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PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 
 Purchased by the Hammill Missionary Fund. 
 
 BV 2610 .E55 c.l 
 Ellis, Harriet Warner. 
 Our eastern sisters and 
 their missionary helpers 
 
 J I 
 
1^ 
 
OUR EASTERN SISTERS 
 
 THEIR MISSIONARY HELPERS. 
 
OUR EASTEEN SISTERS 
 
 AND 
 
 THEIR MISSIONARY HELPERS. 
 
 BY 
 
 m. 
 
 HARRIETT WARNER ELLIS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "DENMARK AND HER MISSIONS;" "TOILS AND TRIUMPHS; OR, 
 MISSIONARY WORK," ETC. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY; 
 
 56 Paternoster Eow, 65 St. Paul's Churchyard, 
 And 164 Piccadilly. 
 
TO THE 
 
 Ivig^t f 0nDuraljk Hit Caunt^ss-gotoager of §amsl)0ro«gl], 
 
 THE LONG-TRIED FRIEND OF FEMALE MISSIONS, 
 
 CJ3XS fittU ^ark 
 
 IS, BY HER KIND PERMISSION, 
 DEDICATED 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 HE object of this book is to trace the 
 beginning of women's work in the 
 Christian education of their neglected, 
 ignorant sisters in the East. 
 
 It describes their past condition, and 
 the strong prejudices which existed 
 against any efforts to ameliorate that condition. It 
 traces the means used for overcoming difficulties, and 
 the remarkable way in which God put it into the 
 hearts of those whom He had qualified, to enter into 
 the doors which He Himself had opened. It gives a 
 short history of the lives and deaths of some of these 
 heroines. 
 
 In addition to ladies who are devoting their lives 
 and fortunes to missionary work, there are now more 
 than twelve societies in Great Britain, and about 
 twenty in America, engaged in it. Besides the Female 
 Education Society, the pioneer in the British field, 
 there are now the Church of England Zenana Society, 
 
 ix 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the Indian Female Normal School Society, the 
 Established and Free Church of Scotland Societies, and 
 the London, Wesleyan, and Baptist Ladies' Societies, 
 
 The latest, and perhaps most popular effort, is the 
 Medical Mission in Zenanas, which, havins: been com- 
 menced by our American sisters, is now taken up by 
 the ladies of the various missionary societies. An 
 hospital and training school for ladies has been opened 
 by Dr. G. De Gorrequer Griffith in Westminster. In 
 a touching paper he has published on the subject he 
 says : " Having personally become acquainted with 
 the sad state of women in Mussulman and Oriental 
 countries, I long to hasten to their relief by the only 
 means left in our power, through the prejudices of 
 caste and religion, the ministration of the lady medical 
 missionary, for no medical man is allowed to approach 
 the Zenana. Their cries ring in my ears. Asleep 
 and awake I hear them say., ' Send over and help us.' 
 The lady missionary is now not only acceptable in the 
 Zenana, but eagerly yearned for." 
 
 The press now gives prominence to this work, as is 
 proved by the following extract from a daily paper : 
 " The Queen has expressed her interest in the efforts 
 now being made to provide fully qualified medical 
 women for India. Miss Manning, Hon. Secretary of 
 the National Indian Association, has received a letter 
 from General Ponsonby, stating that Her Majesty gladly 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 countenances a proposal suggested by Mr. Keltridge, 
 of Bombay, to raise, with the co-operation of natives 
 of India, a guarantee fund for the benefit of women 
 doctors willing to go out from this country to settle in 
 India." The fact that our beloved Queen has shown 
 her royal sympathy will doubtless draw the attention 
 of many of our countrywomen to a subject on which 
 thousands of them are in utter ignorance. 
 
 So far back as July, 1876, Mr. Cowper Temple, 
 now Lord Mount-Temple, urged the claims of Her 
 Majesty's Indian female subjects upon the House of 
 Commons. In a remarkable speech he said : " It will 
 be a moral as well as a medical advantage to these 
 women ; for it will assist the Government in civilising, 
 enlightening, and Christianising the native women, to 
 have a large body of medical women trained in Eng- 
 land, to go forth to India to undertake this great work." 
 
 Madras has led the way, and degrees are now given 
 to ladies from her medical college. 
 
 Whilst thankful for what has already been accom- 
 plished, the work is as yet only begun. Our field of 
 influence is overpowering. To borrow the language of 
 a native gentleman, as just reported in an Indian 
 paper : " The light has begun to shine in our Zenanas, 
 and everything is changed. Only get the hearts of 
 our women, and you will get the heads of the men." 
 
 It is in the hope of leading many to aid in this 
 
XU .INTRODUCTION. 
 
 great work that this little volume has been compiled. 
 Help is urgently needed from those who cannot person- 
 ally enter upon it to aid in sending out more labourers. 
 The poor weary inmates of these Eastern homes — esti- 
 mated in nunaber at forty millions — are, writes one, 
 " immured like caged birds, beating their tired wings 
 against the prison walls vainly, yet eagerly longing to 
 know something of what is beyond, and to hear further 
 of the faint whisper which has been borne in to them of 
 a brighter life somewhere, they know not where." The 
 Zenana, notwithstanding its attractive name, is often 
 the most dingy, dirty part of the whole establishment.'"'' 
 In addition to periodicals, reports, and Lives and 
 Histories from all the missionary societies, of which 
 the writer has availed herself largely, she is mainly 
 indebted for facts as to the general condition of women, 
 and especially widows, in India, to the valuable work 
 of the well known Bengali author, " The Hindoos as 
 they Are," by Shib Chunder Bose, who writes not as a 
 Christian, but as an educated Hindu. As such, he 
 would not be likely to disparage his people and their 
 institutions. 
 
 * A striking confirmation of this fiict is found in the recent 
 " Life of Lord Lawrence," published while this was in the press. 
 He says : " Sometimes a pair of half-naked slave-girls, with the 
 marks of stripes upon their backs, would escape from the window 
 of their gilded prison-house. ... At the best they are ill-treated, 
 and suicide was very common among them." 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIU 
 
 The caution cannot too often be repeated that 
 statements concerning one part of the vast country of 
 India, which are strictly true, are quite inapplicable to 
 other parts. 
 
 As an instance, in some parts of South India women 
 are allowed much freedom, and in one small State are 
 treated with respect and deference, and even permitteo 
 to hold land. 
 
 The same remark applies to results ; while the Miss 
 Brandons, devoted workers of the Church of England 
 Zenana Society, tell of "a splendid school of 40 
 Hindus and 30 Mohammedan girls, and more than 100 
 names down for Zenana visitation " at or near Masuli- 
 patam ; Miss Schwartz, an equally earnest labourer 
 of the Indian Female Normal School Society at Nasik, 
 tells of some of the difficulties. While one poor 
 Hindu widow exclaims, " Oh, how kind of you to come 
 and see me, a poor despised woman, when everyone is 
 unkind ; " two of her pupils told of the beating in 
 store for them, should their husbands find out what 
 they had been hearing ; while another, more resolved 
 to hear the Bible lesson, added, " I know what to 
 expect ; one beating more or less will make no differ- 
 ence to me." The testimony of another energetic 
 worker, Miss Sargent, of the Wesleyan Missionary 
 Ladies' Society in Ceylon, is most cheering. They 
 have so many really Christian girls in their schools, 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that a place has been set apart where the girls may 
 retire for private prayer, and she adds : " They show 
 their belief by their lives ; I never now hear bad lan- 
 guage, and we very seldom have quarrels. Before the 
 holidays they begged for portions of Scripture to take 
 home, ' that their parents and friends might learn to 
 know about Jesus and love Him as they did.' We 
 have the testimony also of happy deaths." 
 
 The prominence given to the workers connected 
 with the Female Education Society arises from the fact 
 that the writer has been associated with it almost from 
 the beginning. 
 
 An account of the first twelve years' work was pub- 
 lished by the late Mrs. Trumper, who, with Miss Hope 
 of Carriden, acted as Hon. Secretaries to the newly- 
 formed society. By the courtesy of Miss Adam, Mrs. 
 Trumper's sister, permission has been given to draw 
 from its pages much valuable information. 
 
 Unlike other kindred societies, it comprises within 
 the sphere of its operations, not only India, but China, 
 Japan, the Straits, Persia, Mauritius, the Levant, and 
 South and West Africa. 
 
 Its work in Nazareth and Bethlehem alone should 
 create interest in the heart of every Christian woman 
 in the United Kingdom. 
 
 It includes the women of these countries, of all ages 
 and ranks, from the high-born ladies, secluded in 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 Zenanas and harems, to the half-savage Kaffir and 
 Negro. The aim of these lady workers is to impress 
 on all the truths of the Gospel and knowledge of the 
 Scriptures, and at the same time to educate and 
 civilise. The means employed are the sending out, 
 after careful training, well-qualified ladies as Zenana 
 missionaries and school teachers, who in their turn 
 train native women for the same work. 
 
 The following statistics, gleaned from the latest 
 reports of the various societies, will give some idea of 
 the scale on which the work is now being carried on, 
 as far as this can be done by figures : — 
 
 Income for 1882. 
 Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, £23,008 
 
 Normal School Society, . . . . 7,595 
 
 Church of Scotland, 4,464 
 
 Free Church of Scotland, .... 5,291 
 Society for Promoting Female Education in the 
 
 East, 7,652 
 
 Wesleyan Ladies' Missionary Society, . . 3,600 
 
 London Mission Ladies' Society, . . . 2,300 
 
 £53,900 
 
 The total raised by the Female Education Societj'- 
 since its commencement amounts to £133,063. In 
 addition to this, Avork to the amount of £4000 or 
 £5000 yearly has been sent abroad for sale. 
 
 Before concluding this short introduction, the 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 writer would note two special points in the work to 
 be recorded ; they are its catholicity, and its supple- 
 mentary character. It is as Christ's work, and not 
 that of any section or party in His Church, that these 
 records are given ; and it is as woman's work for Him. 
 May He who condescended to say to a woman, 
 " She hath done what she could," deign to accept this 
 humble effort to extend the knowledge of His name 
 amono- women ! 
 
 — *Hj^^aa4'@<H— 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Inteoduction, vii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INDIA — BENGAL PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Condition of Women in the East — Early Efforts to help them^- 
 Labours of Mrs, Marshman, Mrs. Pearce, and Mrs. Gogerly — Death 
 of Mrs. Gogerly — Miss Cooke's Work in Calcutta — Miss Bird — 
 American Female Missionary Societies — Founding of the Society 
 for Promoting Female Education in the East — Eecent Statistics of 
 the Work in Calcutta, 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 INDIA — ORISSA. 
 
 Ignorance about Orissa— Mrs. Buckley's Description — The Meriah 
 Sacrifice — Eescued Children — Khund Children — Faithfulness of 
 the Converts — Letter from one of them — Miss Packer's Work — 
 The Orphan of Juggernaut, 1.5 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 INDIA — MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Early Missions — First Protestant Efforts — Mrs. Maultandthe Upper 
 Cloth Kiots— Mrs. Anderson — Work in Masulipatam — The Tini- 
 velly Mission — Miss Eeade's Work at Punrooty — A Noble 
 
 Maharani — Palamcottah, 72 
 
 xvii h 
 
XVlll CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 INDIA — BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Early Jlissionary Efforts — Mdlle. Janot, Miss Burton, and Mrs. 
 "Willing— Mrs. Mullens's "Work -Letter from Mrs. Farrar at Nasik — 
 Dr. "Wilson's Schools — Bible-women in Bombay —The Indirect 
 Results of Missionary Labour, ....... 39 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ZENANA MISSIONS. 
 Meaning of word Zenana — The numerous Societies for carrying on 
 this "W^ork — The Life of a Hindu Married "\Yoman— Native 
 Accounts of their sad State— "Hindu "Woman's Prayer " — "Hindu 
 "Widows, by one of Themselves " — Difficulties of the Early 
 "Workers — Miss Margot— Dr. Duff's Testimony — Gradual Improve- 
 ment in the Hindu "Women — Infanticide — A Zenana Tragedy, . 51 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BATAVIA AND BORNEO. 
 
 The first Lady Missionary sent out by the Society for Promoting 
 Female Education in the East — Her "Work in Batavia — Mdlle. 
 Combe — Her Removal to Borneo — Conditions under which the 
 Lady Missionaries were sent out, 70 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SINGAPORE. 
 
 Founding of the Singapore Mission — Miss Grant — Details of her 
 Work — Letter from Haneo — Narratives of Conversions — Miss 
 Cooke — "Work sfint out for Sale -Mrs. Murray Mitchell's Testi- 
 mony, 79 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 Miss Holliday and Miss Rogers — "Work begun —Request to under- 
 take the Education of the Ladies of the Harem — Miss HoUiday's 
 Narrative — Mrs. Leidei-'s Illness — Miss Mary "Whately's Schools 
 in Cairo, 94 
 
CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 PACE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 Early Difficulties — Miss Barker — Miss Aldersey at Ningpo — Stoi-y of 
 Ati and Kit — Miss Aldersey's Journals and Letters Story of San 
 Avong — Present State of Female Missions n China, . . . 107 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 BURMAH. 
 
 This Mission begun by American Ladies— Mrs. Judson at Rangoon 
 and Ava — Mrs. Boardman and others at Tavoy — "Six Men for 
 Arracan " — IMrs. Mason and the Karen Mission — Annexation of 
 British Burmah — The Second Mrs. Mason- Her Accounts of the 
 Work among the Karens — Eurasian Girls, ..... 121 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PERSIA. 
 
 "Work of Fidelia Fiske — Incidents in her Labours — Native Converts — 
 Miss Rice — Native Missionaries — Present State of the Work, . 142 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 STRIA, PALESTINE, AND VARIOUS MISSIONS. 
 
 Female Missions : Turkey, Greece, and Asia Minor — Mrs. Watson's 
 Work at Lebanon — Jaffa and Beyrout — Mrs. Zeller at Nazareth — 
 The New Orphanage — Mrs. Mungo Ponton's account of ]\Iiss Dick- 
 son's Work — The Moravians, ... .... 152 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FEMALE MEDICAL MISSIONS. 
 
 The story of the Women's Hospital in Bareilly — Mrs. Thomas, 
 Mrs. Parker, and Miss Swain— Gift of the Site — Daily Practice — 
 Miss Monelle and the Wife of the Nawab — Miss Lore, Moradabad — 
 Miss Beilby and the Maharani — Miss Beilby's Visit to England — 
 The Queen's Interest in the Work — Conclusion, .... 167 
 
OUR EASTERN SISTERS 
 
 THEIE MISSIONARY HELPERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INDIA BENGAL PRESIDENCY. 
 
 " Bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the 
 earth." — Isaiah xliii. 6. 
 
 ""EADERS of the early reports and 
 books upon mission work in the 
 East must have been struck with 
 the fact that the word " woman " 
 rarely or never occurs. An Eastern 
 sage says : " It is singular that in 
 its descriptions of both heaven and 
 hell the Koran makes no mention 
 of women. The houris of Paradise 
 are creatures of quite another 
 species. The philanthropists and Christians of early 
 days made the same omission. They seem to have 
 forgotten that half the population of the world con- 
 sisted of women. 
 
 The Shasters declare that women have no souls, 
 and for generations English Christians seemed to 
 endorse their statement. 
 
2 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 In the Shastors Buddha says, " One may trust a 
 tiger come for prey ; a thief ; a murderer ; a savage ; 
 even deadly poison, but not a woman," 
 
 Menu, the heathen lawgiver, says, " Day and night 
 must a woman be kept in a state of dependence. 
 Though devoid of all good qualities, a husband must 
 be revered by his wife as a god." 
 
 A well-knoAvn Eastern proverb is, " Cursed be the 
 day that a woman is born." 
 
 Some of the best-informed writers on India tell us 
 that it is since the Mohammedan conquest of that 
 country that the women have been so degraded ; that 
 previously they were in a much higher position ; that 
 there were some learned women ; and that some of 
 their earlier sacred books speak very differently about 
 them. 
 
 In the early visits paid by missionary ladies in 
 Bengal to native families, nothing struck them more 
 than the misery caused, especially amongst the upper 
 and middle classes, by the practice of polygamy. 
 
 They were told that the custom had its origin in 
 the belief constantly taught by the Brahmins that it 
 was only through her husband that any woman could 
 ever reach heaven. The well-known missionary, Ward, 
 in his work, says : " Numbers of the Koolan Brahmins 
 procure a subsistence by polygamy. At their marriages 
 they obtain large dowries, and in their case the girls 
 are allowed to live after marriage in their father's 
 houses. Having married into forty or fifty families, a 
 Koolan goes from house to house, and is there fed, 
 clothed, and lodged. Thus a Hindu possessing only 
 a shred of cloth and his poita (sacred thread) will 
 
BENGAL PRESIDENCY. 3 
 
 have more than a hundred wives. The fathers will 
 make any sacrifice to marry their daughters to these 
 Koolan Brahmins, believing that thereby the eternal 
 happiness of the wife is secured. Instances have been 
 known in which Koolans have, although possessed 
 already of scores of wives in different places, married 
 yet more in their dying hours, thereby, as they taught, 
 conferring on the poor deceived women the right to 
 enter heaven." 
 
 The Abb^ Du Bois says : " The husband may 
 divorce his wife at pleasure, and turn her out of his 
 house, but neither sale nor desertion can release her 
 from her subjection to him." 
 
 " Every one who has associated with natives of the 
 East knows that to ask a man about the health of his 
 wife or any female of his household, however ill, or 
 even if dying, would be regarded as a gross insult." 
 
 In a certain station the Avife of an English official 
 had twin sons. She was on friendly terms with the 
 family of a neighbouring rajah, and on meeting them 
 afterwards, her native friends were loud in their con- 
 gratulations. One of his wives warmly exclaimed : 
 " How happy should I be if thus blessed ! " "But," 
 rejoined the English lady, " what if they had been 
 twin daughters ? " " Oh," was the prompt reply, " in 
 that case we should have had them strangled." 
 
 A kind-hearted officer, well versed in the language, 
 once tried to comfort a poor, broken-hearted heathen 
 mother as she knelt by the grave of her only son. 
 " Don't talk to her," exclaimed her husband, " she 
 can't understand; she is only a beast." For centuries 
 woman has been regarded by the rich man as a toy 
 
4 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 to minister to his pleasure, and by the poor man as 
 a slave to supply his wants. 
 
 In the following pages we shall record the testimony 
 of natives of both sexes to this state of degradation ; 
 but perhaps the fullest jDublished account is in the 
 able w^ork of Sbib Chunder Bose, to which we would 
 refer our readers. This gentleman was in the Govern- 
 ment service till he resigned his post for the noble life 
 of a missionary. His book was published in London 
 and Calcutta in 1881. He says the miseries of 
 Hindu women literally " beggar description," and 
 adds, "The benevolent exertions of Baboo Keshub 
 Chunder, the Hindu reformer, to promote widow 
 remarriage and female emancipation in general, have 
 not met with the measure of success which they 
 deserve, simply because Hindu society is not ripe for 
 the innovation." 
 
 Years passed after the first missionaries went to the 
 East, without any effort being put forth to reach the 
 women. Schwartz was one of those first enlightened 
 on this important subject, and from his life we learn 
 that he established an orphanage at his own cost, and 
 that twelve girls came to be taught Avith the boys. 
 But he died in 1798, and nothing further was then 
 attempted. 
 
 Years rolled by, and zealous and able men left their 
 native land, and lived, and laboured, and died, lament- 
 ing that they had seen so few converts, so little fruit. 
 Boys' schools had become numerous, but hopeful 
 scholars, under the influence of heathen mothers, 
 degenerated into idol worshippers. Here and tliere a 
 noble missionary's wife gathered a few female children 
 
 \ 
 
BENGAL PRESIDENCY. 5 
 
 around her, and formed the nucleus of a school. 
 Amongst these the names of Mrs. Mault and Mrs. 
 Gogerly rank the first. But removal, ill-health, or 
 death soon scattered their infant gatherings. About 
 1820 native schools were established by Mrs. Pearce, 
 Mrs. Mundy, Mrs. Mullens, and a few others, and soon 
 after Miss Cooke, better known as Mrs. Wilson, 
 landed in Calcutta, with the avowed object of devoting 
 her life to native female education. 
 
 Before proceeding to give details of the early work 
 of these ladies, it may be well to contrast the past 
 with the present, both in India and China. The 
 very name of India excites interest, from whatever 
 point of view it is contemplated. To the Christian 
 women of enlightened countries the condition of 
 millions of their heathen sisters cannot be a matter of 
 indifference. And yet for about two hundred years 
 after the grant of Queen Elizabeth's charter ^ estab- 
 lishing the factories of the East India Company in 
 that land, not one effort had been made for their 
 benefit. 
 
 In a most interesting book entitled, " The Pioneers 
 of the Bengal Mission," we have a detailed account of 
 the eaily work in that presidency from the pen of the 
 last survivor, the Rev. G. Gogerly. He reached India 
 on the 22nd August, 1819, and was informed that 
 
 ^ It was in 1599 that a small company of British merchants 
 obtained that charter, and established themselves near a humble 
 fishing village on the Hooghly, about one hundred miles above the 
 mouth of the Ganges. The place was called Kalee Ghaut, or, the 
 landing-place of the goddess Kalee, the tutelary deity of the Thugs. 
 From this is derived the present name of the mighty city of 
 Calcutta. 
 
6 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 Government looked upon the introduction of mission- 
 aries "as a most dangerous experiment." "We found," 
 he adds, "amongst the Hindus, indifference; amongst 
 the Mohammedans, hatred." He and his fellow- 
 labourers were not, like their predecessors, expelled the 
 country, and for this they were thankful. It was as 
 early as 1798 that William Carey, "the immortal 
 cobbler, who resolved to give to the millions of Hindus 
 the Bible in their own language," landed in Calcutta. 
 When he began his labours on the banks of the 
 Ganges, he was peremptorily ordered by the East Indian 
 Government to desist, or he would at once be sent out 
 of the country. This was no idle threat. Compelled 
 thus to leave his post, he retired to the colony of 
 Serampore, where, all honour to the Danes, he was 
 permitted to commence and carry on his wonderful 
 labours. In Mr. Marshman's touching work, " The 
 Story of Carey, Marshman, and Ward," he says : 
 " These missionaries never considered themselves in any 
 other light than as the pioneers of Christianity in 
 Bengal." 
 
 Mrs. Marshman was the first of these labourers to 
 collect the girls in her bungalow, and she in time 
 established several schools. But when the work was 
 once begun, it became obvious to all interested in it, 
 that it was far too vast to be left wholly to the wives of 
 missionaries. Two native schools had been opened in 
 Calcutta in 1820, before the arrival of the first single 
 English lady. Miss Cooke. One of these schools was 
 commenced by Mrs. Pearce, the other by Mrs. Gogerly. 
 " But," writes the husband of the latter lady, " the 
 difficulties they had to encounter almost drove them to 
 
BENGAL PRESIDENCY. 7 
 
 despair. The parents declared that tlie girls must be 
 fetched to and fro, or they would be kidnapped on the 
 way. To remove this fear, Hindu women were paid 
 to go from house to house to fetch them, and then to 
 convey them safely home when school was over." 
 
 The next difficulty urged was want of clothing. It 
 was ascertained that a saree costing from one shilling 
 to eighteen pence would make a girl a decent and 
 respectable dress. Kind friends in England purchased 
 these garments, and then the mothers complained that 
 they were losing the benefit of their children's labour in 
 collecting fuel. Anxious to do away with every cause 
 of complaint, it was resolved that one pice (about a 
 farthing and a-half) should be given to every girl who 
 attended school regularly. But even then the 
 attendance was so irregular, that in 1821 Miss Cooke 
 gave up the bazaar schools she had established, and 
 Mrs. Campbell did the same at one she had opened 
 near Kidderpore. 
 
 In 1822, Mrs. Gogerly and a missionary friend, 
 through the influence of the late Rammohun Ray, 
 received her first invitation to visit a zenana. It 
 belonged +o one of the most powerful noblemen in 
 Calcutta. 'ihey were conducted into the ladies' 
 apartments by the young rajah himself What the 
 ladies saw and heard increased their desire to impart 
 to these suffering sisters the consolations of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 A Bengalee newspaper, under date August, 1825, 
 published the following account : " Ramchandra 
 Metha, residing in Calcutta, being attacked by cholera, 
 was taken hoycxe by his relatives, and on the night of 
 
8 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 the 25th died, aged twenty-five. His young and beautiful 
 Avidow, only about fourteen years of age, thinking her- 
 self altogether worthless in the world on the death of 
 her husband, and anticipating the many distresses she 
 would have to suffer if she survived him, absolutely 
 burnt herself on the funeral pile." The same paper 
 adds : " Another widow, a little girl of twelve years, 
 obstinately burnt herself on the funeral pile." 
 
 Such, or similar horrid rites were actually witnessed 
 by some of these early missionaries. The suttee 
 was abolished by Lord William Bentinck in 1830, 
 but, as some of the native women said, " only leaving 
 them alive to endure one prolonged martyrdom." 
 
 It was with such surroundings that the young 
 wives of the pioneer missionaries were combating 
 daily difficulties, when, in the midst of her labour, one 
 was called to her rest. Mr. Gogerly's account of his 
 beloved Mary's last days is most touching. He says 
 that the only house they could obtain consisted of two 
 rooms and a ha>l upstairs, and the same below, all so 
 damp that it was at the risk of their lives that they 
 slept in them. One was used as a storeroor^. ■ for 
 materials connected with the press, while t^^c nail was 
 the depository of the Tract Society. " ""the rain con- 
 tinually falling through the flat roof./ we were both 
 prostrated with fever, and my poor w'ife for nearly a 
 month was delirious, while I was unadle to leave my 
 couch. But there v/as no other place to go to. One 
 day the governor of the jail, a good mai^, called to see 
 us ; and finding we were literally dyinyr for want of 
 better lodgings, kindly offered to convey tis to the jail, 
 where he placed two dry rooms at our, clasposal. We 
 
BENGAL PRESIDENCY. 9 
 
 gratefully accepted his offer. But though my dear 
 wife rallied for a time, she gradually became weaker. 
 Our eldest child was at the house of a friend (while 
 I myself had no less than sixty-one boils on my 
 person), when the native servants saw that my dear 
 one was sinking. Overcome by their superstitious 
 fear of death, they all fled, and I was left alone 
 without an individual to take a message or call in a 
 friend. The stillness of death which reigned was only 
 broken by the howling of the jackals and barking of 
 the pariah dogs. It was the dead of night. The baby 
 slept. My wife was still alive, but in a state of coma. 
 I knelt down by the bed-side and audibly commended 
 her spirit to God, when, to my surprise, she raised 
 herself in the bed, and began to pour out her soul in 
 prayer to God in a strain so sweet that it seemed to 
 be a supernatural aid graciously afforded her while 
 passing through the dark valley, enabling her to hold 
 communion with her Father in heaven. She then, 
 without a pang or sigh, gently breathed her last." 
 
 Thus on the 12th of September, 1823, being only 
 twenty-four years of age, this sainted labourer entered 
 into rest. 
 
 But the fruit of her labours remained. Some of 
 the girls she trained became the wives and mothers 
 of native Christians and teachers. On one occasion 
 several officials in the civil and military service, 
 together with the sister and two daughters of the 
 then acting Governor-General of India, assembled in 
 a native church connected with Mr. Gogerly's mission, 
 numbering two hundred Christian men and women, to 
 witness the baptism of twelve new converts. On that 
 
10 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 occasion a Brahmin, named Narapot Singh, Avho had 
 given up an estate worth £30,000 on becoming a 
 Christian, then himself a missionary, took part in the 
 service. 
 
 The arrival of Miss Cooke in 1821 as a missionary 
 to the women and children of Calcutta was an event 
 too singular to be lightly regarded, even by the many 
 who care not for such things. She was received by 
 some with scorn and derision, by others with coldness 
 and contempt. Even those who were kind to her 
 advised her at once to secure a return passage in the 
 vessel that brought her out. Intelligent people spoke 
 of her " fool's errand," and doubts were expressed as 
 to her perfect sanity. 
 
 Nothing daunted, and aided by the prayers and 
 good wishes of the few who sympathised with her, 
 she at ouce began studying the Bengalee language. 
 In order to observe the pronunciation, she asked leave 
 to visit a boys' school. Unaccustomed to see a Euro- 
 pean female in that part of the native town, a crowd 
 collected round the door. Amongst them, with an 
 earnest, wistful look, stood a little unclothed girl, 
 weeping as if her heart would break. 
 
 The pundit saw her at the entrance, and coming 
 out drove her away. Miss Cooke requested her inter- 
 preter to call the child, when the pundit said that she 
 had been for three whole months begging him to teach 
 lier with the boys. Laying her hands upon the little 
 bare shoulder. Miss Cooke gently asked : " Little girl, 
 why do you cry so ? Tell me." Frightened at being 
 addressed by a white lady, the child would have fled. 
 But Miss Cooke lovingly repeated the question. Amid 
 
BENGAL PRESIDENCY. 1 1 
 
 her sobs, the little one faltered : " I want to go to the 
 school ! I want to be taught ! But — I am only a 
 girl." Promising the weeping child that her wish 
 should be gratified, the astonished pundit said, that if 
 the lady really liked to teach her, he would bring 
 twenty more the very next day. 
 
 This effort was crowned with abundant success. 
 Within a single month two girls' schools w^ere estab- 
 lished, and ere long between 200 and 800 were in 
 daily attendance. For many years Mrs. Wilson's 
 " Central School " and " The Orphan Asylum at 
 Agrapara," in the suburbs, have been as household 
 words in the city of Calcutta. 
 
 The next unmarried labourer who began this work 
 of faith and labour of love was Miss Bird, who left for 
 India in 1823. The different missionary societies 
 were now by their publications diffusing intelligence 
 and arousing interest, while Mrs. Sherwood's " Henry 
 and his Bearer," and other little books on India, were 
 awakening curiosity in the minds of hundreds of 
 children in Christian households. 
 
 Miss Bird was induced at first, by the affection she 
 bore to her widowed brother in India, to leave her 
 home to comfort him in his sorrow. He was occupy- 
 ing an important post in the Civil Service at Gorruck- 
 pore, and at once yielded to her earnest desire to make 
 some efforts for the degraded women by whom she was 
 surrounded. 
 
 After some years of daily toil in that city she 
 removed to Calcutta. Her knowledge of the language 
 was now so perfect that she resolved to devote her 
 fortune and her life to those who, speaking only 
 
12 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 Hindustani, were unable to benefit by instruction in 
 English, or to read any language at all. Nor was this 
 all ; for she translated many valuable books into that 
 language, and wrote in it a Commentary on Genesis ; an 
 Outline of Ancient History; a Treatise on Astronomy, 
 and other tracts and school books. In addition to 
 daily religious instruction to the girls, she established 
 a Sunday-school and Bible-classes for the women. So 
 remarkable was her method of communicating know- 
 ledge, that she was requested by several ladies conducting 
 boarding-schools for the daughters of officers and 
 civilians to devote some time each week to giving 
 religious instruction to their pupils. 
 
 In the midst of these abounding labours she was 
 suddenly called to her rest. The night before her 
 death she passed at the Kidderpore Orphanage, telling 
 the little ones of the love of Jesus. About half-past 
 six in the morning she became so ill that a dear lady 
 friend, and her valued pastor, Archdeacon Corrie, were 
 sent for. She whispered that, like Moses, she could 
 wish to remain for the sake of her poor people. A 
 short time before, when advised to return home on 
 furlough, she said : " I cannot think of it while I have 
 such a field of labour, and, undeserving as I am, such 
 refreshings from on High." After a few hours' illness, 
 she gently slept in Jesus. 
 
 In 1824 a Ladies' Society for Native Female 
 ^Education was formed in Calcutta, which had, for a 
 time, a branch association in London ; but that branch 
 soon became extinct, and for some years no distinct 
 orgtvnisation for the benefit of heathen women existed 
 in Great Britain. Meanwhile, our American sisters 
 
BENGAL PRESIDENCY. 13 
 
 had been more active, and had sent workers into the 
 mission field on several stations. A pamphlet called 
 " Articles of the Boston Female Society for Missionary 
 Purposes," tells of its formation in 1800; and nineteen 
 years afterwards " The Female Missionary Society of 
 the American Methodist Episcopal Church " was 
 formed, and there are now no less than twenty women's 
 missionary societies in that land. 
 
 The year 1834 was a remarkable one in the annals 
 of British female missions. The well known and 
 highly honoured Americaa missionary to China, the 
 Rev. David Abeel, had broken down in the midst of 
 his toil, and had come to England to rest and recruit 
 his strength, before he returned to die. But his heart 
 was so full of the sorrows of heathen women that he 
 could not be silent. Wherever he went, their degrada- 
 tion, and the duties of Christian women at home 
 towards them, was his one theme. He impressed upon 
 the committees of the different societies that the whole 
 apparatus of missionary effort must be deficient if not 
 met by a distinct and appropriate machinery for the 
 enlightenment and conversion of the women. He 
 drew up and printed a powerful appeal to the Christian 
 women of Great Britain and America. As a result, a 
 number of ladies formed themselves into a committee, 
 and " The Society for Promoting Female Education in 
 China, India, and the East " was established. Four 
 years later this title was abridged to its present name, 
 " The Society for Promoting Female Education in the 
 East." 
 
 The first meeting was held under the auspices of 
 the Honourable and Rev. Baptist W. Noel, 
 
14 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 in the vestry of St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row, 
 London. 
 
 A working committee consisting of twenty-four 
 ladies of different Christian denominations was formed. 
 The small committee in London previously referred to 
 in connection with the Calcutta Society, having become 
 extinct, its treasurer, and only remaining member, Mrs. 
 Hugh Hill, joined the newly formed society, paying 
 over to the treasurer the small sum of £12 remaining in 
 her hands, the committee having determined on sending 
 a helper to Mrs. Wilson's school in Calcutta. Miss 
 Wakefield, the lady thus appointed, was the second 
 sent out. Of Miss Thornton, the first agent, we shall 
 hear more as our narrative proceeds. She went to 
 Batavia. The above is a short account of the com- 
 mencement of female schools in Bengal, The success 
 attending them paved the way for more extended 
 efforts, which are now being carried on for the same 
 object by all the missionary societies, and many 
 isolated workers. 
 
 As indicating the growth of the work in Calcutta 
 the following statistics have just been published : — 
 
 iipils in Schools and Zenanas — 
 
 
 Church of Scotland, 
 
 
 1418 
 
 American, 
 
 , 
 
 1169 
 
 Society for Propagation 
 
 of the Gospel, 
 
 542 
 
 London Mission, . 
 
 
 491 
 
 Baptist Mission, . 
 
 
 440 
 
 Free Church Mission, 
 
 
 368 
 
 
 Total, 
 
 4428 
 
CHAPTER IT. 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 R I S S A. 
 
 " The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." 
 Psalms Ixxiv. 20. 
 
 ERHAPS few parts of India are less 
 known to English readers than 
 Berhampore and Cuttack, in the 
 large province of Orissa. The 
 wives of two missionaries con- 
 nected with the General Baj)tist 
 Society, applied in 1840 to the 
 Female Education Society for a lady 
 to help them. Theirs was the only 
 agency at work in that part of the 
 world, and their schools were established mainly for 
 the benefit of the people called Khunds or Khoonds. 
 The Society sent out Miss Derry, Miss Poppy, Miss 
 Packer, and others. How admirably these ladies have 
 carried out their work will be shown by the fact, that 
 in 1881, besides the number of girls in the two 
 orphanages, there were in the village schools around 
 Cuttack 1349 children being taught the pure Word of 
 God. It is a singular fact, that at the present time 
 
 15 
 
16 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 these three ladies are still engaged in missionary 
 work. 
 
 Through the kindness of Mrs. Buckley (formerly 
 Miss Deny), the only member still resident in India 
 of the party who left England in 1843, we are 
 furnished with the following account : " Khondistan, 
 where the Khoonds live, is a country little known, and 
 the name of the race does not appear in some of our 
 geographies. Their history is not written in any of 
 our annals. Seventy years ago the country was 
 altogether unexplored. The district in which Govern- 
 ment operations have been conducted extends from 
 19° 30' to 20° 50' north latitude, and from 83° 40' 
 to 84° 50' east longitude. In the district thus com- 
 prised, for many a dreary century deeds of surpassing 
 cruelty have been perpetrated. War has often been 
 overruled by God to accomplish His wise and holy 
 designs. It was in this way the atrocities of Khon- 
 distan were disclosed to the civilised world. In 1836 
 an insurrection broke out in Goomsur, in which the 
 Khoonds were implicated. Troops were sent to quell 
 the rebellion, and while so engaged, it was discovered 
 that human beings were immolated on the altar of a 
 sanguinary superstition. This was called the Meriah 
 sacrifice, the victim being designated a Meriah. 
 Female infanticide was also practised. The rites are 
 perfectly distinct. One is a public sacrifice of a 
 victim of full age, who has been fattened for the 
 slaughter ; the other the murder of a new-born girl. 
 The Government agents endeavoured to obtain a 
 registry of the men, their wives, and the number of 
 children ; but the people fled in terrible alarm, 
 
ORISSA. 17 
 
 declaring that if numbered they were all sure 
 to die. 
 
 The Meriah rite is not a propitiation for sin, but 
 an offering to the Earth Goddess, whose malignity 
 they dread, and whom they hope in this way to 
 propitiate, that they may obtain plentiful crops. 
 There is no identity between the Kalee of the 
 Hindus and this Earth Goddess of the Khunds. A 
 gentleman well acquainted with the people and 
 their customs says, that the sacrifice would be of no 
 avail unless the victim was bought with a price. The 
 people from twelve to fifteen miles round are thus yearly 
 gathered together in the places where the sacrifice is 
 to be offered. There is music, and dancing, and 
 beating of drums, and a kind of Highland pipe. 
 Some of our dear rescued children have sung us the 
 song which precedes the horrible rite. It is as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Hail, Mother, hail ! Hail, Goddess Bhobanee ! 
 Lo ! we present a sacrifice to thee; 
 Partake thereof, and let it pleasure give, 
 And in return let us thy grace receive. 
 In all our fields, and all the plots we sow, 
 Oh, let a rich and plenteous harvest grow." 
 
 The victim, often a young girl, is bound, food offered, 
 with the reminder that soon there will be no power to 
 take more. On being bound to a tree, the signal is 
 given ; the jani, or chief priest, commences the horrid 
 slaughter ; the maddened crowd, all armed witli sharp 
 knives, rush on, and cut the flesh from the bones ! 
 The flesh is then deposited in the fields to ensure a 
 
 c 
 
18 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 plentiful crop. Two or three days pass, and the same 
 scene is witnessed in another, and yet another village, 
 so that one person may see ten or twelve of these 
 murders in a single season. 
 
 From the time these dreadful disclosures were made 
 the Indian Government has used means to sup- 
 I)ress the inhuman rites. A Christian officer, a 
 captain in the Madras army, had the honour of 
 rescuing the first twelve children in 1837. They were 
 placed in the mission school at Berhampore, near 
 Ganjam, and some have run their earthly race, but 
 not till they knew a Saviour's love, and felt its 
 transforming power in their hearts. One of this 
 number when dying said : " I love the Lord, and know 
 He will not leave me. I am a great sinner, but 
 Christ died to save sinners." On the night she died, 
 many of her school companions sat with her, and at 
 her request sang hymns. Just before she expired 
 she said : " Sing Hallelujah ! I am going home." 
 For several years these rescued children had no 
 support from Government. Some ^uere given by the 
 authorities to the missionaries, and some to Hindus, 
 Mohammedans, and Portuguese. But in 1847 a 
 change in the officials led to their being taken 
 by Government, placed in the mission schools, and 
 taught a trade or farming. The girls w^ere generally 
 married at sixteen. In tv.o years, no less than 
 547 victims were thus rescued. 
 
 An officer, himself an able linguist, reduced the 
 lancruaoe to a written character, and, aided bv the 
 missionaries, a mission press was set u]"), and 
 books prepared and printed in the Khund language. 
 
ORISSA. 1 9 
 
 Since this was ejftected Nagpore has been annexed 
 to the British territories, and a good road through 
 Goomsur and Boad to Sohnpore made, which, in a 
 commercial point of view, is a great boon, as it facili- 
 tates the sale of the salt manufactured in the Gaujam 
 district. Thus the Gospel has again been proved to 
 have the promise of " the life that now is, as well as of 
 that which is to come." 
 
 Another missionary lady writes, August, 1848 : 
 " The other day, while giving my pupils a lesson in 
 geography, a messenger came saying, ' Fifty Khund 
 children have come.' We gave them a hearty welcome, 
 but they were wild and uncultivated in the extreme ; — 
 their hair long and uncombed ; their dress a piece of 
 coarse native calico wrapped round the waist, with 
 one end brought over the shoulders. They had not 
 been taught a single useful art, but had spent their 
 time in idleness, or gathering wild fruits and roots. 
 Our first business was to get them a thorough bath ; 
 we then had their hair cut. In the interim of school 
 hours I cut out a complete set of new clothes, consist- 
 ing of a coloured petticoat and striped jacket, with 
 short sleeves for each. Miss Collins thus describes an 
 affecting recognition : ' One of my former Khund 
 children, a sweet girl of ten, named Berdomie, had 
 retained her own language better than the others. 
 She manifested much solicitude for her new friends, 
 going from one to another, and comforting any that 
 wept. They were very anxious to see the boys, and 
 find their brothers. Some of them were taken over 
 to the compound and did find them, the strong 
 likeness bearing testimony to the fact, when 
 
20 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 they laid their hands on their heads and wept 
 much.' " 
 
 Another lady writes : " Six more of our dear Meriah 
 girls are now happily married. It makes our hearts 
 thrill with gratitude when we think that had not kind 
 hands been stretched out for their rescue they would 
 long ere this have been immolated in the cause of 
 vile idolatry. Another dear girl, apparently about 
 eleven, bids fair to rival all the others. She Avorks 
 beautifully, and is so quick and clever. She was just 
 on the point of being sacrificed when rescued, the 
 first cut having been made in her leg, the mark of 
 which she Avill carry Avith her to her grave. Our 
 assistant teacher, a pious intelligent young widow, is 
 also a rescued Khund. 
 
 " The girls have been reading ' Daybreak in Britain,' 
 and the similarity between what is there described 
 and their own superstitions struck them much." 
 I Kide, this teacher, was rescued by Captain Fry a few 
 weeks before the time appointed for the sacrifice. 
 She had seen many, and her parents told her that she 
 would one day be offered up in the same way. She 
 minutely described the awful tragedy of the last 
 sacrifice she witnessed. Then she too Avas sold, 
 fastened up, and prepared by being fattened. She 
 Avas dreadfully frightened and tried to make her escape, 
 Avhen they fastened her with large chains round her 
 ankles, to make it impossible. But the time of her 
 deliverance was at hand. The brave, kind-hearted 
 officer heard of the coming sacrifice, and rode night 
 and day to save her. He succeeded, placed her in 
 the mission school, Avhere her heart and intellect Avere 
 
ORISSA. 21 
 
 cultivated, and now she is an earnest, intelligent 
 Christian woman, training others for heaven. Oole, 
 another dear rescued one, is suffering severely in her 
 eyes. It appears that often before the rite begins, 
 the victim is rendered almost senseless in various ways. 
 Amongst others, a mixture of oil and other ingredients 
 is thrown over the head and face. It blinds them 
 for the time. This was done to poor Oole, and she 
 has never recovered ; but I hope the dear girl is a 
 child of God, and though so suffering she is rejoicing 
 in a sense of His favour and forgiveness. When I 
 asked her what led to the change, she said ' that one 
 night she sat thinking of the great deliverance God 
 had effected for her body ; this led her to seek a still 
 greater deliverance for her soul.' " 
 
 The decision of these young converts was remark- 
 able, and, as their numbers increased, attracted much 
 attention. The wicked were emboldened in their 
 wickedness, and sought to lay snares for them. One 
 day a roll of paper was found tied up in the compound 
 addressed to them. The writer described himself as 
 in Government employ, receiving a good salary ; and 
 they were told that if any of them would secretly 
 leave the premises, which they were well able to do, 
 a place was named for meeting, and they should at 
 once be placed in a position which should enable them 
 to wear the finest garments and jewellery. " What is 
 your present position ? " the letter went on to say. 
 " You are just the slaves of the missionaries. You 
 know no joys, wear coarse garments ; " and much 
 more in the same strain. What was the result of 
 that letter ? To God be all the glory. The Bible 
 
22 OUB EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 truths had so enlightened the minds of our dear 
 children that these specious statements took no effect. 
 Bringing the letter to their beloved friend and teacher, 
 one of the elder girls as spokeswoman said : "We know 
 the pleasures of sin are only for a season, followed by 
 shame, remorse, death, and endless woe." 
 
 As workers increased, schools and a large orphan 
 asylum were established. In the latter, one of the 
 number, little Violet, was soon called to her heavenly 
 rest. When near her end she said : " Do not give me 
 more medicine, I shall not recover ; God is calling me 
 to go above. I am not afraid to die ; Jesus has died 
 for me, and I know my sins are all forgiven." 
 
 " The history of one little girl resembles that of many 
 others. Her parents were on a pilgrimage to Jugger- 
 naut, when the mother was seized with cholera. Her 
 cruel husband left her; when overcome with disease 
 and exhaustion, she lay down and died. Next morn- 
 ing she was found with her baby lying at her breast. 
 The heart of a native Christian woman was touched 
 with compassion. She adopted the babe, gave it the 
 name of Rebecca, and placed her at our school. She 
 is now an intelligent child, and reads the Bible 
 nicely." 
 
 Later on, it was the privilege of these ladies to 
 begin work in the homes of the high-born natives. An 
 educated babu, employed as inspector of Government 
 boys' schools, had taught his wife to read in her own 
 tongue. He invited the English ladies to visit her. 
 Several friends came in, and sat round on a newly- 
 spread carpet. They listened attentively to the hymns 
 sung and the old, old story of Jesus and His love. 
 
ORISSA. 23 
 
 When obliged to go, several exclaimed : " Oh, do come 
 again quickly ; " and great was the thankfulness with 
 which on a later visit they found that the Bible was 
 being read diligently. This was in Pooree, a place 
 noted for idolatry. 
 
 We add part of a letter written in English by one 
 of the young converts, after her marriage to a native 
 teacher residing at Balasore. It is addressed to her 
 former schoolfellows. 
 
 " My beloved sisters, with loving salutations I 
 write you a little letter. I had trouble in body and 
 mind on my long journey. Being unaccustomed to 
 riding, the shaking of the cart made me very sick. I 
 was constantly thinking about you all. When I saw 
 beautiful flowers, I wanted you to see them. If I fell 
 asleep in my dreams, I was with you, and thought 
 myself in your midst, singing the hymns we have so 
 often sung. Then I awoke and found myself far 
 away, not one of you near me ; but at length I 
 gained comfort by casting my burden upon the 
 Lord. The Christian sisters are very kind to me, 
 but I cannot yet love them as I do you. Let us 
 pray for one another. — Your loving sister, 
 Louisa." 
 
 Miss Packer is still diligently carrying on her work 
 in Orissa, after twenty-six years of faithful hibour. 
 There are now 180 inmates of the female orphanage 
 under the care of Miss Leigh. Very many others of 
 the girls scattered through the province are practically 
 exhibiting in their Christian homes the benefit of the 
 instruction they have received. 
 
 The report of the Orissa Mission for 1881-1882 
 
24 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 states that, in addition to a larger distribution of the 
 Word of God than in previous years, there have been 
 many additions to their literature in the vernacular. 
 The " Pilgrim's Progress," a work on fulfilled pro- 
 phecy, and many others of general interest, have been 
 translated into Oriya. In Dr. Hunter's " Imperial 
 Gazetteer of India " we find this interesting notice : 
 " Choga, or Chagan Gobra, a village of Orissa, in- 
 habited exclusively by a small community of peasant 
 Christians, and two other Christian hamlets adjoin it." 
 It is worthy of notice, that while in the part still 
 heathen, the examiners report that only 07ie woman 
 in nineteen hundred is able to read and write ; in 
 some of the Christian villages, out of 175 females, 87, 
 or about half, are able to do so. It adds : " This proves 
 that the girls' school, supported by the Female Educa- 
 tion Society, has done a good work." 
 
 One little romance, in connection with our sisters 
 in Orissa, must close this chai^ter. As far ago as 
 1829, a Brahmin pundit from North India set out 
 with his wife aiid their only surviving child, then a 
 few months old, on a pilgrimage to the temple of 
 Juggernaut. Though a girl she was loved, and week 
 after week the mother carried her little one uncom- 
 plainingly under the burning sun, toward the holy 
 shrine. 
 
 When within a few miles of the temple, the parents 
 were attacked with cholera. The man died, and Dr. 
 Sutton, a devoted missionary, passing by to preach to 
 the pilgrims, found the mother lying on the ground, 
 and her starving infant clinging to her. Alone, with 
 a fearful storm raging around him, the missionary 
 
ORISSA. Z O 
 
 could only lift up his heart for guidance. He walked 
 some miles before he could procure milk or medicine ; 
 but when administered, the poor creature rallied. For 
 three days she lingered, and listened for the first time 
 in her life to the story of a Saviour's love. Then by 
 signs commending her little one to the Good Samaritan 
 who had done so much for her, she expired. What 
 was to be done with the baby ? It was a girl. No 
 heathen woman could be induced to tend it. The 
 native doctor whom Mrs. Sutton had called in shrugged 
 his shoulders, saying, "Let it die too. What else?" 
 But this was not to be. While the doctor was taking 
 possession of the bangles and other ornaments on the 
 lifeless body, Dr. and Mrs. Sutton formed the resolu- 
 tion to adopt the Hindu baby. They were childless, 
 and, as years rolled on, the baby grew into a young 
 woman. She had accompanied her adopted parents 
 to America, had been placed in a good school, and 
 become a useful and educated Christian. On her 
 return to Orissa, preserved from the evils of the early 
 marriage of her countrywomen, she undertook the 
 training of the girls connected with the mission. In 
 course of time a young Rajput, who had become a 
 Christian, and had received a liberal education, visited 
 the station. He wooed and won in true English 
 fashion the gentle orphan girl, and with the glad 
 consent of the foster-parents the marriage took place. 
 The union was consecrated by a Christian service, and 
 the presence of Jesus was sought at the wedding feast. 
 The orphan of Juggernaut still lives to bless God for 
 her wonderful preservation, and all the blessings of 
 this life which have been vouchsafed to her. This 
 
26 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 story was told by her husband, Behari Lai Singh, who 
 concluded his speech by asking his hearers " to pray 
 for his beloved wife," that she may " be a burning 
 and shining light among her benighted sisters, and 
 have wisdom and gi'ace given to train up their children 
 in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 INDIA MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 
 
 " These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have 
 washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 
 — Rev. vii. 14. 
 
 HE first English settlement in this 
 presidency took place when a Hindu 
 rajah presented Cromwell with a 
 small strip of land which was 
 named, after England's patron saint, 
 Fort St. George. Here the agents 
 of the East India Company estab- 
 lished themselves. 
 
 We have undoubted evidence 
 that the light of the Gospel had 
 penetrated into Southern India from the early ages of 
 Christianity. 
 
 When Vasco de Gama landed on the coast of 
 Malabar about the year 1503, he found upwards of 
 a hundred Christian churches. " These churches," 
 said the Portuguese, " belong to the Pope." " Who 
 is the PojDe ? " replied the natives ; " we never even 
 heard of him." Three centuries later Dr. Buchanan, 
 visiting the same country, writes, that as he ap- 
 
 27 
 
28 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 proached the church of Chinganoor he met one of the 
 Syrian clergy, who sahited him with these words, 
 "The God of peace be with thee." The people " of 
 the neighbouring villages," he adds, " came round me, 
 women as well as men. The sight of women assured 
 me that I was once more in a Christian country, for 
 Hindu and Mohammedan women are accounted by the 
 men as an inferior race, and in general are confined to 
 the house for life, like irrational creatures." 
 
 The first Protestant mission to South India was 
 founded by Ziegenbalg in 1705, in Tanjore. He 
 returned to Europe in 1714 ; and it is an interesting 
 fact that one of the first letters written by King 
 George the First, after coming to the British throne, 
 was to this missionary. His Majesty honoured 
 Ziegenbalg with an audience, and expressed his deep 
 interest in the translation of the Bible into Tamul, 
 which was then progressing. 
 
 After the death of Ziegenbalg, the mission, which 
 included schools for girls as well as for boys, was kept 
 up by no less than fifty successive missionaries, in- 
 cluding the honoured names of Schultz, Gdricke, 
 Schwartz, and Kothoff, and subsequently by Rhenius. 
 At the time of Dr. Buchanan's visit, the Mohammedans 
 had held dominion for many years over a large part of 
 India, and had greatly persecuted these Syrian Christ- 
 ians. Though persecuted, they were not forsaken, 
 and many could testify that the religion of Christ was 
 no cunningly devised fable. Amidst prevailing vice 
 and idolatry, some of these remarkable people are still 
 found, an interesting remnant of Christianity in a heathen 
 land. In some of the conjjregations which Buchanan 
 
MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 29 
 
 addressed, the women occupied one side of the church, 
 neatly clothed in white jackets and light muslin veils. 
 
 In 1806, Ringeltaube, a Russian missionary, 
 was sent out at the request of an Englishman, 
 Colonel C. Macaula}^, then the Resident at the court 
 of Travancore, who longed to benefit the souls as well as 
 the bodies of the people. Not only did he obtain 
 permission from the rajah for the missionary to settle 
 in his dominions, but he offered himself to defray his 
 expenses. Schools for both sexes were established 
 there, and in other places, by the missionaries of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and under 
 this Resident and his successor, Colonel Monro, who 
 was equally interested in the spread of the Gospel, 
 schools and other Christian work flourished. 
 
 In 1 8 1 9, Mrs. Mault, the wife of a London missionary, 
 brought a large number of girls under instruction, and 
 for thirty-six years laboured in South India. She 
 introduced amongst them the art of lace-making, 
 which proved a great temporal help. For a time this 
 mission prospered, but Satan's kingdom was beginning 
 to be shaken, and he now raised up a fierce persecution. 
 As the whole story is connected with women, it bears 
 directly upon our subject. The outbreak began in 
 1827, and arose in the following way. It had always 
 been forbidden the Shanars and all other low caste 
 women to wear any clothing whatever above the waist. 
 The truer and better instinct had been aroused by the 
 teaching of Christianity, and the Christian women and 
 girls adopted a plain loose cotton jacket with short 
 sleeves, over their skirts, as devised for them by one 
 of the missionary ladies. This displeased the Sudra 
 
80 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 aristocracy, and they resolved to use it as an excuse 
 to put an end to Christianity, and its reforms and 
 innovations. 
 
 Threats were uttered, several school-houses burned 
 down, and a stop put to others that were being erected. 
 One native gentleman, who had befriended the mission- 
 aries, and sold them the ground upon which a mission 
 house and school for girls had been built at . Neyoor, 
 was seized, imprisoned on false charges, and not 
 released for seven years. Spies were sent about the 
 country, converts were thrust into dungeons, their 
 Bibles and school-books cast into the roads, while their 
 women were beaten and insulted in the bazaars, and 
 in many cases their clothing was publicly torn off. 
 On the 29th of February, 1829, a j)roclamation was 
 issued forbidding all low caste women to wear "any 
 upper cloth " whatever, as it was contrary to ancient 
 custom. 
 
 Notwithstanding this cruel persecution converts were 
 added to the Church, and some local changes for a 
 time caused a lull, and the storm seemed to have 
 blown over. Notwithstanding efforts by succeeding 
 governors to extend education, the rest was but of 
 short continuance. We learn in a letter from the 
 widow of Sir Robert Grant, that his successor as 
 governor, the young Lord Elphinstone, as one of his 
 first acts, invited a statement of all the educational 
 institutions in India before he introduced reforms into 
 his own province of Madras, 
 
 But the people did not seem ripe for the change. 
 The Rev. J. Abbs, in his interesting work entitled 
 " Twenty-two Years in Travancore," states, that in 
 
MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 31 
 
 1858 there were between 10,000 and 11,000 native 
 Christians in the district round Neyoor. Suddenly 
 the "upper cloth riots" again burst forth. A Christian 
 woman was assaulted in the public market and her 
 clothes torn off from her. The Sudras gave out that 
 a fresh order had been issued by Government to strip 
 every Christian low caste woman of her jacket. Such 
 cruelties and outrages were perpetrated that Lord 
 Harris, then Governor of Madras, looked carefully into 
 the matter, and found that reports had been circulated 
 that he had caused a proclamation to be made giving 
 over the rule to the native rajah, with liberty to murder 
 all Europeans. In consequence, many of the Christians 
 had been placed in the stocks, severely beaten, their 
 houses entered, and the women attacked with clubs 
 and knives, their money, goods, and jewels stolen, and 
 themselves cruelly beaten and kicked. Through the 
 effectual interposition of Sir Charles Trevelyan, who 
 succeeded Lord Harris as Governor of Madras, these 
 poor creatures were protected, and their right to wear 
 decent clothing recognised by law. 
 
 Sir Charles addressed the resident in the followinof 
 strong language : 'ikThe whole civilised world would 
 cry shame upon us if we did not make a firm stand ; 
 and I should fail in respect to Her Majesty, if I 
 attempted to describe the feelings with which she must 
 regard the use made against her own sex of the 
 promises of protection so graciously accorded by her." 
 The special object of the royal proclamation was to 
 assure Her Majesty's Indian subjects of liberty of 
 thought and action, so long as they did not interfere 
 with the just rights of others. As a result of Sir 
 
32' OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 Charles's act the rajah issued a proclamation in 1859 
 allowing all his women subjects to wear " a dress of 
 coarse cloth." 
 
 From this time the work in South India increased 
 rapidly. Instead, as in former years, of the female 
 scholars belonging exclusively to the low caste classes, 
 education is now eagerly sought by high caste girls and 
 their male relatives. Government has joined in giving 
 it to them as well as to boys. The public prints have 
 even stated that there are already some heathen female 
 schools in India. Nevertheless, woman's education is 
 for the most part still in the hands of the various 
 missionary societies, and it is well that it should be so. 
 What benefits would our poor sisters gain, if, taught by 
 secular knowledge to realise their own past degradation, 
 we did not at the same time give them the bread of 
 life, and lead them to the woman's Saviour ? 
 
 The record of female missions in Madras would be 
 incomplete without a reference to Mrs. Anderson. In 
 1846 she left her Swiss home, and for thirteen years 
 devoted all her energies, in connection with the Free 
 Church of Scotland, to work among the women of the 
 Madras presidency. When obliged to seek rest for a 
 time in her native land, an address signed by no less 
 than 200, including Mohammedans, Hindus, and East 
 Indians, was presented to her, with an earnest prayer 
 for her speedy return. 
 
 In 18-il the Revs. R. Noble and Henry Fox landed 
 in Madras, and at once proceeded to Masulepatam, the 
 chief town of the Telugu nation. Soon after their 
 arrival Mrs. Fox had work found for her by Mr. Tucker, 
 then the head of the Church Mission. A European 
 
MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 33 
 
 died leavinsf two children. He had married a Telugu 
 woman who had been a dancing girl, and the children 
 had been brought up in heathenism. Mr. Tucker was 
 appointed their guardian, and he entrusted the little 
 wild ignorant girl to the young missionary's wife. She 
 had been thoroughly imbued with heathen sujierstitions, 
 and it was with difficulty she could be taught to eat 
 with a spoon, sit upon a chair, or wear a decent dreys, 
 and it was a long struggle ere she could sit at table 
 where people would see her eat. During the time she 
 spent with Mr. and Mrs. Fox a great and saving change 
 took place, and she gave evident signs of having 
 become a true Christian. Mr. Fox writes : " Mary 
 Paterson is more than ever precious to me, as the 
 crown of rejoicing to my dear wife. Only four years 
 ago she was brought to us a heathen wild cat, and now 
 she is such a beautiful Christian character, yearning 
 and striving after the conversion of her heathen 
 relatives." 
 
 In " India's Women," Sir Richard Temple states, 
 May, 1881 : "There are now no fewer than 70,000 
 girls at school in British India." On the other hand, 
 in the "Indian Evangelical Review" for July, 1882, it 
 is stated that there are still in the Madras presidency 
 alone 2,800,000 girls still untaught. 
 
 The royal visit of the " Heir- apparent " to the 
 throne of Travancore, to different missions and schools, 
 and, amongst others, to Mrs. Bishop's caste girls' 
 school, tended much to wear away the prejudices of 
 the natives. He expressed his appreciation of the 
 training there given, by sending a present of maps 
 and school-books, and won the hearts of all the 
 
 D 
 
8-i OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 children by himself giving each little girl a small 
 present. 
 
 The late Rev. John Tucker, the superintendent of 
 the Clim'ch Missionary Society's missions in Madras, 
 on hearing of the establishment of the Female Educa- 
 tion Society, wrote thus to its secretary in 1836 
 asking for help : " Our great want is teachers — 
 females of moderate talents and attainments, of patient 
 spirit, unambitious, and content to work for the Lord's 
 sake." In response to this appeal four ladies were 
 sent to Mr. Tucker and his sister. Miss Craven was 
 placed at Palamcottah, 400 miles to the south, where 
 the delicate health of both the missionaries' wives 
 prevented them from carrying out the work they had 
 begun. Mrs. Pettitt had twenty-nine girls under in- 
 struction, and the numbers soon increased. 
 
 The rich blessing which has rested upon the Tin- 
 nevelly Mission is known to all interested in mis- 
 sionary work. In addition to the Sarah Tucker 
 institution and the Florence Monro school, supported 
 originally by two ladies in memory of one " gone 
 home," there are boarding, day, orphan, and branch 
 schools. In one opened in the Panueiveli district, an 
 interesting case was that of Rachel, a girl of the 
 " Marraver " or thief caste. She learned to love and 
 fear the God of the Bible, when her father, a very 
 bad man, came to carry her off, and marry her to a 
 heathen. This she refused to do, when her step- 
 mother came and said, if she would not consent she 
 should be murdered. Still Rachel refused. Then 
 her brother and two other heathen men came to take 
 her by force. Friends took up her case and applied 
 
MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 35 
 
 to the magistrate, when Rachel begged no one might 
 be punished, but only that she might be protected. 
 She has since become a teacher, and continues to be 
 a humble, consistent Christian. 
 
 Writing of this work, the late Bishop of Madras 
 said : " There was a simple reality about the scene 
 before me, which made my heart run over. Would 
 that the opponents of missions could have been present." 
 This, too, is a scene with many a parallel in Tin- 
 nevelly. In 1817 the Rev. J. Hough, a devoted 
 chaplain and missionary, recorded two villages from 
 which caste, devil worship, and heathenism were 
 banished. Now their number is nearly 500. The 
 women in these villages may be seen sitting beneath 
 the shade of the cocoa-nut trees spinning their cotton, 
 and singing Tamul hymns, and the children learning 
 their first lessons of Christianity at their mothers' knees. 
 
 The Rev. W. Keane wrote to the Female Education 
 Society in 1853 : "During the six years I was in 
 India I saw no aspect of the mission field so urgent 
 in its claims, or so promising in its results, as that of 
 native female education. I long to tell your Society 
 of the heavy sufferings of heathen women, and that I 
 have seen in your Society the only remedy." 
 
 In Miss Lowe's interesting work on Punrooty, we 
 have a striking illustration of what two feeble women 
 were enabled to effect, living alone and surrounded by 
 thousands of heathen natives. Many of the Mussul- 
 mans of both sexes would come and listen to a white 
 lady, often exclaiming : " If it had been a padre, we 
 would never have come." Punrooty being a purely 
 native town, unreached by any modern or European 
 
3 6 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 ideas, the difficulty of gaining access to high caste 
 women was unusually great. When a Brahmin sub- 
 magistrate, who owed his elevation to Miss Reade's 
 father, Avas asked by her permission to visit his wife, 
 he replied : " We are not sufficiently enlightened for 
 that here." At a house where the favour was granted, 
 one of the family told her : " We are unclean through 
 your coming among us. We shall all have the 
 trouble of bathing when you are gone." 
 
 Miss Reade's sympathy with the sorrowful little 
 child-widows revealed to her much of the misery and 
 some of the secrets of a Mohammedan zenana, where 
 it was said : " Many may be murdered and buried 
 without any one outside knowing." In many instances 
 she has been permitted to see the fruit of her labours. 
 
 Khadu Bee was married when seven years old to 
 a havildar (non-commissioned officer), and had from 
 that time followed the regiment in a closely-covered 
 cart. On her husband's death she was left penniless. 
 Her own words to Miss Reade were : " When you 
 met me I was losing my senses. It was only God's 
 words of love and peace you spoke that kept me from 
 going mad. When my husband was alive, I had land, 
 cows, and sheep, all I wanted for this world, but no 
 light in my mind. Now I have lost all, but light 
 has come to me." On her baptism, her relatives were 
 told they ought to kill her. Poisoned milk was sent 
 to her, and other attempts made to murder her. She 
 often said : "No one knows the murders that take 
 place in our houses at midnight." One of her own 
 relatives had been murdered by her husband and 
 bricked up in the wall for no other crime than having 
 
MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 37 
 
 rushed into the road to save her own child from being 
 knocked down by a bullock cart. Her husband was told 
 she had been seen outside her house. He said little, but 
 after the midnight following no one ever saw her again. 
 
 Arecent missionary journal records the following story 
 as illustrating the results of a Christian woman's work 
 in South India. In the palace of a maharajah, the royal 
 ladies have been permitted to receive the visits of a 
 lady, sent out by the Church Missionary Society. 
 The husband of one of these princesses had the mis- 
 fortune to offend his highness the maharajah. He 
 accused his royal relative of disloyalty, and threw him 
 into prison, where he lay for five years. Thus 
 separated from her husband, the rajah commanded 
 the lady to marry another, a man of his choice. For 
 those five long years did that noble woman resist his 
 authority and threats, backed as they were by members 
 of her own family. " No," she said, " he, the captive, 
 was her own lawful husband. She had read the Bible, 
 and must obey God. That book had taught her her 
 duty, and she would die rather than marry another." 
 
 At the end of five years the tyrant rajah himself 
 died, and one of the first acts of his successor was to 
 set the prisoner free. The loving and faithful wife 
 was restored to husband and home. 
 
 The first female boarding school established by the 
 Church Missionary Society was in Palamcottah, in 1823, 
 and the circumstances which led to it were extremely 
 interesting. Mrs. Schnarre, the energetic young 
 wife of one of the early missionaries, was very anxious 
 to acquire the language. In those days this was not 
 an easy matter. The only intercourse with female 
 
38 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 natives was confined to those of the lowest caste, from 
 whom the lady felt she was not likely to obtain either 
 grammar or correct pronunciation. She therefore 
 resolved to go regularly to the boy's school, and listen 
 to the pundit's mode of teaching. A little boy, 
 attracted perhaps by the white lady's gentle manner, 
 ventured one day to creep to her side, and beg as a 
 great boon that she would give him a spelling-book. 
 As he had one at school, the request led to further 
 inquiries, when the boy confessed that he wanted the 
 book for his little sister at home, who was lonofins: to 
 read. Further acquaintance with that and similar 
 houses led Mrs. Schnarrd to make friends with the 
 mothers. One of them informed her, not only that 
 girls did not need to learn anything beyond what 
 their mothers taught them, but that all girls' learn- 
 ing was comprised in three things. First, to keep 
 caste ; secondly, to make salaam ; and thirdly, how to 
 deceive. She often afterwards heard them boast how 
 many clever falsehoods their girls could tell. 
 
 God's blessing has rested upon the work of His 
 handmaidens. Educated native gentlemen in India, 
 and especially in Madras, are now trying to secure the 
 blessings of education and freedom of choice in 
 marriage for their sisters and daughters. Quite lately, 
 at the annual distribution of prizes at a Madras girls' 
 school, in connection with the London Missionary 
 Society, a Hindu gentleman presided, and stated that 
 he was not over-rating the importance of female educa- 
 tion, when he said that it was one of the most 
 powerful agents in the progress of the country, though 
 it had not entered yet beyond the stage of its infancy. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 INDIA BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. 
 
 ■ I commend unto you Phebe, our sister, for she hath been a 
 siiccourer of many." — Romans xvi. 1, 2. 
 
 ROM the report on Education in 
 British India, made by the Govern- 
 ment of India in 1872 to the 
 Home Department, we learn that 
 the first educational experiments 
 in Bombay were some charity 
 schools opened in 1718. In them 
 white and coloured children were 
 dependent upon public benevol- 
 ence until the Company, in 1807, 
 made a grant for educational purposes. In the 
 charter of 1813, when Parliament gave India its first 
 bishop and chaplains, a department was formed for 
 public instruction. In 1815 the Bombay Native 
 Education Society was formed, under the auspices of 
 its governor, Mountstuart Elphinstone. So little were 
 these efforts appreciated, that when the Rev. Dr. 
 Wilson, the well-known Scotch missionary, made his 
 first tour in 1829, an entry in his journal, under date 
 
 29 
 
40 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 13tb November in that year, states that twenty-four 
 boys and one solitary girl were among the most hope- 
 ful results. 
 
 The American missionaries were the first in the 
 field, and in 1810 took up the work which in early 
 Christian centuries the Nestorians had begun. Dr. 
 Carey, at his Serampore press, had translated the 
 whole of the New Testament into Marathee, the 
 spoken language of Bombay, so that the Americans, 
 then the London Missionary Society in 1815, and 
 the Church missionaries afterwards, had it ready to 
 hand. 
 
 Dr. Murray Mitchell states that he and Wilson and 
 other Scotch missionaries wished to settle in and open 
 schools} at Poona and other large cities, as they con- 
 sidered Bombay was already cared for. But a high 
 official told them that " the authorities were so des- 
 perately afraid of offending the Brahmins that this 
 could not be permitted." Under these circumstances. 
 Dr. Wilson and his young wife began their labours in 
 Bombay. She felt deeply interested in the welfare of 
 the heathen females, and at once established three 
 girls' schools. The Christian public took up this 
 work, many details of which were published by Mrs. 
 Wilson in the " Oriental Christian Spectator." Her 
 labours were cut short by her early death, but in the 
 very year that she died she was able to rejoice at the 
 gift of the ladies of Bombay, who subscribed 700 
 rupees to aid the object so near her heart. To the 
 end she cared for her poor Marathi girls, and calling 
 one of them to her she exclaimed : " Oh, Anandie, I 
 beseech you greatly, love Jesus Christ. The prospect 
 
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. 41 
 
 of death is sweet." Shortly after her death, the eldest 
 girl in her school was united in marriage to a Brahmin 
 convert. It was the first Christian native wedding in 
 Bombay. 
 
 In 1838, Archdeacon Carr was made first Bishop 
 of Bombay, and from that time the work of female 
 education received a new impetus. 
 
 Hearing of the newly formed Society for Promoting 
 Female Education, he wrote to the secretary as follows : 
 " In consequence of information communicated to 
 me of the readiness of the Society to render help in 
 selecting and sending out to India ladies to undertake 
 the management of female schools, I am induced 
 earnestly to solicit their aid in procuring a suitable 
 mistress for a school lately opened at Poena. We are, 
 in this presidency, commencing the education of native 
 females. I may say without hesitation that there is 
 no likelihood of finding a suitable person in India." 
 
 To meet this application, a lady was at once sent 
 out, and soon after, at the request of the missionaries 
 connected with the General Assembly of the Church 
 of Scotland, Mdlle. Jallot, a French Protestant lady 
 supported by the Scottish Ladies' Association, followed, 
 and began work in Bombay. Mdlle. Jallott was a 
 convert from Romanism, and had literally given up 
 all for Christ. She entered upon her work with a 
 heart full of love to souls, and talents of no common 
 order. But her career was soon ended. " She was 
 seized with cholera in so severe a form " that, as wrote 
 the Rev. Robert Nesbit, " it hurried away the powers 
 of body and mind." In a lucid interval, looking lov- 
 ingly at the friends who surrounded her bed, she 
 
42 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 exclaimed : " I am not afraid to die ! " And her 
 bright smile when speechless told how she fed upon 
 the texts they repeated. " You are," he adds, 
 " highly favoured in having helped forward such a 
 saint. You have blessed the heathen by setting 
 before them a bright example of the power of the 
 Gospel, and the very words which in her incipient 
 labours were uttered and re-uttered in a stammering 
 tongue may become the seed of spiritual life." 
 
 God's work was not hindered. Other workers came 
 forward, and the next year Miss Burton and Mrs. 
 Willing arrived in Bombay. The former filled the 
 vacant post, while the latter took charge of the 
 military asylum, at which place, and afterwards in 
 other parts of India, she faithfully laboured for 
 twenty years. The first-fruits soon began to appear. 
 Two women were baptised. The first was a Marathi 
 widow. One day when her teacher was praying with 
 her, tears rolled from her eyes, as she exclaimed : " I 
 was thinking what a sinful girl I was." The other 
 said : ''I know that I am a sinner, and that Christ 
 alone can take away my sins. I do wish to be a 
 Christian, because I want all my sins to be forgiven, I 
 want a clean heart." Afterwards she said : " God does 
 not find in us good hearts that want just a little of 
 His help, but He sees that we want quite new hearts, 
 which He only can create. I am a sinful child. I 
 cannot save myself, but Jesus Christ can make my 
 heart good." Two days after her baptism she was 
 married to an excellent native catechist from Nagpore. 
 He had made a journey of 000 miles to the school 
 that he might get a Christian wife, but God saw fit 
 
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. 43 
 
 soon to deprive him of his new treasure. She was 
 taken ill and died. He wrote : " Her end was peaceful 
 and happy, though she had so wished to be useful to 
 the people at Nagpore." 
 
 Mrs. Mullens was cheered at this time by the con- 
 version of a girl of whom she thus wrote : "On our 
 return from a long tour we were told that our native 
 doctor who had so long attended to the sick on our 
 missionary premises had died. He left behind him 
 an old widowed mother, his own widow, and his 
 daughter Beedoo, also a widow. On inquiry I found 
 Beedoo had been left a widow at twelve years of age, 
 and when her father saw the sad life before her, he 
 hired a pundit to teach her reading and other 
 acquirements. She was a singularly interesting girl, 
 and previously to her conversion had scrupulously 
 attended to all the rigorous rules imposed by 
 Hinduism, had worn no ornaments, had taken food 
 only once in twenty-four hours, and never tasted 
 animal food, and never knowingly destroyed life. 
 Though entirely shut up in her own house, the sick 
 and poor came to her for aid." 
 
 Mrs. Mullens asked her if she would like to begin 
 teaching a few girls in her own home. She joy- 
 fully assented, and ere long had a most interesting 
 class of girls, some of whom belonged to her own 
 high caste. Under her beloved friend's care, she 
 was led to give her heart to God, and ultimately 
 became a very efficient teacher. 
 
 Another case of interest was that of a young girl 
 whose parents were inmates of the poor asylum. 
 While they lived they permitted her to attend both 
 
44 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 the day and Sunday schools, and in this way she 
 was led to see the sin of heathenism, and though not 
 a convert, her mind was prepared to receive the truth. 
 On her parents' death, she was taken possession of 
 by some Hindu devotees, who carried her off to their 
 haunts. She escaped from their hands, and ran to Dr. 
 Wilson, but was watched by her former abductors, who 
 assaulted her, and nearly succeeded in again enslaving 
 her. Many later attempts were made to decoy her from 
 her Christiaa home. These attempts were unsuccessful, 
 and she became a happy and useful Christian. 
 
 An interesting Parsee school was opened in Bom- 
 bay. Here 800 girls were found in their bright 
 showy dresses, and skull-caps of cloth of gold, their 
 ears, necks, arms, and in some cases noses adorned 
 with jewels. A lady visitor hearing them singing in 
 Guzerati " God save the Queen," was amused at the 
 distinctly audible way in which the name Victoria was 
 pronounced. She writes : " The Parsees, as a body, 
 are very loyal to the crown. I thought of Her 
 Majesty at the time, and wished she could have seen 
 her pretty little Eastern subjects singing about her 
 with might and main." 
 
 The Church Missionary Society had already occu- 
 pied Nasik, and afterwards established a Christian 
 village at Sharanpoor. It was an industrial settle- 
 ment. A large congregation was collected, of whom 
 200 became communicants. The far-famed Godavery 
 River, whose beauties have been sketched by Sir 
 Richard Temple, when Chief Commissioner of the 
 Central Provinces, rises a little south-west of the city. 
 The Church missionary. Rev. J. Farrar, and his wife, 
 
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. 45 
 
 shortly after their arrival, were saddened by the 
 pitiable state of the female part of the community. 
 On their application to the Female Education Society, 
 a sum of money was voted to assist Mrs. Farrar, who, 
 under great difficulties, had just began a girls' school. 
 In acknowledging the help thus given, she writes : 
 
 " Nasik, 10^7i A^^gust, 1837. 
 " As yet there does not exist here the slightest 
 desire for female education among any classes. Neither 
 the higher nor the lower wish for any kind of mental 
 culture, accomplishments, or useful knowledge for their 
 daughters. Female education is in direct opposition 
 to the current of opinion among the natives. It is a 
 thing everywhere spoken against, and exposes those 
 who are the subject of it to opprobrium and persecu- 
 tion. Though our girls' school is attended only by 
 the lowest order of Shoodrus — a people regarded by 
 the Brahmins with much the same feeling as those 
 were regarded by the Jews, of whom they said : ' This 
 people which knoweth not the law are cursed ;' yet the 
 proud Nasik Brahmins have not thought it beneath 
 their dignity, on many occasions, to track these poor 
 little Shoodru girls to their homes, and threaten their 
 parents with expulsion from caste should they continue 
 to send girls to school. To postpone our efforts till 
 the stream of opinion should turn in favour of female 
 education, would be, I believe, to act the part of the 
 peasant in the fable, who sat upon the banks of a 
 river waiting for a passage till the waters should have 
 spent themselves. We must work against the stream. 
 Persons devotinsf themselves to this service must not 
 
46 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 expect to find pupils ready for them, and stretching out 
 their hands for instruction. They must be prepared to 
 exert all their ingenuity, all their powers of persuasion, 
 to induce any to receive instruction. A boarding-school 
 was soon added to the day-school, and a motley group 
 constituted the first pupils ; — the children of a wander- 
 ing beggar woman, and six liberated African slaves 
 from out of a hundred seized by our Government on 
 board a native vessel. These children were most 
 uncouth and forbidding in appearance and manners, 
 and were so suspicious that they refused to touch the 
 food placed before them till it had been first tasted by 
 their teacher in their presence. Some Mussulmans, 
 Hindus, and Marathis completed the first party." 
 
 The wife of another missionary wrote a touching 
 account of the neglected low caste women and children, 
 many of whom might be gathered in, were some lady 
 found to teach them, but her own time and strength 
 were sorely overtaxed. Among the children she had 
 taken was a tiny widow of six, who, day after day, 
 would sit in a corner of the compound and cry, saying : 
 " I know I am a widow and despised by all ;" while a 
 bright girl uttered this reproof: "Jesus Christ loves 
 little children. I pray to God every day and night 
 through Jesus to give me a new heart, and God hears 
 me. Will the sahib baptise me ? " Famine orphans 
 were subsequently admitted into schools in different 
 parts of the presidency, and there was scarcely one of 
 the band to whom some tragic tale did not attach itself. 
 Friends in England undertook the support of several 
 who received names chosen by their benefactors, often 
 in remembrance of some loved one " cone home.'* 
 
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. 47 
 
 The cost of each child was about £6 a year. What 
 an amount of blessing that small sum represented, 
 only those who have known the little ones in their 
 native state can realise. It was scarcely possible to 
 recognise in the clean tidy child, with her white skirt 
 and combed hair, the wretched, unkempt, unclothed 
 mass of dirt, often besmeared with red lead, which they 
 had before seen kneeling at the gate of the temjDle of 
 Hanuman, the monkey god. 
 
 Years after, when Dr. Wilson, in the zenith of his 
 fame, was publicly spoken of as " the great Orientalist 
 who subordinated his scholarly reputation to missionary 
 ends, and at whose feet every missionary and student 
 in India must sit," we find him spending his energies 
 upon his female schools, so admirably cared for by the 
 second Mrs. Wilson and her helpers. In a letter to 
 the late Sir Donald M'Leod, Lieutenant-Governor of 
 the Punjab, who himself used his influence and fortune 
 to promote mission work. Dr. Wilson urges the 
 importance of female education. It had been com- 
 menced amongst the Gonds in Central India by the 
 Berlin missionaries, to whom at one time Sir Donald 
 had given the whole of his then scanty income. 
 Writing in 1850 of his Bombay schools. Dr. Wilson 
 says: "A hundred and forty of our girls were collected 
 and examined, when the bishop and Mrs. Dealtry were 
 delighted with them, and seemed quite surprised to see 
 the intelligent countenances of the little things, and to 
 hear the ready way in which they replied to the 
 questions put to them. The bishop said that he had 
 seen nothing like it in India, and it was a scene he 
 could never forget, and he never says what he does not 
 
48 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 feel." Mrs. Wilson had at this time upwards of 500 
 girls in her native schools. 
 
 The Bible women in Bombay are now exercising a 
 great influence. They have access not only to private 
 houses, but to hospitals and asylums, and are much 
 blessed at the dispensary. Lately, a poor woman who 
 had had a severe accident said : "I feel all my pains 
 leave me when you talk. The name of your God 
 sounds so sweetly that I feel quite satisfied. Go on. 
 Do not stop. Do not let the noise disturb you. Let 
 me hear." At the jail their visits to the female 
 prisoners were at first objected to. But the women 
 begged that they might bo permitted to come and 
 read the good words to them. One woman said : "I 
 have spent lots of money in making vows to our gods, 
 now I will lay my child at the feet of your Jesus. 
 But where is He ? Can you tell me ? " 
 
 One word must be said as to the indirect blessings 
 resulting from the efforts of Christian ladies in heathen 
 lands. It is so well illustrated in Mrs. Weitbrecht's 
 " Female Missionaries in India," that an extract may 
 be given as a typical case. She says : " On one 
 occasion a lady, wife of a civilian, was stopping over 
 the Sabbath in our mission house. The delicate state of 
 her health prevented her from attending evening 
 church, and she remained at home with me. At the 
 usual hour the native Christian women assembled and 
 took their customary places on a mat on the floor. 
 The orphan girls sat in front. The service commenced 
 with the catechist giving out a Bengalee hymn, in 
 which every individual joined. When the singing 
 ceased the whole company prostrated themselves in 
 
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. 49 
 
 Oriental method, and a short fervent prayer was offered, 
 followed by an exposition suited to the capacities of 
 the hearers. After the concluding hymn and prayer 
 the women and girls passed before the lady and myself 
 in rotation, making their salaam on leaving. The lady 
 was quite overcome, and exclaimed : ' Oh, this is true 
 happiness ! This is delightful ! A missionary's wife 
 must be indeed a happy woman ! ' " 
 
 Our space will not allow any record of woman's 
 work in the Punjab, North-west Provinces, or Ceylon. 
 In that island the Female Education Society aided the 
 wife of Bishop Claughton, and the admirable schools of 
 the Wesleyans, and nowhere has greater blessing been 
 vouchsafed. Honorary workers, like Miss Tucker, Miss 
 Reade, Miss Lowe, Miss Clay, Miss Davidson, Miss 
 Anstey, and others, are labouring with zeal and energy, 
 and are seeing " signs following," while the ladies 
 associated with the various British and American 
 societies are constantly cheered by one and another 
 coming out of heathenism and avoucLing themselves 
 followers of Jesus. In the last reports of the Woman's 
 Foreign Missionary Society of America we have this 
 striking testimony from the mother of a large family: 
 " My sons tell me that the Hindu religion will not 
 last, that even now it is tottering. How thankful I 
 am that I and they live in the English rule, when we 
 can learn what has been hidden from us for ages," 
 
 In Oude their Bible woman Victoria is carrying on 
 zenana work in houses built by the old grandees of tie 
 time of the King of Oude. One family lives in the 
 apartments of a large Mohammedan praying-place. 
 The Americans, like their Scotch sisters, have begun 
 
 E 
 
50 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 in some places to take fees from their pupils, so many 
 being now anxious to learn. What a contrast to the 
 time when pice were obliged to be given to induce the 
 parents to allow even children of the lowest caste to 
 come. Truly we may say — What hath God wrought ! 
 
 — N'C^^^i&^^^K— 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 INDIA ZENANA MISSIONS. 
 
 " Captives of the mighty." — Isaiah xlix. 25. 
 
 HE work done under this title was 
 begun many years before the word 
 zenana was known to most English 
 people. Sheridan accused Warren 
 Hastings of oppressing the " un- 
 known begums in their secluded 
 zenanas ; " and in an interesting 
 letter to the venerable John 
 Newton, Dr. Claudius Buchanan 
 says, writing from Tanjore, October, 
 ISOG : "I have seen the two little daughters of the 
 King of Tanjore to-day. They were covered with 
 pearls and diamonds, but cannot read one word. The 
 king desired me to lend him a painting I had to show 
 to his ladies, but it was three days before I could get 
 the rajah out of his zenana." It is probable that he 
 was the first English minister who understood the 
 exact meaning of the name. It is a Persian word, 
 derived from zen, meaning woman. In North India 
 
 51 
 
52 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 the inmates are called purdahnashin, or curtain- 
 women — i.e., sitters behind the curtain. The word 
 means the women's apartments. The Turkish equi- 
 valent is harem or seraglio. 
 
 Zenana visitation refers to the access obtained by 
 Christian ladies to the aristocratic and high-born 
 Mohammedan and Hindu ladies in their own homes. 
 Long years ago the Hindu women enjoyed comparative 
 freedom, till seclusion was forced upon them by the 
 perils of Mussulman rule. Since that time every 
 woman, except those of the lower orders, has been 
 immured in the prison walls of her home, shut off 
 from all communication with the outer world, and in 
 many cases never seeing the face of any man but her 
 lord and master. A zenana mission, therefore, is 
 simply a mission to Indian high-caste women, carried 
 on exclusively by women. 
 
 It is often called " a new agency," and in one sense 
 it is, for it is now carried out systematically by no less 
 than twenty American ladies' societies, and by about 
 half as many English. 
 
 In addition to the Female Education Society, 
 the Church of England Zenana Society, the Indian 
 Female Normal School Society, scarcely any mis- 
 sionary society is without its " Ladies' Branch," or 
 " Women's Committee." 
 
 Besides these, Women's Missionary Societies have 
 been established in Scotland, Switzerland, Germany, 
 Holland, and Canada. But the work long preceded 
 the organisation. With all this array of societies and 
 their many workers, it is estimated, by those best 
 able to form a judgment, that there is only one femael 
 
ZENANA MISSIONS. 58 
 
 worker laboiiriog amongst every million of Hindu 
 women. 
 
 The first attempts to reach the women of India 
 were made for the lowest classes, or, as a Government 
 official described them, " the very dregs." 
 
 This chapter will record the commencement of 
 Christian and educational work amongst the high-bom 
 and wealthy inmates of their prison homes. 
 
 A well-known Hindu writer, Pundit Sivanath 
 Gastri, says : " I do not think there is a single person 
 here who would stand up and defend this monstrous 
 custom which has sapped the foundation of our national 
 greatness. ... So long as we have not been able to 
 educate our wives and daughters, we cannot attain 
 moral superiority. Good mothers are wanted for the 
 regeneration of India." 
 
 To see the need for zenana work, it is well to try 
 and realise the life of a Hindu married woman. In 
 the first place, no man except the husband is permitted 
 to enter a zenana. From the time of a girl's 
 marriage, which usually takes place between eleven 
 and fourteen years of age, when she is removed from 
 her parent's home and taken to her husband's, she is 
 placed by him in a zenana under the care of her 
 mother-in-law. After that she is, as a rule, forbidden 
 to see the face of any man. She has no education 
 except the worship of idols. Menu states : " It is 
 worse than blasphemy to attempt to educate a female. 
 She was born in ignorance, she must die in ignorance." 
 She spends her time in gossiping, dressing her hair, 
 counting her ornaments, eating sweetmeats, and pre- 
 paring food for her husband and children. 
 
54 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 She is never allowed to eat with her husband, and 
 always takes her meals after he has finished. Her 
 great amusement is to teach her little ones the service 
 of the idols^ that are worshipped at stated times in 
 the year. The birth of a female child is to the young 
 mother an awful period. She does not hear the sound 
 of the conch shell, as at the advent of a boy, and, over- 
 whelmed with sorrow, she curses the day and curses 
 her fate. 
 
 Polygamy is a fruitful source of misery, and a girl 
 of five or six may often be heard indulging in all 
 manner of curses and imprecations against her child 
 rival. 
 
 Shib Chunder Bose, from whose book many of these 
 facts are taken, says : " A tender girl of five is as her 
 first instruction before emerging from her nursery 
 initiated into the brata or religious vow, the primary 
 object of which is the ruin and destruction of a rival 
 wife." The same author mentions that in many cases 
 opium is taken to end their misery. 
 
 No woman after marriage is allowed to utter the 
 name of her husband. The jealousies and quarrellings 
 in after life may easily be imagined. If such be the 
 state of the wife, what is that of the widow? Then 
 indeed her cup of misery is full. 
 
 An educated Hindu lady thus writes : " O Lord, 
 why hast Thou created us to make us suffer thus ? 
 From birth to death sorrow is our portion. While 
 our husbands live we are slaves ; when they die we 
 are still worse off. O God ! I pray Thee let no more 
 women be born in this land." 
 
 1 See Bose's " Hindus as they Are." 
 
ZENANA MISSIONS. 55 
 
 Another writes : "Our Queen Empress is a widow, 
 can she not help us ? The Sahib-log did away with 
 suttee, but it was less cruel than this long, lingering 
 torture. Would that I could die ! Any life is better 
 than this ; even an animal, a worm, is less miserable," 
 
 Another native lady writes : " We are prisoners and 
 long-life sufferers. Hearing of our condition the eyes 
 of strangers fill with tears. But you leave us there. 
 Have you no pity in your hearts ? " 
 
 Perhaps the most touching cry that has ever 
 reached British women comes in the form of a " Hindu 
 Woman's Prayer." The whole may be found in " Thy 
 Cry at Night and Song at Sunrise," by A,L.O.E., one 
 of the lady missionaries working at Batala, who has 
 devoted time, talents, fortune, and life to lead some of 
 her Eastern sisters to Jesus. 
 
 We can only find space for a short extract. It 
 begins thus : " Lord, hear our prayer ! No one has 
 turned an eye upon the oppression which we suffer, 
 though with weeping and crying, and desire, we have 
 turned to all sides hoping that some would save us. 
 No one has lifted up his eyelids to look upon us, or 
 to inquire into our case. Thou art the only one who 
 will hear our complaint. Lord ! inquire into our 
 case ! . . . O Father ! when shall we be set free from 
 this jail ? Lord ! for what sin have we been born 
 to live in this prison ? Thou hearer of prayer ! if 
 we have sinned against Thee, forgive ; but we are too 
 ignorant to know what sin is. O great Lord ! our 
 name is written with drunkards, lunatics, imbeciles, 
 and infants ; with the very animals ! As they are 
 not responsible, we are not. Criminals confined in 
 
5C OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 jails are happier than we are, for they know something 
 of the world. They were not born in prison. It is, 
 to us, nothing but a name ; and not having seen the 
 world, we cannot know Thee, its Maker. Father 
 of the world, dost Thou care only for men ? Hast 
 Thou no thought of us women? O Lord ! save us, 
 for we cannot bear our hard lot. Many of us have 
 killed ourselves, and are still killing ourselves. Our 
 prayer to Thee is — that this curse be removed from 
 the women of India." 
 
 Mrs. Murray Mitchell states that one poor creature 
 in a zenana, while deploring their condition, used this 
 singular comparison : " The life we lead is just like 
 that of a frog in a well. Everywhere there is beauty, 
 but we cannot see it." 
 
 These women suffer more than all others from the 
 blight of heathenism. Taken from their homes when 
 mere children, sold in infancy to the highest bidder, 
 and often widowed before they understand the very 
 meaning of the word, their life is one long chapter of 
 wretchedness. 
 
 A missionary lady noticed a pale, woe-begone 
 looking child of thirteen, who always during her visits 
 sat in a corner and wept. Inquiring the reason, this 
 touching answer was given : "I am hated, scorned; 
 no one cares for me. I was a widow at three years 
 old ! Truly such a life is a living martyrdom." 
 Amongst the blessings of English rule has been the 
 abolishing of suttee, but it is not a matter of 
 surjDrise to find that there are still those who regard 
 it as a questionable boon. In a number of the 
 "Indian Female Evangelist" is a translation of a 
 
ZENANA MISSIONS. 57 
 
 paper written by an inmate of a zenana, who has 
 so far profited by the instruction of the white lady 
 that she has attempted to write a book ! One 
 paper in it is headed, " Hindu Widows : by One of 
 Themselves." Of course its facts apply to that part 
 of the country, and the particular caste of the lady 
 herself, into which we have no desire to pry. It 
 is considered by some old residents in India as one 
 of the fullest and truest accounts ever published. 
 The writer says that her caste being high, the 
 customs are enforced with great rigour, although 
 when the widow is the mother of a son she retains 
 more influence. 
 
 The moment the husband has drawn his last 
 breath, six wives of barbers, who are kept ready, 
 rush upon the widow and strip her of all her 
 ornaments. Trinkets plaited into her hair are 
 dragged out, earrings and nose-rings wrenched off, 
 so as often even to tear the cartilage. The gold 
 armlets are hammered with a stone till the metal 
 breaks. And all this even if the widow be but a 
 child of six or seven years old. At the funeral 
 procession she is dragged along by the barbers' wives, 
 and not allowed to approach within 200 feet of any 
 other woman, for woe to the wife on whom should fall 
 her shadow ; she would soon be a widow too ! 
 Passers-by are warned to keep out of the way of 
 the accursed thing. When at length the procession 
 has reached the bank of the tank or river on which 
 is prepared the funeral pyre, the widow is pushed 
 into the water. It matters not what the weather, 
 there she has to be till the body is consumed ; and 
 
58 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 not only so, but till all the party have bathed, washed, 
 and dried their clothes. Then, wheo all are ready, 
 she is pulled out as she was pushed in. She walks 
 home in her dripping clothes. Can we wonder that 
 the zenana widow often exclaims : " Oh, I would far 
 rather choose tlie suttee !" 
 
 She states that before she herself was a widow, she 
 had to be present at the funeral of a near relative. 
 For nine hours the poor widow was kept in the blazing 
 sun and hot blasting wind. Had she asked for a 
 draught of water her character would have been gone ! 
 At last she fell. They dragged her up, but finally 
 she could no longer crawl. They pulled her along 
 till they arrived at the house. She was flung upon 
 the floor. The writer then says : " After the funeral 
 every widow is put into a corner, and there has to 
 sit or lie on the ground in perfect silence ; but if 
 her lips are closed, those of her friends around her 
 are opened." Her mother says : " Unhappy creature, 
 I wish she had never been born !" The mother-in-law 
 says : " The viper ! she has bitten my son and killed 
 him." Her sister-in-law says : "I will not look at 
 or speak to such a thing !" For thirteen days must 
 the widow sit thus on the floor in the clothes in which 
 widowhood overtook her, those damp clothes in which 
 she lay while her husband's body was being burned. 
 Only once in twenty-four hours is she allowed to touch 
 food, and then only bread and water. She may not 
 speak, she may not even weep. No marvel that many 
 die as the result of this treatment. 
 
 On the eleventh day, the Brahmin priest comes to 
 demand from her money, oil, and other things, as death 
 
ZENANA MISSIONS. 59 
 
 dues. Often do widows have to labour for months at 
 grinding corn to pay these dues. 
 
 Thirteen days after the death the relations assemble. 
 The widow cannot inherit from husband or father. So 
 each relation brings something, to which are added 
 reproaches. This money is to be her portion for life. 
 Her hair is then all shaven off. The robes she wore 
 when the doom fell upon her are taken off, and the 
 unchangeable widow's robe put on. In addition to 
 the privation of any second meal, she has to observe 
 certain fasts, during which the poor creature often 
 tastes nothing for forty-eight hours. This zenana 
 widow adds : " I once saw a widow die. She was one 
 of my cousins. When her husband died, she was lying 
 ill of a burning fever. Immediately she was thrown 
 from the bed on to the floor. Lying there till the 
 moment came for the funeral to start, she was incap- 
 able of moving to take her place. The mother-in-law 
 called a water-carrier, and had four skins of water 
 poured over her as she lay upon the ground. At the 
 end of eight hours death brought the family the 
 welcome opportunity of praising her, which they did, 
 saying 'she had died for love of her husband!'" 
 " The English," this writer adds, " have abolished 
 suttee. Alas ! neither the English nor the angels 
 know what goes on in our homes. Thousands of us 
 die, but more live. Nearly every man or boy who 
 dies leaves one, often more. I am told that in Eng- 
 land they comfort the ^\idows, but there is no comfort 
 for us." This touching story, written by one of 
 India's daughters, recalls the burning words of the 
 late Bishop Vidal, in a sermon preached on behalf of 
 
60 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 the Female Education Society, in Portman Chapel, in 
 the year 1852. " Think," he said, " of the unequalled 
 sorrows of the Eastern female. Do we not everywhere 
 behold her a mourner, an outcast, degraded, trodden 
 down, insulted, uncared for ? A prisoner and a slave. 
 Jealously guarded by her domineering lord, and tutored 
 to become his senseless plaything ; or the abject 
 servant of the poor man, in silent submissive servitude, 
 performing every menial office and drudgery for him 
 without one syllable of thanks ; never sitting in his 
 presence, or venturing to partake of any meal with 
 him ; dragging on for years a life of misery so insup- 
 portable, that death itself were infinitely preferable. 
 A life of helpless, hopeless anguish, looked on by all 
 around her as a cursed thing, a grovelling wretched 
 creature, fit only to be spurned and trodden under the 
 foot of man. Such is the career of hapless woman 
 wherever Brahminism exerts its sway in India." ^ 
 
 One of the lady speakers at a meeting convened to 
 give information on the subject, truly said : " We 
 have, as a nation, taken our religion and education to 
 the men ; and the wives and mothers are broken- 
 hearted. They are weeping, while the men, especially 
 the young men, are laughing at the old gods, and turn- 
 insT them into derision. In thousands of cases it is 
 
 ^ It is well always in reading missionary accounts to bear in mind 
 the vastness of the field, and the difference of national habits in 
 different parts. If customs practised in the North of England are 
 unknown in the South, how much greater must be the variation in 
 such an extensive country as India. And yet every fact stated 
 may be perfectly true. This applies to zenanas as well as to other 
 places and things. 
 
ZENANA MISSIONS. 61 
 
 their tears and entreaties that have caused husbands 
 and sons to be false to their convictions." 
 
 A Church without women is, as it has been truly 
 said, an impossibility. Whilst all false religions thrust 
 women out of their systems, Christ's religion raises 
 and ennobles them, and makes them nursing mothers to 
 His Church. One convert said to a missionary lady : 
 " Do you know why we have so opposed Christianity ? 
 Just because we did not know it. Now w^e find it is 
 a religion of love, we can no longer warn them against 
 it." 
 
 Another having heard some chapters in the Gospels, 
 said with earnestness : " Do you know I think your 
 Jesus must have been a w^oman. He speaks so 
 lovingly." 
 
 It affords one of the many instances in which He 
 who is Lord of all causes the wrath of man to praise 
 Him, that ever since the mutiny, the ladies connected 
 with all the different missionary societies have found 
 more ready access to the high caste women of India. 
 When Mrs. Mullens, who has been called "the Apostle 
 of the Zenana Mission in Bengal," began her work in 
 Calcutta in 1857, she and Mrs. Sale stood alone in 
 the face of many difficulties. Now, with multiplied 
 labours the open doors greatly outnumber those who 
 are found to enter them. 
 
 In the present day it is difficult to realise the 
 difficulties encountered by the pioneers in zenana work. 
 It was begun quietly, almost secretly, and was opposed 
 by the women themselves almost as much as by the 
 men. The workers required the wisdom of the serpent 
 united with the harmlessness of the dove. They went 
 
62 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 conscious of their own weakness, but confident of 
 success, because trusting in Almighty power. 
 
 These female messengers of the King liad heard 
 much of the sorrows hidden behind those purdah walls, 
 but the description did not equal the reality. Nothing 
 but the direct command of the Master, and His own 
 " sure word of promise " could have sustained them in 
 their early difficulties and disappointments. It was 
 only by the direct permission of the head babu, and 
 the burra bow, or head zenana lady, that an entrance 
 could ever be obtained, and when once admitted to the 
 apartment, the inmates hurried to the furthest end, 
 gathering their chuddars closely round them to prevent 
 possibility of the garment coming in contact with the 
 Christian visitor. 
 
 The skill of some of these ladies in needlework was 
 one of the means by which access was first gained to 
 their Indian sisters. A native gentleman, visiting a 
 missionary, was struck with the pretty slippers, hand 
 screens, and other articles which met his eye, and more 
 so still when told they were made by the white man's 
 wife and sister. " I should like my wife taught such 
 things," was the reply. The suggestion was thankfully 
 caught at, and thus access to a zenana was obtained. 
 Mrs. Mault, of Nagercoil, gained a footing in several 
 by instructing the ladies in the art of lace- making. 
 
 It is a curious fact that after so many years this 
 industry still flourishes in that locality. 
 
 One of the early agents of the Female Education 
 Society accompanied the late Rev. A. F. Lacroix and 
 his wife to Chinsurah, simply as a school teacher, 
 where more than 100 children were gathered under 
 
ZENANA MISSIONS. 63 
 
 her care. But as she was amongst the first to 
 undertake zenana visitation, although it was not then 
 called by that name, slie shall tell her own tale. 
 
 Miss Margot writes : " Some weeks ago a rich 
 native, a babu, came and asked me to instruct his 
 wife. It was arranged that I should go the next day. 
 On reaching the dwelling where these miserable women 
 pass their useless life, I felt a grief and compassion 
 which I cannot express, I was accompanied by one 
 of my girls. After having passed through two or 
 three dark passages, we came to the women's apart- 
 ments, entered by no foot of man except the master of 
 the house. After waiting some minutes the lady made 
 her appearance accompanied by women who, I suppose, 
 were her servants. She was literally covered with 
 jewels, having at least thirty bracelets of massive gold, 
 and I know not how many chains of gold and precious 
 stones round her neck, to say nothing of a large ring 
 enriched with an immense pearl attached to the right 
 nostril. After having fully examined me, she began 
 to put many childish questions, among others why I 
 did not wear jewels. At length, in my turn, I asked 
 her if she would like to learn to read. ' What good 
 would it be ? ' she replied. * Why should I take so 
 much trouble ? ' ' Well then,' I said, ' would you not 
 like to learn to work ? ' Again she answered, ' And 
 what good would it be to learn to work ? I can buy 
 all I want.' 
 
 " Her husband, who was listening behind the door, 
 said, ' You see my wife is stupid, she will learn nothing ; 
 but Avhen my little girl is old enough I will give her 
 to you, and you will do with her as you like.' " 
 
64 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 Very quietly and unostentatiously these ladies — 
 amongst whom Mrs. Lacroix and her daughter, Mrs. 
 Mullens, held a conspicuous place — worked in these 
 hitherto unknown abodes. The wonderful talents and 
 doings of the white ladies were whispered from one 
 to another, and slowly but surely access was gained 
 to them. Some amongst the happiest of these lady 
 prisoners were content with their lot ; satisfied with 
 dressing the hair, counting jewels, or playing with 
 dolls; but others pined for something better. To 
 such the visits of the missionary lady were a source 
 of unmixed delight. They forgot their miserable sur- 
 roundings in listening to the wonders told by their 
 new friends, and in examining the pictures, fancy 
 work, and other marvels brought by them. In many 
 zenanas grown-up ladies were found playing with dolls 
 like children. These they often dress up and adorn 
 with real jewellery. In a zenana visited by a mis- 
 sionary lady, the family had spent the equivalent of 
 £25 in English money to celebrate the coming of age 
 of a doll ! 
 
 Dr. Duff, than whom no one was better acquainted 
 with the state of feeling in India, wrote from Calcutta: 
 " You know the almost incredible dijfficulties con- 
 nected with female education in this part of India. 
 The intense desirableness no one with a Christian 
 heart can doubt. The zenana or home domestic 
 scheme, which at first failed, and is again attempted 
 by Mrs. Fordyce, ought to present the most inobjec- 
 tionable form of instruction to the native mind. The 
 great difficulty in day schools is getting the girls con- 
 veyed to and from school." Referring to the first of 
 
ZENANA MISSIONS. 65 
 
 his own girls' schools, which began Avith two and in- 
 creased to twenty, Dr. Duff goes on to say, "that after 
 a few weeks it is threatened with total extinction." 
 A rich Kulin Brahmin, hearing that his poorer cousin 
 had let me some rooms for the school, assembled a 
 crowd at the house, and poured upon him a torrent of 
 invectives for bringing disgrace upon the whole family 
 by sanctioning so shocking an innovation, and launched 
 out with vehement threatenings, if he did not instantly 
 shut the door against me and the poor little girls. 
 That he had the power greatly to harass and perhaps 
 utterly ruin him was undoubted . He then threatened 
 the parents, so that not half-a-dozen girls were left. 
 But I continued to reply : " So long as one single girl 
 remains, she shall be taught." At length we had 
 between forty and fifty in daily attendance. 
 
 It is cheering to note the gradual improvement 
 in the inmates of these Hindu homes. The writer 
 remembers one of the pioneers in this good work, 
 years ago, telling her that it was some time before the 
 native ladies would allow her to touch, or even come 
 near to them. In each case a line was marked out, 
 and the visitor approaching it laid down the baby's 
 dress, or slippers, she wished to exhibit, and then 
 retreated to the further end of the apartments. Some 
 slaves would take the articles up, and bring them to 
 the divan for their mistress to examine, and this done, 
 would return them to the same place on the floor, 
 when the missionary lady would take them up, and 
 place others in their stead. By degrees the visitor 
 was allowed to come nearer, and then followed the 
 interesting examination of every article of her dress, 
 
 F 
 
66 OUK EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 always accompanied by the same question : " Are you 
 married ? " 
 
 A Barrackpore lady says : " Now it is no longer the 
 women are hard to get at, but just the simple want of 
 some one to go to them. The strong prejudices are 
 giving way. Even the babus invite us in." 
 
 Infanticide is a frequent and common result of the 
 degradation felt by the Hindu women. They bewail 
 the birth of a daughter as a great calamity. Harrow- 
 ing tales can be told by the zenana visitors in proof 
 of this. 
 
 One young mother only expressed the views of 
 thousands when she significantly told her English 
 visitor : " Surely it was a great kindness to alloiu the 
 baby girl to die." Our Government has forbidden 
 open infanticide, and the infants are not now as of old 
 cast into the river to propitiate the Goddess Gunga, 
 but child murder still has its secret victims in many 
 a native home. The cruel custom of casting the 
 mother, ere her baby sees the light, into some dark 
 dirty shed in the courtyard, or, as our friends can 
 testify, into a damp cow-house, makes such murders 
 very easy of accomplishment. 
 
 So wretched is the Hindu lady's lot that suicide 
 is no unfrequent occurrence. In an account given by 
 Mrs. Greaves, a lady missionary, we read that as she 
 was passing a zenana one day she heard that the 
 babu was in mourning for his wife. Asking the 
 ckuse of her death, the answer given was, " she had 
 had a quarrel with her husband, had sent out for 
 opium and poisoned herself" Mrs. Greaves added : 
 " I asked if this was a rare event, and was answered, 
 
ZENANA MISSIONS. 67 
 
 * Oil no ! if a woman is unhappy she knows she must 
 die sometime, so she just poisons herself to get out of 
 her trouble quickly.'" 
 
 One of the first publications that directed attention 
 to the subject in England was a little book written in 
 1826, called "A Voice from India," containing a trans- 
 lation from a pamphlet entitled " The Victim of 
 Delusion ; or, a Hindu Widow." But it was soon out 
 of print, and it, and the Hindu widows, were alike 
 forgotten. 
 
 One incident that occurred to an early zenana 
 worker, between forty and fifty years ago, when 
 publicity would have proved a death-blow to the 
 work, may now safely be recorded. Through a kindly 
 feeling conceived for her by some very young children, 
 our friend was invited to pay a visit to one of the 
 elder ladies of the family. Caste feeling was then so 
 strong that though delighted to see a white woman, 
 and full of wonder that she had no husband, not one 
 would venture to take a book or piece of work from 
 her hand, and, as she subsequently learned, her native 
 friends, on her departure, sent all their outer garments 
 to be washed, as a further protection from any defile- 
 ment they might have sustained by contact with a 
 Christian. This, she afterwards discovered, was a 
 regular practice, not only in that family, but in others 
 to which she subsequently gained access. When, long 
 afterwards, she pointed to a rich silk saree worn by one 
 of the ladies, she remarked : " Surely that could not be 
 washed." " Silk is holy, and cannot be defiled," was 
 the immediate reply. Owing to the gi'eat heat and 
 closeness of the rooms, the ladies would sometimes 
 
68 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 offer sherbet, or some light refreshment to their giiest, 
 but the offer was always accompanied by the request 
 that she would accept the vessel that had contained it. 
 Being polluted, the remainder of its contents must 
 be at once thrown away, and the vessel destroyed. 
 Among her pupils in one zenana was a bright young 
 creature, wife of one of the younger sons of the house, 
 who seemed to take a special interest whenever the 
 way of salvation was spoken of, but not a word was 
 ever said by her on the subject. One day the mission- 
 ary teacher found the young wife in her apartment 
 alone — a most unusual event, one that had never 
 before happened. As soon as she had taken her place, 
 her pupil arose from the floor, and, regardless of all 
 supposed defilements, threw her arms round her friend's 
 neck, exclaiming : " Oh, I am so glad you have come 
 to-day, now I am alone. I have so wanted to tell you 
 how I love you, because you have taught me about 
 Jesus. I do love Him, for He has forgiven my sins, 
 and washed them away in His own blood. He is my 
 Saviour. Do come to-morrow and tell me more about 
 Him. I shall be alone again to-morrow." At that 
 moment a step was heard approaching, and the young 
 wife hastily resumed her veil. It proved to be her 
 own husband, and as he entered the room, the expres- 
 sion on his face, and a cold, cruel glitter in his eye, 
 convinced the teacher that her pupil's words had been 
 overheard, and her heart sank to think of the probable 
 consequences. The gentleman, with hollow politeness, 
 echoed his wife's words. " Yes, pray come to-morrow: 
 she will be alone, and delighted to see you." He 
 attended the lady to the door, and repeated the invita- 
 
ZENANA MISSIONS. 69 
 
 tion. She went the next day, and found her worst 
 fears were realised. The husband met her at the 
 entrance, and with an icy smile and ill-concealed 
 triumph said: " You will not see her again ; she sleeps." 
 Yes, she did sleep : but it was the sleep that knows 
 no waking. It was subsequently known that she had 
 been poisoned, or murdered in some other way. The 
 youthful martyr had sealed her testimony with her 
 life. Teacher and pupil have long ago gone to their 
 rest. Good and faithful servants, they have " entered 
 into the joy of their Lord." 
 
 Well may a native of high caste write : " See in 
 what a life of drudgery and misery our mothers, wives, 
 and daughters live." It is not we Christians alone 
 who have painted the black picture ; it is the verdict 
 of their own nation. In the Hare Prize Poem, 
 written by a Bengali lady, we have these touching 
 lines : — 
 
 " On like purchased slaves we go ; 
 Ah ! dost Thou then mean it so 1 
 Still, although the heart is broken, 
 Must the pang remain unspoken ? 
 Veil the face and hide the woe, 
 Ah ! dost Thou then mean it so ? 
 Wretched custom's helpless slaves, 
 'Whelmed in superstitious waves. 
 Thus our precious life doth go : 
 Ah ! dost Thou then mean it so ? " 
 
 Cr'v3 < ^Hyi<l^'-0 ■ 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BATAVIA AND BORNEO. 
 
 " The beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord." 
 Romans xvi. 12. 
 
 HIS little work would be incomplete 
 did it not give a short sketch of 
 the life and labours of the first 
 lady missionary of the Society for 
 Promoting Female Education in 
 the East. When the newly formed 
 committee were seeking direction 
 both as to the choice of workers 
 and their sphere of labour, an 
 earnest apjDeal came from Malacca, 
 fi'om the Rev. W. H. Medhurst, of the London 
 Missionary Society. Miss Wallace, who sailed in 
 1823, had already opened five schools there. Mrs. 
 Dyer had also opened two at Penang. Mr. Medhurst 
 wrote as follows : "I trust the Avork of your new 
 society will be crowned with the happiest results. 
 Providentially an agent is set at liberty well acquainted 
 with the Chinese and. Malay languages, both spoken 
 .70 
 
BATAVIA AND BOENEO. 71 
 
 and Avritten. Mrs. Whittle (a widow) has ah-eady 
 written a work in Chinese. You will, I hope, secure 
 her valuable assistance at Singapore, Malacca, or 
 Bata\aa. In answer to your queries about the 
 station, I may say that Batavia contains a population 
 of 20,000 Chinese and 180,000 Malays. We have 
 schools for boys, but none for girls. I have no doubt 
 that female schools may be set up. The Dutch 
 Government never interferes with our labours among 
 the Chinese nor the Malays, as long as we are prudent. 
 No assistance, however, is to be looked for from the 
 Dutch Government." 
 
 An additional helper being required, the committee 
 were directed to Miss Eliza Thornton. She had 
 laboured diligently in the island of Corfu, under the 
 superintendence of the late Rev. R. Leeves, and was 
 from circumstances free to enter upon a fresh engage- 
 ment. She seemed by her previous training and 
 special qualifications — being well acquainted with the 
 infants' and British school systems — to be just the 
 agent needed. 
 
 After a solemn valedictory service she took leave of 
 her English friends, and on 11th August, 1835, 
 landed in Batavia Roads. Finding that two months 
 must elapse ere she could proceed to Malacca, she at 
 once began to help Mrs. Medhurst, who had established 
 a boarding-school for boys and girls, and also an orphan 
 asylum in Batavia, in which the children were taught 
 English. Their parents were Dutch or Malay. Prayer 
 and labour soon enabled her to speak in Malay ; but 
 the desire of her heart was to reach the Chinese. 
 When the ports subsequently were opened, several of 
 
/ '1 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 the missionaries, including those stationed at Malacca, 
 left the Straits, and so Miss Thornton continued her 
 happy work at Batavia. Help was also sent by the 
 new society to workers in Siam, Macao, Java, and 
 other young missions, some of which have been since 
 left for more promising fields. 
 
 After a few months she wrote : "I have com- 
 menced school with twenty girls, and can already ask 
 for most things that I want in Malay ; but China is 
 the object of my ambition, and I shall lose no time in 
 attempting Chinese. My schoolroom is a bamboo 
 roof without walls, close to a coffee plantation, and 
 surrounded with cocoa-nut trees and plantains. Sup- 
 plied with an occupation which has interest sufficient 
 to fill the heart to overflowing, you can suppose me to 
 be one of the happiest of human beings. I visited 
 the boys' Chinese school, when the master — a fine old 
 man, with a white beard — laughed, and seemed highly 
 delighted to see an English lady. When repeating 
 their lesson the children turn their backs upon me, as 
 it is not considered respectful to look a teacher in the 
 face. When anyone asks after my welfare, say I 
 would not return for the sake of every earthly bless- 
 ing. 
 
 "My work is my pleasure, my delight; of what 
 use is life but to promote our Redeemer's glory ? " 
 
 Later on, she tells of the formation of three Chinese 
 schools, contaioing thirty girls, and adds : " My most 
 promising child has just been taken away. I went to 
 inquire the reason. The mother said because she was 
 too old, and must now be shut up. The infant school 
 system is here especially necessary, as no girl, after 
 
BATAVIA AND BORNEO. 73 
 
 eleven years of age, is permitted to be seen out of her 
 house without her mother's special permission until 
 she is married," 
 
 Soon after, Miss Thornton adopted the two orphan 
 children of a Frenchman who married a Malay. Both 
 were people of very bad character, and the girls were 
 rescued from a life of sin and misery and trained to be 
 native teachers. " Emma," she says, " accompanies 
 me to the school at Cornelius, and is beginning to be 
 interested in the improvement of the little Chinese girls." 
 
 At the commencement of 1837 the American and 
 London Societies had established five other schools. 
 More labourers were wanted, and Miss Hulk, a young 
 lady from Amsterdam, after a training in England, was 
 engaged to help Miss Thornton. 
 
 A committee of ladies anxious to aid this good 
 work had been formed in Geneva, and they sent 
 funds towards the Dutch missionary's support. Mean- 
 time Mdlle. Combe, a Swiss girl, was so impressed 
 with the accounts of the work which reached her in 
 her quiet home at Strasburg, that she wrote offering 
 her services to the committee. Her simple, ardent 
 piety, the vivacity of her spirits and manner, and 
 great intelligence, won the hearts of her new English 
 friends, and as a lady was now required for the native 
 schools in Batavia, she was selected for the post, and 
 sailed in the summer of 1838. In her voyage out she 
 wrote: "Contentmentbrightened the present; hope, the 
 future." On landing at the port of Angier, they were 
 hospitably received by the president, and, after a few 
 days' rest, started in a native carriage, drawn by four 
 wilful untrained ponies, for Batavia. " Sometimes," she 
 
74 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 says, "we had to stop, because they could not drag the 
 carriage over the muddy places; and we had to cross 
 three miles in boats. The poor, dirty, half-naked 
 Malays, with their basket-like hats and black teeth, 
 look so weak and effeminate with their long hair. At 
 first sight they all look like women. On our stopping 
 at Mrs. Medhurst's door, the first sounds I heard were 
 the voices of some Chinese girls learning to read. 
 I asked if they would shake hands with me ; they 
 looked very shy, but one having collected all her 
 courage, stepped forward, and when she returned alive 
 and unhurt, the rest came to do the same. I 
 approached Miss Thornton with a beating heart. Her 
 example had inflamed me with a holy emulation. I 
 expected much, and found more. Her life is a life of 
 self-denial, and yet her ' face is washed, and her head 
 anointed ; ' she forbears as forbearing not. In Miss 
 Hulk, too, I find a devoted and affectionate companion. 
 Now I am learning the language with all my might. 
 In the afternoon I help in Mrs. Medhurst's school, and 
 though I can only speak in broken sentences, with my 
 Lord's help, I get on pretty well. On Sunday I have 
 a class in the English Sunday school, and long to have 
 one also for the Malays. I cherish the hope that 
 by-and-by I shall have a Chinese school. But to be 
 faithful to-day is my most pressing business." 
 
 These efforts made for the Chinese women in the 
 Straits bore fruit in after years. Several, who had 
 first learnt the truth in the Chinese villages near 
 Batavia, carried the news of " the doctrine " back to 
 China proper, when political changes induced many 
 families to return to the land of their birth. 
 
BATAVIA AND BOENEO. 75 
 
 One rich Chinaman, living at Cornelius, was so 
 struck with the change in the girls attending the 
 school, that he promised to send his own little one as 
 soon as ever she was old enough. 
 
 " Do exert all your influence," wrote Miss Thornton, 
 " to interest praying Christians at home in these 
 schools. I do not fear but that I shall be able to 
 support them, if my friends at home are punctual in 
 sending out articles for sale, as my adopted children 
 are fast growing into women, and cost me a good deal 
 for clothes. I have fourteen boarding and eleven day 
 pupils, and am obliged to refuse many applications." 
 
 When Miss Hulk sailed to join Miss Thornton, she 
 was accompanied by two other ladies. One was Miss 
 Aldersey, who first began work at Sourabaya, a Dutch 
 settlement in Java, and subsequently at Ningpo, of 
 whom more will be heard in the chapter on China. 
 The third of the little party was Miss Theodosia 
 Barker, who was commissioned to assist Mrs. Gutzlaff 
 at Macao. She subsequently became the wife of the 
 Rev. W. Dean, at Bangkok, in Siam. This young 
 missionary heroine died on her twenty-fourth birthday, 
 from an attack of small-pox. Her last labours were 
 for the heathen. On the morning of her attack, she 
 took her class, and then read at the Chinese family 
 worship. Prompt remedies were used, but in a few 
 days she succumbed. The last one she was privileged 
 to lead to the feet of the Saviour ■ was her little 
 Fanny's Chinese nurse. Mr. Dean wrote : " She had 
 laboured and prayed for nurse daily, and now she prays 
 like a Christian." 
 
 We must now return to Mdlle. Combe. After 
 
76 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 labouring amongst the women of Borneo with Miss 
 Thornton, she married the Rev. W. Thomson, of 
 the American Missionary Society, and removed with 
 him to the island of Borneo, to labour amongst the 
 Dyaks. It is an interesting fact, that at a meeting 
 of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, held 
 on the 2nd May, 1846, the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 stated, that he believed that " Borneo offered the 
 most promising opening for extending the knowledge 
 of Christ among the heathen that was to be 
 found on the face of the earth." In a letter from 
 the Bishop of Calcutta, after spending some time 
 at Sarawak, dated January, 1851, he confirmed 
 this statement, and said : "It is my full persuasion 
 that there is no mission on the face of the earth to 
 be compared with that of Borneo. It has been 
 thrown open to Christian enterprise almost by 
 miracle. As I looked at the neat wooden edifice 
 (the church) and its Christian congregation, of 
 whom eleven were Dyak and Chinese children, my 
 heart was almost too full to proceed. Nothing of 
 a secular and merely external success is to be aimed 
 at. The salvation of souls by the atoning sacrifice 
 of Christ, and the sanctifying grace of the Holy 
 Spirit, must be the object in view. Christ our 
 Lord must be preached and honoured in all the 
 simplicity of the Gospel, or no spiritual good will 
 follow. It is a great thing to have mission house 
 and schools. Persevering efforts must be made 
 to make the case thoroughly known through the 
 length and breadth of Protestant England." May 
 this appeal from one who " being dead yet speaketh," 
 
BATAVIA AND BORNEO. 77 
 
 result in a fresh effort to bring the heathen women 
 of Borneo to a knowledge of the Saviour, and raise 
 up fresh lady workers ! 
 
 It may be well here to state that, from the forma- 
 tion of the Society for Promoting Female Education 
 in the East, the committee required each lady 
 engaging in missionary work to sign an agreement, 
 attested by two witnesses, and having the binding 
 force of a legal instrument, guaranteeing the Society 
 against pecuniary loss in the event of marriage, before 
 the completion of their five years' term of service. 
 They felt it would be a want of faithfulness to the 
 trust reposed in them if, receiving funds for a specific 
 object, they allowed them to be diverted to others, 
 however good and desirable. This rule, though 
 objected to by some, has been found after forty-eight 
 years' trial to work well. Many missionary ladies 
 have stated that they highly value it, as vindicating 
 them from suspicion of interested motives. The 
 length of service of several of the labourers, in some 
 cases between twenty and thirty years, and the names 
 of those who have died at their posts, abundantly 
 prove that the work was undertaken from love to 
 Christ, and love to the souls He died to save. 
 
 It has been urged that the rule should be relaxed 
 when the ladies marry missionaries. The answer is 
 that it is the design of the Society to maintain a 
 distinct agency for a specific purpose. It must also 
 be borne in mind that the committee is pledged to 
 bring the agents home in case of failure of health, 
 under medical advice, and to meet such contingencies 
 a special fund of not less than £750 has been allotted. 
 
■78 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 Mrs. Thomson was not idle in her fresh sphere, 
 and soon had collected so many children that she 
 applied to friends in England and Geneva for a 
 helper. Miss Poppy was sent, and her long years of 
 hallowed toil prove that she was a chosen vessel sent 
 by the Lord, They found the Dyaks sunk in degrada- 
 tion, " as many as twenty families living huddled 
 together in one miserable dwelling ; the elders wearing 
 scarcely any clothing, the children none at all." 
 
 The death of Mrs. Thomson and other mission- 
 aries' wives, and many changes in the missionary 
 circle, obliged Miss Poppy to leave the island ; but 
 she lived many years to labour for the souls of 
 heathen women, in whose cause she spent all the 
 best years of her life. 
 
 Some scattered references to different missions in 
 these islands may be found in Wallace's interesting 
 book entitled " The Malay Archipelago." 
 
 From the volume called " Statistics of Protestant 
 Mission Societies," we quote the following observa- 
 tions : " It is much to be regretted that we possess 
 so little information about the Dutch and German 
 missions in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the islands of 
 the Archipelago generally. The fact is, we know 
 nothing comparatively of this most interesting part 
 of the world." Wallace says : "To the ordinary 
 Englishman it is perhaps the least known part of the 
 globe. Scarcely any travellers explore it. In many 
 collections of maps it is almost ignored. Few persons 
 realise that, as a whole, it is comparable with the 
 primary divisions of the globe, and that some of its 
 islands are larger than France or the Austrian empire." 
 
CHAPTER YII. 
 
 SINGAPORE. 
 
 " Witnesses unto Me." — Acts i. 8, 
 
 HIS important station demands 
 special notice. In Egypt and else- 
 where the seed has been sown with 
 as yet but little fruit. Singapore 
 presents one of the most encourag- 
 ing instances of the success with 
 which God has crowned the labours 
 of His praying handmaidens. More 
 than forty years ago it was laid 
 upon the hearts of some ladies in 
 Huddersfield to undertake some definite work in 
 behalf of their heathen sisters. For this purpose 
 they guaranteed to the Society for Female Education 
 in the East the sum of £100 a year for at least ten 
 years. Singapore was the station selected. Mrs. 
 Dyer, the devoted wife of a missionary, had established 
 a boarding school of twenty Chinese girls. But her 
 health and other duties led her to desire that a lady 
 should come out who could devote her whole time to 
 
 79 
 
80 OUR EASTERN SISTERS, 
 
 the work. Several volunteered, but obstacles arose, 
 till in 1840 two sisters apparently well qualified sailed 
 for that distant port. The health of the younger 
 so completely broke down that her sister found no 
 alternative but to bring her home. Thus the prospect 
 again darkened. But the brave-hearted Yorkshire 
 ladies, though cast down, held to their purpose, 
 resolving to await in patience the guidance of God's 
 providence. The choice was at length made of one 
 who, to her life's end, fully justified the hopes of her 
 most sanguine friends. 
 
 Miss Grant's views on the undertaking are shown 
 in 'the following lines penned on her voyage : 
 
 " Tuesday we had a storm. The dead lights were 
 put in, mainsail split, mainmast snapped ; the vessel 
 dashed about like a plaything. The captain feared 
 one sea after another might overtop us. Again and 
 again I lifted up my heart in prayer. My feelings 
 were strange, but I was not afraid. I felt at peace 
 with God, and committed myself to Him for life or 
 death. My whole soul was filled with the thought that 
 before night I might have exchanged the cross for 
 the crown ; might have seen my Saviour, and entered 
 into everlasting rest. I never felt all the promises of 
 God more precious, nor His presence more with me." 
 
 Miss Grant reached Singapore on the 29 th July, 
 1843, and began school the very next day, "utterly 
 worn out with the inactive life on board ship." She 
 adds : " I have engaged an able teacher, and intend to 
 speak, read, and write Malay easily before I dismiss 
 him. I can only say ' the lines are fallen unto me in 
 pleasant places,' and the prayers of my best friends 
 
SINGAPOEE. 81 
 
 are fully answered." From the first, the Chinese girls 
 showed a great desire to learn, and many could soon 
 read in the New Testament, and evinced an interest 
 in the * n6w doctrine.' Later on. Miss Grant found 
 that one girl conducted worship with several others 
 before retiring to rest, and some of them appeared 
 quite overcome with a sense of their sins. 
 
 The next year she wrote : " We have one girl about 
 fifteen, who I have no doubt has believed unto 
 salvation. She is naturally selfish and sulky. This 
 being the case has enabled me more clearly to discern 
 the warfare she is waging in God's strength against 
 her own natural corruption. Another girl, who had a 
 painful illness, said one day, ' I don't know how to be 
 patient any more.' On asking, * Were one of you sure 
 of dying to-morrow, what would you do to-day ? ' 
 another girl replied, ' I would be getting my grave 
 ready ' — a very important business with the Chinese — 
 when the first girl earnestly said, ' I would believe 
 strongly in Jesus.' My school is my pleasant work 
 and my comfort. Never did teacher and pupils love 
 each other more. I have now twenty-six souls looking 
 to me for probably the only instruction they will 
 receive during their lives. Pray for me that I may 
 be faithful. There are seven of whom I have a good 
 hope. Living alone, as I am obliged to do just now, 
 is rather a trial of courage, for the Chinamen are fond 
 of paying midnight visits. But my faithful black 
 Madras man sleeps outside my door with a drawn 
 sword to protect me. I hope, too, he is a Christian. 
 The new year was a sifting time for my dear girls, 
 and many of them stood the test in the endurance of 
 
 G 
 
9Z OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 parental wrath and beatings in a way that has made 
 my heart leap for joy, and shown that there was an 
 incipient mart}T's spirit in them. Chiinneo and her 
 younger sister Haneo have become monitors. The 
 Neo added to their names is not part of them, 
 but merely an equivalent to our Miss. These girls 
 have had a small plantation a short distance from 
 Singapore left them by their father, and Haneo took 
 the idols stuck up by the labourers in various parts of 
 the garden, and dashed them to the ground, pointing 
 out to the astonished men the powerlessness of the 
 idols to help or defend themselves. This act might 
 have brought her into trouble had she not been a girl 
 of the highest caste." 
 
 Miss Grant's next step was to commence little Bible 
 readings in the houses of some of the mothers, with 
 her girls as interpreters. The numbers so increased 
 (with men listening outside), that by the advice of 
 the chaplain, the Rev. W. Humphrey, a billiard room 
 in the compound was transformed into one for 
 Christian services. The school soon became a central 
 point for helping waifs and strays. Of six infant 
 slaves subsequently rescued on board ship and brought 
 to Miss Cooke, one died of cholera, one from the cruel 
 treatment she had received, and the other four are 
 all now working usefully as the wives of catechists of 
 the Church Missionary Society. From the first the 
 Chinese girls' school has been entirely free, for the 
 parents are too poor to pay. 
 
 A year later Miss Grant writes : " I have still to 
 thank God. Those that did run well are evidently 
 going from strength to strength. English is as yet 
 
SINGAPOKE. 88 
 
 a great effort to them fully to follow ; yet on a Sunday 
 afternoon these girls bring me passages which they have 
 voluntarily learnt. In those they choose, I see a great 
 deal of character revealed. Chunneo, my young, 
 happy Christian, with her merry heart, brings verses 
 full of the joy of the Lord being her strength. Haneo 
 repeats such Psalms as ' Hide not Thy face from me.' " 
 These girls corresponded with some of those under 
 Miss Aldersey's care. The following is a translation 
 of one of the letters : — 
 
 " My dear Ruth, — Your letter made us very glad. 
 We thank God for having helped us, and given us a 
 teacher to teach us how we may get a blessing for our 
 souls. Moreover, He has helped us to believe on the 
 name of Jesus Christ. When you were in Singapore, 
 we knew not one thing. my friend ! what you say 
 is true. Yes, we are all sinners; nevertheless, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ came to die instead of us. We 
 pray to God night and morning to bless you. You 
 must also pray for us, O my friend ! pray to God for 
 our mother. When you were in Singapore we 
 worshipped stones. But see the kindness of God — 
 He helps us to believe on the Lord Jesus. pray for 
 us and our mother, and all the girls in Miss Grant's 
 school ; for there are some who believe in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus, and there are some who do not. . . . 
 Give my salaams to yourself first, and your teacher, 
 and sister, and to all whoever loves the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. — I am your true friend, Haneo." 
 
 Miss Grant in another letter says : "I confess I am 
 amazed at Haneo. She collects the children round 
 
84 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 her, and not only teaches, hut exhorts them, with 
 strong crying and tears, to receive the truth. Last 
 Sabbath evening when I returned from service it was 
 eight o'clock. The children were each seated at the 
 foot of their little cots, Haneo in the middle telling 
 them of a crucified Redeemer's love, and then putting 
 it to them how they could hope to escape if they 
 neglected their present opportunities, 
 
 " Another incident, though trifling in itself, occurred 
 last Sunday. I was standing by my Venetians when I 
 saw a nice simple-hearted child named Amay come 
 from the verandah surrounding the house. Here she 
 stopped, looking eagerly around, as if fearful of 
 observation, and I feared all was not right. Judge of 
 my pleasure when I saw this little one dart over a 
 flower-bed and plunge herself into the midst of a 
 thick creeping plant whose leaves almost entirely hid 
 her. There I saw her kneel down, and clasping her 
 little hands, I heard her in prayer. The recording 
 angel, I feel convinced, knows all, but the only 
 words that reached me were ' ampun,' pardon, and 
 ' amat kasihan,' very kind. She was not above five 
 minutes in her leafy oratory when uj) she siDrang and 
 darted away, singing one of their hymn tunes as gaily 
 as a lark. None but the heart of a teacher of the 
 heathen can fully enter into the mingled feelings that 
 arose within me. My oldest scholars now read 
 English and write Avell, embroider beautifully, and are 
 intelligent in conversation. They now require palan- 
 quins to go to church on Sunday ; the rest walk like 
 one of our Sunday schools. You know the term of 
 agreement with my pupils is, generally speaking, for 
 
SINGAPORE. 85 
 
 three years. The first to leave me was Chan, who 
 went to be married. She wept much at quitting the 
 house, and at the prospect of her approaching wedding, 
 which, if conducted in Chinese style, must be an 
 idolatrous ceremony. 
 
 " I laid before her her duty, and prayed for her ; 
 more was not in my power. After a few days I went 
 to see Chunneo, who was at that time confined to bed 
 by sickness. She was in tears. I asked what was 
 the matter. She replied : ' The devil has won; Chan 
 has bowed before the idols.' Oh! these words fell 
 heavy on my heart. My labour has been in vain. 
 All I can tell you since is, one of my girls going in to see 
 her unexpectedly, Chan was alone, and a Bible near 
 her on the table. May the Good Shepherd yet recall 
 this wanderer ! Soon after it was time for my much- 
 loved children Chunneo, Haneo, and Kaychae to leave 
 me, with their mother, who has acted as a sort of 
 matron. The two former have been most anxious to 
 make an open profession of Christianity, which for the 
 last year and a half, I have not a doubt, they have 
 fully embraced in their hearts. Their father has been 
 long dead, so the mother's consent was the only 
 thing wanting in order to their being baptised. This 
 they pleaded and pleaded for — but in vain. At last 
 the mother became so violent whenever they alluded 
 to the subject, that they were convinced it was in vain 
 to ask her again. But what was to be done ? The 
 time was drawing near for their leaving, and if once 
 they left my house unbaptised, they never would have 
 the opportunity afterwards. I therefore laid before 
 them, in -writing, all the most painful consequences 
 
86 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 that might follow their pursuing a determined course 
 in regard to their baptism, and bid them take time for 
 thought and prayer, and then give me their resolu- 
 tion, by which I should act. I never saw a more 
 calm, composed counting of the cost, and on Friday 
 night, 1st August, at ten o'clock, the die was cast, and 
 my children authorised me to request our chaplain, Mr, 
 Moule, to baptise them publicly on the following Sunday. 
 
 "The baptisms here always take place during the 
 evening service; and I do assure you the time from 
 that Friday night until Sunday evening was a time of 
 dreadful nervous tremor on my part, as well as on 
 that of my girls. Up to that night the mother had 
 no idea what was about to take place, for I thought it 
 imprudent to mention it to her until the very moment 
 was come, lest she should carry the girls off and lock 
 them up out of my reach, I can truly say, that Sunday 
 I spent on my knees. Nobody could help me but 
 God, and towards afternoon I felt that I had taken 
 hold on His strength, and His strength was made 
 perfect in weakness. 
 
 "As the bell began for evening church, I heard my 
 children shut themselves into their room for prayer, 
 along with their brother, who seems deeply influenced 
 by the example and prayers of his sisters, and who 
 had determined to come forward with them as a 
 candidate for baptism. We had resolved to have the 
 carriages ready, and then I was boldly to ask the 
 mother's consent once more. I asked her if she knew 
 her children were going to church with me ? * Yes,' 
 she replied, ' wherever Missie pleases to take them.' 
 Then I was obliged to put myself in the position of a 
 
SINGAPORE. 87 
 
 suppliant, and to tell her, while the three dear children 
 stood behind her, the very images of terror, that we 
 had come to the determination that they should be 
 baptised that night; but that the one sorrow was that 
 they must act in opposition to her authority, because 
 she was opposing the Almighty. Her agitation was 
 extreme while I was speaking to her ; but God, I do 
 think, gave me in that same hour what to say. In 
 short, I did not leave her till she had given a species 
 of consent by telling me, if / wished it, she could not 
 oppose me. I thanked her warmly, bid the children 
 do the same, and jumped into the palanquin. But I 
 saw her come out and look at us, on which I paused, 
 and said : ' Nomis, why should not you come too, and 
 witness what is done? ' She replied : ' If Missie likes 
 to allow me ; ' and the next moment the mother and 
 her daughters were seated beside me on our way to 
 St. Andrew's Church. I think I never felt a more 
 pure, holy joy in my life than as I heard the foreign- 
 accented responses of my dear girls, as in their broken 
 English they replied : ' All dis I steadfastly believe.' 
 Before the girls left me I gained permission from their 
 mother to go and fetch them every Sunday morning, 
 to remain with me all day. The Sabbath morning 
 after, I started at gunfire (five o'clock), and with an 
 exulting heart brought them back. They had been 
 up since four o'clock waiting for me. My late pupil, 
 Chan, wrote to me saying she had committed a great 
 sin, when at her marriage she bowed her knee to the 
 idol, with aversion and horror. Thank God, she did 
 not bow her heart; and she added, now her only 
 comfort is in reading her Bible." 
 
88 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 For a long time Miss Grant could hear nothing of 
 Beenio — another of her Christian girls — but one day a 
 woman told her that Beenio's mother was dead, and 
 that her father had sold her to a man for forty dollars. 
 The woman added no one knew what ailed the girl, 
 for when her mother was buried she would not bum 
 paper for her, or worship her spirit, or follow any of 
 their customs. Some months after, in one of her 
 visits to some people in the country. Miss Grant 
 descried a pair of brilliant eyes peeping through a 
 hedge, which she at once recognised. She stopped 
 the palanquin, and out rushed Beenio. Now that 
 her abode was discovered, Miss Grant took an early 
 opportunity of going to her. She brought with 
 her a large-print Testament, which was most 
 joyfully received, and on asking whether she re- 
 membered how to read it, Beenio exclaimed : " Yes, 
 how could I forget ? " " On this," writes Miss Grant, 
 " I opened at the tenth chapter of St. John, and 
 pointed to the fourteenth verse, ' I am the Good 
 Shepherd.' She read it readily, when I said : ' Yes, 
 Beenio has read this, but she does not understand ; ' on 
 which she looked up archly, replying : ' Yes, I know,' 
 and immediately translated it into Malay. Still 
 uncertain, I said : 'Well, I am glad to find you know 
 the meaning of the words, but can you tell me who the 
 Good Shepherd is ? ' * I know that's Jesus Christ,' 
 was her ready response, without a moment's hesita- 
 tion. As I came out of the house, a mother hen had 
 just gathered her brood together, on which I said to 
 her : ' When you see your hen collect her chickens, 
 what do you think of?' 'I know; I remember 
 
SINGAPORE. 89 
 
 wliat I learned at school,' she replied in her broken 
 tongue, ' " As a hen gaderet her chickens under her 
 ■wings, so would I have gaderd dou, but dou wouldst 
 not." ' On meeting her husband, she begged me to 
 ask him to allow her to spend the next Sunday with 
 me, and the meeting with Chunneo, Haneo (to say 
 nothing of myself) was not a little joyous. I thought 
 of Dr. Krummacher's pretty chapter on the ' Hidden 
 Church ' as I looked at Beenio's poor little hut in the 
 midst of the sugar plantation where it stands, and felt 
 convinced that God was secreting one of His jewels 
 under that thatched roof, over which I do believe He 
 will watch as over the apple of His eye." 
 
 Miss Cooke, who succeeded Miss Grant in 1853, 
 and Miss Ryan, her assistant, watched over poor Beenio 
 as far as the distance permitted. Though wanting the 
 decision of some of the others, she loved Jesus, and in 
 her last illness her favourite hymn was, ' How SAveet 
 the name of Jesus sounds.' On one of the mission 
 family going to her hut with some little necessary 
 comforts, she was found dead in her bed. 
 
 Kaychae, sister to Chunneo and Haneo, was one of 
 Miss Grant's first pupils — a very clever girl, proud of 
 her appearance, her family, her intellect, and her 
 nation. She possessed much more energy than most 
 of the others, but when her two sisters and brothers 
 were baptised, she declared she would never disgrace 
 her name and family by turning " Englishwoman." 
 After her mother's death, as, contrary to national 
 usage, she would not marry, she begged to return to 
 Miss Grant. When, after ten years of labour, her 
 beloved teacher was obliged to return to her native 
 
90 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 land, her one sorrow was to leave this girl still a 
 heathen. Just before her departure, a note was laid 
 upon her table, in which Ka5'chae told her that she 
 must relieve her long pent-up feelings, and tell of the 
 dreadful struggle which for years had been going on 
 in her heart. She had long, she said, been fully con- 
 vinced of the truth of Christianity, and could only now 
 wonder at the forbearance of God in not cutting her 
 off in her rebellion and sin. She concluded with 
 begging her friend to plead with God that He would 
 even now not scorn her, but fulfil His own blessed 
 promise — " Him that cometh to Me, I will in nowise 
 cast out." After much intercourse with the chaplain 
 and Miss Grant's successor, Miss Cooke, her baptism 
 took place. 
 
 Since then several more have openly avouched 
 themselves to be the Lord's. An orphan home was 
 established, and Miss Cooke commenced holding meet- 
 ings for reading the Bible in the homes of several of 
 her married Christian girls. In 1856, Miss Cooke's 
 school was \dsited by the Bishop of Calcutta, when 
 the children were examined in Scripture, grammar, 
 general history, and arithmetic. A correspondent of 
 a Calcutta newspajDer wrote : " The answers of the 
 girls reflected the highest credit on their zealous, 
 faithful, and affectionate teacher, and show how much 
 may be done for that interesting people." The words 
 of a round they sung are worth mentioning : — 
 
 " Oil ! Lord save me ; teach me to know Thee, teach me 
 to love Thee." 
 
 Some who were trained under Miss Grant are now 
 
SINGAPORE. 91 
 
 acting as missionaries to their countrywomen. One 
 aged convert, quite blind, who had been baptised, 
 hearing the Bishop was in Singapore, was led forward 
 to where he was sitting, wishing him to pray for her. 
 In reply to some questions it was found that she knew 
 little more than these two great truths — viz., that she 
 was a sinner, and that Jesus loved her. She was full 
 of joy and peace. 
 
 Writing of this. Miss Cooke says : " The Bishop 
 has indeed left us much to remember. He was 
 unceasingly trying to cheer and help us. The sermon 
 for the benefit of my mission came in our hour of 
 need. I have now thirty-three children, and did the 
 funds allow, believe I should have fifty." The Bishop 
 of Victoria also visited the school, and she was cheered 
 by the arrival of boxes of work. Did friends at home 
 know how these tokens of Christian remembrance 
 cheer the hearts of our lady-workers, we are confident 
 their number would be increased. As this school is, 
 in common with others, still needing such help, it may 
 be well to state that the value of work sent abroad for 
 sale by the Female Education Society in 1881, was 
 estimated at £4134, 10s. 
 
 Another way in which valuable aid is given, is by 
 undertaking the support of native scholars and Bible- 
 women. The Dublin friends of the Female Education 
 Society paid the salary of a native missionary. One 
 who knew her well, wrote : " They could hardly find 
 a more interesting object for their charity than this 
 earnest, sweet, young Chinese widow, with her three 
 little children. She is labouring hard to spread the 
 truth among her country people. She says she prays 
 
92 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 for her Irish friends every day." Friends at home 
 are often cheered with letters from these young native 
 workers. The writing, spelling, and inditing of many 
 would disgrace no English lady. Anleaug, in an 
 uncorrected report of her work, writes : "I am so glad 
 to write you an English letter, and thank you myself 
 for all your kindness to the Chinese Girls' School. I 
 think you are the means of bringing us all unto the 
 fold of Christ. I feel very glad to teach others about 
 that Saviour who has brought me from heathen dark- 
 ness to the light of the Gospel." Tempang writes : 
 " I have ten in my class. When I came to the school 
 I was only six, and I have been twelve years, and by 
 God's Holy Spirit working in my heart have leai'nt to 
 know and love Jesus, and I am very glad dear Miss 
 Cooke has made me now one of her teachers." 
 
 God's blessing still rests richly upon Miss Cooke 
 and her Singapore family. On her return after a 
 visit to her English friends, she fovnid the children, 
 Miss Ryan, and her native helpers all well, and 
 everything in perfect order. The weekly meeting in 
 connection with the Young Women's Christian Associa- 
 tion was attended by all her old married pupils who 
 could leave their homes, when they gladly worked for 
 the benefit of their poorer neighbours, both Jews and 
 heathens. 
 
 Mrs. Murray Mitchell, while on a visit recently with 
 her husband to the Indian churches, stated that the 
 good work is still progTessing. She says : " Only a 
 day or two ago, I saw the delightful school presided 
 over by Miss Cooke. We were delighted to make the 
 acquaintance of Miss Ryan, who carries on the work 
 
SINGAPORE. 93 
 
 with so mucli single-heartedness and success during 
 Miss Cooke's absence. All the children looked bright 
 and happy. Some of the girls are earnest Christians 
 and Christian workers, and many trained in the school 
 are filling positions of influence and usefulness as wives 
 of pastors and catechists in different parts of China. 
 It seems a centre of missionary influence in Singapore. 
 We pray that the Lord may continue to give His 
 blessing, and that it may more and more be a nursery 
 of souls won for Christ." 
 
 Miss Cooke's letter, March, 1882, tells of forty-two 
 boarders in the school, the last being a half-starved 
 baby, found by a policeman in an open drain, and laid 
 there to be washed into the canal when the tide rose. 
 " Many children," she adds, " are refused admission 
 through want of room and want of funds. We have 
 four others entirely destitute, and shall be most 
 thankful to any friends at home who will undertake to 
 support them." 
 
 -i.(r-^ 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 " Blessed be Egypt My people." — Isaiah xix. 25. 
 
 T a time wlien all eyes are turned to- 
 wards Egypt, it may be interesting 
 to take our readers back nearly 
 half a century, and trace the first 
 effort in modern times to bring its 
 women to a knowledge of the 
 Christian faith. 
 
 A few Copts and Syrians had 
 been led by travellers to know 
 something of the truth, and the 
 Church Missionary Society had sent labourers to Cairo 
 and Alexandria, but their early work was attended with 
 much to try and depress them. It is estimated that 
 there are in Egypt 300,000 Copts and 4,250,000 of 
 other natives who speak Arabic, beside some thousands 
 of Jews and Syrians. 
 
 Surely Christians have been sadly neglectful of this 
 
 once highly'^ favoured land. What might it not have 
 94 
 
EGYPT. 95 
 
 been, had those to whom the word of God was 
 entrusted flooded it with His own truth ? 
 
 Yet, while many Christians were deploring the 
 scant success of the few labourers then in Egypt, God 
 was fitting two ladies in their Lincolnshire home to 
 enter upon a new line of work in that country. Miss 
 Alice Holliday, possessed of a considerable amount of 
 learning, had long contemplated the country of Egypt 
 with special interest. For years she had devoted her 
 attention to some of the severer sciences, to the study 
 of Egyptian antiquities, and to the Arabic and Coptic 
 languages. Her earnest desire was to consecrate her- 
 self to the intellectual, moral, and spiritual elevation of 
 the people of Egypt, through the medium of its female 
 population. The way being made plain, and being 
 free from family ties, she was anxious to go out under 
 the auspices and protection of an accredited society. 
 For this purpose she applied to the committee of the 
 Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the 
 East, In company with another Christian lady. Miss 
 Rogers, who was also a personal friend, she left 
 England in August, 183G. Miss Rogers's pecuniary 
 resources, with occasional aid from home, were sufficient 
 for the support of both. Furnished with valuable 
 introductions to consuls and missionaries, the ladies 
 landed at Malta. Here they providentially met Mr. 
 and Mrs. Kruse, from Cairo, the agents of the Church 
 Missionary Society. They gave the friends every 
 encouragement. Just before leaving Egypt they had 
 been entreated to purchase an Abyssinian woman and 
 child, to save them from a terrible fate. The poor 
 woman threw herself on her knees before the missionary, 
 
96 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 supplicating liini to buy her, saying : "If you buy us, 
 we shall be with Christians." This, of course, was 
 impossible. 
 
 On arriving at Boulak, the port of Cairo, another 
 missionary said he hailed their advent with joy, since 
 nothing was so much needed as a lady capable of giving 
 an education to the high class females. By the advice 
 of the American consul, Mr. Gliddon, they went to live 
 under the protection of the Rev. Samuel Gobat (after- 
 wards Bishop of Jerusalem) and his wife, who had 
 just returned from Abyssinia. 
 
 Work was at once commenced in a girls' school 
 which had been previously established. A native 
 mistress, who was taught in Syria, was glad of help in 
 the mission school. Here was found a motley group 
 of children — Italians, Spaniards, Greeks, Syrians, 
 Copts, and Arabs, with religions almost as varied as 
 their nations, in all numbering eighty-five. Besides 
 these, Miss Holliday adopted four orphans. One was 
 an Arab, another a little Abyssinian given to her by 
 its dying mother. 
 
 Whilst thus engaged, a new and wholly unexpected 
 sphere of labour opened before her. On the 7th of 
 March, 1838, she was surprised by a visit from Heke- 
 kyan Effendi, one of the officers of State, who had 
 been sent by His Highness Mehemet Ali, Pasha of 
 Egypt. He was charged to make a formal request 
 that Miss Holliday would at once undertake the edu- 
 cation of all the royal females in his harem, a hundred 
 in number. The Effendi added : " This is only to be 
 the beginning of female education in this country. 
 The Pasha has much larger views, but he wishes to 
 
EGYPT. 97 
 
 try the experiment first on liis own family. Much 
 depends upon his eldest daughter. Only gain her 
 favour, and you will carry every point." Miss Holli- 
 day begged to be allowed a few days for consideration. 
 She was already engaged in an important work, which 
 she ought not to neglect. Her missionary friends, on 
 being consulted, felt that it was a wonderful and pro- 
 vidential opening. She, therefore, after much prayer, 
 and holding herself at liberty to give up should she 
 find that it involved anything contrary to Christian 
 principles, consented. One Avish of his Highness was 
 that his elder daughters should soon be formed into a 
 committee to consider the best means for extending 
 female education throughout Egypt and his other 
 acquired dominions. 
 
 In a letter addressed at this time to Miss Holliday 
 by the Prime Minister, he said : " In introducing an 
 enlightened female education into Egypt, we shall be 
 striking at the root of the evils which afflict us. In 
 seconding my illustrious prince in his work, I have as 
 yet been able to trace our debasement to no other 
 cause than that of the want of an efficient moral and 
 useful education for our women. His Highness is 
 pleased to command that Mrs. Hekekyan shall accom- 
 pany you to the harem. Thus you will not be treated 
 as a stranger by the Ottoman ladies. I \n\\ introduce 
 her to you on the earliest possible opportunity, 
 that you may proceed together to Castel Ginbarra. 
 You will do well to take a school-nsher as inter- 
 preter." 
 
 The rest of the story is best told in Miss Holliday 's 
 OAvn words : — 
 
 H 
 
D8 OTTR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 "Cairo, 27</t March, 1838. 
 
 " This day is among the most remarkable of my 
 life. About 10 a.m., Mrs. Krus^, Mrs. Hekekyan, and 
 myself, mounted on donkeys, set .out for the harem. 
 On our way we called for Captain Lyons's janissary. 
 The Vice-Consul coming up said : ' You must take 
 mine also for the honour of the dear old island.' 
 Thus, preceded by the tAvo janissaries in full dress, we 
 started, my heart in jDrayer to the Lord the whole time 
 that He would make His way plain before me. With 
 many fears we arrived at the gate of the long avenue, 
 which is the first door of the harem. We next came 
 to another strong gate. Here the janissaries and 
 donkey-men were ordered to remain, while we were 
 waited on by several eunuchs, who, taking us through 
 a third strong gate, ushered us into a stately saloon, 
 where several ladies were at work. We were then 
 shown into an anteroom, and served with coffee out 
 of splendid cups set in diamonds. Our attendants 
 Avere beautiful slaves, evidently Greek, Georgian, and 
 Circassian. 
 
 " One brought us coffee, another sherbet, a third 
 sugar, each having numerous slaves to attend upon 
 her below the dais. Two little girls were then 
 brought in to us, evidently some part of the royal 
 family, and in a quarter of an hour an old lady high 
 in office came to conduct us to her Highness. 
 
 " We found Nazly Hanum sitting on a high divan. 
 Mrs. Kruse and I made our EuroiDcan salutation, but 
 Mrs, Hekekyan had to prostrate herself at her feet 
 and kiss the hem of her garments. She smilingly 
 told us to be seated. She is a little woman apparently 
 
EGYPT. 99 
 
 about forty years of age. I never saw a more pierc- 
 ing eye in my life. She is said to be very like her 
 father. She immediately asked which was the teacher, 
 and asked me several questions in Turkish through an 
 interpreter. She wished me much to come and live 
 in the house, saying that every liberty should be 
 allowed me. This, of course, I declined, thanking 
 her for the honour intended. It was agreed I should 
 teach four hours daily — from nine to one o'clock. 
 She was smoking the whole time." 
 
 Want of space forbids us entering into the details 
 of this work. Miss Holliday says : " Each morning 
 she set off, praying that the Lord would give her 
 the needed strength for her strange mode of teaching." 
 She continued a welcome and honoured guest, and 
 though immediate fruit did not appear, she was 
 enabled to persevere, leaving the result with God. 
 
 She one day mentioned that she had received from 
 England a beautiful box of fancy work, to be presented 
 to the royal ladies. When this was told to the Pasha, 
 he signified his intention of being present when it was 
 opened. " Here," writes Miss Holliday, " I saw what 
 perhaps no other European lady ever beheld, the 
 Pasha, Mehemet Ali, standing, like one of the 
 patriarchs of old, in the midst of his whole family 
 — wives, sisters, and daughters. On my entrance he 
 smiled, and with great condescension asked how I was. 
 He paid most attention to the orrery, and model of 
 the Thames Tunnel. On presenting the Queen's 
 picture, Nazly Hanum immediately asked if the Queen 
 was married ; and it was with much difficulty I made 
 her understand that she reigned in her own rig-ht 
 
100 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 alone. When I told her that she was equal in power 
 to any king, or, as I put it. Sultan, she seemed lost in 
 wonder. 
 
 Some time after a letter was sent by the command 
 of his Highness the Pasha, of which the following is 
 an extract : — " I begin by informing you that the 
 Pasha was extremely affected at the piety and philan- 
 thropy of the English ladies composing the Society for 
 the Promotion of Female Education in the East, and 
 recommended the princesses to follow their example in 
 his dominions. I send you a box of articles of Eastern 
 female clothing and ornaments made by the Pasha's 
 harem as a return for the samples sent by the society. 
 The Tarka or head scarf is his Highness Ibraham Pasha's 
 lady's own handy-work, and is intended for her Majesty 
 the Queen. But the desire is to be merely mentioned 
 to you. The books you sent were forwarded to me 
 with an order from the Pasha that I should translate 
 them into the Turkish language. I do not flatter you 
 when I say, that they are all very much pleased with 
 you in the harem, and they declare English ladies are 
 the cleverest and best-behaved of all the Frank ladies 
 they have ever seen or heard of I cannot too strongly 
 recommend you to be watchful and circumspect, for the 
 sake of your ulterior success, and that of your succes- 
 sors. First let the fruit ripen, then pluck it." 
 
 Enclosed was a letter from the ladies of the harem 
 themselves. It concludes with these words : " We 
 pray God, the Most High, that you may receive eternal 
 rewards for your benevolent labours to augment happi- 
 ness among the females of the East, and we take this 
 opportunity to inform you that your delegate, the 
 
EGYPT. 101 
 
 gentlewoman Holliday, employed in your service, has 
 pleased us with her rare knowledge, and her exemplary 
 conduct has laid the foundations of affection. Signed 
 by eight of the princesses, 13th day of Ramazan, 
 1254." 
 
 Her Majesty Queen Victoria was not only pleased 
 to receive the needlework referred to, but graciously 
 presented a beautiful likeness of herself to the ladies 
 of the royal harem, through the society. The Pasha 
 ordered that her Majesty's gifts should be received in 
 the most honourable manner, and every possible respect 
 shown to the Queen's likeness. Royal carriages were 
 sent to escort it to the palace, and it was guarded by 
 janissaries, each bearing his silver stick of office. The 
 box containing it was covered with our national flags. 
 
 An Egyptian society, copying the very name of that 
 in England, was perhaps the greatest wonder of all. 
 It was established by order of the Pasha, the patrons 
 being the royal ladies of Cairo. 
 
 Some scientific instruments, exhibited by Miss Holli- 
 day, attracted the attention of some of the Beys. One 
 of them, Edheem Bey, seeing the progress made not 
 only by the princesses, but the children in the school, 
 which our friend continued zealously to superintend, 
 desired her also to form an infant school on the English 
 model. It began with 150 children, and the elder 
 girls' school numbered 130, while 70 more, allJewesses, 
 were, through the influence of Sir Moses Montefiore, 
 gathered in another part of the city. " What a 
 change," she writes, " has been wrought in ten years." 
 
 Miss Holliday had now become the wife of the 
 well-known missionary of the Church Missionary 
 
102 OUK EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 Society, Mr. Leider, and was working, if possible, vdih 
 more energy than ever. When she entered Egypt 
 there was scarcely a woman who could read, now 
 hundreds possessed the power, and many had the best 
 of books to read. But this incessant labour proved 
 too much, and for a time she broke down. " My 
 illness," she says, " humanly speaking, arose from 
 excessive exertion in the school and harem, having, 
 during the hot months, to go to the Casa Dehara when 
 the heat exceeded 114° of Fahr. The sand wind, too, 
 and the table at the harem, added not a little to it. 
 I have tried again and again to avoid the dishes, but 
 nothing would do with her Highness but that those 
 most esteemed by herself should be tasted by her 
 teacher day by day." In 1846 Mrs. Leider wrote : "I 
 have suffered much from ill health and blindness, having 
 quite lost my sight for several months. The Lord, 
 nevertheless, has been most merciful to me, for our 
 orphan girls, through my previous instructions, were 
 able to keep the house in order, and do all that was 
 necessary. Had it not been for these afflictions, I should 
 have continued to attend the harem, but I was, I believe, 
 providentially withheld. Had I persevered, under the 
 existing state of politics, there is no doubt I should 
 have received a dismissal, and this was an event to be 
 carefully avoided." 
 
 Change in Egyptian politics, and her own broken 
 health, obliged Mrs. Leider to quit Egypt, and she did 
 not live to return. But again God in His providence 
 had been preparing another labourer. Nearly twenty 
 years ago Miss Mary Whately, daughter of the well- 
 known Archbishop of Dublin, opened her first little 
 
EGYPT. 103 
 
 school in Cairo. All her friends assured her that to 
 bring Egyptian Moslems under Scriptural instruction 
 was an impossibility. But her faith was strong, and 
 she believed that the things which were impossible to 
 men were possible with God. In one resjDect her 
 mission was unlike Miss Holliday's. Miss M. Whately 
 began with the lowest. The misery of the poorer 
 classes of women touched her heart. She often saw 
 them shivering in their single garment of blue cotton 
 in the early morning, as they filled their pitchers or 
 washed their clothes on the banks of the Nile, their 
 teeth chattering while they stood almost knee deep in 
 the chill waters. Then in the intense heat of summer, 
 while their lazy husbands sat and smoked under the 
 palm trees, they would have to walk to and fro, to fetch 
 water with immense jugs upon their heads. This toil 
 would be exchanged for field labour, and often on their 
 return to the place called " home," they would bo 
 beaten for some fancied neglect of duty. Her own 
 man-servant, by no means an ill-natured man, would 
 speak of beating his wife as a matter of course ! All 
 she at first attempted was to visit the poor women of 
 the lower orders in their huts, or as they sat at their 
 doors in the alleys and lanes. From such homes s'le 
 gathered her first scholars. By degrees she became 
 better known, and her skill in curing some of her little 
 pupils, who were suffering from ophthalmia, led to 
 requests to visit older members of the families. The 
 curses and the handfuls of dust thrown at her became 
 less, and at last many came to regard her as their best 
 friend. 
 
 In time she established harem visitation, and found 
 
104 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 some of the prison inmates willing to receive the 
 Gospel. One woman, after listening eagerly to the 
 story of Christ's love, exclaimed, " Oh, why was I 
 never told of this before?" The schools became such 
 a success that the Khedive presented Miss M. Whately 
 with ground upon which to build schools commensurate 
 with the increasing number of scholars. To erect 
 these Miss Whately herself contributed largely. Her 
 " Ragged Life in Egypt " and other works are well 
 known to tiie Christian public. 
 
 Miss M. Whately saw fruit to the glory of God. 
 Before the late war drove her from Egypt and scattered 
 her little flock, she had reason to rejoice that many had 
 learnt the way to heaven, and some, she had every 
 reason to believe, were safely landed there. One of 
 her latest letters from Cairo tells this touching story : 
 "About three years ago a young woman, with three or 
 four others, was sitting under the palms near her 
 village. I had not met with a good reception. Some 
 bigots seemed determined to break up the reading. So 
 I retired to a palm grove, followed by a few girls and 
 women. This young woman listened in silence, and it 
 seemed as if she began, for the first time, to think of 
 anything spiritual, and to feel that she had a soul. 
 Before I left she took my hand, and said, * Those are 
 blessed words in your Book.' Another lamb is folded 
 from my little flock, and, we have every reason to 
 believe, is gone to be with Jesus. She and her sister 
 were sent to me at four and six years old, and when 
 old enough, each was made a pupil-teacher. They 
 were good, and, I had every cause to hope, believing 
 girls, and read the Scriptures well. At fourteen, the 
 
EGYPT. 105 
 
 eldest, Nafesa, was married by the mother, in spite of 
 my earnest remonstrances, to a young widower with a 
 particularly disagreeable mother, and mischief-making 
 widowed sister, and three ugly, spoiled, fretful child- 
 ren. He had a good salary as ' Katib,' or native scribe, 
 and the foolish old woman clung to the riches and 
 sacrificed her child. Of course, he spoke fair at first, 
 and everything was smooth ; but, after a few weeks, 
 the poor girl was wretched, and she has, from the 
 wedding-day until now (more than a year and a-half), 
 never been allowed outside her door, even to visit me, 
 and all the winter has to light a lamp after noon, as 
 she has to keep the lattice shutters closed, and in 
 a street this causes actual darkness when the full 
 sun is off the windows! She is pale and sickly, 
 and her infant thin and weak, of course. The 
 second sister then fell ill, greatly from fretting ; 
 she got a bad leg, and then the disease fell on the 
 general frame in some way, and she got what the Irish 
 call a ' waste.' The mother had put her under a 
 stupid native doctor, who did her no good. When 
 our doctor's baby-son was baptised, just before the 
 outbreak of this rebellion, this poor girl, who had been 
 a month or more ill, managed to come riding on a 
 donkey, though looking like a ghost, so thin and weak; 
 I said, 'Fatmeh, you are not fit to be out!' she replied, 
 'I would come; I wanted to see the baptism so much!' 
 I said, ' You ought yourself to be baptised, only I do 
 not wish to make a disturbance and anger your mother 
 just now ; but, at any rate, tell me what you think of 
 this when you see it.' She understood English enough 
 to follow in part, and seemed greatly interested. At 
 
106 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 my request, the English Chaplain, who had come to 
 
 baptise Dr. A 's little boy, asked her if she believed 
 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ. She answered emphatically, 
 in her pretty, broken English, ' I do ; yes, I do!' He 
 asked one or two more simple questions, and was, he 
 told me, satisfied that the girl was a sincere believer. 
 Only two days after this, we had to make a sudden 
 break up, and when I returned, after more than two 
 weeks in Alexandria, the dear girl was dead. She had 
 grown rapidly weaker, and for three days could not speak; 
 but the Christian teachers were with her constantly, 
 comforting her with texts, etc. Her only grief seemed 
 to be that her cruel husband refused to allow her 
 beloved sister to go and see her, though but a few 
 doors off. Truly she is better off than if she had 
 lived, and all know that she died a believing 
 Christian." 
 
 Miss Whately is again in Cairo, and earnestly 
 desires the prayers of God's people in the work so 
 near to her heart. She writes, December, 1882 : 
 " Scholars are beginning to pour in already, more 
 Christians at first than Moslems, but they will soon 
 follow. With the banner of love I will go forth, and 
 try to show that the God they ignorantly worship with 
 fanaticism is really a God of mercy, and love, and 
 peace ; and I hope we shall see light shining in 
 darkness before long." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 " These from the land of Sinim," — Isaiah xlix. 12. 
 
 HINA was for centuries closed to 
 all Protestant missionary efforts. 
 It was not till 1806 that any 
 attempt was made to bring to its 
 inhabitants the light of the Gospel. 
 Then the " two-leaved gates," 
 which had for centuries closed her 
 in from the rest of the world, 
 began to relax their complicated 
 fastenings, and those devoted men 
 Dr. Morrison and Dr. Milne and their wives, with 
 their lives in their hands, attempted to enter them, 
 though denied a house in China proper, and obliged 
 to seek one in the Straits. After years of patient toil 
 they succeeded in translating the Bible into Chinese.' 
 For long their mission was regarded as visionary and 
 quixotic. Even Christians looked upon it as pre- 
 mature and hopeless. Uncheered and without 
 sympathy, they laboured on year after year. Then 
 
 107 
 
108 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 foreign wars, and the domestic Taeping rebellion, 
 weakened the prestige of their Government. At the 
 same time the emigration of many thousands to the 
 Indian Archipelago, Malacca, and Singapore, brought 
 the Chinese into contact with the mind of the Western 
 world. Subsequently Dr. and Mrs, Gutzlaff and 
 others found their way into the Celestial Empire, and 
 travelled from port to port, distributing portions of the 
 Scriptures and tracts in the colloquial dialects, and 
 taught any who were willing to learn, Mrs, Gutzlaff, 
 who, as Miss Wallace, had been sent out by some 
 Scotch ladies, soon applied to the Female Education 
 Society for help. Writing from Macao, 14th Decem- 
 ber, 1836, she says : " Pray, pray, pray send us 
 teachers heart and soul in the work. We have now 
 
 twenty-three children. When will Miss come ? 
 
 Make haste and send us a helper, there is so much to 
 do. Thousands of children to be trained, and only one 
 solitary teacher. It is probable we shall soon remove 
 to a more convenient house, and then I could accom- 
 modate several young female friends. I will strive to 
 be mother, sister, friend to them." Miss Barker was 
 at once sent. By the treaty of 1842 not only was 
 Hong-Kong ceded to Great Britain, but the five ports 
 were thrown open, with permission to erect churches 
 and establish schools. But, before that time. Miss 
 Aldersey, a lady who had from its formation been on 
 the committee of the Society for the Promotion of 
 Female Education in the East, had entered upon that 
 field of labour. It had long been her cherished desire 
 to benefit the Chinese women. A friend of Dr. 
 Morrison, she had, under his instruction, when only 
 
CHINA. 109 
 
 nineteen years of age, diligently applied herself to the 
 study of the language. Surrounded with all the 
 comforts that abundant means could furnish, she 
 endeavoured in every way possible to fit herself to 
 endure the privations of missionary life. With her 
 father's consent, in the year 1832, she made pre- 
 parations to accompany a missionary party to the 
 Straits of Malacca, to labour among the Chinese 
 emigrants. But, just on the point of embarking, her 
 plans were frustrated by the sudden death of a sister 
 leaving six children. To her ardent mind it was a 
 severe trial, but she saw the hand of God in it, and at 
 once bent her energies to supply to the bereaved ones, 
 as far as in her lay, the place of a mother. Her state 
 of mind at that time was well described in the beauti- 
 ful lines of Madame Guyon, — 
 
 " If place I seek, or place I shun, 
 My soul finds happiness in none ; 
 But with my God to guide my way, 
 'Tis equal joy to go or stay." 
 
 For five years all thoughts of China were abandoned. 
 Then another was found to take her place in the 
 family, and, on the 10th of August, 1837, she left 
 England with Dr. and Mrs. Medhurst, and another 
 young worker, who was early called to her heavenly 
 rest. By their advice she settled first in Java, and 
 opened an Indo-Chinese school. Another five years 
 passed, during which she had, through her knowledge, 
 ministered largely to the sick. This afforded her 
 many opportunities of giving religious instruction, 
 which she diligently embraced. Two of their pupils, 
 Ati and Kit, renounced heathenism, and were baptised. 
 
110 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 After a short stay at Singapore, she proceeded to Hong- 
 Kong, arriving there the very day peace was proclaimed 
 and the five ports thrown open to commerce and 
 missionary enterprise. In 1844 Miss Aldersey, in 
 spite of great difficulties, removed to Ningpo. 
 
 Bishop Smith, in his "Historyof China," thus refers to 
 her : " Only one British labourer had, at this time, 
 entered Ningpo — a female, Miss Aldersey, who, with 
 her own independent resources, has been making a 
 praiseworthy effort to impart a Christian education to 
 about twenty female children. The prejudices and 
 suspicions of the parents had been gradually allayed by 
 her judicious and kind management, and their confidence 
 in her was daily increasing. A little babe, rescued from 
 slow starvation, had just been received on the day of my 
 arrival." The Rev. W. Milne, writing to ask help for 
 Miss Aldersey's work, which had grown beyond her 
 means to sustain, speaks of her as " a self-denying, 
 heroic labourer," "The success," he says, " which has 
 already (in 1845) attended her good work in the city 
 of Ningpo, with its 250,000 inhabitants, has surpassed 
 our most sanguine expectations." One story shall be 
 given as a sample of this success. "When Miss Alder- 
 sey began her work, she was constantly distressed by 
 the piteous cries of a little girl. On inquiry she found 
 that these cries came from a child betrothed to the 
 grandson of the woman who in part owned the house 
 in which she lived. It was only one of many cases she 
 met with, exhibiting the proverbial wretchedness of a 
 child sent into the family of her future husband. Miss 
 Aldersey was told that the girl was so wicked that she 
 required constant beating. One day matters cul- 
 
CHINA. Ill 
 
 minated in the poor thing determining to take poison, 
 and trying to persuade a little friend to do the same. 
 Miss Aldersey then urged the woman to give up the 
 child, promising to try her method of reformation. With 
 much difficulty, and after many efforts she succeeded, 
 and no little trouble attended the task. Every day 
 came the assurance that nothing could subdue her but 
 stripes. For a long time the issue seemed doubtful, 
 but love ultimately prevailed. The efforts of Miss 
 Aldersey, aided as they were by those of her adopted 
 daughter, Mary Leisk, and her young native converts, 
 Ati and Kit, all of whom had followed their beloved 
 friend to Ningpo, proved, by God's blessing, effectual. 
 
 Miss Leisk was rejoiced one morning, on hearing 
 the voice of prayer, to find a little band was assembled 
 in a private room, and the devotions led by the once 
 hardened child. Better still, her future mother-in-law, 
 who had declared that her hatred of the child was so 
 great that she never addressed her but by some oppro- 
 brious name, came to the school to express her delight 
 and surprise at the change in the girl's whole conduct 
 and deportment. 
 
 The story of these two young girls, Ati and Kit, is 
 quite a romance. On Miss Aldersey's removal, they 
 were deprived of all religious instruction, and left to 
 the care of persons who took little heed of them. 
 They resolved to follow her, and to perform the journey 
 as correctly as possible, one, the best-looking and most 
 attractive, assumed the name of " the young lady," 
 while the other performed the office of servant or 
 attendant, and in this way they reached the northern 
 portion of the island of Java, from whence they em- 
 
112 OUll EASTERN SISTER!^. 
 
 barked for Ningpo, and arrived safely at the new home 
 of their astonished teacher. They both, years after, 
 married Christian Chinamen, and were madeveryuseful. 
 About the same time that Ati and Kit were led to 
 give up idolatry and avouch themselves Christians, 
 Chunneo and Haneo in Singapore took the same stejD. 
 They were known to Ati, and a letter written in her 
 own hand in English to the committee in England 
 will give a stronger proof of the elevating influence of 
 Christian instruction than any words from others. 
 
 " Ningpo, 16th A-pril, 1846. 
 " Respected Ladies, — I hope you will excuse me in 
 writing to you. We are so thankful, and praise God 
 for His great goodness to us, in that He has made 
 known His blessed Gospel, and has put in the hearts 
 of His good people to pity us, and some have left their 
 comforts and beloved friends behind, to go so far to 
 teach the ignorant and perishing heathen. We are 
 very much interested in Chunneo and Haneo. We 
 knew them both before they were converted. When 
 we had news from them that they had become the 
 disciples of Jesus, it astonished me very much. It 
 was as news from heaven, for we were so lonely, 
 because there were none of our sex who were Christ- 
 ians which we knew besides us two, my companion 
 and I. . . . Though we are far from each other, we 
 can comfort each other with letters. As we were 
 heathen formerly, we can sympathise with them. We 
 are very anxious about our parents, for they have no 
 hope. I can only pray, but I hope the Almighty God 
 will hear my prayers for them. . . . Pardon the 
 errors of this letter ; finally, pray for us, that we may 
 
CHINA. 113 
 
 grow iu grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. — I am yours respectfully, 
 
 " Ruth Ati." 
 
 In perusing the journals and letters of Miss Alder- 
 say, extending as they do over a period of twenty- 
 three years, the one difficulty is to make a selection. 
 For some time she was regarded as a female cannibal, 
 and tales were told that she picked out the eyes of 
 some of the children, while she ate others. For a 
 short time it was generally believed that she had 
 murdered all the children who had gone to her house. 
 She was a very early riser, and took her morning walk 
 about four o'clock. To account for this habit, the 
 Chinese said she went thus early to hold intercourse 
 with the evil spirits of the night, and that she might 
 drink the blood of the children she killed. 
 
 Oue letter tells of an attempt to teach a poor blind 
 woman, who, having heard something of the Gospel 
 from a native Christian, Sing-a-foh, came to hear the 
 way of God explained more fully. Her family took 
 alarm, a mob assembled round the " barbarian white 
 woman's " house, threw stones, and were so violent 
 that Miss Aldersey had to retreat to a boat for safety. 
 Soon after, she was cheered by no less than eighty 
 women from another city coming to visit her. It was 
 a day on which they were going to the temple to give 
 rice to the priests, and buy bills on the bank of 
 heaven. This means that they give pieces of cash for 
 some bits of printed paper, which being preserved till 
 death, are then burned, iu the belief that they will be 
 available iu Hades. 
 
 About the same time, a letter arrived from one of 
 
 I 
 
114 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 lier girls married iu a distant village, saying she was 
 teaching eight girls " the doctrine," adding " ask God 
 to show me how, and to give me a Christian spirit. 
 We have begun family prayer." Another girl. Sing 
 Asan, dying with disease in the chest, unable to lie 
 down, was patiently looking forward in perfect peace 
 to her home in heaven, " praying only," she said, " to 
 the true God." 
 
 We might lill pages with accounts of Miss Aldersey's 
 self-denying work among female opium-eaters. One 
 Chinese lady whom she took into her own house, and 
 had to watch by night as well as by day, was induced 
 to abandon the habit after many relapses, and there 
 was reason to believe became a true Christian. Miss 
 Aldersey naively says : " I told her at once she must 
 destroy her pipe ; she is to bring her guitar, and she 
 and Mary Leisk are to try their skill together. Truly 
 it is no joke to have such a guest, but as she seems i-n 
 earnest, I invited her to come and go through the 
 painful weaning under my eye. She has been in the 
 habit of rising in the middle of the night and calling 
 some one up to prepare a meal. Her habits are an 
 annoyance to Europeans, but when I think of the 
 possibility of her I'eceiving the Gospel, all such little 
 matters appear nothing to me. She is astonished at 
 all she sees and hears." 
 
 A short accoimt of two of the brightest amongst 
 her young converts must conclude this sketch. San 
 Avong, an interesting little girl, was the child of a 
 woman who came to Miss Aldersey as servant. The 
 pay from " the foreign devil " was doubtless the 
 inducement, and as it suited her convenience sht- 
 
CHINA. 115 
 
 consented to the child living with her and being 
 taught. The girl, already betrothed, was soon married, 
 and shortly became a widow, when she returned to 
 her English friend. The truth had taken hold of her 
 heart, and she became Miss Aldersey's faithful friend 
 and helper. She prayed much for her mother and 
 other relatives, and earnestly besought them to come 
 and learn the " good doctrine" from her beloved 
 teacher. Miss Aldersey gives the following amusing 
 account of one such interview. " San Avong one 
 day brought a rich female relative, Avhom she had 
 great difficulty in inducing to come, because of the 
 reports abroad concerning me. The lady was 
 evidently ill at ease. She sat, however, pretty 
 quietly, till I had occasion to put my hand in a bag 
 for the key of a closet where I kept biscuits, and 
 which I wished her to partake of. She then im- 
 mediately arose, fearing I was drawing out a 
 knife." She could not be persuaded to stay, and 
 excused herself from tasting anything, from the fear 
 of being poisoned. The missionaries used to say that 
 Miss Aldersey was the most notorious person in all 
 Ningpo. God's blessing rested in a remarkable way 
 upon the young missionary's efforts. One day, San 
 Avong found a schoolfellow weeping bitterly, saying 
 she was a great sinner, and soon she and others were 
 led to believe in the one Saviour who died for the 
 sins of the world. As our young widow grew older 
 she increased in knowledge as well as in grace, 
 and opportunities for usefulness opened out before 
 her. She and the Christian girls established a 
 working party, and sold stockings, table mats, and 
 
116 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 other articles which they made, to pay for the 
 education of some heathen child. On one occasion, 
 San Avong visited a nunnery, and while the 
 inmates were eating rice, told them of " our holy 
 religion," She wrote to Miss Aldersey : " One 
 woman seemed quite interested. She urged us to 
 take tea and tiffin. I am quite surprised at her 
 kindness. On Saturday, many more desired to hear 
 of our doctrine. While speaking, I prayed that I 
 might be faithful. We read the Scriptures to them, 
 and some asked, ' How must we worship Jesus ?' " 
 The two young converts who accompanied her could 
 not talk to their fellow-countrywomen as she did, 
 but, they simply said, they stood by and prayed. 
 Another time our young widow went to a hospital, 
 built outside the city, for the blind and disabled. It 
 is one of the very few places supported by Chinese 
 charity. The poor inmates, numbering several 
 
 hundreds, thought some bad motive must have 
 actuated their visitors. But San Avong told them of 
 the love of Jesus, and induced a few children to take 
 their first lesson in the art of reading. The increasing 
 usefulness of this young evangelist led Miss Aldersey, 
 whose infirmities and age were unfitting her for the 
 constant work of past years, to seek a protection for 
 her. After a formal proposal from Yi Loh Ding, 
 they were betrothed, and soon after married. This 
 young man had been a heathen opium-smoker, but 
 was now not only a Christian, but a preacher of the 
 Gospel. They soon began to itinerate in the towns 
 and villages, and while he spoke to the men, San 
 Avong went from house to house among the women. 
 
CHINA. 117 
 
 In the midst of her usefulness, this young Christian 
 was suddenly called home. While all were mourn- 
 ing around her, she told them " she was very 
 happy." She committed her new-born baby to the 
 care of Miss Aldersey, and when her husband, in 
 an agony of grief, exclaimed, " San Avong, 
 what shall I do without you?" she replied, "Don't 
 rest on me. Go to Jesus. He will never fail you. 
 He is with me now. He sustains and blesses me." 
 And in this happy state of mind she fell asleep. 
 The God whom she had loved and served for ten years 
 was with her in the valley of death, and to the last she 
 kept repeating promises out of His Word. May not 
 English Christians say : "Let my last end be like hers?" 
 
 Another of our friend's valued helpers was Agnes 
 Gutzlafif, a blind girl. This dear yovmg woman became a 
 very decided Christian, and had the benefit of several 
 years' teaching in England. After Miss Aldersay gave 
 up school teaching, Agnes carried on much of her work, 
 and was invaluable among the blind, who, alas ! abound 
 in China. She also assisted in visiting the native 
 Christian families. One blind woman with her two 
 children resided on the mission premises. A blind 
 pupil who had given Agnes much sorrow by her bad 
 behaviour became thoroughly changed by God's blessing 
 upon her teacher's long-suffedng and patience, and only 
 returned home that she might try and lead her 
 relatives to that Saviour whom she had found to be so 
 precious. 
 
 Among the many who were led to seek the Saviour 
 through the instrumentality of Miss Aldersey and her 
 native and other helpers was an old lady aged eighty. 
 
118 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 She gave the strongest testimony to the reality of the 
 change that a Chinese could do. As the result of 
 many years' hard earnings, she had purchased a large 
 collection of hewan-dea. These are regarded as a sort 
 of bills on the bank of Hades, of which (so say the 
 l^riests) the newly deceased person will get the benefit 
 on arriving in the world of spirits. After her con- 
 version the old lady publicly burned these bills herself 
 amidst the expressed horror and astonishment of the 
 bystanders. When she ended by throwing the dust of 
 the burnt papers into the river, the people groaned out 
 their wailing lamentation over the unheard-of loss, and 
 the fearful abuse of such sacred things. 
 
 In 18.57, Miss Aldersey, after resigning the school 
 in Ningpo, joined some relatives in Australia, where, 
 in a good old age, and active to the last in her Lord's 
 service, she was called to her heavenly rest. " The 
 memory of the just is blessed." 
 
 Miss Harriet Baxter, in like manner, devoted her 
 life and fortune to China's women, and only the great 
 day will reveal fully the blessing resulting from the 
 work of these labourers. Since their removal much 
 has been done in the way of female education in that 
 vast empire. Mrs. Smith, wife of the then Bishop of 
 Victoria, opened day schools, in which the old obstacle 
 arose of the children being in danger of being kidnapped 
 on their way to and fro; and where the injunction 
 given to the teacher by the mother of one of the first 
 pupils was to be sure and beat her well. But by 
 degrees obstacles were overcome, and at the present 
 time there arc in China over a hundred lady 
 missionaries, besides missionaries' wives. 
 
CHINA. 119 
 
 Great blessing has attended the efforts of the 
 converts to lead their fellow-countrywomeu to Christ. 
 A missionary, lately, on visiting a distant village, was 
 surprised by a number of women coming and begging 
 him to baptise them. On inquiry, he was told that 
 the village had been visited by an old resident who 
 had returned to see her relations. That she told her 
 friends all about " the doctrine"; read out of the white 
 foreigners' Book, and told them of the peace and 
 happiness of believing in Jesus. As a result, many of 
 the women had become believers, burnt their ancestral 
 tables, and assembled together to read and pray, and 
 now a missionary had come they besought him to 
 baptise them into the faith of Christ. 
 
 The late Mrs. Edkins, of the London Missionary 
 Society, possessed a marvellous knowledge of the 
 Chinese language, and for many years was pre-emi- 
 nently useful in establishing schools and Bible classes 
 for the women, many of whom died rejoicing in their 
 new-found Saviour, who would doubtless welcome her 
 into her heavenly home. One of the converts came 
 to her lady friend weeping and in sore distress. Her 
 heathen husband had got himself involved in debt, and 
 to meet it had just proposed to sell his little daughter, 
 a mere child, to a Chinaman, twenty years her senior. 
 English mothers can enter into the feelings of this 
 poor native in the prosj)ect of having her little one thus 
 snatched from her, and taken where she might never 
 see or hear of her again. The result of the efforts 
 made in behalf of this poor child were never known. 
 
 The missionary tours of Mrs. Gulick, formerly Miss 
 De la Cour, of the Female Education Society, would 
 
120 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 fill a volume. Their mode of travelling ■vvas this. 
 Mr. Gulick on his horse, mounted on bedding and 
 saddle-bags, containing a month's supply of clothes, 
 books, and medicines. His wife on her white donkey, 
 Donny, with provision bags hanging to her saddle. 
 The days passed happily in curing the sick, and 
 pointing all with whom they came into contact to the 
 Saviour. The nights were trying, but she wrote : 
 " We get used to brick beds, dirt, torn windows, 
 and nightly attacks from four or five different 
 tribes of a liliputian army. I was amused, when 
 putting the bridle on Donny, to hear a bystander 
 exclaim, ' Ah, none of our women could do that ; 
 they only know how to drink tea.' " At night stones 
 would sometimes be thro^vn into their place of rest, 
 with the hope that they might go out to scold, and 
 thus some who had not done so before would get a 
 sight of the " white foreign devil." 
 
 In addition to teaching, the work done by many 
 missionary ladies in translating is considerable. Miss 
 Oclad, a labourer of twenty years' standing, translated 
 into Chinese the first hymn book used by the Church 
 in that land. She has since translated Mr. Eugene 
 Stock's " Steps to Truth " into Japanese. 
 
 The need of more labourers is great. Infanticide 
 still prevails to an awful extent. One woman recently 
 acknowledged to a Bible-woman that she had with 
 her own hands killed fourteen children. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 BURMAH. 
 
 " Fellow helpers to the truth." — 3 John 8. 
 
 American ladies belongs the 
 honour of commencing female 
 education in the East. They 
 were the pioneers in this good 
 work, which they began in the 
 first year of this century. Two 
 years later the Massachusetts Bap- 
 tist Missionary Society was formed, 
 out of which sprang " The Female 
 Mite," " Female Cent," and other 
 ladies' societies. In 1819, the Female Missionary 
 Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was formed. 
 Little is recorded of woman's work in Burmah till 
 1822, when Mrs. Judson, who, with her husband, had 
 been toiling at the language since 1813, returning to 
 America for the restoration of her health, pictured in 
 burning words the condition of women without Christ 
 in India and Burmah. She besought her Christian 
 sisters to lay aside superfluous luxuries and ornaments 
 
 121 
 
122 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 in the house and on the person, and to devote their 
 price to carry out the work of God abroad. 
 
 On her return to Burmah in 1824, her husband, by 
 invitation of the King, settled in Ava the cajjital, 
 where she at once began a school with three little 
 girls. But the war broke out, and was followed by 
 the dreadful sufferings so graphically described in the 
 lives of these devoted people. As soon as they 
 were set at liberty, they settled at Amherst, Avhcrc 
 Mrs. Judson again opened a school. But family cares 
 soon partially stopped the Avork, and requests were 
 sent to America for unmarried ladies. Four only 
 were at that time allowed to engage in the mission, 
 as the officials at home wrote that, " they did not feel 
 sufficiently sure that single women would be brave, 
 and steady, and contented, when far from home and 
 relatives, and at the same time prudent as to their 
 health, and willing to be guided." Mrs, Carpenter, 
 herself sorely needing such help, seems to have had a 
 better opinion of her sisters at home. "Writing about 
 the matter some years later, she says, " As yet we 
 have no helper ; our signal of distress is raised. : our 
 cry for help repeated again and again, but so far none 
 respond." Helpers did, however, come, though it was 
 remarkable that the very day one of them first met 
 the committee, a fire broke out, which burned up the 
 city, and the outfit prepared for her was consumed in 
 the depot. Timely aid was given, funds were provided, 
 and she sailed at the appointed time for her eastern 
 home. Many were the difficulties to be encountered, 
 but, as one of her countrywomen wrote: " When did a 
 woman with a Divine instinct within her fail, because 
 
BUEMAH. 123 
 
 of incredulity or indifference ? " Since Mary broke her 
 alabaster box, she has met, and triumphed over such, 
 and won the encomium of her Lord. " When seeking 
 to trace some of the secrets of the success God has 
 granted, we have at least found one. These dollars 
 have come with a value not recognised in the 
 commercial markets, memoirs of the departed, the 
 hard earnings and close savings of the living, baptised 
 in heart-blood, and consecrated with prayer." A lady 
 from Ohio, having been used by God at home, and 
 accepted for foreign work, was waiting till sufficient 
 money was raised to send her, when a woman's meet- 
 ing was held to deliberate on the steps to be taken. 
 One of their number arose exclaiming, "And shall we" 
 lose her because we have not the needed money in 
 our hands ? No ! rather let us resolve to walk the 
 streets of Boston in calico robes, and save the expense 
 
 of more costly apparel. I move Miss T 's 
 
 appointment to India." The response of all present, 
 only twenty in number, was " We will send her." 
 There are now no less than twenty distinct female 
 missionary societies in America, but as numbers and 
 statistics do not possess the interest of facts, the 
 little space left shall contain a sketch of a few of the 
 gifted and saintly women thus sent, and the mar- 
 vellous blessing that rested upon their labours. Perhaps 
 the work among the Burmans and Karens is more 
 striking than any others in the whole range of modern 
 missions. 
 
 It was on the 19th of February, 1812, that the 
 brig weighed anchor which was to convey Mr. and 
 Mrs. Judson and their fellow- workers to the land of 
 
124 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 their adoption. Of that devoted band, they alone 
 were permitted to land in Rangoon. Ere long, a 
 small, low, thatched building called a zayat was built 
 by the way-side, on the road leading to the Great 
 Pagoda, and here day by day did they, first through 
 an interpreter, and then with loosened tongue, proclaim 
 the message of salvation to the crowds that were 
 constantly passing. Here Mrs. Judson opened her 
 first girls' school ; here she assembled the women, and 
 told them of the woman's Saviour. Here it was that, 
 when the war with England broke out, she, with the 
 other missionaries and their wives, were arrested, 
 laden with heavy chains, and hurried off to the common 
 prison. In vain they urged that they were Americans, 
 and had no connection with the British Government. 
 Here it was that fifty Burmans entered their prison, 
 took off their outer garments, and drove them to the 
 place of execution. Here, when she, Mrs. Hough, and 
 Mrs. Wade were rescued by British officers, did this 
 noble woman by her earnest appeals to the Governor 
 obtain permission to erect a little bamboo hut within 
 the precincts of the prison yard in which the mis- 
 sionaries were immured, and for nine weary mouths 
 prepared their food, ministered to their wants, and, as 
 opportunity offered, whispered of a Saviour's love to 
 the degraded native women with whom she was daily 
 brought into contact. 
 
 Shortly after, the approach of the British army to 
 the capital alarmed the King, who then commanded the 
 services of Dr. Judson as part of an embassy to the 
 English camp, with overtures of peace. On the con- 
 clusion of peace the missionaries were set free. Friends 
 
BURMAH. 125 
 
 were not wanting who urged the released captives, after 
 two years of ahnost unparalleled suffering, to return, 
 and rest, at least, for awhile in their native land. But 
 their hearts were set upon winning the Burmese to 
 Christ. Amherst was fixed upon as the future capital 
 of the English possessions in Burmah, and here Dr. and 
 Mrs. Judson once more unfurled the standard of the 
 cross under the strong arm of British protection. 
 Hardly were her schools opened when Mrs. Judson, 
 whose constitution never recovered the shock it had 
 sustained, sunk under an attack of fever. She and the 
 little daughter, born during their captivity, were buried 
 at Amherst, thus taking possession of the soil for Christ. 
 Never was that text more fulfilled, she " being dead yet 
 speaketh." A catechism which she had written was now 
 put into the hands of the children who could no longer 
 hear the living voice, and through it many were led to 
 read God's Word, and were made wise unto salvation. 
 While the good work was thus proceeding at Rangoon, 
 Mrs. Wade, Mrs. Mason, and Mrs. Boardman were 
 toiling among the women of Tavoy. This city was the 
 stronghold of Buddhism, and at that time numbered 
 200 priests and upwards of 2000 pagodas. "Here," 
 writes the latter, " we are gathering some of the dear 
 scattered lambs of the fold. The room for Mr. Broad- 
 man, myself, and our little boy to live in is not above 
 five feet wide and ten feet long, and so low that I 
 cannot stand upright in it." From this lowly home Mr. 
 Boardman, worn out with toil, was called to his heavenly 
 rest. His widow resolved not to abandon her beloved 
 work. She wrote, " The superintendence of the board- 
 ing and the village schools, with food and clothing for 
 
126 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 the girls in tlie former, and five clay schools devolves 
 wholly on me." 
 
 At the end of three years of widowhood, Mrs. Board- 
 man married Dr. Judson, leaving behind her in Tavoy 
 Mi's. Mason, a fellow- worker, to cany on her schools, 
 every way fitted to follow in her steps. Mrs. Judson 
 perfected her knowledge of Burmese, and made great 
 proficiency in the Karen language. She assisted Dr. 
 Judson in his translation of the entire Scriptures into 
 Burman, — a laborious work, often under the pressure of 
 severe bodily suffering. On the 31st January, 1834, 
 we find this touching entry in his handwriting: "Thanks 
 be to God, I can now say I have attained. I have 
 knelt down before Him with the last leaf in my hand, 
 and imploring His forgiveness for all the sins which 
 have polluted my labours, and His aid in future efforts 
 to remove the errors and imperfections which cleave to 
 the work. I have commended it to His mercy, and 
 dedicated it to His glory." 
 
 Mrs. Judson now became interested in many women 
 and children of the Peguan race, who were numerous 
 in the neighbourhood of Maulmein, though quite dis- 
 tinct from the Burmans and Karens. The Judsons 
 were residing on British territory, but became acquainted 
 with these Peguans living across the border, over whom 
 our representative had no control. With great labour 
 she learned their language, and translated into it a 
 considerable portion of the New Testament, a task 
 which no other member of the mission was then able 
 to accomplish. The Word of God, accompanied by the 
 power of the Holy Ghost, now wrought a great change 
 in the people, and hundreds embraced " the new 
 
BURMAH. 127 
 
 doctrine." Nor was it long before their fidelity to it 
 was to be tested. A violent persecution arose. A 
 royal command was issued to exterminate the white 
 people and the foreign religion. The Karen Christians 
 were hunted from place to place ; whole families were 
 seized and cruelly beaten, while Christian mothers, 
 separated from their children, wei'e driven like sheep 
 to prison. 
 
 Captain Phayre, the assistant commissioner, was 
 indeed a Good Samaritan. He supplied many with 
 food, and advanced loans without interest. Hundreds 
 left their homes and fled across the mountains into 
 Arracan. Here they were cared for by their Ameiican 
 friends. Mr. and Mrs. Comstick settled in their 
 midst, where the latter began to teach the women 
 and girls. In the midst of her labours she was seized 
 M'ith cholera, and the following year her husband sank 
 under the same disease. His memorable message to 
 the Churches at home was not forgotten, " Remember, 
 brother, six men for Arracan." His dying words were 
 thus paraphrased : — 
 
 " Tell them that near yon idol dome, 
 There dwells a lonely man, 
 Who bade you take this message home, 
 Six men for Arracan. 
 
 Well, in those lovely scenes of bliss, 
 Where childhood's joys began, 
 I'd have you, brother, tell them this, 
 Six men for Arracan." 
 
 Yon dying saint, he lingers yet, 
 And casts one thought on man ; 
 " Be this the last that you forget. 
 Six men for Arracan." 
 
128 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 Meantime Dr. Judson's second wife, whose zeal 
 equalled that of her predecessor, laboured on in 
 Maulmein. She wrote hymns, and translated many- 
 books in Burmese, amongst others " The Pilgrim's 
 Progress." In a letter home she said, " It would do 
 your heart good to see our praying women ; so 
 humble, so devout, so willing to confess their faults to 
 God, and before one another. I sometimes think 
 Christians at home might well copy them. The 
 Bible class increases. One woman upwards of seventy 
 told me a few days ago, she was the same age as 
 my little daughter Abby. When I asked what she 
 meant, she Said she was converted the year Abby was 
 born, and it was not till then that she began to live." 
 One convert in dying reached out the only rupee 
 she possessed, exclaiming, " Teacher, take this for the 
 building of a chapel." 
 
 Another American lady, Mrs. Ingolls, who left her 
 home as a bride to labour in Burmah, and as wife and 
 widow continues in her beloved work, must be men- 
 tioned, though space forbids us giving details. Amid 
 a company of women whom she had been instrumental 
 in leading to Jesus, was one aged woman, who shortly 
 before her death exclaimed, " Let the king of death 
 now come. I am ready to depart to my Lord. I 
 have confessed His holy name." 
 
 Meanwhile Mrs. Mason was carrying on her work 
 in Tavoy. From the beginning of her career she 
 accompanied her husband in his dangerous jungle 
 tours, where she gathered the women around her, and 
 told the ever new story of a Saviour's love. As 
 her Karen girls left the schools in the town for homes 
 
BURMAH. 129 
 
 of their own in the mountains, they produced a great 
 impression by their altered habits and conduct. In 
 one sequestered glen there lived a former pupil, 
 named Naughapo. She became the Dorcas of the 
 neighbourhood, feeding the hungry, soothing the 
 afRicted, and making her little dwelling the home 
 of many little ones, that they might go to the school 
 and hear of Jesus. On one occasion Mrs. Mason 
 expressed her admiration of her peaceful lovely home, 
 when she replied, " We neither of us think that it 
 or anything we have is our own. All, all is God's." 
 The day before Mrs. Mason left her, a box wallah 
 called with his tempting fabrics for sale. It was but 
 rarely such an opportunity offered in that distant 
 place to make a purchase. But, though Naughapo 
 was in very poor garments, she spent but one rupee, 
 and on the following morning put thirteen into her 
 beloved teacher's hand to deposit in the mission 
 treasury. 
 
 Such were some of the fruits of Helen Mason's 
 teaching. She had asked God to give her the souls 
 of all the pupils in her first Karen school, and what 
 she asked she obtained, though it was ten years before 
 the last confessed her faith in Christ. From her six day 
 schools, one and another as they grew to womanhood 
 came asking to be allowed "to read Jesus Christ's books" 
 to their heathen neighbours. For five long years not one 
 single soul in Mergui or Tavoy became a convert ; now 
 fruit was abounding to the joy of her heart. One and 
 then another and another woman came forward to assist 
 in this labour of love. But the labour of years was 
 telling upon this prematurely old worker. She would 
 
 K 
 
130 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 half playfully say, " I shall vanish away from you before 
 long." She prepared clothes for her children, and 
 arranged all in her home. 
 
 In the little mission cemetery near lier house there 
 was a small bamboo oratory, fatted with a chair, table, 
 and Bible, in which the saintly Boardman was said " to 
 have prayed the Karen Mission into existence." To 
 this retreat Helen Mason often retired, and would 
 spend hours in fasting and prayer, communing with 
 God, and feeding on angels' food. Her strength grew 
 gradually less. There was no disease, it was simply 
 exhaustion. From the beginning to the end she had 
 perfect peace. " Tell the native Christians," she said, 
 " that I loved them to the end, and had it been the 
 will of God, I would have gladly stopped and taught 
 them longer. My peace has been like a river. The 
 words of my Saviour have been verified to me : ' My 
 peace I give unto you.' " She was eminently a 
 woman of prayer. Her husband wrote : " Often, 
 times without number, have I awoke in the silent 
 watches of the night, and found that she had stolen 
 from my side, and was holding earnest communion 
 with God." This, doubtless, was the secret of her 
 success. In one of her last letters she says : " Pray 
 much and often for me that I may ' Abide in Christ,' 
 ' Live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit ; ' " and in 
 this frame of mind she entered upon her heavenly 
 rest. 
 
 Great political changes took place in Burmah in 
 1852. An official letter ran thus: — " 20th Decem- 
 ber, 1852. — To-day the solemn act of dismembering 
 the Burman empire took place on board her Britannic 
 
BURMAH. 131 
 
 Majesty's ship Fox. The proclamation declaring the 
 incorporation of the ancient kingdom of Pegu in the 
 empire of British India, was publicly read, and a royal 
 salute fired in honour of the event." This annexation 
 included the district of Bassein, and united in one 
 continuous sea-board Pegu, Arracan, and Tenasserim. 
 It was in the jungles of these places that Mrs. Mason 
 first sought out the girls, whom she induced for a 
 time to leave their Karen villages and come to her 
 schools at Tavoy. Many of the Sho children also 
 became her pupils. 
 
 The annexation of three millions of people from 
 Avhat has well been called " the most heartless and 
 oppressive Government in all Asia" opened a wide 
 field for unmolested evangelistic labour. Soon zayats, 
 or houses for prayer, were erected along the whole 
 line of the river to the Huckang Valley. " There," 
 wrote Dr. Mason, " we can stand on the borders of 
 Western China, and on the upper waters of the Great 
 Cambodea, and reach by books and teaching untold 
 millions." 
 
 Mrs. Mason (Dr. Mason's second wife) threw her 
 whole soul into the work, and before three years and 
 a-half had elapsed hundreds of women and children 
 could read God's Word in their own tongue. " Three 
 years ago," she writes, " they came in troops, wild 
 mountaineers, with their short striped gowns and 
 unwashed faces ; now all are neatly dressed in clean 
 new gowns, and their hair neatly braided. I could 
 not but exclaim, ' What hath God wrought !' " 
 
 Not satisfied with these results, Mrs. Mason resolved 
 to commence a native self-supporting Female Educa- 
 
132 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 tion Society. As the Mission had not funds available 
 for such an establishment, she determined to appeal 
 to English and American friends and to the people 
 themselves. She drew out her plans, explained and 
 showed them to the natives, and received from them 
 one hundred " pledge letters " of support, accompanied 
 by " blessings on the teacheress for ever." Govern- 
 ment gave her the land and 1400 rupees. "It is 
 true," she wrote, " the land is only an unbroken 
 jungle, and every one says I shall lose my life in 
 clearing it. But, knowing that fearless soldiers must 
 have fearless leaders, I pitched my tent in the wilder- 
 ness, and took my schools with me. There we fed 
 those who came down to clear the land, and who 
 poured down from the hills to the number of 200 
 for many days together. One of the early converts, 
 Shapan, now an evangelist, naively remarked : ' The 
 women worked hard, but the men were very idle.' " 
 
 While Mrs. Mason was thus working in the jungle 
 her pen was not idle, and among those to whom she 
 wrote, and who warmly responded to her appeal, were 
 the ladies forming the committee of the Female 
 Education Society in London. To them she wrote 
 as follows : — " I established this school on an entirely 
 different principle from that of any institution in 
 India. All the land, buildings, apparatus, furniture, 
 books — everything — I give unreservedly to the people. 
 It is not to be the property of any foreign society. 
 The pupils are to enter at twelve, none for less than a 
 year, and the people are to sujiport them entirely, 
 besides keeping the buildings in repair and the land in 
 order." The Rev. "W. Hazeldine, chaplain in the East 
 
BURMAH. 133 
 
 Indian Company's service, having seen the work, con- 
 firmed Mrs. Mason's statements, and said, " There 
 seemed a Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit now in 
 Burmah." 
 
 The society largely helped her work, while presents 
 of books, globes, maps, and even a piano, were sent for 
 the new school. From her interesting little book, 
 " Tounghoo Women," we extract the following : — " A 
 few years ago, not a Karen woman in this region could 
 read a syllable, now hundreds can, and fifty are already 
 training as teachers to their countrywomen. Even 
 the robber chiefs are asking to have them sent into 
 their districts. We want them both as school teachers 
 and Bible-women. Already six Christian villages on 
 one range, and fifteen on the north, have been raised 
 up as if by magic from the darkness of heathenism. 
 Like the prophet in the vision, we are overwhelmed 
 with the scenes passing before our eyes. There is no 
 doubt here whether the Bible shall be taught in their 
 schools. We are welcomed as ' the white teachers who 
 bring the Book.' If you would have Burmah redeemed 
 to the Lord, send women to women. Let them teach 
 the A B C of Christianity, which is mother's work all 
 the world over. One of our women, speaking of a 
 missionary for whom they entertained the most pro- 
 found esteem, said, ' He is like Mount Meru — very 
 high. He knows everything. But he can't talk 
 women's talk, and we don't understand.' Now, if it 
 be supposed by any good society that we aim to super- 
 sede, or in any way to interfere with men's work at 
 all, we can only say, they are utterly mistaken. They 
 don't understand. Let them come and see." 
 
134 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 la another letter Mrs. IMason ^^Tites that she had a 
 visit from a Burmese lady of rank anxious to see her 
 schools and hear of " the doctrine." " She was sixty- 
 five years of age, a former Governor's wife, and had 
 seven or eight ladies in her suite. Her fingers were 
 gemmed with the nine magic stones of Burmah. 
 Having ordered mats, I took a low seat by my visitors 
 and inquired if the lady wished to hear of Jesus Christ. 
 * I have come to hear,' was the answer. ' I have lived 
 sixty-five years.' ' Indeed ! then the great mother is 
 as old as my grandmother. I am but a child beside 
 her. Nevertheless God in great mercy has shown me 
 the true way to happiness.' ' Let us hear ! let us 
 hear ! ' exclaimed the attendants. So I tried to tell 
 them slowly and solemnly of man's sinful state ; of his 
 need of a Saviour; of that Saviour offered, and the 
 peace that comes on receiving Him. On my saying 
 that she would perhaps be grieved when I told her 
 that God was displeased when people worshipped idols, 
 she replied, ' You are a woman the same as myself, 
 only you have more knowledge. The words you speak 
 are not your own, they are God's words. We must 
 receive them as God's words ! ' The great stumbling- 
 block in the way of their receiving Jesus is, that they 
 have been all their lives (like some in Christian 
 countries) laying up merit of their own wherewith to 
 earn heaven. ' You think it hard,' I said, ' to give up 
 what you call merit.' ' Yes, madam, I have done 
 much in my lifetime for pagodas and monasteries. 
 It is hard, very hard ! ' In this way I have sat from 
 eight o'clock till four, day by day for weeks together, 
 sometimes having forty visitors a-day. The body 
 
BURMAH. 135 
 
 would often weary ; the spirit never. There are in 
 Burmah at least three millions of women. If these 
 are christianised Burmah will be christianised. Woman 
 is the educator of Burmah, and, strange to say, she 
 carries on much of the business and trade of the 
 country. It is she who teaches the toddling child to 
 tug its dress full of sand every night to the pagoda. 
 She it is also who excites discord, fans rebellion, and 
 overturns dynasties. She can, and she will rise. 
 Teach her to rise towards God, and let us do it ere it 
 is too late. ' Don't tell me,' exclaimed one aged 
 woman, ' I am too old. I can't learn your prayer. 
 Your Jesus doesn't know me. I've fed the priests. 
 If I take another religion now I shall fall between the 
 two. Let me alone. If I'm lost, I'm lost. Had I 
 heard when I was young I might have believed, but 
 now too late, too late.' " A later letter tells of mucli 
 blessing. "Guapung, a female converted to Christianity 
 before Mrs. Mason went to Burmah, had been the 
 means of leading her husband, and all her family, and 
 many around her to Christ. Her life was so holy and 
 consistent. She treasured up and repeated the Scrip- 
 tures in a wonderful way, till she was the means of 
 raising up three native village churches. ' She often 
 accompanied me,' says Mrs. Mason, ' in my visits to 
 the women, I reading the Bible, she talking it.' 
 Before her conversion she had been a fortune-teller. 
 One day, a woman who had not heard of the change 
 in her, came five miles to get a charm for her husband, 
 who had run away from her. ' Yes,' said Guapung, 
 * I have a charm. Sit down sister.' So down she 
 sat, and listened the whole day to the story of Jesus 
 
13G OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 and His love. ' This wonderful Being, who came 
 down to this world, one day saw a woman crying. 
 He went up to her and said, " Why weepest thou, 
 Mary ? " Then He spoke kind words to her, and 
 made her happy. Now this wonderful Being who 
 spoke so kindly to a woman was the Son of God.' 
 Then she told the woman the charm was to go and 
 tell her husband, and when he came back never to 
 scold him more, as the Son of God commanded women 
 to obey their husbands.' 
 
 " Three weeks after this conversation, a man came 
 over from a heathen village asking to see ' the big 
 teacheress that had the charm.' He added, ' that the 
 woman who had been such a brawler that nobody 
 could live in peace in the neighbourhood was then 
 living very happily with her husband, the quietest of 
 them all. And the men of the place wanted all their 
 wives to join the Christians, as their religion did not 
 allow women to scold their husbands.' " 
 
 In one of Mrs. Mason's last letters, alluding to her 
 Institute, she said : " I never saw brighter or more 
 hopeful scholars. We had to send some girls back to 
 the jungle for want of room, as it is limited to fifty 
 pupils. Their studies embrace reading, writing, geo- 
 graphy, history, something of natural philosophy, 
 physiology, and the Holy Scriptures ; also sewing, 
 cooking, washing, and general cleanliness, nursing the 
 sick and training children. The Karens have lately 
 resolved to adopt a national banner, and their chief 
 native pastor, San Quala, wrote asking the American 
 Bible Society to furnish them with one. A writer in 
 the ' New York World ' remarks : ' This strange, wild 
 
BURIVLAH. 137 
 
 people (the Karens) are being rapidly christianised, 
 and have sent to America for a national flag to 
 commemorate their exodus out of heathenism ! the 
 most curious and exhilarating request that we ever 
 heard of from a new nation.' ' The national banner 
 we choose,' says San Quala, ' is not a lion or any 
 beast, but the weapon which God has given us by 
 which to subdue our enemies, even " The Word of God, 
 which is the sword of the Spirit." It is beautifully 
 got up ; the motto is in the Karen language in large 
 white letters, and the flag is on a blue ground with the 
 device of a Bible and a sword in colours.' " 
 
 This sketch of the work of our noble American 
 sisters must not be concluded without some reference 
 to their labours amongst the Eurasians of Burmah. 
 
 It is now more than forty years since a missionary, 
 living in one of the small cities of British Burmah, left 
 his study with a heavy heart and strolled out for an 
 evening walk. He had not gone far when he met two 
 girls attired in English costume, which at that early 
 period of British occupation was so rare that it 
 attracted his attention. 
 
 Seeing them at nightfall in a heathen city without 
 protection, he stopped and accosted them, when with 
 full hearts they told their sorrowful tale. 
 
 They were children of a European father and a 
 heathen Burmese mother. From domestic causes, 
 which the missionary subsequently found to be true, 
 they had been turned out of doors, exposed to tempta- 
 tions from which their unknown heavenly Father 
 rescued them through this unlooked-for meeting. From 
 them he and his wife heard much of the condition of 
 
138 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 Eurasian girls in similar circumstances, and they at 
 once resolved to give them a home and Christian 
 training. Hardly had these girls become domiciled 
 with the American missionary and his wife, when 
 passing the street he saw a pretty fair child, bearing 
 unmistakable signs of European extraction — brown 
 hair and blue eyes. On inquiry he was told that she 
 was the daughter of an English officer who had been 
 lawfully married to a native wife, but had died some 
 years before, without having been able to make any 
 provision for the little one. 
 
 Left thus entirely to the care of Burman relatives, 
 she had been brought up in idolatry, and had from 
 infancy been taught to bow before gods of wood and 
 stone. The missionary's wife soon made an effort to 
 secure her as fellow-pupil, and consent was given that 
 she should come every day. Thus was formed the 
 nucleus of the first Burmese Eurasian school. 
 
 One day, months after, there was a heathen festi- 
 val, and she was told that she must accompany her 
 mother to the pagoda. How great was that mother's 
 astonishment when the child tremblingly told her that 
 she never could pray to an idol again. To her 
 mother's questions, Phoebe replied that there was but 
 one God — the great God who made the world and all 
 that was in it; who had sent His only begotten Son, 
 Jesus, to die for sinners, and that she loved Him, for 
 He had forgiven her all her sins and made her happy. 
 Horrified at the child's heresy, the angry mother thrust 
 her out of the house, telling her she should never enter 
 it again. The child at once sought refuge at the 
 mission-house, where she met with a cordial welcome. 
 
BURMAH. 13d 
 
 For a long time every effort to see her mother 
 proved fruitless. But one day Phoebe was told that 
 her mother was very ill, and overcoming all obstacles 
 she crept to her side. But no mother's love welcomed 
 her. When able to speak, she upbraided her in harsh 
 words for forsaking her mother's religion. Every effort 
 to lead her to Jesus seemed in vain. Day and night 
 during her long illness did the daughter tenderly watch 
 over and nurse her, receiving nothing but unkindness 
 in return. As the end approached she asked to be raised, 
 and feebly clasping her hands in adoration before the 
 idol opposite to her bed she expired. That terrible 
 death-bed scene gave a tone to all Phoebe's after life, 
 and she solemnly resolved to do all that lay in her 
 power to lead her heathen sisters to Christ. 
 
 The seed sown was not lost. All three girls, and 
 others who came afterwards, proved by their lives that 
 they were true Christians. All married and had happy 
 Christian homes. The children of one of them have 
 been educated in England, and are both now mission- 
 aries in their native land. Phoebe became the wife of 
 a native minister, and her son is now preaching Christ 
 in Burmah. 
 
 But this is not all. Many years ago an American 
 lady opened a mission school for Burmese girls, when 
 Phoebe offered her help, which was gladly accepted. 
 
 This school has been greatly blessed. Not only has 
 it one hundred boarders, but in connection with it are 
 five day schools in the city, and others in the jungle 
 villages. 
 
 Many of the pupils, through the influence of this 
 Eurasian woman, have been led to confess Christ. 
 
140 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 Having some Asiatic blooo, she came closer to tliem 
 than a foreigner possibly could. 
 
 For a time, owing to deaths and removals, this school 
 was discontinued. But one day Miss Haswell, who was 
 labouring diligently amongst the Burmese, was entreated 
 by a native Christian woman to rescue a Eurasian 
 girl who had that day been sold by her heathen 
 mother for the sum of £30. Immediate action was 
 taken, the law interfered, and the child was soon 
 sheltered in the mission home. Hearing that one 
 Eurasian girl had been taken, the lady missionary was 
 soon beset by applications from others. As these 
 children spoke the English language as well as the 
 native, and generally wore English dress, they could 
 not be taught with the Burmese. Just at that crisis 
 an American lady, who has since visited England, and 
 become well known in many circles, arrived in Burmah, 
 with the intention of relieving Miss Haswell in her 
 arduous work among the natives. 
 
 As some time must necessarily elapse ere she could 
 acquire the language, she proposed to devote some 
 hours daily to these Eurasian girls. Her heart was 
 drawn towards neglected English-speaking little ones, 
 and after consideration and prayer both ladies agreed 
 that this was the work to Avhich Mrs. Longley was 
 called. It was a great sacrifice that Miss Haswell was 
 making. Her own work had grown far beyond her 
 enfeebled powers, and she was really sinking under it. 
 Now the long prayed for help had arrived, only to leave 
 her. But the Lord's work and will concerning them 
 was the one and only thing to be considered by both 
 these consecrated ladies, and Miss Haswell gladly 
 
BURMAH. 141 
 
 consented to struggle on that His kingdom might be 
 advanced. 
 
 But difficulties of various kinds now arose. The 
 building hitherto occupied had been erected for only a 
 missionary and his wife, and could not decently 
 accommodate the numbers now flocking to enter it. 
 The house stood upon piles ; and the earth below was 
 saturated with water from the long-continued rains. 
 There were no windows, and during the high winds and 
 storms the wooden shutters had to be closed, or the 
 rooms would be flooded. The result of the foul air 
 and want of ventilation was an outburst of illness. A 
 deserted room across the compound was substituted, 
 but here the scorching rays of the sun came through the 
 broken roof, and, in addition to other ailments, the 
 devoted teacher was struck with blindness. While 
 able she had written to America begging for help, and 
 just as thus broken down she was ordered to leave, 
 and told permanent loss of sight would ensue, she re- 
 ceived an answer saying that lack of funds would prevent 
 the society at home from giving her any help. It was 
 under these touching circumstances that this devoted 
 lady visited England to plead the cause of Eurasian girls. 
 As there is a prejudice in the minds of some with 
 reference to this class, on account of their supposed 
 parentage, it may be well to state that the statistics 
 prove over ninety-six per cent, are born of parents 
 united in lawful wedlock. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PERSIA. 
 
 It shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the 
 captivity of Elam, saith the Lord." — Jeb. xlix. 39. 
 
 ENRY MARTYN'S name is in- 
 separably connected with mission 
 work in Persia, but it was not 
 until many years after his death 
 that Christian women began their 
 labours in that country. 
 
 Dr. Fiske, an American mission- 
 ary, who had laboured many years 
 in the East, when at Mount 
 Holyoke made a request for a 
 young lady to go as missionary teacher to the degraded 
 women of Persia. Fidelia Fiske, his niece, responded 
 in these words : " If counted worthy, I shall be willing 
 to go." She was only three years old when her uncle 
 first sailed for the East, but from the day when his first 
 letter from Persia reached the old home the subject 
 of missions was a constant topic of conversation in her 
 father's family, and the thought, as she grew older, 
 seemed to take possession of her mind that she too 
 142 
 
PERSIA. 143 
 
 might be called to carry the Gospel message to heathen 
 lauds. 
 
 Her mother's consent was obtained, many difficulties 
 were overcome, and on 1st March, 1843, Miss Fiske 
 accompanied a party of devoted men and their wives, 
 and sailed for her Eastern home. 
 
 Oroomiah, for ages the sacred city of the fire- worship- 
 pers, was henceforth to be the scene of her labours. Its 
 inhabitants were composed of Nestorians, Jews, and 
 Mohammedans. From a published account of the 
 women, at the time of her arrival, we extract the 
 following statement : " The women in their deep 
 degradation are coarse, passionate, and quarrelsome. 
 You may see a whole village of them in a quarrel, 
 with their hair all loose, while they are throwing 
 stones, brickbats, and spoiled eggs at each other, with 
 almost unearthly shrieks." Their personal condition 
 was such as not to admit of description. They were 
 regarded by the men as drudges and slaves, and were 
 compelled to spend most of their time in out-door 
 labour in the vineyards and fields, carrying not only 
 their heavy implements but their infants. When at 
 night they returned from the field they had to milk 
 the cows, prepare their husbands' supper, and wait till 
 they had finished before partaking themselves. 
 
 For husbands to beat their wives often and severely, 
 was an almost universal practice. Women and children 
 as well as men were shockingly profane, and lying was 
 so common that " we all lie," was almost proverbial. 
 
 When the missionary party settled in Persia there 
 was but one woman in the city who could read. She 
 was Helena, the sister of the Nestorian patriarch. Her 
 
144 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 superior rank secured her this accomplishment. The 
 rest were not only ignorant, but perfectly content to 
 remain so. When asked if they would not like to 
 learn to read, the invariable answer was, " I am a 
 woman," or, " I am a girl." " Do you want to make 
 a priest of me ? " 
 
 In 1838 Mrs. Grant, a lady j)ossessed of rare gifts 
 and graces, had opened a school -with four little girls. 
 On Miss Fiske taking over the charge, she found that 
 the good learned in school was soon lost by the impure 
 atmosphere of home. She became anxious to change 
 it into a boarding, or, as she termed it, a home school. 
 But the idea was repugnant to all Nestorian views of 
 propriety, and her missionary friends were hopeless as 
 to its possibility. No one would send their girls as 
 boarders, and even Priest Abraham, the most enlight- 
 ened of the natives, and one who had become a helper, 
 said with strong feeling, " I could not bear the reproach 
 of having my daughter with you as a boarder." 
 
 To secure six girls was now the object of Fidelia's 
 deep solicitude. These gained, she had faith to believe 
 that others would follow. The first Syriac word she 
 learned was " daughter," and as she learned to use the 
 verb To give, her constant request was, " Give me your 
 daughter." The day for re-opening the school arrived, 
 and with it fifteen day pupils. Hours passed, and 
 when coming through the court she saw Mar Yohanan 
 leading two little girls. One was Khanee, and the 
 other his little niece Selby, aged seven. She says : 
 "I wept tears of joy over them, as the bishop placed 
 their little hands in mine, saying, ' They are your 
 daughters, no man shall take them from you.' " 
 
PERSIA. 145 
 
 Several others came for a few days from curiosity, and 
 then ran away. At length six were brought, but only 
 on the condition that they should lodge in a room 
 with or close to their teacher, and never go out but 
 in her company. It was no pleasant work she had 
 thus undertaken. " You can have no idea of their 
 filth," she writes ; " they all lie and steal. Nothing 
 is safe except under lock and key j I cannot keep a 
 pin in my pincushion." 
 
 One day, feeling much discouraged, she had recourse 
 to the following expedient. Just before they all passed 
 through her room to the flat roof above where they 
 slept, she put six black pins in her cushion, and stepped 
 out till they had passed. As soon as they had gone, 
 she looked and found the pins were gone too. She 
 then called the girls all back and told them of her loss, 
 but no, not one had seen or taken them. Six pairs 
 of little hands were lifted up as they said : " God knows 
 we have not got them." " I think God knows you 
 have," was her reply, and she then searched each one, 
 but found nothing. She then said : "All kneel down, 
 and we will ask God to show who took them " addinsr. 
 " He may not see fit to show me now, but He will 
 some time." She prayed, and as they rose from their 
 knees, remembered she had not examined their caps. 
 In the first cap were the six pins carefully concealed. 
 The incident did good. The children looked on the 
 discovery as an answer to prayer, and began to be 
 afraid to steal, when God so exposed their thefts. The 
 girl in whose cap the pins were found became a 
 converted and useful woman. 
 
 At first a native teacher taught the children to 
 
146 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 read, and, to acquire greater facility, Miss Fiske took 
 her place in the class and read in turn with them. 
 She also made them all new native clothes, instead of 
 the dirty rags they came in. Although it was long 
 before any of the women would attend public worship, 
 she soon got a few to come to her room, when she 
 read and prayed with them. When able to speak 
 fluently, she visited the neighbouring villages, always 
 taking her children and a guard with her, as it was 
 not safe to venture without. 
 
 By the time her school had increased to twelve, hostile 
 movements were directed towards it. Orders were 
 given that all who attended the mission, including the 
 girls, should at once leave. " If not," so ran the 
 order, " you shall be excommunicated ; your finger- 
 nails shall be torn out : we will hunt you from village 
 to village, and kill you if we can." 
 
 " I called them together," wrote Miss Fiske, " and 
 told them the reasons why they were to be sent 
 away. I wept like a child, and they all burst into 
 audible weeping. Oh ! the bitterness I now felt ! 
 To have to send back these children into a darkness 
 like heathenism," All left, except Priest Abraham's 
 daughter, he insisting on her remaining. A thousand 
 children in the boys' schools were thus scattered. By 
 the end of the year the storm had blown over, when 
 our teacher not only had the joy of welcoming all 
 her pupils back, but they brought eight new ones 
 with them ; thus making twenty boarders. 
 
 Another year rolled by, and so great was the 
 change effected in her pupils, that parents now 
 brought their daughters in such numbers that it was 
 
PERSIA. 147 
 
 impossible to receive them. One of the first two 
 scholars, Selby, had become an earnest Christian. 
 She was now fourteen, and had been married the year 
 before to a boy a year younger than herself. At her 
 repeated request, she had been allowed to come each 
 day to the school, and take the place of teacher. 
 Her conversion was followed by that of several others. 
 Several of the girls' mothers also became Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 Fidelia writes : " My work is almost as much out 
 of the school now as in it. My health is good, and 
 I am happy in my labours. Poor degraded women 
 have been brought to Jesus. It is a great privilege 
 to labour here ; here I hope, if it be my Father's will, 
 tx) make my grave. From here, with many dear ones 
 in Christ Jesus, to go up to meet the Lord, when the 
 final trump shall sound. As far as we know, the 
 converts are walking as Christians. Great tenderness 
 of conscience was manifested. Sins of which they had 
 not been suspected were confessed ; stolen articles 
 were restored. Khanee, one of my girls, came to me 
 greatly troubled, saying : ' Do you remember the 
 day, two years ago, when Sawdee's shoes were 
 taken ?' I said : * Yes.' ' You thought a 
 
 Moslem woman took them, but ' (bursting into 
 tears) ' I stole them. I was angry with Sawdee, 
 and threw them down the well, where no one 
 could get them. What shall I do ? I know Jesus 
 will not forgive me till I have confessed it to Sawdee. 
 May I go and tell her to-night, and pray with her, 
 and then I will go and work and get money to pay 
 her for the shoes ? ' She did pay for the shoes, and 
 
148 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 became a bright aud shining light in her dark home. 
 We have many cases like this. 
 
 " Sarah was a tall dark-eyed girl of twelve or thir- 
 teen when she came to me. She was weak and feeble 
 at the time of her conversion, but she would work for 
 Christ. In March we felt that she must die. But all 
 was peace, death had no terrors for her. The story is 
 too long to tell of all this dear girl said and did 
 during the last months of her short life." 
 
 Often was the question put by the other pupils, 
 " Will Sarah's hope continue to the last ? Will Jesus 
 really stay by her ? Will He come for her ? " It 
 seemed as if they would test the Lord's faithfulness by 
 the manner in which He should support their young 
 sister. And their expectation was not disappointed. 
 " Since Sarah died," Miss Fiske says, " the Nestorians 
 have looked upon death as they never did before. 
 Heaven's gates are wider opened to them. It is to 
 them now a blessed reality that Christ comes for His 
 own. Her parents were now Christians, and she went 
 home to die. I saw her almost every day ; often with 
 her open Bible, and several women by her side, whom 
 she was seeking to lead to Christ. The beautiful 
 Sabbath sun arose, and I was by Sarah's side. She 
 was very happy. I saw that she was almost home, 
 and told her so. I was obliged to return to my 
 school, but said to her mother, ' Send for me when 
 the Master calls for the dear child, for, if I may not 
 go over Jordan with her to-day, I wish to go with her 
 to the swelling stream.' In the afternoon, realising 
 that she must soon go, she said, ' Call my father.' 
 When reminded that he had gone to preach, she at 
 
PERSIA. 149 
 
 once said, ' Oh yes, I remember. Don't call him. I 
 can die alone.' She then said, ' Call Miss Fiske.' 
 Then the dying child remembered that it was the hour 
 of our prayer meeting. So beckoning to her sister, 
 she said, ' It is the hour when she prays with my 
 companions. Don't call her. I can die alone.' Then 
 she whispered, ' Mother, raise me, that I may commit 
 my spirit.' She was raised by her mother's strong 
 arm, and on bended knee, with upraised eye, she said, 
 
 ' Lord Jesus, receive ' Her voice ceased. 
 
 Prayer was ended, and praise begun. The first to 
 love her Saviour was the first to go home. In my 
 own room I heard footsteps on the stairs. The door 
 opened, and one stood by my side with this message, 
 ' Sarah is asleep.' " 
 
 Another girl, named Hannah, soon followed. When 
 arranging their things, and putting away their books 
 for the vacation, she said to one in her class, 
 " Perhaps you will open this. I do not think I shall. 
 When you all come again in the autumn, I trust I 
 shall be in the Saviour's school above." The words 
 were prophetic. Hannah was seized with cholera. 
 She said to her companion Guly, " I am very sick. 
 I shall die soon. Shall we not pray together once 
 more ? " They knelt together, and having finished her 
 prayer, Guly said, " Now, Hannah, will you pray ? " 
 In a half-audible speech she uttered, " Bless my dear 
 sister, and take me through the dark valley." In 
 answer to her friend's question, she said, " I do not 
 fear to die, and go to Jesus." 
 
 In 1847, Miss Rice went out to aid Miss Fiske in 
 her ever-increasing duties. The first public examina- 
 
150 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 tion was held in 1849, when the scholars passed 
 creditably in ancient and modern Syriac, Bible history, 
 geography, and natural philosophy. They not only 
 made all their own clothing, but earned money by 
 sewing and knitting for charitable objects. A fresh 
 attempt was made by the Persian Government in 1856 
 again to break up the schools, but God interposed. 
 Miss Fiske appealed to R. W. Stephens, Esq., British 
 Consul at Teheran, and the appeal was successful. She 
 wrote : " The design of the school is so to educate 
 Nestorian girls that they may be better daughters, 
 sisters, wives, and mothers. Unless a great change is 
 wrought in the females here, all the efforts in behalf 
 of the other sex will fail to produce permanent good. 
 Besides the duties of the schoolroom, kitchen, and wash- 
 room, the pupils are taught to cut and make their own 
 clothing, but the same hand that skilfully uses the needle 
 is found in summer among the golden wheat, holding 
 the sickle, and in autumn gathering the vintage." 
 
 But the time came when it was absolutely necessary 
 that the teacher should return to her American home 
 for the rest so sorely needed. Just before she left 
 Persia she had the joy of seeing four of her earliest 
 pupils, with their husbands, depart as missionaries to 
 the dark mountains of Koordistan. A few days after, 
 ninety-three of these once degraded Nestorians com- 
 memorated with her the Saviour's dying love, and there 
 was only one out of the whole number with whom she 
 had not prayed ! On the morning of her departure 
 seventy of her pupils asked for one more prayer meet- 
 ing in the Bethel where so many prayers had been 
 offered and answered. 
 
PERSIA. 151 
 
 It proved to be the last. Her strength never 
 ralKed sufficiently to allow her to return. Her 
 disease made rapid progress. A few days before her 
 death she said, " As I grow weaker I think less of the 
 pain, and feel more the Saviour's arms about me, and 
 it is sweet to feel them," On the last day of her life, 
 as a friend entered her room, she held out her hand, 
 saying, "Will you pray?" As the prayer ascended, 
 her spirit was caught up to learn the strains of the 
 everlasting song of praise. 
 
 " They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of 
 the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteous- 
 ness as the stars for ever and ever." 
 
 During their late visit to England, the Rev. Dr. and 
 Mrs. Bruce, who have long toiled in this field, did 
 much to excite an interest in behalf of the women of 
 Persia. As a result, funds were raised, and they have 
 returned to their former sphere of labour in Julfa, 
 accompanied by a young lady sent out by the Society 
 for Promoting Female Education. 
 
 May God raise up many a woman to bring "light, 
 and gladness, and joy, and honour," into many a dark 
 Persian home. 
 
 — -^^.9-^^:9-e_/ 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SYRIA, PALESTINE, AND VARIOUS MISSIONS. 
 
 '* And upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit." 
 Joel ii. 29. 
 
 PASSING notice must now be given 
 of some out of the many other 
 spheres where Christian ladies are 
 working, in the hope that a review 
 of the names will lead many to 
 lift up their hearts to God and 
 implore His blessing upon their 
 labours. 
 
 In Japan, " The land of the 
 rising sun," the Sun of righteous- 
 ness has begun to shine. 
 
 That country was only opened to foreigners through 
 the commercial treaties of 1854 and 1858, and in 
 1859 American messengers of peace were already 
 taking possession of it for the Lord. 
 
 Miss M'Lean and other ladies are working among 
 
 the w^omen. It is interesting to notice the difference 
 
 between the commencement and the results here and 
 
 in India. In that country men toiled alone at first 
 
 152 
 
SYRIA AND PALESTINE. 153 
 
 ^vith small apparent effect. In Japan, on the contrary, 
 147 Protestant missionaries, exclusive of their wives, 
 entered, with 46 single ladies. In 1870 there were 
 not 10 native Protestants, now they amount to 5000. 
 
 About 1828 the Americans began the labours which 
 have been greatly blessed of God in Turkey. The 
 lady missionaries generally found their Turkish sisters 
 willing to make their acquaintance. They liked to 
 examine the dress of their new friends; and even in 
 Turkish seraglios some have been found who were 
 worshippers of the true God, and knew Him as their 
 own personal Saviour, 
 
 Good work has also been done by American mission- 
 aries in Greece. On the overthrow of the Turkish 
 power in 1830, Dr. Hill and his wife founded the first 
 schools for both sexes in Athens. Subsequently the 
 Government undertook the boys, when Mrs, Hill had 
 the charge of the girls assigned her by the State, and 
 for more than fifty years has this noble woman spent 
 her life in educating nearly three generations of Greek 
 women. An old Syrian proverb says, "The hand that 
 rocks the cradle moves the world." If this be true, 
 there is a bright hope for the future of Greece, as this 
 matron missionary has literally rocked the cradles and 
 cared for the bodies and souls of more than 500 girls 
 each year for half-a-century. She has been abundantly 
 rewarded in the blessed result of her ministrations. 
 Her training schools have sent teachers throughout 
 Greece, and additional means only are required to add 
 to their number. The Americans have also fifty lady 
 missionaries in Turkey in Europe and Asia Minor, 
 including Constantinople, Antioch, and Tarsus. 
 
154 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church of Scotland has also nearly 
 200 children in the capital, many of whom are Jewesses. 
 At Broussa Mrs. Bagdasarian, formerly a missionary 
 of the Female Education Society, is conducting an 
 orphanage. While forty-five girls at Oorfa in Meso- 
 potamia, are being taught by a native lady, aided by 
 a grant from the same society. 
 
 The name of Mrs. Watson is so well known as 
 associated with the Lebanon, that a passing mention 
 of Shemlan will suffice. In 1856 that lady visited 
 Syria, when her heart was so touched by witnessing the 
 neglected state of the women, that she resolved to 
 remain and open schools for their benefit. 
 
 She built a beautiful house, and for a time defrayed 
 the expenses ; but the work grew so fast that addi- 
 tional funds and help were needed. Mrs. Watson 
 then applied to the Female Education Society, and 
 Miss Hicks was sent out and joined her twenty-three 
 years ago. Both English and Arabic were taught by 
 herself and Miss Hicks, while a widow lady presided 
 over the domestic affairs. Later on Mrs. Watson 
 made over the whole of the buildings at Shemlan by 
 deed of gift to the society. This school, called by 
 the natives, " The Flower of the Lebanon," has well 
 fulfilled its mission in training and sending forth 
 native school -mistresses. Twenty-eight are now 
 actively engaged in imparting to others the instruc- 
 tion which in many cases has proved able to make 
 them wise unto salvation. 
 
 A very satisfactory report tells of nearly fifteen 
 hundred children now (1882), being taught in seven- 
 teen schools, dotted over this "goodly mountain." 
 
SYRIA AND PALESTINE. 155 
 
 Mrs. Watson still takes the deepest interest in her 
 Native Training School, but, not content with her 
 work at Shemlan, she opened a girls' school at Sidon. 
 The children come from various parts of the country ; 
 from a wild district near Tripoli ; from Joon, where 
 Lady Hester Stanhope lived; and from villages in the 
 plain below Mount Hermon. It is a cheering thought 
 that on the very spot where our blessed Lord and 
 Master wrought a miracle of healing on the young 
 daughter of the poor Syro-Phoenician woman. His 
 name is now made known, and His love for woman 
 daily proclaimed. 
 
 The work of Miss Walker- Arnott at Jaffa, and her 
 friend Miss Mangan, is one of deep interest, and the 
 medical department has led many to come who had 
 no care for their souls. The report just issued tells 
 of over ten thousand attendances during eight months, 
 the patients coming from no less than eighty different 
 towns and villages in Syria and Palestine. 
 
 The excellent schools established by Mrs. Bowen 
 Thompson, and sustained by her sisters, at Beyrout, 
 are widely known. So far back as 1869, three ladies 
 were sent by the Female Education Society to aid in 
 this important work. That society had in 1864 
 established a school in Nazareth, and afterwards one 
 in Bethlehem, under the superintendence of Miss 
 Jacombs, who had laboured for years at Sidon, and 
 had a good knowledge of Arabic, She was accom- 
 panied by Miss Stainton. After a short season of 
 toil in this new sphere. Miss Stainton was called to 
 her heavenly rest in March, 1878. Her last charge 
 to her beloved friend and the native helpers was — 
 
156 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 " Love the little children. Teach the little ones of 
 Jesus, Love the poor women of Bethlehem. Love 
 their souls." This earnest worker has been succeeded 
 by Miss Martin. The day school already has between 
 twenty and thirty pupils, and there are six in the 
 boarding school. A native Bible-woman, Leyla, visits 
 from house to house teaching the women. 
 
 A late traveller in the East gives a graphic account 
 of a visit paid to this school. The women, in their 
 picturesque dress, seated round their teacher, spelling 
 out of their Arabic Testaments, and listening with 
 profound attention to an address about Jesus. 
 
 The following incident is a touching instance of the 
 self-denying results of the reception of the Gospel 
 message : — 
 
 In the large Shaftesbury school at Peelton, South 
 Africa, bearing the name of the Earl who so largely 
 aided in its erection, the girls have been taught that 
 " charity seeketh not her own." Miss Sturrock, of the 
 Female Education Society, who, for nineteen years, has 
 there trained hundreds in the way to heaven, told her 
 Caffre and Hottentot girls that an effort was going to be 
 made to lead the girls of Bethlehem to the Saviour, by 
 opening a school. Of their own accord, these children 
 proposed that they should endeavour, by doing needle- 
 work and other means, to raise some money to help 
 the girls at Bethlehem. Out of their deep poverty 
 they raised a sum of £3, which they sent with a letter. 
 
 As early as 1863, several Christian travellers urged 
 upon the Female Education Society the importance of 
 establishing a girls' school at Nazareth, the Rev. J. 
 Zeller having already one there for boys. As a 
 
SYRIA AND PALESTINE. 157 
 
 result, in the course of the next year, a lady was sent 
 out for the purpose. 
 
 God has set His seal upon this work, though it has 
 been beset with difficulties. At one time the rains 
 were so long and so heavy that the roads became 
 impassable, and at a season when counsel and direction 
 from home were sorely needed no letters could be 
 sent. The Kishon was so swollen that no messenger 
 could ford it. Then, just as some of the pupils were 
 getting interested in their Scripture lessons, and com- 
 mitting portions to heart, they suddenly disappeared, 
 won over, it was conjectured, by temptations from the 
 neighbouring convent. Still, though sadly grieved, 
 the patient teacher wrote, " I do not quite lose sight 
 of my girls. Penetrating the mysterious lanes of this 
 little city, I find them in their homes, and seek to win 
 back their confidence." 
 
 In 1867, Mrs. Zeller, wife of the Church missionary 
 at Nazareth, urged the committee to establish an 
 orphanage there, and it was resolved to respond to 
 the appeal. A murrain at that time amongst the 
 cattle, and scarcity of food, made the poor people 
 willing to give up their children. Soon more children 
 came than could be admitted. One little orphan was 
 brought, with a promise from some relatives, that if 
 admitted her clothes should be provided. This was 
 a step in advance. In 1874, thanks to generous 
 anonymous donations, the last contribution to the 
 building fund was made, and the present handsome 
 stone building was ere long completed. 
 
 It is calculated to hold one hundred children, if 
 only funds for their support were forthcoming. At 
 
158 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 tlie present time (1882), eight little desolate father- 
 less ones are seeking admission, while the small snm 
 of £10 a-year will suffice for each. 
 
 As the place where the Saviour was brought up, 
 Nazareth must ever possess a deep interest in the 
 mind of the Christian. Its beautiful orphanage, in 
 connection with the Society for Promoting Female 
 Education in the East, built through the liberality of 
 English Christians, is now the most imposing new 
 building in Palestine. It contains sixty girls, and a 
 prosperous day school is carried on. A letter from 
 Miss Dickson, the devoted lady at the head of the 
 establishment, shows that in addition to a sound 
 education, the children are taught to fear God, and 
 honour the Queen. 
 
 She says : " You will be remembering my dear 
 children here to-day, I am sure ; the one day in the 
 merry month of May to which they look forward 
 with so much delight. Including the men at work 
 in building the wall, the whole number, ninety-eight, 
 are for the first time in the happy attitude of having 
 a little rest from their toil, and a treat in their own 
 simple, rustic manner, in honour of the Queen of 
 England's birthday ! 
 
 " The flag ' Hob Roy ' gave us is waving briskly, as 
 the day is cool, with a nice breeze. I so like the 
 people of this land to be taught, and to remember 
 gratefully from whom and whence they have received 
 their Bibles, their missionaries, their churches, their 
 hospitals, and their schools ; the motive that led 
 England to commence and to carry on this ; the 
 sacrifice often made for those objects. Hearty, too, are 
 
SYRIA AND PALESTINE. 159 
 
 tjie cheers given for the ladies, and for the Lady 
 
 H de W , for the gentleman who gave 
 
 the gates, and for the friends and supporters at 
 large ; and as there is so little of change, one hopes 
 that the events of to-day will leave a mark for good 
 to the elders, as well as to the children, of this poor 
 little town of Nazareth !" 
 
 Mrs. Mungo Ponton visited the orphanage recently, 
 and has given the following interesting account of 
 what she saw : — " I have been much gratified, after 
 my journeyings in Palestine, to find myself here 
 (Nazareth) for a few weeks, where, among much that 
 is beautiful in nature, in spite of the ban under which 
 this land lies till the veil is removed, I find a moral 
 oasis, surrounded by much that is unproductive, save 
 in evil. Nazareth, that rejected the Saviour, that 
 chased Him from their midst, that would have put an 
 end to His ministry, scarce begun, still suffers in its 
 sons for the sins of the fathers, among whom one finds 
 the hardest types of unbelief and irreligion, so that 
 with the grown-up the task is well-nigh hopeless. 
 
 " I find here an excellent institution, commenced 
 some years ago, directed by Miss Dickson, uniting in 
 its object the care and training of orphan girls from 
 the most tender age, principally daughters of Nazareth 
 and the surrounding villages, where they are lovingly 
 brought up by their Christian mother, a lady of won- 
 derful energy and great tact, whose careful manage- 
 ment, business qualities, and shrewd and frugal outlay 
 of the means which Christian friends have hitherto 
 placed at her disposal, have been, through God, the 
 instrument of raising up, overlooking the town in 
 
IGO OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 which our Redeemer's childhood and youth were spent, 
 a monument to His service, this orphanage worthy in 
 its appearance of its object, and fit to take its place 
 in competition with many in England. ' A Father 
 of the fatherless is God in His holy habitation,' and 
 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least 
 of these, ye have done it unto Me,' are inscribed on 
 its portals. Miss Dickson has, after untold efforts, at 
 last succeeded in accomplishing her desire of making 
 such additions to the orphanage as will admit of her 
 increasing the number of inmates, now sixty-six, to 
 one hundred. Beds, bedding, and even clothing are 
 prepared and ready for this increase, and applicants 
 for admission, some of an urgent character, have to be 
 refused ; for, till more funds are forthcoming from the 
 liberality of Christian England, Miss Dickson does not 
 feel herself justified in further involving the institu- 
 tion, as the present number considerably exceeds that 
 for which funds are provided. 
 
 "Here it would be well to state that £10 yearly 
 is sufficient for the education, maintenance, and cloth- 
 ing of a girl. Later on, when the ground bought and 
 enclosed for garden produce, and now being prepared 
 for the wants of the house, brings its harvest, a smaller 
 sum may cover the expense; but no one who has not 
 been on the spot can understand well the difficulties 
 to be encountered, happily now nearly at an end, and 
 the opposition to be overcome, before this noble Chris- 
 tian work attained its present proportion. It is worthy 
 of the cause of England, and of the Master. In His 
 name and for His sake let not the petition for help 
 to finish go unheeded." 
 
SYRIA AND PALESTINE. IGl 
 
 "This institution may be termed an industrial school, 
 where destitute orphan girls are trained to clean, 
 orderly habits, and in all domestic duties. The Arab 
 mind, through long degradation, is difficult and slow- 
 to remember. It is only by ' line upon line, precept 
 upon precept,' that the inheritance of centuries can, 
 as it were, be overcome, which it can never be in 
 their own homes, where lying and deceit, stealing and 
 uncleanness, prevail, and are in general looked upon as 
 virtues. Of course, here the greatest order is incul- 
 cated; the children are consequently happy. Each 
 girl has her own number, with which all that belongs 
 to her is marked, clothes, boots, bedding, shelves, 
 Bible, shelf and recess for her playthings and presents, 
 and peg on which to hang at night the clothes worn 
 during the day. They have their white counterpanes 
 for the day, the patchwork ones, made by themselves, 
 for night use. They receive a plain education in 
 their own tongue, Arabic ; later on, in English, for 
 which they show considerable aptitude. 
 
 " The more clever among the children, wdio, as 
 monitors, show talent for teaching, are specially trained, 
 so that, with the exception of the four teachers now 
 helping Miss Dickson, she may be said to have always 
 new ones growing up, from whom to recruit her staff 
 or to draft off to other schools, bearing with them the 
 good seed to plant in other nurseries ; many of them 
 bear evidence in their lives of love to the Saviour, 
 and all render a loving obedience. There is no 
 servant in the house, as each month a certain number 
 are counted off to perform in rotation the various 
 duties of domestic service, so that by degrees each 
 
 M 
 
1G2 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 one gains experience in the various occupations of a 
 ^vell-ordered house, where bed-airing in the sun, baths, 
 baking, washing (consisting of upwards of seven 
 hundred pieces), are done every week. The meals 
 are plentiful, varied, but plain ; the children, because 
 of the regularity and of the excellent air on the hills, 
 are in good health. The wheat is ground in their own 
 mill, after being picked and sifted by the girls ; then 
 kneaded, is of excellent quality, and when baked into 
 bread most nutritious, not being too white. 
 
 " The cutting-out, making, and mending of clothes 
 is also done by the orphans, and some of the elder 
 ones work prettily in their spare evening hours at 
 fancy work. I must not omit to mention that the 
 clergyman's daughter comes to give them a class- 
 singing lesson once a-week, and they sing sweetly a 
 goodly collection of hymns, Arabic and English, so 
 that by the time they have spent a few years in the 
 Home, they are fitted by experience, education, and 
 careful training, to take a much higher and more 
 useful position as teachers, servants, and some getting 
 married, as mothers of families, than ever was possible 
 had they had both parents in their own home. Many 
 a poor and sickly child, brought from sheer want to 
 the Home, and who would have sickened and died 
 in its own, has, by God's blessing on Miss Dickson's 
 careful nursing, become a useful member of society, 
 and an heir of the Kingdom. 
 
 " Connected with this work, mention must also be 
 made of the day school, originating in the desire of 
 parents to have their children, not orphans, also 
 instructed, but for which, such is the Arab character, 
 
SYRIA AND PALESTINE. 163 
 
 they will not pay. To meet this demand Miss 
 Dicksoii had two good-sized class-rooms like lodges 
 built, one at each side of the handsome long broad 
 steps leading to the orphanage, which stands half-way 
 up the hill, at the foot of which lies Nazareth spread 
 out basking in the sun. By this arrangement the 
 day-scholars are kept quite away from the house, and 
 communication with the ori^hans can only be under 
 the eye of the native teacher or governesses during 
 the lesson hours, which close at 4.30 p.m. They 
 have reading, writing, and arithmetic in Arabic, an 
 hour's instruction in English on alternate days, and 
 two hours daily in useful needlework in one of the 
 class-rooms for the very small children; all this brings 
 them in some way under Christian influence, as the 
 classes are opened by prayer and Scripture reading, 
 and closed with a hymn. On the walls are hung 
 choice bright-coloured texts from Scripture in Arabic. 
 The attendance varies from about forty to ninety or 
 more. Marks are given for regularity and punctuality, 
 and the parents seem desirous that their children 
 should benefit, and scarcely any other schools exist in 
 the town or around except the Roman Catholics'. 
 
 " The Home is all astir with its little inmates by six 
 A.M.; shortly after, many are in the grounds enjoying 
 themselves, and learning their daily morning text, to 
 be repeated correctly before breakfast ; all is fresh and 
 clean, and the long tables spread ready for it. At half- 
 past seven they assemble for prayers in the large upper 
 schoolroom, with its gallery at one end, the morning 
 salutation uttered standing while Miss Dickson enters 
 the room. Far from her first appearance, however, as 
 
164 OUR EASTERN SISTERS, 
 
 she has already been here, there, and everywhere, 
 through the dormitories, to see all beds are properly 
 turned down for their two-and-a-half hours' airing, 
 windows open, the dressing-rooms and lavatories left 
 tidy, where are simple wardrobes, in compartments of 
 which, numbered also, are the clean clothes of every 
 girl most tidily arranged. After prayers, which con- 
 sist of a psalm read simultaneously, a chapter of 
 Scripture read, verse in turn, the Lord's Prayer, and 
 one from Miss Dickson in Arabic, the bell rings again at 
 eight for breakfast ; later on, beds are made, then 
 lessons till dinner. After needlework, and from five to 
 near seven, when they have supper, they may amuse them- 
 selves. The evening is passed in preparation and work. 
 " When, through their teachers, I have asked some 
 questions as to what Scriptures have been read, I have 
 been surprised at their knowledge of the Bible, showing 
 that, as far as head knowledge is concerned, they have 
 been carefully taught, and Gospel truths plainly put 
 before them. Of course, much that would present 
 difficulties to an English child, in the similes of the 
 Bible, is, to the native mind, of easy comprehension. 
 We hope, where so much good seed has been sown, 
 that ' the root of the matter ' is in some of them. It 
 is pleasant to notice the kindly feeling kept alive by 
 Miss Dickson with the older girls who have left. She 
 seems never, if possible, to lose sight of them ; four 
 such were here yesterday from Cana of Galilee. They 
 look on this house as their childhood's home, and like 
 to keep up the connection, coming, after they are 
 married, to see it again, and their kind friend the 
 superintendent. 
 
SYRIA AND PALESTINE. 165 
 
 " The orphans who are in the house, and subscribed 
 for, call their patronesses their ' paying mothers.' 
 Are there any churches, or Sunday schools, classes, or 
 childless parents, who would like to adopt such, or any 
 solitary child who would like to have a little sister ? 
 Here God jalaces before you an opportunity for doing 
 a great and lasting good, not only to the body, but 
 also to the soul, of one of His little ones, specially His, 
 the children of Nazareth ; and through them, who 
 knows what other blessings may accrue ? May He 
 who loved and blessed such bless this notice, and open 
 the lips of His people to pray for a blessing on the 
 work, and also open some hearts to take lovingly to 
 theirs, as He did to His, some of those little ones, is 
 the prayer of one who has visited and witnessed the 
 work." 
 
 The tale of Woman's Mission Work would be incom- 
 plete without a reference to the Moravians. It is 
 true that their chief spheres of toil have been amongst 
 the squaws of North America, Labrador, and Green- 
 land, or the Hottentots and Caffres of South Africa. 
 But their work did not end there. True to the ancient 
 motto to go to those who most needed them, these 
 devoted women did not shrink from labo\ir among the 
 lofty mountains of Tibet. There, cut otl' by snow- 
 covered passes from all intercourse with the outer 
 world for six months in each year, these humble 
 soldiers of the Cross have toiled on, and though as yet 
 it is only the day of small things, they have for 
 Christ's sake " laboured, and have had patience, and 
 have not fainted." With the New Testaments in 
 their hands, now through the hard toil of their 
 
166 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 brethren completed, they have sought to tell their 
 Tibetan sisters of Jesus' love for poor women. The 
 instruction has been accompanied by God's blessing. 
 During the winter schools have been held for the 
 heathen girls, the inducement to attend being' that 
 they were taught to knit warm stockings, and paid for 
 their work. Several women have been baptised, and 
 two with their Christian husbands have returned to 
 Ladak, to show in heathen surroundings what a 
 Christian home really is. Easter Day, 1882, their 
 hearts were made glad when a heathen woman at 
 Lahoul, after careful teaching, came publicly forward 
 and confessed Christ by being baptised in His name. 
 " Who hath despised the day of small things ? " 
 
 cr^^ C56^ 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FEMALE MEDICAL MISSIONS. 
 
 HE records even in these early days 
 
 of the efforts of lady medical 
 
 missionaries are so many and so 
 
 wonderful, that the difficulty lies 
 
 in the selection. 
 
 No tale possesses a more thril- 
 
 linof interest than that of the 
 
 Women's Hospital in Bareilly, in 
 
 connection with the Methodist 
 
 Episcopal Church in America, as 
 
 told by the gifted pen of the Rev. William Arthur. 
 
 An orphanage had been established by the wife of 
 
 a missionary in that city, and when Miss Swain 
 
 arrived, duly qualified, she began a medical class of 
 
 sixteen girls. At the end of three years an examining 
 
 board of three doctors passed thirteen out of these 
 
 sixteen girls, and certificated them for practice in all 
 
 ordinary diseases. 
 
 ^ 1G7 
 
1G8 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 " From the beginDiug, the uecessity of a hospital for 
 women had pressed itself upon the attention of Miss 
 Swain. But this was a project demanding heavy out- 
 lay. Yet every week brought some fresh token of its 
 necessity. Native gentlemen said that their ladies 
 would not object to go to a hospital superintended by 
 a lady physician. Near to the mission house was a 
 beautiful site for such a hospital, but the ground 
 belonged to a Mohammedan jDrince, and the price of 
 it seemed to place it beyond all hope. They could 
 only pray, and this the members of the mission had 
 long done. The proprietor was the Nawab of Rampore 
 — a prince who had boasted that the missionaries never 
 could make their wa}'' into his city. Yet, as time went 
 on, it became evident that if the hospital, which had 
 many a time been built in the hearts of the ladies of 
 the mission, was ever to be built in brick and mortar, 
 it must be on the ground owned by the avowed enemy 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 " At last they were advised by Mr. Drummond, the 
 Commissioner, to apply direct to his Highness for the 
 estate. Probably Mr. Drummond at the same time 
 used some friendly offices, in a quiet way, with persons 
 influential at the Court of Rampore. Instead of their 
 approach to the royal city being made difficult, they 
 found that, through the friendly influence of the Dewan, 
 his Highness had posted horses for them at each of the 
 six stages of the way. Therefore those ' poor beggars,' 
 as Mrs. Thomas calls them, found themselves, some- 
 what to their own surprise, faring along in a coach 
 and four, with two footmen, an outrider, and regular 
 relays of horses from stage to stage. For the last 
 
FEMALE MEDICAL MISSIONS. 169 
 
 stage they were joined by an escort of three mounted 
 soldiers. On entering the city gates they were received 
 with low salaams, and the children cried ' Long life and 
 prosperity.' They were driven to a fine house, and 
 magnificently served. At breakfast they counted twenty 
 dishes, and at dinner gave up counting in despair. 
 Two carriages were sent to drive them round the city, 
 and a message came from the Nawab saying that, 
 ' being specially engaged with his prayers, he could 
 not see them that evening.' 
 
 " Next morning, after being taken round to several 
 palaces and gardens, they were driven into the gate- 
 way of the royal residence. A cannon frowned 
 directly in face of them, and as they passed five royal 
 elephants made their salaams. When they reached 
 the presence-chamber, his Highness rose, smiled, and 
 held out his hand. He seated Mrs. Thomas on his 
 right, next to her the doctor, Miss Swain, and next to 
 her Mrs. Parker, another lady of the mission. After 
 them came the gentlemen, then the friendly Dewan, 
 and the Chief Magistrate. I seem to be writing 
 incredible records of social revolution. That chair in 
 the zenana of a Brahman, on which his wife was told 
 to sit down in his presence, was portentous. And 
 now this giving of honour at a Mohammedan court 
 to the weaker vessel, in preference to the stronger, is 
 no less disturbing to old, established ideas of social 
 order in India. They talked to his Highness of his 
 palaces, gardens, taste, and so forth, while he smoked 
 his hookah, looking increasingly pleased. But there 
 was a great speech weighing on Mr. Thomas's heart, 
 which, his wife archly says, he had been preparing for 
 
170 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 a week in bis best Hindustani, and witb bis best 
 reasons. 
 
 " After a wbile tbe Dewan arose and whispered to 
 bis royal master. Tbe Nawab nodded assent. Tbe 
 Dewan tben gave Mr. Tbomas a bint tbat tbe moment 
 was come. His wife says that be began ' with as 
 much shyness and bhisbing as a school-girb' He said 
 tbat be desired to procure, on some terms, tbe estate 
 in Bareilly belonging to bis Highness, for tbe purpose 
 of building upon it a hospital for women. His 
 Highness smiled graciously. ' Take it,' be said, ' take 
 it ; I give it to you with much pleasure for that 
 purpose." 
 
 " Their hearts were all full, their thanks were silently 
 poured out to God. ' We have prayed for it,' says 
 Mrs. Thomas, ' for years ; but never absolutely wanted 
 it as a present. And now we have it.' The generous 
 Nawab bad their warmest acknowledgments. Tlie 
 gift comprised a garden, with two fine old wells, a great 
 brick bouse, and forty-two acres of land ; worth, in all, 
 three thousand pounds. And all this given when Mr. 
 Thomas bad only opened bis lips ; and now his fine 
 speech ' of no use !' Ah ! speeches composed in tbe 
 heart, with prayers and cares, and hopes and fears, 
 have a strange way sometimes of doing their work 
 without ever being delivered. Such speeches appear 
 now and then to acquire tbe power of discharging 
 themselves into the breasts of others by subtler 
 channels, without waiting to go by tbe way of 
 sound. 
 
 " Our company of ' beggars ' turned their faces 
 again towards Bareilly, crying, ' So we are to have a 
 
FEMALE MEDICAL MISSIONS. 171 
 
 liospital for womeB in India ! " Was there at that 
 moment in all India another company as rich, as full 
 to overflowing with the enjoyment of the bounties of 
 Providence? Whoever could have read the imagina- 
 tion of the thought of their hearts would have 
 probably seen, alternating with prayers for the bounti- 
 ful Prince of Rampore, pictures of wan forms regaining 
 the hue of strength, of hopeless sufferers soothed in 
 their anguish, of heathen women hearkening to the 
 never-ending story of redeeming love and " saving 
 health." And they had their hospital. The Woman's 
 Missionary Society of the Methodist Church found 
 them about two thousand pounds. The grounds were 
 laid out, the old house adapted, and new buildings 
 added to the Nawab's bounty. Thus were provided 
 apartments for single missionary ladies, dispensaries, a 
 clinical room, and three separate suits of hospital 
 accommodation, one each for Hindus, Mohammedans, 
 and Christians respectively. One use of the clinical 
 room seems rather uncommon. Native ladies arriving 
 in their doolies, or light palankeens, would be carried 
 rio-ht into the room, and, with one curtain drawn 
 aside, would continue lying in the doolie, and there be 
 prescribed for. One young and pretty lady arriving 
 in charge of her husband, it was found that the vehicle 
 could not be got into the room ; and there were men 
 about. What was to be done ? Miss Swain tried to 
 persuade the poor gentleman that an umbrella would 
 sufficiently protect his wife from unwelcome eyes. 
 But no ; he must have two ; and so defended she 
 effected the passage. 
 
 "After a while the hospital patients numbered fifty. 
 
172 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 of whom six were high-caste Hindus, These brought 
 their famihes with them. One brought three convey- 
 ances, with her husband, three children, sister, and 
 no less than twelve servants, besides furniture and 
 provisions. To Miss Swain the husband was not 
 welcome; but the lady said she could not stay without 
 him, ' Their friends would give them a bad name.' 
 One patient said, ' May I not come here every year 
 and stay a while, even if I am not sick ? I like to 
 walk out in the garden here ; if I walk out at home, 
 my friends and neighbours think I am very bad.' 
 
 " After having passed through an arduous season of 
 epidemic. Miss Swain found the fifth year of her 
 service more satisfactory than any previous one. Then 
 her health broke down, and she was forced to retreat 
 to her native air. The convalescence was slow, but 
 after four years of absence she was once more 
 welcomed, very joyfully welcomed, by old friends and 
 new, back to her post again. 
 
 " Mrs. Gracey tells us that when the vacancy took 
 place, prayer was made without ceasing by the ladies, 
 that a successor worthy of the work might be raised 
 up. Lucilla H. Green, of New Jersey, had first 
 studied at Pennington Seminary, then taken her 
 degree at the Women's College in Philadelphia, in 
 which city she had further spent several months in the 
 hospital for women and children. Her accomplishments 
 promised a successful career at home. Her spirit 
 hailed the call to a missionary sphere. Like other 
 missionaries, she had learned to sing her way across 
 the sea. With the pine-clad sand-hills of New Jersey 
 fresh in the memory behind her, and the hospital with 
 
FEMALE MEDICAL MISSIONS. 173 
 
 its dusky occupants rising in the mind's eye before 
 her, she sang — 
 
 " That Holy Helper liveth yet, 
 My Friend and Guide to l)e ; 
 The Healer of Gennesaret 
 
 Shall walk the rounds with me." 
 
 " From the spot she gives an account of the two 
 assistants whom she found prepared to her hand, 
 Rebecca Gowan and Bertha Seigler. They had both 
 been brought up in the orphanage. Rebecca spent 
 two years in Dr. Humphrey's medical class. She was 
 now a well-educated, zealous young Christian, losing 
 no opportunity of preaching Christ to tlie sufferers. 
 She assisted in examining patients and preparing 
 medicines. ' When I am away for a few days,' says 
 Miss Green, ' she fills my place very well.' Bertha 
 had been brought to the orphanage, a waif of six 
 years old, so frightened by ill treatment, that she not 
 only screamed at those who had to deal with her, but 
 bit them. Tamed, trained, converted, she was now a 
 keen, bright student, writing prescriptions so well that 
 Miss Green did not hesitate when absent to leave her 
 register-book in her hand. 
 
 " Miss Green gives a full and lively description of her 
 visitors at the dispensary on a single morning. On 
 entering she receives the salutation of the assistants, 
 and of several women seated on the floor. Clean 
 white clothes and bright faces tell her that these are 
 native Christians. Next comes the wife of a rich 
 merchant in costly array, and she retreats to her 
 carriage with great precaution against male eyes. A 
 
174 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 Mohammedan woman, with a kindly, trusty face 
 follows. A mother brings two puny children, and 
 holds a branch to prevent Miss Doctor Sahiba from 
 putting any ' evil spirit into them.' The spirit she 
 would like to put in is eggs and milk and meat, but 
 animal food she must not name. Then a low-caste 
 creature wonders if the like of her will be attended 
 to, and goes away happy. Another woman wants to 
 see if the doctor knows anything, and the two have a 
 trial of their wits. One ragged woman, with 
 ' superfluous dirt,' has ' the usual ' dozen bracelets on 
 each arm, and five rings in each ear. The clinking 
 of anklets and the rustle of rich dress announce two 
 ladies from a zenana visited every week, A sweet, 
 gentle woman is a native Christian, and ' a jewel 
 indeed.' T' You would feel,' says Miss Green, 'like 
 putting your arms round her and calling her sister.*^ 
 Some hill women come in blue, tall and handsome. 
 A Mohammedan gentleman brings his wife and 
 children. She will not take a seat while her lord 
 stands, nor will she speak in his presence. When 
 he turns his back she does so, and very winningly. 
 
 " Miss Green finds that when asked their age, most 
 of these women say, in a helpless sort of way, ' How 
 should I know?' or 'The news has not yet reached 
 me,' It is said that there are other countries 
 besides India in which news of their correct age has 
 not yet reached the ladies, and in which the longer 
 it is waited for the further does it seem from 
 arriving. 
 
 " In Lucknow, where not many years previously all 
 the furies of war had been raging. Miss Monelle found 
 
FEMALE MEDICAL MISSIONS. 175 
 
 that her character of lady physician opened her way 
 into houses which had never been entered by a 
 Christian. In one touching case she was called to the 
 wife of a Nawab, who for four days had been in critical 
 circumstances, having all the native help available for 
 miles round, but in vain. Accompanied by a lady of 
 the mission and a native female, Miss Monelle hastened 
 over a distance of twenty miles, in part through jungle. 
 At the palace she was led through yards full of ele- 
 phants and horses, through a court, and finally into the 
 zenana. There she found sixty women, in gorgeous 
 apparel, staring at her from among their trinkets. 
 In the middle of the room, on a low couch, lay the 
 sufferer. 
 
 " A messenger from the Nawab commanded that a 
 Christian hand should not touch the Begum till her 
 father had given his consent ; and as he was sleeping, 
 they must wait. Waiting in such a crisis, on such a 
 pretext, soon became intolerable. The lady who had 
 come with Miss Monelle, taking with her the native 
 attendant, sallied out of the zenana, and ventured to 
 attack some three-score Mussulman gentlemen sitting 
 in conclave. To her vehement representations they 
 replied that they knew it all, but no one must disturb 
 the Nawab. ' Somebody must do it,' cried the 
 Christian lady, ' the Begum must have relief, or she 
 will die ! ' After weary pleading, some one did, with 
 trembling, venture to awake the slumbering dignitary. 
 He came forth in rich robes, with gold mitre-cap, and 
 as he advanced the nobles and retainers, parting to let 
 him take the post of honour, salaamed profoundly. 
 But no one dared to speak. They stood ' as dumb as 
 
176 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 SO many oysters.' One can imagine how the blood 
 boiled in the veins of that American woman, to see all 
 this delicacy about forms, and this insensibility to the 
 life-peril of a young wife and j)ossible mother. After 
 a long time they did gently hint that something ought 
 to be done. The great man announced his pleasure 
 that the doctor should report the exact state of his 
 child, and then he could consider the case. The doctor 
 needed not to Avait so long. She reported extreme 
 peril. Then came to her the husband in person, to 
 take her professional ojDinion. Could she relieve the 
 Begum without medicine ? She could not promise to 
 do so. ' Will you promise that medicine will positively 
 cure herl' This, again, she could not do. Then fell 
 from the lips of the Nawab a final sentence which was 
 twofold : a sentence for the doctor, of bitterness, for 
 the patient, of death. " To take medicine from a 
 Christian would break caste, and since you will not 
 promise to cure her, she must die." On her way back 
 to Lucknow in the dead of the night, Miss Monelle 
 forgot the wild beasts, forgot the highwaymen, forgot 
 the gloom, forgot all things but God and those hopeless 
 faces which arose before her even in the darkness. 
 She cries out, ' This young and beautiful creature died 
 of caste ! ' 
 
 "Mrs. Parker, the wife of a missionary at Moradabad, 
 had for twenty years prepared in that city the way for 
 a lady physician, by successful practice of her own. 
 She had distributed medicines in the city, in the 
 villages, on the road-sides. She had visited the sick. 
 She had spent days in personally attending those 
 stricken with fever and cholera ; herself being several 
 
FEMALE MEDICAL MISSIONS. 177 
 
 times brought low by disease. 'I have seen the 
 natives,' says Mrs. Gracey, 'prostrate themselves before 
 her,' to procure her help. She had two native medical 
 Bible-women : Shullock, trained in the original class at 
 Nynee Tal, and Jane Plummer, trained in Miss Swain's 
 class at Bareilly. These were willing and capable, and 
 both in the city and villages opened the way into many 
 houses. In one village Shullock had access to every 
 house. When Mrs. Parker visited it during an epidemic, 
 all, both high and low, took medicines. That 
 represents a very great change, and a giving way of 
 one of the outworks of caste. 
 
 " But Mrs. Parker longed for a lady physician. At 
 last she was able to welcome Miss Julia Lore, who, 
 after she had taken her degree, had spent a year in 
 the hospitals in Boston. Miss Lore, in addition to 
 house and zenana practice, aimed at a dispensary. 
 She succeeded in obtaining one. Apparently she 
 expected the pretty array of bottles, glasses, books, 
 and so forth to produce an effect. But after spending 
 a morning or two waiting in vain for a patient, she 
 began to reflect that such attractions were not potent 
 with ' the feminine mind of Moradabad.' After a 
 few more mornings spent without a single visitor, she 
 came to feel that, if the establishment was to be called 
 a dispensary, it must be on the principle of taking the 
 will for the deed. Finally, on the seventh day 
 appeared an old nurse with a boy and a girl. Miss 
 Lore records that the first item entered in the prescrip- 
 tion-book was Castile soap, which she adds is ' a 
 most excellent remedy for many Indian ills.' From 
 that day a steady increase of applicants converted the 
 
 N 
 
178 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 dispensary into a reality. The opening up of private 
 houses and zenanas went on at the same time. 
 
 " Called suddenly to a woman of sixty, whom she 
 found emaciated and dying with chronic dysentery, 
 Miss Lore had a hope of saving her life, seeing how 
 complete had been the absence of anything like 
 rational treatment. But the old woman would not risk 
 her caste. Not one drop of liquid from impure hands 
 should pass her lips. A single pill she did accept, 
 but never another. Three days after she had been 
 burned on the river's brink, Miss Lore and Mrs. 
 Parker found her three daughters-in-law sitting on the 
 floor, and they did not rise. For this they apologised, 
 saying that custom required them, on the death of the 
 mother of their husbands, to pass six months of 
 mourning, eating only at night, sitting on the floor 
 from daylight to dark and doing nothing. The 
 youngest was a mere girl, with a " wee " baby in 
 her arms. They had all been at the funeral, had 
 bathed in thin dresses, and taken a long walk home, 
 " and made themselves miserable." The eldest, under 
 her breath, confessed that it was a bad custom. In a 
 happier case, though her medicines were at first refused, 
 and her skill obviously distrusted, by the ladies of a 
 really superior family, who could themselves read and 
 did read. Miss Lore succeeded after a while, by doggedly 
 insisting on having her prescriptions followed, and 
 became a great favourite. By helping their bodies a 
 way was opened to their hearts. 
 
 " One night at eleven o'clock she was called to a 
 family of the upper classes. Accompanied by her 
 antive assistant, Jane, she was led up narrow, winding, 
 
FEMALE MEDICAL MISSIONS. 179 
 
 steep staircases, through narrow passages, iuto a low, 
 damp room, dimly lighted and devoid of furniture. 
 On a bedstead about a foot high, with a few rags about 
 her and beneath her, lay a young creature of about 
 seventeen, her life slowly leaving her ; no arm to 
 support her, no one to turn to for a word of comfort. 
 Miss Lore made every possible effort to soothe and 
 comfort her. Every time she fainted, the old mother- 
 in-law would hasten off to cry, ' At last she's dead ; 
 she's dead ! ' The physician could hardly get the 
 medicine properly administered. At last the moment 
 came when she had to lay back on the hard little pillow 
 the lifeless head, and at that moment there was not 
 a creature in the room but Jane ! Every one of the 
 noisy, helpless, stony-hearted women had run off ! 
 Then arose a horrid din ; wails and howls, and invoca- 
 tions of Ram, Ram ! The white physician and her 
 brown assistant walked away under the stars, reflecting 
 on the want of fellow-feeling they had just witnessed, 
 and on the fact that in a couple of hours the poor 
 young form would be burning by the river-side." 
 
 The importance of female medical missions has been 
 lately brought before the public. Many ladies are 
 already engaged in the work, and many more are in 
 course of training. The "Times" introduces the story 
 of the cure of a Hindu princess in these words : "It 
 is one of the merits of missionary societies that they 
 now and then furnish us with interesting information 
 which would not readily reach us through other 
 channels." It then gives an account, the substance 
 of which is as follows : — 
 
 The sovereign of a native State in Central India 
 
180 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 applied to Miss Beilby for medical attendance for his 
 wife, the Maharani, who had long been suffering from 
 a painful disease. It w^as impossible for her to see 
 any but a lady doctor. This lady took the journey 
 of fifty-two miles, and remained for many w^eeks in 
 this heathen court, where there was no other European. 
 By God's blessing on her skill a cure was effected. 
 She was able also to cure many others in the city and 
 hospital. Above all, she was enabled to tell of Jesus 
 and His love to her Highness, who had never before 
 heard His name. When the time came for her to 
 leave, she was desired to go to the palace to say fare- 
 well to her royal patient on Wednesday, the 13 th of 
 April last. On her arrival, the Maharani dismissed 
 all her ladies and attendants, so that Miss Beilby 
 might be quite alone with her. 
 
 She then said she wished Miss Beilby to make her 
 a solemn promise. She was reluctant to do this 
 without knowing what it might involve, when her 
 Highness said : " You are going to England, and I 
 want you to tell our Queen, and the Prince and 
 Princess of Wales, and the men and women in 
 England, what the women in the zenanas of India 
 suffer when they are sick. Will you promise 
 me ? " 
 
 She explained that it was no social change in their 
 condition she sought, but relief from their cruel suffer- 
 ings. She charged Miss Beilby herself to give this 
 message to the great Queen of England ; not to send 
 it through any other channel, or Her Majesty would 
 think less of it. 
 
 Miss Beilby then represented the great difficulty 
 
FEIVLA-LE MEDICAL MISSIONS, 181 
 
 she would have in getting access to the Queen ; that 
 with us it is not as in the East that any one can 
 go to the palace and lay a petition before a native 
 sovereign. Besides, she hardly knew what good it 
 would do, as our Queen could not make lady doctors, 
 or if made, order them to go out. 
 
 " But," said the Maharani, " did you not tell me 
 that our Queen was good and gracious ; that she 
 never heard of sorrow without sending a message to 
 say how sorry she was, and trying to help ? Did you 
 not show me a picture of a train falling into the sea, 
 where a bridge broke, and did you not tell me how 
 grieved our Queen was ? Well, it was very sad those 
 people should be killed, but our condition is far worse. 
 If you will tell our Queen what only we Indian women 
 suffer when we are sick, I am sure she will feel for 
 us and help us." 
 
 Miss Beilby felt she could no longer refuse to 
 convey the message, if possible. The Maharani next 
 bade her write it down at once, giving her pen, ink, 
 and paper, lest she should forget it, and added : 
 " Write it small. Doctor Miss Sahiba, for I want to 
 put it into a locket, and you are to wear this locket 
 round your neck till you see our great Queen and give 
 it to her yourself. You are not to send it through 
 another." Miss Beilby then said that before she 
 could make so solemn a promise, she must pray to 
 her God to help her to keep it. The Maharani 
 replied, "That that was impossible then, for the carriage 
 was at the door to take her the long journey to the 
 railway station, and she could not go back into her 
 room to pray." Miss Beilby then asked permission to 
 
182 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 kneel clown there and pray. She had often made the 
 same request before, but it had always been refused. 
 
 Her Highness had allowed her to read the Bible, 
 and had read it herself, but had never allowed her to 
 pray. This time the request was granted. Miss 
 Beilby then knelt down and asked God that this 
 message should reach Queen Victoria, if it was His 
 will, and that the way might be opened for her to 
 deliver the message, if it would be for His honour 
 and glory, and the good of the poor suffering women 
 of India, 
 
 When she rose from her knees, the Maharani said 
 that she had been speaking as if some one else was 
 in the room, but she had not seen her 'pray to 
 anything. She had taken nothing out of her pocket 
 to hold in her hand while praying. " Maharani 
 Sahiba," said Miss Beilby, " when you recovered 
 from your sickness, after your bath, you prayed to 
 the unknoiun God. I have prayed to that God ; 
 only He is my God, and I know Hvni." It was 
 but a feeble prayer, but God heard and answered ! 
 God disposed the heart of His servant. Queen 
 Victoria, to see her, and listen to her tale of woe. 
 
 The Queen having been told by some of the 
 ladies of the court of Miss Beilby's work and message, 
 determined, in spite of difficulties and many engage- 
 ments, to see her, and hear all for herself, and 
 accordingly sent for her. It was exactly three 
 months after her prayer, to the very day and hour. 
 " Be not faithless, but believing," seemed to sound in 
 Miss Beilby's ears. Her Majesty listened with great 
 interest, asking many questions, and showing the 
 
FEMALE MEDICAL MISSIONS. 183 
 
 deepest sympathy. Turning to her ladies, she said : 
 " We had no idea it was as bad as this ; something 
 must be done for these poor creatures." The locket, 
 with its written message enclosed, was given to the 
 Queen, and Her Majesty entrusted Miss Beilby with 
 a message in rej)ly. 
 
 But the Queen also gave her a message which might 
 be given to every one with whom she spoke, on the 
 subject of these poor suffering Indian ladies : " We 
 should wish it generally known that we sympathise 
 with every effort made to relieve the suffering state of 
 the women of India." 
 
 In parting with Miss Beilby, before she left India, 
 the Maharani said, in solemn and earnest accents, 
 " If you forget your promise, your God will judge 
 you." 
 
 Christian sisters, the time is short, " the coming of 
 the Lord draweth nigh." Cannot eveiy one among 
 us, who has tasted that the Lord is gracious, do some- 
 thing more than we are doing for these our suffering 
 and benighted sisters in heathen lands ? 
 
 The writer's task is done. 
 
 Her flowers are gathered, and her nosegay made, 
 and, to use the quaint language of an old writer, 
 little is her own, save the string that ties it. 
 
 She has endeavoured conscientiously to exhibit 
 specimens of the labours of women, born in different 
 countries, and called by different names, but all 
 united in the one great object of pointing their 
 
184 OUR EASTERN SISTERS. 
 
 heathen sisters to Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. 
 Perhaps the one pre-eminent trait in these workers 
 is their humility. The work is not theirs, but the 
 Lord's. Patient, when no fruit was visible, and 
 humble, when blessed with success, they laboured 
 on. Working in this spirit, and not for the 
 advancement of a party, or individuals, God's 
 blessing is sure to follow. Henceforth let not 
 Ephraim envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim. Let 
 every worker abroad and at home seek to be able 
 honestly to offer up the Apostle's prayer, " Grace be 
 with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 " Christ is preached, and herein we do rejoice, yea, 
 and will rejoice." 
 
 O^ 'i 
 
 LORIMER AND GIl-LIES, PRINTERS, ST. ANDREW SQUARE, EDINBURGH. 
 
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 author of " The Temple and its Services," &c. Crown 
 
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Published by The Religious Tract Society. 
 
 The Romance of Modern Missions. By Miss 
 
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 Rivers of Water in a Dry Place. An Account of 
 
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 Tfie Reliyions of tJie Ancient World. By George 
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 Tiie Walde7isian Cliurcli in tfie Valleys of Piedmont. 
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 The Life of Jean Frederic Oberlin, Pastor of the 
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 Hid in the Cevennes ; or, The Mountain Refuge. 
 
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 The Human Sympathies of Christ. By A. C. 
 
 Geikie, D.D. Crown Svo, 2s. 6d. bevelled, cloth 
 
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Published by The Religious Tract Society. 
 
 Drierstoch. A Tale of Mission Work on the 
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 Homes and Haunts of Luther. By the Rev. Dr. 
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 Footprints of Italian Reformers. By the Rev. 
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 Indian Pictures, drawn with Pen and Pencil. By 
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 Past and Present in the East. By the Rev. 
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 The Ttvo Voyages; or, Midnight and Daylight. 
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 Captain Cooh : His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries. 
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BW7005.5 .E47 
 
 Our Eastern sisters and their missionary 
 
 iimZni^°" ^''^°'°9'"l Semmary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00037 5750