Taylor's proposal (1861) somewhat hard pressed for funds and this new mission necessarily meant additional expense, but Taylor's donation was supplemented by a subscription of one hundred pounds from Montgomery, then LieutenantGovernor of the Punjab, as well as by other small sums, and the mission was accordingly started at Derah Ishmael Khan forthwith. It is no part of my duty to laud this action of Taylor's, but it seems as though, by establishing this mission, he brought to a fitting close a connection with a country where his unparalleled influence was the outcome of kindness and consideration. For sixteen years after this he continued to pay his promised subscription of 100 rs. a month, and on one occasion he is known to have insured his life and raised the money on the policy to enable him to do so. 'An amusing incident,' writes the Rev. Robert Clark, ' occurred in connection with Reynell Taylor's subscription to the Derajat Mission which is quite unknown. He was asking one day about the missionary at Derah Ishmael Khan, and was told that he had gone home. Taylor gave a little start but said nothing. At the end of the visit he remarked that his visitor must have noticed that he was a little discomposed on hearing of the missionary's departure, " for," said he, " I have not paid my subscription for several months, and, in fact, had not the money to give, so I borrowed of the Bank, and they would not lend it till I had insured my life. It has just come, and now the missionary has gone home."' 'Probably,' adds the same writer, 'no other instance has ever yet been known in India of a man insuring his life to pay his subscription to a Missionary Society.' The mission, established in the first instance by Taylor's munificence, has now been

in operation for more than twenty-six years, and there is at the present time a missionary at Derah Ishmael Khan, another at Bunnoo, and a medical missionary at Tank'; but the results, chiefly, I believe, from the fact that the stations have been at all times undermanned, have been as yet lamentably small,' and there is little to show for all these years of labour. The classes it was hoped to reach-the Wuzeerees, the Lohanee and Powindah merchants, and the Beluchees have not responded, and the labours and preaching of the missionaries seem to have 'been carried away by a strong and merciless stream.'

Long after Taylor left the Derajat his name, like James Abbott's in Huzara, was remembered by the people among whom he had worked, and writing as late as 18833 the Rev. Robert Clark says:-' His deeds of prowess are still spoken of on the frontier, where his name is a household word for skill and courage. The only person who knows what he did, and is silent respecting it, is himself. And yet so gentle, lovable, and beloved was he, that the natives used to say there were two ferishtas (angels) amongst the English in the Punjab; that they were so good, that if all

1 Church Missionary Society's Annual Report, 1886-7. The Medical Mission at Tank was founded by Major Gray in 1868.

? The missionary in charge of Bunnoo, writing to the Society on December 16, 1886, gives the following figures :-Native communicants, 5; native baptised Christians, 17. Baptisms during the year-adult, 1 ; child, I ; schools, 3; scholars-boys, 101. The figures for Derah Ishmael Khan are rather larger. The missionary here writes on February 10, 1887, that the native communicants number 19, the native Christians 42, the baptisms during the year 4, and the scholars 265.

At Tank the medical missionary reports that in 1886 'there were 9,375 new patients and 15,971 visits recorded, 56 in-patients were treated, and that 14 major operations and 1,862 minor were performed.'

3 Clark's Thirty Years of Missionary Work.

the English had been like them the whole country would have become Christian by seeing them and witnessing their actions without the aid of any missionaries at all; and that these two ferishtas were Sir Donald MacLeod and General Reynell Taylor.'

261

CHAPTER X.

PESHAWUR-THE UMBEYLAH WAR.

1862-1863.

IN the spring of 1862 Reynell Taylor turned his back upon the Derajat for the last time. Hugh James, the Commissioner of Peshawur, had gone to England on leave, and Taylor was ordered to take up the Officiating Commissionership in his absence. We may well believe that he did not part from the people of the Derajat without a true feeling of regret. Among them he could count many friends; in their country he had won his earliest laurels, and his name was known far and near as one who was never too busy to listen to their troubles or to consider their complaints. His daring and complete indifference to danger won their respect, but his gentleness and consideration for the meanest among them entwined itself about their rough hearts. They never forgot 'the man,' as they called him, 'with the disposition of an angel;' and it may equally be said that he never forgot them. Years after this, even as late as 1876, I find him still writing to advocate the claims of those who had stood by him in his hour of direst need; and it is satisfactory to know that the Government at length 'granted all he asked.' I have before alluded to the hold Reynell Taylor had upon the natives of all classes, and there is no doubt-and I have

heard it from many of his intimate friends-that the secret of it was his accessibility. He was never so hard at work that he did not make the time to receive the high, the low, the rich, or the poor; 'at all times visitors came to him without fear of rebuff, and all, from the pompous city magnate to the humblest citizen, were sure of a courteous and kindly reception.' So much, indeed, did he think of this part of his duty throughout his life in India, that he let it be generally known that he had regular hours for receiving visits from natives every morning. All might come at other times, but it was understood that those only came at the stated hours whose social or official position entitled them to visit the Commissioner. The preparations for these visits were always made with the greatest care and forethought. In fine and suitable weather, when the morning air was sufficiently cool (or in the cold season, sufficiently mild) to make it pleasant, the receptions took place in the garden, under the shade of trees, where carpets were spread and chairs arranged. If it was necessary to be in the house, domestic arrangements were made to give way, and the guests were received kindly and courteously in the drawing-room. His manner with natives (as, indeed, at all times) was quiet and self-possessed, but with all there was a pleasant geniality and none of that gaucherie which comes of ignorance of Eastern customs or of the language. His knowledge of both was complete, so there was neither vagueness nor fear of offence on either side during these ceremonies.' 1

The effects of Reynell Taylor's treatment of natives were often most marked, but at no time were the fruits

1 Colonel A. H. Bamfield.