he contagion, but it was a time of terrible anxiety,
for nothing had been heard of Mr. Judson or his ship for months; there
were reports of ill-feeling between the Burmese and British Governments,
no arrivals of English at Rangoon, and no intelligence. Mrs. Judson's
female classes had fallen off ever since Mr. Hough's summons, and the
state of things was such, that the Houghs decided on removing to Bengal.
Mrs. Judson, with her little girl, most reluctantly decided to accompany
them, but, just as the vessel in which they sailed had gone down the
river, she was ascertained not to be seaworthy; and, during this delay,
Mrs. Judson's fears of her husband's finding her gone, if he ever
returned to Rangoon, so increased, that she went back with her child to
the house, and, brave woman as she was, took up her abode there with the
native servants, trusting herself wholly to the protection of her God.
She was rewarded by her husband's arrival, after an absence of nine
months, caused by the captain of his ship having broken his engagement,
and carried him on to Madras, where he had been detained all this time
for want of a vessel to return in. The Houghs also came back, and two
young men from America soon after came out, full of zeal and activity,
but both fell ill very shortly afterwards, and the younger died, but his
fellow, Mr. Colman, became a valuable assistant.

This era, the spring of 1819, was the first great step in the Burmese
mission. Funds had been raised by the Baptist Society in America, which
were applied to the erection of a zayat or public room, with walls of
bamboo and a thatched roof. It had two rooms, one for a school for the
women, another for the men, who gladly learnt to read and write from Mrs.
Judson and a Burmese teacher. Here, too, Mr. Judson openly held prayers
and preaching on Sunday, and these attracted many, some of whom would
come in the week for private discussion.

The first real convert was a man of thirty-five, named Moung Nau, poor,
but of excellent character, and so intelligent, that he became a useful
assistant after his baptism, on the 27th of June, 1819. Others were
inquiring, among whom the most interesting was Moung Shwaygnong, a
schoolmaster or tutor by profession, at a village a little way from
Rangoon, and already a philosopher, "half deist, half sceptic, the first
of the sort I have seen among the Burmans" (our quotations are from Mr.
Judson's journal), who, however, worshipped