Arthur Douglas - Missionary On Lake Nyasa, The Story Of His Life

PREFACE VERY nearly a year has passed away since the subject of this memoir met his death on the shores of Lake Nyasa at the hands of a Portuguese corporal. Arthur Douglas was out in Africa as a Christian missionary. The only offence which he committed was that of protecting some native girls from the unruly Iust of another white man. It is certainly not straining language, therefore, to say that he died a martyrs death. At the kind request of his brothers and sisters and of the Universities Mission I undertook this memoir, and its compilation has been a labour of love. It has been my object to let the letters tell their own story, and it will be seen that they do, in no small degree, give a vivid picture of Douglas life in Africa first at Rota Rota, then at Likoma, and lastly at S. Michaels CaIlege, while the letters themselves are supplemented here and there with recollections of their author which have been kindIy sent to me by several of his fellow-workers in the Mission. In the earlier chapters especiaIly, and indeed throughout, I have been greatly helped by those who were nearest and dearest to him. The two golden threads which run through his whole career are, I think, dutifulness and prayerfulness. Coming from an almost ideal home he had early learnt the lesson of implicit obedience to duty and as soon as he arrived at Ely the habit of prayer, which he had no doubt in the same way formed in childhood, began to grow and deepen. How beautifully these two threads wove themselves into his after life this little volume abundantly shorrrs. I pray God that the perusal of these letters may suggest the question to more than one reader-Am I too called to this blessed work, the work of Christ in Central Africa.....