offi 



MASON, FRANCIS. 



517 



rial statement regarding thorn bos been 

 111:11 It- tor the year 1874. 

 M.\M i\. FKAN< ' - D. D., F. R. A. S., a Bap- 

 man, missionary, and scientist, fur 



v forty-tour years resident in Burmuh, born 



Palingate, York, England, April 2, 1799; 



died at Rangoon, Bunnah, March 3, 1874. His 



\vero Dissenters, and of the Baptist 



faith, his grandfather, Francis Mason, having 



IHI n a li:i['ti-t preacher in Yorkshire, and his 



father, thoii-h by trade a shoemaker, yet a 



local jnv:ich< T of the same denomination in the 



i York. His early opportunities of edu- 



n wero somewhat meogro, being confined 

 to the in --traction afforded by the parish school, 



t that his parents, who were people of 

 some culture, gave him considerable instruc- 

 tion. He early learned his father's trade, but 

 while yet a lad he was seized with a pas- 

 sion for study, and acquired a very fair educa- 

 tion in mathematics, geography, and English 

 literature, under the evening instruction of a 

 retired naval officer. He became also a some- 

 what fluent debater, and argued political and 

 social questions in which mechanics in Eng- 

 land were then very much interested, with 

 such skill as to draw the approval of his fel- 

 low-workmen. In 1818 he came to the United 

 States to seek his fortune. Landing first at 

 Philadelphia, he spent the next five or six 

 years in a sort of wandering life, visiting all 

 the larger Western and Southwestern cities 

 and spending a few months in each, working 

 at his trade, and acquiring a knowledge both 

 of men and books. At this time, his religious 

 views, though unsettled, were skeptical, and 

 he was trying very hard to be at least a deist. 

 In the spring of 1824 he sailed from New Or- 

 leans for Boston, and went thence to Ran- 

 dolph, Mass., to work at his trade. Here 

 he came under new and better influences, 

 and. while his intellect was active, and he 

 thirsted for knowledge, his moral nature began 

 to develop. In December, 1825, he married a 

 lady of Randolph, and through her efforts and 

 those of other friends, and the critical study 

 of "Butler's Analogy," he very soon became 

 convinced of the truth of Christianity, and pro- 

 fessed conversion, and united with the Baptist 

 Church. It was not long before he felt it to 

 be his duty to preach the gospel which had 

 been to him such good news ; and in October, 

 1827, he was licensed to preach, and soon after 

 entered Newton Theological Seminary, whore 

 he soon proved himself a thorough and brill- 

 iant scholar, and developed a facility in the 

 acquisition of languages which was a marked 

 characteristic, of his subsequent life. His wife 

 died in 1828, but, before he had completed his 

 course at Newton, he had decided to become 

 a missionary, and in May, 1830, he received or- 

 dination, married a second wife, and sailed for 

 Bunnnh, under appointment from the Ameri- 

 can Baptist Missionary Board. He landed in 

 Maulmainin November, 1880, and a few months 

 later removed to Tavoy to become the helper 



and successor of Rev. Mr. Boardman, who wu 

 dying of pulmonary disease. Ho remained at 

 Tavoy about twenty-two years, his missionary 

 work being mostly among tho ditl'erent tribes 

 of Karens, though he was very familiar with 

 tho Burmese language as well as tho Pali and 

 Sanscrit, and could, upon occasion, convene 

 or preach in most of the languages of Farther 

 India. Among the Karens, he reduced two 

 of their dialects, the Sgan-Karen and the Pwo- 

 Karen, to writing, and translated the Scriptures 

 into both, besides making some progress with 

 a third, the Byhai-Karen ; conducted a semi- 

 nary for the education of native preachers and 

 teachers, and superintended the general work 

 of the Mission for a considerable period ; and, 

 with a view to making his translations of the 

 Karen Scriptures more intelligible and accu- 

 rate, commenced making collections of notes 

 and facts concerning the fauna, flora, miner- 

 als, and ethnology of Burmah. By the most 

 rigid and systematic division of his time, he 

 was enabled, with his remarkably vigorous 

 constitution, and his unflagging industry, to 

 accomplish all that he undertook. On the 

 publication of his first work, "Tenasserim; or 

 the Fauna, Flora, Minerals, and Nations of 

 British Bnrmah and Pegu," in 1852, he was 

 elected a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, 

 and the highest commendation bestowed upon 

 his labors, which received the warm approval 

 of the most eminent scientists of Europe and 

 Asia. In 1853 he removed to Tonngoo, anew 

 field, and one of great missionary promise. 

 The next year he was compelled, on account 

 of his health and other considerations, to re- 

 visit England and America, and in both coun- 

 tries was warmly welcomed, both by scien- 

 tists and friends of missions. He was made a 

 corresponding member of several of the Eu- 

 ropean scientific societies, and of the American 

 Oriental Society, the Boston Natural History 

 Society, and the New York Lyceum of Natu- 

 ral History. He returned to his work in 1856, 

 and his always busy life became still more 

 busy. His labors in translation and theologi- 

 cal instruction were diversified by his inves- 

 tigations in all departments of natural history, 

 which he called his "recreations." He also 

 prepared a Pali grammar, with chrestomathy 

 and vocabulary, and .on edition in the Pali 

 language of Kachchayano's grammar, besides 

 translations from Burmese, Pali, and Sanscrit. 

 These grammars are standard works, and have 

 the sanction and approval of both the Royal 

 Asiatic and the Oriental Society. In 1860 he 

 published his " Burmah ; its People and Natu- 

 ral Productions; or. Notes on the Nations, 

 Fauna, Flora, and Minerals of Tenasserim, 

 Pegu, and Burmah," etc., a stout octavo of 

 930 pages. This was based on his previous 

 work, but mostly rewritten and greatly en- 

 larged. He enumerated and described over 

 600 species of birds found in Burmah, about 

 120 species of mammals, about 200 species of 

 fishes, and proportional numbers of the other 



