MASON, FRANCIS (1799-1874), an American missionary, son of a shoemaker in York, England, was born April 2, 1799. After emigrating to the United States in 1818, he practised there the trade he had learned from his father ; but, having studied languages with his minister at Canton, Massachusetts, he in 1827 entered the Newton theological institution. In 1830 he was sent by the American Missionary Union to labour among the Karens in Burmah, where he translated the Bible into two dialects of their language, and also conducted a training college for native preachers and teachers. In 1852 he published a book of great value on the fauna and flora of British Burma', of winch an improved edition appeared in 1860 under the title Burmah, its People and Natural Products. He was also the author of a grammar and vocabulary of the Pali language, besides various translations from it and other Indian dialects. He died at Rangoon, March 3, 1874. See his autobiography, The Story of a Working .1fan's Life, with Sketches of Travel, 1870.