ust to gain their good-will, and
such treatment only made them bolder. Bands of them would even come down
into the town and march through the streets, frightening every one into
flight. They would shout and sing, and their favorite song was one that
showed how little they cared for the laws of the land.

You trust the mandarins, We trust the mountains.

So the song went, and when the missionary heard it first he could not
help confessing that after all it was a sorry job trusting the mandarins
for protection.

The first time he visited the place with A Hoa they were stoned and
driven out. But the missionaries came back, and at last were allowed to
preach. And then converts came and a church was established. The
robber bands received no more assistance from the people, and were
soon scattered by the officers of the law. And Sa-kak-eng was in peace
because the missionary had come.

But there was one place Mackay had so far scarcely dared to enter. Even
the robber-infested Sa-kak-eng would yield, but Bang-kah defied all
efforts. To the missionary it was the Gibraltar of heathen Formosa, and
he longed to storm it. North, south, east, and west of this great wicked
city churches had been planted, some only within a few miles of its
walls. But Bang-kah still stood frowning and unyielding. It had always
been very bitter against outsiders of all kinds. No foreign merchant was
allowed to do business in Bang-kah, so no wonder the foreign missionary
was driven out.

Mackay had dared to enter the place, being of the sort that would dare
anything. It was soon after he had settled in Formosa and A Hoa had
accompanied him. The result had been a riot. The streets had immediately
filled with a yelling, cursing mob that pelted the two missionaries with
stones and rotten eggs and filth, and drove them from the city.

But "Mackay never knew when he was beaten," as a fellow worker of his
once said, and though he was taking desperate chances, he went once more
inside the walls of Bangkah. This time he barely escaped with his life,
and the city authorities forbade every one, on pain of death, to
lease or sell property to him or in any way accommodate the barbarian
missionary.

But meanwhile Kai Bok-su was keeping his eye on Bang-kah, and when the
territory around had been possessed, he went up to Go-ko--khi and made
the daring proposition to A Hoa. Should they go up again and storm the
citadel of heathenism? And A Hoa answered promptly