WAR WITH THE BRITISH.--NARRATIVE OF THE SUFFERINGS OF THE MISSIONARIES
DURING THE WAR.

In 1824 news reached America of the breaking out of war between Burmah
and British India. This of course excited the most anxious interest for
the fate of the Americans in that country. At length anxiety was
somewhat relieved by the intelligence that Messrs. Wade and Hough with
their families, who had remained at Rangoon, were, after dreadful
sufferings, safe under British protection. But over the fate of Mr. and
Mrs. Judson hung the silence of death, or of a suspense worse than
death, for more than two years, until hope itself died in the hearts of
their friends and kindred.

But although in this long period of doubt and darkness, busy fancy had
pictured many scenes of terror and many forms of violent death, as the
possible lot of the missionaries; yet in her wildest nights she never
could have conceived of the terrible reality which they endured, not for
days and weeks only, but for _eighteen_ weary months. The wildest tale
of fiction has never depicted more cruel anguish, more appalling
suffering borne with more heroic energy, and more sublime fortitude--the
wildest fiction would not dare to portray woman's love and faith and
Christian hope, so long triumphant over insult and outrage, and torture
and death itself. Who after reading the following narrative of an heroic
female's unparalleled endurance, will ever say that woman's is a feeble
nature, incapable of withstanding the rude shocks of adverse fortune?
Nay, who will not rather say, that in woman, hope and faith, and
fortitude and energy, make even the frail _body_ immortal, till her
labor of love is accomplished, and its cherished object is rescued from
peril?

* * * * *

"The war which now broke out between the Burman government and that of
the English in Bengal, forms an important era in the history of the
mission.

"Its first effect was to put an end to the labors of the missionaries,
and involve them in unspeakable sufferings, yet in accordance with a
mysterious though beneficent law of human affairs, its ultimate issues
have proved favorable not only to the interests of that particular
mission, but also to the further extension of Christian civilization
among the thickly peopled countries of Eastern India. The war had its
origin in feuds which had long existed on the frontiers of Chittagong."
Some Burman criminals had escaped to