SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
such utter want of tact, could not then occur. History has shown us how dangerous a volcano religious feeling is, and how often terrible and far-spreading disaster is the result of an unconsidered action.
Also I cannot help thinking it would be a very great advantage if different denominations could agree as to their several spheres of influence, instead of, as at present, perhaps half a dozen Roman Catholic, Anglican, Scotch, Scandinavian, Baptist, and other dissenting churches, all having delegates in one small area, to the bewilderment and confusion of the native mind, which cannot grasp the points of divergence. That is a question which, I think, deserves the attention of all interested in Missionary work.
Travelling in those early days was not easy, especially in the rains when the rivers were in flood and the roads were bad, and I remember one occasion when I was travelling to Darjeeling with Mrs. White and we had to cross the Teesta below Temi by a cane bridge. It was towards the end of the rains and we came in for one of the last heavy downpours, the river was in heavy flood and the only means of crossing was by a rickety cane suspension bridge 350 feet in length, and, in consequence of the lateness of the season, very rotten and much sagged in the centre. It was so rotten I was afraid it would give way and forbid any one else crossing while my wife and I were on it; half the bamboo platform had disappeared and the suspending split bamboos were in many places broken, but we could not stay in the steamy wet valley, a hot-bed of fever, so we were obliged to make the attempt.
I went first, and leaning my weight on the bamboo platform made the bamboo on which I was standing meet the one on which my wife was, she then stepped on to that, and on the pressure being removed the bamboo swung back again, leaving a gap beneath which swirled the flooded Teesta. In this way we eventually got safely across, but it was a hazardous proceeding.
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