4 THE LIFE OF E. J. PECK 



wards Bishop of Cashel, and he interested himself 

 so that the lad was enabled to enter the navy. The 

 kindly action of this clergyman made a deep im- 

 pression on the boy's mind. Many years later, 

 he had the great pleasure of meeting him again. 

 The Bishop was the chairman of a meeting in 

 Dublin for the Church Missionary Society, at which 

 his former Sunday School scholar was one of the 

 speakers. Their joy was great and mutual. 



After having been received on board the guard- 

 ship, H.M.S. Ajax, lying at Kingstown, Edmund Peck 

 was very soon drafted to the training ship, Impreg- 

 nable, stationed at Plymouth. Here he arrived on 

 January 12, 1865, and remained until May 12, 1866. 

 Then he joined H.M.S. Caledonia, which was under 

 orders for the Mediterranean. It was in the Great 

 Sea of the Old Testament, amid the historic sur- 

 roundings of the ancient world, that the spiritual 

 life of the future missionary was awakened and 

 fostered. 



At the end of about two years he was laid low 

 with Mediterranean fever, and was brought very 

 near to the gate of death. In the weeks of prostra- 

 tion that followed, one of the ship's officers used to 

 come and see him frequently ; and though we do not 

 hear of these visits causing the patient more than 

 passing pleasure, we can hardly doubt that they 

 had a permanent effect. 



As he returned to a slow convalescence, the young 



