attempt on the part of the Wades, been no resident missionary.
He heard accounts of the Court which made him hope to recover a footing
at Ava, and decided on again living at Rangoon; but he soon heard that
there was less hope than ever at Ava. The king whom he had known was
dead, and had been succeeded by a devoted Buddhist, whose brother and
heir, "having been prevented from being a lama," writes Dr. Judson, "poor
man! does all that he can. He descends from his prince-regal seat,
pounds and winnows the rice with his own hands, washes and boils it in
his own cook-house, and then, on bended knees, presents it to the
priests. This strong pulsation at the heart has thrown fresh blood
through the once shrivelled system of the national superstition, and now
every one vies with his neighbour in building pagodas and making
offerings to the priests. What can one poor missionary effect,
accompanied by his yet speechless wife, and followed by three men and one
woman from Moulmein, and summoning to his aid the aged pastor of Rangoon
and eight or ten surviving members of the church?"

The Vice-governor, or Raywoon, was a violent and cruel savage, whose
house and court-yard rang with shrieks from the tortured, and the old
remnant of Christians were sadly scattered. When they were collected to
worship on Sunday, they durst not either come in or go out in company,
and used to arrive with their garments tucked up to look like Coolies, or
carrying fruit or parcels, while the Karens crept down from the hills in
small parties. The Governor was friendly, but a weak man, whose
authority the Raywoon openly set at defiance; and all sorts of petty
annoyances were set in action against the teachers, while the probability
that the converts would suffer actual persecution daily increased. Dr.
Judson used to call the present difficulties the Splugen Pass, and
illness, of course, added to their troubles.

The great Buddhist fast of the year had never before been imposed on
strangers, but now the markets contained nothing but boiled rice, fruit,
or decaying fish, and terrible illness was the consequence both with
themselves and the children, until some boxes of biscuit arrived from
Moulmein, and a Mahometan was bribed to supply fowls.

But the finances of the Society at home were at a low ebb, and it was
thought needful to diminish the number of stations. The intolerance of
the Burmese Government led to the decision that there was less bene