CHAPTER XVI.

WAR WITH THE BRITISH.—­NARRATIVE OF THE SUFFERINGS OF THE MISSIONARIES DURING THE WAR.

In 1824 news reached America of the breaking out of war between Burmah and British India.  This of course excited the most anxious interest for the fate of the Americans in that country.  At length anxiety was somewhat relieved by the intelligence that Messrs. Wade and Hough with their families, who had remained at Rangoon, were, after dreadful sufferings, safe under British protection.  But over the fate of Mr. and Mrs. Judson hung the silence of death, or of a suspense worse than death, for more than two years, until hope itself died in the hearts of their friends and kindred.

But although in this long period of doubt and darkness, busy fancy had pictured many scenes of terror and many forms of violent death, as the possible lot of the missionaries; yet in her wildest nights she never could have conceived of the terrible reality which they endured, not for days and weeks only, but for eighteen weary months.  The wildest tale of fiction has never depicted more cruel anguish, more appalling suffering borne with more heroic energy, and more sublime fortitude—­the wildest fiction would not dare to portray woman’s love and faith and Christian hope, so long triumphant over insult and outrage, and torture and death itself.  Who after reading the following narrative of an heroic female’s unparalleled endurance, will ever say that woman’s is a feeble nature, incapable of withstanding the rude shocks of adverse fortune?  Nay, who will not rather say, that in woman, hope and faith, and fortitude and energy, make even the frail body immortal, till her labor of love is accomplished, and its cherished object is rescued from peril?

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“The war which now broke out between the Burman government and that of the English in Bengal, forms an important era in the history of the mission.

“Its first effect was to put an end to the labors of the missionaries, and involve them in unspeakable sufferings, yet in accordance with a mysterious though beneficent law of human affairs, its ultimate issues have proved favorable not only to the interests of that particular mission, but also to the further extension of Christian civilization among the thickly peopled countries of Eastern India.  The war had its origin in feuds which had long existed on the frontiers of Chittagong.”  Some Burman criminals had escaped to that territory, where as it was alleged they were protected by British power.  The Burman monarch determined to chastise the English by making war on their government, and had raised thirty thousand troops under the command of his greatest warrior Bandula; but the East India Company anticipated his movements, and landed their forces at Rangoon so suddenly and unexpectedly, that the city fell into their hands