MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA. VIEW OF THE BECHUANA MISSIONS. WE were thankful to state, in our last Number, the safe return of the Rev. William Shaw, from his long and perilous tour of inspection and pastoral visitation, among our South-African Stations. A very interesting and satisfactory account of that tour has been received from him, which we hasten to lay before our friends. It describes succinctly the state of the Three principal Groups, embraced by the Society's labours; the Bechuana, the Natal, and the Kaffrarian Stations. We can this month give only Mr. Shaw's statement respecting the first-mentioned Missions. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. William Shaw, dated Graham's-Town, I ADDRESSED a brief letter to you about three weeks ago, apprizing you of my return from my dong visitation-tour to the Bechuana country, Natal, and British Kaffraria. Instead of occupying much time in writing a lengthened journal, detailing the minute events connected with my journey, I think it will be more acceptable to you that I should make some general observations as to the state and circumstances of the three groups of Mission Stations, which I visited during my long journey : 1. The Bechuana Missions. I wrote to you at some length respecting these Missions, before I left that part of the country. It is, therefore, only necessary to say, that I was much pleased with the evident signs of improvement on nearly all the Stations, since my last visit. The Thab'Nchu Station has especially improved. The native town has been extended; the people have erected many stone walls and enclosures, and houses of a superior description. The number of Christians recognised as members of our church is steadily increasing; the Chief continues very friendly, and is a regular attendant upon public worship; some of the leading men are members of our society, and in this town of seven or eight thousand Bechuanas, there is no other hinderance to progress in the Mission, but what arises from the natural wickedness of the human heart. A very much larger chapel is, however, greatly wanted. Mr. Cameron is desirous of supplying this defect, but, from various causes, the cost will be so heavy, after the natives have done all they can to assist, that I fear the object cannot at present be accomplished, since the present grant for the District does not afford the means of paying for the timber, &c., which must be purchased and brought from a great distance. Messrs. Schreiner and Ludorf, who have recently been received as fellow-labourers, are both going on with great diligence on their respective Stations, and appear likely to be very valuable helpers in our great work. They both speak the Sisutu language with fluency, and Mr. Ludorf seems especially successful in the School department at Lishuanie. Some improvements in regard of buildings are desirable on some of the Stations; but I was obliged to discountenance any proposals with reference thereto, on account of the want of money to pay the expense; for the same reason, the new Station to which Mr. Bertram had been appointed, and which was designed to have been placed on a spot near the source of the Caledon river, among some considerable tribes who are entirely destitute of religious instruction, I was also obliged to abandon, and to direct that Mr. Bertram should proceed to the Kamastone Station, to enable Mr. Shepstone to remove from thence to the Haslope-Hill Mission, which has been some time without a Missionary. Gladly would I have sanctioned the commencement of the new Mission, but we have not the means to support it; and unless under very special circumstances, which did not exist in this case, I cannot approve of relinquishing older Stations, for the purpose of occupying new ones. I conversed at large with the Chiefs Moroko, Sikony ele, and Karolus Baatze, and found them well disposed towards the Missions. They were all under considerable apprehensions, as to the result of the political movements of the Dutch emigrant farmers, who, while I was in the country, were preparing for a rebellion against the authority of the Queen of England, which, by consent of the several Chiefs, the Governor had proclaimed as paramount in that country. The Chiefs prefer that the country should be under the authority of the British Government, as the only means of securing them in the possession of their lands, of which the Dutch farmers seem disposed to deprive them. I believe nothing but the severe weather prevented the outbreak of this rebellion while I was there; and, as I wrote you at the time, many predicted that they would make me and my companions prisoners; but out of this danger God's good providence delivered us, and we received nothing but civility from the Dutch with whom we met. Since we passed through the country, the rebellion has broken out; the British troops are gone to repress it, under Sir Harry Smith; and a collision has happened during the last week, at a place beyond the Orange River. I grieve to say, that many lives have been sacrificed on both sides, and there are many wounded; but as the Boors appear to have suffered severely, I think they will now, in all probability, disperse. Mr. Cameron had arrived safely at Thab'Nchu from Natal, where I parted with him. Up to a very recent date the Boors had not disturbed any of the Stations. All the brethren and their people were safe and well; and as the troops were, last week, at a place not more than fifty miles from Thab'Nchu, I hope no serious evil will befall the Stations, which all lie in a cluster around that native town. On the whole, the friends of our Missionary Society have much reason to be satisfied with the results of our Bechuana Mission. There are many very considerable congregations and societies. The great mass of the people living around the Stations, are all feeling more or less of the beneficial influence, even in cases where they have not embraced the truth, but still pursue many of their heathen practices. The numerous Native Christians are, however, daily "witnessing a good confession;" and if the means of the Society were sufficient to enable us to reinforce the numbers of the Missionaries in this District, I believe great and glorious results would speedily follow: meantime, the lack of European Mis-sionaries must be in part supplied by Native Teachers and Preachers. I wish we could afford an Institution, as long since proposed for this District, for training and educating those from among the Natives, whom the Lord may call to preach the Gospel to their countrymen. (To be continued in our next Number.) MISSIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. THIS is a country peculiarly interesting to the Christian Philanthropist. Its Africa-descended inhabitants burst the chains of slavery from their limbs; but their minds remained enslaved by Popery. We agree with the writer of this Letter, that pure Christianity "is Hayti's only cure ;" and regret that the state of the Society's funds will not at present permit his request for additional help to be effectually met. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Mark B. Bird, dated Port-au-Prince, I AM happy to say that the work of God at this Station is at present altogether encouraging; our congregations continue to be interesting and numerous, and, indeed, we are not without hope that our present place of worship will, before very long, be too small; but encouraging as is the congregation which attends our public ministry in this capital, the fact that some are rising out of darkness into light is much more so. We cannot, as is sometimes the case in the English West-Indies, rejoice over an increase of hundreds and thousands during the year; but up to the present month, God has given us upwards of twenty souls for our hire on this Station; and let it be remembered that these twenty have, by the grace of God, broken the spell of Popery; they have literally thrown their idols to the moles and to the bats, and are now earnestly seeking for salvation by Christ alone. We are, indeed, deeply thankful for this, and yet we can only regard it as the droppings before a great shower. I think, if one may judge from the signs of the times, such a shower is preparing. True, great tribulations have been our lot in every respect for a long time past; but there is reason to believe that some of the people have been led to Christ by their very afflictions; and many others whose hearts have not yet yielded, nevertheless acknowledge the hand that smites them. Amongst the rest of our encouragements, the fact that seven from our day.. school have joined the church, and are in earnest for salvation, is not the least; nor are we without hope that some of them may one day be useful to their unhappy country, by proclaiming in her valleys and in her mountains the unsearchable riches of Christ. This is Hayti's only cure; and feeling deeply as we do this truth, it cannot be wondered at that we should incessantly implore you for more labourers; for who does not wish to see the slain of the daughter of God's people healed by Gilead's balm? Nay, our ceasing to cry, "Come over and help us," would be a silence unworthy of a Missionary's heart; we therefore cry again to the Christians of Britain, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." "Freely ye have received, freely give." Yea, we cry to Britain, because the finger of Providence points to her as having resources which exist nowhere else. Would that it were yet more fully understood in the land of our fathers, that the gold and the silver are the Lord's, and that man is but the steward of property which is not his! Why should it not be said of the general church of Christ, as of the ancient church, "The people bring more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord hath commanded to make?" Surely, even this should not be too much to expect from the Spirit of Him “who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor.' Hayti has long enjoyed the sympathies of British philanthropy in many ways; nor is she unworthy. She has not, indeed, brought forth the fruit she ought, considering all the labour bestowed; but where is there a country or people that has? Hayti is far from what she ought to be; but, alas! this is the case with every nation and people and tongue upon the face of the earth: let it not be thought that the case of Hayti is extraordinary. True, vice and ambition and ignorance have committed awful ravages in the Republic; but this only proves that the Haytians are like all the rest of the human race. Let the despisers of the black African blush as they gaze upon the scenes recently presented by his more civilized white brother on the continent of Europe. Proud philosophy must now stoop to the humiliating but undeniable truth, that man of every clime and shade is a sinner, and must remain so until the Gospel makes him better; and we have abundant proof in Hayti that the Haytians are nobly capable of all that Christianity can do for them. Already are there among them those who are both able and willing to preach that Gospel which now reigns in their own hearts; but we have no means of giving the labourer the hire of which he is worthy; and therefore it is that we cry aloud to Britain, reminding her that what she has already given has not impoverished her, and that, were she to give ten times more, she would only be the richer. Hayti is still quiet; nor have we any reason to expect for the present anything to disturb us; but we have ceased, long since, to expect any permanent good in the present state of things in this country, knowing that the sword and military ambition cannot but be productive of confusion. I am thankful to say we are in good health. RECENT MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. SOUTHERN AFRICA. DAMARALAND.-A trader from Damara-Land arrived here about ten days ago, having seen Mr. Haddy, near to his Station, the beginning of the month of May. Mr. and Mrs. Haddy were both well, and the native artisan, sent by Mr. Haddy to Walwich-bay, by vessel, had held school and religious services at the Station during Mr. Haddy's absence. The country was at peace. The Chief, Jonker, was most anxiously expecting Mr. Haddy's return. Tindall left Khamiesberg on the 31st ult., and is daily looked for here.-Rev. T. L. Hodgson, Cape-Town, August 15th, 1848. Mr. CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.-We are all in excellent health here, and the work in town is in a most pleasing state; the congregations gradually increasing, and the Society in great peace, and much united to promote the interest of our cause. Idem. NEW-BRUNSWICK.-The St. John South Circuit has not only been holding on its way, but waxing stronger. After deducting for deaths, removals, &c., we were able to report an increase of sixty members. The preached word has been blessed to the awakening and conversion of sinners, and to the comfort and edification of believers. Our congregations the subject of her may end. I know my hope is blooming vith body and soul. and thus she calmly it will be for the glory of God I have fear LONDON: PRINTED BY JAMES NAELS BUNTUN SQUARE. PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE WESLEYAN MISSIONS, AND THE STATE OF HEATHEN COUNTRIES. (PUBLISHED QUARTERLY.) WESLEYAN ACADEMY, MOUNT-ALLISON, SACKVILLE, NEW-BRUNSWICK, THIS Institution, which owes its origin to the Christian liberality of CHARLES F. ALLISON, Esq., who designed it as a Centenary Offering, is pleasantly and conveniently situated in the township of Sackville, bordering on New-Brunswick, about equi-distant from St. John and Halifax, Nova-Scotia, and near the place into which Methodism was first introduced, by Emigrants to the latter province from Yorkshire and other parts of the North of England, about eighty years ago. In the same locality the late venerable WILLIAM BLACK commenced his arduous and successful labours as a Preacher of the Gospel; and thence the evangelical sound has since gone forth into every part of those extensive countries. It occupies an elevation of ground, now called Mount Allison. This name is given to the spot from sincere and deserved regard to the estimable gentleman who founded this greatly needed and highly |