Travels in south-eastern Asia: embracing Hindustan, Malaya, Siam, and China;

Front matter

X

TRAVELS

IN

Preface

The only aim of the following pages is utility. Had a place been sought among admired travellers, I should have given more descriptions, incidents, and delineations of private character ; and fewer facts, opinions, and reflections ; which would at once have saved labor, and rendered me less vulnerable.

Honest intentions, diligent inquiries, and fortunate opportunities, will not secure a traveller from errors, even in Europe or America, where, in every place, we meet persons of veracity, and free to impart information. In the East, the case is much worse. The foreigner, dreaded for his power, and abhorred for his religion, excites both civil and religious jealousy. His manners often displease, by the omission of forms of which he may be ignorant, or to which he cannot succumb. He is met with taciturnity, or wilful misrepresentation ; and if he escape these, he will generally encounter ignorance. If he be so happy as to find both intelligence and communicativeness, the want of books, maps, charts, and statistics, renders the information of natives merely local, and often conflicting. Added to all, his interpreter may be unskilful. If he depends upon resident foreigners, their arrival may have been recent, or their opportunities small, or their inquiries negligent, or the statements of one may be flatly contradicted by those of another. All these embarrassments have met me by turns, so that frequently, after laborious and continued inquiries, I have been compelled to lay aside the whole mass of notes, in the utter inability to decide whom to believe. I preferred silence, and apparent deficiency, to questionable statements.

My advantages have, nevertheless, been great. I was sent out,

PREFACE.

as the deputy and representative of one of the great American Missionary Societies, to examine into, and with the missionaries adjust, many points not easily settled by correspondence ; to compare the various modes of operation in different missions ; to survey the field ; to compare the claims of proposed new stations ; to comfort, encourage, and strengthen the missionaries in their arduous work ; and to gather details on every point where the Board lacked information. Such a mission gave me confidence, in the eyes of all classes, wherever I went ; and toleration in making investigations, which might otherwise have been deemed impertinent. The time spent at each place, was sufficient for deliberate inquiries, from various sources. In most places, I found missionaries and civilians, who had lived long on the spot, and who gave me the fruits of mature and extended observations. My interpreters were in general not only thoroughly conversant with the language, but in the habit of familiar intercourse with the people, and possessing their confidence. Before leaving a place, I generally submitted my notes to several persons for a careful revision. If, therefore, I should be convicted of errors, they are such as the best informed persons on the spot have fallen into, and as my reader would have imbibed, had he been in my place. Some errors may be charged to me, through mistake of the objector ; for often, when I read my notes in various places, gentlemen dissented from some statements with great confidence, the correctness of which they admitted on further examination ; which examination they would not have made, had I not quoted some influential name as my informer.

It is, of course, out of the question to quote authorities in a work not drawn from books. To have filled the margin with names would have been to violate propriety, while it could not add to the reader’s confidence to quote persons wholly unknown to him. In every part of the work I have studiously sought brevity, lest, by diminishing its circulation, my great object should be defeated.

The map is wholly original ; drawn from the topographical reports of British officers, nautical charts, surveys, and narratives of recent

PREFACE.

travellers. A very great amount of labor has been bestowed upon it, and innumerable differences will be found between it and those which preceded it. At the office of the surveyor-general in Calcutta, I was furnished with great facilities as to the parts under British government, through the personal kindness of Hon. T. B. Macaulay.

The engravings are, in no instance, copied from other books. With three exceptions, (the views of Maulmain, Tavoy and Mergui,) they are from my own sketch-book. They constitute an entirely new contribution to our stock of oriental illustrations. The view of Sagaing was taken from the door of Mr. Kincaid’s house, and shows a section of his family boat, partly hid under the bank. The small size of Burman houses, and the fashion of filling their cities with stately fruit-trees, make them all appear to be far less populous than they really are.

It would be a grateful task to acknowledge the kindnesses which were multiplied upon me in every place. But such matters belong to the sacred recollections of private history. To publish them all, would require constant repetitions, in which the reader could take no interest ; and to name a part, would be doing injustice to the rest. Suffice it to say, that I was every where most affectionately received, for my work’s sake. Never had a man kinder homes when far from his own, not only among missionaries, but with private, civil, and military gentlemen.

May He who blessed the enterprise, and bore me safely through, bless the publication !

Boston, February, 1839.

PREFACE

TO THE NINTH AMERICAN EDITION.

The rapid sale of eight editions of this work, and its republication, in separate editions, both in London and Edinburg, amounting in all to over 20,000 copies, is of course highly gratifying to the author, not only as a seal of approbation on his labor but as a proof of wide-spread interest in the Missionary cause.

The book has been reviewed favorably in the leading magazines of America, England, and the East Indies, as well as in hundreds of newspapers, and noticed in many letters from missionaries, but no statement in it has ever been contradicted or corrected. When it is considered that very little is said of the mere incidents of travel, the truth of which, of course, no one could dispute, but that the book is crowded with facts, dates, prices, scenes, descriptions, and statistics ; commercial, political, scientific, and religious, this is certainly remarkable. I attribute it to my having written every thing on the spot, and always submitting the manuscript to competent critics in each place. As Oriental countries are very little subject to change, a book thus attested will remain for a century as valuable as at first.

In the present edition, whatever the lapse of fourteen years had rendered superfluous, has been omitted. The work is thus divested of what possessed only a transient interest, and placed among permanent histories.

H. M.

University at Lewisbubg, Pa.,

Part I. Travels In Burmah

CHAPTER. L

Departure — Employments — Illness — Comet — Company — Preach on Deck — Squall — Magellan Clouds — Send Letters — Trade Winds — Another Illness — Tristan d’Acunha — Portuguese Men-of-War — Ship Tigris for Ceylon — Encounter between a Whale and a Thresher — “Doubling Cape of Good Hope” — Day of Fasting and Prayer — Enormous Shark — Nicobar Islands — First Sight of Idolaters — Kedgeree — Heavy Dews — Andaman Islands — PreparisandNarcondam — Conversion of Sailors 13

CHAPTER n.

Arrival at Amherst — First Sabbath at Maulmain— Coasting Voyage — Moungmagoung — Curiosity of the People — Walk over the Mountain— Tavoy — Mata — Karens; their Piety, Liberality, Temperance, Gratitude; Letters from Young Converts; Churches — Mergui — Storm — Disagreeable Insects — Variety of Costumes — Karen Juggler 35

Chapter III

Return to Maulmain — Missionary Conference — Preaching — Balu Island — Karen Churches near Maulmain — Water Festival — Chinese Ceremony — The Mohurrum — River Excursion — Remarkable Caves — Karen Christian Village — Church-Meeting and Baptism — Population of Maulmain — Commerce — State of Boodhism — State of the Mission — English Influence 51

Contents

Pagoda — Slaves of the Pagoda — Sunrise Worship — Rainy Monsoon — Mission — Voyage to Pegu — Evidences of former Greatness — ■ Shoomadoo Pagoda — Voyage up the Irrawaddy — Boats — Mode of Fishing — Prome — Leper Village — Gaudama’s Foot — Burman Energy — Earth-Oil Wells — Shyan Caravan — Ruins of Paghan — Attempt to buy Beef — Buffalo Herdmen — Curiosity of Natives — Toddy — Arrival at Ava 67

Chapter V

Ava — Splendid Kyoungs — Pagodas — Priests — Palace— Population — Arts — Prices — The Mekara Prince — Meawade Woongyee — The Burman Pontiff — Surrawa Prince — Climate of Ava — History of the Mission in Ava — Roman Catholics — Sagaing — Marble Quarries — Mengoon Pagoda — Coral Strands — Taking leave of Burmah. . 87

Chapter III

Population— Form and Features — Buildings — Food — Dress — Manners and Customs — Character— Condition of Women — Marriage — Polygamy — Divorce — Diseases — Medical Practice — Midwifery — Funerals — Amusements — Musical Instruments — Manufactures. 130

Chapter IV

Government — Orders of Nobility — Grades of Community — Magistracy — Laws — Division of Property 161

CONTENTS.

Chapter VI

Extent of Boodhism — Meaning of the Term — Antiquity of the System — History of Gaudama — The next Boodh — The Bedagat — - Theory of the Universe — The Four Islands — This Island, or the Earth — Origin and Fall of Man — Celestial Regions — Hells — No eternal God — Universe eternal— Moral Code — Merit — Discourse of Gaudama — Religious Edifices — Images — Impressions of Gaudama’s Foot — Worship — Offerings — Public Days — Superstitions — Nat- Worship — Priests : their Dress, Residences, Morals, Office, Support, Numbers, Orders, Funerals — Priestesses — Sects — Toleration — Remarks 180

Chapter I

Voyage to Calcutta — Saugor Island — Hoogly River — Landing — Houses — Servants — Streets — Weddings — Doorga Pooja — G eneral Assembly’s School — Benevolent Institution — Orphan Refuge — Central School — The Martiniere — Leper Hospital — Operations of Education Committee — Colleges — Progress of the English Language— Use of Roman Alphabet — Native Periodicals — Hindu and Mahometan Edifices — Ram Mohun Roy — Bromha Sobha — Population of Calcutta — Expenses of Living — Habits of Extravagance — Morals — Religion — Clergy — Places of Worship — Missionary Operations — Christian Villages — Hinduism shaken — Serampore ; Aspect ; Population ; Marshman ; College ; Grave-Yard — Operations of the Mission 215

CHAPTER n.

Madras — Catamarans — Difficulty of Landing — Black Town — Esplanade— Population — Illustrations of Scripture — State of Religion — Catholics — Teloogoos — Travelling by Palankeen — Pondicherry — Cuddalore — Tranquebar — Combaconum — Tanjore — Kohlhoff —

CONTENTS.

Swartz — Trichinopoly — Heber— Seringham — Slavery in Hindustan — Idolatry supported by Government — Brahmins and Brahminism — Progressive Poverty of the Country 251

CHAPTER IIL

Voyage to Singapore — Coasters — Prices of Passage in India — Straits of Malacca — Harbor and Town of Singapore — Climate — Productions— Commerce — Islamism — -Population — Moral Character of Population — Orang Louts — Chinese Wedding — Missionary Operations— Malacca — History of the Settlement — Extent — Population — Progress of Christianity — Anglo-Chinese College — Common Schools — Malay Peninsula — Origin of Malay Race — Divisions. 281

CHAPTER IV.

Take Leave of British India — European Manners — Voyage to Bankok — River Meinam — Paknam — Audience with the Governor — Situation of Bankok — Floating Houses — General Appearance — Visittothe Pra Klang ; Servile Forms of Politeness — Chow Fah ; Singular Custom — Pra Nai Wai — Present of an Elephant; Of a Cochin- Chinese Slave — Police of Bankok — Climate — Wats — Houses — Streets — Bridges — Somona Codom — History of Siam — Extent of the Empire — Population — Personal Appearance of Siamese— Dress — Amusements — Military Force — Commerce — Prices of Provision — Fruits — Currency — Character — Degree of Civilization — Slavery — Language — Establishment of the Mission — Mission Premises — Constitution of the First Church in Siam 303

CHAPTER V.

Voyage to Canton — China Sea — Mouth of Pearl River — Outside Pilots — Lintin — Bocca-tigris — Whampoa — Innumerable Boats — Evidences of dense Population — Dollar-Boat — River Scenery — Population of Canton — Foreign Factories or Hongs — Walks in the Subui-bs — Streets — Shops — Vacant Spaces — Placards — Perambulatory Trades — Booksellers — Circulating Libraries — Map of the World — Beggars — Small-footed Women — Trades — Labor-saving Machinery — Chinese Piety — Tombs — Visit to a Hong Merchant — Restrictions on Foreigners — Temples — Priests and Nuns — Pagodas — Chinese Sects — Introduction of Boodhism — Jos — State of Morals in the Foreign Society — The Magnitude and Horrors of the Opium Trade 328

CHAPTER VI.

Embark for Home — Straits of Gaspar and Sunda — Petty Monsoon — Cape of Good Hope — Remarkable Phenomenon — St. Helena — False Alarm — Slave Trade — Landing at Newport — Summary — Reflections 348

CONTENTS.

PAET IV.

A PRACTICAL VIEW OF MODERN MISSIONS.

CHAPTER I.

On the Measure of Success which has attended Modern Missions.— Introduction. — I. The Number of Missionaries. — II. The Kind of Labor performed : Preparatory ; Collateral ; Additional ; Erroneous. — III. Disadvantages of Modern Missionaries : Imper feet Knowledge of the Language ; Poverty of the Languages themselves; Want of Familiarity with the Religion and People ; Degraded State of the Natives; Inability to live as they live; Being Foreigners; The Structure of Society; The prevailing Philosophy ; The Presence of nominal Christians ; Popery. — IV. Efforts which do not reach the Field. — V. The Amount accomplished : A large Force in the Field ; Impediments removed ; Translations made ; Languages reduced to Writing ; General Literature imparted ; Tracts written ; Grammars, Dictionaries, and other Helps prepared; Immense Distribution of Bibles and Tracts; Mechanical Facilities created ; Schools established, and Youth already educated ; Blessings of Christian Morality diffused ; Idolatry in some Places shaken ; Effects on Europeans abroad ; Actual Conversions. — VI. Effects on the Churches at Home — Remarks. 350

. CHAPTER II.

On the Mode of Conducting Modern Missions. — Schools — Translations and Tracts — Preaching in English — Periodicals — Use of the Roman Alphabet — Missionary Physicians — Unnecessary Display and Expense — Direct Preaching to Natives — Formation of Regular Churches — Qualifications of Native Assistants — Instruction in the English Language — Intermission of Operations — Division of Labor — Concentration — Choice of Fields — Remarks. 388

Opinions of Rev. A. Judson and Rev. F. Wayland 428

Index 429

ILLUSTRATIONS,

Page

View of Tavot, oh steel. Frontispiece.

Map op South-Eastern Asia 13

The Grave of Mrs. Judson 36

View of Mergui, on steel 46

Boardman’s Tomb 50

View of Maulmain, on steel 61

Maulmain Printing Office 65

Mr. Judson’s House 66

Ascending the Irrawaddy 75

Burman Ox Cart 86

Ground Plot of Ava 87

Burman Gentleman’s Carriage 90

View of Sagaing, on steel 101

Burman King’s Boat. 102

Warder, or Balu 108

New Pagoda at Ava 118

Junction of the Kyendween 125

Jack-Tree and Fruit 127

Mango 128

The Plantain Tree 129

Stand for Eating 134

Burman Shoe 135

Burman Lady 135

Spittoon 138

Burman Gentleman and Followers 139

Beating the Gong 155

Drums 155

Burman Lamp 156

Assaying Silver 157

Cleaning Cotton 158

Irrigating a Rice Field 179

Gaudama 183

Page

Burman Zayat 193

Statue of a Lion 19.1

Streamer 195

Gaudama’s Foot. 196

Priest Walking out 201

Priest Preaching 203

Burning Ponghee 209

A Bheestie 222

Hindu Woman 223

Wedding Procession 223

Bengal Washerman 224

Mode of Churning 250

Hindu Gentleman’s Carriage 253

Palankeen Travelling 259

A Pecotta 262

Serin gham Gateway 269

A Brahmin 278

Nutmeg 287

Bankok Floating House 307

Siam Lady sitting. 310

Site of Bankok 312

Siam Woman and Child 317

Baptist Mission Premises at Bankok, in Siam 325

Chinese Junk 327

Chinese Boat 331

Chinese Tomb 339

Chinese Temple 341

Chinese Pagoda 343

The Chinese Boodh 345

Chinese Shoe 347

Specimens of Oriental Languages, on steel 356