light; and to them who sat in the region and shadow of death, light hath sprung up." The number of Sabbath and itinerant Irish readers of the Scriptures, is twenty-four. Five of these in the county of Clare, read, during the last year, the Scriptures in more than 250 distinct cabins. One of them taught 47 adults to read Irish perfectly. Numbers have renounced popery, believed in Christ, and been baptized. The increase of Scriptural knowledge has greatly alarmed the Catholic clergy, and in many instances they have exercised open hostilities against the schools and other means employed by the Society. posed him for his calling, and the experience he has obtained by two years travel between Cairo and Smyrna, has amply qualified him to be the guide and director of others, who may follow him in this most interesting and arduous mission. From him I received so much information concerning the characters and places, of which I had hoped to obtain a personal knowledge, that I seem in some meas ure to have visited them all in an elbow chair; -the greatest consolation I could receive under the disappointment of suffering all the fatigues and privations, (and they are neither few nor trifling,) of a Syrian expedition, without accomplishing its great object; a sight of the holy and beloved city. Requisite qualifications of missionaries to the East. The Testaments and Bibles, necessary for circulation, have been readily and promptly furnished by the British and Foreign Bible Society. May the cabins of the Irish soon be as amply furnished with Bibles, as are the All our missionaries to Asia or Africa must cottages of the Scottish Highlanders. To this end several gentlemen in the province of know and speak the vulgar, rather than the Connaught have expressed their determina- grammatical Arabic; and this, be assured, is to tion to persevere until the laudable and patri- be learned only in the country. Besides, a otic desire of George the third be accomplish-year of preparation and probation, corporeal ed; "It is my desire that every poor child in my dominions might have a Bible, and be able to read it." We cannot close this article without expressing our pleasure in witnessing the perfect system and persevering zeal, which so conspicuously characterize the benevolent operation of our transatlantic brethren. They attempt great things,-and expect great things, -and the world has seen that they accomplish great things. When shall we see such united, intelligent, and unabating ardor, in the American churches? Palestine. LETTER OF REV. LEWIS WAY. IT will be recollected that Messrs. Fisk and King, in their journal, speak with interest of the Rev. Lewis Way, who had gone out from England to Palestine, and devoted his talents and his estate to seek the welfare of the descendants of Abraham. A mysterious Providence prevented his remaining long in the Holy Land. He was soon attacked by a disease, which compelled him to relinquish his chosen employment, and return to his native country. From an interesting letter of his published in the London Jewish Expositor, the following extracts are taken. and mental, is requisite for every missionary who would be useful in the east. He should be of a constitution to which a warm climate, if not congenial, is at least not destructive, and should have a facility in bearing priva tions, and living on Asiatic diet, (which consists in a transition from potatoes to cucumbers, from roast beef to rice, &c.) Without these qualifications, our young men had better go to Poland and Germany, than to be sent to Syria to languish and die as poor Parsons did; and as I should assuredly (humanly speaking) have done, had I remained much longer. I have been told that out of an hundred sent to the monasteries in Syria, from the propaganda at Rome, not twenty can bear the seasoning. I trust our friend Mr. Lewis will continue as I left him, in perfect health. It did not appear that he had suffered at all; and his quiet placid disposition is much in his favor. Rev. Joseph Wolff. He is so extraordinary a creature, there is no calculating a priori concerning his motions. He appears to me to be a comet without any perihelion, and capable of setting a whole system on fire. When I should have addressed him in Syria, I heard of him at Malta, and when I supposed he was gone to England, he was riding like a ruling angel in the whirlwinds of Antioch, or standing unappalled among the crumbling towers of Aleppo. A man who at Rome calls the Pope "the dust of the earth," and tells the Jews at Jerusalem, that "the Gemara is a lie;" who passes his days in disputation, and his nights in digging the Talmud, to whom a floor of brick is a feather bed, and a box a bolster; who makes The last ten days of my confinement at An- or finds a friend alike in the persecutor of his toura gave me the opportunity of forming a former or present faith; who can conciliate a personal acquaintance with the Rev. Pliny Pacha or confute a patriarch; who travels Fisk, and of conferring with him on future without a guide, speaks without an interpretplans of operation in Syria. I found in him er, can live without food, and pay without a man of a truly Catholic and Christian spirit; money;-forgiving all the insults he meets his simple piety, solid sense, amiable temper, with, and forgetting all the flattery he re and strong constitution, had eminently predis-ceives; who knows little of worldly conduc Acquaintance with Rev. Pliny Fisk. and yet accommodates himself to all men, without giving offence to any; such a man, (and such and more is Wolff) must excite no ordinary degree of attention in a country, and among a people, whose monotony of manner and habits has remained undisturbed for centuries. As a pioneer, I deem him matchless; *"Aut inveniet viam, aut faciet;" but if order is to be established, or arrangements made, trouble not Wolff. He knows of no church but his heart, no calling but that of zeal, no dispensation but that of preaching. He is devoid of enmity towards man, and full of the love of God. By such an instrument, whom no school hath taught, whom no college could hold, is the way of the Judean wilderness preparing;-thus is Providence showing the nothingness of the wisdom of the wise, and bringing to nought the understanding of the prudent;-thus are his brethren provoked to emulation, and stirred up to inquiry. They all perceive, as every one must, that whatever he is, he is in earnest: they acknowledge him to be a sincere believer in Jesus of Nazareth. Anticipations of the inhabitants of Palestine. In what manner it will please God to fulfil his purposes concerning his people, and accomplish his promises concerning his land, we shall best learn in the patient use of lawful and appointed means; but they are both preparing rapidly for some extraordinary revulsion. The thinking persons of the various tribes and sects, of which the present inhabitants of Palestine are composed, universally indulge anticipations of great moral, physical, and political changes. Their considerations are not drawn from the fountain of truth and the stream of prophecy, but have come down through the corrupted channels of oriental tradition, and are diversified by the varieties of sect and opinion. The outline is, however, to be traced with sufficient accuracy. sects are looking towards an universal religion, all place the seat and centre of it in Palestine. There they expect the armies of the world to be assembled, and the last great contest to be decided. They speak of the rebuilding of Jerusalem; and some even name the person who is to be crowned there. The Jews expect their Messiah, the Druses their Hakem, other orientalists, one who is called the MEYHEDI; who, according to each party, respectively is to govern the world. The Turks and Catholics are both looking for a change in their system, but darkness, gross darkness, covers them all. Demerara. All VARIOUS accounts have from time to time ap. peared in the public prints of the insurrection of the slaves in the colony of Demerara, and of the condemnation of the 'Rev. Mr. Smith, a missionary from the London Missionary Society, on an accusation of having been accessary * He will either find a way, or make one. to the plot. We have collected and embodied such of the leading facts, relative to these transactions, 'as have come to our knowledge. The slaves of many plantations on the Eastern coast of Demerara had formed a conspiracy to obtain their freedom. The plot was disclosed by a servant to his master on the 18th of August last; not till the conspiracy was thoroughly organized, and arrangements made to secure simultaneous movements; and only a few hours before the time appointed for action. Information was immediately communicated to the commander in chief, and the most efficient measures taken; but before a sufficient force could be assembled to resist a large body of negroes, who were immediately under arms, the evening, which was the time for executing the first grand enterprise, had arrived. This was simultaneously to seize upon the whites at the different plantations, con fine them in the stocks, and take possession of their arms. This was effected on nearly fifty plantations, containing, inclusive of women and children, 10 or 12,000 negroes. The whites, to the number of about 250, were imprisoned. In some places an ineffectual resistance was made, and several lives lost on both sides. On the morning of the 19th the governor issued a proclamation, declaring the colony under martial law, and ordering all who were capable of bearing arms, without distinction, to be immediately enrolled. The most vigor. ous measures were pursued; and in the course of a few days, after several skirmishes, in which a considerable number of negroes lost their lives, the insurrection was subdued. A court martial was then constituted, and many of the negroes brought to trial, condeaned and executed. Subsequent accounts state that more than 1,000 had suffered death in consequence of the insurrection, and that many of their heads had been fixed up on poles in various parts of the country. We might easily be more particular in regard to the circumstances of the insurrection; but our object is chiefly to relate what con cerns the missionary who was accused of hav ing a part in the scheme, and the other missionaries in the colony. On these points we have to regret that the information which has yet been received is very scanty, and in many respects indefinite. The extract which follows is from the Missionary Chronicle, and was published in the name of the Directors of the London Mission. ary Society. The insurrection, it should seem, manifested itself first in Mahaica, the district to the eastward of that in which Mr. Smith resides. Its appearance on the Le Ressouvenir estate, where Mr. Smith resides, was on Monday the 18th August, in consequence of an order to take into custody two slaves belonging to an adjoining plantation, whom the negroes of the Le Ressouvenir, as the prisoners had to pass over it, rose to rescue. Mr. Smith was at home. He successfully used his endeavors, on perceiving the tumult, to rescue the manager from the negroes, and continued his exertions to induce them to return to their duty, till he himself was driven with violence, and with a weapon held to his body, from the estate. violence of public prejudice in the Colony, and it is to be feared from the false assertions of some of the unhappy negroes, whom the hope of favor towards themselves may have led to bring against him "things that he knew not." Indeed, the Directors are informed, upon authority on which they can rely, that some of the condemned negroes, finding the hope of life taken away, had in the most solemn manner declared that they had been induced so to act; and that others, on being questioned whether they had not been incited to rebellion by Mr. Smith, had in the strongest terms which their broken language could supply, denied the imputation. It is stated by the writer of one letter, that he has often heard charges circulated against the missionaries, as if spoken by the negroes at the time of their Mr. Smith was taken into custody on the evening of the 21st August, and all his papers seized. He is kept a prisoner in the Colony-execution, which he knew, (for he was a near house, and has.since the 24th of August, had a guard stationed over him. Mr. Elliot, another missionary, who labored about 20 miles from Mr. Smith, was also taken into custody, on the ground of disobedience of orders, "which he had not understood to be such," in visiting Mr. Smith in his confinement. He was kept about ten days, and then released. No charge was preferred against him. The estates on which he labors had been quiet, and none of the negroes under his instruction were implicated in the rebellion. In a letter to the Directors of the London Missionary Society, Mr. Elliot writes thus. Numerous false reports have been sent forth against Mr. Smith, but assure yourself and all the Directors, that whatever reports you may hear, the only crime the missionaries have committed is their zeal for the conversion of the negroes. They have neither been 80 weak nor so wicked as to excite the negroes to rebellion. The missionaries want justice only; they have no favor to ask; they have nothing to fear. The missionaries have not degraded their holy calling, nor dishonored the Society of which they are members, by Sowing the seeds of rebellion instead of the Word of Life. The real causes of the rebellion are far, very far from being the instructions given by the missionaries. On the 13th of October Mr. Smith was brought to trial before a Court Martial. All the accounts which we have yet seen of the charges brought against him are very obscure and imperfect. The January number of the Missionary Chronicle, from which we have already quoted, says,— The public papers have stated four charges as forming the Indictment against him, but of their accuracy the Directors are not enabled to judge. They trust that, under the direction of Divine Providence, he has been able to prove himself guiltless of them all. It is not, however, to be concealed, that he will have had much to contend with from the spectator,) that they never had uttered. We can as yet learn little more respecting the evidence which was produced before the court than that some of the negroes testified that the instructions of Mr. Smith had a tendency to make them dissatisfied with their condition, and that he knew of the plot before it was carried into execution. He was condemned, and sentenced to death. This sentence was however transmitted by the governor to England for the consideration and ultimate decision of the King. What we know of this decision will be seen in the following paragraph, copied from the New-York Observer of March 27th. It appears from the London papers that "the king has remitted the sentence of death of the Court Martial on Mr. Smith, the missionary of the London Society in Demerara, (which sentence was accompanied by a recommendation for mercy on the part of the Court,) but has given orders that he should be dismissed from the colony, and should come under obligations not to reside within any of his Majesty's colonial possessions in the West Indies." The charges against Mr. Smith appear to have originated in the perjury of some of the negroes engaged in the insurrection. In the mean time Mr. Smith was languishing under the influence of disease, which rendered the stroke of the executioner unnecessary to remove him from the earth. He died in prison, before the intelligence had arrived that his sentence was reversed. The following notice of his death appeared in the Demerara Courant. Died,-In the Colonial Jail, at Demerara, Feb. 9th, where he had been confined, as a State Prisoner since the 26th of Nov. last, on the termination of his trial by the General Court Martial, on a charge of high treason, sentence thereon having been transmitted to his Majesty for his final decision-JOHN SMITH, Missionary; he had been in a poor state of bealth, and had been attended regularly by skilful physicians. We are happy to state, from personal inquiry and inspection, that this unhappy man had the utmost attention and kindness shewn to him, by the humaue keeper of the prison, (Mr. Padmore,) all the time of his confinement.-His apartment was airy and commodious, he had always at his command every comfort which his taste fancied or his necessities required. He has left a widow to deplore his fate, and lament his loss. The conviction which results from the present state of our information on this subject, is that, through prejudice and exasperated feeling, Mr. Smith was condemned, being innocent. The Directors of the Society under which he labored, have, however, given us reason to look for further intelligence in a future number of the Missionary Chronicle, which we hope will soon arrive. It appears that none of the negroes under the instruction of any missionary, either of the London or Wesleyan Missionary Society, except Mr. Smith, were implicated in the insurrection. Respecting the Methodists in the colony we quote the following statement from the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. We stated in our last number, that Messrs. Mortier and Cheesewright, our missionaries in Demerara, were safe, and that only two of the members of our Society there had been apprebended on suspicion of being implicated in the late revolt. We have received a second letter from Mr. Mortier, dated Demerara, Sept. 17th, which communicates the gratifying intelligence that these two persons, who were servants of the Governor, had been liberated upon full conviction of their entire innocence, and that not one of the members of our large Society, of twelve hundred and sixteen, chiefly slaves, had been in the least concerned in the revolt: and that the slaves of another estate, under the care of Mr. Cheesewright, had not only refused to join the rebels, but had conducted their master to a vessel, by which he reached George-Town in safety. South Africa. BETHELSDORP AND THEOPOLIS. AN account of a distressing inundation at the mission stations of Bethelsdorp and Theopolis, in South Africa, is thus given in a letter from Mr. Wright at Theopolis, dated October 11, 1823, and published in the London Missionary Chronicle. On Saturday last, (Oct. 6,) about mid-day, the sky began to present an awful appearance; -nothing was to be seen but tremendous black lowering clouds, which indicated a heavy fall of rain. In the afternoon the rain began to fall, and continued Monday and Tuesday, attended with a fresh breeze. On Wednes. day the wind blew a hurricane from the South. east, and the rain descended in torrents, such as were never witnessed by any of the people of the place, and which continued without intermission till to-day (Thursday) at 12 o'clock, when it began to abate. On Friday morning, as soon as it was light, I looked out, and saw that the river had risen to an amazing height, and had overflowed the ground where we had made bricks for the new village-all of which have been swept away. In the evening, about eight o'clock, I was suddenly alarmed by a great crash. I immediately took a candle, to go out and discover the cause; but while I was preparing so to do, Mr. Barker came in, and, with uplifted hands, and a countenance bespeaking the greatest agitation and distress, exclaimed, "We are all completely ruined!" I asked, "What is the matter? Surely your house has not fallen, and hurt any of your family?" He replied, "No: but our school-our noble school, is destroyed, and is completely down to the ground!" i immediately went out, and when I beheld it, I received such a shock as I shall never for get. The agitation and distress of our own minds, and the fearful apprehensions we entertained for the Mission-house, would not suffer us to retire for rest that night. Reflecting on the circumstances of the people at the Old Village, Mr. Barker and I concluded to go over, though in a midnight rain, to examine the state of things there; which, you will not be surprised to hear, were in a dreadful condition. The reed-houses were drenched through and through many of them like a river. The kraal with rain, the water streaming through was become such a deep quag, that the cattle were not able to stand in it, and were permit ted to ramble where they would, in danger of being stolen by the Caffres, who are just now day light returned, it presented to us additionvery troublesome in our neighborhood. When al cause of distress;-every house building in the new village was washed down, so that not one brick was left upon another, with the ex ception of the house which we occupy, and that is much injured. We had about 100,000 bricks made for the village, and all in an unburnt state, except one small kiln;-these have all been laid under water, and are com⚫ pletely destroyed. Our present consternation and distressing circumstances you may more easily conceive than I can describe. The peoples' old houses are all gone to ruin, and the old church is only knows, and it is only in the exercise of nearly down! What we shall do, the Lord faith in the Providence of God, and in the be lief of that infinite wisdom and goodness and towards his church and people-it is only rectitude which directs all his dispensations such considerations that can support our minds under present circumstances! Could you have witnessed the scene early this morning, when the poor creatures came over to behold the desolation, I am sure you could scarcely have endured the melancholy sight, it was truly a scene of lamentation and mourning-distress was depicted in every countenance, and every eye was filled with tears. * P. S. I have just received information that fifty houses and stores in Graham's Town are completely down, and that Bathurst is nearly destroyed. When these circumstances became known to the Directors of the London Missionary Society, nearly $1,800, were immediately voted for the purpose of rebuilding the chapel, &c.; $440 were subscribed by individual Directors, sixteen in number, on the spot, and an appeal made to the Christian public for further relief. Domestic Intelligence. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. Maine. Revivals in Eastport, Jefferson and Nobleborough were mentioned in our number for February, p. 57. The following paragraph is from the Waterville Intelligencer. The churches most signally blessed with the outpourings of the Spirit are one in Eastport, one in Sidney, one in Jefferson, two in Nobleborough, one in Sangerville and one in Readfield. A letter from a Baptist clergyman in Port. land, dated Feb. 10, states that 22 were added to the Baptist church in Readfield the last year. In Sidney 12 were baptized in Decem. ber, and 12 on the first Sabbath in February. In New-Castle and Nobleborough 33 had been baptized. In Jefferson 19 were baptized on the 14th of January, and 15 had probably been added to the number since. Massachusetts. There is said to be an interesting work of grace in Douglass, Worcester Co., and encouraging appearances in several of the neighboring towns. New-York. The Christian Herald states that about 40 were added to the Presbyterian church in Rutgers Street, New-York city, on the 28th of March, making not far from 250 since the settlement of its present pastor in Nov. 1822. By a letter from the Rev. R. K. Rogers to the Editor of the Boston Recorder, we are informed, that 70 were added by profession to the church belonging to the villages of Sandy Hill and Glen's Falls on the 14th of March. The jetter adds, The good work of grace yet goes on in Moreau and Northumberland, and is extending itself into the Dutch Reformed church.in the town of Saratoga. During the last winter there has been un. usual seriousness at Unadilla and Sidney, places adjoining, in the counties of Otsego and Delaware. At Unadilla 21 had been admit ted to communion in the Presbyterian, several VOL. XX. in the Baptist, and a few in the Episcopalian church. At Sidncy 31 were admitted to the church on the 21st of March. Virginia. The following is an extract of a letter to the editor of the Columbian Star, dated Greenville, (Va.) March 20. From a correspondent I recently received a letter containing a brief detail of a glorious work of grace going on in the counties of Halifax, Pittsylvania and Bedford, Virginia, which I deem too consoling to Christians, to withhold from the religious public. I am therefore induced to forward an extract of the letter to you for insertion. "There has never been such a revival in these counties since the memory of man. During the last year, a hundred and seventy have been added to one church, and a hundred and twenty to three others, where the revival had just commenced. Persons of every rank and age, have become subjects of regenerating grace. This revival is spreading, and there is a general awakening in Pittsylvania." Kentucky. A revival of religion is said to exist in Bulletsburg. In February 25 were admitted to the Baptist church, and an additional number was expected in March. North Carolina. Another letter to the editor of the Columbian Star contains the following statement. A revival of religion commenced in the bounds of Tick Creek, Rocky River, and Brush Creek churches, (the two former in Chatham, the latter in Randolph county, N. C.) sometime last year.-Since the commencement of the revival there have been added to the church at Tick Creek by baptism, upwards of 20, who, we have reason to hope, have experienced a work of divine grace; upwards of 40 to Brush Creek, and over 30 to Rocky River. The work is still going on. |