“Our new house is now done, and we are comfortably fixed in it. It suits us exactly, and my impression is that it will suit anyone who may come after us.... My prayer is that God will spare us to live in it many years, and bless us in doing much work for his glory.”—LETTER TO SECRETARY LOWRIE, December 24, 1867.
Tengchow is one of the cities officially opened as a port for foreign commerce, under the treaty of Tientsin, which went into actual effect in 1860. Although a place of seventy thousand or more inhabitants, and cleaner and more healthful than most Chinese towns, it has not attracted people from western nations, except a little band of missionaries. The harbor does not afford good anchorage; so it has not been favorable to foreign commerce.
When the Mateers came to Tengchow, missionary operations had already been begun both by the Southern Baptists and the American Presbyterians, though in a very small way. In fact, throughout the whole of China,—according to the best statistics available,—there were then on that immense field only something more than a hundred ordained Protestant missionaries, and as many female missionaries. There were also a few physicians and printers. The number of native preachers was about two hundred and fifty, and of colporteurs about the same. Few of these colporteurs and native preachers were full ministers of the gospel. There were sixteen stations, and perhaps a hundred out-stations. The Chinese converts aggregated thirty-five hundred.
In all Shantung, with its many millions of people, the only places at which any attempt had been made to establish stations were Chefoo and Tengchow, both on the seacoast. The Baptists reached the latter of these cities in the autumn of 1860. They were followed very soon afterward by Messrs. Danforth and Gayley and their wives, of the Presbyterian Board; and the next summer Mr. and Mrs. Nevius came up from Ningpo and joined them.
The natives seemed to be less positively unfriendly than those of many other parts of China are even to this day; yet it was only with protracted and perplexing difficulties that houses in which to live could be obtained. Not long after this was accomplished, Mrs. Danforth sickened and died, and was laid in the first Christian grave at Tengchow. Then came a “rebel,” or rather a robber invasion, that carried desolation and death far and wide in that part of Shantung, and up to the very walls of Tengchow, and left the city and country in a deplorable condition of poverty and wretchedness. Two of the Baptist missionaries went out to parley with these marauders, and were cut to pieces. Next ensued a period during which rumors were rife among the people that the missionaries, by putting medicine in the wells, and by other means, practiced witchcraft; and this kept away many who otherwise might have ventured to hear the gospel, and came near to producing serious danger. After this followed a severe epidemic of cholera, filling the houses and the streets with funerals and with mourning. For a while the missionaries escaped, and did what they could for the Chinese patients; but they were soon themselves attacked; and then they had to give their time and strength to ministering to their own sick, and to burying their own dead. Mr. Gayley first, and then his child, died, and a child of one of the Baptist missionaries. Others were stricken but recovered. The epidemic lasted longest among the Chinese, and this afforded the missionaries opportunity to save many lives by prompt application of remedies; and so tended greatly to remove prejudice and to open the way for the gospel. Ten persons were admitted to membership in the church, the first fruits of the harvest which has ever since been gathering. But a sad depletion of the laborers soon afterward followed. Mrs. Gayley was compelled to take her remaining child, and go home; Mr. Danforth’s health became such that he also had to leave; the health of Mrs. Nevius, which had been poor for a long time, had become worse and, the physician having ordered her away, she and her husband went south. This left Rev. Mr. Mills and his wife as the only representatives of the Presbyterian Board, until the Mateers and Corbetts arrived, about three years after the beginning of the station by Danforth and Gayley.
When the Mateers and Corbetts came they were, of necessity, lodged in the quarters already occupied by the Mills family. These consisted of no less than four small one-story stone buildings clustered near together; one used for a kitchen, another for a dining room, a third for a guest room, and the fourth for a parlor and bedroom. Each stood apart from the other, and without covered connection. The larger of them had been a temple dedicated to Kwan Yin, whom foreigners have called the Chinese god of mercy. According to the universal superstition, the air is full of superhuman spirits, in dread of whom the people of China constantly live, and to avert the displeasure of whom most of their religious services are performed. Kwan Yin, however, is an exception in character to the malignancy of these imaginary deities. There is no end to the myths that are current as to this god, and they all are stories of deliverance from trouble and danger. To him the people always turn with their vows and prayers and offerings, in any time of special need. Partly because the women are especially devoted to this cult, and partly because mercy is regarded by the Chinese as a distinctively female trait, the easy-going mythology of the country has allowed Kwan Yin, in later times, to take the form of a woman. When the missionaries came to Tengchow, the priest in charge of this temple was short of funds, and he was easily induced to rent it to them. He left the images of Kwan Yin in the house. Just what to do with them became a practical question; from its solution a boy who lived with the Mateers learned a valuable lesson. When asked whether the idols could do anybody harm, he promptly replied “No”; giving as a reason that the biggest one that used to be in the room where they were then talking was buried outside the gate! At first a wall was built around the other idols, but by and by they were all taken down from their places and disposed of in various ways. Mateer speaks of a mud image of Kwan Yin, about four feet high, and weighing over two hundred pounds, still standing in his garret in 1870.
The coming of these new mission families into the Mills residence crowded it beyond comfort, and beyond convenience for the work that was imperative. The Mateers had the dining room assigned to them as their abode, this being the best that could be offered. Of course, little effective study could under such conditions be put on the language which must be acquired before any direct missionary labor could be performed. Under the loss of time he thus was suffering, Mateer chafed like a caged lion; and so, as soon as possible, he had another room cleared of the goods of Mr. Nevius, which had been stored there until they could be shipped, and then set to work to build a chimney and to put the place in order for his own occupation. Thus he had his first experience of the dilatory and unskillful operations of native mechanics. The dining room was left without a stove, and, on account of the cold, something had to be done to supply the want. In all Tengchow such a thing as a stove could not be purchased; possibly one might have been secured at Chefoo, but most probably none could have been obtained short of Shanghai. The time had already come for Mateer to exercise his mechanical gifts. He says:
Mr. Mills and I got to work to make a stove out of tin. We had the top and bottom of an old sheet-iron stove for a foundation from which we finally succeeded in making what proves to be a very good stove. We put over one hundred and sixty rivets in it in the process of making it. I next had my ingenuity taxed to make a machine to press the fine coal they burn here, into balls or blocks, so that we could use it. They have been simply setting it with a sort of gum water and molding it into balls with their hands. Thus prepared, it was too soft and porous to burn well. So, as it was the time of the new year, and we could not obtain a teacher, I got to work, and with considerable trouble, and working at a vast disadvantage from want of proper tools, I succeeded in making a machine to press the coal into solid, square blocks. At first it seemed as if it would be a failure, for although it pressed the coal admirably it seemed impossible to get the block out of the machine successfully. This was obviated, however, and it worked very well, and seems to be quite an institution.
This machine subsequently he improved so that a boy could turn out the fuel with great rapidity.
The house, with the best arrangements that could be made, was so overcrowded that relief of some sort was a necessity. The Corbetts, despairing of getting suitable accommodations for themselves, went back to the neighborhood of Chefoo and never returned,—an immense gain for Chefoo, but an equally immense loss for Tengchow. Mills preferred to find a new house for himself and family, and—after the usual delays and difficulties because of the unwillingness of the people and of the officials to allow the hated foreigners to get such a permanent foothold in the place—he at length succeeded. But that was only a remote step toward actual occupation. A Chinese house at its best estate commonly is of one story; and usually has no floor but the ground and no ceiling but the roof, or a flimsy affair made of cornstalks and paper. The windows have a sort of latticework covered with thin paper; and it is necessary to tear down some of the wall, in order to have a sufficient number of them, and to give those which do exist a shape suitable for sash. The doors are low, few in number, rudely made, and in two pieces. A Chinese house may be large enough, but it is usually all in one big room.