[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,-AB the story about
the inscription in the Peshawar cemetery has again appeared, permit me to send you a copy of the inscription, which I made in 1894, while chaplain of Peshawar. " Erected to the memory of Rev. Isodore Loewenthal, missionary of the American Presbyterian Mis- sion, who translated the New Testament into Pushtoo, and was shot by his chowkeydar, April 27th, 1864." Then follows the text, which, as Canon Duckworth states, is the first part of Romans i. 16, and not (as often asserted) " Well done, good and faithful servant." The inscription and text are also engraved in Pnshtoo on the slab, but the date is there given as 1866. The date in English (1864) is the correct one. As Canon Duckworth mentions, the words, " Well done, good and faithful servant," were entered by the then chaplain below Mr. Loewenthal's name in the burial (not the cemetery) register ; but this is not the only place where this text occurs, for the same chaplain added the words below the names of each chaplain and missionary interred, up to that date in the Peshawar cemeteries. At his next visitation, the Arch- deacon requested that this unauthorised addition might be dis- continued for the future. Under the heading, " Cause of Death," in the burial register, the entry is, "Murdered by his chowkeydar ; " from the inquiries that I made, it seems more probable that the watchman shot his master by mistake,
under the impression that he was a "loose-wala."—I am,
Sir, &c., W. F. ARMSTRONG, Indian Chaplain.
Chislehurst, September 9th.
Previous page
