ther? To his own master he standeth or falleth;" since there
was a very free threatening that the souls of the pagans must be lost; to
which the pundits replied with true Eastern calmness, "Our religion is
good for us, yours for you." During this time of perseverance and
preparation, Mrs. Judson's health became so much affected that she was
forced to go to Madras. Heroine as she was, she would not consent to let
her husband break up his work to accompany her; but the solitude of her
absence fell on him most severely. She says, "He had no individual
Christian with whom he could converse or unite in prayer during the six
months of her absence;" but he worked on heartily, and she returned in
perfect health.

In the spring of 1816, the death of their first-born child was a great
shock to the father's health, which was already disordered; and he
continued in a declining state all through the summer. The Myowoon's
wife, whom Mrs. Judson conveniently calls the vice-reine, was very kind
to them, and took them on elephant-back to visit her country-house. The
way lay through the woods, between trees sometimes so thick that the
elephants broke them down, at the mahout's word, to make way. Thirty men
in red caps, with spears and guns, formed the guard; then came the vice-
reine's elephant, with a gilded howdah, where the lady sat dressed in red
and white silk; then the Judsons' animal, three or four more behind with
grandees, and 300 or 400 attendants followed. At a beautiful garden,
full of fruit trees, a feast was spread under a noble banyan, the vice-
reine causing the cloth next to her to be allotted to her guests, whom
she tended affectionately, gathering and paring fruit, cutting flowers
and weaving them for them, and, unlike the Hindoos, freely eating what
they handed her. This hospitable and amiable lady had just begun to ask
Mrs. Judson the difference between the Christians' God and Gautama, when
she was obliged to return to Ava.

For several months Mr. Judson's illness increased; but exercise on
horseback did much to relieve him, and the comfort and encouragement of
the arrival of a brother missionary, Mr. Hough, with his family, did
more. He weathered the attack without leaving his post, and in 1817 made
his first real step. A press had come out with Mr. Hough, and with it
two little tracts, summarizing the chief truths of Christianity, were
printed and distributed at Rangoon.

Shortly after, a respectable-l