Messrs. McDonald and George bravely volunteered on behalf of the mission to go to the comfort and aid of their brethren in peril, and set out on the long journey, proceeding by boat to Rahang, thence traveling over the Laos mountains on elephants with the Siamese commissioner and his attendants. In a stormy interview which the missionaries had with the king in the presence of the commissioner he was forced to admit that the two men had been put to death because they had become Christians, and he avowed his set purpose “to kill all his people who should do the same.” As to the missionaries, “they might remain, as the Siamese government had so ordered, but they must not teach religion nor make Christians.” The future of the Laos misson did indeed look dark, and there seemed to be no alternative but to withdraw from the land while this king reigned. But he who was thus “breathing out threatenings and slaughter” speedily had his power for evil taken from him and was called to his account by a higher Power. Soon after, during a visit he made early in the year 1870 to Bangkok to attend the imposing ceremonies at the cremation of his late suzerain, the king of Siam, he was taken ill. His sickness increasing, he hastened home, but did not live to enter again the walls of his capital, and the supreme power passed into the hands of the second king, his son-in-law, who from the first, with his truly noble queen, had been kindly disposed to the missionaries. In February, 1870, Mr. McDonald, whose health had become seriously impaired, found it necessary to visit the United States, and left Siam with his family. A young Siamese who accompanied them, giving evidence of true conversion, was baptized by Mr. McDonald during his sojourn in America. In April, 1871, Mrs. House was obliged to make a trip for a season to the more temperate clime of the United States, and, leaving her husband at his post, returned alone. This year C. W. Vrooman, M. D., was sent out as a medical missionary to the Laos. Proceeding to Cheung Mai after the rains, during his stay of a year and a half he accomplished a good work for the mission. Oct. 11, 1871, Miss Fielde of the Baptist mission to the Chinese left Siam, eventually to join the mission of the Board in Swatow, China. Toward the close of this year Mr. McDonald and family returned to Siam, and with them the Rev. R. Arthur and wife, the Rev. J. Culbertson and Miss E. S. Dickey. Miss Dickey proved a most efficient and acceptable teacher in the mission-school at Bangkok, and subsequently at Petchaburee. The last day of 1871 brought back to Siam, his native land, the Rev. Cornelius Bradley and wife, to be associated with his father in the mission-work of the American Missionary Association.