THE SLAVE TRADE, ST. HELENA. Extract Letter from the Lord Bishop of Capetown, dated at St. Helena, 10th April 1849, published in the Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. "You are aware that this is a great depôt for Africans captured from slavers. About 3,000 of these poor creatures are landed on this island every year. Of these nearly one half suffer in health from the hardships they endure from their inhuman tyrants; and about one-fourth are very heavily afflicted. I accompanied his Excellency a few days ago in a visit to their village or establishment in Rupert's Valley. If any. thing were needed to fill the soul with burning indignation against that master work of Satan, the slave-trade, it would be a visit to this institution. There were not less than 600 poor souls in it at the period of my visit; of these more than 300 were in hospital; some afflicted with dreadful ophthalmia; others with severe rheumatism; others with dysentery; the number of deaths in the week being twenty-one. I think I have seldom beheld a more deplorable spectacle. 66 I was pained to find that no effort is made to instruct these poor things during the time they are in the island; and the more so, because the Superintendent informed me that they show a great apitude for instruction, and have a strong desire for it. The lack of employment too for their minds has a bad effect upon their health and spirits; so that when sickness overtakes them, they sink at once into a settled melancholy; and some commit suicide, partly from lowness of spirits, partly because, poor souls, they imagine that after death they will return to their much-loved home and fatherland. * * * Mr. Frey, whom I have just ordained, did at one time undertake the work, and with some success, but Government would not sanction the appropriation of a stipend. "A day or two after I had visited Rupert's Valley, a slave ship was brought in, captured by one of our cruisers. She was a schooner of about 100 tons, and had about 500 slaves on board. I went to see them, that I might more fully realize their condition. The cargo was a particularly healthy one, the number of deaths being only about one a-day. Two were lying dead upon the deck, and one had the day before jumped over-board. Everything was done by the officers and crew in charge to keep the ship clean; but you can conceive, better than I can describe, what the condition of such a mass of human beings must be in so small a space. The deck was entirely covered with them. They had a worn look, and wasted appearance, and were moved into the boats like bales of goods, apparently without any will of their own. I crept down between decks to the place where they are usually stowed away. It might be between three and four feet high, and the atmosphere was most offensive, although not occupied by one-third of the usual number. The condition, however, of a slave-ship has been too often described to make it necessary for me to enlarge upon it. I shall only say, I never beheld a more piteous sight-never looked upon a more affecting scene -never before felt so powerful a call to be a Missionary. I did not quit that ship without having resolved more firmly than ever, that I would, with the grace and help of God, commence as speedily as possible direct Mission work in Southern Africa; and that I would never cease entreating of the mother Church the needful supply of men and means, that the reproach may be wiped off which, alas! still attaches to us, being almost the only body of Christians in this great Diocese which not engaged in the work of the conversion of the Heathen. MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. HINDOO CONVERSIONS.-The follow- to which " Sepahee" evidently belongs, ing Letters have appeared in the Times that every native Christian must be a newspaper in answer to some anonymous" rascal," but in reply to such illiberal strictures, in which the reality of any genuine conversions from Hindoo idolatry was called in question. To the Editor of the Times. "SIR, I also have been in India, and hope to be allowed a word on a subjeet in which I have more experience than your correspondent "Sepahee." I was for seven years (1838 to 1845) chaplain to the Hon. East India Company at Bangalore, one of the largest Military stations under the Madras Presidency. During that time I built a little church for my native congregation. consisting on my arrival of about 40 souls, and at my departure of nearly 300. Many of the souls thus added to the church were adult converts from Hindoo idolatry, and I have no hesitation in declaring that some of them were as sincere Christians as I ever saw in my life. It is a favourite assertion with that prejudiced class of officers and unchristian remarks, I always said and say still, that as a body, my black congregation were (so far as human observation can judge) quite as good christians as my white ones. "I was not a 'missionary' but I knew many clergymen who were both of the 'Society for the Propagation of the Gospel' and of the Church Missionary Society.' I have officiated in the churches of some of them, and had abundant means of knowing, that to doubt the existence of real conversion among the Hindoos is simply absurd. Why, Sir, there are nearly 50,000 natives in the communion of the Church of England in the single Diocese of Madras ! "Sepahee' quietly assumes that the officers of the native army must be the best judges on this point. I think that military officers are not exactly the best evidence on the growth or purity of reli gion, even in this country where they have some better acquaintance with their men than is possessed by the English officers of our native regiments in India. The native soldier lives with his family in his hut, cooking his own meals and maintaining a domestic privacy which the European officer may not intrude upon. I do not certainly remember in my own experience a case of a Sepoy being converted; but, if such a case did occur, the European officer would know nothing of its history but from the prejudiced lips of the intermediate native officer. "Besides the Sepoys, the only natives with whom the officers of the army come in contact, are their own domestic servants; and what they know of their religion you may judge from a single fact. I was once dining with a staff officer at Bangalore, an intimate friend, who was a regular attendant at church and at the holy communion. He subscribed, at my request, to the native church and schools, but could not refrain from asking me where my Hindoo christians were, for he had been seven years in the station and never saw one. I answered that one was then standing behind his chair. His own valet (or as they call him), 'dressing boy' was a communicant in my church; and his master, a good, kind,christian gentleman as any in the place, was ignorant of the fact. There are too many officers of inferior temper and principles to his, and I know of cases in which these despised native Christians have quitted their service, because the English master refused them leave to attend church. "Sepahee' must excuse me if I except to the testimony of such officers. "He must be well aware that the civil service has far better opportunities of knowing the result of missionary labours, and, in spite of the remnant now exist · ing of the bad old Indian class, whom Mr. Ross Mangles described at the Mansion House, on the 17th of March, 1846, as leaving their religion at the Cape on their way out, and forgetting to take it up on their return;' habitually choosing the Lord's Day for their sports (the Calcutta hounds regularly meeting on Sunday), and living in a lawless, godless, way, of which their unhappy connexions with the native females, and their frequent bloody duels were the regular results:-in spite, I say, of the few remaining individuals of this exploded class, no one can have known the Madras civil service at the date which 'Sepahee' refers to, without knowing the decided testimony borne by many of its most distinguished members to the value of the labours he affects to question. Members of Council, Secretaries to Government, Collectors of the revenue, and Judges of the highest character, have attested to myself, and were, and are still, attesting in the most public manner, to the purity, efficiency, and success of the Missions, which your correspondent so rashly and ignorantly impugns. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, GEORGE TREVOR, M.A., Retired Chaplain East India Company. York, Nov. 23." SIR,-Having for many years had a commission in the Indian army, rising to the rank of senior captain of my regiment, and having long served as an interpreter in three of the native languages of the east, my testimony to the points noticed by your correspondents, will not, I think, be uninteresting either to yourself or your readers, whose object surely is the truth. "1. For a period of years, stretching from 1831 to 1843, my attention was more or less directed, systematically, on the spot, to the subject of missions, and to the operations of all missionary agents, both from England and America, without reference to any bigotted peculiarities of denominational differences. "In this way, during ten or twelve years' impartial examination of the subject, I had ample opportunity of testing the merits of the question of Missions to the Heathen. I narrowly observed their modes of proceeding, saw the results attending their exertions, and from my knowledge of the native languages, and personal intercourse with converts, enjoyed advantages of investigation, such as could not be surpassed. Writing, then, at this moment, not from the memory of what 1 may have heard from partisans on the one side or the other from no hearsay evidence-but from ocular demonstration of what I have seen and heard and examined for myself, with operations, as fresh upon my mind as though of yesterday, connected with the Church missions, Scotch missions, Baptist missions, London Missions, and American missions, I have no hesitation in declaring that a surprising and real work is going on. "From 1830 to 1834 especially, the uumber of intelligent and educated young men that abandoned heathenism and embraced Christianity in Calcutta, was very remarkable. With these I have often conversed, spent whole days in their company, and should have been among the first to expose it, if I had seen grounds to doubt the reality of conversion in any with whom I was thrown into contact. 3. I have been personally present when some of these came forward publicly, and for the first time, made an open confession of the Christian faith. more than one occasion I have acted as sponsor to the converts at their baptism, On according to the formula of the Church of England, an office I would not have ventured to undertake without personally satisfying myself, in the case of adults, of the reality of their profession, so far as man may judge. "4. I have been present when scenes have taken place, in which your convert and his agonized heathen relative have combined to produce, not in public, but in the privacy of domestic scenes, such a tragical impression, that nothing but the conviction that a man must leave father and mother, and brothers and sisters, when they interfere with his admission into the kingdom of heaven, has prevented me from interposing the weight of my influence to prevent the convert from proceeding with his determination to confess CHRIST before men. And as I write, Sir, the very memory of these real things-these facts that I have witnessed brings new conviction to my mind, that nothing but a real work of God upon the soul, could have enabled those human beings, with sensibilities of a far keener order than most Europeans in our latitudes, to tear themselves away from all that was dear to nature,-for what? To become, so far as this world is concerned, outcasts from their homes, their parents, in some cases, their wives, their children, and, not least, their nation. 5. I will only just add, that at Kishnagar in Bengal, a place I have frequently visited, there are at this moment several thousand persons who have abandoned heathen superstitions, with no possible motive for doing so, in such masses (in a great measure secluded from European, except missionary, influence,) beyond conviction. "I do not, by any means, claim for these converts a higher tone of Christianity than elsewhere: on the contrary, just rescued from the abominations and deceit of the basest superstitions, great allowances must be made for them; more especially when it is remembered that, in most cases, they are still surrounded by the evil influences of their heathen country men from without, and have to contend with inveterate habits acquired from their infancy, that have grown with their growth, and which present a formidable foe within, which no wonder, does now and then break forth, and seem to belie their profession. I am, Sir, Your's very faithfully, Crief, Perthshire, Nov. 26." NEW ZEALAND-The Times of the 29th December, contains a long and very interesting letter from Bishop SELWYN, presenting as the Editor remarks, "the spectacle of a Christian bishop, and an accomplished scholar, standing among the rude huts, the ill-fenced orchards, and the straggling flocks of an infant colony, as the representative of learning and religion, and inviting the generous and the adventurous to follow him across the globe. When a man of high position, wealth, or acquirements rises up on a platform, or sits down in his library, to urge his countrymen to go off to the colonies, he exposes himself to the objection that he is recommending to others what he will not do himself. Bishop SELWYN says Come. He has tied himself for life to the simple duties and still simpler honours of an Australian bishopric, and knows by an experience of some years the sort of community and the style of existence to which he is inviting his countrymen." The letter referred to contains the Bishop's advice on the proposed new settlement at Canterbury. This de sign, it is hoped, will be preserved from the evils attendant on colonization by paupers, or by convicts. The intention is to carry out united bodies of clergymen, farmers, and labourers of good character, and willing to aid one another, in rearing up the copy of a happy English village at the Antipodes. The Bishop concludes his letter with the following advice. My good friends, let me advise you not to go out expecting to find everything to your mind; but trusting that, by God's blessing upon the colonizing energies of the AngloSaxon race, you will find the means of solid comfort, in the only form in which it can give you true pleasure-as the reward of honest industry and in answer to prayer. You will see spires and school-houses springing up in all places, for money will do that; but money will not make faithful preachers and fruitful hearers. Money will not make children obey their parents or keep the commandments of God. From the very first, you must have a social compact one with another; all the leaders and all the clergymen with all their bands of labouring men and settlers, that they all go out to found, so far as God may be with them, a Christian colony; that they must agree to support one another-like people, like priest,'-in every good and holy usage of their mother church; and as they will leave their native country amidst the prayers and blessings of all whose names are already written on the land of their adoption, so their course of devotion must be carried on on shipboard with their own loved and chosen chaplain, till they see their own bishop, or one who will be to them as their own, standing on the beach to welcome them on their arrival; that their first act may be prayer and thanksgiving, and that the first building into which they enter may be the house of God. |