And finds ‘I am not what I see,
And other than the things I touch.’”
In the history of a social body, as well as of the human infant, the period of self-consciousness is the beginning of all real power. In 1812 the Baptists of America were a scattered and feeble folk, and lacked solidarity. There was little or no denominational spirit. The summons to the foreign field shook them together. A glass of water may be slowly reduced in temperature even to a point one or two degrees below freezing, and yet remain uncongealed, provided it be kept perfectly motionless. If, then, it is slightly jarred it will suddenly turn into ice. The Baptist denomination of America was in just such a state of suspense. It needed to be jarred and shaken into solid and enduring form. Mr. Judson’s words: “Should there be formed a Baptist society for the support of a mission in these parts, I should be ready to consider myself their missionary,” proved to be the crystallizing touch.
[7]. For further particulars see “Memoir of Mrs. Harriet Newell,” by Dr. Leonard Woods.
CHAPTER IV.
BURMAH.
Let us now take a look at the country in which Mr. and Mrs. Judson at last found themselves. At the present time there are two distinct Burmahs: British Burmah and Independent Burmah. But at the time when Mr. and Mrs. Judson arrived in Rangoon, these two countries formed one great Empire, ruled by one monarch, whose throne was at Ava. Under successive British invasions the Empire has shrunk to two-thirds of its original size. The English have appropriated the whole of the seaboard, the fertile lowlands forming the richest rice-producing district in the world, and the heavy teak forests of Pegu, which yield ship timber unrivalled for its durability. At the time of the arrival of the Judsons, Burmah was 1,020 miles long and 600 miles wide. It was bounded on the north by Assam and Thibet; on the east by China and Siam; and on the south and west by the Bay of Bengal and the British provinces of India. Its area was 280,000 square miles; so that it was four times as large as the whole of New England.
Burmah is scored by three parallel rivers that flow southward: the Irrawaddy, Sittang, and the Salwen.[[8]] By far the largest of these is the Irrawaddy, which is navigable by steamers to Bhamo, 840 miles from the mouth. The country is made up of these three parallel river valleys, and the mountain chains which flank them. The land in Asia gradually slopes from the Himalayas southward toward the Bay of Bengal. Starting at the south and moving northward, the traveller finds first broad paddy-fields, submerged during a part of the year by the network of streams through which the Irrawaddy finds its way to the sea; then he traverses upland plains; then a rolling country, with ranges of hills; and finally deep forests, high mountains, and the magnificent defiles, through which the rivers flow.
The southern part of Burmah, like Egypt, owes its fertility to an annual inundation which is thus described by an English officer:[[9]]