God forbid that I should hinder, those who feel led to aid the members
of an unknown tribe in a dark continent, for in so doing I should be
contravening the Divine injunction to evangelize all nations: but, on
the other hand, I will discharge myself of what has lain as a burden on
my conscience ever since I first visited the smacksmen; I will cry aloud
for _help_ to our own kith and kin, more, _more_ HELP than has ever yet
been given to them!
These men are splendid specimens of English manhood; their country is
not far away; you can visit it for yourself and see what human nerve and
sinew can endure, and if you do you will return, as I did, filled with a
sense of shame that you had spent so many years in ignorance of your
indebtedness to the fine fellows in whose behalf my tale is written. I
am as grateful as our brave souls on the sea for all that has been done,
but I incontinently ask for more, and I entreat those to whom money is
as nothing to give the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen its hospital ship,
for every fleet that scours the trawling grounds, but especially a fast
or steam cruiser--a _Robert Cassall_--so that the wounded fisherman, in
the hour of his need and his utter helplessness, may be as sure of
relief as are the Wapping labourer or the Mortlake bargeman.
JAMES RUNCIMAN.
APPENDIX B.
Mission to Deep Sea fishermen.
Instituted in August, 1881.
The Mission was designed, in humble dependence upon the blessing of
Almighty God,--
1.
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