THE PIONEER MISSIONARY TO LAO.
By Laura B. M'Kean
BY MRS. LAURA B. M'KEAN, CHEUNG MAI, SIAM. In 1858 a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary left the American shores for a distant mission field. After a voyage of several months in a sailing vessel, he landed in Bangkok, Siam, “the Venice of the Orient.” This young man was Rev. Daniel McGilvary, now Rev. Daniel McGilvary, D.D., aptly styled “the Apostle to the Lao.” In Bangkok he engaged in mission work with all the zeal of a soul alive to the needs of a lost race. Here he met and married a daughter of the venerable Dr. Bradley. She has shared in his labor of love, and has endured with him all the trials and privations of pioneer missionary life. Dr. McGilvary could not long endure to build on another’s foundation, so he, in company with a fellow-missionary, left Bangkok for Petchaburee. After the work was well established at that point, Dr. McGilvary again turned his face toward the regions yet in darkness. But this time it was not toward a neighboring city a few days’ journey away, but to the almost unknown Lao-land, farther away in point of time from Bangkok than Bangkok is from the United States. Dr. McGilvary had become interested in the Lao people by meeting traders who came to Bangkok every year for goods, and also through a colony of Lao war captives who had been located near Petchaburee by their captors. From these sources he had learned much of the customs and disposition of the people. During a visit of the Lao king to Bangkok, Dr. McGilvary, with several other American missionaries, called upon him, and from him received assurance that the foreign teachers would receive a welcome should they visit his capital. So intense had become Dr. McGilvary’s desire to take the Gospel to this people, that, in the face of many hindrances, he, in company with Rev. Jonathan Wilson, made a tour of investigation into this northern district. A part of the journey was made by boat, and a part by elephant. This tour strengthened Dr. McGilvary’s belief that a mission station should at once be opened in Cheung Mai, that being the most important city of the Lao country. In 1867 permission was granted for the opening of this station, and the North Lao Mission became a reality. Dr. and Mrs. McGilvary at once began preparation for removing to Cheung Mai. It sounds very simple to say, “Go to Cheung Mai,” but even in these days it is no small undertaking. It meant that this family of four, including two small children, must make a boat journey of two months, in a little cabin eight feet by ten, passing though those difficult rapids, forty or more in number. It was not known that any foreigner had ever ascended these rapids. And even to-day, tho we know that every year missionaries pass up and down this river, and no lives have been lost, yet the rapids are always more or less dreaded. It meant leaving all other white companionship, and it also meant no physician in case of illness. But none of these things moved them. I can liken these saints of God to none except to Abraham and Sarah. The Lord had called them into an unknown country, and they went, never doubting the divine leading. Their first dwelling was a sala, one of the public resting-places of the city. Here they lived for two years. The greater part of that time they had no privacy. Their white faces and foreign dress were a great curiosity to the people, and all day long they were thronged with callers. After many months of faithful sowing of the seed, the harvest began to appear. Then appeared also the heathen jealousy of the ruler. Two men who had accepted Christ were arrested, and after a night of torture were beaten to death. In this instance, as in ages past, the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. Dr. McGilvary sent word to Bangkok of the death of these men, and a delegation was sent to Cheung Mai to investigate the matter. Dr. McGilvary accompanied this delegation on their visit to the king. At first the king denied any knowledge of the affair, but Dr. McGilvary boldly accused him of the murder. Then the king acknowledged the deed, and further said, “The American missionaries may make as many Christians as they like, but I shall take the life of every one.” The death of these men and the hostilities of the king frightened the people, so that for a time there were almost no visitors at the home of the missionaries. An aged priest, who visits us frequently, told me that he was the only one who dared visit Dr. McGilvary at that time. It is with considerable pride he tells of his fidelity and courage. In spite of the king’s attitude toward mission work, Dr. McGilvary still continued to visit him, and was always well received. The second year Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson joined the mission. By some persons it was thought that the work was hopeless, and that it might as well be abandoned, but Dr. McGilvary, with the eye of faith, saw the large community of Christians which exists there to-day, and Cheung Mai as a center of light, throwing rays far out into the darkness, and he refused to leave. Just when the outlook was the darkest, the king was summoned to Bangkok, and he died while returning to Cheung Mai, a few days before he reached the city. According to the custom of the country, no dead body can be taken inside the city walls, and so the king awaited his burning outside of the city, and not within his own palace, which was no small evidence of his demerit. His daughter, who ascended the throne, was more friendly to the missionaries, and placed no obstacles in the way of the mission work. Dr. McGilvary and Rev. Mr. Wilson were now able to secure land and begin the erection of dwelling-houses. It was several years before Dr. McGilvary’s house was finally completed. Logs were brought from the forest, and every plank and post was sawed by hand, according to the slow method of the native people. As soon as Dr. McGilvary saw the work beginning to take on a permanent look, the old spirit of pioneering came upon him, and he began to make long tours into the neighboring cities and provinces. While Cheung Mai always remained his home, yet every year he makes a tour of from two to five months into the northern part of the Lao country. The churches of Cheung Hai and Cheung Saan are a part of the fruitage of these tours. He discovered the mountain tribe of Moosur, near Cheung Hai, and preached Christ to them. He spent weeks in visiting this tribe, tramping over the mountains, enduring all the inconveniences of camp life, and the dangers of climate. Dr. McGilvary has had the joy of welcoming twenty-three of this tribe into the visible church of Christ. He wrote a fellow missionary that he considered the day of Cha Ba Kaw’s baptism a red-letter day in his missionary experience. Cha Ba Kaw was the head man of his village, and the first of the Moosur race to accept Christ. In his tours through this north country, Dr. McGilvary has found fourteen or fifteen other mountain tribes, having different languages, and in a measure different customs, habits, and superstitions, but they are all alike in that they need the Gospel. Dr. McGilvary’s heart goes out toward these strangers to Christ, and his every prayer is burdened with petitions for their salvation. His eyes shine with joy, his step seems more elastic, and his whole being filled with new life, when the time comes for his annual visit to these northern peoples. It is the custom of the missionaries to meet at his home the morning he leaves, and, after everything is packed and ready to start, the elephants restlessly tingling their bells, seemingly anxious to be off on their grand mission, a season of prayer is held, petitioning God’s blessing upon the tour.—Missionary Review. As a fitting supplement to the foregoing, we give the following paragraph from the general report of Rev. F. F. Ellinwood, D.D., on “Missions in Siam and Laos”:— “The Laos field is now considered one of the most promising, tho twenty-eight years years ago it seemed one of the most difficult, owing to the above-mentioned bitter persecution. The favorable reaction was strong. Martyrs’ blood in that distant region, as elsewhere, proved to be the seed of the church. Compared with the people of Siam, especially at Bangkok, the inhabitants of Laos are more simple and confiding. They have the great advantage of being sufficiently removed from those corrupting influences of foreign contact which in all lands have proved so detrimental to the highest missionary success. Medical work has had a most salutary influence in winning the confidence of the people; and, altho a former king was a persecutor, the princes of Laos in recent years have held a friendly attitude toward the missions, and there has been as great freedom in the proclamation of the Gospel in every part of that country as in the territories of the United States.”