Letter from Henry to Edward, September 30, 1881

Letter from Henry to Edward, September 30, 1881

Birthdays; River boats; Presidents--Assassination attempts; Death; Travel; Hakka (Chinese people)

Henry writes to Edward on his birthday from Chik Hom. He is sorry to hear of the death of President Garfield, comparing his martyrdom with that of Lincoln. Henry spent last Sabbath at the church in San-Ui. He walked partway to No-Fu before renting a chair. One preacher, Mi Hing, has fallen ill. They finally reached Chik-Hom further down the river.

Noyes, Henry Varnum

Loose, The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection

Unpublished

1881-09-30

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_823

Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881

Chik Hom Sept 30th 1881
Dear Bro Edward
I am sitting down at the door of
my boat as the sun is near going down to write
a few lines in remembrance of the fact that it
is your birth day. I believe the American Mail
leaves [--for--] HongKong to-day but this will of course wait
until the next mail. I left Canton about a week
ago. Bella and the children did not come this time
but expect to make a trip up the West River with
me as soon as I get back which will be next
week Saturday. We expect to start on the Monday
following. I presume you will hear by the mail
leaving to-day of the party who started last[--ed--]
Tuesday up the North River. I heard the sad
news of Pres Garfield's death before I started I
had so much hoped that he would recover
and have a prosperous administration and
one greatly beneficial to the country. But it
has been ordered otherwise. How much he
must have suffered during these long weary weeks
since he was shot. I felt for a day or two after hearing
of his death very much as I did when I heard
of Charles Preston's death as though I could not
bear to have it so. I remember how he looked the
only time I ever saw him at the commencement
at Hudson when the speaker for the afternoon address
did not come and he was asked to make
some remarks or possibly it was after the
address that he spoke. I do not remember certainly.
He seems to have been a straight forward noble man

through all his political career and a Christian
too. Lincoln died a martyr for his faithfulness
in standing up against the slave power and
Garfield for his faithfulness in standing up against
political corruption for though perhaps Giteau alone is
responsible for actually shotting him I have no
idea he would have been shot if Conkling and
his ring had not done as they did. I hope the
country will consign them all to a political death,
as the murderer will no doubt suffer physical death.
We shall wait anxiously until we get all the
particulars as we have only telegraph news con-
densed into a few lines. I trust the names of
our two martyred Presidents are written in heaven,
as they certainly are upon the hearts of the American
people.
Last Sabbath I had communion at the
San-Ui church. There were 20 communicants
but several of them were from the Wesleyan
church. I did not feel very well satisfied
as several members were about who ought
to have been there. I left Monday morning
and Tuesday night reached the anchoring
place from which I go to No-Fu. I forgot to
say that when I left home the American mail
was soon expected and I left word to have
it sent to San-Ui. Unfortunately the passage
boat did not deliver it in time and I had

to leave without it. I have had heard by a man
who came here from San-Ui since that it ar-
rived after I left so I shall get it when I get
back there next Thursday. To go on about No-Fu
I started Wednesday morning for that place. It is
a good 18 miles from the river. I walked a
little more than [--3--] 3 miles and then got a chair
for the rest of the way. Two of the native
christians walked all the way. They got tolerably
tired but the Chinese here do not mind
walking 15 or 20 miles. They are in the country
quite used to it as chairs are expensive
for them and there is no other way of travel
by land except foot passage. The road is
through a somewhat narrow plain with
high ranges of hills on both sides. It was
formerly occupied by the Hakkas who speak[--e--]
a different dialect from the Puntis. Mattie can
tell you the difference between the Puntis
and Hakkas. I think in the first place
the Hakkas fought the Puntis and got pos-
session of this valley. Then in time the Puntis
dispossessed the Hakkas with immense slaughter.
The remains of ruined Hakka villages are
scattered all about through the valley. This took

place 15 or 20 years ago. About 4 miles from No-Fu
I walked a little distance away from the road to
see an old building or enclosure of buildings that
look like an old garrison that some of the christians
talk of [--byn--] buying so as to live without being
constantly reviled by their neighbors. It can be ob-
tained they say very cheap as the heathen Chinese
are all afraid to live there, saying it is haunted
with ghosts. During the trouble with the Hakkas
a large number took refuge in this place and
were there surrounded and slain, so they think
the spirits of these slain Hakkas infest the place.
I found the preacher Mi Hing quite unwell some
trouble with his chest. He has a nice little school
of 12 boys to whom he gives faithful instruction.
We had a chapel full all the evening until
9-o-clock. Thursday forenoon we had very pleasant
communion services though the number was small
in Mo Hing and the two christians who went with me as
communicants, as spectators 4 of the neighbors, then
the school and my servant Atong. [--To do--] We left
at eleven-o-clock and reached the boat towards
evening. This morning we came down the river
to Chik-Hom which place we reached at noon. I
have been preaching on the street this afternoon and
having a meeting or rather bible reading with some
of the native christians this evening. It is communion
here on Sunday. There is one applicant for baptism. The Christians
say there will be a good many here. Now good night & very pleasant
returns of Sept 30th is the wish of Your Aff Bro Henry
[Written vertically]
P.S. I wrote about half this letter before going up to the chapel this evening and the rest since
coming back



积坎 1881 年 9 月 30 日
亲爱的爱德华兄弟
我坐在门口
我的船在太阳快下山的时候写
几行以纪念它
是你的生日。我相信美国邮政
今天离开香港，但这当然会等待
直到下一封邮件。我离开广州大约一个星期
前。贝拉和孩子们这次没有来
但希望与
我一回来就下一个
星期星期六。我们预计从星期一开始
下列的。我想你会在邮件中听到
最后开始的派对的今天离开
周二在北河上。我听到了悲伤
加菲尔德总统去世的消息在我开始之前
非常希望他能康复
并有一个繁荣的政府和
对国家大有裨益的一件事。但它
已另外订购。他多少钱
在这漫长而疲惫的几周里一定受过苦
自从他被枪杀了。听完后感觉一两天
就像我听到他的死一样
查尔斯普雷斯顿的死，好像我不能
忍无可忍。我记得他的样子
我唯一一次在毕业典礼上见到他
在哈德逊当下午演讲的演讲者
没有来，他被要求做
一些评论，或者可能是在
他所说的地址。我不记得了。
他似乎是一个直率的贵族

通过他所有的政治生涯和一个基督徒
也。林肯为他的忠诚而殉道
在站起来反对奴隶权力和
加菲猫因为他在对抗中的忠诚
政治腐败，因为也许只有吉托一个人
负责实际拍摄他我没有
想如果康克林和他会被枪杀
他的戒指没有像他们那样做。我希望
国家将把他们全部送去政治处死，
因为凶手无疑会遭受肉体的死亡。
我们将焦急地等待，直到我们得到所有
细节，因为我们只有电报新闻浓缩成几行。我相信名字
我们两位殉道的总统都写在天上，
因为它们肯定在美国人的心中
人们。
上个安息日我在圣餐
三义教堂。有20个沟通者
但其中有几个来自卫斯理
教会。我觉得不太满意
因为有几个成员在讨论谁应该
去过那里。我星期一早上离开
周二晚上到达锚地
我去No-Fu的地方。我忘了
说当我离开家时，美国邮件
很快就预料到了，我留下了一句话
它被送到了San-Ui。不幸的是通道
船没有及时交付，我有

没有它就离开。我听过一个男人
谁从 San-Ui 来的，因为它是在我离开后到达的，所以当我到达时我会得到它
下周四回到那里。继续说 No-Fu
我星期三早上开始去那个地方。这是
距离河流 18 英里。我走了一个
3英里多一点，然后得到了一把椅子
在剩下的时间里。两个本地人
基督徒一路走来。他们得到了可以忍受的
累了，但这里的中国人不介意
步行 15 或 20 英里。他们在国内
很习惯因为椅子很贵
对他们来说，没有其他的旅行方式
陆路，步行除外。路是
通过一个有点狭窄的平原
两岸高山丘陵。它是
以前被说话的客家人占领
与蓬蒂斯语不同的方言。马蒂可以
告诉你Puntis和Puntis的区别
和客家人。我认为首先
客家人与蓬提人作战，占领了这个山谷。然后及时Puntis
以巨大的屠杀剥夺了客家人的财产。
被毁的客家村落的遗迹是
散落在山谷中。这花了

15 或 20 年前的地方。距离 No-Fu 约 4 英里
我从路边走了一段距离
看到一座旧建筑物或建筑物的围墙，
看起来像一些基督徒的旧驻军
谈论购买以便生活而不存在
经常被邻居辱骂。可以得到他们说像异教徒中国人一样便宜
都不敢住在那里，说是闹鬼
与鬼魂。在与客家人的麻烦中
很多人在这个地方避难，
在那里被包围并被杀，所以他们认为
这些被杀的客家人的灵魂感染了这个地方。
我发现米兴传道人身体有些不适
他的胸部有问题。他有一所不错的小学校
他忠实地指导了 12 个男孩。
我们整晚都坐满了教堂，直到
9点。星期四下午我们过得很愉快
圣餐服务虽然人数很少
在墨兴和跟我一起去的两个基督徒
传播者，作为邻居的观众 4，然后
学校和我的仆人阿通。我们离开了
十一点钟，到达了驶向
晚上。今天早上我们顺河而下
到我们中午到达的Chik-Hom。我
今天下午一直在街上讲道
开会或更确切地说是双

Letter