purpose to speak now, except to say that Christianity has been planted there, and a Christian church raised up, which, although now for two years without the presence of a European Missionary, is nevertheless standing its ground, and becoming more and more rooted in the land. With Badagry, however, it has been far otherwise. Long did it seem to be a barren soil, the Popoes, both chiefs and people, being specially indifferent to the teaching of the Missionaries.

But it is well said, "though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." When once we have sown a field with the incorruptible seed of God's word, we ought never to leave it because the spring-time is delayed. We may be driven out, but of ourselves we should never leave. 66 Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and the latter rain." Shall the husbandman be thus patient in waiting for a harvest, which, after all, may fail, and shall they who preach that word, concerning which the Lord has promised, "My word shall not return to me void," grow discouraged, and desert the post before the harvest comes?

Badagry, indeed, was left for a time, but only for a time. It was taken up again, and now, from our African Missionary who has been labouring there for many years, we receive accounts which are full of promise. He assures us that the aspect of the work is more encouraging than it has been in any previous year. Not only do the dry bones begin to move, but they are becoming living and effective men, fit for the Saviour's service.

Preaching had been carried on in a part of the town called Fiantos Street, until the illness of the catechist obliged Mr. Pearse to suspend it. He had no reason to think that any good had been done: but one fortnight afterwards he observed in church two persons from that neighbourhood, one Posu, a Popo, and a friend of his called Odunogun, a son of a former king of Lagos. These two, who had formerly been the pests of the place, came, after service was over, to Mr. Pearse, and said that they wished to serve God. The following conversation ensued—

Mr. Pearse asked, "Are you tired with your fetishes?" Odunogun replied, "I have no fetish whatever. When I was a little boy, my father procured me Ifa, but on the same day we removed with my father from this place to be reinstated at Lagos, my Ifa accidentally dropped into the river: since then I have not cared to have another instead. You know I was a well-known thief here. I am tired of that now. I desire to serve God, not half and half, but with all my heart, as I once served the devil and wounded my own heart." Posu then replied, in reference to my question, thus-"You remember that day when you talked to us about Ifa at Franko (the name of that quarter of the town)?" I replied, "I don't quite recollect now, but I believe I did." "Well," he rejoined, "those words you said that day are truths which I can never forget. You said, 'Which of these two should be the servant, the master or his slave?' and we replied, 'The slave.' Then you said that the women were by far wiser than we men; that they would with fifteen strings of cowries buy a basketful of palm-nuts, but

that we take from forty to sixty heads of cowries to the Babalawos, and received only sixteen palm-nuts, which we call Ifa. My companions laughed heartily, but I could not laugh, for my Ifa cost me exactly sixty heads of cowries, and the troubles that drove me to take it never ceased, but rather increased, since. You then insisted that it was actually buying,' and not 'receiving,' as we called the act; that there was really no difference between the action of a man who carried sixty heads of cowries into the market and bought a slave, and that of another man who carried sixty heads of cowries to the Babalawos and bought sixteen palm-nuts; that both were, in truth, 'buying. You further said that our slaves, sixteen palm-nuts, being thus carried home, we became their servants, and began to serve them. I cannot describe how vexed I was with myself that day. When I went home I could not sleep, sit, or have any ease. I said if the Babalawos had broken into my house and stolen my sixty heads of cowries I could have taken them up as thieves, but I stole myself, I carried the cowries myself, I have nobody to blame but myself. That very night I took the bag containing my Ifa, went to the field and buried it in the ground. I missed you under the tree the following Sunday, and therefore, when I did not see you four days ago, I followed after you to church." These two men, I am thankful to say, are very promising attendants at the means of grace.

Another promising candidate for baptism is Noviejon. He brought me a lot of short brooms tied in a parcel, about the length and thickness of the middle finger, pasted with chewed kola-nuts: this is called Karo. He was dangerously ill, and the Babalawos said it was Ifa that was plaguing him, and this Karo was given him in preparation to receive Ifa. It cost him twenty heads of cowries. By the instrumentality of Jacob Dosa this man was brought to the saving knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

Oso, and Agbekorode his wife, have also renounced their idols, to seek shelter under the cross of Christ. The wife was first persuaded to attend divine service by one of our people, but it was against the pleasure of her husband, who threatened to put her away unless she would give up going to the house of God. Instead of yielding to her husband's wish, she begged me to help her to speak to him, which I did, and, after some time, the man began to attend the house of God, which he continued to do, in company with his wife, and on November 10th they voluntarily delivered up all their idols, already mutilated with their own hands.

Orunyomi, a slave from Agada, a farm village of Porto Novo, and a Babalawo, is now a free man, and a candidate for baptism. He was acquainted with Akibode* at Addo some two years ago, as a senior Babalawo. He left Agada with a view to practise the Ifa-craft from place to place as far as Lagos, and then to return. He got to a place called Ìjégó near Ipokia, and there met with Akibode, who left on a short visit to his people, not as a Babalawo, but as a preacher of the Gospel of salvation to his people. The man, quite dumb with surprise and wonder, accompanied Akibode home, who introduced him to me by the name * See Gleaner, for 1864, p. 2..

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of Osu (Ifa's servant). The man said, "I am but a young man compared with Akibode: I know not the tenth part of what Akibode knows in Ifa. He sees danger in that way hereafter, and so runs from it as to abandon Ifa. Who am I to stand against a danger which makes Akibode fly? I flee at once from the wrath to come: I fly to God Himself, because I know Ifa cannot save me." I persuaded this man in vain to keep his Ifa for a little while until he has heard the word of God more fully. "No," said he; "what I have heard is enough. I know that Ifa is truly the devil's implement, and therefore, as I give myself to God, I will not keep the devil's property any longer." In about a fortnight after, he came to tell me that he would not keep his name Osu either, but will assume a better name, viz., "Orunyomi," i.e., "God saves me," literally, "Heaven saves me," because he is not returning again to Agada, and thus he is doubly free.

One portion of the population remains unmoved, the old people, who are rapidly passing out of sight into eternity. They who ought to be most thoughtful, are the least so. Indifference to the soul's salvation is a painful sight at any age, but the older the human being the more painful is the spectacle.

I regret to state, that the old generation is fast passing away, without any visible sign of religious awakening. My only hope is that fetish worship will also pass away with them. The past year has cheered up our hopes in reference to many among the middle generation. Already many are privately convinced of the vanity of idolatry, but are only deterred by the old people from making a public profession of the Gospel. Many have encouraged our people to go on, and promised to follow after before long. There is a general cessation of the public fetish dancings, once so notorious in this place.

"

Nothing, however, is too hard for the Lord. Let there be much prayer offered by those who read these instances of conversion among the heathen at Badagry, that they may be real, genuine, and enduring, and that from amongst the old men many may become as little children.

FLOODS IN TINNEVELLY.

The Rev. E.

THE following letters from some of our Missionaries in Tinnevelly give full particulars of this disastrous event. Sargent writes from Palamcotta, Nov. 18, 1869

The

We have had rather an anxious time of it for the last two days. monsoon failed us at its usual time in October, and we hardly had any rain worth speaking of till the 28th of last month; then it cleared up after a few hours, and we had only an occasional shower or so, till last Sunday, when it rained so heavily all the afternoon that the English service at six o'clock in the evening had to be given up. Monday was a clear day, but on Tuesday we had very heavy rain, which continued till about nine o'clock at night, when the wind rose and blew hard till about two o'clock on Wednesday morning. The rain, which seemed to

hold off during the gale, now poured down in torrents. The river rose far beyond its usual flood-levels, and the houses of the European residents in the neighbourhood were surrounded with water from two to three or four feet deep. There was no saying how much higher the water might rise, for it is in the memory of old people here, that some forty-two years ago, when there was no bridge in any way to obstruct the free passage of the stream, the river had flooded both its banks and stood some two or three feet above the flooring of the houses close by. By four o'clock on Wednesday morning the alarm was given that the houses were being flooded, and the family of the Judge and of the Superintendent of Police, including five young children, were obliged to make what haste they could in gaining shelter on higher ground. As my house was the first they could come at, they turned in to us, and glad we were in any way to contribute to their comfort. The depth of water crossed on gaining the high road from the house may be inferred from the fact that one of the ladies, though carried in a chair on men's shoulders, had her feet touching the water for a good part of the way from the house to the main road, and this not standing water, but water rushing at a great speed from the river bank between the bridge and the house, and covering the garden and the level country beyond. As the day broke the desolation was apparent. The high road was strewed with fallen trees, and every garden had suffered severely. At least 200 trees in the neighbourhood of Palamcotta had been blown down by the wind, the general direction in which they lay indicating that the wind had come from the proper monsoon quarter-north-east. Of course the centre of interest lay in our beautiful bridge, built by the princely donation of a wealthy native gentleman, under English engineers.

By eight o'clock several gentlemen had got to the place. The index on the left land pier, which indicates as high as twenty-one feet, was covered, but observation showed that the water was subsiding. A look along the parapet showed that the centre piers, or rather the piers on this side the centre, had sunk a little, and that this solid and beautiful structure might at any moment be swept away during the mighty pressure which was now bearing on it. It is known that some of the ten piers on which the bridge stands had to be constructed on walls that had been carried down to a firm bottom, while the rest of the piers are built on the rock. The rain, which seemed for some hours to clear away, came on again before noon on Wednesday, and by twelve o'clock last night the water had risen about a foot higher even than on the previous night. But the bridge does not seem to have suffered any more than what was apparent at first, and, having stood thus much, we may hope that its day is yet for a long time to come. It is said that several large tanks higher up have burst their bounds, and that this flow of water caused the rise, which at one time threatened so alarmingly. When the water was at its height it was night time, when little could be distinctly seen, but in the day-light, when the flood had even subsided some two feet or so, the whole country to the south of the bridge, being paddy land, was one sheet of water as far as the eye could reach on to the belt of palmyra-trees, more than a mile to the south. Water three feet deep

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was also running through the streets of the town of Tinnevelly some two miles off. I need not say that every house in Palamcotta was leaking and uncomfortable. Last year we had 8 inches of rain in October, and 5 inches in November, i. e. about 14 inches in two months. This year we had hardly half an inch in October but within seventeen days from the first of November we have had nearly 16 inches of rain. The beautiful portico in Grecian style in the "front of our Mission church to-day came down with a tremendous crash. It was built by Mr. Pettitt twenty-five years ago, and was very much admired by the natives. I hope the Committee or Christian friends at Madras will kindly enable me speedily to restore this porch, as, without it, the tower looks very unsightly. Part of the wall, also, in front of our girls' school has fallen down, and every cork-tree on the premises. I am apprehensive of the front verandah of my house being shaky, and coming to grief. Four of the houses in which our printing-office men lived have fallen in, and the houses of three other poor natives, but providentially no lives were lost. All this while the barometer indicated but a very small fall. The thermometer ranged from 75° to 82°. Tinnevelly is so flat a country, and the beds of its rivers so shallow, that a fall of seven inches is more than the rivers can readily carry off. The neighbourhood soon gets flooded, and the usual consequences follow. In Palamcotta some fifty or sixty dwellings and outhouses have fallen in. A great destruction has been made in the regimental lines; but I believe there has been no loss of life. From other places news comes in slowly of disasters there. The new bridge near Tiruhankudy, which cost some 12,000 rupees, is said to have been carried away. One of my catechists has just come in to say that the church in his village, as well as his own house, has fallen in. Many of the riverfed tanks have burst their banks, and great damage has been done to the kar crop in all directions. The Tapal men, who leave their several stations on Monday, and generally come here on Tuesday morning, did not make their appearance till Thursday, owing to the state of the roads.

Since writing the above, the crack in the bridge has evidently increased, for now there are not only fissures in the parapet on both sides, but a treacherous-looking narrow gap is visible running across the bridge diagonally on the pathway. I remember the opening of this structure some twenty-five years ago. A bridge so scientifically and substantially built was supposed to defy anything that the waters of the Tambiravarni could inflict, and indeed a finer and stronger piece of workmanship, with its eleven arches, each sixty feet in the span, is not to be seen in Southern India.

Nov. 24.-Our worst fears about the bridge have been verified. At half-past two o'clock this morning four of the eleven of the arches came down with a fearful crash. The ruin is sad to look upon. Boats are now employed to carry passengers across, as in old times. All over the district we hear of damages committed by the excessive fall of rain. Hundreds of tanks have burst their dams. The district has been thrown back twenty years. I am thankful, however, to add, that as yet we are free from sickness.