THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN

WILLIAM L. BRADLEY

Take up the White Man's burden-

Send forth the best ye breed -
Go bind your sons to exile
to serve your captive's need,·
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk, and wild -
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Rudyard Kipling

"With New England care and cultivation Siam might be made a

paradise." 1 Thus did a Vermont Yankee, Lucia Hemenway, comment
on the garden of Prince Kratai of Bangkok. She wrote that "it is
laid out handsomely and with taste;" but she could not withhold rhe
thought so common to westerners in Asia - It's beautiful, but we can
show them how to do it better!
Lucia's remarks typify those of westerners a century ago. On the
one hand they were greatly attracted by the land and its people, but
they did not consider these Siamese their social equah - not to say
superiors - which in fact most of them were. A handful of middle-
class missionaries and commercial travellers were given access to the
highest nobility of a nation whose history w:1s richer than their own.
But these self-appointed emissaries had come to preach salvation and
technology to the "benighted" peoples of Asia, and accordingly were
blind to the wonders which confronted them. Young, idealistic Mrs.
Hemenway, spoke for all when she wrote, "My heart al.most sinks
when I think of the work that has to be done by Christians before'
the world is converted to Christianity ." 2 This brave band of mis-
sionaries had sailed half way around the world to save a who
did not want to be saved.

1 Lucia Hemenway's J ourna1, Feb. 1_1, 1840.

2 Lucia Hemenway's Journal, Nov. 24, 1838.

180
 THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 181

Lucia Hunt had married a cause as well as a husband - perhaps

the two were indistinguishable to impressionistic young women like
Lucia who chose to be missionary wives in nineteenth century .America.
They had been caught up in the frenzy of a religious revival whose
storm center was located in the "burnt over district" of western New
England and New York State. Outwardly these fervent crusaders
appear self-confident to the point of arrogance. Their journals ge-
nerally reinforce this impression. Occasionally, however, one finds a
diary entry which does more than simply state the facts in the laconic
fashion of Lucia's account of her wedding day: "Attended church. In
the evening again I returned to the church and was married to the
Rev. Asa Hemenway, missionary to Siam. Mr. J. T. Goodhue preached
from these words 'For the love of Christ constraineth us' i. Cor. 5,
14."3 When a mood of introspection is permitted to intrude upon the
sparse chronicle, more often than not it is the wife's journal which
reveals the self-doubts, pain, and sorrows of a self-imposed exile from
her native land. "I have felt for a few days past weak and like nothing
and of no use to anybody," wrote Mrs. Hemenway after four months
at sea in the cramped quarters of the Arno. "Perhaps I am wrong
and wicked in indulging these feelings. I should like to get away
alone and repent of my sins before him who is my guide." 4
These innocent young missionaries had taken on their shoulders
the "white man's burden," just as others of their generation in America
were dedicating their lives to the liberation of slaves, the spread of
temperance, and the founding of new sects. All reformers shared tht:
conviction that God was calling a chosen few to wage:: full scale battle
against sin and injustice in the United States and against idolatry out-
side Christendom. Yotmg people were exhorted to enlist in a holy .war
against all the forces of evil, with the promise that if they battled for
the Lord they might gain salvation for their souls.
Their courage was generally extraordinary, their ability often some-
what less. The renown accorded many of them as missionaries might
not have accompanied less glamorous careers at home, though of a
few it must be said that they were outstanding innovators, scholars,
and statesmen who would have left a mark whatever their chosen
occupation.
3 Lucia Hemenway's Journal, Apr. 14, 1839.
4 Lucia Hemenway's Journal, Oct. 18, 1839.
 182 ASIAN STUDIES

One thing seems clear, nonetheless: the official accounts of that

period, in glossing over the personal eccentricities of missionaries and
others, dehumanize these people whose passions were so strong as to
induce them to forsake the security of their middle-class environment
to risk martyrdom in uncharted regions overseas. Missionary histories
and biographies have contributed to the stereotype of the missionary
as a bloodless, naive idealist who knows nothing of ordinary life, can-
not be tempted, and. lives off the hard-won earnings of the folks back
home. In fact they were youthfully naive at first, but soon they
learned the hard ways of the world and occasionally succumbed
thereto. They knew sin at first hand, particularly the sin of pride.
They deserve to be recognized for what they truly were: very human
creatures, not saints, trying desperately to fight God's battles in a
world they saw threatened by the knavery of scoundrels and idolaters,
fearful lest the contest against evil would be lost because of their
waning zeal.
It was presumptuous of such inexperienced young people as these.
inadequately educated in _a homeland which even then displayed
unfounded messianic pretensions, to believe that they bore the re-
sponsibility and capacity to convert the continents of Africa and Asia
to Protestantism in their generation. Possibly it was their very ignor-
ance of the world outside that gave them courage to attempt this
impossible task. Motivating them in this crusade was the conviction
that they were engaged in God's business, and that he would supporr
them in every trial. They did not doubt that their cause was just
and would ultimately prevail. "The war of God against Buddhism
has commenced," wrote Dr. Dan Bradley. "The Almighty has already
planted his standard in almost every Buddhist nation on earth, and
'he is determined that the cross of Jesus Christ his Son shall ere
long draw all men among them to confide in, and serve him who was
nailed upon it . . . Why should it be thought incredible that he will ful-
fill this promise within the present century?" 5
In those not-infrequent cases were private judgment stood in op-
position to majority will, personal conviction would prevail. "Duty
is mine and consequences the Lord's," 6 reflected amateur theologian
Bradley in defending his position - which had contributed to the
demise of the Congregational mission in Siam - against the views of

5 Bangkok Calendar, 1862, p. 69.

s Dan B. Bradley's Journal, Aug. 27, 1954.
 THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 183

his seminary-educated colleagues. "I am not disposed to consult flesh

and blood on any point when I have the word of God clearly before
my mind." 7
Fortunately perhaps for the resolution of their public as well as
private doubts about their own roles in the missionary crusade, they
had an Enemy to blame for every failure. Arrayed against them was
God's great adversary, Satan himself, exploiting their every weakness to
bring Jehovah's cause to nought. Too often they proved unequal to
the struggle, but at least they could rationalize their failures and need
ncyer <-JUestion for long the validity of their mission.
Lest the reader think that only missionaries were self-righteous, let
him be assured that traders, mechanics, sea captains, and even diplo-
mats were victims of the same conceit. True humility, then as now,
was a quality uncommonly found in the foreign colony in Siam.
The story of American involvement in the domestic and interna-
tional affairs of Siam begins in earnest in 1833, when Edmund Ro-
berts concluded a commercial treaty with the Siamese Government.
This provided diplomatic immunity and the freedom to propagate
religion to the missionaries who began to arrive the following year.
The first Americans to make Bangkok their permanent home were
a group of Baptist missionaries, followed soon thereafter by represent-
of the American Board. Not until 1856 when a consulate was
established, did American business interests begin to find trade with
Siam in any way attractive. So poor were the prospects until then,
in fact, that not a single American vessel called at the bar of the
Meinam Chao Phya between 1838 and 1856. The lean years for
American trade mark the most influential ones for the missionaries,
because their practical skills were sorely needed by the leaders of Slam
as it adapted to modernizing pressures from the west. Some mission-
aries were asked by the Government to assist as English teachers, in-
terpreters, and translators; others as printers and machinists; still
others as physicians. Occasionally, as in Bradley's case, one man could
fill all these roles. The Americans' great merit in the opinion of
the Siamese, was their isolation from the struggle for control of Asia
by expansionist European powers, notably England and France. The
American missionaries sometimes quite self-consciously helped the Sia-
mese balance the claims of European powers against each other.

'Dan B. Bradley's Journal, Feb. 1845.

184 ASIAN STUDIES

Siamese noblemen gladly granted the· missionaries freedom to pro-

pagate their brand of Christianity, because Siam feared less the power
of the Americans' religion than that of the Europeans' guns. In
1840 Prince Itsaret reported to Dan Bradley that he thought King
Rama III "would like to get a good American sea captain because
he is pleased with the Americans, they are honest."8 For the reli-
gious freedom freely granted to American missionaries, Siam received
the benefits of medicine, education, and technology. In this Siam
was fortunate, for not a few of those strangely garbed, bearded zea-
lots had knowledge and interests beyond theology. .When finally
commercial treaties favorable to the expansion of western trade at-
tracted businessmen and diplomats to Bangkok, the Siamese had
decreasing need for the services of missionaries, and the latter played
a diminishing role in the development of the country. It was then
that an increasing sense of alienation afflicted the missionary com-
munity, leading some to abandon the formal work of missions com-
pletely, others to depart from the country, and still others to manifest
neurotic symptoms even to the point of physical assault upon their
colleagues.
Modern Thais credit Dr. Bradley with two of the most signi-
ficant contributions toward the modernization of their nation: the
introduction of · printing and western medicine. It is true that he
was the first long-term resident doctor in Bangkok, and for .several
years the only western physician in the country. It is · also the
case that the first printing press imported to Siam was the primitive
wood-and-stone machine he purchased from the Baptists while in
Singapore enroute to Bangkok.
The first western doctor to live in Siam, however, was not Bradley
but Dr. Carl Gutzlaff, a German missionary who worked in Bangkok
frorri 1828-31, four years before Bradley's arrival. A second physi-
cian, Dr. David Abeel, lived in Bangkok from 1831-2, but left the
country due to · illness. The extent to which Gutzlaff and Abeel
prepared the way for Bradley cannot be estimated, but it must have
been considerable. A third man trained in medicine, who preceded
Bradley to Bangkok and was his colleague for a number of years,
was Stephen Johnson, who attended medical schools in Philadelphia
and Brunswick, Maine p,rior to his departure for Siam in 1833. John-
son enrolled in medical classes at the request of the American Board,
s Dan B. Bradley's Journal, Jan. 11, 1840.
 THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 185

which had been urged by Gutzlaff and Abeel to send doctors to Siam.
Strangely enough, Johnson seems never to have put his medical edu-
cation into practice in Siam, for there is no record of his having
done more than to dispense medicines at the time of his arrival; nor
did he assist Bradley in the latter's clinic which was established soon
after the latter's arrival in the summer of 1835.
Somewhat the same abbreviation of history is true in the case of.
printing. The first printing in the Siamese language was accom-
plished at the Baptist Press in Serampore, India, in behalf of a colony
of captive Siamese in Burma. The type used in this press was then
taken to Singapore where books in Siamese were printed by Robert
Burn and C. H. Thompson. Bradley transported the press' and type
with him to Bangkok, and Charles Robinson was given charge of
printing while Bradley conducted the clinic. For some reason -
probably superior mechanical facility combined wii:h an aggressive
personality - Bradley slowly assumed management of the printing
shop and established his reputation as the innovator, while Robinson
and others were forgotten.
It was customary for missionaries to keep diaries beginning with
the date of their commitment to a Christian vocation. Pages of
these journals were mailed back to the mission boards, and excerpts
were published in the religious press. Accordingly, most diaries were
written with an eye to publication, and little was stated in them which
could not be transcribed into print. Some missionaries kept pri-
vate journals as well, and copies of these are still to be found occa-
sionally in libraries, but more often in the attics of their descendants.
These personal diaries reveal much that has long since been forgotten
about the missionaries, and pieced together with letters and official
records deposited in the U.S. National Archives, libraries, and mission
headquarters, they provide living portraits of individuals of real flesh
and blood.
Probably the most valuable foreign journal of nineteenth century
Siam is Dan Bradley's. He was a renaissance man with a Puritan
conscience. The diary commences with his decision at the age
of twenty eight to complete a medical education begun eight years
earlier, and to .offer himself to the cause of foreign missions. It
describes two years of training and practice in New York City, the
search for. a wife to accompany him to Southeast Asia, the voyage to
Singapore and Bangkok, and his career of thirty-eight years in Siam.
186 ASIAN STUDIES

A friend of kings, princes, and noblemen, Bradley records court

gossip about domestic and international affairs of the Kingdom, des-
cribes the local practices of medicine, agriculture, religion, and po-
litics, and chronicles the decades in which he played an active public
role. Unlike many of his contemporaries who did not adjust as
easily as he did to the changing circumstances of the foreign community,
Bradley maintained some influence until his death at the age of
nearly sixty-nine.
Important as are Bradley's copious journals for their record of
public events in nineteenth century Siam, they serve another purpose
as well. They reveal a complex personality who was constantly at
odds with his fellow westerners, frequently unhappy with himself,
and often despairing of the role he felt compelled to play. In
reading this journal we become acquainted with a man who was some-
times brilliant, usually neurotic, but able despite his eccentricity to
accomplish more of positive value tha? perhaps any of his contem-
poraries. We learn through his record that others who were stereo-
typed as uninteresting do-gooders were people often overwhelmed by
passions inflamed by the lush climate of the tropics. Through his
eyes we see not merely the Bangkok of the official histories, but a
young city wherein groups and individuals were seeking to accom-
modate themselves to the dynamic circumstances of social change.
Because Bradley's diary resembles a Confession rather than a Quar-
terly Report we get considerable understanding of a group of people
who m many ways resemble overseas Americans of the present
time.
II
Bradley's life-long companion was Guilt. In his New York Bo-
wery garret where he studied medicine, he wrote, "A tempestuous
night indeed has this afternoon been to my soul. The lusts of the
flesh . . . have rushed in upon me and lifted up as it were waves of
black pollution. Such was the wild fury of the tornado that all my
hopes of salvation were well nigh extinguished... The cause of
missions to which I have dedicated myself was all shrouded in gloom.
Every word of tenderness and compassion for the souls of the heathen
seemed either to have been broken by the storm or buried in the
flood mood of mire and sin." 9 This young man in his late twenties

9 Dan B. Bradley's Journal, Dec. 22, 1832.

 THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 187

had only recently been appointed a missionary-physician to Southeast

Asia. Ten days previously he had written a letter to his Cousin
Jane, a girl much younger than he, undoubtedly asking her to ac-
company him as his spouse. He was soon to receive his M.D. degree
from the Universiy of the State of New York. But now he was
overcome with the remorse of an adolescent because he could not
suppress the passions of his vile humanity.
For all his life, it seems, Dan Bradley experienced the conflicting
emotions of guilt and self-pity for his mother's death in child-birth.
In a journal extending over a period of forty years he refers to his
stepmother only once or twice, and with monotonous recurrence
on his birth date recalls the misfortune of his having been a, "mother-
less child" - this despite the fact that his father had remarried .with-
in seven months of his first wife's death. Whatever his father's ex-
pectations for Dan, they were not fulfilled when the son married
"beneath his class"; for clearly Phineas Royce was not the squire in
Clinton that Judge Bradley was in Marcellus. "I am as it were an
exile from my father's house," wrote Dan at the time.10 ·There must
have been something of his ambivalent love-dread of his father in
Dan's attitude ·toward God, whom he was ever fearful of offending
and from whom he constantly besought forgiveness. The failure
of Protestant missions to convert more than a handful of Siamese to
Christianity during Bradley's entire career in Bangkok made more
acute his conviction that he had failed God in this, the most im-
portant aspect of his ·vocation. Only toward the end of his life does
he appear to have found spiritual peace when he discovered that "it
is all in vain and wicked to look for peace of conscience and full
assurance from emotions, or purposes or experiences or anything else
within myself. . . I have almost always been seeking .to find· rest
within mysel£."11 Rest he could not find, and little rest he granted
others accordingly.
Judging by the autobiographical sketch whiclJ. accompanied his
application to the A11J.erican Board, Bradley must have been hyper-
sensitive even as a child. His ability to adjust normally to his en-
vironment became a serious problem during adolesce:nce. His first
crisis began with a fit of stammering in school. He so magnified
this defect that he dared not speak in public for fear of causing
1o Dan B. Bradley's Journal, May 19, 1833.
11 Dan B. Bradley's Journal, Dec. 18, 1869.
188 ASIAN STUDIES

ridicule. This led him to cut his formal education and to abandon
hopes for a college education. Apparently he was never free from
the fear of stammering,- for he recorded in his diary in 1849 that
during a fund-raising speech in America he was seized by "one of
my fits of nervous stammering" that lasted half a minute. 12
While still an adolescent, young Dan suffered for a week or so
from deafness which he feared would isolate him further from his
fellow men. More pious than most, he sought desperately to expe-
rience the actual presence of God within his heart, believing that other-
wise his soul would suffer eternal punishment in hell. On one oc-
casion when working in his father's fields he blurted out a profanity,
and this filled him with consternation lest he had committed the un-
pardonable sin.
While dreading the ridicule of men, he needed desperately to re-
ceive their praise and recognition. And so, after he finally felt
adequate to make at least a tentative witness to God's presence in
his heart, he joined the temperance movement in his county and soon
became an Agent for the Temperance Society. This gave him con-
fidence to speak in public without stammering. Twice he began
a course of private medical study, then spent a winter term of classes
in Boston. Finally he determined to complete his education in
New York City, and during those months decided - against the
advice of his father - to volunteer his services to the American
Board as a foreign missionary. The choice of medicine was based
on his desire for a vocation of service. The ministry was closed to
him because he was too old to enroll in college by the time he
had resolved his emotional problems. He studied theology while
attending medical school, however, and three years after his arrival
in Bangkok was ordained by his Congregational colleagues to the
Christian ministry. From the very beginning of his work as a
physician, Bradley believed that health of tl?-e soul took priority
over that of the body, and even in his year's residency in New York
he combined bedside evangelism with medical care. This unfor-
tunate combination of prescriptions contributed to his enforced re-
signation as resident physician at the Lying-in-Asylum only three
months after his appointment.
For most of his adult life Bradley managed to live with his
neuroses. He was comforted in times of loneliness by his wife and
12 Dan B. Bradley's Journal, Mar. 19, 1849.
 THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 189

children; and the praise denied him by his colleagues was showered
on him by many Siamese. Certain periods of crisis in his life
seem to have set him off once more on curious excursions into fantasy,
however. It was during the extensive period of his first wife's
terminal illness that he became embroiled in a theological battle with
his more orthodox colleagues. So tenacious was he in his argu-
ments that the dispute could only be settled by termination of the
entire Congregational mission. After Emilie Bradley's death he tried
to carry on his regular duties and manage his household. For the
year that he tried it, he referred increasingly to himself in his diary
as a bride of Christ. Many years thereafter, when his second wife,
Sarah, and then his youngest daughter, Irene, were seriously ill with
dysentery he spent an inordinate amount of time in the examination
and description of their stools. If this were all we knew of Dr.
Bradley we'd be inclined to write him off as a slightly unbalanced
individual.
Unbalanced in many ways he must have been. We know of his
strangeness because he committed his inner thoughts to the written
word. Not only did he keep his journal, but. he often poured over
earlier years in retrospect. One almost wonders if he did not hope
some day to see it published, so seriously did he peruse it! But this
was not simply a diary of the inner life. He transcribed events
and conversations with colleagues indicating that they, too, were
beset with problems magnified by the environment.
Bradley could not have been alone in shouldering a heavy sense
of guilt (perhaps the greatest of the white man's burdens). Emilie
frequently berated herself for her sense of humor. One night she
wrote, "I have yielded much, quite too much to my easily besetting
sin, levity, today. Tonight while attempting to sing I. made a: re-
mark which unexpectedly (caused) others to s1n with myself. I
had just prayed in my heart that the Lord would humble me and
he left me to myself and I deeply wounded his cause and the hearts
of my Christian friends. Like Peter I went out and wept bitterly,
like him may I find pardon and justification through the blood of
him against whom I have so grievously sinned. But can I forgive
myself? I cannot even meet the eye of my Christian friends. 0 that
I might have grace given me to forsake this sin that meets me· at
every turn."13 And Lucia Hemenway wrote woefully of herself:
13 Emilie Royce Bradley's Journal, Dec. 18, 1834.
190 ASIAN STUDIES

"0 my wicked heart! I almost sink under it so deceitfully wicked

it is, will the Lord grant pardon and help to forsake every sin." 14
Others manifested symptoms of anxiety that suggest a veiled sense of
guilt. Dr. Samuel House was overcome by violent fits of temper
against colleagues who learned that he had shrewdly bilked the
Widow Caswell of a portion of a gift of money House conveyed to
her from King Mongkut. And J. H. Chandler, a most pious
layman, displayed excessive moralism against a Brooklyn creditor
when the latter pressed charges for unpaid bills.
For most members of the American community one can only
speculate about the part guilt played in their sometimes aberrant be-
havior. Such is not the case with Bradley, who committed to his
diary a variety of inward doubts which others must also have expe-
rienced. Through his recorded moods and fantasies we learn that
behind the acknowledged pride, arrogance, and conceit of the un-
swerving crusader there lay a timid man, very much uncertain of
his capacity to fulfill the tasks he felt constrained to undertake,
deeply troubled by what others might be thinking of him, often
wounded by harsh but honest judgments made against him, contrite
because his words and actions had brought pain to others. He be-
lieved that he had a course to follow no matter what the cost, and
realized that the biggest loser might be Dan Bradley himself; but
he was convinced that God required him to pursue his goal in this
single-minded way.
Probably the most perplexing burden - and one from which
the missionaries seldom found relief - was the yoke of a religion
which demanded humorless obedience and offered little payment in
return. "The Lord has been very kind in helping us into the
field," wrote Mrs. Hemenway after an anxious voyage of months
across the from Boston, "and we feel that he will take some of
us hereafter if we trust him and obey his commandments." 15 She
had forsaken family and friends in response to an inward call to
serve an unknown people thousands of miles from home. She
knew that her chances of eventual return to Vermont were slight
at best. The voyage had been rough and the quarters cramped. In
addition to the ordinary discomforts of such a trip, the passengers
had been entrusted with the care of an epileptic son of the Treasurer
14 Lucia Hemenway's Journal. Feb. 1840
15 Lucia Hemenway's Journal, Feb. 26, 1840.
 THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 191

of the American Board. His parents hoped that such a voyage might
contribute to his health, but he was frequently overcome by violent fits.
And now Lucia fervently thanked God for delivering them safely
to do His work, and hoped as earnestly that they might all find
acceptance by this stern, demanding ruler of their destinies.
One other reward there was - and when it was withheld the
missionaries despaired. Somehow, in ways appearing strange to us,
they believed they could collectively discern the presence of the Holy
Spirit at their prayer meetings. Such occasions filled them with
confidence and joy. When they found that the Spirit had been
absent, on the other hand, they worried mightily. One day on board
the Cashmere Bradley noted in his diary, ''Find myself sadly shorn
of my spiritual strength by having grieved the Holy Spirit last eve-
ning. The Lord has been far off from my soul. 0 why did I
wound the sweet messenger of rest?" 16 A month later he recorded
that "There was reason to fear the Blessed Spirit was grieved by our
levity yesterday. God's children seem to have become fearful of
this and I trust they have humbled themselves and sought with much
importunity pardon. Brother Dean had the exercises this evening.
The Spirit of the Lord was present." 17
This humorless inability to take life simply as it came, accom-
panied by the need to seek continually God's forgiveness for spont-
:meous outbursts of passionate joy or rage, led to a severity of style
which amused the Siamese but often infuriated other westerners. In
his introduction to the Historical Sketch of Protestant Missions in
Siam - 1828-1928, Prince Damrong recalls his first meeting with
an American missionary, "a tall spare man with a beard similar to
the traditional Uncle Sam himself. He wore a grey helmet with a
chimney-looking means of ventilation, a long black alpaca coat reach-
ing almost to his knees, a pair of duck trousers, with an umbrella in
one hand and a number of books in the other." In reply to the
young prince's question, "Why did he always wear the same clothes?"
the missionary responded, "I have used this hat more than ten years.
This coat also has been in use for nearly ten years, and this um-
brella i,s older than the two."18

1s Dan B. Bradley's Journal, Aug. 30, 1834.

17 Dan B. Bradley's Journal, Sept. 30, 1834.
18 George B. McFarland, ed., Historical Sketch of Protestant MissionB
in Siam - 1828-1928, Bangkok, 1928, pp. 3-4.
192 ASIAN STUDIES

Members of the foreign community considered m1ss1onaries to

be prigs and hypocrites. The officers of the British brig Sparta
addressed a derisive poem to J. T. Jones as "President of the Squab"
after the missionaries had declined an invitation to a New Year's
party. Bradley's letter of apology intended as a gracious but forth-
right response to a generous invitation, sounds sanctimonious and
bigoted. Bradley stated that "we have long had the impression that
dinner parties conducted after the manner of Europeans in the
East are not calculated to benefit the host, the guest or the commu-
nity; but that they are too often powerfully efficient in fostering in-
temperance both in eating and drinking and a host of consecutive
evils." 19
The frugality and drabness of the missionaries' dress seem none-
theless to have been at variance with their style of life in general.
While these Yankees never threw away anything of even doubtful
value, they accumulated much in the way of comfortable belongings.
J. H. Chandler's sixteen-room house was valued at $13,000 when
put up for auction to pay for business debts. Mr. S. C. George
constructed a home so far beyond the budgetary limitations of the
Presbyterian mission that after George's dismissal on the advice of
his arch-rival and antagonist, Dr. House, the building was taken
over by Mrs. House as a school for girls. D. B. Bradley landscaped
his compound, which was rented from the Foreign Minister at a
very reasonable rate - with croquet and tennis courts, and he fur-
nished his home with melodeon, piano, and sewing machine. Life
in Bangkok, while difficult at the beginning, later became as it is
today a kind of paradise for the farang.
Another peculiar contradiction is the difference between love
manifested as an abstract principle and as an tmself-conscious way of
life. Many European and American men in Bangkok married Sia-
mese women and raised children by them. One of the best examples
is that of the English Consul-General,. Thomas Knox. The mis-
sionaries, on the other hand, for all the respect and compassion
they showered on the Siamese and Chinese, did not marry them -
not even those who joined the church. Nor did even missionary
children born in Siam marry amongst the Siamese, as might have
been expected. The "white racism" characteristic of modern Arne-
19 Dan B. Bradley's Journal, Jan. 4, 1836; also Emilie Bradley's
Journal same date.
 THE WHITE' MAN'S BURDEN 193

rica seems to have been present amongst the Protestant m1sswnaries

then, not only in Siam but in other fields of foreign service also.
The missionaries even frowned on marriages between "God's child-
ren" and fringe white members of their little closed-in church. Better
that a twice-born Christian remain miserably single than marry out-
side· the clan. The marriage of the widowed Mrs. Slafter to Capt.
Brown was celebrated at Hunter's British Factory rather than at the
church because of missionary approbation. "The astounding fact
came out on Wednesday," wrote Bradley in his journal in 1841, "that
our Sister Slafter was going to marry Capt. Brown the ungodly man.
This together with the cases of alarming sickness we have ariiong us
and the speedy embarkation of Sister French has constitute.d a flood
of trial for proving our faith." 20 Although an "ungodly man," Brown
did not sever relations with the missionaries until two years later .
. Brown has broken with the missionaries," Bradley· wrote, ''be-
cause he hears that the natives enquire whether himself and Mr.
Hunter are good Christians or not, that the missionaries answer in the
negative. He has been exceedingly angry, taken the narrie of God in
vain and cursed the missionaries, How must his wife feel,. . She was
once the wife of a missionary and she thought she could mould· her.
husband's views and feelings on religious subjects as well as on
others.'>21 The missionaries took a patronizing view toward those
they considered less pious than themselves. . This included not only
nationals, but also Roman Catholics (whom they did not consider
Christians), foreigners other than Anglo-Saxons: and of course Ame-
ricans whose habits included the use of alcohol.

III
These complicated, opinionated, strong-willed people, for all· their
obvious weaknesses of character - for their often having, as it were,
too much character - lived and exciting lives which
equipped them poorly for existence in America whenever· they· .re-
turned to their homeland. Many of them remained briefly in the
States, only to return once more to Bangkok. In part. this must have
been due to the phenomenal changes which made America· less and
less familiar to them. But more importantly, perhaps; these Ame-
ricans found personal fulfillment in a place which permitted them to
zo Dan B. Bradley's Journal, Nov. 4, 1843.
21 Dan B. Bradley's Journal, Jan. 3, 1846;
194 ASIAN STUDIES

stand out, no matter how eccentrically, as leaders to whom many

looked for counsel. They had unwittingly found their way into a
culture which highly valued interpersonal relationships and gave high
status to the foreigner. Their longing for personal recognition and
prestige, so apparent in the journals which they kept, was nourished
by the Siamese as it could not have been at home. Fulfillment of
the need outweighed the disadvantages of separation from family ties,
exposure to physical distress and danger, and gradual alienation from
their own culture. Despite their unwillingness to accept the cultural
values of Siam, theirs was a style of life which was contributory
rather than parasitical. Nearly all of them identified themselves
with the true interests of their second home.
It took physical courage for these young people to make the
Yoyage to Siam. In the early years little was known about this
country, which the mission boards expected to serve as a point of entry
into China. Until the middle of the century no steamship had as-
sayed the long and dangerous journey around the Cape to the Indian
Ocean. The journey by sail from Boston or New York could take
as long as six months, much of it spent in the sun-drenched doldrums,
of the South Atlantic. During Bradley's first voyage to Singapore,
the rations of the crew ran low and the sailors came down with scurvy.
At such times the superstitious crew blamed their bad fortune on a
missionary "Jonah" in their midst. Bradley characteristically be-
lieved that he was the one on whom they fixed their blame on this
occaswn.
Most young missionaries were in their early twenties and had
barely finished their education when they left the security of village
life to face an unknown future. The mission boards strongly urged
each man to find himself a wife. This he did, either by inducing
a childhood sweetheart to share the dangers with him, or by being
directed by ministers and knowledgeable member_s of the board to
young ladies with a missionary inclination. When Dan Bradley had
exhausted the possibility of one and possibly another cousin, he was
given the name of Miss Emilie Royce by two of his former pastors.
A long journey by steamboat, carriage, barge, and stagecoach took
him from New York to Clinton, where he requested Miss Royce's
permission "to take tea with her at 6 o'clock and spend a part of the
evening in her society. The evening having gone well, Emilie's bro-
ther contributed to misinform the visitor of the departure of the
 THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 195

stage to Utica; and so Bradley was invited to stay over the Royces.
Two weeks later, following a solerl'!-n day of prayer and fasting, the
beautiful Emilie received a letter "which could not but excite much
feeling. The question now comes will you go to a heathen land
soon? But not as before will you leave every individual that you
have ever called friend? But will you go with one who is interesting
and whom you can confide in."22 ·Her decision was confirmed by
prayer, and a year thereafter they married and set off on the Cash-
mere as members of a missionary company that included two Burmese
converts returning from a fund-raising and recruiting tour of the
United States.
The time from Boston to Singapore was six months. Another
half year was spent at Singapore before the winds and currents were
favorable for the voyage to Bangkok. The staterooms of the Cash-
mere measured slightly under six feet square. This is how Bradley
describes the way he fitted up their quarters: "Our berth occupies
the back of the room next to the side of the ship. It stretches across
the room - is 3 1/2 feet above the floor - 3 1/2 feet wide. In
other words it is a wide shelf with a board at the edge for a border
8 inches in width. Into this we have crowded 2 single mattresses.
Under this we have most economically arranged one large chest -
two trunks - a box of oranges and lemons - two large bags of
clothing - a bag of dried apples - a medicine chest - several
baskets of small articles of dress - a box of figs and sundry other
Yessels. The remaining part of the room is furnished with a wash
stand in the corner at the left of the door by which we enter the
room. U-9:der this we have a trunk. In the corner at the right
of the door we have another trunk.. And lastly an arm chair having
a writing stand on one arm stands a little under the berth facing
our door. Our wash stand consists of a shelf fitted in the corner.
Under this we have another shelf on which we set our slop bowl
pitcher, etc. On the left side of our room above the wash stand
and berth we have two shelves extending the whole width of the
room. These contain some 30 or 40 volumes for use during the
voyage, portable writing desk, bottles of Lemon Syrup, )ars of
Tartaric Acid and Soda, Loaf Sugar, etc. We have also a few little
pigeon holes above the door which contain many little things - and
22 Emilie Royce Bradley's Journal, May 9, 1833.
196 ASIAN STUDIES

finally we have the walls of our little parlour decorated with hats,
bonnets, dresses of various kinds, brooms and brushes." 23
Most of the passengers spent long nights and days of seasickness
in these tiny cubicles. Both Mrs. Dean and Mrs. Bradley were preg-
nant during most of the voyage. Coupled with the ordinary distress
of crowded quarters, heat, and the rolling of the ship were the
dangers of mutiny and piracy. Near the end of the voyage, when
rations were low and scurvy was breaking out among the crew.
Capt. Hallett was barely able to control his ship after a violent
battle between himself and a steersman. The Captain's victory over
his mutineers may have been due to the fact that eight of the thirteen
crew members were too ill even to work the ship. Thereafter the
male passengers had to fall to on deck, while the women worked
in the galley.
A suspicion of pirates in West Indian waters proved to be un-
founded, but Dean and Jones were attacked and almost killed by
pirates in Singapore. Their small boat was boarded, Jones was
thrown overboard, and Dean was barely able to stave off the pirates.
by using his umbrella as a weapon. The missionaries were saved
only after bargaining with a nearby boatload of Chinese who rowed
them back to shore for a price of $20.00. Dean arrived back home
with the barbs of two fish-pears embedded in his skin, while Jones
was painfully blistered from the sun.
Not only physical courage, but also moral stamina was required
of these early emissaries to Southeast Asia. They had to learn to
adapt their puritan ethic to a culture operating under its own quite
different set of values. The western preoccupation with punctuality
did not fit well with the more casual Siamese sense of pace, and im-
patience was one of the greatest problems which the Americans had
to learn to overcome. Not always was this possible. The band of
recruits which arrived in Singapore after six gruelling months at
sea must have experienced more than a few doubts about their own
ability to preserve their sanity when they were given temporary charge
of a spinster lady who had gone completely mad. A few years later
in Bangkok a machinist sent out to help the Siamese construct their
first steamship went berserk within a week of his arrival.
23 Dan B. Bradley's Journal, July 31, 1834.
 THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 197

Most often it was not madness which attacked them, but a kind
of neurosis which made them hyper-sensitive toward each other in
their common work. Ten years after a disagreement between the
Robinsons and Bradleys, Mrs. Robinson was still unable to forget
the incident or to forgive the Bradleys for their insensitivity. This
type of emotional tension must have contributed to the theological
battle amongst the Congregationalists that induced a majority of the
mission to recommend the dismissal of Caswell and Bradley - a
proposal which reached headquarters in Boston when funds were low
and confidence in the results of the Siamese venture lower still. The
Board voted to disband the mission, send most of its workers to
China and the Sandwich Islands, and request the resignation of
Caswell and Bradley.
Religious scruples protected the missionaries from the tempta-
tions of alcohol, which proved to be the undoing of many another
in Siam. Bradley's journal records the cases of many eminent vic-
tims of delirium tremens amongst the colony of business, profes-
sional, and diplomatic men in Bangkok.
Only years of experience, punctuated by untimely deaths, taught
the foreign community how to maintain health in a tropical climate.
In reminiscing about the high rate of infant mortality in the earliest
years, Dr. Bradley attributed this primarily to bad food and too
liberal a resort to drugs. Every symptom had a separate treatment.
Bradley surmised that the drugs may often have poisoned rather than
cured the patient. All were prey to tropical diseases. Sometimes a
husband or wife would be dead within the first few months of
arrival. Emilie Bradley, on the other hand, suffered for eight years
from tuberculosis, and during most of that time was also ill of pro-
lapsus of the uterus, neuralgia, and diarrhea.
Those who survived the first disappointing years of their life
abroad learned for the most part to adjust their vision to the prac-
ticalities of the situation. They learned that much of their impa-
tience was due to their own ignorant blunders rather than to decep-
tions practiced on them by malicious heathen. "I recall with pain
the blunders I have formerly made,' wrote Mrs. Bradley to a brother
in America. ''I used to be much vexed with a boy who often
laughed in the midst of what I meant for a very serious reproof.
I laugh now when I think of what I said to him. It is provoking,
when ordering your dinner, to see the took laughing heartily, while
198 ASIAN STUDIES

you need to be composed to think first of anythiJ!g you can eat,

and secondly of words enough to communicate the result of your
cogitation to him. But he must be a grave man to keep his coun-
tenance as you tell him to buy, or boil 'the doctor.' Yet in Siamese
the difference between a doctor and an article which might be bought
and boiled for dinner, is very slight.''24
The missionaries found also that although their dreams of the
conversion of Siam to Christianity were impossible, their . personal
contribution to the well-being of a people they had come to respect
was significant. Believing that the most fruitful means of evangelism
would be the printed word, the missionaries established printing in
Siam and initiated the production of a typescript in the Siamese
language. They published not only thier translations of the Bible,
but also the royal edict prohibiting the sale of opium in 1839, as
well as books on vaccination, midwifery, and astronomy. They spent
hours working as machinists with the two princes who were to be-
come the Kings of the Fourth Reign, and as physicians with the
Siamese doctors of the Royal Court. It was a missionary who per-
formed the first surgical operation in the country, introduced small-
pox vaccination, and helped enlightened noblemen rid the upper
classes of the practice of "lying-by-the-fire" in maternity cases. The
primary schools, established by the missionaries for evangelistic pur-
poses, became models in part for the educational system developed
by Prince Damrong during the reign of King Chulalongkorn.
Missionaries often took the side of the Siamese in international
disputes which sometimes seemed to threaten the sovereignty of the
country. In his weekly Bangkok Recorder, Bradley published vivid
accounts of alleged French designs upon the territory of Siam -
stories which he received from Anna Leonowens and other foreign
advisors working in the Grand Palace. King Mongkut refused to
allow the British witnesses to testify in behalf of Bradley in the libel
suit prosecuted by the French Consul-General, but American and
British dispatches indicated that the facts were as Bradley stated them,
and that Bradley had served the interests of the King in publicizing
them. Later the King privately sent money to his American friend
to pay the costs of the suit. American missionaries even made
known to Washington the activities of their own consuls that seemed
24 Nancy Royce, ed., A Sketch of the Life and Character of Mrs.
Emilie Royce Bradley, New York, n.d., p. 154.
 THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 199
contrary to the best interest of Siam, as in the case of Consul Hood,
who sold immunity cards to Chinese residents thereby enabling them
to evade taxes under his protection.
Life in the foreign community in Bangkok was often stormy.
Thrown together by a commonality of language, culture, . and na-
tionality, were a small company of saints and scoundrels ·- real and
imagined - very much as in the villages of the American frontier.
The rulers of ·Siam were right in according and.France much
greater respect than they did America in the nineteenth century. The
United States showed neither the sophistication in the conduct of its
foreign relations in Asia, nor maturity in those who represented it
officially and otherwise, to deserve the consideration of a major
power. These vigorous, angular people did mirror well the nation
that had given birth to them, however, both in their virtues and their
faults. They believed unashamedly that it was their ·destiny as
Americans to take up the white man's burden in behalf of their less
fortunate brothers in Southeast Asia, whatever the cost to themselves
or those they came to serve.