devotion of its inhabitants. We have a boy's school there; and we have attempted at different times to establish a girl's school in the same place, but without success. Some months ago Mrs. Mault visited the town, and conversed with the people on the duty and importance of educating their female children. Their usual objections were met and answered, and we had at length the pleasure to find them willing to send their girls to be taught. The school was therefore immediately commenced, and we are happy to add that it is going on well. It is countenanced by some of the principal inhabitants, which we mention as a circumstance not only favourable to its advancement, but as also in a manner necessary to its existence. The school at Cottar was commenced under similar auspices; and though there are not so many children in it as in the other, yet its success is equally promising. We are about to erect a convenient school-room in Cottar, upon a piece of ground from which the people, by Mrs. Mault's persuasion, removed a filthy image that had been long the object of idolatrous worship. Cottar is not more distant from the Mission Station than Krishnacoil; both schools will, therefore, have the benefit of occasional visits from Mrs. Mault. The schoolmasters are men of caste, without which they would not be able to succeed among a people who are exceedingly careful of this distinction. But though they have made no profession of Christianity, yet they, in common with all the other school teachers, are engaged in the study of the Scriptures, and committing parts of it to memory, and every week receive instruction suited both to their personal circumstances and to the advancement of their work.

Looking at the abject and degraded condition in which the females of this country are held, and in which ignorance and the tyrranny of custom would still hold them, we cannot but regard the degree of success with which our efforts have been attended, in the last two instances particularly, as highly encouraging and important: it is encouraging, because it shows us what

we may expect from prudent and persevering endeavours in this department of labour; and it is important, because it furnishes a precedent, and lays, as it were, the foundation for future and more extended success. We feel almost certain that it will be an easier matter to establish a girls' school next year, in any part of the district, than it was found this year. We can obviate the objections to the education of girls, and encourage those who are inclined to advance the object by pointing to the schools already established. The precedent will be recognised, and it will be followed; for as no people are more tenacious of their ancient usages than the Hindoos, so nene are more ready to yield to the influence of example. May examples of female schools, successfully conducted, be multiplied among them, and may the beneficial effects of the mental improvement, and just elevation of the sex, be extended and perpetuated to the latest generation!

We cannot close this part of our repor without expressing our gratitude to our friends in England who have so warmly interested themselves in the cause of female education in Travancore, and so liberally furnished us with the pecuniary means required to promote the object. May they experience the satisfaction which arises from doing good, and still abound in fruits of benevolence to the glory of God.

In the orphan school connected with the station, there are 35 boys, who are instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, and geogra phy, and also in the doctrinal and historical catechisms of Sacred Scripture. Five young men are preparing to engage as readers, whose progress in the practical study of the Bible, to which their attention is chiefly directed, affords much satisfaction. The Bible-classes consist of 401 adults. From the Mission press at Nagercoil, the issues during the past year have been larger than at any former time. Upwards of 117,000 tracts have been printed, and about 9000 copies of various instructive works for the use of this and the adjacent stations.

Mr. T., under date 25th of

Previous to his

The

death, he had been for some time in a weakly state, but made no application to me for medicine until the 20th of January. On the 21st he attended Divine worship; he was seized with illness of an inflammatory kind during the night, and was brought here on the morning of the 22nd. Failing to relieve him, I next morning committed him to the care of Dr. Will, and went to see him in the afternoon at the hospital, when he was sinking in strength. blister pained him, and he asked, When will this be taken off? I said, It may be some hours. The pain, he said, is very severe. Do you think, I asked, that Jesus Christ suffered as much? Ah, much more! For whom? for himself? No; for us. Did he complain? No, nor do I complain. He reverted to the application he had made for baptism; when, after reminding him of the immensely greater importance of the washing of regeneration, and urging him through Christ to seek that, I left him.

On returning home at sun-set, I learnt that the doctor had no hope of his reco

premises, and, when placed in his apartment, sat down beside him. His elder brother, an ignorant, thoughtless heathen, was present, and disturbed the dying youth by repeatedly asking whether he wanted any thing? Raising his eyes, he said, with the emphasis which death teaches, "I want Jesus Christ!" His mother was also present, and when by his own desire he was placed upright on his couch, he laid his head upon her neck, and soon expired, leaving us to learn, that on a death-bed the presence of Jesus Christ is that which we shall all want. I addressed those who came to his funeral, from John xii. 21, "We would see Jesus." I learned that when seized with illness, he anticipated his death; declared his hope for futurity; counselled his mother to hold fast to the end, and prepare to join him. The account she has given me of his filial love and general demeanour, proves that his character was not formed in a Malayalim mould. He was about twenty years of age.

The teacher, whose death is thus noticed, has been succeeded by another, who now bears the name of Buchan Evangelist, and of whom Mr. Thompson speaks in favourable terms. He has entered upon his labours at Ashramam, in the neighbourhood of Quilon.

Among this vast number of imaginary beings, Brahmá, Vishnu, and Shiva, are peculiarly celebrated; though the accounts respecting their origin and rank are often contradictory and absurd, and the qualities ascribed to them always of the foulest and most debased kind. They are represented in many parts of the Hindu books as foolish, mean, proud, and disputatious; as fighting with each other like wicked men and ravenous beasts; as resorting to the spread of atheism, and other evil expedients, in order to support their thrones; as abandoning shame, and exhibiting themselves in a manner not to be named; as deceivers, liars, thieves, drunkards, and murderers.

Brahmá is installed the Creator of all things, but according to some accounts, he was often guilty of intoxication, falsehood, and other crimes. Vishnu is called the Preserver; but he is also charged with flagrant sins, such as deceiving, breaking his promise, abandoning every feeling of shame in order to accomplish his vile purposes, assuming a feigned form with the design of attracting and bewildering others, and committing murder. Shiva is entitled the Destroyer. When on earth his costume was that of a religious beggar, smearing his body with ashes, and wearing a necklace of human skulls; and in the other world he is said to be attired in the same manner. The very

names of this imaginary deity are descriptive of his wickedness. He is called the furious -the hideous eye-the bearer of a human skull-the lord of devils-and a very devil. In addition to these three, Krishna, and Ráma, two of the incarnations of Vishnu, are highly celebrated, much honoured, and extensively worshipped by many in Goojurat. Yet so highly improper, indecorous, and sinful are many of the reported acts of Krishna, that his name, in several districts, is proverbially applied to the most abandoned profligates and outcasts. He is exhibited in the Hindu books as impure, as stealing, robbing, lying, and murdering. The character of Ráma is composed of selfishness, ignorance, weakness, and sin, and his history is filled with accounts which can only apply to a madman or one possessed with an evil spirit, and the whole inconsistent with historical fact. It is asserted by some, that, in his old age, having lost his wife, his brother, and his children, through his own wickedness, he, in a fit of despair, went and drowned himself, and was thus guilty of suicide. Such are some of the chief gods of these people. These, together with their myriads of attendants, both male and female, if ever they had a real existence on earth, have been ringleaders in crime, the patrons of every vice, and the perpetrators of every sin; yet they claim to be holy, pure, and divine, because they are gods, and as such, above all moral obligation. These, brethren, are the gods which by far the greater part of the Goojuratees worship. Alas! what a state of awful darkness must the mind of man be in before it can look on such characters without shame and disgust, far less worship and adore them. But these people love to have it so, because they can sin without remorse under the patronage of their gods, and the books which contain their histories. Hence many of the religious services in honour of these fabled gods become the grand cause of the corruption of both public and private morals! Do not such a people need the Gospel?

But degraded and impure as these gods and goddesses are by their vices and guilt, yet in the estimation of their deluded votaries, they are too elevated and spiritual to be worshipped without some visible form. Hence their whole system of idol-making, idol consecration, and idol worship. They have idols in the form of men, and birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Some are formed of clay, others of wood, or of stone, of brass, of silver, or of gold. These idols they worship-to these they daily present offerings, and from them they seek and expect every favour. They say that these idols or images are representations of rnations of the true God, that fon by the priests, the

particular gods for whom they are designed reside in them; that when they worship them they worship God himself, and that he is propitious or unpropitious, according as he is pleased or displeased with the services of the worshippers. Many of these idols are, however, the representations of sin itself, and calculated to draw out the evil desires of the human heart towards all that is iniquitous and destructive. The workmanship manifested in their fabrication is in general rude, the figures are grotesque, and adapted to inspire feelings of disgust rather than devotion. Behold in one temple an image of a frantic female, her eyes dart fire and revenge, and her tongue protrudes from her mouth, besmeared with human blood; round her bare neck is suspended a necklace of human skulls; in her hands are a battle-axe and a bloody head, and under her feet lies a prostrate victim, the decapitated body of her former husband. Look on the other hand, and behold drest up in empty pomp a mere mass of wood, cut into a form something like human, with large squinting eyes and unnatural aspect. Here is Ganpati, the god of wisdom, and the remover of all obstacles, represented as a short fat man, with the head of an elephant, and an enormous stomach. There are the images of Vishnu and others with their clubs and skulls, and other articles; of Shiva with his impure Linga; of a deified cow, monkey, or snake, with all the supposed paraphernalia. Thus, on every hand, some misshapen stone or tree; some ugly representation in metal, wood, or earth, some ridiculous form of a human, animal, or vegetable deity, strikes our eyes in this land of idols, as the object to which its deluded inhabitants offer religious homage. For it is a fact, however humiliating to the pride of man, and however boldly denied by a few speculating theorists, that the great mass of this people view these images as possessing life and a capacity of enjoyment, of being pleased and displeased; they call them gods, and treat them as such. They are instructed to do so by their teachers, and they have no feeling of shame or of doubt in connexion with their conduct. Every service they perform on their behalf, every offering they present to them, and each prayer they repeat before them, proceeds from this belief, and daily affords melancholy proof of the correctness of this statement. Hence on some occasions they fan these images that they may enjoy cool air; at other seasons they clothe them, în order that they may not suffer from the cold; sometimes they put curtains around them to prevent the ingress of musquitoes and flies; they rock and sing them to sleep that they may enjoy rest; take them in pomp to a river or pool in the neighbour

hood to bathe them; carry them, with every emblem of state, through the village, town, or city, to make or repay a complimentary visit to some of their fellow-idols; present grain, fruit, melted butter, oil, and water to them; apply to them for the interpretation of dreams and omens; are afraid of their being touched by low caste Hindus, Parsees, Mussulmans, or Europeans, lest they should be defiled, and purify them if they have

been touched; they daub them with paint, adorn them with garlands, hold mirrors before them, mend their limbs when broken off; put dice, cards, chess-men and boards before them in order that they may beguile a leisure hour in playing together either for love or money; and perform for them many other things equally ridiculous. (To be continued.)

I left home on the 25th of January, intending to visit the locations or settlements on the Fish River. On Saturday evening, the 27th, I reached Caffre Drift Settlement, and was refreshed in spirit by seeing my old friends there. It was late when we met, yet expressions of joy were neither few nor partial; for as the fact of my arrival was communicated from cottage to cottage, the inmates hastened to meet the wagon, and I was soon surrounded by the joyful cries of a mixed multitude of men, women, and children. After mutual congratulations and ascriptions of praise to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, we retired to rest.

The following day was the Sabbath. I left the wagon before five o'clock in the morning, and directed my steps to a precipice overhanging the river at a considerable distance from the settlement. Taking my station on the cliff, the scene before me was delightful; not a ripple could be observed upon the surface of the broad sheet of water that lay below me, and the thick jungle around appeared in harmony with the placid river, for not a breath of air capable of moving the tenderest leaf was felt by me, while the birds of the wild forest were praising God in their own sweet way. Some say that African birds do not display many musical notes. But such is not the case; from break of day till sun-rise, the sweet warblers of an African bush show no deficiency in this respect.

On either side of the spot which I then occupied, an immense bush or jungle stretched away as far as the eye could reach, the for

mer abode of the lion, the elephant, the buffalo, and the tiger; but these have fled from the face of the white man, and now, with the exception of a solitary wanderer, and that but seldom, the original possessors of this forest are only known by report to the colonists.

While meditating on these things the voice of prayer rose in the sunny stillness by which I was surrounded. I listened, but could only hear the sound of one human voice. The suppliant manifested no Pharisaical spirit; hid from the view of his fellow-men, he literally poured out his soul in secret in the assurance that his heavenly Father, who heareth in secret, would reward him openly; and while attempting to praise God for this proof of the power and efficacy of the Holy Spirit's influence on the heart of a poor Hottentot, I was delighted to find that his was no solitary instance even in this wild and lonely place; for soon, from a deep dell in another direction, came the sweet sound of praise and thanksgiving. The Hottentots are justly praised for the peculiar melody of their voices, but on this occasion I felt it to be past description. As the day advanced, I found that the immense oratory by which I was encircled-an oratory not of human construction, but the workmanship of the Great Architect of the universe-had been visited by others for the same sacred purposes. At length I was constrained to leave that hallowed spot, uniting in the feelings of my heart with the thanksgivings expressed in one of the songs of praise so sweetly sung in the wilderness; and trifling, indeed, did