“I never think without some uneasiness of the infrequency of my communications to the Board; and if I had not an apology at hand, I should feel self-condemned. A person employed in direct missionary work among the natives, especially if his employ is somewhat itinerant, can easily make long and interesting journals. The first epithet, at least, may be applied to some of my earlier communications. But it has been my lot, for many years past, to spend most of my time over the study-table; and my itinerating has scarcely extended beyond the limits of my morning walks and the precincts of the mission inclosure. Several years were spent in translating the Bible, and several more in revising it and carrying the last edition through the press. After which, in May last year, I commenced a dictionary of the language, a work which I had resolved and re-resolved never to touch. But it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. The Board and my brethren repeatedly urged me to prepare a dictionary, the one printed in 1826 being exceedingly imperfect; and as Burmah continued shut against our labors, and there were several missionaries in this place, I concluded that I could not do better than to comply.
“We are apt to magnify the importance of any undertaking in which we are warmly engaged. Perhaps it is from the influence of that principle, that, notwithstanding my long-cherished aversion to the work, I have come to think it very important; and that, having seen the accomplishment of two objects on which I had set my heart when I first came out to the East, the establishment of a church of converted natives and the translation of the Bible into their language, I now beguile my daily toil with the prospect of compassing a third, which may be compared to a causeway, designed to facilitate the transmission of all knowledge, religious and scientific, from one people to the other.
“It was my first intention to make a single work, Burmese and English; but as I proceeded, I discovered many reasons for constructing a double work, in two parts, the first English and Burmese, the second Burmese and English. I hope, by daily, uninterrupted labor, to have the whole ready for the press by the end of 1845. Not, indeed, that I count on living so long. Above thirty years spent in a tropical climate—to-day is the twenty-ninth anniversary of my arrival in Burmah—leaves but little ground to build future plans upon. But I feel it my duty to plod on, while daylight shall last, looking out for the night, and ready to bequeath both the plodding and the profit to any brother who shall be willing to carry on and complete the work when I shall have obtained my discharge.”
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Footnote 46:
Forbes, in his “British Burmah.”
Footnote 47:
Mrs. Webb.
Footnote 48:
The reader is referred to Mrs. E. C. Judson’s charming memoir of Mrs. Sarah B. Judson.
Footnote 49:
George Dana Boardman, D.D., Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Philadelphia.
Footnote 50:
See page 110.
Footnote 51:
Burman tracts.
Footnote 52:
See page 405.
Footnote 53:
Now the principal of a ladies’ school in Minneapolis.
Footnote 54:
Now a physician in New York City.
Footnote 55:
Pwen, a flower. A name given to Adoniram by the natives.
Footnote 56:
The child died shortly afterward at Serampore.
Footnote 57:
At present living in Plymouth, Mass.