opportunity to speak of his religion,—to invite to it their personal attention, and also to invoke for it the toleration of the government. At length, after repeated applications and delays, he procured a lot of land, with the emperor's assent, situated on the bank of the river, just without the walls of the city, and built upon it a small house, Dr. Price in the mean time having been quartered by the emperor in a house near the palace. When Mr. Judson called on the proper officer for the purpose of paying for the land which he had purchased, the officer refused the money which was offered, saying: "Understand, teacher, that we do not give you the entire owning of this ground. We take no recompense, lest it become American territory. We give it to you for your present residence only, and when you go away we shall take it again." He was very particular in his wording of the writing of conveyance, and often called upon those around him to witness that the land did not become the property of the American teacher, evidently having in his mind an apprehension that if it should, the American government might at length establish its jurisdiction there, as the English had done in Bengal.

The missionaries had now spent several months at the Burman court. Dr. Price was in high favor with the monarch on account of his medical skill, while Mr. Judson had become familiarly acquainted with many of the high officers of the government, and had often been noticed with marked curiosity and attention by the emperor himself. It was now, however, no longer necessary that he should remain at the capital, and he began to make preparations for returning to Rangoon in order to meet Mrs. Judson, who might soon be expected back from America. In taking leave of the members of the government, he was invited by more than one of them to return to Ava and settle there, and Prince M., a half brother of the king, specially pressed him to hasten back, and bring with him all the Christian Scriptures, and translate them into Burman; "for," added he, "I wish to read them all." On going to take leave of the king, his majesty asked him why he wished to go away,

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and expressed his fear that the other teacher, Dr. Price, would be lonely and unhappy. On being informed that he was going only for a short time to bring his wife, the female teacher, and his goods, the king looked at him and said, "Will you then come again? When you come again is it your intention to remain permanently, or will you go back and forth as foreigners commonly do?" And on being answered that he intended to remain permanently, his majesty expressed his approbation.

It was early in February, 1823, when Mr. Judson reached Rangoon, after a passage of seven days from Ava. He found that the little church had been again scattered by the extortions and persecutions of the government, under a new viceroy, who had succeeded the tolerant Mya-day-men. One of its members, a female of great excellence of character and of steadfast Christian faith, had died during his absence, and, save those in his own immediate employ, the others had all removed from Rangoon. Many of them, however, soon gathered around their teacher, and he immediately resumed such public labors as he deemed consistent with the safety of the mission, and devoted his time especially to completing the translation of the New Testament, and preparing an epitome of the Old Testament, which should contain a complete though brief summary of Scripture history from the Creation to the coming of Christ, together with an abstract of the leading prophecies relating to the Messiah. Both of them were completed during the following summer, and were received with the utmost eagerness by the native Christians, even before they could be printed by Mr. Hough, who had left a portion of the Burman types at Bengal. In this manner passed away the months at Rangoon till the arrival of Mrs. Judson and her fellow passengers, Mr. and Mrs. Wade, which took place, as we have already stated, in December, 1823.

In this new condition of the mission, it was arranged that Mr. Hough and Mr. Wade, with their families, should remain at Rangoon, and that Mr. and Mrs. Judson should proceed immediately to Ava, and attempt to form a station there, beneath the favorable auspices which seemed to be secured by the medical

reputation of Dr. Price. During the absence of Mr. Judson from Ava, the king had often spoken of him, and inquired why he delayed his return so long; and the queen had also expressed a strong desire to see Mrs. Judson in her foreign dress. Their passage up the Irrawaddy was tedious and uncomfortable, being six weeks in length. They would often leave their boat and walk along the banks of the river, through villages in which a foreign female was a sight never before beheld. They were followed by crowds who were eager to witness the unwonted spectacle, yet in no case did they receive the slightest insult or rudeness. On their arrival at the golden city, they were soon able to prepare for themselves a residence, and to commence their missionary labors beneath the very eye of the monarch. Mr. Judson preached on the Sabbath, and held worship in the Burman language every evening at his own house, while Mrs. Judson opened a school for the instruction of such Burman girls as she could induce to join it. The king and queen were at this time absent from the capital, and all foreigners were regarded with suspicion and treated with coolness by the ministers of state, on account of the war with the English government in India with which the country was now threatened. This, however, did not prevent some of their former friends from reviving their previous acquaintance with them, and Mrs. Judson, immediately on her arrival, was visited and welcomed to the capital by the lady of the former viceroy of Rangoon -now a widow, living in retirement from the court, having lost by the death of her husband all the power and rank she had before possessed.

In a few months after the return of the missionaries to Ava, the government was formally removed, with great pomp and ceremony, to that city. The king and the royal family, who for two years had been living at Ava, in order to superintend the erection of a new palace, about the time of Mr. Judson's return went back to Amarapura, for the purpose of making the transfer of the golden presence from one city to the other as striking and impressive as possible. The ceremonial was one of unusual

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splendor and magnificence, and presented a scene well calculated to fill the imagination with the sublimest conceptions of oriental grandeur and wealth. There were the great officers of state, the woongyees and atwenwoons, in their robes of office, the saupwars of conquered provinces, with their troops of attendants, heroes who had been distinguished in the wars of the empire, and people of every degree, to the number of hundreds of thousands, who had assembled to do homage to the stern monarch of the land and sea, the master of life and death, and lord of the celestial elephant. Shouts and acclamations rent the air as the imperial retinue approached the gates of the Golden City. At the head of the procession, and the most conspicuous and beautiful object which it presented, came the white elephant, with his numerous suite, an object of Burman adoration, covered with jewels and ornaments of gold; next were seen the king and queen in plain attire, the only persons in all the throng who appeared unadorned; following these were the great councillors, both public and private, and the viceroys of provinces and cities, who had come with their retinues from the remotest confines of the empire to offer fealty to the monarch, and to swell the grandeur of the festival.

Amidst this splendid array of all the insignia of power and majesty, the king took possession of the new palace, and reestablished the imperial government in its ancient seat at Ava. The missionaries, with a few European residents at the capital, gazed with wonder upon this unwonted display of grotesque magnificence, made to gratify the pride of the Burman monarch. They were not noticed by the royal pair, and, although Mr. Judson occasionally visited the palace, yet no inquiry was ever made for the female teacher whom the queen had formerly expressed her desire to see in her foreign dress. It was not long before an order was issued that no European should enter the palace, and in a few days afterwards the tidings of the approaching war, which had hitherto been brought only in uncertain rumors, were fully confirmed by intelligence that an English fleet had arrived in the river, and that Rangoon had already fallen into their hands. 7*

CHAPTER VIII.

WAR between the Burmans and the English. - Capture of Rangoon. - Perils of Messrs. Hough and Wade, and their Families. - Advance of the English towards Ava.- Imprisonment of the Missionaries there. Their removal to Oung-pen-la. Their protracted Sufferings. — Heroic Services of Mrs. Judson. Liberation of the Missionaries.-Their Agency in Negotiations with the English. Reception of Mr. and Mrs. Judson by Sir Archibald Campbell. Their return to Rangoon. - The Mission removed to Amherst. - Mr. Judson joins the English Embassy to Ava. - Death of Mrs. Judson.

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THE war which now broke out between the Burman government and that of the English in Bengal, forms an important era in the history of the mission. Its first effect was to put an end to the labors of the missionaries, and to involve them in unspeakble sufferings; yet, in accordance with a mysterious though beneficent law of human affairs, its ultimate issues have undoubtedly proved favorable, not only to the interests of our own particular mission, but also to the further extension of Christian civilization among the thickly-peopled countries of eastern India. The war had its origin in feuds which had long existed on the frontiers of Chittagong. They were such as commonly spring up along the borders of opposite and neighboring jurisdictions, but were rendered unusually violent among the Burmans by their jealousy of the wide extension of British power. Some criminals and disaffected persons had escaped from the Burman territory to that of Chittagong, where, as was alleged, they were protected by the English government. The king, exasperated by the troubles which he thus experienced, and counting on the rising of several of the neighboring provinces that wished to throw off the British yoke, raised an army of thirty thousand men, under Bandula, his greatest warrior, and was preparing to make war on the governor-general, whom he felt sure of bringing speedily to the terms he desired. In this state of affairs the English determined to anticipate the Burman invasion, and to avail themselves of the advantage of beginning the war, which it was thought could now no longer be averted.