missionary is a melancholy fact. We formed ourselves into two parties and for upwards of two hours blood-thirsty association. Here we | readiness to abuse and lie, to the spent a happy Sabbath. In the morning before breakfast we held a prayer-meeting in another shed, the duplicate of our own, which was occupied by our native preachers and those native christians who completed our establishment of coolies-garrymen, &c. Numbers of the heathen living in the villages stood in the verandah and round the door during the service and appeared interested and pleased with what they heard and saw, but were rather curious to know where the were engaged in widely proclaiming the truth as it is in Jesus. We left on the following morning for another village to the eastward of the Calcutta road, where we expected to pitch our tents and commence in good earnest our camping life. Several suggestions were made by the villagers and our own native brethren as to the road it would be advisable for us to take. God was we were worshipping, It was rumoured a bridge crossing being unable fully to grasp the idea a deep stream in our line of march of paying homage to a Being in- had been swept away by the late visible. The meeting was a hallowed heavy rains, and that the possibility season of communion with our of getting the garries across was a Master, and the touching simplicity bare one. There was another route of several of the prayers did much to the village, but it was a much towards preparing our hearts for longer one; accordingly on being the after engagements of the day. assured all the reports were false Surrounded with wondering idola- by a party of men who had, they ters, and within hearing distance of acknowledged, crossed the bridge the dong dong from the village the evening previous, we sent on temple near, where the gong was the garries and prepared quickly to being beaten to break the slumbers follow them in order that we might of their stone god Máhádäb, we be on the spot to assist in the event could not refrain from contrasting of our services being required. the vile and debasing tendencies of Rumours are not always without. hindooism with the pure and ele- foundation, and so it proved in our vating exercise in which we were experience. On reaching the nullah engaged. There is indeed a mighty we found the bridge gone and while gulf between the religion of the stream was neither broad, Krushna and the religion of Christ. strong, nor deep, the sides were The market visited in the after- very steep, and the bed of the river noon was held in the centre of a mud, and that to a considerable large village, and differed materially depth, which precluded the possifrom our Southern markets in the bility of crossing by fording. The number of women present, they bank higher up and lower down was counting nearly two-thirds of the examined, but no other way could whole gathering. And, as the be found; the alternative therefore daughters of Orissa are proverbially was-crossing where we stood or skilled in the use of their tongues going the whole distance back to the hubbub arising from their jab- the village we had left and starting bering "patties -as the natives again the following morning on the designate the whole machinery for other route. We saw our advisers articulation was greater in an had willingly led us astray, and equal ratio. I certainly never heard this conviction coupled with the such an uproar in any other market arrival of a government official from in India. In their estimation it a hut hard by, who with the non-. no doubt had its advantages, they chalance and irritating impudence thinking it impossible to make a of native officials in general, degood bargain without a liberal use manded toll for the use of the of tongue in lies and abuse. This bridge, did not in any way add to came up. Recollections of a Tour in the Jellasore District. 235 the amiability of our tempers. He | tumble into the stream below, we was asked to find the bridge and we accomplished our wishes and got would as quickly find the toll. all safe to the opposite side. The "With the existence of a bridge I native official sat down and looked have nothing to do," was his answer. at us, not proffering to raise a finger "I only collect toll from those who or strain a muscle in rendering aspass it," and not being able to con- sistance. After appeasing our ap vince him of the utter absurdity of petite we continued our journey and of his reasoning we requested him reached our destination about sunto either help us to cross the stream set, having been a whole day going or go back to his hut and attend to nine coss-or about eighteen miles! his rice and curry; of course he On the following day we attended a chose the latter. How to get the large market held a short distance garries across was now the all ab- from the tent. When we reached sorbing topic. Fortunately they the place the people had not ashad not arrived, we being ahead of sembled, and here I saw another them, and as the distance we had to peculiarity in the markets of Northgo was considerable we wished, if ern Orissa. The missionary must possible, not to hinder them, but to be on the ground before trading finish our preparations before they commences. Should the market We at once, therefore, have commenced when he arrives formed ourselves into an executive there is little hope of securing a committee, and the decision of that hearing, or of persuading the people honourable body was that three of to leave their business. There are our party should be resolved into a two reasons for this-one is the utter small corps of sappers and miners, devotedness with which the native and the fourth cross the stream as trader throws his whole being, best he could-swimming his horse as it were, into the matter of to the other side, ride over to a buying, selling, and getting gain; village a few miles distant and turn and the other is the distance back a cooley carrying provisions most of the people have to come, who had been sent on in the morning the villages being very scattered, early, but had unfortunately gone which make them anxious to dispose by another route. The courier dis- of their goods as speedily as pospatched, we, who remained, collected sible, and to hasten home. The all the planks, broken pieces of markets do not last long. As we wood, and trunks of palm trees, were rather a large party-four misserviceable from the debris of the sionaries, and five native preachers broken bridge, and with a native -we took four separate stands and axe, kindly lent us by the devoted widely spread the gospel. Those of official before mentioned, we suc- us from the South were at a disceeded in constructing, by an hour count in not being familiar with the or two's hard work, a temporary many Bengali words and terminabridge, wide enough and strong tions so freely interspersed in the enough to admit of the garries Oriya spoken in Northern Orissa. being bowled over the stream, but Sometimes it was with the utmost to do this considerable caution was difficulty, and not without much necessary. The bank was cut in circumlocution we were enabled to one or two places to make the convey the idea we wished them to descent more gradual, and the whole understand, the intermixture of was a complete success. The garries Bengali often determining the sense. arrived, the bullocks were taken This was more or less felt through out, and with considerable anxiety, the whole tour. The demeanour of lest our frail structure should give the people was pleasing, and their way beneath the weight, or the evident desire to understand enwheels persist in running off the couraging. While I was speaking the edge and letting the whole a well dressed Baboo came up to 236 Settlement at Russell Condah and a Visit to the Meriah Villages. me and wished to open a discussion quite foreign to the subject I was enlarging upon, and when I expressed my disapprobation, and kindly told him the discussion while interesting to us would not be so to the people near, he moved off, mumbling as he went, "Why does the Sahib consult the interest of such ragged rascals?" His object was to show his own learning. We remained at this encampment upwards of a week, and visited quite a number of markets. Several times three were held in different directions in one day, and by dividing our strength we were enabled to visit all. The district is rich in markets, though many of them are rather small. SETTLEMENT AT RUSSELL CONDAH AND A VISIT TO THE MERIAH VILLAGES. IN company with brother W. Bailey I left Berhampore on the morning of February 7th. We were joined in a day or two by brother Goadby who had been obliged to remain behind to superintend the packing of the goods. We took a circuitous route in order that we might visit a goodly number of towns and villages on the way and preach in them "the gospel of the kingdom." The congregations were good in almost every place, but our experience was of that varied character which in the present state of hindoo society must necessarily fall to the lot of the missionary. I was never so deeply impressed with the deadening effects of heathenism on the minds of the people, or with such a profound sense of the absolute necessity of "power from on high" to rouse them from their lethargy. They often regarded the most solemn warnings and the most earnest appeals with absolute indifference, and on more than one occasion had the hardihood to state that there was no difference between right and wrong, but that all things were in accordance with the will of God. It was cheering on the other hand to find many indications that the cause of Christ is making real progress in the district. It was evident that our message was not new; many had read our tracts and were more or less acquainted with the leading doctrines of christianity; others were still further advanced and were perfectly familiar with the entire plan of salvation. There was something specially interesting in the case of one fine old man, whose long white hair and intelligent counte. nance would have prepossessed us in his favour under any circumstances. He spent much of the time we remained at his village in our society and in that of our native brethren, and manifested perfect In the course of conversation he familiarity with nearly all our books. also repeated to us his daily form of prayer, and in everything but name appears to be a christian. At our first interview his "mela," or necklace, was pointed out as a vestige of idolatry, and we were surprised as well as delighted to find on seeing him again that even this had been removed. He is the headman of the village in which he lives and doubtless possesses considerable influence. Were he to make an open profession of christianity we might hope for important results, but at present there are too many reasons for supposing that, like many others in this country, he shrinks from the great sacrifices that would be involved. But our principal object in extending the tour was to visit the cluster of villages near Gotoli, where a considerable number of rescued Meriahs have been located by Government, and to ascertain what steps might be taken in connection with the mission at Russell Condah to promote the spiritual welfare of these unfortunate people, and if possible to prepare the way for establishing a regular religious service amongst them. Settlement at Russell Condah and a Visit to the Meriah Villages. Our way thither led through the valley of Goomsoor, said to be unequalled for fertility and beauty in this part of India, and it was interesting to pass on our way whole fields of sugar-cane, tobacco, hemp, and other kinds of produce peculiar to the country. On arriving at Gotoli we found that the Khond villages were no less than six in number, but each of them small, and the people were poorly clad and looked wretched in the extreme. Their complexion is generally much darker than that of the Oriya, but varies a good deal, and it may be inferred from the fact that they were rescued at different times and in places distant from each other that they are of widely different origin. We found numerous evidences that they were nearly as low in the scale of civilization as it is possible for human beings to become. The only cart I saw amongst them had solid wheels like those represented in pictures of the most ancient cars. Their dealings with each other are principally carried on by way of barter, so that we found it impossible to obtain change for a rupee. The children wear iron ornaments on their wrists, the men commonly carry battle axes and pikes about with them. And not long after our tent had been pitched I saw number of youths defile past in single line carrying stout bows and rudely-barbed iron-pointed arrows in their hands. They are so low a that even their own countrymen above the "ghat or mountain passes disown them, and the hindoos of the plains commonly speak of them as nearly on a level with the beasts of the jungle. It is scarcely necessary to say that their appearance excited in our hearts feelings of the deepest commiseration, the more especially when associated with the frightful death from which they have been rescued. But it was hard fully to realize our position, it seemed more like a dream than a reality-for here 237 were people-men and women who had once been appointed victims of the most dreadful superstition the mind of man can entertain. Some of these, our fellow creatures, brethren and sisters in humanity, and responsible alike to our common Creator, had once been on the very point of suffering death in its most horrid form, as sacrifices to a sanguinary goddess. But in conversation with them it was found that their spiritual condition was equally if not even more deplorable. They are literally "without God in the world." They at first stated positively that they had no religion, that their whole time was spent in ministering to the wants of the body and in the things pertaining to the present life. But dark and dreadful as the picture is, there is every reason to believe that with a great part of them it is perfectly true. They are born, but no prayer is offered that their life may be consecrated to God. They grow up, but merely to pursue every form of wickedness their own depraved the beasts of the field can be said nature suggests. They marry, if to do so, for no ceremony consecrates the union, nor is there anything to render it binding upon them, and they die as they have lived, without a ray of light, a word of consolation, or the faintest hope of happiness in the endless and unseen future. After death the body is carried to a convenient spot outside the village and burnt to ashes, and there is no other ceremony to indicate that a rational and immortal soul has passed into eternity. And even in investigating this subject more closely, we were only able to ascertain that there were some curiously formed stones on a neighbouring mountain which some of the people occasionally went to worship, and that the more important events of life were marked by those who could afford it, by the slaughter of an ox or goat, the flesh of the victim being given as a feast for the people. It was peculiarly interesting and even affecting to find in these remote villages several of the Meriahs who had once been children in the school at Berhampore. A few of these after the free and barbarous life they had led found it hard to brook the restraints of civilized life and pined after their native jungles, one or two fled and have never been heard of since; and we found six or seven located here, one of them, however, now a robust young woman seemed to feel keenly the degradation of her present position. Our appearance had evidently revived the memory of brighter days for she wept much as she referred to them. We were anxious to ascertain whether she had entirely forgotten the instruction received, and whether she still possessed any of the books given her at school; of the latter she produced two, a small tract and a much worn and soiled copy of the New Testament. At our request she read a few verses from the latter, but with a voice so plaintive and in a manner so touching that I shall never forget the scene. Here we felt that at least there was something to appeal to, and though the incident may have no direct spiritual significance it at once established a bond of sympathy between us and encouraged us to proceed in our efforts to benefit the people. able influence over the minds of the children, and the presence in the village of his wife and step-mother, both of them members of the church, will we trust also have a good influence there, especially as the latter (who is the mother of one of our native preachers) possesses more than an average knowledge of scripture truth, and is in other respects a skilful and intelligent woman. There is a small bungalow near the schoolroom which at present is useless and deserted, but if repaired would afford us accommodation in our visits to the place, and there seems to be every prospect of its being available for the purpose. We do not close our eyes to the fact that on account of the very degraded state of the people much patient and persevering effort will be required, but we do hope that with the blessing of our Heavenly Father a people may ultimately be raised even here to the love and service of the Saviour. We earnestly solicit the sympathy and prayers of our brethren and sisters in England, and in the meantime would say with the apostle, "Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not." Soon after leaving Gotoli, brother Bailey returned to Berhampore, and brother Goadby and myself pursued our way to Russell Condah. We arrived on the evening of February 26th, and have commenced our work here with every prospect of usefulness. T. BAILEY. Foreign Letters Received. BERHAMPORE.-W. Bailey, April 13, 17. | CUTTACK.-J. Buckley, March 18, 25, CHOGA.-I. Stubbins, March 14. CUTTACK.-W. Brooks, March 25. April 4, 17. G. Taylor, March 31. RUSSELL CONDAH.-T. Bailey, March 6. |