WWHOW A V*
 
 PREAT MISSIONARIES 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. CHARLES C. CREEGAN, D.D. 
 
 . AND 
 
 MRS. JOSEPHINE A. B. GOOD.'.OW 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THB 
 
 REV. FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR 
 
 UKIAH PUBLIC LIBRARt 
 
 Cf< 
 
 PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH 
 
 BIGHAM & SMITH, AGENTS 
 NASHVILLE, TENN., AND DALLAS, TEXAS
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1895, 
 BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY. 
 
 TYPOGRAPHY BY C. J. PETERS & SON, 
 BOSTON.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE admirable Introduction to this vol- 
 ume, from the pen of my friend, the Rev. 
 Francis E. Clark, D.D., makes a formal 
 preface unnecessary. I wish, however, to 
 acknowledge the kindness of those who 
 have made this book possible by their 
 timely aid. 
 
 My best thanks are due to the proprie- 
 tors of that excellent Christian paper, The 
 Congregationalist t in whose columns eight 
 of these sketches have already appeared, 
 for permission to republish them, together 
 with fifteen others, in permanent form. As 
 a fitting recognition of the invaluable aid I 
 have received from Mrs. Josephine A. B. 
 Goodnow of Dubuque, Iowa, her name 
 has been placed on the title page.
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 I have also received valuable assistance 
 in the matter of data, and in other ways, 
 from Mrs. Mary E. Logan, late missionary 
 in Micronesia; Miss Clementine Butler, 
 Newton Centre, Mass. ; the Rev. James 
 Mudge, Lowell, Mass., late associate of 
 Bishop Thoburn in India ; the Rev. Ross 
 Taylor, New York ; and Mr. James D. 
 Creegan of Brooklyn. 
 
 I wish also to acknowledge many cour- 
 tesies from the publishers at whose sug- 
 gestion the book has been prepared, and 
 who have, through their artistic and me- 
 chanical work, left nothing to be desired. 
 
 The reader will miss the names of some 
 famous missionaries of this century; but 
 the plan of the book will be seen, when it 
 is observed that we have representatives 
 from seven denominations and sixteen mis- 
 sion lands. To include all the missionary 
 heroes of our time would require several 
 volumes,
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 If these sketches help to deepen sym- 
 pathy for missions, and to increase gifts to 
 the cause, and if they may be the means of 
 leading some of our young people to 
 follow the example of these noble men, 
 who have given their all to build up 
 Christ's Kingdom, they will have fully an- 
 swered the purpose for which they are now 
 sent forth. 
 
 c. c. c. 
 
 BIBLE HOUSE, NEW YORK, 
 May 10, 1895.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I CAN scarcely conceive of a more useful ^ 
 book for young people to own and study ** 
 than this most interesting volume of mis- 
 sionary biography. 
 
 If it is a vitally necessary thing for 
 young Christians who would develop the 
 most intelligent type of religious character 
 to know the lives of the apostles of old, 
 and to become familiar with their acts as 
 recorded by the pen of inspiration, it is 
 scarcely less important that they should 
 study the later and no less thrilling acts of 
 later apostles of the church. 
 
 In this volume the acts of the apostles 
 are continued in graphic and interesting 
 chapters. Young people everywhere, what- 
 ever their age or sex (for there is many a 
 young man and woman with heart fresh
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and unfurrowed, though the brow may be 
 wrinkled by three-score years and ten), 
 enjoy stirring adventures, lively incidents, 
 and heroic stories. 
 
 No less interesting to every healthy 
 mind is a well-written biograghy, a story 
 which tells of the actual hopes and fears 
 and joys and acts of a living man. This 
 volume combines the excellences of the 
 spirited story of adventure, and the graphic 
 biography of real men and women. What 
 more happy combination could be found? 
 The biography in almost every case is a 
 story of adventure ; the story of adventure 
 is a biography a life history of some 
 great man or woman. 
 
 After having taken a long journey 
 through many missionary lands, my delib- 
 erate and often recorded opinion has been 
 that, if we seek for heroes to-day, we will 
 find them, for the most part, on missionary 
 soil. Not that many a humble, inconspicu- 
 ous life is not lived most heroically at 
 home. I would not belittle with a single 
 adjective of faint praise the splendid devo-
 
 INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 tion of humble Christians. But if we are 
 speaking of conspicuous heroism, of lives 
 which God has marked as eminent exam- 
 ples to the world, we must look for them 
 very largely on the frontier of our own 
 land where our home missionaries have 
 gone, or in the dark nations of the world 
 to which our foreign missionaries are carry- 
 ing the light of gospel truth. 
 
 I am glad to record again that mission- 
 ary work in all the various Protestant 
 denominations, in all parts of the world, 
 is, in my eyes, the most promising and 
 hopeful feature of modern civilization. 
 For the enlargement of commerce, for the 
 spread of civilization, for the uplifting of 
 humanity, for the redemption of the world, 
 there is no such force as that which is 
 exerted by the Anglo-Saxon missionaries 
 of the cross, the ministers of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 If this opinion is true of the average 
 missionary to-day, at work in the foreign 
 field, and I believe it is, how doubly true 
 is it of the great missionaries of the
 
 Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 church, Patteson and Carey and Nee-,ima 
 and Williams and Taylor and Livingstone. 
 
 It only remains to be said that this most 
 interesting subject is treated by its authors 
 in a way worthy of their theme. With this 
 book in his hands, no one can say that mis- 
 sionary biography is dull, stale, and unin- 
 teresting. No one will yawn over insipid 
 pages, or read only from a sense of duty 
 these charming chapters. If more light 
 and more knowledge are the great pre- 
 requisites for larger interests and larger 
 gifts, then I believe that this volume will 
 do not a little to kindle to a brighter flame 
 the interest of Christians in missionary 
 themes. 
 
 Already the fire has begun to blaze in 
 many a young heart. In a multitude of 
 young people's conventions no theme to- 
 day is so interesting as the missionary 
 theme. No subjects so stir the hearts 
 and quicken the pulses of a host of young 
 disciples as those connected with the win- 
 ning of the world to Christ. This book 
 will supply the fire of enthusiasri with the
 
 INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 one fuel that is needed the fuel of in- 
 formation. 
 
 If this result is accomplished, then the 
 missionary treasuries will feel the influ- 
 ence of this book. To some extent the 
 mountainous debt should be scaled down, 
 and the treasuries, refilled as this volume 
 goes from family to family on its blessed 
 mission of information and inspiration. 
 
 FRANCIS E. CLARK. 
 BOSTON, April 8, 1895.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PREFACE v 
 
 INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 WILLIAM CAREY, 
 
 Missionary to India 3 
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA, 
 
 Missionary to Japan 17 
 
 WILLIAM BUTLER, 
 
 Missionary to India and Mexico ...... 37 
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSON, 
 
 Missionary to Burma 53 
 
 JOHN G. PATON, 
 
 Missionary to the New Hebrides , 71 
 
 ALEXANDER M. MACKAY, 
 
 Missionary to Uganda , . . . 91 
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT, 
 
 Missionary to Africa 109 
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D., 
 
 Missionary to Oregon 129 
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE, 
 
 Missionary and Explorer in Africa 157 
 
 xv
 
 TO 
 
 ffouttjj people of ur 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
 
 WILLIAM CAREY, 
 
 Missionary to India. 
 BORN AUG. 17, 1761; DIED JUNE 9, 1834.
 
 . 
 
 WILLIAM CAREY. 
 
 
 WILLIAM CAREY, " the father and founder 
 of modern missions," was born at Paulers- 
 bury, Northamptonshire, Eng., Aug. 17, 
 1761. It is believed that his early ances- 
 tors were of considerable social prominence ; 
 yet at the time of his birth his father, Ed- 
 mund Carey, was a journeyman weaver 
 with a moderate income; but in 1767 he 
 obtained the twofold office of schoolmaster 
 and parish clerk. 
 
 William was taught by his father, and 
 soon began an eager pursuit for knowl- 
 edge, books of science, history, and travel 
 being of especial interest to him. When 
 very young he had great fondness for 
 botany, and many were the specimens 
 he brought home as a result of quests 
 amongst the lanes and haunts of Whittle- 
 3 

 
 4 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 bury Forests. Physical ailments unfitted 
 him for outdoor occupations ; and at the 
 age of seventeen he was apprenticed to 
 a shoemaker, and thus linked, says Dr. 
 George Smith, to a succession of scholars 
 and divines, poets and critics, reformers 
 and philanthropists, who have used the 
 shoemaker's life to become illustrious. 
 
 A revolution took place in William Ca- 
 rey's life at his eighteenth year. Though 
 brought up as a strict Churchman, as be- 
 came the son of the parish clerk, he had 
 fallen, through association with dissolute 
 companions, into error ; but owing to the 
 efforts of a fellow- workman, he became 
 converted, and from this time to the close 
 of his life he was a devout student of the 
 Scriptures. On June 10, 1781, he married 
 Dorothy Plackett, his employer's sister-in- 
 law. Mrs. Carey had little sympathy with 
 her husband's tastes, but he always treated 
 her with noble tenderness. Domestic and 
 business troubles followed him closely. In 
 her second year his little girl was taken 
 from him ; he himself was stricken with
 
 WILLIAM CAREY. 5 
 
 fever ; starvation was staring him in the 
 face, when his brother, only a youth, came 
 to his relief, and, with the aid of friends, 
 secured for him a little cottage in Pidding- 
 ton, where Carey, besides continuing his 
 shoemaking, opened an evening school. 
 Attending the meetings of the association 
 at Olney, Carey met the future secretary 
 of the missionary society, Andrew Fuller. 
 As a result of this meeting, Carey began 
 to exercise his gifts as a preacher. The 
 Dissenters in his native village soon sent 
 for him to preach for them. His mother 
 went openly to hear him, and declared if 
 he lived he would become a great preacher ; 
 his father, being the parish clerk, heard 
 him clandestinely on one occasion, and, 
 though a reserved man, expressed himself 
 as highly gratified. 
 
 Soon after Carey united with the church 
 at Olney, and was by that body formally 
 set apart for the work of the ministry. A 
 field of action soon offered in Moulton, 
 where he, after many preliminaries, was 
 ordained pastor of the Baptist church.
 
 6 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Here his income was only ten pounds per 
 annum ; and after failing to increase it by 
 teaching, he resumed his shoemaking in 
 connection with the ministry. During the 
 time of his pastorate in Moulton, Mr. 
 Carey brooded continually over the con- 
 dition of the world, and became convinced 
 that the spreading of Christianity was a 
 responsibility which all the converted ought 
 to assume. 
 
 In April, 1 789, Carey was called to the 
 pastorate of Harvey Lane Church at Leices- 
 ter. Here he was brought into associa- 
 tion with men of culture, and books were 
 freely placed at his disposal. The course 
 of events was now rapidly moving toward 
 the formation of the missionary society. 
 At the annual meeting of the association 
 held at Nottingham, Carey was one of the 
 preachers. He chose for his text Isa. liv. 
 2, 3, which was paraphrased as follows: 
 "Expect great things from God," "At- 
 tempt great things for God." The impres- 
 sion made by the discourse was so decided 
 that the following resolution was passed:
 
 WILLIAM CAREY. J 
 
 " That against the next meeting at Ket- 
 tering, a plan should be prepared for the 
 purpose of forming a society for propa- 
 gating the gospel among the heathen." 
 
 The meeting was duly held on October 
 2, and a collection of thirteen pounds 
 made ; so the great missionary enterprise 
 was duly inaugurated. At this time a 
 ship surgeon, John Thomas, who had been 
 in India, and had preached to the Hindus, 
 had just returned to England, and was try- 
 ing to establish a fund in London for a 
 mission to Bengal. Carey suggested that 
 it might be desirable for the society to 
 co-operate, and a resolution was passed 
 to send Mr. Thomas and Mr. Carey into 
 India as missionaries. Many difficulties 
 arose before their final departure, June 
 13, 1793, when Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and 
 their child, Mr. Carey and his family, con- 
 sisting of wife and three children, em- 
 barked. After a voyage of five months 
 they arrived at Calcutta, November 9. 
 
 Thomas's knowledge of India was an 
 advantage to Carey ; but his lack of judg-
 
 8 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 ment, and the debts he had incurred in his 
 residence there, estranged from the mis- 
 sionaries some European Christians who 
 had otherwise been their friends. Calcutta 
 being found too expensive as a place of 
 residence, they removed to Bandel for a 
 time. But no facilities for missionary work 
 were afforded them there ; so they returned 
 to Calcutta, where they underwent vicissi- 
 tudes of all kinds until June, 1794, when 
 Mr. George Udny, at Malda (a former 
 friend of Mr. Thomas), offered the man- 
 agement of two indigo manufactories re- 
 spectively to Carey and Thomas. The 
 factory which Carey was to superintend 
 was at Mudnabatty ; and besides a salary 
 of 200 rupees per month, he was promised 
 a commission upon the sales. Carey at 
 once communicated with the secretary of 
 the society that he should not need more 
 supplies, and expressed the hope that an- 
 other mission be begun elsewhere. The 
 duties at the factory allowed time for the 
 work of the mission. 
 
 Mr. Carey made such progress in the
 
 WILLIAM CAREY. 
 
 study of Bengalee as to be able to preach 
 intelligibly to the natives. He started a 
 school, and worked vigorously at transla- 
 tion. In the midst of his great work he 
 lost his little son Peter, and finally was 
 himself prostrated with the fever, which 
 lasted several months. Carey remained in 
 Mudnabatty until Jan. 10, 1800, when, with 
 his wife and four children, he joined a lit- 
 tle colony of missionaries, who, through his 
 influence, had come to India and settled at 
 Serampore, a little village founded by the 
 Dutch in 1755. 
 
 The missionaries found a home in a large 
 house in the middle of the town, purchased 
 from a nephew of the Danish governor. 
 They lived in perfect unity, " and what one 
 had was another's," and thus began the 
 great missionary enterprise at Serampore. 
 The name of the first Hindu convert was 
 Krishnu Pal, and the baptism of this native 
 was a most memorable scene. Carey going 
 down into the river, taking first his son 
 Felix and baptizing him, using English 
 words ; then Krishnu went down and was
 
 10 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 baptized, the word:; being in Bengalee. 
 All was silence and attention. The gov- 
 ernor could not restrain his tears, and 
 every one seemed to be impressed with 
 the solemnity of this sacred ordinance. 
 
 Feb. 7, 1801, saw the issuing of Carey's 
 translation of the New Testament. On the 
 completion of this great undertaking, a 
 special meeting was convened for the pur- 
 pose of giving thanks unto God. The 
 publication of the Bengalee New Testa- 
 ment naturally directed attention to Mr. 
 Carey. The eminent scholarship it dis- 
 closed pointed him out at once as the 
 teacher who might fittingly occupy the 
 Bengalee chair in the government college 
 at Fort William. His first position was 
 that of teacher of Bengalee, afterwards of 
 Sanscrit and of Mahratta, with a salary 
 of ;6oo per annum. 
 
 From teacher he became professor. As 
 professor of the three Oriental languages 
 his emoluments rose to ,15,000. But the 
 whole of this income, with the exception 
 of some ^40 needed for the support of
 
 WILLIAM CAREY. II 
 
 his family, he devoted to the interests of 
 the mission. Carey held his position 
 of professor until 1830, within four years 
 of his death, and proved himself more than 
 equal to his office, winning the esteem and 
 affection of students and colleagues alike. 
 It was not to be expected that the Seram- 
 pore labors would be allowed to proceed 
 without political interference. Serious dif- 
 ficulties arose, threatening not only the 
 existence of the press, but of the mission 
 itself. As the time drew near for the re- 
 newal of the East India Company's char- 
 ter, the friends of missions directed their 
 efforts toward securing the introduction 
 of clauses permitting the free entrance of 
 missionaries into India, and liberty to 
 propagate the Christian religion. The bill 
 passed the Commons, July 13, and was 
 accepted by the Lords, arid entrance was 
 granted. 
 
 The new chapel at Calcutta was duly 
 opened, Jan. i, 1809, and Carey conducted 
 the week-day services there. And while his 
 professional engagements and his literary
 
 12 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 pursuits detained him often in Serampore 
 and Calcutta, yet he eagerly seized any op- 
 portunity that arose for itinerating, with 
 a view to extending Christianity. In 1807 
 Mrs. Carey died, having long suffered from 
 insanity ; and in the following year Carey 
 married Miss Charlotte Rumohr, of noble 
 Danish descent. She entered heartily into 
 all the concerns of the mission, and was a 
 great help to her husband until her death, 
 which occurred in 1820. 
 
 Besides translating the Bible into seven 
 different languages, Mr. Carey wrote gram- 
 mars and elementary books of all the lan- 
 guages he had acquired. The improvement 
 upon native paper for press purposes, by 
 manufacturing it so as to be proof against 
 destruction by insects, was an immense 
 advantage gained by the ingenuity of 
 the missionaries, and the importation of 
 a steam-engine of twelve horse-power for 
 working their paper-mill was a striking 
 evidence of the enterprise of these men. 
 
 No memoir of William Carey would be 
 complete which did not record his benevo-
 
 WILLIAM CAREY. 13 
 
 lent endeavors to improve the social con- 
 dition of the natives of India. The first 
 reform he helped to effect was the prohibi- 
 tion of the sacrifice of children at the great 
 annual festival at Gunga Sangor. Another 
 reform to which Carey gave his determined 
 attention was the abolition of burning wid- 
 ows on the pile of their dead husbands. 
 
 The benevolent institutions for instruct- 
 ing the children of indigent parents origi- 
 nated in the philanthropic sympathies of 
 Carey ; and in the year 1817 no less than 
 forty-five schools had been established. A 
 leper hospital was founded, and a vernacu- 
 lar newspaper published. 
 
 Carey possessed in not a few branches 
 of natural history a knowledge so scientific 
 that it was more than sufficient to com- 
 mand respect. His practical knowledge 
 of botany and agriculture resulted in very 
 material benefit to India, and lays that 
 country under a debt of obligation which 
 can never be discharged. In 1817 was 
 begun the missionary training institute, 
 which afterwards grew to a college, and
 
 14 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 was placed upon the same basis as other 
 colleges of Europe. 
 
 For forty-one years William Carey was 
 spared to labor for the good of India. He 
 outlived nearly all who were associated 
 with him in his prolonged residence, un- 
 broken by any return to England. He 
 died June 9, 1834. 
 
 During his lifetime Carey's great attain- 
 ments called forth honorable recognition. 
 Brown University in the United States con- 
 ferred upon him the degree of D.D. The 
 Linnaean, Horticultural, and Geological So- 
 cieties admitted him to their memberships; 
 and men of high position, such as the 
 Marquis of Wellesley and Lord Hastings, 
 extolled his worth. But he cared little 
 for worldly praise ; his great desire " to 
 be useful in laying the foundation of the 
 Church of Christ in India " was surely ac- 
 complished, and he wished for "no greater 
 reward," " no higher honor."
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEE SIM A. 
 
 BORN, JAN. 14, 1843; DIED, JAN. 23, 1890,
 
 XL 
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEE SIM A. 
 
 ' PERHAPS no single private life can better 
 portray genuine Japanese characteristics 
 than that of Joseph Hardy Neesima. In 
 1843, ten years before Commodore Perry 
 entered the Bay of Yedo, he was born. His 
 father served a prince whose palace was in 
 the city of Yedo. 
 
 The feudal system being in existence, 
 boys were preferred to girls in the fami- 
 lies of the samurai, as male heirs alone 
 could perpetuate their rank and allowance. 
 Four girls having preceded Neesima, his 
 grandfather hearing of a male born into 
 the family cried "Shimeta!" an exclama- 
 tion of joy at the realization of some long 
 cherished hope ; and the boy was called 
 Shimeta, the name being written after 
 Neesima, as is usual in Japan,
 
 1 8 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Neesima's parents were Shintoists, and 
 in his fifth year Neesima was taken to the 
 temple of the god supposed to be his life 
 guardian to offer thanks for his protection. 
 The occasion was a joyous one, and Nee- 
 sima was as gayly dressed as the heirs of 
 the nobility at an English christening. 
 
 Neesima's father was a teacher of pen- 
 manship, and many pilgrimages were made 
 to the temple of Japanese hieroglyphics. 
 Several gods were kept in the home, to 
 which the family made offerings. Neesima 
 worshipped these gods until he was fifteen 
 years of age, and then, seeing they did not 
 partake of the food provided for them, re- 
 fused to do so. 
 
 At an early age he developed studious 
 habits, but was very shy, and having some 
 slight impediment in his speech, was sent 
 to a school of etiquette, where he acquired 
 graceful manners and polite conversational 
 style. He was selected by the prince to at- 
 tend a military school which had been es- 
 tablished under the auspices of the Shogun, 
 but later he gave up these exercises and
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA. 19 
 
 devoted himself to the study of the Chinese 
 classics. Again he was fortunate in being 
 one of three selected to take lessons in 
 Dutch from a native teacher called by the 
 prince to the court to teach his subjects. 
 Afterwards the prince promoted Neesima 
 to the position of assistant teacher in a 
 Chinese school. 
 
 Soon after this, Neesima's prince and 
 patron died, and was succeeded by his 
 brother, a man of inferior education. Nee- 
 sima, now fifteen years of age, was obliged 
 to commence service to the prince, his busi- 
 ness being to sit in a little office connected 
 with the front end of the castle and watch 
 the hall, and, with other youths, to bow 
 profoundly as the prince went out or came 
 in, and to pass the rest of the time in gossip 
 and tea-drinking. This life was intolerable 
 to him, and he often planned to escape it by 
 running away from home ; but love of fam- 
 ily, a strong Japanese characteristic, kept 
 him under his father's roof until he was 
 seventeen years of age, when the war cloud 
 caused by the imperial party rising against
 
 20 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 the Shogun threw the country into fearful 
 commotion, and Neesima was chosen as a 
 life-guard to his prince. While thus en- 
 gaged he pursued his studies under great 
 difficulties, but always with untiring persis- 
 tency ; and he was allowed time to go to the 
 Shogun's naval school for lessons in mathe- 
 matics. Here one day he caught sight of a 
 Dutch warship lying at anchor in Yedo 
 Bay. "This dignified sea queen," com- 
 pared with the "clumsy disproportioned 
 Japanese junks," proved an " object lesson " 
 to Neesima ; and there was born within 
 him the great desire for the improvement 
 of himself and his country. The winter of 
 the same year he had an opportunity to go 
 by steamer to Tamashima. This was his 
 first liberation from his prince's " square 
 enclosure," and his first experience with 
 different and individual ideas ; his horizon 
 widened, and he was filled with new desires 
 for freedom. 
 
 Returning to Yedo, and sympathizing 
 fully with the " imperial party " yet bound 
 by the moral code of Confucius to " the
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA. 21 
 
 services of love and reverence to parents," 
 Neesima became distrait and restless, and 
 his life might have been entirely perverted 
 had not destiny intervened. In being asked 
 of the formative influences of his life, 
 Neesima, looking back to this time, might 
 well exclaim with Charles Kingsley, " I 
 had a friend." This " friend" had a small 
 library, and among the books proffered for 
 his use Neesima found a Japanese transla- 
 tion of Robinson Crusoe, and among several 
 Chinese books an historical geography of 
 the United States by the Rev. Dr. Bridgman 
 of the North China Mission, a brief His- 
 tory of the World, written by an English 
 missionary in China, Dr. Williams's little 
 magazines, and a few books teaching the 
 Christian religion, and published at Hong- 
 Kong or Shanghai. Speaking of these 
 books, Mr. Neesima in later life said, " I 
 read them with close attention. I was partly 
 a sceptic, and partly struck with reverential 
 awe. I became acquainted with the name 
 of the Creator through those Dutch books 
 I had studied before ; but it never came
 
 22 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 home so dear to my heart as when I read 
 the simple story of God's creation of the 
 universe on those pages of a brief Chinese 
 Bible History. I found out that the world 
 we live upon was created by his unseen 
 hand, and not by mere chance. I discov- 
 ered in the same history that his other 
 name was the ' Heavenly Father,' which 
 created in me more reverence towards him, 
 because I thought he was more to me than 
 a mere Creator of the world. All these 
 books helped me to behold a Being, some- 
 what dimly yet, in my mental eye, who was 
 so blindly concealed from me during the 
 first two decades of my life." 
 
 At this time no missionaries were allowed 
 in Japan. So Neesima, recognizing God as 
 the only father to whom he owed life fealty, 
 determined to break the environments of 
 his youth, and to leave temporarily his 
 home and country. With some difficulty 
 he obtained first his prince's, then his pa- 
 rents', sanction to leave Yedo, ostensibly to 
 go to Hakodate, and in the spring of 1864 
 went thither. Neesima, always thinking
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA. 2$ 
 
 of his country and its conditions, watched 
 closely the people of Hakodate, and, pain- 
 fully cognizant of their corrupt existence, 
 determined that Japan needed moral refor- 
 mation more than mere material progress. 
 His desire to visit a foreign land he con- 
 fided to a Japanese clerk employed by an 
 English merchant. This friend at mid- 
 night and with great difficulty conveyed 
 Neesima in a row-boat alongside an Amer- 
 ican vessel, whose kind-hearted captain 
 had consented to take the Japanese boy as 
 far as China. At Shanghai, Neesima was 
 transferred to the American ship Wild 
 Rover, whose captain employed Neesima 
 to wait upon the table ; and not liking 
 " Shimeta," called " his boy" Joe, and was 
 uniformly kind to him. After a four 
 months' voyage the ship reached Boston 
 Harbor ; and through the kind interest of 
 Captain Taylor, Neesima was introduced 
 to the owner of the Wild Rover, Mr. Al- 
 pheus Hardy, one of Boston's noblest 
 philanthropists. 
 
 He became at once interested in the
 
 24 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 boy, and, with Mrs. Hardy, assumed the re- 
 sponsibility of his education. In September, 
 1865, he entered the English department 
 of Phillips Academy, Andover. Here he 
 remained until 1867, when his benefactors 
 sent him to Amherst. His letters during 
 his student life tell of frequent illnesses, 
 which at times interfered with his work, of 
 his tramps through different States during 
 vacation, of letters from his Japanese par- 
 ents, of his anxiety about his home affairs 
 during the rise of the princes against the 
 shogun in 1868-1869, of his growing 
 spirituality, and of his heartfelt gratitude 
 to Mr. and Mrs. Hardy. 
 
 In a letter dated March 21, 1871, Neesi- 
 ma writes that he met in Boston, Mori, the 
 Japanese minister sent to Washington by 
 the mikado. Mr. Mori offered to reimburse 
 Mr. Hardy for Neesima's educational ex- 
 penses, and thereby make Neesima subject 
 to Japanese government. Mr. Hardy at 
 once declined the proposition. On Sept. 
 17, 1871, Neesima wrote to Mrs. Hardy 
 that he had received a passport from the
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA. 2$ 
 
 Japanese government, and that from the 
 same source his father had received a pa- 
 per saying : "It is permitted by the gov- 
 ernment to Neesima Shimeta to remain 
 and study in the United States of Amer- 
 ica." In 1872 an embassy representing 
 the imperial government of the mikado 
 visited America and Europe on visits of in- 
 quiry into Western civilization ; and Min- 
 ister Mori summoned Mr. Neesima to 
 Washington to meet the embassy, and to 
 assist Mr. Tanaka, the commissioner of ed- 
 ucation. In this way Mr. Neesima became 
 acquainted with the most progressive men 
 of new Japan, whose friendship in later 
 years was of great value to him. Fear- 
 ing, however, that his plan to return to 
 Japan as a free advocate of Christianity 
 might be endangered, he carefully stipu- 
 lated that Mr. Mori should state to the 
 embassy that any service desired of him 
 would be undertaken only under a contract 
 that freed him from all obligation to the 
 Japanese government. 
 
 Under these circumstances he was en-
 
 26 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 gaged, and soon proved so valuable an as- 
 sistant, that Mr. Tanaka insisted upon his 
 accompanying the embassy to Europe. 
 There he gave all his time to the study of 
 the best methods of learning in schools 
 and institutions of all grades ; and on the 
 basis of his reports was built to-day's edu- 
 cational system in Japan-. From this Eu- 
 ropean trip with the embassy Mr. Neesima 
 returned to Andover in September, 1873. 
 
 In March, 1874, Mr. Neesima formally 
 offered himself to the American Board, 
 and July 2 was appointed corresponding 
 member to the Japanese mission. He was 
 graduated as a special student from An- 
 dover Theological Seminary, and ordained 
 in Boston, September 24. 
 
 The Board held its sixty-fifth annual 
 meeting at Rutland, Vt., that autumn, and 
 Mr. Neesima spoke on the establishment 
 of a Christian college in Japan. By his 
 soul-felt enthusiasm the young Japanese 
 carried his audience with him ; $5 ,000 was 
 at once subscribed, and Neesima's dream 
 became a reality.
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA. 2J 
 
 In October, after an absence of ten 
 years, Neesima left New York for his na- 
 tive land. The changes that had taken 
 place there seemed to him almost incredi- 
 ble. He found a national line of steamers, 
 lighthouses at all important coast points, a 
 general telegraphic system, a postal service, 
 an organized navy, and a railway between 
 Yokohama and the capital. In the treaty 
 ports small Protestant churches had been 
 established ; but in visiting his parents at 
 Annoka, directly after his arrival in Japan, 
 Neesima was the first to carry the gospel 
 to the interior, and here he founded one of 
 the most genuinely Christian communities 
 in Japan. 
 
 Neesima arrived at Osaka, the home of 
 the American Board Mission, Jan. 22, and 
 here he planned to establish a Christian 
 school with a broad collegiate course ; but 
 meeting with opposition, he gave up the 
 project, and turned his steps towards 
 Kyoto. Here he met with many and va- 
 ried difficulties, but by persistent effort 
 opened, Nov. 25, 1875, theDoshisha, with
 
 28 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 eight pupils. The winter of 1875 was one 
 of hardship and discouragement; but as- 
 sisted by the Rev. J. D. Davis, D.D., he 
 maintained the school, which constantly 
 increased in numbers. 
 
 On Jan. 2, 1876, Neesima was married 
 to the sister of the counsellor to the Kyoto 
 Fu. She had been a teacher in the gov- 
 ernment school for girls, but her engage- 
 ment to a Christian caused her discharge. 
 
 After her marriage she entered fully 
 into her husband's life-work ; and in their 
 house, provided by Mr. J. M. Sears of 
 Boston, services were constantly held, and 
 Christian teaching promulgated. 
 
 From 1876 to 1884 Mr. Neesima's life 
 was filled with trials, and obstacles of every 
 kind threatened the very existence of the 
 Doshisha. The fact that the school, while 
 nominally a Japanese company, was in re- 
 ality supported from foreign means, caused 
 an attack which compelled Mr. Neesima to 
 write to the Prudential Committee for a 
 permanent endowment ; and in November, 
 1879, h e received the joyful tidings that
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA. 29 
 
 the year's appropriation of eight thousand 
 dollars would soon be placed under his di- 
 rection for the educational work in Kyoto. 
 
 The keynote of true teaching was struck 
 by Mr. Neesima's effort to disseminate 
 Christianity through an educated ministry. 
 In 1880 he writes: "Try to send out 
 choice men, Christians must not be 
 charged with being ignoramuses, or we 
 shall be ridiculed for our lack of learning 
 as well as for our faith. We need the 
 broadest culture and Christian spirit to 
 counteract the downward tendency of our 
 educated youth." 
 
 Through all his work Mr. Neesima en- 
 tertained the hope born at Andover of a 
 Christian university at Japan, and deter- 
 mined to raise endowments for history, 
 philosophy, political economy, law, and 
 medicine. His personal activity in this di- 
 rection was incessant ; but, his health fail- 
 ing, he accepted in 1884 an invitation for 
 rest and change from the Board, and visited 
 Europe and America. During this trip he 
 everywhere inspected schools and colleges,
 
 30 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 and noted in detail methods and results, 
 and made plans of buildings and appa- 
 ratus. 
 
 He arrived in Boston, Sept. 27, 1884; 
 but even there he was not freed from care 
 and responsibilities. The outlook in Japan 
 was broadening, and the demand great to 
 place the Doshisha upon a university basis ; 
 and he was looked upon as the medium 
 between Japan and the source of its sup- 
 ply. In December it became necessary 
 for him to go to Clifton Springs, N.Y., 
 for rest at the Sanitarium. He left there 
 in March, 1885, somewhat better in health, 
 and cheered by the news that fifty thou- 
 sand dollars had been appropriated for the 
 Japan mission. He arrived at Yokohama 
 Dec. 12, 1885, "and found five hundred 
 friends, students, teachers, relatives, and 
 prominent citizens," assembled there to 
 meet him. The day after this the tenth 
 anniversary of the Doshisha was cele- 
 brated, and the corner-stone of two new 
 buildings laid. The school was in a flour- 
 ishing condition ; and the Japanese boy of
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA. 3! 
 
 long ago was now, by acclamation of its 
 faculty, president of the college. 
 
 Two years later Amherst College con- 
 ferred upon Neesima the degree of doctor 
 of laws. May 17, 1887, an income of not 
 less than twenty-five hundred dollars per 
 annum was assured to the Doshisha by 
 the American Board. In April, 1888, a 
 meeting was held in the great Buddhist 
 temple of Chionin in Kyoto, to consider 
 the question of a university endowment. 
 In July a dinner was given to Mr. Nee- 
 sima by the late minister of foreign affairs, 
 that he might present this question to dis- 
 tinguished Japanese guests. At this din- 
 ner Mr. Neesima fainted, worn out by his 
 efforts. The result of the meeting was a 
 pledge of thirty thousand dollars to the 
 university. In the summer of 1888 he 
 was told by his physicians that he had not 
 long to live, and by their advice was taken 
 to a mountain resort (Ikao) ; here he was 
 cheered by the gift to the Doshisha of a 
 hundred thousand dollars from Mr. J. N. 
 Harris of New London, Conn. Writing to
 
 32 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Mr. Harris, Mr. Neesima says, " A dona- 
 tion like this is unknown and unprece- 
 dented in our country." 
 
 During the summer months of 1889 
 Neesima's health seemed to improve ; and 
 after seeing the foundation for the new 
 science building laid, he went to Tokyo to 
 work for the endowment fund ; but rest 
 was again advised by his physicians, and 
 he went to Oiso ; and here, Jan. 23, 1890, 
 he died. 
 
 On the news of Mr. Neesima's danger- 
 ous illness, the students of Doshisha were 
 with difficulty restrained from proceeding 
 in a body to his bedside. On Jan. 24 
 the body was taken to Kyoto, where the 
 funeral services took place, Jan. 27, in 
 presence of the school, graduates from all 
 parts of the empire, city authorities, and 
 representatives of foreign missions. In the 
 procession (a mile and a half in length) 
 was seen a delegation of priests bearing 
 the inscription, " From the Buddhists of 
 Osaka." Truly no private citizen ever 
 died in Japan whose loss was so widely
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA. 33 
 
 and so deeply felt as that of Mr. Neesima. 
 On the plain below Kyoto stands his out- 
 ward monument, the Doshisha, from whose 
 walls have come the most powerful factors 
 in the civilization of new Japan ; but in the 
 lives of the men about him is written the 
 endurance of his influence, the divinity of 
 his soul.
 
 WILLIAM SUTLER. 
 
 Missionary to India and Mexico. 
 BORN, iSiS.
 
 WILLIAM BUTLER. 
 
 IT was the happy Christian experience 
 of an old blind harper that forged the first 
 visible link in the chain of providences 
 which brought William Butler from a life 
 of careless ease to the work of preaching 
 the gospel. The poor sightless musician 
 doubtless felt that he could do very little 
 for the Master he loved, naught save to 
 testify of his goodness ; yet God honored 
 his quiet, consistent life by giving him thus 
 a share in the work of bringing the world 
 to the feet of Christ. 
 
 William Butler was born in Ireland in 
 1818. Early left an orphan, he was for 
 some years in the care of a godly great- 
 grandmother, who used to induce the 
 little lad to mount a chair for a pulpit, 
 and, clad in an improvised surplice, to read 
 
 37
 
 38 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 the lessons for the day from the Church of 
 England Prayer-book. This little service 
 was a great comfort to the venerable old 
 lady, who was unable longer to attend 
 church. In his early manhood, however, 
 he lived without any serious aim in life, 
 until the question, " Do you pray?" was 
 put to him by a gentle lady, an entire 
 stranger, who had found the joy in believ- 
 ing described to her by the old harper, 
 and who was eager for others to find it 
 also. The thoughtfulness induced by this 
 question led to his conversion, and dedica- 
 tion to the Christian ministry. 
 
 Soon after graduating from Didsbury 
 Theological Seminary in England he came 
 to the United States, where he joined the 
 New England Conference of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. During his pastorates 
 he devoted much of his study to the con- 
 dition of the heathen world, preaching mis- 
 sionary sermons, and publishing articles 
 on the subject in the church periodicals. 
 After a few years the project of a mission 
 in India was taken up by the missionary
 
 JVILLIAM SUTLER. $$ 
 
 Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 and appeals were issued to the ministry 
 for some one to offer himself to go and 
 begin the work ; but for more than three 
 years no one fitted for the position was 
 found. Mr. Butler shared the anxiety of 
 the secretaries and bishops lest the enter- 
 prise should fail for want of a suitable 
 leader. On account of his four young 
 children he hesitated to offer himself; but 
 finally his sense of the great need of the 
 people of India led him to consult with 
 the authorities, and soon he was appointed 
 superintendent of the new mission. His 
 wife bravely seconded him in his deter- 
 mination ; and, leaving two boys at school, 
 they sailed for India in 1856. 
 
 On their way they stopped in London to 
 confer with the secretaries of the different 
 missionary societies as to the most desir- 
 able field for the Methodist Church to 
 enter where no other agency was at work. 
 On reaching Calcutta, the same inquiries 
 were made as to the most needy provinces ; 
 and Oudh and Rohilcund, in the Gangetic
 
 40 CHEAT MJSSIOMARJ&S. 
 
 valley, with their twenty millions of souls, 
 were selected as the field of the new mis- 
 sion. The people were intensely Jiostile to 
 Christianity ; and the feeling of unrest in 
 the native army culminated in the dread- 
 ful atrocities of the Sepoy Rebellion, only 
 ten weeks after Dr. and Mrs. Butler had 
 begun their work in Bareilly. They were 
 compelled to fly to the mountains, where at 
 Naini Tal they found a refuge for the weary 
 months of anxiety and danger. Their near- 
 est missionary neighbors, of the Presby- 
 terian mission, on the other side of the 
 Ganges, who had fled from Futtyghur for 
 safety, were cruelly massacred, Dr. Butler's 
 home was burned, and a gallows erected for 
 him in the public square at Bareilly, the 
 rebel leader there expressing his great dis- 
 appointment when he found that the mis- 
 sionary had escaped. The first Eurasian 
 assistant, a young lady, was killed ; and the 
 native preacher Joel, who, with his wife, 
 had been spared by the Presbyterian mis- 
 sionaries to aid in beginning the mission, 
 escaped only after enduring many perils.
 
 WILLIAM SUTLER'. 41 
 
 The church at home believed that Dr. 
 and Mrs. Butler had perished, as no tid- 
 ings of their safety could reach the outside 
 world ; and an obituary was published, so 
 certain did it seem that they had suffered 
 with the many scores of Christian people 
 who fell in that terrible uprising of Moslem 
 hate and heathen superstition. Dr. But- 
 ler's first and only experience in handling 
 firearms was at this time, when he and 
 eighty-six Englishmen held the pass up 
 to their place of refuge against the three 
 thousand Sepoys who were sent to capture 
 them. The history of this trying time has 
 been graphically told by Dr. Butler in his 
 " Land of the Veda." 
 
 As soon as peace was restored, the work 
 was begun again, with large re-enforce- 
 ments from the United States. The prin- 
 cipal towns of the two provinces were 
 supplied with foreign missionaries, and 
 from these centres the work was pushed 
 out into the villages round about. Earnest 
 street preaching, the distribution of the 
 Scriptures, and hundreds of little schools,
 
 42 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 were the methods of seed-sowing which in 
 due time have brought forth an abundant 
 harvest. 
 
 From the first, Dr. Butler's plan for the 
 missions was to avoid controversy, but 
 to preach Christ as a Saviour for all who 
 will accept him. The first convert from 
 Mohammedanism in this mission was won 
 by this holding up of the cross of Christ 
 to the view of sin-sick souls. He was 
 in the crowd which gathered around the 
 missionary as he stood and preached in the 
 bazaar, and told in simple language what 
 God had done for him in forgiving his sins 
 for Christ's sake. The Mohammedan was 
 greatly moved ; and, seeking the missionary 
 alone, he asked him if he had really ex- 
 perienced this relief from the load of sin of 
 which he had told them in the bazaar. On 
 being assured it was true, he sought and 
 found the same pardon, and became one of 
 the most successful of the native .ministers. 
 
 The Woman's Foreign Missionary Soci- 
 ety came to aid this work with its devoted 
 agents for the special need among the
 
 WILLIAM BUTLER. 43 
 
 secluded women in the zenanas. Their 
 medical work, begun by Dr. Clara Swain 
 in 1870, the first woman to go as a physi- 
 cian to the women of the East, has accom- 
 plished wonders in breaking down the 
 barriers raised against Christianity. The 
 work of the Methodist Church now ex- 
 tends all over India, and before the close 
 of its forty years of existence counts eighty 
 thousand members who have been brought 
 to Christ, with many thousands more 
 under its instruction and influence. 
 
 After ten years of service, Dr. Butler 
 returned to the United States in broken 
 health, coming by sailing-vessel around 
 the Cape of Good Hope during the closing 
 days of our Civil War. His description of 
 their anxiety during the four weary months 
 on board that passed without any news 
 from the scene of conflict, and of the 
 tremendous effect of the statements made 
 by the pilot as he came on board off the 
 coast of England and announced that the 
 war was over the Union saved, and that 
 the great Lincoln had fallen, is not one of
 
 44 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 the least of thrilling tales that Dr. Butler 
 relates in his lectures. 
 
 In 1870 he was appointed secretary 
 of the American and Foreign Christian 
 Union, which had as its especial object 
 evangelical work in the Republic of 
 Mexico, just then opening to Protestant 
 influences. This continued till 1873, when 
 some of the churches began' to feel that 
 more could be done through separate 
 missions of each denomination ; and Dr. 
 Butler was asked to go to Mexico, to es- 
 tablish the work there as he had done in 
 India. Entering the republic soon after 
 the troublous times which ended the so- 
 called Empire of Maximilian of Austria, 
 he found religious liberty in the constitu- 
 tion of the land, though it was as yet imper- 
 fectly understood by the masses. Threats 
 of violence were frequently made by the 
 fanatical part of the population, and many 
 times the missionaries' lives were imper- 
 illed ; but the law has upheld the right 
 of religious liberty, and only one foreigner 
 has lost his life, though many of the Mexi-
 
 WILLIAM BUTLER. 45 
 
 cans have suffered bitter persecuti^f; and 
 death. In six years the mission was fi/frijy, 
 established ; and Dr. Butler returned ffeje 
 in shattered health, but soon recovered 
 sufficiently to go up and down throughout 
 the Methodist Church, urging the claims 
 of the missionary work with an eloquence 
 and enthusiasm well nigh irresistible, thus 
 greatly aiding the devoted missionary sec- 
 retaries in bringing up the contributions 
 of the churches to a more generous figure. 
 It is a very unusual thing for a mission- 
 ary to be given the privilege of seeing, 
 after many days, the harvest from the seed 
 he had planted, and another had watered, 
 and to which God had given a wonderful in- 
 crease. That joy is reserved for the most 
 of the servants of God until the " Well 
 done ! " of the Master opens up the eternal 
 bliss of heaven. For Dr. and Mrs. Butler 
 this happy experience began in this life, 
 when in 1883 they went back to India 
 to review the progress of the work. Land- 
 ing in Bombay, they were welcomed by 
 large congregations of native Christian
 
 46 ORE A T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 people ; and at every principal station 
 throughout the empire loyal greeting was 
 given to those who came alone, only about 
 thirty years before, with no Christian to 
 stand with them amidst the millions of 
 idolaters and followers of Islam. Now 
 they were received by thousands of native 
 members, who sang, " The morning light 
 is breaking, the darkness disappears," as 
 they welcomed " the Father and Mother 
 of the Mission," with a rejoicing that was a 
 foretaste of the joy of the home-coming in 
 the better land. Truly the little one had 
 become thousands, and darkness and su- 
 perstition are being put to flight. 
 
 Perhaps the most affecting sight of this 
 happy journey was at Chandausi camp- 
 meeting, where Dr. Butler arrived some- 
 what unexpectedly at the large tent where 
 about eight hundred native Christians were 
 gathered for an early morning service. 
 Joel, the native helper, who had been a 
 faithful minister since the beginning of the 
 mission, was leading the congregation in 
 prayer. It seemed as if Dr. Butler could
 
 WILLIAM SUTLER. 47 
 
 hardly restrain himself until the petition 
 was finished, when he stepped forward and 
 placed his hands on the shoulders of his 
 beloved fellow-laborer, whose now sight- 
 less eyes could not look upon his face, but 
 whose heart recognized the loving touch 
 of his old superintendent. In a moment 
 they were clasped in each other's arms, 
 while the audience rose and sang, as the 
 tears rolled down their cheeks in sympathy 
 with the joy they beheld, " Praise God 
 from whom all blessings flow." No won- 
 der that one of our missionary secretaries 
 should say, " I would rather found a mis- 
 sion than an empire " ! 
 
 After an extended tour through the vari- 
 ous missions, Dr. Butler returned to plead 
 with still greater fervor for this blessed 
 work. His account of the wonderful suc- 
 cesses crowning the efforts to evangelize 
 that great people was again an inspiration 
 to the whole Methodist Church. In 1887 
 he went to revisit Mexico, where he found 
 the work equally full of promise, even if 
 not yet realizing the results of years of
 
 48 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 labor as fully as the older and larger mis- 
 sion of India. There among the faithful 
 workers was his son, one of the lads who 
 had been so reluctantly left behind when 
 he first went to India, now devoting his 
 life to the redemption of Mexico. Liberty 
 of opinion had gained favor among the 
 people of our sister republic ; and the idea 
 of a heart religion, rather than a mere 
 change of form, had become more appar- 
 ent to the converts. The noble President 
 of Mexico, General Porfirio Diaz, has 
 afforded every protection to Protestant 
 work that the constitution provides ; and 
 peace throughout the land has given 
 opportunity for preaching the gospel to 
 the thousands who eagerly hear. In the 
 volume, " Mexico in Transition," written 
 since this visit, Dr. Butler traces the hand 
 of God working in the marvellous events 
 of the history of Mexico that have brought 
 the republic to its present state of free- 
 dom and prosperity. 
 
 This " veteran missionary of two con- 
 tinents" is passing his declining days in
 
 WILLIAM BUTLER. 49 
 
 Newton Centre, Mass., and though in very 
 feeble health, finds great joy in read- 
 ing the reports which reach him weekly 
 of the glorious victories in the fields which 
 lie so near his heart. By his pen he still 
 pleads for the missions of the church, his 
 latest effort being to secure chapels for the 
 village Christians in India. He is no pes- 
 simist, but glows with enthusiasm as he re- 
 counts what God has wrought during the 
 present century of missionary effort, and of 
 the manifold agencies of good now being 
 exerted by all branches of the Christian 
 church. He says that God has fulfilled 
 his promise of the " hundred-fold in this 
 life," and he doubts not of the fulfilment 
 of glorious promise of life eternal.
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSON. 
 
 Missionary to Burmah. 
 BORN AUG. g, 1788 ; DIED APRIL 12, 1850.
 
 ADON1RAM JUDSON. 
 
 As Carey was the father of modern mis- 
 sions, Judson was the father of American 
 missions. The thought was no doubt in 
 many minds, and in that circle of young 
 men from which sprung the American 
 Board, each no doubt owed much to the 
 others ; but partly from his own strong 
 gifts of body, mind, and downright moral 
 consistency, Judson was the first to carry 
 out in actual missionary life what to others 
 was a plan, a hope, a prayer. 
 
 Born Aug. 9, 1788, eldest son of the 
 Congregational minister at Maiden, Mass., 
 he could read when three years old, was 
 acute with figures when ten, and, proud 
 and ambitious, entered Brown University, 
 where at nineteen he graduated first in 
 his class. His college course won only 
 
 53
 
 54 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 praise ; but his brightness brought him 
 under the influence of a sceptical college 
 friend, and he came home to declare him- 
 self to his father, with characteristic down- 
 rightness, an infidel. His father was then 
 minister at Plymouth; and there the son 
 taught school for a year, at this time pub- 
 lishing a school grammar and an arithme- 
 tic. He had some thoughts of dramatic 
 writing, and made a tour of travel as far as 
 New York, for a time travelling with a 
 theatrical company. 
 
 Returning to Sheffield, Mass., where his 
 uncle was minister, he arranged for a 
 farther journey westward ; but was much 
 impressed by a young minister who 
 preached there by exchange ; and next 
 day, setting out, took lodging at a country 
 inn, where a young man lay very ill in 
 the adjoining room. Judson was restless, 
 thinking of this man, sick and away from 
 home ; and next morning learned with deep 
 feeling that he had died ; and, hearing his 
 name, was overwhelmed to find that it was 
 his sceptical college friend. His scheme of
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSON. 55 
 
 travel seemed now impossible ; his infidel 
 theories melted away ; and he turned his 
 horse's head toward Plymouth, and next 
 month entered an advanced class at An- 
 dover Theological Seminary. He joined 
 his father's church in Plymouth the next 
 May. 
 
 In the seminary he read Buchanan's 
 " Star in the East," and Syme's " Empire 
 of Ava," and became associated with 
 Samuel Nott, and Samuel J. Mills, Gordon 
 Hall, and others of the Williams College 
 " Haystack " company ; and though offered 
 a tutorship at Brown University, and an 
 associate pastorate with Dr. Griffin in 
 Boston, he devoted himself to foreign mis- 
 sionary work. 
 
 He had already written to the London 
 Missionary Society ; and, after consultation 
 with the teachers and ministers near An- 
 dover, he joined his fellow-students in a 
 letter to the Massachusetts General Asso- 
 ciation of Congregational Churches, which 
 met at Bradford, June 29, 1810, asking 
 advice and help towards missionary service.
 
 56 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 This letter was signed by Judson, Nott, 
 Mills, and Samuel Newell. 
 
 There had been in existence since 1799 
 the Massachusetts Missionary Society, or- 
 ganized to carry the gospel to the Indians, 
 and to cultivate the missionary spirit ; but 
 the General Association now organized the 
 American Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions, and commended the 
 young men to its direction. 
 
 Judson was first sent to London to ask 
 the co-operation of the London Society. 
 His ship was captured by a French priva- 
 teer, and he was imprisoned on ship and 
 in France ; but escaped to London, where 
 he was cordially received ; but later it was 
 thought best to send him abroad without 
 English assistance. He was married Feb. 
 5, 1812, to Miss Ann Hasseltine, daugh- 
 ter of the minister at Bradford ; Feb. 
 6 he was ordained, and on Feb. 19 he 
 sailed with his bride from Salem for Cal- 
 cutta. 
 
 On the long voyage he became convinced 
 that the Baptist doctrine was in agree-
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSOtf. $? 
 
 ment with the Scripture ; and after reach- 
 ing Calcutta he applied to the English 
 Baptist missionaries at Serampore, and, 
 with his wife, was immersed, and resigned 
 his connection with the American Board. 
 The East India Company presently 
 ordered him and his fellow American mis- 
 sionaries to return home, subsequently 
 allowing them to go to Mauritius. There 
 Mrs. Newell died ; and Mr. Rice, who had 
 also become a Baptist, went to America 
 to urge the organizing of a Baptist Mis- 
 sionary Society. Judson and his wife, after 
 four months in Mauritius, largely spent in 
 mission-work with English soldiers, sailed 
 for Madras, hoping to establish a mission 
 at Pulo-Penang, in the Strait of Malacca. 
 But the only ship sailing in that direction 
 took them to Rangoon in Burmah, beyond 
 the protection of the British flag, where 
 they arrived July 13, 1813. There a son 
 of Dr. Carey had occupied the English 
 Baptist mission-house ; but he was absent, 
 and soon afterwards resigned the mission 
 in their favor.
 
 58 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Burmah was then an independent em- 
 pire, with a population of about eight 
 millions ; the government an absolute 
 despotism, arbitrary and most cruel ; the 
 religion Buddhism. Rangoon, near the 
 mouth of the Irrawaddy, is the natural 
 depot of much of Central Asia, and was 
 a strategic centre for Christian missions. 
 It was then a dirty town of about ten 
 thousand inhabitants, intersected by muddy 
 inlets, which filled at high tide. Here 
 Judson began his permanent work. 
 
 Two languages were to learn the com- 
 mon Burmese, and the sacred Pali. The 
 younger Carey had not preached, but had 
 partly made a grammar and dictionary ; 
 and Judson at once began his translation 
 of the Bible, which he finished in 1834. 
 
 In 1815 Mrs. Judson had to go to Ma- 
 dras for medical advice. That year their 
 first child was born, a little boy who died 
 in infancy. In 1816 Judson seemed break- 
 ing down, and hurriedly collected the notes 
 he had made for a Burman grammar. It 
 was published twenty years later, and
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSON. 59 
 
 greatly praised for comprehensive and 
 concise accuracy. Partially recovering, he 
 imported a printing-press from Serampore 
 and a printer from America, and published 
 his " View of the Christian Religion," the 
 first of a series of tracts that had a strong 
 influence with that thoughtful and reading 
 people. Mrs. Judson also published a 
 catechism. 
 
 These publications were followed by the 
 appearance of Inquirers, the first one com- 
 ing March 7, 1817, and marking an epoch 
 in the work. 
 
 With a deepened sense of the need of 
 evangelistic work, Judson now went to 
 Chittagong to find some native Christian 
 who could preach and teach in Burmese. 
 He was unexpectedly detained there seven 
 months, during which his wife, with some 
 missionary helpers who had joined them, 
 maintained the work under vexatious per- 
 secutions, displaying great endurance and 
 wonderful skill and diplomacy with the 
 native authorities ; and later going through 
 the trials of an epidemic of cholera. On
 
 6O ORE A T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 his return Judson built an open say at, a 
 shed of bamboo, for public evangelization, 
 with a room for assemblies of worship, and 
 another, opening on the garden, for wo- 
 men's classes. The zayat was on a main 
 public thoroughfare, under the shadow of 
 the chief pagoda. Here he conversed with 
 men of different classes, some of profound 
 Oriental learning, and saw how the scepti- 
 cism of European philosophy has been an- 
 ticipated in the subtler scepticisms of India, 
 which have undermined Oriental faith, and 
 made preparation for a faith more rational. 
 
 The first regular service was held in the 
 zayat April 4, 1819, Judson having been in 
 Rangoon nearly six years, and then first 
 venturing to preach in the native tongue. 
 The 27th of the following June he baptized 
 his first Burman convert, Moung Nau. 
 
 In November there were rumors of perse- 
 cutions, and public services were suspended 
 for several Sundays, and two new converts 
 were baptized privately ; and greater inter- 
 est bringing new threats from the authori- 
 ties, Judson went to Ava, the capital, to lay
 
 ADONTRAM JUDSON. 6 1 
 
 the matter before the king. The journey 
 and return consumed over two months, 
 and seemed rather to produce more explicit 
 threats ; and Judson resolved to remove to 
 Chittagong, under British rule. 
 
 But now the little circle of converts awoke 
 to independent life and courage. They 
 could not bear to be scattered, but begged 
 that, if the missionaries must go, it would 
 not be till their membership was increased 
 to ten, and they organized under some 
 leader to hold them together and help their 
 Christian life. Departure was therefore 
 postponed ; and ten months later the tenth 
 convert and first woman was received into 
 the church. This was on the eve of Jud- 
 son's sailing to Calcutta with his wife 
 because of her ill heath ; and through this 
 absence the little church stood steadfast 
 even under persecution. 
 
 Then the persecution ceased. A girls' 
 school was opened ; and the work took so 
 interesting a form that, though Mrs. Jud- 
 son's health compelled her to go to Amer- 
 ica, her husband remained at Rangoon.
 
 62 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 He was now joined by Dr. Price, a med- 
 ical missionary, whose remarkable success, 
 especially in operations for cataract, led to 
 his being summoned to Ava, to the king ; 
 and here Judson thought it best to accom- 
 pany him. 
 
 This movement brought the whole mis- 
 sionary work at once under favorable no- 
 tice of the court. There was no more talk 
 of persecution, but apparently the largest 
 opening for greatly enlarged work. Jud- 
 son came into the presence of the king, 
 and received the royal invitation to transfer 
 his work from Rangoon to the capital ; and 
 after Mrs. Judson's return from America 
 with improved health, and with re-enforce- 
 ments for Rangoon, they removed to Ava, 
 arriving there in January, 1824. 
 
 The court favor at Ava, however, was 
 clouded over by a change of ministers, 
 almost before their actual arrival. Many 
 postponements and hindrances impeded 
 their work, in spite of the favor held by 
 Dr. Price's medical reputation ; and in a 
 few months the outbreak of war between
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSON. 63 
 
 Burmah and England threw the mission 
 into confusion and dismay. There was a 
 general suspicion of all persons of English 
 speech ; and ere long Judson, Dr. Price, 
 and five others were arrested and thrown 
 into prison. 
 
 This imprisonment lasted for eleven 
 months in the "death-prison" at Ava, 
 and afterwards for six months in the coun- 
 try prison of Oung-peu-la. Mrs. Judson 
 was not arrested, though her house was 
 searched and all valuable property confis- 
 cated. She made almost daily visits to the 
 prison, though often refused admittance, 
 and also to the palace, maintaining the 
 respect and friendship of some of the 
 court, and was able to carry her husband 
 food and clothing, and after some months 
 to build him a little bamboo shed in the 
 prison yard, where he could sometimes be 
 by himself, and where at times she was 
 allowed to be with him. In January, 1825, 
 a little daughter was born to her; and a 
 few months later she went through an 
 epidemic of small-pox.
 
 64 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 The horrors of Judson's imprisonment 
 can only be imagined ; crowded into nar- 
 row quarters with over a hundred common 
 criminals, loaded with fetters, at first three 
 pairs of fetters, afterwards five pairs, with 
 no conveniences for cleanliness or even 
 decency. After eleven months the cap- 
 tives were suddenly removed from the city 
 prison, and with agonizingly painful march- 
 ing taken to the country prison of Oung- 
 peu-la. There, after days of weariness and 
 pain, at night, for security, a bamboo pole 
 was passed between the fettered ankles of 
 a string of prisoners, and then hoisted by 
 ropes till their shoulders only rested on the 
 floor. Daily and nightly torture, racking 
 fever, half starvation, and daily anticipation 
 of death, marked these terrible months. 
 
 But the success of the British arms at 
 length compelled the king to send Judson 
 and Dr. Price as interpreting envoys to 
 negotiate peace ; and the British comman- 
 der made his first absolute demand the 
 release of the missionaries, and the Judsons 
 returned to Rangoon. During his impris-
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSOM. 65 
 
 onment his unfinished manuscript transla- 
 tion of the Bible was hid by his wife in a 
 cotton pillow on which he slept. This was 
 thrown aside as worthless when his prison 
 was changed, but was found and saved by 
 a native convert. 
 
 The Rangoon church being scattered, a 
 new mission was begun at Amherst on 
 British territory, but later removed to 
 Maulmain, a more important centre. This 
 greatly prospered, though they had no more 
 their youthful strength ; and during Judson's 
 absence at Ava, attempting to secure reli- 
 gious toleration, his wife died of a fever, 
 and he returned soon to lay their little child 
 by her side. 
 
 With broken heart and health he became 
 almost wildly ascetic ; living much alone, 
 fasting and praying whole days in the 
 woods. He relinquished part of his slen- 
 der missionary pay, and made over to the 
 Board about six thousand dollars, includ- 
 ing presents and fees from the British 
 government for treaty- negotiation service, 
 and some private means brought origi-
 
 66 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 nally from home. In 1830 he again at- 
 tempted to penetrate Burmah, living six 
 months at Prome, half-way between Ran- 
 goon and Ava, but was driven back by 
 Burman intrigues. He then began a work 
 among the wild Karens of the jungle, and 
 with great success. 
 
 In 1834 ne Carried Mrs. Sarah Board- 
 man, widow of a fellow missionary. He 
 completed his Bible, pronounced by Dr. 
 Wayland the best translation in India, and 
 by Orientalists " a perfect literary work." 
 
 In 1845 his health and his wife's was 
 so broken that they sailed for Mauritius, 
 and from there for America ; but she died 
 Sept. i, while in port at St. Helena. Jud- 
 son, with three children, reached Boston on 
 Oct. 15. 
 
 He was in America till July, 1846, and, 
 before re-embarking for India, was married 
 to Miss Emily Chubbuck, who was known 
 as a writer under the name of Fanny 
 Forester. 
 
 His last years, 1846-1850, were spent 
 in another earnest but unsuccessful at-
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSON. 6/ 
 
 tempt to break through Burman bigotry, 
 in the continuation of his Burman dic- 
 tionary and other literary work, and in 
 the forwarding of the general missionary 
 enterprise. 
 
 Towards the end of 1849 his health 
 declined alarmingly. His sixty years had 
 contained more wear and strain than come 
 to many a long life. The " keen sword 
 had worn out the scabbard." In the spring 
 of 1850 it was hoped that a sea voyage 
 might help him ; and he was carried on 
 shipboard April 8, but died April 12, and 
 was buried at sea. 
 
 The late Rev. A. J. Gordon, D.D., in 
 writing of the illustrious missionary whose 
 name he bears, says : " Park Street Church 
 in Boston, whose call the Spirit constrained 
 Judson to decline seventy-five years ago, 
 is still a large body, numbering perhaps 
 a thousand members ; but the church in 
 Burmah, which that same Spirit led Judson 
 to found, numbers to-day thirty thousand 
 communicants, with a great company be- 
 side who have fallen asleep." x
 
 JOHN G. PATON. 
 
 Missionary to the New Hebrides. 
 BORN MAY 24, 1824.
 
 JOHN G, PATON-. 
 
 JOHN GIBSON PATON was born May 24, 
 1824, near Dumfries, in the south of Scot- 
 land. His father was a stocking-maker; 
 and although his family was little blessed 
 in this world's goods, it was devoutly reli- 
 gious. When young John had reached his 
 fifth year, the family moved to a new home 
 in the ancient village of Torthorwald. 
 
 Their new home was of the usual 
 thatched cottage, plainly but substantially 
 built. It was one- story, and was divided 
 into three rooms. One end room served 
 as the living-room of the family, the other 
 as a shop, and the middle one was the 
 family sanctuary. To the sanctuary the 
 father retired after each meal to offer up 
 prayer in behalf of his family. Paton him- 
 self says : " We occasionally heard the pa- 
 71
 
 72 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 thetic echoes of a trembling voice, pleading 
 as if for life ; and we learned to slip out and 
 in past that door on tiptoe, not to disturb 
 that holy colloquy." Is it strange that from 
 this family there should come three minis- 
 ters of the gospel ? 
 
 In early boyhood John was sent to the 
 parish school, presided over by a man 
 named Smith, who, although of high schol- 
 arship, was often unreasonable when in a 
 rage. At one time his temper got the 
 best of him, and he unjustly punished 
 Paton, who ran home. Returning at his 
 mother's entreaty, he was again abused, 
 and left the school never to return. He 
 now began to learn his father's trade, mak- 
 ing an effort at the same time to keep up 
 his studies. The work was hard, and he 
 toiled from six in the morning until ten at 
 night. At this time he learned much in a 
 mechanical line which was of use to him 
 later in the missionary field. He saved 
 enough money from his wages to enable 
 him to attend Dumfries Academy for six 
 weeks. As a result of his earnest endeavor
 
 JOHN G. PA TOM J$ 
 
 to keep up his studies since leaving the 
 parish school, he was able now as a young 
 man to obtain a position as district visitor 
 and tract distributer of the West Campbell 
 Street Reformed Presbyterian Church in 
 Glasgow, with the privilege of attending 
 the Free Church Normal Seminary. There 
 were two applicants for the position ; and as 
 the trustees could not decide between them, 
 they offered to let them work together and 
 divide the salary, which was ^50 a year. 
 
 Paton's health failed him, and he returned 
 home. After recovering fully he returned 
 to Glasgow, where he had a hard struggle 
 with poverty. At one time, having no 
 money, he secured a place as teacher of 
 the Mary Hill Free School. This school 
 had a bad reputation, many teachers hav- 
 ing been forced to leave it because of 
 trouble with the scholars. Paton managed 
 by force of kindness to make friends of all 
 the pupils ; and when he finally left, the 
 school was in a more prosperous condition 
 than it had ever been before. 
 
 After leaving the school, he took a posi-
 
 74 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 tion as a worker in the Glasgow city mis- 
 sion. In this work he was remarkably 
 successful. For ten years he was engaged 
 in these labors, keeping up the study of 
 theology all the time. Then, hearing that 
 a helper was wanted to join the Rev. John 
 Inglis in the New Hebrides, he offered him- 
 self and was accepted. This step was dis- 
 tasteful to many, who insisted that there 
 were heathen enough at home ; but, as Pa- 
 ton says, those who spoke thus invariably 
 neglected the home heathen themselves. 
 On the 1 6th of April, 1858, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Paton set sail from Scotland in the Clutha 
 for New Hebrides. 
 
 They stopped a few days at Melbourne, 
 and from there sailed for Aneityum, the 
 most southern of the New Hebrides. In 
 twelve days they arrived off Aneityum ; but 
 the captain, a profane and hard-hearted 
 man, refused to land them, and the landing 
 was made with great difficulty, with the 
 help of Dr. Geddie, in mission boats. 
 They decided to settle on the eastern shore 
 of Tanna, a small island a few miles north
 
 JOHN G. PATON. f$ 
 
 of Aneityum, which was inhabited by fero- 
 cious savages. Mr. and Mrs. Mathieson, 
 co-laborers with them, settled on the north- 
 western shore of the same island. 
 
 The natives on Tanna were sunk to the 
 lowest depths of heathenism, going about 
 with no covering save an apron and paint 
 having no ideas of right or wrong, wor- 
 shipping and fearing numerous gods, liv- 
 ing in a continual dread of evil spirits, 
 constantly fighting among themselves, and 
 always eating the bodies of the slain such 
 were the creatures whom Paton and his 
 wife hoped to bring to a knowledge of the 
 gospel. 
 
 They landed on Tanna the 5th of No- 
 vember, 1858. On the 1 5th of February, 
 1859, a child was born to them. Mrs. 
 Paton's health from this time on was very 
 feeble, and on March 3d she died of a 
 sudden attack of pneumonia. Unaided 
 and alone, the bereaved husband buried 
 his beloved wife. Over her body he placed 
 a mound of stones, making it as attractive 
 as he could, and then with a heavy heart
 
 76 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 turned to his work. Soon after the child, 
 a boy, followed the mother. These two 
 sorrows came as a terrible blow to Paton, 
 and for some time he was prostrated. He 
 rallied, however, and began to work hard 
 and steadily to enlighten those poor sav- 
 ages, who upon every occasion robbed and 
 abused him. 
 
 Mr. Paton, writing of this period, says: 
 " On beholding these natives in their paint 
 and nakedness and misery, my heart was 
 as full of horror as of pity. Had I given 
 up my much-beloved work and my dear 
 people in Glasgow, with so many delight- 
 ful associates, to consecrate my life to these 
 degraded creatures? Was it possible to 
 teach them right and wrong, to Christianize 
 or even to civilize them ? But that was 
 only a passing feeling. I soon got as 
 deeply interested in them, and all that 
 tended to advance them, and to lead them 
 to the knowledge of Jesus, as ever I had 
 been in my work in Glasgow." 
 
 The greatest opposition to his work was 
 occasioned by the godless traders on the
 
 JOHN G. PA TON. 77 
 
 island, who caused more trouble than did 
 the natives themselves. These traders did 
 not relish the idea of the natives being 
 taught the gospel, for they feared to lose 
 their influence over them. They incited 
 the different tribes to fight with each other, 
 and then sold arms to the contestants. 
 They stirred up bad feeling against the 
 missionaries, and urged the natives to 
 either kill or drive them away. 
 
 From the time he landed until he left 
 Tanna, Paton was in continual danger of 
 losing his life. Again and again armed 
 bands came to his house at night to kill 
 him. He himself said that he knew of 
 fifty times when his life was in imminent 
 danger, and his escape was due solely to 
 the grace of God. Only once did he re- 
 sort to force, or rather the appearance of 
 force. A cannibal entered his house, and 
 would have killed him, had he not raised 
 an empty pistol, at sight of which the cow- 
 ardly fellow fled. 
 
 The feeling toward him became so hos- 
 tile that he was obliged at last to leave his
 
 78 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 house, and take refuge in the village of a 
 friendly chief named Nowar. Here he 
 prepared to leave that part of the island, 
 and sail around to Mr. Mathieson's station. 
 He secured a canoe, but when he went to 
 launch it he found there were no paddles. 
 After he had managed to get these, the 
 chief Arkurat refused to let him go. Hav- 
 ing prevailed upon the vacillating savage 
 to consent, he finally sailed away with his 
 three native helpers and a boy. The wind 
 and waves, however, forced them to put 
 back, and after five hours of hard rowing 
 they returned to the spot they had left. 
 The only way left now was to walk over- 
 land. He got a friendly native to show 
 him the path, and after escaping death 
 most miraculously on the way, arrived at 
 Mr. Mathieson's. Here they were still 
 persecuted. At one time the mission 
 buildings were fired, but a tornado which 
 suddenly came up extinguished the flames. 
 On the day following, the ship which had 
 been sent to rescue them arrived and they 
 embarked. Thus Paton had to abandon
 
 JOHN. G. PA TON. 79 
 
 his work on Tanna, after toiling there over 
 three years. 
 
 For a time he sought needed rest and 
 change in Australia, where he presented 
 the cause of missions to the churches. 
 On many occasions he came into contact 
 with the aborigines of that continent, and 
 on every occasion his love for missionary 
 work was exhibited. At one time, when 
 a crowd of savages crazed with rum 
 were fighting among themselves, he went 
 among them, and by his quiet and persist- 
 ent coaxing, managed to get them all to 
 lie down and sleep off the effects of the 
 spirits. 
 
 From Australia, Paton went to Scotland. 
 He travelled all over the country, speaking 
 in behalf of the mission. While in Scot- 
 land he married Margaret Whitecross, a 
 woman well fitted to be the wife and 
 helper of such a man. Leaving Scotland 
 in the latter part of 1864, they arrived in 
 the New Hebrides in the early part of 
 1865. 
 
 In 1866 they settled on Aniwa, an
 
 80 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 island near Tanna. The old Tannese 
 chief, Nowar, who had always been 
 friendly to Paton, was very anxious to 
 have him settle on Tanna. Seeing that 
 this was impossible, Nowar took from his 
 arm the white shells, insignia of chieftain- 
 ship, and binding them to the arm of a 
 visiting Aniwan chief, said: "By these you 
 promise to protect my missionary and his 
 wife and child on Aniwa. Let no evil 
 befall them, or by this pledge I and my 
 people will avenge it." This act of the old 
 chief did much to insure the future safety 
 of Paton and his family. 
 
 Aniwa is a small island, only nine miles 
 long by three and one-half wide. There 
 is a scarcity of rain, but the heavy dews 
 and moist atmosphere keep the land cov- 
 ered with verdure. The natives were like 
 those on Tanna, although they spoke a dif- 
 ferent language. 
 
 They were well received by the natives, 
 who escorted them to their temporary 
 abode, and watched them at their meals. 
 The first duty was to build a house. An
 
 JOffAT G. PA TON. 8 1 
 
 elevated site was purchased, where it was 
 afterward learned all the bones and refuse 
 of the Aniwan cannibal feast, for years, 
 had been buried. The natives probably 
 thought that, when they disturbed these, 
 the missionary and his helpers would drop 
 dead. In building the house, an incident 
 occurred which afterward proved of great 
 benefit to Paton. One day, having need 
 of some nails and tools, he picked up a 
 chip and wrote a few words on it. Hand- 
 ing it to an old chief, he told him to take 
 it to Mrs. Paton. When the chief saw her 
 look at the chip and then get the things 
 needed, he was filled with amazement. 
 From that time on he took great inter- 
 est in the work of the mission, and when 
 the Bible was being translated into the 
 Aniwa language he rendered invaluable 
 aid. 
 
 Another chief, with his two sons, visited 
 the mission-house and was much inter- 
 ested ; but when they were returning 
 home, one of his sons became very ill. 
 Of course he thought the missionary was
 
 82 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 to blame, and threatened to kill the latter ; 
 but when, by the use of proper medicine, 
 Paton brought the boy back to health 
 again, the chief went to the opposite ex- 
 treme, and was ever afterward a most 
 devoted helper. 
 
 The first convert on Aniwa was the chief 
 Mamokei. He often came to drink tea 
 with the missionary family, and afterward 
 brought with him chief Naswai and his 
 wife ; and all three were soon converted. 
 Mamokei brought his little daughter to be 
 educated in the mission. Many orphan 
 children were also put under their care, 
 and often these little children warned them 
 of plots against their lives. 
 
 In the early part of the work on Aniwa, 
 an incident happened which was amusing 
 as well as romantic. A young Aniwan 
 was in love with a young widow, living 
 in an island village. Unfortunately, there 
 were thirty other young men who also 
 were suitors ; and as the one who married 
 her would probably be killed by the others, 
 none dared to venture, After consulting
 
 JOHN G. PATON: 83 
 
 with Paton, the young man went to her 
 village at night and stole away with her. 
 The others were furious, but were pacified 
 by Paton, who made them believe she 
 was not worth troubling themselves over. 
 After three weeks had passed, the young 
 man came out of hiding, and asked per- 
 mission to bring her to the mission-house, 
 which was granted. The next day she 
 appeared in time for services. As the dis- 
 tinguishing feature of a Christian on An- 
 iwa is that he wears more clothing than 
 the heathen native, and as this young lady 
 wished to show very plainly in what direc- 
 tion her sympathies extended, she appeared 
 on the scene clad in a variety and abun- 
 dance of clothing which it would be hard to 
 equal. It was mostly European, at least. 
 Over her native grass skirt she wore a 
 man's drab-colored great-coat, sweeping 
 over her heels. Over this was a vest, and 
 on her head was a pair of trousers, one 
 leg trailing over each shoulder. On one 
 shoulder, also, was a red shirt, on the 
 other a striped one; and, last of all, a
 
 84 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 red shirt was twisted around her head as 
 a turban. 
 
 Many stories might be told illustrating 
 the results of the early efforts of the mis- 
 sionary, but we pass on to that of the sink- 
 ing of the well. As has already been said, 
 there is little rain on Aniwa. The juice of 
 the cocoanut is largely used by the natives 
 in place of drinking-water. Paton resolved 
 to sink a well, much to the astonishment 
 of the natives, who, when he explained his 
 plan to them, thought him crazy. He be- 
 gan to dig ; and the friendly old chief kept 
 men near him all the time, for fear he 
 would take his own life, for they thought 
 surely he must have gone mad. He man- 
 aged to get some of the natives to help him, 
 paying them in fish-hooks ; but when the 
 depth of twelve feet was reached the sides 
 of the excavation caved in, and after that 
 no native would enter it. Paton then con- 
 structed a derrick ; and they finally con- 
 sented to help pull up the loaded pails, 
 while he dug. Day after day he toiled, 
 till the hole was thirty feet deep. Still no
 
 JOHN G. PATOtf. 85 
 
 water was found. That day he said to the 
 old chief, " I think Jehovah God will give 
 us water to-morrow from that hole." But 
 the chief said they expected to see him fall 
 through into the sea. Next morning he 
 sunk a small hole in the bottom of the well, 
 and from this hole there spurted a stream 
 of water. Filling the jug with the water, 
 he passed it round to the natives, telling 
 them to examine and taste it. They were 
 so awe-stricken that not one dared look 
 over the edge into the well. At last they 
 formed a line, holding each other by the 
 hand, and first one looked over, then the 
 next, etc., till all had seen the water in 
 the well. When they were told that they 
 all could use the water from that well, the 
 old chief exclaimed, " Missi, what can we 
 do to help you now ? " He directed them 
 to bring coral rock to line the well with, 
 which they did with a will. That was the 
 beginning of a new era on Aniwa. The 
 following Sunday the chief preached a ser- 
 mon on the well. In the days that followed 
 multitudes of natives brought their idols to
 
 86 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 the mission, where they were destroyed 
 Henceforth Christianity gained a perma- 
 nent foothold on the island. 
 
 In 1869 the first communion was held, 
 twelve out of twenty applicants being ad- 
 mitted to the church. In speaking of his 
 emotions during the first communion, Paton 
 says, " I shall never taste a deeper bliss 
 until I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus 
 himself." 
 
 In 1884 he returned to Scotland, his 
 main object being to secure ,6,000 for a 
 mission-ship. He addressed many assem- 
 blages of different kinds, and succeeded in 
 getting not only the ,6,000 required, but 
 ,3,000 beside. He returned to Aniwa in 
 1886, and continued his work. 
 
 Recently he again visited England, and 
 also the United States. He is now back 
 on Aniwa Aniwa, no longer a savage 
 island, but by the grace of God a Christian 
 land. There he expects to remain till sum- 
 moned to his reward before the heavenly 
 throne. 
 
 In this sketch an attempt has been made
 
 JOHN. G. PA TON. 8/ 
 
 to give only a brief account of the work of 
 this great missionary. No adequate idea 
 can be given of his untiring zeal, his for- 
 getfulness of self, and his simple faith in 
 God. It is probable that no one has ever 
 visited America in the interest of foreign 
 missions who has made so deep an impres- 
 sion of the triumphs of the gospel among 
 vicious and degraded peoples as has the 
 eminent missionary hero, John G. Paton.
 
 ALEXANDER M. MACK AY. 
 
 Missionary to Uganda. 
 BORN OCT. 13, 1849; DIED FEB. 8, 1890.
 
 ALEXANDER M. MACKAY. 
 
 GREEK and Roman, Arab, Turk, and 
 Christian pioneer, at various times, and ac- 
 tuated by different purposes, have wended 
 their ways into the unknown land of the 
 Dark Continent ; and Africa for ages has 
 been the scene of thrilling adventure, per- 
 ilous labor, and sublime life-sacrifice. 
 
 Livingstone, Speke, Gordon, Stanley, 
 Hannington, and others, are numbered 
 among the world's heroes; and conspicu- 
 ous upon this roll of noble men must now 
 be written the name of Alexander M. 
 Mackay. 
 
 Born Oct. 13, 1849, m tne little village 
 of Rhynie, Aberdeen County, Scotland, in 
 his father's home, the Free Church 
 Manse, Mr. Mackay was at once blessed 
 with a godly upbringing in the midst of 
 91
 
 92 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 intellectual surroundings. Mr. Mackay's 
 father was a man of great literary ability, 
 and for fourteen years carefully carried on 
 the daily instruction of his boy. At three 
 years of age Alexander Mackay read the 
 New Testament with ease, and at seven 
 his text-books were Milton's " Paradise 
 Lost," Russell's " History of Modern Eu- 
 rope," Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of the 
 Roman Empire," and Robertson's " His- 
 tory of the Discovery of America." 
 
 He was his father's constant companion 
 in his walks ; and stories are now told of 
 the villagers' wonder at seeing the boy 
 often " stop to look for something in the 
 road ; " while from point of fact he was 
 watching his father's stick trace the sup- 
 posed course of the Zambesi River, or out- 
 line the demonstrating of a proposition in 
 Euclid. Letters were frequently received 
 at the Manse from Hugh Miller, Sir 
 Roderick Murchison, and other eminent 
 scholars, all of which were read and talked 
 about in the family circle ; and in these 
 ways the boy's mind rapidly developed.
 
 ALEXANDER M. MAC KAY. 93 
 
 At ten years of age he had great skill 
 in map- making, and wonderful dexterity in 
 type-setting ; and very accurate were the 
 proof-sheets turned out from his little 
 printing-press. 
 
 In 1864 he entered the grammar school 
 at Aberdeen, and here he worked well ; he 
 seldom joined the excursions of the young 
 people, but preferred to become initiated 
 in art photography, or to watch the work- 
 men in the great shipyards. And thus 
 from different sources practical knowledge 
 of many things was by him early acquired. 
 
 In 1865 Mackay sustained a great loss 
 in the death of his mother, whose part- 
 ing injunction, to " Search the Scriptures," 
 became a duty, always continued. In the 
 fall of 1867 Mackay entered the Free 
 Church Training School for Teachers, in 
 Edinburgh ; and there he won the admira- 
 tion of pupils and teachers by his scholarly 
 ability for two years, and then entered the 
 Edinburgh University for a three years' 
 course in classics, applied mechanics, higher 
 mathematics, and natural philosophy, fol-
 
 94 GREAT MISSIONARIES, 
 
 lowed by a year's study of surveying and for- 
 tification with Lieutenant Mackie, Professor 
 of Engineering. For two years (1870- 
 72), while Secretary of the Engineering So- 
 ciety, and tutor each morning at George 
 Watson's College, Mackay daily took the 
 tram-car to Leith, and spent his afternoons 
 in model-making, and in turning, fitting, 
 and erecting machinery in the engineering 
 works of Messrs. Miller and Herbert. His 
 evenings were employed in attending lec- 
 tures on chemistry and geology at the 
 School of Arts and other places. Sundays 
 he gave to regular attendance at religious 
 services, and to teaching in Dr. Guthrie's 
 Original Ragged School. 
 
 In November, 1873, Mackay went to Ger- 
 many to study the language, and at once 
 secured a good position as draughtsman in 
 the Berlin Union Engineering Co. While 
 thus employed, he spent his evenings in 
 translating Llibsen's " Differential and In- 
 tegral Calculus," and in inventing an agri- 
 cultural machine, which obtained the first 
 prize at the exhibition of steam-engines
 
 ALEXANDER M. MAC KAY. 95 
 
 held at Breslau. The directors of the com- 
 pany, recognizin Mackay's ability, soon 
 made him chief of the locomotive depart- 
 ment. 
 
 In May, 1874, Mackay became a board- 
 ing member in the family of Herr Hofpre- 
 diger Baur, one of the ministers at the 
 cathedral, and one of the chaplains ; and 
 in this cultured and pious home Mackay 
 derived many advantages, and met once 
 a week at the Bible readings, the elite 
 of the Christian society of Berlin, among 
 whom were Grafin von Arnim, sister of 
 Prince Bismarck, and Graf and Grafin Eg- 
 loffstein,who gave great interest to Mackay's 
 later labors. 
 
 At this time Herr Hofprediger Baur was 
 actively engaged in a German translation 
 of the life of Bishop Patteson ; and this 
 work, together with the Professor's sympa- 
 thy, proved a stimulus to the decision 
 Mackay had already made to devote his life 
 to missionary work ; this decision having 
 been arrived at after reading his sister's 
 account of Dr. Burns Thompson's urgent
 
 g6 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 appeal to young men to go to Madagascar. 
 With Mackay to decide was to act ; but as 
 he could not at once enter the field as 
 clergyman or doctor, he determined to do 
 so as engineering missionary (a most prac- 
 tical and far-sighted determination) ; and, 
 blessed with his father's sanction, he offered 
 his services to the London Missionary So- 
 ciety, but was answered that Madagascar 
 "was not yet ripe for his assistance." At 
 this time Mackay received an offer of part- 
 nership in a large engineering firm in Mos- 
 cow, which without hesitation he refused, 
 believing an opening for him in mission- 
 work would soon be found. 
 
 In 1875 t ^ ie Daily Telegraph published 
 Stanley's famous letter " challenging Chris- 
 tendom to send missionaries to Uganda ; " 
 and the Church Missionary Society gladly 
 accepted Mackay's offer of service in their 
 future mission to the Victoria Nyanza. 
 Early in March, Mackay returned to Eng- 
 land ; and in the development of plans 
 the Church Missionary Society determined 
 to combine the industrial with the religious
 
 ALEXANDER M. MAC KAY. 97 
 
 element, and sanctioned the purchase of a 
 light cedar boat for navigation, and also 
 appropriated three hundred pounds for a 
 portable engine and boiler to be fitted into 
 a wooden boat to be built by the missiona- 
 ries on the Nyanza. Many weary days 
 Mackay gave to finding, in London, an 
 engineer who would build an engine on 
 the principle of welded rings, each light 
 enough to be transported by two men. 
 But finally an engine after his own design 
 was built, and tools of all kinds were ready 
 for the enterprise ; and on the 2/th of 
 April, 1876, in a company of eight, Mackay 
 left England in the Peshawur, and arrived 
 at Zanzibar May 29. 
 
 To facilitate the journey to the great 
 lake, the mission party intended to sail up 
 the Wami River, and on the i2th of June 
 Mackay and Lieutenant Smith started in 
 the Daisy on a voyage of exploration, but, 
 after many days of hardship, they found 
 both the Wami and Kingani Rivers un- 
 navigable, and were obliged to proceed in- 
 land on foot. At Ugogo, in November,
 
 98 ORE A T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Mackay, who had charge of the third sec- 
 tion of the caravan, was taken seriously ill, 
 and was obliged to return to the coast, 
 where he was instructed by the Church 
 Missionary Society to delay starting for 
 the interior until June, 1877. He em- 
 ployed the intervening time in sending a 
 relief caravan to his brethren on the lake, 
 and in cutting a good road to Mpwapa, 
 two hundred and thirty miles inland. 
 
 March, 1878, Mackay heard of the mur- 
 der of Lieutenant Smith and Mr. O'Neill, 
 who had reached the lake months before, 
 and hurried with all speed to the scene of 
 the disaster, the island of Ukerewe, hop- 
 ing by friendly intervention to prevent 
 further bloodshed. 
 
 June 13 he arrived at Kagei, and had 
 his first glimpse of the great lake. With 
 joy he realized that the worst part of his 
 journey was over. Piled together in a hut, 
 Mackay found much of the valuable prop- 
 erty conveyed to this point by the first sec- 
 tions of the expedition, and left in charge 
 of the natives. Heaped together lay boiler-
 
 ALEXANDER M. MACKAY. 99 
 
 shells and books, papers and piston-rods, 
 steam-pipes and stationery, printers' types, 
 saws, and garden-seed, tins of bacon and 
 bags of clothes, portable forges and boiler- 
 fittings, here a cylinder, there its sole plate. 
 
 " Ten days' hard work from dawn to 
 dark, and," Mackay wrote, " the engines 
 for our steamer stand complete to the last 
 screw; the boiler is ready to be riveted, 
 tools and types have separate boxes, and 
 rust and dust are thrown out of doors. It 
 seems a miracle that I find almost every- 
 thing complete, even to its smallest be- 
 longing, after a tedious voyage of seven 
 hundred miles." The Daisy, rebuilt by 
 O'Neill, but now greatly damaged, em- 
 ployed Mackay's attention ; and setting up 
 his rotary grindstone, to the wonderment 
 of the natives, he patched the sides and 
 calked the seams, and made the boat 
 again seaworthy. 
 
 After his great labor in repairs, Mackay, 
 in spite of danger to himself, visited Uke- 
 rewe, and with tactful courage held a 
 friendly visit with King Lkonge. After
 
 100 GREAT MISSIONARIES, 
 
 this visit Mackay was a victim of dysen- 
 tery ; but at length, joined by Mr. Wilson, 
 and favored with a good breeze, he sailed 
 in the Daisy for Uganda. Four days of 
 fine sailing, and then they were wrecked ; 
 and eight weeks of hard labor was given 
 to making a new boat out of the Daisy. 
 
 Mackay finally reached Rubaga, the 
 capital of Uganda, Nov. 6. A friendly in- 
 terview was at once had with King Mtesa, 
 who had told Stanley to send the " white 
 men," and for a time affairs at court went 
 smoothly. Mtesa and his subjects were 
 much interested by accounts of railways, 
 electricity, astronomy, and physiology ; and 
 Mackay gained great influence by his me- 
 chanical skill, which caused wonder and 
 admiration. 
 
 Mtesa appeared very anxious to hear 
 more about the Christian religion to which 
 Stanley had introduced him, and every 
 Sunday religious services were held at 
 court. From the first, the Arabs who 
 centred in Rubaga were jealous of Mac- 
 kay, fearing his influence would overthrow
 
 ALEXANDER M. MACKAY. IOI 
 
 the slave traffic, which brought them here 
 as elsewhere in Africa. They used all 
 means to turn Mtesa against the white 
 man, the most potent of which were the 
 rich presents, including fire-arms, pre- 
 sented to the king. 
 
 The Arabs were no more formidable 
 enemies to Mackay than were the Roman 
 Catholic missionaries, who came soon after 
 his arrival, confusing Mtesa with their 
 claims to the true religion, and instituting 
 a cruel persecution against the Protestants. 
 
 In April, 1880, Mackay, finding his store 
 of goods nearly exhausted by the thieving 
 of Mtesa's chiefs, went to Uyui for sup- 
 plies, and during this trip barely escaped 
 being murdered by the natives. At this 
 time Mtesa turned entirely away from the 
 teachings which Mackay and his friends 
 had labored for two years to inculcate, 
 two years of labor, poverty, danger, and 
 ofttimes threatened starvation, Mackay 
 keeping his comrades alive by the sale of 
 articles made by himself in his workshop. 
 
 " Besides teaching his pupils reading,
 
 102 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 writing, and arithmetic, Mackay gave them 
 daily lessons " in building and designing. 
 He built a house for the mission party, 
 which was a source of wonder to all, and 
 caused Mtesa to ask instruction for the 
 natives in wood and iron ; and when Mac- 
 kay asked a piece of ground to build huts 
 on, he at once gave him twenty acres. 
 To the natives Mackay's most wonderful 
 achievement was a cart painted red and 
 blue, and drawn by oxen. 
 
 From time to time Mackay's great work 
 was supplemented by co-laborers sent by 
 the Church Missionary Society ; and in 
 March, 1881, his heart was delighted 
 by the baptism of five converts by Mr. 
 O'Flaherty. Early in 1883 the Rev. E. 
 C. Gordon and Mr. Wise joined Mackay ; 
 in May of the same year the Rev. R. P. 
 Ashe arrived, and the prospects of the 
 Mission were most encouraging until Oc- 
 tober, 1884, when Mtesa died. 
 
 The king's son, Mwanga, succeeded to 
 the throne a youth with all his father's 
 vices and none of his virtues ; and a reign
 
 ALEXANDER M. MACK AY. 1 03 
 
 of blood and terror followed, beginning 1 
 with the burning of two Christian lads, 
 who met their death with songs of praise, 
 and were the first martyrs to the faith in 
 Uganda. The storm of persecution spent 
 its full force in October, 1885, when news 
 reached the king that white men had come 
 by the Masai route, and were entering 
 Uganda by the " back door." Orders were 
 sent to kill the whole party. Prevented 
 from leaving the court, Ashe and Mackay 
 awaited in dread suspense, which gave way 
 to despair, when news of Bishop Hanning- 
 ton's death was confirmed. In the months 
 that followed, lives of missionaries and con- 
 verts were in constant danger; still the 
 gospel spread, and young men came daily 
 to the mission house for translated copies. 
 In May, 1886, thirty of the missionaries' 
 faithful converts were slowly burned alive. 
 Mackay was now anxious to get out of the 
 country, but was refused permission to 
 leave. New missionaries with presents 
 would have bought his escape ; but he 
 would not write for men to come to
 
 IO4 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Uganda in the disturbed condition of af- 
 fairs, so bravely stayed on, even after he 
 had unselfishly obtained leave for Ashe 
 to go. 
 
 Alone, weary in soul and body, his life 
 in imminent danger, Mackay worked early 
 and late in translating and printing the 
 Scriptures. News of the Emin Pasha ex- 
 pedition reached the king ; and warned by 
 French priests that Stanley and Mackay 
 would put their heads together to " eat the 
 country," Mwanga decided that Mackay 
 must leave Uganda. Arranging that Mr. 
 Gordon should come to care for the con- 
 verts, who were only comforted by his as- 
 surances that he was but going to the south 
 of the lake, Mackay turned away from the 
 country where he had spent nine eventful 
 years, years of deep experiences, of toils 
 and privations ; years that had silvered his 
 hair and calmed the restless impulses of his 
 youth ; but his watchword was unchanged 
 "Africa for Christ." 
 
 After much weary wandering, Mackay 
 fell in with a friendly chief in the land of
 
 ALEXANDER M. MAC KAY. 1O5 
 
 Usambiro ; and here, single-handed^and 
 alone, he began the great work of 
 mission station. A band of five 
 headed by Bishop Parker, and incl 
 his old friend and fellow worker, Ash, 
 soon came to cheer his lonely life. A few% 
 happy weeks together then Bishop Par- 
 ker and Mr. Blackburn died of fever; 
 Mr. Walker went to Uganda; Mr. Ashe 
 was compelled to return home on account 
 of bad health ; Mackay was again alone. 
 
 And again this all-round missionary set 
 himself to the work of teaching, translat- 
 ing, printing, binding, doctoring, and build- 
 ing ; and in the midst of these many and 
 arduous labors, he found time to give to the 
 world practical suggestions, now being car- 
 ried out; viz., " Stations all over Uganda," 
 and, " a railway from the coast to the 
 lake." 
 
 In September, 1889, Stanley visited 
 Mackay on his return to the coast, and 
 " In Darkest Africa " gives with unstinted 
 praise an account of the mission station, 
 with its clay-built house "garnished with
 
 106 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 missionary pictures, and shelves filled with 
 choice, useful books, its hospitable table 
 with wholesome food (home-made bread 
 and coffee) ; the mission-school of neat, 
 well-mannered boys, a launch's boiler, and 
 a canoe under construction, saw-pits, and 
 cattle-fold, all the work of " the best mis- 
 sionary since Livingstone." 
 
 Stanley and his party urged Mackay to 
 join the homeward expedition, but with 
 characteristic fidelity he refused to leave 
 until some one came to take his place. 
 " European platforms and royal recep- 
 tions" were never his; but Feb. 8, 1890, 
 his tireless energy rested, and the title- 
 deeds of his labor were recorded, in divine 
 Presence, upon the brow of every con- 
 verted black in Uganda.
 
 ROBERT M OFF AT. 
 
 Missionary in Africa. 
 BORN DEC. 21, 1795; DIED AUG. 10, 1883.
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 
 
 " From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, 
 
 That makes her loved at home, revered abroad ; 
 Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, 
 ' An honest man's the noblest work of God ; ' 
 And certes, in fair Virtue's heavenly road, 
 The cottage leaves the palace far behind." 
 
 LOOKING backward, Robert Moffat could 
 clearly trace the trend of his life's pur- 
 poses to the gentle but unconscious influ- 
 ence of his mother, who, in the little 
 cottage home at Carronshore, Scotland, 
 gathered her lads around the fireside on 
 winter nights, while she read aloud accounts 
 of missionary labors in heathen lands. 
 Born Dec. 21, 1795, Robert had few 
 educational advantages ; and, living in the 
 midst of shipping, he early turned from 
 "Wully Mitchell's" teaching of the 
 109
 
 1 1 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 " Shorter Catechism," and " went to sea." 
 In the peril of wind and waves many dan- 
 gers were mentioned by him, and hair- 
 breadth escapes chronicled ; but to his 
 parents' joy he gave up nautical pursuits, 
 and entered school at Falkirk. 
 
 When but fourteen years old he was ap- 
 prenticed to a gardener. His work was 
 laborious, and his comforts scanty; yet 
 withal he attended an evening school, and 
 learned something of Latin and mensura- 
 tion. Two years later he was employed as 
 under gardener by Mr. Leigh, of High 
 Leigh, Cheshire ; and there, at the meet- 
 ings of the Wesleyan Methodists, Robert 
 became converted. Soon after his conver- 
 sion some duty took him to Warrington, 
 six miles distant ; and as he crossed the 
 bridge to the town, he saw a placard an- 
 nouncing a missionary meeting, to be held 
 under the direction of the Rev. Wm. Roby 
 of Manchester. Thoughts of his mother's 
 reading, in the long ago, flooded his mem- 
 ory ; and the determination to devote his 
 life to missionary work was instantly
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. Ill 
 
 formed. Later, an interview with Mr. 
 Roby resulted in Moffat accepting a po- 
 sition in Mr. Smith's nursery garden, at 
 Durkinfield, near Manchester ; and then he 
 began to prepare himself for the mission- 
 field under the care of Mr. Roby. While 
 thus at work, Robert became engaged to 
 his employer's daughter, Mary Smith. 
 . A year later Robert Moffat went to 
 Manchester for a few months of college 
 training, and then accepted a position un- 
 der the London Missionary Society, and 
 with four co-laborers sailed for South 
 Africa, Oct. 18, 1816. Cape Town was 
 reached Jan. 13, 1817; and while waiting 
 for a passport from the government to go 
 into the interior, Moffat boarded in a farm- 
 er's family at Stellenbosch, and passed his 
 time in acquiring the Dutch language, 
 which enabled him to preach to the Boers. 
 In September, in company with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Kichingman, Moffat, in charge of a 
 long trail of wagons drawn by oxen, started 
 for the Namaqualand Mission. The natives 
 at this station were ruled by Africaner, an
 
 1 1 2 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 outlaw, and a terror to the farmers of the 
 colony, but friendly to the English. After 
 a dreary march, during which many of the 
 oxen became prey to the hyenas, the band 
 of missionaries reached Bysondermeid. 
 Here Robert Moffat remained with the 
 Kichingmans for a month, and then, aided 
 by a guide, proceeded to the interior. The 
 way inland lay through a trackless desert. 
 Here the oxen became so exhausted, a halt 
 was called before water could be reached, 
 and Moffat was obliged to send to Mr. 
 Bartlett at Pella for oxen accustomed to 
 travel in deep sand. "Three days," says 
 Robert Moffat, " I remained with my wagon- 
 driver on this burning plain, with scarcely 
 a breath of wind, and what there was felt 
 as if coming from the mouth of an oven." 
 Jan. 26, 1818, the train reached Afri- 
 caner's kraal, and received a warm welcome 
 from Mr. Ebner, who, a few days after, was 
 obliged to depart, leaving Robert Moffat, 
 a stranger in the midst of a strange people ; 
 but the heart of the young missionary 
 was soon cheered by the regular attendance
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 113 
 
 of Africaner at the religious services, and 
 his conversion was followed by two of his 
 brothers, who became such efficient assist- 
 ants in the school and mission services that 
 Moffat was soon able to undertake itinerat- 
 ing visits. These journeys were frequently 
 attended by dangers and privations, and 
 an indomitable will alone sustained life. 
 
 Two trips, to find a more healthful loca- 
 tion for the mission, were unsuccessfully 
 made ; and for twelve months Moffat lived 
 and labored at Namaqualand as missionary, 
 as carpenter, smith, cooper, shoemaker, 
 miller, baker, and housekeeper. 
 
 In 1819 Moffat decided to visit Cape 
 Town for supplies, and to introduce Afri- 
 caner to the notice of the Colonial Gov- 
 ernment. To get the outlaw through the 
 territories of the Dutch farmers, where his 
 former atrocities were not forgotten, re- 
 quired nerveful tact, but was successfully 
 done, and Africaner was cordially welcomed 
 by the governor at Cape Town. Moffat 
 had intended to return to Namaqualand, 
 but yielded to the wish of the London
 
 1 14 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Missionary Society deputation then at 
 Cape Town, to accompany them in their 
 visits to missionary stations, and later to 
 accept a mission at the Bechwana station. 
 Africaner, hoping to move his tribe to 
 Moffat's new station, journeyed home 
 alone, conveying" in his wagon, presented 
 by the governor, many of the effects des- 
 tined for the future field. The deputa- 
 tion, after visiting stations in the eastern 
 part of the colony and at Kafirland, were 
 barred from further progress by war, and 
 returned to Cape Town. Here, on the 2 7th 
 of December, 1819, Robert Moffat received 
 his affianced wife, and soon after her arri- 
 val they were married. 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1820, the 
 Moffats, with the Rev. John Campbell, 
 started for the Bechwana station at Latta- 
 koo, but were detained at Griqua Town for 
 several months ; and here was born their 
 daughter Mary, afterwards the wife of Dr. 
 Livingstone. 
 
 In May, 1821, Mr. and Mrs. Moffat ar- 
 rived at Lattakoo, and commenced their
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 1 1 $ 
 
 work among a people who were " thor- 
 oughly sensual, and who could rob, lie, and 
 murder without any compunctions of con- 
 science, as long as success attended their 
 efforts." 
 
 In 1822 Moffat wrote : " They turn a deaf 
 ear to the voice of love, and scorn the 
 doctrines of salvation, but affairs in general 
 assume a more hopeful aspect. They have 
 in several instances relinquished the bar- 
 barous system of commandoes for stealing 
 cattle. They have also dispensed with a 
 rain-maker this season." 
 
 A little later in the same year, Robert 
 Moffat said, " Mary, this is hard work, and 
 no fruit yet appears ; " and his wife wisely 
 answered, " The gospel has not yet been 
 preached to them in their own tongue in 
 which they were born." From that time 
 Moffat devoted himself to the acquisition 
 of the language, and for that purpose he 
 often visited tribes remote from his station. 
 
 No words can tell of the labors of 
 Robert and Mary Moffat in these early 
 days. In addition to privations, discour-
 
 1 1 6 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 agements, and loss of property, their lives 
 were often in danger. Once, when no rain 
 fell, these missionaries were accused of 
 causing the drought, and at the point of the 
 spear were told to leave the land. Throw- 
 ing open his waistcoat, Robert Moffat said 
 (fortified by the courage of his wife, who 
 stood at the door of their cottage with her 
 baby in her arms), " If you will, drive your 
 spear to my heart. We know you will 
 not touch our wives and children." The 
 would-be murderers turned away, saying, 
 "These men must have ten lives, when 
 they are so fearless of death." The good 
 will of the tribe was at last gained by the 
 able efforts of the missionaries in planning 
 a defence against the Mantatees, who at- 
 tacked the station with murderous intent. 
 Deeply sensible of the kindness of the Mof- 
 fats, who might at this time have retired to 
 the colony, the Bechwanas gave their con- 
 sent to moving the station to a place eight 
 miles distant, at the source of the river 
 Kuruman. In view of proper remu- 
 neration, the Bechwana chiefs arranged
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 1 1 / 
 
 that two miles of the Kuruman Valley 
 should henceforth be the property of the 
 London Missionary Society, and that the 
 new station, " Kuruman," should here be 
 established. 
 
 Referring to this time, Robert Moffat 
 afterwards said : " Our situation during 
 the infancy of the new station, language 
 cannot describe. We were compelled to 
 work daily at every species of labor." 
 Notwithstanding all difficulties, this earnest 
 man made considerable progress towards 
 establishing a literature in the Sechwana 
 tongue. A spelling-book and catechism 
 were prepared, and sent to England to be 
 printed. In 1826, having moved into his 
 new dwelling, built of stone, and the 
 country being comparatively free from 
 danger, Moffat left his family, and went 
 for a time to live among the Barolongs, 
 that he might become proficient in the 
 Sechwana language. While among these 
 tribes, the missionary sought every oppor- 
 tunity to impart Christian instruction to 
 the people.
 
 1 1 8 GREA T MISSIONARIES, 
 
 Ten years the Moffats labored without 
 seeing any results, when suddenly, without 
 apparent cause, a great religious interest 
 arose among the natives ; the little chapel 
 became too small to hold the numbers who 
 came to receive the gospel. By voluntary 
 aid, a new building, fifty-one feet by six- 
 teen feet, with clay walls and thatched 
 roof, was erected, and served as school- 
 house and place of worship until the large 
 stone church was completed. A change of 
 habits instantly followed this awakening. 
 Mrs. Moffat was called upon to open a sew- 
 ing-school, and motley were the groups gath- 
 ered about her, all anxious to form garments 
 to wear, although jackets, trousers, and 
 gowns had never before adorned their forms. 
 
 When a friend at home wrote to Mary 
 Moffat, asking what could be sent her that 
 would be of use, the answer was, " Send a 
 Communion service ; it will be wanted." 
 At that time there were no converts and 
 no " glimmer of day." Three years later, 
 a hundred and twenty were present at 
 the table of the Lord, the first among the
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 1 1 9 
 
 Bechwanas ; and the day previous there 
 arrived a box which contained the Com- 
 munion vessels which the faith of Mrs. 
 Moffat had led her to ask for before there 
 was a single inquirer. 
 
 In the fall of 1829 two envoys came 
 from Mosilikatse, King of the Matabele, to 
 learn about the manners and teachings of 
 the white men. Later, Mr. Moffat visited 
 this tribe, was kindly received, and told to 
 them the story of the Resurrection. In 
 June, 1830, Moffat had finished the trans- 
 lation of St. Luke ; and to get this printed, 
 and to place their two eldest children at 
 school, Mr. and Mrs. Moffat went to Cape 
 Town. Here Robert Moffat acquired a fair 
 knowledge of printing, and applied himself 
 so assiduously to the work, that a severe 
 illness followed. This and the birth of an- 
 other daughter delayed the missionaries ; 
 but in June, 1831, they returned to Kuru- 
 man, and took with them an edition of St. 
 Luke, and a hymn-book in Sechwana, a 
 printing-press, and liberal subscriptions for 
 the erection of the mission-church, The
 
 I2O GREAT MISSIONARIES, 
 
 timber for this church was cut and col- 
 lected under supervision of Mr. Hamilton 
 and Mr. Edwards, two hundred and fifty 
 miles from the Kuruman Station, and 
 brought there in ox-teams. This church 
 was opened November, 1838, and nine 
 hundred people were in attendance at the 
 first service ; the following Sunday a hun- 
 dred and fifty members celebrated the 
 Lord's Supper. 
 
 In the spring of 1839 Robert Moffat 
 completed the translation of the New 
 Testament, and for purposes of printing 
 went to England with his wife, after an 
 absence of twenty-two years. During the 
 voyage another daughter was born to 
 them, and their son Jamie, six years old, 
 died. The Moffats received a very warm 
 welcome in England ; and at this time 
 " a wave of missionary enthusiasm " swept 
 over the country, and great was the 
 demand for Mr. Moffat to address pub- 
 lic meetings. While in England, it was 
 thought best to add the Psalms to the 
 Sechwana edition of the New Testament ;
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 121 
 
 and with characteristic energy, Moffat im- 
 mediately began the work of translating, 
 and sent to Ross and David Livingstone, 
 then at Bechwana Mission, six thousand 
 copies of the new work. Moffat then 
 wrote his well-known book, " Missionary 
 Labors and Scenes in South Africa ; " and 
 it was not until January, 1843, that he and 
 Mrs. Moffat sailed for Africa. The na- 
 tives at Kuruman received them with un- 
 bounded joy. 
 
 Soon after their return their eldest 
 daughter, Mary, was married to David 
 Livingstone, and went with him to Chon- 
 wane. Affairs at the Kuruman were now 
 very prosperous. Moffat worked steadily 
 at translation ; Mrs. Moffat, his faithful 
 helpmate, leaving him only to visit the 
 Livingstones and to go to Cape Town 
 with her youngest children, who were 
 going to England to be educated. In 
 1856 Moffat completed his translation of 
 the entire Bible, a work of thirty years. 
 
 " I felt it to be an awful thing," he says, 
 " to translate the Book of God. When I
 
 122 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 had finished the last verse, I could hardly 
 believe that I was in the world, so difficult 
 was it for me to realize that my work of 
 so many years was completed. A feeling 
 came over me as if I should die. . . . My 
 heart beat like the strokes of a hammer. 
 . . . My emotions found vent by my fall- 
 ing on my knees, and thanking God for 
 his grace and goodness for giving me 
 strength to accomplish my task." 
 
 At this time Livingstone was in Eng- 
 land ; and, as a result of his accounts, the 
 directors wrote to Robert Moffat asking 
 him to go for twelve months to Matabele. 
 In spite of the fact that he had worked for 
 the company forty-one years, and was then 
 sixty-two years old, Robert MofTat left his 
 home at Kuruman, and started for a long 
 and toilsome journey through the African 
 desert. He spent many months at " In- 
 yati," the seat of the missions of the Mata- 
 bele, and spared neither labor of body nor 
 mind. In June, 1860, feeling the station 
 was well established, he returned to Kuru- 
 man. In 1862 Robert and Mary MofTat
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT, 123 
 
 suffered severe bereavement in the death 
 of their son Robert, and of their daughter 
 Mary Livingstone. In 1868, having estab- 
 lished his son, the Rev. John Moffat, at 
 Kuruman, Robert Moffat determined, re- 
 luctantly, to accept the directors' invitation 
 to return to England. On Sunday, March 
 20, 1870, he preached for the last time in 
 the Kuruman church ; and the following 
 Friday " Ramary " and "Mamary," as the 
 dearly beloved missionary and his wife 
 were called, left the home in which they 
 had so long and so faithfully labored, amid 
 a pitiful wail from the natives, whose hearts 
 were wrung with genuine sorrow. 
 
 July 24, 1870, Robert and Mary Moffat 
 arrived in England, after an absence of 
 over fifty years, during which time they had 
 visited their native land but once. They 
 were welcomed everywhere with marked 
 cordiality, and on his birthday a thousand 
 pounds was given Mr. Moffat. A few 
 months after their return Mary Moffat died. 
 Her last words were a prayer for her hus- 
 band, that he might be given strength to 
 bear her loss. Fifty-three years she had
 
 124 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 faithfully shared his labors. In 1872 sev- 
 eral thousand pounds were subscribed for 
 a training-school for natives in Bechwana ; 
 and the directors honored their veteran 
 missionary by calling it the " Moffat Insti- 
 tute." Later his friends gave to Robert 
 Moffat five thousand pounds, a liberal 
 competency for himself and his widowed 
 daughter, Mrs. Fredoux. In 1874 Mr. 
 Moffat was called upon to identify the re- 
 mains of his son-in-law, Dr. Livingstone, 
 who had died in Central Africa. In 1876 
 Mr. Moffat was entertained by the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, and by the Rev. 
 Newman Hall, where he met Mr. Glad- 
 stone. In 1877 he visited Paris, and 
 addressed four thousand Sunday-school 
 children. 
 
 The last four years of his life were spent 
 at Park Cottage, Leigh, near Tunbridge. 
 
 On the loth of August, 1883, in his 
 eighty-eighth year, he passed peacefully to 
 rest. 
 
 " His count of years was full ; 
 His allotted task was wrought." 
 
 As a fitting close to this sketch I quote
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 12$ 
 
 from the pen of the Rev. A. C. Thompson, 
 D.D., of Boston, who was present at the 
 World's Missionary Conference in London 
 in 1878: 
 
 " ' Nothing but a missionary ! ' But the man 
 who gave that toss of the head and that half scorn- 
 ful look should cast an eye down the long centre 
 aisle of the hall at Mildmay Park. Whom do we 
 see coming up the aisle a son of Anak in stature, 
 erect, his features strongly marked, his venerable 
 locks and long white beard adding majesty to his 
 appearance ? On discovering him the whole great 
 audience rise spontaneously to their feet. A Wes- 
 leyan brother with powerful voice is in the midst of 
 an address ; yet no one heeds him till the patriarch 
 has taken a seat on the platform. Who is the old 
 man? Is it the Earl of Beaconsfield ? Is it Mr. 
 Gladstone ? There is but one other person in the 
 realm, I take it, to whom, under the circumstances, 
 such a united and enthusiastic tribute would be 
 paid, and that because she is on the throne. This 
 hoary-headed man is the veteran among South 
 African missionaries. He went out to the Dark 
 Continent more than sixty years before (1816). He 
 is now eighty-three ; his name Robert Moffat. . . . 
 With a voice still strong and musical he addresses 
 the assembly for twenty or more minutes. The man 
 who preaches to a larger congregation than any other 
 in London once said that, when he saw the veteran 
 Moffat, he felt inclined to sink into his shoes."
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M. D. 
 
 Missionary in Oregon. 
 BORN SEPT. 4, 1802; DIED Nov. 29, 1847.
 
 XXI. 
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 
 
 IF the magnitude of a man's work is to 
 be judged by its far-reaching results, 
 surely that accomplished by Marcus Whit- 
 man, missionary to Oregon, must take rank 
 among the great achievements of the 
 world's benefactors ; and the heart of every 
 true American must throb with gratitude 
 and pride when he contemplates the ef- 
 fects of this " brave man's deed and word." 
 Inspired by the highest motive, that of 
 carrying the gospel to those in darkness, 
 he entered upon his work with all the 
 enthusiasm of his hardy and generous 
 nature. 
 
 In the year 1832 an Indian chief, who 
 had come to St. Louis in search of the 
 white man's " Book of God," before re- 
 turning to his people, in a farewell address 
 129
 
 130 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 said : "I came to you over a trail of many 
 moons from the setting sun. My people 
 sent me to get the white man's Book of 
 Heaven. You showed me images of good 
 spirits, and pictures of the good land be- 
 yond, but the Book was not among them to 
 tell me the way. . . . My people will die 
 in darkness, and they will go on the trail to 
 the other hunting-grounds. No white man 
 will go with them, and no white man's book 
 to make the way plain. I have no more 
 words." 
 
 This speech was delivered to a few 
 hearers in a store-room belonging to the 
 American Fur Company, where they were 
 gathering preparatory to starting on their 
 annual expedition to the far West, with 
 whom the lonely Indian was to make his 
 return journey. One of the listeners in 
 this little audience was a young clerk in 
 the office, whose heart was moved by the 
 sad refrain ; and, when writing to his friend 
 in Pittsburg, he described the pathetic 
 scene and reported the speech. After a 
 time, when the accuracy of the incident
 
 MAKCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 131 
 
 had been proven, this speech was given to 
 the public, with the hope that it might 
 arouse an interest in missionary enterprise 
 among the Indians. 
 
 Originating from this pathetic cry, the 
 call came to the Rev. Samuel Parker, a cul- 
 tivated gentleman and devoted minister in 
 Ithaca, N.Y., who was the first to offer 
 himself to the American Board as a mis- 
 sionary to Oregon, in 1834. He went East 
 to induce others to join him, and there 
 found Dr. Whitman, to whom the appeal 
 came as a divine call ; and as a live coal 
 from God's altar it kindled in his heart a 
 mighty zeal, which carried him through all 
 future hardships and dangers. 
 
 He was born at Rushville, N.Y., Sept. 
 4, 1802, and was "reared amid the envi- 
 ronments of a pioneer home, and made 
 familiar with the privations incident to such 
 a life." He received the best possible re- 
 ligious training from his parents at home ; 
 and after the death of his father, which 
 occurred when Marcus was only eight years 
 of age, it was continued with scrupulous
 
 1 3 2 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 care by his grandfather, Deacon Samuel 
 Whitman, of Plainville, Mass. 
 
 He began study, having the ministry in 
 view, but, on account of physical ailments, 
 turned to the study of medicine, and in 
 due time received his degree of M.D. 
 
 Dr. Whitman was past thirty years of 
 age when his thoughts were turned toward 
 Oregon. He had spent four years in the 
 practice of medicine, and some years in 
 business, having been part owner with his 
 brother of a sawmill, an experience most 
 valuable in later years in his missionary 
 work. 
 
 Mr. Parker and Dr. Whitman started for 
 Oregon in the summer of 1835, travelling 
 with the party sent out by the American 
 Fur Company, as far as Green River in 
 Wyoming. This was the terminus of the 
 Fur Company's route, and a meeting-place 
 for traders, trappers, and a multitude of In- 
 dians from all parts of the great wilderness. 
 Here they came annually to exchange their 
 year's collection of furs for the necessities 
 and luxuries of life, brought overland by
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 133 
 
 the company from the States. During 
 their stay of several days here, through 
 intercourse with these various representa- 
 tives of the wild country to which they 
 were bound, and with the knowledge they 
 had gained on their long journey, the mis- 
 sionaries were able to more fully compre- 
 hend the nature and magnitude of the 
 work which they were about to undertake. 
 They now realized that a stronger force and 
 better equipment were necessary. It was 
 therefore decided that Dr. Whitman should 
 return to the East with the company's party, 
 and secure re-enforcements ; while Mr. Par- 
 ker should proceed to Oregon, and select 
 suitable locations for the three missions 
 which they proposed to establish. Dr. 
 Whitman took with him three Nez Perces 
 boys, and, returning to central New York, 
 made an earnest effort to enlist the interest 
 of his friends. 
 
 He now saw, as he was entering upon 
 his life-work, that an important factor in 
 this new mission must be the Christian 
 home ; and before going West again he was
 
 134 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 married to Miss Narcissa Prentice, daughter 
 of Judge Stephen Prentice of Prattsburg, 
 N.Y., who is described as "a handsome, 
 refined, and accomplished young lady, a 
 beautiful singer, and possessing the spirit 
 of a true heroine." The marriage occurred 
 in March, and the next month they started 
 on their long wedding-tour. 
 
 With them also went the Rev. H. H. 
 Spaulding and his young bride, and Mr. 
 Wm. H. Gray, the latter going as mechanic 
 and business agent for the mission. These 
 two heroic women the first to cross the 
 Rocky Mountains little realized at that 
 time the full significance of their journey 
 to Oregon. To them it meant reaching 
 the heathen with a message ; to us it 
 meant a vastly enlarged territory and 
 an entire change in the character of its 
 population. 
 
 An immense section of the Pacific coast, 
 consisting of about three hundred thou- 
 sand square miles, had for years been in 
 possession of the Hudson Bay Company, 
 who, with their forts and trading-posts, had
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. \$$ 
 
 driven out eleven fur companies who had 
 sought to establish trade in that country. 
 It was a powerful monopoly, whose policy 
 was to keep the country in its present wild 
 state for the sake of the fur products. 
 Consequently, all immigration of families 
 from the East was discouraged. 
 
 When these missionary families crossed 
 the mountains, and opened the way for 
 others to follow, it was the beginning of a 
 new era the establishment of a civiliza- 
 tion which was entirely to displace the 
 unnatural and peculiar social order then 
 existing. 
 
 Much had been said to discourage their 
 undertaking. It is said that advice to turn 
 back, warnings as well as prayers and bene- 
 dictions, followed them from place to place 
 before leaving the States. 
 
 They joined a group of the American 
 Fur Company at Council Bluffs, and con- 
 tinued with them to the end of the route 
 at Green River. These men at first were 
 not pleased at the idea of admitting ladies 
 into their caravan, They did not think it
 
 136 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 possible for them to endure the wearisome 
 and perilous journey ; but, on account of 
 the valuable medical services rendered by 
 Dr. Whitman on his previous trip, they 
 gave consent. All through the long jour- 
 ney, these noble and high-minded women 
 were treated with the greatest deference 
 by the men of the company, who tried in 
 every possible way to lessen the hardships 
 of the trip. Mrs. Spaulding suffered much 
 from fatigue, and it was feared at one time 
 that she would not live, as she was taken 
 fainting from her saddle ; but her courage 
 was phenomenal, and carried her through. 
 One of the rough men said, in speaking of 
 these brave women, "There is something 
 which the Honorable Hudson Bay Com- 
 pany cannot expel from the country." 
 
 On the Fourth of July they reached the 
 famous South Pass, Nature's gateway 
 through the mighty wall, which she has 
 kindly left, that the country may not be 
 divided. 
 
 This is an interesting spot, where two 
 rivers, one flowing toward the Pacific, the
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 137 
 
 other toward the Atlantic, have their source 
 within half a mile of each other. Here 
 upon a rock are carved the names of noted 
 travellers, such as "Fremont, 1843," an d 
 " Stanbury, 1849." Barrows, in his history 
 of Oregon, says, " It may give information 
 and divide honors with the ' Pathfinder ' to 
 add ' Mesdames Whitman and Spaulding, 
 1836.'" Six years before a company of 
 United States engineers had seen this pass, 
 two women had gone through. 
 
 When they had crossed the Continental 
 Divide, and were on the Pacific side of 
 the slope, the missionary party dis- 
 mounted, planted the American flag, and, 
 kneeling on their blankets about the 
 " Book," with prayer and praise they took 
 possession of the western slope for Christ 
 and the Church. This was, indeed, a most 
 significant action when viewed in the light 
 of subsequent history. The Rev. Jonathan 
 Edwards, in speaking of this scene, says, 
 " How strongly it evidences their faith in 
 their mission, and the conquering power 
 of the King of peace. A scene truly in-
 
 1 3 8 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 spiring to contemplate, and worthy a place 
 on the canvas among the masterpieces of 
 the world's great artists." It was an act, the 
 far-reaching consequences of which secured 
 to the United States three hundred thou- 
 sand square miles of the Pacific Coast. 
 
 A few days more of travel brought them 
 to Green River and to the annual gather- 
 ing, the fair and festival of the mountains. 
 To the ladies this was a novel experience. 
 The Indian wigwams stretching for three 
 miles along the river, the encampment of 
 trappers and traders, with about twenty 
 citizens, including the missionary families, 
 making in all fifteen hundred persons. To 
 many of these rough trappers, whose home 
 for twenty-five years had been in the depths 
 of these forests and in the canons of the 
 mountains, it was also a novel experience 
 to meet a lady ; and many of them were 
 moved to tears, being reminded of loved 
 ones far away in the old home. One of 
 these men, years after, said, " From that 
 day, when I took the hand of a civilized 
 woman again, I was a better man."
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 139 
 
 Here the party rested for ten days. 
 They wrote letters home, to be sent back 
 with the returning company of traders, 
 repacked and reduced their baggage, and 
 prepared for their further journey. 
 
 Dr. Whitman was warmly welcomed by 
 the Indians whom he had met there the 
 year before, and who were expecting him 
 according to promise. From this point the 
 party were escorted by traders from the 
 Hudson Bay Company on their way back to 
 the Pacific coast from the annual meeting. 
 
 They next stopped at Fort Hall, and 
 again reduced and repacked baggage. In 
 a few days they reached Fort Boise, where, 
 by the advice of the Hudson Bay Com- 
 pany, the doctor left his wagon. This 
 wagon was the first to be taken farther than 
 Fort Laramie, and it was destined to play 
 a very important part in the history of 
 Oregon and the Pacific Coast. "Whit- 
 man's wagon had demonstrated that women 
 and children and household goods the 
 family could be carried over the plains 
 and mountains to Oregon." If so, the 
 United States wanted Oregon.
 
 140 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 The mission party reached Fort Walla 
 Walla early in September ; and the long 
 journey of thirty-five hundred miles, begun 
 four months before, was ended. Dr. Whit- 
 man established a mission among the Cay- 
 use tribe on the Walla Walla River, six 
 miles west of the present city of Walla 
 Walla, giving to the settlement the name 
 of Waiilatpu. Mr. Spaulding settled at 
 Clear Water, and established another mis- 
 sion among the Nez Perces tribe, a few 
 miles north of the Kooskooskie River. 
 These were two of the sites which had 
 been chosen by the Rev. Mr. Parker, who, 
 after spending a year in Oregon, preparing 
 the way for the missionaries, returned to 
 his home by way of the Hawaiian Islands. 
 It had been the intention of the missiona- 
 ries to establish one of the missions among 
 the Flatheads ; but, on account of the un- 
 settled condition of the tribe at that time, 
 it was not deemed wise to venture among 
 them. The Whitmans were gladly wel- 
 comed by the Cayuse Indians, and in a 
 short time the mission was well established 
 and in a prosperous condition.
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D, 141 
 
 In three years' time they had two 
 hundred and fifty acres of land enclosed, 
 of which two hundred acres were in a 
 good state of cultivation. A grist-mill 
 had been constructed, an orchard planted, 
 and their third building was in progress 
 of erection. Fifty or more of the Indian 
 children had been gathered into a school, 
 which Mrs. Whitman taught. For six 
 years they labored, Mrs. Whitman giving 
 her attention to the school and general 
 work of the mission and home ; the doctor 
 superintending the work of the farm and 
 the mill, preaching and teaching, in addi- 
 tion to a large medical practice extending 
 over many square miles. 
 
 Their work was difficult and trying, as 
 these Indians were wild and superstitious, 
 and more averse to settled life than were 
 many of the tribes ; yet a large number of 
 them had been induced to engage in agri- 
 culture. 
 
 In the fall of 1842 the two missions, 
 which had been re-enforced by two other 
 missionaries, held their annual business
 
 142 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 meeting at this station. While it was in 
 progress Dr. Whitman was called to attend 
 a patient at Fort Walla Walla, twenty-five 
 miles distant. This was an important trad- 
 ing-post, the fort belonging to the Hudson 
 Bay Company. Here hospitality was dis- 
 pensed most generously to all travellers ; 
 and it chanced at this time that there was 
 an unusually large and congenial company 
 present. Twenty or more of their men 
 had arrived that day in charge of boats 
 laden with Indian goods. These, with 
 their traders and clerks, made a large com- 
 pany, in which Dr. Whitman was the only 
 representative of the United States. 
 
 While they were seated at dinner a mes- 
 senger arrived and announced to the com- 
 pany that a colony of British settlers from 
 the Red River had crossed the mountains, 
 and were then about three hundred miles 
 up the Columbia River. This announce- 
 ment was hailed with many expressions of 
 delight, and congratulations passed from 
 one to another; when, in the excitement, a 
 young priest arose, and, waving his cap in
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 143 
 
 the air, cried " Hurrah for Oregon ; Amer- 
 ica is too late, and we have got the coun- 
 try ! " To Dr. Whitman this was not an 
 entirely new revelation of the state of 
 affairs. He had been impressed, six years 
 before, by the opposition of the company's 
 agents to his taking his wagon and farm- 
 ing implements through from Fort Boise ; 
 and the same opposition had been met by 
 a company of immigrants the year before. 
 The president of the company had advised 
 that the Board would better send travelling 
 missionaries to the Indians and trappers, 
 rather than establish settled missions. 
 
 This unguarded statement from the 
 young priest confirmed him in the belief 
 that this company, since it could not pre- 
 vent immigration, and thus preserve the 
 forests for hunting-grounds, had changed 
 its policy, and was now seeking to bring in 
 British subjects to take possession of the 
 country and keep Americans out. He was 
 now thoroughly aroused to the situation. 
 Something must be done, and at once. 
 This information must be carried to Wash-
 
 144 GREAT MISSIONARIES, 
 
 ington, and colonies from the States must 
 be brought in to occupy the lands, and 
 save the country. 
 
 Hastening to his home, he called the 
 missionaries together, and explaining his 
 discovery to them, he announced his inten- 
 tion of going at once to Washington. 
 They did not at first favor this plan ; but, 
 as he was determined, their confidence in 
 the man led them to unanimous approval. 
 A few years later they were able to see 
 the emergency as he saw it then. Said 
 Dr. Eells, "It was suggested to him that 
 this was hardly within the legitimate work 
 of the mission; to which he replied, that 
 for this emergency he did not belong so 
 much to the American Board as to his 
 country." Within twenty-four hours from 
 the scene at the dinner-table, Dr. Whitman 
 was in his saddle headed for Washington, 
 having arranged for the care of his wife 
 and the mission during his absence. 
 
 This memorable ride must take rank 
 with other pivotal events in our history; 
 for, although it requires deeper thinking
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 145 
 
 to realize its full import, it is, nevertheless, 
 unequalled by any similar exhibition of 
 patriotism, " distance, time, heroic daring, 
 peril, suffering, and magnificent conse- 
 quences." 
 
 Mr. Amos Lovejoy, who had recently 
 arrived with a band of immigrants and a 
 guide, accompanied Whitman with two 
 pack mules to carry supplies. In eleven 
 days they reached Fort Hall, having trav- 
 elled three hundred and forty miles. They 
 then travelled due south to reach the old 
 Santa Fe trail, thinking to avoid the in- 
 tense cold by going that way. Their 
 course, in the main, was in the direction 
 followed by the present Utah Southern 
 railroad. 
 
 From Mr. Lovejoy's journal we have the 
 following items : 
 
 " From Fort Hall to Fort Vinta we had terribly 
 severe weather. Passing over the high mountains 
 we encountered a terrible snow-storm, compelling 
 us to seek refuge for ten days in a dark defile. 
 While in this defile, Dr. Whitman became impatient 
 to move on, and against the guide's counsel they 
 started. For some time they wandered in the snow,
 
 146 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 and the guide acknowledged that he was lost. In 
 the blinding snow-storm, not knowing where to turn, 
 Whitman gave up for the first and only time, but 
 suddenly the guide noticed a peculiar movement of 
 one of the mule's ears. He said that mule knew how 
 to find the way back to the defile they had left. Giv- 
 ing the reins to the animal, they were led back to the 
 refuge, where they found the embers of their fire." 
 
 As soon as possible Whitman went back 
 to Fort Taos, where he procured another 
 guide ; then they pushed on again. At 
 one time they came to a river two hun- 
 dred yards wide, which was frozen over 
 about one-third the distance on either side. 
 Without hesitating an instant, Whitman 
 and his horse plunged in and were soon 
 on the other side. 
 
 Dr. Whitman reached St. Louis in due 
 time, dressed in his buckskin breeches 
 and fur garments ; and, like a hero fresh 
 from the battle-field, he bore many marks 
 of the severity of the weather, and the 
 hardships and perils through which he had 
 passed. From St. Louis he went by stage 
 to Washington, arriving there March 3, 
 1843.
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 147 
 
 Haste was imperative, and what urged 
 him to press on through driving storms, 
 amid perils and hardships, was the impend- 
 ing boundary treaty between Canada and 
 the United States. There was danger of 
 Oregon being given away. Dr. Whitman 
 felt that he must show Congress the value 
 of Oregon, and demonstrate to that body 
 and to those in authority the possibilities 
 of colonizing the region. He thought he 
 must reach Washington before this treaty, 
 which affected the boundary, was con- 
 cluded. This he failed to do in spite of 
 his heroic work ; yet his journey was not in 
 vain, for the treaty had not touched upon 
 the Oregon boundary. 
 
 He therefore had time to correct many 
 erroneous ideas in regard to Oregon, and 
 to expose the scheme of the Hudson Bay 
 Company to capture the region by coloni- 
 zation. To show that information was 
 needed in Washington, we quote a few 
 sentences from the debate in Congress. 
 Said one, " I would not give a pinch of 
 snuff for the whole of Oregon for agricul-
 
 148 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 tural purposes, and I thank God that he 
 put the Rocky Mountains between it and 
 the east." Another said, "All the gold 
 mines of Peru would not pay a penny on a 
 pound of the cost it would be to build a 
 railroad across the mountains to Oregon." 
 
 In Washington, Dr. Whitman called on 
 Daniel Webster, who at that time was 
 Secretary of State, and told his thrill- 
 ing story. The great statesman replied, 
 " Wagons cannot cross the mountains. 
 Sir G. Simpson, who is here, affirms that, 
 and so do all his correspondents in that 
 region. Besides, I am about trading 
 that worthless territory for some valuable 
 concessions in relation to the Newfound- 
 land cod-fisheries." Dr. Whitman replied, 
 " Mr. Webster, we want that valuable ter- 
 ritory ourselves." He then went to Presi- 
 dent Tyler, and said the same thing. The 
 President replied, " Since you are a mis- 
 sionary, I will believe you; and if you 
 take your emigrants over there, the treaty 
 will not be ratified." 
 
 A secondary object of this journey was
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 149 
 
 to lead back to Oregon a colony. By 
 doing so he could settle by actual proof 
 the accessibility of that far Western dis- 
 trict. On his way to Washington he 
 published pamphlets and newspaper arti- 
 cles telling of this proposed party. In 
 every town he passed through he urged 
 the people to organize and go West, and 
 meet him at Westport, Mo., when he 
 returned in the spring. Some of his cir- 
 culars went as far south as Texas. 
 
 Another object of the trip was to con- 
 sult with the American Board in regard to 
 the missions, and to get re-enforcements 
 and money. The Prudential Committee 
 had voted to give up the mission station ; 
 but, after hearing Dr. Whitman's report, 
 " it was resolved to sustain the opera- 
 tions of the mission without any material 
 change." 
 
 When he reached Westport, which was 
 the starting-point of Western immigration, 
 he found a company of eight hundred and 
 seventy-one persons with a hundred and 
 eleven wagons and two thousand head of
 
 1 50 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 cattle and horses, ready to start on the 
 long journey, in response to his appeal 
 made on the way East. " On that jour- 
 ney," says Mr. Spaulding, " Dr. Whitman 
 was their everywhere-present angel of 
 mercy, ministering to the sick, helping the 
 weary, encouraging the wavering, cheer- 
 ing the mothers, mending wagons, setting 
 broken bones, finding stray oxen ; now in 
 the rear, now in the centre, now in front, 
 looking out fords ; in the dark mountains 
 working out passages at noontide or at 
 midnight, as though these were his own 
 children and these wagons and flocks his 
 own property." The entire company 
 reached Oregon in safety. 
 
 As is often the case with our greatest 
 benefactors, and those that live in advance 
 of their times, it was not given Dr. Whit- 
 man to enjoy the fruits of his own magnifi- 
 cent achievements. That which gave him 
 the greatest joy and satisfaction because 
 of its promise of greatest ultimate good to 
 the people for whom he was giving his 
 life without stint, was one of the causes of
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 151 
 
 ms own destruction. The colony which 
 he had been instrumental in raising and 
 .bringing through, that great advance- 
 I guard of civilization which was to follow, 
 [ and thus secure and save Oregon, was not 
 pleasing to the Indian. He saw in it the 
 melting away of his own tribe. The In- 
 dian had always been averse to civiliza- 
 tion. He did not object to the trappers, 
 for they entered into Indian life and cus- 
 toms, and troubled them not by visions of 
 a better life. The traders were also wel- 
 comed ; for they furnished a little variety 
 to their lives, and brought rude comforts 
 to them, and gave them a market for their 
 own wares. The Hudson Bay Company 
 had been welcomed to their country; for 
 its policy had always been to court the 
 good-will of the savages, and they had 
 opposed the settlement of the country, 
 and, with the Indians, wished to preserve 
 it as a wilderness. Nor did the Roman 
 Catholic priest meet the same opposition 
 as did the Protestant missionary with his 
 family. The priest came without family,
 
 1 5 2 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 and therefore did not seem to be so much 
 in opposition to the Indian's wild life. 
 
 But Dr. Whitman had brought the col- 
 ony, and the colonists had brought the 
 measles among them. This disease had 
 spread among the Indians, very many of 
 whom died from it because of their igno- 
 rance in caring for the sick. We are told 
 that in the height of the fever the afflicted 
 ones would frequently plunge into the 
 stream for relief, after which, of course, 
 the doctor's medicine could not cure. 
 Then said they, " The doctor cures the 
 white man, but not the Indian ; therefore 
 the doctor gives the Indian poison." That 
 seemed to them good reasoning, and it was 
 talked of and brooded over until the dark 
 plot was evolved to take the lives of the 
 entire missionary family (it is the old 
 story) ; and so the one who was really 
 doing the most for them, working day and 
 night to give them medical aid and teach 
 them the way of life, was looked upon by 
 them as their worst enemy. 
 
 Nov. 29, 1847, occurred the massacre of
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 153 
 
 Dr. Whitman, his noble wife, and twelve 
 others, all of whom belonged to the mis- 
 sion. This was one of the saddest events 
 in the history of Oregon or the Pacific 
 Coast. The doctor had attended the 
 funeral of an Indian in the morning, and, 
 returning to the mission-house, was caring 
 for his three adopted children, who were 
 very ill. Early in the afternoon, a savage 
 came in the house and called for Dr. 
 Whitman. Soon after, the chief, Ti-lau- 
 kait, came in and engaged the doctor in 
 conversation, while another Indian stole 
 in, and, with his tomahawk, struck the 
 missionary a blow on the head. We shall 
 not dwell upon this scene of blood and 
 death. Mrs. Whitman was shot by a 
 young Indian who had received special 
 kindness at her hand. Having tasted 
 blood, and their savage natures having 
 full play, with clubs, knives, and toma- 
 hawks, they continued their work of death 
 and torture eight days, until fourteen lives 
 were sacrificed. 
 
 Thus ends the life-work of Marcus and
 
 1 54 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Narcissa Whitman, two of the most conse- 
 crated, successful, and heroic missionaries 
 ever sent out by any missionary society. 
 Dr. Whitman was only forty-five years of 
 age when he suffered the death of a mar- 
 tyr, but he had accomplished enough for 
 the life-work of one man. He had saved 
 Oregon to the United States, and given 
 the gospel to the Indians and the white 
 pioneers of the Pacific Coast. As a fitting 
 monument to the memory of this heroic 
 missionary, intrepid pathfinder, and far- 
 seeing patriot, a Christian college has 
 been established at Walla Walla, Wash., 
 which bears the revered name of Marcus 
 Whitman.
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 Missionary to Africa. 
 BORN MARCH 19, 1813; DIED MAY i, 1873.
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 THE visitor in Westminster Abbey, after 
 looking at the royal tombs in the Chapel 
 of Henry VII., and inspecting with nearer 
 interest the tablets and monuments of the 
 famous Poets' Corner, may come out into 
 the great nave of the cathedral, and there, 
 apart from the other famous graves, but, 
 as it were, nearer to the people and even 
 amid them, in the middle of the floor he 
 finds the large slab which bears the name 
 of David Livingstone. Livingstone was 
 certainly not a literary man in the common 
 meaning, though his works hold an impor- 
 tant place in English literature ; he was 
 certainly not a mere geographical explorer, 
 though no name among the explorers 
 honored by the Royal Geographical So- 
 ciety can compare with his ; and mis- 
 '57
 
 I 5 8 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 sionaries and directors of missionary work 
 were not quite sure whether he could 
 stand among them. In 1856 the Lon- 
 don Missionary Society seemed " desirous 
 of shelving his plans ; so he shelved the 
 society." Yet Livingstone, in 1865, after 
 he had been ten years independent of the 
 missionary society, declined Sir Roderick 
 Murchison's tempting invitation to be a 
 mere explorer, and insisted, as he had 
 from the beginning, that "The end of the 
 geographical feat is but the beginning 
 of the missionary enterprise." However 
 others might misunderstand him, in his 
 own mind he was always the missionary 
 explorer and pioneer ; the greatest mis- 
 sionary pioneer he really was since the 
 Apostle Paul. 
 
 He was born at Blantyre, near Glasgow, 
 Scotland, March 19, 1813, the son of 
 " poor and pious parents," as he himself 
 wrote on their tombstone, giving thanks 
 for their poverty as well as their piety. 
 When nine years old he took a prize for 
 repeating Psalm cxix., "with only two
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 159 
 
 errors." When but ten he went to work 
 in a cotton factory, and laid his first half- 
 crown of wages in his mother's lap, and 
 with part of that week's pay bought a Latin 
 grammar. For ten years he studied late 
 at night, and at odd minutes in the mill, 
 and read many of the classics. Till about 
 1833 he was waiting for some gracious, 
 conscious change to come in his charac- 
 ter, but, reading Dick's " Philosophy of a 
 Future State," he was led to accept Christ 
 at once with great joy ; and GutzlafTs 
 " Appeal " led him to give himself to 
 missionary work. 
 
 He spent two winters (1836-38) in 
 Glasgow, studying Greek in the Univer- 
 sity, theology with Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, and 
 medicine in Anderson's College ; and was 
 accepted by the London Missionary So- 
 ciety to go to China, and at their instance 
 studied theology for a time with the Rev. 
 Richard Cecil, though poor reports of his 
 preaching capacity nearly caused his re- 
 jection by the society. 
 
 His going to China was delayed by the
 
 l6o GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 opium war ; and meeting Moffat, he con- 
 cluded to go to Africa. He received a 
 medical diploma, and was ordained in No- 
 vember, 1840, and in December sailed for 
 the Cape; and in July, 1841, went to 
 Kuruman, Moffat's station, seven hundred 
 miles north of Cape Town. He spent two 
 years at Kuruman, learning the language 
 and practical missionary methods ; and in 
 1843 established his own first station at 
 Mabotsa, two hundred miles north-east of 
 Kuruman, where he built a house, and took 
 home Mary Moffat as his wife. 
 
 His plan was to open up new centres 
 of light among tribes hitherto unevan- 
 gelizedj and raise up native pastors. He 
 had no patience with lingering near the 
 centres of missionary or civilized life. 
 " If you meet me down in the Colony 
 before eight years are expired," he wrote 
 to a friend, "you may shoot me." Near 
 Mabotsa, before his marriage, he had the 
 famous encounter with a lion, which bit 
 through his arm bone. Some one in 
 London asked him what his thoughts were
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. l6l 
 
 as the lion stood over him ; and he an- 
 swered with grim humor, " I was thinking 
 what part of me he would eat first." 
 
 He had built his house to stay at Ma- 
 botsa ; but a foolish jealousy on the part 
 of a fellow missionary made him give 
 up his home, and found a second station 
 forty miles north, at Chonuane, the capital 
 of the Bakwains. Here he labored three 
 years, and the chief, Sechele, was baptized ; 
 but the people suffered from drought, and 
 their "rain-makers" charged it to the 
 missionary. Livingstone thereupon per- 
 suaded the tribe to move westward forty 
 miles to the river Kolobeng, where canals 
 could furnish irrigation. This " beat the 
 rain-makers " for the first year ; but later 
 droughts showed the river insufficient, and 
 in 1849, leaving his wife and three chil- 
 dren at Kolobeng, he set out in company 
 with two English sportsmen, to find the 
 tribe a healthier home to the north. He 
 discovered Lake 'Ngami, Aug. i ; then re- 
 turned, and the next April set out to 
 occupy it with his wife and children and
 
 1 62 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 the converted chief Sechele. The chil- 
 dren and servants, however, fell ill, and he 
 had to return. A fourth child was born 
 and died ere long; and after fuller prepa- 
 ration he again set out with his family, in 
 April, 1851, for the country of the Mako- 
 lolo, whose king, Sebituane, had been in 
 former years a good friend of Sechele. 
 This time the journey was successfully ac- 
 complished, and Sebituane welcomed them 
 heartily. He soon died; but his daughter, 
 who succeeded him, was equally friendly, 
 and Livingstone continued his explora- 
 tions, and in June discovered the upper 
 Zambesi. 
 
 The Makololo country, however, was not 
 healthful, and the political disorders and 
 strife with the Boers made Kolobeng un- 
 safe ; and in 1852 Livingstone took his 
 family to the Cape, and sent them to Eng- 
 land, himself returning to the Makololo. 
 
 In November, 1853, he set out with a 
 company of natives upon that great ex- 
 ploring tour which led him north-westerly 
 across the watershed of Central Africa, and
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 163 
 
 brought him, in May, 1854, to the Portu- 
 guese town of Loanda on the west coast. 
 Here he rested through the summ^^ and 
 in September following marched east^trd, 
 and explored across the continentxjfr63&i 
 ocean to ocean, reaching the mouth of'th^ 
 Zambesi in May, 1856. 
 
 He had sent home from Loanda his 
 astronomical observations and his journals 
 to that point ; and the Royal Geographical 
 Society honored him in May, 1855, with 
 its gold medal. His careful studies of the 
 watershed on his eastward journey were of 
 equal value. He discovered the great falls 
 of the Zambesi, and the blank, " unexplored 
 region " from Kuruman to Timbuctoo was 
 covered with his accurate and scientific 
 descriptions and maps ; and when from 
 Kilimane he sailed to Mauritius, and thence 
 to England, where he arrived in Decem- 
 ber, 1856, he was the hero of the hour. 
 His journey of eleven thousand miles 
 through unexplored Africa had brought 
 him into national and world-wide distinc- 
 tion. His meeting with his family was a
 
 1 64 GREAT MISSIONARIES, 
 
 greater joy than all his fame, though he 
 found his father's chair empty, Neil Living- 
 stone having died while his son was on his 
 homeward journey. 
 
 The London Missionary Society gave 
 him distinguished honor, but doubted the 
 entire wisdom of his plans; and he re- 
 signed his connection with them. He 
 prepared and published his first volume, 
 " Missionary Travels and Researches in 
 South Africa," which had an immediate 
 popular success, and made him pecu- 
 niarily independent. Eminent scientists 
 pronounced it a most valuable contribution 
 to knowledge. It gave a most interesting 
 proof of his personal traits. For exam- 
 ple, in describing in the simplest manner 
 an adventure with a buffalo, he says : 
 
 " I glanced around, but the only tree on the plain 
 was a hundred yards off, and there was no escape 
 elsewhere. I therefore cocked my rifle with the 
 intention of giving him a steady shot in the fore- 
 head when he should come within three or four 
 yards of me. The thought flashed across my mind, 
 ' What if the gun misses fire ? ' I placed it at my 
 shoulder as he came on at full speed, and that is
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 165 
 
 tremendous. A small bush fifteen yards off made 
 him swerve a little, and exposed his shoulder. I 
 heard the ball crack there as I fell flat on my face. 
 The pain must have made him renounce his pur- 
 pose, for he bounded close past me to the water, 
 where he was found dead. In expressing my thank- 
 fulness to God among my men, they were much 
 offended with themselves for not being present to 
 shield me from this danger. The tree near me was 
 a camel-thorn, and reminded me that we had come 
 back to the land of thorns again, for the country we 
 had left is one of evergreens." 
 
 The passage, besides its graphic interest, 
 shows Livingstone's coolness in the mo- 
 ment of danger, his devout thankfulness 
 and habit of speaking of God's kind provi- 
 dences to his men, whom he held in 
 friendly regard, and the keen eye of the 
 naturalist noting even the thorns on the 
 bush in the moment of deadly danger. 
 
 But, above all, his book reveals his con- 
 trolling and devoted purpose of missionary 
 exploration ; and more and more the Chris- 
 tian church grows to see the justice of its 
 ideas of missionary work. Especially was 
 it wise in declaring the slave-trade the
 
 1 66 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 great " open sore of the world," which, un- 
 healed, must make the Christianization or 
 civilizing of Africa an impossibility. 
 
 In February, 1858, he was appointed 
 British consul for Eastern Africa and the 
 interior, and in March sailed in the Zam- 
 besi expedition. He explored the Zam- 
 besi from its mouth that season, entered 
 its branch, the Shire, in January, 1859, anc ^ 
 discovered Lake Nyassa Sept. 16, 1859. 
 He was joined by the Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge missionaries early in 1861 ; explored 
 with them the Rovuma, and later again ex- 
 plored the Shire. Jan. 30, 1862, Mrs. 
 Livingstone came to join him, arriving in 
 the naval ship Gorgon, which also brought 
 a small steamer, the Lady Nyassa, which, 
 at the cost of six thousand pounds, profits 
 of his book, he had had built for lake 
 use. 
 
 Mrs. Livingstone died April 27, and at 
 first he was quite prostrated. Later he 
 again explored the Rovuma and Shire Riv- 
 ers, and had begun to build a road around 
 the cataracts of the latter river, when letters
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. l6? 
 
 were received from England, recalling the 
 expedition as too costly. The recall was in 
 part due to the hostility of the Portuguese 
 authorities, because of his practical inter- 
 ference with the slave-trade. 
 
 In need now of money, he sailed his 
 little steamer, the Lady Nyassa, to Bombay, 
 to sell her, making a stormy journey of 
 forty- five days ; and from Bombay sailed to 
 England. There he wrote, " The Zambesi 
 and its Tributaries." 
 
 In 1865 Sir Roderick Murchison pro- 
 posed to him to accept a purely geographi- 
 cal appointment, to explore the watersheds 
 of Africa ; but Livingstone declined, being 
 unwilling to put the missionary work any- 
 where but first. This refusal did not pre- 
 vent his appointment as British consul in 
 Africa, without salary ; and he accepted this 
 office, and also a commission from the Geo- 
 grapical Society, under which he went to 
 Bombay and sold the Lady Nyassa for less 
 than half her cost to him, thence sailing 
 to Zanzibar, whence he went to the mouth 
 of the Rovuma. He had already ascer-
 
 1 68 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 tained that this river had no connection 
 with Lake Nyassa, but he ascended it as 
 far as practicable, and reached Lake Nyassa 
 Aug. 8, spending some weeks in explor- 
 ing the lake ; and then, to settle the ques- 
 tion of the watershed, he pressed on 
 northward, and reached Lake Tanganyika 
 April i, 1867, and demonstrated that it be- 
 longed to a system of waters flowing away 
 from the Indian Ocean. Then, pushing 
 west, he came to Casembe in November, 
 discovering Lake Moero, Nov. 8, 1867. 
 
 These laborious journeys were most 
 wearing to his health, and he was prostrated 
 by a severe fever in December, and Jan. i , 
 1868, wrote in his journal : " Almighty 
 Father, forgive the sins of the past year 
 for thy Son's sake. Help me to be more 
 profitable during this year. If I am to die 
 this year, prepare me for it." This danger 
 of death and these laborious journeys were 
 for no mere explorer's fame. They were 
 the steadfast persistence of his great pur- 
 pose to accomplish the " geographical feat," 
 which was " but the beginning of the mis-
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 169 
 
 sionary enterprise ; " along with which was 
 now his purpose to find and show, north of 
 the Portuguese possessions, and Portu- 
 guese official complicity with the slave- 
 trade, an open highway of legitimate 
 commerce, the success of which he was 
 convinced would ever heal " the open sore 
 of the world." 
 
 Yet he ever bore with him the fitting in- 
 fluence of a devoted missionary of the 
 .cross. In the midst of these geographical 
 explorations, while reaching the conclusion 
 that Lake Bangweolo, discovered July 28, 
 1868, was one of a chain of lakes extend- 
 ing northward and traversed by the Lua- 
 laba, and wondering if that mighty interior 
 river was not the long-sought upper Nile, 
 he makes this note : " As for our general 
 discourse, we mention our relationship to 
 our Father ; his love to all his children 
 the guilt of selling any of his children, 
 the consequence. We mention the Bible, 
 future state, prayers ; advise union, that they 
 should unite as one family to expel ene- 
 mies, who came first as slave-traders, and
 
 I 70 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 ended by leaving the country a wilder- 
 ness." 
 
 Toward the end of 1868 he was again 
 very ill ; and at length resolved to go to 
 Ujiji, on the east shore of Lake Tangan- 
 yika. The journey was most exhausting. 
 Half-way to Tanganyika he became so ill 
 that he had to be carried on the march 
 the first time in thirty years. His, men, too 
 were about worn out. Canoeing on the 
 lake was easier than marching, but taxed 
 them to the utmost. " Patience," he says, 
 " was never more needed than now. I am 
 near Ujiji ; but the slaves who paddle are 
 tired, and no wonder ; they keep up a roar- 
 ing song all through their work, night and 
 day. . . . Hope to hold out to Ujiji." 
 They arrived there March 14, 1869. 
 
 It was July before Livingstone was suf- 
 ficiently rested and strengthened to set out 
 on what proved his last journey. His im- 
 mediate object was the exploration of that 
 country west from the northern land of 
 Lake Tanganyika. The country was said 
 to be occupied by cannibals ; but beyond
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE, I /I 
 
 them was the Lualaba, and the question 
 whether it flowed northward to the Nile 
 was of intense interest. He found the peo- 
 ple drunken with palm-toddy, and obsti- 
 nately obstructive to him. After a short 
 attempt at canoeing on the Lualaba, his ill- 
 health compelled falling back to Bambarre 
 by the lake. In June, 1870, he made an- 
 other start, but again had to fall back, and 
 was laid up nearly three months with ulcers 
 on his feet. He says that while in this 
 country he " read the whole Bible through 
 four times." He confessed in his journal : 
 " I have an intense and sore longing to 
 finish and retire, and trust the Almighty 
 may permit me to go home." 
 
 Jan. i, 1871, he was still waiting at 
 Bambarre. There ten men came of a 
 larger number sent from Zanzibar by Dr. 
 Kirk, but bringing only one of the forty 
 letters with which they had been sent, and 
 proving most mutinous, worthless scoun- 
 drels when he tried to go westward with 
 them. Nevertheless, he pushed on to the 
 Lualaba, but found it wandering off still
 
 1 72 GKEA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 westward, apparently with no connection 
 with the Nile. Here, too, he had to wit- 
 ness, with no power to help, the horror and 
 desolation of a slavers' raid, with all its 
 robbery, massacre, and utter desolation. 
 Obliged to return, he came east six hun- 
 dred miles to Ujiji, to find that there his 
 stores had been stolen, and he was threat- 
 ened with utter destitution. This was Oct. 
 23, 1871 ; and it was in this extremity that 
 he was relieved by the arrival of Henry M. 
 Stanley, of the New York Herald relief 
 expedition, Nov. 10. 
 
 In September, 1866, men whom Living- 
 stone had brought from Zanzibar deserted 
 him, and in order to get pay on the arrival 
 there, represented that he had been killed 
 by the natives. The report was discred- 
 ited, but years without messages made it 
 seem not improbable. The Geographical 
 Society commissioned Mr. Edward D. 
 Young to search for Livingstone, and he 
 proved the utter untrustworthiness of the 
 report. But what truth was hidden in 
 these dark and trackless forests it was left
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 173 
 
 to Stanley to show, after an anxious uncer- 
 tainty of years. Stanley brought with him 
 abundant equipment ; and he and Living- 
 stone together explored the north end of 
 Lake Tanganyika, and found that it had 
 no northern outlet, and so could not be a 
 source of the Nile. Subsequently Stanley 
 was prostrated with fever ; and for this and 
 other causes he was with Livingstone till the 
 middle of February, 1872. It belongs to 
 Henry M. Stanley to tell how much of all 
 that is noblest in him has its connection 
 with that heroic missionary whom the New 
 York Herald's enterprise sent him out to 
 rescue. 
 
 They went together to Unyanyembe, a 
 great Arab settlement between Ujiji and 
 the east coast. There Stanley handed 
 over the stores he had brought for Living- 
 stone, public gifts, and clothing sent by 
 his daughter ; and after they had shaken 
 hands and parted, sent up from the coast 
 a company of trusty natives. 
 
 Aug. 25 Livingstone left Unyanyembe, 
 and in six weeks was back at Lake Tan-
 
 174 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 ganyika. He rounded the southern point, 
 and pushed south and west for Lake 
 Bangweolo. The rainy season had come ; 
 and they were much hindered by the 
 " sponge," and were often knee-deep in 
 water. Fever and dysentery reduced Liv- 
 ingstone, till again he had to be carried on 
 a sort of palanquin. Sometimes he was 
 in great pain, and sometimes faint and 
 drowsy. He kept up his journal ; but the 
 entries were shorter and shorter, at last 
 little but the dates. He still questioned 
 the men, where he could not observe for 
 himself, about distant hills and the rivers 
 they crossed. April 27, 1873, he wrote, 
 " Knocked up quite, and remain recover 
 sent to buy milch goats. We are on 
 the banks of Molilamo." This was the 
 last entry. 
 
 Next day his men lifted him from his 
 bed to a canoe, and crossed the river. 
 They then bore him to the site of the 
 present village of Chitambo, at the south- 
 ern end of Lake Bangweolo, reaching there 
 with great difficulty, splashing through
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 1/5 
 
 dreary stretches of water and sponge till 
 the evening of April 29. He was at times 
 utterly faint. Some of them went ahead, 
 and built him a hut, and there they laid 
 him in bed. Next day he was too ill to 
 talk. At night they helped him select 
 some medicine from the chest. Then he 
 said, " All right ; you can go." A lad 
 slept in the hut with him, and towards 
 morning called some of the men. They 
 found his candle burning at his bedside, 
 and Livingstone kneeling there as if in 
 prayer, his face in his hands, but he was 
 dead. 
 
 When these poor natives found that 
 " the great master," as they called him, 
 was dead, " with a fidelity which is rare in 
 story, and a sense of responsibility almost 
 unknown in benighted Africa," they buried 
 his heart and internal organs under a tree 
 Livingstone wrote after his wife's death, 
 " I have often wished that [my resting- 
 place] might be in some far-off, still, deep 
 forest, where I may sleep sweetly till the 
 resurrection morn." His body they em-
 
 1/6 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 balmed, as best they could, by drying; 
 and wrapping it in calico, bark, and canvas, 
 carried it, with all his personal effects, 
 through a hostile country, all the weary 
 way to the coast. It was thence taken to 
 England, and there identified, partly by 
 the arm crushed by the lion's jaw ; and 
 was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey.
 
 XXIY. 
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH 
 
 1829-1892. 
 
 Thirty-eight years an active missionary. 
 BY WALTER R. LAMBUTH. 
 
 12
 
 xxiy. 
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH. 
 
 ANCESTRY. 
 
 THE ancestry of James William Lambuth 
 was missionary. His grandfather, William 
 Lambuth, was a member of the Baltimore 
 Conference, ordained deacon by Bishop Coke 
 and elder by Bishop Asbury. He was sent as 
 a missionary to the wilds of Tennessee in 
 1800, and appointed to Cumberland Circuit, 
 which embraced portions of the States of 
 Tennessee and Virginia. In those early days 
 Indians and outlaws were about the only in- 
 habitants of the primeval forests, which 
 stretched for hundreds of miles between the 
 settlements of the hardy pioneers. It was a 
 plunge into an unexplored and trackless wil- 
 derness; but with a courage born of invincible 
 faith he began traveling his new circuit, and 
 toiled on, enduring many hardships, until he 
 rested from his labors in 1837, leaving behind 
 him a good name and a spotless record.
 
 iSo GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 John Russell, son of William Lambuth, was 
 born in 1801. Converted at the age of four- 
 teen, he immediately set about his life work as 
 a soul-winner. Taking his young companions 
 aside into a grove near the camp ground 
 (where he had just been converted), he poured 
 forth his soul in their behalf, and was instru- 
 mental in leading a number of them to Christ. 
 
 He was licensed to preach at sixteen, and in 
 1821 joined the Kentucky Conference. Vol- 
 unteering for missionary work among the 
 Creoles and Indians of Louisiana, he immedi- 
 ately started south in company with Benja- 
 min Drake, who also had been transferred to 
 the Mississippi Conference. 
 
 Provided with a Methodist preacher's out- 
 fit horse, saddlebags, pocket Bible, hymn 
 book, and Discipline and fired with holy zeal, 
 the hearts of the young preachers beat high 
 with hope as they turned their faces toward 
 the Sunny South. On their way through 
 Nashville, Tenn., they were joined by Bishop 
 George. The three pushed on day after day, 
 following the pioneer's trail under arching 
 pines, through bogs and swamps and turbid 
 streams.
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH. l8l 
 
 A TRAVELING THEOLOGICAL CLASS. 
 
 The good Bishop expounded the Scriptures 
 as they rode along, outlined the doctrines of 
 the Church, put and answered questions, and 
 gave out texts from which they preached 
 at noon while they rested on the roadside. 
 Little did the traveling theological class 
 dream how in after years this method of way- 
 side instruction would be reproduced in a 
 distant land. Often in the life of James Wil- 
 liam Lambuth did he gather his Chinese help- 
 ers about him in the shade of some bamboo 
 grove or on the grassy bank of a canal, and 
 teach them the deep things of God. 
 
 Young Lambuth served circuits in Ala- 
 bama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and, acquiring 
 both the French and Indian languages, 
 preached in them with considerable fluency. 
 While laboring in Louisiana the conversion 
 of a young Indian made a deep impression 
 upon him. The Indian was convicted of sin 
 under his sermon, and came asking what he 
 must do to obtain peace. He was told to go 
 to the grove, pray, and give his whole heart to 
 God. The following morning he returned in 
 great distress, and said: "Me give dog, me 
 give blanket, me give gun; but me get no
 
 1 8 2 GREA T MISSIONAhlES. 
 
 peace. What shall Indian do?" The preach- 
 er replied: "Go back, give all these to God, 
 and then give him yourself." He went to the 
 grove at once to pray, and in a short time re- 
 turned with a beaming face, exclaiming: "Me 
 so happy! Great Spirit bless me! Me happy, 
 so happy!" The young missionary rejoiced 
 with him, and thanked God for the opportu- 
 nity of pointing a child of the forest to Christ. 
 
 METHODISM IN MOBILE. 
 
 While John R. Lambuth did valuable 
 work in other portions of the Mississippi 
 Conference, it was with the city of Mobile, 
 Ala., that his life and labors were most closely 
 identified. In 1826-27 he was appointed to 
 the Mobile Mission, where he organized and 
 built the first Methodist Church in that city. 
 Beginning without a member, after two years 
 of faithful effort a commodious church had 
 been built, and that without the burden of a 
 debt, and one hundred and thirty persons re- 
 ceived into membership. Bishop Soule wrote 
 of him: "The prudence, perseverance, and zeal 
 of the missionary on this station are worthy 
 of imitation and praise."
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH. 183 
 
 DEDICATED AT BIRTH. 
 
 At the close of his pastorate in Mobile, 
 John R. Lambuth was married to Miss Nancy 
 Kirkpatrick, and, locating, moved to Green 
 County, Ala., where on March 2, 1830, the 
 subject of this sketch, James .William Lam- 
 buth, was born. His father was called home 
 from a protracted meeting in which he was 
 assisting, and, returning to attend a mission- 
 ary service, he made the following statement 
 to the congregation: "I was called home yes- 
 terday to the birth of a baby boy. In heart- 
 felt gratitude to God, I dedicate the child to 
 the Lord for a foreign missionary, and add a 
 bale of cotton to send him with." 
 
 With such a dedication, it is not surprising 
 that he dates his religious experience almost 
 from infancy. Writing in his journal in later 
 life: "My own dear father and mother taught 
 me to lift my heart to God in prayer, and 
 when five years of age I felt the blessed influ- 
 ences of God's Holy Spirit." 
 
 Sometimes there was an air of seriousness 
 beyond his years about this blue-eyed boy; 
 but his life was a natural one for all that, and 
 had its alternations of light and shadow. 
 With a body as lithe as a cat, and endowed
 
 184 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 with the clear eye of a huntsman, walking or 
 riding, fishing or hunting were equally at- 
 tractive to him. In boyhood the stick and 
 the sling were weapons offensive and defen- 
 sive, but were succeeded in young manhood 
 by the shotgun and rifle, which were unerr- 
 ing in his hands. The young hunter scorned 
 to shoot a squirrel save through the eye, and 
 many a buck and wild turkey were brought 
 down with his trusty rifle. 
 
 CONVERSION. 
 
 At eight years of age he was brought under 
 profound conviction, and united with the 
 Church, but did not experience regeneration. 
 His membership was an outward help, but we 
 find him constantly yearning for a deeper 
 work of grace. In 1848 he entered the Uni- 
 versity of Mississippi at Oxford, and during 
 his third year at the university he was happily 
 converted after twelve days and nights of deep 
 conviction and distress of mind. From that 
 hour he determined to do what he could to 
 bring others to Christ. How faithfully he ad- 
 hered to this determination is evidenced by 
 his lifelong devotion to soul-saving, but noth-
 
 JAMBS WILLIAM LAMB UTH. 1 85 
 
 ing short of eternity will reveal the full re- 
 sults of his service. 
 
 Graduating in 1852, he returned home and 
 began first the study of medicine, and then 
 that of law, but was soon convinced that there 
 was other work for him to do. He prayed 
 earnestly for direction, while his friends urged 
 him to preach the gospel; but he felt unwor- 
 thy to enter upon such a holy calling. How- 
 ever, after assisting in many religious meet- 
 ings and being greatly blessed, he was in 1853 
 given an exhorter's license, and a few months 
 later license to preach. His first work was 
 among the negroes on his father's farm, and 
 while so engaged he heard and responded to 
 the call made by Bishop Andrew for young 
 men for China. 
 
 ANSWERING THE CALL. 
 
 Concerning this important step, William 
 Lambuth writes: "The appeal fired my heart 
 with holy zeal, and the blessed Spirit of God 
 stirred my soul within; and I said, 'I will go 
 even to China to preach the gospel.' The 
 missionary hymn had often inspired me with 
 an earnest desire to carry the blessed gospel 
 o^ Christ to the regions beyond, and it seemed
 
 1 86 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 in the providence of God that the time had 
 come. I talked with my father about it, and 
 his answer was, 'My son, you could have no 
 greater field in which to glorify God and to do 
 good to men than in the preaching of the gos- 
 pel, and I freely give my consent for you to go 
 to China.' ' After making it a subject of 
 prayer, he wrote Bishop Andrew, volunteer- 
 ing for service abroad, and was accepted. In 
 the fall of 1853 the Mississippi Conference 
 met at Canton. He was received into the 
 Conference on trial, and appointed mission- 
 ary to China by Bishop Capers, who presided. 
 On October 20, 1853, J. W. Lambuth was 
 married to Miss M. I. McClellan, of Cam- 
 bridge, N. Y., and they, in company with three 
 other missionary couples, after a farewell mis- 
 sionary meeting at Richmond, Va., repaired 
 to New York, whence they were to take pas- 
 sage. The ship Ariel, a small sailing vessel, 
 was to take the missionaries to China. There 
 were no magnificent steamships for such dis- 
 tant seaports in those days. They were to 
 sail and drift sixteen thousand miles down the 
 Atlantic, across the equator, around the Cape 
 of Good Hope, around the continent of 
 Africa, up through the Indian Ocean, across
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH. 187 
 
 the equator again, among the islands of Ma- 
 laysia, out by the Philippines, and up through 
 the China Sea. 
 
 What sublime patience these early mission- 
 aries had! Four months and a half at sea, 
 amid calm and storm, with bad water, moldy 
 bread, and much of the time spent in a room 
 hardly larger than a piano box. No com- 
 plaint, however, but rejoicing rather that they, 
 with the great apostle, were worthy "to go 
 far hence unto the Gentiles." 
 
 BEGINNING THE WORK. 
 
 It was in harmony with William Lambuth's 
 life that he should begin his missionary work 
 with a severe scrutiny of motive and method. 
 Heathenism massed by the archenemy con- 
 fronted him. He was about to enter the 
 arena of his life work. Like a true soldier, he 
 must test his armor and gird himself for the 
 battle. A few sentences from his journal give 
 the trend of his thought: "Am I living as a 
 child of God? Is God much in my thoughts, 
 and does the consciousness of his presence en- 
 ter into my daily life, plans, and purposes? 
 Do I sincerely pray, and is God's holy will as 
 such my law?"
 
 1 88 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 The faith, courage, and patience of the new 
 missionaries were the first qualities to be put 
 to the test. The Taiping Rebellion, which 
 had broken out in 1850 in Kwang-si, one of 
 the southwestern provinces, had swept north- 
 ward and gathered force as it went, until in 
 1853 the city of Nanking was carried by 
 storm. This threw Shanghai and the sur- 
 rounding country into a commotion and gave 
 opportunity for a lawless band of Cantonese, 
 more than a thousand in number, to seize and 
 occupy it. These men, called Hoong-der (red 
 heads) from the color of their turbans, se- 
 creted themselves near the city wall, throttled 
 the keepers of the gates at the break of day, 
 and dragged the prefect and the district mag- 
 istrate from their beds and murdered them. 
 Many of the inhabitants were killed or eject- 
 ed, and the foreigners and imperial soldiers 
 outside the walls were defied by the despera- 
 does, who were banded together for robbery 
 and pillage. 
 
 PERILOUS TIMES. 
 
 Our missionary party arrived the year after 
 the seizure of the walled city and before the 
 insurgents had been dislodged. They found
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH. 189 
 
 temporary homes with the missionaries, the 
 Lambuths living with Dr. and Mrs. W. G. E. 
 Cunnyngham, about six hundred yards from 
 the city wall. So near were they to the bat- 
 teries on either side that a stray cannon ball 
 would not unfrequently pass through the 
 house or fall in the yard. Two months after 
 reaching Shanghai, the Lambuths were 
 obliged -to move out of this house, which was 
 burned to the ground shortly afterwards. It 
 was unsafe to be in the streets, and it was im- 
 possible to carry on the work in the interior, 
 but the study of the language was vigorous- 
 ly pursued in the mornings, and the after- 
 noons given to visiting the sick and minister- 
 ing to the wounded and dying. 
 
 This was the day of small things. Two na- 
 tive Christians constituted the Church, and 
 one of these was Mr. Lear, their first preach- 
 er. A union meeting of native Christians of 
 all denominations showed an attendance of 
 only twenty, and the entire native Christian 
 community was not half a hundred. At the 
 present writing there is no church or hall in 
 Shanghai spacious enough to hold them. 
 
 The missionary restlessness of the great 
 apostle to the Gentiles was characteristic of
 
 190 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 William Lambuth. Call it what we may 
 the pioneer spirit, the deepening sense of ob- 
 ligation to serve men, or the divine love im- 
 pelling to seek and save the lost it con- 
 stantly manifested itself and was irresistible. 
 One day a neighboring village would be vis- 
 ited, and the next a half dozen country ham- 
 lets, and perhaps the day following some 
 walled city, into every nook and corner of 
 which the missionary and his assistants pene- 
 trated with their evangel. They prayed as 
 they went: "Lord, give thy servants an abun- 
 dant entrance. We believe thou wilt bless thy 
 word." The very simplicity of the mission- 
 ary's faith made it invincible. Open doors 
 were constantly looked for and constantly 
 found. Nor was he surprised when the Lord 
 honored his faith. 
 
 EMBRACING OPPORTUNITIES. 
 
 A Chinese gentleman who lived on the 
 shore of the Great Lake invited him to come 
 and preach in his house. Early the following 
 morning, with the promptness of a Havelock, 
 he was on his way, accompanied by Lear. 
 They had not gone far when they met a mon- 
 ster procession moving along the bank of the
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH. 191 
 
 canal. It was the birthday of an idol. Here 
 was an opportunity not to be lost; tracts 
 could be distributed, the scriptures sold, and 
 the gospel preached. They quietly stepped 
 ashore and began work. Mr. Lambuth was 
 always careful not to obstruct a religious pro- 
 cession, but their very presence in this case 
 seemed to anger the crowd. The two were 
 soon in the midst of a surging mob. For a 
 few minutes they were in fearful peril, but at 
 the critical moment an adherent of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, thinking they were priests, 
 rescued them at the risk of his own life. One 
 would suppose this would have ended the ef- 
 fort for that day. Not so. Nothing daunted, 
 they preached on the outskirts of the crowd, 
 nor beat a retreat until again assaulted, their 
 book sacks torn, and they themselves pelted 
 with bricks and mud. Still the day was not 
 counted lost. The intrepid missionary said: 
 "In going a little way from the place we found 
 our native friend still with us. Glad of the 
 opportunity, we explained to him the differ- 
 ence between the Yasu Kiau (Jesus doctrine) 
 and that of the Roman Catholic Church. He 
 went on with us some two miles and heard us 
 preach again. We left him rejoicing and with
 
 1 92 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 the promise that he would come to Shanghai 
 to see us immediately." 
 
 Pushing on to the Great Lake, where Mr. 
 Sung lived, the gentleman who had invited 
 them, they were met by their host and con- 
 ducted to his house. Refreshed with a cup of 
 tea, they preached without loss of time to a 
 great multitude of people on the shore of the 
 lake gathered from the adjacent tea and silk 
 farms. The effort was followed up by the dis- 
 tribution of tracts to those who could read. 
 On their way home Leah had an adventure 
 with a drunken man, who struck him in the 
 eye, breaking his spectacles, and threatened to 
 throw him into a pond. Shaking him off, 
 they reached a Buddhist temple served by a 
 lone priest. "He went in," writes Mr. Lam- 
 buth, "lit his candle for us, and we sat with him 
 about two hours telling him of Jesus and the 
 true God." A picture for a Rembrandt: the 
 candle-lit shadows of Buddhism, the sunshine 
 of a glorified Christianity. 
 
 INCESSANT EFFORT. 
 
 It was constantly busy with such work as 
 this that Dr. Lambuth spent thirty-two years 
 in active service in China. While he consid-
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH. 193 
 
 ered the occupation of the cities of great im- 
 portance, and from the first endeavored to in- 
 trench the forces of the mission in the various 
 walled towns of the Kiang-su Province, he did 
 not overlook the fact that the cities are fed 
 by the more vigorous life of the rural dis- 
 tricts. Itinerating tours alternated monthly 
 with work in Shanghai, where in those early 
 days we can trace his footsteps as he goes 
 about doing good. He seems to preach all 
 the time, pray all the time, and visit all the 
 time. And yet a heavy correspondence and 
 the study of the language claimed many of 
 the early and late hours of the day. He had 
 much of the system of Wesley and the devo- 
 tional habits of Fletcher. While difficulties 
 multiplied on every hand, and seeming dis- 
 couragements were enough to dismay the 
 stoutest heart, he quietly pressed on with 
 faith in God and in the.ultimate success of the 
 gospel. 
 
 It hardly seems credible that one so busily 
 employed in travel, preaching, and personal 
 work should have had time to devote to the 
 preparation of a Christian literature. Yet we 
 find him on a committee of translation of the 
 Scriptures into the Shanghai dialect, and en- 
 13
 
 1 94 ORE A T MISSION A RIBS. 
 
 gaged in the translation and publication of a 
 large number of hymns, Wesley's "Sermons," 
 the Discipline, Binney's "Theological Com- 
 pend," Ryle's "Notes on the Gospels," Rals- 
 ton's "Elements of Divinity," and a number of 
 schoolbooks, including a geography and an 
 astronomy, besides catechisms and manuals 
 of various kinds. 
 
 He opened a boarding school for boys in 
 Shanghai and a number of day schools at dif- 
 ferent points in the interior. He trained a 
 number of native preachers and assistants, 
 giving them systematic instruction in the 
 Bible and in the evidences of Christianity. 
 Some of these men have passed to their re- 
 ward after years of faithful and devoted effort, 
 while others still cherishing his spirit are do- 
 ing their best to be true to their trust which 
 came to them in the gospel through his hands. 
 It is not too much to say that the founda- 
 tions of our itinerant work and the develop- 
 ment of a native agency in the China Mission 
 were mostly due to his patient, loving efforts 
 during the more than three decades of labo- 
 rious service in which he was always ably sec- 
 onded by his gifted wife.
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH. 195 
 
 OPENING THE JAPAN MISSION. 
 
 The following words are found in a letter 
 written in 1885 by Dr. J. W. Lambuth to Dr. 
 D. C. Kelley, who was Assistant Secretary 
 and Treasurer of the Board of Missions: "If 
 our Board opens a mission in Japan, I am 
 ready to go there and help in that work." 
 This sentiment did not express dissatisfac- 
 tion with the results of the work done in 
 China. It was rather the expansion of the 
 missionary idea which had grown out of a life- 
 long study of the purpose of God in the re- 
 demption of every nation. A study of the 
 field in Japan, with almost daily contact with 
 either missionaries or natives from the Island 
 Empire, had deepened the conviction that the 
 hour had come for our Church to enter. 
 
 Bishop H. N. McTyeire, then in charge of 
 the China Mission, in writing to Dr. Lam- 
 buth at this time expressed himself as follows: 
 "I trust the Lord's providence directs in this 
 matter, and that he is leading to good and 
 even great results. May your valuable life 
 long be preserved and your strength be re- 
 newed, and may its labors be conserved in this 
 Japan field with the best and largest results." 
 The reply of the simple-hearted missionary
 
 1 96 GREA T MISS ION A RIES. 
 
 was characteristic: "We thank you and the 
 friends for this determination to open a mis- 
 sion in Japan. We shall go leaning on the 
 omnipotent arm of God and seeking in our 
 work the guidance of the Holy Spirit and his 
 blessing." In pursuance of the instructions 
 of the Bishop, Dr. J. W. Lambuth and Dr. O. 
 A. Dukes landed in Kobe in July, 1886, fol- 
 lowed in November by Dr. W. R. Lambuth. 
 
 ESTABLISHING HEADQUARTERS. 
 
 Japan was a new and untried field, but, rely- 
 ing upon the guidance of the Divine Spirit, 
 whose presence he had invoked, the founder 
 of the mission wisely settled upon Kobe as 
 his headquarters. This growing city of over 
 100,000, upon a magnificent bay at the east- 
 ern entrance of the Inland Sea, is the hinge 
 upon which both land and sea travel turns in 
 all that section. No better base could have 
 been selected for evangelistic effort. At a 
 distance of only twenty miles the city of 
 Osaka can be seen with more than half a mil- 
 lion people, its public buildings and its factory 
 chimneys gleaming in the evening sun until 
 it seems like Venice to float on the water. 
 Beyond Osaka, some fifty miles by rail, is
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH. 197 
 
 Kioto, the western capital of Japan, with its 
 three hundred thousand inhabitants, its nu- 
 merous temples, its potteries, and especially 
 its schools. Thus within seventy-five miles 
 we have the principal commercial, manufac- 
 turing', and educational centers of Japan, 
 while along the Inland Sea and in the interior 
 is a population of 15,000,000 souls within al- 
 most twenty-four hours' reach by boat or rail. 
 
 FOUNDER AND FATHER OF THE MISSION. 
 
 Dr. J. C. C. Newton, in writing about the 
 early days of the mission, speaks in the follow- 
 ing terms of J. W. Lambuth and the first mis- 
 sionaries: "We know how their hearts burned 
 with the fires of Christ's love as they quickly 
 saw stretching out far and wide the fields 
 white for the harvest; and we know, too, how 
 the heart of the old warrior was stirred with 
 an ardor equal to that of the two younger 
 men. With a rapidity that astonished other 
 missionaries in Japan he went through all the 
 coasts of the Inland Sea, preaching and talk- 
 ing to the people. In fact, there is scarcely a 
 point in our whole field, from Kobe to Oita, 
 that was not either opened by him or with 
 which his labors are not connected. Of the
 
 1 98 GREA T MfSSION* R/ES. 
 
 Kobe Church, which for so long a time wor- 
 shiped in his house, he is especially to be 
 named as the founder and father. 
 
 "His last trip into the interior was to Ta- 
 dotsu. By invitation of Rev. C. B. Moseley, 
 presiding elder of that district, he preached 
 and dedicated the new house of worship. It 
 was fitting that he should dedicate the house, 
 for he opened the work there and ever 
 watched the tender vine planted in that seat 
 of idolatry. His constant interest in the wel- 
 fare of the Japanese people, and his untiring 
 labor for their salvation, are known and read 
 of all. There is no desire to forget the splen- 
 did work of others, but this now sainted man 
 of God is the father of our work, and alike by 
 our Japanese Christians and by the mission- 
 aries he will ever be named our father." 
 
 UNRESERVED CONSECRATION. 
 
 In a memorial service held immediately 
 after his death, Dr. Newton brought out sev- 
 eral characteristics which are true of his life 
 and ministry: 
 
 "First, one of the strong characteristics 
 of his whole career, and also the secret 
 of his usefulness, was his unreserved conse-
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTtt. 199 
 
 cration to the one thing. When as a young 
 man just from college, he heard the call 
 of God to go preach the gospel in the far- 
 off lands, he said: 'Here am I; send me.' 
 There was then and there a complete giving 
 up of everything to that one thing. Kin- 
 dred, parents, the prospect of a successful 
 career in his native State all were laid for- 
 ever on the altar. Henceforth he cared for 
 nothing, sought for nothing, except as it 
 stood related to the preaching of the gospel 
 to the heathen. Social amenities, hospitality 
 (this abounded always), were all consecrated 
 to the one great end in the name of Christ. 
 Nor was he to be a missionary for a limited 
 time five or six years and then to return. 
 Nay, he was a missionary for life. Some of us 
 had been thinking he ought to go to America, 
 but he has fallen at his post, just where he 
 wanted to finish his course; and with joy, too. 
 He has given us an example of lifelong, entire 
 consecration to the one thing to which God 
 had called him. 
 
 DECISION OF CHARACTER. 
 
 "Secondly, there was a quiet, gentlemanly 
 decision of character which it is well for us to
 
 200 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 ponder. His indomitable will stands out as an 
 example worthy of all imitation as it was il- 
 lustrated during the late dreadful Civil War. 
 During those long years of fratricidal con- 
 flict, cut off from the support and almost 
 from all communication from the home 
 Church, he remained at his post through it all 
 and carried on his missionary work. I trust 
 that I may be pardoned for saying in the pres- 
 ence of the living this: When all the annals of 
 missionary labor shall have been written up, 
 no page of those annals will shine brighter 
 than the one that records the unquenchable 
 devotion and heroic self-sacrifice of Dr. Lam- 
 buth and of his equally heroic wife. In the 
 presence of difficulties that made other stout 
 hearts fail, his never did. 
 
 EXALTED STANDARD OF LIFE. 
 
 "Thirdly, he maintained an exalted stand- 
 ard of Christian life, illustrating in his own 
 personal life the principles of the gospel which 
 he preached to others. Did he preach repent- 
 ance? He himself had repented and re- 
 nounced every form of sin and needless 
 fleshly indulgence. Faith in Christ as the 
 Lamb of God, the precious Blood that
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH. 2O1 
 
 cleanseth from all sin this he constantly 
 preached; and his own faith was a living ev- 
 eryday reality. Did he preach the office and 
 work of the Holy Ghost? With him it was 
 not a mere theory. He had the witness of 
 the Spirit. ' Did he exhort the native Chris- 
 tians unto love supreme toward God, and to- 
 ward each other brotherly love? He him- 
 self was an example of consecrated and un- 
 selfish love. 
 
 "And here is the secret of that profound re- 
 spect which the people of China and Japan 
 have for him. People can read the inner heart 
 of their spiritual teachers. This is true ev- 
 erywhere, and especially so in the East. 
 They saw in him the actual experience and 
 power of a redeemed man. The deep love of 
 Christ for their souls the Christ they had 
 not seen they saw illustrated, demonstrated 
 in Christ's messenger whom they had seen. 
 The purity of his thoughts, the singleness of 
 his aim, took hold upon their respect and con- 
 fidence. This is a matter most important to 
 us. The power and holiness of the heart sanc- 
 tified by the Holy Ghost, the exalted stand- 
 ard of his life, the absolute certainty and bold- 
 ness with which he preached a present and
 
 202 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 full salvation from all the sin of the spirit and 
 filthiness of the flesh this is the model for 
 us," 
 
 It was in the month of April, when the beau- 
 tiful Japanese maples begin to leaf, that Dr. 
 Lambuth made his last trip into the interior. 
 A little group of Japanese Christians in the 
 city of Tadotsu, on the southern shore of the 
 Inland Sea, had been for months earnestly 
 studying the Word of God, and had resolved 
 to build a church in which they might wor- 
 ship and the gospel be preached. They were 
 within a short distance of the greatest hea- 
 then shrine in all Japan, for do not thousands 
 of pilgrims come annually by sea and land to 
 bow down before Kompira, whose fame is 
 known to every sailor and whose virtues have 
 penetrated every home? Despite all this, the 
 little band had never lost heart. The men 
 had given their ancient armor and the women 
 their silken robes that the proceeds of sale 
 might be devoted to the erection of a Chris- 
 tian temple, and the oldest member of the 
 mission their spiritual father was invited 
 to dedicate it to the Lord. 
 
 It was his last work. He caught a severe 
 cold from sleeping on the floor, and returned
 
 JAMES WILLIAM LAMBUTH. 203 
 
 to Kobe with it rapidly deepening into pneu- 
 monia. There was much pain, but no com- 
 plaint. After a very trying night, he greeted 
 Rev. W. E. Towson with the words: "God 
 has been so good to me." Later on through 
 the same brother missionary he transmitted 
 these words to the native Church: "Tell them 
 to be faithful faithful to the end." To the 
 Church at home he sent the message: "Tell 
 them I died at my post. We have a great 
 work to do; tell them to send more men." 
 
 In the light of a life wholly devoted to the 
 service of his Master, with what can we close 
 this sketch more appropriately than the 
 words of Dr. S. H. Wainright, who, in sum- 
 ming up the characteristics of this truly apos- 
 tolic missionary, said: "He was persistent in 
 work, unceasing in prayer; always busy, al- 
 ways praying, always talking to men of God. 
 always talking of God to men?"
 
 XXY. 
 
 RE V. CHARLES TAYLOR, M.D., D.D. 
 
 1819-1897. 
 
 Founder of the China Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 South. 
 
 BY WALTER R. LAMBUTH.
 
 xxy. 
 
 REV. CHARLES TATLOR, M.D., D.D. 
 
 ONE of the most interesting features of the 
 General Missionary Conference held in New 
 Orleans in the spring of 1901 was the pres- 
 entation of a gavel by Mrs. M. D. Wightman, 
 President of the Woman's Foreign Mission- 
 ary Society. The gavel was made of wood 
 from the pulpit of the old Methodist Church 
 on the Darlington Circuit, in South Carolina. 
 Bishop E. R. Hendrix, who occupied the chair 
 and received the gavel from the hands of Mrs. 
 Wightman, alluded in beautiful and appro- 
 priate words to the fact that Charles Taylor, 
 then junior preacher on the circuit, knelt fre- 
 quently behind the pulpit of what was known 
 as the Friendship Church, and fresh from his 
 knees earnestly pleaded the obligation of the 
 Church to carry the gospel to the heathen in 
 the regions beyond. What wonder that this 
 young man should have been the first in the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to have 
 offered himself for the great work of world- 
 wide evangelization? Every epoch in the his-
 
 208 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 tory of the Church has had its beginning in 
 prayer. It was not otherwise with the foreign 
 missionary movement of our own Metho- 
 dism. The founding of the China Mission 
 was the initial step in a series of great evangel- 
 istic movements which have carried the evan- 
 gel of the Christ into many lands and brought 
 back in reflex waves an untold blessing to the 
 Church at home. 
 
 THE MOTHER OF MISSIONS. 
 
 The South Carolina Conference may well 
 be styled "The Mother of Missions." On the 
 marble shaft which marks the resting place of 
 Bishop William Capers, in the city of Colum- 
 bia, are the words: "The Founder of Missions 
 to the Slaves." The zeal of the Methodist 
 preachers in that section for the salvation of 
 the negroes was an inspiration to all the 
 Southern Conferences. "The annals of mis- 
 sionary toil," wrote Dr. I. G. John, "can fur- 
 nish fewer nobler evidences of heroic sacri- 
 fice than were found in the self-denying ef- 
 forts of those men who labored on the negro 
 missions. On the rice plantations of the At- 
 lantic coast and the sugar and cotton planta- 
 tions of the Gulf States they bore the message
 
 CHARLES TAYLOR. 209 
 
 of life to the cabins of the slaves, teaching the 
 children and training their parents respecting 
 the doctrines and duties that must govern a 
 Christian life. Every Christian master and 
 mistress cooperated gladly in the work. 
 In 1860, when the war disturbed our 
 labors among these people, the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, reported a colored 
 membership of 207,776, or nearly as many as 
 the entire number of communicants that, in 
 that day, had been gathered into Church re- 
 lations by all the Protestant missionaries at 
 work in the heathen world. When the record 
 of the evangelization of the sons of Ham is 
 written by the pen of an impartial historian, 
 the work of the misssionaries of the Southern 
 Methodist Church will appear chief among 
 the agencies employed by our Master for the 
 redemption of the African race." 
 
 Capers may be regarded also as "the pio- 
 neer of Methodist missions among the Indi- 
 ans of the Southern States." In 1822, six 
 years before systematic effort was organized 
 for the negroes, he was appointed the first su- 
 perintendent of Asbury Mission among the 
 Creek Indians, with Rev. Isaac Hill as mis- 
 sionary. 
 14
 
 2 1 GREA T MISS I ON A RIES. 
 
 It was to this man, then a presiding elder, 
 of catholic spirit and world-wide vision, that 
 Charles Taylor, who had joined the South 
 Carolina Conference, opened his heart, say- 
 ing: "If the Church decides to establish a 
 mission in Persia, India, or China, I am will- 
 ing to go where I am needed most." In Wil- 
 liam Capers the Lord had provided a won- 
 derful organizer of missionary movements; in 
 Charles Taylor we have a man providentially 
 qualified for laying foundations that will abide. 
 
 PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 
 
 Charles Taylor was born in Boston, Mass., 
 on September 15, 1819. His father, Dr. Oli- 
 ver Swaine Taylor, was at that time the As- 
 sistant Treasurer of the American Board of 
 Missions and assistant editor of their month- 
 ly periodical, the Panoplist, afterwards, and 
 still continued as, the Missionary Herald. He 
 was a graduate of Dartmouth College, a phy- 
 sician, a Presbyterian minister, and for many 
 years a teacher. His parents having moved 
 to the State of New York, Charles at the age 
 of fifteen walked most of the way to New 
 York City, a distance of three hundred miles, 
 helping to drive a herd of cattle, for which
 
 CHARLES TAYLOR. 211 
 
 service he received the small compensation of 
 a few dollars. Immediately on his arrival 
 he set about seeking employment, and soon 
 found an opening in a dry goods store. The 
 proprietor just about that time had been hap- 
 pily converted at a protracted meeting in the 
 Bedford Street Methodist Church, and, being 
 desirous that those in his employ should ex- 
 perience a similar blessing, offered any of his 
 clerks who wished to avail themselves of the 
 opportunity time from their regular hours 
 at the store to attend the meetings. Charles 
 did so, and, becoming interested, went for- 
 ward to the "altar" for prayer and instruction 
 every night for about two weeks, when he too 
 found peace in believing. 
 
 CALL TO PREACH. 
 
 Though reared a Presbyterian, he, with 
 the full consent of his parents, united with 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church. Soon aft- 
 er this he felt strangely impressed that it was 
 his duty to preach. During a session of the 
 New York Conference in that city, Bishop 
 Andrew presiding, the Duane Street Sunday 
 School, to which Charles then belonged, had 
 a public celebration, and he was appointed to
 
 2 1 2 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 deliver a short speech as a part of the exer- 
 cises. The Bishop was present that night, 
 and had consented to preside on the occa- 
 sion. On the way to the home of the family 
 where he was entertained he said to those in 
 the carriage with him: "The little fellow who 
 made that speech to-night will become a 
 Methodist preacher some of these days." 
 
 His father being for many years principal 
 of several academies, the greater part of the 
 son's early life had been passed in the school- 
 room. After remaining nearly two years in 
 the store, he returned to his boyhood home, 
 and, after spending several months there, re- 
 viewing his former studies, he returned to the 
 city in September, 1836, and, after examina- 
 tion, w r as admitted to the Freshman Class in 
 the New York University. He found him- 
 self with only $3.62, and this small sum hardly 
 sufficed to buy two or three indispensable 
 text-books. Then how was he to live? He 
 found employment in the office of the New 
 York Observer, writing the whole of every 
 Thursday night directing papers, for which 
 he was paid one dollar, which after a few 
 weeks was increased to one dollar and twenty- 
 five cents.
 
 CHARLES TAYLOR. 213 
 
 SELF-SUPPORT. 
 
 The room in which the printing, folding, 
 and mailing of the weekly edition of the 
 paper were done was a large cellar basement, 
 some fifteen feet under ground, and about 
 fifty by thirty feet in space. There was a 
 large stove near the middle of the apartment, 
 but its heat was far from sufficient to warm 
 the large stone-walled basement, which had 
 holes for ventilation, and these would let in 
 large draughts of freezing winter air. So our 
 young friend's feet, after hours of suffering, 
 would become so thoroughly benumbed by 
 the cold that he could not feel them at all, 
 and he thought they might have been cut off 
 without giving him pain. His hands would 
 become so cold that it was with the great- 
 est difficulty that he could hold his pen, and 
 sometimes he would only know it was between 
 his fingers by seeing it there instead of feel- 
 ing it. When morning came, and the work of 
 the night was over, the thawing out of his 
 hands and feet by the stove was accompanied 
 by severe pain; but they soon became so re- 
 stored that he could start on his walk of over 
 a mile along the tortuous streets of the great 
 city to his cheerless attic; and then, with his
 
 2 1 4 GREA T MISS ION A KIES. 
 
 text-books under his arm, he would hasten to 
 a kind family which provided him with a warm 
 breakfast, and, thus fortified, would go on to 
 his daily recitation. Before the next winter 
 came on the mailing department of the Ob- 
 server was removed to a comfortable room on 
 the second floor of the building. 
 
 Dr. John M. Reid, for many years one of 
 the Missionary Secretaries of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, was converted during the 
 same meeting and at the same altar with the 
 subject of this sketch, and the two became 
 lifelong friends. The father of young Reid, 
 living in another part of the city, owned a 
 two-story brick store and dwelling combined 
 on Spring Street, in which was a small attic 
 room or garret on the third floor that was 
 partly filled with rubbish, but was the only 
 one in the house unoccupied. This was kind- 
 ly offered to our young friend if he could make 
 it habitable, and Mrs. Reid loaned him a small 
 cot bedstead and mattress, some articles of 
 bedclothing, a chair, a small box cupboard, 
 and a few dishes with which to begin house- 
 keeping. He bought a small stove at second- 
 hand for one dollar, and a small pine table for 
 $1.25. A large goods box held the few bush-
 
 CHARLES TAYLOR. 215 
 
 els of coal he had purchased and carried up 
 from the street. Thus equipped, he set up 
 keeping "bachelor's hall." For food he 
 bought a loaf of baker's bread and a pint of 
 molasses, which cost but little, and lasted 
 about two days, and this made his dollar a 
 week more than support him, though he often 
 felt the cravings of hunger. Still he was 
 cheerful, hopeful, enthusiastic, and happy 
 studied diligently, and kept in the first grade 
 of his class in all his college studies through 
 the whole four years' course. 
 
 ASSOCIATION WITH MORSE. 
 
 It was in the university that the young stu- 
 dent became associated with Prof. Morse, 
 who appreciated so highly his intelligent in- 
 terest in science that he availed himself of his 
 assistance in his first experiment in telegra- 
 phy. Dr. Taylor in after life often referred 
 to the delightful hours with Morse who, while 
 employed in coiling the wire of his batteries 
 in the half barrels arranged in rows around 
 the walls of his laboratory and in the halls of 
 the university, aroused in his assistant a 
 thirsting for knowledge which burned like a 
 fire in his bones. While the great scientist
 
 2 1 6 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 electrified his students with glowing zeal and 
 pleasurable anticipation of great discoveries, 
 he little realized in the case of young Taylor 
 how, as we have already indicated, the swift 
 hours of the day were offset by long nights of 
 toil. 
 
 During his Friday's recitations he would 
 be so completely overcome by drowsiness 
 from the loss of sleep for the whole night be- 
 fore that on one occasion his book dropped 
 from his hands to the floor. This mishap 
 brought a reproof from the professor. When 
 the young student at the close of the recita- 
 tion explained to him the cause, his eyes 
 moistened and he apologized with words of 
 commendation. A kind family, but of moder- 
 ate means, who were cognizant of young Tay- 
 lor's circumstances and labors, insisted that 
 he should come to their house every Friday 
 morning and get a warm breakfast, the bet- 
 ter to brace him up for the duties of the day 
 after his night of toil. Occasionally, too, 
 there were other friends who had become 
 aware of his condition and would invite him 
 to a meal with them. 
 
 HEROIC SELF-DENIAL. 
 
 Winter soon came on with unusual sever-
 
 CHARLES TAYLOR. 217 
 
 ity, and our youth was but poorly prepared 
 to endure its rigors. He would sometimes lie 
 awake the whole night long, shivering with 
 cold, being unable to sleep for want of suf- 
 ficient bed covering, and occasionally would 
 find his bed partly covered with snow, which 
 had sifted in through the crevices and broken 
 glass of the ill-fitting windows and dilapida- 
 ted roof. 
 
 He would now and then vary his diet by in- 
 dulging in the more expensive luxuries of 
 crackers, cheese, and smoked herring. He 
 had thus lived so sparingly that at the close 
 of the first year in the university he had saved 
 not only enough to pay his traveling expenses 
 to his home for the summer vacation, but had 
 eight dollars over, which he gave to his sur- 
 prised and delighted mother. 
 
 As the fall season drew near, in which he 
 was to return to the university, he collected 
 from a dilatory patron a long-overdue tuition 
 bill given him by his father, with which to de- 
 fray his expenses back to the city. For this 
 year he secured a large and comfortable room 
 in the university building, the rent for which 
 he and his two or three roommates paid by 
 doing watchman's duty, going alternately
 
 2 1 8 GRBA T MISS ION A RIES. 
 
 through the building every half hour during 
 the night to guard against incendiaries; for, a 
 few months before, a pile of combustibles just 
 lighted had been discovered in the cellar 
 barely in time to prevent a conflagration. 
 
 He still continued the same frugal diet as 
 in the year before, but had in the meantime 
 found an opportunity to do some writing in 
 another newspaper office, also at night, once 
 in two weeks, the proceeds of which so added 
 to his income that on arrival at home on his 
 second summer vacation he placed five five- 
 dollar gold pieces under his mother's plate at 
 the table. As she turned it up her eyes filled 
 with tears, and her look of surprise and grati- 
 tude, mingled with pride and pleasure as she 
 embraced and kissed her boy, made that one 
 of the happiest moments in his life, and amply 
 compensated him for all the self-denials in- 
 volved in the gift. 
 
 FIRST MISSIONARY ADDRESS. 
 
 He had attached himself to the Greene 
 Street Methodist Church and became a mem- 
 ber of the Bible class taught by the celebrated 
 Joseph Longking, the author of "Notes on 
 the Gospels," etc. His friend, John M. Reid,
 
 CHARLES TATLOR. 219 
 
 a little older than himself, was also a member 
 of the same class and President of the Juve- 
 nile Missionary Society that had been organ- 
 ized in the Sunday school and held monthly 
 meetings of great interest. Here our young 
 friend wrote and delivered his" first missionary 
 address, and about this time formed the pur- 
 pose that if the way should ever be opened he 
 would go as a missionary to the heathen. 
 
 His health having suffered somewhat from 
 his irregular mode of living, he made arrange- 
 ments with some friends to take regular board 
 with them, they agreeing to wait for payment 
 until he might be able by teaching after his 
 graduation to liquidate the debt. He, how- 
 ever, paid them as he went along from the 
 proceeds of his night work in the newspaper 
 offices, which he still kept up with increased 
 labor and compensation. So things went on 
 through the two remaining years of his uni- 
 versity course, at the end of which he gradu- 
 ated, in June, 1840, with the highest honors of 
 his class. 
 
 TEACHING IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 During that same month he met Dr. Wil- 
 liam M. Wightman, then editor of the South-
 
 220 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 cm Christian Advocate, who had come to New 
 York on a visit, and who encouraged him to 
 come to South Carolina and carry out his 
 plans for teaching. He accordingly in that 
 fall took passage in a schooner from New 
 York to Charleston, and, arriving there safe- 
 ly, was hospitably welcomed by the family of 
 Rev. John Mood. He at first engaged in an 
 enterprise that promised more lucrative and 
 speedy remuneration than teaching, but 
 which proved to be a failure and brought him 
 some two hundred dollars more deeply in 
 debt. He then, toward the close of the win- 
 ter, taught a private school in Aiken, S. C., 
 for a few months, when a more desirable posi- 
 tion was offered him as tutor in a private 
 family for the summer season, near Flat 
 Rock, N. C. 
 
 During this time Dr. Wightman (afterwards 
 Bishop) had kept him in mind, and, being 
 President of the Board of Trustees of the 
 South Carolina Conference School at Cokes- 
 bury, presented the name and secured the 
 election of his young friend to fill a vacancy 
 that had occurred in the faculty of that insti- 
 tution in the fall of 1841, with such a liberal 
 salary as enabled him in three years to pay all
 
 CHARLES TAYLOR. 221 
 
 his debts and send several hundred dollars to 
 his parents besides. While thus employed as 
 classical teacher, he was licensed to preach in 
 1842, and on Saturdays and Sundays rilled 
 many appointments at the various churches 
 on the Cokesbury Circuit. Toward the close 
 of a memorable year in 1844, he declined a 
 flattering offer from the trustees to increase 
 his salary by one-half if he would remain in 
 the school, and applied for admission on trial 
 into the South Carolina Conference at its 
 session in Columbia. Bishop Andrew pre- 
 sided, and when informed that one of the 
 class just admitted was the little fellow of 
 whom he had made the prediction ten years 
 before remarked that in that case at least he 
 had proved himself to be a true prophet. 
 
 ON THE DARLINGTON CIRCUIT. 
 
 At this Conference he was appointed jun- 
 ior preacher on the Darlington Circuit, which 
 required travel of two hundred and forty 
 miles, with preaching twenty-four times in 
 twenty-eight days, leaving only each Monday 
 in the month for a rest day. During the lat- 
 ter part of that year, when his presiding elder, 
 Dr. William Capers, came to hold one of the
 
 2 2 5 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 quarterly meetings, they stayed at the same 
 house; and after dinner on Saturday the con- 
 versation turned to our Church, which had just 
 been organized a few months before by the 
 convention at Louisville, Ky. Dr. Capers re- 
 marked that now, as we were entering on a 
 new era in our history, the Church should in- 
 augurate some foreign missionary enterprise, 
 in order at once to stimulate the energy and 
 active liberality of our people. 
 
 The young preacher heartily coincided with 
 this view, and remarked that he had long con- 
 templated engaging in such work, and was 
 only waiting for an opportunity to carry out 
 his purpose. The good Doctor seemed sur- 
 prised and pleased, and immediately asked to 
 what foreign field he had thought of going. 
 The young man replied that he had not fixed 
 upon any particular field, but would be will- 
 ing to go anywhere Persia, India, China, or 
 wherever he might be most needed. Dr. 
 Capers then asked him if he would really be 
 willing to go to China. He unhesitatingly re- 
 plied that he would. The Doctor then re- 
 quested him to write him a letter proposing 
 such a mission, and said he would publish it in 
 the Southern Christian Advocate, accompany-
 
 CHARLES TAYLOR. 223 
 
 ing it with comments of his own. This was 
 done, and followed up by several others'from 
 young Taylor, strongly urging the project^ 
 
 ^^^ /* 
 
 APPOINTED TO CHINA. 
 
 At the first General Conference of the X, 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, South, held in 7 X ^ 
 the city of Petersburg, Va., during May of the 
 next year (1846), Dr. Capers was elected bish- 
 op, a Board of Missions was organized, and 
 Charles Taylor was appointed the first mis- 
 sionary of our Church to China. It was at the 
 close of this year, on December 27, that he 
 was married to Miss Charlotte Jane Gamewell, 
 who was born in Marlboro District, S. C., on 
 May 20, 1828, and was the youngest child of 
 Rev. John Gamewell, who had been ordained 
 by Bishop Asbury and was one of the pioneer 
 preachers of the South Carolina Conference. 
 The distance to China was so great, and the 
 possibilities of sickness and other trials were 
 such, that it was thought eminently desirable 
 that Dr. Taylor should have a colleague. 
 Consequently a volunteer was called for 
 through the Church papers, and it seemed 
 surprising that nearly two years elapsed be- 
 fore one was found. In the meantime Tay-
 
 224 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 lor was diligently studying medicine, and at- 
 tended two courses of lectures in Philadel- 
 phia, graduating there and receiving his di- 
 ploma in March, 1848. A short time before 
 that Benjamin Jenkins, superintendent of the 
 printing office of the Southern Christian Advo- 
 cate, was secured, licensed to preach, and ap- 
 pointed as a colleague to Dr. Taylor, who had 
 been ordained a deacon by Bishop Capers in 
 1846, and both proceeded to Norfolk, Va., 
 where farewell missionary services were held 
 by Bishop Andrew, who first ordained Broth- 
 er Jenkins as deacon in the forenoon, and 
 then ordained both as elders in the afternoon. 
 
 The Bishop and Dr. Wightman, who had 
 come from Charleston to be present, informed 
 Dr. Taylor that, as he had made the matter a 
 study for over two years, the Board of Mis- 
 sions had left the selection of the point at 
 which to begin our work in China exclusively 
 to him. -He fixed upon Shanghai as in his 
 judgment possessing advantages and oppor- 
 tunities superior to those of any of the other 
 ports open to occupancy, and accordingly de- 
 cided upon that location. 
 
 OUTWARD BOUND. 
 
 The two missionaries, with their families,
 
 CHARLES TAT LOR. 225 
 
 sailed from Boston on April 24, 1848, on the 
 Cleone, a very small and uncomfortable ship. 
 Their sleeping rooms were about seven feet 
 long by about five in width, on each side of a 
 cabin about seven feet by nine, which consti- 
 tuted their only sitting room for five long 
 months of the voyage. Their fare was but lit- 
 tle better than that furnished our soldiers 
 during the late war, consisting mainly of salt 
 junk and hard-tack. To add to their discom- 
 fort, the captain was a surly, ill-tempered man, 
 and frequently cursed Brother Jenkins's chil- 
 dren. Dr. Taylor asked his permission to 
 hold public worship on Sunday on deck for 
 the benefit of the ship's company and sailors. 
 He consented so reluctantly, and showed such 
 a manifest dislike for the services, that after 
 a few Sundays they were discontinued. 
 
 After three months without sight of land 
 their ship entered the Strait Sunda, between 
 the islands of Java and Sumatra. The natives, 
 Malays, brought off many boat loads of trop- 
 ical fruits, besides pigs, ducks, geese, and tur- 
 tles, so that from this time on their food was 
 far more palatable. 
 
 A month longer of sailing through the 
 Java Sea and the great Eastern Archipelago, 
 15
 
 226 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 passing the islands of Borneo, Celebes, and 
 the Philippines, brought them to Hongkong. 
 Arriving there, the health of Mrs. Jenkins was 
 so feeble that the husband took the family 
 ashore, while Dr. Taylor, his wife, and their 
 infant son, after spending a week at Canton, 
 proceeded one thousand miles up the coast 
 of China to Shanghai. Encountering strong 
 head winds in the Formosa Channel, this part 
 of the voyage took a month longer. 
 
 Arriving at last at the port of their destina- 
 tion, they were most hospitably received and 
 entertained by the Baptist missionaries, who 
 had preceded them there, and who assisted 
 them in renting a Chinese dwelling. Dr. Tay- 
 lor at once procured a native teacher, and ap- 
 plied himself so assiduously to the study of 
 the language that at the end of six months he 
 made his first effort at preaching. After nine 
 months of unavoidable delay, his colleague ar- 
 rived and joined him at Shanghai. 
 
 STREET PREACHING. 
 
 After acquiring enough of the spoken dia- 
 lect to make himself readily understood, the 
 missionary would take daily walks into the 
 city, conversing with the natives in their
 
 CHARLES TAT LOR. 227 
 
 shops and stores, discoursing to crowds at 
 their places of public resort, and distributing 
 tracts to such as could read. The most noted 
 place of public gatherings was the large open 
 space in front of the "Ching Wong Mian" 
 (the City Guardian's Temple). Here would 
 assemble jugglers, gamblers, cricket fighters, 
 tooth pullers displaying a peck or so of 
 teeth which they claimed to have extracted 
 quack specialists, and mountebanks of all 
 imaginable varieties. The missionary would 
 take his stand on the topmost steps of the 
 temple, its wide portals open behind him, and 
 with the huge idols in full view would descant 
 on the folly of worshiping such objects, the 
 work of their own hands. The (at that time) 
 novel sight of a foreigner and hearing him 
 speak their own language soon drew the 
 crowds from all the other centers of attrac- 
 tion, leaving them deserted, and venting their 
 wrath in abusing him who had so unceremoni- 
 ously attracted their customers and listeners 
 to himself. In this way he would often have 
 as many hearers as could stand packed to- 
 gether within the sound of his voice. 
 
 SCHOOL WORK. 
 He also established a day school by renting
 
 228 GRBA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 a suitable room and employing a native teach- 
 er at three dollars a month. He visited the 
 families in the neighborhood, inviting them 
 to send their children free of charge, with the 
 understanding that they were to be taught 
 Christian doctrines while learning their own 
 language. Very few objected to this, being 
 too poor to pay for their tuition and consid- 
 ering it very desirable that all their boys 
 should be educated in their own language and 
 literature, knowing that if they should devel- 
 op into scholars and be able to pass the reg- 
 ular examinations they would become eligi- 
 ble to any office in the empire. They were 
 also encouraged to send their daughters, and 
 quite a number did so. 
 
 As the Chinese have no weeks in their reck- 
 oning time, but only years and months, or 
 moons, etc., working every day alike all the 
 year round, excepting special festive days, 
 which are numerous the missionaries pre- 
 pared and had printed, on single pages or 
 sheets, a calendar, according to their own 
 computing of time, and in parallel columns, 
 side by side with it, our own, showing on what 
 days of their moons our Sundays came; and 
 in accordance with their custom of keeping
 
 CHARLES TAYLOR. 229 
 
 up their schools through all the days, they did 
 not dismiss theirs on Sundays, but simply 
 changed it to a Sunday school, requiring the 
 teacher to use only Christian books copies 
 of the Gospels, tracts, a catechism teaching 
 them especially the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, 
 and the Ten Commandments, which were 
 written in characters large enough to be read 
 from the farthest part of the room and hung 
 on scrolls four or five feet long against the 
 wall over the teacher's platform. Most of the 
 pupils learned to repeat all these from mem- 
 ory. 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 Dr. Taylor also wrote, and with the aid of 
 his teacher translated into the Shanghai dia- 
 lect and had printed in tract form, a "Com- 
 pendium of Christian Doctrine," of which, 
 with other tracts and leaflets, he distributed 
 many thousands. On one sheet, nearly a foot 
 square, he had printed the Ten Command- 
 ments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, to- 
 gether with a calendar, both Chinese and for- 
 eign in parallel columns, showing on what 
 days of the moons their Sundays occurred, 
 and distributed an edition of ten thousand of 
 them with his own hands in the shops and
 
 2 30 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 dwellings of the city, accompanying each with 
 the request that it be pasted on the wall 
 in a conspicuous place. In looking into 
 many of these places as he passed through the 
 streets of the city days and weeks afterwards, 
 he had the satisfaction of seeing that the re- 
 quest had been complied with in many in- 
 stances. 
 
 MEDICAL WORK. 
 
 Occasional excursions by boat into the sur- 
 rounding cities and towns constituted an in- 
 teresting part of his work. He would on 
 such occasions take along a supply of medi- 
 cines, as well as books and tracts, and admin- 
 ister to such cases as could come to him at 
 his boat. Crowds would assemble at every 
 stopping place, whom he would instruct as 
 well as relieve. He found his medical prac- 
 tice a most valuable adjunct to his efforts at 
 gaining the confidence and good will of the 
 people, and it often gave him access to many 
 whom he could reach by no other means. On 
 one occasion he performed a successful oper- 
 ation on the eye of a poor man, which so 
 greatly relieved him that he continued to ex- 
 press his appreciation every day for a long 
 time.
 
 CHARLES TAT LOR. 231 
 
 In many instances where relief was afford- 
 ed the patients uttered most extravagant ex- 
 pressions of gratitude. It greatly surprised 
 them that the foreigner would give them 
 medical and surgical treatment, and remedies 
 so far superior to the bulky and nauseous 
 compounds of their own apothecaries, and yet 
 require no remuneration in return. One poor 
 fellow showed me a dried centiped four 
 inches long, which he was about to pulverize 
 and swallow in a cup of tea as a remedy for 
 rheumatism in his knee. He said he had 
 taken one already. This was in accordance 
 with one of the principles of Chinese medical 
 philosophy, which is that portions of certain 
 animals taken internally will impart to the 
 persons who take the remedies the qualities 
 that distinguish those animals. Therefore, 
 because the centiped is remarkably flexible, 
 it would remove the stiffness of a rheumatic 
 limb. 
 
 NATIVE REMEDIES. 
 
 The compounders of native medicines take 
 a live deer and beat it in a large stone mortar 
 horns, hoofs, hide, hair, bones, flesh, and 
 entrails to an indistinguishable mass, which 
 they make up into large pills to be sold to
 
 232 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 persons who have become infirm or decrepit, 
 either from age or disease, with the idea that 
 they will impart agility and renewed vigor to 
 those thus enfeebled, because, forsooth, the 
 deer is a remarkably active animal. In accord- 
 ance with this sage theory, pills made of the 
 bones of tigers are given to soldiers before 
 going into battle to render them fierce and 
 brave. 
 
 The native physicians always feel the pulse 
 in both wrists before they prescribe. They as- 
 sert that there is a difference in the pulsations, 
 and they pretend to distinguish nearly a hun- 
 dred varieties in the character of the pulse. 
 As they never practiced dissection " 
 having a great horror of cutting a dead body, 
 and, indeed, a living one also, for the use of 
 the knife in surgery is unknown to them 
 their ideas of anatomy are exceedingly crude 
 and absurd. For instance, in some drawings 
 pretending to show the internal structure of 
 the human body you will see exhibited five 
 parallel tubes leading from the throat into the 
 stomach! 
 
 Notwithstanding these and many other 
 crudities, the experience of centuries has 
 taught them the properties of many really
 
 CHARLES TATLOR. 233 
 
 valuable remedial agents, -mostly vegetable, 
 of which they have an immense variety 
 herbs, barks, roots, leaves, flowers, seeds, 
 gums, and berries. They also have some min- 
 eral medicines, among which are several 
 preparations of gold, silver, copper, iron, and 
 mercury. This last named they call "water 
 silver." The diseases prevalent at Shanghai 
 are similar to those in corresponding latitudes 
 and localities in this country; but the native 
 treatment, being entirely empirical, is far from 
 being successful. When there is temporary 
 mental aberration, which often occurs during 
 sickness, they say one of the three souls, 
 which they imagine every person possesses, 
 has left the body, and we have sometimes 
 heard the relatives of the sufferer howling 
 about the vicinity of the dwelling through 
 the whole night, calling the strayed soul to 
 return home to its abode. 
 
 LEPROSY AND SMALLPOX. 
 
 Diseases of the eye are far more common 
 than with us, and great numbers of persons of 
 all ranks and ages thus afflicted come to Mr. 
 Taylor for treatment. Many were relieved by 
 local applications, and many others by surgi-
 
 234 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 cal operations. Cutaneous diseases are also 
 very prevalent, especially among the lower 
 classes, arising mainly from their neglect of 
 personal cleanliness. Here also, for the first 
 time, he saw cases of leprosy. It is contagious 
 and regarded as incurable. Smallpox is com- 
 mon, but they have learned to guard against 
 its ravages by inoculation in infancy. The 
 mode is singular. Selecting that age of the 
 child, the condition of the system, and the 
 season of the year which experience has 
 taught them to be most favorable, they take 
 a bit of cotton, and, going to one who has the 
 disease fully developed, they pick open a pus- 
 tule, saturate the cotton with the virus, and 
 insert it in both nostrils of the child. This 
 of course communicates the disease. Their 
 treatment consists chiefly in dieting, exclu- 
 sion of light, and keeping the body and limbs 
 confined in a bag which is tied around the 
 neck. The issue is generally favorable, but it 
 sometimes results in death. Vaccination was 
 introduced by foreign missionary physicians, 
 and greatly delighted the natives as being less 
 troublesome and hazardous, while it was 
 quite as efficacious. Elephantiasis is another 
 disease which is, if we are not mistaken, more
 
 CHARLES TATLOR. 235 
 
 frequently met with in China than in most 
 other countries. He saw a case in which tha 
 leg at the knee was twenty-seven inches in 
 circumference. It was hard and rough like 
 that of an elephant, and nearly as large all 
 the way up to the body; hence the name. 
 
 GRATEFUL PATIENTS. 
 
 Here is a specimen of letters to him by some 
 of his patients: 
 
 "Respectfully imploring of Tay-seen-sang's 
 [Taylor Mr.] genii-like pills one dose. Yoh 
 Yen's body is sick. His face is red and puffed 
 out. There is all the time much expectora- 
 tion and cough with difficulty of breathing. 
 The entrance into his stomach is not open 
 [i. e., he cannot eat]. His four limbs are 
 also puffed out. The bones in his side when 
 he coughs are also painful. He cannot lie 
 down long at a time, and is very much con- 
 fused. He prays you to bestow your spir- 
 itual [i. e., efficacious] medicines, for which, 
 when swallowed and he is perfectly recovered, 
 it will be his duty to worship and thank you. 
 The later born, Yoh, entreats." Later born 
 i. e., younger, or inferior, is tantamount to 
 ''Your obedient servant."
 
 236 GREA T MISS ION A RIES. 
 
 A second letter from the same man says: 
 "Stooping and praying Tay-seen-sang that he 
 will yet again bestow of his genii-like medi- 
 cine one dose." Then, after repeating the de- 
 scription of his symptoms contained in the 
 first, he says: "I pray and implore some more 
 of your spirit-like medicine and I shall be per- 
 fectly well. Your teacher can make all this 
 as clear as lightning." 
 
 In a third letter of similar import, his near- 
 ly complete recovery, he calls the remedies 
 "divinely devised, mysterious medicines." 
 The poor fellow was a cabinetmaker from 
 Ning-po, a large seaport city about one hun- 
 dred and fifty miles southwest of Shang- 
 hai. He was in a truly pitiable condition 
 when the Doctor first saw him, but he went 
 home nearly well, taking some Christian 
 books and tracts which he had given him. 
 The gratuitous medical relief he had experi- 
 enced was also a powerful argument in favor 
 of the religious truths constantly pressed 
 upon his attention, and this was found to be 
 universally the case. 
 
 LABORING UNDER DISADVANTAGES. 
 The writer in his medical practice, subsidi-
 
 CHARLES TAYLOR. 237 
 
 ary to his preaching and teaching, labored un- 
 der great disadvantages. Having no separate 
 building, not even a room in his dwelling that 
 could be used exclusively for hospital pur- 
 poses, he made his study also serve the pur- 
 pose of a dispensary, having his medicines on 
 shelves in one corner. His studies and spe- 
 cific missionary work forbade his engaging 
 in an out-of-door practice, as it would have 
 taken all his time to visit patients. His la- 
 bors, therefore, in this department were great- 
 ly circumscribed; and yet in scores of cases 
 the bodily relief afforded opened the way for 
 the inculcation of Christian truth, and se- 
 cured for it favorable consideration that it 
 would not otherwise have received. His 
 medical equipment also procured access to 
 some in the higher classes whom he could not 
 otherwise have reached, and in all such 
 cases he accompanied the administration of 
 remedies for healing the body with words, 
 both spoken and printed, for healing the soul. 
 It is reasonable to hope that some of those 
 who were thus relieved afterwards renounced 
 their idolatrous superstitions and practices 
 and were eventually brought to a saving be- 
 lief in Christ. By all means, then, let medical
 
 238 GREA T MISS I ON A RIES. 
 
 mission work be encouraged and increased as 
 a most valuable adjunct to the direct preach- 
 ing of the gospel in heathen lands. 
 
 RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Mrs. Taylor's health having failed, she was 
 prevailed upon to return to this country in 
 company with some other missionaries, with 
 the hope that the voyage might restore her 
 health. Dr. Taylor remained at his work two 
 years longer, when the great Tai-ping Rebel- 
 lion seriously interrupted all missionary work. 
 Learning at the same time that his wife's 
 health had not substantially improved, he re- 
 luctantly left the field, and sailed from Shang- 
 hai October i, 1853, just five years from the 
 date of his arrival, landing in New York 
 April 12, 1854. 
 
 In 1856 he was made professor in the Spar- 
 tanburg Female College, and in 1857 Presi- 
 dent of that institution. In 1858 he was elect- 
 ed by the General Conference the first Sunday 
 School Secretary of the M. E. Church, South. 
 From 1 86 1 to 1865 he was a presiding elder in 
 the South Carolina Conference. In 1866 he 
 was elected the first President of the Wesley- 
 an College, of Kentucky. After a very sue-
 
 CHARLES TAT LOR. 239 
 
 cessful presidency of four years, preferring the 
 pastoral work, he resigned and continued in 
 the pastoral work up to the year before his 
 death, filling out a half century of active work. 
 He died at Courtland, Ala., February 5, 1897. 
 
 ESTIMATE OF LIFE AND WORK. 
 
 Dr. D. C. Kelley has contributed the fol- 
 lowing testimonial: "For the acquisition of 
 language Dr. Taylor had a talent so marked 
 as to approach genius. He was recognized by 
 both Chinamen and missionaries as the best 
 master of the spoken language in Shanghai at 
 the time he left there. When we remember 
 the markedly distinguished group of mission- 
 aries in that station then, this is a very high 
 compliment. Dr. Yates, of the Baptist Mis- 
 sion, surpassed him possibly in speaking, but 
 Dr. Taylor not only spoke easily, but had 
 done far more work in writing, and that of 
 the best quality. His excellent common sense 
 led him to publish both his 'Catechism' and 
 'Harmony of the Gospels' in the Shanghai 
 colloquial dialect. Chinese scholars and a ma- 
 jority of the missionaries looked upon such a 
 work at that date with the same contempt (or 
 even greater) that the scholars of the fifteenth
 
 240 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 century regarded writing in the spoken dia- 
 lect of Europe. Latin, at the date men- 
 tioned, was alone held to be fitting for use by 
 the European scholar. Vung-Le (classified 
 Chinese) was held in the very highest scho- 
 lastic reverence by the Chinese and pedantic 
 foreign students in the earlier years of mis- 
 sionary effort." 
 
 WISE PIONEERING. 
 
 To-day a very large majority of mission- 
 aries recognize the value of pioneer work done 
 by Dr. Taylor in his publications, as well as 
 the extrinsic excellence of the same. His 
 two books have been invaluable through all 
 these years of missionary success, and his ex- 
 ample marked the line along which our most 
 successful work has been done. Not in this 
 respect alone did Dr. Taylor prove his fitness 
 for missionary work. He chose wisely his 
 place of residence, and began along what ex- 
 perience has proved to be the best path of 
 success viz., combining schools and medical 
 work with preaching the word. He had no 
 means in hand, as other missionaries had, to 
 buy and build a church in the city.; so he placed' 
 his little chapel in the corner of his yard, near
 
 CHARLES TAYLOR. 241 
 
 a bridge which concentrated the travel be- 
 tween the city and certain populous regions 
 of the country, which gave him the next best 
 opportunity for work. His home he had lo- 
 cated in the midst of a thickly settled Chinese 
 neighborhood, which brought him in daily 
 contact with the natives. A home in the for- 
 eign community would have been far more 
 pleasant socially, but much less effective for 
 missionary work. 
 
 Dr. Taylor's warmth of heart and gentle- 
 ness of manner gave him easy access to the 
 hearts of the people, whose customs are all of 
 the most conservative type. He was, in so- 
 cial influence, an ideal missionary. No man 
 of his day was so personally attractive to the 
 Chinaman. His style of preaching was on the 
 highest Eastern model simple, painstaking, 
 full of illustrations, tender, without self-asser- 
 tion or fiery exhortation. To comprehend all 
 in a single phrase, missionary work in such a 
 field as China was the throne of his power. 
 
 It is only when one studies the situation in 
 the light of the almost insuperable difficulties 
 of those early days that the results of fifty 
 years' work become not simply apparent but 
 really magnificent. Beginning with nothing 
 16
 
 242 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 in 1840 in a strange city and in a heathen land, 
 almost without books, and unable to speak, 
 read, or write the most difficult language on 
 earth, we can review the achievements of our 
 missionaries and say with Morse, "Behold 
 what God hath wrought!" 
 
 STATISTICS. 
 
 In this, the greatest and most difficult of all 
 mission fields, a half century of sowing is now 
 to be followed by a century of reaping. 
 
 Organized in 1886 into an Annual Confer- 
 ence, we now have: Missionaries (including 
 wives), 33; native traveling preachers, 15; 
 members, 934 (deceased, 23); Sunday schools, 
 29; scholars, 1,712; Ep worth Leagues, 18; 
 members, 599; organized Churches, 27; 
 Churches entirely self-supporting, 3; board- 
 ing schools, 2; pupils, 264; day schools, 8; 
 pupils, 153; hospital, i; dispensaries, 2; pa- 
 tients treated, 16,462; total collections, $i,- 
 416.55; total value of mission property, $195,- 
 932.50-
 
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 (MRS) G. P. THOMAS