“But, my dear and venerable friend and brother and father, you are, from long experience, more able than I am to taste the sweetness of this precious truth; and your advanced age, and the grace of Christ, enable you to hope that you will ere long be allowed to adopt the triumphant language of the Apostle Paul. Pray for me, that I may be accounted worthy to hold out to the end, and finally meet with you before the throne, and handle a harp of gold in the dear Redeemer’s praise.” Mr. Judson’s forebodings were well founded. War soon broke out between Burmah and the English Government in India. For two years after the writing of the above letter, the Christians of America were kept in a state of terrible suspense, unbroken by any tidings from their missionaries in Ava, which was only assuaged by fervent and universal prayer on their behalf. The occasion of the war was Chittagong, that particular strip of low land lying along the sea and flanking Burmah on the west, and to which Mr. Colman had gone to prepare an asylum for the Judsons in case they should be driven out of Rangoon. This district was under British rule, and refugees from the cruel despotism of Burmah had taken shelter there. The Burman monarch insisted that his victims should be arrested by the English authorities and handed over to him. Besides, he felt that Chittagong belonged naturally to Burmah. And such was his pride and his contempt for British prowess, that he deemed it quite possible for him not only to recover this territory, but even to conquer the whole of Bengal. When war actually broke out, suspicion fell at once on all the white foreigners residing in Ava. They were thought to be spies secretly acting in collusion with the English Government. They were immediately arrested, fettered, and thrown into the death-prison.