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WILLIAMSTOWN, 



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AMERICAN HEROES 

> 6 ^ H33 



^-?-AS'/ 



ON 



iVIISSIQN PIELDa 



BRIEF MISSIONARY BIOGRAPHIES. 



.EDf^ BY 

REV. Hl^cf'HAYDN, D. D. 



J 

■» w. 

J J J J 

J ' 

3 



AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 



COPYRIGHT, 1890, 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



• • * • 

• • • 

• * 

* 






• • 






Qut\t<^r\ts, 






No. I. Mrs. Clara Gray Schauffler. 

2. Henry Sergeant West, M. D. 

3. Rev. David Tappan Stoddard. 

4. Asahel Grant, M. D. 

5. Rev. William Goodell, D. D. 

6. Rev. Titus Coan. 

7. Rev. Harrison Gray Otis Dwight, 
D. D. 

8. S. Wells Williams, LL. D. 

9. Rev. Elijah Coleman Bridgman, D. D. 

10. Miss Julia A. Rappleye. 

11. Rev. Adoniram Judson. 

12. Rev. William G. Schauffler, D. D. 

13. Rev. John Eliot. 



I. 



N\rs. Clara Gray Scliaiiffler. 



BY MRS. DOUGLAS PUTNAM. 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS. 



L ClyARA GRAY SCHAUFFLER. 

EARLY DAYS. 

Clara E. (Gray) Schauffler was bom October 
3, 1842, in Enfield, Massachusetts. Her father was 
Dr. J. H. Gray, who, soon after her birth, removed to 
Springfield, Massachusetts, and became a prominent 
physician. Her mother — now Mrs. Charles Merriam, 
of Springfield — was the daughter of Mrs. Leonard 
Woods, of Enfield. When Clara was about ten years 
of age, Mrs. Schauffler's father, Dr. Gray, lost his life in 
the railroad disaster at Norwalk, which so thrilled the 
country at that time. Her attachment to him was unu- 
sually strong, and her young heart was filled with rebel- 
lion at her loss. She was never reconciled to it till she 
became a Christian. 

A year or two after her father's death, her mother, 
to be near some much -loved sisters, removed to what 
was then " the wilds of Michigan." Clara was the eld- 



1 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

est of four children, and in the privations, sicknesses, 
and disappointments that they were called to encoun- 
ter, took an eldest daughter's place with more than 
usual judgment, care, and faithfulness. She was spe- 
cially devoted to her kindred and to the select circle 
of her chosen friends and associates, but her natural 
fastidiousness kept her aloof from those who did not 
commend themselves to her taste or affections. 

Her pride was severely tried by the circumstances 
in which she was placed at this early age. Hard disci- 
pline was mingled with these youthful experiences. 
Her pride, her love of ease and tasteful things, and her 
dislike of all that was coarse or vulgar, made many dif- 
ficult places for her feet to tread. But amid the losses 
and adversities of her lot the Lord met and spoke to 
her soul and won her to himself, and she became thence- 
forth his loving and obedient child. She was about 
fourteen years of age when converted under the gospel 
preaching of Rev. J. T. Avery, the evangelist. 

From this time onward her character grew in beauty 
and strength, developing steadily in the school of life — 
deepening, sweetening, and broadening under its varied 
lessons— till, the last one learned, the last battle fought, 
her work on earth ended, she was released and crowned. 
Many events in her life conspired to produce a rapid 
development of her character and capacity for doing 
good, and to fit her for the peculiar circumstances of 
her later life on mission ground. A year or two after 
her conversion her mother was laid aside by severe ill- 
ness, and for a year was confined to her bed. Clara 
took the place of elder sister, mother, and housekeeper, 



CLARA GRAY SCHAUFFLER. 5 

bearing both bravely and well the cares, economies, 
and perplexities attending pecuniary losses, sickness, 
and the inconveniences of life in a new country. 

After her mother's recovery she pursued her edu- 
cation for a time at Detroit, where she made rapid 
progress in her studies ; then for a brief period at Oli- 
vet College ; and later, after her mother's second mar- 
riage and return to Springfield, enjoyed a year of great 
intellectual and moral stimulus at Andover, Mass., 
under the instructions of Mrs. B. B. Edwards and Prof. 
Park. These advantages, combined with her previous 
discipline, were among the chief providential means 
used to prepare her for the successful work of her after 
years. 

Attractive in person and manners, possessed of a 
certain magnetism which won for her both admiration 
and friendship, surrounded by so much that makes life 
bright to the young, with a beautiful home, strong fam- 
ily ties, and attractive prospects, she turned from all 
this to lay herself at the feet of Him who had redeemed 
her, and gladly accepted service for him in foreign 
lands. 

MARRIAGE AND LIFE ABROAD. 

In November, 1862, she was married to Rev. Henry 
A. Schauffler, eldest son of the eminent and veteran 
missionary, Dr. William G. Schauffler, and in Decem- 
ber sailed with him for Constantinople. On their way 
they tarried at Heidelberg for a few months' study, that 
Mr. Schauffler might be the better prepared for his 
duties as professor at Robert College. Their connec- 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

tion with this institution was exchanged after a time for 
the more immediate missionary work of the American 
Board in Constantinople. 

Here she grew constantly in all that matures and 
beautifies Christian character. She made many warm 
and life-long friends. She shared her husband's trials, 
cares, and earnest work for the upbuilding of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom, proving not only a loving wife, but 
a wise and sagacious counsellor. Here, too, she en- 
tered upon the cares, joys, and responsibilities of 
motherhood, devoting herself to them with unsparing 
devotion. 

These ministrations, however, did not hinder her 
sympathies from going out to all about her. To do 
good to her own household, to her servants, to the 
native visitors at her house, and to all classes with 
whom she came in contact, was her constant aim and 
her perpetual joy. Not duty but the love of Christ was 
constraining. 

To share the boxes and good things which thought- 
ful friends so often sent her, with those in the interior 
who were engaged in the same work, was a great joy. 
Their arrival was one of her especial delights, and prob- 
ably none was ever unpacked without a goodly share of 
its contents being appropriated to others. 

She carried other missionaries very tenderly on her 
heart and in her prayers, and made their wants, joys, 
and sorrows her own. Her aunt, Mrs. Labaree, not 
very much older than herself, and who only by a few 
years preceded her as a missionary, but going to Persia, 
on hearing of her failing health, wrote, " How can I give 



I 



I 



CI.ARA GRAY SCHAUFKLER. ^ 

Clara up ? I can never express what she has been to 
me in all these years of my missionary life. Her letters 
and sympathy have been a continual solace and help. 
Nor can I tell you how sublime the faith of this dying 
mother appears to me, nor what a sense I have of its 
far-reaching influence, in this and other lands, upon 
those who read the story." 

Her correspondence with missionaries in various 
fields all over the world was extensive. With all a sis- 
ter's interest did she love to welcome and minister unto 
those who passed through Constantinople on their way 
to the interior, or when returning homeward from their 
stations. 

In 1870 Mr. Schauffler's health compelled their 
return to America. They brought with them four chil- 
dren, and remained a year and a half. This was by no 
means an idle period. While resting they were doing 
good work for the Board and for the Master. Many 
who had no hope in Christ, or who followed him "afar 
off*," were reached and benefited. Many had their 
attention called to their obvious stewardship over wealth, 
and to the command of our Lord, " Go teach all na- 
tions." Mrs. Schauffler was thus brought into contact 
with many cultivated Christian ladies, over whose minds 
she exerted a strong and abiding influence for good. 
There have come to the writer's knowledge many 
touching incidents illustrating her Christian courage 
and faithfulness,, and the power of her hearty and loyal 
testimony for Christ, as well as the influence of her ex- 
ample and Christlike spirit, as she visited and mingled 
with kindred, friends, and acquaintances during *this 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

visit to her native land. Some have testified that to a 
chance interview with her during this period they owe 
an inspiration to higher Christian living, and a more 
earnest consecration to the Master. 

LIFE IN AUSTRIA. 

In May, 1872, they went to Austria, at the request 
of the Board, to help found a new mission among the 
Bohemians. It was a great trial to sever the ties formed 
in Constantinople; but duty seemed to point to this 
new work, and she entered upon it with a fresh conse- 
cration. After completing the survey of this new field, 
Mr. and Mrs. Schauffler settied, first at Prague, and 
then at Brunn, where they continued to labor until 1881, 
when her failing health compelled . their return to this 
country. This Austrian field they left with keen regret, 
and only after the earnest advice of friends and the Pru- 
dential Committee of the Board. They were, however, 
sustained by the hope of an early return, after a brief 
period of rest and recuperation. 

Secretary Clark, in one of his official reports, pro- 
nounces Austria "the most difficult field occupied by 
the Board." It was in the face of many and great diffi- 
culties, often apparendy insurmountable, of persecutions 
in which the whole power of Rome and of the local 
civil authorities combined to crush all missionary efforts, 
of popular apathy and moral degradation almost in- 
credible, and of shame and contempt heaped upon for-v 
eigners who presumed to teach a pure gospel, that 
Mrs. Schauffler's real missionary work was done, and 
her admirable qualities of head and heart, and her emi- 



1 



CLARA GRAY SCHAUFFLER. 9 

nent fitness and devotion, were brought most fully into 
light. 

She commanded the respect, often the admiration, 
of those who became acquainted with her, though she 
never failed to show her colors or to seize with courage 
and tact every opportunity that offered to speak for 
Christ or benefit souls. Whether it was a government 
official or a family physician, a man of learning or an 
ignorant child, a lady of rank or a beggar, that she met, 
her heart went out in longing desire to win that soul 
for Christ — a desire manifested in wise and gracious 
words, and if possible by some kind service done or 
help rendered. 

For nearly nine years she thus labored in this field. 
When her way was hedged up in one direction she 
turned to another. When prohibited from having Sab- 
bath-schools in her house or any general instruction, 
she turned her efforts towards her domestics and those 
with whom she came in contact in the market or the 
store, and was ever on the alert to benefit and save 
them. In their times of sickness and sorrow she went 
to them with comfort and sympathy, thus winning many 
a noiseless victory for Christ, despite the close scrutiny 
of the enemies of religious liberty. 

A venerable missionary, visiting them on his way 
home from his field of labor farther east, remarked of 
her, " Mrs. Schauffler will not be hindered from preach- 
ing Christ; she will do it through the crack of a door, 
if no other way offers.'* 

Her life in Austria was an intense one. So acute 
was the pain she felt at the moral looseness and degra- 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

dation of those she met in the various ranks of society, 
so untiring and earnest were her efforts to reach and 
save them, so great the excitement caused by the per- 
secutions of the civil authorities, that, when to this were 
added the pecuHar difficulties connected with house- 
keeping and the training of a large family of children, 
under many limitations and circumstances hard to be 
understood in this country, there was a constant strain 
upon her vital forces, which at length gave way and 
were utterly broken down. 

The family lived mostly in flats, and often on the 
third story. There were no schools for their children 
to attend, and scarcely any companionship or sympathy 
for them outside their home. They were shunned and 
insulted, while their parents were denounced in public 
and in private. Always closely watched, they were 
sometimes dragged before the courts, fined, and warned 
to leave the country. Yet she succeeded in doing a 
wonderful work for her children— one that many a 
favored mother in this country of opportunity and priv- 
ilege might covet for herself 

Few can b^ found more thorough as housekeepers 
and care-takers; few give so much personal supervision 
and attention to a large household ; few are more inge- 
nious and painstaking for the entertainment and amuse- 
ment, as well as for the education and moral culture, of 
their children, than was she, with all this tax on her 
time and strength, in such adverse circumstances. In 
addition to all this, she kept up an extensive corre- 
spondence, not only with friends in this country, but 
with missionaries and friends of missions in other fields 



CI.ARA GRAY SCHAUKFLER. H 

and lands. She also frequently used her pen for the 
press, consuming in this way and in correspondence 
hours needed for sleep. She wielded a graceful pen, 
but found time and strength to use it only on occasions 
when her heart was unusally stirred by the wants of the 
field, or by the apathy and worldliness of Christians at 
home. 

There was enough in all this, with the sicknesses 
incident to family life and her consuming zeal, to break 
tlown her naturally fine constitution. For two years 
before her return to this country she battled against the 
inevitable, and yielded most reluctantly. 

HER LAST ILLNESS. 

Soon after her return to America she gave' birth to 
her eighth child, and from that date her strength stead- 
ily failed. She was called to part with this child in two 
months, to the great grief of her tender mother-heart. 
It was confidentiy expected that she would rally in 
time and recover her health. Eminent physicians pro- 
nounced her malady "complete nervous prostration," 
but gave confident hope of ultimate recovery. Hin- 
dered thus from returning to his work in Austria, Mr. 
Schauffler accepted a call to temporary mission work* 
among the Bohemian population of Cleveland, Ohio, 
whither he removed with his family in October, 1882. 
It was the same work as in Austria, but under circum- 
stances of more comfort and freedom. Here he hoped 
to start a good work, and if Providence favored, to 
leave it in competent hands and return to resume mis- 
sionary labor in benighted Austria. She bore her 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

removal to Cleveland well, and for a time seemed really- 
better. Her mind recovered its glow and brightness 
under the stimulus of service in a mission field. But 
in January, 1883, old symptoms returned with fresh 
force, and towards the close of February she was com- 
pelled to take her bed. During the six months which 
elapsed before her death she suffered great and often 
excruciating pain. Towards the last there was added 
to this a weakness that often amounted to agony. July 
2d she underwent a painful surgical operation, which, 
though successful, did not arrest the progress of dis- 
ease, which baffled the skill of her most excellent phy- 
sicians. She died of ulceration of the bowels. 

About the middle of July her medical attendants 
pronounced her life in danger, and her mother was sum- 
moned. She was not in the least surprised or disturbed. 
Rather did she rejoice in the prospect of being with her 
Saviour. To those who knew her strong affection and 
devotion to her family and friends, it may seem strange 
that she was so willing and even eager to depart. But 
months before, when first confined to her bed, foresee- 
ing the end, she had fought her batde and won her vic- 
tory. At that time she passed through a severe mental 
struggle, which resulted in her being able henceforth to 
trust her dear ones fully to the Lord's care. In some 
verses which she penned about that time she expresses 
her faith that all her children would meet her in heaven, 
" covenant children, saved by grace." 

When expecting soon to die, she said, " I ought to 
be the happiest person living, for I have not had a 
shadow come over me, nor one anxiety or trouble. I 



CLARA GRAY SCHAUFFLER. I3 

have wondered if I could realize that I am dying, for I 
cannot be troubled by anything. I am sure He will 
take care of you all. He took away my anxiety about 
that weeks ago.'* 

Conversing on the subject of the full assurance of 
faith, she remarked that, in order to attain it, we need, 

ist. To get hold daily of some portion of Scripture 
(not large), and live up to it. 

2d. To do what we know to be our duty — all we 
know the Lord asks of us. 

3d. To practise self-denial in some definite matter 
every day, as Christ did, who pleased not himself, but 
spent his time and strength in works of mercy. 

4fh. To pray in the morning before setting about 
the day's duties. 

She also said, " I found, a couple of years before 
leaving Briinn, that I must meet with Jesus before any- 
thing else in the morning. I rose at six to pray before 
the children began to stir. It strengthened me to bear 
what I could not otherwise have borne." 

She bore her great sufferings with wonderful patience 

and submission, never forgetting those who suffered 

with her in their sympathy, affection, and care for her. 

Once, when in great distress, she exclaimed, " No more 

pain ! I do not ask Him to take away the pain, but to 

help me to bear it." At another time she said, " It is a 

sweet and blessed thing to say, *Thy will be done!* 

When I am dying keep repeating it to me." One of 

her favorite hymns, which she wished often repeated to 

her, and which was sung at her funeral, was, ** My Jesus, 

as thou wilt." 

2 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

One of her marked traits was her humble opinion of 
herself. She loved to quote the lines, " Tm a poor sin- 
ner and nothing at all," etc. When her husband once 
referred to her great love and yearning for souls, and 
her sympathy with the poor and lowly, she replied, " I 
did not always feel so. In my youth I was proud and 
exclusive, looking down upon and avoiding the igno- 
rant and those who offended my taste. It is the grace 
of God alone that has wrought the change and awa- 
kened my sympathies for everybody for whom Christ 
died." 

When some one referred to her unselfishness — a 
prominent characteristic — she replied, " I am glad no 
one but Jesus knows my heart fully." 

On another occasion she said, " I have no good life 
behind me, no good deeds, but a loving, loving heart 
for my Saviour. I love, love, love him. I know he is 
right here every moment." Though "homesick for 
heaven," and filled with such intense longing to be with 
her Lord that she was disappointed whenever the symp- 
toms appeared more favorable, she said, " I do not say 
much of what I am looking forward to, for it would 
seem selfish when you are all so sad." To her husband 
she said, "What plans, hopes, joys are laid up for us 
above, towards which we have been looking these years 
past !" 

After expressing wonder that one so undeserving 
as she should be admitted to the glory of heaven, she 
added, " But my great thought is, I want to be with 
Jesus, who loved me and gave himself for me." 

Her heart habitually overflowed with gratitude. For 



CLARA GRAY SCHAUFFLER. 15 

years she kept a " thankful book," in which she noted 
all presents sent her and all kindness shown her. This 
she kept on her sick-bed till she had no longer strength 
to hold a pencil. To the Lord she was full of thanks- 
giving, even amid great suffering. Once, after a season 
of much distress in breathing, she became able to draw 
a full breath, whereupon she exclaimed, " Oh, what a 
good breath ! Lord, I thank thee for that breath !'* She 
was very grateful to the many frieilds and neighbors 
who remembered her with kindnesses and delicacies, 
and to the boys and girls who sent her flowers, many 
of whom she had never seen. She often asked God's 
blessing on them all. 

As in life, so in view of death, her soul was not 
only full of love to Christ, but also for souls, and pressed 
with ardent desire for their salvation. Once on her 
sick-bed she exclaimed, " Oh, it is glorious to live and 
work for Jesus, perfectly glorious ! There is no other 
work on earth worth living for. As I lie here and 
think of the blessed missionary work, and that I shall 
never be able to do any more for it, my heart goes out 
to the dear young people who have lives and strength 
to give, and oh, how I long to have them take it up 
with all the strength and enthusiasm of their souls, and 
ask themselves, How can I be a true missionary ? You 
all who love me listen to my last words, and will act 
upon them. Why should not all Christians act upon 
the last words of Christ, and try to preach the gospel to 
every creature ? For twenty years I have had the priv- 
ilege of doing this blessed work, and each year has 
brought me a richer blessing than anything the world 



l6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

could give ; and if I had a hundred lives, I would give 
them all to that dear work." 

At another time she exclaimed, " Oh, my heart is 
filled with love for everybody !" Once last year, as she 
sat at a window and watched the workingmen return 
from their labor, she remarked, " I never see a day- 
laborer pass without thinking of his soul, and whether 
something cannot be done for his spiritual good." 

About the same time, while suffering great bodily 
weakness, so that she found it very difficult to walk or 
stand, she heard of a neighbor who had become misan- 
thropic and virtually lived the life of a hermit. She 
immediately set to work to storm that castle and win 
that heart for her Lord. She sent her children on vari- 
ous errands with kind messages and marks of attention, 
but with little success. At length she dragged herself 
to that door, barred against the world, and when the 
i-ecluse opened it, stood for half an hour on the door- 
steps winning her way into the heart of the woman who 
would not ask her in. The next time she went she 
found so warm a welcome that neighbors wondered. 

On her death -bed she was full of the tenderest con- 
cern for the salvation of friends and acquaintances far 
and near, to whom she sent messages, some of which 
she could only utter in a whisper. 

She might well have said with Prof. Tholuck of 
Halle, " I have a passion for souls." Of her this was 
emphatically true. The Austrian Mission, the many 
souls for whom she had prayed and labored there, the 
Briinn Home for girls, and the Krabschitz school, were 
always on her heart. She once said, "When the love 



CLAJRA GRAY SCHAUFFLER. IJ 

of missions takes possession of a heart it never leaves 
it." For many years she sent a box to the Krabschitz 
school, and into it she always put some one gift that 
cost her special self-denial, besides the other good 
things that she packed into it with her prayers and 
love. When she felt that she should never send an- 
other, she longed to have some one take her place in 
this labor of love, and was greatly relieved and delight- 
ed when a younger sister gladly promised to take the 
sacred trust. 

Pastor and Mrs. Schubert are at the head of the 
Krabschitz school, the Mount Holyoke of Bohemia, 
the only school of the kind in existence for the sixteen 
and a half millions of Slavic population in Austria. 
She greatly longed to have the debt of $3,600 yet rest- 
ing on the school building raised, and on learning of 
the failure of one more appeal from jjer death-bed 
could not refrain from tears of disappointment. To 
them she sent the following : " Your work is so dear to 
me that it seems as if I should find myself praying for 
it in heaven." 

To some young friends in that land she sent word, 
" Keep near the Saviour, and think nothing worth liv- 
ing for that is not for the good of others;", and to an- 
other, " Do n't stand on half-way ground. Be truly and 
wholly consecrated, even if it leads to missionary work." 

To another she sent this message: "Tell her to 
pour out the whole wealth of her heart's best love upon 
Jesus, and she will find that it will all come back upon 
herself, and flow all over upon others. She will find 
that this, love for Jesus will lead her into many places 



l8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

whither she has never thought of going ; and she will 
not only go, but she will love to go, because she is full 
of the love of Jesus ; and it will never move her if oth- 
ers disapprove or ridicule, it will only make her all the 
stronger; and then, when she is where I am, she will be 
full of his peace." 

Between July 13 and September 3 there were many 
alternations of hope and fear on the part of her friends. 
After one of these intervals of hopefillness she relapsed 
into great suffering, and in one of the pauses in her 
agony she turned a sweet look on her family surround- 
ing her bed, and said, " I think the dear Lord let me 
come back and suffer so, that you may all be more will- 
ing to give me up when you see what long and hard suf- 
fering I must endure to crawl back to health." 

Although those about her, and also her physician, 
felt that any day might be her last, yet as late as a week 
before her death an eminent doctor, who came from a 
distance to see her, gave such hope of her ultimate re- 
covery, that her mother, who had been with her more 
than six weeks, returned home, and her eldest son start- 
ed for college. As her mother took leave of her she 
reminded her of some of the doctor's last injunctions, 
and tried to reconcile her to his prohibition of "all 
talk, of seeing her children even, or hearing letters 
read," as the only hope of rallying. She replied, " Of 
course I shall do as I am told, and homesick as I am 
for heaven, do n't you know that I will be glad to min- 
ister to my dear ones longer, if I may ?" 

Her attending physician, Dr. A. G. Hart, whose 
Christian sympathy was as grateful to her as his medi- 



CI.ARA GRAY SCHAUFFLER. I9 

cal skill was efficient in alleviating her sufferings, writes: 
" For weeks Mrs. Schauffler had given up the hope of 
recovery, and only waited anxiously but most patiently 
for the final hour. She was often so weak and exhaust- 
ed, and her sufferings so severe, that it seemed to her 
and to those about her that the time must be very short. 
At my evening visit she repeatedly asked me, * Doctor, 
can't you tell me that before morning I shall be released 
from my sufferings and be called home ?' and when I 
replied that there was nothing yet to lead me to expect 
it, a look of intense disappointment crossed her face; 
then in a moment her faith would reassert itself, and 
she would say, * It is the Lord's will. I am willing to 
wait his time.' " 

Hardly had her mother and son- reached their des- 
tination when the telegraph summoned them back, but 
too late to find her alive. Friday, August 31, she grew 
suddenly worse, and continued failing till the end. Sun- 
day and Monday she was almost wholly unconscious, 
though apparently in great suffering. Her doctor says, 
"Just twenty-four hours before her death I found her 
failing rapidly. Her face betrayed her physical suffer- 
ing, and her mind was wandering. I was ready then 
to answer her oft-repeated question. With some effort 
I got her attention, then said, * Mrs. Schauffler, at last 
you can say, "The time of my departure is at hand. I 
have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith." ' As I repeated the words 
slowly, the troubled look disappeared, and a bright tri- 
umphant smile illumined her face as she repeated, * I 
have kept the faith.' Waiting a little, I said, ' Can you 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

think of the crown of righteousness?' *Oh, yes/ she 
answered ; * blessed is he that overcometh, for he shall 
receive a crown of righteousness/ " 

Monday evening, at 8:50, she threw up her arms 
convulsively. Her husband and older children, with 
nurses and domestics, knelt round her bed while slowly 
and peacefully she breathed out her life. 

" The work of living a life was done, 
The loQg fight over, the victory won," 

and she had her desire; she was "for ever with the 
Lord." 

*' Oh, where are words to tell the joy unpriced 
Of the rich heart that, breastihg waves no more, 

Drifts thus to shore, 
Laden with peace and tending unto Christ?" 

Though she had lived in Cleveland but one short 
year, and that one of such extreme invalidism, never 
but once, and then with great pain and fatigue, attend- 
ing the Mission Chapel where her husband ministered^ 
she had attracted to herself a circle of warm and devo- 
ted friends. Herself and family were the constant re- 
cipients of delicate and helpful kindness and attention, 
which were continued to the last. 

Loving hands, that did not seem like those of stran- 
gers, robed her for her last sleep, placing in profusion, 
within and upon the casket and about the room, the 
most exquisite flowers. 

The afternoon of September 6 was a sweet and 
peaceful one, full of autumnal brightness, well befitting 
the return to the bosom of earth of one who had been 
such a blessing while she walked upon it. 



CtA-kA GRAY SCHATJFFLER. 21 

The services at her desolated home were conducted 
by Rev. H. M. Ladd, who as a missionary's son had 
known her in Constantinople, and by Rev. J. T. Avery, 
under whose preaching she was converted in Michigan. 
The house was filled with a large number of friends, 
whose tearful faces and tender and appreciative words 
of sympathy to her bereaved ones attested the hold she 
had acquired on the hearts of those but recently stran- 
gers. 

Her precious remains were carried thence to the 
beautiful Riverside Cemetery, where, shortly before a 
glorious sunset, the last prayer was offered, some of the 
grand promises of the New Testament were read, the 
newly-made mound was covered with flowers by loving 
hands, even the little one of the flock tenderly planting 
upon it his offering, and the much-lovea form was left 
to its rest, to await the glad morning of the resurrec- 
tion. 

Upon the home where she had so long reigned a 
queen there rests a shadow and a sense of loss that no 
human sympathy can dispel; but upon it a radiance 
streams from the celestial home through whose open 
portal she has passed, and those whom she has so loved 
and served are not comfortless nor forsaken. 

Answers to her ferv^ent prayers, memories of her 
counsels, instances of her cheerful faith and patience, 
wise and holy words of cheer, and her triumphs over 
pain and death, linger in that home, and will continue 
to brighten and shed over it the perfume of a sacred 
memory. 



23 AMERICAN HEROES. 

WORDS OF FRIENDS. 

It would be easy to fill many pages with loving tes- 
timonials fully bearing out all that has here been said. 
A very few must suffice. 

On hearing of her dangerous illness, a Christian 
friend in Austria wrote: "Oh, that the spirit of dear, 
precious Mrs. Schauffler might rest on us ! She liter- 
ally consumed herself in work for the Lord." 

A New England friend writes : " I shall never forget 
my delightful visit with her in Springfield ; she was so 
bright and cheery, and had so many encouraging things 
to say to me. Well, her life has been short in years, 
but really long, because so filled with works of love and 
mercy to all who came in contact with her. Who can 
tell how great the number will be of those who will rise 
up at last and call her blessed ?" 

Another : " Her short life is filled with the fragrance 
of good deeds, and crowded with sweet and tender 
memories. She was a companion alike for old and 
young, interested in others* joys and sorrows, with a 
heart full of sympathy for all who had any claim upon 
her." 

And yet another: "I never knew one who was to 
me more fascinating and delightful. Her winsome ways 
and warm, glowing heart, her quick sympathy, rare 
wisdom, and childlike utterances, will never fade from 
my memory. I am thankful to have been permitted to 
know her on earth, and to look forward without one 
doubt to meeting her again. It is sweet to think of 
those tired hands and weary feet at rest, and that heart, 



CI.ARA GRAY SCHAUFFLER. 23 

so wrung with grief for others, now sharing the Mas- 
ter's joy. I rejoice and give thanks for her with all my 
heart." 

We close these memorial pages with the following 
appropriate lines from Professor Park, of Andover, to 
Mr. Schauffler: 

" Like every other friend of your departed wife, I 
have felt very strongly inclined to express the high 
opinion which I entertained of her. When she was a 
schoolgirl at Andover I thought her not only truly, but 
very, remarkable. When I saw her at Constantinople 
I was very much impressed by. her great dignity and 
sweetness of demeanor. I did not wonder that so many 
English travellers expressed so great admiration of her. 
I have been equally affected as I have seen her from 
time to time in this country. She combined depth of 
piety with affable manners — a profound religious char- 
acter with a sunny cheerfulness of temper. I have sel- 
dom seen a person so evidently fitted to do good. Men 
not at all interested in religion were interested in her. 
I have heard very delightful accounts of the speeches 
which she has made at the ladies' missionary meetings. 
One of them in particular has been described to me as 
wonderfully eloquent. 

" Although I have often heard of her sicknesses, I 
always imagine her to be in full health. When she was 
last in Andover she was quite ill, but appeared to be 
very well. As I cannot form a picture of her when fee- 
ble or diseased, neither can I conceive of her as not 
being in the land of the living. It is certainly very 
pleasant to reflect that I need not try to form any such 



24 AMERICAN HEROES. 

conception of her, for she is in the land of the livings 
.the land of the truly living. She has been translated to 
life. She is one of those persons who does not seem to 
need much change in order to mingle with the saints 
and the angels. Some persons may be equal to her in 
religious attainments, and yet appear to need a great 
transformation before they can be at home in the soci- 
ety of the blessed. I suppose that Mrs. Schauffler had 
her faults, but they were not apparent. I do not know 
what they were. I think that in the Biblical language 
she may be called perfect, because I think that persons 
whose faults were not prominent were called perfect 
when on earth. It is delightful to reflect that now she 
is perfect, without any accommodation of language." 

Upon whom shall the mantle of this rare consecra* 
tion fall ? 

The work remains, though one of the Master's most 
faithful ones has finished her course and *' rests from her 
labors." 

" Oh, blessed thought, that we at last, 

By patient toil and lowly prayer, 
Through God's great love, may come at last 

To join her happy praises there ! 
Oh, sweeter hope, that we may bring 

Some soul, now walking in the night, 
Our dear Redeemer's love to sing, 

And in his smile to walk in white!" 



II. 



lr\QT]ry Sergearit West, iV|, D, 



BY MRS. MARY E. NILES, 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS. 



IL HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. 

Medical Missions now come to the front among 
the potent factors that are changing the face of the 
world. Fifty years ago they were not so recognized. 
Even so recently as twenty-five years ago we find in 
Henry S. West, M. D., a pioneer Medical Missionary 
of the American Board. He was born in Binghamton, 
N. Y., January 21, 1827. His father, Silas West, was 
a physician before him, and a Presbyterian elder, both 
widely known and greatly loved as a devoted Christian 
and an honored citizen, skilful in his profession. 

Henry's mother, Lucy C. West, was the youngest 
child of the Rev. John Sergeant, missionary to the 
Stockbridge Indians, whose father, bearing the same 
name, was the first missionary to this tribe. We are 
taken back to a very early day in our American his- 
tory when a Bible was sent from Old England directed 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

to that "vaste wilderness known as New England." 
He was contemporary with David Brainerd and inti- 
mate with him. From all which it appears that the 
promise of our Heavenly Father* that he will remember 
mercy unto thousands (of generations) of them that 
love him and keep his commandments was fulfilled in 
the subject of these pages. 

His mother waS a fair, sweet woman, full of the Holy 
Ghost and wonderfully gifted in prayer. That Scrip- 
ture, "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall 
give thee the desire of thy heart," was blessedly fulfilled 
in her case. Like Hannah of old, she asked the Lord 
for this son that he might be a missionary, and, like her, 
she prevailed : in the seventh year of wedded life the 
joy of motherhood was hers. She received the infant 
Henry as a treasure lent her from the Lord to train for 
him and his service, and right well did his parents fulfil 
the trust committed to them. 

The boy early developed a love for books and a 
thirst for useful knowledge. At the age of four he read 
with the family at daily devotions, and thus early is 
believed to have given evidence of a truly Christian 
spirit. Both in the home and at the house of an inti- 
mate friend of the family, a granddaughter of Jonathan 
Edwards, he was ever in the hands of those whose first 
concern was for the spiritual welfare of the child. At 
ten years of age he entered the school of Rev. Isaac 
Headly, of Owego, and for two years found this a help- 
ful place for both his intellectual and spiritual growth. 

At fourteen he entered the training-school of Rev. 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. 5 

J. A. Nash, of Pittsfield, Mass., improving to the full the 
advantages offered, and proving the earnestness of his 
piety by his successful efforts to win others to Christ. 
His home correspondence was at this time most de- 
lightful, and he seems to have been a favorite with his 
teachers. 

We next find him living at home and pursuing his 
studies at the Binghamton Academy. At this suscepti- 
ble age, environed by the beauties of natural scenery 
for which this inland town is justly famed, and, above 
all, by the pure, sweet atmosphere of such a home, he 
was specially favored by helpful influences on all sides 
and at all times ; and, characteristically, in those days 
of darkness when the terrible blot of slavery lay on bur 
fair land, sometimes the kitchen of Dr. West, sometimes 
a hired room, was converted into a schoolroom for the 
instruction of colored people in the elements of educa- 
tion, and Henry here began his missionary career. 

COLLEGE DAYS. 

He entered Yale College in the autumn of 1844, and 
was associated with two other Binghamton boys, like- 
minded — John D. Lockwood and Charles S. Hall — who 
proved helpful to each other in keeping alive on the 
altar of college life the flame of godliness. 

Within three months Lockwood was suddenly re- 
moved by scarlet fever, and during his brief illness, and 
afterwards, it fell to Henry to be the ministering spirit 
of consolation. The experience of these sad days was 
sanctified both to him and to the college. Concerning 

3 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

.1 

his life at college we have this delightful testimony from 
a classmate, I. S. Newton, Esq., of Norwich, N. Y. : "I 
first met Henry in the recitation-room at Yale, in 1844. 
We were strangers, but soon became fast friends, and 
for nearly two years much of the leisure that we could 
take from the ceaseless round of study we spent to- 
gether. Henry soon had the reputation of being one 
of the best scholars in his division. In all branches of 
study his place he earned and held — not the highest, 
but a high rank. He was an earnest Christian, always 
hopeful and happy, and among his fellows was inclined 
to pleasantry, rather than to an extreme of seriousness. 
Indeed, his facetious words and ways were so natural, 
constant, and dry that they often proved to be the best 
sauce afforded by our dub ; but the droll and the wag- 
gish were never unseasonable. No one would fail to 
see that he was Uving, and fitting to live, a real and an 
earnest life. He carried all this in his face, in his deli- 
cate suggestions, warnings, and entreaties. It was evi- 
dent to every intimate friend that his highest desire was 
to be all the time busy where the Master pointed the 
way. Unobtrusive, and in class gatherings almost diffi- 
dent, he seldom sought place or notice. In the weekly 
religious gatherings he was always present and often 
heard, but he was exceedingly afraid of that forwara 
manner that tends often to drive out rather than to 

invite serious thoughts Thus he stayed with us, 

winning friends and esteem, until suddenly, at the mid- 
dle of a term, he left us. And an unusual honor it was 
in those days when, near midnight, the most of the class 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. ^ 

escorted him to the distant steamer and bade him 
good-by. 

" Few of us then, in our fondest anticipations, saw in 
the modest youth who was leaving us the germ of the 
famous physician of the East, or in our escort the type 
of the loving throngs that hereafter, in the distant land 
of his adoption, would crowd his joumeyings, and at 
his death gather to do him honor. 

" It was my good fortune to continue the acquaint- 
ance thus begun into after life. I remember saying to 
him, and with some emphasis, in reference to his accept- 
ance of missionary life, that it seemed to me he was not 
called to leave his parents and enter upon that work. 
A quiet answer came from his father's chair: ' Our jour- 
ney is almost done. God has thus far cared for us, and 
he will care for us. We have talked it all over, and 
agreed that it is Henry's duty to go.' And then the 
mother also testified her approval. The short life 
was a full life, and I love to linger among its memo- 
nes. 

Ill health obliged him to terminate his college course 
in the middle of Sophomore year, but not till, with his 
friend Mr. Newton, he had shared the honor of taking 
both the mathematical prize and the prize for profi- 
ciency in Latin. To be thus arrested in his course of 
study was a great trial, but it was borne with serenity 
and submission, looking forward and not backward. 

He soon became enamoured of the medical profes- 
sion as he accompanied his father in his daily rounds, 
and then chose it for himself and went about the work 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

of preparation. He in due time graduated with honor 
from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New 
York, and was thus fully equipped for the struggles and 
triumphs of his future brilliant career. His special skill 
and tastes lay in the line of surgery, and though at first 
inclined to setde in some one of the many new towns of 
the West, he soon found that they did not furnish an 
ample sphere for his, special gifts. After a brief but 
profitable experience in Kansas, he accordingly re- 
turned to his dear old home. " There iai no place like 
it in all the world besides," he writes to a sister in Wis- 
consin. And of himself he says, " I think my heart is 
more set upon my God and my duty than ever before ; 
everything seems a bawble but duty. I mean to do it 
more and better." 

MARRIAGE AND MISSIONARY LIFE. 

In 1858 a special appeal was made by the American 
Board for skilled physicians to go out upon foreign 
fields and care for the missionaries, who often suffered 
for lack of medical skill. Dr. Jessup, then of Beirut, at 
that time presented these claims to the young physi- 
cian, and others also interested themselves in leading 
Dr. West to feel that, since he had been given to God 
from before his birth, the hand that formed him might 
now be pointing him to the land which eighteen centu- 
ries ago was traversed by apostles as his special field of 
labor. After a severe but brief struggle Dr. West gave 
himself fully to the work of missions in the foreign field. 
For this service he was eminently fitted, being a natural 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. 9 

linguist, a fine scholar in every department to which he 
gave heed, and an earnest disciple of the great Physi- 
cian. 

On the 26th of September, 1858, he was united in 
marriage to Miss Lottie Youtz, of Rome, Pa. He 
found in the companion of his choice a devoted and 
ready helper and a faithful wife and mother, who bright- 
ened his pathway in a land of strangers. They sailed 
for Turkey the following February, and, after spending 
a few delightful weeks in Constantinople, journeyed 
directly to Sivas, a city near the centre of the Turkish 
Empire, to which they had been designated. From the 
moment that Dr. West set foot upon foreign soil, the 
Lord, whom he served continually, seemed to set his 
seal of approval upon him and his work. Before ac- 
quiring the language he commenced the practice of 
medicine and surgery among both natives and mission- 
aries, and found in this ancient land, with its peculiar 
customs and ideas, just the field which he had so long 
desired and for which he was so wonderfully prepared^ 
He was placed thus centrally, first of all, as a physician 
to the missionaries themselves ; but not alone at Sivas.- 
Fifty miles away to the northwest, at Tocat, were two 
families depending upon his professional care. One 
hundred miles to the southwest was Caesarea, with two 
families likewise dependent. In addition were two oth- 
ers at Arabkir, one hundred and eight miles to the 
northeast; and Harpoot, one hundred and eighty miles 
to the southeast, all equally dependent upon him in 
their times of need. His field had therefore a radius of 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

more than a hundred miles, and to traverse it was to 
expose one's self to many perils and hardships. 

Of Sivas itself the doctor thus writes : " This city of 
forty-five thousand souls is situated in a broad plain, 
through which flows the ancient Halys, once the east- 
ern boundary of Lydia. Its present name is Kuzzle- 
Urmak— Red River. It is colored by the red soil 
through which it flows. Its ancient name indicated its 
salty character, owing to the salt-springs about Sivas. 
This is the ancient Sebaste, the residence of Mithrida- 
tes, king of Pontus. * It is surrounded by mountains of 
carbonate and sulphate of lime, out of which its build- 
ings are mostly constructed. The walls of many of the 
houses are two or three feet tliick, and they are conse- 
quently warm in winter and cool in summer. The bet- 
ter houses are two-storied and have roofs of tiles ; the 
poorer are flat-roofed, covered with earth, packed with 
a roller of stone after storms to keep it hard and im- 
pervious to water. Sivas is on the old post and cara- 
van road from Constantinople to Bagdad. The roads 
through this region ate in many places mere paths 
made by animals. In the rainy season they become 
very bad, especially in the forests near the sea-coast. 
They are then but a series of holes, each one full of 
muddy water, through which the weary beast plunges. 
On the high lands, where much snow falls, the roads 
are mere paths beaten by animals into the surface of the 
snow. A storm fills them up, and there being no fences, 
all trace of the route is lost and travel for the time being 
suspended. Many perish in the storms at such times. 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. II 

In the spring, when they break up, the roads become 
almost or quite impassable. In some ravines among 
the mountains the drifting snow has filled up deep 
chasms over which these paths lead, which at length 
* become very dangerous to man and beast, and many of 
tiiem find their graves at the bottom of some precipice 
or in the depths of some roaring torrent." 

It was over such roads, with added perils of robbers, 
that Dr. West made those journeys of love and mercy 
which brought cheer to the hearts of missionaries, often 
proving as life from the dead to them, as well as healing 
to the sick and sight to the blind. 

Soon after his arrival in Sivas he opened an office in 
the bookstore of the mission for the sale of Bibles and 
Testaments, kept by one Mardyros, a helper in the work 
of Christ. Two hours of every morning he gave to the 
multitude of patients that soon thronged in upon him 
from the. city and surrounding villages. They were 
afflicted with all manner of infirmities, but most com- 
mon of all, then as now in the East, were diseases of the 
eye, and surgical operations of this class became fre- 
quent. Meanwhile he pursued the study of the lan- 
guage, and, by the aid of Dr. Goodell's translation of 
the Bible into Turkish, was able in a few months to 
take a Bible-class and to welcome to it strangers, both 
Armenian and Turkish. 

Here, too, they set up the altar of home, and chil- 
dren were born to them. We have the doctor's testi- 
mony to the value of the simple life of a missionary 
family among Oriental peoples. He was wont to say 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

that this itself was a witness for Christ, and that the fact 
that at home Mrs. West received the respect due to a 
Christian wife and mother was a continual lesson to the 
natives. They therefore rejoiced that their first child 
was a daughter, that all might see their affection for her, 
and learn that in Christ there is no respect of persons. 
The need of such lessons was forcibly illustrated when 
once on a time a Turk came to his house and found 
Mrs. West writing. " He lifted up both hands in as- 
tonishment. * What, a woman write ! Well, the next 
thing they will be teaching the donkeys !' " 

Into this home sorrow came, first, in the death of 
the aged father in Binghamton not many months after 
they reached Sivas; and then, in 1865, one of the two 
sons given them in the land of strangers was taken to 
be with the Friend of children, and they sorrowfully 
made their first grave in the East. Out of these expe- 
riences grew the purchase of mission premises and a 
burial-place for their dead, which had heretofore been 
but an unfenced common. Here at length he was to lie 
and two other little ones beside him. By all these expe- 
riences of domestic life, in these early days of missions 
la Turkey, they were putting before the people an ob- 
ject-lesson of Christian faith and practice which in these 
later years has been often copied by natives themselves. 

MEDICAL TOURS. 

The doctor was often accompanied by his family on 
his medical tours, the children being taken in baskets 
hung over their beast of burden, carrying their own 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. 13 

provisions for the most part, and stopping at little way- 
side inns at night. These khans were scarcely more 
than a protection from the weather, animals and people 
being huddled together under the same roof, sometimes 
parted by a partition, oftener by a raised platform for 
the men, women, and children. 

No sooner did they enter a town than the doctor 
was surrounded by a crowd who besought medical at- 
tention, which he freely gave, at the same time preach- 
ing Christ as the Great Physician of souls. A single 
instance will serve as a sample of many. He had 
come to Caesarea to visit the Famsworths. When he 
entered the court on horseback he found it filled with 
an eager and expectant crowd, and as he rode through 
them some lifted their hands : " O doctor, just feel my 
pulse;" others, **Just look at my tongue;" "Give me 
a little medicine." He dismounted and served them as 
best he could, supped, and then continued his ministra- 
tions till the day was far spent. With the first streak 
of day a surging crowd gathered and waited for his ap- 
pearing, only to renew the appeals, receive the aid, and 
hear the good news of God as on the previous day. 

All this fails to make its due impression, unless we 
are careful to keep in mind the needs of a people desti- 
tute of skilled physicians and loving ministrations, to 
whom such a man was more nearly like Christ to the 
crowds of Galilee that thronged him and followed him 
than any other man could be. 

The following graphic account of medical work in 
the field is from his own pen: "In looking over my 



1 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

experience, I can see some things which tend to dis- 
courage one of my profession in carrying on his work 
here, annoying and at the same time amusing. One 
thing is this: the Oriental has been so accustomed, 
from time immemorial, to resort in sickness to prayers, 
incantations, and charms, that he expects the physician 
to work, as it were, miracles, and to remove long-stand- 
ing, chronic diseases by two or three draughts of his 
magic potions ; and when he does not see this accom- 
plished at once, he infers that the medicine is of no use, 
and immediately resorts to something else. As a result, 
we see the people frequently changing their medical 
adviser, sometimes half a dozen times a week, besides 
resorting to every new device they hear of, be it nos- 
trum or witchery, and then in the end declare that they 
have tried everything to no effect, whereas they have 
faithfully tried nothing. 

"Another discouragement is the stupidity of the 
people about understanding and following directions. I 
have often known this to occur: taking for granted that 
if a small dose is of service, a large one will be much 
more so, they take several doses together, so as to get 
well at once — pretty much like the Golden Egg fable, 
and with a like result. For example : 1 recollect when 
I first came to Sivas giving a patient a' bottle of cod- 
liver oil, which was to last for some time, and seeing 
him march gravely in the next day, stating that he had 
taken up all the medicine and received no benefit — a 
more harmless experiment than some others that have 
fallen under my notice. 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. 15 

" Some seven or eight years ago, attending a man 
in Sivas sick with inflammation of the lungs, I had or- 
dered my apothecary to prepare some cooling powders, 
and a paper of mustard to be applied in the form of 
poultice to the chest. Next day on my visit to my pa- 
tient, instead of finding him in a perspiration and his 
fever cooled down as I had hoped, I found him parched 
with burning fever. On examination, what was my dis- 
may to find that he had taken up pretty much all the 
mustard prepared for the poultice! The man who 
came for the medicines having, through negligence, 
left the powders in my shop, had concluded that the 
mustard was to be divided up and given every hour; 
and thus adding fuel to the flames, he came pretty near 
burning up the patient. 

" One other case : about seven and a half years ago 
I was attending an Armenian in Sivas for chronic dys- 
entery, and was giving him powerful astringents. One 
day on going to him I found his servant quite sick, and 
on inquiry found that, the day before, being sent to my 
office for the astringent powders his employer was 
taking, the man himself, quite out of sorts from consti- 
pation, concluded that he must need medicine too, and 
reasoning that the remedy was in his own hands, swal- 
lowed some of the powder, making out quite the reverse 
of a homoeopathic dose— although unconsciously follow- 
ing out a homoeopathic principle — and with anything 
but a gratifying effect." 

But there were also happy offsets to all these things, 
and he could say in closing, " I have thanked God con- 



l6 AMERICAN HKROES. 

tinually since I set foot in this land for the work which 
he has permitted me to do, and for the still greater, be- 
cause spiritual, work which he has permitted me to see." 

He continued this life of devoted service for seven- 
teen years, once only visiting his native land for a brief 
period, then hastening back to the work to which his 
heart had been given. It helps us to understand the es- 
timate in which he was held by the people when we find 
that he passed among them as the " Pitying-souled one." 

It was after the death of his youngest daughter that 
Dr. West's spirits drooped, and, with the constant pres- 
sure of his extended medical practice, gave serious pre-, 
monitions of failing health. In this precarious condi- 
tion he was called to attend cases of malignant typhus- 
fever. They were children who drew largely upon his 
sympathies and claimed of him the best he could give 
them, and before he was aware of it he was himself 
prostrated by the same disease. After a four weeks* 
illness, though watched over and cared for untiringly 
by a brother physician and by a missionary family be- 
loved, on the first day of April, 1876, he gently 
breathed his life out on the bosom of the Saviour he 
had so dearly loved and so faithfully served. During 
his illness he was mildly delirious, but ever happily so, 
often repeating, "The Lord knoweth them that are 
his," and often crying out, " I want my sister Mary." 
Loving hands laid his body to rest in an Eastern grave ; 
"Safe in the arms of Jesus " was sung by Oriental lips, 
and multitudes thronged the burial, testifying how they 
loved him. An Armenian priest called on Mrs. West 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. IJ 

to comfort her, saying, "You must not mourn too 
heavily your husband's death. He is not dead, but 
living. I dreamed last, night that I went to a most 
l)eautiful place. I was not worthy to enter, although 
the door stood ajar, and I looked in. While I was 
looking I saw twelve, thrones, and one was vacant, and 
I saw them conduct your husband to it, and from the 
throne he looked at me and said, *Go back and tell 
.my wife that I am not dead but living.' The work 
which your mission has commenced will not cease, and 
multitudes of our people will become ' Protestants." 
These prophetic words have been fulfilled. The Lord 
brought joy out of this sorrow, light out of this dark- 
ness. The memory of Dr. West is still fragrant in 
Asia Minor. He lives in the affection of them to whom 
he ministered, and in the native physicians, not a few of 
whom he trained to a noble calling. One room in the 
medical college at Aintab is dedicated to his memory 
and bears on its walls an inscription to his honor. 

TESTIMONIES. 

The following graphic testimony from contempora- 
ries and fellow-workers in the same field sets forth the 
Christian nobility of the man and the boundless chari- 
ty of his most useful life. 

Mr. Hubbard, who watched by his bedside assidu- 
ously, wrote the day after his burial: "Another tired 
traveller has finished his journey and fallen asleep. 
Yesterday, amid the lamentations of this whole city, 
we laid in the grave the body of our beloved physician, 



l8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

Dr. West. Constant pressure, from diseased bodies 
and diseased souls that thronged him on every side, in 
every place, had so far reduced his strength that while 
attending one of the poor families of Sivas, in the chil- 
dren of which he had become much interested, he con- 
tracted from them the typhus-fevf r, and this becoming 
complicated with pneumonia, was more than a match 
for the best medicines and the most tender nursing. 

" Those of us who have seen death in many forms, 
and many times, never knew the angels to come more 
gently than they came to him. Lovingly, to an inex- 
pressible degree, they seemed to part the great soul 
from the weary frame and bear it away. 

"The Turkish Empire has lost a national benefactor; 
Sivas and all the neighboring stations have lost a father 
and a brother. The memory of his meek, earnest life 
is a reproof and an inspiration to us all. During the 
series of meetings that grew out of the Week of Prayer 
in Sivas this year he took his turn in preaching, and in 
addition to his medical practice did more than any 
one of the rest of us in pastoral work and personal con- 
versation. His hard day's work was seldom followed 
by refreshing sleep at night; but as we stood by his 
side in his last moments on earth we thought we had 
never before seen a more beautiful illustration of the 
familiar words, * He fell asleep.' 

"His sleep seemed so peaceful, and he had been 
so patient, loving, and thankful during all his fever, 
that at last I felt for a while like lying down by his 
side and sharing with him his quiet sleep." 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. 19 

Mr. H. N. Baraum, of Harpoot, on hearing of his 
death, wrote: "Dr. West was a noble, cheerful, kind, 
unselfish man. He was always ready, at whatever 
personal sacrifice, to help a missionary family in any 
time of need. He was a man of rare skill in his pro- 
fession. I presume that it is no disparagement to 
others to say that there is probably no physician in 
the Turkish Empire who enjoys an equal reputation 
among the people. 

" He was withal, and best of all, a humble, sincere, 
earnest Christian. In addition to his professional ser- 
vices, he trained up quite a body of native physicians 
in a region cursed with ignorant quacks. One of his 
students is a physician in Harpoot. He is equal to the 
average of his profession in America, and is the only 
trustworthy doctor within about a hundred miles. 
When this young physician was examined four years 
ago in Constantinople, by the faculty of the Govern- 
ment Medical College, for a diploma, his examiners 
said : * The Turkish Government is greatly indebted to 
Dr. West for educating so many young men, and so 
well, for the medical profession.' Through these pupils 
and in other ways Dr. West will perpetuate his influ- 
ence." 

Mr. Tracy, of Marsovan, testifies: "One of the 
most noted men in Asia Minor has passed away. He 
pursued his course in the medical department with 
such quiet zeal, exhausdess patience, and consummate 
skill that he attained an eminence reached by com- 
paratively few in his profession. The almost unprece- 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

dented number of surgical operations which he has 
performed have given him celebrity, not only in the 
East, but also in Europe and America. His lithotomic 
operations reached the number of one hundred and 
fifty, or more, of which scarcely half a dozen resulted 
unfavorably; and other operations were numerous in 
proportion. The blind eyes he has opened are past 
counting; the crippled, the deformed, the sick from 
various diseases, who have been relieved by him, if all 
assembled, would make a great host. Much the larger 
portion of these cases were attended without pay, and 
all his earnings from patients able to pay were turned 
over to the treasury of the Board. He received person- 
ally nothing but his regular salary; yet many a case 
which he has attended would, in America, have brought 
him hundreds, evfen thousands, of dollars. 

"Wherever he went, the diseased, the halt, the 
lame, the blind, thronged him. It reminded one of 
the multitudes following our Saviour; and the natives 
remarked, * He is like Jesus.* Pashas and great men 
would humble themselves to secure the help of this 
plain, unpretending physician. The ignorant would 
get his prescriptions and hang them about their necks 
as charms, or dissolve the papers in water and drink 
them, hoping for healing efficacy. 

"His simplicity and faithfulness were admirable. 
Without hesitation he would lay his ear, for auscultation, 
on chests so foul and squalid that native doctors shrank 
from them. He never flinched in duty, and never 
showed a nervous hand in the most difficult operations. 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D 21 

It was affecting to witness when, as ether was about to 
be administered to the patient before the operation, 
the doctor would call on some gray-bearded native 
brother in the company to offer prayer, then coolly 
give the ether, take the knife, and proceed. 

" Dr. West's special duty was the care of the mis- 
sionaries in sickness, and this duty he discharged with 
great faithfulness, not shrinking from any hardship, 
making long and perilous journeys on horseback. All 
Asia Minor became familiar to him on account of these 
travels. The story of his adventures and his medical 
practice in Turkey would make a singularly interesting 
book. 

" The missionaries who have enjoyed the benefit of 
his inestimable services and genial society feel bereaved 
and downcast at their loss. Who now will brave storm 
and mud and winter snows, wolf and Circassian and 
Koord, on wild mountain and desolate plain, to minis- 
ter to our sick, bringing such love and skill to the work ? 
Ye afflicted, poor, and sick of Pontus, Cappadocia, Gala- 
tia, Cilicia; ye dwellers in mountain hut and miasmatic 
plain, we weep with you. You will now know what 
'the beloved physician* was to you when he is no long- 
er within your reach, and you have no one like him to 
go to with your sicknesses and troubles." 

The following, from the "British Quarterly Re- 
view," enlarges and confirms the view we have already 
got of this remarkable man : 

" Dr. Henry S. West, after eighteen years of faithful 
service in Turkey, has recently been removed by death. 

4 



22 AMERICAN HEROES. 

" He is described as a man of small stature, of a 
nervous temperament, of kind and genial manners, who 
loved his profession passionately, and who had devoted 
his life to the good of his fellow-men in the practice of 
that profession. His modesty and diffidence were pro- 
verbial among all who knew him. In order to practice 
successfully among the native people he learned the 
Turkish language. He attended to the wants of a large 
number of missionary families, located in some cases 
hundreds of miles from his own home and from each 
other, and all his journeys were made on horseback. 
He educated nineteen young men as physicians, taking 
them through the various departments of their medical 
studies unaided and alone. 

" He was compelled to practise in all branches of 
medicine and surgery, and his practice was so success- 
ful that patients came to him from all parts of Asia 
Minor, often crossing high mountains, and exposing 
themselves to great danger and suffering, in order to 
avail themselves of his skill. He sometimes received 
large sums as medical fees, but his own salary was only 
that of an ordinary missionary, while all his fees were 
given to a fund for building chapels and schoolhouses 
for native people. 

" One or two instances of his surgical practice will 
not be out of place. On one occasion, soon after he 
arrived in Turkey, he stopped about sunset at a rude 
village where he expected to spend the night. He 
was scarcely seated in the rough quarters furnished by 
the villagers when word was brought that a man in a 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. 23 

khan near by was suffering from a dangerous rupture. 
Friends and neighbors begged the doctor to go and 
see him. He found tlie patient lying on the floor in a 
dark room suffering from strangulated hernia. Several 
hours had passed since the obstruction occurred; the 
man was already much exhausted and the parts swol- 
len and feverish. Dr. West knew scarcely a dozen 
words of the Turkish language, and he had no transla- 
tor and no assistant but a common native servant, who 
was ready to faint at sight of blood. There was no 
light to be had except that given by one small candle. 
The obstacles certainly were great, and the chance of 
success was very small. The doctor, however, true to 
the teachings and spirit of his profession, did not hesi- 
tate a moment. ' He threw off his coat, and in that dark 
room operated on the poor man alone. The operation 
was a complete success, and the patient entirely recov- 
ered. 

" On another occasion he stopped at a Koordish vil- 
lage to spend the night. A young Koord was brought 
to him, fifteen years of age, totally blind; his eyes were 
covered with cataract, and had been so from birth. 
Dr. West examined them, and resolved to remove the 
cataract. He performed the operation, and the next 
morning before leaving the village gave a few simple 
directions as to the subsequent treatment, and after- 
wards learned that the patient could see as well as any 
man in the village. At the time of his death Dr. West 
had performed about fourteen hundred operations on 
the eye alone; thirteen times he had been called to 



24 AMERICAN HEROES. 

operate for strangulated hernia, and his lithotomy cases 
had amounted to one hundred and fifty-four. 

" It was said at his death that Turkey had lost a 
public benefactor. During his last illness prayers were 
offered for his recovery in the Armenian churches and 
in the Mohammedan mosques, as well as in the Protes- 
tant chapels. Thousands of people of all nationalities 
accompanied his body to the grave. It is probably not 
too much to say of him that, unaided and alone, by 
precept and example, he elevated the standard of med- 
ical practice throughout the whole of Asia Minor. He 
taught rich and poor alike, whether Turk, Christian, or 
Jew, to respect and place confidence in educated physi- 
cians, and to distrust mere pretenders." 

We conclude this sketch by inserting an apprecia- 
tive notice from the pen of the missionary brother who 
attended him in his last illness, and which first appeared 
in " The Christian at Work:" 

"Two and a half years ago, when we arrived at 
Sivas, Asia Minor, we found that Dr. Henry Sergeant 
West, the missionary physician, was not at home. He 
had gone away on horseback more than a hundred 
miles to see a sick missionary. Since then we have 
known him to go mdre than three hundred miles away 
for the same purpose and in the same style. And upon 
returning more than once has he found a telegram call- 
ing him scores of miles in another direction — ^not the 
same direction, for everybody knows when Dr. West is 
passing. He alights at a house, and it soon begins to 
fill with the lame, the blind, the aching, and the sore. 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. 25 

Last year, while at Caesarea, more than three hundred 
at one time were clamoring for admission at his door. 
His missionary associates while travelling sometimes 
must post a man at the door of their khan to say to 
the oncoming crowd, * This is not the doctor/ When 
summoned to one of the villages immediately surround- 
ing Sivas he is usually at first left free to attend the 
dangerously sick one who sent for him, but after that 
come scenes for a painter. Half a score of men and 
women besiege him, some presenting their complaints 
or exhibiting their sores and deformities in person, oth- 
ers imploring him to come and see their friends. Going 
out into the street, on this comer stands a woman with 
a sick child in her arms, and on that a man with dis- 
eased eyes, having heard that the * Physician Chief is 
passing by. 

" For Turkey is not without other physicians. The 
priests have charms for enticing away diseases. Sev- 
enteen years ago, just before Dr. West's arrival, the 
cases of lithotomy, which are numerous here, were usu- 
ally handed over to the tender mercies of a Koordish 
surgeon, whose instrument was a big jack-knife. There 
were also Armenian practitioners, whose little learning 
was almost invariably a dangerous thing. Dr. West, 
who while in Yale had taken the prize for excellency in 
Latin translation, began the practice of medicine, and 
put a class of young Armenians through a regular five 
years' course of instruction. These students did not 
suffer for want of cliniques. We have known the doc- 
tor at his office in Sivas busy with his knife all day 



26 AMERICAN HEROES. 

long. We lived for more than a year in the room over 
his office, and we think he has had cancer, harelip, cat- 
aract, a case of lithotomy, typhus-fever, and smallpox, 
and perhaps all hurled upon him in a single day. And 
he kept cool nerve and patient heart through it all. 

** It was better than an army hospital for the boys 
who wished to learn. One of these boys with Dr. 
West's diploma is now practising in Harpoot, the head- 
quarters of the Eastern Turkey Mission; another at 
Sivas; another at Caesarea, where the Protestant com- 
munity, heretofore large, has more than doubled in 
number during the past year ; another at Tocat, where 
lies the dust of Henry Martyn ; and another at Marso- 
van, where is located the West Turkey Mission Theo- 
logical School and Female Seminary. Some of them 
have saved life even in missionary families. One of 
them went to America, gave his heart to Christ while 
assisting in a Brooklyn hospital, finished the regular 
course in the Medical Department of the University of 
New York, taking Professor Roosa's prize for best ex- 
amination in diseases of the eye and ear, also Professor 
Arnold's for the best examination in physiology, and is 
now on his return to his native land, holding appoint- 
ment from the American Board as Professor in Central 
Turkey College at Aintab. 

" Dr. West was a kind of Christian at work that can 
be appreciated even by the bigoted Turks. He had 
been at Sivas only five years when the pasha issued a 
decree that all physicians of the city appear before Dr. 
West, the American gentleman, to be examined. If 



HENRY SERGEANT WEST, M. D. 27 

they pass, well; if not, they must quit their business 
insiafiier, 

" After sundry experiences of his own and full con- 
sultation with those still more experienced than he, it 
was decided that Dr. West, while continuing his prac- 
tice free to missionaries, the helpless, and the poor, must 
charge for services to the rich. Often have we heard 
him say, * There 's an operation for which they charge 
hundreds of dollars in America.* * And how much do 
you charge here ?' * Oh, I let it go for about five dol- 
lars;* or, *Oh, he's poor; I don't charge anything.' 
But it was easy for us sometimes to see the half-sup- 
pressed smile with which he takes money from a rich 
Turk; for the doctor's salary is the same as that of 
other missionaries, and his annual receipts, which are 
usually nearly double his salary, are all spent in build- 
ing meeting-houses for the Protestant Christians of 
Turkey. 

"But Dr. West is more than physician, surgeon, 
and church-erection society. Whether attending Amer- 
ican missionary, Turkish pasha, Armenian priest, pass- 
ing European tourist, Sunday-school scholar, ignorant 
woman, or street beggar, he is working for healing of 
soul as well as body. Very quietly and lovingly, hour 
by hour, often in places where other missionaries are 
not admitted, and to hearts grateful for alleviation of 
physical pain, he is repeating the warnings and invita- 
tions of Christ. He takes time to teach a class in Sun- 
day-school, oversee teachers' meetings, and help gather 
the children in. He has no license from the church to 



28 AMERICAN HEROES. 

preach, and needs none. Many a time have we seen 
him speaking from the pulpit to audiences hushed and 
tearful under the spell of his tender and thrilling illustra- 
tions. 

" This is Dr. West as we knew him on earth; but he 
is in heaven now.'* 

The righteous shall be had in everlasting remem- 
brance. Dr. West is but one of many devoted souls 
whom the American churches have given to the Turk- 
ish Empire for Christ — ^an honor to the Master, to the 
land that gave them birth, and to the churches that sent 
them forth. Many are still in the field, reaping where 
others sowed; but many also have fallen asleep, and 
their works do follow them. All honor to the memory 
of such brave, unselfish lives ! 



f 



III. 



E^eV.DaVid Tappaii Stoddard, 



BY REV. J. E. RANKIN, D. D. 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS. 



HI. DAVID TAPPAN STODDARD. 

There are men, whose earthly work is finished, the 
flame of whose lives seemed to be seraphic. They 
were so swift-winged in God's service, they stood so 
near his throne, as if to catch the first whispers of his 
will, there was so much of grace and glory in their 
words and work, that they seem rightfully to have be- 
longed to the ranks of those ministers of God that do 
his pleasure in heaven, as though he only lent them to us 
a little while, and then took them away, as he did Elijah, 
amid the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof. 

Of one of these rare men we write — one of the sanc- 
tified and glorified return-gifts to us who remain at 
home of the cause of Foreign Missions. For this great 
cause not only takes our sons from us, but gives them 
back a hundred-fold more precious than when they 
were taken. Such a man was David Tappan Stoddard, 
who was born in Northampton, Mass., December 2, 1818, 
and to whom the Lord gave both grace and glory. 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

ANCESTRY. 

From Anthony, who came over from the west of 
England ten years after the landing of the Pilgrims, and 
whose son, Solomon, was pastor of the church of North- 
ampton fifty-seven years — a man so much revered by 
the people of the region that, when a Frenchman was 
directing his gun at him from an ambush, he was warned 
by an Indian of the party that he must not fire, since 
that was the Englishman's God — for six generations 
his ancestors on both sides had been godly men and 
women. Thirty of the Stoddard family, in direct line 
from Anthony, had received a collegiate education, 
flowering at last into the consummate scholarship of 
that simple-hearted, conscientious Latin teacher and 
author. Professor Solomon Stoddard, of Middlebury 
College. And a similar consummation in the line of 
spirituality was his brother, David Tappan Stoddard, of 
Oroomiah, who was no less an honor to the cause he 
espoused. 

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, himself an illustration 
of his theory, claims that it takes the third generation 
from the plough to produce the Brahmin class in New 
England; that is, the aesthetic class, represented by 
such men as Hawthorne and Emerson — men who flower 
in the garden of culture, whose sphere is the realm of 
literature. While it is a melancholy thing to look at 
the moral and spiritual degeneracy of some of the old 
religious families of New England, though their aesthetic 
career may have been ever so brilliant, it is very grate- 
ful to find, as we do in the Stoddards, a line of moral 



DAVID TAPPAN STODDARD. 5 

and spiritual descent growing more and more glorious, 
until the later-bom show themselves worthy of their 
noblest ancestry. And it takes very little imagination 
to find in David Tappan Stoddard the better charac- 
teristics of such men as the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, 
whose walk was such before his generation that the 
Indian did not regard him a proper object for a French- 
man to point a gun at ; and also those of Colonel John 
Stoddard, to wait upon whom at the door the chief 
magistrate of Massachusetts, Governor Shirley, felt that 
it became him to rise fi*om a dinner-party, saying, 
"Excuse me, gendemen, if it is Colonel Stoddard, I 
must rise and go to him ;" as well as of the colonel's 
second sister, Esther, the mother of Jonathan Edwards, 
the greatest metaphysician this country ever produced — 
a man whose life was as pure as his intellect was clear; 
not to speak of his Huguenot ancestry on the Tappan 
side, one of whom, his grandmother, prolonged her 
ministrations to the sick to such a period of age that, 
though she died over eighty years old, the day before 
she was taken ill she sat at the bedside of a friend, carry- 
ing cheer and comfort to her heart, thus bringing forth 
fruit in old age. This was the godly woman who had 
said when this grandson was born, " Well, he will live 
to see the millennium." 

MR. Stoddard's childhood 

Was spent in the beautiful valley of the Connecticut 
River, in one of the most charming of New England 
towns; in one of the most Christian of households. Of 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

this period he himself says, " Ahnost as soon as I could 
speak I was taught to pray every morning and night ; 
and as soon as I could read, I used once a day to read 
a chapter in the Bible to my mother." He was for all 
this a vigorous boy, " neither a cherub nor a cipher." 
Like other boys he could sometimes say, " I will — I 
wont;" but he was amenable to parental discipline, 
which, being both firm and kind, availed to hold in 
check a generous though impulsive nature. 

He was fond of boyish sports. As a boy, he could 
swim the Connecticut River, climb a church spire, or 
fall from the limb of a tree and break his bones, and he 
did. He also had a special genius for mechanics. His 
scholarship, if not extraordinary, was bright and good. 
He was in the Latin Reader at ten years of age, and 
shared the excellent advantages of the "Round Hill 
School " in his preparatory course. 

Serious religious impressions came and went through 
his youthful years, but his mood was vacillating. For 
once at least he came under the influence of Drs. Fin- 
ney and Skinner while on a visit to New York; and 
though lasting impressions were made, a confession of 
faith was still deferred. 

COLLEGE LIFE. 

He entered Williams College as a Sophomore in 
the fall of 1834, undecided as to his course in life, and 
really so in religious character. He came immediately 
under the influence of Tutor Simeon H. Calhoun, after- 
wards missionary to Syria, the greatly -beloved and 



DAVID TAPPAN STODDARD. 7 

venerated. Mr. Calhoun endeared himself to the young 
man and entirely won his confidence. But " there was 
no marked development of religious character in his 
life at Williams College." Owing to his inadequate 
preparation for the advanced class that he had entered, 
so great was his dissatisfaction with the result of his 
first year's work that he determined to enter the same 
class at Yale, which he accordingly did in the fall of 
1835. Here for the first six months, though his out- 
ward life was blameless, his Bible, he confesses, re- 
mained unopened for weeks, and his Sabbaths were 
desecrated by secular reading and study. But all this 
was soon and for ever to be changed. 

The spring of 1836 in Yale College was a time of 
the special visitation of divine mercy. It began with 
the annual day of prayer for colleges. 

The New England college was founded as a nur- 
sery of the church of Christ to educate pious young 
men for the ministry, and revivals of religion among 
the students were anxiously sought after by those who 
in the fear of God presided over them. No day in the 
year, not even the great Commencement day, was reck- 
oned of so great importance as the day of annual 
prayer for colleges and institutions of learning. Endow- 
ments, libraries, observatories, these of late have come 
to be the great things sought after for the betterment of 
literary institutions. To this Egypt do we go down for 
help. In olden times it was different. 

The day of prayer was one of great solemnity. Col- 
lege studies were frequently dispensed with. Profes- 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

sors and students met for public worship and a special 
address or sermon. The different classes met for prayer, 
each in its own recitation-room, and in the evening lit- 
tle circles for prayer and praise were improvised in va- 
rious quarters of the institution. Much personal work 
was done among the students. It was often a day when 
lips, long sealed in silence or desecrated by foolish talk- 
ing and jesting, seemed purged of uncleanness by a live 
coal from God*s altar. 

On such a day as this, February 26, 1836, a fellow- 
student, Joseph Parrish Thompson — ^afterwards one of 
our most distinguished and influential divines — ap- 
proached this young man, who was destined to become 
a missionary of the American Board to Persia. The 
approach was met with the frank and truthful temper so 
characteristic of young Stoddard. This was Thursday. 
On Friday a second interview occurred, which was 
closed with prayer. The next day, after a similar meet- 
ing, the young man himself poured out his soul to God 
for forgiveness, light, and joy. With the dawn of the 
Lord's day he was again in prayer, but without assu- 
rance that he had risen to newness life until the evening 
twilight, when there was light. On Monday he writes 
home to his mother: " Yesterday was a day long to be 
remembered by me as one on which my final, deliber- 
ate choice was made for eternity. From beginning to 
the end I have endeavored to be governed by reason, 
not by feeling. In view of three worlds, in view of 
eternity, I trust I resolved, like the prodigal, to return 
and seek my injured Father's face* It seemed to be a 



DAVID TAPPAN STODDARD. 9 

glorious thing to be permitted to take the lowest place 
in God's service and in the building up of his kingdom. 
Can I dose without asking your forgiveness for my in- 
gratitude and disobedience? To both my parents I 
have often been a disobedient and wayward child. For 
this and my other sins I ask pardon from above, and 
may I not indulge the hope that for my offences against 
you, my parents, I may receive forgiveness ?" 

That very Monday morning he received^a letter 
from his devoted mother, who was entirely ignorant of 
what was passing in his mind, in which she reminded 
him that in his infancy she had consecrated him to God 
for the work of the Christian ministry, and informed him 
that on the previous Thursday she had spent a great por- 
tion of the day on her knees in prayer for his conversion. 

The first great step was taken : to be the Lord's for 
time and for eternity. 

OPENINGS AND QUESTIONINGS. 

Young Stoddard did not decide at once to be a mis- 
sionary, but he had serious thoughts upon the subject. 
It lay thus before his mind even then : " The question 
seems to resolve itself into this : How can I exert the 
most influence upon the ultimate conversion of the 
world ? My reasons for deciding in favor of Foreign 
Missions are briefly these: six or seven hundred mil- 
lions of heathen are perishing for want of the bread of 
life, multitudes of whom never heard of a Saviour's 
love. At home we have a population of thirteen mil- 
lions, who might all probably have access to the means 

5 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

of grace. True, our home destitution is alarming, and 
young men are needed to go forth to the West and 
other sections of the country in mighty armies. But 
when we consider how few, compared with the whole 
number of ministers, devote themselves to the mission- 
ary cause, does it not seem that the calls of those who 
sit in darkness are too much unheeded? And the 
question might also with propriety be asked. Will our 
efforts <#) relieve and succor the benighted impoverish 
ourselves, or will too many be likely to volunteer at 
present for this work ? Will not, on the contrary, every 
one who goes abroad exert a reflex influence upon those 
at home ? Thus will the promise be fulfilled, that the 
liberal man deviseth liberal things and by liberal things 
he shall stand, . . . Many who would go cannot ; and 
does it not behoove all who know nothing to prevent to 
fill their places ?" 

He completed his college course at Yale, full of 
bright zeal and activity in his studies, and bearing upon 
his countenance that radiant hopefulness which right- 
fully belongs to one whose conversation is heaven. 
Slender in frame, of womanly sensibility, yet in all 
manly exercises among the foremost, an enthusiastic 
student of natural -science, experimenting in the labora- 
tory, star-gazing in the observatory, with a mechanic's 
skill to construct whatever he chose, making balloons 
and telescopes as though this was to be his business in 
life. Almost before he knew it he was out in the world 
and the world was pressing its claims upon him. 

While he was still in college, indeed, he received an 



DAVID TAPPAN STODDARD. II 

invitation to join the United States Exploring Expedi- 
tion to the South Pacific, under Cpmmodore Wilkes. 
Of this invitation he writes: "I could not go as a 
Christian, for little opportunity would be afforded me 
for doing good, and such a voyage might have a very 
unhappy effect upon my Christian character. I could 
not go as a man of the world, for I have a Master, whose 
I am and whom I am ever bound to serve. Were I 
to look only at time, and ask myself what course would 
be likely to advance me in worldly science, I might 
accept the offer. I could not, however, forget the in- 
terests of eternity and the life which I had chosen, or, 
rather, I hope I may say, the life to which I have been 
chosen — that of an ambassador of Jesus Christ." Thus 
he deliberately declined the possible career of a Chris- 
tian scientist, such as God opened to Brewster and 
Davy, Silliman and Guyot, not because he loved God 
in nature less, but because he loved God in grace more. 

The question was again raised when, three years 
later, he was called to the Professorship of Natural Sci- 
ence in Marietta College, Ohio : " Shall I spend my life 
in making chemical experiments, or in service as a min- 
ister of the gospel for the conversion of souls ?" And 
he answered it as one who had a high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus, as one who preferred to walk in the steps 
of the aposde Paul and his great Master to sitting as a 
teacher beneath honored academic shades at home, 
though it were to interpret the Creator to his creatures 
through his works. 

In the summer of 1838 Mr. Stoddard graduated. 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

After a year as tutor in Latin and Greek at Marshall 
College, Mercersburgh, Pa., meantime studying He- 
brew and German, he entered the Theological Semi- 
nary at Andover. Here he came under the enthusi- 
astic and paternal sway of Professor Moses Stuart, so 
much revered and beloved by all his pupils, a man as 
reverent of God*s Word as he was ardent and glowing 
in its critical study. After a single year at Andover 
came an invitation from his Alma Mater to return to 
her pleasant halls as tutor. This he does to provide 
means of support while he moves grandly on his cho- 
sen way. Of this appointment he writes : " The tempo- 
rary honor of being a tutor in Yale College will not, I 
hope, draw me away so that I shall choose a course 
which will not on the whole be for my advantage. Tel- 
escope-making once gained me a litde credit; but the 
glory is all over now, the popgun is fired, and I have to 
regret that so many of my precious hours were almost 
lost. At this time I have no idea of firing another pop- 
gun, but mean to take a serious and manly course." 

In October, 1840, he was present at the installation 
of his classmate, Joseph P. Thompson, as pastor of the 
Chapel Street Congregational Church in New Haven, 
Mr. Thompson was then only twenty-one years of age, 
at the threshold of his career as minister of the gospel, 
editor, and author, of large and beneficent influence at 
home and abroad. 

Coming home after the installation, having already 
chosen the work of the Christian ministry, but not yet 
the work of the Christian missionary, these are some of 



DAVID TAPPAN STODDARD. 1 3 

his thoughts: "A candidate for the sacred ministry 
myself, and hoping in a few years to assume the same 
responsibilities, the public consecration of a young 
minister could hardly fail to awaken my sympathy. 
Besides, Thompson is my classmate, my friend, my 
peculiarly-endeared Christian brother. It was he who 
was the means of my hopeful conversion to God, and 
we have often taken sweet counsel together and walked 
to the house of God in company. I felt for him, too, 
because of his youth and inexperience— only two months 
since he came of age ! I came away feeling more than 
ever what it is to be a minister of the gospel. The pious 
minister stands between heaven and earth. He tells of 
a Saviour crucified, and points those who are making 
the world their portion to a better portion, to a crown 
of glory, to a heaven of rest. It is his to strengthen the 
weak, to confirm the doubting, to comfort the afflicted, 
to preach of life and immortality to the dying Christian. 
He has the satisfaction of saving souls. And when the 
Chief Shepherd shall appear, he, with his own flock 
around him, shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth 
not away. Who would not wish to be a Christian min- 
ister, to live his life, to die his death, to receive his re- 
ward ?" 

Mr. Stoddard was licensed in the spring of 1842 by 
a Western Massachusetts Association, not kindly dis- 
posed towards *'New Haven divinity." In writing to 
a friend of that occasion, he says: " I was barely passa- 
ble in their view, not from a deficiency in knowledge so 
much as from heretical notions. As I was a young man, 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

they hoped I would live to repent." Even then he could 
say : " I sometimes feel that it is a matter of no impor- 
tance whether my bones peacefully repose in my own 
New England, or whiten on the deserts of Africa, pro- 
vided I live while I live to save the souls of men." It 
is evident that he had an orthodox experience, whatever 
may be said of the " notions." 

DECIDES TO GIVE HIS LIFE TO PERSIA. 

In September, 1842, soon after he began to preach, 
Mr. Stoddard visited his brother in Middlebury, and 
preached for the Rev. Dr. Merrill, Dr. Justin Perkins, 
who married his wife in this place, and who was then in 
this country on a missionary tour with Mar Yohannan, 
the Nestorian bishop, ^-as one of his hearers. In a ser- * 

mon preached at the funeral service of Mr. Stoddard, 
this venerable and honored missionary thus describes 
the impression made upon his mind by the speaker: 
" In the autumn I went to Middlebury to pass a quiet 
Sabbath and rest from protracted and exhausting labors. 
After I entered the meeting-house on Sabbath morning 
there came in a young man and ascended the pulpit 
whose appearance was quite youthful yet very mature, 
and whose whole air seemed to me more angelic than 
human. I was no prophet. But hardly could the mind ^ 

of Samuel of old have been fastened more confidently 
on David the son of Jesse as the future king of Israel 
than did my heart fix upon David T. Stoddard, from 
the moment my eyes rested on him, as the young man 
whom, of all I had ever seen, I could wish to have as 



DAVID TAPPAN STODDARD. 1 5 

our companion in the toils, trials, and joys of mission- 
ary life, and whose prayers and labors here the Lord 
would delight to honor in the salvation of souls. In all 
the subsequent years of our intimate missionary con- 
nection the vividness of that first impression has never 
faded from my mind." It was Christian love at first sight. 

That evening the preacher called on the missionary, 
and he pressed upon him the claims of Persia. He 
promised to consider the matter, but was inclined to the 
opinion that he should hardly go anywhere as a foreign 
missionary. The next day, alluding in a letter to this 
interview, he says: " It seems to me that I can be more 
useful in the West than in the foreign missionary field. 
At any rate, brother Solomon and I agree that I can 
never attempt to fill a large place. If I can get a good 
log-house on a prairie, and a good wife and food and 
raiment, I trust I shall be therewith content." 

However, after a third interview with Dr. Perkins, 
Mr. Stoddard decided to go to Persia. He was certain 
to find the place of highest service the ideal place for 
him, and now that seemed to be the foreign field. " I 
cannot bear," writes he after this decision, "to see young 
men, beginning to preach the gospel, going round and 
round hunting up parishes and complaining how hard 
it is to find an opening. The fact is, the whole world is 

open I can go to Persia with cheerfulness. To 

leave home, friends, country, and all in this world to 
which my affections cling, to go far hence to the Gen- 
tiles — to live for them, to die for them — I glory in the 
privilege ! Soon it will all be over; the labors of earth 



l6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

will be followed by the rest of heaven." And again, 
"I am not only entirely calm and reconciled to it; I 
feel almost joyful, and I think this is one indication that 
I am in the path of duty. So far as I know my own 
heart, I can go and lay down my life cheerfully for the 
cause of my Saviour, and I pray that I may catch more 
and more of his blessed spirit." 

December 15, 1842, he applied for an appointment 
to the Nestorian Mission, and on the 27th of January, 
1843, was ordained in the church of his beloved class- 
mate in New Haven. His marriage followed soon after, 
February 14, 1843, which united him with Miss Har- 
riette Briggs, of Marblehead, Mass., then a teacher in 
Bradford Academy. "With beauty of person and 
sweetness of natural disposition, she united a high de- 
gree of intelligence and culture and a rare devotedness 
to the service of Christ." 

THE VOYAGE. 

Never a happier missionary band set sail from New 
England shores than that which left Boston in the bark 
" Emma Isadora" for Smyrna, Tuesday, March i, 1843. 
There were six in all, among whom were Dr. and Mrs. 
Perkins, the pioneers of the Nestorian Mission, and 
these two radiant recruits, Mr. and Mrs. Stoddard, as 
happy in each other as in their work and in their Lord. 
With a parting note to his father and mother, full of 
filial reverence and gratitude, they turned away from 
the sweet towns of New England and saw her last head- 
lands sink down behind them into the sea. 



DAVID TAPPAN SI^ODDARD. 1 7 

During their voyage they occupied themselves in the 
morning studying Turkish and geology. " For," said 
this young missionary, " if the mountains of Persia have 
coal-beds, I want the geologist's eye to discover them ;** 
the very spirit which was in David Livingstone, who 
believed that he no less served the kingdom becaase he 
was the herald of a higher civilization. In their after- 
noons they wrote letters to their friends, and at six in 
the evening they met for social singing ; for these peo- 
ple of God were going to Persia " with songs and ever- 
lasting joy upon their heads." Then came their even- 
ing devotions and a familiar study of D'Aubign6*s His- 
tory of the Reformation. And so the seas had com- 
mandment to bear them far hence to the Gentiles. 

April 4 they were on the -^gean Sea, beneath ceru- 
lean skies of which we Occidentals have no conception. 
There were hours of memory, with the stars all out and 
the planets full-orbed, such as this Christian astronomer 
loved to behold and describe in glowing terms. May 
I they were amid the " surpassingly lovely " scenery of 
the Bosphorus, "the tall cypress, the sycamore, the 
fields of waving grain, the blossoms innumerable, the 
birds singing on a thousand trees and skimming in 
large flocks over the surface of the water, all reminding 
of an earthly paradise." 

The opportunity was given them, before making 
their overland trip to Oroomiah, to visit different mis- 
sionary stations in Turkey, going from one missionary 
family to another, giving and receiving benedictions. 

Then came the caravan ascent of the mountains of 



l8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

Armenia, which was made literally fulfilling the apos- 
tolic injunction, " speaking to yourselves in psalms and 
hymns and spiritual songs, and making melody to the 
Lord in your hearts." Indeed, Mr. Stoddard's soul 
seemed to overflow with the choicest selections of sa- 
cred literature, and he poured them forth as from a 
heaven -touched fountain. 

About the middle of June they reached the city of 
Oroomiah. having been met, miles distant, by a small 
escort of friends on horseback with the salutation, " You 
have come; welcome!" and finally they were escorted, 
as if in triumphal procession, to the house of Mar Yo- 
hannan's father. Their hearts were full of gladness, and 
they gathered, a litde company of them, into one of the 
missionary homes for prayer and praise. 

LIFE IN PERSIA. 

Then began the missionary's work — that of learning 
the language ; for, as Mr. Stoddard expresses it, he finds 
himself tongue-tied. He has a message, but no medium 
through which to communicate it. Indeed, his work 
required not only the Turkish, but the Syriac ; and he 
addressed himself to the task of mastering both. After 
one year of patient study he began to preach in Syriac. 
It was to some forty or fifty women and children in the 
house of one of the missionaries. " Of course," says he, 
in speaking of it, " it was a feeble effort, but it was an 
effort, and encouraged me to try again. By God's bless- 
ing I shall be able to preach next summer. I cannot yet 
pray in the language, but it is quite time I was learning." 



DAVID TAPPAN STODDARD. I9 

Mr. Stoddard's missionary duties were mainly in 
connection with the seminary. But he found time to 
mount his telescope and to point out to a Persian alma- 
nac-maker the various planets, to prove to him that 
Jupiter has moons which revolve around him, and that 
the earth is round, which up to that time he did not 
believe, to make sun-dials at various quarters on the 
seminary grounds to promote punctuality in the stu- 
dents, to clean clocks and watches, mend broken wag- 
ons, and superintend the erection or the repairs of the 
mission buildings. He sometimes writes letters in his 
school, with all his bees, as he calls them, humming 
around him. The school was mainly a Bible school, 
and his care seemed to be, first, to bring the pupils to 
the Saviour. In this his efforts were not in vain. In 
the winter of 1846 came a wonderful revival; the pu- 
pils .flocked to his room for inquiry; some of them 
remained up all night, because they could not sleep. 

About this time he writes to Dr. Perkins at Mount 
Seir: "I believe the members of our mission here 
deeply feel our need of a day of fasting. We need — 
oh, how much we need — ^wrestling prayer for these 
souls. As soon as Zion travailed she brought forth 
children. And will it not be so with us ? If we are all 
found prostrate before God, confessing our sins, plead- 
ing for mercy for ourselves and others, shall we not see 
triumphs of grace ?" Later he writes : " I have just 
passed a solemn night. In my room I had a constant 
succession, in companies of three or four, till about mid- 
night; and then perhaps more than half the boys were 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

up, some weeping, some earnestly praying, and all very 
solemn. How long they continued up I do not know ; 
but on rising before light this morning I found many of 
them up and walking about the yard, and before I could 
have an opportunity to pray alone I was visited by an 
inquirer." 

Two months later he writes : " During six weeks we 
have had the presence of the Holy Ghost, and I -may 
almost say we are rejoicing with joy unspeakable." 
Again: "You cannot imagine what were my feelings 
when I sat till midnight pointing inquiring souls to 
Christ. I never saw anything in America like it. You 
are in a land of revivals. You expect to hear of them 
and share in them ; but we sit in the region of the val- 
ley of death. Around us are millions of Mohamme- 
dans, who have no Saviour and no heaven of glory be- 
fore them." And again : " About three-fourths of our 
pupils are hopefully born again." Dr. Perkins writes: 
" I have had considerable experience in talking with 
convicted sinners, but I feel utterly insufficient for the 
dreadful responsibility." 

DEATH OF MRS. STODDARD. 

Mr. Stoddard commenced his labors in Oroomiah 
about the middle of June, 1843, and wrought almost 
uninterruptedly until June, 1848. This period is marked 
by two events of very general interest : the intrigues of 
the Jesuits and Nestorian ecclesiastics, involving the 
mission in trouble with the government, and the won- 
derful revival above mentioned, which at once embraced 



DAVID TAPPAN STODDARD. 21 

his and Miss Fiske's school and the neighboring re- 
gions, remarkable for the depth of conviction wrought 
and the number and character of the converts. Dur- 
ing this period two daughters were born to them, and 
the health of both became enfeebled. On this account 
they left the field, June, 1848, uncertain as to their des- 
tination, whether only to Constantinople or on to Amer- 
ica. They reached Trebizond July 27, and within a 
day or two Mrs. Stoddard was suddenly removed by 
cholera and laid in a midnight grave. Mr. Stoddard 
took up his motherless babes and journeyed on, re- 
freshed by the great kindness of the missionary families 
Hamhn and Schauffler at Bebec, where the children's 
nurse died also of cholera, thence homeward, reaching 
New York October 27, 1848. 

During his stay in this country Mr. Stoddard chafed 
not a little under the restraint which kept him here. 
This came both from his physicians and from the secre- 
taries of the American Board. It is touching to read 
from one of his letters to Rev. A. Hazen, who after- 
wards became his brother-in-law, urgent cautions about 
overdoing, and yet to see how little he could subject 
his own ardor to such restraints. Three or four times 
he fixed for his return, but was overruled. As his 
strength rallied he moved among the churches of this 
country, " burning like a seraph," carrying the audien- 
ces that he addressed, as his biographer expresses it, 
to some mount of transfiguration, where they beheld 
the higher glories of Christ and his kingdom. 

While in this country he visited the city of Wash- 



22 AMERICAN HEROES. 

ington at the time of President Taylor's inauguration. 
Of this visit he says, " I have two classmates in Con- 
gress, and another was private secretary' of President 
Polk. These I have seen, and they were polite to me; 
but I can truly say, I envy them not their distinction. 
Let me have a quiet corner among the Nestorians, and 
be the instrument of turning some of them to righteous- 
ness, and this will be honor enough for me. There let 
me live, there let me die." 

On the 14th of February, 1851, Mr. Stoddard was 
again married. Miss Sophia D. Hazen, sister of the 
Rev. Allen Hazen, missionary to Bombay, and teacher 
beloved by all in Mount Holyoke Seminary, thus be- 
came the partner of this good man's life, and with his 
little daughter Harriette, and others going forth, em- 
barked from Boston March 4, 1851. The glad day at 
length had come. The missionary, long impatient, was 
on his way to his chosen Persian field, which he reached 
in October, and was warmly welcomed. 

LAST YEARS. 

He went joyfully back to his associates, to his be- 
loved seminary, to the translation of the Scriptures into 
modern Syriac, to the making of a Syriac grammar, to 
the diplomacy required to keep the mission in amicable 
relations with the government — in a word, to a few 
more years' service as a seraph in human form, and then 
to pass to his reward on Thursday, just before mid- 
night, January 22, 1857, eleven years from the night 
when the first converts in the great revival were rejoi- 



DAVID TAPPAN STODDARD. 23 

cing in a new-found Saviour. He had just returned 
from Tabreez, whither he had been sent on a troublesome 
and, on the whole, unavailing mission to get relief from 
governmental interference. He was taken ill on his 
way home, and after struggling on for a few days suc- 
cumbed to typhus-fever. He died as he lived, in clo- 
sest fellowship with his Lord. 

In the mission graveyard at Mount Seir, among the 
little children who had died, his sacred dust lies buried. 
It was fitting, for he was as much a child as any of 
them. For months after his death the members of the 
seminary were accustomed to repair in groups to his 
grave, and there pray and sing the songs of Zion. The 
Psalmist says, " The Lord will give grace and glory.'* 
As we make this brief monograph these words, grace 
and glory ^ seem the most applicable of all words to 
apply to him and to his work. Much is said about 
heredity in these days. When on his death-bed Mr. 
Stoddard said again and again, "I have given myself 
to Jesus, and I look upon him as my family Saviour. 
He was my grandmother's Saviour, my mother's Sa- 
viour, Solomon's Saviour, Harriette's Saviour, and I 
know he will be mine." He did not regard himself an 
especially holy man. In his last sickness, when it was 
told him that prayer unceasing was offered in the sem- 
inary for his recovery, he said, " It were far better to 
pray that I may become a better Christian." And 
again, "It were a thousand times better that I should 
die now than to recover and not be a better man. Oh, 
if I live I want to be a holier man." And yet of him a 



24 AMERICAN HEROES. 

native Nestorian pastor said, " Did you ever see that 
good man when the knees of his pantaloons were not 
covered with dust or worn threadbare ? And do you 
know why it was ? Because he spent so much time in 

prayer." 

Perhaps he might have lived here longer had the 
flame of his zeal not been so consuming to the outer 
man. Thirty-eight years, and then to pass away for 
ever ! Men sometimes say, " Wherefore this waste ?" 
But the Master, who commended the cosdy anointing 
for his burial, surely does not so regard the consecration 
of a life to make him known. Too short indeed for us 
and for the millions of Persia that know not God, but 
long enough to go with the light of the truth around 
the world as the life of one who did what he could to 
make the name of Jesus a joy in the whole earth. 
What young Christian can read this life without saying 
to himself. This man chose the good part that never 
shall be taken from him ? And if it was worth Stod- 
dard's while to build his short life here into that king- 
dom of whose increase there is no end, is there not 
something that we can give or do that shall guarantee 
our kinship with him and with all such in the glory of 
that kingdom? 



IV. 



Asaliel Grai^t, N\, D, 



BY REV. THOMAS LAURIE, D. D. 



\ 



i 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS 



IV. ASAHEL GRANT, M. D.* 

AsAHEL Grant was born in Marshall, N. Y., Aug. 
17, 1807, and died in Mosul, April 24, 1844 — his life- 
work finished in less than thirty-seven years. 

His pious parents came from Litchfield County, 
Conn. William Grant, his father, always remembered 
his children in family prayer, and his mother often took 
them into her closet. To this was added faithful train- 
ing. Once, when Asahel was two years old, his mother 
had a struggle to secure obedience, but succeeded ; and 
ever after a look from her was enough. He was pleas- 
ant and obliging even in childhood, and none who saw 
this trait in the man were surprised to know that it had 
been ripening so long. 

 As the writer has already prepared a memoir of Dr. Grant, 
in this sketch he seeks to present him only to those who have not 
time to read the larger work. 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

At ten years of age he was fond of history and sci- 
ence. Some books he perused fastened to the plough, 
and during the noonings while others slept. It was a 
prophecy of the future when the boy rode his father's 
colts around the pasture without saddle or bridle. 

When but sixteen he taught school with marked 
success, and commenced the study of medicine after- 
wards with Dr. Hastings, of Clinton. He then attended 
lectures at Fairfield, and at Pittsfield, Mass., and spent 
a year with Dr. Douglass, of Utica. 

In his twentieth year he married Miss Electa S. 
Loomis, of Torrington, Conn., a lady who had been the 
means of his conversion. A year later he received his 
diploma and settled in Braintrim, Pa., and was at once 
chosen an elder in the church. Here freshets some- 
times compelled him to cross the river in a canoe and 
to walk long distances to see his patients. Thus was he 
trained to walk over the mountains of Koordistan. His 
moral courage was so conspicuous that a friend wrote 
afterwards to the American Board : " If you have a 
field requiring great physical energy and moral cour- 
age, he is the man. If called to it, no fear but he will 
endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 

After four short years of fellowship in every good 
work, his beloved Electa was taken from him, saying 
of the two sons she left behind, " The Lord will take 
care of them." The event has justified her faith. When 
she was buried, the life of her husband also trembled in 
the balance, but he was raised up to do other work for 
Christ. 



ASAHEL GRANT, M. D. 5 

He soon settled again in Utica, faithful in the sanc- 
tuary and in active Christian work. He was known as 
"the friend of the poor." During the cholera in 1832 
he was in labors abundant till attacked himself. Even 
then his pastor, Dr. S. C. Aiken, could hardly persuade 
him to take rest. Though an enemy to Popery, he had 
the confidence of Papists, even the priests recommend- 
ing him to their people. Here also he became an elder, 
and so consistent was he that even the unconverted took 
knowledge of Dr. Grant that he was a true Christian. 
So winning was he in conversation, and his life gave 
such force to his words, that he was very useful in revi- 
vals. He was no less happy in presenting truth, so that 
one said, " No wonder that one design of Providence in 
assembling the American Board at Utica in 1834 seemed 
to be to enlLst Dr. Grant in its work." 

His " Appeal to Pious Physicians," written while in 
Persia, tells us how he became a missionary. " A young 
physician with an extensive practice had thought much 
of engaging in the work, but held back under the plea 
that there were so many obstacles in the way. Others 
were better qualified and had less to keep them at 
home; but they did not go, and what was to be done? 
He prayed over the subject, and took up his excuses 
one by one. Where can I do most for the conversion 
of the world ? Here I may relieve much suffering and 
prolong precious lives, but others could do it just as 
well, and I should not be missed; abroad I may accom- 
plish much more where no one else will do it. Here I 
may give liberally; but money alone will not do the 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

work, and missionary physicians are in great demand. 
Here, as an officer in an important church, I may do 
much; but those churches that send out most laborers 
are most richly blessed. Can I not, then, do most for 
Christ at home by going abroad ? But how can I leave 
my parents in their declining years ? More, how can I 
leave my darling children ? My parents are not depen- 
dent on me, and what can I do for my children that 
would not be done for them if I went ? The great thing 
to be done for them is to fit them for the service of God; 
and if he calls me to leave them for his sake, he can 
make my going a means to this end. I dare not go up 
to the judgment till I have done my utmost to promote 
the kingdom of God in the earth." 

We are not surprised that such a man went. Miss 
Judith S. Campbell, of kindred spirit, daughter of Eras- 
tus Lathrop and Judith Crofts, was given him of the 
Lord as a companion. Left motherless when three 
days old, she was brought up for Christ by her mother's 
sister, Mrs. Dr. Wm. Campbell, of Cherry Valley. 
When seven years of age she was asked to contribute 
a favorite article of dress for a missionary box. Judith 
yielded, but so much of a self-denial was it that she 
traced all her interest in missions back to this first gift. 
Her education was very thorough, so much so that in 
Persia she studied Syriac by the aid of Latin lexicons 
and grammars, and used her Greek Testament for a 
better understanding of the Scriptures. Of amiable dis- 
position, her piety was deep and unostentatious, uni- 
form and aggressive. 



ASAHElr GRANT, M. D. ^ 

They sailed from Boston in the brig Angola, May 
II, 1835, and reached Smyrna, June 28. After a few 
days in the family of the apostolic Daniel Temple they 
sailed for Constantinople, where his medical skill gained 
for other missionaries access to wealthy Armenians 
whom they had not been able to reach before. He was 
now in his element; and though urged to tarry in the 
capital, he sailed for Trebizond, where he was again 
able to win the good-will of some in behalf of the mis- 
sionaries, and September 17 started on the long jour- 
ney by caravan for Persia. The path often led along 
the edge of dizzy precipices. At night they pitched 
their tent or slept in khans without floor or window. 
In these, without chair or table, they spread their beds 
on piles of leaves, with their baggage around them. In 
Koordistan their boxes and bales were nightly formed 
into an extemporaneous fort, with their tents in the 
middle. Passing Ararat, in full view of its perpetual 
snow, they reached Tabreez, six hundred miles from the 
sea, to find the cholera raging. A week later Dr. Grant 
and Mr. Perkins moved on to Oroomiah, where the doc- 
tor's skill so won the favor of the governor that he se- 
cured in less than a week the very pleasant premises 
still occupied by the mission. The location is high, the 
grounds spacious, with gardens and shaded courts. The 
summits of Koordistan look down on it from the west, 
and on the east lies the lake, 4,100 feet above the sea, 
and so salt that no fish can live in it. The plain that 
slopes from the mountains to the lake contains 500 
square miles, dotted with 300 villages. The whole 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

region is an irrigated garden abounding in vineyards 
and fruitful fields. The walls of Oroomiah, a city of 
20,000 souls, are four miles in circumference. Mt. Seir, 
the summer residence of the mission, is 1,400 feet above 
the lake, and beyond the mountains rise 14,000 feet into 
the region of perpetual snow. In the plain are found 
20,000 Nestorians. 

The mission families were safely housed in their new 
quarters just as the rainy season set in. Dr. Grant was 
at once thronged At his dispensary, while treating the 
nobility and bed- ridden at their homes. Moslems and 
Nestorians alike received attention for Jesus' sake. The 
aged were led by their children, and little ones by their 
mothers, some hardly able to walk, and others blind 
with ophthalmia. They sought, in gratitude, to kiss 
his feet and bathe his shoes with their tears. Even the 
mooUah stooped to kiss the hem of a Christian's gar- 
ment, and some said that in every prayer they thanked 
God for his coming. His cure of cataracts gave him 
immense influence. His name was carried even into 
remote Georgia. Princes were among his patients. 
He wisely won the good-will of the native doctors, 
whom he aided by instruction and medicine, declining 
their rich patients, except for special reasons. He re- 
quired certificates from priest, moollah, or rabbi that they 
• were proper objects of charity, thus preventing persecu- 
tion of inquirers. A Jacobite bishop, who once anathe- 
matized him, was compelled by the people to grant the 
certificates necessary to secure his services. 

Owing to the heat and decay of vegetable matter, 



ASAHEI^ GRANT, M. D. 9 

half die mission were sick much of the time. Besides, 
"the ferocity of the Moslems was so notorious that 
English friends at Tabreez considered our coming ex- 
tremely hazardous. Dr. Grant was the man for the 
place. His personal intrepidity, especially his skill as 
a physidan, soon won the confidence of all, and con- 
tributed to both the safety and the success of the mis- 
sion." He himself suffered from fever, cholera, and ma- 
laria; but while recovering from cholera, and suffering 
from fever and ague, he entertained a royal prince of 
Persia at his table and called the school together in 
vacation for an examination. Such was his tireless 
energy. 

Besides the care of his patients, he had charge of 
many surgical cases, a class in English, a medicar stu- 
dent, 'and the boys' boarding-school, the reception of 
Moslem visitors, the secular affairs of the mission, the 
superintendence of three village schools, a school for 
Moslems, a Sunday-school, and a voluminous corre- 
spondence ! No wonder he was occasionally laid aside. 

Mrs. Grant was no less devoted. Her heart was 
chiefly set on a female seminary, and no one from with- 
out can appreciate the difficulties she overcame. She 
was also untiring in her visits among all classes, alike 
in the palace and the hovel. 

But the Lord had other work for Dr. Grant. So 
often as he left the plain his health improved, and re- 
turning, it was worse; so that death or removal from 
Oroomiah was the alternative. Mrs. Grant was also 
removed by death, leaving a son and two daughters. 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

All things now pointed to the mountains, though the 
Koords were the incarnation of treachery and the he- 
reditary foes of the Nestorians. Unable to enter the 
mountains from Persia, Dr. Grant proposed, having 
secured an associate from Constantinople, to try the 
western side, and almost perished in a snowstorm in 
the pass of Dahar, at the west of Ararat. But when all 
seemed lost God sent some mountaineers to meet them, 
one of whom turned back and led them safely through. 
In returning from Constantinople, at Diarbekir, where 
H. A. Homes joined him, and at Mardin, they were in 
constant peril. The battle of Nizib had let loose the 
elements of anarchy. They heard themselves cursed in 
the streets, and plots were laid for their lives. 

An incident of this journey reveals the spirit of Dr. 
Grant. " Suppose," said his associate, " that when you 

reach , you find no safety, what will you do ?" " Go 

to ." " And if there, too, your way is hedged up?" 

" I will do so and so." " And what then ?" " I do not 
know now, but when God brings us there he will show 
us what to do." In this spirit he lived and by such faith 
accomplished so much for Christ. 

Mr. Homes here left him, and, disguised in Oriental 
dress, Dr. Grant went alone to Mosul, hoping from there 
to enter the mountains. He left Mosul attended by two 
Nestorians, a kawas from the Pasha, and a Koordish 
muleteer. Two days brought him to Akra, where he 
prescribed for the Koordish chief who was now respon- 
sible for his safety to the Nestorian frontier. On the 
third he entered Amadieh, the first European to pass 



ASAHEI. GRANT, M. D. II 

Within the gates. Out of a thousand houses, three- 
fourths were in ruins, and both the civil and military 
rulers were ill. Here he discovered the true course ot 
the river Zab, and soon after set out for Tyary. His 
kawas was loath to go nearer to that dreaded tribe. 
" To the borders of their territory," said Mohammed 
Pasha, of Mosul, "my head for yours; carry gold on it 
and fear nothing; but I warn you that I cannot protect 
you one step beyond." At the top of the pass over 
Tiira Matineh Dr. Grant saw for the first time the moun- 
tains of the Nestorians across the Vale of Berwer ; and 
as he approached Diiree, after a weary ride of seven 
hours, in rough guttural Syriac issued from the rocks 
above and on either side, " Who are you ? What do 
you want ? Where are you going ?" They asked the 
guide whether he was a Papist whom they might rob. 
The poor kawas lost no time in leaving. But when the 
people heard Dr. Grant speak their own tongue they 
gathered around him as a friend, and bade him wel- 
come. He was the guest of a bishop, in a church which 
was a cave enlarged, with a wall in front, lighted only 
by a small lamp. Patients thronged him from all that 
region. A high mountain range still separated him 
from Tyary. He had been warned not to enter without 
an escort from the Patriarch Mar Shimon. That would 
require ten days, and he felt that to throw himself on 
their hospitality would win their confidence. So, chan- 
ging his Turkish boots for hair sandals, with which to 
traverse the smooth ledges, he set oft. " The home of 
the Nestorians opened up before me," he says, " like an 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

amphitheatre of mountains, broken with dark defiles and 
deep glens, in a few of which I caught glimpses of the 
villages that had been their secure abode for ages. God 
himself had raised these mountain ramparts for their 
defence, and in this * munition of rocks ' he had pre- 
served them from the flames of persecution and the 
rage of war. I retired to a sequestered nook where I 
could feast on the scene and thank Him who had 
brought me through many perils to see a land so full 
of hope for the future of the East. My thoughts went 
back to the time when their missionaries traversed Asia 
as far as China. I looked at them in their semi-bar- 
barism, and my heart bled for them. But faith pictured 
these glens vocal with the praise of the Redeemer and 
their inhabitants going forth to preach his gospel ; but 
in order to this they must be prepared for this service. 
On, then, to the work !" 

Cautiously climbing over the cliffs, creeping along 
the slippery ledges, then riding down the steep zigzag 
to Lezan on the Zab, what reception is he likely to meet 
from the fierce men who never saw European before ? 
The only man he had ever seen from this region had 
groped over these mountains for six weeks to be re- 
lieved of cataract, and now he was the first to welcome 
his benefactor! The doctor was soon busy relieving 
others, and to this day the mountaineers tell how he 
came among them like Him who went about doing 
good. He was the guest of the village chief, sitting on 
the floor, dipping out of a large wooden bowl placed on 
a goat-skin that served both as table and cloth. In the 



ASAHEI. ORANT, M. D. I3 

evening, quite contrary to Oriental custom, some wo- 
men joined the circle with their husbands. We cannot 
follow him through all the perils of this mountain tour, 
which in its course brought him to the castle of Nurul- 
lah Bey, who put to death Schultz, the only European 
who had preceded him, and who, but for an illness that 
Dr. Grant relieved, would probably have served him in 
like manner. The doctor became a favorite, and de- 
parted for Oroomiah charged to come back as soon as 
possible and be his physician. 

While resting among friends his two daughters fol- 
lowed each other to the grave. A kind Providence 
gave him the privilege of smoothing their way into the 
dark valley. The welfare of his children now called 
him to his native land, and putting his little Henry 
Martyn into the saddle before him, he set out for the 
mountains. He entered them with a single unarmed 
footman. The emir was at Van planning with the 
Turks the subjugation of the mountaineers, and the 
doctor argued that, while the Koord was in the power 
of the Turk, the missionary was all the safer in the 
mountains. Once at least he slept in the snow, the 
thermometer below zero. Through a horde of nomad 
Koords he passed unmolested, and now and then he and 
his little son were pitched into the snow by the fall of the 
horse. Mar Shimon was then in the castle of Julamerk 
with Suleiman Bey, nephew of the emir. It was too 
late to pass through the hot plains near Mosul, so he 
went to Van, provided with all things needful for the 
journey by his Koordish host; then on to Erzroom, 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

where they found a hearty welcome from the English 
residents, one of whom, noticing the doctor's soldierly 
bearing, remarked, " A good soldier was spoiled when 
that man became a missionary." 

From the saddle in the mountains to the cabin of 
the steamer on the Black Sea and the littie brig at 
Smyrna was a great change, but he landed safely in 
Boston the 3d of October, 1840. A pleasant home 
in Utica was found for the litde stranger from Persia, 
and satisfactory arrangements were made for the two 
older sons. From that day God has blessed them all, 
so that no one can say that they have been forgotten 
by Him for whose sake their father left all. 

Every moment of his six months* stay in this land 
was fully occupied, and the following May found him 
again in Constantinople, having been held back from 
sailing in the ill-fated " President," as he intended. A 
serious illness only led him to suggest that another mis- 
sionary accompany him, so that in case of his death all 
the advantages of his acquaintance with the people might 
not be lost. 

Near Trebizond tender thoughts were awakened by 
sight of the spot where, six years before, he had pitched 
his tent with Mrs. Grant. With no attendant but his 
muleteer, riding one horse while another carried provis- 
ions, medicines, and books for distribution, he went on 
his way to Van. Evidences of Turkish violence were 
met on every hand. The year before he found many 
who had not seen bread for two months. Now many 
had perished with hunger, and thousands had fled else- 



ASAHKL GRANT, M. D. 1 5 

ivhere. Plague followed the famine, and a little later 
war would have arrested his steps. Part of the way it 
was a choice between danger in going on and starva- 
tion in delay. Sleeping on the way under the Roman 
walls of Malasgird, near the famous battiefield where 
Alp Arslan defeated Romanus Diogenes, A. D. 107 1, 
he passed round the eastern end of Lake Van, over a 
road where, last year, seventeen Armenians were mur- 
dered, and now unusually dangerous from the famine- 
smitten Koords, to Van, where he distributed books 
and tracts among the Armenians, and discovered cunei- 
form inscriptions in the monastery of the Seven Church- 
es. At Bash Kala, as he was too late for the weekly 
caravan to Julamerk, he hired two Koords to conduct 
him to Mar Shimon. They believe that reciting their 
prayers clears off old scores and leaves them free to 
begin anew; so on the second day, in a lonely spot, 
after going through their prayers, they demanded more 
pay, and refused to go on till it was paid. To have 
yielded would have invited plunder and murder; to 
resist was impossible, as they had arms and he had 
none. By a discreet firmness and a calm trust in God 
he induced them to go on, and at night was safe among 
old friends at Kerme. Next morning the patriarch wel- 
comed him cordially, and made ready to attend him 
to Julamerk. High up in the mountains, in a rock- 
hewn chapel below a ruined castle, he found the mother 
of Suleiman Bey, whose kind inquiries after his Htde 
boy opened afresh the fountain of tears. It was the 
Lord's day, and in Christ the lone father found comfort. 



l6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

Again they travelled over a glacier, where for mi^ps 
the mules hardly dented the frozen surface, and here 
stood a rude chapel in the perpetual snow. This was 
the loftiest pass in Koordistan, above the sea 14,000 
feet, and still the peak rose hundreds of feet higher. 
The plain of Mesopotamia is said to be visible in a clear 
day, though ten days distant. At Mar Ezeiah his heart 
was touched by the sound of a church bell in a sanctu- 
ary more than fourteen centuries old. In Bass the peo- 
ple offered him a house if he would come and live with 
them. Again another party of Koords sought to as- 
sassinate him, but finding he had already passed by, 
all turned back save one, who followed to beg medi- 
cine, and got it. In Asheta, where he spent a month 
teaching as he had opportunity, some took him for a 
spy of the Turks, others of the emir; but healing their 
sick and seeking their spiritual good, he won their con- 
fidence. In one day he removed cataracts from the 
eyes of seven. Here a messenger brought news of the 
death of two missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, and 
the illness of other two, Mr. and Mrs. Hinsdale, at Mo- 
sul, and he hastened to their relief. But the chief of 
Berwer, afraid of his influence at Mosul, had ordered his 
arrest. Ten men were sent to escort him through that 
district. On the way they refused to go on unless their 
remuneration was doubled. He replied, " You are ten 
and I am but one, and unarmed. If you choose to rob 
and kill me I will not resist, but I will not accede to 
your demand. If you keep your agreement I will re- 
ward your faithfulness at the end of the journey, but not 



ASAHEL GRANT, M. D. 1/ 

before." He would not purchase present safety at the 
cost of exposing his associates to similar exactions. 
Awed by his courage, they declared they were ready to 
die for him. Two of them gave out exhausted, but the 
rest kept on through the perilous way before them. 
Not daring to go openly through the Nestorian villages 
of Berwer, lest they should be punished for allowing him 
to pass, they moved silently in single file in the dark- 
ness. The fires of the shepherds enabled them to avoid 
them, and by a detour to pass two Koordish villages. 
At the second a castle overhung the road, and they 
beard the watch-cry of the sentinels, but in silence 
passed through a ravine and left it behind them. Ford- 
ing the river, sunrise found them on the summit three 
miles from Amadieh. Near Mosul he made another de- 
tour to avoid the Arabs who were plundering the villa- 
ges, and finally passed through the gate just in time to 
rescue Mr. Hinsdale, who seemed about to follow his 
associate to the grave. ^ 

As a specimen of the men with whom Dr. Grant 
had to deal, let us glance at the Pasha of Mosul. When 
several pashas had been assassinated by the citizens, he 
was sent from Constantinople as the only man equal to 
the situation. He found every large house a fort, from 
which the partisans of the owner shot down their rivals; 
and instead of taking quarters within the palace walls, 
he fortified a country seat outside, where he defied the 
assassins, who fell one after another by the hand of his 
secret agents. Then he disarmed the city, and putting 
hundreds of the .leaders to death, confiscated their 

7 



l8 AMERICAN HKRCES, 

property. This energy marked the whole of his long 
rule in Mosul. The Koords when they rebelled were 
quelled as sternly, and some of them were impaled where 
their clansmen could see their torture as they entered 
the city. The Arabs were punished with equal sever- 
ity, and so were the Yezidees of the Sinjar. But though 
the land was secure from rebellion, it was not from his 
rapacity. His tax-gatherers were worse than robbers, 
and whole villages fled from an oppression they could 
not endure. Flight, however, was punished so severely 
that they had to flee singly and at night. When the 
firman arrived reserving to the Sultan the right to in- 
flict capital punishment, he assembled the leading men 
to hear it read, and when he was assured that they un- 
derstood it, he said to them, " If the Sultan thinks I 
can govern Mosul without this power he knows nothing 
about it;" and at a signal the heads of all then in pris- 
on were tossed down before the assembly, which was 
then dismissed. 

In February, 1842, it fell to Dr. Grant to go again 
to the mountains. Ismail Pasha was in rebellion, with 
Amadieh for headquarters. He was therefore obliged 
to go around by the Persian side, climbing the rocky 
pass that overhangs the Ravandtiz River to the town 
of that name. It was soon after the death of the famous 
Kiir Bey, who slaughtered the Christians and plundered 
their villages. Criminals he maimed and put to death 
according to the letter of Mohammedan law. Many, 
deprived of hands, eyes, and other members, bore wit- 
ness to his severity. 



ASAHEI. GRANT, M. D. I9 

He was now the first of modern travellers to visit 
the two Assyrian monuments at Sidek. The upper 
one, called the Keli-shin, or Green Pillar, is of a hard, 
compact stone, whose cuneiform inscriptions are still 
legible after the storms of more than two thousand 
years. From the summit of the pass the plain of Meso- 
potamia was seen stretching away farther than the eye 
can reach, while the Lake of Oroomiah sparkled in the 
morning sun, apparently just below him. To the south 
and west a vast sea of mountains rolled, wave on wave, 
here and there bursting into foam, for so seemed the 
snowy summits in the morning light Thence he soon 
reached his old home in Oroomiah, 

In a little more than a month he was off again for 
the mountains. The Turks were advancing from Van 
to punish some nomad Persians, and the road was cov- 
ered with the fugitives — ^men, women, and children, 
flocks and herds. Descending towards the Zab from a 
pass of 8,000 feet elevation, he visited the Armenian 
church at Kandi Kileeseh, built, they say, 1,700 years 
ago. At Zarany the Koords refused him shelter from 
the cold, and though both cold and hungry he slept 
outside, glad to get off alive. The Turkish army was 
behind, and pressing on he was soon kindly received in 
the summer quarters of NAriillah Bey at BerchuUah. 
Ismail Pasha was there to organize opposition to the 
Turks. Dr. Grant changed his Frank dress for Koord- 
ish, and set out for Amadieh. At Tall, the only level 
place he could find for his mules was the roof of one 
house which formed the door-yard of the house above 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

it, and the people, though wretchedly poor, readily 
shared with him what they had. While the emir made 
his headquarters in Tehoma preparatory to his attack 
on Amadieh, Dr. Grant made a tour to Mar Ezeiah. 
Long before they were near enough to be distinguished 
the people raised the war-cry. At once the distant 
shepherds responded, and came running, gun in hand. 
Some hurried to cut off his retreat, others to dispute his 
approach ; but as soon as he was recognized all was peace 
and welcome. This explains one of their measures of 
distance: "So many guns," i. e., the distance at which 
the firing of a gun can be heard. 

After four days he returned to the emir, and occu- 
pied a booth large enough to lie down in, and so low 
that he could stand up only in the middle. Again he 
is on the way to Tyary, over a slope swept by ava- 
lanches so smooth to the edge of the cliff below that in 
one place it was necessary for one to take the mule by 
the tail and another by the head, and hold him up till 
he had crossed safely the slippery steep. Nor was this 
the only danger he encountered. Heiyo, the chief of 
Mar Sawa, was one of the worst men among the Nes- 
torians. He was under the anathema of the patriarch, 
and therefore an oudaw; but if mission families were 
to live in Asheta he must be made to know that we 
were friends. So the doctor called on him again and 
again. In one of these visits Heiyo was surly, and 
even hinted how easily he could put him out of the 
way, drawing his finger along his dagger's edge in the 
presence of his cut-throat followers. Dr. Grant replied. 



ASAHEL GRANT, M. D. 21 

**I am your guest, and you can do with me as you 
please, but I am distressed that you should by your 
sins provoke the anger of God;" and though at first 
the ruffian declared he would turn Moslem sooner than 
yield to Mar Shimon, the result of his mediation was that 
the anathema was withdrawn, and the church of Mar 
Sawa, one of the oldest in the mountains, reconsecrated. 
At such risk did the fearless missionary inherit the 
blessing pronounced upon peacemakers. 

Refused a guide on account of the outiawry of Heiyo, 
Dr. Grant went alone over debris from the crags above 
that reached down to the river, often dismounting to 
release the feet of his mule from the stones. The bridge 
at Chumba was one hundred and fifty feet long and 
three in width, formed of poplar-trees covered with 
wicker-work instead of boards. The vibration of the 
structure is appalling. The mules broke through, and 
had to be lifted up bodily by several men. Five and a 
half hours brought him to the summer quarters of the 
Malek of Tyary, where, from a dirty wooden bowl filled 
with milk — sometimes kept for weeks in a goat-skin 
never washed, and so acid as to excoriate the throat — 
which was eaten with millet-bread, compared with which 
rye is a luxury, he made his repast oflf a greasy goat- 
skin as a table. In all these journeys Dr. Grant never 
forgot his missionary character; but the excitement of 
the times was unfavorable to any good impression. 
Mar Shimon had received friendly letters from the Pasha 
of Mosul, and was encouraged to oppose the emir. The 
doctor counselled friendship with all, but did not dare 



22 AMERICAN HEROES* 

advise submission to the Turk, in view of the oppression 
sure to follow. Nor could the patriarch induce his peo- 
ple to favor the Turks; so he lost the friendship of the 
pasha, who afterwards found the subjugation of the 
Nestorians more for his interest, and the emir hated 
him for his correspondence with the pasha. 

Meanwhile the mission was located at Asheta, and a 
school of thirty pupils was opened. Mar Shimon wished 
to compel each &mily to furnish a poplar-tree for the 
mission house, but Dr. Grant objected to compulsion, 
and obtained first the written consent of the emir, to 
forestall any complaint. It being too late to build that 
season, he fitted up a house in Lezan for a winter sta- 
tion, and sent for Mr. Hinsdale to come from Mosul, 
so that he enjoyed for the first time the presence of a 
Christian friend in that field of danger and privation. 
Now began a great fight of affliction. Bishop Yoosuf 
returned to Persia and Mr. Hinsdale to Mosul, leaving 
him solitary. Shortly after he was summoned to the 
patriarch at Chumba, and on the way met a messenger 
from the emir requiring immediate attendance upon 
him. Was it to put him out of the way ? The patri- 
arch and chief urgendy dissuaded him fi-om going, but 
he thought only of the future of the mission, not of per- 
sonal safety. He found the Koords gathering for mis- 
chief on the road before him ; but as the only alternative 
was to pass through a hostile tribe, he kept on. His 
guides, however, to shun greater danger, led him by a 
goat-path over the summit of the mountains. Arriving 
at the Castle of Julamerk, he was led through winding 



ASAHEL GRANT, M. D. 23 

passages into a vaulted room that he had never seen 
before. Was it his prison ? In an hour he was sum- 
moned, to find that his coming had convinced his host 
that the reports of his building a castle at Asheta were 
groundless, and he was honored with the presence of 
the ladies for the rest of the evening. 

Deeds of violence, meanwhile, were carried on with- 
out. Ismail Pasha was then arranging to plunder the 
borders of the Pashalic of Mosul, though at the same 
time the emir was in correspondence with the Pasha of 
Erzroom, aiming to unite with him against the Nestori- 
ans. Prostrated by ague and so delayed, the mother of 
Suleiman Bey found opportunity to warn him against 
the treachery of her race. He returned to Asheta in 
December, worn by illness and fetigue, and two days 
later was summoned to Mosul to the bedside of Mr. 
Hinsdale, too late to save him, but not too late to save 
himself trom assassination, as the Pasha of Mosul had 
just written to the chief of Nirwa to despatch him pri- 
vately. The pasha, however, though surprised, received 
him outwardly as a dear friend, and called on him as 
before for medical advice. 

April found him again en route to the mountains, 
with the writer as an associate. The kawas provided 
by the pasha left us before crossing the Tigris, most 
likely according to instructions. We visited Khorsa- 
bad, where Mons. Batta was then uncovering the palace 
of Sargon. We also saw an extreme case of poverty 
and misery at Amadieh, such as one of us, at least, had 
never imagined. Five armed Koords were sent from 



24 AMERICAN HEROES. 

thence to escort us through Berwer. The road to 
Asheta was so rough that the new-comer preferred to 
walk, and was content to be weary when he looked back 
and saw the hind feet of the doctor's mule dangling 
down the mountain-side, while a native helped him to 
dismount only to repeat the experiment. 

At the mission house the workmen, with some tu- 
mult and show of force, demanded higher wages after 
Easter; but Dr. Grant calmly wrote on a paper the 
names of the leaders, and they quietly resumed their 
labors. Bloody encounters among themselves were by 
no means rare ; and one was brought to the doctor ter- 
ribly mangled, who had recklessly attacked a Koordish 
village single-handed. Indeed, daggers were drawn 
within sight of our door on most trifling pretexts. 
Meanwhile the political horizon grew darker. The 
Porte refused firmans to Dr. Smith and Rev. E. E. 
Bliss, then on their way to join us, because they did 
not want Franks, at that time in the mountains, to wit- 
ness their evil deeds. Mar Shimon summoned his men 
against the emir, but they refused obedience. Even 
his anathema, falling on all alike, lost its power. The 
injury done by a handful only irritated the Koords. 
Bader Khan Bey and his Koords were already on the 
march. Indeed, late in April we opened our eyes one 
morning to find five of his armed men seated around 
the room, waiting for us to awake to summon Dr. Grant 
into the presence of that chief. He had given his prom- 
ise to go, and would not break his word. He left Ashe- 
ta for Buhtan the 6th of June. Passing up a narrow 



ASAHEL GRANT, M. D. ^5 

glen into the mountains between strong forts recently 
built or repaired, eighteen miles brought him to the 
white castles of Derguleh. In a grassy dell near a 
stream stood the green tents of the emir, who expressed 
surprise at his coming, and added, " Do not interfere 
with us." The doctor was received kindly, but the sub- 
jugation of the Nestorians was spoken of without re- 
serve. It was agreed, both by Turks and Koords, that 
his property and person should be secure, and the whole 
valley of Asheta spared for his sake, if the people would 
only pay tribute. He thanked them for their kindness, 
but could not speak for the people. Bader Khan Bey 
was completely under the influence of the mooUahs, 
and much of the cruelties that followed must be laid to 
their charge. The preparations for invasion were daily 
maturing, and as he could do no missionary work. Dr. 
Grant asked leave to return to the mountains, and a 
guide and purse of gold were sent him by the Bey. 
The first he accepted, the gold he returned with thanks, 
and four days later reached Asheta, where his attend- 
ants soon communicated their fears to all around. 

It is not proposed to go over again the sad story of 
the massacre, which has been told both in the fuller life 
of Dr. Grant and in the Ely volume. Dr. Grant heard 
of the slaughter in Diss, and none, even among the rel- 
atives of the slain, felt it more deeply. He rose from a 
sleepless bed to hear that the main army was advancing 
from the northwest, southeast, and south. Other hos- 
tile bands of Koords closed in on their victims, while 
the Turks stood guard at the southwest. As long as 



26 AMERICAN HEROES. 

he could help those he loved so well he feared neither 
peril nor privation, and had he known that this was his 
last look on those scenes, he could not have left more 
reluctantly. Much as he suffered afterwards, nothing 
equalled the agony of that hour. As all other roads 
were closed, he left by the one he first entered, and 
spent the last night with the same aged Bishop of Dii- 
ree, whom he h^d not seen since 1839 — ^the first to wel- 
come, he was the last to bid him farewell. Rising at 
midnight and keeping a mountain between him and the 
Turks, he passed on and reached Mosul in safety. 

Dr. Grant now devoted himself to the benefit of the 
refugees who fled from the mountains. Thousands 
were without money or food, and almost naked. Fifty 
of his old friends came one morning and threw them- 
selves on his hospitality. He at once hired a house, 
selected the widows and orphans, with some of the more 
infirm, fed and clothed them, formed the children into 
a school, and daily sought to comfort them with the 
comfort wherewith he himself was comforted of God. 

Thus the winter passed, when a low t)rphus-fever 
broke out among the fugitives. It attacked them in 
the villages and in the city, and raged among the Turk- 
ish soldiers, till out of the ninety under the care of Dr. 
Grant twelve followed each other to the grave. The 
same fatality prevailed elsewhere. Of these last some 
were dismissed at once when the disease appeared. A 
few who had been allowed to lodge in the courts of the 
papal churches were now driven out lest the question 
of burial should come up in a new form; but Dr. Grant 



ASAHEI* GRANT, M. B. 27 

only redoubled his efforts as the people needed more 
help. Littie did he know that he was about to be called 
to show his love for them by sharing their illnesses and 
literally dying with them. But so it was. He who had 
been in deaths oft was brought in safety through them 
all to die with the people whom he loved even to the 
last. The last words he ever wrote were addressed to 
his son Edwin : " In all these commotions we are safe 
under the protecting power of God. His arm has been 
our shield in every danger, and we trust him still and 
ever." The letter, in its disjointed style, shows that 
disease was already upon him. Four days after, he re- 
signed himself to the care of Dr. Azariah Smith, who 
had arrived just in time to minister during his last ill- 
ness. On Sabbath he prayed for the Nestorians with 
such fervor as to give new force to the most familiar 
words. Dr. Smith said, " It seemed as though I never 
understood their meaning before." His mind now wan- 
dered. At one time it was on his work, at another on 
his children : " My dear children. God will take care 
of them and of his own cause." Next to the kingdom 
of Christ they were uppermost in his thoughts. And 
thus he died, April 24, 1844. 

He was not cut off in the midst of the perils he 
gladly encountered in the service of his Lord, lest some 
future missionary should hesitate when called to meet 
peril for Jesus* sake. Nor did he die at home, for the 
grief of kindred could not have honored Christ as did 
the tears of strangers and even Moslems around his 
grave. Some rebuked us because, they said, while all 



28 AMERICAN HEROES. 

Mosul was in tears, we only did not weep. When Mar 
Shimon heard that he was dead, he said, " My people 
are gone ; now my friend is gone too, and nothing re- 
mains to me but God." 

Dr. Wright, who succeeded him in Oroomiah, 
writes : " In Persia I have heard both prince and peas- 
ant speak his praise. In Koordistan, both in the casde 
of the emir, in the home of Mar Shimon, and in the 
hovels of Tyary, I have noticed their veneration for his 
character." 

Dr. D. W. Marsh writes : " Persons in places as wide 
apart as Telkeif and Mardin have spoken passionately 
of Dr. Grant ; and with all allowance for Oriental hy- 
perbole, the man who excites such rapturous praise so 
long after his death must have had a character that 
made a deep impression. I have never seen him my- 
self, but the image formed by the living words and tones 
of natives, both Moslem and Christian, to a command- 
ing figure and great nobleness of manner adds a life so 
frank and manly, a policy at once so courteous and so 
firm, as to win enthusiastic regard. Fearless to an ex- 
treme, full of faith to enthusiasm, at home in the Koord- 
ish castle or the Nestorian hovel, and everywhere a man 
of God, whose bones will be wept over and his memo- 
rial set up when the great army comes to the spot 
where he fell," 



V. 



l|eV, Williaiii Goodell, D, D, 



BY REV. S. C. BARTLETT, D. D. 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS 



V. WILLIAM GOODBLL.* 

Many years ago nothing could be found that marked 
the birthplace of William Goodell in the little town of 
Templeton, Mass., but the traces of a cellar-hole on a 
hillside. But in the year 1792 there stood on that spot 
a one-story house, containing a garret floored with 
rough boards, and two rooms below. One of these 
rooms answered all the purposes of kitchen, dining- 
room, family room, and parlor; the other, reached by 
passing through the first, was a small bedroom, con- 
taining a bed for the parents, and beneath it a trundle- 
bed that was rolled out at night for the children. It 
was three miles from the Congregational church and 
from the family physician, but not far, apparendy, from 

* The materials for this sketch have been drawn almost wholly 
from the ample store contained in the volume, " Forty Years in 
the Turkish Empire," by E. D. G. Prime, D. D., often in the words 
of the author, and, when practicable, in Mr. Goodell's own lan- 
guage. 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

the district school. In this little cottage was raised up 
to maturity a family of eight children, of whom William 
Goodell was one. There was no lock or bolt on any 
door, and no key to any trunk or drawer, so litde was 
there to protect The family library consisted chiefly, 
if not solely, of the family Bible, " Watts' Psalms and 
Hymns," Doddridge's "Rise and Progress," Pike's 
" Cases of Conscience," the second volume of " Fox's 
Book of Martyrs," and the " Assembly's Catechism." 
But this scanty religious aliment nourished a most no- 
ble and godly father and mother. 

Mrs. Goodell, the mother, though called to a life of 
pinching economy, and at length of protracted and 
painful illness, was the embodiment of delicacy, neat- 
ness, taste, and industry, as well as of meekness, kind- 
ness, and devoted piety. Her son used in after days to 
remember her as she sat carding wool by the light of a 
pine knot and singing " beautiful hymns " to her chil- 
dren; as ministering to the needy from her scanty 
means, and governed in all her speech by the law of 
love; as absorbed with the desire that her children 
might be the children of God ; and as passing away at 
last from her bed of suffering in triumph, with a " halle- 
lujah " on her lips, interrupted in the midst, and " fin- 
ished on the other side of Jordan." " O my kind 
mother," exclaimed the son a generation later, " what 
would I not give to see thy gentle face once more, and 
on my knees to ask ten thousand pardons for every 
unkind word I ever answered thee and for every grief 
or pain I unnecessarily caused thee !" 



WILUAM GOODEI.I.. 5 

The piety of Mr. Goodell, the father, was of the 
rarest type. He seemed literally to meditate day and 
night in God*s law. He was a man of prayer — ^praying 
aloud as he rode on horseback, praying in his heart for 
the stranger whom he met, praying over every rod of 
ground he cultivated. He was also full of the mission- 
ary spirit before the full time of missions was come. 
Every Sunday, whatever might be the weather, found 
him and his on the way to the distant church. He sat 
on the stout old family horse, holding one child in his 
arms, the wife sat on a pillion behind him with another 
child in her arms, and still a third child clung to her. 
After the Sunday dinner, which had been cooked the 
day before, the family were summoned to the catechism, 
which they were expected to have learned by heart. 
When they slept in the trundle-bed, the children were 
taught to close their day with the Lord's Prayer and 
" Now I lay me down to sleep." Mr. Goodell was so 
conscientious in his dealings that he often seemed to be 
more careful for the interests of others than for his own. 
The world did not go smoothly with him. There had 
been a time when he owned a hundred acres free from 
encumbrance. But a lung-fever, which laid him aside 
from his work for a year, was followed by long-contin- 
ued illness in the family. His property melted away, 
till in the later years of his life he lived on a pension of 
ninety-six dollars a year, paid him as a soldier of the 
Revolution. "And though to his children he left no 
inheritance, no, not so much as a cent, yet," said his 
son William, " in his godly example and prayers he has 

8 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

left them the very richest legacy which any &ther ever 
left to his children." When he died at the venerable 
age of eighty -six, his intercourse with heaven had be- 
come so constant in his later years that " we can hardly 
suppose," says the same son, " it was ever interrupted 
in his waking hours fifteen minutes at a time." 

In such a home as this was William Goodell bom, 
in the midst of a furiouiS snowstorm, on the 14th day of 
February, 1792. The boy early proved to be full of 
vivacity and humor and to have a remarkably retentive 
memory. But his constitution was delicate. It was evi- 
dent that he never could endure a life of manual labor, 
and no higher expectation was entertained for him than 
that he might become a teacher in the lower branches 
of education. He was always a conscientious boy, but 
not a professor of religion till the age of nineteen. In a 
revival of religion at that time (A. D. 181 1), the faithful 
prayers of his "gentle mother" were answered, and 
very likely her blessed memory honored — for she had 
passed away two years before — by his public avowal of 
faith in Christ. He had then no purpose to be either a 
missionary or a preacher. But the Lord led him on 
step by step. It had become the intense desire of the 
father's heart that he should be a minister of the gospel. 
He encouraged the son to attempt an education, although 
he had no money and knew no way to bring it about. 
At length they heard that beneficiary aid was given at 
Phillips Academy, and the son caught at the hope. 
He walked and rode sixty miles to Andover, and " foot- 
ed it the whole distance " home again, weary and foot- 



WII.LIAM GOODELL. 7 

sore, with little encouragement and a heavy heart. The 
charity fund was overloaded, other applicants were 
waiting, and he must in any case get on for one quar- 
ter without help. But how? And on this question 
they prayed and thought, and thought and prayed, till 
the time eame for the term to begin. Then, " without 
money, without credit, and without any plan," he put 
his books and clothing into his tfunk, strapped it upon 
his back, and took up his march. 

GETTING AN EDUCATION. 

There is no braver or more pathetic sight than that 
of William Goodell plodding through that sixty miles, 
with the trunk chafing his back to the permanent injury 
of his spine, the boys hooting at him in the streets, and 
he, weary and silent, steadily holding the middle of the 
road to save extra steps till he stood on Andover hill ; 
depositing his trunk in the entry of the Principal, going 
forth with list after list of licensed boarding-places, to 
be refused by every one, and bursting into tears on his 
fruidess return; then afterwards stealing out unper- 
ceived to find a horte in an unlicensed house, that of a 
profane and intemperate shoemaker with an earnest 
Christian wife. It makes one's heart ache to think 
of it. 

His first lesson showed the quality of the youth. It 
was in the Latin Grammar. When called on, he recited 
the first page verbatim^ coarse print and fine, notes and 
all, then the next page, and the third in Hke manner, 
more in extent than was assigned, and much that was 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

only to be read and not recited. Said Mr. Adams, the 
Principal, " You must have studied this before." Said 
young Goodell, " I never saw a Latin Grammar till you 
gave me this." He had made his mark. He was put 
in a class with two other choice boys, and the three be- 
came the delight of Mr. Adams; never absent, never 
tardy or unprepared, and mastering their lessons " till 
it seemed real fun for' him to hear us." Near the end 
of the quarter Lieutenant-Governor Phillips volun- 
teered to bear the expenses of the three, to their inex- 
pressible relief. 

In his second year at Andover his uncle, Solomon 
Goodell, of Jamaica, Vt., had' written to Preceptor 
Adams to know if the young man was " worth raising," 
and received such a reply that he sent him a fine yoke 
of oxen. These were sold next day for money enough 
to pay the bills of the year. So had a good Provi- 
dence smoothed the way of the penniless boy. 

Here the influence of that admirable teacher, Mr. 
John Adams, the preaching of Porter, Woods, and 
Stuart, and all the new surroundings gradually and 
greatly changed the thoughts and purposes of this boy 
**just out of the woods." But the most memorable 
event in his experience at this time, perhaps, was his 
attendance on the ordination of the first young Ameri- 
can missionaries, Judson, Newell, Hall, Nott, and Rice, 
at Salem. The day was bitterly cold, the way slippery, 
and the young men, of whom he was one, walked twenty 
miles, straining every muscle to arrive in time. The 
new and solemn service made a profound inipression. 



WILLIAM GOODELL. 9 

At the close he started for Andover without rest or re- 
freshment, but became so worn out as to need the sup- 
port of his friends, and reached home so exhausted as 
to lie down before the fire in an alarming state of ex- 
haustion. But he felt amply repaid, for it filled his 
heart for life with the missionary spirit. 

From Phillips Academy he entered Dartmouth 
College in company with his friend, Daniel Temple, 
each induced by the offer of a hundred dollars a year 
fi*om the beneficiary funds of Kimball Union Academy, 
at Meriden, N. H. Every winter he taught school. In 
every school he aimed to secure the spiritual good of 
his pupils, and in Keene, N. H., his efforts were attend- 
ed with very deep religious interest. 

While in college he was wholly unambitious, never 
spending a thought on college honors. He was hin- 
dered by his delicate health, which limited his time of 
actual study to little more than three hours a day. But 
those were hours of intense and earnest concentration. 
And he graduated with the third appointment — Presi- 
dent James Marsh and Bishop Carlton Chase outranking 
him. The glimpses that we get of his college life reveal 
the same mingling of genial humor, intense earnestness, 
activity, and piety which characterized his whole subse- 
quent life. A letter from Temple — his academy, college, 
and seminary chum, his fellow-missionary, and life-long 
friend — written December 21, 1816, while Temple was 
teaching at Boscawen and Goodell at Keene, incident- 
ally implies all this and more. Temple opens with a 
subject that lay near both their hearts, " the proceed- 



V 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

ings of the infatuated Legislature of this State/* which 
" with gigantic strides directs its course towards Dart- 
mouth," to " transform our good old Alma Mater and 
stuff their evanescent university with professorships as 
fugitive as the gales of autumn." But he trusts " the 
same Providence which has hitherto blasted their pur- 
poses and turned their designs into foolishness." It 
was the famous Dartmouth College case. Temple is 
boarding with a physician " as risible as yourself," and 
thinks of his friend on a certain occasion as " walking 
with a * lady by your side.' " He himself would gladly 
" dispense with about a score of giggling boys from his 
school." Their friend Boardman, of Norwich, had 
"brought a piece of cloth, a present to Goodell and 
Temple " from certain ladies of his and their acquaint- 
ance, enough for two pairs of trousers. Temple antici- 
pates longingly a return to their "beloved scenes of 
mutual friendship and colloquial felicity," inquires ear- 
nestly for the religious aspect of things at Keene, re- 
ports the spiritual condition at Boscawen, laments his 
own unworthiness, and invites his friend to meet him 
often before the throne of their Father. 

During their, college course (in 1815) occurred the 
most powerful revival ever witnessed in the institution, 
the most remarkable indeed that Goodell ever knew. 
The number of pious students in the upper classes had 
been very small — only one in the Senior class. There 
was no prayer-meeting conducted by students. The 
Theological Society, apparently just formed, held its 
sessions with locked doors and barred windows, to se- 



WILUAM GOODEI.L. II 

cure Itself against interruption. But about this time the 
society unanimously voted that each member should, 
during the coming week, converse with at least three 
fellow-students on personal religion. They did so — 
" some of them with thirty times three," for at once the 
Spirit descended in a most remarkable manner. Many 
of the finest scholars in college and many of the young 
people of the village were converted. The room of 
Temple and Goodell was thronged from morning till 
night with inquirers. Goodell never wearied of recall- 
ing that precious time and its bright array of converts, 
among whom he specially enumerates Professors Tor- 
' rey, Fisk, Bush, Upham, and Haddock (and Miss Lang, 
afterwards his wife), Presidents Wheeler, Marsh, and 
Gushing, Bishop Chase, and " the beloved missionary, 
Levi Spaulding," who " gave his heart to God under a 
pine-tree that will be remembered in heaven." In his 
old age Goodell wrote, " I do not know that we were 
ever more honored of God as his instruments of doing 
good than during those blessed years." 

MISSIONARY IMPULSES. 

Near the close of his Freshman year he seems first 
to have raised the question of entering the missionary 
work. He was profoundly stirred by the life of Harriet 
Newell. " I could not restrain my tears while looking 
on her likeness." In July the following year he was 
present at the ordination of six missionaries at New- 
bury port— Mills, Richards, Meigs, Warren, Bardwell, 
and Poor — and we learn nothing further of the leadings 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. t 

1 

of his mind in this direction till we find him at Ando- t 

ver (in 1817), a member of that "sacred band" — with 
its secret constitution written in cipher — the missionary 
band. Here the personal contact with Fisk, Parsons,  

and Spaulding pressed home the question of duty, till 
he adopted their determination " to stop his ears against 
all the apparendy restricted calls of duty to remain at 
home." One difficulty remained — the dependent con- 
dition of his father. This he removed by leaving the 
seminary long enough to secure for him a pension as a 
soldier of the Revolution, after which, receiving his 
father's approval and blessing, he recorded, Feb. 12, 

1818, " And now 'tis done Send me where Thou * 

wilt." - 

During this year his heart was cheered by another ' 

missionary ordination at Salem, where, he records of a 
litde company of ordained and expectant missionaries, 
** there were eleven of us together, a number equal to 
that of the aposties when they returned to Jerusalem 
from Olivet." It would seem to have been in this year 
that another great life-question was virtually settied for 
him. He had been greatiy exercised as to a suitable 
companion, " had prayed more in reference to this sub? 
ject than in reference to any other temporal subject 
whatever," and had often wished that some maternal ' 

association or Moravian church would settle the matter 
for him. But at length, in passing through the town of 
Holden one vacation, he was "providentially introduced 
to a lady of singularly sweet disposition, modest appear- 
ance, and dignified demeanor, bearing the name of Abi- 



WILLIAM GOODELL. I3 

gail P. Davis.** And from that day till the week before 
his death, when he penned these words, he had " been 
so thankful that the business was-not left to any mater- 
nal association or to any church or to any other organ- 
ization under heaven." His last writing was an expres- 
sion of love and commendation for this wife of his youth 
and his old age. His own personal success, however, 
did not prevent him from offering his services to his 
friend Thurston in an emergency —suggesting the lady, 
bringing about an introduction, securing the publish- 
ment of the banns, and, in company with a lady friend,- 
visiting Boston to procure the outfit — ^all within the 
space of three weeks before Thurston sailed for the 
Sandwich Islands. 

While in the theological seminary he spent his va- 
cations in evangelistic work, visiting from house to 
house, distributing tracts, and holding religious meet- 
ings. His labors at Newcasde, N. H., were especially 
blessed. After his graduation he made an engagement 
to visit the churches and awaken an interest in foreign 
missions. He began in the towns upon the Hudson 
River, in one of which, the town of Catskill, he was 
thrown from a carriage, and the beginning of his mis- 
sionary labors came near being the end. He travelled 
thence westward through the then almost unsetded por- 
tions of New York, Ohio, and Indiana, and afterwards, 
at the request of Secretary Evarts, visited the Indian 
missions at the Southwest, travelling on horseback 
much of the way through a wilderness. 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

IN MALTA AND BEIRUT. 

On the 9th of December, 1822, Mr. Goodell, with 
his wife, to whom he had been united three weeks pre- 
viously, set sail, appointed to the mission in Palestine, 
and expecting to labor at Jerusalem. But they never 
saw the Holy City. For when, long afterwards, a friend 
invited him to take the journey without expense, though 
Jerusalem had been the dream and goal of his early 
life, he would not leave his work to enjoy the gratifica- 
tion. 

They landed first at Malta, as was then the custom, 
to commence the study of the languages, and, after a few 
months, at Beirut. Here, though their stay was intend- 
ed to be but temporary, they entered at once on active 
labors, meanwhile pursuing the study of the Turkish, 
Arabic, and Armenian languages. The polyglot con- 
dition of the missionary company then gathered in Bei- 
rut is illustrated by a remark in one of his letters; "We 
almost daily read the Scriptures in ancient Greek, mod- 
ern Greek, ancient Armenian, modern Armenian, Ar- 
meno-Turkish, Arabic, Italian, and English, and fre- 
quendy hear them read in Syriac, Hebrew, and French." 
It was in the midst of the war between Greece and Tur- 
key. Here came their first trial. A band of Greek 
sailors landed on a pillaging expedition, and came to 
his door, but left him unmolested. On their departure 
the Albanians and Bedouins rushed in, terrified his fam- 
ily, threatened his life, and committed violence and dep- 
redations. By the ingenious device of sending a pic- 



] WILLIAM GOODELL. 15 



[ 



ture of the. scene to the Pasha of St. Jean D'Acre, how- 
ever, he obtained redress. 

Soon after this commotion was fairly over persecu- 
tion commenced. It was made by the" ecclesiastics a 
penal offence to salute the missionaries or render them 
any service whatever. The Turks joined the combina- 
tion. The missionaries were in constant apprehension 
of personal violence when abroad, and at night knew 
not what assaults might be made on them before morn- 
ing. For two years Mr. Goodell seldom closed his eyes 
to sleep without first thinking over the means of escape, 
and seldom walked abroad without looking for places 
of refuge. 

At length new complications arose from the Greco- 
Turkish war. The Turks were exasperated against all 
Europeans, and the situation of the missionaries be- 
came so perilous that, as Mr. Goodell wrote, " we almost 
nod now and then to see whether our heads are on our 
shoulders." His family were sent for safety to the 
mountains, where he could visit them only by stealth. 
The continuance of the troubles determined them (in 
1828) to withdraw for a time to Malta, where then, for 
similar reasons, nearly all the American missionaries on 
the Mediterranean were gathered. But already he had 
commenced the great work of translating the Bible into 
Armeno-Turkish, and while at Malta issued the entire 
New Testament and sent it forth with a characteristic 
prayer and benediction. 



l6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

TRANSFER TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 

And notv, at length (in 1831), the American Board 
sent him to the chief scene of his life-long labors, that 
city of unrivalled situation, Constantinople. His wife 
and the ladies who accompanied her were supposed to 
be the first American ladies who ever visited that fa- 
mous city, as Dr. Schauffler, who arrived a year later, 
was the first person to introduce a cooking-stove and a 
rocking-chair into the Turkish Empire.* Two months 
after GoodelFs arrival in Constantinople, just as he was 
established in his house and ready for work, came that 
terrible conflagration which swept more than a square 
mile of the city with indiscriminate destruction. It not 
only consumed nearly every article of his property, in- 
cluding grammars, dictionaries, commentaries, transla- 
tions and manuscripts of every kind, but brought him 
at last a narrow escape with his life. " It reminded one 
of the fires of the last day." His losses were eventually, 
in great measure, made up by friends. But he was for 
a time a wanderer, and three weeks later found himself 
in the vicinity of the plague and the cholera with a new- 
born son in the family. At this time Commodore Por- 
ter, our excellent charg6 d* affaires, kindly offered him a 
home for the winter, which was gratefully accepted; and 
thus commenced an intimacy terminated only by the 
death of Porter. He entered at once on his work with 
that mingled activity, devotedness, and conciliation 

 This was said to the writer by Dr. Schauffler in Constantino- 
ple in 1874. 



WII.UAM GOODELL. ^^ 

• 

which followed him throughout life. Within a few 
weeks he had established among the Greeks four so- 
called Lancasterian schools, which were soon largely 
increased in number, and was engaged in his personal 
work with the Armenians. 

His principles were to prosecute his work diligently 
but quiedy, to avoid mere controversy and all move- 
ments which would invite opposition, to leaven individ- 
uals and communities with the gospel, and to aim at no 
outward changes, except as the way was clearly j^re- 
pared by Providence. His ready wit and humor often 
served him a good turn. Thus when the Patriarch's 
vicar was determined to force him into a dispute on the 
eucharist, which would have frustrated the object of his 
visit, he twice parried the effort with a pleasantry which 
produced a general laugh, ended the discussion, and 
kept all serene. 

SICKNESS AND PERSECUTION. 

His first school for girls, in May, 1832, created a 
commotion which had hardly subsided when, in the 
same summer, the city was visited with the plague, the 
cholera, and rumors of war — the decisive war between 
the Sultan and Ibrahim Pasha, the Viceroy of Egypt. 
Many of his neighbors were carried off by the cholera, 
and he did not escape without an attack. 

The gospel began to take effect. The conversion of 
Hohannes and Senakerim began the good work and the 
counter-excitement, both of which went on by a kind of 
action and reaction, intensifying as they went, until the 



l8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

opposition became (in 1839) persecution, attended with 
exile and imprisonment of the converts. But before 
this persecution culminated he was again surrounded 
by the plague in its most frightful form. The reported 
victims for a time averaged from six to ten thousand a 
week. All ordinary intercourse was broken off. Every 
thing and person was fumigated. Letters were received 
with tongs, and then disinfected. Families dared not 
make purchases. Everything was suspended but sick- 
ness, and death. Mrs. Dwight and her son died, the 
only ones of the missionary band. But they were all in 
danger; indeed, all were in a very unusual manner ex- 
posed to it. Goodell wrote: " How many of us or who 
of us may be alive after another week no man can tell." 
But he also wrote, not long before, while in the midst 
of all the frightful precautions they were obliged to take, 
" You would see us generally cheerful and happy, at- 
tending to our translations, having our precious litde 
meetings together, and sometimes feeling that we were 
probably within a day or two of heaven." They were 
then in the habit of often reading the ninety-first Psalm. 
The persecution did not abate with the cholera. It 
grew fiercer and fiercer, not only expending itself upon 
the native converts and friends of the missionaries, but 
threatening to break up all missionary operations and 
banish the missionaries. Mr. Goodell calmly awaited 
the expected order to leave, after having secreted in dif- 
ferent places all his papers. But at the darkest moment 
God interposed in the defeat of the Sultan's army at 
Aleppo, the sudden death of Sultan Mahmoud himself. 



WII.UAM GOODELI^. 19 

a great fire in Constantinople, and the impoverishment 
and overthrow of many leading persecutors. The hand 
of violence was arrested. 

Other trials followed ; indeed, they were scarcely in- 
termitted. For two years there was uninterrupted ill- 
ness in the home, and a beloved son, the firstborn of 
Americans in Constantinople, was called awa^. There 
are few tenderer and more touching tributes than his 
account of the child's sufferings, patience, and death. To 
recount all the heavy and almost overwhelming strains 
upon his faith, patience, and Christian courage would be 
to follow him through most of his missionary life. But 
no trials or afflictions seemed to depress his spirits or 
to hinder his work. 

THE ARMENO-TURKISH BIBLE. 

In the year 1841 he had accomplished what may be 
considered his one greatest achievement — the translation 
of the entire Bible into the Armeno-Turkish language. 
It was the toilsome but loving labor of many years, and 
was revised again and again, to become one of the 
great landmarks of missionary effort in Turkey and a 
perpetual fountain of life. Eighteen years before its 
publication the work had been urged upon him by Rev. 
Pliny Fisk, and only his determination to make it as 
perfect as possible, a permanent acquisition to a great 
nation, prevented the issue of it long before. No one 
can appreciate, without reading his own account, the 
painstaking diligence, the conscientious use of helps, 
printed and oral, far and near, the elaborate and oft- 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

repealed scrutiny of individual passages, and, above all, 
the devout and absorbing love with which the work was 
carried through. " My feelings have gone along with 
those of the sacred writers to such a degree that often, 
when alone in my study I have been reading a page 
perhaps for the seventh time, I have had to stop to wipe 
away the fast-flowing tears or to offer up such prayers 
and praises as the subject called forth." At this time 
he spoke of it as the work of " eight years." But for 
twelve years more he was engaged from time to time in 
revising it, " with as much painstaking and prayerful- 
ness as the original translation;" and it was only in 
1863, four years before his death, that it finally left his 
hands. 

During much of the time, while engaged on this 
translation, he found it necessary, after repeated trials 
of a different course, to withdraw from active labors 
abroad and devote himself " to this and nothing else." 
And nothing is more noteworthy than the quiet resolu- 
tion with which he steadily followed his own conscien- 
tious convictions, and the unfaltering, genial good-na- 
ture with which he received all manner of inconsiderate 
advice and undiscerning criticism. He hardly ever al- 
luded to the subject. But once, a few months before 
this translation was published, he wrote to a fellow-mis- 
sionary some of the conflicting suggestions which were 
made to him: to give more time to his family; to work 
more vigorously in translating; to do nothing but 
** preach, pireach, preach;" to write more letters to mis- 
sionary stations and to all parts of America ; to be more 



'^, 



/ 



/ 



WILUAM GOODELL. 21 

constant in his correspondence with his many friends, 
who say hard things about him. " Now what to do I 
know not. I would most gladly give my time to my 
friends ; I would give it all to my family ; I would de- 
vote it all to translating the Word of God ; and I would 
with all my heart spend it in publishing the good news. 
But to devote the whole of it to each one of these ob- 
jects is an impossibility. ... I must try more to please 
my blessed Lord, and let the whole world go.'* 

A striking instance of mistaken criticism by an in- 
telligent and friendly person occurred some years be- 
fore. While at Beirut Mr. Goodell had translated 
some tracts, and among them the " Dairyman's Daugh- 
ter." Just after the fire at Constantinople a distin- 
guished medical gentleman from New York had spent 
some months in the same house with Mr. Goodell and 
in the pleasantest of relations. This gentleman, on his 
return, published a volume in which, while commending 
the activity of the missions, he regretted that " such be- 
nevolent efforts should in some instances have taken a 
wrong direction." And he mentioned, as a specific case 
in point, this tract the " Dairyman's Daughter." Now 
it so happened that about the very time, 1832, when 
this remark was published in New York, Mr. Goodell, 
on a journey to Brusa, had passed through Nicomedia, 
and at the door of a church had put this tract into the 
hands of a boy and passed on. The boy carried it to 
the priest, and he to another priest, and both these men, 
Vertanes and Harutun, were converted by means of it; 

a company of believers was organized by their efforts, 

9 



23 AMERICAN HEROES. 

and the revival spread into the neighboring villages. 
Long ago this tract was circulating in twenty languages. 

OTHER LABORS. 

After the publication of the Armeno-Turkish Bible, 
Mr. Goodell was enabled to engage in a greater variety 
of labors, and to exert a steadily growing influence 
within and without the missionary circle. Those who 
would fully understand the work, or appreciate the rare 
spirit and the marvellous buoyancy and brightness of 
the man, must be referred to the excellent narrative of 
his life, entided " Forty Years in the Turkish Empire." 
His letters present a combination of devoutness, tender- 
ness, quaintness, wisdom, wit, and facility seldom 
equalled. They are remarkable alike for their inimita- 
ble naturalness of style, their almost unconscious Scrip- 
turalness of phraseology, their unfailing vivacity of 
thought, and the genial humor that never could be 
long repressed. They redeem the art of letter- writing 
in modern times. Not the least pleasant aspect of his 
correspondence is the thoughtfulness and love with 
which, in their times of special joy or sorrow, or of his 
own impulse, he remembers his old and distant friends : 
his preceptor, Adams, his college classmate, Haddock, 
his fellow-students Sidney E. Morse and the mission- 
aries Winslow and Spaulding, his old friend Judge 
Cooke, his long-time associate. Temple, his afflicted 
missionary " sister " at Brusa, Mrs. Thurston, of the 
Sandwich Islands, the widowed mother of a missionary 
to Constantinople, Drs. Anderson, Schauffler, and many 



WILUAM GOODELI.. 23 

Others. His affectionate interest and sympathy flowed 
out in every direction. His letters to the Society of 
Inquiry at Andover, " to the children of America," to 
his " dear Cherokee daughters," to his " dear children 
and grandchildren in Constantinople*, Harpoot, and 
America," and his farewell letter to the evangelical 
churches of Turkey, breathe the apostolic spirit. 

To follow him through the details of his missionary 
life and experiences would be to give' a history of the 
mission in Constantinople for a generation. It would 
show how with a constitution always feeble, by his in- 
dustry, promptness, and method he accomplished a vast 
amount of labor; by his unselfish disinterestedness he 
gained and wielded great influence; by his peace-lov- 
ing spirit he ever advocated and maintained friendly 
relations, and commanded universal love and respect; 
by his modest sagacity he helped solve many a perplex- 
ity; by his cheerful courage he passed happily through 
what he well called a " stormy life;" by his simple, fer- 
vent piety he helped many souls towards heaven; by 
his untiring industry he preached the gospel in six dif- 
ferent languages; and by his conscientiousness and 
unwearied scholarship he achieved " a work that fairly 
places his name beside that of Wicklif and Tyndale." 
All this he did amid constant hindrances and interrup- 
tions, among which may be mentioned the fact that he 
speaks of having been obliged to change his residence 
" dozens of times." 

But without dwelling on the long catalogue of trials 
by sickness, fire, alarms of plague and cholera, embar« 



24 

^^men. ^*^^^^CAN HEROES. 

*«ents of all u- J 

i^''-'^ Often \tT' "'"''"'^ °PP°^'^°'« -°d perse 
^P'-^onn^ents and J^"^ -^"^ ^'°^^"*' Proceed^" 
^^"^ of an Arm« "^ '"^'*"*^« ^o the public exL 

of his last I'^y^^^'^ope and anticipation" rl 

^!^ ^^^-. fen^ r '^ ^^- th'e ter^iina^o::^ 
«J0"« appears to i ^'■'' '' ^'^5), "The work of mis 
begm to feel thl. T "^'^ '"•='"^"' ^^ glorious Zl 

^^°^- I bless ^"^ T"'°" ""' " '^ ^--n^ To a 
««««! with it fo^l'r *^ ^r^^^ P"-il-^e of bein/con 

The cha °^ ^ *™^-" 

had arrivedTct^V'"! ''"'■" ^""* '"<^««I. He 

b-recenU,:xp'rdta:?Prt^*^ °^-- ^^ 
language would not h.. 7 ^^^^^'^t s«"^ice in any 

o[^^ foreign CLr^hr ' ttTJ: ^^^ ^^^^^ 
wholly inaccessible, and here wa^^not r^""' ^^'^ 
the city who could fuUy syZll^'j^^Z'^T 
v^ork, and but "a ^\ncrU !• r ^"^ *^ his 

.eeniedatalli„ov:dbnVH:;^S^r.t:^-^ 
the utmost difficulty he could even gain a rlT '"■'' 

Bebek. not being permitted to liveTconrtllr T 
proper or any of its suburbs, except Pera. Schools and 
religious assemblies, though held in private apartments 
were liable at any time to be interrupted. He was 
veloped in an atmosphere of misrepresentation and of 
opposition on every hand, stronger from nominal Chris- 
tians than even from the Turks. It seemed a forlorn hope 



WILLIAM GOODELL. 25 

He lived to see the Turkish Government steadily 
changing its attitude ; induced or constrained to issue a 
formal Bill of Rights in 1839 (the Hatti Sheriff of Giil 
Han6) ; to give the personal pledge of the Sultan in 
1844 against persecution; to issue in 1847 and 1850 a 
charter for the Protestant Church, in 1853 the firman 
of protection to Protestants, and in 1856 the celebrated 
Hatti Humayoun, declaring — however imperfect the 
subsequent fulfilment — that " no subject of the empire 
shall be hindered in the exercise of the religion that he 
professes, nor shall be in any way annoyed on this ac- 
count." He lived to see schools for girls, colleges, and 
theological seminaries flourishing in the Turkish Em- 
pire, and a noble band of churches organized with all 
the agencies of life and growth and inextinguishable 
power. He lived to see the American mission work in 
Turkey profoundly respected and extolled by the high- 
est European authorities for its singular wisdom, catho- 
licity, and efficiency, and himself beloved and honored 
as one of its noblest representatives and patriarchs. 

VISIT TO AMERICA. 

Nor was he less honored and beloved in his native 
land by thousands that never had se^n his face, but 
knew him by his charming letters and noble labors. 
After nearly thirty years of voluntary exile, by special 
request of the Prudential Committee of the American 
Board, in 185 1, he and Mrs. Goodell visited their native 
land. He came, in the fulfilment of his own prayer, 
that " it may be both to receive and to impart a bless- 



26 AMERICAN HEROES. 

ing." He reached Boston just in season to be at the 
dying bed and to attend the funeral of his beloved 
friend Temple. He visited his native town to look 
upon a Sabbath congregation where he could not rec- 
ognize one countenance, and to search in vain for the 
grave of his " gende mother." He then visited his rela- 
tives scattered over the country, who in every instance 
failed to recognize him till he made himself known, 
often in his own humorous way. But they were joyful 
meetings. 

After thus gratifying the yearnings of his warm fam- 
ily affection, he gave himself for two years almost in- 
cessandy to travelling the country in aid of the cause 
of missions. During this period he " travelled about 
twenty-five thousand miles, addressed more than four 
hundred congregations, speaking on an average about 
an hour each time," besides meeting " students of col- 
leges and theological seminaries, Sabbath and select 
schools, all over the country." It refreshed him. " In- 
stead of being worn down, I feel all the fresher and the 
better for it." While thus doing good, he was also 
geltting good. Everywhere he was welcomed, and he 
enjoyed everything. It was a perpetual delight. " We 
have loved to look upon the greenness, the freshness, 
and the verdure of your meadows, so different from the 
East, and to think what a good land it is which the 
Lord God of your fathers has given unto you. We 
have loved to look upon your godly-minded farms, as 
they might almost be called, that is, farms cultivated 
with honesty, industry, and economy, and in many 



WILUAM GOODELI.. 2^ 

cases 'sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.' 
And after having for so many years seen scarcely a face 
which was not distorted more or less by arrogance or 
cringing servility, by intolerance, bigotry, selfishness, 
or unjust suffering, we have gazed with delight on the 
tens of thousands of happy countenances in tjiis happy 
land which are lighted up with such bright expres- 
sions of kindness, benevolence, and Christian hope. . . . 
These pleasant fields and beautiful gardens, with all 
their fragrant flowers, and the cattle upon a thousand 
hills, we have enjoyed them all. In all our travels 
through this good land we have met with the most 
hearty welcome and have had the best of accommoda- 
tions. We have had no taxes to pay and no trouble 
with domestics, nor have we been burdened with any 
care or responsibility ; and yet, during all our sojourn 
here, we have been like the possessor of a great estate, 
having 'servants and maidens, and men-singers and 
women-singers, musical instruments, and that of all 
sorts,* for our special entertainment. The Bible prom- 
ises a hundred-fold to those who suffer any loss for the 
truth's sake; but this good Bible always does better 
than it promises ; and we here publicly acknowledge, 
for the encouragement of all others, that we ourselves, 
however unworthy to suffer or to speak of suffering, 
have already received ten times nearer a thousand-fold 
than a hundred." 



28 AMERICAN HEROES. 

HIS LAST TWELVE YEARS. 

Dr. and Mrs. Goodell returned in 1853 to the field 
of their life-work in Constantinople, where he continued 
with increasing influence and honor till his advancing 
years and failing strength admonished him that his 
work was nearly done. He then gathered up forty- 
eight of his sermons and published them in the Turk- 
ish language, with a farewell letter to the Protestant 
churches, and in 1865 requested of the Board a release. 
" It is," said he, " a sad conclusion to which we have 
come, but after much thought and consultation we are 
unable to come to any other. When we left America 
the first time, in 1822, I do not recollect that either of 
us shed a tear. When we sailed the second time, in 
1853, and left five children standing on the wharf in 
Boston, not one of whom had yet found a home, we sat 
down and wept. But at the very thought of leaving 
our work in Constantinople, together with our beloved 
associates and all the dear objects of our prayers and 
labors in the East, our head seems ready at once to be- 
come waters and our eyes a fountain of tears. Of all 
our separations this seems the hardest to bear." 

The parting was almost equally sad to a large circle 
of friends, English and American, by whom he was 
tenderly beloved. They held a public meeting to pre- 
pare an address and make him a present. Various fam- 
ilies and individuals, including a company of the mis- 
sionary children, sent him testimonials of their affection. 
The United States Ambassador, Hon. E. J. Morris, 



WILUAM GOODEI.L. 29 

wrote him a letter of regret, in which he said, " In my 
intercourse with men I have never met with one who, 
in his actions, speech, and manner of life, more truly 
represented the excellences of the Christian character." 
He spent several days in visiting from house to house, 
conversing, singing, and praying with the families. A 
hundred of the people came the evening before his de- 
parture to sing a farewell hymn, and "among the crowd 
that followed him weeping to the wharf were some who 
had stoned and spat upon him in the days of the perse- 
cution." His heart lingered behind as he left for ever 
the scene of his labors. "As we swept around Seraglio 
Point, and I caught the last glimpse of Constantinople 
and its magnificent surroundings, I kept saying in my 
heart, * Farewell, thou beautiful city. May thy moral 
beauties soon equal all thy natural. I should Ipve to 
preach the gospel to thy people once more.* " 

The remainder is soon told. But about eighteen 
months were left. He preached and delivered various 
addresses, and gave accounts of the work in the East. 
He addressed the students of Auburn Theological Sem- 
inary and conversed with individuals who looked to 
the missionary work. He spoke at South Hadley Sem- 
inary, and finally made his home with his son in Phila- 
delphia, where he took charge of a Bible- class of busi- 
ness men and entered into all the Christian activities of 
the church. 

The most striking of all his appearances in public 
was when, in October, 1865, he attended the meeting of 
the American Board in Chicago. No one will ever for- 



30 AMERICAN HEROES. 

get him who saw him there, with his flowing white 
beard and the velvet cap wrought with Arabic sentences 
by the schoolgirls of Aleppo, or who felt the hush when 
he rose and with feeble voice addressed the great as- 
sembly thus: " When I went from my native country in 
1822, it was to go to Jerusalem; that was my destina- 
tion. There I expected to live and labor and to die 
and be buried, arising again at the resurrection of the 
just. I have never been there. I have now set my 
face towards the New Jerusalem, taking Chicago on my 
way." 

He was not far from his second goal. For a little 
more than a year he continued the labors that have 
been indicated, including a five months' tour, in which 
he preached every Sabbath but one, and made public 
addresses nearly every day, spoke to the students of 
Amherst College, attended the Andover anniversaries 
and one more meeting of the American Board, at Pitts- 
field. It was so ordered in the good providence of 
God that on his return his final and delighted occupa- 
tion was, in compliance with his children's earnest re- 
quest, to write out the precious reminiscences of his 
early life ; and the very latest thing he wrote was the 
letter telling "how he found a wife." One full day 
more was given, the Sabbath day, on which he attended 
church, conducted his Bible -class, came home "so 
happy," in his evening prayer mentioned all his chil- 
dren by name, asked God's blessing on all "Eastern 
and Western " friends, and retired in apparent health. 

At midnight he awoke in great distress, which con- 



WILLIAM GOODELL. 3I 

tinued unabated ; and though he said he had never been 
so ill before, he also said later in the day that this, 
which was his birthday, had been " one continued 
psalm of thanksgiving." Towards evening he was re- 
lieved of pain, slept a little, awoke with the words, " I 
am so tired," and in a few minutes more had gone up 
to the New Jerusalem. A blessed life and a blessed 
death. May his mande rest on many a young Elisha! 



1 



r 



VI. 



B0. Titiis Qom\, 



BY REV. S. J. HUMPHREY, D. D. 



1 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS 



VI. TITUS COAN. 



HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



A STRIP of island seacoast from one to three miles 
wide and a hundred long, dotted with groves and 
seamed across by the deep chasms of mountain tor- 
rents; behind this, for twenty-five miles, a belt of dense 
forest and jungle, fencing in, since the days of Vancou- 
ver, numberless herds of wild cattle; beyond, in the in- 
terior, a rough, volcanic wilderness, culminating in two 
summits 14,000 feet in height — a chaos of craters, some 
on the peaks of mountains, and some yawning sud- 
denly before you in the forest; some long idle, some 
ceaselessly active, making the night lurid with their 
flames, and still building at the unfinished island ; one, 
a vast black hollow, three miles across, the grandest 
active crater on the globe; 15,000 natives scattered up 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

and down the sea-belt, grouped in villages of from loo to 
300 persons, a vicious, sensual, shameless, and yet tract- 
able people, slaves to the chiefs, and herding together 
almost like animals — ^to this parish, occupying the east- 
em third of the island of Hawaii, a strange mingling of 
crags and valleys, of torrents and volcanoes, of beauty 
and barrenness, and to this interesting people, was 
called the young missionary Titus Coan. 

EARLY DAYS. 

I 

He was bom February i, 1801, in the town of Kil- 
lingworth. Conn., the descendant of old New England 
stock. He studied at Auburn Seminary in 183 1-3; 
and much success attended his evangelistic labors in 
connection with the revivals that followed the preach- 
ing of his cousin. Rev. Asahel Nettieton, and of Rev. 
Charles G. Finney. He was licensed to preach April 
17, 1833; a few months afterwards he was ordained to 
the ministry; and on August 16, 1833, under the direc- 
tion of the American Board, he sailed on a mission of 
exploration to Patagonia, leaving -behind him his affi- 
anced bride, Fidelia Church, who mourned for him as 
for one never to return. " I think I am willing," she 
wrote to him a few days before he sailed, " I think I 
am willing to give you up to the Lord*s disposal ; . . . 
but oh, the life, the soul, of my earthly joys has de- 
parted !" 

With one companion, the Rev. Mr. Arms, he was 
set ashore among the savages of Gregory Bay. Their 
litde vessel had sighted the " Beagle " in the straits, the 



TITUS COAN. 5 

vessel on which Charles Darwin was making his famous 
voyage of exploration. It is a suggestive thought that 
the missionaries of science and of religion should thus 
have crossed each other's tracks at the outset. 

Mr. Coan and Mr. Arms lived and roamed with the 
ferocious nomads of the eastern coast of Patagonia, 
striving in vain to communicate to them something ol 
their message. The savages grew suspicious of their 
motives, and at last it became evident that there was 
nothing to do but to escape with their lives, if possible. 
A chance vessel gave them the opportunity ; they eva- 
ded their captors by stratagem, and were returned to 
New London in May, 1834, after an absence of four 
months. It was like a reappearance from the dead. 
Not a word from Mr. Coan had reached family or 
friends during all this time; and to the heart of one 
whom he had left behind the separation was perhaps as 
bitter as death, because of its uncertain duration and 
fate. 

After this trial came the joy of reunion and the seri- 
ous resolve of a common consecration to the mis- 
sionary's life-work. On the 3d of November, 1834, 
Titus Coan and Fidelia Church were married at her 
father's house in Churchville, N. Y., and on the 5th of 
December embarked at Boston on the ship Hellespont 
to spend the remainder of their lives on alien ground. 
Six other missionaries sailed with them: the Messrs. 
Edwin O. Hall and Henry Dimond, with their wives, 
and the Misses Lydia Brown and E. W. Hitchcock. 

For all of them it was a very real consecration. The 

10 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

Hawaiian Islands were then the very ends of the earth. 
Neither Mr. Coan nor his bride had any idea of ever 
retracing their six months' voyage around Cape Horn. 
It was a different affair from that of a missionary post 
on a railway and in a European town. They arrived 
at Honolulu June 6, 1835, and were welcomed by the 
missionaries then assembled at their annual meeting. 
On the 2ist of July they reached the serenely -beautiful 
village of Hilo, now a thriving town, then the almost 
absolute retirement in which they were to spend their 
lives, and here, devoting themselves to self-denying la- 
bors, they achieved, through the divine blessing, a suc- 
cess hardly paralleled elsewhere in the history of missions. 

AT WORK IN HILO. 

We can perhaps see more clearly the character of 
Mr. Coan and best learn the secret of his career by 
looking in upon hhn in the midst of his work. Espe- 
cially will those memorable years of the Great Revival, 
in which he was one of the chief factors — years which 
saw nearly two-thirds of these savage islanders trans- 
formed into Christians — ^give an insight into the life and 
qualities of this eminent servant of God. If we supply 
the record largely from his own pen, the result will be 
all the more satisfactory. 

Upon reaching the island he found that some leaven 
of the gospel had already been cast into the lump of 
heathenism. Different missionaries had resided here 
for brief periods. Several schools had been established, 
and about one-fourth of the natives could read. A 



TITUS COAN. 7 

marked change had come over the mental and social 
condition of the people. Most of them had a little 
knowledge of divine truth. There were a few hopeful 
converts and a little church of thirty-six members. 

The Rev. Mr. Lyman and his wife, most devoted 
and efficient colaborers, were already on the ground; 
after an unbroken residence of fifty -two years in Hilo, 
they are still there (September, 1884) in steadfast con- 
secration. To them came the charge of a boarding- 
school and much labor at the home station; while to 
Mr. Coan, robust in health and a fervid speaker, the 
preaching and the touring were naturally assigned. 
His mental force and abounding physical life revealed 
themselves at the outset In three months' time he be- 
gan to speak in the native tongue, and before the year 
closed he had made the circuit of the island by canoe 
and on foot, a trip of three hundred miles. On this 
first tour, occupying thirty days, he nearly suffered 
wreck of his frail craft, as also twice afterwards. He 
preached forty-three times in eight days, ten of them 
in two days, examined twenty schools and more than 
1,200 scholars, conversed personally with multitudes, 
and ministered to many sick persons, for he was a not 
wholly unqualified physician withal. He had at that 
time also a daily school of 90 teachers and Mrs. Coan 
one of 140 children, besides a large class of more ad- 
vanced pupils. 

This vigorous beginning, however, was but the pre- 
lude to the more incessant labor and to the marvellous 
scenes of the years following. 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

On a tour made in the latter part of 1835 Mr. Coan 
saw signs of unusual attention to the truth. *' Multi- 
tudes/' he says, *' flocked to hear; many seemed pricked 
in dieir hearts. I had literally no leisure, so much as 
to eat One morning I found myself constrained to 
preach three times before breakfast, which I took at ten 
o'clock." He could not move out of doors without 
being thronged by people from all quarters. They lin- 
gered by the wayside, and some followed him for da)^ 
from village to village. Much of this may have been 
mere curiosity of an idle people ; but some of it, as the 
event proved, was the working of a divine leaven. 

The tours of 1836 — ^he sometimes made four or five 
in a year — revealed that the work was deepening. " I 
began to see tokens of interest that I scarcely under- 
stood myself I would say to my wife, 'The people 
turn out wonderfully.' The attendance increased, and 
many crowded around me afterwards to inquire the 
way. I preached just as hard as I could. There was a 
fire in my bones. I felt that I must preach to this 
people." 

REVIVAL SCENES. 

In 1837 the great interest broke out openly. It was 
the time of a wonderful stir through all the islands. 
Nearly the whole population of Hilo and Puna turned 
out to hear the Word. The sick and lame were 
brought on litters and on the backs of men, and the 
infirm often crawled to the trail where the missionary 
was to pass, that they might catch from his lips some 



TITUS COAN. 9 

word of life. And now began a movement to which 
the history of the church furnishes scarcely any paral- 
lel. Fifteen thousand people, scattered up and down 
the coast for a hundred miles, hungry for the divine 
bread, cannot be reached by one man, and so whole 
villages gather from miles away and make their homes 
near the mission-house. Two-thirds of the entire pop- 
ulation come in. Within the radius of a mile the litde 
cabins clustered thick as they could stand. Hilo, the 
village of ten hundred, saw its population suddenly 
swelled to ten thousand, and here was held literally a 
" camp-meeting " of two years. At any hour of the 
day or night a tap of the bell would gather from three 
thousand to six thousand. Meetings for prayer and 
preaching were held daily. The people wrought with 
new industry at their little taro patches. The sea 
also gave them food. Schools for old and young went 
on. "Our wives held meetings for the children, to 
teach them to attend to their persons, to braid mats, to 
make their tapas, hats, and bonnets." Special meet- 
ings were held for all classes of the people, for the 
church, for parents, mothers, the inquiring, and for 
church candidates. There was no disorder. A Sab- 
bath quiet reigned through the crowded hamlet, and 
from every booth at dawn and at nightfall was heard 
the voice of prayer and praise. 

Let us look in upon one of the assemblies. The 
old church, 85 feet wide by 165 long, is packed with a 
sweltering and restless mass of 6,000 souls. A new 
church near by takes the overflow of 2,000, while hun- 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

dreds press about the doors, crowding every opening" 
with their eager faces. The people sit upon the ground 
so close that no one, once fixed, can leave his place. 
It is a sea of heads with eyes like stars. There is a 
strange mingling of the new interest and the old wild- 
ness, and the heated mass seethes like a cauldron. An 
effort to sing a hymn is made. The rude, inharmoni- 
ous song would shock our ears, but the attempt is hon- 
est, and God accepts it as praise. Prayer is offered, and 
the sermon follows. The scene is most affecting; it 
calls for all the power of the reaper to thrust in the 
sickle. The theme is the great salvation, and this the 
accepted time. The whole audience trembles and 
weeps, and many cry aloud for mercy. 

It required rare gifts to control such meetings and 
secure good results; and Mr. Coan was equal to the 
task. " I would rise before the resdess, noisy crowd 
and begin. I soon felt that I had hold of them and 
that they would not go away. The Spirit hushed them 
by the truth till they sobbed and cried, * What shall we 
do ?' and the noise of the weeping silenced the preach- 
er. It was God's truth preached simply, and sent home 
by the Spirit, that did the work." 

Th/ere were not wanting those physical manifesta- 
tions which have often attended the work of grace, es- 
pecially among ruder peoples. There was weeping, 
sighing, and outcrying. "When we rose for prayer 
some fell down in a swoon. There were hundreds of 
such cases. I did not think much of it. On one occa- 
sion I preached from the text, * Madness is in their 



TITUS COAN. II 

hearts.' The truth seemed to have an intense power. 
A woman of great beauty rose and cried, * Oh, I *m the 
one; madness is in my heart!* She became a true 
Christian. A man cried out, 'There's a two-edged 
sword cutting me in pieces!* A backwoods native, 
wicked, stout, who had come in to make fun, fell sud- 
denly. When he had come to, he said, * God has struck 
me!* He was subdued, and gave evidence of being 
a true Christian. Once, on a tour, while I was preach- 
ing in the fields to about two thousand persons, a man 
cried out, * Alas ! what shall I do to be saved ?* and 
prayed, ' God be merciful to me a sinner!* The whole 
congregation joined in with ejaculations. It was a 
thrilling scene. I could get no chance to speak for 
half an hour, but stood still to see the salvation of God. 
"There were many such scenes; and men would 
come and say, * Why do n*t you put this down ?* My 
answer was, * I did n't get it up.' I did n't believe the 
devil would set men to praying, confessing, and break- 
ing off their sins by righteousness. These were the 
times when thieves brought back what they had stolen, 
quarrels were reconciled, the lazy became industrious, 
thousands broke their pipes and gave up tobacco, 
drunkards stopped drinking, adulteries ceased, and 
murderers confessed their crimes. Neither the devil 
nor all the men in the world could have gotten this up. 
Why should I put it down ? I always told the natives 
that such demonstrations were no evidence of conver- 
sion, and advised them to quietness. And I especially 
tried to keep them from hypocrisy." 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

Into the midst of these thrilling revival scenes 
there came suddenly a divine visitation, which, under 
less skilful guidance, might have proved a serious hin- 
drance to the work. But it became a sermon more 
pungent than any that human lips could utter, and 
reached many who had hitherto withstood the Word. 

It was November 7, 1837. The revival was at its 
height. The crescent beach, dotted with native booths, 
reaching up into the charming groves behind, smiled in 
security. A British whaler swung idly at its moorings, 
and the ocean slept in peace. From daybreak onward 
the usual succession of meetings was held. One of the 
texts was, " Be ye also ready." At the time of evening 
prayer a heavy sound was heard upon the beach as of a 
falling mountain. Instantiy a great cry and wail arose, 
and a scene of indescribable confusion followed. The 
sea had suddenly risen in gigantic waves and fallen 
upon the shore. Men, women, children, houses, canoes, 
food, clothing, everything, floated wild upon the flood. 
So sudden was the catastrophe that the people were lit- 
erally " eating and drinking," and " knew not till the 
flood came and swept them all away. The volcanic wave 
fell like a bolt of heaven, and no man had time to flee or 
to save his garment. In a moment hundreds of people 
were struggling with the raging billows. Some were 
dashed upon the shore; some were drawn out by friends 
who came to their relief; some were carried out to sea 
by the retiring current; and some sank to rise no more 
till the call to judgment wakes them." There was no 
sleep that night. " To the people it seemed to be as 



SI* 



t 

L': 



TITUS COAN. 13 

the voice of Almighty God when he speaketh." The 
next day the meetings went on with renewed power; 
and through all the week, as the sea gave up, one after 
another, its dead, and the people bore them with funeral 
rites to their resting-places, the Spirit sent home this 
new sermon with divine effect 

In the year 1838 the waves of salvation rolled deep 
and broad over the whole field, and the converts were 
numbered by thousands. We may well ask, in view of 
so slender a missionary force. By what aids and means 
were such results wrought and secured in permanency ? 
There was a marvellous outpouring of the Spirit. The 
battie-cry was, " The sword of the Lord." But it was 
also the " sword of Gideon." The human means were 
adapted to produce the results. Mr. Lyman was a true 
yoke-fellow, preaching in addition to teaching. The 
missionaries' wives, besides caring for their own littie 
children, held daily meetings with the women, the au- 
diences sometimes numbering thousands. The method 
of Mr. Coan was wise ; his energy and zeal were inde- 
fatigable. 

As we turn over his letters, written at that time, 
the wisdom to plan and the strength to execute which 
were given him of the Lord seem marvellous. " On 
these tours," he says, " I usually spend from two to five 
weeks, visiting all the church members in their respect- 
ive villages, calling all their names, holding personal in- 
terviews with them, inquiring into their states, their 
hearts, prayers, and manner of living; counselling, re- 
proving and encouraging, as the case may require, and 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

often * breaking bread' from place to place, besides 
preaching twenty or thirty times a week." The physi- 
cal labor of these tours was great. The northern part of 
his parish was crossed by sixty-three ravines, from 
twenty to a thousand feet in depth, difficult of passage, 
and, in times of rain, perilous. And then the rivers, 
leaping and foaming along the old fire-channels, must 
be crossed. "Some of them I succeeded in fording; 
some I swam, by the help of a rope to prevent me from 
being swept away; and over some I was carried pas- 
sively on the broad shoulders of a native, while a com- 
pany of strong men locked hands and stretched them- 
selves across the stream just below me and just above a 
near cataract, to save me from going over it if my bear- 
er should fall." This experience was often repeated 
three or four times a day. 

PARISH WORK. 

It was only by an exact system that Mr. Coan was 
able to "overtake" his parish of 15,000 souls. Not 
St. Francis or Dr. Chalmers knew his people better 
than he. When his church numbered more than 5,000 
he could say, " My knowledge of the religious experi- 
ences and daily habits of the individuals of my flock at 
the present time is more minute and thorough than it 
was when the church numbered only fifty or a hundred 
members. By drawing lines in my parish, by dividing 
the people into sections and classes, by attending to 
each class separately, systematically, and at a given 
time, and by a careful examination and a frequent re- 



TITUS COAN. 15 

view of every individual in each respective class, by- 
keeping a note-book always in my pocket to refresh 
my memory, by the help of many faithful church mem- 
bers, and by various collateral helps I am enabled, 
through the grace of God, to gain tenfold more knowl- 
edge of the individuals of my flock, and of the candi- 
dates for church-membership, than I once thought it 
possible to obtain in such circumstances." 

The children did not escape his care. From his 
earliest ministry he had believed in childhood conver- 
sions. Besides Sabbath-school instruction, a regular 
weekly lecture was maintained for them throughout the 
year. There were also numerous occasional meetings 
for different classes of children — for those in church - 
fellowship, for the children of church members, and for 
the anxious. During the protracted meetings there was 
usually a sermon each day for them at eight o'clock in 
the morning. As the result of this faithfulness there 
were, in 1838, about 400 children, between the ages of 
five and fifteen years, connected with his church. 

It was Mr. Coan's purpose that there should be no 
one in all Puna or Hilo upon whom the claims of the 
gospel had not been pressed. No village was so remote 
or insignificant that it did not receive frequent visits. 
Families were tracked into mountain fastnesses and 
plied with the invitations of mercy. In order to do 
this " many of the more discreet, prayerful, and intelli- 
gent of the members were stationed at important posts, 
with instructions to hold conference and prayer meet- 
ings, conduct Sabbath-schools, and watch over the 



1 6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

people. Some of these native helpers were men full of 
fkith and the Holy Ghost, and succeeded admirably. 
Other active members wore selected and sent forth, two 
and two, into every village and place of the people. 
They went everywhere preaching the Word. They 
visited the villages, climbed the mountains, traversed 
the forests, and explored the glens in search of the 
wandering and the dying sons of Hawaii." 

On one occasion Mr. Coan sent out about forty 
church members to visit from house to house and in 
all the " highways and hedges " within five miles of the 
station. They were instructed to pray in every house, 
to look after all the sick, the wretched, and the fiiend- 
less, to stir up the minds of the converts, and to gather 
the children. Two days were spent in this way. 
Every cottage was entered, every fastness of Satan 
scoured. "The immediate result was that several 
back-loads of tobacco, awa^ and pipes were brought in 
and burned, and about 500 hitherto careless and hard- 
ened ones were gathered into the house of God to hear 
the words of life. The Spirit of the Lord fell upon 
them, and it is believed that many of them were born 
again." 

To the heart of our missionary the ingatherings of 
the souls over whom he had brooded with such intense 
solicitude were occasions of rare delight. They were 
also times of great solicitude. 

The great harvest years were 1838 and 1839. Seven 
or eight thousand natives had professed conversion, but 
very few had thus far been received to the church. 



TITUS COAN. 17 

The utmost care was taken in selecting, examining, 
watching, and teaching the candidates. The ever- 
faithful note-book was constantly in hand. People from 
the distant villages came in and spent several months at 
the station previous to their union with the church. Day 
by day they were watched over and instructed with 
unceasing labor. Together with those on the ground, 
they were examined personally many times, sifted and 
resifted with scrutiny, and every effort was made to dis- 
criminate the precious from the vile. Many of them were 
converts of two years* standing. A still larger class 
had been on the list for more than one year, and a 
smaller number for a less period. The accepted ones 
stood propounded for several weeks, and the church and 
the world, friends and enemies, were called upon and 
solemnly charged to testify if they knew aught against 
any of them. 

The communion season was held quarterly, and at 
these times the converts, thus accepted, were added to 
the church. The first Sunday of January, 1838, 104 
were received. Afterwards, at different times, 502, 450, 
786, 357, and on one occasion a much larger number. 
The station report for the mission year ending June, 
1839, gives the number of accessions for that twelve 
months at 5,244. A large number of these never came 
to the central station. The sick, the aged, and the in- 
firm were baptized and received into fellowship at their 
own villages. Some believers were thus accepted who 
could neither walk nor be carried, and who lived far 
up in the mountains. 



l8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

A MEMORABLE DAY. 

The first Sunday of July, 1838, was a memorable 
one in the history of missions. It was the day of the 
greatest accession. On that afternoon 1,705 men, 
women, and children, who aforetime had been heathen, 
were baptized and took upon them the vows of God, 
and about 2,400 communicants sat down together at the 
table of the Lord. 

We look in upon that scene with wonder and awe. 
The great crush of people at the morning sermon has 
been dismissed, and the house is cleared. Down 
through the middle are seated first the original mem- 
bers of the church, perhaps fifty in number. Mr. 
Coan then calls upon the head man of each village 
to bring forward his people. With note-book in hand, 
he carefully selects the converts who have been pre- 
viously accepted. They have been for many weeks 
at the station. No pains have been spared, no test 
left unused, with each individual to ascertain if he 
be truly a child of God. The multitude of candi- 
dates is then seated upon the earth floor, in close rows, 
with space enough between for one to walk. There 
is prayer and singing, and an explanation — ^already 
made many times, that none may trust in the external 
rite — is given of the baptism they are now to receive; 
the sealing ordinance is reverently administered. " I 
never witnessed such a scene before," said Mr. Coan, 
looking back through the lapse of thirty years. " There 
was a hush upon the vast crowd without, who pressed 



TITUS COAN. 19 

about the doors and windows. The candidates and 
the church were all in tears, and the overshadowing 
presence of God was felt in every heart." 

Then followed the Lord's Supper. And who are 
these that take into their hands the emblems of the 
Lord's death ? Let him tell who broke the bread and 
gave the cup. " Not only the young and strong were 
there ; but also the old and decrepit, the lame, the blind, 
the maimed, the withered, the paralytic, and those af- 
flicted with divers diseases and torments; those with 
eyes, noses, lips, and limbs consumed with the fire of 
their own or of their parents' lusts, with features dis- 
torted and figures the most deformed and loathsome; 
these came hobbling upon their staves, and led or 
borne by their friends, they sat down at the table of the 
Lord. Among this throng you could see the hoary 
priest of idolatry with hands but recentiy, as it were, 
washed from the blood of human victims, together with 
the thief, the adulterer, the unclean, the sorcerer, the 
highway robber, the blood-stained murderer, and the 
mother — no, the monster — whose hands have reeked 
in the blood of her own children. All these met to- 
gether before the cross of Christ, with their enmity 
slain and themselves washed, sanctified, and justified 
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our 
God." Has Jesus come again? Is this one of the 
crowds which he has gathered, upon whom he has pro- 
nounced the words of healing? Surely it is. In very 
deed he is there. These are the lost whom the Son 
of man came to seek and to save. And the rejoi- 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

cing angels are there; they leave behind the pomp 
of cathedrals, and fly with eager wing to this lowly 
island tabernacle. With holy wonder they hover 
over the bowed heads of these weeping redeemed sin- 
ners. "The bright seraphim in burning row" ring 
out anew the praises of the Highest as they hear re- 
counted these triumphs of almighty grace. 

It sometimes happens that men who have had re- 
markable success in winning souls to Christ fail in the 
after-training of their converts. And the question will 
naturally arise, Do these results abide? Tried by any 
fitting standard, we can safely say, They do abide. 

The care and painstaking of the pastor were not 
less remarkable than the success of the preacher. 
There were reactions. But what revival in America — 
where the people have garnered into themselves the 
growth and moral stamina of a thousand Christian 
years — ^is not followed by reaction ? There were apos- 
tasies; but we are constrained to say, after careful ex- 
amination, that the permanence of the results seems to 
us almost as marvellous as the revival itself. During 
the five years ending June, 1841, 7,557 persons were re- 
ceived into the church at Hilo. They were about three- 
fourths of the adult population of the parish. About 
one in sixty came under discipline — a discipline stricter 
than ours at home, and that among babes in Christ. 
The greater part of these were restored, and few were 
finally cut off". " I never administered the quarterly 
sacrament without receiving from ten to twenty per- 
sons. No year has the number gone below fifty. It 



TITUS COAN. 21 

did not prove a great excitement, to die out. When I 
left for a brief visit to the United States, in April, 1870, 
I had received into the church, and myself baptized, 
11,960 persons." 

Under this training the people became more and 
more settled in faith and morals. An irruption of 
Catholic priests dre,w away but few of them. There 
never was a grog-shop in the entire parish. Probably 
to-day the ratio of people in New England who cannot 
read and write is greater than among the Hawaiians in 
Hilo and Puna. Not in New England is the Sabbath 
better observed ; and the industries of civilization have 
now largely taken the place of the old savage indo- 
lence. 

In 1867 the grand old church was divided into seven 
local churches, six of them with native pastors. Three 
of these are on the lava-fields of the south, and three 
among the ravines of the north. The remaining one is 
at Hilo, where also is an American church for the for- 
eign population. To accommodate the widely-scattered 
people, these churches have built fifteen places of wor- 
ship, seating from 500 to 3,000 people each. Five of 
them have bells, and the church building at Hilo cost 
about $14,000. This has been done with the Hawaii- 
ans* own money and by their own labor. 

Another fruit of the faithful training of Mr. Coan is 
the growth of beneficence in the churches. The Monthly 
Concert was held from the beginning, and a contribu- 
tion was always taken. They "first gave their own 

selves to the Lord," and then it was " according to that 

II 



22 AMERICAN HEROES, 



a man hath** — a fish, a fowl, a cocoanut, and later, mon- 
ey, but in all sacrifice and worship. Each month, on 
the first Sunday morning, a sermon was preached on 
some department or interest of Christ's kingdom in the 
broad world. They never even heard that miserable 
sentence of a narrow faith, " There is so much to do at 
home !" Their lips never uttered the miserly falsehood, 
"It takes a dollar to send a dollar to the heathen." 
They were instructed in all causes, and gave to all. 
More than $10,000 have come to the United States 
from the Hilo church ; $200 went to a Chinese mis- 
sion, and $100 to Syria at the time of the massacre and 
famine. The appeal of Father Chiniquy, in Kankakee, 
Illinois, reached them; and when the letter which 
brought him $200 from these poor islanders was read 
his whole congregation bowed down weeping ! Their 
monthly collections have averaged from the beginning 
about $100, the highest reaching $265, and the grand 
aggregate for all religious purposes amounts to above 
$100,000. 

One of the legitimate fruits of a true Christian train- 
ing is a desire to carry the gospel to " the regions be- 
yond." The faithful pastor was not slow to perceive 
this, and he was among the first to advocate a native 
mission to Micronesia. 

The idea of a missionary packet, and an appeal to 
the children of the United States to build it, seems to 
have sprung from his fertile brain. 

As a delegate of the Hawaiian Missionary Society 
he made two voyages in the "Morning Star** to the 



TITUS COAN. 23 

Marquesas Islands. After the wreck of the second ship 
he became an earnest advocate of steam as an auxiliary 
motdr to help the little vessel in its errands of mercy. 
He had the satisfaction of seeing nearly a score of per- 
sons, wholly sustained by his church, go out on the 
"Morning Star" as foreign missionaries to the dark 
islands of Micronesia. 

Mrs. Coan*s work was not less constant and tireless. , 
For several years she taught a school for young girls. 
This she was finally forced to relinquish by the grow- 
ing cares of her family, cares that were doubly exhaust- 
ing in that land of untrained servants and wholly unor- 
ganized social life. A great labor of entertaining also 
fell unavoidably upon her. The traveller may now 
find excellent boarding-houses in the beautiful and 
flourishing town of Hilo ; but during all of Mrs. Coan's 
life both friends and strangers came to the missionaries 
for unrequited entertainment. The most serious trial 
of the early days has not been mentioned. One by 
one her children left her to continue their education 
and to seek their home in the United States. It was 
the most cruel trial of the parent's heart, for these part- 
ings were often final. 

On the occasion of their visit to the United States 
in 1870 Mr. and Mrs. Coan renewed many old ties and 
formed many new ones. But Mrs. Coan's strength was 
already spent in the service. She died at Hilo on the 
29th of September, 1872. A woman of tender frame 
and of high social and intellectual cultivation, this mis- 
sionary work was for her a sacrificial consecration. 



24 AMERICAN HEROES. 

Through her whole island life she was an invalid. But 
she was her husband's faithful helpmeet during thirty- 
eight years of married life ; she was the patient, intelli- 
gent, unselfish, and loving spirit to whom a great part 
of Mr. Coan's large success was due — a, greater part in- 
deed than the world will ever know. Mrs. Coan was 
his guide, counsellor, friend, and fellow-worker. Ac- 
cepting a task which her deep and sure intelligence 
told her from the first was too severe for her, she never 
flagged until her strength and life were spent, until she 
fell, a Christian martyr. 

While Mr. Coan was intent upon his great work as 
a missionary, he was not insensible to the scenes of nat- 
ural beauty and grandeur around him. His two vol- 
umes, "Adventures in Patagonia," and "Life in Ha- 
waii," are written with a graphic pen, and reveal not 
only keen observation, but a fine poetic sense. The 
greatest volcano on the globe was in his parish. He 
was the ardent and frequent observer of grand phe- 
nomena — the shudder of earthquakes, the inflowing of 
great volcanic waves, the red glow of lava streams 
marching seaward, the leaping of fire cataracts into 
deep -lying pools, sending off" the water in steam and 
burning them dry in a night. There were few days 
when the smoke of subterranean furnaces was out of 
his sight. 

Once a river of lava, burrowing its way towards 
the sea 1,500 feet below the surface, broke over the 
shore cliff" and leaped into the hissing waves, waking a 
tumultuous fury among the contending elements that 



TITUS COAN. 25 

was perfecdy indescribable. At another time, from 
Mauna Loa, one of the loftiest mountains of the island, 
a pillar of fire, 200 feet in diameter, lifted itself for 
three weeks 1,000 feet in the air, making darkness day 
for a hundred miles around, and leaving as its monu- 
ment a vast lava cone a mile in circumference. 

The scientific world is fortunate in having had upon 
the ground for nearly fifty years, where such titanic 
forces were at play, one whose courage and love of ad- 
venture were equalled only by his faithfulness and 
graphic skill in portraying the most imposing of phe- 
nomena. 

The evening of Mr. Coan's days was spent as 
pastor of the large church at Hilo, and in apostolic 
supervision of the diocese which had sprung up under 
his care. A happy second marriage cheered his later 
years, and the loving wife that ministered tenderly at 
his dying bed survives to mourn his loss. 

In the latter part of 1882, during a revival into 
which he threw himself with unceasing ardor as of old, 
he was suddenly smitten down with a paralytic shock. 
For several weeks he lay " helpless, with only love, joy, 
peace in his soul, his beautiful patience and submission 
completing the lesson that his life had given of obedi- 
ence to his Lord." He recovered in part, so that the 
day before his death he was carried through the streets 
looking natural and well. Almost the entire village 
flocked out to greet him, and all were glad to have had 
that last look. The next day at noon he was standing 
among the redeemed throng on high. 



26 AMERICAN HEROES. 

And thus passed out of toil into rest, Dec i, 1882, 
at the ripe age of eighty-two years, the Rev. Titus Coan, 
missionary to the Hawaiian Islands. 

We can think of no more beautifully-ordered de- 
parture than his. It was meet that a life which had 
witnessed such scenes of revival should have given its 
last labors in ardent efforts for lost souls, and that in 
the midst of the toils of a season of refreshing from the 
Most High the tense bow should have broken. There 
was a divine and delightful fitness that the spirit of the 
aged warrior should ascend to its reward fi^om the 
batdefield where the gracious conflict was still raging, 
and where such amazing triumphs of infinite love had 
been achieved. 



VIL 



REY. HAERISOH GRAY OTIS DWIGHT, 

D. D. 



BY REV. CYRUS HAMLIN, D. D. 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS. 



VII. HARRISON GRAY OTIS D WIGHT. 

From the published " History of the Dwight Fam- 
ily" is taken the following abstract of Mr. Dwight^s 
early history. 

" Rev. Harrison Gray Otis Dwight, D. D., son of 
Seth Dwight and Hannah Strong, born at Conway, 
Mass., Nov. 22, 1803, was graduated at Hamilton Col- 
lege, N. Y., in 1825, and at Andover Theological Sem- 
inary in 1828, was Agent of the A. B. C. F. M. (1828-9) 
for a short time, and was ordained and commissioned, 
July 15, 1829, as Missionary of the Board to the East at 
Great Barrington, Mass. Sailed for Malta, January, 
1830, etc. Just before sailing he was married to Miss 
Elizabeth Barker, of North Andover, Mass." 

His residence was transferred in early youth from 
Conway, Mass., to Utica, N. Y., where he served as a 
clerk in the store of his brother-in-law, James Dana, 
father of the distinguished scientist of Yale College. 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

HIS CONVERSION AND CALL. 

Wh3e with Mr. I>ana he gave himself up to all the 
gayeties of the place. He was regarded as a very grace- 
ful dancer and a leader in that amusement among his 
young companions. He confessed himself to have been 
as entirely thoughdess as Mr. Dana himself, who openly 
professed to seek his highest good in this world. He 
was very accurate in his duties as derk, and as such 
was trusted and highly valued. 

It was in the midst of this gay and busy life that a 
revival visited the place, and his eyes were opened as 
of one bom blind. " A sinner ! What shall I do to be 
saved?" filled his thoughts, and the pleasures he so 
much valued were abandoned in disgust He met with 
severe opposition from Mr. Dana and other friends, and 
passed through fiery trisds in coming to the resolution 
to consecrate his life to the gospel ministry. It was 
alwa3rs his habit, when he had decided a point of duty, 
to go straight forward, not caring what man could do 
unto him. It was one of the striking characteristics of 
his entire life. 

Erelong Mr. Dana himself experienced the same 
marvellous change, and became a life-long friend and 
admirer of Dr. Dwight, rejoicing in all his missionary 
labors. 

Soon after entering Andover Theological Seminary, 
in 1825, the question of his future field came up for con- 
sideration. He was but twenty-two, but he had the 
calm, clear judgment of riper years. He heard the 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. g 

voice of Jesus saying to his church, " Go ye into all the 
world and preach the gospel to every creature ;" and 
he also heard the voice of Paul, " How shall they hear 
without a preacher ?" Here is my native land with all 
its churches, schools, • colleges, Bibles, and preachers 
everywhere; there is the dark heathen world with its 
unknown millions in the service and power of sin and 
Satan, groping its way to eternal darkness. He thought 
he saw very clearly where God would have him go. 
Having once made the decision, he often testified in 
after-life that he never questioned it. He felt sure that 
in so doing he had come into more perfect harmony 
with his divine Lord and Master. 

Having thus consecrated himself to the missionary 
work, without any choice of field of labor, and ready to 
go wherever the call should be most urgent, he offered 
his services to the American Board near the close of 
his seminary course in 1828. The secretaries at that 
time were Rufus Anderson and David Greene. In the 
Prudential Committee were Dr. Leonard Woods, Jere- 
miah Evarts, Samuel Hubbard, Dr. Wisner, etc. 

These were men who had begun to study the geog- 
raphy of the world with a new and intense interest. 
They were searching for ports of entry into the king- 
dom of darkness. Jowett's " Researches " had directed 
attention to Palestine and to the Greek Church. Fisk, 
Parsons, and Dudley, from Middlebury College, were 
pioneers in the work. Their saintly and devoted lives 
were short, but in dying they brought forth much fruit 
in the inspiring example which they had given to young 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

men and in the field of missionary labor which they had 
opened to the church. 

Mr. Dwight's first year and a half of missionary ser- 
vice was among the churches at home. The Pruden- 
tial Committee set a high value upon the calm, clear, 
and cogent statements of Christian duty in the mission- 
ary work from one so young. This peculiar work also 
gave the secretaries an opportunity to know more thor- 
oughly the man and his fitness for difficult and respon- 
sible enterprises. 

MISSIONARY EXPLORATIONS. 

It was decided, after mature deliberation, to send 
him to the Mediterranean and let him find his own field 
of labor in the unexplored regions lying east of that sea. 
Through the mission of the Board in Palestine an interest 
in the Armenians had been awakened in a very peculiar 
manner, which our limits forbid us to narrate.* Little, 
however, was then known of their numbers or condition. 
The same was true of the Greeks scattered, like the Ar- 
menians, through Asia Minor, Persia, and Russia. The 
Nestorians, the Georgians, the Jacobite Syrians, the 
Koords, and Moslems, were all objects of interest from 
the obscurity then hanging over their social and reli- 
gious condition and their accessibility to evangelical 
missions. 

To clear up this obscurity, to survey those unvisited 
regions, and to select his field of labor was to be young 

* See Dwight's " Christianity Revived in the East," Chap. L 
New York : Baker & Scribner, i8.«50. 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. ^ 

Dwight*s first and great work, a work destined to bear 
fruit in coming ages. An experienced and distinguished 
missionary, the Rev. Dr. Eli Smith, of Beirut, was asso- 
ciated with him under instructions from the Board. 

The explorers started from Malta, March 17, 1830, 
Mrs. Dwight remaining in Malta, Mrs. Smith in Beirut. 
The tour occupied fifteen months. They travelled 
2,408 miles on horseback in Turkey, Persia, and the 
borders of Russia. They were exposed to cholera, 
malarial fevers, extreme heat, and intense cold, and 
sometimes they almost despaired of life. 

But they returned in safety. Dr. Smith went to 
Boston to publish the " Researches." They constituted 
an era in the history of the American Board and in the 
history of missions. They brought before the Christian 
public the Oriental Christians, the Armenians, Greeks, 
Nestorians, and Roman-catholics — their peculiarities, 
their numbers, their church creeds and governments, 
their wealth and poverty, their relations to the Moham- 
medan Government, the freedom with which missiona- 
ries might enter among them without attacking Islam 
and wake to spiritual life these decayed churches, and 
thus prepare the way to bring the gospel in a clear, in- 
telligible form to the great Moslem world. All these 
were clearly portrayed, and excited a very deep interest 
in the minds of Christian men and women. Nor has 
the interest ceased ; the work thus opened is the leading 
mission of the Board, although two noble sections, the 
Syrian and the Nestorian, are no longer under its care. 

Mr. Dwight had no doubt whatever as to which 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

people of Turkey he should direct his labors. The 
Armenians seemed to him wonderfully prepared to 
listen to a pure gospel, and their church was so covered 
up with rites and ceremonies, unscriptural or anti-scrip- 
tural, that they were sheep without a shepherti. His 
life thenceforth became so closely connected with them 
that the history of his thirty years of labor in Turkey 
is also the history of the mission to the Armenians. 

HIS ASSOCIATES. 

In 1832 Dr. Dwight took up his residence at Con- 
stantinople. Mr. Goodell was already there, and Mr. 
Schauffler soon joined them. Never were three men 
more admirably adapted to each other in a difficult 
enterprise, under a watchful and despotic power, made 
doubly jealous by recent political events. Each of the 
three, Goodell, Dwight, and Schauffler, had his own 
strongly marked individuality; each seemed to be con- 
structed as the complement of the other. 

Goodell was systematic in his work, rising betimes 
and keeping everything in his house up to time. He 
worked up to his strength and no more. He threw 
away neither time nor strength, but used both to the 
best advantage, and though always feeble, lived and 
labored beyond the age of threescore years and ten. 
Forty-five years ago he said to a young missionary, 
'* Work neither above your strength nor below it. Use 
it so as to last long." He heeded the advice and is 
alive at this day, while stronger men than he have 
long since passed over. 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. 9 

Goodell was always cheerful and helpful. He had 
a natural, ever-flowing stream of humor. He was 
quick in repartee. He could not help it. He had a 
contagious, mirthful laugh. He had perfect transparency 
of character. He enjoyed everything with a free, joy- 
ous spirit. But over all this reigned a spirit of piety, 
a consciousness of his Master's perpetual presence, and 
of his being first of all and everywhere His servant, that 
was wonderful in its power to harmonize and make 
beautiful and lovely all these other characteristics. If 
they seem irreconcilable in themselves, they were not 
so in him. He was the soul of harmony, and never 
was a missionary band more fraternally united than that 
Constantinople circle over which he presided. " One 
Lord, one faith, one baptism" might have been its 
motto. 

Schaufiler was a German by birth and early educa- 
tion, a Russian by residence in Odessa, and finally an 
American by residence at Andover. In a very excel- 
lent sense he was all these nationalities and more. He 
preached, as occasion demanded, in English, German, 
Turkish, French, Russian, and knew well Italian, Span- 
ish, Arabic, Persian, Greek, Latin, and various other 
dialects, as Syriac, Coptic, etc. He had by native ge- 
nius and hard study the gift of tongues. He had stud- 
ied in Germany, Russia, France, and America. He had 
a wonderfully retentive memory, also a very deep reli- 
gious experience, boundless enthusiasm, and earnest 
devotion. His resources in conversation shone out 
with a brilliancy rarely equalled. He was a profound 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

Student of Scripture, and knew how to bring things new 
and old out of its treasures. In hi3 more than half a 
century of labor he led many souls to Christ 

Dwight was cast in a different mould from either of 
his coadjutors. He was a man of perfect self-control 
and self-possession. Under the most trying circum- 
stances he possessed his soul in peace and patience. 
He was a man of vast capacity of judgment, coming to 
his conclusions slowly, but every step was on solid 
ground. He had a well-balanced mind, trained to log- 
ical thought, was a careful observer of men and things, 
and fond of the natural sciences, without ever letting 
them divert him from his great work. He first of all 
satisfied himself with regard to a position, and then 
nothing could move him. 

These three choice men worked together in admira- 
ble harmony — a threefold cord of singular strength. 
The divine oversight of the church appears conspicu- 
ously in the choice of instruments for enterprises that 
are new and difficult and that involve great future re- 
sults. 

HOME LIFE IN TURKEY. 

Dr. and Mrs. Dwight, established in their new home, 
applied themselves at once to the acquisition of the Ar- 
menian language. It was then almost unknown to Eu- 
rope. No missionary had studied it. It was regarded 
as rough and uncultivated, wholly unfit for an advancing 
civilization. But it was the language of many thou- 
sands of Armenian homes, and in the ancient or classic 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. II 

form of all Armenian worship. It was a wise choice, 
for the Armenians love their language with patriotic 
ardor, and rightly esteem it capable of any degree of 
development. It opened the door of many homes that 
would otherwise have been closed for ever. 

As soon as Mr. Dwight was able to hold intercourse 
with the people of the great capital, the conviction 
formed during his long tour was only strengthened, that 
education, what we should call common school educa- 
tion, to begin with, must be wholly reformed and dif- 
fused among the people, or the Word of God could 
have no abiding hold of them. 

In a joint letter to the secretaries, dated June 2, 1832, 
he says : " The question, * In what way can we labor to 
the greatest possible advantage for the good of the Ar- 
menians ?' has occupied many of our thoughts and has 
often been the subject of our prayers. And we are fully 
satisfied that in order to begin at the right end with 
them we must commence with elementary schools. To 
say nothing now of the universally -admitted fact that 
impressions can far more easily be made on the mind 
of a child than on that of an adult, there are other strong 
reasons in favor of the course proposed to be pursued 
among the Armenians. Very few of these people, com- 
paratively, have ever been taught to read, and almost 
none have been taught to think. 

" If, now, we put into their hands the Word of God, 
or valuable books of human composition, what advan- 
tage will result while they have not learned to distin- 
guish one letter from another ? If we preach or talk to 

12 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

them on subjects of eternal interest, the case may be 
somewhat different, for the Lord may cause light to 
shine upon the darkest mind; but as he ordinarily 
works through the understanding, and by means suited 
to enlighten and convince it, all our preaching and talk- 
ing to men who are full of prejudices in favor of a gray- 
bearded system, who have never been accustomed to 
think, and who, if referred to the law and the. testimony, 
cannot make out a syllable, or perhaps tell the name of 
a single letter, seems like splashing in the water or beat- 
ing the air. We must begin, then, with schools. We 
must teach the children to read," 

He goes on to speak of the necessity of preparing 
school-books in their spoken language, of the success 
of Lancasterian schools recently established among the 
Greeks, and of the employment of Mr. Paspati (edu- 
cated by the Board at Amherst College) to give lessons 
to the teachers. 

The great success of Lancasterian schools among the 
Greeks, established by Di^ Goodell, had its influence 
upon the Armenians. Dr. Dwight found them more 
cautious, not so ready to move, not so ready to take up 
with a new thing, but more firm, steady, and perse- 
vering when once in motion. 

What the condition of the Turkish Empire seemed 
to be at this date, to one viewing it from without, may 
be learned from a letter written by Mr. Temple at Malta, 
Oct. 2, 1832, who says, "Turkey seems to be withering 
away like a tree smitten by the hot thunderbolts of 
heaven;" but at Constantinople the lion-hearted Sultao 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. 1 3 

Mahmoud was initiating so many reforms in the army, 
navy, and civil administration that the missionaries 
began to look for better days. 

Mr. D wight, writing under date of July 17, 1834, has 
evidently entered fully into his life's work. His " time 
was divided between studying languages, the prepara- 
tion of books, teaching, and intercourse with the peo- 
ple." 

In 1834 the missionaries believed the printing-press 
might be safely removed from Malta to Smyrna ; but on 
its arrival with the Rev. David Temple and Mr. Hal- 
lockj the printer, they were peremptorily ordered to 
leave in ten days, an order doubtless instigated by the 
Jesuits. Consular influence secured the revocation of 
the order, and the printing-press was thus introduced 
into Turkey by our mission. The first press had been 
established there by the Rev. Mr. Brewer, the gift of 
Mr. Harlow, of Bangor, Me. But this was temporary. 
It had now come to stay and to send forth a mighty 
influence into the empire. Other presses had been set 
up at the capital, but had done nothing for public en- 
lightenment. 

In 1833 Messrs. Dwight and Goodell made a voyage 
of research in a small sail-boat round the shores and bays 
of the Sea of Marmora. While they found some villages 
where misery and stupidity seemed to be well balanced, 
they found in other places a desire for education, an 
awakened state of thought, an evident preparation for a 
better day. The places then selected as most hopeful 
for missionary labor have since justified the choice. 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

Rodosto and Bandurma have become centres of con- 
flict between light and darkness. Brusa and Nicomedia 
had been visited by Dr. Goodell, and strongly recom- 
mended to the Board for immediate occupation. Treb- 
izond on the Black Sea and Oroomiah in Persia had 
been recommended by Dn Dwight after his long tour, 
and Smyrna had been visited by many missionaries, 
English, American, and German, but nothing had been 
permanently done for the Armenians. 

This year, 1834, Mr. Dwight had the great gratifi- 
cation of seeing Smyrna occupied by Mr. Adger, an 
accomplished and earnest young man from Charleston, 
S. C. ; Brusa by Mr. Schneider, for more than forty 
years an indefatigable laborer ; Trebizond by Mr. John- 
ston, who but recently went up higher, and Oroomiah by 
Mr. Perkins. He went with Mr. Schneider to Brusa, and 
saw clearly the promise and importance of that splen- 
didly-situated capital of Bithynia. He visited as soon 
as possible Mr. Adger at Smyrna and Mr. Johnston at 
Trebizond. Nearly every subsequent station among 
the Armenians occupied by the Board was visited by 
him as new missionaries arrived and was thus inaugu- 
rated by him. He had begun his missionary life by a 
survey of the whole field, and as the mission received 
annual additions, he kept up a correspondence with 
every station, and was the trusted counsellor of all. He 
had found from the first a beloved and faithful coadju- 
tor in a young Armenian, Hohannes Der Sahakian, 
whose heart the Lord had touched. Another also 
should be mentioned, Mr. Senakerim, who gave earnest 



H, G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. 1 5 

and valuable aid to this beginning of things. At the 
dose of 1834 Mr. Dwight records with devout gratitude 
the progress actually made and the signs of better 
things to come. Above all, some hearts were evidendy 
under the power and control of the Holy Spirit. 

When not called away on tours into the surround- 
ing region, his time was devoted to schools and the 
preparation of school-books for the Armenians. Mr. 
Goodell had met with great success in opening Lancas- 
terian schools among the Greeks, and now Mr. Dwight 
was developing them among the Armenians. He found, 
on fuller acquaintance, the school-books so few and un- 
suitable that he prepared a set of one hundred and fifty 
wall cards, which were printed for the use of classes, 
and received with delight. From that time forward 
schools and school-books absorbed much of his time 
for some years. Out of those schook have come the 
ablest workers in the vineyard. 

In 1837 the work of education, of enlargement, and 
of spiritual enlightenment had advanced all along the 
line. A great High School had been established by 
Jesairlee Muggerditch Agha, a wealthy, enterprising, 
enlightened Armenian banker. Mr, Dwight's helper, 
Hohannes, and a truly enlightened, pious priest, Der 
Kevork, were at the head. Six hundred pupils were 
gathered under their care, and the institution became 
the wonder and joy of the missionaries. Even the 
Turks had caught the enthusiasm, and those who can 
turn to the Annual Report of the period will be deeply 
interested in the facts there presented. 



' 



l6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

Mr. Dwight made a visit to Nicomedia during the 
year, and found there an earnest spirit of evangelical 
piety among some twenty brethren. He says of them, 
" These brethren are still Armenian, and I trust they 
will remain so. I see no reason why we should wish 
them to become anything else. We want to see them 
truly enlightened; we want to see them studying the 
Scriptures ; and we want to see their characters trans- 
formed by the power of the divine Spirit; but we have 
no desire that they should become Americans or Lu- 
therans or Congregationalists or Presbyterians or any- 
thing else but true Christians. Christians they are now 
in name, and their church government is probably as 
good for them as any other would be, and perhaps bet- 
ter. Let them have the power as well as the form of 
godliness, and with all my heart I would say, let them 
remain Armenians still." 

Much to the same effect might be quoted from him 
and other missionaries. In the instructions given in 
Park Street Church, December 2, 1838, to a young mis- 
sionary about to sail for Smyrna, Dr. Anderson advanced 
the same ideas in substance, and from 1830 to 1846 the 
missionaries to the Armenians worked in this spirit 
Thus is the vile accusation that the missionaries in- 
duced the early evangelicals to abandon their church 
and become traitors to both church and nation, by great 
promises which they never fulfilled, disposed of.* We 

* " Our object is not to subvert them^the Oriental churches— 
not to pull down and build up anew ; it is to reform them— to re- 
vive among them the knowledge and spirit of the gosi>el. . . . We 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. 1 7 

shall have occasion to refer to this again, as it is a sub- 
ject that has entered into the history of the mission and 
has attracted public attention. 

Up to 1837 Mr. Dwight's life h^d been one of un- 
varying hard work, inspired by high hopes of a great 
spiritual renovation in the Armenian Church. He went 
with Dr. Schauffler into European Turkey and found 
some points of interest, but the time for that field had 
not yet come; rather, there was a louder call from other 
places. 

He early entered into an interesting* correspondence 
with the German missionaries in Russia. As their la- 
bors had been interfered with by the Russian Govern- 
ment, it was hoped they might do something for the 
Armenians, and the Board readily seconded his plans ; 
but Mr. Dettriech found himself unable to do anything 
even for them, and was compelled finally to leave the 
country. During the last fifty years Russia has not 
failed to break up every evangelical mission within her 
borders, whether for Jews, Moslems, or Armenians, 
Her watchful despotism never slumbers nor sleeps, 

BEREAVEMENTS. 

Nearly every year from 1830 to 1837 the plague or 
cholera had visited the great capital, and when it came 
the Christian populations went into quarantine in their 
own houses, as far as possible. Schools were closed and 

are content that their present ecclesiastical organization should' 
remain, provided the knowledge and spirit of the gospel can be 
revived under it." 



l8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

missionary work interrupted. Mr. Dwight did not in 
the least relax his labors at these times. His transla- 
tions and correspjondence gave him full employment. 
Education had received such a general impulse that the 
mission made application for a man who should be en- 
tirely devoted to that department. There were also 
many indications of the power of divine truth working 
in the hearts of men, leading them to a knowledge of 
sin and salvation unthought of before. A spirit of op- 
position also sprang up. The kingdom of darkness 
was alarmed, and persecution began to vex the open 
followers of this " new way." 

The angel of death suddenly darkened the doors of 
Mr. Dwight*s happy family. As the plague was unusu- 
ally severe, he had removed to one of the most healthy 
villages in the neighborhood of the city with his wife 
and four children. The little boy John was ill, but no 
apprehension of the plague was felt till just before his 
deatli. The mother followed in two days by the same 
dread messenger. As Mr. Dwight was continually with 
these sick and dying members of his family in deepest 
affliction and anxiety, there was no probability of his 
escape. Five were taken from a neighboring family, 
three only left.* 

Mrs. Dwight was a woman of admirable qualities for 
missionary usefulness. After six short years she is sud- 

* The plague has not visited Constantinople since 1837. Quar- 
antine seems to have been effectual in the exclusion of this epi^ 
demic. It has been less fatal in Egypt. Has the Asiatic cholera 
taken its place ? 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. 19 

denly called away with a beloved child, and the house- 
hold broken up, the children dispersed, and the father 
in solitary quarantine under a tent, awaiting the result of 
his probably fatal exposure. But he was not forsaken. 
Friends gathered around him to the nearest circle of 
safety. Commodore Porter rode out daily to see him, 
and supplied all his wants. Even Armenian bishops 
came to inquire for his health, and his missionary asso^ 
ciates were always at hand. They found him in perfect 
peace. " I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, be- 
cause Thou didst it." Writing under date of August i, 
he says, " I feel that I have made a very near approach 
to the eternal world, and if I ever had a firm and joyful 
hope of heaven it was then. The greatest apparent 
danger has gone by, but eternity and heaven still seem 
very near to me, and I hope they will appear more and 
more so. I am amazed every day when I think of the 
wonderful grace of God that has enabled me to extract 
so much that is sweet from a cup so bitter." He had 
in the course of his life repeated sorrows and bereave- 
ments, but they were all borne in the same heavenly 
spirit. 

September, 1839, Mr. D wight returned from a visit 
to the United States. Before his departure for the 
East he was married to Miss Mary Lane, of South- 
bridge, Mass., a lady of high qualifications for her 
responsible position. 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

PERSECUTION. 

He found on his return to his field some remarka- 
ble changes in his work. His beloved fellow -worker, 
Hohannes, was in exile for the truth's sake, together 
with some others. The hierarchy and the bankers, 
backed by Greek and Jesuit influence, had risen in 
their wrath to crush the evangelical movement which 
had been rapidly extending into distant parts of the 
empire. Mr. Dwight entered with zeal but prudence 
into this new state of things. The force of the per- 
secution had been broken by the death of the Sultan 
and the entire change of administration. The effort 
to expel the missionaries had been given up, and he 
again found access to awakened souls as before. Some 
had endured persecution nobly, some had yielded to 
the enemy. But he writes, "I have now six regular 
attendants of my semi-weekly Armenian Bible exercise, 
and two others have attended occasionally. They are 
all intelligent and promising young men, interested in 
the study of the sacred Scriptures, and I pray that the 
Lord may visit them by his Spirit and that they may be 
made wise unto salvation." 

In 1840 he notices in his journal many most inter- 
esting events, showing that " God is watching over his 
church," such as " reaction after the persecution, the re- 
turn from exile of Mr. Sahakian ("Baron Hohannes")» 
the degradation from office oi the chief persecutors, the 
removal of the bookstore to the city proper, the opening 
in a khan of a room for religious conversation and in- 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. 21 

struction and distribution of books and tracts, also pro^ 
gress at Br{isa, Trebizond, Nicomedia, and Adabazar, 
the opening of Bebek Seminary, and imbecile efforts 
against it. In view of the year we may well say, God 
is with us ; he will help us, and that right early." 

His visit to Nicomedia during the year presents a 
phase of his missionary character, life, and labors wor- 
thy of the space we shall devote to it. The writer was 
permitted to accompany him and take his first lesson 
from an experienced fellow-laborer in such itinerating 
work. It opened a new view of the richness of Dr. 
Dwight's character. The passage was on the deck of 
a small vessel of fifty or sixty tons and crowded with 
passengers, Armenians, Greeks, and Turks. We had 
our litde space, spread our mats, and sat down like the 
rest, cross-legged, varying it occasionally into the Per- 
sian attitude. There was anything but comfort during 
the day and night. But Mr. Dwight was cheerful, so- 
cial, and even jocose, and diffused the same spirit around 
him. It was good policy, but it was not the result of 
policy. He had thrown off study, perplexity, anxiety, 
and care for the time. The cool breezes of the Mar- 
mora, its glorious islands and shores, and the strange, 
amusing exhibitions of character around us, were an 
inspiration to which he yielded. Many a hearty burst 
of laughter went up from the deck of our little vessel, 
indicative of anything but the presence of a stiff and 
solemn missionary thirsting for martyrdonj. The wri- 
ter was amused and amazed at this new outbreak of 
Dwight's character. Could he recover himself and as- 



22 AMERICAN HEROES. 

sume the character or work of teacher ? This came as 
naturally as the other, and before the vessel arrived at 
Nicomedia there was little else but religious conversa- 
tion on board. " The people heard him gladly." 

Persecution was rife in the city. We went to the 
Greek quarter and took lodgings in a khan. In the 
evening a man came timidly, and said, " A brother w^ill 
come about three o'clock while it is yet dark to conduct 
you to a garden where all. the brethren will be assem- 
bled." At that hour we started, the city silent as death 
in the profoundest sleep. A dying brother was to be 
visited, comforted, and prayed with on our way. The 
room was small and sombre, but the peaceful smile, the 
beaming eye, and the implicit faith of the dying man 
made it " quite on the verge of heaven." " Tarry not," 
said our guide ; " the day is breaking. We must get 
out of the city before a soul moves." We left hastily, 
but that brother's countenance, triumphant in death, 
never faded from memory. Will such scenes be re- 
called in the life to come ? 

As we safely emerged from the city we entered a 
long, straight "hendek," or channel, dug to separate 
lands, about four feet wide, earth thrown up on each 
side, and completely overarched by cherry, plum, and 
other trees, planted by nature or man in the banks. It 
was Sabbath morning. No breeze stirred a bough. 
The dewdrops glittered on every leaf as the morning 
light broke, and the whole leafy arch, for half a mile or 
more, was vocal with the songs of countless nightin* 
gales. They stopped just over us as we entered, but 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. 23 

the concert was renewed as we advanced, and the mel- 
ody filled the air. 

Mr. Dwight was the same in the presence of danger, 
safety, life, and death, but I saw him repeatedly wipe 
his eyes. In his severe training he had never taken 
note of nightingales, and they overcame him ; or, rath- 
er, it was the complex of all the associations of our en- 
vironment — ^the danger from which we had emerged 
under cover of darkness, the departing believer's tri^ 
umph, the quiet beauty and stillness of the Sabbath 
morning, and, withal, that we were a hunted band like 
the Master s own disciples. 

He remarked apologetically that circumstances are 
sometimes more eloquent than words, but in his jour- 
nal he made no reference to the impressive scene. 

Those who are interested in this Nicomedian church 
will find a notice of it in Dwight's "Christianity Re- 
vived in the East," and in " Forty Years in the Turkish 
Empire," pages 220 to 227. He expressed great joy 
in the plain indications which he saw in the long in- 
terviews which he had witl^ these brethren, that the 
Spirit of God makes the truth effectual unto salvation 
without any direct missionary teaching. He found 
them diligent and earnest students of the Word. 
Every man brought his New Testament, and he 
spent four hours in the garden before breakfast an- 
swering their questions. 

From 1840 to 1846 Dr. Dwight was abundant in la- 
bors — touring, visiting the new stations, teaching, preach- 
ing, and visiting from house to house. In spite of all 



24 AMERICAN HEROES. 

the opposition the work was making progress. The 
changed government under Abdul Medjid, the pubUc 
execution of the Armenian martyr Carabet, and the 
formal promise of the Sultan that no such act should 
be repeated, obtained by Sir Stratford Canning, all con- 
tributed to give heart and strength to the persecuted 
evangelicals. This period was one of enlargement in 
every department The press, education, sale of the 
Scriptures, the forming of new stations and out-stations, 
all prospered. Aroused opposition, persecutions of 
various kinds, such as throwing out of employment, or 
injuring character and business by false accusation sus- 
tained by false witnesses before corrupt judges, all 
proved the persistency and bitterness of the opposi- 
tion. 

After making some tours in 1845 to Nicomedia, 
Adabazar, and other places, he writes: "The work of 
the Lord is stationary in no part of the Armenian field, 
nor is the persecuting power long at rest. The most 
outrageous cruelties have been practised upon Protes- 
tants in the interior, while at the capital there is com- 
parative safety." The cruelties of Yeprem, Bishop of 
Erzroum, and of Boghos, Vartabed of Trebizond, are 
remarked upon as all the more disgraceful to them be- 
cause they were enlightened men, who had often ac- 
knowledged the errors of their church. 

It would take far too much space to describe the in- 
genious and malicious means resorted to in the perse- 
cution of the " evangelicals." The following words, re- 
ferring especially to the interior, make known in gene- 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. 25 

fal terms their condition : " The evangelical brethren are 
few in number, have little political influence, and are 
destitute of human protection very nearly in proportion 
as they are removed from the metropolis. They are 
annoyed in their business and hindered from coming 
together for religious worship. They are afraid to be 
seen with a missionary, or even with one another. 
And yet more cheerful and happy Christians can hard- 
ly be found in the world." He often testifies to the 
earnestness ahd depth of their religious convictions and 
their diligent study of the Scriptures. He had visited 
nearly every station repeatedly, and was more widely 
acquainted with the condition of the evangelicals to the 
most distant station than any other man. 

In 1846 the persecution so long threatened burst 
upon the little evangelical communities in every part of 
the empire. It began with the formal anathema of 
priest Vertanes, who, with his brother priest Der Haru- 
tiune, had been faithful and able coworkers with the 
missionaries, and who had been the chief instruments 
of the work in Nicpmedia. January 25, 1846, in grand 
ecclesiastical array, the great veil was drawn in front of 
the altar, the lights extinguished, and the great anathe- 
ma was pronounced upon him as "a contemptible 
wretch," " a devil and a child of the devil," ^ an ampu- 
tated limb" " to be cast into the fire," together with all 
"the modem sectaries" who should follow him. "A 
wild spirit of fanaticism," says Dr. Dwight, "now 
reigned. Before it all sense of right, all regard to truth 
and justice, all 'bowels of mercies,* vanished away. 



26 AMERICAN HEROES. 

Even the strong and tender affection subsisting between 
husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and 
sisters, was in some instances exchanged for the cruel 
hate of the persecutors. The very constancy of the 
people of God provoked still more the wrath of their 
enemies. Their readiness to suffer joyfully the spoiling 
of their goods was considered as a proof that large tem- 
poral rewards had been offered them by the missiona- 
ries, and their unwavering faith in Christ was interpreted 
as obstinacy." 

On the following Sabbath a second anathema, still 
more violent, was uttered, declaring that not only that 
"cursed nonentity, Vertanes," was anathematized by 
the " Holy Church," but likewise " all that were of his 
sentiments, accursed and excommunicated and anathe- 
matized by God and by all his saints and by us." Dr. 
D wight adds, " The spirit of exasperation now knew no 
bounds. One after another the brethren were sum- 
moned before the Patriarch or the local ecclesiastical 
authorities of their particular quarter of the city, and 
required to sign a paper of recantation on penalty of 
being terribly anathematized, which involved their being 
deprived of all business and treated as outlaws. The 
first paper presented for their signatures was in sub- 
stance a confession that under the wicked enticements 
of Satan they had separated from the spotless bosom of 
the Holy Church and joined the impious sect of the 
Protestants, which now they saw to be nothing else but 
an invention of arrogance, a snare of Satan, a sect of 
confusion, a broad road which leadeth to destruction. 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. 27 

Wherefore, repenting of their impious deeds, they fled 
for pardon to the bosom of the holy and immaculate 
Armenian Church, and confessed that her faith is spot- 
less, her sacraments divine, her rites of apostolic origin, 
her ritual pious ; and they promised to receive whatever 
this same Holy Church receiveth, whether it be matter 
of faith or ceremony, and to reject with anathema what- 
ever doctrine she rejects." 

After all this the Patriarch issued a new creed com- 
posed of nine articles, which every suspected evangel- 
ical was required to sign on pain of anathema. It con- 
tained every anti-scriptural error of the Oriental Church 
in its baldest form, the sixth article containing seven 
anti-scriptural and destructive doctrines. 

For the space of nearly three months the Armenian 
pulpits rang everywhere with anathefnas. The anathe- 
matized were expelled from their homes and business, 
some were bastinadoed, as in Erzroum and Trebizond, 
and in every place there were imprisonments in the 
vilest prisons and under the vilest accusations. 

After recounting the hopeless condition of the Ar- 
menian evangelicals, Dr. Dwight says, " Hitherto no 
one had voluntarily separated himself from the Arme- 
nian community. Those who were called schismatics 
had become such by the exscinding act of the Patriarch 
himself, who was the sole author of the schism, and 
who seemed to try every method in his power to ren- 
der the separation perpetual. 

" On the 2ist of June, 1846, he gave the last finishing 
blow to this work by a public official act which resulted, 

13 



28 AMERICAN HEROES. 

through necessifyy in the organization of evangelical 
Protestant churches in Turkey. On that day, being the 
day of a solemn festival for the church, he issued a new 
bull of excommunication and anathema against all who 
remained firm to their evangelical principles, decreeing 
that it should be publicly read at each annual return of 
this festival in all the Armenian churches throughout 
the empire. Thus were the Protestants cut off and cast 
out for ever." 

Up to this point the missionaries had rejected every 
request to form a separate church. But now the ex- 
communicated brethren made a united request to be 
thus formed into an evangelical church by themselves. 
The measure proposed was one of necessity, not of 
choice, and was approved as such by all evangelical 
missionaries and advisers in the capital and elsewhere, 
with the single exception of Bishop Southgate. 

The accusation, oft- repeated, that the missionaries 
bribed them to forsake their church by large promises 
which they never performed is thus still further dis- 
posed of The Armenian brethren themselves declared, 
at the very time of the formation of the first church, in 
a document addressed to their own people, published 
and circulated in all parts of the empire, that they had 
been compelled to this measure by their excommunica- 
tion from the national church, and by the cruel perse- 
cutions, many of which they enumerated. 

The years 1846 to 1856 were to Dr. Dwight years 
of incessant toil. Cases of persecution came to him 
from all parts of the wide field ; new stations had been 



H. G O. DWIGHT, D. D. 29 

formed; a "firman of liberty" had been obtained by 
Sir Stratford Canning and Lord Cowley, and the force 
of violent persecution was broken. Dr. Dwight was 
occupied almost every day with some case of false accu- 
sation of blasphemy, debt, theft, adultery, fraud, etc., 
supported by suborned witnesses and before corrupt 
judges. All his power of judgment, penetration, sagaci- 
ty, his knowledge of the people, the laws and customs 
of the courts, were called into exercise. Diplomatic 
influence was often to be invoked. Perplexing and 
alarming cases of great outrage and injustice would call 
together the whole missionary body in consultation. 
He would generally state the case and its difficulties, 
but would reserve the expression of his views to the 
last. It would contain all that was good in the sugges- 
tions already made with something new and with added 
force in the combination. His relations with Sir Strat- 
ford Canning, Lord Cowley, and other diplomats, were 
always pleasant, and they came to have entire confi- 
dence in his statements. Sir Stratford once remarked 
that he had never known him to make a misstatement. 
He had sometimes suspected that he was deceived, but 
on careful examination he found him true and accurate. 
Few could bear such a scrutiny in such a metropolis of 
falsehood and deception. 

The struggle of the persecuted for existence occu- 
pied much of his time, thoughts, and efforts. Funds 
came pouring in from Europe and America, proving 
the lively sympathy of the Christian world. At one 
time fifty-four shops were closed. When opened and 



30 AMERICAN HEROES. 

the owners reinstated, the enemies were numerous and 
watchful enough to destroy their business. There was 
a source of care and perplexity in this state of things 
which oppressed him continually. But his joy was 
great in visiting the churches and finding progress 
everywhere. The one station of 1831 had become 
nineteen. The missionaries were thirty-three, besides 
their wives ; the schools and high schools, the teachers, 
the out-stations, the circulation of the Scriptures, all 
proved an advancing work. 

But though blessed with an iron constitution, his 
health at length broke down. He once said to the 
writer, " I feel that my work is done. I can neither 
eat nor sleep nor work. I have lost power both of 
body and of mind." His wise and excellent physician 
told him to drop medicine, buy a horse, and begin with 
ten or twelve miles a day, rain or shine, and gradually 
increase it to the full power of the horse. He did so 
with wonderful success. He heartily indorsed a pithy 
saying of Theodore Parker that " the outside of a horse 
is good for the inside of a man." 

CONCLUDING LABORS. 

So soon as his health was reestablished he sold his 
horse and fell into the ordinary channels of his work. 

In i860, Nov. 16, Mrs. D wight, after patient, heroic 
endurance of suffering, fell asleep, deeply lamented and 
much beloved by all interested in the mission. It 
need not be said that Dr. Dwight was brought to a 
new test of his faith, trust, and submission. His hopes 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. 31 

and affections were centring more and more upon 
" things unseen and eternal." He was afflicted, but 
felt the same heavenly peace and calm which he had 
shown in other trials, when beloved children of bright 
promise and the wife of his youth were taken from him. 

The proper care and disposal of his four children 
then with him — two already in America — would compel 
him again to visit his native land. But in order to be 
able to report to the Board and to the churches the 
exact state of the work, he resolved, with the full appro- 
bation of his brethren, to revisit all the stations of the 
Armenian and Persian missions. Steamboats were 
now traversing the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and 
the modes of travel had been vasdy improved. Besides, 
he found fellow-missionaries all along the way, and 
Christian brethren and sisters of the native churches. 
He was everywhere hailed with joy. On his approach 
to a place he was often met by a company of horsemen 
and footmen miles out to welcome him, and they would 
return singing together the songs of Zion. 

He returned from this long tour (traced in the " Her- 
ald "of 1 861) rejoicing in the abundant proofs which 
he saw scattered over this wide field that the power of 
God was in the work. In conclusion he wrote : " I 
have now completed my work. I have visited every 
station of the Board actually occupied in the Turkish 
and Persian Empires, excepting those among the Bul- 
garians. It has been my privilege to see all the mis- 
sionaries and their families— ^a rare body of men and 
women, of whom our churches and our country may 



32 AMERICAN HEROES. 

well be proud — and also to become personally acquaint- 
ed with thousands of the dear Protestant brethren and 
sisters of this land, God's Hghts in the midst of sur- 
rounding darkness, God's witnesses where the very seat 
of Satan is." 

After this great tour, occupying eight months, he 
returned to the United States in order to care for his 
children, write up his journal, and then return to finish 
his days in the East He arrived in November, 1861, 
and while on his way to Middlebury, Vt, January 25, 
1862, to address the church and the college, as the train 
was passing through Shaftsbury it was blown from the 
track by a fierce blast of wind, and Dr. Dwight was 
instandy killed. His age was fifty-eight. His health 
was good. But three days before his death he remarked 
to a friend that he felt in haste to finish his work and 
return to the East, where he hoped to have many years 
for the best labors of his life, 

A lament went up fi-om the whole missionary world. 
Dr. Anderson said of him, " He was a missionary after 
my own heart, and we never had the slightest disagree- 
ment on any pomt. 

TRIBUTE OF REV. HOHANNES DER SAHAKIAN. 

We close this brief, inadequate sketch with some 
extracts from an able, discriminating view of his char- 
acter written by an Armenian pastor for Armenians, 
the Rev. Hohannes Der Sahakian. Coming from such 
a source, and from one who was the life-long associate 
and helper of Dr. Dwight, it is of more value than any 



H. G. O. DWIGHT, D. D. 33 

panegyric of ours could be, and we are persuaded that 
the native brethren generally would heartily subscribe 
to it. They sometimes differed from him. They were 
sorely pained that he advocated the removal of the two 
seminaries from the capital to Marsovan. They opposed 
with united front the scheme of mere vernacular educa- 
tion for the ministry, and their views have been univer- 
sally adopted. On these points the writer we now quote 
was with them. But all knew and felt that Dr. Dwight 
was the faithful, earnest, unselfish servant of his Lord 
and Master, and that in comparison with His approval 
all earthly distinctions were " counted loss." 

" The Rev. H. G. O. Dwight, the chief founder of 
the Apostolic and Evangelical Church of Armenia, has 
fallen asleep. It is thirty-two years that this distin- 
guished and pious man has been known to the Arme- 
nian world, and for thirty years he has labored in the 
evangelic work among the Armenians. 

" In January, 1833, I ^^^ ^^^ for the first time. . . . 
On the first of August of that year I began to labor 
with him in the work of the gospel, and my first work 
was the translating of the book of Psalms into mfldern 
Armenian. It is now nearly twenty-nine years that I 
have labored with Dr. Dwight in this glorious gospel 
work, and I testify that he has shown me great kind- 
ness and benevolence during all this time in a great 
variety of circumstances. 

" Dr. Dwight was very distinguished for his wisdom, 
prudence, and foresightedness, but above all for his 
gifts of government. . . . He was known among us as 



34 AMERICAN HEROES. 

a man of principle, independent mind, and decided and 
firm plans. In nearly all circumstances he worked con- 
formably to those plans. He was also distinguished for 
accuracy in keeping promises and appointments, and 
in these respects he was a worthy model. . . . 

" Dr. Dwight was a true disciple of Christ and a 
faithful minister of the gospel. It is true also that by 
ihis native penetration and solidity he was a great cham- 
,-«Aion of the gospel in the Elast, and was a veteran and 
\ brave soldier in all difficult and responsible circum- 
stances. 

" Dr. Dwight was a distinguished agent in the hand 
of God in the work of Oriental reform ; and especially 
by his means the Armenian Evangelical Church re- 
ceived its form. And when from age to age these dis- 
tinguished events shall be narrated in history, the name 
of this faithful and active laborer will be commemora- 
ted, and it will undoubtedly be found among that great 
multitude of all nations who stand before the throne 
and the Lamb clothed with white robes, and palms in 
their hands, saying with a loud voice, * Salvation to our 
God* which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
Lamb.' " 






VIII. 



S, Wells Willianis, LL, D, 



BY REV. E. W. OILMAN, D. D. 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS. 



S. WELLS WILLIAMS, LL. D. 

On the 25th of October, 1833, Samuel Wells 
Williams, a young man who had just passed his ma- 
jority, landed in Canton, whither he had gone in the 
service of the American Board as a missionary printer. 
He was born in Utica, N. Y., Sept 22, 18 12, and 
graduated in 1832 at the Rensselaer Institute in Troy. 

EARLY CONSECRATION. 

The influences of a Christian home had given him 
peculiar qualifications for a useful life. He was the 
oldest of fourteen children. His father. Col. William 
Williams, a publisher of Bibles and other books, was 
a leading citizen of Utica, an elder in the Presbyterian 
Church, and the first superintendent ot the Union 
Sunday-school which was organized there in 18 16. 
His mother, the daughter of Samuel Wells of Oneida 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

County, is remembered as a highly gifted and culti- 
vated woman, deeply interested in all Christian under- 
takings. It is said that not long before her death, 
when present at a meeting where a collection was taken 
for foreign missions, she put upon the plate a slip of 
paper on which was written, " I give two of my sons." 
And afterwards two of her sons became missionaries of 
the American Board, one in China and one in Eastern 
' Turkey. 

The influence of the home was supplemented by the 
Sunday-school, and the elder of these brothers after- 
wards testified, " The first desire I ever had to be a 
missionary arose from a remark of my Sunday-school 
teacher about the destitution of the heathen." 

Possibly his decision to enter the service of the 
Board may have been suddenly made, but he was not 
one to start without adequate preparation. From boy- 
hood he had been familiar with the work done in his 
father's publishing establishment, and the greater part 
of the year preceding his embarkation was spent in 
special investigation and training with direct reference 
to the service to which he had been called. In it all 
*' he had respect unto the recompense of the reward," 
and long afterwards he wrote, " When I bade good-by, 
with a sorrowing heart, to the friends standing around 
the packet-boat at Genesee street bridge, just thirty- 
three years ago to-day, I had a partial idea of the 
honor and joy attending the mission work ; but I am 
now sure that I would make the same choice, if I 
could, again." 



S. WEI.LS WII.I.IAMS, I.I..D. 5 

THE PRINTING-PRESS IN CHINA. 

His appointment was a recognition on the part of 
the American Board of the fact that in all lands the oral 
preaching of the gospel needs to be supplemented by 
the printed page. He went not for conquest or emolu- 
ment or personal distinction or scientific research, but 
on an errand of philanthropy and good-will. Other men 
have circumnavigated the globe in order to determine 
the contour of continents and the location of islands, or 
to observe and record the phenomena of the skies. He 
went as an interpreter of Christian truth and civilization 
to an empire embracing one-half of the heathen world, 
"the most populous and most inaccessible empire on 
the globe." His was the work of a herald, surmount- 
ing obstacles, penetrating a dense wall of prejudice and 
pride, bringing good tidings, publishing salvation, an- 
nouncing a new kingdom as at hand ; and it was his to 
build a viaduct by which the treasures of eighteen cen- 
turies of Christian thought might be poured into the 
Chinese mind. 

In all this he was one of a small band of pioneers. 
Dr. Robert Morrison, the eminent British sinologue, 
who had preceded him by twenty-six years, was still 
in the service of the East India Company but was ap- 
proaching the end of his useful career. Dr. Gutzlaff, a 
Prussian by birth, who had been sent out by the Neth- 
erlands Missionary Society, was employed in the same 
way. Two Americans had gone to China as chaplains 
for seamen, the R^v. David Abeel and the Rev. Ed- 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

win Stevens. The American Board had one single rep- 
resentative in the field, the Rev. E. C. Bridgman, a 
graduate of Andover Seminary, who arrived in Canton 
in February, 1830. Mr. Williams was accompanied by 
the Rev. Ira Tracy. Dr. Peter Parker followed in 1834. 

The Chinese were reputed to be a nation of readers ; 
but so profound was their conceit, that instead of seek- 
ing light from all sources, and asking what new thing 
might possibly be learned from remote lands, they ex- 
cluded all foreigners, repelled every advance, and even 
imposed severe penalties on any of their countrymen 
who should presume to teach their language to " out- 
side barbarians." They had books indeed, and held a 
printed page in reverence ; but their printing was done 
in the rudest style from wooden blocks, movable types 
and printing-presses being unknown to them ; and *' it 
was not altogether safe for a Chinaman to be seen 
reading a tract which spoke of Jesus, much less for him 
to undertake to distribute them ; and it was even dan- 
gerous for him to engage in printing them." 

The empire was inaccessible. Canton being the only 
point where contact with the outside world was tolera- 
ted. The outlook for the work was discouraging in 
the extreme. After all Dr. Morrison's toil and faith 
and prayer, " he saw only three or four converts, with 
no churches or schools founded, and no congregations 
publicly assembled." These discouraging aspects were 
well understood in this country. In the formal instruc- 
tions given to Mr. Bridgman he had been told, " even 
if you should live to old age, you may never witness so 



S. WEI.I.S WII.I.IAMS, LL. D. 7 

much advance as to be permitted to preach a sermon 
publicly within the empire." And three days before 
Mr. Williams sailed, a letter was received from Mr. 
Bridgman lamenting that after three years of constant 
labor he was not able to report a single case of conver- 
sion. *' To the eye of man," says Dr. Williams, " the 
prospect at that time was gloomy enough that China 
would be rendered accessible to the efforts of Chris- 
tians. It had been closed for about one hundred and 
fifty years, and it was likely to remain so." 

DIFFICULTIES OF HIS WORK. 

There were other obstacles besides the stolidity of 
the Chinese character and their policy in respect to 
international affairs. One of the most serious of them 
had its historical foundation in the confusion of tongues. 
The Chinese language, in its written form, differs from 
the languages of the Occident in being without an 
alphabet. Each of its many thousand characters is the 
symbol of an abstract idea. They are not the signs of 
articulate speech. The sounds of the voice have noth- 
ing corresponding to them on the printed page. More- 
over the speech of the people is polyglot. The words 
of the Cantonese are unintelligible in Shanghai, and a 
few miles of travel may carry one beyond the province 
where his utterance is understood ; and so great is the 
disproportion between the numbers of ideas and of 
monosyllabic sounds, that a single word may have ten 
or more significations, which can be distinguished only 
by some peculiarity of tone. To become proficient in 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

such a language, even with the best helps of the pres- 
ent day, is no easy matter. For the pioneers the task 
was almost insuperable. 

"It was rather discouraging/' says Dr. Williams, 
" in commencing the study of the Chinese language to 
sit down with a man utterly ignorant of any tongue but 
his own, and have no aid except Morrison's quarto 
dictionary in another dialect, and an imperfect Anglo- 
Chinese vocabulary ; for these comprised all there was. 
And then if one attempted to use his acquisitions, his 
dialogist would express much surprise, and wish to 
know the name of the man who taught him; or he 
would ridicule his rude pronunciation, and try to ex- 
hibit his own better knowledge of English in every 
reply." 

A visionary enthusiast might perhaps be willing tp 
make brief experiment to try the temper of the Chinese 
and see what response to the gospel would come from 
within the gates. But the spirit which prompted Mr. 
Williams* mission, and which steadied his aim through 
the long periods marked by reverses rather than pro- 
gress, was of personal consecration to the service of 
Christ and of unwavering confidence in the ultimate 
triumph of light over darkness. Surely he had heard 
some voice saying, " Who art thou, O great mountain? 
before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." 

A mere enthusiast, for lack of results might exag- 
gerate the details of effort ; but when the press had be- 
come an institution and zealous men might suppose 
the problem of Chinese evangelization to be solved. 



S. WELLS WILLIAMS, LL. D. 9 

Mr. Williams wrote to guard Americans against an ex- 
aggerated estimate of this agency, saying, in 1839 : " This 
branch of missionary effort is worthy of all the attention 
it has received ; but hitherto we have had no proofs that 
the thousands of books thrown among this people have 
incited one mind to inquire concerning them, have 
induced one soul to try to find a teacher among the 
foreigners in China, or have been the means of con- 
verting an individual." 

These were words of candor, but not of discourage- 
ment ; and thirty years afterwards he said, " I thank 
God that no shade of doubt as to the triumphant result, 
or regret at having engaged in it, has ever arisen in 
my mind." 

DOORS PROVIDENTIALLY OPENED. 

Years brought a change to China. Her massive 
gates, creaking on their hinges, slowly opened and 
gave entrance for an army of evangelists. In 1842 the 
treaty of Nanking opened five ports to traffic, and for- 
eigners were allowed to bring their wives with them. 
Twelve years later, the three missionaries had increased 
to ninety, daily religious services were held in every 
open port, a million Testaments were in process of 
printing or circulation, and the whole Chinese mind 
had been cast into a ferment by a body of insurgents 
who rejected idolatry and professed to worship the true 
God. 

In 1858 the treaties of Tientsin were signed, and the 
one despatch which came over the newly-laid Atlantic 

14 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

cable that autumn announced that the Chinese Empire 
was open for all trade, that the Christian religion was 
to be allowed and recognized, and that foreign diplo- 
matic agents were permitted to reside at the capital. 

Now the door is open wide for the proclamation o^ 
the gospel. The Scriptures are circulated in nine o< 
the different languages of China, at an average rate ol 
more than a thousand copies daily. Travellers go on 
long tours into the interior without molestation. In 
1880 two ladies of the China Inland Mission went with- 
out European escort a thousand miles to the west of 
Wuchang in safety ; and to-day five hundred foreign- 
ers are engaged in active missionary work, while more 
than 20,000 communicants stand enrolled as members 
in the Protestant churches of the empire. 

The dawn of a better day has come ; and in view of 
such facts, the herald who went fifty years ago to rouse 
the empire from its midnight slumber, and found noth- 
ing to dishearten him when his cry seemed to be uttered 
in vain, may well say as the closing prediction of his 
life: 

"The future is full of promise, and the efforts of the 
church with regard to China will not cease until every 
son and daughter of the race of Han has been taught 
the truths of the Bible and has had them fairly pro- 
pounded for reception or rejection. They will progress 
until all the cities, towns, villages, and hamlets of that 
vast empire have the teacher and professor of religion 
living in them ; until their children are educated, their 
civil liberties understood and political rights guaran- 



S. WELLS WILLIAMS, LL.D. II 

teed, their poor cared for, their literature purified, their 
condition bettered in this world by the full revelation of 
another made known to them. The work of missions 
will go on until the government is modified and reli- 
gious and civil liberty granted to all, and China takes 
her rank among the Christian nations of the earth, re- 
ciprocating all the courtesies due from people profess- 
ing the same faith."* 

SUMMARY OF HIS WORK. 

For fifty years the personal relations of Dr. Williams 
to this grand movement were most intimate and varied. 
Before he went abroad funds had been provided by 
members of the Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church in 
New York for the purchase of a printing-press for Can- 
ton, and he was sent to take charge of it. But however 
important the routine of a printing establishment and 
the superintendence of its details, the work which even- 
tually opened before him had a grander scope, and he 
became an editor, author, translator, interpreter, histo- 
rian, and diplomatist ; and at last, in serene old age, he 
became a university professor of the Chinese language 
and literature in his native land, and the honored head 
of a society whose sole aim is to encourage a wider cir- 
culation of the Holy Scriptures at home and in foreign 
lands. 

A year or two after his arrival in Canton, Chinese 
interference with his native helpers compelled him to 
remove his press to Macao ; thence, at a later date, it 

• "Middle Kingdom," II. 371. 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

was transferred to Hong-Kong; and thence again to 
Canton, where in December, 1856, his own residence 
and the entire establishment, comprising three presses 
and copious fonts of type, with 7,000 printed books, 
were destroyed by fire. He not only published the 
" Chinese Repository," but shared with Dr. Bridgman 
in its editorial management, and to its twenty volumes 
between 1832 and 1851 he contributed about one hun- 
dred and forty distinct articles. His more important 
publications were : "Easy Lessons in Chinese," 1842; 
"The Chinese Commercial Guide," 1844, reaching a 
5th edition in 1863; " An English and Chinese Vocab- 
ulary in the Court Dialect," 1844; "A Tonic Diction- 
ary of the Canton Dialect," 1856, which fortunately es- 
caped the fire of that year, and passed through a new 
edition in 1876; and "A Syllabic Dictionary of the 
Chinese Language," 1874, containing 12,527 characters, 
with the pronunciation as heard in Peking, Canton, 
Amoy, and Shanghai. 

In the preface to this Dictionary he said, " I have 
the satisfaction of feeling that the labor spent upon this 
work during the past eleven years in the intervals of 
official duties will now be available for students in ac- 
quiring the Chinese language. Its deficiencies will be 
hereafter supplied by others who will build upon their 
predecessors, as I have done, for the field is too vast to 
be explored or exhausted even by many laborers. The 
stimulus to past effort, and the hope that it would not 
be vain, both sprang from the desire to aid the labors 
of those who are imparting truth in any branch to the 



S. WHIRLS WII.UAMS, I.I..D. 13 

sons of Han, especially those religious and scientific 
truths whose acquisition and practice can alone Chris- 
tianize and elevate them. At the end of forty years 
spent in this country in these pursuits I humbly thank 
the good Lord for all the progress I have been permit- 
ted to see in this direction, and implore his blessing 
upon this effort to aid their greater expansion." 

VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES. 

In 1844 he left China for the United States, travel- 
ling by the way of Egypt, Syria, and Europe. He had 
then spent on the mission field eleven years which were 
crowded with events of great importance in relation to 
foreign intercourse with China. These events are thus 
enumerated by Dr. Blodgett: 

" The control of the East India Company ovei Brit- 
ish trade in this empire ceased in 1834, the year after 
his arrival. He had seen the end of that remarkable 
adjustment of trade between the West and the East in 
the * thirteen factories ' of * Old Canton.' There in that 
little settlement on the north bank of the Pearl River, 
in the western suburb of the city of Canton, the pride, 
culture, power, unscrupulous greed of gain, benevo- 
lence, learning, and Christian piety of the West had 
met the timidity, ignorance, weakness, duplicity, pride, 
contempt, politeness, acuteness, business sagacity and 
probity of the Chinese. There the Hoppo and Co- 
Hong had met the trading companies and merchants of 
the English, Americans, Dutch, Prussians, Austrians, 
Swedes, Danes, French, Spaniards, and Italians. There 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

had commenced diat system of trade and intercourse 
with China which has in our day assumed such vast 
proportions. There had been nursed and fostered the 
opium traffic which now spreads its baneful influence 
all over the land. There had been initiated those efforts 
for the enlightenment, healing, and Christianizing of the 
Chinese people which now extend to all the provinces 
and constitute the only hope for the future of this na- 
tion. Canton was no longer to be the focus of influ- 
ence and power. What had here been commenced 
during two centuries of foreign intercourse was to be 
extended and difilised throughout the empire. The 
unsettled state of trade after the withdrawal of the East 
India Company, the adjustment of terms of direct inter- 
course between China and other nations, the protests of 
the Chinese Government against the opium traffic, the 
seizure and confiscation of the opium, the war with 
China, the forming of treaties, and the opening of the 
five ports — ^all had occurred during these early years of 
the residence of Mr. Williams in Canton."* 

The treaties referred to removed the restrictions 
which had previously forbidden foreigners to bring 
their wives to Canton, and on occasion of this visit to 
the United States Mr. Williams became united in Mar- 
riage to Miss Sarah Walworth, of Plattsburgh, N. Y. 
During this period he also delivered courses of lectures 
on China, with the proceeds of which he secured from 
Berlin a new font of Chinese type, and before returning 
to China he published, in 1848, " The Middle Kingdom," 

• " Chinese Recorder," June, 1884. 



S. WELI.S WILUAMS, I.L.D. 15 

which at once became a standard book of reference, and 
which reappeared in 1883 in a revised and greatly en- 
larged edition. 

SECRETARY OF UNITED STATES LEGATION. 

In 1857, having accepted the post of Secretary of 
Legation of the United States, he resigned his connec- 
tion with the Mission, though at the time he looked 
upon this as only a temporary interruption of the rela- 
tion he had sustained for nearly a quarter of a century. 
His services, however, in this official position proved to 
be invaluable to the cause of missions as well as to the 
Government, and after a long period of diplomatic life 
he did not return to the missionary work. 

The world owes it to Dr. Williams and to Dr. W. 
A. P. Martin, who was associated with him as interpre- 
ter, that the treaty which was negotiated by Mr. Reid 
at Tientsin in June, 1858, contained an article providing 
for the toleration of Christianity throughout the empire 
and protection of Chinese converts. The day had come 
for signing the treaty, and the reluctance of the Chinese 
officials to make any concession to Protestant missions 
was so decided that all allusion to the matter was likely 
to be omitted, when at an opportune moment these gen- 
tlemen called on the commissioners and presented a 
draft of the " toleration clause" so happily worded that 
it was at once accepted and incorporated in the treaty 
which was signed a few hours later. '* If we had not 
gone that morning," says Dr. Williams, " we had failed 
certainly to get anything inserted in the treaty which 



l6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

was to be signed that evening; but God moved Kwei- 
liang to say that it was excellent." The article was 
shown to Lord Elgin, and was incorporated in sub- 
stance in the British treaty which was signed a few days 
afterwards. 

Mr. Reid's official despatch on the 30th of June paid 
this high compliment to the American missionaries who 
had rendered him essential aid : " Without them as in- 
terpreters the public business could not be transacted. 
I could not, but for their aid, have advanced one step 
in the discharge of my duties here, or written or under- 
stood one word of correspondence or treaty stipula- 
tions. With them there has been no difficulty or em- 
barrassment."* 

A committee < 
the opinion that 
as Dr. Parker am 
labor is in itself 
vices in their offi< 
cause of missions 
formance of dipk 
tages for the evs 
men in such offic 

The wall of 
other nations bro 
emperor consent! 
him and to receii 
no sign on their 
experiences Dr. ' 



S. WELLS WILLIAMS, LL.D. 17 

est conceivable contrast and the changes which forty 
years had wrought. He says, " On my arrival at Can- 
ton in 1833 I was officially reported, with two other 
Americans, to the Hong merchant, Kingqua, as * fan- 
kwai,' or * foreign devils,* who had come to live under 
his tutelage. In 1874, as Secretary of the American 
Embassy at Peking, I accompanied the Hon. B. P. Avery 
to the presence of the emperor, Tungchi, when the Min- 
ister of the United States presented his letters of cre- 
dence on a footing of perfect equality with the * Son of 
Heaven.' "* 

Not less worthy of note is the relation which Dr. 
Williams sustained to the opening of Japan to Chris- 
tianity. Long before that empire was accessible the 
missionaries at Canton recognized the desirableness of 
being ready to enter with the gospel, and Dr. Williams 
undertook to learn the language and to prepare a font 
of Japanese type. His first voyage to Japan was in 
July, 1837, when he was one of a party sent by Messrs. 
Olyphant & Co., in the ship Morrison, to restore seven 
shipwrecked seamen to their homes. None of the party 
were allowed to land ; but first in the Bay of Yeddo, and 
again in that of Kagosima, their peaceful mission was 
repelled by force, and after hours of exposure to a can- 
nonading from batteries on shore, they escaped without 
serious harm and returned to Canton. A devout be- 
liever in divine providence, Mr. Williams recognized 
this repulse as perhaps the best thing that could have 
happened. 

• " Middle Kingdom," L 14. 



l8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

" Let us not," he said, " be weary in well-doing, but 
let us do all we can to give to the Japanese the knowl- 
edge of true Christianity, which seeketh not its own ; 
let us present before them the Bible in their own tongue, 
and with this pure river of life we know that civilization, 
commerce, and knowledge will flow through their land. 
Because one attempt has failed, shall all future endeav- 
ors cease? We learn wisdom from experience. The 
rejection of the men, although painful to them and us, 
may be the very best thing that could have happened ; 
for if they had been received and we quietly dismissed, 
our means for doing them and their countrymen further 
good would have been taken out of our hands. In this 
view of the case, and it appears reasonable, let us not 
abandon this nation, but by making the best use of the 
men whom we have, get better prepared to do them 
permanent good, and by-and-by, if God permits, we 
will try again." 

So he went back to China, took some of these ship- 
wrecked mariners into his own house, learned their lan- 
guage, translated for them the book of Genesis and the 
Gospel of Matthew, and had the pleasure of seeing them 
embrace Christianity, the first-fruits of the harvest now 
being gathered in Japan. This knowledge of the lan- 
guage came in play fifteen years afterwards, when he 
was selected as interpreter for Commodore Perry, who 
went to Japan in 1852 to carry a letter from President 
Filmore to the emperor, and on his second visit nego- 
tiated the first American treaty with a nation which up 
to that tune had pursued a policy of non-intercourse. 



S. WELLS WILLIAMS, LL.D. 19 

RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES. 

After retiring from the service of the Government in 
1876, Dr. Williams returned to the United States and 
took up his residence in New Haven, where he found 
congenial society and a pleasant home. His piety had 
not been dimmed by long isolation from Christian lands, 
by the study of Confucian literature, by protracted toil 
on dictionaries and grammars, or by the formalities and 
ceremonials of diplomatic life. The religion of Jesus 
Christ was central in all his thoughts, and his heart was 
quick to respond to Christian sentiments. His days 
there passed serenely, though saddened by the death 
of Mrs. Williams in 1881, until he himself was called 
away on the i6th of February, 1884. 

Many honors had come to him in the course of his 
life. As far back as 1848 Union College had recog- 
nized his abilities and conferred on him the degree of 
Doctor of Laws. Yale College honored itself by admit- 
ting him to the ranks of its alumni and enrolling his 
name among its corps of instructors ; and the Oriental 
Society called him to preside in its councils; but no 
honor was more grateful, no office more welcome, than 
that which he held for three years as President of the 
American Bible Society. For this office he was pecu- 
liarly fitted by his attainments in scholarship, his large 
acquaintance with the field of missions, his experience 
in diplomacy, and his abiding interest in the diffusion 
of the truth. 

His encyclopaedic knowledge, his retentive memory, 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

his perfect equipoise, his quickness of appreciation, and 
his discrimination made him a valued and trusted coun- 
sellor and friend, while his genial spirit, his loyalty to 
the truth, and his unshaken confidence in the final tri- 
umphs of the gospel, commanded the respect and admi- 
ration of all who knew him. 

Of his character and of his last days President Por- 
ter has written as follows : 

" Few men were better fitted in temperament, in in- 
tellectual tastes and habits, in moral energy, and in spir- 
itual self-consecration, for the constant and unsparing 
drudgery involved in such a life. Few men, it is be- 
lieved, have put their powers and gifts to a more con- 
stant and productive use. His elastic spirits, his wakeful 
curiosity, his minute observation, his loving sympathy 
with man, and his affectionate trust in his divine Master, 
seem never to have failed. His interest in nature and 
in natural history never abated. The taste for botanical 
studies, which began with his youth, continued to the 
day of his death. He observed and discovered in China 
the habits and varieties of flowers with the same zest 
and the same success which he had manifested when a 
youth in Utica. 

" The simple and childlike faith which had been in- 
spired by his mother's zealous sweetness and enforced 
by his father's enterprise, and had sent him to China for 
his life-work on the notice of a day, enabled him always 
to see light and hope along the long and often lonely 
pathway the earlier missionaries to China were com- 
pelled to travel. The buoyant and cheerful temper 



S. WELLS WILLIAMS, LL.D. 21 

which made sunlight for others whenever he was present 
also reflected unbroken sunshine into his own soul. The 
Christ who dwelt ever in his thoughts as the hope of 
glory enabled him to find indications of hope in the 
social and spiritual movements which he had watched 
so closely for more than a generation, and oftentimes 
from points of view which gave him almost the outlook 
of a prophet. He was not the man to exaggerate under 
the impulses of an excited fancy, but whether it was in 
fancy or from fact, it is a fact that towards the end of 
his life he spoke with glowing and almost prophetic 
confidence concerning the changes which were to befall 
China and Japan within the next generation. He was 
by himself and in his words a living and speaking wit- 
ness of the dignity and inspiration of the missionary 
calling, and the missionary spirit when it becomes an 
inspiration. 

" There was much in the closing years of his life to 
admire and almost to envy. The sweetness and sim- 
plicity of his character made friends for him with all 
who met him. It is no exaggeration to say that every 
casual acquaintance was illumined and inspired by the 
briefest interview. Though feeble in body and with 
impaired eyesight, he maintained his habits of close and 
constant literary occupation. A little more than three 
years ago the companion of his missionary life and the 
light of his house was taken from his home. A few 
months after a partial paralysis enfeebled his limbs and 
his speech and somewhat impeded his power of thought. 
But his elastic spirit refused to be bound or depressed, 



32 AMERICAN HEROES. 

and he seemed almost as buoyant as ever as he smiled 
at his own infirmities. He sought employment with his 
hands almost to the hour of his death, and in the quiet 
but unspoken triumph, nay, rather, in the unspeakable 
serenity of the peace which Christ gives to those who 
are eminently his, he breathed out his life." 




IX. 



REY. ELIJAH COLEMAK BRIDGMAH, 

D.D. 



BY REV. PAYSON W. LYMAN. 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS. 



IX.— ELIJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN, D. D. 

Within the limits of Belchertown, Mass., just over 
the southern rim of that broad and beautiful basin of 
fertile country, in the centre of which, on an eminence, 
Amherst College is located, stands a farmhouse which 
was the birthplace of Elijah Coleman Bridgman, the 
pioneer and father of American missions to China. For 
four generations before him this had been the ancestral 
family seat. He was born April 22, 1 801, of Puritan an- 
cestry, going back on the maternal side to Andrew War- 
ner, who came to New England in 1638. His paternal 
ancestor, James Bridgman, settled in Hartford in 1640, 
later in Springfield, and finally in Northampton. Thence 
his grandson, Ebenezer, moved to Belchertown in 1732, 
the year after its settlement. For four successive gen- 

15 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

crations down to Theodore, the father of our mission- 
ary, this family were members of the First Church of 
Christ in that place. 

HIS HOME TRAINING. 

It was, therefore, into a Puritan home and family 
heritage that " Coleman " was born. The three miles 
of rising ground which lay between their home and the 
Iiouse of God laid no embargo upon the attendance of 
this family upon the sanctuary services. The effort 
which it cost to be. present bore fruit that has abun- 
dantly blessed the world. 

Throughout his life Mr. Bridgman delighted to bear 
witness to the faithful religious training given him by 
his mother, Lucretia Warner. " I can never forget her 
early instruction, nor her anxiety for my salvation. She 
talked, prayed, and wept over me. I felt my rebellious 
heart rise against God when his truth was brought to 
bear upon my mind. She saw it, but slackened not 
her efforts. To have her weep over my stubbornness 
was too much. I could listen to her words, but her 
tears I could not withstand." 

Such faithful religious training was blessed of God 
in the son's conversion during a very extensive revival 
which occurred in 1812, early in the ministry of Rev. 
Experience Porter. As its result 109 persons wece 
added to the church, 55 at the first ingathering. One 
of these was Coleman, then not quite twelve years of 
age. A young friend from Northampton spent the 
preceding night with him. "So deeply," says the 



ELIJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN, D. D. 5 

friend, " were the events of the coming Sabbath im- 
pressed upon us that we found but little rest in sleep, 
and before the break of day we were dressed, and out 
in the field engaged in prayer under a tree, where none 
but God could hear." 

The following year was marked by the death of his 
judicious and faithful mother. " So peaceful," he used 
to say, " so full of faith, Christ so precious, in her death 
there is nothing to regret but the loss of her prayers 
and tears." 

EDUCATION FOR THE MINISTRY. 

Reared to the work of the farm and a willing work- 
er, he yet felt called to a higher mission. In his home 
" The Panoplist," which was afterwards the " Missionary 
Herald," and the " Boston Recorder " — the missionary 
magazine and the family religious paper — performed 
their natural office. They laid before him in his early 
years the great field and the need of its cultivation, and 
aroused his interest in it. Under the fostering influence 
of parents and pastor they led him to begin to study for 
the ministry. 

His academic course was taken in his native town. 
Naturally his footsteps turned towards Amherst for his 
college education. He graduated in the class of 1826, 
and went at once to Andover. Here he showed him- 
self a warm-hearted Christian worker. We find him 
engaged in revival efforts, guiding and praying with 
inquirers whom his preaching had awakened. More 
and more, as he went forward, was his heart drawn out 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

towards the perishing millions of heathendom. In the 
first year at Andover he resolved definitely that, if God 
should open the way, he would preach to them the gos- 
pel. In the spring of his last year he wrote home a 
definite declaration of his purpose, and asked to know 
the feelings of the family as to the matter. His sister 
wrote for his parents : " If it is your wish to go, and you 
feel that you can be more useful among the heathen 
than in your own country, they can only say to you, 
* Go, engage in the great and glorious work with your 
whole heart.' As to the destination, they wish you to 
go where you can be most useful. Whatever is your 
wish on the subject is theirs also." 

With such a Christian God-speed sent from home, 
and with his own consecration to the work, he was in a 
measure prepared for the unexpected overture which 
came to him on the day of his graduation. 

HIS CALL TO CHINA. 

The attention of the Board was called to China as a 
field for missionary labor through the urgent represen- 
tations of Rev. Dr. Robert Morrison, who had been a 
number of years on the ground under appointment of 
the London Missionary Society. His appeals were 
supplemented by D. W. C. Olyphant, an eminent Chris- 
tian merchant engaged in the Chinese trade, who made 
the American Board most liberal offers of cooperation 
if they would send a missionary. 

Thus pressed, and convinced that it was God*s call 
to them, the Board authorized the Assistant Secretary, 



i 



ELIJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN, D. D. ^ 

David Green, to go to Andover, and if possible to 
secure Mr. Bridgman's consent to a missionary appoint- 
ment to that country. The proposition was laid before 
him early in the morning of Anniversary-day, Wednes- 
day, September 23, 1829, at a private conference in his 
room. His reply was to the effect that, though he had 
long felt a deep interest in that field, he had not consid- 
ered himself as the man for it, since it seemed to him to 
call for abilities of the first order. If, however, upon 
further consideration it should seem that the mission 
required his services, a favorable reply might be ex- 
pected. We can well believe that that anniversary was 
a solemn day for the young candidate. " The mission," 
he wrote in the journal which he seems to have kept 
much of the time — " the mission pressed upon my mind 
with a mountain's weight, and engrossed my whole 
attention. I conversed with few, and spent most of the 
day in private meditation and prayer." At four the 
next morning he rose and prayed for divine direction, 
endeavoring to submit his way to God. " Oh, may the 
will of the Lord be done !" 

Three days were given for the decision. He re- 
quired but one. Thursday night he met Secretary 
Evarts in Boston, and attended the ordination of sixteen 
brethren. After a sleepless night he started early for 
New York, via boat from Providence. At New York 
he met Mr. Olyphant, who had urged the matter upon 
the Board, and offered not only to convey the man 
thither, but also to furnish him a home for a year free 
of cost. This man was ever after a strong pillar in sup- 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

port of missions to the populous land of Sinim, as were 
his family after him. He also met there Rev. David 
Abeel, who was to go with him to labor under the aus- 
pices of the Seaman's Friend Society among English- 
speaking people who might be accessible in Canton. 
The " beloved Abeel '* proved to be a warm friend and 
fellow-laborer. He preached in New York on Sunday, 
attended a missionary conference on Monday, and re- 
turned to Boston on Tuesday. On Wednesday he trav- 
ersed the ninety miles to his home by stage. Arrange- 
ments were speedily made for a council. On Sunday 
he preached in the home church for the first time, as 
may be supposed, with intense interest. His pastor, 
Rev. Lyman Coleman, officiated at the Lord's Supper, 
and held a farewell service at his home that evening. 
On Tuesday came the examination, and on Wednesday 
morning the ordination. " The impression of the or- 
daining service on my mind can never be obliterated. 
There, at the age of twelve, I had joined myself to the 
professed people of God." On Wednesday afternoon 
came the tender, tearful family farewell, and the night 
at Northampton ; Thursday the long stage-ride thence 
to Albany, and the meeting of the American Board ; at 
sunrise Friday his letter of instructions from Secretary 
Evarts, and at lo o'clock the boat for New York ; on 
Sunday evening a public missionary meeting ; Wednes- 
day noon a brief farewell service on shipboard ; and he 
was off on the first American mission to China, just 
three weeks from the Andover anniversary and the un- 
expected and urgent call which it brought. 



ELIJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN, D. D. 9 

FOUNDING OF THE CANTON MISSION. 

The voyage thus begun lasted four months. They 
landed at Canton February 25, 1830, and received the 
warmest welcome from Dr. Morrison, whose aid and 
advice were of great value. At that time no mission- 
ary of any Protestant society was recognized or tole- 
rated as a missionary by the Chinese. He was obnox- 
ious to the authorities, and had no legal standing or 
protection. The first great problem was, of course, the 
acquisition of a very difficult language. -During his 
second year he added to his other labors the prepara- 
tion of eighteen short letters for Sunday-school children 
in America, designed to give information as to the Chi- 
nese, and to arouse an interest in their evangelization. 

In May, 1832, at Dr. Morrison's suggestion, he 
started the "Chinese Repository," a monthly maga- 
zine, whose object was to extend information, and to 
arouse the Christian public in regard to the salvation of 
China's millions. Of this magazine, whose combined 
numbers constitute a highly valued storehouse of infor- 
mation as to this land and people, Mr. Bridgman con- 
tinued editor for nearly twenty years, when he passed 
it over to the hands of S. Wells Williams, LL. D., 
whose work, "The Middle Kingdom," is of the highest 
authority on Chinese affairs, and who has lately passed 
from the Presidency of the American Bible Society to 
his heavenly rest. 

The year 1834 was marked by the death of the vet- 
eran Morrison, and of Lord Napier who had been sent 



EUJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN, D. D. II 

Chrestomathy," a volume of 730 pages. It was printed 
under the direction of S. Wells Williams and under the 
patronage of the " Society for the Diffusion of Knowl- 
edge in China." 

In 1844 our Government sent the Hon. Caleb Cush- 
ing on a special mission to China. With the consent 
of the Board, Dr. Bridgman and Dr. Peter Parker, a 
missionary physician, became secretaries of legation, to 
which Dr. Bridgman was also chaplain. 

This mission, by the treaty it negotiated, laid the 
foundation for our subsequent friendly diplomatic inter- 
course with China. It secured to foreigners the privi- 
lege of residence at Canton, Amoy, Foo-chow, Ning- 
po, and Shanghai, without molestation or restraint. Of 
the services of Drs. Bridgman and Parker Mr. Cushing 
spoke in very high terms, both officially and privately: 

" Their intimate knowledge o£ China and the Chi- 
nese made them invaluable as advisers, and their high 
character contributed to give weight and moral strength 
to the mission. And while their cooperation with us 
was thus of eminent utility to the United States, it will, 
I trust, prove not less useful to the general cause of hu- 
manity and religion." 

The increased opportunity of access to the millions 
of China secured by the treaty greatiy rejoiced the 
hearts of the missionaries, and they were not slow to 
improve it. Dr. Bridgman's marriage at this juncture 
was one means of augmenting his usefulness. 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

HIS DOMESTIC LIFE. 

For fifteen years after he began his work in China 
he denied himself the comfort of the home life to be 
found only in wedlock. At length, in the providence of 
God, the lack was graciously supplied. In 1843 Miss 
Eliza Jane Gillette, of New York, saw the fulfilment of a 
long-cherished hope in her appointment as a mission- 
ary teacher to China, though it was not till a year and 
a half later that she reached Hong-Kong. Her coming 
seemed to Dr. Bridgman a veritable God-send. Hav- 
ing persuaded her that marriage would augment rather 
than diminish her opportunity for her coveted labors, 
she was united to him in June after her arrival. They 
lived together two years in Canton, she acquiring the ] 

language, and he more busy than ever in his Christian 
labors. In 1847 they removed to Shanghai, where they 
thenceforward dwelt in loving companionship, making 
a home which was a much-prized retreat for missionary 
friends and others. They were rarely without a guest 
in the "prophet's chamber," which was ever inviting 
those in need of its comforts. This home was, in many 
ways, a potent centre of Christian influence. Though 
never blessed with children, they were twice called to 
take to their home and hearts a motherless babe, the ^ 

half-orphaned child of a missionary friend. Thus they 
learned the responsibility and joy of the parental rela- 
tion, as well as the pain of separation, which is such a 
trying incident of missionary life. Thus were their 
hearts enlarged towards the girls, for whose sake Mrs* 



ELIJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN, D. D. 13 

Bridgman toiled early and late in the boarding-school 
which she organized. It was the first of its kind in 
Shanghai, and almost the first in China. With but a 
year's respite, she gave to its superintendence and in- 
struction fifteen years. Quite a number of the girls 
were converted, and became mothers in Christian 
homes. 

In her, as he was fond of testifying, her husband 
found a true companion and helpmeet, one in deepest 
sympathy with his work, and a ready colaborer therein. 
The sundering of the tender tie which bound them was 
such a shock to her that upon his death in 1861 her al- 
ways delicate health gave way, and she was compelled 
against her wish to return to America. But her heart 
was in China, and she could not stay. Resisting all 
entreaties to the contrary, and despite the danger of 
capture by the Alabama, which was then roving the 
high seas in search of prey, she went forth alone, at 59 
years of age, to take up again her work. As the A. B. C. 
F. M. had withdrawn from Shanghai to Peking, she went 
thither and gave four years, and not less than $12,500, 
to the founding of the mission there, including the es- 
tablishment of a boarding-school for girls. Much worn, 
she at length sought relief by return to Shanghai. 
Here, however, her fervent spirit would not allow her 
to rest. To a girls* school just started she gave herself 
as teacher, and upon the enterprise, which included a 
chapel, a dispensary, and both a boarding and a day 
school, she bestowed not less than $5,000. " But her 
zeal was again beyond her strength. Her money, her 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

prayers, her life were all freely given to this last effort, 
till her exhausted nature sank in death." She died No- 
vember lo, 1 87 1, ten years later than her husband, by 
whose side she was laid to rest in the dty where most 
of their years together had been spent 

VISIT TO AMERICA. 

Dr. Bridgman's thirty-two years of missionary labor 
were interrupted only by one brief visit, with his wife, 
to America; and this was forced upon him by his asso- 
ciates as a matter of duty on account of his evidendy 
failing health. This was in 1852. The voyages, which 
together gave him the circuit of the globe and four 
months at home, did much to restore his depleted phys- 
ical powers, and gready prolonged his valuable labors. 
His visit to his home and native town, though brief, was 
an intense delight. In his intercourse with the Chris- 
tian public he was able in person, as he had often 
done by written appeals, to urge increased effort for 
China. 

They brought home Mrs. Bridgman's pupil, King- 
Meh, who gready interested the friends of missions in 
the United States by her gentie, winning manners. 
Three years later she was received to church -fellowship 
in Shanghai — the first native member — and became a 
valued helper. 

At San Francisco, which he reached via Cape Horn, 
Dr. Bridgman had the extreme satisfaction of assisting 
in the dedication of a Christian church for the people to 
whom he had gone as a herald of salvation when as yet 



EUJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN, D. D. 1 5 

San Francisco, and even California, was not regarded 
as of any commercial importance to the country. 

Reaching his field of labor, he received from his 
brethren the message, " Proceed with the work of trans- 
lation. We bid you God-speed. The Chinese need 
the whole Bible." And he prays, " In thy mercy, O 
God, grant strength and grace to carry on this work 
till the whole Bible shall be in the hands of the Chi- 
nese." This leads us to the story of his great work. 

HIS TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

It IS on account of his long and successful effort to 
give the Chines^ a satisfactory version of the Bible that 
Dr. Bridgman*s name will be longest remembered. This 
is the work whose influence will longest endure. 

It having been found that a new version was a ne- 
cessity, different portions of the Bible were assigned to 
different stations for translation. After the preliminary 
work it was agreed that delegates should meet at Shang- 
hai for its joint revision before publication. Dr. Bridg- 
man was chosen to represent Canton, and with his fam- 
ily went to Shanghai in June, 1847, expecting that the 
work would be done in six months. Little did he sus- 
pect that it would occupy the remaining fourteen years 
of his life, and that it would result in the organization 
through him of the Shanghai Mission of the Board. 
But so it was to be. 

The work of revision had not proceeded far before 
the English and American delegates divided upon the 
question of the proper Chinese equivalent for our name 



1 6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

of the deity. This division resulted in two versions, 
" In the cardinal rule to give the entire sense of the text, 
and nothing more nor less than the entire sense," Dr. 
Bridgman writes of the American delegates, "we are 
agreed ; but in the manner of doing this we differ. It 
is my opinion that the style of the translation should be 
precisely that of the sacred text, equally plain and sim- 
ple, preserving and exhibiting, as far as practicable, the 
peculiarities of the original." Thus he grasped and 
held the true principle of Scripture rendering. 

Though the New Testament received his first atten- 
tion, his intense and growing love of the whole Word 
of God filled his soul with a burning desire " to make 
ready all this blessed book and give it to all these mil- 
lions." The gradual withdrawal of associates left the 
work to him, with the assistance of Rev. Mr. Culbert- 
son of the Presbyterian Board. In their hands the 
heavy but delightful task went on, till in the Annual 
Report of i860 Dr. Bridgman could say, " If life, health, 
and opportunity be continued, we trust we shall erelong 
see the whole Bible issued from the press in Shanghai, 
under our joint care, in various forms and sizes of type, 
such a$ shall meet the wants of all classes of this numer- 
ous people." 

But this anticipation was not to be fully realized. 
When, a year later, he passed into the heavens, his 
Hebrew Bible was found on his study table open at the 
twentieth chapter of Isaiah, showing, probably, how much 
of the Old Testament he had left unfinished for his com- 
panion to revise alone. 



EUJAH COI.EMAN BRIDGMAN, D. D. 1 7 

This version was said, at its issue, to " excel all pre- 
vious versions in those qualities which impart a lasting 
value to a work." On it more than on aught else Dr. 
Bridgman*s fame and influence rest. 

It is a fact worthy of grateful mention that it was 
through the reading of a small fragment of it that the 
young Japanese, Joseph Neesima, became interested in 
the religion and in the land of its editor. The wonder- 
ful history and work of this young man are too well 
known to need rehearsal here. 

HIS WORK AS A CHRISTIAN HERALD. 

Though in the providence of God his great work 
was the translation, he never forgot that he came to 
make known in person the way of life. Accordingly 
he always welcomed and sought to guide inquirers. He 
taught such classes as he could gather; he went into 
the streets, or in boats, or out into the villages, distrib- 
uting religious books and tracts, and preaching to indi- 
viduals and to companies as he could gather them. On 
the Sabbath he preached wherever there was a call, in 
English or in Chinese, in hospital or in chapel. This 
course not seldom brought him abuse and sometimes 
peril. On one occasion, after a serious riot in Canton, 
in which the people had been greatly incensed against 
foreigners, with his wife and others he took an afternoon 
boat-trip into the country on a Christian errand. Re- 
turning they were beset by a fierce and bloodthirsty 
mob, who from both banks of the creek hurled at their 
boat every available variety of missile in a furious 



1 8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

shower. Some even swam out for the purpose of disa- 
bling their boat, and others sought to pursue them on 
the water. Others still manned a bridge under which 
they must pass, and from thence poured down upon 
them an avalanche of stones, the heaviest of which 
weighed eighty-five pounds. Two of their boatmen 
were seriously wounded, and their boat was well nigh 
wrecked, but they were mercifully delivered from the 
peril unhurt. 

On another occasion, as he was preaching on Sun- 
day at the door of a chapel in Canton, a burning tract 
was hurled at him, striking his breast. Calmly extin- 
guishing it he went on with his preaching. Failing in 
their attempt to frighten him, they set fire to a quantity 
of Christian books which they had seized, and at the 
same time began to distribute Buddhistic tracts. The 
street was densely thronged and great excitement pre- 
vailed; but nothing daunted the feariess missionary. 
He kept his stand and continued to declare his mes- 
sage and to give away tracts to such as would promise 
not to burn them. 

At Canton he had the joy of receiving as a fellow- 
herald his cousin, James Granger Bridgman, a native 
of Amherst, whose home was not far from his own. 
This helper was ordained at his house, the first Protes- 
tant ordination in China. As he was once walking 
about Canton he received a serious injury in the head 
from a stone thrown at him. This, with his earnest 
study, probably aggravated a natural tendency to men- 
tal depression, so that in a fit of derangement he inflict- 



ELIJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN, D. D. 19 

ed a wound upon himself which caused his death. " He 
was a man of deep and sterling piety. His habits of 
devotion were marked, steady, and fervent. His phys- 
ical frame was robust, his intellectual powers were vig- 
orous, and his success in acquiring the language was 
the result of persevering labor and study." His death 
was a sad blow to the hopes of Dr. Bridgman, who had 
counted strongly on his aid as a preacher. 

In Shanghai, despite his labors in translating, Dr. 
Bridgman gave the Sabbath to the work of a Christian 
pastor and teacher, and gathered a native church, num- 
bering something more than twenty members. "As 
much as in us lies we must all strive to make disciples 
of the Chinese." So he wrote and so he practised. 

COLLATERAL LABORS. 

" Interested in whatever could in any way conduce 
to the welfare of China, he was always ready to perform 
his part in every enterprise that aimed at that object'* 
Of the " Shanghai Literary and Scientific Society " he 
was President, and to its journal he was an occasional 
contributor. Of the Morrison Education Society, 
whose work was to promote Christian education in the 
land of Dr. Morrison's love, he was President to the 
day of his death. He was also a working member and 
an officer of the North China branch of the Royal Asi- 
atic Society. As has been seen, he was for twenty 
years editor of the " Chinese Repository," and was also 
principal author of the " Chinese Chrestomathy." He 

was often called, in one way or another, to render ser- 

16 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

vice to foreigners visiting the city on commercial or 
official errands. His efficient support of the mission of 
Mr. Gushing has been noticed. 

During the negotiations which resulted in the Tient- 
sin treaty in 1858 he often entertained the plenipoten- 
tiaries of the four great treaty powers, England, France, 
Russia, and the United States. He was consulted by 
them as to the subject matter of the international de- 
bate which they were conducting, and he frequently 
translated official documents for them. The Hon. Wil- 
liam B. Reed, our representative, formally expressed to 
the Government his high estimate of the value of Dr. 
Bridgman's services. 

Alike in Canton and Shanghai he took a leading 
part in various literary and other institutions, and there- 
in gained the high respect of all who knew him in that 
capacity. In fact, it was as a public-spirited citizen, in- 
terested in all that concerned the general welfare, that 
he was best known to many of the foreign residents of 
these cities. 

But in the words of Mr. Muirhead, of the London 
Missionary Society, " In connection with these different 
associations he always sustained the character of a 
Christian man and a Christian minister. His profes- 
sion and influence in this respect were everywhere 
known and felt and honored. His religious life and 
Christian example were apparent in the midst of his 
various social, civil, and secular engagements." 



EUJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN, D. D. 21 

HIS DEATH. 

The close of this distinguished and useful career 
came suddenly in the midst of unfinished work. After 
thirty-two years of missionary toil he entered into the 
heavenly rest in the sixty-first year of his age. In Sep- 
tember he was attacked with symptoms of dysentery. 
Misinterpreting the trouble, he kept at his tasks, de- 
clining, in favor of his wife who also needed rest, an 
offered river-trip to Hankow. On her return she found 
him seriously indisposed, though he preached on the 
following Sunday. By this time his disease had become 
chronic, and henceforward it progressed rapidly to its 
fatal issue on Saturday morning, November 2, 1861. 

Foreseeing it, he said, " I should like to see three- 
score years and ten, if it would be for God's glory; 
there are so few laborers and the work is so great. But 
God's will is best" Soon after in revery he exclaimed, 
"Will the churches come up to the work?" As the 
end approached, after farewell messages for relatives, 
for missionary and other friends, for the native church 
of which he was pastor, for the societies he loved, to his 
wife he said, "I think I shall be with you; I do not 
know now, but I think so." "In the great cloud of 
witnesses ?" she asked. " Yes," he replied. His mind 
rested on Christ with a firm and steady grasp. "O 
death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy vic- 
tory?" After prayer by his bedside, he said, "Now 
commend my spirit to God. I shall not speak much 
more except to Jesus. God will never forsake those 



22 AMERICAN HEROES. 

who trust in him." As the final pains came on he turned 
upon his breast, raised his eyes to heaven, his lips 
moved in prayer, and so, without a struggle or a groan, 
he breathed out his life as when a child falls asleep on 
his mother's breast. 

Said his long-tried and intimate friend. Rev. S. R. 
Brown, who was with him at the last, " He died as such 
a man might be expected to die. His end was the fit- 
ting conclusion for such a life as he had led. He died 
at his post with his armor on. I may say in truth that 
no man could have been taken away whose loss would 
be more sincerely mourned by all. He was a man of 
the most amiable disposition, the friend of all, of the 
greatest simplicity of purpose and purity of mind." 

At Dr. Bridgman's request Mr. Brdwn conducted 
the funeral service, which was attended by a very large 
number of Chinese and foreign residents. In an obitu- 
ary published in the "North China Herald," Bishop 
Boone, who had known him long and well, said, " The 
amount of good he was able to do was owing to his 
singleness of aim. His influence was cumulative. He 
was always increasing its sum by his gende, consistent, 
Christian deportment ; and never did he, by one unkind 
or foolish word or deed, detract from the already accu- 
mulated amount. This was the beautiful point of his 
character ; it was of one piece, consistent throughout. 
He perhaps never performed a single great act in his 
life ; yet such a life, we may surely say, is itself a great 
act. The writer can never forget the gende, pure, guile- 
less, earnest, consistent friend and brother whose loss 



EUJAH COLEMAN BRIDGMAN, D. D. 23 

he now deplores." Said Rev. William Muirhead, of 
the London Society, "His gentleness made him great 
in our estimation. His amiable disposition, kindness of 
manner, love to the brethren, devotedness to the mis- 
sionary work, and long-continued labors in the field 
endeared him to us all." 

President Asa D. Smith, in introducing the memo- 
rial volume prepared by Mrs. Bridgman, remarks, " The 
life of Bridgman shows most clearly what the true mis- 
sionary spirit is, and presents just the model which an 
age like this needs." From it may be learned " how 
much may be achieved by a man of no extraordinary 
brilliancy of intellect when his attainments, all sanctified, 
are made to converge, as in right lines, to one great, 
commanding aim," 



\ 



I 



X. 



A^iss Jalia A- ^alppleye- 



BY MISS ALICE DWINELL JEWETT, 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS. 



X.— JULIA A. RAPPLEYE. 

Julia A. Rappleye* was born in Seneca Casde, 
Ontario County, N. Y., November i8, 1835. She was 
the child of Christian parents, and at fourteen years of 
age professed her faith in Christ while attending school 
at Oberlin. The same year, although so young, she 
began in a district school her life-work, that of teach- 
ing. On Sabbath afternoons she taught a Bible-class, 
attended by many interested learners older than herself. 
She graduated at Oberlin in the class of 1855. Very 
soon after she went South to teach in a girls' school 
near New Orleans. Then came a great sorrow. A 
younger sister died. But she had an only brother, a 
noble boy, and she determined to help him to get a 

* The author is indebted to a Sketch of Miss Rappleye's Life 
by Rev. S. H. Willey, D. D. 



4 AM&SICAN HEROES. 

liberal education. And she did this, as she said at the 
time, in order "that we may go together as foreign mis- 
sionaries." Her brother went to Oberlin and she to 
California to teach. He had gone on to his senior year 
when the stress of the civil war called all able-bodied 
young men to the front. He was among the first to 
enlist. Before the battle of Cedar Mountain he had 
been sick, so much so that he had his discharge- papers 
in his pocket. But knowing well that every man was 
needed in the ranks that day, he took his place, and fell 
on that field of disaster. This to the fond and faithful 
sister was sorrow and disappointment combined. Her 
life-plans seemed all to be defeated. 

MrSSIONARY CONSECRATION. 

It was just at this time that the American Board 
was in search of a teacher to commence an institution 
for the education of young women in Constantinople. 
The Secretary heard of Miss Rappleye, and learning of 
her fitness for the work, invited her to undertake it. 
She gave the matter prayerful consideration. In many 
respects she found the way of acceptance to be singu- 
larly open. Both her parents were dead ; her only 
brother had fallen in batde ; her only surviving sister 
was married and settled in her own home. As the 
principal teacher in the Oakland Seminary for Young 
Ladies she occupied a lucrative and influential position, 
but she did not feel that it laid any extraordinary claims 
on her. 

In due time she accepted the appointment to go to 



JUUA A. RAPPLEYE. 5 

Turkey. It was with great regret that she was given 
up by her many friends in Oakland, and especially by 
her pupils. But all saw and honored the motive by 
which she was actuated, and appreciated anew the 
breadth and dignity of the work to which she had con- 
secrated herself. 

She was not long in getting ready to start for her 
new and distant field. Early in the autumn of 1870 
she left California, and stopping at the meeting of the 
American Board in Brooklyn, N. Y., she sailed for 
Constantinople. Once there she quickly justified the 
wisdom of her appointment by her ready acquisition of 
languages. Then soon her fine qualities as a teacher 
and organizer became apparent. 

ON MISSION GROUND. 

Arriving at her destination in the fall of 1870, she 
wrote to friends in California as follows: "My work 
here looks so interesting to me I can' hardly wait until 
we get fairly started. It will require patient prepara- 
tion. I do want it to be founded in prayers and tears, 
not tears of sorrow, but those of humble dependence 
upon a great Heart of joy. I went to the flower-market 
this morning and bought some more flowers for our 
court. I used my own money, for I dared not use the 
Home money for what might seem useless expenditure, 
but I think it necessary to make home attractive and 
pleasant. 

" A poor woman has just been to see me to beg that 
her girl may come to school. I promised her that she 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

might come and I would pay her schooling-. I have 
trembled since lest I promised too much, for her clothes 
will all have to be renewed, she is so very poor ; but I 
felt prompted to the act, and I guess I can save enough 
for her. 

" Our house is not a new one, but a very old one 
repaired, so that it looks very nice outside and is com- 
fortable inside, except that thfe floors are very old and 
are constandy breaking through and swell badly ; scarce- 
ly a day passes that some of us do not see a scorpion in 
the cracks; but it was the most desirable house we could 
find. It took me all the time during the summer vaca- 
tion to get ready for moving and to get setded after 
coming here. It was some change from school-life, or 
I suppose I should not have been able to survive so 
much hard work; but I am as good as new, with a 
good appetite and power to sleep." 

Speaking of Manning and Nooning, twin girls who 
were adopted by the " Busy Bees " of Oakland, she 
says, " They pray in the littie prayer-meeting, but we 
do not know that their hearts have been changed. You 
must pray for them that they do early give their hearts 
to Jesus and truly be of his fold. I am sure you will 
be rewarded for all your pains and trouble for thent 
Then we will praise God with them through all eter- 
nity." 

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 

Her letters best reveal her inner life at this period. 
" I have had a very hard day, for the stove in the 
parlor would smoke. I had the third man come to fix 



J0I.IA A. RAPPLEYE. ^ 

It, and finally I crawled up myself into the garret, not 
quite on the roof, but a very low place not occupied by 
anything, to see what was the matter, and got it regu- 
lated just as they came." 

" The people here seem to think it is the teacher's 
business to make the children mind at home as well as 
at school. Yesterday a request came from a mother 
to make her child stay at home to lunch instead of run- 
ning out in the street." 

" The violets in one of your letters retained their 
fragrance, and I let the girls smell of them as coming 
from California ; but oh, the fragrance can be to no one 
what it is to me !" 

" Last Sunday I was nearly alone, and I had time 
to think. I took down my * Shadow of the Rock ' and 
read soothing, precious things. I sang, * Blest be the 
tie that binds.' What wonder that it ended in a flood 
of tears, not of grief, but of joy and longing for the joy- 
ful meeting." 

" Oh, that there could be a moral earthquake that 
would shake the power of Islamism and free its votaries 
from the fear of persecution if they should learn to love 
the Lord Jesus Christ ! The faith of Christians over 
the whole world must roll up before the throne of Grace 
a mountain of prayer that shall hasten this glorious 
time." 

" Oh, these weary days ! I have to work with my 
head and my hands until my heart is weary; but I can 
do it, for it is for the cause of Him who has done so 
much for me." 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

'* Home School, Constantinople. 

** School commenced three weeks ago. We have 
over thirty pupils, and more are coming every week. 
We have been hindered and annoyed by having the 
owner of our house delay his moving out of our part of 
the house. He has at last gone, and I have to see to 
the cleaning, putting on of locks, mending windows, 
etc., while school duties are prising. I never came 
so near giving up as I have during the past week; but 
I trust I shall stem the tide and live through it I am 
jealous of any work or duties that take my time from 
my direct school work. Oh, if you only knew what it 
is to get ready one of these Turkish houses for occupa- 
tion you would know how to pity me; but I will not 
describe the process, but spend a few moments longer 
in trying to think how good it will seem, when I get to 
heaven, to meet you there some time and take you by 
the hand, and we *11 go away alone and commune with 
each other. But I must stop writing, for I cannot keep 
the tears back." 

Miss Rappleye, after having founded the Constanti- 
nople Home and leading in its work for about five years, 
had her attention directed to Briisa as a place where a 
similar undertaking could be repeated. 

Briisa is a very old city. In the year 1326 it was 
the capital of the Ottoman Empire. It now has seventy 
or eighty thousand inhabitants. The American Board 
has had a station there since 1834. Miss Rappleye 
thought she could see a very promising field of useful- 
ness there. But the Board at the time could promise 



JUUA A. RAPPLEYE. 9 

her means only to the extent of her own personal sup- 
port. Notwithstanding this she determined upon the 
undertaking, resolved to walk by faith and not by sight. 

HER REMOVAL TO BRUSA. 

She went to Brusa in January, 1876. In Febru- 
ary of the same year the Woman's Board of the Pacific, 
then but three years old, resolved " with one heart and 
mind" to adopt Miss Rappleye. She was much en- 
couraged by this evidence of appreciation, and writes 
concerning it, " The letter informing me of the action 
of the Woman's Board of the Pacific is received. I 
was not surprised, for my coming here seemed of the 
Lord ; yet my heart was greatly moved by this expres- 
sion of confidence in me and interest in the work here. 
I feel now that I have got home — sl restful feeling. I 
know that the Lord has but one treasury; but when the 
gifts cast into it come direct from home-hearts to one 
far away, alone, there is preciousness in the thought, for 
we know there come also sympathy, love, and, above 
all, prayers." 

Her first problem was how to provide a schoolroom, 
and how to furnish it and pay rent. At this point she 
wrote thus : 

" Brusa, January, 1876. 

" In thinking over all these things I have sometimes 
been hopeful. One day I weave out a beautiful plan ; 
hut the usual difficulty of raising the means seems so 
great that I am discouraged at the prospect. On the 
morning of the i8th I read the forty-first chapter of 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

Isaiah, especially the loth and 14th verses, ' Fear not 
thou, for I am with thee ; be not dismayed, for I am 
thy God ; I will strengthen thee, I will uphold thee with 
the right hand of my righteousness.' I take it as my 
encouragement I rest on it. I will go forward. 

" We are fixing up my house this week, and pinch- 
ing in every way possible. The schoolroom will be my 
parlor and sitting-room, and also the girls'. I have a 
sleeping room, and the girls have on6. I shall have no 
stove in my room, because I can afford no wood to put 
in it." 

All this while she was counting the days until she 
should hear from California, for from here she had hope 
of help to sustain her school in addition to her own sal- 
ary. It was an anxious time with her. Still she had 
faith in ultimate success. 

It was during this time that she wrote the following 
graphic description of her situation as it was. 

" The boards in the ceiling, warped by time, here 
and there reveal the dusty depths or lights of the 
unused attic. The board siding of the room in various 
places lets in the bright light and the summer air ; but 
I sit and smile back as I remember that only one more 
winter will these loose boards clatter to the winds and 
these needless breathing-holes render the warmest stove 
almost useless. Hold together, if possible, one more 
year, O thou various-tinted ceiling! And ye faded 
colors of Oriental castles, mosques and gardens, and 
trees of impossible dimensions, enjoy the light of your 
elevated position one more season, and then be ready 



JUUA A. RAPPI.EYB. II 

willingly to have your well-used time of service end 
and in one day to be laid in the dust by demolishing 
hands, knowing that quickly in your place will arise 
even walls and modern ceilings of good height, and 
appliances to keep out cold in winter and admit air in 
summer, a modest but beautifully-proportioned school- 
room and healthy dormitory for the privileged young 
women of this dark land so kindly cared for by thought- 
ful, generous Christian friends, far away in body, but 
near in spirit, as they hear the Master's call to his 
work." 

The miserable building, with its leaky roof and 
worm-eaten timbers, could not long stand in the face of 
such faith as Miss Rappleye had. The Woman's Board 
of the Pacific responded eagerly when the suggestion 
came from the American Board that a new building 
should be erected for the school. The ** BrQsa Fund " 
was started, also a " Briisa Furnishing Fund," both 
awakening much enthusiasm. Miss Rappleye's fre- 
quent letters greatly aided the cause. Full of zeal and 
courage herself, she never allowed it to flag in those 
who were helping her. 

Many of us remember how the bright and playful 
apostrophe to her old and faded Moslem walls stirred 
us when it came fresh from her pen, and helped in roll- 
ing up the " Briisa Fund." Touching this she subse- 
quently writes : 

" I enjoyed and read with tearful interest the last 
chapter of Paul's letter to the Philippians, and how well 
you have made me realize what his joy was at being 

17 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

communicated with concerning giving and receiving. 
Blessings on the noble Philippians of the Pacific slope ! 
My God and your God shall indeed supply all your 
need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 
I often ask myself, What am I that my poor feeble hands 
should thus be upheld by so many of God*s earnest, 
loving children, who so cheerfully labor in his vineyard? 
Only as thus upheld do I hope to see any fruit blos- 
soming and ripening in this Oriental land for you of the 
far West." 

Meanwhile other letters like the following furnish 
glimpses of her daily work : 

" Last night we had a prayer-meeting, or rather a 
religious service, in our sitting-room. Those Turkish 
walls heard a language to which they have never been 
accustomed, and the all-seeing One looked down upon 
a little company of students and friends who certainly 
have a more sincere desire to serve him than those who 
place a human being above him in their worship." 

In this critical time came opposition. The priests 
of the Greek Church had observed her school from the 
beginning. They noticed the growing attendance. 
They took alarm. They forbade girls to go to her 
school. Concerning this she calmly writes merely this : 

" We must pray. The Lord knows how to break 
these bonds." 

Gradually thereafter the opposition ceased, and her 
scholars continued to come without hindrance. 

The first year and a half's work closed in July with 
an examination. The novelty of the thing caused it 



JUUA A. RAPPLEYK. 1 3 

to be attended by many strangers, the English consul 
among them. It was highly appreciated and much 
praised. After it was over she writes : 

" I do not know a grander thought to inspire one 
than this : we wear Christ's image, we bear his name, 
we are consecrated to his service, we are allied to that 
which must succeed because the power of God is 
around it, and according to that power will the full 
purpose of redemption in Jesus Christ be accomplished. 
To have even a little part in that result will be more 
glory than we can bear. The Lord gives me the might 
to do ; and when he said, * Go ye into all the world,* he 
included Christian women in that ' ye.' How shall we 
attain the high consecration ? Let us begin with a little 
self-denial." 
" To the Ladies of the W. B. M. P.: 

" I long every day for the privilege of writing when 
my mind is rested ; but the first ray of morning light 
brings its duties, and every moment of the day is the 
same until after nine o'clock, when all the rest are sleep- 
ing, and then I am so tired that I cannot do as well as 
I would like to do. I have had to spend an hour every 
morning and every evening for weeks in dressing chil- 
blains on the girls' feet. Our floors are so cold chil- 
blains are unavoidable. Just now the garden is calling 
most loudly for every spare second. I run down be- 
tween classes and tell the man what roots he must not 
spade up, what he must remove, and then run up again 
to dig among intellectual weeds for a time. The days 
are still too short for us. I have kept an apron in sight 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

on my desk for three days, trying in vain to baste it for 
a girl to sew. In the midst of the hurry company 
comes, and all must be attended to by one pair of hands 
and one poor, frail body. 

" I know that you do commit this work over and 
over to the care of Him who is &dthful in hb promises, 
and so my heart is cheered as the work during these 
warm days gives weariness to the body. With our 
outward prosperity, which pleases all visitors very much, 
I want to have that inward progress of heart-culture 
and spiritual growth that shall make all other improve- 
ment subservient to the interest of the truth in Jesus. 

** I depend upon your prayers, and rejoice that you 
have so few missionaries under your special care that 
you can make very special pleadings for all." 

Later, to the ladies of the Woman's Board, she 
writes : " The site for your school is purchased, a large 
piece from a beautiful mulberry garden, very delightfully 
located. Its cost was about $i,ooo. Instead of going to 
walk one day, all the pupils went up to the place, and 
they formed a circle as large as they could where the 
house will stand and sang some songs. They sang first 
Mrs. Schauffler's translation of a German song, * The 
cause is thine, Lord Jesus Christ ;' and the girls them- 
selves selected as appropriate, * From Greenland's icy 
mountains' in Greek, and then a hallelujah song in 
Turkish. The Turkish women and children gathered 
around and looked on with much curiosity. We has- 
tened home to avoid a shower and to receive the new 
English consul." 



JUUA A. RAPPI.EYE. 15 

"Julys, 1880. 
" The pupils had permission to go to the window 
this morning and see pass the first loads of lumber for 
the foundations and pillars of our new school-building. 
The large black buffaloes easily drew the creaking wag- 
ons up the steep grade." 

"July 8. 

" Rev. Mr. Pettibone has been here from Stamboul, 
and commenced drafting the plan of the building. Last 
night after school I went over to the site and saw the 
space measured off for the foundations. A little mist 
arose and a beautiful rainbow spanned the sky just as 
the last stake was driven." 

Thus to the numerous cares of this solitary worker 
was added that of building. 

She had at this time in her school twenty-eight girls 
to be trained in everything, and this training could not 
be superficial with so conscientious a worker as Miss 
Rappleye, Some of her manifold labors may be best 
understood from the following letter, written by Miss 
Phoebe Cull when on a visit to Briisa, to the ladies of 
the Woman's Board of Missions of the Pacific: 

"My apology for addressing you is that I have 
been attending the examination of Miss ^lappleye's 
school in Briisa. As Miss Rappleye is alone and has 
many letters to write, it was agreed that I should give 
some account of the examinations. 

" Flowers and running water first attracted us as we 
entered the gateway of the old building in which the 
school is situated. Even in the middle of July every- 



l6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

thing seemed unusually fresh and green. There were 
roses cHmbing over the wall, and many kinds of flowers 
in pots ranged along the court and on the veranda. 
The long, narrow room, where taste and industry were 
striving against shabbiness and decay, looked like any 
well-ordered American schoolroom. Maps, mottoes, 
drawings, photographs, dark cloth hangings covered 
with embroideries, knitted shawls, and other specimens 
of handiwork hid the iast-crumbling walls. It was 
Turkey being rejuvenated in miniature. The pupils, 
like the schoolroom, reminded one of home. A few 
were noticeably fair, some were dark ; all were neatly 
and appropriately dressed. When the exercises began 
we were pleasandy impressed by the clear, ringing 
voices. Every pupil was easily heard. There were 
recitations in Greek, Turkish, Armenian, English ; some- 
thing also in French — many languages, but one teach- 
er — ^music on the organ. There was singing in all the 
different languages mentioned, except perhaps the Ar- 
menian. In every case the words had been committed 
to memory, and seemed to be perfecdy known. Sev- 
eral chapters of the Gospels were correctly and beauti- 
fully recited by the pupils, each taking a verse in turn. 
A large number of hymns were repeated, representing 
the daily memorizing that had gone on without inter- 
ruption throughout the year. There was a thorough 
examination in the Catechism. The Commandments 
were recited in both Greek and Turkish, and the names 
of the books of the Bible given. 

" Very early in the examination I thought, So much 



JUUA A. RAPPLEYE. 17 

attention has been given to distinctively religious in- 
struction that not much time can have been left for other 
things. But in this I was mistaken. It was only that 
spare moments had been made the most of; there had 
been no loitering. It would be tedious to speak of all 
the classes in detail. A good deal of variety was intro- 
duced into the programme. When the Botany class 
recited in English, flowers were analyzed. Geography 
had been taught in Turkish, because, owing to mission- 
ary effort, there was a text-book in that language. We 
listened to some Armenian girls reciting Algebra in 
their own language. I did not understand the words, 
but the demonstration on the board showed as fair work 
as anything I had ever seen. The class in Astronomy 
recited in English. When the larger pupils were re- 
citing the little ones were writing on the blackboard. 
Every exercise had a completeness and finish about it 
that was most satisfactory. A good deal of attention 
had been given to the grammar of the Greek language 
with its insatiable demands. 

" As noonday approached we were not left to forget 
that every girl is expected to understand cooking. 
Gold and silver cake were made before our eyes. The 
black eyes of Greeks and Armenians sparkled with 
pleasure as they bent forward to watch their daughters 
and sisters beating the eggs, measuring the sugar, and 
stirring the flour and milk, working together with their 
teacher, with whom they carried on a conversation in 
English while their hands were busy at the table; and, 
listening, we heard that they could cook other things 



l8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

also. We were all promised a piece of the cake in the 
afternoon, and very nice cake it proved to be as we 
tasted it fresh from the oven. It was cut in the school- 
room and pilssed around, each one receiving a piece of 
each kind on a litde square of white paper. 

"We listened also to selections. from their school 
monthly — * The Dayspring,' I think it is called. Differ- 
ent numbers of this magazine lay upon the table for 
inspection. Those numbers which I examined con- 
tained more contributions in English than in the other 
languages; but these were also represented. The 
thoughts were clearly expressed, mistakes in syntax or 
spelling very rare, and the writing was exceedingly neat 

" At the close of the day we had * God save the 
Queen,' the Marseillaise, an American patriotic song, 
and a Turkish national ode, each sung in its own lan- 
guage by the same girls, all with clearness and anima- 
tion, with an accompaniment on one of the instruments, 
played sometimes by Miss Rappleye and sometimes by 
a pupil. 

" We noticed that pupils were not left to a disheart- 
ening sense of failure. If a girl did not succeed in 
reaching her teacher's standard in clearness and prompt- 
ness she rallied and tried again. There had been a fine 
training in fortitude and perseverance. There must have 
been great industry on the part of the pupils as well as 
of the teacher to produce such results as we saw. Evi- 
dently there had been a rousing and energizing of the 
whole being; and with a singular freedom from any 
appearance of introversion or of self-consciousness, it 



JUUA A. RAPPI^EYE. 19 

was apparent that each girl had learned to use head 
and hand, to put aside weariness, and to find delight in 
doing, and in doing well. 

" The long row of shirts, the neat aprons, and other 
articles for common wear, showed that plain sewing had 
not been neglected. 

" In the day or two that elapsed before the exami- 
nations began we had an opportunity to see the every- 
day working of the school. Teachers were being 
trained, taught how to teach and how to govern. We 
saw each girl learning the lesson of responsibility in the 
care of some younger or weaker one. 

" It is a most interesting school, and all who know 
of it speak of it in terms of warm appreciation. May 
the blessing of God be continued to it in the future as 
it has been richly bestowed in the past" 

Under date of September 4, 1880, Miss Rappleye 
writes : " Everybody is enthusiastic over the site of our 
new building, and, as the frame rises piece by piece, 
wonders at its beautiful proportions. The workmen are 
mostly Greeks (not Protestants), and though they are 
in tlieir way devout, it is not as I could wish. I should 
like to have had every stone and every timber laid with 
prayer for God's blessing to rest upon the work." 

" November 19, 1880. 

" The building is almost ready for occupation. You 
will be proud of it. The site is superb, and the build- 
ing no nicer than it should be on such a site and built 
by California. The cornice is white, the walls a light 
slate color, and the trimmings dark slate. It is a dig- 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

nified and still modest-looking building-. I am filled 
with joy and inspiration when I can run up a minute 
and take in the beautiful view from the windows, see 
the nice large dormitories, and especially the nice 
schoolroom, where, I am sure, there will be elbow-room 
for a time at least I am going to paint the black- 
boards myself. The school is full, and applications 
every day. Last Sunday we had the privilege of sit- 
ting at the table of our dying Lord in our chapel here. 
Three of the schoolgirls sat with us for the first time. 
It was a precious season." 

The building was finished at a cost of ten thousand 
dollars, five thousand of which was contributed by Cal- 
ifornia. It was dedicated Christmas eve, 1880, a last- 
ing monument to Miss Rappleye's untiring energy and 
perseverance. As one of the secretaries of the W. B. 
M. P. has said, " Her work and name live in the school 
into which she might be said to have built herself. 
From foundation to topmost point every stone and 
board and nail must speak of her." 

She watched it and supervised it and lived in it till 
it was done. This care, added to that of her school 
duties, was too much for even her strong constitu- 
tion. 

When the building stood complete and ready to 
occupy, in the midst of her deep satisfaction she felt 
that her strength was giving way. She writes in a let- 
ter dated Brusa, September 18, 1880: 

" I have always tried to resist the fate of having to 
go to America for my health, but I am constrained to 



JULIA A. RAPPLKYE. 21 

realize that I could not endure such toil as I have en- 
dured many years, or perhaps months, more." 

HER RETURN TO AMERICA AND SUDDEN DEATH. 

What remains can be told in few words. Arrange- 
ments were made for the supply of her place at the end 
of the year, and she returned to America in January, 
1 88 1. In April following she was married to Hon. G. 
W. Colby, of California, and busied herself in getting 
settled in her new home in Benicia. At the same time 
sne gave a great deal of time and strength to attending 
missionary meetings and in interesting the public in the 
great work which she had just left A small unpaid 
balance remained due on the Brusa school property, 
and it seemed as if she could not rest until it was paid. 
In the midst of all this work, and while not yet recov- 
ered from the debilitating effects of her homeward 
voyage, she took a severe cold, which quickly settled 
into pneumonia, and on June 9, 1881, she passed away. 
Sorrow was universally expressed. Memorial services 
were held on the following Sabbath in the Congrega- 
tional church in Benicia which she had recently joined. 

TESTIMONIALS TO HER WORTH AND WORK. 

Letters came from far and near expressing sympa- 
thy and grief. One was from Rev. Sanford Richard- 
son, who was for years a missionary of the American 
Board in Briisa and knew Mrs. Colby well. It was 
dated June 27, 1881, at St. Johnsbury, Vt, where the 
writer was seeking the recovery of his own health. 



22 AMERICAN HEROES. 

• 

Among other things he sa)rs, "In the ten -years Mrs. 
Colby was in Turkey she did a great work, a good 
work, well rounded and complete. We were so anx- 
ious for her ; we feared she would break down even be- 
fore we left. We were so glad when Providence called 
her to America. Would that she could have left a few 
months earlier. To our weak sight she stayed too long, 
as we had done. Her death will cause genuine sorrow 
to every one of her associates at Constantinople and 
throughout the mission; and sincere will be the grief of 
the dear pupils to whom she gave her life, and of the 
poor who shared in her unostentatious charities. And 
not only Armenians and Greeks, but her Turkish neigh- 
bors also, will drop a tear when they hear that she who 
was ever so kind to them in their sickness and poverty 
is no more of this world." 

Another letter was from Rev. George Mooar, D. D., 
pastor of the First Congregational Church, Oakland, 
when Miss Rappleye was a member of it In this let- 
ter Dr. Mooar sajrs, 

" The three words which occur to me, recalling the 
memory of Miss Rappleye, are thorough, conscien* 
tious, devoted. These qualities came to the front in my 
apprehension of her character. The comer of the dear 
old church where she gathered her pupils on the Lord's 
day was a wonderful support. The sympathy with the 
truth and the preacher was so downright, the attention 
was so inspiriting, I was sure that she would do much 
to double with her scholars the impressions made dur- 
ing the hour of service. The Sunday evening monthly 



JULIA A. RAPPLEYE. 23 

concert was sure of her presence, of her strong voice 
in song, and her contribution. 

" It was a great surprise when she announced to me 
her willingness and wish to enter on the work of a for- 
eign missionary. But it was no hasty or romantic pur- 
pose. Her whole deeply-instructed mind went into her 
resolution. Through years she had thought of it. 
Only sacred devotion to family had kept her from it 
before." 

In a memorial article published after her death in 
the " Missionary Herald " of August, 1881, were the fol- 
lowing statements respecting her missionary life : 

" The story of the essential share Miss Rappleye 
was permitted to have in founding the two female sem- 
inaries known as the Constantinople Home and the 
Brusa Home, in removing prejudice and winning re- 
luctant pupils, and in securing suitable buildings, is a 
part of the history of the Western Turkey Mission. 
Her excellences as a teacher were of the highest order. 
The thoroughness, promptitude, neatness, and quiet 
which always prevailed in her schoolroom elicited the 
admiration of every visitor. Although her discipline 
was strict, and drones found no favor, yet she secured 
the highest esteem and love of her pupils. But scholas- 
tic acquisition and intellectual development were al- 
ways subordinate to moral and spiritual improvement 
Many of her pupils as teachers and as wives of pastors 
have already become efficient evangelical workers. 

" Her forgetfulness of self was most complete. Dur- 
ing the entire ten years of her missionary life she never 



24 AMERICAN HEROES. 

gave a day to mere recreation. She spent her vaca- 
tions at home, making preparations for the following 
term, in visiting the parents of her pupils, and in minis- 
tering to the poor and the sick. One summer, in com- 
pany with missionary brethren, she visited a number of 
out-stations, making long and exhausting journeys on 
horseback. Another summer vacation she spent at a 
village with one of her former pupils, the wife of a 
preacher. Together they preached the gospel from 
house to house, spending her living in providing medi- 
cine for the sick, and food and clothing for the poor. 
Never indulging in a comfort or a luxury, she confined 
herself with extreme frugality to the bare necessaries oi 
life, that she might alleviate the abounding suffering, 
whether among Armenians, Greeks, or Turks. The 
narrative of her unostentatious and touching charities 
would fill a volume." 

The Woman's Board of the Pacific would pay its 
tribute to the devoted missionary ; for seven years most 
intimate relations existed between these ladies and Miss 
Rappleye. A constant communication was kept up be- 
tween them, and the Woman's Board owes much of its 
efficiency in the past to her monthly letters, brimful of 
enthusiasm, most stirring and effective. The memory of 
this consecrated life remains an inspiration to many on 
the Pacific coast. Its influence in Turkey who can esti- 
mate ? " Let her own works praise her in the gates." 



XI. 



E^qV, ]\dQT}irhrt] Jadsot^, 



BY REV. H. C. HAYDN, D. D. 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS. 



-•-»- 



XL DR. ADONIRAM JUDSON. 

The story of American Missions can never be fully 
told, no list of Missionary Heroes can ever be com- 
plete, and the name of Adoniram Judson be left out. 
His place, both in point of time and in achievement, 
is a foremost one. 

EARLY LIFE. 

Born of a godly parentage in Maiden, Mass., Aug- 
ust 9, 1788; entering Brown University a year in ad- 
vance at the age of sixteen, graduating as valedicto- 
rian, in 1807 ; he was able to write in his journal after a 
period of skeptical doubting — " 1808, November. Be- 
gan to entertain a hope of having received the regen- 
erating influences of the Holy Spirit" He had just 
before this entered Andover Theological Seminary, a 
year in advance, " neither a professor of religion nor a 
candidate for the ministry." He made a solemn dedi- 
cation of himself to God, December 2, that same year. 

That dedication was final and complete. " Is it pleasing 

18 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

to God?" became his motto. He put it before his eyes, 
at the same time realizing how futile the suggestioa 
" unless I resolve, in divine strength, instantly to obey 
the decision of conscience.** 

As will be inferred from the above, young Judson 
was a precocious boy, more fond of books than of play, 
revelling in tough problems, learning to read when three 
years of age, a proficient in arithmetic at ten, and a 
voracious reader of books of all sorts. His father, a 
Congregational minister, fanned the flame of ambition 
and stimulated it by holding before him the vision of 
greatness. The year following his graduation was a 
critical period in his history. He had become tainted 
by French infidelity, and a chosen and boon companion 
was a deist. Under this influence he became wayward, 
left home, joined " a company of strolling players," and 
led a " reckless, vagabond life." It was not for long. 
He was followed by his mother s tears, prayers, and 
warnings, which to him were more than his father's ar- 
guments. Providence had him in charge. He one 
night put up at a country inn. In the room next to his 
was a young man in a dying condition. The vision of 
the sick stranger disturbed his peace, and the question 
of his spiritual condition thrust itself in upon his restless 
thought. He arose in the morning to find that his 
next-door neighbor was dead, and that it was none 
other than his brilliant infidel friend. He instantly 
turned his steps homeward, a changed but not con- 
verted man, and subsequently, by special favor, was 
admitted into seminary life. 



DR. ADONIRAM JUDSON. 5 

HIS CALL TO MISSIONARY LIFE. 

A year later, at the age of twenty-one, Judson is 
pondering seriously the work of foreign missions. A 
sermon of Dr. Claudius Buchanan's had fallen as a 
" spark into the tinder of his soul," and in February, 
1 8 10, he had resolved to become a missionary to the 
heathen. To this resolution he had been helped by 
association with Richards, Mills, Rice, and Hall, of 
*' Haystack " fame, lately arrived at Andover from 
Williams College, the birthplace, if any one locality 
can claim that honor, of American missions abroad. 
Of this step young Judson seems early to have counted 
the cost There were flattering prospects for the 
brilliant young divine at home, but from all these he 
turned deliberately aside ; nor did he hide from him- 
self or from Ann Hasseltine, whose heart and hand he 
sought, the peculiar trials most certain to fall to the lot 
of a missionary in those pioneer days. 

There was at this time in the United States no mis- 
sionary society reaching out into foreign lands, and but 
little faith impelling in this direction. But the hour 
was come for the birth of one of the grandest move- 
ments of modem times. And these flaming spirits were 
its forerunners. It is not necessary here to detail the 
formation of the American Board in 18 10, the attempted 
cooperation with the London Missionary Society, and 
the failure of this expedient, throwing American Chris- 
tians upon God and their own resources. Mr. Judson 
had himself been despatched to England on this mis* 



6 AMERICAN HKROKS. 

sion, and got a taste of prison life, having been cap- 
tured by a French privateer en route. Not only at 
Bayonne, but at Paris and in London, he made the im- 
pression of being a man of no ordinary genius. 

HIS MARRIAGE AND DEPARTURE. 

On the 5th of February, 1812, he was married to 
Ann Hasseltine, of Bradford, Mass., a woman of great 
beauty, consecration, and moral heroism. The next 
day he was ordained at Salem, and on the 19th em- 
barked on the brig "Caravan," with Mr. and Mrs. 
Newell, associate missionaries, bound for Calcutta. 

The voyage around the Cape of Good Hope was a 
tedious affair of four months. The time was studiously 
occupied in a translation of the New Testament, which 
was the immediate occasion of the reopening of the 
question of baptism, both as to its proper subjects and 
the mode of its administration. The, result is well 
known. Mr. Judson and his wife became Baptists and 
were immersed at Calcutta the 6th of September. 
Naturally they at once fraternized with the English 
Baptists at Serampore, Marshman, Carey, and Ward, 
and resigned their connection with the American Board. 
He immediately suggested to representative Baptists 
in New England that if a Baptist society were formed 
for the support of a mission in those parts, he would be 
ready to consider himself their missionary. 

This change of sentiment took from the American 
Board its most promising man ; but it set on foot an- 
other agency which ever since has moved forward in 



DR. ADONIRAM JUDSON. 7 

growing strength in the same great work of the world's 
evangelization. No one, it is presumed, ever ques- 
tioned Mr. Judson's sincerity in this step. Probably no 
one can fail to see that a man with less force of charac- 
ter might have shrunk from a step which could not be 
other than costly, running against the gr-ain of early 
education and the training of maturer years, and call- 
ing upon him to sever his relation to the Board that 
sent him forth, and to cast himself by faith upon the 
Master whom he at all hazards sought to obey. 

It was not till after many a buffeting for a year and 
a half that these servants of God found the way open to 
begin their life-work in the Burman Empire. England 
and America were at war with each other, and the 
East India Company had not learned to welcome the 
missionary ; indeed, it never learned that, nor the part 
that Christianity had to play in the regeneration of 
India. Peremptorily ordered to leave, they at length 
reached the Isle of France January 7, 181 3, just after 
the saintiy Harriet Newell had passed in triumph into 
life from that historic spot. May 7 of that year they 
embarked for Madras, intending to open a mission on 
Penang, an island in the Straits of Malacca. But on 
reaching Madras the only conveyance outward was a 
" crazy old vessel " bound for Rangoon ; and upon this 
they determined to embark, passing out from under 
the protection of the English flag and committing them- 
selves to the cruel mercies of a Burman despot. It 
appeared their only way of escaping arrest and being 
sent to England. It was really the hand of God lead- 



I 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

ing them by a perilous voyage of great hardship to the 
work of their lives. 

RANGOON. 

They reached Rangoon July 13, 1813, and found 
quarters in the house of a son of Dr. Carey. It was a 
most filthy and wretched city, located near the mouth 
of the Irrawaddy, a river navigable for 840 miles, but a 
strategic point from which to reach the Burman Em- 
pire of about eight million souls. There was then but 
one Burmah, ruled over by a despotic monarch whose 
throne was at Ava. The Buddhist religion, "like an 
alabaster image, perfect and beautiful in all its parts, but 
destitute of life," held this people firmly in its grasp. 
Moreover, they were a " slow, wary, circumspect race." 
The difficulties were many, but the faith of the Judsons 
in the promises of God was greater. At once he set 
himself to the weary task of mastering a difficult lan- 
guage, "without grammar or dictionary or English- 
speaking teacher." His ardent temperament chafed 
under the delay incident to this prime condition of suc- 
cess; but he accepted it and was soon translating a 
Gospel and preparing tracts in the Burmese tongue, 
which the mission press gave to the people. Three years 
to a day after his arrival he completed a modest treatise 
on grammar, which twenty years later received the 
highest commendation. Soon after they began to 
print, the first real inquirer came to light, the forerun- 
ner of many to follow. Oral preaching came later, and 
in this Mr. Judson was an expert, meeting objections 



DR. ADONIRAM JUDSON. 9 

with great subtlety and impressing his hearers deeply 
by his fervid earnestness. Six years passed by before 
he ventured upon public worship, and this was followed 
speedily by the first convert, who was baptized June 
27, 1819. The work of the mission now began to 
attract the attention of the Viceroy of Rangoon. Per- 
secutions immediately followed, and Mr. Judson deter- 
mined to go at once to Ava and lay the matter before 
the throne itself. It was a hazardous step. -He was 
accompanied by Mr. Colman, a new arrival at the 
mission. It was a journey of a month up the river. 
January 27, 1820, they put themselves under the guide 
of an interpreter for the royal interview, and in due 
time, with all formality, laid their petition before his 
Highness, asking permission to preach the religion of 
Christ in his dominions. They had brought as a pres- 
ent a Bible in six volumes, overlaid with gold; this 
they attempted to exhibit. They were coldly received, 
though  respectfully heard, and dismissed taking their 
present with them. A second and a third attempt was 
made with one of the ministers of state in private, but 
with no better results, and having secured a passport, 
sadly, but hopefully, they returned. 

Once since coming to Rangoon he had been obliged 
to leave for a few months because of ill health, and now 
it became necessary to visit Calcutta on Mrs. Judson's 
account. These were tedious journeys, in mean little 
boats, of great weariness and discomfort. This last was 
followed by Mrs. Judson*s return to America for a two 
years' leave of absence. They had also been called to 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

part with their first-bom child. But through all these 
trials the courage and faith of these servants of God 
were wonderfully sustained. Their Uttle church grew 
to number ten, and the spirit of the martyrs was in this 
pioneer band of Burman converts. 

Dr. Price now came to recruit the mission, and his 
skill in removing cataract soon attracted the attention 
of his Highness at Ava, and he was ordered thither, 
Mr. Judson accompanying as interpreter. The doctor 
paved the way for the preacher, and many opportuni- 
ties were improved to advocate the tenets of the Chris- 
tian faith in the presence of persons ol rank. His maj- 
esty was much more gracious. The way was opened 
for Dr. Price to permanendy remain ; and, before re- 
turning to Rangoon, Mr. Judson had secured a piece 
of ground for a house, intending to occupy it so soon 
as his wife returned from America. Accordingly, De- 
cember 13, 1823, Mr. and Mrs. Judson set their faces 
towards Ava. Ten years of life in Rangoon had se- 
cured for Burmah a translation of the New Testament 
and an epitome of the Old, a native church, a footing 
at the capital, and such a mastery of the language that 
Judson could say, "I suppose I am the only man living 
who can tell to the Burmese people the story of the 
gospel in their own tongue." The work in Rangoon 
was committed to new-comers from America, and Ava 
was entered January 23, 1824. Of their 

LIFE IN AVA 

it IS not easy to write briefly. Of missionary activity 
there was to be little; with suffering their cup was to 



DR. ADONIRAM JUDSON. II 

overflow. They found the countenance of the king 
changed, a new privy council in place of their friends 
of the year previous, clouds of war with the English 
gathering over their heads, and they themselves sus- 
pected of being spies working in the interest of the 
foes of Burmah. Judson and Price, with the resident 
Englishmen, were put in fetters and thrown into a 
loathsome dungeon, hateful to every sense. At the 
end of eleven months he was removed to Oung-pen-la, 
a perilous march that well nigh cost him his life, where 
for six months more he endured the horrors of a Bur- 
mese prison. " The annoyance, the extortions and op- 
pressions to which we were subject, are beyond enu- 
meration or description," writes his faithful wife. 

In the final negotiations with the English he served 
as interpreter, and thereby enhanced his reputation as 
a scholar and a linguist. During all these weary months 
his faithful wife, with a heroism unmatched, cared for 
herself and his manuscript translation, and with utmost 
tact, courage, and eloquence sought to mitigate the 
horrors of his confinement and cheer his brave spirit. 
There is no more pathetic picture than that of this de- 
voted wife making her daily pilgrimage to the prison 
with some token of love and word of cheer, and once 
on a time holding up her new-born babe for the father's 
kiss through the bars of his cell, then following him to 
Oung-pen-la in a rough cart through the dreadful heat 
and dust, till, broken down at last, she was brought to 
death's door by smallpox followed by spotted fever. 

There came an end of these never-to-be-forgotten 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

woes when the victorious English made terms of peace. 
Rangoon was again visited, but the gains of years had 
been scattered by the whirlwind of war, and they fol- 
lowed the English to Amherst within the newly-ceded 
territory. There they resumed their work, but Mrs. 
Judson had reached the Umit of her endurance. Her 
husband was again called to Ava, and during his ab- 
sence she passed away, October 24, 1826, leaving him 
desolate. The cup of this faithful servant of God was 
now full, and we may well believe *' he was never the 
same man afterwards." How many are the sacred 
spots of earth like the hopia-tree at Amherst, or the 
tamarind-trees of Ramree, where the dust of the Com- 
stocks reposes ! 

Mr. Judson found what solace he could in his work 
and the love of his child, till she flew to the arms of 
her mother, April 24, 1827, and he was left alone, cast 
down but not destroyed. 

REMOVAL TO MAULMAIN. 

The mission was now removed to Maulmain at the 
mouth of the Selwan, which had outrun Amherst as the 
seat of English authority and rule. To this place the 
Boardmans and the Wades led the way, and he soon 
followed. The city was growing rapidly ; the field daily 
widened, and success crowned their efforts. Preaching, 
translating, and teaching went on apace. Many new 
works were prepared for the press. Meanwhile a sol- 
itary member of that scattered Rangoon church is qui- 
etly at work, and " out of the stump of the tree cut 



DR. ADONIRAM JUDSON. I3 

down, there springs a shoot which has blossomed and 
flourished ever since." The Rangoon Mission num- 
bers to-day not less than 90 churches and 4,000 mem- 
bers. Such vitality has the Christian church. 

The same aggressive spirit that led him to Ava to 
beard heathenism in its high places moved him still 
later to try and plant the standard of the cross at Prome 
in the heart of the empire. But in this he was defeated, 
after a brave effort, by the prime ministers of the king, 
moved by hatred of foreign intrusion. He retired to 
Rangoon and pushed his work of translation. 

At one of the great heathen festivals he had an 
opportunity of learning how effective had been the 
work of the press. He had given away thousands of 
tracts upon solicitation. " Some," he says, " come two 
or three months* journey from the borders of Siam and 
China. * Sir, we hear that there is an eternal hell. We 
are afraid of it. Do give us a writing that will tell us 
how to escape it* Others come from Kathay, a hun- 
dred miles north of Ava. * Sir, we have seen a writing 
that tells about an eternal God. Are you the man that 
gives away such writings ? If so, pray give us one, for 
we want to know the truth before we die.' Others come 
from the interior, where the name of Jesus Christ is lit- 
tie known. * Are you Jesus Christ's man ? Give us a 
writing that tells about Jesus Christ' " 

The Board mans had opened a mission among the 
Karens, and th'e Word of God proved quick and pow- 
erful among them. But these sainted souls were also 
called to tears. Their eldest and youngest born fol- 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

lowed each other into life eternal, and Mr. Boardman, 
"one of the brightest luminaries of Burmah," fell in 
the jungles of Tavoy, in the midst of his work, leaving 
his wife and one son to mourn their loss. Mrs. Board- 
man continued at her post among the Karens. Mr. 
Judson now returned to Maulmain and entered with 
great zeal the promking work thus begun among the 
Karens. Eight years after the death of his wife, three 
years after the death of Mr. Boardman, April lo, 1834, 
Mr. Judson and Mrs. Boardman were married. 

THE BIBLE TRANSLATED. 

January 31 of that year he had knelt before God 
with the last leaf of the Bible translated into Burman, 
and besought Him to accept the great work of his life, 
and " make his own inspired Word the grand instru- 
ment of filling all Burmah with songs of praise to our 
great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." Burning to 
preach the gospel, viva voce, he had stuck to his pro- 
digious task till now, at the age of 56, he could rejoice 
that the Scriptures were put into one more of earth's 
many tongues. 

In his "lust for finishing," he spent seven more 
years in revising his translation. That garret at Ran- 
goon, that little room at Maulmain where he patiently 
wrought at his life-work, like that upper room at Bei- 
r(it, where Drs. Eli Smith and Van Dyke consummated 
their translation of the Scriptures into Arabic, are 
among the historic places of the church of Christ. It 
is thus that the pioneers of missions have laid all after 



DR. ADONIRAM JUDSON. 15 

comers under obligation for the tools they find ready 
to hand. Twenty-four years of life were mainly spent 
thus, and the Burman Bible is Judson's chiefest and 
sufficing monument. He did for Burmah what Luther 
did for Germany and Wyckliffe for England, only his 
task was infinitely more difficult. The work itself was 
a grand success. 

It was with great reluctance, but with entire loyalty 
to the Board whose servant he was, that he now turned 
to the preparation of a Burmese dictionary, and at the 
same time gave the passion for preaching such oppor- 
tunity as he could. 

Mr. Judson's second marriage proved to be a very 
happy one. She was an ideal missionary. By English 
friends in Calcutta she was pronounced " the most fin- 
ished and faultless specimen of an American woman 
that they had ever known." In person she is described 
as "faultless in features, of warm, meek blue eyes, and 
soft hair, brown in the shadow and gold in the sun.'* 
She was an enthusiast in missions from childhood. She 
became an adept in the Burmese tongue, and her liter- 
ary labors, tracts, translations, Scripture catechisms, and 
hymns were abundant and of a high order. After her 
marriage with Mr. Judson she became the mother of 
eight children. 

HOMEWARD BOUND. 

In the twelfth year of their married life, while home- 
ward bound in search of health, she passed from earth 
at the ^)ort of St. Helena, September i, 1845, and Mr. 



1 6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

Judson journeyed sadly on with his motherless chil* 
dren, himself much broken in health. He arrived in 
Boston, October 15, 1845. Thirty-three and a hall 
eventful years of toil, trial, and achievement had passed 
over hb head since he sailed out of that harbor with 
the bride of his youth. He came back to a land as 
gready changed as he, and his own message for expec* 
tant audiences was the old story of the love of God in 
Christ He was too weak f^r public speaking, but his 
burning soul found expression through an interpreter, 
and again and again he thus served the cause to which 
he had devoted his life. At one time a few sentences, 
feebly spoken, but weighty with consecrated thought 
and purpose, saved the Arracan mission that the Bap- 
tist Board were about to abandon. 

While on his tour through the country he met Miss 
Emily Chubbuck, best known as "Fanny Forrester,*' 
who was destined to become the third Mrs. Judson. A 
volume of her vivacious writings first attracted his at- 
tention, and awakened a desire to see her as a possible 
biographer of his late wife. She had been schooled to 
poverty and self-reliance, first as a factory -girl and then 
as a school-teacher and writer for a local paper. A 
sprightly letter to the " Evening Mirror " attracted the 
attention of Mr. N. P. Willis, and secured for her the 
opportunity and the remuneration for which she had 
been striving. Converted at eight years of age, im- 
pressed in childhood by the story of Ann Hasseltine, 
she was haunted by the conviction, which she strove to 
get rid of, that she one day must be a missionary. 



DR. ADONIRAM JUDSON. 1/ 

And so It came about that the gifted young lady be- 
came the wife of Dr. Judson, an arrangement distaste- 
ful to the friends of each, but satisfactory to themselves. 

OUTWARD BOUND. 

Within nine months from his arrival in this country 
they were on their way to Burmah. Mr. Judson*s heart . 
turned from " the twilight of Maulmain " to the field of 
his first love, with all its discomforts and dense dark- 
ness, and once more he is back in Rangoon. A big, 
gloomy, bat-infested brick house opens to them; a 
ferocious, blood-thirsty viceroy waits to do what he 
dares to hinder the work; sickness makes a hospital 
of their cheerless quarters — but work is resumed on 
the dictionary, and secretly the gospel is preached. 
Mr. Judson must have learned the secret of Paul's 
contentment to be able to say of this period, " My so- 
journ in Rangoon, though tedious and trying in some 
respects, I regard as one of the brightest spots, one of 
the greenest oases, in the diversified wilderness of my 
life r* At length the intolerance of the Government 
made the situation desperate, and he was deterred from 
' going to Ava to lay the case before his Royal High- 
ness only by the failure of means and the discounte- 
nance of the Board at home. There was nothing left 
to do but to retreat, and this for him was a sorry busi- 
ness. When, two years later, he was given permission 
to go to Ava, it was too late. He is next at Maul- 
main steadily at work " like a galley-slave," on what 
he hoped would be a "standard work for all time." 



1 8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

But he was nearer the end of life than he dreamecL 
While deeply concerned for his wife's failing health, 
after the birth of their child, he himself was disabled 
by a sudden cold, and soon thereafter embarked for a 
long sea-voyage as the only hope of recovery. He 
bade adieu to wife and children, and on the 12th of 
April, 1850, died and was buried at sea. Thus peace- 
fully ended, full of the conscious love of Christ, the 
life of this remarkable man. 

AN ESTIMATE OF THE MAN AND HIS WORK. 

In the midst of great discouragements, in perils by 
land and sea, in moral darkness that could be felt, in 
dungeons of unnamable horrors, in the weariness of 
much and prolonged study, yet with a faith victorious^ 
a courage undaunted, and a consecration complete, '" he 
laid the foundations of Christianity deep down in the 
Burman heart where they could never be washed 
away." " At the time of his death the native Christians 
(Burmans and Karens publicly baptized upon the pro- 
fession of their faith) numbered over 7,000. Besides 
this, hundreds throughout Burmah had died rejoicing 
in the Christian faith. He had not only finished the 
translation of the Bible, but had accomplished the 
larger and more difficult part of the compilation of a 
Burmese dictionary." 

He was, indeed, a man of brilliant parts, of studious 
habits, and of great thoroughness in all his work. He 
had the gifts and temperament of an orator. He might 
have filled with ease the foremost pulpit of his native 



DR. ADONIRAM JUDSON. T() 

land. But he was, above all and greater than all, a 
missionary of the apostolic order. He laid himself 
upon the altar of consecration and crucified his selfish 
ambition till nothing was left of it. He never ques- 
tioned but that Burmah was to be given to Christ. It 
might take twenty or thirty years to make a beginning, 
but that was not his concern. A beginning was to be 
made, and he was called to do it. He shrunk from no 
hardship incident to that end ; and the buoyancy of his 
spirits through all adversity was something scarcely 
conceivable, save through the grace of God freely given 
to him. To a man of his ardent temperament, knowing 
that he had given up everything for the carrying out ol 
the great commission, the indifference of his fellow- 
disciples at home was his greatest trial. He sometimes 
longed to have the home churches transported for a 
month to Burmah, for a month to be face to face with 
her unsaved millions. But it is doubtful whether that, 
then or now, would prove a cure for spiritual indif- 
ference to the world*s need. It might work in just 
the opposite direction if the vision was not first made 
dear by the love of Christ and the touch of the Spirit. 
And then the sight of the eyes is no longer necessary. 
Delving on in " the well '* of that gross heathenism, he 
was not hidden, though working in obscurity. He got 
what he never strove after. His became one of the 
best known names of Christendom. He was known 
throughout India. The Crown Prince of Siam invited 
him to make him a visit at his charges. The English 
authorities profoundly respected him. English vied 

19 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

with American Christians in doing him honor. It was, 
no doubt, in part because this missionary enterprise was 
then in its infancy, the land remote and litde known, 
the perils many, the hardships great, but it was yet 
more because the spirit of the man and the work to 
which he gave himself with such ardor was felt to be 
Christ's work just looming up before the dormant soul 
of Christendom and waking it out of sleep. They saw 
in him the spirit of Paul, and in his work the " Acts " 
were being repeated, and they could not help making 
some response, however inadequate, without denying 
the Master altogether. 

Nor can we do Mr. Judson full justice without a 
clear and sharp appreciation of the fact that it was 
pioneer work in which he was engaged — it was carry- 
ing the torch of life into the darkness and blazing the 
way for others on the one hand, and creating mission- 
ary spirit on the other ; so making history for the king- 
dom, and laying foundations upon which after genera- 
tions should build — planting churches that would them- 
selves take up the work and carry it forward. After 
all, when we have done our best, we are far from appre- 
ciating the work of these pioneers who make the gram- 
mars, dictionaries, translations, plant schools and 
churches, print and teach, and not for themselves alone, 
but to make ready to hand the tools with which their 
successors may with greater advantage push the work 
of evangelization. 

Nor will we fail to honor duly those three noble 
women who successively shared his affections and his 



DR. ADONIRAM JUDSON. 21 

labors. They were, each- in her way, remarkable wo- 
men. The heroism of Ann Hasseltine, the missionary 
ardor of Sarah Boardman, the devotion of the literary 
Emily Chubbuck, are beyond question admirable to the 
last degree. Their joy in each other was mutual. 
They were happy marriages, all of them, and all greatly 
conducive to the ultimate result of his life-work. Their 
lives so intertwined in love and service that the story of 
neither is complete without the other. 

POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 

Let it not be thought that their mission is ended. 
Just before his death Mr. Judson learned that " a tract 
had been published in Germany giving some account 
of his labors at Ava ; that it had fallen into the hands 
of some Jews and had been the means of their conver- 
sion ; that it had reached Trebizond, where a Jew had 
translated it for the Jews of that place, that it had 
awakened a deep interest among them, and that a re- 
quest had been made for a missionary to be sent them 
from Constantinople." This was really in response to 
a deep desire of his soul to do something for the Jews. 
With tearful eyes he said, " Wife, I never prayed sin- 
cerely and earnestly for anything but it came ; at some 
time, no matter at how distant a day, somehow, in some 
shape, probably the last I should have devised, it came." 
So is it still. 

No one can read the simple story of these conse- 
crated lives without being deeply impressed by them. 
Many a missionary will be made by its recital. Many 



22 AMERICAN HEROES. 

a man has already been prompted thereby to a more 
unselfish life and heart-surrender to the work of mis- 
sions. So Will it continue to be. These names live in 
Burmah. They keep pace with the conquests of the 
kingdom over the earth. They belong in those Chris- 
tian annals which, after the Acts of the Apostles, tell 
how all things written in the law of Moses and the 
Prophets and the Psalms concerning our Lord Christ 
are being fulfilled. 

In a Baptist meeting-house in Maiden, Mass., is a 
marble tablet and on it this inscription : 

IN MEMORIAM. 

REV. ADONIRAM JUDSON, 

BORN AUGUST 9, 1 788, 

DIED APRIL 12, 185O. 

MALDEN HIS BIRTHPLACE, 

THE OCEAN HIS SEPULCHRE, 

CONVERTED BURMANS AND 

THE BURMAN BIBLE 

HIS MONUMENT. 

HIS RECORD IS ON HIGH. 

It is enough. Many have gathered inspiration from 
this brief story of a life. So may it be till the kingdoms 
of this world are all His whom we call Master and 
Lord. Amen. 

Note. — The materials of this sketch were mainly drawn from 
the biography of Dr. Judson, written by his son, Rev. Edward 
Judson, and published by Randolph & Co., New York. 



XII. 



SCHAUFFLER, REY. WILUAM G, D. D, 

LLD. 



BY DR. H. C. HAYDN. 



r 



I 



C;,_,^.,:. „..;;„; 



1. G. SCHAUFFLER, D. D., LL, D 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS. 



XII. REV. WILLIAM G. SCHAUFFLER, 

D. D., LL. D. 

From Olivet Chapel, New York, January 29, 1883, 
was peacefully buried all that was mortal of a very re- 
markable man. The kingdom of God cometh not with 
observation, and this simple memorial service was in no 
respect suggestive of the greatness of the life just fin- 
ished or the range of influences set in motion since it 
began in Stuttgart, Germany, August 22, 1798. It is 
but a labor of love to sketch, from his autobiography 
mainly, the salient points of the life, work, and character 
of this good and great man. 

EARLY DAYS. 

When six years of age, the times being severe, 
his father, in hope of improving their condition, led a 
colony to Odessa, on the Black Sea. Of morality and 
outward respect for religion in the family there was no 
lack ; of vital godliness there was none ; nor was there 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

known to be a single pious person in Odessa or in the 
region around for ten years tiiereafter. His educa- 
tional advantages were scanty. Schools for Germans 
there were none. His father's clerk was his instructor, 
who took him through the first principles of arithmetic, 
the reading and writing of German, Scripture selections, 
and Luther's catechism. But in a measure he educated 
himself, copying pictures and poetry, flute-playing, 
reading novels, history, and travels, mastering French 
and Italian as well as Russian. At the age of fourteen 
he was put to his father's trade at the turning-lathe. 
Until " twenty- two years of age he lived in the world 
and for the world." Though stirred by many a serious 
thought, he became very fond of worldly amusements, 
dancing, billiards, and the theatre included, but his 
chief passion was music. Just then his career was ar- 
rested and turned into a new channel. There came to 
Odessa a Catholic priest preaching the gospel with 
great earnestness and power. It was Lindl, " afterward 
turned out of the Catholic Church." He was at one 
time welcomed by Alexander 11. of Russia, who eagerly 
received the gospel at his lips. His marvellously fas- 
cinating face and voice drew young SchaufHer to his 
services, where he was convicted of sin, led to renounce 
the world, and accept the free grace of the gospel. He 
had before this begun to see the emptiness of earthly 
things, and now a new world of spiritual realities broke 
on his vision and he became a changed man. As he 
said, "I lost nothing; I gained all." Worldly amuse- 
ments lost their charm ; and even from music for a time 



REV. WItUAM G. SCHAUFFtER. 5 

he turned aside, because it was his idol and because of 
the company into which it led him. Missionary work 
early attracted his attention, and five years later, at the 
age of twenty-seven, invited by " the ardent but eccen- 
tric Dr. Wolff," a Jewish missionary, to accompany him 
to Persia, he left all to follow what he then regarded as 
the Master's call. He barely escaped shipwreck before 
reaching the Bosphorus. " Like Abraham he knew 
not whither he was going, for the Lord directed his 
way to America, and he eventually embarked at 
Smyrna for Boston with one dollar in his pocket." He 
found the plans of Dr. Wolff impracticable, but he was 
fairly committed to a missionary career, and now turned 
to Andover instead of Basle or England, as he had once 
purposed, for a period of preparation. He had begun 
the study of Latin, Greek, and English before leaving 
Odessa. 

EMBARKS FOR AMERICA. 

It is probable that an interview with Rev. Jonas 
King in Smyrna decided his going to America. It was 
a tedious voyage of four months. By the sale of a fur 
cloak he increased his funds to eleven dollars. Arriving 
at Boston, he presented letters of introduction to Secre- 
tary Evarts, of the American Board. He also met 
Mr., afterwards Secretary, Anderson. He was poUtely 
but cautiously received, and advised to confer with the 
professors at Andover. His linguistic attainments won 
favor with them, and his flute-playing with the students. 
They seemed never before to have heard a flute really 



I 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

played. A year (rf preparation for the seminary was 
soon decided upon, and he proposed to sell his flute to 
buy books, and get work at his trade for self-support. 
The former was not permitted by the students, for they 
paid him fifty dollars for it and then gave it to him on 
condition that he should continue to play at their meet- 
ings ; and from the latter he was relieved in due time 
when it came to be known to how much better use he 
could put his time. He remained in Andover five 
years, engaged in arduous application to study, often 
for fourteen and sixteen hours a day. He also assisted 
the professors in their translations, and was for a time 
employed as librarian, where he enjoyed many advan- 
tages. Of this period he says, " Aside from the study 
of Greek and Hebrew and general classical reading, I 
studied the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, Samaritan, Rab- 
binic, Hebrew- German, Persian, Turkish, and Spanish 
proper (not Hebrew-Spanish), and in order to be some- 
what prepared for going to Africa, I extracted and 
wrote out pretty fully the Ethiopic and Coptic gram- 
mars. . . . For some years I read the Syriac New Tes- 
tament and Psalms for my edification instead of the 
German or the English text. ... I studied fully the 
Turkish and Persian grammars, and read easy text, so 
as to be able to enter into Oriental classes in Paris if I 
should be sent to that city before proceeding to my mis- 
sion." This must suffice for a hint how Mr. Schauffler 
spent his time. To accomplish this he resolved to 
abstain from all miscellaneous reading, and hardly 
looked at a newspaper. He was entiiely ignorant of 



REV. WILLIAM G. SCHAUFFLER 7 

the French Revolution of 1830, anrfhe reached France 
in. 1 83 1 not knowing that Louis Philippe was on the 
throne. 

But there was another side to his student life which 
must not be passed over. He came to America at a 
time of numerous revivals, reminding him of scenes he 
had passed through in Southern Russia. He was 
faithful at the devotional meetings of the seminary, and 
often went out to Lowell, then just started as a manu- 
facturing centre, and conducted religious meetings. " I 
shall ever remember Lowell," he says, " with an inter- 
est peculiar and tender, because I often went out to that 
place when tired and worn out with my studies to get 
refreshed again in the revival air which I never failed to 
breathe there. As soon as I drew near Lowell, and 
when I saw the plain afar off, I used to forget all my 
Hebrew vowel points and accents, and all my Syriac 
and Arabic, and all my Rabbinic nonsense, and all my 
theological speculations, and as soon as I arrived I 
would plunge right into the realities of experimental 
piety and real life and labor to save sinners." It was 
thus this great scholar, then and ever after, kept alive 
that fervid piety for which he was distinguished no less 
than for his varied learning and linguistic attainments. 
Herein is he an example worthy of imitation by all 
others travelling the arduous road of Christian scholar- 
ship. 

ORDAINED A MISSIONARY. 

Mr. Schauffler had from the first expected to become 
a missionary to the Jews and therefore to lead a wan- 



 

I 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

dering life and to remain unmarried. He was lefd to 
abandon his plan, in part, and to seek resident work, 
making such tours as circumstances called for. He 
was ordained a missionary of the American Board in 
Park Street Church, Boston, November 14, 1831. He 
was sent first to Paris to prosecute for a few months his 
linguistic studies, then passed from the then plague- 
smitten city to Odessa, by way of his birthplace, and 
after a brief sojourn full of evangelistic labor went on to 
Constantinople. He was sent to Smyrna to look after 
mission interests, and there met Miss Mary Reynolds, 
of New Haven, then teaching a mission-school sup- 
ported by New Haven friends. To her he became in 
due time engaged, though his suit was not pressed until, 
for sufficient reasons, she had determined to return to 
America and all other engagements were cancelled. 
The Goodells and the D wights, burned out in Constan- 
tinople, had taken up their residence, the one in Galata, 
the other in Pera. Mr. Schauffler, after living with 
them for a time, found it necessary to the prosecution of 
his work among the Jews to take rooms by himself, 
especially as Constantinople was then smitten by the 
plague. From thence the correspondence was carried 
on which brought Miss Reynolds to the Bosphorus, 
and they were married, February 26, 1834, by Dr. 
Goodell, at the residence of Com. Porter, the American 
ambassador. 

Of missionary life there Mr. Schauffler writes: 
" Those were rather heroic times generally, and devo- 
tion to missionary work was something sweeping. The 



REV. WII.UAM G. SCHAUFFI.ER. 9 

highway home by steam was not so much as thought 
of, and everything connected with missionary work had 
something the aspect and character of martyrdom." 
Both had prepared themselves for a solitary life and a 
short one, to neither of which had Providence destined 
them. 

PLAGUE-SMITTEN DAYS. 

We cannot enter into the details of family life which 
tested their powers to the utmost. The plague raged 
from 1832 to 1838, which carried off Mrs. D wight, of 
the missionary circle, and required ceaseless diligence 
to prevent contact with the contagion. During the 
latter part of this period the Armenian persecution 
also broke out, but of these matters account is given in 
the pages which treat of missionaries Goodell and 
Dwight. They all passed through these fires together. 
After the birth of their first-born Mrs. Schauffler be- 
came greatly enfeebled; indeed, went to the gates of 
death, but was mercifully raised up. The exigencies 
of their situation, one family helping another, one loca- 
tion changed for another for sanitary reasons, caused 
them to move five times in a single year. During this 
period a visit was made to Odessa, chiefly on Mrs. 
Schauffler's account, and the few months spent there 
were signalized on the one hand by the birth of a second 
son and the death of both the children, whose dust was 
consigned to the same grave, and on the other by re- 
vival work in Odessa and the region around, which 
brought many into the kingdom, and both light and 
peace into their troubled souls. In Constantinople Mr. 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

Schauffler was occupied with his translation of the 
Scriptures into Hebrew-Spanish, and with Sunday ser- 
vices in English and German for local residents. These 
services were greatly blessed. Mr. SchaufHer was a 
fervid, earnest, evangelical preacher. The spirit and 
the style are well illustrated in his volume of sermons, 
" Meditations on the Last Days of Christ,"* with which 
the Christian public is familiar. His autobiography 
abounds with thrilling incidents of conversion both in 
Constantinople and in Odessa, in Vienna, where for 
three years he resided while his Hebrew-Spanish Bible 
was being carried through the press, in Stuttgart, and 
wherever else he sojourned. Those were times of pro- 
scription for the evangelical laith, not only in Turkey, 
but in Russia and Austria no less. The papacy and a 
rationalistic Protestantism joined hands in Austria in 
persecuting the littie shepherdless bands of true be- 
lievers scattered here and there, to whom the coming of 
such a man was like a visit of angels, and great was the 
comfort and the fruit of these obscure but precious 
gatherings, continued, now here, now there, for years. 

SOJOURN IN VIENNA. 

Mr. and Mrs. Schauffler, with their son Henry, born 
September 4, 1837, left Constantinople for Vienna, May 
7, 1839, via Odessa, Bessarabia, etc., he preaching the 
gospel as they went. Great was the eagerness to hear 
the word. People came long distances after their day's 
work, slept in wagons, stables, anywhere. A woman 

* Published by the American Tract Society. 



REV. WILUAM G. SCHAUFKLER. II 

after one of these meetings sat in the moonlight with a 
babe in her lap. " And where are you going to sleep ?" 
he asked. " To-night no sleep will come into my eyes, 
I am sure." " You are not at home here ?'* " Oh, no. 
I am two hours from here and came running with my 
babe after the field work was done." "Why don*t 
you go back now in the moonlight and get a little 
rest ?" " Why, you will certainly have prayers in the 
morning before you leave?" "Yes, I suppose so." 
" Well, I am not going to lose that." Such were the 
people that Papal Austria soon after put under the har- 
row of persecution. 

A fourth son, Edward, was given them in Vienna 
September ii, 1839. Mr. Clay was then American 
ambassador. Many notable acquaintances were made, 
among them the Archduchess Maria Dorothea, who 
became their friend. Religious services in English 
were sometimes held, and not without fruit And last 
of all he was permitted at a private interview to lay 
before the emperor himself his printed Bible, upon 
which he had lavished the best work of his scholarship 
thus far. It was printed at the expense of the American 
Bible Society, and in Vienna, because there was to be 
found the best font of Hebrew type. In this work of 
translation he was a pioneer and had taken upon him- 
self to be " much bolder in shaping the text into tolera- 
bly good Spanish than any other missionary was willing 
to be." He had said to himself, " If I but live to finish 
this work I shall consider my missionary life a success, 
secured and safe ;" and now grateful for God's mercy 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

he awaited with some anxiety the verdict of the Jews 
themselves upon his work. This verdict was entirely 
in his favor, and the book went forth with the approval 
of Rabbis, a second and larger edition following a few 
years later. 

Journeying from Vienna they spent ten memorable 
days in Pesth, in the midst of revival work that reached 
many of the better class of Jewish families and con- 
tinued long after they left. 

ARMENIAN PERSECUTION. 

Once more, July, 1842, they are back at their sta- 
tion, and the hospitable Goodells receive them till they 
can set up their own house. The Armenian persecu- 
tion continued. The missionary families were closely 
watched. Being a missionary to the Jews, and having 
German servants, the Schauffler home was exempt 
from this espionage, and many a secret meeting was 
held there. No long time after came the triumph of 
Sir Stratford Canning, the English ambassador, over 
the Turkish Government, securing, nominally, the abo- 
lition of the death penalty for Moslems who, having 
first been Christians, had become Moslems, and again 
desired to return to the Christian faith. This was the 
entering wedge to the greater concession to all Moslems 
of a few years later, wrung from a reluctant Sultan by the 
same English ambassador. He proved to be the man 
of Providence for the hour, and for the task of fighting 
out the problem of religious liberty in Turkey. 

Sir Stratford was, humanly speaking, the only one 



i 



I 



REV. WILUAM G. SCHAUFFI.ER. 1 3 

to whom the missionaries could turn for protection, and 
the delicate duty of approaching him in behalf of the 
persecuted Armenians was entrusted by the mission to 
Mr. Schauffler, as he, being a missionary to the Jews, 
was not so directly implicated. On the one hand was 
the Armenian patriarch backed by High Church Epis- 
copacy in the person of Mr. Southgate and others ; on 
the other the persecuted Armenians, who had returned 
to a simple gospel faith, but wished to abide in their 
own fold. Mr. Schauffler was for a time their go-be- 
tween with Sir Stratford, rendering invaluable service, 
afterwards so ably prosecuted by Mr. Dwight. On one 
memorable occasion, Mr. Schauffler was admitted to an 
interview with the ambassador, just after the opponents 
of the mission had temporarily succeeded in convinc- 
ing him that there was really no persecution at all ; but 
God guided the conscience of Sir Stratford ; the cause 
of His poor was dear to Him, and the right triumphed. 
Many and arduous were the cares of the mission families 
during these times, many the sheltered and fed, much 
the sympathy and aid extended from the United States, 
England, Norway, and notably from little Wilrtem- 
berg. 

Ten years of missionary life were now numbered. 
Thus far he was the sole representative of the Jewish 
Mission from the United States, and his chief sympathy 
and cooperation would seem to have come from the 
English and Scotch, also represented in the field and 
finally leading in the work, for the simple reason that 

missions to the Jews never did take a very deep hold 

20 



I 



14 AMEKICAN HEROES. 

on our people or mission Boards. At length there was 
a brief rally, the Jewish work became a separate mis- 
sion, Mr. Schauffler was sent to Salonica to look over 
the field, and in 1849, 17 years from the beginning, 
two new missionaries were sent out, followed by two 
others no long time thereafter. This move was not 
successful, owing to the ill-health of some and the death 
of one, until discouraged, the new-comers, Messrs. Mor- 
gan and Parsons, were transferred to the Armenian 
work. This was done at the Annual Meeting of the 
station in 1855, when it was al^o recommended to the 
Board that "the Jewish mission be relinquished to 
the Scotch Free Church, who took so great an interest 
in the work.** Mr. Schauffler was not present, not be- 
ing a delegate that year. It is not surprising that, after 
23 years of service, with scant support and slender 
resources with which to prosecute his work, he felt 
aggrieved at this summary disposal of the mission, 
which in reality lay not within the jurisdiction of them 
who had so voted. But though he might have called 
for a reconsideration and changed the vote, he pre- 
ferred not to exercise his. right, and " the matter took 
its providential course." He could at any moment 
have accepted a position in the ranks of the Scotch 
brethren. He was afterwards invited to take charge 
of their work. He also was invited to enter the Arme- 
nian field, but declined. He had put through the press 
a Hebrew Grammar, a Hebrew- Spanish Lexicon of the 
Bible, and a third popular translation of the Psalms 
into Spanish ; a Hebrew-German translation of the Old 



REV. WILUAM G. SCHAUFl^LER. 1 5 

Testament he had, after beginning, committed to other 
hands. He seemed to feel that his work was done. 

PARIS AND THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 

Just then the Evangelical Alliance was about to 
hold a meeting at Paris, and he was appointed by the 
Mission to bring before that meeting " the great ques- 
tion of religious liberty in Turkey, including the Mo- 
hammedans." It afforded him an opportunity for rest, 
and to serve a cause that was near his heart. The 
journey, by way of Trieste, Venice, and the St. Gothard 
Pass, was inspiring and invigorating. 

His great object in Paris was to induce the Evan- 
gelical Alliance to memorialize the sovereigns of Europe 
to use their influence with the Turkish Sultan to secure 
the abolition of the death penalty from Moslem con- 
verts to Christianity. In this behalf he made a power- 
ful plea, and when that body was hesitant, and the 
French members especially were reluctant to lay the 
case before Napoleon III., Mr. Schauffler carried the 
assembly by declaring it to be the purpose of that little 
band of missionaries in Constantinople to fight this 
battle through at any cost, though deserted of all their 
brethren ! The result was the triumph of Sir Stratford 
Canning, as above indicated. 

The return through his native city, Stuttgart, was 
both gratifying and comforting. The very morning he 
left Paris the news of SebastopoFs fall was posted along 
the streets, and in Stuttgart he was invited to speak 
on the Crimean war, and addressed an immense audi- 



l6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

ence. The (laughter of Nicholas was wife of the Crown 
Prince of WUrtemberg, and the desire to send aid to 
the Russian soldiers in prison in Constantinople led to 
an interview in which she deplored that the benevolent 
intentions of Russia were so misunderstood by England 
and France. To reply was a delicate matter in view of 
his opinions avowed in public, but wisdom came to his 
aid, and he spoke discreetly, compromising nothing. 
He became the almoner of the imperial bounty to the 
prisoners. 

Having returned to Constantinople, the question 
what next to do was thrust upon him. To continue 
the Jewish mission seemed not desirable; to work for 
the Armenians he felt no call. Since the Crimean war 
the way among the Turks seemed opening, and to 
them he felt drawn. The subject was discussed at the 
weekly meeting, February ii, 1856, and his decision 
was made to enter the Islam field. 

A NEV^ FIELD. 

He at once threw himself with ardor into prepara- 
tion for his new work, aiming to acquire facility in the 
Turkish tongue. He says of it, "I found it hard at 
my time of life, 57, and often felt discouraged. But I 
supplied myself with books and supported by the 
thought of preparing, perhaps, for the chief task of my 
life, went on." 

At the Annual Meeting of 1857, held at Constanti- 
nople, both the Turkish and Bulgarian work were so 
attractive as to call out a special paper to present their 



REV. WILUAM G. SCHAUFFLER' 1 7 

claims to the Committee in Boston, a paper that Chan- 
cellor Ferris pronounced " the most interesting and im- 
portant missionary document he had ever read." It 
was prepared by Mr. Schauffler and Mr. Cyrus Hamlin. 
" There was but one mind as to the new opening, or as 
to the precedence of the Osmanli field . . . The whole 
mission seemed to rise into a higher atmosphere. 
When the resolution was passed Dr. Dwight was 
called upon to commend the whole enterprise to the 
God of missions, and did it in a prayer so full of unc- 
tion that he seemed to sweep us all from a narrow inland 
sea out into the broad, vast ocean, to circumnavigate 
and take possession of the whole empire of the Sultan, 
and dislodge the false prophet from every mosque. 
Every face shone." Strange it is that that, to this day, 
should have been the brightest moment in the specific 
work for Moslems in Turkey ! 

HE REVISITS AMERICA. 

It was further proposed that Mr. Schauffler should 
go to America, and both there and in England do what 
he might to present the claims of the new mission to 
the Turks. Henry, their eldest, was already in Amer- 
ica, and Edward had just sailed, in order, if the way 
opened, also to study theology. Thirty-one years had 
sped away since Mr. Schauffler and his good wife had 
seen these shores. They found a cordial welcome 
everywhere. It was a time of great financial depres- 
sion, but it was also the year of the great revival. Re- 
ligious meetings were of great interest. Stirring themes 



l3 AMERICAN HEROES. 

occupied the attention of the anniversaries. Mr. Schauf- 
fler was kept busy in the States, in Canada, visiting the 
scenes and friends of his student-life and attending one 
of the annual meetings of the American Board. Some- 
thing was gained here for his new work, but more in 
England. His plans were always broad and aggres- 
sive, his speeches full of fire and interest Rev. Wil- 
liam Scudder was then at home from India, also pow- 
erful on the platform. It was a stirring time, full of 
great issues at home and abroad. 

To institute a new mission for the Turks on the 
very field of the Armenian mission, where race preju- 
dices were intensely antagonistic and might call for 
separate institutions, Mr. Schauffler foresaw might prove 
a step too costiy for the Board. He so expressed him- 
self, but was encouraged to go forward, which he did, 
but not without misgivings as to the issue. Funds were 
given in England for putting the rudiments of a Chris- 
tian literature into the hands of the Turks, and from 
friends here something for a house to be the centre of 
the new work ; but mainly from a single English friend 
the funds came to secure this essential object. 

THE WORK AMONG THE TURKS. 

Mr. Schauffler is again back at his work. The 
arduous task of translating the Scriptures into Turkish 
is before him, and with it he courageously grapples. 
Selim Agha, a convert from Mohammedanism, baptized 
as Edward Williams, well versed in the Scriptures, gifted 
in conversational interviews with the Turks, and popu< 



REV. WII^UAM G. SCHAUFFI.ER. 1 9 

lar with them as a preacher, occupied the new house 
and received all that came, preaching Christ. But 
some of the difficulties anticipated by Mr. Schauffler, 
and some not foreseen, arose, among them the entrance 
of the Propagation Society (High Church) of England, 
and the determination in Boston not to institute a sepa- 
rate Turkish mission, but to have the Armenian mis- 
sion cover the entire field; and these led to complica- 
tions which eventuated in the resignation of Mr. Schauf- 
fler as a missionary of the American Board. Hence- 
forth to the end of his life-work he was in the employ 
of the American and the British and Foreign Bible So- 
cieties, engaged upon his great work of Bible transla- 
tion. Thus summarily closed the "separate" Turkish 
mission, as had the Jewish before it, to both which he 
was fully committed ; and through all these trying 
times it is beautiful to see how his faith and charity 
triumphed, and how deeply conscientious and truly 
wise he was, his chief concern being the glory of God 
and the spread of his kingdom. 

The Gospels and the Acts in Turkish were pub- 
lished in 1862, the whole New Testament in 1866; some 
books of the Old Testament followed. The view is ex- 
pressed that, " However opinions may differ, as they 
do, concerning the value of this version for the common 
people, there can be no doubt of the invaluable service 
done by Mr. Schauffler, whose version will hereafter be 
the version, or the basis of whatever revision is finally 
adopted." 



20 AMERICAN HEROES. 

LAST YEARS. 

The veteran missionary and his feuthful helpmeet 
were now entitled to rest. Reviewing all these years, 
he says, " To speak of the Lord's faithfulness, patience, 
and bountifulness towards us, and especially me, there 
would be no end. I need a whole eternity for that. 
Such as I was and am, my hope is in Christ, and only 
in him, and will be, I trust and pray, in my dying hour. 
To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen." 

They left Constantinople in 1874. " During more 
than 40 years of missionary life their house had been a 
home for friends and an asylum for strangers; and 
when the aged pilgrims took their leave of the weather- 
stained old house (the gift of a grateful friend), many a 
tear flowed and many a benediction followed them." 
After sojourning for three years with his son Henry, a 
missionary of the American Board in Moravia, they 
came to New York to spend the rest of their days 
with their two younger sons. From their embraces he 
passed away. " His last illness was brief No special 
disease showed itself It was rather a general and rapid 
failing of his physical powers, until Friday, January 26, 
when at 5 P. M. he gently fell asleep in Jesus. The day 
before this he suddenly aroused out of the drowsy state 
in which he had lain, and commenced speaking. He 
seemed lifted to a mount of vision whence he could be- 
hold the past in its true significance, and see the com- 
ing triumph and glory of Christ's kingdom. He said: 
' I have seen wonderful things — ^the kingdom of God 
revived, quickened. Wife and I have seen glorious 



REV. WILI*IAM G. SCHAUFFLER. 21 

things in South Russia, the kingdom of God coming, 
and in Germany, and in the Catholic Church. And 
now be faithful and prayerful, and be sure the kingdom 
of God will come. His glory shall fill the earth as the 
waters cover the sea. I can say with thy faithful ser- 
vant (Bengel), ' Lord Jesus, between us, all remains as 
of old, and now come. Lord Jesus, come quickly; all 
my hope and trust is in thee ; take me just as I am. 
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the 
Holy Ghost. Amen.* Shordy after he roused himself 
again and said, ' I see myself as I am ;' and, closing his 
eyes, * I see Jesus.* He soon saw Him face to face." 

His aged widow and four sons survive him and hold 
his memory as a precious heritage. His was a notable 
life, of humble beginnings, of arduous labors and many 
trials, and of great achievements. His was a character 
singularly unselfish and pure, of strong convictions, 
ardent piety, of rare gifts of head and heart, and all 
consecrated to Christ and his kingdom. It was given 
him to live in a wondrous time, to see great changes 
in the moral and political world, and to be associated 
throughout his missionary career with such men as 
Goodell, Dwight, and Hamlin — four men, who, with 
their associates, called out this remarkable eulogium of 
the Earl of Shaftesbury in a public speech in London: 
" I do not believe that in the whole history of missions, 
I do not believe that in the history of diplomacy, or in 
the history of any negotiations carried on between man 
and man, we can find anything to equal the wisdom, 
the soundness, and the pure evangelical truth of the 



22 AMERICAN HEROES. 

body of men who constitute the American mission in 
Turkey." 

His rare scholarship, and especially bis translation 
of the Bible into Osmanli-Turkish, called forth from 
tlie University of Halle and Wittenberg the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity, and from Princeton College the de- 
gree of Doctor of Laws. For his invaluable services 
to the German colony of Constantinople the King of 
Prussia, the present German Emperor, sent him a hand- 
some decoration, and the English residents expressed 
their high appreciation of the abundant labors of Mr. 
and Mrs. Schauffler for their spiritual good by the pre- 
sentation of an address with the gift of a valuable dock 
to him and a silver service to her. But best of all are the 
honors promised to them who turn many to righteous- 
ness ; that crown is his, &deless for ever. " May the 
mantie of this beloved man, who so won the admiration, 
confidence, and affection of high and low, of princes 
and beggars, of scholars and littie children, rest upon 
those who come after him. And especially may they 
who follow him in missionary service be as wise as was 
he in winning souls to Christ." 

We are privileged, at the close of this sketch of an 
eventful life, in being able to present a graphic pen- 
picture of the private walks and ways of this eminent 
servant of God, kindly furnished by his son, the Rev. 
H. A. SchaufHer. 

" The pleasing picture of my father in his mission- 
ary home on the Bosphorus lingers in the memory of 
manv an Oriental and Occidental who enjoyed the priv- 



REV. WILDIAM G. SCHAUFFI.ER. 23 

liege of sitting at his table, of listening to his cheerful 
and instructive conversation, seasoned with pertinent 
anecdote and sanctified by his all-pervading piety, of 
kneeling at that family altar and being lifted near the 
throne in holy familiarity. Shall we attempt to give 
that portrait in simplest outiine ? 

" We have already seen him as a missionary: look 
at him now in the family circle, a devoted husband, 
'holding his wife in honor, always ready to share her 
burdens, to aid in the care of the children, or to put his 
mechanical skill to some practical household use; a 
wise, firm, affectionate, sympathizing father, always re- 
quiring prompt obedience and strict integrity, tut ever 
seeking to gain the confidence of his children, treating 
them as friends and counsellors, and watchful to give 
ihem every educational advantage he can command. 

" Peep at him in his small, very plainly-furnished 
study. You see a self-educated, thorough scholar, of 
splendid attainments, fond of philosophy, with whose 
German masters he is especially conversant ; well read 
in history, particularly of modern times; a remarkable 
linguist, able to speak ten languages and read as many 
more, modesdy disclaiming linguistic talent, but advis- 
ing others to * kill one language with another,* i, e.y to 
learn a new language by the aid of one partially ac- 
quired. In this little room that man of God has prayed 
and studied over every word and letter and accent of 
the Hebrew and Greek Scripture, and his soul has 
sometimes been well nigh in agony as he has labored 
to turn Paul's inverted, pregnant, and parenthetic Greek 



24 AMERICAN HEROES. 

into intelligible sentences of a language totally different 
in genius and construction. He used to say that a 
translator of the Bible needed the aid of the Holy Spirit 
as truly as the original writers. 

** Now his day's work is done and you find him in 
a circle of friends. In conversation he has but few 
equals. Not witty, he possesses such an exhausdess 
fund of interesting information, has seen and experi- 
enced so much, and is so ready with an appropriate 
anecdote, that he ever finds delighted listeners. He 
can adapt himself to any one. Whether it be a Ger- 
man professor fi-esh from the study of Egyptian hiero- 
glyphics or a learned blue-stocking; a Jewish Rabbi 
who knows only the Talmud or a Turkish scholar 
versed in Arabic and Persian lore; a European diplo- 
mat discussing the Eastern question or a poor Jewish 
cobbler whom he is trying to save from a drunkard's 
grave; Mr. Gladstone conversing with him about the 
Indian mutiny or a Turkish porter reading the new 
version of the Bible; an Austrian archduchess seeking 
Christian fellowship or a group of merry children beg- 
ging for a story, he is equally ready to converse with 
all to purpose. 

" His remarkable musical talent contributes greatly 
to the enjoyment of the family and of friends who 
gather every Tuesday evening in the old house to lis- 
ten to choice music. In Andover and elsewhere still 
linger sweet memories of his marvellous flute, of which 
instrument he was perfect master. But few knew that 
at the age of sixty-five, when compelled to confine him- 



REV. WII.UAM G. SCHAUFFLER. 25 

self less closely to study, he took up his son's bass-viol 
and learned to play it so well that he joined other in- 
struments in performing classical music. Propose sing- 
ing, and you shall see with what enthusiasm he carries 
his part, singing not only with the spirit and the under- 
standing, but with his whole body as well. 

"The more closely you observe him, the more clear- 
ly do other traits appear ; his great conscientiousness, 
that causes him to lament his faults, especially his occa- 
sional failure to control his temper, which in youth had 
been violent; his self-denial and self-contfol, which 
when once he had commenced the study, to him so 
fascinating, of hieroglyphics, made him exclaim, * Oh, 
William Schauffler, hitherto you have never studied 
anything that would not aid you in your great work of 
Bible translation, and now you are indulging yourself. 
No, that shall not be!* and hieroglyphics remained 
hieroglyphics to him. Nor will his dauntless faith and 
genuine courage escape your observation. There is 
something martial about him. Some one once re- 
marked that he looked like an old general; and true it 
IS that he is as fond of using illustrations from military 
life as the apostle Paul. When, in his early missionary 
life the plague was raging in Constantinople, he one 
day perceived a pimple on his knee. He showed it to 
his physician (the well-known Dr. Millingen, in whose 
arms Lord Byron died, and whom my father's influence 
helped win to Christ), who told him that, if the next 
morning it was as large as a pea, it was a plague bubo; 
if not, it was harmless. Without saying a word to any 



26 AMERICAN HEROES. 

one, he retired to rest that night as usual, slept quietly 
till morning, when he found the pimple had not grown. 

" You would not be with him long without noticing 
his generosity, his heart and hand always open to the 
needy, and no good cause ever appealing to him in 
vain. How he can give so much from his slender 
salary is explicable only by the experience of the old 
Scotchman he loved to quote, who, being asked how, 
having so litde, he yet gave away so much and yet 
did not exhaust his store, replied, * I keep shovelling 
over to the Lord, and he keeps shovelling back to me, 
and his shovel is bigger than mine.' 

" Has he any faults ? Yes, and it would not be 
biblical to conceal them, or, like the painter, to flat- 
teringly omit every blemish from our portrait, and yet 
intimate acquaintance with him reveals but littie to 
mar the beauty of his noble character. A quick tem- 
per, over which he seldom fails to rule; a positiveness 
of conviction which sometimes asserts itself too vigor- 
ously to please those who differ from him, and an in- 
clination to trust others more implicidy than is always 
safe; these serve to show that the subject of our sketch 
was human. 

" Our last look at him shall bie as he appears in the 
pulpit. He is animated but perfectly natural in manner, 
and his matter is eminently biblical, instructive, and spir- 
itual. His fine imagination enables him to fascinate 
his hearers by setting forth Bible scenes in such living 
colors that you involuntarily start as you see Abraham 
raise his knife to slay his son, and share the amazement 



REV. WILUAM G. SCHAUFFLER* 2^ 

of the spectators when Lazarus emerges from the tomb. 
His strong love of righteousness and hatred of injus- 
tice leads to unsparing denunciation of wrong; but 
anon his firm faith in the prevailing power of God's 
truth and his ardent love for Christ and souls enables 
him to rise above all else and carry his hearers with 
him as he tenderly urges the necessity of conversion, 
pleads with them to yield to Christ, and eloquentiy dis- 
courses of the triumph and glory of the Redeemer's 
kingdom. 

*' Such, in meagre oudine, is the man. Nature en- 
dowed 'him with a vigorous body, a character simple, 
honest, and grand, a loving, generous, enthusiastic 
heart, a powerful, symmetrical, and highly-gifted mind, 
while grace sanctified, developed, strengthened, and 
beautified both mind and heart, until out of the obscure 
young mechanic of Odessa it had made the widely- 
known, highly-honored and ardendy-loved missionary 
of the cross, the translator of the Bible for two distinct 
peoples, the champion of religious liberty in the capital 
of the Mohammedan empire, the eloquent preacher of 
righteousness, the trusted friend of high and low, the 
spiritual father of a multitude of redeemed souls in three 
continents. To God be all the glory !" 



Note.— Our readers will be gratified to know that a fuller 
Memoir of Dr. Schauffler is in preparation by his family and will 
shortly be published. 



r.4 



i 



XIII. 



E^qV, ^(A\^ Eliot, 



BY REV. WILLIAM H. MCDOUGALL. 



21 



f 



AMERICAN HEROES 



ON 



MISSION FIELDS. 



REV. JOHN ELIOT, 

EARl-Y LIFE. 

John Eliot was born in 1604 in Nasing, a village 
of picturesque Essex, England. Concerning his pa- 
rents we may infer that they were of lowly estate, al- 
though we know little else than that, doing jusdy and 
loving mercy, they walked ever humbly with their 
God. Their pious concern for the religious welfare 
of their son seems to have been tempered by a tender 
discreetness. To the tact not less than to the grace 
shown in his hearthside schooling we may attribute his 
ample symmetry of character, his rich health and vigor 
of heart. 

Like the " aposde to the Gentiles," the " aposde to 
the Indians " was equipped with a scholarly training. 
In the university, probably of Cambridge, he exhibited 
the thoroughness that ever marked his work. He 
especially excelled in linguistic studies. His mastery 



4 AMERICAN HEROES. 

of structural philology and of the Biblical languages was 
an almost prophetic preparation for his subsequent 
labors in the Indian tongue. 

On leaving college he became an usher in the 
grammar school of Rev. Thomas Hooker, at Little 
Baddow. Our most honored naturalist was wont to 
sign himself, " Louis Agassiz, Teacher," and public 
taste approves the chivalrous homage to his profession. 
But in Eliot's day pedagogy was in .poor repute, so 
much so that it was held to his discredit, as to Milton's, 
that he had been a school teacher. However, one not 
indisposed to regard a Divinity as having to do not 
only with the shaping of the ends of our lives, but with 
the rough-hewing of them, may well see in Mr. Eliot's 
connection with the revered Hooker a divine ordering. 
In the schoolroom he became " apt to teach ;" and in 
the intimacy of his employer he so " learned Jesus " 
that thenceforth he called him Master. "To this 
place," he once wrote, " I was called through the in- 
finite riches of God's mercy in Christ Jesus to my poor 
soul ; for here the Lord said unto my dead soul, Live." 
He soon became imbued with the opinions of Hooker 
and inspired with a desire to preach the gospel. 

IN EXILE. 

Laud was now in his bitterest mood. With equal 
impolicy and inhumanity he sought, by means the 
most odious, to stay the tide of religious liberty. Un- 
der his intolerance Hooker became, despite the inter- 
cession of forty-seven conforming clergymen, an exile 



REV. JOHN EUOT. 5 

in Holland. Forbidden even to teach in Old England, 
Mr. Eliot determined to cast his lot with the Puritans 
of New England. 

The harsh reality of his exile was softened " in a 
pathetic way " by a touch of romance, the threadworn 
romance of love. Noble in presence and nature, it 
was quite in God's good ordering of things that he 
should draw unto himself a gentler nature. With 
her kiss of farewell, a maiden, graced with beauty of 
person and the rarer " beauty of holiness," promised 
to follow him soon. Some of his brethren who also 
contemplated coming to America exacted from him 
the promise that in the event of their coming he would 
serve as their pastor. 

He embarked in the ship "Lyon" in the autumn of 
1631, and on November 3 landed at Boston. The pas- 
sengers, among whom were the wife and children of 
Gov. Winthrop, were received with a wide-hearted 
good cheer that we are wont to think foreign to the 
Puritan Fathers. 

Mr. Eliot found a field ready for his labor. He at 
once assumed, at their urgent request, the care of the 
church of Boston, whose pastor was temporarily absent 
in England. Scholarly, devout, and high-minded, of 
commanding bearing, with a simple, wise, and most 
genial way of being helpful to every one, he soon stood 
in high esteem. 

In the following summer she who had betrothed 
her hand to him came to redeem her troth, and in 
October they were duly wedded. To this nameleSs 



6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

woman we who have entered into the labors of her 
husband owe not a little. 

SETTLEMENT. 

In 1632 the brethren with whom he had covenanted 
in England settled in Roxbury, the present suburb of 
Boston. Mr. Eliot was installed as their pastor, No- 
vember 5. This was his sole pastorate, the base of all 
his missionary labors. 

His parish work was crowned with large and varied 
usefulness. Several incidents of his life at Roxbury 
will reveal his character better than description. An 
incident that created great stir occurred in 1634, and 
well illustrates the boldness and magnanimity of Mr. 
Eliot. In that year the Government concluded a treaty 
of amity and neutrality with the Pequot Indians, then 
at war with the Narragansets and the Manhattan Dutch. 
The conclusion of this treaty without the expressed 
consent of the people was clearly an assumption of 
authority, but one which, in the absence of any stipula- 
tion of the charter as to the vesting of the treaty- 
making power, has been generally deemed a defensible 
act of executive discretion. But in the judgment of 
Mr. Eliot this was a step subversive of popular rights, 
as to which there was widespread sensitiveness. The 
pulpit in those simple days was an eminence. When, 
therefore, the Roxbury pastor from his desk severely 
arraigned the Government, a shudder struck through 
the colonial heart. Without doubt the disaffection 
which persistence in his attack must have fostered 



REV. JOHN KlrlOT. 7 

would have threatened good order. The Government 
appointed three ministers to " deal with " him, which 
they did so wisely that, convinced of his error, Mr. Eliot 
made public confession of it. 

The following is a good instance of his — often im- 
provident — benevolence. Once, on paying him his 
salary, the parish treasurer tied it with several hard 
knots in a handkerchief to prevent Mr. Eliot's giv- 
ing it away before he reached home. Leaving the 
treasurer he called on a poor and sick family. While 
they wept at his kind words Mr. Eliot sought to untie 
the. handkerchief; but the knots were hard. At last 
he handed handkerchief and all to the mother, saying, 
" Here, my dear, take it ; I believe the Lord designs it 
all for you." 

A just estimate of any character must take account 
of its defects. In 1636 the versatile Mistress Ann Hutch- 
inson brought from England her notions of spiritualism 
and antinomianism. As to the former heresy, our gen- 
erally most sane forefathers and foremothers were not all 
reluctant to believe that, if the veil of futurity were not 
rent in twain, yet there were rustlings of it that showed 
the imminence of Providence, and that through its thin 
texture came footfalls showing even whither His steps 
trended. In resisting this error Mr. Eliot exhibited- 
commendable " frankness and sound judgment."* Than 

the latter heresy, however, scarcely any could have 

« 

* Convers Francis' " Life of Eliot." This judicious work 
leaves little to be desired, and the writer is more indebted to it 
than to any other source. 



8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

been more odious to the Pilgrim Fathers with their quite 
Hebraistic legal temper. In their stern persecution of 
this ill-fated woman Mr. Eliot seems to have shared, 
but with more temperate zeal than others. 

In 1639 he, together with Messrs. Welde and Mather, 
was appointed to prepare a new version of the Psalms. 
This Psalter, issued in 1640,. is noteworthy as the first 
book printed in America. Very meet it seems that the 
first utterance of the printing-press should have been a 
Te Deum Laudamus, The version was homely enough ; 
but, despite ridicule, to its staid rhythm the devotion of 
generations kept step. 

With this hurried limning of the character and par- 
ish work of Mr. Eliot we turn for the rest of this sketch 
to his notable work 

AMONG THE INDIANS. 

On the seal of the Massachusetts colony was the 
figure of an Indian with the words graven at his lips, 
" Come over and help us." The charter affirmed that 
to " wynn and incite the Natives of the Country to the 
Knowledg and Obedience of the onlie true God and 
Sauior of Mankinde," " in our Royall Intencion and the 
Adventurers free Profession is the principall Ende of 
this Plantacion." 

But though the colony was professedly a missionary 
institution, the colonists' first, and perhaps too exclu- 
sive, concern was with their own welfare. When, there- 
fore, Mr. Eliot began his labors he found the Indian 
heart quite virgin soil. 



REV. JOHN ELIOT. 9 

The chief tribes of New England were the Penob- 
scots of Maine, the Pawtuckets, the Massachusetts, and 
the Pokanokets of Massachusetts, the Narragansets of 
Rhode Island, and the Pequots of Connecticut. Their 
mode of life was the simplest savagery. Their wigwams 
were of mats, and " occasionally " of hides, and for food 
they used chiefly corn and wild meats, the latter often 
eaten raw. 

Their religion was a form of dualism. Far to the 
sunrise was the Author of Good, and somewhere or 
everywhere was an Author of Evil. Besides these dei- 
ties there were an infinite number of manittos or " spir- 
its," which were veiled in the mists of the waterfall, in 
the foliage of the forest, and in the flames of the camp- 
fire, as the spirits of men were veiled in their flesh. 
When his birch canoe quivered in the throes of the 
rising waves the swarthy oarsman would pray the man- 
itto of the lake to still them. There was an order of 
priests who gave Mr. Eliot serious trouble. They were 
called pawows, and were also the medicine-men. The 
call to this forest priesthood was a peculiar dream of a 
serpent. When one had experienced such a dream his 
companions gathered about him, dancing and feasting 
for ten days, and thus was he ordained. 

THE beginnings: nonantum. 

The necessary first step in Mr. Eliot's work among 
the Indians was the acquisition of their language. To 
this end he took into his family a young Indian who 
had gained some knowledge of the English tongue. 



lO AMERICAN HEROES. 

After a few months Mr. Eliot was able to translate the 
Lord's Prayer, a few prayers composed by himself, the 
Ten Commandments, and other portions of Scripture. 
Although the Indian language was not the anomalous 
jargon it was long thought to be, yet the mastery of it 
was no easy matter. Cotton Mather thought the Indian 
words had been growing since the confusion of Babel. 
Here is one word : 

" Weetappesittukgussunnookwehtunkquoh." 
In October, 1646, Mr. Eliot undertook his first mis- 
sion to the Indians. Accompanied by three others 
he visited their camp, near the site of the present city 
of Waltliam. There, in the smoky wigwam of the chief 
Waban, the refined and scholarly evangelist looked 
into the imbruted faces of his first native congregation ; 
to whom he delivered the first sermon ever preached 
on the North American continent in a native tongue. 
His text was Ezek. 37 19, 10. The name of the chief, 
Waban, signified in the Indian language "wind;" so 
that, when the preacher uttered the words, " Say to 
the wind," it was as if he said, "Say to Waban." 
This coincidence seems to have been quite unin- 
tended, but produced a marked eflfect on the Indians. 
His sermon was an hour and a quarter long, and would 
seem to have given the whole perspective of Christian 
doctrine. At its conclusion the Indians were invited to 
ask questions. Some of these are significant. One 
was, Could God understand prayer in the Indian lan- 
guage? Another was. How could an image (Christ, 
" express image ") of God be worshipped without viola- 



REV. JOHN EUOT. II 

ting the second commandment ? They inquired wheth- 
er God is offended with children, who are themselves 
good, because their father was bad. The questions of 
the Indians were answered with great tact, and then 
'they were in turn questioned. They affirmed that they 
^ were not tempted to doubt the existence of God because 
they could not see him, for they were able to see him 
with " their soul within." They answered affirmatively 
Mr. Eliot's question whether, when they had done 
wrong, they did not feel trouble within. At the end of 
three hours they were not, they said, weary, and re- 
quested the missionaries to come again. At parting 
Mr. Ehot presented them with trifling gifts. 

Two weeks after the first visit a second was made. 
A pathetic question of an old warrior, whether it was 
not too late for him to come to God, gave opportunity 
to present the fulness of divine mercy. The first 
marked response to Mr. Eliot's preaching was given at 
this meeting, when a stolid brave broke down in tears. 
A third visit was made in another fortnight, at which 
the missionaries were met with a new difficulty, one to 
which they afterwards became sadly accustomed — mis- 
representation. The red men had been incited, by the 
powows it is supposed, against the evangelists. But, 
despite this, a deep and deepening seriousness was 
manifest. When the missionaries had ^one, Waban 
gathered his people at the evening camp-fire and sol- 
emnly discoursed to them on what they had heard. 
More than once that night, when the camp-fire had 
smouldered and the warriors were asleep in their tents, 



12 AMERICAN HEROES. 

the voice of tlieir chief was heard praying and exhort- 
ing. From the dull ashes a new flame had shot out on 
his rude heart*s-altar, and it would not smoulder. The 
word was accomplishing that whereto it was sent. 

The work was continued through that winter of 
1646-7 without remission, being signally favored by the 
phenomenal weather. " No snow all winter long," he 
wrote, " nor sharp wfeather. We never had a bad day 
to go and preach to the Indians all this winter. Praised 
be the Lord !" 

EFFORTS AT CIVILIZING. 

Three theories as to the elevation of savages may 
obtain as directing Christian philanthropy. One is to 
Christianize and then to civilize. A second, to civilize 
and then to Christianize, may have some, though slight, 
currency. A third is to make the work of Christiani- 
zing and civilizing contemporary — or, as it were bet- 
ter, coincident. ** Holiness is the symmetry of the 
soul." The cedar comes to its symmetry and stateli- 
ness by striking its roots deeper and broader earth- 
ward at the same time that it lifts its suppliant arms 
higher heavenward. A wise parent will seek to train 
head and hand and heart in one interrelated growth. 

This was the method of Mr. Eliot, and has been 
well commended by eminent authority as "a model 
worthy of imitation for all time." The Indians to 
whom he had preached were gathered into a commu- 
nity on the site of their old camping-ground, about 
five miles westward of Boston. At the suggestion of 



REV. JOHN EUOT. 13 

the English they named their settlement Nonantum, 
which signified " rejoycingy because, they hearing the 
word and seeking to know God, the English did re- 
joyce and God did rejoyce." The work of social and 
industrial improvement began with a will. The wig- 
wams were rebuilt, constructed of bark instead, as for- 
merly, of mats, divided into apartments, and furnished 
with simple articles of taste and convenience. Some of 
the Indians adopted the dreiss of the white men. Mr. 
Eliot gave the women spinning-wheels, to whose use 
they were trained by Mrs. Eliot. While schooling 
their fingers to such simple arts, her lips and the more 
impressive eloquence of her sweet and saintly life 
schooled their awaking faith and love to nobler arts. 

Mr. Eliot went with the men to their fields to en- 
courage the construction of fences and ditches. He 
furnished them with spades and crowbars, and for each 
rod constructed they were paid sixpence. Tools were 
called for faster than he could furnish them. A nur- 
sery was started to supply orchards. The spirit of 
trade was encouraged, the Indians making and selling 
brooms, staves, eel-pots, and baskets. They also sold 
venison and berries in their seasons. A simple civil 
administration was constituted. In 1647 the General 
Court established a quarterly term of court, presided 
over by an English magistrate. Inferior courts for the 
trial of minor offences and administered by the Indians 
were, and with eminent political wisdom, instituted. 

Religious training was pursued unceasingly by Mr. 
Eliot with some native helpers. His dusky parishion- 



14 AMERICAN HEROES. 

ers soon became, and were always afterwards known as, 

the " praying Indians." An instance of the influence 

of his teaching may be noted: an Indian returning 

one Sabbath evening from church found his fire out; • 

to kindle it he split a litde dry wood with his hatchet; 

this act was deemed by many of his companions a 

breach of the Sabbath, and was formally discussed at 

their next meeting. 

Very perplexing questions of casuistry arose among 
the reformed Indians. Mr. Eliot's method of adjusting 
one case is characteristic. The Indians were much ad- 
dicted to gambling. When one of their number was 
converted, the question arose as to the binding nature 
of the debts incurred in gaming. Mr. Eliot went first J 

to the creditor, pressed on him the sin of gambling, and 
desired him to remit half the indebtedness. To this he 
consented. There remained the debtor to be dealt with. 
Upon him Mr. Eliot urged the sin of breaking a prom- 
ise, and secured his consent to pay the half of the amount 
due. " This became the established rule of justice in 
such cases," but was ludicrously misapplied, so as to 
justify gambling on the understanding that the winner 
would demand and be paid but half of the forfeit. 

NEPONSET. ^ 

About three miles south of Roxbury, at a place 
which still bears its Indian name — Neponset, dwelt a 
body of Indians under a sachem named Cutshamakin. 
This chief is said to have been the first sachem to whom 
Mr. Eliot preached, and with him he had a varied expe- 



REV. JOHN EUOT 15 

rience. To him and several other sachems the colony 
extended the full protection of citizenship upon their 
expressed submission to the laws and government. 
This policy of our fathers is in honorable contrast to that 
of their descendants. The recent decision of the U. S. 
Supreme Court that the Indian is not a citizen and has 
no standing in our courts may be unexceptionable law, 
but as public policy it is an anachronism and a blunder 
whose correction should enlist every right-spirited citi- 
zen. Cutshamakin is connected with an interesting in- 
cident. His fifteen-year-old son had been intemperate 
and disobedient to his parents. Having been reproved 
for these offences, he confessed his wrong in the former 
instance, but accused his father of cruel treatment and 
of forcing him to drink sack. He was obdurate in his 
disrespect to his parents, always omitting, in his cate- 
chetical instruction, the words "and thy mother" from 
the fifth commandment, and was reluctant to say 
" Honor thy father." On the next lecture day the mis- 
sionaries exhorted Cutshamakin to set an example to 
his son by confessing his own sins. This he frankly 
did, bitterly repenting his offences. Touched by this, 
the son's heart softened and he humbly begged his fa- 
ther's forgiveness. So overcome were the parents that 
they wept aloud. " The board on which the passionate 
and stem sachem stood was wet with his tears." " It 
is," says Francis, " delightful to recognize the subduing 
spirit of love bursting forth in the bosom of the savage, 
like a beautiful wild-flower from a cleft of the rock." 
But the wild-flower in the cleft heart of Cutshama- 



l6 AMERICAN HEROES. 

kin seems soon to have withered, " because it had not 
much earth." When he found that the influence of the 
missionaries lessened his despotic power, his friendship 
gave place to a resentful hatred. At one meeting he 
became so violent that Mr. Eliot was put in personal 
peril. The sachem, in denouncing the proposals of the 
missionary as to forming a community of all the Pray- 
ing Indians, grew so fiercely angry that the Indians 
who had been friendly to Mr. Eliot slunk away in fear. 
The missionary stood alone facing the enraged and 
threatening warrior, but fronted him with calm and in- 
trepid bearing. He declared that he was engaged in 
the work of God, and that he feared neither him nor 
any other sachem. The spirit of the savage quailed 
before the noble bearing of the missionary, and his in- 
vectives and threats gave way to appeal. 

Interest in the work at Nonantum and Neponset 
soon became general among the neighboring Indians. 
Tahattawan, a sachem at Concord, induced his people 
to petition for a tract near the English, that they might 
be under their instruction and influence. Their request 
was granted, a teacher given them, and religious ser- 
vices instituted. They adopted a code of rules regu- 
lating not only civil and religious affairs, but also neat- 
ness of person and social conduct. The aptitude with 
which the Indians accepted the restrictions of self-gov- 
ernment was significant. Impressively significant also 
was their aptness for some of the highest Christian 
graces. Their endurance of the most disheartening 
trials is worthy of note. Wampas — one of rare native 



REV. JOHN EUOT. 17 

• 
manliness, as of granite in the rough, not squared and 

finely wrought — thus expresses one peculiar trial : " On 
the one hand," he said to Mr. Eliot, " the other Indians 
hate and oppose us because we pray to God ; on the 
other, the English will not put -confidence in us, and sus- 
pect that we do not really pray. But," and his conscious- 
ness of honesty is indeed " aflTecting," " God who knows 
all things knows that we do pray to him." This sus- 
piciousness of many of the English Mr. Eliot admitted, 
but added, " I and others who are in the habit of seeing 
and conversing with you have no such suspicion." 

The Praying Indians early found a new flower in 
their hearts, the sweet exotic of " brotherly love." They 
wondered at it. " How is it," they asked, " that when 
an Indian comes among us and we find that he prays 
to God, we love him exceedingly ; but when our own 
brother, dwelling at a distance, visits us, if he does not 
pray to God, we love him, yet it is not with such a love 
as we have for the other man ?" 

WIDENING THE FIELD. 

Nonantura, Neponset, and Concord were within a 
morning's walk of Roxbury. Mr. Eliot determined in 

1647 to enlarge his field of labor. In that year and in 

1648 he visited Pawtucket, some thirty-five miles south- 
ward. At this place dwelt a powerful chief named Pas- 
saconaway, whose fame in arms and the chase was 
scarcely greater than in magic. He could, his tribe 
believed, " make a green leaf grow in winter, put trees 
into a dance, and set water on fire." At the first visit 

22 



l8 AMERICAN HEROES. 

of Mr. Eliot this chief feigned fear and fled. The sec* 
ond visit was made in the spring, when a large con- 
course of Indians had assembled at Pawtucket to fish 
and to feast ; their merry-making reminded Mr. Eliot of 
the English fairs. 

Mr. Eliot's text was Mai. i : ii, which he rendered, 
" From the rising of the sun to the going down of the 
same thy name shall be great among the Indians." 
This certainly ingenious, if not ingenuous, method of 
interpretation is characteristic of his simple artfulness. 
At the conclusion of the sermon the* question, so vexing 
to the theological mind to-day, was asked "whether 
all the Indians who had died hitherto had gone to hell, 
and only a few now at last were put in the way of going 
to heaven." Mr. Eliot's reply is not recorded. Other 
questions followed, and then at last the venerable sa- 
chem spoke. To the joy of the evangelist, who attached 
great importance to the conversion of the chiefs, he 
affirmed his belief in the truth of the gospel and his 
resolve henceforth to live ia obedience to it. Two of 
his sons immediately followed their father's example, 
professing their faith. The conversion of Passacona- 
way seems to have been genuine. He entreated Mr. 
Eliot to come and live with them and instruct them, 
offering liini the choicest location. • 

"enduring hardness." 

About the time of his visit to Pawtucket came, from 
out the wilderness, another appeal for the gospel. A 
chief living some sixty miles from Roxbury, where the 



REV. JOHN EUOT. 19 

city of Brookfield now stands, besought Mr. Eliot to 
come and teach his people. To visit this distant post 
he would be compelled to pass through a region but 
recently the scene of several murders. His people 
shrunk with dread from having their pastor exposed to 
certain peril. Hearing of this, a sachem, through whose 
country he must pass, came with twenty of his warriors 
as a voluntary escort. Thus attended Mr. Eliot set out 
on horseback. The weather was very unfavorable, and 
the exposure and fatigue wore severely on his strength. 
** I have not been dry," he states, " night or day from 
the third day of the week until the sixth, but so travel, 
and at night pull off my boots to wring my stockings, 
and on with them, and so continue. But God stepped 
in and helped. I have considered the word of God, 
* Endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ' ** 

AID FROM ENGLAND. 

Hitherto Mr. Eliot had pursued his labors with little 
aid or good cheer from others. It is peculiarly to his 
honor that, despite the apathy of most of the English 
and the antipathy of not a few to his work, despite the 
antagonism of many of the Indians, he followed with 
heroic faith his manifest mission. The sachems, almost 
without exception, opposed him. They subjected the 
Praying Indians to indignities and injuries, and even 
to death, it is said. An Indian of pure blood dying a 
martyr for the truth as it is in Jesus is a picture that 
might well be hung in our halls of Congress. 

Most distressing to the sensitive and high-souled 



ZO AMERICAN HEROES. 

missionary were the aspersions of his countrymen. 
Richard Mather states that ''it was declared, both in 
Old and New England, that the whole scheme was one 
to make money, and that the conversion of the Indians 
was a fcible." A year*s labor, however, won for him the 
recognition of a gratuity of ;^io from the General Court, 
and in 1649 the fame of hb good works so stirred the 
Christian heart in England that a society, entitied " The 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New Eng- 
land," was formed and incorporated by Parliament. 
The same body ordered a general collection through- 
out England and Wales for the object of the society. 
The universities of Oxford and Cambridge issued ap- 
peals to the clergy to incite their congregations to lib- 
eral gifts. As a result of this Mr. Eliot was greatly 
cheered. There was some delay in forwarding the sup- 
plies procured by this contribution, and this was an 
occasion of deep distress to him. He construed the 
disappointment as a token of divine disfavor at his de- 
pendence on human means. His church observed a 
day of fasting and prayer on his behalf While still 
assembled in prayer word came that a ship had arrived 
bringing encouraging promise of aid. Mr. Eliot re- 
ceived this as a " fruit of prayer." 

NATICK. 

The plan of gathering all his converts in one set- 
tlement had long lain near the heart of Mr. Eliot. 
Cooperation, insulation from the unfriendly Indians, as 
well as the more inimical arts and rum of the white 



REV. JOHN ELIOT. 21 

men, the stimulus of numbers, and the completer civil 
and ecclesiastical organization possible, were among the 
leading reasons for this movement. The funds fur- 
nished by the English society made this scheme, into 
which the Indians entered heartily, practicable. A 
first and very important step was the choice ol a site. 
On one of his several journeys and surveys for this ob- 
ject he was impelled to retire behind a rock and there 
pray for divine direction. Very soon thereafter he was 
led, at the suggestion of some of the Indians, to survey 
a locality on the Charles River, about eighteen miles 
from Boston. This suggestion was received as another 
" fruit of prayer." The location and natural features 
fitted admirably the plans of Mr. Eliot, and accordingly 
a tract of six thousand acres was set apart and named 
Natick, "a place of hills." 

Thither all the Praying Indians, save the Cohan- 
its, who insisted on forming a settlement of their own 
at Ponkapog, were gathered in the autumn of 1650. 
The town was laid out with two streets on the north 
side of the river and one on the south. A bridge, con- 
structed by the Indians, united the sections, and a block- 
house was built for defence. To each family was as- 
signed a house-lot, on which some erected houses of the 
English style, but most of the homes were substantial 
wigwams. Remains of the cellars of the former houses 
may still be seen. A large building was erected by the 
Indians, the lower story to serve as a church on Sab- 
bath and as a schoolroom on week-days. In the upper 
story a room was set apart and simply furnished for the 



22 AMERICAN HEROES. 

use of Mr. Eliot, the remainder of the story being used 
as a store-room. Orchards were planted, fields sown, 
and they were ready to constitute a civil government. 
They had previously entered into the following agree- 
ments : " Powowing," wife-beating, profaning the Sab- 
bath, and drunkenness, were to be punished with a fine 
of twenty shillings. One convicted of theft was to re- 
store fourfold. They abo covenanted to " pray in their 
wigwams and to say grace before and after meals ; to 
cease howling, greasing their bodies and adorning their 
hair, and to follow the English fashions." 

A plan for their permanent organization was at 
hand, draughted many centuries before. It was that 
contained in Exodus i8. This form of government Mr. 
Eliot considered obligatory, /wr^ divino. On August 6, 
1 65 1, the Indians met in their first town-meeting, and 
elected a " ruler of a hundred,** two " rulers of fifties," 
and " rulers of tens," or tithing-men. On September 
24 they entered into a solemn covenant, professing — 
" The grace of Christ helping us, we do give ourselves 
and our children to God to be his people. He shall 
rule us in all our affairs, not only in our religion and 
affairs of the church, but also in all our works and af- 
fairs in this world. This covenant closed with the 
prayer, " Lord, take us to be thy people, and let us take 
thee to be our God." 

On October 8 the governor with several others vis- 
ited Natick to inspect the unique settlement. Their 
gratification was unmeasured. Gov. Endicott "could 
scarcely refrain from tears of joy." "Truly," he ex- 



REV. JOHN EUOT. 23 

claimed, " I account this one of the best journeys I have 
made these many years." On the occasion of this visit 
an Indian preached before his excellency " with great 
devotion, gravity, decency, readiness, and affection;" a 
Psalm lined by the Indian schoolmaster was sung " in 
one of our ordinary English tunes melodiously !" 

Mr. Eliot soon undertook the training of native 
preachers and teachers, supposing that "the most ef- 
fectual and general way of spreading the gospel will be 
by themselves." Two of these teachers were sent with 
presents to the Narragansets of Rhode Island. The 
chief accepted their gifts, but declined their gospel. 
However, the common people heard them gladly and 
were helped. A request soon came for other native 
teachers. 

Thriftily and happily the devoted missionary and 
his wards pursued their peaceful labors at Natick. The 
palms so lately red with other dye than that of nature 
came to know no darker stain than the dust of patient 
toil. Lips but yesterday quivering with the war-cry 
became with strange readiness attempered to words 
of charity and songs of praise. A gifted writer has re- 
cently declared that Mr. Eliot could not "tame" the red 
men. She is clearly in error. He, or One mightier 
than he and kindlier, assuredly tamed them to a mar- 
vellous docility. Wholly voluntarily, under no other 
inducement than a nobler social and moral life, they 

ft 

forsook their wild, fond freedom, their lust, the warpath 
with all its sweet charm of revenge and daring, and as- 
sumed — gratefully, manfully assumed — the restraints and 



24 AMERICAN HEROES. 

loib of their new life. " Think on these things," you 
who account that " there is no good Indian but a dead 
one." 

An exception to the general fidelity occurred in 
1654 — an exception which was made rather to attest 
than to discredit the common faithfulness. In the year 
named three of the praying Indians procured some of 
the " strong water " (a delicate euphemism indeed !) of 
the whites and became drunk. While revelling on the 
river-bank a young son of one of the chiefs came to 
get some fish and com for his father. He seems to 
have lingered among them, and was at last forced by 
them to drink some of the liquor. He lay out all night 
in drunken stupor. When the Indians learned of this 
misdemeanor their indignation was great and unfeigned. 
A* council was convened; the three revellers were found 
guilty on four indictments, and sentenced to sit a long 
time in the stocks and to receive afterwards twenty 
lashes at the whipping-post. 

The boy remained to be dealt with. His father de- 
clared that he felt " it was now put to the test whether 
he loved the religion of Christ better than his child." 
For " standing in the way of sinners " the son was sen- 
tenced to sit in the stocks a short time, and then to be 
whipped by his father before all the children. 

This act of discipline was neither suggested nor di- 
rected by the missionary. Its significance is not slight. 



REV. JOHN ELrlOT. 25 

THE FIRST INDIAN CHURCH. 

With a caution that seems excessive Mr. Eliot de- 
layed from year to year the formation of. the Indian 
converts into a church. For fourteen years they re- 
mained, it would seem, simply as catechumens. Of 
their sincerity he had no question, but suspected him- 
self of partiality. Thrice he convened his brethren in 
council. The first council was at Natick in 1652, the 
second at Roxbury in 1654, at each of which the Indi- 
ans made full statements of their faith an4 religious ex- 
perience. The statements made by them were prolix 
enough, but their answers to questions gave great satis- 
faction. In reply to the question how they knew the 
Bible to be the word of God, they said that it was " be- 
cause they did find that it did change their hearts and 
wrought in them wisdom and humility." " What is 
sin?" they were asked. They replied, " There is root- 
sin — an evil heart ; and there is actual sin — a breaking 
of the law of God." 

Despite the soundness of their faith and the test of 
years of their piety, it was not until 1660 that at church 
was formed. This was at Natick, and was the first 
church formed among the natives of North America. 

THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. 

Mr. Eliot had long felt the pressing need of a trans- 
lation of the entire Bible. In the mosaic of Scripture 
he saw one wide pattern. The portions of the Bible he 
had had occasion to render into the native tongue, as 



I 



26 AMERICAN HEROES. 

mere fragments of the mosaic, could give but very im- 
perfect conception of that one great inwrought design. 

The difficulties in the way of translating the Bible 
were exceedingly great. The task of casting the lofty 
Oriental imagery, and especially the subde Greek re- 
finements of thought and phrase, into the clumsy moulds 
of this savage tongue was one of a magnitude to en- 
gage his undivided energy. But the work must needs 
be done in the intervals of his other exacting labors. It 
must be prosecuted with slight aid and with the abiding 
sense that his labor might be in vain through the fail- 
ure to secure publication. 

But the will of this grand man was of heroic fibre. 
Although his stalwart form was bent with the weight 
of years, he undertook the task with the aid of some of 
his Indian converts. The New Testament when com- 
pleted was, through the patronage of the English Soci- 
ety, issued in 1661. The Old Testament followed in 
1663. This was the first Bible printed in America. 
Of this task Edward Everett has said, " The history of 
the Christian church does not contain an example of 
resolute, untiring, successful labor superior." 

The Bible passed through a second edition in 1685, 
but this was the last. The language into which it was 
rendered has become in two centuries a dead tongue, 
dying with the dusky lips that spoke it. Fifty years 
ago Convers Francis said that " probably not an indi- 
vidual in the wide world can read the Indian Bible." 
There is, however, one person still living who can read 
it. Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull, of Hartford. But, as 



REV. JOHN EWOT, 27 

Francis has affectingly said, " When we take that old 
dark volume in our hands we understand not the words 
in which it is written, but it has another and beautiful 
meaning which we do understand. It is a symbol of 
the affection a devoted man cherished for the soul ol 
his fellow-man; it is the expression of a benevolence 
which fainted in no effort to give light to those who sat 
in darkness and in the shadow of death." 

This Bible, translated into a dialect of the language 
common to all the New England Indians — the Mohe- 
gan— is of recognized and invaluable worth to the sci- 
ence of language. It is also, or was, an object of in- 
tense bibliomania in England. 

Mr. Eliot made several other translations, among 
which were the " Call to the Unconverted " and " The 
Practice of Piety " of his friend Richard Baxter. His 
original works were " A Catechism," an " Indian Psal- 
ter," "Primer," and the "Indian- Grammar," in the 
native language; and in English "The Communion of 
Churches," and others. 

CLOSING LABORS. 

Amid his varied literary labors his missionary activ- 
ity did not slacken. His plan of gathering all the con- 
verts as they were made to the one mission at Natick 
was found inexpedient, and thirteen other towns of 
Praying Indians were formed. The industrial and edu- 
cational work was pursued with ample success, except 
only in the matter of higher education, which was soon 
abandoned. 



"•1 



28 AMERICAN HEROES. 

The number of Praying Indians under Mr. Eliot's 
immediate care was, in 1674, 1,100 — a gratifying result 
of his thirty-eight years of labor. About 2,500 others, 
scattered through Massachusetts and on Nantucket and 
Martha's Vineyard, and who were under the special 
care of Messrs. Cotton, Bourne, and the Mayhews, may 
be attributed to the activities set moving and largely 
directed by Mr. Eliot. 

But the havoc of war was at length let loose. * Spar- 
ing nothing, it wasted sadly this wide, ripe field in 
whose midst the old apostle toiled at his twilight reap- 
ing. In 1675 King Philip began his policy of extermi- 
nation. " The white man is in our way, therefore the 
white man must go." The strict equity and humanity 
of this political casuistry is seen by us with some diffi- 
culty when the edge and not the hilt of the sword is 
towards us. The story of the dark days that followed is 
the old one, told with quivering lip and heart from age 
unto age, of this cruel and insane thing — war. When at 
last, as Increase Mather says, the English had "prayed 
the bullet into Philip's heart," they found six hundred 
of their number slain, thirteen towns wasted, hundreds 
of homes in ashes, and in sore bereavement thousands 
of them that mourn. 

In this war the Praying Indians fared sadly. 
Hated and hunted to the death by the red men, they 
were cruelly distrusted by the white men. Mr. Eliot, 
who bravely plead for them, was himself reviled and 
suspected by the English. So cruel is suspicion : when 
once the boat in which he was sailing was upset by a 



REV. JOHN EUOT. 29 

larger vessel and his life put in imminent peril, from 
which he was barely rescued, one, " full of the popular 
fury," said he wished he had been drowned. His no- 
ble co-worker, Mr. Gookin, feared even to walk the 
streets. 

This fanaticism laid its heaviest hand on the converts 
themselves. At last those of Natick were exiled to 
Deer Island, a measure to which they " sadly but quiet- 
ly submitted." At midnight on October 30, 1675, 
the aged missionary knelt with them on the shores of 
the Charles. Fervently they prayed while they wept 
that God would give them to look with charity upon 
their white brethren and with faith unto God. Then, 
at the ebbing of the tide, they were borne to their exile. 

A crueller wrong was done to the Christian Indians 
of Wamesit. They were falsely suspected of having 
set fire to a barn. Fourteen armed men went to their 
camp and summoned the Indians to come out of their 
wigwams. Wholly unsuspecting they obeyed, only to 
be shot at like beasts. One was killed, five women 
and children wounded. Terrified they fled. When 
besought to return they refused, adding to their refusal 
these words, whose simple pathos is as affecting as it is 
unaffected : " We are not sorry for what we leave be- 
hind, but we are sorry that the English have driven us 
from our praying to God and from our teacher. We 
did begin to understand a little of praying to God." 
Numerous similar instances of injustice are recorded. 
The suspicions of the English had of course a slight 
pretence. A few of the Praying Indians had joined the 



I 



30 AMERICAN HEROES. 

party of Philip ; but the greater part were staunchly faith- 
ful. Some of them enlisted irf the English army and 
exhibited marked courage and efficiency. 

'The harshness of their treatment by many of those 
who were called Christians gave a shock to their faith 
from which they never recovered. Returning from ex- 
ile they took up their former life, but much disheart- 
ened and embittered. 

Nothing, however, could embitter their sweet re- 
vering love for Mr. Eliot. Well deserved he their devo- 
tion, rare, brave old knight ! With the sensitiveness of 
a mother's love he felt the wrongs of his rude children 
in the faith, and with the chivalry of a large and Christ- 
like manhood he sought their redress. 

And his was too like the charity of Jesus not to bear 
the griefs and carry the sorrows of others than his fol- 
lowers. Utterly compassionate, he could not see the 
captive Indians of Philip's army sold into the hateful 
West Indian slavery without a burning plea in their 
behalf— a plea all unheeded, it would seem. 
-r 

THE LAST DAYS. 

With his native vigor conserved by a well-ordered 
life, Mr. Eliot had now attained the age of eighty- 
four. But while December wasted his frame, May lin- 
gered sweet a^d fresh and full of song in his large 
heart. In his simple home his last days wore peacefully 
to their end, solaced by the companionship of his aged 
wife. She was ever his good genius. In his deep con- 
cern for others' welfare he had a ludicrous unconcern 



REV. JOHN EUOT. 31 

for his own. Small as was their earthly store, so little 
thought had he about it that when his wife once point- 
ed to some of his cows before the door and asked him 
whose they were, he answered in good faith that he did 
not know. 

Four times he and his wife had stood beside a new- 
made grave and laid a loved child there. In the harsh 
winds of March, 1687, he stood alone by the grave of 
his wife, and, weeping, longed to be with her. 

Soon after this he wrote to his friend, Mr. Boyle, 
" I am going home," and on the 20th of May, 1690, the 
light from that home broke into the gray solitude ol 
his old age. With the words " Welcome joy !" on his 
lips he 

" Gave his being up, and went 
To share the joys that wait a life well spent" 



Missionary Library. 



For Sabbath-schools, Mission Binds, and the Home Circle. 



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GLIMPSES OF MAORI-LAND. Butler 318- 

LIFE AND ADVENTURE IN JAPAN. Clark 247- 

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JOTTINGS FROM THE PACIFIC. Gill 304.. 

ALONG RIVER AND ROAD IN FUH-KIEN. 

Dukes 352— 

HOME-LIFE IN CHINA. Bryson 314... 

AMONG THE MONGOLS. Gilmour ^2,.. 

MADAGASCAR AND FRANCE. Shaw. 438— 

EVERYDAY LIFE IN INDIA. Rowe 402— 

SCENES IN SOUTHERN INDIA. Mitchell 372.-. 

OLD HIGHWAYS IN CHINA. WilliamBon 293.-. 



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