Judson, Adoniram, 1788-1850; Missionaries -- Burma -- Biography; Missionaries -- United States -- Biography
“The ship’s destination was changed on the 26th of January. We
retraced our course for a few days, and then stood to the westward. It
was with the most bitter feelings that I witnessed the entire failure
of my undertaking, and saw the summits of the mountains of Arracan,
the last indexes of my country, sinking in the horizon, and the ship
stretching away to a distant part of India, which I had no wish to
visit, and where I had no object to obtain. It was, however, some
mitigation of my disappointment, that I should, in all probability, be
able to return to Rangoon, and resume my missionary business much
earlier than if I had visited Chittagong. But even the consolation of
this hope was not long allowed me. We had, indeed, a quick passage
across the bay; but on drawing near the Coromandel coast the wind and
current combined to prevent our further progress, and at the
expiration of another month, having for a long time subsisted on
nothing scarcely but rice and water, and being now reduced to very
short allowance, we concluded to make sail for Masulipatam, a port
north of Madras, which we doubted not we should be able to reach in a
very few days. In this, again, we were disappointed, and through the
unmanageableness of the ship, or the mismanagement of the captain,
were detained at sea nearly another month. During this period we were
sometimes in great distress, deeming ourselves very fortunate when
able to get a bag of rice, or a few buckets of water, from any native
vessel which happened to pass. Once we sent the long-boat to the
shore, and obtained a considerable supply of water, which was a great
relief. But of rice we could obtain no sufficient supply, and all
other articles of provision were quite out of the question.
“The low state to which I was at length reduced occasioned a partial
return of the disorder of my head and eyes, to which I was subject two
years ago. This, with other circumstances united, left me no other
source of consolation but resignation to the will of God, and an
unreserved surrender of all to His care; and praised be His name, I
found more consolation and happiness in communion with God, and in the
enjoyments of religion, than I had ever found in more prosperous
circumstances.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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