father-tongue being, it was hoped, an inducement that would attract such pupils within the reach of Christian instruction.
Before the first year ended twenty-seven had been enrolled. All attempts to gather Siamese boys in a school had failed thus far, though some individual scholars had been taught, as the wats gave free tuition to all, and merit was made by providing the priests with their pupil-attendants.
An interesting, amiable young Hainan Chinese, See Teug by name, had the year previous been baptized by Mr. Mattoon, in whose family he long had lived—the first of that people to become a Protestant Christian—and gave pleasing evidence of his love to his Saviour by the interest he manifested in bringing his fellow-countrymen to the knowledge of the gospel. A Sabbath evening-service was held for their benefit, the new convert acting as Bible-reader and interpreter. Afterward a Hainan teacher was secured, and for many years a Hainan-Chinese department of the boarding-school maintained, in the hope of bringing under saving Christian influences some of the many Chinese in Siam from the island of Hainan, which had been hitherto entirely unreached by Protestant missionary effort. A day-school for the Peguan girls in the neighborhood was started by Mrs. Mattoon, who had also two or three native girls in her own family under Christian training.
