Florence and the other missionaries were unsure which route they should take to Shanghai. Should they brave the Shuihong region, which was always dangerous to foreigners, or go downriver via Takut’ang, where the CIM mission station had just been looted and destroyed? Either route could lead them to safety or to certain death. Which one should they take?
Chapter 10
A New Direction
Within hours the decision of which route to follow was taken out of Florence’s hands. The mission sent word that it had secured a boat and sent it downriver from Kuei-k’I, picking up the women missionaries as it passed their stations.
On August 9, as Florence stepped onto the boat, her heart was breaking. She had grown very attached to the people of An-ren in the three years she had lived among them. She had worked hard and seen the number of converts grow steadily, and now she had to leave them. She hoped they would be spared the persecution of Christians that was taking place in other parts of China as antiforeign groups tried to rid China of foreign influence, including “foreign” religion. Florence said a somber good-bye to the Christians of An-ren, and then the boat set off down river.
Since they were passing through hostile territory, the boat stayed in the middle of the Kuang-sin River as it made its way along. That way they hoped to avoid attack from angry bands of Chinese men along the riverbank. Instead of stopping at night and tying up along the riverbank, as was the custom, the boat kept sailing downstream night and day.
Finally, three days after setting out from An-ren, the boat reached Kiu-Kiang, a small treaty port on the river. There a gunboat floated in the river and troops kept the port secure. Florence, Christine, and Emma waited in Kiu-Kiang for one long week until they were able to get passage on a riverboat to Shanghai. They arrived in Shanghai unharmed and made their way to the China Inland Mission headquarters. Hundreds of other missionaries had done the same thing, and although CIM had rented several other houses, there was barely room for three more missionaries. Florence found herself sharing a house with fifty other men, women, and children. Each of the missionaries had bits of information about his or her mission station and the surrounding areas. Slowly they were able to piece together a picture of what had happened in the countryside.
The terrible persecution that foreigners and Chinese Christians had endured was soon dubbed the Boxer Rebellion, after the antiforeign movement known as I Ho Ch’uan, or the righteous, harmonious fists. When the numbers were tallied, the China Inland Mission had lost fifty-eight missionaries and twenty-one children. Nearly half the Protestant missionaries in the country had been killed. Two thousand Chinese Protestants had also lost their lives in the rebellion. The Chinese Catholics fared even worse, with at least twenty thousand of them losing their lives.
Hudson Taylor was not in China during the Boxer Rebellion, but he sent letters of support and condolence to the missionaries there. Florence wished she could have met with him in person and talked to him about her future. No one at CIM headquarters had any idea when or whether missionaries would be allowed back to their mission stations.
In Shanghai, Florence found a letter from her brother Ernest waiting for her. In the letter Ernest told how their sister Emily was very ill with heart trouble and asked Florence to consider coming home on furlough. Florence took this as a sign that she should leave China, for a few months at least, and return to Australia.
Florence set sail from Shanghai with a group of other missionaries and reached Brisbane on October 25, 1900. When she arrived, she found that her sister was doing a little better and was planning a trip to England with her daughter Olive. Florence was invited to join them on the journey, and she happily agreed to go. They were not due to leave for England for two months, and Florence used the time to check on the progress of the Queensland Kanaka Mission.
Florence was delighted with what she found. The work around Bundaberg had blossomed. Three new mission centers at Hapsberg, Gin Gin, and Avondale had been opened, and there was hardly a Kanaka man in the area who was not learning to read the Bible. And just before Florence arrived back in Australia, three new European workers had set out to establish Bible classes near Cairns. Twelve European missionaries and three Kanakas were now working with the mission.
In addition, John Southey and Walter Fricke had visited North Queensland the year before and taken three of the most faithful Kanaka Christians with them. Each of these men, Charley Aurora, Jack Aoba, and Thomas Sandwich, took a job on a northern plantation so that they could all continue the work of the mission in the evenings and on weekends. As a result, the work of the mission had spread not only to Cairns but also to Port Douglas and Johnstone River. All in all, the three native workers were now conducting Bible and reading classes for 375 indentured laborers, and the number of men attending class was growing each week. Florence was amazed at the growth of the mission during the three years she had been away.
When it came time to depart for England, much to Florence’s dismay, Emily was not well enough for a sea voyage. However, Florence’s family encouraged her to make the trip anyway, as her niece Olive needed a chaperone and Florence herself needed a long rest to get over the strain of the past three years in China.
With some reluctance, Florence set out with Olive in March 1901. Upon their arrival in England, friends and relatives welcomed them. While Olive rushed around seeing the various sites of England, Florence stayed in the country enjoying the peace and quiet. While in England, Florence attended a large Christian convention called Keswick and was asked to speak to the conference goers for five minutes about her missionary work. She hardly knew where to start, as eighteen years of mission work had to be condensed into five minutes of talking. Still, she did her best, and many of those who heard Florence speak told her how moved they were by the persistence and determination she demonstrated.
While Florence was at the Keswick Convention, one of the women participants invited her and Olive to come to Switzerland for a visit to her chalet in the Chamonix Valley at the foot of Mont Blanc. Florence accepted the invitation right away, as she recognized the name of the region. It was the same region where Hudson Taylor and his wife, Jennie, were spending the winter.
Once in Switzerland, Florence was delighted to see the Taylors again, although she was shocked at how frail Hudson looked. The CIM missionary deaths in China had taken a heavy toll on him.
Olive loved the Alps and tried her hand at every sport she could find. She went luging, ice-skating, and skiing, while Florence preferred quiet walks through the woods with Hudson.
As spring approached, Florence finally felt rested. After talking with Hudson, she was confident of one thing—God wanted her to work in Queensland, at least for the next few years.
Florence said a sad farewell to Hudson Taylor. She was sure she would never see him again. She set out for Marseilles, France, where she and Olive would catch an ocean liner bound for Australia. They arrived in Sydney in mid-April 1902, having been away for just over a year. Upon her arrival back in Australia, Florence was relieved to learn that Emily was no worse than when they had left.
Now that Florence had settled on ministering to the Kanakas, she threw herself into the work. Once again the government had passed an act declaring that all Kanaka laborers must return home at the end of their term of indentured labor and that no new Kanakas were to be hired. Florence had no idea whether this act would be undone, as the previous one had been, and whether all the Kanakas would be gone from Queensland in three years. Despite the uncertainty, she busied herself visiting all the Queensland Kanaka Mission locations to meet the new missionaries serving with the mission. The mission in Port Douglas was the farthest away, located over a thousand miles up the coast. On a cold winter’s day in July, Florence set out on her latest adventure.
In the shelter of the Great Barrier Reef, the steamer carrying Florence made its way up the coast to Townsville, where a number of passengers disembarked. The ship then moved on farther north to Halifax, where Florence disembarked to visit several Bible classes the mission had begun in the area. To get to one of the Bible classes, Florence had to ford the Herbert River, where crocodiles were known to lurk in the slow-moving, murky water. Even though she was on horseback, Florence was reluctant to guide her horse into the river and cross it. Her guide spent several minutes reassuring her that despite there being crocodiles in the river, to his knowledge no one fording the river at this point had ever been attacked and killed by the reptiles. Florence did not want to be the first, but eventually, still dubious of the guide’s confidence that everything would be all right, she gingerly rode her horse into the river. She soon learned that the guide was right. No menacing crocodile came to make a meal of her, and Florence emerged on the opposite bank of the Herbert River wet but alive.
Five miles beyond the river, Florence’s courage was rewarded as she watched eighty-four Kanaka men show up for Bible study and reading class that night.
Following the stop in Halifax, Florence boarded another steamer for the rest of her journey up the coast to Port Douglas, where she spent two weeks visiting the Bible studies the mission was running. She was impressed by what she saw. Almost all the Kanakas in the area were learning to read the Bible, and a number of men had already become Christians. Florence returned to Bundaberg satisfied with all that the mission was doing in north Queensland.
It was clear, too, when she returned that there would be no reprieve for the Kanakas this time. The government was determined to send the men back to their home islands as soon as they had fulfilled the requirements of their labor contracts. The work of the Queensland Kanaka Mission thus took on a new urgency. Florence and the other missionaries working with the mission knew that within three years all of their converts would be back home in the islands. Many of those islands were still steeped in cannibalism and witchcraft.
With indentured servitude on the sugar plantations of Queensland about to wind down, Florence started to ask herself what she should do next. What did God want her to do when all of the Kanakas were finally back on their home islands? One choice was to go back to China, but as she thought about it, another exciting and challenging option began to emerge. Perhaps she could set up a mission in the Pacific islands that would support those Kanaka Christians who had returned home.
This was not an easy option. Missionary work in the islands of Melanesia, where the Kanakas lived, was dangerous. Florence recalled that two years before, in 1900, an independent missionary had gone out to the islands to live and work, but he had died within five months. The climate and the local food proved too much for him. A second man, Robert Ruddell, not knowing that the first missionary was already dead, had gone out to help him. When he learned of the missionary’s death, he hitched a ride on a whaleboat and visited a number of islands. Inspired by what he had seen, upon his return to Queensland, Robert joined the Queensland Kanaka Mission.
Another independent missionary, Joseph Watkinson, had gone out to the islands a year before with a companion, Fred Schwieger. But Fred had died six months later, and Joseph was forced to return to Australia because of a severe case of malaria that he had contracted. Upon his recovery, he too joined the Queensland Kanaka Mission.
Now, as Florence discussed the possibility of opening mission stations in the islands of Melanesia, Robert and Joseph were both enthusiastic about the idea. Their enthusiasm rubbed off on the others serving in the Queensland Kanaka Mission. Soon everyone in the organization was determined to go and help the new Kanaka Christians reach out to their families in the islands.
