“My little Maria lies by the side of her fond mother. The complaint to which she was subject several months proved incurable. She had the best medical advice; and the kind care of Mrs. Wade could not have been, in any respect, exceeded by that of her own mother. But all our efforts, and prayers, and tears could not propitiate the cruel disease; the work of death went forward, and after the usual process, excruciating to a parent’s heart, she ceased to breathe on the 24th instant, at 3 o’clock P.M., aged two years and three months. We then closed her faded eyes, and bound up her discolored lips, where the dark touch of death first appeared, and folded her little hands on her cold breast. The next morning we made her last bed in the small enclosure that surrounds her mother’s lonely grave. Together they rest in hope, under the hope-tree (hopiá), which stands at the head of the graves; and together, I trust, their spirits are rejoicing after a short separation of precisely six months.
“And I am left alone in the wide world. My own dear family I have buried; one in Rangoon, and two in Amherst. What remains for me but to hold myself in readiness to follow the dear departed to that blessed world,
“‘Where my best friends, my kindred dwell,
Where God, my Saviour, reigns.’”
The time had now come when the little mission established at Amherst, with such doleful omens, was to be broken up. Amherst was being rapidly eclipsed by the town of Maulmain, situated on the coast about twenty-five miles farther north, at the very mouth of the Salwen. Maulmain was also a new town, the settlers building their houses right in a thick jungle. But within a year of the first settlement, while the number of houses in Amherst amounted to two hundred and thirty, and the population to twelve hundred, the population of Maulmain had rapidly swelled to twenty thousand. The reason for this growth was an unfortunate misunderstanding between the Civil Commissioner, Mr. Crawfurd, and the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Archibald Campbell.
The latter made Maulmain instead of Amherst the headquarters of his army. He regarded Maulmain as a more strategical position. The harbor, too, of Amherst, though spacious, and capable of accommodating ships of large burden, was difficult of access, and, being farther out from the mouth of the Salwen than Maulmain, was dangerous during the southwest monsoon. The presence of the commander-in-chief and of his army at Maulmain, naturally attracted emigration thither, and it soon became apparent that this town instead of Amherst was to be the metropolis of the ceded provinces of Tenasserim. Accordingly it seemed best to transfer the mission to Maulmain. On May 28, 1827, Mr. and Mrs. Boardman removed thither from Amherst, and took possession of a frail bamboo mission-house, situated about a mile south of the cantonments of the English army. The site for the mission had been presented by Sir Archibald Campbell. “It was a lonely spot, and the thick jungle close at hand was the haunt of wild beasts whose howls sounded dismally on their ears in the nighttime.”
On the 10th of August Mr. Judson left Amherst, and the little enclosure, the hope-tree, and the graves which contained the mouldering remains of all that were dearest to him on earth. He joined the Boardmans at Maulmain, and on the 14th of November was followed by Mr. and Mrs. Wade, and the native Christians, together with thirteen native school children. Mah-men-la, however, the first female convert among the Burmans, had already been laid to rest by the side of her white mamma. The following pathetic description of her death is from Mr. Judson’s journal:
“She was taken ill before I left Amherst. When her case became dangerous, she was removed to the mission-house, after which she indulged but little hope of recovery. She therefore made her will, and gave up every worldly care. In her will she bequeathed fifty rupees to her brother, the husband of Mah Doke, one hundred and fifty to the missionaries, and the remainder (two hundred, perhaps,) to her two adopted boys. She has left the boys in our charge, most earnestly desiring and praying that they may be brought up in the Christian religion. No one influenced her to give us any part of her little property, nor had we the least idea that she intended to do so until she desired Moung Shwa-ba to write an article to that effect.
“When her will was written, she said, ‘Now I have done with all worldly things.’ Since that, she has enjoyed great peace of mind. She does not express a doubt that her name is written in heaven, and that she is hastening to a blissful immortality. She suffers considerable pain with much patience, and, in order to fortify her mind, often compares her sufferings to those of her divine Master. She is not inclined to converse much; but how delighted you would be to hear her, now and then, talk of entering heaven, and of meeting Mrs. Judson, and other pious friends! The other day, after having dwelt for some time on the delightful subject, and mentioned the names of all the friends she should rejoice to meet, not omitting dear little Maria, she stopped short and exclaimed, ‘But first of all, I shall hasten to where my Saviour sits, and fall down, and worship and adore Him, for His great love in sending the teachers to show me the way to heaven.’ She says that she feels a choice in her mind to die now rather than to be restored to health, but desires that the will of God may be done. She was much gratified with your letter to-day, and more reconciled to the idea of not seeing you again on earth. I feel it a pleasure to do anything for her, she is so grateful and affectionate.”
Sorrows do not come as single spies, but by battalions. Six months intervened between the deaths of Mrs. Judson and little Maria, and within three months of the burial of the latter, even before leaving Amherst, Mr. Judson heard of the death of his venerable father, who departed this life at Scituate, Massachusetts, November 26, 1826, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. Mr. Judson writes these words of comfort to the beloved ones in the distant homestead at Plymouth: