Pakokku is a town of some size and commercial importance, as a river port and place of trade. It is situated at the junction of the Chindwin river with the Irrawaddy, and is likely to rise in importance, as the country behind it becomes more settled, and increases its productions, and as the trade on the Chindwin is developed. The Pakokku district was, during the earlier years of British rule, the scene of much disturbance, but this did not prevent us from taking the opportunity, afforded by the development of Pakokku, to establish our mission there. Mr. Bestall commenced the work there in the latter part of 1888. As the circumstances at Pakokku illustrate one or two points in mission work, I may with advantage relate them. On his arrival at Pakokku Mr. Bestall was waited upon by the elders of the town, who were also members of the municipality, and men of influence, and he was politely informed that Pakokku did not want Christianity, and it would be better if he would not preach it amongst them. Here was a damper for the new missionary; they were determined, it seemed, not even to give him a hearing. He received them with good humour, and assured them that he would not teach them anything but what was for their good. He took a bamboo house to live and carry on his work in. It was not deserving of any better name than a hut; but for about a year he lived there, preached there, taught school there, and built up a singularly powerful influence, especially considering the disposition with which the people first greeted him. He commenced a school. At first the children who came to the mission school did so under difficulties, having to encounter the maledictions of the monks, and to go in face of the cheerful prospect, held out to them, of descending, in the next birth, to the condition of vermin, if they persisted in receiving the instructions of the missionary. [Illustration: SCHOOL-CHAPEL AT PAKOKKU.] But the superior quality of the instruction given, and a cheerful, friendly manner towards all, soon disarmed this ill-will and obstruction; the school prospered, and the meetings were well attended. There was another Anglo-vernacular school of the same grade as ours in the town, which, being supported out of municipal funds, could afford to take boys at half the fees we charged, and it had all the weight of official and influential support at its back. But the better work done in the mission school told here also, and it was not long before we held the field without a rival. As early as the second year at Pakokku, all this difficulty and opposition had melted away. The Report of the Mission for 1890 states, as regards Pakokku:—