1927 and 1929, contain a printed synopsis prepared for meetings of the Group Committee in London. The précis comprises number, date, writer, date received, summary of the contents, proposals for committee action to be taken and/or the Secretary’s remarks. For the period 1880-1883, 1885, 1888-1889 and 1894, for which no Précis Books are extant for the Mauritius mission, we have also included the relevant pages from the General Précis Books. Synopses can be found of letters, estimates, minutes of conferences, meetings, the Native Church Council and other relevant mission affairs.

EXTRACTS

Reel 487 Mission Book 1 Letter from the Bishop of Mauritius to the Secretary, Henry Venn in London, August 1857 concerning the Indian Mutiny

This island was left for a short time more destitute of British troops than it had been since 1810 - and not a few were glad to see the 4th regiment arrive from England the other day. With 131,000 Indians here & not a few bad spirits among them the consequences might have been dreadful. The excitement has been intense, our catechists found it was the one engrossing topic of conversation….

I trust before I finish this letter that we shall get better accounts as we have no tidings yet of the fall of Delhi. Within little more than a year three summons for troops have come to us - first from the Cape - then from China & now from India. I should think it is not unlikely that a larger force will be stationed here in future– we are so central for such contingencies….”

Reel 487 Mission Book 1 Journal of Rev S Hobbs detailing his visits to places in the mission, Oct 1857

“1. Beau Bassin, one mile distant from my house. The proprietor an excellent Christian man, affords every encouragement. He has a School on his premises...consisting chiefly of Creole Children. The Coolies number about 120, very few women or children amongst them. I learn there are 8 or 10 Tamil people, but I have only seen 2 of them. One of these two refused to listen to anything I had to say, turned his back and told me repeatedly he would not hear any thing about Christians….

2. Mount Roche, half a mile beyond the above. The proprietor a French Protestant. Coolies about 100. I have found a small number of Tamil among them & Mr A 110 Bengalees. The proprietor very ready to encourage labours amongst them, and the people ready to listen….”

Reel 488 Mission Book 6 Annual Letter of Rev N Honiss, January 1878, written on his arrival in Mauritius

…. First impressions of Mauritius cannot but be pleasing.. Nature must have been in a fantastic mood when the hills of Mauritius, and particularly the Ponce and Peter Botte, were tossed into their present whimsical shapes. The hills behind, and encircling Port Louis, were fresh and green. The little harbour was full of shipping, and the shore looked full of life and civilisation…. Yes; Mauritius gives the impression of a prosperous and highly civilised place - at least for the tropics….

The Indian in Mauritius has in some things changed for the better, and in some, for the worse. He has lost, in a measure, the cunning, cringing ways of his countrymen. He has seen more of the world, and has learnt to recognise his rights as a British subject. He knows there is a great gentleman called the Protector of Immigrants, whose special business it is to look after the rights of the Indian…. He is better clothed, better fed, and better housed than in his native land. He can be polite without cringing. But it takes time for the European to get accustomed to the unceremonious nod and ‘bon jour’, after the graceful salaams of the Indian at home….

With all the improvements connected with the Indian in Mauritius, he does not appear to be any the nearer to the kingdom of heaven. He is far more ready to adopt the white man’s vice than his religion. In India, drunkenness is rare: here it is as common as it is in a low locality in England. On the day of the Port Louis races, which the Indians patronize as well as the Europeans, I saw more drunken Indians than during my seventeen years’ residence in India. All the shelves of all the boutiques by the way-side are filled with bottles of intoxicating drinks which the good wages and bad instincts of the Indian lead him to purchase largely.

After two months’ residence at Crêve Coeur, we were moved to Pamplemousse…conveniently situated for visiting estates…. The managers of the sugar estates are invariably French gentlemen, and are always ready to do what they can to further my object…..


Tamils in Port Louis are probably more numerous than Bengalis, but on the sugar estates they are few and widely scattered….”

Reel 494 Original Papers O 10 Letter from a missionary to the CMS Committee, written at Mahé, June 1875

It is the opinion here that there will not be any more slaves brought to this island in large numbers. For two reasons. First, they are greatly in demand on the coast. Secondly, they are only captured by twos & threes & no vessel would run up here for the sake of landing half a dozen liberated slaves…. Even supposing that no more slaves are landed at Mahé, there is an abundance of work among those already here. Yesterday I saw the Civil Commissioner who informed me that there were five thousand children, Africans, whose parents would only be too glad to hand them over to me….

I think the papists are very jealous & will do all that is in their power to annoy us therefore I think we ought to ‘strike the iron while it is hot’….”

Reel 496 Original Papers O 16 Journal of Rev H Maundrell, Andovoranto, Madagascar, January 1868

“…. You will see that a quiet and gradual work is going on among the Betsimisarakas, and that we have every reason to hope that hereafter many of that tribe will embrace the truth; and though it will require time and much perseverance to raise up efficient native teachers from them, yet, by God’s belesing, this can be accomplished…..

A great deal of systmematical teaching is required on the coast on account of both the ignorance of the Betsimisarakas and the laxity and errors of Hova Xtians and preachers. I hope therefore that the Committee will station a missionary at Mahula or Mananjary, it being impossible that a coast of 200 miles can be properly worked or superintended by a single missionary residing at Andovoranto….”

Reel 496 Original Papers O 16 Journal of Rev H Maundrell, Madagascar, May to Sept 1867

“May 11th One of the chief men of Andovoranto has liberated a slave, and, by way of rejoicing, a bullock has been killed, two barrels of betsabetsa, ie native rum, distributed among the people, and prayers offered over the bullock to about forty of the Betsimisaraka ancestors. I was present while the ceremony was performed. The man who officiated struck the bound bullock at the mention of each ancestor. As soon as the ceremony was finished the people began to feast, and, before evening, the town was full of drunken men and women. I talked with some of the sober people of the folly of praying to forty dead persons and of the difference between the immorality that accompanies it and the purity of the religion of Christ.

May 16th Thursday So many of the school children are taken away by their parents to work on the rice-grounds that I have closed the school. Before doing so, I gave the two best girls a bible and a lamba each, and the two best boys, one a bible, and the other a hymn book. These four children have given us much encouragement….”

Reel 489 Mission Book 7 Annual Letter of Rev N Honiss, Mauritius, 1879 giving details on Pamplemousses and Rose Belle

“Our statistics show a small increase under each head. The total number under instruction is 226 against 203 last year; and there are 50 more children in our schools.

There have been 36 baptisms during the year, of whom 14 were adults.

The following cases are among this number:


…. Khristnaswamy is of the Sudra caste, and about twenty-five years of age. He left his home in Madras a few years ago on account of a family quarrel. He had been educated in a Mission-school, and the seed there sown was not ultimately lost, as will presently appear. After leading a wandering life in Mauritius, he was stricken with fever, and became an inmate of the Pamplemousses Hospital. He spoke to the medical officer about Christianity, through whom I made Khristnaswamy’s acquaintance. I found him in a most helpful and penitent state. We agreed to defer his baptism till he left the hospital. At my request he wrote to his father in India, to whom he came reconciled. His father sent him the means of returning home, and he has gone back to Madras, I trust a sincere Christian. Isaac Maruirottoo is another who found the saving health of Christianity on a bed of sickness in the Pamplemousses Hospital. He was afterwards baptized, and is still a consistent Christian….”

Reel 489 Original Papers O 3 Report of the Mauritius Church Missionary Association, 1876

“In the last Annual Report, an account far from satisfactory had to be given of the means at the disposal of the Association for carrying on the Tamil portion of its work. Out of four Native Agents, one experienced Catechist had just gone away on leave to revisit his country and friends, and the expectation that had been entertained of a strong reinforcement from Tinnevelly had proved fallacious. With much thankfulness it is now noticed that this enfeebled state of the Mission was not of long continuance. Early in the year intelligence was received that a Catechist, highly recommended, was on his way from Madras to labour amongst his country men here; and before his arrival another eligible candidate for the service was met with in the Colony, and his aid secured. Both these men have been employed as teachers in India for some years, and besides the experience they have thus gained, possess the advantage of acquaintance with other Indian dialects besides their own, - a qualification of peculiar value for evangelizing work amongst our mixed population….”

Reel 503 Original Papers 1901 Report of the CMS Girls’ School and Orphanage, Rose Belle, Mauritius, 1900

“The year 1900 was in many ways a very trying one to the school. In the beginning of the year the feverish season in Rose Belle was a particularly bad one, and almost all the children suffered. Then also since writing our last Report four of our children have been taken from us by death. Two died in the Orphanage, one in the Hospital, and another at her own home. Three died of consumption, and one of pneumonia and fever….

Several children having parents left us during 1900 some to go to service, some to leave the island, and others because the parents wished to keep them at home for one reason or another….

We have now 50 children and I am constantly receiving fresh applications. I feel more and more that in receiving children one needs much wisdom to know whether to accept or refuse…”



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