In March, 1838, Mrs. Eliza G. Jones died of cholera. She was a lady of many gifts and graces. A little tract from her pen, The Burmese Village, is one of the most vivid and touching pictures of heathenism in all missionary literature. In April the Rev. Mr. Robbins and Dr. Tracy arrived to join the A. B. C. F. M. mission, but both left the following year.
This year (1838) was one memorable in the history of the Presbyterian mission, as in it occurred the visit of the Rev. R. W. Dee, who had been directed by the Presbyterian Board to proceed to Bangkok and report upon its eligibility as a station for the missionary operations they were about entering upon for the Chinese, so difficult of access in their own country. During his month’s stay in Siam, Mr. Dee found so large a field unoccupied, where laborers from our branch of the Church would be gladly welcomed, that he urged upon the Board the establishment of a mission in that land, not only to the Chinese there, but to the Siamese also. November 5, 1838, Dr. Bradley was ordained a minister of the gospel by his congregational associates.
In 1839 the Siamese government availed itself of one of the mission printing-presses to multiply copies of a royal proclamation against opium, and had an edition of nine thousand copies struck off. In August of this year the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Slaftee of the Baptist mission arrived.
In 1840 vaccination was successfully introduced into Siam by Dr. Bradley,—a great boon to the people, among whom small-pox often committed fearful ravages.
The American Board’s mission was strongly reinforced in its Siamese departments early in the year by the arrival of the Rev. Messrs. Jesse Caswell, Asa Hemenway, N. S. Benham and their wives, with Miss Pierce—Mr. Benham to lose his life in one short month by drowning, his boat capsizing in the Menam when returning from an evening prayer-meeting. The Rev. Messrs. French and Peet, with their wives, also arrived in May. To the Chinese department of the Baptist mission came the Rev. Josiah Goddard and his wife in October.
It was in August of this same year that the Rev. William Buell and wife, the first missionaries of the Presbyterian Board to the Siamese, arrived in Bangkok. There were then in Siam no less than twenty-four adult male and female missionaries.
But the next year Mr. Slaftee died of dysentery and Mrs. Johnson of brain fever, and the widowed Mrs. Benham returned to the United States. In 1842, Mr. French died of consumption, and the following year his widow left Siam for the United States.
In 1842, by the treaty made at the close of the war between England and China, the island of Hong Kong was ceded to the English and five important seaports thrown open to foreign residence and trade. Dr. Dean, under instruction from his Board, who hastened to enter the now unbarred gates of access to the Chinese empire, removed early in the year to Hong Kong, leaving the Chinese church in Bangkok in charge of Mr. Goddard.
In 1843, Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Chandler arrived from Burmah, where, as a type-founder and lay missionary, he had been employed for three years. Being a practical machinist, he did much to introduce a knowledge of the useful arts among some of the leading men of the kingdom. Prince Chow Fah Noi, who subsequently, in 1851, was made the second king, became a pupil of his, and constructed a well-appointed machine-shop under his supervision, as did also an intelligent young Siamese nobleman of progressive ideas who afterward became master of the mint.
In 1844 the first steamer ever seen in Siam made its appearance, and greatly astonished the natives. On leaving, it took as passengers to Singapore the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Buell, the only missionaries of the Presbyterian Board, who were now, after only three and a half years’ residence, most reluctantly obliged to abandon their work, Mrs. Buell having been stricken with paralysis. With their departure (February 24th) the Presbyterian mission in Siam died out, or rather was suspended, and more than three years elapsed before it was resumed. It had from the first been the intention of the Board to establish and maintain a Chinese department, but those sent out for this purpose, on reaching Singapore and learning there how fully open China proper was to the gospel, felt themselves called to proceed to that land, whose claims seemed so much greater. Miss Pierce of the American Board, who had come out as a missionary teacher, but failed to gather a school, died of consumption in September of this year.