MISSIONS TO THE CHINESE. Stations now occupied-Sudiya - Mogoung - Bamoo - Umerapoora - Zemmai Pontiana Sam- bas Banca Other Bodies of Chinese Versions of the Holy Scriptures-Proportion of Chinese who can read- tance of distributing Tracts and Bibles overrated- Comparison of the Modes of Printing — Difficulty of the Language — Diction- aries, Grammars, &c. - Present Missionaries to the Chinese - THE MISSIONARy Field in and around Burmah. - Burmah Proper ON THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS WHICH HAS ATTENDED MODERN MIS- SIONS. Introduction. - I. The Number of Missionaries. II. The Kind of Labor performed: Preparatory; Collateral; Additional; Erroneous. - III. Disadvantages of Modern Missionaries: Imper- fect Knowledge of the Language; Poverty of the Languages them selves; Want of Familiarity with the Religion and People; De- graded State of the Natives; Inability to live as they live; Being Foreigners; The Structure of Society; The prevailing Philosophy; The Presence of nominal Christians; Popery. - IV. Efforts which do not reach the Field.-V. The Amount accomplished; A large Force in the Field; Impediments removed; Translations made; Languages reduced to Writing; General Literature imparted; -Tracts written; Grammars, Dictionaries, and other Helps pre- pared; Immense Distribution of Bibles and Tracts; Mechanical Facilities created; Schools established, and Youth already educa- ted; Blessings of Christian Morality diffused; Idolatry in some Places shaken; Effects on Europeans abroad; Actual Conversions. - VI. Effects on the Churches at Home - Remarks.......p. 217 ON THE MODE OF CONDUCTING MODERN MISSIONS.-Schools - Trans- lations and Tracts - Preaching in English - Periodicals - Use of the Roman Alphabet - Missionary Physicians - Unnecessary Dis- play and Expense - Direct Preaching to Natives - Formation of Regular Churches-Qualifications of Native Assistants - Instruc- PART III. TRAVELS IN HINDUSTAN, MALAYA, SIAM, AND CHINA. CHAPTER I. Voyage to Calcutta- Saugor Island Hoogly River- Landing - Houses Servants - Streets - Weddings — Doorga Pooja — General Assembly's School Benevolent Institution - Orphan Refuge Ram Mohun - Expenses of Living Central School The Martiniere Leper Hospital Operations of Education Committee -Colleges - Progress of the English Language Use of Roman Alphabet-Native Periodicals. Hindu and Mahometan Edifices Roy Bromha Sobha - Population of Calcutta Habits of Extravagance - Morals - Religion — Clergy Places of Worship Missionary Operations Christian Villages - Hinduism shaken Serampore-Aspect - Population - Marshman - College-Grave-Yard Operations of the Mission. A HOT and disagreeable passage of seventeen days from Rangoon, in a small schooner, brought me to Calcutta, September 20, 1836. The vessel, being loaded with timber and stick-lac, had plenty of scorpions and centipedes. Twice, on taking a clean shirt out of my trunk, I found a centipede snugly stowed in it. Having several times caught scorpions on my mattress at night, we undertook a general search, and on the under side of the cabin table, discovered a nest of twenty or thirty. I had written here constantly for a week, with my knees pressed up hard against the edge, to keep me steady, and felt truly thankful to have been unmolested. Several of the females had white leathery bags attached to them, about the size of a grape, full of young ones, scarcely bigger than a pin's head. The constant increase of the sands at the mouth of the Hoogly, and the absence of any landmark, renders the approach always a matter of some anxiety. The floating light is stationed out of sight of land, and the tails of the reefs, even there, are dangerous, When the shores are at length discerned, their dead level and unbroken jungle, without any sign of population, and the great breadth of the river, gives the whole an aspect excessively dreary, well suiting to one's first emotions on beholding a land of idolatry. Saugor Island, which is first coasted, is famed for being the spot where many infants and others are annually immolated. The Hoogly, called by the natives Ba-gir-a-tee, being considered the true mouth of the Ganges, and the junction of this sacred stream with the ocean being at Saugor, great sanctity is attached to the place. A few devotees are said to reside on the island, who contrive for a while to avoid the tigers, and are supported by the gifts of the boatmen, who cherish great faith in the security they are supposed to be able to confer. An annual festival is held here in January, which thousands of Hindus attend, some even from five or six hundred miles. Missionaries often embrace this opportunity of preaching and distributing tracts. As a sample of these efforts, the following extract from the journal of the late Mr. Chamberlain* will be interesting. "Gunga Saugor. — Arrived here this morning. Astonished beyond measure at the sight! Boats crushed together, row upon row, for a vast extent in length, numberless in appearance, and people swarming every where! Multitudes! multitudes! Removed from the boats, they had pitched on a large sand-bank and in the jungle; the oars of the boats being set up to support the tents, shops, &c. Words fail to give a true description of this scene. Here an immensely populous city has been raised in a very few days, full of streets, lanes, bazars, &c., many sorts of trade going on, with all the hurry and bustle of the most flourishing city. We soon left the boats, and went among the people. Here we saw the works of idolatry and blind superstition. Crowds upon crowds of infatuated men, women, and children, high and low, young and old, rich and poor, bathing in the water, and worshipping Gunga, by bowing and making salams, and spreading their offerings of rice, flowers, &c. on the shore, for the goddess to take when the tides arrive. The mud and water of this place are esteemed very holy, and are taken * The life of this brother, by the Rev. Mr. Yates, of Calcutta, is every way worthy of perusal, and ought to be reprinted in America. It is a large octavo, and might be somewhat curtailed; but the abridgment, by the American Sabbath School Union, though suitable for their purpose, is too meagre for general circulation. hundreds of miles upon the shoulders of men. They sprinkle themselves with the water, and daub themselves with the mud; and this, they say, cleanses them from all sin: this is very great holiness. In former years, it was usual for many to give themselves to the sharks and alligators, and thus to be destroyed. But the Company have now placed sepoys along the side, to prevent this. A European sergeant and fifty sepoys are here now for that purpose." The veneration paid by Hindus to this river, is almost incredible. Descending from a height of fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, and running a course of fifteen hundred miles, it receives, in every part, the most devoted homage. The touch of its water, nay, the very sight of it, say the Shasters, takes away all sin. Its very sediment is counted a remedy for all diseases. If it fails, they are not undeceived; for they say the man's time has come, and there is no remedy for death. Drowning in it is an act of great merit. Thousands of sick persons endure long journeys, that they may die upon its banks. Its water is sworn upon, in courts of justice, as the Bible is, in ours. From 50,000 to 200,000 persons assemble annually at certain places, of whom many are crushed to death in pressing to bathe at the propitious moment. Still more die on the road, of poverty and fatigue. No man, acquainted with the history of Hindustan, can sail upon these bright, unconscious waters, without being filled with sorrowful contemplations. That the scenery here has been described in such glowing colors, can only be accounted for, by considering that the writers had been for months immured in a ship, and that, having previously seen no country but their own, every thing foreign became deeply interesting. The boats which come off, of strange construction; the "dandies," with their dark bronze skin, fine Roman features, perfect teeth, and scanty costume; the Sircars, which board the ship with presents of fruit, dressed in graceful folds of snow-white muslin, are indeed objects of interest, and form fruitful topics for journals and letters, to young travellers. As to the river itself, at least in the lower part of its course, none could be more dull and disagreeable. As the ship ascends the river, (generally a slow and difficult process,) objects of interest multiply. Fishermen's villages and scattered huts appear on each side, imbosomed in stately palms. Trees, of shapes unknown before, fields of sugar-cane, wide levels of paddy ground, and a universal greenness, keep up an interest, till, on reaching Gloucester, European houses begin to |