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HE:^OStLE OF ffi^ wm_ QforncU Uniuetaitj} ffiihrarj} BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 Cornell University Library BV 2853.B8J83 The apostle of the Indians of Guiana"; a 3 1924 020 401 786 'Jg'3 THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS OF GUIANA." The original of tliis bool< is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924020401786 k'i- 4?^-^ "The Apostle of the Indians of GUIANA" H /IDemoft of tbe Xife an5 Xatours OF THE REV. W. H. BRETT, B.D. For Forty Years a Missionary in British Guiana BY THE REV. F. P. L. JOSA RECTOR OF HOLY TRINITY, ESSEQUIBO LONDON: WELLS GARDNER, DARTON & CO. PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS. n TO THE REVEREND FREDERIC CHARLES FINCH, LL.D., WHOSE LIFE HAS BEEN ONE OF NOBLE DEVOTION AND SELF-DENIAL IN THE INTEREST OF THE CHURCH, AND TO WHOM THE WRITER OWES AN UNDISCHARGEABLE DEBT OF GRATITUDE, Zbis a>emo(r IS DEDICATED AS A SMALL TOKEN OF RESPECT AND ESTEEM. — PREFACE. The substance of the following pages first appeared in the columns of the Demerara Royal Gazette, and are mainly compiled from Mr. Brett's own books Indian Missions in British Guiana, The Indian Tribes of British Guiana, Mission Work among the Indian Tribes of British Guiana, and Legends and Myths of Guiana. My object in compiling them has been to give an account of the mission-work of this most eminent missionary in British Guiana, rather than to produce a narrative of his life, though this has not been altogether lost sight of. The illustrations, from sketches made by Mr. Brett, have previously appeared either in his books or in publications of the S. P. G., but they are so very good, and so necessary to any account of his work, that I need not, I am sure, apologise for reproducing them. viii PREFACE. My hearty thanks are due to Mrs. Brett for her kind permission to make use of her husband's books and sketches, and also to the late Rev. Canon Veness, of Guiana, for aid in preparing this Memoir, and to the Rev. H. Rowley, for helping me to bring it out in its present form. F. P. L. JOSA. December, 1887. THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF WILLIAM HENRY BRETT. CHAPTER I. Early days of William Henry Brett—Schools— The Rev. T. Medland— Selwyn—Narrative of voyage from England to Barbadoes, and thence to Guiana. William Henry Brett was born at Dover on the Feast of St. Thomas, the 21st of December 18 18. That his birth should have taken place on the festal day of this Apostle, who was the great missionary of the distant Indies, is a coincidence worthy of note. We are told that it was through the exertions of this Saint that we owe the evangelisation of the Malabar Coast in South India, and to William Henry Brett we owe, under God, the conversion of entire tribes of Indians in British Guiana. We feel sure that had Mr. Brett ever thought on this extraordinary coincidence, he would have exclaimed, as he did on an occasion when a like coincidence was pointed out to him, " It is one of those singular things which sometimes happen, and seem to indicate an overruling and provi- dential influence." His father died when he was a very young child, and, A 2 EARLY DAYS his mother having the care of a second family, he was brought up by a pious grandfather. He very early evinced a studious and thoughtful disposition, and he had a wonder- fully retentive memory, which was of great service to him in after years. From a very early age reading was an absorbing passion with him. The school to which he was sent was conducted by an elderly lady, who fostered his talents and supplied him with suitable books. He was afterwards sent to a day-school, where the master offered the loan of books to those boys who did their lessons best and most quickly. Under these circumstances, young Brett was not long in attracting attention, and he soon became his master's favourite scholar. He had, previously to this, attended a Sunday-school, then in its infancy, in the parish of St. James, in which the curate, the Rev. Thomas Medland (afterwards Vicar of Steyning, Sussex), took a deep interest. His attention was soon drawn to the steady, studious lad, and he too lent him books, amongst others, the " Life of Henry Martyn," which sub- sequently led to his consecrating himself to missionary work. At the age of thirteen or fourteen, Mr. Medland made him one of his Sunday-school teachers, and he sub- sequently became an assistant superintendent. We are told that " no one could have been a more regular or a better teacher than Brett," and he continued to labour in the Sunday-school for nearly ten years, until, indeed, he left Dover. He was most anxious that the children under his care should be Christians, not only in name, but in reality. Sometimes he would walk with them along the seashore, and talk to them very earnestly about the duty and happiness of serving God faithfully ; and he would sometimes take them to a cave, and there kneel down and pray with them. OF WILLIAM HENRY BRETT. 3 But besides his duties as teacher in the Sunday-school, our future missionary had his daily work to attend to. At one time he was apprenticed to a tailor ; but his master having failed, he never served his time, and had to earn his bread by doing any work that he could get. He gained some influence amongst the townsfolk of Dover by his steadiness of character and by his abstemious habits. It may be seen from this account that the education which the future missionary received was very slender, but it must not be thence concluded that education is unnecessary^for the mission-field. Men of the highest ability, men who have received the most liberal education, are the persons required for the work. There is an idea afloat that any one will do for the work of the Church in foreign lands. This is a mistake, and the sooner it is rectified the better. It may be that some of the most successful missionaries have been self-taught men, and such a one Mr. Brett proved to be. Extracts from his works, given later on, will show that his English was singularly pure and of considerable force. Most of the knowledge that he acquired was self-acquired, and was by no means confined to a narrow range. He was a fair Latin and Greek scholar, and his knowledge of his Greek Testament was very good. He set aside a part of every day for the reading at least of one chapter of the New Testament. This he continued to do as long as his health permitted him, that is to say, to within a few months of his death. The translator of portions of the Old Testa- ment into four different languages must of necessity have known something of Hebrew. French, Spanish, and Portu- guese were sufficiently known to him to enable him to read anything in those tongues that came in his way. Young Brett was carefully watched by Mr. Medland, who thought that he would do excellent work in the mission- 4 HIS CALL. field as a catechist ; and by and bye the opportunity of enlistment in such work occurred. The Rev. H. Duke, Rector of Holy Trinity parish, Essequibo, British Guiana, felt that something ought to be done for the wild Indians of his parish, and he visited one or two of their settlements, and succeeded in baptizing a few of them. Encouraged by this success, he then applied to Bishop Coleridge for a catechist, and he in his turn applied to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. About this time Mr. Medland had recommended young Brett to this Society, and he had gone up to London for his examina- tion. It was on this occasion that he first came in contact with one of the greatest missionaries of the nineteenth century, George Augustus Selwyn, for the latter had been appointed by the Missionary Board to examine him. On this occasion two men of like ihind stood face to face—two men who, though separated by vast oceans, were yet to do the greatest work in the mission-field—one as a bishop of the Church in New Zealand, the other as a priest in Guiana—one with the best and noblest training that Eton and Cambridge could give, the other with the hmited education such as a humble school at Dover and the few spare hours of a busy curate could give. And yet the two, the examiner and examinee, each in his own sphere, have made a name for themselves that will last as long as the lands where they respectively laboured—aye, and longer, for are not their names written in " the Book of Life " ? Selwyn and Brett parted. They met once again in 1868, on board the royal mail steamer JVeva. The Bishop and Mrs. Selwyn were going out to take leave of the New Zealand diocese ; Mr. Brett and family were returning to Guiana after a year's visit to England. They parted on board the steamer at the island of St. Thomas, with THE REV. MR.

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