Swain's part before she could signify her acceptance of the
call, and during the three months of delay in giving her answer
the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, of which she was a member, was organized. Naturally she
preferred to go under the auspices of her own denomination, and
the Union Missionary Society gracefully and generously accepted
her decision.
Confident that she was obeying the call of God, she set about her
preparations for the long journey before her in a cheerful spirit,
answering the demurs of her friends with, "It is God's call. I
must go." She was greatly cheered when she found that Miss
Isabella Thoburn, whose brother (now Bishop Thoburn) had been some
years in India, was to be her traveling companion. They sailed
from New York November 3, 1869, and arrived in Bareilly January
20, 1870, during the annual conference of the Methodist Mission.
APPOINTMENT TO BAREILLY
The two ladies, whose previous slight acquaintance had ripened
into warmest friendship during their weeks of journeying together,
had hoped that they might be associated together in mission work,
but it was not so to be. Miss Thoburn was appointed to educational
work in Lucknow, and Dr. Swain found that she was to remain in
Bareilly. This appointment gave her the opportunity to begin her
medical work at once, for there were not only the girls'
orphanage, for which Mrs.
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