before he was sent out; and about the time of his arrival, a press, with a fount of Nagree types, which had been engaged, was received from Calcutta. No time was lost in putting it into operation, and early in March, 1817, they finished the printing of fifteen hundred copies of a Scripture Tract of eight pages, executed almost entirely with their \| own hands.

In their first attempt, they had many and great difficulties to overcome, but they have since proceeded in this part of their work with facility and despatch. At the date of their last joint communication, in the fore part of January last, they had printed, besides the tract now mentioned, the Gospel of Matthew, the Acts of the Apostles, and two Tracts, consisting chiefly of select portions of Scripture, all in large editions; three editions, 1000 copies each, of a Tract composed by themselves, entitled The way to Heaven; another Tract entitled The Com passion of Christ towards sinful man; the First Number of a work, which they have begun, giving a succinct view of Scripture History; the Book of Genesis; the Gospel of John; a Catechism, designed especi ally for the use of schools; a Reading Book, also for the schools; An easy and expeditious method of acquiring a knowledge of the English Language, designed for the benefit of those Natives who wish to study English and the Sciences; another School Book; and were preparing to print the Epistles of James, Peter, John and Jude. Besides these for the mission, they had printed an edition of the Gospel of Matthew for the Bombay Bible Society; and Christ's Sermon on the Mount, partly for that Society, and partly for the mission. Thus much, amidst all their other labors, they had accomplished with their press, in little more than two years.

THE EDUCATION OF NATIVE CHILDREN is an object, on which these missionaries have bestowed very earnest and laborious attention. Their first free school was commenced in the summer of 1815, and in our last annual Report the number of their schools was stated to be twenty-five, and the total of pupils was estimated, from communications which had then been received, at nearly a hundred Jewish, and more than twelve hundred heathen children. In their joint letter, thirteen months ago, the account is more exact, and the total number enrolled in their schools, as regular pupils, is given at 1,019. Besides these, there are large numbers of inconstant and less regular attendants. What additions have been made to the number of the schools, or of the pupils, in the last thirteen months, your Committee have not yet the means of reporting. In their last joint letter the missionaries say, "Applications for new schools are very frequent." But their funds were not sufficient to answer either the necessities of the people, or their own benevolent desires. But the field is wide and the harvest is most plenteous; and this Board and the Christian community may be assured, that if sufficient funds are afforded to those faithful and energetic laborers, few as they are, within less than five years to come they will number in their schools ten thousand pupils.

"In all the schools," they say, "those, who can read, are daily employed in reading or committing to memory some portions of the Scriptures or Tracts which we have printed." "We occasionally pray in the schools, and instruct them with our own lips." In various res

pects indeed, their schools afford them very important advantages for the benevolent purposes of the mission. In them they have access, at all times, to many young and susceptible minds, under circumstances eminently favorable for deep and salutary impression; through them, they find, also, the best avenues to the minds and hearts of the parents and connexions of the pupils; and by means of them, they have great facilities, in their visiting and preaching circuits, for distributing the Scriptures, or portions of the Scriptures, and their different Tracts, with the fairest hope of their being attentively read.

The extreme difficulty of obtaining children to be educated in their families, was stated and explained in the Report of the last year. "The natives," they say, "have not forgotten the violence practised on them and their Religion by the Portuguese; and their jealousies are ever awake. Indeed, it is matter of astonishment to us, that we have been permitted to proceed so quietly with our schools and our daily instruction."

Mr. Hall, however, has taken into his family, and under his own special care and instruction, two African children; and Mr. Bardwell two Portuguese children. They were miserable outcasts; objects of compassion, as really as the Hindoo children, and as suitable for charitable and Christian education. And of such as these, many, it is supposed, might be obtained.

It is also particularly gratifying to state, that at Salsette the difficulty of obtaining Hindoo children for family instruction, is found to be not so insuperable as at Bombay. As soon as they were comfortably settled, and tolerably acquainted with the native language, Mr. and Mrs. Nichols "resolved on using every effort to establish a school in their house."-In his Journal, May 17, 1819, Mr. Nichols says. [See Pan. Sept. p. 413.].

In a letter, dated Feb. 12, 1820, Mr. N. says further, "Our family school of Hindoo and black Jewish boys affords us much satisfaction. We have nine under our care. We are endeavoring, in the tenderest manner possible, to detach them from the idolatry and wickedness of their fathers. Their improvement is very laudable.”

It is still the great trial of these devoted laborious servants of the Lord, to spend their strength in a field, on which there is scarcely rain or dew from on high; and where the barvest, from the seed which they sow, is hardly to be expected before they are called to rest from their labors. But the seed must be sown, or there will never be a harvest. To sow is the work, the duty, and the privilege of men; to give the increase, and the joy of harvest, is the work, the preroga tion and the glory of God.

Your Committee, however, have the satisfaction gratefully to announce one hopeful and interesting convert by the instrumentality of this mission.

In a letter of March 1819, Mr. Newell writes thus:

"I have had, for some days past, a Nicodemus to instruct, Muhummud Kadin, of Hydrabad. He came about a month ago to receive, as he says, Chrisgian baptism. He is a Mussulmaun of high rank, and came down with a train

This city is in the province of Golconda, nearly due east of Bombay.

of 20 men. He has sent them all back, and lives here in retirement, and does m wish to be known. He has been with me every day for more than a week past, but desires the object of our conferences to be kept a secret for the present. H has stated to me his object in conversation, and has put into my hands a papers Hindoostanee, which is certainly a very curious and interesting one."

In a letter about two months after, Mr. Newell says further:

"In March last, I mentioned to you a Mussulmaun inquirer from Hydrabad, and promised to give you a more particular account of him by the next opportu nity. He is still in Bombay and has been with me, and has eaten at my house the most of the time, since the date of my last letter to you. He states, that his sole object in coming from Hydrabad to this place, (a distance of more than 400 miles,) was to gain further instruction in the Christian religion, and to receive baptism. He says, that he is of a very respectable family, and of high standing in his own country; and his personal appearance, and comparatively extensive information, agree perfectly well with his own account of himself. I put into his hands Mr. Martyn's Hindoostanee translation of the New Testament, and of the common Prayer Book, and pointed him to such places, as I thought would be most useful to him. I have repeatedly read and explained to him, the third chapter of the Gospel of John. He assents to the necessity of a spiritual change, but does not profess to have any experimental knowledge of it, and seems to be more inquisitive about the forms and the history of Christianity, than about its spiritual and practical part. I once asked him whether he now read the Koran, and worshipped in the Musjd. He replied, that he had not done either, for a long time. I asked him, what he now thought of his former religion. He said, he thought it was right for him to live as a Mussulmaun, while he continued in that faith; but that, becoming a Christian, it was no longer right for him to live as a Mussulmaun. This is a specimen of the state of his mind, as to religious knowledge."

L

In their joint letter of Jan. last, the brethren write;

"On the 25th of Sept. last the Mussulmaun Kadin Yar Khan was baptised. We indulge the hope, that he is truly born of God: if so, may the glory be given to whom alone it is due. We have employed him some as a Hindoostanee teacher; and as opportunity presents, he recommends, both by argument and example, the religion of Jesus to others. He was very willing to change his name, and his dress, and to cut off his beard. But as such a change appeared inexpedient to us, he is not distinguished, in these respects, from a Mussulmaun."

A little later is this brief notice from Mr. Nichols:

"Our new convert is now with us. His walk and his conversation are truly encouraging."

In the close of their last joint letter the Missionaries thus express the state of their feelings.

As messengers of the Lord Jesus Christ, from the Board, and the churches, we assure them, that we are not at all disheartened; but live in the pleasing anticipation that God will ultimately bless our poor labors to the salvation of many souls, and we hope the reception of one is but a token of an approaching harvest to be gathered in. Surely the word of God will not return void; and we would never slacken our hands in the dispensation of it. And Oh, may we have more faith and zeal and patience, that we may be so blessed as to gather fruit unto eternal life."

Mosque or temple.

2

MISSION IN THE ISLAND OF CEYLON.

On behalf of Messrs. Winslow, Spaulding, Woodward and Scudder, mentioned in the report of the last year, as having embarked on the 8th of the preceding June, there is reason for great thankfulness to the Supreme Disposer. The vessel was not indeed in season to touch at Ceylon, and leave the Missionaries there, as it was hoped she might, on her way to Calcutta; but at the latter place, the port of her destination, she arrived, all on board being well, about the middle of October. "Though our passage," they say in their first letter, "has heen longer than we hoped it would be, it has been much more pleasant than we anticipated. On the whole, our sea has been smooth, our accommodations good, and our long passage the journey of a day." Their time, during the passage, as there is good reason to believe, was not spent in vain. [See Pan. for April, p. 188.]

In a subsequent letter, written just as they were leaving Calcutta, nearly a month after the first, they say:

"All the seamen on board were impressed, and we did hope that every one had become the subject of renewing grace. After our arrival at Calcutta some to our grief, did not maintain a consistent Christian character; and though with the exception of one, who left the vessel in a singular manner, and perhaps two more, who appear to a considerable degree hardened, the remainder shew signs of repentance, we are constrained to stand in doubt of some. We hope, indeed, that a removal from the enticements of a wicked city, and being again at sea, when there will be opportunity for serious reflection, will bring all to remember whence they have fallen, and to repent. This we are encouraged to hope, from the manner in which they parted from us last evening, all being very much affected, and sorrowing that they should see our faces no more. But we commit them to the protection of him who is able to keep them from falling."

By the particular and full account given by the missionaries in their letters and journal, and most amply confirmed by the testimony of the highly and justly beloved and respected captain, and of the officers and men generally, it is placed beyond doubt, that the abundant and faithful instructions and warnings given to the seamen, were efficacious in an extraordinary measure. The seriousness, which began with a few, became general; and for a considerable time before their arrival, the impression upon the whole company was most solemn and most profound. From all that is known since the return of the vessel, it is most fully believed, that the Lord, in very deed, was with #the missionaries, and that few instances are on record, in which the power of his grace was more manifest, or those within its influence in greater proportion evidently reformed, and hopefully renewed for immortality and glory.

Of what befel these favored brethren at Calcutta, your Committee cannot give a better account, than is given by themselves, in the letter from which the last quotation was made.

"On our arrival at Calcutta, we thought it best to accept a kind invitation from Capt. Wills to take a part of his house. We can never say too much concerning the kindness of this dear man; nor mention the many little attentions, which con

tributed to render our passage pleasant. During our stay of three weeks at Calcutta, he not only provided rooms for us, and kept us all at his table free of expense, but in various ways contributed, in articles of necessity and convenience for our mission, not less than two hundred dollars; beside many nameless expenses, incurred for our comfort while with him. By his exertions, likewise, and those of Mr. Ceyder, an American resident in Calcutta, whom we would mention with gratitude, more than a hundred dollars were raised for us from other American friends. Mr. Newton too, whose name is probably familiar to you, partly by his means, became so much interested for us, as not only to take the trouble of providing for us a passage to Ceylon, but, in connexion with a few other friends of missions, to contribute five hundred dollars towards the expense. This benevolent gentleman, with Mrs. Newton, a native of Pittsfield, Mass. who likewise shewed us much kindness, is about to return to Boston.

“At Calcutta, though in a land of strangers, we found ourselves surrounded by friends. The evening after our arrival, we met most of the Baptist brethren, of whom there are now six in Calcutta, (the younger brethren, who were at Serampore, having separated from Drs. Carey and Marshman, and established themselves in Calcutta,) all the brethren from the London Society, of whom there are four, and Mr. Schmidt, from the Church Missionary Society. We enjoyed with them a precious season of prayer, and Christian intercourse. The first hymn was given out by Mr. Townley, of the London Society:-"Kindredin Christ for his dear sake, a hearty welcome here receive." This, we believe, expresses the real feelings of those, whom we met. They are precious men, and are doing a good work in Calcutta. Their moral influence is already felt, and an important change is effected; especially as to the treatment of missionaries. This was seen in our polite reception at the police office, and in the generosity at the custom house, where all our baggage, together with the boxes of medicine, books, &c. belonging to the Board, were passed, both in landing and reshipping, free of duty, and even of inspection.

"But it was not designed that we should leave Calcutta without trials. We had been there but five days, when brother Scudder was called to part with his dear little daughter. She died after an illness of three days. The next day, sister Winslow was taken sick, and brought near the grave. The woman of color was also very sick, and sister Woodward was brought so low, that her life was almost despaired of; and we were obliged to leave her and her husband be hind. After her recovery they will take the earliest opportunity of a passage to Ceylon.

"We are now on board the Dick, of London, Capt. Harrison, a pleasant ship, with good accommodations; and are to be landed either at Trincomalee, or Columbo, as we please."

It was a painful circumstance to Mr. and Mrs. Woodward, to be left behind; and before the Dick had got far down the river, Mrs. Woodward felt herself so much better, that, after advising with her physi cian, they made arrangements for attempting to overtake the ship. But just at the time, their infant was seized with severe illness, and the attempt was relinquished. In the fore part of December, they embarked in a brig bound, as was the Dick, to Trincomalee, and Columbo.

The only communication, which has been received from these young brethren, since their leaving Calcutta, is contained in a letter from Messrs. Winslow and Spaulding, dated Columbo, Feb. 2d. [Sce Pan. for Sept. p. 431.]

After mentioning here some circumstances, which unavoidably lengthened their stay at Columbo, and stating, that they were to go thence to Jaffna in company with that very valuable friend of our mission, J. N. Mooyart, Esq. they proceed to say;-[See Pan. for Sept. p. 432.]