“It is eight months to-day since I set out in the early morning to persuade a few lepers, who lay dying beneath the shadow of Mandalay’s pagodas, to enter the refuge we had prepared for them. I anticipated reluctance on the part of these lone creatures to commit themselves to the care of an Englishman. Only five years before, the Burmese king reigned in the palace. Suddenly all Mandalay was in a ferment of dread. English war boats had touched the strand, and British soldiers were marching through the streets, to take the city and capture King Theebaw. Only last year the crack of our rifles was heard in many parts of the country, and even as I write British troops are marching out of the city to take part in fresh expeditions on the frontiers. Burma is not the settled country it will be ten years hence, nor has there yet been time for the people of the conquered land to trust us implicitly. I quite expected, therefore, suspicion and fear on the part of these, the poorest and most desolate of our Burmese fellow-subjects. Persuasion was my only means of gathering them in. To many I was an executioner. What could I want with them except to put them to death? ‘We pray thee let us remain here,’ some said. ‘For mercy’s sake do not take me,’ others replied. All were in great terror. I could not but be touched by the timid, fearful attitude of many, and I was very thankful when I saw the first leper on his way in a bullock cart to our Home for Lepers. It was sad to see how they hugged their wretched dwellings, and clung to their filthy haunts. Christian philanthropy they could not understand. I promised them permission to return if they did not like the Home. “The first day’s work of rescue was a long one, and the breakfast ran into the tea hour before I returned with seven inmates for the Home for Lepers. Bazaars, where the people congregate to buy and sell all sorts of food, are always centres of attraction to paupers, lepers and pariah dogs. It is not uncommon to see a poor old leprous native handle the orange or banana on the stall, and ply the world-wide query ‘How much?’ It is a sad and even disgusting state of things, and it is a dangerous one too. For ages it has gone on; and as far as I know, that morning’s work eight months ago was the first attempt ever made in Burma to stay the evil and rescue the lepers.