Chapter VI: Part 6

“It was time for him now to make his evening visit to the
vast and lofty structure they were rearing for the funeral
solemnities of the late second king. Inviting me to follow,
he went down to his sedan and, preceded by soldiers and
followed by a crowd of attendants, was borne away. Following,
I found him seated in a temporary pavilion erected where he
could overlook the work. He soon called me to his side—I,
alone, of the hundreds around him, stood upright. He made
inquiries concerning Mrs. Caswell, and as he looked again
at her picture, turning to the princess royal acting as his
sword bearer, said, ‘This was the wife of the teacher that
I revered.’ It was gratifying and interesting to see these
pleasant memories of persons and events passed away eighteen
years before, stealing over him.

“Having intimated to the king my wish to take up my note for
one thousand dollars in his treasurer’s hands and saying
that I should, of course, expect to pay interest on the
balance of five hundred dollars—after deducting five hundred
dollars paid to Mrs. C. on his majesty’s behalf—in a few
days his majesty’s private treasurer paid me a visit, having
had the king’s instruction to receive from me simply five
hundred dollars, and to surrender to me the note on which was
endorsed these words in the king’s own handwriting:

“‘S. P. P. M. Mongkut, the King, does not wish to have
interest from the loan to his good friend Doctor Samuel R.
House—wishing but some useful books, etc., according to the
pleasure of said doctor, with stating of price of article.
This testimony given 1st January, 1867, the seventeenth year
of our reign.’”

THE AWAKENING OF 1866–7

Doubtless the greatest joy upon return to Siam was to find that a great spiritual awakening had taken place in the mission school. If the fruits of labour seem sparse so far it must be considered that the most favourable soil had scarcely time to produce its harvest. The boys and girls who had been under the intimate influence of Dr. and Mrs. House in the school were just approaching the adolescent age when, in 1866, a spiritual awakening manifested itself. News of this work of grace had reached Dr. House at Hong Kong, and upon arrival at Bangkok he rejoiced to learn that the facts more than confirmed the report.

“Found all well and the very best of good news awaiting us,
confirming the hopes I have felt all along that a better day
was about to dawn on us in Siam. Two of our oldest and most
promising pupils (Hee, the writer of that interesting letter
to me, published in the _Foreign Missionary_ last year, being
one of them), and a native teacher in our employ (a man of
some education) were baptised a few weeks ago as converts
from heathenism; and another native teacher, Naah (Esther’s
husband), with others of the pupils in the mission school
are desirous of Christian baptism. These new converts with
the older church members sustain semi-weekly prayer-meetings
among themselves with warm interest.”

The convert named in this letter was Tien Hee, who, a few years later, went to America to seek a higher education. Graduating in medicine at the New York University in 1871, he returned to Siam, where he became the first native physician practising the Western system of medicine. He became eminently successful in his practise, amassed considerable wealth, received the title of Phra Montri and lately has been elevated to a higher rank of nobility, as Phya Sarasin. In grateful recognition of what Christianity has done for him he has made generous contributions toward the work of the mission.

Two months later Dr. House reported further confessions:

“It was my privilege and joy last Sabbath to receive to our
little mission church in the ordinance of baptism three
Christian converts, all connected or once connected with our
mission boarding school; and one of these my dear old pupil
Naah (Esther’s husband), the boy especially given me by his
Chinese father on his dying bed. The others were Dik and
Ting.... You do not know how many fold I felt repaid by the
privilege I enjoyed that Sabbath.”

In August of that year (1867) he writes further:

“We are permitted to report the admission by baptism to our
native church at this station at our last communion of five
new members. Two of them girls that have been long under
instruction in the missionary families; two others, elder
pupils in the mission school for boys; and the fifth, one
more advanced in years.

“Among the four young persons who kneeled one after another
to receive the solemn ordinance which made them church
members was our dear Ooey, who has long in her heart been
persuaded of the truth of our religion and the importance of
attendance to it, and who a few weeks before came out bright
and clear and decided, in her determination to serve the
Saviour. Again it fell to my lot to administer the ordinance;
and a privilege unspeakable it was to stand up and in the
name of the Lord to apply the seal of the covenant to the
dusky brow of that child of many prayers, and to others I had
helped teach the way to heaven.

“That Sabbath evening Ooey told me with beaming eyes that her
heart was full of happiness. And yet only the day before the
poor child had been told by her heathen father—who was angry
with her for forsaking the old religion—that she ‘must never
call him father, nor her mother, mother again’....

“The fifth is Ah Keo, for over twenty years a servant in the
different mission families. I recollect talking and praying
with him the first year I was in Siam. But his besetting sin,
intemperance, made all exhortation lost on him till this
spring—a miracle of grace has been wrought.”

This religious interest increased with the days, so that the semi-weekly meeting for prayer gave way to a daily meeting, in which the young Christians exhorted their fellow students and friends to believe on Christ, and their hearts were poured out in intercession for the conversion of their families and of Siam. Then, in September, Dr. House records another confession from among the student group:

“Delia made our hearts very glad the other day by coming to
us and saying her mind was made up to become a Christian,
and wished to be baptised. Her mother and brother would be
very angry with her, but she felt she must take up her cross.
She is a girl of a great deal of decision and energy of
character.”

The fall meeting of the Presbytery of Siam for 1867 was marked by items of unusual interest. Dr. House was installed pastor of the church, as a successor to Mr. Mattoon. The formal call for his pastoral services (signed by thirteen members), the charge to the pastor and people, the prayers and the sermon were all in the Siamese language—an index of the development of self-government in the native church. At the same meeting A. Klai, of Petchaburi, was licensed as a native local preacher, apparently the first to be fitted for that rank. Dr. House jocularly refers to him as a “graduate of the McFarland Theological Seminary of Petchaburi,” as he had been under the instruction of Mr. McFarland. At the communion in the Bangkok church this same autumn occurred the ordination of the first native elder of the local church, the congregation having elected the young man Naah already mentioned.

THE NOTABLE TRIP TO LAO

One notable trip of Dr. House remains to be narrated, a journey into the land of the Lao—notable because of the accident which nearly closed the career of the doctor. The trip occurred in 1868. The previous year was signalised in the annals of missions in Siam by the establishment of a station at Chiengmai among the Lao people in what is now known as North Siam. It is curious to note that while Dr. House himself had been among the first to become interested in these people as he came into contact with the Lao boatmen at Bangkok and although he once seriously contemplated leaving the Mattoons alone at Bangkok while he should carry the Gospel into the unexplored northland, yet when the proposition was being discussed by the mission to open a station there the doctor enters a record of his judgment that the time is premature.

However, additions to the corps of workers having made it possible to establish another station, the mission decided to send Messrs. McGilvary and Wilson, who had made an exploratory trip the previous season, to open work among the Lao tribes. In January of 1867 the McGilvary family set out in small boats, making the journey all the way up the Meinam. In the next December the Wilsons followed along the same route. It was a three-months’ journey up Siam’s great river, whose name means “mother of waters.” Above Raheng the stream forces its way through a narrow gap in the mountain chain, forming a long series of perilous rapids and affording scenery which is described by voyagers as of surpassing beauty.

Dr. House wrote concerning the reason for his own trip:

“And here I must let you into a little secret. Mrs. Wilson,
it seems, will require the attendance of a physician about
the first of March, and so also will Mrs. McGilvary. So much
the worse for both of them, you will say—seeing they are
five hundred miles from medical aid. Must they, then, be
abandoned to their fate? You must not, then, dear brother, be
much surprised to learn that this double call of Providence
has proved too strong for me. Much as I dislike the practise
of my profession, much as I dread the long, tedious journey,
much as I desire just now to stay with my interesting and
most dearly loved flock [the church over which the doctor had
just been made pastor] I have felt it would be wrong for me
to decline the invitation I have received to visit Chiengmai
at the critical time.

“But I cannot afford to waste three months on the journey
there, when by boat to Raheng in twenty-three days Chiengmai
from there can be reached by elephant in eight to ten days
more.”

Accordingly, the doctor determined to take the quicker route, and by February 13, he had reached Raheng. There he was delayed five days waiting for elephants to be provided for him. The company then set out over the mountains, expecting to reach their destination nearly on schedule time. Then came the accident, the story of which is most vividly set forth in the letter written by Dr. House himself on that same day.

“Ban Hong North Laos,
“Monday, March 2, 1868.

“REV. MR. AND MRS. MCGILVARY.

“Dear Brother and Sister:

“So near and yet unable to get farther. Is it not a strange
Providence? When I started this morning strong and well,
refreshed by a Sabbath’s day rest at the little hamlet of
Wong Luang I was rejoicing in the thought that I was almost
at the end of this tedious and almost endless journey through
the sultry wilderness and would soon receive the welcome
which such friends as you will give, when about eight or nine
A. M. my elephant by whose side I was walking, suddenly and
without provocation turned upon me and pushed me over with
his trunk and, when lying on the ground, thrust one of those
huge tusks at me and into my poor body—how deep I know not,
but ripping up my abdomen two and one-half inches just below
the umbillicus. It was a strange sensation I assure you. I
was expecting another thrust which I could not escape, for I
was jammed in by the side of a tree. By this time, however,
his driver had got his head turned into the road again.

“And there I was in the far woods with very probably a fatal
wound and none but servants and Laos elephant drivers. As
my men came up poor Beo, who is most faithful and much
attached, burst into tears. And now thoughts of Harriette and
home rushed over me. But God my Saviour, God to whom only
yesterday I had renewed my consecration of myself as His
servant in a sweet retired spot on the beautiful mountain
stream where we were camped, has permitted—nay ordered—this
unlooked-for calamity; and in God I trust, blessed be His
Name for sustaining me through the hours of this sad day.

“Such wound, of course, must be sewed up, and at once, and
I must do it, for I could trust none of those with me,
new men all but good Beo. It was curious business, this
sewing up one’s own abdomen; but it must be done, and it
was done—four stitches. By this time my men had contrived
a very comfortable litter with an awning from the bamboos
growing near at hand. Of course climbing upon an elephant
and enduring the merciless rocking motion was out of the
question. So borne by four men on the litter we slowly
journeyed on through the dry, parched woods, over mountains
and across the dry water brooks from eleven or twelve to five
P. M., when we reached this village on the Maa Li River,
on the route from Muang Tern and Muang Li to Lampoon. And
I am writing this by candlelight in the Sala Klang of the
place lying on my back. It is wearisome work to write and I
must stop soon. The people here seem kind. I have engaged
a messenger to take this announcement of my misfortune to
Chiengmai.

“And now, my dear brother and dear sister (and if Brother
Wilson and his dear wife have arrived, I include them also),
I need not say to you how serious is the injury I have
received. The first thought was that the omentum or caul had
protruded; it may have been lacerated fat under the skin.
It was replaced, of course. But whether the cavity of the
peritoneum was pierced or not, (and my symptoms would have
been more severe if it had been, I think), still there must
have been much contusion of the bowels, and of course great
danger of peritonitis, the gravest of all diseases. I must
lie perfectly still for days and days to have a chance of
getting well. Another day of such jolting as today would be
fatal. My only hope is in absolute rest. My bowels are very
sore, of course; but God will not forsake His child and I
will try to bear all that is appointed me. I write to notify
you that you, too, may trust your dear Sophia, and brother W.
his dear Kate, in the same ever gracious hands. His angel has
laid his hands upon me and stopped me here.

“I write also to say that neither of you must think of coming
over (from Chiengmai it is three days on elephant) to visit
me. You can do me no manner of good and your wives absolutely
require you both at home just now. It would be positively
wrong for you to leave them. I have good, kind servants,
medicines, books, and best of all my Saviour’s presence, and
I am resigned to His will. But, Oh, poor Harriette—pray for
her. We will pray for each other, and God bless you and yours
till we meet.

“Affectionately,
“S. R. HOUSE.

“P. S. If I get well, I—or if not, my four men—will proceed
to Chiengmai and deliver to you there six hundred ticals I am
bringing to your mission.”

This letter records a story of nerve and fortitude seldom equalled in the annals of travel and exploration. One must pause after reading it to take in the whole situation. The note itself was written at the close of the day of shock and pain and suffering. It was written while the sufferer was lying flat on his back, scarcely able to move without agitating the wound; and written then lest a night’s delay might find him unable to write. But as you read the letter you are conscious that he writes not because he is thinking of his own need, but because he knows that his friends will be greatly alarmed by his failure to appear. The trip itself had been undertaken in a spirit of self-abnegation solely for the welfare of his fellow missionaries. And the necessity of the trip casts a vivid light upon the deprivations and hardships of those pioneer missionaries. There are those who will exclaim, “Fools! why did they go so far from contact with civilisation and under such circumstances,—five hundred miles from the nearest physician!” Yes, fools! but fools for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, “of whom the world was not worthy.”

Further details of this marvellous adventure are given in a letter written two weeks later from the same place, the original of which is still preserved.

“I wonder if any surgeon was ever before called upon to sew
up his own abdomen! Somehow nerve was given me to put in the
four stitches without shrinking, though it was a work of no
little difficulty, as I had to be guided by the reflection
in a looking-glass—the wound not being in direct line of
vision—as I lay on my back too weak to sit up. All the water
I had was in a small porous drinking vessel—not over a pint,
and no other supply for miles....

“That evening I arranged for a messenger to carry the tidings
of my injury to the mission at Chiengmai. On the evening
of the third day they returned, and with them a servant of
Mr. McGilvary came along, and also our faithful Christian
Siamese brother, Nai Chune, who had gone up in charge of
Mr. Wilson’s household goods to Chiengmai.... Had my letter
reached Chiengmai a few hours later it would have found Nai
Chune gone, for his passage was taken and his things aboard
the boat to start that day for Bangkok....

“I am lost in wonder when I think of the Providence by which
I escaped seemingly inevitable death. Who ever heard of one
being impaled on an elephant’s tusk and yet living to tell
the tale. God’s merciful Providence ordered that when I was
unexpectedly felled to the ground I was thrown—not flat
on my back, in which case I had been pierced through and
through; but on my right side, hence his tusk which was aimed
at the middle line of my body glanced and so did not enter
deep enough to inflict a mortal wound. Had it pierced but
the thickness of this paper deeper than it did, peritoneal
inflammation would have ensued and speedy death....

(Later.) “The afternoon of the day I wrote the foregoing
letter a loaded elephant came to the sala where I am lying,
and the one riding it began to hand down various baskets and
bundles as if they had reached their destination. It proved
to have been sent by my good brethren of Chiengmai, who had
forwarded supplies of everything that could be thought of to
make a sick man comfortable....

“With wise forethought they had arranged that a boat should
be awaiting me at the nearest landing place on the river
to take me to Chiengmai. I was too weak then and the wound
was not in a state to allow of my leaving the sala; but the
next Monday (just two weeks from the date of the injury)
I ventured to try the litter again. So with a new set of
elephants for my luggage and bearers for myself hired in
the village, that afternoon at 3 o’clock we started, but
found no camping place till 11 P. M.—a weary journey! But
all forgotten next morning when my eyes rested again on the
Meinam River and I was transferred to the boat. Two days
of vigourous poling up the river brought me to my friends’
landing about five P. M. Wednesday, March 18.”

By Nai Chune the doctor was able to send to his wife the news of the misfortune, though it was two months after the accident before she received the message. Trusty servants were then sent up to meet him at Raheng, where his boats were awaiting his return. The complete healing of the wound and recuperation of strength required more time than he had anticipated so that he was compelled to remain at Chiengmai six weeks. During this enforced delay he had the privilege of assisting in organising the first church at Chiengmai, a little gratification to his old and ardent desire for the evangelisation of the Lao. The return was made all the way by water. From Chiengmai to Raheng the voyage required eighteen days, and thence his own boats carried him the remainder of the way to Bangkok in twelve days.

It is probable that Dr. House accomplished more touring in Siam than any other missionary. During the first ten years, within which most of the exploring was done, he was more free than Mr. Mattoon to be absent for long periods and distant journeys. While the other missions were restricting their work Dr. House had visions of enlarging the range of Presbyterian activities. All the fields of present mission stations in central Siam had been explored by Dr. House and seed sown long before permanent work was undertaken. Love of pioneering and zeal for the Gospel united to impel him to search out the land with a view to ultimate conquest for Christ.

X

NEW KING, NEW CUSTOMS, NEW FAVOURS

It is a noteworthy testimony to the influence of the American missionaries that through their instruction in modern science the most enlightened monarch of the Orient should have come to his death as a result of his zeal in behalf of astronomy. Although since he had ascended the throne King Mongkut had not been able to devote time to pursuit of the sciences as he had done while a priest in the watt, yet he maintained a real interest. His requests to Dr. House for translations from foreign journals included items of scientific interest. His patronage of the mission school in favour of the sons of nobles was not merely to have them taught English, but that through that language they might obtain instruction in the sciences.

When circumstances brought it within his power to lend assistance to the scientific world he seized the opportunity with a royal will. Astronomers had predicted a total eclipse of the sun for the year 1868, and indicated that the southern peninsula of Siam would be the sole place on the globe where the eclipse would appear in totality. In his great enthusiasm, desiring to be a patron of science, the king determined to lead an expedition to witness the phenomena. Dr. House describes the preparations in a letter (Aug., 1868):

“The gulf of Siam lay in the greatest duration of the solar
eclipse since the sun began to shine, as some say; attracting
to these realms astronomers from Western Europe. Great
preparations were made to receive them with all honor and
to join them in witnessing the solar phenomena, on the part
of our science-loving king and his government. Large levies
of men were made to put up at the spot fixed by the French
astronomical expedition suitable buildings for all who were
present. No expense was spared in the way of entertaining
the numerous guests. It is said that two thousand catties
of silver ($96,000.) were expended upon the affair by our
public spirited king. A free ticket on a beautiful ship
of war, and entertainment while there, to all us foreign
residents. But as Mr. McDonald (now acting consul) desires
to go and both could not well be absent so long from the
station, I did not go down; and then, too, we were sure of a
very respectable eclipse here in Bangkok, which I wished to
improve for the benefit of the pupils in our school and our
native friends.... Here we saw stars distinctly in the day
time during the greatest obscuration.”

The site chosen by the astronomers was in the jungle, in which the king caused a clearing to be made and temporary huts to be constructed. During the brief sojourn in this unhealthy spot, the king contracted a fever. The disease proved fatal, death occurring shortly after the king returned to the royal palace.

The death of the king was a sore loss to the world. Dr. House wrote:

“The missionaries lost, some of them a kind personal friend
and a ‘well-wisher’ as he used to sign himself, and all
a friendly-disposed liberal-minded sovereign, who put no
obstacle in the way of their evangelising his people.”

Western nations lost a royal friend who had opened the gates of his kingdom for intercourse. But Siam herself, while mourning the death of an enlightened sovereign, had gained so much through the seventeen years of his felicitous reign that his death could not stop her progress in the paths he had opened for her. The light which had found its way into the jungle of human notions through the clearing Mongkut had made was never again to pass into eclipse.

KING CHULALONGKORN

With the death of King Mongkut the personal relations of the pioneer missionaries with the reigning monarch were terminated. Concerning the successor, Chulalongkorn, Dr. House wrote:

“I have not seen much of the young prince in childhood; he
had been under the tutorship of the English governess Mrs.
Leonowens and, later, of Mr. Chandler (formerly a lay Baptist
missionary).... He had grown to maturity during the nearly
three years of my absence in America.”

As second or vice-king there had been chosen Prince George Washington, with whom Dr. House was better acquainted.

The missionaries were eager to learn whether the new government was to be as progressive as the old, and especially to know the attitude to be assumed towards their work. Signs that progression was to be the order of the reign were not long wanting. Custom hitherto required that the coronation should be in the presence of the princes only. At the coronation of Chulalongkorn an innovation was introduced by invitations to the official representatives of other nations resident in Bangkok to attend. Shortly after the coronation the missionaries arranged, through the United States consul, to pay their respects to the new king. They were graciously received, and although the young king was suffering from effects of a fever contracted on the ill-fated astronomical expedition, he gave them an audience and conversed with them a few minutes. When the consul was arranging for his official visit of congratulations upon the vice-king, that personage requested as a personal favour that the consul be accompanied by Dr. House. The king was but fifteen years of age when he came to the throne, and during his minority the government was under the regency of Somdetch Chao Phya Boromaha Sri Suriwongse, an able and upright statesman.

With rapid succession came decrees changing age-long customs and bringing Siamese social and civil institutions into line with Western civilisation. The most radical and noteworthy of these changes were: the abolition of the practice of prostration by which everyone, of whatsoever rank, had been obliged to prostrate himself on the ground, face downwards, in the presence of any who had a superior rank in the social scale; the introduction at court and in the army of a modified European dress to cover the near-nudity which formerly prevailed; the prohibition of enslavement for debt, a pernicious custom by which parents could sell their children, husbands their wives, and anyone himself into servitude to discharge a ruinous debt, resulting in a state of peonage from which the hopeless victim could scarce escape; reformation of unjust political practises; and the initiation of a state system of schools, telegraphs and posts.

Concerning two of these reforms interesting sidelights have been cast by writers. Mrs. Leonowens, by whom the prince had been tutored in English, relates that when he heard of the death of Abraham Lincoln he declared that “if he ever lived to reign over Siam he would reign over a free and not an enslaved nation, and that he would restore the ancient constitutional government and make Siam a kingdom of the free.” Mr. J. G. D. Campbell, in his volume _Siam in the Twentieth Century_, sketches the court-scene when the ancient custom of prostration was abolished:

“In 1874,” he writes, “King Chulalongkorn assembled his
ministers and nobles and, having ascended the throne,
promulgated a decree emancipating them and all subjects
from the degrading custom of crawling on their knees in the
presence of a superior; after which, at his command the whole
assembly arose from their prostrate position on their hands
and knees and stood erect for the first time in the presence
of their sovereign.”

Though his personal relation with the occupant of the throne was terminated, Dr. House found that the new government included many of his old-time friends from the days of his lectures on science. Among these were the regent himself, the minister of foreign affairs, the master of the new mint and the commander-in-chief of the army. A new office also had been established, and the doctor found his friend Godata, formerly a priest in Chao Fah Yai’s watt, appointed as court preacher with the duty of preaching on the Christian Sabbath a moral lecture to the soldiers and cadets, by the king’s orders.

NEW FAVOURS

The mission workers hoped that a change in sovereigns would mean no reaction; they scarcely expected more. But while King Mongkut had “put no obstacle in the way,” King Chulalongkorn soon removed the remaining obstacles by making effective the treaty provisions even in the dependency of Lao. For it was the rapid development of the work in that new station that precipitated a condition in which the good offices of the new government alone saved the day. Within two years of the beginning of work at Chiengmai the first convert made a confession of faith, Nan Inta; and in seven months more six others had received baptism. Then suddenly the virulence of the king of Lao was manifested by the martyrdom of two of these converts, put to death on his orders.

As the Lao state was subject to the king of Siam, and as the government had given permission for the missionaries to work in that dependency, appeal was taken promptly to the regent for protection of the Lao missionaries whose lives were in danger. The regent sent a commissioner with all dispatch to Chiengmai with stringent orders to the Lao ruler that the missionaries must receive the full protection guaranteed by the treaty between Siam and the United States. Enraged by this invocation of a higher authority, the Lao king declared that while the missionaries might remain as the Siamese government had ordered, yet they must not teach religion or make Christians; and openly vowed his purpose to kill any of his people who should become converts to the new religion. The situation had apparently become impossible; and to gain time while deciding what course was best under the circumstances, the work was suspended, and the workers had virtually decided to leave in the spring. About that time, however, the tyrant with a large suite left for Bangkok to attend the cremation ceremonies of his late suzerain. While there he fell sick, and before he could reach his Chiengmai capital he died. Upon his death the supreme power within the province passed to the hands of one kindly disposed to the missionaries.

In the same year as the death of the Lao king, 1870, a royal proclamation was issued which appeared in part in the Bangkok Calendar for the next year. This proclamation was a decree of religious liberty. Apparently, although not of a certainty, it had some connection with the recent affair among the Lao. A paragraph from this proclamation shows the broadmindedness of the government at that period:

“In regard to the concern of seeking and holding a religion
that shall be a refuge to yourself in this life, it is a
good concern and exceedingly appropriate and suitable that
you all—every individual of you—should investigate and
judge for himself according to his own wisdom. And when you
see any religion whatever, or any company of religionists
whatever, likely to be of advantage to yourself, a refuge in
accord with your own wisdom, hold to that religion with all
your heart. Hold it not with a shallow mind, with mere guess
work or merely because of its general popularity or from
mere traditional saying that it is the custom held from time
immemorial. And do not hold a religion that you have not good
evidence is true and then frighten men’s fears and flatter
their hopes thereby. Do not be frightened and astonished at
diverse fictitious events and hold to and follow them. When
you shall have obtained a refuge, a religious faith that
is good and beautiful and suitable, hold to it with great
joy and follow its teachings, and it will be a cause of
prosperity to each one of you.... It is our will that our
subjects of whatever race, nation or creed live freely and
happily in the kingdom, no man despising or molesting another
on account of religious difference, or any other difference
of opinion, custom or manners.”

Oddly enough, Dr. House, who seemed always to make mention of the innovations of the progressive government under the new king, makes no reference to this proclamation in his letters, nor does he mention it in his chapter on the history of missions in _Siam and Laos_. In this last named work, however, he states that on Sept. 29, 1878, the king of Siam issued “a proclamation establishing religious toleration in Laos and by implication throughout all his dominions.”

Early in 1871 an incident occurred which was fraught with great consequence for native Christians, and one in which Dr. House’s friendly intimacy with the high officials enabled him to render a service of far-reaching consequence to the young native church. One of the girls of the school, Ooey, shortly after she had made a confession of faith, was called as a witness in court upon a suit in behalf of another member of the church. It was then the custom to allow the Chinese to take oath according to their religion; but there was no provision in the law for the Christian oath. When this young girl was asked to take the native oath, she told the court boldly that she was a Christian and that she could not take an oath based on the native religion; and she demanded to be sworn upon her Christian faith. The court tried to induce her to accede to custom, assuring her that it was but a harmless formula. But she steadily refused, although she was an important witness, the lack of whose testimony was greatly to the disadvantage of a fellow-Christian. In consequence the case was suspended, in hopes that she would change her attitude.

The matter was at once brought to the attention of Dr. House, who recognised that the situation involved elements which were of serious consequence to the religious rights of native Christians. If compelled to take oath, it would infringe upon their conscience. If not permitted to substitute the Christian oath, they would have to forfeit their standing in the court in all cases. The doctor at once sought an interview with the minister of foreign affairs, his old friend and former Lieutenant-Governor of Petchaburi, and also with the regent, an old-time friend. After laying before them the nature of the case, an order was issued directing that a witness be sworn by the faith to which he claimed allegiance. This action, so far as appears, was the first step in the legal recognition of the Christian faith on the part of the government.

PROGRESS

During the last decade of Dr. House’s services there were many recruits to the force of workers. But these additions were not a net gain, for in the meantime there were numerous withdrawals on account of health. In 1869 came Revs. J. W. Van Dyke and John Carrington with their wives. Two years later were added Rev. and Mrs. R. Arthur, Rev. J. N. Culbertson and Miss E. S. Dickey. Miss Arabella Anderson came in 1872 to assist in the new boarding school for girls. The year 1874 saw the arrival of an unusual number of unmarried women missionaries. They were Misses S. M. Coffman, M. L. Cort and E. D. Grimshaw. Then, in 1875, Rev. and Mrs. Eugene P. Dunlop reached Bangkok and began a very long period of valuable service.

Increase of workers meant not diminution but rather increase of work. This is typified in the case of Dr. House himself, who jocularly wrote to his brother that “Satan will not likely find mischief for my hands to do,” and then recounts the duties that devolve upon him. The varied activities that he mentions not only show the versatility required of a missionary but indicate the manifold duties that each missionary has to perform. He writes:

“I have recently become a theological professor, four
evenings of the week gathering around me in my study the more
advanced and promising of the native church members ... and
try to pilot them through the leading principles of a system
of divinity.”

One of these men, Ooan Si Tieng, was ordained in 1872. He had been the first Chinese convert in the mission and now became the first to receive this full authority from the Presbytery. As pastor of the native church Dr. House had a full measure of sorrows as well as joys, for there is a tide in spiritual affairs that has its ebb as well as its flow, and the years of spiritual awaking were followed by periods of depression. Thus at the beginning of 1869 he writes:

“Our spiritual prospects at the opening of the year are not
as bright as last new year—one or two sad and unexpected
fallings away from the faith have greatly tried and pained
our hearts.”

But this reaction was transient, for two years later, in telling of the week of prayer in January, he writes:

“Our native Christians are quite interested, sustaining the
meetings nobly. Indeed I have thrown the meetings upon them
altogether and they take turns in leading them. You do not
know what comfort it is to have in my little flock enough
able and willing to carry on these meetings.... It would do
you good to witness the spirit of faithfulness on their part
to the souls of their impenitent friends and neighbours.”

In addition to his duties as pastor of the mission church, Dr. House was appointed superintendent of the mission press in 1870, and for that year also was elected secretary of the mission in charge of the records and correspondence. At the same time he was offered a royal appointment:

“Projects are now on foot in both kings’ palaces for schools
for the instruction of the young nobility of Siam in English
and the sciences. I have been earnestly solicited by the
Second King George to aid in establishing the one he is
planning. Happy would I be to lend a helping hand if other
duties would allow.”

After two years the doctor was relieved of the charge of the Press and appointed again to the more congenial task of supervising the mission school, a position which he continued to fill until his final withdrawal from the field.

In the midst of these incidents the actual growth of the Mission must not be overlooked. It has to be recorded that in spite of arduous and faithful labours of the increasing corps of workers and in the face of all the encouraging marks of advance in Western civilisation, Siam responded very slowly to the spiritual appeal of the Gospel. While she gladly recognised and sought after the material benefits of Christianity she continued to manifest her characteristic indifference to its more vital message. Mr. McDonald, in his book on _Siam, Its Government, Manners and Customs_, says that when he arrived in Siam in 1861 there was but one native convert in connection with the mission, whereas ten years later there was a church in Bangkok with only twenty members and another in Petchaburi with a like number. He then adds:

“It is just to state that there is scarcely any other field
in which modern missions have been established where the
introduction of the gospel has met with so little opposition
as in Siam proper.... It is equally just to say that there is
scarcely any other field which has been so barren of results.
Pure Buddhism seems to yield more slowly to the power of the
gospel than any other false system.”

The reason for this unyielding nature of Buddhism seems to lie in its ethical theories which are the result of its philosophy of life. In some measure, too, this indifference of Buddhism to a spiritual interpretation of life accounts for its non-resistance towards the preaching of an antagonistic religion. The primary fallacies of Buddhism from the Christian point of view are:

“1. No Creator and no Creating: Things just happened. This
conception leads to indifference to nature and to a belief
that the body is vile, to be despised and disregarded.

“2. No idea of a Spiritual Personality, whether human or
divine. Emphasis is placed on mind and intellect to the
exclusion of will and feeling. Hence Buddhism is a philosophy
rather than a religion, a theory of existence rather than a
motive force.

“3. No true sense of relationship of man to man or of man
to God, in the absence of spiritual personality. Everything
is ego-centric, each for himself. Hence incomplete ideas of
love, faith, sin, holiness, suffering; in the absence of hope
fear dominates life.

“4. The greatest fundamental error is the assertion of the
Karma law as the sole principle that explains all (the law
of ethical causation, by which the merit or demerit of every
act in this life effects the future life). This leads to
a denial of personality and to fatalism, formality, trust
in the individual’s merit, denial of forgiveness and self
satisfaction.”

But if the work at that stage had few numerical results to display, yet a keen discernment would show that other larger results were being accomplished. Mr. George B. Bacon, in his volume on Siam, shows a true appreciation of what missions had accomplished up to that time:

“At first sight their efforts, if measured by count of
converts, might seem to have resulted in failure.... But
really the success of these efforts has been extraordinary,
although the history of them exhibits an order of results
almost without precedent. Ordinarily the religious
enlightenment of a people comes first and the civilization
follows as a thing of course. But here the Christianisation
of the nation has scarcely begun, but its civilisation has
made much more than a beginning. For it is to the labours
of the Christian missionaries in Siam that the remarkable
advancement of the kings and nobles, and even of the common
people in general is owing....

“When Sir John Bowring came in 1855 to negotiate his treaty
... he found the fruit was ripe before he plucked it. And it
was by the patient and persistent labours of the missionaries
for twenty years that the results which he achieved were made
not only possible but easy.”

But there is evidence of even more subtle effect of the gospel. No one who reads of the notable changes in the social customs and political institutions introduced by the young King Chulalongkorn can resist the conclusion that it was the religious support of these ancient practises that had given way under the disintegrating light of the Christian Gospel. Even that earlier attempt of Chao Fah Yai to modernise the religious teachings among his followers shows that the religious philosophy of Buddhism could not stand before the truth of Jesus.

LITERARY WORK

In the literary field Dr. House was receptive rather than creative. He was a lover of books but not of writing:

“How irksome and difficult the labour of composition has been
to me,” he says, “I’d rather be a ditch digger and shovel
mud. The getting of a certain amount of writing done by a
given time is out of the question in my case.”

He was appointed the first “librarian” of the Mission back in the early days when the library consisted of two shelves of books and some unbound magazines, besides “some Malay, Tamul, Bengali, Portuguese and Indo-Portuguese books for a long time handed down in the mission.” His reluctance at the pen partly accounts for the sparsity of matter published under his name in the missionary magazines. But the refusal on his part to appear in print in this fashion was due perhaps more to his fear that journals or newspapers containing articles on missions would find their way into the hands of the Siamese government, which might be displeased with any frank narrative of observations. For this reason he frequently admonished the recipients of his letters that they should not take advantage of his absence to publish his comments.

When it came to the needs of the mission, however, he lent his hand and brain to supply the requirements. The following tracts are ascribed to him:

_Scripture Facts_, 1848.

_Watt’s Catechism_, bound with The Speller, 1853.

_Child’s Catechism with Commandments and Lord’s Prayer_, 1854.

_Questions in Gospel History_, 1864.

_Stand by the Truth_, 1869.

These last two in conjunction with Mrs. House.

After return to America he wrote a pamphlet, _Notes on Obstetric Practises in Siam_, (Putnam, 1897). In the volume, _Siam and Laos_ (Presbyterian Board, 1884), several chapters were contributed by Dr. House, including the very comprehensive and accurate chapter on _History of Missions in Siam_; but so impersonally did he write the record that it would be almost impossible for the reader to detect that a good part of the story had been created in action as well as recounted by the writer.

The school for boys which Dr. House fostered almost continuously from its beginning was merged into the Boys’ Christian High School in 1889. This institution in turn developed in scope until it was enlarged into the “Bangkok Christian College,” which was organised in 1915.

XI

HARRIET PETTIT HOUSE

In former years a missionary’s wife was not under commission of the Board. Her status was similar to that of the pastor’s wife at home. It is not infrequent that the work of the wife is just as vital to the development of the church as that of her husband, but she receives no recognition in the official records of the church. Her honour is emblazoned where the eye cannot see it—in the hearts of the people. The wife of the pioneer missionary went out, not at the call of the Church, but at the call of the husband, with no promise of remuneration aside from the fabulous bridal endowment which the groom made at marriage “with all his worldly goods” and with no official rank to assure the preservation of her name on the roll of honour.

So it happens that the scanty reports from the early Siam mission seldom mentioned the name of Mrs. House. Yet one cannot read the letters of her husband without perceiving that she supplemented his educational work in a manner and to a degree that is worthy of special recognition. But apart from that, she succeeded finally in so organising and establishing female education in Siam that she has come to be regarded as the founder of permanent educational work for women in that country.

HER FAMILY AND EDUCATION

Harriet Pettit House was born in Waterford, New York, Dec. 23, 1820. Her ancestry was Scotch and English. On the mother’s side the line goes back to William Mitchell and his wife, Agnes Buchanan, who emigrated from Glasgow to New England in 1755. The male line in America began with the Englishman Abraham Waterhouse, who came to New England, 1729, and “who sleeps with the pilgrim settlers at Saybrook, Conn.” Her paternal grandfather, John Pettit, one of the original settlers of Waterford and a member of the first board of village trustees, came from Chester, Conn., whence a few years later he brought his bride, Rebecca Waterhouse.

Their son, John, is said to have been the first child born in the new settlement. He became a cabinet maker. Following his father’s example, he sought a wife in Chester and married Sarah Parmelee Mitchell, who was his “second cousin, once removed.” Of this ancestry and marriage was born the future woman missionary. The family comprised Mary Jane (dying in infancy), Eliza Ann, Mary Jane, Harriet Maria, John Mitchell, William Frederic and Sarah Frances, all of whom were born at Waterford except the last. The mother was a member of the Waterford Presbyterian Church, and the two older daughters united at an early age. In 1832 the family moved to Sandy Hill, New York, where resided an uncle, General Micajah Pettit. While living there Harriet made a profession of her faith at the age of seventeen. During residence in that village she became acquainted with Stephen Mattoon and the young woman who later became his wife, with both of whom she was destined to be associated in Siam. The first appearance of her name in the journal of Dr. House is a casual entry that Mrs. Mattoon had received (1851) a letter from her friend Harriet Pettit. After nine years the family returned to Waterford in 1841.

Harriet’s elementary education was the best afforded by the private school system of the period. In 1840 she entered the Emma Willard Female Seminary at Troy, New York. There she studied for a year, and then entered upon what proved to be her life work of female education. Her first year of teaching was in a young ladies’ school in New York City. For two years she served as governess for a family in Charleston, South Carolina. It was while there that she wrote to her youngest sister a most remarkable letter of religious importunity. In the winter of 1843 a great revival had aroused the little church at Waterford under the pastor, Rev. Reuben Smith, in which sixty-nine were converted. Among these were her father and two brothers, all of whom united with the church. Having received news of this awakening, Harriet sent to her sister, the only member of the family not yet in the Church, a letter carefully printed so as to be legible to the girl of ten years. It was a letter with a purpose. It was an affectionate entreaty for the sister to become a Christian. Concisely but clearly she explained what it meant to be a Christian, and then gently and with fervour urged a prompt decision for Christ. That letter was not void of its purpose, and all these eighty years since it has been treasured by the recipient as a memento of a loving, consecrated sister.

The Pettit family did not remain long in Waterford after their return. In 1844 they moved to Newark, New Jersey, and there became identified with the Second Presbyterian Church, of which at the time the pastor was a relative, the Rev. Ebenezer Cheever, who had formerly been their pastor also at Waterford. Thereupon, Harriet came to Newark and set up a small school for girls in her home. In 1848 she was called to be assistant in the female seminary at Steubenville, Ohio. In the fall of 1851 she returned to Newark and opened, under her own management, a “Select School for Young Ladies,” which she continued up to the time of her marriage. During these later years she was active in the work of the Second Church, serving as joint superintendent of the Sunday school. On Oct. 24, 1855, her father died, leaving Harriet alone with their mother and her youngest sister.

MARRIAGE

It was at this juncture of the family affairs, two days after the father’s death, that Harriet received an unexpected call from her friend of former years, Dr. S. R. House, then home on a furlough from Siam. Writing later to a friend she comments:

“It is but two years this morning since my good husband
called at 373 Broad Street, Newark, to see a lady on very
particular business. Only two years,—and fifteen months of
that time I have been in the city of Bangkok. Does not this
speak well for Samuel’s despatch of business sometimes? (Then
quoting a bit of doggerel which he had once written:)

‘I haven’t the slightest notion
Of launching on the stormy ocean
Where family cares and troubles rise
Heaping their billows to the skies
A wife’s complaint, the young one’s cries
Wont suit me.’

“How entirely we sometimes change our minds! On the morning
of the 26th, the ‘batch’ who once thus sung had not the
slightest, but the strongest notion—and launching forth soon
followed.”

Having changed his mind the suitor allowed little time to slip by till he had won the object of his heart’s desire. A month and a day after the engagement, on Nov. 27, 1855, the marriage occurred.