One notable trip of Dr. House remains to be narrated, a journey
into the land of the Lao—notable because of the accident which
nearly closed the career of the doctor. The trip occurred in 1868.
The previous year was signalised in the annals of missions in
Siam by the establishment of a station at Chiengmai among the Lao
people in what is now known as North Siam. It is curious to note
that while Dr. House himself had been among the first to become
interested in these people as he came into contact with the Lao
boatmen at Bangkok and although he once seriously contemplated
leaving the Mattoons alone at Bangkok while he should carry the
Gospel into the unexplored northland, yet when the proposition was
being discussed by the mission to open a station there the doctor
enters a record of his judgment that the time is premature.
However, additions to the corps of workers having made it possible
to establish another station, the mission decided to send Messrs.
McGilvary and Wilson, who had made an exploratory trip the previous
season, to open work among the Lao tribes. In January of 1867 the
McGilvary family set out in small boats, making the journey all the
way up the Meinam. In the next December the Wilsons followed along
the same route. It was a three-months’ journey up Siam’s great
river, whose name means “mother of waters.” Above Raheng the stream
forces its way through a narrow gap in the mountain chain, forming
a long series of perilous rapids and affording scenery which is
described by voyagers as of surpassing beauty.
Dr. House wrote concerning the reason for his own trip:
“And here I must let you into a little secret. Mrs. Wilson,
it seems, will require the attendance of a physician about
the first of March, and so also will Mrs. McGilvary. So much
the worse for both of them, you will say—seeing they are
five hundred miles from medical aid. Must they, then, be
abandoned to their fate? You must not, then, dear brother, be
much surprised to learn that this double call of Providence
has proved too strong for me. Much as I dislike the practise
of my profession, much as I dread the long, tedious journey,
much as I desire just now to stay with my interesting and
most dearly loved flock [the church over which the doctor had
just been made pastor] I have felt it would be wrong for me
to decline the invitation I have received to visit Chiengmai
at the critical time.
“But I cannot afford to waste three months on the journey
there, when by boat to Raheng in twenty-three days Chiengmai
from there can be reached by elephant in eight to ten days
more.”
Accordingly, the doctor determined to take the quicker route, and
by February 13, he had reached Raheng. There he was delayed five
days waiting for elephants to be provided for him. The company then
set out over the mountains, expecting to reach their destination
nearly on schedule time. Then came the accident, the story of
which is most vividly set forth in the letter written by Dr. House
himself on that same day.
“Ban Hong North Laos,
“Monday, March 2, 1868.
“REV. MR. AND MRS. MCGILVARY.
“Dear Brother and Sister:
“So near and yet unable to get farther. Is it not a strange
Providence? When I started this morning strong and well,
refreshed by a Sabbath’s day rest at the little hamlet of
Wong Luang I was rejoicing in the thought that I was almost
at the end of this tedious and almost endless journey through
the sultry wilderness and would soon receive the welcome
which such friends as you will give, when about eight or nine
A. M. my elephant by whose side I was walking, suddenly and
without provocation turned upon me and pushed me over with
his trunk and, when lying on the ground, thrust one of those
huge tusks at me and into my poor body—how deep I know not,
but ripping up my abdomen two and one-half inches just below
the umbillicus. It was a strange sensation I assure you. I
was expecting another thrust which I could not escape, for I
was jammed in by the side of a tree. By this time, however,
his driver had got his head turned into the road again.
“And there I was in the far woods with very probably a fatal
wound and none but servants and Laos elephant drivers. As
my men came up poor Beo, who is most faithful and much
attached, burst into tears. And now thoughts of Harriette and
home rushed over me. But God my Saviour, God to whom only
yesterday I had renewed my consecration of myself as His
servant in a sweet retired spot on the beautiful mountain
stream where we were camped, has permitted—nay ordered—this
unlooked-for calamity; and in God I trust, blessed be His
Name for sustaining me through the hours of this sad day.
“Such wound, of course, must be sewed up, and at once, and
I must do it, for I could trust none of those with me,
new men all but good Beo. It was curious business, this
sewing up one’s own abdomen; but it must be done, and it
was done—four stitches. By this time my men had contrived
a very comfortable litter with an awning from the bamboos
growing near at hand. Of course climbing upon an elephant
and enduring the merciless rocking motion was out of the
question. So borne by four men on the litter we slowly
journeyed on through the dry, parched woods, over mountains
and across the dry water brooks from eleven or twelve to five
P. M., when we reached this village on the Maa Li River,
on the route from Muang Tern and Muang Li to Lampoon. And
I am writing this by candlelight in the Sala Klang of the
place lying on my back. It is wearisome work to write and I
must stop soon. The people here seem kind. I have engaged
a messenger to take this announcement of my misfortune to
Chiengmai.
“And now, my dear brother and dear sister (and if Brother
Wilson and his dear wife have arrived, I include them also),
I need not say to you how serious is the injury I have
received. The first thought was that the omentum or caul had
protruded; it may have been lacerated fat under the skin.
It was replaced, of course. But whether the cavity of the
peritoneum was pierced or not, (and my symptoms would have
been more severe if it had been, I think), still there must
have been much contusion of the bowels, and of course great
danger of peritonitis, the gravest of all diseases. I must
lie perfectly still for days and days to have a chance of
getting well. Another day of such jolting as today would be
fatal. My only hope is in absolute rest. My bowels are very
sore, of course; but God will not forsake His child and I
will try to bear all that is appointed me. I write to notify
you that you, too, may trust your dear Sophia, and brother W.
his dear Kate, in the same ever gracious hands. His angel has
laid his hands upon me and stopped me here.
“I write also to say that neither of you must think of coming
over (from Chiengmai it is three days on elephant) to visit
me. You can do me no manner of good and your wives absolutely
require you both at home just now. It would be positively
wrong for you to leave them. I have good, kind servants,
medicines, books, and best of all my Saviour’s presence, and
I am resigned to His will. But, Oh, poor Harriette—pray for
her. We will pray for each other, and God bless you and yours
till we meet.
“Affectionately,
“S. R. HOUSE.
“P. S. If I get well, I—or if not, my four men—will proceed
to Chiengmai and deliver to you there six hundred ticals I am
bringing to your mission.”
This letter records a story of nerve and fortitude seldom equalled
in the annals of travel and exploration. One must pause after
reading it to take in the whole situation. The note itself was
written at the close of the day of shock and pain and suffering.
It was written while the sufferer was lying flat on his back,
scarcely able to move without agitating the wound; and written then
lest a night’s delay might find him unable to write. But as you
read the letter you are conscious that he writes not because he is
thinking of his own need, but because he knows that his friends
will be greatly alarmed by his failure to appear. The trip itself
had been undertaken in a spirit of self-abnegation solely for the
welfare of his fellow missionaries. And the necessity of the trip
casts a vivid light upon the deprivations and hardships of those
pioneer missionaries. There are those who will exclaim, “Fools! why
did they go so far from contact with civilisation and under such
circumstances,—five hundred miles from the nearest physician!”
Yes, fools! but fools for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
“of whom the world was not worthy.”
Further details of this marvellous adventure are given in a letter
written two weeks later from the same place, the original of which
is still preserved.
“I wonder if any surgeon was ever before called upon to sew
up his own abdomen! Somehow nerve was given me to put in the
four stitches without shrinking, though it was a work of no
little difficulty, as I had to be guided by the reflection
in a looking-glass—the wound not being in direct line of
vision—as I lay on my back too weak to sit up. All the water
I had was in a small porous drinking vessel—not over a pint,
and no other supply for miles....
“That evening I arranged for a messenger to carry the tidings
of my injury to the mission at Chiengmai. On the evening
of the third day they returned, and with them a servant of
Mr. McGilvary came along, and also our faithful Christian
Siamese brother, Nai Chune, who had gone up in charge of
Mr. Wilson’s household goods to Chiengmai.... Had my letter
reached Chiengmai a few hours later it would have found Nai
Chune gone, for his passage was taken and his things aboard
the boat to start that day for Bangkok....
“I am lost in wonder when I think of the Providence by which
I escaped seemingly inevitable death. Who ever heard of one
being impaled on an elephant’s tusk and yet living to tell
the tale. God’s merciful Providence ordered that when I was
unexpectedly felled to the ground I was thrown—not flat
on my back, in which case I had been pierced through and
through; but on my right side, hence his tusk which was aimed
at the middle line of my body glanced and so did not enter
deep enough to inflict a mortal wound. Had it pierced but
the thickness of this paper deeper than it did, peritoneal
inflammation would have ensued and speedy death....
(Later.) “The afternoon of the day I wrote the foregoing
letter a loaded elephant came to the sala where I am lying,
and the one riding it began to hand down various baskets and
bundles as if they had reached their destination. It proved
to have been sent by my good brethren of Chiengmai, who had
forwarded supplies of everything that could be thought of to
make a sick man comfortable....
“With wise forethought they had arranged that a boat should
be awaiting me at the nearest landing place on the river
to take me to Chiengmai. I was too weak then and the wound
was not in a state to allow of my leaving the sala; but the
next Monday (just two weeks from the date of the injury)
I ventured to try the litter again. So with a new set of
elephants for my luggage and bearers for myself hired in
the village, that afternoon at 3 o’clock we started, but
found no camping place till 11 P. M.—a weary journey! But
all forgotten next morning when my eyes rested again on the
Meinam River and I was transferred to the boat. Two days
of vigourous poling up the river brought me to my friends’
landing about five P. M. Wednesday, March 18.”
By Nai Chune the doctor was able to send to his wife the news of
the misfortune, though it was two months after the accident before
she received the message. Trusty servants were then sent up to
meet him at Raheng, where his boats were awaiting his return.
The complete healing of the wound and recuperation of strength
required more time than he had anticipated so that he was compelled
to remain at Chiengmai six weeks. During this enforced delay he
had the privilege of assisting in organising the first church at
Chiengmai, a little gratification to his old and ardent desire for
the evangelisation of the Lao. The return was made all the way by
water. From Chiengmai to Raheng the voyage required eighteen days,
and thence his own boats carried him the remainder of the way to
Bangkok in twelve days.
It is probable that Dr. House accomplished more touring in Siam
than any other missionary. During the first ten years, within which
most of the exploring was done, he was more free than Mr. Mattoon
to be absent for long periods and distant journeys. While the other
missions were restricting their work Dr. House had visions of
enlarging the range of Presbyterian activities. All the fields of
present mission stations in central Siam had been explored by Dr.
House and seed sown long before permanent work was undertaken. Love
of pioneering and zeal for the Gospel united to impel him to search
out the land with a view to ultimate conquest for Christ.
X