MISSIONARY REMINISCENCES; OR, JAMAICA RETRACED. BY THE REV. P. H. CORNFORD, TEN YEARS MISSIONARY IN THAT ISLAND. "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." PREFACE. The following pages comprise a few records originally contributed, as mere fugitive and irregular statements of incident and narrative connected with the Jamaica Mission, to the columns of "The Freeman"--the newspaper of the Baptist denomination. Although some slight additions have been made to the original pieces, their pretensions are not raised. The works already extant upon the general subject leave so little to be supplied, that the idea of "a book" had not been entertained by the writer of these simple sketches. They are therefore given to the reader as the mere gleanings of the field whose harvest has been already garnered, or as a basket of the fragments gathered up after the miraculous repast. If it be remarked that narratives are here inserted referring to periods before the writer entered upon the field, he thinks it will be sufficient to say that, in the esteem of many, they demanded preservation. Some things we know are so good, as to rise superior to the injuries inflicted by time upon those of meaner kind; and the heavenly oracle tells us, "The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance." Missionary Reminiscences. CHAPTER I. THE FIRST VIEW. "And so he bringeth them to the haven where they would be." On the sixth day of January, 1841, as we were quietly sailing over the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, the captain of our barque informed us that we should now soon see the wished-for Island of Jamaica. We had been about six weeks at sea. The Reserve had nobly battled with storms of remarkable severity. In the English channel she held out against a tremendous gale of three days' duration, when every other vessel had apparently run for port. Disfigured indeed, but not disabled, her voyage had been successfully prosecuted. Now it was drawing to a close. The missionary band on board consisted of sixteen persons, with the well-known and much-loved William Knibb as its chief. The star of first magnitude in that constellation, he seemed as much to reign in its midst as he did to rejoice it with his piety and love. Of course every eye was now eagerly strained to see Jamaica. Perhaps she has sunk at last!" the captain exclaimed. "I have often thought she would be, and had reason enough to think so.' Again and again the horizon was swept with the glass, first by one and then by another. Some of us were in the bows of the vessel, where we loved in fine weather to ensconce ourselves, and read, or meditate, or sing, whilst clouds of flying fish disported themselves beneath us. Thence often had we surveyed the wonders of the watery world; watching the gambols of the dolphin or of the plunging porpoises, or admiring the flowery aspect and varied hues of the 66 *This he briefly explained in relation to the cruelties he had witnessed, and the crimes of which he had heard. B |