Welsh Journals

APPENDIX 1 Here is a transcript of a letter sent by Robert Jermain to his younger sister, Sallie, or Sarah. Dr Goh saw it in the possession of one of his younger brother's descendants, William Calvin. Thomas had two other sisters and one who had died in infancy. The letter was in the possession of a Mrs Elizabeth Hann of Rhaeadr in Radnorshire. Dearest Sallie, In a month, the Polmaise is going to Liverpool so I'll send you a fan or something pretty. You can (?) expect it at Llanover in about three months from this date. How foolish Emma Burn (?) was with Miall (?) tho I should like a run up the Sugar Loaf very much. I don't care about seeing Abergavenny. The country around here is as flat as Lord Llanover pond. Give my kind regards to his Lordship when you go to the next party there. 'Remember me to all enquiring friends' as people say. Carrie sends you lots ofkisses(?). lam Your loving brother. R Jermain Shanghai. Feb 4th 64 APPENDIX 2 His love of travel is reflected in the first letter he wrote to Dr Tidman of the LMS in London on January 12th 1866, from Peking. He describes an unparalleled storm he endured off the West coast of Korea during the previous autumn: I had intended visiting the Capital, "Nang-King" but the Corean junk in which I had taken passage was dashed to pieces by one of those terrible gales. No life was lost. Leaving Corea in the beginning of December I landed on the coast of Manchuria and found that I had esacped the dangers of the sea to fall perhaps into those on land. There are rumours that the entire country of Manchuria is in a state of agitataion. Long since, small bands of mounted robbers were the terror of highways of the Far East. Latterly these bands have combined together and assumed such alarming proportions as to characterize the movement a downright rebellion. I landed at a port called Pi-tz-mo and two days after leaving it was occupied by the rebels. I had spent three very pleasant days in distributing the Scriptures and presenting the Gospel. The people were more than usually quiet and attentive. A Mohammedan named Li Kwo Fe bought a copy of each kind of book I had and insisted on sending me dinner daily, free of expense! Passing through Kaichou I arrived at Ting-tog (Newchang). Thence travelling part of the time on horseback and the rest of the time in carts, rounding the northern part of the gulf of Liao-Teng and passing the Great Wall at Shan Hai Kwan I entered the province of Chi Li and breathed freely, for thither the robbers could not follow us. The Chinese government has dispatched some four thousand troops to tranquilize Manchuria.