NARRATIVE CONTINUED, AND CONCLUDED.--THEIR DELIVERANCE FROM BURMAN
TYRANNY, AND PROTECTION BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT.
As soon as the search was completed, Mrs. Judson hastened to the wife of
the queen's brother, in hopes of having a favorable answer to her
petition; but to her heavy disappointment she learned that the queen had
refused to interfere. With a sad heart she turned her steps to the
prison-gate, but here she was denied admittance, and for ten days she
found the prison-door closed against her.
"The officers who had taken possession of our property," continues Mrs.
Judson, "presented it to his majesty, saying, 'Judson is a true teacher;
we found nothing in his house but what belongs to priests. In addition
to this money, there are an immense number of books, medicines, trunks
of wearing apparel, &c., of which we have only taken a list. Shall we
take them or let them remain?' 'Let them remain,' said the king, 'and
put this property by itself, for it shall be restored to him again, if
he be found innocent.' This was in allusion to the idea of his being a
spy."
While the officers were at Mr. J.'s house, they had insisted on knowing
the sum that had been paid to bribe the governor to allow the prisoners
more liberty. This sum they afterwards demanded of the governor, which
so enraged him that he threatened to thrust them back into the inner
prison. When Mrs. J. waited on him the next morning, his first words
were, "You are very bad; why did you tell the royal treasurer you had
given me so much money?" "The treasurer inquired, what could I say?" she
replied. "Say that you had given me nothing," said he, "and I would have
made the teachers comfortable in prison; but now I know not what will be
their fate." "But I cannot tell a falsehood," she replied; "my religion
differs from yours; it forbids prevarication, and had you stood by me
with your knife raised, I could not have said what you suggest."
This answer so pleased the wife of the governor, who sat by, that she
ever afterwards was a firm friend to Mrs. Judson. The latter then by the
present of a beautiful opera-glass, a gift from her English friends, and
by promises of future presents, induced the governor to let her husband
remain where he was; but poor Dr. Price was confined as at first, and
was only relieved at the end of ten days, by his promising a piece of
broadcloth, and presents from Mrs. Judson.
Sometimes she was summoned before the authorities to answer the most
absurd charges, and daily she was subjected to the most harassing
annoyance, from the desire of each petty officer to get money through
their misfortunes. Notwithstanding her repulse in her application to the
queen, hardly a day passed for seven months that she did not visit some
one of the members of government, or branches of the royal family, in
order to gain their influence in behalf of the teachers, though the only
benefit was that their encouraging promises preserved her from despair.
She did however in this manner gain friends, who sometimes assisted her
with food, and who tried to destroy the impression that they were
concerned in the war.
The extortions and oppressions to which the prisoners were subject were
also indescribable. Sometimes Mrs. Judson was forbidden to have any
intercourse with them during the day; and therefore she would have two
miles to walk after dark, in returning to her house. She says, "Oh how
many, many times have I returned from that dreary prison at nine o'clock
at night, solitary and worn out with fatigue and anxiety, and thrown
myself down in that same rocking-chair you and Deacon S. provided for me
in Boston, and endeavored to invent some new scheme for the release of
the prisoners. Sometimes, for a moment or two, my thoughts would glance
toward America and my beloved friends there, out _for nearly a year and
a half, so entirely engrossed was every thought with present scenes and
sufferings, that I seldom reflected on a single occurrence of my former
life, or recollected that I had a friend in existence out of Ava_.
"You my dear brother, who know my strong attachment to my friends, and
how much pleasure I have hitherto experienced from retrospect, can judge
from the above circumstance, how intense were my sufferings. But the
point, the acme of my distress, consisted in the awful uncertainty of
our final fate. My prevailing opinion was, that my husband would suffer
violent death; and that I should of course become a slave, and languish
out a miserable though short existence, in the tyrannic hands of some
unfeeling monster. But the consolations of religion in these trying
circumstances, were neither few nor small. It taught me to look beyond
this world, to that rest, that peaceful, happy rest, where Jesus reigns,
and oppression never enters."
In the meantime, the Burmese government was sending army after army down
the river to fight the English; and constantly receiving news of their
defeat and destruction. One of its officers, however, named Bandoola,
having been more successful, the king sent for him to Ava, and
conferred on him the command of a very large army, destined against
Rangoon. As he was receiving every demonstration of court favor, Mrs.
Judson resolved to wait on him with a petition for the release of the
prisoners. She was received in an obliging manner, and directed to call
again when he should have deliberated on the subject. With the joyful
news of her flattering reception, she flew to the prison, and both she
and her husband thought deliverance was at hand. But on going again with
a handsome present to hear his decision, she was informed by his
lady--her lord being absent--that he was now very busy, making
preparations for Rangoon, but that when he had retaken that city, _and
expelled the English_, he would return and release all the prisoners.
This was her last application for their enlargement, though she
constantly visited the various officials with presents in order to make
the situation of the prisoners more tolerable. The governor of the
palace used to be so much gratified with her accounts of the manners,
customs and government of America, that he required her to spend many
hours of every other day at his house.
Mrs. Judson had been permitted to make for her husband a little bamboo
room in the prison enclosure far more comfortable than the shed he had
occupied and where she sometimes was allowed to spend a few hours in
his society. But her visits both to the prison and to the governor were
interrupted by the birth of a little daughter--truly
'A child of misery, baptized in tears!'
About this time the Burmese court was thrown into consternation by news
of the disastrous defeat of Bandoola, the vain-glorious chief who was to
expel the English from the kingdom; and the rapid advance of the British
troops towards Ava. The first consequence of such intelligence would of
course be increased rigor towards the white prisoners; and accordingly,
before she had regained her strength after her confinement, Mrs. Judson
learned that her husband had been put into the inner prison, in five
pairs of fetters, that the room she had made for him had been torn down,
and all his little comforts taken away by his jailers. All the prisoners
had been similarly treated.
Mrs. Judson, feeble as she was, hastened to the governor's house. But in
her long absence she had lost favor; and she was told that she must not
ask to have the fetters taken off, or the prisoners released, for _it
could not be done_. She made a pathetic appeal to the governor, who was
an old man, reminding him of all his former kindness to them, and
begging to know why his conduct was so changed to them now. His hard
heart melted and he even "wept like a child." He then confessed to her
that he had often been ordered to assassinate the prisoners privately,
but that he would not do it; and that, come what would, he would never
put Mr. Judson to death. At the same time he was resolute in refusing to
attempt any mitigation of his sufferings.
The situation of the prisoners was now horrible in the extreme. There
were more than one hundred of them shut up in one room, with no air but
what came through cracks in the boards, and this in the hot season. Mrs.
Judson was sometimes permitted to spend five minutes at the door, but
the sight was almost too horrible to be borne. By incessant intreaties,
she obtained permission for them to eat their food outside, but even
this was soon forbidden. After a month passed in this way, Mr. Judson
was seized with fever, and nothing but death was before him unless he
could have more air. Mrs. Judson at length succeeded in putting up
another bamboo hut in the prison enclosure, and by wearing out the
governor with her entreaties, she got her husband removed into it, and
though too low for them to stand upright, it seemed to them a palace in
comparison with the prison.
Disastrous news of the war continued to arrive, and at length the death
of Bandoola seemed to be the climax of misfortune. Who could be found to
take his place? A government officer, who had for some time been in
disgrace with the king, now came forward with a proposal to conquer the
English and put an end to the war, provided an army was raised on a new
plan. His offers were accepted, and he was clothed with full powers. He
was a man of talent and enterprise, and a violent enemy to foreigners.
The missionaries feared everything from his malignancy; and their fears
were but too well founded.
They had been in their comfortable hut but a few days, when Mrs. J. was
suddenly summoned before the governor, and detained by trifling pretexts
for some time, in order--as she afterwards found--to spare her the
dreadful scene that was enacted at the prison in her absence. On leaving
him she met a servant running to tell her that all the white prisoners
were carried away he knew not whither. She ran from street to street
inquiring for them, until at length she was informed they were carried
to Amarapoora. She hastened to the governor, who professed his
ignorance, but promised to send off a man to inquire their fate; and
said significantly, "You can do nothing more for your husband; _take
care of yourself_." She returned to her room, and sank down almost in
despair. This was the most insupportable day she had passed. She
resolved to go to Amarapoora; packed up some valuables in trunks to
leave with the governor; and took leave of Ava, as she supposed,
forever. She obtained a pass for herself and infant, her two Burman
girls and cook, and got on board a boat, which conveyed them within two
miles of Amarapoora. There she procured a cart, but the heat and dust,
with the fatigue of carrying her infant, almost deprived her of reason.
But on reaching the court-house, her distress was further aggravated, by
finding that she must go four miles farther to a place called
Oung-pen-la. There in an old shattered building, without a roof, under
the burning sun, sat the poor prisoners, chained two and two, and almost
in a dying condition. She prevailed on the jailer to give her a shelter
in a wretched little room half filled with grain, and in that filthy
place, without bed, chair, table, or any other comfort, she spent the
next _six months_ of wretchedness.
The account given her by Mr. Judson of his sufferings since she had seen
him was almost too dreadful to repeat. Dragged from the prison, and
stripped of their clothing, they were driven under a broiling sun, over
the hot sand and gravel until their naked feet were all one wound, and
they earnestly longed for death to put an end to their tortures. When
night came on, finding that one of the prisoners had dropped dead, and
that the others were utterly unable to walk, their driver had halted
till the next morning, and then conveyed them the remainder of the
distance in carts. On arriving and seeing the dilapidated condition of
the prison, they confidently thought they had been brought here for
execution, and tried to prepare themselves to meet a dreadful and
perhaps lingering death. From this apprehension they were relieved by
seeing preparations made to repair the prison.
Mrs. Judson had brought from Ava all the money she could command,
secreted about her person. And she records her thankfulness to her
Heavenly Father that she never suffered from want of money, though
frequently from want of provisions. Hitherto her health and that of her
children had been good. But now commenced her personal, bodily
sufferings. One of the little Burman girls whom she had adopted, and
whom she had named Mary Hasseltine, was attacked on the morning after
her arrival with small-pox. She had been Mrs. Judson's only assistant in
the care of her infant. But now she required all the time that could be
spared from Mr. Judson, whose mangled feet rendered him utterly unable
to move. Mrs. Judson's whole time was spent in going back and forth from
the prison to the house with her little Maria in her arms. Knowing that
the other children must have the disease, she inoculated both, and those
of the jailer, all of whom had it lightly except her poor babe, with
whom the inoculation did not take, and who had it the natural way.
Before this she had been a healthy child but it was more than three
months before she recovered from the dreadful disorder.
The beneficial effects of inoculation in the case of the jailer's
children, caused Mrs. Judson to be called upon to perform the operation
upon all the children in the village. Mr. Judson gradually recovered,
and found his situation much more comfortable than at Ava. But Mrs.
Judson, overcome by watchings, fatigue, miserable food, and still more
miserable lodgings, was attacked by one of the disorders of the country;
and though much debilitated, was obliged to set off in a cart for Ava to
procure medicines and suitable food. While there, her disorder increased
so fearfully in violence, that she gave up all hope of recovery, and was
only anxious to return and die near the prison. By the use of laudanum
she so far checked the disease, that she was able to get back to
Oung-pen-la, but in such a state that the cook whom she had left to
supply her place, and who came to help her out of the wretched cart in
which she had made part of the journey, was so overwhelmed by her
altered and emaciated appearance that he burst into tears. To this poor
cook she was indebted, during the next two months for everything, and
even for her life and that of those dearest to her. He would walk miles
to procure and carry food for the prisoners, then return to do
everything he could for Mrs. J. Though a Bengalee, he forgot his caste,
and hesitated not at any office or service which was required of him. It
was afterwards in their power amply to reward him for his labor of love,
and they never forgot their debt of gratitude.
At this time poor little Maria was the greatest sufferer, and her
mother's anguish at seeing her distress while she was unable to relieve
it, was indescribable. Deprived of her natural food by her mother's
illness, while not a drop of milk could be procured in the village, her
cries were heart-rending. Sometimes Mr. Judson would prevail on his
keepers to let him carry the emaciated little creature around in his
arms, to beg nourishment from those mothers in the village who had young
children. Now indeed was the cup of misery full. While in health, the
active, ardent mind of Mrs. Judson bore up under trials, every new one
suggesting some ingenious expedient to lighten or avert it; but now to
see those cherished ones suffering, and be herself confined by sickness,
was almost too much to bear.
It was about this time they learned the death of their enemy, whose
elevation to power was the cause of their removal from Ava, and whose
purpose in sending them to Oung-pen-la, was indeed their destruction.
Suspected of high-treason, and of embezzling public money, he was
executed without a moments delay. Another officer was appointed to
command the army, but with far less sanguine expectations of success.
After his death, the prisoners were released from the prison, and
conducted to Ava. The cause of the change was soon evident. Mr. Judson
was wanted to act as interpreter between the Burmese government and the
advancing army of the British. For six weeks he was kept in Maloun,
steadily at work in translating, and suffering as much as when in prison
except that he was not in irons. Mrs. Judson, who had remained at Ava,
was seized soon after he left her with spotted fever of the most
malignant character. She lost her reason, and for a long time was
insensible to everything around her. But she records with lively
gratitude, that just before her senses left her, a Portuguese woman had
unexpectedly come and offered herself as nurse to her little daughter;
and about the same time, Dr. Price, being released from prison, visited
her. He represents her situation to have been the most distressing he
ever witnessed, and he had no idea she could survive many hours. At one
time a Burmese neighbor, who had come in with others to see her die,
said "She is dead; and if the King of angels were to come in, he could
not recover her." Her head was shaved, blisters were applied to it and
to her feet, and she gradually revived; although the fever having run
seventeen days, she was of course a long time in recovering.
While in this debilitated state, she learned through her servant that
his master had arrived in town, under the charge of several Burmans, and
that it was reported that he was to be sent back to the Oung-pen-la
prison. Being too weak to bear ill tidings, the shock had well nigh
destroyed her. When she had in some measure recovered her composure, she
sent Moung Ing to her old friend, the governor of the north gate,
begging him to make one more effort for Mr. Judson. Moung Ing then went
in search of 'the teacher,' and at length found him in an obscure
prison. Her feelings while he was gone, Mrs. Judson thus describes:
"If ever I felt the value and efficacy of prayer, I did at this time. I
could not rise from my couch; I could make no efforts to secure my
husband; I could only plead with that great and powerful Being who has
said, 'Call upon me in the day of trouble and _I will hear_, and thou
shalt glorify me;' and who made me at this time feel so powerfully this
promise, that I became quite composed, feeling assured that my prayers
would be answered."
She afterwards learned that as soon as Mr. Judson was found of no
farther use at Maloun as interpreter he was transferred without ceremony
to Ava, where happening to meet no one who knew him, he was ordered to
be taken whence he came, when he went to Maloun, viz: Oung-pen-la. But
at the instance of, Mrs. Judson's faithful messenger, Moung Ing, the
governor of the north gate presented a petition to the high court of the
empire, became security for Mr. J., obtained his release, took him to
his house, and removed Mrs. Judson thither also as soon as her health
permitted.
The English army, which had all along offered peace on condition of the
payment of a certain sum of money, offers which the Burmans had
constantly rejected, had now advanced so far as to threaten the golden
city itself. The Burmans were thus compelled to negotiate, and all their
negotiations from beginning to end, "were conducted by Drs. Judson and
Price, though they were often interrupted or entirely broken off by the
caprice and jealousy of the Burman monarch and his officers." The king
placing no confidence in the English, and having the most absurd ideas
of his power to force them to his own terms, sent messengers at every
stage of their advance to induce Sir Archibald Campbell to abate his
demands and alter his conditions. No pains was spared to fortify the
golden city, even while Dr. Price and other English prisoners were
engaged in the business of negotiation. Mrs. Judson had the pain of
seeing their house without beautiful enclosure of fruits and flowers,
entirely destroyed, to make a place for the erection of cannon.
A new message now arrived from Sir Archibald. No smaller sum than the
one stipulated, (about five million dollars) would be received, but it
might be paid at four different times; the first payment to be made
within twelve days, or the army would continue its march. In addition,
the prisoners were to be given up immediately. The king, who had learned
the value of Mr. Judson's services, declared that those foreigners who
were not English, were his people, and should not go. The missionaries
were ordered to go again to the English camp, to propose to them to take
a third of the money and give up their demand for the missionaries; and
threatened that if unsuccessful in their embassy, they and their
families should suffer.
Their situation was now truly perilous, for the Burman arrogance was at
this time heightened by the boast of one of their generals, that he
would so fortify the ancient city of Pugan, which lay in the route of
the British toward Ava, that they could never advance beyond it; and
that in fact he would destroy or drive them from the country. The
invincible English took the city, however, with perfect ease; and the
king being enraged that he had listened for a moment to the braggart,
and thus provoked the British officers, had him executed without
ceremony, and gave out that it was to punish him for violating his
command 'not to fight the English.' The same night, Dr. Price was sent
with part of the money, and some of the prisoners, but returned with the
alarming intelligence, that the general was angry, would not communicate
with him, and was marching upon Ava.
All was now confusion in the palace; gold and silver vessels were melted
up, and the money weighed out; and Mr. Judson was hurried into a boat,
and sent to the British camp. He was instructed by the English general
that every foreigner who _wished_ to leave the country, must be
permitted to go, or peace would not be made. The members of government
now had recourse to solicitation, and promised to make Mr. Judson a
great man if he would remain. To avoid the oduim of expressing a wish to
leave his majesty's service, he told them that Sir Archibald had ordered
that all who desired it, should go; that his wife had often expressed
that desire, that she therefore must be given up, and that he must
follow. The prisoners were then all released, and on a cool moonlight
evening, with hearts overflowing with gratitude and joy, they took their
passage down the Irrawady, bidding a final adieu to the scene of their
sufferings, the _golden_ city of Ava.
With what delight did they the next morning hail the sight of the
steamboat that was to conduct them to the British camp. "With what
unspeakable satisfaction did they again find themselves surrounded by
the comforts and refinements of civilized life." The kindness of General
Campbell was more like that of a father to his own family, than that of
a stranger to persons of another country. Indeed it was to him they owed
their final release from Ava, and the recovery of all their confiscated
property. Mrs. Judson thinks no people on earth were ever happier than
they were at that time; the very idea that they were free from Burman
treachery and tyranny, and under British protection, filling them with
gratitude and joy too exquisite for expression. "What shall we render to
the Lord for all his benefits to us," was the constant utterance of
their hearts. Peace was soon settled; they left the camp, and after an
absence of two years and three months were again in Rangoon.