I04 Kenneth S. Latonrette, 



gather first-hand knowledge of the situation. This was the work 

 that Abeel took up for the American Board after his term of 

 service at Canton as seaman's chaplain. He left China late in 

 1830 and visited Batavia, Singapore, and Bangkok. In January, 

 1832, he returned to Singapore, .and then made a second visit to 

 Bangkok, distributing books and tracts among the Chinese junks. 

 He returned to Singapore in November, 1832, and took the 

 place of Burn, the English chaplain, only to be compelled by 

 failing health to go to America.^^^ 



A few years later another voyage was undertaken, this time 

 by Talbot, Olyphant and Company, and on a larger scale. In 

 1836 they had purchased the brig "Himaleh" for the purpose 

 of aiding missionaries in distributing books along the China coast, 

 but no one familiar with that work could be obtained, and the 

 vessel was sent instead to the Malay Archipelago, Stevens and an 

 agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, G. Tradescant 

 Lay, accompanying her. The venture was not very successful, 

 as Stevens died on the trip and the burden of the work was 

 thrown on Captain Frazer, a man poorly fitted to assume it.^^^ 



Before this last voyage had begun, permanent American mis- 

 sions had been located at all three of the great centers of emigrant 

 population. The earliest Protestant missionary efifort for the 

 Chinese of Singapore was in 1819, when an Englishman, Mr. 

 Milton, founded the work.^^* The first American missionary 

 stationed there was Rev. Ira Tracy. He left New York in June, 

 1 833? with S. W. Williams, landing with him at Canton. In 

 July, 1834, he removed to Singapore and worked there until his 

 death, 1841.^^^ Dr. Peter Parker, soon after his arrival in the 

 East, spent several months in the same city in learning the 

 language. Incidentally he conducted a dispensary there, and 

 when in August, 1835, h^ returned to Canton, he left this and 



""Abeel, Journal, p. 318. Dean, China Mission, pp. 176-192; G. R. 

 Williamson, Memoir of David Abeel, D.D., Late Missionary to China. 

 New York, 1848, pp. 100-119. 



"^Notices .... of the Indian Arch., G. T. Lay, Ch. Rep., 6:305 

 et sqq. Williams, Mid. King., 2:330-331. G. T. Lay, the second volume 

 of "The Claims of Japan and Malaysia on Christendom." 



"* Medhurst, China, p. 327. 



"°Wylie, Memorials of Prot. Missionaries, p. 79. 



