Letter from Henry to Clara, September 15, 1887

Letter from Henry to Clara, September 15, 1887

Travel; Boats and boating; Festivals; Crows; Boating accidents

Henry writes to Clara about his traveling between Fatshan and Canton. He has been traveling with Mrs. Fulton, Dr. Fulton, and Mattie. Dr. Kerr and Mr. Fulton were left around Kwai Ping. They did not get to much missionary work while on their travels. One of the days their boat was attacked by a flock of crows.

Noyes, Henry Varnum

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

Unpublished

1887-09-15

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_908

Near Canton Sept 15th 1887
Dear Clara -
I have only this sheet of [--pf--] paper left and am going to use it to
write home this morning. We are between Fatshan and Canton about
ten miles from the latter city. We means Mrs Fulton, Dr Fulton Mattie +
I. We left Dr Kerr and Mr Fulton about 3 miles below Kwai Ping in
the other boat- We went up the river in two boats Dr Kerr Mattie + I had
one and the Fultons the other- We had a very pleasant journey
up the river for fourteen days besides the two Sabbaths. We did not
do very much mission work on the way excepting on the Sabbaths
when we were auctioned. The first Sabbath was at a small village
and Mr Fulton + I went into it and distributed some tracts
and taked with the people. The second Sabbath we spent at
Ping-Nam the first district city below Kwai Ping. Dr Kerr and I
went into the city on the forenoon and spent about two hours
there - have a very good time. The people were fairly civil
though some [?runners?] from the [?Yamun?] came and wanted
us to leave which however we did not do till we got ready.
In the afternoon Dr Kerr prescribed some from the boat + I dist-
ributed tracts on the shore to people who were returning from
[Note: page torn] [?the market?]- Monday and Tuesday we [?were?] going up the
river [--where we--] arrived at Kwai Ping Tuesday evening
Wednesday morning Dr Kerr and I took tracts and
went through one of the principal streets distributing
The people were fairly civil and we met with no
particular trouble. Thursday morning about 10-o-clock'
a number of roughs came out from the city and
made a demand that we should [--make a demand--]
pay 3 or 4 dollars for a festival that was in progress-
It is called by Europeans the Chinese "All souls festival"
The object is to worship on behalf of wandering
souls who have no one in particular on earth to
care for them - of course the demand was refused-
They talked of course abusively and now + then one and
another came down to get on our boat which we
would not allow -- Gradually the crow was increased
by additional squads till there was about fifty- Miss

Fulton + Miss Dr Fulton began to get quite nervous so it seemed
so much like their former experience that [--the--] it was thought
best for their boat to leave and anchor elsewhere. Mr Fulton
left with them and Dr Kerr + I remained with our boat
and two [--men--] boatmen in it. They were not enough
to have taken the boat away even if we had [illegible] at which
we did not. The rabble threw some clods at us but we
remained on the bow of the boat facing them and after
about a half an hour more they left. They made all
sorts of threats that they would come at night, or tomorrow
with a larger crowd, that they would push us into the
water +c +c- but we remained there until Saturday
night and were not again molested. Then we
went and anchored at the other End of the city
near the Fultons boats. Sunday morning a force of
[?rowdies?] came out and shouted for a while and
pelted our boat with a few clods + stones but we
paid no attention to them and they soon left. A few
minutes after we heard a shout and looking and
saw they were at Fultons boat. They gave it quite
a bombardment with some fire wood that the
boatmen had unfortunately left on the bank. By the
time this was over the Fulton's were ready to leave
and no account of persuasion could indure [?them?]
to remain, so Dr Kerr very reluctantly went with [?them?]
the ladies and I started for home in the Fulton's boat
the next morning leaving Dr Kerr + Mr Fulton anchored
where we spent the night before about three miles from
Kwai Ping. To our surprise they got into Canton just
one day after we did. They remained 4 days near
Kwai Ping then started down expecting to do considerable
work in the way down at the large towns. But on the
way down they struck a large rock in the middle of
the river and their boat sank in a little while.
They would have been in a good deal of danger if a
boat had not come out from the shore and taken
them off. They lost all they had on board amounting
to over 100- in the case of each of them.--
Many thanks for your good long letters- the one
about mother, and all the details about the children
which I read with much interest- they ought to be
grateful for all the pains you took for them I
am glad you think they are pretty good boys,
Your Aff Bro
-Henry-
[Note: written sideways in the margin]
I wrote a part of this on the boat + part after I got home ---
I omitted to say that on Friday the day after the first row Dr Kerr + I went through the city from
End to End preaching and distributing tracts [illegible] three hours.



1887 年 9 月 15 日在广州附近
亲爱的克拉拉——
我只剩下这张纸了，我打算用它来
今天早上写回家。我们在肥山和广州之间
离后一个城市十英里。我们指的是富尔顿夫人、富尔顿博士、马蒂和
I. 我们将 Kerr 博士和 Fulton 先生留在了葵平下方约 3 英里处
另一艘船。我们乘坐两艘船顺流而上。 Kerr Mattie 博士和我有
一个和富尔顿另一个。我们有一个非常愉快的旅程
除了两个安息日之外，还要在河上停留十四天。我们没有
除安息日外，在路上做很多宣教工作
当我们被拍卖时。第一个安息日在一个小村庄
我和富尔顿先生进去分发了一些小册子
并与人们交谈。我们度过的第二个安息日
屏南是葵坪以下的第一区市。克尔博士和我
上午进城，花了大约两个小时
那里 - 玩得很开心。人们相当文明
虽然一些亚明的跑者来了，想要
我们要离开，但是直到我们准备好我们才这样做。
下午，克尔医生从船上开了一些药，我在岸上分发了一些小册子给从那里回来的人。
[注：页面撕裂] 市场。周一和周二，我们将上升
星期二晚上我们到达葵坪的河
星期三早上，克尔博士和我拿了一些小册子，
穿过其中一条主要街道分布
人们是公平的，我们没有遇到
特别麻烦。周四上午 10 点左右
许多粗野从城里出来，
提出了我们应该
一个正在进行的音乐节需要 3 或 4 美元。
它被欧洲人称为中国人的万灵节
对象是代表流浪的祭祀
地球上没有人特别关注的灵魂
照顾他们-当然要求被拒绝-
他们当然是辱骂性的，时不时的，
另一个下来上我们的船，我们
不允许。渐渐的人多了起来
由额外的小队组成，直到大约有五十人。太太

Fulton 和 Fulton 博士小姐似乎开始变得非常紧张
非常像他们以前的经历
最好让他们的船离开并停泊在别处。富尔顿先生
和他们一起离开，克尔博士和我留在我们的船上
和两个船夫在里面。他们还不够
把船拿走了，即使我们有 [无法辨认] 它
我们没有。暴民向我们扔了一些土块，但我们
留在船头面对他们，然后
他们离开了大约半个小时。他们把所有
他们会在晚上或明天来的各种威胁
有更多的人群，他们会把我们推到
水 [无法辨认] - 但我们一直待到星期六
晚上并没有再被骚扰。然后我们
去并停泊在城市的另一端
在富尔顿船附近。星期天早上
粗人出来喊了一会儿，
用一些土块和石头向我们的船投掷，但我们
没有理会他们，他们很快就离开了——几个
几分钟后，我们听到一声喊叫，向外张望
说他们在富尔顿船上。他们给了它相当
用一些柴火轰炸
船夫不幸离开了岸边。由
时间结束了，富尔顿一家准备离开
再多 [注意：页面撕裂] 的说服力都无法诱导他们
留下来，所以科尔博士很不情愿地和他们一起去了
我和女士们在富尔顿的船上启程回家
第二天早上，克尔博士和富尔顿先生抛锚
前一晚我们在离这里大约三英里的地方住的地方
葵平。令我们惊讶的是，他们刚刚进入广州
一天之后。他们在附近停留了 4 天
葵平随后开始下跌，期望做可观的事情
在大城镇的路上工作。但在
一路向下，他们撞到了中间的一块大石头
不久，河流和他们的船就沉没了。
如果一个
船还没有从短途中出来并采取
他们关闭。他们失去了船上所有的东西
超过 100- 在他们每个人的情况下 ---
非常感谢你写的长信——那封信
关于母亲，以及关于孩子的所有细节
我读得很感兴趣。他们应该是
感谢您寻找的所有 [无法辨认] [无法辨认] 我
很高兴你认为他们是好孩子
你的兄弟
——亨利——
[注：写在左边空白处]
我在船上写了一部分，回家后写了一部分——
我没有说在第一排的第二天，克尔博士和我从
端到端的讲道和分发小册子在那里进行了三个小时。