VISIONS OF THE REGIONS BEYOND
During this systematic visitation, Dr. House obtained glimpses of “the regions beyond.” Medical work had already brought him into contact with the aliens in Bangkok. As he became acquainted with these groups by his travels throughout the city he became deeply interested in their home lands. Small as the mission force in Bangkok was, he began to meditate whether their efforts should be confined to the Siamese to the exclusion of all these other peoples.
At that time it was estimated that the strangers within the gates were equal to the native population of Bangkok. Chief among these immigrants were the Chinese. The Chinese held nearly all the trading in Bangkok. The semi-annual trade winds brought numerous junks from China laded with Chinese products; and each of these junks had its cargo of human freight also. Sometimes a single junk would bring as many as three hundred; and the average annual immigration was estimated at one thousand. These people came largely from the Island of Hainan, and nine-tenths of those who sent their boys to the mission school were from this province.
There were but few Burmese in Bangkok; but of their old enemies, the Peguans, there was a large village on the west bank of the river. These people had originally sought refuge from the Burmese by taking service under the king of Siam, but in time had practically become his serfs. It was in their village that Mrs. Mattoon began her class of children which later was transferred to the mission compound. The Malays, few in number, could not be reached for want of acquaintance with their language. Dr. House records an anecdote which had come to his ears showing the shrewdness of these people in their native country:
“The chiefs obtained some Christian tracts. Whenever a trading vessel arrived, they showed these tracts to the captain. If the captain swore at the tracts, they concluded that he was not a Christian, and would have nothing to do with him. But if he displayed an interest and inquired about the tracts, they judged that he was sympathetic with religion and that they could trust him.”
During the cholera epidemic Dr. House was called to see the servant of a Cambodian prince living in Bangkok, and the visit resulted in an enduring friendship. The prince, the son of the king of Cambodia, was living in a grand palace provided by the king of Siam; and Dr. House was led to suspect that he was held as hostage for the good behaviour of his father, over whom Siam claimed suzerainty. The prince urged the doctor to go to Cambodia, assuring him that he would be welcomed with open arms by the king; and that the people did not approve of the worship of images, for the Cambodians held that “God made man, and man cannot make God.” The information gained from the prince prompted Dr. House and Mr. Mattoon to plan a trip into that country. They entered upon the study of the language for that purpose, but the death of the old king of Siam arrested these plans. However, the interest awakened in Dr. House led eventually to his notable trip to Korat.
But perhaps the most important of these chance relations was with the Lao. The doctor had early learned of the frequent trips of boatmen from the Lao land. With ears open for useful information, he gathered from a Siamo-Portuguese doctor, who had accompanied a Catholic priest to Chieng Mai, information concerning the route, knowledge of the receptive character of the people and of the deceptive nature of the reigning prince. His interest in the Lao grew until he felt prompted to leave the Siamese to his fellow missionaries and betake himself to the Lao country. A particular day of indifference to his message in the streets of Bangkok sent him to bed with a heavy heart:
“But ere midnight,” he writes, “my sorrow was turned into joy as the privilege was presented to my view of yet going a messenger of the glad tidings to the tribes of the Laos to the north. To them shall my thoughts be given and my future life, if Providence but opens the way.”
And again when he was depressed by the fruitlessness of the early labours he meditates: