Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/368

 The year 1845 witnessed quite a reduction in the number of the American missionaries in Siam. The Rev. Mr. Davenport and wife (now Mrs. Fanny Feudge) of the Baptist mission left for the United States, to return no more, and Dr. Jones, also, on a visit. The Rev. Charles Robinson and family of the A. B. C. F. M. also left Siam (Mr. R. to die at St. Helena on his passage home), while Mrs. Dr. Bradley died at Bangkok in the triumphs of faith after years of efficient and loving service for her Saviour—a most valuable helper in her husband's work.

It was in this year that Prince Chow Fah Mongkut (Chow Fa Yai), who afterward became king, then head-priest of a royal monastery within the city-walls, invited one of the American missionaries, the Rev. Jesse Caswell, to become his private tutor. So anxious was this priest-prince for instruction that he offered an inducement which he knew would weigh heavily with a missionary—the use of a room in a building on the temple-grounds, where, after his hour for teaching was over, he could preach and distribute Christian tracts. The arrangement was made and carried out for over a year and a half. So much of the future of Siam in providence was to hinge on those hours of intimate intercourse between the faithful teacher and his illustrious and most diligent pupil that all the particulars are of interest. The prince was then about forty