Page 166 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 166
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
we had to hold on tight not to be thrown out. Clouds of dust rose up round us and often we could not
see the road for dust which nearly choked us. As we got to some of the steeper hills the truck
invariably stopped half way up and then we three on the back had to get out and push! We were not
alone however, as the driver, whenever he saw a hill looming up ahead of us, put his head out of the
window and yelled at every passerby to come and help push, which they did! At one place a man
with three buffaloes, tied them to the front of the truck and, with much shouting and tooting of the horn
and cracking of the whip, the animals pulled us up.
At Fengxiang there were no missionaries at
that time, but we were able to stay at the
Mission Home, which was much cleaner than
a Chinese inn, and the Chinese evangelist
helped us get settled for the night. Next
morning he went out to try and hire mules to
take us and our 47 pieces of luggage, plus
some collected at Xi’an, over the mountains to
Hanzhong. We needed ten mules for our
luggage and two mule litters for the four of us
to ride in. That meant four more mules, so
quite a cavalcade. It took all of a day to get
this all sorted out and the luggage counted once again and weighed into loads that the mules could
carry, but we were thankful for the rest after all the bumps and bruises of the previous day on top of
the truck. I tried to do some study as I hoped to do the written exam as soon as possible after
reaching the South, but I fell asleep over it!
The next day, our first with mules, was a
hard one as the drivers took the wrong
road to begin with, and then didn’t want to
stop for a meal anywhere. Miss Haslam
and I were in one litter and Myrie and
Bertha in the other, and we went on hour
after hour until 7:30 that night. We reached
Yimenzhen, an outstation of Fengxiang,
where thankfully there was a Mission
centre, and kind Christians who cared for
us. We had been twelve hours on the
road. When we left the Church they
offered to send one of their boys with us to
help us. His name was Mandao, and he had such a cheery smile that it warmed our hearts. He wore
a pigtail and a huge straw hat which perched on the top of his head and he made life much easier for
us all.
The second day was not nearly so hard, partly because we were more used to riding in the litters and
partly because the men stopped for a midday meal. We were now getting into the mountains and
there and then began my love affair with the wonderful Qin Ling. Peak after peak rose up all round
us, dark patches here and there where the shadows lay and other ridges and tree clad slopes bathed
in bright sunlight. The mountain tracks wound up and up and all that day we were following the
course of the river we could see below us. As we got higher, the mule tracks were often only about
eighteen inches wide, with the river some hundreds of feet below us and a precipice rising a thousand
feet or more on the other side above us. In places the path became so steep and rocky that the
166
Amy Moore
we had to hold on tight not to be thrown out. Clouds of dust rose up round us and often we could not
see the road for dust which nearly choked us. As we got to some of the steeper hills the truck
invariably stopped half way up and then we three on the back had to get out and push! We were not
alone however, as the driver, whenever he saw a hill looming up ahead of us, put his head out of the
window and yelled at every passerby to come and help push, which they did! At one place a man
with three buffaloes, tied them to the front of the truck and, with much shouting and tooting of the horn
and cracking of the whip, the animals pulled us up.
At Fengxiang there were no missionaries at
that time, but we were able to stay at the
Mission Home, which was much cleaner than
a Chinese inn, and the Chinese evangelist
helped us get settled for the night. Next
morning he went out to try and hire mules to
take us and our 47 pieces of luggage, plus
some collected at Xi’an, over the mountains to
Hanzhong. We needed ten mules for our
luggage and two mule litters for the four of us
to ride in. That meant four more mules, so
quite a cavalcade. It took all of a day to get
this all sorted out and the luggage counted once again and weighed into loads that the mules could
carry, but we were thankful for the rest after all the bumps and bruises of the previous day on top of
the truck. I tried to do some study as I hoped to do the written exam as soon as possible after
reaching the South, but I fell asleep over it!
The next day, our first with mules, was a
hard one as the drivers took the wrong
road to begin with, and then didn’t want to
stop for a meal anywhere. Miss Haslam
and I were in one litter and Myrie and
Bertha in the other, and we went on hour
after hour until 7:30 that night. We reached
Yimenzhen, an outstation of Fengxiang,
where thankfully there was a Mission
centre, and kind Christians who cared for
us. We had been twelve hours on the
road. When we left the Church they
offered to send one of their boys with us to
help us. His name was Mandao, and he had such a cheery smile that it warmed our hearts. He wore
a pigtail and a huge straw hat which perched on the top of his head and he made life much easier for
us all.
The second day was not nearly so hard, partly because we were more used to riding in the litters and
partly because the men stopped for a midday meal. We were now getting into the mountains and
there and then began my love affair with the wonderful Qin Ling. Peak after peak rose up all round
us, dark patches here and there where the shadows lay and other ridges and tree clad slopes bathed
in bright sunlight. The mountain tracks wound up and up and all that day we were following the
course of the river we could see below us. As we got higher, the mule tracks were often only about
eighteen inches wide, with the river some hundreds of feet below us and a precipice rising a thousand
feet or more on the other side above us. In places the path became so steep and rocky that the
166
