'SS AROUND THE WORLD VIA INDIA. 



also, I scarce know how to administer extreme unction, 

 when both hands and feet are nothing but raw wounds." 

 Let those Protestant ministers who complain of small 

 salaries listen to how Father Damien managed his finan- 

 cial affairs : "I have not a penny of income — yet, nihil 

 mihi deest, I want for nothing. I have even alms to 

 give away. How is this to be explained ? That is His 

 secret, who promised to give a hundredfold to those 

 who gave up all to Him." What better proof could 

 be furnished of his childlike, Christian faith? When 

 Father Damien took charge of the leper settlement he 

 took a census and found that it contained 600 lepers. 

 80 of whom were very ill in the hospital. Vice ran 

 high. The poor exiles sought solace in the excessive 

 use of a domestic alcohol, held dances, and practiced 

 card playing and sensualities of all kinds. This is 

 the way in which Father Damien proceeded to improve 

 the morals of the people: "Kindness to all, charity to 

 the needy, a sympathizing hand to the sufferers and the 

 dying, in conjunction with a solid religious instruction 

 to my listeners, have been mv constant means to in- 

 troduce moral habits among the lepers." It is no won- 

 dre that under this kind precept and teaching the in- 

 fluence of Father Damien increased from day to day 

 in improving the bodily and moral conditions of his 

 people. Protestants, entirely neglected by their preach- 

 ers, and non-believers, soon felt the effect of the relig- 

 ious teaching and example of the only spiritual adviser 

 in the settlement and were not slow in embracing the 

 Catholic faith. This is what one leper had to say of 

 Father Damien, and he was only the spokesman for all : 

 "We are especially satisfied with our pastor. He over- 

 whelms us with his solicitous care, and he himself 

 builds our houses. When any of us is ill, he gives him 

 tea. biscuits and sugar; and to the poor he gives clothes. 

 He makes no distinction between Catholics and protes- 

 tants." On the occasion of a visit of the princess regent 

 to tho settlement, one of the Honolulu papers, in re- 



