Jonathan smiled through cracked lips. “God has undertaken for us, my dear,” he replied.
From his position lying beside Jonathan on the k’ang, Dr. Leslie oversaw the treatment of both of their wounds. The innkeeper brought Rosalind clean rags for bandages. It was amazing how much better everyone felt the following morning after a good night’s sleep uninterrupted by shouts of violence or the fear that someone would creep in and slit their throats.
The two young brothers arrived at the inn early the next morning. They brought with them a hearty breakfast of millet gruel and fresh bread. While they all ate, the adults talked about the situation they found themselves in. Everywhere around them lay danger, but the only thing the missionaries could do in the face of it was to press on to Fancheng and from there try to make it to Hankow by boat. The older of the two brothers told the missionaries it was a good thing they had come as far west as they had, because two weeks earlier the empress dowager had sent a messenger to the south decreeing that all foreigners should be killed.
Jonathan stared at Rosalind, who met his eyes. “The messenger with the burnt feather!” she exclaimed.
Jonathan felt goosebumps rising on his unbandaged right arm as he realized just how close they had come to heading south. They would have been on a path to certain death if he had not changed his mind and decided to head in a westerly direction first.
“You must go on without delay,” said the young man. “The entire country has gone mad. It is not safe for you to stay anywhere.”
While Jonathan agreed in principle, he said, “But my son and Mr. Griffith—we don’t know where they are.” Tears flowed down his cheeks as he spoke, but he did not have the energy to wipe them away. Then the story of their lost son came tumbling out for the brothers to hear.
The two young men looked at each other. “My brother and I will do all we can to find them and send them after you, but you must not stop to wait for them. It is too dangerous,” said the older brother, and then he bent his head close to Jonathan’s ear. “It is better to lose one of your children than all of them,” he whispered.
The words sent a chill down Jonathan’s spine, but he had to admit the wisest thing for them to do was to press on in their journey.
The missionaries were all grateful when the brothers wrote a letter of introduction to the leader in the next town and sent along an official from their town to calm the crowds and give the missionaries safe passage until nightfall. The brothers also apologized for not sending any food or bedding with the travelers, explaining that it would only make them a target for robbery. The less they had with them, the more chance they would have of making it to Fancheng alive.
After warmly thanking the brothers, the band of missionaries left the town refreshed from a good night’s sleep but daunted by what still lay ahead of them.
It was four in the afternoon when a runner caught up to the group. He brought good news for Jonathan and Rosalind. Paul had been found! Apparently he had been pulled away by the crowd when they were loading up to go. Mr. Griffith had seen that he was in trouble and had jumped off the cart to save him. Both of them had managed to get away and hide in an alley, but by the time their tormentors had stopped looking for them, the rest of the missionaries were long gone.
Eventually Mr. Griffith and Paul had found the cart and driver left behind for them, and they had started out on their own perilous journey twelve hours behind the others. Mr. Griffith and Paul had escaped any injuries and so were able to make faster progress. If all went well, the messenger said, they should catch up to the rest of the group after nightfall in the next town. Sure enough, later that evening Mr. Griffith and Paul finally caught up to the group. Both of them had cuts and bruises but otherwise were in good health.
The leader in the next town read the letter the brothers had written. At the urging of his wife, who was a Christian, he not only let the missionaries stay safely in his town but also sent them on their way the next day with a fully armed escort. The escort was to protect them all the way to Fancheng.
The missionaries continued on feeling a little safer, though the crowds that surged around them along the way were often angry and armed with rocks and sticks. At midnight two days later, they finally reached Fancheng. The first leg of their journey was over. Much to everyone’s surprise, the engineers were waiting for them at the inn. They had hired several boats for the following night, hoping the missionaries would arrive in time.
After spending the day locked in a hot, filthy inn, everyone was relieved to climb aboard the boats for the ten-day trip downriver to Hankow. As Jonathan staggered aboard one of the boats, he was grateful that no matter what lay ahead, at least his family was together again.
Chapter 10
An Unexpected Response
The boats arrived at Hankow without incident, largely because the boat operators kept their craft near the middle of the river and ordered the foreigners to stay out of sight. Once they reached Hankow, though, they were unable to get permission to land and instead were ordered to continue on to Shanghai, where the Goforths would catch the first steamer available back to Canada.
Everyone was stiff and sore by the time the boats reached Shanghai. Jonathan, who had been able to rest a little on the trip downriver, regained a bit of his strength each day.
The Shanghai they stepped off the boat into that day was vastly different from the Shanghai they had passed through twelve years before. Refugees, both Chinese and foreign, many of them with dazed looks on their faces, walked the streets. The waterfront was filled with people clambering for tickets to leave the country. Women with tear-streaked faces begged, men slipped money over the counter, and children sat on steamer trunks staring silently ahead, obviously unable to take in the rapid changes that had overtaken their young lives.
Upon arrival, Jonathan headed straight for the Bank of Shanghai, where he had some money in a savings account. He withdrew it all, and the family ate well for the first time in nearly three weeks. In all the chaos, Jonathan was also able to find the family an unfurnished house to stay in and reserve boat passage to Canada in ten days’ time.
When Rosalind finally put the last child to sleep on the floor their first night in Shanghai, she turned to Jonathan. “What are we going to do?” she whispered desperately. “Look at us. We are all dressed in rags. There’s no way we can go back to Canada looking like this. None of us even has a change of clothes, and your shirt and pants are covered with blood.”
Jonathan studied his wife and sleeping children. She was right. They looked like beggars, but where would they get suitable clothing for the trip home? Because of the Boxer Rebellion, there were few Western-style clothes for sale in Shanghai. They would have to buy fabric and make clothes for all six of them, but how could they do that in only a few days, and without a sewing machine?
The next morning there was a knock at the door, and two Chinese women stood outside. They explained that they had seen the Goforths’ name on a refugee list, and although they had never met, the women had heard they were missionaries and wanted to help them. Maybe, they asked, there was some sewing they could do for the family?
Rosalind stood at the door for a full minute holding the women’s hands and sobbing. In the midst of so much hatred, the kindness of these two visitors overwhelmed her. Before the week was out, the girls had dresses, petticoats, and warm overcoats, and Paul had pants and shirts and a jacket. But in all the activity, Rosalind had completely overlooked making anything for baby Wallace. By the time she realized this, it was too late. They had to board the ship with him wrapped in an old towel and a blanket. Rosalind had fabric to hand sew him a baby gown and bonnet, but by the time she had everyone settled in their cabin, she was too worn out to pick up a needle.
It was with mixed feelings that Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth stood watching the lights of Shanghai slip from view on the evening of August 1, 1900. They were leaving the country they loved so dearly. Now all they could do was pray for peace. Jonathan had barely had time to think about little Florence. He was shocked when he realized she had been dead only six weeks. He put his arm around his wife and laid her head on his shoulder. They would face the future together.
The ship crossed the East China Sea and three days later dropped anchor in Yokohama Bay, Japan. Jonathan and the three oldest children watched as a lighter boat came alongside and supplies were loaded onto the ship. An hour later, Rosalind joined them on deck with baby Wallace, now dressed in a well-made baby gown and hand-knitted cardigan.
“Oh, Jonathan!” exclaimed Rosalind before he had time to ask. “God provided for the baby. The lighter boat brought a package for us from Mrs. Edwards with the China Inland Mission. She must have stopped in Japan, too, on her way home. But how she knew we would be aboard this ship I don’t know. Anyway, the package was filled with clothes, most of them baby clothes, just the right size for Wallace. Isn’t that amazing. It’s exactly what we prayed for!”
Jonathan smiled at his wife. It had been a long time since he had seen her so joyful.
When the Goforths arrived in Canada, they were greeted as celebrities. Many people had feared they would not make it out of China alive, and everyone clamored to hear the story of their escape.
Each day Jonathan searched the Canadian newspapers for news of China. He found both good and bad news. The good news was that the Boxer Rebellion had ended on August 14, 1900, just two weeks after the Goforths had left. The foreign powers with spheres of influence in China (Russia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, and the United States) put together a force of nineteen thousand soldiers that was dispatched to retake Peking, home of the empress dowager Tz’u-hsi, who had actively encouraged the Boxers to kill foreigners and burn down Western churches and factories. The foreign troops were much better organized and equipped than the Boxers and Imperial Chinese soldiers. Within days they had captured Peking and forced the royal family to flee northward. An uneasy peace had settled over China, but it was not yet stable enough for missionaries to return. In the end, over two hundred fifty foreigners were killed by the Boxers, along with thousands of Chinese Christians.
While Jonathan waited for China to open, he filled his time in Canada by both telling the story of his family’s escape from Changte and challenging everyone he came in contact with about the need for more missionaries to return to China as soon as the door to do so opened again.
It took over a year for the Chinese government and the foreign powers to negotiate the Peace of Peking settlement. This settlement gave everything to the foreign powers and nothing to China. China was required to pay out huge amounts of money in reparations, the foreign powers got more lenient trade arrangements, and the Chinese had to dismantle all their coastal defense facilities.
Jonathan was very concerned about the agreement. In his mind it wasn’t a real agreement at all but was several large foreign powers bullying China into doing what they wanted. The agreement did not solve any of the problems caused by foreigners in China. In fact, it made them worse. It seemed to him only a matter of time before the whole problem exploded again and foreigners would once again be the target of hatred and violence. Deep in his heart, Jonathan knew the time to reach China was short. The Boxer Rebellion had been a powerful uprising, and while it had drawn attention to some problems, it had not solved them. In Jonathan’s opinion the foreign powers were foolish to think things would ever go back to the way they were.
All of this made Jonathan eager to return to China. If the time was short, as he thought it was, he didn’t have a day to waste! In mid-October 1901, the borders of China were once again opened to foreigners, and Jonathan was one of the first to go back. He left Rosalind in Canada with the children, including their new baby, Constance. Once he had checked things out, he would arrange for them to travel back to China to join him.
