men who possess an intimate knowledge of their languages, who show examples in their own persons, of religion, virtue, contempt of riches, (such and such only ought the Missionaries to be) patience, and conciliatory manners. Would the establishment of many such men have no beneficial effect on the morality of the natives? Surely it would. "Such was the respect of the natives for the late Mr. Swartz, that I am sure any set of natives in the Tanjore country would gladly have submitted their cause to his decisions; I mean, provided the cause were reputable. I mention this to shew how greatly character sways the opinion of the natives.

"If superstitions, inimical to the well-being of mankind, fade in proportion as true knowledge and science advance, of which none can doubt; is it of no benefit to distribute in these countries, men who can, or even who may advance them to the best effect? Will the Bramin have, the same degree of power over the minds of the people when he is met upon his own ground by any European possessing as complete a knowledge of the Shanscrit, &c. as he himself does, and accomplished in scientific knowledge? Have the studies of the late Sir William Jones had no beneficial effect in a moral view, on the minds of those natives with whom he held an intercourse in Bengal?

"Government,I am sure, ought to promote, instead of opposing, the establishment of Missionaries such as I have described; for through them ultimately, government will have better

subjects to rule, and would know better the real state of those subjects.

"The intercourse in general held by us with the body of the natives is slight: interest and business is the only spur towards this intercourse, and we draw our information not from the fountain-head, but through the interpreters and commentators, that interest and business introduce. There is nothing of familiarity or society, or tendency to social habits between us, except with a few principal monied men. And how should there be? Without an intimate acquaintance with the language, such society must be irksome.

"What are we to think of the debates at the India House, rela. tive to Missionaries, as published by Mr. Woodfall in the year 1793? In them we perceive one of the idle wandering stories of India taken up as a matter of fact, and argued upon by a Proprietor as such, in a serious question in the court. I saw a letter from that Proprietor to Mr. Swartz, written soon after he saw Mr. Swartz's letter to your secretary, above alluded to; and he apologizes to him; excusing himself by asserting, that his speech had been erroneously reported in the newspapers. What then are we to think? Can we trust to what we see given as the speeches in the India house on the clause relative to Missionaries? If we can, I fear that upon examination we should find some of the speakers had been at as little pains to obtain correct intelligence of the situation of the Protestant converts, as one Pro

prietor was regarding the story of the stock-buckle.

"I perfectly agree with most of the speakers in that debate, that Missionaries should not be sent out at the expense of the Company. It seems to me clearly that the speakers were extremely afraid of Mr. Wilberforce's clauses of the bill charging them with a great and permanent expense; and that under the impression of this fear they had brought forward hastily arguments that are frivolous, and principles that could not bear the test of fair reasoning and experience. And not one Proprietor was found, who could offer any thing in favor of the principle of establishing Missionaries, derived from his own experience and personal knowledge.

"No Proprietor of that court, who has been in India, will be a very strenuous advocate, I presume, for upholding a religion which annually causes excessive tumult,and much blood-shed and murder. Let any one of them recollect what annually passes between the immense multitudes of the right-hand and lefthand casts, as they are called. Such outrages are exhibited every year in Madras itself, in spite of the military drawn out to oppose it. What state of society, let me ask, is this? Can it be called civilization; or does it partake of the private war of the barbarous and feudal ages?

"What are we to think of hu man sacrifices? A few years since, the Bramins of a certain pagoda in the Tanjore country, murdered for sacrifice a boy of eleven years of age. Having killed him, they took out a par

ticular part near the vertebræ of the neck, and offered it to the idol. The affair was fully examined and proved, and the punishment decreed was banishment beyond the Coleroons; the exiles accordingly went beyond that river, and returned again in two or three days!

"Turn from the enlightened and polished Bramin to the wild Collery, particularly to the Colleries of the Mellore, near Madura. I have been much among them, and know their dispositions well: the civilization of these appears hopeless; but I know that they would gladly receive among them native schoolmasters to teach their children to read and write. This surely should be put in practice. To this probably it may be objected, the country belongs to the Nabob, and we must not interfere. However, the Nabob would, I'll answer for it, gladly adopt so beneficial a system.

"It will hardly be believed, but it is not the less true, that within these two years there was a disturbance in the Nabob's district of Worriapalam; some hundreds of his highness's rabble, under the name of troops, having assembled separately from a party of the Company's troops, who were to assist in reducing the district, marched into the different villages, which were all abandoned, except by a few miserable weavers who remained in their houses. The enemy against whom these military operations pointed, were poligars; but they had neither plundered nor set fire to the Nabob's villages; the Nabob's commander, however, did both; and I have seen part of that commander's

change.

Extract from the Report for the Year 1800.

"Independent of the commander's own testimony, I know the truth of the matter from respectable British officers, who were on the detachment, and whom I saw immediately after the service ended.

"The state of the country, and of the minds of the people in which these scenes were acted, is truly deplorable. Shall we excuse ourselves, and say, this is the Nabob's country? We ought to hope for some end to such a state of the human mind

in these countries. Let us ask,

what exertions have been made during the last thirty years to promote civilization; and let those who can, give the answer.

"I am afraid we have never said to ourselves, Let us shew what these people will be twenty, or ten years hence. Such a question ought to be asked at this moment, for additional millions of subjects have, by the late conquest, fallen under our dominion or control."

Though the name of the writer of this letter is not given by the Society, yet it contains intrinsic proof of its having been written by no mean man. But if his representations, and those of Mr. Swartz, be true, what must we think of those statements which hold up the character of

The following affecting account of the funeral of the venerable Missionary Swartz, forcibly displays the influence of such men on the minds of the natives.

"His funeral was a most awful and very affecting sight. It was delayed a little longer above the limited time, as Serfogee Rajaht wished once more to have a look at him. The affliction which he suffered at the loss of the best of his friends, was very affecting. He shed a flood of tears over the body, and covered it with a gold cloth. We intended to sing a funeral hymn, whilst the body was conveyed from it by the bitter cries and lamento the chapel; but we were prevented tations of the multitudes of poor who had crowded into the garden, and which pierced through our souls. We were of course obliged to defer it till our arrival at the chapel.

"The burial-service was performed by the Rev. Mr. Gericke, in the presence of the Rajah, the Resident, and most of the gentlemen who resided in the place, and a great number of native Christians, full of regret for the loss of so excellent a minister, the best of men, and a most worthy member of society. O may a merci. ful God grant, that all those who are appointed to preach the Gospel to the heathen world, may follow the example of this venerable servant of Christ: And may he send many such faithful laborers, to answer the pious intention and endeavors of the honor able Society, for the enlargement of the kingdom of Christ! May he mercifully grant it, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen,"

Extract from the Report for the

Year 1801.

"I beg leave," says the missionary Gericke, "to send a letter from Serfo

The king of Tanjore.

gee Maha, Rajah of Tanjore, and to recommend its contents to the Soci ety. No son can have a greater re

gard for his father, than this good

Hindoo had for Mr. Swartz, and still has for his memory.

This letter is as follows:

"To the Honorable SocIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN

KNOWLEDGE. "Honorable Sirs,

"I have requested of your Missionaries to write to you, their superiors and friends, and to apply to you in my name, for a monument of marble to be erected in their church, that is in my capital and residency, to perpetuate the memory of the late Rev. Father Swartz, and to manifest the great esteem I have for the character of that great and good man, and the gratitude I owe him, my father, my friend, the protector and guardian of my youth; and now I beg leave to apply to you myself, and to beg that, upon my account, you will order such a monument for the late Reverend Missionary Father Swartz to be made, and to be sent out to me, that it may be fixed to the pillar, that is next to the pulpit from which he preached. The pillars of the church are about two cubits broad.

"May you, Honorable Sirs, ever be enabled to send to this country such Missionaries, as are like the late Rev. Mr. Swartz.

testimony to the high character of the late worthy and invaluait will be proper to comply with ble Missionary Mr. Swartz: that the request of his Highness; and that steps be taken by the Committee to have a suitable monument constructed, as soon as may be, and that the same be sent out to Tanjore, to be placed in the Mission church there."

The monument was accordingly prepared by Mr. Bacon, and is now erected in the church at Tanjore-a lasting evidence of the duty and policy of bringing into action, on the native mind, the powerful influence of the Gospel of Christ, when administered by holy men.

Extracts from the Report for the Year 1803.

"The Rev. Mr. Gericke, in a a letter dated at Vepery, 14 Feb. 1803, informs the Society that he had recently been through the Mysore country, and thence to Palamcotta, visiting all their congregations, and that it had pleased God to awaken a sense of religion in the inhabitants of whole villages, insomuch that of their own accord they had sought instruction from the neighboring Christians, and their catechists, and from Sattianaden, and had wished anxiously for his coming, to be farther instructed, and baptised. The first of these villages, to which he had been

SERFOGEE RAJAH."

Tanjore, May 28, 1801.

"The Society concurred in opinion with the East-India Mission Committee, that the contents of this letter from the Rajah of Tanjore do bear strong

chumens, who had before lived in neighboring places, and their church was finished, when he arrived to preach, and baptise in it. In four other villages, the inhabitants being unanimous in their resolution of embracing the Christian faith, put away

their idols, ard converted their temples into Christian churches, and were instructed and baptised in them. For another new village, and church for catechumens, that lived dispersed, he had bought a piece of ground, and instructed and baptised in it, under a temporary shade. On his departure from the Tinnavelly country, where this had happened, messages were received from many villages, requesting him to stay a few months longer, and to do in their villages, what had been done in others. Not conceiving himself at liberty to do so, he had recommended them to Sattianaden, to the old catechists, and to the new assistants. By these means, there had been instructed, and baptised, about twice the number that he had baptised, which were above 1300."

"It seems," Mr. G. observes, "that if we had faithful and discreet laborers, for the vineyard of the Protestant Mission on this coast, to send, wherever a door is opened unto us, rapid would be the progress of the Gospel. Our native teachers, though some of them may not be inferior to us, in the knowledge of the great truths of the Gospel, and in the manner of communicating them, still their discourses carry not that weight with them, that is felt when we speak to the natives. They never gain that confidence that is placed in an European, when they are once convinced that he is actually what he exhorts them to be. Without good Missionaries, true disciples of Jesus Christ, from home, the work of the Mission, it seems, would lose its respectability, even though the native

teachers were good men; and Missionaries, without the spirit and mind of Christ, and as full of the world as the natives are, would soon make the Mission the most graceless thing imaginable."

"They express an anxiety for the receipt of printing paper, as their press was constantly engaged in working off books, for the use of the Malabar Christians, and lately for the new congregations, which in great numbers had recently been baptised by Mr. Gericke, many of whom, not having yet been able to get books enough for their instruction, had written the catechism and prayers on palmyra leaves, which they had rehearsed to Mr. Gericke, in a manner beyond his expectation.

"Their hearts had been filled with praise to God, for the progress which the Gospel of Christ had lately made amongst the Heathens; and they considered it as an extraordinary Providence, tending to the furtherance of Christian Knowledge, that the country was under a Christian government, which they trusted would lend its benevolent and protecting hand to lessen the perils, that had attended the reception of Christianity, and to encourage

its introduction. Hence, the natives would learn how to fear God, to honor the king, to obey the laws, and to become industrious and faithful subjects, as well as to reject their foolish and often most cruel superstitions. Of the latter, they had had, within the last year, a striking instance, when two women were suffered to be burnt alive, with the corpse of the late Rajah Amersing, a circumstance