THE

MISSIONARY HERALD.

VOL. XXVIII.

JANUARY, 1832.

No. 1.

BRIEF VIEW OF THE MISSIONS OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS.

THE Annual Report of the Board comes into the hands of but a small part of those, who patronise the missions of the Board, though it is sent over the country so as to be accessible to nearly or quite all. The printing of a very large number of copies would not be expedient, on account of the expense. It has therefore been found desirable to insert an abstract of the more important matters of the Report in the Missionary Herald. Such an abstract will now be given of the last, or 22d, Report, read at the annual meeting in October, 1831.

MISSIONS.

THE missions under the direction of the
Board are in INDIA-CHINA-the MEDITER-
RANEAN-the SANDWICH ISLANDS-and
the NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

India.

The missions are in Bombay, one of the Presidencies of British India, and in the northern district of Ceylon. The first was commenced in the year 1813; the second, in the year 1816.

BOMBAY.

Allen Graves, Cyrus Stone, William Ramsey, Hollis Read, Missionaries, and their wives; David O. Allen and William Hervey, Missionaries; James Garrett, Printer, Mrs. Garrett; and Cynthia Farrar, Superintendent of Native Female Schools.

Mr. and Mrs. Graves are on the Neilgherry Hills, in pursuit of health. Mrs. Allen died on the 5th of February, and Mrs. Hervey on the 3d of May. Vol. xxvii, pp. 365,378. Messrs. Ramsey, Read and Hervey, with their wives, joined the mission in the early part of the year 1831. The Report contains a general view of the progress of Christian missions in this Presidency since the commencement of the American mission in 1813.

It is about eighteen years since the American missionaries first landed in Bombay. The na

The term Missionary is used to denote an or dained preacher of the gospel.

VOL. XXVIII.

tives had then never heard the gospel preached in their own tongue. No part of the scriptures had been translated. Nothing had been done to attract attention to the Christian religion. Indeed, when Hall, Newell, and Nott first took their stand in Bombay,-without a knowledge of the language; without books, or printing-press, or schools; without a chapel; without the countenance of government, and wholly unknown to the native population; when they contemplated the structure of society, so artificial and so connected with the idolatrous systems of religion; and also the laws of India, which made the forfeiture of property the penalty for renouncing Hindooism, or Islamism-they must have regarded the visible and tangible results of their labors as certainly remote. And so they did. But the note of preparation was heard, immediately on their arrival. The language was acquired; the New Testament and some portions of the Old were translated and printed; books for elementary instruction, and tracts of various descriptions, were published; schools were established; a chapel was built in the centre of Bomthe markets and other public places were frebay, and opened regularly for Christian worship; quented for conversation and preaching; journeys were taken, and schools multiplied.

After twelve years, Mr. Hall declared it to be his conviction, that the facilities for employing the appointed means of salvation among the people had multiplied ten fold since his arrival in

1813.

The means are now still greater, and they are There are eight miscontinually increasing. sionary stations within the Presidency of Bombay, connected with no less than five different societies in Great Britain and America:-a fact which makes it delightfully certain that a vast amount of benevolent interest, in different parts

1

The Theological School is under the care of Mr. Winslow, and is composed chiefly of young native men, who, having completed their course in the Seminary, are employed on a salary as assistants in the mission. They pay the expenses of their own board and clothing, and divide their time between teaching and study. Their serThe amount of printing executed at the mis-vices are important, and their progress in learnsion press during 1829 and until Nov. 20th, 1830, is exhibited in the following table.

expended in erecting the necessary buildings. The residue of the expenditures for buildings, together with the cost of books and apparatus, the board and clothing of the students, the pay of the teachers, and the salary of the principal, has been provided for from the Treasury of the Board.

The study of English, and of various branches of science principally in that language, occupies about two-thirds of the time of the students, and Tamul literature the remainder. The published journals of the Principal shew in what manner these studies are affecting the system of Tamul superstition.

Boarding Schools. The one at Tillipally contained 51 boys at the close of 1830. The one at Oodooville contained 37 girls, of whom seven were members of the church.-It is a singular fact, stated by Sir Richard Ottley to be peculiar to the district of Jaffna which contains the mission stations, that the landed property is principally vested in the females.

Malta is the book-manufactory for the whole mission, as well as a central point of intercourse and union. The library collected at this station is already valuable, both in the materials and helps for translations. There are three printingpresses, two of which are in constant use. There are founts of type for printing in English, Italian, Greek, Greco-Turkish, Armenian, ArmenoTurkish, and Arabic. The printing, however, has been chiefly in the Italian, modern Greek, and Armeno-Turkish languages, the last being the Turkish language written in the Armenian character. The press has ever been perfectly secure in Malta, and has operated without any embarrassment from the government, though the publications have been subject to a mild and tolerant censorship.

No regular and full report of the publications at the Malta press since the year 1829, has been received. Among the works subsequently printed are known to be the following: viz. one of 48 pages, called the Child's Assistant; a small arithmetic; a simple grammar of the modern Greek; Pinnock's catechism of Greek history, with remarks, containing about 150 pages; and a reading book of about the same size, made up of interesting and useful selections. The lives of

Free-Schools. The number of free-schools connected with the five stations is 89, containing 2,732 boys, and 635 girls; or 3,367 in the whole. PREACHING, etc. Each of the five missionaries has a congregation of natives on the Sabbath varying in numbers from two to five hun-Joseph, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Esther, and dred-composed chiefly of the children and youth belonging to the schools. The native preachers, though received with less respect and attention than the missionaries themselves, are useful helpers in the publication of the gospel in the high-ways and villages.

The Mission Church contains 148 native members in regular standing.

The mission has been repeatedly blessed with effusions of the Holy Spirit. Previous to the year 1824, thirty-four natives had been received into the mission church. During the first three months of that year, the mission was visited with very special divine influence, and 41 natives were added to the church. Another time of refreshing was experienced near the close of the same year; and there were hopeful conversions in the succeeding years. A third revival of religion was experienced near the close of the year 1830, as the first fruits of which 34 natives were added to the church in the April following.

All the buildings at the station of Manepy, with the principal part of Mr. Woodward's effects, were consumed by fire March 30, 1831.

China.

Elijah C. Bridgman and David Abeel, Missiona

ries.

Mr. Bridgman's time is devoted chiefly to the acquisition of the language. Mr. Abeel has entered the service of the Board, and gone to explore the state of religion among the degenerated Dutch churches in that part of the world, and also the facilities for missionary effort in the kingdom of Siam.-A printing press has been sent out for the use of the China mission.

Mediterranean.

The several branches of this mission are in Malta, Greece, Syria, Constantinople, and to the Jews of Turkey.

MALTA.

Daniel Temple and Eli Smith, Missionaries; Homan Hallock, Printer; Mrs. Temple and Mrs. Hallock.

Daniel, had also been printed, or were in the press; and Mr. Temple was employed, when he last wrote, in making selections of the most important events and narratives recorded in the Old Testament, for the use of the schools in Greece. In these works he has the valuable assistance of Mr. Nicholas Petrokokino, who was educated by the Board in this country; and there can be scarcely a doubt but they will be popular and useful among the people for whom they are designed.

But the most important work executed at the Malta press, during the last year, was the translation of the New Testament in the ArmenoTurkish language. The printing of this was commenced on the 8th of January 1830, and the last sheet was corrected in the press before the expiration of January 1831. This translation was prepared by Mr. Goodell from one made by himself, with the aid of the Armenian bishop Carabet, from the original Greek, and another made at Constantinople, from the Armenian version, under the superintendence of Mr. Leeves, agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society; and was carried through the press by Mr. Goodell, at the expense of that noble institution.

The whole amount of printing performed at Malta since July 1822, cannot be less than 12,000,000 of pages.

GREECE.

Jonas King, Missionary, and Mrs. King.

Mr. King has removed from Tenos to Athens. While at Tenos he supported and superintended a school of 60 or 70 females, and distributed many copies of the New Testament. In this school he freely expounded the scriptures.

Athens is the place, which Mr. King has been desirous, ever since he entered Greece, of making the centre of his operations. But in the autumn of last year, there being a prospect of its speedy evacuation, Mr. King visited that celebrated spot, and made arrangements for his future residence. In April of the present year, he made a second visit to Athens and opened a Lancasterian school for both sexes, at the head of which he placed Niketoplos, formerly master of the

of the Christian world, is concentrated upon the Mahratta people. And in the city of Bombay itself there are, also, seven societies of various names, formed expressly for co-operating with kindred institutions in Great Britain in spiritually illuminating that part of India. The government, too, notwithstanding the complaints of natives that the divine origin of their religion and its obligations are publicly denied, tolerates the Christian missionary in every part of the country, and protects him in his labors.

There has been no material change in the labors of the missionaries, or the number and character of the schools. The native attendance at the chapel had somewhat increased. The schools, of which there were 17 for boys and 18 for girls, comprised about 1,000 boys, and not far from 500 girls.

Seventy-eight of the boys had Mohammedan parents, and 130 were of Jewish origin. Ten of

TILLIPALLY:-Levi Spaulding, Missionary, and Mrs. Spaulding.

Timothy Dwight, Teacher in the Preparatory School; John Codinan, Assistant Teacher; Seth Payson, Native Assistant; Charles Hodge, Catechist; Azel Backus, Cyrus Kingsbury, and others, Readers.

OODOOVILLE:-Miron Winslow, Missionary, and Mrs. Winslow.

Charles A. Goodrich, Native Preacher; Nathaniel, Schools; Rufus W. Bailey, Teacher in the English Catechist; Saravary Mottoo, Superintendent of School; John B. Lawrence, Reader.

PANDITERIPO:-John Scudder, M. D. Missionary, and Mrs. Scudder.

Native Helpers not reported.

MANEPY: Henry Woodward, Missionary, and Mrs. Woodward.

Sinnatumby, Catechist; Nathaniel, Superintendent of Schools; C. A. Goodrich, Teacher of English; Catheraman and Tumber, Readers.

EDUCATION. This is conducted in a The

and Free Schools, in which are the following number of scholars.

Theological School,
Mission Seminary,
Academy for Boys,
Academy for Girls,
Free-Schools,

20 scholars.

91

51

37

3,367

3,566

the boys' schools were in different villages on theological School, Seminary, Boarding Schools, continent; the others, with all the female schools, were on the island of Bombay. It is an interesting fact, that most of the schools on the continent are under the instruction of Jewish teachers, who disallow the observance of heathenish customs in their schools. These schools exert a favorable influence on the character of the villages where they are situated, and the missionaries justly regard them as so many lights burning amidst the deep spiritual gloom which covers the country. They are an important means of preparing the way for the publication of the gospel, whether that publication be made through the medium of conversation, preaching, or the press.

Six of the female schools are patronised by the Bombay district committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

The amount of printing executed at the mission press during 1829 and until Nov. 20th, 1830, is exhibited in the following table.

Or nearly 3,000,000 of pages in little more than twenty-two months. The whole amount of printing executed at Bombay from April 1817 to the close of 1830, was about 10,000,000 of pages. Only about 10,000 of the above mentioned 103,520 copies were printed at the expense of the mission. The British and Foreign Bible Society and its Auxiliary at Bombay defrayed the expense of printing the scriptures in Mahratta; and the Bombay Auxiliary Tract Society, which was organized four years ago, paid the cost of tracts for gratuitous distribution.

Some of the natives, and among them three brahmins, profess to be serious inquirers into the truth of the Christian religion, and hopes are entertained concerning a few, that they have been renovated by the Spirit of God.

CEYLON.

BATTICOTTA:-Benjamin C. Meigs and Daniel Poor, Missionaries, and their wives."

Gabriel Tissera, Native Preacher and Tutor in the Seminary; Nathaniel Niles, Native Preacher; Ebenezer Porter, Superintendent of Schools; P. M. Whelpley, Natire Medical Attendant on the Seminary: Samuel Worcester, John Griswold, I. W. Putnam, and others, Teachers.

Whole number,

The Theological School is under the care of Mr. Winslow, and is composed chiefly of young native men, who, having completed their course in the Seminary, are employed on a salary as assistants in the mission. They pay the expenses of their own board and clothing, and divide their time between teaching and study. Their services are important, and their progress in learning, especially in the knowledge of the scriptures, is highly gratifying and auspicious. A few have received license to preach the gospel.

Mr. Poor is Principal of the Seminary. The first class contains 22, the second, 20, the third 19, the fourth 30. Including those who have finished their studies, and are employed as teachers in the Seminary, the number is 102.

The principal building is called Ottley Hall, in honor of Sir Richard Ottley, chief justice of Ceylon, corresponding member of the Board, and for ten years past an influential and liberal patron of the mission. This edifice, including virandah-rooms erected on one side and end, is 109 feet in length and 66 in breadth. Its height is two stories. It is designed for public examinations, lectures, the library, &c. A sufficient number of rooms has been erected within the college yard to accommodate one hundred students.

The Seminary has been furnished with a respectable philosophical and other apparatus. The pnuematical and mechanical instruments, with the orrery and telescope, have been found particularly useful in illustrating various branches of study, which could not be effectually taught without such helps; especially where the prejudices to be encountered are so inveterate, as not readily to yield even to ocular demonstra

tions.

The mission library contains more than 600 volumes, (besides class-books procured for the Seminary,) and is in general well selected. The members of the Seminary have the use of this library.

The sum of $5,372 has been collected for this institution among the friends of learning and religion in Ceylon and India, all of which has been