- Author:
- Malcolm, Howard
- Publication Info:
-
Edinburgh:
William and Robert Chambers,
1840,
pg 41
Text on page 41
BURMAH.
41
me as the shore receded. Personal intercourse had been rendered endearing by intimacy, by mutual prayers, by official ties, by the kindest attentions, by a common object 'of life, and by similarity of hopes for the world Jo come. To part for ever could not but wring my
" 'Tis sad to part, e'en with the thought
That we shall meet again ; For then it is that we are taught A lesson with deep sorrow fraught, How firmly, silently, is wrought
Affection's viewless chain. Long ere that hour, we may have known
The bondage of the heart ; But, as uprooting winds alono Disclose how deep the tree has grown, How much they love is only known
When those who love must part."
Happy I am to be able to bear solemn and decided testimony to the purity, zeal, and economy of our missionaries and their wives. I have nowhere seen persons more devoted to their work, or more suitable for Nowhere in all Burmah have I seen " missionary Palaces," or an idle, pampered, or selfish missionary. As to the female missionaries, I am confident that, if they were all at home this day, and the churches were choose again, they could not select better. I bear testimony that what has been printed respecting the state and progress of the mission is strictly true ; though * found that the inferences which I and others had drawn from these accounts were exaggerated. Every thing I have seen and heard has tended to satisfy me the practicability and usefulness of our enterprise, and to excite lamentation that we prosecute it at so feeble a rate.
Divine approbation evidently rests upon every part the undertaking. The life of Judson has been spared So long, that we have a translation of the whole Bible, and several tracts, more perfect than can be found in ail*iost any other mission. We have nearly 1000 con-yerts, besides all those who have died in the faith ; and sixty or seventy native assistants, some of them j^en of considerable religious attainments. A general knowledge of Christianity has been diffused through
some large sections of the empire. Several of the younger missionaries are now so far advanced in the language, as to be just ready to enter on evangelical labours. Very extensive printing operations are now established, producing about two millions of pages per month ; and the whole aspect of the mission is highly encouraging.
The little churches gathered from among the heathen added much to the sense of bereavement inflicted by this parting. The faces of the preachers and prominent members had become familiar to me. With some of them I had journeyed many weary miles. Through them I had addressed the heathen, and distributed the word of God. To some of them I had endeavoured to impart important theological truths. I had heard them pray and preach in their own tongue to listening audiences. I had marked their behaviour in secret, and in hours of peril. Not to love them would be impossible. To part from them for life without pain, is equally impossible. May it but prove salutary to myself !
The consciousness of a thousand imperfections in the discharge of my duty, forms the principal trial. Still there has been good devised, and good begun, and evil checked, and plans matured, which I trust will be found in the great day among the things which perish not.
A statue, such as guard the gates of Burman temples.
DIGESTED NOTES ON THE BURMAN EMPIRE.
CHAPTER I.
Term India. Hither and Farther India. Boundaries of burmah. History of the Empire. War with the British. Dismemberment of the Tenasserim Provinces. State of the Succession.
J^efore passing to other countries, I will here insert Jhe result of my observations and inquiries respecting e natural, moral, political, and religious state of the cAuntry.
'i'he term India seems to be derived from the Greeks, j o applied it to the vast regions beyond the river *nhis, to them almost unknown. It is never given to part of this region by the natives themselves. Both J^arius and Alexander pushed their conquests beyond j ls famed river, though not so far as the Ganges ; and rorn the officers employed in these expeditions, the 5jst historians seem to have derived all their accounts. I hen the country, some centuries afterwards, came to better known, it was divided by Ptolemy (a. d. 150) into A Hither and Farther India ;" making the Ganges ^he boundary. This distinction is still observed, and
??ms exceedingly proper. " Hither India" is but anther name for Hindustan, including the whole peninsula between the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, and ex-aeiiding northwards to Persia and Thibet. " Farther Andia," or India beyond the Ganges, embraces Burmah,
Asam, Munnipore, Siam, Camboja, and Ccliin-China ; or, to speak more comprehensively, all the region between China and the Bay of Bengal, southward of the Thibet mountains.
The term " Chin-India," which has been lately given to this region, seems to have no propriety, and creates confusion. Malte-Brun increases this confusion by inventing the name " Indian Archipelago," embracing Ceylon, the Laccadives, Maldives, Andaman's, Nicobars, Moluccas, Philippines, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, and all their minor neighbours. This name is adopted by some other writers, but with very different boundaries. Crawfurd, in his History of the Indian Archipelago, limits it thus:aFrom the western end of Sumatra to the parallel of the Aroe Islands, and from the parallel of 11A south to 19A north, omitting the islands of the Bay of Bengal. Of the countries which compose Farther India, Burmah is the most important, and in all India, is second only to China. The natives call their country Myamma in their writings, and in common parlance Byam-ma, which is spelled Bram-ma, of which foreigners make Burmah. The Chinese call the country Mecn-te'tn. It included, before the late war with England, what were formerly the kingdoms of Ava (or Burmah Proper), Cassay, Arracan, Pegu, Tavoy, Tenasserim, and the extensive territory of the Shyans, extending from Thibet on the north to Siam on theThe term " Chin-India," which has been lately given to this region, seems to have no propriety, and creates confusion. Malte-Brun increases this confusion by inventing the name " Indian Archipelago," embracing Ceylon, the Laccadives, Maldives, Andaman's, Nicobars, Moluccas, Philippines, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, and all their minor neighbours. This name is adopted by some other writers, but with very different boundaries. Crawfurd, in his History of the Indian Archipelago, limits it thus:a From the western end of Sumatra to the parallel of the Aroe Islands, and from the parallel of 11A south to 19A north, omitting the islands of the Bay of Bengal. Of the countries which compose Farther India, Burmah is the most important, and in all India, is second only to China. The natives call their country Myamma in their writings, and in common parlance Byam-ma, which is spelled Bram-ma, of which foreigners make Burmah. The Chinese call the country Mecn-te'tn. It included, before the late war with England, what were formerly the kingdoms of Ava (or Burmah Proper), Cassay, Arracan, Pegu, Tavoy, Tenasserim, and the extensive territory of the Shyans, extending from Thibet on the north to Siam on the
