WEST AFRICA.

DEATHS OF THE REV. MESSRS. JOHNSON, FLOOD, PALMER, SCHEMEL, AND MR. BUNYER.

Our readers will probably have learned from the public papers, that most distressing intelligence has been received from Sierra Leone. The yellow fever has recently made its appearance in the colony, supposed to have been imported from America; and in six weeks, no less than eighty Europeans, ont of about one hundred and fifty, have died. Among these, the friends of Christianity have to deplore many who were anxiously engaged in promoting true religion; but our own minds are especially affected at the removal of the

Rev. W. A. B. JOHNSON,
The Rev. S. FLOOD,

The Rev.

The Rev.

Mr. BUNYER.

The zealous and unwearied exertions of Mr. Johnson, and the abundant blessing which rested upon them, have rendered his name familiar to our readers; and many will look back with a painfully pleasing recollection to those highly interesting communications which he delivered in various parts of this country in the summer and autumn of 1819.

Mr. Johnson was a native of Hanover; and, after suitable preparation, sailed for Africa, and arrived at Sierra Leone in April 1816. Here he received ordination according to the rites of the Lutheran church, and was appointed to superintend the liberated negroes at Regent's Town. The success with which his efforts were crowned has excited admiration and astonishment. He has, under the divine blessing, effected in the course of seven years what could scarcely have been anticipated from the labours of the longest life; and while we mourn the removal of such an instrument, yet, in contemplating the blessed effects produced at Regent's Town, we are constrained to say, What hath God wrought? Of the nature, extent, and the beneficial result of those labours, the Reports of the Church Missionary Society and the Missionary Registers contain most abundant information, and to them we must refer our readers.

Mr. Johnson visited this country in 1819, as before intimated, chiefly on account of Mrs. J.'s health, and proceeded hence to Hanover. He returned a short time afterwards, and sailed again for Africa in Jan. 1820. The state of Mrs. J.'s health compelled her return to Europe, with little prospect of recovery; and after this painful separation,

Mr. J. still continued engaged in his arduous work. In the month of April, however, he embarked for England in his usual state of health, but was taken ill after a few days, and speedily removed to an eternal world.

The Rev. Mr. Flood was appointed se cond chaplain to the colony at Sierra Leone, and sailed from this country in Jan. 1820. His labours have of course been chiefly confined to Free Town, where his removal will be very severely felt.

The Rev. Mr. Palmer was ordained and appointed to a chaplaincy at Sierra Leone, and arrived there only in March last. He performed divine service, and administered the sacrament, on May 4, and in a few days became a lifeless corpse.

The Rev. Mr. Schemel sailed as missionary about the same time with Mr. Palmer, and was accompanied by Mr. Bunyer as schoolmaster. Both were men of great promise, and appeared every way fitted for and devoted to the work in which they had engaged.

The Rev. Mr. Lane, one of the Wesleyan missionaries to West Africa, has been removed by the same distressing complaint. Many have been taken off in the space of thirty-six hours, and several whose lives have as yet been spared are exceedingly reduced and enfeebled.

Under such distressing dispensations, what shall we say? Surely it becomes us to adopt the language of our adorable Redeemer: The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest." The vacancies which have occurred in the military and mercantile departments of Sierra Leone, will be immediately filled up by those who are anxious for worldly honours and advantages. Surely those who are looking earnestly for that crown which the Lord hath laid up for his people in that day, should not be discouraged, but should come forwards, and be as it were baptized for the dead-should occupy the places of those who have fallen, and earnestly prepare, that they also may be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

These events, however, should not only call the friends of missions to fervent prayer and personal devotion, but should also stimulate them to increasing liberality. The loss of so many missionáries is attended with a very heavy expense to the funds of the Society. Widows and children are left desolate and wholly unprovided for;

some of them afflicted with severe complaints, so as to disable them from active and laborious exertion, and these must therefore continue a weight upon the Institution. Meanwhile, the vacant stations must be filled up; and as no missionary can be educated and sent forth without a

MISSIONARY

THE success of all missionary societies Imust, humanly speaking, depend on the character and the qualifications of the missionaries sent out; and hence it is of the utmost importance that they should be well prepared and thoroughly examined. To effect this purpose, the Church Missionary Society have, after much deliberation, determined on establishing a seminary for the education of missionaries, and have in consequence purchased suitable premises at Islington, where they purpose erecting apartments for twenty missionaries, together with convenient lecture-rooms, library, offices, &c. as soon as the liberality of the

very considerable previous expense, it is quite obvious, that those who desire the work of God to prosper must be prepared to offer increasing gifts to the treasury. And we would, therefore, especially call their attention at present to the intended

SEMÍNARY.

public shall enable them to proceed without encountering a risk too great for the present state of their funds. We understand, that the purchase, building, furniture, &c. will amount to nearly ten thousand pounds; of these, not more than fifteen hundred is already subscribed; and it is therefore earnestly desired, that the friends of the Institution will exert themselves at this important period. Subscriptions are of course received at the Society's House in Salisbury Square, and by the Secretaries of the different associations throughout the country.

A SOCIETY has recently been formed for the establishment and support of schools on Dr. Bell's system in the island of Newfoundland. This colony was founded prior to the time of Edward VI. The inhabitants are almost entirely supported by the produce of the fisheries; and at the close of the fishing season, the colonial government was formerly withdrawn, and those subjects who remained there were supposed to do so without the sanction of the laws. Hence little has been done for their religious and moral improvement, though the inhabitants amount to 70,000 persons. A few schools have been assisted by the Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign Parts, and the Wesleyan missionaries have made some efforts for the religious instruction of adults; but many of the inhabitants, the offspring of British parents, have lived and died without any opportunities of religious

worship-without having ever heard a sermon or seen a minister. Lieut. Vicars states, that very recently "a clergyman visiting the settlements was called upon to baptize aged persons, whose parents were Protestants, but who themselves had never seen a minister of their religion before. In many places proselytism to the Church of Rome was frequent. The Romish priests journeyed from one settlement to another, and spared no labour to increase their flock. He was informed of one place where the greater part of a population of five hundred souls were thus made converts to Popery! The neglect of these poor ignorant people was much to be deplored." We trust the Christian public will no longer allow them thus to perish for lack of knowledge, but will be roused to attempt somewhat efficient for the benefit of this long neglected and highly valuable colony.

THIS horrid tribunal was first instituted by Pope Innocent III. about the year 1200. Its first efforts were directed against the Albigenses in the South of France; and in no long time it found its way into almost every country in Europe (Britain excepted), where Popery was the dominant religion. The most active and celebrated of these tribunals was the SPANISH INQUISITION, which by an unaccountable perversion of language has been termed the Holy Office, It was first introduced into Spain about the year 1231, and was sufficiently active and intolerant in that country until 1481, when

Ferdinand V. and Pope Sixtus IV. established what is called the modern Inquisition, under the direction of Inquisitors General, with a host of subordinate officers. The history of this detestable court has been written by various authors; but the most authentic is that of the late M. Llorente, in four thick octavo volumes, drawn from the archives of the Inquisition, of which he had been Secretary. This work has very recently been abridged by M. Gallois, from whom we have translated the following

Ximenes

10,220 6,840

97,371

2,592

324

840

1,320

660

6,600

Charles V.

The sum total, therefore, of the victims of the Inquisition in Spain, between 1481 and 1820, amounts to three hundred and forty thousand nine hundred and twenty one, exclusive of a very considerable number of persons who have been imprisoned, condemned to the gallies, or exiled from Spain under the reign of Ferdinand VII. the present imbecile sovereign of that unhappy country. What cruelties may not be expected, should despotism ultimately be reestablished there? For, it should never be forgotten, that torture of the most horrid kind forms a part of the regular system of the Holy Office. If to the condemnations which have taken place in the Peninsula, during the period above noticed, we

.......

34,658 18,049 288,214

add those of other countries subject to the Spanish Inquisition, as Sicily, Sardinia, Flanders, the Canary Islands, South America, the Indies, the number of victims condemned by this tribunal would be truly appalling. Not only has the Inquisition decimated the population of Spain by its autos-da-fe (or, acts of faith), but it has also considerably reduced that population by the civil wars and commotions which it bas provoked, and especially by procuring the expulsion of the Jews and Moors from that country. More than five millions of inhabitants have disappeared from Spain, since the Holy Office has exercised its terrible ministry. Verily, "the TENDER MERCIES of the wicked are CRUEL!"