ST. HELENA 311 



shore, to the great astonishment of the children, who had never 

 seen one before. 



Among the many things which I lost were all my boots, so that 

 for nearly a year I had to content myself with home-made moccas- 

 sins (mogsins) made of pieces of the hide of bullocks dried in the sun. 

 These got so hard during the day time that they had to be soaked 

 in water all night, and in this wet and flabby condition to be put 

 on each morning — each pair lasted me about three weeks. I was 

 accommodated with a room in one of the houses (with a sofa bed- 

 stead within) eight feet long, eight feet high, and six feet wide ; 

 there was just room for one chair by my bedside, which had to be 

 on the bed whenever I wanted to be on the floor. I afterwards 

 got one of the men to make me a small wooden bedstead and some 

 book shelves in another room, which I was given the use of. I 

 believe I was thought rather greedy for wishing to have two rooms I 

 Of course nothing could be done about a church for the first Sunday, 

 the day after my unexpected arrival ; the services had to be in one 

 of the dwelling-houses on that day ; but during the following week 

 I had the best and most central house given up to me for a church 

 and school. Fortunately, many pieces of the altar I was taking 

 out with me were washed ashore, and all the requisites for the 

 Holy Communion, also the font — the wooden box containing it 

 was dashed to pieces on the rocks ; but the font itself, though 

 made of Bath stone, more brittle than wood, was picked up un- 

 injured. The houses are built only one story high (stairs, I am 

 thankful to say were unknown), divided into two or more rooms 

 by wooden partitions and thatched with tupock grass. The walls 

 are of stone, of which there is abundance on the island, about three 

 feet thick (five feet at the gable ends), and eight feet high. The 

 walls are obliged to be made very strong and low because of gales 

 of mnd. The house placed at my disposal was turned into a church 

 by the simple expedient of removing the partitions and so turning 

 it into one long room which just held all the people. Every family 

 had to provide enough benches for its own members, the wood 

 coming from wrecked ships, and the vestry was formed at the west 

 end by screening off one corner with a sail — a blue dungaree cur- 

 tain, cutting off the altar, made the church into a school on week- 

 days. There was soon a very fair choir of men and boys, and a 

 full choral service, except the Psalms, twice daily. The choir boys 

 had to learn the canticles, hymns, etc., off by heart, as they could 

 not read at first. Holy Communion was celebrated every Sunday 

 and Thursday, at first at eight a.m., but eventually at five a.m. 

 There were to start with only twelve communicants, who had 

 all been confirmed by Bishop Gray, but this number quickly in- 

 creased to thirty-five, an average of seventeen every Sunday and 

 four every Thursday. There were only 104 people on the island. 

 On the day of a funeral there was always early celebration, at 

 which all the communicants generally received. On every Sunday 

 afternoon was a children's service, followed by a choir practice, 

 which was attended by many of the congregation, but we had no 



