We had fully expected, by this time, to hear of the arrival of our
friend Mr. Knibb, at Falmouth; but the mail, which has been due several
days, is yet detained. We must therefore give a general summary of the
recent intelligence from our various stations, and hope that, before
this Herald leaves the press, we may be able to add a postscript,
announcing intelligence which many, we know, are anxious to hear.
From _Kingston_, under the date of September 22nd, Mr. Tinson writes:
"Our congregation in town is better by far than it has been, though not
overflowing; for being composed chiefly of domestics and mechanics who
reside in town, it is of course less affected by country people than
some others. I spent yesterday at _Yallahs_, received five candidates,
on examination, for baptism, preached in the morning, and administered
the Lord's supper to about a hundred members in the afternoon. The
congregation was such as to make the heat almost insupportable. There
were nearly as many outside the house as within, and many more would
come, but they cannot hear without exposure to the sun all the time.
This however will, I hope, be remedied in a few months, as we have now
commenced the chapel, and paid the builder L100 towards it. I am begging
from our people in Hanover-street, and the city generally; but they
plead poverty, and I know many of them are poor indeed."
Mr. Gardner thankfully acknowledges that he has been repaid for all
his exertions in visiting Port Royal, by the success with which it has
pleased God to crown his labours there. "Last Sabbath week," says he, on
the 23rd of September, "at daybreak, at that place, I baptized fifteen
in the sea, on a profession of their faith in Christ, and repentance
towards God. Many hundreds were present, who collected soon after four
in the morning. After the administration of that ordinance we repaired
to the chapel, which was well attended, and had a regular service.
Then I left for Kingston, as there was no brother unemployed that
could assist me. Last Lord's day I visited those friends again, and
administered the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, when those who had been
baptized were received into the church. It was an unusually solemn and
gratifying season; many were greatly affected, and wept nearly all the
time. This was to us a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.
May he often grant us such seasons!"
Mr. Phillippo is busily engaged in building the new school-rooms at
_Spanish Town_, towards which he obtained some pecuniary aid while in
this country. "There are to be two schools; one for boys, the other for
girls. They are to hold three hundred scholars. The situation is on a
range with our premises, and is in every respect eligible; between
the rooms there is to be a Committee-room, so that the building will
present a front of seventy-two feet in length. Several gentlemen in the
town and neighbourhood have declared themselves friendly towards the
object, and have promised to assist in its support. As an instance, His
Honour the Custos, Member of Assembly and Island Secretary, and Price
Watkis, Esq., the uncompromising advocate of negro emancipation in our
Colonial Parliament, are to lay the foundation-stones on Thursday next.
The Custos has moreover sent fourteen young women to the school to be
educated as schoolmistresses, and to be completely under the charge of
the resident schoolmistress, his intention being to employ them in the
different estates for which he is attorney. This example I have reason
to hope will be extensively followed.
"We have still between three and four hundred children in attendance
at our Sabbath-school, and the library I brought out with me is in
extensive circulation. Every thing in connexion with our work appears
prospering to an unexampled degree. God is indeed doing great things for
us, whereof we are glad. What a change has been effected, also, on the
moral aspect of society! Sunday markets abolished, and all the etceteras
of evil that followed in their train!"
Top Hill, near the junction of the two parishes of St. Ann's and St.
Thomas-in-the-Vale, has been the scene of one of those cruel outrages on
the helpless and unoffending, which have too often stained the page of
Colonial history. We give the account in the words of our Missionary
brother, Mr. Clarke.
"On the evening of Lord's-day, September 14th, as nine of my
people were returning to their homes from worshipping God, they
were stopped and turned back by a young coloured man, who has
by the death of his father come to an estate before he knows
how to act for his own interest, and is fast spending it in
riotous living. These friends had no sooner quietly taken their
way back to go home by a more distant road, than this man set
his dog upon them, and with Dr. B., a companion of his, pursued
them about a half a mile.
"Dr. B. threw off his coat to enable him to run with the
greater speed; an aged female who is highly respected by all
around, fell: and Dr. B. immediately fixed the dog upon her,
which tore her leg severely in many places. Her husband ran to
lift her up, and to drive off the dog, when Dr. B., seized him
and attempted to throw him over a fearful precipice into a
deep chasm, where he must have been dashed to pieces; but God
enabled his servant to escape from the grasp of the persecutor,
and all the party came back to the house where we had so
recently joined together in the worship of God. I had travelled
a considerable distance during the day, had got wet, preached
twice, and performed various other duties; being fatigued, and
having to journey home on the morrow, I had retired to rest. As
soon as I heard what had taken place I arose, had the wounds of
the poor female attended to, and bound up. I then conversed
with the people, read to them the first twelve verses of the
fifth of Matthew, and again from the forty-third verse to the
end; spoke to them on the duty of forgiveness, love to enemies,
and patient suffering for Christ's sake; prayed with them,
first for the persecutors, next for themselves and for the
church of God. They left me between nine and ten o'clock,
rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for
righteousness' sake; before they left, they besought me not to
carry the matter to a magistrate, but to leave it with God;
promising that they would always afterward go and return by a
road that did not lead them near the house of this man. I
really admired their forgiving spirit, and their patient
endurance of evil, especially that of the chief sufferer, and
of her husband, who had suffered with her, and had narrowly
escaped death in rescuing her. Two of the nine have long been
free, the others were apprentices. Had the native feelings of
the human heart been indulged, how easily could these people
have resisted the assaults of their persecutors, and, as they
were pursued about half a mile on the road that has been a
common by-path for years, they might have turned upon their
adversaries, and afterwards have argued that they had a right
to pass without molestation, and when molested to act on the
defensive, in forcing their way to their homes; but, except a
few words at first, of calm entreaty, these quiet people did
nothing, and gave no impertinent language, but turned to go
back in peace, and were in the act of returning when they were
thus assaulted."
We mentioned, in our last number, that Mr. Coultart had encountered much
annoyance in the neighbouring parish of St. Ann's, the birth-place of
the Colonial Church Union, and disgracefully conspicuous for the blind
and furious determination shown by several of its leading men, to
prevent the spread of religious instruction among the negroes. Humanly
speaking, nothing but the wise, humane, and dignified conduct of the
Custos, the Hon. S. M. Barrett, saved this parish from the horrors of
martial law. He applied to Mr. Coultart, requesting him to use all his
influence with the negroes to quell the spirit of insubordination which
had begun to show itself among them; and in addition to this, met them
in person at Ocho Rios, gave them an excellent and animated address,
explaining to them the nature of the new law, and expostulating with
them, in the warmest and kindest manner. All present were much pleased
with his kindness, and promised to do all they could to allay the
existing evil.
Mrs. Coultart, in a subsequent letter, adverting to the same subject,
remarks, "The poor things were puzzled. They were told they were free on
the first of August, had a general holiday, and rejoiced at the event;
and then they were called to work again as before. 'Free, no free at
all; work like before-time.' Many said, they would not work without a
proper understanding, or some pay. I was present when a poor woman in
the Methodist Society made a speech to the following effect: 'From the
creation down to now we work, work, work. Now, Lord Mulgrave and the
King give we free, we take free, we happy; then master come, tell we
work like before-time. No, me say, better take shot at one than make we
fool so.' The minister's wife talked to her, and explained that this
work for six years was to help pay the owner what the King could not
afford to do, of the money that purchased her; and she seemed quite
content, and said she would go to her work. If it were possible to speak
to each thus, in the tone of a friend, they would believe; but their
confidence in their owners is shaken--and who can wonder?"
Adverting to the necessity of additional aid to give instruction to the
negroes and their children, Mrs. C. remarks to her female correspondent,
"I wish you could just come some Saturday evening before the preaching
Sabbath at this bay, and see the numbers who come to our house, two
miles farther, after having walked twenty and twenty-five miles already,
just to read their letters, or to hear a few verses out of the Bible, or
Watts's First Catechism, or something that will shed a ray of light over
their benighted minds. I have about thirty-five little ragged black
children who meet me in the place hired for worship on the bay at four
o'clock every evening. These I try to teach for two hours, and the only
member of the church who can read sometimes meets me to assist. We are
going soon, I believe, to remove from this house; it is considered
unhealthy, there being marshes near, and then I shall be too far off to
attend to the children daily. On the sabbath, only every third, is too
unfrequent for progress to be made. Could I see the means of support,
I would, without loss of time, place a person at the bay to teach
regularly, and then I trust some good would be done. The eagerness
manifested for First Spelling Books with large alphabets is amusing and
pleasing. I have purchased all I could get in Kingston, and sold them
again at the same price, which is three times as dear as if I had them
from England. Mr. C. has written to several English friends, to beg them
to send us some, either to give away or sell. I hope they will, without
loss of time, for it is distressing to be obliged to refuse such earnest
requests. 'Me want to learn, me good massa, that me may read out of the
Bible for meself.' This is just what we want for them, that they may not
be led astray by every designing person, who may set himself up to
instruct them."
At _Port Maria_ Mr. Baylis had the pleasure of receiving _fifty-nine_
persons by baptism on the 20th of July last. He labours with great
diligence, and is cheered, at each of his stations, by proofs of a
divine blessing resting on his exertions.
Mr. Whitehorne reports, from _Mount Charles_, that the same increase of
congregation, and earnest desire to learn to read, exists in the several
places where he maintains public worship, as at other stations; while
from _Montego Bay_, and _Falmouth_, our brethren Abbott, Dexter, and
Dendy, renew their earnest solicitations for further aid. We rejoice to
learn that Mr. Burchell arrived in safety at Kingston from New York, on
the 27th of October; and we trust not only to be permitted to make the
same announcement, in a few days, respecting Mr. Knibb, but to witness
further accession, shortly, to the number of faithful and devoted
labourers in this interesting portion of the missionary field.
Mr. Harjette and his family have embarked for Calcutta in the David
Clarke, Capt. Rayne, and sailed from Portsmouth.
A letter has been received from Mr. George Pearce, dated at sea, Sept.
6th, in N. lat. 4 deg., W. long. 23 deg. Mr. and Mrs. P. were quite
well, and had received much kind attention from the Captain and their
fellow-passengers.