22 SOUTH AFRICA.BECHUANA COUNTRY. cumstance caused him to stay a few months in that colonial village. There his attention was soon attracted by the Sabbath-bell, and the church-going people; his curiosity drew him into several of the Divine services, with which he seemed to be pleased, without finding, however, that his soul was much profited thereby. At this time he also found a wife for himself. In 1840 or 1841, John settled down at Thaba 'Nchu. Now and then his face was seen among the attendants at the chapel. On finding that many of his fellowBechuanas were able to make the book speak," the desire awoke in him to learn to read himself. In a short time he mastered the Sechuana books then within his reach, and took now the Dutch Bible in his hands, in order to read the whole of God's word. By this time the sword of the Spirit had wounded his conscience, and he was much affected by his own sinfulness and the coming wrath of God. He mourned and prayed, and his whole conversation showed that he was in good earnest to make peace with his offended Maker. He struggled hard, and had to wait some time, full of bitterness, before he was enabled to apprehend, by a lively faith, the free mercies of God, offered to his fallen soul in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The blessed moment at last came when peace and joy in the Holy Ghost were sent into his heart. He was then baptized, together with his wife, who had also caught the flame, and passed through a similar process of godly sorrow, and experienced the saving power of God. She received the name of Catherine. John went on his way rejoicing. For several years he made a steady progress in the knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was now called to the office of a Class-Leader, which place he filled to the satisfaction of his Ministers up to the day of his death. He understood a good deal of the Dutch language, which acquisition fitted him to be an effectual translator, and in which capacity he was for many years the right hand of the writer's predecessors here. During the last two years of his life, he was on the Plan of our paid native agents, whose office it is to read the word of God to the Heathen, and to give short exhortations to the unmindful to attend to their eternal interests. But in this department John did not give full satisfaction. Still as a Christian he was sincere, as a Class-Leader he was faithful and very useful; and this is not a small praise for a native convert among Feb., our deep and often double-dealing Bech uanas. He was a man of some decision; he had much good sense, and a readiness of argument in his animadversions on the Heathens, whose lying excuses he often effectually silenced, and he even stopped the Sabbath-breaking wheels of many socalled Christe Menschen, who travelled through the Station during the Divine service, to the great annoyance of both Preacher and hearers. He was a handy person, and could give a pull at any work; he built a substantial brick house for his family; he understood a little carpenter work, drove waggons, and made himself generally very useful on the Station. His last illness was affecting Having watched many sick-beds, he caught the infection of the yellow-fever. This worked some time in his system; but as he was always actively employed, a sort of natural energy kept the infection from spreading rapidly within his body. He took a little medicine, and thought a change of air, and a journey on foot, would do him good. I dissuaded him very strongly from going on foot; but he thought he knew his constitution better, and on he went to Bloem Fontein. On the road he was overtaken by a shower of hail and heavy rain; he exerted himself to reach the abode of some of his friends a few hours this side Bloem Fontein. He was thoroughly wet, and the fever had risen high. There he lay a few days, and as if he had had a strong presentiment of his near dissolution, he gave his friends no rest, except they conveyed him back into the bosom of his family. They put him on a horse; but, being so weak, he fell down on the other side of the saddle. At last they contrived some plan to fix him with cords. When he came to Thaba 'Nchu he was much exhausted, and from the heat of the sun his fever had increased. He took some physic, and next day he seemed a little better, and was able to speak. He said, "I do not know, but I feel very strange; as to my soul, God and his peace are with me, and my trust is in the Rock of my salvation." I prayed with him. For some days he seemed more and more to recover; one evening, however, his wife told me that his speech had suddenly failed; that his two children, and a friend of his, who lodged at his house, had all got the infection and were laid prostrate. I sent some medicine; but John could not swallow any. Early on the following morning I hastened to his abode; his look was distressing; he wished much to say something, but we could not understand him; he pointed His sat mute at his feet, as if petrified by the unexpected shock. All was solemn, and some thick drops trickled in silence from some worn faces. His funeral was numerously attended. I preached from Matt. xxiv. 44: "Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh." Many were deeply moved on that occasion. In conclusion we sang the following hymn composed for the occasion: Nya, si leleng, balekané, Le Mothasi eo sa shueng; Lo ikanye Motlameri, Me rolle re kachuelela Kua motsingoa botselo; Re shuele mo Moreneng. Go letlogonolo ena, Mothu eo tsamaileng; Ga o sa na botluku, Le mele o, o tla tsela, Leha oa tlollologa; Me basheu ba tla choga; TRANSLATION. For our God does yet exist; And our never-dying Helper; May rely upon IIis care; But we all, let us advance In the keeping of our faith; Reunion for evermore. But, that our souls may find each other, O the happiness of him Who safely has escaped! He is taken away by the Lord To be ever with Him in his temple ; Ilis joy is now exulting In the fulness of salvation. This body here shall also live, However dishonoured by death; Devour'd with horrors infernal." WESTERN AFRICA. SIERRA-LEONE. THE following encouraging letter from a Native Minister we print, with the few faults of language found in the manuscript, to afford the more exact index of the mental progress of Africans. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Joseph May, Native Minister, dated Wilberforce, October 2d, 1854. Ir is with the greatest pleasure that I again embrace this opportunity of writing you a few lines, I feel grateful to the Giver of all good that, since my arrival to my new sphere of labour, I have been able to attend to 24 WESTERN AFRICA.SIERRA LEONE. my duties without any interruptions from sickness, or any other cause. We have only but a few days ago finished the quarterly visitation of the classes in the Circuit; and I am happy to have it in my power to tell you of the measure of success with which it has pleased the great Head of the church to crown our feeble efforts. Within the last three months, several persons have united with us in churchfellowship, so that during the quarter we have an additional increase of thirty full members and thirteen on trial over that of last quarter. Our increase is not in the classes alone; but I may also say, that the congregations at all our services in all our chapels are greatly improved. The means of grace are well attended. Our Sabbath and weeknight prayer-meetings are seasons of great delight in these we have witnessed several instances of genuine conversion, and of penitent sinners labouring under deep conviction on account of their sins. I have just got our Prayer-Leaders' Plan printed from the Mission-press for the Circuit. Both our old and young men that are chosen, are humble, zealous, and persevering disciples of Jesus Christ, and think themselves greatly honoured to be appointed to the office of PrayerLeaders, whereby they are made to instruct their fellow-sinners, and to exercise their powers of devotion to a greater extent than they hitherto have done. On the first week of the Plan one of the companies went to Lumley, a town four or five miles from Free-Town: they had prayer-meetings among the Kroo people by the sea-shore, when four of the penitents present professed to obtain pardon of their sins, by faith in the Redeemer's blood. Two or three days after Mr. Thomas Johnson, our Schoolmaster at Aberdeen, with his own company, conducted a lively prayer-meeting at Aberdeen, when, among the earnest seekers of salvation, sixteen souls were set at liberty, through faith in Jesus Christ. And yesterday, at our prayermeeting at New-Town chapel, such was the delightful and blessed season, that a mere spectator, a member of the Established Church, was led publicly to glorify God on the conviction of her sins, and the conversion of her soul by the almighty power of God. Thus the Lord is carrying on his great work among us. To the people who have lately turned from their Heathenish customs and ignorance the Gospel has already proved itself to be "the power Feb., of God unto salvation." The members in general are increasing in knowledge and practical godliness. Among those who recently joined the Society, is a promising young man, who, if he continues faithful to the grace of God received, will most probably be a useful man in the church of Christ. This young man was lately employed as seaman in one of Her Majesty's ships of war on the coast here: he had been for some years, and had accustomed himself to the usages of those "that go down to the sea in ships, that do their business in the great waters.' In the early part of this year, the news of his death was falsely brought to his mother, a widow, who, hearing the sad news, instantly fell to the ground, and made great lamentation over him. A day or two after this, her sorrow was turned to joy by the announcement, that the report was false, that her beloved son was not dead, but alive, and expected to be here within a month or two, from the island of Ascension, or some other island, where the vessel to which he belonged left him, bound for England, not expecting to call at Sierra-Leone. This news she knew not how to believe, but earnestly prayed it might prove to be true. After waiting, with deep anxiety, for about a month, to her great comfort she realized the object of her hope,-her son arrived. The following passage of holy Scripture is a just description of her manners and feelings of joy on this occasion :-" And when she had found him, she called her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me, for 1 have found my son whom I had lost. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found; and they began to be merry." This was done for many days. This opportunity I embraced as a suitable season to bring before the mother and the relatives the goodness and mercy of God, and in particular to the son, who was abandoned to some distant island, where, had it not been for the interposition of a kind Providence, he might have been left to suffer and die. Being fully convinced of the mercy of God in his deliverance, he resolved at once to give himself to God. In order to do this fully and sincerely, he would also change his state of life. He then commenced building a house, after which he got married to a young woman, one of our Sunday scholars, who, with himself, are now pious members of our Society. He further resolves, by the grace of God, to effect the conversion of those in his mother's house. So small is our chapel here, that it can only hold a few more than our school-children, without the members of Society, or the members without any room for our school-children; indeed, the chapel is far too small for the congregation to worship. It requires an enlargement, re-flooring, and re-shingling. I have attended to the insidework, which demanded the immediate repair of the floor, benches, &c.; towards the latter, our friend W. H. Pratt, Esq., has kindly offered us one hundred feet of board, value £15. GAMBIA. THE following letter will, we trust, lead many to pray both that the lives of the Missionaries may be preserved from the effects of the climate, and that in all discouragements they may be supported. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. John Bridgart, dated Bathurst, I AM Sorry to say Mr. Meadows is suffering from an attack of fever, which came on during Sunday, the 8th inst. The fever appears now to be subdued; but he is so exceedingly weak and low, that he cannot write to you himself. I have myself been very unwell during the last four weeks, having been unable to attend to my preaching appointments during part of that time; but I thank God I am now much better, though still very weak. The weather during the last five or six weeks has been intensely and unusually hot. Even the natives have complained of it, and some of them suffer from it. I attribute my illness to the great heat; but hope, as the cooler weather is now just at hand, that if it please God, I shall soon be strong and active again to labour in His service. I think I have not yet informed you that we were obliged, after a few months' trial, to give up the school we opened at Cape St. Mary's last year. Our efforts to induce the Mandingoes to send their children were all in vain. Again and again they promised to send them, but always found some excuse for breaking their promises; until, at length, we found they had no real intention to send them, and merely made promises in order to remain friendly with us, in the hope of obtaining presents from us. The few children of liberated Africans who resided there, after attending the school a short time, removed with their parents to another place. So, having no children to teach, we of course gave up the school. We have lately lost, by death, a rather promising young man, Matthew Thompson, an African, who, I understand, was brought up and educated at Sierra-Leone, but came to reside at this place a few years ago. Since he came here he had always been a regular attendant at our public services, and, at length, he joined the Society, and, as far as we could judge, became truly converted. He was a very intelligent young man, had received a tolerable education, was very fond of reading and study, a very useful and diligent Sabbath-school Teacher; and we were hoping he would soon begin to preach, which would have been a great help to us, as we are much in need of Local Preachers. But it has pleased God to order otherwise. He was suddenly called away into the eternal world. His death was caused by a disease of the heart, of the existence of which, we believe, he was not aware. Happily for him, he was found ready when the summons came, and is now, we trust, in the paradise of God. The work of God still goes on amongst us. The Societies are in a good state. Our congregations are large, and our schools well attended. May the great Head of the church be pleased to bless us yet more abundantly, and get Himself the glory, in the salvation of many, many souls! WEST INDIES. IT has often of late been our lot deeply to sympathize with our beloved brethren labouring in different parts of the West Indies, under great and distressing trials; and still the call for such sympathy is, in many cases, painfully touching. It is therefore with especial 26 WEST INDIES.-ST. CHRISTOPHER'S. Feb., gratitude to the God of all grace that we find, in the letter of Mr. Ritchie, cause for sincere thanksgiving. This case ought to encourage us to pray, that, in other islands besides Nevis, such a blessing may be poured out as will more than compensate to the churches all their losses, and to afflicted individuals all their troubles. Mr. Fraser's letter will be read with interest not less lively. That those whose spiritual life has all been connected with Jamaica should feel and plead as he does, is not only natural, but right. Nor would any rejoice more than the Committee to see every post in Jamaica promptly and fully manned. But their resources are bounded; and beyond that bound they cannot force them. No part of the human race, considering its numbers, has had anything like the same amount of money and life expended on it by this Society, as the population of the West Indies. To their cries those of nations a hundred-fold more nnmerous have, again and again, been postponed. And, so far from Christians in Jamaica, under their present difficulties, sinking into despondency, they may say to themselves that never in the history of Christ's church has any country had so much help from without toward evangelizing its people; and, after all that the Lord has thus done for it, shall He not be trusted to raise up all the agencies and means for perpetuating the work so hopefully begun ? NEVIS. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. William Ritchie, dated Charlestown, YOUR West-India Missions, in seve ral of the islands, have suffered very severely during the last year, from that awful scourge, the Asiatic cholera. This island, you are aware, was visited and decimated at the close of last and the beginning of the present year. We lost by deaths upwards of two hundred members of our Societies. Since then we have had cause for thankfulness; the work of God has revived in the Circuit, and full five hundred persons have sought and obtained admission into our churches. So that at the close of the year we hope to report a good increase, both numerically and financially. I expect we shall be quite independent of the Committee's funds. must confess that I had my fears lest after the excitement had passed away a re-action would take place; these fears, I I am happy to say, have hitherto proved nearly groundless. Our congregations in all our chapels are still very large; the pews are all let, and the majority of our members appear to be much in earnest to obtain spiritual blessings. Whilst I am writing, the cholera is raging with fearful virulence in St. Kitt's, about twelve miles distant from us. Between two and three thousand persons have already fallen victims to the fell destroyer,-death. So you see that, from our proximity to that island, we are in great danger of a second visitation. But we throw ourselves Divine protection. May our heavenly Father remember us for good, and in mercy remove the pestilence from this island! on Myself and family at present are in good health. ST. CHRISTOPHER'S. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. James Cox, dated Sandy-Point, IT is my mournful task to inform you that the evil we have so long feared has, at length, come upon us. The Asiatic cholera appeared in Basseterre on Friday, the 3d instant. The number of its victims has been gradually increasing, from day to day, The mortality reached, a few days ago, to one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty daily. It has now decreased to sixty or seventy in that vicinity. Soon after its first appearance, it broke out in the Old |