Mason, Francis (2)

Mason, Francis (2), D.D., a Baptist minister, andl missionary, was born at York, England, April 2, 1799. He was a shoemaker's apprentice emigrated to Philadelphia in 1818; settled at Canton, Mo., in 1825; studied at the Theological Seminary, Newton, Mo., in 1827; and in May, 1830, having been ordained, sailed with his wife for Calcutta as a missionary to the Karens. After acquiring the language, he wrote The Sayings of the Elders, which was the first printed book in the Karen language. He prepared Pali and Burmese grammars, and acquired many of the Oriental languages. He also published a Karen translation of the Bible. He was medical adviser to this people, having studied medicine, and published a small work on materia medica and pathology in one of the Karen dialects. He also edited for many years the Morning Star, a Karen monthly, in both the Sgan and Pwo dialects, and was member of a number of literary and scientific bodies. He died at Rangoon, Burmah, March 3, 1874. His English writings are, Report of the Twvay Mission Society: — Life of Kothabyun, the Karens Apostle: — Memoir of Mrs. Helen Mil. Mason (1847): Memoir of San Quala (1850): — and Burmah, its People and Natural Productions (1852; enlarged edition, 1861).