Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/373

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the family of Dr. Jones, came on with him to Siam, had been sent by him thence to the United States to be educated, and now came out to assist that veteran missionary in his work.

The newly-arrived missionaries were busy in the acquisition of the language when suddenly the pestilence like a thunderbolt burst upon the inhabitants of Bangkok, sweeping to destruction in less than one month full thirty-five thousand, or about one-tenth, of its population. For days together, when this epidemic of Asiatic cholera was at its height, there were two thousand deaths in the twenty-four hours in Bangkok alone. The mission families were graciously permitted to abide in peace and safety. As may be imagined, the whole time of the missionary-physician was engrossed by attendance on the sick and the dying in princes' palaces and in bamboo huts, and, through the blessing of Providence on remedies to which he was directed, many lives were saved and many lifelong friends secured to himself and the religion he professed. Of all those thousands that perished, alas! but one died in hope—an old man from a far-distant up-country home, who from the reading of Christian tracts alone, without ever seeing the living teacher, had joyfully received the truth, and, finding his way to Bangkok and to the Baptist mission to be instructed more perfectly, got there just in time (so it was strangely ordered) to be-