, they were startled by a roaring like that
of flame, and on going to the door, discovered the whole jungle to the
eastward of them enveloped in sheets of flame, which was rapidly
approaching their frail cottage. Seeing no hope that their house could
escape, they rapidly collected a few valuables, and with their infant
prepared to flee towards the river, though in much terror lest their
path should be beset by leopards, tigers, and other animals, driven from
their haunts by the fire. But when within a few feet of the houses, the
flames were arrested by a sudden change of the wind, and the dwellings
were unhurt. "Thus again are we preserved," says Mr. B. "when no human
arm could have saved us!" Truly,

"The hosts of God encamp around
The dwellings of the just."

Truly "the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly."

CHAPTER VI.

REMOVAL TO TAVOY.--IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE.--LETTER FROM MRS. B.--BAPTISM
OF A KAREN DISCIPLE.--SOME ACCOUNT OF THE KARENS.

The permanent collection of so many Missionaries at a single station was
not approved by the Board, nor was it deemed desirable by the
Missionaries themselves. In accordance, therefore, with instructions
received from America, it was decided that Mr. and Mrs. Boardman should
remove to Tavoy. This city is situated on the river Tavoy, 150 miles
south of Maulmain, and had at that time a population of 6000 Burmans and
3000 foreigners.

The city was the stronghold of the religion of Gaudama, and the
residence of two hundred priests.

On every eligible point stood an emblem or image of idolatry. Tall
pagodas crowned every eminence, and humbler ones clustered around them,
while thickly set groves of banyan and other sacred trees, sheltered
shrines and images of Gaudama, and on festival days were crowded with
devotees, kneeling in the gloomy pathways, or festooning the sacred
trees with the rarest flowers. The tops of some of the thousand pagodas
in the city, are hung with innumerable little bells, which, moved by the
wind, chime sweetly their calls to devotion, reminding one of a passage
in Moore's description of an eastern city:

"But hark! the vesper call to prayer,
--As slow the orb of daylight sets,--
Is rising sweetly on the air
From Syria's thousand minarets."

This change in their place of abode could not fail to be a severe trial
to our missionaries. To Maulmain they were bound by many ties,--the
sweet companionship of fellow-Chr