We must turn to an important offshoot from the Serampore mission, which
assumed extensive proportions and a character of its own, chiefly in
consequence of American zeal. Here, be it observed, was the first ground
attempted by modern missions (not Roman Catholic) which belonged to an
independent sovereign.
The great Burmese Empire, roughly speaking, occupies the Eastern India
peninsula, being separated from that of Hindostan by the Brahmapootra
river. The mountainous formation of the country, its indented coast, and
numerous rivers render it fertile, and the hills contain many valuable
metals and beautiful precious stones.
The inhabitants are of the Mongolian race, short, stout, active, and
brown, with a good deal of ingenuity in arts and manufactures, but not
equal to the Chinese, their neighbours. Their language is monosyllabic,
their religion Buddhist, their government a despotic empire, and at the
time the mission was entered upon they had had little intercourse with
strangers, but their women were not secluded, were not wholly uneducated,
and were treated with consideration.
Buddha is regarded as a manifestation of Vishnu--the Hindoos say, to
delude his enemies; the Buddhists, to bring a new revelation. Gautama
was the almost deified being who spread the knowledge of Buddhism, about
500 B.C. In different countries the religion has assumed different
forms, but it is nearly co-extensive with the Mongolian race, and the
general features are the rejection of the Vedas and of most of the Hindoo
myths, faith in the divinity of Buddha, and hope that the individual
personality will be entirely absorbed in his essence, the human being
lost in the Deity. Five laws of virtue must be observed, ten kinds of
sin avoided; and the Buddhist expects that transgressions will be
punished by the transmigration of his soul into some inferior creature,
whence he will rise by successive stages into another trial as a man, and
gradually improving by the help of contemplation, and of a sublime state
of annihilation of all self-consciousness, may become fit for his final
absorption into the Godhead. There is an extensive priesthood, called
Lamas, who live in a state of celibacy in dwellings not at all unlike
monasteries; and, in effect, so much in their practices seems to parody
the ceremonies of Christianity that the Portuguese thought them invented
by the devil for the very purpose. However, there is no doubt that
Buddhism inculcates a much purer morality than the religion of Brahma,
and far higher aims. In Burmah, however, the idea of the eternity of the
Deity had evidently been lost, and Gautama had practically usurped the
place that the higher Buddhists gave to Brahma. Indeed, though the true
Buddhist system looks to the absorption in the Deity,--Nirvana, as it is
called,--the popular notion, as received in Burmah and corrupted by less
refined minds, made it into what was either absolute nonentity or could
not be distinguished from it, so that the ordinary Burman's best hope for
the future was of nothing but annihilation.
There was originally a Burman Empire, but it had become broken up, and
the territories of Ava, Pegu, and Siam were separated, though Ava claimed
them all, and owned a semi-barbarous magnificent court, with many
gradations of dignitaries, sending out Viceroys to the different
provinces and towns.
When in 1807 strong opposition was made by Sir George Barlow's government
to the landing of the two Baptist missionaries, Robinson and Chater, the
former obtained forbearance on account of his wife's health, but the
latter was obliged to embark; and, rather than return to England, he
chose a vessel bound for Rangoon, a city at the mouth of the river
Irrawaddy, the nearest Burmese harbour. His was to be a reconnoitring
expedition to discover the condition of the Burmese Empire, the progress
that Roman Catholic missions were making there, and the possibility of
undertaking anything from the centre of Serampore. Another missionary,
named Mardon, went with him. They were well received by the European
merchants resident at Rangoon, and returned with an encouraging report.
It was decided that the attempt should be made; and as Mr. Mardon did not
feel equal to the undertaking, fifteen days were set apart as a time of
private prayer for direction who should be chosen in his stead.
It was Felix Carey, then nearly twenty-two, who volunteered to go with
Mr. Chater, of whom he was very fond. His father was unwilling to send
him, not only on account of his youth, but because he was very valuable
in the printers' work, and had an unusual amount of acquaintance with
Sanskrit and Bengalee, so that he could hardly be spared from the
translations; but the majority of the council at Serampore were in favour
of his going, and after a long delay, in consequence of the danger
British trading vessels were incurring from French privateers from the
Isle of France, they set sail and arrived at Rangoon early in the year
1808.
There they built themselves a house, and obtained a good deal of favour
from the gentleness and amiability of Mr. Chater, and from young Carey's
usefulness. He had regularly studied medicine for some years in the
hospital at Calcutta, and his skill was soon in great request, especially
for vaccination, which he was the first to introduce. His real turn was,
however, for philology, and he was delighted to discover that the Pali,
the sacred and learned language of Burmah, was really a variety of the
Sanskrit, cut down into agreement with the Mongolian monosyllabic speech.
He began, with the assistance of a pundit, to compile a grammar, and to
make a rough beginning of a translation of the Scripture, a work indeed
in which the Serampore people were apt to be almost too precipitate, not
waiting for those refinements of knowledge which are needful in dealing
with the shades of meaning of words of such intense importance and
delicate significancy. But on their principles, they could do nothing
without vernacular Bibles, and they had not that intense reverence and
trained scholarly appreciation which made Martyn spend his life on the
correctness of a single version, rather than send it forth with a flaw to
give wrong impressions.
Neither does Felix Carey seem to have been a missionary in anything but
that bent which is given by training and family impulse. He delighted in
languages, but rather as an end than a means; and though he did what the
guiding fathers at Serampore required of him, it was as a matter of
course, not with his whole heart. In the meantime, the fact of Mr.
Chater being a married man occasioned difficulties. Like their kinsmen
the Chinese, the Burmese much objected to the residence of foreign
females within their bounds; and when Mr. Chater obtained leave to bring
his wife, she was so forlorn that he was obliged to seek for another
station, and, receiving an invitation to Ceylon, left Felix alone, except
for his marriage with a young woman of European extraction, but born in
Burmah.
Soon after a dispute arose between the British and Burmese governments,
and two English ships of war appeared off Rangoon. The native
authorities wished the young missionary to act as interpreter, and on his
refusal he was accused of being a spy, and was forced to take refuge on
board one of the British ships where he remained for two months before
the differences were adjusted, and he was allowed to return on condition
that he should not refuse his services as interpreter another time. In
the October of 1812 he came home to Serampore to print his Burmese
grammar and Gospel of St. Matthew, and not only did this, but carried a
press back with him to Rangoon. A youth who was sent from the
congregation at Calcutta to co-operate with him proved unfit for the
work, and was advised to return to secular business; but in the meantime,
the person who was, above all others, to be identified with the Burmese
mission, had heard the call and was on his way.
This was Adoniram Judson, a native of New England, the eldest son of the
minister of Malden, in Massachusetts, born in 1788, and bred up first at
a school near home, and afterwards at Brown University. His acuteness
and cleverness from infancy were great, especially in arithmetic and
mathematics. During his studies, he met with a clever and brilliant
friend who had imbibed the deistical teaching of the French Revolution,
and infected him with it, and he came home at seventeen the winner of all
the honours and prizes that the College afforded, but announcing himself
to his parents as a decided infidel! The pastor treated him with stern
displeasure, and argued hotly with him, but young Adoniram was the
cleverer man, and felt his advantage. His mother's tears and entreaties
were less easy to answer, and the thought of them dwelt with him, do what
he would, when he set out on a sort of tour through the surrounding
States. On his journey, he stopped at a country inn, and was told, with
much apology, that there was no choice but to give him a room next to
that of a young man who was so ill that he could scarcely live till
morning. In fact, Adoniram's rest was broken by the groans of the dying
man and the footsteps of the nurses, and there--close to the shadow of
death--his infidelity, which had been but pride of intellect and fashion,
began to quail, as the thought of the future haunted him. Morning came;
all was still. He asked after his fellow-lodger, and heard that he was
dead. He asked his name. It was no other than the very youth who had
staggered his faith.
The shock changed his whole tone. He could not bear to continue his
journey, but turned back to Plymouth, determined to prove to himself what
was indeed truth; and, while deeply studying the evidences of
Christianity, he supported himself by keeping a school and writing
educational books on grammar and arithmetic. His mind was soon
thoroughly made up, as, indeed, his aberrations had been only on the
surface, and he became very anxious to enter the Theological College at
Andover, Massachusetts. This belonged to the most earnest of the
Congregationalists, and evidence of personal conversion and piety was
required from the candidates; but, in his case, the professors were
satisfied, and he entered on his course of study, which included Hebrew.
In the last year of his studies there he fell in with Claudius Buchanan's
"Star in the East," and the perusal directed his whole soul to the desire
of missionary labour. His mind was harassed night and day with the
thought of longing to do something for the enlightenment of the millions
in Asia; and, meeting with Symes' "Burmese Empire," his thoughts turned
especially in that direction. It was a quiet steady purpose, though he
was slow of communicating it; until, one evening at home, his father
began throwing out hopes and hints of some great preferment, and his
mother and sister smiled complacently, as if they were in the secret.
Adoniram begged for an explanation, since it was possible their plans
might not coincide, to which his father replied there was no fear, and
told him that the minister of the biggest church in Boston wished for him
as a colleague. "So near home," said the delighted mother. He could not
bear to answer her, but, when his sister chimed in, he turned to her,
saying, "No, sister, I shall never live in Boston; I have much farther to
go;" and then, steadily and calmly, but fervidly, he set forth the call
that he felt to be upon him. How different a communication from that
which he had made two years before! No doubt his family so felt it, for,
though his mother and sister shed many tears, neither they nor his father
offered a word of opposition.
Thenceforth his fate was determined, and he began to prepare himself. He
was, in person, slightly made and delicate-looking, with an aquiline
face, dark eyes, and chesnut hair; and though his constitution must have
been immensely strong to have borne what he underwent, at this time he
was thought delicate; and therefore, with his one purpose before him, he
carefully studied physiology, and made himself a code of rules which he
obeyed to the end of his life, in especial inhaling large quantities of
air, sponging the whole body with cold water, and taking daily exercise
by walking. He was a man of great vivacity and acuteness, with the
poetical spirit that accompanies strong enthusiasm, and with a fastidious
delicacy and refinement in all personal matters, such as seemed rather to
mark him as destined to be an accomplished scholar than to lead the rude
life of a missionary; and Ann Hasseltine, the young lady on whom he had
fixed his affections, was a very beautiful girl, of great cultivation and
accomplishments, but they were alike in one other great respect,--namely,
in dauntless self-devotion. He began to talk of his purpose to the like-
minded among his college mates, and gradually gathered a few into a very
small missionary association, into which none were admitted who had any
duties that could forbid their going out to minister among the heathen.
At the same time, and partly through their means, a wider association was
formed, which had its centre at Bradford, and which finally decided on
sending Judson to England to endeavour to effect a union with the London
Missionary Society, which had been formed in 1795, in imitation of
Carey's Baptist Society, to work in other directions by Nonconformists of
other denominations.
The voyage in 1811, in the height of the continental war, was a very
perilous one. On the way the vessel was taken by the French and carried
into Bayonne, while the young American passenger was summarily thrown
into the hold with the common sailors. He became very ill, but, when the
French doctor visited him, he could hold no communication for want of a
common language. Then it was that there came thoughts of home, and of
the "biggest church in Boston," and a misgiving swept over him, which he
treated at once as a suggestion of the enemy, and betook himself to
prayer. Then, in the grey twilight of the hold, he felt about for his
Hebrew Bible; and to keep his mind fully absorbed, began mentally
rendering the Hebrew into Latin. When the doctor came in, he took up the
Bible, perceived that he had a scholar to deal with, began to talk Latin
to him, and arranged his release from the hold.
But on landing at Bayonne, he was marched through the streets as a
prisoner with the English crew. He began declaiming in his native
language on the injustice of detaining an American, and obtained his
purpose by attracting the attention of an American gentleman in the
street, who promised to do what he could for him, but advised him in the
meantime to proceed quietly. The whole party were thrown into a dismal
underground vault, and the stones covered with straw, which seemed to
Judson so foul that he could not bear to sit down on it, and he walked up
and down, though sick and giddy with the chill, close, noisome
atmosphere. Before his walking powers were exhausted, his American
friend was at the door, and saying, "Let me see whether I know any of
these poor fellows," took up the lamp, looked at them, said "No friend of
mine," and as he put down the lamp threw his own large cloak round Mr.
Judson, and grasping his arm, led him out under it in the dark; while a
fee, put into the hand, first of the turnkey and then of the porter, may
have secured that the four legs under the cloak should pass unobserved.
"Now run," said the American, as soon as they were outside, and he rushed
off to the wharf, closely followed by his young countryman, whom he
placed on board a vessel from their own country for the night.
Afterwards, Judson's papers were laid before the authorities, and he was
not only released, but allowed to travel through France to the northern
coast, and, making friends with some of the Emperor's suite on the way
home from Spain, travelled to Paris in an Imperial carriage. Afterwards,
he made his way to England, where he received a warm welcome from the
London Missionary Society, by which he and the three friends he had left
in America--Samuel Newell, Samuel Nott, and Gordon Hall--were accepted as
missionaries; but on Judson's return to America, he found that the
Congregationalist Mission Board there was able to undertake their
expenses, and accordingly they went out, salaried by their own country.
All four were dedicated to the ministry at Salem on the 6th of February,
1812, and immediately prepared to sail for the East Indies.
Judson, with his wife, the beautiful dark-eyed Ann Hasseltine, and his
friends Mr. and Mrs. Newell, also newly married, embarked in the
_Caravan_; Hall, Nott, and another college mate, named Luther Rice, were
in the _Harmony_. They were at once received at Serampore, on their
landing, in the June of 1812, but Dr. Carey's expectations of them were
not high. Adoniram and Ann Judson were both delicate, slender, refined-
looking people. "I have little hope from the Americans," he wrote; "if
they should stay in the East, American habits are too luxurious for a
preparation to live among savages." He little knew what were the
capabilities of Ann Judson, the first woman who worked effectively in the
cause, the first who rose above the level of being the comfort of her
husband in his domestic moments, and was an absolute and valuable
influence.
The opposition to the arrival of missionaries was at its height, and this
large batch so dismayed the Calcutta authorities that, declaring them
British subjects come round by America, they required their instant re-
embarkation. It was decided to go to the Isle of France, whence it was
hoped to find a French ship to take them to the aid of Felix Carey, but
the first vessel could only take the Newells, and the detention at
Serampore drew the Judsons and Rice into the full influence of Marshman's
powerful and earnest mind. Aware that they would have to work with the
Baptist mission, they had studied the tenets on the voyage, but found
when they arrived, that the points of difference were subjects that the
trio at Serampore did not choose to discuss, lest their work among the
heathen should suffer by attention to personal controversy. However,
their own thoughts and the influences of the place led them to desire
baptism by immersion; and this being done, they considered it due to the
Congregationalists, who had sent them out, to resign their claim on them
for support, though this left them destitute. It was decided that Rice
should go home and appeal for their support to the American Baptists, and
in this he thoroughly succeeded, while the Judsons, after sailing for
Mauritius, where they found poor Mrs. Newell recently dead, made their
way back to Madras, and there found a vessel bound for Rangoon. It was a
crazy old craft, with a Malay crew, no one but the captain able to speak
a word of English. The voyage was full of disaster. A good European
nurse, who had been engaged to go with Mrs. Judson, fell on the floor and
died suddenly, even while the ship was getting under weigh, too late to
supply her place. Mrs. Judson became dangerously ill, and the vessel was
driven into a perilous strait between the Great and Little Andaman
Islands, where the captain was not only out of his bearings, but believed
that, if he were driven ashore, the whole ship's company would be eaten
by the cannibal islanders. The alarm, however, acted as a tonic, and
Mrs. Judson began to recover.
They reached Rangoon in safety, but Judson writes: "We had never before
seen a place where European influence had not contributed to smooth and
soften the rough features of uncultivated nature. The prospect of
Rangoon, as we approached, was quite disheartening. I went on shore,
just at night, to take a view of the place and the mission-house, but so
dark and cheerless and unpromising did all things appear, that the
evening of that day, after my return to the ship, we have marked as the
most gloomy and distressing that we ever passed." The mission-house was
not quite empty, though Felix Carey, who they had hoped would welcome
them, was at Ava. When Mrs. Judson, still too weak to walk, was carried
ashore, she was received by his wife, who could speak Burmese, and
managed the household, providing daily dinners of fowls stewed with rice
or with cucumber.
It was, however, a dismal place, near the spot where public executions
took place, and where the dead were burnt outside the walls. And all
around, among the beautiful vegetation and lovely forests on the banks of
the broad Irrawaddy, rose the pagodas, graceful with the peculiar beauty
of the far East, with gilded lacquer-work, umbrella-shaped roofs spiring
upwards; huge idols with solemn contemplative faces within, and all
around swarms of yellow-robed, fat, lazy lamas.
The new comers meantime applied themselves to the study of the language,
after overcoming the disdain of their pundit at having to instruct a
woman. He could not speak English, and had neither grammar nor
dictionary, so that the difficulties were great; but the eager spirit of
the students overcame all, and they ventured to remove into town and keep
house themselves.
Mrs. Judson was taken to visit the wives of the Myowoon, or Viceroy of
Rangoon, by a French lady who had been admitted before. On their first
arrival the principal wife was not up, and the ladies waited, while the
inferior wives examined all they wore, and tried on their gloves and
bonnets; but when the great lady appeared, they all crouched together at
a distance. She came in richly attired, and smoking a silver pipe, and
sat down on a mat by Mrs. Judson, whom she viewed with much curiosity,
asking if she were her husband's first wife. The Myowoon came in looking
wild and savage, and carrying a huge spear in his hand; but he was very
polite to Mrs. Judson, though he took very little notice of her husband.
In fact the government was violent and barbarous. There were perpetual
murders and robberies, and these were punished by horrid executions,
accompanied by torture; yet the Burmese regarded themselves as superior
to all other nations, and were far from understanding how greatly they
fell short even of the requirements of Buddhism.
Felix Carey, meantime, had been requested by the king to vaccinate the
royal children; but he had to return to Calcutta to procure matter for
the purpose. He then visited Rangoon on his way back, and prepared to
carry up his family, property, and printing-press to Ava, with the hope
of forming a fresh station there, under royal patronage; but after ten
days' voyage, the vessel was capsized by a sudden storm, and all who
could not swim were drowned. Felix tried to rescue his little son of
three years old, but, finding himself sinking, he let the child go, and
saved himself alone.
Everything in the vessel was lost; but the king gave him compensation for
the property, and took him into high favour, sending him shortly after,
to conduct some negotiations with the British Government. He appeared at
Calcutta with the title and gorgeous dress of a Burmese noble, and showed
himself in the streets with a train of fifty followers. Old Dr. Carey
was seriously grieved at his thus "sinking from a missionary to an
ambassador;" and he was by no means successful in this new line; in fact
his negotiations turned out so ill, that on his return to Rangoon he was
obliged to fly the country. The excitement of his life had made
missionary labour distasteful to him, and, after strange wanderings in
the wild lands eastward of Bengal, he became prime minister and
generalissimo to a barbarous prince; and in that capacity led an army
against his old friends, the Burmese, sustained a defeat, and was forced
to wander in the jungle. After three years of this strange life, he fell
in by chance at Chittagong with Mr. Ward, and was by him persuaded to
return to the printing and philology, for which alone, like his father,
he really was well qualified. He lived at Serampore till 1822, and then
was carried off by the same sickly season that had proved fatal to
Krishnu-pal, who had been baptized with him, and to Bishop Middleton.
Meantime, Mr. and Mrs. Judson were working steadily on, and were greatly
cheered by the arrival of a much less barbarous viceroy, named Mya-day-
men. They were invited, with all the Europeans, to a banquet at the new
official's house, and Mrs. Judson was entertained by the wife, who
questioned her eagerly, and asked if she knew how to dance in the English
way; but was satisfied on hearing that the wives of priests did not
dance. As Buddhist priests are celibate, Mrs. Judson must have been
rather a puzzle to the good lady; and all this time the real work of the
mission had not commenced, for the preliminary operation of acquiring the
language had not been completed, and Judson was warned not to attempt
preaching till he was familiar with it, by Dr. Carey having told him that
after some years in Bengal, when he imagined himself to be freely able to
use the language, he had found from the remark of a young man, that he
was really not in the least understood. Private arguments with the
teachers was all that could be attempted, and in these there seems to
have been some forgetfulness of St. Paul's words, "Who art thou that
judgest another? To his own master he standeth or falleth;" since there
was a very free threatening that the souls of the pagans must be lost; to
which the pundits replied with true Eastern calmness, "Our religion is
good for us, yours for you." During this time of perseverance and
preparation, Mrs. Judson's health became so much affected that she was
forced to go to Madras. Heroine as she was, she would not consent to let
her husband break up his work to accompany her; but the solitude of her
absence fell on him most severely. She says, "He had no individual
Christian with whom he could converse or unite in prayer during the six
months of her absence;" but he worked on heartily, and she returned in
perfect health.
In the spring of 1816, the death of their first-born child was a great
shock to the father's health, which was already disordered; and he
continued in a declining state all through the summer. The Myowoon's
wife, whom Mrs. Judson conveniently calls the vice-reine, was very kind
to them, and took them on elephant-back to visit her country-house. The
way lay through the woods, between trees sometimes so thick that the
elephants broke them down, at the mahout's word, to make way. Thirty men
in red caps, with spears and guns, formed the guard; then came the vice-
reine's elephant, with a gilded howdah, where the lady sat dressed in red
and white silk; then the Judsons' animal, three or four more behind with
grandees, and 300 or 400 attendants followed. At a beautiful garden,
full of fruit trees, a feast was spread under a noble banyan, the vice-
reine causing the cloth next to her to be allotted to her guests, whom
she tended affectionately, gathering and paring fruit, cutting flowers
and weaving them for them, and, unlike the Hindoos, freely eating what
they handed her. This hospitable and amiable lady had just begun to ask
Mrs. Judson the difference between the Christians' God and Gautama, when
she was obliged to return to Ava.
For several months Mr. Judson's illness increased; but exercise on
horseback did much to relieve him, and the comfort and encouragement of
the arrival of a brother missionary, Mr. Hough, with his family, did
more. He weathered the attack without leaving his post, and in 1817 made
his first real step. A press had come out with Mr. Hough, and with it
two little tracts, summarizing the chief truths of Christianity, were
printed and distributed at Rangoon.
Shortly after, a respectable-looking Burmese, attended by a servant,
walked into Mr. Judson's house, and sat down. Presently he inquired,
"How long a time will it take me to learn the religion of JESUS?"
Mr. Judson answered, that where God gave light and wisdom, it was soon
learnt; but without, a whole lifetime would not teach a man. "But how,"
he asked, "came the wish for this knowledge?"
"I have seen two little books."
"And who is JESUS?" said the missionary.
"He is the Son of GOD, who, pitying human creatures, came into this world
and suffered death in their stead."
"Who is GOD?" continued Mr. Judson.
"He is a Being without beginning or end, who is not subject to old age or
death, but always is."
Mr. Judson showed him the two little books, which he recognized, but
begged for more. He did not attend much to what Judson tried to teach
him by word of mouth, but begged for book. The Gospel of St. Matthew was
in hand, but could not be finished for three months; and when he was told
this "Have you not a little of that book done, which you will graciously
give me now?" he asked. "And I," writes Judson, "beginning to think that
God's time was better than man's, folded and gave him the two first half-
sheets, which contain the first five chapters of St. Matthew, on which he
instantly rose, as if his business was done, and took leave."
It was long before they saw him again; though many other persons began
calling at the mission-house to inquire about what they called the new
religion; but all were so much afraid of one another, that no one would
ask any questions if a fellow-citizen were present. Mrs. Judson was also
getting together from fifteen to twenty women every Sunday, whom she
tried to instruct. One of them, like the Norseman of old, preferred
casting in her lot with her forefathers to a heaven separated from them;
and when Mrs. Judson told her they would reproach her with the rejection
of the truth they had never known, and that she would regret her folly
when it was too late, she answered, "If I do, I will cry out to you to be
my intercessor." Another combined prayers to our Lord and Gautama.
The vice-reine came back from Ava, and continued to be very kind to Mrs.
Judson, made her explain her doctrine, caused the little catechism to be
taught to her daughter, and accepted a copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew,
which was at length completed. This being finished, Mr. Judson, after
four years' study of the language, believed himself able to undertake
more public ministrations; but first went on a voyage to Chittagong,
where he hoped to find, among the Christian converts of Burmese speech,
one to assist him in communicating with the people.
Mrs. Judson remained with the Houghs, and had the pleasure of receiving
the Burmese inquirer, whose long absence had been occasioned by his being
appointed governor of some villages in Pegu. He said he was thinking and
reading in order to become a believer. "But I cannot yet destroy my old
mind, for, when I see a handsome patso, or a handsome gounboun, {f:130} I
still desire it. Tell the great teacher, when he returns, that I wish to
see him, though I am not a disciple of Christ." She gave him the rest of
St. Matthew, and a tract to each of his attendants, and he promised that,
if the great teacher would come and see him, he would collect his
villagers to hear the new doctrine preached. There was something very
attractive, meek, and unassuming about the man's whole appearance, and of
him there was much hope; but, just about this time great anxiety fell on
the mission party. The kindly Myowoon and his wife were removed, and
immediately after a summons was sent to Mr. Hough to appear at the court-
house of the city, with the intimation, "that, if he did not tell the
whole truth they would write it in his blood." He was kept all Friday
and Saturday answering, through an interpreter, foolish questions: who
were his father and mother, how many suits of clothes he had, and the
like; all which was formally written down. On the third day, Sunday,
Mrs. Judson, resolving to ascertain whether this were really done by the
command of the Myowoon, drew up a petition, which she carried herself.
She was graciously received, and it presently appeared that an order had
really been sent for the banishment of some Portuguese priests, and that
the petty officials of the Court had taken advantage of it to harass Mr.
Hough, in the hope of extracting a reward for his liberation.
At this time there was a terrible visitation of cholera, which the
Burmese attributed to evil spirits, and accordingly attempted to drive
away by force of noise. It was supposed that the evil spirits would take
refuge in any house that was silent, and for three whole nights cannon
were fired from the court-house, and every human creature used the utmost
powers nature or art afforded for producing a din. The mission party
were uninfected by the contagion, but it was a time of terrible anxiety,
for nothing had been heard of Mr. Judson or his ship for months; there
were reports of ill-feeling between the Burmese and British Governments,
no arrivals of English at Rangoon, and no intelligence. Mrs. Judson's
female classes had fallen off ever since Mr. Hough's summons, and the
state of things was such, that the Houghs decided on removing to Bengal.
Mrs. Judson, with her little girl, most reluctantly decided to accompany
them, but, just as the vessel in which they sailed had gone down the
river, she was ascertained not to be seaworthy; and, during this delay,
Mrs. Judson's fears of her husband's finding her gone, if he ever
returned to Rangoon, so increased, that she went back with her child to
the house, and, brave woman as she was, took up her abode there with the
native servants, trusting herself wholly to the protection of her God.
She was rewarded by her husband's arrival, after an absence of nine
months, caused by the captain of his ship having broken his engagement,
and carried him on to Madras, where he had been detained all this time
for want of a vessel to return in. The Houghs also came back, and two
young men from America soon after came out, full of zeal and activity,
but both fell ill very shortly afterwards, and the younger died, but his
fellow, Mr. Colman, became a valuable assistant.
This era, the spring of 1819, was the first great step in the Burmese
mission. Funds had been raised by the Baptist Society in America, which
were applied to the erection of a zayat or public room, with walls of
bamboo and a thatched roof. It had two rooms, one for a school for the
women, another for the men, who gladly learnt to read and write from Mrs.
Judson and a Burmese teacher. Here, too, Mr. Judson openly held prayers
and preaching on Sunday, and these attracted many, some of whom would
come in the week for private discussion.
The first real convert was a man of thirty-five, named Moung Nau, poor,
but of excellent character, and so intelligent, that he became a useful
assistant after his baptism, on the 27th of June, 1819. Others were
inquiring, among whom the most interesting was Moung Shwaygnong, a
schoolmaster or tutor by profession, at a village a little way from
Rangoon, and already a philosopher, "half deist, half sceptic, the first
of the sort I have seen among the Burmans" (our quotations are from Mr.
Judson's journal), who, however, worshipped at the pagodas, and conformed
to national observances. The second time he came the conversation seemed
to have made "no impression on his proud sceptical heart, yet he promised
to pray to the eternal God, through the Saviour." It appeared that,
about eight years previously, it had come before him that there is indeed
One Eternal God, and that this thought had been working in him ever
since. A copy of Mr. Judson's tract which fell in his way chimed in with
this primary belief, and next came the question of the Scripture
revelation, which he argued over with much metaphysical power and
acuteness, being a very powerful reasoner, and well trained in the
literature of his own country. Meantime three simpler minds--Moung
Thaahlah, Moung Byaay, and Moung Ing--had been thoroughly convinced, and,
though aware that they would expose themselves to considerable danger,
resolved to become Christians.
The Viceroy had remarked the zayat, and notice was taken that men were
there led "to forsake the religion of the country." The alarm cleared
the zayat of all the audience, and emptied Mrs. Judson's class of women,
but Thaahlah {f:133} and Byaay sent in a letter, entreating to be
admitted to baptism, and Ing would have followed their example, but that
his trade as a fisherman carried him off to sea. They begged not to be
baptized openly, as Nau had been, in a piece of water near the town and
presided over by an image of Gautama; and Mr. Judson yielded so far, that
he conducted the preliminary devotions in the zayat, and baptized them in
the same pool two hours after dark. Shwaygnong had in the meantime taken
alarm at being interrogated by the Government, had apologized, and
apparently fallen away; but he could not keep aloof, and soon came back
again. After a good deal of fencing and putting forth metaphysical
cavils, he allowed that it was all for the sake of experiment, and
declared that he really believed both in God and in the Atonement.
"Said I," writes Mr. Judson, "knowing his deistical weakness, do you
believe all that is contained in the book of St. Matthew which I gave
you? In particular, do you believe that the Son of God died on a cross?"
"Ah!" he replied, "you have caught me now. I believe that He suffered
death, but I cannot admit that He suffered the shameful death of the
cross."
"Therefore," said I, "you are not a disciple of Christ. A true disciple
inquires not whether a fact is agreeable to his own reason, but whether
it is in the Book. His pride has yielded to Divine testimony. Teacher,
your pride is unbroken. Break down your pride, and yield to the Word of
God."
He stopped and thought. "As you utter these words," said he, "I see my
error. I have been trusting in my own reason, not in the Word of God."
Some interruption now occurred. When we were again alone, he said, "This
day is different from all the days on which I have visited you. I see my
error in trusting to my own reason, and I now believe the Crucifixion of
Christ, because it is contained in the Scripture."
The profession of Christianity had become more perilous since the
Judsons' arrival in Burmah. The old Emperor had died in 1819, and had
been succeeded by his grandson, who was far more zealous for Buddhism
than he had been, and who had appointed a viceroy at Rangoon, very minute
in exacting observances--so much so, as to put forth an edict forbidding
any person with hat, shoes, umbrella, or horse, to pass through the
grounds belonging to the great pagoda, Shwaay Dagon, which extended half
a mile from the building, and were crossed by all the chief roads. At
the same time, he was new gilding the pagoda, a specially sacred one, as
containing some bits of hair of Gautama.
It was plain that the mission had little chance of succeeding, unless
some sanction could be obtained from royalty; and Mr. Judson therefore
determined to go to Ava and petition the Emperor to grant him permission
to teach at Rangoon. So he obtained a pass from the Viceroy "to go up to
the golden feet, and lift up our eyes to the golden face," and hired a
boat to take him and Mr. Colman, with ten oarsmen, a headman, a
steersman, a washerman, and two cooks, of whom Moung Nau was one. They
had invited Shwaygnong to accompany them, but he refused, though he
appeared waving his hand to them on the bank as they pushed off from the
land. They took with them, as the most appropriate present, a Bible,
bound in six volumes, in gold leaf, intending to ask permission to
translate it.
They arrived at Ava on the 28th of January, 1820, and beheld the gilded
roofs of the pagodas and palace. Two English residents welcomed them,
and Mya-day-men, the Viceroy who had been their friend at Rangoon,
undertook to present them to the Emperor.
They were taken to the palace, and were explaining their wishes to the
Prime Minister, Moung Zah, when it was announced that "the golden foot
was about to advance," and he had to hasten to attend the Emperor. The
dome whither the missionaries followed him was dazzling with splendour,
very lofty, and supported on pillars entirely covered with gold, and
forming long avenues, through one of which the Emperor advanced alone,
with the proud gait and majesty of an Eastern monarch, with a
gold-sheathed sword in his hand. Every one prostrated his forehead in
the dust except the two Americans, who merely knelt with folded hands. He
paused before them, and demanded who they were.
"The teachers, great king," replied Mr. Judson.
"What? You speak Burmese--the priests that I heard of last night? When
did you arrive? Are you like the Portuguese priests? Are you married?"
and so on, he asked; then placing himself on a high seat, with his hand
on the hilt of his sword, he listened to the petition read aloud by Moung
Zah. He then held out his hand for it; Moung Zah crawled forward and
gave it; the Emperor read it through to himself, and held out his hand
for the little tract which was handed to him in like manner. The hearts
of the missionaries throbbed with hope and prayer; but, after reading the
two first sentences, the Emperor threw it from him, and when the gift was
presented would not notice it. The answer communicated through Moung Zah
was: "In regard to the objects of your petition, his Majesty gives no
order. In regard to your sacred books, his Majesty has no use for them;
take them away." Something was said of Colman's skill in medicine; upon
which the Emperor desired that both should be taken to the Portuguese
priest, who acted as his physician, to ascertain whether they could be
useful in that line, and then lay down on his cushions to listen to
music.
They were taken two miles to the residence of the Portuguese, who of
course perceived that they brought no wonderful secret of medicine, and
then returned to their boat. They afterwards saw Moung Zah in private,
and heard that the Burmese laws tolerated foreign religions, but that
there was no security for natives who embraced them, and that it was an
unpardonable offence even to propose it. The English collector went to
the Emperor, but could obtain nothing from him but permission for them to
return to Rangoon, where they might find some of their countrymen to
teach. There was no actual prohibition against teaching Burmese
subjects, but there was no security that the converts would not be
persecuted; and the collector told them that fifteen years previously a
Burmese teacher who had been converted by the Portuguese, and had even
visited Rome, was denounced on his return by his nephew and commanded to
recant. On his refusal, he was tortured with the iron mall--hammered,
namely, from his feet upwards till he was all one livid wound as far as
his breast, pronouncing the name of Christ at every blow. Some persons
at last told the Emperor that he was a mere madman, on which he was
spared, and the Portuguese contrived to send him away to Bengal, where he
died. The nephew was high in the favour of the present Sovereign, who
was besides far more attached than his grandfather had ever been to the
Buddhist doctrine. Only four Portuguese clergy were in the country, and
they confined themselves to ministrations to the descendants of the
converts of the old Jesuit mission, instead of attempting to extend their
Church. Nothing was to be done but to return to Rangoon, and for this a
passport was necessary, the obtaining of which cost thirty dollars in
presents. Mr. Judson was advised also to procure a royal order for
personal protection, otherwise, when it became known that the royal
patronage had been refused, he might be molested by ill-disposed persons;
but finding that this would be exceedingly costly, he preferred "trusting
in the Lord to keep us and our poor disciples."
It was encouraging that at Pyece, a place on the banks of the Irrawaddy,
the missionaries met Shwaygnong, who had come thither to visit a sick
friend, and came on board eagerly to know the result of their journey.
They told him all, even of the good confession beneath the iron mall, and
he seemed less affected and intimidated than they expected, though he had
nearly made up his mind to cast in his lot with them. "If I die, I shall
die in a good cause," he said. "I know it is the cause of truth." And
then he repeated his actual faith: "I believe in the Eternal God, in His
Son Jesus Christ, in the Atonement which Christ has made, and in the
writings of the Apostles as the true and one Word of God." He also said
he had never, since their last conversation, lifted up his folded hands
before a pagoda, though on the day of worship, to avoid persecution, he
would walk up one side of the building and down the other. To this Mr.
Judson replied, "You may be a disciple of Christ in heart, but you are
not a full disciple. You have not faith and resolution enough to keep
all the commands of Christ, particularly that which commands you to be
baptized though in the face of persecution and death. Consider the words
of JESUS--'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.'"
He listened in profound silence, and with the manner with which he always
received what he considered deeply; but there was still a long struggle
to come, and many fluctuations, and the simpler minds were the stay and
comfort of the missionaries, when on their return to Rangoon they
considered what steps to take. Their first proposal was to move to a
district between Bengal and Arracan, where were several Christian natives
now destitute of a pastor, and where the language was very like Burmese,
though the place was beyond the power of the Emperor, and to take their
three baptized converts with them. Nau and Thaahlah were ready to follow
them everywhere, but Byaay was married, and no Burmese woman was allowed
to leave the country. He, with several others who were on the point of
conversion, entreated the missionaries not to leave them, and Thaahlah
made a remarkable speech. "Be it remembered," he said, "that this work
is not yours or ours, but the work of God. If He give light, the
religion will spread."
It was decided, according to the earnest wish of these poor people, that
they should not be deserted till there were enough of them to form a
congregation and have a teacher from among themselves set over them, and
this--as the sect to which the Judsons belonged has no form of setting
apart for the ministry--was all that they regarded as requisite. The
Arracan converts were not, however, to be neglected, and Mr. Colman
therefore was to go to Chittagong, and there establish a station, which
might receive those from Rangoon in case it should become needful to
leave the place. He was doing well there, when he died from an attack of
fever.
The Judsons remained, and held their worship in the zayat on Sunday with
the doors closed and only the initiated present; but it seemed as if the
fear of losing their teachers quickened the zeal of the Christian
converts in bringing their friends to inquire. Shwaygnong had long been
unconsciously preparing the way by his philosophical instructions, going
so much deeper than the popular Buddhism, and he brought several of his
pupils, both male and female, telling them that "he had found the true
wisdom;" but he still hung back. {f:137} Mr. Judson suspected him of
wanting a companion of his own rank to keep him in countenance, and
doubted whether it were fear of the world or pride of heart that kept him
back; but he seems to have had a genuine battle with his own sceptical
spirit, and the acceptance of such ordinances as the Baptists required
was a difficulty to him. Four or five later converts were baptized
before him, and at last he kept away from the mission for so long that
Mr. Judson thought they had lost him; but when he reappeared it turned
out that he had been ill with fever, and had had much sickness in his
family, and had meantime fought out his mental conflict, and made up his
mind to the full acceptance of Christianity at all risks.
He came again with five disciples, one of them a woman of fifty-one years
old, named Mah-menlay, with her husband, all formally requesting baptism;
but Mr. Judson was not sufficiently satisfied of the earnestness of any
to receive them at once, excepting Shwaygnong himself, whom Mr. Judson
kept till evening; and then, after reading the history of St. Philip's
baptism of the Ethiopian, and praying, led him down to the water in the
woods and baptized him, like others, in the pool, by the light of the
stars in the tropical night. That same night Mah-menlay came back,
entreating so earnestly for baptism, that she, too, was led down to the
water and baptized. "Now," she said, "I have taken the oath of
allegiance to JESUS CHRIST, and I have nothing to do but to commit
myself, soul and body, to the hands of my Lord, assured that He will
never suffer me to fall away."
This was the last thing before the Judsons embarked for Serampore, a
journey necessitated by a severe attack of liver complaint, from which
Mrs. Judson had long been suffering and their little girl had also died.
To these devoted people a visit to Calcutta was a change for the sake of
health! On their return, after half a year's absence, the first thing
they heard was that their kind friend Mya-day-men had come as Myowoon to
Rangoon, and they were met on the wharf by all their disciples, led by
Shwaygnong, in a state of rapture. They found that such as had lived in
the yard of the mission had been subjected to a petty official
persecution, which had made them fly to the woods; but that the good Mya-
day-men had refused to hear an accusation brought against Moung
Shwaygnong by the lamas and officials of the village, who had him before
the tribunal, accusing him of trying "to turn the priest's rice-pot
bottom upwards."
"What matters it," said the Myowoon; "let the priests turn it back
again."
This was enough to ensure the safety of the Christians during his
viceroyalty, though at first he paid little attention to Mr. Judson,
being absorbed in grief for the death of his favourite daughter, one of
the wives of the Emperor. She does not seem to have been the child of
the amiable Vice-reine, or, as her title had now become,
Woon-gyee-gaadaw, who had been promoted to the right of riding in a
_wau_, a vehicle carried by forty or fifty men, but who had not forgotten
Mrs. Judson, and received her affectionately.
There were now twenty-five disciples. Ing likewise joined them having
returned from his voyage, and was shortly after baptized. Mah-menlay
opened a school for little girls, and Shwaygnong was regularly engaged by
Mr. Judson to revise his translation of the Epistle to the Ephesians and
the first part of the Book of Acts, before they were printed. Another
remarkable man came to study the subject, Moung Long, a philosopher of
the most metaphysical kind, whose domestic conversations with his wife
were reported to be of this description.--The wife would tell him, "The
rice is ready."
"Rice! what is rice? Is it matter or spirit? Is it an idea or a
nonentity?"
If she answered, "It is matter," he would reply, "And what is matter? Are
you sure there is such a thing in existence, or are you merely subject to
a delusion of the senses?"
Mr. Judson was struck with the expression of this man's one eye, which
had "as great a quantity of being as half-a-dozen common eyes." After
the first exposition of the Christian doctrine, the philosopher began
with extreme suavity and politeness: "Your lordship says that in the
beginning God created one man and one woman. I do not understand (I beg
your lordship's pardon) what a man is, and why he is called a man."
Mr. Judson does not record his own line of argument, only that the
Buddhist sceptic was foiled, and Shwaygnong, who had often argued with
him, was delighted to see his old adversary posed. He came again and
again, and so did his wife, the ablest woman whom Mrs. Judson had met,
asking questions on the possibility of sin finding entrance to a pure
mind, and they were soon promising catechumens; but in the midst of all
this hopefulness, a season of cholera and fever set in, both the Judsons
were taken ill at the same time, and could not even help one another, and
the effect on Ann's health was such that, as the only means of saving her
life, she was sent off at once to England, while her husband remained at
his post quite alone, for Colman had died a martyr to the climate.
She was warmly welcomed by the Missionary Societies in London and
Edinburgh, and thence returned to America, where her mother and sisters
were still living to hail her return. Her narratives, backed by her
natural sweetness, eloquence and beauty, had a great effect in stirring
up the mission spirit among both her countrymen and countrywomen, and
there was no lack of recruits willing to return with her and share her
toil.
The account of Colman's devotion and death had had an especial effect
upon a young girl named Sarah Hall, of Salem, Massachusetts, one of those
natures that seem peculiarly gifted with poetic enthusiasm, yet able to
stand the brunt of the severest test of practice. She was the daughter
of one of those old-fashioned New England families, where a considerable
amount of prosperity and a good deal of mental culture is compatible with
much personal homely exertion. As the eldest of thirteen, Sarah had to
work hard, but all the time she kept a prim little journal, recording, at
an age when one is surprised to see her able to write at all, that her
mother is too busy to let her go to school, and she must improve herself
at home; and this she really did, for her notes, as she grew older, speak
of studying Butler's Analogy, Paley's Evidences, logic, geometry, and
Latin. Her library of poetry is said to have consisted only of Thomson's
Castle of Indolence, and Macpherson's Ossian; but hymns must have filled
her ear with the ring of rhyme, for she was continually versifying,
sometimes passages of Scripture, sometimes Ossian, long before she was
halfway through her teens. Very foolish, sing-song, emotional specimens
they are, but notable as showing the bent of nature that forms itself
into heroism. Her family were Baptists, and she was sixteen when the
sense of religion came on her so strongly as to lead her to seek baptism.
Remarkably enough, the thought of the ignorance of the heathen, and the
desire to teach them, began to haunt her from that time, and is recorded
in the last page of her childish journal, dated a month later than her
baptism.
In fact, her zeal seems to have been pretty strong towards the persons
around her. While staying at a friend's house, she found a pack of cards
left by a young man on the table, and wrote on it the text beginning,
"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth," &c. Hearing that
the owner was very curious to know the perpetrator, she wrote down this
verse for him:
"And wouldst thou know what friend sincere
Reminds thee of thy day of doom?
Repress the wish, yet thou mayst hear
She shed for thee a pitying tear,
For thine are paths of gloom."
She also says that she had been for six weeks engaged, with the
assistance of a gentleman, in working out proofs of the immortality of
the soul, apart from those in Scripture. She had prayer-meetings for her
young friends in her own room, and distributed tracts in the town, while
still acting at home, as her mother's right hand, among her little
brothers and sisters.
But her vocation she felt to be for missionary life. At one time she
thought of joining a mission to the Red Indians, and her verses were full
of the subject. Her ode on Colman's death expressed the feeling of her
soul in the verse:
"The spirit of love from on high
The hearts of the righteous hath fired;
Lo! they come, and with transport they cry,
'We will go where our brother expired,
And labour and die.'"
The words fall sadly short of the feeling,--a very real one, but the ode
not only satisfied Sarah's critics and obtained circulation, but it fired
the heart of George Dana Boardman, a young student at Waterville College,
intended for the Baptist ministry; and he never rested till he had found
out the authoress, met her, and asked her to be his partner in "labouring
and dying," as Colman had done before them.
There was no illusion in her mind; she knew her task would be full of
toil and suffering; but her feeling was the desire to devote her whole
self to the work of the Redeemer, who had done so much for her. Mr. and
Mrs. Hall were at first reluctant, but after a time heartily consented,
and she was introduced to Mrs. Judson as a future companion in her toils.
With very questionable taste, some of her friends insisted on her reading
her own elegy on Colman, aloud, before a whole circle of friends that
they might see Mrs. Judson listen to it. Blushes and refusals were of no
avail; she was dragged out, and the paper thrust into her hand; she
began, faltering, but as she proceeded the strong purpose of her soul
inspired her, and she ended with firmness and enthusiasm--but was so
overpowered that, without daring to look up and see that Mrs. Judson's
eyes were overflowing, she crept away to hide in a corner the burning
tears on her own cheeks. Twenty years after she spoke of it as one of
the most painful moments of her life.
At first it had been proposed that Mr. Boardman and Sarah should
accompany Mrs. Judson on her return, but it was thought better that he
should spend a little more time on his studies, and Ann Judson therefore
sailed in 1823, with Mr. and Mrs. Wade as her companions.
In the meantime Judson himself had been going on with his work at
Rangoon, among many troubles.
Another accusation was drawn up by the lamas against Shwaygnong, and the
Viceroy, on reading it, pronounced him worthy of death; but before he
could be arrested, he took boat, came down to the mission-house with his
family, obtained a supply of tracts and portions of Scripture, and then
secretly fled up the river to a town named Shway-doung, where he began to
argue and distribute the tracts. So little regular communication was
there between different places in Burmah, that this could be done with
comparative safety; but the accusation and his flight created so much
alarm at Rangoon, that Mr. Judson had to shut up the zayat, and only
assemble his converts in the mission-house. They suffered another loss
in Moung Thaahlah, their second convert, who died of cholera, after
nineteen hours' illness. He had seven months before married a young
Christian woman, this being the first Burmese Christian wedding; and as
he was a youth of much promise and good education, he was a serious loss
to the mission. All this time Mr. Judson was alone, until the arrival of
Jonathan Price, who had wisely qualified himself to act as a physician,
and no sooner did a report of his skill reach Ava, than the King sent for
him; and as he had no time to learn the language, Judson went with him as
interpreter. Dr. Price says, "The King is a man of small stature, very
straight, steps with a natural air of superiority, but has not the least
appearance of it in conversation. He wears a red, finely-striped silk
cloth from his waist to his knees, and a blue-and-white handkerchief on
his head. He has apparently the good of his people as well as the glory
of his kingdom at heart, and is encouraging foreign merchants, and
especially artisans to settle in his capital. A watchmaker at this
moment could obtain any favour he should please to ask."
As soon as the missionaries arrived, he sent for them and received them
in an open court, where they were seated on a bamboo floor about ten feet
from his chair. He took no notice of Judson, except as an interpreter,
but interrogated Price as to his skill in surgery, sent for his
medicines, looked at them and at his instrument, and was greatly amused
with his galvanic battery; he then dismissed them with orders to choose a
spot on which a house should be built for them, and to look up the
diseased to try Price's skill upon.
Moung Zah, the former minister, recognized Judson kindly, and after a
time the King took notice of him: "You in black, what are you, a medical
man too?"
"Not a medical man, but a teacher of religion, your Majesty."
After a few questions about his religion the King proceeded to ask
whether any Burmese had embraced it.
"Not here," diplomatically said Judson.
"Are there any in Rangoon?"
"There are a few."
"Are they foreigners?"
Mr. Judson says he trembled for the consequences of an answer, but the
truth must be spoken at all risks, and he replied, "Some foreigners and
some Burmese."
The King showed no displeasure, but asked questions on religion,
geography, and astronomy, as though his temper was quite changed. His
brother, a fine young man of twenty-eight, who suffered from paralysis,
became a patient of Dr. Price, and had much conversation with Judson,
showing great eagerness for instruction. He assured the missionaries
that under the present reign there was no danger to the native
Christians, and after a successful operation for cataract, performed by
Dr. Price, the missionaries were so much in favour that while Price
remained at Ava and there married a native lady, Judson was desired only
to go back to Rangoon to meet his wife on her return, and bring her to
reside at Ava.
Their good and tolerant friend, the Viceroy, was dead, and his successor
was a severe and unjust man, so that the people had fled in numbers from
the place, and few Christians remained except at Moung Shwaygnong's
village. There was thus the less to leave, when in December 1823 Mrs.
Judson safely arrived, and two fresh missionaries with her, to whom the
flock at Rangoon could be left. There is a most happy letter written on
the voyage up the Irrawaddy to Ava, when it seemed as though all the
troubles and difficulties of four years had been smoothed away. The
mission had been kindly welcomed at Ava, and established in the promised
house, when the first of the English wars with Burmah broke out, on
grounds on which it is needless to enter. It is enough to say that after
many mutual offences, Sir Archibald Campbell, with a fleet and army,
entered Rangoon, and occupied it without resistance, the Viceroy being
absent at the time.
The Court of Ava were exceedingly amazed at the insolence of the
foreigners. An army supposed to be irresistible was sent off, dancing
and singing, in boats down the river, and all the fear was lest the alarm
should drive away the white strangers with the "cock-feather chief"
before there was time to catch any for slaves. A lady sent a commission
for four to manage the affairs of her household, as she heard they were
trustworthy; a courtier, for six to row his boat.