1850.
Letter from B. J. Bettelheim.
83
In my visits to families, I met with several cases of heart-rending destitution from want of medical aid. I took medicine to their houses; but on my next visit, bottle, medicine, all, had taken been by the emis- saries, and the patients begged me not to expose them to danger and penalties, in addition to the pains they already suffered from illness and want. Since the Nancy Dawson left, I have offered medicines in two cases, which were accepted and used with good effect. Perhaps the express mention made by Capt. Shedden on this topic had some effect. Ophthalmic cases are very frequent, and from neglect or ill treatment many of them lead to blindness.
About the time of the equinoxes, frightful mortality reigns, of which the numerous burials in the cemeteries on both sides of our residence make us mournful witnesses. This year many deaths happened in our neighborhood, and the water of our open wells becoming scarcely drinkable from the mud washed in by the long and heavy rains, I offered the magistrate of Napa twenty dollars to let curbs and covers be made to the wells of this neighborhood. The lying spirit dared to send the money back, accompanied by an official note, in which he told me, though it rained ever so long, that not a drop entered our wells, and they had no need of my money, or of my advice about putting alum or coals into the water. I had also some surgical exercise when the French brig Pacifique was here. I amputated the fore-arm of a sailor in the Nancy Dawson, who had been injured by a shot. He left the fourth day after the operation in a promising state.
To sum up. This station, abstracted from the iniquitous inter- ference of government, has proved no exception to the general way in which newly opened missions proceed; and considering that this is Japan, the want of exception is already in its favor. The divine argument against depraved Israel, "Hath a nation changed their their gods which are no gods," is certainly felt also under the gospel, notwithstanding its being a commandment of the ever blessed God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. Nor must we forget the singular and peculiar situation of this nation of Lewchew. Her father was an Ammonite, and her mother a Hittite:"-China and Japan have begotten and foster this bastard people, and the ini- quities of both taint their very soul. Your may justly infer the disposition of this government and nation from what you see in the reception they give the doctrines of the cross, and the effect these will exert on them when received. Japan itself is a child of China, in faith, literature, and national morals; and the proverb holds good, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's