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was said of it, "If there be a hell on earth, it is this, it is this!" Its pacification was mainly due to General Nicholson, who was Deputy-Commissioner of it for four years. He turned it into one of the most orderly districts of the Punjab.

The name Derajat means "the camps," and it arose from the conquest of the country by three chiefs, Ishmael Khan, Futteh Khan, and Ghazee Khan, who parcelled it out between them. They were evidently nomads, for their resting-places were called, as in scriptural language, the tents of Ishmael, Futteh, and Ghazee. Gradually the wanderers took root, houses replaced the tents, and towns grew up, the three principal of them being named after the invaders. Dera Futteh Khan has sunk into comparative insignificance; Dera Ghazee Khan, which is only thirty or forty miles from Multan, is a city of palms, a place of great natural beauty; Dera Ismail Khan, a hundred miles further north, is an important commercial centre, although it cannot boast of beauty of situation, for it lies in the midst of an arid plain, a bare and desolate waste.

Both these latter towns face frontier passes, through which the inhabitants of the mountains issue forth by thousands at certain seasons of the year, bringing their wares and goods for sale in other parts of Hindustan. These are the Lohani and Povindah merchants of Afghanistan. There are several tribes of them. Between them and the proud, fierce Wuzarees of the border, ancient blood-feuds reign, and from the moment the caravans enter the Wuzareo defiles, each march has to be made in battle array, and desperate have been the struggles through which they have pushed their way, losing here a camel, there a bale of goods, a sturdy comrade, a foot-sore wife, or a stray child. Yet from generation to generation they go on undaunted, and as certain as the wintry frosts set in, do the Lohani merchants, with their wiry little camels, make their appearance on the plains of the Derajat. Here they are in British territory, the land of law and order, and most striking must the transition seem to them. Precautions cease; arms are laid aside, except when pasturing the camels under the skirts of the Afghan hills; the loads are opened out, and exposed for sale in the bazaars of the Derajat; and the whole company of the caravan enjoy a peaceful rest within the British border.

But the mass of their goods have hundreds of miles yet to go. The merchandise is rich and various: silk from the Oxus, lamb-skins from Bokhara, furs from Russia, gold from the Ural Mountains, fragrant spices, dyes, cloths, and metals. After a few days' rest, the onward march towards Hindustan, by Multan and Bhawulpore, begins. One or two Lohanis, deputed by their comrades, take charge of a long string of camels, laden heavily with their costly freight, and conduct them the whole length of British India, with a staff in their hands instead of weapons, and a dog at their heels in place of armed retainers. The main body, men, women, and children, remain throughout the winter encamped on the plains of the Derajat, pasturing their breeding-camels, and awaiting the return of their friends with Manchester goods and indigo for Central Asia. Thus for several months of each year these mountaineers are brought within reach of Christian influence and Gospel teaching, leaving again to carry the experience and knowledge gained to the distant strongholds of Islamism-Cabul, Candahar, Bokhara, and Khiva.

The settled tribes of the Derajat are hardly less interesting than their Lohani visitors, and "common gratitude demands that we should do all we can for them, for in two great struggles they have come to our assistance, and fought nobly on our side— viz., in the Sikh War of 1848-9, and in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857." On the former occasion Mohammed Ali Khan, the faithful depositary of the Pushtu Bible already mentioned, brought 400 followers to join our standard. Sir Henry Lawrence and his assistants had shown great kindness to the Derajat people,

and they did not forget it, but manfully repaid it in our hour of need.

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These and other incidents of the past gave to the Derajat border and its wild clans an unusual interest in the minds of many high in power in India. In 1861 Colonel Reynell Taylor, who had lived for many years among them as Commissioner, on more than friendly terms," offered £1,000 to establish a Mission in the district. His idea of being the people's true friend was to help them to hear of the true God, and he felt that he "should not look back happily on his long association with them, if this one effort were left unmade." Sir Robert Montgomery, the then Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, who, like his predecessor, Sir John Lawrence, regarded Christian missionaries as friends both of the people and the civil government, warmly seconded the proposal.

The Derajat Mission was commenced in Dera Ismail Khan in April, 1862. Its founders were the Rev. T. V. French, now Bishop of Lahore, and the Rev. Robert Bruce, one of the early workers at Amritsar, and since a zealous pioneer in Persia. Mr. French's health soon broke down under the influences of the trying climate, and in a few short months he had to leave, but not until he had preached in the streets and bazaars of the town of Dera Ismail Khan, by the road and riverside, and throughout the country districts. Mr. Bruce and others continued the opening up of the Derajat Mission, but Mr. Bruce was oftener than not alone, so great were the ravages made by sickness in the little staff of missionaries. From 1868 the Rev. D. Brodie was almost in sole charge for several years.

A very interesting and important addition has been made to the work, in the establishment of a medical mission in the frontier town of Tank. It had its origin in the spontaneous liberality of a single individual, who offered to build a hospital, with house for the doctor, and necessary offices, and give a monthly sum of fifty rupees to meet the current expenses, with a further sum of fifty rupees yearly to keep the buildings in repair, if the Derajat Mission would supply and pay the salary of a Native doctor. For the charge of the dispensary the services were available of Mr. John Williams, the son of a Native Christian. He had been a doctor in Government employ, but had given this up in order to devote himself to mission work. He accepted the post at Tank, and during the first month about 300 patients received medicine and advice. The success of his treatment was most satisfactory, and he reported a daily increase in the number of those applying for relief. Two years later Mr. Brodie wrote:

From early morning till midday, or later if necessary, the Native doctor is unceasingly employed prescribing for and, with the aid of helpers, dispensing medicines to all comers. After his first or midday meal he has a constant succession of visitors till late at night. So established has this custom become, that it is commonly said there are two cutcherries or courts in Tank, one that of the Nawab, and the other the doctor's. In the summer, under the shade of an enormous pipal tree, and in the cold weather round a fire in the compound, as many as ten to thirty persons congregate at a time, to whom he has constant the excitement and ill-feeling so often consequent on bazaar preaching, opportunities of preaching the Gospel, and that in such a way, free from as to obtain for it a patient hearing. Of course amongst these the indoor patients always form a part, and they are composed chiefly of Povindahs and hill-men, who come from great distances.

It was at Tank that Sir Henry Durand, Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, met his death, owing to the elephant on which he was riding passing under one of the gateways of the town, which was not high enough to admit the howdah. His tragical end invests with painful interest this place, which is our most advanced military outpost on this part of the frontier, and also an outpost of Christ's Church militant, here preparing to push forward into the heart of Central Asia.

In 1874 Mr. Brodie was compelled to return home, leaving a young colleague, the Rev. W. Thwaites, at Dera, and a still

younger missionary, the Rev. T. J. Lee Mayer, at Bunnoo. The latter, referring to the discouragement felt at home on account of the difficulties connected with the Mission, wrote: "You seem to be well-nigh in despair at the little fruit in North India, but we ourselves feel much encouraged, considering how vast a gulf lies between us and the religion of the false prophet." He added, "Bruce's work lives here; his seed is springing up; it is not an ear, nor a full corn, hardly even a blade, but it is up. May God water it abundantly!" And Mr. Brodie related in England that during a tour of five or six hundred miles in the Derajat he had found scarcely a village in which there was complete ignorance of Christianity. There were Bibles and tracts in almost every one. Here surely is something for our hopes to rest on; for the promise is, "My Word shall not return unto Me void."

GLEANINGS FROM RECENT LETTERS.

"Found after many days."

NE of the most striking examples we have met with of the fulfilment of the Divine promise respecting "bread cast upon the waters" is the following. Many of our readers are aware that the interesting and well-known Mission at Metlakahtla, on the North Pacific Coast, originated with an appeal to the Society for a missionary to the Tsimshean Indians, from Captain Prevost, R.N.; and it was he who, in 1856, gave Mr. Duncan a free passage out in H.M.S. Satellite. After twenty years' progress, the Mission brauched forth, two years ago, to the Hydahs of Queen Charlotte's Islands, and our missionary, the Rev. W. H. Collison, mentions in a recent letter an interesting fruit of Captain Prevost's prayerful zeal :

One young man, a chief, brought me a book last year, that I might tell him what it was. He informed me that it had been given him many years past by the captain of a man-of-war at Victoria. On opening it, I found it was a copy of the New Testament, bearing on the fly-leaf this inscription "From Captain Prevost, II.M.S. Satellite, trusting that the bread thus cast upon the waters may be found after many days." This young man has attended the services and evening school very regularly, and has been endeavouring lately to influence others, and lead them to a knowledge of the truth. At our meeting, held on the evening of the Day of Prayer for Missions, he prayed very earnestly for the spread of the truth amongst his brethren, and, though he has met with reproach, yet he remains firm. I trust the good seed has taken root in many hearts amongst them.

A Tamil Clergyman's Report.

The Rev. Jesudasen John is Native Pastor of the large Christian congregation of Trinity Church, Palamcottah. He is the son of the late wellknown Rev. John Devasagayam, and brother of Mrs. Sattianadhan; and is one of the few Tinnevelly clergy who can write in English. A few passages from his annual letter to the Society will interest our readers :

I beg to acknowledge, with fervent gratitude, the merciful forbearance and long-suffering of our Almighty God, in having kept me and my fellow-labourers in the same cause in perfect peace and security, while thousands of all classes are suffering privation and death by famine and sickness. "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassion faileth not."

Since I wrote to you my last annual letter, I have experienced much mercy from the hands of my dear Heavenly Father, though I have been much cast down by deep domestic trials, which befel me by the deaths of my dear partner and my eldest daughter. Both died in December last, yet, through mercy, I have not been left alone without consolation. Wave upon wave of affliction has rolled upon me, but my loving Jesus was with me. On His word I trust, "My grace is sufficient for thee." There are 1,053 souls in seven villages in the Palamcottah pastorate, of whom 964 are baptized, and 91 are catechumens. The number of communicants is 297.

We are permitted to see great cause for gratitude and encouragement, not only as regards their regular attendance on Sunday Divine Services, but also in stability and works of piety. It is gladdening to one's heart to see how solemn and attentive the people are during Sunday services. The services of our Church are conducted with great solemnity, and the loud heart-felt responses of the people show, I would hope, the depth of their zeal and earnestness in our blessed religion. Two services have been regularly conducted both in the morning and in the afternoon; and our

beloved Bishop always preaches in the morning, while I take the afternoon service entirely. The average attendance on Sunday morning 830, and afternoon 415. Week-day services are also attended by the boarding-school boys and girls. This is conducted at the large church at Palamcottah. In accordance with the usual practice in every village church, daily morning and evening prayers are conducted also at Adeikalapuram church, to which as many as possible are invited to attend. The catechist J conducts the prayers. I hold prayermeetings here on every Wednesday night, from seven to eight p.m.

At the conclusion, permit me, my dear sir, to entreat your affectionate prayers, that the God of all grace grant that, in activity, prayerfulness, and love for souls, I may follow the good example of my late father, the Rev. J. Devasagayam, even as he followed Christ.

The Prodigal's Father-in China.

Our readers will not have forgotten the wonderfully clever pictorial designs on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, by Matthew Tai, the Chinese Christian artist at Hang-chow, which appeared in the GLEANER of November last.

We have now something far more interesting even than those sketches to present, illustrating the power of that Divine story on the Chinese mind-as on every other race. It is a passage in a letter from Miss Laurence of Ningpo, dated May 17th, describing an evangelistic tour she had made with Bishop Russell and other friends. They stayed one night in a village among the mountains called Dông-ao :

In the evening an old man of about seventy, deaf as a post but still vigorous in mind and body, came up-stairs for a talk. Bishop Russell found the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and asked him to read and translate it into the colloquial. This he began to do with great alacrity and vividness, but we were all taken aback at the intense excitement he manifested after reading two or three verses. He evidently thought the Bishop could read his history-he too had a son who had demanded his portion of goods and had squandered it in-opium! He turned to the bystanders, and sent one after the other to call his sons; he wanted them all to come and listen, the doctrine was true! It was long before we could get him to read on, and while inveighing bitterly against his son a new idea struck him-we were English, the English brought the opium; and turning to the Bishop he exclaimed, with uncontrollable emotion, "Oh, why did you bring the opium and ruin my son ?" The Bishop, touched almost to tears, entreated him to read on and see how the father treated the son. His rendering into the colloquial was vivid in the extreme, and his expressive translation of the father's distress at sight of his son's condition, though not quite answering to our word "compassion," was very natural. At the "fell on his neck," he threw one arm round the Bishop's neck and hugged him. His remark on the ring was, "That was too much politeness."

With the garrulity of old age he returned again and again to the opium charge, and the Bishop hal nothing to say; we offered to be beaten, if he wished, for what our country had done. The bitter shame which this cruel trade causes the Missionary can never be understood by those who have not confronted an inquiring heathen. Bishop Russell exhorted the poor father to pray to the Heavenly God for his son, but he replied, "Eh! just as if I could make myself heard." We pointed him to "Ask and it shall be given you," but he did not seem able to take it in. The sore had been too suddenly and deeply probed to be easily soothed.

Sunday-school in Lagos Gaol.

The Rev. J. A. Maser, of Lagos, writes:

On Aug. 27th (1877), we commenced Sunday-school in the gaol of the settlement. The authorities had readily given their consent to it. It is held from half-past two to half-past three. We occupy two rooms and a spacious verandah. There is a class of eighteen men who read the English Bible. Mr. E. Henley, Native Tutor of Mr. Wood's Institution, has taken this class from the beginning, and by his diligence has supported me a great deal in this work. The other teachers are chiefly students from the Training Institution; they have a second class reading the New Testament in English, and about four classes in which the English primer or English sheet-lessons are used. A large number of the scholars are Kroomen, who prefer to learn to read English to Yoruba, as they have mostly English-speaking masters. Sometimes there are prisoners who can read the Yoruba translations of Scripture, but it is scarce, as our converts who can read them are happily not often found in the prison; therefore the Yoruba reading is of the elementary kind. Three large classes are using the Yoruba sheet-lessons. Easels, sheetlessons, and Scriptures were brought from the communion offertory and from the Sunday-school fund, the expense of which amounted to £1 98. Of results we cannot report much, except that the rudiments are slowly mastered all round. May the Lord own and bless this attempt to preach deliverance to the captives!

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A PHOTOGRAPH AT AMRITSAR. [Mrs. Elmslie, of Amritsar, who is now in this country, has kindly sent us the following in explanation of the above picture.]

Na hot and dusty day in March, 1875, a large gathering of native girls might have been seen in the Mission garden at Amritsar. It was a grand occasion. The friends of the Mission in England had made a request for photographs of some of the many hundreds of people in connection with the work at Amritsar, and an experienced photographer had come from a distance to put his skill in requisition.

It was no easy matter to coax and persuade the elder girls connected with the Lady Lawrence Memorial Schools to come within the range of the photographer's lens, accustomed as they are to avoid the eye of every man; but the young women of the Mazhabi Sikh Normal Class, being of lower caste, had less scruple on the subject, and hence the graphic picture before you. The brilliant colouring of their dresses, and the variety of their jewels, can hardly be appreciated in a colourless engraving, but the imagination of the reader may find exercise in adding the charm of rainbow-like hues to every one of the somewhat grimlooking figures depicted in our illustration. We must not forget that the sparkle of the eye and the intelligent expression are rarely reproduced in a photograph.

The only figure not bedecked with jewels is that of Rupa, the teacher. From the absence of the nose-ring you see that she is

not a married woman, and the orange-coloured garments, which she always wore up to the day of her baptism some two years ago, were a sign of her being a religious devotee, or nun, of the Sikh religion. She is now, I rejoice to say, a Christian, and it is one of the tokens of progress made in the work generally that Christian women can be employed in a city where formerly prejudice would have prevented parents from sending children to be taught by them.

Chandro, now the animated and successful teacher at the village of Taran-taran, stands second to Rupa. She has often expressed a desire to become a Christian, but has been hindered hitherto by various family considerations. In her school the Bible teaching is undertaken by the wife of the catechist of the place, and in all other cases, where the teachers of the girls' schools are not Christians, the Scripture classes are taught by the Zenana missionaries and the Bible-women.

We have felt more or less hopeful about all the members of this normal class, and one of them-dear Pruni, who is seated on the floor with a baby in her lap-has become one of our most valued workers. With her husband and two children she was baptized more than two years ago, and she set to work at once to gather together a school in a hitherto unreached quarter of Amritsar. She shows much genuine love for Jesus, and real fervour in seeking to win souls for Him. It is of Pruni's school that the superintendent writes: "It is like a large Zenana filled with women and girls, all eager to hear the old, old story,' to them so new, and becoming so wonderfully dear.' MARGARET ELMSLIE.

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THE CALL AND THE ANSWER.

[At the Valedictory Dismissal on July 3rd, twenty missionaries about to sail for different parts of the world took leave of the C.M.S. Committee.]

THE CALL.

HE Master spake: "Go forth and take thy place
Amid the chosen band of men, who know
That I will guide their steps where'er they go.
Part of My flock in distant lands are fed,
Among their pastors thou art numbered;
Then do not fear, for I will give thee grace."
THE ANSWER.

"O Master, though the way be long and rough-
Though numberless the perils of the sea-
Though hard the task Thou hast appointed me-
Without a fear, in all things trusting Thee,
I go. Whate'er the toil and danger be,
I tremble not; THY PROMISE is enough."

ACANTHUS.

BISHOP CROWTHER: HIS LIFE AND WORK. IX. -THE NIGER MISSION.

HE year 1857 was in many ways a memorable one in missionary history. It was the year of the Indian Mutiny, the result of which was an immense impetus to the evangelisation of India. It was the year of the disputes with China, which soon afterwards opened the interior of that great country to Christian enterprise; and only a few months later came the still more wonderful opening of Japan. It was the year of Mr. Duncan's sailing for British Columbia. It was the year of Burton and Speke's first expedition to Central Africa from the East Coast, which originated in Krapf and Rebmann's discoveries, and ultimately issued in the Nyanza Mission. And it was the year of the establishment of the Niger Mission by Samuel Crowther.

Sanguine expectations accompanied the Dayspring up the Niger. They seemed warranted by the success of the Pleiad's exploration in 1854; and the discoveries of the traveller Barth, who had lately returned from his great journey through Soudan, had shown what a vast field for commercial enterprise was open on the upper waters of both branches of the Niger. The plans for the new Mission were drawn on a bold scale.

Crowther was to post teachers at Aboh, the town of King Obi; at Onitsha, a still more important Ibo town, on the east bank, 140 miles from the sea; at Idda, still higher up, among the Igaras; at the confluence of the two branches, the Kworra and the Tshadda, which is a confluence also of tribes and languages-the Hansa, Nupe, Kakanda, Igara, Igbira, and Yoruba tongues being in use there; at Egan, a great ivory market town on the Kworra, 320 miles from the sea; and at Rabbah, the city of an important Mohammedan chief, 100 miles still higher up; and from thence Crowther himself, with Dr. Baikie (who commanded the expedition, as he had done in 1854), hoped to travel overland some 300 miles to Sokoto, the great capital of that part of Africa, to whose Sultan all the petty Mohammedan kings and chiefs owed (and still owe) allegiance.

But on the Niger, as in so many other Missions, the lesson had to be learned-"Tarry thou the Lord's leisure." The failure of the supply of teachers from Sierra Leone, referred to in the preceding chapter, prevented the occupation of several stations, and Crowther never reached Sokoto. Still, looking back now twenty years, we can see great results from the effort of 1857.

Aboh, notwithstanding the warm welcome again offered to this expedition by the sons of King Obi, was one of the places that had to be disappointed. Onitsha was decided on as the best centre for the new Ibo Mission, and there Mr. Taylor and Simon Jonas were stationed. Proceeding up the river, Crowther met a cordial reception at Idda, and at Gbegbe, the town at the confluence. At both places sites were at once granted for Mission-houses: but where were the teachers? Alas! there were none to spare, but Dr. Baikie left a Christian trader at Gbegbe, with instructions to open a day-school. On went the Dayspring to Egan, and thence to Rabbah, which was now visited for the first time by a Christian missionary. The Foulah chiefs, though Mohammedans, gave Crowther a much heartier welcome than he expected from a nation which has, in some respects, been the scourge of West Africa. "Sumo Zaki and Dasaba," he wrote, "have not only offered the whole river to us for trade, with their protection, but they have also given us full permission to teach the heathen population under their government the religion of the Anasara [i.e., Nazarenes], and promised me a place for a mission station at Rabbah."

Full of hope, Dr. Baikie and Crowther left Rabbah on October 6th, and steamed up the river. But the very next day the Dayspring, in endeavouring to force the passage between two islands against a strong rapid, drifted on to the rocks and became a wreck. (See picture in GLEANER, July, 1877.) Native canoes came to their assistance, and all were safely landed, and passed the night under torrents of rain as best they could. A camp was afterwards formed near Rabbah, and there they remained for twelve months, awaiting the arrival of another steamer, the Sunbeam, which had been expected to follow the Dayspring, but was detained.

This unexpected disaster was turned to the advantage of the expedition in many ways. Dr. Baikie paid visits to many neighbouring chiefs: Lieut. (now Sir John) Glover surveyed the river and some of its tributaries while Crowther found Rabbah the very spot for a missionary to stay at. At this point the Niger is passed by the large caravans-sometimes of 3,000 people and 1,000 head of cattle-between Illorin, the Hausa capital in the north of the Yoruba country, and the interior of Soudan; and there is a regular tariff of fares at the ferry. Frequent conversations were held with merchants and others, mostly Mohammedans, from all parts of West Central Africa, and even from the shores of the MediterOne Arab from Tunis did some good by saying he had seen the English there, and they were a harmless people!

ranean.

Communication with the coast was established through the Yoruba country, and the news of the wreck of the Dayspring reached England by this "overland mail" in exactly three months. On December 13th an American missionary, from one of the Yoruba towns, reached Rabbah with a load of sugar, tea, and coffee, with which he had hastened to the assistance of the party on hearing of the accident. "His visit," wrote Crowther, "brought us again into connection with the civilised world. To-day we were first made acquainted with the disastrous mutinies in India, and the newspapers he brought were read with avidity."

At length, in October, 1858, the Sunbeam appeared, and conveyed Crowther and others down the river. At Gbegbe he found three teachers from Sierra Leone, who had come up in her, and at Onitsha two more who had joined Mr. Taylor there. At the latter place Mr. Taylor had won the affections of the people in a remarkable degree during his sixteen months' stay, and when he and Simon Jonas left in the Sunbeam, to visit their families at Sierra Leone, the greatest grief was exhibited. Jonas, who had been so useful an agent in all three Niger expeditions, died shortly after at Fernando Po. Crowther did not return to the coast, but remained behind at Onitsha, and thence, after a while, he made his way up the river again in native canoes to the confluence at Rabbah, a distance of 300 miles. From Rabbah he tried the "overland route" for the first time, and travelled on foot by way of Illorin and Abeokuta to Lagos, in February, 1859.

In the summer of that year he again went up in another steamer sent

by Mr. Macgregor Laird, the Rainbow, but could only go as far as the confluence, a message from Dr. Baikie, who was still up the river as an agent of the British Government, informing him that Rabbah was closed to missionary operations for the present. No reason was given, but we may be sure that the real cause was the jealousy of the Mohammedan priests. The work at the two other stations, Onitsha and Gbegbe, however, was hopeful, and at each place there were several candidates for baptism. But the native teachers were now put to a severe test. When Crowther returned in the Rainbow to the coast, two years elapsed before their solitary posts were again visited by any ordained missionary.

The cause of this suspension of operations was again the lack of opportunity to ascend the river. The Rainbow, on its return, was fired at by the natives of the delta and two men were killed. A gunboat was promised by the Government to accompany the next trading steamer, and Crowther and Taylor proceeded to the mouth of the Nun (the principal channel through the delta) hoping to go up in it, but no gunboat appeared, and they returned baffled to Lagos. In January, 1861, the cause of African enlightenment suffered a severe blow by the death of Mr. Laird, and the consequent withdrawal of his trading vessels and closing of his factories. The evangelisation of the Niger tribes seemed further off than ever. In the meanwhile Mr. Taylor had visited England, and on his return to Africa brought with him St. Matthew's Gospel, part of the Prayer Book, and some tracts in the Ibo tongue, the fruit of the combined labours of himself, Crowther, and Mr. Schön.

In July, 1861, H.M S. Espoir arrived, and proceeded to punish the hostile villages. Crowther took advantage of the ascent of the river to visit the two stations, relieving the teachers by taking them away for a while and leaving others in their place. At the same time a new station was established at Akassa, at the mouth of the Nun, to serve as a depôt and base for the Mission; and here Mr. Taylor set vigorously to work.

During the following winter Crowther was busily occupied in preparations for a permanent occupation of the Niger on a larger scale; and in August, 1832, a missionary party of no less than thirty-three persons, including wives and children, with their "belongings," were assembled at Akassa waiting for another gunboat, H.M.S. Investigator, to take them up to their stations. On its arrival Crowther found, to his extreme disappointment, that the commanding officer had no instructions to convey any; but so much sympathy was awakened on board the ship in his behalf that ultimately room was found for twenty-seven of the party; and with this goodly reinforcement he joyfully passed up the river.

A FINISHED COURSE OF FOUR MONTHS.

|OD'S estimate of work in His vineyard is very different from ours. We look at the length of time spent in it, or the degree of talent consecrated to it, or the amount of money given to it. Not so the all-seeing and unerring Judge. "The Lord looketh on the heart." Is there faithfulness in proportion to opportunities? Then to him with the one talent, as well as to him with the ten, will be accorded the "Well done!" and the entrance into the joy of the Lord.

We must not judge the work of a missionary by the number of years he is permitted to carry it on. We honour, and rightly honour, such a man as Archdeacon Cockran, whose "finished course of forty years" in the field, without once returning home, was incidentally mentioned in the February GLEANER. But a few months may be a finished course" too, if God appoint so short a time, and He may take the willing labourer to his reward before his labours seem, to our imperfect sight, to have begun. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord."

Some ten years ago, in view of the demand for men of well-stored mind to cope with the learned moulvies and pundits of India, the standard of teaching at the Church Missionary College was raised, and a certain examination was arranged, which every student must pass on entering. Subsequently, the Preparatory Institution at Reading was founded, for the purpose of taking really promising young men of humbler attainments, and educating them up to it. But at the time, a few probationary students who failed to pass the test, had to retire; and among them was James Benjamin Read.

From a child, James Read had wished to be a missionary. The Rev. G. Stokes, of Ipswich, writes, "He was one of our Sunday-scholars, and never gave the least trouble. His love for the Lord Jesus was unmistakable from his boyhood onwards. He always expressed a strong desire to go out as a missionary." To retire from the College, therefore,

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