by Linda Banks
Sowers Bands were for school-age children between 6 and 16. They read stories about missionaries, wrote letters to them, and collected things that missionaries or their children could use. Amy visited and helped set these up in many churches. Larger annual meetings drew children from across the state. In June 1895, Amy spoke at the half-yearly Gleaners’ Union meeting in St Andrew’s Cathedral on the work of the Sowers Bands.25
院書光靈
Thursday 1 August 1895 would be forever etched in Amy’s heart and life. Waking late after an evening Gleaners’ meeting in the city, she was enjoying breakfast on her own when Aunt Lizzie walked into the room ashen-faced and visibly shaking. From under her arm she took out the morning newspaper and placed it on the table, open at some shocking news. Six days earlier, Amy’s soon-to-be colleagues, Robert and Louisa Stewart and their younger children, along with Nellie and Topsy Saunders and four other missionaries, had been brutally murdered near Kucheng. The world was horrified by the severity of the event.
Over the days that followed, Amy learned that, to escape the summer heat, two weeks earlier the group had walked up to the small mountain village of Hwasang where the Stewarts had two cottages. They had just concluded their small version of the annual Keswick Convention and were unaware of the renewed militancy of local ‘Vegetarians’. This movement believed that foreigners were overturning age-old traditions upon which Chinese culture had been built, affecting even the simple food they once ate. This, they argued, offended ancestral gods and disturbed the natural order. In reality, however, many of the aggressors were involved in local struggles for power and territory. 26
On the evening of 31 July, the missionaries came together to read the Bible story of the transfiguration of Jesus before his death, not realising how prophetic this was to become. Early the next morning, before anyone was up, around 80 Chinese men, following a red flag with Vegetarian insignia and carrying swords, spears and even farming implements, came up a back route from Kucheng. After first threatening to abduct some of the ladies, still in their nightdresses, they began to make violent moves towards them. According to eyewitness accounts, Australians Nellie and Topsy Saunders and Annie Gordon, four other female English missionaries, as well as the Stewarts, their baby and nurse, were brutally murdered. Their house was then set on fire, reducing everything to ashes. The two remaining Stewart children were beaten and stabbed but managed to run away, though one died later, and one of the women, though wounded, escaped. The whole incident was over in less than 30 minutes.27
2.4 The Kucheng martyrs’ graves on Nantai Island, Foochow.
Amy was grief-stricken, as only a few days earlier she had received a letter from Louisa Stewart in Hwasang saying that, though there were stirrings amongst the Vegetarians, the work was going well.28 The news spread so fast that all kinds of people talked about it and sought to console her. The event had a similar impact to major terrorist attacks today and was the subject of everyday conversations in ferries and trains, shops and tearooms, workplaces and dinner parties. Articles began appearing in the press about the ‘waste’ of the young women’s lives, some going as far to day that ‘it was a crime to send female missionaries’ to places like China.29
It took many days of soul-searching – with God, Aunt Lizzie and the CMA – before Amy remembered the text Nellie Saunders had quoted in one of her recent letters: ‘Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone but if it dies it bears much fruit’ (John 12:24). She also heard from Marianne and Isabel that at the memorial service in St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, Mrs Saunders said:
Was it right to send our young women out to foreign countries as missionaries? Since men could only do certain kinds of work, who was going to rescue and save the suffering women? If I had two or even ten more daughters, I would gladly give them up to work in China.30
A few days later, on 16 August, Amy gave a short talk at the annual meeting of the Gleaners’ Union at St John’s Parramatta on ‘The Love of God as the Great Missionary Motive Power’.31 Though she was still apprehensive, as soon as she got word it was safe to leave, Amy was prepared to go.
CHAPTER 3
The Blind Boy in the Ditch (1896–1900)
In early October 1895, a telegraph letter for Amy arrived from the Church Missionary Society in London.
You will, we assume, ere long be on your way to Hong Kong. There our Secretary, Mr. Barnett, will meet you, and I can assure you of a warm welcome there from both Mr. and Mrs. Barnett. They will arrange for all hospitality to be afforded you until the way opens for your going on to Foochow.1
After waiting for more than a year, Amy now had less than two months to get everything organised to leave and to say her goodbyes. It seemed like no time at all before her farewell service took place on 10 December followed by her departure the next day.
A Valedictory communion service was held at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, this morning in connection with the approaching departure of Miss Amy Oxley, who has decided upon entering missionary work in China. There was a fairly large number of communicants and friends at the service, which was conducted by the Rev. William Martin BA of St Barnabas’ Glebe and the Rev. R. J. Reid of St Andrew’s.2
The China Navigation Company’s steamer, ‘Chingtu’, left the company’s wharf, Milson’s Point … taking amongst other products over 1000 bails [sic] of wool … On her main deck are housed 13 cows and calves at foot shipped for Hong Kong … In the storage are over 70 Chinese. Miss Oxley is going as missionary for the Church Missionary Society and a short service was held on board by her friends before the vessel left. There were present … members of the Missionary Gleaner’s Union, and a number of ladies and gentlemen interested in the work. Several Chinese and Kanaka converts also attended. The Rev. M. Archdall delivered a short address; Rev. W. Martin offered prayer after an appropriate hymn had been sung and the service concluded with the Benediction.3
Because we have so many first-hand accounts by Amy through letters and reports, her story over the next few years can mostly be told through her own eyes.
Letter to Amy’s cousin Isabel, 22 December 1895:
I never write letters on Sunday but as I will have the opportunity of posting this to you at Port Darwin I will alter my rule for once. I hopped up on my bunk, put my hand in my mailbag and drew out a letter from you. Thank you so very much for it and for the enclosed verses which I will keep in my Bible. My bag contained 65 letters and a packet for Christmas so I am well off. It is a real joy getting these letters every day …
So far we have had a beautiful passage and I have not even had a headache. I feel sure God is answering prayer. At first on board there wasn’t one soul who cared for Missions but now Praise the Lord things are different. I find the second officer was on board the ‘Haitian’ and was one of the officers who gave the Saunders [sisters] the ‘kitten’. I have lent him their letters to read and he is very interested … I have found Jesus sufficient for everything. All the pain of saying goodbye … He is faithful to His promise, so I am with you.
There are only three men, two ladies and two boys as passengers. Four of them did not get on till we reached Thursday Island. I think I will like them. At first the young lady, Miss Swann, scorned me but we are quite good friends now, although she is not willing to give up the world and take Jesus Himself. The officers are exceedingly kind to me. Captain Innes travelled with [my brother] Willie in the ‘Tainan’ … It has been 90 [degrees] all the time in my Cabin, now I find it difficult to write for my hand clings to the paper. With all my heart’s love to you and dear Auntie.
Letter to Rev. Baring Gould, secretary of CMS, London, 17 January 1896:
I arrived at Hong Kong at the end of January and stayed there one week. Mr and Mrs Barnett were exceedingly kind and gave me every opportunity of seeing the work. On the 10th, I left Hong Kong arriving in Foochow on the 14th … Thank you very much for sending me a copy of the General Instructions, also for the Books of Rules and Regulations
. I trust I may be a faithful worker in this part of the Mission Field that the Master has called me to work in.
Kuliang was a village in the scenic mountain range overlooking Foochow. It took four hours to reach by walking or by sedan chair. A medical missionary was the first to set up a house there to escape the summer heat. Many Western expatriates and organisations followed, including missionary societies. During the hot months of July and August, the CMS held its main annual conference and convention in the village, while participants rented – and occasionally built – houses there. Among Kuliang’s facilities were a social club, tennis court, swimming pool and hiking tracks. It provided an opportunity for missionaries to catch up with each other, share news from home and relax in a beautiful setting.
Letter to Isabel from the ‘Go-Down’, a warehouse with guest rooms used by different missions, on Nantai Island, Foochow, 19 February 1896:
Early on January 14th we reached the Min River and steamed up to the Anchorage. It was a dull cold morning but I stood on the deck looking at everything … high mountains on either side with terraces. We passed dozens of junks and sampans on the river and very picturesque they looked …
3.1 The Old City of Foochow, looking up towards Kuliang.
On the afternoon of my arrival a conference of ladies was held and I was appointed to work in the Lieng Kong district. It is a very large place, a city and many villages. Although there is a native pastor there and work being carried on, there has been no resident missionary … I hardly expect to go there till I have passed my first exam in about a year … Lieng Kong is a day’s journey from Foochow and the Foochow dialect is spoken there …
Climate: It has been cold enough for thick dresses (my Geelong tweed is most comfortable), hot bottle in bed, two blankets and an eiderdown. One day we had snow but every day it has been dull and cold, most days raining.
Houses: Large rooms, high with French windows, verandas with shutters all round.
Food: Almost the same as at home only buffalo milk and butter which is pure white in colour and something like very nice lard. Vegetables in season: cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes. Fruit: oranges and tasteless bananas. Most of the missionaries send home for groceries and I will do the same. Things are too dear out here.
Conveyances: Chairs carried by two or three coolies. Just cane armchairs made any size you like, with a cover to fit on something like a cage with windows at the side. Bamboo poles are fastened on the side of the chair. Walks mostly on the hills among the gravestones. All the hills here are covered with graves and pretty little ferns grow on the ledges of the old stone ones. Then there are a very few narrow roads made by the English residents, and there are also narrow paths across the ‘paddyfields’ …
3.2 Map of the central part of Fukien Province.
Church: There is a Church of England service conducted by the Rev. L Lloyd of our mission, also Chinese service at [Trinity] College, the Rev. Sinke is the pastor, a really splendid man.
Language: It is difficult and I do need the grace of God to learn it. I have a teacher, Ding Sing Ang, and I study between four and five hours a day. No one does more without in the end breaking down. It makes me feel very tired and not inclined for letter writing.
I am so glad I am here, every day I feel more glad.
Letter to the Young Women’s Christian Association, Sydney, 3 April 1896:
I am so glad to be in China, for I begin to see how much these people need Jesus … when you come to a land like this and see the women either shut up in houses in pain or ill health from their little bound feet or else field women who have to work hard from morning till night, carry very heavy baskets full of refuse, or working in the fields up to their knees in mud and water, it is then you see and realise the difference between a Heathen and a Christian land – again the hopelessness of the people, no joy in the life to come, no joy for the ones left here because the spirits of the departed ones will come back and torment them if they are not fed, paper money put on their graves and crackers let off at certain times of the year …
I saw three field women and two men come to a grave, and they offered incense, put money about, dug up the earth and then went away, leaving one woman there by herself; there she stood in the drizzling rain, moaning and moaning … I knew not how much sorrow really filled her heart, but I know this that I just longed to go and tell her of the Saviour … Poor things, the men came back after a while and tried to draw her away, but she would not leave … from my window I can see thousands and thousands of graves and it is overwhelming to think of the wailing that has gone on year after year and to think of those who have passed into the great unknown … one thing about them – the Judge of all the earth shall do right.4
Letter to Isabel after Amy’s appointment to Lieng Kong with two other single female missionaries, 19 November1896:
In the last few weeks I have had about a hundred patients … This has been a sad time for the Chinese. With the long continued hot weather and no rain there have been hundreds ill with fever, boils, and some have died of the plague, but now we have had a good shower of rain and the weather is cooler. I had enlarged liver and thin liver for a few days but I am well again now. I hope to pass my first exam in January.
Letter to Mrs Margaret Griffiths, daughter of the Anglican archbishop of Sydney, William Saumarez Smith, 6 April 1898:
In January we moved to our new house in Deng Doi, which is a village of 2000 families six miles from Lieng Kong City. Miss Newton was appointed by Conference to the District and so we three, Miss Searle, Miss Newton and I live together and very happy we are. Our nearest Missionary neighbour is 30 miles away … This is a large District about 40 miles from one end to the other and 35 miles across, high mountains to cross, rivers to travel up and a long coastline.
I see sick people and have at least 160 a week [in her dispensary], some we have to turn away it is so sad … We really do need … a Hospital and a Doctor, two days a week. We are so thankful that some women here are beginning to see the sin of foot binding, two have unbound their feet and some more are making shoes.5
Excerpts from a report by a later visitor on the commencement of the work at Deng Doi.
‘The people received us with joy’, wrote Miss Oxley, ‘and were invited to so many feasts that we had to ask them not to invite us to any more, as we really had not time to spend in this way.’ Many of the visitors were interested … in the foreign-looking Mission house … nicely situated on a hill above … the village below, yet conveniently near. ‘It is a real house’, writes Miss Searle, ‘to which we always come back after a long itinerating tour with the intensest gratitude and delight’ …
3.3 Amy in a dinghy alongside The Messenger of Peace.
There are villages all around Deng Doi … Miss Oxley, who shares in the itinerating, is an accomplished ‘master mariner’ … she is the owner and commander of ‘The Messenger of Peace’, with its dinghy, ‘The Active’, the latter being named after the craft in which the Rev. Samuel Marsden, the apostle of New Zealand, journeyed.6
As was customary, the local people devised a Chinese name for Amy. This was made up of three characters, the last two of which were similar to the pronunciation of her first name. These meant, respectively, ‘love’, ‘fondness’ or ‘affection’ and, ‘beautiful’ or ‘good’. The first character, her surname, meant ‘high mountain’. This practice was not only more convenient for the people but also a sign of acceptance.
院書光靈
The China that Amy was now heading to was marked by deep contradictions. Though it was a vast country, for most of its inhabitants their world was an area bounded by their own village, town or city. Its 400 million inhabitants were diverse in culture and divided by language and dialect. They were ruled by the imperial Qing dynasty, whose present Emperor Guangxu had been on the throne for 22 years. In reality, the lives of ordinary people were mostly under the sway of local warlords who from time to time defied the central authorities. Chinese in positi
ons of influence were mostly well-off, but the majority of people were often poor and at the mercy of natural disasters. The influence of ethical teachers, like Confucius, and imported religions, such as Buddhism, was strong, but in rural areas ancestor worship and local deities were alive and well.
For centuries China had developed as a world to itself. The main exceptions to this were the opening up of the Silk Road from the West, the journey of the Italian explorer Marco Polo, and the arrival of Jesuit missionaries from the middle of the 16th century. This isolation began to change with the British East India Company’s willful decision to sell opium to the Chinese. When, in the early 1840s, the Chinese rejected this, Britain declared war and, after a short campaign, demanded large financial reparations and use of five key ports – Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, Ningpo and Foochow. Over the next few decades, Britain, other European powers and the United States forcibly obtained trading rights in numerous cities throughout China. Beyond these enclaves, Western influence extended inland through the railways, river steamers and telegraph stations.7
Like the rest of the country, Lieng Kong District suffered from some major social problems:
opium addiction. Like modern-day heroin, this had grown exponentially since the introduction of the opium trade. Increasingly it rendered men unable to work and exposed families to debt, especially poor ones. Sometimes this affected whole villages.8
infanticide. Because of the Chinese dowry system, girls were considered an economic liability, especially among the poorer classes, and were often abandoned after birth. Some were left in public places, others exposed in the countryside, many deposited into pillar boxes above a river. Disabled children of both sexes, including the blind, often suffered the same fate.