The favour of the king was for a time withdrawn by reason of an incident the character of which was vague to the missionaries at the time. Later the cause of the estrangement was discovered to be a letter which appeared in an English journal at Straits Settlement in October, 1854. The offending letter not only misrepresented some acts of the government but calumniated the character of the king, and insinuated that he was held in low esteem by the missionaries as well as by other foreigners. For some reason the king ascribed the authorship of this letter to a missionary who had recently passed through Singapore; and among his officials, as learned later, he threatened to expel the missionaries except Dr. Bradley and Dr. House. The first warning of royal displeasure was the arrest of the Siamese teachers on the fictitious charge of teaching the sacred language to foreigners. Then the missionary ladies, presenting themselves at the palace gate as usual for admission to teach their classes, were ignored. The missionaries, essaying to go out to the sea coast for recuperation learned that a decree had been issued to limit their movements; but inquiry received only evasive explanations. Finally the king sent a demand that the missionaries collectively should sign a paper disclaiming authorship of the letter and denying in toto its imputation; this demand was made before they had seen the letter, but it gave them an understanding of the trouble. After consultation they declined to assent to this demand, partly because it might be construed as an acknowledgment of responsibility, and partly because they considered it impolitic to make a general defense of the government, some of whose affairs they did not fully approve. However, they drew up a paper denying their complicity in the publication and reaffirming their friendship towards the king. After several months the teachers were allowed to return to the mission, but with an admonition against giving out “false information lest the missionaries put it in their letters and send it out of the country”; the decree of restriction, however, continued in force for some time. The servants, returning to the mission compound, reported the nature of the examination to which they had been subjected by the king, and Dr. House records the following: “Being asked which missionaries he visited in his work, one replied ‘Maw House.’ ‘Well,’ said the king, ‘Maw House is good hearted, affable and good humoured,’ and thus was evidently satisfied that the unfavourable reports could not be laid to the teachers.”