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 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON.
 
 GREAT MISSIONARIES 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. CHARLES C. CREEGAN, D.D. 
 
 AND 
 
 MRS. JOSEPHINE A. B. GOODNOW 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BV THE 
 
 REV. FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR 
 
 New York : 46 East Fourteenth Street 
 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 
 
 Boston : 100 Purchase Street
 
 Copyright, 1895, 
 By Thomas Y. Crowell & Company. 
 
 TYPOGRAPHY BY C. J. PETERS Si SON, 
 BOSTON.
 
 
 TO 
 
 Wi)t loung ^roplr of ©ur JBag, 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 

 
 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 
 Congregatioualist, in whose columns eight 
 of these sketches have already appeared, 
 for permission to republish them, together 
 with fifteen others, in permanent form. As 
 a fittingr 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, w^hen 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. 
 
 Bible House, New York, 
 May ID, 1895.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I CAN scarcely conceive of a more useful 
 book for young- people to own and study 
 than this most interestingf 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 
 
 ix
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and un furrowed, though the brow may be 
 wrnikled by three-score years and ten), 
 enjoy stirring adventures, Hvely 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 adv^enture, 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 
 ofreat 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 sing-le 
 adjective of faint praise the splendid devo-
 
 IXTRODUCTfON. XI 
 
 tion of humble Christians, But if we are 
 speaking of conspicuous heroism, of hves 
 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 olad to record aeain that mission- 
 ary work in all the various Protestant 
 denominations, in all parts of the world, 
 is, in my e)'es, 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 Neesima 
 and Wilhams 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 enthusiasm with the
 
 INTRODUCTION. XIU 
 
 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 %, 1895.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface v 
 
 Introduction ix 
 
 I. Bishop John C. Patteson, 
 
 The Martyr of Malanesia 3 
 
 II. Titus Coan, 
 
 Missionary to Hawaii 19 
 
 III. William Goodell, 
 
 Missionary to Turkey 3^ 
 
 IV. William Carey, 
 
 Missionary to India 45 
 
 V. William G. Schauffler, 
 
 Missionary to Turkey 59 
 
 VI. Griffith John, 
 
 Missionary to China 75 
 
 VII. Elijah Coleman Bridgman, 
 
 Missionary to China 95 
 
 VIII. Bishop James Mills Thoburn, 
 
 Missionary to India 109 
 
 IX. Bishop Samuel Adjai Crowther, 
 
 Missionary Bishop of the Niger .... 125 
 
 X. John Kenneth Mackenzie, M.D., 
 
 Medical Missionary to China 143 
 
 XI. Joseph Hardy Neesima, 
 
 Missionary to Japan 159 
 
 XV
 
 XVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 XII. John Williams, 
 
 Martyr Missionary of Polynesia .... 179 
 
 XIII. Robert W. Logan, 
 
 Missionary to Micronesia 199 
 
 XIV. William Butler, 
 
 Missionary to India and Mexico . . . . 219 
 
 XV. Adoniram Judson, 
 
 Missionary to Burma 235 
 
 XVI. John G. Baton, 
 
 Missionary to the New Hebrides .... 253 
 
 XVII. Alexander M. Mackay, 
 
 Missionary to Uganda 273 
 
 XVIII. Bishop William Taylor, 
 
 Missionary to India, So. America, Africa . 291 
 
 XIX. Robert Moffat, 
 
 Missionary to Africa 3^5 
 
 XX. William McClure Thomson, 
 
 Missionary to Syria 3^5 
 
 XXI. Marcus Whitman, M.D., 
 
 Missionary to Oregon 34^ 
 
 XXII. Bishop James Hannington, 
 
 The Martyr of Eastern Africa 369 
 
 XXIII. David Livingstone, 
 
 Missionary and Explorer in Africa . . . 385
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 Born April i, 1827, Died Sept. 20, 1871.
 
 GREAT MISSIONARIES 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 I. 
 
 BISHOP PATTESON. 
 
 The lives of some men are an atmos- 
 phere into which we cannot enter with- 
 out feehng braced and invigorated. Such 
 was the hfe of John Coleridge Patteson, 
 possessing as it did the attributes of 
 real manhood, unswerving allegiance to 
 right, and a human tenderness. The poor 
 heathen, for whose sake he gave up all, 
 were the most unpromising material to 
 be found in the wide world for conversion 
 into citizens of the kingdom of heaven. 
 But the faith of Patteson was constantly 
 strengthened by witnessing the spiritual 
 
 3
 
 4 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 beauty and fidelity of those who in due 
 time sat at the feet of Christ, clothed 
 and in their right mind. 
 
 John Coleridge Patteson was born on 
 April I, 1827. His father, John Patteson, 
 was a lawyer of no mean repute. His 
 mother was of the Coleridge family, and 
 her line was distinguished by the philos- 
 opher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. To the 
 future bishop she gave her family name ; 
 and to those who knew him best, not only 
 as a boy, but afterwards when he had 
 reached man's estate, he was known as 
 " Coley." Consideration for others, kind- 
 ness and sweetness of nature, were his 
 leadino- characteristics. 
 
 While at Eton he was profoundly im- 
 pressed by a farewell sermon which Bishop 
 Selwyn preached in October, 1841, at 
 Windsor, where the bishop had acted as 
 curate. When callincr on his mother to bid 
 her farewell, that eminent prelate and mis- 
 sionary said, with a kind of prophetic an- 
 ticipation, " Lady Patteson, will you give 
 me Coley ? " and the boy said he would
 
 BISHOP PATTESON. 5 
 
 like some time to go with the bishop. 
 Meantime his school-hfe was arduous and 
 successful. At Oxford, where he entered 
 with deep interest into the religious move- 
 ments of the day, he obtained, in 1849, 
 a classical second class, and subsequently 
 a fellowship. 
 
 His examination for his degree was fol- 
 lowed by a tour in Germany and Italy. In 
 1853 ^^ '^v^s ordained, and took the curacy 
 of Alfineton. Here his sweet manner and 
 musical voice helped to win the hearts of 
 his people ; but general society he never 
 liked, small talk he declared he could not 
 manufacture, and morning callers were the 
 plague of his life. 
 
 On the 19th of August, 1854, he joined 
 in welcoming the bishop of New Zealand, 
 who came to visit Encrland after twelve 
 years of work, during which he had 
 founded his church, organized its govern- 
 ment, and planned his system of mission- 
 ary aggression on the five groups of 
 islands which he combined under the col- 
 lective name of Melanesia. As early 
 as 1848 Bishop Selwyn had visited these
 
 6 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 islands ; and he soon perceived that it was 
 vain to think of dealing- with them by 
 planting a resident English clergyman in 
 each of them. He also believed that no 
 church could take effectual root without 
 a native clergy ; and he accordingly de- 
 termined upon the plan to bring boys 
 from the islands to New Zealand, to edu- 
 cate them there in St. fohn's College, and 
 then send them home to become teachers 
 of their countrymen. 
 
 But what was now necessary was a man 
 who should be able to " rouofh it" amonof 
 the islands, and yet take up with spirit 
 and ability the education and training of 
 the islanders themselves. In quest of 
 such help Bishop Selwyn visited England 
 again, and now followed up the thought 
 of 1841, by asking .Sir John Patteson, 
 "Will you give me Coley ? " His words 
 fell upon a mind in the young man him- 
 self already charged with the subject ; and 
 in March, 1855, he left, his villagers de- 
 ploring his departure, and sailed for New 
 Zealand. 
 
 Here he wrought earnestly in the schools
 
 BISHOP PATTESON. 7 
 
 until i860, when, despite his modest re- 
 luctance, he obeyed the earnest requisition 
 of Bishop Selwyn, and agreed to undertake 
 the episcopal office. In this year, i860, 
 he assumed the direction of the Melane- 
 sian mission, and founded a mission-house 
 at Mota. He was consecrated bishop on 
 February 24 ; and from this time for ten 
 and a half years remained in sole charge of 
 the missions of the Church in the islands. 
 Lady Martin gives the following brief de- 
 scription of the consecration service : "I 
 shall never forget the expression of his 
 face as he knelt in the quaint rocket. It 
 was meek and calm and holy, as though 
 all conflict was over, and he was resting 
 in divine strenofth. It was altogether a 
 wonderful scene — the three consecrating 
 bishops, all noble-looking men, the goodly 
 number of clergy, and Hohna's fine, intelli- 
 gent, brown face among them, and then 
 the long line of island boys and of St. 
 Stephen's native teachers and their wives, 
 — all living testimonies of mission-work." 
 Bishop Patteson was now formally in-
 
 8 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Stalled in the chapel of St. Andrew as head 
 of the college. Miss Yonge says : " It was 
 in his private classes that he exercised such 
 wonderful influence, his musical voice, his 
 holy face, his gentle manner, all helping 
 to impress and draw even the dullest." 
 
 Putting down his natural fastidiousness, 
 he gave dignity to the very humblest of 
 his duties. Some idea of his many-sided- 
 ness may be had from the following letter : 
 " I can hardly tell you how much I regret 
 not knowing somethino- about the treat- 
 ment of simple surgical cases. If I had 
 studied the practical, bled, drawn teeth, 
 mixed medicines, it would have been worth 
 something. Many trades need not be at- 
 tempted ; but every missionary ought to 
 be a carpenter, a mason, something of a 
 butcher, and a good deal of a cook." 
 
 The incessant labors and occasional dan- 
 gers of his life were relieved by his vivid 
 interest in his work, and by his enjoyment 
 of a climate which was to him highly genial. 
 The spirit of fun, which had had free play 
 in his boyhood, did not depart from him
 
 Bisrror patteson. 
 
 during' his episcopate, and it found fit- 
 test openings in the innocent festivities 
 amone the natives. He taucjht them to 
 play cricket. They showed a marvellous 
 eagerness for knowledo^e, and labored like 
 the smallest English children at the mys- 
 teries of the alphabet. Patteson could not 
 bring himself to consider the poor, unen- 
 Hghtened heathen as under special condem- 
 nation ; rather, he rejoiced in hope of the 
 glory of God fulfilled in them when the 
 light of the gospel shall shine in their 
 hearts. He was a believer in the love of 
 God. 
 
 Early in 1870 Bishop Patteson was struck 
 down by a severe and dangerous attack 
 of internal inflammation, and it was evi- 
 dent that his unremitted exertion was car- 
 rying him with great rapidity into an early 
 old aee. With darkened countenance, and 
 frame prematurely bowed, he went to Auck- 
 land for advice. His ailment was declared 
 chronic, but not necessarily fatal. He be- 
 gan to be aware that there must be a 
 change in the amount and character of his 
 work. He says : —
 
 lO GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 " I think I shall have to forego some 
 of the more risky and adventurous part 
 of the work in the islands. I don't mean 
 that I shall not take the voyages, and stop 
 about on the islands as before ; but I must 
 do it all more carefully, and avoid much 
 that of old I never thouo-ht about." 
 
 He mended very slowly ; but he de- 
 termined to return to Melanesia. He 
 completed his circuit of the islands in 
 October, and, arriving at Norfolk Island, 
 resumed his old mapping of the day for 
 teaching, study, and devotion, never for- 
 getting correspondence in its turn. He 
 worked " from before 5 a.m. till soon after 
 9 P.M., when I go off to bed quite tired. 
 I am very seldom alone. I may do a great 
 deal of work yet, rather in a quieter way 
 than of old." 
 
 His mind continued to act, however, with 
 unabated interest upon all portions of his 
 work, and also upon Hebrew philologically 
 viewed, upon the events of the year at 
 Rome and on the French frontier, and 
 upon theology. On April 27, 1871, he set
 
 BISHOP PATTESON. II 
 
 (Hit for his closing- voyage. At Mota, the 
 missionary headquarters, he recognized a 
 great progress. Christianity had so far be- 
 come a power and habit of hfe, that he felt 
 warranted, notwithstanding all his strictness 
 about the aciministration of baptism, in 
 giving that sacrament to young children. 
 After quite a visit at Fiji, he leaves there, 
 having baptized 289 persons, and visits 
 other groups of islands. His experience is 
 generally pleasant, but it is checkered by 
 rumors of crime and retaliation for crime 
 in connection with the labor traffic. Re- 
 turninof to Mota, he makes record of a 
 concourse of people flocking to be taught. 
 " I sleep on a table ; people under and 
 around me." 
 
 Such was the nightly preparation of the 
 invalid for his long, laborious, uncomplain- 
 ing days. On August 6 we have several 
 thoughtful pages on difficulties of theol- 
 ogy: " How thankful I am that I am far 
 away from the noise and worry of this 
 sceptical yet earnest age." 
 
 Sailing on the 20th, he sends to Bishop
 
 12 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Abraham an interesting summary of the 
 state of things at Mota. The bishops, his 
 brethren in New Zealand, jointly urged 
 him to pfo to Eno^land ; but he declined. 
 The slave traffic still casts a dark shadow 
 across his path. " I hear that a vessel 
 has gone to Santa Cruz ; and I must be 
 very cautious there, for there has been 
 some disturbance almost to a certainty." 
 On September i6 he finds himself off the 
 Santa Cruz group : "I pray God that if it 
 be his will, and if it be the appointed time, 
 he may enable us in his own way to be- 
 gin some little work among these very wild 
 but energetic islanders. I am fully alive 
 to the probability that some outrage has 
 been committed here by one or more ves- 
 sels. I am quite aware that we may be 
 exposed to considerable risk on this ac- 
 count, but I don't think there is very much 
 cause for fear ; first, because at these reef 
 islands they know me very well, though 
 they don't understand as yet our object in 
 coming to them, and they may very easily 
 connect us white people with the other
 
 BISHOP PATTESON. I 3 
 
 white people who have ill-treated them. 
 Still, I think if any violence has been used 
 to the natives to the north face of the large 
 island, Santa Cruz, I shall hear of it, and 
 so be forewarned." 
 
 Accordingly, to Nukapu he went. Four 
 canoes were seen hovering about the coral 
 reef which surrounded the island. The 
 vessel had to feel her way ; so, lest the 
 men in the canoes should be perplexed, he 
 ordered the boat to be lowered, and when 
 asked to go into one of the native boats, 
 he did it to disarm suspicion, and was car- 
 ried off toward the shore. The boat from 
 the schooner could not get over the reef. 
 The bishop was seen to land on the shore, 
 and was then seen alive no more. After a 
 while Mr. Atkin was struck with an arrow- 
 head from the islanders in the canoe ; but, 
 in spite of suffering and weakness, he 
 crossed the reef to seek the bishop. A 
 canoe drifted toward them ; the body of a 
 man was seen as if crouching in it. They 
 came up with it, and lifted the bundle 
 wrapped in matting into the -boat ; two
 
 14 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 words passed, "The body." Then it was 
 hfted up and laid across the skyHght. The 
 placid smile was still on the face ; there 
 was a palm-leaf fastened over the breast, 
 and when the mat was opened there were 
 five wounds. 
 
 This is an almost certain indication that 
 his death was vengeance for five of the 
 natives. " Blood for blood " is a sacred 
 law almost of nature wherever Christianity 
 has not prevailed, and a whole tribe is held 
 responsible for one. Five men in Fiji are 
 known to have been stolen from Nukapu ; 
 and probably their families believed them 
 to have been killed, and believed them- 
 selves to be performing a sacred duty when 
 they dipped their weapons in the blood of 
 the bishop, whom they did not know well 
 enough to understand him to be their pro- 
 tector. 
 
 The next morning the body of John 
 Coleridee Patteson was committed to the 
 waters of the Pacific, Joseph Atkin, read- 
 ing the burial service, even though then 
 recognizing his own sign of doom in a
 
 BISHOP PATTESON. I 5 
 
 body stiffened from a poisonous arrow 
 which caused his death. 
 
 No summary can do justice to the char- 
 acter and career of Bishop Patteson. In 
 him were singularly combined the spirit of 
 chivalry, the glorious ornament of a by- 
 gone time ; the spirit of charity, rare in 
 every age ; and the spirit of reverence. It 
 is hardly possible to read the significant 
 but modest record of his sacrifices, his la- 
 bors, his perils, and his cares, without being 
 vividly reminded of St. Paul, the prince and 
 model of all missionary laborers, without 
 feeling that the apostolic pattern is not even 
 now without its imitators, and that the copy 
 in this case recalls the original. The three 
 hicrhest titles that can be criven to man are 
 those of martyr, hero, saint ; and which 
 of the three is there that in substance it 
 would be irrational to attach to the name 
 of John Coleridge Patteson ?
 
 II. 
 
 TITUS CO AN, Missionary to Hawaii. 
 
 Born Feb. i, iSoi ; Died Dec. i, 1S82.
 
 TITUS COAN.
 
 II. 
 
 TITUS coan: 
 
 A BELT of island coast-line extending 
 from north to south a hundred miles, and 
 from one to three miles wide, dotted with 
 groves and seamed by deep mountain 
 chasms and scoriaceous lava-fields, varied 
 by plains and hills of pasture-land, upon 
 which feed herds of wild cattle — a land 
 inhabited by 15,000 natives, grouped in 
 villages of two or more hundred people, 
 vicious, shameless, yet tractable, slaves to 
 their chiefs, and herdino- tog-ether like ani- 
 mals — to this parish, occupying the east- 
 ern third of the island of Hawaii, was sent 
 in 1835 the young missionary, Titus Coan. 
 
 In the town of Killingworth, Conn., he 
 was born of old New England stock, Feb. 
 I, 1 80 1. His boyhood was passed upon 
 his father's farm, and he attended the 
 
 19
 
 20 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 villaee schools. Later he went to a miU- 
 tary school ; after this was employed as a 
 teacher in Western New York ; and in 
 183 1, through the influence of his cousin, 
 the Rev. Asahel Nettleton, he entered the 
 theological seminary at Auburn. While 
 Mr. Coan was in the seminary he gave 
 much time to revival effort, and success 
 attended his labors. He was licensed to 
 preach April 17, 1833. On Aug. 16, 
 1833, he was sent to Patagonia by the 
 American Board, accompanied by the Rev. 
 Mr. Arms ; and for four months they niade 
 an earnest but unsuccessful attempt to 
 communicate to the ferocious nomads 
 something of their message. The sav- 
 ages threatened them with death ; and it 
 was only by stratagem that they made 
 their escape, and boarded a chance ves- 
 sel, and returned to New London, Conn., 
 in May, 1834. 
 
 Mr. Coan had been unable to receive 
 any communication from his family or 
 from his fiancee, Miss Fidelia Church, 
 during his absence ; and the uncertainty
 
 TITUS CO AN. 21 
 
 of his fate had been the source of the 
 deepest anxiety to them. After this trial 
 came the joy of reunion, which was cele- 
 brated by the marriage of Mr. Coan and 
 Miss Church on Nov. 3, 1834. 
 
 On December 5 they embarked at Bos- 
 ton for Honolulu. At diat time the Ha- 
 waiian Islands seemed at the very ends of 
 the earth, and the trip was a six months' 
 voyage around Cape Horn. Neither Mr. 
 Coan nor his bride then had any idea 
 of returning to their native land. They 
 arrived at Honolulu, June 6, 1835, and 
 were welcomed by the missionaries then 
 assembled at their annual meeting. The 
 field in which Mr. Coan was to labor was 
 Hilo — now a thriving town, then in al- 
 most absolute retirement ; and for many 
 years after his arrival there were no roads, 
 no bridges, and no horses in Hilo, and 
 Mr. Coan was oblicred to make his tours 
 on foot. Mr. and Mrs. Coan were de- 
 lighted that their future home was to be 
 upon the beautiful bay of Hilo, called after 
 the visit of Admiral Byron, Byron's Bay,
 
 22 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 and adorned with the cocoa-pahn, whose 
 lofty plumes rustled in the fresh sea-breeze. 
 Upon reaching the island, Mr, Coan 
 found several schools established by the 
 different missionaries, and that about one- 
 fourth of the natives could read. There 
 were a few hopeful converts, and a little 
 church of thirty-six members, Mr. Lyman 
 and his wife were then on the ground, 
 having settled at Hilo in 1832 ; and there 
 they remained until the death of Mr. Ly- 
 man in 1884, after an unbroken residence 
 of fifty-two years. They had charge of a 
 boarding-school, and much labor at the 
 home station ; while to Mr. Coan, robust 
 in health and a fervid speaker, the preach- 
 ing and the touring were naturally as- 
 signed. In three months' time he beo-an 
 to speak in the native tongue ; and before 
 the year closed he had made the circuit 
 of the island by canoe and on foot, a 
 trip of 300 miles. He preached forty- 
 three times in eight days, examined twenty 
 schools, and more than 1,200 scholars; 
 conversed personally with multitudes, and
 
 TITUS CO AN. 23 
 
 ministered to many sick persons, for he 
 was something of a physician. He had at 
 that time a daily school of ninety teachers, 
 and Mrs. Coan one of 140 children. 
 
 In 1835 Mr. Coan said, " I have literally 
 no leisure so much as to eat, finding myself 
 constrained to preach, at times, twice be- 
 fore breakfast." During his tours through 
 the island in 1836, the natives rallied in 
 masses to hear Mr. Coan preach. The 
 blind were led ; the maimed, the aged, and 
 invalids were brought on the backs of their 
 friends. Among the converts was the high 
 priest of the volcano. He had been an 
 idolater, a drunkard, and a murderer ; but 
 he became penitent, and, wath his sister, 
 the haughty, stubborn high priestess of the 
 volcano, entered the church. 
 
 In 1837 the great interest became gen- 
 eral throuehout all the islands. Fifteen 
 thousand people, scattered up and down 
 the coast for a hundred miles, could not 
 be reached by one man ; and so whole 
 villages gathered from miles away, and 
 made their homes near the mission-house.
 
 24 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Hilo was crowded with strangers. Little 
 cabins studded the place like the camps of 
 an army, and the population increased to 
 10,000 souls. The old church was packed 
 with a sweltering" and restless mass of 6,000 
 souls. A new church near by took the 
 overflow of 2,000, while hundreds pressed 
 about the doors. 
 
 The revival was at its height Nov. 7, 
 1837. T^"^^ crescent beach, dotted with 
 native booths, reaching up into the charm- 
 ing groves behind, was in peaceful security. 
 It w^as the hour of evening prayer. Sud- 
 denly a great cry and wail arose, and a 
 scene of indescribable confusion followed. 
 The sea, moved by an unseen hand, had 
 suddenly risen, and the volcanic wave fell 
 upon the shore like a bolt from heaven. 
 In a moment hundreds of people were 
 strueSfline with the billows. " There was 
 no sleep that night ; but the next day the 
 meetings went on with renewed power, 
 and through all the week, as the sea gave 
 up one after another its dead, and the peo- 
 ple bore them to their resting-places, the
 
 TITUS CO AN. 25 
 
 Spirit sent home this new sorrow with 
 divine effect." 
 
 No one knew his people better than Mr. 
 Coan ; but it was only by an exact system 
 that he was able to care for his parish 
 of 15,000 souls. His work was done by 
 " drawing lines in the parish ; by divid- 
 ing the people into sections and classes ; 
 by attending to each class separately, sys- 
 tematically, and at a given time." Although 
 thousands professed conversion during the 
 years 1836-183 7, only a small proportion of 
 these had been received into the church. 
 Over these converts Mr. Coan kept a vigi- 
 lant watch ; and, after a lapse of three, six, 
 nine, or twelve months, selections were 
 made for admission to the church. 
 
 The first Sunday of July, 1838, was a 
 memorable one in the history of missions. 
 On that afternoon 1,705 men, women, and 
 children were baptized, and about 2,400 
 communicants sat down together at the 
 table of the Lord, a scene that has had 
 but one parallel since the day of Pente- 
 . cost, and that was in connection with the
 
 26 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 labors of the Rev. Dr. Clough in India. 
 In speaking of this scene, Mr. Coan said, 
 " The memorable morning came arrayed 
 in glory; the very heavens over us and the 
 earth around us seemed to smile. From 
 my roll each name was read ; and after all 
 were seated, I passed back and forth be- 
 tween the lines, sprinkling each individual, 
 until all were baptized." During the three 
 years ending April, 1840, 7,382 persons 
 were received into the church at Hilo. 
 Between the years 1864 and 1868, six 
 churches were built and set off from the 
 old one, and each was under the care of 
 a native preacher. Hawaiian money and 
 labor have added many churches to this 
 number ; and, in visiting the islands in 
 1870, Mr. Stoddard writes of these "pretty 
 little meeting-houses, looking as though 
 they had been baked in a lot, like a sheet 
 of biscuits." 
 
 After an absence of more than thirty- 
 five years, during which time Mr. Coan 
 had baptized by his own hand 1 1 .960 per- 
 sons, at the invitation of the American
 
 TTTUS CO AN. 2 J 
 
 Board he returned, with Mrs. Coan, to 
 the United States. The visit was full of 
 interest ; but the hoped-for restoration 
 of health did not come to Mrs. Coan, 
 and soon after their return to Hilo she 
 died, Sept. 29, 1872. 
 
 Mrs. Coan's work was ever constant and 
 tireless. She was a woman of hio-h social 
 and intellectual cultivation, and missionary 
 work for her was a sacrifice. To her pa- 
 tient, unselfish, loving- spirit was due a 
 great part of her husband's success. While 
 Mr. Coan was intent upon his great work 
 as a missionary, he was not insensible to 
 the scenes of natural beauty and grandeur 
 about him. The scientific world is fortu- 
 nate in having had upon the ground for 
 nearly fifty years, when such volcanic 
 forces were at play, one whose courage 
 was equalled only by his graphic skill in 
 portraying the most imposing of phenom- 
 ena. One fruit of the faithful training- of 
 Mr. Coan is the growth of beneficence in 
 the churches. More than $10,000 have 
 come to the United States from the Hilo 
 church.
 
 28 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 This item adds strength to the statement 
 of Lorrin A. Thurston, in a recent article in 
 the North American Revieiv : " The direct 
 financial advantao^es accruinor to the United 
 States and its citizens, which they would 
 not have received but for the treaty of 
 1876, have more than repaid, dollar for dol- 
 lar, all loss by the United States through 
 remission of duties under the reciprocity 
 treaty." 
 
 Whence came this matter of political 
 treaties and civilization to Hawaii ? Surely 
 throuo-h the American missionaries who 
 first introduced Christianity and refined in- 
 stitutions to its people, prominent among 
 whom was the Rev. Titus Coan, who, after 
 a pastorate of forty-eight years, died at 
 Hilo, Dec. I, 1882.
 
 III. 
 
 WILLIAM GOOD ELL, 
 
 Missionary to Turkey. 
 Born Feb. 14, 1792 ; Died Feb. 18, 1867.
 
 WILLIAM GOODELL.
 
 III. 
 
 WILLIAM GOO DELL. 
 
 It is many years since anything could 
 be found that marked the birthplace of 
 William Goodell in the litde town of 
 Templeton, Mass. But in 1792 there 
 stood upon a hillside just outside the 
 village, a one-story house, containing a 
 earret floored with rouMi boards, beneath 
 which were two rooms. One of these 
 rooms answered the purpose of kitchen, 
 dining-room, and parlor ; the other was a 
 small bedroom, containing a bed for the 
 parents, and under this a trundle-bed that 
 was rolled out at night for the children. 
 The family library, composed of the Bible, 
 Watts's " Psalms," Pike's '' Cases of Con- 
 science," the second volume of Foxe's 
 " Book of Martyrs," and the " Assembly's 
 Catechism," was counted the richest pos- 
 session. 31
 
 3 2 GREA T MISSION A RIES. 
 
 In this typical New England home was 
 born William Goodell, Feb. 14, 1792. 
 The piety of his father was of the rarest 
 type ; and he presents a vivid picture of 
 the times, seated upon the stout old family 
 horse, holding one child in his arms, his 
 wife sitting on a pillion behind, with an- 
 other child in her arms, and a third cling- 
 ing to her — all on their way to the church 
 in spite of storm or tempest. Mrs. Goodell, 
 the mother, though called to a life of 
 pinching economy, and at length of pain- 
 ful and protracted illness, was the embodi- 
 ment of delicacy, taste, and industry, as 
 well as of meekness and devoted piety. 
 
 William Goodell had a delicate constitu- 
 tion, and it was evident early that he could 
 not endure a life of manual labor. His 
 father earnestly desired that he should be- 
 come a minister, and encouraged his son 
 to attempt an education, although he had 
 no money. At length they heard of bene- 
 ficiary aid given at Phillips Academy, and 
 the son caught at this hope. He walked 
 and rode sixty miles to Andover, and
 
 WILLIAM GOODELL. 33 
 
 walked the whole distance back home 
 again, weary and footsore. The charity 
 fund was overloaded ; and he must, for 
 one quarter at least, get on without help. 
 The time soon came for the opening of 
 the term, and without money or credit 
 this lad set forth aeain ; and there is no 
 braver or more pathetic sight than that of 
 William Goodell plodding his way through 
 sixty miles, his trunk strapped to his back, 
 to the permanent injury of his spine, the 
 boys hooting at him in the streets. At 
 Andover he found a temporary home in 
 the house of an intemperate shoemaker, 
 whose wife bestowed upon him with kind- 
 ness the few comforts her very humble 
 home provided. His family refer with 
 pride to his first lesson at the academy. 
 It was in the Latin grammar. When called 
 on, he recited the first page verbatim, 
 coarse print and fine, notes and all ; then 
 the second and third page in like manner, 
 much to the satisfied amusement of his 
 instructor, Mr. Adams; and from that mo- 
 ment he kept the good-will of his teachers.
 
 34 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 At the close of this first quarter, Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor PhilHps volunteered to 
 pay the boy's expenses. In his second 
 year his uncle, Solomon Goodell of Ver- 
 mont, wrote to Mr. Adams to know if the 
 boy was " worth raising," and received 
 such a reply that he sent him a fine yoke 
 of oxen. After his preparatory studies 
 he entered Dartmouth College, Sept. 24, 
 18 13. Here, through the influence of Mr. 
 Adams, he received $100 per year from 
 the beneficiary funds of Kimball Union 
 Academy. This amount, together with 
 the money received from his teaching 
 school during the winter, defrayed his col- 
 lege expenses. The glimpses had of his 
 college life show the same mingling of 
 good-humor, earnest activity, and piety 
 which characterized his whole subsequent 
 
 life. 
 
 Near the close of his freshman year he 
 seems to have considered the question of 
 entering the missionary field ; and in 18 17 
 he became one of the sacred band in the 
 theological seminary at Andover, — the 
 missionary band.
 
 WILLIAM GOODELL. 35 
 
 After his graduation he made an en- 
 o-ao-ement to visit several States, and 
 awaken interest in foreign missions ; and 
 in this work met with much success. In 
 September, 1S22, the American Board 
 held its annual meeting at New Haven, 
 Conn. ; and Mr. Goodell was then ordained, 
 and destined to the mission in Palestine. 
 On November 19 he was married to Miss 
 Abigail Davis at Holden, Mass. ; and a 
 few days later Mr. and Mrs. Goodell 
 embarked from New York in the vessel 
 Shepherdess. 
 
 The Shepherdess, after a pleasant and 
 prosperous voyage, arrived, Jan. 21, 1823,- 
 at the island of Malta, then a sort of 
 schoolhouse where the missionaries bound 
 for the Orient prepared for their future 
 labors. There the Goodells remained until 
 Oct. 22, 1823, when they left for Beyrout. 
 Owing to the unsettled state of things at 
 Jerusalem, it was deemed advisable to 
 remain there for a time. Extracts from 
 Mr. Goodell's letters give vivid pictures 
 of their life and surroundings at this
 
 36 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 place. A single passage will show how 
 many languages it was necessary the mis- 
 sionaries should be familiar with : " We 
 must daily read the Scriptures in ancient 
 Greek, modern Greek, Armenian, Arabic, 
 Italian, and English, and frequently hear 
 them read in Syriac, Hebrew, and French." 
 For a time everything connected with 
 the missionary work in Beyrout went on 
 prosperously. Within the first year an 
 order from the Maronite patriarch forbade 
 the people to receive the Holy Scriptures 
 circulated by the missionaries, and re- 
 quired all to return them or burn those 
 they had received. The war between 
 Greece and Turkey was then raging. The 
 lives of the missionaries were in constant 
 danger. For two years Mr. Goodell sel- 
 dom closed his eyes to sleep without first 
 planning means of escape. His family 
 was at length sent to the mountains for 
 safety, and he could only visit them by 
 stealth. The continuance of the troubles 
 determined them to withdraw for a time 
 to Malta, where Mr. Goodell commenced
 
 WILLIAM GOOD ELL. 37 
 
 his great work of translating the Bible into 
 Armeno-Turkish ; and here he issued the 
 entire New Testament. 
 
 In 1 83 I the Board sent Mr. Goodell to 
 the chief scene of his lifelong labors in 
 Constantinople. His wife and the women 
 who accompanied her were supposed to 
 be the first American women who ever 
 visited the place. 
 
 Two months after their arrival came 
 that terrible conflagration which swept 
 more than a square mile of the city with 
 indiscriminate destruction. It consumed 
 nearly all of Mr. Goodell's property, in- 
 cluding manuscripts and books. For a 
 time he was a wanderer ; and three weeks 
 later found himself in the vicinity of the 
 plague and cholera, with his wife and new- 
 born son. In spite of all his misfortunes, 
 he preached wherever he could find an 
 audience; and an American traveller who 
 was present at one of these services wrote : 
 " It is certainly not among the least of 
 the novelties of our situation to hear a 
 Yankee clergyman preaching in Italian
 
 38 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 on the banks of the Bosporus, to an audi- 
 ence composed of representatives of half 
 a dozen nations assembled from various 
 quarters of the globe." 
 
 Within a few weeks Mr. Goodell had 
 established amono- the Greeks four so- 
 called Lancasterian schools, which were 
 soon largely increased in number. He 
 was also engaged in personal work with 
 the Armenians. 
 
 The first school for girls, in May, 1832, 
 created a great commotion. The gospel 
 began to take effect ; and, in spite of many 
 trials, Mr. Goodell's work was most suc- 
 cessful until the persecution, attended with 
 exile and imprisonment of converts, in 
 1839. At this time from six to ten thou- 
 sand victims VN^eekly were dying from the 
 plague. Everything was suspended but 
 sickness and death. The persecution did 
 not abate with the cholera ; it grew fiercer 
 and fiercer, and threatened to break up all 
 missionary operations. But at the darkest 
 moment the sultan's army was defeated at 
 Aleppo ; and in the sudden death of Sul-
 
 WILLIAM GOODRLL. 39 
 
 tan MahnioLid himself the hand of violence 
 was arrested. 
 
 In the year 1841 Mr. Goodell had ac- 
 complished what may be considered his 
 greatest achievement, — the translation of 
 the entire Bible into the Armeno-Turkish 
 lano-uaofe. It was a toilsome but lovinor 
 labor of many years, and was revised 
 aeain and aeain, to become one of the 
 landmarks of missionary effort in Turkey. 
 After the publication of the Armeno-Turk- 
 ish Bible, he was enabled to engage in 
 a greater variety of labors, and to exert 
 a steadily growing influence within and 
 without the missionary circle. 
 
 To follow him throucrh the details of 
 his missionary life and experiences, would 
 be to give a history of the mission in Con- 
 stantinople for a generation. He preached 
 the gospel in six different languages, and 
 by his scholarship he achieved " a work 
 that fairly places his name beside that of 
 Wyclifte and Tyndale." 
 
 When Mr. Goodell entered Constanti- 
 nople he was surrounded by misrepresen-
 
 40 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 tation and opposition on every hand, and 
 his work seemed to promise httle success ; 
 but he lived to rejoice in the achievement 
 of his fondest hope, to see the Turkish 
 government steadily change its attitude, a 
 formal bill of rights issued in 1839, a char- 
 ter granted in 1850 for the Protestant 
 church, schools for girls, colleges and the- 
 oloo-ical seminaries flourishine in the Tur- 
 kish empire, an energetic band of churches 
 organized, and the American mission-work 
 in Turkey profoundly respected. 
 
 Mr. Goodell was himself deeply loved 
 and honored. After nearly thirty years 
 of voluntary exile, he and Mrs. Goodell 
 visited America in 1851, by special request 
 of the American Board. And for the two 
 years following he gave his time entirely 
 to travelling in this country in aid of for- 
 eign missions. He addressed more than 
 four hundred congregations, and met the 
 students of many colleges and theological 
 seminaries. 
 
 In 1853 Dr. and Mrs. Goodell returned 
 to Constantinople. In this year began the
 
 WILLIAM GOODRLL. 41 
 
 Crimean War, which for a time clouded 
 the missions in Turkey, and was the occa- 
 sion of much anxiety to the friends of the 
 cause throughout the world. But in 1856 
 the sacred edict, known as the Hatti-Hu- 
 mayoun, was issued by the sultan, and 
 was reg-arded by the friends of evangeHcal 
 Christianity as a real charter of religious 
 freedom to all subjects. 
 
 From this time Dr. Goodell continued 
 his work with increasino- influence and 
 honor, and to the ever-enduringf cause of 
 Christianity. But at last failing strength 
 and advancing years admonished him that 
 his work in foreign lands was nearly done. 
 He published forty-eight of his sermons 
 in the Turkish language, wrote a farewell 
 letter to the Protestant churches, and re- 
 quested of the American Board a release. 
 
 After his arrival in America he made his 
 home with his son in Philadelphia. Here 
 he had a Bible-class of business men, and 
 entered into the Christian activities of the 
 times. Durinor the remaininof eiofhteen 
 months of his life he visited many cities,
 
 42 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 and addressed laro-e audiences. The most 
 memorable of all his appearances in public 
 was when he attended the meeting of the 
 American Board in Chicago, October, 1865, 
 No one will ever foro-et him who saw him 
 there, with his velvet cap wrought with 
 Arabic sentences by the schoolgirls of 
 Aleppo, or who felt the hush when he 
 rose and addressed the great assembly : 
 " When I went from my native land in 
 1822 it was to go to Jerusalem; there I 
 expected to live, to labor, and to die. I 
 have never been there. I have now set 
 my face toward the New Jerusalem, taking 
 Chicago in my way." 
 
 Mr. Goodell died the following year ; 
 and Mrs. Goodell, the lovinor and faithful 
 companion of his entire missionary life, 
 who had shared his toils and trials by land 
 and sea, who had lived to return with him 
 to their native land, survived him but a 
 short time, dying at the house of her son, 
 Dr. William Goodell, in the summer of 
 1871.
 
 IV. 
 
 WILLIAM CAREY, 
 
 Missionary to India. 
 Born Aug. 17, 1761 ; Died June 9, 1834.
 
 WILLIAM CAREY.
 
 IV. 
 
 WILL/AM CAREY. 
 
 William Carey, " the father and founder 
 of modern missions," was born at Paulers- 
 bury, Northamptonshire, Eng., Aug. 17, 
 1 76 1. It is beheved 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 
 amonost the lanes and haunts of Whittle- 
 
 45
 
 46 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 lo, 1 781, 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. 47 
 
 fever ; starvation was staring him in the 
 face, when his brother, only a youth, came 
 to his rehef, and, with the aid of friends, 
 secured for him a Httle cottage in Pidding- 
 ton, where Carey, besides continuing his 
 shoemaking, opened an evening school. 
 Attending the meetingrs 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.
 
 48 GREAT 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, 1789, 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 meetincr 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. 49 
 
 " That aeainst the next meetino[- at Ket- 
 tenng, 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 knowledofe of India was an 
 advantage to Carey ; but his lack of judg-
 
 50 GREA T 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 indicjo 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 beo-un elsewhere. The 
 duties at the factory allowed time for the 
 work of the mission. 
 
 Mr. Carey made such progress in the
 
 WILLIAM CAREY. 5 1 
 
 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. lo, [800, 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
 
 52 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 baptized, the words 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, iSoi, 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 
 Beno-alee chair in the orovernment colleg-e 
 at Fort William. His first position was 
 that of teacher of Bengalee, afterwards of 
 Sanscrit and of Mahratta, with a salary 
 of ^600 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
 
 WIILIAM CAREY. 53 
 
 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 colleacrues 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, and 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
 
 54 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. 55 
 
 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 Sanger. 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 181 7 was 
 begun the missionary training Institute, 
 which afterwards grew to a college, and
 
 56 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."
 
 V. 
 
 WILLI A Af G. SCHAUFFLER, 
 
 Born Aug. 22, 179S; Died January, 1S83.
 
 WILLIAM G. SCHAUFFLER.
 
 V. 
 
 WILLIAM G. SCHAUFFLER. 
 
 William G. Schauffler was born at 
 Stuttgart, the capital of Wurtemberg, Aug. 
 22, 1798. In consequence of the constant 
 wars which had shaken Europe ever since 
 the great French Revohition of 1789, the 
 fortunes of the Schauffler family became 
 depleted; and in 1804 William Schauffler's 
 father, Philip Frederick Schauffler, led a 
 band of colonists to Russia, where great 
 inducements were held out to German set- 
 tlers by Catharine the Second, who desired 
 to people the uninhabited, though fertile, 
 lands of the Volora and Ukraina, These 
 colonists were exempted from all taxation 
 for thirty years ; their descendants, now 
 very numerous, still inhabit the country 
 and preserve unbroken the German lan- 
 guage and customs, and from them come 
 
 59
 
 6o GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 many of the emigrants now found in the 
 Dakotas and other parts of the United 
 States. 
 
 The Schaufflers, after being on the road 
 nine months, arrived in 1805 '^t Odessa, 
 then a village on the sea-coast of South 
 Russia, and governed by the Duke of 
 Richelieu, afterward premier under Louis 
 XVIII. of France. The governor knew 
 German well, and through his influence 
 Philip Schauffler was made mayor of the 
 German population of Odessa. 
 
 There were then no German schools in 
 the village, and the Schauffler children 
 were taught by a clerk of their father's. 
 William studied French with his sister, and 
 learned to play on the flute. He con- 
 structed a beautiful instrument, and all 
 his life charmed his friends by his exqui- 
 site playing. The Schaufflers were models 
 of morality, and entertained "orthodox" 
 views, but enjoyed few religious advan- 
 tages. They, as a family, possessed an 
 innate refinement and culture ; and the 
 musical ability of the children caused their
 
 WILLIAM G. SCHAUFFLER. 6 1 
 
 entree into circles far above them in social 
 standing-, and prevented their mingling 
 with the uneducated, and for the most 
 part unprincipled, Germans then inhabit- 
 inof the villasfe. 
 
 William learned a trade, and helped in 
 the support of the family. Until " twenty- 
 two years of age he lived in the world and 
 for the world." Though criven to much 
 serious thinking, he became very fond of 
 worldly amusements ; but his chief passion 
 was music. In 1820 there came to Odessa 
 the Catholic priest Lindl, afterward ex- 
 communicated from the Roman Church. 
 He preached with great power, and drew 
 young Schauffler to his services, where he 
 was converted. Missionary work early 
 attracted Schauffler's attention ; and five 
 years later, at the age of twenty-seven, in- 
 vited by " the ardent but eccentric Dr. 
 Wolff," he left home and accompanied him 
 to Persia. He barely escaped shipwreck 
 before reaching the Bosporus. 
 
 He found the plans of Dr. Wolff imprac- 
 ticable, and now turned to Andover, Mass.,
 
 62 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 instead of England, as he first intended, 
 for preparation for a missionary career. 
 After a weary voyage of four months, he 
 arrived in Boston with eleven dollars in 
 his pocket. He was cautiously, but po- 
 litely, received by Secretary Evarts of the 
 American Board, and 'by him advised to 
 confer with the professors at Andover. 
 His linguistic attainments won favor with 
 them, and a year of preparation for the 
 seminary was soon decided upon. He 
 proposed to sell his flute to buy books, 
 and to work at his trade for self-support. 
 The students bought his flute for $50, 
 then gave it to him on condition that he 
 would play at their meetings. 
 
 He remained in Andover five years, 
 engaging in arduous study and assisting 
 the professors. Besides Greek and He- 
 brew, he studied Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, 
 Samaritan, Rabbinic, Persian, Turkish, and 
 Spanish ; but to accomplish this he ab- 
 stained from all miscellaneous reading and 
 hardly looked at a newspaper. He was 
 entirely ignorant of the French Revolution
 
 WILLIAM G. SCIIAUFFLER. 63 
 
 of 1830, and reached France in 1831 not 
 knowing Louis Philippe was on the throne. 
 While enofaofed in his scholastic course, 
 William often went to Lowell, Mass., then 
 just starting as a manufacturing centre, to 
 conduct religious meetings, and ^ave much 
 energy and zeal to this work. 
 
 He was ordained in Park-street Church, 
 Boston, Nov. 14, 183 1, a missionary of 
 the American Board. He was first sent 
 to Paris to continue his linguistic studies, 
 but in a few months passed from the then 
 plague-smitten city to Odessa, by way of 
 his birthplace, and after a brief sojourn full 
 of evanofelistic labor went on to Constan- 
 tinople. He was sent to Smyrna to look 
 after mission interests, and here met and 
 soon became engaged to Miss Mary Rey- 
 nolds of New Haven, Conn., then teach- 
 ing a mission-school. They were married, 
 Feb. 26, 1834, by Dr. Goodell, at the resi- 
 dence of Commodore Porter, the American 
 ambassador. In a little repast enjoyed at 
 their own room the evening after the cere- 
 mony, roasted potatoes and butter formed
 
 64 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 the rarest viands, never havlnof been intro- 
 duced into Constantinople until Mr. Shauff- 
 ler had them sent from Odessa. 
 
 The early part of the Schaufflers' married 
 life was sorely tried by living in a plague- 
 infested city, and by privations and sick- 
 ness ; but Mr. Schaufifler in the midst of 
 all labored earnestly in his translation of 
 the Scriptures into Hebrew-Spanish, and 
 preached on Sundays in English and Ger- 
 man to local residents. In April, 1836, 
 he took his family to Odessa, and here a 
 second son was born to them, and here 
 both children died ; but in spite of this 
 affliction he worked on, and many conver- 
 sions took place during his sojourn. 
 
 In March, 1837, ^^^ ^^^^ ^"^is ^\i^ re- 
 turned to Constantinople; and while living 
 here with Missionary Dwight's family, Mrs. 
 Schauffler was exposed to the plague in 
 carincr for Mrs. Dwioht, who died of it. In- 
 deed, exposure to this terrible disease was 
 an every-day occurrence to the Schauff- 
 lers ; but their faithful care for the physical 
 and sjoiritual needs of those about them
 
 WILLIAM G. SCHAUFFLF.K. 65 
 
 can be appreciated only by those who wit- 
 nessed their great work. 
 
 In September, 1839, the Schaufflers, with 
 their infant son Henry, went to Vienna 
 by way of South Russia, where crowds 
 flocked to hear the preaching, though they 
 had to walk long distances after their day's 
 work, and sleep in wagons, stables, and 
 other available places. In Vienna Mr. 
 Schauffler held services during three win- 
 ters in his own dwelling, attended by many 
 Catholics, who joyfully received the news 
 of a free salvation. The love, zeal, and 
 faithfulness of the converts were most 
 touching. Such were the people that pa- 
 pal Austria soon after put under the har- 
 row of persecution. A fourth son was born 
 to the Schaufflers in September, 1839. At 
 this time Mr. Clay was the American am- 
 bassador ; and the Schaufflers made many 
 notable acquaintances, among them being 
 the Archduchess Maria Dorothea, who 
 became their friend. 
 
 William Schauffler was permitted, in a 
 private interview, to lay before the em-
 
 66 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 peror himself his printed Bible, upon 
 which he had lavished the great work of 
 his scholarship, and of which he had said, 
 " If I but live to finish this work, I shall 
 consider my missionary life a success, 
 secured and safe." The Bible was printed 
 in Vienna, because the best font of He- 
 brew type was found there. The verdict 
 of the Jews was entirely in its favor, and 
 the book went forth with the approval of 
 the rabbis. A larger edition followed a 
 few years later. 
 
 In July, 1842, the Schaufflers were back 
 at their station, and the Goodells enter- 
 tained them until their own home was 
 ready for use. The Armenian persecution 
 was going on ; and being a missionary to 
 the Jews, and having German servants, the 
 Schaufifler home was the place of meeting 
 of the persecuted Armenian " Bible- read- 
 ers," and many and arduous were the cares 
 durincr this time. Mr. Schauffler had now 
 numbered ten years of missionary life, and 
 thus far he was sole representative of the 
 Jewish Mission from the United States ;
 
 WILLIAM G. SCIIAUFFLER. 6/ 
 
 and his chief co-operation seems to have 
 come from the EngHsh and Scotch, also 
 represented in the field, and afterwards 
 leading- in the work, for the reason that 
 missions to the Jews never took a deep 
 hold upon the American Board. 
 
 At the meeting of the station in 1855, 
 it was recommended to the Board that 
 the Jewish Mission be relinquished to the 
 Scotch Free Church. It is not surprising 
 that after twenty-three years of service, 
 not the least of which was the work in 
 Salonica, Mr. Schauffler felt aofSffieved at 
 this summary disposal of the mission. He 
 might have called for a reconsideration ; 
 but he did not care to do so, and refused 
 a position in the ranks of the Scotch breth- 
 ren, and also declined an invitation to 
 enter the Armenian field. He had put 
 through the press a Hebrew grammar, a 
 Hebrew-Spanish lexicon of the Bible, and 
 a third popular translation of the psalms 
 into Spanish. He seemed to feel that his 
 work was done. 
 
 But at this time the mission appointed
 
 68 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Mr. Schaiiffler to present to the Evangelical 
 Alliance, then meeting at Paris, the great 
 question of religious liberty in Turkey, 
 includino- the Mohammedans. The chief 
 object was to induce the Alliance to plead 
 with the sovereigns of Europe to use their 
 influence with the Turkish sultan to abolish 
 the death penalty among the Moslem con- 
 verts to Christianity. The French mem- 
 bers especially were reluctant to lay the 
 case before Napoleon III. ; but by declar- 
 inof that the little band of missionaries at 
 Constantinople would fight the battle at 
 any cost, and without the aid of their breth- 
 ren if necessary, Mr. Schauffler carried the 
 assembly. He had lonor before won the 
 favor of the Enorlish ambassador. Sir Strat- 
 ford Canning. The news of Sevastopol's 
 fall was posted along the streets the very 
 mornine Mr. Schauffler left Paris, and at 
 Stuttgart he was invited to speak on the 
 Crimean War. 
 
 Having returned to Constantinople in 
 February, 1856. he decided to enter the 
 Islam field, and with his usual energy pro-
 
 WILLIAM G. SCHAUFFLER. 69 
 
 ceeded to acquire the Turkish tongue ; and 
 through his activity a new mission was 
 opened for the Turks, in the interest of 
 which Mr. SchaufHer visited this country a 
 Httle later ; and after an absence of thirty- 
 one years both he and his wife found a cor- 
 dial welcome. To institute a new mission 
 for the Turks on the very field of the Arme- 
 nian mission, where race prejudices were 
 antagonistic, and might call for separate 
 buildings, Mr. Schaufifler foresaw would 
 prove too costly for the Board ; but he was 
 encouraged to go forward, and, with some 
 misQfivinofs, after a time he resumed his 
 work. The arduous task of translatinor 
 the Scriptures into Turkish was before him. 
 But difficulties soon arose, among them 
 the entrance of the Propagation Society of 
 England, and the determination in Boston 
 not to institute a separate Turkish mission, 
 but to have the Armenian mission cover 
 the field ; and serious complications oc- 
 curred, which resulted in Mr. Schauffler's 
 resignation from the American Board. 
 Thus summarily closed the " separate "
 
 70 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Turkish mission, as had the Jewish before 
 it ; but through all these trying times Mr. 
 Schauffler's faith and charity prevailed, and 
 his chief concern was for the diffusion of 
 Christianity. His remaining years were 
 given to his great work of Bible trans- 
 lation. 
 
 In 1874 the veteran missionary and his 
 faithful helpmeet left Constantinople ; and 
 many a tear flowed, and many a benedic- 
 tion followed, from the home that had been 
 theirs for forty years. After sojourning 
 with their son Henry, a missionary of the 
 American Board in Moravia, they came to 
 New York to pass the rest of their days 
 with their two younger sons. In January, 
 1883, Mr. Schauffler died; and his widow 
 followed him in January, 1895. 
 
 His was a character singularly unselfish 
 and pure. His rare scholarship, and es- 
 pecially his translation of the Bible into 
 Osmanli-Turkish, procured for him from 
 the University of Halle and Wittenberg 
 the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and from 
 Princeton Colleoe the decree of Doctor of
 
 WILLIAM G. SCHAUFFLER. J I 
 
 Laws. Nature endowed William Schauff- 
 ler with a vigorous body, a character sim- 
 ple, honest, and grand, a generous, en- 
 thusiastic heart, and a symmetrical and 
 highly gifted mind, while grace developed 
 both heart and mind ; and the obscure 
 young mechanic of Odessa became the 
 widely known, honored, and ardently loved 
 missionary, whose work will be for all 
 time.
 
 VI. 
 
 GRIFFITH JOHN. 
 
 Born December 14, 1831.
 
 GRIFFITH JOHN.
 
 VI. 
 
 GRIFFITH JOHN. 
 
 For many years the church of Christ 
 had prayed that its missionaries might 
 be admitted into China, and when the 
 opportunity arrived, promptly sent forth 
 its messengers of salvation into the 
 crowded cities. 
 
 Conspicuous among these pioneers was 
 Griffith John, born at Swansea, Wales, 
 Dec. 14, 1 83 1. His parents were reli- 
 gious and comfortably situated. His 
 mother died of cholera in 1832. At 
 eight years of age he was admitted a 
 member of the church at Ebenezer, 
 Swansea. At fourteen Griffith John be- 
 gan to preach the gospel, and from the 
 first gave evidence of possessing oratori- 
 cal gifts of the highest order. It was 
 determined that a course of study would 
 
 75
 
 76 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 be of great benefit to him ; and his 
 father asked the Rev. E. Jacob, the pas- 
 tor at Swansea, if " he would teach John 
 a Httle." The kind-hearted pastor gra- 
 tuitously taught him ; and Mr. John re- 
 sided with him from Nov. 13, 1848, 
 until September, 1850. 
 
 In 1849 his father died; and from that 
 time Mr. Jacob became a father to him, 
 and was most assiduous in preparing his 
 young charge for the career of great use- 
 fulness which he felt lay before him. In 
 answer to the questions of the college 
 authorities at Brecon w^hen Mr. John 
 was seeking admission, Mr. Jacob wrote : 
 " Considering his age, he is decidedly 
 the nearest to being a perfect or com- 
 plete Christian of any I ever knew ; his 
 voice is sweet, his delivery easy, his 
 preaching of extraordinary character." 
 Mr. John entered college with the hope 
 of becoming a successful and popular 
 minister, but soon earthly ambition gave 
 way to an ardent desire for missionary 
 work amonor the heathen.
 
 GRIFFITH JOHN. TJ 
 
 He was offered the pastorate of one 
 of the most important Congregational 
 churches ; but he refused the invitation, 
 and was accepted by the London Mis- 
 sionary Society. His first desire was to 
 eo to Madao-ascar, but he offered no ob- 
 jection when asked to go to China. Be- 
 fore leaving England, Mr. John married 
 Miss Margaret Jane Griffiths, daughter of 
 the Rev. David Griffiths of Madagascar. 
 A more happy union could not have been 
 made, and Mrs. John was a successful 
 worker amone the women in China. On 
 the 2 1 St of May, 1855, the Rev. Griffith 
 John and Mrs. John sailed for Shanghai, 
 arriving there Sept. 24, after a pleasant 
 and uneventful voyage of one hundred 
 and twenty days. At the time of Mr. 
 John's arrival, the country was practically 
 free for travellers with peaceful objects 
 in view. 
 
 Mr. John entered upon his work with 
 characteristic ardor. He studied hard dur- 
 ing the voyage, and now applied himself 
 to the acquisition of the language, with the
 
 y8 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 hope that in six months he mig-ht be able 
 to preach. In January, 1856, Mr, John 
 writes : " For some months I have been 
 in the habit of going- into the temples, the 
 tea-gardens, and other places, to distribute 
 tracts and to preach as I could ; now I am 
 able to speak for a half-hour at a time, and 
 to my great satisfaction, I find I am very 
 well understood.," In speaking the Chi- 
 nese language, much depends on the tones 
 and mere risine and fallincr of the voice. 
 This makes the acquisition of the spoken 
 lanCTLiaofe a tedious and difficult task. 
 Still more perplexing is the written lan- 
 
 o"uaore. 
 
 At first Mr, John accompanied other 
 missionaries in various preaching jour- 
 neys ; but in October, 1846, he started 
 upon an expedition, taking only Wong 
 the colporteur as assistant. They first 
 visited Swong Kong ; they anchored for 
 the night four miles below the city, and 
 in the morning entered the west gate. 
 It was the time for the annual examina- 
 tion ; and the candidates for literary honors
 
 GRIFFITH JOIIiV. 79 
 
 crowded the streets, affording intelligent 
 audiences wherever the missionary and his 
 helper chose to work. They had a good 
 supply of books, which were eagerly sought 
 after. The next day was the Lord's Day, 
 but there is no Sabbath in China. All is 
 noise, bustle, tumult, and impiety; but Mr. 
 John returned to the boat, gathered the 
 boatmen around him, and read prayers. 
 
 In October, 1857, Mr. John and the Rev. 
 J. Edkins visited Soochow, which is re- 
 garded by the Chinese as one of their richest 
 and most beautiful cities. They say to be 
 happy on earth one must be born at Soo- 
 chow, live in Canton, and die in Soochow; 
 for in the first are the handsomest people, 
 in the second the richest luxuries, and in 
 the third the best coffins. Mr. John now 
 devoted himself almost exclusively to itin- 
 eratine, and visited a larcre number of 
 towns and cities. In October, 1858, Mr. 
 John and three of his brother missionaries 
 resolved to make an extended tour, preach- 
 ing and distributino- books in all the cit- 
 ies along the Grand Canal as far as its
 
 80 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 entrance into the Yellow River, They also 
 were anxious to ascertain Avhat influence 
 the treaty of Tientsin between China and 
 England had had upon the people, and 
 how far mission-work could be carried on. 
 The Grand Canal is six hundred and fifty 
 miles in length, and is divided into three 
 parts, which were made under three dif- 
 ferent dynasties. By it and the rivers it 
 connects, there is an almost uninterrupted 
 water-way from the north to the south of 
 the empire. 
 
 Mr. John proceeded as far as he had 
 passports, and preached the gospel under 
 trials of all kinds in all towns that he was 
 able to enter. Revolution is the only 
 means the Chinaman has of getting rid of 
 bad QTOvernments; and it is associated in his 
 mind with patriotic deeds of heroism, and 
 with some of the brightest periods of his 
 national history. Between the years 1830 
 and 1840, an unusual number of rebellions, 
 inundations, and famines had caused great 
 discontent among the people. Thus the 
 country was very unsettled when Hung-
 
 GRIFFITH JOIL V. 8 1 
 
 sewtsuen, the Taiping chief, arose. He 
 was a poor lad, but possessed an able mind, 
 and was essentially Chinese in his way of 
 thinking- ; desiring notoriety, he resorted to 
 unofficial ways, and in 1837 he had trances, 
 and proclaimed himself a heavenly prince. 
 In 1843 ^"^6 began to study Christian tracts, 
 and in 1847 P'-^t himself under the instruc- 
 tion of Mr. J. Roberts, an American mis- 
 sionary in Canton. His writings do not 
 show that he appreciated the real spirit of 
 Christianity, but the skill with which he 
 turned some of its doctrines to his own 
 use was really wonderful. 
 
 In 185 1 Hungsewtsuen commenced his 
 march through China, establishing himself, 
 in 1853, in Nanking, which city he held 
 until 1864. The missionaries resident in 
 Shanghai were desirous of ascertaining the 
 exact state of affairs among the Taipings, 
 and Mr. John with five others visited Soo- 
 chowand passed through novel experiences ; 
 all of them were in danger of being killed 
 in an affray between the villagers and the 
 insurgents. The leaders of the rebels were
 
 82 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 acquainted with many Christian truths, and 
 always addressed the missionaries as " our 
 foreign brothers." 
 
 In i860 Mr. John resolved to go boldly 
 to Nanking, the seat of the Taiping govern- 
 ment, and endeavor to obtain from Kan 
 Wanor an edict of relieious toleration. The 
 distance to Nankinor was about two hundred 
 and fifty miles, and the missionaries were 
 treated with marked respect in all the towns 
 through which they passed. The journey 
 was a complete success ; and the edict ob- 
 tained gave permission to all missionaries, 
 whether Protestant or Catholic, to live in the 
 insurgents' territory and carry on mission- 
 work. Although the Taipings fell into 
 many grievous errors, the seeds of Chris- 
 tianity were doubtless in the hearts of the 
 leaders. They did one good thing by cre- 
 ating a vacuum, not only in the temples, 
 destroying the idols, but also in the hearts 
 of the people. It was the work of the 
 missionary to fill this void. 
 
 The new treaty between England and 
 China opened the northern provinces to
 
 GRIFFITH JOHN. 83 
 
 direct mission -work, and the great network 
 of rivers and canals made many parts of 
 the vast empire easy of access. Hankow, 
 situated on the Yang-tsi, is accessible to 
 ocean steamers at all times of the year. 
 Mr. John had heard of, read about, and 
 many times longed to visit, this great em- 
 porium of China, and with Mr. Wilson 
 finally arrived there on the 21st of June, 
 1861. It was a most flourishing mart, 
 people from eighteen provinces meeting 
 there to exchange the varied products of 
 the great empire. Mr. John, with his char- 
 acteristic promptitude, commenced preach- 
 ing on the first day ; and from that time 
 to the present, Hankow has had the gos- 
 pel daily proclaimed by an ever-increasing 
 number of missionaries. 
 
 On the 1 2th of September Mr. John re- 
 moved his wife and children to Hankow, 
 and worked with great energy, being aided 
 by two native assistants. His audiences 
 were very large. In August, 1861, Hien- 
 fung, the Emperor of China, died ; and the 
 change in the government was speedily felt
 
 84 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 all over the empire. The people were more 
 docile and susceptible to influences from 
 without. The magistrates of Hankow were 
 very friendly towards Mr. John, and he 
 spoke on Christianity in the highest circles 
 of society. Early in the year 1862 Mr. 
 John reported steady progress. At the close 
 of twelve months' labor the infant church 
 at Hankow numbered twelve members. 
 
 Soon after his arrival at Hankow, Mr. 
 John determined that Wuchang, being the 
 provincial capital of Hupeh, would be a 
 most desirable place for mission-work, and 
 for four months labored steadfastly to ob- 
 tain a foothold there. At the end of that 
 time, and after a severe conflict with the 
 authorities, literati, and gentry, he erected, 
 upon purchased land, buildings costing 
 ^500, and consisting of a chapel-house, 
 two schoolrooms, and hospital. And so 
 with great judgment and foresight, Mr. 
 John founded the Hankow Mission. 
 
 In 1864 Mrs. John, with her entire 
 family of four children, was obliged to 
 visit Encrland for several months for a
 
 GRIFFITH JOHN. ^ 85 
 
 climatic change. Mrs. John returned to 
 Hankow with her youngest child in 1865. 
 In 1867 Mr. John reported an increase 
 of fifty-one members to the church. The 
 great event of the year 1868 was the mis- 
 sionary journey of Mr. John and the late 
 Mr. Wylie of the British and Foreign So- 
 ciety to Chung-tu, the capital of Si-chuen, 
 and their return through the province of 
 Shen-si, a distance of three thousand 
 miles. Never before had the gospel been 
 so widely published in China by the voice 
 of a missionary. After his return Mr. 
 John writes, " I feel, in a way I have 
 never felt before, that the valley of the 
 Yanor-tsi and the Hau have been taken 
 possession of in the name of Christ, and 
 that it is for me to live and die for the 
 millions of precious souls that line these 
 two magnificent streams." In 1869 Han- 
 kow and Wuchang were visited by a flood 
 which caused over a hundred thousand 
 people to flee to the hills near Hankow. 
 At this time Mr. John's family suffered 
 much from the cold, and their discomfort
 
 86 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 was Increased by small-pox among his 
 children. In spite of all he worked vigor- 
 ously, often preaching four times a day 
 and walkinor lonof distances. He was at 
 this time rewarded in part, by having 
 five converts coming forward and offer- 
 ing their services gratuitously as evangel- 
 ists — a thincr he had lonof desired. 
 
 Mr. John had for some time thought 
 of visiting his native land, and in Septem- 
 ber, 1870, arrived with his family safely 
 in London. During the next three years 
 he preached in England, and his eloquent 
 appeals in behalf of China were most stim- 
 ulating. In 1872, at the directors' invita- 
 tion, he preached the annual sermon at 
 the anniversary of the London Missionary 
 Society, which was afterwards published 
 under the title of " Hope for China." 
 
 In 1873 both Mr. and Mrs. John were 
 anxious to return to China ; they sailed 
 from Liverpool Feb. 8. It was a cold 
 day, and Mrs. John never rallied from the 
 effects of her exposure to the weather. The 
 heat of the Red Sea was most trying, and
 
 GRIFFITir JOHN. 8/ 
 
 her suffering" increased, and her gentle 
 spirit fled just as the rising of the glori- 
 ous Eastern sun lighted the vessel's way 
 into the harbor of Singapore. 
 
 Mr. John arrived at Hankow in a very 
 distressed condition, but plunged into his 
 work again, although his feelings of loneli- 
 ness and sorrow were intense. The church 
 now numbered over two hundred mem- 
 bers, and monthly additions were made. 
 As Hankow is purely a business mart, 
 very many who were converted and bap- 
 tized returned home, often to distant prov- 
 inces. Thus from the centre of the empire 
 ran light and life to every province. 
 
 During the winter of 1873-74, a new 
 and commodious hospital was erected at 
 Hankow, at a cost of ^1,350, subscribed by 
 foreigners and natives. In 1859 Mr. John 
 wrote a valuable paper on "The Ethics of 
 the Chinese, with Special Reference to the 
 Doctrines of Human Nature and Sin." In 
 1882 he wrote "A Plea for China," also 
 " China, her Claims and Call," and a valu- 
 able booklet entitled, " Spiritual Power for
 
 88 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Missionary Work." It is chiefly through 
 his Hterary efforts that Mr. John's name has 
 become so well known in the Celestial Em- 
 pire. In no country in the world are there 
 so great inducements to the missionary to 
 use the press as a means of making known 
 the truth as in China. The number of 
 readers among the people is very large. 
 Every hamlet and village has its school. 
 Everywhere education is held in highest 
 esteem. The catalogue of the Central 
 China Tract Society contains upwards of 
 thirty books and tracts from Mr. John's 
 pen, and every year over half a million 
 of his publications are circulated through- 
 out China. 
 
 In October, 1874, Mr. John married the 
 widow of the Rev. Dr. Jenkins of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church of America ; 
 by her spiritual power and earnest work 
 she was a great aid to her husband, and 
 through her many converts were made 
 among the Chinese women. Mrs. John 
 was greatly interested in the sailors ; and 
 during the tea season of 1875, Mr. and
 
 GRIFFITH JOIIiY. 89 
 
 Mrs. John opened their house nightly 
 to them, and ten conversions took place. 
 
 Early in May, 1878, Mr. John rendered 
 great assistance to a mission sent out by 
 the Established Church of Scotland, to 
 be located at I-Chan, a city nearly four 
 hundred miles up the river. In 1879 he 
 was greatly cheered by the opening of 
 a purely Chinese hospital in Hankow by 
 one of the converts, Wang Kien-tang, 
 who had been trained by Dr, Reid. 
 
 In 1880 Mrs. John on account of ill- 
 health left Hankow for England, but was 
 finally compelled to visit America. Here 
 other symptoms developed, and Mr. John 
 was summoned by cablegram to New 
 York. He arrived there in March, 188 1, 
 and was received very kindly by Rev. Dr. 
 Bevan. Mrs. John sustained a success- 
 ful surgical operation, and in July, 1881, 
 returned with her husband to England, 
 where they spent the winter with their 
 friends. They, however, longed for their 
 loved toil, and sailed for Hankow in 
 February, 1882.
 
 90 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 In 1883 Mr. John saw with pleasure 
 the completion of a building called The 
 Sailors' Rest. Ever-wideninor success at- 
 tended the mission of Hankow ; but in 
 the midst of it he experienced a sad loss 
 in the death of his wife, who died on 
 Christmas, 1885. Although Mr. John's 
 life was clouded by sorrow and loneli- 
 ness he worked on, and in 1886 saw the 
 erection of a beautiful new chapel with 
 large vestry, native pastor's house, girls' 
 school and teachers' rooms. Like the 
 Sailors' Rest, they were the outcome of 
 that pilgrimage of pain made by Mrs. 
 John to New York and England. On 
 the morning of Sunday, June 27, four hun- 
 dred and fifty Christians attended service 
 in the new chapel ; and the Rev. David 
 Hill, Chairman of the Wesleyan Hankow 
 Mission, preached from Gen. xxviii. 17, 
 " This is none other but the house of 
 God, and this is the gate of heaven." 
 
 This year, 1887, is memorable for the 
 remarkable proclamation from the Tsung- 
 li Yamen (government office} at Pekin,
 
 GRIFFITH JOHN. 9 1 
 
 bidding the people in general live on 
 terms of friendship and good-will with 
 their Christian neighbors, and exhorting 
 all local magistrates to treat Christian 
 applicants for justice with perfect impar- 
 tiality 
 
 The year 1888 found the Hankow Mis- 
 sion receiving monthly accessions in very 
 encouraging numbers, and Mr. John 
 worked steadily at his great task (now 
 completed) of translating the Old Testa- 
 ment into " easy Wen-li." 
 
 In Mr. John, China has been favored 
 with a highly efficient and indefatigable 
 worker ; and the earnest prayer of all 
 who are acquainted with the great work 
 he has done, is that he may long be 
 spared to further advance the cause of 
 Christ among the "black-haired race " by 
 tongue and pen, and that through his ex- 
 ample many may be influenced to follow 
 in his footsteps, and devote their lives to 
 this most noble enterprise.
 
 VII. 
 
 ELIJAH COLEMAN BR IDG MAN. 
 
 Born, April 22, 1801 ; Died, November 2, 1861. •
 
 ELIJAH COLEMAN BRIDGEMAN.
 
 VII. 
 
 ELIJAH COLEMAN BR IDG MAN. 
 " The Puritan recognized God in his soul, and acted." 
 
 Elijah Coleman Bridgman, imbued 
 with the characteristics of his forefathers, 
 was not a man of speculation, of creative 
 abihty, or of starthng originaHty ; but he 
 was one who united within himself the 
 chief elements of Puritanism, — faith and 
 action. " He believed God ; yes, actually 
 believed him, and scattered broadcast the 
 seeds of his belief." He was born at 
 Belchertown, Mass., April 22, 1801 ; and 
 the subtile moral atmosphere which then 
 pervaded New England homes became 
 a part of him. 
 
 His school-life began in his native town, 
 was continued at Amherst, and completed 
 at the Andover Theological school. As 
 a boy, Mr. Bridgman was obedient and 
 
 95
 
 g6 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 affectionate ; to his mother's influence he 
 owed his early conversion. While still 
 in college he conceived a desire to be- 
 come a missionary; and his wish being 
 in full accord with his family, he readily 
 accepted, on his Class Day, an invitation 
 offered by the American Board (aided by 
 the liberality of Mr. R. M. Olyphant of 
 New York) to go to China. 
 
 Mr. Olyphant made a contract with 
 the Board to furnish passage and Mr. 
 Bridgman's living expenses in China for 
 a year. 
 
 Mr. Bridofman sailed from New York 
 Oct. 14, 1829, and arrived at Macao, 
 China, Jan. 22, 1830. He was warmly 
 welcomed by Dr. and Mrs. Morrison. 
 
 Dr. Morrison went to China in 1807, 
 under appointment of the London Mis- 
 sionary Society, and established the first 
 Protestant Mission in that land. 
 
 Feb. 25 Mr. Bridgman arrived in Can- 
 ton, and immediately established his resi- 
 dence in the American factories. 
 
 The foreio^n factories at this time were
 
 ELIJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN. 97 
 
 thirteen in number, and built of brick or 
 granite, and Hoating flags of different na- 
 tions, presented to a stranger a pictur- 
 esque and striking contrast with the native 
 architecture of the " Celestial Empire." 
 
 Dr. Morrison held Sunday services in 
 the American factory; and in his journal 
 of March i, 1830, Mr. Bridgman records 
 the presence of twenty English-speaking 
 residents. 
 
 Havinof received books and all neces- 
 sary help from Dr. Morrison, Mr. Bridg- 
 man immediately began the study of the 
 Chinese lanofnaee, of which in later life 
 he wrote, " There is no lanoruaQ^e so dif- 
 ferent from all others as the Chinese, and 
 no other is acquired with so much diffi- 
 culty by foreigners. In this point of 
 view it has doubtless done infinitely more 
 than ' the great wall ' to preserve the 
 Chinese in their exclusiveness, hostile to 
 international intercourse, and for many 
 centuries almost hermetically sealed from 
 the influences of Christianity." 
 
 Mr. Bridgman's first year in China was
 
 98 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 given to study, to the teaching of Eng- 
 hsh to several Chinese lads, and, in spite 
 of the authorities' edict, to preaching the 
 gospel whenever chance permitted. In 
 May, 1832, at the suggestion of Dr. 
 Morrison, he edited the Chinese Reposi- 
 tory, a monthly magazine intended to 
 arouse in the Christian world an interest 
 in the spiritual awakening of China. This 
 magazine was conducted by Mr. Bridg- 
 man until 1851 (after which time Dr. 
 Williams became editor), and is now valu- 
 able as a reference-book. 
 
 In 1834, Aug. I, Dr. Morrison, the 
 veteran missionary, died. Of him Dr. 
 Bridorman wrote, " In making- known our 
 holy religion to the Chinese, no one has 
 done more." In October, 1834, Mr. 
 Bridgman was called upon to preach the 
 funeral sermon of Lord Napier, who had 
 been sent out by the British government 
 to protect the interests of English com- 
 merce at the port of Canton. After her 
 return to England, Lady Napier wrote 
 to Mr. Bridgman, " I have sent copies
 
 ELIJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN. 99 
 
 of your sermon to all our own people; 
 and many a one amongst the lonely 
 valleys of Ettrick will bless your name 
 for the kindness you showed at all times 
 to our beloved dead." 
 
 In 1836 Mr. Bridg-man began the trans- 
 lation of the Bible ; but later the print- 
 ing of the same was interrupted by the 
 "opium war." In March, 1839, trade 
 was suspended ; the Chinese government 
 detained foreio^ners in Canton, and tumul- 
 tuous mobs were the order of the day. 
 In the midst of all, Mr. Bridgman was 
 not an idle spectator. In August, 1840, 
 he wrote : " The gauntlet has been thrown 
 down. After a friendly intercourse of 
 two hundred years. Great Britain finds 
 herself at war with the Chinese." 
 
 The w^ar terminated in favor of the Eng- 
 lish, 1842 ; indemnity was granted, several 
 ports opened, and to the British govern- 
 ment was ceded the. city of Hong-Kong. 
 To this place Mr. Bridgman moved July i, 
 1842 ; and here he prepared the " Chinese 
 Chrestomathy," a volume of seven hundred
 
 lOO GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 and thirty pages. During this year the 
 University of New York conferred upon 
 Mr. Bridgman the degree of D.D. 
 
 In 1844 the United States of Ameiica 
 sent the Hon. Caleb Cushinor to the 
 Chinese court ; and July 3 a treaty of 
 peace, amity, and commerce was con- 
 cluded between the two nations, and for- 
 eieners were allowed residence at Canton, 
 Amoy, Fuchau-fu, Ningpo, and Shanghai. 
 By consent of the American Board, Dr. 
 Brideman and Dr. Peter Parker became 
 secretaries to the legation ; and of their 
 services Mr. Cushing said officially and 
 privately, " Their intimate knowledge of 
 China and the Chinese made them in- 
 valuable as advisers, and their high char- 
 acter contributed to give weight and moral 
 strength to the mission." 
 
 The year 1845 "^^^ made memorable in 
 the history of missionary work by an edict 
 from the Chinese emperor for the toleration 
 of Christianity throughout the Empire. 
 
 The Chinese Repository of June, 1845, 
 records the marriaofe of the Rev E. C.
 
 ELTJAFf COLEMAN BRIDGMAN. lOI 
 
 Bridgman, D.D., with Miss Eliza Jane Gil- 
 lett of New York. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Bridgman established a 
 residence in Canton, where their work 
 was supplemented and cheered by the co- 
 operation of Dr. and Mrs. Parker. 
 
 The home of the Bridofmans was rented 
 from a salt merchant, and partly built in 
 foreign style. The first story was occupied 
 by the coolies (servants), the second was 
 the printing establishment, and the third 
 afforded apartments for the family. And 
 here in a small study-room sat Dr. Bridg- 
 man day after day, busy in his great work 
 of translation, or patiently talking with the 
 natives (from the Buddhist priest to the 
 Chinese soldier) of the life of the Great 
 Teacher. In the autumn of 1845 Mrs. 
 Brideman beean the education of two 
 Chinese girls ; and these children formed 
 the nucleus to a female school subsequently 
 established under her care. Believing his 
 first duty was to make known the truth, 
 " to preach the gospel," Dr. Bridgman 
 held daily services in Dr. Parker's ophthal-
 
 I02 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 mic hospital, and also preached to the mul- 
 titude in the streets, holding always to the 
 desire for conversions first, and later for 
 baptism and churches. In their attempts 
 to teach in neighboring vicinities, Dr. 
 and Mrs. Bridgman often exposed them- 
 selves to danger, and on one occasion 
 nearly sacrificed their lives to the infuri- 
 ated mobs. 
 
 Dr. Bridgman, being appointed by his 
 missionary brethren as delegate to the 
 committee assembled in Shanghai for the 
 revising of the Scriptures, established a 
 residence in that city, June 23, 1847; ^.nd 
 then, in addition to his labor of translation, 
 Dr. Bridcfman assumed and carried on the 
 work of a clergyman, and gathered about 
 him a native church. In 1850 he wrote 
 to the Secretary of the American Board : 
 " More than twenty years have now passed 
 since the first messengers from the churches 
 in America reached the land of Sinim. In 
 these twenty years what changes have we 
 seen ! and now nearly a hundred laborers, 
 men and women, \v2csfit free access to mil-
 
 EL/JAir COLEMAN BRIDGMAN: IO3 
 
 lions of people. The first fruits of a great 
 and glorious harvest begin to appear," 
 
 In 1852 Dr. Bridgman's health failed, 
 and with Mrs. Bridg-man and a Chinese 
 pupil he returned to America for change 
 and a short visit. He arrived in New 
 York June i6 ; and then "railways, the 
 electric telegraph, and all the develop- 
 ments that two and twenty years had 
 produced, burst upon him with so much 
 interest, that it gave vigor to his frame, 
 and rejuvenated his whole being." The 
 four months of his visit were passed with 
 friends in the dear native State, and then 
 in journeying from place to place, to ad- 
 dress assemblies in behalf of China. Re- 
 turning, Dr. Bridgman and party visited 
 San Francisco, February, 1853, where Dr. 
 Bridgman took part in the dedicatory ex- 
 ercises of a church built for the Chinese. 
 A passage of thirty-eight days brought 
 the party safely to China. They arrived 
 at Shanghai, May 3; and on the 19th 
 Dr. Bridofman resumed his work of trans- 
 lation.
 
 I04 GREAT MISSIOXARIES. 
 
 In September, 1854, Dr. Bridgman cor- 
 dially welcomed Mr. Aitchison, and Mr. 
 and Mrs. Blodget, who came to China 
 under the appointment of the American 
 Board. A mission was beo-un at Shano-- 
 hai, a church formed, of which Dr. Brido-- 
 man was pastor until the time of his death. 
 Dr. Bridgman was social in his instincts, 
 ardent in friendships, and, interested in 
 whatever could in any way conduce to the 
 welfare of China, he was always ready to 
 perform his part in every enterprise that 
 aimed at that object. He was President 
 of the Shanghai Literary and Scientific 
 Society, and of the Morrison Educational 
 Society ; he was also officer and working- 
 member of the North China branch of the 
 Asiatic Society. He often entertained the 
 plenipotentiaries of the four great treaty 
 powers, — England, Erance, Russia, and 
 the United States. 
 
 In the midst of active and unfinished 
 labors, with his armor still about him, Dr. 
 Bridgman died, Nov. 2, 1861. Thirty- two 
 years of his life he gave to China, found-
 
 ELIJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN. I05 
 
 ino- in that land the first American mis- 
 sion, and leaving an impress upon his great 
 work which shall be forever indelible. 
 
 After her husband's death, Mrs. Bridg- 
 man returned to America ; but her heart 
 was in China, and, although delicate in 
 health, " she went forth alone at fifty-nine 
 years of age to take up her work again. 
 To the mission at Peking she gave $12,500, 
 and established at that place a boarding- 
 school for girls. Four years later (1867) 
 she gave money and labor to founding a 
 girls' school in Shanghai ; but her zeal 
 was here beyond her strength, and Nov. 
 10, 187 1, she followed her husband to rest 
 in the city where most of their years to- 
 gether had been spent."
 
 VIII. 
 BISHOP JAMES MILLS THOBURN. 
 
 Born, March 7, 1836.
 
 JAMES M. THOBURNE
 
 VIII. 
 
 B/SHOP JAMES MILLS TLIOBURN. 
 
 Among the many valuable crifts made by 
 the Scotch-Irish stock to humanity in gen- 
 eral, and Methodism in particular, Bishop 
 Thoburn is not the least. His parents 
 came to Ohio from the north of Ireland in 
 1825. He was born near St. Clairsville, 
 Ohio, March 7, 1836. One incident of his 
 childhood deserves record, as serving" to 
 show the nature of the influences thrown 
 around him in his childhood. It is related 
 by his sister, Miss Isabella Thoburn, who 
 for the last twenty- five years has been at 
 the head of a most useful orirls' school in 
 Lucknow, and was, indeed, the first mis- 
 sionary sent out by the Woman's Foreign 
 Missionary Society of the M. E. Church. 
 Writing of her father and mother, she says, 
 "They bought a farm in Ohio, for which 
 
 109
 
 I I O GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 they could not make full payment, and were 
 obliged to give a mortgage. It was when 
 the harvest had been sold, and when the 
 final payment was made, my father came 
 home with two gold eagles above the 
 amount of the debt. The announcement 
 was made to the family ; for every child 
 had been made to feel that he shared the 
 responsibility, and so was allowed to share 
 the pleasure. Then father took out the 
 two pieces of money, and said, ' We will 
 give ten dollars to the Missionary Society 
 for a thank-offering ; and this,' he added, 
 giving mother the other ten, ' is for your 
 new cloak.' She held it thoughtfully a 
 moment, and then, giving it back, said, 
 ' Put this with the other piece for the 
 thank-offering, and I will turn my old 
 cloak.' " With such training it is not sur- 
 prising that both brother and sister so 
 promptly placed themselves on the mis- 
 sionary altar. 
 
 The father died in 1850 ; and James soon 
 after left home, and practically began life 
 for himself. Aided somewhat by his mother
 
 BISHOP JAMES MILLS TIIOBURN. I I I 
 
 at the outset, he entered Allegheny Col- 
 lege ; but most of the funds for his college 
 course he secured himself through teaching 
 and other means. He graduated June 
 24, 1857. Two weeks later he began to 
 preach in Stark County, Ohio. In March, 
 1858, he was admitted into the Pittsburg 
 Conference, and sent as junior preacher 
 to the Marlborouorh Circuit. 
 
 When he was only seventeen, he read 
 one day a sermon of Dr. Olin's, in a little 
 book called " Early Piety." As he perused 
 a passage which called attention to the fact 
 that it must be young men who should go 
 forth as missionaries, " there flashed upon 
 my mind and heart." he says, " a clear 
 impression that my life-work would be in 
 the missionary field." He was converted 
 about eighteen months later, soon after he 
 was nineteen ; and the conviction that God 
 meant him to gfo abroad became still more 
 deeply rooted. But he took up the work 
 at home until the more definite call should 
 come. It came in the latter part of 1858. 
 The mission to India had been founded by
 
 I 1 2 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Dr. Wm, Butler the year before, and now 
 search was being made for six young men 
 to go to his help. When young Thoburn 
 read the strong appeal to this end in the 
 Christian Advocate, he was powerfully 
 moved. God also manifested his approval, 
 the widowed mother put no hindrance in 
 the way, and the missionary authorities 
 were glad to make the appointment. The 
 final determination was reached by Jan. i, 
 1859; and subsequent events have made 
 it abundantly clear that no mistake was 
 made. 
 
 He sailed from Salem, Mass., April 12, 
 in a small ice-ship bound for Calcutta. 
 The missionary party consisted of nine, — 
 four men and their wives, besides Thoburn, 
 who was the youngest of the company. 
 Five of the nine have for many years been 
 in the heavenly land ; the other four, — 
 Dr. and Mrs. Parker, and Dr. Waugh, with 
 the Bishop, — are still at work in India. 
 They landed at Calcutta, Aug. 21, 1859. 
 and were warmly welcomed by Dr. Butler. 
 Proceeding as speedily as possible to Luck-
 
 BISHOP JAMES iM/LLS TIIOIWRN. II3 
 
 now, the forces were carefully distributed. 
 Mr. Thoburn found himself assiofned to 
 Nynee Tal, in the mountain province of 
 Kumaon. 
 
 He was now fairly launched on that life 
 to which his thouohts had for so lone a 
 time been tending, and in which he was 
 destined to make so notable a record. If 
 he had the inexperience of youth, being 
 only twenty-three, he had also its vigor 
 and hopefulness, being, moreover, by na- 
 ture of an especially buoyant and sanguine 
 temperament. For four )'ears Nynee Tal, 
 beautiful for situation, was his home, if 
 home a bachelor missionary can be said to 
 have at all. Increasingly conscious of this 
 great lack, he took to himself a wife, Dec. 
 16, 1 86 1, marrying Mrs. Minerva R. Don- 
 ney, whose husband, one of the party of 
 nine, had died within a few weeks after 
 reaching the country. He applied himself 
 so diligently to the study of the language, 
 that just a year after leaving St. Clairsville, 
 and only about six months after reaching 
 his station, he was able to preach with con-
 
 I 1 4 GREA T MISS ION A RFES. 
 
 siclerable freedom in the bazaar, and in a 
 few months more he could conduct an en- 
 tire service in the chapel ; which is very- 
 unusual proficiency. In preaching, school- 
 teaching, building, and holding services in 
 English for the soldiers and other Euro- 
 pean residents of the station, the time 
 passed quickly away. But, with the igno- 
 rance and enthusiasm of youth, too much 
 was attempted, and a break-down in health 
 was the result. A far heavier blow than 
 this before long descended. In November, 
 1862, the gifted, devoted wife, on whose 
 living so much seemed to depend, was 
 translated, while the glow of the upper 
 temple filled the lowly dwelling, "I am 
 glad," she said, " that life has been given 
 me, that I might have the privilege of dy- 
 ing." The baby boy thus sadly bereft was 
 only four weeks old. In the following 
 autumn the father, with his tender charo-e, 
 got away for a greatly needed furlough, 
 and reached his American home asain 
 during Christmas week of 1863. 
 
 While in America, tempting offers were
 
 BISHOP JAMES MILLS THOBURN. I I 5 
 
 made him of employment at home; and 
 this, in conjunction with his weak state 
 of health and some other considerations, 
 came perilously near to wrecking his mis- 
 sionary career. He had actually concluded 
 to give up India ; but on announcing his 
 determination to his sister Isabella, she re- 
 minded him of his call from God to the 
 work in India, and then said, — 
 
 •' My advice is this : Whenever God 
 gives you an equally clear call to leave 
 India, you may safely give it up. Have 
 you any such call now ? " 
 
 This pointed question extinguished the 
 false liehts which had come so near to 
 leading him from the foreign field, and 
 all thoughts of abandoning India speedily 
 vanished. 
 
 He reached the seat of the India Con- 
 ference at Moradabad, Feb. i, 1866, and 
 was appointed to Paorl, some five days' 
 journey west of Nynee Tal. Here he 
 labored two years, becoming much inter- 
 ested in the pilgrims who thronged the 
 mountain roads on their way to the fa-
 
 Il6 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 mous Hindu shrines of Kedarnath and 
 Badrinath, but not finding them favorable 
 for missionary work. During the whole 
 of the first year there was but one bap- 
 tism. By the close of the second year 
 the little church had six members and 
 seven probationers. For the next two 
 years, 1868 and 1869, Moradabad was his 
 station ; and in 1870, his sister having just 
 arrived to begin the girls' school in Luck- 
 now, he removed to that famous old capi- 
 tal. He was now presiding elder of the 
 district, as well as charged with a variety 
 of other functions ; but his health was well 
 established, and he greatly enjoyed the 
 work. 
 
 Among the enterprises which here em- 
 anated from his fertile brain worthy of 
 mention, is the Lucknoiu Witness, estab- 
 lished April, 187 1, and still flourishing 
 at Calcutta, under the name of T/ic In- 
 dian Witness. It had, almost from the 
 first, a larger circulation than any other 
 Christian religious paper in the Empire, 
 and still maintains itself easily in the lead.
 
 BISHOP JAMES MILLS TIIOBURN. W] 
 
 He soon developed also quite an exten- 
 sive work among the English-speaking 
 people of the city, who had been hitherto 
 greatly neglected. And this received a 
 great impetus by the coming of William 
 Taylor, — now Bishop Taylor, — whose ad- 
 vent in Lucknow, Nov. 25, 1870, marked 
 an important epoch. Revivals followed 
 his preaching, not only there, but in all 
 the chief cities of India ; and the founda- 
 tions of three new conferences were laid. 
 It was mainly in connection with the work 
 thus inaugurated that Dr. Thoburn's orreat 
 success was to be achieved and his chief 
 distinction reached. 
 
 In January, 1874, he was transferred by 
 Bishop Harris to Calcutta, to follow up the 
 work begun by William Taylor ; and from 
 this time he became the virtual head of 
 the "Bombay and Bengal Mission," organ- 
 ized in 1876 as the South India Confer- 
 ence. A great church, costing eighty 
 thousand rupees, and seating some sixteen 
 hundred people, was soon built to accom- 
 modate the crowds that throno^ed to his
 
 I I 8 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 preaching", and a continuous revival ex- 
 tended through every month of the year. 
 Work was vigorously prosecuted among 
 the sailors and amonor the Beno-alis, and 
 be^innino-s were made of what subse- 
 quently became two flourishing boarding- 
 schools. 
 
 In June, 1879, in response to invitations 
 to visit Rangoon, the capital of Burma, he 
 went across the Bay of Bengal, and in two 
 weeks' evangelistic services a Methodist 
 church was initiated there which has since 
 developed into a prosperous mission, with 
 a multiplicity of successful departments. 
 The same thino- was done at the beofin- 
 ning of 1885 for Singapore. Dr. Thoburn 
 went there with Mrs. Thoburn (he had 
 married Nov. 11, 1880, Miss Anna Jones, 
 M.D., of Kingston, Ohio) and Mr. Old- 
 ham. In a brief but most vigorous cam- 
 paign of three weeks, a little church of 
 seventeen members was organized, and 
 matters put in such shape that the Malay- 
 sian Mission speedily got upon its feet. 
 When it is remembered that in both of
 
 BISHOP JAMES MILLS TIIOBURN. I 19 
 
 these cases the missionary went forth with 
 no resources behind him, and no assurance 
 of help before him, except in the ever-sure 
 promises of God, it will be seen that an 
 achievement of no small moment was in- 
 volved. Dr. Thoburn has never hesitated, 
 with a hopefulness, courage, and faith wor- 
 thy of all admiration and imitation, with 
 a trust in God, in himself, and in the 
 people rarely equalled, and with such a 
 measure of the divine indorsement in the 
 results reached as has silenced objections 
 or criticisms, to throw himself into the 
 breach whenever the cause of God seemed 
 to demand a forward movement. He has 
 developed, as the years have rolled on, 
 qualities of leadership of the most marked 
 character. 
 
 When the General Conference of 1888 
 arrived. Dr. Thoburn was unanimously 
 chosen by his brethren of Bengal to repre- 
 sent them, it being the strong expectation, 
 as well as desire, that he would be elected 
 to the new bishopric in India. This ex- 
 pectation was promptly and cordially grat-
 
 I20 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 ified. And Bishop Thoburn, as he has 
 travelled throughout the Indian Empire 
 during the past seven years, holding con- 
 ferences, and directing the labors of his 
 rapidly growing hosts, besides making fre- 
 quent visits to America in the interests of 
 his vast diocese, has abundantly justified 
 the wisdom of the step taken at that time. 
 In his report to the General Conference of 
 1892, the bishop was able to tell of four 
 years' steady growth, during which the old 
 North India Conference had more than 
 quadrupled the large membership with 
 which she entered upon the quadrennium, 
 and the smaller conferences had doubled. 
 He told of a membership of 30,000, a 
 Christian community of 50,000 souls, and 
 no less than 55,243 in the Sunday-schools. 
 These larofe fieures have all been marvel- 
 lously increased since then, the membership 
 having been more than doubled again, 
 with other growth in proportion. Indeed, 
 a work has broken out in the Methodist 
 Mission of North India in the past six 
 years, the like of which has probably never
 
 BISHOP JAMES MILLS TIIOBURN. 121 
 
 before been anywhere seen. Some fifteen 
 or sixteen thousand Hindus have yearly 
 been baptized ; and as many more are con- 
 tinually in waiting, whom the preachers 
 have to hold back, not being at all able 
 with any staff that can be employed to 
 overtake the task of properly instructing 
 this immense multitude. It is the harvest 
 from over thirty years of wisely planned 
 and energetically executed sowing. It is 
 mostly among the low castes ; although all 
 classes, even the highest, are affected. 
 There seems at present no indication that 
 the work will stop, and no limit to it except 
 the ability of the toilers. 
 
 That the excellent generalship of the 
 bishop, his good judgment, noble exam- 
 ple, and Christlike spirit, have been the 
 main factors in the success of the work, all 
 clearly see and willingly admit. He has 
 been a ceaseless inspiration and an unfail- 
 ing resource to the laborers. With an eye 
 on the entire field which he frequently 
 traverses, he strengthens each weak point 
 by prompt transfers of help, and dissemi-
 
 122 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 nates the knowledge of the most approved 
 methods. He has also raised by his per- 
 sonal exertions large sums of money, with- 
 out which, time and again, the work must 
 have been seriously crippled. Not yet 
 threescore, although more than thirty-five 
 years a missionary, it would seem that, by 
 the blessing of God, he might be able for 
 many years to come to lead on the conquer- 
 ing army of Christ in India to yet grander 
 victories. He says that he hopes to live to 
 lead an assault upon the gates of hell with 
 a million Indian Christians at his back. It 
 is surely not beyond the possibilities of 
 Divine grace and power. May it become 
 a livinQT fact !
 
 IX. 
 
 BISHOP SAMUEL ADJAI CROWTHER. 
 
 Missionary to Africa. 
 Born i8o?. Died Dfc. 31, 1S91.
 
 SAMUEL CROWTHER.
 
 IX. 
 
 BISHOP SAMUEL ADJAI CROWTHER. 
 
 Bishop Crowther's youth was passed in 
 the shadows of Darkest Africa, and under 
 the spell of peculiar and depressing super- 
 stitions ; in the midst of wars, cruelty, and 
 bitter oppression. His home was in the 
 Yoruba country, one of the many states or 
 kingdoms into which Western Africa is di- 
 vided. It lies to the west of the Nio-er 
 River, and forms a part of the slave coast 
 on the Gulf of Guinea, the country that 
 for so many years furnished the slaves 
 which supplied the markets of the world. 
 
 To supply this growing demand for 
 slaves, the country was kept in a continu- 
 ous state of warfare, the chiefs contract- 
 ing to furnish the slaves, making raids 
 upon the neighboring tribes, and, it is 
 said, not infrequently swooping down upon 
 their own villages. 
 
 125
 
 126 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 The usual plan was to make the attack 
 in the night-time, set fire to the humble 
 homes, and while the inhabitants were try- 
 ing to escape, seize and bind them with 
 heavy chains, fastened about the neck and 
 wrists, killing all who offered resistance. 
 The prisoners were then joined together, 
 forming a long line, and driven with great 
 cruelty from the smoking ruins of their 
 homes. Thus in one ni^ht a laro-e villao-e 
 would be completely destroyed. If any on 
 the long march, under the load of galling 
 chains, became unable to proceed, or an 
 infant became troublesome, they were left 
 to perish in the forest, or were killed on 
 the spot. 
 
 Such were the experiences that came 
 into the childhood of Bishop Crowther. 
 
 At the age of eleven years, in the year 
 182 I, he was living with his father, mother, 
 and three other children, in the flourishing 
 village of Oshogun, containing over six 
 thousand inhabitants, situated in Yoruba. 
 
 One morning very early, without the 
 least warning, they were suddenly sur-
 
 BISHOP SAMUEL ADJAF CROIVTHER. 12/ 
 
 rounded by an army of men- stealers, 
 headed by Mohammedan Foulah. Men 
 who attempted to resist were stricken 
 down at their doors. Amonrr these was 
 the father of Httle Adjai, as he was then 
 called. The mother with her children 
 tried to escape into the bush ; but they 
 were pursued, lassoed, and brought back, 
 chained, linked to others, and marched 
 away. 
 
 In their long journey they passed other 
 towns, where they saw some of their rela- 
 tives who had met a like fate. After two 
 days of tramping, goaded by the lash of 
 the cruel slave-driver, they reached the 
 place of the chief, where they were allotted 
 to their future owners; Adjai and one of 
 his sisters falling to the chief, while the 
 mother and remaining children went to 
 other persons. 
 
 Adjai was, however, soon sold from his 
 sister, and, after passing through several 
 hands, was finally landed on the coast, 
 and put into the crowded slave-pen, or 
 barracoon, where he was kept four months,
 
 128 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 to await the collection of a sufficient num- 
 ber to make up the ship's load. When 
 this had been done, they were stowed 
 away in the hold of the vessel, — a hundred 
 and eighty-seven miserable creatures, — 
 there to endure still greater sufferings 
 than any that had yet fallen to them. 
 
 But suddenly there comes a change ! 
 A British man-of-war, sent out for this 
 purpose, overtakes and captures the slave- 
 ship, and liberates the slaves, who in their 
 misery and despair cannot at once realize 
 what has happened, and that they are 
 now among friends. They mistook a pig 
 hanging up, partly dressed, to be one of 
 their number who had been slain ; and 
 the cannon-balls strewn around the deck 
 they thought were negro heads. 
 
 They were taken to Liberia, and given 
 to the care of the mission at Free Town. 
 The boy Adjai was put into the mission- 
 school, and was from the first a very apt 
 scholar. After four years of instruction 
 under the care of the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Weeks, he became a Christian, and was
 
 BISHOP SAMUEL AD/A I CROWTHER. 1 29 
 
 baptized at the age of fifteen, taking the 
 name of Samuel Acljai Crowther. He was 
 trained in manual labor, and became quite 
 proficient in the use of tools. In 1826 he 
 was taken to England by Mr. and Mrs. 
 Davey on a visit, spending part of the 
 time in a school at Islington, returning at 
 the end of a year to Sierra Leone. He 
 was one of the first half-dozen natives who 
 entered the Yourah Bay College. A few 
 years later he became an assistant teacher 
 in the colleee. With this mark of confi- 
 dence shown by his friends, there came to 
 him the inspiration to devote his life and 
 all of his power to the uplifting of his own 
 people. 
 
 In a letter to a friend he writes : — 
 " From this period I must mark the un- 
 happy but blessed day, which I shall never 
 forget in my life ; unhappy because it was 
 the day on which I was violently turned 
 out of my father's house and separated 
 from my relatives, and made to experi- 
 ence what it is to be in slavery ; blessed 
 because it was the day which Providence
 
 I30 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 had marked out for me to set out on my 
 journey from the land of heathenism, su- 
 perstition, and vice, to a place where the 
 gospel is preached." 
 
 While here he was married to one whose 
 early experience had been somewhat simi- 
 lar to his own. His wife, when a little girl, 
 had been rescued from a slave-ship, and 
 taken to Sierra Leone, to the same kind 
 friends who trained him ; and they were 
 brought up together. When baptized, her 
 name Asano was changed into Susanna. 
 In the school at Regent's Town to which 
 he had been appointed, she was associate 
 teacher, here and elsewhere filling well 
 her place in the important and elevated 
 position to which they had arisen. 
 
 Their family of six children, well trained 
 for usefulness, three of them actively en- 
 eaeed in mission-work, and the others 
 living godly lives, attest her ability and 
 faithfulness in the home. 
 
 Returning after two years to the Yourah 
 Bay College, he taught for several years, 
 doing much good by his influence over the
 
 BISHOP SAMUEL ADJAI GROWTH ER. 131 
 
 natives who were being trained there, many 
 of whom were afterward ordained, and ap- 
 pointed to important stations. 
 
 In 1 84 1 he made his first trip up the 
 Niger with a party on an exploring expe- 
 dition planned by the British government 
 in the interest of commerce in native prod- 
 ucts, which it was hoped would indirectly 
 check the trade in slaves. 
 
 Mr. Crowther was sent with this expedi- 
 tion for the purpose of opening the way for 
 the establishing of missions in that region ; 
 but on account of a deadly fever which 
 attacked most of the part)\ they were 
 obliged to return before their mission had 
 been completed. But it was not an entire 
 failure. Friendly relations had been es- 
 tablished with the chiefs of various tribes 
 by- Mr. Crowther, whose tact and wisdom 
 in dealing with the natives proved that he 
 was the one to push forward the work in 
 the future. During the voyage he pre- 
 pared a grammar and vocabulary of the 
 Yoruba language, which afterwards was of 
 great value. Upon their return, by request
 
 132 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 of the mission at Sierra Leone, he was sent 
 to London for a year of study, to prepare 
 him for the ministry ; at the close of which 
 he was ordained, and returned to Africa. 
 The next year he was sent to his own 
 country, Yoruba, to estabHsh a mission at 
 Abbeokuta. This was a lar^e fortified town 
 where the Yorubans, after suffering" untold 
 persecutions from the Foulah tribe, had 
 gathered to the number of a hundred thou- 
 sand, making a city four miles in diameter. 
 The people welcomed him with great re- 
 joicing, especially the few Christians among 
 thern who had come hither from Sierra 
 Leone. Mr. Crowther had been here about 
 three weeks when, to his great surprise, he 
 met his mother and brother, who were 
 living in a little town near by. A descrip- 
 tion of this pathetic scene is given in his 
 own words, taken from his journal : " We 
 grasped one another, looking at each other 
 in great astonishment, big tears rolling 
 down her emaciated cheeks ; she trembled 
 as she held me by the hand, and called me 
 by the familiar names with which I well re-
 
 BISHOP SAMUEL AD/A/ CROIVTHER. 1 33 
 
 meinbered I used to be called by my grand- 
 mother, who has since died in slavery. We 
 could not say much, but sat still, and cast 
 now and then an affectionate look at each 
 other, — a look which violence and oppres- 
 sion had long checked ; an affection which 
 had nearly been extinguished by the long 
 space of twenty-five years. My two sisters 
 who were captured with us are both with 
 my mother. Thus unsought for, after all 
 search for me had failed, God has brought 
 us together again, and turned our sorrow 
 into joy." 
 
 Two years later she, with three others, be- 
 came Christians, and were baptized, being 
 the first fruits of the mission. When bap- 
 tized, the mother of Samuel took the name 
 of Hannah. She died in the Christian faith 
 at the age of ninety-seven. The mission 
 was blesseld with great success, in spite 
 of terrible persecution by the Juju priests, 
 and in spite of the continuous wars waged 
 by the king of Dahomey and his chiefs. Mr. 
 Crowther wrote at the close of three years : 
 " What has God wrought during the short
 
 134 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 interval of conflict between light and dark- 
 ness ! We have five hundred constant 
 attendants on the means of grace, about 
 eighty communicants, and nearly two hun- 
 dred candidates for baptism ; a great num- 
 ber of heathen have ceased worshipping 
 their country's gods, others have cast theirs 
 away altogether, and are not far from en- 
 listine under the banner of Christ." 
 
 The missionaries were untiring in their 
 efforts to help these people, and taught 
 them to cultivate the soil, and many other 
 useful employments. 
 
 The increased persecutions of the blood- 
 thirsty king of Dahomey made it necessary 
 for Mr. Crowther agfain to visit Enorland, in 
 order to enlist the interest of the English 
 people in this benighted land, and to ask 
 their aid in forming an alliance with some 
 of the surrounding tribes for the suppres- 
 sion of the slave-trade, and for protection 
 from these outrages upon the Christians. 
 
 While there he completed his dictionary 
 of the Yoruba lancruaoe, and his translation 
 of the Bible into Yoruba. The unusual
 
 BISHOP SAMUEL ADJAI CROIVTHER. 1 35 
 
 ability which he possessed in mastering lan- 
 o-Liao-es was of the orreatest advantao^e to 
 him in his deahnofs with the various chiefs. 
 
 Having completed his mission in Eng- 
 land, he returned to Africa, and continued 
 to extend the work to other localities. 
 
 His first mission at Abbeokuta had grown 
 to be a strong centre, with a large and 
 well-built church, in which a congregation 
 of about three hundred natives met for 
 weekly worship. A flourishing school had 
 also been established. Here in conference 
 with the workers from Ibadan and Ijaye, — 
 the oudying stations, — the plans were 
 laid for extending the work in the Yoruba 
 country. 
 
 The next three years he spent at Lagos, 
 on the coast, supervising tlie work there ; 
 and during this time he prepared a primer 
 and vocabulary, and translated several 
 books from the Bible into the Ibo lan- 
 guage, thus making preparations for the 
 ofreater work still before him. 
 
 His next expedition up the Niger was 
 planned and sent by the Church Mission-
 
 I 36 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 ary Society. The party consisted of Mr. 
 Crowther, with two other native ministers, 
 and two young men who had been hving- 
 with one of the missionaries at Sierra 
 Leone. He had hoped to start six dif- 
 ferent stations on this trip ; but the native 
 preachers intended to carry on this work 
 could not be spared on account of the 
 death of three missionaries on the coast, 
 so he proceeded with this Httle band on 
 the Dayspring ; and they had the honor 
 of planting at Onitsha the first mission on 
 the great river, which under the care of 
 the Rev. J. C. Taylor, one of the native 
 ministers, grew to be a strong centre. 
 
 Mr. Crowther now continued his jour- 
 neyings up and down the river by canoe 
 or passing boat for five or six years, and 
 labored with untiring zeal to evangelize 
 the regions round about. Three other 
 missions were started as the result of 
 these labors. 
 
 In 1864 he went to England to attend 
 the annual meetino- of the Church Mission- 
 ary Society, and to report the wonderful
 
 BISHOP SAMUEL AD/ A I CROIVTIIER. I 3/ 
 
 progress already made, and the possibili- 
 ties for further work, on the Niger. On 
 this visit occurred the most important 
 event in his personal history, when in 
 Canterbury Cathedral, before an immense 
 audience, among whom was the widow of 
 Bishop Weeks, the missionary who had 
 given him his first lessons, he was conse- 
 crated first bishop of the Niger. 
 
 On his return to Africa his work was 
 resumed with characteristic zeal, his next 
 field being the Delta of the Niger. With 
 his eldest son, archdeacon Dandeson Crow- 
 ther, as assistant, he established the mis- 
 sion at Bonny, in a region of great deg- 
 radation, the people being mostly slaves 
 and fetish worshippers, under the power of 
 priests. Many were the victims sacrificed 
 on every possible occasion, and their bones 
 were used to decorate and pave the heathen 
 temples ; but under the influence of the 
 gospel, the ghasdy temples were deserted, 
 and in the words of the native school- 
 master, wicked Bonny became a bethel. 
 The influence soon spread to Brasse, far-
 
 I 3 8 GREA T MISS ION A RIES. 
 
 ther up the river, and another mission was 
 the resuk ; not, however, without the usual 
 opposition which always and everywhere 
 has followed the introduction of Christi- 
 anity, but which seemed to be unusually 
 bitter in the Delta regions. 
 
 One of the kings who had accepted 
 Christianity was imprisoned by his chiefs, 
 and many people were driven to the forests 
 for safety, who, when they were released, 
 looked more like skeletons than men ; but 
 with remarkable fidelity the Christians 
 adhered to their faith, showing the true 
 martyr spirit. One, when bribes were of- 
 fered, said : "As for turning back to hea- 
 then worship, that is out of my power ; I 
 have made up my mind to be in chains, if 
 it so please the Lord, till the judgment 
 day." Said another, "Jesus has taken 
 charge of my heart, and padlocked it, and 
 the key is with him." 
 
 Bishop Crowther and his son appealed 
 to Christians everywhere to pray for them, 
 so terrible were their sufferings ; and from 
 all parts of the world letters of sympathy 
 reached them.
 
 BISHOP SAMUEL ADJAI CROWTHER. 1 39 
 
 But in spite of persecution, Christianity 
 spread until its influence was felt through- 
 out all the country, and there came in time 
 a complete transformation. Bishop Crow- 
 ther continued his work on the Niger and 
 throughout the Yoruba country with un- 
 abated energy and signal success for more 
 than a quarter of a century, establishing 
 churches and schools, encouraging com- 
 merce and agriculture, carrying out most 
 completely the avowed purpose of his youth 
 to spend his life for his people ; and in so 
 doing, few have been able to accomplish 
 more than he. Perhaps no part of his 
 work was more important than his many 
 translations of the Bible and other helpful 
 works. 
 
 In his several visits to England, he 
 made a multitude of warm friends, who 
 will never forget his kindly, intellectual 
 face, his modest and winning manners. 
 At the World's Missionary Convention 
 heUl in London in 1888, of the fifteen 
 hundred delegates present from all parts 
 of the world, probably no one received
 
 I40 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 such marked attention as the Black Bishop 
 of the Niger. 
 
 On the 31st clay of December, 1891, in 
 London, at the age of eighty-two, death 
 removed from earth Bishop Samuel Crow- 
 ther. His fame, for he was known through- 
 out the world, was not due alone to his 
 singular history, but also to his character 
 and intellectual ability. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson, D.D., in speaking 
 of Bishop Crowther, says : " Wherever he 
 went he brouorht and left a blessinof, and 
 no man perhaps did more than he for the 
 elevation and salvation of his degfraded 
 fellow^-countrymen. . . . With what joy 
 Mr. Weeks will present to the Lord, Sam- 
 uel Adjai Crowther, as one of the fruits 
 of his ministry in Africa ! And then for 
 the first time will he realize what ultimate 
 blessing hung on the leading to Christ of 
 an humble slave-boy of Yoruba-land."
 
 X. 
 
 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 
 
 Medical Missionary to Cliina. 
 Born, Aug. 25, 1850; Died, April i, i888.
 
 1^1(1 by cMuitoy i.tilir Fleming H. K.\tll C'.i 
 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE.
 
 X. 
 
 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 
 
 At a recent meeting of the American 
 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
 sions, an urgent plea was made by an 
 officer of the association to send more 
 medical missionaries into foreign lands. 
 
 The plea was well founded. That a sci- 
 entific knowledge of medicine may greatly 
 extend the scope of a missionary's work, 
 was clearly shown in the life of John Ken- 
 neth Mackenzie. 
 
 It is true, medical missions were not new 
 in China when Dr. Mackenzie began his 
 labors in that land ; but it is equally true 
 that the attention lately given to Western 
 medicine and surgery by the potentates of 
 the Empire had its origin in the Viceroy's 
 confidence in Dr. Mackenzie's medical skill. 
 
 Dr. Mackenzie was born in Yarmouth, 
 
 143
 
 144 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 England, Aug. 25, 1850. His earliest life 
 was surrounded by the happy influences of 
 a Christian home. He was educated for 
 a time at a private school in Bristol, and 
 although a quiet, thoughtful boy, had little 
 real fondness for study, and left school at 
 the age of fifteen, and became a clerk in a 
 merchant's office. 
 
 While thus employed, young Mackenzie 
 was a regular attendant at the Young 
 Men's Christian Association, and in May, 
 1867, was much impressed by an address 
 given by Mr. D. L. Moody, then on his 
 first visit to England. A year later Mac- 
 kenzie became a member of the Presbyte- 
 rian church in Bristol, of which his father 
 was an elder. 
 
 He soon conceived a strong desire to 
 devote his life to missionary work in China ; 
 and having read " The Double Cure ; or, 
 What is a Medical Mission ? " by Mrs. Gor- 
 don, believed a medical course would re-en- 
 force him for labor, and obtained through 
 the influence of friends his parents' con- 
 sent to begin the study of medicine with a
 
 JOnX KENNETH MACKENZIE. 1 45 
 
 view to oroinor to China as a medical mis- 
 sionary. In October, 1870, he entered the 
 Medical School at Bristol, and at the end 
 of four years received his diplomas of 
 M.R.C.S., London, and L.R.C.P., Edin- 
 burgh. 
 
 He further prepared for his future labor 
 by attendance at the Royal Ophthalmic 
 Hospital in London. 
 
 In December, 1874, ^'"- Mackenzie wrote 
 to the London Missionary Society, and on 
 the fifteenth of that month received their 
 acceptance of his offers of service for 
 Hankow, and after finishlnof his studies 
 sailed for that place April 10, 1875, In 
 SS. Glenlyon. 
 
 During the voyage Dr. Mackenzie, with 
 the captain's permission, conducted reli- 
 gious services, and entered heartily into 
 whatever made for the benefit and spirit- 
 ual good of his fellow passengers. 
 
 The Glenlyon reached Shanghai June 3, 
 and on the fourth the young doctor em- 
 barked upon the Tchang for a trip of six 
 hundred miles up the great Yang-tse-
 
 146 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 kianor. The Tchanor arrived at Hankow 
 June 8 ; and Dr. Mackenzie was warmly 
 welcomed by his future colleagues, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Griffith John and Mr. Foster. 
 
 Hankow, situated at the union of the 
 Yanor-tse and Han rivers, is the orgeat com- 
 mercial city of Central China ; and the ex- 
 port tea-trade reaches the figures of three 
 million pounds sterling a year. Mission 
 work was established in 1861, when Han- 
 kow was opened for foreign trade. In 
 1866 a hospital and dispensary were added 
 to the mission ; and later Dr. Reed pur- 
 chased and ofave to the mission a more 
 
 <z> 
 
 healthful site for a new building, which 
 was erected by native and foreign mer- 
 chants. This was the field of action to 
 which Dr. Mackenzie came, and in which 
 he began his first Sunday by boarding two 
 of the ten steamers off Hankow, and in- 
 vitino" the sailors to come to the services 
 on shore. The following Monday found 
 Dr. Mackenzie at reo^ular attendance at the 
 hospital in the morning, and hard at the 
 study of Chinese in the afternoon.
 
 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 1 4/ 
 
 In writing home his impressions of the 
 scenes about him, Dr. Mackenzie said : 
 " It is indeed surprising to see a Chinese 
 city, the streets are so narrow that no such 
 thing as a carriage or cart could possibly 
 ofet through. In the widest of Hankow 
 streets not more than four or five people 
 could stand abreast. Yet these narrow 
 streets are alive with people all day long ; 
 all heavy goods are carried through on 
 wheelbarrows or on coolies' shoulders. 
 The richer people are carried in sedan 
 chairs, and every one has to make way for 
 them. The shops have no windows, but 
 expose their wares directly to the public 
 ofaze." 
 
 Dr. Mackenzie took a deep interest in 
 the evangelistic work of the Mission, and 
 gready assisted Mrs. Griffith John in her 
 labor among the sailors. With regard to 
 his special work among the sick, Dr. Mac- 
 kenzie found much prejudice, and wrote: 
 "The Chinese will only come to us when 
 other help is of no avail." But as days 
 went on the hospital practice greatly in-
 
 148 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 creased, and patients at the dispensary 
 multiplied. 
 
 In the early fall Dr. Mackenzie, by suc- 
 cessful operations, restored vision to two 
 young girls from the interior. The girls 
 were intelliofent, and became at once inter- 
 ested in the teachings of Christianity ; and 
 through their influence many came to the 
 hospital, not alone that they might be 
 healed of their physical ailments, but that 
 they might learn of the truth. Again, a lit- 
 erary man was healed, and in departing 
 from the hospital took away with him a 
 very complete knowledge of the religion 
 of Christ, and thus gradually the wall of 
 prejudice to foreign innovation, " Christ's 
 greatest stumbling-block," gave way, and 
 Dr. Mackenzie wrote : " For this I am very 
 thankful, for it is my aim to make the hos- 
 pital a means of proclaiming the gospel and 
 reaching the hearts of the people through 
 kindness and whatever benefit medically 
 one can give them." 
 
 Dr. Mackenzie made many journeys with 
 Griffith John into the interior villages, and
 
 JOHN KEXXETH MACKENZIE. 1 49 
 
 often met with dangerous persecution from 
 the natives, sometimes being- in cities that 
 no Enorhshman had ever before visited. 
 
 As these visits were always fruitful in 
 the healing of physical troubles, as well as 
 in the preaching of God's truth, converts 
 from all parts of the province came to 
 Hankow, and the fame of the skilful West- 
 ern surgeon spread far and wide. Many 
 diseases hitherto considered incurable were 
 healed, and patients returned home rejoi- 
 cing. In speaking of medical theories in 
 China, Dr. Mackenzie said : " Chinese doc- 
 tors profess to be able to diagnose disease 
 by the state of the pulse only. Their 
 knowledge of anatomy and physiology is 
 almost nil ; yet in place of exact knowledge 
 they substitute the most absurd theories. 
 To a larofe extent druCTs are unknown, 
 and most wonderful healing properties are 
 attributed to such substances as drag"- 
 on's teeth, fossils, tiger bones, pearls, etc. 
 Moreover, superstitious notions and prac- 
 tices control and pervert medicine. In 
 almost every case of sickness, idols, astrolo-
 
 I 50 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 gers, and fortune-tellers are consulted. It 
 is not wonderful, therefore, that medical 
 science being in so unsatisfactory a state in 
 China, the cures wrought by the foreign 
 doctors seem to the people little short of 
 miraculous." 
 
 Dr. Mackenzie's practice included all 
 kinds of treatment, from surgery to admin- 
 istration in cases of leprosy. Writing of 
 the opium patients he said : " You will see 
 how the work among opiuni-smokers has 
 been increased when I give you the follow- 
 ing fio-ures. For the first ten months eio-ht 
 persons only agreed to enter the hospital. 
 During the past year, the numbers have 
 increased to two hundred and thirty-five ; 
 and durino- the last month and a half, three 
 hundred and twenty have entered the 
 wards for treatment." 
 
 At a later date the doctor wrote that in 
 one year seven hundred persons were 
 treated for opium habits in the Hankow 
 hospital. April 3, 1876, a note in the doc- 
 tor's diary shows that he then began prayer- 
 meetings for the in-patients. Going to the
 
 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 151 
 
 inland towns whenever he could accom- 
 pany Mr. John in his evangelistic labors, 
 Dr. Mackenzie learned many Chinese char- 
 acteristics ; and writing of these he said : 
 " The people will tell you, when you ask 
 them what they worship, ' that heaven and 
 earth are greatest and parents the most 
 honorable,' They will not, as a rule, tell 
 you that they worship idols ; they have no 
 idea of a Supreme Being. Their contempt 
 for foreigners is very great." 
 
 In December, 1876, Dr. Mackenzie went 
 down to Shanohai to meet Miss Travers, 
 the lady to whom he was engaged while in 
 Bristol ; and on the ninth they were married 
 in the cathedral by Dean Butcher, and then 
 left at once for their station at Hankow. 
 The young wife entered into the life work 
 of her husband with much enthusiasm, and 
 with him greatly aided in the constant 
 work of Mrs. John among the sailors an- 
 chored in Hankow harbor, and with the 
 patients in the hospital. 
 
 In August, 1877, Dr. Mackenzie wrote 
 to his mother of a class Mrs. John had
 
 152 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 formed to teach a more complete knowl- 
 edge of the Scriptures to native assistants 
 and others, and said : "I attended the class 
 with the object of enlarging- my vocabulary ; 
 but I now enjoy the meeting for itself, and 
 I am as fond of hearinof a sermon in Chi- 
 nese as in English." Oct. 30, 1877, Dr. 
 and Mrs. Mackenzie rejoiced in the birth 
 of a daughter. The child was baptized at 
 the usual Chinese Sunday services by Mr. 
 John, and named Margaret Ethel. 
 
 The winter of 1877-78 was a very se- 
 vere one in Hankow, and there was much 
 distress. " One benevolent society alone," 
 wrote the doctor, "has given out as many 
 as one himdred and forty coffins to bury 
 people found dead in our streets in one 
 day." Later on the cholera appeared 
 among the natives ; and worn out by inces- 
 sant labor. Dr. Mackenzie went with his 
 family to the lakes for a few days rest. 
 
 In March, 1879, Dr. Mackenzie was 
 compelled by family reasons to leave the 
 Hankow mission and his work, which 
 had there been physically and spiritually
 
 JOHX KEXNETH MACKENZIE. I 53 
 
 blessed, and to seek a home farther north. 
 Having asked of, and received from, the 
 London Missionary Society an appointment 
 to Tien-Tsin, Dr. Mackenzie and his family 
 went thither, and were warmly welcomed 
 by Mr. and Mrs. Lees. 
 
 Dr. Mackenzie found the mission, from a 
 medical point of view, very far from bright, 
 the institution in charge of a native dis- 
 penser, and without funds to buy foreign 
 drugs. Many weary months were passed 
 in earnest prayer to God and man for aid ; 
 and at last through the clouds broke a 
 lio-ht which will endure for all time, and 
 which afterwards crowned Dr. Mackenzie's 
 labors with success: Royal favor was ob- 
 tained through the healing of the Viceroy's 
 wife ; and His Excellency, convinced of the 
 doctor's skill, set apart an entire quadrangle 
 of one of the finest temples in Tien-Tsin 
 for dispensary work, and contributed £ 200. 
 to purchase drugs for immediate use. Dr. 
 Mackenzie was appointed physician to the 
 royal household, but refused to accept sal- 
 ary for the same, asking rather that the
 
 154 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 money given might go to the support of 
 the medical work at the temple. 
 
 Later, through public subscription, a hos- 
 pital was erected on vacant space of the 
 London Mission Compound, and the build- 
 ings were dedicated by His Excellency 
 Dec. 2, 1880 ; the occasion was one of spe- 
 cial interest, marking an important phase 
 in the history of medical missions in China. 
 Heretofore the work had been carried on 
 by foreign aid, but through the untiring- 
 effort of Dr. Mackenzie was now supported 
 from native sources. From the first, Dr. 
 Mackenzie desired to make the hospital 
 free to all who were unable to pay ; and 
 from money received for his own personal 
 expenses he immediately started a reserved 
 fund, which, as time w^ent on, was increased 
 by wealthy patients and patrons of the in- 
 stitution ; and in December, 1883, Dr. 
 Mackenzie wrote to his brother that he had 
 placed seven thousand taels in trust as a 
 reserve fund, the interest to be used in the 
 work of Christian medical missions. 
 
 Ten years before Dr. Mackenzie's work
 
 JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. 1 55 
 
 in Tien-tsin, the Chinese government had 
 sent several lads selected from respectable 
 families to the best schools in America ; but 
 in 1 88 1, certain reports having reached the 
 Pekin foreign office that the students were 
 throwino- aside the manners and customs 
 of their forefathers, and were in some cases 
 adopting, not only foreign ideas, but for- 
 eio^n religions, a mandate was issued recall- 
 ine the whole number. Dr. Mackenzie 
 issued a memorial, asking the Viceroy to 
 place eight of these boys under his charge 
 to study medicine, with a view to their 
 becoming medical officers under the gov- 
 ernment. The proposition was agreed to, 
 and the school inaugurated Dec. 15, 1881. 
 
 Feb. 18, 1883, Dr. Mackenzie was 
 obliged to accompany his wife on her sec- 
 ond trip to England, as she was now too ill 
 to travel alone. His visit home was passed 
 in awakeninof interest in the Tien-tsin mis- 
 sion, and in a short visit with his brother 
 to the Continent. 
 
 Dr. Mackenzie returned to China Sept. 
 25, saddened by the separation from his
 
 156 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 wife, who was not able to accompany him ; 
 and the breaking up of his home was a 
 sorrow whicli shadowed all his after life. 
 
 In 18S4 the Viceroy sent twelve addi- 
 tional students to the medical school ; and 
 under his orders a new hospital was built, 
 and given entirely to the charge of Dr. 
 Mackenzie, who gave great prominence to 
 the evangelistic side of his teaching ; thus 
 promoting "The Double Cure," so dear to 
 his heart. In the midst of earnest and suc- 
 cessful efforts for all that makes for right- 
 eousness. Dr. Mackenzie was stricken with 
 the dread disease, smallpox, and on Easter 
 morning, 1888, rested from his labors. 
 
 Dr. Mackenzie sacrificed home, family, 
 life, for his convictions, embodied in the 
 followinor words : — 
 
 " Nothinof can save China but Christi- 
 anity — a heart religion in place of a hollow 
 morality. Once let China awake from her 
 lethargy, moved by the spirit of God, puri- 
 fied and in her right mind, and she will be- 
 come a mighty power for enduring good."
 
 XI. 
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEE SIM A. 
 
 Born, Jan. m, 1843; Died, Jan. 23, 189a
 
 JOSEPH H. NEESIWIA.
 
 XI. 
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA. 
 
 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 
 o-randfather hearingr 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. 
 
 159
 
 l6o GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Neesima's parents were Shintoists, and 
 in his fifth year Neesima was taken to the 
 temple of the god supposed to be his Hfe 
 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 nobihty at an Enghsh 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. l6l 
 
 devoted himself to the study of the Chinese 
 classics. Ag-ain he was fortunate in beino- 
 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 beine 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-drinkingr. 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
 
 1 62 GREAT I\riSSIONARIES. 
 
 the Shoguii 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 luider great 
 difficulties, but always with untiring persis- 
 tency ; and he was allowed time to go to the 
 Shoofun'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. 1 63 
 
 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
 
 164 GREAT 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 NEES/ATA. 1 65 
 
 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 throuo-h 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
 
 1 66 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 boy, and, with Mrs. Hardy, assumed the re- 
 sponsibiHty of his education. In September, 
 1865, he entered the EngHsh department 
 of PhilHps 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 aftairs 
 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, 1 87 1, Neesima wrote to Mrs. Hardy 
 that he had received a passport from the
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NKESIMA. 1 67 
 
 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 oi the mikado 
 visited America and Europe on visits of in- 
 quiry into Western civihzation ; 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 
 Jap'an 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-
 
 1 68 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 gaged, and soon proved so valuable an as- 
 sistant, that Mr. Ta-naka 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. 1 69 
 
 In October, after an absence of ten 
 years, Neesima left New York for his na- 
 tive land. The chancres tliat 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, the Doshisha, with
 
 170 GREAT MISSIOXARIES. 
 
 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 eov- 
 ernment school for oriels, but her eneaee- 
 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, ^^^ received the Joyful tidings that
 
 JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA. I/I 
 
 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 beine igrnoramuses, — or we 
 shall be ridiculed for our lack of learninof 
 as well as for our faith. We need the 
 broadest culture and Christian spirit to 
 counteract the downward tenciency 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.
 
 1 7 2 GREA T MISSION A r/eS. 
 
 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. 1 73 
 
 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 meetinsf 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
 
 1/4 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 heakh seemed to improve ; and 
 after seeing the foundation for the new 
 science buikHng 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 XEESTMA. I 75 
 
 and so deeply felt as that of Mr. Neesima. 
 On the plaui 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.
 
 XII. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS. 
 
 The martyr missionary of Polynesia. 
 Born June 27, 1796. Died Nov. 20, 1839.
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS.
 
 XII. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS. 
 
 The story of the life and ministry of 
 John WilHams will ever occupy a promi- 
 nent place in the history of missions ; for 
 to the intense devotion and zeal which 
 he broug-ht to his work was added an 
 originality of method which has bene- 
 fited all who came after him. 
 
 In early life there were no marked 
 indications of the part he was to take in 
 the great work of the world's evangeliza- 
 tion. 
 
 He was suddenly brought to a decision, 
 
 and his life instantly changed from one of 
 
 aimless indifference to that of enthusiastic 
 
 activity, with a distinct and determined 
 
 purpose in view, to the accomplishment 
 
 of which he brought to bear all of his 
 
 genius and attractive personality. 
 
 He was born June 27, 1796, in the same 
 
 179
 
 l8o GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 year, and within a few weeks of the time, 
 that the London Missionary Society sent 
 out the first missionary to the South Sea 
 Islands. This band of thirty missionaries 
 sailed in the Duff, Aug. lo, 1796. 
 
 In the little village of Tottenham, Eng- 
 land, six miles north of London, he was 
 born, and lived until fourteen years of age, 
 when it was thought by his parents time 
 for him to begin his business training ; and 
 he was apprenticed to an ironmonger in 
 London for seven years. From this con- 
 tract he was released at the end of six 
 years to take up his great work in the 
 South Seas. 
 
 Life in a great city then, as now, was 
 a severe test of the Christian character 
 of a young lad ; and after four years of 
 its diversions and temptations, we find him 
 at eighteen drifting with the multitude. 
 
 He was standing one Sunday evening 
 on a street corner, waiting for some com- 
 panions who were to meet him there, and 
 go with him to the Highbury Tea-Gar- 
 dens, when a lady, the wife of his em-
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS. l8l 
 
 ployer, on her way to church, passed ; 
 recoQiiizine him, she turned back and asked 
 hhu to eo to church. He refused, but she 
 felt constrained to urge ; her persistence, 
 and the faihire of his chums to appear, 
 decided him, and with reluctance he ac- 
 companied her to the old Whitefield Taber- 
 nacle. The sermon from the text, " What 
 shall it profit a man if he gain the whole 
 world and lose his own soul ? " proved to 
 be the word in season ; for he went out 
 from the house a new creature, immedi- 
 ately forsaking his worldly companions 
 and sinful ways. 
 
 He became a teacher in the Sunday- 
 school, and at once entered upon a new 
 and higher life, availing himself of every 
 means for self-improvement which would 
 better fit him for usefulness in his Chris- 
 tian life. 
 
 To his success in this direction very 
 much credit is due the Rev. Matthew Wilks, 
 then pastor of the Tabernacle. Mr. Wilks 
 was an eloquent preacher, full of mis- 
 sionary zeal, a faithful pastor, with a keen
 
 1 82 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 discernment of character, which led him to 
 see in John WilHams capabihties for great 
 usefuhiess, and to invite him to join a class 
 of young men whom he then had under 
 instruction for the ministry. These studies 
 were continued for two years, until his 
 appointment by the London Missionary 
 Society. 
 
 It was customary in this church, which 
 stood foremost in missionary enthusiasm 
 of any in London, to have quarterly mis- 
 sionary meetings ; and it was at one of 
 these meetings that John Williams felt his 
 first call to the work. Soon after he sent 
 his application, with these words : " If this, 
 and the account which the Rev. Matthew 
 Wilks can give of me, should not meet 
 with your approval, I hope and pray that 
 you will on no account for the sake of my 
 soul offer me the least encouragement." 
 
 He, with eight others, one of whom was 
 the noted Robert Moffat, were ordained 
 and set apart to the missionary ministry, 
 in Surrey Chapel, London, on the 30th of 
 September, 18 16.
 
 JOHX IVILLfAMS. 1 83 
 
 It was at first intended that John Wil- 
 liams and Robert Moffat should o-o out 
 together, but objection was made on ac- 
 count of the extreme youthfulness of both. 
 In the words of the Rev. Dr. Waueh : 
 " Tha twa callants were ower young ta 
 CTano- t'ofether." But Mr. Williams found a 
 companion before going. He was married 
 to Miss Mary Chauner, a young lady in 
 the same church, of devoted Christian 
 character, who had lonof cherished the de- 
 sire to be a missionary ; and she was to 
 him, through all of his varied and hazard- 
 ous experiences, a strong support. 
 
 The young husband, with his pretty, 
 girlish-looking bride, sailed with other 
 missionaries for the South Seas on the 
 17th of November, 1816; and exactly 
 twelve months from that date landed at 
 Eimeo, one of the Society group. 
 
 His active mind and ready hands were 
 never at a loss for something to do ; and 
 he proceeded to build a boat, which he saw 
 was greatly needed by both missionaries 
 and natives. This was the first of five
 
 184 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 boats built by him during his nineteen 
 years of ministry on these islands. In ten 
 months he had, by a method of his own, 
 mastered the difficult language, which 
 usually took three years, and was ready 
 to preach to the natives. 
 
 At this time there came to the mission 
 a call from the neighboring island of 
 Huahine for teachers ; and Mr. Williams, 
 with two other missionaries and their 
 wives, responded to the call, and starteci 
 a new mission there. 
 
 It was not long, however, before a call 
 came to this mission from the island of 
 Raiatea. Tamatao, the king, who came 
 with the message, had been converted to 
 Christianity while on a visit to Tahiti, and 
 on returnino- had induced some of his sub- 
 jects to join him ; but they had been sorely 
 persecuted on account of their faith, and 
 when they came to the missionaries for 
 help, it was decided that Mr. Williams 
 should Q-Q with Kinof Tamatao to his beau- 
 tiful island. Here dates the beofinnino- of 
 his remarkably successful career of mis-
 
 JOUX U'/LLIAMS. 185 
 
 sionary labors, extending to so large a 
 number of those benighted peoples. With 
 Raiatea of the Society group as his first 
 centre or base of operations, Raratonga of 
 the Hervey group as his second, and 
 Upolu of the Samoan group as his third, 
 he was able to spread the gospel to most 
 of the islands in each of these groups. 
 
 He was planning a similar work among 
 the New Hebrides, and had gone there in- 
 tending- to start a fourth mission centre on 
 the island of Erromango at the time of his 
 sudden and tragic death. 
 
 It is said that after eighteen years the 
 gospel had through his instrumentality 
 been given to a population of about three 
 hundred thousand, while many more had 
 felt the uplifting benefits of civilization 
 which he had so skilfully introduced 
 amonof them. 
 
 Raiatea was considered a very important 
 point, being both a religious and political 
 centre. The work here was, as at other 
 points, wonderfully successful, by reason of 
 his personal power in drawing the natives
 
 1 86 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 to himself, and his wisdom and tactful man- 
 agfement of them. 
 
 His teaching was comprehensive ; and 
 they were not only instructed in spiritual 
 things, but to an unusual extent were 
 trained in the arts of civilization. Cap- 
 tains of ships visiting the islands were 
 unanimous in their praise of the character 
 of his work. 
 
 His first step here was to draw the na- 
 tives together from their isolated homes, 
 where they were living in hostility, into a 
 settlement, giving then an object-lesson in 
 the building of his own house. The plas- 
 tered walls, decorated with coloring ob- 
 tained from the coral, and the sofas, chairs, 
 and tables of his own manufacture, all 
 greatly interested them. The king and 
 others were induced to follow his example, 
 until very soon there was a little town of 
 one thousand, extendinof two miles alone 
 the coast. 
 
 Aiming always to keep them busy, he 
 stimulated them to activity by various 
 means. He built another boat, ingen-
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS. 1 8/ 
 
 ioiisly tying- the planks tog-ether with na- 
 tive cord, then offering fifty nails to the 
 one who would make one like it. 
 
 He also erected a sucrar-mill for the use 
 of the natives, and encouraged the culture 
 of the native cane. They soon had many 
 plantations under cultivation, and various 
 products for transportation. 
 
 When the increasing number of Chris- 
 tians made it necessary to build a new 
 chapel, they were also prepared to take 
 another step in civilization. 
 
 This new church building was a unique 
 structure, in that it had an apartment for 
 a court-room, in which, the day after the 
 dedication, when twenty-four hundred per- 
 sons were present, the people again con- 
 vened and adopted a code of laws which 
 he had prepared for them. The vote for 
 adoption was unanimous, and the brother 
 of Tamatao was appointed chief justice. 
 
 Their lano-uao-e was reduced to writino-. 
 and schools established, into which were 
 gathered hundreds of children. 
 
 Mr. Williams gave special attention to
 
 1 88 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 the trainino- of natives as teachers and 
 leaders, sending them out to do pioneer 
 work on other islands, under his direction. 
 Mr. Williams had rare qualities for this 
 supervisory work, and also the ability to 
 select those who were capable of doing the 
 work. 
 
 His son calls attention to the fact that 
 "he was the first of our modern missiona- 
 ries so to use native ao'ents." This method 
 has been extensively adopted by the mis- 
 sionaries who followed him, and their suc- 
 cess proves the wisdom of it. 
 
 His heart was continually going out to 
 those beyond him. He could not content 
 himself within the narrow limits of one 
 little reef, and he made frequent visits to 
 neighboring islands. 
 
 He said, " Had I a ship at my com- 
 mand, not an island in the Pacific but 
 should, God permitting, be visited, and 
 teachers sent to direct the wanderino- feet 
 
 o 
 
 of the heathen to happiness and to 
 heaven." 
 
 At one time, being obliged to go to
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS. 1 89 
 
 Sydney for medical treatment, he, with per- 
 mission of the Missionary Societies' agent, 
 bought a ship, which he loaded with food, 
 clothinof, and useful articles for the island- 
 ers, also some sheep, cows, and a present 
 from the ofovernor to the island chiefs. 
 He also eno-as^ed a man to q-q with him 
 to teach the natives aofriculture. In this 
 vessel, which he named the Endeavor, he 
 returned to Raiatea with great joy. By 
 using it as a trading- vessel, he would 
 be able to keep away other ships which 
 brought nothinsf but evil. He called them 
 " the very arks of Satan," and considered 
 the Endeavor a profitable investment, if 
 only to keep these away. By it also he 
 would get beyond his one little reef, and 
 begin on his cherished project of planting 
 a mission on every island of the Pacific. 
 
 He made one tour on the Endeavor, 
 taking six native teachers, who were left 
 on different islands, and discovered Rara- 
 tonga, which later became his home for 
 a time. In his journal at this time we 
 read : " I hope for great things, pray for
 
 1 90 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 great things, and confidently expect great 
 things." 
 
 But much to his disappointment and 
 sorrow, and contrary to his judgment, the 
 directors of the London Missionary Society 
 decided that a ship was not a necessary 
 part of a missionary's outfit, and the En- 
 deavor was sold. 
 
 They did not understand then as they 
 did later the breadth and scope of the 
 work he had in mind. 
 
 When the mission at Raiatea was well 
 established, he transferred his home and 
 labors to Raratonga, of the Hervey group. 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, he won all hearts by 
 his strong personality, and by the stimulat- 
 ing example of his ceaseless activity was 
 able to do for them all that had been ac- 
 complished at Raiatea ; so that the mission 
 at Raratoncra became a stronghold, send- 
 ing out its trained workers to all of the 
 adjacent islands. 
 
 The natives of the Samoan Islands had 
 lonor been considered the most savao-e ©f 
 any in the South Seas ; and John Williams,
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS. IQI 
 
 for this reason, no doubt, had had for seve- 
 ral years a great desire to carry the gospel 
 to them. When, therefore, the enterprise 
 at Raratonga was in turn sufficiently es- 
 tablished, he felt the renewed call to go to 
 Samoa so strongly that he could no longer 
 resist ; and with what seems to us an 
 inspiration from above, he went to work 
 to build a ship large enough to carry him 
 on this long journey of two thousand miles. 
 This feat has been looked upon as border- 
 ing on the miraculous, from the fact that 
 he had neither machinery nor materials to 
 work with. 
 
 He named this vessel the Messenger of 
 Peace ; and in it, after visiting all the islands 
 where he had succeeded in starting the 
 work, he proceeded on his way to Samoa. 
 
 We cannot in this condensed sketch go 
 into the details of this interesting voyage. 
 Suffice it to say, that the same methods 
 were followed that had been employed on 
 previous smaller tours ; viz., teachers were 
 left wherever it was thought to be safe ; 
 and where the savage condition of the
 
 192 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 natives rendered this impossible, efforts 
 were made to induce a few of them to 
 come on board the ship, to go to some 
 neighboring island, where every means 
 would be used to instruct them in the 
 truth, so that when he returned to his 
 home again, a little seed might be sown, 
 and later it might be possible to place a 
 teacher with them. 
 
 The way seemed to open before him-, 
 and in less than two years from this first 
 visit to Samoa, a complete change had 
 taken place in the savage Samoans, — 
 chapels were built, and schools were es- 
 tablished everywhere. 
 
 Having now spent seventeen years in 
 this arduous work, and feeling the need of 
 change, he, with his family, consisting of 
 his wife and two sons, returned to England, 
 where he spent four years, which were 
 considered by many quite as fruitful of 
 good as any spent in the South Sea. 
 During this time he wrote two books, had 
 the Raratongan New Testament printed, 
 spoke to many large audiences, and raised
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS. 1 93 
 
 ;!^4,ooo for the purchase of a missionary 
 ship, and for the establishment of a col- 
 lege at Tahiti for the education of native 
 teachers. 
 
 In 1838 he and his wife again embarked 
 for the South Seas, taking ten other mis- 
 sionaries in the Camden (the ship which 
 had been purchased for hini in London), 
 landing at Upolu, which place he then 
 considered his home. He spent a few 
 months here, and then made a tour of all 
 the stations where he had established mis- 
 sions on the Society and Hervey Islands, 
 beino- o-one over four months. After a few 
 months of rest and preparation at Upolu, 
 he started on what he called his " g-reat 
 voyage " to the New Hebrides. For some 
 reason he seemed to be unusually im- 
 pressed in the anticipations of this un- 
 dertaking, and looked upon it as more 
 important than anything he had yet accom- 
 plished. At his farewell sermon the day 
 before starting, Nov. 3, 1839, all were 
 deeply affected. On the sixteenth, when 
 wnthin sixty miles of the New Hebrides, he
 
 194 GREAT M/SS/ONARIES. 
 
 wrote in a letter to a friend, " We shall be 
 there early to-morrow morning. This even- 
 ing we are to have a special prayer-meeting. 
 Oh, how much depends upon the efforts of 
 to-morrow ! Will the savages receive us or 
 7iot ? Perhaps at this moment you or some 
 other kind friend may be wrestling with 
 God for us. I am all anxiety. ... I 
 brought twelve missionaries with me ; two 
 have settled at a beautiful island of Ro- 
 tuma ; the ten are for the New Hebrides 
 and New Caledonia. The approaching 
 week is to me the most important of my 
 life." 
 
 They stopped at two islands, but did 
 not land, and endeavored to create such 
 friendly feeling that in the near future 
 they might be able to land and leave 
 teachers. Landing at Port Resolution, 
 they had, in Mr. Williams's words, " one of 
 the most interesting visits we have yet 
 been privileged to have with the heathen 
 in their barbarous and savage state." 
 Thence on to fatal Erromanga, dark Erro- 
 manga. So intense was his anxiety in re-
 
 JO HA' WILLIAMS. 1 95 
 
 gard to future developments, that he slept 
 very little the night previous, and on this 
 night made the last entry in his diary as 
 follows : — 
 
 Monday, a. m., iSth. — This is a memor- 
 able day . . . and the records of the events 
 will exist after those who have taken an 
 active part in them have retired into the 
 shades of oblivion ; and the results of this 
 day ivill be " — These were the last words 
 he ever wrote. 
 
 Landing at Dillon's Bay, Captain Morgan 
 thus described the island : " The shore 
 looked most inviting, placid stillness swept 
 along the romantic rocks, and the moun- 
 tains in the distance presented a most en- 
 chantino" scene." 
 
 Encouraged by their previous friendly 
 reception, they ventured to go out among 
 the natives who were gathering in groups 
 on the shore, Mr. Williams and Mr. Harris 
 going some distance, carrying presents and 
 making friendly advances. Suddenly there 
 was a terrible yell, and Mr. Harris was 
 seen running, the savages after him. Cap-
 
 1 96 GREA T MISS TO A 'A RIES. 
 
 tain Morofan and Mr. Cunninorham, who 
 were near the boat, barely escaped, but 
 the others were stricken down. 
 
 Mr. Wilhams succeeded in reachinof the 
 beach, and the waters of the bay were 
 colored with the blood from his wounds ; 
 and here would that we could say that the 
 bereaved ones on the ship had the Chris- 
 tian privilege of tenderly caring for the 
 bodies of their dead comrades, giving that 
 little comfort to the breakinof heart of her 
 who now all unconscious of the terrible 
 fate was patiently awaiting the coming of 
 her loved one ; but this dark picture has 
 no such relief, for the Erromangas were 
 cannibals. 
 
 On a tablet in Apia in Samoa is this in- 
 scription : " Sacred to the memory of the 
 Rev. John Williams, Father of the Samoan 
 and other missions, aged 43 years and 5 
 months, who was killed by the cruel na- 
 tives of Erromanga, on November 20, 
 1839, while endeavoring to plant the 
 Gospel of Peace on their shores."
 
 XIII. 
 
 ROBERT IF. LOGAN. 
 
 Missionary to Micronesia. 
 BoKN May 4, 1843 ; Died Dec. 27, 1887.
 
 ROBERT W. LOGAN.
 
 XIII. 
 
 ROBERT VV. LOGAN. 
 
 Robert William Logan was born in 
 York, Medina County, Ohio, May 4, 
 1843. H^s parents were from Scotland, 
 and settled upon a new farm on this por- 
 tion of the Western Reserve. Here they 
 spent their strength and lives in the toil 
 incident to making a home in the com- 
 parative wilderness of this new country. 
 Both parents died when Robert was quite 
 young, and he grew up under the care of 
 elder brothers and a sister. 
 
 He was gentle, sunny-tempered, and 
 oblio-ine, which led him to be a favorite 
 among his school-fellows, while his natural 
 ability as a scholar made him equally a 
 favorite with his teachers. From a child, 
 something beyond the ordinary seems to 
 have been expected of him, both intellec- 
 
 199
 
 200 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 tually and morally. He was wont to 
 say sometimes in the later years of his life, 
 that had there been some wise friend to 
 direct his reading and study in those 
 earlier years, he might perhaps have made 
 his mark as a scholar ; but as he grew to 
 manhood one thinsf and another occurred 
 to fDrevent his giving his time to study. 
 He went to Wisconsin, where some of the 
 older members of the family had settled, 
 and where for a time he assisted his 
 brother in farmwork during the summer, 
 and tauorht school in winter. 
 
 While there the War of the Rebellion 
 broke out, and he, with an older brother, en- 
 listed. He was young, and his family and 
 friends felt quite unwilling to have him go ; 
 but he felt that his country needed and 
 called him, and the call could not be put 
 aside. His brother said of him at this 
 time, " Robert always does things from a 
 sense of duty, and it is of no use to try to 
 turn him aside if he feels that he ouo-ht 
 to go." His service as a soldier was not a 
 long one, but it came near costing him his
 
 ROBERT W. LOG an: 20I 
 
 life. It did, indeed, cost him the vigor of 
 all the more mature years of his manhood ; 
 for he was never strono- or robust after his 
 army experience, and it would seem that 
 without doubt his life was shortened by it. 
 
 After partially regaining his health, he 
 souofht to oro on with his studies, but was 
 again prevented, this time by the long and 
 painful illness of a maternal uncle, who 
 called him to his bedside, where he re- 
 mained carinof for him and his interests 
 during a period of about three years. 
 
 It was during the third year of his life 
 with his uncle that he was led to take a 
 decided stand for Christ, and to identify 
 himself with God's people. I do not think 
 this new step made any great change in 
 his outward life. He had always been 
 faithful and conscientious towards all the 
 claims which he had recognized ; it needed 
 but a few words from one or two faithful 
 friends to show him God's claim upon him 
 and his life, and he at once recognized that 
 claim, and yielded to it in a new and glad 
 surrender.
 
 202 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 With this new motive in his Hfe, there 
 came new thoughts and plans. God had a 
 work for him to do, and he had to prepare 
 for it. He was now twenty-three years 
 old. He regretted that he had not heard 
 the call sooner, and begun his work of 
 preparation earlier, that it might have been 
 more thorough ; but he wasted no time in 
 vain reerets. He went at once to Oberlin, 
 and beean his work as a student. His 
 life in Oberlin brought him in contact with 
 those who realized to him his ideals of 
 noble Christian manhood, and stimulated 
 in him his purpose of giving his life for 
 the good of others. 
 
 The question of foreign missionary ser- 
 vice was not brought decidedly before him 
 until the early part of his last year in the 
 seminary. It was fully decided at that 
 time ; but at the time of his graduation his 
 health seemed so broken that it was not 
 thought advisable for him to go abroad. 
 A year later he saw in the Missionary 
 Herald an urgent plea for helpers from 
 the veteran missionary Sturges at Ponape,
 
 ROBERT W. LOGAN. 203 
 
 Micronesia. He was much improved in 
 health, and at once wrote to Secretary 
 Clark at Boston, saying, " Here am I ; 
 send me." 
 
 The intervening winter was a busy one. 
 There was no medical missionary in the 
 Micronesian field then, and it was thought 
 advisable that Mr. Logan should obtain 
 some practical knowledge of medicine ; so 
 the time during the week was spent in one 
 of the medical schools in Cleveland, Ohio, 
 and he preached on Sundays. The prac- 
 tical knowledge of medicine which he ob- 
 tained that winter was of immense value 
 for his own family and the families of his 
 associates as well as for what he was able 
 to do for the natives. 
 
 He was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
 E. Fenn, also of York, Ohio, May 4, 1870. 
 Mrs. Logan was well trained for the work, 
 and was very helpful in every branch of 
 the missionary service, especially in teach- 
 ing and translating. She shared the hard- 
 ships and perils of her husband like a true 
 heroine, and continued in that difficult
 
 204 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 and isolated field several years after Mr. 
 Loean's death. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Logan landed on the is- 
 land of Ponape in September, 1874, after a 
 voyage of some ten weeks from Honolulu ; 
 a voyage which was something of prepara- 
 tion for those which came later, full of 
 stern realities, of seasickness, of visions of 
 naked savages, and of a home among them 
 at its close. 
 
 The work on Ponape at that time was in 
 a transition period. It had been the popu- 
 lar thing, both among chiefs and people, 
 to leave the old form of religion, and to put 
 one's self on a footing with the new. Thus 
 many had come into the church who un- 
 derstood little of the spiritual meaning of 
 the new life. During the years which fol- 
 lowed, there was the painful and laborious 
 sifting process, the falling away of those 
 whose hearts had not been really touched ; 
 and also the brighter and more joyous, if 
 not less laborious, work of aiding to build 
 up in character and spiritual strength 
 those who were really of the kingdom.
 
 ROBERT IV. LOGAN. 205 
 
 The foreign missionary work from the 
 island of Ponape had been begun by Mr- 
 Sturges and Mr. Doane in 1874. by taking 
 to the Mordock Islands, three hundred 
 miles west of Ponape, three men and their 
 wives, wlu) had received some training, to 
 commence a work am.ong a people speaking 
 a different dialect, who had never yet heard 
 the gospel of Christ. The story of the 
 devotion and faith and skill of these men 
 and women, who were but just out of 
 heathenism themselves, and the wonderful 
 way in which God used them to make 
 known his name and power, is no new 
 story to-day to those who ha\'e watched 
 the work in Micronesia. 
 
 Mr. Loean's connection with this work 
 began in 1878, when he made his first visit 
 to that interesting field with Mr. Sturges. 
 The original three Ponape families had 
 been re-enforced by others, and the work 
 had spread to other islets and lagoons. 
 Churches had been built, schools were in 
 progress, almost the entire population of 
 somethine more than five thousand had
 
 206 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 largely put away their heathen customs, and 
 were sitting at the feet of their teachers. 
 
 These teachers had reduced the lan- 
 guage to writing. They had translated 
 some Christian hymns from their own 
 Ponape dialect into this new one, and also 
 a small reading-book. This was literally 
 all they had with which to feed the multi- 
 tude. 
 
 There was a mighty work to be done, 
 and it had to be done quickly. The King's 
 business requires haste. These famishing, 
 hungry ones must not be left a day nor an 
 hour longer than necessity required, lest 
 they turn again to the beggarly elements 
 of heathenism to satisfy their soul-hun- 
 ger ; and these men and women who were 
 showing themselves worthy to be used of 
 God must have tools with which to work. 
 
 These were somethino- of the thouofhts 
 and motives which moved Mr. Loaan to 
 ask at once of the mission at Ponape that 
 he be designated to learn the Mortlock lan- 
 guage in connection with his regular sta- 
 tion work. His study of the language the
 
 ROBERT IF. LOG A A'. 20/ 
 
 first year was with Mortlock people who 
 had come to Ponape to attend school ; but 
 the following year Mr. and Mrs. Logan 
 took up their residence temporarily on one 
 of the Mortlock Islands, where Mr. Logan 
 carried on his work of translating and 
 
 bookmakinof. 
 
 He always worked easily and rapidly ; 
 his mind was quick and alert, speedily ar- 
 rivano- at conclusions which others reached 
 only after a much longer and more labori- 
 ous process. He was wont to say of his 
 translation of the New Testament, "There 
 are mistakes ; he who comes after me will 
 find them, I know. It could not be other- 
 wise in doing my work so entirely without 
 advice and counsel ; but, on the other 
 hand, it is from the original, and I am 
 sure it is reasonably correct." 
 
 Nor was the translating his only work 
 during their stay at the Mortlock Islands. 
 The touring and general supervision were 
 important and helpful factors in a work 
 which had received so little direct super- 
 vision as had this ; and it would be diffi-
 
 208 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 cult to express in a few words what he was 
 to those native teachers. Quick to grasp 
 the situation and to read native character, 
 witli a large, loving, and sympathetic heart, 
 he was at once to them elder brother, ad- 
 viser, faithful friend, and physician. He 
 wrought with them, and ever stimulated 
 them to do their best work for the Master. 
 Perhaps no greater test of their faith 
 and Christian fortitude ever came to these 
 missionaries than while on this desolate 
 coral island at this period they awaited the 
 coming- of the Morning Star which had 
 been long delayed. Mr. Logan had had 
 a sudden and severe attack of hemor- 
 rhage of the lungs, and seemed to be rap- 
 idly sinking. Their supply of food was 
 almost exhausted ; and Mrs. Logan, un- 
 able to pfet for him the nourishment he 
 needed, had to endure that most painful or- 
 deal of waiting and watching in utter help- 
 lessness. As the long, hot days brought 
 no relief, and still no si^ns of the Mornino- 
 Star appeared, they were finally obliged to 
 accept the kindly offer of passage on a little
 
 ROBERT W. LOGAN. 209 
 
 trading-vessel that touched at the island, 
 and conveyed them to New Zealand. The 
 kind-hearted sailors put up a temporary 
 awning on the little deck, to give the 
 suffering missionary some protection from 
 the tropical sun, and shared with the 
 stricken family their coarse fare. But 
 through all these sufferings and privations 
 there were no murmurings or expressions 
 of bitterness from this noble man, whose 
 spirit reminds those who knew him well of 
 John the beloved disciple. 
 
 Returning -to America, his stay of two 
 years was marked by two important events, 
 — the printing of two books in the Mort- 
 lock laneuaee, the New Testament and a 
 book of Bible history ; and a gradual return 
 to a measure of health and vigor, so that it 
 was deemed expedient for him to venture up- 
 on a return to the loved work in Micronesia. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Logan reached the Ruk 
 lagoon in October, 1884, after a weary voy- 
 age of ten weeks. This great lagoon lies 
 four hundred miles west of Ponape, and its 
 fifteen thousand people speak the same Ian-
 
 210 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 guage as the Mortlock people. The work 
 previously commenced in the Mortlock 
 Islands had spread on to the westward, un- 
 til it had reached Ruk in 1880, since which 
 time an intelligfent and faithful native mis- 
 sionary from Ponape, named Moses, had, 
 with several associate workers, been striv- 
 ing to bring some rays of light into the 
 appalling darkness of heathenism which 
 reiofned there. 
 
 The Ruk people, though speaking es- 
 sentially the same language as the Mort- 
 lock people, and evidently of the same 
 family, were far more fierce and blood- 
 thirsty. They had had little intercourse 
 with the outside world, for navigators and 
 traders were afraid of them. They had 
 little regard for human life, none for the 
 property of others, and lived in a con- 
 stant state of fear and warfare. 
 
 Mr. Loo^an found here the beorinnines 
 of a real work. The life and teachinors of 
 Moses and his associates had been such as 
 to make a very favorable impression upon 
 the people ; and there was on several
 
 ROBERT IV. LOGAN. 211 
 
 islands of the laofoon an earnest desire 
 for the coming of more missionaries and for 
 the spread of their teachings. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Loofan beoran their hfe and worlc 
 among them under comparatively favor- 
 able circumstances and with high hopes. 
 
 Those who have had no experience in 
 such a life can form little idea of its sur- 
 roundino-s or its isolation. Shut off from 
 the outside world, and hearing from it very 
 infrequently, surrounded by these de- 
 graded, superstitious, naked people, realiz- 
 ing- aofain and ao-ain how entirelv the lives 
 of missionaries were in their hands, yet 
 feeling that they were indeed brothers and 
 sisters for whom Christ died, they felt that 
 they had a great responsibility as well as 
 a great privilege. 
 
 Mr. Logan realized this responsibility 
 and privilege most keenly, and these three 
 last years of his life were given up to the 
 work with an utter abandonment of self 
 which would have been impossible in a less 
 intense nature than his. Morning and 
 evening meetings, school and church work,
 
 212 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 going about by boat or canoe to the differ- 
 ent islands in the lagoon, settling quarrels, 
 medical work, making school-books, were 
 some of the many demands upon his time 
 and strength ; and added to all, the going 
 out of the heart in intense sympathy and 
 love to these who were in so great dark- 
 ness, and the ev^er-increasing burden of the 
 things W'hich must be done in laying foun- 
 dations for the fair and w^ondrous structure 
 of Christianity. During those three short 
 }^ears he came to wield a mighty influence 
 over them because they loved him, know- 
 ing that he loved them. 
 
 Wise economv, indeed, would it have 
 been for the churches at home to supple- 
 ment the years and the strength of this 
 wise and loving worker with faithful, ener- 
 getic, and efficient helpers ; not suffering 
 him to be crushed beneath the heavy load 
 of toil and care. Well had it been for the 
 work could he have realized that his frail, 
 suffering body was no match for his daunt- 
 less spirit. 
 
 He entered into the rest of God's peo-
 
 KOTyERT W. LOG A AT. 213 
 
 pie Dec. 27, 1887. As he lay on his 
 dying bed, he said to Mrs. Logan, " You 
 must go home to America, and tell some 
 of the young and earnest workers to come 
 and take up this work." In her loneliness, 
 grief, and agony she replied, " How can I 
 ask others to come and suffer as we are 
 sufferinor now ? " With the lieht of heaven 
 in his face he answered, " It is God's work, 
 and it is worth all it costs." O Man of 
 Sorrows ! his Master and Saviour and 
 ours, surely this was the thought of thy 
 heart when thou didst hang upon the 
 Cross, " It is my Father's work, and it is 
 worth all it costs." 
 
 The Rev. Frank S. Fitch, D.D., of Buf- 
 falo, N.Y,, a classmate in Oberlin College, 
 gave the following beautiful tribute to the 
 memory of the Rev. Robert W. Logan, at 
 the meeting of the American Board in 
 Cleveland, 1888: — 
 
 " I only bring a sprig of laurel to drop on the 
 scarcely closed grave of one who was not only my 
 friend, but the friend of many in Ohio ; and I am 
 sure that it is meet that we should pause for a
 
 214 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 moment in the midst of the pressing affairs of the 
 present, and the great outreach for the future, to 
 pay this tribute of respect to one of the most 
 honored and most successful of our modern mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 " When he offered himself for service to the Board, 
 the only suggestion he made as regards his place, 
 was that he might be sent to that place for which it 
 was most difficult to find any one. He had, as his 
 instructors have told me, given evidence of far more 
 than the average degree of intellectual ability, and 
 might have filled important positions at home. But 
 there was in him, in the midst of a very quiet and 
 unassuming manner, a quality of heroism which I 
 myself have not seen equalled. The eight thou- 
 sand miles of distance, the isolation of those 
 islands, where a mail is received but once in six 
 months, the most utter absence of such food as that 
 to which we are accustomed, and the lack of all 
 stimulus from neighboring surroundings, made this 
 field difficult enough, certainly, even for his chival- 
 ric spirit. And yet he persisted for years in this 
 work, and came home some six years ago so en- 
 tirely disabled that it seemed to all his friends that 
 it was cruelty to allow him to return. And yet he 
 felt called upon to return, and his remaining years 
 were years full of remarkable fruitage. 
 
 He was a very gifted missionary in the direct 
 work of the missionary, and he also did great work 
 as a translator. Perhaps his greatest power, if we
 
 ROBERT W. LOGAN. 215 
 
 judge him by his intellectual gifts, was the gift 
 which he exercised in the control of those who were 
 subordinate to him, — the native helpers and the 
 native chiefs. He was able to quell insurrection, 
 and bring haughty chiefs to obedience ; and he has 
 therein accomplished a work which we shall long 
 remember. All who have had relations to him will 
 be made the richer for all time and for all eternity 
 by the influence that has come from his heroism, 
 his patience, his unfaltering faith."
 
 XIV. 
 
 WILLIAM BUTLER. 
 
 Missionary to liidia and Mexico. 
 Born, iSi8.
 
 WILLIAM BUTLER.
 
 XIV. 
 
 WILLIAM BUTLER. 
 
 It was the happy Christian experience 
 of an old bhncl 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 
 
 219
 
 220 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 the lessons for the day from the Church of 
 England Prayer-book. This little service 
 was a ereat 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 Eneland 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
 
 WILLIAM BUTLER. 221 
 
 Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 and appeals were issued to the ministry 
 for some one to offer himself to cro 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 Ganc^etic
 
 222 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 valley, with their twenty millions of souls, 
 were selected as the field of the new mis- 
 sion. The people were intensely hostile 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 Futt)-ghur 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 w^hen 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 BUTLER. 223 
 
 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 beofun ao^ain, with laro^e 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 villaofes round about. Earnest 
 street preaching, the distribution of the 
 Scriptures, and hundreds of little schools,
 
 224 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 or^thered around the 
 missionary as he stood and preached in the 
 bazaar, and told in simple language what 
 God had done for him in foreivinor 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. 225 
 
 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
 
 226 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 the least of thrillincr tales that Dr. Butler 
 relates in his lectures. 
 
 In 1870 he was appointed secretary 
 of the American and Foreien 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 beean 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. 22/ 
 
 cans have suffered bitter persecution and 
 death. In six years the mission was firmly 
 estabhshed ; and Dr. Buder returned home 
 in shattered health, but soon recovered 
 sufficiently to go up and down throughout 
 the Methodist Church, urcrinor 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 wnerous fio-ure. 
 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. Buder 
 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
 
 228 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 people ; and at every principal station 
 throug-hoiit 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 sanof. " The mornino- lio-ht 
 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 eieht hundred native Christians were 
 
 <_> 
 
 gathered for an early morning service. 
 Joel, the native helper, who had been a 
 faithful minister since the beg^inninpf of the 
 mission, was leadinof the conorreo-ation in 
 prayer. It seemed as if Dr. Butler could
 
 WILLI AM BUTLER. 229 
 
 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 recoo-nized the lovinof touch 
 of his old superintendent. In a moment 
 they were clasped in each other's arms, 
 while the audience rose and sanof, 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 crowninor the efforts to evano-elize 
 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
 
 230 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 workine 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. 23 I 
 
 Newton Centre, Mass., and though in very 
 feeble health, finds great joy in read- 
 ino- the reports which reach him weekly 
 of the orjorious 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.
 
 XV. 
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSON. 
 
 Missionary to Burmah. 
 Born Aug. 9, 178S; Died Apru, 12, 1S50.
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSON.
 
 XV. 
 
 ADONIRAM 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 
 Conereeational 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 
 
 235
 
 236 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- 
 riehtness, an infidel. His father was then 
 minister at Plymouth; and there the son 
 taught school for a year, at this time pub- 
 lishine a school crrammar and an arithme- 
 tic. He had some thoughts of dramatic 
 writine, 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 resdess, 
 thinkine 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
 
 A DONIRA M JUDSOIV. 237 
 
 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 Conereeational Churches, which 
 met at Bradford, June 29, 18 10, asking 
 advice and help towards missionary service.
 
 238 GREAT 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, 18 1 2, 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-
 
 ADO.V/RA.I/ JUDSOM. 239 
 
 ment with the Scripture ; and after reach- 
 ing Calcutta he apphed to the EngHsh 
 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, 18 13. There a son 
 of Dr. Carey had occupied the English 
 Baptist mission-house ; but he was absent, 
 and soon afterwards resio-ned the mission 
 in their favor.
 
 240 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Burmah was then an independent em- 
 pire, with a population of about eight 
 milHons ; the government an absohite 
 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 181 5 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 18 16 Judson seemed break- 
 ing down, and hurriedly collected the notes 
 he had made for a Burman o-rammar. It 
 was published twenty years later, and
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSON. 24 1 
 
 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 Reliofion," the 
 first of a series of tracts that had a strong 
 influence with that thoughtful and readinof 
 people. Mrs. Judson also published a 
 catechism. 
 
 These publications were followed by the 
 appearance of Inquirers, the first one com- 
 ing March 7, 181 7, and marking an epoch 
 in the work. 
 
 With a deepened sense of the need of 
 evangelistic work, Judson now went to 
 Chittaofono- 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
 
 242 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 his return Judsoii built an open zayat, a 
 shed of bamboo, for pubhc evangeHzation, 
 with a room for assembhes 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, 18 19, 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 brineinof new threats from the authori- 
 ties, Judson went to Ava, the capital, to lay
 
 ADOKIRAM JUDSON. 243 
 
 the matter before the king. The journey 
 and return consumed over two months, 
 and seemed rather to produce more expHcit 
 threats; and Judson resolved to remove to 
 Chittaeone, under British rule. 
 
 But now the little circle of converts awoke 
 to independent life and courage. They 
 could not bear to be scattered, but becjored 
 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 sailintr 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.
 
 244 GREAT 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 brouofht 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. 245 
 
 Burmah and I^ngland 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, thouorh 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 throueh an 
 epidemic of small-pox.
 
 246 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-
 
 ADOAURAM JUDSOX. 247 
 
 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-
 
 248 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 nally from home. In 1830 he again at- 
 tempted to penetrate Biirmali, Hving six 
 months at Prome, half-way between Ran- 
 goon and Ava, l3iit was driven back by 
 Biirman intrigues. He then began a work 
 among the wild Karens of the jungle, and 
 with great success. 
 
 In 1834 '^6 married 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 l^is 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 F'anny 
 Forester. 
 
 His last years, 1 846-1 850, were spent 
 in another earnest but unsuccessful at-
 
 ADONTRAM JUDSON. 249 
 
 tempt to break through Rurman bigotry, 
 in the continuation of his Burman dic- 
 tionary and other hterary 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,"
 
 XVI. 
 
 JOHN G. PA TON. 
 
 Missionary to the New Hebrides. 
 Born May 24, 1824.
 
 JOHN G. PATON.
 
 XVI. 
 
 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 )-oung John had reached his 
 fifth year, the family movgid to a new home 
 in the ancient villao-e 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- 
 
 253
 
 254 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 thetic echoes of a trembling voice, pleading 
 as if for life ; and \ve 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. Returnino- 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 mornin^ until ten at 
 niofht. 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 TON. 255 
 
 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- 
 inor 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-
 
 256 GREA T MISS ION A RIES. 
 
 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 i6th 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
 
 JOinV G. PA TON. 257 
 
 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 15th 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
 
 258 GREA T MISSION A RIES. 
 
 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. PATOiV. 259 
 
 island, who caused more trouble than did 
 the natives themselves. These traders did 
 not relish the idea of the natives beine 
 taught the gospel, for they feared to lose 
 their influence over them. They incited 
 the different tribes to fio-ht 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 nieht 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
 
 260 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 fiames. 
 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: 261 
 
 his work on Tanna, after toiling there over 
 three years. 
 
 For a time he sought needed rest and 
 change in Austraha, 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 coaxino-, manao-ed to eet 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
 
 262 ' 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 Vv'as impossible, Nowar took from his 
 arm the white shells, insio-nia of chieftain- 
 ship, and binding them to the arm of a 
 visiting Aniwan chief, said : " By these )'ou 
 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 lano-uao-e. 
 
 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
 
 JOHN G. PA TON. 263 
 
 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 
 thouo'ht 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- 
 *; inof 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 beinor translated into the 
 Aniwa lan^uao-e 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
 
 264 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. PA ton: 265 
 
 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 brine her to the mission-house, 
 which was granted. The next day she 
 appeared in time for services. As the dis- 
 tinofuishingr 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 o-i'a-ss 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 
 lee trailing ov^er each shoulder. On one 
 shoulder, also, was a red shirt, on the 
 other a striped one; and, last of all, a
 
 266 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. PATON. 267 
 
 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 
 throuofh into the sea. Next morninor 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 
 beofinninor 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
 
 268 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 the mission, where they were destroyed. 
 Henceforth Christianity gained a perma- 
 nent foothold on the island. 
 
 In 18.69 the first communion was held, 
 twelve out of twenty applicants being ad- 
 mitted to the church. In speaking of his 
 emotions durino- 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,ooo 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. 269 
 
 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- 
 getful ness 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.
 
 XVII. 
 
 ALEXANDER M. MAC KAY. 
 
 Missionary to Uganda. 
 Born Oct. 13, 1S49; Died Feb. 8, 1S90.
 
 XVII. 
 
 ALEXANDER M. MACK AY. 
 
 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, in the 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 
 
 273
 
 274 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 Huorh 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.
 
 ,,JS^^„V^ 
 
 ALEXANDER M. MACKAY.
 
 ALEXANDER M. AfACKAY. 275 
 
 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-
 
 2/6 GREAT MISSIOXARIES. 
 
 lowed by a year s study of surveying and for- 
 tification with Lieutenant Mackie, Professor 
 of Engineering. For two years (1870- 
 ^^2), 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 
 Orieinal Ra^-ored 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 
 translatino- Liibsen'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. 2'J'J 
 
 held at Breslau. The directors of the com- 
 pany, recognizin Mackay's abihty, soon 
 made him chief of the locomotive depart- 
 ment. 
 
 In May, 1874, Mackay becanie a board- 
 ing member in the family of Herr Hofpre- 
 diger Raiir, 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 readino-s, 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
 
 278 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 ^^^^ Daily TelegrapJi published 
 Stanley's famous letter " challenging Chris- 
 tendom to send missionaries to Uganda ; " 
 and the Church Missionary Society gladl)- 
 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. 279 
 
 element, and sanctioned the purchase of a 
 Hoht cedar boat for navicration, 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 27th 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 12th 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 Kineani Rivers un- 
 navigable, and were obliged to proceed in- 
 land on foot. At Ugogo, in November,
 
 28o GREAT MISSIOA^ARIES. 
 
 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. MAC KAY. 28 1 
 
 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 courao^e held a 
 friendly visit with King Lkonge. After
 
 282 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 eiorht weeks of hard labor was griven 
 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. MAC KAY. 283 
 
 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.
 
 284 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. MAC KAY. 285 
 
 of blood and terror followed, beginning- 
 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 kinof 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
 
 286 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Uo-anda 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
 
 ALEXAiXDER M. MAC A' AY. 28/ 
 
 Usambiro ; and here, single-handed and 
 alone, he began the great work of a new 
 mission station. A band of five men, 
 headed by Bishop Parker, and including 
 his old friend and fellow worker, Ashe, 
 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" eives with unstinted 
 praise an account of the mission station, 
 with its clay-built house " garnished with
 
 288 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.
 
 XVIII. 
 
 BISHOP WILLIAM TAYLOR, 
 
 Missionary in Africa, India, and Soutli America. 
 Born May 2, 1821.
 
 WILLIAM TAYLOR.
 
 XVIII. 
 
 BISHOP WILLIAM TAYLOR. 
 
 James Taylor was one of five brothers 
 who emigrated from County Armagh, Ire- 
 land, to the colony of Virginia about one 
 hundred and forty years ago, fine specimens 
 of that hardy, energetic race known as 
 Scotch-Irish, of the old Covenanter type. 
 Their names in the order of their birth 
 were, George, James, William, John, and 
 Canfield. They all fought for American 
 freedom in the Revolution of 1776, John 
 being killed, and Canfield a prisoner of war 
 when the new nation was born. Georg-e and 
 James both married daughters of Captain 
 Audley Paul, of the same hardy clan, who 
 was a fellow-lieutenant of Georgfe Wash- 
 ington, and was present on the morning 
 of " Braddock's defeat," when young Wash- 
 ington ventured to suggest that the In- 
 
 291
 
 292 GKEA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 dians would have to be fought in their 
 own fashion. Audley Paul, with many oth- 
 ers, swam the Allegheny ; and the sword 
 he carried in that disastrous engagement, 
 and in his years of marching and fighting 
 as a captain in the War of Independence, 
 is a relic in the Taylor family. 
 
 The Taylors had invested in land and 
 slaves ; but the Pauls, being religiously 
 opposed to slavery, so indoctrinated the 
 rising generation of Taylors, that they 
 set the slaves free as fast as they came 
 into their possession by inheritance. A 
 younger son of James and Ann Taylor, 
 Stuart, married Martha E. Hickman, of 
 an English family that had settled in 
 Delaware ; and their first-born, William, 
 came to them in Rockbridge County, Vir- 
 ginia, May 2, 1821. Of the eleven sons 
 and daughters of which he was the eldest, 
 the father wrote, on his fiftieth wedding 
 anniversary: "God has blessed us in our 
 children. They are all healthy, all religious, 
 all Methodists, all industrious, all peaceable 
 and peace-makers ; all married except Re-
 
 BISHOP WILLIAM TAYLOR. 293 
 
 becca and John, who are in heaven ; all set- 
 tled in comfortable homes of their own, 
 except the three itinerant Methodist minis- 
 ters. We are happy then to know that our 
 work is done. Our sun is setting, and not 
 a cloud in the west. We are waiting cheer- 
 fully on the bank of the river for the boat- 
 man to come and take us home." 
 
 Before the conversion of his parents, 
 while still the occupant of the " trundle- 
 bed," William was deeply convicted of sin. 
 He had learned to read portions of Scrip- 
 ture concerning the love of Jesus ; and one 
 day he heard a black girl tell of the testi- 
 mony of a black collier to his present sav- 
 ing power ; and on this evidence, given 
 second-hand, he was enabled " to receive 
 and trust Jesus, and come into blessed 
 union with God." He early had a desire 
 to preach the gospel, and daily witnessed 
 and worked for the salvation of souls. 
 The occasion of his reception of his first 
 license as an " exhorter" was immediately 
 preceded by a dream, prophetic of his life 
 work. In his dream he was listeninor to
 
 294 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 an earnest preacher of the gospel, who, 
 at the close of the sermon, sang a solo 
 while the larger part of the congrega- 
 tion retired. Then the preacher, looking- 
 steadfastly at him as he sat about twelve 
 feet in front of him, said: "William, I 
 have known for some time that God has 
 a special work for you to do. If you will 
 follow his Spirit, confer not with flesh and 
 blood, turn neither to the rieht nor to the 
 left, your wisdom will be like the continual 
 dropping into a bucket." 
 
 The words but expressed a vision of 
 the whole thing clearly presented to his 
 view, including a large, empty bucket, with 
 the rapid dropping of the clearest, purest 
 water. The following Sunday, after the 
 sermon, about thirty persons remained for 
 class-meeting, the preacher singing a hymn 
 while the rest retired. Comingf down from 
 the pulpit he said to him, " William, I 
 want you to go out. " He hastened home, 
 wondering why he should be ordered out 
 of the church in the presence of the whole 
 class ; while the pastor said to the people,
 
 BISHOP WILLI ARF TAYLOR. 295 
 
 " I have had my eye on Wilham Taylor 
 for some time past, and, beheving that 
 God has a special work for him to do, I 
 wish to submit his name to the church 
 as a suitable person to receive an official 
 license to exhort." 
 
 For seven years, from 1842, he was en- 
 gaged in pioneer preaching in the hills of 
 Virginia and Maryland, and in the city of 
 Baltimore. The seven years succeeding, 
 he was oreanizinor churches in California. 
 Mr. Taylor was the first Methodist mis- 
 sionary in San Francisco, where he con- 
 tinued his street preaching, and became 
 popularly known as " Father Taylor." His 
 desire was to remain there in the pastorate, 
 but having become personally responsible 
 for the debts of a church that was burned, 
 he assumed their payment. In order to 
 secure money he wrote and sold books. 
 The next seven years he travelled in the 
 United States and Canada, usually re- 
 maining only three nights in each church, 
 preaching two nights with " direct soul- 
 savino^ results," and lecturing the third
 
 296 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 night, generally selling from two to three 
 hundred dollars' worth of his books at the 
 altar rail at the close. 
 
 In May, 1862, he commenced a foreign 
 evangelizing tour, the principal fields being 
 the Australian Colonies, New Zealand, Tas- 
 mania, Cape Colony, Caffraria and Natal, 
 West India Islands, British Guiana, South 
 America, England, Ireland, and Scotland, 
 Ceylon and India. Having labored during 
 the year 187 1 in the mission of North In- 
 dia as an evangelist, he opened new fields 
 in South India in 1872, purely on the line 
 of self-support. From the churches organ- 
 ized, not from accretion, but by new crea- 
 tion, consisting of new-born souls, two 
 annual conferences were formed, and the 
 number has since increased to four. 
 
 He returned to the United States in 1875, 
 purposing to resume work in South India 
 the following year, but was detained by hav- 
 ing to sell more books to procure funds to 
 pay passage of more missionaries, for that 
 rapidly developing work. In all, he has 
 personally sold over two hundred thousand
 
 JSISIIOr WILLIAM TAYLOR. 2C)'J 
 
 dollars' worth of his own books. In 1878 
 he was led to open self-supporting missions 
 in South America, and in 1S79 he opened 
 the "Transit and Building Fund" to help 
 found self-supporting missions. While in 
 South America he received a request to 
 represent South India Conference, as a lay 
 delegate to the General Conference of 1884, 
 the body that made him missionary Bishop 
 of Africa. 
 
 His previous knowledge of this difficult 
 field enabled him to adopt methods at the 
 start that have proved well adapted to its 
 peculiarities. The plan of missionary work 
 well suited to Asiatic countries, with their 
 Oriental type of civilization, comprising 
 school work and gospel preaching, was not 
 broad enough for a purely heathen country 
 like Africa ; so to these he added two other 
 lines of work — industries adequate to the 
 demands of Christian civilization, and nur- 
 sery missions. 
 
 His plan in founding missions in Africa 
 is to negotiate with kings and chiefs for 
 mission-sites in suitable centres, with all 
 the land needed for industrial school work,
 
 298 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 and establish as a specialty a nursery mis- 
 sion on each site, placing- in it a compe- 
 tent missionary matron, and adopting from 
 heathenism as quickly as possible from ten 
 to twenty little boys and girls before they 
 become heathens, and have them trained 
 from the beginning in the way in which 
 they should go. The aim is, first, to train 
 them in suitable industries for self-support 
 in that country ; second, to give them a 
 good common-school education ; third, " to 
 get them quickly to the bosom of Jesus, 
 and thus enroll and equip them for the 
 good fight of faith ; " and, fourth, to exer- 
 cise them freely from the day of their 
 conversion " as witnesses for Jesus, and 
 soul-winners for his fold." 
 
 Self-support was achieved in India from 
 the start, on the Scripture principle that the 
 laborer is worthy of his hire ; the church 
 being formed mainly from converts from 
 amono- the Eurasians, who were enabled 
 from their industries to contribute reofu- 
 larly to the support of their missionaries, 
 and for the extension of the work among 
 the purely native population.
 
 BJSJIOP WILLIAM TAYLOR. 299 
 
 In South America the estabHshment of 
 a hieh Qrrade of schools formed an enter- 
 ing wedge, and furnished support for the 
 missionaries. 
 
 In Africa it is different, the raw heathen 
 having no means of supporting, or appre- 
 ciation of, gospel preaching and school 
 teaching. Bishop Taylor introduced such 
 industries as were best adapted to the vari- 
 ous parts of the continent where he opened 
 missions, requiring, therefore, a longer or 
 shorter period of time for their develop- 
 ment. Coffee culture is the main industry 
 on the west coast, requiring six or seven 
 years to become profitably productive. The 
 existing stations on this district have from 
 one thousand to ten thousand coffee-trees 
 each, the average subsidy required last 
 year being a thousand dollars, exclusive 
 of buildings. 
 
 On the Conofo the farms are of neces- 
 sity smaller ; three of the missions there 
 being self-supporting, and the others nearly 
 so, except expenses for buildings and trans- 
 portation. In the Province of Angola, 
 mainly on the commercial plan, all the
 
 300 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 missions and stations, except the receiving 
 stations at Loanda, are entirely self-sup- 
 porting, and to a considerable extent self- 
 propagating. Besides the profitable lines 
 mentioned, the natives are everywhere 
 taught all the varied industries of the 
 house, shop, and farm, — the gain to them 
 in developing a right spirit of indepen- 
 dence and acquiring the practical knowl- 
 edo^e of useful vocations exceedino- the 
 financial advantage to the mission. 
 
 The nursery missions are realizing the 
 faith of their founder in the conversion of 
 the children themselves, and their utiliza- 
 tion as an evangelizing agency. By them, 
 heathen, from kings and chiefs to outcast 
 " bushmen," whose polygamous complica- 
 tions and adherence to various forms of 
 witchcraft seemed a bar to the earnest 
 efforts of the missionaries, have been led 
 into the fold of Christ. These children, 
 with the native evangelists, some of whom 
 have been developed from the nursery 
 missions, are everywhere one of the largest 
 human agencies in the work of salvation. 
 This was beautifully illustrated at a bap-
 
 BISHOP WILLIAM TAYLOR. 301 
 
 tismal service at Brooks Mission, Liberia, 
 where three generations of one family knelt 
 at the head of the Hne of converts at 
 the altar, — the grandmother, father and 
 mother, and younger sister of Diana, the 
 Httle Grebo girl who was introduced to the 
 last General Conference. 
 
 All of Bishop Taylor's missionaries, to- 
 gether with the rapidly increasing number 
 of native evangelists, receive no salary ; 
 and yet a larger number than can be fur- 
 nished with outfit, passage^ mission-houses, 
 and equipment, answer the constant call 
 for more missionaries on the hioh line of 
 voluntary surrender of legal rights for the 
 establishment of the work. 
 
 Bishop Taylor declares that the evan- 
 gelization of Africa is too big a contract 
 for any one man or generation of men, but 
 that his call is to introduce practical meth- 
 ods that will go on to the conquest of the 
 midnight empire of the world for Christ 
 after his " departure."
 
 XIX. 
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 
 
 Missionary in Africa. 
 Born Dec. 21, ,795; Died Aug. 10, 1883.
 
 XIX. 
 
 ROBERT MOFFA T. 
 
 " 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 tlie 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, 
 ofathered 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 
 
 305
 
 306 GREAT 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 somethino- 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
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT.
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 307 
 
 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. i8, 1816. Cape Town was 
 reached Jan. 13, 181 7; 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
 
 308 GREAT 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 oblicjed 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 cominof from the mouth of an oven." 
 Jan. 26, 18 18, 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
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 309 
 
 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- 
 ino- 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 1 8 19 Moffat decided to visit Cape 
 Town for supplies, and to introduce Afri- 
 caner to the notice of the Colonial Gov- 
 ernment. To oet the outlaw throuoh the 
 territories of the Dutch farmers, where his 
 former atrocities were not forgotten, re- 
 quiretl 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
 
 3IO GREAT 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 27th 
 of December, 18 19, Robert Moffat received 
 his affianced wife, and soon after her arri- 
 val they were married. 
 
 At the beo-innino- 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. 3 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." Froni 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-
 
 312 GREAT 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 cottaee with her 
 baby in her arms), " If you will, drive your 
 spear to my heart. W^e know )'ou will 
 not touch our wives and children." The 
 w^ould-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
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 313 
 
 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. 
 
 Referrinor to this time, Robert Moffat 
 afterwards said : " Our situation durino- 
 the infancy of the new station, language 
 cannot describe. We were compelled to 
 work daily at every species of labor." 
 Notwithstandinor all difficulties, this earnest 
 man made considerable progress towards 
 establishino- 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 Barolono^s, 
 that he might become proficient in the 
 Sechwana lancjuaofe. While amonor these 
 tribes, the missionary sought every oppor- 
 tunity to impart Christian instruction to 
 the people.
 
 314 GREAT 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, askinor 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
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 315 
 
 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, 183 1, 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
 
 3l6 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 
 brouofht 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 Eno-land, it was 
 thought best to add the Psalms to the 
 Sechwana edition of the New Testament ;
 
 A' OBERT MOFFA T. 3 1 7 
 
 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 
 eoino- 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
 
 3l8 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 erace and goodness for o-ivino;- 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 Moffat 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, i860, feeling the station 
 was well established, he returned to Kuru- 
 man. In 1862 Robert and Mary Moffat
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 3T9 
 
 suffered severe bereavement in the death 
 of their son Robert, and of their daughter 
 Mary Livingstone. In 1868, having estab- 
 hshed 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 wrunor with orenuine 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
 
 320 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. 
 Mofi"at 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
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 32 1 
 
 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 tlie 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 (i8i6). 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."
 
 XX. 
 
 WILLIAM McCLURE THOMSON. 
 
 Missionary in Syria. 
 Born Dec. 31, 1806; Died Aprii, 8, 1894.
 
 WILLIAM M. THOMSON.
 
 XX. 
 
 WILLIAM McCLURE THOMSON: 
 
 " The Land and the Book ! " Who that 
 loves the Book of books has not longed to 
 wander, at least in fancy, over the land of 
 its birth, and through familiarity with its 
 scenes, its customs, its history, gain clearer 
 understanding of its meaninor? And who 
 that has mentally traversed that sacred 
 country under the guidance of the veteran 
 missionary, William M. Thomson, has not 
 wished for closer acquaintance with a man 
 whose life was bound up in the country ot 
 his adoption ? 
 
 To know him well, intimately, was to ad- 
 mire and love him. He came of sturdy 
 ScotchTrish stock, inheriting therefrom 
 an indomitable persistency that carried 
 him over many obstacles, and, added to 
 his natural capacity for research, made 
 
 325
 
 326 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 him indefaticrable in his archaeoloofical 
 studies. 
 
 His father was the Rev. John Thomson, 
 who went from Ohio to Kentucky in the 
 early part of this century; but so strong- 
 were the anti-slavery principles of both 
 himself and his wife that they found it im- 
 possible to live in a slave State, and re- 
 turned to Ohio. There, in the little villag-e 
 of Springfield (now Spring Dale), near 
 Cincinnati, William McClure Thomson was 
 born, on Dec. 31, 1806. At the age of 
 twenty he graduated from the Miami 
 University, and then entered Princeton , 
 Theological Seminary, where he was one 
 of the pupils of Dr. Archibald Alexander. 
 
 He did not graduate from the Seminary. 
 He had given himself to mission-work, and 
 the call was pressing. His license to 
 preach was granted him ; and, under the 
 direction of the American Board, he sailed 
 for Syria, reaching Beirut Feb. 24, 1833. 
 With him was his wife, formerly Miss Eliza 
 Nelson Hanna, whose tragic death at Jeru- 
 salem was so soon to follow.
 
 WILLIAM MCCLURE THOMSON. 32/ 
 
 The young- missionaries were stationed 
 at once at that place, and entered upon 
 their work with zeal ; but Syria was in a dis- 
 turbed condition, and the following year 
 the troubles between the people of Syria 
 and Ibrahim Pasha (son of the famous Mo- 
 hammed Ali) culminated in open warfare. 
 Dr. Thomson had started on a tour to 
 Jaffa, expecting to be absent only a short 
 time, but was arrested as a spy by Ibrahim, 
 and detained forty days. Meantime the 
 fighting in and about Jerusalem was very 
 severe. The few foreign residents, among 
 whom was Mrs. Thomson, were lodged in 
 a small building directly beneath the walls 
 of the castle, which was the main point of 
 attack and defence. The cannonading was 
 carried on directly over their heads, day 
 and night, balls now and then crashing into 
 the upper part of the dwelling, obliging 
 them all to remain in a sort of vault beneath 
 the house, not knowing at what moment 
 the walls mio-ht come tumblinof about them. 
 To the terrors of the siege were added those 
 of a severe earthquake, and Mrs. Thomson
 
 328 GREAT MISSIOA^ARIES. 
 
 received a nervous shock from which she 
 never recovered. A journal letter written 
 to her sister in America during the siege 
 presents a vivid picture of the horrors of 
 those weeks, but is as calm and even in its 
 unfaltering trust as if written in the most 
 tranquil ease. 
 
 After the fall of Jerusalem, Dr. Thom- 
 son was released, but found his wife criti- 
 cally ill, and she lived but a short time. 
 
 With his infant son he then returned to 
 Beirut, where he subsequently married 
 Mrs. Abbott, the widow of a former British 
 consul for Syria. Here, in 1837, the first 
 boarding-school for boys in the Turkish 
 Empire was opened under the direction of 
 Dr. Thomson and Mr. Hebard. 
 
 A little later he was appointed one of 
 two to form a mission station in Lebanon, 
 and resided in Abeih, where he passed 
 through the wars between Druses and 
 Maronites in 1843 ^i''<^ 1845. He was 
 looked upon as a friend by both parties, 
 and by his influence brought about a truce 
 which enabled the British Consul-General,
 
 WILLIAM MCCLURE THOMSON: 329 
 
 the late Sir Hugh Rose (Lord Strathnairn), 
 to bring away the Maronites to Beirut, thus 
 preventing a general massacre of Maronite 
 Christians. 
 
 About the year 1850 he removed to 
 Sidon, where he was stationed for several 
 years, extending his missionary labors to 
 Hermon, Ijon, and vicinity, and to the 
 region east of Tyre. While at this point 
 he received, in 1858, the degree of D.D. 
 from Wabash College. In i860, having 
 returned to Beirut, he co-operated with 
 Lord Dufferin, the representative of the 
 allied forces, in adjusting matters after the 
 massacres of Damascus, Hasbeiyeh, and 
 Deir el Quamar. 
 
 But the culmination of his labors was 
 " The Land and the Book," that magnifi- 
 cent work of which the Bibliotheca Sacra 
 said : "If the Syrian mission had produced 
 no other fruit, the churches which have 
 supported it would have received in this 
 book an ample return for all they have ex- 
 pended. The plan of the book is unique. 
 It is a book of travels, a book of conversa-
 
 330 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 tions, a running comment on the Scriptures, 
 and a pictorial geography and history of 
 Palestine, all in one." 
 
 It was first published, in two volumes, in 
 1859. In 1876, having again gone thor- 
 oughly over the ground and collected much 
 new material, Dr. Thomson went to Edin- 
 burgh to supervise the issuing of the en- 
 larged edition, described by Dr. Thomas 
 Laurie as " not a wooden building repainted 
 and patched up here and there, but a stone 
 structure taken down to the foundation and 
 rebuilt with much new material on a better 
 plan." The new edition, in three volumes, 
 was published simultaneously in New York 
 and Edinburgh ; and its sales in Great Brit- 
 ain have been greater than those of any 
 other American publication except " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin." 
 
 Dr. Thomson never returned to Syria. 
 From Edinburgh he came to New York ; 
 but before the third volume of his work 
 was issued from the press his health began 
 to show the effects of advancing years, and 
 it was plain that his active physical labors 
 were ended.
 
 WILLIAM AICCLURE THOMSON. 33 I 
 
 But "The Land and the Book" by no 
 means represents the sum total of his Ht- 
 erary labors. His" contributions to the 
 Bibliotheca Saci'a were numerous and val- 
 uable, covering a wide range of subjects. 
 Prominent among them was a series of 
 articles on " The Natural Basis of our Spir- 
 itual Language." He also furnished to 
 the younial of the American Oriental So- 
 ciety an extremely interesting paper on 
 traces of glacial action on Mount Lebanon. 
 \\\ the variety and value of his contribu- 
 tions to the geography of Syria, he was 
 almost without a peer ; and his co-laborer, 
 Dr. C. V. A. Van Dyck, writes: "From 
 the beginning of his missionary life he vig- 
 orously pursued archaeological studies con- 
 nected with the elucidation of Scripture, 
 and became an authority on these points." 
 
 The phrase " vigorously pursued" is em- 
 inently characteristic of the way in which 
 he attacked whatever lay before him. 
 There was about him, especially in his 
 youth, a vigor and even tempestuousness 
 hard to realize by those who knew him
 
 332 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 only in his later years, when he became 
 the embodiment of gentleness and placid- 
 ity. A laughable story illustrating his 
 natural vehemence is told of him by a gen- 
 tleman who accompanied him on one of 
 his tours. They had camped for the night 
 on an extended plain ; and the start next 
 morning was, as always among the Arabs, 
 a scene of confusion. Everything was 
 
 finally packed up, and Mr. rode on, 
 
 expecting the rest of the party to follow 
 almost immediately. But after some time, 
 becoming puzzled by their non-appearance, 
 he rode back to ascertain the cause. An 
 unreeenerate mule — the one laden with 
 the kitchen furniture — had, at the last 
 moment, been possessed of an evil spirit, 
 and by a series of such kicks and antics as 
 only a Syrian mule is capable of, had scat- 
 tered pots, pans, and all the rest of the 
 impedimenta in every direction, covering 
 an extent of country appalling to contem- 
 plate. The muleteers were racing after it, 
 showering maledictions upon it and its 
 ancestors back to the time of the progeni-
 
 WILLIAM MCCLURE THOMSON. 333 
 
 tor who entered the Ark, while Dr. Thom- 
 son, in an excess of righteous indignation, 
 was exclaiming, " I wish I had a cannon 
 to shoot that mule ! " As nothingf short 
 of a cannon would have been of the slight- 
 est service in relievinof his feelino-s, and 
 that ponderous weapon was not at hand, 
 the lucky beast escaped all punishment 
 save such thumps as were bestowed by its 
 breathless driver, when at last he suc- 
 ceeded in grasping the halter. 
 
 In the early part of Dr. Thomson's mis- 
 sionary life he kept careful journals of his 
 many tours ; and these, which were pub- 
 lished in the Missionary Herald, contain 
 much of absorbing interest, and afford 
 glimpses of the different phases of his 
 many-sided character. In one of these 
 journals is the following description of a 
 sunrise over Lebanon : — 
 
 " While spending the hot months of summer at 
 Brumana, Mr. Hebard and myself devoted a day to 
 rambling over this goodly mountain ; and to me it 
 was a delightful excursion. We were early abroad, 
 just as Lucifer, bright harbinger of morning, rising
 
 334 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 from his dreary couch, sat Uke a blazing diamond 
 on the hoary head of Lebanon. We quickly de- 
 spatched our little work of preparation, sipped our 
 hot coffee, and sallied forth for the day's adventures. 
 How surpassingly beautiful is the rosy dawn in 
 Syria ! From the moment when the advanced rays 
 of the sun begin to paint the modest blush upon the 
 dusky cheek of night, until the king of day comes 
 forth from his chamber in the full majesty of his 
 rising, there is one incessant change from beauty to 
 beauty, yea, from glory to glory. The whole horizon 
 glows like burnished gold, revealing the rocks and 
 crags and lofty peaks of Lebanon throughout its 
 whole extent. Every point seems touched with 
 liquid fire, gleaming in seven-fold fervency, while 
 the whole western slope, to the very base, falling 
 into the dark shadow of her lofty summit, lay in 
 deepest contrast to the living light above and be- 
 yond. Who can behold, and not adore ? It is 
 God's own temple, and yonder comes his bright 
 messenger to call a sleeping world to prayer. Oh, 
 come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel 
 before the Lord our maker. Let us come before 
 his presence with thanksgiving, and show ourselves 
 glad in him with psalms. For he is the Lord our 
 God, and we are the people of his pasture and the 
 sheep of his hand." 
 
 It is said that a missionary in the Ha- 
 waiian Islands, reading the above descrip-
 
 WILLIAM MCCLURE THOMSON. 335 
 
 tion, was so struck with its poetic beauty 
 that, by a shght paraphrase, he divided it 
 into Hnes of faultless blank verse, with 
 scarcely the alteration of a word, and re- 
 turned it to be republished in that form. 
 The succeeding- passage of the diary, 
 though less rhythmical, is scarcely less 
 striking in its imagery : — 
 
 " Our morning's ride furnished us witii another 
 and very different exhibition of God's handiwork. 
 The cool wind, loaded with the condensed vapors 
 of higher Lebanon, rushed down the mountain side, 
 dashing and bursting, bounding and retreating from 
 perpendicular cliffs, filling up deep valleys, and then 
 pouring over the surrounding ridges like any other 
 fluid. Thus these dark volumes rolled headlong 
 towards the plain, until, meeting the warm air of the 
 sea, they appeared to hesitate, then stop altogether, 
 and, vanishing into thin air, ascend to the cooler 
 regions above, where, reappearing, they were seen 
 hurrying back towards the snowy summits of Suh- 
 iieen. This process of decomposing and recompos- 
 ing clouds, and their marching and counter-marching 
 to the command of contrary currents of air, is wit- 
 nessed very frequently in Lebanon." 
 
 A more fittinof close to this sketch can- 
 not be found than in the eloquent tribute
 
 336 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 given by the Rev. Henry H. Jessup, D.D., 
 of the Syrian Mission, in his address at 
 the annual meeting of the American Board, 
 at Madison, Wis., Oct. ii, 1894: — 
 
 " Two of your missionaries were the pioneers, in 
 modern times, in Palestine exploration. I need 
 hardly mention the names of Drs. William M. 
 Thomson and Eli Smith, the latter as the com- 
 panion and co-laborer of Dr. Edward Robinson, 
 in the exploration of Palestine and the authorship 
 of that classic, the ' Biblical Researches,' and the 
 former the author of that monumental work, ' The 
 Land and the Book.' 
 
 " There was a divine providence in raising up 
 two such scholarly and accurate observers as Smith 
 and Thomson, to traverse repeatedly the whole 
 land of Syria and Palestine, to mark its moun- 
 tains and valleys, its hills and ravines, its plains 
 and rivers, its fountains, wells, and lakes, its ruined 
 temples, walls, fortresses, bridges, and aqueducts ; 
 to gather its minerals, plants, and animals ; to study 
 the agricultural, mechanical, and domestic imple- 
 ments and customs of the people, their language 
 and salutations, their dress and ornaments, their 
 buying and selling, and their modes of travel, all of 
 which were, at that time, still existing in their patri- 
 archal and scriptural simplicity ; yes, to observe all 
 these things accurately ; to record them with scru- 
 pulous and scholarly exactness ; and to publish them
 
 WILLIAM MCCLURE THOMSON. 337 
 
 with conscientious fidelity, so that their honest testi- 
 mony as to the correspondence between the histori- 
 cal records of the Bible and the actual places, 
 names, persons, and customs of modern Palestine 
 might be incorporated in permanent form in Ameri- 
 can and European Bible dictionaries, encyclopae- 
 dias, and commentaries before the advancing wave 
 of Western civilization — with its wagon-roads, rail- 
 ways, telegraphs, steam-pumps, European languages 
 and dress — should have obliterated forever the 
 living testimony of the present to the dead and 
 vanished past. 
 
 " Dr. Thomson returned to the United States in 
 1877, to complete his great work, and in 1890 took 
 up his residence with his daughter in Denver, Colo., 
 whose clear skies and towering mountains, he said, 
 reminded him of his beloved Mount Lebanon. In 
 that city he remained until April 8, 1894, when, at 
 the good old age of eighty-seven, he was summoned 
 to the heavenly Canaan, the unfading and un- 
 clouded ' Land of Promise,' by the Inspirer of the 
 ' Book ' he had so faithfully labored to illustrate 
 and exalt before the minds of his fellow-men,"
 
 XXL 
 
 MARCUS WHITMAiY, M. D. 
 
 Missionary in Oregon. 
 BoRK Sept. 4, 1802; Died Nov. 29, 1847.
 
 XXI. 
 
 MARCUS whitman; M.D. 
 
 If the mafrnitude 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 
 amonpf the sji-eat 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 
 
 341
 
 342 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 said : "I came to you over a trail of many 
 moons from the setting sun. My people 
 sent me to eet 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 huntino^-o-rounds. 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
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 343 
 
 had been proven, this speech was given to 
 the pubHc, 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 g-entleman 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
 
 344 GREAT 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 
 aee when his thoua-hts 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 WHITMAX, M.D. 345 
 
 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 macjnitude 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
 
 346 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 married to Miss Narcissa Prentice, daughter 
 of Judge Stephen Prentice of Prattsburg, 
 N.Y., who is described as "a handsome, 
 refined, and accomphshed young lady, a 
 beautiful singer, and possessing the spirit 
 of a true heroine." The marriau;e occurred 
 in March, and the next month they started 
 on their lone weddinof-tour. 
 
 With them also went the Rev. H. H. 
 Spaulding and his )-oung bride, and Mr. 
 Wm. H. Gray, the latter going as mechanic 
 and business aQ^ent 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 Oreo-on. To them it meant reachinor 
 the heathen with a messao^e ; 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, 
 consistingf 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. ^Al 
 
 driven out eleven fur companies who had 
 sought to estabhsh 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 
 undertakingr. 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
 
 348 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 
 eave consent. All throuoj'h the lono- 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 
 faintinof from her saddle ; but her courao^e 
 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 flowino- toward the Pacific, the
 
 MARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 349 
 
 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," and 
 " 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, 
 kneelinof on their blankets about the 
 " Book," with prayer and praise they took 
 possession of the western slope for Christ 
 and the Church. This w^as, indeed, a most 
 siornificant action when viewed in the lioht 
 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-
 
 350 GREAT 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 stretchinor 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 
 man}^ 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. 35 1 
 
 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 eoods — the 
 family — could be carried over the plains 
 and mountains to Oregon." If so, the 
 United States wanted Oregon.
 
 352 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, eivine to the setdement the name 
 of Waiilatpu. Mr. Spaulding settled at 
 Clear Water, and established another mis- 
 sion amone 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 WHITMAA\ M.D. 353 
 
 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 eng-aofe in ao-ri- 
 culture. 
 
 In the fall of 1842 the two missions, 
 which had been re-enforced by two other 
 missionaries, held their annual business
 
 354 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 meetinof at this station. While it was in 
 pi-ogress 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- 
 seneer 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 WHITIj/IAAr, M.D. 355 
 
 the air, cried " Hurrah for Oregon ; Amer- 
 ica is too late, and we have eot 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 jDreserve 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-
 
 356 GREAT AflSSIONARIES. 
 
 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, 
 havino- arranged for the care of his wife 
 and the mission durinor 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. 35/ 
 
 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 elev-en 
 days they reached Fort Hall, having trav- 
 elled three hundred and forty miles. They 
 then travelled due south to reach the okl 
 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,
 
 358 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 liun- 
 dred yards wide, which was frozen over 
 about one-third the distance on either side. 
 Without hesitating" an instant, Whitman 
 and his horse phinged in and were soon 
 on the other side. 
 
 Dr. Whitman reached St, Louis in due 
 time, dressed in liis buckskin breeches 
 and fur garments ; and, hke a hero fresh 
 from the battle-fiekl, 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-
 
 AIARCUS WHITMAN, M.D. 359 
 
 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 vahie 
 of Oregon, and demonstrate to that body 
 and to those in authority the possibihties 
 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-
 
 360 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 Oreo-on." 
 
 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. 36 1 
 
 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
 
 362 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 
 midnio-ht, as thouMi these were his own 
 children and these wao^ons 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. 363 
 
 his own destruction. The colony which 
 ' he had been instrumental in raising and 
 brineinof throucrh, that crreat advance- 
 Q-uard 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 eave 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 setdement 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,
 
 364 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 and therefore did not seem to be so much 
 in opposition to the Indian's wild Hfe. 
 
 But Dr. Whitman had brouofht the col- 
 ony, and the colonists had brought the 
 measles amonof them. This disease had 
 spread among the Indians, very many of 
 whom died from it because of their igno- 
 rance in carinof 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 eood reasoninor, 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 
 nieht to ofive 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. 365 
 
 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, w^hile 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
 
 366 GREAT 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 
 ao-e when he suffered the death of a mar- 
 tyr, but he had accomplished enough for 
 the life-work of one man. He had saved 
 Oreeon 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.
 
 XXII. 
 
 BISHOP JAMES HANNINGTON. 
 
 Missionary to Africa. 
 Born Sept. 3, 1847; Died Oct. 28, 1885.
 
 XXII. 
 
 BISHOP JAMES HANNINGTON: 
 
 Bishop James Hannington was born 
 Sept. 3, 1847, ^t St. George, Hurstpier- 
 point, Eng. His infancy was passed amid 
 beautiful surroundings ; and soon his baby 
 feet were chasing butterflies and beetles, 
 and his eager eyes were searching for 
 mosses and flowers. A born naturalist, to 
 the end of his life a new plant, a strange 
 insect, a geological specimen, was of in- 
 terest ; and any spot " whereon the wild 
 thyme grew " or " the shard-borne beetle 
 wheeled his droning flight," w^as to his 
 mind a desirable place for a holiday. 
 
 The first twelve years of his life were 
 passed at home and in travelling, or in 
 yachting with his father and mother. His 
 education at this time, though broken and 
 desultory, had the advantage of freedom to 
 
 369
 
 370 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 think for himself, which, with his unusual 
 power of observation, gave him " a sturdy 
 independence of character and a knowledge 
 of men and things quite beyond those of 
 his age." Though never wilfully plotting 
 the same, he was always in mischief, and 
 many are the stories of his fearless and 
 wild adventures. When seven years old 
 he was one day discovered on the topmast 
 of the yacht, suspended on some projec- 
 tion. Again, having acquired the art of 
 making powder squibs, or "blue devils," 
 he sought to "blow up "a wasp's nest, and 
 thereby lost the thumb on his left hand. 
 
 At thirteen he entered the Temple School 
 at Brighton, and here his volatile and mad- 
 cap nature earned for him the title of " Mad 
 Jim ; " but his conscientious truthfulness 
 and trustworthiness made him the favorite 
 with boys and masters. He remained at 
 Brighton only two years, and then left to 
 enter his father's countino-house. Gener- 
 ous, impulsive, and erratic, he was wholly 
 unsuited for a commercial career ; and the 
 record of the six years of his business life
 
 JAMES HANNINGTON.
 
 BISHOP JAMES hannington: T,yi 
 
 show the time to have been filled with more 
 pleasure trips abroad than with work. 
 
 March, 1864, Hannington's diary records 
 his commission as second lieutenant in the 
 First Sussex Artillery Volunteers. The 
 year 1868 was eventful to him. On July 5 
 he received the holy communion for the 
 first time, and on Oct. 22 his name was 
 entered as a commoner in the books of St. 
 Mary Hall, Oxford. Hannington's mind 
 had not been trained to study, and it took 
 him some time to settle down into the 
 course of the university curriculum. He 
 brouorht much knowledofe of the world to 
 Oxford ; and this, with his geniality and 
 force of character, made him popular with 
 all classes of fellow-students. His rooms 
 at St. Mary Hall were filled with collections 
 from his wanderings. " Conspicuous was a 
 portrait of his mother, a tall, handsome wo- 
 man with much facial likeness to her son. " 
 
 At times Hannington seemed wholly 
 given over to the spirit of fun ; and his wit 
 was unsparing, yet so good-natured that no 
 one could be vexed with him. He entered
 
 372 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 heartily into the university sports, and was 
 so much " master of the revels " that it is 
 not surprising the fall of 1869 finds him 
 studying under a private tutor in North 
 Devon, whose cliffs and seas, alas ! offered 
 greater distractions even than those of col- 
 lege life. Returning to Oxford, Hanning- 
 ton, June 12, 1872, took his B. A. degree. 
 Failing in his first examination in Septem- 
 ber, his ordination did not take place until 
 the end of 1873. He immediately began 
 his duty as curate of Trentishoe. 
 
 The rouQfh work and varied adventures 
 of a Devonshire parish exactly suited Han- 
 nington. In June, 1875, his father pro- 
 posed to him that he should return to 
 Hurstpierpoint and take charge of St. 
 George; and Aug. 17, with a heavy heart, 
 he said good-by to his Devonshire friends. 
 On Nov. 3, 1875, he received at Oxford his 
 M. A. degree, and on the 7th preached his 
 introductory sermon in St. George's Chapel. 
 Here he labored for seven years, little 
 known to the world, but winning the hearts 
 of his people.
 
 BISHOP JAMES HANNINGTON. 373 
 
 Feb. 10, 1877, James Hannlngton's mar- 
 riaee with Miss Hankin-Turvin was cele- 
 brated. Glimpses into Hannington's diary 
 show records of the increase in the church 
 at Hurst, and mission-work there and in 
 neighboring places. He also speaks of the 
 birth of his two sons and of his daughter, 
 and of growing interest in foreign missions, 
 and of his decision to go into Central Africa 
 under the auspices of the Church Mission- 
 ary Society. It is impossible to depict the 
 real sorrow of his parishioners, and words 
 cannot convey the heart-anguish felt in his 
 family. 
 
 May 17, 1882, Hannington left London 
 in Steamship Ouetta in company with 
 other missionaries. They sailed by way 
 of the Mediterranean, and at Aden were 
 transferred into a dirty old vessel called 
 the Mecca, and reached the island of Zan- 
 zibar, June 19, in a worn-out condition. 
 The following Sunday evening Mr. Han- 
 nington preached in the cathedral. The 
 time at Zanzibar was fully occupied in pre- 
 paring for the journey into the interior.
 
 374 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 The adventures which are now ecorded 
 in Hannington's journal are indeed pan- 
 oramic. July 17 many of die party were 
 stricken with the scourge of African trav- 
 ellers, the dreaded fever. On the 21st the 
 caravan reached a church missionary sta- 
 tion, where they were heartily welcomed. 
 
 In a short halt near Mpwapwa, Hanning- 
 ton scoured the district to make a collec- 
 tion of its flora and fauna, specimens of 
 which, toQfether with a lar^e collection of 
 birds and insects, he afterwards gave to the 
 British Museum. Aug. 6 Hannington was 
 prostrated wdth fever ; but in the march 
 next day he refused to ride the hospital 
 donkey, and placed instead a w^eary com- 
 panion upon the beast. Aug. 30 the 
 party rested at Itura, where the native 
 women, desiring to honor them, executed 
 the national dance. In return, Hannington 
 undressed an Enorlish doll before their 
 delighted eyes, and they were charmed 
 with the variety of their white sister's 
 habiliments. 
 
 After a long and painful march, inter-
 
 BISHOP JAMES HANNINGTON. 375 
 
 rupted by contact with wild beasts and 
 warlike natives, the caravan arrived at the 
 mission station of Uyui Sept. 4. Here 
 Hannington was seized with dysentery, 
 and for many days hovered between life 
 and death ; but, tenderly cared for by his 
 nephew, Gordon, he grew slightly better, 
 and continued the journey in a hammock 
 carried by porters. Nov. 8 the party 
 reached Msalala, and saw at length the 
 waters of the mighty Nyanza. 
 ^ The rainy season was upon them, and 
 they were obliged to build huts for shelter. 
 Mosquitoes swarmed, lions roared, porters 
 deserted the camp, supplies ran short, and 
 news was received that all were prostrated 
 by fever at Kagei. On Christmas Day the 
 little party was in a state of sad destitution ; 
 but, fever-stricken and weary, that band of 
 noble men assembled together to celebrate 
 the holy communion. 
 
 Delayed and annoyed by the natives, 
 Hannington at last reached Kagei, Jan, 24, 
 1883. Here he was welcomed royally by 
 Sayed-ben-Saif, the Arab chief, and en-
 
 3/6 GREAT MISSION'ARIES. 
 
 countered friendly Jesuit priests who had 
 recently left Uganda. 
 
 After a week's journey, he reached Mas- 
 alala, to find Mr. Ashe had written thus to 
 the Church Missionary Society: " Hanning- 
 ton is pressing on against all our advice ; if 
 he still lives, I look upon it as your duty 
 to recall him." And so it began to dawn 
 upon his mind that he was beaten, and he 
 consented to try to return to England. 
 
 Carried in a hammock by porters, delayed 
 by unfriendly tribes, and sick unto death 
 for a greater part of the way, Hannington 
 reached Zanzibar, May 8, and stood upon 
 the deck of the homeward bound steamer, 
 and June lo, 1883, was again among his 
 friends. " He settled down to his work at 
 Hurst as though he had never left it," but 
 never for a moment lost the idea that he 
 was to renew his labors in Africa. During 
 the next twelve months he preached and 
 spoke upon many platforms. 
 
 Near the beginning of 1884 the com- 
 mittee of the Church Missionary Society 
 decided to place the churches of Equatorial
 
 BISHOP JAMES HANNINGTON. Z77 
 
 Africa under the supervision of a bishop ; 
 and their eyes naturally turned toward 
 Hannington, who, with health fully re- 
 stored, accepted the bishopric as ** a sign 
 from God that he had work to do for 
 Christ in Africa," and wrote : "I feel that 
 I could no more say No than did Gor- 
 don when he went to Khartoum." The 
 consecration took place June 24, 1884, in 
 the Parish Church of Lambeth ; and, with 
 the full consciousness that his path would 
 not be strewn with roses, Hannington went 
 forth, having arranged that his wife and 
 her baby, now a few weeks old, should in 
 time follow him to Africa. Having a com- 
 mission from the archbishop to visit Jeru- 
 salem and confirm the churches on the 
 way out, he sailed for the Holy Land, 
 Nov. 5, 1884. 
 
 At Jerusalem he inspected, preached, 
 and confirmed. Jan. 22, the bishop's ship 
 steams into the harbor of Mombasa. Thou- 
 sands assembled on shore, and there was a 
 grand welcome. The whole of the bishop's 
 working staff consisted of twelve clergy,
 
 22 8 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 priests and deacons, eleven laymen, and 
 five women, wives of missionaries. He at 
 once made himself thoroughly acquainted 
 with all details of his g-reat work. Findine 
 the missionaries dvvellinor in " houses of 
 cedar, while the ark scarce rested in cur- 
 tains," the bishop wrote to the committee 
 at once for a new church — "not a tin ark 
 or cocoanut barn, but a proper stone 
 church, a church to the glory of God." 
 
 With regard to the marriage question 
 the bishop wrote : "It is homicide to per- 
 mit young married women to go beyond 
 the neighborhood of the coast, and noth- 
 iiig shall induce me to give my consent 
 that ladies should attempt to cross the 
 Wanyamnezi deserts in the present state 
 of the country." 
 
 Before he had been long- livino- in Frere 
 Town famine threatened the mission station 
 at Taita. He determined that he would 
 himself go to the front to carry supplies to 
 Mr. Wray's suffering camp. The heat was 
 intense, and the journey marked by dan- 
 gers of all kinds ; but the bishop's party
 
 BISHOP JAMES HANNINGTON. 379 
 
 at last reached Taita, and, finding the 
 station demoraHzed by famine and priva- 
 tion, transferred the band to Rabai. In 
 due time the bishop brought his whole 
 party safely through to Rabai, but he him- 
 self pushed straight on to Frere Town, 
 having had a tramp of five hundred miles. 
 He was filled with joy and enthusiasm 
 over the new route westward, which was 
 free from the malarial scourge that had 
 accompanied his terrible march from Zan- 
 zibar to the lake the previous year. 
 
 In May, 1885, Bishop Hannington wrote 
 the committee of the Church Missionary 
 Society of his determination to travel west- 
 ward across the terrible Masai country, and 
 thereby to open a new route to the lake. 
 His plans were well laid, and bravely and 
 successfully carried out ; but, alas! neither 
 he nor his advisers knew the terrible fact 
 that Mtesa was dead, and that the young 
 kincr, Mwanea, had ordered the death sen- 
 tence for all white men who should enter 
 Ueanda throuoh the northeast. And so, 
 July 23, 1885, after prodigious labors in
 
 380 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 preparation, Hannington again led the way 
 into the wilds of darkest Africa, at the 
 head of a caravan two hundred strong-. 
 
 Letters home, and the pocket diary, re- 
 covered by a Christian lad, give the bish- 
 op's own record of forty-mile marches 
 under the burning sun, of paths cut 
 through a tangle of spiked grasses, of 
 jungles filled with wild beasts, of hostile 
 tribes, and at last of the terrible Masai. 
 " Starvation, desertion, treachery," and 
 other nightmares and furies, did, indeed, 
 hover over their heads in ghostly forms, 
 but all were met and conquered with 
 indomitable courage; and Oct. 11, 1885, 
 the bishop arrived at Kwa Sundu. Here 
 he decided to leave the caravan with the 
 native clergyman, Mr. Jones ; and, select- 
 ing fifty men to accompany him, pushed 
 on to the lake. 
 
 It was truly a march of death, for, Oct. 
 21, 1885, ^^"^^ bishop was captured by 
 Lubwa's band, and, after an imprisonment 
 of seven days filled with exquisite torture, 
 he was led out and brutally murdered
 
 BISHOP JAMES HANNINGTON: 38 1 
 
 within two days' march of his heart's long- 
 cherished dream, the land of the Uganda. 
 Since the death of David Livingstone, 
 the great missionary and explorer, the 
 cause of missions in the Dark Continent 
 has suffered no greater loss than in the 
 untimely death of the brilliant and intrepid 
 missionary. Bishop Hannington, at the 
 early age of thirty-eight.
 
 XXIII. 
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 Missionary to Africa. 
 Born March 19, 1S13; Died May i, 1873.
 
 XXIII. 
 
 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- 
 
 385
 
 386 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 sionaries and directors of missionary work 
 were not quite sure w^iether 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, 18 13, 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.
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 387 
 
 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 year's he studied late 
 at nio'ht, and at odd minutes in the mill, 
 and read many of the classics. Till about 
 1833 1"^^ "^^^s waiting for some gracious, 
 conscious chano-e 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 Gutzlaff's 
 " 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
 
 388 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 lio^ht anion Of tribes hitherto unevan- 
 gelized, 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 
 throuorh his arm bone. Some one in 
 London asked him what his thoucrhts were
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 389 
 
 as the lion stood over him ; and he an- 
 swered with grim liumor, " 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
 
 390 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, 1 85 I, 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 Kolobeno- un- 
 safe ; and in 1852 Livingstone took his 
 family to the Cape, and sent them to Eng- 
 land, himself returning to the Makololo. 
 
 Li 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. 39 1 
 
 brought him. in May, 1854, to the Portu- 
 guese town of Loancla on the west coast. 
 Here he rested through the summer, and 
 in September following marched eastward, 
 and explored across the continent from 
 ocean to ocean, reaching the mouth of the 
 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
 
 392 GREA T MISSIONARIES. 
 
 greater joy than all his fame, though he 
 found his father's chair empty, Neil Living- 
 stone havino- 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. 393 
 
 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 coohiess in the mo- 
 ment of danger, his devout thankfuhiess 
 and habit of speaking of God's kind provi- 
 dences to his men, whom he lield 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
 
 394 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 great " open sore of the world," which, un- 
 healed, must make the Chrlstianization 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, "^^^ 
 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 a^ain 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. 395 
 
 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-
 
 39^ 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 setde 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 beofinningf of the mis-
 
 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 397 
 
 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
 
 398 GREAT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 ended by leaving the country a wilder- 
 ness." 
 
 Toward the end of 1868 he was aorain 
 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. Canoeine 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. 399 
 
 them was the Liialaba, 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 loneino- to 
 finish and retire, and trust the Almighty 
 may perniit me to go home." 
 
 Jan. I, 187 1, 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 wanderingr off still
 
 400 GREAT 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. 
 Obliofed 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, 187 1 ; 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. 
 Youne to search for Livino"stone, 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. 4OI 
 
 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 Nciv 
 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 Livinor- 
 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-
 
 402 GREAT MISSIOXARIES. 
 
 ganyika. He rounded the soiuhern point, 
 and pushed south and west for Lake 
 Bangweolo. The raniy 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 aeain 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 
 litde 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. 403 
 
 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 Livinorstone kneelinor 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 
 — Livinorstone 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-
 
 404 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.
 
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