SHUT UP IN CHENG-TING-FU

Of Mr. and Mrs. Griffith and Mr. Brown at Shun-teh our information is but scanty. Rioted out of their city and driven from place to place, they arrived at Cheng-tingfu, where they took refuge in the Roman Catholic cathedral (see p. 166 and route map). A native messenger sent by Mr. Price of the American Board from Shan-si, who carried a rag with these words, "This man will tell our situation and is trustworthy," passed through Cheng-ting-fu on his way to the coast. He reported having seen twenty foreigners safe in the Cheng-ting-fu Roman Catholic cathedral, who were being protected by the friendly brigadier-general. These were Mr. and Mrs. Griffith and child, also Mr. Brown, all of the C.I.M., one Roman Catholic bishop, three priests, five nuns, five railway men, and two others. These C.I.M. friends eventually joined Mr. Green's party at Pao-ting-fu, where they were found by the Allies. The following letter from Mr. Griffith records their safe arrival at T'ien-tsin :

T'IEN-TSIN, Monday, October 29, 1900.

DEAR MR. STEVENSON-You probably knew some weeks ago that Mr. Brown and we were safely lodged with the Catholics in Cheng-ting-fu. I wrote to you on September 8 from there. (This letter never came to hand.) We remained there until Wednesday, October 17, being there in all just twelve weeks. On October 17 we left Cheng-ting-fu for Pao-ting-fu under an escort of 40 Chinese cavalry, provided by the Pao-ting-fu F'an-t'ai, who took us in safety as far as Ting-chau, which is the terminus of the railway. The day after we left Cheng-ting we met a body of twenty-four French cavalry, and after talking the matter over with the French officer, we accepted his offer to give us an escort, and to see us safely through to Ting-chau, there to await his return from Cheng-ting with the party of five railway surveyors. So, for the last fifteen miles, we had both Chinese and French cavalry, until we reached Ting-chau, where we were given a private house near the French Camp. The French cavalry who had gone to Cheng-ting-fu to fetch the railway engineers, returned to Ting-chau on the Saturday-October 20—and the next day, Sunday, we all went by train to Pao-ting-fu, where we were handed over to

Vera, under 5 years. John, under 3 years.

To face page 160.

the British officers, and taken to the Red Cross Hospital, where Mr. Green was lying ill. Then on Tuesday 23 we left Pao-ting-fu by boat with a convoy of British for Tien-tsin, and we arrived here on Saturday, October 27.

It is remarkable how peaceful the city of Cheng-ting-fu was; though we did not go outside the premises until the end of September, yet the servants were able to go out and buy provisions as usual. The Bishop, priests, monks, and nuns are all remaining there.

I cannot enter into details of our wanderings now, we praise God we have had an easy time compared with many others. We are all well. Our Hwuy-luh friends have had a hard time indeed; you will probably see some published accounts of it before they are able to report their adventures personally.

At Pao-ting-fu I went and saw the ruins of our premises, a sad spectacle.

Please excuse more now, as Mr. Green, being ill, takes a good deal of attention.-With kind regards, yours sincerely,

Mr. Green sends his love.

MARTIN GRIFFITH.

The thrilling story of the Hwuy-luh friends is one of most extraordinary interest. The party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Green, two children-Vera aged five, and John under three-and Miss Gregg. The narrative was written by Mr. Green before he was taken ill, and, as he says, is only "told for the glory of God." The following is carefully condensed from his account, which is too long to print in full here. May the "God of deliverances " be glorified by its publication.

CAPTURED BY THE BOXERS

By Mr. CHARLES GREEN

"A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee."

It was very soon after our return to Hwuy-luh on April 1 that increasing rumours of trouble with the society known as "The Boxers" in the district north of Pao-ting-fu reached us, and by the middle of May things seemed to be getting really serious, though one learns by experience to "liberally discount" all rumours in China.

The continued drought in the province caused much unrest among the people, and no doubt tended to accelerate and strengthen the anti

M

foreign movement.

There had been no rain practically since early in July last year. The autumn crops had been a failure, the wheat for this year's spring could not be sown, so there were no spring crops, now the time for sowing the autumn crops was fast passing away, and still no rain.

The anti-foreign party, taking advantage of this, issued broadcast inflammatory placards, with various very injurious accusations, saying there would be no rain until all foreigners were exterminated. Although there was much idle talk and growing coldness of attitude to us in our district, we first began to be uneasy when we found these placards were being posted in the neighbourhood. We were glad to find that, at least, our local magistrate was not anti-foreign.

From this time forward the local natives and our own dear Christians and inquirers became more and more uneasy. Many of the more friendly natives visited us, and sought to assure us that whatever happened elsewhere, the Hwuy-luh people would never do, or allow any violence, and that we must continue to pray for rain. We gave ourselves to much prayer and waiting upon God, and encouraged our Christians to do the same. Truly for them this was a time of fiery trial; they were "counted as the offscouring of all things," and knew what it was to be "despised and rejected" of men, and being "of the people" there was no respite such as we had in the privacy of our own house.

About midnight on June 12 I awoke to find a man in our room. Though I immediately sprang up, he managed to escape. This was the beginning of several midnight alarms and, coupled with the other growing troubles, seemed to unnerve us.

On June 30 an abundant rain commenced, which lasted more or less for three days, and was sufficient to allow the later autumn grains to be sown, thus saving our district, at least, from the long-dreaded famine. When at last the rain came, after the long strain of waiting and continued prayers, we could not keep back the tears of thankfulness, and perhaps from this little incident something may be gathered of what those days had meant.

We trusted that now our troubles were passed, and rejoiced, because the people would all be busy on their land, and more peaceful times were at hand.

Danger on Every Hand

On Monday, July 2, our little household were at prayer when a messenger I had sent returned with a reply from the telegraph clerk to this effect: "He had just heard on the wires, that all the Mission premises in Pao-ting had been destroyed the previous day, and all the foreigners killed, only two ladies had been carried into the district Yamên, and that many natives, both Protestants and Catholics, had perished." The Lord Himself gave the grace for receiving this sad, sad news.