Teachers would be employed. Then Christian, Catechist, preached the Gospel to the assembled people, and the School was consequently established.

Two things struck my mind in this little occurrence: First, how much easier it is to establish a School now among the Heathen, and to introduce our Christian Books into them, than it was twelve years ago. An old Missionary told me, that when, at that time, they tried to establish a Christian School among the Heathen, they were, for months, troubled to collect a sufficient number of Heathen Children, to pursue their object. condly, if all the Gentlemen living in this country in affluence would but lay out seven or eight rupees monthly, to establish Christian Schools among the Heathen living in their respective neighbourhoods, Heathenish Superstition would soon vanish, and the Gospel of Christ be spread through a considerable part of the population of India. Yea, I hope that this wilderness would soon flourish like a rose.

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Aug. 18, 1829-Visited the School which I established some days ago, in the Compound of Captain Smyth. Was much gratified to find 17 Children already collected; and the first who came to the School acquainted with their letters, and already spelling words of one syllable: four of them, also, have already committed the Lord's Prayer to memory. I arranged the Children into two classes, and directed the Master how much to teach them every day. I also tried to impart some Religious Instruction; but scarcely one of them knows what the Name of God means.

Jan. 6, 1830―This morning I went, with Captain Smyth, to a place called the Basin, to see a School-house which this benevolent Gentleman has built at my request, at his own expense, to be the property of the Church Missionary Society, for the benefit of the poor Heathen Children of that place. Previously to building a School-house there, Captain Smyth had, for the same object, turned his attention to Nongumbacum, a large village, three miles from Madras; as the inhabitants of the place appeared disposed to have a School for the instruction of their children: but differences, arising from the unwillingness of the Natives to give a convenient piece of ground to build a School-house upon, rendered this plan at last ineffectual. At the same time I received a Petition, signed by more than twenty Natives,

at the Basin, desiring me to establish a School in their place, for the instruction of their children; promising to give a piece of ground to build upon, and to render all possible assistance in the erection of the School. Upon this, I said to Captain Smyth, "As the inhabitants of Nongumbacum judge themselves unworthy of a Christian School, let us turn ourselves to the Basin, where the people have shewn more willingness to acknowledge your benevolent intentions than the people of Nongumbacum." He kindly consented to build a comfortable School-house; and to furnish it with a table, lamps, and other things requisite for holding an Evening Meeting in it, for the instruction of the Heathen. The School-house was begun, substantially built with bricks, and surrounded by a hedge, including a little Compound in which we planted some fruit-trees. Captain Smyth often visited the place. Many of the poor people worked several days without wages, for the erection of this School. When the School-house was ready, the man who had at first given the piece of ground manifested, at last, that true generosity cannot proceed from Heathenism: he asked Captain Smyth and me what we intended to give monthly for the rent of his ground. Captain Smyth told him, that rather than give him any thing, after having agreed with him for the piece of ground free from rent, he would demolish the School; and with the materials build another, for the benefit of some other village. Hearing this, he consented at last to sign an agreement, that he delivers up this piece of ground to the Church Missionary Society, rent-free, as long as they, or persons appointed by them, may choose to retain it.

I give here a full account of this circumstance, that our friends may see something of the difficulties which are to be surmounted, before what we call a Christian School among the Heathen can be established. It is true, that obstacles to the establishment of Schools, arising from the prejudices of the Natives against Christian Instruction, have been in a great measure overcome at Madras, by the blessing of God on the persevering labours of former Missionaries: but those which arise from the unwillingness of the Heathen to sacrifice any temporal interest to promote good objects still remain to be surmounted. May this obstacle, which the carnal mind opposes to the progress

of the Gospel of Christ, not be found in Europe!

May 6, 1830-Early this morning arrived at Chingleput, and was most kindly received by Dr. Magrath and his excellent Lady. After 9. A. M., accompanied by Dr. Magrath, I went to see our School,

which is situated on the east of the town:

I found 38 Scholars present. The great est part of them learn English, and the remainder Tamul; but few of them learn both languages. I found the School in a state which would admit of much improvement; and while there, I made some arrangements which I think will prove beneficial to the improvement of the Scholars, both to those who learn English and those who learn Tamul. I proposed some questions on Religion to the Boys, to which they gave satisfactory answers. July 28-I spent again the whole of this day in our Tamul First School; and saw with pleasure the four Classes going on with increasing order and regularity, according to the system. My intention is, to continue this system for two or three months, in this School; and if I

see, at the end of that time, that it answers the purpose of our Society better than the old one, I shall introduce it into all our other Tamul Schools.

Aug. 10 This evening set off for Chingleput, to visit our School, and to supply the place of our Schoolmaster there by one better qualified to conduct the School. I was for the best part of the day examining the Children, and endeavouring to introduce the new system of instruction. The progress which the Scholars have made, as yet, is very small; and they must either have neglected School, or the Master must have neglected them; but I hope, that, under the present Master and by the new system, they will make more progress. In the evening I had a good opportunity of preach ing the Gospel. I walked into a little Bungalow close to the town, and began to speak on Religion to a few Heathen whom I found there: in the course of conversation more than 100 Heathen people came; to whom I explained the principal differences between the Heathen and the Christian Religion; the Superstition of Heathenism, and the excellency of Christianity and then invited them to believe in Christ, as the only one by whom we can obtain salvation.

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State of Mind of the Natives. The following instances, taken

from Mr. Schaffter's Journal, indicate the state of mind of the Natives, in reference to the great subject of Religion.

Aug. 25, 1829-A very respectable young Native of Vepery came to me, and desired a conversation with me respecting his soul. He told me that he was very uneasy in his mind; but that the cause of his sorrow was not any temporal circumstance, as he has got a very he said, "if I continue any longer in my "I know, good situation, but his sins. I asked present state, I shall go to hell.' him if he had felt this trouble long. He replied, "Many years ago; but I always endeavoured to remove it from my mind by diversion: but now I know, if I do not turn from my present ways I shall perish for ever. I feel, also, a great desire to devote myself to Christ." As I knew nothing of this Young Man before, except that I have seen him regularly attending our Tamul Service whenever I preached, I dismissed him, at this time, raged him to come to see me, whenever with some general advice; and encou

he might think it beneficial to his soul.

June 3, 1830-Late in the evening, I set out with the Rev. C. Blackman and two of our Seminarists, to visit our Schools at Pulicat. In the boat, I had a long conversation with a high SoodraCaste man, on the worship of Idols. He told me, that, whatever might be the truth of the thing, God could never be displeased with His creatures for worshipping other creatures, provided they be of a superior rank. To support this idolatrous idea, he asserted, that, from all ranks of creatures, the praises of all would at last return to the Creator of is contrary to reason, and to the ideas all things. I told him, that such an idea

I assured him that God does not want, he himself had of the omniscience of God. as man does, any means of conveying knowledge of things to him; He knowing our thoughts before they come into our minds and also being the Creator and Source of all good things, He expects to receive the true thanks and adoration of all His reasonable creatures. He answered this, by saying, "The way of thinking with White People is different from that of the Tamulians."

June 4-Early this morning we arrived at Pulicat; and examined Pulicat Compound First School, and Edimony School. A communication from the Rev.

Joseph Marsh contains the following passage on this subject:—

Our prospects amongst the Heathen are rather encouraging; not so much from the number of actual Converts, as from the gradual but evident diminution of prejudice and superstition in the Native Mind. Christian Schools may now be established to almost any extent; and the Natives in general are very willing to enter into conversation and discussions on religious subjects.

I was struck the other day with some remarks made by my Tamul Moonshee, who is still a Heathen. He was surprised at the humility of the Bishop, when he called at the Seminary at Perambore last week, and at the familiarity with which he might be addressed; and said, that when they approach their Priests they are obliged to fall down and worship them. I then asked him whether he ever did that. He said, he used to do so, but never now.

This morning, a Barber came to cut my hair; and when I entered into conversation with him on the Christian Religion and Idolatry, he readily acknowledged that our religion was good, but appeared anxious also to convince me that their system was much the same. He said, in his broken English, “I a Gentoo Caste. Among Gentoos three classes. One class worship Devils; those very bad. Another class worship many gods; those not very good. Other class worship Great God; I one of those." When I asked him how he hoped to have his sins pardoned, and to be accepted with God; he said, that by being kind and charitable he would be born again into the world in a good body.

Hindoo Superstition. Mr. Schaffter records the following instance of the horrid nature of Hindoo Superstition:

After Evening Service, I had, from near our Perambore Church, the dreadful sight of seven Heathen Devotees hooked up by their flesh near the shoulders; and in this state swinging for five or six minutes, in order to fulfil some vow which they had previously made to their Idols.

Difficulties of Missionaries in preparing their Journals.

Mr. Schaffter makes the following judicious remarks on the preparation of Missionaries' Journals:

I have the pleasure to forward my April, 1831.

Journal to you; regretting, however, that

it is not more full of facts which are like

ly to interest you and those other Missionary friends into whose hands it may come. Taking into consideration the things which the friends of Missions may expect from the Missionaries connected with our Society, it becomes sometimes a hard task for me to write a Journal at all: for looking back on my labours of one day, or even of one week, I find that a part of it has been spent in attendance to regular duties, which are the same every day-preaching three or four times a-week, having Morning and Evening Prayer, studying the Tamul Language, visiting Native Schools, &c. Again, another portion of my time has been spent in hearing Native Christians, who come to me, not usually to complain of their spiritual miseries and wants, but applying for some assistance to relieve their present temporal distresses; or, in most uninteresting conversation with Heathens, who are so ignorant, and so void of sound religious ideas, as to be unable to argue on divine things to any result whatever.

There is another thing not less discouraging than this, in writing Missionary Journals, and which nobody can understand except Missionaries themselves-I mean, Missionary Efforts, taken in connexion with their result. I more than once brought people under Christian Instruction who at the beginning gave me great satisfaction and hope, both by the regularity with which they attended to my instructions, and by the progress they made in the knowledge of Religion; and this I entered in my Journal as the most interesting part of my labours of the day but by and by, their attendance on my instruction became more this also, I believe, I noticed in my Jourirregular, till they left me altogether: and nal, and thus disappointed the hope I had given to my friends. Let us take another instance :-The people of Mavalore Coopum, who eight months ago came under our Christian Instruction, have to this very moment given me increasing reason to believe that they are stedfast in the Religion which they have embraced: they have given up their Idols to me; they have suffered a great deal of persecution on account of their present profession; and all this I have recorded in my Jourif, in the course of time, they will remain nal: but who can calculate to a certainty stedfast? Should they not remain so, the result of the comparison of my first Journal respecting this Mission with my last

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will not be very favourable to the Journalist; and I shall be happy to save myself, in the opinion of my friends, as one who has been deceived. I say this, not that I think a Missionary ought not to write a Journal, for he owes this to the Christian Friends who support him in his

work, and who, as well as he, are interested in the propagation of the Gospel upon earth; but I say this, that Christian Friends may make all possible allowance, for want of interesting facts, disappointed hopes, or apparent inconsistency, in Missionary Journals.

It is very important that these considerations should be borne in mind by the friends of Missions, while reading the communications of Missionaries. However intelligent and cautious the Missionary may be, and however earnest may be his desire to describe the progress of his labours with the utmost simplicity and the most conscientious regard to truth, he is unavoidably liable to fall into mistake himself, and to be deceived by others. Of the Natives of India, that awful declaration of the Word of GodThere is no faithfulness in their mouths, their inward part is very wickedness-is emphatically true. It is nevertheless necessary that the Missionary should unreservedly

communicate to the Committee his honest convictions, as to the state of the people, and the result of his labours among them: and, so far as a general remark can apply to so large a body of men, we are fully

convinced that this is the course which has been conscientiously pursued, and which is conscientiously pursued, by the Missionaries of the present day, in detailing their proceedings to the Bodies with whom they are connected. But it is not less necessary, whether in reference to the interests of Truth or of Charity, that the communications of Missionaries should be read by persons at home with an intelligent acquaintance with the situation in which the Missionary is actually placed, as well as with a disposition to judge fairly and candidly of the statements which he makes.