Just before this, Mr. Milne rejoiced his heart and strengthened his hands by coming out from England and joining the mission; and having commenced under very different circumstances, he soon acquired the language, and greatly assisted Dr. M. in his subsequent translations and labours. But the jealousy of the Portuguese very soon drove Mr. Milne from his embrace, and obliged him to retire, first to Canton, and then to Malacca. This, however, eventually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, by the establishment of the Malayan mission, and thus preparing the way for the establishment of the Anglo-Chinese College there, for the instruction of Chinese youths in the principles of Christianity and the cultivation of Chinese literature in general, which, by the numerous publications that have issued from its press, has proved of incalculable
value to the populous nations around. From Canton, December 19, 1812, he thus writes:—
"The Chinese receive with much readiness the books which I distribute among them. I can give but few with my own hands, as I am not admitted to the interior; nor could I give them openly in the streets. The method which I take is, to give them to the booksellers, who will not destroy them, but be induced to put them into the hands of persons, for the sake of what they can make by them."
In 1814, he happily completed the first part of his Chinese dictionary; and the whole work was generously published at the expense of the East India Company, in three thick quarto volumes. It was the first ever published in the English language; and it must remain a lasting memorial of his astonishing diligence.
In 1816, he went as interpreter with our ambassador, Lord Amherst, to the imperial court of Pekin; and subsequently published an account of that unsuccessful embassy. He founded the Anglo-Chinese College, already mentioned, in 1818, and liberally presented £1000 for its establishment, and £100 per annum, for five years from its actual commencement. In 1819, he completed the translation of the whole Bible, having been assisted in several parts of the Old Testament by his late excellent colleague, Dr. Milne. With great propriety he once observed in conversation, "I could have died, when I had finished the Bible."—On that memorable day he wrote a long memoir, in which he described the principles which he had adopted, and the plan which he had pursued, in its execution; and concluded thus:
"To have Moses, David, and the prophets—Jesus Christ and his apostles—declaring to the inhabitants of China, in their own language, the wonderful works of God, indicates, I hope, the speedy introduction of a happier era, in these parts of the world; and I trust that the gloomy darkness of pagan scepticism will be dispelled by the day-spring from on high; and the gilded idols of Budh, and the numberless images which fill this land, will one day assuredly fall to the ground, before the force of God's word, as the idol Dagon fell before the ark.
It is painful to observe here, that during a considerable portion of his unwearied labours, he was visited by the heaviest afflictions. His own health suffered exceedingly at different periods, under a most painful disorder; his beloved wife also was, for several years, still more grievously afflicted; and just before he had the happiness of finishing his Bible, the wife of his colleague was early taken away, leaving four fatherless children to mourn their unspeakable loss.
As Mrs. Morrison's complaint appeared to baffle the medical skill there, and as it was quite impossible for Dr. Morrison to leave the sphere of his important labours, she was obliged, in 1815, to visit England, accompanied only by her two children. Having sojourned amongst us several years, and finding herself greatly improved in health and spirits, she returned with the same charge to China in 1820, to his unspeakable delight. But the following year, she was suddenly removed, after an illness of a few hours, and he was once more, and for ever here, separated from "the wife of his youth." He had formerly lost his first-born, on the very day it saw the light; and the Portuguese had cruelly refused permission to inter the child of a heretic in their consecrated ground. He was therefore obliged, under the shades of night, to carry his own babe under his arm, attended only by a servant; and to fee some of the
Chinese, to let him pass the brow of a hill which was behind his house; where he dug a grave, and buried his dead, purposing in future an occasional visit to the interesting spot. And now he wished to lay his beloved wife by the side of her babe; but the Chinese threatened to oppose force, if he attempted it; and the Roman Catholics were as inveterate as ever. But that kind Providence which had in so many instances appeared for him, roused the indignation of the gentlemen of the factory at Macao; and they subscribed and purchased a plot of ground, just outside the walls, and devoted it as a perpetual Protestant burial-ground. There he honourably buried her.
Next year, 1822, he was deprived of his able and beloved colleague, Dr. Milne, who, on the 2nd of June, fell a sacrifice to his close and unwearied application, and left the Anglo-Chinese College, of which he was the Principal, the mission in general, and Dr. Morrison in particular, to mourn his almost irreparable loss.