Charles Alan Smythies
Bishop of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa
It was a very peaceful end. Both before and after death he lay as one asleep. We robed him in his white cassock and purple cincture, and, with his hands folded over a little crucifix which we placed on his breast, he lay at rest. It was impossible to think he was really dead. Anybody entering the cabin would have thought he was asleep.
The Captain told me that we must bury him at sea. We were 800 miles from Aden and the temperature on deck was 91°. Had we been a day nearer, he would have thought whether he could take the body on to Aden, but under the circumstances it was impossible. I knew the Captain was right, though I hated to think we must bury him thus. At half-past six, when most of the passengers were below dining, eight of the French sailors carried the body, wrapped in sailcloth with the English flag over it, to the rail at the ship's stern. I went before, saying the sentences, and the Nurse and three or four English passengers followed with the Captain and some of the officers. All present were most reverent. At the proper place the body was committed to the deep, and I finished the service. It was a lovely evening and a quite calm sea. The sun had just set and there was a new moon. I stood a long time looking at the line of foam made by the ship's screw as we continued our way and left the loved remains behind further and further every minute. The spot where he lies is almost half-way between Zanzibar and Aden, and about 500 miles south of Cape Guardafni. By Gertrude Ward Edited by Edward Francis Russell, M.A. |
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Bishop Charles Smythies |
Let us thank God that He has given to our own time, in the person of Charles Alan Smythies, a great missionary, one of the manliest of men, a deeply religious and entirely fearless Catholic Bishop
E. F. Russell, St. Alban's, Holborn, November 1898
E. F. Russell, St. Alban's, Holborn, November 1898