When Dr. Judson, the great missionary, first went to Burma in 1813, thatcountry was little known. Its entire area at the present time is onlyequal to that of the New England States together with New York,Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, certainly not a great extent ofterritory as compared with the vast dominions of India and China whichborder it, the one on the northwest and the other on the north. But inDr. Judson's day all that could have any possible interest to the averagecitizen of the western world was a narrow strip of country extendingalong the coast where a few European merchants had established themselvesand were eking out a rather precarious existence.Then, as now, Burma was richly endowed with natural resources, but herpeople little understood the value of their splendid heritage. To use thefigure of speech which they still frequently employ in referring tothemselves, they were like a frog sitting at the foot of a stalk ofsugar-cane and knowing nothing of its worth until a water buffalo orcarabao comes along and eats up the luscious growth. Rice grew profuselyon the rich alluvial plains. The magnificent forests waved with treessupplying timber of great variety and value. Some of the most remarkableoil fields in the world were to be found there, and they were seeminglyworked in a crude way long before the value of the oil was fullyunderstood in America or in Europe. Burma was the home of thepigeon-blood ruby, one of the rarest and most precious of gems. Elephantswith their splendid tusks of ivory roamed the jungles, and the peacockwith its gorgeous plumage frequented the upland glens. But the countrywas cursed by its kings. Ignorant, deceitful, vain, superstitious,blood-thirsty, they lived surrounded by sycophants, knew nothing butflattery, and, as might be expected, practiced the utmost cruelties evenupon their own people. When a new king ascended the throne, it wascustomary for him to put all of his relatives to death, lest any of themshould contest his place. One king who failed to build himself a newcapital in accordance with the custom of the realm, sought to make amendsby having sixty persons buried alive under the walls of his palace. It issaid of a certain other king that when a subject of his had visitedEngland and returned, the king asked him what he had seen in that strangeland, and in particular how it compared with his own kingdom of Burma.Was England so fair and rich a country? "No, your Majesty," came thereply, "how could it be, for there the lordly teak does not grow." Andthe king knew no better than to accept the estimate as true.Needless to say, the cruelty and vindictiveness which surrounded thethrone spread through all the lower ranks of government officialdom andindeed permeated the life of the entire people. Aside from the monks ofthe Buddhist order--for Burma was, and still is, one of the chiefstrongholds of Buddhism,--the life or property of no one was safe. If anyof the common people were suspected of acquiring more wealth than wasneeded for bare sustenance, some charge would be trumped up against them,and their property be confiscated. Cruelty and oppression were everywhereknown. Justice and mercy were not so much as dreamed of. And if this wasthe attitude of the Burmese even towards those of their own race, one mayrightly infer that it would be still more relentless towards those ofother races living under their dominion.Among the most persecuted of these subject peoples were the Karens(accent on the last syllable). Naturally a timid and retiring race, theywere perhaps all the more heartily hated and despised by the Burmans onthat account. The writer has heard it related by some who remember thoseearly days, that the Karens were subjected to such terrible and heartlessoppression that they were obliged to live for the most part in thefarthest recesses of the tropical jungles or in the fastnesses of themountains. Even there they lived in such constant terror that oftentimesthey dared not build their wretched little huts, but dwelt in caves orunder overhanging rocks, and would not leave their abodes and return tothem by the same route lest a path should be formed and their whereaboutsshould be discovered. They subsisted by cultivating the soil, which inthe mountain regions is so poor that two crops of rice cannot be grownsuccessively on the same piece of land and fresh forests must be cut downevery year, entailing a vast amount of labor.