there two months, he was again carried back to his relations at Matomata.

His death we feel to be a consider. able loss to that important station. I am thankful, however, to add, that we have there two others well instructed in the truths of the Gospel, who will, I trust, follow his example, and continue the good impresssion which he succeeded in making.

CEYLON. Cornelio, a Scholar in the Cotta School.- 'The following memoir is abridged from a Tract drawn up in Singhalese, by a Native Teacher, and translated into English, with Notes, by the Rev. Joseph Bailey.

Cornelia was the third daughter of Wahalatantrigey Hendrick Perera, Notary Public of Cotta. She began to attend Mrs. Bailey's Girls' School in October 1835, with one of her sisters. She was about five years of age, and could not speak correctly; so that little hope was entertained of her learning quickly. She, however, possessed good sense and a good memory; and having learnt the Singhalese alphabet, and the principles of the Christian religion, soon outstripped the girls of the lowest class, to which she then belonged, and gradually rose to the first class in the space of three years. In this time she learnt to read the Scriptures remarkably well, and to write the Singhalese letters tolerably : she also committed to memory Watts's First Catechism, the Church Catechism, the Four Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles. She learnt also the four principal Rules of Arithmetic.

She began to learn English during the last year; and had, some time previous to her death, received a present of an English Testament. Every day she repeated her lessons well, and sometimes learnt more than was appointed. Though children in general learn the lessons which are given to them, yet they do not try to retain them in their memory, nor to understand them. But this was not the case with Cornelia : she proved, by her conversation and answers, that she remembered what she learnt, and that she understood it. She was diligent in needle-work, as well as in study. She presented a sampler to the Bishop of Madras, when he visited the school a little more than a year ago : the Bishop on receiving

it, took particular notice of her. The text of Scripture marked on it was, “ The very God of peace sanctify you wholly: and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." His Lordship afterward wrote of this visit: 'I examined Mrs. Bailey's School; and the very neat appearance, good manners, and, as far as I could judge, proficiency of the girls, highly gratified me. One of them, an intelligent little girl, presented me with a sampler which she had worked especially for me, containing, though of course accidentally, a beautiful text of Scripture, which I had introduced, on Lord's Day, into my Farewell Sermon.'

Cornelia's conduct was so remarkably correct, that it was never found requisite to inflict on her any punishment, or even to reprimand her. Her exemplary conduct entitled her to become a monitor of a small class. She studiously avoided lying, backbiting, quarrelling, and speaking bad words. She never neglected attending the school: it was a grief to her to be absent for one day.

She had learned the Scriptures from a child: so that she knew a great deal about God her Creator, and Jesus Christ her Saviour; as may be seen from the advice given by her to her mother, who was one day treating a Buddhist Priest with food :

O Mother, it is not good to have two hearts: Mother, take one heartonly.'* Though very young, her heart was impressed with the truths of Christianity, and with the obligation of implicit obedience to the commands of God; proofs of which she gave, by her regular attendance on the worship of God, and by advising her father to go to the church on Lord's Days and Wednesdays. On this subject she advised her father twice: she also advised her parents, on several occasions, not to work on Lord's Days. In many other instances, she shewed her love to religion, and her anxiety for the welfare of her parents.

On Tuesday, the 26th of March, she attended the School; and, though somewhat unwell, did not go home antil it was closed. From that time she had fever and headache; and was prevented, during the whole week, from attending the school. But when the Lord's Day arrived, though still unwell, she attended the Sundayschool, and learnt the lessons for the day, as usual.

After this, her disease made rapid progress. The means used by the medical men for her recovery began to fail. Up to this time, however, she willingly took all the medicine which was given to her; but as she well knew, from the Scriptures, that it was very wicked to distrust God, and to seek help from devils in the time of sickness, she shewed very great aversion to heathen and devil ceremonies being performed by her relations and friends for her, and begged them not to do any of those things with a view to cure her.

On Saturday at four o'clock in the afternoon, though her speech had before left her, she was enabled to speak, and repeated the Lord's Prayer and the Fourth Commandment as distinctly as when she was well. After this, when the medicine was given, she refused to take it, saying, 'I don't want that; I want the Bible.

About five o'clock, the Rev. Joseph Bailey went to see her; but she was not able to say anything to him.

About 2 o'clock in the morning of the Lord's Day, when she was greatly suffering, her sister said to her, ‘Do you now want the Bible, which you before asked for?' She said, “ Yes.' When the Bible was brought to her, she stretched out her hands to take it, and clasped it to her bosom ; but her weakness was so great, that she was unable to hold it. Her sister then said to her, ‘Do you wish to hear the Bible read? She answered, “Yes.' Then she read to her the 38th and some following Psalms; and repeated the 3d chapter of St. Mark's Gospel, which she had committed to memory at school. After this she read some prayers from the Order for the Visitation of the Sick, in the CommonPrayer Book : while these were being read, she listened with great pleasure and eager attention.* No

thing was so precious to her soul as the Bible. In the course of the day, she again requested her sister to read the Bible to her, and particularly mentioned the 22d Psalm.

Though Cornelia was at the point of death, and unable to speak, she was continually whispering, though inarticulately.

When a monitor, she received one penny a week, and had laid by 5s. 3d. ; on her father asking her what should be done with the money, she told him to give it to the Missionary Society. She highly valued the privileges which she had enjoyed from the missionaries. She knew that the school in which she had been taught was supported by the contributions of Christians, and therefore she sought its prosperity; and to shew that she wished well to the labours of the missionaries among her countrymen, at her death she willingly offered all which she possessed to that Society, as a token of her love and gratitude.

Toward daylight, on Monday morning, without any fear of death or sorrow of heart, in the happy enjoyment of hearing the word of God, Cornelia slept in Jesus on the 26th of April 1841, in the tenth year of her age.

NORTH-WEST AMERICA. Rev. John Smithurst, at the Red River Settlement, thus reports the sickness and death of an adult Indian. .

July 14, 1841.-I went to see a sick Indian, whom I baptized last January. Í reminded him of the promises which he made when he was baptized, and asked if he were still determined to put his full trust in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, depending upon his merits alone. He answered, with some emphasis, 'Yes.' I then exhorted him to keep his feet firm upon that Rock of all our hopes; assuring him, that if he were depending upon Christ, though he might have but little knowledge of the Word of God, he would find himself safe. Having said as much to him as I deemed adviseable in his present exhausted statefor I more than once thought him expiring while I was talking- I asked if he particularly wished to say any been her constant companion to school, was Dow able to be a real comfort to her dyipg sister, by reading to her the Word of God, and leading her in prayer according to the Forms appointed by our Church for the gick and afflicted.

thing to me. His voice was now scarcely audible; but his wife, putting her ear to his mouth, said, 'He asks you to baptize his child, and let him be taught the Word of God, that he may come to him in the next world.' I said, “If the child be given up to us, of course we shall instruct him in the school, and in due course he will be baptized. Ask him if that is satisfactory.' He said, Yes ; but it is now too young to leave its mother : may it stay with her till it is old enough to go to school ? '-Feeling deeply affected at the considerate tenderness of this request, I could scarcely repress the tear, as I said, * Yes, it may. I then exhorted him to cast himself upon the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ; and told him I would call upon God in prayer, that he might be supported in the last trying scene, and be conducted in safety to that heavenly inheritance which I trusted was reserved for him in the world above. While I was kneeling by the dying man, commending his soul to God in prayer, the pealing thunder, together with the rain falling upon the bark which covered the tent, rendered my voice inaudible. It was indeed a solemn scene!

July 15.-I again visited the sick Indian, and found him sinking rapidly. I asked him if he still felt comfort in resting upon the merits of Christ. He feebly articulated, “Yes,' and appeared desirous of saying more ; but his voice failed, and he fell back, evidently in the agonies of death.

I was deeply grieved to hear his father giving utterance to expressions which must have both distressed and disturbed the dying man. Among other things, he said to me, 'You talk about your God being so good and powerful; yet there is my son laying, and you are not able to obtain any help for him from your God.' I told him, that I trusted our God, to whom his son had given himself, was about to take him to a place of happiness, where he would dwell for ever, be nó more sick, nor suffer hunger, thirst, or pain; and that the afflictions which had been laid upon him were intended to make him repent of his past sins, and trust in the Saviour, in order that he might be made fit for heaven. I then endeavoured to shew the old man how awful it was for him to be so completely given up to the

devil, and so bent upon doing his drudgery, as even to disturb the dying moments of his son. I told him, that unless he underwent a great change, he would very soon be separated from his son for ever; and I could only pray that his eyes might be opened, before he found himself in hell. Having commended the dying man to God, I left the tent; and had not been long at home, when a person came to tell me that he had expired.

I sent Mr. Cook to make arrangements for burying the body; but he returned, saying that they wished it to be taken away at once. I was therefore compelled to send my servants to carry the corpse to the church, till a coffin could be made. The Indian custom is to bury the dead as quickly as possible ; and so strong is their aversion to see the change which the last enemy produces upon the countenance, that it is the practice, as soon as the person has expired, for the relatives to paint the face red, that the change may not be seen, even during the few hours occupied in making the grave. They then put upon the deceased all his ornaments, and wrap the body in a blanket, together with his hunting and fishing implements. Having placed it in the grave, in a sitting posture, and covered it with earth, they sit in a circle around the grave for about an hour, smoking their pipes ; after which, some one makes a speech, and then they retire. All the Christian Indians are of course buried in the churchyard, after the European custom ; and when any die who have not Christian relatives to bury them, the task falls upon us as in this case. I do not know how I am to get this poor man buried; for all the men able to give any assistance are now away, and I have only one Indian boy with me in the house; as my principal servant, who alone could have been of any service to me, is sick at Grand Rapids.

July 16.-I was compelled to set to work this morning, with two Indian boys, to make a coffin for the man who died yesterday. We finished it by noon; and the boys having put the body into it, they placed it in the grave. After I had read the service, they filled in the earth : and thus we finished our disagreeable duty, without any assistance,