



Produced by Peter Vickers, the Bookworm <bookworm.librivox
AT gmail.com> and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned
images of public domain material from the Google Print
project.)





Transcriber's Note:

Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without
note. Some illustrations have been slightly relocated for better flow.
In some of the Chinese or Mongolian names, the character 'u' with a
breve appears frequently. This appears in the text as [)u].


[Illustration]




JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA

HIS DIARIES LETTERS AND REPORTS


EDITED AND ARRANGED BY
RICHARD LOVETT, M.A.
AUTHOR OF 'NORWEGIAN PICTURES' ETC

WITH A PORTRAIT, TWO MAPS AND
FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS

THIRD AND CHEAPER EDITION

LONDON
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
56 Paternoster Row, 65 St Paul's Churchyard
1895


  O Christ, in Thee my soul hath found,
    And found in Thee alone,
  The peace, the joy I sought so long,
    The bliss till now unknown.

  I sighed for rest and happiness,
    I yearned for them, not Thee;
  But while I passed my Saviour by,
    His love laid hold on me.

  Now none but Christ can satisfy,
    None other name for me;
  There's love, and life, and lasting joy,
    Lord Jesus, found in Thee.




PREFACE


This book in its more expensive forms has been before the public for
nearly two years. It has been very widely read, and it has received
extraordinary attention from many sections of the press. The author has
received from all parts of the world most striking testimonies as to the
way in which this record of James Gilmour's heroic self-sacrifice for
the Lord Jesus and on behalf of his beloved Mongols for the Master's
sake has touched the hearts of Christian workers. It has deepened their
faith, strengthened their zeal, nerved them for whole-hearted
consecration to the same Master, and cheered many a solitary and lonely
heart.

Many requests have been received for an edition at a price which will
place the book within the reach of Sunday School teachers, of those
Christian workers who have but little to spend upon books, and of the
elder scholars in our schools. The Committee of the Religious Tract
Society have gladly met this request at the earliest possible moment.

In this new form their hope and prayer is that James Gilmour, being
dead, may yet speak to many hearts, arousing them to diligent, and
faithful, and self-denying service for Jesus Christ.

The book, in this its newest form, is identical in all respects with the
first and second editions, except that only one portrait is given and
the appendices are left out.




CONTENTS

  CHAPTER                                                       PAGE

  I.    EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION                                 15

  II.   BEGINNING WORK                                            46

  III.  MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP                                  55

  IV.   THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN MONGOLIA                            88

  V.    MARRIAGE                                                  98

  VI.   'IN JOURNEYINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS'              105

  VII.  THE VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1882                             134

  VIII. SUNSHINE AND SHADOW                                      154

  IX.   A CHANGE OF FIELD                                        176

  X.    PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AS ILLUSTRATED BY
            LETTERS TO RELATIVES AND FRIENDS                     228

  XI.   CLOSING LABOURS                                          256

  XII.  THE LAST DAYS                                            298


  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  PORTRAIT OF JAMES GILMOUR FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN
        AT TIENTSIN ON APRIL 1891                     _Frontispiece_

  A MONGOL ENCAMPMENT                                            109

  A MONGOL CAMEL CART                                            139

  A CHINESE MULE LITTER                                          156

  JAMES GILMOUR EQUIPPED FOR HIS WALKING EXPEDITION
        IN MONGOLIA IN FEBRUARY 1884                             159

  JAMES GILMOUR'S TENT                                           245


  MAPS

  1. MAP ILLUSTRATING JAMES GILMOUR'S JOURNEYS ON THE
        GREAT PLAIN OF MONGOLIA                                   54

  2. MAP ILLUSTRATING JAMES GILMOUR'S LABOURS IN EASTERN
        MONGOLIA                                                 179

     For readers of _James Gilmour of Mongolia_ not familiar with _Among
     the Mongols_, a new Edition of that Work has been prepared and
     published, price Two Shillings and Sixpence.




JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA




CHAPTER I

EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION


James Gilmour, of Mongolia, the son of James Gilmour and Elizabeth
Pettigrew his wife, was born at Cathkin on Monday, June 12, 1843. He was
the third in a family of six sons, all but one of whom grew up to
manhood. His father was in very comfortable circumstances, and
consequently James Gilmour never had the struggle with poverty through
which so many of his great countrymen have had to pass. Cathkin, an
estate of half a dozen farms in the parish of Carmunnock, is only five
miles from Glasgow, and was owned by Humphrey Ewing Maclae, a retired
India merchant, who resided in the substantial mansion-house on the
estate. There were also the houses of a few residents, and a smithy and
wright's workshops, for the convenience of the surrounding district.
James Gilmour's father was the occupant of the wright's shop, as his
father had been before him.

His brother John, one of three who have survived him, has furnished the
following interesting sketch of the family life in which James Gilmour
was trained, and to which he owed so much of the charm and power which
he manifested in later years:--

'Our grandfather, Matthew Gilmour, combined the trades of mason and
wright, working himself at both as occasion required; and our father,
James Gilmour, continued the combination in his time in a modified
degree, gradually discarding the mason trade and developing the
wright's. Grandmother (father's mother) was a woman of authority, skill,
and practical usefulness among the little community in which she
resided. In cases requiring medical treatment, she was always in
request; and in order to obtain the lymph pure for the vaccination of
children she would take it herself direct from the cow. She was also a
neat and skilful needlewoman.

'Matthew Gilmour and his wife were people of strict integrity and
Christian living. They walked regularly every Sunday the five miles to
the Congregational Church in Glasgow, though there were several places
of worship within two miles of their residence. I have often heard the
old residents of the steep and rough country road they used to take for
a short cut when nearing home tell how impressed they have been by the
sight of the worthy couple and their family wending their way along in
the dark winter Sabbath evenings by the light of a hand-lantern. Our
parents continued the connection with the same body of worshippers in
Glasgow as long as they resided in Cathkin, being members of Dr. Ralph
Wardlaw's church. It was under his earnest eloquence, and by his wise
pastoral care, we were trained.

'The distance of our home from the place of worship did not admit of our
attending as children any other than the regular Sabbath services; but
we were not neglected in this respect at home, so far as it lay in our
parents' ability to help us. We regularly gathered around our mother's
knee, reading the impressive little stories found in such illustrated
booklets as the _Teacher's Offering_, the _Child's Companion_, the
_Children's Missionary Record_ (Church of Scotland), the _Tract
Magazine_, and Watts' _Divine Songs for Children_. These readings were
always accompanied with touching serious comments on them by mother,
which tended very considerably to impress the lessons contained in them
on our young hearts. I remember how she used to add: "Wouldn't it be
fine if some of you, when you grow up, should be able to write such nice
little stories as these for children, and do some good in the world in
that way!" I have always had an idea that James' love of contributing
short articles from China and Mongolia to the children's missionary
magazines at home was due to these early impressions instilled into his
mind by his mother. Father, too, on Sabbath evenings, generally placed
the "big" Bible (Scott and Henry's) on the table, and read aloud the
comments therein upon some portion of Scripture for our edification and
entertainment. During the winter week-nights some part of the evening
was often spent in reading aloud popular books then current, such as
_Uncle Tom's Cabin_.

'Family worship, morning and evening, was also a most regular and sacred
observance in our house, and consisted of first, asking a blessing;
second, singing twelve lines of a psalm or paraphrase, or a hymn from
Wardlaw's Hymn-book; third, reading a chapter from the Old Testament in
the mornings, and from the New in the evenings; and fourth, prayer. The
chapters read were taken day by day in succession, and at the evening
worship we read two verses each all round. This proved rather a trying
ordeal for some of the apprentices, one or more of whom we usually had
boarding with us, or to a new servant-girl, as their education in many
cases had not been of too liberal a description. But they soon got more
proficient, and if it led them to nothing higher, it was a good
educational help. These devotional exercises were not common in the
district in the mornings, and were apt to be broken in upon by callers
at the wright's shop; but that was never entertained as an excuse for
curtailing them. I suppose people in the district got to know of the
custom, and avoided making their calls at a time when they would have to
wait some little while for attention. Our parents, however, never
allowed this practice or their religious inclinations to obtrude on
their neighbours; all was done most unassumingly and humbly, as a matter
of everyday course.

'Our maternal grandfather, John Pettigrew by name, was a farmer and
meal-miller on the estate of Cathkin, and was considered a man of
sterling worth and integrity. Having had occasion to send his minister,
the parson of Carmunnock parish, some bags of oatmeal from his mill, the
minister suspected from some cause or other that he had got short weight
or measure. The worthy miller was rather nettled at being thus impeached
by