In this book I have attempted to describe what the missionaries did rather than what they hoped to do or what they ought or ought not to have done. I would say at once, however, that I have written only of the missionaries' more strictly social work, since I believe the extent of their success or failure in their work of evangelism to be beyond human assessment. At the same time, I have tried constantly to show how the virtually subordinate schemes for social reform which the missionaries undertook derived their strength and their impetus from the main task of attempting to spread the Christian teaching. - Preface.