Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/260

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248
ON THE COROMANDEL COAST

born at Belfast (1814). Like Bishop Gell, it was Caldwell's wish to rest in the land where he had laboured. Six out of the first seven Bishops of Calcutta left their bones in India. Middleton (1822), Turner (1831), and Wilson (1858) were buried in Calcutta. Heber (1826) lies in Trichinopoly; Cotton (1866) was drowned at Kushtia and his body was never found; Milman (1876) lies at Rawal Pindi. Corrie, the first Bishop of Madras, was buried in Madras (1837); and so also was Dealtry (1859). Sargent was buried at Palancotta (1889), Caldwell at Idaiyangudi, in Tinnevelly (1891), and, lastly, Bishop Gell at Coonoor (1902).

The house in which Bishop Caldwell stayed when he visited Trichinopoly was at Puttoor, a part of the cantonment occupied by sepoy lines when I first arrived there. The lines have since been pulled down, but the officers' bungalows remain, as at Warriore. The largest of these was purchased by the S.P.G. Mission. Here Mrs. Wyatt, Bishop Caldwell's eldest daughter, lived for many years in the midst of her scholars, orphans, Bible-women, lacemakers, and converts. She had her father's gift of language, and spoke Tamil fluently.

Like Mrs. Caldwell, she was a veritable mother in Israel to her people, ministering to their spiritual or temporal needs as occasion demanded. Among the natives she had a great medical reputation founded on the judicious use, in the absence of qualified men, of castor oil, quinine, and other simple drugs. Being the mother of sons herself, they believed that the touch of her hand brought prosperity and good fortune. Chance favoured a further belief that she could bring fruitfulness to barren women, a reputation that was not without its embarrassments. She engaged a teacher for her school, a married woman who had no children. Whether it was the regular occupation, or better food, in consequence of