C. B. Thomas diary of missionary work in Burma

This manuscript contains the travel diary of C.B. Thomas, a Baptist missionary in Burma, kept between January 24 and May 7, 1883.

Thomas traveled extensively while keeping her journal, visiting to Rangoon (Yangon), Prome (Pyay), Sandoway (Thandwe), Aykab (Sittwe), Bassein (Pathein), and various smaller villages. She preached to different ethnic groups, including the Karen, Chin, and Burman people, and attempted to set up schools to teach reading and writing in local dialects. She often distributed religious tracts and portions of the Bible and sometimes installed local converts as ministers and teachers. Thomas noted that she had visited many of these areas before on previous journeys. On February 1, she encountered a Karen woman she had first met in December 1851 when she was traveling with her husband. In addition to visiting remote villages, Thomas also attended Baptist meetings in larger cities to help ordain preachers and baptize new converts.

Thomas described most inhabitants she encountered as open to hearing the Christian Gospel or even anxious to receive Christian literature and instruction. She was pleased when one Burman village appeared to be “waking up from the lethargy of Buddhism.” However, not everyone was interested in conversion. One Christian man found that his wife and children refused to live with him after his conversion. When Thomas tried to persuade the woman to return home, she told Thomas “his preaching is harder to bear than the beatings he used to give her when he was drunk in his heathen days.” Thomas also described a group of “half-drunken” Chins and Burmans as “very annoying” when one man said he would convert to Christianity if she paid his debt of seventy rupees.

This manuscript consists of a typed title page that reads “Diary of travels in Burma/by/C.B. Thomas” and 24 unbound, mimeographed leaves of a handwritten diary.