180
CARL SMITH
Macau by its first Principal, the Rev. Mr. Samuel Brown, the boys' father enrolled them. Several years later the father admitted that it took some courage to hand his boys over to foreigners.
Mr. Brown quotes him thus:
"We could not understand why a foreigner should wish to feed and instruct our children for nothing. Perhaps it was to entice them away from their parents and country, and transport them by and by to some foreign land. But I understand it now. I have had my three sons in your school steadily since they entered it, and no harm has happened to them. The eldest has qualified for the public service as an interpreter. The other two have learned nothing bad... I have no longer any fears; you labour for other's good, not your own. I understand it now.'
The eldest of the three sons, Tong Mow-chee, was enrolled under the name A-chick, aged 11, on November 4, 1839. He was received along with four other boys on this date as the first students on the school roll.
In November 1841, his brother Tong King-sing was enrolled as A-ku, aged 10, as a member of the second class, and in April 1843 the youngest brother, Tong Ting-keng, entered the third class as A-fu, aged eight.
A letter written by Tong A-chick was published after he had been in the school for a little more than two years. It was written to pupils in a New York City school for the deaf and dumb. Mr. Brown had taught in the school before coming to China.
In a covering letter Mr. Brown commented that since the boys in his school had been under his instruction they had become much changed in manners and habits and under his guidance their moral sense had been sharpened.
A-chick's letter dated, Macau, January 14, 1842, expressed his high regard for the school and reflected a conformity to the moral code set before him by his principal.