Four years in Upper Burma

by W. R. Winston

But the superior quality of the instruction given, and a cheerful, friendly manner towards all, soon disarmed this ill-will and obstruction; the school prospered, and the meetings were well attended. There was another Anglo-vernacular school of the same grade as ours in the town, which, being supported out of municipal funds, could afford to take boys at half the fees we charged, and it had all the weight of official and influential support at its back. But the better work done in the mission school told here also, and it was not long before we held the field without a rival. As early as the second year at Pakokku, all this difficulty and opposition had melted away. The Report of the Mission for 1890 states, as regards Pakokku:—

“This year has witnessed three baptisms from Buddhism. In the case of each, long research and definite decision preceded the Christian rite. The ages of the three were thirty-four, twenty and seventeen. The young man aged twenty on being asked, ‘Are you ready to confess Christ before men?’ replied in his usual serious manner: ‘I know that the Buddhist religion is without a Saviour, and that Jesus Christ saves from sin.’ This youth for two years had been a seeker after Christ, and by his earnest, thoughtful course of conduct had often impressed us. The day school has greatly increased during the year, and in April the municipality voluntarily closed its school in our favour, and entrusted the education of the scholars to our care, giving us a substantial grant towards the working expenses of the school. This action has been specially encouraging to us, for on our opening the Mission on this station, influential members of the municipality met us, and seriously asked us to relinquish our purpose, of endeavouring to plant the Christian faith in the midst of the Buddhism which they loved so well. The sons of most of these members are now with confidence committed to our trust, and this in the face of the fact that the best hour of the day’s work is regularly devoted to teaching the Scriptures. The tone of the school is good, the attendance at our two Sunday Burmese services encouraging. The pupil teacher has been baptised, and there is a work going on in the hearts of some of the boys, which gives us great hope of their salvation. The number on the roll is fifty. The results of the December Government Examinations are most satisfactory. Out of twelve presented from our school ten passed. Out of three Scholarships gained by the whole of Upper Burma two fell to us, while one boy took the first prize for the province in English.”

This report shows what hard work can do in the face of discouraging circumstances, and it is also a very clear illustration of the way in which Christian educational work, when wisely conducted, is a valuable assistance to mission work.

So successful and promising a work must needs have permanent mission premises in which to carry it on. Simultaneously with this educational and evangelistic work, our pioneer missionary there had also to undertake the worry of purchasing land, and building a school-chapel, similar to the one at Mandalay. As a mission site, he purchased over four acres of land in a most eligible, central and healthy situation, and at the same price as we paid in Mandalay. It was so cheap that, before long, Mr. Bestall was offered four times what he gave for it. The work of building there was peculiarly slow and trying, owing to the stupidity of the Burman workmen; but at length the school-chapel was finished, and our work in Pakokku assumed definite shape.

The purchase of the site for the school-chapel, and the erection of the building at Mandalay, furnished an experience sufficiently trying to my patience, and consumed a great deal of valuable time, and I could not but wish I had some native brethren, to share the burden of these tedious details. Time is no object to the Oriental, and in dealing with him you have to be prepared to see much precious time wasted. Having chosen the site that seemed on the whole best, the next thing was to purchase it. It was a square piece of land, about an acre and a half in extent, bounded on two sides by the public streets, and on these two sides there were about twenty-five bamboo houses, each in a little plot of ground, all belonging to different owners, besides six or seven more houses inside the square. In the Burmese times no deeds were used; everything went by word of mouth; indeed there hardly could be said to be any property in land, as everything belonged to the king. It was therefore, after the annexation, a matter of no little delicacy and risk to buy land, as the evidence of ownership, in the absence of deeds, was most precarious. The danger was that the buyer, in the absence of any local knowledge, should buy from some one who could not prove his title, and afterwards should have to purchase it over again from the real owner. A great deal of property changed hands at that time in Mandalay, and this mishap occurred in some cases. In the case of the Mission, although in our three stations we had to purchase from thirty or forty different owners, we managed in every case to make one payment serve.

I also found that there were amongst the dwellers on the site of the school-chapel, three different kinds of tenure, and we had to be careful not to purchase what the holder had no power to sell. Some six or seven people were merely squatters, and had put up their bamboo houses there without any right or title to the land. The greater number held the land on what is known in Mandalay as the Ahmudan tenure. They were the soldiers, if we might call them such, or retainers of the king, and held only a temporary or conditional interest in the land, by virtue of military service. One only, out of the whole number, could be regarded as the freehold possessor. We had to pay accordingly to each. It was a tedious business finding out all this. Some of the cases were troublesome to settle. One in particular was in dispute between a certain widow, and a man who is a leper, a relative of hers, for some time both claiming the ownership. At length we reached the end of the negotiations, the last of the bamboo houses was taken down and removed, and we were free to begin with the building.

I have mentioned these matters to show the variety of the business details that enter into pioneer mission work, and how many things the missionary has to take up his time. When it came to building the school-chapel, it proved a very lengthy and wearisome affair, on account of the idleness and dilatory habits of the Burman mason who had undertaken the contract. As the work proceeded he became more clamorous for advances of money, and less inclined to do any work. Thrice the building came to a perfect standstill; he declared he would not work without money in hand; twice I managed to get him to start again, wishing him to complete the contract if possible. But finding, at length, that he never meant to finish it, I had to let him go, and employ a native of India to do the rest of the work, losing something, of course, by the change of contract. With all my love for the Burmans, and a sincere desire to befriend them, I almost resolved never to employ a Burman mason again. This lack of steadiness, reliableness, and patient continuance, is a defect in the national character. They allow most of the prosperity to slip past them, in this way, into the hands of Chinamen and natives of India.

At length, however, the building was finished, a neat, substantial, well-ventilated school-chapel, sixty feet by thirty-six, with a neat portico in front, and two stories high. This building was no sooner finished than we began to find the great advantage of it in our work. It forms an excellent centre, both for educational and evangelistic work, and is put to constant use. On a Sunday we commence with a soldiers’ parade service at seven in the morning, from eight to nine the Tamil service, and from nine to ten the Burmese, three services in three languages in the morning. At five in the afternoon we have an out-door service in Burmese near the chapel, and at six o’clock the English service, at which all classes of English-speaking people, both military and civilian, attend. Day by day we have school there, and one evening a week a Bible-class in English, and another evening a magic-lantern exhibition, with Scripture slides only, for the purpose of preaching the Gospel to the Burmans. We have found the latter an exceedingly useful method of preaching the Gospel in Burma. The Burmans have a good appreciation of pictures, and we have found no difficulty in crowding the chapel, week after week, in this way. By this means great numbers of the people have been able, through the eye, as well as through the ear, to gather some definite information about the life and teachings of our Saviour and the great cardinal truths of the Gospel.