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SAMUEL POLLARD 




THE REV. SAMUEL POLLARD. 



SAMUEL POLLARD 

PIONEER MISSIONARY IN CHINA 



BY 

REV. W. A. GRIST 

it 

Author of " The Historic Christ in the Faith of To-day," etc. 



WITH ELEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS 



HENRY HOOKS 
UNITED METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE 

12 Farringdon Avenue, London 

AND 

GASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD. 

London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 




THE REV. SAMUEL POLLARD. 



SAMUEL POLLARD 

PIONEER MISSIONARY IN CHINA 



BY 

REV. W. A. GRIST 

Author of "The Historic Christ in the Faith of To-day," etc. 



WITH ELEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS 



HENRY HOOKS 
UNITED METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE 

12 Farringdon Avenue, London 
AND 

GASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD. 
London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 




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PREFACE 



1 



THOUSANDS have been fascinated by Samuel Pollard's 
fugitive articles and his little books ; but they have been 
without intimate knowledge of the writer. There must 
always be some value in tracing the evolution of a vital and 
radiant personality ; in every soul there is something unlike all 
other souls. On the threshold of his manhood Pollard felt the 
glamour of missionary exploits ; and it seemed to him that of 
all the garlanded gateways into life the most alluring is that which 
leads to the mission field. Although a few years of pioneer work 
banished his youthful illusions, he never regretted having been 
committed to this life of austere rigours, burdensome responsi- 
bilities and uncompensated toils. For nearly thirty years he 
kept his dedicatory vows with the chivalrous loyalty of a young 
knight and the infectious gaiety of a gentle troubadour. In 
youth his nature showed metals of strength and value in a state 
of fusion, and in his manhood these were refined and hardened 
into fine gold and tempered steel. 

For nearly three decades this pioneer missionary wrote his 
observations and experiences in his notebooks fragmentary 
jottings, full of abbreviations and dislocations. He began this 
journal to assist his memory ; afterwards it became a quarry for 
his articles ; ultimately he designed it for use in writing a book. 
This transcript of his heart and brain has proved invaluable to me, 
revealing the man and throwing flashing , sidelights upon the 
country and the people among whom he lived and wrought. By 
its aid we trace an experience crowded with incident and adven- 
ture, a life of high purpose issuing from narrow beginnings, 
broadening and deepening in its currents of usefulness, and 
culminatingan: great achievements . 

In creed Pollard was the child of the Evangelical Revival ; in 



vi SAMUEL POLLARD 

x 

temperament and dynamic he might have been the product of 
the twentieth century. He does not impress by the originality 
or greatness of his thought ; but he grapples us to his soul by 
the intensity of his will and his splendid enthusiasm. Intellectually 
he was distinguished by mathematical gifts and organizing 
ability. The rich fruit of his humanity was seen in the stories 
he told. He was chiefly interested in persons and things ; 
abstruse theories and speculations had no attraction for him. He 
was witty and loved to indulge in fantastic and exaggerated 
language. He had his mercurial moods and at his best was 
buoyant and sanguine ; but underneath was a stubborn force of 
character which surprised and sometimes disconcerted his fellow- 
workers. Together with his lifelong friend, Frank Dymond, 
he embraced poverty with the ardour of St. Francis. He was a 
little man about five feet four, with longish pale face, black hair, 
prominent forehead, and deep-set, large, steady, grey eyes. Of 
outward appearances this fragile figure made but little reckon- 
ing ; yet by thousands he was loved and revered as their spiritual 
father the truest image and pledge of the real presence of the 
Invisible Christ. 

Among his fellow-missionaries Pollard was differentiated by 
his quick passionateness, by the vividness of his emotions, and 
the vehemence of his speech. At times he impressed them by his 
utter transparency and singleness, and then they were surprised 
by revelations of complexity : he often startled his friends with 
the swift changes of his moods. A headlong Radicalism was irr 
him and he sometimes delighted in shocking those whom he 
regarded as Laodicean members of the Church. In his personal 
religion he was the subject of great emotional upheavals, and in 
his young manhood he could be as noisily exclamatory as Billy 
Bray. He was modest and at the same time amazingly self- 
confident : as the years glided by this apparent self-assertiveness 
appeared less in his speech and more in his actions. And yet 
reviewing his whole life one is constrained to admit that few men 
have made a more complete surrender to Jesus Christ than Sam 
Pollard. There was a rare charm in his personality ; he early 
exercised great influence over his companions ; yet at times he 



PREFACE vii 

could sting and stagger men who loved him by indiscriminating 
reproaches. But beneath all these moods and characteristics 
was the man himself chivalrous, whole-hearted, adventurous, 
cherishing the passion and ambition of a true missionary, endur- 
ing heroically, yet buoyant as a schoolboy. ', 

We follow him amid the labyrinth of -mountains in Yunnan 
and Kweichow where aboriginal shepherds seek to guard their 
flocks from wolves and tigers, through regions where wild azaleas 
and rhododendrons colour the hillsides, where yellow mustard 
fields make shrill appeal so that our eyes seek rest in the less 
obtrusive flower of the buckwheat. Here Pollard baptized 
thousands of the tribesmen, built churches and schools, prayed 
for penitent wizards, nursed typhoid patients and lepers, and at 
last gave his life in service of others. Scores of whitewashed 
chapels gleaming in the translucent atmosphere of those mountains 
are monuments of a life of apostolic faith, sacrifice, and devotion. 
At last, our wanderings with Pollard end at a lonely grave, high 
up one of the hills he loved ; over which a white cross marks 
the place where his tired body was laid when his work was done : 



Till the morning break, 
And the white hush end all ! 



W. A. G. 



CONTENTS 

BOOK I 

THE GREAT ADVENTURE, 1864-1894 

CHAPTER PAGE 

1. PARENTAGE AND EARLY YEARS ..... 1 

2. SCHOOL AND THE CIVIL SERVICE. . . . 5 

3. THE CALL 8 

4. THE MISSIONARY STUDENT AT GANKING ... 12 

5. ON THE RIVER YANGTSZE ...... 22 

6. OVERLAND : SZECHUEN AND YUNNAN .... 28 

7. HOLDING THE FORT AT CHAOTONG .... 34 

8. YUNNAN Fu : PIONEERS ...... 40 

9. THE LITTLE MAN AND His GONG .... 48 

10. LOVE AND DEATH ....... 59 

11. A, MINISTRY OF PITY AT CHAOTONG .... 69 

12. AMONG THE BORDER PEOPLE . . . . .77 

13. A CLOUD AS SMALL AS A MAN'S HAND ... 84 



SAMUEL POLLARD 



BOOK II 

CHINA'S AWAKENING, 1895-1904 

CHAPTER PAGE 

1. THE HISTORICAL SITUATION ..... 93 

2. THE FIRST FURLOUGH . . . . . .98 

3. A RUNLET OF SWEET WATER IN A SALT SEA . . 103 

4. THE BOXER STORM ....... Ill 

5. His SOJOURN AT SHANGHAI . . . . .119 

6. SIGNS OF AWAKENING IN YUNNAN .... 126 

7. ON TOUR IN YUNNAN ...... 136 

8. A GREAT OPPORTUNITY ...... 144 

BOOK III 

AMONG THE TRIBES OF WEST CHINA, 

1905-1910 

1. THE ABORIGINAL CLANS . . . . . .156 

2. A TRIP INTO LOLO LAND ...... 167 

3. BEGINNINGS OF THE MASS MOVEMENT . . . 178- 

4. HOSTILITY TO THE MOVEMENT . . . . .186 

5. FACING THE LIONS ....... 193 

6. SECOND PHASE OF THE MASS MOVEMENT . . . 202 

7. FIRST BAPTISMS OF THE MIAO . . . . .210 

8. "RicE EAR VALLEY" AND "LONG SEA" . . . 219 

9. BEATEN WITH MANY STRIPES ..... 228 

10. TAKING STOCK 237 

11. THE SECOND FURLOUGH ...... 243 



CONTENTS xi 



BOOK IV 

UNFINISHED PROGRAMMES, 1910-1915 

CHAPTER ' PAGB 

1. A NATION IN TRAVAIL ...... 251 

2. RESUMING His TASK ....... 258 

3. THE BACK OF THE BEYOND . . . . . 267 

4. THE ARTHINGTON TRUST FUND ..... 277 

5. THE POLLARD SCRIPT ...... 286 

6. IN THE YEAR OF THE REVOLUTION .... 297 

7. THE DAY .306 

8. SUNRISE IN THE EAST ...... 316 

9. GLEANINGS FROM THE JOURNAL ..... 326 

10. THE MEDICAL PROBLEM ...... 338 

11. THE END OF A DECADE ...... 347 

12. THE LAST MONTHS 360 

INDEX 375 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE REV. SAMUEL POLLARD .... Frontispiece 

MR. POLLARD AND Two MIAO TEACHERS GROUP OF 
MIAO LABOURERS (MR. POLLARD IN HIS SUN 

HAT) . . . . . . .To face page 84 

A CLASS OF MERRY MIAO CHILDREN . . 164 

How " STONE GATEWAY " (SHIH-MEN-K'AN) GOT 

ITS NAME ....... 212 

MIAO CHURCH STEWARDS AT " RICE EAR 

VALLEY" (MI-RI-KEO) .... ,,220 

MR. POLLARD AND HIS COLLEAGUE, THE REV. 

F. J. DYMOND (1909) TYPICAL MIAO HOUSES 260 

MIAO MOTHERS AND THEIR BABIES . 332 

THE HILL-SLOPE ON WHICH MR. POLLARD WAS 
BURIED THE OPEN GRAVE : REV. F. J. 
DYMOND CONDUCTING THE FUNERAL SERVICE 372 



SAMUEL POLLARD 

BOOK I 

THE GREAT ADVENTURE (1864-1894) 

CHAPTER I 
Parentage and Early Years 

EVERY life is in part the product of heredity and of 
environment ; the fibres of personality are woven into 
the web of circumstance, and constant interaction goes 
on between the individual and the community. To and fro the 
shuttle flies ; and the lives of men and the events of their ages 
cross and recross in the great loom of Nature, so that we cannot 
separate a man from the period to which he belongs. The group 
of forces which form the context of human life is sometimes the 
auxiliary and sometimes the antagonist of personality. The 
spirit of an age focusses itself in the consciousness of a man, and 
while he expresses the resultant movement, the ferment, the 
passions, and the direction of his period, yet he is possessed of a 
superior force which helps to shape it anew. " We are each 
and all infinite compounds of fragments of anterior lives." We 
shall find in the story of Sam Pollard's adventurous career apt 
and ample illustration of these truths. 

Samuel Pollard, the missionary's father, was a native of Padstow 
and was born on March ist, 1826. He belonged to the working 
classes and served as a mechanic in Chatham dockyard for some 
years. Deeply imbued with evangelical doctrines, he looked for 
social reform through the spiritual regeneration of the individual, 



2 SAMUEL POLLARD 

and was captivated by the religious enthusiasm of certain Bible 
Christian preachers. He offered himself as a candidate for the 
ministry and became an itinerant preacher in 1852. The Bible 
Christian Church, best known in the south and west of England, 
was the joint product of the Church of England and of Methodism. 
The Rev. Daniel Evans, an earnest clergyman in a Devonshire 
village, awakened a spirit of religious inquiry by his ministry in 
the parish church at Shebbear and prepared the heart and mind 
of James Thorne for the fiery evangelism of William O'Bryan, 
and the Bible Christian Society was founded in 1815. Springing 
like a little rill in North Devon, it gathered volume and poured a 
goodly stream of vital religion throughout the villages and towns 
of the southern counties. Its ministers were not learned theolo- 
gians ; they added little to the store of ideas ; but they were 
successful evangelists. The doctrines of God's Grace, of Justifica- 
tion by Faith, and of Christian Assurance were vitalised and 
verified by their experience, and they preached with the authori- 
tative accent of rediscovery. 

With the passing of the years, however, their burning zeal 
became more restrained ; yet the sacred fire never died out of the 
Bible Christian Church, and from first to last this community 
maintained its missionary enthusiasm and adventurous faith. 
In 1907 it joined with the New Connexion and Methodist Free 
Churches to form one United Methodist Church. But no union 
of Churches, whether already achieved, or still hoped for, should 
make us forget how much the small denominations have con- 
tributed to the religious idealism and morals of English life. 

Samuel Pollard, senior, belonged in spirit and aim to the order 
of evangelists. He inherited the emotional nature and vivid 
imagination of the Celtic race linking poetic sensibility to religious 
passion. The opportunity was never given him to acquire great 
scholarship, but all his life he was an unwearying student of the 
Bible and the book of Nature. Whilst holding the evangelical 
creed, he was a true mystic, intimate with the Great Silence, and 
mastered by sacramental ideas which penetrated every part of his 
being. His intellectual gifts were of a high order. He could 
kindle and delight his hearers with a rush of noble thoughts fitly 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY YEARS 3 

clothed in beautiful language. He moved naturally in the high 
realm of Christian doctrine, and preached the massive verities of 
the New Testament. His whole ministry was animated by one 
aim " to win souls " and he conceived it the highest privilege 
of the Christian ministry to be the instrument of God in effecting 
the conversion of his fellow-men. 

When thirty-two years of age he married Ellen Deboyne, a 
teacher in the Isle of Wight. She was of Canadian-French 
extraction, vivacious and deeply religious, and in later years 
shared in the tasks of the ministry as a " local preacher." They 
had six children, the third being the missionary, who was born on 
April 20th, 1864, at Camelford in Cornwall. " Young Sam " 
inherited the Celtic imagination and deep emotions of his father, 
and from his mother derived his readiness of wit, clear-cut 
mentality and practical ability in affairs. It was Sam Pollard's 
privilege to be born into a family marked by spiritual distinction. 
Religion was the supreme reality in this home. The elder 
Pollard spent hours in prayer, not merely passive states of reverie, 
but holding colloquies with an Invisible Friend. He suffered 
from deafness, but his inner ear was opened to voices which are 
unheard by most. Three times a day all the family gathered for 
worship : after dinner the Bible was read aloud, prayer was 
offered by the head of the house, and then the children repeated 
a short prayer by themselves. 

Privation was the " note " of the household ; the home was 
poorly furnished, and luxuries were unknown. " There was 
plenty of love," writes one of his sisters, " but very little money." 
In speaking of Sam's childhood his mother said : " At a very 
early age he took a keen interest in the family councils concerning 
* ways and means.' One's heart grows tender at the remembrance 
of his quaint sayings, and at the things he did to earn small sums 
which he would always bring to me. . . . He would run errands for 
people ; he used to fetch milk from a farm at Chipstead [Kent], 
just to earn a few pence." He was a sensitive little fellow, 
impressionable beyond most children, betraying very early a 
marked individuality of his own. Out of the continuous stream 
of impressions which entered into his consciousness emerged the 



4 SAMUEL POLLARD 

morning star of a strong and buoyant personality. His brothers and 
sisters called him " Amiability." When Sam was three years old 
the family removed to Ryde in the Isle of Wight. One of the first 
things he did in his new home was to learn his letters from a 
missionary bill. An uncle who was a schoolmaster in the town 
supplied him with interesting story-books. At four one of his 
favourite games was to get a number of sticks and make triangles 
and circles with them which his friends recall as forecasting his 
exceptional gifts as a mathematician. 

When he was seven his father was appointed to the Penryn 
circuit in Cornwall. Samuel Pollard's ministry in this district 
resulted in great " revivals " and the boy became familiar with 
wonderful stories of conversions. The next change was the 
appointment of his father to Chipstead in Kent. Necessarily 
these frequent changes interrupted the children's schooling, but 
home influences have their compensation, and if the chief end 
of education be to produce quick, flexible intelligence and strong 
character, the foundations of these were securely laid. At Penryn 
the boy had attended a Wesleyan day school. At Chipstead he 
was first sent to a dame's school, but when he began to correct the 
teacher's mispronunciations, it was thought advisable to send him 
to the National school with his brother Walter. At the end of 
three years when leaving this school, Sam was highly pleased by 
his schoolmaster's gift of a small magnifying-glass, which served 
to increase his observation of nature. 

At Chipstead, when he was eleven, an event took place in Sam's 
life which ever afterwards stood out as a spiritual landmark. 
Forty years after the event the missionary's mother a bright- 
eyed little lady of eighty r six with memory unimpaired related 
the manner of her boy's conversion. Several months before that 
time he had desired that the great blessing of which his father 
spoke with such awe and gladness might become his. One 
evening Sam and his brother Walter had gone upstairs to bed, 
and by and by the father followed, as was his wont, to kiss his 
boys " good night." Sam was on his knees and told his father 
that he was not ready to say " good night " yet. Surmising what 
was passing in the boy's heart the father retired rejoicing. A, 



SCHOOL AND THE CIVIL SERVICE 5 

second time he visited the boy's bedroom and went away again. 
When he came the third time young Samuel was at peace, 
assured that Divine forgiveness was his and that now he was 
beyond all doubt a child of God. 



CHAPTER II 

:<* 

School and the Civil Service 

METHODISM reminds one of a banyan tree, the branches of which 
strike downward and take root in the ground as new trunks, the 
parent tree and its offshoots constituting a miniature forest ; 
so the church founded by John Wesley has sent forth branches 
which have taken root until a community of kindred societies 
has spread in England and elsewhere. The first Bible Christian 
Society was formed in the kitchen of Lake Farm, Shebbear, in 
1815, and the leadership of the movement passed to James 
Thorne, a man of great natural gifts and of strong and noble 
character. The Rev. F. W. Bourne, his biographer, said of him : 
" He had the manners of one nobly born, and the aptitudes and 
instincts of a scholar, which thousands more highly favoured by 
circumstances entirely fail to acquire." This sagacious leader 
saw that the little church required a middle school for the training 
of the sons of its ministers and members. He found ready support. 
In 1841 the Bible Christian Proprietary Grammar School was 
established at Shebbear for the training of the sons of the ministers 
and members, with the Rev. H. C. O'Donnoghue,M.A. (Camb.), 
as its first head master. Its great days began under the principal- 
ship of Thomas Ruddle, who took up his life work at that institu- 
tion in 1864. By dint of self-denial and economy his parents 
sent Sam Pollard to this school in 1876. 

Ruddle was a man of personality, independence of thought, and 
moral force. He was generally spoken of among his pupils as 
" Tommy," and did not escape the criticism of the keen-eyed 
youngsters he taught and ruled. His brusque and uncon- 
ventional judgments were by no means always acceptable ; but 

B 



6 SAMUEL POLLARD 

probably no boy ever stayed long at Shebbear without becoming 
a loyal admirer of the head master. Pollard thought that 
" Tommy " was inclined to give too much attention to the 
clever boys, and not enough to others. But the missionary 
was whole-hearted in his veneration for the memory of his master, 
and after hearing an address by Sir Oliver Lodge remarked that 
Mr. Ruddle might have written it thirty years before. Sam, 
though religious, was by no means " goody-goody," and the 
influence of his saintly father was upon him even at school. He 
had made a promise, which probably would not be asked from a 
schoolboy torday, that he would never fight. His father had 
given him a Bible on the understanding that the boy should 
read a " portion " every day. Sam kept his promise and, after 
many a " lark " in the dormitory, would pull out a dog's-eared 
Bible from a pocket containing his miscellaneous treasures and 
read the " daily portion " by the flickering light of a lantern. He 
was a member of the college choir and sang in Lake Chapel witf 
a sweet true treble. He never forced his religion on others jj 
but all the boys knew where he stood. Once he turned upoiv 
another boy when a nasty jest was made against family purity, 
and those who were present will never forget the passionate 
biting scorn in Pollard's rebuke. All his life he could excel most 
people in forceful invective. At such moments his big eyes would 
flash with unwonted fire, and the look on his pale face and sudden 
pointing of an accusing finger were far more potent as chastise- 
ment than the blow of a fist. In lighter moods he showed a 
strong vein of original humour, and with an odd grimace would 
turn the laugh upon one who challenged him ; but he was always 
good-humoured when the tables were turned against him. 

In 1879 Sam Pollard, G. P. Dymond, and W. M. Hocking won 
First Class Honours in the Oxford Local Examinations. From 
that time he applied himself to preparation for the Civil Service, 
and when seventeen won the seventh place in an examination for 
men clerkships. His schoolmaster had expected him to take the 
highest place, but the youth was delighted at the prospect of 
earning a salary which even at the start would be bigger than his 
father had ever received as a minister, and proudly rejoiced that 



SCHOOL AND THE CIVIL SERVICE 7 

he would now be in a position to help the family exchequer. 
Throughout his life his love for his father and mother was a 
living, dominant force. 

In 1 88 1 Sam went to London to take up his work at the Post 
Office Savings Bank, and was welcomed by a circle of friends at 
the Bible Christian Chapel at Clapham, where his father was 
honoured and loved. Here Pollard came under the influence of 
the Rev. F. W. Bourne who, in a larger Church, would probably 
have won a national reputation. He was a man of vigorous 
intellect, of massive moral force, with the temper and inward 
life of a mystic. During the plastic years between 1881 and 1887 
Pollard was impressed by the character and work of Mr. Bourne. 
In later life he confessed that in many a trying ordeal in his 
missionary career he faced his own problems with greater courage, 
when he remembered how such a giant as Mr. Bourne used to 
give his best to week-night gatherings of twenty people in an 
obscure chapel. 

As he listened to Mr. Bourne, Pollard was filled with high 
thought, and the fire of a new ambition was kindled within him. 
He began to look at life with new eyes and a new standard of 
values. We can be born more than once, and more than twice, as 
Pollard realised at Clapham. Increasingly the reality of the 
Unseen loomed upon his mind, and he saw things in the per- 
spective of the Eternal. A deeper life was unfolded in Sam 
Pollard's soul ; he owed much to his parents and teachers ; but 
now he felt the urge of his own spirit, and he came to know that 
only a life of service could satisfy him. He was not one to be long 
content with the monotony of office work ; the desire of adventure 
awoke in him ; but for a time the way was not clearly seen. He 
was waiting for the call, assured in his own mind that when God's 
hour should strike he would know the predestined path. 



8 SAMUEL POLLARD 

CHAPTER HI 
The Gall 

WHEN Sam Pollard entered the Civil Service, his friends were 
satisfied that his vocation was decided, and that no" further 
anxiety need be felt on his behalf. Yet it might have been fore- 
seen that the boy who, at eleven years of age, passed through the 
spiritual crisis of conversion, would eleven years later be the 
subject of a second awakenment ; and at this time it seemed to 
him in very fact that God was calling him to some high service. 
A fragment of a letter written at this time gives a glimpse into his 
mind : 

DEAR FATHER, 

I suppose by this time Brer Walter is home for a while 
enjoying himself. I wish I were home also. These fine summer 
days make us " poor Londoners " dream of our country days 
and long for the seaside and shady lanes. Wouldn't I like to be 
down the old cove " breasting the angry torrent " ! I have 
several times wished lately that some genie or other would 
transport me to Penaniel Cove, then undress me and drop me 
into ten feet of the Atlantic. But Aladdin's lamp was not near me 
and the lamps we use here have no such wonderful powers. . . . 
The Atlantic still remains a dream and the hot London streets a 
reality. . . . 

Now for a subject that has been weighing on my mind for the 
last few days. My throat has been a little troublesome again. 
I am not unwell. I feel as strong as a bull and about as well as 
I ever am. Yet my throat has been a little bad and I cannot 
take liberties with it. Well now, I can't understand how I am 
to be a minister if I am to have a chronic bad throat ; and I am 
under the impression that God has distinctly called me to work 
for Him in this way. Perhaps you remember that some time 
ago I did not view at all in a favourable light the very possibility 
of my being a minister : nothing seemed farther from my idea. 
Yet now I have been brought to such a state that I would rather 
be a B. C. minister than anything else in the world. It seems 
like a very passion with me at times, and I don't dare hardly to 
contemplate the idea of not being able to preach for Christ. You 
know what a fascination for young people work for Christ has, 



THE CALL 9 

and I do so much want Him to use me. What am I to do ? I 
know my Heavenly Father knows best what He is doing for me 
and what He is still going to do for me, but still there is a certain 
uncertainty which I do not at all like. I could not think of 
entering our ministry with a bad throat or with a weak throat, 
and yet I believe God has called me to work for Him in this way. 

Heredity and training had given Sam Pollard an ardent religious 
purpose, and at this crisis he found the opening for adventure and 
chivalry in the Church of which he was a member. From its 
beginning the Bible Christian Connexion was dominated by 
missionary passion : all its preachers male and female were 
designated missionaries. In 1821 they formed a missionary 
society " for the purpose of sending missionaries into dark and 
destitute parts of the United Kingdom and other countries, as 
Divine Providence might open the way." Although their 
financial resources were restricted and slender, God had put 
the world in the hearts of these lowly men and women, and they 
went forth to establish missions in Canada, Australia, and New 
Zealand. As the colonial churches became ultimately united 
with other branches of Methodism, a wider imperialism of 
Christ's Kingdom spread before the minds of the leaders of the 
Connexion, and in 1884 definite inquiries began to be made 
whether this Church ought not to assist in the great work of 
evangelising China. The founder of the China Inland Mission, 
Dr. J. Hudson Taylor, was invited to visit the London Conference 
in 1885. He came with Mr. B. Broomhall, the Secretary of the 
C.I.M., and gave an address at Jubilee Chapel, Hoxton, which 
fanned the missionary enthusiasm of the Conference to white 
heat. As a result of his exhortation, two young ministers, Samuel 
Thomas Thorne and Thomas Grills Vanstone, were set apart for 
work in Yunnan as " associates " of the China Inland Mission. 
The reasons assigned for the choice of this district were that it 
was the largest and most needy unoccupied district in China, 
where Mission work could be freely carried on at that time ; 
that it was one of the healthiest and most beautiful provinces 
of the Empire ; that there were Methodists already working at 
Chungking, Kuei Yang, and Yunnan Fu, vast cities in direct 



io . SAMUEL POLLARD 

communication with Yunnan, which might eventually become a 
great highway, through Siam, from Europe to China. 

Under strong emotional excitement the Bideford Conference 
subscribed 700 in a few minutes to launch the enterprise ; but 
no steps were taken to secure guarantees for continuous financial 
support. This was in keeping with the spirit of aggressive 
evangelism and amazing renunciation which animated the 
Church from its beginning. 1 The action of the Conference 
evoked swift response in Pollard's chivalrous soul. He was 
familiar with the adventures and discoveries of Livingstone, the 
prince of modern explorers, and to him came the dream that in 
Yunnan was territory which he might be privileged to add to 
the Empire of Jesus. 

At last he wrote a letter to his parents in which there was one 
sentence which filled the mother's heart with dismay : " Van- 
stone and Thorne have just left for China, and I shall be the next." 
At first she felt she could never let him go. " We did not reply 
at first," she declared, " but some time after his father wrote on 
the subject to him : I do not know what he said. I never named 
the subject of his going to China to Sam at that time." There 
were no hesitations in her son's mind : he was now haunted with 
the vision of China's dire spiritual necessity. The thought of so 
great a vocation awed him ; he felt he was " but a child " ; but 
he was buoyed up by a childlike trust in the power of Jesus to 
prepare him for his task. 

In the closing hours of the year 1885, Sam Pollard attended a 
watch-night service at Clapham : his father and mother were 
present at a similar service at St. Just in Cornwall. Those 
moments were tense with confession and thanksgiving, with the 
surrender of souls and the dedication of lives to high service. 
The young man asked his fellow-worshippers to pray that his 
mother might give her consent for him to go to China. And in 
that other service in Cornwall the mother was passing through 
her agony till she could yield up her own will to the mysterious 

1 They agreed with Hudson Taylor that " the apostolic plan was not to raise 
ways and means, but to go and do the work, trusting in the sure word which 
had said, ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all 
these things shall be added unto you,' " 



THE CALL ii 

Will of God. " At last," she says, " as the old year was passing 
and the new year entering, I said : ' Lord, I am willing.' Later 
on I talked it over with my boy." 

When Pollard received his mother's consent, he offered himself 
at once to the Missionary Committee of his Church, and told a 
friend in his office the next morning : "I offered myself last 
evening for mission work in China." Action always followed close 
on thought in him : a shaping force ever sprang' close on the 
heels of aspiration. He was seldom in doubt about God's Will. 
He had the heart of a troubadour and carolled gaily as he walked 
the highway of life. As he left the Civil Service behind and 
blithely faced the unknown future, his feet were shod with stars, 
and his heart was full of merry laughter. 

Scarce was Sam Pollard's offer for service in China made known 
before another old Shebbear boy also a son of the manse, 
Francis John Dymond placed his services at the disposal of the 
Missionary Committee. Both offers were accepted at once and 
the young men, very boyish in their appearance, were sent out to 
visit the churches in all parts of the Connexion. Their youth- 
fulness, their simple statement of the call they had received, their 
intrepidity and glowing faith in Jesus, threw the gleam of a great 
ideal into many lives and stirred thousands of their fellow- 
churchmen with missionary enthusiasm. At the Southsea 
Conference, 1886, they were formally dedicated to their missionary 
work, and by their addresses made an unforgettable impression 
upon all who heard them. 

From that time these two lives were indissolubly linked in 
friendship and in life work, never through the subsequent years 
wavering in their strong attachment. They were unlike each 
other in physique and temperament, and were able to supply each 
other's deficiencies. Pollard was buoyant, full of initiative and 
enterprise, and Dymond never failed to follow his lead. They 
braced each other in facing enormous odds ; they incited each 
other in arduous studies ; more than once they met the menace 
of death together : they nursed each other in sickness, and when 
death sundered them the surviving friend performed the last 
offices of tender love. But as they stood side by side at Southsea 



12 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Conference with faces lighted with the promise of youth, all these 
vicissitudes were hidden from them in the teeming womb of the 
future. They gave no thought to the strains and tests of coming 
days ; life offered them quest and romance ; and above all else, 
a Voice like the sound of many waters called to them : 
" Follow Me." 



CHAPTER IV 
The Missionary Student at Ganking 

IT was a bold and hazardous experiment for a Missionary 
Society to send out to China men without training for work 
so many-sided and so delicate as that of laying the founda- 
tions of a Christian Church in the remote province of Yunnan. 
The task of evangelising the Chinese race demands the highest 
qualifications of intellect and heart, and only men of the finest 
moral texture should be chosen for missionaries. Men of all 
types are needed ; but they ought to be disciplined in mind and 
character. The missionary in China is brought face to face with 
a great race of people whose ancestors were highly civilised when 
our forefathers were still barbarians. He is placed suddenly in 
the midst of a vast complex multitude whose training, literature, 
inherited customs, standards of value, and language are radically 
different from all that he has known before. He is called upon 
to appraise and appreciate thoughts and ways of life alien to his 
own. And his special mission is to teach, commend, and dis- 
seminate the Christian religion. The high task to be pursued 
and the environment search and test a man as by fire, and his 
weaknesses are swiftly revealed. The young missionary is 
tempted to indulge in pride of race, to underestimate the Chinese, 
and to yield to fits of impatience and irritability. In the case of 
Sam Pollard and Frank Dymond this hazardous experiment was 
justified because of the exceptional qualities of their manhood. 
Probably the Committee saw in them the evidences of sound 
education, rare graces of temper, and high mental endowments. 
It is possible, however, that both might have been saved from 



A STUDENT AT GANKING 13 

many initial mistakes and fruitless undertakings had they had 
that fuller training of which they were eminently worthy. 

Sam Pollard was twenty-three years of age when, on January 
ayth, 1887, in company with Frank Dymond, he embarked on 
the S.S. Chusan at Tilbury Docks. There was a group of China 
Inland Missionaries on board, and Pollard became very intimate 
with them. These ardent reformers would fain have converted 



all the passengers to their own beliefs. They were young " hot 
Gospellers " eager to bear their witness for Jesus Christ, and 
doubtless possessed more zeal than wisdom. I remember a few 
years later when travelling with Pollard that he would denounce 
horse-racing as wrong, and contend, like William Law, that 
" the playhouse is the porch of hell." Although his talk would 
sparkle and reveal ready wit, yet even his charm could not make 
such rigorous Puritanism attractive to the majority of passengers. 
Some were led to desire the things of the spirit ; but, as the ship 
drew near to Colombo, others were glad that the missionaries 
would be transferred to the S.S. Peshawur and there would be 
" none of their nonsense to-morrow." 

When living at Penryn, Pollard had met two young Cingalese 
the brothers Nathanielay and now upon arriving at Colombo 
he found one of them waiting to welcome him and Mr. Dymond. 
He drove them about the island, and showed them some of the 
chief places of interest. " Our first impressions," says Pollard, 
" were delightful. Right under the tropics and in the midst of 
tropical profusion. Coco-nut palms everywhere, and the nuts 
in different stages of growth, clustering under the leafy crown. 
Civilisation and uncivilisation all mixed up. European houses 
and native huts in close proximity. One saw Cingalese, Tamils, 
Dutch and English : people wearing European dress, and natives 
in true aboriginal style. Here were banks, schools, plantain trees, 
green grass, pretty lakes. The soil red, making good roads. 
Orange trees and lamp-posts ; bullocks drawing water-carts and 
catamarans narrow rafts with a horizontal wing or sail on the 
side paddled by one man at the bow and another at the stern : 
so the things struck upon our vision, first one thing, then another, 
all higgledy-piggledy, yet lovely and symmetrical." He was 



14 SAMUEL POLLARD 

charmed with the throbbing life of the mingling races, and 
fascinated with the colours and romance of the East. 

At Hongkong he observed the prosperity which British rule 
had brought to the island ; but was grieved at the lax morals 
of the English at the Eastern ports. " Horse-racing, drink, 
opium, and the Gospel," he says bitterly, " are the chief English 
imports." He did not intend to condemn the whole foreign 
population, but he raged against scenes of drunkenness as likely 
to prejudice Christianity in the eyes of the Chinese, who gazed 
at such Bacchus-worship with wondering interest. The Chinese 
of Hongkong impressed him favourably, and he admired their 
national dress. 

In a letter recording his early impressions he recalls the first 
lessons given him in astronomy by his father, and writes : 

Perhaps you would like to know how I am getting on with my 
star-gazing. I have seen the Southern Crosses, for there are two 
of them, one true and the other false. You know where Sirius is : 
south of this too far south to be seen in England is a beautiful 
bright star named Canopus. On the east at night under a line 
drawn from Sirius to Canopus are the Crosses. I don't see any- 
thing wonderful in them nothing like Orion and the Bear. 
Jupiter has been shining brightly, and one night he was playing 
pranks with our " look-out." You know that at night on a ship 
a man is always kept on the look-out : when a light appears 
ahead a gong is struck to call the attention of the officer on the 
bridge one stroke for the port side, two for starboard, and 
three right ahead. As we were rushing along through the dark- 
ness one night, a light was signalled on the starboard side, which 
set everybody wondering what it was. As gradually it rose 
higher out of the water it looked like a lighthouse. Hearing the 
gong I hurried on deck and saw at once that it was Jupiter ; for 
I had been watching for its rising. There was general merriment 
at the mistake. At Singapore we were so far south that we lost 
sight of the North Star . . . perhaps if it had been clearer we 
might have seen it just above the horizon, but only just. As we 
are going north now this star gets higher and higher. In Yunnan 
the heavens will] be much as at^ home. Good night, all ! . . . 
Remember one o'clock and pray for me." 

The S.S. Peshawur reached Woosung on March i4th, and from 



A STUDENT AT GANKING 15 

thence the passengers were taken by a tug up the river to Shanghai. 
Eagerly he watched for the Yangtsze, and at last his interest was 
mingled with surprise as he saw its muddy, yellow waters pouring 
past. At the mouth of this great river he curiously scanned the 
fleets of odd-looking craft with their ragged sails suggesting the 
fancy that they must have been nibbled by thousands of rats. 
As Pollard and Dymond stepped ashore three missionaries met 
them and escorted them to the China Inland Mission, where they 
were welcomed warmly by new friends. With the assistance 
of barber and tailor they were transformed into Chinese mission- 
aries, though alas ! the language of that strange land was not to 
be so easily acquired. Next day they were entertained by Dr. 
Muirhead of the London Missionary Society. They availed 
themselves of opportunities to explore the city of Shanghai, and 
were delighted with the splendid buildings on the foreign con- 
cessions. Behind this imposing front lies the native city with 
its narrow streets and teeming population. East and West jostle 
each other. Here were broad well-paved streets, and there 
narrow overshadowed alleys ; carriages swiftly drawn by horses 
and jinrickshas by men ; sedan chairs and wheelbarrows ; 
uniformed police and palsied beggars trembling in their rags. 
As the impressions poured into Pollard's mind he was over- 
whelmed by the variety and vastness of the life around him. 
It seemed that his life would be but as a tiny pebble thrown into 
the midst of this maelstrom, and in the end it would make scarcely 
any appreciable difference. But this momentary apprehension 
of the futility of any service he could render, gave way before his 
vivid realisation of the unseen factors which are reshaping the 
world : " This is the victory that hath overcome the world even 
our faith : ' who is he that overcometh the world, but he that 
believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ? ' " And this he believed 
with an intensity of conviction that never faltered at any crisis of life. 
Having donned the Chinese dress, the next step was to begin 
to acquire the language, a task for intellectual athletes. This 
speech, with its subtle variations of tones and its thousands of 
" characters," stands as an obstacle in the path of all missionaries 
in China. Many are content if they can get a working knowledge 



16 SAMUEL POLLARD 

of the colloquial speech, others are ambitious to master the 
classic tongue as well. Pollard and Dymond were not the least 
ambitious of students. At Ganking, three days up the Yangtsze, 
the China Inland Mission had established a Training Home for 
young missionaries under the principalship of Mr. F. W. Bailer, 
who with a sound knowledge of the Chinese language combined 
the enthusiasm of a first-rate teacher. Pollard and Dymond went 
to Ganking and began their studies under his guidance in the 
middle of March, 1887. Pollard soon took his place as the most 
gifted of a little band of resolute students. This intellectual and 
moral discipline helped to make him an effective speaker, and gave 
him insight into the thoughts and literature of China. It was here 
that the foundations were laid of a knowledge of classic Confucian 
literature which saved him from the reproach of illiteracy which 
the Chinese were at that period so ready to cast upon foreigners. 

Little more than three months after his coming to Ganking 
he writes to his people : " The Tuesday I posted your last letter 
[June i4th, 1887] I made a feeble attempt at speaking. I think 
I told you, Mr. Bailer asked me to take evening prayers in Chinese 
on alternate nights while he was away at Yangchow. You can 
imagine how I trembled, though there were only a few present. 
. . . We read together the story of the woman touching the hem 
of Christ's garment : then I tried to say a few words on the sub- 
ject. . . . They said that they understood me, but you would 
never find Chinese who would tell you otherwise. I felt very 
happy after it was over walking up the garden. It was only a 
little done, but it was a little for the Master, and that cheered my 
heart. The road to the heart of this language is long very long ; 
but even the longest roads are pleasant when walking in company 
with the Master." 

To this period belongs a sheaf of letters that enable us to trace 
the course of his thoughts, feelings, and experiences at Ganking. 

2nd July, 1887. 
DEAR MR. VANSTONE, 1 

Another month gone ! We are beginning to think our 
six months [the time proposed for staying at the Training Home] 
1 The Secretary of the Bible Christian China Mission. 



A STUDENT AT GANKING 17 

will soon be up and we shall be off to Yunnan. Happy shall we 
be to go to the dear fellows I 

For the last month or so we have been in the rainy season, 
and I can tell you when it rains it does rain. We have had rather 
more of it than usual and a good bit of damage is being done. 
The river has risen enormously, and has overflowed its banks in 
several places. The difference between the height of the river in 
winter and summer is very great. At Hankow a little farther up 
the river there is a perpendicular difference of from forty to fifty 
feet. So it is no wonder great floods occur occasionally. There 
is always a good rise owing to the melting of the snow on the hills 
away off in Tibet, but the rains help considerably to increase 
the volume of water. We have been going through the same 
experiences here as the brethren went through last year in Yunnan, 
The mandarins have every day been to the temples to pray for 
fine weather, and in order to propitiate the gods have ordered 
that no more animals are to be killed. Consequently, the other 
day at dinner we looked at our meat with the idea of its being the 
last we should see for some days. I talked to my teacher about 
the idea and I soon found out it was only an outside observance. 
On the street no meat could be got ; but suppose a friend of the 
butcher's called and asked for meat, he would say : "I've only 
got just a very small piece," or perhaps : " I'll buy a little piece 
for you but be sure you don't tell anybody." The man gets his 
meat and goes. When, however, the next would-be purchaser 
comes the butcher with scorn repudiates the idea of having any : 
" Meat ? I have not the least bit. Have you not seen the pro- 
clamation ? " . . . The teacher says the mandarins and the 
yamen people [public officials] all get plenty of meat. . . . After 
about three days the proclamation is forgotten and things go on 
as usual, though being still nominally in force, it gives plenty 
of opportunities for the officials to extort money. 

We were delighted to hear last Wednesday from the brethren 
in Yunnan that dear old Sam [Mr. Thorne] had gone off alone 
to open Chaotong. The Lord help him ! Shan't we be delighted 
to join them, though the days here are delightfully pleasant and 
happy. I am sure we shall owe a lifelong debt to Mr. Bailer for 
the training he is giving us. 

To his father he writes a week later : 

Friday we had a lesson on the system of chronology in China. 
They have a peculiar way which dates back from the time of 



1 8 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Abraham, and it has never been altered. . . . First they have ten 
characters for what are called " the ten heavenly Stems." Then 
they have twelve characters for the twelve " earthly branches." 
The first character of the heavenly stems is joined to the first of the 
earthly branches and this gives the combination for the first year 
in the cycle. This process goes on until the tenth year. For the 
eleventh year the first heavenly stem is used again with the 
eleventh earthly branch. So they go on for sixty years when the 
last of the heavenly stems is combined with the last of the earthly 
branches. This completes the cycle and the next year a fresh one 
is commenced. Why we learned this is that often when asking a 
man's age you might get the reply by the man giving you the two 
characters for the year of his birth. Or he may give you the 
animal under which he was born, t.e,, the animal presiding over 
the year of his birth. There are twelve animals over the twelve 
earthly branches, from the rat, No. i, to the pig, No. 12. The 
Chinese way with these combinations is to learn all the cycle 
right off by heart, and then to count back on the fingers for one's 
age. Well, we do it a, shorter way by mental arithmetic, and this 
quite takes the shine out of these Chinamen. 

Mr. Bailer says a man who can do the cycle business right 
off has something to commend him. This is just the difference 
between Western and Eastern ideas. From Abraham's time till 
now they seem to have learned these sixty combinations right off, 
never troubling to find an easier way ; so, of course, they are 
surprised at our doing it without the learning. . . . There ! I 
hope you are highly edified by thisj 

From another letter to his father (July 22nd, 1887) this extract 
will interest : " I've a holiday to-day. Why ? This week our 
big Exam, has come and now it is gone, for which I am delight- 
fully thankful. The results were published at dinner-time to-day. 
. . . Will you be glad to know that your boy's name headed the 
list ? Thank God for all His mercies ! Out of a possible 400 
I obtained 392. The next to me, the young Swede, had 381. He 
was not very well, so he would probably have increased his total 
had he been bright and jolly. We all passed : the lowest got over 
70 per cent. Mr. Bailer expressed himself as very pleased with 
us all." 

That he was warming to his work we gather from a letter to his 
father of date August 8th, 1887 : 



A STUDENT AT GANKING 



19 



For some time past we have all been praying, more or less, 
for more power. As the time was drawing near for our being 
thrust out into the work, we began in earnest to cry for the anoint- 
ing service. Almost unknown to each other we were ne.arly all 
doing this. One is very apt when studying hard day after day 
to let study take the first place ; this some of us had done with 
consequent loss of fspiritual [life. On Saturday 23rd [July], after 
the others were in bed, I determined I would get a blessing before 
I got up from my knees, and, thank God, I did. Sunday 24th 
came, and the person who took our service in the evening seemed 
to speak for all of us, and afterwards we adjourned to the top of 
the house for a prayer meeting. It was warm and as we were in 
for a struggle we took off our gowns and knelt down. Oh, dad, 
it would have done your heart good to have been there. What 
was the result? A mighty blessing like to shake the house. Some 
of us got very happy, and the scene which followed was just 
like some of our old Pensilva or Penryn revivals. I was about 
the noisiest ! By simple faith we laid hold of the power held 
out to us. I was praying : I told the Lord how often we had, 
when pointing sinners to Him, told them just to believe and lay 
hold of the blessing, and now we desired to take our own pre- 
scription. I shall never forget that moment. Bless God, the 
power came immediately, and to-day, after more than a fortnight, 
I am a different fellow. . . . We appear to have alarmed the 
natives in the surrounding houses. They came on Monday morn 
to inquire who was dead in the house. With them a death always 
occasions a lot of shouting and crying. They were quite right : 
several of us died that night, and the life we now live, we live by 
faith in the Son of God. 

Monday afternoon, we began to take it in turns, preaching a 
little in the chapel to any who cared to come in. Frank and 
another went, and Frank was all on fire. This was his first 
attempt at preaching to outsiders. It was quite astonishing ! 
That was one result of the blessing. The Lord can call up the 
words and use all we know, taking away all our fears. 

I spoke four times last week, once going round to the preaching- 
room alone. Concertina (Frank's) in hand, and books under 
the arm, I sailed up the street and sat down behind the table in 
the little room. Then I played the concertina not knowing a 
single tune ! I knew the Chinese are no judges of music, so I 
pulled the thing in and out, making a rare noise. It had the 
desired effect. The wild beast was on show free of charge. 
I invited my audience to sit down. I sang to them and then 



20 SAMUEL POLLARD 

preached the old, old story. I told them how my father in England 
used to tell me of Christ's love until at last I was converted. They 
think a lot of filial piety. One sentence I used : " muh iu ih-ko 
ren pi o-tih lao fu-ts' in hao " " There is not a man better than 
my father." I expect they thought I was a good son. But I 
had a good time, and the Lord blessed me very much. I came 
away praising Him. 

But even this buoyant optimist had occasional touches of 
spleen, as we learn from a home letter of September iyth, 1887 : 
" Frank and I are tired of being here. They are very kind ; 
but their rank Calvinism and persistent longing for our blessed 
Lord to come and do [i.e., play] the Emperor, I don't like. These 
ideas must necessarily influence all their methods of work. I 
don't want Christ to come down to reign as an Emperor. Let us 
have the meek and lowly Jesus as our King until the world is 
won, and when we leave here let us enter into the other Kingdom. 
. . . Never mind, I'm happy in it all and eager for the work. But 
I want our Mission to be carried on along our own lines." 

One of his old friends had written of the stirring within him of 
a longing to come to China as a medical missionary. Pollard 
answers (September igth, 1887) : 

Why medical missionary ? I used to have the idea at home 
that medical men could support themselves : I don't know where I 
got it. But from all I have seen and heard I don't think that 
would be done. Apparently most of the work is done almost 
gratuitously. I may be wrong, but this I know, a man can live 
very cheaply out here. I fancy we are paid about .60 a year. 
I believe a man can live on 35 or 40 very comfortably, and 
Frank and I will do it if possible. . . . B., old man, it is a glorious 
work, and Frank and I seem more and more in love with it. 
We seem to have lost a good bit of our wish for many of our 
English ideas and comforts. One thing, the people must be 
saved, and we are here to do it. Bless God, we will too ! . . . 
I'd ten times rather be a preacher than a doctor, though we have 
laid in a store of various things to help the people (medically) 
in small ways mustard to cure opium cases ; sulphur to mix 
with Chinese lard for the sores which the people through their 
dirt abound in ; sulphate of zinc for eyes, etc. etc. We'll be 
on the ball soon. Hallelujah ! 



A STUDENT AT GANKING 21 

Only a month later he passed another examination, as to which 
he writes (October igth, 1887) : " I have a holiday this afternoon 
and I am going to write a letter, or two. We finished up our 
second examination this morn, and in consequence we are going 
in for a little relaxation, or dissipation. Frank and I have polished 
off and our examiner, Mr. Wood, is pleased with the result. 
I think I told you that as we were delaying for Vanstone's arrival, 
we determined to make a desperate struggle to get over the second 
course if we could. Well, we have succeeded, and you can just 
imagine, we are right glad." 

Many of Pollard's letters to his brothers and friends dated 
from this period are full of high spirits intermixed with passionate 
aspirations born of missionary enthusiasm. On October 3oth, 
he writes : " We are still here at Ganking. Mr. Vanstone has 
been delayed in his journey down river. You know he is coming 
down to Shanghai to be married to Miss Stewartson, and then 
we are all going up together." After denouncing the British 
countenance of the opium traffic he discovers a vein of self- 
confidence which shows that this fiery young reformer had a very 
good conceit of himself. " The world has to be altered, Ben, 
and the Pollards must alter it, or have a big share in the work. 
God make us real real, solid men, braving anything; doing 
anything, and resting not if souls are not saved ! We have our 
work cut out ; but we have the means at hand : Christ in us 
and He has all power." 

At last after many delays, having spent eight happy months at 
Ganking, Pollard came away on Saturday, November i2th, 1887, 
with sadness and joy : he thanked God for the Training Home 
and the friends. As he and Dymond left the mission house, the 
strains of a hymn sung by the other students followed them as 
they wended their way through the dark narrow street : 

Trust on, trust on, believer, 
Though dark the night and chill. 



23 SAMUEL POLLARD 

CHAPTER V 
On the River Yangtsze 

THOUGH the home at Ganking had grown very dear to the two 
young missionaries, they enjoyed their new freedom as they 
stepped on board the Ksjoang Fu and greeted their friends, the 
Rev. and Mrs. T. G. Vanstone. Their cabin, with its two berths, 
was on the under deck in the Chinese quarter ; and for breakfast 
they were invited by Mrs. Vanstone to the larger cabin occupied 
by her husband and herself. When Pollard had finished the 
morning meal, he went to the upper deck with his New Testa- 
ment and was soon surrounded by passengers who, seeing the 
foreigner in their national dress, concluded that he must be a 
missionary. It was a keen pleasure to him to find himself tongue- 
free, and to know that his words were understood. They 
catechised him about Confucius and ancestor worship ; and 
then gave him an opportunity to preach to them. In a letter to 
his parents he writes : " So I preached my Sunday morning 
sermon dad at home and I in China. Praise God they under- 
stood me. . . . While talking a friendly Chinaman came up and 
said that he was a member of a church and that he had been con- 
verted four years ago. I welcomed him as a brother. He 
testified before the others of his Christian faith. At least my 
preaching must have encouraged him." 

On Monday, November i4th, 1887, the Kwang Fu reached 
Hankow, the commercial capital of Hupeh, likely, it is 
said, to become the Chicago of the East. On the opposite 
bank of the Yangtsze is Wuchang, the political capital, 
where the Governor and numerous officials reside : the 
smaller city of Hanyang is separated from Hankow by the Han. At 
Wuchang these foreigners in Chinese dress walked through 
streets and lanes for about two miles, and were then welcomed 
to the C.I.M. home on the top of a high hill. Among the mission- 
aries they met were Dr. Macdonald, Dr. Gilleston, and Mr. 
Murray the last an honorary agent of the Scottish Bible Society. 



ON THE RIVER YANGTSZE 23 

They visited Dr. Griffith John, but it was a disappointment to 
them to miss the Rev. David Hill, the missionary-saint of the 
Wesleyan Church in Central China. Pollard wrote later : 
" When we passed Hankow, Griffith John and David Hill were 
the two great names in connection with mission work there. 
The former by his great preaching powers and enormous literary 
output reached and still reaches millions ; the other by a blame- 
less, loving, absolutely unselfish life, broke down the barrier 
between Westerner and Chinaman, and lost his life in his efforts 
to relieve some of the poorest of the poor." 1 

After some tedious negotiations the leader of the little band, 
the Rev. T. G. Vanstone, hired a small houseboat to carry them 
as far as Sha-si, a fortnight's journey, for eleven thousand cash 
less than 2, but at Sha-si they had to engage another boat 
for the journey to Chungking, which was likely to take six weeks. 
Their new houseboat had four rooms and they were able to make 
themselves very comfortable. There were five men besides the 
captain, and at I-Chang they were to add to the number of the 
crew. 

It is wellnigh impossible to convey the overwhelming sense 
of the Yangtsze " Son of the Ocean." One has the feeling 
that it is alive, like some incredibly enormous python spreading 
its folds over the whole centre of China from the mountains of 
Tibet to the ocean at Shanghai beween three and four thousand 
miles. Between Hankow and I- Chang th river seemed to Pollard 
serene and safe for three hundred and fifty miles the yellow 
waters flashing in the sunlight greeted him with smiles and 
assurances of tranquillity. Upon its bosom tens of thousands 
traded and toiled day in and day out. To these English mission- 
aries it offered a promise of six weeks of delicious freedom. 
The music of their moods, whether grave or gay, was in con- 
cordance with the stream's undertone. Somehow all the discords 
and dissonances of the myriads of human lives seemed to fall 
into harmony with that solemn bass of the mysterious river. 

Chungking lies five hundred and fifty miles farther west of 
I-Chang, whence they started on December loth, 1887. Upon 

1 The Christian World, April 3rd, 1913. 



24 SAMUEL POLLARD 

leaving they seemed to be on a broad expanse closed round with 
frowning hills ; suddenly an opening appeared and the boat 
swept into a gorge about four hundred yards wide. On either 
hand rise steep limestone cliffs reaching from 600 to 1000 feet 
in height. In I-Chang Gorge the deep green shadowed waters 
sweep forward like a sheet of gleaming metal. Grand as it was, 
Pollard felt relief when the boat issued from the dark pass and 
pulled up for the night at a patch of white sand which reminded 
him of the English shore. 

So calm and pleasing appeared the Yangtsze that Pollard and 
his companions were lulled into a false sense of security. Im- 
pressed though they were with the greatness of the river, it 
seemed to them that the " Son of the Ocean " was animated by 
a spirit of playful good-nature, and they began to pass through 
the smaller rapids without any sense of peril. They little thought 
that in a day or two this kittenish mood would change into the 
fierceness of a wild angry beast of prey. " On Monday " [De- 
cember i2th, 1887] " we had our first taste of the swift waters. The 
men on shore had tough work, sometimes down on all fours, 
pulling along step by step over the rocks. Now and again the rope 
would catch in a jutting rock, and one of the men as his special 
duty had to see that the rope was cleared. This often entailed a 
plunge into the waters. We had rapids to pass through more or 
less all day. On the i3th December, in the early morning, we 
passed over a rapid that must have extended for a quarter or 
nearly half a mile. The waters were fiercer than any we had 
passed before. The rush was simply grand. After this came more 
gorges, the hills rising up on both sides ; some of their peaks 
were slightly snow-capped. About dinner-time we came to an 
immense rapid called the Ch'in T'an. Several fresh men were 
hired here. We all came into the front room and looked out of 
the door watching the operations. We remarked to one another 
that these rapids never caused us the least bit of fear ; we were 
as comfortable as on dry land." 

This rapid is famous as one of the largest on the Yangtsze, 
and the peril of crossing it varies at different times of the year. It 
rivals the danger of the Yeh T'an, only this is most threatening 



ON THE RIVER YANGTSZE 25 

when the water is high, and the Ch'in T'an is most to be feared 
when the river is low. Pollard was keenly interested in the pre- 
parations which were being made for pulling their boat over the 
danger spot. The bamboo rope was let out for the men on shore 
and at the chief tracker's signal the boat was thrust out into the 
current. The rope creaked and tightened and the fight began ; 
it was a tremendous struggle for every inch. The boat trembled 
like a living thing afraid ; if that rope were to break they would 
shoot back without any power of guidance or control. But the 
nerves of the missionaries were steady and three of them returned 
into their rooms, leaving Dymond sitting at the bow. " The 
rapid swept from the right bank to the left at that time : it 
changes according to the amount of water," says Dymond. 
" Just then the current rushing down the inside turned the head of 
our boat round, and we struck on a rock at the right. The boat 
rebounded and turned over on its side, and in came the rushing 
waters. Then we had a fight for our lives." There was a shout 
and those inside had scarcely heard it before the waters of the 
Yangtsze came rushing in as if greedy for their prey. 

" I made a rush for the door," says Pollard, " but it was no 
use. I never reached that door ; the waters drove me back, and 
Mr. and Mrs. Vanstone as well. But in a few seconds, or minutes, 
the boat was all in pieces, and three of us were hanging to the 
pieces. Frank had jumped off and made for a rock, but the current 
carried him down stream. He managed, however, to swim and 
laid hold of a spar and rested till he was rescued by one of the 
boats which came to our help. He had a greater shaking than 
any of us, and has a nasty scar on his leg now as the result of some 
knock. 

" I don't remember a great deal ; it was all so sudden. This, 
however, I recollect, I was not in the least afraid ; but I was 
cool and collected. All four of us were the same, even Mrs. 
Vanstone. ... It is not everybody who has the privilege of 
proving literally the truth of the promise, ' When thou passest 
through the waters, I will be with thee.' Thank God, we have 
proved that true. When in the room, unable to reach the door, 
this thought flashed upon my mind : ' God is not going to let 



2.6 SAMUEL POLLARD 

these four missionaries for Yunnan drown.' I was not long in the 
waters before I was rescued. One of our boatmen, the one we 
used to term the hero of our party because he always had the 
dangerous duties to perform, climbed out over the wreck and 
helped me up. My long wadded gown made it difficult for me to 
swim ; but at the same time it kept out the cold. I was soon in 
the boat ; and Mr. and Mrs. Vanstone were pulled into another 
boat by the kind, grinning boatmen. Frank was brought to 
shore in a third boat. Except what we stood up in we expected all 
our things were lost and we were carrying things for seven or 
eight other persons as well. ... A man took off some of his 
clothes and I put them on in place of my wet ones. Frank was 
served the same way. At night we all agreed that the Chinese 
showed us no little philanthropy." 

They were taken to an inn. Mr. Vanstone remained on the 
river-bank to look after the salvage. ..." A great crowd followed 
us, and our appearance was a good joke to them. We had lost 
our hats and pigtails and we must have looked like scarecrows. I 
think I must have laughed at myself afterwards if not at the time." 
Fortunately their losses were not so great as they at first imagined. 
Nineteen boxes one of them containing Mrs. Vanstone's 
clothes were missing. Many of these belonged to other 
missionaries. Having lost their commodious houseboat they 
hired the best substitute they could get, glad to escape the people 
of the Ch'in T'an, whose first pity for the shipwrecked foreigners 
speedily passed into the resolve to fleece them : on Saturday, 
December I7th, they left for Kuei Fu in two small boats of one 
room each and arrived there in five days. 

Pollard wrote to his parents : " On Thursday at Kuei Fu we 
managed to get two other boats to take us to Chungking. These 
boats are larger than our previous ones, and still they are rather 
small. Two rooms each and a crew of five men and a boy on 
each boat. The captain of our boat is the queerest specimen of a 
Chinaman I have seen, and his men are a ragamuffin, deplorable 
set. And don't they shout at each other ! Though a Chinaman 
rarely comes to blows with his fellows, he loses his temper for 
the least thing." The journey from Kuei Fu to Chungking took 



ON THE RIVER YANGTSZE 27 

them about a fortnight and they reached the latter city on January 
yth, 1888. Their captain was grossly incompetent, and Pollard 
compared him to the Mississippi pilot who boasted that he knew 
every rock on the river, and as the boat struck while he was 
speaking, he hastened to add, " and that's one of them." But 
besides their trouble about the captain, Pollard's nerves had been 
shaken by the wreck. " The roar of the rapids and the spray 
of the great waves," he admitted, " even when heard and seen 
from the cliffs, fascinate all the senses. But he who has seen 
the corpses floating down the swift current, and watched brave 
men struggle for their lives with the river and then go under, 
knows that something other than beauty and calm and love lives 
in the bosom of the mighty Yangtsze. The great river fascinates 
me, but I don't love it. More than once that all-devouring 
Tiger River has almost captured me, and even as I write, my 
heart beats more quickly than it should." 1 

Pollard and his companions had travelled 1500 miles up the 
Yangtsze, and even at Chungking it stretched 800 yards across. 
It is not astonishing that it overpowered Pollard's imagination. 
In his eyes it was guilty of enormous cruelty and countless crimes. 
Yet it fascinated him ; he had seen it in all its rnoods, playful 
and ravenous. He had stood at night on the dark boat watching 
the stars come out. Around him lay the sons of toil under 
the mats at the bow men so ignorant, so bad-tempered, so 
wretchedly poor, that he wondered what life really meant for 
them. Some were sleeping noisily, others were curled up with 
their opium pipes trying to snatch oblivion, or dreams, from the 
poisonous drug which dragged them even more hopelessly into 
direst want. They, as well as he, were playing varieties of 
descant to the deep bass of the Yangtsze ; at times he heard the 
discords and dissonances, and then as the sombre roar spread 
through his senses, the individual notes were lost and he was 
filled with the great ground swell of mystery. 

1 " Tight Corners," p. 18. 



28 SAMUEL POLLARD 

CHAPTER VI 
Overland : Szechuen and Yunnan 

ON the gth January, 1888, Pollard awoke early with a sense of 
relief, realising how great a strain and oppression had been 
lifted from his mind. They had completed the more dangerous 
half of their long journey west : henceforth they would be free 
of the seductions and menaces of the Yangtsze. Had they so 
desired they might have pushed on to Sui Fu by boat ; but the 
travellers had determined to pursue the long trail overland from 
Chungking to Yunnan. 

At Chunking the four missionaries divided into two companies : 
Mr. and Mrs. Vanstone went on to Yunnan Fu, and the other 
two set out for Chaotong. They took different routes to avoid 
arousing the anti-foreign feeling which little more than a year 
before had broken out in the Szechuen riots. Pollard and Dymond 
started off with one pony and several coolies. They were to ride 
and walk in turns. Their little pony, of which Pollard writes so 
affectionately in his, letters, had a vein of droll humour, or touchy 
pride, which made it resent the frequent change of riders, and it 
loved to surprise them by kneeling down and rolling in the 
middle of the streams it crossed. Wretched as were the roads in 
Szechuen, with a delicious smile the Chinese attendant assured 
Pollard that those of Yunnan were notoriously worse. But with 
happy insouciance Pollard threw the cares of to-morrow upon his 
coolie boss and the Mai ren, or runners of the yamen (the 
official residence of a mandarin) who were escorting them. 

They had to buy what food they could at the markets they 
passed, and their coolies carried it with the baggage to the inn 
where they put up at night. But no hardships were allowed to 
dash those ardent spirits, before whose fancy the journey stretched 
as a glorious holiday. As the day passed the ecstasy of freedom 
changed to sober feelings of content. Pollard wondered why men 
should shut themselves up in offices and workshops, when every 
nerve and muscle in his body testified that man is made for an 



OVERLAND : SZECHUEN AND YUNNAN 29 

open-air life. As the afternoon wore on, however, they felt sore 
with the unwonted exercise of riding, and their heels and toes 
became badly blistered by their ill-fitting Chinese shoes. But 
with buoyant optimism they refused to be discouraged and looked 
forward to the luxuries of an inn, a substantial eveningfmeal and 
a warm bed. 

They neglected, through inexperience, to send a messenger in 
advance to secure lodgings, and when they arrived at the end of 
the first stage of their overland trek, the best rooms were already 
taken. Even Pollard's agile fancy had never imagined the possi- 
bility of inns so squalid and mean. The curved eaves of the 
tiled roof, the hanging signboard with gilded and high-sounding 
mottoes, seen from the dirty narrow street, gave no indication 
of the attractions within. The rooms were built around an open 
court and the roofs and partitions were blackened with the grime 
of years. The windows were of thin paper, too often torn and 
dirty ; and, instead of ensuring privacy, provided for a relentless 
inquisition of glittering black eyes glued to the holes all the 
evening ; for a foreigner in those days was an object of inex- 
haustible curiosity. The floor of their dormitory was caked with 
mud, better left unswept. The bedstead consisted of a few 
uneven planks resting on a couple of wooden trestles. A pande- 
monium was outside the door, for since the stable was too full 
of horses and pigs, the overflow found lodging in the court. 
Here, too, the coolies washed and performed their toilette. But 
neither weariness of body, nor discomforts of the inn, could daunt 
the resolute cheerfulness of the two missionaries. After their 
evening meal, lured outside by curiosity and comradeship, for a 
short while they lounged among their fellow guests by the 
kitchen fire, replying to the oddest catechism with invincible 
good humour, and if they could they left some barbed truth in 
the memories of the men whom they spent one hour with and 
never met again : then sodden with sleep they rolled themselves 
in their wadded quilts and were swiftly covered withf oblivion. 

Their first glimpses of Szechuen from the Yangtsze had 
impressed them by the undulating character of the landscape, 
the fertility of the land, and the crowded life and industry of the 



30 SAMUEL POLLARD 

towns, but as they travelled south and west, the country became 
more mountainous, more uncultivated and less populous. 
Generally speaking, the people seemed kindly disposed towards 
them, and Pollard and Dymond were prepossessed by their 
gentle manners. But during the week Pollard had an adventure 
which revealed another side of Chinese character. He came to a 
place where a market was in full swing (Ch'a Tien Chang) ; 
Dymond had gone ahead leaving his friend in charge of the pony. 
Seeing the only pathway blocked with people, the steed showed 
an unwillingness to push a way through, and so the rider dis- 
mounted and proceeded to lead, or drag him along. By accident 
the horse knocked against a stall and everything on it would 
have gone flying, had not Pollard seized the reeling frame- work. 

In a moment the murmurous roar of the market was drowned 
by the Babel of tongues. With much show of indignation and 
volubility of speech the stall-owner refused to let go the horse 
till the offending foreigner had paid fifteen thousand cash as 
damages. Surrounded by a swirling mob of jabbering, gesti- 
culating Chinese, Pollard discovered that adventures could be 
very embarrassing. Dymond, wondering at his friend's delay, 
returned and found him in the midst of a heated argument with 
the stall-owner and hundreds of grinning noisy hucksters 
around. Just then the ragged, red-coated yamen escort inter- 
vened and proposed to settle the dispute by a tea-shop palaver. 
In China the tea-shops are often turned into rough-and-ready 
tribunals where quarrels not serious enough to take before a 
magistrate's yamen are settled. The seniors in the crowd con- 
stitute a sort of jury before whom the disputants state their case. 
Witnesses are heard and then mediators strive to bring about some 
agreement. When they arrived at one tea-shop the landlord, 
seeing a foreigner was involved in the dispute, was unwilling to 
admit them, and they went to another place. After a long and 
excited discussion the ck'ai ren induced the claimant to accept 
three hundred cash from Pollard as damages. This was a 
fiftieth part of the sum first demanded, but the man accepted it 
with a smile and Pollard suspected that, the man's anger was little 
more than pretence, and laughed heartily at his adventure. 



OVERLAND : SZECHUEN AND YUNNAN 31 

After that first week's march, their feet leaden and unapt on 
the never-ending muddy roads, how glad they were when on 
Saturday they reached Lu-Cheo about half-way between 
Chungking and Sui Fu where they were to spend their first 
Sunday on the road ! The brief entry in his journal for this day 
is : " January 2ist, 1888. In the afternoon we had a little 
service together, and then a long talk about the work and the 
necessity for prayer and fasting and waiting on God. After tea 
we had a Chinese service with the boy. It was a quiet restful 
day, and oh, we did enjoy it ! But in the evening a band of 
rowdy fellows came in with some singing women, and they kept 
up their revelry all night." 

On this journey Pollard found free scope for the full exercise 
of the two sides of his nature ; for whilst he cherished the 
fierce moral idealism of the Hebrews, the spring of Celtic poesy 
was continually leaping up. He was imbued with the Christian 
sense of a Divine Presence, and at every turn he realised the 
shaping hand of God upon his life. At the same time he was a 
true child of nature : he loved the sun, the sky, the mother earth, 
and felt at home in the freedom of the open air. There was about 
him a delightful readiness to be pleased. At one of the inns he 
and Dymond were reminded of home by the friendly advances 
of two little children. On Wednesday, January 25th, he writes : 
" Thank God for the mercies of this day. Twelve months ago 
we had our farewell meeting at Clapham. I still remember that 
day. Thank God I am here." The next day they arrived at 
Sui Fu a great distributing trade centre at the junction of the 
Min River and the Yangtsze. 

Gradually the character of the scenery changed as they left 
Sui Fu farther and farther behind. Great limestone mountains 
rose up on either side of the narrowing, tumultuous waters of the 
river. Sometimes they would be tramping through a pass which 
was little more than a gully between the hills. Then they would 
be climbing a steep zigzag path to the top of a hill, from whence 
they would have the astonishing spectacle of great masses of 
peaks, and mountain ranges rolling away as far as the eyes could 
travel. Day after day they journeyed on, up and down, up and 



32 SAMUEL POLLARD 

down, sometimes riding, sometimes walking ; at times pouring 
forth their hearts in glad song ; at other times feeling that their 
souls were caught up into communion with the mighty Spirit of 
the hills. The majesty of the hills acts like a strong tonic upon a 
man's faith in the Invisible. These great creatures of God bear 
their silent, grand witness to the Infinite. Pollard saw them on 
certain mornings with the mists low down ; at noon they stood 
out against a clear sky like great giants ; and after sunset loomed 
forth like silent watchers of eternity. There is no doubt that this 
first acquaintance with mountain scenery made a deep impression 
upon Pollard's mind. In later years as he grew in intimacy with 
the heights, his reverence blended with strong love, and when 
on furlough he felt a sort of home-sickness for the hills of Yunnan. 
For more than twelve months Yunnan had been to Pollard the 
Promised Land. He sought for information concerning it, 
and on the word of Mr. Vanstone he proudly vaunts : " The 
mountains of Yunnan are grander than the Yangtsze." When 
told that the missionaries kept a cow he wrote home describing 
a land flowing with milk and honey. As they passed from 
Szechuen into Yunnan on the last day of January, 1888, the sun 
shone out and drove the mists back up the hills. " The scenery," 
he says, " is indescribably grand : up and down cliffs, and over 
rugged rocks, we ride and tramp all day. Once we had to go 
along a ledge where there was scarcely room to walk ; passing 
a fine waterfall I stopped and looked : it almost took my breath 
away. Dare I take the pony across such a path ? One false step 
and we should be hurled down an abyss. A few moments of 
nerve tension and of desperate resolve, and we were over in 
safety. On the other side of the river the cliff rose in a sheer 
mass for a thousand feet. What an echo was here ! At the foot 
of the limestone rocks eight or nine monkeys were crawling 
about. . . . We had breakfast at an inn kept by a Roman 
Catholic ; the innkeeper refused to charge for the horse's feed 
because we were one religion. Our boy said we were not ; but 
mine host refused to take payment. A little farther along we came 
to a house where a picture of the Madonna and Child hung in 
the place usually occupied by the scroll of Heaven and Earth." 



OVERLAND : SZECHUEN AND YUNNAN 33 

They hurried through the market at Lao-wa-t'an and crossed a 
suspension bridge which swung as they marched over. The 
chains of it were embedded in massive piers of stone. Between the 
hills it hung like a spider's web, yet fragile as it looked, whole 
caravans and long defiles of pack-horses crossed it in safety. Next 
came a climb of twenty li (3 li = i mile) up broken slippery steps 
and then down again a path so precipitous that the rider gave 
the horse its head and trusted to its sagacity and to Providence. 
Sometimes on the heights they found a soft carpet of snow, and 
the dark pines and firs recalled old tales of travel in Russia. In 
the rude inn at night they met the unsophisticated coolies of 
Yunnan, who had the vaguest notions of England, and who looked 
upon the two foreigners with wonder as if they had suddenly 
sprung out of the bowels of the earth. 

Sometimes in that hour before dawn when the stars die out 
and the sun has not risen Pollard would lie and pray passionately 
for this land and its people. But as full wakefulness came he 
would leap up, and with a cry of " Ch'i lai-o " to the men, 
would hastily prepare for another day's work. 

On February yth, 1888, they made their last great climb on 
that journey. It brought them to the verge of the plateau, six 
thousand feet above the sea, a hundred li away from the city of 
Chaotong. Next morning, before it was fully light, they started 
off in the highest spirits for a final march of thirty odd miles. It 
was a cold winter's day and the plain over which they had passed 
seemed sterile and bare ; but they were full of excitement at the 
thought of reaching their new home. They looked eagerly for 
some glimpse of the city. Forgetful of the character of the 
architecture of other cities through which they had passed, they 
hoped to see its towers and chimneys in the distance ; but no 
such view was theirs : suddenly they were at the city gate. 

Pollard writes : " On Wednesday evening, February 8th, 1888, 
we entered the north gate of the city of Chaotong, wondering what 
our new home would be like. We were not expected that day, and 
so there was not a soul to meet us. We were objects of curiosity 
to those who noticed us ; but it was very late in the day and the 
weather was not favourable to a crowd on the streets, and so we 



34 SAMUEL POLLARD 

passed along without much trouble. Being in Chinese dress, 
pigtail and all, saved us in those days from much annoyance." 
They were led to a poor little Chinese house out of which rushed 
their old school-fellow, Samuel Thomas Thorne. The diminutive 
room into which he led them was lighted by a smoky Chinese 
candle ; but they were oblivious of all physical discomfort : 
to those buoyant spirits it was the Fuh-yin-t'ang, or " Hall of 
Happiness," and that evening three old Shebbear boys talked 
eagerly of the adventures they had met and of the prospects of 
their work. 

Writing home to announce the arrival of the two new recruits 
Mr. Thorne said : " You speak of them as ' choice spirits ' ; 
they are indeed two splendid men for the work. . . . Pollard 
seems to me to pick up the language quite naturally without any 
trouble. I think Frank has to work to get hold of it ; but he has 
done splendidly." 

CHAPTER VII 
Holding the Fort at Ghaotong 

YUNNAN, or the Cloudy South, entered by Pollard and Dymond, 
on the last day of January, 1888, forms for several hundred miles 
the eastern frontier of India. In order to understand the location 
of the United Methodist Mission here, we must remember that 
in 1888 there were no railways, and the distributing centre of 
trade for this south-western province was Sui Fu on the Yangtsze. 
In their efforts to expand the mission, the aspirations of the 
pioneers naturally followed the trade line to Szechuen. 

It was dusk on that February afternoon when the two footsore 
and tired travellers entered Chaotong, but next day Pollard 
explored the city. Determined to make the best of everything, 
Pollard fought against his disappointment as he walked through 
the narrow, unevenly-paved, dirty streets, and boasted in his 
letters that the commercial and political importance of Chaotong 
placed it second to Yunnan Fu. He saw a score of temples, but 
only the Confucian temple, dedicated to the god of literature, 



HOLDING THE FORT AT CHAOTONG 35 

was kept in anything like good repair. The abject poverty of the 
masses could not be hidden, but, he would reason, when one 
sees how these sons of toil acknowledge a kindness, or offer an 
apology, bowing and saying " man-wei " " I have troubled 
you " with a dignity unaffected by the speaker's rags, a suspicion 
dawns upon one that courtesy is independent of wealth and rank. 
The city, no less than the state, had suffered an arrest of develop- 
ment. Often as Pollard passed through the streets at dusk, 
he saw a small child, or a withered granny, emerge from the low 
door of a house with sticks of burning incense and, after bowing 
thrice, insert them in some crevice of the wall. He soon learned 
that not only had the city its temples, but each tiny hamlet had 
its shrine. At every turn he was compelled to meet the symbols 
and practices associated with the three great religions so mixed 
and corrupt in their popular forms Confucianism, Taoism, and 
Buddhism. 

" A few months before our arrival, another old schoolmate, 
who had preceded us by twelve months, had opened the city of 
Chaotong for missionary work by renting a small house. It was 
almost opposite the large red Confucian temple, and close to the 
Examination Hall, where every three years the students from over 
a million people came up to compete for the coveted B.A. degree. 
One hardly knows how the missionary was allowed to settle in 
such sacrosanct quarters." 1 

" What a mission house it was," Pollard writes years after- 
wards, " when we got into it ! The rent was half a crown a 
month. It was probably the cheapest mission house at that 
time in all China. The small front room opened right on to the 
street, and that room was the chapel. Just at the back in a tiny 
ante-room, certainly not large enough to swing the proverbial 
cat without grievous injury to it, was the dining-room, and here 
we three school chums settled in, and yarned up, and ate all there 
was in the house to be eaten. How well I remember the Chinese 
basins and the coarse food, and the wretchedly straight-backed 
chairs, and the tiny loft we slept in upstairs ! " Two days later 
they were joined by the Rev. T. G. and Mrs. Vanstone from 

1 The Christian World, April 3rd, 1913. 



36 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Yunnan Fu. The presence of so many foreigners stirred the 
curiosity of the citizens, and day by day crowds came to their 
house and listened to the Gospel in the broken language of these 
learners. On the Sunday three services were held for the Chinese. 
Whilst together they held their first District Meeting in West 
China. Permission was given to the Rev. S. T. Thorne to go to 
Chungking to marry ; and it was arranged that Pollard and 
Dymond should " carry on " at Chaotong till Mr. and Mrs. 
Thorne should return. 

" There were two rooms in the front of our house," says 
Pollard, " one upstairs and one down. At the back of these 
was a small yard partly covered in, where our little pony lived, 
cheerfully munching his corn, or cracking our cherry stones, 
while close by our Chinese boy did what cooking was required 
by our small household. Beyond the yard were one or two 
other rooms, also one upstairs and one down. The down- 
stairs room was used as a dining-room and study, and the upstairs 
was used as our bedroom. We went up to it by a ladder. One 
small window with panes of paper did duty for both upstairs 
and down." They spent their days in " one continuous grind 
at language study and evangelism," and had no recreations and 
no companions other than the Chinese. But they made no attempt 
to magnify their hardships. " In spite of our rough surround- 
ings," says Pollard, " we young fellows got on all right, for our 
hearts were brave, and we were soldiers of the King and willing 
to endure for His sake." 

Pollard gradually became conscious of the immensity of the 
task they had undertaken, and when he was confronted with the 
complexity and completeness of the life of China, and learned 
the proud self-sufficiency of the people, he grew painfully aware 
of the poverty of means and resources in the mission. But never 
for an instant does he seem to have lost faith or courage. He 
believed that every one of the four hundred millions of Chinese 
was a child of the Heavenly Father. He believed that the In- 
carnate Son of God had lived and died and risen again to reveal 
the Father to all men, and to bring them back into the Kingdom 
of God. And though faced by overwhelming odds in that 



HOLDING THE FORT AT CHAOTONG 37 

forlorn mission he never lost his belief in the power of Jesus 
Christ. 

Daily the two friends went out to preach in the open spaces : 
" we never started without prayer," says Dymond ; " then, 
too, each prayed for the other as we preached." But to the 
Chinese their doctrine too li was " misty and incompre- 
hensible " for a long time. Pollard writes of those days : " One 
was often surrounded by a thousand people gathered together 
out of curiosity to see what the foreigner was like. When one was 
good-tempered and not tired it did not matter, and if one could 
only enter into the fun of the situation, he often had a good time 
with the crowd and easily made friends. But if one were upset 
by anything, or if one were hungry and tired, the experience of 
being in the centre of a great, curious, gaping crowd, was most 
unpleasant. On the other hand, when one was out for preaching, 
it was an asset of considerable value to be able to attract an 
audience just by standing still." 

Suddenly these activities were brought to a conclusion. Pollard 
and Dymond had both spent the morning in studying Chinese 
and, after a Spartan meal, had gone in different directions to 
deliver their message. Dymond came back with aching head and 
weary body. There was no doctor within two months' journey 
of Chaotong. In his alarm Pollard sought and found a medical 
book on Mr. Thome's shelves. For a long time he could not 
diagnose the symptoms ; at last, however, he was dismayed to 
find that his friend was down with smallpox. At once he installed 
himself in the sick-room as doctor and nurse, although absolutely 
untrained for either. He knew nothing about cooking and had 
brought no foreign stores ; yet he had to provide such food as 
the invalid could take. In one lucid interval following delirium 
the patient felt so weak that he longed to die. 

Seeing his nurse utterly cast down at the prospect, Dymond 
proposed that they should hold a Communion service. " A 
couple of Chinese cups, a small pot of tea, and a Chinese biscuit 
were all we needed. But the nurse broke down and the sick man 
had to finish the service. I can assure you that Jesus Himself 
came to us in that little upper room, and we were wonderfully 

D 



3$ . SAMUEL POLLARD 

cheered and comforted by His love and presence. Death seemed 
to lose all its terrors, and instead there came a vision of glory, a 
vision of triumphant entrance into the King's presence. In a way 
undreamed of by the Chinese, * Heavenly Flowers '* bloomed 
in that chamber. . . . When Frank had finished speaking we ate 
the biscuit and drank the tea, and in our hearts there was begotten 
a great loyalty to King Jesus." 

Writing to his home folk Pollard said : " This is Frank's 
eighth day in bed, and the eruption is all out and probably will 
begin to harden to-morrow. So far I consider he is progressing 
favourably, and as for me I am quite well and strong. . . . Those 
four weeks when I never undressed, and when one felt afraid 
that each night was going to bring the end and set one off on a 
grave-hunting expedition which would leave one quite alone in the 
Far East, seem now like a black nightmare. We were expecting 
adventures, but never dreamed that they would come in this way. 
Yet the experience was most valuable, for school-chum patient 
and school-chum nurse had perforce to put their faith to the test, 
and the test did not end in failure. He who long ago promised 
to be with His disciples when they went forth in His name, 
to carry out His commands, kept His word. . . . Slowly but 
surely the sick missionary crept up and out of the valley of death, 
and by and by, to the great joy of us both, he was able to get up 
and crawl slowly down that ladder. I went first so that if he 
slipped he should have something soft to fall on. By that time 
we were able to laugh again and see the humorous side of our 
troubles. And we got a lot of fun even out of the convalescent 
stage of smallpox." 

It was characteristic of Pollard's readiness to respond to every 
human appeal that even the distress and uncertainty occasioned 
by his friend's sickness could not hold him back from answering 
the first call in Chaotong to go and save an opium suicide. In a 
letter written on March ayth, 1888, he says : " I went off, leaving 
Frank comfortable and, as he said, not in need of anything. I 
took my medicine with me, a bottle of mustard, another of 
sulphate of zinc, and a few feathers. I found the would-be 
1 The Chinese name for smallpox. 



HOLDING THE FORT AT CHAOTONG 39 

suicide, a woman about thirty years of age, on a couch with eyes 
shut and teeth tightly clenched. . . . By and by she was awakened 
and her dormant temper was roused. Not she ! She wouldn't 
take the medicine, and time after time dashed my precious 
mustard away. We rested awhile. It was hot. Then by sheer 
force we compelled her to take the dose. Her relatives helped 
me by shouting and swearing angrily at her. How they did curse 
the poor soul ! In the struggle she got hold of my pigtail, and I 
contemplated cutting it off, but managed to get free without 
making such a sacrifice. After this we got her back into the room 
again and the medicine took effect. I then left them, leaving 
more medicine for her. . . . Next day her husband or father came 
and thanked me for saving her life." 

From the time of saving the opium suicide, Pollard's reputation 
as a healer spread throughout the city, and people came to him 
with all kinds of sicknesses. They felt no need of his new doctrine, 
but they were eager to experience the magical properties of his 
foreign drugs. An old blind woman came asking him to give 
back her sight. She told him how at the time of the Tongking 
war her only son had been sent away to fight. When the war 
between the Chinese and the French was ended, he was despatched 
into another province and never came home again. The sorrow- 
ing mother wept till she became quite blind. When Pollard 
pityingly explained that he had no eye salve that could restore 
her sight, she was reluctant to abandon her hope, and thought 
he was unwilling to help her. " She came to me in darkness," 
he says sadly, " and left in darkness. But this is only one of 
many." 

It was during these months at Chaotong that Pollard came 
to learn at first hand of the frightful ravages of opium. Many 
of its victims came to him hoping to find some means of escape 
from the drug habit and of regaining their health and freedom. 
He was appalled by the frequency of suicide. Yunnan appears 
to have suffered even more than other provinces. " You cannot 
realise," was his vivid testimony, " how great a hold opium has on 
these people. In some way or other, nearly everybody is mixed 
up with it. The fields in the plain now present a lovely appear- 



40 SAMUEL POLLARD 

ance. A beautiful white cloak over them all. White poppies ! 
The devil in angel garb ! White poppies ! But ruin and hell to 
follow. . . . The Chinese read another word in big letters on it 
' England.' " 

At last Pollard was relieved : Dymond became convalescent 
and slowly regained tone and vigour : then came Mr. Curnow 
from Yunnan Fu because he had heard that one of the two young 
guards had fallen sick. Both the visitor and Pollard wanted 
Dymond to go up to the capital for a change ; but he refused to 
leave Pollard. About the middle of June Mr. and Mrs. Thorne 
arrived at Chaotong, and set them free for the journey together. 
Mr. Vanstone tells how seven months later he entered an inn 
between Chaotong and the capital, and in the room given him he 
saw the names of Pollard, Dymond, and Curnow written on the 
wall, and this inscription : " China for Christ before long." 

CHAPTER VIII 
Yunnan Fu : Pioneers 

SITUATED six thousand four hundred feet above sea level in the 
midst of a great plain, Yunnan Fu to which Pollard and Dymond 
had come from Chaotong (which they left on June i8th, 1888) 
is a large, attractive city with a temperate climate. On the south 
stretches the large lake of Kuen-yang, thirty-five miles long and 
seven wide, connected with the city at the west gate by a canal 
about six miles in length. Along the canal banks are dotted little 
villages and farms. The city is surrounded by a fine brick wall 
thirty feet high and four and a half miles around in which are 
six gates surmounted by towers with roofs tilted up at the corners. 
The population was reckoned at from eighty to a hundred thou- 
sand, though many of this number lived outside the wall. When 
Pollard entered Yunnan all the transport was still conducted by 
coolies and pack-horses. Most of the foodstuffs of the people 
had to be grown on the surrounding plain, for if supplies were 
brought from a distance the horses would eat up on the journey 
as much grain as they could carry. 



YUNNAN FU : PIONEERS 41 

Pollard was one of a little band of pioneers in Yunnan, and we 
shall understand and appreciate his work at this period only if 
we remember that he and his comrades were pathfinders in a 
remote part of the world where Westerners were accounted 
uncivilised folk with an incomprehensible creed. The Chinese 
language itself, as he well knew, was a tangled and labyrinthine 
jungle through which they had to cut their own paths. The 
mornings were generally devoted to the difficult task of mastering 
the tongue of the people, both literary and colloquial. Pollard 
and Dymond had resolved to take the six examinations arranged 
by the China Inland Mission. Dymond, in a letter dated October 
28th, 1888, says : " You will be glad to know that Sam and I 
have passed our third section. The examiner wrote, ' I have not 
the least hesitation in saying that you have very successfully 
passed the examination.' I do feel thankful," adds the corre- 
spondent ; " we shall take the fourth section shortly, and we hope 
to get over the sixth before this time next year." 

Pollard made surprising discoveries as he studied Confucian 
literature. " I have been reading one of the books of Confucius. 
What a lot of light these people received ; but what little influence 
it has had on their hearts ! Yesterday I read the sentence : 
' What you do not wish for yourselves, do not give to others.' " 
Until this time the science of Religion had been an unknown 
realm of thought to him. With amazement Pollard learnt how 
the Imperial religion rested upon the sublime order of Heaven 
and Earth. He gradually perceived the realisation by Confucius 
of the function of conscience to differentiate between right and 
wrong and to make the right a binding force upon every man. 
That Confucius should have summed up his teaching in the one 
word " reciprocity " and enunciated the Golden Rule in a negative 
form lifts him up to the rank of a moral reformer and sage. 
" But," says Pollard, " mixed with all this truth there is much 
error. . . . They [the Chinese] scorn our doctrine as below 
theirs, but they don't know the beauty of ' Come unto me all ye 
that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest,' or of 
* God so loved the world . . .' The people only see the spring 
just bubbling up, and they do not know that deep down 



42 SAMUEL POLLARD 

whence the spring comes are millions of tons of the Water of 
Life." 

Far removed, indeed, the actual life of the people seemed from 
the rational ethic of Confucius : to Pollard it was a dark forest 
of sin and superstition. For years the pioneers made but little 
headway : at times they felt almost lost in the thickets. The 
senior missionaries, though brave and earnest, knew too little 
of Chinese life and thought to be able to give the discreet 
guidance which the young recruits needed. As one of them said 
in later years they were inclined to adopt fanatical views concern- 
ing the Chinese, and in their enthusiasm they worked at such high 
pressure and with such total disregard of health that it was no 
wonder they broke down. It may even have been that because 
they were white men they fancied that they were intellectually 
superior to the yellow race. Their limited aim was to win in- 
dividuals to believe the Gospel, and they were inspired by the 
hope of immediate conversions. Little did they imagine that it 
would take twenty years to make ready the foundations for a 
Christian Church, and a still longer time to prepare a moral and 
spiritual atmosphere in which it would become possible for the 
people to adopt the Christian faith. One of the most questionable 
methods of these pioneers was their employment of sensational 
tactics in a land where " propriety" was inculcated as an essential 
part of righteousness. In most Chinese families there was one 
member who was maintained by the others so that he might 
pursue the ideal of becoming a scholar. This had gone on for 
hundreds of years until the Chinese mind was saturated with the 
conception of dignity and grave courtesy in the bearing of an 
educated man. It is to be feared, therefore, that they often 
created a deep prejudice against themselves which took long 
years to eradicate. Yet in time, because they were humble- 
minded followers of Jesus, they learned from their own mistakes, 
and in the end opened a broad highway for the Gospel. 

Often has a pioneer to bear the intangible, yet most heavy 
burden of loneliness. Comradeship seems a necessity if one is 
to develop his best powers and achieve his utmost of work. From 
1887 till August 6th, 1888, Pollard and Dymond had been thrown 



YUNNAN FU : PIONEERS 43 

into the closest intimacy ; but after a time the exigencies of the 
mission tore them apart. This separation was probably felt most 
by Mr. Dymond, for he had learned to lean upon Pollard's 
buoyant optimism. The time has not yet come to write freely 
of this noble missionary ; happily he lives still to work for China, 
and has maintained the task which Pollard an'd he took up 
together with rare fidelity and courage. 

Whilst Dymond pursued his journey northwards, Pollard 
threw himself into the work of preparing for a ten days' mission 
in Yunnan Fu. In this effort the China Inland Missionaries 
joined whole-heartedly. At this time there was given to Pollard 
a vision of the success which was ultimately to follow their 
endeavours : " he saw the King in His beauty, and his eyes 
beheld the land afar off." His thoughts and feelings may be 
gathered from a letter written by him (September 



Perhaps you heard some time ago we were making special 
arrangements for a ten days' mission. To-day is the fifteenth 
day, and we shall probably keep on two days more. . . . Crowds 
have come to hear and see, and by the end of the mission from 
eight thousand to ten thousand visits will have been paid, . . . 
Many thousands of bills were printed and judiciously distributed 
from house to house. A week of prayer preceded the meetings, 
during which one day was spent in fasting. . . . Last Sunday 
week we had seven hours at the work. Glorious meetings ; and I 
believe many were brought face to face with salvation as they had 
never been before. Several professed openly a desire to serve 
Jesus Christ, and the greatest friendliness has been shown us all 
through the meetings. Tuesday, the ninth day, was spent in 
fasting and was followed by a night of prayer. 

I shall never forget it. Our room was filled with glory, and 
I had a manifestation such as I had never realised before. The 
glory came down and so filled me that I felt the Holy Ghost 
from my head to the soles of my feet. It was about as much as 
I could stand, and for a minute I thought I should faint or die. . . . 
I had the promise at that meeting that we are going to have 
thousands of souls. Mind, I believe that from the bottom of my 
heart. . . . Some folks may say, " He's a fool ! " Let them ; 
we'll have our thousands. " He's gone mad." So be it ; but 
we'll have our thousands. " He's young and enthusiastic." Yes, 
glory be to God, I am ; and we'll have our thousands. . . . 



44 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Wouldn't you like to have been here yesterday, to have seen the 
baptism of our first three converts, and thus witness the formation 
of the first Bible Christian Foreign Church ? Oh, it was 
glorious to hear these dear converts testify openly before the 
people that they were Christ's. The first was an old man, Mr. 
Vanstone's teacher. . . . Gladstone says, " Remember Michels- 
town ! " I say, " Remember Yunnan Fu, September i6th, 1888." 

At the end of the year Vanstone paid a visit to Chaotong 
to attend the annual District Meeting and Pollard was left at 
the capital. During that time, this missionary who was twenty- 
four years old and looked only twenty, did not give up a single 
service. In his imagination the sphere allotted to them seemed 
immense, and he begs importunately for recruits " In our 
district we have four large towns, each important, with many 
thousands of inhabitants. From Yunnan Fu to Tungch'uan is 
seven days' journey ; from Tungch'uan to Huei-li-cheo is three 
days' north-west ; from Tungch'uan to Chaotong is five days' 
north-east ; and we ought to occupy all these at once." So he 
asks for a staff of fifteen or twenty missionaries including two 
medical men. " We move daily among thousands who know not 
Christ. . . . An old woman said to me : * Teacher, if you had 
not come over here, we should never have known these things.' 
Another person, nearly blind, said : ' Will the teacher write home, 
and ask your people to send out a doctor soon r ' " 

Mr. C. Jenson, a Dane, who was living at Yunnan Fu at that 
time as the head of the Chinese Telegraph Company's Service 
in West China, was able to give friendly counsel and assistance 
to the missionaries. By using his influence behind the scenes 
with mandarins, he secured a great deal of protection for them. 
At the beginning of their work he gave fifty taels towards the 
establishment of a Christian school. In after years Pollard was 
always ready to acknowledge the valued services of this friend. 
Had he known it at the time he would surely have attributed to 
Mr. Jensen's influence the good-will of the mandarins about 
which he wrote : " November loth, 1888 : The Viceroy is 
reputed to be anti-foreign, but we daily do things in this city for 
which the authorities at Torquay would send us for six weeks to 



YUNNAN FU : PIONEERS 45 

Exeter jail. . . . Mandarins as a rule are friendly. The late city 
magistrate was quite a friend.'* 

On Christmas Day that year he preached at the China Inland 
Mission, and then sat down with the missionaries to a Christmas 
dinner. On Boxing Day several of them hired a small boat for 
a few shillings and went down the canal. " About five miles 
down we came to the pleasure gardens of Ta-Kuan-leo. This is a 
very popular resort with the city people. Flowers of all kinds 
bloom here in the open air. Bright red roses can be found in the 
middle of January. At the right of the entrance is a large hall 
with one side open to the flower gardens. In this hall are numbers 
of square tables polished in red and black. Here refreshments 
may be had if you have brought them with you, for the caretaker 
only supplies tea. . . . Opposite the refreshment hall is a large 
ornamental tower from the third storey of which a delightful view 
of the city, plain, and lake can be obtained. Villages and small 
towns in all directions. We found four hundred such within 
five miles of the city walls, and on the plain itself there are over a 
thousand, none more than thirty miles from the mission home. 
When shall there be places for Christian worship in each of 
these ? May God stir up His people to be quick and not wait 
too long ! " 

About the middle of February, 1889, Pollard learned that 
his friend, Frank Dymond, was on his way to the capital, for the 
purpose of getting one of the China Inland Mission ladies to 
visit Chaotong to nurse Mrs. Thorne, who was ill. Six months 
had elapsed since these two old Shebbear boys had parted, and 
they had much to talk about. In his journal Pollard writes : 
" Went out to tea-shop to meet Frank. On the way my mule 
fell down and I was off, and he was on my leg. ... I thought 
I must punish the beast, and then as it would not come on, I kicked 
it. Afterwards, I felt sorry : God saved my life and instead of 
being grateful I got into a temper. May the Lord purify me 
wholly, and make me His own, and forgive my sin ! " 

" February 25th : Frank and I had much talk about coming 
down to the level of the people (i.e., in their mode of living). I 
believe we are right and that God is working upon our hearts. 



46 SAMUEL POLLARD 

The Lord help us and give us strength to go forward on the right 
lines whatever they may be ! Frank says resolutely he will do 
it : he will come down to the level of the coolies and others." 
They discussed the subject of adopting this life of poverty and 
self-denial with Mr. Vanstone, and Pollard records this conclusion : 
" He will not do this himself ; but he will give me every help 
if I am called to such a mode of life. I wish I knew what to do : 
may the Lord guide me very plainly ! " 

As the months passed by they apprehended the overwhelming 
magnitude of their task. Pollard wrote burning appeals for more 
workers, sending letters that were inspired by glowing passion. 
Though the Committee found such appeals useful for eliciting 
subscriptions for the maintenance of the staff already on the field, 
they were long unable to send the recruits asked for. Pollard 
could not understand this delay and, stung by what he thought was 
indifference, sometimes let loose in his letters a flood of vehement 
scorn at their apathy. From passages like the following in the 
journal we can imagine the disappointment and depression which 
were sometimes suffered : 

" Post in after tea, and as usual I found something to knock 
me all of a heap. In a Methodist Times there was a notice of our 
services and a request for prayer that a medical missionary and 
native workers be raised up. Has our Committee vetoed the 
sending of further recruits ? Why am I always knocked down by 
mail letters and always depressed by the news that no help is 
coming ? The Lord help me : by His help we will keep on and 
save these people." 

" Official report that I have passed the fourth examination in 
Chinese subjects. Hurrah ! " 

" April loth : This afternoon on the way to the shop I saved an 
old woman from opium poisoning. She was seventy and frail, 
and her son held her up. He was thirty- eight and looked fifty. 
No hope in either face. All about the place misery was writ large. 
It touched my heart. God save these poor people and help 
us to love them greatly ! " 

" April 2ist : Took 10 a.m. service : preached on the serpent 
lifted up in the wilderness . Frank's old man [servant] turned 



YUNNAN FU : PIONEERS 47 

up at noonday service and promised to go with us to the villages 
on Friday. A man came in leading another who was blind. The 
first man was fifty-six : he was full of sorrow : nothing went 
right : and he could rear no son. He contemplated suicide. 
Frank's old man said to him : * I'm older than you : I'm over 
seventy. My sorrows have been more than yours. I had eight 
sons and six daughters ; but only one son is left of them all. 
I used to have riches ; but now it is all gone. I am stripped of 
everything except my anticipation of heaven.' Afterwards he 
said to me : ' Jesus suffered so much sorrow on this earth that 
our unhappiness does not count for much/ While we were 
talking a woman came in. Her son had run away : had we any 
plan (magical arts) by which he could be brought back ? It 
showed what outsiders think of us." 

" Sunday, April 28th : Little Mabelle Vanstone was very ill 
with typhoid." She died on the following day. On the 3Oth 
Mr. Vanstone and Pollard went to arrange that she might be 
buried by the side of another English child. Pollard marked out 
the grave and dug the first part. He conducted a service in the 
chapel and told the Chinese of the parents' faith that they would 
meet their beloved child again. After the service a woman who 
was blind told him that she lost her sight through weeping over 
her little son when he died. The English burial of Mabelle made 
a great impression ; for the Chinese often throw away the bodies 
of dead children for the dogs and wolves to eat. They bought two 
stones for the tiny grave, one for a Chinese, and the other for an 
English inscription, which was cut by the father with Pollard's help. 

As Pollard felt it a part of his duty to evangelise the villages 
on the plain around Yunnan Fu, he mapped out the district and 
divided it into circuits which he could itinerate every quarter. 
These excursions, each lasting several days, afforded him a wel- 
come change from the routine of his duties in the city. The 
journeys also enabled him to make the people around Yunnan Fu 
familiar with the presence of foreigners to overcome Chinese 
prejudices and to create trust. At the risk of scattering his 
energies overftoo wide'afdistrict and over too varied a ministry, he 
devoted himself to the work with enthusiasm. 



48 SAMUEL POLLARD 

His Journal contains records of varied experiences. " In the 
inns I have seen ten opium smokers to every one non-smoker." 
" In one market where there were seven or eight thousand people 
there was a temple to the God of Riches." " I found the court- 
yard was an opium market. I calculated that here for sale was 
enough opium to kill ten thousand people. What think you of 
that ? I found a little tree in the yard on a mound and used 
this as my pulpit. The idols on the right and opium sellers on 
the left formed a text and I denounced them, taking care to tell 
of Jesus the great Saviour. On the plain outside the village and 
in the river-bed were large crowds of marketers, blacksmiths, 
pigs, horses, women, water-sellers, rows of turnips, mulberries, 
etc. etc. Tied my mule at the river-bank : the river was dry so 
that carts go up and down : here I preached. Sold twenty-nine 
cash worth of books. Afterwards came to Yangkai : here I had a 
wash, a change and tea. Then I went on the street : a great 
crowd and a fine time ! I sold a hundred and ten cash worth of 
books very quickly. A man met me who was on his way back to 
Szechuen and he asked me about our teaching. We had a long 
chat together : he seemed sincere, so I gave him two books and told 
him where to call on his way down. God save this man who came 
at dusk to ask about Jesus ! After eight days of travelling and 
preaching I got back to Yunnan Fu, and found that my friends 
had whitewashed my rooms and made them smart and pretty." 



CHAPTER IX 
The Little Man and His Gong 

POLLARD was just the man to strike out fresh lines of work and 
new methods of evangelism. Mr. Dymond says of him at this 
period that he " created a great impression by his power as a 
preacher." Although the Chinese were for the most part slaves 
of conventionality, they were compelled to give attention to one 
who defied all their traditions of what the bearing of a teacher 
ought to be. He was determined that his message should be 



THE LITTLE MAN AND HIS GONG 49 

given a hearing, and for this he carried a Chinese gong. Some- 
times he yielded to the importunities of his friends and took a 
concertina upon which he could manipulate one tune ; but he 
preferred the gong with its clanging, clamorous appeal which no 
one could ignore. When he wanted to gather a crowd he would 
strike it and watch with smiling pleasure the people as they 
rushed towards him in answer to the crash of sound, and then 
would begin at once to preach. 

In June Pollard was disturbed by the news that Frank Dymond 
had been beaten on the streets at Chaotong. Dymond was passing 
along when he met a procession of the city's leading men headed 
by some youths with long sticks. Then came two brass idols 
one of the Pearly Emperor and the other of the Goddess of Mercy 
these were followed by seven or eight Buddhist priests beating 
gongs and cymbals. They were performing the ritual required in 
prayers for rain. By ill-chance Dymond was wearing a big straw 
sun hat such as would, according to superstition, offend the 
rain-god and so neutralize the people's prayers. As the youths 
in the procession passed him they smote the offending hat with 
their sticks in protest against his breach of etiquette. Pollard 
was afraid that his friend might have been seriously injured. It 
was, therefore, comforting to learn that no grave damage had 
been done. 

For Pollard the incident had no significance. Somebody 
was needed to escort a China Inland lady as far as Chaotong, 
and he eagerly volunteered to go. For about eleven months 
he had worked almost night and day at his Chinese studies whilst 
carrying out all his mission duties, so he was needing a change 
of air. What acute pleasure thrilled along his nerves as he stepped 
forth once more along the open road over the mountains ! They 
reached Chaotong on July 24th ; and after a crowded fortnight 
at this city, Mr. Thorne and Pollard arranged to visit the great 
sugar centre at Mi-lien-pa and Lu-tien-ting. They started on 
August 6th, 1889, and atone stage had a most exciting experience, 
which Pollard describes in a letter (August nth) to his " dear 
home folks." At the river a boat was moored to take men and 
horses over. Let us hear his story : 



50 SAMUEL POLLARD 

H|I looked at the river and I confess my heart beat quickly as I 
fancied our boat trying to get over the rapids. No boatmen were 
about, but a little boy, almost naked, informed us that the men 
were gone to the boathouse to smoke opium. I held the horses 
and S. Thorne went up to rout them out. After a long time Sam 
came down with two opium-smokers. They looked rather sour, 
and I soon found out that the men would not go over. They said 
that with such a stream as that, they did not dare to take the boat. 
... A mile farther up the bank of the river was a small hamlet 
of three houses " Wild Buffalo " hamlet. . . . One of the 
houses was an inn, and we led our horses over the cliffs to this 
place a nasty road and very dangerous. 

At " Wild Buffalo " hamlet there was another way of crossing 
the river a slide or sling. A bamboo hawser was stretched from 
the two banks about twenty to forty feet above the water, and on 
this was suspended a wooden seat. You sit on this, slide down 
half-way, and are pulled up the other half. Queer travelling this 
with a vengeance ! The rapids extended a hundred yards above 
the slide and more than a mile below boiling, seething whirl- 
pools ; waters chasing each other as if mad, when they meet 
one of the many rocks in mid-stream venting their fury as if they 
would crush the stone in pieces at one rush ! As it happened 
there was no one to go on before us, so we had no time for 
reflection, only for action. Our man got on first, sat on the little 
seat ; they let him go and he swung down halfway and there 
rested awhile, till those on the other bank gathered in the slack 
rope and pulled him safely over. About one minute's suspense. 
Who next ? 

Sam and I looked at each other and asked, shall we go or not ? 
The idea of being swung over these rapids by just one rope was 
not tempting to either of us. Back comes the seat, and we must 
decide. If we are to give the people the Gospel we must not be 
beaten by a boat or a nasty-looking swing. The seat is over ; 
the man in charge says, " Please get on ! " I, with my heart 
far down in my stomach, put my legs on the frame. They put 
an extra rope round me, lest I should get dizzy in the middle and 
lose my hold. I clasp my hands over the big wooden ring from 
which the seat hangs, shut my eyes and swing off. Down down 
down ! Then a stop, and I am dangling over a mile of rocks, 
whirlpools, and rapids. I was too cowardly to look down, and 
waited till a tug told me the uphill work was begun. A few 
seconds and I was safely on the other rock, half laughing at myself 
for being afraid. 



THE LITTLE MAN AND HIS GONG 51 

Back goes the rope and seat, and Sam Thorne with his burly 
frame sits on it. All ready ! Yes. Off ! Down he slides, and 
then the uphill work. Pull, pull ! Hullo, what's amiss ? Snap 
goes the pulling-rope, and there is Sam dangling in the centre ! 
I was more frightened than he was. Those on the other side 
begin to pull him back. What if that rope break also ? I tell you, 
I felt very queer. Sam says, he didn't. They pulled him over 
safely. How will they manage now ? Will Sam give it up and 
not try again ? I feel as if I should. Then one of the men sat 
on, and pulled himself across, hand over hand. The rope is 
tied again and back goes the seat. Will Sam venture or not ? 
Yes. He takes his seat again, and this time is pulled over in 
safety. I clap and call Sam an example of British pluck. 1 

After a few miles they reached the market at Mi-lien-pa, 

but were disappointed at the meagre attendance. Most of the 

people had remained at home to prepare for the annual rite of 

ancestor worship. At their inn they witnessed the proceedings. 

" The table was loaded with cooked vegetables and pork, and 

all, from the eldest son down to the youngest, in turn bowed 

to their ancestors. Then they put out some basins of rice 

for those who were dead, and the living sat down and ate up 

what the dead did not have, emptying back the rice into their 

own basins, after giving the spirits a fair time to get through a 

meal. Afterwards, there was much burning of paper money 

out of doors. The mother of the family was in the garden 

weeping bitterly. I went out in the evening, and the master 

went out about the same time to burn some more paper. When he 

heard the old lady crying as if her heart would break as she 

thought of those who were gone, he called her in. She came in 

at once and was quite cheerful with the rest of the family." 

On Wednesday, August I2th, they reached Lu-tien-ting and 
ate a basin of vermicelli together and then parted : S. Thorne 
to hasten back to Chaotong, and Pollard to wend his way to 
Yunnan Fu. At every stopping-place he preached to the people 
and thus shook off the heartache of loneliness. At one market 
he met a band of sixty soldiers from the capital who had been sent 
to break up a daring gang of thieves. Two of them recognised 
1 "Samuel Thomas Thorne," by Thos. Ruddle, B.A., pp. 92 f. 



52 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Pollard and conversed with him, asking him to carry letters back 
to their friends at Yunnan Fu. " Thank God," he exclaims, 
" for these little signs of trust in us." He was consumed with 
desire to get back to his own work again, and did six ordinary 
days' journey in less than three. " At the last place I stayed 
at the landlord had a long talk with me. He would have it that 
I was not like other foreigners. * You know,' he said, ' your 
nose is not high, and your eyes are not green, and your hair is 
much like ours.' He did his best to persuade me to dye my hair 
a little blacker, to marry a Chinese wife, and to settle down here, 
* and then,' said he, ' you would be happy indeed,' adding, ' you 
have plenty of money and could buy a good wife.' I took these 
remarks as modestly as I could, and was really flattered that he 
thought I was almost like a Celestial." 

Back once more in the city he pursued his studies and his 
preaching with an enthusiasm which knew no abatement. He 
writes : "- I have just finished Mencius, Volume I. What a fine 
Radical he would have made ! " In a letter dated October 6th, 
1889, he says : " The work becomes more fascinating every day. 
We are gladder every day. We are here just a handful, standing in 
the breach for Jesus' sake. ... A shout is heard ! Another 
opium case, so I must be off. . . . The victim was a young woman 
twenty-three years old. Thank God we succeeded in saving her 
life! . . . Doubtless you fancy my letters are full of strong words. 
Would you were here for a few days to see all we see ! Gambling 
in every street ; every house an opium den ; houses of ill-repute 
on every hand ; the devil in full swing ; and hell holds carnival 
all day long. . . . God knows these words come from hearts 
that burn. . . . Our longing to see China saved cannot find full 
expression on paper." 

In December Mr. s Vanstone was prostrated by over- work and 
malaria, and sought rest for a few days at a village not far from 
the city. In the middle of that month Mr. Thorne arrived at 
Yunnan Fu and remained for a fortnight. They held their annual 
District Meeting on Tuesday, December 24th. The entry in his 
journal on Christmas Day is as follows : " S. T. Thorne preached 
in the morning. Then dinner. Chinese service. Free-and-easy 



THE LITTLE MAN AND HIS^ GONG 53 

at night. I spoke about Shebbear class meetings. Thorne gave 
us an account of Sammy Bradburn. Vanstone spoke on ' in- 
fluence.' Mrs. Thorne told of her Christmases in China. Mr. 
Tomlinson read a passage entitled ' A Lull in Life.' " The 
Thornes left them on December 3Oth. The next entry in the 
journal is : " The last day in a busy year a year of blessing 
much blessing. God has been always true. Wish I had been ! 
Yet the blood cleanses just now. I end this year with much 
thankfulness for much mercy. Hallelujah ! " 

On New Year's Day, 1890, Pollard woke to find the city 
covered with several inches of snow. " Trees and houses looked 
just like a winter scene at home." An appeal to go and see a 
sick child interrupted his studies, and he was guided through 
the streets of the white, muffled city to the home of a little girl 
five years old, who was in a burning fever. " Her father came 
back to the * Jesus Hall ' with me, and I gave him some aconite. 
God bless the little ones ! " A few curious neighbours dropped 
in during the evening to sit around the brazier of glowing charcoal 
and listen to his preaching. One of them said he had thought of 
becoming a Christian, but had feared to cut himself off from all 
his friends. ^ 

Just as in that hired house in Rome St. Paul was visited by 
all sorts and conditions of people, so the missionary's home 
at Yunnan Fu was a rendezvous for thoughtful inquirers, for men 
and women overburdened with suffering and care, and some- 
times for pilferers. Returning from an evangelistic, tour, Pollard 
found Mr. Chen and two of his pupils awaiting him. " They 
were doctors from Chentu, and belonged to some Chinese religious 
guild which prohibited the use of wine, tobacco, and opium. 
One of them spoke much of the three religions Confucianism > 
Taoism, and Buddhism and begged me to discriminate between 
their beliefs and the nonsense practised by the common people. 
He knew the Romanists, but did not know us. ... They left 
with a promise to come again. A week later the visit was repeated. 
One of them said he could see no advantage in believing in Jesus. 
Another intimated that if I would be guided by him, not only 
the whole city, and the whole province, but even the whole 

E 



54 SAMUEL POLLARD 

nation would join us : * Do not preach the two characters 
Ye-su ' (Jesus). The Lord help me to resolve to know nothing 
among men but Christ ! " 

In his village evangelism at this period he was accompanied 
by Mr. Yang who was one of the first three converts in Yunnan 
Fu and was now employed as an evangelist and a coolie to carry 
his impedimenta, which consisted of three hundred Gospels 
and other books, nine hundred tracts, a piece of salt, some tea, 
lard, native sauce, a gong, a pair of Chinese Wellingtons, a 
thousand cash, twelve shillings in silver (specie), an extra pair of 
stockings, a quilt, a rug, and a few Chinese cakes. He rode his 
mule, which had earned quite a reputation for deeds of daring. 
After travelling twenty-five li they came to a market called 
" The Dragon's Head." Leaving Mr. Yang in charge of the books 
at an opium stall, Pollard went farther afield with his gong. 
" We stood on high ground in sight of a crowded square. No 
one heeded us. Then a peal of the gong, and what a change ! 
The buyers ceased buying ; the sellers rested awhile, and a sea 
of faces was turned towards me. Most of the people recognised 
the intruder and went on with their business ; but some came 
up to listen to my story." Then the rain came on and drove him 
into a tea-shop. " Close by was a gambling table, and I watched 
till my blood boiled. Two men, apparently confederates, were 
doing a nice trade and swindling the coppers out of the boys. 
I bore it as long as I could, and then went over and rounded on 
these fellows in no mild terms. Gambling is a passion with all 
classes, from children upwards." 

He next came to another market called " The Dragon's Pool," 
where seven or eight hundred people were gathered. Again he 
made his gong send forth the crashing noise which he called 
music, and sold the books to eager buyers. " Sometimes stand- 
ing, at other times squatting down in Chinese style, we talked 
away. Once preacher and listeners were all squatting down. The 
sun was shining beautifully, and I was so happy. I thought I 
must be the happiest person on God's earth. Would that there 
were a band of missionaries out here to share one's joy, and help 
win a nation for Jesus ! People at home scarcely realise what joy 



THE LITTLE MAN AND HIS GONG 55 

we have in the work here. Making known the love of Jesus to a 
people who have never heard of Him is a work which angels 
might covet. I believe the inhabitants of heaven would gladly 
leave their happy abode to share our toils here. They will at 
least share in the harvest if they have to stand by and watch while 
we plough and sow." 

Next day their journey lay through a forest of fir trees, and the 
weird silence seemed to sink into their very souls. " We hurried 
on," says Pollard, " but it was dark an hour before we got to our 
inn. The road was abominable and very dangerous. We lit 
torches of fir hair ; but they soon went out. Then my lantern 
was the sole light for nine of us ; for we had picked up six 
pedlars on the way. At the end the road was as steep as the roof 
of a house. One place we passed over had a drop on each side 
which would have meant a broken neck if one had fallen. No 
one did fall luckily, and at last, tired and hungry, but so thankful, 
we reached our inn. On the hearth was a blazing fire, and a group 
of country folk sat round on very low stools, drinking tea. They 
made room for us, and we were soon cheered, warmed, and re- 
freshed." The landlord was a taciturn fellow, but his wife was a 
Mrs. Quickly. Pollard says of her : " She had cost the inn- 
keeper thirty odd taels, and she talks a hundred to the dozen. 
Down she sat with the men and jabbered as fast and as glibly as 
any of them. Poor husband ! " 

They spent the Sunday at the felicitously-named village of 
" Scattering Sunrise." Market was in full swing. Pollard 
preached and distributed a few books ; but in honour of the day 
refused to take the cash for them. He was sometimes amazed at 
the gift of vituperation which these rustics showed. " I heard 
a fellow cursing another at the market : he wished the mother 
of the man who had offended him might get ague, pestilence, 
rotten feet, and that she might beget aborigines and mules." 
That evening he wrote in his journal : " It is fifteen years ago 
to-day since I cried for mercy in that little room at Chipstead. 
Hallelujah ! " 

On that journey he visited five markets and preached in six 
villages. He travelled eighty miles : sold two hundred books : 



56 SAMUEL POLLARD 

preached incessantly and gave away hundreds of tracts. " Ex- 
penses on the road for the three of us and for the mule six 
shillings. A cheap journey ! " 

On his return to Yunnan Fu he was met with the gloomy 
tidings that Mr. Vanstone was ill, suffering from attacks of fever 
every few hours. For five weeks Pollard carried on the mission 
work and assisted in nursing his friend back to convalescence. 
" For the last nine months," he writes, " Mr. Vanstone has been a 
victim of malaria. When the attacks come one feels exhausted, 
tired, down-hearted, and peevish. It comes on like a strong man, 
binds one up, and then at will plays strange tricks with its victim. 
Five weeks ago the fever set in again, and T. G. Vanstone is only 
just getting the better of a life-or-death struggle. When the 
fever was at its height, Mrs. Vanstone was taken ill. . . . But the 
darkest night gives place to dawn, and things are brighter now." 
Quarterly itinerations brought Pollard into contact with 
other races besides the Chinese. The Panthays, or Moham- 
medans, of Yunnan are supposed to be descendants of Tatars 
who came there with the armies of Kublai Khan. From 1854 to 
1873 these Panthays were in rebellion against the Chinese 
government, and during the nineteen years of war great tracts of 
country were desolated and millions were slain. As soon as the 
Taiping rebels were defeated and the Chinese were able to turn 
all their military power against the Panthays, the rising was put 
down. But the sentiment of hate survived and, in the early days 
of Pollard's missionary life, the Mohammedans were ready to 
talk to the foreigners and to show friendliness. At one market he 
won their support in his denunciation of idolatry, but later one of 
them remonstrated with him for ascribing deity to Jesus. Accord- 
ing to this disputant Jesus was a spirit in the same way that man 
is, not as God. Jesus was sent into the West as a prophet to 
exhort our forefathers to believe in God. When the Jews 
attempted to kill Him the Lord sent an angel to snatch Him away. 
Pollard's interest was excited and next morning he went to a 
service at which prayers were chanted for a dead person. About 
fifty men and twenty boys were crooning in Arabic. " They did 
this," he|says, " for about half an hour : I watched to see if I 



THE LITTLE MAN AND HIS GONG 57 

should find anything that would strike me as remarkably reverent, 
or awe-inspiring, but saw nothing of the kind. The chanting 
was worse than that of the Buddhists who do put a little song 
into their worship. The men received three or four hundred cash 
each ; the boys about sixty cash each. I sold them two Arabic 
Gospels before I left." 

f " Just a month later his journal records : " Friday, June 6th, 
1890, I went to Long-Tong-Suin market. . . . Mohammedans, 
aborigines, and Chinese were present. I preached against the 
idols and the Panthays enjoyed a laugh at the Chinese. I spoke 
against the degenerate indulgences of the Mohammedans, and the 
Chinese laughed. Then I spoke against foot-binding and the 
aborigines were delighted. I patted each in turn and then thrashed 
the lot.'* Sometimes, however, the tables were turned against 
Pollard. " At Shao Hun-t-ing Plain, all was going nicely till up 
came a young fellow from the city who had made himself a 
nuisance in our meetings. At the start he made out to be friendly ; 
but he soon gave me a lively time. Why in the world had I come 
over from my small country to their great nation to preach Jesus ? 
He ridiculed me without mercy, and having made the crowd laugh 
at me, dissuaded them from buying my books : in fact he gained 
a victory for the devil. Still, one or two of the people stuck up for 
me, so I was not quite alone." 

About that time he learned that Dymond was passing through 
great trials, and gained Vanstone's consent to visit Chaotong. 
At Tungch'uan he went out to sell books. " On my way back," 
he says, " I called to have a shave. Whilst being tortured by the 
barber my old feeling came on and I presently awoke to find 
myself lying on the mud-floor trying to remember what I had been 
dreaming about. I was sweating all over. The situation struck 
me : I had fainted in the heart of China, and I had the cheek to 
say in Chinese : ' This is my thorn in the flesh.' " It was nature's 
warning to him to be careful not to overtax his strength ; but 
henceforth he was subject to such attacks throughout his life. 

At Chaotong he learned that Mr, and Mrs. Thorne had been 
forced to go down to the coast to seek recovery of health. So 
once more Pollard and Dymond were alone together. Besides 



58 SAMUEL POLLARD 

his usual work Pollard took his turn as cook ; but only a fluctuat- 
ing success attended his experiments in the kitchen. This is the 
relevant entry in his journal : " June yth, 1890 : made a cake, 
some buns, and a roly-poly pudding. But the jam ran out of this 
last and it had to be eaten as plain duff." He was more successful 
as a street preacher. It was a festal week at a celebrated temple 
outside the east gate of the city and thousands of devotees came 
to worship, to buy charms and to enjoy all the gaieties. Pollard 
and Dymond visited this place daily to carry on their evangelism ; 
while one preached the other stood by his side praying silently 
for him. 

Amid all these activities Pollard did not neglect the culture 
of his mind. On rare occasions of furlough his friends were 
often surprised at his alertness, his knowledge of books, and 
particularly at his extensive vocabulary. He was not a scholar 
in the accepted sense ; but he was a man of wide reading, with a 
swift and capacious mind. Long-continued study of Chinese 
Classics proved an intellectual gymnastic, though it added but 
little knowledge to his store. Throughout his life in China he 
resolutely read his Greek Testament, and strove to keep up 
acquaintance with good books principally of a religious or 
biographical kind. From his journal we learn that he was at 
this time reading Neander's Life of Jesus, " Out of Darkness 
into Light," by Asa Mahan, the Life of Paton, Wesley's 
Sermons, the Life of Mackay, Foster's Essays, and various 
novels and journals. But he learned as much from men as from 
books ; he resembled the hero of the Odyssey : " He knew the 
* ways and farings of many men.' What culture is comparable 
to this ? " 

One young Chinese scholar who in later years knew him 
intimately pays the following tribute to his work at Yunnan Fu : 
" He preached incessantly at the capital ; and men laughed at 
him because they did not understand ; but though reviled and 
persecuted, he was undaunted ; for he knew it was the sowing 
time. Seeing that the people disbelieved he strove to put forth 
still greater efforts : some teachers have come to us and then 
resenting the contumely paid to them, they have shaken the dust 



LOVE AND DEATH 59 

off their feet and retired. Not so did the teacher Pollard. Gradu- 
ally, though the Chinese still withheld their belief in his message, 
they delighted to converse with him, for he never cherished any 
thought of his own superiority, but treated them as brothers. . . . 
Formerly the Chinese looked upon foreigners as wolves ; and 
few dared to eat with them. The mention of a foreigner aroused 
hostility and suspicion. We believed that the yang ren had 
intercourse with spirits from whom they derived some sort of 
devilish power. But by going in and among the people of Yunnan 
Fu, Mr. Pollard made them almost forget that he was a foreigner." 
He sought their conversion to Christ's teaching and inward way 
of life, but asked for no servile imitation of Western modes of 
life. The idiosyncrasies of race were respected by him and he 
was ever ready to acknowledge that the East had found a wisdom 
of its own : repeatedly he avowed that the Christian faith 
belonged by right to the East and only by adoption to the West. 



CHAPTER X 
Love and Death 

UNTIL March, 1890, Pollard had been so absorbed by his mission 
work that he had sacrificed many of the amenities which even 
missionaries may be allowed to indulge in, and which may be 
considered as necessary for health of body and mind. Now, 
however, a dominating force entered into his life and modified his 
outlook. As I think of his next two years, so crowded with 
incidents and teeming with joys and sorrows, I am reminded of 
Watts *s two fine pictures " Love and Life " and " Love and 
Death " ; for the two figures of Love and Death dogged each 
other's footsteps in Yunnan. Life is represented by the artist 
as a fragile, girlish figure climbing the rugged steps upward, 
aided in her arduous struggle by the winged strength of Love. 
Death is shown as advancing with slow resistless steps towards a 
door which Love in vain seeks to defend. Such was the dual 
irama which was being steadily enacted in Yunnan at this period. 



60 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Love came to Pollard to give him a life-companion in his struggle 
amid the immensities of nature and Chinese civilisation : Death 
came to rob him of a valued friend, and to tear him away from the 
city which he had learned to love. 

In times of loneliness and disappointment Pollard often went 
across the city to the China Inland Missions house for social 
intercourse and for heartening in his work. The missionaries in 
this home were ardent men and women as devoted as Pollard 
himself ; and he was warmed physically and spiritually at their 
glowing hearth. After a time one of these missionaries, Miss 
Hainge, an enthusiastic and gifted lady, attracted Pollard more 
and more. He was solitary and consumed with passionate desire 
for love. Being uncertain of Miss Hainge 's feelings towards him, 
he could think of nothing else but of getting this matter settled ; 
so he wrote her a short note, and then he tells us his mind became 
easier and he was able to sleep. In the morning of March 5th, 
1890, he took the note across, but Miss Hainge had gone out, so 
he left it for her. In his journal he writes : " I calculated about 
the time she would be home and got down on my knees and 
prayed. Didn't I feel bad ! What a morning I spent ! After 
service I found a note addressed to me on my table. All right ! 
Hallelujah ! We had a long talk together in the evening at her 
house. When I returned I took her photo, with me, and sat down 
and wrote another letter. Oh, Sam Pollard ! Tell it not in Gath ! 
Gone ! Irretrievably gone ! ! But I am glad to be gone ! " 
Miss Hainge considered it her duty to obtain consent from her 
home folk before she could definitely accept him, and it was not 
till September, seven months after he wrote his first note, that 
the sanction was received from England and they became 
engaged. 

But while Love had come to help Pollard in his toil, Death was 
hunting down one of the recruits who had been sent from England. 
The tidings had come that the Revs. W. Tremberth and John 
Carter had been designated for Yunnan and had reached Gan- 
king, where they were to spend a few months in the study of the 
language before proceeding up the Yangtsze. But on August 26th, 
1890, John Carter died of dysentery. The news did not reach 



LOVE AND DEATH 61 

Yunnan Fu till October aoth : and then over Pollard's bright 
dream there fell this dark shadow. " What a year," he writes, 
" this has been for our little mission ! The Lord help us to be 
faithful." 

Bravely and long the Rev. T. G. Vanstone struggled against 
malaria, and strove to continue his work ; but at last he had to 
confess that he could no longer fight against this disease at Yunnan 
Fu. After consultation with his colleagues, it was arranged that 
he should go to Tungch'uan, a town between Chaotong and the 
capital, and open a station there in the hope that the climate 
would treat him more kindly. Frank Dymond was to come to 
the capital to assist in the work. But Vanstone's breakdown was a 
warning to Pollard, and, as soon as Dymond arrived, he was 
persuaded to take a needed change and rest. At this time Mr. 
Murray of the Scottish Bible Society reached Yunnan Fu with 
the intention of visiting the markets and towns on the surround- 
ing plain. Pollard had met Mr. Murray two and a half years 
before at Ganking and had acted for him there as guide and 
interpreter. Murray had been in the publishing business, and 
having retired was now travelling in China as an unpaid agent of 
the Scottish Bible Society. Pollard agreed to accompany him 
on a journey west, south, and east of Yunnan Fu. 

As this journey was concerned primarily with the business side 
of the Mission and Pollard's experiences were not dissimilar from 
others he had already encountered ; it need not detain us. The 
travellers were in the main satisfied that their labours had answered 
their purpose. The journey had taken seventeen days, and 
greatly as Pollard had enjoyed its excitements and adventures 
his mind and heart were filled with one image. As to others 
so to him, the awakening of love came as a sort of new birth. He 
had always been alert, but now he overflows with vivacity and 
his mind becomes more agile and swifter than ever. The love of 
nature which his father had taught him to cultivate became 
intensified. All the winning grace of Pollard's heart opened out 
at this time and love gave him an infectious gaiety. He had 
found a lady who could sympathise with his thoughts f they not 
only explored the emotions of love, but they discovered a union of 



62 SAMUEL POLLARD 

ideas ; so that instead of relaxing his missionary zeal, Pollard 
was incited to still more ardent ambition. 

It was the year of the triennial examinations in Yunnan Fu, 
and students came to the city from all parts of the province. 
This institution formed a part of the political and educational 
life of China. The range of subjects was narrow, being largely 
if not wholly confined to the Confucian classics and of a purely 
literary nature. The night before the examination thousands of 
students enter the hall and receive a roll of paper with a number 
which denoted the cell allotted to each candidate. This year the 
Commissioner who directed the examinations an officer specially 
appointed by the Emperor had the misfortune, so it was re- 
ported, while he was smoking opium, to burn three hundred 
essays. Realising the enormity of his offence, he escaped the 
shame and degradation which would have been meted out to him 
by swallowing gold. 

During the time the students were in Yunnan Fu, Pollard and 
Dymond joined forces with the China Inland Missionaries for 
aggressive evangelism. A tent was put up on Five Flowers 
Hill, and here hundreds of young students and city people heard 
the Gospel for the first time. The missionaries did not escape 
controversy and contempt. One of their hearers did his best 
day by day to heap ridicule upon them : he was a Kweichow man 
with a sharp and pungent wit. But one day he exhibited a total 
change of behaviour. " Now," says Pollard, *' instead of being 
noisy and cantankerous he helped us. A young graduate took a 
book and asked the price. When I asked two cash he said 
contemptuously : ' I will give you one cash for ten of them/ 
Then the Kweichow man looked at him, took the book away 
from him, and in a voice of thunder, said : ' Begone ' (' Tseo ') ! 
Afterwards he said to me : ' I didn't believe before : now I do 
believe.' It was worth something to hear this." 

Both the exigencies of the Yunnan mission and the ardour of 
Pollard as a lover resulted in a determination to hasten his 
marriage. The climate of Yunnan Fu was trying his powers of 
endurance and a change was necessary. Mr. Jenson lent him a 
pony for the journey to Chungking. Bidding farewell to, $ieir 



LOVE AND DEATH 63 

friends and leaving Frank Dymond in charge of his work, Pollard 
and Miss Hainge started, one riding in a sedan chair, the other 
on horseback. No hardships of travel could daunt the resolute 
courage of the one, or the bright eagerness of the other. Love 
was the strong-winged companion who helped them over many 
dangers and difficulties. 

But once again that other mysterious visitant who so often dogs 
the footsteps of Love was drawing nearer and nearer to the 
mission house at Chaotong, and no power was found to prevent 
his approach. All unknowingly the missionaries themselves had 
hewn out the path along which Death stalked with slow unhesitant 
steps. They had thrown themselves unsparingly into their tasks, 
studying the most difficult language under the sun with the 
absorption and determination of men who were bent upon taking 
honours ; they preached and taught incessantly ; they dispensed 
medicines to hundreds of patients ; they ignored the subtle 
dangers of an Eastern climate, and they tried to live as simply 
as the coolies who served them. They were as gallant a band of 
men as ever strove to achieve the impossible ; they were as self- 
denying as young monks, and as chivalrous as Don Quixote ; 
but, we have to confess, they lacked all sense of proportion. 
Thorne wore himself out and became the prey of malaria ; 
Vanstone broke down again and again. The tension was at times 
so great that it seemed to Dymond that he would have to lay down 
his task and return to England. Pollard placed a strain upon his 
frail body which must have lessened his reserves of health ; 
though it was his buoyant spirit which helped to save the mission 
from retreat. 

Just before Pollard began his journey to Chungking, Thorne was 
stricken with mortal sickness. He was on a journey east of Chao- 
tong in a region where Pollard was destined to win great 
triumphs ; the stricken missionary could hire neither sedan 
chair nor bearers, and he had perforce to ride on horseback. 
With fever raging in his veins and a body parched with thirst, the 
dying man performed three days* journey in two in order to reach 
his home. For .five days he lay,!when conscious, calm and resigned, 
while in hours of delirium he preached and prayed in Chinese. 



64 SAMUEL POLLARD 

In an account of her husband's death Mrs. Thorne wrote : 

" After tea I went to have a little rest. During that time he said 

to our boy, calling him by name : ' I am soon going to heaven/ 

and exhorted him to be a true follower of Jesus. Mr. Tremberth 

and Mr. Tai were watching beside him. He was constantly 

saying ' Praise God ' ; and once sang a verse of praise out of our 

Chinese hymn-book. Mr. Tremberth, finding his hands and feet 

were growing cold, called me. When I came I saw the ' change ' 

had come. My dear husband most affectionately recognised me, 

but was unable to speak. . . . Death was doing its work. He was 

in great pain after this, taking no notice of us. This was about 

ten o'clock. We knelt beside him, and all four of us poured out 

our souls in prayer to God for the dear one who was nearing the 

Border Land, and for ourselves that we might submit to the 

Divine will. Heaven was very near in that solemn hour. Our 

servants were watching with us. We all felt how helpless we 

were. After twelve o'clock the breathing was less laboured and 

we saw he was fast sinking. At 12.30 a.m. we all knelt again. 

Mr. Tai commended his happy spirit to God. We had scarcely 

risen from our knees when he was gone. September 23rd, 1891, 

12.30 a.m." 1 

Fourteen days later, when Pollard and Miss Hainge entered the 
city of Tungch'uan, they received the news that his dear old school 
friend Sam Thorne had passed into the Unseen. " I remember," 
he writes, " the first term I was at Shebbear, Sam and I tussled 
for the arithmetic prize, and he beat me. The next year I beat 
him. But he has won the glory prize before me." At first 
Pollard seemed stunned by the blow, but as soon as he could 
think clearly, he made up his mind to leave his fiancee next 
day and hurry on to Chaotong. He met Vanstone, who was 
bringing Mrs. Thorne to his own home for a change a few miles 
out of Tungch'uan ; and learning from them that Mr. Trem- 
berth was left alone in charge at Chaotong, he hastened north- 
ward to give the mission station his help. 

When three weeks later Mrs. Thorne and Miss Hainge came to 
Chaotong they found Pollard recovering from a severe attack of 
1 "Samuel Thomas Thorne," by Thomas Ruddle, p. 119. 



LOVE AND DEATH 65 

malaria. He had, therefore, to abandon his intention to com- 
plete his journey on horseback, and to hire a sedan chair. In his 
journal we have this entry : " Tuesday, November loth, 1891, 
Emmie and I started off in chairs. I left my little horse behind, 
being afraid of the sun. So we went in style. Mrs. Thorne and 
Tremberth escorted us fifteen li. We stayed some time saying 
good-bye and eating rice. While we were there somebody stole 
Emmie's nice brass foot- warmer." The mountain air and the 
incessant change of scenery, without the fatigue of riding on 
horseback, helped Pollard to regain his health very quickly. 
In the chair he read Emerson's Essays, and made an analysis of 
John Wesley's article on Oratory which he found in an American 
journal. At times Pollard gave himself up to the ecstasy of 
Nature worship. Now and again Miss Hainge and he got out of 
their chairs and walked amid the glorious scenery of the hills, 
enjoying the freedom and frank intercourse of minds and hearts 
attuned by love. 

On the second day they passed through Wu-Chai and saw where 
the waters meet and enter a small hole in the mountain and, after 
flowing four miles underground, issue at the " Cave of the 
moving Waters " at the mountain's foot. On Friday they passed 
a temple of the Goddess of Mercy, where the chair-bearers and 
carriers worshipped, paying for candles to be burned and offering 
imitation ingots of silver and gold which were made of paper. 
The priest then struck a bell whose clear vibrant tone bade the 
Goddess observe her devotees and give them protection along the 
road. Such protection may well have been sought, for the Yunnan 
roads are very primitive and angular. "It is difficult," says 
Pollard, " to turn a sharp corner with the long carrying poles, 
when the road is only about two feet wide. I have known the 
chair to dangle over a precipice with the front men on one side 
and the back men on the other. A false step would be fatal then. 
The God of mercies has been very kind to us in all our travels. 
We have had many narrow escapes, but they have always been 
escapes." 

In due course they arrived at Sui Fu. Whilst staying here with 
Mr. and Mrs. Faers an incident occurred which illustrates the 



66 SAMUEL POLLARD 

perils of missionary life. A little Chinese boy had entered the 
mission chapel during the morning worship, and upon leaving 
had missed his way. An old woman who kept a stall and sold 
monkey-nuts saw the wanderer and kindly called him to sit 
down beside her, intending to take him back to his home when her 
business was over. But the parents became alarmed, and learn- 
ing that the little fellow had visited the mission the mother began 
to scream in Chinese fashion that the foreigners had stolen her 
child and intended to eat it. There was a great commotion out- 
side the mission house, and Mr. Faers, who was alarmed lest the 
passionate ignorant mob might pull their house down, sent across 
to the magistrate for protection. This mandarin sent his police 
to keep the peace and to find the missing child. Three hours 
passed while the mob surged to and fro goaded by the mother's 
cries. Then the old woman was seen leading the boy back and 
the tumult ceased as abruptly as it had begun. The magistrate 
afterwards came over and inquired into the matter. He rewarded 
the old stall-keeper with a thousand cash : the child's father 
was beaten with forty stripes for his stupidity, and the three 
policemen responsible for keeping order in that district received 
two hundred stripes each because they had not prevented the 
disturbance. 

On Tuesday, November 24th, Pollard succeeded in hiring a 
nice backroom on a salt junk and passages for three persons for 
seven thousand cash. The boat was a hundred feet long and had 
eighteen rowers. In pleasant, easy fashion they slipped down 
the river, reaching Chungking on Saturday. Dr. Cameron of that 
city gladly welcomed them as his guests, and the British Consul 
consented to be present and give the legal sanction to the 
wedding on the following Thursday. Then came a telegram 
from Wan Hsien asking for Dr. Cameron's help for a missionary 
lady in that city. Pollard at once put off the wedding so that he 
might stay and carry on the work in the doctor's absence. Soon 
afterwards another telegram came bidding Dr. Cameron not to 
leave, and so the wedding went forward after all. 

On Friday, December 4th, 1891, Pollard chartered coolies to 
carry their goods to a boat and then proceeded to dress for the 



LOVE AND DEATH 67 

ceremony. The bridegroom had never been very particular 
about dress, but on this memorable day he was arrayed gorgeously 
enough to satisfy Chinese taste. He enumerates the articles of his 
attire " a silver grey silk gown ; plum-colour silk trousers tied 
at the ankles with silk garters ; a blue silk sleeveless coat over the 
gown, and covered by a loose silk jacket of the same colour as the 
trousers ; satin shoes to match and white socks." But with 
characteristic male indifference he neglects to describe the 
splendour of the bride's dress. The breakfast was at twelve 
o'clock at Mrs. Cameron's house, and by four o'clock they were 
escorted to their house-boat. The journey to Sui Fu was accom- 
plished in safety, but on Christmas Day Pollard writes : " The 
waters were smooth to-day. I am terribly nervous of the rapids : 
they make my heart beat at a great rate." Having reached Sui Fu, 
their servant, who had come up the river with Pollard on his first 
journey, now robbed and deserted him. Pollard had sent him 
with two lumps of silver weighing about eighteen taels, to get 
them cut into small pieces for the overland expenses Lao Teng 
took the silver and never returned. But keener than all other 
disappointments was the news that no fresh missionary recruits 
had yet been sent from England. Pollard writes to the Secretary : 
" I am looking forward with great delight to going back to our 
province again. My visit to Szechuen has strengthened my love 
for Yunnan. ... It was a great blow to us that Conference had 
sent ' no workers yet.' . . . We fancy that next year Yunnan Fu 
will be given up. Hauling down the flag ! That does not look 
as if the Forward Movement had any great hold upon Bible 
Christians. Perhaps the news of dear Samuel Thome's death 
will do what all our letters have failed to do. I do earnestly press 
for a good man as leader of our mission." 

Mr. and Mrs. Pollard were delighted to get back into Yunnan. 
He describes the scene between Ki-li-p'u and Ta-Wan-tsi. 
" Towering up on every side were the mighty hills. Fine bold, 
rough pillars of the sky ! In one place a spreading waterfall 
tumbled down a cliff, and after the fall scattered white ribbons, 
rejoining again for the next long leap. Below us the river dashed 
by every obstacle. How it lashed the rocks which disputed its 



68 SAMUEL POLLARD 

way ! . . . Emmie and I watched from under a great overhanging 
stone that sheltered that part of the white mountain road. Scores 
of pack-horses came tinkling along ; scores of pack-men trudging 
by their side, and scores of coolies singing and joking : the whole 
made a scene of great animation. The roar of the waters, the 
singing of the coolies, the tinkling of the bells on the horses, the 
rustling of the wind through the long grass, formed parts of one 
great busy song, which the sturdy hills seemed to bend to hear. . . . 
Emmie was quite excited at the beauty of the scene and playfully 
chided me at taking her away from such surroundings into a 
drab city." At Ta-Wan-tsi he notes that they sat on a stone 
together and preached to a lot of people. " This is the first 
time that we have preached together : God grant that we may 
do so many, many times ! " 

On Wednesday, January I3th, 1892, Mr. Tremberth met 
them thirty li from Chaotong. They were saddened by learning 
that Mrs. Thorne was unwell and would have to return to England 
immediately. Once more it was as if that other mysterious 
messenger was giving them warning ; for as they heard of the 
sickness of another of their tiny circle, they passed the dead body 
of a tool-sharpener lying by the roadside with his knife and tools 
close by. 

Leaving Mrs. Pollard at Chaotong, he and Tremberth started 
on the following Monday for the District Meeting at Tung- 
ch'uan. Dymond came down from the capital. There was a 
gloom resting over the missionaries, and Pollard did his utmost 
to impart hope to the gathering. He preached on Gideon going 
up against the Midianites. He spoke of the thinning of their 
little band by the death of their beloved friend. Then with a 
characteristic turn of the narrative of the dream of barley bread 
overturning the tent, Pollard affirmed that the people's dreams 
around them were all of Jesus, " the Bread of Life," and by Him 
the heathen temples and doctrines would be thrown down. 

This brave optimism could not, however, alter the imperious 
necessity of the moment : the decease of Samuel Thorne and the 
sickness of Vanstone left them no alternative but to relinquish 
their work at Yunnan Fu. Mr. and Mrs. Pollard were to take 



A MINISTRY OF PITY 69 

charge of the work at Chaotong with Mr. Tremberth. " I must 
write a note to our Magazine about it," says Pollard, " that 
lovely city and its thousands of people must not be deserted by 
us." And yet in spite of all the murky clouds which lowered 
over the Mission, Sam. Pollard lived in the sunshine of a Divine 
promise, and cherished an undaunted faith in the coming triumphs 
in West China. 



CHAPTER XI 
A Ministry of Pity at Chaotong 

" CHAOTONG," says a traveller, " is a poverty-stricken, rather 
dirty little town, with a rough sort of inhabitants ; but charm- 
ingly situated." The street leading to the west gate, lined with 
dingy shops of silks and fabrics of gorgeous hues, is the chief 
business thoroughfare. Those who pass through this gate find 
themselves in Chaotong's chief suburb where the merchants and 
influential folk live. Within the city walls the hovels in the streets 
present a squalid spectacle. As one walks along he comes upon an 
open space where the chief mandarin of the prefecture lives in 
a spacious but shabby couft. Passing on one comes to the Temple 
of Hell which, in Pollard's time, was used as a training school 
for the local militia. Yielding to curiosity he enters, and in the 
chambers built around the courtyard is confronted by images of 
horror which might have been inspired by Dante's Inferno. 
Not far away was the market-place outside the Brigadier-General's 
yamen chosen for an official residence by the Manchu conqueror 
of the city two hundred years before where Pollard often came to 
preach. 

In the midst of the city was one house which represented an 
alien civilisation and a new gospel the Hall of Happiness. Here 
Pollard lived and ministered to the people. Anxious to do justice 
to the ancient civilisation and to quality himself for his work, he 
earnestly pursued his studies in the classic literature of China. 
At first he was surprised at the amount of light which Confucius 
had transmitted, but the teaching was severely rationalistic and 



70 SAMUEL POLLARD 

made no attempt to stimulate the emotions : as a consequence, 
though its morality had passed into institutions, it left the souls 
of the people unsatisfied. Hence within the Confucian frame- 
work of Chinese society there had grown up gross superstitions, 
ranging from animism to the most prolific polytheism. The 
fusion of the three religions of China Confucianism, Buddhism, 
and Taoism favoured the growth of magic, witchcraft, and 
demon- worship. From birth to death the people were haunted 
by the dread of evil spirits. Such undergrowths of superstition 
were protests against the cold rationalism of the classics. This 
mingling of light and darkness resulted in a weird twilight, in 
which the people lived and died, loved and hated, struggled for 
a bare pittance, and sought to gratify their passions. The 
presence of the Christian Mission, with its purity and social 
affection, formed a contrast to the licentiousness, cruelty, oppres- 
sion, injustice, and mutual suspicion of the Chinese life around. 
The true, deep humanity of the Chinese was buried underneath 
the rubbish- heap of idolatry and fatalism. 

As we have seen, the coming of the foreigners aroused curiosity, 
prejudice, and hatred. To the Chinese, Englishmen and French- 
men were barbarians weird, unhandsome people of uncouth 
manners, though very ingenious mechanicians. Pollard seldom 
'passed along the streets without being sneered at as a " foreign 
devil " ; men spat to express their loathing, and women covered 
their noses to avoid the offensive smell of the stranger. 

For some years the Roman Catholics had been settled at 
Chaotong and had gained adherents ; but they had never adopted 
the open-air propaganda of other missions. When, therefore, 
Pollard began street-preaching and openly sought to convert the 
citizens, he set the Chinese speculating about the mutual relations 
of the two sects. In Pollard's journal we read this entry : 
" Saturday, February i3th, 1892 : On the street to-day we were 
asked twice about sending up foreign lamps. At first I thought 
the question must refer to my magic lantern : now I find out that 
the inquiry relates to the two planets in the West, Venus at the 
top, bright and big, and Jupiter below, somewhat smaller. The 
Chinese say that these are two lamps : the big one being sent up 



A MINISTRY OF PITY 71 

by the Roman Catholics, and the little one is supposed to be sent 
up by us : and the two are to fight/' 

Daily the missionaries preached at a hired shop and at the 
Mission house. Instead of using the gong Pollard now sounded 
the Gospel reveille with a cornet. Many Chinese visited the 
" Jesus Hall," where they listened to the foreigner, and enjoyed 
the brightness of the great lamps and the music of the cornets. 
" On April yth, 1892, we had an attendance of one hundred and 
forty-seven and many more were not able to get in." Sometimes 
a Chinese Nicodemus wended his way to the stranger by night 
to learn the inner meaning of this new religion. 

The Mission house became known as a bureau of philan- 
thropy. ZEsculapius himself could hardly have won a greater 
reputation as healer than did Pollard. With common sense and a 
few well-known drugs he found out that it was possible to relieve 
much suffering. The Chinese doctors were empirics, self- 
elected and self- trained. To abysmal ignorance they frequently 
joined a grotesque inventiveness which inflicted the greatest 
amount of suffering with the least remedial effects. The super- 
stitious people often resort in cases of sickness to wizards. A 
spiritualistic medium is called in and a seance is held. Then it 
is discovered that the spirit of some deceased person is vexing 
the patient. A sum of money is paid to the medium, an offering 
is made to the spirit ; and then the exorcism is accomplished 
amid a frenzied beating of drums and wild shouting. Many sick 
people who had been robbed by the Chinese quacks and were no 
better, turned to the missionaries for healing. A perpetual 
stream of suffering people came to the mission men with raging 
toothache, cripples whose feet were rotting with leprosy, 
people, almost blind through smoke and dirt, victims of venereal 
diseases. The sufferers often came because they believed that 
Pollard possessed magical gifts, but many went away with a new 
knowledge of the refreshing grace of gentleness. This Christian 
altruism contrasted with the indifference or contempt so often 
shown by their fellow Chinese. It was the introduction into 
Chaotong of social pity and a new standard of the value of 
individual life. 



72 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Day after day, and night after night, Pollard was called upon 
to give his services for the rescue of opium suicides. " In this 
city of Chaotong during the month of May this year, we have 
had ten cases of opium suicides four were young men ; two 
died ; two were saved : four women ; two died ; two were 
saved : two babies just over a year old ; and both died." 

Pollard showed a flexibility of mind which enabled him to 
adapt himself to Chinese requirements. He had also the rare 
gift of sympathetic imagination : he could understand Chinese 
points of view. There is a tendency to exaggerate the chasm 
between East and West ; but Pollard broke down the barriers of 
race and in defiance of political and national conventions he 
thought of the Chinese as brothers. It was no courteous con- 
descension on his part, he felt as if he were one with the poorest. 
A native scholar said of him : " His friendliness is praised by 
Chinese and foreigners : however long the time you knew him, 
you never outlived his affection. Men welcomed his coming 
among them as they welcome the balmy air of spring." He never 
sneered at their customs. When for instance he saw grave men 
flying their kites, he entered into their enthusiasm and admired 
the ingenuity displayed in their imitations of birds, dragons, and 
butterflies. Again, though he governed the mission school on 
Christian lines, he did not prevent the children from taking 
part in national festivals through fear of heathen customs. 

He had no faith in Confucianism as a religion for the Chinese 
in these modern times. Of their classic literature he remarks : 
" How barren it all is of comfort ! " As he contemplates the 
heathen practices around him, he says : " The Gospel of Jesus 
must triumph over their idolatry." On September 3rd, 1892, 
he writes : " This is the night for paper-burning to the ancestors. 
Our street is lively. Now and again the people fling out rice to 
feed the hungry spirits. The dogs get the benefit. I preached 
about these things at night. Oh, that God would soon change 
these customs ! " 

It is wonderful that, with the constant drain on his sympathy, 
he was able to remain bright and hopeful, but as long as he 
kept free from malaria he showed an inexhaustible fund of high 



A MINISTRY OF PITY 73 

spirits. Dymond came to see him in the middle of the year 
feeling that he needed the stimulus of his friend's optimism. At 
times Pollard felt that this light-heartedness was a temptation 
and feared lest it should mar his influence for good. " A spirit 
of hilarity oppresses me ; I often wish I was of a graver and more 
dignified habit ; it is so rarely that I am really sober." But this 
gaiety which he deprecated was one of his most attractive 
characteristics. 

When as he sometimes did Pollard described Chaotong as 
his parish, he meant the whole prefecture, which took ten days 
to travel in one direction and six days to cross in the other. 
Not only did he himself visit most of the villages and markets, 
but Mrs. Pollard also took her turn in this itinerancy. In May, 
1892, she spent twelve days at Sa-i-ho, a big village thirteen 
miles away. " This is the first time," says Pollard, " that my 
wife has left me ; but it is for work in the Master's vineyard." 
In his own journeys Pollard often met the aboriginal peoples of 
Yunnan and had a kindred feeling for these " Celts of China." 
In a letter which, as we read it to-day, seems almost prophetic, 
we see how early in his career his thoughts turned to the possi- 
bility of working among the aborigines in the north-east of 
Yunnan. " They are fine men," he said, " though they have no 
written language and no books. As they cannot speak Chinese, 
we cannot reach them through this tongue. Mr. Vanstone has for 
a long time held that God intended me to do a work among them. 
I have thought of it, and if ever Jesus says ' Go,' I will go straight 
off." The call actually came twelve years later when the Miao 
scouts visited Pollard at Chaotong, and then he became a leader 
and a father to a whole tribe of these hillrnen of West China. 

Yet another incident reads as a prophetic foreshadowing of 
after years. He had gone to Yongshan, a small town three days' 
journey from Chaotong, and in the afternoon went for a walk. 
He stood by the river and gazed longingly across to the mountains 
of the independent Mantsi. " No missionary has ever yet visited 
these people : the mists never lift from their minds. The river 
Yangtsze is the boundary between their territory and the Chinese. 
They are fierce mountain clans living under their own chieftains 



74 SAMUEL POLLARD 

almost independent of the Chinese. . . . They come down from 
their fastnesses in robber bands and ' lift * the cattle and crops 
of the Chinese, and steal people for slaves. ... I would like to 
go over and spend a month among these people." 

As the year advanced the dark shadow of famine fell over the 
plain. On July 6th, 1892, he writes : " From, the wall at the 
south gate I saw the floods and the devastation already wrought. 
Houses were falling in all directions : the cob walls just crumble 
away under the incessant rains." We must remember that it 
was necessary to grow enough food on the plain to satisfy the 
needs of the population. The people, therefore, lived close to 
nature and anxiously watched the seasons, dreading alike excessive 
rains and drought. Three weeks after the allusion to the floods 
occurs another heart-rending entry : " July 26th : This morning 
a man came to offer us his little girl for sale. . . . The floods 
had destroyed his crops. He had two children and an old mother. 
He could only earn a few cash a day not enough to keep them. 
The girl must go : her price was two hundred cash. What ought 
we to do in such cases ? I gave him the cash and told him to 
keep his own daughter." But Pollard realised that he had only 
delayed the man's cruel necessity of selling his child into slavery. 

Gaunt famine came close after the floods and all Pollard's 
thought turned to the problem of how to keep the people alive 
during the months of hard winter. On December 29th, 1892, 
he writes : " Last Saturday week news came of some people in 
the country who were starving. On Sunday after service, I 
went off to find out if it were so. The snow was on the ground 
and the cold was intense. . . . Alas ! food is terribly dear. In 
the first place I visited, the hut had been made of the roof of the 
house which the rains had destroyed, together with some bundles, 
of straw. It was a little den about five feet square, and here four 
people lived. An old man was there too ill to work. A little 
girl hovered over a fire. I saw no bedding of any sort." 

" The next family had been witnesses of a frustrated tragedy. 
The man was terrified at the approach of famine, and had 
attempted to hang himself ; but his neighbours had come and 
cut him down in time. The poor wife had just bartered * the 



A MINISTRY OF PITY 75 

gods' table' for a measure of beans. So the very gods have to 
share the starvation of the people." 

" We went to another village and found one miserable family 
in a dark hovel destitute of all comfort. There were two old 
people over fifty and two boys one twelve and the other five. 
They had been without food for several days when someone 
gave them a small measure of maize. This they cooked and 
shared among themselves ; but the reaction was too much for 
the man and he died next morning. We found the mother 
in a dreadful condition. She was lying on the floor with two 
coats to cover her and the small boy had nestled close to her for 
warmth. She could not eat, but asked for medicine. I left 
some food and money. The next day I sent medicine and more 
food. But the poor woman had died at midnight." The suffer- 
ings of the folk grew worse and worse. " The people have died 
in this city at the rate of forty, then fifty, and then sixty per day. 
Tremberth and I went to see the new graveyard which the man- 
darins opened. A more horrible sight had never met our gaze : 
there were hundreds of fresh graves close together. It looked as 
if there had been a big battle and the slain were being buried in 
haste. Such a sight I had never seen, and never even dreamed of 
before. The people told me that thousands had already been 
buried there. I calculated over two thousand had been buried 
in little over a month." 

Very little seemed to be done by the city officials to relieve the 
famine-stricken. And although the missionaries did all that was 
possible to alleviate the common suffering, yet they could only 
touch the verge of a great sea of pain. This Christian philan- 
thropy, however, gave the Chinese a new idea of the practical 
value of the ' ' Jesus Religion. " It may be that the native standards 
of social ethics were affected by the proximity of men and women 
who were inspired by Christ's own enthusiasm for humanity. 
At least, it is known that in subsequent periods of suffering the 
officials and gentry of the city have exercised themselves more 
actively in schemes of relief. Gradually the spirit of Jesus is 
transvaluating the moral standards of non- Christian civilisations. 

Meanwhile the missionaries had their own sufferings to pass 



76 SAMUEL POLLARD 

through. The time had come for Mr. Vanstone to hasten his 
return to England if his life were to be prolonged a few years. 
He had fought bravely against repeated attacks of fever which 
grew in malignancy ; but at last he had to submit to the inevitable. 
As the Vanstones had to pass through Chaotong on their way 
home, it was decided that the Annual Meeting should be held in 
November, two months earlier than usual. Two or three days 
were spent at Chaotong, and then they set off again. Pollard 
writes : " The Vanstones left on Tuesday : how our ranks are 
thinning out ! Carter has died ; Samuel Thorne has died ; Mrs. 
Thorne is in England through ill-health ; now, the Vanstones 
are on their way home. Tremberth is alone at Tungch'uan. Oh, 
the misery of our poor Yunnan ! " 

Pollard writes on December zqth, 1892 : " You may be 
surprised to know that I am alone. Dymond is still away, and 
last Monday, my wife left me and I do not know when she will 
come back. On Thursday we received the welcome news that 
four ladies were on their way to Yunnan, two of them Miss 
Bailey and Miss Cannon are for our Mission, and two for the 
China Inland Mission. They were being escorted up the Yang- 
tsze by Mr. Beauchamp one of the Cambridge Seven. . . . 
Mr. Willet wrote me from Chungking asking what I could do 
about an escort to Yunnan Fu. We agreed that Emmie should 
go off at once and bring the ladies along. ... It is no small 
task getting over these roads. I feel proud that I have such a 
brave wife." 

Mr. Dymond returned a fortnight later and Pollard was able 
to start off to meet his wife and the four new lad}' missionaries. 
" I found snow all the way down to Lao-wa-t'an. I caught cold 
and by Sunday, at Tea-sha-kuan, my tonsils were swollen and 
my appetite was gone. I went out to preach, but was unable to 
do anything." " Three days afterwards," he writes, " we met 
a man carrying a load with the word ' England ' written on it. 
My heart leapt at the sight. A few minutes later I was face to 
face with Emmie again. We had been separated forty days ; 
that makes eighty days away from each other in twelve months." 



AMONG THE BORDER PEOPLE 77 

CHAPTER XII 
Among the Border People 

IN 1892 Mr. Wang, a hatter, who some years before had been 
helped by Dymond to break off the use of opium, invited Pollard 
to go with him to visit his parents at Camp Hill, a hamlet in 
Kweichow, fourteen miles from Chaotong. So, on Wednesday, 
September 2ist, in the midst of harvest time, Pollard started on 
horseback, accompanied by his servant, Yang-K'ai-Yong and 
Mr. Wang. They crossed a high range of hills between the two 
provinces where mountains and hills were piled upon each other ; 
below were several villages, and three little streaks of silver 
marked the course of the rivers to Tao-tien-pa. " As the border- 
land between England and Scotland was once infested with 
robbers, so this region has earned an unenviable notoriety. Just 
below the brow of the hill on which we stood was a clump of 
trees which marked the spot where a few years ago the famous 
Sa robbers lived. They had their home on a ledge of a hill about 
two hundred yards off the main road. It could be approached 
only by a narrow footpath difficult to traverse. From their 
eyrie the robbers could see the approach of any who pursued 
them and could easily escape and hide in the hills around." For 
years they held the whole district in a state of terror. The Chinese 
say : " For nine generations the Sa clan had no heads," mean- 
ing that they were all executed for robbery and murder. In the 
course of time the band of brigands was broken up, and a pre- 
diction that in the ninth generation one of the Sa family would 
become Emperor of China was unfulfilled. 

" Across the valleys to the eastward we were confronted with 
hills beyond hills. . . . On our right is the Silver Mine Pass 
where a lot of aborigines live. Mr. Wang said that the aborigines 
disliked the Chinese coming to work the mine and called in 
wizards to lay a spell on them. Two wizards came and sat each 
side of the pass holding each a fowl in his hands. After sundry 
incantations the birds were let loose and each crossed over to the 
place of the other. As a result of this black art the silver was 



78 SAMUEL POLLARD 

transformed so that never again were the Chinese able to make 
the mine pay. In this way the I-ren, or aborigines, got rid of the 
intruders. . . . 

" Having reached the foot of the hill we took a bypath which 
led by another village ; we climbed a further hill and there 
right in front of us was Camp Hill. It rises about two hundred 
feet above the plain and gives its name to the whole neighbour- 
hood. The people living there all belong to the Wang Clan. 
Their ancestors came originally from the extreme east of China. 
The place is called Camp Hill because, in the Ming dynasty, the 
Chinese general camped here. . . . 

" Passing down into the valley, we crossed a little stream, then 
went up through the fields to the house of Mr. Wang, senior. 
It is a farmhouse at the foot of the hill, and is surrounded by 
fields. The best houses were destroyed and all the trees were 
cut down in the Mohammedan rebellion some thirty years ago. 
The present house has two doors in the front and is roofed with 
straw. The door at the left leads into the kitchen : that in the 
middle leads into the chief room. The only window in the 
house is in the part used as a stable. In front of the house cobs 
of maize were hung up to dry. The place was thatched in a 
crude style, so that the roof afforded but a poor shelter in rain. 
The ground in front of the house made a little platform at the 
foot of which were pomegranates and other trees. The hill at 
the back and these trees protect the house from the bleak north 
winds. Women and children were busy with the Indian corn 
which had just been harvested. There was the usual army of 
dogs who would like to have bitten our legs, but we ran the 
gauntlet without mishap and found ourselves in the best room. 
What a scene of confusion ! The room was about twelve feet by 
ten. There in the place of honour were the paper gods as quiet 
as Trappist monks. They were blackened with the smoke of 
years. The world moves ; rebellions break out ; science advances, 
but these gods sit dumb and unheeding. Several jars on the stand 
in front of the gods showed the remains of scores of incense 
sticks. . . . 

" On the walls of the room were two or three paper cartoons 



AMONG THE BORDER PEOPLE 79 

depicting the marvels of an age when gods were as men or 
men as gods. On the left of the door was the fireplace consisting 
of two holes let into the floor, one for coal and one for draught. 
They use a sort of briquette made by mixing coal dust and clay. 
This is stamped together in a wet condition, and at night the fire 
is built up with wet coal. By morning it is dry and when broken 
burns splendidly. There are no chimneys and no such instru- 
ments as bellows. The poker is curved so as to reach the bottom 
of the fire from the draught hole. 

" In the corner at both sides of the fire are brick stands, each 
about three feet in length and a foot high. This is a cosy corner 
reminding one of the comfortable settles in the old West Country 
kitchens. Here during the long winter evenings the members 
of the family sit and gossip about their neighbours, and get the 
old grandfather to tell the stories of the great rebellion. Here, too, 
in spring they sit and discuss the prospects of harvest, the price 
of corn : or perhaps one has wonderful stories to tell of foreigners 
at Chaotong who profess to preach a new religion, but who are 
suspected of having come to steal the treasures hidden in the 
hills. The younger members of the household find no room on 
the settle, and so they sit around on small forms, on straw 
hassocks, or some of them squat on the floor. They enjoy the 
warmth and friendliness within because guardian deities whose 
pictures are pasted on the two leaves of the door shield them from 
the approach of evil influences from the outside. 

" The grandfather and grandmother, both nearly seventy 
years of age, are still strong and robust. The old man had a 
white moustache and beard. It is the proudest adornment of age 
in China to be able to cultivate a few hairs upon lip and chin. 
An old man as he converses with you will tenderly stroke his 
beard whenever he wishes to impress you with some important 
statement. Should his veracity be impugned, a look of indigna- 
tion appears, and, his hand goes to the scraggy little white beard, 
which he holds out appealingly, as if to say : ' Do you suppose 
that this is compatible with lies ? ' There is no appeal after this : 
the matter is settled, though everyone knows that his words 
have not come within leagues of the truth. 



8o SAMUEL POLLARD 

" The old lady was tall for a Chinese and still vigorous. Her 
lower lip protruded a little and gave a dash of humour to many 
of her remarks. She and the old man agreed well together, and 
ruled their household with firmness and good temper. 

" Our arrival put everybody in a flurry : the people were as 
excited as the dogs. I was not introduced to anybody : we saluted 
each the other without formalities. There is only one exception 
to the general rule of sociability, that is, the young women may 
not be addressed by men. Our hostess presumed that our long 
walk must have made us hungry, so a little low square table was 
brought in, and two or three hot cakes of maize were provided. 
To give a relish our friends supplied us with roasted chillies, as 
hot as those we use with pickles. 

" After this temporary appeasement of our hunger, the hatter 
and I went for a stroll. The quiet of this country farm seemed 
a delightful contrast to the noise and bustle of Chaotong. No 
one called us ' foreign devil,' and that was a relief. I noticed a 
great many wax-insect trees around here. After an enjoyable 
ramble we returned to the farm for tea. As a special honour I 
was provided with rice : all the others, old and young, ate maize 
cakes. I begged to have the same as they, but was not allowed ; 
they would treat me as an honoured guest. 

" Darkness swiftly fell, and the eldest grandson, ' Old Three,' 
as they called him, took a few sticks of incense, lighted them at 
the fire, went to the door and made obeisance, then inserted the 
incense sticks in crevices in the wall just outside the door. A 
similar ceremony was performed to each of the gods at the end of 
the room ; and the family worship was ended. The door was 
shut and the inmates found cosy seats around the fire. . . . We 
talked about many things that night till eleven o'clock. How 
often have I told the story of Jesus as we sat in the light of the 
fires of such homes, and to me the story seemed ever more 
beautiful. The old grandmother remembered Mrs. Thorne and 
some of her instructions. All were willing to hear my story and 
gave reverent assent, as the Chinese usually do. It may be 
inspiring to preach to crowds ; but there is, I know, a wonderful 
charm in telling eager listeners of the Saviour as they sit round a 



AMONG THE BORDER PEOPLE 81 

cosy fire, or as one halts by the wayside for a rest under the blue 
heaven. . . . 

" By and by we grew tired of talking and I began to wonder 
where I should sleep. After some discussion it was decided that I 
should make my bed on the mud floor near the doorway which 
led into the bedroom at the back. Then a straw mat was laid 
down, and on this I spread my wadded quilt. One half of this 
quilt serves as a bed, and the other half forms the coverlet. I 
did not mind the mud floor, but I overheard the old lady utter 
some dismal forbodings which alarmed me. . . . Alas ! I soon 
found out what the old lady had anticipated, and all night long 
I was fighting with the enemy. At last through exhaustion I fell 
into a troubled sleep. 

" After breakfast the hatter, ' Old Three,' and I set off for the 
market at Tao-tien-pa, three miles away. Three-fourths of the 
people at this market are Mohammedans. We came upon the 
scene of crowded life about noon. There were many hundreds 
of people, and representatives of six different races on the street ; 
but the Panthays were the most numerous. Sometimes I am 
taken for a Chinese, but to-day I could not be disguised, though 
my head was shaven, and I was dressed like the Chinese. The 
people saw I was a foreigner and flocked after me. Failing to 
find a tea-shop we sat down for a rest at an open space ; but 
instantly we were surrounded. 

" Seeing from the faces before me that I had those tough 
Mohammedans to deal with, I resolved ' to go for them ' right 
away and ignore the presence of the few Chinese. The adherents 
of Islam often enjoy our onslaughts upon Chinese idolatry : they 
smack their lips and poke each other's ribs when they hear us 
speaking of the foolishness of trusting in gods of wood and stone. 
But this time I attacked the sins of the Mohammedans. They 
did not appreciate this ; for pride is one of their chief character- 
istics. . . . 

" As I was preaching a young Mohammedan teacher came up 
and began to ask questions. I saw that I was in for a big tussle. 
For awhile we talked quietly about Jesus and our grounds for 
calling Him the Son of God. As we continued each of us waxed 



8a SAMUEL POLLARD 

warmer in discussion, and though both of us were courteous, we 
were both eager to prove the truth of our respective religions. 
* If your doctrine be true,' I said, * and there be efficacy in chant- 
ing the Koran, in keeping the fast of Ramadan, in abstaining 
from pork, why do your people not live better lives ? They 
smoke opium, swear, fight, lie, steal, and do a thousand evils 
just as idolators do.' My opponent admitted all this and said 
that in all such ways they were false to their prophet. He even 
admitted that Christians lead better lives than the Mohammedans 
do. At this admission I quoted our Lord's saying that the good 
tree beareth good fruit. But he contended that it was possible 
for fruit to become bad even on a good tree. Should I say that 
God was evil because the bad weather He had sent this year had 
destroyed the best of the crops of wheat and maize ? My answer 
to this was that we dare not find fault with God's works. There 
is no evil in Him. The sufferings which He sends are designed 
to turn us from evil to good. I said : ' You are a school teacher ; 
when your boys refuse to study and behave badly, you thrash 
them. Are you then evil in using the rod ? Is it not rather that 
you wish your boys well, and punish them to make them good ? ' 
As we passed from one point to another, I asked why, if the Mos- 
lem faith were true, he and his co-religionists did not strive to 
convert the Chinese around from their idolatry. He could only 
answer that it was their destiny to be idolators. ' We are elected ; 
if we are to reach heaven, we shall. If these people are predestined 
for damnation, they cannot be converted. It is no business of 
ours.' ' Ah ! * said I, ' therein we differ. As Christians we are 
bound to save men if we can. If this boy now by my side were 
blind, and were walking into a well, you would leave him alone. 
But a Christian will grip him by the arm and save him from 
disaster.' At last I urged my opponent to seek the truth as it 
is revealed in Christ and to obtain eternal life. His reply was 
that Mr. Dymond had pressed him to do this, but ' my 
ancestors found out their way hundreds of years ago and for me 
theirs is the true way.' We parted amiably, and I invited him to 
come to Chaotong to see us." 

At evening when the darkness had fallen again, and the gods 



AMONG THE BORDER PEOPLE 83 

had received their worship, Pollard got ready to show his magic- 
lantern. " The neighbours had been invited and came in one 
after another. There was some excitement and curiosity. Quite 
naturally the men ranged themselves on one side of the room, 
and the women on the other. But just as I was about to begin 
the old grandfather suffered a paroxysm of toothache." Happily 
Pollard had a supply of medicines and was able to relieve the 
sufferer. The old man was very grateful and Pollard's reputation 
rose all round. " The slides I showed," says Pollard, " were 
half-a-dozen pictures illustrating the life of Jesus, and one hymn 
the well-worn favourite ' Jesus loves me, this I know.' The 
people were so delighted I had to show them over and over again, 
and this gave me opportunity for preaching the Saviour of men. 
At first my auditors wanted to see into the nose of the lantern, 
while some were busily examining the magical properties of the 
screen. But after a time they were all squatting on the floor 
feasting their eyes and imaginations on the scenes. What a 
beautiful story we have to tell ! Standing at one end of the room 
and looking down at this little company I was strangely moved 
as I thought some of them had never heard the Gospel before. . . . 
I longed for more workers. Oh, for a band of twenty noble men 
and women at once ! 

" By and by the company retired. I was worn right out and 
was glad to get into my wadded quilt. Just as I lay down one of 
the youngsters caught sight of my watch on the god-stand. 
At once the whole household must look at this wonderful time- 
teller. ' Hark at it ! there must be an insect inside to cry like 
that ! ' I had to sit up and show them the inside, but they were 
sorely puzzled to know why the works kept moving of themselves. 
Sleep came at last : I was too weary to dispute the industry of 
the enemies I had striven with the night before. 

" While we were sleeping men were in the fields watching lest 
thieves should steal the harvest. A little straw hut is built on 
high ground, and here the look-out shelters during the night 
ready to raise an alarm at the approach of thieves. But in spite 
of all precautions, we learn that the corn stealers now and again 
have made a good haul. 



84 SAMUEL POLLARD 

" Next morning Mr. Wang took me to a friend's house where 
we were invited to breakfast. ... In the afternoon it came on to 
rain and poured all the night. The roof leaked badly and I got 
up and shifted my quarters in the dark. Saturday morning 
dawned dismally ; but I packed my things, and distributed a few 
cash to each of the children, to their great delight. The Wangs 
kindly lent me a horse and the elder brother escorted us five 
miles when we met Mr. Dymond and Yang-K'ai-Yong. On the 
way to Chaotong we passed the grave of Samuel Thorne. It 
was just a year ago since we committed his body to the ground. 
A year. of heaven for him ! " 



CHAPTER XIII 
A Cloud as Small as a Man's Hand 

" I AM glad to have spent another year in China," wrote Pollard 
at the beginning of 1893. " May God give me to dwell many 
years in this land and work for these poor people ! . . . God 
grant that Emmie and I this year may show these people more 
clearly than ever who Jesus is and what a universe of love is found 
in Him ! " The mission had been established for six years, and 
until this time no converts had been baptized. Sickness and 
death had weakened the little band ; but the missionaries 
struggled bravely on. Pollard's purpose never faltered and with 
equal courage Mrs. Pollard supported her husband in his work 
and shared his sacrifices. His religious faith was an inexhaustible 
spring of inspiration, and he kept his mind fresh by reading. 

His Journal shows that throughout this time of spiritual 
drought he was daily studying his Greek Testament. He applied 
himself to reading Butler's " Analogy of Revealed Religion to the 
Constitution and Course of Nature." Morning after morning 
he was engaged first in the study of Mencius, and then by way 
of relief in reading Shelley's poems. A little later he notes that 
he has been revelling in " American Methodism " by Abel 
Stevens, and that he was impressed by Coke's indomitable 




4 <^^/m 

g%>^%; - ** > 

MR. POLLARD AND TWO MIAO TEACHERS. 




GROUP OF MIAO LABOURERS. (MR. POLLARD IN HIS SUN HAT.) 



84 SAMUEL POLLARD 

" Next morning Mr. Wang took me to a friend's house where 
we were invited to breakfast. ... In the afternoon it came on to 
rain and poured all the night. The roof leaked badly and I got 
up and shifted my quarters in the dark. Saturday morning 
dawned dismally ; but I packed rny things, and distributed a few 
cash to each of the children, to their great delight. The Wangs 
kindly lent me a horse and the elder brother escorted us five 
miles when we met Mr. Dymond and Yang-K'ai-Yong. On the 
way to Chaotong we passed the grave of Samuel Thorne. It 
was just a year ago since we committed his body to the ground. 
A year of heaven for him ! " 



CHAPTER XIII 

A Cloud as Small as a Man's Hand 

" I AM glad to have spent another year in China," wrote Pollard 
at the beginning of 1893. " May God give me to dwell many 
years in this land and work for these poor people ! . . . God 
grant that Emmie and I this year may show these people more 
clearly than ever who Jesus is and what a universe of love is found 
in Him ! " The mission had been established for six years, and 
until this time no converts had been baptized. Sickness and 
death had weakened the little band ; but the missionaries 
struggled bravely on. Pollard's purpose never faltered and with 
equal courage Mrs. Pollard supported her husband in his work 
and shared his sacrifices. His religious faith was an inexhaustible 
spring of inspiration, and he kept his mind fresh by reading. 

His Journal shows that throughout this time of spiritual 
drought he was daily studying his Greek Testament. He applied 
himself to reading Butler's " Analogy of Revealed Religion to the 
Constitution and Course of Nature." Morning after morning 
he was engaged first in the study of Mencius, and then by way 
of relief in reading Shelley's poems. A little later he notes that 
he has been revelling in " American Methodism " by Abel 
Stevens, and that he was impressed by Coke's indomitable 




MR. POLLARD AND TWO MIA.O TEACHERS. 



W<" "- - - * ? - - " ; 

S*? 4 - .,:.-X'r /;J*rtM*:S';A4'^ 



. ;,>-i- .. - r/^/^rWjC.v.^ 

*-* * / * . *4*f f ^ * **. \ ^ZT i*** * J-^j,,.*,^. f* **,& 



AL ,.** ..^ . / , . S!Jf 4*. <*EEji 




GROUP OF MIAO LABOURERS. (MR. POLLARD IN HIS SUN HAT. 



A CLOUD AS SMALL AS A MAN'S HAND 85 

missionary spirit. " What a wonderful man Coke was ! When 
nearly seventy he begged the Conference to allow him to go as 
missionary to the East Indies, offering to pay all expenses for 
himself and seven others. . . . Then in the Indian Ocean he was 
found dead in his bed." At another date his Journal says : 
" Finished- Agar Beet on ' Philippians ' " : and a little later : 
" Sick, so I read Scott's ' Antiquary ' with renewed enjoyment." 

Occasionally the Pollards' home was enlivened by visits from 
travellers and missionaries. Among the most delightful of his 
memories was his intercourse with Mr. and Mrs. S. S. of the 
China Inland Mission " their presence a stimulus to us all." 
When he was at Tungch'uan Pollard entertained Dr. Morrison, 
who afterwards became The Times correspondent at Peking. 
One cryptic entry in his Journal relating to this visitor is : " We 
had some bouts together " ; and this we can well believe, yet 
probably both men would feel an instinctive respect for each 
other. Dr. Morrison was taken by Pollard to the Confucian 
temple at Tungch'uan and he admired the carving around the 
Sage's tablet, saying it was as fine as anything of its kind in China 
or Japan. 

Though Pollard kept up his high spirits, the incessant strain 
under which he lived proved too much for his health. We begin 
to notice an ominous frequency in his allusions to attacks of 
malaria, while the death of Mr. Thorne and the withdrawal of 
Mr. Vanstone made Dymond and Tremberth very anxious about 
him. " They say," writes Pollard, " that I must go to Tung- 
ch'uan next year and work more quietly so that I may regain my 
strength. I shae puh teh (i.e., grudge) going away from Chao- 
tong." We can understand his reluctance to leave that city just 
as his influence was beginning to disintegrate the solid mass of 
Chinese prejudices. A high official the Brigadier-General- 
invited Pollard to visit him and to prescribe for his cough, and 
it is probable that the report of the Brigadier-General's friend- 
ship smoothed the way for the purchase of a house for the mission. 
The price agreed upon was four hundred and ninety taels. He 
got a covenant written and paid a fifth of the price down as a 
deposit. The transfer of the deeds occasioned a visit to a city 

6 



86 SAMUEL POLLARD 

official called the Kao-Kong, who put his stamp upon them. " We 
first had a long talk about the rationale of our work here and our 
status. I had a fine opportunity of explaining all kinds of matters 
to him. All went off nicely." This legal officer promised to give 
assistance at any time he wished to purchase land for the mission. 
Four months later the builders had begun their work and Pollard 
writes : "It will make a fine place. I hope to have a chapel 
where hundreds shall be saved. The Lord help me and all of us 
to do the very best ! " 

Before the new chapel was completed Pollard had the joy of 
administering baptism to two converts. The service was 
announced publicly beforehand, and the crowd that came to 
witness the rite was too large for the chapel, so it was performed 
in the court. In a letter to his father he refers to the chief 
function which took place on Sunday, September 3rd, 1893 : 
" I made final arrangements. . . . The background was formed 
by the woodwork of the house, all newly painted with bright 
colours. Just under the balcony was hung my text : ' He that 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' The hymn sheet hung 
down from the balcony, and we stretched an awning over as 
much of the courtyard as we could. Some growing flowers and 
some scrolls hanging from the big red pillars gave a finish to the 
top view. It looked very pretty indeed. I would like you to 
have seen it. The people ask me sometimes why I don't go 
home and fetch my venerable parents. Will you come ? 

" The people behaved splendidly during the sermon. Then 
came the baptisms. We had a straw mat in front of the table at 
the top of the steps leading to the platform. I called the two 
catechumens, Yang-K'ai-Yong and the Miao Hsien Seng, who 
came up bravely. For once the foreigner ceased to be the * cyno- 
sure of neighbouring eyes,' I began to feel somewhat nervous and 
my voice was trembling and husky. We three had bared our 
heads r and I began to question them publicly. . . . The last 
question was : ' Are you quite willing all your lives to serve God 
with all your heart and mind ? ' I expected them to answer 
' Quite willing.' Yang-K'ai-Yong, however, boldly declared : 
* I am perfectly willing my whole life to serve my Lord Jesus 



A CLOUD AS SMALL AS A MAN'S HAND 87 

fully.' There was a ring of truth and decision about his words 
which gladdened us all. 

" Then we three knelt down before the whole audience and 
I prayed to God to accept and keep us His for ever. The two 
remained kneeling while I rose and baptized them. . . . All 
eyes watched : all ears listened. God above rejoiced and blessed. 
Thus were admitted into the (Protestant) Church of Christ the 
first two Christian Converts. God grant a mighty army may 
succeed them ! " 

It was a " cloud ... as small as a man's hand." But a 
great sorrow followed close on this auspicious wave-offering of 
the first sheaf of Chaotong's spiritual harvest. Within less than 
four months from the baptism Yang-K'ai-Yong had ended his 
short course of Christian service. In his last illness his mother 
wanted to call in the services of a wizard to drive away the demon 
that was afflicting him. Yang-K'ai-Yong would not consent to 
such an apostasy. He had publicly avowed his determination to 
serve Jesus and, in spite of all the persuasions of his family, he 
kept his vow. An elder brother brought him the opium pipe to 
numb his pain but with fast ebbing strength the dying youth 
threw it from him. With sad hearts they made his grave near 
that of the brave pioneer Samuel Thorne. 

On Saturday, December 23rd, 1893, the builders removed the 
scaffolding so that the new building might be made ready for the 
opening services on Christmas Sunday. There was a good 
attendance and sermons were preached by W. Tremberth, J. 
Graham (C.I.M.), and S. Pollard. On Christmas Day Pollard 
celebrated the opening of the new chapel by a Chinese feast. A 
dinner to which guests are invited in China is an elaborate 
ceremony. At its beginning the stately courtesy is almost solemnly 
impressive : but as the meal proceeds the host ancl guests are 
thawed into social conviviality. The meal begins with the passing 
around of light sweets and small cakes, and during intervals 
of rest the guests eat sunflower seeds and nuts. After a time the 
chief luxuries are brought in pork cut into small pieces, 
mysterious delicacies boiled in oil, seaweed, and vegetables. 
Each person is furnished with chopsticks and a basin of rice. 



88 SAMUEL POLLARD 

The Englishman finds difficulty in using the chopsticks, but in the 
fingers of a Chinese they are rightly called " K'uai tsi" or 
" quick sons." After the feast there was a magic-lantern exhibi- 
tion. Of this unique way of spending Christmas Pollard says : 
" We all enjoyed ourselves : it was the nicest Christmas, I think, 
I have ever spent." Part of his intense satisfaction sprang from 
increasing evidences that his influence for good was growing in 
the city. 

However reluctant Pollard felt to change his sphere of work, it 
became imperative on grounds of health that he should spend 
the year before his furlough at Tungch'uan. They experienced 
the usual surprises which travel in China brings. One evening 
they found all the inns had been engaged by a mandarin and three 
hundred soldiers, and they were obliged to take shelter in a stable 
where there were stalls for a hundred pack-horses. The Sunday 
on the road was the last of the year, but it was a day of bright 
sunshine and fresh breezes. The closing evening of the old year 
was spent by Pollard in preaching to the people who gathered 
on the street to see the foreigners. 

New Year of 1894 was begun with the following prayer : 
" Glory to God in the highest ! Let me live this year with the 
one aim to glorify God : to preach for His glory : to live for His 
glory : to read and write for His glory. Oh, that the presence of 
God may always be with me, making me think of Him ; not 
counting a day well spent but what is spent for Him only ; not 
counting a sermon worth preaching unless it be preached only for 
God ! " 

Tungch'uan is situated on a beautiful plain more than seven 
thousand feet above the sea, at the foot of a hill two thousand feet 
high. It is a little city and Pollard was able to walk around its 
wall in half an hour. The most important street runs right 
through from east to west and extends beyond at each end in 
busy suburbs. Within the walls there are only about a thousand 
houses ; but there are as many or more outside. In this tiny 
town Pollard found higher standards of cleanliness and of courtesy 
than at Chaotong. The citizens boast of its number of scholar 
graduates. There are important copper mines in the hills around, 



A CLOUD AS SMALL AS A MAN'S HAND 89 

and the people do not appear so wretchedly poor as in some 
districts. 

The arrival of the Pollards stirred a mild interest. At the 
beginning of the Chinese New Year, February 6th, the city 
mandarin left his card at the Mission house ; and many citizens 
visited them. Pollard says : "It seems quite natural here to 
entertain guests. God grant me more courtesy and gentleness ! 
What a gentle, noble man a real Christian ought to be ! " When, 
however, some of his guests observed that he extended to three 
actors as much politeness as he showed to themselves, they were 
greatly scandalised. Actors are looked upon by the Chinese as 
pariahs, and neither they nor their sons can compete in the 
examinations. Barbers also used to fall under a like taboo, but 
the emperor was petitioned for a removal of this ban, and they 
are now allowed to compete for the much coveted literary degrees. 
Apart from such exceptions there seems to be a total absence of 
caste in China, and poverty is not counted against one, though 
there, as in the West, wealth confers privilege and power. 

As there was no qualified medical man in the mission at this 
time it was necessary that Pollard should read medical books 
and prepare for the birth of his first child. On Friday March 
1 6th, 1894, Pollard writes: " Emmie and I went for a lovely 
walk of about three miles. On the Sunday my wife conducted her 
women's class as usual : On Monday, our eldest son was born. A 
fine bonnie boy announced his arrival with a British yell. God 
grant us wisdom to keep and train the little one ! He has brought 
his welcome with him. I hope the third Samuel Pollard will be as 
good as his grandfather and better than his father." The birth 
of a foreign baby in the city aroused considerable interest among 
the Chinese. As he grew many new friends were gained for his 
parents. The presence of a little foreign %oa-wa touched the 
common humanity of the Chinese and diminished the barrier 
between the missionaries and themselves. On September ist, 
1894, we read in the Journal : " Emmie and baby went out to 
tea at Mr. Siao's. About six o'clock I went to bring them back. 
It was a lively procession. Young Sam was delighted at every- 
body and gave smiles for smiles. A lot of children followed us 



90 SAMUEL POLLARD 

right up to the door of our house, and the ' grown-ups ' came to 
their doors as we passed to see the * Yang wa-wa.' " 

In April the mission was strengthened by the arrival at Chao- 
tong of the Rev. Ernest Piper, from Australia. A month later 
Dymond came unexpectedly to Tungch'uan and his visit proved 
opportune, as three days afterwards Pollard had an attack of 
malarial fever, and registered a temperature of 103-50, which 
could only be brought down to normal by taking large doses of 
quinine " two spoonfuls " at a time. 

Assisted by the youth, Chang- Yin-Kin, Pollard visited the 
villages and markets around Tungch'uan, two of which places, 
Na-ku and Shui-ch'eng, are important enough to have special 
notice. Early in May Pollard with his Chinese " boy " set out 
for Na-ku, which was about forty li away. Crossing the Tung- 
ch'uan plain he entered a mountain pass and came out on a height 
from which he looked down upon the beautiful Na-ku plain 
fifteen hundred feet below. The fields presented a patchwork 
of many colours ; the ripe barley was already golden ; the unripe 
wheat was yellowish green ; fields of peas and beans were of a 
deep green tint ; some squares of freshly ploughed land were 
red, and others were black ; and the paths across the plain were 
intersected by the silver streak of a canal. Pollard writes : 
" They say that there are over ten thousand families on this 
plain. . . . We ought to have a station here." Probably Pollard 
did not know at that time that the Roman Catholics had taught 
some of the families on this plain. " It was remarkable," he 
says, " to see how they agreed to my words. How I enjoyed 
preaching in their market ! I met a boy there of fifteen who is 
entering for his examination next year. His father has a degree. 
I sent a couple of Christian books to him. When I returned to 
Na-ku in the evening several fellows came to my room to con- 
verse with me. The next day I preached twice on the market 
and then came home. On the road I met some men who were 
interested in our work ; they told us of another tract of country 
around I-Chae-Suin. I wish we had twenty more workers to 
evangelise and instruct these outlying places." 

Shui-ch'eng was on the Tungch'uan plain about three miles 



A CLOUD AS SMALL AS A MAN'S HAND 91 

away from the city. This place was constantly visited by different 
members of the missionary staff. Pollard says : " Chang and I 
went with the magic-lantern to Shui-ch'eng. We showed the 
pictures in the village temple among the idols : about two hundred 
people came, and the pictures came out splendidly on the white 
wall. On the whole we were delighted with the opportunity 
of preaching Jesus in such a place." Pollard did his utmost 
to establish the institution of Sunday worship in this village. 
He tells us how difficult this was. " Mr. and Mrs. Siao," he 
says, " are money-changers in the city ; they believed our 
missionary message, but say they dare not close their business on 
Sundays because of the ridicule which would fall upon them." 
In consequence of this concentration upon Shui-ch'eng a woman 
invited Mrs. Pollard to come and take away her idols. This first 
convert was named Mrs. Chao ; she was a No-Su woman, the 
first-fruits of the mission among the I-ren. Once again as Pollard 
looked from his elevated plateau he saw a cloud as small as a 
man's hand. He little thought that in a few years thousands of 
these aborigines would come to him in search of the Way of Life. 
The case of this aboriginal convert will illustrate the difficulties 
which arose as soon as a Chinese or an aborigine took such a 
definite step as joining the Christian Church. The story may be 
given in Pollard's words : " Two days after Mrs. Chao removed 
her idols she came to our house crying. . . . The neighbours, 
she told us, had thrown all her furniture into the road, locked 
the door and piled up a lot of stones before it to keep her out of 
the house. . . . Mr. Piper, who was with us at the time, and I 
hurried off to the scene. A young girl, who had been with Mrs. 
Chao and who was just getting over the famine fever, was lying 
outside the house under the eaves, and no one would give her 
shelter. Here she lay for days and nights in the rain and wind. 
We called a village council and acted as arbitrators. The villagers 
in their anger with Mrs. Chao for disposing of her idols brought 
the vilest charges against the woman and her daughter ; but upon 
sifting the evidence we proved that these accusations were without 
foundation. It took us three days of continuous palaver, and by 
invoking official influence for the protection of Christian converts, 



92 SAMUEL POLLARD 

we at last prevailed and won the consent of the people that Mrs. 
Chao and her daughter should be allowed to go back into their 
home and, if they so desired, be permitted to practise the Christian 
religion." For many years Mrs. Chao bore her witness for the 
power of the Gospel to create a new life, and was respected by 
the missionaries as a steadfast, loyal church member. 

Several of the Wang family at the village of Shui-ch'eng became 
converts. The head of this family was an old man who was a 
great smoker of opium. Pollard persuaded him to come into the 
mission house as a patient and try to break off his opium habit. 
At times Mr. Wang suffered great distress through the unsatisfied 
craving, but bravely submitted to Pollard's counsels. He thought 
at last that he was cured and with many protestations of gratitude 
returned to his home. " But one night," writes Pollard, " I was 
called up about two o'clock in the morning, to go to Shui-ch'eng, 
because Mr. Wang was in great pain through the return of the 
opium craving. I stayed with him, gave him medicine and prayed. 
I trembled for the result ; but our prayers were answered, and 
the man got better without resorting to the opium pipe." The 
sequel was the abandonment of idolatry in another home. 

After seven years of arduous toil these results may seem but 
meagre ; but students of missions know that there are influences 
and effects in the realm of the spirit which cannot be measured 
and tabulated. For long years it is possible for invisible processes 
to go on silently within the minds of men, then a crisis comes, and 
the long preparation culminates in movements which amaze 
onlookers by their suddenness, depth, and range. This Yunnan 
mission now numbered eight missionaries if we reckon the wives 
two native evangelists ; one chapel at Chaotong ; three preaching 
places in the Tungch'uan district ; three converts ; fifteen in- 
quirers ; two Sunday schools with eighty-six pupils, and one day 
school at Chaotong with fifteen scholars. " After seven years in 
China," says Pollard, "we have gone up again to the hill-top to look 
out over the big sea. We see now a small cloud coming out of the 
sea the size of a man's hand. May there be floods of rain ! Nay, 
there will be floods of rain ; and may God in His kindness let 
me. be there and may He drench me through to the very skin \ " 



BOOK II 

THE PERIOD OF CHINA'S AWAKENING 

(1895-1904) 

CHAPTER I 
The Historical Situation 

FROM 1895 Pollard's experiences and activities coincide 
with great upheavals within the Chinese Empire. It 
was a time when reformers sought to free their nation 
from the dead hand of the past, and to adjust the relations of the 
State to the new conditions of modern progress. A swift pre- 
liminary review of the political movements in China during the 
next decade, will help to throw light upon Pollard's career. A 
man's life must be read in its context of history. 

This period of China's tumultuous experiences recalls Bishop 
Butler's speculative fancy that communities, like individuals, 
may pass through paroxysms of madness. From Chihli to Yunnan 
the Empire was torn with internal convulsions and distracted by 
the interference of great nations. Until 1895 China had resisted 
with considerable success the aggressive influences of Western 
civilisation. Notwithstanding the Opium Wars and the Treaties 
of 1842 and 1860 designed by foreign diplomatists to " open " 
China, the Middle Kingdom might have boasted that it was as 
yet impervious to assaults from without. Visitors from the West 
were oppropriously designated " foreign devils." Their vaunted 
civilisation was estimated by the Chinese as a mechanical decora- 
tion of barbarism, or as a scientific culture void of " humanities." 
Ambassadors, consuls, and missionaries were regarded supercil- 
iously, though this contempt was edged with fear. The Western 
Powers were looked upon as mushroom growths : in comparison 

93 



94 SAMUEL POLLARD 

with the enduring fabric of the Chinese Empire they were but 
the offspring of yesterday. This ignorant, prejudiced con- 
servatism was encouraged by the Manchus. Years before this 
when General Gordon had saved the reigning dynasty from the 
Taiping rebellion, Dr. Legge, the translator of the Chinese 
Classics, thought that British interference was a huge political 
blunder. " The Manchus," he said, " are not worthy that we 
should interfere in their behalf. ... I think that our attempt 
to bolster up the Manchu dynasty will be found a very thankless 
and uncertain undertaking." General Gordon's victories over 
the Taipings stiffened Manchu resistance to Western ideas for 
another forty years. 

Many officials struggled against the incoming tide of progress, 
and for a time they seemed to be more successful than Canute 
had been. In 1877 when an attempt was made to construct a 
short railway between Shanghai and Woosung, the mob tore 
up the rails and the rolling-stock was dumped on the shores of 
Formosa. But in spite of this within four years the first telegraph 
cable was laid between Shanghai and Tientsin. Then Li Hung 
Chang, Viceroy of Chihli, sanctioned a railway from the Kaiping 
coalfield to the sea, and this line was soon afterwards extended to 
Tientsin. The tide was slowly creeping in. The powerful 
Viceroy swiftly suppressed those who sought to obstruct his will. 

In 1894 Japan declared war against China and inflicted upon 
the Middle Kingdom such defeat as surprised and humiliated 
the Manchus. The Treaty of Shimonoseki was a shattering blow 
to China's inveterate pride. It was made plain to the most 
ignorant Tartar that something was wrong with the Empire. It 
only accentuated the humiliation that the Chinese had always 
thought scornfully of Japan as " a nation of dwarfs." This was 
the beginning of a series of foreign aggressions and diplomatic 
defeats for China which put an end to her ill-founded self- 
complacency. The whole nation was disturbed and anti-foreign 
feeling found stormy expression in riots and house burnings. 
But to all appearances the Son of Heaven sat securely on the 
Dragon Throne wielding absolute power. 
About the time of Pollard's furlough an agitation for reform 



THE HISTORICAL SITUATION 95 

began among a few educated Chinese who formed a Young China 
party. Several of the leading spirits had been trained in the 
Morrison School and other missionary institutions. Men like 
Tong King Sing and Sun Yat Sen had imbibed the principles 
of Western civilisation. Dr. Sun instituted a society to diffuse 
ideas of democratic freedom, but this attempt to found a republic 
for the province of Kwangtung proved abortive and he had to 
flee for his life. 

Japan's victories disturbed the serenity of the palace, and the 
young Emperor, Kwang Su, became an advocate of reform. He 
saw that nothing but reformation could save his country from 
speedy disintegration. Unfortunately the Manchus were divided? 
and the Empress Dowager became the leader of the opposition. 
This division of forces in the palace was reflected in every province. 
Although it was a far cry from Peking to Chaotong, yet even 
there the missionaries were conscious of the new currents of 
life which were emanating from the reformers in the north. One 
could " sense " the political changes the alternations of influence 
on the side of reform or reaction week by week from the tone 
and attitude of visitors to the Mission house. 

Kang Yu Wei, a bold and original thinker among the reformers, 
persuaded a group of Chinese scholars to sign a memorial to the 
Emperor on behalf of reform. The rapacity of the Western 
Powers lent force to the fears and warnings of these reformers 
that China would be lost unless salutary changes were quickly 
made. The Emperor and his counsellors knew that the Great 
Powers were ready to tear whole provinces away from him and 
that they were held back only by mutual jealousies. Russia 
protested against the cession of the Liaotung peninsula to Japan, 
and two years later wrested permission from China to winter 
her fleet in Port Arthur. The murder of two missionaries in 
Shantung afforded Germany a pretext for seizing Kiaochow. 
Great Britain acquired Wei-hai-wei and a piece of the mainland 
opposite Hong Kong. France extracted a concession near 
Tongking and aspired to snatch a considerable portion of Yunnan. 
As these demonstrations of the right of the strong over the weak 
were talked of among the Chinese the whole nation surged with 



96 SAMUEL POLLARD 

furious hatred of the so-called " Christian Powers," and the lives 
of missionaries were jeopardised. 

Kwang Su was led to believe that Kang Yu Wei's policy was 
the only way to save the Empire. The result was a series of 
imperial proclamations which thrilled the entire nation with 
alternating hopes and fears. Little groups of reformers appeared 
in the provincial cities as well as in the capital talking vaguely 
of a " New China." Meanwhile masses of the populace were 
divided, or swung from one extreme to another. Gradually the 
Emperor's precipitancy in his reforming projects changed the 
inertia of the " old gang " into vigorous opposition. The power- 
ful conservative literati were incensed at the proposals to do away 
with the classical essay examinations and to adopt a Western 
curriculum. As the reform policy took definite shape resistance 
hardened, and it became clear that the obstructionists must be 
swept out of the way before the necessary changes could be 
brought about. The Emperor and his advisers planned to dispose 
of Jung Lu, the friend of the Empress- Do wager, and to secure 
control of the Northern Army, while Tzu Hsi was to be imprisoned 
in the Summer Palace. The betrayal of these schemes by Yuan 
Shih K'ai put an abrupt end to the reform movement for a time. 
The Empress-Dowager acted speedily ; the Emperor was shut 
up and many of his counsellors were put to death. 

This successful coup d'etat intensified all the forces of reaction 
in every part of China. A flood of rumours concerning the designs 
of Europe against China was let loose and became the staple 
conversation in every market and tea-shop. Those who cherished 
sympathy with progressive ideas were silenced. It seemed as 
if the whole nation from the Empress-Dowager to the most 
ignorant and fanatical member of the Boxer Society went mad. 
The accumulated wrongs of fifty years were remembered and the 
nation gave itself over to an orgy of hate. In some of the provinces 
there were local quarrels and feuds ; in Szechuen, Yu-Man-Tze 
organised insurgents against the Roman Catholics, and in Yunnan 
feeling raged against the aggressions of the French. In this 
whirlwind of passion threats and warnings were given and attacks 
were foretold against the Protestant Mission at Chaotong. But all 



THE HISTORICAL SITUATION 97 

these provincial currents were swept into the broad main flood 
of Boxerism. Blinded by her passionate anger against foreigners 
Tzu Hsi foolishly encouraged the Boxers till at length the madness 
culminated in the massacre of Christians, in the murder of the Ger- 
man Ambassador, and in the attacks upon the Legations in Peking. 
It might have been imagined that the seeds of reform would 
have perished in this red tempest of flame and blood ; but it 
was not so ; the martyrs had not died in vain ; Kwang Su might 
remain a prisoner, but the reforms projected before 1898 were now 
made by the Empress-Dowager herself. The thoughts and 
feelings of this enigmatic, strong-minded woman, as with 
incredible swiftness she reversed all her Manchu policy of 
obstruction and sent out in the Emperor's name the reform- 
edicts which had led to his downfall, must be left to imagination. 
Immediately after the foreign troops entered Peking in 1900 
pathetic yellow proclamations were posted throughout all the 
cities of the Empire in which the Emperor was made to acknow- 
ledge the nation's guilt before Heaven, and citizens were urged 
to show courtesy to foreigners. With the signing of peace in 
1901 the Regency was re-established and Tzu Hsi began to make 
atonement for her encouragement of the forces of ignorance, 
superstition and hate. In 1904 she reissued the Emperor's 
edict to abolish the old method of examination and to encourage 
Western learning. A drastic revolution in the habits of the nation 
was decided upon when four hundred millions of subjects were 
informed that the use of opium must be annually reduced so that 
in ten years the opium traffic should altogether cease. Once again 
the principles of reform and the ideas of progress took root in 
China. Towards missions and missionaries the general attitude 
of the people changed, and there began a process of national 
renascence which will take generations to work out. These 
happenings were not without their effect on the work of Pollard 
and his colleagues. 

The years like great black oxen tread the world, 
And God, the Herdsman, goads them on behind, 
And I am broken by their passing feet. 1 

1 W. B. Yeats. 



98 SAMUEL POLLARD 

CHAPTER II 
The First Furlough 

SEVEN years of missionary apprenticeship were ending and 
Pollard's thoughts were turning towards his homeland. Climate, 
hardships, and incessant toil had impaired his health, and yet 
furlough was looked upon as a change of work. " We are pray- 
ing," he writes, " that God will prepare us for our journey home, 
and prepare our work at home for us." On Monday, December 
3rd, 1894, Pollard and his family bade farewell to Tungch'uan 
and set out on their long journey to England. They reached 
Shanghai in the third week of January, 1895, and counted it not 
a small privilege to meet Hudson Taylor there, the founder of 
the China Inland Mission. They left Woosung on Friday, 
January 25th, reached Hong Kong in two and a half days, and by 
the beginning of March they were again in the homeland. 
Instead of proceeding at once to retrace his experiences as he 
went up and down the country on deputation work, let us turn 
our attention to his inward life of thought and emotion. 

Pollard was primarily a man of action and at no period greatly 
given to theorizing. The motive-power of his life was his religious 
experience. He was as conscious of the presence and operation 
of Spiritual Powers as most of us are conscious of the light and 
heat of the sun. He felt, he knew, not with a fragment of his 
brain but with his entire being. To him it seemed that our 
individual lives are but little streamlets flowing, yet not lost, in 
a mighty ocean of spirit. Whilst indulging in no processes of 
abstract thought, he always looked upon Nature as the expression 
of the Infinite Mind of God. Had anyone inquired of him why 
he believed in God, he would probably have laughed like a child, 
and he might have replied that he found adequate proof in his 
own conscience and in the ordered universe of which he was a 
part ; but in his response there would have been both absolute 
assurance and radiant happiness. We may account for such an 
attitude as this in part by his heredity and home-training. Both 



THE FIRST FURLOUGH 99 

his father and mother created in the home an atmosphere of 
faith and love. 

With his spiritual ancestry and in such a home, we might have 
expected that in Pollard the religious experience would have 
begun and developed with the silence and certainty of the coming 
of dawn and the gradual growth of the day's fulness. But it was 
not so : his soul life passed through a series of emotional crises. 
In his own language he " gave his heart to God " at Chipstead, 
when he was eleven years of age. Throughout his subsequent 
career he looked back to this time as an epoch-making experience 
in his life. In his Journal on February i2th, 1894, is the entry : 
" The anniversary of my new birth. Thank God ! but oh, how 
little I seem to have grown in nineteen years ! " 

It may have been due to Pollard's childlikeness that he never 
outgrew the Jesus-worship which for many Christians ceases 
with adolescence. With the passing of youth most of us learn 
to interpret God through Jesus ; but in Pollard's case Jesus was 
his God. He gave assent to the traditional creed of evangelicalism, 
but he lived in the Gospels ; with vivid imaginative power he 
visualized the life of his Lord ; with intuitive sympathy he 
entered into the mind of the speaker of the Parables and of the 
Logia, and into the compassion which was the motive-force of the 
healing miracles. He dramatised the conversations of Jesus ; and 
he practised the presence of Jesus. His ideal of the Christian 
life resolved itself simply into obedience to Jesus. When the 
thought of the aborigines stirred him to pity and filled him with 
the longing to go among them, he writes : " If Jesus says ' Go,' 
I will go at once." He interpreted his own conscience as the 
voice of Jesus : the personal authority behind every moral 
imperative was the will of Jesus. For some it is impossible to 
interpret history, politics, and all the economic and social 
relationships of our modern world by this simple principle of 
faith in Jesus : but this is what Pollard did. The immediacy 
of the voice of Jesus in his own soul was the true secret of his 
life and of his amazing moral strength. 

This love for Jesus gives us the key to his passionate philan- 
thropy. He saw Jesus as the ideal the ultimate cell -in every 



ioo SAMUEL POLLARD 

man. The most degraded tribesman among the downtrodden 
and despised aborigines was his brother in Jesus. He never felt 
it hard to love the poor people who depended on him for spiritual 
enlightenment and encouragement. This profound feeling for 
suffering people was probably the inciting cause of his invectives 
against injustice. It was an education in strong language to hear 
his passionate tirades against the wickedness of the British 
Government's sanction of the Opium Traffic. 

Pollard never repudiated his inherited, somewhat narrow, 
evangelical creed ; but as the years passed, he learned more and 
more to trust the promptings of his own inner life and was led 
beyond the range of dogmas. He was one of Christ's freemen, 
and traditional theology had but little to do with his ever-broaden- 
ing activities ; he followed what he believed to be the Spirit of 
Jesus within his own soul. The life-force in him burst through 
all forms and creeds : he felt and acted upon the urge of a great 
compassion. He passed from his Bible lessons, to teach the 
people arithmetic, and also sought to interest them in the wonders 
of astronomy. All truth was God's truth for him. He knew 
that the best service he could render Jesus was to serve his fellow- 
men. In striving to win the people for Jesus, he humanised 
them, deepened their pleasures and cleansed their passions. 
He began his missionary life with an acceptance of the antithesis 
of nature and grace, but with deepening experience and a vision 
made dearer by love, he saw that the order of Nature is a part 
of Divine Providence, and that Nature cannot be interpreted as 
something unspiritual . Towards the end of his life, he would have 
hesitated to divide men by the rules of a church, he looked upon 
them all as the little ones of Jesus. No longer was Jesus somebody 
outside ; He was the indwelling force of righteousness in every 
man. Though Pollard passed through this spiritual emancipa- 
tion and rejoiced in the freedom he found in Jesus, he probably 
never sought to intellectualise this experience into a new creed. 

Having come back to England Pollard threw himself with 
characteristic abandon into the task of visiting the Bible Christian 
churches everywhere, and in kindling the missionary faith in the 
hearts of the people. Thus he was kept continuously preaching 



THE FIRST FURLOUGH 101 

and lecturing to little groups of Methodists all over the country. 
In his various visits he preached his favourite sermons over and 
over again. He preferred such texts as " Follow Me " : " We 
would see Jesus " : or he would reproduce his Chinese sermon 
on " The Prodigal." The style of his addresses was uncon- 
ventional : he did not lay any solid foundation by expositions ; 
rather was he content to relate the Gospel narrative and then 
make direct and cogent appeals to the conscience. He had a gift 
of summing up his thought in arresting phrases which clung to 
memory, and he would surprise his hearers by swift turns of 
thought which often stirred deep emotion. He spoke out of his 
own life with an art which nature taught him. Two of his most 
popular lectures were entitled : " The Humour and Pathos of 
Missionary Life," and " Pigtails and Lily Feet." Into these he 
poured his first-hand knowledge of Chinese life and succeeded 
in gripping the interest and in kindling the imagination of his 
audiences. Wherever he went the people were stirred to new 
enthusiasm. The beautiful life of his father was so well known 
throughout the denomination that it threw a halo around the 
son. In his Journal he writes : "I preached at Medrose in the 
afternoon to a large audience. At night . . . there was no stand- 
ing room for all the people. They came for dad's sake. . . . 
The crowds were inside the communion and rostrum stairs : 
they filled the lobby and many went away because there was 
no room." One woman at another place expressed the feeling of 
many by saying : " I would have come to hear him for his father's 
sake even if it had been necessary for me to crawl on hands and 
knees." 

In order to arouse curiosity he would preach and speak in 
Chinese dress and sometimes occasioned perplexity in the minds 
of children. At Bugle in Cornwall he overheard a discussion 
between two little maidens : " Es 'e a man ? or es 'e a woman ? " 
asked one, and the other replied : "I cean't tell you." While 
Pollard fully enjoyed the success of these visits, he chivalrously 
bestows the palm upon his wife as an attractive and effective 
advocate of missions. He never indulged in pious generalities : 
he always set some definite object before his audiences. At one 
H 



102 SAMUEL POLLARD 

school he asked for a collection for medicines : at Barry he 
pleaded for the building of another chapel in the Yunnan Mission 
and at the close one of his hearers told him that he would give 
the money for this purpose. He records this and says : " It is to 
be done in the next twelve months. Thank God for this. It is 
a clear sign that Yunnan Fu must be opened soon." 

" Save the world ! " he exclaimed in the address. " Does 
Jesus mean this to be done ? Once let us know that Jesus means 
this to be done and the Church will be able to do it. Jesus is not 
a crank, not a visionary : He is full of common sense. The world 
has not yet tried His Gospel ; but it will." 1 

" Why do you put the stigma of ' foreign ' on me ? " he once 
protested publicly. " Is it because I go to some place that is not 
' home ' to you ? It is ' home ' to me. It is ' home ' to Jesus. 
There is no spot on earth which can be called ' foreign ' to Him ; 
it is all His part of His personal inheritance. He has made the 
world His home. If you call us ' foreign ' missionaries, you place 
us on a different footing from your home ministers. Then we are 
called ' foreigners ' in the lands where we carry on our work. 
* Foreigners ' everywhere ! Outcasts ! Undesirable aliens ! 
We share reproach of Jesus. . . . Nevertheless we are His 
home-missionaries ; for it is His land we go to : we are saving 
His children, enjoying His love. There is nothing ' foreign ' in 
the whole wide world to Him except sin." 

As the time of his furlough drew towards its close, there came 
to him the report of the Annual Meeting held at Chaotong which 
showed some results of his self-sacrificing work, and also revealed 
that the standard he had set was being worthily sustained by the 
other missionaries. " The year 1895 has been the most fruitful 
in spiritual results yet known in our Bible Christian Mission in 
Yunnan. At Tungch'uan thirteen adults and two children have 
been received into the Church by baptism. At Chaotong four 
others were admitted, so that we have a total increase of nineteen 
for the year." The missionaries requested the Conference to 
reappoint Mr. Pollard as Superintendent of the Mission. They 

1 One thinks of the " China for Christ " movement taken up by the 
Chinese in 1919. 



: ..;... .;; SWEET WATER IN A SALT SEA 103 

also looked forward to his return, and arranged that upon his 
arrival the next Annual Meeting should be held at Tungch'uan. 
As the thought of returning more and more filled his mind, 
he sought to qualify himself still further for missionary service. 
In his Journal he has this entry : " On Monday, July i3th, 1896, 
I went to Clifton and stayed two days with Mr. Turner, who 
gave me instruction in teeth-drawing. Three times I went to the 
infirmary and received help from Dr. Acland, the dental surgeon 
there. It was a treat to see the scores of men, women, and children 
relieved of suffering. . . . Once I went to the hospital and got two 
extractions. I made six attempts : the first two were failures : 
the last four I succeeded in getting out. At first I was very 
nervous. Mr. Turner was exceedingly kind.'* 



CHAPTER III 
A Runlet of Sweet Water in a Salt Sea 

WHEN Pollard first offered for China he was drawn by the dream 
of adventure and the anticipation of swift success. But in going 
a second time he understood the drab realities of missionary 
life : no haze of romance softened the hard outlines of fact : 
he knew what it meant, and at his valedictory meeting in London, 
on November 5th, 1896, he said : " We expect difficulties ; 
we shall be disappointed if we do not get them ; but difficulties 
only show us the size of Christ's love." He was encouraged, 
however, by the fact that he was to be accompanied by two fresh 
missionaries Miss Howe and the present writer. The weeks 
spent on the Yangtsze were for the newcomers a rapture of 
adventure ; but for Pollard, with his vivid remembrance of the 
wreck he had sustained years before, the river journey was a sort 
of hideous nightmare. However, all dangers were surmounted 
and they reached the upper stream safely in March, 1897. 

At Chungking Pollard suffered a recurrence of heart trouble, 
which made the Dymonds, whom he met there, apprehensive for 
his health during the rest of the journey. But he would allow 



104 SAMUEL POLLARD 

nothing to postpone his start for Yunnan. The night before we 
reached Chaotong, at a place a hundred li (3 li=i mile) from, that 
city, the Pollards discovered that their little boy had measles, and 
this subdued the elation of his father at getting back again to his 
Chinese home. 

However, the journey was not ended for Pollard and me, as we 
had to travel five days farther south to Tungch'uan where the 
Annual Meeting was to appoint the missionaries to their several 
stations. During Pollard's furlough the mission-staff had been 
augmented by the arrival of Mr. Hicks and Dr. Lewis Savin. 
Pollard was at that time Superintendent of the Mission, and though 
he was by no means averse from holding this office, it may have 
brought him more anxiety than pleasure. He often expressed 
the wish that an older minister might be sent out to take charge 
of the Mission. He himself was constitutionally somewhat of a 
free lance, and as the years passed his love of independence grew 
and we all saw that he could have worked better had he been 
unfettered. He was a magnificent pioneer, an adventurous 
explorer, preferring to open his own sphere of work rather 
than build upon other men's foundations. In the course of his 
missionary career he achieved great things, but had he been 
adequately supported by a committee with ampler resources of 
wealth and men, Pollard's work might have been immeasurably 
richer. The Annual Meeting appointed him to the pastorate of 
the church at Chaotong, to which city he returned in three days 
on horseback. 

As a husband and father, and as Superintendent of the Mission, 
he was now more or less responsible for the health of his family 
and the other missionaries, and was swift to recognise the need 
of a sanatorium. He therefore collected money from friends 
at home and purchased a piece of land on a hill about ten miles 
from Chaotong, where he began to build a bungalow which, when 
completed, became the rest-house of the Mission. 

Pollard was always sensitive to changes in his environment, 
and ever ready to readjust his methods of working to new con- 
ditions. He had an agile mind with a capacity for assimilating 
ideas, and till the end of his life retained a teachable spirit. The 



SWEET WATER IN A SALT SEA 105 

great pity for the poor and distressed people which had been 
so prominent in the first term of his service in China never 
changed ; but he now began to show greater keenness to cultivate 
friendly acquaintance with mandarins and folk of social influence. 
An acute Chinese observer says of him at this period : " He 
turned his attention to, the scholars of Yunnan and sought to 
win their acceptance of the Gospel. He managed to get books 
written in a good Chinese literary style from the Christian 
Literature Society, and these he gave to the students who came 
for the triennial examinations. . . . Over and above the work of 
preaching and of running an elementary school, he became the 
purveyor of Western books and Chinese newspapers by which 
means he sought to open men's minds. He also wrote dissertations 
on natural phenomena and sought to disseminate truer ideas of 
science and of Christianity. He aroused the interest of citizens 
by using lantern-pictures in preaching. As a result of these 
various kinds of propaganda and of the manifested kindness he 
felt for the people, there were many who, though they could not 
believe in the message he preached, yet believed in him, and 
looked upon him as an interesting personality with whom they 
were willing to cultivate friendly acquaintance." 1 

Pollard's missionary activities were like a pure fresh spring 
ever flowing in the midst of the muddy waters of city life. As I 
think of those busy years there occurs to my mind an image 
drawn from surroundings remote indeed from that West China 
city, but which affords a fitting illustration of his gracious helpful 
ministry. Sitting once on a hill in Jersey and looking over St. 
Brelade's Bay I saw the waters ebb until the rocks and horse- 
shoe stretch of yellow sand were left bare, and presently some 
quaintly attired women trudged across with buckets in their 
hands, and when far out filled them with water and returned 
talking as they passed me in their peculiar patois. I wondered why 
they had not got their water when the tide was right up and so 
have saved their labour. Being curious, I went to the spot whence 
they had filled their buckets and there I found a little runlet of 
fresh water gurgling and flowing, where an hour since the salt 
1 Letter by Mr. Stephen Lee, trans, by Rev. F. J. Dymon4, 



io6 SAMUEL POLLARD 

sea had been full. That little runlet of sweet, crystal water 
bubbling up in the midst of the sea images the freshness and pure 
grace of Pollard's many-sided, sparkling evangelism amid the 
crowded, sordid, bitter sea of life in Chaotong. That restless 
sea was stirred with wildest rumours and anti-foreign prejudices, 
by heavings of panic, hatred, suspicions, and menacing eddies 
of foul falsehoods ; yet all the time this little rivulet of truth 
and philanthropy bubbled up and flowed out into the surround- 
ing life of poverty, misery, and sin. 

This ministry of teaching, healing and life-saving, made an 
impression upon all classes. There were some who still hated 
the missionaries and cursed them aloud as they passed through the 
streets ; but there were others who believed in the disinterested 
goodness of Pollard and his colleagues and sought to show them 
favour. Among the latter class were the mandarins. In 1897 the 
city magistrate, Mr. Hwa, a vigorous and firm ruler, openly 
showed his friendship for Pollard. The prefect also, whose rule 
extended over the whole prefecture of Chaotong, was glad to 
serve the missionaries. Some silver had been stolen from the 
mission in transit between Sui Fu and Chaotong ; Pollard sought 
counsel and help from the prefect, and he at once promised that 
the money should be restored and the thieves punished. Having 
ended this matter the prefect detained Pollard and began to ask 
for information about Germany's high-handed seizure of Kiao- 
chow. With the aid of maps Pollard helped his host to appreciate 
the full significance of Germany's claim the barbarians' menace 
of the " mailed fist." 

Pollard felt that it was not enough to carry on a ministry of 
healing, what was needed was to pour into China a constant 
stream of truth. Behind the misery and sin of the city was 
ignorance a sea of gross and putrid superstitions. He thought 
of religion, science, poetry, moral philosophy, mechanics, 
industry and trade as the rainbow spectrum of the manifold truth 
of life. He preached Christ as the World's Light ; but that white 
radiance broke into many colours, and men might come to the 
source of truth by following any single ray. He wrote tracts in 
Chinese upon aspects of the Christian faith and also upon the 



SWEET WATER IN A SALT SEA 107 

teachings of Western science. In 1898 the Chinese were anticipat- 
ing the coming eclipse of the sun. The popular superstition 
concerning this phenomenon was that a heavenly dog ate the sun, 
and that he had to be frightened or persuaded to restore it to its 
place in the sky. The eclipse was also looked upon as an augury of 
disasters which were threatening China. Pollard determined to 
write a simple explanation and issue it broadcast. It was written 
with the assistance of a Chinese teacher in a very simple style 
and then hundreds of copies were printed from a wooden block. 
When distributing these leaflets in a crowded market-place 
we had to clamber upon a table to escape being trodden down by 
the eager throng. This attempt to give a reasoned account of 
the eclipse from the standpoint of Western science made a favour- 
able impression upon the better-educated people. It was another 
jet of truth flung into a vast sea of ignorance. Whether the 
mandarins accepted this explanation or not, they had to go through 
the prescribed ritual for saving the sun. On the day of the 
eclipse Pollard and his friends went to the yamen to witness 
the ceremony. All the officials of the city were assembled in 
their gorgeous robes, and in the presence of an excited multitude 
the prayers and prostrations required were gone through amid 
the hullabaloo of horns and the crash of gongs. And once 
again the scared people were grateful for the rescue of the sun. 

Pollard had sent the tract on the eclipse to the prefect as an 
act of courtesy, and it doubtless strengthened this mandarin's 
respect and friendship for him. The promise that the stolen 
silver should be restored was fulfilled, and the two thieves were 
sent in chains to the Mission house for us to see that due punish- 
ment had been meted out. The growth of esteem and trust 
between the mandarin and the missionary made Pollard extremely 
sorry when the prefect announced his appointment to another 
district. He advised Pollard to make an early call upon his 
successor and promised to pave the way for him. As soon as the 
new prefect came he at once opened the interchange of courtesies 
by leaving his card for Pollard. At his request Pollard went to 
the yamen to photograph his family ; and he says that on this 
occasion " the ladies were dressed up in gorgeous fashion and 



io8 SAMUEL POLLARD 

looked very nice indeed. The old man and his sons were exceed- 
ingly kind to me." Pollard was thus able to preach to the sons 
and guests who gathered in they amen. This friendship gave the 
missionary greater social influence at Chaotong, and perhaps 
secured protection for the Mission in later days. 

At this period the Mission had stations at Yunnan Fu, Tung- 
ch'uan, and Chaotong. Dr. Savin, after some months of language- 
study at Chaotong and Tungch'uan, removed to the capital. At a 
later time he settled at Chaotong and became known over an area 
of hundreds of miles to Chinese, aborigines, and Mohammedans 
alike as " the good doctor." By his medical skill and self-denying 
life, he gained the esteem and affection of thousands. Glad, 
indeed, were the Pollards when he arrived at Chaotong to attend 
Mrs. Pollard in her confinement. The record in the Journal 
is briefly expressed : " On July lyth, 1898, at 12.20 a.m. Sunday, 
Bertram was born. Dr. Savin was a great comfort to us. . . . 
A few days afterwards I weighed the baby and found he was 
just over nine pounds." 

About this time Pollard's assistance was asked by his former 
tutor, Mr. F. W. Bailer, in the preparation of a Chinese classical 
dictionary. As he was in need of a change, Pollard went to the 
lonesome bungalow among the hills with his little son, Sammie, 
for quiet study. A few sentences extracted from his Journal show 
how these days of rest were spent. " In six days I did fifty-six 
leaves of the Analects. On Sunday I read ' Ecce Homo ' ; I 
enjoyed it though I disagreed with it. In five days I had done 
the second half of the Analects seventy-nine leaves I have 
finished : I hope my work will be of some help to Mr. Bailer." 

While the city officials showed respect for Pollard, the con- 
verts to Christianity were few, but now there came to the Mission 
a young inquirer who, in subsequent years, contributed more 
than any other Chinese in the work of establishing a Christian 
church at Chaotong. Mr. Stephen Lee, a Chinese student, was 
first attracted by the reputation of Dr. Savin as a healer. When 
the doctor was removed to Tungch'uan, Mr. Lee sought advice 
and assistance from Mr. Pollard. 

This acquaintance with Pollard was in every way most fortunate. 



SWEET WATER IN A SALT SEA 109 

It is difficult even for missionaries to overcome the barrier of race 
and enter upon a friendship of personal equality with their con- 
verts. But Pollard knew no such difficulty, for him neither 
language nor race constituted a barrier. His love for Stephen 
Lee was as Jonathan's for David, and no account of Pollard's life 
would be complete without some notice of this friendship. " A 
few months ago," Pollard writes, " a student belonging to a family 
in good circumstances came to us in distress about his sins. It 
is so unusual to find a Chinaman willing even to confess he has 
any sin, that this young man's case caused us great interest and 
joy. The struggle he had was a long one, and many were his 
ups and downs. At length he got the light wished for . . . and 
now he gives evidence of his communion with Jesus." 

As Mr. Lee's home was outside the city the closing of the gate 
at evening prevented him from attending the classes at the Mission 
house, so it was arranged that he should have a bedroom in the 
compound. As Andrew brought Simon to his Master, so Stephen 
brought his elder brother, who was a literary graduate, to Pollard, 
and gradually, overcoming all obstacles, he brought the whole 
family to the church. It is interesting to have Mr. Lee's own 
account of these events. 

" Seeing Mr. Pollard's deeds and hearing his speech, I judged 
that we had in China one who was unique. As I learned to know 
him I greatly admired the spirit that was in him : it was almost 
like seeing one of our sages reincarnated. After leading my 
elder brother into the church, we discussed with Mr. Pollard the 
whole question of education, and the result was that the Mission 
school was transformed. It became the fountain-head of Western 
learning in the province of Yunnan. Mr. Pollard taught arith- 
metic, geography, music, and drill, whilst all other schools 
remained in the old ruts and our scholars continued to dream. 
The Western teacher looked upon my brother and me as his hands 
and feet. We loved each other with virtue and courtesy." The 
Mission unfortunately had neither staff nor equipment for a good 
middle school. But Pollard had the most important gift of 
multiplying his own personality : he inspired and directed these 
two brothers so that they were able to act for him. Of Mr. Lee's 



no SAMUEL POLLARD 

sisters Pollard says : " Three young sisters of the Lee family, 
with bright and intelligent faces, came last Sunday with a written 
request to Miss Bush desiring her * lovingly to care for them ' and 
teach them all about Jesus." 

Imperial edicts issued at this time changing the curriculum fcf 
Government examinations filled the whole nation with unrest 
Zeal for the new learning alternated with dread of all change. 
On the one side were a group of earnest reformers ; on the other 
stood a solid block of literati of the old order ; and day by day 
the antagonisms grew more sharply defined. Within this 
national struggle for intellectual, political, and social emancipa- 
tion and progress, lesser movements and local upheavals were 
going on. In West China a Mantsi rebel, who had been a coal 
miner, was organising revolt. He had captured a Roman Catholic 
priest and kept him prisoner for months. This rebel issued 
proclamations of his intention to march through the cities of 
China and destroy all Christians. Chaotongwas rife with rumours. 
Pollard was advised to flee as Yu Mantsi would enter the city 
in five days. The citizens grew too fearful to attend the services 
of the church. In his Journal for Sunday, October 23rd, 1898, 
Pollard writes : " The latest rumour is that the Brigadier- 
General and the prefect have taken counsel together and have 
sent up a minute on the Romanists and ourselves to the Viceroy, 
asking permission to slay all the Christians at Chaotong. It is 
strange, however, that this very day the mandarin's clerk sent 
over to us for a little milk." 

But though the city was pulsing with feverish excitements, 
Pollard and his helpers steadily pursued their daily activities. 
Two Chinese Christians were sent out to evangelise the villages. 
When the alarms and fears became most acute Pollard began a 
weekly prayer meeting. Mr. John Lee said this new institution 
came as an answer to his own prayers, for he had been sadly 
puzzled about this duty of prayer. It was reported to the mission- 
aries that hundreds of men in league with the rebels had sworn 
an oath, and confirmed it with the solemn rite of drinking blood, 
that they would not rest till the Christians were exterminated. 
A notice was affixed to the doors of the mission announcing that 



THE BOXER STORM in 

the twenty-ninth day of the month had been set apart for killing 
the missionaries. " The twenty-ninth came : the big doors were 
kept open as usual and as late as on other days. A great quiet 
came over the city for a short time, which was broken later by the 
incessant firing of crackers and the barking of dogs. Unknown 
to us, soldiers were keeping special guard in the neighbourhood, 
and the officer in charge, a friend of ours, had no sleep that night. 
I did not get much either. I should have felt better if I could have 
slept as quietly as the children. They somehow manage to get 
the best of life, and though we have all been children we have 
lost the secret. Shall we ever regain it ? . . . The morning broke 
with warm clear sunshine, and at eight o'clock the prefect called 
to wish us the Chinese equivalent of a Happy New Year." 

" In the midst of all this unrest," he writes (Chaotong, February 
i6th, 1899), " we were well, happy and scarcely disturbed in our 
spirits at all. We have felt sure God is with us." And so the 
crystal spring of truth and pity flowed continuously into that 
bitter sea of unrest. " Our new year's mail brought news of the 
murder of two more missionaries, and advice from a friend down 
the river to make preparations for flight. ' In nothing terrified 
by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition, 
but to you of salvation, and that of God.' I hear my bonnie boy 
outside laughing heartily and my wife singing at the organ. Good- 
bye}! " 

CHAPTER IV 

The Boxer Storm 

OWING to the disturbed state of China the eleventh Annual 
Meeting was not held until April in 1899. The reports from the 
three stations presented at Tungch'uan were disappointing. The 
widespread unrest of the people, and the lack of suitable premises 
at the capital, had checked the effectiveness of operations there. 
Pollard always regarded Yunnan Fu with longing eyes, but the 
failure of the year's work in that city taught him that, to establish 
a successful mission there, it was necessary to have a good school 



ii2 SAMUEL POLLARD 

with a trained educationist at its head, and also a hospital with an 
efficient staff under an able doctor. He was impatient and 
resentful at the Committee's inability to provide for the situation. 

Disheartened and anxious Pollard hurried back to Chaotong 
in three days, galloping forty-six miles on the Saturday. On the 
following Monday, May ist, Lieutenant Watts-Jones, of the 
Burma- Yunnan Railway Survey Commission, reached the city 
and became his guest. " In consequence of a request from a friend 
in England we invited the lieutenant to stay with us, and did all 
we could to make his stay comfortable. Travellers have been 
fairly plentiful in Yunnan, but this time Watts-Jones's black 
cook, de Souza, created a sensation." Pollard thought to improve 
the occasion by introducing the negro to the school and so giving 
a practical illustration of geography and ethnology. On Tuesday 
Watts-Jones and his long train of mules and men left in search of a 
practicable route for the iron-road between Chaotong and Sui Fu. 
Four days later the wild rumour filled the city that the Pollards 
were harbouring a black cannibal who was eating little children. 
Hundreds of excited people crowded around the Mission house. 
One citizen of some standing was heard to utter a threat that he 
would kill our gatekeeper, and a few evenings later an attempt 
was made to assassinate him, and Pollard had to seek the inter- 
vention of the mandarin. 

In 1899 he foresaw a partial failure of the crops on the 
Chaotong plain, and in his concern for the poor he asked the 
prefect to issue a proclamation urging the people to grow wheat, 
beans, and maize, instead of the poppy. The official was not 
too proud to accept this counsel : Pollard says : " He issued 
proclamations all over the district. Thank God for this victory ! " 
His forebodings were realised and in the autumn of 1899 the 
prices of foodstuffs were multiplied two or three times. And 
yet the harvest thanksgiving services in the Mission chapel were 
the best they had ever known. The Chinese Christians begged 
the gifts and decorated the chapel, and the offerings doubled 
those of previous years. Three sermons were preached by the 
Chinese Christians. " Just as the service ended Sie Han Lin, the 
chief professor of the Chinese College, and the head of the City 



THE BOXER STORM 113 

Charity Organisation, came in with two friends. This gentleman 
gave in his name as a regular subscriber to the Magazine Club, 
and he ordered several maps." 

Ancestor worship was the most real thing in the religious 
practices of China. Some of the better -educated and more 
enlightened Chinese felt it was politic to acquiesce in Buddhist 
and Taoist rites, while in their hearts they held these superstitions 
in contempt ; but their regard for the canon of filial piety and 
their worship of ancestral spirits were of genuine faith mingled 
with fear. It was this conviction and sentiment which vitalised 
the superstitions they practised. These follies were closely bound 
up with the common life, and it was most difficult for Chinese 
Christians to free themselves from such entanglements. Attempts 
to abandon the customs of their fathers aroused suspicion against 
the converts as unfilial and unsocial. About this time one of 
Pollard's teachers, an intimate friend, was drawn into taking 
part in some idolatrous ceremonies. Both the young fellow and 
the missionary were vexed about this obeisance in the house of 
Rimmon. This explains the conclusion of Pollard's narration of 
the incident : " On Sunday last, after much prayer and thought 
at the Sacrament I gave a straight talk for an hour on the matte* 1 . 
The Lord helped me much : they all seemed moved." But he 
knew it was not enough to denounce these practices, so, eliminat- 
ing the grosser elements from the rites of ancestor- worship, he 
infused into them a Christian idea making them services of 
commemoration. He was not there to destroy, but to construct. 

One day Lee San-ie lost his little son, and both parents were 
broken-hearted. " One thing," says Pollard, " we rejoiced in, 
they had not thrown the body away as non- Christian Chinese 
would have done. They wished me to conduct a Christian burial. 
One great objection Confucianists raise against our religion is 
that we do not reverence the dead. But if we do not worship 
the aged dead, we care for the dead children. A proper burial 
for little ones is among the many things Christianity is establish- 
ing in China. . . . After the service we removed all the idols 
from the house and burnt them. . . . The next day Lee San-ie 
came for hymn-books so that he could worship daily in his home." 



ii4 SAMUEL POLLARD 

All this time rumblings of a threatening storm were heard. 
The Chinese people were indignantly resentful at the treatment 
they received at the hands of the Western Powers. The humiliat- 
ing defeat inflicted upon China by Japan had revealed the absolute 
weakness of the Middle Kingdom when confronted by modern 
militarism. The nations of Europe forthwith threw justice and 
equity to the winds, and their lawlessness served only to fan the 
fire of hate which the Chinese felt towards all foreigners. In 
Yunnan there were local troubles occasioned by the aggressive 
designs of France to secure a predominant influence at Yunnan 
Fu from whence she could take steps to obtain a still greater 
objective Szechuen in the event of the break-up of China. 
It is not surprising that at such a time the Chinese should oppose 
the project of building a French railway from Tongking to Yunnan 
Fu. On one occasion a French Commission, including a consul, 
railway commissioner, and secretaries, were driven out of a temple 
which they had rented by an excited and angry populace. 

Once more the mutterings of the coming storm died down 
and during the lull Pollard pursued his missionary work more 
zealously than ever, and the Chinese officials showed him 
increasing friendliness. An important guild at Chaotong a 
mutual help society invited him to one of their feasts at a temple 
in the city. One Sunday the new prefect asked him to come 
over to his yamen, but Pollard sent a message to say that he could 
not hire a sedan chair on that sacred day, and he was afraid that 
the mandarin might regard it as showing a lack of respect if he 
should visit him without ceremony. The prefect sent to say he 
did not mind his walking and would not deem a visit made in that 
way any discourtesy. Pollard went at once and had an interesting 
conversation, at the close of which the mandarin escorted him to 
the street. He had lived in Japan for three years and said that 
it had made him realise China's backwardness : he was ashamed 
of the dirty streets and would like to make improvements. 

Besides these official courtesies, Pollard received tokens from 
the citizens that his good work was not unappreciated. The 
schoolboys one day brought a handsome gift of fowls, sugar, 
flour, and all kinds of provisions which had been subscribed 



THE BOXER STORM 115 

for by their parents. He gave half of the present to the school- 
master, Mr. John Lee, B.A. Pollard established a preachers' 
class and soon found out that he had apt pupils. Some of the 
sermons prepared by them he considered as good as any preached 
in England. But one of the evangelists made the confession 
that his reiteration of the Gospel story on the streets had elicited 
the criticism that he always served up the same dish, either 
" bean-curd fried with liver, or liver fried with bean-curd." 
In -a score of ways his own and his colleagues' self-denying labours 
were making favourable impressions upon many people. One 
man brought him his silver to guard while he went a journey : 
he trusted the foreigner in preference to his own relatives. The 
missionary's children were interesting to the Chinese and made 
them feel Pollard's common humanity. The eldest boy excited 
keen amusement one Sunday by insisting that the woman who 
helped Mrs. Pollard ought not to sew on that holy day, and when 
the woman laid down her needlework, the boy said : " Now come 
with me and we will get sticks and flail out the beans." Indeed 
the flourishing state of Bertram incited the barber to wager that 
the father could not carry " that fat baby " round the city wall 
without stopping ; if he performed this feat then the barber would 
give him two basins of tapioca, but if he failed, then Pollard 
should buy two basins for him. 

Pollard took advantage of the interval of quiet which preceded 
the storm to make two preaching tours, one to Lu-Tien-Cheo, 
and the other to Ko-K'uei. This was at the end of the year 1899. 
He and his companions preached at all the markets on the way, 
and entered into converse with all sorts of people coolies, 
tradesmen, and scholars. At a place called Kiu-Fu he was 
interested in observing that, unlike the Chinese in all other places, 
the inhabitants there had brown eyes and sandy whiskers. 

Of another place he writes : "At night several came in and 
we sang and played the concertina and talked for hours. . . . 
One young fellow had a Chinese musical instrument (rt-hu) 
which he played splendidly. He played one tune which makes 
the new brides cry on leaving their homes by the Yangtsze to be 
married. He played it so feelingly that the tears began to gather 



n6 SAMUEL POLLARD 

in my eyes. I quite believe that women could be moved to weep 
by such playing." 

On June I4th, 1900, a special messenger arrived at the bungalow 
from Weining. " I said it was either peace in South Africa, or a 
riot in Yunnan. Mrs. Pollard said : ' a riot.' It was so : on 
Sunday, June loth, there had been a great riot at Yunnan Fu, and 
the homes of the Dymonds, Savins, and Hardings had been 
looted ; but their lives were safe." 

At last the storm had burst a more terrible and more dangerous 
tornado of human passions than the Pollards knew at the time. 
From end to end of China the hurricane of wrath raged, one 
great tempest involving the whole empire, while within its gloomy 
folds smaller local upheavals were happening. The Emperor's 
precipitancy offended the pride and conservatism of high man- 
darins. He was betrayed (see p. 96) by Yuan Shih K'ai, the 
Empress-Dowager snatched the power from his hands, and 
many of the reformers were executed. In her fanatical rage, the 
Empress-Dowager made a fatal alliance with the mob, giving 
her sanction to the formation of volunteer associations throughout 
the Empire. Duplicity is the weapon of conscious weakness, 
and at first the Empress-Dowager camouflaged her patronage of 
the Boxers by a pretence of benevolence towards Christians and 
their enemies alike. But all disguises were soon thrown aside ; 
the Boxers were encouraged to kill the Christians in Shantung 
and Shansi ; Imperial edicts against Europeans were issued in 
quick succession ; and the Empress-Dowager, calling a Grand 
Council, declared her determination to make war against all 
foreigners in China. Edicts were sent to the eighteen Provinces 
that foreigners should be killed. Fortunately for the Yunnan 
Mission the viceroys of the three southern provinces were men 
of larger knowledge and better judgment than most Chinese 
officials, and foreseeing the failure of this frenzied revenge and 
the terrible reckoning that must follow, they, greatly daring, 
changed the word " kill " in the edict to " protect," and sought 
to restrain the passions of the mobs. 

At Yunnan Fu, in the month of May, the French consul- 
general accompanied by several Frenchmen and a number of 



THE BOXER STORM 117 

Annamese soldiers, were stopped as they were entering the city 
because they brought with them a large quantity of arms. The 
French party in their irritation threatened to shoot the Chinese 
officials if they interfered with them. This outrage aroused the 
wildest passions throughout the province. Many of the people 
expressed their determination to resist the French, as they would 
never become their slaves. The tempest broke on Sunday, 
June loth. At the noonday service Mr. Dymond had preached 
from the text, " For if the earthly house of our tabernacle be 
dissolved, we have a building not made with hands eternal in the 
heavens," and, as Mr. Dymond afterwards said, " a dissolution 
was not far away." Suddenly in the afternoon the Dymonds 
heard the yells of an infuriated mob as they began smashing a 
new building which the French were putting up. The mission- 
aries decided to make their escape to the nearest yamen while 
they could. The houses of Mr. Dymond and Dr. Savin were 
speedily destroyed and the missionaries of the China Inland 
Mission suffered in the same way. Standing in the yamen 
courtyard they saw the flames leaping from the old Roman 
Catholic Church and heard the delighted roars of the Chinese. 
Sixteen days passed before they ventured on the streets, and then 
as soon as they showed themselves the people grew angry and 
threatening. All the Frenchmen had left the city, why were these 
English remaining ? Their patriotic Chinese had shot the German 
ambassador at Peking, what hindered them from killing " these 
wretched missionaries " ? At last they were marched out of 
Yunnan under a strong military escort as the Governor was afraid 
he might not be able to restrain the violence of the excited 
populace. 

Kindred passions were stirred in all the cities where mission- 
aries were living in Yunnan. The indiscriminate massacres 
of Christians and missionaries in the north were spoken of as 
victories over the foreigners. Telegrams from Yunnan Fu 
informed them that the French consul had ordered all missionaries 
to leave the province. Pollard inquired of the British consul at 
Chungking if this applied to the English and the answer came 
" Applicable universally." He then called all the Christians 



n8 SAMUEL POLLARD 

together and told them that they were ordered to leave for the 
coast. He appointed Messrs Yen and Lee the evangelist and 
the teacher to take charge of the Mission while he was away. 
One very remarkable thing at this juncture was that sixteen of 
Pollard's catechumens asked for baptism before he left. 

At Tungch'uan the Pollards were joined by Mrs. Thorne, and 
after two days' halt they bade farewell to those who remained 
at this city, feeling more anxious for them than for themselves. 
The mandarins gave them an escort of ten men ; but at Sintien a 
company of fifty soldiers met them with orders to guide them 
safely out of the province. They travelled for a whole month 
over rough, dangerous roads, passing through towns where the 
people were often angry at their presence. On August 3rd a 
sudden storm of rain filled the mountain gullies with tumultuous 
torrents, and one of the soldiers who marched with them was 
swept away and drowned. At A-mi-chow Bertram Pollard 
became very ill and was delirious all night, and they had to wait 
a week at this town till the child was well again. At Lao-kai 
they embarked on a steamer going down the Red River. The 
boat was crowded with Annamese soldiers who impressed 
Pollard as far inferior in physique to the Chinese. They were all 
very thankful to reach Hong Kong on September 6th ; but were 
horrified at the news they received of the fate of many mission- 
aries and Christians in other parts of China. 

One of Pollard's first acts after reaching a place of safety 
was to write a letter to the Home Committee urging upon 
them the policy of reopening work at Yunnan Fu as soon as they 
should be allowed to return. He feared lest the events which had 
happened might extinguish the missionary enthusiasm of the 
churches in England. He believed that the storm of hate against 
foreigners would leave a clearer atmosphere behind and that, 
in spite of the temporary check, the work of reformation would go 
on in China. As soon as the pressure of anxiety was lifted, he 
regained his optimism, for behind the wrack of tempest he dis- 
cerned a glorious apocalypse of a new and progressive China. 



HIS SOJOURN AT SHANGHAI 119 

CHAPTER V 
His Sojourn at Shanghai 

SHANGHAI, on the : Hwangpu, was one of the five treaty ports 
opened in 1842 to the trade of the world in compliance with the 
demands of the British Government. By the end of the nine- 
teenth century it had grown to be the most important port in 
China. It is one of the vital points of contact between East and 
West. Besides the Chinese city there is a foreign settlement 
which is one of the most cosmopolitan communities in the East. 
During the Boxer troubles missionaries from all parts of China 
crowded into Shanghai as their City of Refuge. Arriving here 
from Hong Kong towards the end of September Pollard after 
great difficulty found a jerry-built house in the Model Settle- 
ment which he rented at forty taels a month, or about seventy 
pounds a year. 

At Shanghai, as at Yunnan Fu, or Chaotong, he was con- 
strained to join those who were working for the enlightenment 
and Christianising of the Chinese. " The Christian Mission of 
America," he writes, " formerly called Campbellites, opened a 
preaching Hall for Mandarin speakers on the Foochow Road, one 
of the largest, most disreputable, and most patronised streets 
of Shanghai. A large number of people around there speak the 
Mandarin dialect, and so can understand us. We were asked to 
help, and gladly did so. Crowds gather every night, and they will 
stay as late as eleven o'clock, listening to as many as four or 
five different speakers. The work we have been doing with the 
others has attracted the attention of some of the Shanghai resident 
foreigners and Chinese, and an effort is being made to ensure its 
permanence. The Union Church is willing to co-operate in 
the matter, and it is likely that one of the American missionaries 
will be set apart for work among the Mandarin-speaking citizens. 
To have helped in any way in bringing about this desirable end 
is one compensation for our banishment from Yunnan." 

When he became an eye-witness of the open shame of 



i2o SAMUEL POLLARD 

Shanghai, and saw young girls, some little more than children, 
carried in open chairs through the Foochow Road at night, and 
knew that these were the victims of men's lusts, he could not 
restrain his indignation ; and wrote (January 28th, 1901) to the 
North China Daily News a letter headed " For Her Sake " 
(i.e., Queen Victoria's who had just died) from which the 
following extract is made : 

Being compelled by the Boxer movement to reside for a few 
months at Shanghai, a few of us have taken up mission work 
in the Foochow Road. A large number of people in that neigh- 
bourhood speak Mandarin, and it has been found quite possible 
to preach to them in that tongue. That neighbourhood at night 
is a sight to touch the heart of anyone who has a mother or a 
daughter. The street is so crowded that it is with difficulty one 
can get along. One of the strangest sights is to see young girls, 
thirteen or fourteen years of age, dressed in the richest clothes, 
carried on the shoulders of men, and followed always by a 
woman who has charge of, and often owns the young girl. 
Scores and hundreds of women and girls, each in charge of a 
keeper, tout for customers, and woe betide those who fail to 
earn money for the dragons who own them and keep them 
in slavery ! 

In this Shanghai where English men and women love the 
memory of our great Queen, these young girls are compelled to a 
life of slavery and shame, often by the branding of hot irons. 
Literally burned into a hell by foul fiends who make wealth on 
the lives of these children. Think of that, you English women, 
and weep ! Think of that, you English men, and feel the blood 
tingle in all your veins, as the memory of the great Queen calls 
you to new deeds of chivalry and compassion ! 

What can be done ? First and simplest, this open touting 
and display on the streets and in the public tea-shops should be 
stopped. A punishment should be inflicted for each infraction 
of the rule, not on the culprit if she is young, but on the person, 
man or woman, who owns or farms out the poor girl. These old 
hags who disgrace so many of our public streets by accosting 
Chinese and foreigners should have their infamous public trade 
stopped at once. This would sweeten the streets of this great 
settlement and considerably lessen the present gigantic trade in 
the lives of young children. 

Seared with hot irons and compelled to a life of shame that 



HIS SOJOURN AT SHANGHAI 121 

men and women like ghouls may fatten on their earnings ! Oh 
the shame, the pity of it all ! 

The Bishop of Mid- China, a brother of the late Bishop Moule of 
Durham, at once wrote in support of this " unanswerable letter 
of the refugee-missionary," adding his testimony to the accuracy 
of Pollard's account of the condition of Foochow Road in " the 
wee short hours ayont the twal," which he characterised as " not 
only an offence against decency, but against humanity as well." 
The following Sunday, another bishop in the Cathedral at 
Shanghai " referred to these letters and added all the weight 
of his position on the right side." Then a Swedish missionary 
who had escaped from Shansi made a terrible indictment of the 
Shanghai Municipal Council. Pollard says : " It is not at all 
uncommon for parents to mortgage a daughter for two years 
from sixteen to eighteen years of age. A case occurred a few 
months ago at Shanghai where the girl ran away and was rescued." 

This strong chivalrous humanity in Pollard was the main 
root of his judgments and conduct. He never could resist the 
appeal of weakness. Again and again he defied danger that he 
might rescue children from death, or from things worse than death. 
His Journal shows how often he grieved at the sufferings of his 
little friends. This vehemence of moral emotion gave tremendous 
driving-force to his undertakings. Doubtless he often erred in 
judgment, and wrote and said things which offended even his 
friends. But when we survey his whole life-work such mistakes 
are a trifle compared with the positive achievements for good. An 
instance of his rashness, of a sort of headlong deliverance upon 
subjects he had not mastered, was shown in a published letter 
in which he brusquely condemned as " dirty money " the 
munificent gifts of a millionaire. He knew little of the vast and 
intricate problems of Capital and Labour, but he had a com- 
pelling sympathy for the " under-dog." 

f ' Frequently he blunted the edge of his own argument against the 
opium traffic by the violence of his invective. But Pollard lived in 
Yunnan where he saw the frightful ravages caused by opium every 
day of his life. Men who have been face to face with the most 



122 SAMUEL POLLARD 

terrible consequences of a shameful crime inflicted by one race 
upon another cannot speak with the cool precision of statisticians. 
Pollard was repeatedly told when preaching the Gospel : " You 
foreigners brought this evil upon us." Someone said to him 
once : " Take away your opium and then talk of your Jesus." 
One of the honourable things in Lord Morley's administration 
at the India Office was that he made real sacrifices to bring the 
baneful traffic to an end. The history of the Opium question 
shows that British statesmen lacked courage to apply moral 
principles to problems which affect revenue. We cannot, 
therefore, be surprised at Pollard's hot anger whenever he spoke 
or wrote of opium. 

While at Shanghai Pollard was immensely encouraged by letters 
from Chaotong and England. He learned that the work of the 
Mission was being carried on energetically in his absence, and 
that the people of the city were disposed to give a new con- 
sideration to the claims of the Christian religion. And from 
the Rev. I. B. Vanstone, the Foreign Missionary Secretary, he 
received word that the Committee would make no demand for 
compensation for the destruction of the Mission property at 
Yunnan Fu, and that though some thought the work in this city 
should be given up, the Committee desired to continue it if the 
missionaries on the field were able to " carry on " ; the questions 
of expediency and ability were to be considered by Pollard and his 
colleagues. It was not a courageous decision to throw the respon- 
sibility upon the missionaries, but it was accepted by Pollard 
with rekindled hope. 

His sojourn at Shanghai had not been unfruitful in its con- 
sequences, but all the time he was like one straining at the leash ; 
for his heart was in Yunnan. On February gth, 1901, he was 
full of high spirits as he escorted Mrs. Pollard, his two children, 
and Miss Bush to the steamer, Ta Hung, to start the river journey . 
The ladies travelled as first-class passengers. Pollard, with Mr. 
Stephen Lee and Mr. G. Miller, elected to go second class among 
the Chinese. On the third day he had so won the Chinese 
passengers that he was able to get them to gather in the saloon 
to listen to an address from him on the Christian religion. At 



HIS SOJOURN AT SHANGHAI 123 

Hankow he rode out with others to welcome Mr. McKie and 
some lady missionaries and children who were refugees from 
Shansi. They had come through incredible privations and 
hairbreadth escapes. " What a procession ! " says Pollard. 
" First a band of soldiers with the appearance of brigands and cut- 
throats stained, travel- worn men with bronzed faces, faded 
uniforms, on ungroomed horses ; after them came four mule- 
chairs a strange sight to a southerner bigger than the sedan 
chairs, to carry two persons the mules are in shafts back and 
front." Pollard admired the cheerfulness and serene courage 
of these missionaries who for weeks together had looked death in 
the face. 

At Chungking he spent more than two weeks trying to get the 
British consul to sanction their journey to Yunnan ; and in the 
end he and Mr. R. Williams had to set off without the ladies. 
Four months after leaving Shanghai, and ten months since he 
left Chaotong, they re-entered the city on June ist, 1901. " A 
large band of friends came out five miles to meet us and to present 
a huge card of greeting and welcome from ' Church members, 
members on trial, and inquirers.' Then huge strings of crackers 
were fired off bang ! bang ! bang ! and we were taken to a 
farmhouse where refreshment awaited us. As we drew near the 
city a procession was formed, headed by men bearing twenty, 
or more, scroll-banners and a huge presentation tablet. The 
streets were lined with staring people, and as we went in our 
chairs, everybody knew that the Protestant missionaries had 
returned. The humorous side of the affair appealed to me, and 
it was with difficulty I kept up the grave dignified mien required 
of a man being welcomed and honoured by a Chinese crowd. I 
have often watched the gods carried out for an airing, preceded by 
banners and crowds of noisy urchins, and I thought their thoughts 
and feelings, if they could have had any, would have been like 
mine that day/' Having welcomed him in this manner the 
Chinese set up a tablet at the entrance to the Mission with four 
characters on it which may be translated : " A shepherd's work 
has its completion." A few days later he gives his judgment of 
the effect on the church of his enforced absence disappointment 



124 SAMUEL POLLARD 

mingled with gratitude and concludes : " I feel certain that 
if we had gone entirely, and left Chaotong for good, in a few 
years the whole church would be practically defunct. This is a 
hard thing to say, and to those at home who are expecting the 
time soon to come when less foreign help would be needed, this 
may be unwelcome news. It is no use, however, being blind to 
the facts." 

At the end of July a telegram came from Chungking saying 
that the consular prohibition of ladies travelling to Yunnan had 
been removed, and Pollard hurried to Chungking. But it was 
impossible for Mrs. Pollard to travel at that time. On September 
23rd, i go i, his third son, Walter, was born. During the weeks of 
waiting Pollard gave assistance to the missions in that great 
city, and spent much of his time in reading. Remembering the 
many Mohammedans in Yunnan and thinking that he might be 
able some day to work among them, he made a close study of the 
history of the Caliphate. Pollard and his party were all back at 
Chaotong by November 27th, 1901. 

Pollard's hegira at the time of the Boxer risings marks a period 
of change in his life. Such experiences as he had passed through 
could not do aught else than deepen and strengthen his manhood. 
We must remember that he was but a youth when he left England 
to take up missionary work in China. All too little opportunity 
had been granted him for thinking out his own beliefs and for 
acquiring a broad and rich vision of men and affairs. The 
spiritual impetus in his life gave altitude of aim, but could not 
produce so early the breadth and maturity needful for the greatest 
work. But at Shanghai he had come into contact with men of 
many schools of thought and with movements of universal 
significance. Without consciously discarding any of his early 
beliefs, his emphasis changed and his outlook widened. He had 
discussed aims and methods with others, and his own conception 
of missionary work had grown. It could not have been other- 
wise with a mind so sensitive, so responsive and so agile as his. 
Henceforth he forgets himself more and more ; he is drawn 
into the vortex of great movements, and throws himself into 
new activities. He has measured himself with men and, 



HIS SOJOURN AT SHANGHAI 125 

without thinking about it, he has become more confident of 
himself. 

When the storm of Boxerism was spent it was seen that the 
old order had broken down and could no longer be depended on 
to hold the Empire together. National conceit was utterly dis- 
solved in the terrible disillusionment. The old stock of hoary 
traditions and the proud prestige of Confucianist scholarship were 
bankrupt. Even the Empress-Dowager yielded to necessity, 
approved of Western inventions and Western trade, and counte- 
nanced the sending of Chinese students to Europe and America 
for university training. Attempts were made to broaden the 
range of government examinations and to secure an improved 
civil service. A new vision came to the most progressive minds in 
China a vision of a nation reborn, of government administrations 
reorganised, of commerce unshackled and world- wide. If 
Japan had achieved much could not China do more ? These 
young Chinese believed themselves not to be inferior intellectually 
or morally to the people of Western lands. 

Those statesmen of China who were called upon at this juncture 
to reconstruct the national life advised that the counsel and help 
of the missionaries should be sought. For years missionaries 
had sown the seed of a larger truth and a more enlightened way of 
life than China had owned. Under the guidance of Dr. Timothy 
Richards, a Baptist missionary, they had established a society for 
the diffusion of Western books in China. For years a band of 
missionaries had been employed in translating books of religion, 
education, and science. Most of the young Chinese reformers 
were men who had come more or less under the influence of 
Christian missionaries. Now in 1901, guided by Dr. Timothy 
Richards, Dr. Martin, and others, the Imperial Government 
decided to establish modern colleges in all the eighteen provinces. 

Changes so far-reaching and penetrative required a religious 
revolution. Seeing this, some sought to satisfy national pride and 
spiritual necessity by proposing to deify the great sage, Confucius. 
They were willing that Jesus should take His place in a Chinese 
pantheon. One Chinese scholar said : " Except that the Bible is 
full of figurative languages, which I think ought not to be taken 



126 SAMUEL POLLARD 

literally, the teachings of the Bible and the teachings of Confucius 
are exactly the same. I only hope that missionaries in China 
will not teach the Chinese to despise their own books." 1 We 
must feel the deepest sympathy with this natural jealousy for 
China's great sage, and no missionary would encourage anything 
like indifference to the classic books of China, but neither will 
any Christian allow Jesus to be set side by side with deified men 
in a new humanism. The realisation of China's dream of a 
glorious future will come through her unqualified acceptance of 
the moral and religious supremacy of Jesus. 

As he travelled through China in 1901 Pollard became aware 
of the momentous change in the attitude of all classes to the 
foreigner and towards his religion. In Szechuen he learned how 
whole classes hitherto untouched, and in some cases antagonistic 
to missionary work, were now petitioning the churches to 
establish mission stations among them. " At one place," he 
says, " a gentleman a Chinese official has offered a thousand 
ounces of silver a year if the Methodists will send a missionary 
to open a school in his town." Again he writes : " Good news 
comes also from Kweichow, which is right east of Yunnan. Last 
year in two of the districts thirty-four Christians were put to 
death and hundreds were fined, but the sons of the faithful 
martyrs all want to follow the Lord Jesus. The persecution has 
fixed the feet of these Christians firmer upon the Rock. ... So 
the good work goes on. Szechuen to the north of Yunnan, 
Kweichow to the east, Burma to the west, all tell the same story 
of great progress. Will not the wave of blessing reach us also in 
Yunnan ? " 

CHAPTER VI 
Signs of Awakening in Yunnan* 

As we have seen, before the Boxer storm burst, Pollard had 
cultivated friendly intercourse with the mandarins. Within a 
few months after his return from Shanghai the chief mandarins 

1 Letter from Liang-Tun-yen of Wuchang to Rev, C, J, pa.yf sport, 1902. 



SIGNS OF AWAKENING IN YUNNAN 127 

at Chaotong openly sought to show honour to the missionaries. 
Mr. Hicks was at Chaotong to consider the transference to that 
city of the school for the training of evangelists which he had begun 
at Tungch'uan in 1900. He had started with three boarders ; 
already the work inspired hopes of extension, and afforded a 
prospect of sending out a number of educated ministers within a 
few years. We may anticipate events by saying that though the 
Committee was able to give little practical encouragement in 
this supremely important work of education, yet by unfaltering 
pursuit of his high aim, Mr. Hicks prepared a succession of 
helpers without whom the church could not have been built up. 

Pollard realised the potentialities of this school, and he believed 
that for the sake of its own future and in the interests of the 
Mission, it would be better to have it transferred to Chaotong. So 
it came about that both Hicks and Pollard were invited to a 
banquet by the mandarins of the city. When it was over Pollard 
had to face the problem of reciprocating the courtesy of the 
mandarins. A few weeks later he invited them to a dinner in 
English style at the Mission house, and by his wife's skill and 
invention a meal of sixteen courses was prepared. Instead of 
wine or spirits Mrs. Pollard concocted a drink of black-currant 
juice, well spiced. There was a touch of imagination as well as 
courage in providing an English dinner rather than a luxurious 
feast in the Chinese style. Pollard says : " The thing was a great 
success." The prefect had brought a tract he was about to issue 
on foot-binding and the use of opium, and asked Pollard to " look 
over and correct it." 

These courtesies towards the missionaries were indications 
of the new spirit awakening in China. The people of the Chao- 
tong district were more friendly in their behaviour towards 
Christians, but in the city itself not many sought to enter the 
church as members. In other towns and villages in the pre- 
fecture, however, many of the student class and people of social 
influence actively inquired about the teaching of Jesus and they 
entreated Pollard to visit them and open churches in their midst. 
It was a great opportunity for aggressive evangelism throughout 
the north-east of Yunnan from Chaotong to Sui Fu, and Pollard 



128 SAMUEL POLLARD 

resolved to make the most of it. Nevertheless, to reap the fields 
already white unto harvest the Mission demanded more mission- 
aries, schoolmasters, and doctors, and Pollard was left almost 
alone. The other missionaries could not be withdrawn from 
their special tasks. In the end, though Pollard and his colleagues 
did their best, the work which opened up could not be sustained. 
The lesson of the failure is that for the evangelisation of China 
there must be the co-operation of all missionary societies, and the 
whole field must be mapped out and staffed in accordance with 
strategic necessities. Even a small mission, in order to work 
efficiently, must have middle schools and hospitals, and be in 
touch with provincial universities with divinity halls and schools 
of medicine. 

Let us see how Pollard strove to use the opportunity of found- 
ing churches in new cities at this crisis. He planned a series oi 
itinerations. On Sunday, February i6th, 1902, there is this 
entry in his Journal : " Sacrament. I made arrangements for 
the work," in the city of Chaotong, " while we should be away 
on a month's missionary tour. Mr. Wang agreed to help while 
the evangelist is away." Next morning Pollard started northward 
on horseback. His companions were wisely selected : Mr. Yen 
had been an evangelist for some years : John Lee, B.A., was the 
schoolmaster, and Chong-ming-tsai was one of the senior 
candidates for the ministry. After a week on the road in the most 
intimate association with these young Chinese Pollard says 
of them : " I have learned to respect the Christians I have with me 
more than ever. They are gentlemen as well as Christians, and 
they have behaved in this crisis as well as Christians of the same 
standing at home. How wisely and earnestly they have pleaded 
with the people to embrace our religion ! The Gospel which 
has made these men what they are is the power of God." 

Upon reaching Ta-Kuan, a bustling little town where a few 
months before the mission silver had been stolen, Pollard's 
first step was to pay a visit to the mandarin to enlist his sympathy 
in their attempt to establish a church there. Some eleven citizens 
of good repute came to see the missionary at his inn, and having 
begged for instruction in the Christian religion, gladly gave their 



SIGNS OF AWAKENING IN YUNNAN 129 

names as " inquirers." For fourteen years the missionaries had 
striven to arouse the people of the Chaotong district to a live 
interest in Christianity, and they had given but a meagre response. 
And now in places outside the radius of their previous evangel- 
istic tours the people themselves took the initiative and begged 
to be taught the Christian faith. Pollard almost doubted their 
good faith and at first suspected that some of them might be 
animated by political motives, or that they might be wanting 
the foreigners' support in their lawsuits. Investigation showed, 
however, that though they had very confused notions of what 
Christianity aimed at, they had in all sincerity turned their faces 
towards the light. 

On the following day Pollard and his evangelists reached 
Ta-wan-tsi in time to witness a procession in honour of the 
Dragon. 1 A long paper dragon was carried through the streets : 
it was made in sections, each part, or joint being a varicoloured 
lantern ; the dragon's head was carried by the vanguard while 
the tail was upheld by those who brought up the rear. The 
scene was at once weird and boisterously gay, gongs were beaten 
and shouts and laughter filled the streets with a strange hubbub. 
The holiday excitement told against Pollard's visits, but it did 
not hinder some of the soberer citizens from finding him out and 
requesting him to establish a church in their midst. 

Kih-li-p'u, their next halting-place, was reached on Saturday 
evening. On Sunday three of the inhabitants came to the inn 
where Pollard was staying, and nearly the whole of that day he 
taught them the Scriptures and urged the duty of prayer. On 
Monday morning they started by moonlight, and as soon as they 
were outside the village a man met them saying he had waited all 
night so that he might not miss the teacher, and a little farther 
on they were met by another. It was a strange sight in Yunnan 
when the little company of Christian evangelists, arrested by two 
earnest seekers after the true religion, sat by the roadside while 
the pale moon was still visible, just as day was breaking, and 

1 The Dragon Feast was originally a river picnic a procession of boats 
lighted with coloured lamps from stem to stern overhead and along the 
water-line. 



13C- SAMUEL POLLARD 

talked of God and righteousness and man's immortal nature, 
and then stood in awe and reverence as Pollard prayed for their 
enlightenment. Another day was spent in journeying and at 
evening they reached Teo-sha-kuan. At this place four others 
came to be enrolled as students of the new religion, one the son of 
a man who had been a high government official. Pollard here 
also went to see the local mandarin and so pave the way for the 
peaceful establishment of a mission station. When he got back 
to his inn he found a fresh visitor Mr. Tai, a young student who 
was to be their guide to Ku-lu-Chang. 

On the way to this place Pollard saw a temple which dated from 
the Ming dynasty and a tablet of the Emperor T'ien Ch'i who 
ascended the throne in 1621 . In the fourteenth century one of the 
young Emperors of this dynasty being defeated by an uncle 
disappeared from the palace at Nanking, and is said to have come 
to Yunnan in the garb of a Buddhist priest. Under the Mings 
a spirit of intensified nationalism sprang up, and the boasted 
learning of China was enshrined in vast encyclopaedias. Recalling 
the greatness of the nation's past, Pollard wondered how soon 
the Manchu usurpation would fall, and freedom come again 
to enable this people to develop its native genius. He always 
believed in the potential powers of China and looked forward 
to a time when the folk he loved should, under the influence of 
Christianity, take rank among the Great Powers. 

Before they came to Ku-lu-Chang they were met by a voluntary 
escort of men who proved to be influential in that district. 
Guns were fired to give the signal of Pollard's approach, and 
thousands of crackers were let off. They took him to Mr. Tai's 
house, and there he found a room fitted up for worship and public 
services, and around it scrolls with high-sounding mottoes. 
Pollard remained as a guest for three days. He conducted many 
services and enrolled the names of those who wished to become 
students of the Christian religion. He gave special attention to 
two men distinguished by earnestness and intelligence and 
appointed them to teach others. " A captain of the militia at a 
place twenty-five miles away came to see me at Mr. Tai's house 
and urged me to go with him and open a preaching hall in his 



SIGNS OF AWAKENING IN YUNNAN 131 

locality, saying that scores of families were waiting to be taught 
the Christian faith. Men also came from a dozen other places 
around to be received as inquirers." 

On the Friday Pollard and his companions went to Lao-wa-t'an 
" Raven's Rapid " a busy and important place on the main 
road between Chaotong and Sui Fu. He saw that this town must 
be the centre of the new work and that the mission would have 
to appoint the best man they could get, and with this in view 
he visited the mandarin to enlist his sympathy in the project. On 
the Sunday he conducted three services which were well attended 
and marked by a good influence. On the Monday Pollard divided 
his company into two bands, appointing Mr. Yen and Mr. Tai 
to visit places off the main road from which requests had come, 
arranging to meet them at Lao-wa-t'an about two weeks later. 
He himself with Mr. E., Mr. Lee, and Chong-ming-tsai kept to 
the main road to Sui Fu. At T'an Teo " Head of the Rapids " 
men came to him to be enrolled as inquirers. A deputation 
from Liang- Wan-Ch'i, twenty miles away, asked him to go to 
that place as many persons wished to join the Church. There 
he received an official welcome, being met by the militia with 
banners, and saluted with guns and crackers. He would fain 
have gone quietly, but he knew that for the Master's sake he must 
accept such honours. He chose one of two sites offered for a 
chapel and promised to return in ten days to open it formally. 

On Thursday morning Pollard went by boat to Sin T'an 
" New Rapid " forty li from Liang- Wan-Ch'i, walked fifty li 
to Huei-li-cheo by the Yangtsze and then, taking another boat, 
travelled forty li farther to Siao-tu-li. As he got off the boat, he 
was met by soldiers armed with rifles and tridents, and by this 
guard of honour he was taken to " a neat little chapel with a 
guest-room and bedroom at the back." On Friday he preached 
thrice, and many gathered again on the Saturday, and he sought 
to acquaint them with the nature and aims of Christianity. The 
little hall was formally opened on Sunday, and on that day a 
group from the Baptist mission came across the river from the 
northern side with gifts for the chapel scrolls, lamps, and a 
tablet to hang over the rostrum, on which four large characters 



132 SAMUEL POLLARD 

were inscribed in gilt which gave a rendering of the words : 
" The true Light which lighteth every man." 

Pollard took a boat for Sui Fu, where he hoped to get a fresh 
supply of New Testaments. But although the Bible Society 
depdt at this place had been recently stocked to meet the awakened 
interest in Christianity, there had been such a run that not a 
single copy was left. Three days later he returned to Liang- Wan- 
Ch'i, as he had promised, to be ready for the formal opening of 
their chapel on the following Sunday. Between thirty and forty 
persons desired to be enrolled as inquirers. The people were 
reluctant to let him leave on the Monday morning, but he felt he 
must go. He stopped at Shih-lo-t'an for breakfast, and learned 
that a hundred villagers were desirous of building a church 
instead of joining with the Liang- Wan- Ch'i inquirers. They 
bought Christian books and promised to study them together ; 
and Pollard encouraged them by undertaking to send two of his 
evangelists to give them guidance. 

On Wednesday, March iQth, he got back to Lao-wa-t'an, where 
he was rejoined by Messrs. Yen and Tai. An urgent message 
was sent to Chaotong that Mr. Wang, who had been left with 
Mr. Stephen Lee, should come at once to assist these itinerating 
evangelists. Mr. Wang was a most interesting man, well-read 
and loquacious, of great courage, and by years of disinterested 
service had shown himself to be a sincere Christian. On Thursday 
they gained permission to hold a service at the temple of the 
River Lord. The people assembled in great crowds and Mr. 
John Lee preached to them. In his sermon he made such a 
fiery attack upon idolatry that the temple authorities were 
incensed. An iconoclastic discourse in such a place might be 
looked upon as a breach of courtesy and ingratitude ; but we 
can no more judge this earnest evangelist by the ordinary con- 
ventions, than we could pronounce against St. Paul's address on 
Mars' Hill. Pollard urged upon the inquirers the necessity of 
getting a suitable chapel of their own. Mr. Yen and Mr. Wang 
were appointed by Pollard to remain at this busy centre and do all 
they could to instruct inquirers and to organise a Christian church. 

Leaving the " Raven's Rapid " Pollard travelled eastward 



SIGNS OF AWAKENING IN YUNNAN 133 

through a well-wooded district to Liu-t'ang-pa. Much of the 
hill country of Yunnan is denuded of trees, so it was a gratifying 
sight to the missionary to find himself in the midst of trees of 
great height and girth. He stayed in the valley at the house of 
the village elder, and during the four days he spent here visitors 
came from all parts of the surrounding district, remaining 
till late at night and returning to reopen their consultations in 
the early morning. On Friday morning he made an excursion 
to Liu-t'ang-pa in Szechuen five miles away, inspecting a paper 
factory as well as a vast limestone cave at the lower end of the 
valley, a cave which " would have served Jules Verne's purpose 
in his story of the visit to the earth's centre." 

In the afternoon following the visit to the cave Pollard was 
an interested spectator of iconoclasm in this neighbourhood, 
the people having broken away from the old idol- worship avowed 
their intention to worship the one true God in spirit. They 
entered the temple at the invitation of the village elder and were 
face to face with two dozen idols, some of which were so big and 
heavy that it required four men to lift them. Before the deed 
of destruction began Mr. John Lee harangued the idols and the 
people. He reproached the gods for their helplessness. The 
people in this valley were suffering from a long drought, and they 
had lost patience with dead gods who could not answer their 
prayers ; henceforth they would trust in the living God Who 
sends the rains and fruitful seasons. " We are going to dethrqne 
you now and burn you to ashes. If you are true gods, then save 
yourselves and punish us for sacrilege." Some of the villagers, 
alarmed at this defiance of their gods, expected that a lightning 
flash would blast them for their impiety ; but when they saw the 
idols carried out like helpless lumber, and yet no stroke fell upon 
the Christian evangelists, they began to jeer at the idols. Having 
piled them outside the temple, they set fire to them, and they 
burned all the day and following night till not a chip was left. 
Three hours after Mr. Lee's challenge, the weather changed 
and the drought was broken. " The rain fell gently at first as 
though the rain-giver deliberately withheld the downfall till 
the fire had completely destroyed the idols. The Chinese 
J 



134 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Christians regarded the coming of the rain as a direct answer to 
their prayers and as a sign of God's approval of the overthrow 
of the false gods. They said : ' God waited till the false gods 
were beyond saving, and then He sent the heavy showers.' " 
The rain did not extend more than a few li beyond Liu-t'ang-pa. 

On Monday, March 24th, Pollard and his companions left for 
Lao-wa-t'an, where the offence previously given to the authorities 
prevented them from gaining re-admission to the temple of the 
River Lord ; but standing outside the gates of the shrine Mr. 
John Lee told the people what had happened at Liu-t'ang-pa. 
They took turns in preaching and the people stayed to listen till 
midnight. Pollard and his helpers did all they could to encourage 
the inquirers to secure a worship-hall of their own. 

Having sent Mr. Yen and Mr. Wang north to revisit the places 
where he had been and to give the people further teaching, Pollard 
slowly travelled in an opposite direction. At Ho-shao-pa a No-Su 
landlord came to see him and afterwards sent a present, but 
Pollard would only accept the leg of a deer and the servants took 
all the other gifts back again. Chinese etiquette sanctions the 
acceptance of only a small part of a gift when the offering comes 
from one who is not intimate and the donor is only desirous of 
showing his respect. Next he visited Ko Kuei by the Yangtsze, 
and thence travelled back to Chaotong, which he reached on April 
ist, thankful to find that the work had gone on in the city and that 
all had kept well. 

But while this new movement was taking place Pollard was 
perplexed by the difficulties of drawing the converts away from 
the entangling associations of heathenism. Notwithstanding the 
interest which was being really exhibited in Christianity as a 
religion to be inquired into, the Christians still remained an incon- 
siderable minority : so that if the Church were to live and grow 
amid the corrupting and disintegrating influences of heathenism, 
it would have to be by her intense moral unity as a kingdom 
within a kingdom, and to secure this corporate consciousness she 
must show an inexorable aloofness from the surrounding world. 
But eager as he was to win China Pollard would make no 
compromise with idolatry, nor lower the standards of the Church 



SIGNS OF AWAKENING IN YUNNAN 135 

in order to attract any who were not morally in earnest. He 
strove hard to prevent any young Christian from marrying a 
heathen. One incident may suffice to show his strong feeling on 
this point : one of the Christians arranged a marriage between his 
daughter who was a Christian and an idolater. Pollard did all 
he could to prevent this wedding from taking place. Having 
failed to break off the engagement he made a public protest against 
the mixed marriage at the Sunday service. Having explained the 
situation and stated his reasons for protesting against the marriage, 
he lifted a foreign plate which he had brought into the chapel 
and said, " Mr. L. is about to treat his daughter as I treat this 
plate," and he dashed the plate on the floor with such force that 
it broke into fragments. This symbolic action and the vehemence 
of Pollard's feeling made a deep impression which the members 
of the church were not likely to forget. 

At that time China was in such a state of dissatisfaction with 
her old ways that she was almost, if not quite willing, to adopt 
Christianity if the Church did not insist upon rejecting the 
worship of ancestors, and the equation of Confucius with Jesus. 
Although Pollard would make no such compromises as these, 
he used every opportunity for establishing Christianity as an 
ideal and as an institution in North Yunnan. The following 
is his summary of the results of the tour he had just completed : 
" Hundreds of people gave in their names as inquirers, represent- 
ing a community of many thousands ; three chapels were formally 
opened ; three others are in course of preparation. Writing now 
six weeks after our return, and after hearing the report of Mr. Yen 
and Mr. Wang, who are also back, the whole movement seems 
marvellous. In this prefecture of Chaotong there are people from 
thirty-four places asking us to teach them. Most of them are 
Chinese ; but some are Mohammedans, some are Miao, and 
some are I-ren. Nearly all are absolutely ignorant of what real 
Christianity is ; some are moved by impure, selfish motives ; 
but in the movement there is the hand of God plainly and lovingly 



seen." 



He wrote home another of his pleading, heart-searching 
appeals for more workers. " O God ! " he prays, " help us in our 



136 SAMUEL POLLARD 

time of need. Remember these thousands who want to know the 
story of Thy love, but who are still in darkness. Send forth many 
of the labourers who can and who ought to come. Teach them 
to come from love to Thee and for no other reason. Amen." 



CHAPTER VII 
On Tour in Yunnan 

ALTHOUGH Pollard faced many tragic happenings, he did not lose 
his sense of comedy. Whilst governed by a serious and high 
regard for purpose, his mind could be playful and witty. He 
possessed in no mean degree the art of the story-teller, as those 
who have read " Tight Corners " will remember, but to appreciate 
the mingling of vivacity and drollery in his narration of incidents, 
one must imagine Pollard in the midst of a circle of Chinese or 
English friends, around a glowing brazier on a long winter 
evening at some inn, or in his own home, when his mind was 
relaxed and his mood expansive. Stories and interesting incidents 
connected with the journeys of this period will represent the many- 
sidedness of Pollard's interests, and give fresh glimpses of Chinese 
thought and customs. 

There was an interval of six weeks between the first and second 
itineration in the north-east corner of Yunnan, then Pollard and 
Mr. John Lee, the schoolmaster, set off once again for Lao-wa- 
t'an district. At Wu-Chai they found that a fire had left the 
huddled shanties a heap of ruins. " I asked," says Pollard, 
" whether any people had lost their lives ; and they said ' No/ 
but added that many pigs and fowls were roasted to death. I 
recollected Lamb's ' Dissertation upon Roast-Pig,' how Bo-bo 
and Ho-ti deemed that the flavour of the burnt pig more than 
compensated for the disaster of the fire, and inquired if any of 
them had eaten the pork which had been roasted. * No,' they said, 
' the stench alone had made that impossible.' " The answer was 
a disappointing anticlimax. 

From Lao-wa-t'an Pollard came on to T'an-Teo, reaching 



ON TOUR IN YUNNAN 137 

the " Head of the Rapids " before he was expected. Whilst 
waiting at an inn some Chinese related to him a story about the 
god of the silk-spinners : The father of a certain family had gone 
away to the wars leaving a wife and an only daughter. The passing 
of the years made the lonely woman long like Penelope for her 
absent lord. One day the intensity of her desire made her say 
that she would give her daughter in marriage to anyone who 
would bring her husband back to her. There was, however, no 
young suitor who offered to go away in quest of the absent soldier. 
About that time the horse which belonged to the woman broke 
loose and could not be recaptured. But after the lapse of a few 
weeks the lost steed came galloping home with the husband on his 
back. From this time whenever the horse came near the daughter, 
he showed by his neighs and antics that he expected the woman's 
promise to be fulfilled. The distracted mother said she would 
willingly have given her daughter to the meanest beggar, but it 
was impossible for her to give the girl to a horse. Seeing no way 
out of the entanglement they killed the animal and took off its 
skin. Suddenly the skin became reanimated and, leaping up, it 
enveloped the girl in the horse's shape and galloped away. Both 
father and mother ran after the creature, but soon lost sight of it 
among the hills. When they came up, however, to the spot where 
they had caught their last glimpse of it, the parents saw a silk- 
worm spinning, and they concluded that the horse had been 
metamorphosed into the cocoon, and from that hour the Chinese 
silk-spinners worship a centaur a god with a woman's head on a 
horse's body. 

On Saturday, June 6th, 1902, Pollard arrived at Muh-Kan-ho, 
where he and Mr. Lee preached fifteen times to a thousand people. 
In the evening whilst conversing with the folk one of them told 
Pollard a legend about the origin of flies. A man in extreme 
poverty besought Buddha's assistance with such importunity that 
the sage appeared and asked what he wanted. " A little money," 
said the pleader, " a few thousand cash will be enough." Buddha 
was far from pleased with this worldliness, but he pitied the 
victim of poverty and instructed him to bring a few cash strings 
and hang them up at a particular spot. The man obeyed and in 



138 SAMUEL POLLARD 

the morning he found all the strings threaded with cash. Then 
the spirit of covetousness mastered the man's heart and day by 
day he spent his time in twisting as many cash strings as he could. 
Angry with the man because of his inordinate greed, Buddha 
sent Death to him and then caused his soul to take the fashion of a 
swarm of flies. Hence the flies continually rub their fore feet 
together as though they were twisting cash-strings ! 

In these wanderings Pollard's patient endurance of hardships 
and mischances of the road impressed his companions. Years 
afterwards Mr. Stephen Lee said of him : " He was not covetous, 
his clothing, food and dwelling were of little consequence to him 
and were scarcely in his thoughts. What occupied his mind was 
the extension of the Kingdom." From Yongshan he walked 
to Sin-Tien-tsi, alert and observant. " At Ta-tang there was a 
pool with a lot of lizards with stripes down their backs. They 
are about ten inches from nose to tail ; they have four feet 
five claws on each foot and the Chinese call them four-footed 
snakes. They are uncanny to look at. Farther on we passed 
a village where last night a wolf killed several sheep and mangled 
others. I saw one with its legs badly torn ; there were others so 
much injured that the Chinese thought it better to kill them. 
At Sa-u-ho we learned of a big robbery two days ago. A band 
of thirty or forty men entered the village and proceeded to post 
armed guards at the houses warning the people to remain indoors, 
for if they came out they would be slain. Having produced a 
state of terror they attacked a house and stole a thousand ounces 
of opium. The mandarin has arrived here to-day to investigate 
the affair." 

" August 2ist. I saw a caterpillar imitating a snake on a 
wax-insect tree at Siao-long-tong. It was green and striped. If 
you touch it the muscles of its neck crumple up, and it twists its 
hunched body about so that it looks like a snake's head. It was 
most repulsive at a first glance and made me shrink back ; but 
it is quite harmless and simply indulges in a game of bluff." 

" September 3rd. At the time of the fifteenth of the seventh 
moon there is the Feast of all Souls. In connection with this 
festival the people use little clumps of wheat sprouts which 



ON TOUR IN YUNNAN 139 

they grow in plates. When the spirits of the ancestors come 
back to their home, these plates of wheat sprouts are placed on 
the altar so that if the heat of the lamps and candles should be too 
overpowering to the spirits they may find rest and shade in the 
miniature wheat-fields. ... I asked the people if they are 
looking forward to the time when they will seek tranquillity and 
coolness in the groves of wheat sprouts. They laughed." 

" One of our schoolboys named Cheng-ying-seng died on 
September i2th at 9 a.m. Earlier in the morning the grandfather 
knelt by the bedside and told the lad he must not die : ' I look 
forward to your following my body to the grave [literally, escorting 
me up the hill] not to my following your coffin.' The boy 
answered : ' Do not fret, grandfather : it makes me miserable 
to see you so anxious. If I go first, you will be left alone only for 
a few years, and then we shall be together again. Besides, you 
would not have me stay and you go in my place, would you ? ' 
Hearing him say this the old man prayed : * Lord, let him stay ; 
take me in his place. Lord, let him stay ; take me instead ; 
O Lord, take me ! take me ! ' " 

IfReturning from the bungalow a week later Pollard found 
letters awaiting him. " One," he says, " was in Walt's [his 
brother's] handwriting, and it had a few black lines in the corner. 
My heart went ' thump ' at once. I was afraid to open it at first, 
and looked at the other letters. But I had to come to it at last. 
Opening it I took out a card and saw ' Samuel Pollard ' written 
across it. Father died on June aoth, 1902. Father has gone home 
at last ! My grief was great : then the idea came to me What 
does it mean for him ? Heaven ! Jesus ! No more angina 
pectoris ! No more anguish ! Then I thanked God and gave 
utterance to my praise of His mercy. Heaven is richer for us now. 
My prayer is that God willfmake me like my father." 

Pollard remained at Chaotong during the continuance of the 
rainy season and strove to make up for his long absences by 
concentrated and intense activity. That he was able to do so 
much work without breaking down completely was probably 
due to the variety of his occupations conducting services, 
holding preachers' classes, teaching in the school, dispensing 



140 SAMUEL POLLARD 

medicines, and interviewing guests, while he supervised his 

Chinese assistants evangelists and teachers. As October 

approached and the rains slackened he began to make ready 

for his third circuit in the north of the province, setting the 

tasks of the Chinese helpers who were to remain at Chaotong. 

The hearty co-operation of Mr. Hicks enabled Pollard to set 

forth with a light heart, and on October ist the Journal records : 

' ' Mr. Yen, Stephen Lee and I left for another tour. All of us were 

walking. The weather these last days has been cold and wet, but 

yesterday the sun broke through and to-day it has been warm. 

We stayed for awhile at Tsuen-ko with grandfather Cheng : he 

showed us Cheng-ying-seng's little brother, saying that after a 

year or two he would send him in to fill up the gap made in the 

school by the death of the brother." 

While gossiping with a group of Chinese at Ta-Kuan after 
the work of the day had ended Pollard was told a legend concern- 
ing the origin of opium. A goblin (yao-kuai) came in the guise of 
a beautiful woman to deceive men. For a time she associated 
with a young teacher ; one day, however, she lost her way in a 
dark forest and was slain. But being a yao-kuai death could not 
hold her ; she came to life again and joined herself to a wood- 
cutter. He carried her wherever he wished in a box, for she was 
able to make herself very tiny. One day the wood-cutter met the 
young teacher and his desire for the " New Melusina " was only 
equalled by her desire for him. 1 By her witchcraft she obtained 
a thousand taels with which the teacher compensated the wood- 
cutter for his separation from her. These two the young teacher 
and the fair young witch lived together at an inn. At the 
approach of a stranger to their room she would shrink up and 
hide herself in the box. But suspicions were aroused and the 
teacher's old mother heard rumours that her son had sold himself 
to a yao-kuai. At first, as was natural, she refused to believe 
aught that was ill of her son ; yet, as the rumours persisted she 
went to see him. He received her with affection and apparent cor- 
diality. But one day curiosity induced her to open the mysterious 
box, and to her surprise she found in it a liver. " Well," said 
1 cf. " Wilhelm Meister's Travels," chap. xvi. 



ON TOUR IN YUNNAN 141 

the old woman, " I have been living in poverty, never eating any 
meat, and here my son is hiding this liver from me ! " She took 
it out of the box and, before her son came back, carried it off to 
her home and giving the liver to her son's wife told her to cook it. 
When the daughter-in-law cut it with a knife a jet of blood spurted 
out. Greatly distressed was the witch's lover when he discovered 
that the box was empty, but while he was grieving, the goblin- 
spirit appeared and told him all that had happened, saying he must 
go and gather up the blood and put it in the ground. Let him do 
this and next spring she should come to him as a flower. When 
the flower was fully grown he was to slit up the fruit skin and then 
the precious juice would ooze out. Let him scrape this juice 
into a vessel and afterwards smoke it. If he did so she would 
bestow upon him a fragrance and bliss which should surpass 
everything he had known before. So when, next year, the poppy 
grew he recalled the goblin's instructions and carried them out, 
and thus he discovered the opium and its magic joys which can 
overcome the pains of love. " But," said the story-teller, " some 
day the poppy will be destroyed as easily as it was discovered : 
the cotton-plant will cast it out. Even now, a decoction made of 
the inside of the cotton stalks will drive away the craving one feels 
for the opium." 

On the journey Pollard spent his leisure with " Paradise Lost." 
He had not read it for twenty years and he felt its full magnificence 
with a humbling sense of awe. " Thank God for brave old blind 
John Milton ! I read the last three books of the poem right in the 
heart of this great mountainous region." It seemed to him to 
rival the vastness of those everlasting hills and to tower over 
most other poems like some Himalayan peak above lesser heights : 
it kindled not only Pollard's poetic feelings, but also his religion 
and his patriotism, and he looked upon it as one of the glories 
of the British race, agreeing with Dryden's verdict, " This man 
cuts us all out, and the ancients, too." On these heights and by 
such visions the missionary nourished his soul, and so was able 
to meet the demands of every situation with a spiritual freedom 
and strength untainted by petty spites which are often allowed to 
mar the impression of a zealous propaganda. 



142 SAMUEL POLLARD 

It must have seemed a swift transition to lay down his volume 
of " Paradise Lost " to listen to a Siao-Kua-Ch'i man relate the 
following tale : "A poor man at Chaotong paid sixteen cash 
to a fortune-teller asking him to give him a favourable horoscope. 
The futurist readily complied and sketched a career of lucky 
chances and promotion which the man should receive till he 
became a great mandarin. One day he was holding this horoscope 
in his hand as he stood near the Brigadier- General's yamen, when 
the mandarin issued in state from the big doors. In the excite- 
ment and bustle the devotee of Fortune dropped the paper he was 
holding and a gust of wind pitched it into the Chen T'ai's chair. 
The great man picked it up and read it with amazement. He 
thought to himself that if this man is to become so great it would 
be good policy to make an alliance with him. He took steps to 
make his acquaintance and afterwards gave him his daughter in 
marriage, j Years afterwards another man knowing this story 
determined that he would seek a similar fortune. He obtained a 
favourable horoscope for himself and managed to drop it in the 
same way. But it was a mandarin of a different type, who when 
he read the paper judged that the man must be either a fool or a 
knave, and ordered him to be beaten and exposed on the streets 
with a cangue [a heavy wooden collar] round his neck." 

" Yesterday we crossed the Fairy Bridge, five li the other side of 
Chong-ts'uen at Kioh-pan-ai ; it is built on the side of a cliff, and 
consists of huge slabs of stone resting on supports which have 
been driven right into the cliff. It was only when one looked 
through the cracks that one became aware of the black chasm 
below. The people said no mortals could have made such a road ; 
it could only have been made by fairies. To-day the first part 
of the journey was not striking, except for the K'u-lien-tsi trees, 
tall and slender, many of them growing on the banks of the rice 
fields. The middle part of the road was often in a river-bed, 
crossing and recrossing on stepping-stones, some of which were 
shaky. Once the road wound around the middle of a cliff with a 
big fall : a railing of stone bounded part of the pathway, but in 
many parts this had broken away, and I held my breath as I passed 
along. After fifty li we came down to Huei Ch'i on the Yangtsze. 



ON TOUR IN YUNNAN 143 

At this place the river narrows and forms a dangerous rapid. As 
we were watching, a small boat-load of coolies came down : it 
was exciting to see them shoot the rapid ; but they got over 
safely." 

At Huei Ch'i Pollard led two hundred people who were curious 
about foreigners into a temple and preached to them. Some 
were so attracted that they proposed to pay the missionary to 
remain as their professional teacher. One man actually collected 
money and offered it to him for his services. During the evening 
three hundred people gathered to listen to the visitors. They 
preached on and on for an hour and a half and used up seven small 
Chinese candles. They stopped at last because their voices were 
tired. 

Again at Tsing-ti-pa they were followed by a noisy mob in the 
style of the rowdy days of old. They preached for about two 
hours to nearly five hundred people. Some of their hearers told 
them no one had ever preached the Gospel at this place before, 
and only one .foreigner is remembered, who came in the reign of 
the Emperor T'ong Chi. 

On December 8th, 1902, they were on the road to Chang-hai- 
tsi or " Long Sea," a place which Pollard was to visit very often 
in later years. " We passed," he says, " a lot of men carrying 
coffin boards and sugar across these hills to Chaotong. Some of 
the boards weigh about two hundred catties [catty =i lb.] : 
the coolies who carry them travel the seventy miles in about 
eight days. When we reached the ravine we rested to light a 
fire and make coffee. The view across to Babuland was wonder- 
ful ; the clouds glistened in the sun like a field of snow. It was 
very cold at Chang-hai-tsi and we could got neither rice nor a 
bed. At last we secured part of a loft where we all slept. Under us 
were three horses, ten pigs and four cows : imagine the squealing 
and stamping during the night as the pigs wandered about among 
the horses ! We were smoked by a. wood fire near by, which 
reduced us to perpetual weeping. The old lady of the house slept 
in the same loft though she climbed up the other end of the 
stable to get in. There were eight of us in our bedchamber, 
and yet it was bitterly cold. Guests often sleep together under a 



144 SAMUEL POLLARD 

coverlet, and it happens sometimes that a late arrival will push in 
between two sleepers for warmth the Chinese call this ' pushing 
in a wedge.' " 

Pollard made four journeys in this year of 1902 and was away 
from his home four months. He endured many hardships and 
risks ; but the new scenes and exciting incidents nourished his 
love of adventure and stirred in him dreams of a great extension 
of the Kingdom of God. He was received by the Chinese not 
only as an ambassador of Christ, but also as the herald and teacher 
of Western civilisation, for at this time they were more eager to 
discover the secret of Western civilisation than to learn the new 
religion. Yet Pollard did not contemn the genius of the East ; he 
thought that while the West at present excels in mechanical inven- 
tiveness, in the Orient a deeper wisdom could be found ; " for 
with us nothing has time to gather meaning." 



CHAPTER VIII 
A Great Opportunity 

THROUGHOUT the third tour (1902) in this new evangelism, 
Pollard was both training and testing his assistants, and also 
striving to find out the best centres at which to place them so 
that they might take charge and set him free to pursue more 
consecutive teaching at Chaotong. He wondered whether it 
might not be advisable to station a teacher at the village of 
Ku-li-chang, where, as he says, " the hearts of some of the people 
seem really touched and they appear to understand the meaning 
of the Christian message." He was afraid that the Chinese 
women might prove more conservative than the men, and urged 
the converts and inquirers to instruct their wives so that they 
would not wish to hinder the spread of the new religion. In 
answer to this particular exhortation one of the Chinese remarked 
complacently that, in his district, " women's power is small ; 
men's is great." The missionary's dry comment was : " I doubt 
the truthfof this." 



A GREAT OPPORTUNITY 145 

Two hours' walking from Ku-li-chang brought them to Liu- 
Kiang-Ch'i where they entered a tea-shop kept by Mr. Tai, and 
held a religious service with those who followed them. A great 
sensation was created when Mr. Tai openly repudiated idolatry 
and took down his household gods and burnt them. 

Some days after this they started for Hwei-li-ch'ang with a 
company of fifty or sixty inquirers and were met there by the 
militia and saluted with rifles and crackers. Both in the afternoon 
and evening services Pollard had the help of recent converts. 
Of one, Mr. Chen of Siao-tu-li, he says : " He gave evidence in 
his speech of God's spirit being with him. The singing went 
with gusto. They sang * All hail the power of Jesu's name,' which 
they had practised on the boat, and it went splendidly." At a 
smaller meeting Pollard chose the best-qualified men to be 
leaders and committed to them the direction of the work. 

From Fu-kuan-tsuen a band of earnest young students wrote to 
Mr. Pollard, begging him to help them to secure a suitable build- 
ing by placing their case before the Chaotong prefect. Though 
" some tens of believers " wished to rent a place the local 
opposition was too strong. The letter was signed by three young 
literary graduates and a fourth student as " believing disciples." 
Four months later Pollard was on his way to this place to open the 
chapel which they had got. He says : " About five li from the city 
several Chinese graduates met us in full dress. A messenger 
with the mandarin's card gave us welcome and we were escorted 
the rest of the way by twenty soldiers. We entered the town with 
a procession of twenty-seven military men, armed with rifles, 
spears, tridents, and swords, and some blowing trumpets. As 
we entered the city thousands of crackers were let off eighteen 
thousand in all. Thousands of people watched us come in. Tea 
was prepared for us at an inn where a room had been specially 
got ready. Afterwards we preached from three tables in front. 
The room was -full of inquirers and outside were hundreds of 
people. Several soldiers were keeping guard who played the first 
and second watch battues and then fired the evening signal. 
Such a noisy, tiring, and trying, yet happy day ! " 

" Sunday, November 23rd, 1902. I called on the mandarins 



146 SAMUEL POLLARD 

and they returned my calls. We held three services. At night the 
crowd was large and the room was full of inquirers. We had a 
band to lead the singing : one graduate played a two-stringed 
fiddle, and two scholars played flutes. They played the music of 
the hymns from Chinese notation written out by Mr. Lee." 

" At the Monday night service five young graduates testified 
of their conversion to the ' Jesus religion ' and exhorted the people 
to give up the worship of idols. Mr. Nieh preached over again 
the substance of a sermon he heard from me at Huei-li-cheo, 
and did it earnestly. As these men spoke one after another it 
made my heart warm. . . . The whole movement is marvellous." 
They left the Yangtsze and followed a small tributary through 
a beautiful country. " About twenty li from Huei-li-cheo we 
came to Ko-chuen-t'an where we had tea and then went out to 
preach. Mr. Chen, a doctor, entered into conversation with us. 
Having listened to our teaching with seeming understanding he 
expressed a wish to join the Christian Church. Here also we met 
people who said that no one had ever preached the Gospel in 
this place before. After a few days we came on to Tsing-ti-pa, 
one of the busiest markets in the Chaotong district. Here we 
counted scores of whitewashed towers which are fortified refuges 
to which the people flee when the Mantsi robbers come over the 
border. Two days later I stood on the field where the Chinese 
soldiers had recently fought a pitched battle with the raiders and 
defeated them. From one eminence I could count sixty-four 
towers on the Yunnan side of the river : had it been a fine day 
I might have seen forty more. These fortresses are a sure sign 
of the insecurity of life and property in those parts." 

Such journeys took Pollard repeatedly into those parts of 
Yunnan where the famous wax-insect tree flourishes. The wax- 
insect is described by Vicomte d'Ollone as " a kind of yellow- 
spotted ladybird " which is bred on a species of privet, or large 
laurel tree an evergreen growing from five to twelve feet high 
and found principally in the Lolo country. Both the blossom 
and the berries resemble those of the elder tree. The insects 
appear on the branches early in the year in the form of little 
swellings, or growths like warts, or galls which grow like tiny 



A GREAT OPPORTUNITY 147 

snail shells on the branches. If one of these shells is picked off 
it will break and a sticky juice exude. Besides this juice there 
is, right at the core, a small yellow deposit which upon examina- 
tion is seen to be a mass of minute grubs. 

Pollard was told that three kinds of insects live in the shell 
and emerge at different times. The first kind has wings and 
flies about until the wings drop off and then it crawls. A 
second breed lays eggs and is called by the Chinese the red 
sand insect. At a later stage a tiny white creature appears 
which deposits the white wax, and this is called the white sand 
insect. If this be a correct account, we must remember that 
the Chinese are not trained observers of nature each shell is as 
interesting as a beehive. 

At the end of April and the beginning of May, just before the 
shells burst and let out the myriads of grubs, men come from 
Szechuen and Hunan and purchase the insect crops on the trees. 
The wax-insect carriers when they reach the frontier of the in- 
dependent Lolo country make an agreement with the No-Su to 
protect them while in their unconquered territory. These men 
then gather the insects off the trees, leaving sufficient for breeding 
next year. Those that are so left are put into little bundles of 
straw and fastened on to the trees and a little later the grubs come 
out and spread all over the trees, each insect becoming the pro- 
ducer of a fresh nest or shell. Those that are gathered are wrapped 
in paper, or in packages of brown fibre, each package weighing 
about twenty-four ounces ; two crates of these contain sixty-six 
packets and make one load. 

At the season of the Insect Festival thousands of these carriers 
rush from the uplands of Yunnan to Western Szechuen or 
Hunan, in a long single file, marching two days' journey in one for 
ten days or a fortnight. The inns and prices are all doubled at 
this season, and the carriers " have to pave their way with silver as 
they go." This forced march becomes more exciting towards the 
end of the journey, for it is a race against time. The insects 
become lively and begin to emerge, and the floors of the inns 
and the boats on which the men travel are covered with what 
looks like yellow reddish dust, but what is really myriads of insects. 



148 SAMUEL POLLARD 

The carriers know that this is the first swarm of grubs and they 
grow anxious to reach their destination before the innermost 
shell bursts and sets free its minute colonists. If they succeed 
in getting home in time each load will sell for twenty or more 
taels. 

The insects are placed on certain trees, and coming out of their 
shells they spread all over the branches and produce a valuable 
white wax. The Chinese simply say that the insects deposit the 
wax on the trees, or that Ishey produce, the wax, but travellers 
say that the insects prick and perforate the tissues of the trees 
and cause the wax to flow out of them. This wax is greatly 
prized because it does not melt as readily as other fats and can 
be used for the outer coating of candles. The thing, however, 
which Pollard insists on as so remarkable is that the insects will 
breed only in Yunnan, and form the wax only on trees that grow 
in the lower reaches of Szechuen and Hunan. Although Pollard 
would have made no claim to be among the first of travellers to 
find out about these peculiar insects, still it is due to him to give 
the results of his ceaseless curiosity and inquiries in this matter. 
It was a disappointment to him that though he had catechised 
both Chinese and No-Su about the wax insect, and frequently 
examined the grub at different stages of its development in 
Yunnan, he was unable to complete his inquiries at those places 
where the wax was actually produced. 

At the beginning of February, 1903, Pollard was once more 
busy in Chaotong, throwing all his energies into a special mission 
in which he aimed at arousing in the city an inquiry and a favour- 
able consideration of the claims of Christianity which should 
correspond to the awakening throughout the rest of the prefecture. 
While these services were going on Mr. W. E. Geil, the author of 
" The Yankee on the Yangtsze " arrived, and this traveller gave 
the address at the evening service which Pollard translated into 
Chinese. Mr. Geil says in his account of this visit : " When 
the eloquent missionary, Pollard, preached, the literary men, the 
merchants, coolies, and in fact, all classes, listened with the closest 
attention. Beyond all question the efforts made by the mission- 
aries here are making a profound impression on the city." The 



A GREAT OPPORTUNITY 149 

same writer says : " At the Mission house I was heartily greeted 
and welcomed by the wife of the missionary and his two fine 
boys, one of whom had already mastered two books of Euclid, 
though not yet nine years of age." 

At the close of the mission Pollard accompanied his guest 
as far as Yunnan Fu. Eleven years had passed and what 
eventful years ! since he left the capital. As he wandered 
through its streets he recalled old memories and thought : "It 
was a policy of suicide to work in the out-of-the-way places we 
used to live in." It seemed to him that the people were as anti- 
foreign as ever, when he saw outside the French Consul's door the 
opprobrious epithet : " Yang kuei-tsi," or " foreign devil." 
Greatly as Pollard longed to have a strong mission in this city, he 
recognised that it was impossible to reopen work unless the 
mission staff were more than doubled. At the Annual Meeting 
held at Chaotong in April, 1903, he says : " For a long time we 
have realised that only through native agency can the masses 
be reached. To do a far-reaching work we need now twenty good 
native workers, and we have not half that number. . . . This 
year we have accepted four men as probationers of the first year. 
A regular course of study has been drawn up, and examinations 
are to be held as at home." He wrote pleading that two hundred 
and fifty pounds should be sent out towards the erection of a 
training institution. 

In these journeys necessary as they were Pollard felt that 
separation from his family and home was a real sacrifice. A 
gentler and more affectionate husband and father could scarcely 
be, yet a third of the year he was absent from the hearth, and from 
this time the absences grew more frequent and of longer duration. 
So it came about that the children enjoyed but little of his com- 
panionship. Sometimes he was grieved that his boys seldom 
had the pleasure of mingling with other English children. In 
April of 1903 he rejoices at the fact that there were eight English 
children in the house at once ; " they had such a glorious time ! " 
Few missionaries have been able to acquire such intimate 
relations with the Chinese as Pollard formed and yet how great the 
distance between the two nations English and Chinese may 

K 



150 SAMUEL POLLARD 

be estimated by the practice of child-betrothals : " A woman came 
a few days ago and admired Bertram, who was then four years old, 
and asked Mrs. Pollard if she had found a wife for him yet ! " 
Mrs. Pollard had to undertake the early education of the boys, and 
her success must have been very great to have prepared them to 
compete with other boys when they came to England. Her 
activities, however, were by no means confined to her children, 
as the Journal shows : " Sunday, March agth, 1903. Emmie 
took Erh Tsueh's class. There are six classes in our Sunday 
School : four native teachers and two foreigners." Again : 
" April 22nd. Emmie has started an English school this week for 
our own children and for those of the Tremberths." 

The Rev. W. Tremberth about this time returned from 
furlough, and was appointed to build and to superintend the 
school for the training of youths for the Christian ministry. 
The coming also of two fresh missionaries, Miss Bull and the 
Rev. H. Parsons, encouraged Pollard to hope that they might be 
able if the Committee were resolute, to pursue with more vigour 
" the forward movement " north of Chaotong. In one of his 
letters the Rev. C. Hicks says : " These men have sought us 4 . 
They come from places which until last year had never been 
visited by Protestant missionaries. What do these men want, and 
why have they sought us ? These are questions we all find it 
difficult to answer. The movement is very mysterious. It 
seemed, however, our bounden duty to do our utmost to instruct 
the people. We believe that Providence has opened for us a great 
door and effectual, and woe to us if we preach not the Gospel I" 1 

Accompanied by three Chinese evangelists Pollard started 
on Thursday, April 23rd, 1903, on his fifth tour northward a 
journey which lasted ten weeks. A score or more of Chinese 
escorted them the first few miles. At Lao-wa-t'an Pollard found 
the Confucianist students desirous of having a " Jesus Hall " 
built in their town. " In the afternoon," he says, " we went to 
Kuan-T'ien-pa. During the evening we preached for two hours. 
The Lord was manifestly in our midst. It seemed as if some were 
moved. I felt very happy in telling the story of the love and life 

1 The Bible Christian Magazine, October, 1903. 



A GREAT OPPORTUNITY 151 

of Jesus. I felt convinced that if we had a place here and a good 
man in charge we should gather in a harvest." 

The Chinese evangelists were very pertinacious in their attacks 
on idolatry, and inquirers and converts were persuaded from 
time to time to make a clean break with their past by open 
renunciation of idol- worship. After considerable vacillation a 
Mr. Kueh consented to get rid of his idols. When his mother 
heard of this intention, she came to his house and for pity's sake 
carried off the household gods to look after them, as Mr. Kueh 
refused to keep them any longer : he said that what at last had 
brought him to decision, was a dream he had of being visited by 
five men in shining garments, whom he identified with the 
missionaries. Two days after the renunciation of his idols his 
youngest child died ; but he did not allow this trial to reverse 
his decision. After a long time Mr. Yen, the Chinese 
evangelist, persuaded Mr. Kueh's mother to allow the idols she 
had rescued from her son to be burnt in the yard of the house. 
In another case a Christian woman was dying, and her son wished 
to hire wizards to exorcise the spirit who was supposed to be 
afflicting her ; but the father replied : " Not if the whole house- 
hold dies to a man ! Never again will we indulge in these 
heathen practices ! " 

Pollard found the inquirers at various places very desirous of 
purchasing or building chapels. At Hwang Ping-chee the people 
pulled down the temple of Heaven and Earth, and put the idols 
into a niche in the great rock at the back, and on the site of the old 
temple they put up a new hall for the worship of Jesus. At 
Fu-Kuan when Pollard was preaching in front of the yamen the 
mandarin passed out of the gates, and seeing the missionary he 
ordered his chairmen to halt so that he might listen. He after- 
wards visited Pollard and discussed some dispute between the 
Roman Catholics and Protestants. He was insistent upon Pollard's 
placing a qualified evangelist in charge of the work in this town. 
It was a sign of a vast change in the mind of China that an officer 
of the State should make such a request. Pollard told him that 
he was appointing Mr. Yen to take charge of the work at Lao- 
wa-t'an and Mr. Lee, B.A., to be pastor at Fu-Kuan. 



152 SAMUEL POLLARD 

They took passages on a boat going to An-Pien near Sui Fu. It 
was by no means a pleasant journey as the boat was crowded with 
the carriers of the wax insect, and their obscene language made 
Pollard miserable. At night the inn where he stayed was uncom- 
fortably full and very noisy. He was utterly fatigued and sought 
to forget the discomforts by going early to bed. But just as he was 
about to fall asleep a Chinese gentleman was shown into his room : 
he had come with the sole object of inquiring about the Christian 
faith. All sense of weariness fell away at once and Pollard sat 
up to give whatever instruction he could. He was much impressed 
by the stranger's earnest manner, and his conversation made 
Pollard think that he had been brought here on purpose that he 
might give his message to this visitor. 

As soon as he got back again to Chaotong he assisted Dr. Savin 
to acquire a site suitable for building a house and hospital. On 
the first Sunday in October the church celebrated its harvest 
festival. Pollard divided all the members into little groups and 
gave to each a certain part of the chapel to decorate. Having 
devised a scheme of decoration for the whole, each group devoted 
its attention to its own segment of the building. This idea of 
publicly thanking God for the harvest always elicited the interest 
of the Chinese Christian and heathen alike and about seven 
hundred and fifty people attended the services on Sunday. 

For the next six months Pollard was busily engaged in the 
various activities of the Mission in the city, making only short 
excursions from time to time to see how Mr. Lee and Mr. Yen 
were progressing at their respective stations at Fu-Kuan and 
Lao-wa-t'an. At Chaotong itself he gave willing assistance to 
Dr. Savin in the erection of the hospital. He also paid con- 
siderable attention to the development of the school work. The 
problems of education were occupying the thoughts of the 
mandarins throughout the eighteen provinces. Attempts were 
made to widen the curriculum of students who were preparing for 
Government examinations. One day in May, 1904, the Chaotong 
prefect paid a visit to Pollard with that elaborate ceremonial by 
which the Chinese signalise the importance of an occasion. The 
prefect in the course of conversation informed him that he was 



A GREAT OPPORTUNITY 153 

sending one or two students to Japan. As the students had to be 
examined in mathematics, he asked Pollard to set the test paper, 
frankly owning that he knew nothing about the subject. When 
the missionary consented the mandarin proposed diffidently that 
Pollard should also examine the papers of the candidates. The 
Journal has this entry: ",May aoth, 1904, I took a set of five 
questions across some of the sums which my boy had done : 
one mensuration, one algebra, and three arithmetic." The 
following Wednesday records the unsatisfactory result : " Five 
papers were sent me by the prefect : one candidate answered two 
questions, two answered one, and two answered none. 
Badly done." Humiliating as this may have seemed to the 
Chinese, it was an inevitable result of the absence of Western 
teachers. The manner in which the Chinese have striven to 
repair this lack in recent years is worthy of highest praise. 

It is due to the Chinese evangelists to acknowledge that the 
great propaganda which was being carried on in so many towns 
and villages throughout the prefecture could never have been 
sustained without their assistance. Both Mr. Yen and Mr. Li 
(Lee) endured many severe tests, separated from the encourage- 
ments of home and fellow- Christians. Mr. Yen had been a 
silk merchant before his conversion, and as the years passed he 
found it was a great drawback in his work that he did not belong 
to the student class ; but he had won the respect of the foreign 
missionaries by the unflinching loyalty he exhibited at the time 
of the Boxer unrest. Writing to Mr. Pollard from Lao-wa-t'an 
he tells him that those who first gave in their names as inquirers 
were not keeping the rules of the church. There were others 
who were impatient to become members and he had to urge 
upon them the necessity of being fully instructed before taking 
such an important step. In his own experience the light had 
come to him very slowly and after much confusion of thought, and 
he was unlikely to understand the intuitive appreciation of truth 
in'swifter minds. He relates the story of one of the young con- 
verts who was removed from Lao-wa-t'an to another town where 
there was no Christian church. The young fellow had written to 
the evangelist saying that even if his family cut him off hefwould 



154 SAMUEL POLLARD 

remain firm. " He knows," said Mr. Yen, " that his soul is ten 
thousand times more precious than food and clothing ; even if 
he is reduced to hunger he will not go back." 

At Fu-Kuan Mr. Lee, B.A., had to meet persecution and mis- 
understanding. Having rejected an inquirer whose motives were 
obviously wrong, the man went to the Roman Catholics and by his 
false statements stirred the priests to anger against the Protestants. 
Mr. Lee wrote a long account of the matter to Mr. Pollard and 
concludes his epistle with these words : " The church at Fu- 
Kuan has just reached the stage of sowing in tears. I respect 
[admire] the work of the Holy Spirit. When I preach I realise 
the wonder of it. When I think of it I know that it must be that 
the prayers of Chaotong have gone right into Heaven." In 
another letter Mr. Lee gave an account of a local attempt at a place 
between Sui Fu and Fu-Kuan to revive Boxerism. It was a 
medley of perverted patriotism, hatred of Christians and beliefs 
in the power of magic rites. Mr. Lee relates the swift action on 
the part of the mandarin in sending a company of soldiers to put 
down this dangerous rebellion. Before the soldiers reached the 
place, however, one of the Christians was murdered by the Boxers. 
" In the second moon," says Mr. Lee, " Mr. Parsons went to 
Mr. Chu's home and helped him to clear away all his idols. There 
were only two of them in the family husband and wife the 
lute and the harp harmoniously accorded. Morn and night they 
closed the doors and together sang and prayed. As a man he was 
loyal and honest ; when reviled by others he did not indulge in 
recriminations ; when he was injured he submitted. On the 
nineteenth of the ninth moon at Ch'ong-t'ien-ts'ao, the magicians 
and the Red Lantern sect of the Pearly Emperor set up their 
altars, invited the spirits, saluted the flags and exalted the demons. 
They arrested Chu and cursed him saying : ' You ought not to 
have brought that foreign devil, Parsons, to insult the gods and 
overthrow the images.' Afterwards they told him that if he 
would worship the Pearly Emperor and bow to the gods they 
would spare his life and not destroy his house. Chu showed no 
fear, but answered : ' Only one is true that is Jesus.' While he 
was speaking the magician in great anger slew him, cut off his head 



A GREAT OPPORTUNITY 155 

and offered it in sacrifice to the Pearly Emperor, scattering the 
blood on the flags. So^this^man for the Lord's sake was loyal to 
the end." 

In reviewing this period of mission work in the north-east of 
Yunnan one marvels at its success. It was the first great oppor- 
tunity that had come to the Mission. 

; Even the Manchus now recognised that only a great reformation 
could save the Empire. The result was a total overthrow of the 
policy of intransigent opposition to the men who represented 
Western civilisation and the Christian religion. Instead of 
scorning the missionaries great numbers of Chinese welcomed 
them as their best instructors and guides. Pollard found himself 
persona grata with Chinese of all ranks who treated him with 
the honours of an important mandarin. Had the Mission been 
ready for this national change, or had reinforcements been sent 
speedily enough, it would have been practicable to establish a 
chain of churches from Chaotong to Yunnan Fu in the south, 
and from the same city to Sui Fu in the north. 

There was genuine heroism in the way Pollard and his 
colleagues grappled with the new situation, in Pollard's sacrifice 
of all the amenities of home life, in the series of perilous journeys 
he made on foot with a little band of Chinese Christians to carry 
the Evangel to the towns, markets, and villages in the north-east 
of Yunnan. He believed that one of those rare crises in history 
had come when the destiny not of China alone but of all Asia 
and Europe might be decided by the answer which the Christian 
Church made to the appeal of the awakening Chinese. The 
blindness and apathy of the Churches when face to face with such 
a unique opportunity, and the failure of his own Missionary 
Society to arouse the Christians of England to offer adequate re- 
sponse to his appeals filled him with anger and dismay. European 
nations were obsessed with false ideals of political aggrandise- 
ment and were unable to understand the revolution going on in 
the mind of China, and the errand opportunity of 1903-4 was 
largely lost. 



BOOK III 

AMONG THE TRIBES OF WEST CHINA 

(1905-1910) 

CHAPTER I 
The Aboriginal Clans of Yunnan and Kweichow 

SUDDENLY Pollard's activities were diverted from his 
task of evangelising the Chinese to a totally new work among 
the aborigines of Yunnan and Kweichow. As early as 1888 
the Rev. S. T. Thorne wrote of his having met at Huan P'ing with 
some representatives of a mountain race, unconquered and 
independent, who lived on the Szechuen side of the Yangtsze. 
A little later the Rev. T. G. Vanstone, half-consciously fore- 
casting future events, expressed a belief that his young colleague, 
S. Pollard, would some day be greatly used in the evangelisation 
of the aboriginal tribes of West China of whose history not much 
is known. They are recorded to have resisted the Chinese 
administration at the end of Yung Cheng's reign and also during 
Ch'ien Lung's rule in the eighteenth century, when they were 
pacified by diplomacy and clemency and not by force of arms. 

In 1877 W. E. Colborne Baber explored Lolo land, whose 
inhabitants are variously styled, Lolos, Si-fans, and Mantsi, but 
who should be known as No-Su. This mountainous enclave is 
estimated to cover about 11,000 square miles. Apart from the 
missionaries Roman Catholic and Protestant the most success- 
ful explorer of the Lolo country was Vicomte d'Ollone who crossed 
the Great Cold Mountains in 1906. He asserts that though all 
the western provinces of the Middle Empire were won by con- 
quest from non-Chinese populations, yet three sections of the 

156 



THE ABORIGINAL CLANS 157 

people invincibly opposed subjugation and still retain their 
independence. These are the Miao-tze in Kweichow, the Lolos 
in Szechuen, and the Si-fan in the north of Tibet. 1 

Missionaries and travellers have experienced difficulty in 
discovering the actual political relations between the Chinese 
and the aboriginal tribes, owing, on the one hand, to the reticence 
of the Chinese, and on the other, to the tribesmen's dislike of all 
intruders. The Chinese came to Yunnan during the Ming 
dynasty in 1380 and took possession of certain plains and valleys. 
In 1727 the Manchu Emperor, Yung Cheng, sought to extend the 
conquest of Yunnan, and some of the tribes surrendered and 
were scattered among the new Chinese settlers. Others of the 
No-Su race, refusing to live in subjection, crossed the Yangtsze 
and dwelt among the impregnable mountain ranges of Szechuen. 
From that time these tribes have held their territory with dauntless 
valour. They live in villages among the Great Cold Mountains 
Ta- Liang-Shan hating the Chinese, and in former days used to 
pour down in battle array to harry, burn, and raid. 

Plains comprise about one-fifteenth of the province of Yunnan, 
and on them the Chinese outnumber other races ; but among the 
mountains the aboriginal tribes probably number more than 
five millions. In the north-west many clans appear to be of 
Tibetan origin. In the west, where Yunnan borders Burma, are 
the Kachins and the Pa-laungs. Throughout the interior the 
No-Su, Li-Su, and Miao are widely scattered. On some plains 
are the Shans and the Ming-Chia tribes. Clans of kindred tribes 
are found in other provinces as well in the mountain villages 
of Fukien, the hilly districts of Hunan, in Szechuen, Kwang-si, 
and Kweichow. Comparison of their vocabularies indicates that 
the non-Chinese races of Yunnan, exclusive of the Tibetans, are 
principally the No-Su, Shan, and Miao. 2 The Shans, or Chiang 
Chia tribes, are described as " a short, but very strongly made 
race, yellow in complexion, with features of a decidedly Mongo- 
lian type." The No-Su are tall, straight-featured, fairish people, 
possibly of Tibetan extraction. There are kindred tribes of 

1 " In Forbidden China," pp. 11,12. 

2 " The Chinese Empire," by M. Broomhall, p. 243. 



158 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Li-Su, La-hu, La-Ka, and Kop'u. The Chinese call these 
branches of the No-Su, I-ren or " foreigners." The third great 
non- Chinese race is the Miao, or Mhong, of whom communities 
are widely scattered over south-west China. They seem most 
numerous in Kweichow and are divided into three clans the 
Black, the White, and the Flowery (Variegated) Miao, the Black 
being probably most numerous in Kweichow, and the Flowery 
in Yunnan. Each of these tribes has its own dialect. Major 
Davies 1 says they are of medium height, with more regular 
features than the Chinese. In Kweichow the Miao have a great 
name as warriors, but in Yunnan are so scattered that they are 
always surrounded by more powerful neighbours and not able 
to assert themselves. They are thus shy and timid, and live 
usually in out-of-the-way places on the tops of the ranges. 

In order to render the mass movement which Pollard and his 
fellow-missionaries directed intelligible, we must distinguish 
between the warlike tribes of No-Su who live in Independent 
Lolo land and are called Mantsi, or Babus, and the Miao of 
Yunnan and Kweichow. According to d'Ollone, the independent 
Lolos live under the feudal system. All the soil belongs to the 
seigneurs. The latter practise the art of war before all else, but 
do not neglect letters. Agriculture to them is the work of Chinese 
serfs kidnapped from the plains. " The slaves are not ill-treated 
provided they are obedient and do not run away. They form 
several stereotyped classes usually three. At the end of several 
generations of good service, the slave is customarily freed and 
becomes a serf. The class of serfs, which has also its own 
hierarchy of classes, sometimes contains at the summit broken 
nobles, generally those who have been defeated in war, and who, 
refusing to accept the yoke of the conqueror, go elsewhere to seek 
the protection of some powerful seigneur. Finally, right at the 
top of the hierarchy are the nzemo, or princes," whose power 
depends on the man wielding it. A rich and active prince can 
make his authority respected, while another will enjoy no in- 
fluence beyond his personal estate. These nzemos possess the 
rights of suzerainty but do not in any sense govern their vassals,* 

1 " Yunnan," p. 311. 2 "In Forbidden China," p. 621 



THE ABORIGINAL CLANS 159 

Even the aboriginal tribes in Yunnan and Kweichow, though 
more subject to Chinese mandarins, are governed by their feudal 
chiefs. The Tu-muh, or seigneurs, often possess vast estates with 
hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of tenants. These chiefs 
are nearly all " black-blooded "i.e., " blue-blooded " No-Su. 
No-Su tenants are usually styled " White No-Su." Most of the 
tenants, however, are Miao, and are practically serfs, who not only 
pay rent in kind but also cultivate the laird's farms. 

Lolo, the name by which these people are widely known, is a 
sort of Chinese nickname from the lo-lo, or tiny basket, in 
which are preserved the short bamboo tubes containing the 
names and spirits of their ancestors. Knowledge of their written 
language appears to be confined almost exclusively to the pi-mo, 
a distinct class who act as tutors to their chief's children and 
preserve the books of the tribe. Pollard inclined to think that the 
No-Su " characters " were modifications of Chinese ideographs. 
They are read from top to bottom of the page, but begin at the 
left instead of the right side. 

There are No-Su traditions of an earlier civilisation and a more 
sumptuous and cultivated life. They have no arts and few in- 
dustries. They are a race of warriors, and a No-Su's first desire 
is for a horse and rifle. They are men of fine physique, muscular 
and often handsome. The chiefs build strong fortresses, but the 
serfs live in hovels of mud or reeds. On festive occasions the 
seigneurs indulge in ostentatious and lavish hospitality. When 
inflamed with wine the No-Su are quarrelsome and then fighting 
begins among them. The No-Su women, however, often stop 
these brawls by stepping into the meUe and taking hold of the 
horn which is so marked a feature of the men's head-dress : a 
woman will only seize her own husband in this way, and as a rule 
the man yields to his wife's intervention and withdraws from the 
fracas. 

Feuds of almost forgotten origin are handed down from one 
generation to another. The seigneur leads his retainers forth to 
fight the hereditary enemy, to burn the houses and the fortress 
of another clan, not because of any new grievance, but because 
their fathers had been opposed in the dim past or because the 



160 SAMUEL POLLARD 

warriors have grown tired of inaction. Sometimes the struggle 
is transferred from the hillside to the Chinese yamen, and the 
No-Su chiefs are impoverished by litigation and gradually lose 
their ancestral estates. 

It is often supposed that the No-Su were the original inhabitants 
of the Chaotong district, but the Rev. C. E. Hicks denies this. 1 
They have a tradition that their ancestors came from Tibet and 
found Chaotong plain occupied by a dark, small-statured race 
dwelling in caves. Many of the earthen mounds on the plain are 
thought to be connected with the Yao-ren of a previous age. 
When uncovered these mounds have been found to contain rough 
stones and burnt bricks marked with a peculiar pattern. The war- 
like No-Su are reputed to have driven the Yao-ren into Szechuen, 
although the Chinese say that the Yao race are the same people 
as the aborigines in Kwangtung. D'Ollone found traces of these 
Yao in the north of Yunnan and maintains that they are the men 
whom he had observed in Tongking. The bearing of such 
ethnographical discoveries is obvious. " Certain tribes of French 
Indo- China are evidently representatives of a race which has 
occupied enormous tracts of territory, and which, according 
to some Chinese historians, has played an important part in 
history, and to-day, in all probability, owing to the alliance of the 
conquerors with the women of conquered races, they still form 
the basis of numerous populations." At the beginning of the 
eighteenth century the Manchus drove the No-Su back into the 
hills, and then built the city of Chaotong, exacting tribute and 
submission from the scattered fragments of the No-Su tribe. 

D'Ollone says that the No-Su are " pure theists. They have 
no religious worship properly so-called : neither temples, nor 
priests, nor ceremonies in which people can participate. But 
they believe in one God, perfect and omnipotent, and in a male- 
ficent spirit. After death the good are called to God and the 
wicked are tormented by the demon. But, as a rule, the dead 
man has been neither wholly good nor wholly bad ; he therefore 
spends three years in roaming the earth around his home, inter- 
vening in events, and the celestial judgment is deferred until the 

1 The Chinese Recorder, March, 1900. 



THE ABORIGINAL CLANS 161 

end of that period." 1 Hicks says that ancestor worship seems 
as natural to them as to the Chinese though it takes a different 
form. Instead of ancestral tablets they use the little lo-lo or 
baskets to which reference has already been made. Formerly, 
the bodies of the dead were burned with wood, and the mourners 
danced and chanted about the pyre. The Babus, that is, the 
independent No-Su, still observe this custom ; but in districts 
where Chinese rule obtains the No-Su commonly adopt Chinese 
burial customs. 

Dr. Lilian Dingle, who stayed about two weeks at the home 
of a No-Su chief, says : " The Babus have a curious custom 
of killing a lamb once a year, and with a bunch of bamboo twigs 
dipped in the blood they smear the doors of the houses. They 
remove the head, legs, and skin of the lamb, roast it whole and 
eat it that same evening, leaving nothing over. They do not eat 
herbs with it, and if they have cakes they are made of maize and 
not of flour." She adds that the pi-mo comes to the door to receive 
the parts which were removed before the lamb was roasted. 

Among these people betrothals are made at a very early age ; 
but when the youth and maiden are prepared for marriage, the 
arrangements are rounded oif with a semblance of armed force ; 
and the bride has to be taken from her parents' home by a 
simulated skirmish. This is a survival of the custom of an 
earlier age when every man had to win his wife by violence. 
Now, as soon as the bridegroom and his friends have forced their 
way into the bride's home, her party capitulates and they all 
join in the wedding festivities. Finally, the bride is led on horse- 
back to her husband's house, and as they approach it her kinsmen 
attempt to snatch the veil from her face and fling it on the roof, 
but the bridegroom's friends endeavour to seize it and to trample it 
on the doorstep. The whole proceeding is rough play intended 
to indicate the future position of the bride in her new home. 

Of the No-Su that are subject to Chinese suzerainty, Mr. 
Hicks avers that their lax moral life has afforded the Chinese 
their opportunity. By wine, opium, and all kinds of riotous 
indulgence they " have wasted their substance, and have been very 

1 The Chinese Recorder, March, 1900, p. 173. 



162 SAMUEL POLLARD 

glad to mortgage, or sell their land to the Chinese. This grossly 
immoral and drunken life has also greatly reduced the number of 
the people. Their physical constitutions are weakened and their 
lives shortened by their continued self-indulgence, so that it is 
quite unusual to meet with an aged aboriginal, and families 
frequently become extinct. Lawlessness prevails in the district. 
The rich and strong tyrannize over the weak and poor. Fighting 
with modern rifles is not uncommon, and men are killed and their 
bodies burned, houses are destroyed and people rendered home- 
less at the bidding of the * Tu-muh,' who in many cases seems to 
be the very embodiment of iniquity." In many districts these 
No-Su are being assimilated by the Chinese whose language 
and idolatry they adopt. Other branches, however, proudly 
retain their own customs and language and keep up their 
connection with the independent tribes of the Great Cold 
Mountains. 

As to the Miao, they are more numerous than the No-Su, 
but in many ways appear to be inferior in culture and possessions. 
Major Davies says that their real home was in Kweichow and 
that they migrated into Yunnan and western Szechuen in recent 
times. But no branch of the Miao tribes has succeeded in pre- 
serving any independent territory. The so-called independent 
Miao-tze are a different race, whom d'Ollone calls the Tao 
race, possibly akin to if not identical with the Yao-ren spoken of 
by Hicks, and both probably related to the Shans. " This race 
[the Tao people] is," says d'Ollone, 1 " with the Lolos and the 
Miao-tze, the most important of southern China, and extends 
over a great portion of Indo- China, notably over Siam ; its 
future may be judged by the prosperous state of the latter 
kingdom." 

For the most part the Miao are feudal subjects of the No-Su 
and have little land of their own. The No-Su, with their kinsmen, 
the Li-Su, Laka, and Kop'u, are better off than the Miao. The 
ornaments worn by the No-Su are nearly always of silver, but the 
Miao are content to wear copper and brass. Here and there 
are Miao who are richer, but, generally speaking, this race is 

1 The Chinese Recorder, March, 1900, p. 146. 



THE ABORIGINAL CLANS 163 

economically dependent upon their No-Su landlords. Their 
chief occupations are hunting and agriculture. They till the 
lands of their feudal chiefs ; and also cultivate their own allot- 
ments. The seigneurs in turn acknowledge the authority of 
Chinese mandarins by paying taxes which they have first collected 
from the Miao. Missionaries describe the doubly oppressed 
Miao as simple, harmless folk, very ignorant and very immoral. 
" But that these tribesmen," says Pollard, " have retained their 
separate existence for all these centuries, refusing to be absorbed 
by the Chinese, and keeping free from the cruel custom of foot- 
binding, shows that under their meek, subdued exterior, there 
rest qualities which the Lord Jesus can use for the furtherance 
of His kingdom. It is no discredit to them that they are landless." 

S. R. Clarke says : " Anyone who could speak three or four 
of their dialects would in all probability understand and be 
understood by them all. Originally the Miao were ruled by their 
own hereditary chiefs, but now Chinese magistrates appoint their 
headmen from among them, and they are called ' twan,' " who 
collect the taxes and settle disputes, though more serious litigation 
is carried to the Chinese yamen. 

Marriage customs among the Miao are similar to those of the 
Chinese, but the women have greater freedom and some respect 
to their preferences is usually allowed in the choice of their 
husbands. The tribes-people do not show the like serious 
regard for the sacredness and permanence of the marriage bond 
which the Chinese do. One of the missionaries' difficulties has 
been to impress upon the Miao the Christian ideal of an indis- 
soluble union. Trouble often arises from the recurrent triangle 
which the wife's undisciplined affection for a lover creates. At 
times the missionaries and disinterested advisers insist upon the 
errant wife's return to her legal husband ; but often no alter- 
native but separation can be found, and then the lover pays back 
to the husband what he orignially paid to the woman's family, and 
takes the freed woman to be his own wife. 

Though the Miao are far removed from a savage state, their 
present civilisation is much lower than that of the Chinese. 
They have impressed the missionaries as simple children of 



1 64 SAMUEL POLLARD 

nature, with many attractive qualities and certain repellent vices. 
Excessive whisky-drinking is indulged in at all their special 
festivities. They are a pastoral people as well as cultivators of 
the soil. Day by day women and girls lead the goats and cattle 
up the mountain sides and bring them back at night. The men 
frequently give themselves up to the toils and pleasures of the 
chase and are glad to kill a wild boar, or an antelope ; sometimes 
they hunt the leopard or tiger with poisoned arrows. They have 
music and dancing at their festivals and holidays, their chief 
musical instrument being a miniature organ made of bamboo 
tubes of varying lengths, like a congeries of flutes. The music 
produced is said to be weird, " sometimes like a bird note and 
always suggestive of nature sounds, yet of nature in a plaintive 
mood." Their games resemble those of the ancient Greeks, and 
they are very clever in breeding and training horses. 1 

Those missionaries who have become most intimate with the 
Miao and won their confidence say that they have no literature 
of their own, but are great lovers of tales. The legends, which 
have descended orally from generation to generation, relating to 
the creation, to a flood, and to the King of Hades, are generally 
recited at weddings and funerals. Mr. S. R. Clarke says that 
many of the legends are in verse, " five syllables to a line, the 
stanzas being of unequal length, one stanza interrogative and one 
responsive. These are sung or recited at their festivals by two 
persons of two groups." In an account of the creation written 
down by Clarke from the dictation of his Miao teacher, the first 
line of the second stanza has the simplicity and dignity of Hebrew : 
" Vang-vai [Heavenly King] made heaven and earth." In later 
stanzas " Zie-ne " takes the place of the Maker of things and 
" Vang-vai " is not referred to again. The tribes-people are too 
preoccupied with the caprices and hostilities of demons and the 
rites and ceremonies required to ward off sickness and other 
misfortunes, to develop the implications of this noble theism. 

On one occasion Pollard persuaded the mourners at a funeral 
to relate to him their beliefs about the dead. When a person is 
about to die, the wizard or exorcist recites the story of the creation 
1 From a letter by Dr. Lilian Dingle. 



1 64 SAMUEL POLLARD 

nature, with many attractive qualities and certain repellent vices. 
Excessive whisky-drinking is indulged in at all their special 
festivities. They are a pastoral people as well as cultivators of 
the soil. Day by day women and girls lead the goats and cattle 
up the mountain sides and bring them back at night. The men 
frequently give themselves up to the toils and pleasures of the 
chase and are glad to kill a wild boar, or an antelope ; sometimes 
they hunt the leopard or tiger with poisoned arrows. They have 
music and dancing at their festivals and holidays, their chief 
musical instrument being a miniature organ made of bamboo 
tubes of varying lengths, like a congeries of flutes. The music 
produced is said to be weird, " sometimes like a bird note and 
always suggestive of nature sounds, yet of nature in a plaintive 
mood." Their games resemble those of the ancient Greeks, and 
they are very clever in breeding and training horses. 1 

Those missionaries who have become most intimate with the 
Miao and won their confidence say that they have no literature 
of their own, but are great lovers of tales. The legends, which 
have descended orally from generation to generation, relating to 
the creation, to a flood, and to the King of Hades, are generally 
recited at weddings and funerals. Mr. S. R. Clarke says that 
many of the legends are in verse, " five syllables to a line, the 
stanzas being of unequal length, one stanza interrogative and one 
responsive. These are sung or recited at their festivals by two 
persons of two groups." In an account of the creation written 
down by Clarke from the dictation of his Miao teacher, the first 
line of the second stanza has the simplicity and dignity of Hebrew : 
" Vang-vai [Heavenly King] made heaven and earth." In later 
stanzas " Zie-ne " takes the place of the Maker of things and 
" Vang-vai " is not referred to again. The tribes-people are too 
preoccupied with the caprices and hostilities of demons and the 
rites and ceremonies required to ward off sickness and other 
misfortunes, to develop the implications of this noble theism. 

On one occasion Pollard persuaded the mourners at a funeral 
to relate to him their beliefs about the dead. When a person is 
about to die, the wizard or exorcist recites the story of the creation 

1 From a letter by Dr. Lilian Dingle. 




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THE ABORIGINAL CLANS 165 

of the first man and the first woman : when this is ended he tells 
the departing soul the road he must travel in the future. The 
dead go to the city of Ntz-ke-niao (the Miao Pluto). While the 
spirit is upon the road the friends on earth are continually 
troubled by his visits and the sickness he causes. Upon first 
leaving the body the spirit encounters gigantic caterpillars which 
bite and sting and dispute the passage. The wizards exercise 
their spells and kill the cattle to bribe the keeper of the Way of 
Death to let the disembodied spirit pass. After this the spirit 
meets a pack of dogs as big as buffaloes who worry the traveller 
and, if not prevented, throw him into a lake. If, however, before 
death the man showed any kindness to dogs then Cerberus and his 
crew will let him pass on a straight road to Hades. Having 
arrived at the city of Ntz-ke-niao, the spirit is sent into the body 
of a fowl, or pig, or sheep, or goat. While this is happening to 
the spirit the body is carried out in a bamboo mat and put in a 
coffin. The wizard takes some grass and chops it up saying : 
" If your brother, or sister, r another relative attempts to follow 
you, send them back " : he then takes the grass and chopper, and 
hurls them beyond the grave. There are additional rites with 
local variations ; but these fairly represent the Miao beliefs and 
practices in regard to their dead. 

Pollard once asked the Miao if they had any knowledge of the 
dead returning from Ntz-ke-niao's city and they said " No." 
Sometimes, however, their wizards will take a living man to 
Hades, and bring him back again. The wizard lies down and the 
man lies by his side ; a millstone is placed on the wizard's 
stomach and upon the stone a bucket filled with water, and when 
this has been done he closes his eyes and chants. In this way the 
man lying by his side is probably hypnotised and made to see the 
pictures in the mind of the performer. A Miao friend told Pollard 
that he had experimented with a wizard, but nothing happened. 
There were others, however, who had been mesmerised and 
remembered all kinds of phenomena they had seen. 

Of these tribes of West China little was known until the begin- 
ning of the twentieth century, when suddenly a "mass movement " 
began among the Miao which, after a time, influenced the No-Su 



166 SAMUEL POLLARD 

to make inquiries about the Christian religion. The atmosphere 
seemed stirred by mysterious currents of life which set these 
tribes marching to Anshuen and Chaotong with the startling 
inquiry : " Where is He Whom we ought to worship as our God 
and King ? " We scarcely understand the causes of such 
movements. It sSems as if in some unfathomable way these 
tribes are sharing in the revived sense of nationality, or of new 
tribal consciousness. What impact the victories of Japan may 
have had even upon these remote peoples cannot be known. The 
missionaries state that political sentiment has played only a 
small part in this awakening. We do know, however, that at 
Chaotong there was a little white man whose great soul was 
strangely moved by the unwonted spectacle of a whole tribe 
turning to Jesus, and we know now how he rose to the greatness 
of the opportunity and by ten years of unremitting toil and self- 
denial, laid the foundations of a living Church. 

In one of his letters Pollard relates how he once travelled with 
a doctor who had lost his wife ; and this man told how he was 
wrecked with his motherless children on the Yangtsze. The 
youngest child sank to the river bottom and was thought to be 
dead when its body was brought up again. He did all he could 
to empty the child's lungs of water and to restore respiration, 
but he saw no sign of returning life. Then a Chinese woman 
standing by took the lifeless body and, opening her bosom, 
hugged the child to her breast and covered it with her gown, 
and there close to her beating heart it revived and was given 
back to the father unhurt. This story may serve as a parable of 
what Pollard did for the poor Miao : he took them to his heart and 
shared the warmth of his own spiritual faith with them until they 
revived, and those who were no people became a reinvigorated 
tribe with the hope and light of a new life shining in their eyes. 



A TRIP INTO LOLO LAND 167 

CHAPTER II 

A Trip into Lolo Land 

DURING the five great journeys which Pollard undertook to enter 
the " open doors " in the north-east of Yunnan after the collapse 
of Boxerism, he was brought into frequent contact with the No-Su 
from across the Yangtsze. Curiosity in these stalwart strangers 
and the adventurous instinct of the explorer made him long to 
enter the forbidden country of Lolo land. As time after time he 
stood on the borders of Ta- Liang- Shan a region extending 
two hundred miles in one direction, three hundred and fifty 
miles in another he was possessed with a desire to cross the 
river and climb the " Great .Cold Mountains." Whenever he 
met representatives of the brave clans in the Chinese markets for 
they often came across for purposes of barter he sought to gain 
an introduction to them. In the evenings around the inn fires he 
listened spellbound to tales of No-Su raiders and of their carrying 
off Chinese captives for slavery or ransom. 

These talks led Pollard to decide that as soon as opportunity 
offered he would make an excursion into No-Su land. It is 
necessary for a traveller who ventures into this unconquered 
area to secure a friendly guide, or " respondent," powerful 
enough to exact protection from the aboriginal clans. Pollard, 
however, would not have been able to carry out his project 
but for the friendship of a No-Su chief named Long, who, 
though living under Chinese jurisdiction, kept in touch with his 
kinsmen across the borders. Having induced Long to become 
his guide, they left Chaotong together on November i8th, 1903, 
intending to go first to the chief's house, three days' journey away, 
and then to proceed secretly to the Great Cold Mountains. 

Presently they were joined by two other horsemen, friends 
of Chief Long. They halted for the night at a place called Pu-tsu 
and were entertained by some of the Chief's relatives. Many 
No-Su came to see " the foreigner," and Pollard preached to them 
in Chinese which his guide translated, and afterwards the head 



168 SAMUEL POLLARD 

of the house wished to be enrolled among the Christians as an 
" inquirer." They had three days' rough travelling up and down 
precipitous hills before they reached the chief's home at Tao Chee. 
Concerning the origin of these No-Su, Pollard wrote : " In one of 
their manuscripts I came across a kind of racial genealogical tree, 
in which the lamas appeared low down in the scale. My sallow- 
faced wizard pundit informed me that the lamas referred to were 
the Tibetans, who were, so he stated, a decadent branch of the 
No-Su race. Should this interesting statement turn out to be 
true, then it may be that the No-Su is one of the earliest races of 
the world." 

Pollard learned that the Chief's mother had been a woman of 
quite exceptional force of character. When Long was two years 
old the whole country was moved by the great Mahommedan 
rebellion, and in the upheaval a neighbouring No-Su clan 
fought against the Longs. In a melee the Chief's father was 
killed by a spear thrust and his retainers fled. His widow sent 
her little son into independent Lolo land in the care of a slave 
girl. The boy was brought up under an assumed name and 
guarded for years against the assassin's dagger and the poison 
cup. During these years his mother fought persistently to 
recover the lands which by right belonged to them. Gradually 
she drew the scattered retainers back and hired others. They 
lived frugally and fought hard. On one occasion her enemies 
forced their way into the court of the house where she lived, and 
then the dauntless amazon snatched up a gun and drove them 
back single-handed. When the rebellion ceased Mrs. Long 
entered lawsuit after lawsuit to recover the estates and. at length 
succeeded in ridding the land of hostile settlers. 

During the few days that Pollard spent at Long's home he 
learned how this able woman had arranged the order of her son's 
life before she died : she gave each of his three wives a separate 
establishment all within the walled estate ; but gave no separate 
house to Mr. Long, making it incumbent upon him to spend a 
month at each wife's home in turn. The first wife lived in the 
house on the right ; the second in one on the left, and the youngest 
occupied the middle house. Pollard stayed with his host in the 



A TRIP INTO LOLO LAND 169 

home of the second wife, by whom the Chief had three sons and 
two daughters. The third wife also had two daughters. 

" There does not exist," says Pollard, " among these people 
the same reserve in intercourse between the sexes as exists among 
the Chinese, which, while it has many points of excellence in it, 
leads to women taking a very low place. . . . The freedom 
which the women enjoy in No-Su land seems to have developed 
in them self-reliance and respect. . . . The women joined as 
freely in conversation as the men, and there was none of 
that stupid fear and reserve which is so distasteful to 
Europeans." 

" From Tao Chee," he says, " we had a magnificent view of 
No-Su land. . . . We made up a party of a dozen, nearly all 
armed. Even the missionary possessed wonderful weapons, 
which may have been the salvation of the whole party more than 
once. My companions, instead of saying my telescope was a 
* thousand-mile glass ' described it as a ' thousand-mile gun ' 
able to shoot all that could be seen through it, and never going 
off unless there were sufficient people opposed to us to make it 
worth while firing. As to my camera, when that was fixed on 
the tripod and the missionary disappeared under the cloth, no 
Gatling gun, nor any of its numerous offspring, could have caused 
greater consternation. We were going among a people who, with 
all their bravery and contempt of the Chinese, are absolutely in 
the hands of the wizards and terribly afraid of magic and demons. 
I was presumed to be an expert in all matters concerning the black 
art, and even those who wished to rob our party were too much 
scared to run the risk." 

For Pollard the Sunday spent at Tao Chee was made memorable 
by the Chief's request that he would take away the tablet of Heaven 
and Earth as he was now a worshipper not of the powers of Nature, 
but of Nature's Lord., Another step taken was to make Pollard an 
adoptive father of the Chief's son : the boy was led in to kneel 
before the missionary in token of submission. Pollard then gave 
him an English name William, pronounced " Wei-lien," and 
made a present to him of a small compass. On Sunday evening 
the missionary taught his hostess some of the doctrines of the 



170 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Christian religion and helped her to commit to memory a simple 
form of prayer. 

On Tuesday morning, November 24th, 1903, they left Tao 
Chee to descend the steep rough mountain path, and came to 
the Yangtsze in the afternoon. They passed through some fine 
sugar fields and reached Sin-Chan-Keo, where there was a busy 
market. Adjacent silver mines once gave great importance to this 
place, but the poisonous fumes caused them to be abandoned. 
At this market Pollard met many independent No-Su tall, fine 
men who, compared with the black-haired Chinese, seemed quite 
fair. These I-ren have straight features, large noses, bright 
eyes : their faces, as a rule, are hairless ; yet they impress one 
as a manly, athletic race. They had grey, felt cloaks fastened at the 
neck and reaching below their knees. Some of them wore wrist 
protectors for turning aside a blow of a sword. One man had a 
strap over his shoulders ornamented with a double row of buttons 
and large stones ; he also wore a sword two feet long which 
dangled at his left side. 

Chief Long had at first wanted Pollard to write to the British 
Consul- General and get an order of protection ; but he knew that 
his only hope of ever getting into No-Su land was to go without 
asking permission. The secret of his intention, however, had 
not been kept too well, and having heard rumours the guardian 
of the Yangtsze defences sent instructions that the ferrymen 
should prevent Pollard from crossing at all costs. The Chinese 
were manifestly upset by his arrival. The officials in charge of 
the ferry brought presents of rice, pork, and oranges, and did all 
they could to dissuade him from his purpose. Finding warnings 
useless the Chinese resorted to plots. " There was," says 
Pollard, " only one boat available. Several miles up stream 
there jis another ferry, but the boat was hauled ashore for repairs. 
Farther down stream the next ferry would land us among enemies 
of the tribes we wished to visit, so it was Sin-Chan-Keo ferry 
or nowhere. The plotters agreed to knock a few boards out of 
the bottom of the ferry-boat and so prevent our passage. Splendid 
idea ! They went down to carry out their scheme, but here we 
met with an unexpected ally. The boatmen refused absolutely 



A TRIP INTO LOLO LAND 171 

-fl. 

to allow this wrecking to be done. . . . Other plans were 
adopted. We were allowed to cross over, but word was sent 
to the tribes that they were to capture us and hold us for ransom. 
It was reported that Mr. Long and I were worth a ransom of ten 
thousand taels." Later they learned that the Chinese had gone 
so far as to invite the No-Su to kill the foreigner. 

Next morning the missionary took his seat with his friends in 
the ferry-boat and in a few minutes they stepped into the for- 
bidden land. Taking off his hat, Pollard prayed that the people 
of this country might have their part in the Kingdom of God. 

With positive injunctions to keep together, Long led the party 
onwards. For a while they walked parallel with the river, and 
then turned up to the right and followed a silvery torrent through 
a gorge where the road was execrable. " We had left our horses," 
says Pollard, " in Yunnan, resolved to walk, and were glad now 
we had done so. Sometimes the way was but a few ledges cut 
in the rock. At other times a log was thrown against a cliff and 
a few notches cut in it to help the climbers. Logs were placed 
from ledge to ledge, and over these we had to walk or crawl. 
The stream was crossed by the rudest of rustic bridges, and it 
was amusing to see Chief Long, who would ride a horse almost 
anywhere, afraid to trust his legs on these bridges. He crawled 
over on hands and knees shaking all the time." 

During the day Pollard had to discard his English boots, 
and to wear hemp sandals. By evening they had only covered 
twelve miles, and had reached a small hamlet where some of the 
tenants of Chief Long's nephew were living. Tiny as this village 
was it had a wall around it. On the wall, near the gate, sat two 
Babu men with a woman between them. The travellers went on 
farther to Tao-pengtse. Here they were visited by the seigneur, 
who apologized for not providing hospitality at his own house 
since it had been recently burnt down by his enemies. Every- 
where the people were surprised at the daring of the foreigner, 
but Long's friendship prevented any hostile demonstration. 

Pollard was interested in the difference presented by life in 
No-Su land and in China proper. The No-Su have no cities, 
no shops, no temples, no opium dens, no police. The left ear of 



172 SAMUEL POLLARD 

each man is bored and he wears an ear-ring with a thread of 
coral beads and a silver chain. The women have natural unbound 
feet. A No-Su values his daughters and infanticide is not 
. practised. " There is one custom among these people which was 
rather awkward for one of our party. If a No-Su young man 
pays a visit to a family related to him by marriage, then the slave 
girls are allowed to ' rag ' him, and some of them take full ad- 
vantage of their privilege. One of the young fellows with us 
was * ragged ' in this way. It was fun to see him run away from 
the band of girls who, among other things, were splashing him 
well with cold water thrown with large ladles. The girls enjoyed 
the fun immensely, and so did the onlookers. ..." 

" Next morning we intended to have started early, but a No-Su 
chief named Vriha, hearing of our arrival, came to see us, and 
refused to let us leave until we had partaken of his hospitality. 
He despatched a retainer for a fat goat. At 9 a.m. the goat 
arrived. At eleven we were partaking of fine well-cooked goat- 
mutton and delicious rice. While waiting about, the No-Su had 
a lot of fun out of a small folding-chair which I had with me and 
a small iron puzzle. The greatest fun of all, however, was when 
I showed them a couple of working figures, a Chinaman with a 
sword and spear and a dancing fiddler. How they roared and 
roared with laughter ! In fact the ten days I spent in No-Su 
land were days of high fun and great laughter." They discovered 
later that this chief Vriha had been in collusion with the Chinese 
in the plot either to capture Pollard, or to kill him ; but that when 
he learned that another No-Su, named Vrinte, had made friends 
with the missionary, Vriha thought it prudent not to have any- 
thing to do with the proposed attack : he turned right round and 
said that if he had been told of Pollard's coming, he would have 
sent an armed force of six or seven hundred men to give him 
protection. 

It was high noon when Pollard and his party started to go 
farther inland. A group of No-Su met them and showed 
astonishment at seeing a foreigner. They laughed heartily when 
Long told them that Pollard was a man-bear. Only the day before 
a No-Su had said that the foreign dress made him look like a 



A TRIP INTO LOLO LAND 173 

bear and had he met him in a jungle he certainly would have 
shot him. Learning that , Long had called him a " man-bear," 
Pollard playfully seized his guide and made as though he would 
beat him with the thorn stick he was carrying. Just then they 
passed several flocks of sheep, many of which were black, and 
Pollard wished he could take a couple of the frisking black lambs 
home as pets for his boys. During the afternoon they had to cross 
a cliff where the dizzy height and narrow ledges of rock were so 
perilous that " even the monkeys are said to put on sandals before 
they venture to walk over its slippery sides ! " As they went 
along Pollard asked his companions what a No-Su seeks for in this 
life, and the answer was given swiftly : " First, weapons and 
armour, next a horse." 

" At the end of the day," he says, " we came to a large village 
called Chie-Tsu-leh-Chieh. A strong wall surrounded the village 
and loopholes were very abundant, showing how the people 
live constantly prepared for attack. Most of the houses were 
built low and roofed with grass. The better class are roofed with 
strips of bark on which moss and grasses grow. I saw no tiles 
anywhere in No-Su land." 

" Entering the courtyard of one of these houses we were 
shown into the long main room, which was almost devoid of 
furniture. At one end was a big stone fire-place built in the 
ground. Around the blazing fire were placed several wicker- 
work mats and in the chief place sitting on one of these mats the 
lady of the house awaited us. We also sat down on a mat as near 
the fire as we could. Falling snow made it very cold. The 
absence of elaborate ceremony was very welcome to an English- 
man. At twenty minutes to seven there was a commotion. 
Several of the chieftainess's retainers came in, dragging a large 
goat. This was brought before us and, to my horror, the men 
there and then proceeded to kill and dress the goat for our supper. 
It is considered a point of honour with the No-Su to kill an 
animal for every party of guests which arrives, and lest it be 
thought that one animal might be used for two parties, the poor 
victim is always slaughtered in the presence of the guests. This 
was the most disagreeable experience I had, but I honoured the 



s?4 SAMUEL POLLARD 

kindness and hospitality of my hostess and thanked her. The 
legs of the goat were the property of the children, who burnt them 
in the wood fire till all the hair was gone and then ate their share 
of the feast with evident relish. As soon as possible the heart, 
lungs, liver, etc., were thrown into the burning ashes and after 
being cooked for a short time were placed on a plate and presented 
to Chief Long and myself as a special delicacy. . . . " 

" As soon as the word went forth that the meal was ready, 
all was bustle and excitement. Sleepers were awakened. Hungry 
men began to revive their hopes and the visiting missionary was 
all on the qui vive. Several of the retainers stood round, holding 
up blazing torches of pine wood or dried bamboo. A small 
wooden trencher standing about twelve inches from the ground, 
and carved out of a solid piece of the trunk of a tree, was placed 
in front of the two chief guests. The trencher was about eighteen 
inches in diameter. On it were placed three wooden basins. 
One, nine inches across and five inches high, was for rice, which 
was piled up like a pyramid. Another, twelve inches across and 
three inches high, was for meat, and there was a deeper one for 
gravy. All were made of camphor wood. Two wooden spoons 
completed the outfit and the guests were bidden to eat heartily. 
Sometimes the pieces of meat we had were over a pound in 
weight and only spoons to eat them with. How did we manage ? 
Let the reader guess how he would manage, and that will be just 
as we managed. Salt is sparingly used. It has all to be bought at 
a heavy price from Chinese traders, and many meals are taken 
without a trace of salt. . . . The retainers of guests eat at the 
same time as the guests, and ati that remains over after the repast 
is eaten by the retainers of the host." 

It was eleven o'clock when Pollard showed his lantern slides 
on a cloth hung up at one end of the long room. Besides pictures 
representing scenes in the Gospels, he showed a few slides of 
English life. The favourite was one of an English lady with a 
long dress. The women approved of this and called attention to 
the dainty little brooch at the neck as an evidence of kinship 
with themselves. All the No-Su women and girls wear small 
brooches of gold, or silver, or of copper. Chief Long explained 



A T&It> INTO 6LO LAND 

the pictures, but what new Gospel he preached Ppllard did not 
know ; judging from the cries of pleasure and wonder and the 
laughter, his expositions must have been greatly enjoyed. They 
certainly would never forget the visit of " Nhe-Kia-Kia," the 
foreign missionary. 

Next day they started off in the snow at seven in the morning 
and did not break their fast till three in the afternoon. After their 
meal they had another toilsome climb and then descended again 
until, about ten o'clock at night, they reached See-tieh, a village 
of a hundred families. As they^ entered the gate in the wall by 
the light of torches there was a chorus of laughter at the Lao 
Hsiong or " Old Bear." They were to stay with A-Pooh, an 
old chieftain. The host had been described by Mr. Long as a 
fine old fellow, an authority on No-Su history, and as full of 
rare knowledge as Pollard himself. Unfortunately A-Pooh had 
just received a visit from a Chinese trader or spy who had made 
a liberal present of wine to the old man, the consequence being 
that A-Pooh was drunk when Pollard's party arrived, and gave 
himself no chance of getting sober the whole of the three days they 
were there. His wife, A-lleh, however, by her dignified hospitality 
made up for the defections of A-Pooh. She was sitting by a wood 
fire smoking a long pipe when the visitors entered the house. The 
room was fifty-three feet long, and when A-lleh rose to welcome 
the guests, they saw by the firelight a tall handsome old lady, 
nearly seventy years of age, in long robes which swept the ground. 

On another evening the family and the guests sat around some 
glowing logs : between the somnolent A-Pooh and the hospitable 
A-lleh, sat their eldest daughter, a widow with three sons. She 
was dressed gorgeously ; from her ear-rings dozens of silver 
pendants dangled over her bosom ; she was smoking a pipe five 
feet long. Next to A-lleh sat the eldest son a magnificent 
No-Su warrior. He told Pollard how nineteen years before a 
brother of his had been killed in a tribal quarrel and that the 
blood-feud was still maintained against the clan that slew him. 
Long was the fount of gossip that evening as Pollard sat tongue- 
tied except when some point was translated into Chinese. Wonder 
reigned when Long repeated the outlines of astronomy which 



176 SAMUEL POLLARD 

he had been taught by the missionary. " I do not know," observes 
Pollard, " all the stories my guide told about the strange visitor, 
nor do I know the tall yarns which my other travelling companions 
related ; but I am sure that in the true style of Orientals, they 
exaggerated very much, and left an impression quite wide of the 
mark. My new highland friends wished me to remain with them, 
and offered to become Christians en masse, if I would live with 
them as their missionary." 

Pollard's new friends were fully convinced that he possessed 
great powers of magic : when he slipped under his wadded quilt 
to change two photographic plates, he was thought to have flown 
away, until one of them was bold enough to put his hand under the 
quilt and assured the others that he was still in the room. Another 
impression, which may have been due to Chief Long's talk, was 
that Pollard had immense political influence. One of them 
begged him to write an address which would prove to a rival 
clan that A-Pooh had an alliance with the foreigner. He had been 
called " Nhe-Kia-Kia " by the Long clan, and now this household 
renamed him " Tie-nieh," or " Clear Cloud." 

They said " good-bye " at last to their kind friends at See-tieh, 
Pollard convinced that many No-Su were born gentlemen and 
no more " wild men " than the cultured Celestials of Shanghai or 
Peking. On Monday afternoon they had to cross a roaring 
torrent where the only bridge consisted of five poles laid loosely 
upon the rocks on the banks. All day long they tramped the 
boulder-strewn pathway up the mountain-side and down the 
ravine, and their sandals were worn out long before they came to 
the end of the journey. " The next place we stopped at," 
Pollard writes, " was a well fortified village, where the chief is a 
fine old warrior of nearly sixty years of age. When we arrived 
he was engaged in a quarrel with another tribe and a bitter con- 
flict was imminent. . . . The old man received us magnificently 
and after a while begged me to help him in the coming struggle. 
He had heard that I possessed some magic medicine, which if 
thrown, would stupefy the enemy and render victory easy. . . . 
I protested that I had no such magic power. At last the old man 
said : ' Whether you have it or not, I shall let my enemies know 



A TRIP INTO LOLO LAND 177 

that you have presented me with some, and we will see what 
happens.' This apparently worked the miracle. Some time 
afterwards we heard that the old chief's enemies had sent begging 
for peace, and their petition was accompanied by a present of 
cattle sufficently big to atone for all the injury inflicted in the 
raid which had stirred up the spirit of revenge." 

Another day they spent at Vriha's home. Winter raged out- 
side ; and snow and ice were building fantastic structures 
around. Inside Pollard and his friends sat by a blazing wood 
fire, and opposite him was Vriha's sister, a handsome girl of 
seventeen. Says Pollard : " She watched me closely, every now 
and again, wiping her smoke-troubled eyes. Vriha and Chief 
Long carried on an animated conversation, of which I could only 
catch a word here and there. At last I begged that I might share 
the pleasure the other guests were getting from this conversation. 
With many smiles my friend told me that Vriha wanted to 
make an alliance with me. Four of the tribes had been consulting 
how to win the foreigner, and they had come to the conclusion 
that it might be done by marriage, and they were ready to offer 
this young girl as a wife for me. Here was a pretty dilemma for a 
missionary ! I had no wish to offend anybody, least of all the 
interested damsel on the other side of the fire. I even appreciated 
the honour intended. They say they would rather give their 
daughters in marriage to a dog than to a Chinese, so this proposal 
was evidence that I had won the confidence of some of the No-Su. 
All that evening the young girl took great interest in my actions. 
She persisted in examining the magic-lantern when I showed it, 
standing near me all the time. She looked well at my clothes, 
even going so far as to see what my necktie was made of. I 
began to wish I was safe at home again." 

That night Pollard confesses he slept but little ; he was 
planning how to elude the proposal without hurting the pride 
of Vriha. Next morning Vriha and Long pressed the matter, 
but Pollard explained that the English law did not allow him to 
take a second wife while the first was still living, and to accept 
the proposal would be to set dishonour upon the maid. Vriha 
seemed to understand ; but Vriha's retainers said : " Nhe-Kia- 



178 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Kia, you came a long way from your native land, and you have 
changed your skin, and put on black bear clothes : if Long-teh- 
yuen had not introduced you and acted as your protector, we 
should have killed you with a shot from a gun. Ha ! Ha ! " 

At a later time Vriha and Long-Teng-hsiao, one of Pollard's 
friends, quarrelled : Long pursued Vriha and shut him up in 
a tower and would have burnt him had not a third party come 
and negotiated peace. 

On the last night they spent on No-Su soil they were told 
that the Lai-lai clan was plotting with another tribe to waylay 
Pollard and was actually ambushed for the attack. But Long's 
friends collected a band of warriors who gave them safe escort 
to the Yangtsze. The ferrymen, however, were in league with 
the Lai-lai and delayed to bring the boat across the river ; but 
seeing that no attack was made upon Pollard, they sullenly 
answered the call and came to take them back. He left Sin- 
Chan-Keo at once and in a few days was safely home again. 
The mandarins had been greatly perturbed at his adventure : 
there was no mistaking the prefect's pleasure at receiving a visit 
from the returned traveller. An attempt was made to get Mr. 
Long into trouble for his share in the expedition, but Pollard 
informed the prefect that if the Chief were interfered with he 
would insist upon a full inquiry into the plots of the mandarin in 
charge of the defence of the Yangtsze border between Szechuen 
and Yunnan. At a later date the defender of the river came to 
Chaotong and Pollard went to see him. He was an old man of 
seventy-six who wished to retire. He denied he had plotted 
against Pollard and threw the whole guilt upon the Lai-lai. 



CHAPTER III 
Beginnings of the Mass Movement 

IN the annals of the West China Mission few days stand out with 
such significance as July lath, 1904, for then it was that the first 
four Miao scouts entered the mission at Chaotong, and stayed 



THE MASS MOVEMENT 179 

from Tuesday till Saturday morning. They brought a letter to 
Pollard from Mr. Adam of Anshuen in Kweichow, in which 
he recounted his own work among the tribes in his district. The 
few converts he had won were frightened and scattered during 
the Boxer rising. However, Mr. Adam returned in 1901 and 
in the following year prepared twenty non-Chinese for baptism. 
One day in 1903 a band of hunters visited his house, and he saw 
from their head-dress that they belonged to a tribe of the Miao. 
When they told him they had been chasing the wild boar, and 
were tired and hungry, Mr. Adam gave them a meal. That meal 
proved to be, in a sense, their first communion of the Body of 
Christ. In a dim, confused way they caught a glimpse of a new 
spirit of fellowship. Soon after this many of their tribe came 
to Anshuen from places nine days' journey away. At length 
their numbers were greater than Mr. Adam could cope with and 
he sent them to Chaotong with a letter to Pollard. 

Throughout the hamlets among the mountains of Kweichow 
and north-east Yunnan there swept the thrill of a new hope. The 
simple-hearted, ignorant folk had conceived of a better life 
than that to which they had been accustomed. Excessive toil, 
tempered with drunkenness and sensual indulgence, had already 
impaired their vigour and reduced their numbers ; but now they 
were filled with wistful yearnings. A few had heard the strange, 
alluring doctrine of a God who was the Father of all men, and the 
fascinating story of the Heavenly Father's Son Who was the 
great elder Brother of the Miao. Talking of these things which 
the English missionary had taught, their child-like hearts were 
moved and they began to long for more light. For them life 
was hard. Oppressed by ruthless seigneurs and scorned by the 
Chinese, the tidings of a Divine ancestry which made the powerful 
Hero-Saviour their own Kinsman was like a draught of crystal 
water to their parched tongues. 

These mountain people debated whether they should send 
some of their men to Chaotong : they knew little of Pollard 
save that he was highly respected by the Chinese. Several years 
ago one of their tribe had been drawn by curiosity to visit the 
Protestant Mission at Chaotong, but when he contrasted the great 



i8o SAMUEL POLLARD 

buildings with his own poor hovel, and heard the fierce house- 
dog bark, he thought that the Englishman who lived there might 
hold intercourse with the wealthy Chinese and welcome the 
great No-Su seigneur, but would not wish to meet a poor Miao ; 
so his heart failed him and he went back without prosecuting 
his inquiry. But it was different now ; their kinsmen in the 
south had actually met one of these missionaries who had been 
kind and sympathetic ; and it was decided that four of their 
elders should go to the Chaotong Mission as scouts. 

Writing three years later Pollard said : " When the Miao 
first came some of them brought wine to present to the foreign 
teacher, thinking to show their respect. On their way they 
learned that the missionary hated wine, and so they poured it 
away. Others worshipped the idols which they passed on the 
way, asking to be prospered in their mission. Fancy, asking the 
help of idols in their quest of Jesus ! " After this a steady daily 
procession of Miao pilgrims came scores, then hundreds, until 
the citizens of Chaotong were moved with curiosity and then 
with alarm. These tribesmen, for the most part, carried bags of 
oatmeal on their backs, stopping by some mountain stream to mix 
it with cold water in their wooden basins, and having eaten their 
meal strode on till night fell, when, wrapping their felt cloaks 
around them, they slept under the stars without fear of beasts of 
prey. 

Sixteen years had gone since Pollard wrote during a week of 
special prayer at Yunnan Fu : " I had the promise at that meeting 
that we are going to have thousands of souls. Mind, I believe 
that from the bottom of my heart." When the four Miao scouts 
came and told the missionaries of a whole tribe waiting for the 
new teaching, Pollard looked upon them as the first-fruits of the 
promised thousand. So eager were they to learn to read the New 
Testament, they would not be restricted to certain hours of 
tuition ; and if Pollard were summoned to some other task, they 
would appeal to any foreigner or Chinese who might be near, to 
teach them the characters. They ate their own oatmeal mixed 
with water at the Mission house and slept on the schoolroom floor. 

Pollard spoke to them for some time as simply as he could, 



THE MASS MOVEMENT 181 

trying to tell them the Gospel story. The Chinese language was 
the medium of teaching, and only a few of them could under- 
stand even imperfectly. " As I spoke of God as the Father and 
Mother of all races their faces brightened up and they nodded 
assent. Presently, I was called away, 'and when I came back I 
questioned them on what I had just told them ; but they answered 
' We cannot remember.' It is so difficult to know just how to 
teach these folk. I asked if they were afraid of us and one 
answered : ' We heard Chinese and I-ren talking about " Yao- 
ren, Yao-ren," and we were afraid at first. By and by we came 
to see and found you are not Yao-ren, but like our own people 
one family only you have come from a distance.' " 

Great was the strain of the work and Pollard had to rest at 
the bungalow. He returned at the week-end and, after the usual 
Chinese service, gave a special address to the Miao. His method 
of teaching them was to choose two who knew more Chinese 
than the rest to interpret for him. He would utter a few words 
and they would repeat them in their own tongue. By August 
i4th about a hundred of these tribesmen had visited the Mission 
house at Chaotong. 

In a letter at this time Pollard wrote : " What was to be done ? 
I have often wondered what would happen if the whole heathen 
world took the sensible plan of demanding a knowledge of 
Christianity. Suppose in their thousand million they addressed 
Christendom and demanded simultaneously a knowledge of the 
Father of all and of His Son Jesus ; what would Christians at 
home do ? " 

" They swarmed around us everywhere. Directly a door was 
opened in they trooped with their books, begging to be taught. 
They began at five o'clock in the morning, and at one o'clock 
the next morning some of them were still reading. Cramming 
Christianity ! Let a schoolboy but show his nose anywhere and 
a score of Miao would pounce upon him. When I wanted a bit 
of quiet, I had to shut up the big doors and retire to a lonely 
room at the back, where I was safe from attack as long as my three 
lines of defence held out. I can assure you it was a glorious but 
most disconcerting experience." 

M 



182 SAMUEL POLLARD 

" Then the language was the great difficulty ! None of us 
knew a word of Miao, and these tribesmen knew little Chinese. 
We found but one man in two hundred who could read. There 
were some, however, who could speak it fairly well. . . . Our 
services were some of the most delightful I have ever seen. . . . 
How were we to begin ? These inquirers had only a misty idea 
of what they wanted. God ! Jesus ! Sin ! Heaven ! Hell ! 
Redemption ! were all unknown words and ideas to them. We 
must begin somewhere. The men are all looking up at us and 
waiting. The Lord help us ! Here goes ! ' Now then Mr. 
Chang, you understand Chinese, listen, and when I tell you any- 
thing, you turn round and tell it to the others. Ready ? We 
Jesus-men worship one God. Tell them that.' He told them 
that, prefacing his remarks with an eloquent cough and a clearing 
of the throat. ... * This one God is the great Father and 
Mother of us all. Tell them that/ He did so, and then we 
learnt the phrase for great Father. ' Pi-nie, 5 * pi-vie,' and so on, 
and so on. Our interpreters, for we used several, grew eloquent 
and often moved the audience to shout as with one voice." 

Among the Chinese and the No-Su this Miao pilgrimage 
aroused considerable fear and vexation. Weird rumours were 
circulated concerning the relations between the Miao serfs and 
the foreigners. It was whispered that Pollard had given them 
poison to kill their landlords and Chinese rulers. Three Miao 
were captured as they were returning from Chaotong and com- 
manded to deliver up the poison, with the threat that if they 
refused they should be put to death. Magical gifts were attributed 
to Pollard : it was said that when he dropped water into the 
mouths of these illiterate people they immediately acquired 
ability to read Chinese characters. It was also reported that he 
would smooth down the hair of the Miao and that they would 
become possessed of marvellous powers of memory. Such 
tales showed the popular impression of this strange awakening 
of a tribe which had submitted apathetically to their overlords for 
generations,, 

About sixty li east of Chaotong there lived a No-Su chief 
named Yeh-Kia-Kia, who began to think that it might be a good 



THE MASS MOVEMENT 183 

thing to form a political alliance with the foreigners. He sent 
some of his retainers to Chaotong to invite Pollard to return 
with them as his guest. Whatever political aims the chief of the 
Heh-t'u-ho may have cherished, the missionary looked upon the 
invitation as an opportunity to win a friend for the Gospel. With 
never a thought of protecting himself against possible enemies,' 
he accompanied the men and reached the No-Su's house after 
nightfall. Writing of this adventure he says : " There are 
three brothers : the oldest is thirty-four, and he manages all 
the affairs. His yamen is superior to that of our city magistrate. 
These No-Su brothers asked a lot of questions about the Church, 
and they gathered their people together on the second night for 
me to preach to them. Suddenly there was a scare : we heard 
a banging as if at a door, then a hurried rush here and there. The 
No-Su took their guns 'and fired here and there. Fear was 
stamped on many faces. I was told that a nine-headed monster 
had passed over our heads ; and that where the blood of this 
hydra, or its excretions might fall, disease and death follow. No 
one can see this monster and live. The firing was intended to 
scare it away from the district. After they had grown calm again 
the chief wished me to become godfather for one of his boys 
as I had become for one of Mr. Long's." 

After the autumn crops had been gathered in the Miao came 
from scores, even from hundreds of villages : this migration went 
on until the mission house was crowded. These benighted hill- 
men had never had books in their hands before : now, all day 
long they clutched the flimsy books and struggled with the most 
difficult of languages. Pollard's task was twofold : he had to 
teach them to read and also to understand the doctrines of the 
Christian Religion ; and it was no wonder that he was in danger 
of breaking down from want of rest. 

Mrs. Pollard grew anxious about her husband's health and 
one day persuaded him to go and lie down : he did so and locked 
the door to the stairway, pocketing the key. After a time she 
crept up to see if he were resting, and was astonished to find a 
dozen Miao sitting round the bed, reading their books under his 
guidance and thinking themselves among the favoured of earth to 



184 SAMUEL POLLARD 

have the teacher all to themselves. These zealous pupils had 
scaled the balcony and sought him in room after room until they 
discovered where he was. 

For sixteen years Pollard had spent his life unreservedly in the 
service of God and the Chinese. He had met every duty as it 
arose as a concrete demonstration of the Divine Will. This 
long trying discipline had prepared him for the present emergency, 
and he was not found wanting. The coming of the Miao was a 
Divine Call ; and with a will like adamant he rose up to meet the 
need. One of the first necessities of the situation was to learn the 
language of the Miao. Pollard and his Chinese friend, Stephen 
Lee, knew that language is a key to the human heart, and they 
began their study of Miao with such resolution that after a few 
weeks' assiduous application, they could give short addresses to 
the tribesmen in their own speech. He set himself to write 
simple Bible stories in the easiest Chinese characters he could use. 
How hard it was to set forth the truths of Christianity for these 
illiterate people \ There were no words in Miao for ideas of 
" prayer " and " sin." In his Journal he writes : " Last night 
while Tremberth conducted worship here, I took it at Dr. Savin's 
house. I tried to tell the Miao how Keh-Mi (Christ) came and 
died for us how wicked men put Him to death. ' Yes,' they 
said at once, ' the wicked Chinese killed Jesus.' Everything bad 
they think must come from the Chinese. It is so difficult to 
explain that Keh-Mi died for all. I have tried to explain it in 
every possible way, and yet, I fancy, they do not take it in at all ! " 

At the close of 1904 he writes : "A few months ago when 
the Miao first began to crowd around us, I was addressing a 
large number of them in our ' Edgehill ' chapel. Over a hundred 
downtrodden serfs were listening for the first time to the story 
of God's great love. By and by the men grew excited. The men, 
with their rough heads and dirty- coloured garments, looked at 
each other and smiled. Here and there they spoke to one another, 
and . . . there was evidence of a new hope taking possession of 
these poor folk. I asked : ' Is not that story good ? ' The 
answer came in a yell you can scarcely call it anything else 
from all over the chapel, ' Zow ! ' * Zow ! ' ' Zow-da-tay ! ' 



THE MASS MOVEMENT 185 

They smiled ! They laughed ! They shouted all over the chapel! 
I stopped and said to Miss Squire, who was at the harmonium : 
' If I only knew a little more of their language, I think I could get 
one or two of them dancing without any trouble.' So excited 
were they. In such a way did a hundred of the poorest men in 
heathendom pass their verdict on the story of Jesus after hearing 
it for the first time. Their verdict is right : it is a splendid story, 
and it is moving the world." 

This strange awakening of the Miao at first occasioned as much 
perplexity as gladness among the missionaries. It interrupted 
other important parts of their work. All Pollard's strength was 
needed to guide the evangelisation of the Chinese in towns and 
markets between Chaotong and Sui Fu. It is not surprising that 
the missionaries differed in their judgment at this crisis ; but 
Pollard never doubted about the imperious call of these needy 
tribesmen, and faced the situation with courage and hope. He 
could not help wondering what would happen to the mission in 
the future ; but he waited upon events and grappled with needs 
as they arose, and in the best sense was an opportunist. He 
could not see a want without desiring to satisfy it, and when these 
people of the hills came for enlightenment and assistance he 
showed no vacillation. Then having instructed some of these 
Miao, he encouraged them to teach others what they had learned. 
In the midst of all these crowds the resilience of his temper and 
constitution saved him from a breakdown : he went about with 
a sort of elan and a happy smile which grappled these people to 
his soul with hoops of steel. 

With the hearty co-operation of his colleagues Pollard arranged 
to entertain the Chinese Christians and Miao inquirers at a 
Christmas banquet. The festival drew the Miao to the city in 
hundreds. In order to accommodate all the guests they began 
the Christmas dinner on Friday, December 23rd, and arranged 
that one party should leave before another arrived. On Saturday 
the invited visitors sat down at thirty-six tables eight at each 
table. On Christmas Day seven services were held four for 
the Miao and three for the Chinese. Two of the Miao services 
Were conducted in the large courtyard and three hundred were 



186 SAMUEL POLLARD 

present. There were one hundred and fifty more at Tremberth's 
house. Several of the Miao spoke, one very eloquently. Pollard's 
sons, Bertram and Walter, were excited by the dense throngs of 
people. " While I was standing up leading the services B. got 
on my chair and put his arms round my neck, and every now and 
again would kiss me. W. worked his way in and out among the 
crowd enjoying the noise and bustle." 

" There were not a great many Chinese during the day. After 
the first Chinese service in the morning, we cleared the chapel for 
the Miao. In the evening the chapel was packed with Miao, 
and we had a fine time. One after another spoke with evident 
power. What are we to do with all these people ? " 



CHAPTER IV 
The Movement arouses Hostility 

CHRISTMAS Day, 1904, fell on a Sunday and, as we have seen, 
was a continuous chain of religious services from dawn to dark. 
On Boxing Day the feasting was resumed. In the Mission com- 
pound four hundred Miao sat down as paying guests, and 
hundreds of others came provided with their own meals. In his 
Journal Pollard records these prosaic details : " There were 
eighty tables of eight persons. We purchased 371 pounds of 
pork, 6000 pounds of rice, 28 pounds of salt, 16 fowls, 220 eggs. 
We provided also 2 pounds of honey, capsicum, and pepper. 
In copper money I received about 500 pounds weight, that is, 
about jio 55., and made an unexpected profit of 29 taels, or about 

5." 

Among the visitors this Christmastide were some Miao wizards 

exorcists and witch doctors. Asked if he believed in devils, 
my Chinese cook replied : " sin ie iu : muh sin muh iu " 
(" If you believe in them, then for you they exist : if you do not 
believe, then for you they do not exist "). But most Chinese 
and all the Miao believed in devils and employed wizards to 
protect them from evil and mischievous spirits. Pollard insisted 



HOSTILITY TO THE MOVEMENT 187 

that all converts must renounce the practice of witchcraft. But 
it was very difficult for the Miao to suffer sickness and fear the 
approach of death, and yet refrain from employing the pro- 
fessional exorcists. It is true, however, that the influence of the 
wizards was weakened when the people began to believe in Jesus, 
and even some of these priests of magic longed to escape their 
bondage. 

At the festival a wizard came to Pollard, wishing to know how 
he was to get rid of the demon which possessed him. Pollard 
invited the man to attend the evening service. Mr. Lee conducted 
the first part of the service and allowed several Miao converts 
to testify of their change of heart and belief. Then Pollard 
took charge of the meeting and called the wizard to him. He 
told the people that he was about to pray that the man might be 
delivered from his horrible affliction ; but before doing so he 
would like to know whether any other wizards desired to be 
extricated from their spiritual bondage. At this another man came 
forward, then a third, a fourth, then five of these victims stood 
waiting in front of Pollard. Before he could begin his intercession, 
however, someone shouted : " Another." The excitement was 
intense. Presently nine men stood before the assembly. One of 
the number had previously confessed Christ ; he now said that 
since he had learnt to pray and sing his familiar spirit had not 
troubled him, but he wanted the assurance that his emancipation 
was lasting. Looking upon these penitents Pollard felt an elation 
of spirit : " Yes, I felt as if I could treat a myriad of devils with 
supreme contempt. If God be for us who can be against us ? " 
He told the men that Jesus was more powerful than their devils. 
As he interrogated them they promised to abandon all their 
rites and incantations and to trust in Jesus only. Singly, and then 
in unison they vowed that they would never again, under any 
temptation, resort to demon- worship and exorcism. As they 
knelt Pollard prayed for them, and then told them to repeat a 
prayer after him. " They were on their faces before God praying 
for deliverance. We prayed and prayed. ' Lord help us ! Jesus 
pity us ! Jesus, drive the devils away, and keep us from sin ! ' " 
With affecting simplicity the penitent wizards said : " Thank 



1 88 SAMUEL POLLARD 

you, Jesus ! " Then the entire congregation prayed, clapped 
their hands and shouted : " Thank you, Lord Jesus, for saving us 
and driving the devils away ! " " The whole scene," said Pollard, 
" was exciting and wonderful. Some of the faces of the wizards 
were very repulsive. . . . After a while we concluded the service, 
having won a glorious victory. How different from everything I 
have ever seen before ! I fancy it is unique in all Chinese Mission 
history." 

Both the Chinese and No-Su landlords feared that the adoption 
of Christianity and the patronage of the foreigners might make 
their Miao tenants insubordinate and unwilling to pay taxes, or 
to render corvee. As a consequence attempts were made to stop 
their visits to the mission at Chaotong. The Rev. W. H. Hudspeth 
relates that one of the converts, named Chu-t'i, was seized and 
commanded by his landlord to break off relations with the 
" foreign devils." As the man refused he received three hundred 
stripes ; but the sufferer felt more pity for his persecutors than 
for himself. Furious at his obstinacy the seigneur ordered his 
slaves to give him three hundred blows on the mouth. Although 
the Miao's face was swollen and bleeding the Christian, in the 
spirit of Stephen, prayed that his enemies might be forgiven. 
Presently, however, the landlord was subjected to some " seizure," 
his own face became distorted and partly paralysed, and he cried 
out : " Loose the man ; loose the man, the gods are punishing 
me for beating him." 1 

At one of the Christian gatherings, a Miao related how his wife 
was beaten twice and covered with bruises, and his things were 
stolen. Another said that his nephew was tied up for eighteen 
days with a chain weighing a hundred catties upon him. They 
threatened to burn him unless seventy taels were paid for his 
release. A third witness told how men came frequently and forced 
the Miao converts to pay money and goods. 1 

Throughout the district wild rumours were circulated against 
the Miao. They were accused of poisoning the streams : it was 
even said that they were intending to rebel, and that Pollard was 
not only abetting their schemes but that he was going to lead 

1 The Missionary Echo, March, 1917. 



HOSTILITY TO THE MOVEMENT 189 

the Miao and the No-Su against the Chinese. Foolish as these 
tales were, the mandarin at Weining was ready to believe them, 
and sent a report to the Governor of the province accusing the 
missionaries of plotting and training the Miao to fight. Learning 
of this accusation Pollard took counsel with his friendly and 
sagacious protector, the prefect of Chaotong, whose good will 
was further shown in a letter written to the official at Weining 
advising that the whole matter should be discussed with Pollard. 
Pollard reached Weining in September, but as the magistrate 
was absent his deputy telegraphed to him. A proclamation was 
drafted and submitted to Pollard : the first line ran " Whereas 
we have repeatedly received edicts commanding us to protect 
the Western men." Pollard changed the last two words to 
" Christians " so that the Miao might be included in the 
protection. This alteration was accepted, and two officials 
were appointed to accompany Pollard in his tour throughout 
the disturbed district and to assure the Miao of official protection. 
At one place the Miao had been so frightened that they shrank 
from talking to the missionary ; but in a short time he had 
ingratiated himself with the people and dispelled their alarm. 
Pollard spent the Sunday at Niu-Ch'ang and in the afternoon 
crossed the bridge to preach in front of a temple. At the gates 
there hung two large tablets dating from the eighteenth century 
with the following inscription : 

You look and cannot see Him : 

He answers when you entreat Him : 

You listen and there is no sound, 

Yet He responds when you cry to Him. 

Pollard made these words a text and set forth Jesus Christ 
as the true revelation of the invisible, omnipotent God. After 
preaching he entered a house and about a hundred Miao followed 
him. As he was talking with the people he noticed a man whose 
wife stood by his side nursing a baby girl. Presently this man 
appealed to him for relief, he said his wife had been a medium, 
but wished to give up spiritualism : her neighbours, however, 
were dissatisfied ; when trouble came to them they said it was her 



190 SAMUEL POLLARD 

spirit vexing them, and she must exorcise it. The poor woman 
cried bitterly and besought Pollard to deliver her from the 
thraldom of this spirit. He asked his audience to stand while he 
prayed for the woman, and at this she seemed comforted and with 
words of assurance he gave her a Christian book. 

This task of suppressing the persecution of the Miao and of 
conciliating those who were hostile demanded all Pollard's 
resourcefulness, firmness, tact, and patience. Having dealt 
successfully with the Chinese officials, he wrote a letter to two 
men who were stirring up the people against the Christians, 
warning them that their names would be sent to the Weining 
magistrate if they persisted. Leaving Niu-Ch'ang Pollard and his 
escort travelled to Shoh-i-Kia. The seigneur here was a widow 
about forty years of age with an only son of eighteen. She had 
forbidden her tenants to visit the Chaotong Mission, and was 
afraid to receive Pollard. However, negotiation through the 
Chinese officials induced her to invite Pollard and his companions 
to become her guests, and after the evening meal he was requested 
to preach to her retainers. The next place he rested at was the 
village of T'o-na-i, where the Miao inquirers had been subjected 
to heartless robbery. For the first time in his life Pollard spent 
the night in a Miao dwelling. It was a rude structure ; but it 
had been swept clean for his coming. A big iron pan was over 
the fire in which buckwheat cakes and marrows were cooking. 
The women were wearing the peculiar head-dress of their tribe 
their horns of hair were exalted and with their kirtles on they 
looked very different from the Chinese. Finding out who their 
oppressors had been Pollard sent for them and ordered them 
to make full restoration of the things they had stolen. He told 
them he would wait a few days to learn if they made reparation 
for their crimes and if they did not he would black list them in 
the yamen. 

On another day Pollard came to a place called Ch'i-Ch'uh-Kia 
and he and his party were hospitably received by An-Kwan, a 
seigneur who boasted of descent from the ancient Nan-Chao 
kings of Yunnan. Tea was provided for the guests and then they 
were taken into the smoke-room, where four of the household 



HOSTILITY TO THE MOVEMENT 191 

were indulging in opium. At a late hour An-Kwan escorted the 
guests to their rooms, holding Pollard's hand as they went and 
talking freely. This No-Su chief was a man of great intelligence, 
and in order to preserve the rare books of his race had ordered new 
blocks to be cut and fresh copies to be printed. This survivor 
of a deposed dynasty represented the noblest characteristics of 
his race physically and intellectually, and set the mind of the 
traveller wondering what the future had in store for the I-ren. 

One valuable piece of Pollard's work on this journey was to 
trace to its source the rumour that the Miao poisoned the streams. 
He found out the families in which the sickness was said to have 
been brought on by drinking the poisoned waters. These are the 
cases : Several days ago, in the house of Mr. Teng, all six 
members of the family were taken ill ; they felt a burning in 
the chest and suffered from frequent belching of wind. They at 
once attributed the sickness to the poisoning of the water by the 
Miao who had just returned from Chaotong. A Mr. Hong told a 
similar story concerning his family. When questioned by Pollard 
these people acknowledged that no one had seen the Miao put 
poison in the well. Pollard then asked to be taken to the well ; 
he was taken to a cottage in front of which was a heap of manure 
which throughout the rainy season had been draining into the 
pool from which they drew water for drinking. It took him some 
time to convince them that the water was polluted by the manure 
heaps ; but at length he made them wonder how any of them 
had escaped after drinking from this contaminated pool. 

In defence of the poor Miao Pollard acted with swiftness and 
effect. Wherever persecution began he sought out the instigators 
and by threats and persuasions checked their malice ; and fortu- 
nately at this time the prefect at Chaotong gave him cordial 
support and guidance. At his request the prefect issued a pro- 
clamation for his district declaring the liberty of Chinese and 
aborigines to choose their own religion. Between this chief 
magistrate and the missionary there was mutual regard and they 
took counsel together at times. Once Pollard suggested that 
the wine-making industry should be placed under rigorous 
restrictions, as it was using up the people's food ; and the prefect 



192 SAMUEL POLLARD 

adopted this method of guarding the general welfare. When 
Pollard accused a Chinese official of ignorant hostility to the 
Christians, the prefect offered to remove the man, but Pollard 
said this might not be necessary if he were warned to 
desist. 

Pollard did not suppose that' all the troubles with the seigneurs 
were over ; he foresaw that if the Miao became Christians they 
were not likely to submit tamely to the oppressions of their 
landlords. The Miao were ready to believe that the favour of 
Heaven was theirs and that miracles might be wrought for their 
protection a state of mind not without danger. At T'u-kai-tsi 
the headman beat a gong and announced that no Miao were to be 
allowed to trade there. While he was declaring this boycott 
a sudden crash of thunder so frightened everybody that the edict 
was dropped at once. Although Pollard had no settled policy in 
regard to the Miao, instinctively and whole-heartedly he sought 
to meet the emergency which had arisen, and by so doing 
became the apostle and protector of this downtrodden race. 

Let us conclude this chapter on an agreeable and human note 
of missionary diplomacy. In his Journal he records : " Two 
days ago Chong-ming-tsai gave me a letter addressed to ' His 
excellency, the merciful Pastor : secret matters inside : let no 
one pry into them.' I opened it and found it related to his 
marriage. His mother has been wishing to get him married to a 
heathen, because the Christians are too rich for him. He refuses 
and asks for the hand of T. M., saying that if he cannot have her 
he will be willing never to marry anyone, etc. After consultation 
with Emmie, I sent him back a small note : ' Mrs. P. and I have 
been wishing for this for a long time. It is certainly God's will. 
Don't be nervous.' Chong-ming-tsai was teaching Miss Squire 
when I handed in the note. She said he was too nervous to write : 
his hand shook, and after trying this and that pen, he had to give 
it up till the next day ! 

" To-day his mother came and Mrs. P. talked to her about it. 
She is pleased. The boy came in wearing a flaring red ma-kua 
to-day a big swell. At night Mrs. P. talked it over with the 
girl, and while with true Chinese modesty she refused to say she 



FACING THE LIONS 193 

was pleased, yet she said * puh p'a ' (' Do not be afraid ') : so I 
suppose it will go all right." 

Pollard was never too busy for a touch of romance, and never 
indifferent to the need of securing Christian wives for the young 
men in the school and church. He knew that there could be no 
stability in the future of the church unless they could ensure 
the likelihood of Christian homes. 



CHAPTER V 
Facing the Lions 

GRADUALLY the missionary acquired ease and fluency in the use 
of the Miao language, and out of the vague mist of the new 
doctrine these children of the hills saw the figure of Keh-Mi 
(Christ), and through Him were forming a conception of the 
Father in Heaven. Besides these beliefs they were experiencing 
the influence of friendship with foreigners, with men and women 
who gave them new ideals of life. They wished that the thousands 
of their tribe among the hills might see the missionary and 
receive his message. One day they asked if it were possible for 
him to visit their villages. They were delighted when Pollard 
said " Yes " he would go. He on his side wanted to ascertain 
the scope of this new work. Such knowledge was requisite before 
the missionaries could decide upon a settled policy. 

Taking as his companions Mr. Wang and Mr. Lee, Pollard 
started on Tuesday, November 23rd, 1904, on a tour of inspection. 
When night fell they had got a little beyond Heh-t'u-ho and 
halted at the house of a friendly Miao. Their host was Mr. 
Chang, an old man with three sons and five or six grandsons. 
Mr. Chang was better off than most of the Miao, and his land- 
lord had trumped up against him and one of his sons a charge of 
stealing, and chained them up as prisoners for a whole month. 
Although the older prisoner was fifty-eight years old one of his 
thumbs had been pinched with red hot tongs, and he had been 
beaten on his arm till it was maimed, Before they were released 



i 9 4 SAMUEL POLLARD 

the Changs were robbed of nine cows, three horses and forty 
sheep, and still the Tu-muh (seigneur) was demanding twenty- 
three taels of silver. 

Notwithstanding these troubles Mr. Chang treated Pollard 
with lavish hospitality, and many Miao came in and gladly 
listened to the preaching till midnight. Before Pollard got to bed 
three Miao brought him a report that a certain Tu-muh had 
fixed a date for the murder of all the Miao who were found in 
possession of Christian books. He assured them that neither 
No-Su nor Chinese dared carry out such a pogrom. 

Next morning the travellers crossed the river by the " Heaven- 
Born Bridge " ; and having passed over it Pollard looked back 
and saw the huge cliff across which they had just come. At its 
foot was a cave, the entrance of which was a hundred feet high, 
and into this the river poured. This natural bridge proved to 
be over a mile wide, and if he had not been told Pollard would 
not have known that the river was flowing beneath. After a whole 
day spent among magnificent, wooded hills, they reached another 
village, and received a warm welcome. A pig was killed for the 
evening meal, and a fowl was cooked for the morning. Out of 
the twenty-seven families only one man had paid a visit to 
Chaotong. Practically the whole village came to listen to the 
missionary, many of them bringing presents of eggs. 

December ist opened with snow and the missionary's party 
could not start till eleven o'clock, but at night they came to 
San-tao-p'o, where they were received with many tokens of 
delight by Chang-lao-ta and others who had been to Chaotong. 
Pollard says : " The grandmother was seventy years of age, and 
received us with a sweet smile and many kind words delightful to 
listen to." It was an added pleasure to Pollard, after the apparent 
invisibility of women in Chinese homes, to see the Miao wives 
and daughters as busy and friendly as the men. 

At this place and at the next the report came of the pogrom 
which had been fixed by Chu-Wai, and as Pollard was encouraging 
the Miao and telling them that all their lives were in God's hands, 
one of their host's relations told them that he had defied his 
enemies to do their worst : "If you want to kill me, kill me ; 



FACING THE] LIONS 195 

just as you like." He also said that those who believe are one 
family, but non-believers are only like guests. The idea of being 
made equal members of the one family of God's children has 
deeply influenced these oppressed people. The belief that God's 
own Son was their Brother had taken hold of their minds and 
inspired them with a new feeling of spiritual worth. 

Next day they reached Hsiang- Chang- Shu, and at night 
seventy Miao assembled in the room to listen to the preacher's 
message, besides a dozen children sitting by the fire* As they 
spent the Sunday at this place about three hundred came to 
worship in the morning, and over a hundred at night. Pollard 
arranged them in little groups on the hillside and taught them to 
read. It was the first open-air Sunday-school Pollard had held 
in West China ; and it was the forerunner of many such gather- 
ings. The girls of the village were all dressed in their best clothes. 
The Miao grow their own flax, prepare and make it into thread, 
and then make the cloth for their dresses. Often their clothes 
are works of art. As the boys were all attending the services some 
of the small girls were entrusted with the flocks that day. How 
different seemed these fleet-footed shepherdesses from the 
crippled daughters of the Chinese ! 

On the Monday morning Pollard noticed the huge camphor 
tree, the Hsiang-Chang-Shu, which gave its name to the village. 
A few li away the people of another hamlet wanted him to stay 
with them, but he only halted for breakfast, and having addressed 
them briefly he hurried on. Two miles farther they had to ford 
the Ko-Kuei river, and wending their way up a valley past some 
copper mines, halted at Teh Choh for a basin of macaroni and 
a short address ; then they resumed their journey and came to 
Pao-lo-chai. They had walked thirty miles and were glad to 
receive a friendly welcome from a " well-to-do " Miao. Here 
after the evening meal they sat around the fire in concentric 
circles while Pollard preached to them. 

Although it was December the sun was scorching, and three 
hours' walk left Pollard completely wearied. He was disappointed 
with his first glimpse of Kuei-hsiang a small city on a little plain 
with hills nearly all round it. He entered the city, passing by a 



196 SAMUEL POLLARD 

dilapidated yamen to his inn. The cool reception contrasted with 
the demonstrations of welcome which the Miao had given him, 
but after refreshing himself he made his way to the yamen. The 
mandarin was away but his deputy seemed a sensible man, 
disposed to be conciliatory. Pollard's object was to secure official 
protection of the Miao converts, and after a little explanation 
this was promised. Returning to his inn Pollard now found a 
complete change of attitude on the part of the innkeeper, who 
brought him five plates of dried fruits and tea. Some of the people 
who called to see the missionary said that two hundred Chinese 
families were willing to join the church if the foreigners would 
appoint someone to the city. Next morning Pollard inquired 
about the possibilities of getting trees and stone for building. He 
noticed a few good houses and some temples in a far better con- 
dition than the mandarin's residence ; but signs of the prevalence 
of opium smoking accounted for the general air of squalor. 

The road from Kuei-hsiang was in a very bad state, and after 
walking thirty li to Ta-shih-chuang, he felt used up. He vividly 
recalled how Mr. Thorne had travelled this road in a state of 
high fever and only reached Chaotong to die. At Ta-shih- 
chuang they found about twenty Miao families. Seeing the 
teacher's delight in the scenery some of them guided him to a 
place two li farther on to see a huge pagoda which nature had 
constructed with layers of rock about a hundred feet high, and 
crowned with a clump of trees. That evening two hundred Miao 
came to the village to meet Pollard, and they told him that within 
a radius of a few miles he could reach a thousand Miao families. 
He comments : " The greatness of the work frightens one at times. 
What are we to do with it ? What does God mean us to do ? If 
He says take up this work swiftly, then I shall have to obey." 

In village after village Pollard was received with almost 
extravagant delight : hospitality was lavished upon him and 
out of their poverty the people brought him gifts of eggs and fowls. 
The twelve days he had spent in Miao land filled him with com- 
passion for the oppressed tribesmen. Their nai've trust touched 
him the more deeply because he had been accustomed so long 
to Chinese habits of reserve. He had been in their homes and 



FACING THE LIONS 197 

had found the passport to all hearts ; as he spoke of their 
characteristics their " faded brown hair," their dark eyes, their 
peculiar headdress and gaily coloured dresses an accent of 
tenderness crept into his speech. They opened their hearts and 
minds to him and told him their legends and their fears, but now 
and then a lighter note was struck and he was regaled with an 
anecdote with a decided touch of humour : A man purposed to 
steal a cow and besought help from his idol, promising that the 
calf should be dedicated to the idol if the man might keep the 
cow. The idol, however, insisted that his share of the booty 
should be the cow. Having committed the theft the man pro- 
ceeded to tie the cow to the idol and then dragged off the stolen 
calf. When the distressed cow heard its calf calling it went off 
in pursuit dragging the idol after it. The man then took the cow 
as well, praising the idol for relenting and bringing her to him. 

Everywhere Pollard found fear of persecution. The No-Su 
lords were unscrupulous in the means they used to stop the Miao 
from becoming Christians. But meek as these Miao had been, 
they now evinced an obstinacy which baffled their enemies. 
The new self-respect and signs of moral regeneration in these 
serfs excited the alarm of their landlords and awakened uneasy 
suspicions among the Chinese. Pollard threw himself whole- 
heartedly into the defence of the weak and downtrodden Miao. 
He availed himself of the Imperial edicts on behalf of toleration 
and liberty and obtained from the mandarins of Chaotong and 
Weining proclamations which commanded the authorities to 
protect Christians. The little, white-faced, frail missionary rose 
to the magnitude of his task, and with amazing celerity and 
splendid tact and courage, intervened wherever the Miao were 
treated wrongfully because of their Christianity. In cases of 
especial malignity, or persistence in cruelty, he did not hesitate 
to report matters to the British Consul- General at Yunnan Fu. 
It was soon recognised by the Chinese officials that Pollard could 
meet them on equal terms in insisting on Treaty rights and 
Imperial sanctions for the protection of the Christians. In dealing 
with the Tu-muh many of them fierce, ignorant men, entrenched 
in their strong fortresses among the hills he would enter into 

N 



198 SAMUEL POLLARD 

their houses and meet them face to face. In such interviews 
Pollard encountered lowering brows and menacing words with 
immovable calm, and when the first storm had spent itself he 
would bring into play his conciliatory spirit, humour, and quick- 
ness at repartee, and seek to win the persecutor to reason. If 
these failed he would employ a sterner tone and beat down 
opposition by a display of the official support given him by the 
mandarins. 

Physically Pollard was not strong, but his moral courage was 
superb. Every time he entered a castle to interview a hostile 
landlord he carried his life in his hands : and yet he never 
flinched from these ordeals. Some of these encounters were 
difficult, and seemed to end in a " draw " ; but as a rule he was 
successful. An excerpt from his Journal will illustrate this phase 
of his work. 

March 7th, 1905. About five o'clock we reached Heh Kua 
Shan, a Miao village, belonging to Loh Kih. Next morning 
about eleven o'clock we started off to the Tu-muh's residence. 
It was seventy li and we reached it about 5.30 p.m. He received 
us kindly and we stayed at his place till Wednesday. He is a 
strange man ! He told us bluntly that he would rather lose his 
head than become a Christian. All our efforts to win him were 
in vain. He refused to accept our books and disputed all our 
positions. He boasted of his adherence to his religion and de- 
fended his idol- worship with great zest. . . . He is fifty- three 
years old, and drinks wine from a small bottle continually. He 
also smokes and swallows opium. He has had seven wives : 
three of them are Chinese and are still living : and he has one 
little daughter ; his other children have died. He would not 
allow his surviving child to take a doll from us. He rules his 
wives and household with great sternness, issuing his orders in a 
loud harsh voice. He confessed to me that he had led a most 
immoral life as a young man, and now he would fain make atone- 
ment by exhorting others against imitating his faults. . . . His 
wives have to sit at his feet and prepare his opium for him. He 
laughed scornfully at the notion of a woman committing suicide, 
or pretending to do so in order to frighten her family. He said 
he would cut her up with a knife . . . and there would be no 
more nonsense of that kind in his house. When he saw me 
writing to my wife, he ridiculed me as one who fears a woman. 



FACING THE LIONS 199 

But when I showed him one of Emmie's tracts he changed his 
mind and said : " If I had a wife with ability like that I should 
respect her as you do." 

The Sunday happened to be the market day on the hill outside. 
Loh. Kih went out with me and sat by my side interrupting me as 
I preached. Yet he called up all the Miao to listen and also a 
number of No-Su. He let it be seen that he was no Christian, and 
yet he seemed to want his people to hear me preach, first begging 
me, however, not to speak against the idols. 

On Monday, the ist of the moon, Loh Kih fasted from meat 
and animal fat : he wanted to get meat for me, but I begged 
him to let me share his meals. My helpers, Messrs. Wang and 
Hsia, went off to visit some Miao villages, and they brought back 
the names of seventy inquirers. 

Loh Kih's tenants dread him very much. He wanted to know 
of his tenants how much- wine I gave them, and what bribes I 
offered, and advised them not to become Christians. We wished 
to leave on Tuesday ; but he refused to allow us to do so : he had 
killed a pig for us and insisted upon our staying to eat it. ... He 
wanted to make a treaty with me about the Miao. . . . He was 
not very nice about it at first, and we had a lot of skirmishing. He 
wanted to increase the mortgages and rents of the Miao in return 
for release from feudal service. I refused point-blank and urged 
that the customs should remain as before. At last we agreed and 
a covenant was drawn up : his suzerainty was to be acknowledged, 
and the tenants were to render him so much service. I wrote a 
copy for him ; he wrote a copy for me. He then called in two 
headmen and urged them to put down all adultery among his 
tenants anyone guilty of this sin should be beaten with fifty 
stripes. He rebuked me for eating beef and drinking milk. Then 
he advised the Miao to avoid opium and drink, -wine. Sometimes 
he supported me ; sometimes he attacked me. " We'll be 
friends," he said. " Medicine ? Yes, I will be glad to 
buy it ! But your Christian religion, I will not have it at any 
price ! " 

However, the outcome of Pollard's visit to this fierce, strange 
landlord was by no means a settlement. He seemed friendly at 
parting, and yet Pollard learned later that on the very next 
Sunday, when the Miao were gathered for worship, he arrested 
two of the leaders. One of them he tied up by his hands to the 
ceiling, his feet off the floor and a stone dangling from them. 



200 SAMUEL POLLARD 

The other was tortured differently. This done he taunted them 
to call on Jesus to save them. 

Not only was there danger of direct persecution of the Miao, but 
sometimes others would be involved in trouble, because lawless 
men were ready to take advantage of the disturbed minds of the 
people. " In one district," says Pollard, " where there were no 
Miao living, some bad fellows spread the rumour that the foreigner 
and Miao were about to rebel. One wet night when all the 
people were in bed, these thieves rushed into the village with the 
cry : * The murdering Miao are coming, escape for your lives.' 
In the rain and darkness the frightened people fled into a wood, 
but in crossing a flooded stream to reach the place of refuge, a 
number of women and children were washed away and drowned. 
In the meantime the men who raised the alarm were looting the 
deserted houses. Justice, however, overtook them later." 

At a subsequent time Pollard and his Miao Christians were all 
but destroyed by their enemies. A messenger had come from 
Ma-niao-ho saying that the militia and the Tu-muh had tied up 
and beaten the Miao. Next day it was reported that a Christian 
named Li Chuh had been tortured. Taking several friends with 
him Pollard set off to the place. On the way some of the refugees 
met them. After a searching inquiry Pollard learned the facts 
which had led up to the outbreak of persecution. There had 
been a dispute about the ownership of some land rented by a 
Miao. This old man had in some way thwarted the covetousness 
of his son-in-law, a notoriously bad man. The son-in-law called 
in the militia under the direction of the Tu-muh of Ma-niao-ho 
against his father-in-law on a trumped-up charge of robbery. 
The old man and his son, who had nothing to do with the quarrel, 
were taken prisoners, stabbed, and tortured. A stake split at the 
top was driven into the ground ; the younger prisoner had his 
thumbs tied to each side of it, and then a wedge was driven into 
the split almost wrenching the thumbs from the hands. The wife 
of the Tu-muh hammered the wedge, and at each blow she said : 
" You dare to report the Tu-muh to the foreigner ! What right 
have you to accuse your lord ? " In their agony at such torture 
both father and son were ready to promise anything. While 



FACING THE LIONS 201 

they were prisoners the militia made a raid on their farms carrying 
off the cattle. 

It was after three o'clock in the afternoon when Pollard and 
his friends reached Ma-niao-ho. The old man was sitting on the 
ground near some outhouses in chains, and his son, with his 
clothes all stained with blood, was tied by a rope, and the torture 
stake was on the ground by his side. Presently the Tu-muh came 
out to meet the visitors. He was a miserable-looking man about 
forty-five years of age, and was nearly blind with disease ; he 
held a bottle of wine in his hand. As Pollard talked to him his 
evil nature came out more and more plainly ; but at last, he was 
persuaded to admit that, even if the older prisoner .had been 
guilty of offence, the punishment more than outweighed it. 
But all the time the Tu-muh continued asking : " What right 
have you foreigners to interfere ? " But he was made to understand 
that Pollard intended to see the Miao Christians treated justly, 
and it was arranged that the horses and sheep should be restored. 

At night Pollard held an open-air service in the moonlight 
till about ten o'clock and then slept in the house of a brother 
of the released prisoner, Li Chuh. But about half -past two the 
whole hamlet was startled by the cry of " Fire ! " and hurrying 
out Pollard saw the adjoining house blazing fiercely. They 
managed to save the cattle and to prevent the fire from spreading. 
The Miao believed that although the Tu-muh had put on a mask of 
friendship at bidding Pollard farewell, he had instigated the 
crime of burning the house in the hope that the " foreigner " 
might be destroyed. Mr. Parsons found out that on the night of 
the fire forty men No-Su, Chinese, and Miao armed with 
spears, surrounded the village. But if they intended to murder 
Pollard their courage must have failed and they drew off after 
setting fire to two houses. 

Notwithstanding all that Pollard could do, much injustice 
continued for a long time to be inflicted upon the Miao, and he 
could not always be sure of obtaining redress. But no persecution 
prevented these hillmen from pursuing their quest. They con- 
tinued to wind their way down the mountain tracks with their 
packs of oatmeal slung over their shoulders, to stride across the 



202 SAMtJEL POLLARD 

Chaotong plain in single file on the dykes between the paddy 
fields, and at length to press into the Mission house to the annoy- 
ance of the Chinese and the wonder of the missionary. Writing 
from Chaotong at that time Mr. Tremberth says : " I expect they 
hardly know why they have come, but something prompts them 
within. The kind treatment they get is very deeply appreciated ; 
in all their long history no such kindness was ever meted out to 
them. Despised and persecuted by their conquerors, the Chinese, 
the only love they have known is begotten of the Gospel ! 
Beaten, chained, robbed, tortured, still they come, sometimes 
wearing Chinese dress as a disguise." 

" Our friends at home," writes Pollard, " will rejoice with us 
in this new move. How thankful we all should be if there were 
missionaries at Chaotong ready to receive these men when the 
spirit is leading them to seek the Truth ! Later it is possible 
that one of us may be set apart for work among these Miao,, and 
that funds will be needed for building a chapel in their midst. 
They are all so poor that nothing can be expected from them. 
I suppose the income of each of the families would not be more 
than three pounds a year, and often it is much less." 



CHAPTER VI 
The Second Phase of the Mass Movement 

WHEN the missionaries assembled for their Annual Meeting 
in January, 1905, they were faced by difficult questions of policy. 
The great awakening among the Chinese in the cities north of 
Chaotong demanded the whole force of the Mission staff. Now 
a rival work of vaster dimensions was thrust upon them by the 
coming of the aborigines . Ought they to confine their propaganda 
strictly to the sphere occupied by the Chinese or try to achieve 
the impossible task of answering both solicitations ? Some 
advocated thoroughly specialised work within defined limits, 
others believed in an extended evangelism. Pollard supported 
the latter party. For him the degradation and decadence of the 



THE SECOND PHASE 203 

Miao intensified the pathetic force of their appeal. He was 
fully aware of the need of Christianising the Chinese, but there 
was the accomplished fact, the simple, natural, affectionate Miao 
had already won his heart as the colder, more reserved Chinese 
had never done. 

Pollard's whole-heartedness, his white-hot enthusiasm, his 
invincible certitude in the Divine call, resulted in the acquiescence 
of the Annual Meeting in his release from Chinese work so that 
he might give all his time to the Miao. It was magnanimous of 
the other missionaries to suppress their own views and take 
up fresh burdens, although already overtaxed, in order that 
Pollard might become the apostle of the tribes. They saw that 
unless he guided it this wonderful mass movement would spend 
itself and be dissipated without any solid results. Notwithstand- 
ing their large-hearted action at this crisis the difference of 
judgment remained, and as the years passed there were occasions 
when Pollard felt that he was misunderstood by his fellow- 
missionaries. 

Although Pollard accepted the charge of the Miao he by no 
means relinquished his interest in the rest of the Mission. In 
correspondence with the Missionary Secretary, the Rev. C. 
Stedeford, he outlined a policy for the Committee. He pleaded 
in a letter, dated June i2th, 1905, that Yunnan Fu should be 
reopened, since that city must become the base of communication 
and of supplies for the Mission. This step would save both time 
and money. For the reopening of this city he held that the best 
and most experienced missionary should be sent, and with him, 
if possible, one young man. After four or five years it would be 
necessary to increase the staff there, but at all times " quality 
and not quantity " was wanted. Further, Chaotong must be 
staffed with a pastor, a medical missionary, a teacher for the boys' 
school, and a lady teacher for the girls' school. He wanted to 
see two or three Chinese women employed in and around the 
city. At Tungch'uan he wished a pastor and a lady missionary 
might be appointed. He thought the schools at Chaotong 
would serve also the needs of Tungch'uan. For the Miao 
work there should be one pastor and a young man, " for it 



204 SAMUEL POLLARD 



would be impossible for one alone to itinerate two hundred 
villages." 

Great joy was created in the hearts of the Miao when the 
message was carried from village to village that Pollard 
was appointed as their own missionary teacher. He soon 
formulated a scheme of itineration which would turn the tide 
of pilgrimage away from Chaotong where, it had been feared, 
immense concourses of the tribes might endanger the health of 
all, in view of the inadequate measures of sanitation to certain 
centres in their own territory. But in the meantime he retained 
the Mission house in the city as his home until a suitable house 
could be erected in Miao land. So Chaotong was still to be the 
scene of some exciting episodes of the tribal work. 

Two objects Pollard set before himself in his early journeys 
among the Miao, namely, to establish public worship weekly at 
central places and to secure sites for building chapels. At one 
village his host, Mr. An, a landlord, offered any piece of land on 
his estate for a chapel on condition that it did not encroach on 
his ancestral graves. 

On Sunday the Miao came from all quarters to join in the 
public services on the hillside at Ma-p'ai. It pleased Pollard 
greatly to observe that some of the inquirers had mastered the 
first book of Christian teaching before the night had fallen. After 
dark hundreds of the people remained to a torchlight meeting, 
standing or sitting around the preachers for three hours or more. 
Pollard learned that in several Miao villages the inquirers paid 
a Chinese teacher to instruct them to read the Gospels. Several 
of these teachers began to send to Pollard for books and he was 
glad to supply the need. On this particular Sunday he called 
upon one of the Miao to read the first chapter of St. John's Gospel, 
and the man did so, making only one mistake. Such an achieve- 
ment creates surprise, sympathy, and admiration when one re- 
members that until a few months before these Miao were totally 
illiterate. 

Pollard took away from Ma-p'ai many tokens of friendship. 
Mr. An, his host, gave him a magic garment a waistcoat with 
No-Su characters worked on it and adorned with dragons and 



THE SECOND PHASE 205 

lions. The wearer of this sleeveless coat was supposed to be 
immune from attacks of evil spirits. The Miao brought him 
gifts of eggs which he was glad to receive, as food supplies were 
uncertain on the unfrequented mountain paths. The greater 
part of the day Pollard travelled along the river-bed, till after a 
journey of eighty li he reached the village of Si-shih-wu. 

At the beginning of the Miao movement the men had said, 
" This good news is too good to keep ourselves, let us send the 
message on to the next village " ; and now they began to carry 
out Pollard's instructions and met together for reading, prayer, 
and exhortation. Not infrequently Pollard would arrive at some 
village which he had never visited, and find the beginnings of a 
little church among inquirers who were meeting week by week 
at each other's houses. Pollard was splendidly fitted to deal 
with the situation. He did not create the opportunity ; but he 
was ready to meet it when it came. He was there on the spot 
an arresting and magnetic man. And he rose to the height of 
the new call ; he grew daily in stature of mind and heart. 

Although in later years the Rev. H. Parsons did heroic work 
among the Miao, and the Rev. C. Mylne devoted himself to the 
evangelisation of the No-Su, they would be the first to pay a 
tribute to Pollard as the pioneer worker among the aborigines. 
He took up the work with no preconceptions of the task beyond 
the belief that the Miao should, as far as possible, erect places of 
worship among the fastnesses of the hills at their own cost. He 
waited upon events, believing that the hand of God was in the 
movement, and that his own part was simply to follow the Divine 
leading. 

Pollard's party divided in four for preaching purposes ; the 
foreign missionary spent the evening in teaching twenty-five 
boys. Next day, after passing through several hamlets, he came 
again to the home of Mr. An, who was acknowledged as lord 
over about sixty villages. Once more this seigneur repeated his 
desire to give a piece of land to the mission, as he was desirous 
of checking the constant visits of his tenants to Chaotong. A 
fortnight later, however, he seemed inclined to go back on his 
own promise. Pollard stayed for a third time at his house from 



266 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Tuesday night till Friday and only after a lot of skirmishing 
did Mr. An fulfil his promise and make over to the Mission 
about ten acres of land at " Stone Gateway " (Shih-men-k'an). 
On the Friday morning when Pollard was about to leave with the 
precious deed of gift safely stowed away on his person, his 
hospitable and generous host presented him with a Babu pony. 

He reached Stone Gateway next day, about twenty miles east 
of Chaotong and just within the Kweichow boundary. At a first 
glance Pollard was disappointed with the place, which consisted 
of the broad breast of a hill, so that it would be necessary to level 
the land before any building could begin. Fuller investigation, 
however, revealed some good features in the situation ; for one 
thing, it was right in the midst of numerous Miao villages ; for 
another, just below the surface was enough smokeless coal to last 
for a generation. The Miao themselves were delighted, not only 
with the gift of ten acres of land, but also that their great landlord 
had signed an agreement with their missionary, acknowledging 
their right to adopt Christianity. No time was lost in starting 
the work : the gift was made on March 3Oth, 1905, and on April 
ist they began levelling the site. 

Pollard was favourably impressed by the Miao in this district, 
and appreciated a certain readiness of wit which they exhibited. 
The Chinese had tried to frighten them with the stale rumour 
that the foreigner took out people's eyes. " Yes," they answered, 
" it is true : the foreigner has changed our eyes. Formerly, we 
could not read ; but now with our new eyes we can see to read 
the Christian books." When they were told that the mission- 
aries broke people's legs one of their number replied, " Ah ! it 
is true, for when we walked towards ruin the foreigner stopped 
us, and now we are walking the high road to Heaven ! " 

Building operations proceeded swiftly, and by Sunday, May 
1 4th, the chapel, with its thatched roof, was ready with seats for 
three hundred and fifty, and standing room for seven hundred. 
English people would have thought little of that poor little chapel 
with its mud walls, which had been erected at a cost of about 
twenty-five pounds ; but to the Miao it was an epoch-making 
event ; for out of their poverty they had subscribed to build this 



THE SECOND PHASE 26? 

first Christian temple in Miao land. Their delight knew no 
bounds and in that pure joy Pollard shared. Their first service 
was like an Adult Sunday School at which the Jewish Decalogue 
was committed to memory. In the afternoon one hundred and 
fifty men and sixty women and girls were present. After worship 
a man came to Pollard asking to be employed as a servant, saying, 
" I will be like an animal to you ; what you tell me to do, I'll do." 
The missionary's comment was, " Poor beggar ! We gave him 
more hope than that." 

Pollard was not only the apostle of a new faith to the Miao ; 
he became at once their protector, one might almost designate 
him their law-giver. It was not enough to build chapels for them; 
he had to help them to get rid of evil customs which would other- 
wise hinder them from practising the Christian way of life. He 
knew, however, that old evils could be banished only by kindling 
new interests and higher loves. One of the first things to be 
done was to change the pernicious character of their most popular 
customs. He wrote : " When the Miao people first came to us 
it was realised that there would be a great fight with drunkenness 
and immorality, especially the latter. The engagement and 
marriage customs were such that our people do not now care to 
talk about them, and many are trying hard to put purity and love 
where in the old days there was gross wickedness. . . . Every year 
on the fifth day of the fifth moon a day kept up by the Chinese 
in memory of the patriot, Chu Yuan, who drowned himself in 
the river Mi-ho, towards the end of the 4th century B.C. the Miao 
tribes have also a great gathering on the hillside. Thousands of 
people, mostly young men and maidens, would gather together 
and, to the playing of pipes and the singing of love-songs, they 
would let loose their passions, and make themselves the laughing- 
stock of the Chinese. These yearly gatherings were immensely 
popular and did a great deal of harm. We realised at once that 
we must keep our people away from such scenes. It was easy to 
say * Thou shalt not/ but we thought something more was 
needed. It was decided to capture that day for Christ and keep 
it in memory of the greatest Hero of all. We should have a great 
festival of our own, where the young people could enjoy them- 



208 SAMUEL POLLARD 

selves in the presence of the great King, and so find out that Jesus 
is the source of all true joy and happiness." 1 

It was not an easy task to organise a Christian holiday in place 
of the " Feast of Flowers," for it could hardly be expected that 
these uncultured people of the hills should appreciate English 
ideas of pleasure. Pollard sought the assistance of the Rev. H. 
Parsons. He knew that the success or failure of this first Christian 
celebration of the day must influence all subsequent feast-days. 
The people accepted Pollard's invitation : some of them came to 
Stone Gateway the night before, and by noon next day a thousand 
men and five hundred women and girls had assembled. They 
had two services in the new chapel, and when the crowds became 
too great for the building they held a " camp meeting "in the 
open air. Besides the Miao about two hundred Chinese were 
present. In following years all kinds of races and sports were 
introduced, but on this first festival the preaching of the Gospel 
constituted the most powerful attraction. When darkness fell 
Pollard showed his lantern pictures to the women and girls, and 
then sent them away to lodge in the village houses. Afterwards 
the two missionaries held a lantern service for the men. During 
the evening Parsons used a galvanic battery for their amusement. 
At the close the thatch-roofed chapel was turned into a huge 
" doss house " and the men were packed tightly on the floor. 
The day had passed happily without anyone desiring the licentious 
indulgences of former years. 

A few Sundays after the Feast of the Fifth Moon, a thousand 
people assembled for worship. The rude structure was often 
taxed to its utmost capacity, and the people would stand massed 
so that one could scarcely move a shoulder. Day and night the 
chapel was made use of : the high forms which afforded seating 
accommodation at worship were turned into desks for school 
work, and the lower ones were used for seats. At night high 
forms and low were made into bedsteads. Before a house was 
built for the missionary, Pollard would get the Miao to place a 
few boards across the beams in front of the rostrum, and on these 
he would sleep with two companions. At the day school which 

1 The Christian World, August loth, 1911. 



THE SECOND PHASE 209 

was started in this chapel they soon had an average attendance 
of from eighty to a hundred, half a dozen of whom were girls. 
A Chinese teacher was secured, and Mr. Stephen Lee gave 
lessons ia singing and drill. It was practically a boarding-school, 
as all the children lived and slept on the premises or in the huts 
around. 

Under Pollard's direction, Stephen Lee adapted a number of 
hymns to Miao chants and taught the people to sing on the 
sol-fa system. They also learned versified forms of old Bible 
stories which wielded a great fascination over their minds, and 
became one of the chief means of propagating the new religion. 
One evening two girl singers were brought to Pollard. They had 
come one hundred and twenty miles, over wet, muddy roads, 
under the protection of an old man, in order that they might get 
the missionary's sanction to sing their songs to the Miao Christ- 
ians. The younger girl had become hoarse by so much singing. 
Like Caedmon, she claimed that the words had been given to her 
by night in a dream. Pollard thought that she must have heard 
the Miao inquirers talking of the Gospel and, having brooded 
over what she had heard, it took the form of verse in her dreams. 
Pollard was as pleased with her as Abbess Hilda was in her day 
with the herdman-poet, and gladly gave her permission to 
become a wandering minstrel if her father or mother went with 
her. The girl was elated at the sympathy of the foreign teacher 
and went forth on her mission with a light heart. 

The chapel became the centre of a new settlement at Shih- 
men-k'an, and little whitewashed buildings were put up where 
the worshippers and teachers might lodge. The house of the 
missionary erected by the first Miao converts cost about five 
pounds, and consisted of three little rooms, from whence Pollard 
directed an extensive and amazingly successful evangelisation of 
the Miao tribes. 1 

1 A fascinating account is given in " The Story of the Miao." 



210 SAMUEL POLLARD 

CHAPTER VII 
The First Baptisms of the Miao 

ALTHOUGH one of the most impetuous of men, Pollard was able 
to exercise surprising self-restraint, and in grave matters ex- 
hibited almost an excess of caution. He allowed fifteen months 
to pass after the Miao began to visit Chaotong before he would 
grant the urgent and repeated request for baptism. Even after 
this long period of waiting his consent seems to have been pre- 
cipitated by' the example of Mr. Adam of the China Inland 
Mission. One October day in 1905 Pollard met the first baptized 
Miao of his acquaintance, who told him that a fortnight before, 
at Kop'u, he had received formal admission into the Church 
with sixty others by Mr. Adam. When Pollard returned to Stone 
Gateway two weeks afterwards he examined thirty Miao cate- 
chumens : " They all answered intelligently and well. Some 
with very strong feeling declared their love for Jesus, and almost 
everyone said there was peace in his heart. How my heart 
rejoiced at the glorious scene ! " He felt he could not deny 
baptism to any of them much longer. 

November 5th was the day fixed for the baptism of one hundred 
and fifty Miao. Only by exercising the most rigorous tests 
could the number of candidates be kept down ; it would have 
been easier to double the number. Two thousand people 
attended the service, some of whom came several days' journey 
and slept at night on the mountain side. They opened the day 
with an early morning prayer-meeting. Pollard was awed by the 
solemnity of the step he was about to take, and tells us that he 
sought inward cleansing and preparation for administering the 
holy sacrament. The service was begun immediately after 
breakfast. Only approved candidates were admitted to the 
chapel. Eleven elders had been appointed, nine men and two 
women ; they had all been among the earliest converts ; some 
of them, like Wang- teh-tao, Yang-yah-koh, and Chang- Yoh-han, 
were destined to render eminent service in evangelising the 



FIRST BAPTISMS OF THE MIAO 211 

tribes. Each catchumen was asked, " Do you desire to be 
baptized ? " " Are you willing to be the child of God ? " When 
the elders had been baptized, they were invited to the platform, 
and all the other groups were re-examined by them. First, the 
candidates gave their names to be registered by Stephen Lee, 
who questioned them and passed them on to Pollard, and if 
their knowledge of Christian doctrine was deemed sufficient, 
they were questioned about their present and past conduct by 
the Miao elders. " Many of the candidates were dressed neatly, 
and their hair was arranged in the nicest way. They looked far 
nicer than any similar company of Chinese I have ever seen. 
Six or seven were objected to by the elders, and among them a 
girl who was refused because it was known that she had lived 
loosely in the past : but she tried again and again in successive 
groups till I admitted her : the kingdom of heaven suffers 
violence." Parsons was with Pollard and took part in baptizing 
many of those first converts. One hundred and two persons 
received baptism that morning. As Pollard listened to the 
responses of the candidates, and saw their frank, honest faces 
lighted up with new joy and confidence, he tells us that he felt 
strangely humbled and would fain have stood among those who 
were seeking baptism. Another service was held later for the 
women and girls. The evening service lasted four hours, and 
hundreds of others begged to be baptized, but Pollard thought 
it wise to delay their reception. Two days later at the market 
Pollard was accompanied by one of the baptized Miao : they 
were met by a friendly Chinese graduate who bowed to the new 
convert and congratulated him upon becoming a member of the 
Christian Church. " A Confucian B.A.," writes Pollard, " bow- 
ing to a Miao and congratulating him on believing Jesus is, 
surely, as remarkable an occurrence as could be met in this part 
of China." 

One of the impressive features of the Miao mass movement 
was the readiness of even the poorest to give what they could for 
the church. On the day of the first baptisms at Stone Gateway 
they celebrated the harvest thanksgiving . The ' ' collection plates ' ' 
were three baskets, each large enough to accommodate the 



212 SAMUEL POLLARD 

whole of Pollard's family. It took six or seven of the Miao more 
than an hour to receive all the gifts, and the result was equivalent 
to fifty or sixty thousand cash. At the close of the first year's 
work Pollard reckoned that these poor people had subscribed 
about a hundred pounds. 

When, a fortnight later, Pollard told the prefect of Chaotong 
that he was intending to return to England, the Chinese official 
turned to Mrs. Pollard and said : " What a pity, Madam, that 
you must go ! " But Pollard was drawn in different ways ; two 
weeks later after a great service at Stone Gateway he writes : 
" My heart has been moved to-day. How can I go home just 
now ? If God would only give me word to stay, how glad I 
should be ! " He felt that the time had come for Mrs. Pollard 
and his children to go to England, and naturally he longed to 
take them. But he felt that he was needed at this juncture to 
organize the work among the Miao, and after a sharp struggle he 
decided to send his wife and boys without him. The attendance 
on the following Sunday of nearly a thousand people seemed to 
seal this decision with the Divine approval. They divided the 
worshippers into two groups : Mr. Pollard taught the baptized 
members, while Parsons and Stephen Lee conducted the service in 
the crowded chapel. After eight hours of teaching Pollard sat 
down and wrote : " What a blessed work it is, and what a joy ! 
How glad I am not to be going home yet to leave these poor folk ! 
God bless and save them all ! They say the baptisms have stirred 
up a lot of outsiders." 

From the beginning of the Miao work Pollard was awake to 
the social needs of the people, and he now proposed to inaugurate 
the observance of Christmas. It was known to the Miao as the 
birthday of Jesus. The}* 1 knew little about the celebration of 
birthdays, and few of them knew their own ages. As Pollard was 
expected to keep Christmas Day at Chaotong, the festival had to 
be put off at Stone Gateway till December ayth. It was a snowy 
Christmastide, yet so anxious were some of them to attend the 
first celebration in Miao land of Jesus' birthday that they came 
three days' journey through the snow. They were dressed in 
their everyday clothes and carried their best garments over their 




HOW "STONE GATEWAY" (SHIH-MEN-K'AN) 
GOT ITS NAME. 



2i2 SAMUEL POLLARD 

whole of Pollard's family. It took six or seven of the Miao more 
than an hour to receive all the gifts, and the result was equivalent 
to fifty or sixty thousand cash. At the close of the first year's 
work Pollard reckoned that these poor people had subscribed 
about a hundred pounds. 

When, a fortnight later, Pollard told the prefect of Chaotong 
that he was intending to return to England, the Chinese official 
turned to Mrs. Pollard and said : " What a pity, Madam, that 
you must go ! " But Pollard was drawn in different ways ; two 
weeks later after a great service at Stone Gateway he writes : 
" My heart has been moved to-day. How can I go home just 
now ? If God would only give me word to stay, how glad I 
should be ! " He felt that the time had come for Mrs. Pollard 
and his children to go to England, and naturally he longed to 
take them. But he felt that he was needed at this juncture to 
organize the work among the Miao, and after a sharp struggle he 
decided to send his wife and boys without him. The attendance 
on the following Sunday of nearly a thousand people seemed to 
seal this decision with the Divine approval. They divided the 
worshippers into two groups : Mr. Pollard taught the baptized 
members, while Parsons and Stephen Lee conducted the service in 
the crowded chapel. After eight hours of teaching Pollard sat 
down and wrote : " What a blessed work it is, and what a joy ! 
How glad I am not to be going home yet to leave these poor folk ! 
God bless and save them all ! They say the baptisms have stirred 
up a lot of outsiders." 

From the beginning of the Miao work Pollard was awake to 

CJ C^ 

the social needs of the people, and he now proposed to inaugurate 
the observance of Christmas. It was known to the Miao as the 
birthday of Jesus. They knew little about the celebration of 
birthdays, and few of them knew their own ages. As Pollard was 
expected to keep Christmas Day at Chaotong, the festival had to 
be put off at Stone Gateway till December zjth. It was a snowy 
Christmastide, yet so anxious were some of them to attend the 
first celebration in Miao land of Jesus' birthday that they came 
three days' journey through the snow. They were dressed in 
their everyday clothes and carried their best garments over their 




HOW "STONE GATEWAY" (SHIH-MEN-K'AN) 

GOT ITS NAME. 



FIRST BAPTISMS OF THE MIAO 213 

shoulders. Pollard printed twelve hundred tickets, and these 
were not enough : five cooks were brought from. Chaotong to 
prepare the feast. During the three days more than a thousand 
guests sat down at one hundred and thirty tables, and among them 
were only a hundred women and girls. Thirty- two fires were 
kept going, but it was difficult to keep the guests warm. The 
sports and games planned for the festival had to be postponed 
till the Fifth Moon. 

On the last day of 1905 Pollard examined fresh candidates 
for baptism and admitted sixty-eight new members. More than 
forty of these came from the village of " Tiger's Teeth," where the 
Tu-muh was obstinately opposed to Christianity. So great was 
the throng at this service that the people had to be admitted 
in relays. At the close of the service he wrote : "It was a fine 
day's work to finish up the year 1905." 

Pollard fully recognised the value of the assistance of his 
English and Chinese colleagues, Mr. Parsons and Stephen Lee : 
without them much of the work would have had to remain undone. 
After sixteen months of labour among the Miao he was able to see 
that some of the men and women who had been baptized possessed 
gifts of leadership which might be used to secure permanent 
results from the numerous conversions. Already he was turning 
his thoughts to the training of a native ministry. " It is hoped," 
he says, " gradually to get a circle of school-chapels around 
Chaotong, the most distant of which will be only about eighty 
miles. The missionary in the city can easily visit these out-stations, 
and with an adequate staff of native preachers and teachers 
Chinese and Miao a great work can be done." 

This year was in some ways the most momentous and most 
successful in Pollard's life, but at its close there were clouds 
that threw over him shadows of disappointment and anxiety. 
Great heights have corresponding depths : alternations of joy 
and sadness came in Pollard's experience, as in the lives of all who 
live for others. It will be remembered that Hudson Taylor had 
been influential in leading the Bible Christian Conference to send 
out missionaries to China, and it was at his suggestion that they 
were sent to Yunnan. Pollard was naturally moved by the tidings 
o 



214 SAMUEL POLLARD 

that in this year of greatest success in the work of Mission, 
Hudson Taylor had passed away. There were, however, other 
causes of sadness : suddenly, without any warning, some of 
Pollard's Chinese helpers who seemed at that time indispensable 
in the carrying out of the evangelism of the Miao and Chinese 
became disaffected and one of them wished to leave Stone Gate- 
way. Another wrote from Lao-wa-t'an that he was homesick 
and weary. Pollard confesses that the problem which emerged 
was beyond him, and writes with naive frankness : " I took it to 
Jesus and told Him that the responsibility was His and not mine, 
and that it was for Him to straighten things out." These 
ebullitions of irritation and indiscipline were soon forgotten in 
presence of an even greater difficulty : one of the English mission- 
aries suddenly decided that he must return home with his children. 
When this was known the two recalcitrant Chinese evangelists 
saw the gravity of the crisis and with penitence promised to remain 
at their posts. Pollard accepted this swift surrender as an answer 
to his prayer. 

One of the bright occurrences at the Christmas of 1905 was the 
appearance at the mission house of thirty men of the Heh-i, a 
branch of the No-Su tribe : they were a strange group, much 
fiercer and more warlike than the Miao. They reported that 
eight or nine hundred of these patrician No-Su were ready to 
receive the missionary's teaching. In conversation one of the 
visitors confessed that he had doubts about the new doctrine. 
" Oh," rejoined one of the No-Su converts, " you must doubt 
before you can have faith." Another No-Su visitor said that one 
of their books referred to a great Spirit called Ye-so-mo, or 
Ye-so-sage. He is not God, and yet at harvest time the Heh-i 
thank him for the ingathering. The No-Su were inclined to 
identify their own Ye-so with the Ye-su of the foreigners. 1 
Pollard writes : " May God open a great door for their salvation ! 
Does this mean that salvation for the Lolos has come at last ? " 

The next important step in the Miao movement was the first 
celebration of Communion among the baptized converts, on 
January aSth, 1906. So eager were the people that the chapel 
1 cf. " Among the Tribes in West China/' p. 126. 



FIRST COMMUNION OF THE MIAO 215 

was completely filled by seven o'clock in the morning. At the 
eleven o'clock service there were seven hundred persons inside, 
and about four hundred outside. Thirty besides the missionaries 
were on the rostrum, and Pollard sat at the harmonium whilst 
Parsons administered the elements tea and bread. Chang- 
Yoh-han gave an address, and then the communicants came 
forward in groups as their names were called from the church 
roll. As each group retired and another took its place a verse of a 
Miao hymn was sung, and while the communicants knelt down 
Pollard led them in prayer. One hundred and sixty-four baptized 
converts took part and the service lasted three hours. The 
offertory amounted to about twelve taels ; everyone was amazed 
that poor people should give so much. It had been their 
intention to make the afternoon an occasion for an examination 
of fresh candidates ; but the crowd was so great that the time was 
spent in preaching. In the evening eight hundred people 
crammed the chapel. As they sang the sway of the massed 
audience made Pollard fear that the building might fall, and he 
asked all the men to withdraw so that the first service should be 
for the women only. At a later hour the women gave place to the 
men. There were fifty-seven baptisms that evening. One man, 
an elder, brought his wife and two children. The wife held the 
smaller child in her arms, and the older one of three years of age 
was strapped on the father's back : the man turned sideways 
bending the child towards Pollard for baptism. 

Without any design on the part of the missionaries the course 
of development of this mass movement reproduced in an amazing 
way many of the phenomena of the times of the Acts of the 
Apostles demoniacal possession, the appearance of pseudo- 
prophets, anticipations of the parousia which caused the people 
of some places to give up their work so that they might be ready 
for the Lord's coming, and the sending forth of missioners. On 
February nth, 1906, the Miao decided that eighteen of their 
number should go forth two and two to all the villages of the 
district on a preaching tour. Pollard supplied them with Christian 
books to sell, but gave them no money. They were to throw 
themselves upon the hospitality of their hearers ; if at any place 



216 SAMUEL POLLARD 

their message was refused they were to use the book-money to 
buy provisions. All of them were pleased and greatly excited, 
and started off in high spirits. They were received everywhere 
with hospitality, but reported that while some heard their 
evangel with delight, many refused all entreaties to abandon 
their old customs. The aim of Pollard was not merely to extend 
the evangelism, but also to train the evangelists. 

After the birth of his fourth son on April i6th, 1906, he 
started off on another tour. A fortnight later he entered in his 
diary : " April 3Oth. I returned home and found Emmie and 
Ernest quite well. The dear little fellow is such a joy to us all." 
Nearer and nearer drew the time when his wife and children were 
to go away ; but having made his decision to remain Pollard 
never faltered, and when he bade farewell to wife and children 
(November 7th, 1906) and remained alone to carry on the 
evangelism and instruction of the Miao, his influence over them 
multiplied a hundredfold. 

In some measure the men and women of the Miao villages 
understood the self-denial of Pollard in this voluntary separation 
from his family, and they repaid him as they were able with love 
and trust. As some of them said, he was like a father and mother 
to them : he listened to their confessions ; he gave them com- 
fort ; he reconciled women to their estranged husbands and 
husbands to erring wives. Their first impulse in times of trouble 
was to seek Pollard. 

Sixteen days after bidding good-bye to his family, Pollard 
accompanied by Parsons and Mr. Nicholls an Australian C.I.M. 
missionary went to a Miao wedding. " There were about three 
hundred guests. They killed a cow and a pig for us. We had a 
service in the chapel, and used a form of wedding service similar 
to that which we have at home. Bridegroom and bride answered 
the questions without hesitation. Then the bride took a cup of 
water and handed it to the bridegroom : he drank half and passed 
the remainder to the bride to drink. They then knelt while being 
prayed for, and rising they joined heartily in the wedding hymn. 
After the benediction we all bowed to the newly married couple. 
In the evening, all the young folk, including the bride and 



PERSONAL SERVICES TO THE MIAO 217 

bridesmaid, came up and we had games. It must have been one 
o'clock before we finished. The bride slipped off about ten. . . . 
I thoroughly enjoyed the fun with the children : it was a grand 
time. I went to bed very tired. When we bade farewell the next 
day, I was impressed by the quiet dignity of the bride, which was 
very marked. There was no giggling among the young folk who 
were with us ; no mock shyness ; the bride's demeanour seemed 
an improvement on the mock modesty of the Chinese." 

But Pollard could make himself as much feared as loved. 
Miao girls and women were sometimes subjected to insult and 
wrong by the Chinese or headmen of the hamlets. Then his 
anger would blaze and he would at once take steps to invoke the 
intervention of the Chinese magistrate. About this time a Miao 
girl of twelve or thirteen after suffering in mind and body escaped 
from her captor, but such was her state of terror she could tell no 
one what had happened. The offence, however, was discovered 
and the man was forced to confess. " To-day," says Pollard, 
" the father came with the girl to us. She stood up telling her 
story and crying bitterly. It made me feel very bad and Mr. Lee 
wept. . . . We agreed to report the matter and get it seen into 
by the officials. The prefect was not at home, so I wrote to the 
Brigadier-General Liu at Chaotong." 

In another case Pollard was told that one of the Christian girls 
was about to marry a man who already had a wife, and he sat down 
and wrote this letter : " The white teacher loves the people of 
Mao-ntu-lu very much, and wants them all to be God's good 
children. I have now heard a matter which gives my heart 
unrest. At Mi-ri-keo there are people who say that the young 
woman of Mao-ntu-lu, Wang-Cheng, is coming to be the wife of 
John. When I learned this my heart had no rest at all. There 
is no such principle as this. Wang-Cheng, you are God's good 
young woman and live a good life. We all love you very much. 
You must be a virtuous woman. Now John has a wife. One man 
cannot have two wives. Whoever goes as wife to the home of a 
man who puts away his wife acts like a dog and pig. You must be 
careful to be pure. Jesus loves you much : He formerly gave His 
life for you. You must remember this and love Him in return. . . . 



2i8 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Wang-Cheng, you must not be angry at the teacher for writing 
these words. We all love you much and want you to be Jesus' 
good maiden. The white teacher writes this to the maiden, 
Wang- Cheng of Mao-ntu-lu." 

Such incidents and records illustrate the variety of tasks which 
fell upon the missionary ; but no adequate conception of the 
extent of Pollard's new parish has yet been given. He himself 
says in 1906 that it covered an area of a thousand square miles. 
" If a day's journey were supposed to be about twenty or twenty- 
five miles over rough mountainous roads, then in the north-east 
the mission stretches five days, to the east three days, to the south- 
east four and a half days, in the north-west three and a half days, 
westward two and a half days, and in the south-west three and a 
half days." Pollard could not possibly work such a vast area 
alone, and he was thankful, therefore, when the Mission appointed 
Mr. and Mrs. H. Parsons to live at Stone Gateway for six months 
each year. 

" There is still another district," says Pollard, " in which our 
people are interested. From the north of Yunnan Fu a district 
which years ago was our sphere " and where the United 
Methodist Committee has resolved to take up work again 
" Miao came twelve days' journey begging the missionaries to go 
and teach them. . . . How glad we should have been had we been 
able to do so ! But after prayer, thought and consultation, we 
decided we could do nothing personally to direct work so far from 
our base. Then the next best thing, perhaps the best thing was 
done. Through the Chairman of the Annual Meeting a letter was 
sent to the Rev. J. McCarthy, the superintendent of the C.I.M. 
in Yunnan, begging him to take up the work. He readily 
responded and immediately appointed Mr. A. Nicholls, sending 
him down to our district to see the work and to learn the Miao 
language. Having succeeded so far the next step was simple. 
An appeal was made for native preachers to go back when Mr. 
Nicholls returned. Several of our best men offered, and when 
after three, or four months, Mr. Nicholls went to his sphere of 
work, he was accompanied by four of our Miao preachers who 
have worked enthusiastically for their fellow-tribesmen." 



"RICE EAR VALLEY" AND " LONG SEA " 219 

CHAPTER VIII 
"Rice Ear Valley" and "Long Sea" 

IN one of John Keats's letters is a passage in which he protests 
against the notion that this world is " a vale of tears " and 
suggests that it might be more truly called " the vale of soul- 
making." If, as the poet implied, the moulding of souls is indeed 
one of the chief purposes of the world's life, then Pollard's work 
among the tribes of West China, besides being intrinsically 
beneficent and interesting, has a unique value in that it enables 
us to look into God's laboratory and watch the process of soul- 
making. A mysterious influence has descended upon these 
decadent tribes agitating and impelling them to seek a new way of 
life, transforming whole groups of village communities. Under 
the inspiration of the Gospel they are being reinvested with the 
dignity and hope of high purpose. In this mission the task was 
thrust upon Pollard of founding dozens of churches, of maintain- 
ing pastoral oversight, of directing education, and even of per- 
forming a healing ministry among them. He scarcely thought of 
his own sacrifices ; he was too absorbed by the magnitude of the 
enterprise. His letters and articles read like paeans to the Spirit 
of Beauty and of Good Who has made the hills of West China a 
sphere of His operation. 

Pollard was on the look-out for other sites where chapels and 
schools might be erected. It was impossible for the Miao to 
trudge ten and in some places even a score of miles to Shih-men- 
k'an Sunday after Sunday. But there were difficulties in securing 
the sites after they had been selected, as most of the land was in 
the hands of powerful No-Sa chiefs who, even when not active 
in persecution, were often suspicious and sullenly resistent. 
We may take the case of three powerful No-Su brothers named 
Lo who lived at Mao-Mao-Shan, or " Cat's Hill." On a mountain 
spur they had built a castle, impregnable when men fought with 
bows and arrows. The eldest of these brothers was a mandarin 
under the Chinese Government and usually away from his 



220 SAMUEL POLLARD 

family seat. The second was chief over a district comprising 
hundreds of square miles through which were scattered scores of 
Miao villages. This man feared the encroachments of the 
Christian Church as an influence which rivalled and limited his 
control. For long he refused all Pollard's solicitations for a piece 
of land, but one day the missionary thought he might accomplish 
his aim through the mediation of another chief, who was friendly 
with the seigneur of Mao-Mao-Shan and kindly disposed towards 
the Christians. Pollard told Mr. Ch'ee his difficulties and secured 
his promise to intercede for him, and also gained assurance that if 
Chief Lo still refused then he himself would find them land and 
give them trees for timber. The negotiations took time, but after 
hopes had been raised and disappointed again and again, Pollard 
received a gift of land about an acre and a half at Mi-ri-keo, 
or " Rice Ear Valley," some thirty miles north-east of Stone Gate- 
way, situated among a very sea of billowy hills. 

Pollard set out for Mi-ri-keo on May 7th, 1906, and halted 
at the village of Tu-ku-men. Here, although all the people were 
Christians, were many who were doomed to carry the marks 
and scourge of past sins, the women particularly suffering from 
terrible throat diseases. One girl was a leper ; another had to be 
sent into the city to see Dr. Savin. In his dealings with the people 
Pollard often showed a large and unexpected tolerance. There 
was tactful liberality in the counsel he gave to the Miao of Tu- 
ku-men when the No-Su landlady ordered her tenants to gather 
her opium as in former years. He said that they might do as 
they were bidden without sin ; the responsibility was with her 
who gave the command. 

At Mi-ri-keo the site had to be levelled by the Miao before 
a chapel could be erected. Chinese workmen were engaged, 
but they did their part so badly that the walls fell down five times. 
The Miao grew impatient and undertook to finish the building 
themselves. The village was only a tiny place with sixty inhabi- 
tants, but it became a Christian centre to which worshippers 
flocked from a hundred hamlets around. The chapel, roofed with 
red tiles, was like a huge barn in which eight hundred might sit 
down, or fifteen hundred stand. Pollard persuaded the Miao to 



220 SAMUEL POLLARD 

family seat. The second was chief over a district comprising 
hundreds of square miles through which were scattered scores of 
Miao villages. This man feared the encroachments of the 
Christian Church as an influence which rivalled and limited his 
control. For long he refused all Pollard's solicitations for a piece 
of land, but one day the missionary thought he might accomplish 
his aim through the mediation of another chief, who was friendly 
with the seigneur of Mao-Mao-Shan and kindly disposed towards 
the Christians. Pollard told Mr. Ch'ee his difficulties and secured 
his promise to intercede for him, and also gained assurance that if 
Chief Lo still refused then he himself would find them land and 
give them trees for timber. The negotiations took time, but after 
hopes had been raised and disappointed again and again, Pollard 
received a gift of land about an acre and a half at Mi-ri-keo, 
or " Rice Ear Valley," some thirty miles north-east of Stone Gate- 
way, situated among a very sea of billowy hills. 

Pollard set out for Mi-ri-keo on May 7th, 1906, and halted 
at the village of Tu-ku-men. Here, although all the people were 
Christians, were many who were doomed to carry the marks 
and scourge of past sins, the women particularly suffering from 
terrible throat diseases. One girl was a leper ; another had to be 
sent into the city to see Dr. Savin. In his dealings with the people 
Pollard often showed a large and unexpected tolerance. There 
was tactful liberality in the counsel he gave to the Miao of Tu- 
ku-men when the No-Su landlady ordered her tenants to gather 
her opium as in former years. He said that they might do as 
they were bidden without sin ; the responsibility was with her 
who gave the command. 

At Mi-ri-keo the site had to be levelled by the Miao before 
a chapel could be erected. Chinese workmen were engaged, 
but they did their part so badly that the walls fell down five times. 
The Miao grew impatient and undertook to finish the building 
themselves. The village was only a tiny place with sixty inhabi- 
tants, but it became a Christian centre to which worshippers 
flocked from a hundred hamlets around. The chapel, roofed with 
red tiles, was like a huge barn in which eight hundred might sit 
down, or fifteen hundred stand. Pollard persuaded the Miao to 



"RICE EAR VALLEY" AND "LONG SEA" 221 

put up a three-roomed cottage also where he could stay -when he 
came to them. On this occasion he and Mr. Arthur Nicholls 
lodged with the church steward, T'ao-Loh-Chioh, or, as Pollard 
calls him, " Mr. Peach." Among the first leaders of the Miao 
Christians were a few men of strong character and marked talent ; 
Mr. T'ao was one of the quaintest and most lovable. His 
happiness was in his ap'iary of twenty hives. The bees were his 
children and his delight : he loved them and said that they loved 
him. They brought to his garden the perfumes of the whole 
country around, and filled the hours with their ceaseless murmur, 
which he thought the sweetest of all music. During this visit 
a hive swarmed and the bees settled in a pear-shaped mass on the 
branch of a tree. Mr. T'ao took a hollowed trunk of a tree 
about twenty inches long, open at one end, and tying it between 
two branches scooped the bees into it with a wooden ladle. Fear- 
ing to make the acquaintance of the bees during the night Pollard 
induced his host to remove the hive that was nearest the door. 
Mr. T'ao then stuck two pieces of white paper on a stone to direct 
the bees to their new position. Early next morning Pollard was 
wrapped in slumber and dreamt that he was in Dr. Savin's 
dispensary chasing a large bee ; awaking he found the room 
humming and alive ; some of the bees crawled into the mission- 
aries' beds, and one more angry than the rest stung Pollard's 
companion into sudden wakefulness. Later in the day the bees 
were attacked by hornets who carried off the baby bees to feed their 
own young. Mr. T'ao used a small board like a cricket bat to 
kill the hornets, and having found their nest he went at night and 
suffocated them by burning grass. He told Pollard that when 
the hornets first came he was at work some distance away, but the 
bees found him out and kissed his face again and again so that he 
knew they were in trouble and hurried home to wage war upon the 
marauders. This enthusiast never wearied of talking about his 
bees to the teacher. He said that they are dependent upon the 
queen bee ; that if she dies the hive falls into disorder, instead 
of building the cells properly the bees lay the wax in a lump, and 
then one by one they die of grief and hunger. Being a devout 
church steward he was ready to moralise, saying that the hornets 



222 SAMUEL POLLARD 

are like devils, and as the bees could not drive them away without 
him, neither could he drive away his secret foes without closing 
his eyes and calling on Jesus to help him. 

At the beginning of July Pollard and Nicholls baptized two 
hundred and sixty converts and preached to more than a thou- 
sand. But the building operations at Mi-ri-keo continued to 
give disappointment and in one instance were attended by a 
serious accident. About the middle of December a messenger 
arrived at Shih-Men-k'an to say that while digging out founda- 
tions for the new house two of the scholars had been badly 
crushed by a fall of earth. Pollard started off at once, travelling 
two days' journey in one, and reached his destination after night- 
fall. A service was just closing, and when the worshippers saw 
him there was a shout of welcome : " K'a nteh ta chioh ! " He 
found that one of the injured scholars had been taken to his home, 
but the other was being nursed by his elder brother in a corner of 
the chapel. The little fellow was glad to see the teacher and held 
out his hands as though he would have embraced him. Pollard 
speedily arranged that he should be carried in a litter to the 
hospital at Chaotong. Both boys were seriously injured and bore 
their pain like Christian stoics ; but one of them died at 
Christmas. 

Processions of Miao striding along roads from eight directions 
to Mi-ri-keo for the Christmas festival made a decorative and 
charming scene. They came in groups of scores and hundreds : 
the men dressed in white and blue and darker colours ; girls and 
women wearing jackets of white, blue, black or green stuff, 
kilted skirts of blue and white embroidered with small pieces 
of red or chocolate colour. The little children were tied on their 
mothers' backs and comforted with buckwheat cakes, cobs of 
boiled maize, or long cucumbers. 

" Connected with this place," he writes, " three men stand 
out prominently : they are Stephen Lee, the Chinese preacher, 
who is the pastor, Chang-yoh-han, and Chu-to-ma or John 
and Thomas, two Miao preachers. ... I love my native 
colleagues ; I am proud to have their friendship. Stephen and I 
have roughed it, and enjoyed it in all kinds of weather and 



, "RICE EAR VALLEY" AND "LONG SEA 1 ' 223 

circumstances. He has opened his heart to me as perhaps no 
other Chinese has done." 

" From the first formation of the church the Sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper has been the service of highest importance in 
the eyes of the Miao. From long distances, in great heat, in heavy 
rain, in cold and snow, over slippery roads, across swirling 
mountain torrents, up steep hills, down precipitous paths, 
bearing children on their backs, tired, hungry, they come again 
and again in memory of Jesus and from great love to him. . . . 
All who are not members now leave the building : then the sing- 
ing begins and continues till all are quietly settled. The minister 
' fences ' the tables and points all to Jesus. The stewards take 
around the baskets of buckwheat bread and the cups ; tea is 
poured into every cup, while the communicants sing, ' Jesus 
loves me,' ' There is a fountain,' ' Alas ! and did my Saviour 
bleed.' When every cup has been supplied, all bend in prayer, 
confessing their sins and recollecting the supreme sacrifice of 
Jesus. Then they eat the Body and drink the Blood in communion 
believing in the real presence. . . . Three years ago these 
people were all heathen, immoral, drunkards, devil- worshippers, 
sorcerers unable to read. Now they are full of the love of Jesus. 
They used to fear each other ; now they trust and help one 
another. They read, they worship God, they hate the devil, 
they have destroyed their houses of sin, and they guard 
their daughters from temptation. . . . They have passed 
from death into life ; they have become children of God 
indeed." 

" It is evening now ; large numbers have gone back to their 
homes and the last service of the day is about to begin. This 
is often the best : the people are fewer, perhaps a hundred 
remain, there is more quiet ; it is easier to get close to those who 
are present. At nine o'clock the service ends. There is a rustling 
of long bundles of hemp sticks which are lighted at the preacher's 
candle, and those who belong to other villages wend their way over 
the hills by the light of the hemp torches. They look like swarms 
of fire-flies until they are hidden behind the hills. And now 
Rice Ear Valley settles down : the stillness is broken by the last 



224 SAMUEL POLLARD 

hymns of the men who intend to sleep in the chapel : or it may be 
they will practise some new tune for the next hour." 

Mr. Tao's house is not the only one that Pollard visits ; just a 
little farther is Mr. Liu's home where the missionary received his 
earliest welcome. There are now only the two daughters ; the 
elder, eighteen years old, is a fine Christian and a beautiful 
singer. It had been Pollard's sad duty to bury her father and 
mother : then the daughter was stricken down with famine fever, 
and there were great sorrow and much prayer on her behalf. 
She has recovered and the K'anteh (pastor) tries to comfort 
her with reassuring hopes of the immortal life. He leaves her 
to visit the home of her most intimate friend : it is a hut of reeds, 
just one small room and so poor that Pollard wonders that any- 
one should call it home. " Miss Wu who lives here has a clear, 
beautiful voice, such as one imagines Pippa of Asola to have had. 
These two girl friends are often together on the hills, hoeing the 
maize, guarding the corn from wild animals, or watching the 
cattle on the hills, and as they work they sing like the larks from 
very joy. It is an inspiration to hear suddenly on the hillsides of 
West China the beautiful words of the Magnificat sung by the 
Miao women." 

At the solicitations of inquirers sixty miles south-east of Stone 
Gateway Pollard made a journey to Chang-hai-tsi " Long Sea " 
which afterwards became the centre of a new district. It is in 
Kweichow and nearly half-way between Chaotong and Tung- 
ch'uan. There were about fifty villages which could be evan- 
gelised and superintended from it. The landlord of the district 
not only gave an acre and a half for a chapel, but also granted 
permission to the Christian Miao to cut down as much timber 
as they would require for building. But before beginning to 
build Pollard deemed it advisable to acquaint the Chinese 
mandarin at Weining with his project. On the journey to 
Weining he passed through certain villages where the people 
looked askance at the movement and he resolved that he would 
not rest until he had won these surly and suspicious villagers 
for Christ. Next day he came to hamlets where the first en- 
thusiasm for Christianity had died down because no missionary 



"RICE EAR VALLEY" AND "LONG SEA" 225 

was on the spot. He saw clearly that the only effective way of 
conserving the mass movement and founding a vigorous church 
was to build chapels and schools and staff them with Chinese 
and Miao teachers. On Friday he reached Weining after a day's 
journey of forty miles. He says : " After tea I called on the 
mandarin and found him a young, wideawake, progressive man 
who seemed pleased to see us. After a long talk he had lanterns 
lit and walked back through the streets with us to our inn about 
a mile. We walked slowly along chatting as we went, like two 
foreigners instead of a mandarin and a missionary. We smiled 
at the novel situation, and I told him that I had never before 
seen such a Chinese official." Probably this young Chinaman 
belonged to that enlightened band of men who were preparing 
for the changes which were destined to come in the next few 
years. 

December nth, 1905, was the anniversary of his wedding- 
day : " Fourteen years ago I was married : thank God for all 
these years of joy and peace ! " They travelled eighty li that day 
and halted at Kan-ho-keo, staying with Mr. Chang, where he 
had a good room in a log-built house. The family of sons and 
grandchildren numbered twenty-seven. Next day a wedding 
took place, and there were about two hundred guests mostly 
Miao with a sprinkling of Chinese and I-ren, all dressed in their 
brightest colours. He saw nothing of the bride and bridegroom, 
and upon inquiring about them learned that they had been 
married three years, and that this was the public celebration of 
their union. He saw no intoxication, but suspected that the 
guests hid their wine vessels in the straw whenever he drew 
near ! At his host's entreaty he resolved to stay another day, 
thinking that he might introduce some innocent fun. On Tuesday 
morning, therefore, he took all the men and boys to the foot of 
the hill and organised a programme of sports. There were 
contests in archery, long races, three-legged races, high and long 
jumps, skipping, cock-fighting, and tug-of-war. Pollard and his 
evangelists shared heartily in the proceedings. While this 
various programme was being carried out, the bride and bride- 
groom passed along with gifts of an ox and a sheep for their 



226 SAMUEL POLLARD 

parents. After the games they sat in three sides of a square in 
the open and were supplied with soup, maize, and pieces of meat. 
Then came the distribution of prizes to those who had won at 
the sports : Pollard gave away thirty-four copies of the Gospels, 
rejoicing in the thought that he was helping the people to a new 
life and a new outlook. 

Some time after this he was on his way to Chang-hai-tsi, but 
halted for a night ten li away, at the house of a No-Su (Heh-i) 
widow ; this lady and her son had expressed a desire to join the 
Church. Pollard visited all the Miao tenants, and in the evening 
the whole community gathered for worship. His pulpit was a 
swine's trough which, said one of the Miao, ought not to be 
despised, as the Lord Jesus had been content to lie in a manger. 
The moon was riding at the full and cast her light upon scores 
of upturned faces. Though some of the people were dressed in 
rags, their countenances glowed with lofty purpose. Tired out 
at last, Pollard stood aside to listen and to watch, while waves of 
the purest joy he ever expected to know on earth surged within 
his soul. 

He reached Chang-hai-tsi on June 2nd, 1906 : it was a Satur- 
day, the evening of which day was now used by the aborigines 
for " preparation " services. About one hundred and twenty 
Miao came, and as the chapel was not yet completed they held 
their service in the open air. Pollard afterwards examined the 
candidates for baptism and was glad at the progress they had 
made under the catechist's instruction. 

On Sunday, June loth, Pollard held an early morning prayer- 
meeting in the half-finished chapel, one hundred and fifty being 
present. After breakfast a thousand people gathered, filling the 
chapel twice over. He baptized forty-nine and afterwards 
administered the Lord's Supper. The representatives of five 
different races were at this service : Chinese, No-Su, Chong- 
Kia, Miao, and British. The preaching service, followed by the 
examination of candidates, took about five hours. In his Journal 
he wrote : " During the service to-day a little boy nearly naked 
stood up in the rostrum with me. When I got up on a form to 
preach he got up with me and stood facing the audience. . . 



" RICE EAR VALLEY " AND " LONG SEA " 227 

Now and again I stroked his head. No one laughed. After tea 
as dark came on we had a romantic service. The chapel was full 
with about five hundred people. Many were outside sitting 
about on the ground around camp -fires. A few faces peered in 
at each window. There was a dim flickering light of two candles 
in Chinese lanterns, one was hung just above the rostrum and 
the other at the farther end of the chapel. . . . The light was 
just enough to see the audience, but not to distinguish their faces. 
The twenty-seven candidates for baptism were at the front : 
three females, the rest men and boys. The walls of the chapel 
were only partly up. Standing on the form I could see over the 
unfinished wall towards the north-west where a light under the 
clouds showed where the sun had gone down. . . . Away in the 
south-east brilliant lightning flashed fitfully all the time of the 
service. The tiles only covered part of the roof : in the middle 
was an opening where one could look up into God's beautiful 
heaven. In this dim light we questioned the candidates and 
baptized them. Oh, the joy of it all ! Why am I allowed to see 
it ? In the hymns we got the men to sing first, then the women, 
then all together, and the roar of hundreds of voices sounded 
wonderfully impressive in the evening air. What a shout of joy 
and praise ! About half-past nine we finished the service by 
praying over a poor penitent girl, who had been a witch. She 
knelt before Jesus and He heard our prayer." " We were sorry 
to leave Chang-hai-tsi : this has been one of the happiest weeks 
I have ever had. A beautiful place indeed ! There were a lot 
of people to see us off. My Galatians and Philippians ! God 
bless them ! " 

It was difficult to understand all the currents of life which 
were flowing in these village communities. These aborigines. had 
never been caught by the spell of Buddhism, as the Chinese had 
been ; but they are being drawn by the Light of the World. 
While the sad serenity and passionless tenderness of Gautama 
failed to grip their minds, the self-sacrificing love of Jesus 
triumphed in their hearts and infected them with enthusiasm 
and devotion. Some mysterious power had come upon them 
from the Spirit of Life which begets and sweetly guides all living 



228 SAMUEL POLLARD 

things. At Chang-hai-tsi a Miao dreamt that there was a great 
flood and that he was drifting about in the water : he found rest 
and safety at last, and his raft was the Cross of Jesus. The fact 
that within a few days of telling this dream the man died, created 
a great stir throughout the district. It was not unnatural that 
elements of superstition should mingle with the new spiritual 
forces which were at work among the simple children of the 
hills : they were in " the vale of soul-making," but in their case 
the souls had already been marred and had to be remade under 
a totally new set of conditions, and in the arrangement of these 
special conditions may be traced the blessing of the All-Father. 



CHAPTER IX 
Beaten with Many Stripes 

HAVING established churches and schools at Shih-Men-kan, 
Mi-ri-keo, and Chang-hai-tsi, Pollard arranged to visit a district 
north and north-west of Chaotong which hitherto had been 
neglected. Its people had shared the unrest which had urged 
the tribes to send deputations to the Mission house in the city ; 
but when no missionary came they relapsed into their super- 
stitions. Their interest, however, was rekindled when Pollard 
went among them. When one of the landlords of the district 
gave the mission an acre and a half of ground for a school and 
chapel the Miao rejoiced and made up their minds that the 
buildings should be erected in the following spring. Pollard 
proposed that they should first put up a thatched building and 
erect later a more commodious structure which might become 
the central chapel for eighty-three villlages with a population of 
three thousand people. Should this be accomplished he thought 
another gospel-hall might be built as a centre for the southern 
half of the district. Inquiring why they desired schools and 
chapels, he found that some of the boys who attended the school 
at Stone Gateway belonged to this part, and that their progress 
in Christian knowledge and character had made a favourable 



BEATEN WITH MANY STRIPES 229 

impression all around. On this he comments : " Villages where 
our boys live who have learned of Christ are a*nong our brightest 
spots. The missionary work of these boys has been splendid : 
again and again we have met people who have been led to turn 
to Jesus by the Miao boys who have been our pupils at Stone 
Gateway. This district alone is five or six days' journey in 
length : it will tax the energies of the missionaries ; only by a 
rapid and yet thorough training of Miao preachers can these 
many villages be evangelised." 

But amid these hopes a shadow which menaced both missionary 
and movement was creeping over the prospect. Hitherto he had 
faced his enemies and, by persuasion, or appeal to the Treaty 
rights of foreigners and to the liberties granted to subjects by 
Imperial edicts, had broken down all open opposition. But 
although thwarted for a time there were Chinese and No-Su 
lords who " nursed their wrath to keep it warm." Attempts 
upon his life had thus far failed, but he had presentiments that 
he would yet share in the sufferings of his Miao converts, though 
with the buoyancy of inveterate optimism, he shut these fore- 
bodings out of his mind. 

From the village of Ta-ping-tsi or " Great Level " about 
one hundred and ten li from Chaotong, where the site had been 
given for a new chapel, Pollard hastened to Yongshan, a city 
eighty li away, to inform the mandarin of his intention to erect 
a school-chapel within his jurisdiction. Returning to Chaotong 
he called upon the prefect and got the deed of gift officially 
signed and sealed. Two months later he learned that the building 
was being hindered by the mandarin at Yongshan. The prefect 
at Chaotong advised Pollard to visit this local magnate to adjust 
the difficulties. At Ta-ping-tsi he ascertained that the landlord 
who had given the land had been terrorised, and to appease the 
officials had refused to allow the trees to be cut down for the 
framework of the school, and had sought to dissuade his tenants 
from their resolve to become Christians. 

Bent on getting at the bottom of this fresh hostility Pollard 
went to Yongshan, where he heard a strange story. It 
seemed that a Miao named Chang, a village elder, hated 



230 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Christianity and persecuted its adherents, robbing them of money 
by way of fines, and taking wine, cloth, and sheep from them 
until they were thoroughly cowed. " Now this scamp," writes 
Pollard, " has reported that he is going to kill me and has said 
that the mandarin has given his sanction to my murder. It 
appears that this Chang had gone in person to the mandarin and 
boldly declared his purpose, but the mandarin instead of sitting 
on him, told him not to kill me, but to bring me to him and he 
would know how to deal with me. I could not believe this story 
at first, but it was repeated to me again and again by men who 
were present at the interview. At last I determined, tired as I 
was, to go straight to the mandarin and have it out. I was half 
afraid I had a rebel to deal with, and so took an evangelist with 
me that he might be a witness to anything which might happen. 
I went straight in when the yamen door was opened and, after 
bowing, I informed the mandarin that I had come to deliver 
myself up to him. He was taken aback and protested and pro- 
tested ; but I told him the story and said I wished not to involve 
others, and had come to deliver myself up voluntarily. . . . He 
declared again that there was not an atom of truth in the story, 
and that he did not know the man who was threatening me. I 
soon found, however, that this was subterfuge, and that the 
mandarin was trying to get out of the tight corner in which he 
had placed himself. I then found I had won my position and 
helped him out of his difficulty. He suggested that if there were 
any danger that night I had better sleep in the yamen. I refused, 
but suggested his letting the other man sleep there. While we 
were talking four policemen went off to keep a watch on Chang- 
Miao-tsi. The next morning, to our surprise, the mandarin and 
a big retinue came in full state to the humble Miao house where 
I was, and here he talked very kindly and promised to do all we 
wanted. 

" Chang-Miao-tsi had forced some of the Miao to join with 
him, then they had come in a body to the yamen and made a 
charge against me that I was using my influence as a foreigner 
to compel them to become Christians against their will, and 
that they were determined to kill me if I came again. When I 



BEATEN WITH MANY STRIPES 231 

exposed the plot and showed that the Miao who had been fined 
were anxious to be Christians, the mandarin discovered that he 
had been duped, but he dared not be too hard on Chang lest this 
village elder should give him away. However, he did the best 
he could ; he made the plotter pay back what he had so unjustly 
extorted, and took away his office. . . . The mandarin then put 
out proclamations for us, invited us to a feast, and sent his man 
to ask the No-Su landlord to give us the trees we required for our 
building." 

Pollard had succeeded in conciliating the Yongshan mandarin 
and in defeating the intrigues of Chang-Miao-tsi ; but he forgot 
that a baffled enemy may become more dangerous than ever. 
The mandarin may have sent the order that this man should 
surrender his office as village elder, but the former was no longer 
master of the situation. The sequel shows that though dis- 
charged from office Chang was only exasperated, and unfortu- 
nately he still retained power over the militia-men. 

Pollard spent a happy Sunday preaching and baptizing the 
converts at Ta-ping-tsi, choosing leaders and planning further 
extensions. During the day reports were brought to him that 
the people of the village of Ha-lee-mee were in a state of terror 
because of the menaces of Chinese and I-ren against Pollard 
himself and the Miao who had dealings with him. The threats 
against himself did not trouble him ; for three years he had been 
dogged by hatred and plots, and his recent interviews with the 
Yongshan magistrate made him fancy that he would again escape 
his enemies. On Monday, April 8th, therefore, he started off for 
Ha-lee-mee and reached the village about five o'clock, receiving 
the usual welcome from friendly Miao. 

During the evening as he was preaching and encouraging timid 
inquirers, between nine and ten o'clock, he heard the occasional 
firing of rifles and was told by his host that a man was sick in one 
of the villages and the people were trying to frighten away the 
evil spirits. He learned afterwards that his host had deceived 
him, and that the firing was a signal for calling together the 
militia, which had been ordered to make his arrest. However, 
trusting in the good will of his host instead of making his escape, 



232 SAMUEL POLLARD 

as he could have done had he known the facts, he retired with 
three Miao to the sleeping-room. 

In a letter to Mr. Wilton at the consulate in Yunnan Fu, 
Pollard described the incidents which followed on that eventful 
night : "At midnight the continuous barking of dogs woke us 
up, and soon afterwards there appeared a lot of lights around the 
small house practically a hut in which I was staying. The 
unfastened bamboo door was pushed open and I saw a crowd of 
armed men with torches. They were shouting for me. I asked 
a Miao what it meant : he quietly answered, ' Capture ; murder.' 
I hurriedly slipped on my gown and, as there was no possible 
way of escape, I went out to them and was immediately sur- 
rounded by about sixty armed men. Three Miao had come 
with me, and these also the enemy were determined to get, and 
as soon as we got outside they began beating these Miao. The 
third, a young boy, escaped. They were anxious that one of 
these Miao should carry me on his back ; why, I do not know. 
They pressed the point but it did not come off. A minute or 
two afterwards we came to a bank with a stream below, and they 
again began to beat one of my men and knocked him down the 
bank. In the confusion I thought I might escape ; so I jumped 
the bank and ran down the stream. The crowd rushed after 
me and forgot my Miao, who went the other way and got clean 
off. I did not give them a very long run, for they headed me off 
with cries of * Beat ! ' ' kill ! ' (' Ta, ta ! shah, shah ! ') They got 
me fairly in the bed of the stream and then began to beat me 
with great force and anger. I expected every blow to be 
my last : they used iron weapons as well as clubs to beat 



me." 



In a letter to his wife he says of this beating : " Just as I ex- 
pected eternity to dawn a man with a sheepskin jacket stooped 
down, put his arms around me, and ordered the beating to 
cease." Three years passed before Pollard discovered that he 
had been befriended by a Chinese named Yang-shih-ho, who 
lived near Ha-lee-mee and had always shown kindness towards 
the Miao. On this sad night he had done what he could to 
dissuade the men from beating Pollard ; but when he saw that 



BEATEN WITH MANY STRIPES 233 

they intended to murder him, he threw himself on the prostrate 
missionary and so risked his own life. 

In his narrative to Mr. Wilton, Pollard continues : " Then 
three men took me, and after fifty or a hundred yards we came 
to a walnut tree, and here the three leaders were waiting for the 
band. The armed men lined up. Ropes were sent for, but this 
order was countermanded, and then my trial began. It was like 
the Middle Ages with the dreaded Fehmgericht over again. The 
one great charge against me was that I deceived the people. I had 
tried my legs before, now I tried my tongue and pleaded for all 
I was worth. At last the leaders seemed to hesitate, and then 
they gave their verdict. I was to leave their district and never 
return. If I came again they would kill me without hesitation ; 
and if any action were taken against them for this night's work, 
then they would kill all the Miao in the village. My host was 
called up and told that if he ever received me again, he would be 
fined a hundred taels, several pigs, and fifty catties of gunpowder 
(to go to the militia). The leaders informed me that they were 
not under the authority of the mandarins, and that they were 
determined to rule their own concerns and keep all foreigners 
out of their district." 

Pollard was carried back to the hut of the Miao where he lay 
in a state of collapse, suffering great pain, until Dr. Savin came. 
A Miao, Chang-Hsioh-shi, heard what had taken place, and sent 
the news on to Mao-Pie-shon, where one of the people wrote a 
letter to Dr. Savin and sent it to Chaotong. Dr. L. M. Dingle 
writes : "' We were startled on Tuesday, April gth, by the arrival 
of a Miao lad with a letter stating that Mr. Pollard had been set 
upon and beaten almost to death, and that he was lying seriously 
ill in a house about two days' journey away. . . . Dr. Savin went 
at once to see the chief magistrate and obtained a strong military 
escort. ... At dusk the cavalcade started and travelled all 
night, reaching Ha-lee-mee some time next day. . . . They 
brought Mr. Pollard to the hospital on a litter, lying face down- 
wards as he was too much bruised to lie in any other position." 

In his written report to the consul Dr. Savin said : "I found 
Mr. Pollard unable to move even slightly without great pain. 



234 SAMUEL POLLARD 

On making a superficial examination I found that his body was 
a mass of bruises, the only part that had escaped injury being 
the head. On more closely examining him I found that he had 
received a wound in one lung and that air had escaped into the 
surrounding tissues : one or more ribs were injured, or broken. 
The wound of the lung was just below the heart. For some 
days Mr. Pollard was in danger, as some pneumonia followed the 
lung injury. Mr. Pollard had a narrow escape of his life. If 
the blow that injured the lung had been delivered an inch higher 
he would have been killed on the spot. ... At the time of 
writing, three weeks after the assault, Mr. Pollard is able to sit 
up in bed, but cannot turn on his right side. He still has con- 
siderable pain at the site of the injured lung. It will be some 
time yet before he will be able to leave his room, or will have 
recovered from the shock to his nervous system." 

In a letter dated April i8th, addressed to his wife, he says : 
" Thank God I am a little better. The doctors are gradu- 
ally patching me up. The only place which gives anxiety is the 
torn lung. This, however, seems better, or is no worse. Dr. 
Savin is hopeful and so am I. We have much to thank God for. 
It is a marvel I am alive at all. Another marvel is that while they 
set to work to kill me as men would kill a deadly snake, not a 
single blow touched my head. The right hand is also as good as 
new. Legs, arms, left shoulder, ribs, chest, stomach, left thigh, 
they got at ; but my head quite escaped. Thank God with me. 
The people are all so kind. My poor Miao have been distressed 
beyond measure. ... I want to say so much, but I have not the 
strength. I think all is going on well, and God never makes 
mistakes. How much I miss you at this time ! Good-bye, my 
queen. Love to the boys." 

To his mother he wrote : " When lying in the hut unable 
to turn over, an old Miao came in he is over six feet high 
and one of our best Christians he smoothed down my hair 
gently and I could feel his tears falling on my bed. Then with 
a full heart he said : ' Teacher, you must not die : you are like 
a father to us all. You tell us what to do and we do it. If 
you are gone who will direct and teach us ? You must not die, 



BEATEN WITH MANY STRIPES 235 

teacher ! Let me die instead of you ! ' So said the old man : 
a few years ago he was a drunkard and a terror in his home and 
to all his people." 

Dr. Dingle writes : " For weeks Mr. Pollard needed night 
and day nursing, and guarding against his too zealous Miao 
friends. They would steal silently up the hospital stairs and 
try to find their teacher. They brought huge armfuls of rhodo- 
dendrons and azaleas, white, pink, red, and yellow, so that our 
whitewashed hospital rooms were made gay and beautiful with 
mountain blooms. One Sunday morning as I sat in my study I 
became conscious of a pair of eyes, and looking up found that my 
study door was being edged slowly open to admit a very tousled 
head with a pair of black eyes. * And who may you be ? ' I 
queried. ' Zerubbabel,' was the answer. ' Can I see our teacher ? ' 
So it went on, the Miao seemingly springing up everywhere." 

About the middle of July proclamations were posted in the 
city of Chaotong and district around attributing Pollard's beating 
to a quarrel between him and a man who was a Shan. This was 
a grave misrepresentation of the facts and made the leaders of the 
dastardly attack immune from punishment. Such a miscarriage 
of justice endangered the whole Mission, and had it been allowed 
to pass no Miao Christian would have been safe from persecu- 
tion. Both Pollard and Hicks wrote strong protests and the 
proclamations were changed. Pollard's thoughts were not of 
revenge but of adequate protection for Christians Chinese and 
aborigines and he wrote a vigorous criticism of the Chinese 
version which the acting consul at Yunnan Fu had allowed to 
pass, and sent it to the British Minister at Peking. 

Having dealt in detail with certain falsehoods in the proclama- 
tion, Pollard says : " The Governor-General insists that foreigners 
travelling must before and after their journeys inform the local 
authorities, and that in case of untoward events any neglect of 
this rule would absolve the authorities from responsibility. The 
magistrate in settling the punishment of the criminals wholly 
ignored all the edicts that have been issued by the central govern- 
ment in reference to attacks on foreigners, and in appealing to 
the code treated the case as if it were a brawl between one China- 



236 SAMUEL POLLARD 

man and another. This entirely destroys the principle of ' extra- 
territoriality ' which is still in force in China." He goes on to 
contend that in assenting to this document the consul put back 
the clock of Christian progress in China many years, and rendered 
the position of foreigners in that land very precarious. " If the 
central government," he says, " wishes to ensure our safety here 
it can easily do so by general orders to all the officials, great and 
small, in the district." 

" Three times in twelve months bands of militia have come at 
night to the villages in which I have been staying to murder me. 
I reported the first case to the consul. He did nothing in the 
matter although two houses were burnt down and much suffering 
was caused to the converts. I protested and suggested that such 
a policy of laissez-faire would lead to further trouble and possibly 
to murder. The course of events has proved that my forebodings 
were not baseless. In the district around Chaotong, within a 
radius of about sixty miles, there are thirty thousand Christians. 
I suggest that it would be an act of friendliness to the Chinese 
Government to insist strongly on absolute protection being given 
in this district to both foreigners and converts. That things are 
not as they should be I may mention that in the Yongshan 
district, during the last few weeks, one of the converts has been 
brutally murdered. Others elsewhere have been cruelly tortured. 
Threats are still held out to murder me. All this can be changed 
at once if the officials let it be known that they will have the 
foreigners and converts protected. For twenty years we have had 
peace. The district is one of the most easily governed in China, 
and it is absolutely under the control of the Chinese. ... In 
writing as I have written, I have no idea of asking you to re- 
open the case with the Chinese. I am loyal enough as a British 
subject to accept your settlement. But in view of future work 
and possible trouble I have pointed out where I believe the 
Yunnan Consul- General has been mistaken." 

After two months in hospital Pollard again resumed his toils. 
" He recovered strength slowly," says one of his doctors, " but 
his nervous system never quite regained its poise." In a letter 
to Mrs. Pollard, he says : " I have been walking about a little the 



TAKING STOCK 237 

last few days. I try to walk straight, but I think the friends here 
fancy that I walk something like a man partly intoxicated. ... I 
often think of you in your little home with four boys, and think 
of all the work you have in caring for them and training them. . . . 
How I wish I could spend to-day with you 1 " He thought much 
of his four sons during his spell of enforced inaction, and expressed 
the hope in writing to his mother that his life might prove to be 
as great an inspiration to his boys as the memory of his own 
father's life had been to him. 



CHAPTER X 
Taking Stock 

BUT for the skill and devotion of his two doctors Pollard's work 
would have ended in the early summer of 1907. Dr. Savin told 
him to settle up his business and take his furlough in order to 
secure a complete recovery. But his business took seven months 
to straighten out, for he was resolved to place the Miao Mission on 
such lines that its future development might be assured. He was 
much encouraged when he paid his next visit to Shih-men-k'an 
and saw three thousand people gather to the great Christian 
celebration of the Feast of the Fifth Moon. Mr. and Mrs. 
Parsons had helped to consolidate the work at this centre, and 
he looked upon them as his natural successors. As he left their 
villages many of the Miao wept to realise that their teacher was 
soon to return to England. One discerns a note of deepened 
tenderness between him and his Chinese and aboriginal friends. 
He is torn in different ways ; he cannot bear the thought of 
leaving them, and yet he longs to see his home friends once more. 
In a letter to his wife he says : " As I rode along I found myself 
trying to sing ' What are the wild waves saying ? ' and thinking 
of you all the time. Some day, we will sit by the sea at Sandown 
and you shall sing to me again as you did at Yunnan Fu in those 
wonderfully interesting and happy days when Heaven was just 



238 SAMUEL POLLARD 

beginning to open for me. Let me keep patient a little while 
longer and God will bring us together again." 

The first service which Pollard conducted by himself after 
his illness was at Shih-men-k'an when two of the Miao Wang- 
ki-tien and Chang-ma-t'ai were set apart as evangelists to assist 
Mr. Nicholls (C.I.M.) at Ta - shui - tsing. Pollard read the 
account in the Acts of the Apostles of the Church at Antioch and 
the separating of Paul and Barnabas for the mission to which 
they were called. From Chang-hai-tsi two other evangelists were 
designated for the same important region. Pollard and many of 
the Miao escorted the travellers a few miles on their" road. 

At the beginning of August he made a journey to Mi-ri-keo, 
and about a hundred people came out to meet him. On the 
Sunday he baptized some new converts and administered the 
communion. Mr. John Lee came on Monday to spend the week 
with him. The following Sunday, August nth, seven hundred 
people came to the church and Pollard conducted a memorial 
service for a hundred and fourteen children who had died in the 
district during the last six months, the majority having been 
swept off by whooping-cough. Only sixty children had been 
born during that time. 

On August 22nd he went to Mao-Lee-yu to find a suitable 
site for a chapel. This village nestles among a cluster of walnut 
trees, a little group of eleven cottages, the chief one of which 
belongs to a family named Lee. Mr. Lee had held aloof from 
the Christian movement for a time, but his attitude had changed, 
and he now gave Pollard permission to build a chapel and 
vestries like those at Sin-tien-tsi. There were twenty villages 
around, an important market near, a tin mine which was being 
worked, and a disused silver mine. 

After a visit to Siang- Chang- Shu, where five hundred people 
attended an open air service, he made a journey to Weining. 
Mr. John Lee had gone in advance, and when Pollard reached his 
inn he found a company of Chinese, No-Su and Miao awaiting 
him. Mr. Lee said that there were seventy thousand families 
in that sub -prefecture. Pollard wanted to make it a mission 
centre from whence the No-Su might be evangelised. These 



TAKING STOCK 239 

I-pien people had themselves collected two hundred Christian 
hymns and translated them into their own tongue. It was pro- 
posed that they should use the Miao characters which Pollard 
had invented for their No-Su hymn-book. He was thrilled as he 
looked around and saw Mr. Wang's son, who was a leper, leading 
Chinese and I-pien men in singing " There is a fountain filled 
with blood." " My heart," he says, " leapt within me." Yet 
notwithstanding these promising signs the missionaries were not 
able to open a station at that city until 1918. 

From Weining Pollard travelled westward to Chang-hai-tsi, 
where he inspected the school, finding pleasure in the good work 
done by Chang-huan-ran. Among the pupils were several young 
fellows who were already giving promise of future usefulness. 
The church was prospering, and at a stewards' conference great 
interest and ability were shown by the delegates in formulating 
rules for the Christian members. While Pollard sat in the con- 
ference he allowed the stewards as much liberty as possible in 
legislating for the life of the Church, rejoicing in their exercise 
of independent judgment. He himself sought an interview with 
a No-Su Tu-muh that he might protect the Christian Miao from 
exorbitant taxation and from the necessity of fighting in the 
forays and feuds undertaken by his clan. " It is difficult," says 
Pollard, " to know how to deal with these powerful chiefs who 
hold the lives of so many Miao in their hands." On the Sunday 
forty-four converts were baptized. 

On Monday, September 23rd, Pollard and his friends bade 
farewell to Chang-hai-tsi ; there was mutual sorrow at the 
parting, for the Miao did not know when they might see their 
beloved pastor again. On the way to Si-shih-wu they had to 
cross the winding stream about sixty times, and at places where the 
current was swift the teacher, Mr. Chong, told the boy who was 
with them to catch hold of his queue : they were all amused when 
the teacher remonstrated at the vigorous way in which the pupil 
tugged at his hair. They reached their halting-place after a 
journey of eighty li. Their landlord was an I-pien Christian 
who conducted worship in his own home every week. There were 
a hundred Heh-i (Black No-Su) and many white aboriginals at 



240 SAMUEL POLLARD 

this place, all desiring to have a chapel. Pollard looked upon 
Si-shih-wu 1 as another centre for extension. 

The next day they resumed their journey to Si-pang-tsing 
often spoken of as " Universal Spring." In a letter to Mrs. 
Pollard, dated Sunday, September 29th, 1907, he writes : " It 
is interesting at this place to find some of our Miao children able 
to speak Chinese and No-Su as well as Miao. One little girl 
helped us with a lot of No-Su words. . . . Wet weather is still 
on and the roads are terrible. In spite of this about three hundred 
No-Su and a number of Miao have attended services to-day. 
The No-Su are coming on like the Miao, and we are using some 
of the same plans. To-day we had services in three languages. 
When I asked all who believed in Jesus to hold up their hands, 
the whole audience, men and women, Chinese, Miao, No-Su, 
A-Wu, Min-Chia, and English, held up their hands. In spite 
of the mud a number of women came in their long robes and big 
headdresses. The women are believing as well as the men, and 
therefore the work promises to be permanent. We have met 
several interesting Miao. One fine old man who is blind is zealous 
in persuading men to believe in Jesus : he has been successful in 
getting several tens of families to burn their idols. He says he 
does not understand much, but he knows that God is true and 
that Jesus died on the Cross for all men. He is a most interesting 
old man and seems to have the Spirit of God resting upon him." 
At the very time that he was dreaming dreams and seeing 
visions of further openings, he received the following resolution 
of the Missionary Committee, which he heads " Semper eadem ": 
" That as the commencement of new work directly to the No-Su 
tribe involves the withdrawal of an agent from Fu-kuan-tsuen, 
and additional expenditure, and especially in anticipation of the 
temporary reduction of the staff by the homecoming of brethren 
on furlough, we are not prepared at present to enter fresh fields, 
and we consider that special work for the No-Su should be 
deferred for a few years, when probably No-Su youths now in 
the training-school will be ready to minister to their own people " 
(Res. 20, April, 1907). 

1 " Forty-Five " : known to Chinese as Mao-sa-ku. 



TAKING STOCK 241 

With a flash of passionate anger Pollard says : " For twenty 
years I have been in connection with this Committee, and 
scarcely ever, if ever, has it taken a big statesmanlike view of 
the mission field here. Always hanging back, always afraid, 
never showing enough enthusiasm. Money short ! . . . Why is 
all this so ? Lack of knowledge." But furlough brought him 
more intimate understanding of the problems which the Com- 
mittee had to face, and he came to see that as long as Christians 
in England remained indifferent, or were half-hearted in their 
gifts for foreign missions, so long would it be difficult if not imprac- 
ticable to sanction extensions into new fields. Although to the 
end he cherished an ardent desire to enter every " open door," he 
came in time to pass a kindlier judgment upon those who were 
carrying the burdens at home. 

Reverting to the mission affairs in a letter from Shih-men-k'an 
he writes : " We had a ripping convention last Monday [No- 
vember nth] with the elders of seventy-one villages. In these 
villages we have over fourteen hundred baptized Christians. 
In two years we have lost sixteen by death ; only forty- one have 
gone back. I think that is a wonderful record. We are on the 
track of the forty-one. . . . When Christ lost one per cent, of His 
sheep, He went everywhere searching. How much more must we 
go after the three per cent. ! " 

In a further letter dated December 5th or 6th, he tells how he 
has conducted three weddings in the Mi-ri-keo district. " When 
one remembers what these weddings were years ago, and how 
the devil reigned supreme, one thanks God heartily for all He has 
done for these people. There are many things to disappoint one ; 
but there are many things to rejoice over. The last few days I 
have heard the following : The Mao-mao-shan Tu-muh has 
given permission to build a chapel in Wang Chih's village, 
Shu-mu-k'o, just at the back of Mao-mao-shan. Four months 
ago he bluntly refused me. . . . Thank God for this answer to 
prayer. That rascal Chang who started the trouble at Yongshan 
[when Pollard was beaten] was very kind to our preachers when 
last they went to his village and says he desires to become a 
Christian. For that I thank God very much. . . . One hundred 



242 SAMUEL POLLARD 

and twenty li from Mi-ri-keo and Lao-wa-t'an the folk are build- 
ing a small chapel which will help that district very much. We 
have as yet very few believers there. I have never been able to 
visit that district at all ; but may do it on my way home." 

Since Pollard must be starting for England within another 
month certain changes in the appointments of the missionaries 
were inevitable. At the Annual Meeting at Chaotong on December 
nth discussion about these changes disclosed rival views con- 
cerning the policy and aims of the mission. In the transfer of 
missionaries from one part to another personal predilections and 
prejudices had to be faced. Against Pollard's wish one of the 
Chinese evangelists was removed from the province of Kweichow 
to the district of Yongshan. A deep affection had grown up 
between him and his native helpers, and in his intense and 
enthusiastic manner he may have evinced preferences which to 
colder judgment seemed unwise. " My native helpers," he 
writes, " are a great comfort to me. I thank God for them. At 
the Annual Meeting the three native sessions stand out in my 
opinion as the bright side of the work. The ten preachers spoke 
of their work and gave advice as to what should be done in a 
way very pleasing to me. I was proud of our men." 

The brief time that remained was spent in making flying 
visits here and there in order that he might deal with matters of 
pressing urgency. He vaccinated scores of Miao children and 
baptized many converts. At parting with the various groups of 
Christians he tried to prevent their lamentations by saying that 
he was about to visit his far distant kinsfolk, and to bring his 
wife back with him : they ought therefore to congratulate him and 
not tear his heart by weeping. He passed from grave to gay, from 
scenes of grief to mirthful games with the children whom he 
tenderly loved. 

Pollard was bidding farewell to his beloved mountains and the 
dwellers in hundreds of hidden hamlets among their fastnesses, 
carrying away joyous and hope-giving impressions received during 
the months since he left the hospital a scarred and nerve- 
shattered convalescent. The mass movement among the Miao 
was still extending like the widening circles in a lake, and he even 



THE SECOND FURLOUGH 343 

anticipated a time when all the tribes of this race should have 
.become Christians. In addition to this glad vision he saw the 
proud, virile No-Su beginning to share in the spiritual awaken- 
ment. The Chinese had turned for solace to a vulgarised phase of 
Buddhism and had set Gautama by the side of Confucius and 
Laotsze in their pantheon ; but the warlike No-Su were not 
attracted either by the ethic of pity, or the gross idolatry which 
had become the current religion of the Buddha. On the contrary, 
they were laying down their prejudices and turning to Him 
who is the Light of the World. Pollard thought that the story he 
had to tell would thrill the hearts of English audiences, and lead 
them to adopt a larger and more generous forward policy for 
West China. 



CHAPTER XI 
The Second Furlough 

POLLARD and Dymond were appointed by their Annual Meeting 
to attend the Conference of West China Missionaries at Ida- 
ting in Szechuen at the beginning of February, 1908. Leaving 
Ho-shao-pa, Pollard took with him his dearest Chinese friend, 
Stephen Lee, and two Miao Christians and struck the main road 
to Sui Fu at Lao-wa-t'an where he was joined by Dymond. 
They were surprised as they passed through busy market towns 
and walled-cities to see how few were occupied by missionaries. 
Chentu, which was styled " a rich and noble city " by Marco 
Polo in the thirteenth century, has held its place throughout 
seven centuries as the intellectual, official, and social capital of 
West China. 

One hundred and ninety missionaries from nine Missions 
scattered throughout West China assembled at the Conference, all 
resolute on waiving sectarian differences and aiming to establish 
one Chinese Christian Church. Among the steps taken was 
the appointment of a Union Committee, and the sending out to 
all missions of a recommendation that members of other churches 



244 SAMUEL POLLARD 

coining into their districts should be received as communicants 
without ritual or tests. One discussion of great moment related 
to the missionaries' attitude to mass movements. It had been 
found that such religious phenomena were often dissolved by the 
lapse of time and tended to leave a number of empty chapels as 
the monuments of failure. Pollard gave an account of his Miao 
work and improved the occasion to introduce his two aboriginal 
converts. In his view the results of such movements were 
determined by the attention devoted to the training of native 
preachers. " Had we a sufficient number of trained natives," 
said Pollard, " we could deal with much bigger movements than 
any we have yet seen." The success which had attended his own 
methods in Yunnan and Kweichow inspired him with infectious 
optimism and influenced the Conference. 

In The West China Missionary News for November, 1915, 
the Rev. J. Taylor, Chairman of the West China Conference in 
1908, recalls the impressive address Pollard gave and then adds : 
" But the man himself was the best sermon : so unaffected, so 
genuine and so happy. There was no note of discouragement in 
all that he said. He believed in God and knew nothing of defeat. 
. . . He had two Miao with him, and after he had spoken and 
carried us all to the Mount of Vision he called in his brothers 
from the hillside and sang with them, ' There is a fountain filled 
with blood.' It was a grey day and the afternoon light was fading 
as they began to sing, but by the time they had sung the chorus 
for the last time, the light of the Cross of Christ filled our hearts." 

After so many years spent among the wilds of Yunnan and 
Kweichow, Pollard was encouraged and exhilarated by the spirit 
and discussions. Differences of creed which would once have 
influenced him now left him unmoved ; to him the Gospel was a 
dynamic which had already welded these men of many national- 
ities into a spiritual brotherhood. One of the visitors to the 
Conference was the powerful Viceroy of Szechuen whose address 
demonstrated the changed attitude of the more enlightened 
officials towards Missions. Dr. A. H. Smith, who was elected 
to reply, stated that as commercial, diplomatic, and military 
methods had failed to solve the Chinese problems, he believed 



THE SECOND FURLOUGH 245 

the time had come to try the Christian and altruistic method 
which would not fail. 

Pollard's jubilant mood showed itself in various ways* even in 
his sleep. 

" Last night," he writes in his Journal, " I dreamed I was at 
Sam's school talking with Mr. McCarthy. The examinations were 
just over. Sam was seventh in the school, but first in mathematics. 
I think I was very disappointed he was only seventh. It was so 
real." This dream was a remarkable anticipation of the actual result 
of the boy's examination made known seven months afterwards 
when Pollard was at home. In the Oxford Local Junior, he was 
seventh in England : in mathematics second : in higher mathe- 
matics first, and in chemistry fourth. 

Pollard arrived in London in time to speak at the May meeting 
of the United Methodist Missionary Society. It was the day of 
the funeral of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. The Rev. 
Charles Stedeford, the Missionary Secretary, met Pollard and 
took him on that gloomy, showery day to see the cortege proceed 
along Whitehall. In the evening Pollard spoke at the City 
Temple on " Jesus Christ and what He is doing in Miao land." 

In 1907 the Bible Christian Church, the New Connexion and 
the United Methodist Free Churches, had been formally united, 
and Pollard now looked forward to the opportunity of telling his 
story of the Miao to many thousands of his fellow churchmen who 
had never heard it before. 

During the months of his furlough Pollard visited every part 
of the United Methodist Church carrying the fiery cross of 
the missionary enterprise. He captured the interest and love 
of thousands by his thrilling stories and passionate appeals. He 
gave addresses at the National Christian Endeavour Convention 
at Nottingham and at Bristol. The Rev. E. F. H. Capey's account 
of one of these meetings conveys vividly the impressions which 
Pollard made as a missionary speaker. 

The first time I saw Mr. Pollard, and heard him, was in the 
Nottingham Mechanics Hall, at the National C. E. Convention, 
June Qth, 1908. Not knowing the man I attended the meeting 
without special keenness, expecting the usual type of speeches 



246 SAMUEL POLLARD 

on occasions such as these. Mr. Pollard's first sentence riveted 
me, and not for one moment during that remarkable utterance 
was the spell broken. 

He had an axe to grind, he said ; he wanted missionaries, and 
among the young people of the Churches who had pledged 
themselves to do whatever Christ would have them do, he 
believed he should find them. Christ's word, he reminded us, 
with solemn emphasis and insistence was : " Go," " Go ye into 
all the world." One thousand millions had not yet heard the 
name of Jesus who would go ? 

Why did he ask his audience not to content themselves with 
praying for missions, or collecting for missions, but themselves 
to go ? 

A poor woman living next door to them in China lost her 
child and, having fortified herself with a bowl of wine, she took 
up the dead body of her little one and, frenzied with grief, 
carried it through the streets at dead of night, past the east 
gate, without the city wall, and there on a lonely hillside, in- 
fested by wolves and ravenous dogs, she cut and hacked the 
beloved body to pieces. How could she ? An evil spirit, she 
believed, had brought about the death of her sweet little one, 
and it was to destroy the evil spirit that she dealt thus with the 
body she had fondled with all a mother's care. 

Did he ask the young men and women to go because of the 
sorrows of Chinese motherhood ? 

No, 

Scenes may be witnessed, at times, in Chinese streets at mid- 
night which outshine the gorgeousness of scenes depicted in the 
" Arabian Nights." Winsome, wee lassies, dressed like fairies, 
are carried aloft among the crowd laughing children, all ignorant 
of the fate which awaits them, a fate more cruel than the grave. 

Did he ask youths and maidens to go because of the shame and 
miseries of Chinese childhood ? 

No. 

The literati, the learned men, the scholars and scientists of 
China walk in grand and solemn procession at certain seasons 
of the year. They pass through the city gates, and at length 
fall down upon the ground, striking their foreheads in worship. 
In worship of what ? A cow a clay cow ! 

Did he ask his audience to go because of the pitiable idolatries 
and superstitions that fetter not only the common people, but 
even the literati of the land ? 

No. 



THE SECOND FURLOUGH 247 

This is why he asked them to go. Years and years ago I wish 
some artist could have caught the expression of the speaker's 
face at this point of his address years and years ago a Friend of 
his was cruelly treated and betrayed. The literati of His day 
openly scorned Him and sought, by foulest means, His undoing 
and His death. They stirred up the people against Him, they 
circulated slanders, and then, with the help of the mob they had 
maddened, they dragged Him through the gate of the city and 
nailed Him to a tree. 

For His sake the missionary asked his young hearers to go. 
" One thousand millions such as you and I one Saviour, such 
as He GO." 

The breath of the Spirit that passed over us as we listened to 
this appeal was as the wind in the trees. Only The Day will 
declare how many missionaries were born on Tuesday morning, 
June Qth, 1908, in that Nottingham Hall. 

Next year the C.E. Convention was held at Colston Hall, 
Bristol, and the audience was so deeply moved by Pollard's 
address that the next speaker, instead of following the programme, 
suggested that they should have a missionary Conference, and 
again many young men and women rose to offer for service in 
foreign lands. 

The short intervals of rest so much needed were mainly spent 
at Birmingham or in the Isle of Wight, where his aged mother 
lived. Although over eighty years of age Mrs. Pollard retained 
her alertness of mind and strong religious faith : her blue eyes 
and clear, fresh complexion harmonised with her vivacious 
manner, and it could easily be seen that many of her son's gifts 
were an inheritance from his mother. The intercourse between 
them was characterised by love touched with hero-worship on 
her side, and by an affectionate and chivalrous deference on his. 
It was a delight to him to have a few weeks in this beautiful 
island near the downs and the sea ; but most of the time was 
spent at Birmingham where his boys were at school. In his 
Journal he records his keen appreciation of the helpful ministry 
of Dr. Jowett. He counted it a privilege also to attend lectures 
and addresses given at Woodbrooke by Dr. Rendel Harris. 

In a farewell message which he wrote for The Missionary Echo 



248 SAMUEL POLLARD 

on the eve of his return to China he said : " And now good-bye 
and God bless you all. ' Here's for the Far East ! ' * Here's for 
Asia where Christ was born and died ! ' ' Here's for the great 
Empire He died to save ! ' * Here's for the land I have learned 
to love, and for the people who have listened to my message 
before and will again.' ' And here's for the hills where dwell the 
children who are the flowers of God's heart ! ' " 

On Saturday, December 4th, 1909, Pollard bade farewell to 
his wife and children and set out again for China. Of this 
parting we must imitate his own reticence, remembering, how- 
ever, that it meant a terrible wrench for one who seemed formed 
for the tenderness and amenities of home life. No man was 
ever more conscious than he of a great capacity for love ; but 
he could not shut out the call of the people of Yunnan and Kwei- 
chow. The presence of the Rev. H. Hudspeth on this journey 
helped him greatly : the glowing enthusiasm of the new recruit 
for the mission captivated the older man, and there sprang up 
between them a friendship which helped to brighten the crowded 
eventful years that followed. They travelled by the Hook to 
Petrograd (then St. Petersburg) and took the Trans-Siberian 
route, arriving at Shanghai on December 2ist. 

From Hong Kong the two travellers obtained passages on the 
s.s. Triumph for Haiphong, and on January loth, 1910, he wrote 
to his four sons in England : 

MY DEAR BOYS, 

On my map of South China, at a point 108 degrees 
20 minutes east of Paris, there is a place marked Cap Hainan ; 
and just after that there is a strait marked Detroit de Hainan. 
The map is a French one and so the lines of longitude are all 
marked east of Paris and not east of Greenwich. 

Yesterday afternoon we were steaming straight for the Detroit 
de Hainan, . . . and then the fog came on. Fog at sea is more 
feared by seamen than storm. The captain slowed down and 
every now and then sounded with his lead and line to find out 
from the bottom of the sea where we were. At last he gave it 
up ; threw overboard the anchor and we stopped dead. We 
hoped the fog would clear away, for we were in one of the most 



THE SECOND FURLOUGH 249 

dangerous places on the whole of the China coast. The passage 
through the strait is very narrow, only between half a mile and 
a mile wide, and each side of the passage are rocks, or sandbanks 
which mean destruction for any ship which gets on them. After 
we stopped, the fog bell was rung every two minutes and each 
time the quartermaster hit the bell from thirty to forty strokes. 
Hour after hour passed and at last it was too late to attempt to 
go on that night even if the fog lifted. There are three buoys 
anchored in the narrow passage and these can only be seen by 
day. The Chinese Government has not yet lighted this dangerous 
place. 

Presently the fog cleared, the bell ceased ringing, and looking 
out we discovered a ship on our north side anchored as we were. 
Land was seen on the south and evidently the captain seemed 
troubled. He told us afterwards he had gone as far as he could 
with safety ; had we kept on much longer we should have struck. 
So he pulled up the anchor and stood out to sea again, so as to 
put more space between himself and the treacherous rocks and 
banks. Then, having reached a safe anchorage, we stopped for 
the night. This morning the fog was still absent and, as soon as 
we could see, the captain started and we came near the narrow 
passage and discovered the buoys in the channel. As I looked 
at the surf and saw the jagged rocks looking sharp as a great 
razor, I felt so glad our captain had stopped in time and had run 
no risk in the dark. The other ship near us had never gone this 
way and waited for our captain to go ahead and show the passage. 
By following us the stranger ship, which is British, also got 
through safely. So you see that our vessel, which is a German 
one, was of use to the British ship which followed us. That is 
how it always should be, Germans and British should be friends 
and should help one another, and those who try to make these 
two nations fight are doing the Devil's work. . . . 

I want you boys to remember the Detroit de Hainan and the 
narrow channel. In the light the buoys can be seen and any 
ship can get through all right if it has steam power. Sometimes 
you will find that you have narrow dangerous places to pass 
through. Don't rush at them blindly in the dark. Our captain 
said that ninety-nine out of a hundred ships if they attempted to 
go through the strait in the dark would be wrecked. Look out 
for the buoys ! Jesus has given us the buoys in the Bible to show 
us the way to go. Always watch for them and however narrow 
and dangerous the way one can always get through safely. . . . 
I wonder if Wally knows what Detroit means. Can Bert give 



250 SAMUEL POLLARD 

the French word for " buoy " ? If he answers " garden," I 
hope marnrna will put him on the hearthrug and let the baby 
sit on him for sixty seconds. 

Good-bye, boys. Remember the " buoys." Don't forget the 
" strait." Always keep straight on the right path. 

Love from Father. 



BOOK IV 

UNFINISHED PROGRAMMES 
(1910-1915) 

CHAPTER I 
A Nation in Travail 

FOR years revolutionaries chiefly student idealists, army 
progressives, and the discontented among all classes 
had plotted to overthrow the effete and useless Manchu 
dynasty. A revolution was planned to begin simultaneously in 
eight different provinces in December, 1911. The explosion of a 
bomb at the Russian Concession at Hankow on October loth 
compelled the reformers to strike their blow at once. For a time 
it looked as if the movement would fizzle out, but as the days 
passed the revolutionaries were able to reorganize their plans 
and to prevent the disaster threatened by a premature beginning. 1 
In province after province the revolutionaries overthrew their 
Manchu rulers and proclaimed Provisional Republics. 

Lacking both intellectual leadership and military resources 
the Manchu supporters, in their humiliation, were forced to call 
in the assistance of Yuan Shih K'ai. Whatever may be said of 
this great statesman, both Manchus and revolutionaries looked 
upon him as the only Chinese who could save the Empire. Even 
had he wished it is doubtful whether Yuan could have saved the 
House of Nurhachi. In the end he secured for the Manchus a 
generous allowance and induced them to sign the Decree of 
Abdication on the i2th of February, 1912. 

To Dr. Sun Yat Sen the Republican party had paid the highest 
* "The Passing of the Manchus," by P. H. Kent, 

251 



252 SAMUEL POLLARD 

tribute by making him the President of the provisional govern- 
ment at Nanking. But Dr. Sun saw that China needed a more 
powerful and more experienced ruler, and with rare moral great- 
ness and self-abnegation he resigned and requested the Nanking 
Assembly to elect Yuan Shih Ka'i as their President. Before his 
resignation took effect the President Sun Yat Sen paid a ceremonial 
visit to the tomb of the Emperor Hung-Wu (A.D. 1368), the 
first of the Mings, to announce to the spirit of the Chinese hero 
the overthrow of the Manchu usurpation and the establishment 
of the Republic. 1 In the West such an act might be looked upon 
as histrionic, but among the Chinese it meant that New China 
was at one with its heroic past. Thus at the beginning of the new 
order, Dr. Sun, the first Christian President of the young Re- 
public, asserted the survival of ancestor- worship. 

On the loth of March, 1912, Yuan Shih K'ai took the following 
oath : " Since the Republic has been established, many works 
have now to be performed. I shall endeavour faithfully to 
develop the Republic, to sweep away the disadvantages attached 
to absolute monarchy, to observe the laws of the constitution, to 
increase the welfare of the country, to cement together a strong 
nation which shall embrace all five races. When the National 
Assembly .elects a permanent President I shall retire. This I 
swear before the Chinese Republic." 

It was a period of moral idealism, but unless the capacity for 
ethical ideas be wisely and efficiently controlled, communities 
may be plunged into unseen perils by the very desire for progress. 
The yeasty state of the Chinese mind at this time may be inferred 
from the programme of the Social Reform Association. Among 
its thirty-six articles were " some elements of Christian ethics, 
such as exhortations against immorality, against concubinage, 
bribes, witchcraft, and superstitions." Of this declaration 
Pollard says : " Some suggested reforms strike at ancient 
institutions in China, such as the advocacy of the independent 
holding of property after coming of age, which would break up 
the custom of brothers of a family all living together, and their 
wives being subject to their mother, which entailed bondage s 
1 '' China Binder the Empress-Po wager/-' p. 460. 



A NATION IN TRAVAIL 253 

much misery, and frequent tragedies upon the younger generation. 
Another proposal which cuts deep into the Confucian ethic is the 
advocacy of full equality of the sexes. Other changes suggested 
are the establishment of public graveyards in place of consulting 
geomancers for the discovery of lucky sites for interment. 
Marriage is to depend no more upon go-betweens and parental 
bargains, but upon the choice of young people, which means the 
riddance of child- marriages. The exhortation ' Take no con- 
cubines ' joins issue with Confucianism and ancestor- worship. 
The sages taught that of all unfilial sins the greatest is to have no 
offspring meaning no male offspring. This more than anything 
else was the cause of so many men taking concubines and intro- 
ducing into their homes the evils associated with polygamy. 
Anything which removes this obligation of raising up sons at 
any cost, strikes at the heart of the old Confucian morality." 

Pollard looked at the suggested programme as little more than a 
medley of moral platitudes and fragments of extreme Radicalism, 
adopted by young and inexperienced students with but little 
understanding of their bearing upon Chinese life. He deemed 
the lack of a sound theistic basis in this new ethic a weakness 
which menaced the entire structure. By their failure to give God 
His place in their policy these reformers, though good sort of men, 
must fail to achieve great purposes. " There is, however," said 
Pollard, " another and very powerful party striving hard to bring 
China to the centre where alone power can be got to carry out the 
truest reforms. The dawn has broken. Light is in the East 
again." 

There are grounds of apprehension and also reasons for hope 
in the strange intermingling of new ideas and old customs in the 
web of Chinese life. It is now plain that Chinese armies can 
assimilate Western discipline and learn to use Western arms. 
This may seem a menace of the " Yellow Peril," yet it proves that 
the Chinese are able to subject themselves to restraints and ways 
of life which formerly seemed uncongenial. One cause for hope 
was the demonstration of moral heroism, the most astonishing 
instance of which is the way in which the Government dealt with 
the opium, 



254 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Pollard describes how the opium habit had fastened on the 
people : " When in the beginning of the year 1908, I said good- 
bye for awhile to the lovely province of Yunnan . . . the 
beautiful but deadly poppy was being grown in many a fertile 
valley. Nearly all the travellers one met on the road carried among 
their impedimenta a long opium pipe. In every inn where we 
stayed at night the monotonous scrape, scrape, scrape of the 
bowl of the opium pipe got on one's nerves. In the market 
villages the dried juice of the poppy was the chief article of trade. 
As the farmers walked up and down the streets holding a bowl 
or two of this poison in their hands seeking a buyer, they felt 
they were possessors of much wealth, for one bowl of the juice 
was worth a cartload of maize or many cartloads of coal. . . . 

" Two years have gone by and surely a more dramatic change 
was never seen in the whole world. A Manchu Viceroy, whose 
name, Hsi Liang, deserves to be remembered and honoured by 
all who love humanity the whole world over, was appointed to 
govern the sister provinces of Yunnan and Kweichow. He 
set himself to stamp out the growth of opium in Yunnan. Many 
people thought he would not succeed and some there were who 
thoroughly detested his methods. The people were bewildered 
as order after order issued from the Viceroy's yamen. At first 
it was thought that these orders were like others which had been 
issued from time immemorial by mandarins of all grades. And 
they imagined that when the ink on the proclamations got dry, 
and the long official seal had faded under the sun's rays, the 
people might resume their old ways. But H. E. Hsi Liang was 
in dead earnest and the people soon found out that his word had 
to be obeyed. By swift, stern measures he taught the people his 
lesson, and they learned to obey his commands. When in 
Tongking I first came across the effects of the new policy. . . . 
There was great consternation because the opium supply from 
Yunnan had stopped. ... At Hokow, the frontier town of 
China, where there is a branch of the Chinese Imperial Customs, 
I was informed by the Englishman in charge that absolutely no 
opium was coming down. . . . When I reached the city of 
Yunnan Fu an4 entered by the south gate which is one of the 



A NATION IN TRAVAIL 255 

finest gates in all the provincial cities of China I saw on the sides 
of the long archway under the city wall thousands of opium 
pipes, all of which had been delivered up by former smokers. I 
found out that on all the walls of the six gateways of the city 
similar sights were to be seen. 

" For three years in succession the white fields of the poppy 
flower have been missing. Where formerly the opium grew now 
field after field is beautiful with rich crops of beans, wheat, and 
mustard, from which the Chinese extract a very fine oil. Now 
April and May come round with their warm sunshine and strong 
south winds, but the sun shines on no white poppies and the 
wind never sways the tall heavy-headed flower. Instead we see 
acres of mustard flowers which make the plains look like fields 
of the cloth of gold in mediaeval story." 

The abolition of the opium traffic was not accomplished 
without great suffering. " On making inquiries," says Pollard, 
" I was told of many who had been allured into the indulgence 
by reason of painful diseases, and who had found temporary 
relief through smoking opium. When the supply was cut off 
the diseases asserted themselves with their old force, and this, 
added to the horrors of a fierce craving which could not be 
allayed, led in many cases to premature death. I shall not soon 
forget one poor wretched man whom we saw on the road. He 
looked up at us with a face on which death seemed to be written 
and said, ' Will your excellency please give me your opium ashes 
to eat ? ' There was another case in a small village where we 
stayed ; in an adjoining room a poor fellow groaned all the night 
in agony. I shall not soon forget those awful groans. And so 
the story goes on. Gone are the fields of poppy. Gone is the 
opium from the markets. . . . Surely, in this twentieth century 
the world is face to face with a great miracle." 

Some innovations, however, did not promise improvement 
upon the old ways. Very different reports are current of the 
actual moral condition of the Chinese people. But it may be 
assumed that a nation which has continued so long and which 
has preserved the physique of the people and a fair measure of 
health cannot be morally rotten. Observers are too apt to suppose 



256 SAMUEL POLLARD 

that the life in the great cities is typical of the whole nation. But 
China is predominantly a country of village communities which 
govern themselves very largely through their elders and head- 
men. From the time of Mencius there has been a strong healthy 
democracy under the patriarchal government. Moreover, China 
has taught and practised the sanctity of the family bond. It can 
be understood, therefore, how some new things under the Re- 
public would disappoint many. Pollard writes in 1912 : "A 
number of students who have spent some time in Japan have 
come back strongly imbued with materialistic notions, and as a 
result they are instituting changes which must make for retro- 
gression rather than for progress. It was a great shock at Yunnan 
Fu to find the authorities who are so eager for reform setting 
apart a portion of the city for public women. In the old days 
such a policy was unknown in most of inland China. Now it is 
considered as part of an enlightened programme, and as one of 
the marks of levelling up to Western ideals. It is to be hoped 
that when the large number of students who have gone to America 
and England return home they will have better ideas of what 
real civilisation means." 

One great change which Pollard found on his return to Yunnan 
was an almost completed railway connecting Indo- China with 
Yunnan Fu. This achievement arose out of the ambitions of 
France. Before the Boxer outbreaks in 1900 it was feared by 
the Chinese that such a railway would be used by the French to 
pour in their troops and conquer Yunnan. While the project 
was being carried out articles from French magazines discussing 
the political advantages of the railway were translated into 
Chinese and scattered broadcast. The student class tried to 
influence the people against the undertaking. For years feeling 
ran very high and the work of survey by engineers was viewed 
with suspicion. The people of the South at last rebelled and 
three cities were captured by the rebels before the anti-railway 
rising was crushed. 

But having wrested this railway concession the French steadily 
proceeded to complete the colossal enterprise. " Laokai," says 
Pollard, " the frontier town of Indo"China, is about three hundred 



A NATION IN TRAVAIL 257 

feet above the sea. Yunnan Fu, the terminus of the railway, is 
over six thousand feet. Nearly the whole of this tremendous rise 
has to be made in a short journey of a hundred miles. It was in 
this first hundred miles that the severest engineering difficulties 
were encountered. The line here follows the course of the river 
Namti, which flows from the Yunnan tableland and joins the 
Red River at Laokai. Now the Namti Valley is one of the most 
dreaded places in the whole of West China. The people look 
upon it as the home of deadly fever, and it lies near, if not 
actually in the district where the Black Plague is supposed to have 
its permanent nest. In order to build the line up this dreaded 
valley, armies of coolies were brought from other provinces of 
China." 

With the arrival of these coolies the tragedy began. The 
arrangements made for their housing were of the most primitive 
kind, and when in a short time fever broke out, the contractors 
were unable to cope with the situation. Fifteen thousand lives 
were lost in that terrible valley. Of six thousand strong men 
who came from the north, fewer than a hundred lived to return 
to their homes. Bands of survivors tramped from south of 
Yunnan to the far north-east, begging as they went, and telling 
their story of the railway to all who would listen. Frequently 
these wanderers found their way to the homes of missionaries. 

These stories grew in horror as they were repeated. By and 
by the Chinese said that little children were offered up in 
sacrifice to the railway gods. These reports created wild unrest 
which burst out at length in rebellion. The lives of all Christians 
were jeopardised. Many Miao villages were destroyed ; forty 
or fifty Christian families were rendered homeless and destitute. 
It will be seen later how this rebellion affected the United 
Methodist Mission in Yunnan and Kweichow. 

When Pollard returned from his first furlough in 1896 it took 
him five months to get from England to Yunnan, but now by 
means of this French railway to Yunnan Fu it is possible to make 
the journey in five weeks. The distance from Haiphong to 
Laokai is two hundred and eighty-seven miles a total from 
the sea to Yunnan Fu of five hundred and thirty-five miles. 



258 SAMUEL POLLARD 

After the revolution had been accomplished in 1912, Chinese 
statesmen had the harder task of creating the institutions of 
government which should express and control the new spirit. 
At first the reformers who had come under Christian influence 
were leaders in the work of framing the policy of an awakened 
China. Then there came a reassertion of Chinese nationalism, 
and strenuous efforts were made at Peking to bring Confucianism 
up-to-date as the State religion. There were those who were 
jealous of the influence of Christianity. One of Pollard's evan- 
gelists, in his zeal for moral reforms, publicly reflected upon the 
character of a great and powerful mandarin. It was reported and 
the man was arrested. Pollard and Dymond visited the yamen 
and pleaded with all their eloquence for the man's pardon, which 
was granted reluctantly out of consideration for the missionaries. 

The national ideal penetrated the churches and the Chinese 
began to seek a union of Christian societies. " What we aim at," 
they said, " is to make the Church indigenous, that is, to make it 
distinctly Chinese to be manned with Chinese ministers and 
deacons, and supported with Chinese money." At the National 
Conference of the Continuation Committee, held at Shanghai 
in 1913, the Chinese and foreign delegates adopted a common 
name for all Christian organisations " The Christian Church 
in China." This patriotism is one of the dangers and one of the 
sources of hope in the midst of the divisions and confusions of 
political life in China. The nation is travailing to bring forth a 
new state, and many believe that a great future awaits a people 
who have shown themselves capable of such amazing moral 
heroism. 



CHAPTER II 
Resuming His Task 

IT was about the middle of January, 1910, when Pollard reached 
Yunnan Fu. In six weeks the Rev. Charles Stedeford, Secretary 
of the United Methodist Missionary Society, who was coming to 
Yunnan after visiting the Mission stations in North China, 



RESUMING HIS TASK 259 

would require an escort from A-mi-chow. Instead, therefore, 
of proceeding at once to Chaotong, Pollard arranged to visit 
Tungch'uan and then return through aboriginal districts in time 
to get down to the borders of Tongking to meet the expected 
visitor. 

Reaching Tungch'uan on February 2nd, he found Mr. and 
Mrs. Evans working strenuously in the city and the country 
around among the Chinese and the aboriginal tribes. After 
sharing in their missionary labours for two weeks, Pollard and 
Mylne went to Loh-in-Shan under Mrs. Evans's guidance. 
They crossed the plain to the " Hot Water Springs," where the 
Chinese take the baths, and then made a sharp descent into a 
region which Pollard called " The Valley of Desolation." As 
they traversed the valley, they felt an indefinable sense of horror. 
The stream threw out a deposit which gathered in white streaks 
and accentuated the deathly barrenness of the scene. On one 
side the bank was a mud wall many feet high. The Chinese who 
are familiar with the country call it the " Valley of Dysentery." 
The sun scorched them as though they were in a furnace. As 
the morning advanced a south wind blew angry, hot, terrible 
filling mouth, ears, and nostrils with sand. This wind increased 
in violence till it raged like a tornado : it swept down upon the 
struggling riders like resistless cavalry charges, and having 
slapped and buffeted them, rushed on with screams of maniacal 
laughter. The travellers felt dried up and depressed, with their 
nerves on edge, and as they wound round the steep hills, their 
horses sank in the treacherous soil on a path not more than a foot 
wide. 

On the third day the scene improved and they were glad to 
reach Loh-in-Shan about four o'clock. Here they lodged in the 
little chapel which, after the filthy inns, seemed a shrine of 
cleanliness and peace. Mr. Evans had carried on a successful 
evangelism among the two hundred Miao who lived in scattered 
hamlets. 

Three days later Pollard came to Ta-shui-tsing, one of the 
out-stations of the China Inland Mission. It was to this place 
that before his furlough he had sent some of his Miao evangelists 



260 SAMUEL POLLARD 

to assist Mr. Arthur Nicholls. After their evening meal the 
villagers took them to the chapel where one hundred and fifty 
were gathered for a Saturday night's prayer-meeting. " They 
chose their own hymns and led the singing themselves. The 
first hymn was sung to the tune of ' Ye banks and braes of bonnie 
Doon.' . . . The method of lighting the chapel was charmingly 
primitive : a branch of a fir tree with a double fork at one end 
was stuck into the mud floor ; on the double fork was placed a 
curved tile, and as the worshippers came in one by one they 
threw a few resinous pine chips by the side of the upright fir 
branch. They were soon ignited and there was a splendid blaze 
which enabled the whole audience to read their books. When 
the fire burnt low it was fed again from the heap of chips brought 
by the worshippers." 1 

After visits to other China Inland out- stations they came to 
Sa-pu-shan. Of this district he says : " Three or four years 
ago . . . some Miao who had accepted the Gospel began to tell 
their story to the Li-Su. 2 . . . The earnestness and sincerity of 
the Miao deeply impressed their hearers and before long the fire 
which burned in the hearts of the one blazed forth in the hearts 
of the other. The Li-Su in their thousands came seeking the 
foreign missionary who, although as yet entirely ignorant of 
their language, managed to convince them that he deeply sym- 
pathised with their quest and would do all he could to satisfy 
their desires. From village to village the fire spread. Before 
long the new converts began to build chapels for themselves, 
some of which will hold seven or eight hundred people." 

On March 4th Pollard went by train to A-mi-chow, where he 
met Mr. Stedeford and thence escorted him to Tungch'uan. 

*. 

But they were not allowed to proceed farther northwards owing 
to the revolt about the railway tragedies. At this very time one 
of the Miao evangelists, Chang-yoh-han, was captured by the 
rebels at Sa-u-ho and sentenced to be shot because he was in 
league with the foreigners. Whole Miao villages were destroyed 
and the people hid in caves among the hills. The rebels told 

1 The Christian World, May I2th, 1910. 
a Li-Su = a branch of the No-Su. 




MR. POLLARD AND HIS COLLEAGUE, 
THE REV. F. J. DYMOND (1909). 




TYPICAL MIAO HOUSES. 



260 SAMUEL POLLARD 

to assist IVfr. Arthur Nicholls. After their evening meal the 
villagers took them to the chapel where one hundred and fifty 
were gathered for a Saturday night's prayer-meeting. " They 
chose their own hymns and led the singing themselves. The 
first hymn was sung to the tune of ' Ye banks and braes of bonnie 
Doon.' . . . The method of lighting the chapel was charmingly 
primitive : a branch of a fir tree with a double fork at one end 
was stuck into the mud floor ; on the double fork was placed a 
curved tile, and as the worshippers came in one by one they 
threw a few resinous pine chips by the side of the upright fir 
branch. They were soon ignited and there was a splendid blaze 
which enabled the whole audience to read their books. When 
the fire burnt low it was fed again from the heap of chips brought 
by the worshippers." 1 

After visits to other China Inland out- stations they came to 
Sa-pu-shan. Of this district he says : " Three or four years 
ago . . . some Miao who had accepted the Gospel began to tell 
their story to the Li-Su. 2 . . . The earnestness and sincerity of 
the Miao deeply impressed their hearers and before long the fire 
which burned in the hearts of the one blazed forth in the hearts 
of the other. The Li-Su in their thousands came seeking the 
foreign missionary who, although as yet entirely ignorant of 
their language, managed to convince them that he deeply sym- 
pathised with their quest and would do all he could to satisfy 
their desires. From village to village the fire spread. Before 
long the new converts began to build chapels for themselves, 
some of which will hold seven or eight hundred people." 

On March 4th Pollard went by train to A-mi-chow, where he 
met Mr. Stedeford and thence escorted him to Tungch'uan. 
But they were not allowed to proceed farther northwards owing 
to the revolt about the railwa)^ tragedies. At this very time one 
of the Miao evangelists, Chang-yoh-han, was captured by the 
rebels at Sa-u-ho and sentenced to be shot because he was in 
league with the foreigners. Whole Miao villages were destroyed 
and the people hid in caves among the hills. The rebels told 

1 The Christian World, May I2th, 1910. 
" Li-Su = a branch of the No-S u. 




MR. POLLARD AND HIS COLLEAGUE, 
THE REV. F. J. DYMOND (1909). 




TYPICAL MIAO HOUSES. 



RESUMING HIS TASK 261 

Yoh-han that they wanted to get hold of Pollard. The mission- 
aries at Chaotong were protected and they hoped that Mr. 
Stedeford would wait a few weeks longer till the Chinese author- 
ities succeeded in quelling the rising. But as both the prefect 
and city mandarins at Tungch'uan refused to allow him to 
enter the disturbed region, Mr. Stedeford was compelled to 
return to the capital and take the train for Haiphong without 
having seen the important and most interesting missionary work 
in the north-east of the province. 

Having bidden his friend good-bye, Pollard visited the old 
familiar scenes at Yunnan Fu. On every hand he saw signs of 
change. At one of the temples some of the idols were being 
broken up to make bricks. It surprised him to notice uniformed 
police, and as he walked along he was amused to see one of these 
guardians of the peace take a stick of burning incense from its 
crevice in the door of a house and light a cigarette with it. This 
trifling unconventionality was, in its degree, a plain registration 
of change. Pollard made a point of visiting a recently erected 
prison. Although missionaries had gained but few converts in 
this city there were tokens of the working of Christ's Spirit in 
moral and social reforms. Pollard was accompanied by Mr. 
Owen Stevenson, and the Governor of the prison invited both 
to preach to the inmates. On the following Sunday " soon after 
one o'clock," says Pollard, " we were led by the Governor into 
the chapel. . . . We were surprised to find that there were two 
Confucian teachers attached to the staff as paid chaplains. . . . 
Here is a New China indeed." Pollard wondered how he ought 
to address his strange audience, as it is usual in China to adopt 
a complimentary style in speaking to others. " Possibly friends 
at home will smile at my dilemma. ... I did not long remain 
in perplexity, for the sight of all those men moved me profoundly. 
Whatever else we did we both determined that they should all 
hear the story of how Jesus was condemned and executed in a 
most barbarous fashion. The whole audience listened most 
intently and watched us most closely as we told the ' old, old 
Story.' . . . When the preaching came to an end and we were 
moving away, a man stepped forward from the ranks of the 
R 



262 SAMUEL POLLARD 

prisoners and kneeling down begged my companion to try to get 
him released, as he had been condemned unjustly. It was 
dramatic, but of course we could do nothing." 

Pollard returned to Tungch'uan, but still the mandarins 
refused to sanction his going farther, so he spent the next six 
weeks in teaching Mylne and Hudspeth the Chinese language. 
When at last, on June 25th, the authorities allowed him to 
proceed he decided to go round by Chang-hai-tsi and to spend 
five weeks in visiting all the intermediate stations to Shih-men- 
k'an. " I want," he says, " if possible to spend two Sundays at 
' Long Sea ' (Chang-hai-tsi), one Sunday and a week at Si- 
pang-tsing, one Sunday at Mao-Lee-yu, which is called ' Half- 
way House,' and one Sunday at ' Rice Ear Valley ' (Mi-ri-keo), 
and thence on to Stone Gateway." 

At Chang-hai-tsi, on the first Sunday, there was an attend- 
ance of two hundred ; on the second Sunday five hundred. He 
was grieved to find some of the young girls growing up without 
learning to read, and resolved to provide a teacher for them. It 
was Sacrament day, and not only was the chapel filled but the 
crowds spread out on the hillside. As the Miao evangelist, 
To-ma, preached under the open sky it reminded Pollard of 
pictures of Palestine in our Lord's ministry. Among the listeners 
were No-Su and Kop'u folk as well as Chinese and Miao. 

Between Chang-hai-tsi and Si'-shih-wu, a distance of about 
eighty li, they passed through a market which Pollard described 
as the danger-spot of the journey. Guns and swords were in 
evidence, but happily it was too early in the day for the men to 
have drunk themselves into a quarrelsome mood. Pollard dis- 
mounted and chatted freely with the people and no sign of 
hostility was shown towards him. At the village of Si-shih-wu 
the No-Su had built a chapel at a cost of two hundred taels. 
Pollard was impressed by their fine independent bearing. He 
saw great possibilities of mission work in the district, if only 
there were some foreigner to superintend. 

At Si-pang-tsing, an important No-Su centre, they found 
another chapel. Chang-yoh-han and other old friends met him 
here. " The No-Su asked the Miao, Yoh-han, to preach to them, 



RESUMING HIS TASK 263 

which he did at ten o'clock at night. Think of these proud No-Su 
listening to a Miao serf. What hath God wrought ? " On 
Sunday three hundred Miao came early and captured the No-Su 
chapel for a first service. Many brought gifts of eggs and honey 
for their teacher. A second service was held at one o'clock for 
the No-Su and the attendance was from one hundred and fifty to 
one hundred and eighty. In the evening Mr. Mylne showed 
them his lantern slides, No-Su, Miao A-wu, and Chinese being 
present. 

At Mao-Kao Pollard expressed vexation at finding the chapel 
in a dilapidated condition, but his disappointment was somewhat 
counteracted by the welcome given to him. Adults and children 
came from all the villages around by moonlight to greet their 
teacher. But the greatest welcome of all was accorded him, as 
might have been expected, by the people of Stone Gateway. 

During Pollard's furlough Mr. and Mrs. Parsons had been in 
charge of the Miao work, and besides superintending the 
activities of the native evangelists and teachers over the whole of 
the stations in Kweichow, they had built a suitable house at 
Shi-men-k'an for the foreign missionaries. The good work done 
was manifest in the general faithfulness of the Miao Christians. 
For the first time in their history these decadent tribes were 
taught that morality was an essential part of religion. In place 
of heathen laxity the Christian ethic was inculcated. There were 
some sad lapses ; yet these were amazingly few, though Pollard 
was deeply grieved by such as did occur. " There are a number of 
immorality cases here and there among the Miao, and we hardly 
know what to do. The majority of the people, however, stand 
firm ; but in these cases of relapse, it is difficult to know just how 
to proceed." 

Pollard prized the love of the Miao and, not unnaturally, 
wanted the first place in their affections. The work had been 
begun and had grown up under his care. His unremitting toils, 
his self-sacrifice, his endurance of almost uninterrupted hardship, 
and his sufferings of the midnight assault had all made him feel 
that this work was his very own. He had even marked out the 
lines for its future development. There need be no hesitation 



264 SAMUEL POLLARD 

in saying that he was the most necessary man to promote and 
direct the tribal movement at this stage. He felt that his rightful 
place was at the head of the Miao Mission. He would have been 
spared much pain and anxiety could he have acquiesced in a 
division of the field without experiencing a sense of injury. But 
Pollard believed that to divide the Miao work into two separate 
areas under two distinct heads with, perhaps, different, and in 
some ways opposing ideas and methods, would be a fatal blunder. 
We emphasise this point of view because without it some of his 
letters could not be understood. 

The District Meeting was begun on the 26th of July, 1910, 
and, as Pollard had anticipated, views divergent from his own 
were expressed concerning the fresh appointments of the mission- 
aries. After much discussion it was resolved that the Miao work 
should be divided. How intensely he felt this adverse decision 
can be inferred from a few sentences of a letter in which he 
related the occurrence. " I kept my counsel ; said a word now 
and again. If I had attempted to fight it, or to dispute certain 
points there would have been fireworks. As it was I let them 
humiliate me. It was for the time a bitter dose, and I was 
absolutely alone. . . ." 

Looking back now upon this diversity of opinion upon matters 
of policy, we see that whether Pollard was right, or his colleagues, 
the temporary division of the work may have fallen out for the 
progress of the Gospel, as it gave him longer intervals of rest from 
travelling, and so enabled him to devote more time to the transla- 
tion of the New Testament into Miao. Four months later, 
however, through the furlough of his colleague the responsibility 
of superintending the whole of the vast district once more 
devolved upon him, and for a time the division of the field was in 
abeyance. 

Two letters written to Mrs. Pollard will best disclose the 
activities he immediately plunged into. 

RICE EAR VALLEY, 

August i^-th, 1910. 

It is Sunday afternoon and the services are over till this 



RESUMING HIS TASK 265 

evening. After leaving the village whence I sent the last letter, 
we came on by the river and crossed over the ferry at the foot of 
the great hill of Mao-Mao-Shan. I stayed the night at Mao-a-no 
where there are a lot of Christians. A crowd came out to meet 
me, James and Thomas among them. I spent a very happy 
evening there. The next day we came on to Mi-ri-keo and the 
chapel in ruins is a sight to make me feel very downhearted. 
The " tired chapel " is dead with a vengeance. To-day we had a 
service among the ruins and several hundred people were there, 
some of whom were extraordinarily glad to see me, and some 
cried with gladness. James, Thomas, John, and Wang-Shih 
(Gideon) were with us. We had a good time. . . . These people 
here have been sadly neglected . The sending away of Mr. Lee 
was a great mistake, the people long for him to come back again, 
and I hope the District Meeting will permit it. There are nearly 
a hundred villages around this centre and they badly need more 
attention. Some of the folk have gone sadly astray, and others 
are like sheep, wandering around in danger of being snapped up 
by wolves at any time. 

If the field is to be divided later then I shall look after this 
lone part if possible. There is plenty to be done and one pities 
the people very much. It is so difficult to know just what to do. 
While I have been writing the last two sentences a young woman 
whose father died while I was at home has come handing me a 
letter written by herself. " Wang-ren-ai writes a letter to the 
Teacher. Now my father has gone to God's home am I to go to 
Mao-Keh-nah or not ? What do you say, Teacher ? When 
you were going home I told you and you told me not to go. 
Should I go now or not ? " So runs the letter. She was given to 
a man who does not believe. His father is our bitter enemy. 
The girl detests the idea of going. Whether she has been 
properly married or not, I do not know. What can one do ? 
One needs to be so careful to do right and not to be 
carried away by sentiment. On the other hand, it is ruina- 
tion for our girls to be married to heathen who drink and are 
immoral. And yet again they might save their unbelieving 
husbands. One realises so much that it is not by might nor by 
power but by the Spirit. I get strongly moved at times when I 
see these crowds of poor folk who have such a past and who are so 
stupid in many ways. But when I see Peter, John, James, Philip, 
and Matthew (Miao evangelists) and see what they are, I realise 
that God can make a wonderful change even in these ignorant 
and stupid people. 



266 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Ml-RI-KEO, 

Augtist 2ist, 1910. 

Night again and it is quiet for the first time to-day. It has been 
a great rush tiring me right out. It was late last evening before 
we got home from Mao-tie-ka where Mr. Kuoh and I had a very 
nice time. Then we held the prayer meeting, and got to bed 
about eleven. This morning before I was up they were here, and 
before I had breakfast crowds began to arrive. We were obliged 
to have two administrations of the Sacrament, among the ruins. 
Scorching sunshine, and as I stood on the planks over the plat- 
form the sun beat down with fierceness. After the second 
Sacrament we shang-ltang'd (" talked things over ") with Chih 
Si about the new chapel. Then the case of a young fellow who 
had got rid of his wife came up both Christians ; she is about 
five years older than he. Although married five years ago he is 
only about twenty now. Some meddlesome elders caused a 
divorce. The girl was sent home with a cow, two goats, and two 
measures of maize. Fortunately the girl and the young fellow 
were both here. I got him and the elders of several villages into 
my room and there we had it out. I sent and called in the girl, and 
after a lot of talk, etc., we got the two to be reconciled, and then 
prayed over them as though they were bride and bridegroom. . . . 
I am giving them two goats to make up for those sent back, and 
the cow will be returned. We all hope the affair will be satis- 
factorily ended. This over, I had to dispense medicine for more 
than a hundred patients. How muddled I did feel before I 
finished ! I hope I have not given quinine for santonine, or 
vaseline for toothache, or aperient pills for kanch'uang. It was a 
great, tiring, long- continued rush. Another service was held 
in my room at night and then they wanted to sit and talk longer. 
But I cleared them out so as to have a few minutes with you so 
that this letter may go to Shih-men-k'an to-morrow. The people 
have rallied splendidly to-day, about seven hundred in all, or even 
more. To-night it is beautiful in the moonlight, and all so quiet 
and peaceful. 

I had a hundred eggs brought me to-day. I wish I could give 
you the lot. To-morrow I have a fairly quiet day. Yoh-han, 
who was to have been sacrificed by the rebels, is here and he will 
give me his story to-morrow, and I will try to write another 
" Tight Corner " for the Editor. A lot of children whom I was 
friendly with have been here to-day. ... It has been a great 
day. When we were praying during the first Sacrament with the 
ruins all about us and the scorching sun shining upon us, the Lord 



THE BACK OF THE BEYOND 267 

seemed to be very near and to give us a promise of His 
blessing. 

If my letter is short it is because I am very tired. On Tuesday 
I go off to Mao-Lee-yu and shall have another week of very busy 
times, then I may get a few days' rest. 

Yesterday I saw the caves where some of our people fled during 
the scare of March last, right up among the cliffs. Poor folk ! 
they were frightened. For nights they all slept out among the 
cliffs or rocks. 



CHAPTER III 
The Back of the Beyond 

IN order to avoid a repetition of incidents in the narrative of 
Pollard's journeys a few typical scenes may suggest the kind of 
experiences he encountered day by day. In 1910 Mr. Edwin 
J. Dingle was travelling in West China and spent some time 
with him. " His work," wrote Mr. Dingle, " took him into 
unsurveyed regions where ordinary travel entailed the greatest 
privation. . . . We would arrive at mere hovels where we rested 
at nights ; we were drenched to the skin for days together. . . . 
But no matter what the conditions, Pollard was never down- 
hearted : he would roll into his wet bed after the crudest meal of 
maize cobs and dirty water, and play on his mouth-organ, ' There's 
no place like home.' " 

This journey was one of Pollard's periodic visitations of 
churches. They set off on September i6th, 1910, and a day of 
wandering through gloomy ravines and around the mountains 
ended by their crossing the ferry to Mao-Ka-p'i-tsao. Immedi- 
ately upon their arrival a hundred people gathered for worship, 
while others prepared a meal for the hungry travellers. In the 
intercessions which followed one Miao woman prayed : " Com- 
fort all those who have lost their little ones ! Send Thy Holy 
Spirit upon them ! Also give us Thy Spirit and Thy Glory ! Save 
the whole of China ! Save us, for we are fools and stupid, knowing 
nothing ! Help us therefore to know Him Who died for us that 
we may come, O Father, to Thee ! Accept our thanks for bringing 



268 SAMUEL POLLARD 

the preachers here all the more that they have not come tired ! 
In the sweet fragrant name of Jesus we make all our requests." 

In describing the people Pollard writes : " Folk came from a 
neighbouring village saying that Yang-Ying was bewitched by a 
sorceress and was likely to die. They wanted to know if they 
might take the sick man and leave him in the home of the witch. 
I asked if they had any evidence that the witch had done anything 
to the man. None whatever. I said, if there were any evidence 
then they could go and report to the mandarin. If they went 
without evidence they might get a very bad time. It is strange 
that so many folk live in a world of witchcraft. It must be a 
funny feeling to have the idea of a world of powerful demons 
around one. ... I asked one of my ex- wizard friends whether he 
were not still afraid of his * demon.' I shall never forget the 
smiling face he turned on me, and the wonderful answer he gave. 
Afraid ! How can I be afraid ? I live in the heart of Jesus and 
Jesus lives in my heart.' . This man had discovered the secret 
of peace." 

" Monday, i9th of September. A lot of children came and 
stayed nearly all day. What fun we had ! I had to turn my box 
out and show them everything. The red handkerchiefs were a 
great treat mouth-organ, whistle, photos., pictures ! Then 
they got hold of my forceps, and there was immense excitement, 
for they had seen me draw some teeth the day before. I pre- 
tended to draw my own under a big red handkerchief and groaned 
as I did so. ... What shrieking and laughing followed ! " 

Pollard still suffered from the effects of the nervous shock 
caused by his beating two years before. " One morning," writes 
Dr. Lilian Dingle, " Pollard seemed out of sorts. . . . He had 
had a dream in which some Miao had attacked them and he had 
seen my fianc6 killed. All that day the rain poured down and 
the next morning Mr. Dingle was * off colour ' : he had dreamt 
that both of them had been killed. Still it rained incessantly. At 
midday a man came running down the hill opposite and told with 
excited gestures how a band of ruffians were looking for them 
and that they must get away rain or no rain. Mr. Dingle says : 
* I saw that Pollard's nerve was affected. He ordered the ponies 



THE BACK OF THE BEYOND 269 

to be saddled, and hurried me out of the house . . . together we 
ploughed down the steep incline with mud up to our waists. 
I remonstrated but Pollard replied : "If you stop, they will have 
us ; they are just over the hill." The hill was about ten thousand 
feet above sea level, and the people he referred to were some 
No-Su who objected to the foreigners' presence among these 
mountain fastnesses.' " The night was spent at a wretched hovel 
which they designated " The Waldorf." " In our royal room 
were nine men sleeping on the floor, one horse, three cows, nine 
goats, five pigs, one cat, one firefly, and two foreigners. The 
firefly fluttered all over the place. The goat snored all night long. 
My bed was too short ; and a sour smell pervaded the place." 

Returning to Chaotong on October 8th, Pollard started again 
for Chang-hai-tsi five days later, visiting Si-pang-tsing (" Uni- 
versal Spring ") on the way. All by itself on the slope of the hills 
at " Everybody's Well " there is a large building which the No-Su 
Christians have erected. The building contains a chapel, a 
schoolroom, vestries, class-room, dormitories, and kitchen, 
Here Sunday by Sunday a congregation of " Blackbloods " 
gathers to worship Jesus. Blue blood counts for nothing in 
these parts. Black, not blue, is the sign of aristocracy and good 
ancestry. Tall, well-built, very proud, and often terribly fierce, 
are the No-Su who live in the castles and homesteads among 
these hills. Fighting and murder, robbery and arson, jealousy 
and death, are topics of conversation on every market day, and the 
stories told are terrible indeed. If anybody needs the message of 
the gentle, strong Christ, it is these brave fighters of the Western 
Hills. Strange it is that the idea of brotherhood and eternal 
friendship should fascinate men who are always ready to fight for 
their own. . . . 

" The sunshine of the day was followed by rain in the evening. 
Two hundred were present at the service, and this was over by 
nine o'clock. The missionaries then retired to their room for the 
night, but . . . when we were trying to sleep after the work of 
the day, the crowd was still singing heartily. What is the meaning 
of it all ? Were the five or six hundred tribesmen who came to the 
service all in earnest in their worship of Jesus ? Have they all 



270 SAMUEL POLLARD 

broken away from heathenism and terrible sin ? No missionary 
would answer ' Yes ' to these questions. He, however, who sees 
most clearly and loves most truly, knows that in the hearts of many 
of the hillmen, the truth of Christ has taken deep root. Among 
the No-Su also there are some educated men who are worshipping 
Jesus. The first scholars who bent reverently before the ' Son of 
Man ' were the Wise Men of the East. In No-Su land there are 
once again wise men of the East worshipping Jesus. When the 
East discovers Jesus, what will the world see ? ' 51 Around a 
charcoal fire at Si-pang- tsing Pollard and a few No-Su leaders 
discussed the best means of propagating Christianity among 
them. Mr. An desired that the Rev. Clement Mylne should 
be appointed to work at this place. He said that the burden 
falls too heavily upon a few elders unless they have the oversight 
of a missionary. 

About this time Pollard learned that Vrinte, the friend whom 
he had met with Mr. Long, had developed leprosy. Vrinte 
offered Dr. Savin a hundred taels if he would cure him, and re- 
fused to believe that the doctor was unable to save him. He was 
in despair and one night at an inn where he was staying persuaded 
two other guests to go to another room on the plea that they 
smoked opium and he did not. Then Vrinte hanged himself 
rather than live as a leper. Mr. Long carried the corpse to the 
river-side in a coffin ; there the No-Su took the body from the 
coffin and propping it up in a sitting posture burnt it to ashes 
according to Babu custom. 

Pollard's love for children is illustrated by the story of Han-Mei, 
a little maid who lived fifty odd miles from Chang-hai-tsi. As he 
sat by the fire drying his feet in her village home, she came and, 
putting her smooth, warm arm around Pollard's neck, whispered 
all her secrets in his ear. Then she invited her little friends and 
coaxed her teacher to play his mouth-organ. Han-Mei told him 
before they said " Good night " that she intended to accompany 
the elders to Chang-hai-tsi that she might be baptized and 
receive the Communion. With the cows at his head and a 
smoking fire at his feet, Pollard slept that night with a heart full 
1 The Christian World, November 3rd, 1910. 



THE BACK OF THE BEYOND 271 

of love for the gracious child. And when in the morning he was 
starting his journey again, Han-Mei called to him : " I'll surely 
be there, Teacher ; I won't deceive you." 

About a hundred li from Chang-hai-tsi, Pollard was glad to 
meet Mr. Hudspeth and to travel the rest of the way with him. 
The hills around Chang-hai-tsi are not so high as at Shih-men- 
k'an ; they are like hillocks, and on one of these elevations, at 
the back of a pine wood off the main road, stands the new chapel. 
The country around is the borderland of two provinces and was 
notorious in the past as a place of resort for outlaws. Pollard 
and Hudspeth stayed in this place for more than a week. In 
consultation with the Christian elders Pollard did all he could to 
put an end to the custom of selling daughters like cattle to men 
who wanted wives. On Sunday, October 22nd, five hundred 
people gathered for worship. Pollard administered baptism to 
twenty catechumens, among whom was the brave little Han-Mei 
who had come in fulfilment of her promise. Two hundred 
members partook of Communion. Mr. Hudspeth gave an 
address in English and Pollard translated it into Miao. It was 
the harvest festival and the Christians had made their chapel look 
very pretty. 

Anxious that the Miao should think of the Church as their own 
and not as an institution belonging to the foreigners, Pollard 
established a preachers' quarterly meeting at Shih-men-k'an. 
Seventeen preachers attended the initial meeting, the only 
absentees being James Yang, who was accompanying Mr. and 
Mrs. Parsons part of their journey when going on furlough ; 
Yang Chi, who had been summoned to his father's death-bed ; 
and John Chu, who was assisting the China Inland Mission at 
Wu-ting-chow. The meeting decided that it was advisable (i) to 
have men stationed for twelve months at a time at the central 
chapels ; (2) that the preachers should have a regular course of 
study with an examination at the end of the year ; (3) that they 
should hold preachers' meetings quarterly ; (4) that the Christians 
in each district should build houses for the preachers stationed 
there ; (5) that the Christians in each district should provide the 
food of the preachers and their families ; (6) that the wives of 



273 SAMUEL POLLARD 

preachers going to districts where unbelievers are many should 
make no change in the method of doing their hair (it was stated 
that the " pyramid coiffure " should be taken down only at death 
by the tribes-people, and that any change of this custom would 
not be understood. Some missionaries have tried to get rid of 
the poke, " but I told them," says Pollard, " to please them- 
selves ") ; and (7) that as to military service Miao Christians 
were justified in refusing service on Sundays and in cases where 
Tu-muh were intending to make aggressions upon others. 

" Our (first) quarterly meeting lasted two days and did not 
finish till nine o'clock on the second night. As the meeting 
separated with prayer, the Miao preachers walked away with glad 
hearts and a sense of strength unknown to them years ago." 

At the New Year of 1911 Pollard heard for the first time that 
the name of the man in the sheepskin jacket who had saved his 
life on the night of his cruel flagellation was Yang-shih-ho of 
Ha-lee-mee. He at once determined to revisit the places north- 
west of Chaotong, hoping that he might meet his rescuer and be 
able to thank him for his courageous intervention. Having in- 
formed the mandarin of his intention two soldiers were appointed 
to accompany him. Upon reaching Ta-ping-tsi they saw the 
ruins of the chapel which the rebels had destroyed ten months 
before. Pollard set himself to efface, as far as he could, from the 
minds of the folk the memories of that period of terror. 

To the work of the evangelist Chong-Hwan-ran he paid a 
deserved tribute, commending him for winning the trust and love 
of the persecuted people. He succeeded in making a contract 
for the rebuilding of the chapel. The parents in the district then 
brought their children fifty little ones to be vaccinated. At 
Ha-lee-mee he stood under the walnut tree where his trial had 
been conducted, and tore off a piece of its bark to send to his boys. 
" I saw the place where I stood and pleaded for my life with the 
crowd of armed men : then we came along the road where I was 
carried wounded and tired. I walked down the side of the stream 
and saw where they beat me just across the water. The jump I 
made that night was a big one ; but I did not run far. Then we 
came up to the village, and from the house where I stayed that 



THE BACK OF THE BEYOND 273 

night the daughter came and called me in. The place was dirty 
and looked wretched. The old man who played traitor was there 
and looked as vicious as ever. But here I am after four years, 
still alive, thank God ! " In a letter to Mrs. Pollard, March, 1911, 
he writes : " The Miao traitor and nearly all the aborigines of 
Ha-lee-mee, where they beat me, are now learning our books 
and profess Christianity. They seem very much in earnest. If 
God should give me the pleasure later of baptizing that man I " 

At the beginning of March he visited Hmao-k'ao, seventy li 
south of Shih-men-k'an and not far from " Heaven-Born 
Bridge." The following Sunday a thousand persons attended 
divine service. Thirty-seven classes were held in the open and 
three in the chapel. To-ma was teaching his pupils to read from 
a blackboard. The Communion was held on the hillside under 
a sky of cloudless blue. " It was a great sight and a great service. 
Hymn after hymn was sung, then followed a silence during 
which the elements were administered." The Christian Miao 
had built their own chapel here at a cost of five hundred taels. 

Next day he started for Mao-Chu-nchoh to superintend the 
laying of the foundations of a new chapel. " The digging, 
laughing, shouting, talking, and joy all around reminded me of 
children's picnics on Sandown beach. I hope the chapel when 
it is put up will be a crowning of the joy of many lives." In the 
evening of that day he held a service by moonlight. About a 
hundred people were present. Standing on the site where the 
chapel was to be built he felt his heart swell with rapture. " Sirius 
and Canopus shine above me, and Venus glows like a radiant 
jewel on the bosom of ether." 

At this time Dymond and Mylne came to Si-pang-tsing with 
Pollard to meet Messrs. Adam and Page of the China Inland 
Mission. The West China Conference had roughly marked out 
certain spheres for the various missions. But Mr. Adam had 
driven a wedge into the district assigned to the United Methodists. 
In most instances both Missions would have welcomed such 
proximity as an opportunity for co-operation ; but owing to 
Mr. Adam's peculiar theological views an estrangement arose 
which affected the relations of the two Missions. Some of Mr. 



274 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Adam's evangelists even refused Pollard's men admission to the 
Communion. Pollard and his colleagues deprecated such mis- 
understandings among the native Christians and offered to 
withdraw from Teh-Choh if they might retain Tu-kai-tsi where 
they had No-Su and Chinese adherents. Although unable to 
come to a satisfactory arrangement Pollard never forgot that Mr. 
Adam had sent the Miao to see him at Chaotong seven years 
before. 

On April i8th, 1911, he was accompanied by Stephen Lee on 
a visit to one of the great landlords. " My friend arrived yester- 
day and conducted the midday service with remarkable power. 
After our interview with the Tu-muh I shall go across to Chang- 
hai-tsi." The people of the district were full of tales of five 
tigers which were prowling about. " Last year a tiger ran off 
with a Miao boy and played with him like a cat with a mouse, 
tossing him up with one paw and catching him with another. 
Again and again the boy cried, ' Come and save me, I am still 
alive.' But at length the beast grew tired of its sport and devoured 
the unfortunate boy." 

They found that the Tu-muh was rebuilding his house. At a 
glance Pollard saw that the opium fiend had marked him down 
as its prey : his dress was in disorder and his hair uncombed. 
He lightly said he was willing to join the Church if he were not 
asked to give up his ancestral basket. When Pollard begged him 
to give up opium, he put him off with excuses. Pollard and Mr. 
Lee refused to stay, as his house was already full of strolling 
players and a Chinese necromancer. 

On Saturday he reached Chang-hai-tsi, and wrote : " The scene 
to-night is one of great peace and glory. Oh, the wonderful 
harmony of it all ! The sun set with its disc clear and bright as 
if smiling a last smile on a scene it would soon see again. A little 
later the whole heavens were a deep blue with brilliant stars hung 
like lamps in the firmament. There is nothing one can compare 
them to. Venus in the Bull to the right of Aldebaran, and on 
a level with it, outshone the red light of the latter by the brilliance 
of its golden fire : it almost made the Pleiades invisible. There 
was no moonlight at all. . . . There are many trials, and hard 



THE BACK OF THE BEYOND 275 

toil by day and hard boards for a bed at night, but the sunshine 
and the stars, the cool breezes and al fresco meals with jolly 
companions are rich compensations. . . . Happy and right merry 
are we as God's own troubadours, and we swiftly glide in our 
conversation from jocund sallies to grave discourse on God's 
love and goodness. There is a bright sunshine religion which 
we realised as we spent an hour at the well. The Miao know the 
good waters and will not drink of the poor dirty streams." 

At Chang-hai-tsi Pollard passed through a week of spiritual 
triumphs. On the Sunday they had four classes of men and boys 
and two of women and a class of gossipers. At the service 
three Miao evangelists who had been designated to assist the 
China Inland Mission at Wu-ting-chow gave farewell addresses. 
In a letter he says : "It was indeed a fine audience and the Lord 
was with us. Sixty- two people were baptized ; about half of 
them being grown up and the rest young people, but none of 
them infants. They had all passed their examination before 
being sent on for admission into the fellowship of the Church. 
In this ' Long Sea ' district there are about five hundred church 
members and nearly a thousand not yet baptized. This in 
twenty-seven villages. I am very pleased with the little school 
Liu-si-ko's men are putting up. It will be well built lofty, up- 
to-date, and just the thing for about forty children." 

One of Pollard's ambitions which was destined to remain un- 
fulfilled was to open a mission station at Weining. In a letter 
written from that city on May 5th, 191 1 , he says : " This little city 
still seems anti-foreign, and resolved not to have our kiao 
(religion) here. Neither the Roman Catholics nor ourselves have 
been able to get a place. Coming away from the country villages 
into a hostile town the difference is seen at once." St. Luke has 
recorded the incident of the girl with a spirit of divination 
following the apostles at Philippi. At Weining a young fellow 
who was a lunatic followed Pollard, imitating him in speech and 
gesture and exciting great merriment by his antics. Pollard was 
glad to escape from an embarrassing situation by accepting an 
invitation into a shop. But the lunatic waited for him and took 
charge of him when he came out, making every one yield the 



276 SAMUEL POLLARD 

path for " Peh ta ren " (his Excellency). " You take him in hand 
and cure him," shouted a man to Pollard, and when the missionary 
said he was not able to do that, the man rejoined, " Oh, I thought 
Jesus could do such things." 

On his way back to Shih-men-k'an Pollard spent a few days 
with Mr. Mylne, who had been appointed as missionary among 
the No-Su. " Coming along to-day," he writes, " we saw a tiny 
shrine roughly made on the hillside. This is an ancestral shrine 
of the I-pien family above. After the ancestral spirits have been 
in the house for a few years the No-Su descendants have a grand 
recital of masses and kill an animal in sacrifice. Then the 
ancestral spirits in the little lolo (basket) are escorted to their 
hillside home." Pollard was greatly cheered by the beginnings 
of Mr. Mylne's work of evangelism among the No-Su and wrote 
a generous commendation of it to the friends at home. 

Pollard reached Mi-ri-keo on May aoth, where he saw the fine 
large new chapel by the side of the little old one. About eight 
hundred people came to the Communion. On the following day 
the little chapel was crowded with women and babies. There he 
held what he called " a vaccination revel." " It was a crying, 
howling, screaming, laughing mob. There were two men washing 
the arms, three pricking with needles ; one boiling water, one 
carrying it, and I came along with the vaccine." 

As illustrating the new spirit growing up in that wild region 
the following incident shows the fresh value placed on child life : 
" John's wife came in with one baby on her back and one in her 
arms. I smiled and said, ' How is it you have two ? ' She said 
the one in her arms was the child we rescued from burial some 
time ago. I had told John to get some one to look after it, but 
he did not succeed, and so the two decided to take charge of it 
themselves. John took the little girl in his arms and the way he 
smiled . . . was very beautiful indeed. At the Communion the 
baby was made a lot of, and women who had milk fed it. Very 
readily it went to its many foster-mothers. I saw one handing it 
back to John. As he received it he smiled and explained to me 
that on Sundays the foundling got ' free drinks all round.' " 

In his account of a journey lasting forty days he enumerates 



THE ARTHINGTON TRUST FUND 277 

the flowers and trees he had noticed, and the bare catalogue 
assists imagination to appreciate the conditions of climate and 
soil at the " back of the beyond." Heliotrope, daisies, buttercups, 
marsh mallows, white anemones, blue, white, and yellow violets, 
white briar roses scented white and scarlet azaleas, pink, 
white, and crimson rhododendrons, white and golden raspberry 
blooms, primulas, irises, purple and light blue, and St. John's 
wort. The trees were oak, giant and dwarf, several kinds of 
firs, lacquer, walnut, wax-insect trees, pear, peach, apricot, 
apple, quince, chestnut, magnolia, plum, and others that he did 
not know. Pollard loved the splendour of the hills and had a 
sort of mystical sense of Nature's meaning, looking upon the 
land as an appropriate setting of the great tribal mass movement. 
" God . . . hath made everything beautiful in its time : also He 
hath set eternity in their heart." 



CHAPTER IV 
The Arthington Trust Fund 

As one follows step by step the remarkable work into which 
Pollard was plunged in West China, there grows up the convic- 
tion that the day of small Missions is over. If Christian Missions 
are to be carried on with adequate response to the necessities of 
non- Christian nations, there must be complete co-operation of 
all the Churches. In Yunnan and Kweichow neither the China 
Inland Mission nor the United Methodists have been able to keep 
pace with the progress made. Missionary labour is a more 
tremendous task than the inaugurators of the Mission in Yunnan 
ever dreamed of. Pollard promptly recognised that preaching the 
Gospel is only one part of the manifold functions of a Missionary 
Society. Without a well-organized and efficient system of 
education, under enlightened Christian control, for those who 
are to become ministers and teachers, the great awakening in 
China may lose its Christian significance and dwindle to compara- 
tive nothingness. 



278 SAMUEL POLLARD 

In 1905 Pollard learned of the "Arthington Bequests for 
Missions " a sum of .130,000 " earmarked " for new work 
among hill tribes and peoples who had not yet received any 
translation of the Gospels into their languages. Mr. Arthington, 
a citizen of Leeds, had bequeathed his fortune for the special 
form of missionary enterprise which appealed to him. A hope 
sprang up in Pollard's mind that he might receive help for the 
Miao from this fund, He wrote first to Mr. S. Southall, one of 
the trustees of the Arthington Fund, giving a statement of the 
facts concerning the Miao movement. This led to correspond- 
ence between the Secretary of the Trust, Mr. Edward Little, 
and the Rev. Charles Stedeford, Secretary of the Bible Christian 
Missions. On August 23rd, 1906, the Trustees adopted the 
following minute : " Min. 8. Letters from Rev. C. Stedeford, 
on behalf of the Bible Christian Methodist Mission, were read, 
dealing with the work of the Mission in Yunnan. The clerk was 
directed to write offering a grant of 250 a year for five years, if 
some arrangement could be made, agreeable to the Trustees, 
under which a fresh missionary might be sent out to this region 
under the auspices of the Bible Christian Mission Methodist, 
who, while assisting in the needful work of the mission field, 
would look forward to devoting himself in the main to the trans- 
lation of the Scriptures into the local vernacular when he had 
gained the requisite knowledge." 

Further correspondence convinced the Trustees that, in view 
of his unique qualifications, Pollard would be the best missionary 
to the aboriginal tribes. In 1908, while on furlough, he wrote 
to Mr. Little, saying, " Is there any chance of your helping us in the 
No-Su work as you have done in the Miao ? . . . We are anxious 
to train a hundred native missionaries from among the Miao 
converts. Day schools have been opened to do work preparatory 
to the choosing of the native missionary candidates. When I 
return to my work, if God so please, in 1909, I hope to build a 
training school, or rather settlement for the missionary candi- 
dates. Around it we expect to put up a number of small, 
clean cottages where the students and their wives can live much 
as they live in their own homes, but with additional cleanliness 



THE ARTHINGTON TRUST FUND 279 

and proper sanitation. If land has to be purchased for this 100 
will be needed for it. From 500 to 700 will be needed for the 
buildings. . . . 

" We have no hospital or nursing home among the Miao, and 
the doctor, in her visits, is sorely handicapped by the absence 
even of a dispensary. For a long time my bedroom was used as 
the room where patients of all classes were seen and prescribed 
for. It would be a work of love and mercy if the Trustees would 
grant a sufficient sum, 500 or 600, to build a small hospital 
and nursing home for the use of the tribesmen." 

In answer to this appeal the Trustees of the Arthington Fund 
offered the Mission another sum of 250 a year for five years, 
on condition that a special missionary was appointed to work 
among the No-Su. The request for a grant for a training insti- 
tute was left in abeyance. Mr. John Town, the Chairman of the 
Trustees, however, was so deeply moved that Pollard wrote a 
detailed statement of the actual needs. He pointed out that the 
aim of such an institute was, first, to provide teachers, evangelists, 
and pastors for about four hundred villages with a population of 
twenty thousand people, and, secondly, to provide native mission- 
aries for the evangelisation of the heathen population. 

" In each village," he writes, " where there are Christians, we 
wish to get one or two men, who, having been trained in the 
institute, will among their own village people look after Christian 
interests and conduct the nightly services held in each place, 
whether in a separate room kept for this purpose or in each house 
in turn. These men would support themselves by attending to 
farming. Over each small group of villages we wish to put a 
trained evangelist, or teacher-pastor, who will give elementary 
teaching to children or adults on week days, and be responsible 
for the Sunday services and such missionary work as falls to the 
lot of a native pastor. These [students] will be principally 
gathered from the elementary mission schools already existing. 
We should probably begin with twenty-five or thirty students 
and increase the number as the work grows. Curriculum : 
Ordinary subjects, such as arithmetic, geography, simple science, 
such as can be illustrated by the surroundings ; Scripture, 



280 SAMUEL^POLLARD 

theology, elementary church history ; how to teach, preach, and 
organize church work ; mission methods. The curriculum 
would of course expand as the institute advances and would be 
in two languages Miao and Chinese." 

On July 5th, 1909, the Arthington Trustees decided to grant 
3^500 for the purposes indicated. Pollard was overjoyed by this 
generous gift. 

We may now resume the story where it broke off in the last 
chapter at the conclusion of his forty days' wandering. Once 
again there was a clash of the two rival policies. Those who 
contended that the attention of the missionaries should be given 
mainly to the Chinese work advocated the reopening of the 
Mission at Yunnan Fu, but they were not in a position, either as 
regards men or money, to carry out such a project, though had 
it been possible it would have been an immediate obligation. 
Pollard thought that his colleagues were afraid lest Shih-men-k'an 
should be made the actual centre of the whole Mission. At a 
special District Meeting in June, 1911, various matters affecting 
Pollard's work were considered in a manner that caused him great 
vexation. One of the decisions was to restrict the cost of the 
buildings at Shih-men-k'an so that part of the Arthington grant 
should be available for assisting the village schools from which 
the pupils were to be selected for the training institute. But 
whatever irritation Pollard felt at the modification of his plans, he 
never allowed it to interfere with his fidelity to the main work 
entrusted to him. It is plain, however, that as the years passed 
and his special mission acquired such vast dimensions, Pollard 
desired and in the circumstances, not unreasonably to have 
entire control of his own work among the tribes. Meanwhile 
he had organized a great midsummer festival (1911) as to which 
he writes to his wife : " The crowds are enormous and the boys 
drilled splendidly. I guess the Chinese in Chaotong would open 
their eyes to see our Miao boys drill. They look nice in their 
dark blue suits with red trimmings. On the left arm there is a red 
Maltese cross just below the shoulder a reminder of the Cross 
in their flowery garments. We have two big school flags and they 
did very well indeed in their drill. About eighty of the boys 



THE ARTHINGTON TRUST FUND 281 

have the suits arid there are still forty or fifty without. They 
pay for the cloth and I pay for the tailor. The boys from Chang- 
hai-tsi came, about twenty of them, and they also drilled well. 
Not the same kind of drill, but really a clever lot of movements. 
Also the school from Mao-K'ao was here, and these boys taught 
by other Miao from the school here did fairly well." 

From another account by him of the proceedings we learn that 
" At eleven o'clock the Communion service began. It was like 
the open-air Highland Communion services. . . . Missionaries 
and preachers were gathered on a raised platform, and a thousand 
communicants were standing in rows near them, the men to the 
right and the women to the left. Between the two bodies a band 
of catechumens was waiting for baptism. On the slope just over 
a thousand people keenly watched the ceremonies, taking part in 
the singing and prayer with the others. These are the times 
when the missionaries seem to live. When two thousand voices 
sing harmoniously ' My Jesus, I love Thee ' to the tune of ' The 
Lion of Judah,' and when the sounding-board is the blue heavens, 
and the walls of the chapel are the limestone hills, and the spirit 
of God blows softly over all, as the gentle wind from the south, 
then the hearts of the missionaries forget all homesickness, and 
the days of loneliness appear to have gone for ever, and memories 
of the Master on the sweet hills of Galilee come to one. ... I do 
not think in that great crowd anyone wished for the old hill- 
side revels, with their aftermath of sorrow and unrest. . . . 

" When night came the big chapel was crowded twice over 
with people wishing to see the lantern and to share in the worship. 
It was nearly midnight before the missionaries retired. The 
chapel was like an old-fashioned East End doss-house. Men 
were lying down sleeping everywhere, packed like sardines in a 
great tin. When morning light came the crowds disappeared, 
and at five o'clock the aspect of the place was almost normal. 
Then came the aftermath, and it was a very disagreeable one. 
There were one hundred and thirty sick people who had come 
with the crowd, and the missionary had to attend to all these 
before breakfast. How they do press on one at such a time and 
tire one out ! Depressing are the stories they tell, and sorrowful 



282 SAMUEL POLLARD 

are the windows they open into the lives of the suffering ones. 
They were in the province of Kweichow with its seven million 
people and no doctor. ... 

" The one hundred and thirty are gone. Breakfast is over. 
Now the Quarterly Meeting begins, and reports are received from 
the preachers. Christ is still at work. Men are coming to Him. 
Love is turning out hatred. Purity is killing impurity. Light has 
dawned, and the story at the back of the little cups and small 
pieces of buckwheat bread is no fiction." 1 

Pollard built great hopes upon his country schools ; he writes : 
" Ten schools now and five hundred scholars : we must get our 
thousand in our mission schools this year." From Shih-men-k'an 
he writes : " There are one hundred and twenty children in the 
school here. I have gathered in all the big boys from the other 
schools, and I should think I have more than fifty young men over 
sixteen here. Chong is doing well. Tsuen Mei is helping with a 
few girls and little boys. When you are here you will be able 
to take the girls in hand and all the others as well if you like." 

Pollard fully realised the indebtedness of the mission to the 
Arthington Fund, and regarded himself as an Arthington mis- 
sionary. The Trustees appreciated his self-sacrificing labours and, 
on the 8th of September, 1911, renewed the grant for Pollard's 
support, though finding it necessary to reduce the sum to 200 
for the next five years. 

In order to carry out his engagements with the Trustees, 
Pollard had to get plans for the Miao school, to purchase timber 
and get it seasoned, and to set up brick kilns in the neighbourhood 
of Shih-men-k'an. In a letter to Mr. Stedeford, 5th September, 
1912, he says : " Herewith the plans for the Miao school. The 
expense shall not exceed the 500 granted by the Arthington 
Trustees, including the furnishing of the school. On Saturday 
I went up over the hills at the back here to see some trees and 
to-day I have bought them for one hundred and twenty dollars. 
The pillars we need for the big Miao school will be found among 
those trees. We shall have some fun bringing the wood here as 
it all has to be thrown over a huge hill. Luckily there is a place 
1 The Christian World, August loth, 1911. 



THE ARTHINGTON TRUST FUND 283 

where the slope is fairly gradual and so we hope the pillars will 
not break in the descent. I feel so glad we have got these trees. 
The majority are not yet large enough to use, but they will keep 
growing and we can use them in years to come. We estimate 
that there are two thousand trees in the grove and one hundred 
and fifty of them -may be used now." 

To Mr. Little he wrote on the 4th of September, 1912 : " Since 
1909 events have moved rapidly and the aborigine work has 
developed in a wonderful way among several tribes. I have been 
preparing for the Training Institute for the last two or three 
years, and next year, when I hope the building will be up, I 
shall be greatly disappointed if we do not begin with fifty students 
(instead of twenty-five proposed in 1909). We may have even 
more than that. In the present school at my headquarters there 
are about one hundred and forty boys and men. About seventy 
of these are from fifteen to twenty-two years of age. 

" I have ten stonemasons at work cutting stones, and a tile 
kiln is turning out tiles and bricks all through the summer and 
autumn. The kiln is only a small one, but it will produce all we 
need. Trees are being cut down, planks sawn, etc., and next 
spring I hope workmen will commence on the building, which 
will be a credit to the Arthington Fund and a great help to the 
Miao for many decades. ..." 

In order to present the growth of the school work under Pollard 
we must anticipate the events and insert a letter and an article 
of a later date. In a letter to Mr. Stedeford on February i8th, 
1914, he says : "In resuming control I have reorganized the 
whole work, and I think the field is in a healthy condition. 
Hundreds are being baptized and new Miao are joining us. The 
preachers at their various stations are doing good work, new 
chapels of a better class are being built, school work is in an 
entirely different condition, the Arthington school is nearly 
finished, and will have a hundred students when it is opened in a 
few months' time. We are facing the problem of this school by 
trying to train up some of our own boys to be tutors. You re- 
member the attempt we made to send some to Peking. That failed 
through no fault of ours, but owing to disturbances at Peking. 



284 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Now we are trying to solve the problem at Chentu nearer home. 
Our head-master, Mr. Chong, our head-preacher, Mr. James Yang, 
four schoolboys and Mr. Hudspeth are now at Chentu seeing 
what can be done. We are trying to raise the expenses on our 
own without troubling you. An outside friend promised a good 
donation towards the Peking scheme and we hope he will keep 
his promise in case Chentu is chosen. There are eight hundred 
in our schools and from these the central Arthington school will 
be fed. The schools are organized as a whole, all looking to 
orders and direction from Stone Gateway. Work among girls 
is being organized in the same way, and we hope to put up a 
girls' school here at no expense to you. Training in school- 
teaching, home work, cooking, washing, babies (with real babies 
borrowed for the occasion), sewing, Sunday-school teaching, 
elementary hygiene, etc. etc., are all in the girls' school curri- 
culum." 

This brief account of Pollard's work in organizing the school 
and in erecting a Miao Training Institute may be concluded by 
his description of the last great festival he attended at Shih-men- 
k'an on June iyth, 1915. The crowds were greater than ever 
before, some estimating the numbers at three thousand, and some 
at more. Chinese, No-Su, Miao, Kop'u, and Mohammedans 
were present. " The mandarin of ' Double Star ' had expressed 
a wish to attend on the day, and though he came merely as a 
friend we think he was also anxious to see all that was going on, 
and to report to the Provincial Government. We are sure that 
he was surprised at some of the things he saw. . . . Three 
hundred scholars with flags and four cornets went out to meet him, 
and give him a welcome to the largest mission centre in the two 
South- West provinces. Our official visitor expressed great 
surprise at the number of scholars who came to meet him. . . , 
Were it not for the schools we have opened, there would be very 
little opportunity for the children in this district to get any 
education at all. In the Weining district, where Stone Gateway 
is situated, the United Methodist schools are many times more 
numerous than the Government schools. In one division of this 
District, with a population of fifty thousand people, there i not 



* THE ARTHINGTON TRUST FUND 285 

a single Government school, whereas there are nine United 
Methodist schools which are of very little expense to the Mission. 
Each school is a centre for mission work, and the aim is not only 
to make Christians of all scholars, but also to win all the folk 
who live in the neighbourhood." 

During the morning addresses were given in the open air, in 
Chinese by the Rev. F. J. Dymond and a Miao evangelist ; then 
an address was given in Miao by Chu-Fei-lih, and one of Mr. 
Dymond's students spoke to two hundred No-Su in their own 
language. 

" At two o'clock there was a novel feature which was quite 
unique in Miao experience. A number of certificates had been 
prepared to be given to scholars who had passed their examination 
with the requisite number of marks. . . . Mr. Hudspeth asked 
the mandarin to present the certificates to the students and he 
willingly consented to do so. In fact the whole day he played our 
game and did us good service. A fine open tent had been erected 
on the lowest of our three playgrounds. The tent cloth had been 
woven by the scholars who are in our weaving school, and had 
been dyed the colours of the Chinese national flag. Under this 
tent sat the principal guest of the day, and in front all the scholars 
were arranged in lines. The crowds were on the hill-slopes eagerly 
watching. After a short religious service the mandarin stepped 
forward and presented the certificates to thirty boys and one girl. 
He then made a speech and spoke very kindly indeed. It was a 
cheering experience for all our scholars, who have to stand much 
ridicule because they are students of what the people often 
ignorantly term * foreign ' books. As the mandarin spoke so 
kindly to them, they got their own back again. After three 
cheers for the Republic, for the school, and for the great Church 
of Christ, the rest of the afternoon was spent in drill and games." 

The mandarin took tea with the missionaries and talked freely 
of their work. He told the boys that in years to come when 
education had thoroughly taken hold of the nation, they would 
remember the names of Mr. Pollard and Mr. Dymond as they 
now remember the names of the great men of old. In the evening, 
as there was no building to accommodate thousands of people, a 



286 SAMUEL POLLARD 

lantern service was held in the open. " We cannot beat the 
idolaters in numbers yet, but we have got hold of a dynamic 
force to which they are strangers. Three thousand people joining 
in a Christian festival on a hillside in West China where a few 
years ago just a few scanty crops covered the fields is something 
to thank' God for. The wilderness is blossoming." 

Although it forms no part of the main story of Pollard's life, 
the No-Su work was begun at his prompting and urgency. In 
answer to his request the Arthington Trustees made a special 
grant for a missionary to the No-Su people. The Rev. Clement 
Mylne was appointed, and several of Pollard's letters show that 
the choice was justified by results and a new and promising 
chapter was opened in the history of that virile and intelligent 
race. 



CHAPTER V 
The Pollard Script 

IN giving financial assistance to the West China Mission the 
Arthington Trustees stipulated that Pollard should spend part 
of his time in translating the Scriptures. It was plain that the 
progress of the Gospel among the tribes would depend upon the 
diffusion of sound knowledge. At the beginning of the mass 
movement he taught the Miao to read St. Mark's Gospel in 
Chinese, but this was only a temporary expedient. Both he and 
Stephen Lee resolutely studied the Miao language and soon 
acquired a working vocabulary. The great difficulty was that 
the Miao possessed no written characters. The No-Su people 
have books in their own language but the Miao tribes have no 
tradition of a system of writing. 

Pollard was thus confronted with a practical problem. There 
were three possible ways of enabling the hillmen to read the New 
Testament ; one was to teach them Chinese, the second to 
teach them a romanised version of the Scriptures, the third to 
provide signs to represent Miao sounds and to use these for 



THE POLLARD SCRIPT 287 

translating the Bible. Pollard chose the last expedient. He put 
aside the difficult Chinese characters because he knew that the 
words heard in our earliest years 'twine about our hearts and fit 
men's natures, moods, and experiences as the skin fits the body. 
He also rejected the idea of using a romanised system, believing 
that it would be unable to convey accurately the subtle 
differences which variations in tone make in the speech of the 
people. He shared the Chinese scholars' distrust ofthe romanised 
style of writing, believing that it would lead to ambiguities and 
obscurities which would sadly mar a translation of the New 
Testament. Pollard has himself told the story of the Miao 
Script : " The Miao people being so low down in the intellectual 
scale, and never having been accustomed to study, it was felt 
that we must be as simple as possible, and hence we looked about 
for some system which could be readily grasped by ignorant 
people. It was necessary that the written system be absolutely 
phonetic and easily understood. While working out the problem 
we remembered the case of the syllabics used by a Methodist 
missionary among the Indians of North America and resolved 
to attempt to do as he had done. Mr. Stephen Lee assisted me 
very ably in this matter, and at last we arrived at a system which 
has so far been of great use in our work. The Miao language is 
monosyllabic, and in nearly all cases the vowels end the words. 
By adapting the system used in shorthand of putting the vowel 
marks in different positions by the side of the consonant signs 
we found we could solve our problem." 1 

Mr. Amundsen of the British and Foreign Bible Society 
described the " Pollard Script " as an adaptation of Braille, 
Pitman's shorthand, and Roman signs ; " it appears," he says, 
" to be of the nature of a temporary, remarkably useful expedient. 
It is quickly and easily learned by the Miao people, and they have 
become proud of having their language in a written form which 
they can call their own." With the help of Stephen Lee, Pollard 
used this Script first of all for a few passages of Scripture, some 
hymns, and simple Christian doctrines which were printed by 
means of wooden blocks cut at Chaotong. Then they prepared 

1 " The Story of the Miao," pp. 174-5. 



288 SAMUEL POLLARD 

the first Miao primer, of which a thousand copies were printed 
and sold at once. 

In a letter to his wife in 1907 Pollard says : " On Saturday 
we came on to * Camphor Tree ' village and stayed till to-day. Mr. 
Chen was with us and he asked me to preach at midday to an 
audience of five hundred who had come to see us and have 
li-pai (worship). We had an interesting service and an instructive 
experience. The hymns some in Miao and some in Chinese 
went well. The women especially sang well. The Chinese 
(hymns) they have learned off by note and they sang them with a 
swing ; but Mr. Lee rightly said it was like nien king (i.e., reading 
prayers in a dead or unknown language), for they do not under- 
stand what they sing. S. Lee, Yah-koh and I spoke in Miao and 
the people attended well, answering our questions with a vigour. 
Then Mr. Chen spoke in Chinese, and I have never noticed 
before such a remarkable collapse of attention. The women and 
girls at once resigned themselves to hearing sounds and under- 
standing nothing. . . . From Mr. Chen I learned an interesting 
fact : between here and Anshuen are a lot of Miao called Shui-si 
Miao ; sometimes they are called Hwa Miao. They are ten 
times as numerous as our folk and perhaps more. A few of them 
have become Christians, but are credited with being more riotous 
than our folk. They are landowners, some of them are very 
rich and very luan (disorderly) in their relation. . . . Mr. Chen 
knows their language, but does not know the Hwa Miao. We 
got a lot of Shui-si words out of him and found that about ninety 
per cent, were the same as ours. ... I expect our Gospel 
translations with a little alteration will do for them also. I had 
no idea there was such a close connection between these Shui-si 
Miao and our Hwa Miao." 

His modus operandi was to paraphrase the original, then with 
the help of Chinese and Miao assistants, to put this paraphrase 
into Miao colloquial, and having secured as near an approach to 
accuracy and as great clearness as possible, he would write it in 
the Script which he had invented. Before long Mr. Endicott at 
Chentu placed the Canadian Mission press at his service and he 
prepared two books with outlines of the life of Christ, the Lord's 



THE POLLARD SCRIPT 289 

Prayer, and a few hymns ; these were printed and sold by the 
thousand. The demand for these books made Pollard decide to 
translate the four Gospels. 

As early as the beginning of 1905 he began to wonder whether 
the British and Foreign Bible Society would be willing to give 
him assistance. Accordingly he wrote to the Rev. G. H. Bond- 
field, its managing agent at Shanghai. Mr. Bondfield reported 
the matter to his Society : " In March (1905) I wrote to Mr. 
Pollard to know if I could assist him to give the Scriptures to the 
Miao in their own tongue. His letter crossed my letter. The 
cost of five thousand Gospels is estimated at six hundred taels, 
i.e. y from eighty-five to ninety pounds." 1 " N.B. March 26th, 
E. W. H. called at the Bible House and after discussing the 
question with the editorial superintendent handed him a cheque 
f r .5' The editorial superintendent sent both Bondfield 's and 
Pollard's letters to E. W. H. In reply he left it to the Committee 
to judge the question of advisability, enclosing a further cheque 
for 40." 

Mr. Bondfield encouraged Pollard to ask the Committee to 
provide a font of type in his Script. His point of view was that 
" Mr. Pollard is using his special script without any difficulty 
and . . .it is meeting an immediate demand." Again Mr. 
Bondfield says : " It seems as if his special Script has come to 
stay. The Hwa Miao learn it rapidly and use it with great readi- 
ness. This is its justification, and if the C.I. Missionaries also 
use it, the question will be settled for a long time to come. At all 
events we must let these thousands of new converts have the 
Scriptures as quickly as possible." To the authorities of the Bible 
Society it appeared that the romanised system would have been 
preferable and that later it would have given the Miao access to a 
wider, more varied range of literature. In a letter dated July 4th, 
1906, Pollard wrote : " It is quite possible later to turn our system 
into romanised when there is a successful romanised system in 
use which will solve the tone difficulty." He admitted that 
probably a time would come when the Miao would learn Chinese, 

1 I am indebted to the courtesy of Dr. Kilgour of the Bible House, London, 
for allowing me to read the records of the correspondence with Mr. Pollard. 



290 SAMUEL POLLARD 

but he contended with his usual intensity of conviction that the 
people needed the Gospels " right away " and that his Script 
ought to be used to meet that want. True to its traditional 
magnanimity the British and Foreign Bible Society waived the 
judgment of its experts and the Committee recommended that 
authority to print the Gospel (St. Mark) be at once cabled to 
Mr. Bondfield. 

His eagerness to circulate the Scriptures was about this time 
stimulated by the experience of Mr. An, the No-Su landlord, who 
exercised great influence in the district of Si-pang-tsing. " He 
had heard," says Pollard, " that the Jesus of the Church cared 
nothing for the ' five relationships ' of life which are taught by 
Confucianism ; so he resolved to read the Bible for himself. 
When he came to the story of Lot in the cave he shut the book up 
and said : ' That is what they say and it is true.' But he saw the 
book was a big one so he determined to read on, and by and by 
got into the New Testament and was convinced that the story 
was true and what he wanted. So he believed and became a 
Christian. He told me how he had tussles with folk who wanted 
to dissuade him from being a Christian. The magistrate of 
Shuen-Wei wrote telling him he believed ' too much ' and 
advised him not to take it with such desperate earnestness. Mr. 
An is the leader of the district and for several miles around there 
are no open heathens. In this Chang- hai-tsi district there must 
be a thousand families who have broken with idolatry." 

Once more the question concerning the relative merits of the 
Pollard Script and a romanised version of the New Testament in 
Miao was raised by the action of Mr. Adam of Anshuen, who 
translated St. Mark's Gospel in romanised and got the China 
Inland Mission to print it. Soon afterwards the Gospels of 
St. Matthew and St. John and other parts of the New Testament 
were printed in the same way. This seemed to confirm the 
judgment of the Bible Society Committee and further inquiries 
were made as to whether it was advisable to proceed with the use 
of the Pollard Script. In reply to a query Mr. Arthur Nicholls 
wrote : " You ask me for my opinion about the Script. I have 
been brought up on it, and see the utility of it. It is a real boon." 



THE POLLARD SCRIPT 291 

The Pollard Script was first in the field and it had been easily 
and quickly learned even by girls who had received no previous 
education. Pollard says : " We who have tried it are satisfied 
with it. It works." 

The point of view of the Bible Society is clearly put in a letter 
which Pollard copied into his Journal. " The only question raised 
in our Committee is that of the Script. This question is raised 
not only in view of the publication of the Hwa Miao Gospel in 
romanised characters by Mr. Adam, about which we corresponded 
last year, but specially in view of the whole principle involved in 
devising an entirely new and foreign form of writing. Our Com- 
mittee, while sanctioning this tentative edition of these Gospels 
in the Hwa Miao Script, hope that before long it may be found 
possible to use sbme other form of writing. In addition to the 
principle stated above, your present difficulties in the way of 
getting the printing done, and also of getting proofs read, 
weighed largely with our Committee. We would like you to lay 
our point of view before Mr. Nicholls and urge him to reconsider 
the whole question. If it is absolutely impossible to use the 
roman letters (though we fail to see the impossibility) it has been 
asked whether the use of Burmese characters could not meet the 
need. I may say that this last suggestion was made by Dr. 
Grierson, the great authority on Oriental languages. We should 
like if you would pass it on to those concerned. . . . What our 
Committee do deprecate is that the books for these people should 
be printed in a character which, we understand, is in no sense 
their own, but has been invented by a foreign missionary. We 
do not question the ingenuity of the Script, but we do feel that if, 
in order to use the printed books, an unfamiliar character has to 
be taught to the reader, it would be far better to use for that 
purpose a character which would at the same time open the door 
of other literature to them. The fact that other missionaries 
working amongst the same people have found it necessary to 
print an edition in roman character just adds to the strength of 
our argument." 1 

Without committing itself to any judgment upon the relative 
1 Dated London, January i8th, 1912. 



292 SAMUEL POLLARD 

merits of the Pollard Script and the method of romanisation 
adopted in Kweichow, but deciding the matter simply on the 
ground of immediate usefulness and expedience, the British and 
Foreign Bible Society Committee resolved to recommend that 
the publication of the remainder of the New Testament in Hwa 
Miao be editorially approved. Credit will undoubtedly be given 
to Pollard for thinking out the whole question with a view to 
rendering the largest assistance to the Miao. Having reached his 
conviction he held it tenaciously ; the vehemence with which 
he discussed the matter was temperamental, and was not due to 
any resentment at criticism. He did not claim any great virtue 
for his invention, but, as he said, " it worked." When therefore, 
the British and Foreign Bible Society sanctioned the printing of 
the Miao Script for the whole New Testament, his heart over- 
flowed with gratitude, and he wrote to Mr. Bondfield : " We 
are all deeply indebted to you for the great work your Society 
is doing for all peoples. Especially are we aborigine missionaries 
indebted to you. Our people lived not long ago in darkness. 
Books and a library were unknown to them. Many had never 
handled a sheet of writing-paper or a pen in their lives. The 
whole world was a very small place to them, lengthened out a 
little by imaginary over- and under- worlds where dwelt demons 
and fairies. Now on rough shelves in many rude and poverty- 
stricken homes you can find a bundle of books, tiny libraries, 
and in this bundle the chief books are those supplied for our 
people by your great Society. . . . The coming of St. Matthew's 
Gospel has meant a lot to the people. Fancy the Sermon on the 
Mount, known now for the first time ! And that wonderful 
invitation, ' Come unto Me, all ye that are weary ! ' We are 
looking forward intensely to the time when the whole New 
Testament will be opened to our people." 

As regards the nature of his task let us turn to his Journal. 
" February 5th, 1906, I stayed on all the week translating St. 
Mark into Miao. Yang Yah-koh [James] helped me. ... It 
was very enjoyable work indeed. It was interesting to see how 
he took in the details of the stories. The one of the uncovering 
of the roof and letting the sick man down took his fancy very 



THE POLLARD SCRIPT 293 

much. The determination of the men they would not be 
denied they would have healing. They almost forced Jesus to 
cure the man. He realised, too, how Jesus was pressed by the 
crowd, and how trying it all was. No wonder He longed for a 
little quiet. It was natural that the people should wish to be 
healed, but they showed no consideration whatever for the comfort 
of Jesus." 

" July 5th, 1907. Yah-koh and I did the ninth and tenth of St. 
John. The story of the blind man was delightful. Yah-koh 
laughed heartily again and again at the way the man showed 
that he was more than a match for all the people who bothered 
him. I wished I could tell this story as it appeared to James. 
I enjoyed the work very much." 

" James (Yah-koh) and I are working hard every day 
translating St. John. We have got to the end of the eighteenth 
chapter to-day. I enjoy the work intensely. The picture of 
Jesus, as He appears to one who carefully and slowly reads the 
Gospel, is wonderful. My heart sometimes is full of amazement 
at our glorious Jesus. What a gentleman He was ! What a 
hero ! How tender ! What a match for all His bitter enemies ! " 

" When translating the passage describing how Jesus took a 
child into His arms and used him as a text to teach the disciples 
from, my Miao assistant pressed me to add the word ' kissed * to 
the translation. I said it was not there. My friend said : ' It 
must be there : Jesus must have kissed the little one ; He could 
not have helped it. " And when He had taken him in His arms 
and kissed him," He said,' so would my friend have rendered the 
verse." 1 

Pollard delighted in the unexpected turns and adaptations of 
Christ's parables in the preaching of this original Miao ; writing 
on May 25th, 1913, Pollard gives an instance : " James was 
speaking on the treasure hidden in the field : the idea, he said, 
did not appeal to the Miao, for such never came their way. They 
cannot buy land from the Tu-muh : therefore he would change 
the figure . . . and call it the parable of the Musk Deer. If a 
Miao were out and saw a musk deer anywhere, he would leave 

1 " The Story of the Miao/' p. 117. 
T 



294 SAMUEL POLLARD 

all and go off to hunt and capture it. He thought of the valuable 
musk worth twenty taels. He would prepare his sandals, his food, 
and leave home, fields, crops, and work, and bend all his energies 
to the capture of the valuable prize. So for the Gospel of Jesus 
we should leave everything, for it is the greatest prize of all." 

Occasionally the translator was at a loss to find proper Miao 
equivalents for certain words. " In our version of the Lord's 
Prayer, instead of the words ' Thy Kingdom come ' we have 
* Thy Heavenly Home come. 5 None of the Miao ever remem- 
bered a time when they had a kingdom, and no one knew the Miao 
word for such an idea. . . . We were baffled also by the word 
' Comforter ' ' Paraclete.' At last one day Yah-koh came to me 
saying he would not be able to study that day, as in a village over 
the other side of the hills a woman had lost her little child, and he 
was going to the home to * get the heart of the parent around the 
corners.' . . . Questionings and explanations proved that the 
prize was indeed ours. Eureka I ... I found out from my Miao 
friend that the word to ' comfort ' might be rendered * to get the 
heart around the corners.' 

" One finds there is a way out of most of these difficulties ; if one 
is patient enough and hunts long enough the word one wants, or a 
fairly good equivalent is usually forthcoming. The man in 
dazzling clothing who appeared to Cornelius becomes the man 
whose dress ' sparkled like bubbling waters.' Paul advising 
Timothy to be courteous to everyone is rendered * to treat all men 
with smiles,' and the charge to keep a clean conscience becomes 
' Don't rot away the white part of your heart.' J>1 

When sending the manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles to 
The Bible Society agent at Shanghai in May, 1914, Pollard wrote : 
" With the efficient aid of the best Miao teacher we have, I first 
went carefully through the whole book, using Greek, English, 
and the Chinese revised versions of the text. Then the book was 
carefully copied out and sent to Wu-ting-chow, where Mr. 
Nicholls and his Miao teachers revised what had been done. 
When the MS. was returned to me I chose other Miao teachers 
and again went through the translation. Then I carefully copied 

1 The Christian World, November 6th, 1913. 



THE POLLARD SCRIPT 295 

the manuscript again and gave it to two teachers to correct. 
Finally, I have been through their corrections and now send the 
result to you. Headings of paragraphs have been inserted as 
formerly ; but no explanations of any kind have been inscribed." 
Pollard had enjoyed the task, and in the midst of it had written 
to a friend : " Here in the little room, with the door-window 
open, we sit two or three of us working away at the old, deeply 
interesting story. To-day it has been Saul's journey to Damascus 
and back. One has perforce to go very slowly and so the beauty 
of the chapters dawns on one. It is a picture to watch one's 
companion as he follows the hero setting off with a heart full of 
hatred and jealous patriotism, the all-powerful writ in his pocket, 
and in his heart a vision of the change he is about to work in the 
Jesus communities of the great Syrian city. It must have been 
grand to have felt like a great charge of thunder ready to burst 
and blast with devastating power. Then came the lightning 
changes. The flash by the roadside ! The days of blindness ! 
The timid Ananias ! The changed hero ! The watching at the 
gates while the hunted one was sitting in a big basket and giving 
his enemies the slip over the wall ! He wondered how long those 
men kept the gates. Then the return to the starting-place, not 
to the schools of the distressed Pharisees, but to the houses of 
those whom he had set out to kill. It is a wonderful story to 
those who sympathetically hear it for the first time, and has enough 
plot in it to make a great novel." 

Perhaps for the first time Pollard realised all that centuries of 
moral and religious training had done for the Jews in preparing 
the foundation on which could be built up the mighty spiritual 
conceptions of the New Testament. The Miao had no such 
preparation for the Gospel. Christianity had to create the ideas 
in their minds and spiritualise the words chosen to express them. 
Into this grand task Pollard put his whole strength of heart and 
brain, and again and again we read his earnest longing that he 
may be spared to complete his translation of the New Testament. 

His letter dated September 5th, 1915, probably the last he ever 
wrote, was in acknowledgment of a consignment of the " Acts " 
from the British and Foreign Bible Society : " A day or two ago 



296 SAMUEL POLLARD 

there arrived here among the hills two packages of the ' Acts ' 
in Hwa Miao. We are all charmed with the appearance of the 
book. We feel deep gratitude to your noble Society for its deeds 
of love and mercy which encircle the whole world. In a year 
when the claims on you are so great, and when the warring 
soldiers are giving their lives as sacrifices for various motherlands, 
and all are looking to you for some help and strength to enable 
them to face the terrible risks, you have time and heart big enough 
to care for the tribesmen of West China's hills whose great fight 
is against hunger and disease. Under the sheltering wing of the 
Bible Society, not only do the Russians and Galicians, Prussians 
and Poles find some refuge, but Miao and Kpp'u, Li-Su and 
Laka, can also feel the fact that the Bible Society thinks of them 
and loves them. We all thank you very much for all the Society is 
doing for these people. Undoubtedly the Miao ' Acts ' is the 
best thing you have done for them ; and now our people will be 
able to read the stories some of them have longed to read. Is it 
not wonderful that the first books these people are getting are 
the books of Jesus ? That makes me glad and thankful to you 
all, and to the Master who is at the back of your great Society 
nay, in its very heart." 

To Pollard belongs the honour of being the first to begin the 
translation of the Holy Scriptures into the Miao tongue. His 
intense longing to finish his translation of the New Testament 
was realised, and his beloved colleague, the Rev. W. H. Hudspeth, 
took the MS. to the Bible Society house at Shanghai after Pollard 
had entered into rest. It seemed a fitting expression of loyalty 
to Pollard's memory that his young pupil and friend should 
proceed to Yokohama to read the proofs as they came from the 
printing-house. Early in his missionary career Pollard had ex- 
pressed the opinion that every idea could be translated into other 
languages, but his work of preparing the Gospels for the Miao 
disillusioned him. Still, whatever the faiilts in the " letter " of 
his Miao New Testament, he succeeded in conveying to the 
tribesmen the Spirit of Christ. Pollard cordially agreed with 
De Quincey that " the great ideas of the Bible protect themselves. 
The heavenly truths, by their own imperishableness, defeat the 



IN THE YEAR OF THE REVOLUTION 297 

mortality of languages with which for a moment they are 
associated." 



CHAPTER VI 
In the Year of the Revolution 

POLLARD'S letters in 1911 show that he was vaguely aware of the 
highly charged state of the political atmosphere throughout the 
Empire, but he had no anticipation of the great events that were 
impending when he started, on September i2th, 1911, to cross 
Yunnan to meet Mrs. Pollard at Haiphong. Before he could 
tear himself away he felt constrained to pay another visit to 
Ta-ping-tsi, where he had been beaten. At this place the 
Christians were building " one of the nicest chapels in Yunnan." 
On the Sunday two hundred and fifty persons assembled in the 
unfinished structure for worship and teaching, and he had the 
joy of administering baptism to twenty- three new members. In 
the audience were the son and daughter of the headman at 
Ha-lee-mee who, four years before, had betrayed him to his 
enemies. He returned to Chaotong on September i8th and 
started his long journey on the following morning. He was 
buoyed up with the expectation of meeting his wife, and cheered 
by the news that his eldest son had won the general proficiency 
scholarship in his school. 

At Kan-lo he saw the baby chapel of the Miao Mission, the 
walls of which the poor people had plastered with their own 
hands without tools. Each of the four windows was about a 
foot square. He spent a week-end at " Long Sea " and then 
journeyed on to Ch'a-si-ho, where he was touched by the friend- 
liness of the people. He was amused when the innkeeper's cow 
made a partial entry into his room ; but confessed that he was 
irritated when the cock which was roosting beneath his bedstead 
began to crow lustily and the hens to cluck in sympathy. After 
a few days he came to Hong K'a : here he found an old lady in 
a disturbed state of mind. She had given a house to the church 
on the understanding that she should receive her burial outfit. 



298 SAMUEL POLLARD 

The missionary had sent her a red box with two quilts one to 
put under her body when she died and one to cover her. The 
quilts were faced with velvet, wadded and lined inside with 
yellow material. She was chagrined, however, by the omission 
to send the burial clothes with the quilts. Pollard comforted 
her with the promise that he would persuade the Church to send 
the garments she wanted. 

On Monday, October 2nd, he started with Mr. Hudspeth for 
Loh-in-shan, where they administered baptism to thirty-nine 
catechumens. After the service Pollard had a long talk with 
members of the Kop'u tribe : eleven of them had come from a 
village sixty li away to ask him to visit them. One of the Kop'u 
visitors proudly exhibited a book in the Miao script which Pollard 
had got out for converts. On Friday, October 5th, the two 
friends bade each other farewell, all unwitting of the great events 
which would transpire before they met again. 

Leaving Loh-in-shan Pollard crossed the lower slopes of a 
mountain nearly twelve thousand feet high. For two hours the 
party climbed in mud through a sort of jungle. As they passed 
along they saw hundreds of leeches swaying on twigs and grasses, 
uncannily waving their long bodies about until they could lay 
hold of something, biting the bare legs and the feet of the men, 
so that the coolies had to beat the bushes and grasses with their 
sticks. Pollard was delighted with the profusion of edelweiss. 
" The young flowers," he says, " were just coming out, and this 
is one of the finest sights we ever get among the multitude of 
flowers which adorn the hills of West China. The full blooms 
were beautiful and the young gossamer star flowers were ex- 
quisite in loveliness. I have never seen the flower looking so fine 
as we saw it on the hill of the leeches." 

Emerging from the jungle they came to a narrow ridge over- 
looking a magnificent valley and here they halted for lunch In 
this district the people sometimes lure deer within shooting range 
by making a squeaking sound with grass which is said to resemble 
the cry of a fawn. Yangchi had just been indulging them with 
this sharp, shrill music when suddenly four cream-coloured 
wolves came over the slope. Pollard and his men took cover, 



IN THE YEAR OF THE REVOLUTION 299 

some bleating like sheep, otliers imitating the cry of deer. The 
decoy appeared as if it would succeed, but soon the old wolves 
showed they had sensed danger by the lift of their heads, and in 
a moment they had turned and were bounding towards the 
valley. 

That evening Pollard reached Kan-i and was entertained by a 
Kop'u family. Their language was very nearly the same as the 
speech of the Heh-i, a branch of the No-Su tribe at Weining. 
The guests were supplied with a meal of buckwheat cakes and 
sliced melon. The room was soon crowded with neighbours 
who came to see and hear the teacher. " Excluding English we 
had three languages and an extra dialect between us. ... We 
did, however, the best we could, sometimes using one language 
and sometimes another. We kept on preaching till eleven o'clock : 
our audience would have stayed up all night. ... A great 
problem faced us all the aborigines of West China are noted for 
drunkenness : amongst these spirit-drinkers some give the Kop'u 
the first place. They are also reputed to be recklessly immoral. 
They have no literature. They know very little Chinese. 
Drunken, illiterate, immoral ! Is it an easy task to save such ? " 

On the road the next day they were met and welcomed by 
successive groups of Miao and Kop'u. When the Miao girls 
saw their own evangelist Yangchi they clapped their hands and 
danced with gladness. Pollard was pleased to see how his pupil 
had won the hearts of these simple people. One of the beautiful 
things in Pollard's ministry was his power to mould men to his 
own pattern. Of Yangchi he wrote : " He is a good, patient, 
loving brother, and I always feel safe and happy when he is with 
me. He will deny himself for the sake of others and smile while 
he does it, as though someone were doing him a kindness." 

By the time they reached Ta-shui-tsing, Pollard had an escort 
of about a hundred people. " Best of all," he says, " was the 
brotherly smile and hearty handshake from the Australian 
Methodist missionary, the Rev. A. Nicholls. He looked just the 
same as when I saw him last, signs of self-sacrifice and arduous 
toil all over him. I think his brave mother would open her eyes 
wide were I to tell all I know of her son who lives to win these 



300 SAMUEL POLLARD 

people to Christ. ... At Ta-shui-tsing the pulpit was like a 
rude cattle-pen ; inside sat the missionaries and in front of them 
was an altar two flat stones upon which the pine wood was 
burned to light the chapel. It was significant that these people 
who had wallowed in immoral orgies preferred above all other 
hymns ' There is a fountain filled with blood/ The Communion, 
service symbols of coarse buckwheat bread and cups of tea 
carried our thoughts back to the first institution of the fellowship 
of Jesus on the night of His betrayal. How strange that these 
men many of whom had tattooed their foreheads and lips with 
dots to prevent them from turning into monkeys at death had 
come to catch glimpses of the Holy Grail ! " 

On the following day Pollard was introduced to Wang Fu, a 
young aboriginal maiden who had become a Christian. It had 
seemed strange to her pastor that this fine healthy girl should 
have refused suitor after suitor, but at last he found out that she 
had fallen in love with a youth of eighteen and was waiting 
another year to marry him. Meanwhile she was going to Sa-pu- 
shan, to take a course of Bible study. As she walked along the 
rough muddy roads, shoeless and hatless, she was the life of the 
whole party. " Nobody," says Pollard, " could feel downhearted 
while she marched at our head and talked to us. She was a 
match in repartee for the best : her laugh was like the splashing 
of a waterfall in bright sunlight : her smile was like that of 
Minnehaha, and her good temper was so contagious that the 
men forgot their burdens and soon got over the muddy, slippery 
roads." 

Upon reaching Sa-pu-shan, his Australian host provided 
Pollard with a bath and a complete set of clean Chinese clothing. 
Three hundred of the tribes-people arrived at this station on the 
same evening for their annual Bible school. On Sunday, October 
1 5th, Pollard preached and administered the Sacrament. Next 
evening James, the Miao evangelist, gave a farewell address. 
" All day," he said, " I have been talking to you about the 
Cross, to-night I shall speak again of the Cross. The moon and 
the planets are shining in yonder sky ; but it is not their own 
light they shed ; it is light from the sun. We have a little light, 



IN THE YEAR OF THE REVOLUTION 301 

but it is not ours ; it is the light of God shining on us. We 
ought to make the Cross our badge (Chao pa't). It must always 
be on our heads that men may see it, and always in our hearts : 
I do not mean the Cross of wood, for that has no power ; but 
I mean the principle of the Cross of Christ that must always 
be in our hearts." 

They left Sa-pu-shan on October nth to go to the capital. 
The air was rife with rumours of revolution in China and of 
war between Turkey and Italy. He observed several mounds of 
fir cones along the roads ready for burning as flare-signals. At 
the village where he halted for the night eighty people gathered 
from seven hamlets to listen to his teaching. It was a quaint 
assembly ; one woman was manifestly absorbed in her baby and 
oblivious to all that Pollard was saying ; while his discourse was 
proceeding a tiny child slipped off her clothes and lay down on 
a sheepskin and was soon asleep. Unembarrassed by these 
things Pollard continued to instruct those who showed them- 
selves eager to learn. The Li-Su people of this district a few 
years before had been immersed in the worst phases of heathenism 
and none of them could read. Now they were worshipping 
God and reading the Gospels. The evangelist, one of Pollard's 
first converts, taught the people a hymn which he had composed 
and which they sung to the tune of " I have a Saviour." This 
man had been a great hunter and now he was a hunter of men. 
" Give James half a chance to get into a non-believing village 
and he will not lose his opportunity. I wonder what would 
happen to the world if all Christians were keen hunters after 
souls, watching, pursuing, eager, taking advantage of every 
opportunity, keeping on and on, and never giving up until the 
wonderful game is captured. James and I are working hard every 
day at our translation of the New Testament." 

Arriving at Yunnan Fu on October 21 st they found the north 
gate shut on account of the incessant rains. The city was full of 
rumours, but no one showed unfriendliness towards the foreigners. 
Once again Pollard surrendered himself to the charm of Yunnan 
Fu and wished that they had a mission established there. " What 
a grand centre for the United Methodists to resume work in ! 



302 SAMUEL POLLARD 

All the great forces of modern life and some of the powers of 
civilisation are making themselves felt here. There are numerous 
institutions for the study of Western subjects military, 
agricultural, mining, silk culture, and normal colleges. . . . 
Thousands of the best young fellows of the province 
gather here in this centre and are almost untouched by 
Christianity." 

Many were the improvements that had been made in the 
capital since he lived there a fine general Post Office had been 
added, a railway constructed, and the telegraph and electric light 
installed. He went to an exhibition of school products, and in 
connection with it was a museum where were regal robes, shoes, 
hats, coats of mail, Wu-san-Kua's marble table and picture of 
his wife, paper flowers, expensive vases, stuffed birds, a huge 
turtle, Japanese pictures of the war with Russia, coarse drawings 
of the aborigines ; besides, there were an art gallery of Chinese 
paintings and a reading-room : in fact, here were }he things 
which threw into bold contrast the old China and the new. 

" Another thing I saw outside the south gate : on a vacant 
piece of ground a large number of soldiers were drilling. They 
were dressed in the latest military style and were artillerymen. 
They were practising with a large battery of quickfirers from 
Krupp's works. ... If these men prove loyal and ammunition 
is plentiful they could sweep any street rising and make it a 
desperate venture for revolutionaries. But will they prove 
loyal ? . . . The killing forces are well to the fore ; when are 
the churches going to wake up to the duty of evangelising the 
whole world ? " 

On October 27th Pollard was up at five o'clock to prepare for 
his journey ; as he was wont to do he observed the positions of 
the stars and planets. " Venus," he says, " was like a small sun ; 
Mars and Saturn were brilliant ; Sirius and Canopus were very 
clear. Not far above the horizon away in the west, a little below 
Venus, was a comet where last year we saw Halley's Comet. This 
will mean a lot to the revolutionaries and may be worth five army 
corps to them. Every Manchu will quake at the sight of that 
comet. . . . The masses will believe that the comet is Heaven's 



IN THE YEAR OF THE REVOLUTION 303 

messenger of change. The very stars will fight in their courses 
against the Manchus." 

He caught the train to Ch'en Kong forty li away and there had 
to get out, as the railway was unfinished, and ride on his horse for 
several days' stages. Describing this part of his journey he says : 
" After leaving Kiangch'uan we came to a beautiful lake, and for 
some hours rode along its banks : it was like being home again : 
gently the waves beat on the shore ; the sunlight kissed the waters, 
slowly, persistently the boatmen dipped their oars and away in 
the middle a great flock of birds watched for fish." 

When they reached the railway station at Po-si, they heard that 
on Monday, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the soldiers of 
General Tsai Piao-Tong had risen in rebellion at Yunnan Fu. 
Pollard went on to A-mi-chow, where he left his two Miao friends, 
Yah-koh and Ma-ko. " I hope they will be at A-mi-chow when I 
return ; but I am not sure, and this uncertainty made the parting 
in the early morning a very trying one. . . . God bless those 
dear fellows ! I hope I shall see them again. . . . After 
leaving A-mi-chow we began our great journey from the table- 
land of Yunnan to the banks of the Red River one of the most 
remarkable journeys it is possible to take in the whole world. 
Down and down, in and out twisted and turned that strong little 
engine driven by trained Annamites. At one place just across the 
valley, and below us, we could see a station which we were to 
pass : it took us thirty minutes to reach that station although it 
only seemed a long stone's-throw away. To reach it much 
twisting, winding, and tunnelling had to be done. . . . Just at 
dark the train slowed down at Hokow, the border town. Then 
a few puffs and a bridge was crossed, and we were on French 
territory at last. ... In front were wide streets, electric light, 
settled government, polite Frenchmen, clean hotels, Western 
civilisation. Behind were muddy roads, dirty inns, ignorant 
people, uncertainty, revolution. But my heart was behind, away 
in the highlands of Yunnan ! " 

On Thursday, November gih, he bade good-bye to Mr. and 
Mrs. Owen Stevenson who had travelled with him from Yunnan 
Fu to Haiphong, and shortly afterwards he had the joy of meeting 



304 SAMUEL POLLARD 

his wife, his little son, Ernest, and his fellow-missionary Mr. 
Evans. Next day they entrained for Po-si and arrived there on 
Monday, November i3th. Three weeks before when Pollard was 
walking to a Sunday service in Yunnan Fu, he was stopped by 
the procession of the all-powerful viceroy, Li-Ching-Hsi, nephew 
of the late Li Hung Chang. Pollard had often thought of this 
mandarin's almost regal powers in Western China, for his sway 
had made missionary work at Yunnan Fu almost as hard as it 
would be at Constantinople, or Khartum. And now he sat in 
his sedan chair placid and sphinx-like, apparently possessing 
absolute control over the lives of millions. Yet eight days later, 
on the afternoon of Monday, October soth, the anti- Christian 
viceroy was sentenced to banishment. 

Then came the strange part in the eventful drama : Yunnan was 
proclaimed a republic, and the leader of the revolt, General 
Tsai, was declared President. It appeared as if at that stage it was 
part of the revolutionary plan that each province was to have its 
own legislature, thus forming a miniature state which was to be 
incorporated in the United States of China. Only three weeks 
had passed and Pollard saw the viceroy again a prisoner and 
escorted out of the province by republican soldiers. He was 
waiting at the station hotel at Po-si. " I saw," says Pollard, 
" a little boy with a partly shaven head and no queue come out 
with a servant it was the youngest son of the once powerful 
viceroy. The secretary of Li-Ching-Hsi, sat disconsolately at a 
table in view of a crowd of people. The viceroy had been brought 
in a shabby sedan-chair. He wore an ordinary long gown without 
the jacket which every scholar wears when properly dressed. His 
queue had been cut off and his locks fell untidily over his neck. 
As he left his rickety chair and went into the shanty which was 
called the ' Station Hotel,' no one showed him respect. . . . 
Grimly, silently, the young revolutionary officers, with an 
absence of all arrogance, went about their duties. One of them 
had an especially hard face which made one think that he would 
have had no hesitation in using his revolver on anyone who might 
stand in his way. . . . Presently the train was ready to start. 
Li came out and walked slowly across the line. No one bowed or 



IN THE YEAR OF THE REVOLUTION 305 

paid him reverence. No one wished him a prosperous journey. 
One of my companions whispered ' Wolsey,' and that one word 
seemed to sum up the situation. The ex- viceroy and his family 
took their seats in one compartment, and in the next sat the young 
men with revolvers. The escort of soldiers was accommodated in 
a fourth-class carriage. In 1900 this viceroy instigated a riot and 
burnt the foreigners' houses at Yunnan Fu and the guests of the 
Chinese Empire were then escorted by soldiers to Laokai. As 
he sent them out so went he out to-day a broken, crestfallen 



man." 



Nearly every house at Po-si Mohammedan and Chinese 
hung out its little flag with the magic character " Han " the 
name of the most popular dynasty in China's history ; the Chinese 
always styled themselves " the men of Han." 

The coolies who had brought down the viceroy's luggage were 
engaged to carry the Pollards' impedimenta up to the capital. 
With them travelled Mr. and Mrs. Hanna and Miss Katie Graham 
of the China Inland Mission. There were places where the rail- 
way was still out of repair, where the travellers had to debouch, 
but all the way great kindness was shown to them. " It was a new, 
free China, friendly to foreigners." They were not permitted to 
enter the city of Kiangch'uan, because the gates were shut to 
prevent a hated official of the old regime from escaping. On 
Saturday, November i8th, they came to a station thirteen miles 
from Yunnan Fu, and caught a morning train. But when they 
reached the city Pollard was met by a messenger from the British 
Consul- General with an order to go back. Their hopes of pro- 
ceeding northward were crushed : they could only return to 
A-mi-chow and hold themselves in readiness to cross over into 
French territory at a moment's notice. The foreigners were 
guarded by an escort of five hundred soldiers ; but when the 
news came that rioters were on their way to A-mi-chow from 
Mengtsi, the officials feared lest the soldiers might refuse to obey 
orders, and Pollard's party were forced to proceed to Laokai and 
then to Haiphong. After staying at this place for five days 
Pollard took a house at Doson, a seaside town about thirteen 
miles distant, where he and his friends stayed for abou two and a 



306 SAMUEL POLLARD 

half months, during which time he was consumed with desire to 
get back again to his work among the Miao. 



CHAPTER VII 
The Day 

POLLARD and his party arrived at Doson on Tuesday, December 
I2th, 1911, and took up their residence at a house facing the sea. 
With its miles of firm, clean sands and facilities for bathing, the 
town has become the summer resort for the French residents 
at Haiphong and Hanoi. Opposite this watering-place is the 
famous bay of A- Long with its curious rocks which rise out of 
the water in all kinds of fantastic shapes. 

On the 27th of January, 1912, he made the following entry in his 
Journal : " Twenty-five years ago Frank and I left England for 
China. What mercies God has given us in this quarter of a 
century ! How little I have really done for Him who has done so 
much for me ! It was worth coming. I would do it again if I 
had to go over it once more. The end of twenty-five years finds 
us out in China exiles in Tongking by the ocean again. . . . 
Broch, Russell, Darroch, Folke, Dymond, and Pollard. The 
Lord has blessed us. Thank Him sincerely." 

While here the good news came that his eldest son, now 
seventeen years of age, had won a scholarship for Trinity College, 
Cambridge. His father rejoiced and looked upon it as an answer 
to many prayers. 

Pollard and Dymond left Doson on February 28th, but the 
consul refused permission for the ladies to travel for another 
sixteen days. They reached Yunnan Fu to find the streets 
crowded with excited people ; a lantern festival was to be held 
that evening in honour of Yuan-Shih-Ka'i, the new President of 
the Republic. On Sunday, March 3rd, Pollard and Dymond 
attended the great State function celebrating the establishment 
of the first Chinese Republic. Among the guests were French, 



THE DAY 307 

Japanese, English, Americans, and Norwegians. ""General 
Tsai, the governor of the province, is young, clean-shaven, and 
short ; he talks French, Japanese, and a little English. The 
reception was held in the open under an awning of fir branches. 
The Governor stood under a canopy put up especially for him. 
The programme took two hours ; band music and addresses. 
Women of the Red Cross were there.'* In the afternoon they met 
at the Y.M*C.A. which had been started at Yunnan Fu by 
General Tsai's secretary, Mr. Tong. Pollard imagined that this 
influential Christian was an aborigine as he was able to speak the 
Min Kia language. He told Pollard that the stripe in the new 
flag of the Republic for Tibet signified the inclusion of all 
aborigines. He said in a public address that he wanted the spirit 
of Jesus the spirit of self-sacrifice enthroned in the hearts of all 
the adherents of the Young China Party. " In the evening there 
was a great procession of scholars all carrying small paper lanterns 
with the five colours of the flag on them. It looked like a long 
rainbow. A band was playing and the children were singing. 
There were also Mohammedan children with Arabic badges on 
their clothes. " 

General Tsai was in favour of the Christian religion, and his 
secretary told the missionaries that he was presenting the Temple 
of Literature for the use of the Y.M.C.A. " Years ago," says 
Pollard, " I was there, a stranger among strangers, preaching and 
selling books. What does it all mean ? May the Lord purify our 
hearts and make us full of faith ! One of our Chinese newspapers 
came out the other day with an article in favour of Christianity, 
ending with these words : ' From this we can divine that the 
church of Christ is going to prosper ! ' " 

It was the day of the iconoclasts. Pollard and Dymond visited 
the Temple of Hell and saw the mud of the idols turned into bricks 
by a gang of convicts. " The empty altars looked strange as did 
also the great gaps where formerly the gods had stood." Pollard 
had changed since the time when he so unsparingly denounced 
idolatry, for he now queries : " Do they not know that the temples 
express the loneliness and misery of the people, and that to these 
places they come for help and pity ? If they remove these gods 



3o8 SAMUEL POLLARD 

and give them nothing else the people will be worse off than 
before." 

" How I wish," he writes on February 22nd, 1912, " we had 
Yunnan Fu opened [to our Mission]. It is one of the finest 
centres in all West China and it is the largest city in the district. 
... It will be the meeting-place of four great railway lines 
one from Tongking already constructed, one from Burma, another 
from Canton, and the fourth from Szechuen. It is the educational 
centre for a district larger than the British Isles. ... The young 
men of that place need our Mission, and no British Mission 
can do better than our United Methodist Mission could. There 
is no place equal to it in opportunity ; it is without doubt the 
most needful centre in all our China Missions and it is our duty to 
open it." 

In another letter dated Yunnan Fu, loth of March, 1912, he 
writes : " We called on the Consul- General the Monday after 
our arrival and after some talk he gave us his consent to send for 
the ladies, permitting them to go with us as far as Tungch'uan. 
... In the meantime we are holding daily services in connection 
with the Y.M.C.A. in a hired hall, and these services have gone 
well. . . . To-day a great gathering was held in the same hall 
and it was full. Two galleries were full of women and girls, some 
of whom were dressed in semi-European fashion with hair 
done d la Japanese, and also having unbound feet. Governor- 
General Tsai and some of his chief men attended, and there were 
gentry of the district, editors, military officers, and many students. 
The Governor- General gave the first address and referred over 
and over again to the religion of Jesus in the friendliest and most 
sympathetic terms. Then a Mr. Chen spoke for fifty minutes and 
gave a very crude address with theology all awry, but with an 
intense desire for China to adopt a religion with God in the first 
place and none of the old idol worship. . . . Then Frank spoke. 
He woke up the audience at once. The Governor- General who 
sat near me leaned forward and took in with great interest all that 
was said. The meeting lasted three hours. Two ladies who 
had been in Japan sang a duet. In the old days this could never 
have happened. 



THE DAY 309 

" All the small temples about the streets have been destroyed. 
? . . The daily papers have had articles favourable to Christianity. 
Now is the chance of a lifetime ! The old days have gone ! 
Temples destroyed ! Idols overthrown ! Officials favourable 
to our work ! A Viceroy (or the Republican equivalent) speaking 
favourably of Christianity on the same platform as your two 
missionaries ! . . . 

" What are we to do ? As the result largely of Christian teach- 
ing in many places this state of affairs has arisen. Are we now to 
leave the people to go on alone evolving possibly a religion akin to 
Mohammedanism ? . . . 

" Unless Christianity be given to these people now, there 
may soon be such a reaction against this idol destruction as will 
overwhelm us all." 

In another letter, dated March 22nd, he says : " The oppor- 
tunity here at Yunnan Fu seems more exciting, fascinating, and 
imperative than ever. Frank ought to be stationed here. . . . Oh 
that you could send us the longed-for word ! Can anyone do 
the work better than your men ? Frank knows the province : 
he has the language as not one missionary in fifty has it. He has 
the ear of the people ; and he is keen for the work. The people 
would like him. At a meeting of the young men composing the 
Y.M.C.A. (native) they all held up their hands expressing a wish 
that he would come here. ... I do not think that Wen-chow, 
Ningpo, Tientsin, Yongshan, Chaotong, or Tungch'uan, can 
present such a great, fascinating, yet terrible opportunity as 
Yunnan Fu does. Why in this hour of awful need are our home 
friends failing us ? Why are they losing faith in the Christ Whom 
these people so need and must have and shall have ? " 

At one of the Y.M.C.A. meetings Pollard said : " Formerly 
men kotowed to the idols : now the idols are kotowing to men." 
His Chinese friend, Stephen Lee, says : " In his speech, Mr. 
Pollard was always able to use appropriate figures and to make 
arresting points." He would use current events to lay hold of 
men's minds, but his message was applicable to all times. Those 
who listened to him were delighted at his wit and sagacity : none 
ever went to sleep while he addressed them. ... In denouncing 
u 



3 io SAMUEL POLLARD 

the opium habit he contended that while " men think they eat 
opium, it is really the opium that eats men." Pollard's imagina- 
tion was captivated by the magnificent opening presented in the 
city of Yunnan Fu, and he would have rejoiced if Dymond could 
have been appointed to open a mission there. 

When Pollard and Dymond found that it was impossible to 
appoint a foreigner to work for the Mission in the capital they 
decided to send Mr. Stephen Lee to try to maintain the interest 
evinced by the young Chinese in Christian teaching. After six 
months Pollard wrote : " Mr. Lee is undoubtedly working very 
hard and doing some good. No one out here is pursuing a dog-in- 
the-manger policy. We have made efforts to induce the Canadian 
Methodists and the Y.M.C.A. to open up work. We shall rejoice 
if the ' Primitives ' come. Whatever may be your policy at 
home we here are anxious to see Yunnan Fu thoroughly 
evangelised. It is the finest opportunity in all our China 
missions, but also the most difficult, and probably the most 
expensive." 

Mrs. Pollard and Ernest, the youngest son, reached Yunnan 
Fu on March i6th, but they were not allowed to proceed farther 
for another three weeks. On April ist they were permitted to 
start for Tungch'uan, and great was their joy some days later 
to meet two Miao evangelists who had come out to welcome 
them bringing milk and biscuits. Two miles from the city they 
were met by a great number of Chinese friends bearing four 
banners. The following Sunday, April yth, was Easter Day, 
and two hundred and fifty communicants assembled at the 
Communion service. Writing from the Mission house in this 
city he says : " Mr. Evans is bravely toiling away trying to over- 
take all the work that crowds on him. The Christians are in 
good heart. The Sunday services are well attended and at the 
five out-stations there is much to thank God for." 

In a letter written from Tungch'uan on April 7th, Pollard 
says : " I consider that the past year is in many ways the best we 
have had for a long time. We could have done much more had 
we better plant and more assistance. There have been signs 
that now is our great day of opportunity. The indifference of 



THE DAY 311 

the people has given way in some places to a spirit of friendliness 
and inquiry. . . . 

" The Chinese section of course stands at the head of all the 
work. Brilliant success among the aborigines would not make up 
for loss among the leading race in the country. It is, therefore, a 
great source of joy to us all to know that the Chinese work is 
healthier than ever it has been before. Great crowds attend the 
services at Chaotong, and were the chapel there twice as large, it 
could be easily filled. . . . Preparations are being made for such 
a building and the Chinese have given liberally towards paying 
for the site which has been purchased next door to our present 
premises. 

" The Chinese work in the north is as unsatisfactory as ever, 
and in my opinion we should cease to attempt what naturally 
could more easily be done by the mission at Sui Fu. ... It is 
wiser for us to do the work which we can readily do. With the 
opening of the railway to Yunnan Fu our natural line of develop- 
ment lies in that direction, and right down to the borders of 
Szechuen where are many strong and vigorous missions." 

" During the year I had the privilege of spending a fortnight 
with Mr. Mylne among the No-Su and am more than ever con- 
vinced of the great opportunity we have there. Thousands of 
people want us and before long scores of chapels will be 
built. . . . 

" Several new chapels have been erected by the Miao during 
the year and more than two hundred have been baptized. During 
the enforced exile of their pastor the native preachers have done 
noble work in keeping things together and preventing the spread 
of panic." 

" A larger number of scholars have attended the different 
schools of the Mission than ever before. . . . We shall soon have 
a thousand boys and girls under our tuition. . . . Our difficulty 
all over the Mission has been to obtain good teachers. The 
government pays high salaries to their men and that naturally 
attracts most of the best men." 

A little later when all reports of the work had been given at 
the Annual Meeting he says : "A good step was taken towards 



3i2 SAMUEL POLLARD 

unifying the schools. Our schools are becoming increasingly useful. 
Possibly we shall have fifteen hundred young people under daily 
instruction this year. It seems as if we shall soon be the largest 
of our four Missions in China. If you will only open Yunnan Fu 
and send us a Redfern, or a Chapman with a college like theirs 
we should become a great power in the whole of West China." 

" Next week we shall send four Miao preachers to evangelise 
the Kop'u in the Tungch'uan district, and two Miao to help 
the China Inland Mission at Wuting. I am also making the 
experiment of sending two Miao colporteurs to sell Scriptures at 
Chinese markets in our district." 

" The executive meetings went off well and several good pieces 
of work were done. The District Meeting, at which the native 
delegates were three times as many as the foreigners, was a great 
success. The men did well and there is a bright outlook for the 
future. The stationing committee was composed of three 
Chinese and one foreigner, and nearly all its suggested appoint- 
ments were accepted loyally. This was a great improvement 
on the old style, and was far more acceptable to the native 
preachers." 

He was greatly concerned at this time that nothing should be 
done to disturb the unity of the Miao work. It had become 
plain to him that it would be far better to depend upon the 
assistance of his native workers than to divide his vast parish 
between himself and another foreigner who might differ from 
him on matters of policy and method. It was not that he feared 
rivalry, but he dreaded the effects of such division upon the Miao 
church. The Mission had reached a stage of development, so he 
believed, when the whole future consolidation and extension of 
the movement depended for its success upon supreme authority 
being vested in one superintendent. He felt that he was the 
natural head of the Miao section of the Mission, and he reiterated 
his appeals to the Committee to secure him in this position. 

He took great interest in the progress of the young Miao 
preachers whom he trained. On the Qth of June he heard Mr. 
Chang preach at Shih-men-k'an to four hundred and fifty people 
on the parabje of the Mustard Seed, " He made two points 



THE DAY 313 

which were new to me. . . . He referred to the common practice 
of hoeing and weeding the Indian corn without which it would 
never come to perfection. But whoever thinks of hoeing, or 
weeding the mustard seed ? When it takes root it has power in 
itself to grow in spite of all obstacles. So, said the young tribes- 
man, there is no need for fussy interference, or anxiety, as to the 
growth of the Kingdom of God in the hearts of the people after 
it has once taken root there. It has power within itself to grow, 

" The second point was, that after the mustard seed had once 
got really into the field, it was practically impossible to get it 
entirely out again. No matter how the crops might be varied, 
when the season came round again the mustard plant would 
certainly make itself evident in some part or other. No amount 
of ploughing or rooting up will entirely eradicate the mustard. 
So, said the preacher, the persecutions we suffer and the troubles 
we endure cannot destroy the Kingdom of God within us." 

Two Sundays later he heard Yang Yah-koh say that the soul 
is like the vowels, while the body is like the consonants. - If there 
are no little vowels put with the big consonants, then the big 
consonants have no sound or meaning. So the soul must be 
associated with the body, or it will be unexpressed. 

During September and October Pollard spent many weeks 
among the hills visiting the villages and markets, during which 
time he received four hundred members into the Church. He 
writes on November nth, 1912 : "I have just had two rounds 
among the Miao visiting a number of the churches and outlying 
villages. Some of the roads I went over beat all I have ever 
travelled on horseback before. Sometimes I had to do it on 
hands and feet and with difficulty then. In some places I found 
preachers and Christians working amidst discouragement and 
failure, but on the whole there was an immense amount to 
rejoice over. I admitted new members nearly every day and the 
total for the first round was about two hundred. The harvest 
festival at Rice Ear Valley was a crowded occasion. The preacher 
there has done his work well. The Sunday after at Stone Gateway 
harvest festival Mr. Dymond was present. . . . Thirteen new 
members were baptized. On the following Sunday I was at 



3 H SAMUEL POLLARD 

' Heaven-Born Bridge,' for another harvest festival. Great 
crowds again. I had to hold the service in the open air and all 
the forms were occupied by candidates for baptism who had passed 
their examination. In glorious sunshine with a soft south wind 
blowing I walked up and down the ranks, and one hundred and 
seventy-six times in succession I repeated the words so dear 
to an old missionary's heart : ' I baptize thee in the name of the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.' It was a glorious 
occasion. Not for several years have we had such an ingathering. 
Two days afterwards at another place I admitted thirty-eight 



more." 



In another letter dated December 3ist, 1912, he says : " Frank 
writes saying he baptized sixty-five Chinese on Christmas Day, 
making one hundred and seventeen for the year. Fancy that 
for dark Yunnan ! We have nearly reached the thousand for the 
year and shall apparently go beyond it before the March returns 
are made up. And there is a bright prospect for next year as well. 
Whenever you see old B.C's. tell them to watch the West China 
Mission and their hearts will rejoice. I feel that we are on the eve 
of great extensions the end of which cannot be foreseen." 

Pollard held a preachers' conference in October which was 
attended by about fifty evangelists. " After some discussion 
they agreed not to recognise infant betrothals. If such are made 
they must be remade when the girls are seventeen and the boys 
nineteen years of age." At a quarterly meeting the Miao resolved 
to send four successful students to Peking University. In a 
letter dated December 3ist, 1912, he tells the secretary : " I 
wrote Candlin a few weeks ago asking if there were any chance of 
our Miao boys being received into the Union College where he 
is at Peking. He wired back a reply which set all our Miao in a 
great excitement. Our men will be welcome on the same terms 
as the North China men. For about a hundred dollars a year 
(including travelling expenses) our Miao students can get a 
year's training in one of the best colleges in China. We talked 
it over and agreed that we would send four fellows at once and get 
the money from somewhere. The Miao are to give one hundred 
and twenty dollars a year towards the cost and Mr. Hudspeth and 



THE DAY 315 

I are to be responsible for the remainder. So that in four years' 
time at no expense to the Mission we hope to have four good 
tutors for our training school. They are fine young men who 
are going, although not so forward as Chinese students, as they 
began late and their studies are all in Chinese a foreign language. 
But they work like Trojans and beat the ordinary Chinese 
students hollow for steady and persistent application." But 
this ambitious scheme for some reason had to be given up 
and instead several of the Miao students were sent to Chentu 
University. 

Everything at this time seemed to compel attention to the 
amazing change in the attitude of the people Chinese and ab- 
origines to the foreign teachers and the Christian religion. In 
November Pollard visited Chaotong to conduct a Chinese service 
in the enlarged chapel. Whilst walking through the city " Mr. 
Dymond pointed out to me a wonderful placard about the fire 
which destroyed fifty houses. The people at first thought they 
must worship the fire god ; but others persuaded them not to do 
so. The new Chent'ai told his predecessor that it was throwing 
money away when he gave five dollars for the worship of the fire 
spirit. The placard announced that for ten odd days they would 
confess their sins and pray at such and such a place to ' the True 
Spirit, the True Lord, the Only One, the Peerless, the Eternal 
God.' Who would have expected to see such a placard on 
Chaotong city gates ? The Chent'ai here is very friendly 
with Mr. Dymond, and sends his daughter to Miss Squire's 
school." 

The Christmas celebrations at Shih-men-k'an (1912) were 
attended by two thousand persons. It was a memorable day ; the 
sun shone gloriously and Pollard administered baptism in the 
open air admitting many new members. Among the notable 
guests were two Tu-muh who had been persecutors of the Christian 
Miao. On Christmas Eve the united schools went out over 
the hills with banners flying to welcome Mr. John Graham 
and Mr. Hudspeth. The chapel was illuminated with thirty 
little lamps. The Christmas morning was ushered in by a great 
prayer meeting. During the day a sale took place of the things 



316 SAMUEL POLLARD 

which the school girls had made under the instruction of Mrs. 
Pollard. One of the Tu-muh gave an order for eight jerseys. 
In the evening they had a dinner in Chinese style with eighteen 
tables. On Boxing Day the weather changed and the next 
morning they found thirteen inches of snow. 

The older Christian Miao love to recall their first visits to 
Chaotong and, as lovers talk of their first meeting 'and first 
impressions, they delight to speak of those early days when they 
began to come under the spell of Jesus. " We were talking over 
this . . . and they told of the days when every village was moved 
and folk started tramping from everywhere. No one went to 
carry the news : it carried itself." Mr. Hudspeth asked Yoh-han 
why the folk went : he replied : "In those days the words 
{ Father ' and * Brother ' went abroad, and these two words 
stirred the people wonderfully. It made one people of a scattered 
and disunited tribe. Yoh-han further said that when he first 
heard rumours of the power of Jesus to heal, his sister was very 
ill. He went outside his home, for he imagined that one must 
pray in the open air, and he cried aloud : ' If there be a Jesus of 
God, let Him be pleased to make my sister better.' Suddenly 
the groaning in the house stopped and Yoh-han thought that his 
sister must be dead, and felt almost afraid to re-enter. Upon 
going in, however, his astonishment was great, for his sister was 
sitting up and had already recovered her strength. This event 
changed Yoh-han 's faith into a dominating life-force, and hence- 
forth he believed in Jesus as Healer and Saviour." 



CHAPTER VIII 
Sunrise in the East 

IN 1913 the Chinese nation had come to a great spiritual crisis. 
Pollard and his colleagues realised that, with " a long pull, a strong 
pull, and a pull all together " a union of the various Methodist 
missions might accomplish untold, permanent good. Accord- 
ingly he formulated certain plans, not too ambitious but 



SUNRISE IN THE EAST 317 

thoroughly practicable, to achieve this splendid result. " Here," 
he wrote to the Missionary Secretary on February 4th, " is what I 
should like to see : 

" (a) Let the Primitive Methodists send an educationist, a 
doctor, and a preaching missionary to Yunnan Fu to work in 
connection with Mr. Dymond. The chief training-school of the 
Mission ought to be there, and it should be fed by the other 
schools at Chaotong, Shih-men-k'an, No-Su land, and Tung- 
ch'uan. (b) Let them also send a missionary to Chaotong to join 
in the aborigine work that they may feel that they have a share 
in this great work and be ready to push it in other parts of the 
province. A similar addition to the staff at Tungch'uan would be 
helpful, (c) As the way opens up start a new centre south or 
south-west of Yunnan Fu so that that great tract of country, so 
far unevangelised, could be reached. . . . Our China Inland 
Mission friends in Yunnan Fu and in the north and east among 
aborigines and Chinese are Methodists, English Wesleyans, 
Australian Methodists and Primitives. . . . By and by in Yunnan 
we can get a great Methodist Church known, please God, for its 
purity and missionary fire." 

Just before Easter Pollard made another of his long preaching 
tours in the direction of Chang-hai-tsi : Mr. Hudspeth and a 
company of native workers travelled there by one route, Pollard's 
party went by another. It took four days to travel fifty miles 
and to visit all the villages where they had little communities of 
Christians. Ten years earlier there was neither chapel nor 
believer in the whole district ; and now they passed ten chapels, 
in eight of which day schools were held, attended by hundreds of 
scholars. At Hmao-tsi-ka they were met by a score of girls 
who had come out to welcome the teacher. Pollard expresses the 
pleasure he felt in meeting them : " What wild attractive little 
fairies they are, knowing more about sheep and cattle and the 
open air than half the ' grown-ups ' in England ! With merry 
faces, infectious laughter and absolute fearlessness they soon 
make one feel ' at home.* A swift scamper down the hills in 
midst of a score of these pretty, noisy, half-clad children of the 
fir lands makes one forget all the difficult problems of the 



3i8 SAMUEL POLLARD 

missionary enterprise and all the grey hairs that will come where 
they are not wanted. These little ones make me feel very young 
and very happy." Farther down the valley the schoolboys were 
drawn up in two files with flags flying. A few years before they 
were wild and untaught ; but now they are disciplined and 
receive the longed-for visitor with military honours. 

" It was Good Friday," says Pollard ; " the moon was full, 
and the skies were beautiful and the air so warm and bewitching, 
that it was resolved to hold the evening service out of doors on the 
drill-ground. Forms were brought out and a congregation of over 
a hundred was soon singing some of the old hymns. How much 
more pleasant it was to be out of doors, and the tragic story of 
Calvary lost nothing from being told there. It is an open-air 
story which was first told on the hillside." 

On Sunday morning before the missionaries had risen, their 
bedroom was invaded by two little visitors, bringing a gift of a 
dozen Easter eggs. Suddenly the weather changed ; the warm 
spring sunshine gave place to a cold, piercing north wind. The 
chapel, however, was crowded and seventy-eight persons were 
received into the Church by baptism. At the evening services the 
decorum of worship was disturbed by the presence of two men 
of influence who had conceived the idea that it might be worth 
their while to join the Church. They took their seats on the 
platform and one of them asked Mr. Hudspeth when the 
" theatre " would begin. When a native preacher brought a basin 
of water for the baptism of other candidates, Mr. Wu went 
forward, smelt the water, and then took it up and drank some. 
He left enough, however, for the baptisms, and returning to his 
seat began to smoke. Amongst those received into the church 
were an old lady, an octogenarian, and a little girl of five who 
still received the breast. 

His journey to Chang-hai-tsi had brought him into contact 
with many No-Su families. In his Journal he remarks : " The 
No-Su and the Chinese do not like each other ; but both combine 
to ill-treat the Miao. If an elder brother dies (without a son), 
his lands do not go to his brother, but one half of them is con- 
fiscated by the Tu-muh. They say at Long-Kai-tsi that all the 



SUNRISE IN THE EAST 319 

land reverts to the No-Su seigneur, and the survivor must go to 
pay court to him before he can inherit even a half. Evidently 
these feudal lords have been little emperors and tyrants, and it is 
time their rule came to an end." Another entry is : " The 
Leader (church leader) of the I-pien at Tseh-Choh is An-shi- 
nan. Now he has become a Christian all the I-pien will join us." 
" At Leng-tsi-ho a number of Chinese and I-pien came to the 
Miao service. I told them that I should be glad if all the different 
races would join the (same) church. They said they would be 
willing." Not only did Pollard dread the division of the Miao 
work, but he also advocated the union of No-Su and Miao 
Christians in common worship. The various races overlapped 
one another in this district, and unless they were joined in one 
church, they would have an excessive number of buildings and the 
missionaries would be making identical journeys to their separate 
little groups of Christians. 

No doubt the question at issue was complicated to some 
extent by the relations of two unequal races No-Su and Miao 
in the Christian church. The No-Su were socially, and probably 
intellectually, superior to the Miao. But Pollard held that racial 
and social differences ought to be ignored in the Christian 
church. He loved the Miao and was sensitive to any reflection 
upon them. Others might be unable to see anything to admire 
in these downtrodden people ; at best they seemed to them like 
big children, stupid and rather dirty. Pollard, on the other hand, 
saw in them fine qualities and delighted to speak of them. " At 
Hmao-na-chu," he writes, " I watched a girl weaving braid with 
coloured woollen threads. The pattern was the same both sides 
and the border was red : the groundwork white and the pattern 
blue. The long threads were stretched out as for the cloth in 
weaving and a part was tied around the waist to the girdle. Then 
the other was tied to one of her toes. This made the loom. The 
hanging threads which make the pattern were fixed on by them- 
selves with a loop at the top. The lifting of this loop by the hand 
and the running of the fingers along the upper and lower threads 
made the space for the cross thread to be thrown over. This 
was thrown, pulled tight, and then the loop was lifted again in 



320 SAMUEL POLLARD 

the reverse way which opened up a second way for the cross 
threads. This braid is used as arm braids to loop up the sleeves, 
or as a girdle. There are many patterns and the girls are very 
smart at it." From this instance of ingenuity Pollard reasoned 
that people so meagrely furnished with machinery achieved 
marvellous results. He saw the good in them because he looked 
with sympathy, and under his tuition they had made quite 
astonishing progress. 

Not only did he insist upon the necessity of regarding the whole 
aboriginal work among both No-Su and Miao as one, but he 
realised that the Chinese sections and the evangelisation of the 
aborigines were interdependent. While he devoted himself to 
the great task of dealing with the mass movement among the 
Miao, he was ready at any time to assist in attempts to capture 
the mind of the Chinese for Christianity, and gladly co-operated 
in a great mission at Chaotong. 

Mr. Dymond, who was superintending the church at Chaotong, 
believed the time opportune for bold aggressive propaganda. 
The vast assemblies of people from time to time in the temples 
to witness the enacting of popular plays suggested to him that it 
would be a wise experiment to attempt a Christian demonstration 
on an unexampled scale. Through the friendly offices of certain 
merchants he secured the Kiangsi Guild temple for an eight days' 
mission. He invited Pollard to come into the city to assist in 
the contemplated venture. " The object of the mission was not 
merely to preach, but also to make a definite effort to win as 
many new converts as possible. Appeals were to be made day 
by day for decision, and those who made up their minds to 
become Christians were to be requested to sign papers giving 
their names and addresses." 

Seats were taken from the chapel and placed in the auditorium 
of the temple. Big-lettered texts were hung around the balconies. 
The organ of the church was also carried there, and a choir of a 
hundred scholars boys on one side and girls on the other was 
trained. The mission was lavishly advertised and special invita- 
tions were sent to the prefect, to all the Government officials, 
civil and military, to the scholars, professors, police, and 



SUNRISE IN THE EAST 321 

merchants. The whole of Saturday was set apart for women's 
meetings. 

On Sunday, April I3th, 1913, the missionaries preached about 
the mission, and then the church members were divided into 
ten bands and sent to various parts of the city to announce the 
meetings at the Kiangsi Guild theatre. On Monday at noon 
about fifteen hundred citizens assembled for the opening service. 
The choir gave immense delight ; the No-Su scholars sang with 
magnificent effect, and the sweetness of the girls' voices was 
admired. Pollard says : " Even great outside crowds hushed 
down and listened as the choir sang out songs which are strange 
to those who do not know Christ and His story. I stood in the 
courtyard at the back of the audience and listened to a pentatonic 
setting of ' All hail the power of Jesu's name.' It was thrilling 
and the surroundings made the thrill almost a miracle. Hanging 
down from the roof of the piazza, were long, beautifully carved 
wooden scrolls in black and gold, and many large Chinese 
lanterns, on whose sides were painted poetical quotations or scenes 
from nature. The graceful temple roofs, with their many curves, 
were silhouetted against the deep blue sky, and looked like broken 
ranges of mountains from whose tops the southern winds had just 
blown away all the clouds. . . . The men who built the beautiful 
roofs of the temples and guild houses of West China must have 
been men who in old days had lovingly and sympathetically 
watched the hills and mountains in the sunshine after rain, or 
on moonless, starlit nights of winter." 

At night the services were aided by the use of lights and 
lanterns. On the platform the lanterns were " of the usual pretty 
style with pictures and scenes painted on the hexagons. Red 
candles within gave out their light. Also a row of square red 
lamps around the three balconies. The platform in this profusion 
of lights looked like a bit of Oriental fairyland. Every now and 
again a man and a boy handed round tea to the assembled guests 
and speakers. . . . Nearly all the invitations to the prominent 
people of the city had been accepted, and as those distinguished 
guests came in they were welcomed by addresses from the 
missionaries, and in some instances replies were given. The 



322 SAMUEL POLLARD 

spokesman for the merchants told the people that it would be a 
fine thing if all the inhabitants of the city changed and became 
like the two missionaries who had for so many years been 
associated with Protestant mission work in this district. 

" Hanging in front of the speakers were two large five-barred 
flags, with their message of unity and hope for all the races 
forming the great Republic. . . . The Dragon-flag meant des- 
potism and idolatry. The five-barred flag means liberty and fair 
play for all. Hung all about these gracefully curved roofs are 
small bells, with wide, light tags hanging down from the tongue. 
As the wind blew the tags about, the tongues struck the sides of 
the bells, and from the hill-like roofs came sounds as of cattle on 
the mountain slopes. . . . 

" When the native brethren got up one after another and 
begged the audience to accept Christ, there was joy in the hearts 
of the missionaries. I remember well how I went once into this 
temple when a great crowd was watching some theatricals. In 
the intervals I tried to sell Gospels and tracts, but the atmosphere 
was so unfriendly that I was glad to move out and go elsewhere. 
In the school and church work led by Mr. Dymond, in the 
medical work of Dr. Savin, and in Miss Squire's girls' school, 
the Chaotong mission is seeing great success. . . . 

" What was the result of it all ? In the eight days thirteen 
thousand people came, many merely from curiosity, but the 
majority stayed . . . and gave the preachers a good hearing. 
Those who wished to become ' learners of Christ ' gave their 
names and the names of some persons who would recommend 
them. ... 

" The choir ... no longer sings in the great temple, but 
the bells still ring out their messages of the wind and of the hills. 
The white clouds still rush by the shining moon, and the King- 
dom of God gets nearer and nearer to the far west of the Far 
East." 1 

Pollardf joined whole-heartedly with his old friend during 
those eight days of Chinese evangelism, and showed himself 
ready to help in reaping the harvest of Dymond 's long and 
1 The Christian JVorld, August 7tb, 1913. 



SUNRISE IN THE EAST 323 

faithful ministry in that city which had for so many years seemed 
unresponsive. Both Pollard and Dymond had won a place of 
considerable influence in the district of Chaotong and could 
address the assembled crowds as honoured leaders. There comes 
back to us the recollection of their first entrance into this city, 
footsore and weary, and scorned by rich and poor alike ; yet 
sitting in Sam Thome's wretched hovel that evening a quarter 
of a century before, they rehearsed the high hopes of enthusiastic 
youth, and looked for the coming of the Kingdom of God in 
that drab, squalid city, little thinking of the toilsome, barren, 
and sometimes sad years which must pass before their hopes 
could begin to take shape as realities. 

On Wednesday, April 23rd, 1913, two days after the mission 
had ended, a special messenger followed Pollard to Shih-men-k'an 
and handed to him the telegram of the Chinese government 
(which Dymond had received and sent on) announcing that 
April zyth had been appointed a day of prayer for the new 
Republic and Senate. 

" When I opened the letter," writes Pollard, " and read the 
words * a telegram ' I felt a shock, and then as I read, my tears 
began to flow and I could not speak properly or tell Emmie 
what it was all about." The message read : " Renter's Telegram, 
April 1 8th, 1913, Peking. Yesterday the following message was 
adopted by the Cabinet and telegraphed to all the provincial 
governments, and high officials, also to the Christian Churches. 
' Your prayers are requested for the National Assembly, the 
newly established Government, and the President yet to be 
elected ; that the Government may be recognised by the Powers ; 
that peace may reign within the country ; that able and virtuous 
men may be appointed to office ; that the new Republic may be 
established on firm foundations.' Sunday, April 27th, is set 
aside for this purpose. It is expected that this national day of 
prayer will be observed by all Christian communities throughout 
China : this is the first time that an appeal of this kind has been 
made by a non- Christian nation, and it has given extraordinary 
satisfaction to all Christian communities in North China." 

On the Saturday Pollard exclaims, " To-morrow will be the 



324 SAMUEL POLLARD 

great day of intercession in which the Chinese officials join. The 
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand ! It is sunrise in the east ! The 
prayers of the home churches are being answered." 

From the city we must once again transfer our attention to 
the flowing tide of evangelism among the tribesmen of the hills. 
The Hwa Miao were themselves sending out men to preach the 
Gospel to the Kop'u, whom Pollard calls a branch of the great 
No-Su family. Socially they rank above the Miao, but are 
inferior to the No-Su and Chinese. " There is," says Mr. 
Parsons, " some ground for believing that once . . . they were 
serfs of the stronger half of the No-Su tribe. . . . The Kop'u 
are much less trustful and less responsive to the truth than the 
Miao ; but they seem to be more easily persuaded than the 
Yunnan Chinese. . . . They are grouped in villages and hamlets 
containing from five to sixty families, congregating for mutual 
protection against wild animals and more dreaded thieves. 
Their village life is based upon the communistic principle. . . . 
The land, such of it as remains in Kop'u hands, is divided among 
the several families. When the subdivisions among the de- 
scendants are too small to support the families, they eke out their 
livelihood by working for their more wealthy neighbours. . . . 
There is surprisingly little intercourse between the villages. 
Folk in hamlets, divided only by a deep valley, are sometimes 
unknown to each other. The result of this isolation shows itself 
in distinct types of dress, and marked variations in language, 
'and even facial differences." Though in their unregenerate 
state they offer sacrifices of cattle or fowls to the spirits of the 
woods yet, Mr. Parsons says, they acknowledge " One who is 
supreme, all-powerful, and uncreated." 

" As a missionary society our introduction to the Kop'u was 
through the medium of a village of Christian Miao, on the north 
of Tungch'uan. The Kop'u came to the service ; they were 
received kindly and invited to come again. They on their part 
seemed pleased to associate with the Christian Miao. The 
movement spread rapidly. Village after village offered their 
doors to the Miao preachers. The trained Hwa Miao from Shih- 
men-k'an district gave themselves splendidly to the work. They 



SUNRISE IN THE EAST 325 

travelled among the people, stayed in their homes, daily teaching 
them to sing and pray. Week after week this itineration con- 
tinued. Week-night and Sunday services were arranged, and 
the movement was placed on a working basis, almost entirely 
through the agency of the Miao. Without their aid only the 
barest fraction of the work could have been undertaken. Chapels 
sprang up there are a score of them now, erected entirely by 
the people themselves without cost to the mission. True, these 
mud-built chapels are of little monetary worth, but their value 
lies in what they represent of a sacrificing and worshipping 
spirit. Schools have been opened, and thus far eight trained 
Miao teachers are engaged in teaching companies of intelligent 
Kop'u scholars." 

These Miao evangelists had drunk deep of Pollard's spirit. 
They had learned of him to hunt men. They now boasted that 
they were hunting the hunters of Yunnan, for the Kop'u are 
reputed to excel all the other tribes in their success in the chase. 
Even their young women assist in hunting big game " clear- 
eyed, supple-limbed, fleet-footed Dianas," so Pollard describes 
them. " The wild boar is one of the favourite animals hunted, 
as its flesh is much prized by all the tribes-people. The men 
choose a suitable spot where the boar is likely to run, and here 
they fix large nets, and then, armed with knives, hide to wait 
events." The women act as " beaters," and skilfully guide the 
boar into the nets. 

" The Miao preacher who told the story of the Kop'u hunters 
. . . said that the people were now just as eagerly hunting after 
the truths of the Gospel and with similar success. It was amusing 
to find that when the Miao missionaries arrived at some of the 
villages the people were not anxious to help them discover other 
villages . . . because they were afraid that they might go away 
before they had learnt sufficient of the Christian doctrine." 



v 



326 SAMUEL POLLARD 

CHAPTER IX 
Gleanings from the Journal 

HAD the mission field not claimed all Pollard's energies he might 
have won distinction as a teller of tales. As it was, he gave a 
couple of sheaves in " Tight Corners " and " The Story of the 
Miao," but, like a generous Boaz, he dropped many ears for 
future gleaning. He was keenly observant of his fellow-men 
and sympathy gave him insight into the inner lives of the people. 
Over the pages of his Journal are sprinkled jottings of incidents 
which cast odd gleams upon the people he lived among. It was 
a delight to be with him when he was in the vein for talking and 
free from the pressure of immediate duties : then one tasted the 
rich, red, ripe fruit of his crowded days. The story of a life by 
no means proceeds in a straight line, nor is a biographer " like 
a muleteer who drives his mule straightforward from Rome all 
the way to Loretto," without ever turning his head aside either 
to the right hand or to the left. " He will have fifty deviations 
from a straight line to make with this or that party as he goes 
along, which he can no ways avoid." 1 Let us, therefore, dip 
into his notebooks, more or less at random, and learn some of 
the peculiar customs he deemed it useful to chronicle. 

Although the No-Su chiefs, or landlords, were prone to per- 
secute their Miao tenants for professing Christianity, yet such 
was Pollard's influence he was sometimes called in to arbitrate 
between the rival claims of the Tu-muh and terminate, if he 
could, the long-continued feuds. A Tu-muh named Peh-ai used 
to inveigle women into his yamen on one pretext or other and sell 
them as wives or slaves. Yet pitiless as he was to the Miao he 
was afraid of Chinese officials. Having offended a powerful 
mandarin his life was pronounced forfeit. In craven panic 
Peh-ai sought to induce Pollard to use his influence as a foreigner 
to save him, and wrote asking for some copies of the New Testa- 
ment. Pollard sent the Testaments and with them a letter 

1 " Tristam Shandy." 



GLEANINGS FROM THE JOURNAL 327 

advising Peh-ai to travel for a time until his petition for peace 
had been answered by the Governor-General. Failing to act 
on this counsel Peh-ai shortly afterwards had to flee and take 
refuge in a cave. Here he was besieged and captured, but was 
set at liberty upon promising to pay an indemnity of three 
thousand taels. Having paid this money he went to make peace 
with the Chinese official, but was betrayed and murdered, his 
head being carried to Weining. The mandarin showed that even 
under the Republic he had not discarded China's ancient ruthless 
ways of treachery for getting rid of troublesome offenders. 

When the Manchu dynasty was overthrown Pollard was afraid 
lest the No-Su should make the occasion an opportunity for a 
pogrom against the Miao Christians before the Republic could 
assume the authority of government in remote places. But the 
quarrels among the Tu-muh may have saved the Miao. No-Su 
hatred was more immediately directed against the Chinese 
because the soldiers who had captured Peh-ai had looted and 
pillaged some of the No-Su houses. This provoked a small 
rising among the Tu-muh. Soldiers were sent against them, 
but through fear or the desire of loot they joined the rebels. 
Then it was reported that five hundred border thieves had 
thrown in their lot with the No-Su rebels against the govern- 
ment. The Miao Christians were in a state of terror. One of 
them told Pollard that he dreamed night after night that Chinese 
soldiers were attacking the village and that he was pursued by 
them when he tried to run away. Becoming utterly miserable 
through his fear, one. night he knelt and prayed that God would 
protect him, and from that time the dream ceased to haunt him, 
and he was no longer afraid. 

In a letter dated September gth, 1912, Pollard writes : 
" Between Shih-men-k'an and Anshuen the No-Su landlords are 
out on the warpath and already there is trouble. We are trying 
to persuade the chiefs in our district to have nothing to do with 
this rebellion, but to remain loyal to the government. I hope 
they will do so. If we keep on as we are going, in a few years 
the Christians in this part may be able to keep all the people 
about here loyal to the Republic. Already our influence through 



328 SAMUEL POLLARD 

sheer force of numbers is beginning to tell." To his relief 
Pollard learned later that things had taken a more peaceful turn. 
The No-Su landlords contented themselves with forming a 
guild, which all the chiefs and their clans were invited to join, 
so that they might act together in support of the new govern- 
ment, and put an end to internal strife and internecine feuds. 

We have already seen that some of the most difficult cases 
Pollard had to deal with among the Miao sprang from marriage 
troubles and divorces, not a few of which resulted in tragedy and 
heart-break. He relates this story: "An aborigine had run 
away with another man's wife, and being pursued he sought 
concealment near one of the chapels in the district. Those who 
were following appealed to the native preacher in charge to give 
assistance in capturing the man, and he deputed some of his 
converts to give them aid. They succeeded in taking the run- 
aways and marched the man off between the father and the 
husband, while five others came behind. Suddenly the prisoner 
drew a knife, stabbed both his captors and slew himself. All 
three lay on the ground side by side, one dead and the other two 
so seriously wounded that it was thought impossible for them to 



recover." 



At another Christian village a widow was the occasion of con- 
siderable trouble, as her father-in-law compelled her to live with 
his surviving son as a second wife. At the quarterly meeting 
the leaders of the church took up the case and sought to solve 
the problem by asking a man of Hmao-lie-yu to marry the 
widow, and though he had never seen her, he consented to do so. 
The widow seemed pleased to be extricated from the imbroglio ; 
but when the bridegroom-elect was presented to her, she refused 
him point-blank and made known her preference for a widower 
at Hmao-Ch'i-Chi. The preacher who was arranging matters, 
finding out that the preferred man was as willing as the widow, 
sent for him. The evangelist of the man's village was notified 
and advised to hold himself in readiness to conduct the wedding, 
and a goat was sent as a gift for the wedding breakfast. Pollard's 
interest was directed to the widow's little daughter, and he hoped 
that she would be happy in her new home. 



GLEANINGS FROM THE JOURNAL 329 

. Another case which puzzled the church leaders not a little was 
as follows : A husband was very sick and his wife thought he 
would not get better. Grieved and perplexed as to how the 
dying man might be kept in comfort while he lived, the woman 
went and married another man, upon the understanding that 
they should both care and provide for the sick man till he died, 
and they faithfully kept their pact. 

One difficult case, however, was not brought to the quarterly 
church meeting, as four sober Christian matrons deliberated 
upon it and arranged a settlement. The elders and the preacher 
seemed piqued that their counsel had not been asked for. Yang 
Yah-koh remarked caustically : " The hens are taking to crow," 
at which they laughed. The trouble was renewed as the parties 
involved refused to act upon the decision of the four matrons, 
and one of the preachers said to Yang Yah-koh, " The crowing of 
the hens has not brought daylight." 

In yet another village an elopement took place which ended 
tragically. A young fellow named Wang grew dissatisfied with 
his wife and wished to put her away, but the elders of the village 
church objected. Soon afterwards a married girl returned to 
her home in the neighbourhood on a visit, and an intimacy 
sprang up between her and Wang. Hearing of this a lawless 
Chinese saw an opportunity to make profit out of their passion, 
and induced the youth to steal thirty taels in order to take the 
girl into an adjoining province where they would be secure from 
pursuit, promising to act as their guide. They were missed 
and a search-party went after them ; but too late they learned 
that the aboriginal girl had put on Chinese dress for disguise and 
that the fugitives had taken a different direction. Two days 
later the Chinese guide took the money, slew the youth, and sold 
the girl to a merchant as his slave. The girl's father sought 
Pollard's advice at first, but when he learned the fate of the run- 
aways he made no further inquiries. Pollard suspected that the 
father himself had connived at the elopement. 

Rarer were the cases where dissatisfaction occurred before the 
marriage took place. One such affair, however, came to Pollard's 
ears. Chu-yu-yuen was betrothed to Yang-Kuang-ming. After 



330 SAMUEL POLLARD 

a time Chu became indifferent and broke off the engagement. 
Fearing that he might be compelled to marry the girl he adopted 
a strange device to make her friends anxious to be quit of him : 
one Sunday morning he came to the village dressed like a beggar, 
unkempt and filthy, and stood outside the chapel as if he were 
begging. This had the desired effect and the girl's friends were 
pleased to boast that they had no connection with him. Having 
thus extricated himself, his native vanity prompted him to re- 
habilitate himself in the eyes of the people, so he came again to 
the village dressed gorgeously in Chinese silks, as though he 
would say, " See me now as I really am." The girl saw she had 
been deceived, but told her friends that she thought herself 
lucky to have escaped from a man so full of wiles. 

Pollard often contended that Rudyard Kipling's oft-quoted 
line " Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain 
shall meet " is not absolutely and everywhere true, and would 
give instance after instance, both grave and gay, to show that 
human nature is fundamentally the same East and West. 

In a poor Miao hut made of reeds and faggots, through which 
the cold winter winds pierced and stabbed like swords, lay a 
sick and shivering child. In the middle of the draughty room 
was a big fire upon which rested a large pan of boiling water. 
The cold blasts of a November evening had driven the small 
invalid dangerously close to the glowing coals. The boy's mother 
told him to get farther away from the heaped-up fire lest it should 
collapse as the under layer of fuel burned away. It happened as 
she feared, and the red bank of fire broke down. In an instant 
she sprang forward, grasped the /boiling pan in her hands and 
prevented it from tipping over her frightened son, while with 
her foot she pushed him out of danger. Her hands were fright- 
fully burnt : yet the next day when Pollard visited her she said 
nothing of the accident until he insisted upon dressing her 
burns. He confessed that he scarcely knew which touched him 
most the woman's deep mother-love or her amazing stoicism. 

More humorous is the following : "A few nights ago I was 
preaching on the text, ' Come unto me . . . and I will give you 
rest ' the Chinese synonym being ' Peace.' I told the people 



GLEANINGS FROM THE JOURNAL 331 

that I was not able to promise money or land, and even if I could, 
these things would not purchase what the heart needs. But 
Jesus promised peace. ' In all the world,' I said, * there is 
nothing better than peace ' Chinese, ' p'ingan.' Then I noticed 
two big boys looking at each other with meaning glances. Im- 
mediately it flashed upon my mind that while I was speaking of 
mental and spiritual peace, these young scamps were thinking 
of the schoolgirl with the pretty face whose name was P'ing-an, 
or Peace. I was vexed at their mischief at the time, but it made 
me smile afterwards to think how like they were to big boys at 
home." 

In East and West the great passions are the same. The un- 
sophisticated aborigines of China are as subject as Western 
Romeos and Juliets to love's mysterious excesses. At the village 
of Hmao-a-nieh a young woman lost her fiance by death. Some 
time afterwards her relatives betrothed her to a man she did not 
know and the wedding was arranged to take place a month later. 
In the meantime she went to stay at Hmao-Chu, where she 
became acquainted with a young married man named Chu-Ch'i. 
According to the Christian laws, which had been adopted, there 
could be no prospect of union between these two, but despite 
this knowledge they became enamoured of each other. At first 
they planned to escape to some place where they were not known 
so that they might live together. When this was found to be 
impossible they resolved that at least they would not live apart, 
preferring to put an end to their suffering by suicide. Whether 
it is, as Coleridge said, that " all deep passions are a sort of 
atheists that believe in no future," or that there is an instinctive 
hope in such passion-possessed souls that death may bring the 
union which is thwarted here to die was the tragic solution of 
these young lovers. Leaving the village they came to a lonely 
place where, tying a rope round each other, they flung it over a 
branch of a tree and then leapt together from the ledge where 
they stood. They were missed, and after a search were found 
hanging together from the same branch. Yah-koh said they 
must have lost consciousness and died very quickly. 

In rebound from this tragic tale of love which had turned to 



33* SAMUEL POLLARD 

madness we may seek relief in a more debonair mood of our 
raconteur. One of the profoundly beautiful things in Pollard's 
life was his love of the Miao children. He sought them as much 
as they sought him and shared their games and daily tasks. He 
gives us glimpses of the little shepherdesses of Miao land, some 
of whom were quite dots. " Yang-mei-ku and a still smaller 
girl go off day by day to watch the sheep on the hills. The cattle 
of the village go out together oxen, horses, sheep, goats, pigs 
with a few dogs to help look after them. In the rainy season the 
small shepherdesses wore grass rain-coats and big bamboo hats. 
If they are unprepared and rain comes on, or if the sun is too 
strong, they will pick oak leaves and deftly twist them into hats. 
A lunch of maize or oatmeal is usually carried by them in a little 
bag ; for without this midday meal they could scarcely last out 
through the long hours. Sometimes these little folk get thoroughly 
drenched. The other day I saw a brave, wee lassie returning 
with her pigs ; she was wet through to the skin, and yet as she 
passed down the slope by my window she was conducting her 
squealing charges home with a voice full of courage. Some of 
them return from the hills with big loads of firewood or of bracken 
on their backs. Seldom do they change their wet clothes ; they 
just let them dry on their little bodies. 

" Sometimes the mothers go off with the cattle. The other 
day I saw a woman going up the hill with sheep, goat, and oxen. 
She was a pleasant-faced woman about thirty years of age. In 
her right hand she held a long bamboo stick for driving the cattle. 
Under her left arm was a red-paper umbrella for the rain and a 
rope in her hand for tying the firewood. On her back was 
strapped her baby, with a grass-made cloak and a white cloth 
thrown over its head. I have seen her come back in the evening 
driving her cattle ; and on her back was a huge bundle of sticks 
twice as big as herself, whilst she carried her baby in her arms. 
When asked why she did not leave the child at home her answer 
was that her baby would not then have its milk. In rain and 
wind, with her burden behind and her cattle going before, she 
trudges up the big hill and never grumbles at her hard lot." 

One of the great stumbling-blocks in the lives even of the 




MIAO MOTHERS AND THEIR BABIES. 



333 SAMUEL POLLARD 

madness we may seek relief in a more debonair mood of our 
raconteur. One of the profoundly beautiful things in Pollard's 
life was his love of the Miao children. He sought them as much 
as they sought him and shared their games and daily tasks. He 
gives us glimpses of the little shepherdesses of Miao land, some 
of whom were quite dots. " Yang-mei-ku and a still smaller 
girl go off day by day to watch the sheep on the hills. The cattle 
of the village go out together oxen, horses, sheep, goats, pigs 
with a few dogs to help look after them. In the rainy season the 
small shepherdesses wore grass rain-coats and big bamboo hats. 
If they are unprepared and rain comes on, or if the sun is too 
strong, they will pick oak leaves and deftly twist them into hats. 
A lunch of maize or oatmeal is usually carried by them in a little 
bag ; for without this midday meal they could scarcely last out 
through the long hours. Sometimes these little folk get thoroughly 
drenched. The other day I saw a brave, wee lassie returning 
with her pigs ; she was wet through to the skin, and yet as she 
passed down the slope by my window she was conducting her 
squealing charges home with a voice full of courage. Some of 
them return from the hills with big loads of firewood or of bracken 
on their backs. Seldom do they change their wet clothes ; they 
just let them dry on their little bodies. 

" Sometimes the mothers go off with the cattle. The other 
day I saw a woman going up the hill with sheep, goat, and oxen. 
She was a pleasant-faced woman about thirty years of age. In 
her right hand she held a long bamboo stick for driving the cattle. 
Under her left arm was a red-paper umbrella for the rain and a 
rope in her hand for tying the firewood. On her back was 
strapped her baby, with a grass-made cloak and a white cloth 
thrown over its head. I have seen her come back in the evening 
driving her cattle ; and on her back was a huge bundle of sticks 
twice as big as herself, whilst she carried her baby in her arms. 
When asked why she did not leave the child at home her answer 
was that her baby would not then have its milk. In rain and 
wind, with her burden behind and her cattle going before, she 
trudges up the big hill and never grumbles at her hard lot." 

One of the great stumbling-blocks in the lives even of the 




MIAO MOTHERS AND THEIR BABIES. 



GLEANINGS FROM THE JOURNAL 333 

Christian Miao is the belief in witchcraft and demoniac agency. 
They are a haunted people ; they imagine that evil spirits 
surround them and wait opportunities to do them injury. It is 
hard for converts to overcome this innate superstition. In one 
of the villages a wizard came worrying the people. Pollard went 
from house to house cutting the neck-strings (charms) which the 
wizard had tied for those who believed him. People who had 
lost their children were especially frightened by his horrible 
descriptions of their state in the other world. He went to two 
Christians who had recently lost their children and said that a 
spirit had stripped them and left them naked in the cold. He 
pretended that he could see them sitting in the ashes of the fire- 
place trying to get warm. Insects were eating their flesh and 
fierce dogs were biting them. The terrified mother cried bitterly 
at this account of the suffering of her two little ones. Then the 
wizard counselled the parents to offer a sheep in sacrifice for 
their deliverance, the biggest portion of which he appropriated 
for himself. 

In another house Pollard had great difficulty in persuading a 
woman to let him cut off the charm which the wizard had put 
around her neck. Her brave daughter had, out of loyalty to her 
newly found Saviour, defied alike the wizard's cajolery and 
threats, and refused to accept his charms. The mother, des- 
perately angry and alarmed at her daughter's resistance, for she 
thought it would enrage the spirits against them, took her 
daughter's clean clothes and rolled them in the mud so that she 
should not be able to go to the chapel. xEt was only after a long 
talk and prayer in the home that they allowed Pollard to remove 
the charms from their necks. He committed to Chang- Yoh-han 
and Wang-Ki-tien the task of following up the tracks of this 
scoundrel that they might undo his bad work. 

Yet despite the wizard's terrorism Pollard had abundant proof 
that Christianity worked out as a redemption from this mental 
thraldom. One Christian Miao had pasted on the wall of his 
room the following morning prayer which attested his state of 
enlightenment : " Merciful Heavenly Father, Thou art the 
maker of heaven and earth and all things. My heart praises Thy 



334 SAMUEL POLLARD 

holy name. I thank Thee because last night Thy protection was 
granted me until the coming of morning light. I now beseech 
Thee, Heavenly Father, to keep me in Thy grace, that I may not 
fall into sin this day. Cause me always to be at one with Thee. 
Help me to-day to do all that I ought to do, and to treat men with 
kindness and faithfulness. Help me to remember that for all 
my actions, words, and thoughts, I shall be called to account in 
Thy presence. Therefore I beseech Thee, Heavenly Father, to 
give me the Holy Spirit that I may follow Thy will in all things. 
All I ask is in the grace of Jesus Christ. Amen." 

Although the idea of justice is regarded in China as essential 
to the well-being of the State, yet its administration has never been 
uniformly secure. The wisest and ablest mandarins as a rule 
treat even the subject aborigines with fairness. There are, how- 
ever, others who seek to take advantage of the social inferiority 
of the tribes-people. Pollard used to speak of an unjust magis- 
trate who vexed the Miao Christians and executed men on 
trumped-up charges without giving them the semblance of a 
trial. He confiscated the estates of a wealthy aboriginal widow 
and then sold the land to the tenants. Only a few years before 
this lady's mansion had been rebuilt at great expense, but at the 
mandarin's command the new building was pulled down. The 
No-Su lady would not acquiesce in this oppression, but went 
from town to town pleading her case before higher mandarins. 
Whether from a desire to do justice, or from fear of the agitation 
likely to ensue among the aborigines, the governor of the province 
sent a special officer from the capital to investigate the case and, 
if just or expedient, to reinstate the widow. Some of the local 
officials were found guilty and put into prison and the land 
reverted to its original owner. This seemed hard upon the 
tenants who had bought " lots," and Pollard wondered if they 
would be compensated. So delicate is the poise in a State from 
which alone justice can issue that one act of wrong may involve 
many in unmerited suffering. Still it was a hopeful sign that 
under the new Republic the very aborigines might look for 
even-handed justice. 

Pollard's first aim had been solely evangelistic, but all un- 



GLEANINGS FROM THE JOURNAL 335 

consciously his ministry broadened out into activities as many- 
sided as Christian civilisation. He accepted the rudimentary 
social institutions which were indigenous to the tribes, modified 
and moralised them, and created a higher conscience. He had 
at times to struggle against not only the corruption but also the 
heartlessness of heathen ways. A young fellow who had been 
brought up by his mother and stepfather, while his half-brothers 
and sisters were still young, married and, at the instigation of his 
wife, claimed the house for himself. With pitiless selfishness he 
turned his mother and stepfather with the children out of the 
house, and they were obliged to shelter in a neighbour's stable, 
where the woman gave birth to a child. Even in pre-Christian 
days it was accounted a shameful thing for a woman to suffer her 
confinement in another's house. Not long afterwards Pollard 
came to the village and learned the story of her humiliation from 
the woman's own lips. He discovered, too, that the man who 
was to have been his host had encouraged the son to evict his 
parents, and in his indignation he refused to sleep under the roof 
of one who had been party to such cruelty. Then he went to 
the son and flagellated him with angry upbraidings. 

After the service that night Pollard called the elders from the 
surrounding villages together and laid the case before them. He 
recalled how the stepfather and the mother, in days of terrible 
famine, had kept the ungrateful son. He reminded them how 
in those days another woman had killed her sister's son so that 
her own children might not starve. He then asked these Christian 
elders to guard the good name of the church and to see that 
justice was done. They appointed the chief elders to take the 
evicted family back to their old home. Should the son object, 
then he must go out and leave them in possession, or they might 
allow him and his wife to remain till he could build another house, 
according to Miao custom. The elders advised them to live 
together till the new harvest was gathered in, and then if there 
were to be a division of the land they would see that it should be 
fairly made. Thinking that behind this cruel act there might 
have been a problem of domestic finance, Pollard gave two and 
a half dollars to them so that neither side should lack food. 



336 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Pollard loved to learn the inner thoughts of the Miao and to 
listen to the quaint, fantastic stories which belonged to their 
tribal inheritance. Here are a few examples of this folk-lore. 
Three women were carrying water from the stream to their 
village. A raven flying by croaked out that the middle woman 
should that day receive an egg. By and by her knee itched and 
as she scratched it the promised egg slipped out. She took it 
and set it under a hen and after a while a frog was hatched from 
the egg. From that time the woman looked upon the frog as her 
son. One day the king of Hades was killing oxen for a feast. 
Learning this, the frog sloughed off his brown skin and attended 
the feast as a piper. The woman went also, but she did not 
know it was her son who was playing the pipes so skilfully. 
On her return she jeered at the frog, saying : " Ah, Froggie, you 
could not attend the feast : we saw such a lovely piper there." 
Said the frog : " That piper was your son." Then she under- 
stood that her son was more than a frog. One day he had thrown 
off his frog's skin and had gone to play his pipes. The mother 
seeing the skin lying in the corner took it up and threw it into 
the fire. This caused the death of her strange son. The water- 
carrier took up his body and buried it in the centre of the moon, 
in which he can often be seen on clear nights. 

Miao say that if children point at the moon a spirit will come 
and cut off their ears. Another belief is that when a man begins 
to count the stars he must go on until he has counted them all ; 
but as fast as he counts, fresh stars come out until he becomes 
dazed. One night a shepherd began to count the stars, but 
though he tried for many hours he could not make an end. To 
punish him for his folly one of the stars climbed down the sky 
and took the form of a headless man. The shepherd saw this 
grisly monster coming, and fled : to baffle his pursuer he leapt 
into the sheepfold. When the headless man came to the door 
the rams butted him and kept him at bay. Again and again they 
turned him back until at dawn he disappeared and the shepherd's 
life was saved. 

Another legend Yah-koh told to Pollard was of an eagle which 
flew in a certain direction every day to seek food for its young. 



GLEANINGS FROM THE JOURNAL 337 

Seeing this a man took his stand day by day near the eagle's nest 
and when the mother bird flew past he threw stones and shouted 
till the flustered eagle dropped its prey, which he would then 
seize and carry home. At last the eagle swept down to the house 
of the man who robbed it and, snatching up his little son, sailed 
back towards its nest. The man was waiting near and, delighted 
to see that the bird's prey was that day so big, thought it must 
be a pig or a sheep. As usual the man threw stones and shouted 
till the eagle dropped its burden ; then he ran to get his prize 
and was horrified to discover the mangled body of his boy. Great 
was his grief, and never again did he attempt to frustrate the 
eagle's care for its young. 

No myth, legend, or old-world custom is meaningless, rather 
does it serve to show the strange imaginings and vagaries of the 
human mind. In some things the Miao resemble in their ways 
and thought big children whose follies and insights are mingled 
inextricably. One other fragment will give confirmation of this 
estimate. At the new year, or in the second moon, in the old 
days the people used to go out to see the fruit trees with axe in 
hand. When two men went together one would climb up into 
the tree, while the other standing below would ask : " Are you 
going to bear fruit this year or not ? If you are going to bear 
fruit, all right ; but if you are not, I shall cut you." The man 
in the tree would reply : " I am going to bear fruit," and the 
tree would receive no blow of the axe. If only one man per- 
formed the ceremony he would answer his own question. Some- 
times the man in the tree would give an uncertain answer and the 
other would chop the tree to make it " bleed " a little, and this 
was imagined to stimulate it to be fruitful. The Miao pointed 
out an old scar on one of the trees near the chapel which bore 
witness of the warning it had formerly received. 

This old custom recalls the parable of the barren fig-tree : 
the owner passes sentence : " Cut it down ; why doth it cumber 
the ground ? " And in answer the vine-dresser pleads : "Lord, 
let it alone this year till I shall dig about it and dung it ; and 
if it bear fruit thenceforth, well ; but, if not, thou shalt cut it 
down." 



338 SAMUEL POLLARD 

CHAPTER X 
The Medical Problem 

IT is impossible to present a satisfactory account of Pollard's 
many-sided life without some allusion to the medical difficulties 
of his Mission. He was continually treading in the wake of disease 
pneumonia, typhoid, leprosy struggling incessantly to repel 
their frightful ravages. Sometimes the allusions to the maladies of 
thepeopleand the grim harvests of death inwhichhis letters abound, 
stab the sensitive heart. He writes : " There are seven millions 
of souls in the province of Kweichow and no doctor. In Yunnan, 
where the population is estimated at twelve millions, there are 
three medical missionaries, though since Dr. Savin is on furlough 
we actually have only a lady, Dr. Lilian Grandin, for the extensive 
medical work in and around Chaotong." He invariably did what 
he could, but he knew the limitations and dared not treat the bad 
cases which, unfortunately, always seemed to be plentiful. 
Arrangements were made that Dr. Savin and Dr. Lilian Grandin 
should pay periodical visits to Shih-men-k'an as a rule in the 
week following Communion Sundays and, saving these occa- 
sional visits the burden of ministering to the afflicted people 
fell upon Pollard and Parsons. The strain placed upon them 
may be better imagined than described. In his letters and 
Journals he refers to the misery and sufferings which he wit- 
nesses, but a few extracts or summaries, inevitably haphazard, 
will suffice for this distressing subject. 

One note runs : " Small-pox has broken out in a village of 
unbelievers. A man has died and a young woman is sick. A 
Christian advised them to be vaccinated and they came last 
night to consult me. I said I was not sure of my vaccine, but 
I would do what I could. To-day thirteen of them came and 
were vaccinated. I was very interested : the children did not 
know me ; they said they had never seen me and yet they did 
not seem afraid. I hope vaccination will keep them from getting 
smallpox and that they will come and join us in serving Christ." 



THE MEDICAL PROBLEM 339 

Throughout his life in China Pollard was never satisfied with 
doing the work which came under his own attention ; he ever 
sought to multiply his ministry by training others. The Miao 
evangelists seemed to be in some measure reproductions of Pollard 
himself, and the clamant needs of multitudes of the sick led him 
to teach them how to dispense the remedies for simple ills. The 
very baldness of the following typical entry makes it eloquent of 
the urgent and widespread need : " Wednesday, September 
3rd, 1913 : Wang-teh-iong's account for fifty-one days : three 
hundred and forty doses of quinine ; five hundred and eighty 
doses of santonine worm medicine ; four hundred and ninety 
packets for diarrhoea ; one hundred and thirty doses of medicine 
for indigestion ; seventy doses for headache. Total one 
thousand six hundred and ten. These were all sent to out- 
stations." 

Writing of one of these dispensers he says : " One of the 
native preachers came for a supply of medicines. He had many 
bright things to report which make one very glad ; but he had 
one story which was quite the reverse. In a heathen village 
where for years the people have persistently refused to respond 
to all our efforts to evangelise them, typhoid has lately been very 
rampant. . . . Two families were stricken down by this disease 
and no outsider came in to nurse or help them. One by one 
they died until at last the members of the two families were all 
dead. The neighbours were too afraid even to bury them, and 
the only burial they had was what the scavenger dogs gave them. 
In their despair the other villagers, some of whom are down with 
this disease, have sent to see if the Christians can help them 
in their trouble. Of course there is no doctor to go to them. 
As far as I know there is still only one medical missionary in the 
whole province of Yunnan with its millions of people." 

In another place he writes : "A woman from Hmao-ki-ch'e'h 
came with her three-year-old baby to be named and prayed for. 
She had already lost three children. I gave a name and we 
prayed for the child. But soon after worship word came that 
the child was dead. Poor woman ! Pi-teh (a Miao evangelist) 
took hold of the^case inJuVusual quiet nice way. The woman 



340 SAMUEL POLLARD 

and her mother-in-law wanted to go right off home and show 
the dead body to the husband who had not come. Pi-teh got 
four or five men to go back with them. I like the quiet confidence- 
giving way in which he deals with all the troubles of these people. 
If he were an Englishman he would make a fine doctor." 

On September ist, 1913, there is this entry in his Journal : " I 
heard yesterday that several folk at Hmao-i-shang were down 
with typhoid and so I went to see them to-day. I rode over with 
Wang-i-chien about three-quarters of an hour's ride. I found 
sickness in nearly every house. There are over twenty cases in 
all. In one house there are eight children : three of the little 
girls had been ill and got better. Now the mother is down and 
she is suckling a baby. In another house the son was ill and two 
little girls had died. In that household the mother was in great 
distress at the loss of her children. In yet another house the 
mother was ill ; poor thing, she had seen men carrying one of 
the dead past her door and had received a shock. She came 
into her house and then fell ill at once." 

" Monday, September 23rd, 1912. At our quarterly meeting 
Yang Hsin said that there is a family near his chapel where 
the wife is a leper. They are good Christians and are always 
very hospitable, giving him food and bringing cakes to the chapel 
for him. Whenever he goes he feels a revulsion within himself, 
and yet he dare not refuse to eat what they give lest he should 
hurt their feelings." However low down in the social scale this 
Miao might be, he was surely a chivalrous gentleman in the 
school of Jesus Christ. Pollard says : " He also told us that at 
T'ang Fang a girl developed leprosy. Her husband sent her 
home, and in the end she lived in a little house by herself and 
died in great misery. There was a further case at Po-i where a 
woman at an inn showed signs of leprosy. She lived in a part 
of the house by herself. The guests lodged in the other part of 
the inn. At last she grew worse and was afraid of passing the 
disease to others and besought her friends to bury her alive, 
which they did." 

" October, 1913. We found on the hills a family of Miao 
living alone. The mother and father had both died from typhoid. 



THE MEDICAL PROBLEM 341 

Then the two little girls had taken the sickness, and having no 
one to nurse them they went into a Chinaman's house and died. 
The people say that the Chinaman put them into a big grain 
basket, but no one helped them or gave them food, and they just 
died as they lay in the basket." 

" November 6th, 1913. I went to see Yang-in-huei who has 
had a most serious illness, but is now getting better. His mother 
described how she nursed him as if he were a baby, and how she 
cried and prayed. She went outside to pray but her husband 
said : * Do not go outside, God is in the house ; come in and 
shut the door.' So they shut the door and prayed to God in the 
house." 

" In another house a small brother was the nurse for his sick 
sister. She was lying on the floor on a goatskin. I smoothed the 
uncombed head and gently touched the forehead which had not 
been washed for days, and tried to make the poor girl feel a little 
of the sympathy we felt for her. I told her how we had missed 
her from the services, and how Jesus loved her, and how He 
wanted her to get strong again soon. She was too ill to smile 
back. My eyes and face smiled, but in my heart there were 
rebellion and indignation. Why, in the twentieth century, 
should there be a province of seven millions left without one 
follower of the Great Physician going about with healing touch 
and life-giving sympathy ? " 

Pollard came into contact with lepers as early as 1900, in which 
year he wrote of a visit to Ko-Kuei : " We noticed a considerable 
number of lepers on the streets, several of them begging. We 
were told that leprosy is quite common, and the treatment of 
these unfortunates shows what a heartless, or perhaps I should 
say with more truth, helpless system heathenism, even in its 
high form of Confucianism, is. We were assured that in many 
cases the lepers were driven away from friends and home to drag 
out a miserable existence, despised and feared by those who should 
love them most. In some cases so great is the fear of infection 
that the friends will actually burn a leper alive. How comforting 
and how tender seemed the actions of Jesus in touching and heal- 
ing those whom He met ! We longed that these sufferers should 
w 



343 SAMUEL POLLARD 

know that there is some hope for them while Jesus lives. On the 
street I preached on Christ's healing the lepers on His descent 
from the mountain, and my heart was strongly moved as I did so. 
On another street it was Mr. Lee's turn to preach first, and he 
immediately opened his Testament at Matthew VIII. After 
reading this original and truly wonderful story, he preached my 
leper sermon, with my illustrations and with many phrases just 
as I used them." 

Whenever he met these sufferers, whether they were Chinese 
or aborigines, he gave them assistance in every way he could, 
though he felt how woefully disproportionate to the need his help 
must prove. His passion of pity was fanned into a flame by the 
report of what occurred in the province of Kwang-si on December 
I4th, 1912. The provincial government adopted a policy of 
despair in dealing with lepers. A band of soldiers went through 
the province " rounding up " a gang of thirty-nine lepers. Having 
collected these wretched victims of an incurable and terrifying 
disease in an open space, the soldiers shot them down and burned 
their dead bodies on piles of wood soaked with kerosene. 

July 2nd, 1913. " About five o'clock Yah-koh and I went off to 
Hmao-ntu-lu to see what we could do for the lepers. . . . Just in 
front of the house where I slept before was now an ordinary 
house the home of the leper family. I walked in and could at 
first hear nobody. I shouted and then the old man, Wang, 
answered back from an inner room and told me to come in by 
the wood fire. He was lying down and his daughter Wang Heo 
was making up a wood fire between three stones. Then the 
daughter lighted a stick and I could see a little. The old man 
looks very bad and is much worse than he was. I sent the girl 
upstairs for a needle and then took her to the door. She has 
swellings on the face by the side of the eyes. I stuck the needle 
into the swellings and she said she could feel the pain. I also 
looked at her back and chest. Her back looked clean and healthy, 
but there was an eruption on the skin of the right breast. The 
poor girl cried very bitterly. We did all we could to cheer her up 
and promised help, telling her we all loved her and were very 
sorry for her. The younger sister was out of doors sheltering 



THE MEDICAL PROBLEM 343 

from the rain under the roof of a house. I did not see the brother, 
but he was lying down inside the first room in the darkness with 
some baskets in front of the little place where he rested. It was 
too dark to see more than a shadow. He answered when I spoke 
to him ; but the others did not wish me to see him. What an 
existence ! It was really a house of shadows and death. Going 
back to our house we talked over what we could do. Wang 
Chi-li, the other son, is very worried. His wife, too, is almost 
distracted and wants to run away from home and from her parents, 
leaving it all behind. 

" We agreed that the lepers should go and live apart some way 
off, but not too far. The girl I examined must go to the city at 
once and see the doctor. The little girl is to be thoroughly 
washed and to have new clothes, and must live with her uncle 
who is fairly well off and who has decided to build a house for 
himself at a safe distance. He has acted selfishly in leaving all 
the burden to his brother. Yah-koh talked very straightly to him 
and threatened that if he left them all alone he would take the 
lepers to his new house. The man agreed that the little girl should 
sleep over the cattle and come to us once a fortnight to be examined 
to see if she continued free from leprosy. The house we think 
of building for the lepers must have two divisions. One room 
must be for Wang Heo (the daughter) to sleep and live in while she 
cooks for her father and brother. Yah-koh was most distressed 
for this girl and pleaded for her all he could." Three months 
later the leper home was finished and the Wang family had been 
removed to this retreat. Incredible as it may seem, a Chinese 
tried to purchase the place where the Wangs had been living, 
thinking, I suppose, that he might get it cheap. Pollard stepped 
in and bought the house for two dollars and then burned it so 
that no other family might take the infection. 

Sometimes a veritable cry of agony escaped Pollard as he 
realises the magnitude and horror of the leper problem. In 1913 
he stayed at a small town where the people were anxious to start 
a Christian school. One day a deputation of leading citizens 
waited upon him to ask if he could advise or assist in dealing with 
the lepers of the neighbourhood. " All over the countryside 



344 SAMUEL POLLARD 

these poor sufferers wander, hardened and callous, and a terror 
to many. They feel that they are feared and loathed by all, and 
that makes them rebellious. Wherever there is a wedding or 
funeral, with the usual crowd of guests, these unwelcome, much- 
feared beggars appear in numbers and refuse to depart till they 
receive alms. Their usual home is in the temples, where the gods 
apparently are not afraid of the contagion. Now and again the 
disease breaks out in a fresh quarter, and sometimes drastic 
measures are taken to destroy it. I know of one case where opium 
was given to the husband in a small house, and then when he was 
deadened by the drug, the house was set on fire and formed the 
funeral pyre of the sufferer. . . . 

" How can we help the people of this little town to get rid of 
their dreaded plague ? There are many things we would like 
to do, and could do had we the means ; but as the doors open, 
the cold, cold story from home becomes more insistent and 
chilling. No resources, no means available to enter the many 
openings ! In some way or other, however, we must help these 
people to solve their leper problem, or possibly the terrible 
example of Kwang-si may be followed here. . . . We do not 
want that horrible tragedy repeated in Yunnan." 

He pleaded the cause of the leper with several institutions which 
were exclusively concerned with these poor unhappy folk, and 
advocated with all the fervour at his command the erection of a 
leper asylum, but though he elicited plenty of sympathy, he found 
the apathy that had prevailed for centuries a deadweight which 
neither himself nor his supporters could move. He encountered, 
to his dismay, even a certain amount of active resistance to such 
a project. It may be that the tragic death of Dr. Lewis Savin, 
and of Pollard himself within the next nineteen months, will be 
thought to have justified the opposition to his scheme of building 
a leper asylum, and yet it is impossible to withhold our admira- 
tion of the truly self-sacrificing enthusiasm which he showed. 
It was useless to tell him that any task was impossible ; he 
would have answered that his Master was always doing things 
that others deemed impossible. A glowing fire of humanity 
burned in his soul, Sometimes the abrupt and hastily scribbled 



THE MEDICAL PROBLEM 345 

detached sentences in his Journal flash the electric currents 
of his intense sympathy and passionate altruism. " Buying the 
lepers' house. Three lepers gone to the little hill home. I 
wish I could tackle this problem." On May jth, 1914, he 
writes : " When we reached home I heard that Chang Wu's boy, 
Pao-lo, had died. They brought him back on the Monday to bury 
him. Two other children got cold and pneumonia. In spite of all 
that was done the little ones died. Little To-ma made a big 
struggle, but failed. His last words were : ' I want to sleep.' 
It has been a terrific blow for the father and mother and knocked 
us up. After Pao-lo and the little girl had gone, Chang Wu 
looked so longingly at the one left saying : ' If God will only 
spare one to me that he may be a companion ! ' But it was not to 
be : the boy was taken ill with pneumonia. We had him up in 
our front room and nursed him all night. Once or twice he gave 
a great cry and a cough ; but in the morning he died. The 
mother was frantic. The little fellow died in my arms. . . . 
There are four little graves together on the hill-top." Another 
hurried entry is : " Visited the Hmao-i-sheng typhoids, went all 
round, and felt like collapsing before I had finished." This last 
ominous sentence foreshadows the end. " He saved others : 
himself he could not save." 

His heartrending experiences constrained him to write to the 
secretary of the United Methodist Mission from Shih-meh-k'an 
on February i8th, 1914 : " You may have heard that our last 
executive meeting ended in a very unsatisfactory way. We 
failed to agree on some important matters and the time has now 
come for the Committee to make a decision which shall be binding 
on us, and put an end to an uncertain state which is very detri- 
mental to the work. We are here face to face with some of the 
greatest opportunities which have ever come to a band of mission- 
aries, and are in danger of missing these opportunities because 
we cannot agree on a policy. To show you where we are, may I 
mention that it was with the greatest difficulty that we got a 
resolution passed agreeing to do a little for the lepers. There are 
some of us who are willing and able to help these poor people, 
with whom We associate some of the greatest miracles Jesus 



346 SAMUEL POLLARD 

ever did ; the Secretary at home is full of sympathy with the work ; 
money is on the field to be used ; one would think that there 
would be no unwillingness to proceed. Yet because the carrying 
out of a policy of relief for these most unfortunate people would 
apparently be another stake driven into Stone Gateway by S. 
Pollard, making it so much more inconvenient to remove him from 
the place, the leper relief is opposed very strongly. Only after 
Mr. Dymond had made an impassioned appeal telling how the 
' gentry ' of Chaotong had been moved at the news that some of 
the servants of Jesus were going to relieve these unfortunates, 
and that he would never be able to look a leper in the face again 
if he refused to accept the money given for their salvation, was a 
very mild resolution passed." 

On November 22nd, 1914, he writes : " A young Chinaman 
near this place became a leper. His friends persuaded him 
to die lest they also should catch the leprosy. At last he 
agreed. He sold his cattle and purchased his coffin, and made 
arrangements for masses to be said. His grave was dug and on the 
day fixed he walked into it and lay in his coffin. He drank wine 
until he was insensible, and then was buried alive." 

It is plain that a Mission of such dimensions as this Miao mass 
movement demanded a large hospital staffed with doctor and 
nurses. It was a frightful injustice that Pollard should have been 
at the head of this work for ten years without the assistance of a 
trained medical missionary. And yet it would be a further 
injustice to forget that the whole Miao movement had sprung up 
outside the original area planned for the West China Mission. 
Pollard sought the Committee's sanction after he had begun the 
enterprise. Let those blame him who choose ; most will honour 
him for his faith and dauntless courage. Because he was 
responsive to the pressure of surrounding need, he was driven 
to do what he could to answer the insistent appeals. It was the 
fulfilment of his vow made twenty-five years before : "If Jesus 
says ' Go,' I will go." 



AT THE END OF A DECADE 347 

CHAPTER XI 
At the End of a Decade 

FROM the beginning of 1914 Pollard looked eagerly forward to the 
month of July when the first decade of Miao evangelism should 
be completed. By temperament he was bound to be profoundly 
affected by the retrospect of the last ten wonderful years. He 
often talked about the beginnings of the movement when the 
first four inquirers of the Hwa Miao tribe suddenly appeared at 
the mission house at Chaotong. He had proved the truth of the 
quaint Miao proverb that one grasshopper may be enough for a 
hundred soldiers ; in very fact, in his ministry one grasshopper 
had served not merely for hundreds but for thousands. 

Pollard writes in his Journal : " Just ten years ago we first 
made acquaintance with Stone Gateway. In searching about 
for a centre from which to work the just-opening Miao mission, 
places that we should have liked we could not obtain. Then 
the kindness of a friendly landlord led us to Shih-men-k'an a 
wild hilly place on the main road from Chaotong to the city of 
Chen-ksiong. . . . Anyone who had not seen the place for ten 
years would be very much struck with the change. The ten 
acres of barren hill-slope are now dotted with many white build- 
ings, some built of stone and others of brick and earth. There 
are twenty-one different buildings, which on a sunshiny day 
stand out in striking whiteness and constitute a scene such as the 
traveller in the two provinces of Yunnan and Kweichow rarely 
sees. . . . The hill-slopes where the cattle used to graze, and 
where poor crops of wheat and oats were gathered, now have a 
busy little population of nearly three hundred during most of 
the year. Being right on the main road, the centre forms a 
splendid advertisement of Christian mission work and is known 
far and wide. ... We thank God for the advance which has been 
made year by year, and for the fine set of premises gradually 
being provided. The last year's work by the mercy of God has 
been the best we have known for several years." To Pollard's 



348 SAMUEL POLLARD 

heart the school work was very dear. In the tenth year of the 
movement he boasts that they have over two hundred students 
in the central schools, " a proportion of whom are girls." There 
are also seventeen branch schools mostly staffed with Miao 
teachers. Pollard constantly strove to raise the standard in the 
village schools to the requirements in government schools of a 
similar grade. 

It was no small triumph that Pollard was able to persuade 

some of the Miao parents to allow their girls to attend school ; 

for among these poor families the girls were expected to act 

as shepherdesses, to become the water-carriers and to do the 

rough work of their households. The educational results in 

these girls' schools were surprisingly good, and in some subjects 

the girls were able to compete with boys as old as themselves or 

even older. Reports of this phase of the Mission work induced 

the magistrate from Weining to visit Shih-men-k'an, and he was 

so pleased at what he saw that he sent three Chinese women to 

learn all they could from the Miao girls. When some months 

later these adult pupils returned, the mandarin wrote : "I have 

sent the three women into our girls' industrial school here [at 

Weining] to teach the students all they have learned in your 

honourable school. We are hoping much from this. In future 

years whatever prosperity may come to our industrial school 

will be reckoned as your work and we shall never forget your 

kindness." 

In a letter to the Missionary Secretary dated March 3oth, 
1914, he gives a glowing account of the continued growth of the 
work among the Miao : " Yesterday we opened a fine new chapel 
at c Heaven-Born Bridge ' with one hundred and twenty-five 
baptisms. A packed chapel ! In some ways it is the best chapel 
we have among our Miao. Altogether we have had over six 
hundred baptisms for the year among the Miao : this means an 
increase of about five hundred members besides those on trial. 

" Mr. Hudspeth came back a few days ago from his journey 
to Chentu where he evidently won the goodwill of the other 
missionaries. These Chentu friends have warm hearts for the 
Miao work. Hudspeth left three students in the Union Middle 



AT THE END OF A DECADE 349 

School. . , The whole cost of the students was promised by 
men who listened to Hudspeth's story of the Miao as he told it in 
Chinese. . . . We are going to get the rest of the expenses and 
hope to send two or three more young men there. We may yet 
see a Miao graduate with a bachelor's degree which even a 
Western university would recognise ! Our aim is to get our own 
men trained as leaders of this work. Hudspeth and I hope before 
long to get two or three in for full medical training. . . . About 
a hundred pounds would give one man the full training. The 
Lord will give us the money, I believe. ..." 

One March morning he started at five o'clock for Chaotong and 
in the evening of that bright spring day preached for Dymond 
on the disciples' doubt of the Resurrection, enforcing the 
lesson that only the marks of the sacrifice could convince them 
of love's all-conquering power. He associated the Resurrection 
with the renewal of Nature's life. It seemed to him that by 
His sacrifice Christ had stretched Himself upon the earth and 
breathed into it a new spirit. " Yes," he said, " it is only sacrifice 
love's gift of itself that comes again to itself in Resurrection 
power." And he knew : throughout ten crowded years he had 
given himself for the Miao, and the resurrection of a spiritual 
springtide had already come in scores of towns and villages. 

Six weeks later Dymond returned the visit and says : " Every 
time one comes here [Shih-men-k'an] some new extension is 
completed or nearing completion." Next day the two friends 
started on a journey to Ko Kuei. " We passed," writes Dymond, 
" through wooded valleys, beautiful with varieties of azaleas in 
bloom and freshened by rain. ... A place was pointed out as 
suitable for a leper home being within easy reach of Stone Gate- 
way and having a fine spring of water running near. At Siao- 
fah-luh a band of scholars came out to meet us with a couple of 
large flags, headed by their teacher, Mr. Lee. They lined up in 
style, giving a salute as the pastor rode by, reminding one of a 
review of troops by the colonel. Siao-fah-luh is beautifully 
situated : there are high cliffs at the back and fine hills in the 
foreground. The neat whitewashed chapel with its drill-ground 
in front was easily visible. Next morning a big descent brought 



350 SAMUEL POLLARD 

us to the river-bank, and along this we scrambled many a mile 
in an April shower. We passed a village half washed away and 
reached ' Double Star ' [Ko Kuei, where Pollard's prophetic hope 
of having an out-station was realised in the tenth year of the Mko 
movement] about two o'clock. 

fQ" Mr. Hudspeth is to be congratulated on the building put 
up very plain, very inexpensive, and in a fine situation if not 
rather low-lying. No one coming to Ko Kuei can fail to observe 
the whereabouts of our chapel. In the front a sort of triumphal 
arch of evergreens was erected,, from each corner of which the 
five-coloured Chinese flag was flying. This little town is the 
centre of a district with eight hundred thousand people. On 
market days it swarms with crowds . . . and in busy seasons it 
is remarkable for the great numbers who congregate for business. 
All around are Miao villages and it is encouraging to the tribes- 
people to see a chapel at such an important centre." 
fH At noon on that May day the local mandarin came to show his 
approval of the missionaries' work. In his address he enumerated 
three things in the character of Jesus which were the constitutive 
principles of the religion of all who believed in Him His pity, 
His goodness, His universal humanity. He would be glad, he 
said, if all the people under his administration would embrace 
this religion. But he uttered a grave warning to those who were 
prompted by sinister motives to join the Christians. 

The opening of the chapel at " Heaven-Born Bridge " was 
celebrated not only with baptismal services, but also with feasting 
and field sports. A couple of oxen were roasted to provide for 
all the guests, who paid for themselves. " But the greatest fan 
that day," wrote Pollard, " centred in the football, and without 
a doubt that new, strange kind of an almost alive being reigned 
on Saturday without a rival. It was delightful to watch the 
people as they began to enter into the fun. Many had never seen 
a football before, and when it came flying towards them they 
shrieked and fled as if it were some kind of uncanny messenger 
from the sky. . . . When Sunday morning came I do not know 
whether any of the boys wished it was still Saturday. If so, they 
never mentioned such a heresy in my hearing, and the chapel 



AT THE END OF A DECADE 351 

was even more crowded than the football ground. ... A hun- 
dred and twenty-five new members were baptized and admitted 
into the church, and though some of them were quite old people, 
others again were very young and very lovable, and the missionary 
lost his heart to several of them as he placed on their foreheads 
the simple sign that means so much both to the converts and to the 
Great Master they have learned to love. How different are these 
days from the old days when there were suspicion and coolness 
everywhere, and when the children fled from the missionary as 
if he were an incarnation of Satan himself ! 

" The boys with the cornets were one of the great attractions 
at the services. They livened up the meeting splendidly. To 
the people it was a great sight to see these three young aborigines 
pealing out on the shining instruments- * There is a fountain.' 
It is an old-fashioned song and in modern England has lost much 
of its savour and even its meaning, but it sticks close to the hearts 
and imaginations of these tribes-people, who have lived very low 
down in sin and unhappiness." * 

In June, 1914, he enters : " Last week we had a fine quarterly 
meeting ending the ten years' work. We talked about the early 
days. Thomas said that when he came to Chaotong and slept 
upstairs at night there was no room to lie down : he had to squat 
on his haunches all night. The memory of those first days 
lingers pleasantly in the hearts of these men. I asked them if 
they ever felt they would like to throw it up and go back again 
to heathenism. Thomas said : ' If the teacher were to drive us 
away now we should not go.' Silas said : ' There is not long left 
for me and whom could I trust in if not in Jesus ? ' They all 
gave a good testimony for Christ." 

" Sunday, June i4th. It rained in the morning, but the 
chapel was full. We had a fine service. In the afternoon I 
held a Chinese service. At night we showed the lantern. Yang 
Mei and Ma-ko begged me not to show their pictures again, 
though I believe the little rascals are proud to be shown to the 
audience. The pictures of the * Pilgrim's Progress ' went well : 
but those that stirred most interest were of Apollyon and Giant 

1 The Christian World, August isth, 1914- 



352 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Despair. The following day some of the Miao came to request 
that the Devil's photograph might be shown again. It quite 
took their fancy. To them it seemed so strange and yet so real. 
They enjoyed the idea of Christian standing up to the enemy 
and not running away." 

In his wanderings Pollard came across other tribes and writes 
of the Chong Chia-tsi, a branch of the widely scattered Shans 
whom the Chinese call Pai-yi. He says that non-Chinese people 
formed about half the population of Kweichow, the Chong Chia 
being probably as numerous as the Miao and I-chia together. 
" The Chong Chia women wear white jackets, short like our 
Miao, and plain blue pleated skirts also like the Miao. I saw three 
of this tribe walking along one after another. If the main body in 
Kweichow believed, these would probably believe too." He 
also refers to the Keh-lao, a tribe supposed to date beyond the 
time when the Hwa Miao settled here. They are almost extinct or 
have been absorbed by the Chong Chia and the Chinese. They 
may have been derived originally from the same Shan stock as 
the Laos of northern Siam. Some of the Hwa Miao converts 
were infected with his missionary ardour and, after visiting their 
own villages, went in quest of a tribe of Hung Keh-lao, or Red 
Backs. He stimulated them in their search for new tribes. 

In his Journal on October 2ist, 1913, there is this entry : 
" Last night I had a great disappointment : in the midst of my 
algebra class for the Miao, Chu T'ang came in to say that they 
had found no success in seeking the Peh Miao. Those who 
were friendly at Feng-ma-pa had been turned aside by a Mr. 
Wang who lives near Hmao-ntchang-tsi'ntee. He is a very 
important man with them and manages any troubles which arise 
among the Peh Miao. He went to Feng-ma-pa and told the clan 
that if there had been anything worth having in the Church he 
would have joined the Christians long ago. He advised them to 
keep out of it. At other places the folk had heard of the unrest 
in Szechuen and were too nervous to do anything. They 
treated our men very well, but were unwilling to learn our books. 
No one bought anything of them. / must try to get hold of that 
man Wang the leader" 



AT THE END OF A DECADE 353 

Pollard's persistence in trying to reach this new tribe was 
rewarded, and on December 3rd, 1914, he records : " This after- 
noon six or seven Peh Miao * kiddies * came over to see us. 
They were bright little youngsters who drank up all our kettle 
of tea and made a lot of fun with us. ... The next day after 
breakfast we came on to Siao-wan-ti , where there are five 
families of Peh Miao. Mr. Hsiong welcomed us into his house 
which was a fair building until the Mantsi looted and broke the 
place down. Hsiong's opium habit is his great drawback. How 
will he break it off ? Our host has two wives ; both dress in 
Peh Miao garb although one of them is a Hwa Miao. He has two 
lively little boys about seven years old who were born within 
nine days of one another. The women do not wear ' the poke,' 
as the Miao do, but they wrap a light blue cloth around the head 
which looks like a small bucket. . . . We went through twenty 
hymns (in Peh Miao) together at night which Chu T'ang had given 
me. I will try to get these out soon and see what we can do for 
these people." 

Pollard says that they prefer the name " River Miao." " We 
were fortunate enough to see a Peh Miao wedding carried out 
with all the old ceremonies. . . . The bride and her party had 
walked a journey of four days before reaching the bridegroom's 
home. . . . Had it been fine weather the party would have 
waited about a quarter of a mile from the new home and lighted 
a fire. The bride would then have put on all her wedding attire 
and waited for some of the bridegroom's people to bring her food. 
There would then have been an open-air meal and much drinking 
of wine. The state of the weather made it impossible to carry 
out that part of the programme. To our great pleasure the 
bridal party came into the house where we were staying and went 
through the ceremony of robing in the room next to mine. . . . 
In addition to her elaborate head-dress, the bride wore three 
short skirts, six jackets, and three girdles one dark red, another 
blue, and a third yellow. Over all she wore a dark red breast- 
piece and a small white apron. Grass sandals were on the un- 
stockinged feet and four or five sets of white putties were wrapped 
around the legs. . . . The wine drinking was shocking. They 



354 SAMUEL POLLARD 

drank wine as freely as our Christian Miao drink water. We 
went up to the bridegroom's home, where the feast was prepared 
for hundreds of people, and we had a good reception. The 
musicians blew their pipes until it seemed as if a second mouth 
must surely open in their cheeks. What a rowdy, drinking, 
shouting crowd it was ! No trace of Christianity here ! How 
long will it be before we have all these people on the side of 
Christ ? . . . Home again just before Christmas, and at once we 
set to work to prepare a * River Miao ' hymn-book. Our men 
have learned the new dialect fairly well, and we sent off the 
manuscript to Chentu with the hope that by the time this account 
is read, two thousand of the hymn-books for the new people will 
be here." * 

But the glowing hopes of further extensions among the Hwa 
Miao and other tribes were overshadowed by the fear in Pollard's 
mind that the Committee might divide the aboriginal work into 
two sections. To the Missionary Secretary he wrote : " We are 
face to face with some of the greatest opportunities which have 
ever come to a band of missionaries and are in danger of missing 
these opportunities because we cannot agree on a policy. . . . 
You are right up against the difficulty now and the Committee 
must make its decision. I beg you to make the decision in such 
a final way that we can go on with our work without a cloud of 
uncertainty hanging over us. If the Committee decide that after 
I have organized this great work and brought it up to its present 
promising and successful condition I should be removed, I will 
leave it and give you no more trouble in the matter. But before 
you make such a serious change there are a few facts I am bound 
in the interests of the Miao to place before you. The welfare of 
these thousands of Miao Christians and thousands of Miao 
heathens should be put first. They have trusted us in a way no 
other people have ever done. In the days when the Chinese 
feared, or hated, or despised us, these Miao flung themselves at 
us and put their whole lives in the hands of the messengers of 
Christ, trusting us in a way that was both pathetic and embarrass- 
ing. They must not be made to suffer because of disagreement 
1 The Missionary Echo, June, 



AT THE END OF A DECADE 355 

among foreigners. I would gladly leave altogether rather than 
betray those who have trusted us. Whatever else you do you 
must stand by these the poorest and most downtrodden of 
your brethren. 

" Here are the facts as I see them. For nearly ten years I have 
been in charge of the Miao work, having taken it up at the start 
when no one else was keen on it, and when it broke up my home 
and work, and sent me out as a wanderer all up and down the 
country. During most of these years the Arthington Trustees 
have made you a most generous grant towards my expenses, 
laying down, as you remember, the condition that part of my 
work should be the translation of the Scriptures into Miao and 
that my place among the Chinese should be filled by your sending 
out another worker. In addition, after my visit to Leeds, and 
in response to our subsequent appeal, they granted a further five 
hundred pounds towards a Miao school. During these years I 
have tried to be faithful to the agreement made by you with the 
Trustees and with the Conference, who have trusted me in 
charge of this work. ... ' 

" The whole field is divided into circuits under the pastorate 
of Miao preachers who are directed from Stone Gateway. 
Quarterly meetings are held and the whole policy is discussed 
and decided on. With this small staff at Stone Gateway we can 
direct the whole and could also in the same way direct a work 
five times as great. Mr. Hudspeth and I are in thorough accord 
as to the methods of work, and it is a great boon to have such a 
colleague working with one. The great secret of all mission work 
is to win the confidence of the native workers and so direct them 
that they will gladly carry out the policy decided on at head- 
quarters. By using the Miao as a lever we are spreading farther 
afield and reaching a number of Chinese. Let us alone and give 
us your sympathy and Mr. Hudspeth and I will lead multitudes 
of Chinese also to Christ. 

" As to translation work, we are hoping this year to get to the 
last verse of the Book of the Revelation, and even if you decide to 
remove me from the Miao work I should ask to be allowed to finish 
the revision of the New Testament and see it through the press. 



356 SAMUEL POLLARD 

" If the Miao field is to be divided it will mean another two 
hundred and fifty pounds a year for the same amount of work, 
and the funds do not allow that. The friction that would prob- 
ably ensue would mean less work and more money. . . . Your 
decision has to be made. Make it and do it so decisively that we 
shall be able to go on with our work of saving people lepers and 
all." 

In a subsequent letter he writes : " We are trying to reduce 
expense here and to scheme so as to get more work done on a 
reduced grant. ... I have an idea that Stone Gateway should 
be made the centre for the No-Su work as well. In fact all this 
aboriginal work should be one and worked from one centre. 
We could manage at very little cost to accommodate three or four, 
or even five hundred scholars here, male and female and with 
a united school work we could afford a better native staff. And 
we could get rid of the friction which has been such a terrible 
trial to some of us. The friction has destroyed our power of 
working more than once, and has even spread in an alarming 
way to the natives. By making the work one, that could be got 
rid of for ever. . . . 

" If necessary the Miao and No-Su work could be carried on 
sectionally with one united meeting at least every quarter of the 
year. I am sure that if such a plan were carried out there would 
be better and larger results and the aboriginal work would never 
be left stranded during furloughs, and there would be the con- 
tinuity of work which is so necessary. Expenses would be 
lessened, schools more efficiently worked, a better state of feeling 
would prevail among the native Christians, and the fine school 
buildings we now have at Stone Gateway could help a large 
number of people. Many of the No-Su and Miao would rejoice 
at such an arrangement and every worker now in the aborigine 
field would find himself strengthened and able to do a larger 
work. . . . 

" From the 6th to the 2Oth of the tenth moon, about the time 
this letter reaches you, we shall be having a fortnight of special 
prayer in nearly three hundred Miao villages. The one prayer 
is that God will send His spirit down on us all. . . . Things are 



AT THE END OF A DECADE 357 

still going well with us ; but we badly need more money. The 
33 per cent, reduction (on the estimates) is a cruel affair after 
the raising of 25,000 extra. After that great victory we are 
cruelly cut down ! It is horrible ! Must we dismiss the men 
we have been training and so let them see that as a Mission we 
tear up our treaties with them ? It is cruel ! " 

Meanwhile a yet darker and more dangerous storm cloud crept 
over the horizon there was a resurgence of Boxerism in the 
district around Shih-men-k'an. Pollard informed the consul of a 
rumour that an attack was to be made upon the Miao Mission, 
and then set watchers on the heights to prevent surprise by 
sounding the cornets. At this signal the Christians were to 
escape and take refuge in other villages. On Tuesday, June 3oth, 
they were aroused by the cornets and by the blowing of the 
school whistle which warned them to flee. 

" The cornet alarm was a false one, but we did not know that 
it was so. ... As fast as I could I went up to our house shouting 
to Mr. Hudspeth as I passed his study. . . . Ernest was in bed 
asleep. It was the work of a few moments to snatch him up, 
and in two minutes we were all off, Seeing from the supposed 
attack of men who, had they really come, would have made 
short work of us all. It was half-past eight when we started, about 
an hour after dark. We kept on till two o'clock in the morning, 
when we reached a small Miao village right up among the hills. 
We judged that we should be safe there for a day, and that by 
that time assistance would reach us from the officials in the city." 
After a day or two among the hills they returned to find that all 
the Miao had got back to their homes. 

Mr. Hudspeth brought news, however, that a rising was to 
take place all over the district within a few hours. Two hours 
after their return they were forced to set off again. " By four 
o'clock," writes Pollard, " we came to a river ferry on the way 
to Mi-ri-keo where we encountered a storm of rain which soaked 
us to the skin. We just got across before the waters rose and 
made the passage impossible. We were like drowned rats ; 
but we were glad to think that the rain would put off any attack 
upon Shih-men-k'an. Two days later we reached Mi-ri-keo. 
x 



358 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Three days later a letter came from the mandarin of Ko Kuei 
urging us to come to his city, as a thousand Boxers were due to 
rise that day not far from where we were staying. Again we 
travelled all night ; just before dawn we all lay down by 
the road-side and tried to sleep a little. . . . An hour after 
dawn we reached Ko Kuei where the mandarin made us 
welcome. . . . 

" The Boxers in the district really made their expected attack, 
but the soldiers and militia defeated them with great slaughter. 
The leader so-called Emperor was executed on the spot, and 
the enchantresses who were supposed to be able to stop the 
bullets with their magic fans had a terrible awakening that day. 
. . . There were attempted risings in four or five different places. 
Two proved abortive, another was put down with considerable 
loss of life, and at a fourth centre many who took part in the 
rising were killed. Yesterday the officials here executed two of 
the leaders. One was a girl of eighteen who was evidently a tool. 
She claimed occult powers ; but these could not save her. She 
was dragged through the streets and shot as she lay in a swoon 
on the execution ground. Mr. Dymond and I begged that her 
life should be spared, but orders had come from headquarters 
and they were carried out." 

From Ko Kuei the Pollards, as soon as they were able, made 
their way to Choatong, and on July nth the entry in the Journal 
is : " Ten years since the Miao first came to us at Chaotong and 
here we are away from our stations. What an end to the ten 
years-! " 

Soon afterwards, however, Pollard was back again at his post 
and engaged in all the various toils of evangelism and translation. 
His influence for good may be gauged from the fact that, at his 
instigation, the Christian Miao started a new market at Ho-pa 
on October 3ist, when six hundred people came to do business. 
The novel feature of this market was that whenever according to 
the fixed dates it would fall on a Sunday the previous Saturday 
should be substituted so that the " great worship day " might 
be reverently observed. Three days after the opening of the 
market he instituted a children's service at the same place and 



AT THE END OF A DECADE 359 

rejoiced that thirteen girls, thirty-eight boys, and four men 
attended. 

At one of the services a Miao preacher was enforcing the 
lesson that much prayer was necessary, and used their acquaint- 
ance with their pastor to illustrate his point. " There are Chinese 
who are not acquainted with K'an Teh Glao [Mr. Pollard] and 
are therefore afraid of him because he is a foreigner. But we 
who are constantly near him know that he is our good friend 
and we have no fear of him at all. In a similar way prayer 
removes our fear of God. If we know Him only a little then we 
are nervous and full of dread ; but if we are constantly praying 
we become intimately acquainted with our Heavenly Father and 
lose all fear, for we find out that He is our best Friend." 

At a meeting for prayer conducted by Yah-koh Pollard was so 
impressed by the petitions and sayings of those who took part 
that he recorded some of them. " Sin and the Holy Ghost 
cannot dwell together." " Did you ever," asked Yah-koh, " see 
people kindle a fire on uncovered water ? " "If this chapel were 
full of filth and rubbish would you ask your cleanly-clad guests 
to come and live here ? " " Lord, come to our hearts like the 
big waters in a deep gorge and sweep all that is wrong away I " 

On November i5th, 1914, Pollard writes : " At * Dragon's 
Well,' right in the country where our great landlord enemy 
lives . . . Mr. Hudspeth baptized over two hundred people in 
one day. . . . The next night at another village he baptized 
eighty. The night after, forty-five, and a little later thirty-two. 
About four hundred in all. He came to another district where 
in the last few days over two hundred Chinese families have 
burnt their idols. . . . We are sending six bundles of large 
Scripture texts to-morrow to put in these houses." 

Tidings of the outbreak of the World War reached Pollard 
on August 2ist, 1914. He was appalled and in his letters de- 
nounced the statesmen who were responsible for the great moral 
tragedy. He could not understand how Christian people could 
sanction such a crime. He felt humiliated when he listened to 
the Miao praying that the war might stop and that the peoples of 
Europe should practise the law of Christ. In a letter to Dymond 



360 SAMUEL POLLARD 

he writes : "I dread the days that are coming. Like you I feel 
that England is after all the best Christian country in the world, 
and has a lot of good men and women in it. But I remember 
also that Judea just before it was destroyed produced some of 
the finest men and women the world has ever seen. . . . Yet 
the place was wiped out and by a people who were at times as 
ruthless as the Germans. I pray God to be merciful and in some 
way to bring peace soon that mothers' sons may no longer be 
cruelly murdered or maimed for life." 

Thus the great year which completed the first decade of the 
Miao movement was at once full of the splendour of promise 
and darkened with perplexities and sorrow. The spiritual forces 
of good and evil were joined in dread conflict, but Pollard knew 
that God's love embraces all East and West. To his friends in 
the home land he writes : " May God give you all light and 
comfort in your days of intense darkness ! " 



CHAPTER XII 
The Last Months 

AT the beginning of the year 1915 Pollard was physically unequal 
to the strain of his work, and was at times apprehensive that the 
end might not be far off. It was as though danger signals were 
transmitted subconsciously ; yet his forebodings were often 
followed by expressions of hope that he might live many more 
years to carry on his work. " Oh, I do hope that my life will be 
spared for me to finish my translation of the New Testament," 
he cries. 

" What shall you do," he anxiously queries of his wife, " if 
anything happens to me ? " It was a strange question because 
the doctor had just said that Mrs. Pollard's state of health made 
it imperative that he should take her to England as soon as possible. 

Mrs. Pollard laughingly replied, " What will you do if Ernest 
and I get torpedoed ? " " Ah," he said, " I shall return and 
finish out here." 



THE LAST MONTHS 361 

At times the great European war was almost an obsession a 
haunting, devilish, unrelieved horror. To his friend Dymond he 
writes : "I'm afraid this war will come closer to us than we yet 
think. May the Lord guide your boys and mine ! " " Do you 
notice that it looks as if conscription is coming very soon ? Fancy 
England being a nation of conscripts at last ! ... It is a most 
sorry business and the end is not yet. And no churches at home 
seem to think there is need for repentance. I worry sometimes 
about the future . . . whether as churches we have a right to 
exist. Oh that Jesus might come again to straighten out affairs ! 
And yet, if He did come, we should, it is likely enough, put Him 
on trial and crucify Him once more." 

In a letter to his oldest son he wrote : " The Christians here 
are very anxious about the European war and ask us very puzzling 
questions. I get out of it by frankly saying I detest the whole 
affair, and I attribute it to the Devil's influence. Then I say 
to them that if Christians in England and Germany can be led 
astray so terribly by the great enemy of all good, how careful we 
must be out here. I find no means of justifying the war to our 
people and own up that it is wrong. The diplomacy of our own 
and of other countries is based on heathen principles and Christ 
does not rule among rulers. Would to God that England would 
frame her foreign policy on Christian principles ! It might mean 
crucifixion for a nation, but as surely as the Cross of Christ is the 
ground of the world's hope, so the crucifixion of a nation might 
be followed by a resurrection which would transform every- 
thing." 

Pollard never for a moment lost his faith in God's overruling 
power. There was deep gratitude in his heart for the way his 
boys were cared for in England, and for the brilliant career of 
his oldest son. From the Birmingham Grammar School he was 
moved to the High School with the headmaster's prediction : 
*' I am sending you a senior wrangler." In 1912 the youth won 
a scholarship for Cambridge. The missionary was proud of his 
boy's successes, and anticipated a useful career for him. The 
undergraduate's descriptions of university life were as meat and 
drink to his parents away in the remote regions of West China. 



362 SAMUEL POLLARD 

Pollard replies with accounts of his experiences " on the road," 
and tales of fresh churches and baptisms, but never loses sight 
of his son's more personal interests. Here are a few extracts 
from letters picked at random. 

" We prize Dr. Barnes's few words to you about your senior 
scholarship. ... Be careful, however, not to overwork yourself 
during these few years. Plan for a whole lifetime and not 
just for the immediate." 

In a letter written a month before the end he says : " Plan for 
the future ! The wave of heathen madness which is now ruining 
Europe will pass and then will be wanted the men who in the 
time of madness saw straight and kept true to the Prince of 
Peace and Saviour of Love. Plan for the future ! " 

A fortnight later he wrote : " Your letter telling of your 
coming out number one in the inter-coll, exam, reached us 
yesterday, and very glad indeed we were to get it. I should 
indeed like to come up next year when you take your degree 
and see how you carry on, but I am afraid no such luck awaits 
me. Perhaps if one of the other boys goes to Cambridge I may 
have such an opportunity." 

" Mother is busy making preparation for her coming home. 
Possibly someone else will come to live in our house . . . and I 
shall be a lodger again in * digs ' once more." 

That appears to be the last letter he wrote to his son, and 
from it we learn that once again the heroic man had made up 
his mind to remain behind when his wife and youngest boy 
returned to England. He could not tear himself away from the 
people who loved him and depended upon him for guidance and 
upholding in their new manner of life. 

Although urged by his wife to rest Pollard could not resist 
the appeals which poured in from every side that he should visit 
the churches. In the month of March he writes to the Secretary 
of the Mission : " Yesterday I took the Chinese service here in 
the * Philip Grandin ' school, which is used this year for the 
' primary ' with over a hundred boys. We were packed with 
over two hundred people Chinese, Kop'u, No-Su, Miao men, 
women, and children. My service lasted an hour and twenty 



THE LAST MONTHS 363 

minutes ; afterwards I walked two minutes to the big chapel 
and stood in the doorway while the Miao preacher, Thomas, 
was giving the sacrament to about five hundred people. He was 
doing it as reverently as I could. I watched the crowd bowed in 
silent prayer, heard the preacher pray quietly, listened to the 
multitude singing softly about Jesus, and, realising it was all 
being done without a foreigner touching it, I rejoiced, thanked 
God, and took courage. It was a thrilling experience. Three 
miles away another Chinese service was being held at ' River 
Bed,' where there were seventy present. In spite of the apostasy 
of Christianity in Europe and the universal denial of the law of 
Christ as applicable to present conditions, He will reign and put 
all His enemies to confusion." 

About a week later (March 25th) he writes : " Yesterday after 
long waiting a beautiful shower of rain fell. ... At the midday 
service we had about eight hundred people, of whom two hundred 
were not Miao. It was the yearly baptisms and when the tickets 
were counted at the end of the service we found that two hundred 
and forty-six had been admitted into the Church. That was also 
a welcome shower of blessing. You might note that while we 
report for the year two hundred and seventy-six children baptized, 
all these are admitted on confession of faith and examination. 
None are infants. To-day I have been making up the figures for 
the Secretary and to me they seem very striking indeed. We 
report thirty-five chapels and seven preaching-places. Adult 
members 4861 ; juveniles 900 ; on trial 5000 a total of 10,761. 
We are gradually getting to the numbers reached by the Bible 
Christian Connexion when it started a mission in China. We 
report also schools 23 ; scholars 1000, a large part of whom are 
in residence keeping themselves. This is a great increase on 
last year. The columns in the educational statistics do not coincide 
with our divisions here and one hardly knows how to make them 
do so. For instance, at Shih-men-k'an we have nearly a hundred 
scholars over seventeen years of age, and you can hardly class 
them as elementary. Some of the scholars are over twenty years 
of age and they have studied for eight years or even more." 

" The statistics for Shih-men-k'an schools are now three 



364 SAMUEL POLLARD 

hundred and twenty-three students. Of these eighty are not 
Miao. If all the Miao were away we should still have a large 
school. There are really five schools here working as one 
upper and lower boys' schools, a girls' school, a training school 
for workers, and a weaving school. On the staff are three 
missionaries, three Chinese one a bachelor of arts seven Miao 
two of whom are young women ; total on the staff, thirteen. I 
have three arithmetic classes. Mr. Hudspeth has a science class. 
. . . We are proving that we can unite the different races in a 
school which will give a good training and at a small cost. There 
are over thirty No-Su here and were it not for opposition " 
he refers to the division on policy and methods " we should have 
many more a hundred in no time. We have also thirty Chinese, 
two Mohammedans, over a dozen Kop'u, one or two Chong-kia-tsi 
and I hear of yet another tribe sending boys here." 

Mrs. Pollard assigns as the chief cause of the spiritual revolu- 
tion among the aborigines the translation and distribution of the 
Gospels. The gift to the Miao of the books of the New Testa- 
ment was followed by consequences which beggar description. 
It brought spiritual emancipation and gave a new vision of tribal 
life. The stirring of the light in their minds opened the gates 
of imagination. Fathers would undertake all the work on their 
farms or allotments so that the boys might be free to attend 
school. Many a woman would trudge weary miles over the great 
hills carrying supplies of food on her back so that her boy who was 
a boarder at Shih-men-k'an might give all his time to his studies. 

From his letters and his Journal an excerpt or two will show 
his unabated zeal and keenness of observation. 

" Wednesday, June 2nd. About five H from Tseh Chioh a 
lot of scholars headed by Wang-teh-lin came to meet me with 
school flags. . c . . After service I had a long talk with Mr. An. 
He says it was the Miao influence that made him wish to join 
the Church. He saw Mr. Sin and Mr. Han and asked them to 
explain in the village temple what Christianity is. He saw his 
own tenants changed in their lives and determined to accept 
this new religion. He had to wait quite a time before any teacher 
came. When he heard that Mr. Mylne was appointed to preach to 



THE LAST MONTHS 365 

the I-pien he said : * I do not care what he is for, if he is for 
Jesus Christ. 1 He does not want any division into sections. He 
seems a great man. He has cleared the temple of idols and now 
uses it as the chapel. Six of his own children attend school." 

" The chapel was full at night. I showed pictures of Gulliver's 
Travels. Chu-yin-fuh explained them, describing Gulliver as an 
English missionary who in his travels came to Lilliput ! The 
pictures were much enjoyed." 

To the Missionary Secretary he wrote on June zgth : " Since 
last I wrote you I have been on a journey in the * Long Sea * 
district and was pleased with much that I saw. At Chang-hai-tsi I 
baptized ninety people. The native preachers there are doing 
well and deserve full sympathy. I had the pleasure of visiting 
one or two No-Su centres as well and was interested in the great 
opportunities for work which await us in many directions. . . . 
Coming home I had news that Mrs. Pollard was unwell again, 
and on arrival I found Dr. Savin and family here. The doctor 
was able to give Mrs. Pollard, just the help she needed, though 
he says she will not get quite well till a sea voyage has been taken 
and England is reached. . . . Really I ought to go with her, 
but I cannot leave the work, though if necessary I shall go with 
her and Ernest as far as Hong Kong." 

Mrs. Pollard writes of this period : " I got ill as I could not 
get sufficient fats, and in consequence I grew thin and weak. . . . 
The doctor advised a new milk diet. This cured me, but it 
pulled my husband down as he was now deprived of his usual 
milk and butter. . . . When I got up I urged Sam to face 
England and not to wait. But he was visionary and would not 
consent to leave then. . . . He felt I was used up for China. If 
the Committee had proffered some useful work at home, I used 
to feel that he would have taken it, for at times he was so tired 
that he would fain have hidden from the natives." 

In a letter to the Rev. C. Stedeford he mentioned that 
they had had very fine reports about the students at Chentu. 
It appeared that " one of our Miao boys, in subjects taken in 
common, had beaten a Chinese boy who was head of the Chao- 
tong school before he went to Chentu." This led Mr. Dymond 



366 SAMUEL POLLARD 

to inquire of the tutors at Chentu about the case and he received 
the following answer from an authoritative source : "I have 
recently talked with Mr. Yang about the Miao boys and I asked 
him if they were really able to keep up with the Chinese in their 
studies. He assures me that they do and that absolutely no favour 
is shown them, because they are Miao. He says they are more 
diligent even than the Chinese boys, and that accounts for their 
splendid standings. He showed me their recent averages. I 
remember that two have over 85 per cent, in the last report. It 
is a wonderful thing to find boys from such humble beginnings 
coming on so well. What a joy it must be to you who have 
helped them ! " 

During the later months Pollard seems to have felt a deepening 
tenderness for his two friends Dymond and Hudspeth. The 
latter is referred to affectionately in many of the letters as " Uncle 
Will," the name given him by Pollard's little son. Throughout 
their twenty-eight years of missionary work Dymond and Pollard 
had maintained a loyal friendship and had taken counsel one of 
the other in many a crisis. Though Pollard loved the Miao, he 
was really a very lonely man, and in hours of weakness when he 
would " fain have hidden from the natives " it was natural that 
he should turn to Dymond. 

" I am returning," he writes, " * The Golden Chain ' ; x it is a 
great thing to be a link in that chain, to be part of that multitude 
of loyal, self-sacrificing men and women. I hope their spirit 
will brood over our special meeting, for we have some problems 
to solve which will need their spirit in us if they are to be solved 
aright. If we can only do a big thing which will stop once for all 
the trouble and frictions [in the Mission] and, at a time when war 
is tearing out the heart of our loved ones at home, do something 
to assure them that we are seeking to lessen their burdens, and to 
be brave and true as they are, it will be a great thing. You and I 
are the only ones of the Old Guard left out here, and how much 
longer we shall be here one does not know. I should like both of 
us to do our level best to lift our Mission right up and so commend 
it to the folk at home that in the hour of great strain which is 

1 By Rev. R. Pyke. 



THE LAST MONTHS 367 

coming very soon, when there will be the darkest of dark days at 
home, they will never be tempted to ease their burden by throw- 
ing over the West China Mission. . . . 

" The No-.Su school policy needs radical alteration, or we 
shall be in for trouble, and we shall deserve to get it. You are 
the man to put this right if you will. The prejudice against me 
has been so great that I cannot do in this matter what you can. 
Strike out for a policy which is best for the whole and make all 
parts fit in with it. 

" Let us do our ' bit ' and be true to the highest spirit of our 
fathers that we may keep our part of Christendom clean and pure, 
that we may win souls as fast as possible. . . . Let not your 
heart be troubled. ..." 

In another letter he says : '* Mr. Hudspeth is away off on a long 
journey to the north and west of this centre. It is a great pleasure 
to see how willingly he faces all that has to be done the pleasant 
things and the bitter things. It has been a great joy to have him 
as a colleague, and we have been able to work together with one 
heart and aim, and God has blessed our work. To this he would 
subscribe as heartily as I do, and I sincerely hope we shall be 
spared to work together for many years yet and see even greater 
things in this magnificent, needy field." 

Pollard had set his heart upon uniting the No-Su and Miao 
sections of the Mission work. The division had taken place 
some years before because of a misunderstanding of one of the 
conditions made by the Arthington Trustees that he should 
devote himself wholly to the Miao. But upon inquiry it was 
found that they had no objection to their Miao agent helping other 
tribes. Although nominally two districts, Miao land and No-Su 
land were geographically one. Instead of building chapels for 
the respective tribes and allowing missionaries to cross and re- 
cross each other's paths without co-operation, Pollard pleaded 
for mixed communions so that the same men might minister 
to the needs of both tribes. '* Someone can always be out and he 
can help all the chapels as he goes along, whether Miao, No-Su, 
or Chinese. He need pass none by. With his native brethren 
accompanying him he can hold services in all three languages if he 



368 SAMUEL POLLARD 

cannot speak them himself. With the same amount of travelling 
he can do double the amount of work. A little more time would 
be spent because the places visited would be more, but the labour 
saved would be great. . . . Pool the school grants . . . and you 
can get far better results, higher efficiency in the teaching, more 
competition, and always one foreign missionary at least on the spot 
to exericse some oversight and render some help." 

But the Committee in England insisted that the question must 
be settled by the missionaries on the spot, and a special District 
Meeting was arranged to deal with this and other important 
matters. It was very unpleasant to be involved in an acrimonious 
dispute, but the tired missionary threw himself into his pleading 
for union with all the intensity of his fiery heart and won a majority 
of votes for his proposals. Great as was his satisfaction it had cost 
him far toojnuch vital force for one already suffering from 
exhaustion. 

About this time he writes in his Journal : "I am reading Sir 
Oliver Lodge's ' Man and the Universe.' Lodge seems to think 
that spiritualism will supply scientific evidence of the permanence 
of the soul that it exists after death. Would such evidence 
be accepted by future generations ? Had scientists at the time 
Jesus lived and died and rose again thoroughly examined the 
evidence for the Resurrection and examined even the risen Jesus 
Himself, and passed the evidence accepted by them on to these 
after generations, would the scientists of this age have accepted 
their evidence ? I would rather trust my personal knowledge of 
Jesus than rely on any experiments made by Lodge, Wallace, and 
Crookes." 

" Away in the distance I saw ' Long Sea ' new school white in 
the sunshine, fifty li away. These distant chapels are a delight 
to contemplate. We had a good little meeting to-night in the 
baby chapel here. About seventy folk were present. I had Sir 
Oliver Lodge's book on the table, but I went on the old way in 
spite of new theories. I still think Jesus is the secret of this 
universe." " When a Miao woman saw a lantern picture of 
Jesus in the Temple she exclaimed : ' Oh, if I only had a son like 
that ! ' I find that the picture of Jesus on the Cross still seems 



THE LAST MONTHS 369 

to touch them, and it brings a silence and an awe over the people. 
I|am more and more sure that there lies the^centre of all, and if 
we give that away we give all away." 

As Pollard drew near the end of his task of translating the 
Scriptures into Miao he was weighed down by the feeling of 
increasing weakness, although he did not know that it was a 
race with death. It recalls the story of Bede's struggle to finish 
his English translation of St. John's Gospel. " Most dear 
master," the pupil says, " there is still one chapter wanting." 
As the dying scholar dictated, the brethren gathered around to say 
farewell. The youthful scribe interposes : " Dear master, 
there is yet one sentence not written." Then in a tone which 
betrayed a sense of satisfaction, he said : " The sentence is now 
written." " It is well," answered Bede, " you have said the 
truth : it is indeed," and on the pavement of his cell the saint 
expired as he sang the " Gloria." Again and again Pollard 
longed to be spared to complete his translation of the New 
Testament into the Miao script. The native teachers sat with him 
counting the chapters and then the verses yet remaining to be 
dictated. They little knew that he was struggling against 
unutterable exhaustion. With joy at last they remarked that it 
was finished. With Bede he, too, might have answered : " It 
is well. ... It is ended." The revision and task of seeing the 
last part through the press in Japan was undertaken by Pollard's 
young friend, Hudspeth. 

Pollard had foreseen the dangers associated with a great 
settlement of schools at Shih-men-k'an and had done all that he 
could to guard the health of the three hundred scholars. It 
was a rule that no boy was allowed to go home in term time 
without special leave lest he should bring back infection. He had 
tried in vain to get proper medical attendance for the school. 
Dr. Savin at his request sent a nurse, but the youth who took up 
the duties soon showed himself unfit for the post. Then came the 
order from England that expenses must be cut down. Mrs. 
Pollard says : " Sam wrote pleading that a foreign missionary 
should be withdrawn rather than that the native organization 
should be disturbed." When this appeal was unheeded he 



37 SAMUEL POLLARD 

dismissed the Chinese servants who had been cooks at the hostels 
and looked to the Miao to find others. One of the women who 
came to do the cooking for the boys is supposed to have brought 
typhoid into the settlement and an epidemic broke out in the 
school. Mr. Hudspeth had been recently inoculated and under- 
took to nurse the patients. They closed the school at once, but 
the trouble was already upon them. Mrs. Evans came to Shih- 
men-k'an for rest, but seeing the situation she immediately took 
her turn in caring for the boys. The next to take the infection 
was Hudspeth ; and Pollard at once took up duty in the sick- 
room. The following are notes scribbled by him to Dymond : 
" Uncle Will is in the thick of it and feels very tired. I think, 
however, he is going on all right and in due time will get well 
again. He feels it very much and thinks he is having an awful 
time." " Mr. Hudspeth is still unwell with 101 this morning, 
after a bad day and night. If he is not better by to-morrow none 
of us will be able to come in as I must stay and nurse him. . . . 
If he does not get better soon I will ask Dr. Savin to come and 
look at him." " Mr. Hudspeth is still ill, highest temperature 
to-day 104*50, lowest 104. He is, however, fairly easy and 
bright and has slept a little. He ought soon to be getting the 
change, ninth or tenth day to-day. I hope he will be well soon. . . . 
This sick-nursing makes me very tired." 

In the midst of this crisis at Shih-men-k'an two messengers 
came with the tragic news that Mr. Adam had been killed by 
lightning. " I have sent two teachers across to-day to be at their 
services at Kop'u to tell them how sorry we are and to offer such 
encouragement as they can. The poor folk will feel very lonely 
and mystified." 

No sooner was the patient's temperature normal than the 
nurse fell ill. At once Mrs. Pollard turned the schoolroom down- 
stairs into a bedroom for Ernest and placed a Miao girl in charge 
of him, and installed herself in her husband's sick-room. The 
following day he fainted twice and was very languid. He said : 
" If it is typhoid I am afraid I shall not pull through, but I hope, 
please God, I shall get well for your sake." He slept heavily 
but showed signs of great prostration.HDr. Savin paid a visit from 



THE LAST MONTHS 371 

Chaotong, though at that time Mrs. Pollard was hopeful of the 
issue. 

But what a most pathetic condition the Mission was in ! The 
doctor himself was tired out with excessive labours and was soon 
to pay the penalty with his life ; his wife was in the city on the 
eve of confinement ; Mr. Mylne was used up and had to get 
ready to go to England ; Mr. Hudspeth was convalescent after 
typhoid ; Pollard was laid low with the same dreaded sickness, 
while his wife who was nursing him was under the doctor's 
orders to " hurry up and return to England." 

A week dragged by and the sick man lay for the most part in 
silence. Once he spoke of a cheque which he wished to sign, 
but Mrs. Pollard would not let him do any business. On the 
Sunday he remarked : " It is not time for service yet." On 
Tuesday he said nothing but on two occasions looked into his 
wife's face and smiled. " Months afterwards it dawned upon me," 
says Mrs. Pollard, " that they were smiles of farewell." His old 
friend Dymond came and the dying man greeted him, " Well, 
old man ! " and smiled. Then fell a great silence ; his eyes 
fixed in an intense gaze in one direction. On Wednesday he 
lapsed into a state of coma, never moving, the once observant 
eyes wide open but sightless. On Thursday afternoon, 
September I5th, at four o'clock, his breathing changed, an ashen 
hue spread over his face, and the shadows fell one of the bravest 
and noblest of missionaries had ceased to breathe. " As he lived," 
says Mr. Hudspeth, " so he died. It was this unselfishness, this 
love of others, that cost him his life. . . . Mr. Pollard nursed 
me ; but after fourteen days he became ill , and alas ! was unable 
to endure the strain. It came as a great shock to me, for he was 
in one room and I in the next. Though I knew he was ill I had 
no idea of what was coming. He passed into eternal rest just 
as I was beginning to recover." 

For three days the people mourned as the body lay in the coffin 
at the " Five-pound house." He had given them his whole- 
hearted affection. For twenty-eight years he had lived day and 
night at their call. Stephen Lee, who had known him most of the 
time he had been in West China, says : " The teacher was always 



372 SAMUEL POLLARD 

busy ; for him there was no assurance of rest or sleep. . . . He 
gave his support to anything that would bring advantage to our 
country. . . . Whatever men entrusted to him, whether great 
or small, he strove to discharge the trust faithfully. . . . Even 
the Roman Catholics looked upon him with great respect ; the 
sisters of the Orphanage thought of him as though he were one of 
their own priests. . . . He loved little children and was always 
' at home ' with them. . . . With young men he showed his 
admiration of manly sports and would join them in swimming, 
sliding, and in games of chess. Among the serried hills of Yunnan 
and Kweichow the people became familiar with his * coo-ee ' 
call and answered it by rushing out to welcome him. ... As a 
preacher he was clear as the day. . . . He could make men laugh 
or cry ; and sometimes as he spoke men stood revealed to them- 
selves in the presence of Christ, and he would woo them to peni- 
tence. He was like a skilful artist who paints every stroke so that 
it contributes to the truth of a portrait which all could understand. 
... I discovered his great knowledge of mathematics and then 
men sought after his instruction. As a result of his teaching 
many secured high positions and places of influence. He often 
said to us that if men would study higher things the Truth would 
emerge and erroneous customs would fall away. On fine nights 
lie loved to watch the stars and would teach us to praise their 
Maker. He sometimes said that he hoped at death his spirit 
might be transferred to one of those distant worlds where he 
might learn still more of the greatness of the universe." 

Feeling that they owed their very souls to Samuel Pollard, the 
aborigines said : " He is ours, let us bury him ; we will arrange 
for coffin, bearers, grave, and tombstone ; for we loved him more 
than our fathers, and he was ever kind to us." They chose his 
grave on a far-seen hill-slope. Away up through the maize fields, 
wailing a dirge, they carried all that was mortal of him, followed 
by twelve hundred mourners, four hundred of whom were 
scholars from the school he had founded and maintained. His 
lifelong friend, Frank Dymond, conducted the interment and 
has described the scene : " Singing and prayer were followed 
by short testimonies. . . . Presently a tall old Miao stands upon 




THE HILL ON WHICH MR. POLLARD WAS BURIED. 




THE OPEN GRAVE : THE REV, F. J. DYMOND 
CONDUCTING THE FUNERAL SERVICE. 



372 SAMUEL POLLARD 

busy ; for him there was no assurance of rest or sleep. . . . He 
gave his support to anything that would bring advantage to our 
country. . . . Whatever men entrusted to him, whether great 
or small, he strove to discharge the trust faithfully. . . . Even 
the Roman Catholics looked upon him with great respect ; the 
sisters of the Orphanage thought of him as though he were one of 
their own priests. . . . He loved little children and was always 
* at home ' with them. . . . With young men he showed his 
admiration of manly sports and would join them in swimming, 
sliding, and in games of chess. Among the serried hills of Yunnan 
and Kweichow the people became familiar with his ' coo-ee ' 
call and answered it by rushing out to welcome him. ... As a 
preacher he was clear as the day. . . . He could make men laugh 
or cry ; and sometimes as he spoke men stood revealed to them- 
selves in the presence of Christ, and he would woo them to peni- 
tence. He was like a skilful artist who paints every stroke so that 
it contributes to the truth of a portrait which all could understand. 
... I discovered his great knowledge of mathematics and then 
men sought after his instruction. As a result of his teaching 
many secured high positions and places of influence. He often 
said to us that if men would study higher things the Truth would 
emerge and erroneous customs would fall away. On fine nights 
:he loved to watch the stars and would teach us to praise their 
Maker. He sometimes said that he hoped at death his spirit 
might be transferred to one of those distant worlds where he 
might learn still more of the greatness of the universe." 

Feeling that they owed their very souls to Samuel Pollard, the 
aborigines said : " He is ours, let us bury him ; we will arrange 
for coffin, bearers, grave, and tombstone ; for we loved him more 
than our fathers, and he was ever kind to us." They chose his 
grave on a far-seen hill-slope. Away up through the maize fields, 
wailing a dirge, they carried all that was mortal of him, followed 
by twelve hundred mourners, four hundred of whom were 
scholars from the school he had founded and maintained. His 
lifelong friend, Frank Dymond, conducted the interment and 
has described the scene : " Singing and prayer were followed 
by short testimonies. . . . Presently a tall old Miao stands upon 







^^Hfc^ifc^. 

~^S, -~~ "*"*"*' 



, "* ^_ rf 

-'^^ l! * 1 *^^^^K<, ~ 

aj^^c^^r-'";. 

,~-~f t . " x'^'x. 



--: v< 



. t****!"" * 




THE HILL ON WHICH MR. POLLARD WAS BURIED. 







THE OPEN GRAVE : THE REV, F. J. DYMOND 
CONDUCTING THE FUNERAL SERVICE. 



THE LAST MONTHS 373 

a form one of the very first to strike the trail to the Gross, a 
leader among his fellows. He said a few words, then stepping 
down he crouched upon the ground near my feet, sobbing as if 
his heart would break. .... Blessed the man who has the gift 
so to win the affection of these hillmen ! 

** As the service proceeds, a man, weather-stained, his bare 
sandalled feet showing that he had come from a journey, reaches 
the ppen grave. He looks in and bursts into a paroxysm of grief 
until I go and lead him across to the centre of the crowd. Poor 
Stephen Lee ! I know, and you know, that there lies your best 
friend. . . . He cried as if his heart would break, then rose and 
gave one of the finest tributes to his dead master and friend that 
could possibly be given. ... 

" That night men stayed upon yon hillside watching near the 
open grave, and so for a few successive nights, lest the tomb 
should be rifled. Among the sapling oaks, surrounded by Miao 
graves, he lies. Mr. Evans erected a cross and beneath its 
shadow the body of Sam Pollard rests.'' 

; At last the tired pioneer sleeps. At the comparatively early 
age of fifty- one this servant of God passed to his reward. Let 
those who would honour his memory ensure the continuance of 
the great work he began, by efficient maintenance of the schools, 
by erecting a hospital for the aborigines and supporting an 
adequate staff, and by equipping both the Chinese and aboriginal 
mission stations for successful work without placing the mission- 
aries in constant jeopardy of breaking down through overstrain. 
Though Pollard was only fifty-one when he died, there is an 
amazing sense of completeness in his experience. The promise 
which was given him of winning thousands of souls ' for Christ's 
kingdom was abundantly fulfilled though the converts were 
Miao and not Chinese. His intense desire to organize churches 
and schools among the tribes so that the gates of life and know- 
ledge should be thrown wide open for them, had received splendid 
accomplishment. His oft-repeated aspiration that the translation 
of the New Testament should be completed before the summons 
came had been realised, and the Word of God in the script which 



374 SAMUEL POLLARD 

he invented has become a household possession among many 
tribes. 

There are thousands of tribesmen whose most precious memory 
in this world will be of the little missionary who travelled up 
and down their mountains to bring light, love, and healing to 
them in their darkness and oppression. Always when they 
recall the fragile figure of the indomitable pioneer, their hearts 
will grow strangely tender and their dark eyes become moist and 
shine with the light of love. In Samuel Pollard a rare winsome- 
ness was joined with moral daring, little children were drawn to 
him, men and women derived new strength and hope from inter- 
course with him. He preached, not in words alone but in deeds 
worthy of his faith, the gospel of Divine Compassion. He was one' of 
God's troubadours, and to-day the hills of Western China resound 
with the joyous songs he taught. The silence which sealed his 
lips when his soul put off the worn, tired body is now eloquent 
with appeal for our remembrance of Western China and its 
various peoples. There should be no tinge of sadness in our 
thought of Samuel Pollard. He lived joyously ; he wrought 
mightily ; his life was burnt right out in the service of his fellows ; 
and now with his old charm he attracts imagination to himself 
a high-hearted gallant follower of One}Who triumphed over death 
and opened the gates of eternal life for all who love and serve. 



INDEX 



Aborigines of Yunnan, 73 ; wizardry 
amongst, 77 ; the first Christian 
convert among, 91 ; historical 
sketch of, 156-66; the mass 
movement among, 178 et seqq. 

Adam, Mr., of the China Inland 
Mission, at Anshuen, 1 79 ; bap- 
tizes Miao, 210 > and the disputed 
area of work, 273 ; prints some of 
the Gospels in romanised Chinese, 
290 ; death of, 370 

A-mi-chow, Bertram Pollard ill at, 
1 1 8 ; Rev. C. Stedef ord arrives at, 
260 i the Miao evangelists at, 303 ; 
Pollard held up in, 305 

Amundsen, Mr., on the Pollard 
Script, 287 

An, Mr., the sympathetic Miao land- 
lord, 204 ; his gift of land, 206 ; 
why he became a Christian, 290, 

364 

Ancestor worship at Mi-lien-pa, 51 ; 
in Chaotong, 72 ; how Pollard 
handled it, 113 ; survival of, 252 

Anshuen in Kweichow, 179 

Arthington, Mr., of Leeds, 278; his 
fortune left for specific missionary 
enterprise, 278 

Arthington Trust Fund assists Pol- 
lard in his Miao work, 278-80, 282 ; 
supports a missionary to the No- 
Su, 286 

Baber, W. E. Colborne, explores 

Lolo land, 156 
Babu, 158, 161. See Mantsi and No- 

Su 

Bailey, Miss, arrives at Chaotong, 76 
Bailer, F. W., at Ganking, 16 ; 

engaged on a Chinese classical 

dictionary, 108 
Barry, Pollard at, 102 
Beauchamp, Mr., 76 
Bede, the passing of, 369 
Bible Christian Church, 2 ; union of 

the New Connexion and United 

Methodist Churches with the, 245 
Birmingham, Pollard's visits to, 247 



Bondfield, Rev. G. H., agent of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society 
at Shanghai, 289 

Bourne; Rev. F. W., at Clapham, 7 

Boxer movement in China, 97 ; out- 
break of the storm, 1 16 ; wild 
incidents of, 117; the aftermath 
of, 125 ; a recrudescence of, 
around Stone Gateway, 357-8 

Bristol, Pollard's impressive address 
at, 247 

British and Foreign Bible Society 
and the Pollard Script, 290 ; its 
discussion on the Script and 
romanised Chinese, 291 ; its de- 
cision, 292 ; Pollard's tribute to, 
296 , 

Bugle, Pollard at, 101 

Bull, Miss, missionary at Chaotong, 
150 

Bush, Miss, of the Chaotong Mission, 
no ; leaves Shanghai, 123 

Cameron, Dr., of Chungking, 66 
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry, 

funeral of, 245 

Campbellites in Shanghai, 119 
Camp Hill in Kweichow, 77 ; why so 

called, 78 
"Camphor Tree" village, 195. See 

Hsiang -Chang-Shu 
Cangue, a Chinese punishment, 142 
Cannon, Miss, arrives at Chaotong, 76 
Capey, Rev. E. F. H., describes Pol- 
lard's fine speech at Nottingham, 

245 

Carter, Rev. John, death of, 60 

Catty, Chinese measure of weight, 143 

Celts of China, 73 

Chang, the rascally village elder at 
Ta-ping-tsi, 229-31 ; his repent- 
ance, 241 

Chang-hai-tsi, " pushing in the 
wedge " at, 143 ; advantage of its 
situation, 224 ; enthusiasm of the 
converts at, 226 ; good-bye visit 
to, 239 ; To-ma preacher at, 262 ; 
a Christmas service at, 271 ; 



375 



SAMUEL POLLARD 



spiritual triumphs at, 274 ; friend- 
liness of the people at, 297 

Chang-yoh-han, Miao evangelist, 210; 
his labours at Mi-ri-keo, 222 ; 
sentenced to be shot, 260 ; 
preaches to the No-Su, 263 

Chao, Mrs., the first No-Su convert, 

9i 

Chaotong, 34 ; mission house in, 3 5 ; 
Pollard's ministry at, begins, 69 ; 
character of city, 69 ; Roman 
Catholics in, 70 ; famine in and 
around, 74 ; new chapel in, 86 ; 
the sanatorium at, 104 ; Pollard's 
welcome at, 123 ; alarm at the 
mass movement, 180 ; develop- 
ment of the mission at, 203 ; the 
great mission demonstration at, 
3203 ; Pollard's sermon on the 
Resurrection, 349 

Chentu, a centre of light and leading, 
243 * educational schemes at, 284 ; 
the printing press at, 288 ; Miao 
students for the University at, 
315 ; Miao students at the Union 
Middle School in, 348 ; success of 
the Miao students at, 365 

China, language of , 1 5 ; literature of, 
1 6 ; chronology of, 17; religion 
and customs of, 42 ; examination 
system of, 62 ; three religions of, 
70 ; the doctors in, 71 ; dinner in, 
87 ; caste in, 89 ; awakening of, 
93 ; humiliated by Japan, 94 ; 
reaction rampant, 96 ; the 
Empress-Dowager's duplicity, 97 ; 
the " China for Christ " move- 
ment, 102 (footnote) ; eclipse of 
the sun in,- 107 ; treatment of dead 
children in, 113 ; the Boxer storm, 
1 1 6-8; zoological curiosities in, 
138, 146; the aboriginal clans in 
the south-west of, i$6etseqq. ; the 
Republic established in, 251-8 ; 
revival of nationalism in, 258 ; 
proposed union of the Christian 
Church in, 258 ; modern conditions 
of mission work in, 277 ; Western 
military system in, 302 ; features 
of the new regime in, 297325 ; a 
Day of National Prayer, 323 

China Inland Mission, 9 

Chipstead, Pollard's conversion at, 4 

Chong Chia, a tribe in Yunnan, 352 

Chong, Mr., teacher at Shih-men- 
k'an, 282 ; prospecting at Chentu, 
284 

Chong-ming-tsai, evangelist in Yun- 
nan, 128; his love romance, 190 

Chopsticks, 88 



Chungking, 27 j Pollard married at, 
67 ; held up at, 123 

Chu-to-ma, Miao preacher at Mi-ri- 

' keo, 222 

Chu Yuan, the Chinese patriot, 207 

Clapham, The Bible Christian Chapel 
at, 7 

Clarke, S. R., on Miao dialects, 163 ; 
on their legends, 164 

Clifton, Pollard learns dentistry at, 
103 

Comet, the, and the Manchus, 302 

Concubinage, 253 

Confucius and his teaching, 41 ; 
failure of his system, 70 ; sug- 
gested deification of, 125 ; his 
ethic under the New China regime, 
253 

Curnow, Mr., at| Yunnan Fu, 40 

Davies, Major, on the Miao, 158; 
his view of their origin, 1 62 

Deboyne, Ellen, the missionary's 
mother, 3 

De Quincey on the power of Bible 
truths, 296 

Dingle, Edwin J., visits Pollard in 
West China, 267 

Dingle, Dr. Lilian, on a curious 
Babu custom, 161 ; on Miao music 
and games, 164 ; her notes on the 
assault on Pollard, 233, 235 

Doson, the Pollards' enforced holiday 
at, 3 5-6 

" Double Star," 350. See Ko Kuei 

Dragon Feast, the, 129 

" Dragon's Head," 54 

" Dragon's Pool," 54 

" Dragon's Well," 359 

Dymond, Rev. Francis John, becomes 
missionary, n ; leaves England 
for China, 13 ; arrives at Shang- 
hai, 15; studying at Ganking, 
1 6 ; leaves the Training Home, 
21 ; travels up the Yangtsze, 22 7 ; 
wrecked on the Yangtsze, 25 ; 
travels in Szechuen, 28 ; reaches 
Yunnan, 32 ; at service in Chao- 
tong, 37 ; down with smallpox, 
37 ; leaves Pollard for North 
Yunnan, 43 ; assaulted in Chao- 
tong, 49 ; visits Pollard again in 
Chaotong, 73 ; his home destroyed 
by Boxers, 117; departure of, to 
attend the Kiating Conference, 
243 ; and disputed areas of mission 
work, 273; at the grand 1915 
festival at, 285 ; in the new 
Yunnan Fu, 307 ; his rousing 
address at Yunnan Fu, 308 ; 



INDEX 



377 



Pollard deems him. the man for 
Yunnan, 309-10 ; his great work, 
314 ; organizes a grand mission at 
Chaotong, 320-3 ; and the leper 
problem, 346 ; at Stone Gateway, 
349 j Pollard's affection for him, 
366 j his farewell of Pollard, 371 ; 
conducts the service at Pollard's 
funeral, 372 

Endicott, Mr., of the Canadian 
printing-press at Chentu, 288 

Evans, Rev. Daniel, 2 ; work of Mr. 
and Mrs. Evans in Tungch'uan, 
259; his perseverance, 310; Mrs. 
Evans nurses the typhoid patients 
at Stone Gateway, 370 ; Mr. Evans 
erects a cross at Pollard's grave, 373 

Examination system in China, 62 

Faers, Mr. and Mrs., of Sui Fu, 65 
" Feast of Flowers," the annual 

Miao festival, 207-8 
Feng-ma-pa, opposition at, 352 
Flies, Chinese legend of the origin of, 

137 

Football in Yunnan, 350 
" Foreign devil," taunt of, 70, 93, 149 
France, policy of, in Yunnan, 114; 

advantages of the French railway 

in Yunnan, 256 
Fu-kuan-tsuen, welcome at, 145 ; 

Mr. Lee, pastor at, 151 

Ganking, Training Home at, 16 
Geil, Mr. W. E., on Pollard's work at 

Chaotong, 148 
Germany seizes Kiaochow, 95 ; the 

" mailed fist," 106 
" Golden China, The," by Rev. R. 

Pyke, 366 
Gordon, General (" Chinese " 

Gordon), 94 
Graham, Rev. J., at Chaotong, 87 ; 

welcomed at Stone Gateway, 315 
Graham, Katie, of the C.I.M., 305 
Grandin, Dr. Lilian, her work in 

Chaotong and Shih-men-k'an, 338. 

See Dingle, Dr. Lilian. 
Grierson, Dr., and the Pollard Script, 

291 
Grist, Rev. William A. (the author), 

goes to China, 103 

Hainge, Emma, the missionary's 
wife, 60 ; her engagement, 60 ; 
on holiday with Pollard, 63 ; 
married at Chungking, 67 } her 
missionary labours, 73 ; fearless 
services, 76. See Pollard, Samuel 



Hainan, Detroit de, Pollard's letter 
to his boys about, 248 

Haiphong benefited by the French 
railway, 257 ; Pollard meets his 
wife at, 303 ; held up at, 305 

Ha-lee-mee, persecution at, 231 > 
Pollard's trial at, 233 ; revisited, 
272, 297 

Han, the most popular Chinese 
dynasty, 305 

Hankow, 22 ; momentous explosion 
at, 251 

Han-Mei, the story of a little maid, 
270 

Hanna, Mr. and Mrs., of C.I.M., 305 

Hanyang, 22 

Harris, Dr. Rendel, 247 

" Heaven-Born Bridge," the cave at, 
1941 new chapel at, 348, 350; 
football at, 350 

Heh-i, a warlike branch of the No-Su, 
214 ; a kindly Heh-i widow, 226 > 
converts at Si-shih-wu, 239 

Heh-t'u-ho, visit to a No-Su chief at, 
183 ; persecution at, 193 

Hicks, Rev. C. E., at Tungch'uan, 
104 ; his training-school for 
evangelists at Chaotong, 127 ; on 
the origin of the No-Su, 160 ; on 
No-Su immorality, 161 

Hill, Rev. David, 23 

Ho-pa, a new market at, 358 

Howe, Miss, missionary in China, 103 

Hsiang-Chang-Shu, Sunday-school 
at, 195 ; remarkable service at, 
288 

Hsien Seng, baptism of, 86 

Hsi Liang, China's modern hero, 254 

Hudspeth, Rev. W. H., and the 
Miao convert, 188 ; holds a 
service at Chang-hai-tsi, 271 ; 
prospecting at Chentu, 284 ; at 
the grand 1915 festival at Stone 
Gateway, 285 ; his work on the 
Miao New Testament, 296 ; at 
Loh-in-shan, 298 ; welcomed at 
Stone Gateway, 315 ; his visit to 
Chentu, 384 ; his chapel at Ko 
Kuei, 350 ; Pollard's testimony 
to the value of the collaboration of, 
355; threatened by Boxers, 3 5 7-8 , 
Pollard's affection for, 366, 367 ; 
ill with typhoid and nursed by 
Pollard, 370 ; his tribute to 
Pollard, 371 

Huei Ch'i, remarkable service at, 143 

Huei-li-cheo, 131 

Hwa, the magistrate of Chaotong, 106 

Hwa Miao, The, 288 ; their mission 
among the Kop'u, 324 



378 



SAMU&L POLLARD 



Hwei-li-ch'ang, service at, 145 

I-Chang, 23 

Idols, worship of, attack on, at Lao- 
wa-t' an, 132 ; iconoclasm at Liu- 
t'ang-pa, 133 ; Pollard's denun- 
ciation of, 135 i cases of renuncia- 
tion of, 151 ; martyrdom, at Fu- 
kuan, 154 

I-pien converts, enthusiasm of, 239 

I-ren, the aborigines of Kweichow, 
78, 158 j their appearance, 170 

Japan, the victory of, over China 
(1894), 94 

Jenson, C., in Yunnan Fu, 44 

John, Rev. Dr. Griffith, 23 

Jowett, Rev. Dr., 247 

Jung Lu, the Chinese Empress- 
Dowager's friend, 96 

Kachins of Yunnan, 157 

Kaiping, 94 

Kang Yu Wei, Chinese reformer, 95 

Keh-lao, a tribe in Yunnan, 352 

Kiaochow seized by Germany, 95 

Kiating, the Conference at, 243 

Kih-li-p'u, 129 

Kilgour, Dr., of the Bible House, 
London, 289 (footnote) 

Kingch'uan, lake near, 303 ; the 
closed city, 305 

Kipling, Rudyard, 330 

Kite-flying in China, 72 

Ko Kuei, the Miao chapel at, 350 5 
shelter in, from the Boxers, 358 

Kop'u (place and tribe), Miao bap- 
tized at, 210 ; Kop'u tribesmen 
and Miao script, 298 5 language of 
the Kop'u, 299 ; heavy drinkers, 
298 j effect of mission work in, 
324-5 > great hunters, 325 

Ku-li-Chang, evangelising at, 144 

Ku-lu-Chang, 130 

Kwang-si, " rounding up " the lepers 
in, 342 

Kwang Su, Emperor of China, 95, 1 16 

Kweichow, a convert of, 62 ; a visit 
to the border people of, 77 ; his- 
torical sketch of the aborigines of, 
156-66 ; its seven millions and no 
doctor, 282, 341 ; the scandal of 
medical neglect in, 338 et seqq. 

Lai-lai tribe, their plot to waylay 
Pollard, 178 

Lao-kai, on the Red River, 1185 
benefited by the French railway, 
257 revolutionary scenes at, 305 

Lao-wa-t'an, 131 ; scene at, 132 ; 



Pollard sets out for, 136 ; Con- 
fucianist students at, 150 

Lee (Li), John, B.A., Christian 
Chinese convert, 109 ; school- 
master, 115 > evangelises in Yun- 
nan, 128 ; his sermon on idolatry, 
132 ; challenges the idols at Liu- 
t'ang-pa, 133 i pastor at Fu-kuan, 
151 > his steadfastness, 154 

Lee (Li), Stephen, first meets Pollard, 
108 ; becomes a Christian along 
with his family, 109 ; leaves 
Shanghai, 122 ; learns Miao, 184 ; 
teaches singing at Stone Gateway, 
209 ; assists at the first Miao 
baptisms, 211 j at Mi-ri-keo, 222 ; 
learns the Miao language, 286 ; 
assists Pollard in the Miao script, 
287 5 on Pollard's powers of 
speech, . 309 ; appointed to Yun- 
nan Fu pro tern., 310 ; his tribute 
to Pollard, 371 ; breaks down at 
Pollard's grave, 373 

Legge, Dr. J., the Chinese scholar, 94 

Li (Chinese measure of distance), 33 

Liang- Wan-Ch'i, 131, 132 

Liaotung, cession of, 95 

Li-Ching-Hsi, nephew of Li Hung 
Chang, fall of, 304 

Li Hung Chang, the great Viceroy, 94 

Lin, Professor Sie Han, 112 

Li-Su, enthusiasm among, 260 

Little, Edward, Secretary of the Arth- 
ington Trust, 278, 283 

Liu-t'ang-pa, the great cave at, 133 ; 
iconoclasm at, 133 

Lodge, Sir Oliver, and his " Man and 
the Universe," 368 

Loh-in-shan, Pollard's visit to, 259, 
298 

Loh-Kih, the paradoxical laird of 
Heh Kua Shan, 198 

Lolo, the land of, 156 ; the natives of, 
158 ; origin of their name, 159 

Long, the No-Su Chief, who accom- 
panied Pollard on his visit to the 
'No-Su, 167 ; his mother, 168 

" Long Sea," 143. See Chang-hai-tsi 

McCarthy, Rev. J., C.I.M. Superin- 
tendent in Yunnan, 218 

Manchu dynasty, worthlessness of, 94 

Ma-niao-ho, persecution of Miao at, 
200 

Mantsi, the hill tribe of, 73 ; unrest 
among, 1 10 ; towers of refuge 
from, 146 j feudal system of, 158 

Mao-Lee-yu, encouragement at, 238 

Mao-Mao-Shan, the lairds of, 219 

Ma-p'ai, services at, 204 



INDEX 



379 



Mass movement of the aborigines, 
origin of, 178 et seqq. , opposition 
to, 1 86 et seqq. ; second phase of, 
202 et seqq, ; missionaries' attitude 
to, 244 

Medical problem, Missionaries and 
the, 338 et seqq. 

Medrose, Pollard at, 101 

Mencius, Pollard's studies of, 52, 84 

Miao, their clans, 158 ; their origin, 
162 ; a downtrodden folk, 162 3 
their marriage customs, 163, 207 ; 
their habits, 164 ; their legends, 
164; mass movement among, 
165 ; their strange hopes, 179 j 
their deputation to Pollard, 180 5 
their eagerness for the Gospel, 
181 j their first Christmas, 185 ; 
persecuted by their overlords and 
the Chinese, 188 et seqq. ; their 
women folk, 1 94 ; their simple, 
industrious lives, 195 ; their trust 
in Pollard, 197 ; their growing 
independence,^ 197 ; their joy at 
Pollard's coming, 204 ; their first 
chapel, 206 ; their " Feast of 
Flowers," 207-8 ; first baptisms of, 
210-14 ; their first Communion, 
214-15 ; their chapel at Mi-ri-keo, 
220 ; Pollard invents an alphabet 
for, 286 et seqq. ; relations between 
them and the No-Su, 31819 -; 
tyrannized over by No-Su chiefs, 
326 ; certain marriage problems, 
328 ; mother-love among, 330 ; 
a tragic Miao romance, 331 -; in- 
dustry of their children and women 
332 ; pestered by wizards, 333 ; 
hardships under Chinese " justice," 
334 ; instances of their folklore, 
336-7 i ten years' work among, 
347 et seqq. ; Pollard's final appeal 
for sole control of work among, 
354-7 i grief of, for Pollard, 372 

Ming dynasty, the, 130 

Mi-ri-keo, chapel built at, 220 ; the 
bee-keeper of, 221 ; Communion 
at, 223 ; Pollard visits, again, 
238 $ Pollard reviews the Mission 
work at, 265 ', a vaccination revel 
at, 276 

Missionary Echo, Pollard's farewell 
message to, 247 

Missions, modern conditions of their 
work, 277 ; seriously hampered by 
the medical problem, 338 et seqq. 

Mohammedans, Pollard among, 56, 
81 

Morley of Blackburn, Lord, and the 
Opium Trade, 122 



Morrison, Dr. George Ernest, of The 

Times, 85 

Muh- Kan-no, preaching at, 1 37 
Murray, Mr., of the Scottish Bible 
Society, at Wuchang, 22 ; on tour 
around Yunnan Fu, 61 
Musk deer, parable of the, 293 
Mustard seed, Chang's notable ser- 
mon on, 312 

Mylne, Rev. Clement, his work 
among the No-Su, 205 ; his 
lantern slides at Si-pang-tsi, 263 ; 
and a clash of jurisdiction, 273-; 
success of his work among the 
No-Su, 276 

Na-Ku, the market at, 90 

Nanking, Provisional Government 
at, 252 

New Connexion Church, union of 
the Bible Christian and United 
Methodist Churches with the, 245 

Nicholls, Rev. Arthur, Australian 
C.I.M. missionary, 216 ; ap- 
pointed to Yunnan Mission, 218 ; 
assists Pollard at Mi-ri-keo, 221 ; 
his services at Ta-shui-tsing, 
259 ; on the Pollard Script, 290 -; 
his work among the Miao, 299 

Niu-Ch'ang, exorcism at, 189 

No-Su, appearance of, 157 ; char- 
acteristics of, 159 ; origin of, 160 ; 
their religion, 160 ; marriage 
customs, 161 -; lax morals, 161 ; 
mass movement among, 165 ; 
interior of a house of the, 173 ; a 
typical meal among, 173-4; the 
aristocrats among, 269 ; Mr. 
Mylne appointed missionary to, 
286 ; relations between them and 
the Miao, 318-9 ; Pollard's deal- 
ings with their chief, 326-8 

Nottingham, Pollard's great speech, 
at, 245 

O'Donnoghue, Rev. H. C., at Sheb- 
bear, 5 

Ollone, Vicomte d', on the wax 
insect, 146 ; explores Lolo land, 
156; describes the feudal system 
of the No-Su, 158-; on the origin of 
the Miao, 162 

Opium, cure of attempted suicide by, 
39 ; ravages of, 39 ; victims in 
Chaotong/ 72 ; Chinese edict on 
the traffic in, 97 ; British States- 
men and the traffic in, 122; 
legend of the origin of, 140 ; 
abolition of the traffic in, 2 54 

Page, Mr., of C.I.M., 273 



SAMUEL POLLARD 



Pai-yi, tribe in Yunnan, 352 
Panthays, The, of Yunnan, 56 
Parsons, Rev. H., at Chaotong, 1 50 ; 
his work among the aborigines, 
205 ; assists at the new " Feast of 
Flowers," 208 ; at the first bap- 
tisms of the Miao, 211; appointed 
to Stone Gateway, 218 ; success of 
his work at Stone Gateway, 237 > 
his hold over the Miao at Stone 
Gateway, 263 ; on the results of 
mission work among the Kop'u, 

324 
Peh-ai, the No-Su Tu-muh, murder 

of, 326-7 
Peh Miao, a tribe in Yunnan, 352, 

353 

Peking, Miao students for Union 
College at, 3145 the scheme falls 
through, 315 

Penryn, the Pollards at, 4 

" Pilgrim's Progress " in lantern 
pictures, 351 

Piper, Rev. Ernest, at Chaotong, 
90 

Pollard, Bertram, the missionary's 
second son, birth of, 108 

Pollard, Emma, the missionary's wife, 
67. See Hainge and also Pollard, 
Samuel 

Pollard, Ernest, the missionary's 
fourth son, birth of, 216 

Pollard, Samuel, the elder, the 
missionary's father, i { becomes 
itinerant preacher, 2 ; marriage, 
3 ; death of, 1 39 

Pollard, Samuel, birth of, 3 * early 
education, 4 ; conversion, 4 ; at 
Shebbear Grammar School, 5,6; 
enters the Post Office Savings' 
Bank, 7 ; call to the Ministry, 8 ; 
accepted as missionary, 1 1 ; leaves 
England for China, 1 3 ; arrives at 
Shanghai, 15 ; studying at Gan- 
king, 1 6 ; leaves the Training 
Home, 21 ; travels up the Yang- 
tsze, 22-7 ; wrecked on the 
Yangtsze, 25 ; travels in Szechuen, 
28 ; arrives in Yunnan, 32 ; on 
duty in Chaotong, 36 ; nurses 
Dymond, 37 ; in demand as a 
doctor, 39 ; studies Confucius, 41, 
69 ; mission in Yunnan Fu, 43 ; 
and his gong, 49, 54 ; at " Wild 
Buffalo " hamlet, 50 ; among the 
Mohammedans, 56 ; a fainting 
fit at Tungch'uan, 57 ; his way 
with the Chinese, 58, 72 ; engaged 
to Emma Hainge, 60 ; on holiday 
tour around Yunnan Fu, 61 ; 



among the graduates, 62 ; to 
Chaotong on horseback, 63 ; 
married at Chungking, 67 ; minis- 
try at Chaotong, 69 ; his reputa- 
tion as a healer, 71 ; coping with 
famine in Chaotong, 74 ; visits the 
Wang family at Camp Hill, 77-84 ; 
his first two converts, 86 ; opens 
the new chapel at Chaotong, 87 ; 
goes to Tungch'uan for his health, 
88 ; birth of his first boy, 89 ; his 
first furlough, 98-103 ; his love of 
and faith in Jesus, 99 -j return to 
China, 104 ; opens a sanatorium 
at Chaotong, 104 > his friendship 
with mandarins, 106 ; his second 
son born, 108 5 translates the 
Analects, 108 } bis friendship with 
Stephen Lee, 108 j leads the 
Christian exodus during the Boxer 
storm, 1 1 8 ; his sojourn in Shang- 
hai, 1 19-22 ; denounces white 
slavery in Shanghai, 120 his 
return to Chaotong, 123 ; birth 
of his third son, 124 ; on an 
evangelising tour in Yunnan, 128 ; 
et seqq. ; his sense of humour, 1 36 ; 
his father's death, 139 ; and the 
upbringing of his children, 149 i 
how his work -was handicapped in 
Yunnan, 155 ; his interest in the 
Miao, 1 66 j makes a trip into Lolo 
or No-Su land, 167-78 ; becomes 
adoptive father to a No-Su chief's 
son, 169 5 Chinese plot to kill him, 
171, 172, 1785 entertained by the 
No-Su, 173 ; receives an offer of 
marriage, 177 j receives the Miao 
call, 1 80 ; how he taught the Miao, 
1 8 1 ; learns Miao language, 184-; 
appreciates the new work, 185 ; 
reasons with wizards, 187 ; cop- 
ing with persecution, 190, 191, 197 ; 
visits the Miao country, 193-200 > 
his way with the hostile Tu-muh, 
198 ; accepts the call to the 
apostleship of the Miao, 203 ; his 
early operations at Stone Gateway, 
206-9 ' ki s first baptisms of the 
Miao, 210-14; and the first Miao 
Communion, 215 j birth of his 
fourth son, 216 j sends wife and 
family back to England, 216 ; 
extent of his Miao " parish," 218 ; 
founds a chapel at Mi-ri-keo, 220 ; 
and the communicants at Mi-ri- 
keo, 223 | his happy week at 
Chang-hai-tsi, 227 ; brutally 
assaulted at Ta-ping-tsi, 230-3 ; 
nature of his injuries, 234 ; con- 



INDEX 



381 



cern of the Miao, 234-5 i 
protest on the Chinese treatment of 
foreigners, 235-6; ordered home, 
237 a good-bye tour, 237-43; 
deputed to attend the Kiating 
Conference, 243 ; arrives in 
London on second furlough, 245 ; 
his fine speeches at Notting- 
ham -and Bristol, 245-7; his 
last stay with his mother, 247 ; 
departs for China, 248 ; on the 
Chinese reformers' programme, 
252 ; he revisits Yunnan Fu, 261 ; 
his tour of inspection, 262 5 a 
split in the camp, 264 ; typical 
scenes of his work, 267-277 ; re- 
visits the scene of his assault, 272 ; 
a question of boundaries, 273 ; is 
assisted by the Arthington Trust 
Fund, 278-280, 282 ; and the great 
midsummer festival pf 1911, 280; 
his educational programme, 282-4 ; 
attends his last festival at Stone 
Gateway, 2846 ; invents an 
alphabet for the Miao, 2867 ' the 
story of his script, 286 et seqq. ; 
translates the Gospels, 289-96 ; his 
last letter, 295 ; his journey to the 
coast to meet his wif efrom England, 
297-306 ; visits Yunnan Fu after 
the Revolution, 306 ; his hunger for 
a mission in Yunnan Fu, 30810 ; 
his concern for the undivided Miao 
Mission, 312 ; his plan for the 
union of Methodist missions in 
Yunnan, 317 ; on the relations 
between the Miao and the No-Su, 
318-9; his delight in the great 
mission at Chaotong, 320-3 ; 
his dealings with the No-Su 
chiefs, 326-8 ; some of his experi- 
ences about Miao marriages, 328- 
30 ; on Miao mother-love, 328 ; 
on East and West customs, 330-1 ; 
on the industry of Miao children, 

332 ; checkmating the wizards, 

333 ; his extended influence, 334- 
5 ; his stories of Miao folklore, 
336-7 ; his continual difficulties 
with serious diseases among the 
people, 338 et seqq. ; attacks the 
leper problem, 341 et seqq. ; his 
last efforts among the Miao and 
other tribes, 350-4 ; his final 
appeal against a divided mission, 
354-7, 367 ; threatened by a 
revival of Boxerism, 357-8 ; on 
the World War, 359 ; the War's 
increase of his difficulties, 361 ; his 
last letter to his oldest son, 362 ; 



on the success of the schools, 363-4; 
illness of his wife, 365 ; his great 
affection for Dymond, 366 ; on the 
unity of the Miao and No-Su work, 
367 ; finishes bis translation of the 
New Testament, 369 ; nurses 
Hudspeth down with typhoid, 370 ; 
falls ill himself, 370 ; is nursed by 
his wife, 370-1 ; death of, 371 ; 
universal mourning for him, 371-2 ; 
burial of, 372 ; how to honour his 
memory, 373 ; the author's tribute, 

374 
Pollard, Samuel, tertius, birth of, 89 ; 

his successes in the Oxford Local 

Junior Exam., 245 ; scholarship 

for Trinity, 306 ; his father's 

letters to, 362 
Pollard, Walter, the missionary's 

brother, 4 
Pollard, Walter, the missionary's 

third son, birth of, 124 
Po-si, the fallen Viceroy Li-Ching- 

Hsi, at, 304 

Railway, the first attempts at, in 
China, 94 ; the tragic panic in 
Yunnan about the Indo-Chinese, 
256-7 

" Raven's Rapid," 131. See Lao-wa- 
t'an 

" Rice Ear Valley," chapel built at, 
220. See Mi-ri-keo 

Richards, Dr. Timothy, 125 

" River Miao," or Peh Miao, 353 

Roman Catholics in Chaotong, 70 ; 
at Na-Ku, 90 ; their respect for 
Pollard, 372 

Ruddle, Thomas, at Shebbear, 5 

Ryde, the Pollards at, 4 

Sa-pu-shan, mission work at, 260 ; 
the Miao James's address at, 300 
Sa robbers, The, of Kweichow, 77 
Savin, Dr. Lewis, at Tungch'uan, 
104 ; the " good doctor," 108 ; 
settled at Chaotong, 108 ; his 
house destroyed by Boxers, 117; 
builds a hospital at Chaotong, 
152 ; his report on Pollard's in- 
juries, 233-4 success of his 
medical work at Chaotong, 322 ; 
constant demands on, 338 ; over- 
worked and dies, 371 
"Scattering Sunrise" village, 55 
Shanghai, Pollard's first stay in, 1 5 ; 
a City of Refuge during the Boxer 
storm, 119; prostitution in, 1 20 
Shans, or Chong Chia tribes, 157 



SAMUEL POLLARD 



Shih-men-k an, situation of, 206 ; 
Miao chapel at, 206 ; first baptisms 
at, 210-15 ; first Christmas at, 
212 > Pollard visits again, 237-8 ; 
the great improvements at, 263 ; 
preachers' quarterly meeting at, 
271 ; the Miao school at, 282 ; 
sympathetic mandarin at the grand 
festival of 1915 at, 284-5 > Christ- 
mas (1912) celebrations at, 315 ; 
improvement in, 347 ; a mandarin 
at, 348 ; an ideal centre for both 
Miao and No-Su work, 356 ; 
Boxerism at, 357-8 > typhoid 
epidemic at, 369-70 5 Hudspeth 
and Pollard ill, 370 
Shui-ch'eng, village of, 90 ; a con- 

vert at, 91 

Shui-si-Miao, The, 288 
Siao-fah-luh, situation of, 349 
Siao-long-tong, strange caterpillar at, 

138 

Siao-tu-li, 131 

Si-fan, the aborigines of Tibet, 157 
Silk-spinners, the god of Chinese, 

137 

Sin T'an, 131 
Si-pang-tsing, progress at, 240 ; a 

significant service at, 262 
Si-shih-wu, a likely centre for mis- 

sion -work, 240 ; the chapel at, 

262 
Smith, Dr. A. H., at the Kiating 

Conference, 244 
Squire, Miss, and the Miao, 185 ; 

her girls' school at Chaotong, 315, 



Stedeford, Rev. Charles, the United 

Methodist Missionary Secretary, 

203 > takes Pollard to see Sir H. 

Campbell-Bannerman's funeral, 
245 ; arrives at Tungch'uan, 260 ; 

and the Arthington Trust Fund, 

278 
Stevenson, Owen, visits the prison in 

Yunnan Fu, 261 ; accompanies 

Pollard to Haiphong, 303 
Stone Gateway, advantages of, as a 

centre for Mission work, 206. See 

Shih-men-k'an 
" Story of the Miao," Pollard's, 209, 

287, 293, 326 
Sui Fu, 31 5 panic at, 66 ; the Pol- 

lards robbed at, 67 
Sun Yat Sen, Dr., Chinese reformer, 
& 95 5 President of the Chinese Re- 
3 public, 252 ; resigns the President- 
S|ship, 252 

Superstition in China, 70 
Szechuen, inns of, 29 ; the Lolo of, 



157; the Viceroy of, at the 
Kiating Conference, 244 

Tai, Mr., at Rev. S. Thome's death- 
bed, 64 ; evangelises, 1 30 ; at 
Lao-wa-t'an, 132 

Taiping rebellion, 94 

Ta-Kuan, 128 ; Pollard learns at, 
the legend about the origin of 
opium, 140 

Ta-Liang-Shan (the " Great Cold 
Mountains "), 157, 167 

T'an Teo, 131 ; stories at an inn at, 

137 

Ta'o-Loh-Chioh (" Mr. Peach "), the 
Christian bee-keeper of Mi-ri-keo, 
221 

Tao-tien-pa, market at, 81 

Ta-ping-tsi, terrorism at, 229 ; Pol- 
lard revisits, 272, 297 

Ta-shih-chuang, where the Rev. S. 
Thorne died, 196 ; Nature's pa- 
goda at, 196 

Ta-shui-tsing, C.I,M. out-station, 
238 ; Pollard's visit to, 259 ; 
Pollard meets Arthur Nicholls at, 
299 

Ta-tang, curious lizards at, 138 

Ta- want-si, the Dragon Feast at, 129 

Taylor, Rev. J., at the Kiating Con- 
ference, 244 

Taylor, Rev. J. Hudson, 9 5 his plan 
of mission labour, 10 (footnote) ; 
Pollard meets him at Shanghai, 
98 ; death of, 214 

Tea-shop justice, 30 

Thorne, Rev. James, at Shebbear, 5 

Thorne, Rev. Samuel Thomas, called 
to mission work, 9 ; at Chaotong, 
34 ; marriage of, 36, 40 ; at " Wild 
Buffalo" hamlet, 50; holds 
Christmas services in Yunnan Fu, 
52 ; death of, 64 ; his notice of the 
aborigines, 156 

Tibet, curious theory concerning the 
natives of, 157, 168 

Tientsin, 94 

"Tight Corners," 136, 326 

Tong, Mr., General Tsai's secretary, 

307 
Tongking, concession to France, near, 

95 

Tong King Sing, Chinese reformer, 95 
Town, John, Chairman of the 

Arthington Trust Fund, 279 
Tremberth, Rev. W., at Ganking, 60 ; 
nurses Rev. S. Thorne, 64 > serves 
at Chaotong, 69 ; during the 
Chaotong famine, 75 ; alone at 
Tungch'uan, 76 ; at the opening 



INDEX 



383 



of the new chapel at Chaotong, 87 | 
in charge of the training school at 
Chaotong, 1 50 ; service with the 
Miao, 184, 1 86 

Tsai, General, leads the revolt in 
Yunnan, 303 ; declared President 
of Yunnan, 304 ; his strong action 
for New China, 307 

Tsing-ti-pa, service at, 143 ; market 
at, 146 

Tu-ku-men, hardships at, 220 

Tu-muh, or seigneur, the feudal 
chief of the No-Su, 159 

Tungch'uan, Pollard faints at, 57 ; 
Vanstone at, 61 ; District Meeting 
of 1 892 at, . 68 ; the Confucian 
temple at, 85 j description of, 88 j 
Pollard's stay in, 89 ; birth of his 
first child at, 89 } Annual Meetings 
at, 104, in ; development of the 
Mission at, 203 ; Pollard visits, 
259 ; the Pollards return to, 310 

Tzu Hsi, Empress-Dowager of China, 

96 ; her folly, 97 ; her duplicity, 

97 ; criminality of, 116 

United Methodist Free Church, 2 f 
mission at Chaotong, 34 ; union of 
the Bible Christian and New Con- 
nexion Churches with the, 245 

" Universal Spring," 240. See Si- 
pang-tsing 

Vanstone, Rev. J. B., 132 

Vanstone, Rev. Thomas Grills, called 
to mission service, 9 5 marriage of, 
21 ; wrecked on the Yangtsze, 25 3 
death of his daughter, 47 ; down 
with malaria, 56 J goes to Tung- 
ch'uan, 6 1 ; ordered to England, 
76 ; his forecast of Pollard's work 
amongst the Aborigines, 156 

Victoria, Queen, death of, 120 

Vriha, a No-Su chief, 172 ; offers his 
sister in marriage to Pollard, 177 ; 
his quarrel with Long, 178 

Vrinte, a No-Su chief, 172 ; his sad 
end, 170 

Wang, Mr., and his family, 77-84 ; 

Mr. Wang carries on evangelistic 
S|-\vork at Lao-wa-t'an, 132 
Wang Fu, the Miao Minnehaha, 300 
Wang, the Peh Miao leader, 352 
Wang-teh-tao, Miao evangelist, 210 
Watts-Jones, Lieut., at Chaotong, 112 
Wax-insect tree, 146 
Wei-hai-wei acquired by Great 

Britain, 95 



Weining, Pollard's visit to the 
mandarin at, 189 ; a progressive 
mandarin at, 225 ; Pollard again 
at, 238, 239 ; the mandarin of, at 
Stone Gateway, 348 

." Wild Buffalo " hamlet, 50 

Willet, Mr., 76 

Williams, R., at Chungking, 123 

Wizardry, 187; Pollard's attempts 
to put down, 333 

World War, The, Pollard on the out- 
break of, 359 

Wu-Chai, roast pork at, 1 36 

Wuchang, 22 

Wu-ting-chow, C.I.M. work at, 271, 
375 

Yah-koh (James), the Miao who 
assisted Pollard in translating the 
Gospels, 293 ; his address at Sa- 
pu-shan, 300 ; assists Pollard in 
the leper problem, 242 ; his im- 
pressive prayers, 359 

Yang, James, evangelist, 54 ; pros- 
pecting at Chentu, 284 ; assists 
Pollard in translating the Gospels 
into Miao script, 292 

Yangchi, the Miao evangelist, 298, 
299 

Yang-K'ai-Yong, baptism of, 86 ; 
death of, 87 

Yang-K'ai-Yong, Pollard's servant, 

77 
Yang-shih-ho, the Chinaman who 

saved Pollard's life, 232, 272 
Yangtsze, the, in the rainy season, 

17 > character of, 23-7 
Yang-yah-koh, Miao evangelist, 210. 

See Yah-koh 
Yao-ren, prehistoric tribe in Yunnan, 

160, 181 
Yen, Mr., evangelist in Yunnan, 128 ; 

at Lao-wa-t'an, 132 ; his zeal and| 

devotion, 153 

Y.M.C.A. in Yunnan Fu, 307-10 $ 
Yoh-han (John), on the early days of 

Miao mission work, 316. See 

Chang-yoh-han 
Yongshan, a significant incident at, 

73 ; obstruction at, 229 
Yuan Shih K'ai betrays the Chinese 

Emperor, 96, 116} President of 

the Chinese Republic, 252 
Yunnan, as a mission field, 9 ; 

scenery of, 32 -; opium fields in, 39 ; 

aborigines of, 73 ; the Boxer rising 

in, 1 16 j awakening in, 126 et seqq. ; 

mission work in, crippled by 

Western apathy, 155 ; historical 

sketch of the aborigines of, 1 56-66 j 



3^4 



SAMUEL POLLARD 



Chinese annexation of, 157 ; pro- 
claimed a Republic, 304 ; scandal 
of medical neglect in, 338 ; various 
tribes in, 352 

Yunnan Fu, city of, 40 ; pioneer 
mission work in, 41-8 ; rioting in, 
116 ; reopening of the Mission at, 



203 f reaction against foreigners 
in, 235-6 ; effect of the anti- 
opium edict at, 254-5 ; the Indo- 
Chinese railway to, 256 ; Pollard 
preaches in the prison of, 261 ; 
unrest in, 301 ; improvements in, 
302 ; revolution in, 303 



The Mayflower Press, Plymouth, England. William Brendon and Son, Ltd. 

F. 30.1020 



MM, V R SIT_Y OF CHICP 





48 440 200 



S 



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UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 




48 440 200
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