In this way the twenty-two weary months of his captivity passed, amidst
hardships, sickness and anxiety unspeakable. At length release came. On
the advance of the English army up the Irrawaddy, Dr. Judson was sent
for to the Burmese camp, being then a most valuable man, to serve as
interpreter and translator, and to negotiate terms of peace; and thus
their long captivity came to a close.
Ardently as Judson longed to see his mission established in Upper Burma
in his day, sixty years were destined to elapse before the society
to which he belonged secured a permanent footing there. It was after
the annexation in 1886 that work was permanently taken up by them in
Mandalay. A handsome church has recently been erected there at a cost
of about £3,000, by contributions from America and Burma, as a memorial
of Dr. Judson, and the mission has met with a fair share of success. In
addition to Mandalay, three other stations have been taken up by the
American Baptist Mission in Upper Burma—viz., Sagaing, Myingyan and
Meiktila, and one medical missionary has gone to the Shan States. Bhamo
was occupied previously, during King Theebaw’s reign, for work amongst
the Kachin tribes.
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (S. P. G.) began its work
in Mandalay under the comparatively favouring auspices of King Mindohn,
the father and immediate predecessor of Theebaw. This monarch built for
the mission, at his own cost, very commodious and handsome premises of
teak wood, consisting of a church, a mission house, and a school, which
still remain. In the church is a handsome font, the appropriate gift of
Queen Victoria to this church, built by the munificence of a heathen
king! Theebaw, when a boy, was a pupil in that school, and there was
no thought then of his succeeding to the throne. He made very little
progress with English study, though he had a good reputation for Buddhist
lore.
Owing to the massacres and other grievous disorders of Theebaw’s reign,
the mission had to be closed for several years, the missionaries,
along with all the other English residents, having to leave Mandalay.
On the annexation being declared, the S. P. G. mission was reopened,
and subsequently another station was opened at Shwebo, and these two
stations, with a sub-station at Madeya, have experienced a fair share of
prosperity since.
During the six years these two missions have been re-established in
Upper Burma, the effects of the climate upon the health and lives of the
missionaries have been very marked. Both missions have already their
record of the faithful dead—mission workers, both male and female, who
have fallen in the prime of life, and one before she had well begun her
mission work. In both missions, too, during that time several valued
workers have had to leave the country, worn down by sickness, and unable
to endure the climate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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