The Isle of France, the scene of St. Pierre’s pathetic tale of “Paul and Virginia,” was to our missionaries also, who took refuge here, a place of sorrow. They learned of a death which rivals in pathos the fate of Virginia. Mrs. Harriet Newell, the first American martyr to Foreign Missions, had only just survived the tempestuous voyage from Calcutta, and had been laid in the “heathy ground” of Mauritius: one who “for the love of Christ and immortal souls, left the bosom of her friends, and found an early grave in a land of strangers.” She never repented leaving her native country. When informed by her physician of her approaching death, she lifted up her hands in triumph, and exclaimed: “Oh, glorious intelligence!”[7] What a sense of desolation must have crept over the little band of missionaries, now that death had so early broken into their ranks! On February 24th Mr. Newell embarked for Ceylon, and on the 15th of March Mr. Rice sailed for America, in order to preach a missionary crusade among the Baptist churches there; and thus Mr. and Mrs. Judson were left alone. They were obliged to remain about four months on the Isle of France; and while much of their time was spent in self-sacrificing labors among the English soldiers that formed the garrison of the island, the missionaries still longed to reach their final destination. Mrs. Judson writes: “Oh, when will my wanderings terminate? When shall I find some little spot that I can call my own?” Her mother’s ominous words, uttered long ago, were coming true. She was, indeed, having her fill of “rambling.” They had left America nearly fifteen months before, and yet after all their journeyings they seemed no nearer a field of labor than when they first set out. Their destination was still a mirage—an ever-dissolving view. They decided to make another descent upon the coast of India. On May 7, 1813, they embarked on the ship _Countess of Harcourt_ for Madras, intending to establish a mission on Pulo Penang, or Prince of Wales Island, lying in the Straits of Malacca. It was a little island, of commodious harbors and salubrious climate, which had recently been purchased by the English, and the small native population of Malays was being rapidly increased by emigration from Hindostan, Burmah, Siam, and China.