Letters from Mr. Johnson in 1847

January 9, 1847

Introductory Remarks — Arrival at Fuh Chau.

The mission of the Board in China have been hitherto confined to Canton and Amoy. Still it has been the wish of the Committee, for some time past, to commence operations in some of the more northern ports; but until recently the way has not seemed to be open for such an undertaking. But on the arrival of Messrs. Johnson and Peet at Canton from siam, the attention of these brethren was directed to Fuh Chau, which lies north of Amoy, and south of Ningpo and Shanghai. Having taken the advice of the missionaries at Canton, Mr. Johnson resolved to visit this large city, and ascertain from personal inspection the expediency of attempting the establishment of another mission at that point. Accordingly he left Canton, November 23, for Hongkong; whence he sailed, November 26, for Fun Chau in the schooner Petrel. This vessel is engaged in the opium trade, and Mr. Johnson regretted the necessity of proceeding in her from this circumstance; but he was reduced to the alternative of going in such a vessel or not at all. The Petrel was obliged to return to Hongkong in consequence of an accident; and she did not finally sail in till December 3. After encountering two or three heavy gales she reached Amoy, December 19.

Mr. Johnson was pleased with the prospect of the mission at Amoy. “The people and the authorities,” he says, “are remarkably friendly and respectful to the missionaries. Indeed, they could hardly ask for greater privileges, as the ministers of Christ, than they now possess. In the feelings of the people towards them, there is very gratifying evidence of the happy influence of our beloved brother Abeel; and there is ground to hope that he was instrumental in the conversion of one or two souls.” Mr. Johnson found that the dialect spoken at Amoy was essentially the same as the one which he had studied in Siam.

Mr. Johnson left Amoy for Fun Chau, December 22; and after several detentions, he arrived at the mouth of the Min, thirty miles from Fuh Chau, January 2. The narrative will be continued in his own language.

On the morning of January 2, I proceed up the river to Fun Chau, which I reached about two o’clock in the afternoon. The river Min, on the north side of which the main part of the city lies, runs between two lofty ridges of mountains, which extend from a long distance above the city to its entrance into the ocean, their bases, most of the way, reaching even to the margin of this noble stream. The scenery of the Hudson is confessedly beautiful and sublime; but in point of beauty, grandeur and sublimity, that of the Min is, in my opinion, greatly superior. At many points these mountains are improved nearly to their summits, the cultivated spots being vast gardens, with terraces rising one above another, almost to the region of the clouds.

As we approached Fuh Chau, the mountains, especially on the north bank, recede from the river, enclosing between them an immense plain of great fertility, which forms the site of this large city. This plain, through which peacefully winds the noble Min, in conjunction with the majestic mountains nearly encircling it, constitutes a vast natural amphitheatre, in comparison with which the proudest amphitheatres of human construction dwindle into insignificance. On this plain are several lofty hills, from which the prospect is beautiful, grand and impressive, perhaps beyond any thing I have ever seen elsewhere. What a happy people this might be, if illumined and sanctified by the glorious gospel! But I am the only Protestant missionary in this filed, a stranger as yet to their prevailing language, and the name of Jesus has scarcely been heard by one in ten thousand of its inhabitants, and then only from the lips of the Roman Catholic missionary.

On my arrival I went immediately to the residence of the British Consul, R. B. Jackson, Esquire, to whom i had letters, and by whom I was politely received. From my landing place to his residence, the distance is about three miles, the greater part of it being one continuous, crowded street, from five to six feet in width. The Consul’s residence is just within the city walls, on a lofty eminence, commanding a prospect of the city and surrounding country of surpassing grandeur and beauty.

On the following Monday, Mr. Johnson removed to the house of Captain William Roper, the agent of a mercantile firm in Canton, who resides on an island in the suburbs of the city, and who has treated our missionary brother with great kindness. The reader will be sorry to learn, however, that all the foreign residents at Fuh Chau, out of the Consul’s establishment, are engaged in the opium trade.

Population — Advantages for a Mission.

I feel that this place, owing to its magnitude and its great importance in a missionary point of view, must not be deserted; and I would cling to the spot, if only by that means I might be able to make a more impressive appeal to Christians in America in its behalf, and be the humble instrument of introducing other laborers into this great field, apparently white for the harvest. The city walls of Fuh Chau are supposed to be nearly eight miles in circumference; and the enclosed area is most of it covered with Chinese dwellings, crowded thick together, and filled with immortal souls in ignorance of the only way of salvation. But the population in the suburbs is probably nearly, if not quite, equal to that within the city walls. The entire population of Fuh Chau cannot, it is thought, be less than six hundred thousand souls; and I have been informed that by the Chinese themselves it is even estimated at millions. Whatever may be the real number of persons congregated here, and rapidly hastening to the grave and a miserable eternity, this is certain, that it is vast, and consequently must have a powerful claim upon the sympathies, the prayers, and the efficient aid of the pious in Christian lands, and certainly not the least on those in my native land. God has apparently brought me hither, and placed me in the midst of this great valley of dry bones, a solitary missionary, to utter to the Christian public the Macedonian cry, “Come over and help us.” Like most other heathen communities, these perishing thousands are too insensible to their danger and their moral necessities, to be disposed to plead for the glorious gospel, God’s appointed means for the salvation of them that believe. Are there no young men in my native land, whose hearts burn with holy zeal for God’s glory in the salvation of precious souls, and who would count it, not only a duty, but a privilege to come hither and unite with me in my humble efforts to communicate to this people the knowledge of Jesus Christ and him crucified? Are there no Christian parents who would gladly bid farewell to their sons and daughters to come hither and engage in this good and glorious work? Are there no ministers of Jesus Christ, who in the sanctuary and at the monthly concert will appeal to their people in behalf of Fuh Chau, if they cannot come hither themselves? Must these unknown multitudes, like the generations of their fathers, perish in ignorance of the way of salvation, for the want of a deep and holy interest in their behalf on the part of American Christians? Oh, it ought not, it must not be so. I trust in the great Head of the Church, who shed his blood in the behalf of these myriads, that it will not be so. There are many hearts in my native land who feel for the heathen, and who only want the requisite information to awaken a holy activity in their behalf.

Mr. Johnson says that the dialect spoken in Fuh Chau is peculiar, differing so much from that of Amoy as to be in a great measure unintelligible to him. Hence he will be obliged to depend, for the present, on written communications, and on the Mandarin, which is extensively understood by the people. He hopes, however, that a year’s residence will give him a tolerable acquaintance with the common dialect.

I have already rented a small house for the sum of eighty dollars a year. It is now erecting, but is to be finished by the 17th instant when I hope to enter it. It is within a few rods of my present home, directly in the midst of thousands of the people, and within a short distance of many tens of thousands, yet in bondage to sin and Satan. I now know of two or three large dwellings on this island that might be rented for from eight to twelve dollars a month. The people in Fuh Chau, in the general, appear friendly and well disposed towards strangers. Labor and food are very cheap, and missionary operations might be conducted to a large scale, with less expensive than at any other of the five ports open to foreign residents. Unlike Canton, access can be had to every part of the city, both within and without the walls; and probably buildings might be rented, and ground leased for buildings, in different sections of the city. The climate is universally acknowledged to be uncommonly healthy. I already feel its invigorating influence in my own increased physical and intellectual vigor. The thermometer ranges at this season between fifty-two and sixty-seven degrees. Sometimes, I am informed, there is a slight frost.

March 22, 1847

Prospect at Fuh Chau — Use of Opium

The July Herald contained an interesting letter from Mr. Johnson, in which he gave an account of his arrival at Fuh Chau, the appearance of the city, its population, and the advantages it offered for the commencement of a mission. He wrote again, under date of March 22, saying that a more extensive acquaintance with the place had deepened his impressions “in regard to its vast importance, and its promise as a missionary field.” He went thither, not without some apprehension as to the reception the people might give him, in consequence of the bad name which they have acquired abroad; but he has suffered no inconvenience whatever from this source.

Adverting to the consideration which favour the prosecution of the missionary work at Fuh Chau, he says, in the first place, that the expenses of living there are moderate; and he thinks that a mission can be sustained for about the sum which would be required in Siam. “As to personal security,” he adds, “I feel as safe here as I did at Bangkok; and as to procuring residences, I think that there is likely to be far less difficulty here than we encountered there. As regards the healthiness of the place, I believe there is but one opinion among those who have had the best opportunities of testing its salubrity; and this is, that it is among the most salubrious of climates. I have myself experienced its invigorating influence; indeed, my visit here has been to me like a journey to my native land.” Mr. Johnson says further:

Judging from present appearances, I see no reason to anticipate any peculiar opposition to missionary efforts. The probability that missionaries will be allowed by the people and their rulers peaceably and successfully to prosecute their work in Fuh Chau, is far stronger than it was, at the tie of the arrival of Mr. Robinson and myself in Siam, in July, 1834, that we should be able to carry forward our operations in that kingdom; but the Lord has not suffered the enemy there, even to this day, seriously to molest his servants.

As respects the language here spoken, judging from my yet limited knowledge of it, I think that it may be acquired in about the same time as the dialects elsewhere spoken. It is now a fortnight since I commenced the study of it with my Chinese teacher. I am enabled already, to a considerable extent, to make myself understood by the people around me, and conduct family worship in the dialect of this city. This, however, I could not have done, had it not been for my previous attention to other dialects, which, though unintelligible in Fuh Chau, agree with and differ from the language here spoken in accordance with some general laws One cannot be acquainted, to a good degree, with any one of the many dialects spoken in China, without thereby being enabled, with much greater ease and rapidity, to acquire another I hope within a year, if favored with health, to be able to speak the dialect of this city with as much confidence of being understood, as I did the Amoy dialect on leaving Bangkok, and even more. The advantages for speedy acquisition of a correct mode of speaking the Chinese within the empire, are vastly superior to those enjoyed in Siam, or any place out of China.

April 10, 1847

Mr. Johnson subsequently wrote, under date of April 10, confirming his previous statements as to the favourable position of Fuh Chau for missionary operations. The following paragraph from the letter presents a sad picture of the evils arising from the use of opium in that city.

Although Fuh Chau has a distinguished reputation in a literary point of view, having many eminent scholars; and although the mass of the people are uncommonly literary, for China; they are wholly ignorant of the purifying, ennobling and soul-saving truths of the gospel. The destructive and demoralizing influence of the opium trade has in but few places, perhaps, been felt to a greater degree than here. It is supposed by intelligent individuals that not less than one half of the male population of this city are more or less enslaved to the use of opium; an appalling and melancholy fact! Nothing apparently but triumph of the gospel over sin in its various forms, can save this people and the rest of China from temporal and eternal ruin. But how few are the labourers compared with the immensity of the field! The Lord graciously condescend to send forth labourers into his harvest!

My impression is, that there is no point in China where missionaries might labor with more hope of success in their work than in this great city and its neighborhood. Peculiar circumstances have drawn the attention of politicians and the Christian community to other places in the empire, much inferior in population, and perhaps also less important in a missionary point of view; while these hundreds of thousands of precious souls have been doing down to death, forgotten and unknown.

August 14, 1847

A letter has been received from Mr. Johnson, dated August 14, from which it appears that he is much encouraged in his work. “Everywhere,” he says, “he is kindly received.” The government is aware of his being in Fuh Chau, but makes no objection to his labor. Several of the inferior magistrates, indeed, have made friendly calls upon him. The demand for books is such that it is not safe or wise to attempt to distribute them on the principal streets. “I am beginning,” Mr. Johnson adds, “to publish orally the tidings of salvation with the hope of being in some degree understood. In my little family the message is listened to with apparently increasing seriousness at our morning and evening worship. I have commenced a Sabbath service in my house, in the hope of drawing in some of my neighbours and others to hear the Word.” Mr. Johnson still receives many acts of kindness from the English Consul, R. B. Jackson, Esquire.

(First published in the The Missionary Herald, 1847.)