The boys’ school, under Miss H. H. McDonald, numbered sixty-seven, of whom forty were boarding scholars. Notwithstanding the sad defection of the native elder in the First Church, Bangkok, and the absence for a while of any ordained missionary at Petchaburee, twenty-five new converts were reported in Siam this year. To the church in Laos thirty-nine were added, and in July a new church was constituted in the midst of a cluster of villages about nine miles from Cheung Mai. The Laos school, under Miss Cole’s care chiefly, now numbered thirty-five, of whom twenty-two were boarders. Dr. McGilvary spent several months this year at the frontier town of Rahang, where two professed conversion, and in October he baptized six adults and organized a church in Lakon, one of the chief cities of North Laos, one hundred miles east of Cheung Mai. In 1881, Mr. and Mrs. Culbertson left the field, Mrs. C. having lost her health, and Dr. McGilvary in March left Cheung Mai to rejoin his family in the United States. But one ordained missionary able to preach in the native language was now left in Siam, and one in Laos. Nor were any reinforcements sent out this year from home, though one in the field, Miss Mary McDonald, the second daughter of the Rev. N. A. McDonald, D. D., was appointed a missionary teacher. The new missionaries at Petchaburee and the lady teachers there were greatly tried by the contumacy and unchristian conduct of their oldest native helper and other church-members, and they suffered severely at the station from cholera, which prevailed as an epidemic. No less than thirty-two pupils and others on the mission premises were attacked by it. Dr. Sturge was the means of saving many lives in the town and vicinity. The untimely death of Miss Mary Campbell of the Laos mission, by drowning in the Menam River, in February of this year, on her return from a brief health-trip to Bangkok, brought sadness to many hearts in America as well as in Siam. And yet the year was not devoid of blessings. The schools prospered. Two useful Christian tracts in Siamese, composed by native church-members, were put in circulation. Dr. Sturge in September was married to Miss Turner, who became a valuable accession to the station at Petchaburee. One new church was formed in the Laos country, and no less than fifty adults received Christian baptism there. In 1882 the Laos mission were called to part with their first Laos convert, long a model ruling elder, good old Nan Intah. Faithful and true, with a beautiful, loving trust in his Saviour, he bade his children and grandchildren a cheerful farewell, and went to be with Christ. Dr. Cheek’s medical practice was this year greatly enlarged and very successful. About thirteen thousand patients were prescribed for, and thus much was done to break up their confidence in spirit-doctors and their superstitious fears. Twenty-three were added to the Laos churches.