return before the latter days of August. Your letters and instructions were sent to us from Sierra Leone in an open canoe, at the beginning of August. Mr. Renner, in order to get to Sierra Leone, was obliged to go by land to Bramia, and from thence in an open boat to the Isles de Los, where he met with a favourable opportunity to go to Sierra Leone in a man of war.

We had a little rest from the country people during the rains; but, as Mr. Renner's returning from Sierra Leone was delayed almost two months, and the rice harvest had begun, the people brought rice to sell for tobacco and powder, and I could not buy it; although I wish to buy, and expected Mr. Renner's return every day. All the people were now quite set against us; and falsely accused us to the Headman, saying that I would not buy, because I had cultivated a large piece of ground with Cassada and plantain trees, corn, &c.

In the morning of Sept. 29, as I was on the point of beginning school, about twenty men from Mongè Backe met in my piazza. They all had cutlasses, and one man had a cat or whip. Two men were actually commissioned from the Headman: the others were voluntary messengers. One of the commissioned men brought me greetings from Mongè Backe, and ordered me not to cut any more sticks in the bush (woods) for making fence. I was making a new fence round the Settlement, and to enclose a proper place for a Churchyard: and this was doing with the consent of the Headmen. I willingly agreed, because I had cut sufficient for the fence, and had nearly finished it. They told me, that I should not enlarge the place for the Settlement, but make the fence as it had been before. To this also I agreed. I was asked why I had cultivated so much ground, and planted so much produce. We had said that we came hither to instruct children: we did not come, therefore, to cultivate ground. 66 Now," said they, we are come to destroy your produce." When this word was pronounced, all the people, like furies, fell upon the trees, plants, and fence, and cut all things in pieces, and took the fruits away with them. My wife cried: all the children cried: and I stood exposed to their cruelties. All wished me to oppose them, in order that they might find a pretext for beating me, as they had determined in their heart. But, the Lord be praised! he gave me grace and wisdom to act in patience and resignation to his Holy Will. I prayed to him for his

grace, when I saw what the people were about to do, and I said not a single word.

After these cruelties had been committed, they had still in mind to harass me; for they said, my Grumettas must clear a place to build a Devil's House upon, and that I must give them two goats for sacrifices. This, of course, I refused. A house for worshipping the True God had been erected; and a house for the Devil should not be suffered. They declared, however, that they would come and build. They went off, at length, with their spoil, uttering fierce threats against me.

My wife, who was far advanced in pregnancy, not daring to expose herself to their fury, went into the church, where the carpenter was working, who spoke to her these words: "This is the consequence of the destruction of the Slave Factories. John Ormond has sent word to me that I should leave your place; for as soon as the dry season begins, he will burn Bashia and Canoffee."

The next morning I sent three men to Mongè Backe, to complain of the cruel behaviour of his people. He denied that he had ordered the people to commit such things; and said that it was their own doing. I might be assured that he loved me, and would take care that such mischief should not be done any more.

These appear, however, to have been faithless declarations; for Mr. Wenzel writes from Canoffee, December 7, 1814.

When I arrived at home from Sierra Leone, I heard, with the deepest grief, that, during my absence, Monge Backe's people had built a Devil's House for me, with the constrained assistance of my own people; not, indeed,. within the compass of the Settlement, but at a small distance. After the house was finished, the people seized a goat of mine, and sacrificed it to the Devil, afterwards feasting on her.

Three days after my arrival Mongè Backe came to Canoffee in order to receive a present, having had neither powder nor tobacco for a long time. I complained to him of the wicked behaviour of his people during my absence; and against him, for not having kept his promise to me the day before my departure. He answered, "You must have a Devil's House as well as Bashia, and the other white people. I replied, "I do not want a Devil's House, and I will not worship the Devil. You know F

-W. AFRICA: CH. MISS. soc. 329 have built a house of God, and I do and will worship the True God." He said he could not believe that we do not worship the Devil. I repeated to him the purpose of our coming into the country that we were sent to preach, and to declare to the people that they must no more worship the Devil, but the True God. I had hardly pronounced these few words, when he began confidently and earnestly to warn me, that I should not speak thus to the people, else they would do me hurt.-The Hon. Committee may now be pleased to resolve what a Missionary should do, when forbidden to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Mr. Renner makes lighter, however, of this sort of trial than I do; and says he would not mind if the people would build devil's houses close to his church.

If the Hon. Society should find it good to place me on another spot, where a door might seem opened for me, I should thankfully accept it: but I shall not leave the Settlement, or give up the instruction of the children here, till I have the approbation of the Society, or the unanimous consent of the Missionaries. In case the Hon. Committee should find it better for me to stay here, I shall go on, with all diligence, to seek the salvation of the souls of the children, and to endeavour to enlarge the number of them as I have done before; and, as time is left for me to do more, it shall be my sincere desire to accomplish all the blessed aims of the Committee.

The "Christian Institution” of Sierra Leone. Our readers will see, by the following extract of the Fifteenth Report of the Society now in the press, that the Society is not discouraged with respect to Africa. Should the peculiar difficulties generated and fostered by the Slave Trade even render necessary the temporary suspension of the Society's efforts among the Susoos, the projected Institution will be an asylum for its Missionaries and its children, till the utter eradication of that dire curse on Africa invite it to resume its labours in the midst of the natives.

There is one very important part of the Society's plans on which your Committee beg permission to

dwell. It is the establishment of Christian Institutions, under the protection of British Authority, in the most favourable stations for diffusing the light of truth among the Heathen. in these Institutions, it is proposed that provision shall be made for training up the native youth in the knowledge of agriculture and the simple arts, and in qualifying some of them to become teachers of their countrymen, and others, if it shall please God, preachers of the Gospel. These Institutions will serve as points of support to the exertions of the Society in their respective quarters; and they may be rendered the asylums of its widows and orphans; and they will become, in various ways, a source of beneficent influence over the surrounding tribes. Such an Institution is about to be established within the Colony of Sierra Leone. The Society has already four Settlements on that coast, in which about two hundred native children receive Christian Instruction. These Settlements are subject (to the caprice of the natives. But the Institution in question will be secure under the protection of the Colonial Government of Sierra Leone, His Majesty's Ministers have on this, as on every other occasion, manifested the utmost readiness to assist the designs of the Society, and to extend the moral and religious influence of this country.

It is proposed to receive into this Institution the multitudes of African Children who are liberated from smuggling slave vessels. Any benevolent person who gives five pounds per annum may have the honour to support and educate one such child, and may affix to the child any name he pleases. The Committee are happy to report that they have received nearly one hundred such names, and that the sum of about five hundred pounds. is annually paid to the Society's fund for this object.

There has been of late a great accession to the Colony, of Africans of different tribes and languages, of whose moral and religious state no proper care has yet been taken. Of these, about 1000 are supposed to be children. A very laudable regard has been paid to education in the Colony, and exertions are now making in this respect; but the rapid increase of the number of these destitute children, by the liberation of them from slave smugglers, and the large increase which may yet be expected from the same source, demand more energetic and systematic efforts to rescue them from

ignorance and to train them up in the knowledge of Christianity, and of such occupations as may benefit themselves and their country.

On whom does this office of Christian Charity so naturally devolve, as on the Church Missionary Society?

The efforts of the Society in Africa are wholly directed to the civilizing and evangelizing of the Natives. A greater number of these natives, and of various tongues, are brought together in Sierra Leone than in any other place within the reach of the Society, and may be instructed there with more security than elsewhere.

As the Society's Establishments increase in Africa, Sierra Seone will become more necessary as a point of support. An asylum will be required for them, which may be prepared in the Colony with much greater advantage than in England:

Children received under the Society's care in the Colony, and brought up in Christian Principles, would add rapidly to the moral influence of the Colony on the Natives; and would become, under the Divine Blessing, the means of extensively diffusing civilization and Christianity. They should all receive a good English Education. Some of them should, at a suitable age, be apprenticed among the respectable Colonists to useful trades, or placed in service: others should be brought up, within the precincts of the Institution, in a thorough knowledge of the gardening and agriculture adapted to their country: while the most serious and promising youths should receive such farther education as may prepare them for being sent into the interior as schoolmasters, catechists, and ministers. Such as are likely to settle in the interior should be well instructed in their respective languages, by natives employed for that purpose. They might here receive, under proper teachers, such instruction in Arabic as might render them suc cessful opponents of the Mahometans, and might place them as an effectual barrier to the inroads which they have long made on the Natives Every thing is to be conducted with a view to render them, under the Divine Blessing, the best friends and enlighteners of their country.

A grant of land having been made to the Society by the Colonial Government, and the Society having requested a large addition to this grant, the way is prepared for