[62]. Mr. Thomas Nickerson, of Newton Centre.
[63]. I am indebted for this reminiscence to Mr. H. S. Washburn, of Boston.
[64]. The road has since been changed and now passes below the house.
[65]. The reader is referred to Dr. Kendrick’s Memoir of Mrs. E. C. Judson.
[66]. See the graceful sketch of “The Life and Character of Gardner Colby,” by his son, the Rev. Henry F. Colby.
CHAPTER XII.
LAST YEARS.
1846-1850.
More than four months elapsed after Mr. and Mrs. Judson parted from their friends in Boston before they arrived at Maulmain. The passage, though long, was pleasant. Under date of November 27, 1846, Mr. Judson writes to his friend, Mr. Gardner Colby:
“One hundred and thirty-nine days from Boston, and the mountains of Burmah appear in the horizon. None ever had a pleasanter passage than we have been favored with, though rather long, from the prevalence of head-winds. The Faneuil Hall was a good sailer, an excellent sea-boat, and furnished with the best accommodations. The table was well supplied, and the captain endeared himself to us, not only by unremitting kindness, but by the interchange of congenial sentiments and feelings on the subject of religion. Two services on Lord’s days, the one a Bible-class in the saloon, and the other, public worship on deck with the crew, together with evening worship every day, have given the character of a Bethel to our floating home.
“In regard to my studies, I have not much to boast of. Not having my native assistants with me, I have not ventured to go forward in the dictionary, but have employed myself in revising and transcribing for the press the first half of the English and Burmese part, that had been previously sketched out. This work I had hardly completed when the cry of Land, ho! saluted my ears.”
In passing the Island of St. Helena, his thoughts dwelt tenderly upon her who, like Rachel of old, had died “on the way, when it was but a little way to go unto Ephrath.”