Siam and Laos, as Seen by Our American Missionaries
History
Siam and Laos, as Seen by Our American Missionaries
Laos -- Description and travel; Missions -- Laos; Missions -- Thailand; Thailand -- Description and travel
This year (1867) was memorable as witnessing the commencement of the
Presbyterian mission in North Laos. On the 3d of January its pioneer
missionary, the Rev. Daniel McGilvary, with his family, embarked on
what was to prove a three months’ voyage up the Menam. Having, besides
the strong current of the river, no less than thirty-two decided
rapids to surmount in their boats, it was not till the 1st of April
that Cheung Mai, their destination, was reached. The king gave them a
friendly reception and provided them with a temporary home. Numbers
visited them daily, and gradually they acquired the confidence of the
people, who heard them gladly. The year following the Rev. Jonathan
Wilson and wife undertook the formidable journey, and left Bangkok to
join the McGilvarys at Cheung Mai. Not long after their arrival,
during a visit of Dr. House to the new mission, a church was organized
in that remote heathen city, with many an earnest prayer that the
“little one might become a thousand.” On his way thither over the Laos
Mountains, Dr. House had a narrow escape from death. The elephant on
which he had been riding unexpectedly turned upon him, struck him down
with its trunk and then wounded him severely whilst attempting to
transfix him with its tusks.
In May, 1868, the Rev. P. L. Carden, who had lastly been stationed at
Petchaburee, was obliged to withdraw from the field on account of the
serious illness of his wife. This year the Rev. Samuel J. Smith and
wife (formerly Mrs. Dr. Jones), who had been so long connected with
the American Baptist Board, became self-supporting, Mr. Smith having
charge of a large printing-establishment and a weekly English
newspaper, but maintaining Sabbath preaching and other services in
Siamese, and Mrs. Smith, able and indefatigable as a teacher and
writer, doing much in the work of instruction and in other ways for
the good of Siam.
As Mr. Chandler’s connection with the Board had been severed some ten
years before, the Siamese department of the Baptist mission ceased now
to exist.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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