Religious-Tract Society — culation of the Scriptures in Siam, and the Committee is disposed to co-operate liberally in this object: the Missionaries stationed at Singapore widely circulate Chinese and other Tracts among the sailors on board the junks which come from Canton, Onam, Siam, Pinang, Malacca, Batavia, and other places: they are received with readiness, and are carried away to their respective Countries. Assistance is rendered by the Society to the active labours of the Mission Press at Malacca; and Tracts are forwarded for distribution both at that Station and at Pinang. The Press of the American Baptist Mission in Burmah has also been aided by a grant of printing paper for Burmese Tracts: the Committee intend to correspond with Dr. Judson, of this Mission, on the subject of Tracts for the Burmans and Karens, for whom they feel a deep interest.

EDUCATION SOCIETIES.

At the close of 1829, there were 157 boys in the Free School of Malacca; but, owing to various causes of irregular attendance, the greatest number ever present was 134: not a few of these promise well, in respect of both intellectual and moral improvement: there are among them several Slave Boys, educating at the expense of their Masters, preparatory to their being made free, and to the total Abolition of Slavery in the Colony. In the Female Department, under Miss Wallace, there are 69 girls, with an average attendance of between 50 and 60: under the great care

paid to the girls, there is much encouragement to proceed: 20 can read the New Testament, and many shew an increasing understanding of the English Language, and improve in knowledge and behaviour. Mr. and Mrs. Collond, who, like Miss Wallace, were trained under the British and Foreign School Society, left England in July, to take charge of this School. On their arrival, Miss Wallace would devote herself more entirely to her ulterior object—the establishment of Schools for Chinese Girls: the Malacca Committee having rendered every assistance to this design, two Schools had been opened in November 1829 with 17 girls: these afterward increased to five Schools, with nearly 60 scholars: the Malays also seem more willing than formerly to have their children instructed; several having come forward, and proposed the establishment among them of two Girls' Schools; one party offering a Teacher and a House. "To all those," say the Malacca Committee, "who have marked the slow progress which Scriptural Instruction has hitherto made among the Chinese, owing to their inveterate prejudices, these accounts will be peculiarly gratifying: they seem to indicate an impor tant opening in Providence, and bring with them increased responsibility for their improvement?-See at pp. 99, 100 a statement of difficulties in Native Education. At p. 184, appear some painful details relative to the state of the Singapore Institution.

whole are Malays and Chinese: 1819Claudius H. Thomsen, Jacob TomlinNo Report has been received. At pp. 183, 184 of our last Volume, we stated the Effect of Visits paid to the People. Mr. Tomlin's health has been greatly restored-P. 18.

Ma'acca: inhab. in April 1828 were 33,806; including 229 Europeans and their descendants: 1815-S. Kidd, Josiah Hughes. Mr. Humphreys and Mr. Smith have both returned to England on account of ill health. Mr. Hughes has been appointed to the Malay Department of the Mission, and sailed in April. In that month Mrs. Kidd arrived at home; having been obliged, by the state of her health, to leave her husband

-Mr. Kidd has charge of the Chinese Services: the Malay Preaching has been suspended since Mr. Humphrey's departure from Malacca: there are three Services on Sundays; and, on most evenings of the week, visits are paid from house to house, or Public Service is held. A Chinese Youth, educated in the College, has been baptized, and assists in the Mission-In Six Chinese Schools there are from 150 to 200 scholars The Students in the Anglo-Chinese College are 33, of whom 25 are on the foundation-Mr. Kidd, besides his engagements in the College and in the Mission, gives much attention to the publishing of useful books; and is editor of a Periodical Work in Chinese. Besides other Works, there have been printed 18,700 Chinese Tracts and 5500 Sheet Tracts, and most of them have been put in circulation. It is the intention of the Missionaries to continue the Sheet Tracts until they comprise extracts from Scripture on all the most important topics: they are found useful for putting up in temples, shops, and other public places to which the Chinese resort. The Missionaries discern, with much pleasure, that the publications formerly distributed have been carefully preserved Of the want of assistance in this Mission, Mr. Kidd says: "Teaching the Youths in the College, superintending the schools and the printing-presses, going among the people, preaching, and preparing Tracts, when devolving on one person, are duties which cannot be satis factorily discharged. No conscientious man will wish to impose a burden on himself which he feels unable to bear, merely for the sake of making his labours appear abundant and important in the eyes of the public; yet I cannot make up my mind totally to neglect any one of the branches of labour to which I have just alluded. I could wish that two Missionaries, at least, were appointed to this station; one for the Chinese, and the other for the Malays. A judicious, laborious, intelligent Missionary would find a large sphere for exertions among the Malays: a late census, taken by the Government, estimates the number of them residing here at 15,000-Pp. 18, 19, 72, 199, 285.

Pinang: an island off the coast of the Malay Peninsula: 55,000 inhabitants: 1819 T. Beighton, S. Dyer. Mr. Beighton has charge of the Malay De

66

partment of the Mission, and Mr. Dyer of the Chinese-The habits and prejudices of the Chinese prove formidable obstacles to the introduction among them of stated preaching: Mr. Dyer's expectation of benefiting them is by constant intercourse: he visits them in their own houses five evenings of the week; and, sometimes, has attentive audiences, though never large: he converses with the people, almost daily, in the places of public resort; and has purchased a small house in the midst of the Chinese Bazaar, where he spends much time; sitting in a room which opens toward the street, where there is a crowded thoroughfare: he distributes Tracts and the Scriptures to such as wish to read and examine for themselves : " on most occasions, the soil," he says, is rocky, and consequently the work of ploughing and sowing very hard; and then we water it with our tears, and pray, and wait, that it may yet prove a fruitful land: and, if the Lord permit, and enable us by His grace, we hope to spend our days in labours, prayers, and tears, until He shall be entreated of His servants, and pour out His Spirit from on high." Mr. Beighton continues to preach to the Malays in the Mission Chapel, and to labour among them as his enfeebled health will allow; during a tour on the western coast of the peninsula in company of Mr. Dyer, they were gratified to find an eager demand among the Malays for books, and that so many of them could read: in other parts of the island he had found the Malays extremely ignorant: in 1829, he distributed 850 copies of the Scriptures and 1085 Tracts-A Chinese Boys' School on the British System affords increasing satisfaction: a Girls' School, under Mrs. Dyer, has been suspended, every effort to obtain scholars having failed. The Malay Schools have been reduced to 5, in consequence of a general reduction in the Government Establishment, which has been extended to the allowances made in support of Native Schools in the island: it is, however, gratifying to know, that education is beginning to be viewed as important by the people themselves; in proof of which it may be mentioned, that Mr. Beighton has lately had four applications for Malay Schools. Mrs. Beighton has succeeded in gaining the confidence of a number of Malay Females, who are under her immediate

London Missionary Society—

and constant instruction: she teaches them to read the Scriptures and other Christian Books: some of her pupils can read well, and most of them have made progress in needle-work: as, how ever, they cannot be persuaded to leave their own compounds, Mrs. Beighton is

BURMAH.

would not be performed-From a set of obliged to go to them, or the good work wooden blocks, prepared at Pinang under the direction of Mr. Dyer, a small fount of Chinese moveable metal types has been cast in London, by our Printer, Mr. Richard Watts-Pp. 18, 19.

The Rev. Eugenio Kincaid and the Rev. Francis Mason sailed in May, and the Rev. John Taylor Jones in August, with their Wives, to reinforce this enlarging Mission.

Maullaming (or Maulmein, as the Missionaries now write), a new town on the Martaban River, 25 miles from its mouth, ES E from Rangoon : 1827; the Mission having been first established at Rangoon in 1813-Adoniram Judson, D.D. Jonathan Wade; Cephas Bennet, Printer; 7 Native Assistants, including a Female Teacher. "It could scarcely be said," the Committee remark, "that preaching commenced until January 1828; yet within that year, a Church was organized, and 30 converts from among the Heathen added to it. The work of reformation, which began in the Boarding School, soon spread into the town; subduing, in its progress, the hearts of old and young, and swelling the num ber of joyful disciples, on the 1st of September 1829, to 49! a measure of success, in view of which all the Churches should unite in devout thanks giving to God. The methods of instruction, so signally blessed, have been varied by the Missionaries according to circumstances: for a time, the Brethren confined themselves principally to their zayats, receiving and counselling all that called upon them; but afterward conceived the plan of carrying the Word to the dwellings of the people-The Female Boarding-School has been reduced in numbers; with the expectation, however, of its being enlarged when the Mission shall have been reinforced. A Day School for Boys has been formed. One for Girls, also, had been opened by Mrs. Wade, on an excellent plan; but was broken up through the influence of the Priests: five of the Girls had made a profession of Christianity, before many witnesses-The entire New Testament has been translated and repeatedly revised, and progress has been made in parts of the Old Testament: the printing is expected to be commenced without

great delay. Several Tracts on important subjects have been prepared and printed: of two there have been second editions. Some of the numbers have been translated into the Siamese; and all into the Taling Language, which is the vernacular tongue of British Pegu, in which the Mission is established, and is generally understood by most of the population better than the Burmese.

:

The

Tavoy a town of 9000 inhabitants, among whom are 200 Priests of Gaudama: far to the south of Maullaming ; on the Tavoy River, 35 miles from its mouth nine days' journey overland from Bankok, the capital of Siam: 1828— G. D. Boardman; two Native As., one of whom is a Female Teacher-A similar course of Preaching and Conversation has been pursued to that at Maullaming, and with encouraging success. Karens about Tavoy, and even in re mote parts, have manifested interest in the "New Religion:" the Native Assistant, Ko Thah-byoo, is of their Nation, and is most faithfully devoted to their instruction-Boys' Boarding and Day Schools contain a few Karens, and Portuguese, with 8 or 10 Indo-Chinese, and a few others: 5 are hopefully pious. A Girls' School has 21 scholars.

Two Native Converts have been ap pointed to labour at what may, for the present, be considered Out-Stations. At Rangoon, where the Mission was first established, Moung Thaha labours, and Moung Ing at Amherst. Of Rangoon it is said "On the close of the war, Moung Thana, an old disciple of the place, returned to it; and, in the absence of the American Teachers, did what he could to raise again the standard of the Cross. He went from village to village, preaching Christ; which drew round him numbers who before had heard the Gospel, but suppressed the convictions excited by it: at length, in a settled reliance upon Christ, they asked for baptism, and he consented. The work of conversion continued and increased; and others applied for the same privilege, when he declined. It occurred