Description:

BRITISH FALKLAND ISLANDS MISSIONARY GROUPING
RT. REV. WALTE HOCKIN STIRLING (1829-1923) Superintendent of the English Church Mission in Tierra del Fuego & Patagonia (1862-1869), Bishop of the Falkland Islands (1869-1901) and Assistant to the Bishop of Bath & Wells (1901-1912). Good collection of seventeen A.L.S.s on his personal letterhead with miter, total 30pp. 8vo., almost all from Wells, to R. Morton Middleton, concerning preaching arrangements, the affairs of the South American Missionary Society and commenting extensively on missionary activity in South America. The letters dating from 1900 are chiefly concerned with preaching engagements, with the arrangements for Stirling's successor and his proposed appointment as vice-chairman to the Committee of the S.A.M.S.: '...If my successor is not shortly appointed I may have to return to South America. This would be a serious expense & also interfere with a proposal of the B[isho]p of Bath and Wells that I should become his Assistant...I have not much faith in Sadleir's judgement. His desire is to be head of a great Institution...'. The letter of 1901 responding to questions about '...Agencies, & Spheres in S America, for the expansion of...the Society's work...' offer a very detailed review of missionary activity in Chile, Argentina, Valparaiso, Santiago, Peru, Ecuador, etc: '...the conditions of work are undoubtedly difficult, & in some parts dangerous. The ignorance of the people, their inability to read, their fanaticism in some parts, and liability to be set against Bible distributors by the Priest-hood, are very discouraging...' The 1904 letters deal with a financial crisis at the S.A.M.S. and a proposal for Middleton to go as a missionary to Chile. Stirling comments at length on an idea for an industrial mission: '...to make then [the Chilians] better agriculturalists, if possible, is Mr Sadleir's aim...but this means to improve their moral tone and fibre rather then to teach them higher farming...'. Stirling is critical of Sedlair's aims to create a 'large & vigorous & many-branched Institution', asking: 'Is the S.A.M.S. equal to the demands he makes?'. Overall fine, with a period photograph.

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April 7, 2022 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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