f a little land cleared on one
side, the country for miles around was covered with forests of pine,
oak, and rhododendron, over which the people of the valleys pastured
their cattle at some seasons of the year. The attention of the
Government was drawn to the place as suitable for a military Sanitarium,
and engineers were sent to open up roads and investigate its
capabilities. The report made by them was so favourable that a
considerable outlay was sanctioned for turning it into a retreat for
English soldiers from the heat of the plains.

The prospect of Ranee Khet as a European station, where soon a large
population was sure to gather, was one reason for regarding it as a good
sphere for a new mission. The chief reason, however, for the choice was
the fact that within twelve miles around, on the sides of the hills and
in the valleys beneath, there was a large accessible population,
furnishing a much wider field than one missionary could well occupy.

[Sidenote: VISITS TO RANEE KHET.]

Previous to taking up our abode at Ranee Khet I paid several visits to
it, with a view to making myself acquainted with the neighbourhood and
to holding intercourse with the people, many of whom I met in their
villages. They looked on me with fear, as if I had come to lay a new tax
on them, and seemed utterly unable to comprehend me when I told them I
was no Government official, but a servant of God, who came to them with
good tidings from Him. The only school of which I heard was twelve miles
distant, and I came to the conclusion that the establishment of primary
schools would be very beneficial to the people, and highly favourable to
my object. Though so illiterate that in well-sized villages I did not
hear of a person who could read, a number expressed approval of my
object. Some were forward with the promise to erect school-sheds, and to
send their children, but the performance did not come up to the promise.

When we went to Ranee Khet there was not a single house at the place.
The only Europeans were two Engineers and a sergeant, and they were
living in their cook-houses, preparatory to building houses for
themselves. I had arranged with a friend to have a wooden house erected,
but when we went the work had only been commenced, and the first six
weeks we lived in a tent. It was midsummer, and the tent was in the
daytime intolerably hot. The trees around gave little shelter, they were
chiefly pine; but we soon succeeded in putting