Missionary Reported Shot in Back by Bandits A timber of reports which have been received in Shanghai during the lart few days point to the fact that the Rev. D. F. Pike of the China. Inland' Mission, who was taken by bandits in Kueichow some months ¢go, is dead—murdered by his captors' a few after he! had been carried off when on one of the regular itineraries connected with, his evangelical work in the province. There is still a pos: that he i alive, but the reports of murder have Jeome from so many ces that che assumption that th are correct is more than justified.
The Rev. J. Crofts of the mission has been making investigations in the country where Mr. Pike was captured, at no small risk to himself, and according to his inquiries the captive missionary was shot in the back by the bandits a ow days after they had taken him, his clothes and the saddle of his horse taxon, and his body thrown into a river. This report would appear to confirm the one published previously that the clothes and a saddle belonging to a foreigner had keen found near the roadside in a village in Kueichow.
The late Mr. Pike's colleagues had not ceased their inquiries both the provincial capital and in the istrict where the bandit gang was known to be. In all eases they were met with: professions of official ignorance as to what had happened. Only lately when the reports of hi death become so sure that it we almost impossible to deny them did the officials admit that they had known of it for some time.
The murdered missionary was an Australian and had been in Shanghai for 4 number of years before going to Kueichow, where he had ioned before he came here. here was connected with he transport department of the mission and he became well-known in shipping circles and among men of the Customs service, He leaves wife and four sons. Mrs. Pike is still in Kueichow and from all accounts has borne her husbaid's martyrdom and her own bereavement wit' great courage. The sym. pathy of a very wide circle goes out to her and her family, VATICAN City, Dec. 19:—The Pope to-day appointed Thomas Berutti Titular Bishop of Huse and Apostolic Bishop of Pengpu, Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.