Page:The Chinese Empire. A General & Missionary Survey.djvu/432

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354
THE CHINESE EMPIRE

in England, the Mission was closed by the Russian Government in 1841, much to the grief of the workers. One of the good results of their effort, however, was the starting of missions among them by the Greek Church. Mr. Swan died in Edinburgh in 1866, and Mrs. Swan in 1890. Mr. Stallybrass lived to the age of ninety-one, and died at Shooter's Hill, Kent, in 1884. Thus closed the first Protestant effort for Mongolia, but not before the Bible had been given to the Mongol in that translation which is still in circulation.

The second effort of the London Missionary Society was made when James Gilmour entered upon his heroic work. James Gilmour reached Peking in May 1870, and immediately set himself to the study of Chinese and Mongolian. The terrible massacre at Tientsin which followed so soon upon his entry into work hastened his departure for Mongolia, and in this the fearlessness of the man was seen. The dangers which would have appeared as a sufficient reason to many a man to delay only nerved him to go forward before the door was closed. He left Peking on August 5, and travelled right across Mongolia, reaching Kiachta in September. For the first fifteen years he devoted himself to the nomadic Mongols, feeling that the agricultural Mongols of South-East Mongolia should be reached by Chinese missionaries.

In 1886, however, hoping that the American Board,[1] which had carried on work at Kalgan since 1865, might be able, from that great centre of Mongolian trade, to influence the nomads, he settled in Eastern Mongolia, establishing three centres at Tachengtse, Tasikow, and Chaoyang Hsien. Here he laboured till his death in 1891, his wife having died in 1885. Toward the end of his time several men were appointed as colleagues; Dr. Roberts in 1888, but he had to leave within a month owing to the death of Dr. Mackenzie. Dr. Smith followed nearly a year later, and subsequently Mr. Parker, Dr. Cochrane, and Mr. Liddell took up work at Chaoyang.

  1. For details of this work, see Mr. Roberts' article on p. 360.