The time had now come when the little mission established at Amherst, with such doleful omens, was to be broken up. Amherst was being rapidly eclipsed by the town of Maulmain, situated on the coast about twenty-five miles farther north, at the very mouth of the Salwen. Maulmain was also a new town, the settlers building their houses right in a thick jungle. But within a year of the first settlement, while the number of houses in Amherst amounted to two hundred and thirty, and the population to twelve hundred, the population of Maulmain had rapidly swelled to twenty thousand. The reason for this growth was an unfortunate misunderstanding between the Civil Commissioner, Mr. Crawfurd, and the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Archibald Campbell. The latter made Maulmain instead of Amherst the headquarters of his army. He regarded Maulmain as a more strategical position. The harbor, too, of Amherst, though spacious, and capable of accommodating ships of large burden, was difficult of access, and, being farther out from the mouth of the Salwen than Maulmain, was dangerous during the southwest monsoon. The presence of the commander-in-chief and of his army at Maulmain, naturally attracted emigration thither, and it soon became apparent that this town instead of Amherst was to be the metropolis of the ceded provinces of Tenasserim. Accordingly it seemed best to transfer the mission to Maulmain. On May 28, 1827, Mr. and Mrs. Boardman removed thither from Amherst, and took possession of a frail bamboo mission-house, situated about a mile south of the cantonments of the English army. The site for the mission had been presented by Sir Archibald Campbell. “It was a lonely spot, and the thick jungle close at hand was the haunt of wild beasts whose howls sounded dismally on their ears in the nighttime.” On the 10th of August Mr. Judson left Amherst, and the little enclosure, the hope-tree, and the graves which contained the mouldering remains of all that were dearest to him on earth. He joined the Boardmans at Maulmain, and on the 14th of November was followed by Mr. and Mrs. Wade, and the native Christians, together with thirteen native school children. Mah-men-la, however, the first female convert among the Burmans, had already been laid to rest by the side of her _white mamma_. The following pathetic description of her death is from Mr. Judson’s journal: