Korno Siga, the mountain chief; or, Life in Assam

Front matter

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

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Preface

A PERSONAL acquaintance for many years with the author of this book, gives me full warrant to assure its readers that its recitals of missionary life and experience may be implicitly accepted as true.

The volume is not an imaginative portraiture of characters and events, said — in the ordinary phrase — to be "founded on fact/' but it portrays from actual life the facts of missionary labor and experience as they occurred. The sole exception to strict verity is that the persons acting appear under assumed instead of their real names. For this substitution there were in the view of the author valid reasons : First ; that as an active participant, yet living, in the labors, dangers, trials, sorrows, joys and spiritual achievements portrayed, the narrator would be thus shielded from what might, otherwise^ be deemed undue self-assertion. Second, and more important ; as a missionary of ripe experience the author could not otherwise present, with the warm commendation justly deserved, the noble and precious fruits and attainments seen in the lives of

8 PREFACE.

converts from heathen degradation to the purity and liberty y/herewith Christ had made them free, without hazard of possible spiritual injury to some still living in the field referred to who might be unduly elated by such public praise.

For these reasons I take pleasure in presenting for my friend this explanatory preface ; a pleasure, also, heightened by my estimate of the rare value of the narrative itself. As an earnest of its practical usefulness I add that my own heart, I trust, has been quickened by it to renewed and deeper interest in Christian missions to the heathen.

The recital in this narrative of God's call to a missionary life in heathen lands, and the thoughtful, prayerful, and at length loyal response to that call, and the precious spiritual results ensuing, signally verify the beautiful recognition of a divine overruling in the psalm of AVhittier :

" That more and more a Providence Of love is understood, Making the springs of time and sense Sweet with eternal good."

James ]\I. Hoyt.

KOENO SIGA,

THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF.

Chapter I. How It Came About That I Went To India

FOR several years my children have been urging me to write the story of my life in India. But as I am no writer, and have all my life been a hard-working woman in other fields save that of literature, I have hesitated much before undertaking this task. I have consoled myself, however, with the thought that the little book may be of interest to my children and personal friends, even though it is never so fortunate as to appear in print.

When I was quite a little girl, I thought a great deal about the people of that far-off land. My father was a great reader and a cosmopolitan, though he was a farmer and had never travelled beyond the confines of the United States of America. He used to talk with me about the books he read and tell me most interesting stories of the strange peoples in foreign countries. And I always was especially interested in the people of India.

My father was an earnest Christian man and deeply interested in the civilization and Christianization of the peoples of the earth, and I can never forget the stories he told me of Xavier, Marshman, Carey and Judson. And I would sit for hours wondering about all these things. As I grew older I read everything I could find about the people of India, and when I learned how ignorant and unhappy the women and children were, I wondered if it would ever be in my power to help them and in any way to better their condition.

At times I fancied myself embarking for " India's coral strand,^' and in imagination saw my relatives and friends bidding me a tearful farewell as I left them to sail away over the seas. IMany a time did I go into my mother's bed-room and bolt the door, and softly sing to myself an old hymn which I found in my mother's Psalmist :

" Yes, my native land, I love thee, All thy scenes I love them well ; Friends, connections, happy country, Can I leave them far in heathen lands to dwell ? Yes, I hasten from tliee gladly ; Lovely native land, farewell."

The years of my childhood passed rapidly and

HOW IT CAME THAT I WENT TO INDIA. 11

happily away, and at the age of eleven I entered the academy of my native town, still hoping that the time might come when I could make my home in India. My eldest brother, who was my teacher in the academy, took much interest in my intellectual development, and it was a sad loss to me when he fell a victim to cholera on the 18th of July, 1851.

My next teacher was a much-beloved pastor, in whose judgment I had great confidence. During the winter following my brother's death a new minister, who was candidating for a church, talked to the children of our Sunday-school on Sunday at the close of the session. His words made a deep and lasting impression upon me, and I well remember these words as he urged the children one and all to " seek the Saviour early ; " for the promise was, that all such should find him. After the Sunday-school closed I heard the deacons and other members of the church criticising my good minister, and calling him ^^poky.'' One of the deacons remarked, that such a stupid man would be obliged to travel a long distance before he would find a church that would settle him as their pastor. And all the while my young heart was pleading for him as the one minister that had spoken words more forcible and impressive than all others. I have never seen that so-called "poky" man from that day to this, but if I am ever permitted to look upon his face in a better world, where none are "poky," and where poor ministers do not have to go around candidating for churches which cruelly criticise them, I shall take his hand and tell him that he was the means of leading me out of nature's darkness into the sweet light of a faith in a risen Christ. Moreover, I shall tell him that the sheaves I have gathered in India and elsewhere, have all come from the seed he sowed long ago in that little country Sunday-school, where the deacons all thought he would never do any good.

When I was about seventeen years old, and just before I left the academy, my teacher urged upon me the importance of the study of the Greek language, and gave me to understand that he thought I would need it very much some day in translating languages in foreign countries. I was much surprised that he should have thought of such a future for me, for I had never told him of what my thoughts had been with reference to this subject. Indeed, I was very reluctant that any one should know I had thought of going to India, for I had become acquainted with a young man who interested me more than did the people of India. He w^as handsome, good and intelb'gent, and by the time I was nineteen years old had succeeded in convincing me that it was more important that I should look after his physical and spiritual wellbeing than that I should go on an Indian mission,

HOW IT CAME THAT I WENT TO INDIA. 13

and scatter my efforts among the Hindoos. He being present to urge his claims, got the better of the poor East Indians in the argument ; for they, poor things, were far away in the jungles eating grasshoppers and chewing the betel-nut. And so I promised Theodore Osborne that I would be his wedded wife provided I could quit thinking it to be my duty to go to India. He said he would take me to our western frontier and give me a chance to work for the North American Indians, if I must work for Indians of some kind, and thus I could at the same time make him supremely happy. In order to satisfy conscience fully, which by the way has always been a very troublesome part of my organization, I made a solemn vow before my God that if I ever had a son I would name him either Carey or Judson, and train him from his earliest infancy to be a missionary to India. "And a man can do immeasurably more good than a woman, and hence this plan will be far better than if I went myself,^ ^ I argued with my conscience. There were times when I would be intensely angry at this Indian question for continually presenting itself to me. I did not see why the other girls of my acquaintance should not be treated to an occasional dose of it. They never seemed to be burdened with such a thought, and could love and wed whom they chose.

During the summer of 1859 I bade my intended 2 husband a brief farewell, and. went with a dearly loved sister to visit our uncle's family in the northern part of our State. There we had a most delightful visit with our young cousins and friends. We scoured the country for caves and natural curiosities generally, and spent pleasant days in fishing and hunting.

One Sunday morning a large and gay company of us went to a rude little church in the woods. We had been having a very hilarious time as we drove through the grand old forest, and I was in no reverent nor devotional frame of mind as I entered the church. Indeed, if I must tell the whole truth, I had shunned churches for months, fearing that I might hear something there that would cause my conscience again to clamor for the East Indians. How well I remember saying to myself as I ascended the churcli steps that morning : " Well, I shall not hear anything about foreign missions here : it is too far out in the woods for them to know or care anything about India.''

The preacher was a young man of about thirty years, a professor of Latin in a neighboring college, of prepossessing personal appearance and withal a fine scholar. So absorbed was I, however, in my own reflections that I did not observe him until he announced his text : ^' Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," etc.

HOW IT CAME THAT I WENT TO INDIA. 15

Every word of that sermon went to my heart, and after this long lapse of years I can recall sentence after sentence, which seemed intended for me personally. From that moment my old convictions returned with double power, and I was compelled to reconsider the subject and have it out with my conscience. I almost wished that I had been born without a conscience. I dared not tell any one of the fearful mental struggle through which I was passing, and though I frequently met the young preacher, I did not deem it wise to unburden my heart to him. I was glad when our visit came to an end and we turned our faces homeward. My sister often asked me why I was so sad and selfabsorbed, but I gave her no clue to my thoughts. The young minister and a cousin of ours went with us to our home, and it certainly was not for want of agreeable society that I was silent. As soon as I reached home I resolved that I would honestly decide this subject. I wrote to my former pastor and teacher, describing my condition by quoting the first three verses of the sixty-ninth Psalm. I asked him to tell me what I ought to do ; could it be right for me to break an engagement with Mr. Osborne, when by so doing my heart would be broken in twain ? My pastor's letter in reply I have before me now. It was a great help and comfort to me. It begins thus :

"Amid the changing scenes of this fleeting life it is a comfort to God's children to know tliat his loving kindness never fails them;" and then it goes on to say how safe it is always to follow a conscience enlightened by God's Spirit, and that those who are thus led shall lack for no good thing. How much more those words mean to me now than they did then ! I have tested them and found them true. To make my story as short as possible, I will only add that I resolved in a few days after receiving this letter that I would tell Mr. Osborne all about the experience through which I had passed, and ask him as a Christian man what he thought I ought to do. Had I not been aided by an unseen Power I think I never could have borne up during that trying ordeal. It nearly broke my heart to see my beloved so sorely grieved as he was, when he found that I still felt that I had a personal work to do in a distant land which would involve a separation from him. But in the midst of his sorrow this nol)le man was strong enough to say : Mildred, you must follow the path of duty without reference to me, even though my disappointment should kill me. I have no sense of personal duty to the heathen ; you have, and God and your own conscience must decide your course of conduct. But I would like to ask you one question : has that minister who preached the sermon in that country church from the text, " Go ye into all the world,'' etc., got anything to

HOW IT CAME THAT I WENT TO INDIA. 17

do with your present state of mind ? Is he going

as a foreign missionary ? I assured him that the

minister had long been engaged to my cousin, and

tliat he had not the shghtest idea of going as a

missionary. Moreover that if he were not engaged,

and if he Avere going to India, I should never go

with him but should go out single and as a teacher,

if I went at all. This assurance seemed to relieve

his mind, and he said that he thouglit that much

of my mental agitation about it being my duty,

arose from a nervous condition, and that he had

but little doubt I would give up India when I

had fully rested from my journey and Avas once

quietly settled down to life with him.

On the Sunday following this conversation I

took my Bible and shut myself in my room that I

might seek guidance from the All-Father, in this

important matter. I had reached a point when I

was almost desperate, and there was no earthly

being who seemed able to help me in making a final

decision. Very solemnly impressed was I that my

whole future happiness and usefulness depended

upon the course I now took.

" There is a time we know not when, . A point we know not where, That marks the destiny of man To glory or despair."

An old proverb says : " To everything there is a season.^^

2*

Shakespeare words the sarae thought somewhat differently :

" There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries."

And I felt most sensibly that such a time had come in my own life. For hours I remained in agony of grief and perplexity that I had never before experienced. I could not turn my heart away from him whose love was my highest earthly joy. I could not get strength of will to say ; " Thy will, O God, be done." And so I wrestled and prayed for guiding wisdom until a superhuman strength and calmness seemed to come to me which enabled me to say : " I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Phil. 4 : 13.

I opened my Bible with an earnest desire that the first sentence upon which my eyes should rest might tell me plainly my duty. Judge of my surprise Avhen a clause of the twentieth verse of the fourth chapter of Lamentations met my gaze : "Under his shadow we shall live among; the heathen." The word "Under" begins with a capital and the sentence is complete in itself I had never before noticed the sentence, and it seemed to me almost like a revelation from heaven. At any rate it was the means by which

ROW IT CAME THAT I WENT TO INDIA. 19

I positively decided to prepare myself for work in India, provided the way should ever open for me to go there.

In less than a month from this time, I was in a distant city attending college and pursuing those very studies which my good pastor and teacher had years before urged upon me. I did not see Theodore Osborne again until after he was happily married to one who was in every w^ay better suited to him than ever I could have been. Although we thought when we plighted our troth that no two people ever loved as we did, I am sure that the depths of my heart's affection had never been touched with the tender passion, and that he and I each learned afterwards to love another person far more than we had loved each other.

And I was happier from this time than I had been during those years when I carried a selfaccusing conscience and a smothering of personal obligation to my Master and his needy children in India. Far better was it, to follow the leadings of the Spirit, and trust to an all-wise Father to right the error I had made in making a Avrong promise and selling my birthright. It is the duty of individuals as well as of nations to be true to their highest destiny. But many of Mr. Osborne's friends and some of my own, censured me severely for the course I then took. Some called me an unbalanced enthusiast ; others said I was a crank and a fanatic, and that " I would see the day when I would give my head to have the love of such a man as Theodore Osborne ; he was a hundred times too good for me anyhow." My own dear relatives, however, were in full sympathy with me and bade me a hearty " God-speed " as I went away to college.

When I returned home after graduating in my course of study, the way had not opened for me to go to India, and I joined my sister in teaching a private school, and became deeply interested in the progress of our pupils, who were a delightful class of about forty young ladies. My pastor's wife, ever a true friend to me, Avrote in my behalf to the headquarters of missionary operations for our church, and told them of my desire to go as a teacher to India ; and the good old secretary, w^ho has long since gone to a better world, wrote in reply : " I can only bid the young lady to await the openings of Providence."

" There are some gifts that Heaven denies

More blest withheld than richly given ; There are some storms that darkly rise, More blest than all the cloudless skies

That make another's earthly heaven. We know not till the middle day,

What tokens best befit the dawn ; The clouds that weep our morn away Fit oft, for heaven's serenest ray,

When the full strength of life comes on."

Chapter II. I Await The Openings Of Peovidence

I CONTINUED teaching in my sister's school^ but all the while I was awaiting the openings of Providence.

Once I thought the door open for me, and set about an outfit for a residence in India. A lady of much experience in educational work in India offered me a position as teacher in one of her schools there, and Avished me to sail at once. My father, more wise and cautious than I, insisted upon a thorough investigation of the lady's mental condition. From her letters to me, he had gained an evidence of what he thought a vagarious state, and he even suspected incipient insanity. And so he bade me wait a year before sailing, assuring me that if at the end of that time my estimable patron proved to be compos mentis he would offer no further objections. Meanwhile he made a most diligent and searching investigation, and found that several of her ancestors had been insane, and that tAvo members of her family besides herself were hovering on the border land. Before the end of the year she was unmistakably insane and thus a door closed, instead of an opening of Providence, confronted me, and those who had regarded me as a crank, now hoped I would be cured of my wild notions and settle down at home like a sensible girl. I was now twenty-two years old, and though I was in haste to be on my way, I knew that even if I was delayed several years I should still be young enough to hope for many years' work in India. I never seemed to doubt but that I had a work to do there, and I felt sure that the Lord of the vineyard would see tliat I got there in his own good time and way. I continued teaching and was happy in my work.

And now there came to me a strange letter from one whom I had never seen. I copy it here:

"Miss Mildred Prescott:

"Dear Madam: — The accompanying note of introduction from the pen of an old friend of yours may be deemed a sufficient apology for what might otherwise be quite intrusive. You may have noticed my name connected with an appointment to work as a missionary in foreign lands. I have for over a year had the pleasure of a somewhat intimate acquaintance with your former pastor's wife, being permitted to enjoy her hearty co-operation in most valuable labor and advice during a revival of religion last winter. During conversations with her she has several times incidently spoken of you, and your adaptation to such a work as I have chosen. You will permit me, therefore, without further introduction, to propose the object of this note, trusting that no offence will be taken, however the proposition may be considered or strange

I AWAIT THE OPENINGS OF PROVIDENCE. 23

it may appear. My interrogatory proposition is this : Is your devotion to our common Master's cause, its interest and extension, and your love for the heathen deep and strong enough to prompt you to leave hallowed associations, to forsake the protection and company of long-tried and well-loved friends, and commit yourself to the protection and confide in the fidelity of a comparative stranger in a distant land of labor and trial, and doubtless of privation, and perhaps persecution?

"If thus you judge after mature reflection, and can consent to the general proposition, you will allow me to make it more specific and personal by referring you to the following gentlemen :

[Here follows a long list of D.D. and LL.D. worthies.] " If after such investigation as you think necessary, you shall choose to return to me a favorable reply to the general proposition, and to so much of that relating to me personally as may be done without committing yourself, it will give me pleasure with your consent to visit you in a few weeks, when, by a personal interview, the question can assume a more tangible form. I am not unmindful that this is a most momentous proposal if considered affirmatively, and it has only been after much thought and earnest prayer, that I have dared to enter upon a transaction which involves such interests not only to the parties concerned, but also to the kingdom of Christ. Whether the finger of Providence has pointed me to you or not, must be confirmed by the direction he shall point you. I will simply add that the time is short. I am to sail for India next June, but missionaries should be ' minute men,' should they not? May I hope to hear from you as soon as deliberate thought shall render a deliberate decision ?

" Yours truly,

"Henry C. Marston."

Strange letter this, and it required days of reflection before I reached a " deliberate decision."

I was very strongly prejudiced against a marriage for the sake of convenience, and most of all it seemed to me that a marriage made for the sake of getting a chance to go as a missionary was the veriest sacrilege. One of my college classmates had become the fifth wife of an old missionary in China, and when he had proposed to her he had asked her if she ^^ was willing to lay herself on the altar of missions." I was so disgusted with her for becoming the fifth sacrifice of that kind that I vowed I would preach against such immolation as long as I had power to speak. Personally, I must know and love the man I married for his own intrinsic worth. What a terrible thing it would be to marry a man because he was a missionary, and find after I got to India that I despised him ! I wrote to the friend who gave Mr. Marston the note of introduction to me and asked her all manner of questions as to his mental and moral excellence, and her reply was certainly all that I could desire. I did not write to any of those D.D.'s and LL.D's. What did they know about the kind of a husband that w^ould suit me ? They might commend him to me, because they wanted him to sail soon for India.

The letter Avhich I Avrote to Mr. Marston is before me now written in a cramped school-girl hand which I discarded more than a score of years ago. It reads thus :

/ AWAIT THE OPENINGS OF PROVIDENCE. 25

"Key. Henry C. Marston:

"Dear Sir : — Yours of the 9th of March came duly to hand. I have perhaps delayed longer in the answering of it than I should, considering how soon you must sail for India. The proposition is one of such vital interest to the parties concerned that I am still wholly unprepared to return either an affirmative or negative reply. I have for years stood pledged to go as a missionary to India, should the way be opened for me in such a manner that I could see God's hand leading me in that direction. Whether he is now opening the way for me to go in company with you, it is as yet quite impossible for me to say ; but in view of all this uncertainty, if you still wish to visit me and talk the matter over frankly, you can do so. " Yours truly,

"Mildred Prescott."

Three weeks from the date of that letter Mr. M. came to visit me. We had interchanged several letters, and hence did not meet as entire strangers. It was Saturday afternoon at three o^clock when he was announced. I had pictured him in imagination as being tall and of commanding appearance, with a high intellectual-looking forehead and large black eyes. In all these respects he was as I had imagined, except that his eyes were dark blue instead of black.

His powers as a conversationalist were rare, and he soon succeeded in interesting me deeply in himself, as well as in his chosen work. Indeed his work was what I had always been interested in when I would allow my better nature to guide me. He told me of his sainted mother and aged father, and how these dear parents had at birth consecrated him to the work of foreign missions, but had told him nothing of it until he had declared to his father his purpose to go as a missionary to India. His mother had died while he was still a student in college. The father, now beginning to feel the infirmities of old as^e and his whole heart beings wrapped up in this his only son, had taken back the gift he had made and strongly opposed his son's becoming a missionary to distant lands. But within a few months past he had cheerfully given his consent, and was almost as enthusiastic in his son's plans as if he were himself going to India. Quite needless is it that I should tell you of all the conversation of that long-to-be-remembered afternoon. You could not be as much interested in it as I was.

He preached in our church the next day, and \\q again sj)ent an afternoon together. All of my relatives were delighted with him. Thus the days passed until the morning came on which I was to give him an answer. I had arisen early and had gone for a walk in the garden before breakfast. I had not expected ]\Ir. Marston to put in his appearance before ten o'clock. I was stooping doAvn over a too-spreading juniper shrub which was crowding out some delicate plants, when a voice clear and strong came to my ears, " Well, INIildred, wliat word have you for me this morning ? " He

I AWAIT THE OPEmNGS OF PROVIDENCE. 27