Davis and Mrs. Hart. In pursuance of the design mentioned at p. 296 of our last Number, the Society's Schooner, the "Active," sailed in quest of these friends on the 5th of January last. In a Letter, dated March the 4th, the Rev. W. Yate thus recounts the circumstances and result of the voyage:

You will perceive by a former Letter of mine, that I was requested by the Committee of Missionaries to accompany the Active" in her search for Mr. and Mrs. Charles Davis. I accordingly embarked, in the beginning of January, accompanied by Mr. W. Puckey and sixteen Natives of New Zealand. After a month's rough passage, we arrived, by the blessing of God, at Tongataboo; where we found Messrs. Turner and Cross, the Wesleyan Missionaries, labouring with great success in the Cause of our Common Redeemer. Having received all the advice I could from that quarter, and had a Letter of Capt. Christie's put into my hands, I determined to proceed to Lefooga; where I met with Chiefs from Feejee, Hamoa, Vavaoo, and several other Islands. The intelligence which I received from them, and also from a European, put the matter beyond all doubt, that the vessel spoken of was the "Cypress," aken by prisoners from Van Diemen's Land. No other vessel has been heard of, or seen, at any of the other Islands; so that there was not the least possible clue for any further research. With the advice of the Captain, Mr. Puckey, and Mr. Thomas, I departed from Lefooga to Tonga, on my way to New Zealand, where I arrived last midnight, after an absence of two months.

Guiana & West Endies.

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. Formation of an Infant School in Demerara. MR. Charles Carter, who acts as Catechist and Schoolmaster under the superintendence of the Rev. Leonard Strong, has lately established an Infant School on Success Plantation, Leguan Island, belonging to Richard Jones, Esq. As this is the first attempt of the kind in these parts, our Readers will be interested in the particulars which have been

communicated. In August, when the School had been opened about five months, Mr. Strong writes

Mr. Carter's School is a most delightful sight it has prospered beyond my most sanguine expectations. It is quite a heart-cheering sight to spend a day in the School-room; to see their little laughing black faces, as they march round the room, beating time and singing; or as they gather round their lesson-posts, eagerly repeating their lessons; or in their gallery singing their hymns, repeating their catechisms, their rhymes, their Scripture Stories, &c. Mr. and Mrs. Jones are very fond of their School; and I do hope their example may be followed. Mr. Carter thus describes the course of his labours :

From eight in the morning to eleven, I have an Infant School, consisting of about 34 Creoles, most of whom are under working age. I pursue the Infant System

with them as close as circumstances will admit. From eleven to one I have the working Creoles, which consist of 25: with these I have adopted Mr. Stoat's System at Islington, and find it answer very well in bringing the Creoles on in learning. The time they have for learnI find them not at all dissatisfied with it ing is only their breakfast hour; though on that account, but the contrary. At two o'clock I have the Creoles under working age again, until four, on the Infant Plan. About half-past seven in the evening I have Adults until half-past eight, when I have Family Prayers: about 50 or 60 attend, to whom I invariably read and expound the Scriptures.

My School on Sunday includes the three different divisions attending me in the week though I devote most of my time on the Sunday to the Adult part, as they have the least advantages in the week. Their number is between 40 and 50 on the Sunday.

The progress the Creoles are making, in learning to read, is very pleasing. Gentlemen and Ladies, who have come to see the School, have been very much gratified, especially with the Infants' School, which has been much noticed, both for the advancement which the little things have made in learning, and for the method of instruction pursued. Though it now stands alone and unexampled, as a beacon on a hill, I trust it will soon become a general thing on Estates. The Creoles are much attached to me and to their School. I could not give them a

greater punishment than giving them what we call, at home, a holiday. I hear them, in their little cottages, repeating and singing their little Hymns very often till ten o'clock at night. Some weeks past I was confined to my room, for a day, with a bilious attack: I heard, the day after, that some of them were actually crying, and saying, "Massa is sick, we no school."

In January he adds

The Infant School is the most interesting, and seems well adapted to the mind of the Infant Negro. This part of my School has been increased to 44; twelve of whom are now reading St. John's Gospel on the board: 7 are about to be removed out of the Infant School, as being too big for it; but will attend the 11 o'clock Class.

room, and House, as well as for the provision-ground; which His Excellency has most graciously granted to me, as Agent for your Society. Mr. Armstrong is fully licensed, and is about to proceed to his destination immediately. He has Letters from His Excellency to the Protector and Port-holder of the Indians in that quarter; and, immediately on his arrival up the river, will choose out and designate the quantity as well as position of the land required, which the Governor has promised he will immediately grant. We intend putting up a Building forty feet square; which will serve, at present, for School and Church, for teaching Children, and Preaching; as the people amongst whom Mr. Armstrong settles are a stationary, half-civilized people, a mixture between Negro and Indian, supposed to have

The Adults, I find, are much less apt in learning; and there are few of them who have application sufficient for the purpose. The less they are when put to it, the more they acquire; and for that reason the Infant School is the most advantageous for them, inasmuch as it

takes them before they have acquired idle habits; and the system is so agreeable to their minds, that they catch at what is taught with avidity. The progress which they make is very pleasing. I have several reading St. John's Gospel very prettily, who are not five years of age.

Mr. John Armstrong, who has been employed as Catechist and Schoolmaster on some Estates in Essequibo, not having there sufficient occupation of his time, has removed, with the sanction of the Committee, to the new sphere of labour described by Mr. Strong, in the following account, dated the 14th of March, of the

Establishment of a Mission among the

Indians on the Essequibo. The call for a Missionary among the Indians being extremely urgent, I applied to His Excellency Sir B. D'Urban for his license for Mr. Armstrong, as a Teacher of the Gospel to the Indians in the Rivers Mazaruni and Essequibo, in connexion with the Church Missionary Society; as also for a grant of land to the Society, on or about the point of juncture between the said rivers, for the purpose of erecting a Chapel, School

Slave Ship, which, it is thought, was driven up the river, and wrecked, a great many years ago. He has had the promise of 300 Children, that may be brought to him for instruction, besides the regular attendance of some of them to the Preaching: and we think that putting up a regular place for Worship and Instruction will be the best plan. As for himself, he will at present do as well as he can. A small hut, thatched and closed round, he says, is all he wants: this he will obtain at no expense. The Building itself will cost, I fear, at least 901. or 100%. There will also be some expenses in conveying materials up the river. I am already making collections, from a few friends, to

assist in the work.

You can hardly imagine how happy I am at the establishment of this Mission.

The state of the Indians has been a dead weight on my mind, ever since I arrived. How can they hear without a Preacher ?

In a Letter of the 16th of April, Mr. Strong states

from Settlement to Settlement in a korial Mr. Armstrong is at present traversing or canoe, living on Indian fare, speaking to them of Christ, and His free, all-sufficient salvation. He writes in great spirits about his reception. They are all glad to see him; and are about to assist in putting up a building for a School-room and Chapel.

The Auxiliary Committee, in their Second Report, delivered on the 8th of December, state the amount of the Local Contributions of the Second Year to have been 3167. 18s. 1d. Currency; being an increase of more than one-half on that of the preceding year. They lament the want They lament the want of additional Labourers, to occupy new fields of useful exertion, and adequately to supply the Stations which they have already occupied ; and thus speak of the effect of the past exertions :—

The Committee are gratified in learning, from the Reports of the Catechists, that, in several instances, individuals have given proof, by holy and consistent conduct, that they have embraced the Truth of the Gospel, not in profession merely, but in heartfelt sincerity. While

they regret that such instances are not more common, they rejoice in them, as proofs that the blessing of God rests upon their labours; and they feel thankextensive, effect produced by the Reful for the minor, but more general and ligious Instruction of their Catechists, in a greater attention to moral duties and the outward decencies of life. These effects, they trust, are the harbingers of better things.

In reference to difficulties which they had encountered, they say

circumstances, fresh cause of gratitude to The Committee perceive, in these very the Giver of every good and perfect gift; since they have proved eminently serviceable in strengthening the bonds of union and brotherly love, which subsist among the Members of the Society; and, above all, in practically shewing to each individual where alone his trust should be placed.

UNITED KINGDOM.

He

London Miss. Soc.-The Rev. David Jones, with Mrs. Jones and their family, arrived from Madagascar on the 29th of June: his health was much improved by the voyageOn the same day, the Rev. W. Swan, of the Siberia Mission, arrived in the Humber. has brought, in manuscript, a Translation of nearly the whole of the Old Testament into Mongolian. During his stay in St. Petersburgh, he had an opportunity of laying an account of the state and prospects of the Mission before His Imperial Majesty, who was pleased to express, through the Minister of one of the Ecclesiastical Departments, his approbation of the Mission, and to confirm the privileges granted to it by his deceased brother, the late Emperor Alexander.

Fearful Growth of Intemperance-The following alarming statement appears in a Circular, summoning a Meeting of the London Temperance Society:

The present habits and customs of Society are rearing up a generation of drunkards. The selling of Spirits to Children has of late become an important branch of trade. Four Millions of Gallons of Ardent Spirits were consumed in the United Kingdom in 1829, MORE than in 1828. Above Twenty Millions of Pounds Sterling was paid by the working classes alone last year for Ardent Spirits. Beggary and disease, crime, madness, and death, are the dreadful results of this awful intemperance. Temperance Societies have created a new era in America. They are working an amazing change in Scotland and Ireland; and it is only necessary for Englishmen to associate, and to declare their resolution TO ABSTAIN FROM DISTILLED SPIRITS AND TO DISCOUNTENANCE THE CAUSES AND PRACTICES OF INTEMPERANCE, in order to save their country from becoming a land of drunkards.

MEDITERRANEAN.

Church Miss. Soc.- In the latter end of March, the Rev. J. A. Jetter left Syra, in company with the Rev. J. J. Robertson and the Rev. J. H. Hill of the American Episcopal Church; and proceeded, by way of Egina, to

Athens; where the American Missionaries wish to settle. Mr. Leeves having joined them at Athens, Mr. Jetter accompanied him to Smyrna, where they arrived on the 17th of May. Information reaching him that the Committee had sanctioned his removal to Smyrna which had been previously proposed, he writes, on the 1st of June, that he had engaged a house, and was on the point of returning to Syra to fetch Mrs. Jetter and their child.

INDIA WITHIN THE GANGES.

Amer. Board of Missions-The Missionaries Ramsey, Hervey, and Reed (see p. 78) arrived at Calcutta on Christmas Day, on their way to Bombay, after a passage from Boston of 145 days.

Church Miss. Soc.-The Rev. J. J. Weitbrecht and Mr. James Thompson (p. 41) landed in safety at Calcutta on the 27th of January, and were received by Archdeacon Corrie with his accustomed kindness.

NORTH-WEST AMERICA.

Church Miss. Soc.-From a Letter written by the Rev. D. T. Jones in November, it appears that the Rev. W. Cochran had been confined almost entirely to his house from the month of August, by an injury in his knee, received while assisting to put up the frame of a log-house: he had held Divine Service at home, but the care of the two Churches had devolved on Mr. Jones. A Third Church was erecting. In reference to the seven Indian Boys mentioned at p. 552 of our last Volume, Mr. Jones says

The two Boys who went to see their friends across the Rocky Mountains returned this summer, with five others, all of whom are Chiefs' sons. The return of these Boys, and the addition made to their number, are reckoned a very great mark of confidence placed in the White People by those indomitable and independent sons of the Wilder.

11085.

The following account of the circumstances of Ram-Kishora's death, which took place in the night of Monday the 14th of September 1829, appears in the Calcutta Government Gazette.

A few years ago, some inhabitants of the villages to the south of Calcutta, in occasionally passing the School-Rooms of the Missionaries at Kidderpore, listened to the Gospel which was preached in them. They became converts to Christianity; and, through them, the Missionaries were enabled to carry the Gospel into the villages themselves. Inquiry and information spread through the surrounding district; and, by degrees, intimacies were formed with converts of other Missionary Bodies, who then took a part in the still-increasing work.

The Serampore Missionaries were induced, a few months since, to send a Missionary to reside in Barripore, and labour in that part of the district referred to, nearest to that town, which was still unoccupied by any others. In Sulkea, a large village, about six miles distant from Barripore, nearly thirty persons had professed a regard for the Gospel, and thrown off the bondage of caste : it therefore became the central point of the Missionary's labours; and here it was proposed to erect a convenient hut, to serve the double purpose of a Chapel and a School-Room. A Native Christian, named Ram-Kishora, was sent to reside in Sulkea; to assist the Missionary, and conduct Religious Worship during his absence. He was a man upward of fifty years of age, and a Christian of long standing: he was not remarkable for any superior ability, but possessed a meek August, 1831.

and gentle disposition-seemed always pleased to have an opportunity of speaking of the Gospel-and, in familiar conversation especially, was able to turn his long acquaintance with the Scriptures to good account. He soon gained the affections of the new converts, and was among them as a father: he held meetings for Divine Worship with them constantly, at which many of the other villagers likewise attended; and the spirit of honest inquiry appeared to be rapidly extending. But what gained him the affection of some, excited toward him the bitterest enmity of others; and he has fallen a victim to their rage.

He spent Sunday, the 13th of September, at Sulkea, and conducted Divine Worship twice in the presence of many of the villagers, who remained for hours in conversation respecting what they had heard. On the Monday following he went to Garda, a small village but a short distance off, where one of the new converts resides, apart from the rest. At the house of this man he spent the day; and some of the other converts having called, they had worship together just before sun-set. After this, they two were left alone; and they retired to rest, in the same hut, at the usual hour. tle after midnight they wished to smoke; and Chand, the master of the house, taking his hookah, went to his brother's (not a convert) on the other side of the road, and, having obtained a light, sat smoking for some time. He then went to give the hookah to Ram-Kishora; but instantly ran back, calling to his brother, "Here are so and so," naming a number of persons, "with many more, come to my house, and they are murdering the Padree Sahib's Dewan." He went away again: 2 X

A lit

and his brother rose, and, going out, saw upon the road several of the persons whom Chand had mentioned, for it was clear moonlight; and on his calling to them, they chased him with clubs, with which they were all armed. He called up another man, who lived on the same premises; and, returning with him to the road, they saw two canoes, full of men, inaking off, and also a number of other persons, going toward Sulkea on foot. Through fear, they immediately concealed themselves in their own house till daylight. In the mean time, Chand had gone round to the back of his own premises, and there heard the leaders of the party calling out, Where is Chand? Murder him! murder him!" And there he witnessed the murder of the poor old man, who, after a few faint cries for help, fell under their blows, in the little yard of the house where he had slept. Chand swam through a tank, and made off through the rice fields, without being observed; and ran to Bankipore, several miles, where he gave notice of the murder. As he had not exactly ascertained the actual perpetration of the murder, he was sent back for this purpose. He reached Garda again about sunrise on Tuesday, and then went with his brother to the fatal spot. They found the body perfectly lifeless and cold: on the forehead was a great gash, evidently made by the stroke of a club, and the neck had been pierced by a spear. Death, no doubt, had followed instantly: there was much blood upon the ground.

It is gratifying to know, that, during the whole of his stay in the village, the conduct of the deceased had been in every respect blameless. It has been already stated, that his temper was mild and gentle, and he had certainly done nothing to prejudice the interests of any

one.

The last time he parted from the Missionary under whose direction he was placed, he seemed much depressed; and observed, "I am going, Sir, as a sheep among wolves;" and so it has appeared,

Dr. Marshman, under date of Sept. 17, 1829, gives the following particulars:

About twenty-five years ago, our Brother Syam Dass was killed, on a journey (I think) to Cutwa, with 40 rupees; but we were not able to trace his death to any thing of a religious nature: he was probably murdered on his way by

robbers, for the sake of gain, as are many of his countrymen to this day. But our Native Brother, Ram-Kishora, has been murdered entirely on account of Religion. This happened at Garda, a village about six miles beyond Barripore, toward the Sunderbunds. Garda is one among many villages between Calcutta and the Sunderbunds, in which a great desire after the Gospel has lately manifested itself it is about 20 miles from Calcutta, in a southerly direction. This part of the country, for above 20 miles in length and perhaps as many in breadth, being nearly covered with water for several months in the year, is so unhealthy, that no European Missionary has gone fully through it, beside the Brethren Mack and Robinson. About two months ago, however, we ordained Mr. Rabeholm, a Young Man born and brought up near us at Serampore, to the work of the Mission at Barripore, within reach of these villages, where he is now stationed.

On the character of Ram-Kishora, and the consequences of his murder, Dr. Marshman adds

Ram-Kishora was from Jessore, and came to Serampore 12 or 14 years ago. He was employed there in various situations. His conduct, though he was not free from the infirmities peculiar to his countrymen, was so correct, that I do not recollect his having once become the subject of church censure. He was remarkably quiet and inoffensive in his demeanour; and the employment which he most loved, was that of telling his countrymen what he knew of the Gospel of Peace. This made him highly useful in these villages, where he was almost constantly employed from morning till night among those inquiring the Way of Life. His death is, therefore, greatly to be lamented; but we are very far from thinking that this will stop the spirit of inquiry in these villages. It may, indeed, through the Divine Blessing, be the means of extending it far more widely.

aged Brother was fully prepared for a We have every confidence that our

death so sudden and so awful, and that he fell asleep in the Lord. Our friends who, at the time he was murdered, had professed themselves believers in Christ have all continued stedfast; and several new inquirers have been added to them. The impression, also, made upon their