DROWNED IN LAKE NUASSA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5461, 13 January 1896, Page 3

DROWNED IN LAKE NUASSA.

Some time ago a cable message announced that the Bishop of Naples had been drowned in Lake Nyassa. In the absence of anything further it was only natural ito conclude that some mistake had occurred, and that the Bishop of Naples, if. suah a person existed, had not been so misguided as to tempt fortune by voyaging on the lonely waters of the African lake. Thanks to a Wellington correspondent, it was subsequently made clear that the victim of the accident was a certain Bishop Maples, who had for many years been stationed in. Equatorial Africa. The Bishop, it appears, was a comparatively young' man, who had received the benefits of an education at Oxford, but who had early come to the conclusion that his proper sphere lay among the heathen of other lands, instead of among the cultured frequenters of his own Church. He left England for Zanzibar in 1876, and during the nineteen years that elapsed till the time of his death, was content to be practically dead to the world while he devoted himself to the task of exploring, civilising, and Christianising his adopted country. While not neglecting the interests of his Church, the Bishop was something more than an itinerant evangelist. He rendered real service to the cause of science by his .studies of the geologic formation of the district, and by his discovery, among others, of the Royal fern, until then unknown to Enropean botanists. Before knocking down the people's idols he wisely thought it best to. alter their primitive ideas on dross and other subjects, and with this object in view he organised schools for boys and girls as well as' for adults. Among other gifts he possessed what in a .bishop nmst be regarded as a very keen sense of •huinoiu*. Though on the whole successful in his enterprises, he used to relate two instances in which he met with conspicuous failure. Tho first was when he gave sewing lessons to some Nyassa girls, and the other when he attempted to introduce marriage according to Christian rites. The members of his sewing class would never draw the needle towards themselves, but would always thrust it from them. All the Bishop's precept and example would never break his dusky maidens of this pernicious habit. In. celebrating his first marriage he acted as host and supplied the wedding breakfast. To his dismay ho found that it lasted a week, as all tho relatives of the young couple attended from miles around. He never repeated the experiment. At the time of his death the Bishop was one of the most valued members of the Manchester Geographical Society, and had the promise of a useful and active career before him.