Finding herself unable to live in Africa because of repeated attacks of tropical fever, she was compelled to return to the United States.

[3] Brittan was the author of, Statement of facts : [concerning the Woman's Union Missionary Society], Thomas Toomey; the history of an Irish boy, Kardoo, the Hindoo girl, Shoshie : the Hindoo Zenana teacher, A woman's talks about India, or, The domestic habits and customs of the people, and Scenes and incidents of every-day life in Africa.

She was sent out by the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church to Liberia,[2] but she could not live there, being constantly attacked by tropical fever, which compelled her return.

Her tact, spiritual insight, and judgment were all taxed to meet the new conditions, but she did it, and established a work that grew in great proportions.

She was an indefatigable worker, and was the promoter of many concerts in New York and vicinity, by means of which thousands of dollars were gathered for missionary work.

Under the auspices of the Protestant Methodist Missionary Society she went to Yokohama in 1880, and took charge of a large mission established for the benefit of Eurasian children, who were often left in destitute circumstances.

[9] In the early spring of 1897, she disposed of her property in Yokohama and started for the U.S. She had been in poor health for several months, but hoped the sea air would build her up so that she could make the overland journey.

The funeral services were held at an Episcopal church in San Francisco, as she was a member of that body, and she was laid to rest in a cemetery there overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

[9] Harriet Gertrude Brittan and Frederick Charles Klein, Methodist Protestant missionaries to Japan, was published in 1975, by John William Krummel.