FATHER DAMIEN AT HOME.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1889, 9 May 1889, Page 4

FATHER DAMIEN AT HOME.

The Church Army Gazette publishes the following letter, dated December 30th, just received from Mr Clifford, treasurer of the Church Army, who has gone on a visit to the leper settlement at Molokai, Sandwich Islands: “I have now been here nearly a fortn’ght, The 1030 lepers here are well cared for, not; generally suffering pain, and in most cases seeming light-hearted and happy. The air is soft and pleasant, even when the wind is high and gusty. Enormous cliffs close in the leper settlement, and make it almost inaccessible from the other parts of the island, and the sea is so wild that often even a boat cannot land. When I arrived I had to come on shore at a precipitous rock at some distance from the Tillage. Eather Damien met me there, having with'him about twenty lepers. He gave me a hearty welcome, and as it was too rough to have my large case landed I had it unpacked in the boat, and all the presents taken out one by one, handed across the waves, and carried by the lepers to Kalawoa. The engraving ;of ‘ The Good Shepherd,’ from Lady Mount-Temple, came first, and then a magic lantern (which I have since been three times showing), the Ariston (a little sort of barrel organ, with many hymn tunes—the lepers love to turn it), and many pictures and books. Mr BurneJones’ beautiful picture I had myself carried all the way from London, and it is now hung in Eather Damien’s room. “ He is just what you would expect him to be—a simple, sturdy, hardworking, devout man. No job is too menial for liim—building, carpentering, tending the sick, washing the dead, and many other such things form part of his daily work. He is always cheerful, sometimes playful, and one of the most truly humble men I ever saw. The leprosy has disfigured him very much, but I never find it anything but a pleasure to look at him ; and already the guriun oil which I brought is making a manifest difference in his face and hands, and in his power of sleeping. How far the cure will reach it is of course,

impossible to say. He is such a busy man that sometimes I fear be will not find time to do the medicine full justice. The English affection and sympathy touch him very much indeed. Pray for him, for there must be many times when he is tempted to be discouraged and over sad at all the terrible cases—bodies and souls — around him. I was very glad to be here at Christmas. You would have enjoyed the hearty way in which the lepers sang, ‘ 0 come, all ye faithful.’ ”