I passed several very pleasant
hours among them, and was heartily sorry that I was obliged to take
leave of them at 9 in the evening.
Several native girls were also introduced to me who were educated by
the wives of the missionaries. They spoke and wrote a little
English, and were well acquainted with geography. I cannot avoid,
on this occasion, making some observations with regard to the
missionaries, whose mode of life and labours I had frequent
opportunities of observing during my journey. I met with
missionaries in Persia, China, and India, and everywhere found them
living in a very different manner to what I had imagined.
In my opinion the missionaries were almost, if not complete martyrs,
and I thought that they were so absorbed with zeal and the desire to
convert the heathen, that, like the disciples of Christ, quite
forgetting their comforts and necessaries, they dwelt with them
under one roof, and ate from one dish, etc. Alas! these were
pictures and representations which I had gathered out of books; in
reality the case was very different.
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