| caption: |
Evangelization of Semas by Impur missionaries and problems this causes relating to polygamy and legality of marriage; lac at Chantongia |
| text: |
To Mongsemdi. The Missionaries from Impur met me at the 6th mile. Among other things discussed was the question of the evangelization of the Semas. I asked Dr. Bailey how he proposed to deal with the question of a Sema, with several wives, who wished to turn Christian, as I objected to the old game of turning Christian in order to avoid responsibility for the more antique wives. Dr. Bailey said that what he could advocate was to baptise the man and his wives, all of them and let them go on living together. As he agreed with me that the N.T. forbade only bishops to be husbands of more than one wife, but he said that Mr. Mills had told him that it would render the husband liable to prosecution for bigamy and himself liable as an abettor. I told him that as long as the polygamists were not married under the "Christian Marriage Act", they could not be convicted of any offence at all, and as no converts in this district are married under that Act, it is satisfactory that the Mission do not propose to insist on monogomy in the case of polygynous converts. |
| text: |
To Chantongia. Shot a bamboo partridge en route. Lac is being tried here. |
