river. Native teachers would be stationed at some village on the banks, and many long months would pass away before Mr. (soon after Bishop) Crowther or any one else could visit them. In 1857 he was wrecked at a point 400 miles from the sea, and was detained there a year before he could get away; and in 1859-61, two whole years elapsed without his being able to go up, there being no vessel at all to take him. It is very different now. Trading steamers ply up and down, carrying English manufactures far into the interior, and bringing down the produce of the country; and at several places on the river, including Onitsha, Lokoja (at the confluence of the two branches), and Egan (which is 320 miles from the sea), there are important trading posts. One of the pictures opposite shows the motley gathering of whites and blacks at one of these posts; and another shows the steamers loading at Akassa, at the principal mouth of the Niger.

In the delta of the Niger, the

WEST INDY

DEVIL DRESS."

chiefs of Bonny and Brass and New Calabar have grown rich on the trade in palm-oil with England; and at these places a strange mixture is seen of barbarism and the beginnings of civilisation. We give a portrait of one of the leading chiefs of Bonny, whose dress curiously illustrates this mixture. This same chief, "West Indy" as he is called, appears also in the group above. It is he who stands in the centre, in his "devil dress," in which he performs certain heathen ceremonies. The others in the group are all chiefs or the sons of chiefs. One chief has a large house beautifully furnished with carpets, mirrors, drawing-room tables, &c.; but he does not live in it-it is meant only for show, that he may out-shine his neighbours. A few years ago these people were cannibals!

Such a field as this is hard indeed for missionary work. In their natural state the people are terribly degraded, and their religion is nothing but gross superstition; and their trade,

though it has greatly increased their wealth, and enabled them to imitate civilised life in this grotesque way, has not tended to soften their hearts or teach them their need of a Saviour. Bishop Crowther has established eleven stations, viz., at Bonny, New Calabar, Brass, and Akassa, in the delta; at Osamare, Alenso, Onitsha, and Asaba, higher up; at Lokoja and Gbebe, on opposite sides at the confluence of the two branches (the Kworra, and the Binue or Chadda); and at Egan, still higher up, on the Kworra. At most of these there are a few Native Christians; but it is only at two places, Bonny and Brass, that there has been a remarkable blessing.

At BRASS, the position and prospects of the Mission are of a highly encouraging character. The late king, Ockiya, and several of the chiefs, gave up their idols to the Bishop five years ago; and Ockiya himself was baptized by Archdeacon Dandeson Crowther on Advent Sunday, 1879, on his dying bed, but in the presence of 250 persons and six chiefs. The Bishop now writes of the "wholesale castings away of symbols of idolatrous family objects of worship, a large pile of which, of every shape and description, of wood and clay, of iron and brass, are to be seen in the store at the Mission-house, a few selections of which will be made for Salisbury Square. The village of Tuwon seems to be almost cleared of these idols; the only priestess, an old woman whom I saw, seemed very much reduced for want of means to procure provisions, there being no applicants for divination. She seemed very much mortified at the influence of Christianity, which is annihilating the gods out of the country." The whole population of this place, which is the Native town adjoining the trading factories, does not exceed 600; and of these, 500 now profess Christianity. Bishop Crowther confirmed seventy-two of the converts in the Mission church at Tuwon on June 27th, 1880, the congregation numbering 472 persons. At Nembe, the king's capital, thirty-five miles up the creeks, which has only just been adopted as a regular out-station, and which is much more populous, the Bishop found equally large congregations gathered Sunday by Sunday. "It is indeed a refreshing sight," says Mr. Wood of Lagos, "to be present at a service on Sunday at Brass, and see the church well filled with persons listening to the message of salvation, and to remember what the past life of the greater number of them may have been. It is no secret that the Brass people were cannibals, although they do not now like to be reminded of it. Whatever it may be owing to, humanly speaking, that both at Tuwon and at Nembe so many have joined us, of one thing I feel no doubt, that the Spirit of the living God has been at work in many hearts."

Of BONNY, many accounts have before appeared in the GLEANER (November, 1879; March, 1880). It has not lost its character as a "Bethel." The two churches are thronged every Sunday, and one of them has been enlarged to hold nearly a thousand persons; a chapel has lately been built in a neighbouring hamlet by King George Pepple, who is taking a very hearty interest in the Mission, and setting a good example to his subjects; while the famous juju temple studded with human skulls is going to ruins. A village opposite Bonny, on the other side of the river, has been named by the inhabitants "the Land of Israel," because there is not an idol to be found in it; and any persons in Bonny town who may be persecuted, as some still are, by those chiefs who are clinging to heathenism, are invited to take refuge in this "Land of Israel."

At a large town thirty miles in the interior, named Okrika, which is a central market of some importance, the chiefs and people, influenced by what they had seen at Bonny, and without ever having been visited by a Christian teacher, spontaneously built a church, with a galvanised iron roof and benches to seat 300 worshippers, got a school-boy from Brass to read the Church Service on Sundays, and then sent to ask the Bishop to give them a missionary. This place was visited by Archdeacon

Crowther for the first time in August last. His account of his reception is deeply interesting:

On the 13th of August I landed at Okrika, and was warmly welcomed by all the leading chiefs of the country. King George Pepple had got every chief of Bonny to give a boy or two to man his gig-canoe that took me; so that my going to Okrika was not an act of an individual, but of first missionary in their land, that visitors poured in that evening, and the king and all the chiefs. So glad were the Okrika people to see the though we had prayers at 10 o'clock P.M. they did not stop coming in till 12 at midnight.

The next day, Saturday, I visited the king; no less than eight chiefs, with their followers and people, went with me. I there made known the object of my visit, that I was sent by the Bishop, through the help and convenience afforded me by the Bonny king and chiefs, to preach the Gospel, according to the Divine command given by our Lord. I then took out my Bible, and gave a brief address on the creation, the fall, and redemption by Christ. After this I plainly stated that they should not expect from us wealth, neither that, by our coming to Okrika, merchants, ships, &c., would follow, but that our work is, and will be, to seek the salvation of souls, and whatever we teach their young is subservient to this. The king answered that what I had told them was good, and he religion he likes. I invited him to come to church; this he promised to was glad to welcome us; that every one is at liberty to embrace whatever

do when we are established.

On Sunday, the church, measuring 53 feet by 19 feet, and 9 feet high, built by the Okrika chiefs, and covered over with galvanised sheetings, was filled in the morning with 403 persons, among whom were nine chiefs, who are the leading ones of the country. In the afternoon there were 410, and the nine chiefs. I read prayers in Ibo, and all answered nicely. The sermon was a double interpreting into Okrika and Ibo by David, an interpreter I took with me, as there are nearly as many Ibos as Okrikas in the country. The morning text was St. John iii. 16; the afternoon, 1 Kings xviii. 21.

large piece of ground, not five minutes' walk from the town, for the On Monday I was taken round the town by all the chiefs, and shown a

Mission station. It is quite an open and good high ground, with three villages at the back, and the town in front; the furthermost village is about ten minutes' walk. The population of Okrika cannot be less than 10,000. That Monday evening all the chiefs were sent for, fifteen in all, to test how far they could give in support of the work. I told them the state of the funds of the Society at present, and how the funds are collected by the self-denial of many persons, and even children, of things for their own good. I went on to eradicate the idea that the Queen gives "plenty of money" to send missionaries abroad, an idea prevalent along the coast here; who the informants are we don't know. I told them how Bonny people gave £300 at the establishment of the Mission in their country; Brass, £200; New Calabar, £200; after which the school fees came to £100 every year, being £2 a year for every boy, and no less than fifty boys to commence with. They answered, that they would consult, and let the Bishop know what they could give, as they were willing to do so. I need not add that there is wealth in the country; the only difficulty is the tutoring them to the habit of giving regularly; this, with prayer, perseverance, and good management, will eventually be

overruled.

I took with me from Bonny a brick-mould I brought with me on my last visit to Lagos, and asked the chiefs to show me their clay (as Okrika is a sort of promontory shooting out from the mainland, though at floodtide the creeks are full, and make it an island). In ten minutes they sent for and brought two boxes of clay, which I got their boys to tread. The first six bricks I turned out myself, to the astonishment of all. The chiefs tried to prevent me soiling my hands, but I told them that work is one of the teachings of the Bible, and if honestly done no one should be ashamed of it.

The Lord has prepared the hearts of the people for the Gospel, as this incident will show. After the afternoon service and sermon, from 1 Kings xviii. 21-showing the triumph of Elijah's God over Baal, though Elijah was the only visible servant on the Lord's side, and Baal had King Ahab, Jezebel, the princes, chiefs, 850 prophets and priests, and the whole country, yet all had to acknowledge that his Lord is the God-a chief called Somiare, who had been hesitating, and happily was at church, came after service and shook my hands, and said, "Uka ogula tà "-palaver set to-day. I asked him how. He answered, "You will know to-morrow." On Monday morning he came in a canoe, containing a large and a small box full of idols and charms; four other chiefs who are Church adherents were with me. We all stood at the wharf; and there he told me that he had decided to follow Christ, to throw away his jujus, and have nothing more to do with such folly. I answered, "Good; may God strengthen your heart!"

In view of these remarkable openings, and still more of the extension of the Mission up the Binue and the Kworra into the

OUR PORTFOLIO.

the side of the black man in proclaiming the name of their common Lord and Saviour. The fact also that white traders have become numerous on the river renders this desirable; for

it is not well that the heathen Natives should suppose traffic, however legitimate, to be the only motive of the white man in visiting them, and religion to be a thing for the black man only. As a first step, therefore, the Committee hope that the providence of God may direct them to an English clergyman, of some experience if possible, willing to spend and be spent in this cause. His presence and counsel would be warmly welcomed by Bishop Crowther and Archdeacons Dandeson Crowther and Henry Johnson, to whom, and to the other Native clergy and lay agents, the Henry Venn would enable him to be of the greatest service.

It has also become most important to provide for the sound and systematic training of the present and future teachers and ministers of the rising African Churches on the Niger; and plans have been agreed upon for the regular theological instruction of the agents by Archdeacons Crowther and Johnson, the preparation of Christian books in the languages of the Niger territories, and the establishment of small boarding-schools for the Scriptural education of promising boys; as well as for the promotion of female mission work by the wives of the Native Agents, to which important subject the attention of Mrs. Dandeson Crowther has been particularly directed. The Committee earnestly commend all these plans, and the whole future of this deeply interesting Mission, to the very special prayers of the Society's friends.

MISSIONARY LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. XIII.-The Wall broken down.

"Hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us."—Eph. ii. 14. Acts X.

HY is a wall (or railing) built round a garden? If you wished to let every one come inside, would you put a wall round? And suppose the wall is there, but you wish people to come in and see your garden-what do? Not pull wall down, but open gate. But suppose you did not want to keep it as a garden at all-wished to give up the ground to be like a common, free to all-what do then? Then pull wall down. Eph. ii. 14 speaks of breaking down a wall-"middle wall of partition between us," ie. in the middle between two parties, to part or separate them (like "partition-walls" of houses). Between whom? See verses just before-"Gentiles" and "Israel."

There used to be a high wall between Jews and Gentiles. Who made it? See Lev. xx. 24-"I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people." Why? See Deut. vii. 6-8. How? By giving Jews a land all to themselves; by sign of circumcision; by forbidding marriages with foreigners (Deut. vii.); by strict rules about food (see Lev. xx. 24, 25). These things were the wall or fence round the garden. Did the Jews like it? Not at first-tried to break wall down-" mingled with heathen" (Ps. cvi. 35). But afterwards very proud of it-thought themselves very good, and despised others (Acts xiii. 45; xxi. 28; xxii. 21, 22; Rom. ii. 17-20).

But at last God broke down the wall. And the first person he showed this to clearly was Peter. One day Peter at Joppa (see picture in last GLEANER), on housetop: saw vision (Acts x.). Why unwilling to eat the food from heaven? Thought doing so would break down God's wall. But God had broken it down, and this was to make Peter understand. Then, Peter sent for to Roman officer-finds him ready to believe in Christ-sees Spirit poured out on him-astonished-a Gentile admitted to Christian Church without first becoming a Jew!

But when had God broken down the wall? It was Jesus did it by His death on the cross. All, Jews and Gentiles, alike guilty; so for all He died, and all alike could come to God through Him-alike, no difference. See Rom. iii. 22-24; Eph. ii. 11-18; Col. i. 20; iii. 11.

lavish upon myself. Surely not to confine me within the precincts of my natural family and connections. Is there not a family for whom Christ died ?-Hugh M'Neile, in C.M.S. Annual Sermon, 1845.

more than and with all sorts

The Christians of Kuruman and Kolobeng were out of sight the best

I ever had. The Makololo, who were very partially Christianised, were next best-honest and truthful, and brave. Heathen Africans are much

superior to the Mohammedans, who are the most worthless one can have.

-From letter of Dr. Livingstone to his daughter, 1870.

COMPARISONS in Geography are now popular. The school-atlases

what are called "inlets." These are smaller maps in the corner of the greater ones, giving an outline of a familiar portion of the country on the scale of the larger chart, showing how many times the one might be embraced in the other. Try France thus on the chart of China Proper, and you may sketch the one seven times on the other. Try the British Isles, and you may overlay China with eleven of them, and have space to spare. Again, try the Chinese Empire, by this comparative chartology, and it will exceed Great Britain and Ireland thirty-nine times. It can be dissected into seventy-eight sections as large as England and Wales, or one hundred and seventy-three as large as Scotland. Lay all Europe upon it, and you will have over eight hundred thousand square miles still uncovered-it is one-fourth larger. Lay the Chinese Empire on the United States, and it will overrun into the Gulf of Mexico, and four degrees into the Pacific Ocean. Reverse the experiment, and lay the United States, including Alaska, on the Chinese Empire, and you may gem the edges with a half-dozen of Great Britain and Ireland; that is, you will have nearly three-quarters of a million square miles to add for good measure. Change it from its present shape to that of a belt of land a mile wide, and there would be room, from end to end, for a walking-match of thirty miles a day continued through more than four and a half centuries.-Gracey's " China."

DUMMAGUDEM AND THE KOIS.

BY THE REV. JOHN CAIN.

UMMAGUDEM is the head quarters of the Upper Godavery Mission, which was begun about the year 1861 by some Madras Engineer officers who had been sent there to carry on the works which had been planned to open the River Godavery to navigation.* Large rocks crop up in the river opposite Dummagudem, and for some sixteen miles lower down, and from what is called the First Barrier, and thus greatly impede navigation. A short canal has been dug, to enable boats to avoid the most dangerous part of the river, but the complete scheme has never been carried out owing to the straitened condition of the Indian exchequer.

The word Dummagudem is said to mean dusty hamlet, and the reason the Hindus give for the name is as follows:

When Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, and his faithful wife Sita, were banished from Oudh, they came to the forests on the Godavery and dwelt for some time at Parnasala, a village about six miles above Dummagudem. Whilst they were living there very happily with Rama's brother, Lakshmana, Ravana, a celebrated rakshasa (the rakshasas are certain morethan-human giants with supernatural strength and many heads), and king of Ceylon, looked with envy upon them and determined to carry off Sita. As Rama was passionately fond of hunting, Ravana cleverly drew him away in pursuit of a phantom deer which skilfully eluded him and led him far from his wife and brother. As he did not return, Sita persuaded Lakshmana to go in search of Rama, and then Ravana seized the opportunity, and swooping down, lifted up Sita and the ground on which she was standing with his trident, placed her and the mass of earth on his chariot, and began to fly away. A glance at any map of India will show that the great river Godavery rises very near the western coast, but being cut off from the sea on that side by the mountains, flows right across India eastward to the other side, and falls into the Bay of Bengal,

only be suspected but accused of exaggeration. I could give many instances of how his faithful labours have not been in vain, although he has not yet reaped as full a harvest of Kois as we all hoped.

In the period 1862-9, 51 adults and 60 infants were baptized. In the period 1869-79, 166 adults and 181 infants were baptized. In 1869 there was only one congregation; now there are four central congregations, the members of which are scattered in about twenty villages. In 1869 nearly all the Christians lived within five miles of Dummagudem; now the district measures at least fifty-six miles, and there are villages. asking for schools lying still farther away. In 1869 there were 18 communicants; now there are 97.

Since I arrived in England I have had several letters telling me of new schools being opened and many baptisms, and the one cry of all is "Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth more labourers into His harvest." In 1878 my good native brother Râzu closed his letter with the following earnest appeal: "Do send some one, so that this place may not only be renowned for the work which the engineers have dared to do, but also for the nobler work which missionaries may dare to do."

To this interesting article of Mr. Cain's we may add that General Haig has just crowned his many noble services to this Mission by himself going out to India for a year to carry on the work in conjunction with Râzu, until Mr. Cain shall be able to return to his post. We also append a brief narrative of Râzu's conversion,

In 1859, Captain (now General) Haig was in command at Dummagudem. His Christian sympathies were drawn out towards the uncivilised Koi tribes of the neighbourhood, especially as, with their usual timidity, many of them moved away when the engineer staff settled at Dummagudem, and retired into the jungle a few miles off. He established a prayer meeting for the express purpose of lay

ing the spiritual destitution of these poor people before the Lord, which was attended by severa engineer officers and men. The first answer to these prayers was given on the spot. The head of the commissariat department of the newlyestablished works, a Hindu of high caste (a Kshatriya) named I. Vencatarama Râzu, was brought to a saving knowledge of the truth in a remarkable manner. Captain Haig gave him a Bible. The very first time he opened it, his eyes fell upon our Lord's directions concerning prayer, in Matt. vi., and the Lord's Prayer itself struck him as being quite new and very true. He at once began to do as the Book told him by praying to his Father in secret, retiring daily to one of the locks on the canal to avoid being noticed by his wife. By-andby, he came to Captain Haig, declared himself a Christian in heart, and asked for baptism. A month's leave of absence was given him to go to Masulipatam for that purpose. His wife accompanied him, and he sought to induce her to join him in embracing Christianity; but in vain, and she threatened, if he persisted, to leave him for ever. He knelt down and prayed most earnestly for her conversion. Next morning, she told him that his God should be her God, and together they were baptized by Mr. Sharkey, in August, 1860.

Returning to his post, Râzu gave himself heart and soul to the work of an evangelist. A man "of gentle but dignified appearance," he was already, from the peculiar character of his occupation as purveyor-general of supplies, well known all round the country; and the reputation he bribe, gave him unbounded influence. now gained, as a truthful and upright business man who never took a Captain Haig himself wrote of

him in 1863: "Since first he received the truth himself, he has never ceased to tell it to others. The whole influence of his position has been thrown into the scale of Christianity. It would scarcely be hyperbole to say that ever since he believed he has worked at his calling all the day and preached half the night. He has been a bright and shining light; a living unanswerable argument for the truth of Christianity." A large room to hold Gospel services in was built by Râzu at his own cost; and on Easter Sunday, 1861, the Rev. W. J. Edmonds, the first

C.M.S.Missionary at Dummagudem, who had just arrived, was privileged to baptize three young Hindus, the fruit of the earnest labours of this Native Government official. In 1863 he resigned his post, and gave himself wholly to the active service of Christ, becoming a Catechist on less pay than he had been receiving previously, and one-fourth of what he would soon have been entitled to. From that time he has not ceased to teach and preach Jesus Christ: and in October, 1871, he was admitted to holy orders by the Bishop of Madras.