Judson, Adoniram, 1788-1850; Missionaries -- Burma -- Biography; Missionaries -- United States -- Biography
“For two or three months following, I was subject to continual
harassments, partly through my ignorance of police management, and
partly through the insatiable desire of every petty officer to enrich
himself through our misfortunes. When the officers came to our house
to confiscate our property, they insisted on knowing how much I had
given the governor and prison officers to release the teachers from
the inner prison. I honestly told them, and they demanded the sum from
the governor, which threw him into a dreadful rage, and he threatened
to put all the prisoners back into their original place. I went to him
the next morning, and the first words with which he accosted me were,
‘You are very bad; why did you tell the royal treasurer that you had
given me so much money?’ ‘The treasurer inquired; what could I say?’ I
replied. Say that you had given nothing,’ said he, ‘and I would have
made the teachers comfortable in prison; but now I know not what will
be their fate.’ ‘But I can not tell a falsehood,’ I replied; ‘my
religion differs from yours; it forbids prevarication; and had you
stood by me with your knife raised, I could not have said what you
suggest.’ His wife, who sat by his side, and who always, from this
time, continued my firm friend, instantly said, ‘Very true; what else
could she have done? I like such straightforward conduct; you must
not,’ turning to the governor, ‘be angry with her.’ I then presented
the governor with a beautiful opera-glass I had just received from
England, and begged his anger at me would not influence him to treat
the prisoners with unkindness, and I would endeavor, from time to
time, to make him such presents as would compensate for his loss. ‘You
may intercede for your husband only; for your sake he shall remain
where he is; but let the other prisoners take care of themselves.’ I
pleaded hard for Dr. Price; but he would not listen, and, the same
day, had him returned to the inner prison, where he remained ten days.
He was then taken out, in consequence of the doctor’s promising a
piece of broadcloth, and my sending two pieces of handkerchiefs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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