In 1856 the schools reported forty-seven in attendance, and every department of the work was in successful operation.
Another station in Bangkok being thought desirable, and a large lot with broad frontage on the river on its west bank in the lower suburbs of the city becoming available, it was secured, and Mr. Morse (a bamboo cottage being put up for his temporary residence) removed there and commenced building a brick dwelling-house. Ere its walls were half up he was completely prostrated by disease, and forced, to the great regret of his associates, to leave the field and the work he loved, and for which he was so well qualified. Previous to his leaving, Mrs. Mattoon, finding an American ship loading at Bangkok to sail direct for the United States in March of this year, had availed herself of the opportunity to make a visit home for rest and to recruit her strength, exhausted by ten years’ toil in a tropical climate.
It being necessary to go on and complete the building begun by Mr. Morse, and the new premises there having the advantage of carrying on some departments of missionary work, and not being subject to ground-rent, as was the other place, it was deemed best to give up the upper station, dispose of the buildings there and establish the Presbyterian mission permanently on the newly-purchased ground. The removal of the mission to the new station, four miles below, was made in November, 1857, and another dwelling-house immediately commenced.
This was nearly completed when, June 20, 1858, the Rev. Jonathan Wilson and wife and the Rev. Daniel McGilvary arrived. Messrs. W. and McG. had been room-mates at Princeton Seminary; while there had both felt the claims upon them of missionary work, and had become much interested in Siam; but after graduating Mr. McGilvary was called to become pastor over a church in North Carolina, and Mr. Wilson had gone out as a missionary to the Choctaw Indians. Years passed, and each had been led by the pressing needs of the field to offer himself to the Board for service there, and most gratifying was it to find that they were to be sent out together.
The number of ordained ministers now warranted the formation of a Presbytery, and the Presbytery of Siam was duly constituted September 1, 1858.
In the study of the language, aiding in the instruction of the pupils in the boarding-school and in tract-distribution the new brethren found enough to busy them.
In January, 1859, the Rev. S. Mattoon, who had then for some twelve years without intermission borne the burden and heat of the day, returned to the United States for the much-needed change, rejoining his family there.
Signs of more than usual religious interest appeared about this time, and one of the native teachers, Nai Chune, applied for Christian baptism. So deep, however, was the duplicity of this people generally, and so many who professed interest in the teachings of the gospel had proved to be influenced by purely selfish motives, that when this case of genuine conviction of the truth occurred, just what they had been hoping and praying for so long, the brethren distrusted the sincerity of the man, and put him off from week to week until fairly compelled to admit that the miracle of converting grace had actually been wrought even in a Siamese, and they could no longer forbid water that he should be baptized. The day of Nai Chune’s baptism (August 7, 1859) was to them a jubilee indeed. With tears of joy they gathered in at last, after more than twelve years of toil unblest, the first-fruits of their labor among the Siamese.
It was singular that this same year (in December) the mission should lose its first church-member—Quakieng, the faithful, consistent Chinese native assistant. He was attacked by cholera and died, commending his departing spirit to his heavenly Father. With his death the Hokien-Chinese instruction in the mission-school ceased, and soon after the teaching of the Hainan Chinese in their native tongue. The school was too well established now to need to hold out this inducement to attract pupils.
The cholera was quite prevalent in April, and Mrs. Wilson nearly became a victim. Other diseases set in, and she lingered on the borders of the spirit-land till July 10th, when she closed a blameless Christian life and entered into the home of the blessed with words of rapture on her lips.