During this systematic visitation, Dr. House obtained glimpses of
“the regions beyond.” Medical work had already brought him into
contact with the aliens in Bangkok. As he became acquainted with
these groups by his travels throughout the city he became deeply
interested in their home lands. Small as the mission force in
Bangkok was, he began to meditate whether their efforts should be
confined to the Siamese to the exclusion of all these other peoples.
At that time it was estimated that the strangers within the gates
were equal to the native population of Bangkok. Chief among these
immigrants were the Chinese. The Chinese held nearly all the
trading in Bangkok. The semi-annual trade winds brought numerous
junks from China laded with Chinese products; and each of these
junks had its cargo of human freight also. Sometimes a single
junk would bring as many as three hundred; and the average annual
immigration was estimated at one thousand. These people came
largely from the Island of Hainan, and nine-tenths of those who
sent their boys to the mission school were from this province.
There were but few Burmese in Bangkok; but of their old enemies,
the Peguans, there was a large village on the west bank of
the river. These people had originally sought refuge from the
Burmese by taking service under the king of Siam, but in time had
practically become his serfs. It was in their village that Mrs.
Mattoon began her class of children which later was transferred
to the mission compound. The Malays, few in number, could not
be reached for want of acquaintance with their language. Dr.
House records an anecdote which had come to his ears showing the
shrewdness of these people in their native country:
“The chiefs obtained some Christian tracts. Whenever a
trading vessel arrived, they showed these tracts to the
captain. If the captain swore at the tracts, they concluded
that he was not a Christian, and would have nothing to do
with him. But if he displayed an interest and inquired about
the tracts, they judged that he was sympathetic with religion
and that they could trust him.”
During the cholera epidemic Dr. House was called to see the
servant of a Cambodian prince living in Bangkok, and the visit
resulted in an enduring friendship. The prince, the son of the
king of Cambodia, was living in a grand palace provided by the
king of Siam; and Dr. House was led to suspect that he was held
as hostage for the good behaviour of his father, over whom Siam
claimed suzerainty. The prince urged the doctor to go to Cambodia,
assuring him that he would be welcomed with open arms by the king;
and that the people did not approve of the worship of images, for
the Cambodians held that “God made man, and man cannot make God.”
The information gained from the prince prompted Dr. House and Mr.
Mattoon to plan a trip into that country. They entered upon the
study of the language for that purpose, but the death of the old
king of Siam arrested these plans. However, the interest awakened
in Dr. House led eventually to his notable trip to Korat.
But perhaps the most important of these chance relations was with
the Lao. The doctor had early learned of the frequent trips of
boatmen from the Lao land. With ears open for useful information,
he gathered from a Siamo-Portuguese doctor, who had accompanied a
Catholic priest to Chieng Mai, information concerning the route,
knowledge of the receptive character of the people and of the
deceptive nature of the reigning prince. His interest in the Lao
grew until he felt prompted to leave the Siamese to his fellow
missionaries and betake himself to the Lao country. A particular
day of indifference to his message in the streets of Bangkok sent
him to bed with a heavy heart:
“But ere midnight,” he writes, “my sorrow was turned into
joy as the privilege was presented to my view of yet going a
messenger of the glad tidings to the tribes of the Laos to
the north. To them shall my thoughts be given and my future
life, if Providence but opens the way.”
And again when he was depressed by the fruitlessness of the early
labours he meditates:
“I believe all the past of my strange history has been for a
purpose—yet all unrevealed—and I will not trouble myself
about it. May I ever be ready to serve my Master, anywhere
at all times. But should I be permitted in his Providence
to carry his blessed gospel to the Laos some future day,
then I can read and understand the why of some things. To
be thus privileged were better than to visit the home of my
childhood, my aged parents, my brother, again—’twere better
than to be blessed with houses or lands or wife or children
of my own.”
To him the mission in Bangkok at that time was like a candle in a
starless night, very faint to be sure, but making more dense the
surrounding darkness that seemed to confine its light. His eyes
strained to look into the regions beyond and his heart beat with
passionate desire to evangelise the unknown peoples.