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+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Black-Bearded Barbarian, by Keith
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+The Black-Bearded Barbarian
+
+by Marian Keith
+
+May, 1999  [Etext #1759]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Black-Bearded Barbarian, by Keith
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+
+
+The Black-Bearded Barbarian
+
+by Marian Keith
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACK BEARDED BARBARIAN[1]
+
+[1] The name by which George Leslie Mackay was
+known among the Chinese of north Formosa.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. SPLITTING ROOKS
+
+Up in the stony pasture-field behind the barn the boys had been
+working all the long afternoon. Nearly all, that is, for, being
+boys, they had managed to mix a good deal of fun with their
+labor. But now they were tired of both work and play, and
+wondered audibly, many times over, why they were not yet called
+home to supper.
+
+The work really belonged to the Mackay boys, but, like Tom
+Sawyer, they had made it so attractive that several volunteers
+had come to their aid. Their father was putting up a new stone
+house, near the old one down there behind the orchard, and the
+two youngest of the family had been put at the task of breaking
+the largest stones in the field.
+
+It meant only to drag some underbrush and wood from the forest
+skirting the farm, pile them on the stones, set fire to them, and
+let the heat do the rest. It had been grand sport at first, they
+all voted, better than playing shinny, and almost as good as
+going fishing. In fact it was a kind of free picnic, where one
+could play at Indians all day long. But as the day wore on, the
+picnic idea had languished, and the stone-breaking grew more and
+more to resemble hard work.
+
+The warm spring sunset had begun to color the western sky; the
+meadow-larks had gone to bed, and the stone-breakers were tired
+and ravenously hungry--as hungry as only wolves or country boys
+can be. The visitors suggested that they ought to be going home.
+"Hold on, Danny, just till this one breaks," said the older
+Mackay boy, as he set a burning stick to a new pile of brush.
+
+"This'll be a dandy, and it's the last, too. They're sure to call
+us to supper before we've time to do another."
+
+The new fire, roaring and snapping, sendkg up showers of sparks
+and filling the air with the sweet odor of burning cedar, proved
+too alluring to be left. The company squatted on the ground
+before it, hugging their knees and watching the blue column of
+smoke go straight up into the colored sky. It suggested a
+camp-fire in war times, and each boy began to tell what great and
+daring deeds he intended to perform when he became a man.
+
+Jimmy, one of the visitors, who had been most enthusiastic over
+the picnic side of the day's work, announced that he was going to
+be a sailor. He would command a fleet on the high seas, so he
+would, and capture pirates, and grow fabulously wealthy on
+prize-money. Danny, who was also a guest, declared his purpose
+one day to lead a band of rough riders to the Western plains,
+where he would kill Indians, and escape fearful deaths by the
+narrowest hairbreadth.
+
+"Mebbe I'm goin'to be Premier of Canada, some day," said one
+youngster, poking his bare toes as near as he dared to the
+flames.
+
+There were hoots of derision. This was entirely too tame to be
+even considered as a career.
+
+"And what are you going to be, G. L.?" inquired the biggest boy
+of the smallest.
+
+The others looked at the little fellow and laughed. George Mackay
+was the youngest of the group, and was a small wiry youngster
+with a pair of flashing eyes lighting up his thin little face. He
+seemed far too small and insignificant to even think about a
+career. But for all the difference in their size and age the
+bigger boys treated little George with a good deal of respect.
+For, somehow, he never failed to do what he set out to do. He
+always won at races, he was never anywhere but at the head of his
+class, he was never known to be afraid of anything in field or
+forest or school ground, he was the hardest worker at home or at
+school, and by sheer pluck he managed to do everything that boys
+bigger and older and stronger could do.
+
+So when Danny asked, "And what are you going to be, G. L. ?
+"though the boys laughed at the small thin little body, they
+respected the daring spirit it held, and listened for his answer.
+
+"He's goin' to be a giant, and go off with a show," cried one,
+and they all laughed again.
+
+Little G. L. laughed too, but he did not say what he intended to
+do when he grew big. Down in his heart he held a far greater
+ambition than the others dreamed of. It was too great to be
+told--so great he scarcely knew what it was himself. So he only
+shook his small head and closed his lips tightly, and the rest
+forgot him and chattered on.
+
+Away beyond the dark woods, the sunset shone red and gold between
+the black tree trunks. The little boy gazed at it wonderingly.
+The sight of those morning and evening glories always stirred his
+child's soul, and made him long to go away--away, he knew not
+where--to do great and glorious deeds. The Mackay boys'
+grandfather had fought at Waterloo, and little George Leslie, the
+youngest of six, had heard many, many tales of that gallant
+struggle, and every time they had been told him he had silently
+resolved that, some day, he too would do just such brave deeds as
+his grandfather had done.
+
+As the boys talked on, and the little fellow gazed at the sunset
+and dreamed, the big stone cracked in two, the fire died down,
+and still there came no welcome call to supper from any of the
+farmhouses in sight. The Mackay boys had been trained in a fine
+oldfashioned Canadian home, and did not dream of quitting work
+until they were summoned. But the visitors were merely visitors,
+and could go home when they liked. The future admiral of the
+pirate-killing fleet declared he must go and get supper, or he'd
+eat the grass, he was so hungry. The coming Premier of Canada and
+the Indianslayer agreed with him, and they all jumped the fence,
+and went whooping away over the soft brown fields toward home.
+
+There was just one big stone left. It was a huge boulder, four
+feet across.
+
+"We'll never get enough wood to crack that, G. L.," declared his
+brother. "It just can't be done."
+
+But little George answered just as any one who knew his
+determination would have expected. In school he astonished his
+teacher by learning everything at a tremendous rate, but there
+was one small word he refused to learn--the little word "can't."
+His bright eyes flashed, now, at the sound of it. He jumped upon
+the big stone, and clenched his fist.
+
+"It's GOT to be broken!" he cried. "I WON'T let it beat me." He
+leaped down, and away he ran toward the woods. His brother caught
+his spirit, and ran too. They forgot they were both tired and
+hungry. They seized a big limb of a fallen tree and dragged it
+across the field. They chopped it into pieces, and piled it high
+with plenty of brush, upon the big stone. In a few minutes it was
+all in a splendid blaze, leaping and crackling, and sending the
+boys' long shadows far across the field.
+
+The fire grew fiercer and hotter, and suddenly the big boulder
+cracked in four pieces, as neatly as though it had been slashed
+by a giant's sword. Little G. L. danced around it, and laughed
+triumphantly. The next moment there came the welcome "hoo-hoo"
+from the house behind the orchard, and away the two scampered
+down the hill toward home and supper.
+
+When the day's work of the farmhouse had been finished, the
+Mackay family gathered about the fire, for the spring evening was
+chilly. George Leslie sat near his mother, his face full of deep
+thought. It was the hour for family worship, and always at this
+time he felt most keenly that longing to do something great and
+glorious. Tonight his father read of a Man who was sending out
+his army to conquer the world. It was only a little army, just
+twelve men, but they knew their Leader had more power than all
+the soldiers of the world. And they were not afraid, though he
+said, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves."
+For he added, "Fear ye not," for he would march before them, and
+they would be sure of victory.
+
+The little boy listened with all his might. He did everything
+that way. Surely this was a story of great and glorious deeds,
+even better than Waterloo, he felt. And there came to his heart a
+great longing to go out and fight wrong and put down evil as
+these men had done. He did not know that the longing was the
+voice of the great King calling his young knight to go out and
+"Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King."
+
+But there came a day when he did understand, and on that day he
+was ready to obey.
+
+When bedtime came the boys were asked if they had finished their
+work, and the story of the last big stone was told. "G. L. would
+not leave it, "the brother explained. The father looked smilingly
+at little G. L. who still sat, dangling his short legs from his
+chair, and studying the fire.
+
+He spoke to his wife in Gaelic. "Perhaps the lad will be called
+to break a great rock some day. The Lord grant he may do it."
+
+The boy looked up wonderingly. He understood Gaelic as well as
+English, but he did not comprehend his father's words. He had no
+idea they were prophetic, and that away on the other side of the
+world, in a land his geography lessons had not yet touched, there
+stood a great rock, ugly and hard and grim, which he was one day
+to be called upon to break.
+
+
+CHAPTER II. A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
+
+The steamship America, bound for Hongkong, was leaving the dock
+at San Francisco. All was bustle and noise and stir. Friends
+called a last farewell from the deck, handkerchiefs waved, many
+of them wet with tears. The long boom of a gun roared out over
+the harbor, a bell rang, and the signal was given. Up came the
+anchor, and slowly and with dignity the great vessel moved out
+through the Golden Gate into the wide Pacific.
+
+Crowds stood on the deck to get a last glimpse of home and loved
+ones, and to wave to friends as long as they could be
+distinguished. There was one young man who stood apart from the
+crowd, and who did not wave farewell to any one. He had come on
+board with a couple of men, but they had gone back to the dock,
+and were lost in the crowd. He seemed entirely alone. He leaned
+against the deck-railing and gazed intently over the widening
+strip of tumbling wafers to the city on the shore. But he did not
+see it. Instead, he saw a Canadian farmhouse, a garden and
+orchard, and gently sloping meadows hedged in by forest. And up
+behind the barn he saw a stony field, where long ago he and his
+brother and the neighbor boys had broken the stones for the new
+house.
+
+His quick movements, his slim, straight figure, and his bright,
+piercing eyes showed he was the same boy who had broken the big
+rock in the pasture-field long before. Just the same boy, only
+bigger, and more man than boy now, for he wore an air of command
+and his thin keen face bore a beard, a deep black, like his hair.
+And now he was going away, as he had longed to go, when he was a
+boy, and ahead of him lay the big frowning rock, which he must
+either break or be broken upon.
+
+He had learned many things since those days when he had scampered
+barefoot over the fields, or down the road to school. He had been
+to college in Toronto, in Princeton, and away over in Edinburgh,
+in the old homeland where his father and mother were born. And
+all through his life that call to go and do great deeds for the
+King had come again and again. He had determined to obey it when
+he was but a little lad at  school. He had encountered many big
+stones  in his way, which he had to break, before he could go on.
+But the biggest stone of all lay across his path when college was
+over,  and he was ready and anxious to go away as  a missionary.
+The Presbyterian Church of  Canada had never yet sent but a
+missionary to a foreign land, and some of the good old men bade
+George Mackay stay at home and preach the gospel there. But as
+usual he conquered. Every one saw he would be a great missionary
+if he were only given a chance. At last the General Assembly gave
+its consent, and now, in spite of all stones in the way, here he
+was, bound for China,  and ready to do anything the King
+cornmanded. Land was beginning to fade away into a gray mist, the
+November wind was damp and chill, he turned and went down to his
+stateroom. He sat down on his little steamer trunk, and for the
+first time the utter loneliness and the uncertainty of this
+voyage came over him. He took up his Bible and turned to the
+fly-leaf. There he read the inscription:
+
+Presented to
+REV. G. L. MACKAY
+
+First missionary of the Canadian Presbyterian Church to China, by
+the Foreign Mission Committee, as a parting token of their
+esteem, when about to leave his native land for the sphere of his
+future labors among the heathen. WILLIAM MACLAREN, Convener.
+
+Ottawa, 9th October, 1871.
+Matthew xxviii: 18-20. Psalm cxxi
+
+It was a moment of severe trial to the young soldier. But he
+turned to the Psalm marked on the fly-leaf of his Bible, and he
+read it again and again.
+
+"My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth"
+
+"The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right
+hand."
+
+"The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night."
+
+The beautiful words gave him comfort. Homesickness, loneliness,
+and fears for the future all vanished. He was going out to an
+unknown land where dangers and perhaps death awaited him, but the
+Lord would be his keeper and nothing could harm him.
+
+Twenty-six days on the Pacific! And a stormy voyage it was, for
+the Pacific does not always live up to her beautiful name, and
+she tossed the America about in a shockkg manner. But the voyage
+did not seem long to George Mackay. There were other missionaries
+on board with whom he had become acquainted, and he had long
+delightful talks with them and they taught him many things about
+his new work. He was  the same busy G. L. he had been when a boy;
+always working, working, and he did not waste a moment on the
+voyage. There was a fine library on the ship and he studied the
+books on China until he knew more about the religion of that
+country than did many of the Chinese themselves.
+
+One day, as he was poring over a Chinese history, some one called
+him hastily to come on deck. He threw down his book and ran
+up-stairs. The whole ship was in a joyous commotion. His friend
+pointed toward the horizon, and away off there against the sky
+stood the top of a snow-capped peak--Fujiyama!--the majestic,
+sacred mountain of Japan!
+
+It was a welcome sight, after the long ocean voyage, and the
+hours they lay in Yokahama harbor were full of enjoyment. Every
+sight was thrilling and strange to young Mackay's Western eyes.
+The harbor fairly swarmed with noisy, shouting, chattering
+Japanese boatmen. He wondered why they seemed so familiar, until
+it suddenly dawned on him that their queer ricestraw coats made
+them look like a swarm of Robinson Crusoes who had just been
+rescued from their islands.
+
+When he landed he found things still funnier. The streets were
+noisier than the harbor. Through them rolled large heavy wooden
+carts, pulled and pushed by men, with much grunting and groaning.
+Past him whirled what looked like overgrown baby carriages, also
+pulled by men, and each containing a big grown-up human baby. It
+was all so pretty too, and so enchanting that the young
+missionary would fain have remained there. But China was still
+farther on, so when the America again set sail, he was on board.
+
+Away they sailed farther and farther east, or was it west? He
+often asked himself that question in some amusement as they
+approached the coast of China. They entered a long winding
+channel and steamed this way and that until one day they sailed
+into a fine broad harbor with a magnificent city  rising far up
+the steep sides of a hill. It was an Oriental city, and therefore
+strange to the young traveler. But for all that there seemed
+something familiar in the fine European buildings that lined the
+streets, and something still more homelike in that which floated
+high above them--something that brought a thrill to the heart of
+the young Canadian--the red-crossed banner of Britain!
+
+It was Hongkong, the great British port of the East, and here he
+decided to land. No sooner had the travelers touched the dock,
+than they were surrounded by a yelling, jostling crowd of Chinese
+coolies, all shouting in an outlandish gibberish for the
+privilege of carrying the Barbarians' baggage. A group gathered
+round Mackay, and in their eagerness began hammering each other
+with bamboo poles. He was well-nigh bewildered, when above the
+din sounded the welcome music of an English voice.
+
+"Are you Mackay from Canada?"
+
+He whirled round joyfully. It was Dr. E. J. Eitel, a missionary
+from England. He had been told that the young Canadian would
+arrive on the America and was there to welcome him.
+
+Although the Canadian Presbyterian Church had as yet sent out no
+missionaries to a foreign land, the Presbyterian Church of
+England had many scattered over China. They were all hoping that
+the new recruit would join them, and invited him to visit
+different mission stations, and see where he would like to
+settle.
+
+So he remained that night in Hongkong, as Dr. Eitel's guest, and
+the next morning he took a steamer for Canton. Here he was met on
+the pier by an old fellow student of Princeton University, and
+the two old college friends had a grand reunion. He returned to
+Hongkong shortly, and next visited Swatow. As they sailed into
+the harbor, he noticed two Englishmen rowing out toward them in a
+sampan.* No sooner had the ship's ladder been lowered, than the
+two  sprang out of their boat and clambered quickly on deck.  To
+Mackay's amazement, one of them called out, "Is Mackay of Canada
+on board?"
+
+* A Chinese boat from twelve to fifteen feet long,  covered with
+a house.
+
+"Mackay of Canada," sprang forward delighted, and found his two
+new friends to be Mr. Hobson of the Chinese imperial customs, and
+Dr. Thompson of the English Presbyterian mission in Swatow.
+
+The missionaries here gave the stranger a warm welcome. At every
+place he had visited there had awaited him a cordial invitation
+to stay and work. And now at Swatow he was urged to settle down
+and help them. There was plenty to be done, and they would be
+delighted to have his help.
+
+But for some reason, Mackay scarcely knew why himself, he wanted
+to see another place.
+
+Away off the southeastern coast of China lies a large island
+called Formosa. It is separated from the mainland by a body of
+water called the Formosa Channel. This is in some places eighty
+miles wide, in others almost two hundred. Mackay had often heard
+of Formosa even before coming to China, and knew it was famed for
+its beauty.
+
+Even its name shows this. Long, long years before, some
+navigators from Portugal sailed to this beautiful island. They
+had stood on the deck of their ship as they approached it, and
+were amazed at its loveliness. They saw lofty green mountains
+piercing the clouds. They saw silvery cascades tumbling down
+their sides, flashing in the sunlight, and, below, terraced
+plains sloping down to the sea, covered with waving bamboo or
+with little water-covered rice-fields. It was all so delightful
+that no  wonder they cried,
+
+"Illha Formosa! Illha Formosa!"
+
+"Beautiful Isle! Beautiful Isle." Since that day the "Beautiful
+Isle," perhaps the most charming in all the world, has been
+called Formosa.
+
+And, somehow, Mackay longed to see this Beautiful Isle" before he
+decided where he was going to preach the gospel. And so when the
+kind friends at Swatow said," Stay and work with he always
+answered, "I must first see Formosa."
+
+So, one day, he sailed away from the mainland toward the
+Beautiful Isle. He landed at Takow in the south of the island,
+just about Christmas-time. But Formosa was green, the weather was
+hot, and he could scarcely believe that, at home in Oxford
+county, Ontario, they were flying over the snow to the music of
+sleigh-bells. On New Year's day he met a missionary of this south
+Formosa field, named Dr. Ritchie. He belonged to the Presbyterian
+Church of England, which had a fine mission there. For nearly a
+month Mackay visited with him and studied the language.
+
+And while he visited and worked there the missionaries told him
+of the northern part of the island. No person was there to tell
+all those crowded cities of Jesus Christ and His love. It would
+be lonely for him there, it would be terribly hard work, but it
+would be a grand Thing to lay the foundations, to be the first to
+tell those people the "good news," the young missionary thought.
+And, one day, he looked up from the Chinese book he was studying
+and said to Dr. Ritchie:
+
+"I have decided to settle in north Formosa."
+
+And Dr. Ritchie's quick answer was:
+
+"God bless you, Mackay."
+
+As soon as the decision was made, another missionary, Dr.
+Dickson, who was with Mr. Ritchie, decided to go to north Formosa
+with the young man, and show him over the ground. So, early in
+the month of March in the year 1872, the three men set off by
+steamship to sail for Tamsui, a port in north Formosa. They were
+two days making the voyage, and a tropical storm pitched the
+small vessel hither and thither, so that they were very much
+relieved when they sailed up to the mouth of the Tamsiu river.
+
+It was low tide and a bare sand-bar stretched across the mouth of
+the harbor, so the anchor was dropped, and they waited until the
+tide should cover the bar, and allow them to sail in.
+
+This wait gave the travelers a fine opportunity to see the
+country. The view from this harbor of the "Beautiful Island" was
+an enchanting one. Before them, toward the east, rose tier upon
+tier of magnificent mountains, stretching north and south. Down
+their sloping sides tumbled sparkling cascades and here and there
+patches of bright green showed where there were tea plantations.
+Farther down were stretches of grass and groves of lovely
+feathery bamboo. And between these groves stretched what seemed
+to be little silvery lakes, with the reflection of the great
+moantains in them. They were really the famous rice-fields of
+Formosa, at this time of the year all under water. There were no
+fences round their little lake-fields. They were of all shapes
+and sizes, and were divided from each other by little green
+fringed dykes or walls. Each row of fields was lower than the
+last until they came right down to the sea-level, and all lay
+blue and smiling in the blazing sunlight.
+
+As the young missionary stood spellbound, gazing over the lovely,
+fairylike scene, Mr. Ritchie touched his arm.
+
+"This is your parish, Mackay," he whispered smilingly.
+
+And then for the first time since he had started on his long,
+long journey, the young missionary felt his spirit at peace. The
+restlessness that had driven him on from one Chinese port to
+another was gone. This was indeed his parish.
+
+Suddenly out swung a signal; the tide had risen. Up came the
+anchor, and away they glided over the now submerged sand-bar into
+the harbor.
+
+A nearer view showed greater charms in the Beautiful Isle. On the
+south, at their right, lay the great Quan Yin mountain, towering
+seventeen hundred feet above them, clothed in tall grass and
+groves of bamboo, banyan, and fir trees of every conceivable
+shade of green. Nestling at its feet were little villages almost
+buried in trees. Slowly the ship drifted along, passing, here a
+queer fishing village close to the sandy shore, yonder a
+light-house, there a battered Chinese fort rising from the top of
+a hill.
+
+And now Tamsui came in sight--the new home of the young
+missionary. It seemed to him that it was the prettiest and the
+dirtiest place he had ever seen. The town lay along the bank of
+the river at the foot of a hill. This bluff rose abruptly behind
+it to a height of two hundred feet. On its face stood a
+queer-looking building. It was red in color, solid and weather
+worn, and above it floated the grand old flag of Britain.
+
+"That's an old Dutch fort," explained Mr. Ritchie, "left there
+since they were in the island. It is the British consulate now.
+There, next to it, is the consul's residence.
+
+It was a handsome house, just below the fort, and surrounded by
+lovely gardens. But down beneath it, on the shore, was the most
+interesting place to the newcomer, the town of Tamsui proper, or
+Ho Be, as the Chinese called it. The foreigners landed and made
+their way up the street. To the two from south Formosa, Tamsui
+was like every other small Chinese town, but Mackay had not yet
+become accustomed to the strange sights and sounds and stranger
+smells, and his bright eyes were keen with interest.
+
+The main thoroughfare wound this way and that, only seven or
+eight feet wide at its best. It was filled with noisy crowds of
+men who acted as if they were on the verge of a terrible fight.
+But the older missionaries knew that they were merely acting as
+Chinese crowds always do. On each side were shops,--tea shops,
+rice shops, tobacco shops, and many other kinds. And most
+numerous of all were the shops where opium, one of the greatest
+curses of Chinese life, was sold. The front wall of each was
+removed, and the customers stood in the street and dickered with
+the shopkeeper, while at the top of his harsh voice the latter
+swore by all the gods in China that he was giving the article
+away at a terrific loss. Through the crowd pushed hawkers,
+carrying their wares balanced on poles across their shoulders.
+Boys with trays of Chinese candies and sugar-cane yelled their
+wares above the din. The visitors stumbled along over the rough
+stones of the pavement until they came to the market-place.
+Foreigners were not such a curiosity in Tamsui as in the inland
+towns, and not a great deal of notice was taken of them, but
+occasionally Mackay could hear the now familiar words of contempt
+--"Ugly barbarian"--"Foreign devil" from the men that passed
+them. And one man, pointing to Mackay, shouted "Ho! the
+black-bearded barbarian!" It was a name the young missionary was
+destined to hear very frequently. Past opium-dens, barber shops,
+and drug stores they went and through the noise and bustle and
+din of the market-place. They knew that the inns, judging by the
+outside, would be filthy, so Mr. Ritchie suggested, as evening
+was approaching, that they find some comfortable place to spend
+the night.
+
+There was a British merchant in Tamsui named Mr. Dodd, whom the
+missionaries knew. So to him they went, and were given fine
+quarters in his warehouse. They ate their supper here, from the
+provisions they had bought in the market, and stretching
+themselves out on their grass mats they slept soundly. The next
+day was Sunday, but the three travelers spent it quietly in the
+warehouse by the river, studying their Bibles and discussing
+their proposed trip. They concluded it was best not to provoke
+the anger of the people against the new missionary by preaching,
+so they did not go out. To-morrow they would start southward and
+take Mackay to the bounds of their mission field, and show him
+the land that was to be "his parish."
+
+
+CHAPTER III. RECONNOITERING THE TERRITORY
+
+Early Monday morning Mackay peeped out of the big warehouse door
+at the great calm niountain shrouded in the pale mists of early
+dawn. The other two travelers were soon astir, and were surprised
+to find their young companion all ready. They were not yet well
+enough acquainted with him to know that he could do with less
+sleep at night than an owl. He was in high spirits and as eager
+to be off as he had ever been to start for a day's fishing in the
+old tunes back in Ontario. And indeed this was -just a great
+fishing expedition he was comnaencing. For had not One said to
+him, long long ago when he was but a little boy, "Come follow me,
+and I will make you to become a fisher of men"? and he had
+obeyed. The first task was to go out and buy food for the
+journey, and to hire a couple of coolies to carry it and what
+baggage they must take.
+
+Dr. Dickson went off on this errand, and being well acquainted
+with Formosan customs and language, soon returned with two
+Chinese carriers and plenty of food. This last consisted of
+canned meats, biscuits, coffee, and condensed milk, bought at a
+store where ships' supplies were kept for sale. There was also
+some salted water-buffalo meat, a Chinese dish with which the
+young missionary was destined to become very familiar.
+
+They started out three abreast, Mr. Ritchie's blue serge figure
+capped by a white helmet on the right, Dr. Dickson on the left in
+his Scotch tweed, and between them the alert, slim figure of the
+newcomer, in his suit of Canadian gray. The coolies, with baskets
+hung to a pole across their shoulders, came ambling along behind.
+
+The three travelers were in the gayest mood. Perhaps it was the
+clear spring morning air, or the breath of the salt ocean,
+perhaps it was the intoxicating beauty of mountain and plain and
+river that surrounded them or it may have been because they had
+given their lives in perfect service to the One who is the source
+of all happiness, but whatever was the cause, they were all like
+schoolboys off for a holiday. The coolies who trotted in the rear
+were very much amazed and not a little amused at the actions of
+these foolish foreign devils, who laughed and joked and seemed in
+such high spirits for no reason at all.
+
+They swung along the bank of the river until they came to the
+ferry that was to take them to the other side. They sprang into
+the boat and were shoved off. Before they reached the other side,
+at Dr. Dickson's suggestion, they took off their shoes and socks,
+and stowed them away in the carriers' baskets. When they came to
+the opposite bank they rolled up their trousers to their knees
+and sprang out into the shallow water. For a short distance they
+had the joy of tramping barefoot along the hard gleaming sand of
+the harbor.
+
+But shoes and stockings had to be resumed, for soon they turnel
+inland, on a path that'wound up to the high plain above the
+river. "Do you ever use a horse on your travels?" asked young
+Mackay as they climbed upward.
+
+Mr. Ritchie laughed. "You couldn't get one in north Formosa for
+love or money. And if you could, he wouldn't be any use."
+
+"Unless he was a second Pegasus, and could soar above the
+Formosan roads," added Dr. Dickson. "Wait a bit and you'll
+understand."
+
+The young missionary waited, and kept his eyes open for the
+answer. The pathway crossed a grassy plain where groups of
+queer-looking, mouse-colored animals, half ox, half buffalo, with
+great spreading horns, strayed about, herded by boys, or lay
+wallowing in deep pools.
+
+"Water-buffaloes," he said, remembering them as he had seen them
+in the south.
+
+"The most useful animal on the island," remarked Mr. Ritchie,
+adding with a laugh, "except perhaps the pig. You'll have a taste
+of Mr. Buffalo for your dinner, Mackay."
+
+And now they were up on the heights, and the lovely country lay
+spread out before them. Mackay mentally compared this walk to
+many he had taken along the country roads of his native land. It
+was early in March, but as there had been no winter, so there was
+no spring. It was summer, warm, radiant summer, like a lovely day
+in June at home. Dandelions, violets, and many gay flowers that
+he did not recognize spangled the grassy plain. The skylark high
+overhead was pouring out its glorious song, just as he had heard
+it in his student days in Scotland. Here and there were clumps of
+fir trees that reminded him of Canada, but on the whole the scene
+was new and wonderful to his Western eyes.
+
+They were now on the first level of the rice-fields. The farms
+were tiny things, none larger than eight or ten acres. They were
+divided into queer-shaped little irrigated fields, separated not
+by fences, but by little low walls of mud. Every farm was under
+water now, and here and there, wading through his little flooded
+fields, went the farmer with his plough, drawn by a useful
+water-buffalo,--the ;atter apparently quite happy at being
+allowed to splash about in the mud.
+
+These rice-farms soon became a familiar sight to the newcomer. He
+liked to see them at all times--when each field was a pretty blue
+or green lake, later when the water was choked with the fresh
+green growth, or in harvest days, when the farmers stripped the
+fields of their grain. Just now they were at their prettiest. Row
+above row, they went up the mountainside, like a great glass
+stairs, each row reflecting the green hills and the bamboo groves
+above. And from each terrace to the one below, the water tumbled
+in pretty little cascades that sparkled in the sunlight and
+filled the air with music. For travelers there were only narrow
+paths between farms, and often only the ridge of the dykes
+between field and field. As they made their way between the tiny
+fields, walking along the narrow dykes, and listening to the
+splashing sound of the water, Mackay understood what Dr. Dickson
+meant, when he remarked that only a flying horse could be of use
+on such Formosan cross-country journeys.
+
+Soon the pathway changed once more to the broader public highway.
+Here there was much traffic, and many travelers carried in
+sedan-chairs passed them. And many times by the roadside Mackay
+saw something that reminded him forcibly of why he had come to
+Formosa--a heathen shrine. The whole countryside seemed dotted
+with them. And as he watched the worshipers coming and going, and
+heard the disdainful words from the priests cast it the hated
+foreigners, he realized that he was face to face with an awful
+opposing force. It was the great stone of heathenism he had come
+to break, and the question was, would he be as successful as he
+had been long ago in the Canadian pasture-field?
+
+The travelers ate their dinner by the roadside under the shade of
+some fir trees that made Mackay feel at home. They were soon up
+and off again, and, tired with their long tramp, they arrived at
+a town called Tionglek, and decided to spend the night there. The
+place was about the size of Tamsui, with between four and five
+thousand inhabitants, and was quite as dirty and almost as noisy.
+They walked down the main street with its uneven stone pavement,
+its open shops, its noisy bargains, and above all its horrible
+smells. With the exception of an occasional visit from an
+official, foreigners scarcely ever came to Tiong-lek, and on
+every side were revilings and threatenings. One yellow-faced
+youngster picked up a handful of mud and threw it at the hated
+foreigners; and "Black-bearded barbarian," mingled with their
+shouts. Mackay's bright eyes took in everything, and he realized
+more and more the difficulties of the task before him.
+
+They stopped in front of a low one-story building made of
+sun-dried bricks. This  was the Tiong-lek hotel where they were
+to spend the night. Like most Chinese houses it was composed of a
+number of buildings arranged in the form of a square with a
+courtyard in the center. Dr. Dickson asked for lodgings from the
+slant-eyed proprietor. He looked askance at the foreigners, but
+concluded that their money was as good as any one else's, and he
+led them through the deep doorway into the courtyard.
+
+In the center of this yard stood an earthen range, with a fire in
+it. Several travelers stood about it cooking their rice. It was
+evidently the hotel dining-room; a diningroom that was open to
+all too, for chickens clucked and cackled and pigs grunted about
+the range and made themselves quite at home. The men about the
+gateway scowled and muttered "Foreign devil," as the three
+strangers passed them.
+
+They crossed the courtyard and entered their room, or rather
+stumbled into it, in semi-darkness. Mackay peered about him
+curiously. He discovered three beds, made of planks and set on
+brick pillars for legs. Each was covered with a dirty mat woven
+from grass and reeking with the odor of opium smoke.
+
+A servant came in with something evidently intended for a lamp--a
+burning pith wick set in a saucer of peanut oil. It gave out only
+a faint glimmer of light, but enough to enable the young
+missionary to see something else in the room,--some THINGS
+rather, that ran and skipped and swarmed all over the damp
+earthen floor and the dirty walls. There were thousands of these
+brisk little creatures, all leaping about in pleasant
+anticipation ot the good time they would have when the barbarians
+went to bed. There was no window, and only the one door that
+opened into the courtyard. An old pig, evidently more friendly to
+the foreigners than her masters, came waddling toward them
+followed by her squealing little brood, and flopping down into
+the mud in the doorway lay there uttering grunts of content.
+
+The evil smells of the room, the stench from the pigs, and the
+still more dreadful odors wafted from the queer food cooking on
+the range, made the young traveler's unaccustomed senses revolt.
+He had a half notion that the two older men were putting up a
+joke on him.
+
+"I suppose you thought it wise to give me a strong dose of all
+this at the start?" he inquired humorously, holding his nose and
+glancing from the pigs at the door to the crawlers on the wall.
+
+"A strong dose!" laughed Mr. Ritchie. "Not a bit of it, young
+man. Wait till you've had some experience of the luxuries of
+Formosan inns. You'll be calling this the Queen's Hotel, before
+you've been here long!"
+
+And so indeed it proved later, for George Mackay had yet much to
+learn of the true character of Chinese inns. Needless to say he
+spent a wakeful night, on his hard plank bed, and was up early in
+the morning. The travelers ate their breakfast in a room where
+the ducks and hens clattered about under the table and between
+their legs. Fortunately the food was taken from their own stores,
+and in spite of the surroundings was quite appetizing.
+
+They started off early, drawing in great breaths of the pure
+morning air, relieved to be away from the odors of the "Queen's
+Hotel." Three hundred feet above them, high against the deep blue
+of the morning sky, stood Table Hill, and they started on a brisk
+climb up its side. The sun had not risen, but already the farmers
+were out in their little water-fields, or working in their tea
+plantations. The mountain with its groves of bamboo lay reflected
+in the little mirrors of the rice-fields. A steady climb brought
+them to the summit, and after a long descent on the other side
+and a tramp through tea plantations they arrived in the evening
+at a large city with a high wall around it, the city of
+Tek-chham. That night in the city inn was so much worse than the
+one at Tionglek that the Canadian was convinced his friends must
+have reserved the "strong dose" for the second night. There were
+the same smells, the same sorts of pigs and ducks and hens, the
+same breeds of lively nightly companions, and each seemed to have
+gained a fresh force.
+
+It was a relief to be out in the fields again after the foul
+odors of the night, and the travelers were off before dawn. The
+country looked more familiar to Mackay this morning, for they
+passed through wheat and barley fields. It seemed so strange to
+wander over a man's farm by a footpath, but it was a Chinese
+custom to which he soon became accustomed.
+
+The sun was blazing hot, and it was a great relief when they
+entered the cool shade of a forest. It was a delightful place and
+George Mackay reveled in its beauty. Ever since he had been able
+to run about his own home farm in Ontario his eyes had always
+been wide open to observe anything new. He had studied as much
+out of doors, all his life, as he had done in college, and now he
+found this forest a perfect library of new Things. Nearly every
+tree and flower was strange to his Canadian eyes. Here and there,
+in sheltered valleys, grew the treefern, the most beautiful
+object in the forest, towering away up sometimes to a height of
+sixty feet, and spreading its stately fronds out to a width of
+fifteen feet. There was a lovely big plant with purple stem and
+purple leaves, and when Dr. Dickson told him it was the
+castor-oil plant, he smiled at the remembrance of the trials that
+plant had caused him in younger days. One elegant tree, straight
+as a pine, rose fifty feet in height, with leaves away up at the
+top only.
+
+This was the betel-nut free.
+
+"The nuts of that tree," said Mr. Ritchie, standing and pointing
+away up to where the sunlight filtered through the far-off
+leaves, "are the chewing tobacco of Formosa and all the islands
+about here. The Chinese do not chew it, but the Malayans do. You
+will meet some of these natives soon."
+
+On every side grew the rattan, half tree, half vine. It started
+off as a tree and grew straight up often to twenty feet in
+height, and then spread itself out over the tops of other trees
+and plants in vine-like fashion; some of its branches measured
+almost five hundred feet in length.
+
+The travelers paused to admire one high in the branches of the
+trees.
+
+"Many a Chinaman loses his head hunting that plant," remarked Mr.
+Ritchie. "These islanders export a great deal of rattan, and the
+head-hunters up there in the mountains watch for the Chinese when
+they are working in the forest."
+
+Mackay listened eagerly to his friends' tales of the head-hunting
+savages, living in the mountains. They were always on the lookout
+for the farmers near their forest lairs. They watched for any
+unwary man who went too near the woods, pounced upon him, and
+went off in triumph with his head in a bag.
+
+The young traveler's eyes brightened, "I'll visit them some day!"
+he cried, lookkg off toward the mountainside. Mr. Ritchie glanced
+quickly at the flashing eyes and the quick, alert figure of the
+young man as he strode along, and some hint came to him of the
+dauntless young heart which beat beneath that coat of Canadian
+gray.
+
+Two days more over hill and dale, through rice and tea and
+tobacco-fields, and then, in the middle of a hot afternoon, Mr.
+Ritchie began to shiver and shake as though half frozen. Dr.
+Dickson understood, and at the next stopping-place he ordered a
+sedan-chair and four coolies to carry it. It was the old dreaded
+disease that hangs like a black cloud over lovely Formosa, the
+malarial fever. Mr. Ritchie had been a missionary only four years
+in the island, but already the scourge had come upon him, and his
+system was weakened. For, once seized by malaria in Formosa, one
+seldom makes his escape. They put the sick man into the chair,
+now in a raging fever, and he was carried by the four coolies.
+
+They were nearing the end of their journey and were now among a
+people not Chinese. They belonged to the original Malayan race of
+the island. They had been conquered by the Chinese, who in the
+early days came over from China under a pirate named Koxinga. As
+the Chinese name every one but themselves "barbarians," they gave
+this name to all the natives of the island. They had conquered
+all but the dreaded head-hunters, who, free in their mountain
+fastnesses, took a terrible toll of heads from their would-be
+conquerors, or even from their own half-civilized brethren.
+
+The native Malayans who had been subdued by the Chinese were
+given different names. Those who lived on the great level
+rice-plain over which the missionaries were traveling, were
+called Pe-po-hoan, "Barbarians of the plain." Mackay could see
+little difference between them and the Chinese, except in the
+cast of their features, and their long-shaped heads. They wore
+Chinese dress, even to the cue, worshiped the Chinese gods, and
+spoke with a peculiar Malayan twang.
+
+The travelers were journeying rather wearily over a low muddy
+stretch of ground, picking their way along the narrow paths
+between the rice-fields, when they saw a group of men come
+hurrying down the path to meet them. They kept calling out, but
+the words they used were not the familiar "foreign devil" or
+"ugly barbarian." Instead the people were shouting words of
+joyful welcome.
+
+Dr. Dickson hailed them with delight, and soon he and Mr.
+Ritchie's sedan-chair were surrounded by a clamorous group of
+friends.
+
+They had journeyed so far south that they had arrived at the
+borders of the English Presbyterian mission, and the people
+crowding about them were native Christians. It was all so
+different from their treatment by the heathen that Mackay's heart
+was warmed. When the great stone of heathenism was broken, what
+love and kindness were revealed! 
+
+The visitors were led in triumph to the village. There was a
+chapel here, and they stayed nearly a week, preaching and
+teaching.
+
+The rest did Mr. Ritchie much good, and at the end of their visit
+he was once more able to start off on foot. They moved on     
+from village to village and everywhere the Pe-po-hoan Christians
+received them with the greatest hospitality.
+
+But at last the three friends found the time had come for them to
+part. The two Englishmen had to go on through their fields to
+their south Formosan home and the young Canadian must go back to
+fight the battle alone in the north of the island. He had
+endeared himself to the two older men, and when the farewells
+came they were filled with regret.
+
+They bade him a lingering good-by, with many blessings upon his
+young head, and many prayers for success in the hard fight upon
+which he was entering. They walked a short way with him, and
+stood watching the straight, lithe young figure, SO full of
+courage and hope until it disappeared down the valley. They knew
+only too well the dangers and trials ahead of him, but they knew
+also that he was not going into the fight alone. For the Captain
+was going with his young soldier.
+
+There was a suspicion of moisture in the eyes of the older
+missionaries as they turned back to prepare for their own journey
+southward.
+
+"God bless the boy!" said Dr. Dickson fervently. "We'll hear of
+that young fellow yet, Ritchie. He's on fire." 
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. BEGINNING THE SIEGE
+
+The news was soon noised about Tamsui that one of the three
+barbarians who had so lately visited the town had returned to
+make the place his home. This was most unwelcome tidings to the
+heathen, and the air was filled with mutterings and threatenings,
+and every one was determined to drive the foreign devil out if at
+all possible.   So Mackay found himself meeting every kind of
+opposition. He was too independent to ask assistance from the
+British consul in the old Dutch fort on the bluff, or of any
+other European settlers in Tamsui. He was bound to make his own
+way. But it was not easy to do so in view of the forces which
+opposed him. He had now been in Formosa about two months and had
+studied the Chinese language every waking hour, but it was very
+difficult, and he found his usually ready tongue wofully
+handicapped.
+
+His first concern was to get a dwelling-place, and he went from
+house to house inquiring for some place to rent. Everywhere he
+went he was turned away with rough abuse, and occasionally the
+dogs were set upon him.
+
+But at last he was successful. Up on the bank of the river, a
+little way from the edge of the town, he found a place which the
+owner condescended to rent. lilt was a miserable little hut, half
+house, half cellar, built into the side of the hill facing the
+river. A military officer had intended for his horsestable, and
+yet Mackay paid for this hovel the sum of fifteen dollars a
+month. It had three rooms, one without a floor. The road ran past
+the door, and a few feet beyond was the river. By spending money
+rather liberally he managed to hire the coolie who had
+accompanied him to south Formosa. With his servant's help Mackay
+had his new establishment thoroughly cleaned and whitewashed, and
+then he moved in his furniture. He laughed as he called it
+furniture, for it consisted of but two packing boxes full of
+books and clothing. But more came later. The British consul, Mr.
+Frater, lent him a chair and a bed. There was one old Chinese,
+who kept a shop near by, and who seemed inclined to be friendly
+to the queer barbarian with the black beard. He presented him
+with an old pewter lamp, and the house was furnished complete.
+
+Mackay sat down at his one table, the first night after he was
+settled. The damp air was hot and heavy, and swarms of tormenting
+mosquitoes filled the room. Through the open door came the murmur
+of the river, and from far down in the village the sounds of
+harsh, clamorous voices. He was alone, many, many miles from home
+and friends. Around him on every side were bitter enemies.
+
+One might have supposed he would be overcome at the thought of
+the stupendous task before him, but whoever supposed that did not
+know George Mackay. He lighted his pewter lamp, opened his diary,
+and these are the words he wrote:
+
+"Here I am in this house, having been led all the way from the
+old homestead in Zorra by Jesus, as direct as though my boxes
+were labeled, `Tamsui, Formosa, China.' Oh, the glorious
+privilege to lay the foundation of Christ's Church in unbroken
+heathenism! God help me to do this with the open Bible! Again I
+swear allegiance to thee, O King Jesus, my Captain. So help me
+God!"
+
+And now his first duty was to learn the Chinese language. He
+could already speak a little, but it would be a long time, he
+knew, before he could preach. And yet, how was he to learn? he
+asked himself. He was a scholar without a teacher or school. But
+there was his servant, and nothing daunted by the difficulties to
+be overcome, he set to work to make him his teacher also.
+
+George Mackay always went at any task with all his might and
+main, and he attacked the Chinese language in the same manner. He
+found it a hard stone to break, however. "Of all earthly things I
+know of," he remarked once, "it is the most intricate and
+difficult to master."
+
+His unwilling teacher was just about as hard to manage as his
+task, for the coolie did not take kindly to giving lessons. He
+certainly had a rather hard time. Pay and night his master
+deluged him with questions. He made him repeat phrases again and
+again until his pupil could say them correctly. He asked him the
+name of everything inside the house and out, until the easy-going
+Oriental was overcome with dismay. This wild barbarian, with the
+fiery eyes and the black beard, was a terrible creature who gave
+one no rest night nor day. Sometimes after Mackay had spent
+hours with him, imitating sounds and repeating the names of
+things over and over, his harassed teacher would back out of the
+room stealthily, keeping an anxious eye on his master, and
+showing plainly he had grave fears that the foreigner had gone
+quite mad.
+
+Mackay realized that the pace was too hard for his servant, and
+that the poor fellow was in a fair way to lose what little wits
+he had, if not left alone occasionally. So one day he wandered
+out along the riverbank, in search of some one who would talk 
+with him. He turned into a path that led up the hill behind the
+town. He was in hopes he might meet a farmer who would be
+friendly.
+
+When he reached the top of the bluff he found a grassy common
+stretching back toward the rice-fields. Here and there over these
+downs strayed the queer-looking water-buffaloes. Some of them
+were plunged deep in pools of water, and lay there like pigs with
+only their noses out.
+
+He heard a merry laugh and shout from another part of the common,
+and there sat a crowd of frolicsome Chinese boys, in large sun
+hats, and short loose trousers. There were about a dozen of them,
+and they were supposed to be herding the water-buffaloes to keep
+them out of the unfenced fields. But, boylike, they were flying
+kites, and letting their huge-horned charges herd themselves.
+
+Mackay walked over toward them. It was not so long since he had
+been a boy himself, and these jolly lads appealed to him. But the
+moment one caught sight of the stranger, he gave a shout of
+alarm. The rest jumped up, and with yells of terror and cries of
+"Here's the foreign devil!" "Run, or the foreign devil will get
+you!" away they went helter-skelter, their big hats waving, their
+loose clothes flapping wildly. They all disappeared like magic
+behind a big boulder, and the cause of their terror had to walk
+away.
+
+But the next day, when his servant once more showed signs of
+mental exhaustion, he strolled out again upon the downs. The boys
+were there and saw him coming. Though they did not actually run
+away this time, they retired to a safe distance, and stood ready
+to fly at any sign of the barbarian's approach. They watched him
+wonderingly. They noticed his strange white face, his black
+beard, his hair cut off quite short, his amazing hat, and his
+ridiculous clothes. And when at last he walked away, and all
+danger was over, they burst into shouts of laughter.
+
+The next day, as they scampered about the common, here again came
+the absurdlooking stranger, walking slowly, as though careful not
+to frighten them. The boys did not run away this time, and to
+their utter astonishment he spoke to them. Mackay had practised
+carefully the words he was to say to them, and the well-spoken
+Chinese astounded the lads as much as if one of the monkeys that
+gamboled about the trees of their forests should come down and
+say, "How do you do, boys?"
+
+"Why, he speaks our words!" they all cried at once.
+
+As they stood staring, Mackay took out his watch and held it up
+for them to see. It glittered in the sun, and at the sight of it
+and the kind smiling face above, they lost their fears and
+crowded around him. They examined the watch in great wonder. They
+handled his clothes, exclaimed over the buttons on his coat, and
+inquired what they were for. They felt his hands and his fingers,
+and finally decided that, in spite of his queer looks, he was
+after all a man.
+
+From that day the young missionary and the herd-boys were great
+friends. Every day he joined them in the buffalo pasture, and
+would spend from four to five hours with them. And as they were
+very willing to talk, he not only learned their language rapidly,
+but also learned much about their homes, their schools, their
+customs, and their religion.
+
+One day, after a lengthy lesson from his servant, the latter
+decided that the barbarian was unbearable, and bundling up his
+clothes he marched off, without so much as "by your leave." So
+Mackay fell back entirely upon his little teachers on the common.
+With their assistance in the daytime and his Chinese-English
+dictionary at night, he made wonderful progress.
+
+He was left alone now, to get his own meals and keep the swarms
+of flies and the damp mold out of his hut by the riverside. He
+soon learned to eat rice and water-buffalo meat, but he missed
+the milk and butter and cheese of his old Canadian home. For he
+discovered that cows were never milked in Formosa. There was
+variety of food, however, as almost every kind of vegetable that
+he had ever tasted and many new kinds that he found delicious
+were for sale in the open-fronted shops in the village. Then the
+fruits! They were fresh at all seasons-- oranges the whole year,
+bananas fresh from the fields--and such pineapples! He realized
+that he had never really tasted pineapples before.
+
+Meanwhile, he was becoming acquainted. All the families of the
+herd-boys learned to like him, and when others came to know him
+they treated him with respect. He was a teacher, they learned,
+and in China a teacher is always looked upon with something like
+reverence. And, besides, he had a beard. This appendage was
+considered very honorable among Chinese, so the blackbearded
+barbarian was respected because of this.
+
+But there was one class that treated him with the greatest scorn.
+These were the Chinese scholars. They were the literati, and were
+like princes in the land. They despised every one who was not a
+graduate of their schools, and most of all they despised this
+barbarian who dared to set himself up as a teacher. Mackay had
+now learned Chinese well enough to preach, and his sermons
+aroused the indignation of these proud graduates.
+
+Sometimes when one was passing the little hut by the river, he
+would drop in, and glance around just to see what sort of place
+the barbarian kept. He would pick up the Bible and other books,
+throw them on the floor, and with words of contempt strut proudly
+out.
+
+Mackay endured this treatment patiently, but he set himself to
+study their books, for he felt sure that the day was not far
+distant when he must meet these conceited literati in argument.
+
+He went about a good deal now. The Tamsui people became
+accustomed to him, and he was not troubled much. His bright eyes
+were always wide open and he learned much of the lives of the
+people he had come to teach. Among the poor he found a poverty of
+which he had never dreamed. They could live upon what a so-called
+poor family in Canada would throw away. Nothing was wasted in
+China. He often saw the meat and fruit tins he threw away when
+they were emptied, reappearing in the market-place. He learned
+that these poorer people suffered cruel wrongs at the hands of
+their magistrates. He visited a yamen, or court-house, and saw
+the mandarin dispense justice," but his judgment was said to be
+always given in favor of the one who paid him the highest bribe.
+He saw the widow robbed, and the innocent suffering frightful
+tortures, and sometimes he strode home to his little hut by the
+river, his blood tingling with righteous indignation. And then he
+would pray with all his soul:
+
+"O God, give me power to teach these people of thy love through
+Jesus Christ!"
+
+But of all the horrors of heathenism, and there were many, he
+found the religion the most dreadful. He had read about it when
+on board ship, but he found it was infinitely worse when written
+in men's lives than when set down in print. He never realized
+what a blessing was the religion of Jesus Christ to a nation
+until he lived among a people who did not know Him.
+
+He found almost as much difficulty in learning the Chinese
+religion as the Chinese language. After he had spent days trying
+to understand it, it would seem to him like some horrible
+nightmare filled with wicked devils and no less wicked gods and
+evil spirits and ugly idols. And to make matters worse there was
+not one religion, but a bewildering mixture of three. First of
+all there was the ancient Chinese religion, called Confucianism.
+Confucius, a wise man of China, who lived ages before, had laid
+down some rules of conduct, and had been worshiped ever since.
+Very good rules they were as far as they went, and if the Chinese
+had followed this wise man they would not have drifted so far
+from the truth. But Confucianism meant ancestor-worship. In every
+home was a little tablet with the names of the family's ancestors
+upon it, and every one in the house worshiped the spirits of
+those departed. With this was another religion called Taoism.
+This taught belief in wicked demons who lurked about people ready
+to do them some ill. Then, years and years before, some people
+from India had brought over their religion, Buddhism, which had
+become a system of idol-worship. These three religions were so
+mixed up that the people themselves were not able to distinguish
+between them. The names of their idols would cover pages, and an
+account of their religion would fill volumes. The more Mackay
+learned of it, the more he yearned to tell the people of the one
+God who was Lord and Father of them all.
+
+As soon as he had learned to write clearly, he bought a large
+sheet of paper, and printed on it the ten commandments in Chinese
+characters. Then he hung it on the outside of his door. People
+who passed read it and made comments of various kinds. Several
+threw mud at it, and at last a proud graduate, who came striding
+past his silk robes rustling grandly, caught the paper and  tore
+it down. Mackay promptly put up another. It shared the fate of
+the first. Then he put up a third, and the people let it alone.
+Even these heathen Chinese were beginning to get an impression of
+the dauntless determination of the man with whom they were to get
+much better acquainted.
+
+And all this time, while he was studying and working and arguing
+with the heathen and preaching to them, the young missionary was
+working just as hard at something else; something into which he
+was putting as much energy and force as he did into learning the
+Chinese langrnige. With all his might and main, day and night, he
+was praying--praying for one special object. He had been praying
+for this long before he saw Formosa. He was pleading with God to
+give him, as his first convert, a young man of education. And so
+he was always on the lookout for such, as he preached and taught,
+and never once did he cease praying that he might find him.
+
+One forenoon he was sitting at his books, near the open door,
+when a visitor stopped before him. lilt was a fine-looking young
+man, well dressed and with all the unmistakable signs of the
+scholar. He had none of the graduate's proud insolence, however,
+for when Mackay arose, he spoke in the most gentlemanly manner.
+At the missionary's invitation he entered, and sat down, and the
+two chatted pleasantly. The visitor seemed interested in the
+foreigner, and asked him many questions that showed a bright,
+intelligent mind. When he arose to go, Mackay invited him to come
+again, and he promised he would. He left his card, a strip of
+pink paper about three inches by six; the name on it read Giam
+Cheng Hoa. Mackay was very much interested in him, he was so
+bright, so affable, and such pleasant company. He waited
+anxiously to see if he would return.
+
+At the appointed hour the visitor was at the door, and the
+missionary welcomed him warmly. The second visit was even more
+pleasant than the first. And Mackay told his guest why he had
+come to Formosa, and of Jesus Christ who was both God and man and
+who had come to the earth to save mankind.
+
+The young man's bright eyes were fixed steadily upon the
+missionary as he talked, and when he went away his face was very
+thoughtful. Mackay sat thinking about him long after he had left.
+
+He had met many graduates, but none had impressed him as had this
+youth, with his frank face and his kind, genial manner. There was
+something too about the young fellow, he felt, that marked him as
+superior to his companions. And then a sudden divine inspiration
+flashed into the lonely young missionary's heart. THIS WAS HIS
+MAN! This was the man for whom he had been praying. The stranger
+had as yet shown no sign of conversion, but Mackay could not get
+away from that inspired thought. And that night he could not
+sleep for joy.
+
+In a day or two the young man returned. With him was a noted
+graduate, who asked many questions about the new religion. The
+next day he came again with six graduates, who argued and
+discussed.
+
+When they were gone Mackay paced up and down the room and faced
+the serious situation which he realized he was in. He saw plainly
+that the educated men of the town were banded together to beat
+him in argument. And with all his energy and desperate
+determination he set to work to be ready for them.
+
+His first task was to gain a thorough knowledge of the Chinese
+religions. He had already learned much about them, both from
+books on shipboard and since he had come to the island. But now
+he spent long hours of the night, poring over the books of
+Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, by the light of his smoky
+little pewter lamp. And before the next visit of his enemies he
+knew almost more of their jumble of religions than they did
+themselves.
+
+It was well he was prepared, for his opponents came down upon him
+in full force. Every day a band of college graduates, always
+headed by Giam Cheng Hoa, came up from the town to the
+missionary's little hut by the river, and for hours they would
+sit arguing and talking. They were always the most noted scholars
+the place could produce, but in spite of all their cleverness the
+barbarian teacher silenced them every time. He fairly took the
+wind out of their sails by showing he knew quite as much about
+Chinese religions as they did. If they quoted Confucius to
+contradict the Bible, he would quote Confucius to contradict
+them. He confounded them by proving that they were not really
+followers of Confucius, for they did not keep his sayings. And
+with unanswerable arguments he went on to show that the religion
+taught by Jesus Christ was the one and only religion to make man
+good and noble.
+
+Each day the group of visitors grew larger, and at last one
+morning, as Mackay looked out of his door, he saw quite a crowd
+approaching. They were led, as usual, by the friendly young
+scholar. By his side walked, or rather, swaggered a man of whom
+the missionary had often heard. He was a scholar of high degree
+and was famed all over Formosa for his great learning. Behind him
+came about twenty men, and Mackay could see by their dress and
+appearance that they were all literary graduates. They were
+coming in great force this time, to crush the barbarian with
+their combined knowledge. lie met them at the door with his usual
+politeness and hospitality. He was always courteous to these
+proud literati, but he always treated them as equals, and showed
+none of the deference they felt he owed them. The crowd seated
+itself on improvised benches and the argument opened.
+
+This time Mackay led the attack. He carried the war right into
+the enemy's camp. Instead of letting them put questions to him,
+he asked them question after question concerning Confucianism,
+Buddhism, and Taoism. They were questions that sometimes they
+could not answer, and to their chagrin they had to hear "the
+barbarian" answer for them. There were other questions, still
+more humiliating, which, when they answered, only served to show
+their religion as false and degrading. Their spokesman, the great
+learned man, became at last so entangled that there was nothing
+for him but flight. He arose and stalked angrily away, and in a
+little while they all left. Mackay looked wistfully at young Giam
+as he went out, wondering what effect these words had upon him.
+
+He was not left long in doubt. Not half an hour after a shadow
+fell across the open Bible the missionary was studying. He
+glanced up. There he stood! His bright face was very serious. He
+looked gravely at the other young man, and his eyes shone as he
+spoke.
+
+"I brought all those graduates and teachers here," he confessed,
+"to silence you or be silenced. And now I am convinced that the
+doctrines you teach are true. I am determined to become a
+Christian, even though I suffer death for it."
+
+Mackay rose from his seat, his face alight with an overwhelming
+joy. The man he had prayed for! He took the young fellow's hand--
+speechless. And together the only missionary of north Formosa and
+his first convert fell upon their knees before the true God and
+poured out their hearts in joy and thanksgiving.
+
+
+CHAPTER V. SOLDIERS TWO
+
+And now a new day dawned for the only lonely young missionary. He
+had not
+
+a convert but a helper and a delightful companion. His new friend
+was of a bright, joyous nature, the sort that everybody loves.
+Giam was his surname, but almost every one called him by his
+given name, Hoa, and those  who knew him best called him A Hoa.
+Mackay  used this more familiar boyish name, for Giam was the
+younger by a few years.
+
+To A Hoa his new friend was always Pastor Mackay, or as the
+Chinese put it, Mackay Pastor, Kai Bok-su was the real Chinese of
+it, and Kai Bok-su soon became a name known all over the island
+of Formosa.
+
+A Hoa needed all his kind new friend's help in the first days
+after his conversion. For family, relatives, and friends turned
+upon him with the bitterest hatred for taking up the barbarian's
+religion. So, driven from his friends, he came to live in the
+little hut by the river with Mackay. While at home these two
+read, sang, and studied together all the day long. It would have
+been hard for an observer to guess who was teacher and who pupil.
+For at one time A IIoa was receiving Bible instruction and the
+next time Mackay was being drilled in the Chinese of the educated
+classes. Each teacher was as eager to instruct as each pupil was
+eager to learn.
+
+The Bible was, of course, the chief textbook, but they studied
+other things, astronomy, geology, history, and similar subjects.
+One day the Canadian took out a map of the world, and the Chinese
+gazed with amazement at the sight of the many large countries
+outside China. A Hoa had been private secretary to a mandarin,
+and had traveled much in China, and once spent six months in
+Peking. His idea had been that China was everything, that all
+countries outside it were but insignificant barbarian places. His
+geography lessons were like revelations.
+
+His progress was simply astonishing, as was also Mackay's. The
+two seemed possessed with the spirit of hard work. But a
+superstitious old man who lived near believed they were possessed
+with a demon. He often listened to the two singing, drilling, and
+repeating words as they marched up and down, either in the house
+or in front of it, and he became alarmed. He was a kindly old
+fellow, and, though a heathen, felt well disposed toward the
+missionary and A Hoa. So one day, very much afraid, he slipped
+over to the little house with two small cups of strong tea. He
+came to the door and proffered them with a polite bow. He hoped
+they might prove soothing to the disturbed nerves of the
+patients, he said. He suggested, also, that a visit to the
+nearest temple might help them.
+
+The two affected ones received his advice politely, but the humor
+of it struck them both, and when their visitor was gone they
+laughed so hard the tea nearly choked them.
+
+The missionary was soon able to speak so fluently that he
+preached almost every day, either in the little house by the
+river, or on the street in some open square. There were other
+things he did, too. On every side he saw great suffering from
+disease. The chief malady was the terrible malaria, and the
+native doctors with their ridiculous remedies only made the poor
+sufferers worse. Mackay had studied medicine for a short time
+while in college, and now found his knowledge very useful. He
+gave some simple remedies to several victims of malaria which
+proved effective. The news of the cures spread far and wide. The
+barbarian was kind, he had a good heart, the people declared.
+Many more came to him for medicine, and day by day the circle of
+his friends grew. And wherever he went, curing disease, teaching,
+or preaching, A Hoa went with him, and shared with him the taunts
+of their heathen enemies.
+
+But the gospel was gradually making its way. Not long after A
+Hoa's conversion a second man confessed Christ. He had previously
+disturbed the meetings by throwing stones into the doorway
+whenever he passed. But his sister was cured of malaria by the
+missionary's medicine, and soon both sister  and mother became
+Christians, and finally the stone-thrower himself. And so, gradu
+ally, the lines of the enemy were falling back, and at every sign
+of retreat the little army of two advanced. A little army? No!
+For was there not the whole host of heaven  moving with them? And
+Mackay was learn ing that his boyish dreams of glory were  truly
+to be fulfilled. He had wanted always to be a soldier like his
+grandfather, and fight a great Waterloo, and here he was  right
+in the midst of the battle with the vic tory and the glory sure.
+
+The two missionaries often went on short trips here and there
+into the country around Tamsui, and Mackay determined that when
+the intense summer heat had lessened they would make a long tour
+to some of the large cities. The heat of August was almost
+overpowering to the Canadian. Flies and mosquitoes and insect
+pests of all kinds made his life miserable, too, and prevented
+his studying as hard as he wished.
+
+One oppressive day he and A Hoa returned from a preaching tour in
+the country to find their home in a state of siege. Right across
+the threshold lay a monster serpent, eight feet in length. A Hoa
+shouted a warning, and seized a long pole, and the two managed to
+kill it. But their troubles were not yet over. The next morning,
+Mackay stepped outside the door and sprang back just in time to
+escape another, the mate of the one killed. This one was even
+larger than the first, and was very fierce. But they finished it
+with sticks and stones.
+
+When September came the days grew clearer, and the many pests of
+summer were not so numerous. The mosquitoes and flies that had
+been such torments disappeared, and there was some relief from
+the damp oppressive heat. But he had only begun to enjoy the
+refreshing breaths of cool air, and had remarked to A Hoa that
+the days reminded him of Canadian summers, when the weather gave
+him to understand that every Formosan season has its drawbacks.
+September brought tropical storms and typhoons that were
+terrible, and he saw from his little house on the hillside big
+trees torn up by the root, buildings swept away like chaff, and
+out in the harbor great ships lifted from their anchorage and
+whirled away to destruction. And then he was sometimes thankful
+that his little hut was built into the hillside, solid and
+secure.
+
+But the fierce storms cleared away the heavy dampness that had
+made the heat of the summer so unbearable, and October and
+November brought delightful days. The weather was still warm of
+course, but the nights were cool and pleasant.
+
+So early one October morning, Mackay and A Hoa started off on a
+tour to the cities.
+
+"We shall go to Kelung first," said the missionary. Kelung was a
+seaport city on the northern coast, straight east across the
+island from Tamsui. A coolie to carry food and clothing was
+hired, and early in the morning, while the stars were still
+shining, they passed through the sleeping town and out on the
+little paths between the rice-fields. Though it was yet scarcely
+daylight, the farmers were already in their fields. It was
+harvest-time--the second harvest of the year --and the little
+rice-fields were no longer like mirrors, but were filled with
+high rustling grain ready for the sickle. The water had been
+drained off and the reaper and thrasher were going through the
+fields before dawn. There was no machinery like that used at
+home. The reaper was a short sickle, the thrashing-machine a kind
+of portable tub, and Mackay looked at them with some amusement,
+and described to A Hoa how they took off the great wheat crops in
+western Canada.
+
+The two were in high spirits, ready for any sort of adventure and
+they met some. Toward evening they reached a place called
+Sek-khau, and went to the little brick inn to get a
+sleeping-place. The landlord came to the door and was about to
+bid A Hoa enter, when the light fell upon Mackay's face. With a
+shout, "Black-bearded barbarian!" he slammed the door in their
+faces. They turned away, but already a crowd had begun to gather.
+"The black-bearded barbarian is here! The foreign devil from
+Tamsui has come!" was the cry. The mob followed the two down the
+streets, shouting curses. Some one threw a broken piece of brick,
+another a stone. Mackay turned and faced them, and for a few
+moments they seemed cowed. But the crowd was increasing, and he
+deemed it wise to move on. So the two marched out of the town
+followed by stones and curses. And, as they went, Mackay reminded
+A Hoa of what they had been read ing the night before.
+
+"Yes," said A Hoa brightly. "The Lord  was driven out of his own
+town in Galilee."
+
+ "Yes, and Paul--you remember how he  was stoned. Our Master
+counts us worthy to suffer for him."  But where to go was the
+question. Before they could decide, night came down upon them,
+and it came in that sudden tropical way to which Mackay, all his
+life accustomed to the long mellow twilights of his northern
+home, could never grow accustomed. They each took a torch out of
+the carrier's bag, lighted it, and marched bravely on. The path
+led along the Kelung river, through tall grass. They were not
+sure where it led to, but thought it wise to follow the river;
+they would surely come to Kelung some time. Mackay was ahead, A
+Hoa right at his heels, and behind them the basketbearer. At a
+sudden turn in the path A Hoa gave a shout of warning, and the
+next instant, a band of robbers leaped from the long reeds and
+grass, and brandished their spears in the travelers' faces. The
+torchlight shone on their fierce evil eyes and their long knives,
+making a horrible picture. The young Canadian Scot did not flinch
+for a second. He looked the wild leader straight in the face.
+
+"We have no money, so you cannot rob us,"
+
+he said steadily, "and you must let us pass at once. I am a
+teacher and--" 
+
+"A TEACHER!" he was interrupted by a dismayed exclamation from
+several of the wild band. "A teacher!" As if with one accord they
+turned and fled into the darkness. For even a highwayman in China
+respects a man of learning. The travelers went on again, with
+something of relief and something of the exultation that youth
+feels in having faced danger. But a second trouble was upon them.
+One of those terrible storms that still raged occasionally had
+been brewing all evening, and now it opened its artillery. Great
+howling gusts came down from the mountain, carrying sheets of
+driving rain. Their torches went out like matches, and they were
+left to stagger along in the black darkness. What were they to
+do? They could not go back. They could not stay there. They
+scarcely dared go on. For they did not know the way, and any
+moment a fresh blast of wind or a misstep might hurl them into
+the river. But they decided that they must go on, and on they
+went, stumbling, slipping, sprawling, and falling outright. Now
+there would be an exclamation from Mackay as he sank to the knees
+in the mud of a rice-field, now a groan from A Hoa as he fell
+over a boulder and bruised and scratched himself, and oftenest a
+yell from the poor coolie, as he slipped, baskets and all, into
+some rocky crevice, and was sure he was tumbling into the river;
+but they staggered on, Mackay secure in his faith in God. His
+Father knew and his Father would keep him safely. And behind him
+came brave young A Hoa, buoyed up by his new growing faith, and
+learning the lesson that sometimes the Captain asks his soldier
+to march into hard encounters, but that the soldier must never
+flinch.
+
+The "everlasting arms" were around them, for by midnight they
+reached Kelung. They were drenched, breathless, and worn out, and
+they spent the night in a damp hovel, glad of any shelter from
+the wind and rain.
+
+But the next morning, young soldier A Hoa had a fiercer battle to
+fight than any with robbers or storms. As soon as the city was
+astir, Mackay and he went out to find a good place to preach.
+They passed down the main thoroughfare, and everywhere they
+attracted attention. Cries of "Ugly barbarian!" and oftenest
+"Black-bearded barbarian" were heard on all sides. A Hoa was
+known in Kelung and contempt and ridicule was heaped upon him by
+his old college acquaintances. He was consorting with the
+barbarian! He was a friend of this foreigner! They poured more
+insults upon  him than they did upon the barbarian himself. Some
+took the stranger as a joke, and laughed and made funny remarks
+upon his appearance. Here and there an old woman, peeping through
+the doorway, would utter a loud cackling laugh, and pointing a
+wizened finger at the missionary would cry: "Eh, eh, look at him!
+Tee hee! He's got a wash basin on for a hat!" A Hoa was
+distressed at these remarks, but Mackay was highly amused.
+
+"We're drawing a crowd, anyway," he remarked cheerfully, "and
+that's what we want"
+
+Soon they came to an open square in front of a heathen temple.
+The building had several large stone steps leading up to the
+door. Mackay mounted them and stood facing the buzzing crowd,
+with A Hoa at his side. They started a hymn.
+
+All people that on earth do dwell Sing to the Lord with cheerful
+voice.
+
+The open square in front of them began to fill rapidly. The
+people jostled each other in their endeavors to get a view of the
+barbarian. Every one was curious, but every one was angry and
+indignant, so sometimes the sound of the singing was lost in the
+shouts of derision.
+
+When the hymn was finished, Mackay had a sudden inspiration.
+"They will surely listen to one of their own people," he said to
+himself, and turned to A Hoa.
+
+"Speak to them," he said. "Tell them about the true God."
+
+That was a hard moment for the young convert. He had been a
+Christian only a few months and had never yet spoken in public
+for Christ. He looked desperately over the sea of mocking faces
+beneath him. He opened his mouth, as though to speak, and
+hesitated. Just then came a rough and bitter taunt from one of
+his old companions. It was too much. A Hoa turned away and hung
+his head.
+
+The young missionary said nothing. But he did the very wisest
+thing he could have done. He had some time before taught A Hoa a
+grand old Scottish paraphrase, and they had often sung it
+together:
+
+I'm not ashamed to own my Lord
+Or to defend his cause,
+Maintain the glory of his cross
+And honor all his laws.
+
+Mackay's voice, loud and clear, burst into this fine old hymn. A
+Hoa taised his head. He joined in the hymn and sang it to the
+end. It put mettle into him. It was the battle-song that brought
+back the young recruit's courage. Almost before the last note
+sounded he began to speak. His voice rang out bold and unafraid
+over the crowd of angry heathen.
+
+"I am a Christian!" he said distinctly. "I worship the true God.
+I cannot worship idols," with a gesture toward the temple door,
+"that rats can destroy. I am not afraid. I love Jesus. He is my
+Savior and Friend."
+
+No, A Hoa was not "ashamed" any more. His testing time had come,
+and he had not failed after all. And his brave, true words sent a
+thrill of joy through the more seasoned soldier at his side.
+
+That was not the only difficult situation he met on that journey.
+The two soldiers of the cross had many trials, but the thrill of
+that victory before the Kelung temple never left them.
+
+When they returned to Tamsui they held daily services in their
+house, and A Hoa often spoke to the people who gathered there.
+
+One Sunday they noticed an old woman present, who had come down
+the river in a boat. Women as a rule did not come out to the
+meetings, but this old lady continued to come every Sunday. She
+showed great interest in the missionary's words, and, at the
+close of one meeting, he spoke to her. She told him she was a
+poor widow, that her name was Thah-so, and that she had come down
+the river from Go-ko-khi to hear him preach. Then she added, "I
+have passed through many trials in this world, and my idols never
+gave me any comfort." Then her eyes shone, "But I like your
+teaching very much," she went on. "I believe the God you tell
+about will give me peace.. I will come again, and bring others."
+
+Next Sunday she was there with several  other women. And after
+that she came every Sunday, bringing more each time, until at
+last a whole boat-load would come down to the service.
+
+These people were so interested that they asked the missionary if
+he would not visit them. So one day he and A Hoa boarded one of
+the queer-looking flat-bottomed river-boats and were pulled up
+the rapids to Go ko-khi. Every village in Formosa had its
+headman, who is virtually the ruler of the  place. When the boat
+landed, many of the villagers were at the shore to meet their
+vise itors and took them at once to their mayor's house, the best
+building in the village. Tan Paugh, a fine, big, powerfully-built
+man, received them cordially. He frankly declared that he was
+tired and sick of idols and wanted to hear more of this new
+religion. An empty granary was obtained for both church and home,
+and the missionary and his assistant took up their quarters
+there, and for several months they remained, preaching and
+teaching the Bible either in Go-ho-khi, or in the lovely
+surrounding valleys.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. THE GREAT KAI BOK-SU
+
+The missionary was now becoming a familiar figure both in Tamsui
+and in the surrounding country. By many he was loved, by all hd
+was respected, but by a large number he was bitterly hated. The
+scholars continued his worst enemies. They could never forgive
+him for beating them so completely in argument, in the days when
+A Hoa was striving for the light, and their hatred increased as
+they saw other scholars becoming Christians under his teaching.
+There was something about him, however, that compelled their
+respect and even their admiration. Wherever they met him--on the
+street, by their temples, or on the country roads--he bore
+himself in such a way as to make them confess that he was their
+superior both in ability and knowledge.
+
+These Chinese literati had a custom which Mackay found very
+interesting. One proud scholar marching down the street and
+scarcely noticing the obsequious bows of his inferiors, would
+meet another equally proud scholar. Each would salute the other
+in an exceedingly grand manner, and then one would spin off a
+quotation from the writings of Confucius or some other Chinese
+sage and say, "Now tell me where that is found." And scholar
+number two had to ransack his brains to remember where the saying
+was found, or else confess himself beaten. Mackay thought it
+might be a good habit for the graduates of his own alma mater
+across the wide sea to adopt. He wondered what some of his old
+college chums would think, if, when he got back to Canada, he
+should buttonhole one on the street some day, recite a quotation
+from Shakespeare or Macaulay, and demand from his friend where it
+could be found. He had a suspicion that the old friend would be
+afraid that the Oriental sun bad touched George Mackay's brain.
+
+Nevertheless he thought the custom one he could turn to good
+account, and before long he was trying it himself. He had such a
+wonderful memory that he never forgot anything he had once read.
+So the scholars of north Formosa soon discovered, again to their
+humiliation, that this Kai Bok-su of Tamsui could beat them at
+their own game. They did not care how much he might profess to
+know of writers and lands beyond China. Such were only barbarians
+anyway. But when, right before a crowd, he would display a surer
+knowledge of the Chinese classics than they themselves, they
+began not only to respect but to fear him. It was no use trying
+to humiliate him with a quotation. With his bright eyes flashing,
+he would tell, without a moment's hesitation, where it was found
+and come back at the questioner swiftly with another, most
+probably one long forgotten, and reel it off as though he had
+studied Chinese all his life.
+
+He was a wonderful man certainly, they all agreed, and one whom
+it was not safe to oppose. The common people liked him better
+every day. He was so tactful, so kind, and always so careful not
+to arouse the prejudice of the heathen. He was extremely wise in
+dealing with their superstitions. No matter how absurd or
+childish They might be, he never ridiculed them, but only strove
+to show the people how much happier they might be if they
+believed in God as their Father and in Jesus Christ as their
+Savior. He never made light of anything sacred to the Chinese
+mind, but always tried to take whatever germ of good he could
+find in their religion, and lead on from it to the greater good
+found in Christianity. He discovered that the ancestral worship
+made the younger people kind and respectful to older folk, and he
+saw that Chinese children reverenced their parents and elders in
+a way that he felt many of his young friends across the sea would
+do well to copy.
+
+One day when he and A Hoa were out on a preaching tour, the wise
+Kai Bok-su made use of this respect for parents in quieting a
+mob. He and his comrade were standing side by side on the steps
+of a heathen temple as they had done at Kelung. The angry crowd
+was scowling and muttering, ready to throw stones as soon as the
+preacher uttered. a word. Mackay knew this, and when they had
+sung a hymn and the people waited, ready for a riot, his voice
+rang out clear and steady, repeating the fifth commandment "Honor
+thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the
+land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." A silence fell over the
+muttering crowd, and an old heathen whose cue was white and whose
+aged hands trembled on the top of his staff, nodded his head and
+said, "That is heavenly doctrine." The people were surprised and
+disarmed. If the black-bearded barbarian taught such truths as
+this, he surely was not so very wicked after all. And so they
+listened attentively as he went on to show that  they had all one
+great Father, even God.
+
+He sometimes found it rather a task to treat with respect that
+which the Chinese held sacred. Especially was this so when he
+discovered to his amusement and to some carefully concealed
+disgust, that in the Chinese family the pig was looked upon with
+affection, and as a young naval officer, who visited Mackay
+remarked, "was treated like a gentleman."
+
+Every Chinese house of any size was made up of three buildings
+joined together so as to make three sides of an enclosure. This
+space was called a court, and a door led from it to another next
+the street. In this outer yard pigs and fowl were always to be
+found. Whenever the missionary dropped in at a home, mother pig
+and all the little pigs often followed him inside the house,
+quite like members of the family. Every one was always glad to
+see Kai Bok-su, pigs and all, and as soon as he appeared the
+order was given--"Infuse tea." And when the little handleless
+cups of clear brown liquid were passed around and they all drank
+and chatted, Mrs. Pig and her children strolled about as welcome
+as the guest.
+
+The Chinese would allow no one to hurt their pigs, either. One
+day as Mackay sat in his rooms facing the river, battling with
+some new Chinese characters, he heard a great hubbub coming up
+the street. The threatening mobs that used to surround his house
+had long ago ceased to trouble him. lie arose in some surprise
+and went to the  door to see what was the matter. A very  unusual
+sight for Tamsui met his gaze. Coming up the street at a wild run
+were some half-dozen English sailors, their loose blue blouses
+and trousers flapping madly. They were evidently from a ship
+which Mackay had seen lying in the harbor that morning.
+
+"Give us a gun!" roared the foremost as soon as he saw the
+missionary.
+
+Mackay did not possess a gun, and would not have given the
+enraged bluejacket one  had he owned a dozen. But the Chinese
+mob, roaring with fury, were coming up the  street after the men
+and he swiftly pointed out a narrow alley that led down to the
+river. "Run down there!" he shouted to the sailors. "You can get
+to your boats before they find you."
+
+They were gone in an instant, and the next moment the crowd of
+pursuers were storming about the door demanding whither the enemy
+had disappeared.
+
+"What is all this disturbance about?" demanded Kai Bok-su calmly,
+glad of an opportunity to gain time for the fleeing sailors.
+
+The aggrieved Chinese gathered about him, each telling the story
+as loud as his voice would permit. Those barbarians of the sea
+had come swaggering along the streets waving their big sticks.
+And they had dared--yes actually DARED--to hit the pet pigs
+belonging to every house as they passed. The poor pigs who lay
+sunning themselves at the door!
+
+This was indeed a serious offense. Mackay could picture the
+rollicking sailor-lads gaily whacking the lazy porkers with their
+canes as they passed, happily unconscious of the trouble they
+were raising. But there was no amusement in Kai B ok-sn's grave
+face. lie spoke kindly, and soothingly, and promised that if the
+offenders misbehaved again he would complain to the authorities.
+That made it all right. Heathen though they were, they knew Kai
+Bok-su's promise would not be broken, and away they went quite
+satisfied.
+
+One day he learned, quite by accident, a new and very useful way
+of helping his people. He and A Hoa and several other young men
+who had become Christians, went on a missionary tour to
+Tek-chham, a large city which he had visited once before.
+
+On the day they left the place, Kai Boksu's preaching had drawn
+such crowds that the authorities of the city became afraid of
+him. And when the little party left, a dozen soldiers were sent
+to follow the dangerous  barbarian and his students and see that
+they did not bewitch the people on the road.
+
+The soldiers tramped along after the mis sionary party, and with
+his usual ability to  make use of any situation, Mackay stepped 
+back and chatted with his spies. He found one poor fellow in
+agony with the toothache. This malady was very common in north
+Formosa, partly owing to the habit of chewing the betel-nut. He
+examined the aching tooth and found it badly decayed. "There is a
+worm in it," the soldier said, for the Formosan doctors had
+taught the people this was the cause of toothache.
+
+Mackay had no forceps, but he knew how to pull a tooth, and he
+was not the sort to be daunted by the lack of tools. He got a
+piece of hard wood, whittled it into shape and with it pried out
+the tooth. The relief from pain was so great that the soldier
+almost wept for joy and overwhelmed the tooth-puller with
+gratitude. And for the remainder of the journey the guards sent
+to spy on the missionary's doings were his warmest friends.
+
+After this, dentistry became a part of this many-sided
+missionary's work. He went to a native blacksmith and had a pair
+of forceps hammered out of iron. It was a rather clumsy
+instrument, but it proved of great value, and later he sent for a
+complete set of the best instruments made in New York.
+
+So with forceps in one hand and the Bible in the other, Mackay
+found himself doubly equipped. Every second person seemed to be
+suffering from toothache, and when the pain was relieved by the
+missionary, the patient was in a state of mind to receive his
+teaching kindly. The cruel methods by which the native doctors
+extracted teeth  often caused more suffering than the toothache,
+and sometimes evew resulted in death through blood-poisoning.
+
+A Hoa and some of the other young converts learned from their
+teacher how to pull a tooth, and they, too, became experts in the
+art.
+
+Whenever they visited a town or city after this, they had a
+program which they always followed. First they would place
+themselves in front of an idol temple or in  an open square. Here
+they would sing a  hymn which always attracted a crowd. Next, any
+one who wanted a tooth pulled was invited to come forward. Many
+accepted the invitation gladly and sometimes a long line of
+twenty or thirty would be waiting, each  his turn. The Chinese
+had considerable  nerve, the Canadian discovered, and stood  the
+pain bravely. They literally "stood" it, too, for there was no
+dentist's chair and  every man stood up for his operation, very
+much pleased and very grateful when it was over. Then there were
+quinine and other simple remedies for malaria handed round, for
+in a Formosan crowd there were often many shaking in the grip of
+this terrible disease. And now, having opened the people's hearts
+by his kindness, Kai Bok-su brought forth his cure for souls. He
+would mount the steps of the temple or stand on a box or stone,
+and tell the wonderful old story of the man Jesus who was also
+God, and who said to all sick and weary and troubled ones, "Come
+unto me, . . . and I will give you rest." And often, when he had
+finished, the disease of sin in many a heart was cured by the
+remedy of the gospel.
+
+And so the autumn passed away happily and busily, and Mackay
+entered his first Formosan winter. And such a winter! The young
+man who had felt the clear, bright cold of a Canadian January
+needed all his fine courage to bear up under its dreariness. It
+started about Christmas time. Just when his own people far away
+in Canada were gathering about the blazing fire or jingling over
+the crisp snow in sleighs and cutters, the great winter rains
+commenced. Christmas day--his first Christmas in a land that did
+not know its beautiful meaning--was one long dreary downpour. It
+rained steadily all Christmas week. It poured on Newyear's day
+and for a week after. It came down in torrents all January.
+February set  in and still it rained and rained, with only a
+short interval each afternoon. Day and night, week in, week out,
+it poured, until Mackay forgot what sunlight looked like. rns
+house grew damp, his clothes moldy. A stream broke out up in the
+hill behind and one morning he awoke to find a cascade tumbling
+into his kitchen, and rushing across the floor out into the river
+beyond. And still it poured and the wind blew and everything was
+damp and cold and dreary.
+
+He caught an occasional glimpse of snow, only a very far-off
+view, for it lay away up on the top of a mountain, but it made
+his heart long for just one breath of good dry Canadian air, just
+one whiff of the keen, cutting frost.
+
+But Kai Bok-su was not the sort to spend these dismal days
+repining. Indeed he had no time, even had he been so inclined.
+His work filled up every minute of every rainy day and hours of
+the drenched night. If there was no sunshine outside there was
+plenty in his brave heart, and A Hoa 's whole nature radiated
+brightness.
+
+And there were many reasons for being happy after all. On the
+second Sabbath of February, 1873, just one year after his arrival
+in Tamsui, the missionary announced, at the close of one of his
+Sabbath services, that he would receive a number into the
+Christian church. There was instantly a commotion among the
+heathen who were in the house, and yells and jeers from those
+crowding about the door outside.
+
+"We'll stop him," they shouted. "Let us beat the converts," was
+another cry.
+
+But Mackay went quietly on with the beautiful ceremony in spite
+of the disturbance. Five young men, with A Hoa at their head,
+came and were baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and
+the Holy Spirit.
+
+
+When the next Sabbath came these five with their missionary sat
+down for the first time to partake of the Lord's Supper. It was a
+very impressive ceremony. One young fellow broke down, declaring
+he was not worthy. Mackay took him alone into his little room and
+they prayed together, and the young man came out to the Lord's
+Supper comforted, knowing that all might be worthy in Jesus
+Christ.
+
+Spring came at last, bright and clear, and Mackay announced to A
+Hoa that they must go up the river and visit their friends at
+Goko-khi. The two did not go alone this time. Three other young
+men who wanted to be missionaries were now spending their days
+with their teacher, learning with A Hoa how to preach the gospel.
+So it was quite a little band of disciples that walked along the
+river bank up to Go-ko-khi. Mackay preached at all the villages
+along the route, and visited the homes of Christians.
+
+One day, as they passed a yamen or Chinese court-house where a
+mandarin was trying some cases, they stepped in to see what was
+going on. At one end of the room sat the mandarin who was judge.
+He was dressed in magnificent silks and looked down very
+haughtily upon the lesser people and the retinue of servants who
+were gathered about him. On either side of the room stood a row
+of constables and near them the executioners. The rest of the
+room was filled with friends of the people on trial and by the
+rabble from the street. The missionaries mixed with the former
+and stood watching proceedings. There were no lawyers, no jury.
+The mandarin's decision was law.
+
+The first case was one of theft. Whether the man had really
+committed the crime or not was a question freely discussed among
+the onlookers around Mackay. But there seemed no doubt as to his
+punishment being swift and heavy. "He has not paid the mandarn,"
+a friend explained to the missionary. "He will be punished."
+
+"The mandarin eats cash," remarked another with a shrug. It was a
+saying to which Mackay had become accustomed. For it was one of
+the shameless proverbs of poor, oppressed Formosa.
+
+The case was soon finished. Nothing was definitely proven against
+the man. But the mandarin pronounced the sentence of death. The
+victim was hurried out, shrieking his innocence, and praying for
+mercy. Case followed case, each one becoming more revolting than
+the last to the eyes of the young man accustomed to British
+justice. Imprisonment and torture were meted out to prisoners,
+and even witnesses were laid hold of and beaten on the face by
+the executioners if their tale did not suit the mandarin. Men who
+were plainly guilty but Who had given their judge a liberal bribe
+were let off, while innocent men were made to pay heavy fines or
+were thrown into prison. The young missionary went out and on his
+way sickened by the sights he had witnessed. And as he went, he
+raised his eyes to heaven and prayed fervently that he might be a
+faithful preacher of the gospel, and that one day Formosa would
+be a Christian land and injustice and oppression be done away.
+
+
+The next scene was a happier one. There  was an earnest little
+band of Christians in Go-ko-khi, and two of the young people were
+about to be married. It was the first Christian marriage in the
+place and Kai Bok-su was called upon to officiate. There was a
+great deal of opposition raised among the heathen, but after
+seeing the ceremony, they all voted a Christian wedding
+everything that was beautiful and good.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. BESIEGING HEAD-HUNTERS When     they returned from
+their trip, Mackay and A Hoa with the assistance of some of their
+Christian friends set about looking for a new house in a more
+wholesome district. It was much easier for the missionary to rent
+a place now, and he managed to secure a comfortable home upon 
+the bluff above the town. It was a dryer situation and much more
+healthful. Here  one room was used as a study and every
+
+morning when not away on a tour a party  of young men gathered in
+it for lessons.  Sometimes, what with traveling, preaching,
+training his students, visiting the sick, and pulling teeth,
+Mackay had scarcely time to eat, and very little to sleep. But
+always as he came and xvent on his travels, his eyes would wander
+to the mountains where the savages lived, and with all his heart
+he would wish that he might visit them also.
+
+His Chinese friends held up their hands in dismay when he
+broached the subject. To the mountains where the Chhi-hoan lived!
+Did Kai Bok-su not know that every man of them was a practised
+head-hunter, and that behind every rock and tree and in the
+darkness of the forests they lay in wait for any one who went
+beyond the settled districts? Yes, Kai Bok-su knew all that, but
+he could not quite explain that it was just that which made the
+thought of a visit to them seem so alluring, just that which made
+him so anxious to tell them of Jesus Christ, who wished all men
+to live as brothers. A Hoa and a few others who had caught the
+spirit of the true soldier of the cross understood. For they had
+learned that one who follows Jesus must be ready to dare
+anything, death included, to carry The news of his salvation to
+the dark corners of the world.
+
+But the days were so filled with preaching, teaching, and
+touring, that for some time Mackay had no opportunity for a trip
+into the head-hunters' territory. And then one day, quite
+unexpectedly, his chance came. There sailed into Tamsui harbor,
+one hot afternoon, a British man-of-war, named The Dwarf. Captain
+Bax from this vessel visited Tamsui, and expressed a desire to
+see  something of the life of the savages in the: mountains. This
+was Mackay's opportunity, and in spite of protests from his
+friends he offered to accompany the captain. So together they
+started off, the sailor-soldier of England and the soldier of the
+cross, each with the same place in view but each with a very
+different object.
+
+It took three days journey from Tamsui  across rice-fields and up
+hillsides to reach even the foot of the mountains. Here there
+lived a village of natives, closely related to the savages. But
+they were not given to head-hunting and were quite friendly with
+the people about them. Mackay had met some of these people on a
+former trip inland, and now he and Captain Bax hired their chief
+and a party of his men to guide them up into savage territory.
+
+The travelers slept that night in the village, and before dawn
+were up and ready to start on their dangerous undertaking. Before
+them in the gray dawn rose hill upon hill, each loftier than the
+last, till they melted into the mountains, the territory of the
+dreaded head-hunters. They started off on a steady tramp, up
+hills, down valleys, and across streams, until at last they came
+to the foot of the first mountain.
+
+Before them rose its sheer side, towering thirty-five hundred
+feet above their heads. It was literally covered with rank growth
+of all kinds, through which it was impossible to move. So a plan
+of march had to be decided upon. In front went a line of men with
+long sharp knives. With these they cut away the creepers and
+tangled scrub or undergrowth. Next came the coolies with the
+baggage, and last the two travelers. It was slow work, and
+sometimes the climb was so steep they held their breath, as they
+crept over a sheer ledge and saw the depth below to which they
+might easily be hurled. The chief of the guides himself collapsed
+in one terrible climb, and his men tied rattan ropes about him
+and hauled him up over the steepest places.
+
+During this wearisome ascent the most tintiring one was the
+missionary; and the sailor often looked at him in amazement. His
+lithe, wiry frame never seemed to grow weary. He was often in the
+advance line, cutting his way through the tangle, and here on
+that first afternoon he met with an unpleasant adventure.
+
+The natives had warned the two strangers to be on the lookout for
+poisonous snakes, and Mackay's year in Formosa had taught him to
+be wary. But he had forgotten all danger in the toilsome climb.
+He was soon reminded of it. They were passing up a slope covered
+with long dense grass when a rustling at his side made the young
+missionary pause. The next moment a huge cobra sprang out from a
+clump of grass and struck at him. Mackay sprang aside just in
+time to escape its deadly fangs. The guides rushed up with their
+spears only to see its horrible scaly length disappear in the
+long grass.
+
+That was not the only escape of the young adventurer, for there
+were wild animals as well as poisonous snakes along the line of
+march, and the man in the front was always in danger. But at the
+front Mackay must be in spite of all warning. Nobody moved fast
+enough for him.
+
+At last they reached the summit of the range. They were now on
+the dividing line between Chinese ground and savage territory,
+and the men who dared go a step farther went at terrible risk.
+The head-hunters would very likely see that they did not return.
+
+But Mackay was all for pushing forward, and Captain Bax was no
+less eager. So they spent a night in the forest and the next day
+marched on up another and higher range. As they journeyed, the
+travelers could not but burst into exclamations of delight at the
+loveliness about them. Behind those great trees and in those
+tangles of vines might lurk the head-hunters, but for all that
+the beauty of the place made them forget the dangers. The great
+banyan trees whose branches came down and took root in the earth,
+making a wonderful round leafy tent, grew on every side. Camphor
+trees towered far above them and then spread out great branches
+sixty or seventy feet from the ground. Then there was the rattan
+creeping out over the tops of the other trees and making a thick
+canopy through which the hot tropical sun-rays could not
+penetrate.
+
+ And the flowers! Sometimes Mackay and Bax would stand amazed at
+their beauty. They came one afternoon to an open glade in the
+cool green dimness of the forest. On all sides the stately
+tree-ferns rose up thirty or forty feet above them, and
+underneath grew a tangle of lovely green undergrowth.
+
+And upon this green carpet it seemed to their dazzled eyes that
+thousands of butterflies of the loveliest form and color had just
+alighted. And not only butterflies, but birds and huge insects
+and all sorts of winged creatures, pink and gold and green and
+scarlet and blue, and all variegated hues. But the lovely things
+sat motionless, sending out such a delightful perfume that there
+could be no doubt that they were flowers,--the wonderful orchids
+of Formosa! Mackay was a keen scientist, always highly interested
+in botany, and he was charmed with this sight. There were many
+such in the forest, and often he would stop spellbound before a
+blaze of flowers hanging from tree or vine or shrub. Then he
+would look up at the tangled growths of the bamboo, the palm, and
+the elegant tree-fern, standing there all silent and beautiful,
+and he would be struck by the harmony between God's work and
+Word. "I can't keep from studying the flora of Formosa," he said
+to Captain Bax. "What missionary would not be a better man, the
+bearer of a richer gospel, what convert would not be a more
+enduring Christian from becoming acquainted with such wonderful
+works of the Creator?"
+
+At last they stood on the summit of the second range and saw
+before them still more mountains, clothed from summit to base
+with trees. They were now right in savage territory and their
+guide clambered out upon a spur of rock and announced that there
+was a party of head-hunters in the valley below. He gave a long
+halloo. From away down in the valley came an answering call,
+ringing through the forest. Then far down through the thicket
+Mackay's sharp eyes descried the party coming up to meet them.
+Just then their own guide gave the signal to move on, and the
+missionary and Captain Bax walked down the hill--the first white
+men who had ever come out to meet those savages.
+
+Half-way down the slope fhe two parties came face to face. The
+head-hunters were a wild, uncouth-looking company, armed to the
+teeth. They all carried guns, spears, and knives and some had
+also bows and arrows slung over their backs. Their faces were
+hideously tattooed in a regular pattern, while they wore no more
+clothes than were necessary. A sort of sack of coarse linen with
+holes in the sides for their arms, served as the chief garment,
+and generally the only one. Every one wore a broad belt of woven
+rattan in which was stuck his crooked pointed knife. Some of the
+younger men had their coats ornamented with bright red and blue
+threads woven into the texture. They had brass rings on their
+arms and legs too, and even sported big earrings. These were ugly
+looking things made of bamboo sticks. The head-hunters were all
+barefooted, but most of them wore caps--queerlooking things, made
+of rattan. From many of them hung bits of skin of the boar or
+other wild animals they had killed. They stood staring
+suspiciously at the two strangers. Never before had they seen a
+white man, and the appearance of the naval officer and the
+missionary, so different from themselves, and yet so different
+from their hated enemies, the Chinese, filled them with amazement
+and a good deal of suspicion. After a little talk with the
+guides, however, the visitors were allowed to pass on. As soon as
+they began to move, the savages fell into line behind them and
+followed closely. The two white men, walking calmly onward, could
+not help thinking how easy it would be for one of those
+fierce-looking tattooed braves to win applause by springing upon
+both of them and carrying their heads in triumph to the next
+village.
+
+As they came down farther into the valley, they passed the place
+where the savages had their camp. Here naked children and
+tattooed womein crept out of the dense woods to stare at the
+queer-looking Chinamen who had white faces and wore no cue.
+
+The march through this valley, even without the head-hunters at
+their heels, would not have been easy. The visitors clambered
+over huge trunks blown across the path, and tore their clothes
+and hands scrambling through the thorny bushes. The sun was still
+shining on the mountain-peaks far above them, but away down here
+in the valley it was rapidly growing dark and very cold. They had
+almost decided to stop and wait for morning when a light ahead
+encouraged them to go on. They soon came upon a big camp-fire and
+round it were squatted several hundred savages. The firelight
+gleaming upon the dark, fierce faces of the head-hunters and on
+their spears and knives, made a startling picture.
+
+They were round the visitors immediately, staring at the two
+white men in amazement. The party of savages who had escorted
+them seemed to be making some explanation of their appearance,
+for they all subsided at last and once more sat round their fire.
+
+The newcomers started a fire of their own, and their servants
+cooked their food. The white men were in momentary danger of
+their lives. But they sat on the ground before the fire and
+quietly ate their supper while hundreds of savage eyes were fixed
+upon them in suspicious, watchful silence.
+
+The meal over the servants prepared a place for the travelers to
+sleep, and while they were so doing, the young missionary was not
+idle. He longed to speak to these poor, darkened heathen, but
+they could not understand Chinese. However, he found several poor
+fellows lying prostrate on the ground, overcome with malaria, and
+he got his guide to ask if he might not give the sick ones
+medicine. Being allowed to do so, he gave each one a dose of
+quinine. The poor creatures tried to look their gratitude when
+the terrible chills left them, and soon they were able to sink
+into sleep.
+
+Before he retired to his own bed of boughs, the young missionary
+sang that grand old anthem which these lonely woods and their
+savage inhabitants had never yet. heard:
+
+All people that on earth do dwell,
+
+Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
+
+But these poor people could not "sing to the  Lord," for they had
+never yet so much as heard his name.
+
+All night the missionary lay on the ground, finding the chill
+mountain air too cold for sleep, and whenever he looked out from
+his shelter of boughs he saw hundreds of savage eyes, gleaming in
+the firelight, still wide open and fixed upon him.
+
+Day broke late in the valley, but the travelers were astir in the
+morning twilight. The mountain-tops were touched with rosy light
+even while it was dark down in these forest depths.
+
+The chilled white men were glad to get up and exercise their
+stiffened limbs. There were several of their party who could
+speak both Chinese and the dialect of these mountaineers, and
+through them Mackay persuaded the chief of the tribe to take them
+to visit his village.
+
+He seemed reluctant at first and there was much discussion with
+his braves. Evidently they were more anxious to go on a head-hunt
+than to act the part of hosts. However, after a great deal of
+chatter, they consented, and the chief and his son with thirty
+men separated themselves from the rest of the band and led the
+way out of the valley up the mountainside. The travelers had to
+stop often, for, besides the natural difficulties of the way, the
+chief proved a new obstacle. Every mile or so he would apparently
+repent of his hospitality. He would stop, gather his tattooed
+braves about him and confer with them, while his would-be
+visitors sat on the ground or a fallen tree-trunk to await his
+pleasure. Finally he would start off again, the travelers
+following, but no sooner were they under way than again their
+uncertain guide would stop. Once he and his men stood motionless,
+listening. Away up in the boughs of a camphor tree a little
+tailor-bird was twittering. The savages listened as though to the
+voice of an oracle.
+
+"What are they doing?" Mackay asked of one of his men, when the
+head-hunters stopped a second time and stared earnestly at the
+boughs above.
+
+"Bird-listening," explained the guide. A few more questions drew
+from him the fact that the savages believed the little birds
+would tell them whether or not they should bring these strangers
+home. They always consulted the birds when starting out on a
+head-hunt, he further explained. If the birds gave a certain kind
+of chirp and flew in a certain direction, then all was well, and
+the hunters would go happily forward. But if the birds acted in
+the opposite way, nothing in the world could persuade the chief
+to go on. Evidently the birds gave their permission to bring the
+travelers home, for in spite of many halts, the savages still
+moved forward.
+
+They had been struggling for some miles through underbrush and
+prickly rattan and the white men's clothes were torn and their
+hands scratched. Now, however, they came upon a well-beaten path,
+winding up the mountainside, and it proved a great relief to the
+weary travelers. But here occurred another delay. The savages all
+stopped, and the chief approached Mackay and spoke to him through
+the interpreter. Would the white man join him in a head-hunting
+expedition, was his modest request. There were some Chinese not
+so far below them, cutting out rattan, and he was sure they could
+secure one or more heads. He shook the big net head-bag that hung
+over his shoulder and grinned savagely as he made his proposal.
+If the white men and their party would come at the enemy from one
+side, he and his men would attack them from the other, he said,
+and they would be sure to get them all. The incongruity of a
+Christian missionary being invited on a head-hunt struck Captain
+Bax as rather funny in spite of its gruesomeness. This was a
+delicate situation to handle, but Mackay put a bold front on it.
+He answered indignantly that he and his friend had come in peace
+to visit the chief, and that he was neither kind nor honorable in
+trying to get his visitors to fight his battles.
+
+The interpreter translated and for a moment several pairs of
+savage eyes gleamed angrily at the bold white man. But second
+thoughts proved calmer. After another council the savages moved
+on.
+
+They were now at the top of a range, and every one was ordered to
+halt and remain silent. Mackay thought that advice was again to
+be asked of some troublesome little birds, but instead the
+savages raised a peculiar long-drawn shout. It was answered at
+once from the opposite mountain-top, and immediately the whole
+party moved on down the slope.
+
+Here was the same lovely tangle of vines and ferns and beautiful
+flowers. Monkeys sported in the trees and chattered and scolded
+the intruders. Down one range and up another they scrambled and
+at last they came upon the village of the head-hunters.
+
+It lay in a valley in an open space where the forest trees had
+been cleared away. It consisted of some half-dozen houses or huts
+made of bamboo or wickerwork, and the place seemed literally
+swarming with women and children and noisy yelping dogs. But even
+these could not account for the terrible din that seemed to fill
+the valley. Such unearthly yells and screeches the white men had
+never heard before.
+
+"What is it?" asked Captain Bax. "Has the whole village gone
+mad?"
+
+Mackay turned to one of his guides, and the man explained that
+the noise came from a village a little farther down the valley. A
+young hunter had returned with a Chinaman's head, and his friends
+were rejoicing over it. The merrymaking sounded to the visitors
+more like the howling of a pack of fiends, for it bore no
+resemblance to any human sounds they had ever heard.
+
+Fortunately they were invited to stop at the nearer village and
+were not compelled to take part in the horrible celebration. They
+were taken at once to the chief's house. It was the best in the
+village, and boasted of a floor, made of rattan ropes half an
+inch thick. All along the outside wall, under the eaves, hung a
+row of gruesome ornaments, heads of the boar and deer and other
+wild animals killed in the chase, and here and there mingled with
+them the skulls of Chinamen. The house held one large room, and,
+as it was a cold evening, a fire burned at either end of it. At
+one end the men stood chatting, at the other the women squatted.
+The visitors were invited to sit by the men 's fire. There were
+several beds along the wall, two of which were offered to the
+strangers. But they were not prepared to remain for the night,
+and had decided to start back before the shadows fell.
+
+The whole village came to the chief's house and crowded round the
+newcomers, men first, women and children on the outskirts, and
+dogs still farther back. Several men came forward and claimed
+Mackay as a friend. They touched their own breasts and then his,
+in salutation, grinning in a most friendly manner. The young
+missionary was at first puzzled, then smiled delightedly. They
+were some of the poor fellows to whom he had given quinine the
+evening before in the valley.
+
+This greeting seemed to encourage the others. They became more
+friendly and suddenly one man who had been circling round the
+visitors touched the back of Mackay's head and exclaimed, "They
+do not wear the cue! They are our kinsmen." From that moment they
+were treated with far greater kindness, and on several other
+visits that Mackay made to the head-hunters, they always spoke
+with interest of him as kinsman.
+
+But all danger was not over. The savages were still suspicious,
+and at any moment the newcomers might excite them. So they
+decided to start back at once, while every one was in a friendly
+mood. They made presents to the chief and some of his leading
+men; and left with expressions of good-will on both sides.
+
+By evening they had reached the valley where they had first met
+the savages and here they prepared to spend the night. They had
+no sooner kindled their fires than from the darkness on every
+side shadowy forms silently emerged,--the savages come to visit
+them! They glided out of the black forest into the ring of
+firelight and squatted upon the ground until fully five hundred
+dusky faces looked out at the travelers from the gloom. It was
+rather an unpleasant situation, there in the depths of the
+forest, but Mackay turned it to good account. First he and
+Captain Bax made presents to the headmen and they were as pleased
+as children  to receive the gay ornaments and bright cloth the
+travelers gave them. And then Mackay called their interpreter to
+his side and they stood up together, facing the crowd. Speaking
+through his interpreter, the missionary said he wished to tell
+them a story. These mountain savages were veritable children in
+their love for a story, as they were in so many other ways, and
+their eyes gleamed with delight.
+
+It was a wonderful story he told them, the like of which they had
+never heard before. It was about the great God, who had made the
+earth and the people on it, and was the Father of them all. He
+told how God loved everybody, because they were his children.
+Chinese, white men beyond the sea like himself and Captain Bax,
+the people of the mountains,--all were God's children. And so all
+men were brothers, and should love God their Father and each
+other. And because God loved his children so, he sent his Son,
+Jesus Christ, to live among men and to die for them. He told the
+story simply and beautifully, just as he would to little
+children, and these children of the forest listened and their
+savage eyes grew less fierce as they heard for the first time of
+the story of the Savior.
+
+The next day, after a toilsome journey, the travelers reached the
+plain below. They had made their dangerous trip and had escaped
+the head-hunters, but as fierce an enemy was lying in wait for
+both, an enemy that in Formosa devours native and foreigner
+alike. Captain Bax was the first to be attacked. All day, as they
+descended the mountain, the rain came down in torrents, a real
+Formosan rain that is like the floodgates opening. The travelers
+were drenched and chilly, and just as they emerged from the
+forest Captain Bax succumbed to the enemy. Malaria had smitten
+him.
+
+Shaking with chills and then burning with fever, he was placed in
+a sedan-chair and carried the remainder of the way, three days'
+journey, to the coast, where the medical attendants on board his
+ship cured him. Mackay was feeling desperately ill all the  way
+across the plain, but with his usual determination he refused to
+give in until he almost staggered across the threshold of his
+home.
+
+The house had been closed in his absence. It was now damp and
+chilly and everything was covered with mold. He lay down in his
+bed, alternately shivering with cold and burning with fever. In
+the next room A Hoa, who had gone to bed also, heard his teeth
+chattering and came to him at once. It was a terrible thing to
+the young fellow to see his dauntless Kai Bok-su overcome by any
+kind of force. It seemed impossible that he who had cured so many
+should become a victim himself. A Hoa proved a kind nurse. He
+stayed by the bedside all night, doing everything in his power to
+allay the fever. His efforts proved successful, and in a few days
+the patient was well. But never again was he quite free from the
+dreaded disease, and all the rest of his life he was subject to
+the most violent attacks of malaria, a terrible memento by which
+he was always to remember his first visit to the headhunters.
+
+      
+
+CHAPTER VIII. CITIES CAPTURED AND FORTS BUILT
+
+Up the river to Go-ko-khi! That was always a joy, and whenever
+Mackay could take a day from his many duties, with A Hoa and one
+or more other students, he would go up and visit old Thah-so and
+the kindly people of this little village.
+
+One day, after they had preached in the empty granary and the
+rain had come in, Mr. Tan, the headman, walked up the village
+street with them, and he made them an offer. They might have the
+plot of ground opposite his house for a chapel-site. This was
+grand news. A chapel in north Formosa! Mackay could hardly
+believe it, but it seemed that there really was to be one. There
+were many Christians in Go-ko-khi now, and each one was ready for
+work. Some collected stones, others prepared sun-dried bricks, 
+others dug the foundation, and the first church in north Formosa
+was commenced.
+
+Now Go-ko-khi was, unfortunately, near the great city of
+Bang-kah. This was the most hostile and wicked place in all that
+country, and A Hoa and Mackay had been stoned out of it on their
+visit there. The people in Bang-kah learned of the new church
+building, and one day, when the brick walls flre about three feet
+high, there arose a tramp of feet, beating of drums, and loud
+shouts, and up marched a detachment of soldiers sent with orders
+from the prefect of Bang-kah to stop the building of the chapel.
+Their officers went straight to the house of the headman with his
+commands. Mr. Tan was six feet two and he rose to his full height
+and towered above his visitor majestically. The "mayor" of
+Go-ko-khi was a Christian now, and on the wall of his house was
+pasted a large sheet of paper with the ten commandments printed
+on it. He pointed to this and said: "I am determined to abide by
+these." The officer was taken aback. He was scarcely prepared to
+defy the headman, and he went away to stir up the villagers. But
+everywhere the soldiers met with opposition. There seemed no one
+who would take their part. The officer knew he and his men were
+scarcely within their rights in what they were doing; so, fearing
+trouble, he marched back to the city, reporting there that the
+black-bearded barbarian had bewitched the villagers with some
+magic art.
+
+The prefect of Bang-kah next sent a message to the British
+consul. The missionary was building a fort at Go-ko-khi, he
+declared in great alarm, and would probably bring guns up the
+river at night. He was a very bad man indeed, and if the British
+consul desired peace he should stop this wicked Kai Bok-su at
+once. And the British consul down in his old Dutch fort at Tamsui
+laughed heartily over the letter, knowing all about Kai Bok-su
+and the sort of fort he was building.
+
+So, in spite of all opposition, the little church rose steadily
+up and up until it was crowned with a tiled roof and was ready
+for the worshipers.
+
+That was a great day for north Formosa and its young missionary,
+the day the first church was opened. The place was packed to the
+doors, and many stood outside listening at the windows. And of
+that crowd one hundred and fifty arose and declared that from
+henceforth they would cast away their idols and worship only the
+one and true God. Standing up there in his first pulpit and
+looking down upon the crowd of upturned faces, and seeing the new
+light in them which the blessed good news of Jesus and his love
+had brought, Kai Bok-su's heart swelled with joy.
+
+He stayed with them some time after this, for, though so many
+people had become Christians, they were like little children and
+needed much careful teaching. Especially they must learn how to
+live as Jesus Christ would have his followers live. Many heathen
+as well as the Christians came to his meetings and listened
+eagerly. At first the people found it almost impossible to sit
+quiet and still during a service. They had never been accustomed
+to such a task, and some of the missionary's experiences were
+very funny. When they had sung a hymn and had settled down to
+listen to the address, the preacher would no sooner start than
+out would come one long pipe after another, pieces of flint would
+strike on steel, and in a few minutes the smoke would begin to
+ascend. Mackay would pause and gently tell them that as this was
+a Christian service they must not do anything that might disturb
+it. They were anxious to do just as he bade, so the pipes would
+disappear, and nodding their heads politely they would say, "Oh,
+yes, we must be quiet; oh, yes, indeed."
+
+One day when the congregation was very still and their young
+pastor was speaking earnest words to them, one man less attentive
+than the others happened to glance out of the window. Instantly
+he sprang to his feet shouting, "Buffaloes in the rice-fields!
+Buffaloes in the rice-fields!" and away he went with a good
+fraction of the congregation helter-skelter at his heels.
+
+The missionary spoke again upon the necessity of quiet, and his
+hearers nodded agreeably and murmured, "Yes, yes, we must be
+quiet."
+
+They were very good for the next few minutes and the minister had
+reached a very important point in his address, when there was a
+great disturbance at the door. An old woman came hobbling up on
+her small feet and poking her head in at the church door
+screamed, "My pig has gone! Pig has gone!" and away went another
+portion of the congregation to help find the truant porker.
+
+But, in spite of many interruptions, the congregation at
+Go-ko-khi learned much of the beautiful truth of their new
+religion. Their indulgent pastor never blamed his restless
+hearers, but before the church was two months old he had trained
+them so well that there was not a more orderly and attentive
+congregation even in his own Christian Canada than that which
+gathered in the first chapel in north Formosa.
+
+But the day came at last when he had to leave them, and the
+question was who should be left over them. The answer seemed very
+plain,--A Hoa. The first convert placed as pastor over the first
+church! It was very fitting. Some months before, down in Tamsin,
+when A Hoa had been baptized and had taken his first communion,
+he had vowed to give his life more fully to his Master's service.
+So here was his field of labor, and here he began his work. He
+was so utterly sincere and lovable, so bright and jovial, so firm
+of purpose and yet so kindly, that he was soon beloved by all the
+Christians and respected by the heathen. And one of his greatest
+helpers was widow Thah-so, who had been instrumental in bringing
+the missionary with his glad tidings to her village.
+
+Mackay missed A Hoa sorely at first, but he had his other
+students about him, and often when bent upon a long journey would
+send for his first convert, and together they would travel here
+and there over the island, making new recruits everywhere for the
+army of their great Captain.
+
+The little church at Go-ko-khi was but the first of many. Like
+the hepaticas that used to peep forth in the missionary's home
+woods, telling that spring had arrived, here and there they came
+up, showing that the long cruel winter of heathenism in north
+Formosa was drawing to an end.
+
+Away up the Tamsui river, nestled at the foot of the mountains,
+stood a busy town called Sin-tiam. A young man from this place
+sailed down to Tamsui on business one day and there heard the
+great Kai Bok-su preach of the new Jehovah-God, he went home full
+of the wonderful news, and so much did he talk about it that a
+large number of people in Sin-tiam were very anxious to hear the
+barbarian themselves. So one day a delegation came down the river
+to the house on the bluff above Tamsui. They made this request
+known to the missionary as he sat teaching his students in the
+study. Would he not come and tell the people of Sin-tiam the
+story about this Jesus-God who loved all men? Would he go? Kai
+Bok-su was on the road almost before the slow-going Orientals had
+finished delivering the message.
+
+It was the season of a feast to their idols in Sin-tiam when the
+missionary and his party arrived. Great crowds thronged the
+streets, and the barbarian with his white face and his black
+beard and his queer clothes attracted unusual attention. The
+familiar cry, "Foreign devil," was mingled with "Kill the
+barbarian," "Down with the foreigner."  The crowd began to surge
+closer around the missionary party, and affairs looked very
+serious. Suddenly a little boy right in Mackay's path was struck
+on the head by a brick intended for the missionary. He was picked
+up, and Mackay, pressing through the crowd to where the little
+fellow lay, took out his surgical instruments and dressed the
+wound. All about him the cries of "Kill the foreign devil"
+changed to cries of "Good heart! Good heart!" The crowd became
+friendly at once, and Mackay passed on, having had once more a
+narrow escape from death.
+
+The work of preaching to these people was carried on vigorously,
+and before many months had passed the Christians met together and
+declared they must build a chapel for the worship of the true
+God.       So, close by the riverside, in a most picturesque
+spot, the walls of the second chapel of north Formosa began to
+rise. It was not without opposition of course. One rabid
+idol-worshiper stopped before the half-finished building with its
+busy workmen, and, picking up a large stone, declared that he
+would smash the head of the black-bearded barbarian if the work
+was not stopped that moment. Needless to say, the missionary,
+standing within a good stone's throw of his enemy, ordered tht
+worl4rs to continue. George Mackay was not to be stopped by all
+the stones in north Formosa.
+
+This stone was never thrown, however, and at last the chapel was
+finished. Once more a preacher was ready to be its pastor. Tan
+He, a young man who had been studying earnestly under his leader
+for some time, was placed over this second congregation, and once
+more there blossomed out a sure sign that the spring had indeed
+come to north Formosa.
+
+Tek-chham, a walled city of over forty thousand inhabitants, was
+the next place to be attacked by this little army of the King's
+soldiers. The first visit of the missionary caused a riot, but
+before long Tek-chham had a chapel with some of the rioters for
+its best members, and a once proud graduate and worshiper of
+Confucius installed in it as its pastor.
+
+Ten miles from Tek-chham stood a little village called Geh-bai.
+The missionary-soldiers visited it, and to their delight found a
+church building ready for them. It was quite a wonderful place,
+capable of holding fully a thousand people without much crowding.
+Its roof was the boughs of the great banyan tree; its one pillar
+the trunk, and its walls the branches that bent down to enter the
+ground and take root. It made a delightful shelter from the
+broiling sun. And here Kai Bok-su preached. But a banyan does not
+give perfect shelter in all kinds of weather, so when a number of
+people had declared themselves followers of the Lord Jesus, a
+large house was rented and fitted up as a chapel, with another
+native pastor over it.
+
+Away over at Kelung a church was founded through a man who had
+carried the gospel home from one of the missionary's sermons.
+Here and there the hepaticas were springing up. From all sides
+came invitations to preach the great news of the true God, and
+the young missionary gave himself scarcely time to eat or sleep.
+be worked like a giant himself, and he inspired the same spirit
+in the students that accompanied him. be was like a Napoleon
+among his sob diers. Wherever he went they would go, even though
+it would surely mean abuse and might mean death. And, wherever
+they went, they brought such a wonderful, glad change to people's
+hearts that they were like slave-liberators setting captives
+free.
+
+The most lawless and dangerous region in all north Formosa was
+that surrounding the small town of Sa-kak-eng. In the mountains
+near by lived a band of robbers who kept the people in a constant
+state of dread by their terrible deeds of plunder and murder.
+Sometimes the frightened townspeople would help the highwaymen
+just 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 and bravely, "Let us go."
+
+So one day early in December, when the winter rains had commenced
+to pour down, these two marched across the plain and into
+Bang-kah. By keeping quiet and avoiding the main thoroughfare,
+they managed to rent a house. It was a low, mean hovel in a
+dirty, narrow street, but it was inside the forbidden city, and
+that was something. The two daring young men then procured a
+large sheet of paper, printed on it in Chinese characters "Jesus'
+Temple," and pasted it on the door. This announced what they had
+come for, and they awaited results.
+
+Presently there came the heavy tramp, tramp of feet on the stone
+pavement. Mackay and A Hoa looked out. A party of soldiers, armed
+with spears and swords, were returning from camp. They stopped
+before the hut and read the inscription. They shouted loud
+threats and tramped away to report the affair to headquarters.
+
+In a short time, with a great noise and tramping, once more
+soldiers were at the door. Mackay waked out and faced them
+quietly. The general had given orders that the barbarian must
+leave this house immediately, the soldier declared in a loud
+voice. The place belonged to the military authorities.
+
+"Show me your proof," said Mackay calmly. His bold behavior
+demanded respectful treatment, so the soldier produced the deed
+for the property.
+
+"I respect your law," said Mackay after he examined it, "and my
+companion and I will vacate. But I have paid rent for this place,
+therefore I am entitled to remain for the night. I will not go
+out until morning."
+
+His firm words and fearless manner had their effect both on the
+soldiers and the noisy mob waiting for him outside, and the men,
+muttering angrily, turned away. That night Mackay and A Hoa lay
+on a dirty grass mat on the mud floor. The place was damp and
+filthy, but even had it been comfortable they would have had
+little sleep. For, far into the night, angry soldiers paraded the
+street. Often their voices rose to a clamor and they would make a
+rush for the frail door of the little hut. Many times the two
+young fellows arose, believing their last hour had come. But the
+long night passed and they found that they were still left
+untouched.
+
+They rose early and started out. Already a great mob filled the
+space in front of the house. Even the low roofs of the
+surrounding houses were covered with people all out early to see
+the barbarian and his despised companion driven from Bang-kah,
+and perhaps have the added pleasure of witnessing their death.
+
+The two walked bravely down the street. Curses were showered upon
+them from all sides; broken tiles, stones, and filth were thrown
+at them, but they moved on steadily. The mob hampered them so
+that they were hours walking the short distance to the river.
+Here they entered a boat and went down a few miles to a point
+where a chapel stood, and where some of Mackay's students awaited
+them.
+
+But the man who "did not know when he was beaten" had not turned
+his back on the enemy. He gathered the group of students around
+him in the little room attached to the chapel. Here they all
+knelt and the young missionary laid their trouble before the
+great Captain who had said, "All power is given unto me." "Give
+us an entrance to Bang-kah," was the burden of the missionary 's
+prayer. They arose from their knees, and he turned to A Hoa with
+that quick challenging movement his students had learned to know
+so well.
+
+"Come," he said, "we are going back to Bang-kah."
+
+And A Hoa, whose habit it was to walk into all danger with a
+smile, answered with all his heart:
+
+"It is well, Kai Bok-su; we go back to Bang-kah."
+
+And straight back to this Gibraltar the little army of two
+marched. It was quite dark by the time they entered. A Formosan
+city is not the blaze of electricity to which Westerners are
+accustomed, and only here and there in the narrow streets shone a
+dim light. The travelers stumbled along, scarcely knowing whither
+they were going. As they turned a dark corner and plunged into
+another black street they met an old man hobbling with the aid of
+a staff over the uneven stones of the pavement. Mackay spoke to
+him politely and asked if he could tell him of any one who would
+rent a house. "We want to do mission work," he added, feeling
+that he must not get anything under false pretenses.
+
+The old man nodded. "Yes, I can rent you my place," he answered
+readily. "Come with me."
+
+Full of amazement and gratitude the two adventurers groped their
+way after him, stumbling over stones and heaps of rubbish. They
+could not help realizing, as they got farther into the city, that
+should the old man prove false and give an alarm the whole
+murderous populace of that district would be around them
+instantly like a swarm of hornets. But whether he was leading
+them into a trap or not their only course was to follow.
+
+At last he paused at a low door opening into the back part of a
+house. The old man lighted a lamp, a pith wick in a saucer of
+peanut oil, and the visitors looked around. The room was damp and
+dirty and infested with the crawling creatures that fairly swarm
+in the Chinese houses of the lower order. Rain dripped from the
+low ceiling on the mud floor, and the meager furniture was dirty
+and sticky.
+
+But the two young men who had found it were delighted. They felt
+like the advance guard of an army that has taken the enemy's
+first outpost. They were established in Bang-kah! They set to
+work at once to draw out a rental paper. A Hoa sat at the table
+and wrote it out so that they might be within the law which said
+that no foreigner must hold property in Bang-kah. When the paper
+was signed and the money paid, the old man crept stealthily away.
+He had his money, but he was too wary to let his fellow citizens
+find how he had earned it.
+
+As soon as morning came the little army in the midst of the
+hostile camp hoisted its banner. When the citizens of Bang-kah
+awoke, they found on the door of the hut the hated sign, in large
+Chinese characters, "Jesus' Temple."
+
+In less than an hour the street in front of it was thronged with
+a shouting crowd. Before the day was past the news spread, and
+the whole city was in an uproar. By the next afternoon the
+excitement had reached white heat, and a wild crowd of men came
+roaring down the street. They hurled themselves at the little
+house where the missionaries were waiting and literally tore it
+to splinters. The screams of rage and triumph were so horrible
+that they reminded Mackay of the savage yells of the
+head-hunters.
+
+When the mob leaped upon the roof and tore it off, the two hunted
+men slipped out through a side door, and across the street into
+an inn. The crowd instantly attacked it, smashing doors, ripping
+the tiles off the roof, and uttering such bloodthirsty howls that
+they resembled wild beasts far more than human beings. The
+landlord ordered the missionaries out to where the mob was
+waiting to tear them limb from limb.
+
+It was an awful moment. To go out was instant death, to remain
+merely put off the end a few moments. Mackay, knowing his source
+of help, sent up a desperate prayer to his Father in heaven.
+
+Suddenly there was a strange lull in the street outside. The
+yells ceased, the crashing of tiles stopped. The door opened, and
+there in his sedan-chair of state surrounded by his bodyguard,
+appeared the Chinese mandarin. And just behind him--blessed sight
+to the eyes of Kai Bok-su--Mr. Scott, the British consul of
+Tamsui!
+
+Without a word the two British-born clasped hands. It was not an
+occasion for words. There was immediately a council of war. The
+mandarin urged the British consul to send the missionary out of
+the city.
+
+"I have no authority to give such an order," retorted Mr. Scott
+quickly. "On the other hand you must protect him while he is
+here. He is a British subject."
+
+Mackay's heart swelled with pride. And he thanked God that his
+Empire had such a worthy representative.
+
+Having again impressed upon the mandarin that the missionary must
+be protected or there would be trouble, Mr. Scott set off for his
+home. Mackay accompanied him to the city gate. Then he turned and
+walked back through the muttering crowds straight to the inn he
+had left. be stopped occasionally to pull a tooth or give
+medicine for malaria, for even in Bang-kah he had a few friends.
+
+The mandarin was now as much afraid of the missionary as if he
+had been the plague. He knew he dared not allow him to be
+touched, and he also knew he had very little power over a mob. He
+was responsible, too, to men in higher office, for the control of
+the people, and would be severely punished if there was a riot,
+be was indeed in a very had way when he heard that the
+troublesome missionary had come back, and he followed him to the
+inn to try to induce him to leave.
+
+He found Mackay with A Hoa, quietly seated in their room. First
+he commanded, then he tried to bribe, and then he even descended
+to beg the "foreign devil" to leave the city. But Mackay was
+immovable.
+
+"I cannot leave," he said, touched by the man's distress. "I
+cannot quit this city until I have preached the gospel here." He
+held up his forceps and his Bible. "See! I use these to relieve
+pain of the body, and this gives relief from sin,--the disease of
+the soul. I cannot go until I have given your people the benefit
+of them."
+
+The mandarin went away enraged and baffled. He could not persuade
+the man to go; he dared not drive him out. He left a squad of
+soldiers to guard the place, however, remembering the British
+consul's warning.
+
+In a few days the excitement subsided. People became accustomed
+to seeing the barbarian teacher and his companion go about the
+streets. Many were relieved of much pain by him too, and a large
+number listened with some interest to the new doctrine he taught
+concerning one God.
+
+be had been there a week when some prominent citizens came to him
+with a polite offer. They would give him free a piece of ground
+outside the city on which to build a church. Kai Bok-su's
+flashing black eyes at once saw the bribe. They wanted to coax
+him out when they could not drive him. He refused politely but
+firmly.
+
+"I own that property," he declared, pointing to the heap of ruins
+into which his house had been turned, "and there I will build a
+church."
+
+They did everything in their power to prevent him, but one day,
+many months after, right on the site where they had literally
+torn the roof from above him, arose a pretty little stone church,
+and that was the beginning of great things in Bang-kah.
+
+And so Gibraltar was taken,--taken by an army of two,--a Canadian
+missionary and a Chinese soldier of the King, for behind theiR
+stood all the army of the Lord of hosts, and he led them to
+victory!
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. OTHER CONQUESTS.
+
+Away over on the east of the island ran a range of beautiful
+mountains. And between these mountains and the sea stretched a
+low rice plain. Here lived many Pe-po-hoan,-- "Barbarians of the
+plain." Mackay had never visited this place, for the Kap-tsu-lan
+plain, as it was called, was very hard to reach on account of the
+mountains; but this only made the dauntless missionary all the
+more anxious to visit it.
+
+So one day he suggested to his students, as they studied in his
+house on the bluff, that they make a journey to tell the people
+of Kap-tsu-lan the story of Jesus. Of course, the young fellows
+were delighted. To go off with Kai Bok-su was merely transferring
+their school from his house to the big beautiful outdoors. For he
+always taught them by the way, and besides they were all eager to
+go with him and help spread the good news that had made such a
+difference in their lives. So when Kai Bok-su piled his books
+upon a shelf and said, "Let us go to Kaptsu-lan," the young
+fellows ran and made their preparations joyfully. A Hoa was in
+Tamsui at the time, and Mackay suggested that he come too, for a
+trip without A Hoa was robbed of half its enjoyment.
+
+Mackay had just recovered from one of those violent attacks of
+malaria from which he suffered so often now, and he was still
+looking pale and weak. So Sun-a, a bright young student-lad, came
+to the study door with the suggestion, "Let us take Lu-a for Kai
+Bok-su to ride."
+
+There was a laugh from the other students and an indulgent smile
+from Kai Bok-su himself. Lu-a was a small, rather stubborn-
+looking donkey with meek eyes and a little rat tail. He was a
+present to the missionary from the English commissioner of
+customs at Tamsui, when that gentleman was leaving the island.
+Donkeys were commonly used on the mainland of China, and though
+an animal was scarcely ever ridden in Formosa, horses being
+almost unknown, the commissioner did not see why his Canadian
+friend, who was an introducer of so many new things, should not
+introduce donkey-riding. So he sent him Lu-a as a farewell
+present and leaving this token of his good-will departed for
+home.
+
+Up to this time Lu-a had served only as a pet and a joke among
+the students, and high times they had with him in the grassy
+field behind the missionary's house when lessons were over. In
+great glee they brought him round to the door now, "all saddled
+and bridled" and ready for the trip. The missionary mounted, and
+Lu-a trotted meekly along the road that wound down the bluff
+toward Kelung. The students followed in high spirits. The sight
+of their teacher astride the donkey was such a novel one to them,
+and Lu-a was such a joke at any time, that they were filled with
+merriment. All went well until they left the road and turned into
+a path that led across the buffalo common. At the end of it they
+came to a ravine about fifteen feet deep. Over this stretched. a
+plank bridge not more than three feet wide. Here Lu-a came to a
+sudden stop. He had no mind to risk his small but precious body
+on that shaky structure. His rider bade him "go on," but the
+command only made Lu-a put back his ears, plant his fore feet
+well forward and stand stock still. In fact he looked much more
+settled and immovable than the bridge over which he was being
+urged. The students gathered round him and petted and coaxed.
+They called him "Good Lu-a" and "Honorable Lu-a" and every other
+flattering title calculated to move his donkeyship, but Lu-a
+flattened his ears back so he could not hear and would not move.
+So Mackay dismounted and tried the plan of pulling him forward by
+the bridle while some of the boys pushed him from behind. Lu-a
+resented this treatment, especially that from the rear, and up
+went his heels, scattering students in every direction; and to
+discomfit the enemy in front he opened his mouth and gave forth
+such loud resonant brays that the ravine fairly rang with his
+music.
+
+A balking donkey is rather amusing to boys of any country, but to
+these Formosan lads who had had no experience with one the sound
+of Lu-a's harsh voice and the sight of his flying heels brought
+convulsions of merriment. "He's pounding rice! He's pounding
+rice!" shouted the wag of the party, and his companions flung
+themselves upon the grass and rolled about laughing themselves
+sick.
+
+With his followers rendered helpless and his steed continuing
+stubborn, Mackay saw the struggle was useless. He could not
+compete alone with Lu-a's firmness, so he gave orders that the
+obstinate little obstructer of their journey be trotted back to
+his pasture.
+
+"And to think that any one of us might have carried the little
+rascal over!" he cried as he watched the donkey meekly depart.
+His students looked at the little beast with something like
+respect. Lu-a had beaten the dauntless Kai Bok-su who had never
+before been beaten by anything. He was indeed a marvelous donkey!
+
+So the journey to the Kap-tsu-lan plain was made on foot. It was
+a very wearisome one and often dangerous. The mountain paths were
+steep and difficult and the travelers knew that often the
+head-hunters lurked near. But the way was wonderfully beautiful
+nevertheless. Standing on a mountain height one morning and
+looking away down over wooded hills and valleys and the lake-like
+terraces of the rice-fields, Mackay repeated to his students a
+line of the old hymn:
+
+Every prospect pleases and only man is vile.
+
+
+Around them the stately tree-fern lifted its lovely fronds and
+the orchids dotted the green earth like a flock of gorgeous
+butterifies just settled. Tropical birds of brilliant plumage
+flashed among the trees. Beside them a great tree raised itself,
+fairly covered. with morning-glories, and over at their right a
+mountainside gleamed like snow in the sunlight, clothed from top
+to bottom with white lilies.
+
+But the way had its dangers as well as its beauties. They were
+passing the mouth of a ravine when they were stopped by yells and
+screams of terror coming from farther up the mountainside. In a
+few minutes a Chinaman darted out of the woods toward them. His
+face was distorted with terror and he could scarcely get breath
+to tell his horrible story. He and his four companions had been
+chipping the camphor trees up in the woods; suddenly the armed
+savages had leaped out upon them and he alone of the five had
+escaped.
+
+At last they left the dangerous mountain and came down into the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain. On every side was rice-field after rice-field,
+with the water pouring from one terrace to another. The plain was
+low and damp and the paths and roads lay deep in mud. They had a
+long toilsome walk between the ricefields until they came to the
+first village of these barbarians of the plain. It was very much
+like a Chinese village,--dirty, noisy, and swarming with
+wild-looking children and wolfish dogs.
+
+The visitors were received with the utmost disdain. The Chinese
+students were of course well known, for these aborigines had long
+ago adopted their customs and language. But the Chinese visitors
+were in company with the foreigners, and all foreigners were
+outcaste in this eastern plain. The men shouted the familiar
+"foreign devil" and walked contemptuously away. The dirty women
+and children fled into their grass huts and set the dogs upon the
+strangers. They tried by all sorts of kindnesses to gain a
+hearing, but all to no effect. So they gave it up, and plodded
+through the mud and water a mile farther on to the next village.
+But village number two received them in exactly the same way.
+Only rough words and the barks of cruel dogs met them. The next
+village was no better, the fourth a little worse. And so on they
+went up and down the Kap-tsu-lan plain, sleeping at night in some
+poor empty hut or in the shadow of a rice strawstack, eating
+their meals of cold rice and buffalo-meat by the wayside, and
+being driven from village to village, and receiving never a word
+of welcome.
+
+And all through those wearisome days the young men looked at
+their leader in vain for any smallest sign of discouragement or
+inclination to retreat. There was no slightest look of dismay on
+the face of Kai Bok-su, for how was it possible for a man who did
+not know when he was beaten to feel discouraged? So still
+undaunted in the face of defeat, he led them here and there over
+the plain, hoping that some one would surely relent and give them
+a hearing.
+
+One night, footsore and worn out, they slept on the damp mud
+floor of a miserable hut where the rain dripped in upon their
+faces. In the morning prospects looked rather discouraging to the
+younger members of the party. They were wet and cold and weary,
+and there seemed no use in going again and again to a village
+only to be turned away. But Kai Bok-su's mouth was as firm as
+ever, and his dark eyes flashed resolutely, as once more he gave
+the order to march. It was a lovely morning, the sun was rising
+gloriously out of the sea and the heavy mists were melting from
+above the little rice-fields. Here and there fairy lakes gleamed
+out from the rosy haze that rolled back toward the mountains.
+They walked along the shore in the pink dawn-light and marched up
+toward a fishing village. They had visited it before and had been
+driven away, but Kai Bok-su was determined to try again. They
+were surprised as they came nearer to see three men come out to
+meet them with a friendly expression on their faces.
+
+The foremost was an old man who had been nicknamed "Black-face,"
+because of his dark skin. The second was a middleaged man, and
+the third was a young fellow about the age of the students. They
+saluted the travelers pleasantly, and the old man addressed the
+missionary.
+
+"You have been going through and through our plain and no one has
+received you," he said politely. "Come to our village, and we
+will now be ready to listen to you."
+
+The door of Kap-tsu-lan had opened at last! The missionary's eyes
+gleamed with joy and gratitude as he accepted the invitation. The
+delegation led the visitors straight to the house of the headman.
+For the Pepo-hoan governed their communities in the Chinese style
+and had a headman for each village. The missionary party sat down
+in front of the hut on some large flat stones and talked over the
+matter with the chief and other important men. And while they
+talked "Black-face" slipped away. He returned in a few moments
+with a breakfast of rice and fish for the visitors.
+
+The result of the conference was that the villagers decided to
+give the barbarian a chance. All he wanted it seemed was to tell
+of this new Jehovah-religion which he believed, and surely there
+could be no great harm in listening to him talk.
+
+In the evening the headman with the help of some friends set to
+work to construct a meeting-house. A tent was erected, made from
+boat sails. Several flat stones laid at one end and a plank
+placed upon them made a pulpit. And that was the first church on
+the Kap-tsu-lan plain! There was a "church bell" too, to call the
+people to worship. In the village were some huge marine shells
+with the ends broken off. In the old days these were used by the
+chiefs as trumpets by which they called their men together
+whenever they were starting out on the war-path. But now the
+trumpet-shell was used to call the people to follow the King.
+Just at dark a man took one, and walking up and down the
+straggling village street blew loudly-- the first "church bell"
+in east Formosa.
+
+The loud roar brought the villagers flocking down to the
+tent-church by the shore. For the most part they brought their
+pews with them. They came hurrying out of their huts carrying
+benches, and arranging them in rows they seated themselves to
+listen.
+
+Mackay and the students sang and the people listened eagerly. The
+Pe-po-hoan by nature were more musical than the Chinese, and the
+singing delighted them. Then the missionary arose and addressed
+them. He told clearly and simply why he had come and preached to
+them of the true God. Afterward the congregation was allowed to
+ask questions, and they learned much of this God and of his love
+in his Son Jesus Christ.
+
+The wonder of the great news shone in the eyes upturned to the
+preacher. In the gloom of the half-lighted tent their dark faces
+took on a new expression of half-wondering hope. Could it be
+possible that this was true? Their poor, benighted minds had
+always been held in terror of their gods and of the evil spirits
+that forever haunted their footsteps. Could it be possible that
+God was a great Father who loved his children? They asked so many
+eager questions, and the story of Jesus Christ had to be told
+over and over so many times, that before this first church
+service ended a gray gleam of dawn was spreading out over the
+Pacific.
+
+It was only the next day that these newlyawakened people decided
+that they must have a church building. And they went to work to
+get one in a way that might have shamed a congregation of people
+in a Christian land. This new wonderful hope that had been raised
+in their hearts by the knowledge that God loved them set them to
+work with glad energy. Kai Bok-su and his men still preached and
+prayed and sang and taught in the crazy old wind-flapped tent by
+the seashore, and the people listened eagerly, and then, when
+services were over, every one,--preacher, assistants, and
+congregation,--set bravely to work to build a church. Brave they
+certainly had to be, for at the very beginning they had to risk
+their lives for their chapel. A party sailed down the coast and
+entered savage territory for the poles to construct the building.
+They were attacked and one or two were badly wounded, though they
+managed to escape. But they were quite ready to go back and fight
+again had it been necessary. Then they made the bricks for the
+walls. Rice chaff mixed with clay were the materials, and the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain had an abundance of both. The roof was made of
+grass, the floor of hard dried earth, and a platform of the same
+at one end served as a pulpit.
+
+When the little chapel was finished, every evening the big shell
+rang out its summons through the village; and out from every
+house came the people and swarmed into the chapel to hear Kai
+Bok-su explain more of the wonders of God and his Son Jesus
+Christ.
+
+Mackay's home during this period was a musty little room in a
+damp mud-walled hut; and here every day he received donations of
+idols, ancestral tablets, and all sorts of things belonging to
+idol-worship. He was requested to burn them, and often in the
+mornings he dried his damp clothes and moldy boots at a fire madc
+from heathen idols.
+
+For eight weeks the missionary party remained in this place,
+preaching, teaching, and working among the people. It was a
+mystery to the students how their teacher found time for the
+great amount of Bible study and prayer which he managed to get.
+He surely worked as never man worked before. Late at night, long
+after every one else was in bed, he would be bending over his
+Bible, beside his peanut-oil lamp, and early in the morning
+before the stars had disappeared he was up and at work again.
+Four hours' sleep was all his restless, active mind could endure,
+and with that he could. do work that would have killed any
+ordinary man.
+
+One evening some new faces looked up at him from his congregation
+in the little brick church. When the last hymn was sung the
+missionary stepped down from his pulpit and spoke to the
+strangers. They explained that they were from the next village.
+They had heard rumors of this new doctrine, and. had been sent to
+find out more ahout it. They had been charmed with the singing,
+for that evening over two hundred voices had joined in a ringing
+praise to the new Jehovah-God. They wanted to hear more, they
+said, and they wanted to know what it was all about. Would Kai
+Bok-su and his students deign to visit their village too?
+
+Would he? Why that was just what he was longing to do. be had
+been driven out of that village by dogs only a few weeks before,
+but a little thing like that did not matter to a man like Mackay.
+This village lay but a short distance away, being connected with
+their own by a path winding here and there between the
+rice-fields. Early the next evening Mackay formed a procession.
+He placed himself at its head, with A Hoa at his side. The
+students came next, and then the converts in a double row. And
+thus they marched slowly along the pathway singing as they went.
+It was a stirring sight. On either side the waving fields of
+rice, behind them the gleam of the blue ocean, before them the
+great towering mountains clothed in green. Above them shone the
+clear dazzling sky of a tropical evening. And on wound the long
+procession of Christians in a heathen land, and from them arose
+the glorious words:
+
+O thou, my soul, bless God the Lord,
+And all that in me is
+Be stirred up his holy name
+To magnify and bless.
+
+And the heathen in the rice-fields stopped to gaze at the strange
+sight, and the mountains gave back the echo of that Name which is
+above every name.
+
+And so, marching to their song, the procession came to the
+village. Everybody in the place had come out to meet them at the
+first sound of the singing. And now they stood staring, the men
+in a group by themselves, the women and children in the
+background, the dogs snarling on the outskirts of the crowd.
+
+The congregation was there ready, and without waiting to find a
+place of meeting, right out under the clear evening skies, the
+young missionary told once more the great story of God and his
+love as shown through Jesus Christ. The message took the village
+by storm. It was like water to thirsty souls. The next day five
+hundred of them brought their idols to the missionary to be
+burned.
+
+And now Mackay went up and down the Kap-tsu-lan plain from
+village to village as he had done before, but this time it was a
+triumphal march. And everywhere he went throngs threw away their
+idols and declared themselves followers of the true God.
+
+He was overcome with joy. It was so glorious he wished he could
+stay there the rest of his life and lead these willing people to
+a higher life. But Tamsui was waiting; Sin-tiam, Bang-kah,
+Kelung, Go-ko-khi, they must all be visited; and finally he tore
+himself away, leaving some of his students to care for these
+people of Kap-tsu-lan.
+
+But he came back many times, until at last nineteen chapels
+dotted the plain, and in them nineteen native preachers told the
+story of Jesus and his love. Sometimes, in later years, when
+Mackay was with them, tears would roll down the people's faces as
+they recalled how badly they had used him     on his first visit.
+
+It was while on his third visit here that he had a narrow escape
+from the head-hunters. He was staying at a village called "South
+Wind Harbor," which was near the border of savage territory.
+Mackay often walked on the shore in the evening just before the
+meeting, always with a book in his hand. One night he was
+strolling along in deep meditation when he noticed some extremely
+large turtle tracks in the sand. He followed them, for he liked
+to watch the big clumsy creatures. These green turtles were from
+four to five feet in length. They would come waddling up from the
+sea, scratch a hole in the sand with their flippers, lay their
+eggs, cover them carefully, and with head erect and neck
+out-thrust waddle back. Mackay was intensely interested in all
+the animal life of the island and made a study of it whenever he
+had a chance. He knew the savages killed and ate these turtles,
+but he supposed he was as yet too near the village to be molested
+by them. So he followed the tracks and was nearing the edge of
+the forest, when he heard a shout behind him. As he turned, one
+of his village friends came running out of his hut waving to him
+frantically to come back. Thinking some one must be ill, Mackay
+hurried toward the man, to find that it was he himself who was in
+danger. The man explained breathlessly that it was the habit of
+the wily savages to make marks in the sand resembling turtle
+tracks to lure people into the forest. If Kai Bok-su had entered
+the woods, his head would certainly have been lost.
+
+It was always hard to say farewell to Kaptsu-lan, the people were
+so warm-hearted, so kind, and so anxious for him to stay. One
+morning just before leaving after his third visit, Mackay had an
+experience that brought him the greatest joy.
+
+He had stayed all night at the little fishing village where the
+first chapel had been built. As usual he was up with the dawn,
+and after his breakfast of cold boiled rice and pork he walked
+down to the shore for a farewell look at the village. As he
+passed along the little crooked street he could see old women
+sitting on the mud floors of their huts, by the open door,
+weaving. They were all poor, wrinkled, toothless old folk with
+faces seamed by years of hard heathen experience. But in their
+eyes shone a new light, the reflection of the glory that they had
+seen when the missionary showed them Jesus their Savior. And as
+they threw their thread their quavering voices crooned the sweet
+words:
+
+There is a happy land
+Far, far away.
+
+And their old weary faces were lighted up with a hope and
+happiness that had never been there in youth.
+
+Kai Bok-su smiled as he passed their doors and his eyes were
+misty with tender tears.
+
+Just before him, playing on the sand with "jacks" or tops, just
+as he had played not so very long ago away back in Canada, were
+the village boys. And as they played they too were singing, their
+little piping voices, sweet as birds, thrilling the mQrning air.
+And the words they sang were:
+
+Jesus loves me, this I know,
+For the Bible tells me so.
+
+They nodded and smiled to Kai Bok-su as he passed. be went down
+to the shore where the wide Pacific flung long rollers away up
+the hard-packed sand. The fishermen were going out to sea in the
+rosy morning light, and as they stood up in their fishing-smacks,
+and swept their long oars through the surf, they kept time to the
+motion with singing. And their strong, brave voices rang out
+above the roar of the breakers:
+
+I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,
+Or to defend his cause.
+
+And standing there on the sunlit shore the young missionary
+raised his face to the gleaming blue heavens with an emotion of
+unutterable joy and thanksgiving. And in that moment he knew what
+was that glory for which he had so vaguely longed in childish
+years. It was the glory of work accomplished for his Master's
+sake, and he was realizing it to the full.
+
+
+CHAPTER X. REENFORCEMENTS
+
+Some of Mackay's happiest days were spent with his students. He
+was such a wonder of a man for work himself that he inspired
+every one else to do his best, so the young men made rapid
+strides with their lessons. No matter how busy he was, and he was
+surely one of the busiest men that ever lived, he somehow found
+time for them.
+
+Sometimes in his house, sometimes on the road, by the seashore,
+under a banyan tree, here and there and everywhere, the
+missionary and his pupils held their classes. If he went on a
+journey, they accompanied him and studied by the way. And it was
+a f amiliar sight on north Formosan roads or field paths to see
+Mackay, always with his book in one hand and his big ebony stick
+under his arm, walking along surrounded by a group of young men.
+
+Sometimes there were as many as twenty in the student-band, but
+somewhere in the country a new church would open, and the
+brightest of the class would be called away to be its minister.
+But just as often a young Christian would come to the missionary
+and ask if he too might not be trained to preach the gospel of
+Jesus Christ.
+
+Whether at home or abroad, pupils and teacher had to resort to
+all sorts of means to get away for an uninterrupted hour
+together. For Kai Bok-su was always in demand to visit the sick
+or sad or troubled.
+
+There was a little kitchen separate from the house on the bluff,
+and over this Mackay with his students built a second story. And
+here they would often slip away for a little quiet time together.
+One night, about eleven o'clock, Mackay was here alone poring
+over his books. The young men had gone home  to bed except two or
+three who were in the kitchen below. Some papers had been dropped
+over a pipe-hole in the floor of the room where Mackay was
+studying, and for some time he had been disturbed by a rustling
+among them. At last without looking up, he called to his boys
+below: "I think there are rats up here among my papers!"
+
+Koa Kau, one of the younger of the students, ran lightly up the
+stairs to give battle to the intruders. What was his horror when
+he saw fully three feet of a monster serpent sticking up through
+the pipe-hole and waving its horrible head in the air just a
+little distance from Kai Bok-su's chair.
+
+The boy gave a shout, darted down the stair, and with a sharp
+stick, pinned the body of the snake to the wall below. The
+creature became terribly violent, but Koa Kau held on valiantly
+and Mackay seized an old Chinese spear that happened to be in the
+room above and pierced the serpent through the head. They pulled
+its dead body down into the kitchen below and spread it out. It
+measured nine feet. The students would not rest until it was
+buried, and the remembrance of the horrible creature's visit for
+some time spoiled the charm of the little upper room.
+
+The rocks at Kelung harbor were another favorite spot for this
+little traveling university to hold its classes. Sometimes they
+would take their dinner and row out in a little sampan to the
+rocks outside the harbor and there, undisturbed, they would study
+the whole day long.
+
+They always began the day's work with a prayer and a hymn of
+praise, and no matter what subjects they might study, most of the
+time was spent on the greatest of books. After a hard morning's
+work each one would gather sticks, make a fire, and they would
+have their dinner of vegetables, rice, and pork or buffalo-meat.
+Then there were oysters, taken fresh off the rocks, to add to
+their bill of fare.
+
+At five in the afternoon, when the strain of study was beginning
+to tell, they would vary the program. One or two of the boys
+would take a plunge into the sea and bring up a subject for
+study,--a shell, some living coral, sea-weed, sea-urchins, or
+some such treasure. They would examine it, and Kai Bok-su, always
+delighted when on a scientific subject, would give them a lesson
+in natural history. And he saw with joy how the wonders of the
+sea and land opened these young men's minds to understand what a
+great and wonderful God was theirs, who had made "the heaven and
+the earth and the sea, and all that in them is."
+
+When they visited a chapel in the country, they had a daily
+program which they tried hard to follow. They studied until four
+o'clock every afternoon and all were trained in speaking and
+preaching. After four they made visits together to Christians or
+heathen, speaking always a word for their Master. Every evening a
+public service was held at which Mackay preached. These sermons
+were an important part of the young men's training, for he always
+treated the gospel in a new way. A Hoa, who was Mackay's
+companion for the greater part of sixteen years, stated that he
+had never heard Kai Bok-su preach the same sermon twice.
+
+On the whole the students liked their college best when it was
+moving. For on the road, while their principal gave much time to
+the Bible and how to present the gospel, he would enliven their
+walks by conversing about everything by the way and making it
+full of interest. The structure of a wayside flower, the
+geological formation of an overhanging rock, the composition of
+the soil of the tea plantations, the stars that shone in the sky
+when night came down upon them;--all these made the traveling
+college a delight.
+
+Although his days were crammed with work, Mackay found time to
+make friends among the European population of the island. They
+all liked and admired him, and many of them tried to help the man
+who was giving his life and strength so completely to others.
+They were familiar with his quick, alert figure passing through
+the streets of Tamsui, with his inevitable book and his big ebony
+cane. And they would. smile and say, "There goes Mackay; he's the
+busiest man in China."*
+
+* See Chapter XIII, Formosa becomes Japanese territory.
+
+The British consul in the old Dutch fort and the English
+commissioner of customs proved true and loyal friends. The
+representatives of foreign business firms, too, were always ready
+to lend him a helping hand where possible. His most useful
+friends were the foreign medical men. They helped him very much.
+They not only did all they could for his own recovery when
+malaria attacked him, but they helped also to cure his patients.
+Traveling scientists always gave him a visit to get his help and
+advice. He had friends that were shipcaptains, officers,
+engineers, merchants, and British consuls. Everybody knew the
+wonderful Kai Bok-su. "Whirlwind Mackay," some of them called
+him, and they knew and admired him with the true admiration that
+only a brave man can inspire.
+
+The friends to whom he turned for help of the best kind were the
+English Presbyterians in south Formosa. They, more than any
+others, knew his trials and difficulties. They alone could enter
+with true sympathy into all his triumphs. At one time Dr.
+Campbell, one of the south Formosan missionaries, paid him a
+visit. He proved a delightful companion, and together the two
+made a tour of the mission stations. Dr. Campbell preached
+wherever they went and was a great inspiration to the people, as
+well as to the students and to the missionary himself.
+
+One evening, when they were in Kelung, Mackay, with his
+insatiable desire to use every moment, suggested that they spend
+ten days without speaking English, so that they might improve
+their Chinese. Dr. Campbell agreed, and they started their
+"Chinese only." Next morning from the first early call of "Liong
+tsong khi lai," "All, all, up come," not one word of their native
+tongue did they speak. They had a long tramp that morning and
+there was much to talk about and the conversation was all in
+Chinese, according to the bargain. Dr. Campbell was ahead, and
+after an hour's talk he suddenly turned upon his companion:
+"Mackay!" he exclaimed, "this jabbering in Chinese is ridiculous,
+and two Scotchmen should have more sense; let us return to our
+mother tongue." Which advice Mackay gladly followed.
+
+His next visitor was the Rev. Mr. Ritchie from south Formosa, one
+of the friends who had first introduced him to his work. Every
+day of his visit was a joy. With nine of Mackay's students, the
+two missionaries set out on a trip through the north Formosa
+mission that lasted many weeks.
+
+But the more pleasant and helpful such companionship was the more
+alone Mackay felt when it was over. His task was becoming too
+much for one man. He was wanted on the northern coast, at the
+southern boundary of his mission field, and away on the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain all at once. He was crowded day and night with
+work. What with preaching, dentistry, attending the sick,
+training his students, and encouraging the new churches, he had
+enough on his hands for a dozen missionaries.
+
+But now at last the Church at home, in far-away Canada, bestirred
+herself to help him. They had been hearing something of the
+wonderful mission in Formosa, but they had heard only hints of
+it, for Mackay would not confess how he was toiling day and night
+and how the work had grown until he was not able to overtake it
+alone. But the Church understood something of his need, and they
+now sent him the best present they could possibly give,--an
+assistant. Just three years after Mackay had landed in Formosa,
+the Rev. J. B. Fraser, M. D., and his wife and little ones
+arrived. He was a young man, too, vigorous and ready for work.
+Besides being an ordained minister, he was a physician as well,
+just exactly what the north Formosan mission needed.
+
+Along with the missionary, the Church had sent funds for a house
+for him and also one for Mackay. So the poor old Chinese house on
+the bluff was replaced by a modern, comfortable dwelling, and by
+its side another was built for the new missionary and his family.
+One room of Mackay's house was used as a study for his students.
+
+After the houses were built and the new doctor was able to use
+the language, he began to fill a long-felt want. Mackay had
+always done a little medical work, and the foreign doctor of
+Tamsui had been most kind in giving his aid, but a doctor of his
+own, a missionary doctor, was exactly what Kai Bok-su wanted.
+Soon the sick began to hear of the wonders the missionary doctor
+could perform, and they flocked to him to be cured.
+
+It must not be supposed that there were not already doctors in
+north Formosa. There were many in Tamsui alone, and very
+indignant they were at this new barbarian's success. But the
+native doctors were about the worst trouble that the people had
+to bear. Their medical knowledge, like their religion, was a
+mixture of ignorance and superstition, and some of their
+practises would have been inexcusable except for the fact that
+they themselves knew no better. There were two classes of medical
+men; those who treated internal diseases and those who professed
+to cure external maladies. It was hard to judge which class did
+the more mischief, but perhaps the "inside doctors" killed more
+of their patients. Dog's flesh was prescribed as a cure for
+dyspepsia, a chip taken from a coffin and boiled and the water
+drunk was a remedy for catarrh, and an apology made to the moon
+was a specific for wind-roughened skin. For the dreaded malaria,
+the scourge of Formosa, the young Canadian doctor found many and
+amazing remedies prescribed, some worse than the disease itself.
+The native doctors believed malaria to be caused by two devils in
+a patient, one causing the chills, the other the fever. One of
+the commonest remedies, and one that was quite as sensible as any
+of the rest, was to tie seven hairs plucked from a black dog
+around the sick one's wrist.
+
+But when the barbarian doctor opened his dispensary in Tamsui, a
+new era dawned for the poor sick folk of north Formosa. The work
+went on wonderfully well and Mackay found so much more time to
+travel in the country that the gospel spread rapidly.
+
+But just when prospects were looking so fair and every one was
+happy and hopeful, a sad event darkened the bright outlook of the
+two missionaries. The young doctor had cured scores of cases, and
+had brought health and happiness to many homes, but he was
+powerless to keep death from his own door.
+
+And one day, a sad day for the mission of north Formosa, the
+mother was called from husband and little ones to her home and
+her reward in heaven.
+
+So the home on the bluff, the beautiful Christian home, which was
+a pattern for all the Chinese, was broken up. The young doctor
+was compelled to leave his patients, and taking his motherless
+children he returned with them to Canada.
+
+The church at home sent out another helper. The Rev. Kenneth
+Junor arrived one year later, and once more the work received a
+fresh impetus. And then, just about two years after Mr. Junor's
+arrival, Kai Bok-su found an assistant of his own right in
+Formosa, and one who was destined to become a wonderful help to
+him. And so one bright day, there was a wedding in the chapel of
+the old Dutch fort, where the British consul married George
+Leslie Mackay to a Formosan lady. Tui Chhang Mai, her name had
+been. She was of a beautiful Christian character and for a long
+time she had been a great help in the church. But as Mrs. Mackay
+she proved a marvelous assistance to her husband.
+
+It had long been a great grief to the missionary that, while the
+men would come in crowds to his meetings, the poor women had to
+be left at home. Sometimes in a congregation of two hundred there
+would be only two or three women. Chinese custom made it
+impossible for a man missionary to preach to the women. Only a
+few of the older ones came out. So the mothers of the little
+children did not hear about Jesus and so could not teach their
+little ones about him.
+
+But now everything was changed for them. They had a
+lady-missionary, and one of their own people too. The Mackays
+went on a wedding-trip through the country. Kai Bok-su walked, as
+usual, and his wife rode in a sedan-chair. The wedding-trip was
+really a missionary tour; for they visited all the chapels, and
+the women came to the meetings in crowds, because they wanted to
+hear and see the lady who had married Kai Bok-su. Often, after
+the regular meetings when the men had gone away, the women would
+crowd in and gather round Mrs. Mackay and she would tell them the
+story of Jesus and his love.
+
+It was a wonderful wedding-journey and. it brought a double
+blessing wherever the two went. Their experiences were not all
+pleasant. One day they traveled over a sand plain so hot that
+Mackay's feet were blistered. Another time they were drenched
+with rain. One afternoon there came up a terrific wind storm. It
+blew Mrs. Mackay's sedan-chair over and sent her and the carriers
+flying into the mud by the roadside. At another place they all
+barely escaped drowning when crossing a stieam. But the brave
+young pair went through it all dauntlessly. The wife had caught
+something of her husband's great spirit of sacrifice, and. he was
+always the man on fire, utterly forgetful of self.
+
+For two years they worked happily together and at last a great
+day came to KaiBok-su. He had been nearly eight years in Formosa.
+It was time he came home, the Church in Canada said, for a little
+rest and to tell the people at home something of his great work.
+
+And so he and his Formosan wife said good-by, amid tears and
+regrets on all sides, and leaving Mr. Junor in charge with A Hoa
+to help, they set sail for Canada. It was just a little over
+seven years since he had settled in that little hut by the river,
+despised and hated by every one about him; and now he left behind
+him twenty chapels, each with a native preacher over it, and
+hundreds of warm friends scattered over all north Formosa.
+
+He was not quite the same Mackay who had stood on the deck of the
+America seven years before. His eyes were as bright and daring as
+ever and his alert figure as full of energy, but his face showed
+that his life had been a hard one. And no wonder, for he had
+endured every kind of hardship and privation in those seven
+years. He had been mobbed times without number. He had faced
+death often, and day and night since his first year on the island
+his footsteps had been dogged by the torturing malaria.
+
+But he was still the great, brave Mackay and his home-coming was
+like the return of a hero from battle. He went through Canada
+preaching in the churches, and his words were like a call to
+arms. He swept over the country like one of his own Formosan
+winds, carrying all before him. Wherever he preached hearts were
+touched by his thrilling tales, and purses opened to help in his
+work. Queen's University made him a Doctor of Divinity; Mrs.
+Mackay, a lady of Detroit, gave him money enough to build a
+hospital; and his home county, Oxford, presented him with $6,215
+with which to build a college.
+
+He visited his old home and had many long talks of his childhood
+days with his loved ones. And he was reminded of the big stone in
+the pasture-field which he was so determined to break. And he
+thanked his heavenly Father for allowing him to break the great
+rock of heathenism in north Formosa.
+
+He returned to his mission work more on fire than ever. If he had
+been received with acclaim in his native land, his Formosan
+friends' welcome was not less warm. Crowds of converts, all his
+students who were not too far inland, and among them, Mr. Junor,
+his face all smiles, were thronging the dock, many of them
+weeping for joy. It was as if a long-absent father had come back
+to his children.
+
+The work went forward now by leaps and bounds. Mackay's first
+thought, after a hurried visit to the chapels and their
+congregations, was to see that the hospital and college were
+built.
+
+All day long the sound of the builders could be heard up on the
+bluff near the missionaries' houses, and in a wonderfully short
+time there arose two beautiful, stately buildings. Mackay
+hospital they called one, not for Kai Bok-su--he did not like
+things named for him--but in memory of the husband of the kind
+lady who had furnished the money for it. The school for training
+young men in the ministry was called Oxford College, in honor of
+the county whose people had made it possible.
+
+Oxford College stood just overlooking the Tamsui river, two
+hundred feet above its waters. The building was 116 feet long and
+67 feet wide, and was built of small red bricks brought from
+across the Formosa Channel. A wide, airy hall ran down the middle
+of the building, and was used as a lecture-room. On either side
+were rooms capable of accommodating fifty students and apartments
+for two teachers and their families. There were, besides, two
+smaller lecture-rooms, a museum filled with treasures collected
+from all over Formosa by Dr. Mackay and his students, a library,
+a bathroom, and a kitchen.
+
+The grounds about the college and hospital were very beautiful.
+Nature had given one of the finest situations to be found about
+Tamsui, and Kai Bok-su did the rest. Tha climate helped him, for
+it was no great task to have a luxurious garden in north Formosa.
+So, in a few years there were magnificent trees and hedges, and
+always glorious flower beds abloom all the time around the
+missionary premises.
+
+But all this was not accomplished without great toil, and Kai
+Bok-su appeared never to rest in those building days. It seemed
+impossible that one man should work so hard, he was in Tamsui
+superintending the hospital building to-day, and away off miles
+in the country preaching to-morrow. He never seemed to get time
+to eat, and he certainly slept less than his allotted four hours.
+
+A great disappointment was pending, however, and one he saw
+coming nearer every day. The trying Formosan climate was proving
+too much for his young assistant, and one sad day he stood on the
+dock and saw Mr. Junor, pale and weak and broken in health, sail
+away back to Canada.
+
+But there was always a brave soldier waitkg to step into the
+breach, and the next year Kai Bok-su had the joy of welcoming two
+new helpers, when the Rev. Mr. Jamieson and his wife came out
+from Canada and settled in the empty house on the bluff. Yes, and
+in time there came to his own house other helpers--very little
+and helpless at first they were--but they soon made the house
+ring with happy noise and filled the hearts of their parents with
+joy.
+
+There were two ladies now to lead in the work for girls and
+women. Their sisters in Canada came to their help too. The young
+men had a school in Formosa, and why should there not be a school
+for women and girls? they asked. And so the Women's Foreign
+Missionary Society of Canada sent to Dr. Mackay money to build
+one. It took only two months to erect it. It stood just a few
+rods from Oxford College, and was a fine, airy building. Here a
+native preacher and his wife took up their abode and with the
+help of Mrs. Mackay and two other native Christian women they
+strove to teach the girls of north Formosa how to make beautiful
+Christian homes.
+
+And now to the two missionaries every prospect seemed bright. The
+college, the girls' school, the hospital, were all in splendid
+working order. Mr. and Mrs. Jamieson were giving their best
+assistance. A Hoa and the other native pastors were working
+faithfully. God's blessing seemed to be showering down upon the
+work and on every side were signs of growth. And then, right from
+this shining sky, there fell a storm of such fierceness that it
+threatened to wipe out completely the whole north Formosan
+mission.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. UNEXPECTED BOMBARDMENT
+
+An enemy's battle-ships off the coast of Formosa! During all the
+spring rumors of trouble had been coming across the channel from
+the mainland. France* and China had been quarreling over a
+boundaryline in Tongking. The affair had been settled but not in
+a way that pleased France. So, without even waiting to declare
+war, she sent a fleet to the China Sea and bombarded some of her
+enemy's ports. Formosa, of course, came in for her share of the
+trouble, and it was early in the summer that the French
+battle-ships appeared. They hove in sight, sailing down the
+Formosa Channel or Strait one hot day, and instantly all Formosa
+was in an uproar of alarm and rage. The rage was greater than the
+alarm, for China cordially despised all peoples beyond her own
+border, and felt that the barbarians would probably be too feeble
+to do them any harm. But that the barbarians should dare to
+approach their coast with a war-vessel! That was a terrible
+insult, and the fierce indignation of the people knew no bounds.
+Their rage broke out against all foreigners. They did not
+distinguish between the missionary from British soil and the
+French soldiers on their enemy's vessels. They were all
+barbarians alike, the Chinese declared, and as such were the
+deadly foe of China. This Kai Bok-su was in league with the
+French, and the native Christians all over Formosa were in league
+with him, and all deserved death!
+
+*War in 1844.
+
+So hard days came for the Christians of north Formosa. Wherever
+there was a house containing converts, there was riot and
+disorder. For bands of enraged heathen, armed with knives and
+swords, would parade the streets about them and threaten all with
+a violent death the moment the French fired a shot.
+
+In some places near the coast the Christian people dared not
+leave their houses, and whenever they sent out their children to
+buy food, often a heathen neighbor would catch them, brandish
+knives over the terrified little ones' heads and declare they
+would all be cut to pieces when the barbarian ships came into
+port.
+
+Every hour of the day and often in the night, letters came from
+all parts of the country to Dr. Mackay. They were brought by
+runners who came at great peril of their lives, and were sent by
+the poor Christians. Each letter told the same tale; the lives
+and property of all the converts were in grave danger if the
+enemy did not leave. And they all asked Kai Bok-su to do
+something to help them.
+
+Now Kai Bok-su was a man with great power and influence both in
+Formosa and in his far-off Canada, but he had no means of
+bringing that power to bear on the French. And indeed his own
+life was in as great danger as any one's.
+
+He wrote to the Christians comforting them and enthusing them
+with his own spirit. He bade them all be brave, and no matter
+what came, danger or torture or death itself, they must be true
+to Jesus Christ. He went about his work in the college  or
+hospital just as usual, though he knew that any day the angry mob
+from the town below might come raging up to destroy and kill.
+
+The French had entered Kelung harbor and the danger was growing
+more serious every day when Mackay found it necessary to go to
+Palm Island, a pretty islet in the mouth of the Kelung river. It
+was almost courting death to go, but he had been sent for, and he
+went. He found the place right under the French guns and in the
+midst of raging Chinese. Some of the faithful students were
+there, and they were overcome with joy and hope at the sight of
+him. Tile gathered them about him in a mission house for prayer
+and a word of encouragement. Outside the Chinese soldiers paraded
+up and down. Sometimes indeed they would burst into the room and
+threaten the inmates with violence should the French fire. Kai
+Bok-su went on quietly talking to his students. He urged them to
+be faithful and reminded them of what their Master suffered at
+the hands of a mob for their sake. But, in spite of their brave
+spirits, the little company could not help listening for the boom
+of the French guns. It was fully expected that the enemy would
+soon fire, and when they did, the Christians well knew there
+would be little chance for them to escape.
+
+But God had prepared a way out of the difficulty. The meeting was
+scarcely over when a messenger came in, asking for the
+missionary. A Christian on the mainland was very ill and wanted
+Kai Bok-su to visit him. Mackay with his students left the island
+at once and went to the home of the sick man.
+
+They had been gone but a short time when the thunder of the
+French cannon broke over the harbor. The guns from the Chinese
+fort answered, and had the missionary been on Palm Island he and
+his converts would surely have been killed.
+
+The Chinese were no match for the French gunners. The bombardment
+destroyed the fort and killed every soldier who did not manage to
+get away. A great shell crashed into the magazine of the fort,
+and the explosion hurled masses of the concrete walls an
+incredible distance. The city about the fort was completely
+deserted, for the people fled at the first sound of the guns.
+
+As soon as the firing was over, the rabble broke loose and a
+perfect reign of terror prevailed. The mob carried black flags
+and swept over town and country, plundering and murdering. The
+Christians were of course the first object of attack, and to tear
+down a church was the mob's fiercest joy. Seven of the most
+beautiful chapels were completely destroyed and many others
+injured.
+
+In the town of Toa-liong-pong was the home of Koa Kau, one of Kai
+Bok-su's most devoted students. Here was a lovely chapel built at
+great expense. The crowd tore it to pieces from roof to
+foundation. Then, out of the bricks of the ruin they erected a
+huge pile, eight feet high; they plastered it over with mud, and
+on the face of it, next the highway where every one might see it,
+they wrote in large Chinese characters:
+
+MACKAY, THE BLACK-BEARDED BARBARIAN,
+LIES HERE. HIS WORK IS ENDED.
+
+They knew that the first was not true, but they firmly believed
+the latter statement, for they understood little of the power of
+the gospel.
+
+At Sin-tiam the crowd of ruffians smashed the doors and windows
+of the church. Then they took the communion roll and read aloud
+the names of the Christians who had been baptized. As each name
+was announced, some of the murderers would rush off toward the
+home of the one mentioned. Here they would torture and often kill
+the members of the family. The native preacher and his family
+barely escaped with their lives. One good old Christian man with
+his wife, both over sixty, were dragged out into the deep water
+of the Sin-tiam river. Here they were given a choice. If they
+gave up Jesus Christ, their lives would be saved. If they still
+remained Christians, they would be drowned right there and then.
+The brave old couple refused to accept life at such a cost.
+
+"I'm not ashamed to own my Lord," was a hymn Kai Bok-su had
+taught them, and They had meant every word as they had sung it
+many times in the pretty chapel by the river. And so they were
+"not ashamed" now. They were led deeper and deeper into the
+water, and at every few feet the way of escape was offered, but
+they steadily refused, and were at last flung into the river--
+faithful martyrs who certainly won a crown of life.
+
+These were only two among many brave Christians who died for
+their Master's sake. Some were put to tortures too horrible to
+tell to make them give up their faith. Some were hung by their
+hair to trees, some were kicked or beaten to death, many were
+slashed with knives until death relieved their pain. And on every
+side the most noble Christian heroism was shown. In all ages
+there have been those who died for their faith in Jesus Christ;
+and these Formosan followers of their Master proved themselves no
+less faithful than the martyrs of old.
+
+And where was Kai Bok-su while the mob raged over the country?
+Going about his work in Tamsui as of old. Only now he worked both
+night and day, and the anxiety for his poor converts kept him
+awake in the few hours when he might have snatched some sleep. He
+was here, there, everywhere at once, it seemed, writing letters
+to encourage the Christians in distress, visiting those who were
+wavering to strengthen their faith, teaching his students,
+praying, preaching, night and day, he never ceased; and always
+the mob surged about him threatening his life.
+
+The French ships now sailed out of Kelung harbor and took up
+their position opposite Tamsui. Every one knew this probably
+meant bombardment, and Dr. Mackay and Mr. Jamieson, standing on
+the bluff before their houses, looked at each other and each knew
+the other's thought. Bombardment would mean that the mob would
+come raging up and destroy both life and property on the hill.
+
+But just as they expected the roar of guns to open, there sailed
+into Tamsui harbor a vessel that flew a different flag from the
+French. Mackay, looking at her through a glass, made out with joy
+the crosses on the red banner of Britain! England had nothing to
+do with this Chinese-French war, but as a British vessel can be
+found lying around almost any port in the wide world, there of
+course happened to be one near Tamsui. She gained a passport into
+the harbor and sailed in with a very kindly mission; it was to
+protect the lives of foreigners, not only from the French guns,
+but from the Chinese mobs.
+
+The ship had been in the harbor but a short time when a young
+English naval officer, carrying the British flag, came up the
+path to the houses on the bluff. Dr. Mackay was in the library of
+Oxford College, lecturing to his students, when the visitor
+entered.
+
+The missionary made the sailor welcome and the young man told his
+errand. Dr. Mackay was invited to bring his family and his
+valuables and come on board the vessel to be the guest of the
+captain until the disturbance was over.
+
+It was a most kindly invitation and Dr. Mackay shook his
+visitor's hand warmly as he thanked hiffi. He turned and
+translated the message to his students, and their hearts stood
+still with dismay. If Kai Bok-su, their stay and support, were to
+be taken away, what would become of them? But Kai Bok-su had not
+changed with the changing circumstances. He was still as brave
+and undaunted as though trouble had never come to his island.
+
+He turned to the officer again with a smile. "My family would not
+be hard to move," he said, "but my valuables--I am afraid I could
+not take them." He made a gesture toward the students standing
+about him. "These young men and many more converts scattered all
+over north Formosa, are my valuables. Many of them have faced
+death unflinchingly for my sake. They are my valuables, and I
+cannot leave them."
+
+It was bravely said, just as Kai Bok-su might be expected to
+speak, and the English officer's eyes kindled with appreciation.
+The words found a ready response in his heart. They were the
+words of a true soldier of the King. The officer went back to his
+captain with Mackay's message and with a deep admiration in his
+heart for the man who would rather face death than leave his
+friends.
+
+So the British man-of-war drew off, leaving the missionaries in
+the midst of danger. And almost immediately, with a great
+bursting roar, the bombardment from the French ships opened.
+Sometimes the shells flew high over the town and up to the bluff,
+so Dr. and Mrs. Mackay put their three little ones in a safe
+corner under the house; but they themselves as well as Mr. and
+Mrs. Jamieson, went in and out to and from the college, and the
+girls' school as though nothing were happening.
+
+Every day Mackay's work grew heavier and his anxiety for the
+persecuted Christians grew deeper. He ate very little, and he
+scarcely slept at all. It was not the noise of the carnage about
+him that kept him awake. He would have fallen asleep peacefully
+amidst bursting shells, but he had no opportunity. The whole
+burden of the young Church, harassed by persecution on all sides,
+seemed to rest upon his spirit. Anxiety for the Christians in the
+inland stations from whom he could not hear weighed on him night
+and day, and his brave spirit was put to the severest test.
+
+Only his great strong faith in God kept him up and kept up the
+spirits of the converts who looked to him for an example. And a
+brave pattern he showed them. Often he and A Hoa paced the lawn
+in front of the house while shot and shell whizzed around them.
+During the worst of the bombardment they came and went between
+the college and the house as if they had charmed lives. One day
+there was a great roar and a shell struck Oxford College, shaking
+it to its foundations. The smoke from fort and ships had scarcely
+cleared away when, crash! and the girls' school was struck by a
+bursting shell. Next moment there was a fearful bang and a great
+stone that stood in front of the Mackays' house went up into the
+air in a thousand fragments.
+
+But when the firing was hottest, Kai Bok-su would repeat to his
+students the comforting Psalm:
+
+"Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the
+arrow that flieth by day."
+
+But in spite of his brave demeanor, the strain on the shepherd of
+this harassed flock was beginning to tell. And when the
+bombardment ceased and the intense anxiety for his loved ones was
+over, Kai Bok-su suddenly collapsed. Dr. Johnsen, the foreign
+physician of Tamsui, came hurriedly up to the mission house to
+see him. His verdict sent a thrill of dismay through every heart
+that loved him, from the anxious little wife by the patient's
+side, to the poorest convert in the town below. Their beloved Kai
+Bok-su had brain fever.
+
+"Too much anxiety and too little sleep," said the medical man.
+"He must sleep now," he added, "or he will die." But now that Kai
+Bok-su had a chance to rest, he could not. Sleep had been chased
+away too long to stay with him. Night and day he tossed about,
+wide awake and burning with fever. His temperature was never less
+than 102 during those days, and all the doctor's efforts could
+not lower it. The awful heat of September was on, and the great
+typhoons that would soon sweep across the country and clear the
+air had not yet come. The glaring sun and the stifling damp heat
+were all against the patient. At last one day the doctor saw a
+crisis was approaching. He stood looking down at the hot, flushed
+face, at the burning eyes, and the restless hands that were never
+still, and he said to himself, "If the fever does not go down
+to-day, he will die."
+
+The doctor went along "College Road  toward his home, answering
+the eager, anxious questions that met him on all sides with only
+a shake of his head.
+
+A Hoa followed him, his drawn face full of pleading. Was he no
+better ? he asked with quivering lips. It was the question poor A
+Hoa asked many, many times a day, for he never left the house
+when not away on duty. The doctor's face was full of sympathy and
+his own heart weighed down as he sadly answered, "No."
+
+"If I only had some ice," he muttered, knowing well he had none.
+"If there was only one bit of ice in Tamsui, I'd save him yet."
+
+Over in the British consulate Dr. Johnsen had another patient.
+Mr. Dodd lay sick there, though not nearly as ill as the
+missionary, and the physician's next visit was to him. When he
+entered he found a servant carrying a tray with some ice on it to
+the sick room.
+
+"Ice!" cried the doctor, overjoyed. "Where did it come from?"
+
+The servant explained that the steamship Hailoong had just
+arrived in Tamsui harbor with it that morning. The doctor entered
+Mr. Dodd's room. Would he give him that ice to save Mackay's
+life? was the question he asked. To save such a life as Mackay's!
+That was an absurd question, Mr. Dodd declared, and he
+immediately ordered that every bit of ice he had should be sent
+at once to the missionary's house.
+
+The doctor hurried back up the hill with the precious remedy. He
+broke up a piece and laid it like a little cushion on poor Kai
+Bok-su's hot forehead; that forehead beneath which the busy
+brain, resting neither day nor night, was burning up. It had not
+been there a great while before the restless eyes lost their
+fire, the eyelids drooped and, wonderful sight, Kai Bok-su sank
+into a sleep! The doctor hardly dared to breathe If he could only
+be kept asleep now, he had a chance. Dr. Mackay had never been a
+sleeper, he well knew. He was too restless, too energetic, to
+allow himself even proper rest. When Dr. Fraser, his first
+assistant, had been with him, he had struggled to persuade him to
+stay in bed at least six hours every night, but not always with
+success. But now he was to show what he could do in the matter of
+sleeping. All that night he lay, breathing peacefully, the next
+day he slept on from morning till night, and little by little the
+ice melted away on his forehead. He did not move all the next
+night, and A Hoa and Mrs. Mackay and the doctor took turns at his
+bedside watching that the precious ice was always there. Morning
+came and it was all finished. The patient opened his eyes. He had
+slept thirty-six hours, and a thrill of joy went through every
+Christian heart in Tamsui, for their Kai Bok-su was saved!
+
+But though the crisis was over, he was still very weak, and such
+was the state of affairs through the country that he was in no
+condition to cope with them. Riot and. plunder was the order of
+the day. News of churches being destroyed, of faithful Christians
+being tortured or put to death, were still coming to the mission
+house, and no one could tell what day would bring Kai Boksu's
+turn.
+
+And now came an order from the British consul which the
+missionaries could not disobey. He commanded that their families
+must be moved at once from Formosa, as he could not answer for
+their protection. So at once preparations for their departure
+were made, and Mr. Jamieson took his wife and Mrs. Mackay and her
+three little ones and sailed away for Hongkong.
+
+But once more Kai Bok-su stayed behind. It cost him bitter pain
+to part with his loved ones, knowing he might never see them
+again; he was weak and spent with fever, and his poor body was
+worn to a shadow, but he stubbornly refused to leave the men who
+had stood by him in every danger. The consul commanded, the
+doctor pleaded, but no, Kai Bok-su would not go. If the danger
+had grown greater, then all the more reason why he should stay
+and comfort his people. And if God were pleased to send death,
+then they would all die together.
+
+But he was so weak and sick that the doctor feared that if he
+remained there would be little chance for the mob to kill him:
+death would come sooner. So he came to his stubborn patient with
+a new proposition. The Fukien, a merchant steamship, was now
+lying in Tamsui harbor. She was to run to Hongkong and back
+directly. If Mackay would only take that trip, his physician
+urged, the sea air would make him new again, and he would return
+in a short time and be ready to take up his work once more.
+
+It was that promise that moved Mackay's resolution. His utter
+weakness held him down from work, and he longed with all his soul
+to go out through the country to helps the poor, suffering
+churches. So he finally consented to take the short journey and
+pay a visit to his dear ones in Hongkong.
+
+He did not get back quite as soon as he intended, for the French
+blockade delayed his vessel. But at last he stepped out upon the
+Tamsui dock into a crowd of preachers, students, and converts who
+were weeping for joy about him and exclaiming over his improved
+looks.
+
+The voyage had certainly done wonders for him, and at once he
+declared he must take a trip into the country and visit those who
+were left of the churches.
+
+It was a desperate undertaking, for French soldiers were now
+scattered through the country, guarding the larger towns and
+cities and everywhere mobs of furious Chinese were ready to
+torture or kill every foreigner. But it would take even greater
+difficulties than these to stop Kai Bok-su, and he began at once
+to lay plans for going on a tour.
+
+He first went to the British consul and came back in high spirits
+with a folded paper m his hand. He spread it out on the library
+table before A Hoa and Sun-a, who were to go with him, and this
+is what it said:
+
+British Consulate, Tamsui,
+
+May 27th, 1885.
+
+To THE OFFICER IN CHIEF COMMAND OF THE FRENCH FORCES AT KELUNG:
+
+The bearer of this paper, the Rev. George Leslie Mackay, D.D., a
+British subject, missionary in Formosa, wishes to enter Kelung,
+to visit his chapel and his house there, and to proceed through
+Kelung to Kap-tsu-lan on the east coast of Formosa to visit his
+converts there. Wherefore I, the undersigned, consul for Great
+Britain at Tamsui, do beg the officer in chief command of the
+French forces in Kelung to grant the said George Leslie Mackay
+entry into, and a free and safe passage through, Kelung. He will
+be accompanied by two Chinese followers, belonging to his
+mission, named, respectively, Giam Chheng Hoa, and Iap Sun.
+A. FRATER,
+Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Tamsui.
+
+They had all the power of the British Empire behind them so long
+as they held that paper. Then they hired a burdenbearer to carry
+their food, and Mackay cut a bamboo pole, fully twenty feet long,
+and on it tied the British flag. With this floating  over them,
+the little army marched through the rice-fields down to Kelung.
+
+It was an adventurous journey. But, wonderful though it seemed,
+they came through it safely. Poor Kai Bok-su's heart was torn as
+he saw the ravages the mob had made on his churches. But what a
+cheer his heart received when he found that persecution had
+strengthened the converts that were left and everywhere the
+heathen marveled that men should die for the faith the barbarian
+missionary had taught. They were taken prisoners once for German
+spies, and led far out of their way. But they came back to Tamsui
+safely, having greatly cheered the faithful Christians who still
+were true to their Master, Jesus Christ. It was early in June,
+just one year from the opening of the war, that the French sailed
+away. They were disgnsted with the whole affair, the commander of
+one vessel told Dr. Mackay, and they were all very glad it was
+over.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Jamieson and Dr. Mackay's family returned to their
+homes on the bluff, and work started up again with its old vigor.
+
+But everywhere the heathen were in great glee. Christianity had
+been destroyed with the chapels, they were sure. Wherever Mackay
+went, shouts of derision followed him, and everywhere he could
+hear the joyful cry "Long-tsong bo-khi !" which meant "The
+mission is wiped out!"
+
+But strange though it may seem, the mission had never been
+stronger, and it soon began to assert itself. Dr. Mackay went at
+the work of repairing the lost buildings with all the force of
+his nature. First, he and Mr. Jamieson and A Hoa sat down and
+prepared a statement of their losses. This they sent to the
+commander-in-chief of the Chinese forces, who had been
+responsible for law and order. Without any delay or questioning
+of the missionaries' rights, the general sent Dr. Mackay the sum
+asked for--ten thousand Mexican dollars.*
+
+*About $5000.
+
+The next thing was to plan the new chapels and see to the
+building of them. And before the shouts of "Long-tsong bo-khi"
+had well started, they began to be contradicted by walls of brick
+or stone that rose up strong and sure to show that the mission
+had not been wiped out. Three of the chapels were commenced all
+at once--at Sintiam, at Bang-kah and at Sek-khau. Before anything
+was done Dr. Mackay and a party of his students went up to
+Sin-tiam to look over the site. They stood up on the pile of
+ruins, surrounded by the Christians, and a crowd of heathen came
+around gleefully to watch them in the hopes of seeing their
+despair.
+
+But to their amazement the little company of Christians led by
+the wonderful Kai Bok-su, suddenly burst into a hymn of praise to
+God who had brought them safely through all their troubles:
+
+Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God,
+And not forgetful be
+Of all his gracious benefits
+He hath bestowed on thee!
+
+The heathen listened in wonder to the words of praise where they
+had expected lamentation, and they asked each other what was this
+strange power that made men so strong and brave.
+
+And their amazement grew as the chapels, the lovely new chapels
+of stone or brick, began to rise from the ruins of the old ones.
+And not only did the old ones reappear, new and more beautiful,
+but as Dr. Mackay and his native preachers went here and there
+over the country others peeped forth like the hepaticas of
+springtime, until there were not only the forty original chapels,
+but in a few years the number had increased to sixty.
+
+The triumphant shout that the mission had been wiped out ceased
+completely, and the people declared that they had been fools to
+try to destroy the chapels, for the result had been only bigger
+and better ones.
+
+"Look now," said one old heathen, pointing a withered finger to
+the handsome spire of the Bang-kah chapel, that lifted itself
+toward the sky, "Look now, the chapel towers above our temple. It
+is larger than the one we destroyed."
+
+His neighbors crowding about him and gazing up with superstitious
+awe at the spire, agreed.
+
+"If we touch this one he will build another and a bigger one,"
+remarked another man.
+
+"We cannot stop the barbarian missionary," said the old heathen
+with an air of conviction.
+
+"No, no one can stop the great Kai Boksu," they finally agreed,
+and so they left off all opposition in despair.
+
+Yes, the cry of "Long-tsong bo-khi" had died, and the answer to
+it was inscribed on the front of the splendid chapels that sprang
+up all over north Formosa. For, just above the main entrance to
+each, worked out in stucco plaster, was a picture of the burning
+bush, and around it in Chinese the grand old motto:
+
+"Nec tamen consumebatur" ("Yet it was not consumed.")
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. TRIUMPHAL MARCH
+
+Up and down the length and breadth of  north Formosa, seeming to
+be in two or three places at once, went Kai Bok-su, during this
+time of reviving after the war. He would be in Kelung to-day
+superintending the new chapel building, in Tamsui at Oxford
+College the next day, in Bang-kali preaching a short while after,
+and no one could tell just where the next day.
+
+But every one did know that wherever he went, Christians grew
+stronger and heathen gave up their idols. The Kap-tsu-lan plain,
+away on the eastem coast, seemed to be a sort of pet among all
+his mission fields, and he was always turning his steps thither.
+For the Pe-pohoan who lived there, while they were  simple and
+warm-hearted and easily moved by the gospel story, were not such
+strong characters as the Chinese. So the missionary felt he must
+visit them often to help steady their faith.
+
+Not long after the close of the war, he set off on a trip to the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain. Besides his students, he was accompanied by a
+young German scientist Dr. Warburg had come from Germany to
+Formosa to collect peculiar plants and flowers and to find any
+old weapons or relics of interest belonging to the savage tribes.
+All these were for the use of the university in Germany which had
+sent him out.
+
+The young scientist was delighted with Dr. Mackay and found in
+him a very interesting companion. They met in Kelung, and when
+Dr. Warburg found that Dr. Mackay was going to visit the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain, he joined his party. The stranger found many
+rare specimens of orchids on that trip and several peculiar spear
+and arrow heads to be taken back as curios to Germany. But he
+found something rarer and more wonderful and something for which
+he had not come to search.
+
+He saw in one place three hundred people gather about their
+missionary and raise a ringing hymn of praise to the God of
+heaven, of whom they had not so much as heard but a few short
+years before. He visited sixteen little chapels and heard clever,
+brightfaced young Chinese preachers stand up in them and tell the
+old, old story of Jesus and his love. And he realized that these
+things were far more wonderful than the rarest curios he could
+find in all Formosa.
+
+When he bade good-by to Dr. Mackay, he said: "I never saw
+anything like this before. If scientific skeptics had traveled
+with a missionary as I have and witiiessed what I have witnessed
+on this plain, they would assume a different attitude toward the
+heralds of the cross."
+
+Not many months later Dr. Mackay again went down the eastern
+coast. This time he took three of his closest friends, all
+preacher students, Tan be, Sun-a, and Koa Kau. With a coolie to
+carry provisions, their Bibles, their forceps, and some malaria
+medicine, they started off fully equipped.
+
+By steam launch to Bang-kah, by a queer little railway train to
+Tsui-tng-kha and by foot to Kelung was the first part of the
+journey. The next part was a tramp over the mountains to
+Kap-tsu-lan.
+
+The road now grew rough and dangerous. Overhead hung loose rocks,
+huge enough to crush the whole party should they fall. Underneath
+were wet, slippery stones which might easily make one go sliding
+down into the chasm below.
+
+As usual on this trip they had many hairbreadth escapes, for
+there were savages too hiding up in the dense forest and waiting
+an opportunity to spring out upon the travelers. Dr. Mackay was
+almost caught in a small avalanche also. He leaped over a narrow
+stream-bed, and as he did so, he dislodged a loose mass of rock
+above him. It came down with a fearful crash, scattering the
+smaller pieces right upon his heels; but they passed all dangers
+safely and toward evening reached the shore where the great long
+Pacific billows rolled upon the sand. They were in the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain.
+
+Their journey through the plain was like a triumphal march.
+Wherever a chapel had been erected, there were converts to be
+examined; wherever there was no chapel, the people gathered about
+the missionary and pleaded for one. They often recalled the first
+visit of Kai Bok-su when "No room for barbarians" were the only
+words that met him.
+
+But Dr. Mackay wished to go farther on this journey than he had
+ever gone. Some distance south of Kap-tsu-lan lay another
+district called the Ki-lai plain. The people here were also
+aborigines of the island who had been conquered by the Chinese
+like the Pepo-hoan. But the inhabitants of Ki-lai were called
+Lam-si-ho an, which means "Barbarians of the south." Dr. Mackay
+had never been among them, but they had heard the gospel. A
+missionary from Oxford College  had journeyed away down there to
+tell the people about Jesus and had been working among them for
+some years. He was not a graduate, not even a student--but only
+the cook! For Oxford College was such a place of inspiration
+under Kai Bok-su, that even the servants in the kitchen wanted to
+go out and preach the gospel. So the cook had gone away to the
+Ki-lai plain, and, ever since he had left, Dr. Mackay had longed
+to go and see how his work was prospering.
+
+So at one of the most southerly points of the Kap-tsu-lan plain
+he secured a boat for the voyage south. The best he could get was
+a small craft quite open, only twelve feet long. It was not a
+very fine vessel with which to brave the Pacific Ocean, but where
+was the crazy craft in which Kai Bok-su would not embark to go
+and tell the gospel to the heathen? The boat was manned by six
+Pe-po-hoan rowers, all Christians, and at five o'clock in the
+evening they pushed out into the surf of So Bay. A crowd of
+converts came down to the shore to bid them farewell. As the boat
+shoved off the friends on the beach started a hymn. The rowers
+and the missionaries caught it up and the two groups joined, the
+sound of each growing fainter and fainter to the other as the
+distance widened.
+
+All lands to God in joyful sounds
+Aloft your voices raise,
+Sing forth the honor of his name,
+And glorious make his praise!
+
+And the land and the sea, answering each other, joined in praise
+to him who was the Maker of both.
+
+And so the rowers pulled away in time to the swing of the Psalm,
+the boat rounded a point, and the beloved figure of Kai Bok-su
+disappeared from sight.
+
+Away down the coast the oarsmen pulled, and the four missionaries
+squeezed themselves into as small a space as possible to be out
+of the way of the oars. All the evening they rowed steadily, and
+as they still swept along night came down suddenly. They kept
+close to the shore, where to their right arose great mountains
+straight up from the water's edge. They were covered with forest,
+and here and there in the blackness fires twinkled.
+
+"Head-hunters!" said the helmsman, pointing toward them.
+
+Away to the left stretched the Pacific. Ocean, and above shone
+the stars in the deep blue dome. It was a still, hot tropical
+night. From the land came the heavy scent of flowers. The only
+sound that broke the stillness was the regular thud, thud of the
+oars or the cry of some wild animal floating out from the jungle.
+As they passed on through the warm darkness, the sea took on that
+wonderful fiery glow that so often burns on the oceans of the
+tropics. Every wave became a blaze of phosphorescence. Every
+ripple from the oars ran away in many-colored flames--red, green,
+blue, and orange. Kai Bok-su, sitting amazed at the glory to
+which the Pe-po-hoan boatmen had become accustomed, was silent
+with awe. He had seen the phosphorescent lights often before, but
+never anything like this. He put his hand down into the molten
+sea and scooped up handfuls of what seemed drops of liquid fire.
+And as his fingers dipped into the water they shone like rods of
+red-hot iron. Over the gleaming iridescent surface, sparks of
+fire darted like lightning, and from the little boat's sides
+flashed out flames of gold and rose and amber. It was grand. And
+no wonder they all joined--Chinese, Malayan, and Canadian--in
+making the dark cliffs and the gleaming sea echo to the strains
+of praise to the One who had created all this glory.
+
+O come let us sing to the Lord,
+To him our voices raise
+With joyful noise, let us the rock
+Of our salvation praise.
+
+To him the spacious sea belongs,
+For he the same did make;
+The dry land also from his hand
+Its form at first did take.
+
+Dawn came up out of the Pacific with a new glory of light and
+color that dispelled the wonders of the night. It showed the
+voyagers that they were very near a low shore where it would be
+possible to land. But the helmsman shook his head at the
+proposal. He pointed out huts along the line of forest and
+figures on the shore. And then with a common impulse, the rowers
+swung round and pulled straight out to sea; for with Pe-po-hoan
+experience they saw at once that here was a savage village, and
+not long would their heads remain on their shoulders should they
+touch land.
+
+The scorching sun soon poured its hot rays upon the tired rowers,
+but they pulled steadily. They too, like Kai Bok-su, were anxious
+to take this great good news of Jesus Christ to those who had not
+yet learned of him. When safely out of reach of the headhunters,
+they once more turned south, and, about noon, tired and hot, at
+last approached the first port of the Ki-lai plain. Every one
+drew a sigh of relief, for the men had been rowing steadily all
+night and half the day. As they drew near Dr. Mackay looked
+eagerly at the queer village. It appeared to be half Chinese and
+half Lam-si-hoan. It consisted of two rows of small thatched
+houses with a street between nearly two hundred feet wide.
+
+The rowers ran the boat up on the sloping pebbly beach and all
+stepped out with much relief to stretch their stiffened limbs.
+They had scarcely done so when a military officer came down the
+shore and approaching Dr. Mackay made him welcome with the
+greatest warmth. There was a military encampment here, and this
+was the officer as well as the headman of the village. lie
+invited Dr. Mackay and his friends to take dinner with him. Dr.
+Mackay accepted with pleased surprise. This was far better than
+he had expected. He was still more surprised to hear his name on
+every hand.
+
+"It is the great Kai Bok-su," could be heard in tones of deepest
+respect from fishermen at their nets and old women by the door
+and children playing with their kites in the wide street.
+
+"How do they know me?" he asked, as he was greeted by a
+rice-seller, sitting at the open front of his shop.
+
+"Ah, we have heard of you and your work in the north, Pastor
+Mackay," said his host, smiling, "and our people want to hear of
+this new Jehovah-religion too.
+
+The cook-missionary had evidently spread. wonderful reports of
+Kai Bok-su and his gospel and so prepared the way. He was
+preaching just then in a place called Kale-oan, farther inland.
+When the officer learned that Dr. Mackay wanted to visit him he
+turned to his servant with a most surprising order. It was to
+saddle his pony and bring him for Kai Bok-su to ride to Ka-leoan.
+
+The pony came, sleek and plump and with a string of jingling
+bells adorning him. A pony was a wonderful sight in Formosa, and
+Dr. Mackay had not used any sort of animal in his work since that
+disastrous day when he had tried in vain to ride the stubborn
+Lu-a. But now he gladly mounted the sedate little steed and
+trotted away along the narrow pathway between the rice-fields
+toward Ka-le-oan.
+
+Darkness had almost descended when he rode into the village and
+stopped before a small grass-covered bamboo dwelling where the
+cook-preacher lived. For years the people here had looked for Kai
+Bok-su's coming, for years they had talked of this great event,
+and for years their preacher had been writing and saying as he
+received his reply from the eager missionary in Tamsui, "He may
+come soon."
+
+And now he was really here! The sound of his horse's bells had
+scarcely stopped before the preacher's house, when the news began
+to spread like fire through the village. The preacher, who had
+worked so hard and waited so long, wept for joy, and before he
+could make Dr. Mackay welcome in a proper manner the room was
+filled with men, all wildly eager for a sight of the great Kai
+Bok-su, while outside a crowd gathered about the door striving to
+get even a glimpse of him. The ex-cook of Oxford College had
+preached so faithfully that many were already converted to
+Christianity, many more knew a good deal of the gospel, and
+crowds were ready to throw away their idols. They were weary of
+their heathen rites and superstitions. They were longing for
+something better, they scarcely knew what. "But the mandarin will
+not let them become Christians," said the preacher anxiously. "It
+is he who is keeping them from decision. He has said that they
+must continue in idolatry, as a token of loyalty to China."
+
+"Are you sure that is true?" cried Dr. Mackay.
+
+The converts nodded. They had "heard" it said at least.
+
+But Kai Bok-su was not the man to accept mere hearsay. He was
+always wisely careful to avoid any collision with the
+authorities. But remembering the kindness shown him back in
+Hoe-lien-kang, he could not quite believe that the mandarin who
+had been so kind to him could be hostile to the religion of Jesus
+Christ.
+
+To think was to act, and early the next morning, he was riding
+back to the seacoast, to inquire how much of this rumor was true.
+
+His reception was very warm. It was all right, the officer
+declared. Whatever had been said or done in the past must be
+forgotten. Kai Bok-su might go where he pleased and preach his
+Jehovah-religion to whomsoever he would.
+
+It was a very light-hearted rider the pony carried as he galloped
+back along the narrow paths, with the good news for the
+villagers. The word went round as soon as he arrived. Kai Bok-su
+wanted to know how many were for the true God. All who would
+worship him were at once to clear their houses of idols and
+declare that they would serve Jehovah and him only. At dark a
+great crowd gathered in an open space in the village.
+Representatives from five villages were there, chiefs were
+shouting to their people, and when Dr. Mackay and his students
+arrived, the place was all noise and confusion. He was puzzled.
+It almost looked as if there was to be a riot, though the voices
+did not sound angry.
+
+He climbed up on a pile of rubbish and his face shone clear in
+the light of the flaring torches. His voice rang out loud and
+commanding above the tumult.
+
+"What is this noise about?" he cried. "Is there a difference of
+opinion among you as to whether you shall worship these poor toys
+of wood and stone, or the true God who is your Father?"
+
+He paused and as if from one man came back the answer in a mighty
+shout:
+
+"No, we will worship the true God!"
+
+The tumult had been one of enthusiasm and not of dispute!
+
+Kai Bok-su's heart gave a great bound. For a moment he could not
+speak. He who had so often stood up fearless and bold before a
+raging heathen mob, now faltered before this sea of eager faces,
+upturned to him. It seemed too good to be true that all this
+crowd, representing five villages, was anxious to become
+followers of the God of heaven. His voice grew steady at last,
+and. standing up there in the flickering torchlight he told those
+children of the plain what it meant to be a follower of Jesus
+Christ. It was a late hour when the meeting broke up, but even
+then Dr. Mackay could not go to bed. Never since the day that A
+Hoa, his first convert, had accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior,
+had he felt such joy, and all night he walked up and down in
+front of the preacher's house, unable to sleep for the
+thankfulness to God that surged in his heart.
+
+Morning brought a wonderful day for the Ki-lai plain. It was like
+a day when freedom from slavery was announced. Had there been
+bells in the village they would certainly have been rung. But joy
+bells were ringing in every heart. Nobody could work all day. The
+rice-fields and the shops and the pottery works lay idle. There
+was but one business to do that day, and that was to get rid of
+their idols.
+
+Early in the morning the mayor of the place, or the headman as he
+was called, came to the house to invite the missionary and his
+party to join him. Behind him walked four big boys, carrying two
+large wicker baskets, hanging from poles across their shoulders;
+and behind them came the whole village, men, women, and children,
+their faces shining with a new joy. The procession moved along
+from house to house. At every place it stopped and out from the
+home were carried idols, ancestral tablets, mock-money, flags,
+incense sticks, and all the stuff used in idol worship. These
+were all emptied into the baskets carried by the boys. When even
+the temple had been ransacked and the work of clearing out the
+idols in the village was finished, the procession moved on to the
+next hamlet. The villages were very near each other, so the
+journey was not wearisome; and at last when every vestige of the
+old idolatrous life had been taken from the homes of five
+villages, the happy crowd marched back to the first village.
+There was a large courtyard near the temple and here the
+procession halted. The boys dropped their well-filled baskets,
+and their contents were piled in the center of the court. The
+people gathered about the heap and with shouts of joy set fire to
+these signs of their lifelong slavery. Soon the pile was blazing
+and crackling, and all the people, even the chiefs of the
+villages, vied with each other in burning up the idols they had
+so lately besought for blessings.
+
+And then they turned toward the heathen temple and delivered it
+over to Kai Bok-su for a chapel in which he and his students
+might preach the gospel.
+
+And so the temple was lighted up for a new kind of worship. It
+had been used for worship many, many times before, but oh, how
+different it was this time! Instead of coming in fear of demons,
+dread of their gods' anger, and determination to cheat them if
+possible, these poor folk crowded into the new-old temple with
+light, happy hearts, as children coming to their Father. And was
+not God their Father, only they had not known him before?
+
+The heathen temple was dedicated to the worship of the true God
+by singing the old but always new, one hundredth Psalm. The
+Lam-si-hoan were not very good singers. They had not much idea of
+tun,e. They had less idea of just when to start, and there was
+very little to be said about the harmony of those hundreds of
+voices. But in spite of it all, Kai Bok-su had to confess that
+never in the music of his homeland or in the more finished
+harmonies of Europe, had he heard anything so grandly uplifting
+as when those newly-freed people stood up in their idol temple
+and with heart and soul and voice unitedly poured forth in
+thunderous volume of praise the great command:
+
+All people that on earth do dwell,
+Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
+
+For a whole week with his pony and groom, which were still his to
+do with as he pleased, the busy missionary rode up and down this
+plain, visiting the villages, preaching, and teaching the people
+how to live as Jesus Christ their Savior had lived; for it was
+necessary to impress upon their childlike minds that it would be
+of no use to burn up the idols in their homes and temple unless
+they also gave up the still more harmful idols in their hearts.
+
+But at last the day came when the pony had to be returned to its
+owner and the missionary and his helpers must leave. It was a sad
+day but a joyous one--the day that great visit came to an end.
+Crowds of Christians, fain to keep him, followed him down to the
+shore, and many kindly but reluctant hands shoved the little boat
+out into the surf. And as the rowers sent it skimming out over
+the great Pacific rollers, there rose from the beach the parting
+hymn, the one that had dedicated the heathen temple to the
+worship of the true God:
+
+All people that on earth do dwell,
+Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
+
+and from the rowers and the missionaries in the boat, came back
+the glad echo:
+
+Know that the Lord is God indeed
+Without our aid he did us make.
+
+They were soon out of sight. The rowers pulled hard, but a stiff
+northeaster straight from Japan was blowing against them, and
+they made but little headway. Night came down, and they were
+again skirting those dark cliffs, where, here and there, along
+the narrow strip of sand, the night-fires of the savages flamed
+out against the dark tangle of foliage. All night long the rowers
+struggled against the wind. They were afraid to go out far for
+the waves were wild, they dared not land, for, crueler than the
+sea, the head-hunters waited for them on the shore. And so all
+that night, taking turns with the rowers, the missionary and his
+students toiled against the wind and wave. The dawn came up gray
+and stormy, and they were still tossing about among the white
+billows. No one had touched food for twenty-four hours. They had
+rice in the boat, but there was no place where they dared land to
+have it cooked. There was nothing to do but to pull, pull at the
+oars, and a weary task it seemed, for the boat appeared to make
+little headway, and the rowers barely succeeded in keeping her
+from being dashed upon the rocks.
+
+They were becoming almost too weak to keep any control over their
+boat, when about three o'clock in the afternoon they managed. to
+round a point. There before them curved a beautiful bay. Behind
+it and on both sides arose a perpendicular wall several hundred
+feet high. At its foot stretched a narrow sandy beach. It was an
+ideal spot, secure from savages both by land and sea. A shout of
+encouragement from Kai Bok-su was the one thing needed. Tired
+arms and aching backs bent to the oars for one last effort, and
+when the boat swept up on the sandy beach every one uttered a
+heartfelt prayer of thankfulness to the Father who had provided
+this little haven in a time of such distress.
+
+The rest of the journey was made safely, and just forty days
+after their departure the four missionaries returned, worn out,
+to Tamsui.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. THE LAND OCCUPIED
+
+But Kai Bok-su had no sooner returned than he was off again. He
+was not one of that sort who could settle down after an
+achievement, content to rest for a little. He seemed to forget
+all about what had been done and was "up and at it again." If he
+"did not know when he was beaten," neither did he seem to know
+when he was successful; and like Alexander the Great he was
+always sighing for new worlds to conquer, yes, and marching off
+and conquering them too.
+
+But every time he returned to his work at Tamsui from one of
+these tours, it was borne in upon him more forcibly every day
+that his faithful assistant who was left in charge, could not
+long shoulder his work. Mr. Jarnieson was fighting a losing
+baffle with ill     health. The terrible experiences during the
+war year, the hard work, and the trying Formosan climate had all
+combined against him. His brave spirit could not always sustain
+the body that was growing gradually weaker, and one day, a dark,
+sad day, the devoted soul was set free from the poor pain-racked
+body. He had given eight years of hard, faithful work to the
+study of the language and to the service of the Master in the
+mission. Mrs. Jamieson returned to Canada, and once more Dr.
+Mackay faced the work, unaided except by native preachers. But he
+was not daunted even by this bereavement, for he always lived in
+the perfect faith that God was on his side.
+
+And then, he had by this time three new assistants in the
+mission-house on the bluff. They did not even guess that they
+were any help to him, for they could never go with him on his
+mission tours. But by their sweet merry ways and their joyous
+welcome to father, when he returned, they did help him greatly,
+and made his home-comings a delight.
+
+"How many did you baptize, father?" was baby George's inevitable
+question on his father's return. For already the wise toddler had
+learned something of the bitter enmity of the heathen world, and
+knew that converts meant friends. Then father's home-coming meant
+presents too, wonderful things, bows and arrows, rare curios for
+the museum in the college, and, once, a pair of the funniest
+monkeys in the world, which proved most entertaining playthings
+for the little boy and his two sisters. Another time the father
+brought home a young bear to keep the monkeys company, but they
+were not at all polite to their guest, for they made poor bruin's
+life miserable by teasing him. They would torment him until he
+would stamp with rage. But he was not always badly used, for when
+the three children would come out to feed him, he was very happy,
+and he would show his pleasure by putting his head between his
+paws and rolling over and over like a big ball of fur. And he
+always seemed quite proud of his performance when his three
+little keepers shrieked with laughter.
+
+The next year after Mr. Jamieson's death the empty mission-house
+was once more filled. In September the Rev. Mr. William and Mrs.
+Gauld sailed from Canada, and with their arrival Dr. Mackay took
+new heart.
+
+The new missionaries had learned the language and their work was
+well under way when the time came round once more for Dr. Mackay
+to go back to Canada for a year's rest. This time there was quite
+a little party went with him: his wife, their three children, and
+Koa Kau, one of his students.
+
+Among those left to assist Mr. Gauld, there was none he relied
+upon more than A boa. Mr. Gauld, at the close of his second
+year's work, wrote of this fellow worker: "The longer and better
+I know him, the more I can love him, trust his honesty, and
+respect his judgment. He knows his own people, from the governor
+of the island to the ragged opium-smoking beggar, and has
+influence with them all."
+
+There were many others besides A Hoa to render the missionary
+faithful help; among them Sun-a and Tan He, the latter pastor of
+the church of Sin-tiam; and just because Kai Bok-su was away they
+worked the harder, that he might receive a good report of them on
+his return.
+
+The separation was longer this time, for Dr. Mackay wished to
+send his children to school, and he decided that they would
+remain in Canada two years. He was made Moderator of the General
+Assembly, too, and the Church at home needed him to stir them up
+to a greater desire to help those beyond the seas.
+
+While he was working and preaching in Canada, his heart turned
+always to his beloved Formosa, and letters from the friends there
+were among his greatest pleasures. A Hoa's of course, were doubly
+welcome. Pastor Giam, the name by which he was now called, was
+Mr. Gauld's right-hand helper in those days, and once he went
+alone on a tour away to the eastern shore. While there he had an
+adventure of which he wrote to Kai Bok-su.
+
+"The other morning while walking on the seashore I saw a
+sailing-vessel slowly drifting shoreward and in danger of being
+wrecked, for there was a fog and a heavy sea. I hastened back to
+the chapel and beat the drum to call the villagers to worship. As
+soon as it was over I asked converts and heathen to go in their
+fishing-boats as quickly as possible and let the sailors know
+they need not fear savages there, and if they wished to come
+ashore a chapel would be given them to stay in. The whole crew
+came ashore in the boats at once. I gave your old room to the
+captain, his wife and child, and other accommodation to the rest.
+I then hurried away to a mandarin and asked him to send men to
+protect the ship."
+
+When Kai Bok-su read the story and remembered that, twenty-five
+years earlier, the crew of that vessel would have been murdered
+and their ship plundered, he exclaimed with joy, "Blessed
+Christianity! Surely,
+
+Blessings abound where'er He reigns!"
+
+A Hoa had another tale to tell. One afternoon he had a strange
+congregation in that little chapel. There were one hundred and
+forty-six native converts and twenty-one Europeans. These were
+made up of seven nationalities, British, American, French,
+Danish, Turkish, Swiss, and Norwegian. Their ship was from
+America and was bound for Hongkong with coal-oil.
+
+They were amazed at seeing a pretty, neat chapel away in this
+wild, remote place, which they had always supposed was overrun by
+head-hunters, and indeed it was just that little chapel that had
+made the great change. These men now entered it and joined the
+natives in worshiping the true God, where, only a few years
+before, their blood would have stained the sands.
+
+A Hoa told them something of the great Kai Bok-su and the
+struggles he had had with savages and other enemies, when he
+first came to this region. The visitors were very much interested
+and did not wonder that the name "Kai Bok-su" was held in such
+reverence. When they left, the captain presented the little
+chapel with a bell, a lamp, and a mirror which were on board his
+ship.
+
+The long months of separation were rolling around, when something
+happened that brought Kai Bok-su back to his island in great
+haste. Once more war swept over Formosa. This time the trouble
+was between China and Japan. The big Empire proved no match for
+the clever Japanese, and everywhere China was forced to give in.
+
+One of the places which Japan set her affections on was Formosa.
+She must have the Beautiful Isle and have it at once. China was
+in no position to say no, so the Chinese envoy went on board a
+Japanese vessel and sailed toward Formosa. When in sight of its
+lovely mountains, without any ceremony he pointed to the land and
+said, "There it is, take it." And that was how Formosa became a
+province of Japan. At noon on May 26, 1895, the dragon flag of
+China was hauled down from Formosan forts and the banner of Japan
+was hoisted.
+
+Of course this was not done without a struggle. The Formosans
+themselves fought hard, and in the fight the Christians came in
+for times of trouble. So Kai Bok-su, hearirig that his
+"valuables" were again in danger, set sail for Tamsui.
+
+When he arrived the war was practically over, but everywhere were
+signs of strife. As soon as he was able, he took A Hoa and Koa
+Kau and visited the chapels all over the country. Everywhere were
+sights to make his heart very sad. The Japanese soldiers had used
+many of the chapels for military stables, and they were in a
+filthy state. At one place the native preacher was a prisoner,
+the Japanese believing him to be a spy. At another village the
+Christians sadly led their missionary out to a tea plantation and
+showed him the place where their beloved pastor had been shot by
+the Japanese soldiers.  Mackay stood beside his grave, his heart
+heavy with sorrow.
+
+But his courage never left him. The native Christians everywhere
+forgot their woes in the great joy of seeing him once more; and
+he joined them in a brave attempt to put things to rights once
+more. The Japanese paid for all damages done by their soldiers
+and in a short time the work was going on splendidly.
+
+"We have no fear," wrote Dr. Mackay. "The King of kings is
+greater than Emperor or Mikado. He will rule and overrule all
+things."
+
+His faith was rewarded, for when the troublous time was over, the
+government of Japan proved better than that of China, and on the
+whole the trial proved a blessing.
+
+Oxford College had been closed while Dr. Mackay was away, and the
+girls' school had not been opened since the war commenced, for it
+was not safe for the girls and women to leave their homes during
+such disturbed times. But now both schools reopened, and again
+Kai Bok-su with his cane and his book and his crowd of students
+could be seen going up to the lecture halls, or away out on the
+Formosan roads.
+
+He had conquered so often, overcome such tremendous obstacles,
+and faced unffinchingly so many awful dangers for the sake of his
+converts, that it was no wonder that they adored him, their
+feeling amounting almost to worship. "Kai Bok-su says it must be
+so" was sufficient to compel any one in the north Formosa Church
+to do what was required. Surely never before was a man so
+wonderfully rewarded in this life. He had given up all he
+possessed for the glory of his Master and he had his full
+compensation.
+
+A few happy years sped round. The time for him to go back home
+again was drawing near when there came the first hint that he
+might soon be called on a longer furlough than he would have in
+Canada.
+
+At first, when the dread suspicion began to be whispered in the
+halls of Oxford College and in the chapel gatherings throughout
+the country, people refused to believe it. Kai Bok-su ill? No,
+no, it was only the malaria, and he always arose from that and
+went about again. It could not be serious.
+
+But in spite of the fact that loving hearts refused to accept it,
+there was no use denying the sad fact. There was something wrong
+with Kai Bok-su. For months his voice had been growing weaker,
+the doctors had examined his throat, and attended him, but it was
+all of no use. At last he could not speak at all, but wrote his
+words on a slate.
+
+And everywhere in north Formosa, converts and students and
+preachers watched and waited and prayed most fervently that he
+might soon recover. Those who lived in Tamsui whispered to each
+other in tones of dread, as they watched him come and go with
+slower steps than they had been accustomed to see.
+
+"He will be well next month, "they would say hopefully, or, "He
+will look like himself when the rains dry." But little by little
+the conviction grew that the beloved missionary was seriously
+ill, and a great gloom settled all over north Formosa. There was
+a little gleam of joy when the doctor in Tamsui advised him
+finally to go to Hongkong and see a specialist He went, leaving
+many loving hearts waiting anxiously between hope and fear to
+hear what the doctors would say. And prayers went up night and
+day from those who loved him. From the heart-broken wife in the
+lonely house on the bluff to the farthest-off convert on the
+Ki-lai plain, every Christian on the island, even those in the
+south Formosa mission, prayed that the useful life might be
+spared.
+
+But God had other and greater plans for Kai Bok-su. He came back
+from Hongkong, and the fist look at his pale face told the
+dreaded truth. The shadow of death lay on it.
+
+Those were heart-breaking days in north Formosa. From all sides
+came such messages of devotion that it seemed as if the
+passionate love of his followers must hold him back. But a
+stronger love was calling him on. And one bright June day, in
+1901, when the green mountainsides, the blue rivers, and the
+waving rice-fields of Formosa lay smiling in the sun, Kai Bok-su
+heard once more that call that had brought him so far from home.
+Once more he obeyed, and he opened his eyes on a new glory
+greater than any of which he had ever dreamed. The task had been
+a hard one. The "big stone" had been stubborn, but it had been
+broken, and not long after the noontide of his life the tired
+worker was called home.
+
+They laid his poor, worn body up on the hill above the river,
+beside the bodies of the Christians he had loved so well. And the
+soft Formosan grass grew over his grave, the winds roared about
+it, and the river and the sea sang his requiem.
+
+Gallant Kai Bok-su! As he rests up there on his wind-swept
+height, there are hearts in the valleys and on the plains of his
+beloved Formosa and in his far-off native land that are aching
+for him. And sometimes to these last comes the question "Was it
+well?" Was it well that he should wear out that splendid life in
+such desperate toil among heathen that hated and reviled him? And
+from every part of north Formosa, sounding on the wind, comes
+many an answer.
+
+Up from the damp rice-fields, where the farmer goes to and fro in
+the gray dawn, arises a song:
+
+I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,
+Or to defend his cause.
+
+Far away on the mountainside, the once savage mother draws her
+little one to her and teaches him, not the old lesson of
+bloodshed, but the older one of love and kindness, and together
+they croon:
+
+Jesus loves me, this I know,
+For the Bible tells me so.
+
+And up from scores of chapels dotting the land, comes the sound
+of the old, old story of Jesus and his love, preached by native
+Formosans, and from the thousand tongues of their congregations
+soars upward the Psalm:
+
+All people that on earth do dwell,
+Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice!
+
+These all unite in one great harmony, replying, "It is well!"
+
+But is it well with the work? What of his Beautiful Island, now
+that Kai Bok-su has left for a greater work in a more beautiful
+land? Yes, it is well also with Formosa. The work goes on.
+
+There are two thousand, one hundred members now in the four
+organized congregations, and over fifty mission stations and
+outstations. But better still there are in addition twenty-two
+hundred who have forsaken their idols and are being trained to
+become church-members. The Formosa Church out of its poverty
+gives liberally too. In 1911 they contributed more than
+thirtyfive hundred dollars to Christian work. "Every year,"
+writes Mr. Jack, "a special collection is taken by the Church for
+the work among the Ami--the aborigines of the Ki-lai plain." This
+is the foreign mission of the north Formosa Church.
+
+A Hoa lately followed his pastor to the home above, but many
+others remain. Mr. Gauld and his family are still there, in the
+front of the battle, and with him is a fine corps of soldiers,
+comprising fifty-nine native and several Canadian missionaries,
+inchiding the Rev. Dr. J. Y. Ferguson and his wife, the Rev.
+Milton Jack and Mrs. Jack, the Rev. and Mrs. Duncan MacLeod, Miss
+J. M. Kinney, Miss Hannah Connell, Miss Mabel G. Clazie, and Miss
+Lily Adair. Miss Isabelle J. Elliott, a graduate nurse, and
+deaconess, will join the staff shortly, and a few others will be
+sent when secured, in order that the force may be sufficient to
+evangelize the million people in north Formosa.
+
+Mrs. Mackay and her two daughters, Helen and Mary, the latter
+having married native preachers, Koa Kau and Tan He, are keeping
+up the work that husband and father left. A new hospital is being
+built under Dr. Ferguson, and plans are on foot for new school
+and college buildings.
+
+And the latest arrived missionary? What of him? Why his name is
+George Mackay, and he has just sailed from Canada as the first
+Mackay sailed forty-one years earlier. He has been nine years in
+Canada and the United States, at school and college, and now with
+his Canadian wife, has gone back to his native land. Yes, Kai
+Bok-su's son has gone out to carry on his father's work, and
+Formosa has welcomed him as no other missionary has been welcomed
+since Kai Bok-su's day.
+
+But these are not all. From far across the sea, in the land where
+Kai Bok-su lived his boyhood days, comes a voice. It is the echo
+from the hearts of other boys, who have read his noble life. And
+their answer is, "We too will go out, as he went, and fight and
+win!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Black-Bearded Barbarian, by Keith
+
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+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Black-Bearded Barbarian, by Keith
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+The Black-Bearded Barbarian
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+by Marian Keith
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+May, 1999  [Etext #1759]
+[Most recently updated June 24, 2002]
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+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Black-Bearded Barbarian, by Keith
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+Etext scanned by Dianne Bean of Phoenix, Arizona.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACK BEARDED BARBARIAN
+
+<new> FOREWORD
+
+This is a very little story of a very great man. It contains only
+a few of the wonderful adventures he met, and the splendid deeds
+he did. Most of them may never be written. Perhaps they may be
+lived again in the lives of some of the readers. Who knows?
+
+Even this brief account of Dr. Mackay's life could not have been
+written had it not been for the help of many kind friends. The
+Rev. R.P. Mackay, D.D., of Toronto, Canada, who visited Formosa,
+and met many of the people mentioned in this story, gave me great
+assistance. Mr. Alexander Mackay, brother of the hero of this
+book, was very kind in telling many interesting tales of boyhood
+in Zorra. My most untiring and painstaking assistant has been the
+Rev. J. B. Fraser, M.D., of Annan, Ontario, formerly of Formosa.
+You will find him among the many heroes of this story. To his
+kind and careful oversight is due much that gives this little
+book any value as a history. The life of Dr. Mackay in Far From
+Formosa, compiled by Dr. J. A. MacDonald, editor of the Toronto
+Globe, has been my chief source of information. Indeed this story
+has been taken almost entirely from its pages, and owes Dr.
+MacDonald much thanks.
+
+And now there is just one more favor it asks, that you who read
+it may in some measure strive to catch the great spirit of its
+hero.
+
+Marian Keith.
+Toronto, Canada, April 24, 1912.
+
+
+
+THE BLACK BEARDED BARBARIAN[1]
+
+[1] The name by which George Leslie Mackay was known among the
+Chinese of north Formosa.
+
+CHAPTER I. SPLITTING ROCKS
+
+Up in the stony pasture-field behind the barn the boys had been
+working all the long afternoon. Nearly all, that is, for, being
+boys, they had managed to mix a good deal of fun with their
+labor. But now they were tired of both work and play, and
+wondered audibly, many times over, why they were not yet called
+home to supper.
+
+The work really belonged to the Mackay boys, but, like Tom
+Sawyer, they had made it so attractive that several volunteers
+had come to their aid. Their father was putting up a new stone
+house, near the old one down there behind the orchard, and the
+two youngest of the family had been put at the task of breaking
+the largest stones in the field.
+
+It meant only to drag some underbrush and wood from the forest
+skirting the farm, pile them on the stones, set fire to them, and
+let the heat do the rest. It had been grand sport at first, they
+all voted, better than playing shinny, and almost as good as
+going fishing. In fact it was a kind of free picnic, where one
+could play at Indians all day long. But as the day wore on, the
+picnic idea had languished, and the stone-breaking grew more and
+more to resemble hard work.
+
+The warm spring sunset had begun to color the western sky; the
+meadow-larks had gone to bed, and the stone-breakers were tired
+and ravenously hungry--as hungry as only wolves or country boys
+can be. The visitors suggested that they ought to be going home.
+"Hold on, Danny, just till this one breaks," said the older
+Mackay boy, as he set a burning stick to a new pile of brush.
+
+"This'll be a dandy, and it's the last, too. They're sure to call
+us to supper before we've time to do another."
+
+The new fire, roaring and snapping, sending up showers of sparks
+and filling the air with the sweet odor of burning cedar, proved
+too alluring to be left. The company squatted on the ground
+before it, hugging their knees and watching the blue column of
+smoke go straight up into the colored sky. It suggested a
+camp-fire in war times, and each boy began to tell what great and
+daring deeds he intended to perform when he became a man.
+
+Jimmy, one of the visitors, who had been most enthusiastic over
+the picnic side of the day's work, announced that he was going to
+be a sailor. He would command a fleet on the high seas, so he
+would, and capture pirates, and grow fabulously wealthy on
+prize-money. Danny, who was also a guest, declared his purpose
+one day to lead a band of rough riders to the Western plains,
+where he would kill Indians, and escape fearful deaths by the
+narrowest hairbreadth.
+
+"Mebbe I'm goin' to be Premier of Canada, some day," said one
+youngster, poking his bare toes as near as he dared to the
+flames.
+
+There were hoots of derision. This was entirely too tame to be
+even considered as a career.
+
+"And what are you going to be, G. L.?" inquired the biggest boy
+of the smallest.
+
+The others looked at the little fellow and laughed. George Mackay
+was the youngest of the group, and was a small wiry youngster
+with a pair of flashing eyes lighting up his thin little face. He
+seemed far too small and insignificant to even think about a
+career. But for all the difference in their size and age the
+bigger boys treated little George with a good deal of respect.
+For, somehow, he never failed to do what he set out to do. He
+always won at races, he was never anywhere but at the head of his
+class, he was never known to be afraid of anything in field or
+forest or school ground, he was the hardest worker at home or at
+school, and by sheer pluck he managed to do everything that boys
+bigger and older and stronger could do.
+
+So when Danny asked, "And what are you going to be, G. L.?"
+though the boys laughed at the small thin little body, they
+respected the daring spirit it held, and listened for his answer.
+
+"He's goin' to be a giant, and go off with a show," cried one,
+and they all laughed again.
+
+Little G. L. laughed too, but he did not say what he intended to
+do when he grew big. Down in his heart he held a far greater
+ambition than the others dreamed of. It was too great to be
+told--so great he scarcely knew what it was himself. So he only
+shook his small head and closed his lips tightly, and the rest
+forgot him and chattered on.
+
+Away beyond the dark woods, the sunset shone red and gold between
+the black tree trunks. The little boy gazed at it wonderingly.
+The sight of those morning and evening glories always stirred his
+child's soul, and made him long to go away--away, he knew not
+where--to do great and glorious deeds. The Mackay boys'
+grandfather had fought at Waterloo, and little George Leslie, the
+youngest of six, had heard many, many tales of that gallant
+struggle, and every time they had been told him he had silently
+resolved that, some day, he too would do just such brave deeds as
+his grandfather had done.
+
+As the boys talked on, and the little fellow gazed at the sunset
+and dreamed, the big stone cracked in two, the fire died down,
+and still there came no welcome call to supper from any of the
+farmhouses in sight. The Mackay boys had been trained in a fine
+old-fashioned Canadian home, and did not dream of quitting work
+until they were summoned. But the visitors were merely visitors,
+and could go home when they liked. The future admiral of the
+pirate-killing fleet declared he must go and get supper, or he'd
+eat the grass, he was so hungry. The coming Premier of Canada and
+the Indian-slayer agreed with him, and they all jumped the fence,
+and went whooping away over the soft brown fields toward home.
+
+There was just one big stone left. It was a huge boulder, four
+feet across.
+
+"We'll never get enough wood to crack that, G. L.," declared his
+brother. "It just can't be done."
+
+But little George answered just as any one who knew his
+determination would have expected. In school he astonished his
+teacher by learning everything at a tremendous rate, but there
+was one small word he refused to learn--the little word "can't."
+His bright eyes flashed, now, at the sound of it. He jumped upon
+the big stone, and clenched his fist.
+
+"It's GOT to be broken!" he cried. "I WON'T let it beat me." He
+leaped down, and away he ran toward the woods. His brother caught
+his spirit, and ran too. They forgot they were both tired and
+hungry. They seized a big limb of a fallen tree and dragged it
+across the field. They chopped it into pieces, and piled it high
+with plenty of brush, upon the big stone. In a few minutes it was
+all in a splendid blaze, leaping and crackling, and sending the
+boys' long shadows far across the field.
+
+The fire grew fiercer and hotter, and suddenly the big boulder
+cracked in four pieces, as neatly as though it had been slashed
+by a giant's sword. Little G. L. danced around it, and laughed
+triumphantly. The next moment there came the welcome "hoo-hoo"
+from the house behind the orchard, and away the two scampered
+down the hill toward home and supper.
+
+When the day's work of the farmhouse had been finished, the
+Mackay family gathered about the fire, for the spring evening was
+chilly. George Leslie sat near his mother, his face full of deep
+thought. It was the hour for family worship, and always at this
+time he felt most keenly that longing to do something great and
+glorious. Tonight his father read of a Man who was sending out
+his army to conquer the world. It was only a little army, just
+twelve men, but they knew their Leader had more power than all
+the soldiers of the world. And they were not afraid, though he
+said, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves."
+For he added, "Fear ye not," for he would march before them, and
+they would be sure of victory.
+
+The little boy listened with all his might. He did everything
+that way. Surely this was a story of great and glorious deeds,
+even better than Waterloo, he felt. And there came to his heart a
+great longing to go out and fight wrong and put down evil as
+these men had done. He did not know that the longing was the
+voice of the great King calling his young knight to go out and
+"Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King."
+
+But there came a day when he did understand, and on that day he
+was ready to obey.
+
+When bedtime came the boys were asked if they had finished their
+work, and the story of the last big stone was told. "G. L. would
+not leave it," the brother explained. The father looked smilingly
+at little G. L. who still sat, dangling his short legs from his
+chair, and studying the fire.
+
+He spoke to his wife in Gaelic. "Perhaps the lad will be called
+to break a great rock some day. The Lord grant he may do it."
+
+The boy looked up wonderingly. He understood Gaelic as well as
+English, but he did not comprehend his father's words. He had no
+idea they were prophetic, and that away on the other side of the
+world, in a land his geography lessons had not yet touched, there
+stood a great rock, ugly and hard and grim, which he was one day
+to be called upon to break.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
+
+The steamship America, bound for Hongkong, was leaving the dock
+at San Francisco. All was bustle and noise and stir. Friends
+called a last farewell from the deck, handkerchiefs waved, many
+of them wet with tears. The long boom of a gun roared out over
+the harbor, a bell rang, and the signal was given. Up came the
+anchor, and slowly and with dignity the great vessel moved out
+through the Golden Gate into the wide Pacific.
+
+Crowds stood on the deck to get a last glimpse of home and loved
+ones, and to wave to friends as long as they could be
+distinguished. There was one young man who stood apart from the
+crowd, and who did not wave farewell to any one. He had come on
+board with a couple of men, but they had gone back to the dock,
+and were lost in the crowd. He seemed entirely alone. He leaned
+against the deck-railing and gazed intently over the widening
+strip of tumbling wafers to the city on the shore. But he did not
+see it. Instead, he saw a Canadian farmhouse, a garden and
+orchard, and gently sloping meadows hedged in by forest. And up
+behind the barn he saw a stony field, where long ago he and his
+brother and the neighbor boys had broken the stones for the new
+house.
+
+His quick movements, his slim, straight figure, and his bright,
+piercing eyes showed he was the same boy who had broken the big
+rock in the pasture-field long before. Just the same boy, only
+bigger, and more man than boy now, for he wore an air of command
+and his thin keen face bore a beard, a deep black, like his hair.
+And now he was going away, as he had longed to go, when he was a
+boy, and ahead of him lay the big frowning rock, which he must
+either break or be broken upon.
+
+He had learned many things since those days when he had scampered
+barefoot over the fields, or down the road to school. He had been
+to college in Toronto, in Princeton, and away over in Edinburgh,
+in the old homeland where his father and mother were born. And
+all through his life that call to go and do great deeds for the
+King had come again and again. He had determined to obey it when
+he was but a little lad at school. He had encountered many big
+stones in his way, which he had to break, before he could go on.
+But the biggest stone of all lay across his path when college was
+over, and he was ready and anxious to go away as a missionary.
+The Presbyterian Church of Canada had never yet sent out a
+missionary to a foreign land, and some of the good old men bade
+George Mackay stay at home and preach the gospel there. But as
+usual he conquered. Every one saw he would be a great missionary
+if he were only given a chance. At last the General Assembly gave
+its consent, and now, in spite of all stones in the way, here he
+was, bound for China, and ready to do anything the King
+commanded. Land was beginning to fade away into a gray mist, the
+November wind was damp and chill, he turned and went down to his
+stateroom. He sat down on his little steamer trunk, and for the
+first time the utter loneliness and the uncertainty of this
+voyage came over him. He took up his Bible and turned to the
+fly-leaf. There he read the inscription:
+
+    Presented to
+    REV. G. L. MACKAY
+
+First missionary of the Canadian Presbyterian Church to China, by
+the Foreign Mission Committee, as a parting token of their
+esteem, when about to leave his native land for the sphere of his
+future labors among the heathen.
+   WILLIAM MACLAREN, Convener.
+
+  Ottawa, 9th October, 1871.
+  Matthew xxviii: 18-20.      Psalm cxxi
+
+It was a moment of severe trial to the young soldier. But he
+turned to the Psalm marked on the fly-leaf of his Bible, and he
+read it again and again.
+
+"My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth.". . .
+
+"The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right
+hand."
+
+"The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night."
+
+The beautiful words gave him comfort. Homesickness, loneliness,
+and fears for the future all vanished. He was going out to an
+unknown land where dangers and perhaps death awaited him, but the
+Lord would be his keeper and nothing could harm him.
+
+Twenty-six days on the Pacific! And a stormy voyage it was, for
+the Pacific does not always live up to her beautiful name, and
+she tossed the America about in a shocking manner. But the voyage
+did not seem long to George Mackay. There were other missionaries
+on board with whom he had become acquainted, and he had long
+delightful talks with them and they taught him many things about
+his new work. He was the same busy G. L. he had been when a boy;
+always working, working, and he did not waste a moment on the
+voyage. There was a fine library on the ship and he studied the
+books on China until he knew more about the religion of that
+country than did many of the Chinese themselves.
+
+One day, as he was poring over a Chinese history, some one called
+him hastily to come on deck. He threw down his book and ran
+up-stairs. The whole ship was in a joyous commotion. His friend
+pointed toward the horizon, and away off there against the sky
+stood the top of a snow-capped peak--Fujiyama!--the majestic,
+sacred mountain of Japan!
+
+It was a welcome sight, after the long ocean voyage, and the
+hours they lay in Yokahama harbor were full of enjoyment. Every
+sight was thrilling and strange to young Mackay's Western eyes.
+The harbor fairly swarmed with noisy, shouting, chattering
+Japanese boatmen. He wondered why they seemed so familiar, until
+it suddenly dawned on him that their queer rice-straw coats made
+them look like a swarm of Robinson Crusoes who had just been
+rescued from their islands.
+
+When he landed he found things still funnier. The streets were
+noisier than the harbor. Through them rolled large heavy wooden
+carts, pulled and pushed by men, with much grunting and groaning.
+Past him whirled what looked like overgrown baby carriages, also
+pulled by men, and each containing a big grown-up human baby. It
+was all so pretty too, and so enchanting that the young
+missionary would fain have remained there. But China was still
+farther on, so when the America again set sail, he was on board.
+
+Away they sailed farther and farther east, or was it west? He
+often asked himself that question in some amusement as they
+approached the coast of China. They entered a long winding
+channel and steamed this way and that until one day they sailed
+into a fine broad harbor with a magnificent city rising far up
+the steep sides of a hill. It was an Oriental city, and therefore
+strange to the young traveller. But for all that there seemed
+something familiar in the fine European buildings that lined the
+streets, and something still more homelike in that which floated
+high above them--something that brought a thrill to the heart of
+the young Canadian--the red-crossed banner of Britain!
+
+It was Hongkong, the great British port of the East, and here he
+decided to land. No sooner had the travelers touched the dock,
+than they were surrounded by a yelling, jostling crowd of Chinese
+coolies, all shouting in an outlandish gibberish for the
+privilege of carrying the Barbarians' baggage. A group gathered
+round Mackay, and in their eagerness began hammering each other
+with bamboo poles. He was well-nigh bewildered, when above the
+din sounded the welcome music of an English voice.
+
+"Are you Mackay from Canada?"
+
+He whirled round joyfully. It was Dr. E. J. Eitel, a missionary
+from England. He had been told that the young Canadian would
+arrive on the America and was there to welcome him.
+
+Although the Canadian Presbyterian Church had as yet sent out no
+missionaries to a foreign land, the Presbyterian Church of
+England had many scattered over China. They were all hoping that
+the new recruit would join them, and invited him to visit
+different mission stations, and see where he would like to
+settle.
+
+So he remained that night in Hongkong, as Dr. Eitel's guest, and
+the next morning he took a steamer for Canton. Here he was met on
+the pier by an old fellow student of Princeton University, and
+the two old college friends had a grand reunion. He returned to
+Hongkong shortly, and next visited Swatow. As they sailed into
+the harbor, he noticed two Englishmen rowing out toward them in a
+sampan.* No sooner had the ship's ladder been lowered, than the
+two sprang out of their boat and clambered quickly on deck. To
+Mackay's amazement, one of them called out, "Is Mackay of Canada
+on board?"
+
+* A Chinese boat from twelve to fifteen feet long, covered with a
+house.
+
+"Mackay of Canada," sprang forward delighted, and found his two
+new friends to be Mr. Hobson of the Chinese imperial customs, and
+Dr. Thompson of the English Presbyterian mission in Swatow.
+
+The missionaries here gave the stranger a warm welcome. At every
+place he had visited there had awaited him a cordial invitation
+to stay and work. And now at Swatow he was urged to settle down
+and help them. There was plenty to be done, and they would be
+delighted to have his help.
+
+But for some reason, Mackay scarcely knew why himself, he wanted
+to see another place.
+
+Away off the southeastern coast of China lies a large island
+called Formosa. It is separated from the mainland by a body of
+water called the Formosa Channel. This is in some places eighty
+miles wide, in others almost two hundred. Mackay had often heard
+of Formosa even before coming to China, and knew it was famed for
+its beauty.
+
+Even its name shows this. Long, long years before, some
+navigators from Portugal sailed to this beautiful island. They
+had stood on the deck of their ship as they approached it, and
+were amazed at its loveliness. They saw lofty green mountains
+piercing the clouds. They saw silvery cascades tumbling down
+their sides, flashing in the sunlight, and, below, terraced
+plains sloping down to the sea, covered with waving bamboo or
+with little water-covered rice-fields. It was all so delightful
+that no wonder they cried,
+
+"Illha Formosa! Illha Formosa!"
+
+"Beautiful Isle! Beautiful Isle." Since that day the "Beautiful
+Isle," perhaps the most charming in all the world, has been
+called Formosa.
+
+And, somehow, Mackay longed to see this Beautiful Isle before he
+decided where he was going to preach the gospel. And so when the
+kind friends at Swatow said, "Stay and work with us," he always
+answered, "I must first see Formosa."
+
+So, one day, he sailed away from the mainland toward the
+Beautiful Isle. He landed at Takow in the south of the island,
+just about Christmas-time. But Formosa was green, the weather was
+hot, and he could scarcely believe that, at home in Oxford
+county, Ontario, they were flying over the snow to the music of
+sleigh-bells. On New Year's day he met a missionary of this south
+Formosa field, named Dr. Ritchie. He belonged to the Presbyterian
+Church of England, which had a fine mission there. For nearly a
+month Mackay visited with him and studied the language.
+
+And while he visited and worked there the missionaries told him
+of the northern part of the island. No person was there to tell
+all those crowded cities of Jesus Christ and His love. It would
+be lonely for him there, it would be terribly hard work, but it
+would be a grand thing to lay the foundations, to be the first to
+tell those people the "good news," the young missionary thought.
+And, one day, he looked up from the Chinese book he was studying
+and said to Dr. Ritchie:
+
+"I have decided to settle in north Formosa."
+
+And Dr. Ritchie's quick answer was:
+
+"God bless you, Mackay."
+
+As soon as the decision was made, another missionary, Dr.
+Dickson, who was with Mr. Ritchie, decided to go to north Formosa
+with the young man, and show him over the ground. So, early in
+the month of March in the year 1872, the three men set off by
+steamship to sail for Tamsui, a port in north Formosa. They were
+two days making the voyage, and a tropical storm pitched the
+small vessel hither and thither, so that they were very much
+relieved when they sailed up to the mouth of the Tamsui river.
+
+It was low tide and a bare sand-bar stretched across the mouth of
+the harbor, so the anchor was dropped, and they waited until the
+tide should cover the bar, and allow them to sail in.
+
+This wait gave the travellers a fine opportunity to see the
+country. The view from this harbor of the "Beautiful Island" was
+an enchanting one. Before them, toward the east, rose tier upon
+tier of magnificent mountains, stretching north and south. Down
+their sloping sides tumbled sparkling cascades and here and there
+patches of bright green showed where there were tea plantations.
+Farther down were stretches of grass and groves of lovely
+feathery bamboo. And between these groves stretched what seemed
+to be little silvery lakes, with the reflection of the great
+mountains in them. They were really the famous rice-fields of
+Formosa, at this time of the year all under water. There were no
+fences round their little lake-fields. They were of all shapes
+and sizes, and were divided from each other by little green
+fringed dykes or walls. Each row of fields was lower than the
+last until they came right down to the sea-level, and all lay
+blue and smiling in the blazing sunlight.
+
+As the young missionary stood spellbound, gazing over the lovely,
+fairylike scene, Mr. Ritchie touched his arm.
+
+"This is your parish, Mackay," he whispered smilingly.
+
+And then for the first time since he had started on his long,
+long journey, the young missionary felt his spirit at peace. The
+restlessness that had driven him on from one Chinese port to
+another was gone. This was indeed HIS parish.
+
+Suddenly out swung a signal; the tide had risen. Up came the
+anchor, and away they glided over the now submerged sand-bar into
+the harbor.
+
+A nearer view showed greater charms in the Beautiful Isle. On the
+south, at their right, lay the great Quan Yin mountain, towering
+seventeen hundred feet above them, clothed in tall grass and
+groves of bamboo, banyan, and fir trees of every conceivable
+shade of green. Nestling at its feet were little villages almost
+buried in trees. Slowly the ship drifted along, passing, here a
+queer fishing village close to the sandy shore, yonder a
+light-house, there a battered Chinese fort rising from the top of
+a hill.
+
+And now Tamsui came in sight--the new home of the young
+missionary. It seemed to him that it was the prettiest and the
+dirtiest place he had ever seen. The town lay along the bank of
+the river at the foot of a hill. This bluff rose abruptly behind
+it to a height of two hundred feet. On its face stood a
+queer-looking building. It was red in color, solid and weather
+worn, and above it floated the grand old flag of Britain.
+
+"That's an old Dutch fort," explained Mr. Ritchie, "left there
+since they were in the island. It is the British consulate now.
+There, next to it, is the consul's residence."
+
+It was a handsome house, just below the fort, and surrounded by
+lovely gardens. But down beneath it, on the shore, was the most
+interesting place to the newcomer, the town of Tamsui proper, or
+Ho Be, as the Chinese called it. The foreigners landed and made
+their way up the street. To the two from south Formosa, Tamsui
+was like every other small Chinese town, but Mackay had not yet
+become accustomed to the strange sights and sounds and stranger
+smells, and his bright eyes were keen with interest.
+
+The main thoroughfare wound this way and that, only seven or
+eight feet wide at its best. It was filled with noisy crowds of
+men who acted as if they were on the verge of a terrible fight.
+But the older missionaries knew that they were merely acting as
+Chinese crowds always do. On each side were shops,--tea shops,
+rice shops, tobacco shops, and many other kinds. And most
+numerous of all were the shops where opium, one of the greatest
+curses of Chinese life, was sold. The front wall of each was
+removed, and the customers stood in the street and dickered with
+the shopkeeper, while at the top of his harsh voice the latter
+swore by all the gods in China that he was giving the article
+away at a terrific loss. Through the crowd pushed hawkers,
+carrying their wares balanced on poles across their shoulders.
+Boys with trays of Chinese candies and sugar-cane yelled their
+wares above the din. The visitors stumbled along over the rough
+stones of the pavement until they came to the market-place.
+Foreigners were not such a curiosity in Tamsui as in the inland
+towns, and not a great deal of notice was taken of them, but
+occasionally Mackay could hear the now familiar words of contempt
+--"Ugly barbarian"--"Foreign devil" from the men that passed
+them. And one man, pointing to Mackay, shouted "Ho! the
+black-bearded barbarian!" It was a name the young missionary was
+destined to hear very frequently. Past opium-dens, barber shops,
+and drug stores they went and through the noise and bustle and
+din of the market-place. They knew that the inns, judging by the
+outside, would be filthy, so Mr. Ritchie suggested, as evening
+was approaching, that they find some comfortable place to spend
+the night.
+
+There was a British merchant in Tamsui named Mr. Dodd, whom the
+missionaries knew. So to him they went, and were given fine
+quarters in his warehouse. They ate their supper here, from the
+provisions they had bought in the market, and stretching
+themselves out on their grass mats they slept soundly. The next
+day was Sunday, but the three travelers spent it quietly in the
+warehouse by the river, studying their Bibles and discussing
+their proposed trip. They concluded it was best not to provoke
+the anger of the people against the new missionary by preaching,
+so they did not go out. To-morrow they would start southward and
+take Mackay to the bounds of their mission field, and show him
+the land that was to be "his parish."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. RECONNOITERING THE TERRITORY
+
+Early Monday morning Mackay peeped out of the big warehouse door
+at the great calm mountain shrouded in the pale mists of early
+dawn. The other two travelers were soon astir, and were surprised
+to find their young companion all ready. They were not yet well
+enough acquainted with him to know that he could do with less
+sleep at night than an owl. He was in high spirits and as eager
+to be off as he had ever been to start for a day's fishing in the
+old times back in Ontario. And indeed this was just a great
+fishing expedition he was commencing. For had not one said to
+him, long long ago when he was but a little boy, "Come follow me,
+and I will make you to become a fisher of men?" and he had
+obeyed. The first task was to go out and buy food for the
+journey, and to hire a couple of coolies to carry it and what
+baggage they must take.
+
+Dr. Dickson went off on this errand, and being well acquainted
+with Formosan customs and language, soon returned with two
+Chinese carriers and plenty of food. This last consisted of
+canned meats, biscuits, coffee, and condensed milk, bought at a
+store where ships' supplies were kept for sale. There was also
+some salted water-buffalo meat, a Chinese dish with which the
+young missionary was destined to become very familiar.
+
+They started out three abreast, Mr. Ritchie's blue serge figure
+capped by a white helmet on the right, Dr. Dickson on the left in
+his Scotch tweed, and between them the alert, slim figure of the
+newcomer, in his suit of Canadian gray. The coolies, with baskets
+hung to a pole across their shoulders, came ambling along behind.
+
+The three travelers were in the gayest mood. Perhaps it was the
+clear spring morning air, or the breath of the salt ocean,
+perhaps it was the intoxicating beauty of mountain and plain and
+river that surrounded them or it may have been because they had
+given their lives in perfect service to the One who is the source
+of all happiness, but whatever was the cause, they were all like
+schoolboys off for a holiday. The coolies who trotted in the rear
+were very much amazed and not a little amused at the actions of
+these foolish foreign devils, who laughed and joked and seemed in
+such high spirits for no reason at all.
+
+They swung along the bank of the river until they came to the
+ferry that was to take them to the other side. They sprang into
+the boat and were shoved off. Before they reached the other side,
+at Dr. Dickson's suggestion, they took off their shoes and socks,
+and stowed them away in the carriers' baskets. When they came to
+the opposite bank they rolled up their trousers to their knees
+and sprang out into the shallow water. For a short distance they
+had the joy of tramping barefoot along the hard gleaming sand of
+the harbor.
+
+But shoes and stockings had to be resumed, for soon they turned
+inland, on a path that wound up to the high plain above the
+river. "Do you ever use a horse on your travels?" asked young
+Mackay as they climbed upward.
+
+Mr. Ritchie laughed. "You couldn't get one in north Formosa for
+love or money. And if you could, he wouldn't be any use."
+
+"Unless he was a second Pegasus, and could soar above the
+Formosan roads," added Dr. Dickson. "Wait a bit and you'll
+understand."
+
+The young missionary waited, and kept his eyes open for the
+answer. The pathway crossed a grassy plain where groups of
+queer-looking, mouse-colored animals, half ox, half buffalo, with
+great spreading horns, strayed about, herded by boys, or lay
+wallowing in deep pools.
+
+"Water-buffaloes," he said, remembering them as he had seen them
+in the south.
+
+"The most useful animal on the island," remarked Mr. Ritchie,
+adding with a laugh, "except perhaps the pig. You'll have a taste
+of Mr. Buffalo for your dinner, Mackay."
+
+And now they were up on the heights, and the lovely country lay
+spread out before them. Mackay mentally compared this walk to
+many he had taken along the country roads of his native land. It
+was early in March, but as there had been no winter, so there was
+no spring. It was summer, warm, radiant summer, like a lovely day
+in June at home. Dandelions, violets, and many gay flowers that
+he did not recognize spangled the grassy plain. The skylark high
+overhead was pouring out its glorious song, just as he had heard
+it in his student days in Scotland. Here and there were clumps of
+fir trees that reminded him of Canada, but on the whole the scene
+was new and wonderful to his Western eyes.
+
+They were now on the first level of the rice-fields. The farms
+were tiny things, none larger than eight or ten acres. They were
+divided into queer-shaped little irrigated fields, separated not
+by fences, but by little low walls of mud. Every farm was under
+water now, and here and there, wading through his little flooded
+fields, went the farmer with his plough, drawn by a useful
+water-buffalo,--the latter apparently quite happy at being
+allowed to splash about in the mud.
+
+These rice-farms soon became a familiar sight to the newcomer. He
+liked to see them at all times--when each field was a pretty blue
+or green lake, later when the water was choked with the fresh
+green growth, or in harvest days, when the farmers stripped the
+fields of their grain. Just now they were at their prettiest. Row
+above row, they went up the mountainside, like a great glass
+stairs, each row reflecting the green hills and the bamboo groves
+above. And from each terrace to the one below, the water tumbled
+in pretty little cascades that sparkled in the sunlight and
+filled the air with music. For travelers there were only narrow
+paths between farms, and often only the ridge of the dykes
+between field and field. As they made their way between the tiny
+fields, walking along the narrow dykes, and listening to the
+splashing sound of the water, Mackay understood what Dr. Dickson
+meant, when he remarked that only a flying horse could be of use
+on such Formosan cross-country journeys.
+
+Soon the pathway changed once more to the broader public highway.
+Here there was much traffic, and many travelers carried in
+sedan-chairs passed them. And many times by the roadside Mackay
+saw something that reminded him forcibly of why he had come to
+Formosa--a heathen shrine. The whole countryside seemed dotted
+with them. And as he watched the worshippers coming and going,
+and heard the disdainful words from the priests cast at the hated
+foreigners, he realized that he was face to face with an awful
+opposing force. It was the great stone of heathenism he had come
+to break, and the question was, would he be as successful as he
+had been long ago in the Canadian pasture-field?
+
+The travelers ate their dinner by the roadside under the shade of
+some fir trees that made Mackay feel at home. They were soon up
+and off again, and, tired with their long tramp, they arrived at
+a town called Tionglek, and decided to spend the night there. The
+place was about the size of Tamsui, with between four and five
+thousand inhabitants, and was quite as dirty and almost as noisy.
+They walked down the main street with its uneven stone pavement,
+its open shops, its noisy bargains, and above all its horrible
+smells. With the exception of an occasional visit from an
+official, foreigners scarcely ever came to Tionglek, and on every
+side were revilings and threatenings. One yellow-faced youngster
+picked up a handful of mud and threw it at the hated foreigners;
+and "Black-bearded barbarian," mingled with their shouts.
+Mackay's bright eyes took in everything, and he realized more and
+more the difficulties of the task before him.
+
+They stopped in front of a low one-story building made of
+sun-dried bricks. This was the Tionglek hotel where they were to
+spend the night. Like most Chinese houses it was composed of a
+number of buildings arranged in the form of a square with a
+courtyard in the center. Dr. Dickson asked for lodgings from the
+slant-eyed proprietor. He looked askance at the foreigners, but
+concluded that their money was as good as any one else's, and he
+led them through the deep doorway into the courtyard.
+
+In the center of this yard stood an earthen range, with a fire in
+it. Several travelers stood about it cooking their rice. It was
+evidently the hotel dining-room; a dining-room that was open to
+all too, for chickens clucked and cackled and pigs grunted about
+the range and made themselves quite at home. The men about the
+gateway scowled and muttered "Foreign devil," as the three
+strangers passed them.
+
+They crossed the courtyard and entered their room, or rather
+stumbled into it, in semi-darkness. Mackay peered about him
+curiously. He discovered three beds, made of planks and set on
+brick pillars for legs. Each was covered with a dirty mat woven
+from grass and reeking with the odor of opium smoke.
+
+A servant came in with something evidently intended for a lamp--a
+burning pith wick set in a saucer of peanut oil. It gave out only
+a faint glimmer of light, but enough to enable the young
+missionary to see something else in the room,--some THINGS
+rather, that ran and skipped and swarmed all over the damp
+earthen floor and the dirty walls. There were thousands of these
+brisk little creatures, all leaping about in pleasant
+anticipation of the good time they would have when the barbarians
+went to bed. There was no window, and only the one door that
+opened into the courtyard. An old pig, evidently more friendly to
+the foreigners than her masters, came waddling toward them
+followed by her squealing little brood, and flopping down into
+the mud in the doorway lay there uttering grunts of content.
+
+The evil smells of the room, the stench from the pigs, and the
+still more dreadful odors wafted from the queer food cooking on
+the range, made the young traveler's unaccustomed senses revolt.
+He had a half notion that the two older men were putting up a
+joke on him.
+
+"I suppose you thought it wise to give me a strong dose of all
+this at the start?" he inquired humorously, holding his nose and
+glancing from the pigs at the door to the crawlers on the wall.
+
+"A strong dose!" laughed Mr. Ritchie. "Not a bit of it, young
+man. Wait till you've had some experience of the luxuries of
+Formosan inns. You'll be calling this the Queen's Hotel, before
+you've been here long!"
+
+And so indeed it proved later, for George Mackay had yet much to
+learn of the true character of Chinese inns. Needless to say he
+spent a wakeful night, on his hard plank bed, and was up early in
+the morning. The travelers ate their breakfast in a room where
+the ducks and hens clattered about under the table and between
+their legs. Fortunately the food was taken from their own stores,
+and in spite of the surroundings was quite appetizing.
+
+They started off early, drawing in great breaths of the pure
+morning air, relieved to be away from the odors of the "Queen's
+Hotel." Three hundred feet above them, high against the deep blue
+of the morning sky, stood Table Hill, and they started on a brisk
+climb up its side. The sun had not risen, but already the farmers
+were out in their little water-fields, or working in their tea
+plantations. The mountain with its groves of bamboo lay reflected
+in the little mirrors of the rice-fields. A steady climb brought
+them to the summit, and after a long descent on the other side
+and a tramp through tea plantations they arrived in the evening
+at a large city with a high wall around it, the city of
+Tek-chham. That night in the city inn was so much worse than the
+one at Tionglek that the Canadian was convinced his friends must
+have reserved the "strong dose" for the second night. There were
+the same smells, the same sorts of pigs and ducks and hens, the
+same breeds of lively nightly companions, and each seemed to have
+gained a fresh force.
+
+It was a relief to be out in the fields again after the foul
+odors of the night, and the travelers were off before dawn. The
+country looked more familiar to Mackay this morning, for they
+passed through wheat and barley fields. It seemed so strange to
+wander over a man's farm by a footpath, but it was a Chinese
+custom to which he soon became accustomed.
+
+The sun was blazing hot, and it was a great relief when they
+entered the cool shade of a forest. It was a delightful place and
+George Mackay reveled in its beauty. Ever since he had been able
+to run about his own home farm in Ontario his eyes had always
+been wide open to observe anything new. He had studied as much
+out of doors, all his life, as he had done in college, and now he
+found this forest a perfect library of new things. Nearly every
+tree and flower was strange to his Canadian eyes. Here and there,
+in sheltered valleys, grew the tree-fern, the most beautiful
+object in the forest, towering away up sometimes to a height of
+sixty feet, and spreading its stately fronds out to a width of
+fifteen feet. There was a lovely big plant with purple stem and
+purple leaves, and when Dr. Dickson told him it was the
+castor-oil plant, he smiled at the remembrance of the trials that
+plant had caused him in younger days. One elegant tree, straight
+as a pine, rose fifty feet in height, with leaves away up at the
+top only.
+
+This was the betel-nut tree.
+
+"The nuts of that tree," said Mr. Ritchie, standing and pointing
+away up to where the sunlight filtered through the far-off
+leaves, "are the chewing tobacco of Formosa and all the islands
+about here. The Chinese do not chew it, but the Malayans do. You
+will meet some of these natives soon."
+
+On every side grew the rattan, half tree, half vine. It started
+off as a tree and grew straight up often to twenty feet in
+height, and then spread itself out over the tops of other trees
+and plants in vine-like fashion; some of its branches measured
+almost five hundred feet in length.
+
+The travelers paused to admire one high in the branches of the
+trees.
+
+"Many a Chinaman loses his head hunting that plant," remarked Mr.
+Ritchie. "These islanders export a great deal of rattan, and the
+head-hunters up there in the mountains watch for the Chinese when
+they are working in the forest."
+
+Mackay listened eagerly to his friends' tales of the head-hunting
+savages, living in the mountains. They were always on the lookout
+for the farmers near their forest lairs. They watched for any
+unwary man who went too near the woods, pounced upon him, and
+went off in triumph with his head in a bag.
+
+The young traveler's eyes brightened, "I'll visit them some day!"
+he cried, looking off toward the mountainside. Mr. Ritchie
+glanced quickly at the flashing eyes and the quick, alert figure
+of the young man as he strode along, and some hint came to him of
+the dauntless young heart which beat beneath that coat of
+Canadian gray.
+
+Two days more over hill and dale, through rice and tea and
+tobacco-fields, and then, in the middle of a hot afternoon, Mr.
+Ritchie began to shiver and shake as though half frozen. Dr.
+Dickson understood, and at the next stopping-place he ordered a
+sedan-chair and four coolies to carry it. It was the old dreaded
+disease that hangs like a black cloud over lovely Formosa, the
+malarial fever. Mr. Ritchie had been a missionary only four years
+in the island, but already the scourge had come upon him, and his
+system was weakened. For, once seized by malaria in Formosa, one
+seldom makes his escape. They put the sick man into the chair,
+now in a raging fever, and he was carried by the four coolies.
+
+They were nearing the end of their journey and were now among a
+people not Chinese. They belonged to the original Malayan race of
+the island. They had been conquered by the Chinese, who in the
+early days came over from China under a pirate named Koxinga. As
+the Chinese name every one but themselves "barbarians," they gave
+this name to all the natives of the island. They had conquered
+all but the dreaded head-hunters, who, free in their mountain
+fastnesses, took a terrible toll of heads from their would-be
+conquerors, or even from their own half-civilized brethren.
+
+The native Malayans who had been subdued by the Chinese were
+given different names. Those who lived on the great level
+rice-plain over which the missionaries were traveling, were
+called Pe-po-hoan, "Barbarians of the plain." Mackay could see
+little difference between them and the Chinese, except in the
+cast of their features, and their long-shaped heads. They wore
+Chinese dress, even to the cue, worshiped the Chinese gods, and
+spoke with a peculiar Malayan twang.
+
+The travelers were journeying rather wearily over a low muddy
+stretch of ground, picking their way along the narrow paths
+between the rice-fields, when they saw a group of men come
+hurrying down the path to meet them. They kept calling out, but
+the words they used were not the familiar "foreign devil" or
+"ugly barbarian." Instead the people were shouting words of
+joyful welcome.
+
+Dr. Dickson hailed them with delight, and soon he and Mr.
+Ritchie's sedan-chair were surrounded by a clamorous group of
+friends.
+
+They had journeyed so far south that they had arrived at the
+borders of the English Presbyterian mission, and the people
+crowding about them were native Christians. It was all so
+different from their treatment by the heathen that Mackay's heart
+was warmed. When the great stone of heathenism was broken, what
+love and kindness were revealed!
+
+The visitors were led in triumph to the village. There was a
+chapel here, and they stayed nearly a week, preaching and
+teaching.
+
+The rest did Mr. Ritchie much good, and at the end of their visit
+he was once more able to start off on foot. They moved on from
+village to village and everywhere the Pe-po-hoan Christians
+received them with the greatest hospitality.
+
+But at last the three friends found the time had come for them to
+part. The two Englishmen had to go on through their fields to
+their south Formosan home and the young Canadian must go back to
+fight the battle alone in the north of the island. He had
+endeared himself to the two older men, and when the farewells
+came they were filled with regret.
+
+They bade him a lingering good-by, with many blessings upon his
+young head, and many prayers for success in the hard fight upon
+which he was entering. They walked a short way with him, and
+stood watching the straight, lithe young figure, so full of
+courage and hope until it disappeared down the valley. They knew
+only too well the dangers and trials ahead of him, but they knew
+also that he was not going into the fight alone. For the Captain
+was going with his young soldier.
+
+There was a suspicion of moisture in the eyes of the older
+missionaries as they turned back to prepare for their own journey
+southward.
+
+"God bless the boy!" said Dr. Dickson fervently. "We'll hear of
+that young fellow yet, Ritchie. He's on fire."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. BEGINNING THE SIEGE
+
+The news was soon noised about Tamsui that one of the three
+barbarians who had so lately visited the town had returned to
+make the place his home. This was most unwelcome tidings to the
+heathen, and the air was filled with mutterings and threatenings,
+and every one was determined to drive the foreign devil out if at
+all possible.
+
+So Mackay found himself meeting every kind of opposition. He was
+too independent to ask assistance from the British consul in the
+old Dutch fort on the bluff, or of any other European settlers in
+Tamsui. He was bound to make his own way. But it was not easy to
+do so in view of the forces which opposed him. He had now been in
+Formosa about two months and had studied the Chinese language
+every waking hour, but it was very difficult, and he found his
+usually ready tongue wofully handicapped.
+
+His first concern was to get a dwelling-place, and he went from
+house to house inquiring for some place to rent. Everywhere he
+went he was turned away with rough abuse, and occasionally the
+dogs were set upon him.
+
+But at last he was successful. Up on the bank of the river, a
+little way from the edge of the town, he found a place which the
+owner condescended to rent. It was a miserable little hut, half
+house, half cellar, built into the side of the hill facing the
+river. A military officer had intended it for his horse-stable,
+and yet Mackay paid for this hovel the sum of fifteen dollars a
+month. It had three rooms, one without a floor. The road ran past
+the door, and a few feet beyond was the river. By spending money
+rather liberally he managed to hire the coolie who had
+accompanied him to south Formosa. With his servant's help Mackay
+had his new establishment thoroughly cleaned and whitewashed, and
+then he moved in his furniture. He laughed as he called it
+furniture, for it consisted of but two packing boxes full of
+books and clothing. But more came later. The British consul, Mr.
+Frater, lent him a chair and a bed. There was one old Chinese,
+who kept a shop near by, and who seemed inclined to be friendly
+to the queer barbarian with the black beard. He presented him
+with an old pewter lamp, and the house was furnished complete.
+
+Mackay sat down at his one table, the first night after he was
+settled. The damp air was hot and heavy, and swarms of tormenting
+mosquitoes filled the room. Through the open door came the murmur
+of the river, and from far down in the village the sounds of
+harsh, clamorous voices. He was alone, many, many miles from home
+and friends. Around him on every side were bitter enemies.
+
+One might have supposed he would be overcome at the thought of
+the stupendous task before him, but whoever supposed that did not
+know George Mackay. He lighted his pewter lamp, opened his diary,
+and these are the words he wrote:
+
+"Here I am in this house, having been led all the way from the
+old homestead in Zorra by Jesus, as direct as though my boxes
+were labeled, 'Tamsui, Formosa, China.' Oh, the glorious
+privilege to lay the foundation of Christ's Church in unbroken
+heathenism! God help me to do this with the open Bible! Again I
+swear allegiance to thee, O King Jesus, my Captain. So help me
+God!"
+
+And now his first duty was to learn the Chinese language. He
+could already speak a little, but it would be a long time, he
+knew, before he could preach. And yet, how was he to learn? he
+asked himself. He was a scholar without a teacher or school. But
+there was his servant, and nothing daunted by the difficulties to
+be overcome, he set to work to make him his teacher also.
+
+George Mackay always went at any task with all his might and
+main, and he attacked the Chinese language in the same manner. He
+found it a hard stone to break, however. "Of all earthly things I
+know of," he remarked once, "it is the most intricate and
+difficult to master."
+
+His unwilling teacher was just about as hard to manage as his
+task, for the coolie did not take kindly to giving lessons. He
+certainly had a rather hard time. Day and night his master
+deluged him with questions. He made him repeat phrases again and
+again until his pupil could say them correctly. He asked him the
+name of everything inside the house and out, until the easy-going
+Oriental was overcome with dismay. This wild barbarian, with the
+fiery eyes and the black beard, was a terrible creature who gave
+one no rest night nor day. Sometimes after Mackay had spent hours
+with him, imitating sounds and repeating the names of things over
+and over, his harassed teacher would back out of the room
+stealthily, keeping an anxious eye on his master, and showing
+plainly he had grave fears that the foreigner had gone quite mad.
+
+Mackay realized that the pace was too hard for his servant, and
+that the poor fellow was in a fair way to lose what little wits
+he had, if not left alone occasionally. So one day he wandered
+out along the riverbank, in search of some one who would talk
+with him. He turned into a path that led up the hill behind the
+town. He was in hopes he might meet a farmer who would be
+friendly.
+
+When he reached the top of the bluff he found a grassy common
+stretching back toward the rice-fields. Here and there over these
+downs strayed the queer-looking water-buffaloes. Some of them
+were plunged deep in pools of water, and lay there like pigs with
+only their noses out.
+
+He heard a merry laugh and shout from another part of the common,
+and there sat a crowd of frolicsome Chinese boys, in large sun
+hats, and short loose trousers. There were about a dozen of them,
+and they were supposed to be herding the water-buffaloes to keep
+them out of the unfenced fields. But, boylike, they were flying
+kites, and letting their huge-horned charges herd themselves.
+
+Mackay walked over toward them. It was not so long since he had
+been a boy himself, and these jolly lads appealed to him. But the
+moment one caught sight of the stranger, he gave a shout of
+alarm. The rest jumped up, and with yells of terror and cries of
+"Here's the foreign devil!" "Run, or the foreign devil will get
+you!" away they went helter-skelter, their big hats waving, their
+loose clothes flapping wildly. They all disappeared like magic
+behind a big boulder, and the cause of their terror had to walk
+away.
+
+But the next day, when his servant once more showed signs of
+mental exhaustion, he strolled out again upon the downs. The boys
+were there and saw him coming. Though they did not actually run
+away this time, they retired to a safe distance, and stood ready
+to fly at any sign of the barbarian's approach. They watched him
+wonderingly. They noticed his strange white face, his black
+beard, his hair cut off quite short, his amazing hat, and his
+ridiculous clothes. And when at last he walked away, and all
+danger was over, they burst into shouts of laughter.
+
+The next day, as they scampered about the common, here again came
+the absurd-looking stranger, walking slowly, as though careful
+not to frighten them. The boys did not run away this time, and to
+their utter astonishment he spoke to them. Mackay had practised
+carefully the words he was to say to them, and the well-spoken
+Chinese astounded the lads as much as if one of the monkeys that
+gamboled about the trees of their forests should come down and
+say, "How do you do, boys?"
+
+"Why, he speaks our words!" they all cried at once.
+
+As they stood staring, Mackay took out his watch and held it up
+for them to see. It glittered in the sun, and at the sight of it
+and the kind smiling face above, they lost their fears and
+crowded around him. They examined the watch in great wonder. They
+handled his clothes, exclaimed over the buttons on his coat, and
+inquired what they were for. They felt his hands and his fingers,
+and finally decided that, in spite of his queer looks, he was
+after all a man.
+
+From that day the young missionary and the herd-boys were great
+friends. Every day he joined them in the buffalo pasture, and
+would spend from four to five hours with them. And as they were
+very willing to talk, he not only learned their language rapidly,
+but also learned much about their homes, their schools, their
+customs, and their religion.
+
+One day, after a lengthy lesson from his servant, the latter
+decided that the barbarian was unbearable, and bundling up his
+clothes he marched off, without so much as "by your leave." So
+Mackay fell back entirely upon his little teachers on the common.
+With their assistance in the daytime and his Chinese-English
+dictionary at night, he made wonderful progress.
+
+He was left alone now, to get his own meals and keep the swarms
+of flies and the damp mold out of his hut by the riverside. He
+soon learned to eat rice and water-buffalo meat, but he missed
+the milk and butter and cheese of his old Canadian home. For he
+discovered that cows were never milked in Formosa. There was
+variety of food, however, as almost every kind of vegetable that
+he had ever tasted and many new kinds that he found delicious
+were for sale in the open-fronted shops in the village. Then the
+fruits! They were fresh at all seasons--oranges the whole year,
+bananas fresh from the fields--and such pineapples! He realized
+that he had never really tasted pineapples before.
+
+Meanwhile, he was becoming acquainted. All the families of the
+herd-boys learned to like him, and when others came to know him
+they treated him with respect. He was a teacher, they learned,
+and in China a teacher is always looked upon with something like
+reverence. And, besides, he had a beard. This appendage was
+considered very honorable among Chinese, so the black-bearded
+barbarian was respected because of this.
+
+But there was one class that treated him with the greatest scorn.
+These were the Chinese scholars. They were the literati, and were
+like princes in the land. They despised every one who was not a
+graduate of their schools, and most of all they despised this
+barbarian who dared to set himself up as a teacher. Mackay had
+now learned Chinese well enough to preach, and his sermons
+aroused the indignation of these proud graduates.
+
+Sometimes when one was passing the little hut by the river, he
+would drop in, and glance around just to see what sort of place
+the barbarian kept. He would pick up the Bible and other books,
+throw them on the floor, and with words of contempt strut proudly
+out.
+
+Mackay endured this treatment patiently, but he set himself to
+study their books, for he felt sure that the day was not far
+distant when he must meet these conceited literati in argument.
+
+He went about a good deal now. The Tamsui people became
+accustomed to him, and he was not troubled much. His bright eyes
+were always wide open and he learned much of the lives of the
+people he had come to teach. Among the poor he found a poverty of
+which he had never dreamed. They could live upon what a so-called
+poor family in Canada would throw away. Nothing was wasted in
+China. He often saw the meat and fruit tins he threw away when
+they were emptied, reappearing in the market-place. He learned
+that these poorer people suffered cruel wrongs at the hands of
+their magistrates. He visited a yamen, or court-house, and saw
+the mandarin dispense "justice," but his judgment was said to be
+always given in favor of the one who paid him the highest bribe.
+He saw the widow robbed, and the innocent suffering frightful
+tortures, and sometimes he strode home to his little hut by the
+river, his blood tingling with righteous indignation. And then he
+would pray with all his soul:
+
+"O God, give me power to teach these people of thy love through
+Jesus Christ!"
+
+But of all the horrors of heathenism, and there were many, he
+found the religion the most dreadful. He had read about it when
+on board ship, but he found it was infinitely worse when written
+in men's lives than when set down in print. He never realized
+what a blessing was the religion of Jesus Christ to a nation
+until he lived among a people who did not know Him.
+
+He found almost as much difficulty in learning the Chinese
+religion as the Chinese language. After he had spent days trying
+to understand it, it would seem to him like some horrible
+nightmare filled with wicked devils and no less wicked gods and
+evil spirits and ugly idols. And to make matters worse there was
+not one religion, but a bewildering mixture of three. First of
+all there was the ancient Chinese religion, called Confucianism.
+Confucius, a wise man of China, who lived ages before, had laid
+down some rules of conduct, and had been worshiped ever since.
+Very good rules they were as far as they went, and if the Chinese
+had followed this wise man they would not have drifted so far
+from the truth. But Confucianism meant ancestor-worship. In every
+home was a little tablet with the names of the family's ancestors
+upon it, and every one in the house worshiped the spirits of
+those departed. With this was another religion called Taoism.
+This taught belief in wicked demons who lurked about people ready
+to do them some ill. Then, years and years before, some people
+from India had brought over their religion, Buddhism, which had
+become a system of idol-worship. These three religions were so
+mixed up that the people themselves were not able to distinguish
+between them. The names of their idols would cover pages, and an
+account of their religion would fill volumes. The more Mackay
+learned of it, the more he yearned to tell the people of the one
+God who was Lord and Father of them all.
+
+As soon as he had learned to write clearly, he bought a large
+sheet of paper, and printed on it the ten commandments in Chinese
+characters. Then he hung it on the outside of his door. People
+who passed read it and made comments of various kinds. Several
+threw mud at it, and at last a proud graduate, who came striding
+past his silk robes rustling grandly, caught the paper and tore
+it down. Mackay promptly put up another. It shared the fate of
+the first. Then he put up a third, and the people let it alone.
+Even these heathen Chinese were beginning to get an impression of
+the dauntless determination of the man with whom they were to get
+much better acquainted.
+
+And all this time, while he was studying and working and arguing
+with the heathen and preaching to them, the young missionary was
+working just as hard at something else; something into which he
+was putting as much energy and force as he did into learning the
+Chinese language. With all his might and main, day and night, he
+was praying--praying for one special object. He had been praying
+for this long before he saw Formosa. He was pleading with God to
+give him, as his first convert, a young man of education. And so
+he was always on the lookout for such, as he preached and taught,
+and never once did he cease praying that he might find him.
+
+One forenoon he was sitting at his books, near the open door,
+when a visitor stopped before him. It was a fine-looking young
+man, well dressed and with all the unmistakable signs of the
+scholar. He had none of the graduate's proud insolence, however,
+for when Mackay arose, he spoke in the most gentlemanly manner.
+At the missionary's invitation he entered, and sat down, and the
+two chatted pleasantly. The visitor seemed interested in the
+foreigner, and asked him many questions that showed a bright,
+intelligent mind. When he arose to go, Mackay invited him to come
+again, and he promised he would. He left his card, a strip of
+pink paper about three inches by six; the name on it read Giam
+Cheng Hoa. Mackay was very much interested in him, he was so
+bright, so affable, and such pleasant company. He waited
+anxiously to see if he would return.
+
+At the appointed hour the visitor was at the door, and the
+missionary welcomed him warmly. The second visit was even more
+pleasant than the first. And Mackay told his guest why he had
+come to Formosa, and of Jesus Christ who was both God and man and
+who had come to the earth to save mankind.
+
+The young man's bright eyes were fixed steadily upon the
+missionary as he talked, and when he went away his face was very
+thoughtful. Mackay sat thinking about him long after he had left.
+
+He had met many graduates, but none had impressed him as had this
+youth, with his frank face and his kind, genial manner. There was
+something too about the young fellow, he felt, that marked him as
+superior to his companions. And then a sudden divine inspiration
+flashed into the lonely young missionary's heart. THIS WAS HIS
+MAN! This was the man for whom he had been praying. The stranger
+had as yet shown no sign of conversion, but Mackay could not get
+away from that inspired thought. And that night he could not
+sleep for joy.
+
+In a day or two the young man returned. With him was a noted
+graduate, who asked many questions about the new religion. The
+next day he came again with six graduates, who argued and
+discussed.
+
+When they were gone Mackay paced up and down the room and faced
+the serious situation which he realized he was in. He saw plainly
+that the educated men of the town were banded together to beat
+him in argument. And with all his energy and desperate
+determination he set to work to be ready for them.
+
+His first task was to gain a thorough knowledge of the Chinese
+religions. He had already learned much about them, both from
+books on shipboard and since he had come to the island. But now
+he spent long hours of the night, poring over the books of
+Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, by the light of his smoky
+little pewter lamp. And before the next visit of his enemies he
+knew almost more of their jumble of religions than they did
+themselves.
+
+It was well he was prepared, for his opponents came down upon him
+in full force. Every day a band of college graduates, always
+headed by Giam Cheng Hoa, came up from the town to the
+missionary's little hut by the river, and for hours they would
+sit arguing and talking. They were always the most noted scholars
+the place could produce, but in spite of all their cleverness the
+barbarian teacher silenced them every time. He fairly took the
+wind out of their sails by showing he knew quite as much about
+Chinese religions as they did. If they quoted Confucius to
+contradict the Bible, he would quote Confucius to contradict
+them. He confounded them by proving that they were not really
+followers of Confucius, for they did not keep his sayings. And
+with unanswerable arguments he went on to show that the religion
+taught by Jesus Christ was the one and only religion to make man
+good and noble.
+
+Each day the group of visitors grew larger, and at last one
+morning, as Mackay looked out of his door, he saw quite a crowd
+approaching. They were led, as usual, by the friendly young
+scholar. By his side walked, or rather, swaggered a man of whom
+the missionary had often heard. He was a scholar of high degree
+and was famed all over Formosa for his great learning. Behind him
+came about twenty men, and Mackay could see by their dress and
+appearance that they were all literary graduates. They were
+coming in great force this time, to crush the barbarian with
+their combined knowledge. He met them at the door with his usual
+politeness and hospitality. He was always courteous to these
+proud literati, but he always treated them as equals, and showed
+none of the deference they felt he owed them. The crowd seated
+itself on improvised benches and the argument opened.
+
+This time Mackay led the attack. He carried the war right into
+the enemy's camp. Instead of letting them put questions to him,
+he asked them question after question concerning Confucianism,
+Buddhism, and Taoism. They were questions that sometimes they
+could not answer, and to their chagrin they had to hear "the
+barbarian" answer for them. There were other questions, still
+more humiliating, which, when they answered, only served to show
+their religion as false and degrading. Their spokesman, the great
+learned man, became at last so entangled that there was nothing
+for him but flight. He arose and stalked angrily away, and in a
+little while they all left. Mackay looked wistfully at young Giam
+as he went out, wondering what effect these words had upon him.
+
+He was not left long in doubt. Not half an hour after a shadow
+fell across the open Bible the missionary was studying. He
+glanced up. There he stood! His bright face was very serious. He
+looked gravely at the other young man, and his eyes shone as he
+spoke.
+
+"I brought all those graduates and teachers here," he confessed,
+"to silence you or be silenced. And now I am convinced that the
+doctrines you teach are true. I am determined to become a
+Christian, even though I suffer death for it."
+
+Mackay rose from his seat, his face alight with an overwhelming
+joy. The man he had prayed for! He took the young fellow's hand--
+speechless. And together the only missionary of north Formosa and
+his first convert fell upon their knees before the true God and
+poured out their hearts in joy and thanksgiving.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. SOLDIERS TWO
+
+And now a new day dawned for the lonely young missionary. He had
+not a convert but a helper and a delightful companion. His new
+friend was of a bright, joyous nature, the sort that everybody
+loves. Giam was his surname, but almost every one called him by
+his given name, Hoa, and those who knew him best called him A
+Hoa. Mackay used this more familiar boyish name, for Giam was the
+younger by a few years.
+
+To A Hoa his new friend was always Pastor Mackay, or as the
+Chinese put it, Mackay Pastor, Kai Bok-su was the real Chinese of
+it, and Kai Bok-su soon became a name known all over the island
+of Formosa.
+
+A Hoa needed all his kind new friend's help in the first days
+after his conversion. For family, relatives, and friends turned
+upon him with the bitterest hatred for taking up the barbarian's
+religion. So, driven from his friends, he came to live in the
+little hut by the river with Mackay. While at home these two
+read, sang, and studied together all the day long. It would have
+been hard for an observer to guess who was teacher and who pupil.
+For at one time A Hoa was receiving Bible instruction and the
+next time Mackay was being drilled in the Chinese of the educated
+classes. Each teacher was as eager to instruct as each pupil was
+eager to learn.
+
+The Bible was, of course, the chief textbook, but they studied
+other things, astronomy, geology, history, and similar subjects.
+One day the Canadian took out a map of the world, and the Chinese
+gazed with amazement at the sight of the many large countries
+outside China. A Hoa had been private secretary to a mandarin,
+and had traveled much in China, and once spent six months in
+Peking. His idea had been that China was everything, that all
+countries outside it were but insignificant barbarian places. His
+geography lessons were like revelations.
+
+His progress was simply astonishing, as was also Mackay's. The
+two seemed possessed with the spirit of hard work. But a
+superstitious old man who lived near believed they were possessed
+with a demon. He often listened to the two singing, drilling, and
+repeating words as they marched up and down, either in the house
+or in front of it, and he became alarmed. He was a kindly old
+fellow, and, though a heathen, felt well disposed toward the
+missionary and A Hoa. So one day, very much afraid, he slipped
+over to the little house with two small cups of strong tea. He
+came to the door and proffered them with a polite bow. He hoped
+they might prove soothing to the disturbed nerves of the
+patients, he said. He suggested, also, that a visit to the
+nearest temple might help them.
+
+The two affected ones received his advice politely, but the humor
+of it struck them both, and when their visitor was gone they
+laughed so hard the tea nearly choked them.
+
+The missionary was soon able to speak so fluently that he
+preached almost every day, either in the little house by the
+river, or on the street in some open square. There were other
+things he did, too. On every side he saw great suffering from
+disease. The chief malady was the terrible malaria, and the
+native doctors with their ridiculous remedies only made the poor
+sufferers worse. Mackay had studied medicine for a short time
+while in college, and now found his knowledge very useful. He
+gave some simple remedies to several victims of malaria which
+proved effective. The news of the cures spread far and wide. The
+barbarian was kind, he had a good heart, the people declared.
+Many more came to him for medicine, and day by day the circle of
+his friends grew. And wherever he went, curing disease, teaching,
+or preaching, A Hoa went with him, and shared with him the taunts
+of their heathen enemies.
+
+But the gospel was gradually making its way. Not long after A
+Hoa's conversion a second man confessed Christ. He had previously
+disturbed the meetings by throwing stones into the doorway
+whenever he passed. But his sister was cured of malaria by the
+missionary's medicine, and soon both sister and mother became
+Christians, and finally the stone-thrower himself. And so,
+gradually, the lines of the enemy were falling back, and at every
+sign of retreat the little army of two advanced. A little army?
+No! For was there not the whole host of heaven moving with them?
+And Mackay was learning that his boyish dreams of glory were
+truly to be fulfilled. He had wanted always to be a soldier like
+his grandfather, and fight a great Waterloo, and here he was
+right in the midst of the battle with the victory and the glory
+sure.
+
+The two missionaries often went on short trips here and there
+into the country around Tamsui, and Mackay determined that when
+the intense summer heat had lessened they would make a long tour
+to some of the large cities. The heat of August was almost
+overpowering to the Canadian. Flies and mosquitoes and insect
+pests of all kinds made his life miserable, too, and prevented
+his studying as hard as he wished.
+
+One oppressive day he and A Hoa returned from a preaching tour in
+the country to find their home in a state of siege. Right across
+the threshold lay a monster serpent, eight feet in length. A Hoa
+shouted a warning, and seized a long pole, and the two managed to
+kill it. But their troubles were not yet over. The next morning,
+Mackay stepped outside the door and sprang back just in time to
+escape another, the mate of the one killed. This one was even
+larger than the first, and was very fierce. But they finished it
+with sticks and stones.
+
+When September came the days grew clearer, and the many pests of
+summer were not so numerous. The mosquitoes and flies that had
+been such torments disappeared, and there was some relief from
+the damp oppressive heat. But he had only begun to enjoy the
+refreshing breaths of cool air, and had remarked to A Hoa that
+days reminded him of Canadian summers, when the weather gave him
+to understand that every Formosan season has its drawbacks.
+September brought tropical storms and typhoons that were
+terrible, and he saw from his little house on the hillside big
+trees torn up by the root, buildings swept away like chaff, and
+out in the harbor great ships lifted from their anchorage and
+whirled away to destruction. And then he was sometimes thankful
+that his little hut was built into the hillside, solid and
+secure.
+
+But the fierce storms cleared away the heavy dampness that had
+made the heat of the summer so unbearable, and October and
+November brought delightful days. The weather was still warm of
+course, but the nights were cool and pleasant.
+
+So early one October morning, Mackay and A Hoa started off on a
+tour to the cities.
+
+"We shall go to Kelung first," said the missionary. Kelung was a
+seaport city on the northern coast, straight east across the
+island from Tamsui. A coolie to carry food and clothing was
+hired, and early in the morning, while the stars were still
+shining, they passed through the sleeping town and out on the
+little paths between the rice-fields. Though it was yet scarcely
+daylight, the farmers were already in their fields. It was
+harvest-time--the second harvest of the year--and the little
+rice-fields were no longer like mirrors, but were filled with
+high rustling grain ready for the sickle. The water had been
+drained off and the reaper and thrasher were going through the
+fields before dawn. There was no machinery like that used at
+home. The reaper was a short sickle, the thrashing-machine a kind
+of portable tub, and Mackay looked at them with some amusement,
+and described to A Hoa how they took off the great wheat crops in
+western Canada.
+
+The two were in high spirits, ready for any sort of adventure and
+they met some. Toward evening they reached a place called
+Sek-khau, and went to the little brick inn to get a
+sleeping-place. The landlord came to the door and was about to
+bid A Hoa enter, when the light fell upon Mackay's face. With a
+shout, "Black-bearded barbarian!" he slammed the door in their
+faces. They turned away, but already a crowd had begun to gather.
+"The black-bearded barbarian is here! The foreign devil from
+Tamsui has come!" was the cry. The mob followed the two down the
+streets, shouting curses. Some one threw a broken piece of brick,
+another a stone. Mackay turned and faced them, and for a few
+moments they seemed cowed. But the crowd was increasing, and he
+deemed it wise to move on. So the two marched out of the town
+followed by stones and curses. And, as they went, Mackay reminded
+A Hoa of what they had been reading the night before.
+
+"Yes," said A Hoa brightly. "The Lord was driven out of his own
+town in Galilee."
+
+"Yes, and Paul--you remember how he was stoned. Our Master counts
+us worthy to suffer for him." But where to go was the question.
+Before they could decide, night came down upon them, and it came
+in that sudden tropical way to which Mackay, all his life
+accustomed to the long mellow twilights of his northern home,
+could never grow accustomed. They each took a torch out of the
+carrier's bag, lighted it, and marched bravely on. The path led
+along the Kelung river, through tall grass. They were not sure
+where it led to, but thought it wise to follow the river; they
+would surely come to Kelung some time. Mackay was ahead, A Hoa
+right at his heels, and behind them the basket-bearer. At a
+sudden turn in the path A Hoa gave a shout of warning, and the
+next instant, a band of robbers leaped from the long reeds and
+grass, and brandished their spears in the travelers' faces. The
+torchlight shone on their fierce evil eyes and their long knives,
+making a horrible picture. The young Canadian Scot did not flinch
+for a second. He looked the wild leader straight in the face.
+
+"We have no money, so you cannot rob us," he said steadily, "and
+you must let us pass at once. I am a teacher and--"
+
+"A TEACHER!" he was interrupted by a dismayed exclamation from
+several of the wild band. "A teacher!" As if with one accord they
+turned and fled into the darkness. For even a highwayman in China
+respects a man of learning. The travelers went on again, with
+something of relief and something of the exultation that youth
+feels in having faced danger. But a second trouble was upon them.
+One of those terrible storms that still raged occasionally had
+been brewing all evening, and now it opened its artillery. Great
+howling gusts came down from the mountain, carrying sheets of
+driving rain. Their torches went out like matches, and they were
+left to stagger along in the black darkness. What were they to
+do? They could not go back. They could not stay there. They
+scarcely dared go on. For they did not know the way, and any
+moment a fresh blast of wind or a misstep might hurl them into
+the river. But they decided that they must go on, and on they
+went, stumbling, slipping, sprawling, and falling outright. Now
+there would be an exclamation from Mackay as he sank to the knees
+in the mud of a rice-field, now a groan from A Hoa as he fell
+over a boulder and bruised and scratched himself, and oftenest a
+yell from the poor coolie, as he slipped, baskets and all, into
+some rocky crevice, and was sure he was tumbling into the river;
+but they staggered on, Mackay secure in his faith in God. His
+Father knew and his Father would keep him safely. And behind him
+came brave young A Hoa, buoyed up by his new growing faith, and
+learning the lesson that sometimes the Captain asks his soldier
+to march into hard encounters, but that the soldier must never
+flinch.
+
+The "everlasting arms" were around them, for by midnight they
+reached Kelung. They were drenched, breathless, and worn out, and
+they spent the night in a damp hovel, glad of any shelter from
+the wind and rain.
+
+But the next morning, young soldier A Hoa had a fiercer battle to
+fight than any with robbers or storms. As soon as the city was
+astir, Mackay and he went out to find a good place to preach.
+They passed down the main thoroughfare, and everywhere they
+attracted attention. Cries of "Ugly barbarian!" and oftenest
+"Black-bearded barbarian" were heard on all sides. A Hoa was
+known in Kelung and contempt and ridicule was heaped upon him by
+his old college acquaintances. He was consorting with the
+barbarian! He was a friend of this foreigner! They poured more
+insults upon him than they did upon the barbarian himself. Some
+took the stranger as a joke, and laughed and made funny remarks
+upon his appearance. Here and there an old woman, peeping through
+the doorway, would utter a loud cackling laugh, and pointing a
+wizened finger at the missionary would cry: "Eh, eh, look at him!
+Tee hee! He's got a wash basin on for a hat!" A Hoa was
+distressed at these remarks, but Mackay was highly amused.
+
+"We're drawing a crowd, anyway," he remarked cheerfully, "and
+that's what we want."
+
+Soon they came to an open square in front of a heathen temple.
+The building had several large stone steps leading up to the
+door. Mackay mounted them and stood facing the buzzing crowd,
+with A Hoa at his side. They started a hymn.
+
+All people that on earth do dwell
+Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
+
+The open square in front of them began to fill rapidly. The
+people jostled each other in their endeavors to get a view of the
+barbarian. Every one was curious, but every one was angry and
+indignant, so sometimes the sound of the singing was lost in the
+shouts of derision.
+
+When the hymn was finished, Mackay had a sudden inspiration.
+"They will surely listen to one of their own people," he said to
+himself, and turned to A Hoa.
+
+"Speak to them," he said. "Tell them about the true God."
+
+That was a hard moment for the young convert. He had been a
+Christian only a few months and had never yet spoken in public
+for Christ. He looked desperately over the sea of mocking faces
+beneath him. He opened his mouth, as though to speak, and
+hesitated. Just then came a rough and bitter taunt from one of
+his old companions. It was too much. A Hoa turned away and hung
+his head.
+
+The young missionary said nothing. But he did the very wisest
+thing he could have done. He had some time before taught A Hoa a
+grand old Scottish paraphrase, and they had often sung it
+together:
+
+I'm not ashamed to own my Lord
+Or to defend his cause,
+Maintain the glory of his cross
+And honor all his laws.
+
+Mackay's voice, loud and clear, burst into this fine old hymn. A
+Hoa raised his head. He joined in the hymn and sang it to the
+end. It put mettle into him. It was the battle-song that brought
+back the young recruit's courage. Almost before the last note
+sounded he began to speak. His voice rang out bold and unafraid
+over the crowd of angry heathen.
+
+"I am a Christian!" he said distinctly. "I worship the true God.
+I cannot worship idols," with a gesture toward the temple door,
+"that rats can destroy. I am not afraid. I love Jesus. He is my
+Savior and Friend."
+
+No, A Hoa was not "ashamed" any more. His testing time had come,
+and he had not failed after all. And his brave, true words sent a
+thrill of joy through the more seasoned soldier at his side.
+
+That was not the only difficult situation he met on that journey.
+The two soldiers of the cross had many trials, but the thrill of
+that victory before the Kelung temple never left them.
+
+When they returned to Tamsui they held daily services in their
+house, and A Hoa often spoke to the people who gathered there.
+
+One Sunday they noticed an old woman present, who had come down
+the river in a boat. Women as a rule did not come out to the
+meetings, but this old lady continued to come every Sunday. She
+showed great interest in the missionary's words, and, at the
+close of one meeting, he spoke to her. She told him she was a
+poor widow, that her name was Thah-so, and that she had come down
+the river from Go-ko-khi to hear him preach. Then she added, "I
+have passed through many trials in this world, and my idols never
+gave me any comfort." Then her eyes shone, "But I like your
+teaching very much," she went on. "I believe the God you tell
+about will give me peace. I will come again, and bring others."
+
+Next Sunday she was there with several other women. And after
+that she came every Sunday, bringing more each time, until at
+last a whole boat-load would come down to the service.
+
+These people were so interested that they asked the missionary if
+he would not visit them. So one day he and A Hoa boarded one of
+the queer-looking flat-bottomed river-boats and were pulled up
+the rapids to Go-ko-khi. Every village in Formosa had its
+headman, who is virtually the ruler of the place. When the boat
+landed, many of the villagers were at the shore to meet their
+visitors and took them at once to their mayor's house, the best
+building in the village. Tan Paugh, a fine, big, powerfully-built
+man, received them cordially. He frankly declared that he was
+tired and sick of idols and wanted to hear more of this new
+religion. An empty granary was obtained for both church and home,
+and the missionary and his assistant took up their quarters
+there, and for several months they remained, preaching and
+teaching the Bible either in Go-ko-khi, or in the lovely
+surrounding valleys.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. THE GREAT KAI BOK-SU
+
+The missionary was now becoming a familiar figure both in Tamsui
+and in the surrounding country. By many he was loved, by all he
+was respected, but by a large number he was bitterly hated. The
+scholars continued his worst enemies. They could never forgive
+him for beating them so completely in argument, in the days when
+A Hoa was striving for the light, and their hatred increased as
+they saw other scholars becoming Christians under his teaching.
+There was something about him, however, that compelled their
+respect and even their admiration. Wherever they met him--on the
+street, by their temples, or on the country roads--he bore
+himself in such a way as to make them confess that he was their
+superior both in ability and knowledge.
+
+These Chinese literati had a custom which Mackay found very
+interesting. One proud scholar marching down the street and
+scarcely noticing the obsequious bows of his inferiors, would
+meet another equally proud scholar. Each would salute the other
+in an exceedingly grand manner, and then one would spin off a
+quotation from the writings of Confucius or some other Chinese
+sage and say, "Now tell me where that is found." And scholar
+number two had to ransack his brains to remember where the saying
+was found, or else confess himself beaten. Mackay thought it
+might be a good habit for the graduates of his own alma mater
+across the wide sea to adopt. He wondered what some of his old
+college chums would think, if, when he got back to Canada, he
+should buttonhole one on the street some day, recite a quotation
+from Shakespeare or Macaulay, and demand from his friend where it
+could be found. He had a suspicion that the old friend would be
+afraid that the Oriental sun had touched George Mackay's brain.
+
+Nevertheless he thought the custom one he could turn to good
+account, and before long he was trying it himself. He had such a
+wonderful memory that he never forgot anything he had once read.
+So the scholars of north Formosa soon discovered, again to their
+humiliation, that this Kai Bok-su of Tamsui could beat them at
+their own game. They did not care how much he might profess to
+know of writers and lands beyond China. Such were only barbarians
+anyway. But when, right before a crowd, he would display a surer
+knowledge of the Chinese classics than they themselves, they
+began not only to respect but to fear him. It was no use trying
+to humiliate him with a quotation. With his bright eyes flashing,
+he would tell, without a moment's hesitation, where it was found
+and come back at the questioner swiftly with another, most
+probably one long forgotten, and reel it off as though he had
+studied Chinese all his life.
+
+He was a wonderful man certainly, they all agreed, and one whom
+it was not safe to oppose. The common people liked him better
+every day. He was so tactful, so kind, and always so careful not
+to arouse the prejudice of the heathen. He was extremely wise in
+dealing with their superstitions. No matter how absurd or
+childish they might be, he never ridiculed them, but only strove
+to show the people how much happier they might be if they
+believed in God as their Father and in Jesus Christ as their
+Savior. He never made light of anything sacred to the Chinese
+mind, but always tried to take whatever germ of good he could
+find in their religion, and lead on from it to the greater good
+found in Christianity. He discovered that the ancestral worship
+made the younger people kind and respectful to older folk, and he
+saw that Chinese children reverenced their parents and elders in
+a way that he felt many of his young friends across the sea would
+do well to copy.
+
+One day when he and A Hoa were out on a preaching tour, the wise
+Kai Bok-su made use of this respect for parents in quieting a
+mob. He and his comrade were standing side by side on the steps
+of a heathen temple as they had done at Kelung. The angry crowd
+was scowling and muttering, ready to throw stones as soon as the
+preacher uttered a word. Mackay knew this, and when they had sung
+a hymn and the people waited, ready for a riot, his voice rang
+out clear and steady, repeating the fifth commandment "Honor thy
+father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land
+which the Lord thy God giveth thee." A silence fell over the
+muttering crowd, and an old heathen whose cue was white and whose
+aged hands trembled on the top of his staff, nodded his head and
+said, "That is heavenly doctrine." The people were surprised and
+disarmed. If the black-bearded barbarian taught such truths as
+this, he surely was not so very wicked after all. And so they
+listened attentively as he went on to show that they had all one
+great Father, even God.
+
+He sometimes found it rather a task to treat with respect that
+which the Chinese held sacred. Especially was this so when he
+discovered to his amusement and to some carefully concealed
+disgust, that in the Chinese family the pig was looked upon with
+affection, and as a young naval officer, who visited Mackay
+remarked, "was treated like a gentleman."
+
+Every Chinese house of any size was made up of three buildings
+joined together so as to make three sides of an enclosure. This
+space was called a court, and a door led from it to another next
+the street. In this outer yard pigs and fowl were always to be
+found. Whenever the missionary dropped in at a home, mother pig
+and all the little pigs often followed him inside the house,
+quite like members of the family. Every one was always glad to
+see Kai Bok-su, pigs and all, and as soon as he appeared the
+order was given--"Infuse tea." And when the little handleless
+cups of clear brown liquid were passed around and they all drank
+and chatted, Mrs. Pig and her children strolled about as welcome
+as the guest.
+
+The Chinese would allow no one to hurt their pigs, either. One
+day as Mackay sat in his rooms facing the river, battling with
+some new Chinese characters, he heard a great hubbub coming up
+the street. The threatening mobs that used to surround his house
+had long ago ceased to trouble him. He arose in some surprise and
+went to the door to see what was the matter. A very unusual sight
+for Tamsui met his gaze. Coming up the street at a wild run were
+some half-dozen English sailors, their loose blue blouses and
+trousers flapping madly. They were evidently from a ship which
+Mackay had seen lying in the harbor that morning.
+
+"Give us a gun!" roared the foremost as soon as he saw the
+missionary.
+
+Mackay did not possess a gun, and would not have given the
+enraged bluejacket one had he owned a dozen. But the Chinese mob,
+roaring with fury, were coming up the street after the men and he
+swiftly pointed out a narrow alley that led down to the river.
+"Run down there!" he shouted to the sailors. "You can get to your
+boats before they find you."
+
+They were gone in an instant, and the next moment the crowd of
+pursuers were storming about the door demanding whither the enemy
+had disappeared.
+
+"What is all this disturbance about?" demanded Kai Bok-su calmly,
+glad of an opportunity to gain time for the fleeing sailors.
+
+The aggrieved Chinese gathered about him, each telling the story
+as loud as his voice would permit. Those barbarians of the sea
+had come swaggering along the streets waving their big sticks.
+And they had dared--yes actually DARED--to hit the pet pigs
+belonging to every house as they passed. The poor pigs who lay
+sunning themselves at the door!
+
+This was indeed a serious offense. Mackay could picture the
+rollicking sailor-lads gaily whacking the lazy porkers with their
+canes as they passed, happily unconscious of the trouble they
+were raising. But there was no amusement in Kai Bok-su's grave
+face. He spoke kindly, and soothingly, and promised that if the
+offenders misbehaved again he would complain to the authorities.
+That made it all right. Heathen though they were, they knew Kai
+Bok-su's promise would not be broken, and away they went quite
+satisfied.
+
+One day he learned, quite by accident, a new and very useful way
+of helping his people. He and A Hoa and several other young men
+who had become Christians, went on a missionary tour to
+Tek-chham, a large city which he had visited once before.
+
+On the day they left the place, Kai Bok-su's preaching had drawn
+such crowds that the authorities of the city became afraid of
+him. And when the little party left, a dozen soldiers were sent
+to follow the dangerous barbarian and his students and see that
+they did not bewitch the people on the road.
+
+The soldiers tramped along after the missionary party, and with
+his usual ability to make use of any situation, Mackay stepped
+back and chatted with his spies. He found one poor fellow in
+agony with the toothache. This malady was very common in north
+Formosa, partly owing to the habit of chewing the betel-nut. He
+examined the aching tooth and found it badly decayed. "There is a
+worm in it," the soldier said, for the Formosan doctors had
+taught the people this was the cause of toothache.
+
+Mackay had no forceps, but he knew how to pull a tooth, and he
+was not the sort to be daunted by the lack of tools. He got a
+piece of hard wood, whittled it into shape and with it pried out
+the tooth. The relief from pain was so great that the soldier
+almost wept for joy and overwhelmed the tooth-puller with
+gratitude. And for the remainder of the journey the guards sent
+to spy on the missionary's doings were his warmest friends.
+
+After this, dentistry became a part of this many-sided
+missionary's work. He went to a native blacksmith and had a pair
+of forceps hammered out of iron. It was a rather clumsy
+instrument, but it proved of great value, and later he sent for a
+complete set of the best instruments made in New York.
+
+So with forceps in one hand and the Bible in the other, Mackay
+found himself doubly equipped. Every second person seemed to be
+suffering from toothache, and when the pain was relieved by the
+missionary, the patient was in a state of mind to receive his
+teaching kindly. The cruel methods by which the native doctors
+extracted teeth often caused more suffering than the toothache,
+and sometimes even resulted in death through blood-poisoning.
+
+A Hoa and some of the other young converts learned from their
+teacher how to pull a tooth, and they, too, became experts in the
+art.
+
+Whenever they visited a town or city after this, they had a
+program which they always followed. First they would place
+themselves in front of an idol temple or in an open square. Here
+they would sing a hymn which always attracted a crowd. Next, any
+one who wanted a tooth pulled was invited to come forward. Many
+accepted the invitation gladly and sometimes a long line of
+twenty or thirty would be waiting, each his turn. The Chinese had
+considerable nerve, the Canadian discovered, and stood the pain
+bravely. They literally "stood" it, too, for there was no
+dentist's chair and every man stood up for his operation, very
+much pleased and very grateful when it was over. Then there were
+quinine and other simple remedies for malaria handed round, for
+in a Formosan crowd there were often many shaking in the grip of
+this terrible disease. And now, having opened the people's hearts
+by his kindness, Kai Bok-su brought forth his cure for souls. He
+would mount the steps of the temple or stand on a box or stone,
+and tell the wonderful old story of the man Jesus who was also
+God, and who said to all sick and weary and troubled ones, "Come
+unto me, . . . and I will give you rest." And often, when he had
+finished, the disease of sin in many a heart was cured by the
+remedy of the gospel.
+
+And so the autumn passed away happily and busily, and Mackay
+entered his first Formosan winter. And such a winter! The young
+man who had felt the clear, bright cold of a Canadian January
+needed all his fine courage to bear up under its dreariness. It
+started about Christmas time. Just when his own people far away
+in Canada were gathering about the blazing fire or jingling over
+the crisp snow in sleighs and cutters, the great winter rains
+commenced. Christmas day--his first Christmas in a land that did
+not know its beautiful meaning--was one long dreary downpour. It
+rained steadily all Christmas week. It poured on New Year's day
+and for a week after. It came down in torrents all January.
+February set in and still it rained and rained, with only a short
+interval each afternoon. Day and night, week in, week out, it
+poured, until Mackay forgot what sunlight looked like. His house
+grew damp, his clothes moldy. A stream broke out up in the hill
+behind and one morning he awoke to find a cascade tumbling into
+his kitchen, and rushing across the floor out into the river
+beyond. And still it poured and the wind blew and everything was
+damp and cold and dreary.
+
+He caught an occasional glimpse of snow, only a very far-off
+view, for it lay away up on the top of a mountain, but it made
+his heart long for just one breath of good dry Canadian air, just
+one whiff of the keen, cutting frost.
+
+But Kai Bok-su was not the sort to spend these dismal days
+repining. Indeed he had no time, even had he been so inclined.
+His work filled up every minute of every rainy day and hours of
+the drenched night. If there was no sunshine outside there was
+plenty in his brave heart, and A Hoa's whole nature radiated
+brightness.
+
+And there were many reasons for being happy after all. On the
+second Sabbath of February, 1873, just one year after his arrival
+in Tamsui, the missionary announced, at the close of one of his
+Sabbath services, that he would receive a number into the
+Christian church. There was instantly a commotion among the
+heathen who were in the house, and yells and jeers from those
+crowding about the door outside.
+
+"We'll stop him," they shouted. "Let us beat the converts," was
+another cry.
+
+But Mackay went quietly on with the beautiful ceremony in spite
+of the disturbance. Five young men, with A Hoa at their head,
+came and were baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and
+the Holy Spirit.
+
+When the next Sabbath came these five with their missionary sat
+down for the first time to partake of the Lord's Supper. It was a
+very impressive ceremony. One young fellow broke down, declaring
+he was not worthy. Mackay took him alone into his little room and
+they prayed together, and the young man came out to the Lord's
+Supper comforted, knowing that all might be worthy in Jesus
+Christ.
+
+Spring came at last, bright and clear, and Mackay announced to A
+Hoa that they must go up the river and visit their friends at Go-ko-khi. The two did not go alone this time. 
+Three other young men
+who wanted to be missionaries were now spending their days with
+their teacher, learning with A Hoa how to preach the gospel. So
+it was quite a little band of disciples that walked along the
+river bank up to Go-ko-khi. Mackay preached at all the villages
+along the route, and visited the homes of Christians.
+
+One day, as they passed a yamen or Chinese court-house where a
+mandarin was trying some cases, they stepped in to see what was
+going on. At one end of the room sat the mandarin who was judge.
+He was dressed in magnificent silks and looked down very
+haughtily upon the lesser people and the retinue of servants who
+were gathered about him. On either side of the room stood a row
+of constables and near them the executioners. The rest of the
+room was filled with friends of the people on trial and by the
+rabble from the street. The missionaries mixed with the former
+and stood watching proceedings. There were no lawyers, no jury.
+The mandarin's decision was law.
+
+The first case was one of theft. Whether the man had really
+committed the crime or not was a question freely discussed among
+the onlookers around Mackay. But there seemed no doubt as to his
+punishment being swift and heavy. "He has not paid the mandarin,"
+a friend explained to the missionary. "He will be punished."
+
+"The mandarin eats cash," remarked another with a shrug. It was a
+saying to which Mackay had become accustomed. For it was one of
+the shameless proverbs of poor, oppressed Formosa.
+
+The case was soon finished. Nothing was definitely proven against
+the man. But the mandarin pronounced the sentence of death. The
+victim was hurried out, shrieking his innocence, and praying for
+mercy. Case followed case, each one becoming more revolting than
+the last to the eyes of the young man accustomed to British
+justice. Imprisonment and torture were meted out to prisoners,
+and even witnesses were laid hold of and beaten on the face by
+the executioners if their tale did not suit the mandarin. Men who
+were plainly guilty but who had given their judge a liberal bribe
+were let off, while innocent men were made to pay heavy fines or
+were thrown into prison. The young missionary went out and on his
+way sickened by the sights he had witnessed. And as he went, he
+raised his eyes to heaven and prayed fervently that he might be a
+faithful preacher of the gospel, and that one day Formosa would
+be a Christian land and injustice and oppression be done away.
+
+The next scene was a happier one. There was an earnest little
+band of Christians in Go-ko-khi, and two of the young people were
+about to be married. It was the first Christian marriage in the
+place and Kai Bok-su was called upon to officiate. There was a
+great deal of opposition raised among the heathen, but after
+seeing the ceremony, they all voted a Christian wedding
+everything that was beautiful and good.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. BESIEGING HEAD-HUNTERS
+
+When they returned from their trip, Mackay and A Hoa with the
+assistance of some of their Christian friends set about looking
+for a new house in a more wholesome district. It was much easier
+for the missionary to rent a place now, and he managed to secure
+a comfortable home upon the bluff above the town. It was a dryer
+situation and much more healthful. Here one room was used as a
+study and every morning when not away on a tour a party of young
+men gathered in it for lessons. Sometimes, what with traveling,
+preaching, training his students, visiting the sick, and pulling
+teeth, Mackay had scarcely time to eat, and very little to sleep.
+But always as he came and went on his travels, his eyes would
+wander to the mountains where the savages lived, and with all his
+heart he would wish that he might visit them also.
+
+His Chinese friends held up their hands in dismay when he
+broached the subject. To the mountains where the Chhi-hoan lived!
+Did Kai Bok-su not know that every man of them was a practised
+head-hunter, and that behind every rock and tree and in the
+darkness of the forests they lay in wait for any one who went
+beyond the settled districts? Yes, Kai Bok-su knew all that, but
+he could not quite explain that it was just that which made the
+thought of a visit to them seem so alluring, just that which made
+him so anxious to tell them of Jesus Christ, who wished all men
+to live as brothers. A Hoa and a few others who had caught the
+spirit of the true soldier of the cross understood. For they had
+learned that one who follows Jesus must be ready to dare
+anything, death included, to carry the news of his salvation to
+the dark corners of the world.
+
+But the days were so filled with preaching, teaching, and
+touring, that for some time Mackay had no opportunity for a trip
+into the head-hunters' territory. And then one day, quite
+unexpectedly, his chance came. There sailed into Tamsui harbor,
+one hot afternoon, a British man-of-war, named The Dwarf. Captain
+Bax from this vessel visited Tamsui, and expressed a desire to
+see something of the life of the savages in the mountains. This
+was Mackay's opportunity, and in spite of protests from his
+friends he offered to accompany the captain. So together they
+started off, the sailor-soldier of England and the soldier of the
+cross, each with the same place in view but each with a very
+different object.
+
+It took three days journey from Tamsui across rice-fields and up
+hillsides to reach even the foot of the mountains. Here there
+lived a village of natives, closely related to the savages. But
+they were not given to head-hunting and were quite friendly with
+the people about them. Mackay had met some of these people on a
+former trip inland, and now he and Captain Bax hired their chief
+and a party of his men to guide them up into savage territory.
+
+The travelers slept that night in the village, and before dawn
+were up and ready to start on their dangerous undertaking. Before
+them in the gray dawn rose hill upon hill, each loftier than the
+last, till they melted into the mountains, the territory of the
+dreaded head-hunters. They started off on a steady tramp, up
+hills, down valleys, and across streams, until at last they came
+to the foot of the first mountain.
+
+Before them rose its sheer side, towering thirty-five hundred
+feet above their heads. It was literally covered with rank growth
+of all kinds, through which it was impossible to move. So a plan
+of march had to be decided upon. In front went a line of men with
+long sharp knives. With these they cut away the creepers and
+tangled scrub or undergrowth. Next came the coolies with the
+baggage, and last the two travelers. It was slow work, and
+sometimes the climb was so steep they held their breath, as they
+crept over a sheer ledge and saw the depth below to which they
+might easily be hurled. The chief of the guides himself collapsed
+in one terrible climb, and his men tied rattan ropes about him
+and hauled him up over the steepest places.
+
+During this wearisome ascent the most untiring one was the
+missionary; and the sailor often looked at him in amazement. His
+lithe, wiry frame never seemed to grow weary. He was often in the
+advance line, cutting his way through the tangle, and here on
+that first afternoon he met with an unpleasant adventure.
+
+The natives had warned the two strangers to be on the lookout for
+poisonous snakes, and Mackay's year in Formosa had taught him to
+be wary. But he had forgotten all danger in the toilsome climb.
+He was soon reminded of it. They were passing up a slope covered
+with long dense grass when a rustling at his side made the young
+missionary pause. The next moment a huge cobra sprang out from a
+clump of grass and struck at him. Mackay sprang aside just in
+time to escape its deadly fangs. The guides rushed up with their
+spears only to see its horrible scaly length disappear in the
+long grass.
+
+That was not the only escape of the young adventurer, for there
+were wild animals as well as poisonous snakes along the line of
+march, and the man in the front was always in danger. But at the
+front Mackay must be in spite of all warning. Nobody moved fast
+enough for him.
+
+At last they reached the summit of the range. They were now on
+the dividing line between Chinese ground and savage territory,
+and the men who dared go a step farther went at terrible risk.
+The head-hunters would very likely see that they did not return.
+
+But Mackay was all for pushing forward, and Captain Bax was no
+less eager. So they spent a night in the forest and the next day
+marched on up another and higher range. As they journeyed, the
+travelers could not but burst into exclamations of delight at the
+loveliness about them. Behind those great trees and in those
+tangles of vines might lurk the head-hunters, but for all that
+the beauty of the place made them forget the dangers. The great
+banyan trees whose branches came down and took root in the earth,
+making a wonderful round leafy tent, grew on every side. Camphor
+trees towered far above them and then spread out great branches
+sixty or seventy feet from the ground. Then there was the rattan
+creeping out over the tops of the other trees and making a thick
+canopy through which the hot tropical sun-rays could not
+penetrate.
+
+
+And the flowers! Sometimes Mackay and Bax would stand amazed at
+their beauty. They came one afternoon to an open glade in the
+cool green dimness of the forest. On all sides the stately
+tree-ferns rose up thirty or forty feet above them, and
+underneath grew a tangle of lovely green undergrowth.
+
+And upon this green carpet it seemed to their dazzled eyes that
+thousands of butterflies of the loveliest form and color had just
+alighted. And not only butterflies, but birds and huge insects
+and all sorts of winged creatures, pink and gold and green and
+scarlet and blue, and all variegated hues. But the lovely things
+sat motionless, sending out such a delightful perfume that there
+could be no doubt that they were flowers,--the wonderful orchids
+of Formosa! Mackay was a keen scientist, always highly interested
+in botany, and he was charmed with this sight. There were many
+such in the forest, and often he would stop spellbound before a
+blaze of flowers hanging from tree or vine or shrub. Then he
+would look up at the tangled growths of the bamboo, the palm, and
+the elegant tree-fern, standing there all silent and beautiful,
+and he would be struck by the harmony between God's work and
+Word. "I can't keep from studying the flora of Formosa," he said
+to Captain Bax. "What missionary would not be a better man, the
+bearer of a richer gospel, what convert would not be a more
+enduring Christian from becoming acquainted with such wonderful
+works of the Creator?"
+
+At last they stood on the summit of the second range and saw
+before them still more mountains, clothed from summit to base
+with trees. They were now right in savage territory and their
+guide clambered out upon a spur of rock and announced that there
+was a party of head-hunters in the valley below. He gave a long
+halloo. From away down in the valley came an answering call,
+ringing through the forest. Then far down through the thicket
+Mackay's sharp eyes descried the party coming up to meet them.
+Just then their own guide gave the signal to move on, and the
+missionary and Captain Bax walked down the hill--the first white
+men who had ever come out to meet those savages.
+
+Half-way down the slope the two parties came face to face. The
+head-hunters were a wild, uncouth-looking company, armed to the
+teeth. They all carried guns, spears, and knives and some had
+also bows and arrows slung over their backs. Their faces were
+hideously tattooed in a regular pattern, while they wore no more
+clothes than were necessary. A sort of sack of coarse linen with
+holes in the sides for their arms, served as the chief garment,
+and generally the only one. Every one wore a broad belt of woven
+rattan in which was stuck his crooked pointed knife. Some of the
+younger men had their coats ornamented with bright red and blue
+threads woven into the texture. They had brass rings on their
+arms and legs too, and even sported big earrings. These were ugly
+looking things made of bamboo sticks. The head-hunters were all
+barefooted, but most of them wore caps--queer-looking things,
+made of rattan. From many of them hung bits of skin of the boar
+or other wild animals they had killed. They stood staring
+suspiciously at the two strangers. Never before had they seen a
+white man, and the appearance of the naval officer and the
+missionary, so different from themselves, and yet so different
+from their hated enemies, the Chinese, filled them with amazement
+and a good deal of suspicion. After a little talk with the
+guides, however, the visitors were allowed to pass on. As soon as
+they began to move, the savages fell into line behind them and
+followed closely. The two white men, walking calmly onward, could
+not help thinking how easy it would be for one of those
+fierce-looking tattooed braves to win applause by springing upon
+both of them and carrying their heads in triumph to the next
+village.
+
+As they came down farther into the valley, they passed the place
+where the savages had their camp. Here naked children and
+tattooed women crept out of the dense woods to stare at the
+queer-looking Chinamen who had white faces and wore no cue.
+
+The march through this valley, even without the head-hunters at
+their heels, would not have been easy. The visitors clambered
+over huge trunks blown across the path, and tore their clothes
+and hands scrambling through the thorny bushes. The sun was still
+shining on the mountain-peaks far above them, but away down here
+in the valley it was rapidly growing dark and very cold. They had
+almost decided to stop and wait for morning when a light ahead
+encouraged them to go on. They soon came upon a big camp-fire and
+round it were squatted several hundred savages. The firelight
+gleaming upon the dark, fierce faces of the head-hunters and on
+their spears and knives, made a startling picture.
+
+They were round the visitors immediately, staring at the two
+white men in amazement. The party of savages who had escorted
+them seemed to be making some explanation of their appearance,
+for they all subsided at last and once more sat round their fire.
+
+The newcomers started a fire of their own, and their servants
+cooked their food. The white men were in momentary danger of
+their lives. But they sat on the ground before the fire and
+quietly ate their supper while hundreds of savage eyes were fixed
+upon them in suspicious, watchful silence.
+
+The meal over the servants prepared a place for the travelers to
+sleep, and while they were so doing, the young missionary was not
+idle. He longed to speak to these poor, darkened heathen, but
+they could not understand Chinese. However, he found several poor
+fellows lying prostrate on the ground, overcome with malaria, and
+he got his guide to ask if he might not give the sick ones
+medicine. Being allowed to do so, he gave each one a dose of
+quinine. The poor creatures tried to look their gratitude when
+the terrible chills left them, and soon they were able to sink
+into sleep.
+
+Before he retired to his own bed of boughs, the young missionary
+sang that grand old anthem which these lonely woods and their
+savage inhabitants had never yet heard:
+
+All people that on earth do dwell,
+Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
+
+But these poor people could not "sing to the Lord," for they had
+never yet so much as heard his name.
+
+All night the missionary lay on the ground, finding the chill
+mountain air too cold for sleep, and whenever he looked out from
+his shelter of boughs he saw hundreds of savage eyes, gleaming in
+the firelight, still wide open and fixed upon him.
+
+Day broke late in the valley, but the travelers were astir in the
+morning twilight. The mountain-tops were touched with rosy light
+even while it was dark down in these forest depths.
+
+The chilled white men were glad to get up and exercise their
+stiffened limbs. There were several of their party who could
+speak both Chinese and the dialect of these mountaineers, and
+through them Mackay persuaded the chief of the tribe to take them
+to visit his village.
+
+He seemed reluctant at first and there was much discussion with
+his braves. Evidently they were more anxious to go on a head-hunt
+than to act the part of hosts. However, after a great deal of
+chatter, they consented, and the chief and his son with thirty
+men separated themselves from the rest of the band and led the
+way out of the valley up the mountainside. The travelers had to
+stop often, for, besides the natural difficulties of the way, the
+chief proved a new obstacle. Every mile or so he would apparently
+repent of his hospitality. He would stop, gather his tattooed
+braves about him and confer with them, while his would-be
+visitors sat on the ground or a fallen tree-trunk to await his
+pleasure. Finally he would start off again, the travelers
+following, but no sooner were they under way than again their
+uncertain guide would stop. Once he and his men stood motionless,
+listening. Away up in the boughs of a camphor tree a little
+tailor-bird was twittering. The savages listened as though to the
+voice of an oracle.
+
+"What are they doing?" Mackay asked of one of his men, when the
+head-hunters stopped a second time and stared earnestly at the
+boughs above.
+
+"Bird-listening," explained the guide. A few more questions drew
+from him the fact that the savages believed the little birds
+would tell them whether or not they should bring these strangers
+home. They always consulted the birds when starting out on a
+head-hunt, he further explained. If the birds gave a certain kind
+of chirp and flew in a certain direction, then all was well, and
+the hunters would go happily forward. But if the birds acted in
+the opposite way, nothing in the world could persuade the chief
+to go on. Evidently the birds gave their permission to bring the
+travelers home, for in spite of many halts, the savages still
+moved forward.
+
+They had been struggling for some miles through underbrush and
+prickly rattan and the white men's clothes were torn and their
+hands scratched. Now, however, they came upon a well-beaten path,
+winding up the mountainside, and it proved a great relief to the
+weary travelers. But here occurred another delay. The savages all
+stopped, and the chief approached Mackay and spoke to him through
+the interpreter. Would the white man join him in a head-hunting
+expedition, was his modest request. There were some Chinese not
+so far below them, cutting out rattan, and he was sure they could
+secure one or more heads. He shook the big net head-bag that hung
+over his shoulder and grinned savagely as he made his proposal.
+If the white men and their party would come at the enemy from one
+side, he and his men would attack them from the other, he said,
+and they would be sure to get them all. The incongruity of a
+Christian missionary being invited on a head-hunt struck Captain
+Bax as rather funny in spite of its gruesomeness. This was a
+delicate situation to handle, but Mackay put a bold front on it.
+He answered indignantly that he and his friend had come in peace
+to visit the chief, and that he was neither kind nor honorable in
+trying to get his visitors to fight his battles.
+
+The interpreter translated and for a moment several pairs of
+savage eyes gleamed angrily at the bold white man. But second
+thoughts proved calmer. After another council the savages moved
+on.
+
+They were now at the top of a range, and every one was ordered to
+halt and remain silent. Mackay thought that advice was again to
+be asked of some troublesome little birds, but instead the
+savages raised a peculiar long-drawn shout. It was answered at
+once from the opposite mountain-top, and immediately the whole
+party moved on down the slope.
+
+Here was the same lovely tangle of vines and ferns and beautiful
+flowers. Monkeys sported in the trees and chattered and scolded
+the intruders. Down one range and up another they scrambled and
+at last they came upon the village of the head-hunters.
+
+It lay in a valley in an open space where the forest trees had
+been cleared away. It consisted of some half-dozen houses or huts
+made of bamboo or wickerwork, and the place seemed literally
+swarming with women and children and noisy yelping dogs. But even
+these could not account for the terrible din that seemed to fill
+the valley. Such unearthly yells and screeches the white men had
+never heard before.
+
+"What is it?" asked Captain Bax. "Has the whole village gone
+mad?"
+
+Mackay turned to one of his guides, and the man explained that
+the noise came from a village a little farther down the valley. A
+young hunter had returned with a Chinaman's head, and his friends
+were rejoicing over it. The merrymaking sounded to the visitors
+more like the howling of a pack of fiends, for it bore no
+resemblance to any human sounds they had ever heard.
+
+Fortunately they were invited to stop at the nearer village and
+were not compelled to take part in the horrible celebration. They
+were taken at once to the chief's house. It was the best in the
+village, and boasted of a floor, made of rattan ropes half an
+inch thick. All along the outside wall, under the eaves, hung a
+row of gruesome ornaments, heads of the boar and deer and other
+wild animals killed in the chase, and here and there mingled with
+them the skulls of Chinamen. The house held one large room, and,
+as it was a cold evening, a fire burned at either end of it. At
+one end the men stood chatting, at the other the women squatted.
+The visitors were invited to sit by the men's fire. There were
+several beds along the wall, two of which were offered to the
+strangers. But they were not prepared to remain for the night,
+and had decided to start back before the shadows fell.
+
+The whole village came to the chief's house and crowded round the
+newcomers, men first, women and children on the outskirts, and
+dogs still farther back. Several men came forward and claimed
+Mackay as a friend. They touched their own breasts and then his,
+in salutation, grinning in a most friendly manner. The young
+missionary was at first puzzled, then smiled delightedly. They
+were some of the poor fellows to whom he had given quinine the
+evening before in the valley.
+
+This greeting seemed to encourage the others. They became more
+friendly and suddenly one man who had been circling round the
+visitors touched the back of Mackay's head and exclaimed, "They
+do not wear the cue! They are our kinsmen." From that moment they
+were treated with far greater kindness, and on several other
+visits that Mackay made to the head-hunters, they always spoke
+with interest of him as kinsman.
+
+But all danger was not over. The savages were still suspicious,
+and at any moment the newcomers might excite them. So they
+decided to start back at once, while every one was in a friendly
+mood. They made presents to the chief and some of his leading
+men; and left with expressions of good-will on both sides.
+
+By evening they had reached the valley where they had first met
+the savages and here they prepared to spend the night. They had
+no sooner kindled their fires than from the darkness on every
+side shadowy forms silently emerged,--the savages come to visit
+them! They glided out of the black forest into the ring of
+firelight and squatted upon the ground until fully five hundred
+dusky faces looked out at the travelers from the gloom. It was
+rather an unpleasant situation, there in the depths of the
+forest, but Mackay turned it to good account. First he and
+Captain Bax made presents to the headmen and they were as pleased
+as children to receive the gay ornaments and bright cloth the
+travelers gave them. And then Mackay called their interpreter to
+his side and they stood up together, facing the crowd. Speaking
+through his interpreter, the missionary said he wished to tell
+them a story. These mountain savages were veritable children in
+their love for a story, as they were in so many other ways, and
+their eyes gleamed with delight.
+
+It was a wonderful story he told them, the like of which they had
+never heard before. It was about the great God, who had made the
+earth and the people on it, and was the Father of them all. He
+told how God loved everybody, because they were his children.
+Chinese, white men beyond the sea like himself and Captain Bax,
+the people of the mountains,--all were God's children. And so all
+men were brothers, and should love God their Father and each
+other. And because God loved his children so, he sent his Son,
+Jesus Christ, to live among men and to die for them. He told the
+story simply and beautifully, just as he would to little
+children, and these children of the forest listened and their
+savage eyes grew less fierce as they heard for the first time of
+the story of the Savior.
+
+The next day, after a toilsome journey, the travelers reached the
+plain below. They had made their dangerous trip and had escaped
+the head-hunters, but as fierce an enemy was lying in wait for
+both, an enemy that in Formosa devours native and foreigner
+alike. Captain Bax was the first to be attacked. All day, as they
+descended the mountain, the rain came down in torrents, a real
+Formosan rain that is like the floodgates opening. The travelers
+were drenched and chilly, and just as they emerged from the
+forest Captain Bax succumbed to the enemy. Malaria had smitten
+him.
+
+Shaking with chills and then burning with fever, he was placed in
+a sedan-chair and carried the remainder of the way, three days'
+journey, to the coast, where the medical attendants on board his
+ship cured him. Mackay was feeling desperately ill all the way
+across the plain, but with his usual determination he refused to
+give in until he almost staggered across the threshold of his
+home.
+
+The house had been closed in his absence. It was now damp and
+chilly and everything was covered with mold. He lay down in his
+bed, alternately shivering with cold and burning with fever. In
+the next room A Hoa, who had gone to bed also, heard his teeth
+chattering and came to him at once. It was a terrible thing to
+the young fellow to see his dauntless Kai Bok-su overcome by any
+kind of force. It seemed impossible that he who had cured so many
+should become a victim himself. A Hoa proved a kind nurse. He
+stayed by the bedside all night, doing everything in his power to
+allay the fever. His efforts proved successful, and in a few days
+the patient was well. But never again was he quite free from the
+dreaded disease, and all the rest of his life he was subject to
+the most violent attacks of malaria, a terrible memento by which
+he was always to remember his first visit to the headhunters.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. CITIES CAPTURED AND FORTS BUILT
+
+Up the river to Go-ko-khi! That was always a joy, and whenever
+Mackay could take a day from his many duties, with A Hoa and one
+or more other students, he would go up and visit old Thah-so and
+the kindly people of this little village.
+
+One day, after they had preached in the empty granary and the
+rain had come in, Mr. Tan, the headman, walked up the village
+street with them, and he made them an offer. They might have the
+plot of ground opposite his house for a chapel-site. This was
+grand news. A chapel in north Formosa! Mackay could hardly
+believe it, but it seemed that there really was to be one. There
+were many Christians in Go-ko-khi now, and each one was ready for
+work. Some collected stones, others prepared sun-dried bricks,
+others dug the foundation, and the first church in north Formosa
+was commenced.
+
+Now Go-ko-khi was, unfortunately, near the great city of
+Bang-kah. This was the most hostile and wicked place in all that
+country, and A Hoa and Mackay had been stoned out of it on their
+visit there. The people in Bang-kah learned of the new church
+building, and one day, when the brick walls were about three feet
+high, there arose a tramp of feet, beating of drums, and loud
+shouts, and up marched a detachment of soldiers sent with orders
+from the prefect of Bang-kah to stop the building of the chapel.
+Their officers went straight to the house of the headman with his
+commands. Mr. Tan was six feet two and he rose to his full height
+and towered above his visitor majestically. The "mayor" of
+Go-ko-khi was a Christian now, and on the wall of his house was
+pasted a large sheet of paper with the ten commandments printed
+on it. He pointed to this and said: "I am determined to abide by
+these." The officer was taken aback. He was scarcely prepared to
+defy the headman, and he went away to stir up the villagers. But
+everywhere the soldiers met with opposition. There seemed no one
+who would take their part. The officer knew he and his men were
+scarcely within their rights in what they were doing; so, fearing
+trouble, he marched back to the city, reporting there that the
+black-bearded barbarian had bewitched the villagers with some
+magic art.
+
+The prefect of Bang-kah next sent a message to the British
+consul. The missionary was building a fort at Go-ko-khi, he
+declared in great alarm, and would probably bring guns up the
+river at night. He was a very bad man indeed, and if the British
+consul desired peace he should stop this wicked Kai Bok-su at
+once. And the British consul down in his old Dutch fort at Tamsui
+laughed heartily over the letter, knowing all about Kai Bok-su
+and the sort of fort he was building.
+
+So, in spite of all opposition, the little church rose steadily
+up and up until it was crowned with a tiled roof and was ready
+for the worshipers.
+
+That was a great day for north Formosa and its young missionary,
+the day the first church was opened. The place was packed to the
+doors, and many stood outside listening at the windows. And of
+that crowd one hundred and fifty arose and declared that from
+henceforth they would cast away their idols and worship only the
+one and true God. Standing up there in his first pulpit and
+looking down upon the crowd of upturned faces, and seeing the new
+light in them which the blessed good news of Jesus and his love
+had brought, Kai Bok-su's heart swelled with joy.
+
+He stayed with them some time after this, for, though so many
+people had become Christians, they were like little children and
+needed much careful teaching. Especially they must learn how to
+live as Jesus Christ would have his followers live. Many heathen
+as well as the Christians came to his meetings and listened
+eagerly. At first the people found it almost impossible to sit
+quiet and still during a service. They had never been accustomed
+to such a task, and some of the missionary's experiences were
+very funny. When they had sung a hymn and had settled down to
+listen to the address, the preacher would no sooner start than
+out would come one long pipe after another, pieces of flint would
+strike on steel, and in a few minutes the smoke would begin to
+ascend. Mackay would pause and gently tell them that as this was
+a Christian service they must not do anything that might disturb
+it. They were anxious to do just as he bade, so the pipes would
+disappear, and nodding their heads politely they would say, "Oh,
+yes, we must be quiet; oh, yes, indeed."
+
+One day when the congregation was very still and their young
+pastor was speaking earnest words to them, one man less attentive
+than the others happened to glance out of the window. Instantly
+he sprang to his feet shouting, "Buffaloes in the rice-fields!
+Buffaloes in the rice-fields!" and away he went with a good
+fraction of the congregation helter-skelter at his heels.
+
+The missionary spoke again upon the necessity of quiet, and his
+hearers nodded agreeably and murmured, "Yes, yes, we must be
+quiet."
+
+They were very good for the next few minutes and the minister had
+reached a very important point in his address, when there was a
+great disturbance at the door. An old woman came hobbling up on
+her small feet and poking her head in at the church door
+screamed, "My pig has gone! Pig has gone!" and away went another
+portion of the congregation to help find the truant porker.
+
+But, in spite of many interruptions, the congregation at
+Go-ko-khi learned much of the beautiful truth of their new
+religion. Their indulgent pastor never blamed his restless
+hearers, but before the church was two months old he had trained
+them so well that there was not a more orderly and attentive
+congregation even in his own Christian Canada than that which
+gathered in the first chapel in north Formosa.
+
+But the day came at last when he had to leave them, and the
+question was who should be left over them. The answer seemed very
+plain,--A Hoa. The first convert placed as pastor over the first
+church! It was very fitting. Some months before, down in Tamsui,
+when A Hoa had been baptized and had taken his first communion,
+he had vowed to give his life more fully to his Master's service.
+So here was his field of labor, and here he began his work. He
+was so utterly sincere and lovable, so bright and jovial, so firm
+of purpose and yet so kindly, that he was soon beloved by all the
+Christians and respected by the heathen. And one of his greatest
+helpers was widow Thah-so, who had been instrumental in bringing
+the missionary with his glad tidings to her village.
+
+Mackay missed A Hoa sorely at first, but he had his other
+students about him, and often when bent upon a long journey would
+send for his first convert, and together they would travel here
+and there over the island, making new recruits everywhere for the
+army of their great Captain.
+
+The little church at Go-ko-khi was but the first of many. Like
+the hepaticas that used to peep forth in the missionary's home
+woods, telling that spring had arrived, here and there they came
+up, showing that the long cruel winter of heathenism in north
+Formosa was drawing to an end.
+
+Away up the Tamsui river, nestled at the foot of the mountains,
+stood a busy town called Sin-tiam. A young man from this place
+sailed down to Tamsui on business one day and there heard the
+great Kai Bok-su preach of the new Jehovah-God, he went home full
+of the wonderful news, and so much did he talk about it that a
+large number of people in Sin-tiam were very anxious to hear the
+barbarian themselves. So one day a delegation came down the river
+to the house on the bluff above Tamsui. They made this request
+known to the missionary as he sat teaching his students in the
+study. Would he not come and tell the people of Sin-tiam the
+story about this Jesus-God who loved all men? Would he go? Kai
+Bok-su was on the road almost before the slow-going Orientals had
+finished delivering the message.
+
+It was the season of a feast to their idols in Sin-tiam when the
+missionary and his party arrived. Great crowds thronged the
+streets, and the barbarian with his white face and his black
+beard and his queer clothes attracted unusual attention. The
+familiar cry, "Foreign devil," was mingled with "Kill the
+barbarian," "Down with the foreigner." The crowd began to surge
+closer around the missionary party, and affairs looked very
+serious. Suddenly a little boy right in Mackay's path was struck
+on the head by a brick intended for the missionary. He was picked
+up, and Mackay, pressing through the crowd to where the little
+fellow lay, took out his surgical instruments and dressed the
+wound. All about him the cries of "Kill the foreign devil"
+changed to cries of "Good heart! Good heart!" The crowd became
+friendly at once, and Mackay passed on, having had once more a
+narrow escape from death.
+
+The work of preaching to these people was carried on vigorously,
+and before many months had passed the Christians met together and
+declared they must build a chapel for the worship of the true
+God. So, close by the riverside, in a most picturesque spot, the
+walls of the second chapel of north Formosa began to rise. It was
+not without opposition of course. One rabid idol-worshiper
+stopped before the half-finished building with its busy workmen,
+and, picking up a large stone, declared that he would smash the
+head of the black-bearded barbarian if the work was not stopped
+that moment. Needless to say, the missionary, standing within a
+good stone's throw of his enemy, ordered the workers to continue.
+George Mackay was not to be stopped by all the stones in north
+Formosa.
+
+This stone was never thrown, however, and at last the chapel was
+finished. Once more a preacher was ready to be its pastor. Tan
+He, a young man who had been studying earnestly under his leader
+for some time, was placed over this second congregation, and once
+more there blossomed out a sure sign that the spring had indeed
+come to north Formosa.
+
+Tek-chham, a walled city of over forty thousand inhabitants, was
+the next place to be attacked by this little army of the King's
+soldiers. The first visit of the missionary caused a riot, but
+before long Tek-chham had a chapel with some of the rioters for
+its best members, and a once proud graduate and worshiper of
+Confucius installed in it as its pastor.
+
+Ten miles from Tek-chham stood a little village called Geh-bai.
+The missionary-soldiers visited it, and to their delight found a
+church building ready for them. It was quite a wonderful place,
+capable of holding fully a thousand people without much crowding.
+Its roof was the boughs of the great banyan tree; its one pillar
+the trunk, and its walls the branches that bent down to enter the
+ground and take root. It made a delightful shelter from the
+broiling sun. And here Kai Bok-su preached. But a banyan does not
+give perfect shelter in all kinds of weather, so when a number of
+people had declared themselves followers of the Lord Jesus, a
+large house was rented and fitted up as a chapel, with another
+native pastor over it.
+
+Away over at Kelung a church was founded through a man who had
+carried the gospel home from one of the missionary's sermons.
+Here and there the hepaticas were springing up. From all sides
+came invitations to preach the great news of the true God, and
+the young missionary gave himself scarcely time to eat or sleep.
+He worked like a giant himself, and he inspired the same spirit
+in the students that accompanied him. He was like a Napoleon
+among his soldiers. Wherever he went they would go, even though
+it would surely mean abuse and might mean death. And, wherever
+they went, they brought such a wonderful, glad change to people's
+hearts that they were like slave-liberators setting captives
+free.
+
+The most lawless and dangerous region in all north Formosa was
+that surrounding the small town of Sa-kak-eng. In the mountains
+near by lived a band of robbers who kept the people in a constant
+state of dread by their terrible deeds of plunder and murder.
+Sometimes the frightened townspeople would help the highwaymen
+just 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 Bang-kah. 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 and bravely, "Let us go."
+
+So one day early in December, when the winter rains had commenced
+to pour down, these two marched across the plain and into
+Bang-kah. By keeping quiet and avoiding the main thoroughfare,
+they managed to rent a house. It was a low, mean hovel in a
+dirty, narrow street, but it was inside the forbidden city, and
+that was something. The two daring young men then procured a
+large sheet of paper, printed on it in Chinese characters "Jesus'
+Temple," and pasted it on the door. This announced what they had
+come for, and they awaited results.
+
+Presently there came the heavy tramp, tramp of feet on the stone
+pavement. Mackay and A Hoa looked out. A party of soldiers, armed
+with spears and swords, were returning from camp. They stopped
+before the hut and read the inscription. They shouted loud
+threats and tramped away to report the affair to headquarters.
+
+In a short time, with a great noise and tramping, once more
+soldiers were at the door. Mackay waked out and faced them
+quietly. The general had given orders that the barbarian must
+leave this house immediately, the soldier declared in a loud
+voice. The place belonged to the military authorities.
+
+"Show me your proof," said Mackay calmly. His bold behavior
+demanded respectful treatment, so the soldier produced the deed
+for the property.
+
+"I respect your law," said Mackay after he examined it, "and my
+companion and I will vacate. But I have paid rent for this place,
+therefore I am entitled to remain for the night. I will not go
+out until morning."
+
+His firm words and fearless manner had their effect both on the
+soldiers and the noisy mob waiting for him outside, and the men,
+muttering angrily, turned away. That night Mackay and A Hoa lay
+on a dirty grass mat on the mud floor. The place was damp and
+filthy, but even had it been comfortable they would have had
+little sleep. For, far into the night, angry soldiers paraded the
+street. Often their voices rose to a clamor and they would make a
+rush for the frail door of the little hut. Many times the two
+young fellows arose, believing their last hour had come. But the
+long night passed and they found that they were still left
+untouched.
+
+They rose early and started out. Already a great mob filled the
+space in front of the house. Even the low roofs of the
+surrounding houses were covered with people all out early to see
+the barbarian and his despised companion driven from Bang-kah,
+and perhaps have the added pleasure of witnessing their death.
+
+The two walked bravely down the street. Curses were showered upon
+them from all sides; broken tiles, stones, and filth were thrown
+at them, but they moved on steadily. The mob hampered them so
+that they were hours walking the short distance to the river.
+Here they entered a boat and went down a few miles to a point
+where a chapel stood, and where some of Mackay's students awaited
+them.
+
+But the man who "did not know when he was beaten" had not turned
+his back on the enemy. He gathered the group of students around
+him in the little room attached to the chapel. Here they all
+knelt and the young missionary laid their trouble before the
+great Captain who had said, "All power is given unto me." "Give
+us an entrance to Bang-kah," was the burden of the missionary's
+prayer. They arose from their knees, and he turned to A Hoa with
+that quick challenging movement his students had learned to know
+so well.
+
+"Come," he said, "we are going back to Bang-kah."
+
+And A Hoa, whose habit it was to walk into all danger with a
+smile, answered with all his heart:
+
+"It is well, Kai Bok-su; we go back to Bang-kah."
+
+And straight back to this Gibraltar the little army of two
+marched. It was quite dark by the time they entered. A Formosan
+city is not the blaze of electricity to which Westerners are
+accustomed, and only here and there in the narrow streets shone a
+dim light. The travelers stumbled along, scarcely knowing whither
+they were going. As they turned a dark corner and plunged into
+another black street they met an old man hobbling with the aid of
+a staff over the uneven stones of the pavement. Mackay spoke to
+him politely and asked if he could tell him of any one who would
+rent a house. "We want to do mission work," he added, feeling
+that he must not get anything under false pretenses.
+
+The old man nodded. "Yes, I can rent you my place," he answered
+readily. "Come with me."
+
+Full of amazement and gratitude the two adventurers groped their
+way after him, stumbling over stones and heaps of rubbish. They
+could not help realizing, as they got farther into the city, that
+should the old man prove false and give an alarm the whole
+murderous populace of that district would be around them
+instantly like a swarm of hornets. But whether he was leading
+them into a trap or not their only course was to follow.
+
+At last he paused at a low door opening into the back part of a
+house. The old man lighted a lamp, a pith wick in a saucer of
+peanut oil, and the visitors looked around. The room was damp and
+dirty and infested with the crawling creatures that fairly swarm
+in the Chinese houses of the lower order. Rain dripped from the
+low ceiling on the mud floor, and the meager furniture was dirty
+and sticky.
+
+But the two young men who had found it were delighted. They felt
+like the advance guard of an army that has taken the enemy's
+first outpost. They were established in Bang-kah! They set to
+work at once to draw out a rental paper. A Hoa sat at the table
+and wrote it out so that they might be within the law which said
+that no foreigner must hold property in Bang-kah. When the paper
+was signed and the money paid, the old man crept stealthily away.
+He had his money, but he was too wary to let his fellow citizens
+find how he had earned it.
+
+As soon as morning came the little army in the midst of the
+hostile camp hoisted its banner. When the citizens of Bang-kah
+awoke, they found on the door of the hut the hated sign, in large
+Chinese characters, "Jesus' Temple."
+
+In less than an hour the street in front of it was thronged with
+a shouting crowd. Before the day was past the news spread, and
+the whole city was in an uproar. By the next afternoon the
+excitement had reached white heat, and a wild crowd of men came
+roaring down the street. They hurled themselves at the little
+house where the missionaries were waiting and literally tore it
+to splinters. The screams of rage and triumph were so horrible
+that they reminded Mackay of the savage yells of the
+head-hunters.
+
+When the mob leaped upon the roof and tore it off, the two hunted
+men slipped out through a side door, and across the street into
+an inn. The crowd instantly attacked it, smashing doors, ripping
+the tiles off the roof, and uttering such bloodthirsty howls that
+they resembled wild beasts far more than human beings. The
+landlord ordered the missionaries out to where the mob was
+waiting to tear them limb from limb.
+
+It was an awful moment. To go out was instant death, to remain
+merely put off the end a few moments. Mackay, knowing his source
+of help, sent up a desperate prayer to his Father in heaven.
+
+Suddenly there was a strange lull in the street outside. The
+yells ceased, the crashing of tiles stopped. The door opened, and
+there in his sedan-chair of state surrounded by his bodyguard,
+appeared the Chinese mandarin. And just behind him--blessed sight
+to the eyes of Kai Bok-su--Mr. Scott, the British consul of
+Tamsui!
+
+Without a word the two British-born clasped hands. It was not an
+occasion for words. There was immediately a council of war. The
+mandarin urged the British consul to send the missionary out of
+the city.
+
+"I have no authority to give such an order," retorted Mr. Scott
+quickly. "On the other hand you must protect him while he is
+here. He is a British subject."
+
+Mackay's heart swelled with pride. And he thanked God that his
+Empire had such a worthy representative.
+
+Having again impressed upon the mandarin that the missionary must
+be protected or there would be trouble, Mr. Scott set off for his
+home. Mackay accompanied him to the city gate. Then he turned and
+walked back through the muttering crowds straight to the inn he
+had left. He stopped occasionally to pull a tooth or give
+medicine for malaria, for even in Bang-kah he had a few friends.
+
+The mandarin was now as much afraid of the missionary as if he
+had been the plague. He knew he dared not allow him to be
+touched, and he also knew he had very little power over a mob. He
+was responsible, too, to men in higher office, for the control of
+the people, and would be severely punished if there was a riot.
+He was indeed in a very bad way when he heard that the
+troublesome missionary had come back, and he followed him to the
+inn to try to induce him to leave.
+
+He found Mackay with A Hoa, quietly seated in their room. First
+he commanded, then he tried to bribe, and then he even descended
+to beg the "foreign devil" to leave the city. But Mackay was
+immovable.
+
+"I cannot leave," he said, touched by the man's distress. "I
+cannot quit this city until I have preached the gospel here." He
+held up his forceps and his Bible. "See! I use these to relieve
+pain of the body, and this gives relief from sin,--the disease of
+the soul. I cannot go until I have given your people the benefit
+of them."
+
+The mandarin went away enraged and baffled. He could not persuade
+the man to go; he dared not drive him out. He left a squad of
+soldiers to guard the place, however, remembering the British
+consul's warning.
+
+In a few days the excitement subsided. People became accustomed
+to seeing the barbarian teacher and his companion go about the
+streets. Many were relieved of much pain by him too, and a large
+number listened with some interest to the new doctrine he taught
+concerning one God.
+
+He had been there a week when some prominent citizens came to him
+with a polite offer. They would give him free a piece of ground
+outside the city on which to build a church. Kai Bok-su's
+flashing black eyes at once saw the bribe. They wanted to coax
+him out when they could not drive him. He refused politely but
+firmly.
+
+"I own that property," he declared, pointing to the heap of ruins
+into which his house had been turned, "and there I will build a
+church."
+
+They did everything in their power to prevent him, but one day,
+many months after, right on the site where they had literally
+torn the roof from above him, arose a pretty little stone church,
+and that was the beginning of great things in Bang-kah.
+
+And so Gibraltar was taken,--taken by an army of two,--a Canadian
+missionary and a Chinese soldier of the King, for behind them
+stood all the army of the Lord of hosts, and he led them to
+victory!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. OTHER CONQUESTS.
+
+Away over on the east of the island ran a range of beautiful
+mountains. And between these mountains and the sea stretched a
+low rice plain. Here lived many Pe-po-hoan,-- "Barbarians of the
+plain." Mackay had never visited this place, for the Kap-tsu-lan
+plain, as it was called, was very hard to reach on account of the
+mountains; but this only made the dauntless missionary all the
+more anxious to visit it.
+
+So one day he suggested to his students, as they studied in his
+house on the bluff, that they make a journey to tell the people
+of Kap-tsu-lan the story of Jesus. Of course, the young fellows
+were delighted. To go off with Kai Bok-su was merely transferring
+their school from his house to the big beautiful outdoors. For he
+always taught them by the way, and besides they were all eager to
+go with him and help spread the good news that had made such a
+difference in their lives. So when Kai Bok-su piled his books
+upon a shelf and said, "Let us go to Kap-tsu-lan," the young
+fellows ran and made their preparations joyfully. A Hoa was in
+Tamsui at the time, and Mackay suggested that he come too, for a
+trip without A Hoa was robbed of half its enjoyment.
+
+Mackay had just recovered from one of those violent attacks of
+malaria from which he suffered so often now, and he was still
+looking pale and weak. So Sun-a, a bright young student-lad, came
+to the study door with the suggestion, "Let us take Lu-a for Kai
+Bok-su to ride."
+
+There was a laugh from the other students and an indulgent smile
+from Kai Bok-su himself. Lu-a was a small, rather stubborn-looking donkey with meek eyes and a little rat 
+tail. He was a
+present to the missionary from the English commissioner of
+customs at Tamsui, when that gentleman was leaving the island.
+Donkeys were commonly used on the mainland of China, and though
+an animal was scarcely ever ridden in Formosa, horses being
+almost unknown, the commissioner did not see why his Canadian
+friend, who was an introducer of so many new things, should not
+introduce donkey-riding. So he sent him Lu-a as a farewell
+present and leaving this token of his good-will departed for
+home.
+
+Up to this time Lu-a had served only as a pet and a joke among
+the students, and high times they had with him in the grassy
+field behind the missionary's house when lessons were over. In
+great glee they brought him round to the door now, "all saddled
+and bridled" and ready for the trip. The missionary mounted, and
+Lu-a trotted meekly along the road that wound down the bluff
+toward Kelung. The students followed in high spirits. The sight
+of their teacher astride the donkey was such a novel one to them,
+and Lu-a was such a joke at any time, that they were filled with
+merriment. All went well until they left the road and turned into
+a path that led across the buffalo common. At the end of it they
+came to a ravine about fifteen feet deep. Over this stretched. a
+plank bridge not more than three feet wide. Here Lu-a came to a
+sudden stop. He had no mind to risk his small but precious body
+on that shaky structure. His rider bade him "go on," but the
+command only made Lu-a put back his ears, plant his fore feet
+well forward and stand stock still. In fact he looked much more
+settled and immovable than the bridge over which he was being
+urged. The students gathered round him and petted and coaxed.
+They called him "Good Lu-a" and "Honorable Lu-a" and every other
+flattering title calculated to move his donkeyship, but Lu-a
+flattened his ears back so he could not hear and would not move.
+So Mackay dismounted and tried the plan of pulling him forward by
+the bridle while some of the boys pushed him from behind. Lu-a
+resented this treatment, especially that from the rear, and up
+went his heels, scattering students in every direction; and to
+discomfit the enemy in front he opened his mouth and gave forth
+such loud resonant brays that the ravine fairly rang with his
+music.
+
+A balking donkey is rather amusing to boys of any country, but to
+these Formosan lads who had had no experience with one the sound
+of Lu-a's harsh voice and the sight of his flying heels brought
+convulsions of merriment. "He's pounding rice! He's pounding
+rice!" shouted the wag of the party, and his companions flung
+themselves upon the grass and rolled about laughing themselves
+sick.
+
+With his followers rendered helpless and his steed continuing
+stubborn, Mackay saw the struggle was useless. He could not
+compete alone with Lu-a's firmness, so he gave orders that the
+obstinate little obstructer of their journey be trotted back to
+his pasture.
+
+"And to think that any one of us might have carried the little
+rascal over!" he cried as he watched the donkey meekly depart.
+His students looked at the little beast with something like
+respect. Lu-a had beaten the dauntless Kai Bok-su who had never
+before been beaten by anything. He was indeed a marvelous donkey!
+
+So the journey to the Kap-tsu-lan plain was made on foot. It was
+a very wearisome one and often dangerous. The mountain paths were
+steep and difficult and the travelers knew that often the
+head-hunters lurked near. But the way was wonderfully beautiful
+nevertheless. Standing on a mountain height one morning and
+looking away down over wooded hills and valleys and the lake-like
+terraces of the rice-fields, Mackay repeated to his students a
+line of the old hymn:
+
+Every prospect pleases and only man is vile.
+
+Around them the stately tree-fern lifted its lovely fronds and
+the orchids dotted the green earth like a flock of gorgeous
+butterflies just settled. Tropical birds of brilliant plumage
+flashed among the trees. Beside them a great tree raised itself,
+fairly covered with morning-glories, and over at their right a
+mountainside gleamed like snow in the sunlight, clothed from top
+to bottom with white lilies.
+
+But the way had its dangers as well as its beauties. They were
+passing the mouth of a ravine when they were stopped by yells and
+screams of terror coming from farther up the mountainside. In a
+few minutes a Chinaman darted out of the woods toward them. His
+face was distorted with terror and he could scarcely get breath
+to tell his horrible story. He and his four companions had been
+chipping the camphor trees up in the woods; suddenly the armed
+savages had leaped out upon them and he alone of the five had
+escaped.
+
+At last they left the dangerous mountain and came down into the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain. On every side was rice-field after rice-field,
+with the water pouring from one terrace to another. The plain was
+low and damp and the paths and roads lay deep in mud. They had a
+long toilsome walk between the rice-fields until they came to the
+first village of these barbarians of the plain. It was very much
+like a Chinese village,--dirty, noisy, and swarming with
+wild-looking children and wolfish dogs.
+
+The visitors were received with the utmost disdain. The Chinese
+students were of course well known, for these aborigines had long
+ago adopted their customs and language. But the Chinese visitors
+were in company with the foreigners, and all foreigners were
+outcaste in this eastern plain. The men shouted the familiar
+"foreign devil" and walked contemptuously away. The dirty women
+and children fled into their grass huts and set the dogs upon the
+strangers. They tried by all sorts of kindnesses to gain a
+hearing, but all to no effect. So they gave it up, and plodded
+through the mud and water a mile farther on to the next village.
+But village number two received them in exactly the same way.
+Only rough words and the barks of cruel dogs met them. The next
+village was no better, the fourth a little worse. And so on they
+went up and down the Kap-tsu-lan plain, sleeping at night in some
+poor empty hut or in the shadow of a rice strawstack, eating
+their meals of cold rice and buffalo-meat by the wayside, and
+being driven from village to village, and receiving never a word
+of welcome.
+
+And all through those wearisome days the young men looked at
+their leader in vain for any smallest sign of discouragement or
+inclination to retreat. There was no slightest look of dismay on
+the face of Kai Bok-su, for how was it possible for a man who did
+not know when he was beaten to feel discouraged? So still
+undaunted in the face of defeat, he led them here and there over
+the plain, hoping that some one would surely relent and give them
+a hearing.
+
+One night, footsore and worn out, they slept on the damp mud
+floor of a miserable hut where the rain dripped in upon their
+faces. In the morning prospects looked rather discouraging to the
+younger members of the party. They were wet and cold and weary,
+and there seemed no use in going again and again to a village
+only to be turned away. But Kai Bok-su's mouth was as firm as
+ever, and his dark eyes flashed resolutely, as once more he gave
+the order to march. It was a lovely morning, the sun was rising
+gloriously out of the sea and the heavy mists were melting from
+above the little rice-fields. Here and there fairy lakes gleamed
+out from the rosy haze that rolled back toward the mountains.
+They walked along the shore in the pink dawn-light and marched up
+toward a fishing village. They had visited it before and had been
+driven away, but Kai Bok-su was determined to try again. They
+were surprised as they came nearer to see three men come out to
+meet them with a friendly expression on their faces.
+
+The foremost was an old man who had been nicknamed "Black-face,"
+because of his dark skin. The second was a middle-aged man, and
+the third was a young fellow about the age of the students. They
+saluted the travelers pleasantly, and the old man addressed the
+missionary.
+
+"You have been going through and through our plain and no one has
+received you," he said politely. "Come to our village, and we
+will now be ready to listen to you."
+
+The door of Kap-tsu-lan had opened at last! The missionary's eyes
+gleamed with joy and gratitude as he accepted the invitation. The
+delegation led the visitors straight to the house of the headman.
+For the Pe-po-hoan governed their communities in the Chinese
+style and had a headman for each village. The missionary party
+sat down in front of the hut on some large flat stones and talked
+over the matter with the chief and other important men. And while
+they talked "Black-face" slipped away. He returned in a few
+moments with a breakfast of rice and fish for the visitors.
+
+The result of the conference was that the villagers decided to
+give the barbarian a chance. All he wanted it seemed was to tell
+of this new Jehovah-religion which he believed, and surely there
+could be no great harm in listening to him talk.
+
+In the evening the headman with the help of some friends set to
+work to construct a meeting-house. A tent was erected, made from
+boat sails. Several flat stones laid at one end and a plank
+placed upon them made a pulpit. And that was the first church on
+the Kap-tsu-lan plain! There was a "church bell" too, to call the
+people to worship. In the village were some huge marine shells
+with the ends broken off. In the old days these were used by the
+chiefs as trumpets by which they called their men together
+whenever they were starting out on the war-path. But now the
+trumpet-shell was used to call the people to follow the King.
+Just at dark a man took one, and walking up and down the
+straggling village street blew loudly-- the first "church bell"
+in east Formosa.
+
+The loud roar brought the villagers flocking down to the
+tent-church by the shore. For the most part they brought their
+pews with them. They came hurrying out of their huts carrying
+benches, and arranging them in rows they seated themselves to
+listen.
+
+Mackay and the students sang and the people listened eagerly. The
+Pe-po-hoan by nature were more musical than the Chinese, and the
+singing delighted them. Then the missionary arose and addressed
+them. He told clearly and simply why he had come and preached to
+them of the true God. Afterward the congregation was allowed to
+ask questions, and they learned much of this God and of his love
+in his Son Jesus Christ.
+
+The wonder of the great news shone in the eyes upturned to the
+preacher. In the gloom of the half-lighted tent their dark faces
+took on a new expression of half-wondering hope. Could it be
+possible that this was true? Their poor, benighted minds had
+always been held in terror of their gods and of the evil spirits
+that forever haunted their footsteps. Could it be possible that
+God was a great Father who loved his children? They asked so many
+eager questions, and the story of Jesus Christ had to be told
+over and over so many times, that before this first church
+service ended a gray gleam of dawn was spreading out over the
+Pacific.
+
+It was only the next day that these newly awakened people decided
+that they must have a church building. And they went to work to
+get one in a way that might have shamed a congregation of people
+in a Christian land. This new wonderful hope that had been raised
+in their hearts by the knowledge that God loved them set them to
+work with glad energy. Kai Bok-su and his men still preached and
+prayed and sang and taught in the crazy old wind-flapped tent by
+the seashore, and the people listened eagerly, and then, when
+services were over, every one,--preacher, assistants, and
+congregation,--set bravely to work to build a church. Brave they
+certainly had to be, for at the very beginning they had to risk
+their lives for their chapel. A party sailed down the coast and
+entered savage territory for the poles to construct the building.
+They were attacked and one or two were badly wounded, though they
+managed to escape. But they were quite ready to go back and fight
+again had it been necessary. Then they made the bricks for the
+walls. Rice chaff mixed with clay were the materials, and the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain had an abundance of both. The roof was made of
+grass, the floor of hard dried earth, and a platform of the same
+at one end served as a pulpit.
+
+When the little chapel was finished, every evening the big shell
+rang out its summons through the village; and out from every
+house came the people and swarmed into the chapel to hear Kai
+Bok-su explain more of the wonders of God and his Son Jesus
+Christ.
+
+Mackay's home during this period was a musty little room in a
+damp mud-walled hut; and here every day he received donations of
+idols, ancestral tablets, and all sorts of things belonging to
+idol-worship. He was requested to burn them, and often in the
+mornings he dried his damp clothes and moldy boots at a fire made
+from heathen idols.
+
+For eight weeks the missionary party remained in this place,
+preaching, teaching, and working among the people. It was a
+mystery to the students how their teacher found time for the
+great amount of Bible study and prayer which he managed to get.
+He surely worked as never man worked before. Late at night, long
+after every one else was in bed, he would be bending over his
+Bible, beside his peanut-oil lamp, and early in the morning
+before the stars had disappeared he was up and at work again.
+Four hours' sleep was all his restless, active mind could endure,
+and with that he could do work that would have killed any
+ordinary man.
+
+One evening some new faces looked up at him from his congregation
+in the little brick church. When the last hymn was sung the
+missionary stepped down from his pulpit and spoke to the
+strangers. They explained that they were from the next village.
+They had heard rumors of this new doctrine, and had been sent to
+find out more about it. They had been charmed with the singing,
+for that evening over two hundred voices had joined in a ringing
+praise to the new Jehovah-God. They wanted to hear more, they
+said, and they wanted to know what it was all about. Would Kai
+Bok-su and his students deign to visit their village too?
+
+Would he? Why that was just what he was longing to do. He had
+been driven out of that village by dogs only a few weeks before,
+but a little thing like that did not matter to a man like Mackay.
+This village lay but a short distance away, being connected with
+their own by a path winding here and there between the
+rice-fields. Early the next evening Mackay formed a procession.
+He placed himself at its head, with A Hoa at his side. The
+students came next, and then the converts in a double row. And
+thus they marched slowly along the pathway singing as they went.
+It was a stirring sight. On either side the waving fields of
+rice, behind them the gleam of the blue ocean, before them the
+great towering mountains clothed in green. Above them shone the
+clear dazzling sky of a tropical evening. And on wound the long
+procession of Christians in a heathen land, and from them arose
+the glorious words:
+
+O thou, my soul, bless God the Lord,
+And all that in me is
+Be stirred up his holy name
+To magnify and bless.
+
+And the heathen in the rice-fields stopped to gaze at the strange
+sight, and the mountains gave back the echo of that Name which is
+above every name.
+
+And so, marching to their song, the procession came to the
+village. Everybody in the place had come out to meet them at the
+first sound of the singing. And now they stood staring, the men
+in a group by themselves, the women and children in the
+background, the dogs snarling on the outskirts of the crowd.
+
+The congregation was there ready, and without waiting to find a
+place of meeting, right out under the clear evening skies, the
+young missionary told once more the great story of God and his
+love as shown through Jesus Christ. The message took the village
+by storm. It was like water to thirsty souls. The next day five
+hundred of them brought their idols to the missionary to be
+burned.
+
+And now Mackay went up and down the Kap-tsu-lan plain from
+village to village as he had done before, but this time it was a
+triumphal march. And everywhere he went throngs threw away their
+idols and declared themselves followers of the true God.
+
+He was overcome with joy. It was so glorious he wished he could
+stay there the rest of his life and lead these willing people to
+a higher life. But Tamsui was waiting; Sin-tiam, Bang-kah,
+Kelung, Go-ko-khi, they must all be visited; and finally he tore
+himself away, leaving some of his students to care for these
+people of Kap-tsu-lan.
+
+But he came back many times, until at last nineteen chapels
+dotted the plain, and in them nineteen native preachers told the
+story of Jesus and his love. Sometimes, in later years, when
+Mackay was with them, tears would roll down the people's faces as
+they recalled how badly they had used him on his first visit.
+
+It was while on his third visit here that he had a narrow escape
+from the head-hunters. He was staying at a village called "South
+Wind Harbor," which was near the border of savage territory.
+Mackay often walked on the shore in the evening just before the
+meeting, always with a book in his hand. One night he was
+strolling along in deep meditation when he noticed some extremely
+large turtle tracks in the sand. He followed them, for he liked
+to watch the big clumsy creatures. These green turtles were from
+four to five feet in length. They would come waddling up from the
+sea, scratch a hole in the sand with their flippers, lay their
+eggs, cover them carefully, and with head erect and neck
+out-thrust waddle back. Mackay was intensely interested in all
+the animal life of the island and made a study of it whenever he
+had a chance. He knew the savages killed and ate these turtles,
+but he supposed he was as yet too near the village to be molested
+by them. So he followed the tracks and was nearing the edge of
+the forest, when he heard a shout behind him. As he turned, one
+of his village friends came running out of his hut waving to him
+frantically to come back. Thinking some one must be ill, Mackay
+hurried toward the man, to find that it was he himself who was in
+danger. The man explained breathlessly that it was the habit of
+the wily savages to make marks in the sand resembling turtle
+tracks to lure people into the forest. If Kai Bok-su had entered
+the woods, his head would certainly have been lost.
+
+It was always hard to say farewell to Kap-tsu-lan, the people
+were so warm-hearted, so kind, and so anxious for him to stay.
+One morning just before leaving after his third visit, Mackay had
+an experience that brought him the greatest joy.
+
+He had stayed all night at the little fishing village where the
+first chapel had been built. As usual he was up with the dawn,
+and after his breakfast of cold boiled rice and pork he walked
+down to the shore for a farewell look at the village. As he
+passed along the little crooked street he could see old women
+sitting on the mud floors of their huts, by the open door,
+weaving. They were all poor, wrinkled, toothless old folk with
+faces seamed by years of hard heathen experience. But in their
+eyes shone a new light, the reflection of the glory that they had
+seen when the missionary showed them Jesus their Savior. And as
+they threw their thread their quavering voices crooned the sweet
+words:
+
+There is a happy land
+Far, far away.
+
+And their old weary faces were lighted up with a hope and
+happiness that had never been there in youth.
+
+Kai Bok-su smiled as he passed their doors and his eyes were
+misty with tender tears.
+
+Just before him, playing on the sand with "jacks" or tops, just
+as he had played not so very long ago away back in Canada, were
+the village boys. And as they played they too were singing, their
+little piping voices, sweet as birds, thrilling the morning air.
+And the words they sang were:
+
+Jesus loves me, this I know,
+For the Bible tells me so.
+
+They nodded and smiled to Kai Bok-su as he passed. He went down
+to the shore where the wide Pacific flung long rollers away up
+the hard-packed sand. The fishermen were going out to sea in the
+rosy morning light, and as they stood up in their fishing-smacks,
+and swept their long oars through the surf, they kept time to the
+motion with singing. And their strong, brave voices rang out
+above the roar of the breakers:
+
+I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,
+Or to defend his cause.
+
+And standing there on the sunlit shore the young missionary
+raised his face to the gleaming blue heavens with an emotion of
+unutterable joy and thanksgiving. And in that moment he knew what
+was that glory for which he had so vaguely longed in childish
+years. It was the glory of work accomplished for his Master's
+sake, and he was realizing it to the full.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. REENFORCEMENTS
+
+Some of Mackay's happiest days were spent with his students. He
+was such a wonder of a man for work himself that he inspired
+every one else to do his best, so the young men made rapid
+strides with their lessons. No matter how busy he was, and he was
+surely one of the busiest men that ever lived, he somehow found
+time for them.
+
+Sometimes in his house, sometimes on the road, by the seashore,
+under a banyan tree, here and there and everywhere, the
+missionary and his pupils held their classes. If he went on a
+journey, they accompanied him and studied by the way. And it was
+a familiar sight on north Formosan roads or field paths to see
+Mackay, always with his book in one hand and his big ebony stick
+under his arm, walking along surrounded by a group of young men.
+
+Sometimes there were as many as twenty in the student-band, but
+somewhere in the country a new church would open, and the
+brightest of the class would be called away to be its minister.
+But just as often a young Christian would come to the missionary
+and ask if he too might not be trained to preach the gospel of
+Jesus Christ.
+
+Whether at home or abroad, pupils and teacher had to resort to
+all sorts of means to get away for an uninterrupted hour
+together. For Kai Bok-su was always in demand to visit the sick
+or sad or troubled.
+
+There was a little kitchen separate from the house on the bluff,
+and over this Mackay with his students built a second story. And
+here they would often slip away for a little quiet time together.
+One night, about eleven o'clock, Mackay was here alone poring
+over his books. The young men had gone home to bed except two or
+three who were in the kitchen below. Some papers had been dropped
+over a pipe-hole in the floor of the room where Mackay was
+studying, and for some time he had been disturbed by a rustling
+among them. At last without looking up, he called to his boys
+below: "I think there are rats up here among my papers!"
+
+Koa Kau, one of the younger of the students, ran lightly up the
+stairs to give battle to the intruders. What was his horror when
+he saw fully three feet of a monster serpent sticking up through
+the pipe-hole and waving its horrible head in the air just a
+little distance from Kai Bok-su's chair.
+
+The boy gave a shout, darted down the stair, and with a sharp
+stick, pinned the body of the snake to the wall below. The
+creature became terribly violent, but Koa Kau held on valiantly
+and Mackay seized an old Chinese spear that happened to be in the
+room above and pierced the serpent through the head. They pulled
+its dead body down into the kitchen below and spread it out. It
+measured nine feet. The students would not rest until it was
+buried, and the remembrance of the horrible creature's visit for
+some time spoiled the charm of the little upper room.
+
+The rocks at Kelung harbor were another favorite spot for this
+little traveling university to hold its classes. Sometimes they
+would take their dinner and row out in a little sampan to the
+rocks outside the harbor and there, undisturbed, they would study
+the whole day long.
+
+They always began the day's work with a prayer and a hymn of
+praise, and no matter what subjects they might study, most of the
+time was spent on the greatest of books. After a hard morning's
+work each one would gather sticks, make a fire, and they would
+have their dinner of vegetables, rice, and pork or buffalo-meat.
+Then there were oysters, taken fresh off the rocks, to add to
+their bill of fare.
+
+At five in the afternoon, when the strain of study was beginning
+to tell, they would vary the program. One or two of the boys
+would take a plunge into the sea and bring up a subject for
+study,--a shell, some living coral, sea-weed, sea-urchins, or
+some such treasure. They would examine it, and Kai Bok-su, always
+delighted when on a scientific subject, would give them a lesson
+in natural history. And he saw with joy how the wonders of the
+sea and land opened these young men's minds to understand what a
+great and wonderful God was theirs, who had made "the heaven and
+the earth and the sea, and all that in them is."
+
+When they visited a chapel in the country, they had a daily
+program which they tried hard to follow. They studied until four
+o'clock every afternoon and all were trained in speaking and
+preaching. After four they made visits together to Christians or
+heathen, speaking always a word for their Master. Every evening a
+public service was held at which Mackay preached. These sermons
+were an important part of the young men's training, for he always
+treated the gospel in a new way. A Hoa, who was Mackay's
+companion for the greater part of sixteen years, stated that he
+had never heard Kai Bok-su preach the same sermon twice.
+
+On the whole the students liked their college best when it was
+moving. For on the road, while their principal gave much time to
+the Bible and how to present the gospel, he would enliven their
+walks by conversing about everything by the way and making it
+full of interest. The structure of a wayside flower, the
+geological formation of an overhanging rock, the composition of
+the soil of the tea plantations, the stars that shone in the sky
+when night came down upon them;--all these made the traveling
+college a delight.
+
+Although his days were crammed with work, Mackay found time to
+make friends among the European population of the island. They
+all liked and admired him, and many of them tried to help the man
+who was giving his life and strength so completely to others.
+They were familiar with his quick, alert figure passing through
+the streets of Tamsui, with his inevitable book and his big ebony
+cane. And they would smile and say, "There goes Mackay; he's the
+busiest man in China."*
+
+* See Chapter XIII. Formosa becomes Japanese territory.
+
+The British consul in the old Dutch fort and the English
+commissioner of customs proved true and loyal friends. The
+representatives of foreign business firms, too, were always ready
+to lend him a helping hand where possible. His most useful
+friends were the foreign medical men. They helped him very much.
+They not only did all they could for his own recovery when
+malaria attacked him, but they helped also to cure his patients.
+Traveling scientists always gave him a visit to get his help and
+advice. He had friends that were ship-captains, officers,
+engineers, merchants, and British consuls. Everybody knew the
+wonderful Kai Bok-su. "Whirlwind Mackay," some of them called
+him, and they knew and admired him with the true admiration that
+only a brave man can inspire.
+
+The friends to whom he turned for help of the best kind were the
+English Presbyterians in south Formosa. They, more than any
+others, knew his trials and difficulties. They alone could enter
+with true sympathy into all his triumphs. At one time Dr.
+Campbell, one of the south Formosan missionaries, paid him a
+visit. He proved a delightful companion, and together the two
+made a tour of the mission stations. Dr. Campbell preached
+wherever they went and was a great inspiration to the people, as
+well as to the students and to the missionary himself.
+
+One evening, when they were in Kelung, Mackay, with his
+insatiable desire to use every moment, suggested that they spend
+ten days without speaking English, so that they might improve
+their Chinese. Dr. Campbell agreed, and they started their
+"Chinese only." Next morning from the first early call of "Liong
+tsong khi lai," "All, all, up come," not one word of their native
+tongue did they speak. They had a long tramp that morning and
+there was much to talk about and the conversation was all in
+Chinese, according to the bargain. Dr. Campbell was ahead, and
+after an hour's talk he suddenly turned upon his companion:
+"Mackay!" he exclaimed, "this jabbering in Chinese is ridiculous,
+and two Scotchmen should have more sense; let us return to our
+mother tongue." Which advice Mackay gladly followed.
+
+His next visitor was the Rev. Mr. Ritchie from south Formosa, one
+of the friends who had first introduced him to his work. Every
+day of his visit was a joy. With nine of Mackay's students, the
+two missionaries set out on a trip through the north Formosa
+mission that lasted many weeks.
+
+But the more pleasant and helpful such companionship was the more
+alone Mackay felt when it was over. His task was becoming too
+much for one man. He was wanted on the northern coast, at the
+southern boundary of his mission field, and away on the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain all at once. He was crowded day and night with
+work. What with preaching, dentistry, attending the sick,
+training his students, and encouraging the new churches, he had
+enough on his hands for a dozen missionaries.
+
+But now at last the Church at home, in far-away Canada, bestirred
+herself to help him. They had been hearing something of the
+wonderful mission in Formosa, but they had heard only hints of
+it, for Mackay would not confess how he was toiling day and night
+and how the work had grown until he was not able to overtake it
+alone. But the Church understood something of his need, and they
+now sent him the best present they could possibly give,--an
+assistant. Just three years after Mackay had landed in Formosa,
+the Rev. J. B. Fraser, M. D., and his wife and little ones
+arrived. He was a young man, too, vigorous and ready for work.
+Besides being an ordained minister, he was a physician as well,
+just exactly what the north Formosan mission needed.
+
+Along with the missionary, the Church had sent funds for a house
+for him and also one for Mackay. So the poor old Chinese house on
+the bluff was replaced by a modern, comfortable dwelling, and by
+its side another was built for the new missionary and his family.
+One room of Mackay's house was used as a study for his students.
+
+After the houses were built and the new doctor was able to use
+the language, he began to fill a long-felt want. Mackay had
+always done a little medical work, and the foreign doctor of
+Tamsui had been most kind in giving his aid, but a doctor of his
+own, a missionary doctor, was exactly what Kai Bok-su wanted.
+Soon the sick began to hear of the wonders the missionary doctor
+could perform, and they flocked to him to be cured.
+
+It must not be supposed that there were not already doctors in
+north Formosa. There were many in Tamsui alone, and very
+indignant they were at this new barbarian's success. But the
+native doctors were about the worst trouble that the people had
+to bear. Their medical knowledge, like their religion, was a
+mixture of ignorance and superstition, and some of their
+practises would have been inexcusable except for the fact that
+they themselves knew no better. There were two classes of medical
+men; those who treated internal diseases and those who professed
+to cure external maladies. It was hard to judge which class did
+the more mischief, but perhaps the "inside doctors" killed more
+of their patients. Dog's flesh was prescribed as a cure for
+dyspepsia, a chip taken from a coffin and boiled and the water
+drunk was a remedy for catarrh, and an apology made to the moon
+was a specific for wind-roughened skin. For the dreaded malaria,
+the scourge of Formosa, the young Canadian doctor found many and
+amazing remedies prescribed, some worse than the disease itself.
+The native doctors believed malaria to be caused by two devils in
+a patient, one causing the chills, the other the fever. One of
+the commonest remedies, and one that was quite as sensible as any
+of the rest, was to tie seven hairs plucked from a black dog
+around the sick one's wrist.
+
+But when the barbarian doctor opened his dispensary in Tamsui, a
+new era dawned for the poor sick folk of north Formosa. The work
+went on wonderfully well and Mackay found so much more time to
+travel in the country that the gospel spread rapidly.
+
+But just when prospects were looking so fair and every one was
+happy and hopeful, a sad event darkened the bright outlook of the
+two missionaries. The young doctor had cured scores of cases, and
+had brought health and happiness to many homes, but he was
+powerless to keep death from his own door.
+
+And one day, a sad day for the mission of north Formosa, the
+mother was called from husband and little ones to her home and
+her reward in heaven.
+
+So the home on the bluff, the beautiful Christian home, which was
+a pattern for all the Chinese, was broken up. The young doctor
+was compelled to leave his patients, and taking his motherless
+children he returned with them to Canada.
+
+The church at home sent out another helper. The Rev. Kenneth
+Junor arrived one year later, and once more the work received a
+fresh impetus. And then, just about two years after Mr. Junor's
+arrival, Kai Bok-su found an assistant of his own right in
+Formosa, and one who was destined to become a wonderful help to
+him. And so one bright day, there was a wedding in the chapel of
+the old Dutch fort, where the British consul married George
+Leslie Mackay to a Formosan lady. Tui Chhang Mai, her name had
+been. She was of a beautiful Christian character and for a long
+time she had been a great help in the church. But as Mrs. Mackay
+she proved a marvelous assistance to her husband.
+
+It had long been a great grief to the missionary that, while the
+men would come in crowds to his meetings, the poor women had to
+be left at home. Sometimes in a congregation of two hundred there
+would be only two or three women. Chinese custom made it
+impossible for a man missionary to preach to the women. Only a
+few of the older ones came out. So the mothers of the little
+children did not hear about Jesus and so could not teach their
+little ones about him.
+
+But now everything was changed for them. They had a
+lady-missionary, and one of their own people too. The Mackays
+went on a wedding-trip through the country. Kai Bok-su walked, as
+usual, and his wife rode in a sedan-chair. The wedding-trip was
+really a missionary tour; for they visited all the chapels, and
+the women came to the meetings in crowds, because they wanted to
+hear and see the lady who had married Kai Bok-su. Often, after
+the regular meetings when the men had gone away, the women would
+crowd in and gather round Mrs. Mackay and she would tell them the
+story of Jesus and his love.
+
+It was a wonderful wedding-journey and it brought a double
+blessing wherever the two went. Their experiences were not all
+pleasant. One day they traveled over a sand plain so hot that
+Mackay's feet were blistered. Another time they were drenched
+with rain. One afternoon there came up a terrific wind storm. It
+blew Mrs. Mackay's sedan-chair over and sent her and the carriers
+flying into the mud by the roadside. At another place they all
+barely escaped drowning when crossing a stream. But the brave
+young pair went through it all dauntlessly. The wife had caught
+something of her husband's great spirit of sacrifice, and he was
+always the man on fire, utterly forgetful of self.
+
+For two years they worked happily together and at last a great
+day came to Kai-Bok-su. He had been nearly eight years in
+Formosa. It was time he came home, the Church in Canada said, for
+a little rest and to tell the people at home something of his
+great work.
+
+And so he and his Formosan wife said good-by, amid tears and
+regrets on all sides, and leaving Mr. Junor in charge with A Hoa
+to help, they set sail for Canada. It was just a little over
+seven years since he had settled in that little hut by the river,
+despised and hated by every one about him; and now he left behind
+him twenty chapels, each with a native preacher over it, and
+hundreds of warm friends scattered over all north Formosa.
+
+He was not quite the same Mackay who had stood on the deck of the
+America seven years before. His eyes were as bright and daring as
+ever and his alert figure as full of energy, but his face showed
+that his life had been a hard one. And no wonder, for he had
+endured every kind of hardship and privation in those seven
+years. He had been mobbed times without number. He had faced
+death often, and day and night since his first year on the island
+his footsteps had been dogged by the torturing malaria.
+
+But he was still the great, brave Mackay and his home-coming was
+like the return of a hero from battle. He went through Canada
+preaching in the churches, and his words were like a call to
+arms. He swept over the country like one of his own Formosan
+winds, carrying all before him. Wherever he preached hearts were
+touched by his thrilling tales, and purses opened to help in his
+work. Queen's University made him a Doctor of Divinity; Mrs.
+Mackay, a lady of Detroit, gave him money enough to build a
+hospital; and his home county, Oxford, presented him with $6,215
+with which to build a college.
+
+He visited his old home and had many long talks of his childhood
+days with his loved ones. And he was reminded of the big stone in
+the pasture-field which he was so determined to break. And he
+thanked his heavenly Father for allowing him to break the great
+rock of heathenism in north Formosa.
+
+He returned to his mission work more on fire than ever. If he had
+been received with acclaim in his native land, his Formosan
+friends' welcome was not less warm. Crowds of converts, all his
+students who were not too far inland, and among them, Mr. Junor,
+his face all smiles, were thronging the dock, many of them
+weeping for joy. It was as if a long-absent father had come back
+to his children.
+
+The work went forward now by leaps and bounds. Mackay's first
+thought, after a hurried visit to the chapels and their
+congregations, was to see that the hospital and college were
+built.
+
+All day long the sound of the builders could be heard up on the
+bluff near the missionaries' houses, and in a wonderfully short
+time there arose two beautiful, stately buildings. Mackay
+hospital they called one, not for Kai Bok-su--he did not like
+things named for him--but in memory of the husband of the kind
+lady who had furnished the money for it. The school for training
+young men in the ministry was called Oxford College, in honor of
+the county whose people had made it possible.
+
+Oxford College stood just overlooking the Tamsui river, two
+hundred feet above its waters. The building was 116 feet long and
+67 feet wide, and was built of small red bricks brought from
+across the Formosa Channel. A wide, airy hall ran down the middle
+of the building, and was used as a lecture-room. On either side
+were rooms capable of accommodating fifty students and apartments
+for two teachers and their families. There were, besides, two
+smaller lecture-rooms, a museum filled with treasures collected
+from all over Formosa by Dr. Mackay and his students, a library,
+a bathroom, and a kitchen.
+
+The grounds about the college and hospital were very beautiful.
+Nature had given one of the finest situations to be found about
+Tamsui, and Kai Bok-su did the rest. The climate helped him, for
+it was no great task to have a luxurious garden in north Formosa.
+So, in a few years there were magnificent trees and hedges, and
+always glorious flower beds abloom all the time around the
+missionary premises.
+
+But all this was not accomplished without great toil, and Kai
+Bok-su appeared never to rest in those building days. It seemed
+impossible that one man should work so hard, he was in Tamsui
+superintending the hospital building to-day, and away off miles
+in the country preaching to-morrow. He never seemed to get time
+to eat, and he certainly slept less than his allotted four hours.
+
+A great disappointment was pending, however, and one he saw
+coming nearer every day. The trying Formosan climate was proving
+too much for his young assistant, and one sad day he stood on the
+dock and saw Mr. Junor, pale and weak and broken in health, sail
+away back to Canada.
+
+But there was always a brave soldier waiting to step into the
+breach, and the next year Kai Bok-su had the joy of welcoming two
+new helpers, when the Rev. Mr. Jamieson and his wife came out
+from Canada and settled in the empty house on the bluff. Yes, and
+in time there came to his own house other helpers--very little
+and helpless at first they were--but they soon made the house
+ring with happy noise and filled the hearts of their parents with
+joy.
+
+There were two ladies now to lead in the work for girls and
+women. Their sisters in Canada came to their help too. The young
+men had a school in Formosa, and why should there not be a school
+for women and girls? they asked. And so the Women's Foreign
+Missionary Society of Canada sent to Dr. Mackay money to build
+one. It took only two months to erect it. It stood just a few
+rods from Oxford College, and was a fine, airy building. Here a
+native preacher and his wife took up their abode and with the
+help of Mrs. Mackay and two other native Christian women they
+strove to teach the girls of north Formosa how to make beautiful
+Christian homes.
+
+And now to the two missionaries every prospect seemed bright. The
+college, the girls' school, the hospital, were all in splendid
+working order. Mr. and Mrs. Jamieson were giving their best
+assistance. A Hoa and the other native pastors were working
+faithfully. God's blessing seemed to be showering down upon the
+work and on every side were signs of growth. And then, right from
+this shining sky, there fell a storm of such fierceness that it
+threatened to wipe out completely the whole north Formosan
+mission.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. UNEXPECTED BOMBARDMENT
+
+An enemy's battle-ships off the coast of Formosa! During all the
+spring rumors of trouble had been coming across the channel from
+the mainland. France* and China had been quarreling over a
+boundary-line in Tongking. The affair had been settled but not in
+a way that pleased France. So, without even waiting to declare
+war, she sent a fleet to the China Sea and bombarded some of her
+enemy's ports. Formosa, of course, came in for her share of the
+trouble, and it was early in the summer that the French
+battle-ships appeared. They hove in sight, sailing down the
+Formosa Channel or Strait one hot day, and instantly all Formosa
+was in an uproar of alarm and rage. The rage was greater than the
+alarm, for China cordially despised all peoples beyond her own
+border, and felt that the barbarians would probably be too feeble
+to do them any harm. But that the barbarians should dare to
+approach their coast with a war-vessel! That was a terrible
+insult, and the fierce indignation of the people knew no bounds.
+Their rage broke out against all foreigners. They did not
+distinguish between the missionary from British soil and the
+French soldiers on their enemy's vessels. They were all
+barbarians alike, the Chinese declared, and as such were the
+deadly foe of China. This Kai Bok-su was in league with the
+French, and the native Christians all over Formosa were in league
+with him, and all deserved death!
+
+*War in 1844.
+
+So hard days came for the Christians of north Formosa. Wherever
+there was a house containing converts, there was riot and
+disorder. For bands of enraged heathen, armed with knives and
+swords, would parade the streets about them and threaten all with
+a violent death the moment the French fired a shot.
+
+In some places near the coast the Christian people dared not
+leave their houses, and whenever they sent out their children to
+buy food, often a heathen neighbor would catch them, brandish
+knives over the terrified little ones' heads and declare they
+would all be cut to pieces when the barbarian ships came into
+port.
+
+Every hour of the day and often in the night, letters came from
+all parts of the country to Dr. Mackay. They were brought by
+runners who came at great peril of their lives, and were sent by
+the poor Christians. Each letter told the same tale; the lives
+and property of all the converts were in grave danger if the
+enemy did not leave. And they all asked Kai Bok-su to do
+something to help them.
+
+Now Kai Bok-su was a man with great power and influence both in
+Formosa and in his far-off Canada, but he had no means of
+bringing that power to bear on the French. And indeed his own
+life was in as great danger as any one's.
+
+He wrote to the Christians comforting them and enthusing them
+with his own spirit. He bade them all be brave, and no matter
+what came, danger or torture or death itself, they must be true
+to Jesus Christ. He went about his work in the college or
+hospital just as usual, though he knew that any day the angry mob
+from the town below might come raging up to destroy and kill.
+
+The French had entered Kelung harbor and the danger was growing
+more serious every day when Mackay found it necessary to go to
+Palm Island, a pretty islet in the mouth of the Kelung river. It
+was almost courting death to go, but he had been sent for, and he
+went. He found the place right under the French guns and in the
+midst of raging Chinese. Some of the faithful students were
+there, and they were overcome with joy and hope at the sight of
+him. He gathered them about him in a mission house for prayer and
+a word of encouragement. Outside the Chinese soldiers paraded up
+and down. Sometimes indeed they would burst into the room and
+threaten the inmates with violence should the French fire. Kai
+Bok-su went on quietly talking to his students. He urged them to
+be faithful and reminded them of what their Master suffered at
+the hands of a mob for their sake. But, in spite of their brave
+spirits, the little company could not help listening for the boom
+of the French guns. It was fully expected that the enemy would
+soon fire, and when they did, the Christians well knew there
+would be little chance for them to escape.
+
+But God had prepared a way out of the difficulty. The meeting was
+scarcely over when a messenger came in, asking for the
+missionary. A Christian on the mainland was very ill and wanted
+Kai Bok-su to visit him. Mackay with his students left the island
+at once and went to the home of the sick man.
+
+They had been gone but a short time when the thunder of the
+French cannon broke over the harbor. The guns from the Chinese
+fort answered, and had the missionary been on Palm Island he and
+his converts would surely have been killed.
+
+The Chinese were no match for the French gunners. The bombardment
+destroyed the fort and killed every soldier who did not manage to
+get away. A great shell crashed into the magazine of the fort,
+and the explosion hurled masses of the concrete walls an
+incredible distance. The city about the fort was completely
+deserted, for the people fled at the first sound of the guns.
+
+As soon as the firing was over, the rabble broke loose and a
+perfect reign of terror prevailed. The mob carried black flags
+and swept over town and country, plundering and murdering. The
+Christians were of course the first object of attack, and to tear
+down a church was the mob's fiercest joy. Seven of the most
+beautiful chapels were completely destroyed and many others
+injured.
+
+In the town of Toa-liong-pong was the home of Koa Kau, one of Kai
+Bok-su's most devoted students. Here was a lovely chapel built at
+great expense. The crowd tore it to pieces from roof to
+foundation. Then, out of the bricks of the ruin they erected a
+huge pile, eight feet high; they plastered it over with mud, and
+on the face of it, next the highway where every one might see it,
+they wrote in large Chinese characters:
+
+MACKAY, THE BLACK-BEARDED BARBARIAN, LIES HERE. HIS WORK IS
+ENDED.
+
+They knew that the first was not true, but they firmly believed
+the latter statement, for they understood little of the power of
+the gospel.
+
+At Sin-tiam the crowd of ruffians smashed the doors and windows
+of the church. Then they took the communion roll and read aloud
+the names of the Christians who had been baptized. As each name
+was announced, some of the murderers would rush off toward the
+home of the one mentioned. Here they would torture and often kill
+the members of the family. The native preacher and his family
+barely escaped with their lives. One good old Christian man with
+his wife, both over sixty, were dragged out into the deep water
+of the Sin-tiam river. Here they were given a choice. If they
+gave up Jesus Christ, their lives would be saved. If they still
+remained Christians, they would be drowned right there and then.
+The brave old couple refused to accept life at such a cost.
+
+"I'm not ashamed to own my Lord," was a hymn Kai Bok-su had
+taught them, and they had meant every word as they had sung it
+many times in the pretty chapel by the river. And so they were
+"not ashamed" now. They were led deeper and deeper into the
+water, and at every few feet the way of escape was offered, but
+they steadily refused, and were at last flung into the river--
+faithful martyrs who certainly won a crown of life.
+
+These were only two among many brave Christians who died for
+their Master's sake. Some were put to tortures too horrible to
+tell to make them give up their faith. Some were hung by their
+hair to trees, some were kicked or beaten to death, many were
+slashed with knives until death relieved their pain. And on every
+side the most noble Christian heroism was shown. In all ages
+there have been those who died for their faith in Jesus Christ;
+and these Formosan followers of their Master proved themselves no
+less faithful than the martyrs of old.
+
+And where was Kai Bok-su while the mob raged over the country?
+Going about his work in Tamsui as of old. Only now he worked both
+night and day, and the anxiety for his poor converts kept him
+awake in the few hours when he might have snatched some sleep. He
+was here, there, everywhere at once, it seemed, writing letters
+to encourage the Christians in distress, visiting those who were
+wavering to strengthen their faith, teaching his students,
+praying, preaching, night and day, he never ceased; and always
+the mob surged about him threatening his life.
+
+The French ships now sailed out of Kelung harbor and took up
+their position opposite Tamsui. Every one knew this probably
+meant bombardment, and Dr. Mackay and Mr. Jamieson, standing on
+the bluff before their houses, looked at each other and each knew
+the other's thought. Bombardment would mean that the mob would
+come raging up and destroy both life and property on the hill.
+
+But just as they expected the roar of guns to open, there sailed
+into Tamsui harbor a vessel that flew a different flag from the
+French. Mackay, looking at her through a glass, made out with joy
+the crosses on the red banner of Britain! England had nothing to
+do with this Chinese-French war, but as a British vessel can be
+found lying around almost any port in the wide world, there of
+course happened to be one near Tamsui. She gained a passport into
+the harbor and sailed in with a very kindly mission; it was to
+protect the lives of foreigners, not only from the French guns,
+but from the Chinese mobs.
+
+The ship had been in the harbor but a short time when a young
+English naval officer, carrying the British flag, came up the
+path to the houses on the bluff. Dr. Mackay was in the library of
+Oxford College, lecturing to his students, when the visitor
+entered.
+
+The missionary made the sailor welcome and the young man told his
+errand. Dr. Mackay was invited to bring his family and his
+valuables and come on board the vessel to be the guest of the
+captain until the disturbance was over.
+
+It was a most kindly invitation and Dr. Mackay shook his
+visitor's hand warmly as he thanked him. He turned and translated
+the message to his students, and their hearts stood still with
+dismay. If Kai Bok-su, their stay and support, were to be taken
+away, what would become of them? But Kai Bok-su had not changed
+with the changing circumstances. He was still as brave and
+undaunted as though trouble had never come to his island.
+
+He turned to the officer again with a smile. "My family would not
+be hard to move," he said, "but my valuables--I am afraid I could
+not take them." He made a gesture toward the students standing
+about him. "These young men and many more converts scattered all
+over north Formosa, are my valuables. Many of them have faced
+death unflinchingly for my sake. They are my valuables, and I
+cannot leave them."
+
+It was bravely said, just as Kai Bok-su might be expected to
+speak, and the English officer's eyes kindled with appreciation.
+The words found a ready response in his heart. They were the
+words of a true soldier of the King. The officer went back to his
+captain with Mackay's message and with a deep admiration in his
+heart for the man who would rather face death than leave his
+friends.
+
+So the British man-of-war drew off, leaving the missionaries in
+the midst of danger. And almost immediately, with a great
+bursting roar, the bombardment from the French ships opened.
+Sometimes the shells flew high over the town and up to the bluff,
+so Dr. and Mrs. Mackay put their three little ones in a safe
+corner under the house; but they themselves as well as Mr. and
+Mrs. Jamieson, went in and out to and from the college, and the
+girls' school as though nothing were happening.
+
+Every day Mackay's work grew heavier and his anxiety for the
+persecuted Christians grew deeper. He ate very little, and he
+scarcely slept at all. It was not the noise of the carnage about
+him that kept him awake. He would have fallen asleep peacefully
+amidst bursting shells, but he had no opportunity. The whole
+burden of the young Church, harassed by persecution on all sides,
+seemed to rest upon his spirit. Anxiety for the Christians in the
+inland stations from whom he could not hear weighed on him night
+and day, and his brave spirit was put to the severest test.
+
+Only his great strong faith in God kept him up and kept up the
+spirits of the converts who looked to him for an example. And a
+brave pattern he showed them. Often he and A Hoa paced the lawn
+in front of the house while shot and shell whizzed around them.
+During the worst of the bombardment they came and went between
+the college and the house as if they had charmed lives. One day
+there was a great roar and a shell struck Oxford College, shaking
+it to its foundations. The smoke from fort and ships had scarcely
+cleared away when, crash! and the girls' school was struck by a
+bursting shell. Next moment there was a fearful bang and a great
+stone that stood in front of the Mackays' house went up into the
+air in a thousand fragments.
+
+But when the firing was hottest, Kai Bok-su would repeat to his
+students the comforting Psalm:
+
+"Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the
+arrow that flieth by day."
+
+But in spite of his brave demeanor, the strain on the shepherd of
+this harassed flock was beginning to tell. And when the
+bombardment ceased and the intense anxiety for his loved ones was
+over, Kai Bok-su suddenly collapsed. Dr. Johnsen, the foreign
+physician of Tamsui, came hurriedly up to the mission house to
+see him. His verdict sent a thrill of dismay through every heart
+that loved him, from the anxious little wife by the patient's
+side, to the poorest convert in the town below. Their beloved Kai
+Bok-su had brain fever.
+
+"Too much anxiety and too little sleep," said the medical man.
+"He must sleep now," he added, "or he will die." But now that Kai
+Bok-su had a chance to rest, he could not. Sleep had been chased
+away too long to stay with him. Night and day he tossed about,
+wide awake and burning with fever. His temperature was never less
+than 102 during those days, and all the doctor's efforts could
+not lower it. The awful heat of September was on, and the great
+typhoons that would soon sweep across the country and clear the
+air had not yet come. The glaring sun and the stifling damp heat
+were all against the patient. At last one day the doctor saw a
+crisis was approaching. He stood looking down at the hot, flushed
+face, at the burning eyes, and the restless hands that were never
+still, and he said to himself, "If the fever does not go down
+to-day, he will die."
+
+The doctor went along College Road toward his home, answering the
+eager, anxious questions that met him on all sides with only a
+shake of his head.
+
+A Hoa followed him, his drawn face full of pleading. Was he no
+better? he asked with quivering lips. It was the question poor A
+Hoa asked many, many times a day, for he never left the house
+when not away on duty. The doctor's face was full of sympathy and
+his own heart weighed down as he sadly answered, "No."
+
+"If I only had some ice," he muttered, knowing well he had none.
+"If there was only one bit of ice in Tamsui, I'd save him yet."
+
+Over in the British consulate Dr. Johnsen had another patient.
+Mr. Dodd lay sick there, though not nearly as ill as the
+missionary, and the physician's next visit was to him. When he
+entered he found a servant carrying a tray with some ice on it to
+the sick room.
+
+"Ice!" cried the doctor, overjoyed. "Where did it come from?"
+
+The servant explained that the steamship Hailoong had just
+arrived in Tamsui harbor with it that morning. The doctor entered
+Mr. Dodd's room. Would he give him that ice to save Mackay's
+life? was the question he asked. To save such a life as Mackay's!
+That was an absurd question, Mr. Dodd declared, and he
+immediately ordered that every bit of ice he had should be sent
+at once to the missionary's house.
+
+The doctor hurried back up the hill with the precious remedy. He
+broke up a piece and laid it like a little cushion on poor Kai
+Bok-su's hot forehead; that forehead beneath which the busy
+brain, resting neither day nor night, was burning up. It had not
+been there a great while before the restless eyes lost their
+fire, the eyelids drooped and, wonderful sight, Kai Bok-su sank
+into a sleep! The doctor hardly dared to breathe. If he could
+only be kept asleep now, he had a chance. Dr. Mackay had never
+been a sleeper, he well knew. He was too restless, too energetic,
+to allow himself even proper rest. When Dr. Fraser, his first
+assistant, had been with him, he had struggled to persuade him to
+stay in bed at least six hours every night, but not always with
+success. But now he was to show what he could do in the matter of
+sleeping. All that night he lay, breathing peacefully, the next
+day he slept on from morning till night, and little by little the
+ice melted away on his forehead. He did not move all the next
+night, and A Hoa and Mrs. Mackay and the doctor took turns at his
+bedside watching that the precious ice was always there. Morning
+came and it was all finished. The patient opened his eyes. He had
+slept thirty-six hours, and a thrill of joy went through every
+Christian heart in Tamsui, for their Kai Bok-su was saved!
+
+But though the crisis was over, he was still very weak, and such
+was the state of affairs through the country that he was in no
+condition to cope with them. Riot and plunder was the order of
+the day. News of churches being destroyed, of faithful Christians
+being tortured or put to death, were still coming to the mission
+house, and no one could tell what day would bring Kai Bok-su's
+turn.
+
+And now came an order from the British consul which the
+missionaries could not disobey. He commanded that their families
+must be moved at once from Formosa, as he could not answer for
+their protection. So at once preparations for their departure
+were made, and Mr. Jamieson took his wife and Mrs. Mackay and her
+three little ones and sailed away for Hongkong.
+
+But once more Kai Bok-su stayed behind. It cost him bitter pain
+to part with his loved ones, knowing he might never see them
+again; he was weak and spent with fever, and his poor body was
+worn to a shadow, but he stubbornly refused to leave the men who
+had stood by him in every danger. The consul commanded, the
+doctor pleaded, but no, Kai Bok-su would not go. If the danger
+had grown greater, then all the more reason why he should stay
+and comfort his people. And if God were pleased to send death,
+then they would all die together.
+
+But he was so weak and sick that the doctor feared that if he
+remained there would be little chance for the mob to kill him:
+death would come sooner. So he came to his stubborn patient with
+a new proposition. The Fukien, a merchant steamship, was now
+lying in Tamsui harbor. She was to run to Hongkong and back
+directly. If Mackay would only take that trip, his physician
+urged, the sea air would make him new again, and he would return
+in a short time and be ready to take up his work once more.
+
+It was that promise that moved Mackay's resolution. His utter
+weakness held him down from work, and he longed with all his soul
+to go out through the country to help the poor, suffering
+churches. So he finally consented to take the short journey and
+pay a visit to his dear ones in Hongkong.
+
+He did not get back quite as soon as he intended, for the French
+blockade delayed his vessel. But at last he stepped out upon the
+Tamsui dock into a crowd of preachers, students, and converts who
+were weeping for joy about him and exclaiming over his improved
+looks.
+
+The voyage had certainly done wonders for him, and at once he
+declared he must take a trip into the country and visit those who
+were left of the churches.
+
+It was a desperate undertaking, for French soldiers were now
+scattered through the country, guarding the larger towns and
+cities and everywhere mobs of furious Chinese were ready to
+torture or kill every foreigner. But it would take even greater
+difficulties than these to stop Kai Bok-su, and he began at once
+to lay plans for going on a tour.
+
+He first went to the British consul and came back in high spirits
+with a folded paper in his hand. He spread it out on the library
+table before A Hoa and Sun-a, who were to go with him, and this
+is what it said:
+
+British Consulate, Tamsui,
+
+May 27th, 1885.
+
+To THE OFFICER IN CHIEF COMMAND OF THE FRENCH FORCES AT KELUNG:
+
+The bearer of this paper, the Rev. George Leslie Mackay, D.D., a
+British subject, missionary in Formosa, wishes to enter Kelung,
+to visit his chapel and his house there, and to proceed through
+Kelung to Kap-tsu-lan on the east coast of Formosa to visit his
+converts there. Wherefore I, the undersigned, consul for Great
+Britain at Tamsui, do beg the officer in chief command of the
+French forces in Kelung to grant the said George Leslie Mackay
+entry into, and a free and safe passage through, Kelung. He will
+be accompanied by two Chinese followers, belonging to his
+mission, named, respectively, Giam Chheng Hoa, and Iap Sun.
+
+A. FRATER, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Tamsui.
+
+They had all the power of the British Empire behind them so long
+as they held that paper. Then they hired a burden-bearer to carry
+their food, and Mackay cut a bamboo pole, fully twenty feet long,
+and on it tied the British flag. With this floating over them,
+the little army marched through the rice-fields down to Kelung.
+
+It was an adventurous journey. But, wonderful though it seemed,
+they came through it safely. Poor Kai Bok-su's heart was torn as
+he saw the ravages the mob had made on his churches. But what a
+cheer his heart received when he found that persecution had
+strengthened the converts that were left and everywhere the
+heathen marveled that men should die for the faith the barbarian
+missionary had taught. They were taken prisoners once for German
+spies, and led far out of their way. But they came back to Tamsui
+safely, having greatly cheered the faithful Christians who still
+were true to their Master, Jesus Christ. It was early in June,
+just one year from the opening of the war, that the French sailed
+away. They were disgusted with the whole affair, the commander of
+one vessel told Dr. Mackay, and they were all very glad it was
+over.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Jamieson and Dr. Mackay's family returned to their
+homes on the bluff, and work started up again with its old vigor.
+
+But everywhere the heathen were in great glee. Christianity had
+been destroyed with the chapels, they were sure. Wherever Mackay
+went, shouts of derision followed him, and everywhere he could
+hear the joyful cry "Long-tsong bo-khi!" which meant "The mission
+is wiped out!"
+
+But strange though it may seem, the mission had never been
+stronger, and it soon began to assert itself. Dr. Mackay went at
+the work of repairing the lost buildings with all the force of
+his nature. First, he and Mr. Jamieson and A Hoa sat down and
+prepared a statement of their losses. This they sent to the
+commander-in-chief of the Chinese forces, who had been
+responsible for law and order. Without any delay or questioning
+of the missionaries' rights, the general sent Dr. Mackay the sum
+asked for--ten thousand Mexican dollars.*
+
+*About $5000.
+
+The next thing was to plan the new chapels and see to the
+building of them. And before the shouts of "Long-tsong bo-khi"
+had well started, they began to be contradicted by walls of brick
+or stone that rose up strong and sure to show that the mission
+had not been wiped out. Three of the chapels were commenced all
+at once--at Sintiam, at Bang-kah and at Sek-khau. Before anything
+was done Dr. Mackay and a party of his students went up to
+Sin-tiam to look over the site. They stood up on the pile of
+ruins, surrounded by the Christians, and a crowd of heathen came
+around gleefully to watch them in the hopes of seeing their
+despair.
+
+But to their amazement the little company of Christians led by
+the wonderful Kai Bok-su, suddenly burst into a hymn of praise to
+God who had brought them safely through all their troubles:
+
+Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God,
+And not forgetful be
+Of all his gracious benefits
+He hath bestowed on thee!
+
+The heathen listened in wonder to the words of praise where they
+had expected lamentation, and they asked each other what was this
+strange power that made men so strong and brave.
+
+And their amazement grew as the chapels, the lovely new chapels
+of stone or brick, began to rise from the ruins of the old ones.
+And not only did the old ones reappear, new and more beautiful,
+but as Dr. Mackay and his native preachers went here and there
+over the country others peeped forth like the hepaticas of
+springtime, until there were not only the forty original chapels,
+but in a few years the number had increased to sixty.
+
+The triumphant shout that the mission had been wiped out ceased
+completely, and the people declared that they had been fools to
+try to destroy the chapels, for the result had been only bigger
+and better ones.
+
+"Look now," said one old heathen, pointing a withered finger to
+the handsome spire of the Bang-kah chapel, that lifted itself
+toward the sky, "Look now, the chapel towers above our temple. It
+is larger than the one we destroyed."
+
+His neighbors crowding about him and gazing up with superstitious
+awe at the spire, agreed.
+
+"If we touch this one he will build another and a bigger one,"
+remarked another man.
+
+"We cannot stop the barbarian missionary," said the old heathen
+with an air of conviction.
+
+"No, no one can stop the great Kai Bok-su," they finally agreed,
+and so they left off all opposition in despair.
+
+Yes, the cry of "Long-tsong bo-khi" had died, and the answer to
+it was inscribed on the front of the splendid chapels that sprang
+up all over north Formosa. For, just above the main entrance to
+each, worked out in stucco plaster, was a picture of the burning
+bush, and around it in Chinese the grand old motto:
+
+"Nec tamen consumebatur" ("Yet it was not consumed.")
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. TRIUMPHAL MARCH
+
+Up and down the length and breadth of north Formosa, seeming to
+be in two or three places at once, went Kai Bok-su, during this
+time of reviving after the war. He would be in Kelung to-day
+superintending the new chapel building, in Tamsui at Oxford
+College the next day, in Bang-kah preaching a short while after,
+and no one could tell just where the next day.
+
+But every one did know that wherever he went, Christians grew
+stronger and heathen gave up their idols. The Kap-tsu-lan plain,
+away on the eastern coast, seemed to be a sort of pet among all
+his mission fields, and he was always turning his steps thither.
+For the Pe-po-hoan who lived there, while they were simple and
+warm-hearted and easily moved by the gospel story, were not such
+strong characters as the Chinese. So the missionary felt he must
+visit them often to help steady their faith.
+
+Not long after the close of the war, he set off on a trip to the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain. Besides his students, he was accompanied by a
+young German scientist. Dr. Warburg had come from Germany to
+Formosa to collect peculiar plants and flowers and to find any
+old weapons or relics of interest belonging to the savage tribes.
+All these were for the use of the university in Germany which had
+sent him out.
+
+The young scientist was delighted with Dr. Mackay and found in
+him a very interesting companion. They met in Kelung, and when
+Dr. Warburg found that Dr. Mackay was going to visit the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain, he joined his party. The stranger found many
+rare specimens of orchids on that trip and several peculiar spear
+and arrow heads to be taken back as curios to Germany. But he
+found something rarer and more wonderful and something for which
+he had not come to search.
+
+He saw in one place three hundred people gather about their
+missionary and raise a ringing hymn of praise to the God of
+heaven, of whom they had not so much as heard but a few short
+years before. He visited sixteen little chapels and heard clever,
+bright-faced young Chinese preachers stand up in them and tell
+the old, old story of Jesus and his love. And he realized that
+these things were far more wonderful than the rarest curios he
+could find in all Formosa.
+
+When he bade good-by to Dr. Mackay, he said: "I never saw
+anything like this before. If scientific skeptics had traveled
+with a missionary as I have and witnessed what I have witnessed
+on this plain, they would assume a different attitude toward the
+heralds of the cross."
+
+Not many months later Dr. Mackay again went down the eastern
+coast. This time he took three of his closest friends, all
+preacher students, Tan He, Sun-a, and Koa Kau. With a coolie to
+carry provisions, their Bibles, their forceps, and some malaria
+medicine, they started off fully equipped. By steam launch to
+Bang-kah, by a queer little railway train to Tsui-tng-kha and by
+foot to Kelung was the first part of the journey. The next part
+was a tramp over the mountains to Kap-tsu-lan.
+
+The road now grew rough and dangerous. Overhead hung loose rocks,
+huge enough to crush the whole party should they fall. Underneath
+were wet, slippery stones which might easily make one go sliding
+down into the chasm below.
+
+As usual on this trip they had many hair-breadth escapes, for
+there were savages too hiding up in the dense forest and waiting
+an opportunity to spring out upon the travelers. Dr. Mackay was
+almost caught in a small avalanche also. He leaped over a narrow
+stream-bed, and as he did so, he dislodged a loose mass of rock
+above him. It came down with a fearful crash, scattering the
+smaller pieces right upon his heels; but they passed all dangers
+safely and toward evening reached the shore where the great long
+Pacific billows rolled upon the sand. They were in the
+Kap-tsu-lan plain.
+
+Their journey through the plain was like a triumphal march.
+Wherever a chapel had been erected, there were converts to be
+examined; wherever there was no chapel, the people gathered about
+the missionary and pleaded for one. They often recalled the first
+visit of Kai Bok-su when "No room for barbarians" were the only
+words that met him.
+
+But Dr. Mackay wished to go farther on this journey than he had
+ever gone. Some distance south of Kap-tsu-lan lay another
+district called the Ki-lai plain. The people here were also
+aborigines of the island who had been conquered by the Chinese
+like the Pe-po-hoan. But the inhabitants of Ki-lai were called
+Lam-si-hoan, which means "Barbarians of the south." Dr. Mackay
+had never been among them, but they had heard the gospel. A
+missionary from Oxford College had journeyed away down there to
+tell the people about Jesus and had been working among them for
+some years. He was not a graduate, not even a student--but only
+the cook! For Oxford College was such a place of inspiration
+under Kai Bok-su, that even the servants in the kitchen wanted to
+go out and preach the gospel. So the cook had gone away to the
+Ki-lai plain, and, ever since he had left, Dr. Mackay had longed
+to go and see how his work was prospering.
+
+So at one of the most southerly points of the Kap-tsu-lan plain
+he secured a boat for the voyage south. The best he could get was
+a small craft quite open, only twelve feet long. It was not a
+very fine vessel with which to brave the Pacific Ocean, but where
+was the crazy craft in which Kai Bok-su would not embark to go
+and tell the gospel to the heathen? The boat was manned by six
+Pe-po-hoan rowers, all Christians, and at five o'clock in the
+evening they pushed out into the surf of So Bay. A crowd of
+converts came down to the shore to bid them farewell. As the boat
+shoved off the friends on the beach started a hymn. The rowers
+and the missionaries caught it up and the two groups joined, the
+sound of each growing fainter and fainter to the other as the
+distance widened.
+
+All lands to God in joyful sounds
+Aloft your voices raise,
+Sing forth the honor of his name,
+And glorious make his praise!
+
+And the land and the sea, answering each other, joined in praise
+to him who was the Maker of both.
+
+And so the rowers pulled away in time to the swing of the Psalm,
+the boat rounded a point, and the beloved figure of Kai Bok-su
+disappeared from sight.
+
+Away down the coast the oarsmen pulled, and the four missionaries
+squeezed themselves into as small a space as possible to be out
+of the way of the oars. All the evening they rowed steadily, and
+as they still swept along night came down suddenly. They kept
+close to the shore, where to their right arose great mountains
+straight up from the water's edge. They were covered with forest,
+and here and there in the blackness fires twinkled.
+
+"Head-hunters!" said the helmsman, pointing toward them.
+
+Away to the left stretched the Pacific Ocean, and above shone the
+stars in the deep blue dome. It was a still, hot tropical night.
+From the land came the heavy scent of flowers. The only sound
+that broke the stillness was the regular thud, thud of the oars
+or the cry of some wild animal floating out from the jungle. As
+they passed on through the warm darkness, the sea took on that
+wonderful fiery glow that so often burns on the oceans of the
+tropics. Every wave became a blaze of phosphorescence. Every
+ripple from the oars ran away in many-colored flames--red, green,
+blue, and orange. Kai Bok-su, sitting amazed at the glory to
+which the Pe-po-hoan boatmen had become accustomed, was silent
+with awe. He had seen the phosphorescent lights often before, but
+never anything like this. He put his hand down into the molten
+sea and scooped up handfuls of what seemed drops of liquid fire.
+And as his fingers dipped into the water they shone like rods of
+red-hot iron. Over the gleaming iridescent surface, sparks of
+fire darted like lightning, and from the little boat's sides
+flashed out flames of gold and rose and amber. It was grand. And
+no wonder they all joined--Chinese, Malayan, and Canadian--in
+making the dark cliffs and the gleaming sea echo to the strains
+of praise to the One who had created all this glory.
+
+O come let us sing to the Lord,
+To him our voices raise
+With joyful noise, let us the rock
+Of our salvation praise.
+
+To him the spacious sea belongs,
+For he the same did make;
+The dry land also from his hand
+Its form at first did take.
+
+Dawn came up out of the Pacific with a new glory of light and
+color that dispelled the wonders of the night. It showed the
+voyagers that they were very near a low shore where it would be
+possible to land. But the helmsman shook his head at the
+proposal. He pointed out huts along the line of forest and
+figures on the shore. And then with a common impulse, the rowers
+swung round and pulled straight out to sea; for with Pe-po-hoan
+experience they saw at once that here was a savage village, and
+not long would their heads remain on their shoulders should they
+touch land.
+
+The scorching sun soon poured its hot rays upon the tired rowers,
+but they pulled steadily. They too, like Kai Bok-su, were anxious
+to take this great good news of Jesus Christ to those who had not
+yet learned of him. When safely out of reach of the headhunters,
+they once more turned south, and, about noon, tired and hot, at
+last approached the first port of the Ki-lai plain. Every one
+drew a sigh of relief, for the men had been rowing steadily all
+night and half the day. As they drew near Dr. Mackay looked
+eagerly at the queer village. It appeared to be half Chinese and
+half Lam-si-hoan. It consisted of two rows of small thatched
+houses with a street between nearly two hundred feet wide.
+
+The rowers ran the boat up on the sloping pebbly beach and all
+stepped out with much relief to stretch their stiffened limbs.
+They had scarcely done so when a military officer came down the
+shore and approaching Dr. Mackay made him welcome with the
+greatest warmth. There was a military encampment here, and this
+was the officer as well as the headman of the village. He invited
+Dr. Mackay and his friends to take dinner with him. Dr. Mackay
+accepted with pleased surprise. This was far better than he had
+expected. He was still more surprised to hear his name on every
+hand.
+
+"It is the great Kai Bok-su," could be heard in tones of deepest
+respect from fishermen at their nets and old women by the door
+and children playing with their kites in the wide street.
+
+"How do they know me?" he asked, as he was greeted by a
+rice-seller, sitting at the open front of his shop.
+
+"Ah, we have heard of you and your work in the north, Pastor
+Mackay," said his host, smiling, "and our people want to hear of
+this new Jehovah-religion too."
+
+The cook-missionary had evidently spread wonderful reports of Kai
+Bok-su and his gospel and so prepared the way. He was preaching
+just then in a place called Ka-le-oan, farther inland. When the
+officer learned that Dr. Mackay wanted to visit him he turned to
+his servant with a most surprising order. It was to saddle his
+pony and bring him for Kai Bok-su to ride to Ka-le-oan.
+
+The pony came, sleek and plump and with a string of jingling
+bells adorning him. A pony was a wonderful sight in Formosa, and
+Dr. Mackay had not used any sort of animal in his work since that
+disastrous day when he had tried in vain to ride the stubborn
+Lu-a. But now he gladly mounted the sedate little steed and
+trotted away along the narrow pathway between the rice-fields
+toward Ka-le-oan.
+
+Darkness had almost descended when he rode into the village and
+stopped before a small grass-covered bamboo dwelling where the
+cook-preacher lived. For years the people here had looked for Kai
+Bok-su's coming, for years they had talked of this great event,
+and for years their preacher had been writing and saying as he
+received his reply from the eager missionary in Tamsui, "He may
+come soon."
+
+And now he was really here! The sound of his horse's bells had
+scarcely stopped before the preacher's house, when the news began
+to spread like fire through the village. The preacher, who had
+worked so hard and waited so long, wept for joy, and before he
+could make Dr. Mackay welcome in a proper manner the room was
+filled with men, all wildly eager for a sight of the great Kai
+Bok-su, while outside a crowd gathered about the door striving to
+get even a glimpse of him. The ex-cook of Oxford College had
+preached so faithfully that many were already converted to
+Christianity, many more knew a good deal of the gospel, and
+crowds were ready to throw away their idols. They were weary of
+their heathen rites and superstitions. They were longing for
+something better, they scarcely knew what. "But the mandarin will
+not let them become Christians," said the preacher anxiously. "It
+is he who is keeping them from decision. He has said that they
+must continue in idolatry, as a token of loyalty to China."
+
+"Are you sure that is true?" cried Dr. Mackay.
+
+The converts nodded. They had "heard" it said at least.
+
+But Kai Bok-su was not the man to accept mere hearsay. He was
+always wisely careful to avoid any collision with the
+authorities. But remembering the kindness shown him back in
+Hoe-lien-kang, he could not quite believe that the mandarin who
+had been so kind to him could be hostile to the religion of Jesus
+Christ.
+
+To think was to act, and early the next morning, he was riding
+back to the seacoast, to inquire how much of this rumor was true.
+
+His reception was very warm. It was all right, the officer
+declared. Whatever had been said or done in the past must be
+forgotten. Kai Bok-su might go where he pleased and preach his
+Jehovah-religion to whomsoever he would.
+
+It was a very light-hearted rider the pony carried as he galloped
+back along the narrow paths, with the good news for the
+villagers. The word went round as soon as he arrived. Kai Bok-su
+wanted to know how many were for the true God. All who would
+worship him were at once to clear their houses of idols and
+declare that they would serve Jehovah and him only. At dark a
+great crowd gathered in an open space in the village.
+Representatives from five villages were there, chiefs were
+shouting to their people, and when Dr. Mackay and his students
+arrived, the place was all noise and confusion. He was puzzled.
+It almost looked as if there was to be a riot, though the voices
+did not sound angry.
+
+He climbed up on a pile of rubbish and his face shone clear in
+the light of the flaring torches. His voice rang out loud and
+commanding above the tumult.
+
+"What is this noise about?" he cried. "Is there a difference of
+opinion among you as to whether you shall worship these poor toys
+of wood and stone, or the true God who is your Father?"
+
+He paused and as if from one man came back the answer in a mighty
+shout:
+
+"No, we will worship the true God!"
+
+The tumult had been one of enthusiasm and not of dispute!
+
+Kai Bok-su's heart gave a great bound. For a moment he could not
+speak. He who had so often stood up fearless and bold before a
+raging heathen mob, now faltered before this sea of eager faces,
+upturned to him. It seemed too good to be true that all this
+crowd, representing five villages, was anxious to become
+followers of the God of heaven. His voice grew steady at last,
+and standing up there in the flickering torchlight he told those
+children of the plain what it meant to be a follower of Jesus
+Christ. It was a late hour when the meeting broke up, but even
+then Dr. Mackay could not go to bed. Never since the day that A
+Hoa, his first convert, had accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior,
+had he felt such joy, and all night he walked up and down in
+front of the preacher's house, unable to sleep for the
+thankfulness to God that surged in his heart.
+
+Morning brought a wonderful day for the Ki-lai plain. It was like
+a day when freedom from slavery was announced. Had there been
+bells in the village they would certainly have been rung. But joy
+bells were ringing in every heart. Nobody could work all day. The
+rice-fields and the shops and the pottery works lay idle. There
+was but one business to do that day, and that was to get rid of
+their idols.
+
+Early in the morning the mayor of the place, or the headman as he
+was called, came to the house to invite the missionary and his
+party to join him. Behind him walked four big boys, carrying two
+large wicker baskets, hanging from poles across their shoulders;
+and behind them came the whole village, men, women, and children,
+their faces shining with a new joy. The procession moved along
+from house to house. At every place it stopped and out from the
+home were carried idols, ancestral tablets, mock-money, flags,
+incense sticks, and all the stuff used in idol worship. These
+were all emptied into the baskets carried by the boys. When even
+the temple had been ransacked and the work of clearing out the
+idols in the village was finished, the procession moved on to the
+next hamlet. The villages were very near each other, so the
+journey was not wearisome; and at last when every vestige of the
+old idolatrous life had been taken from the homes of five
+villages, the happy crowd marched back to the first village.
+There was a large courtyard near the temple and here the
+procession halted. The boys dropped their well-filled baskets,
+and their contents were piled in the center of the court. The
+people gathered about the heap and with shouts of joy set fire to
+these signs of their lifelong slavery. Soon the pile was blazing
+and crackling, and all the people, even the chiefs of the
+villages, vied with each other in burning up the idols they had
+so lately besought for blessings.
+
+And then they turned toward the heathen temple and delivered it
+over to Kai Bok-su for a chapel in which he and his students
+might preach the gospel.
+
+And so the temple was lighted up for a new kind of worship. It
+had been used for worship many, many times before, but oh, how
+different it was this time! Instead of coming in fear of demons,
+dread of their gods' anger, and determination to cheat them if
+possible, these poor folk crowded into the new-old temple with
+light, happy hearts, as children coming to their Father. And was
+not God their Father, only they had not known him before?
+
+The heathen temple was dedicated to the worship of the true God
+by singing the old but always new, one hundredth Psalm. The
+Lam-si-hoan were not very good singers. They had not much idea of
+tune. They had less idea of just when to start, and there was
+very little to be said about the harmony of those hundreds of
+voices. But in spite of it all, Kai Bok-su had to confess that
+never in the music of his homeland or in the more finished
+harmonies of Europe, had he heard anything so grandly uplifting
+as when those newly-freed people stood up in their idol temple
+and with heart and soul and voice unitedly poured forth in
+thunderous volume of praise the great command:
+
+All people that on earth do dwell,
+Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
+
+For a whole week with his pony and groom, which were still his to
+do with as he pleased, the busy missionary rode up and down this
+plain, visiting the villages, preaching, and teaching the people
+how to live as Jesus Christ their Savior had lived; for it was
+necessary to impress upon their childlike minds that it would be
+of no use to burn up the idols in their homes and temple unless
+they also gave up the still more harmful idols in their hearts.
+
+But at last the day came when the pony had to be returned to its
+owner and the missionary and his helpers must leave. It was a sad
+day but a joyous one--the day that great visit came to an end.
+Crowds of Christians, fain to keep him, followed him down to the
+shore, and many kindly but reluctant hands shoved the little boat
+out into the surf. And as the rowers sent it skimming out over
+the great Pacific rollers, there rose from the beach the parting
+hymn, the one that had dedicated the heathen temple to the
+worship of the true God:
+
+All people that on earth do dwell,
+Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
+
+and from the rowers and the missionaries in the boat, came back
+the glad echo:
+
+Know that the Lord is God indeed
+Without our aid he did us make.
+
+They were soon out of sight. The rowers pulled hard, but a stiff
+northeaster straight from Japan was blowing against them, and
+they made but little headway. Night came down, and they were
+again skirting those dark cliffs, where, here and there, along
+the narrow strip of sand, the night-fires of the savages flamed
+out against the dark tangle of foliage. All night long the rowers
+struggled against the wind. They were afraid to go out far for
+the waves were wild, they dared not land, for, crueler than the
+sea, the head-hunters waited for them on the shore. And so all
+that night, taking turns with the rowers, the missionary and his
+students toiled against the wind and wave. The dawn came up gray
+and stormy, and they were still tossing about among the white
+billows. No one had touched food for twenty-four hours. They had
+rice in the boat, but there was no place where they dared land to
+have it cooked. There was nothing to do but to pull, pull at the
+oars, and a weary task it seemed, for the boat appeared to make
+little headway, and the rowers barely succeeded in keeping her
+from being dashed upon the rocks.
+
+They were becoming almost too weak to keep any control over their
+boat, when about three o'clock in the afternoon they managed to
+round a point. There before them curved a beautiful bay. Behind
+it and on both sides arose a perpendicular wall several hundred
+feet high. At its foot stretched a narrow sandy beach. It was an
+ideal spot, secure from savages both by land and sea. A shout of
+encouragement from Kai Bok-su was the one thing needed. Tired
+arms and aching backs bent to the oars for one last effort, and
+when the boat swept up on the sandy beach every one uttered a
+heartfelt prayer of thankfulness to the Father who had provided
+this little haven in a time of such distress.
+
+The rest of the journey was made safely, and just forty days
+after their departure the four missionaries returned, worn out,
+to Tamsui.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. THE LAND OCCUPIED
+
+But Kai Bok-su had no sooner returned than he was off again. He
+was not one of that sort who could settle down after an
+achievement, content to rest for a little. He seemed to forget
+all about what had been done and was "up and at it again." If he
+"did not know when he was beaten," neither did he seem to know
+when he was successful; and like Alexander the Great he was
+always sighing for new worlds to conquer, yes, and marching off
+and conquering them too.
+
+But every time he returned to his work at Tamsui from one of
+these tours, it was borne in upon him more forcibly every day
+that his faithful assistant who was left in charge, could not
+long shoulder his work. Mr. Jamieson was fighting a losing battle
+with ill health. The terrible experiences during the war year,
+the hard work, and the trying Formosan climate had all combined
+against him. His brave spirit could not always sustain the body
+that was growing gradually weaker, and one day, a dark, sad day,
+the devoted soul was set free from the poor pain-racked body. He
+had given eight years of hard, faithful work to the study of the
+language and to the service of the Master in the mission. Mrs.
+Jamieson returned to Canada, and once more Dr. Mackay faced the
+work, unaided except by native preachers. But he was not daunted
+even by this bereavement, for he always lived in the perfect
+faith that God was on his side.
+
+And then, he had by this time three new assistants in the
+mission-house on the bluff. They did not even guess that they
+were any help to him, for they could never go with him on his
+mission tours. But by their sweet merry ways and their joyous
+welcome to father, when he returned, they did help him greatly,
+and made his home-comings a delight.
+
+"How many did you baptize, father?" was baby George's inevitable
+question on his father's return. For already the wise toddler had
+learned something of the bitter enmity of the heathen world, and
+knew that converts meant friends. Then father's home-coming meant
+presents too, wonderful things, bows and arrows, rare curios for
+the museum in the college, and, once, a pair of the funniest
+monkeys in the world, which proved most entertaining playthings
+for the little boy and his two sisters. Another time the father
+brought home a young bear to keep the monkeys company, but they
+were not at all polite to their guest, for they made poor bruin's
+life miserable by teasing him. They would torment him until he
+would stamp with rage. But he was not always badly used, for when
+the three children would come out to feed him, he was very happy,
+and he would show his pleasure by putting his head between his
+paws and rolling over and over like a big ball of fur. And he
+always seemed quite proud of his performance when his three
+little keepers shrieked with laughter.
+
+The next year after Mr. Jamieson's death the empty mission-house
+was once more filled. In September the Rev. Mr. William and Mrs.
+Gauld sailed from Canada, and with their arrival Dr. Mackay took
+new heart.
+
+The new missionaries had learned the language and their work was
+well under way when the time came round once more for Dr. Mackay
+to go back to Canada for a year's rest. This time there was quite
+a little party went with him: his wife, their three children, and
+Koa Kau, one of his students.
+
+Among those left to assist Mr. Gauld, there was none he relied
+upon more than A Hoa. Mr. Gauld, at the close of his second
+year's work, wrote of this fellow worker: "The longer and better
+I know him, the more I can love him, trust his honesty, and
+respect his judgment. He knows his own people, from the governor
+of the island to the ragged opium-smoking beggar, and has
+influence with them all."
+
+There were many others besides A Hoa to render the missionary
+faithful help; among them Sun-a and Tan He, the latter pastor of
+the church of Sin-tiam; and just because Kai Bok-su was away they
+worked the harder, that he might receive a good report of them on
+his return.
+
+The separation was longer this time, for Dr. Mackay wished to
+send his children to school, and he decided that they would
+remain in Canada two years. He was made Moderator of the General
+Assembly, too, and the Church at home needed him to stir them up
+to a greater desire to help those beyond the seas.
+
+While he was working and preaching in Canada, his heart turned
+always to his beloved Formosa, and letters from the friends there
+were among his greatest pleasures. A Hoa's of course, were doubly
+welcome. Pastor Giam, the name by which he was now called, was
+Mr. Gauld's right-hand helper in those days, and once he went
+alone on a tour away to the eastern shore. While there he had an
+adventure of which he wrote to Kai Bok-su.
+
+"The other morning while walking on the seashore I saw a
+sailing-vessel slowly drifting shoreward and in danger of being
+wrecked, for there was a fog and a heavy sea. I hastened back to
+the chapel and beat the drum to call the villagers to worship. As
+soon as it was over I asked converts and heathen to go in their
+fishing-boats as quickly as possible and let the sailors know
+they need not fear savages there, and if they wished to come
+ashore a chapel would be given them to stay in. The whole crew
+came ashore in the boats at once. I gave your old room to the
+captain, his wife and child, and other accommodation to the rest.
+I then hurried away to a mandarin and asked him to send men to
+protect the ship."
+
+When Kai Bok-su read the story and remembered that, twenty-five
+years earlier, the crew of that vessel would have been murdered
+and their ship plundered, he exclaimed with joy, "Blessed
+Christianity! Surely,
+
+Blessings abound where'er He reigns!"
+
+A Hoa had another tale to tell. One afternoon he had a strange
+congregation in that little chapel. There were one hundred and
+forty-six native converts and twenty-one Europeans. These were
+made up of seven nationalities, British, American, French,
+Danish, Turkish, Swiss, and Norwegian. Their ship was from
+America and was bound for Hongkong with coal-oil.
+
+They were amazed at seeing a pretty, neat chapel away in this
+wild, remote place, which they had always supposed was overrun by
+head-hunters, and indeed it was just that little chapel that had
+made the great change. These men now entered it and joined the
+natives in worshiping the true God, where, only a few years
+before, their blood would have stained the sands.
+
+A Hoa told them something of the great Kai Bok-su and the
+struggles he had had with savages and other enemies, when he
+first came to this region. The visitors were very much interested
+and did not wonder that the name "Kai Bok-su" was held in such
+reverence. When they left, the captain presented the little
+chapel with a bell, a lamp, and a mirror which were on board his
+ship.
+
+The long months of separation were rolling around, when something
+happened that brought Kai Bok-su back to his island in great
+haste. Once more war swept over Formosa. This time the trouble
+was between China and Japan. The big Empire proved no match for
+the clever Japanese, and everywhere China was forced to give in.
+
+One of the places which Japan set her affections on was Formosa.
+She must have the Beautiful Isle and have it at once. China was
+in no position to say no, so the Chinese envoy went on board a
+Japanese vessel and sailed toward Formosa. When in sight of its
+lovely mountains, without any ceremony he pointed to the land and
+said, "There it is, take it." And that was how Formosa became a
+province of Japan. At noon on May 26, 1895, the dragon flag of
+China was hauled down from Formosan forts and the banner of Japan
+was hoisted.
+
+Of course this was not done without a struggle. The Formosans
+themselves fought hard, and in the fight the Christians came in
+for times of trouble. So Kai Bok-su, hearing that his "valuables"
+were again in danger, set sail for Tamsui.
+
+When he arrived the war was practically over, but everywhere were
+signs of strife. As soon as he was able, he took A Hoa and Koa
+Kau and visited the chapels all over the country. Everywhere were
+sights to make his heart very sad. The Japanese soldiers had used
+many of the chapels for military stables, and they were in a
+filthy state. At one place the native preacher was a prisoner,
+the Japanese believing him to be a spy. At another village the
+Christians sadly led their missionary out to a tea plantation and
+showed him the place where their beloved pastor had been shot by
+the Japanese soldiers. Mackay stood beside his grave, his heart
+heavy with sorrow.
+
+But his courage never left him. The native Christians everywhere
+forgot their woes in the great joy of seeing him once more; and
+he joined them in a brave attempt to put things to rights once
+more. The Japanese paid for all damages done by their soldiers
+and in a short time the work was going on splendidly.
+
+"We have no fear," wrote Dr. Mackay. "The King of kings is
+greater than Emperor or Mikado. He will rule and overrule all
+things."
+
+His faith was rewarded, for when the troublous time was over, the
+government of Japan proved better than that of China, and on the
+whole the trial proved a blessing.
+
+Oxford College had been closed while Dr. Mackay was away, and the
+girls' school had not been opened since the war commenced, for it
+was not safe for the girls and women to leave their homes during
+such disturbed times. But now both schools reopened, and again
+Kai Bok-su with his cane and his book and his crowd of students
+could be seen going up to the lecture halls, or away out on the
+Formosan roads.
+
+He had conquered so often, overcome such tremendous obstacles,
+and faced unflinchingly so many awful dangers for the sake of his
+converts, that it was no wonder that they adored him, their
+feeling amounting almost to worship. "Kai Bok-su says it must be
+so" was sufficient to compel any one in the north Formosa Church
+to do what was required. Surely never before was a man so
+wonderfully rewarded in this life. He had given up all he
+possessed for the glory of his Master and he had his full
+compensation.
+
+A few happy years sped round. The time for him to go back home
+again was drawing near when there came the first hint that he
+might soon be called on a longer furlough than he would have in
+Canada.
+
+At first, when the dread suspicion began to be whispered in the
+halls of Oxford College and in the chapel gatherings throughout
+the country, people refused to believe it. Kai Bok-su ill? No,
+no, it was only the malaria, and he always arose from that and
+went about again. It could not be serious.
+
+But in spite of the fact that loving hearts refused to accept it,
+there was no use denying the sad fact. There was something wrong
+with Kai Bok-su. For months his voice had been growing weaker,
+the doctors had examined his throat, and attended him, but it was
+all of no use. At last he could not speak at all, but wrote his
+words on a slate.
+
+And everywhere in north Formosa, converts and students and
+preachers watched and waited and prayed most fervently that he
+might soon recover. Those who lived in Tamsui whispered to each
+other in tones of dread, as they watched him come and go with
+slower steps than they had been accustomed to see.
+
+"He will be well next month," they would say hopefully, or, "He
+will look like himself when the rains dry." But little by little
+the conviction grew that the beloved missionary was seriously
+ill, and a great gloom settled all over north Formosa. There was
+a little gleam of joy when the doctor in Tamsui advised him
+finally to go to Hongkong and see a specialist. He went, leaving
+many loving hearts waiting anxiously between hope and fear to
+hear what the doctors would say. And prayers went up night and
+day from those who loved him. From the heart-broken wife in the
+lonely house on the bluff to the farthest-off convert on the
+Ki-lai plain, every Christian on the island, even those in the
+south Formosa mission, prayed that the useful life might be
+spared.
+
+But God had other and greater plans for Kai Bok-su. He came back
+from Hongkong, and the first look at his pale face told the
+dreaded truth. The shadow of death lay on it.
+
+Those were heart-breaking days in north Formosa. From all sides
+came such messages of devotion that it seemed as if the
+passionate love of his followers must hold him back. But a
+stronger love was calling him on. And one bright June day, in
+1901, when the green mountainsides, the blue rivers, and the
+waving rice-fields of Formosa lay smiling in the sun, Kai Bok-su
+heard once more that call that had brought him so far from home.
+Once more he obeyed, and he opened his eyes on a new glory
+greater than any of which he had ever dreamed. The task had been
+a hard one. The "big stone" had been stubborn, but it had been
+broken, and not long after the noontide of his life the tired
+worker was called home.
+
+They laid his poor, worn body up on the hill above the river,
+beside the bodies of the Christians he had loved so well. And the
+soft Formosan grass grew over his grave, the winds roared about
+it, and the river and the sea sang his requiem.
+
+Gallant Kai Bok-su! As he rests up there on his wind-swept
+height, there are hearts in the valleys and on the plains of his
+beloved Formosa and in his far-off native land that are aching
+for him. And sometimes to these last comes the question "Was it
+well?" Was it well that he should wear out that splendid life in
+such desperate toil among heathen that hated and reviled him? And
+from every part of north Formosa, sounding on the wind, comes
+many an answer.
+
+Up from the damp rice-fields, where the farmer goes to and fro in
+the gray dawn, arises a song:
+
+I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,
+Or to defend his cause.
+
+Far away on the mountainside, the once savage mother draws her
+little one to her and teaches him, not the old lesson of
+bloodshed, but the older one of love and kindness, and together
+they croon:
+
+Jesus loves me, this I know,
+For the Bible tells me so.
+
+And up from scores of chapels dotting the land, comes the sound
+of the old, old story of Jesus and his love, preached by native
+Formosans, and from the thousand tongues of their congregations
+soars upward the Psalm:
+
+All people that on earth do dwell,
+Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice!
+
+These all unite in one great harmony, replying, "It is well!"
+
+But is it well with the work? What of his Beautiful Island, now
+that Kai Bok-su has left for a greater work in a more beautiful
+land? Yes, it is well also with Formosa. The work goes on.
+
+There are two thousand, one hundred members now in the four
+organized congregations, and over fifty mission stations and
+outstations. But better still there are in addition twenty-two
+hundred who have forsaken their idols and are being trained to
+become church-members. The Formosa Church out of its poverty
+gives liberally too. In 1911 they contributed more than
+thirty-five hundred dollars to Christian work. "Every year,"
+writes Mr. Jack, "a special collection is taken by the Church for
+the work among the Ami--the aborigines of the Ki-lai plain." This
+is the foreign mission of the north Formosa Church.
+
+A Hoa lately followed his pastor to the home above, but many
+others remain. Mr. Gauld and his family are still there, in the
+front of the battle, and with him is a fine corps of soldiers,
+comprising fifty-nine native and several Canadian missionaries,
+including the Rev. Dr. J. Y. Ferguson and his wife, the Rev.
+Milton Jack and Mrs. Jack, the Rev. and Mrs. Duncan MacLeod, Miss
+J. M. Kinney, Miss Hannah Connell, Miss Mabel G. Clazie, and Miss
+Lily Adair. Miss Isabelle J. Elliott, a graduate nurse, and
+deaconess, will join the staff shortly, and a few others will be
+sent when secured, in order that the force may be sufficient to
+evangelize the million people in north Formosa.
+
+Mrs. Mackay and her two daughters, Helen and Mary, the latter
+having married native preachers, Koa Kau and Tan He, are keeping
+up the work that husband and father left. A new hospital is being
+built under Dr. Ferguson, and plans are on foot for new school
+and college buildings.
+
+And the latest arrived missionary? What of him? Why his name is
+George Mackay, and he has just sailed from Canada as the first
+Mackay sailed forty-one years earlier. He has been nine years in
+Canada and the United States, at school and college, and now with
+his Canadian wife, has gone back to his native land. Yes, Kai
+Bok-su's son has gone out to carry on his father's work, and
+Formosa has welcomed him as no other missionary has been welcomed
+since Kai Bok-su's day.
+
+But these are not all. From far across the sea, in the land where
+Kai Bok-su lived his boyhood days, comes a voice. It is the echo
+from the hearts of other boys, who have read his noble life. And
+their answer is, "We too will go out, as he went, and fight and
+win!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Black-Bearded Barbarian, by Keith
+
+
+
+
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