might be less expensive. The great objection
I have to them is that, though a mission were established among
them, it would be more a mission in China than anywhere else. The
Mongols in these agricultural villages speak Chinese to a man, and
I cannot help feeling that, since there are so many missionaries in
Peking speaking the Chinese language, these Mongols fall to them,
and not to me.'

Soon after his return from this trip into Eastern Mongolia, Mr. Gilmour
sent home an elaborate report upon the conditions and prospects of the
Mongol Mission. He deals with the whole question of the work, showing
why, in his opinion, the _agricultural_ Mongols should be evangelised by
Chinese missionaries. Mr. Edkins and others thought that Gilmour should
undertake that labour, but after having seen more than any missionary of
both regions and classes of Mongols, on the ground that he was the man
'who had to go and begin,' he decided for the Plain.

Even at this early date Mr. Gilmour urged repeatedly and strenuously
upon the Directors the pressing need he felt for a colleague. And thus
early began the long series of seeming fatalities that prevented him
from ever receiving this joy and strength. Partly from the needs of the
Peking Mission, and partly from respect to a notion which the American
Board of Foreign Missions had that their occupancy of Kalgan, on the
extreme southern limit, constituted _all_ Mongolia into one of their
fields of work, the Rev. S. E. Meech, Mr. Gilmour's old college friend,
who had been designated as his first colleague, was stationed at Peking.
With reference to this, in closing the report above referred to, Gilmour
wrote:--

'Mr. Meech's perversion from Mongolia to China is much to be
deplored. I think it would be wrong in me not to inform you of the
true state of matters, and to remind you that it is little short of
nonsense to speak of reopening the Mongolian Mission so long as
there is only one man in the field. I am fully aware of the
difficulty of finding suitable men, and most fully sympathise with
you, but don't let us delude ourselves with the idea of Mongol
Mission work progressing till another man or two come and put their
shoulder to the wheel. All that I can do I am quite willing to do,
but my own progress is most seriously hampered because I am alone.'

His whole subsequent life is evidence of the splendid way i