eelock now slumbers beneath the cold wave
And Colman lies low in the dark, cheerless grave,
Mourn, daughters of India, mourn!
The rays of that star, clear and bright,
That so sweetly on Arracan shone,
Are shrouded in black clouds of night,
For Colman is gone!

These lines were read by George Dana Boardman, a young man, twenty-four
years of age, who had just been appointed to succeed Colman at Arracan.
He obtained an introduction to Sarah Hall, and in a short time they
became engaged. They were married on July 3, 1825, and thirteen days
later sailed for Calcutta, where they landed on December 2. The war in
Burma prevented their proceeding to Rangoon, so they settled down at
Calcutta, to study the Burmese language with the aid of Mr. Judson's
books. At this they were engaged almost continuously until the spring
of 1827, when they sailed for Amherst, in Tenasserim, a newly built
town in the recently acquired British territory, to which Mr. Judson
had removed with his converts soon after the conclusion of the war.

The Boardmans' stay at Amherst was, however, short. Towards the end of
May they were transferred to another new city--Moulmein. A year before
their arrival the place had been a wide expanse of almost impenetrable
jungle; now it had 20,000 inhabitants. Wild beasts and deadly snakes
abounded in the jungle around the city and, across the river, in the
ruined city of Martaban, dwelt a horde of fiendish dacoits, who
occasionally made a night raid on Moulmein, robbing and murdering, and
then hurrying back to their stronghold. The Boardmans had been settled
in their bamboo hut barely a month when they received a visit from the
dacoits. One night Mr. Boardman awoke, to find that the little lamp
which they always kept burning was not alight, and suspecting that
something was wrong he jumped out of bed and lit it again. The dacoits
had entered, and stolen everything they could possibly carry off.
Looking-glasses, watches, knives, forks, spoons, and keys had all
disappeared. Every box, trunk, and chest of drawers had been forced
open, and nothing of any value remained in any of them. This was the
first home of their own that the Boardmans had ever had, and to be
robbed so soon of practically everything they possessed was indeed
hard. They had, however, the satisfaction of knowing that the dacoits
had not, as usual, accompanied robbery with murder. But that the
dacoits would have murdered th